HEART OF STONE
Chapter Seventy Nine: Smoke and Murder
Written by TheCrimsonDM
The small village was truly quiet and peaceful, the fawn played games chasing each other around, the doe seemed content to watch the children and talking amongst themselves. Trixie was happy just lying in the grass and smelling the wild flowers, she was tempted to eat one. That was when Mystic Soul arrived with a basket of food. Various fruits, barriers, and flowers had been arranged in the basket, and they all smelled heavenly.
“You have not eaten since we found you,” Mystic Soul stated. “So I have brought you something to eat. I hope it suffices.”
Trixie looked at the food greedily and said, “Yeah, this works just fine.”
After setting the basket down, Trixie reached out with her magic and pulled a few strawberries out. These berries were not only larger than what she was used to, they were also much more flavorful. She’d never had strawberries so full of sweetness. It was edible heaven.
Though much to her dismay Trixie found that she was unable to eat very much. It struck her as odd that after being starved for a week, and left for dead, that she was unable to eat more than a hoof full of berries.
“Is there something wrong with the food?” Mystic Soul asked politely.
Trixie shook her head and after nibbling on flower she decided to speak. “I’m not very hungry for some reason.”
“I will take this for you then,“ Mystic said as he leaned over to grab the basket.
Trixie used her magic to hold the basket down while saying, “That’s okay, I’d like to nibble on them for a little while.”
“As you wish.”
And Trixie did just that. She nibbled on the food, basked in the warm rays of the sunlight, and eventually fell asleep.
***
The old deer house was silent, her back was in agony, and fresh blood stains covered her shoulders. The white cloak lying on the floor in front of Trixie was unfortunately stained red. The cloak in question had light purple trim and a star pattern along with a crescent moon symbol where the flanks were covered. The clasp was shaped like the sun.
Lying on top of the cloak was a wand, and a sword. The wand’s shaft was a blue stick that had woven around the heart shaped gem that was attached to it. The sword’s sheath was a deep blue with a red line running down it. These were very important and needed to be kept safe.
Darkness lined the edges of Trixie’s vision and she felt lost. She laid down deciding to rest for a moment. That’s when a familiar voice began to speak to her.
“You shouldn’t rest here,” Babble said. “After what you just did to get those things, you need a doctor.”
Trixie looked up at the source of the voice, upon seeing thin air, she was able to validate her crazy.
“I’m not joking,” he said.
“I don’t care if I die here or not. Nothing matters to me now.” Trixie laid her head down. “Red Velvet got her wish, and now I’m going to sleep.”
“She still needs your help, and honestly I don’t like the idea of letting her do her things alone,” Babble said.
“She’s going to fight Celestia over in Canterlot, isn’t she?”
“I can only venture to guess what’s going through her head, you’re the mind reader, not me.”
Trixie let out a tiny laugh and yawned. “I need to sleep, to heal.”
“Where are your wings?” Babble asked.
A small smile crept over Trixie’s lips as she said, “Gone. I can’t very well be an alicorn without any wings now can I?”
“She’s changed your entire body on a molecular level. I don’t think that cutting off your wings will change anything,” Babble warned.
“Too late for that now.” Trixie yawned again, her mind was finally slipping.
“Good night, Trixie.”
“Good night, Babble.”
***
Trixie’s eyes opened and instantly stood up. The dream she just had, it felt more like a memory than anything else. If that was the case, than that meant that when she was last at the deer outpost, she had had the wand of harmony. Furthermore, she had obtained that cloak and sword, they were so familiar.
Trixie looked around and spotted Mystic Soul about ten feet away, napping. Trixie decided to wake him. “Mystic Soul, who found me?”
The buck stirred to life and looked up at her with a smile. “Why one of my fellow deer did. She is a traveler and when on her way back here, she discovered you. Would you like to meet her?”
Trixie looked at the sky, she felt dead inside, but if there was even a chance that she could still get that wand…
“Take me to her.”
The walk to the small tent at the edge of the village was much slower and quieter than either of them would’ve have liked. When they did finally arrive, Mystic Soul stopped Trixie.
“She is an honorary member of our tribe. She is a pony, and yet she is a deer, you will hopefully understand more when you meet her,” he explained
“I don’t care, I just need to talk to her,” Trixie replied as she entered the tent, completely ignoring him.
The second she poked her head inside a horrible stench hit her nostrils and sent her reeling back out. After receiving an odd look from Mystic Soul, she braved herself and walked all the way in. The tent was hard to see in because of all the smoke, and the smell was the absolute worst. There was a fire pit in the middle of the room, which was where all the smoke was coming from. A green mare with a ratty orange dreadlocks sat behind the fire.
“Like, salutations fellow traveler. What brings you to this place of tranquility?” The mare asked.
