Marble Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Six: Library Hate

The warm body pressed against Trixie’s was like a heavenly abyss that she wanted no escape from. Deeper she sunk into the warm fur, the sweet smell of freshly upturned soil and morning dew filled her nostrils as she inhaled. Something caressed her back, gentle strokes and tender movements. For a brief moment she was sure that Guile was rubbing up against her seeking some much needed affection.

She sat up. Guile’s gone!

Marble lay next to her on the couch, fast asleep, and one of her legs were draped over Trixie’s lap. The sun had yet to fully rise, but the purple sky told her that it wasn’t too far off now. For a few minutes she cuddled up next to the sweetest mare in all of Equestria. Finally she had to wake up her mare. If she didn’t then they would risk being caught.

Trixie started a pot of coffee on the stovetop, and set some bread out on the table. Afterwards she gently rocked Marble’s shoulder back and forth. “Marble, it’s time to wake up.”

Slowly one purple eye opened and stared up at her, for a moment all the quiet mare did was smile. Trixie was stunned into silence by the absolute beauty of the sleeping mare. Never before had she wanted Marble to be hers than in that moment. One day, Trixie swore to herself, one day she will be mine, and I hers.

“Mmm,” Marble hummed in a pleased tone. Her eye grew wide as she sat straight up and looked around.

“It’s okay… I think. It’s still early out and I know that your sister sleeps in late. You can get some coffee and breakfast in you and then leave without being caught,” Trixie said.

A grumbling sound from Marble’s belly. It wasn’t long before they shared a quick breakfast at the table and then drank some coffee. While they did Trixie read a book, not just any book, but one that had many details about many different cursed or evil artifacts.

She stopped when she saw a picture of the black stave in question. “The Stave of Baast,” Trixie read aloud. “Once upon a time there was a group of cats with amazing power, together they defeated many a foe and saved their kingdom over and over again. Eventually they came to believe that the rulers were incompetent, and the leader of the group, and lover to Discord decided to take matters into her own paws. Many evils were wrought after that. Her mentor, the Sun Cat was forced to defeat her and forever seal Baast away into an orb. This orb was then set upon a stave and brought to a far away land where it was left in the hopes that no cat would ever find it.

“Legend holds that one day a descendent of Baast will come upon the stave and free her from her prison.” When Trixie finished reading she had only questions left. Questions that needed to be answered, but of course she could trust that Twilight would help her with that.

“Mmm,” Marble said, she swallowed the last bite of her toast.

“I don’t know, but I really hope that Twilight can stop Baast. I want my friend back,” Trixie let out a sigh, and forcefully picked her spirit back up off the floor. “I will do her best to help Twilight.”

Marble nodded. “Mmhmm!”

“I’m glad to have your support, now you best get going before anypony you know wakes up,” Trixie said.

Marble quickly grabbed her saddlebags and trotted toward the door. She opened it but stopped. Trixie smiled at her, “I’ll see you later, tonight at midnight perhaps? This time your place?”

Marble smiled. “Mmhmm.”

Just like that Marble was gone, the door shut, and Trixie was left all alone in that tiny house. There were many things she could have done. She could have fallen into the couch and sobbed, Celestia knows she wanted too. She could have gone back to sleep, on a proper bed this time. Or she could have gone outside and stalked Marble, making sure she got home safely. None of those things would help her get her friend back, so instead she picked up her list of contacts and began digging through them to find the help she knew she would soon need. It didn’t take long, her list was rather short.

There was after all, only one pony she knew that had all the answers to all the magical secrets. “Looks like I’m paying a visit to my great and powerful friend.”

The sun was just barely reaching over the horizon, its orange light created an ocean of purple and pink colors in the sky. Marble marveled at the beauty but not for long. Nearly galloping into town had sped up the process, but she quickly came to a complete stop once she saw a group of ponies standing around and talking. It was supposed to be too early for large groups of ponies to be outside.

There was a wrecked cart, one of the wheels had come off now lay in the dirt. The cart had left tracks in the dirt leading up to a bunch of splintered, broken wooden planks alongside the remainder of some kind of stall. The two groups of ponies were arguing.

Marble’s heart was galloping in her chest as she quickly made a b-line for the nearest building and hid behind it. She listened in to find out what was going on and for any clues as to how to best avoid this situation.

“Your darn cart wrecked my lemonade stand!” A mare protested.

“It’s not our fault, the wheel broke off as we were going by. We need to get these supplies to the Doctor’s immediately,” A stallion retorted.

“Oh no you don’t. You aren’t leaving here until you fix this mess!” The mare was understandably upset.

Marble sunk down to the ground, she waited several minutes as the fight continued on. There didn’t seem to be any way that this argument was ever going to end. Because she was too fearful of being seen, alone in public and possibly talked too or even worse, touched, she just hid like the coward she knew she was. If only she could be brave like Trixie, if only she had that kind of confidence…

That’s it!

