HEART OF STONE
Act Four: The Monster Within
Chapter Seventy Seven: Bath for the Soul
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Days passed by with Trixie fading in and out of reality. When at last the pain stopped, Trixie opened her eyes to the first rays of dawn lighting shining against her fur. The place was empty of any life save for her. A terrible smell filled the air. She breathed slowly, and painfully with her dry throat, she barely had the strength left to draw in air. A bowl of water was thankfully not too far away. With reckless abandon Trixie shoved her muzzle into the bowl and drank greedily until it was all gone.
With her throat in much better condition, Trixie tried to figure out where she was, or how she had gotten here. The room she was in currently was very different from the last one. First off the room was free of any dust, and despite the blood smeared into her fur, and the floor around her, it was actually in good condition. Strange potions lined the shelves, and a single bed rested behind her, although it was currently a blood stained mess.
Not wanting to stay here any longer than necessary, Trixie slowly pushed herself off of the wooden floor. Every muscle in her body ached from the strain, but she managed to pull it off. Now standing she took a look at her back, fearing what horrible things she would find there. Her back was bare, save for the two dark patches of fur, along with two long scars over her shoulder blades. The wings were gone.
The sound of hooves clip clopping towards the open doorway grabbed hold of Trixie’s attention. Without thinking about it, Trixie summoned energy into her horn and faced the doorway with grim determination. If Red Velvet was coming back to hurt her again, than this time Trixie was going to fight back.
A brown head with two antlers appeared from the other side of the door. Trixie unleashed a lightning bolt towards the stranger’s skull, as the lightning soared through the air, the stranger dropped down to the ground. Just in time too, as the lightning flew over his head. Trixie stared in horror at the creature she had almost hit.
The creature before Trixie had light brown fur, a white underbelly, and two antlers on its head. Trixie stared at the almost pony before her with confused interest. She also noticed that the creature’s tail was a tiny nub compared to her own, currently ratty looking tail. The last thing to grab her attention was the fact that the creature was missing a cutie mark.
“Um, sorry about that,” Trixie apologized.
It looked up at her with fierce purple eyes and smiled. “You were only defending yourself. No one was hurt so it is acceptable.” There was a flat tone to his voice.
Trixie took a few steps and ceased her movements when it occurred to her, that her horn wasn’t in any pain, nor did she feel strained from the effort of unleashing the lightning bolt. Had her magic truly been cured? This warranted further investigation, but now was not the time.
“I,” She began but stopped. Again she looked at her back, expecting to see two wings attached to her. When she had made sure that she was still a normal unicorn she continued, “don’t know how I got here.”
“Our scouts found you. You were found in the old village being held by the monster.”
“What monster?”
“The Crimson Tide,” he replied, with a nervous look. “She has been holding members of our tribe captive and working her dark magic on them. I can only pray that she did not hurt you to bad.”
“I… I think I’ll be okay,” Trixie replied. “My name is Trixie Lulamoon, who and what are you?”
The stranger gave a chuckle before saying, “I am known as Mystic Soul. I am a deer.” It took Trixie a moment to comprehend this fact, and what it actually meant, so Mystic Soul continued, “As the local alchemist for our small village, they put you in my charge. You will be wanting a safe return home?”
“Yes, and the sooner, the better,” Trixie said. Her mind was still racing from the possibilities of what was going on. Red Velvet had obviously ditched her, but what happened to those wings? Did Red Velvet, or as the deer called her, the Crimson Tide remove them? The questions she had were not meant for a unicorn who only wanted to go home and sleep.
The deer smiled at her. “We can leave now, or you could wash first.”
Trixie looked at herself, she was covered in blood, and other disgusting substances; left over’s from the torture she had suffered. She took a whiff of her own fur and realized much to her chagrin that the awful smell was actually her. She lowered her head and admitted, “I think that a bath would probably be a good idea.”
“Follow me,” Mystic Soul said.
Trixie followed the strange deer outside. With every step her body ached, but she wasn’t ready to argue with anypony, or any deer. After everything that had happened there was no point in resting. The outside was a lot different than what she had expected to find.
The sun shone brightly down upon the clearing around this tree house, clearly showing that winter had not touched this location. Green grassy fields and wonderful plants grew all around as though they had never even heard of the concept of winter.
There were quite a few more deer than Trixie had expected to see. Most of them looked a lot slimmer than Mystic Soul, and only a few of the foals had horns. Perhaps this was a sign of different tribes of deer, the horned ones may be able to perform magic.