It was obvious exactly what kind of pony this was, and Trixie almost wanted to smack the mare on mere principle. Trixie’s rage quickly left her and a deep calm took over. Trixie laid down and breathed deeply, Sure it smelled bad, but something about this tent was so utterly peaceful that it didn’t matter. A strange happiness began filling her empty heart, and suddenly she was confused as to why she came here in the first place.
“I’m looking for the deer who found me, I think,” Trixie said, confused.
“Whoa, it’s like the universe brought us together, because I’m the one who found you.”
“But I was found by a deer, and you’re a pony…” Trixie replied, she felt like she was stating the obvious.
“I’m an honorary member of the tribe. To them there is no difference between me and any other doe,” The mare explained.
“Huh… that’s pretty cool,” Trixie said, now fascinated by the idea. She had to remind herself why she was here though. “I wanted to know if you found any of my possessions with me?”
“Yeah, there over there by the door. A white cloak, and a magical wand and sword, right?”
“Yeah, that’s everything.”
“Cool, why don’t you sit down and bliss out with me.”
“Okay, sounds good. My name’s Trixie by the way,” Trixie said.
“And I’m Tree Hugger,” the mare replied.
For awhile the two of them lie in silence while breathing deeply. It was so relaxing here in this tent, and for whatever reason Trixie was just happy. Sure she had made some mistakes, but everything was going to be fine, she just knew it. The longer she stayed, the stranger she felt. It was only after Trixie began seeing Tree Hugger’s aura did she question it. Tree Hugger’s aura was yellow, like hay.
“You have a strange aura,” Trixie observed.
“And you have a sad one,” Tree Hugger observed back.
“I do?”
“Yeah, if you want you can talk to me. I’ll be your rock,” Tree Hugger said innocently.
A sudden feeling of deep regret hit Trixie, and she decided to take Tree Hugger up on her offer. “I’ve done a lot to be sad over. I cheated on the mare that I love, I can’t believe that I had sex with Fluttershy.”
“You had sex with a pony named Fluttershy?” Tree Hugger asked. “Way out, I had sex with a pony named Fluttershy too.”
“Was yours a pegasus from Ponyville?”
“Yeah, was yours?”
“Yeah… she’s not your marefriend or anything is she?” Trixie asked, now she was worried about whether Fluttershy was a cheater too.
Tree Hugger laughed before saying, “No, we just smoked a bunch of Joke together, and then we made love for, like, three days straight. She’s not mature enough for a serious relationship though. So I’m waiting.”
“That’s a smart idea. I wonder if I should have waited… instead I just hurt Maud. And then I tried to kill myself, twice.”
“That’s heavy. What made you do that?”
“It’s hard,” Trixie admitted, “To live that is. All ponies do is hurt me, and every time I defend myself, I only hurt the ponies I care about. All I want from life is to have a nice peaceful place to call home, to have a bunch of friends, and to be a world famous magician, and then a teacher… that’s not asking too much is it?”
“That sounds righteous, you should totally pursue that instead of killing yourself,” Tree Hugger said.
The idea wasn’t too bad. “Yeah, I think your right. I just wish that I knew how I got here.”
“I could totally help you with that,” Tree Hugger offered kindly.
Trixie smiled softly at Tree Hugger’s offer before looking back towards the entrance. She didn’t want to take too long, but she wanted answers. Well she was forced to be here until tomorrow either way, so she might as well do something useful.
“Alright,” Trixie agreed.
Tree Hugger reached over and grabbed a small pouch. After reaching in and pulling out some purple crushed plant, she tossed it onto the fire. The plant exploded in the flames and the smoke flew up into the air and turned into a purple alicorn. The smoke alicorn looked at Trixie and then flew at her. The sounds of chanting, and a steady drum beat filled Trixie’s ears as her world was enveloped by a strange purple fog.
***
It was cold, absolutely frigid. Wherever Trixie was, she couldn’t handle the weather at all. It didn’t help with just how hungry she was. Snow covered the ground and as she walked forward, her hooves sunk beneath the snow. With the raging blizzard that surrounded her she couldn’t see a thing. Hopelessness was quickly catching up to her.
“Move forward,” cried a menacingly cold voice, barely audible above the storm.
Trixie looked around and caught the faint red glow just ahead of her. “Red Velvet, is that you?”
“Follow me, or die!”
Trixie did just that. The snow was hard to walk through, and without any clothing on the snow had managed to freeze her wings against her body. That didn’t matter right now, because she still didn’t know how to fly, even if it wasn’t storming like crazy.
“He’s just ahead of us. You can keep up, I know just how strong you really are, Trixie.”
“Stop pretending to be nice. I will smash you into a thousand tiny pieces when this is over!” Trixie shouted back, her anger at Red Velvet for all the torture was still fresh. Even after the teleportation spell she wasn’t sure where she was, somewhere in the north she assumed.
