Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: Broken Trust

Heart of Stone

Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: Broken Trust

Written by TheCrimsonDM

After Rainbow’s knighting she and Luna separated from Trixie and her family. They had plans to leave the following morning. On the way to the library Trixie could already see the plants around the village withering up. The cold had not easily dispersed, and the snow had yet to melt. Luna had mentioned that the environment of the town was incredibly fragile. The windigo couldn’t be satisfied with just taking ponies lives away, they had to destroy their homes too!

First they got Valiant Heart back to bed and to sleep, then Trixie cleaned up a little and laid down as well. Her injuries had left her exhausted, and with the adrenaline from the knighting ceremony dying down, Trixie closed her eyes and let the world of dreams sweep her away.

Trixie opened her eyes again only to find herself in an old home, the walls lined with book shelves and a table that had a wooden bust of a stallion on it. The light coming through the windows as bleak, gray, and daunting. Trixie made her way to the door and opened it. Before her stretched open and endless plains of gray wasteland. A few ruins stood around her, skeletons of their former selves. A broken sign rest near her hooves.

“Oh… no,” Trixie said as she read the sign.

“Welcome to the Golden Oaks Library, where learning and friendship come hoof and hoof.”

This was Ponyville, this empty desolate land with only a couple of skeletal ruins was her home! Off in the distance Trixie saw something that stood out. Two ponies, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and a pink unicorn mare with a long purple and teal striped mane tied into a bun.

Trixie sunk back into the library. This didn’t feel like a dream, not at all. She looked around and saw somepony she recognized. A small filly with a messy green mane, two pegasus wings and a sad smile. Dreamweaver stood behind her.

“What is this place? Who is Twilight talking too?” Trixie asked the filly in a quiet voice.

“Don’t worry about being seen, Trixie. This is a memory, not one of yours, but one that might help,” Dreamweaver said.

“Is it one of Twilight’s?”

“Not quite, it’s actually a memory of the land around you. That’s all this world has left, memories. You see, this place, this world is a dark and ruined place. It didn’t use to be like this, but once it came here was no chance to stop it. Not without you,” Dreamweaver said. “Not without your fellow guardians.”

Trixie frowned. “My fellow guardians? What, what am I, what are you talking about?”

“You’ll see, trust me,” Dreamweaver said. She trotted out of the door, and after a moment’s hesitation Trixie followed.

Twilight and the mare argued for a little bit, though Trixie wasn’t sure what about. Things felt jumbled and confused, their words didn’t make much sense. Trixie had seen the pink mare before, although she wasn’t sure where from.

“Who is she?” Trixie asked.

“You know her?” Dreamweaver asked. “That’s Twilight’s student, before she became as such. This mare single hoofedly defeated Twilight in terms of magical prowess and understanding, and if not for Twilight’s ability to make friends with her enemies… the world you know could have been very different… she has a powerful bloodline. One that outclasses Twilights.”

“I’ve seen her before, I think, but I can’t figure out where,” Trixie said.

“Mayhap she was one of the ponies sent to watch you while you were catatonic?” Dreamweaver suggested.

Trixie shook her head. “No… maybe, I don’t know.”

“We shall avoid Starlight and Twilight for now,” Dreamweaver said as she continued down the dusty landscape.

Trixie had nothing better to do but to follow. The last thing she noted was Twilight’s castle’s map was sitting beneath the open sky with no castle around, only the map had changed completely. There were almost no buildings on it, no cities. It was as though the whole of Equestria was gone. Missing. It was as though a thousand years worth of effort had simply never happened.

“What happened here?” Trixie asked.

“Twilight was never there to stop herself,” Dreamweaver said. That was confusing as it could ever be. Dreamweaver continued, “This is one of many, many different worlds, different realities. Twilight was given a ride through most of the damned timelines, where things were falling apart. All save for one.”

“What’s that?” Trixie asked.

“A world nearly as nice as the one you come from, only it’s a world of darkness and eternal night. Their princess rules with an iron hoof, but she keeps them safe, and has defeated numerous villains and safeguarded her citizens from evil. One day that world might even become as nice as yours, if their princess learns from her mistakes and grows of course,” Dreamweaver explained.

Trixie nodded, pretending to understand. “So, why are you telling me this?”

“Because Twilight struggles still with the knowledge that Nightmare Moon may have been as good, if not better, a ruler than Celestia,” Dreamweaver said, her head twitched.

Trixie stopped dead in her tracks. “What?”

“She was mad at her sister and jealous of her fame,” Dreamweaver said, something about her voice had changed, grown deeper, darker. “So she thought to bring the things she loved to the ponies who never saw it. Think of Hollow Shade’s and imagine what it would look like if that was an entire country. Would that be too terrible?” Dreamweaver asked. “More so than that, she earned her subjects respect by keeping them safe. Think of all the times Celestia has either run away from conflict or failed miserably.

