//------------------------------// // Chapter Eighty Six: Dreamweaver // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// HEART OF STONE Chapter Eighty Six: Dreamweaver Written by TheCrimsonDM The small room’s walls were painted a dull white, and the blue tile floor looked plain. The only things that truly served to make this room stand out included a dressing rack, a full body mirror, and a painting of a mare in an elegant dress. A small pegasus filly sat in front of the painting, staring at Trixie. The filly’s sky blue fur was very clean and well groomed, her mane of green was brushed straight and her lime green eyes showed a lack of interest to anything in the room. Trixie smiled at the filly. “Hello, what’s your name?” “I’m Dreamweaver, I just wanted to come by and meet you, Princess Trixie,” she replied. Trixie took a step back. “But I’m no Princess.” The filly suddenly looked taken aback. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t supposed to say that.” Trixie looked around, something felt off but she couldn’t pinpoint what. “Um, are you enjoying the reunion party so far?” Dreamweaver asked politely. “Well, yes I am. But I took long enough getting dressed,” Trixie looked down at the beautiful white dress that she was wearing. Only Rarity could make such beauty. “Okay, I’ll see you later, best go off and meet your friends before they start to suspect you ditched them, right?” Dreamweaver said. Trixie nodded. Took one last look at the painting of a stallion wearing a set of bold steel plated armor and began trotting towards the door. “I’ll see you later, Dreamweaver. I don’t want my friends to think I ran away again.” Dreamweaver smiled as Trixie left the room. *** The ballroom was filled with ponies. There was her old group of friends in the corner, all of Twilight Sparkle’s friends at their own table. Celestia and Luna both sat a private table talking to a few well dressed ponies. Things were quite lively in here tonight. As Trixie made her way to the table she watched Minuette making a show of herself by flashing around her sword spell. Doesn’t Minuette use a magical hammer? “Hey, Trixie,” Minuette said. “Remember that time that I totally wrecked that metal mutt with my sword?” “How could I forget, me and Moondancer were running for our lives from that construct. If it hadn’t been for your sword skills we’d be dead,” Trixie replied. I forgot that Minuette used a sword, wow, how could I do that. Moondancer nodded at Trixie and offered, “We were really scared, but I had you by my side.” “Hey,” Lyra said. “Anypony see Twilight? Or are we just not important enough for her?” “Don’t start that up again,” Trixie said. “Twilight’s probably busy.” “Well I was busy, but now I’m free to party with you girls.” Everypony turned to face Twilight Sparkle who was standing directly behind Trixie. Twilight’s glasses were sliding down the tip of her muzzle. That’s weird, doesn’t Twilight use contacts? “Um, Twilight, what’s with the dorky glasses?” Trixie asked. Everypony gave Trixie a strange look. What, did I say something weird? “Trixie, I don’t wear contacts,” Twilight replied. Oh yeah, that’s right, she doesn’t like the way they feel. Silly me. Something felt very wrong. Trixie looked around, and the ballroom was fairly empty, only the six of them stood inside. Well it was a party for Twilight’s old schoolmates after all, so why should anypony else be here? The echoic music playing left an eerie feeling over the room, a feeling that made Trixie wish to leave. She faced her friends and in an attempt to liven up the place a little she asked, “What have you all been doing since I was last here?” Minuette smiled and said, “I moved to Ponyville shortly after Lyra did. Though I’ve been really busy lately, blacksmithing is hard after all.” “Oh, I’ve been with Bonnie,” Lyra said. “Me and her were working on a song for the Ponyville fair, but it didn’t work out right. I guess we just don’t know how to run a show…” “I would’ve helped if I knew,” Trixie offered. “I know, but with everything you’ve been through, asking for your help seemed like an invasion.” Everypony was quiet for a second, and the music whispered over the room. Just quiet enough that Trixie couldn’t make out the words but loud enough for Trixie to hear the despairing voices playing tunes to her. I really don’t like this music… it’s so hollow and lonely. “I’ve been working on my medical classes. It’s all going okay,” Moondancer explained. “What have