After an hour of painful travel Trixie knew that she couldn’t hold up much longer. She was feeling sleepy again, and the darkness was coming in from all sides. That’s when the red glow finally got bigger and Trixie caught up to the alicorn who had done this to her. Red Velvet stood at the entrance to a cave, an evil smile was on her lips.
“He’s just inside, Trixie.”
“Then let’s kill him already.”
Red Velvet smiled in approval, it sickened Trixie. Only after Red Velvet began walking forward did Trixie follow. Even though they were out of the snow storm now, Trixie was still freezing. Though the aura coming from Red Velvet’s horn was warm and inviting, Trixie kept her distance. There was no way she was going to willingly walk besides the evil alicorn.
The cave was quiet, dark, and cold. Trixie created a small orb of light from her horn in an attempt to increase the light around them. The ground they walked on was black, obsidian Trixie guessed. A few pieces of mining equipment lay scattered around the cave. Eventually the two came to a staircase of obsidian and walked down it carefully.
The images carved into the walls looked horrifying. Monsters of various sizes, with tentacles, and strange shapes, adorned the halls. Whatever had been going on here was beyond Trixie’s ability to reason.
“Let’s proceed carefully, this place is built like a labyrinth, his labyrinth,” Red Velvet suggested.
Trixie scoffed at her, nothing mattered now. When Red Velvet was dead, she could go home… or maybe not. It occurred to her that she might no longer have a home to return to, if that was the case than she could just lie down and die somewhere. Freezing to death wouldn’t be too bad, right?
Red Velvet stopped, frozen in her tracks. Trixie looked up and her mind ceased working.
A lone pick axe lay at the foot of a statue, she remembered this. The statue was ten feet tall, and it didn’t even take a moment for Trixie to recognize the skeletal primate with its arms raised as though it was in constant torment. This statue should not exist as far as Trixie was concerned. The worst part was that it was made of obsidian, just like in that dream long ago, where she had her second meeting with Scath.
“Do you know what this creature is?” Red Velvet asked.
Trixie sent a small flame from her horn into the darkness, and it landed in a fireplace. The fireplace lit up the small room and Trixie knew that everything was wrong. She looked at Red Velvet, her anger quickly being replaced by fear.
“I don’t care, I’ve been here before.”
“How?”
Trixie didn’t have an answer, and even if she did, the slow chuckle of a deep and dark voice stopped her from being able to talk. The two alicorns turned around and saw a red earth pony with a golden mane staring back at them.
“Hello,” he said calmly.
“Morning Veil, I didn’t think that you would be here. Where is Ash?” Red Velvet asked, her voice was serious. Trixie just knew that this was about to become hectic.
“Oh, you’re looking for Ash as well? Well I could lead you two to him. Actually, now that I look at you two, I’m left wandering. Is that you, Trixie? Moonlight’s daughter?” Morning Veil asked, his voice was friendly, but the look in his eyes betrayed his intentions.
Trixie looked him dead in the eyes, she knew that there were a lot of problems with this situation. “First of all,” Trixie said with authority, “You were the one helping my father track down Ash. So what in the hay are you doing in one of Ash’s lair? Second of all, where is my father?”
“I could arrange a meeting if you wish. But would you rather meet him first, or Ash? They are both located in this dungeon,” Morning Veil admitted.
Red Velvet looked down at Trixie and then back to Morning Veil. “We’ll see to her father first. He may be able to aid us.”
“Hmm, sound reasoning. Well follow me.”
Trixie couldn’t believe that Red Velvet would postpone her vengeance track to look for her father. Red Velvet had tortured her for a week, this couldn’t have been anything more than a ploy, surely. But there was now a sliver of doubt as to Red Velvet’s true nature, now firmly in place in Trixie’s mind.
The two followed behind Morning Veil cautiously as they made their way down a labyrinth of tunnels. The further they went, the more ominous things became. Eventually, Trixie was sure that things would fall apart, and an ambush would occur. But when Morning Veil stopped and motioned for Trixie to step forward, her heart skipped a beat.
The room that she stared into was dark, but a faint blue light could be seen in the distance. The blue light was ebbing off of a sword, the sword in question had a single red line running down the blade. It was her father’s sword, the one that killed an Ursa Major, The Trickster’s Blade.
Trixie galloped into the room. For the first time she had finally found an actual clue to where her father was. She couldn’t help but go to the sword. As she approached the blade lying on the ground she used her magic to lift it into the air.
“The Trickster’s Blade!” Trixie gasped.
The very sword that Trixie was named after, was now in her telekinetic grasp. Her father never explained the true nature of the blade to any of his allies, but he did tell Screw Loose about it once, and a filly Trixie overheard. The blade had a tendency to cause the worst luck imaginable to his opponents, but it was an artifact. This meant that it choose it’s wielder, and it had chosen Moonlight Sonata.
