Dirty Trick-Take 2
Twilight looks at Trixie resting beside her, then to the safe that contains the priceless Strange Stones, the only object she can exchange for the only antidote that can save the show mare. Twilight's mind rushes at a hundred miles per hour, considering every option, knowing every choice she could make could change the fate of everypony she cares about. Suddenly with a magical glint in her eye the unicorn makes up her mind, and with a flick of her horn Twilight dispels the sound proof barrier. Trixie watches the barrier fall apart around her, however her complaints are cut off by the strong voice of the lavender mare. “Alright, Dirty Trick, you win. I’ll give you the Stones but only if Trixie gets the antidote first.”
Trixie gapes. “Twilight! What are you doing?”
The Stand laughs. “What she is doing is her only real choice! And a wise one it is! Now then, Twilight, open the magical safe for me.”
“Not so fast, Dirty Trick,” Twilight states, “antidote first!”
“It seems that you have overestimated your position, Sparkle,” the Stand speaks as if surrounding her. “You forget that I can kill you with a thought by lighting the library on fire. Rest assured, once I have the Stones I will have no need for either of you, and I swear on the stones themselves that I will give you the antidote that you so crave.”
Twilight narrows her gaze at the safe as she prepares to utter the password to open its door, only to be stopped by Trixie’s strong hoof. “Twilight, what are you thinking, you idiot! Trixie told you not to worry about her. You do know that if you do hoof the Stones over to him, there is no assurance that he won’t try and kill us after!?”
Twilight looks back at the blue mare. “Don’t you think that I know that? I’m literally giving up something that has no value, something truly priceless.” Twilight looks down at her hooves in shame. “But I have to do this, I have to take a chance if it means saving your life.”
Twilight raises her eyes, looking at Trixie with resolve. “No matter how important the Stones are, they’re not as valuable as your life, Trixie. That’s why I have to take this chance, because I can’t abandon my friends, even for all the Strange Stones in Equestria.”
Trixie looks at Twilight, staring at the mare before her as she begins to understand the depth of Twilight’s concern for her. Trixie turns her head away from the lavender mare as she pouts. “…..Fine, but only for one second.”
Trixie’s sudden change of mood and a slight blush cause the lavender mare no small amount of confusion. “What? Trixie, what are you…..”
“Do I have to say it? Mind link!” An embarrassed Trixie blurts out. “If we mindlink for even a second we’ll know what the other is thinking, and you’ll understand the Great and Powerful Trixie’s powerful plan.” Trixie manifests her Stand, its hoof outstretched towards the unicorn in a display of trust. “So hurry up and let’s get this over with!”
Twilight raises her Stand’s hoof toward Trixie’s until they’re only inches from each other. “Alright, are you sure, Trixie?”
“Just do it before Trixie changes her mind! And no, that is not a telepathy joke!”
The two Stands touch, for an instant their hooves melding into each other, as two very different minds connect in a way that few ponies could ever experience. In the space of a wink, these two ponies, who had once only despised and looked down on the other, learn more about each other than they could in a full hour as their minds mesh on an intimate level. Then, as quickly as it began, the meld ends, the Stands separate, and both mares look at each other in a new light, as if they have only met each other for the first time.
“Trixie…..” Twilight stares at the mare before her. “That is…… some plan.”
Trixie boasts. “Of course it is! The Great and Powerful Trixie thought it up! However….. Trixie was also impressed with your concerns for her.”
The showmare blushes slightly as she tries to whisper the next words under her breath, ashamed to be heard making a heartfelt confession. “Trixie was greatly surprised to find your concerns for her were not ….. forced, I am surprised that…. I mean…..” Trixie fumbles with her words. “Trixie is surprised that your concerns are genuine.”
Twilight smiles warmly at the mare before her as a loud grating voice interrupts their moment. “Enough talk! Are you hoofing over the Stones to me or not? Because if you aren’t…… well, I can promise you that things will be getting a little hot around here!”
