//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight One: Reunited at Last // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// HEART OF STONE Chapter Eighty One: Reunited at Last Written by TheCrimsonDM “What did you do back there?” King Aspen questioned. The empty feeling inside of Trixie had grown after the fight. At this point she questioned why she should even continue moving forward. The only thing keeping her going was her memory of how heartbroken Maud was. She had to fix this, somehow. “I killed it. The Crimson Tide,” Trixie replied. “She turned me into this…” “You’re upset that she turned you into an alicorn? I thought that all ponies dreamed about becoming an alicorn princess,” King Aspen said. “How come this bothers you?” With two limp wings being dragged alongside her, Trixie tried to think of an explanation. It was true that everypony wanted to be an alicorn, and very few ever got the chance. Even if Trixie’s wings were useless, she still had them. The truth was that she hated how she had gotten them, in her moment of darkness she turned to Red Velvet for help, and through torture, pain, and guilt she had arisen to become some kind of pseudo alicorn. “You don’t know what she did to me, to make this possible,” Trixie said lamely. King Aspen nodded at her words and dropped the subject. The small group had almost arrived at the edge of the Everfree forest overlooking Ponyville. The thought of returning home was uplifting and at the same time terrifying. None of her friends had seen nor heard from her in two weeks. They thought her dead by now. Showing up without any warning was going to be a shock to everyponies system. When they reached the forest line the noon sun cast its brilliance down onto Ponyville. Trixie had finally come home. King Aspen and Blackthorn looked at Trixie and Mystic Soul and smiled. “So it looks like our time together has come to an end,” King Aspen said. Trixie looked up at him. “It was a pleasure to meet you, King Aspen.” “The pleasure has been mine,” He replied. Mystic Soul spoke then, “I will have my business completed swiftly.” Trixie gave the oddest look to Mystic Soul before asking, “What’s that supposed to mean?” Mystic Soul couldn’t help but smile at her. “I am to stay at Princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle while we discuss ways to defend the realm against the windigo threat, but even more so, the threat of The Crimson Tide.” It was unbelievable that any deer would actually be willing to come into a pony village, but to be staying at the castle… well Trixie was out of words. She just nodded and took some small amount of pleasure in knowing that she would have a companion to stand by her while she faced her friends again. She couldn’t shake the thought of them judging her for her actions. After saying their farewells, Trixie and Mystic Soul left for the village. Upon entering they were quickly met with a poster on the side of a lamppost. The poster showed a picture of the unicorn version of Trixie; an old picture of her with her cloak and hat on, one taken in a happier time. The poster had large letters saying the word ‘missing’ and told anypony who saw this mare to contact Princess Twilight Sparkle immediately. The poster made her feel guilty for leaving her friends behind, but it also made her feel loved to know that they would search so hard for her. She needed to find them quickly. They continued on their way towards the castle. Mystic Soul’s eyes were wide and filled with wonder at his new surroundings. It was obvious that he had never entered a pony village before now. She would have questioned Mystic about what he found so interesting, if not for the fact that a pony sized, purple dragon walked around the corner and stopped upon seeing her. “What the…” The dragon questioned as he stared at her in shock. Trixie stared up at the dragon that stood a few inches taller than her and forced a smile. “Um… hi.” Mystic Soul leaned in and whispered into Trixie’s ear. “Are dragons a common sight here?” “No, not really…” Trixie admitted lamely. Unable to stare at anything other than the dragon she waved a hoof at him. “Hi, my name is Trixie Lulamoon… um, what’s yours?” The dragon looked shocked, and then he shook his head slowly. “Trixie, it’s me.” It slowly dawned on her who this dragon was. “Spike, is that you?” “Yep,” he replied proudly. “With Twilight being distracted by the search and all, I’ve had plenty of time to grow… though I’m apparently not allowed to get any bigger.” “How?” Trixie questioned, she had to know what happened to make him grow so much. “Well, don’t tell Twilight, but I have a horde. And it’s hidden somewhere she will never find it,” Spike explained. Trixie