//------------------------------// // Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Eight: Balefire // Story: Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Heart of Stone Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Eight: Balefire Written by TheCrimsonDM Inside the ship, Trixie laid down on one of the beds, staring quietly at the ceiling. Valiant sat on the end of the bed. Maud sat down next to them. She may not usually show much emotion, but after Valiant’s cutie mark appeared, Maud didn’t try to hide that beautiful smile of hers. The filly on the other hoof had taken up the new hobby of poking and prodding her flanks, in some sort of attempt to figure out exactly what to ‘do’ with her cutie mark. Usually when a pony gets a mark, they feel as though they know what their purpose in life is. Sometimes they completely misunderstand it, or in Trixie’s case, she had done a few things that could have all led to her mark. Not exactly sure which one did it. On rare occasion, a pony's cutie mark was either so unique that it deserved a study class. Or the circumstances were utterly strange, leaving the pony trying to figure out what they were meant to do. Valiant had the later situation. Honestly Trixie couldn’t blame her for it either. The filly just resurrected the dead with some kind of, warm, happy, light and the manipulation of a metric buttload of unicorn magic. How could anypony figure this out? Let alone a filly, an intelligent, mature filly, but a filly none the less. Even Luna was impressed. Trixie remembered the princess mentioning something about Valiant maybe being qualified for apprenticeship at Celestia’s school, even if she wasn’t a unicorn. This whole event had Trixie boggled and confused. They weren’t alone in this room. After everything had calmed down, Twilight had been moved onto a bed. The only reason Luna wasn’t by her side was so that she could keep an eye out on the situation above deck. The newly revived Candle Light was resting lightly on another one of the beds, she might have been healed, but she was left weakened. Moondancer stayed by her side, only breaking away to check up on Twilight every ten minutes or so. “Do you like it?” Trixie asked. It was a dumb question but she wanted to hear Valiant speak again. Valiant gave her an odd look, sort of nodded, and then returned to fiddling with her cutie mark. A serious expression plastered on her face. “I remember when you got your mark,” Maud said. “You didn’t even know it was there. Then you were excited, but you were also very dirty.” Trixie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well… it was a fun day. What about you?” “I got my mark, it was a rock, I went back to work,” Maud said. “Really, that’s all?” Trixie asked. “My parents made a big deal out of it, I didn’t understand… Now I do,” Maud said, her smile grew. “Well good, at least we’re agreed. Once we get back home, it’s party time for sure,” Trixie said. Maud looked over at Trixie. “How?” “I don’t know, we’ll ask your sister once she turns up again. She’s been helping Rainbow Dash with scouting or something,” Trixie said. “But I think streamers, cake, and presents are in order.” “No I mean, how do we have a cutie mark party for a six… seven year old,” Maud asked. Trixie gave her a flat look, opened her mouth and then shut it. She’s right! Cutescenera’s are usual for ponies that are at least ten, eleven years old. I’ve never heard of a pony younger than eight getting a cutie mark. “Maybe we have more balloons?” Maud said. Valiant Heart looked up at them, she had stopped wearing the eye patch. Which was just as well, because even if her damaged eye was milky again, and a little disconcerting, she could still see out of it. In fact, Trixie was assuming that perhaps the milky eye could see things that normal pony eyes couldn’t. This only cemented the fact that Valiant Heart was some kind of weirdo, but so was Trixie, and Maud. Valiant fit right in. Valiant picked up her whiteboard and wrote only a single word for them. “Books?” Trixie shrugged. “Well at least we know what to get her.” “Books,” Maud replied firmly. “Books,” Trixie agreed. The door to the cabin opened and Rainbow Dash, followed by Pinkie Pie walked through. For a brief moment, Pinkie Pie hesitated when she saw Twilight, still sleeping with the blanket tucked in around her. It didn’t last long, and she quickly followed Rainbow Dash over to Trixie’s bed. “Hey,” Rainbow Dash said. “Sup squirt?” Valiant took the time to look away from her cutie mark, stick her tongue out at Rainbow Dash, and then promptly went back to her very important cutie mark business. Valiant was such a kind filly. “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie,” Trixie said. “How is everything going?” “Wind Rider found the evacuees. Most of them are already at the train station, and heading toward Ponyville. Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Spike are part of that. Oh and Princess Celestia, she’s there too. She’s awake now, though she wasn’t talking to anypony, she did smile a lot. I guess that’s a good thing,” Rainbow Dash said. “Finally Spitfire showed up and is talking to our ship’s captain.” “What’s our next move?” Trixie asked. “We’re going to take off here in a few. The first priority is to regroup with Princess Celestia, and then head to Ponyville’s castle,” Rainbow Dash glanced back at Twilight. “I uh… I don’t think Celestia knows just how bad of shape Twilight’s in.” A lingering sense of guilt panged Trixie. “She’s not mad is she?” “Mad at what?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Wait, does this have anything to do with the message she gave to Wind Rider?” “What message?” “She wanted him to let you know that there will be a serious discussion about something you did later,” Rainbow Dash said. “What’s that all about?” A somewhat nervous chuckle escaped Trixie’s lips. Good thing Trixie was a stage magician, and practiced storyteller, because right now she didn’t want Rainbow Dash catching onto what actually happened. “I mighta, sorta, kinda, maybe ate the last piece of cake.” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Cake? She… eh, that actually makes a lot of sense. She nearly ripped my head off once because I stole the last donut.” That was a worrisome thought. “Anyway, are you able to walk around yet?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You know, without somepony’s life needing to be in danger?” “Sure, just one question. Where is Applejack?” Trixie asked. “She’s in the captain’s private quarters, Soarin came back with Wind Rider and Spitfire. The two of them have been obsessed with the baby,” Rainbow Dash said. She smiled. “Color Splash…” “How’s it feel to have a baby named after your heroic rescue?” Trixie asked. Rainbow Dash looked away, and made a small choking sound in the back of her throat. “It’s cool, or whatever.” She was a sobbing mess after the baby was born, and now she’s trying to play it cool. Rainbow Dash, you sweet, silly thing, you. It hurt a little but it was something she’d gotten used to. Without much effort she got out of bed and stood without fear of falling. “I think I can move about now.” “Good because Luna has requested your presence on deck. I think she wants another princess’s head for a little bit, and well you’re the only one still capable of helping,” Rainbow Dash said. “Oh so now my mind is validated,” Trixie said while remembering the things Twilight had said to her not but a few hours ago. “Twilight was out of line when she said those things,” Rainbow Dash said. “If I had been there I would have set her straight.” “Well…” Trixie looked again at Twilight, half her face was covered in bandages. They were already stained grotesquely. “I’ll forgive her.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “She’ll need someone to care for her for awhile. I’ve seen injuries like that before. We’ll have to get her some servants and a stay at home doctor.” Rainbow Dash nodded toward the door, and Trixie followed. Maud wasted no time in picking up Valiant, putting the filly on her back and following them. Pinkie Pie came along as well. Once they were up on deck again, Trixie saw the worried ponies. Behind the wheel stood Lightning Dust and Spitfire having a hushed conversation. Just behind them stood Luna and Fluttershy. It was really bothering her that Fluttershy was still a batpony. Whoever did this transmutation spell had to have been powerful, because not only was this a full species transformation, it looked more or less permanent. A powerful transmutationist had to have done it. “Oh Tartarus,” Trixie cursed. Twilight did this too her, and now that our resident specialist is out of combat, she can’t reverse the darn spell… “Oh my,” Fluttershy said, her voice as soft and kind as usual if not quite a bit quieter. “Are you alright?” Trixie shook her head. “No, but I’ll live. How about you?” “Oh me, I’m just fine. I’m not hurt at all, but I am a little… hungry,” Fluttershy said, for a second her eyes flashed red. That spooked Trixie right out, but she’d seen the eyes before. Blue it’s cool, red it’s dead. “So about the bat pony thing?” “Twilight helped… reactivate the curse,” Fluttershy said. “I’m in control now, but… I wasn’t supposed to be, you know… stuck like this. I uh… I hope I’m better in the morning.” Trixie raised an eyebrow. “How would