Twilight snickers as she levitates the safe over to the table with her telekinesis, placing it on the table directly in front of Trixie and herself. “Sorry about that, Dirty Trick, I’ll get you the Stones right now.” Twilight clears her throat “Password 123.”
The safe beeps. “Password accepted!”
The door flies open with a steely creaking and Trixie grasps the box inside housing the Strange Stones, just before hoofing it over to Twilight. Twilight picks up the box in her magic and nods once to Trixie, the blue mare nodding affirmatively back to her, and Twilight throws the box on the ground in front of the table.
“There. Here’s the box that the Strange Stones are kept in.” Both mares watch as the box vanishes into the ground, dragged by the Stand Dirty Trick. “Now it’s your turn, Dirty Trick; give Trixie the antidote.”
The mouse-like Stand raises its head from the ground as a diabolical grin crosses its muzzle. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” Dirty Trick bursts out laughing at the mare’s scorn. “Don’t worry, it’s not that I never planned to give you the antidote, it’s just that no antidote exists for the poison I injected into Trixie. HaHaHaHaHa, you fools!”
A blast of magic nearly engulfs the rat in front of Twilight Sparkle, only for the foul creature to slither underground again. “Fools! Now I have the Strange Stones! Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to trust strangers?”
The voice of the Stand surrounds the two mares on all sides, mocking them all the while. “You dumb Stand users with your fancy-shmancy powers think you are all invincible, don’t you? You think those of you with your flashy abilities makes you cooler than the rest of us? Well you’re not! I beat the two of you with my Stand power, that proves that my Stand, Dirty Trick, is the best!”
The ditch rat Stand reaches out from the ceiling with its head and strikes a single, match holding it above the two mares. “And now that I have everything that I need, there is no reason to keep you all alive. Given that you and your little marefriend are doomed to die anyways, be a good little filly and burn. To. Death!”
Both mares try to extend their auras to catch the match with their telekinesis, however both fail as all the gasoline in the library combusts in a fiery explosion around them. The two mares gasp in terror as the entire library is engulfed in unholy fire, the heat of the flames closing in around them while they struggle for breath. The flames grow, consuming over a hundred years of combined knowledge as the raging fire feeds off every book of history, nonfiction and smutty romance novel alike with heartless destruction. Twilight would doubtless be panicking to save such a collection of priceless knowledge if it were not for the fact that all her magic was going into keeping herself from going up in flames. Dirty Trick smiles gleefully as the two mares try vainly to keep the flames from expanding, while they slowly lose ground as the fire expands ever closer towards them. Finally, having seen enough to know that there is no escape for the two mares, the Stand nods and slithers through the library, leaving the two mares to their fates.
………………
A safe distance away, three large rats skitter on the ground completely unnoticed in the chaotic situation, as the ponies within earshot begin to panic at the copious amounts of smoke spewing out of the library. Somehow, despite the lavender mare’s propensity for strange explosions and fires, the townsponies know, perhaps instinctively, that the large fire beginning to rage out of control in the library is anything but routine. Quickly joining in in an effort to save the library from burning to ashes, a group of fire-ponies arrives on the scene, ready to save the two mares trapped inside. The fire brigade, a separate department of the weather patrol, are trained to combat fires by use of wind and rain, and drawing on their elite training begin to douse the flames with water-filled rainclouds. But even these brave stallions and mares are obviously having trouble with the raging inferno. Despite the aid of the nearby ponies, attacking the fire with mud and dirt to save Twilight Sparkle and Trixie, the blaze only climbs higher, threatening even the tallest leaves of the treehouse. Yet the fire seems only to expand at their efforts, while a nasty and buck-toothed pony snickers in glee at the blaze consuming the library.
The pony in question - if one could call such a gangly, dirty, yellow-grey coated creature a pony - sits off to the side in a nearby alleyway. His unremarkable brown eyes survey the damage the fire is inflicting on the library as his broken laughter goes unheard by the frantic ponies trying to put out the fire. His untidy brown mane, and cutie mark of three turnips, as well as his horrendous teeth were capable of conveying to a blind pony how stereotypically backwater he was. That, and his dirty cut-off shirt, rusty antiquated tool belt, and garish green baseball cap that could only be thought of as fashionable at a moonshining convention, only made it more difficult to ignore his blatant oafish nature. And if this dark figure lurking in the shadows wasn’t obviously evil enough, he was rubbing his hooves together while cackling like a cliché supervillain who had just stolen a pile of used toys from an orphanage.