The light from her horn revealed something else on the floor nearby. A crumpled figure was lying in the corner. A white cloak covered the pony like a blanket, and from the white mane sticking out from underneath the cloak, Trixie knew exactly who it was.
Carefully she used her magic to lift the cloak off of her father, she had a dark feeling of exactly what she was going to find, but she wasn’t ready for it. The skeleton she found stared at her with hollowed eye sockets, and her heart stopped.
“What happened here,” Red Velvet asked from the doorway.
“Oh, that, he’s been like that for a long time. Ever since he thought he could defeat me, and failed.”
Both Trixie and Red Velvet stared at Morning Veil in horror as he changed. A horn suddenly grew out of Morning Veil’s head, and two wings shot out from his back. A sick and twisted grin grew across his face as he stared at Trixie.
“Do you know what the last two words your father heard before I shot him down were?” He asked, before licking his lips.
Trixie stared in horror and shook her head.
“Bark, bark.”
In that very moment, something broke inside of Trixie. She had never suspected that one of Celestia’s heroes could have been a villain, but she knew exactly who she was staring at now. As Morning Veil’s mane began to glow with brilliant power, Red Velvet took a step back and shouted, “IT’S ASH!”
Morning Veil didn’t remove his eyes from Trixie’s he only stared with delight. A white hot anger flashed across Trixie’s body, and her mind went blank; she could no longer think, she could only act. Magic poured into her horn, and she gripped the blade with her teeth. The only thing she could see before her, was the stallion who was about to be gilded.
Trixie charged, determined to kill. It wouldn’t be any different than the diamond dog, than the spiders. She’s killed monsters before, and she could do so again, and Morning Veil was only a monster in pony's clothing.
Morning Veil’s horn lit up with a powerful golden aura, but a dark red beam struck him in the foreleg, and shot cleanly through it. Morning Veil fell to his knees, but his face didn’t show any amount of pain. He released a beam of gold energy towards Trixie.
A white beam of energy flashed from the Trickster Blade and hit the beam of energy. Suddenly a rock fell from the ceiling and intercepted the blast. The rock was disintegrated.
Trixie arrived, her blade flashed. Morning Veil stared at her in shock as a line of crimson was drawn across his neck. He tried to shoot another beam at Trixie, but the sword flash white again. His horn fizzled and popped, sparks flew out but nothing else happened. Clearly from his expression, he wasn’t prepared for the sword’s power. Trixie wasn’t done, and with one last attack, she unleashed her magical fury, and blasted Morning Veil into dust.
The light from the sword dimmed, and then faded completely. Trixie stared at the powder before her; the powder that used to be a pony. Red Velvet looked away shamefully before saying, “I’m sorry for your loss. But at least you retrieved his weapon, and it seems to be in working condition.”
Trixie dropped the blade and questioned, “That’s it?”
“The Trickster Blade gives your opponents the worst luck possible. If not for that sword, you would be dead twice fold. ‘That’s it’ is offensive to such an artifact,” Red Velvet explained.
Trixie looked angrily at Red Velvet and nearly shouted, “The stallion you wanted me to kill so badly that you turned me into a freak, the stallion that murdered my father, the secret enemy of Equestria and worshiper of the Deep One. That is what Ash was, what Morning Veil betrayed Celestia’s heroes to become. And he died like this?”
“Did you wish to do epic battle with an alicorn? Would that have made you feel better about this?”
“NO!” Trixie shouted. “I wanted to make him suffer, to cut his wings off slowly, to grind his horn into dust.” Trixie was silent for a moment before saying quietly, “This was disappointing…”
“Trixie, life works out like that sometimes. You cannot seek vengeance and expect it to be fulfilling. Now that he is dead, Equestria is safer, only Celestia has to worry now.”
“I don’t care about her.”
The wand of Harmony floated over gently to Trixie and was laid at her hooves. Red Velvet smiled softly and said, “I told you that I would give this back to Twilight. But I feel that you may wish to return it yourself.”
Trixie stared at the wand, a hollow feeling filled her heart. She looked back at Red Velvet and said, “You know this doesn’t mean we are friends.”
“I know.”
“But I won’t kill you… you helped me find my father, and retrieve his sword, even if it was by mistake.”
“Who said that I didn’t suspect that Ash had kept the sword as a trophy?”
“So you knew that my dad was dead?”
Red Velvet looked away shamefully. “I could only guess as to what happened to him when he challenged an alicorn. I did truly hope that he had only been kept prisoner…
“You should take pride in his courage to defend his family, even when it cost him his life. And you should take pity in knowing that he could never have guessed that it would be his closest ally who stuck the knife in his back.”
Trixie looked back at the skeleton. “I think I’d like to bury him.”
“I’ll help.”