you be better in the morning?” “I’m um… please don’t tell anypony,” She said in a quiet voice, nearly a whisper. “I’m a werebat.” Trixie stared at her for a few long, hard seconds. If she had said this before Trixie got to know her, she would have thought Fluttershy crazy. Now that she knew her, and could put several pieces together. This made a whole lot more sense. The crazy red eyed blackout murder mode, the fang, and several other small oddities all went together to make Trixie fully believe that Fluttershy was being one hundred percent honest with her. “Oh,” Trixie said. “That makes sense.” Fluttershy blinked at Trixie’s response. “Princess Trixie, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “I have business to wrap up here.” “Okay,” Trixie said. “What do we need to discuss?” “First of all, Princess Trixie, in light of what happened this evening and how you pushed yourself to save Princess Twilight and serve the kingdom, I offer you my protection and support for when my sister heals enough to speak to you about the situation involving the alicorn empire,” Luna said. She gave a weak smile to Trixie. “I know you have little reason to trust me, but please believe me when I say that you saved something very important and I will make sure you are repaid in full.” Luna looked over at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, we will fix your condition at our soonest opportunity.” Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “But I must make it clear to you all that Frailty, the windigo general was not our worst problem by far. Even with her down, we still have a high windigo count in Canterlot. Though after Frailty’s death the ursa seems to have snapped and jumped off of the mountain. The windigo are in disarray, they actually look lost or confused, and it is my hope that this will lead to us gaining a swift victory in retaking our home.” Luna gave a wink to Trixie. “We have lucked out, only once have I heard of a pony taking down an ursa major, and sadly that stallion has been gone for a very long time. Even then he had help from my sister.” “My father, yes, Celestia and him were good friends,” Trixie said. “Friends! Ha, I have seen her dreams of him, and I’ve heard her tales,” Luna said. Trixie frowned. “What… what are you talking about?” Luna opened her mouth to answer and Pinkie Pie quickly jumped up and down. “No time for that! We can talk about political sleaze later.” Luna bit her tongue. “The Pink One has a point. There is actually one more thing. A far greater threat to Equestria than we could have ever imagined. The stallion who was riding the ursa into the city, the mastermind of this entire scheme. I was close enough to see his face, and I recognized him. It was none other than-“ “Starswirl the Bearded,” Twilight called out from the cabin’s open door. Everypony turned to face her. With half of her body covered in grotesque bandages, including the stump of her right wing she walked with a painful looking limp. “Starswirl was the one who did this.” Luna nodded, and watched her closely. “Yes, I was just about to get to that.” Twilight stopped a few feet away, her one good eye was wide and terrified. “Do you know how powerful he is in legend? Or even worse, how powerful he must have become since he was last seen? It’s a one thousand year old unicorn wizard. It is the Starswirl. Only somepony as powerful as him could have taken control of the ice dragon Artica, turned an earth pony into a walking monster, and bent the windigo tribes to his will.” Twilight’s pupil shrunk. “We’re all going to die.” “Twilight, that is not-“ Luna started. Twilight’s eye rolled into the back of her skull. Before she could fall over Luna had grabbed the princess in her magic aura. Not a second after that, Moondancer trotted out saw what looked Twilight standing and trotted over with a grave expression. “T-T-Twilight, you mustn’t move around. I-I know you d-didn’t mean to push me. B-but you still need to lay down, p-please,” Moondancer begged. There was a small cut on her leg. “Are you okay?” Trixie asked. “I-I’m fine. T-Twilight just knocked me down by mistake,” Moondancer said. The mare walked around Twilight saw the closed eye and frowned. “Oh, she’s unconscious. That’s a blessing. She must be in terrible pain right now.” A stallion’s voice from above them called out. “Oh, I wouldn’t doubt it. Balefire is a very painful element to be hit by, those that survive claim to feel the fire for years afterwards.” Everypony looked up. A gray unicorn stallion hovered effortlessly above them, his long white beard fell over his cloak, and long white mane fell to either side of his face. His expression seemed to be stuck