“Hu-uck! Hu-u-uck! Huck!”
Well, maybe cackling like a hillbilly supervillain would be more appropriate, if such an oxymoron could exist. And speaking of morons…..
“Heh, what a bunch of dopes!” the pony obscured by the shadow of the alley says. “All it took was a little lie and they just hoofed over those Stones to me! And to think that I was worried when I heard they had Stands! Not to say that Ah was afraid of a bunch of fillies……. It’s just that Ah’ve never had to kill Stand users before.”
The sickly pony grins like a demon as three rats slip through the wall next to him, carrying a box on their shoulders. The pony grins with crooked teeth as he picks up the box, rising to his hind hooves as he raises it to the heavens. “But in the end it was me, Hayseed Turnip Truck, who got the Stones from them!
The dirty stallion snickers as he revels in his victory. “Huck huck! And the rest of the gang said I was ‘a no good rat’! Making fun of mah…. Ah mean, my country accent! Making me do all the hard jobs, even when I’m the best thief in the gang!” The stallion stops. “Well, second best….. but that filly doesn’t count! She can turn invisible, for crying out loud! How can I compete with that?!”
Shaking his head, the earth pony dismisses his anger and suspicions while laying the box on the ground. His Stand fades into the aether as he looks at the box before him, smiling at his imminent recognition. “Well, joke’s on you guys! Ah’ve got no country accent no more, after taking that discount speech therapy class and all! And even the boss will have to admit how fancy Ah am now when he sees that this ‘Rat’ came back with….”
The pony throws open the box. “……Nothing?” Hayseed gasps in dismay at the lack of contents in the box. Sure enough, the box contains nothing but a single folded sheet of paper.
Hayseed stares at the box for a minute or two before throwing it to the ground in a rage. “What is this? Is this ah trick?! That there’s just a piece of paper! Oh I knew that I shouldn’t have killed them so quickly!”
The pony growls as he stamps his hoof on the ground. “Well, that blaze wasn’t too big. If one of them may still be clinging to life, it’ll probably be that blue one. Once I’m done with her she’ll wish that she never lied to me! Huck! Ah’ll make her tell me where the Stones are, one way or another!” The pony kicks the box then lets out a yelp of pain as he clutches his injured hoof, rubbing it as the single piece of paper falls to the ground.
Hayseed, having finished nursing his hoof, opens his eyes and sees a small amount of writing on the paper, and the gears in his tiny head begin to turn. “Wait a second, yawl, that there’s something written on the paper……. It must be the location all the Stones are hidden at!” the rat-like pony grins in realization. “Hayseed, ya clever hunk you, they hid the location of the Red Stones on this here paper! And Ah thought that I had lost the Stones for a second, there.”
Hayseed grins for the second and last time that day, completely sure that he has finally won in his game of wits. In fact, the country hick is so enraptured in the single piece of paper that he is completely oblivious to the two looming shadows falling over him from behind. He waves behind him without even looking as he stands engrossed in the paper in his hooves. “Whoever yawl are get out of my light! Now let’s see, the paper says ‘look behind you’; what does it mean? Is it a message of some kind? Or maybe……. it’s one of those there secret codes or a……”
DOJYAAAAAA!!!
With a single straight punch from a star-spangled Stand the earth pony goes crashing into a trio of garbage cans at the end of the alley. He groggily props himself against the wall as he looks behind him, to see who would dare attack him.
“Or maybe…. just maybe, it’s a warning. After all, the Great and Powerful Trixie does not enjoy sucker-punching a pony, even one as distasteful as you.” The blue showmare, complete with magician’s hat and cape, stands cracking her hooves as she blocks off the yellow earth pony’s retreat.