“She let Discord run rampant and nearly destroy Twilight and her friends. Queen Chrysalis defeated her easily, and her subjects were killed, feed upon, or… worse. Twilight and her friends were turned into soldiers that day, forced to fight and kill to try and save the city. King Sombra was to be defeated by a mere student with psychological issues and PTSD, even Luna was against that plan. Discord was set free to cause trouble, work behind Celestia’s back and undermine the kingdom repeatedly. What Celestia did to handle Tirek was even worse.

“Awhile ago Twilight began to question Celestia’s judgment, and I believe it was the disaster at the gala with Discord and The Smooze that actually made Twilight lose all faith in her. From the brief exposer she had with Nightmare Moon’s kingdom, and the questions she asked the mare on her way to the map, Twilight learned that even Nightmare Moon was a better leader than her mentor.

“Celestia is soft, scarred, and scared. If it is her life in danger, she will stand in the way as the proud warrior she once was, but making plans for other ponies to act upon was never really her strong suit. The only time Celestia does anything anymore is when she is betrayed. She can still deal out death, but other than that, I think she’d rather stay away from any problems.”

“I… I’m confused, I mean I’m not a Celestia nut, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think she’s done good for us. She’s still competent,” Trixie said.

“Sometimes, usually when it doesn’t involve danger,” Dreamweaver said.

They stopped at the edge of a cliff, and looked off into the distance. Dreamweaver’s mane was lifted up by an invisible wind. Then slowly her mane turned dark red, and heavy. Scarlet globs of hair dripped onto the ground as she looked back at Trixie with hateful red eyes.

“Dreamweaver are you okay?” Trixie asked.

“Hehehe,” Dreamweaver laughed, as her body began melting. “Do you think that Celestia is seriously going to be able to help anypony? Celestia has done wrong, and her opinion needn’t matter on this.”

Trixie stepped back. “What the heck are you talking about?”

“Kill… Celestia…” the melted mess of a filly said. A baleful red orb of light glowed faintly from within the mass.

“I won’t kill her,” Trixie cried. “Sure she’s done bad, but I won’t kill her.”

The orb laughed mercilessly. “You no longer have that choice.”

Trixie pumped magic into her horn and red lightning crackled forth and shot at the orb. She didn’t know who this thing was, but it clearly wasn’t Dreamweaver, not any longer. The lightning sailed forth, struck its target and the entire world was swept away into a black storm of darkness. Dreamweaver was gone, but she wasn’t alone.

The red orb hovered above her, illuminating three ponies before her.

One was of Candle Light, where her horn used to be was nothing but a hole. She stared at Trixie with blood filled eyes. “You… didn’t take care of me…”

Trixie jerked away from it, and focused instead on Valiant Heart. The top of her head barely even brushed up to Trixie’s belly. So when she saw bruised foal, covered in lacerations and bloody gashes she wanted to cry. The worst part was the trail of blood running freely down Valiant’s rear leg.

Valiant stared at Trixie with one eye rotted out of her skull. That tiny, frail voice came out and shattered whatever remained of Trixie’s heart. “I was hurt, you knew what they were doing to me, and you didn’t come. You didn’t come until they were done. I’m ruined because of you.”

Trixie screamed. Something shoved against her hard, and Trixie saw the last pony before her. Red Velvet, half of her body was charred. “I just tried to do good, and you let Celestia kill me.”

“You aren’t dead, you aren’t dead,” Trixie said as she fell to her stomach. “No, let this stop, not again. Never again.”

The red orb laughed cruelly. “You see, all you do is hurt everything you love. Look here.”

Trixie didn’t want to look, but another unseen force shoved her onto her side and she was forced to look up. Maud stood holding Valiant in her forelegs, cracks lined Maud’s entire body as though she was made of brittle stone. She looked at Trixie, her eyes were full of pain.

“NO!” Trixie cried too late, as Maud shattered into a thousand pieces of rock. Valiant fell to the floor, unmoving. It was too late for either of them, they were both gone. She lost them, and would never get them back.

“This is because you don’t stand up for your friends, you won’t protect them, and you wouldn’t keep them safe. All of this is your fault, choosing to not act is just as good as killing them yourself,” The red orb said, glee in its voice.

Trixie cried onto the floor. A bright light emerged and Trixie heard the soft voice of a filly, tiny and fragile, but full of strength. “Trixie, wake up, please wake up. It’s a bad dream, just a bad dream.”

