The Munificent and Magnanimous Crystal Empress, Trixie Lulamoon Midsummer

by Archmage Ansrit

Reporting

The nurse couldn't help but feel bad at the state the changeling in front of her was in.

His bandages had been changed, and she had gasped at the sight. She was relieved that the pultices and the regular medicines were effective, but it was the worst case of mage-rot she had ever seen.

Considering that she had seen two dozen cases in the past hour, that was saying something.

Still, 'love' was a little abstract a treatment - she knew, obviously, of the healing properties of love - and normally she (and the doctors) would have complained about letting two ponies in the same bed, but love does heal... and his partner was in for the exact same thing, and nearly to the same degreee.

Plus, the changelings needed their partners anyways, and they were more stable and resistant to rebounds or relapses when held by their loved ones.

So they said; she could only take their word for it.

"Is something the matter?" Bard asked, while the white unicorn - Frozen Rose - looked at the doctor with her one good eye. The nurse decided to step back.

"The issue of your recovery." The doctor spoke, feeling that it was better to just be honest and straightforward. "I don't know if there are fancy treatments out there, in the world of a thousand years... but it could take years; you might never walk again if it's made it to the bone as you said."

"He'll be fine." The mare hugging him as they both rested squeezed just a teensy bit harder.

"I'm still alive, after all. I am-"

-----

"... a ghost, not a changeling." Swarm said with a frown. "I am proud of my own shifting, but I had never so much as heard of anyling that could stick their hooves to a keyhole, then just flow... flow themselves inside to pick the spell-disrupting locks."

"And you say he just made the others do the same through the link?" Trixie asked, getting ready to leave for the hospital.

"He has been storing love since Shaper-knows-how-long-ago." Swarm frowned. "With that much mastery over Form, who knows what he can do?"

"Keep me from falling over dead, for starters." Trixie rubbed the back of her head. "It's... shoot, I forgot how it was called before!"

Trixie tapped her forehead in a vain attempt at focusing.

"It has to do with the core of his magic. Mine has 'harmony', 'entertainment' and 'illusion' among others, while he has 'balance', 'beginning' and 'avoidance' - among others." She waved a hoof around, trying to recall better. "He was a key agent in many of the operations of the Ponyvil- Everfree forest cell."

"I can see why." Swarm commented. "I cannot imagine that Princess Celestia was happy to see us around Equestria, even if we were fighting a common enemy."

Trixie sighed heavily, slumping slightly.

"She wasn't; she focused her efforts on Sombra, obviously, yet she would argue endlessly whenever Princess Luna tried to get her to send supplies or ponies - just as well, since Celestia's soldiers lack the sneakiness of Luna's. Still, Shining Armor had his hooves full just keeping Canterlot in line and protected, with his wife a paranoid, traumatised mess; before Twilight Sparkle died, even."

"Just what happened to her? Cadence, I mean." He had been told about Twilight already - he respected the mare, actually, because, well, standing up against Nightmare Moon, an insane changeling queen, and Discord?

Such a shame.

"First was her brush with Sombra, then, she accidentally killed Fen- buck!" Trixie slapped her forehead. "Trixie has to deal with Fenrir now!"

"What?!" Swarm gasped, reeled and staggered. "WHY?!"

"Hmm?" Trixie looked at the changeling with confusion. "Why are- oh. The wolves think that they have the right to claim this land as their own, but let's just say that Fenrir is neither as smart nor as powerful as he thinks he is - he thinks he still is. Sombra enslaved him quite easily, and Cadence, having heard enough about him from the princesses, shut him down hard enough that she killed him by accident."

"How could she do that?" Sure, the princess of Love was stronger than she looked, as Chrysalis found out to her cost. "He's The Howling Wind! The Fanged Blizzard! He's older than Equestria herself!"

"Not all of the old threats remain relev- not everything- she used a 'cone of silence' spell." She answered, while Swarm was obviously waiting for her to continue. "That was it; no howling, no magic. Sombra was... rough, and Fenrir's body didn't take it well; without those legendary howls, he was just a wolf with a long life and implanted black crystals."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Trixie- err, I know what you are thinking - he's immortal, right? old and powerful like the princesses, no? In a way. Princess Celestia doesn't stay idle, though. She's always wary of the next big threat, and she doesn't fight-"

-----

"Clean." Celestia read the report.

All of them so far were clean; the changelings hadn't tried to contact anypony - although personal effects from the hospitalized ponies were stolen and some of the houses emptied.