Hayseed Turnip Truck’s eyes grow wide as a lavender unicorn walks out from behind the blue mare. “No fair, Trixie! You said that I got the first punch! That guy singed my library! If it wasn’t for the fact that I shelled out the alchemical ingredients for the complex flameproofing spell the day I moved in, all my books would have been ashes by now!”
Trixie smirks at the lavender mare as she savors her small victory. “First come, first served, Sparkle.”
Not wanting to stay around for a very savage beating, the earth pony turns tail to run, only to find his way out cut off by a large brick wall. Only now does the Stand user remember that he is literally on a dead-end street. If only he could use his Dirty Trick to slip him through walls, but his power doesn’t work on him, and besides, his Stand can’t possibly compare to the speed and strength of Trixie’s, let alone Twilight’s. Unwilling to accept the fact that he is trapped Hayseed paws at the walls, looking around for anything that would offer him escape from the two advancing mares.
Trixie continues to crack her hooves as she advances on the panicking pony. “Hey bookworm, what’s that analogy that applies to rats? Trixie forgot it.”
“You mean ‘trapped like a rat’?” Twilight smirks playfully. “Yeah, I can see how a brainless, stuck-up pony like you would forget such a simple quote”
“Well, Trixie just couldn’t help but think about how apt the quote is here.” Trixie cracks her neck. “What with a cowardly rat of a pony being trapped like one.”
“Well for once, Trixie, I would agree with you wholeheartedly.” Twilight illuminates her horn as she advances on Hayseed. “This is a pretty ironic fate for a pony who uses a rat-shaped Stand, especially when he looks so much like a rat in the first place.”
Hayseed Turnip Truck’s mind stalls as he tries to dismiss the horrible illusion in front of him. “B-b-b-but, you’re…. you’re both dead! How did you escape that inferno?! There was no way out!”
Trixie taps her horn. “Uh, we’re both unicorns, duh.”
Twilight rolls her eyes at Trixie’s simplistic explanation of the magical forces. “…….And being magically-adept unicorns, we’ve both mastered short range teleportation; all we had to do was teleport out once the library caught fire.” The incredibly upset librarian says. “You’re probably kicking yourself for not putting up teleport-daening runes; that is you’d probably be kicking yourself if we weren't about to start buckin your face in ourselves.”
Hayseed scoots farther back against the wall, his mind frantically trying to find a way out of his present situation. “But that’s impossible! Even if you could escape, how would you ever find me?”
“Fool!” Trixie scoffs as she rises to her back hooves. “There are no animals on earth that cannot be tracked. It matters not how fast an animal can run and hide, it will never be as smart as a pony like Trixie. Stand agents such as Trixie are adept at inspecting and studying landscape, the direction of prevailing winds, as well as the habits and tracks of our prey. It was a simple matter of applying Trixie’s Great and Powerful…..”
Trixie is cut off as Twilight smacks her upside the head. “Or the Great and Powerful Twilight could have just used a tracking spell on the box……..”
“……..That works too……” Trixie straightens her hat. “But do not mock Trixie! Had she not switched the box with the Stones in it for a fake using her Stand, you would have had to hand off the real Strange Stones. It was Trixie’s switch, not your tracking spell, that lead us to victory.”
If a pony had exceptional hearing, they might be able to hear as Hayseed Turnip Truck’s heart fell into his stomach, his pulse betraying the sudden intense fear that is coursing through his veins. “Oh! That’s right, I have the antidote to your poison, Trixie. Huck huck huck, see, I lied when I claimed there was no antidote to the poison you were injected with.”
The stallion reaches behind his back, pulling a small vial out from his ratty tool belt. “So all ya have to do is let me go and I’ll give it to you, no harm no foul. I’ll leave forever, you will never have to see me again Honest!”
Trixie turns, her face unreadable as her eyes lock onto the pony before him. “Oh that’s right, the poison that you tried to inject Trixie with, the one you have the antidote for.” Trixie smirks as she adjusts her hat. “Well, Trixie appreciates the offer but it is completely unnecessary. You see, you never poisoned me in the first place, so Trixie does not need an antidote.”