Only a few buildings existed in the trees, although some of these buildings were quite tall. Trixie was led down another mushroom staircase and down to a small area where a hot spring existed. A few spouts lead from the hot springs and into an area shaped like large wooden bowl. At first glance the bowl was buried into the ground, on closer inspection the bowl was actually part of the tree’s roots.
Mystic Soul grabbed a rope with his mouth and pulled down on it, water quickly filled the spout from above and then drained into the bowl. After only a few moments the bowl was filled with water and Mystic Soul motioned for Trixie to get in. It hit Trixie that this was the bath tub.
“You want me to bathe out in the open? With everypony watching me?” Trixie questioned.
Mystic Soul looked confused. “I do not understand. Is there a problem with this?”
“Well yeah, I mean…” Trixie stopped trying to question it once she realized that there wasn’t really any problem with this. It was almost like a spa…“Never mind.”
With careful movements Trixie climbed down into the bath and suddenly felt refreshed. The water was perfect against her skin, and the best part was how the water sparkled in the sun light. She dunked her head under the water and stayed there for a moment before coming back out and exhaling deeply.
At Mystic Soul’s giggle, Trixie looked at him and asked, “What is it?”
“You seem to be enjoying the water thoroughly.”
Trixie looked up at the bright blue sky. “I guess that I’m just enjoying the simple things while I can.”
“Why is that, do you plan to not be able to bathe anytime soon?”
Trixie closed her eyes and fought off a dark feeling. “I don’t know how long I’ll have left. I could be dead soon.”
Mystic Soul looked displeased. “It would be tragic to lose you. You have been a kind guest so far.”
“You barely know me, how can you feel bad about my death?” Trixie replied sourly.
Mystic Soul was quiet for a moment before explaining, “I would feel bad for anyone who died before their proper time. I don’t feel like you should leave this world so early, is that so strange?”
Trixie let out a sigh and opened her eyes again. “I suppose it’s not that strange. I just don’t see how anyone could actually care about me. I’m nothing but a giant wrecking ball, the things I touch always get destroyed.”
Mystic Soul opened his mouth but stopped on the approach of another deer. This one was about a foot taller than Mystic Soul, and he had black fur with gold eyes. Mystic bowed his head a little before saying, “Dark Leaf, are you doing well?”
The taller deer, Dark Leaf looked down at Mystic Soul with a hard expression. “King Aspen has heard of our visitor. He is sending Blackthorn to retrieve her by tomorrow. She is to stay in your care until Blackthorn arrives.”
Trixie didn’t like the sound of this.
“That might work out for the best,” Mystic Soul said. “Blackthorn can guide us to Thicket, and then we will only be a few short hours from the pony village.”
“Wait, I thought you said I could leave now?” Trixie asked, she felt tiny compared to Dark Leaf.
Mystic Soul smiled at her and said, “And you still can, but even if you left now it would take you at least a day to reach the pony village.”
“You cannot allow her to leave early. King Aspen needs to know what transpired with The Crimson Tide,” Dark Leaf said sternly.
Mystic Soul’s smile faded a little. “She has the ability to leave, but I believe she will stay. She needs a guide after all, and I am no good at finding my way.”
“Hmm, you are right about that. She is your charge, remember that you are solely responsible for her actions,” Dark Leaf warned.
It didn’t leave a good impression on Trixie that this tall deer was talking about her as though she wasn’t there. In fact it made her feel even more worthless, and that was a feat in and of itself. When Dark Leaf finally left, Mystic Soul turned back to Trixie and smiled kindly at her.
“His words are harsh, but his heart means well. You survived what most of the bucks in our tribe could not.”
“The what now?” Trixie asked, alarmed by the phrase.
“A buck is a male deer, similar to your stallion. Our females are called doe, and our children, fawn. In case you did not notice on our way down, this village is comprised mostly of doe.”
Trixie looked out at the deer that lacked horns. “So, the doe are the ones without horns?”
“That is correct.”
“Deer are strange,” Trixie said casually.
Mystic Soul gave a short laugh. “To us it is the pony that is strange.”
To her surprise, she actually found herself laughing at the comment.
It's true, we must seem very strange to deer. But even so I think our species could be good friends, in fact I could be friends with him... what am I thinking? I mean sure he's a deer, but... he's a... he. I could never trust a stallion, never again... but he isn't exactly a stallion, now is he? He's a buck, and i don't even think that our two races could... besides that he's very nice to me, even though I don't deserve it...
After a moment Trixie made up her mind and said, “I am going to be your friend.”
“That is wonderful,” Mystic Soul replied.
“I figure that I might as well try and befriend a stallion, er a buck, before I die,” Trixie explained.
“And I hope that by being your friend, I can convince you to live.”
Trixie frowned and said, “I guess we’ll see.”