Chapter Twelve : The Meeting
Applejack adjusted her hat as she cautiously entered the small chamber where her friends awaited her. It wasn't easy to sneak through the heavily-guarded corridors, but she managed well enough. She hoped the others did as well. Since “Queen” Trixie condemned her to work as part of the kitchen staff, there was no way for her to know how the others were doing and, needless to say, she was anxious to see them. “Rainbow Dash?” she called out in a hush voice. “Rarity? Spike? Y'all here?”
A candle suddenly lit up in the center of the room—illuminating the very friends she hoped to see. “We're here, darling,” replied Rarity. “Come sit with us.”
Smiling, the earth pony approached the small group. “I hope y'all had a better day than I did,” she said, taking a seat next to Rainbow Dash. “Trixie's been workin' me to the bone in the palace kitchen!”
The pegasus scowled, “At least you're not a living target for the guards!” She rolled her shoulders, causing her wings to twitch in agitation. Though Trixie was “kind” enough to return them, she didn't return her magic—leaving her grounded. “Honestly, those guys pack a punch. I'm sore all over!”
“Same here,” commented Rarity. “The only break I had today was for lunch, and that's it! First, Trixie wanted new banners and rugs for the palace, then she wanted a coronation dress, and now she wants me to construct a set of regalia for her to wear! Regalia! How in the world am I supposed to manage all of that?”
Twiddling his claws, Spike gave her the biggest smile he could muster. “I'm sure you'll think of something, Rarity!” he exclaimed. “You always do!” He giggled as his encouragement was then rewarded with a quick hug from the gorgeous unicorn.
“What about you, Spike?” inquired Applejack. “Where'd you end up?”
The dragon's smile fell. “Ugh... I was 'placed under Cadance's watch' as a maid.” His cheeks turned red. “She's making me wear the dress and everything...”
Rainbow Dash snickered; the mental image was too funny. “Oh, man, that stinks!” she laughed. “And I thought I had it bad!”
Applejack shot her a glare. “Quiet, sugarcube!” she hissed.
Though she was still quite amused by Spike's situation, she made an attempt to calm herself. She cleared her throat. “Sorry,” she replied as softly as possible.
“What we need to do right now is figure out how we're gonna get ourselves out of this mess.”
“It'll be difficult to pull anything off,” said Rarity. “There's only four of us, after all. Everypony else is under Trixie's spell! Even if we somehow managed to get out of the palace, her magical force field will tell her if we try to leave the Crystal Empire.”
“Then, we need to last until Twilight comes back with help!” replied Spike. “She has to be on her way to Canterlot as we speak!”
“Do you think we found her way to the train station in that blizzard?”
“I know she did! You guys know Twilight well enough to know that she would never let us down. She's going to do everything she can to save us!” And she will save us, too! Ugh, I wish Trixie didn't disable my fire-breath, or I'd be able to get a letter to the Princesses!
Sighing, Applejack tipped back her hat. “We wouldn't need savin' if we hadn't acted like foals durin' Trixie's show back in Ponyville.”
Rarity's ears flattened. “Yes,” she whispered. “I suppose we did bring this upon ourselves...”
Their pegasus comrade gave them such an incredulous glare that they could've sworn her eye twitched. “Seriously?” she asked quietly, her voice carrying an angry undertone. “Are you guys seriously saying that we asked for this?”
“Well,” replied Rarity, “we were the only ones who spoke out against Trixie's show. If I remember correctly, everypony else seemed to enjoy it.”
Applejack nodded. “Yep, we acted pretty rotten. We could've just gone about our days and waited for her to leave town—”
“—but we stayed, heckled her for no good reason, and ultimately ruined her life.”
“Eeyup.”
Once again, Spike twiddled his thumbs. “No kidding,” he said under his breath. He was glad to hear that he wasn't the only one who regretted his actions. He was, after all, one of the ones who wagered against the magician, so much so that he tried pressuring Twilight into the rowdy mix. “Sometimes,” he continued, “I forget that everypony pays attention to national heroes such as ourselves.” That was what really ended Trixie's career. The Elements of Harmony made her out to be a villain, and the false information spread like wildfire throughout Equestria, leaving her without work—without her destined purpose in life.
Rainbow Dash, however, had a hard time digesting what she heard. “And what about the crystal ponies, huh?” she whispered harshly. “Did they ask for this to happen? What about Princess Cadance, or Shining Armor? Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy? Twilight!?”
Eyes widening, Applejack quickly retorted, “Whoa, hold on now! We ain't sayin' she's in the right for what she's done!”
Rarity was also taken aback by the accusation. “Yes, just because three mares made a horrendous mistake doesn't mean Trixie has the right to enslave an entire empire!”
Nevertheless, Rainbow Dash's fur and feathers bristled, and she was quiet for a few seconds. Then, “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I-I just...” She squeezed her eyes shut. “This really sucks!”
Applejack placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I know, sugarcube, I know. Just hang in there.”