The vial falls from Turnip Truck’s grasp, shattering on the ground as his mouth gapes in complete bafflement. “Uhhhhhh…….. What?”
“It is easy, rat brain.” Trixie smirks. “Your Stand bit Trixie’s Stand, not Trixie herself, and a Stand cannot be poisoned. So Trixie did what she does best: she acted. Trixie pretended to be poisoned to lure you out of hiding, an easy task for a mare of such show-stopping talents as Trixie, no?”
Hayseed blinks. “What?”
The blue showmare fakes a swoon, dramatically continuing her long monologue. “It was all foals-play, to fake Trixie’s ‘sudden illness’ to lure you out, to make you think that she was weak. All the while I was watching, biding my time for the perfect moment to strike.”
“Oh by the way, Trixie,” Twilight interrupts, “remind me to pay you back for making me think you were dying and forcing me to carry you on my back when you were PERFECTLY FINE!”
Trixie smirks as she sticks her tongue out at the lavender mare. “Have you seen your flank, Twibright? You were in desperate need of exercise anyway. And now that we have this little hayseed exactly where we want him, the only question is…” Trixie cracks her hooves again as she turns back to the cowering stallion. “…how to inflict as much suffering as physically possible without killing him!”
“W-W-Whaaaat!?” Hayseed continues to press himself further against the wall, as if his cowardice alone would allow him to push himself through the bricks. “W-W-Wait a minute! There ain’t no reason to be hasty…..”
Thinking on his hooves the stallion reaches into his tool belt, pulling out a large bag of coins that he throws at the advancing mare’s hooves. “You like money? I was paid in advance for my services! It’s all yours! One thousand bits! Surely yawl can be mature and forget all of this…… Purty Please?”
Twilight manifests her Stand, its hooves poised to strike as she steps over the bits on the ground. “No amount of apologies or wealth can make up for your actions…..”
Trixie manifests her Stand. “….. After all, we never had any intention of forgiving you in the first place.”
“You fool, what you owe……” Twilight raises her hooves.
“……..Can’t be repaid with money.” Trixie finishes.
DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAN! DOJYAAAAAAA!!
ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! OOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRAAAAAAAAA!
Hayseed is only able to whimper vainly as two powerful Stands proceed to beat him within an inch of his life, each blow assaulting his body and mind like a battering ram against a pillow fort. The wall behind him cracks from the force of their combined blows as it finally collapses, sending the pathetic pony spiraling through solid stone, his broken body landing in a puddle of mud as the dust settles on Hayseed Turnip Truck’s game of wits.
………………..
Thirty minutes later, the two mares find themselves in the slightly-charred library once again, with an ‘honorary guest’ dressed in a nice comfy pair of shackles. After sending the fire ponies away, claiming that it was just another of her famous experiments gone wrong, the two ponies had set about repairing the damage that had been wrought to their residence. Thanks to Twilight’s enchantments not a book had been harmed, and no major damage had been done to the building; however, there were still traps to disarm and various cosmetic damages inflicted by Hayseed's malice to be addressed. Despite their newfound tolerance for each other, the two mares were still thoroughly bored by the mundane tasks, and not even pleasant conversation between the two could alleviate the repetitive nature of their tasks. So when their prisoner awoke from his pleasant slumber over a tank filled with (illusionary) sharks and the library was wracked by his girly screams, the two fillies gleefully left their mundane tasks for something more exciting, namely torturing a certain yellow pony.
“NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! OHSWEETCELESTIAGETTHEMOFFOFMEAHDON’TWANTTODIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! AH’LLTELLYOUANYTHINGYOUWANTTOKNOWJUSTLETMEOUTOFHERE!!!!!”
Twilight smiles at such a sudden success as she levitates Hayseed off of the rope hanging him from the ceiling. “See, now that wasn’t hard, was it?” Twilight pats the shivering wreck of a pony as she turns to face Trixie. “And you said that piranhas were better.”