you been doing, Princess Trixie?” That’s right, I am a princess. I’m an alicorn princess. “I’m working on getting my show up and running again. My sexy assistant Maud is going to help me too,” Trixie answered. Trixie saw a yellow unicorn of unusually tall stature standing by the exit door. The red mane covered half of the unicorns face, and a bright blue dress loosely covered her back. The unicorn nodded at Trixie before leaving the ballroom. That’s Red Velvet, I guess that means it’s time to leave. “Excuse me,” Trixie said. “I need to go find Maud.” That’s a complete lie, but nopony will question it. Twilight gave a serious look to Trixie. “You better not be going to have sex in one of the guest rooms… again.” “What? Me? I-I wouldn’t do that,” Trixie lied. Besides, I totally didn’t have sex in your guest room, I did it in your bathroom. The others silently watched as Trixie left the room. The music kicked up for a second and Trixie heard the lyrics sing the words, ”We’re here to talk to Trixie.” Trixie ignored the music, although it was strange, she had more pressing concerns. Just as Trixie left the ballroom she saw the unicorn walking down a hallway before disappearing around the bend. Red Velvet, wait for me. How can we free the alicorns without if you don’t wait for me? Before Trixie could continue she was stopped by the pegasus filly. The green eyes almost looked like they were glowing in the darkly lit halls. “Yes, what did you want, Dreamweaver?” Trixie asked as she attempted to continue moving forward. Her legs didn’t want to move though. Well, that’s weird. “I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing,” She replied. “Of course I do, I’m going to help Red Velvet,” Trixie said. “Why?” “Because she’s trying to do something good, and I want to help her.” “And what is that?” Trixie looked down at the filly and smiled. “She’s bringing the alicorns back. They’ve been locked away for so long, how could I just let them stay that way?” “Okay, so long as you know what you’re doing,” Dreamweaver said. “Just be carefully, I don’t think that Tia would be happy about this.” Trixie began walking forward now chasing after Red Velvet. Whatever invisible force had control over her legs was now gone. She knew that she needed to hurry because if she didn’t move fast she’d lose Red Velvet. That’s a weird name, Tia. I wonder if she was referring to Princess Celestia? Trixie paused just long enough to look back at the filly, but the filly was gone. I bet she ran off to go and play. I can wonder about her later, I have to meet up with Red Velvet now. *** Trixie followed Red Velvet down the long twisting corridors, always far enough that she could easily loose the alicorn, but just close enough to catch glimpses of where she was heading. Just as Trixie was about to give up the chase she entered the throne room of Princess Celestia. The room was brightly lit despite being virtually empty. THe only pony in here besides herself was Red Velvet, who stood in front of the throne grinning madly. “It’s right here, Trixie,” Red Velvet looked back at Trixie. Red’s smile faded a little and suddenly she looked so very old. “I’ve been searching for so very long. But now I’m finally here.” “What do we do now?” Trixie asked. Red Velvet's horn lit up and a baleful red glow surrounded the throne. Without warning the throne shattered sending chunks of it everywhere. A black crystal floated in place of where the throne once stood. A second aura covered Red Velvet’s horn as the crystal began emitting a dark light. “I don’t understand, what are you doing?” Trixie asked. “She’s asleep.” “What was that?” Trixie asked, quite unsure of what Red Velvet had meant. “I said: I’m freeing the alicorns.” A hot wind blew in from the doorway behind Trixie. The sound of shuffling hooves, and snorting from behind Trixie sent a shiver of fear into her heart. No, not now. Celestia stood behind Trixie, her mane and tail were on fire, and her eyes were pure white. In a loud ear piercing voice, Celestia demanded, “STOP RIGHT THERE!” Red Velvet growled, turned and a beam of red energy shot out from her horn. Celestia countered with a torrent of flames from her own horn, and Red Velvet’s miserable attack was whipped out. The flames raced towards Red Velvet and quickly engulfed her. Trixie took a step back, her heart raced, her mind ceased working. “Why?” “Because she was a traitor,” Celestia said venomously. “And so are you!” Flames raced from Celestia’s