Spike latched onto one of her forelegs, while Rarity closed in to give her a comforting nuzzle. “Don't fret, darling,” said the unicorn. “We'll make it through this. Trixie may have taken our freedom and placed a nasty mind-control spell on a few of our friends, but we still have each other!”
As much as she despised such cheesy comments, the rainbow-maned mare cracked a miniscule smile. Perhaps their situation wasn't as hopeless as she believed after all. “Yeah,” she chuckled tiredly, rubbing her left shoulder. “Yeah, we got each other.” Granted, everything seemed bleak and awful and just plain bad, but it wasn't completely hopeless.
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I hope we get more cute Sombra and Twilight scenes in the next chapter and I hope Twilight shows up to kick some Trixie butt soon.
Great chapter. I guess those 4 are not under Trixie's control so they can be miserable. I wonder for how long will they wait. If Twilight's determination is a factor, not long. Thanks for the update.
Love the chapter. It's nice to see the girls acknowledging their mistakes against Trixie but still understand that Trixie is wrong.
It's Cadance. Not Cadence, Cadance.
5405461
Oh, thank you for pointing that out. I didn't realize I misspelled it.
THIS SHALL BE FIXED.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Trixie challenge the ponies of Ponyville to "anything you can do, Trixie can do better" and then declare herself the greatest equine in Equestria?
...and there's still Snips and Snails for bringing in the Ursa.
5406106
Yes, but she only issued the challenge because she overheard Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity loudly talking smack about her show. It wasn't really anything malicious, since they didn't have to go up on stage. Plus, even though being a showmare is her special talent, Trixie is still rather arrogant and has no trouble exaggerating her abilities, but it wasn't like she was proclaiming herself to be the greatest unicorn because she planned on destroying or taking over anything. She's harmless (without the Alicorn Amulet, of course).
I never liked the ending of Boast Busters. Yes, Snips and Snails lead the Ursa Minor into town, but they were never properly punished for it, and everypony still talked crap about Trixie for "being a loud mouth" after she ran out of Ponyville.
You are due for a new chapter, so hop to it.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Yeah...really can't feel sorry for Trixie. Rarity, Rainbow, and AJ might have been hecklers, but Trixie's reputation wouldn't have been ruined if she hadn't lied about, you know, everything in her entire show. She didn't even actually prove that she was better than those three at what they did. All she did was prove that, in canon, nothing can beat even a mediocre unicorn that can barely conjure enough electricity to turn on a light bulb.
This is why you shouldn't lie to children. They will actually believe you, even if it's obvious to older people that you're not telling the truth or are embellishing things for the sake of entertainment (even though there was nothing entertaining about Trixie's show. It was literally just her talking about all the cool things she's done, except that, you know, she didn't actually do any of them...).
I'm with those who are unhappy about this part. Trixie put out the challenge, and to twist it around so her victims should feel like they deserve to be punished, that's not right.
I really hope this story won't continue to run with this too much.
6102898
While I agree with most everything you've said, she needed something to get people interested in her shows. I don't fault her for that specifically, but I will admit that letting a pair of children, who are heavily implied to be mentally handicapped, slave themselves for her was just wrong. I was okay with her messing with Rarity, Aj, and Dashie, because they were going out of their way to ruin her show. And even then, Trixie's actions could hardly be called malicious or cruel. And we can't forget that a cursed amulet is messing with her mind.
5406778
Bit late, and this is a great story by the way, quickly making its way up there in my favorite Sombra fics; but I think the thing that kinda damned Trixie is the fact that even after she failed against the Ursa Minor, she kept up the act, and more importantly ran away. While it is Snips and Snails fault the Ursa Minor appeared in the first place, she should have remained to smooth things over and act more humble or offer some form of apology for the damages and harm she unintentionally caused.
As with her second appearance with the Alicorn Amulet, she actually came back and helped out and was better received even though she did cause more harm and damage under the Amulet’s spell than the Ursa Minor did.
9836336
No problem, my guy, and thank you for reading! You're absolutely right about Trixie, though I personally can't blame her for taking off immediately after the Ursa Minor was defeated. Sure, it would've made her look better, but she really had no reason to stay.
Everyone in Ponyville clearly enjoyed her show, except Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, who showed an abnormal hostility towards her as soon as she introduced herself and began her performance. Well, Rainbow didn't really seem to have a problem with her at first; she booed Trixie only after she commented about how she was around to be better than everyone else and Applejack glared at her for it.
Trixie proved herself capable of out-performing them, which the crowd also enjoyed, so she did have a decent amount of magical capability. She's not as magically gifted as Twilight, but it can be assumed her performances were rather successful, as it wasn't until after the events of Boast Busters that she became such a laughing stock she had to resort to working on a rock farm to earn a living.
So, not only was she met with an abnormal amount of hostility for simply being annoying to only a few characters, but then she had her life threatened by a beast brought to her by a couple of star-struck kids who took her tall tales too much to heart. To top it all off, the true strongest unicorn in Equestria just so happened to be there to stop it and to unintentionally make her look bad.
Yeah, if all that stuff happened to me in the span of one day, I would want to leave as soon as possible, too.