Romance, Royalty and Revolution

by walkman

Pain and power

Chapter 3

Pain and power

Trixie awoke in complete darkness. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was and why then she noticed all of the household cleaning items that were sticking into her at various angles. It was a wonder that she’d even managed to get to sleep in the first place. She decided to move out of the cupboard and check to see how long she’d been out for; she also wanted to see if that lavender mare and her pet dragon were back yet.

Using her magic to open the door and light up the dark cellar for herself; she was surprised by how hard she found it to accomplish these simple tasks, it seemed as though her rest had not left her rested, in fact she didn’t feel like she’d got any sleep at all. She just felt like collapsing right there and then, but tiredness was not the only thing that was afflicting her, she was in pain all over from where the household implements, mops and brooms, had dug into her and it hadn’t even been a week since her escape from the Everfree Forest! She still had wounds both physical and mental from that place. All in all she was physically and mentally tired and in pain. She just felt like laying down right where she stood and the thought of rest was so tempting…

Don’t give up Trixie, Trixie can do this! Trixie never gave up before, remember, just go upstairs and get Trixie’s revenge and then Trixie can rest for as long as she likes. Come on Trixie’s been through worse than this before and made it out with her hide intact.

Spurred on by her own thoughts she cautiously made her way up the cellar’s stairs. She nudged the door an inch open and peered out; it was dark within the tree library, it appeared as though she had slept for the entire day.

It angered her that she had let an entire day slip by, but she soon realised that this was a good thing; the lavender mare and her pet dragon were probably asleep. Whilst she had great confidence in her own magical abilities, she was not stupid enough to believe that she could take on both a unicorn that was capable of dealing with an Ursa Minor, and a dragon, (even if it was just a baby) in a head to head confrontation; especially not when she was in the greatly weakened state as she now found herself. Yes it was for the best that it should happen this way, after all it wasn’t like she cared about how she got her revenge, or if anypony even knew that she’d got it.

She slowly, carefully nudged the door open and emerged into the center the libraries main room; she stopped using her magic to light her way, aware of the noise of magic being used, and the need not to wake up the libraries inhabitants by using light.

If Trixie remembers correctly, there should be some stairs to her right; the bedroom must be up there. She turned and started towards where she thought the stairs were. Maybe Trixie should have checked the layout of the entire library this morning, but it was not Trixies’ fault that she was too tired to remember such a task. Trixie has had much on her mind recently.

“Who” the sudden sound shattered the nights silence and Trixie’s head jerked as she around searched for the source of the noise.

“Who” the mysterious noise sounded again as Trixie searched frantically for its source.

Suddenly she saw it perched on the desk next to the window, not three meters away from her was an owl “Who” it said again as it stared directly at her.

Trixie almost shouted at the creature telling it that she was the great and powerful Trixie, but luckily her common sense saved her just as she opened her mouth; she glared at the owl as it had almost ruined her plans, but she would not be foiled that easily, oh no!

She continued to glare at the owl which in return simply stared at her and said “Who” once again; it took all of Trixies self control to keep herself from yelling at the thing. Dammit! If that stupid thing keeps doing that, it’s bound to wake up the entire town! She had to get rid of this stupid creature. As she continued her staring contest, Trixie tried to think up a way to get rid of it. Luckily it didn’t take her long to come up with a plan.

Using her magic she created an illusion of a black and white cat, and at the same time she used her magic to open the window directly behind the owl; the illusory cat jumped up at the owl, which immediately took to the air and shot out of the window with the illusion in quick pursuit.

“Ha!” Exclaimed Trixie, and then suddenly she put her hoof over her mouth hoping that she hadn’t been heard. She waited in silence for a few minutes and sighed in relief when she didn’t hear any noises at all, she closed the window as silently as possible and resumed her journey to the stairs.

Found the stairs easily as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and started up them. Trixie is close now, she can feel it not much further, then it will all be over. She set all of her concentration on reaching the top of the stairs and her revenge.

She was halfway up the stairs when she heard a faint thudding noise and a muffled cry of “Who”. Her concentration faltered and it broke completely when she heard the sound of the owl slamming itself against the window and another muffled “Who!” She turned around, planning to go back down the stairs and get rid of that annoying bird once and for all; however, as she began back down the stairs, she heard voices and movement coming from above. She panicked and attempted to scramble away.