The world brightened and suddenly Trixie felt very cold, and very wet. She was on the guest bed again, with Valiant Heart sitting next to her and crying. The filly was pushing Trixie with all her strength.

Without warning, Trixie wrapped her legs around the filly and dragged her into a tight embrace. A gentle pair of hooves put a blanket over Trixie and Valiant. Maud stood behind them, there was worry in her eyes. Trixie rubbed her face into Valiant’s head and sobbed.

Nightmares were bad enough, but that one was far worse than she’d thought possible. That red orb, she’d seen it once before and it had done the same thing to her. It had tormented her, and told her how she hurt everything she touched. Trixie didn’t like that nightmare, she hated it. If it hadn’t been for Valiant Heart…

Trixie sobbed until eventually she fell asleep.

***

It was morning, and Trixie was the first one to wake up. When she left the bedroom, she choose to be very quiet as to not wake her family. It was still dark outside and they had earned their rest after dealing with her nightmare last night. So Trixie took care of morning business, grabbed a cup of coffee from the fresh batch that Bookworm had just made and worked her way downstairs where she got to work looking through books.

After her strange conversation with Dream Weaver the night before which turned nightmare, she was determined to find out whatever she could about other worlds or universes. Surely this library would have some work related to it. Or so she thought. There was nothing, not even the most common of books such as Starswirl theory could be found, which was odd. That book was in almost everywhere where science and wizardry existed.

It almost looked like somepony had gone through and personally removed any such information from these shelves, but of course that was crazy. Maybe somepony else was doing research on it in town and had requested any books relating to the subject? Perhaps Luna asked for it?

Then it occurred to her that she actually knew of a pony that was very interested in the subject, and as it just so happened, she had a private tower located on the side of the building.

Trixie grinned as she made her way to the locked door that was the entrance way to Twilight’s study. Surely the mare would have something on it in here. Probably better material than she’d find normally too.

The door was lock as it had been when she first arrived, but only with a simple lock metal lock. Trixie was a stage magician, and there had been many locks she’d learned to pick in her time, including under a few more… private circumstances.

As she made easy work of the lock, she couldn’t stop herself from imagining muffled moans of pleasure, a writhing yellow body underneath her as the cuffs dug into the mare’s hooves. The smell of sweat, and a deep powerful sense of pleasure derived from the power she wielded over the helpless but willing mare.

The door opened and she trotted through with a scowl. In a mocking flat tone she said, “I don’t like hoofcuffs, but I want to use huge gross shaped things on you.”

She stopped in front of a giant flat board with pictures and notes and strings all connecting what looked like some kind of new wave art. Trixie ignored it and mumbled grouchily. “It’s no wonder Trixie went for such succulent and weak flesh, Maud refuses to do any of the fun things with… with…”

Trixie stopped, considered her words and frowned. “No, Trixie made a mistake when she did that. If Maud is uncomfortable with hoofcuffs and gags, and biting… then Trixie will not force it upon her. That would be… monstrous. Even worse, Trixie will not try and justify her mistakes with such… stupid thoughts.”

Trixie stuck her nose up in the air and flicked her tail. “Fluttershy was not that good. She didn’t have the lovely smell like dirt, or delicious taste of grapes.

“She was actually really gross… and did not taste like honey at all, she tasted sour like… mustard…” Trixie knew it was a lie, but she had to make herself believe it was true.

“That sounds absolutely ridiculous, I can assure you that she most likely taste like manipulation,” Babble cooed from somewhere Trixie couldn’t see.

Trixie ignored the voice and began looking at the board with actual interest. There were many pictures, all of which showed Twilight’s friends in different… costumes? One of them had Rainbow Dash wearing some kind of military outfit but her mane was red and white. Another one had Rainbow Dash standing in between two familiar ponies, one of them may have been Pinkie Pie, the other one she wasn’t sure. They both looked angry at the camera. Rainbow Dash however was grinning, scars covered her face, half her ear was missing, and one of her wings was covered in some kind of metal that was actually attached to the base.

“Let me guess, Nightmare Night pictures,” Trixie said.

Babble made an annoying buzzing sound. “Wrong, take a look at the names.”

Names stood on the pictures. The one with the metal winged Rainbow Dash was called AU #3 the other was AU #10. Trixie cocked her head to the side. Looked at some of the other notes and strings pinning to different events and scrunched up her muzzle.

“I don’t get it.”

“AU: alternate universe. Guess what she’s been doing research on,” Babble said.

Trixie smiled. “OH! Goodie, I wanted to know more about this. I had a weird dream you see.” A picture of Starlight stood out, only in this one she was wearing the alicorn amulet while a city burned behind her. The blood stained purple feathers on the earth leading to the camera made Trixie shutter. “That’s Starlight, I saw her in my dream arguing with Twilight about something.”