“Very well, Trixie concedes that sharks are better for intimidation, but piranhas are far fiercer than sharks!” Trixie grabs the shivering wreck, pulling him to within an inch of her blazing eyes. “But Trixie is still going first.”
Twilight begins to pout. “But I was supposed to go first! The bet was how long he would last and I guessed ten seconds, while you guessed twelve, so I won, Trixie. Besides, I read up on interrogation techniques in ‘Torture and You’ just so I could…..”
“Silence, Sparkle! Trixie has real experience in interrogation and real questions to ask.” Trixie turns her head away from the lavender mare to look at the sickly yellow pony before her. “It is obvious that somepony hired this assassin, and Trixie intends to find out who, even if she has to do it……” The blue showmare presses the pony’s face to the glass tank, his eyes bugging out as the illusionary sharks smile menacingly at him. “……piece. By. Piece.”
Hayseed takes one look at the sharks, and one look at the pony who wants to throw him to said sharks, before making perhaps the smartest decision in his life. “Ah’ll tell ya anything! Anything!”
“Trixie appreciates your cooperation. Alright then, first question of the day….” Trixie pulls up a small, empty vial from Hayseed Turnip Truck’s personal effects, waving it in his face. “The poison that you put on your Stand…. the one you tried to use on me…. Trixie has determined that it is a poison for subduing ponies, not killing them. Why would you use this kind of poison if your intentions were to kill myself and Twibright?”
Twilight looks in shock at the vial that Trixie is holding in her magic. “What? Trixie, are you sure?”
“Yes, Trixie is positive.” Trixie turns around as she throws the vial to Twilight, who catches it effortlessly. “It’s not something a bookworm like you would know, but this is a fake death syrup, used by magicians for ages to slow vital signs to mimic death or survive in enclosed spaces where oxygen is sparse.”
Trixie grabs Hayseed by his throat, pressing his already-battered body against the glass wall. “So talk, why were you trying to subdue me? You attacked me first to try and make it so that you could capture me? So, why? Who put you up to attacking us? Who is responsible for your actions? TALK!”
Trixie’s anger burns as she continues to press the pony further into the wall with every question, her eyes filled with a silent fury that threatens to boil out of her control. However, in response to Trixie’s potent intimidation Hayseed begins to laugh his backward, nasal laugh, holding what little knowledge he has over the unicorn’s head like a guillotine’s blade. “Hu-uck! Hu-u-uck! Hu-u-uck! You really don’t know, do you, Trixie Lulamoon. It doesn’t matter if yawl beat me, there’s no way yer gonna survive anyways! Do ya think that I’m the only one after yer life!? Wroooong!”
Trixie pulls the pony off the glass wall, throwing him harshly to the floor. “Explain to Trixie! Who is after her life!? Is it part of Trixie’s work as a Stand agent? Who are you working with? ANSWER!”
Hayseed continues to chuckle through Trixie’s accusations like a madpony. “Ya may be tough an all, but even I’m not that stupid. Ah know what happens to those that betray the boss’ secrets! But if you really wanted to know all the details, just ask that bandaged pony!”
Trixie flinches at the mention of the bandaged pony, her face turning white as a sheet. Hayseed, seeing the fear in her eyes, rants on. “The reason I was after your life wasn’t just because yawl had the Stones! It was because this pony promised two thousand bits fer your capture! There’s a bounty on your head! Two thousand bits alive, Trixie Lulamoon!”
In an instant the blue mare’s Stand lashes out, snapping Hayseed Turnip Truck’s leg like a matchstick. Obviously not expecting this level of violence from the showmare, Hayseed screams as Trixie presses her own hoof into his shattered leg, accentuating his screams with labored breathing. “TELL. ME. WHERE. HE. IS.” Trixie yells vehemently.