Marble dug through her saddlebags until she found the present gifted to her by Carmine Savant; the Confidence Marbles. Carefully she pulled out one of the three marbles and held it gently in her hoof. She loved marbles, and had amassed quite the collection of them back at home. There was no telling what would happen when she used this, but if she was lucky she would allow her to go home without incident.

Marble raised her hoof high above her head and paused. She had no idea if this would even work, these might just be normal marbles, after all Carmine was a vagabond, how would she get her hooves on magical anything? Marble’s grip tightened around the marble. Even if it didn’t work she had to try.

She threw it to the ground. She half expected the marble to bounce up and roll away from her. Instead it exploded into a small cloud of dark smoke and vanished from sight. For a brief moment she sat there, wondering if it had worked at all, she didn’t feel any different.

When she looked back at the two groups of ponies arguing something had changed. She was no longer scared of them, instead she saw them arguing and was a little miffed that they were both wasting their time. Marble picked herself up off the ground trotted around the corner and walked right up to the two groups.

They didn’t even bother to look at her as she stood there glaring at them. When they continued their petty argument she stomped her hooves and whistled, loud. Both groups looked at her and for a moment it would seem like they were about to turn their anger on her. She decided that they should be taught better than that.

Marble pointed a hoof at the cart, and the spilled supplies and then pointed at the ruined lemonade stand. Both groups simply eyed her, they looked a little lost. Marble decided to help them. She pulled out her notebook wrote a few words down and shoved it at the stallion. He read the note and glared down at Marble.

“I am not-“ he said.

No more words came out of his mouth as Marble got behind him, lifted her rear legs and kicked him squarely in the butt. He stumbled forward. After a few awkward steps he stopped, realizing that he was now only a hair's breadth away from the mare he had been arguing with. He gulped as the mare stared up at him.

“Uh… right,” He shook his head as if to clear something off the top of his head. “Look, I’m sorry about the lemonade stand, I can’t stay and fix it now, but how about I come back after my delivery is finished and help you?”

The mare blinked. “That… well I mean I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble I guess…”

“No, no, it’s fine, I’ll come back and help out,” He said. He turned around and gave the notebook back to Marble. “Thanks little filly, I don’t know what came over me. I guess I’m just cranky this early in the morning.”

Marble smiled, took her notebook in her mouth and trotted back home feeling accomplished. Never before had she managed to confront somepony, confront them and help stop an argument. Of course she felt a little bad about kicking him, but she was fully aware that she wasn’t actually strong enough to hurt him, in fact she was surprised that he had stumbled like that in the first place.

Either way she got home just in time to see Mister Cake cooking French toast. The kitchen smelled heavenly and Marble’s mouth watered with excitement for the delicious breakfast. Luckily Pinkie Pie was still asleep, and the Cakes just had a habit of waking up early, but not as early as her.

He smiled and nodded for her to take a seat at the table, which she did gleefully. “Good morning, Marble. Did you go out rock hunting?”

She nodded.

“You and Maud both. Well breakfast is almost ready, I hope you worked up an appitite.”

A few hours later Marble and Pinkie were walking towards the giant tree castle that towered over the town. Marble made extra sure to stay close to her sister, all the confidence from earlier had vanished completely. Everypony they passed by gave her fragile heart a start as she feared accidentally brushing against them. Thankfully Pinkie Pie proved to be a decent distraction.

“So, sis, you’ve been here two days. What do you think about the town?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Marble knew that her sister realized that she wasn’t going to get a decent response to that question. So Marble smiled and nodded.

“Uh… so you like it?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Good,” Pinkie Pie said. “Pretty soon we’ll need to find you a job, can’t have you living off of my wages the whole time.”

Marble gasped.

“Oh you know what I mean. I don’t mind taking care of you, it would just be nice to see you get into something yourself you know?” Pinkie Pie said. “What kind of job would you do though? Would you like to work at Sugarcube Corner with me?”

“Mmhmm.”

“I’m sure you would, though… I don’t think the Cake’s exactly have any need for another employee, and they especially couldn’t afford to pay another one… darn. What if uh… do you like animals?”

“Mm-mmm,” Marble said while shaking her head. Memories of the time her parents got her a pet cat were still vivid enough to cause her to shudder. She would very much like to keep her good eye.

“Right… what about dresses?”

“Mmm…”

“You have no idea what you would do, do you?”

Marble shook her head.

Pinkie Pie offered her a huge grin. “That’s okay, I’m sure that Rarity could teach ya. Um, if that don’t work we could always try apple farming… or actually you’re not that strong… um… oh I know, Princess Twilight has a huge castle and probably needs a servant. You wanna be a servant to Princess Twilight? You could wear a sexy maid outfit.”