in a permanent scowl. “Starswirl!” Luna cried. He looked at her, and his expression softened somewhat. “Yes my dear little Lunris, tis I. Thou hast escaped my mount with unpredictable skill.” “You… you slaughtered them,” Luna said, her voice falling into disbelief. “Why?” “Twas a necessary evil. Now that the alicorn empire has been freed, I must ask that you all die,” He said. “What?” Luna cried. “Why? You have taken our home, you have killed our citizens, and you have hurt Twilight Sparkle! Why would you do all of this?” He held no pity in his voice. “The source of magic rests in the empire, alicorn magic has returned to the world, blossomed and spread forth among the lesser races because of their return. Sadly, I can’t let Celestia know of my involvement here if I am to aid her in reuniting the alicorn empire with Equestria’s Empire.” “You would dare take a place by her side, even after all this destruction?” Luna asked, venom dripped from her voice. “I would,” he said as his horn lit up with a dark gray light. Balefire, green and black flew from the tip of his horn and cut a swath down toward the ship. Luna’s horn lit up with its pale moonlit radiance and a shield grew over the ship. The fire crashed into the shield. Cracks spread throughout the shield before Trixie’s eyes. Luna’s shield could not compare to the baleful magic. Trixie may not have had her magic to fight back with, but she had one thing she could use. She lashed out mentally and looked for Starswirl’s mind. The old weathered mind that sat up above her was there, and she grabbed hold of it. There was a stonewall, miles high surrounding his thoughts and reinforced by steel bars of determination. The deep cracks in the shield spread and heat poured in. Sweat covered Trixie’s brow as she thought about her family. Maud, and Valiant were relying upon her to stop this monster from slaughtering them all. All Luna could do was raise a doomed shield against the spell, but Trixie could do so much more. Gathering up her emotions, her love, and her friendships like a battering ram, Trixie collided into that mental wall. She saw it tumble before her and suddenly she was no longer on the deck of the ship. Now she stood in an old ancient library. Blue tinted lights hung from the ceiling illuminating everything. Books were stacked like walls all around her and a venerable maze existed. Trixie walked through the maze. It didn’t take long before she saw him. A young stallion with freshly grown white stubble over his face, and short cut white hair sitting at a desk. He had a book open before him, and surrounding him were notes, books, crumpled pieces of paper and trash. He looked back at her and the bells from his hat jingled with the movement. “You?” he asked. “Yeah,” Trixie said. “It’s me.” “How are you in here? This is my private sanctuary, my mental home. Nopony should be in here.” “You’re going to kill us, and this is the only thing I can do to stop you. My family are not going to die because of some thousand year old bigot.” He laughed. “Oh, I see now. Sol always did try and warn me that by not making friends I was never going to be as powerful as I could be. I didn’t believe her you know, friendship does not equal magic. Then I saw the Elements of Harmony return to our world and realized that perhaps she was right.” Trixie shrugged. “Love does strange things to a pony.” “Indeed.” “May I ask why you are so dead set on the alicorns returning?” He smiled, and suddenly grew twenty years older. “Power. They have so much power, magic, and technology. All of it has been lost to our civilization. With it though, the windigo would never have had a chance of threatening Equestria’s safety. If we could only harness their power, their order, and their perfection, than we could stop this world from ever being threatened by the Eater.” “The what?” He aged another forty years. “The Eater, a creature so old and ancient that time itself could not defeat him. Trust me, we tried it. It goes from world to world, devouring whatever life exists, along with the world’s magic. Twilight Sparkle discovered a world that was left by the Eater once; it was desolate, gray, and empty. She didn’t realize the danger she had discovered, but then again, she has only visited a few worlds whereas I have visited thousands.” Trixie shook her head. “Then why not help us? We could have worked together.” “Celestia would never have freed the alicorns of her own volition. Trust me, she is as old as I and twice as stubborn.” “I still have to stop you,” Trixie said. “You have to try.” His horn lit up and he charged forward. Trixie charged as well and the second they met the world exploded into white lightning. She