Pictures of herself and Cadence were vandalized, with crude devil horns and goatees, and the occasional eyepatch, scar, or monocle - in one particularly-artistic instance, all three. She'd like to blame the changelings, but the Equestrian Times did have a tendency to stir up trouble to sell more papers... like when they accused her of sitting on her rump while Nightmare Moon almost froze Equestria with her eternal night.

After having three journalists arrested for political espionage and hefty fines slapped right on their muzzles, though, they at least stopped trying to break into the castle's private areas (poor fools thought they could use 'free speech' and 'transparency' laws with the 'the public has a right to know' excuse to get out of jail). Defacing posters of her was common - after all, it was exactly what had happened the last time she had to keep one of the changeling's poor victims from doing something stupid.

She reached for the next repor- huh.

Neon Lights? Right, one of the ponies that was accused of hypnotism to make ponies attend his shows... along with the mare he often 'competed' with. Their pictures were stuck to the cover with clips.

She was getting a headache just from remembering it. Luna was very upset that the nightclubs she had come to love were getting accused of something so... disgusting.

Still, if there was anything hypnotic, it was the music itself - which was kind of the entire point. Nothing unsavory, just a pair of skilled performers reading their crowd like open books and knowing their trade.

She sighed, then proceeded with the report.

No strangers approached them, nor were any seen stalking them, no sudden changes in routines, no interrupted schedules. This suggested, like so many others, that the changeling had fled elsewhere rather than attempt to get in touch with their victims, or find new ones.

Which was odd - surely there would be one bold (or dull) enough to try? Some of them had had quite a comfortable lifestyle at the expense of her little ponies, making them believe they loved them. Why not try again? Still, kidnapping their old victims was too risky a move.

Speaking of which, the families of the victims... poor ponies; always so nervous when they spoke to her about the search, and no matter how much she promised them to find them, it only seemed to make them more afraid for their loved ones.

She would find her little ponies, and she... well, she couldn't do anything about their minds, but she would keep them safe.

She would make sure they wouldn't be-

-----

"- hurt ever again." Trixie gently tickled little Sea Breeze. "Trixie promises."

"Thank you." His parents didn't know it, but after everything they had done to help her with her own depression, Trixie was willing to do anything for them.

"She knows what she's doing." Swarm commented with a nervous smile. He could only take her word for it, for now, and he disliked having to put her in a difficult position after everything she had already been through.

"Don't you worry; the Experienced and Deft Trixie has collected skills and spells that might just surprise you!" She winked at him, sending a wave of confidence and love his way. "Now, let's see the rest, shall we?"

She tried to steel herself, really. She told herself that, with her having seen the others in that state so often, she really should not be surprised that they had been admitted for mage-rot.

She still flinched.

Rose looked at her and, while she might have imagined it, she seemed to have seen something about Trixie.

Wouldn't be too surprising, given that the Stock and Vanilla Trixie wouldn't have made it through Equestria in time, much less the frozen near-wasteland outside - not without beign forced to leave supplies behind and/or falling terribly ill from exposure and strain. She had to apply- REapply, rather - some bits of magic she learned (would have learned?), and it was a little too evident to one of the ponies that had (would have had?) taught her how to keep her own body from falling apart - they were derived from shape-changing magic, after all.

Bard's other call to fame.

She tore her eyes away and-

Rosetta Latte, Stag, Vine Yard... seeing so many friends lying down on hospital beds brought back unpleasant memories, making her tense up.

"They will pull through." Swarm, brave, level-headed Swarm snapped her out of it, as he usually did; it was like nothing ever changed.

But that wasn't true; everything was different. They had a chance. Swarm wasn't trying to shoulder all the weight himself, Anis was happy and not-gruff...

Everything was just... hopeful and bright.

She could keep it that way.

She motioned for a doctor, and managed to give an honest smile.

Comments

[Emperor]

Looks like Celestia has more than a few dirty secrets, along with some blindful ignorance.

I half-expect Trixie to start notching up the kills on immortals and inadvertently gaining a title like The Immortal Killer or something (if Sombra could have been considered immortal, that is).

[nightmaster0]

Great chapter.

[Dipti]

The Great and Powerful Trixie!!! GODKILLER!!! Extraordinaire!!!!

[kuopiofi]

Is this still active?

[Emperor]

So any updates soon, or have you given up on this?