She remembered too late that she was still on the stairs, as she tripped up on her own hooves she fell halfway down the stairs before she even knew what was happening. She hit the floor at the base of the stairs with her forehooves instinctively outstretched, she heard a sickening snap as her hooves hit the floor and an intense pain shot up her right forehoof causing her to scream in pain, as she buckled to the floor. The last thing she remembered before the pain and exhaustion caused her to blackout, was the sound of hoofsteps on the stairs.

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Mist awoke with what was quite possibly the worst headache that he had ever had the misfortune host within his skull. It felt like a firework had exploded within his head, he struggled upright and then groaned in pain as he squeezed his eyes shut; the pain in his head seemed to double.

“Finally awake are you?”

Mist opened his eyes and looked up to see his twin staring at him with a look of anger upon his face, Cloudy always seemed to be angry at something or another these days.

“What’s up C?” He said, doing his best to ignore the pain in his head.

“What’s up? Can you not bucking remember? I’ll tell you what’s bucking up Mist! You have been missing for two bucking days! Ever since we camped out by the Evergreen Forest, we’ve been searching for you, two bucking days! We finally found you trying to attacking an Ursa Major, a bucking Ursa Major in the middle of the bucking forest! It’s a miracle that we managed to escape at all, let alone unharmed, but that isn’t all. A bucking bear chased us all the way to Baltimare! It took the whole of the cities royal guard to bring that thing down, and it still managed to kill and maim half of them!”

At this point Cloudy began wheezing loudly as he tried to regain his breath; Mist took this opportunity to get a bearing of their surroundings, they were in the wagon surrounded by their few belongings. He also tried to recall what had happened over the past few days, but his memory went blank after leaving the campsite. Damn! I need to remember what happened.

“Do you honestly not remember anything” said Cloudy

“No, not after I left the campsite anyway. Are we still in Baltimare?” said Mist

“Oh yes, but not for long. We just heard this morning that Celestia herself is coming here to investigate the reason behind a seemingly unprovoked attack on a major city by an Ursa Major! We were lucky that in all the chaos nobody realized that we lead that thing here, but I don’t want stick around till the princess gets here and starts asking questions. Silks is out buying us some supplies and as soon as she gets back we’re out of here.”

Mist frowned this might be trouble; he knew that the princess could sense the use of magic and she could even sense a unicorn’s presence through their magic aura even if they weren’t using it. He had been as careful as possible with his magic usage in Canterlot, but he still couldn’t be sure if the princess had sensed his aura at the place where they had held Blueblood; then she would sense him as soon as she arrived, unless he was already long gone. He could have used a cloaking spell to hide himself from her, but the one that he’d used in Canterlot had taken most of his strength to accomplish and had been a constant drain on his energy. But I guess that I don’t have a choice, even if it leaves me unable to move, it may be what saves us from falling into Celestia’s hooves.

Mist sighed this was probably going to make his headache even worse.

“Okay C, go and keep an eye out for Silk and as soon as she gets back we’ll go.”

“Oh? And what may I ask will you be doing in the meantime?”

Mist could normally handle his brother’s comments without getting irritated, but his headache had made his temper short.

“What do you bucking think I’ll be doing you bucking idiot? I’m gonna do some bloody magic so that we don’t end up bucking dead! Now, get out there and keep an eye out for silk, YOU FOAL!” Shouted Mist in a voice which rivalled even the one used in royal Canterlot.

Cloudy stared in shock at his twin’s outburst, he was used to Mist staying calm; no matter what he said and he couldn’t even remember the last time that his brother had shouted at him

“Fine, fine no need to get so het up, seriously.” Said Cloudy as he turned and left the wagon.

Mist took a calming breath He’d better make this quick, he didn’t know how much time he had left before the princesses arrival; the thought that this spell was unnecessary and that the princess had failed to find any trace of his magic in Canterlot did briefly occur to Mist, but he dismissed it immediately, better safe than sorry after all, he reached out for his power and began the spell.