horn and stretched out towards Trixie. As her world was washed away by flame, she could only watch. The world vanished into a bath a flames. *** It’s so dark, so dark and so cold. “That’s because you’re eyes are closed,” A sensual but somehow very familiar voice said. Slowly Trixie opened her eyes and saw where she was. Completely weightless she floated through the air, an ocean of dark black liquid swirled beneath her. Jets of black ooze sporadically shot out before collapsing back into the heavy sea below. The sky was a deep shade of blue, it was almost so dark that she couldn’t separate it from the muck below her. Who was that? “Don’t you remember me? For shame, I would’ve thought that I’d be more memorable than that.” Trixie turned to face the voice and saw a unicorn version of herself floating in the air with a smug smile. The dopplegangers red eyes held a dim red glow, and the darker fur matched the color of Trixie’s wings. Trixie knew exactly who this was. Scath! “That’s right, now are you going to use your mouth, or just think at me all day,” Scath replied. A cold feeling ran through her fur, despair, fear, anger, Trixie couldn’t decide how to feel about seeing Scath again. Finally, Trixie simply said, “I didn’t expect to ever see you again.” “Oh and why not? After all we are one and the same. You accepted me and let me back in, but here I am, trying my best to keep you together. Looks like I failed though.” Scath looked down at the muck below them and smiled. “The Dorchadas has been so lonely without you. If only you tapped into it more often we would all be much better off.” “What are you talking about?” Trixie questioned. “You are absolutely filled with delicious dark magic, even before you were turned alicorn, you were particularly powerful. But instead of our darkness you chose to use the blood magic. Shame, this would have been so much more useful to you,” Scath replied. “I can understand though, I am the darkness inside of you. When I left you didn’t have a choice but to rely on such dangerous methods. So after i fused with you, I began attempting to fix your magic. If I had a few a years I think I could have succeeded. But the alicorn thing took care of that for me.” A sudden tendril of black goo sprang up from the ocean below and struggled uselessly in the air. It stood for a few seconds before collapsing back into the sludge below with a huge splash. What the Tartarus is going on in here? “That my dear better half, is The Dorchadas trying to protect you,” Scath explained. “If you don’t learn to use it properly, it won’t be a table you break next time, it will be something much more precious.” “But I didn’t mean to do that,” Trixie retorted. “EXACTLY!” Scath screamed. Trixie flinched. Scath remained silent for a moment, allowing time for the comment to sink in. Trixie blinked. W-w-what? “You tapped into your darkness, into The Dorchadas. You used the magic inside of you, and you killed the table with it.” I didn’t meant to break the table, it was an accident. But what if it had been a pony who had said those things to me… could I have hurt somepony? Somepony that I care about? “You see what I mean,” Scath said sympathetically. “We need to get this under control, and the sooner, the better.” Trixie looked into Scath’s red eyes and didn’t see the same malice that had once been in there. Scath had changed, but Trixie couldn’t believe that simply merging together had fixed the darker version of herself. What happened? “I met a friend. Somepony who was as broken as i was, maybe even worse.” “Oh, and who was that,” Trixie questioned. Scath looked to her left and out of the darkness appeared the small filly from before. Dreamweaver waved  a hoof and said, “Hi, um, it was me.” “So you became friends with another fracture of myself?” Trixie questioned. “No, actually I’m not a fracture of you,” Dreamweaver said. “I’m from somepony else, but with the way I was created I tend to float from one pony’s dream, to another dream. I don’t do so well in foals dreams though…” “I don’t see why it would be more scary in a foals dream,” Trixie said. “They’re too innocent, and I’m not… it’s strange seeing how happy they are, how they don’t understand what kind of creature I am. It makes me nervous,” Dreamweaver explained. What is she? Scath laughed. “I don’t understand what she is any better than you, but I’ve known her long enough to know how strange she is.” Another tendril sprouted up and crashed into the waters