had remembered reading about this in Twilight’s diary. “But what if you grow too large?” Spike smiled and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. “Well, my horde’s size is being… managed by somepony else.” Trixie blinked. “I’m not really supposed to talk about it yet. I’ll let you know when it’s okay to talk about,” Spike explained. “Aside from all that, I have to tell you something important; Twilight and the others are looking for you.” “I noticed…” “Great, let’s go and meet… who is that?” Spike asked while pointing at the deer standing next to her. “Hello, I am known as Mystic Soul. It is nice to meet you, Spike,” Mystic Soul introduced himself. Spike scratched the back of his head while saying, “Oh, Twilight was going to meet you today. Well that settles it, you guys should follow me to the town square. If I let you run off now, Twilight would kill me.” Trixie could understand his fear of her running away again, but for better or worse she was determined to ride this out. She couldn’t help but wonder if the others all viewed her the same way. Things were never going to be the same again, were they? *** When they did actually arrive at town square Trixie found her friends all sitting around at park bench and having a conversation. The only pony missing from sight was Maud, but if Trixie’s suspicion was right, Maud would be at Pinkie’s right now. It was difficult to say the least, but with Spike and Mystic Soul at her side she was able to walk up to the bench. Twilight didn’t even look away from her friends as she said in spiteful tone, “What were you doing, Spike?” Spike rolled his eyes and said, “Just bringing a lost mare back to her friends.” Twilight looked over with angry eyes at Spike and began, “What are you talking ab-“ Twilight’s eyes softened as she saw Trixie standing just behind him. “Trixie… Okay, Spike, you win…” Spike couldn’t help but smile as he spun around and walked away. “Told ya being bigger would help in the search. I’ll see you later, gotta look for something.” Everypony stared with wide, nervous eyes at Trixie, almost as though they hadn’t expected to ever see the mare again. Well everypony except for Rarity, who was staring with a smile at the dragon as he walked away. The look in her eyes provoked Trixie to read her emotions, and much to her surprise found the unicorn mare to be quite pleased at the sight of Spike. “Trixie, are you okay?” Twilight asked, ruining Trixie’s concentration. Pinkie Pie scooted inward on the bench and made room for Trixie to sit next to her. She glanced over at Mystic Soul but found the deer had chosen to tactfully leave alongside Spike, the two of them discussing Ponyville. Just as Trixie took a seat an odd, but familiar feeling covered her mind for a moment. Pinkie was probing her mind. “Stop that!” Trixie demanded. Everypony stared at her with odd looks, except for Pinkie Pie who looked away and apologized, “Sorry, I just needed to make sure that you weren’t a changeling or anything.” “I’m not, and to answer your question Twilight… I’m still alive,” Trixie said. Rarity looked at Applejack and said, “See I told you that she was just taking a little break. I don’t know why you were so worked up.” Applejack growled at her. “Because she tried to kill herself.” “Oh that was just an accident.” “How could a knife in the bathtub be an accident?” Applejack asked. Rarity rolled her eyes and said, “Oh I don’t know, maybe she was eating in the tub. We shouldn’t make assumptions until after we hear her side of the story.” Rainbow Dash couldn’t meet Trixie’s eyes, but she did try to apologize, “Trixie, I’m… sorry.” Fluttershy didn’t speak. Applejack, after giving up on her conversation with Rarity, said, “Ah sure am glad to see you in one piece, cus.” The last one to speak was Pinkie Pie. “Trixie, I just want you to know that we all love you and… and…” Pinkie trailed off as she stared at the feathery appendage lying limply next to her on the bench. Without any regard for Trixie’s personal space, Pinkie grabbed the wing with her hooves and brought it up to her face. “When did you get wings?” The awkward feeling of somepony touching her new limb was nothing in comparison to the looks she was now receiving from her friends. For nearly a full minute nopony made a sound. Finally Trixie got sick and tired of the judgmental silence and pulled the Wand of Harmony out of her saddlebag and slid it over to Twilight. “I got these after getting this back for you… I’m sorry that I stole it. I’ll understand if you don’t want me inside your castle anymore,” Trixie said. Twilight looked down, looked back up and said, “You’re an alicorn…” Trixie let out a sigh and said, “I was turned into this by the same pony that