felt his ancient mind wrap around her own, forcing her down and ripping pieces away violently. She didn’t have to defeat him, merely stop him for a  few seconds, make him stop using that magic long enough to get a good attack in. There was nothing she could do; his mind was too old, too powerful for her. Years of knowledge and experience outweighed her own by an impossible amount. Dreamweaver’s voice played softly in the back of her mind, “You are my guardian, you have power you do not yet know.” She remembered once something that Maud had told her. Something had had given her the strength to push through and to never give up. Maud had told her how she inspired hope, hope to go after your dreams, hope that anypony could change for the better, and hope that things could work out no matter how dark they looked. Trixie latched onto that and felt a new found strength. Her family gave her hope for a better tomorrow. Her friends gave her the hope of reclaiming a life once long lost. Her lover gave her hope that she could have a real life again. Just like that, Trixie saw an amber colored orb of light floating in front of her. It was warm, full of love and hope, and defiant beyond measure. She grabbed it with hoof and that energy transferred into her body, her horn, and her mind. Trixie stood up, back on deck. The shield was nothing but a cracked wall with spurts of green and black flames jetting through. She looked up and saw through the fire the vague outline of Starswirl. Energy flowed through her, pure, bright, and full of life. She focused on her hopes and dreams and channeled them into her horn. A foreign amber color spread forth from her horn mixed in with her purple aura. Trixie reached out mentally and grappled once more with Starswirl’s mind. He was caught off guard as she restricted him and held him still. His magic cut off abruptly and just in time too as Luna’s shield died. The princess collapsed next to the fallen Twilight. Starswirl’s face contorted with rage and Trixie’s mind was instantly shoved back. With a short gallop Trixie reached the edge of the ship’s railing. “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, everypony strike him down!” Just as she gave the word his horn began to light up again. Not this time. Trixie lashed out with the strange and powerful magic and a beam of amber and purple swirling magic flew from her horn. He launched another assault of balefire magic and it collided with Trixie’s own. For a brief second her magic blast held against the flow, but like a fish trying to swim up current during a flash flood her magic was drowned out and shoved back. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had already taken off. Trixie’s legs buckled and she gave a mighty cry as she pushed as hard as she could against that overwhelming current. The balefire pushed down, and neared the ship, but Trixie fought back. She managed to halt its advance only a few feet away from her horn. The flames licked out and burned at the metal it touched, melting through it like wax. If that fire touched her, she wouldn’t be as lucky as Twilight. It was then that Rainbow Dash reached Starswirl, sword drawn she cut at him. His magic cut off as he jumped back and missed the attack barely. Trixie fell forward and nearly passed out as her own magic cut off. Fluttershy moved in behind Starswirl and with a powerful kick sent him flying toward Rainbow’s blade. The stallion spun mid air and his body burst into balefire! Rainbow Dash managed to dodge it just him just in time as he went sailing by and into the tree line. The trees he brushed by caught flame and for a moment he stopped just long enough to look at them. His body was covered in the flames, every single hair on his body had become green and black fire. “That was a valiant effort, but I have a thousand years of practice. Thou won’t win so easily!” he cried as the flames covering his body lashed out in a half dozen tendrils. The fiery limbs lashed out like whips toward the two flyers. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy dodged to the best of their ability but it was a losing proposition. That’s when Trixie saw Pinkie Pie jump up. A cannon rested in her hooves; pink and colorful as could be. She lit the fuse and Trixie watched as a mass of cake batter flew out toward Starswirl. The batter cooked, fluffed up, and burnt hard as a rock before even touching the stallion. So it ended up pelting against him like rocks. The tendrils stopped just as he covered his face with his hooves in an attempt to stop the pelting of burnt cake. With his body covered in balefire, there was nopony that could touch him. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be stopped. Trixie ran to the back of the ship and channeled her new found magical strength into her horn once again. Her legs burned and the magic was quickly fading from her, but she saw an opportunity that she had to take. Just as the cake pelting ceased, Trixie lashed out with another beam of amber, purple swirly energy. The beam shot out toward his horn, and hit him hard. He cried out in pain as the balefire covering him vanished leaving him standing there covered in soot. He fell against the tree, standing on the tree limb. The magic left Trixie and her legs shook. She almost collapsed but stood her ground just long enough to see the sparks flying from Starswirl’s horn. She wasn’t sure how badly she managed to damage the horn, but at least it looked like the balefire was gone. He snarled at her. With far more agility than a stallion his age should rightly have, he leapt from the tree branch. Rainbow Dash and him collided midair, and he head-butted her! Together they slammed into the ship. Two powerful legs lashed out and kicked Rainbow hard in the chest. She went rolling a few feet back and stayed down. Fluttershy let out a cry of enraged fury and charged. She was faster than even Rainbow Dash had been, and Trixie couldn’t keep up with her movements. Starswirl’s horn lit up with gray energy and despite the sparks flying from it, he managed to cover himself in electricity. Fluttershy either didn’t see it in her enraged state, or she didn’t care as she collided with him. One kick to his face and he fell onto his back spitting blood, but she screamed in agony as the electricity transferred to her. For several long seconds she stood still screaming, electricity flying off of her until finally it stop. She let out one tiny breath and smoke flew from her mouth. She fell like a brick. Starswirl stood up, wiped his mouth free of the scarlet spit and looked back at Trixie. “Even without balefire I can, and will kill thy. Did thou really think I could only fight with dark magic?” Trixie lowered her head and charged. Starswirl took a combat stance that looked foreign. Just as she approached, he dodged to the side, grabbed her around the neck and using her own momentum flipped her over and onto her back. She hit the deck hard and nearly screamed as pain soared through her shoulders. She watched as both Lightning Dust and Spitfire tried to take him out in a synchronized attack, only to be failed by a mixture of martial arts and low level electricity magic. When that was done he looked back at Trixie and spat blood to the side. He walked over with careful steps, stood above for a brief moment before jumping on top of her and beating her face in with his hooves. It was nowhere near as bad as when Fluttershy had done it, and she had enough sense left to block most of her face with her hooves. There was no way out of this though, she even tried to pour more magic into her horn, but found none to be had. Each blow that struck her head brought a wave of fresh pain that threatened to drown her world in black. From down the stairs on the lower deck she saw Maud galloping up towards her. Starswirl glanced back and paused just long enough to focus on Maud. She knew in that instant that despite Maud’s inequine speed and power she wouldn’t land a hit against Starswirl. He was trained, like Fluttershy if not far above her. Maud was not trained at all. So when death looms about, the foolish become the daring, and stupid plans begin to look good. Trixie wrapped her legs around Starswirl’s neck dragged his head down. She butted heads with one of the most brilliant minds in Equestria! He screamed as his nose crunched beneath her forehead. Trixie reeled back in agony, but it bought her just enough of a distraction. Maud reached behind Starswirl and with one powerful hit of her forelegs sent the stallion down into the deck of the ship. The ship shook violently with the force! Starswirl didn’t even try to get up from that one; he simply lay there covered in blood with his eyes rolled into the back of his skull. Maud walked up and stepped on his horn. Trixie screamed out for her to stop, and Maud pressed down. There was sickening crack, but she stopped just short of breaking his horn off. From what Trixie could see, Starswirl would not be using any form of magic again for a long while. When Maud began working on his legs, breaking each one in a slow sickening crunch, everypony knew the battle was over. Maud spun around walked away from Starswirl and stood next to Trixie. “You’re safe,” Maud said. A small smile grew over her lips. “I saved you.” Trixie ignored the grim mess that was Starswirl and smiled up at Maud. “I love you too.”