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Silk made her way through the crowd of ponies that were going about their daily lives with ease; she could have simply flown over them, but that would have defeated the object, this was a good way to keep in practice and she’d already made twenty bits without the victim ponies noticing a single thing.

She was a skilful cutpurse even if she did say so herself, she had to be with all the attention her coat and mane drew; she prided herself on being able to steal without being caught, despite how much she stood out from the crowd. She would have loved to have simply spent the whole day stealing; at night she could go to all the bars & pubs around town, and swindle all of the foolish drunk stallions, but she had a job to do and she should probably hurry as well.

The wagon was currently on the outskirts of Baltimare, and as Silk got nearer to the edge of the city she noticed that there were hardly any ponies about; normally on a day as nice as this, ponies would be streaming outwards for a fun day out in the fields with their friends and family, since Baltimare had no real parks or open spaces. They’re scared after what happened yesterday, it may have been on the other side of the city but…well… She wondered how many ponies had died yesterday; it had taken almost half an hour for the royal guards to halt the advance of the Ursa Major and just as long again to kill it. And in the process an entire suburb was destroyed causing the deaths of who knows how many ponies, many of them civilians.

Silk knew that she should probably feel guilt or something like that for leading the Ursa Major to the city, even if it had been unintentional; she knew that Cloudy did, that was why he had been so angry that morning, he always got angry when he felt guilty. She felt a small amount of anger too, but it was directed at herself for not feeling any guilt.

But then, why should she feel guilty? They hadn’t known that they were so close to a major city, they were only trying to escape from a rampaging Ursa Major and as far as she was concerned the fact that it was her brother that had started all this didn’t matter. She’d learned in her life that the only ponies that she could rely on were her two brothers, they were the ones that had saved her when she was just a baby, they were the ones that had cared for her as she grew up; sure they argued all the time, especially her and Cloudy, but they were family and she would gladly die for either of them. Especially Mist, she was sure that his plan to overthrow the princesses would succeed and in the end wouldn’t that make Equestria a better place? The way I see it it’s sad that those ponies had to die yesterday, but it was for the greater good after all. Mist is the pony that will save Equestria. So it doesn’t really matter if I don’t feel guilty, does it? I mean some innocents may die, but in the end it’s for the greater good.

She finally made it back too the wagon and found Cloudy sat outside with a blank look on his face. Great, here we go again.

“Hey C get up, I got the supplies!” Shouted Silk as she shook her brother, it had no effect, he just kept staring into space with a blank expression.

Sighing Silk took off her saddlebags and picked up her brother with ease, despite the fact that he was nearly twice her size; she then flew a couple of feet into the air and let him go. He hit the ground with a loud thud.

“Ouch! What the hay was that for?” Said Cloudy as he sat up holding his head in his hooves.

“You were doing it again, the whole staring off into space thing y’know?” said Silk as she landed on the ground and picked up her saddlebags.

“I was only thinking damn it! There was no need to...to…to do whatever you did, that hurts you know?”

“Ha! You don’t even know what I did, see if I hadn’t dropped you then you would’ve taken hours to wake up, and in case you forgot, we don’t have that much time!” said Silk as she headed towards the wagon’s door, “Did Mist wake up yet?”

“Yes he’s-”

Both ponies fell quiet as the door to the wagon swung open.

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Mist didn’t know how, but the very moment that he had gathered his power and performed the cloaking spell his headache had vanished and he had been flooded with an overwhelming amount of magical power; and that wasn’t all, he’d regained his memories of the past two days as well.

He had been experimenting with his newfound powers; for he didn’t know how long, but based on how long he had been missing it must’ve been almost two days. He didn’t quite know how, but he’d somehow found an Ursa Minor, and killed it singlehandedly! Such power, yes! He could remember now, he had still been marvelling over his newfound magical power, when the Minors mother had shown up and he’d fought it for more than an hour, without receiving any major injuries; before his power had begun to run out, he’d resorted to attacking it, then fleeing when his siblings had found him.

Mist suddenly realized that he was stood in the wagon’s doorway when he didn’t even remember standing up, his two siblings were watching him.

“So you’re back Silk, well come on you two, what are you looking at? Lets get a move on before the princess arrives.”