killed the windigo. Twilight there is an evil alicorn-“ Now it was Rainbow Dash’s turn. “But you’re an alicorn… does that make you a princess?” Trixie opened her mouth to try and explain what was going on again, and stopped. The question that Rainbow Dash posed actually hit her harder then she expected. “I… don’t know. I sure hope that I’m not a princess, not after seeing the stress it put on Twilight.” “Ah’m related to an alicorn,” Applejack said happily. “Ah’m so proud.” That stung Trixie’s guilty heart. “Look I’m not actually an alicorn. I’m a monster, this is what happened after I was infused with dark magic.” “I’ll get to refit all your dresses,” Rarity said joyfully. “I can’t wait!” “Are you even listening to me?” Trixie asked lamely. Pinkie Pie shook her head and said, “No, their obsessed with your new wings. I’m sorry about what happened to you.” “How come you’re the only one paying attention?” Trixie asked. “How…” Twilight muttered still in shock. Trixie tried to raise her voice, but she only managed a meek tone as she said, “Everypony just listen to me…” While the others continued obsessing over Trixie’s wings, Trixie shrunk back. Her guilt ridden heart wasn’t ready for praise, especially not about her transformation. This would have continued on for quite some time if not for Fluttershy. In a powerful demonstration of her ability to shout, Fluttershy demanded, “EVERYPONY BE QUIET AND LISTEN!” Everypony was covering their ears and staring at Fluttershy with very confused looks. Fluttershy continued with her normally quiet voice, only a stern attitude was now applied to her words. “We have not seen her in two weeks, and when she does come back, all you can do is make her uncomfortable and nervous about her new wings. She doesn’t look too proud be an alicorn, and if she doesn’t want us to make a big deal out of it, then I think that we should leave it alone. Do you all want to send her back into suicide?” It was a little jarring just how quickly everypony changed their attitudes after Fluttershy scolded them. It was especially strange to Trixie how loud Fluttershy could be, she had never expected such volume from the quiet pony before. This all said, once the initial shock of Fluttershy’s loud words wore off, Trixie began falling apart on the inside. “Where is Maud?” Trixie asked quietly. Pinkie Pie gave a quiet smile to Trixie and said, “She’s around.” Pinkie Pie then stared at something behind Trixie. Slowly Trixie turned to see that lovable gray mare standing behind her and staring back. Without a second thought Trixie got off the bench and took a few shuffling steps towards Maud. The only thing Maud did was ask, “Why?” Trixie wanted to look away from those blue eyes, but she didn’t. With as much effort as she could, Trixie stared into those eyes and said, “I don’t know. There are a lot reasons why I did that I suppose… but none of them are good enough to forgive what I did to you, Maud. I shouldn’t have ever cheated on you.” Maud took a few steps forward and said, “I don’t care about that. Why did you leave me?” Those words made Trixie’s heart plunge and she now realized the depths of her mistakes. Trixie sat down, hard. “I… I’m so sorry. I came home as fast as I could, but I don’t even really remember the past two weeks.” “So you have amnesia?” Maud asked flatly. “Maybe? It feels like my mind’s been scrambled after the torture…” Trixie said lamely. A serious look crossed into Maud’s eyes and she wrapped her forelegs around Trixie pulling the blue mare into an embrace. Maud whispered into Trixie’s ears, “I’ll kill whoever it was that hurt you.” Trixie pulled back and stared into those usually dull blue eyes. It now hit her that Maud was smiling at Trixie, not one of those tiny smiles she gave when she was happy, but a big smile the likes of which Trixie had never seen Maud wear before. Maud leaned in and with a bright fire in her eyes she said, “Kiss me.” As their lips united a fire raced down Trixie’s spine and lit up her entire body. The world around her stopped and the only thing that mattered was the fact that after so long they had been reunited. A strange tingle ran down Trixie’s wings and much to her surprise they sprung up and stiffened hard as a rock. As Maud pulled away the world started again and she stared at the love of her life. Trixie was grinning like a fool, and nothing was going to stop that. For the first time since the all the bad things that had happened, Trixie actually felt like everything would be okay between her and Maud. Trixie had screwed up, but if Maud still loved her this much, there was hope. “Aw,” Rainbow Dash said. “Trixie’s first wingboner.” An audible slap was heard followed by Rainbow Dash muttering, “Sorry.”