Hayseed continues to bawl as he tries to crawl away from the crazy mare with his arms shackled and only one good leg. “A-A-A-A D-D-D-Don’t k-k-k-know! A-a-a-and even I-I-if I did, Ah’d never tell you! No pony betrays Melodia or the boss and gets away with it! He’ll skin me alive! ”
Trixie extends her hoof to crush his other leg, her patience running shorter by the second. “You’re lying! You know where the bandaged pony is! You’re hiding him from Trixie!” The mare swings down with her Stand’s full strength, the blow snapping against Turnip’s chest with a resounding thud as her Stand prepares to strike again. “And if you won’t talk, then Trixie will just have to beat the truth out of you!”
Trixie swings her hoof once again to strike but finds her blow stopped by the lavender mare’s own Stand. “Trixie, stop!” Twilight shouts as the two Stands make contact; Twilight and Trixie’s minds flowing together for a single second and Trixie becomes aware of the extent of her actions. The silver maned mare shudders as she looks at the writhing pony on the floor sobbing his eyes out, realizing how close she was to ending his pitiful life in a fit of rage. And what frightens Trixie more than her sudden loss of composure is the fact that somepony watched her in her darkest moment. The mare before her, Twilight Sparkle, watched her indulgence of violence, her sudden display of brutality, with a wordless expression that conveys her newly acquired fear of the showmare.
Suppressing her emotions once more, Trixie withdraws her Stand and turns her back on the two ponies in the basement. “Turn him over to the local police, and get him out of Trixie’s sight. Trixie’s done with this hayseed. ”
Twilight watches dumbstruck as the showmare climbs the steps of the basement. “Trixie, where are you going? We need to talk about this!”
Trixie stops at the door to the library proper as she turns her head towards the lavender mare, her face filled with sorrow and regret. “Yes, Twilight, but Trixie has finished listening.” Twilight’s heart sinks as she hears the same line again; this time she can’t help but feel the pain in Trixie’s voice. “Now, if you will excuse me, Trixie will be taking long walk to cool off and will not be disturbed.”
Trixie slams the door behind her with such force that the door bounces off the basement’s lock chain, leaving a wide open door as the only evidence of Trixie’s sudden departure. This single opening, as if by coincidence, creaks open just enough so that a single streak of light illuminates the lavender unicorn below.
Twilight had thought that perhaps she and Trixie had become a little closer, that the cocky showmare had opened herself up just a little more through their unexpected life-or-death struggle. Now, as she looks at the empty doorway at the top of the stairs, Twilight can only bring her hooves together in a futile prayer for the showmare’s soul. For, in looking into the blue mare’s mind, Twilight had seen a depth of sorrow, despair and overwhelming hatred that would have crushed a lesser pony like dust. She had seen her loneliness in the orphanage she grew up in, her focused rage towards everything, and her distrust of everypony she had met in her short life. But more than that, the last time they touched Twilight had actually felt a part of Trixie that she normally had kept buried deep within her psyche, her shame. Twilight had felt Trixie’s festering hatred of herself for letting her parents die, her inability to pass the magical exam that Twilight had passed so easily, and her failure to bring down the bandaged pony that was still as free as a bird. Her self-hatred and loathing had shocked the lavender mare to the point of tears, as the blue mare had left without a single word to drown in her own boiling rage that threatened to consume her.
Twilight had thought that Trixie was so easy to figure out, that she put on a big act for attention, and to be adored. However, it ran deeper than that. Trixie didn’t become a braggart who brushed her ego at every opportunity because she wanted attention, she just couldn’t stand hating herself any more than she already did. More than her longing for her parents, her longing for justice, Trixie wanted to be respected, to be a pony that changed the world, not a puppet pulled by the threads of fate. Trixie wanted to have pride in herself because deep down she believed she wasn’t a pony worth being, and she hated it more than she ever could that bandaged Stand.
Twilight had thought that living together would have allowed her to polish up Trixie’s social faults, that they had become real friends, and not just comrades or friends of convenience.
Now Twilight could only look out at the empty door, praying to any higher power that would hear that she would be able to reach Trixie before it was too late.
Twilight had thought that she and Trixie had become closer…….
Now, Twilight couldn’t help but think of how far away the blue mare was………