Marble’s eyes shot wide. “Mmph.”

“Um… that’s a new sound, does that mean you don’t like sexy maid outfits?”

“Mm-mmm!”

“Okay, no sexy maid outfit, but you could still work in the castle. It’s pretty much empty all the time anyway. I bet you would love working there, cleaning things, organizing books, helping Twilight in her crazy experiments…” Pinkie Pie stuck out her lower lip. “Actually, I kinda want to work at the castle now.”

Marble let out a sigh and tried to ignore the rest of her sister’s rambling. The last thing she wanted to focus on was obtaining a job, especially when the entire purpose of her coming here was to steal back Trixie’s heart. Not to make a new life. Of course if she succeeded at her goal, she would probably need to get a job anyway, Trixie’s house looked… about as poor as her parents’ house did.

They stopped at the foot of the castle and Marble looked up. From the base of the giant crystal tree she couldn’t see the top. This castle was huge! It was so big in fact that it could fit the entirety of Marble’s home along with the nearby village into it. How could any one pony live here without getting lost or feeling scared?

Pinkie Pie led them inside. Marble shivered at the sight. It was too large in here. The blue walls all looked friendly but Marble already felt lost, and she hadn’t even gone more than five feet inside.

Twilight Sparkle was already waiting for them at the base of a staircase that wound up into the ceiling and disappeared from sight. She waved a hoof at them and they quickly trotted over to her. “Hey,” Twilight said. “You’re pretty early, I hope you don’t mind if nothing’s set up yet.”

“That’s okay, I wanted to show off the castle to my sister anyway,” Pinkie Pie replied joyously. “Oh, and I was wondering; do you think you could do me a solid?”

“Uh… maybe? What did you want?”

“My sister needs a job soon and I thought it would be super if she could work here as your servant. Cleaning up the castle and stuff like that. She doesn’t want to wear a sexy maid outfit though, so I hope that’s not a problem,” Pinkie Pie said.

“I… well of course that’s not a problem, but… why would she wear a… never mind. Look, Pinkie, I’m not exactly sure if right now would be the best time for hiring on my first servant,” Twilight explained. She looked around. “Things are pretty busy right now.”

“Can we at least show her the library? If she starts working here she’ll need to be familiar with it after all,” Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight smiled. “Sure, I love showing ponies my private library.” Twilight led them up the stairs. “After the Golden Oaks Public Library was destroyed it took a lot of time, effort, and energy to replace my collection. There were still so many secrets about that library that I never got to fully explore, like who owned it before me? Why did they know so much about magic lore? Where did they go?” Twilight let out a sigh. “Sadly, unless I used Time Travel, which I won’t, I’ll never receive those answers.”

“It was crazy to think that whoever owned it had all these secret books hidden in the walls talking about all kinds of cool magical junk,” Pinkie Pie said.

“It was almost like somepony had spent a lifetime learning about things that they knew were dangerous and then trying to find ways to stop the threats they posed. It was probably a really nice pony,” Twilight said.

It felt like it took forever before they reached the top of the staircase and exited into a large hallway. Twilight continued to lead them through the maze of halls, past many doors that all looked important. Finally she stopped at one door in particular and opened it with her magic. Marble couldn’t help but to gasp at the sight before her.

The library that Twilight spoke of was a large room with the walls lined with books. Thousands of books were in this room. It would take a lifetime to read through all of them. Wonder took over as she stumbled into the room, slowly spinning around as she tried to grasp what all the books could be. She was sure that there had to be a copy of almost every book ever written in here.

“You like it?” Twilight asked.

“Mmhmm!” Marble announced.

“Sadly it’s still only about eighty percent of the collection I had before, and this is only but a fraction of what one would find in Canterlot or the Crystal Empire,” Twilight said. “But although it’s tiny right now, it’s my dream to make it even bigger than the Canterlot Library!”

Marble sat down. Did she just call this place tiny?

There was a loud thud as something fell to the floor. Everypony looked over to the alcove in the corner and spotted a large pile of books and a blue set of hooves holding a book far too large for anypony to rightly be reading. The mare’s face was obscured. On the floor was a knocked over book.

“Darn it,” The mare said, and Marble gulped as she swore she recognized the voice. “Trixie is so clumsy today.”

Twilight took a few steps forward. “Trixie? What are you doing in my library?”

“Researching, is it a crime to read books in the library now?”

“It is when it’s a private one,” Twilight retorted.

Trixie set the book down and glared at Twilight. “You are Ponyville’s only librarian, this is Ponyville’s only library, are you seriously going to tell Trixie that you are hoarding all this knowledge and not sharing it amongst the populace? Did you not gather all these books to replace the ones destroyed in the Golden Oaks fire?”