below. Following that a bright flash of lightning flashed across the sky catching everypony's attention. The light brought a clear view to the dark purple ocean, it wasn’t exactly black, but the sky became a lighter shade of purple as well. Trixie drifted back and panic spread across her heart. Why is lightning here? “That’s The Colm, Trixie,” Scath said. “You need to stop it before it-” Scath was drowned out by the sound of screams echoing across the endless expanse of ocean. The blood curdling screams didn’t scare Trixie for being out of place, but they resonated with her on a much deeper level. These were her screams. Another flash of lightning came, followed by a scream. Another one, and another. Each time the lightning would strike it got closer. Trixie wanted to flee but she knew deep down inside that running was impossible now. The lightning had found her, and it was about to strike her down. “Use Dorchadas!” Scath cried. “I don’t know how.” Trixie whimpered.  “How did you break that table?” Trixie closed her eyes as another wave of screaming assaulted her ears. I got angry because I was being mocked. “No, you wanted to protect yourself from being hurt. Trixie, think about the things that hurt you, think about your torment, your pain, your suffering, think about it and destroy it with everything you have,” Scath demanded. “I can’t,” Trixie called back. If I do that, I’ll have to relive it. I don’t want to be hurt again. “You have to face it, Trixie. Face it, and beat the ever living crap out of those things that hurt you. You’re stronger than them now, you can withstand a little memory,” Scath explained. Another flash of lightning, and screams hit Trixie. Suddenly she was sucked back into that deer cottage, her back burned with agony. Trixie screamed at the top of her lungs. Stop it, make it go away! “It won’t go away unless you make it go away.” Trixie concentrated on the memory, she hated it, she hated Red Velvet for giving it to her. There was nothing good about becoming an alicorn, but now that she had that power she wasn’t about to let it happen again. With everything she had she drew in the anger from that memory, the pain, the horror, and she screamed a savage cry at the dark lit heavens above. Tendrils of black ooze rose from the oceans. The tendrils reached up and over Trixie’s head, there they fused into a sort of dome-shaped roof. And with Trixie still screaming in defiance of the lightning she watched as the lightning struck from above. The lightning crashed into the top of the dome, and although the dome wobbled, it held fast and the lightning split into tiny pieces flying in every direction. Trixie stopped screaming and watched as the lightning bolts fled as quickly as they could back into the unknowable darkness. The black ooze slowly retreated back into the ocean below, and this left Trixie alone with Scath and Dreamweaver. “That was impressive,” Scath complemented. “Come back to me later, and I’ll work on training you to actually use this power in the waking world.” “The waking what?” Trixie asked, but a little too late as her world was suddenly blinded by a bright light. She could feel herself being drawn out of this place, and back into somewhere warm, and filled with light. Someplace she called home. *** Slowly Trixie opened her eyes to her brightly lit living room. The sun’s warm rays blanketed her fur, and the soft flank she was using as a pillow felt so nice under her head. Trixie sniffed the pillow, and then released a deep sigh of pleasure. Oh Celestia, Maud smells so good in the morning. “Does she usually wake up like this?” Celestia asked. “It must be nice to wake up next to your loved one like that,” Luna added. Trixie shot straight up and stared at the alicorn princesses now gathered in her living room. They sat on the couch opposite of her own. With the princesses here, she attempted to make herself presentible. Her mane was an utter wreck this early in the morning, the feathers of her wings were sticking out in odd angles, and then there was the fact that one of her wings laid limply at her side, while the other one was jutting out stiffly. Finally she had one last problem, she really needed to pee. I can’t let them see me go to the bathroom with somepony else, it would look weird. And having my mane in such a state is so undignified, and my wings, oh this is so embarrassing.… “Good morning, Princess Trixie,” Celestia greeted with a smile. ...and did she just call me a princess?