Twilight sat, blinked and then gulped. “I uh… that um… we have a library by now, surely?”

“Yeah, and we are currently inside it,” Trixie said. She looked down at the book and frowned. “This explains why the door was locked.”

“You picked the lock to my door as well!” Twilight exclaimed.

“You told Trixie you would help, and Trixie is using your library to help!” Trixie defended.

Pinkie Pie took a few steps forward. “Trixie, you should leave. Breaking and entry is illegal and especially if it’s a princess's home. I mean, who even breaks into library’s? That’s like, low, even for you.”

Twilight gave Pinkie a look that Marble couldn’t quite decipher.

Trixie glared daggers at the pink pony. “Trixie does not wish to hear you speak, rude one.”

Marble very quietly, and very quickly backed out the door before anypony noticed her and hid behind the wall while peeking into the room. I hope this doesn’t turn into a fight. Please don’t let it become a fight.

There was a pink unicorn on the other side of the wall, hiding just like Marble was and peering into the room. She had a purple ponytail with a blue stripe running down it. They met each other’s eyes and paused for a moment. The mare finally smiled nervously. “Hi, I’m Starlight Glimmer, Twilight’s pupil… uh… so what’s going on in there?”

Marble hummed an answer.

“Um… maybe you don’t know either.” Starlight looked back into the room. “I thought the library was public too…”

Trixie rose from her table, “Trixie will not be abused like this. Twilight, get a hold of your friend before Trixie does something drastic!”

Pinkie Pie leapt into the air, hooves bearing down and Marble cringed. A pink aura surrounded the pink mare mid flight and Pinkie Pie simply stopped moving. Her sister floated three feet off the ground and only a couple of feet away from Trixie. Pinkie’s snarl could scare a dragon.

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight called. “Did you just try to attack Trixie? Really? We are supposed to be teaching friendship to ponies not, not, not attacking them!” Twilight gave an apologetic look to Trixie. “I am so sorry for her behavior. You might have made a mistake but she should not have attacked you. Maybe she’s mad about yesterday?”

Trixie shot a dark look at Pinkie. “Trixie was trying to be your friend and you insulted her, now you assaulted her. How dare you call yourself an Element of Harmony. You charlatan.”

Pinkie Pie growled, “At least I’m not looking up dark magic stuff so I can do evil.”

“Trixie is not looking up dark magic stuff so that she can do evil!” Trixie exclaimed. “Did you even think to ask what Trixie was doing?”

“Why should I? We all know that you want to get revenge on us. Me, and Rainbow Dash, and even Applejack know exactly what kind of pony you are,” Pinkie Pie spat on the floor. “You have no right to be here, and I’m surprised that Twilight isn’t locking you away for looking for this stuff again. Didn’t you learn anything from the Alicorn Amulet?”

“Trixie did learn from that!” Trixie snapped. “Trixie learned that dark artifacts only hurt, and not just hurt the pony using them, but also the ponies that they care about the ones they promised never to abandon, the ones they took care of and loved with all your heart. Trixie knows just how much she screwed up and is trying to do good here. Why can’t you see that?”

Marble saw the tears in Trixie’s eyes, and even if she wasn’t making physical contact with the mare, she knew how hurt Trixie must have felt. Pinkie Pie on the other hoof only screamed in frustration and wiggled uselessly in the air. “You are a bad pony! I have tried to give you chances, I swear, but I’m not a pushover like Twilight Sparkle! I can’t just forget how you hurt me, my friends, and talked smack about my family. I won’t ever forget that.”

Trixie closed her eyes and turned around. “You don’t have to forget, go ahead and remember. Just leave Trixie alone and Trixie won’t bother you again.”

“Fine!”

Twilight gently set Pinkie Pie down. “Pinkie, you should leave. If Trixie is here doing research it must be on the project I promised to help her with. I… probably should have been more clear about with her about when and how I was going to help, but this works.”

“Whatever,” Pinkie Pie said, she turned around and stalked out the library door. “I’m going home.” She paused just outside and shot a glare at Starlight. Starlight backed away and looked down at her hooves. Pinkie Pie then walked past Marble. “Come on, sis, we’re going home. Working with Twilight might be a bad idea, if that… witch is allowed here then I don’t want you working here. I’ll find you a better, safer job.”

Marble followed her sister reluctantly. She knew that Pinkie Pie had problems with Trixie, but this just looked horrible. It made her wonder, just how badly did Trixie hurt Pinkie in order to warrant this much hatred. Pinkie wasn’t supposed to hate anypony.

Marble looked back at Starlight and waved goodbye. The mare smiled at her and returned the wave. There was a pony that Marble wanted to know more about, even if it was only because she was the pupil to the Princess of Friendship. Hopefully Pinkie Pie didn’t hate her as well.