“Still dreaming of events you shouldn’t know about, I’d dare say you may be some kind of prophet. Though I’m not religious unlike a certain mustard flavored pegasus,” Babble said.

Trixie looked up and scowled. “Okay so she tastes like the sweetest honey you’ve ever had, mixed with a little bit of lemon on the second time we were… she’s very good. I get it, but that’s just a physical thing.”

“Yes, it was the romance, and the fact that she loved you for who you were despite your mistakes that you really liked, the fact that you could talk to her more openly than you can Maud. I’m surprised that it didn’t work out with you two,” Babble said smoothly.

Trixie looked again at the board. Everything seemed to tie back to a single question in the middle of the board. The question was one that Trixie had considered once or twice, but even she didn’t have an answer for it. “Where is Starswirl?”

“Probably murdering millions with his ‘concept’ of fashion. I mean have you seen his ha-“ Babble stopped mid sentence.

Trixie ignored it, if she was lucky this meant she would have some time to actually study this without distraction. The only real light came from in from the door leading to the staircase, and suddenly the air grew cold. A shadow stepped up behind her.

Trixie spun around and saw Bookworm facing her, horn lit up in a bright cherry red light. Four energy spears hung above her head all aimed at Trixie. Trixie gulped.

“What are you doing in there?” Bookworm asked in a low, dangerous tone.

“Looking for stuff on alternate universes,” Trixie answered. She was almost certain that she could not bring up a shield fast enough to block all of the energy spears.

“Did you find anything,” Bookworm asked.

“Uh… that Twilight is obsessed, but that didn’t help me,” Trixie answered. Trixie took a step forward and one of the energy spears flew forward slamming into the ground right next to Trixie’s hoof. It stayed there; the excess heat coming off of it singed her fur a little.

“Don’t. Move.” Bookworm glared at her. Trixie nodded. “You know we’ve had problems with changelings and spies wearing illusions in the past. Twilight has enough secrets, magical research, and artifacts in here to cause a lot of trouble.”

“I-I’m not a changeling,” Trixie defended.

“Why are you in here,” Bookworm asked.

“I wanted to know about alternate universes.”

“Bull!” Bookworm nearly shouted. “Am I to just accept the idea that you willingly broke into Twilight’s tower just to learn about alternate universes? You realize that this is her private domain, and only those with prior permission are allowed in. This is not only a breach in security, but when Twilight finds out about this it will be a breach in trust.”

“Hasn’t Twilight told you, I’m a… a bit nosey,” Trixie admitted. “I’ve probably gotten on her nerves more than enough times when snooping around her stuff.”

“So you’re just a bad friend?” Bookworm asked.

Trixie nodded. “Yeah…”

Bookworm glared at her, there was so much hate sitting right there inside of her eyes. Trixie had never seen such anger before, and was clueless about what to do. The only other pony who had looked like that was Fluttershy, and suddenly every fiber of Trixie’s body was trembling with fear.

She didn’t want to die again.

Bookworm released the spell, let out a frustrated breath and looked up into the dark ceiling of the study. “Deedee, it’s fine. Come down.”

A shadow dropped in front of Trixie and where it landed stood Deedee, a battle axe was held in her hooves and her dark mane obscured her face from Trixie. But Deedee replied to Bookworm, her tone was flat, emotionless, and serious. “If you say so, Wormy.”

Deedee put the battle axe in her mouth and trotted out the door. Bookworm stayed and motioned for Trixie to leave. Once Trixie was out, Bookworm shut and relocked the door behind her. The two led Trixie upstairs. Trixie paused at the door, let out a sigh. She looked over to where Deedee had been and was surprised to find that she had vanished. Deedee was nowhere in sight, but Trixie had no doubts that she could be anywhere with that deadly sharp axe.

Bookworm opened the door and stepped in. Maud and Valiant stood there the suit cases were already packed and they looked ready to leave. Bookworm walked in past them, and stopped to turn around and give a stern look at Trixie.

“You’re family has been very kind and should they ever choose, they are welcomed back here. You on the other hoof,” Bookworm said while pointing directly at Trixie. “Are not welcomed back here. Unless Twilight gives us the word that you had permission to be in there the entire time, I don’t want you back here. We gave you room and board, and you broke into the off limits study, you broke our only rule.”

Trixie looked away, her fear replaced by shame. “I’m sorry…”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it. Now the train will be arriving in a half hour, and I’d appreciate it if you left,” Bookworm said flatly.

Trixie nodded. “Yeah… okay.”

Trixie left, her family followed.

They were on the train and well on their way back home before Maud managed to convince Trixie to talk about what happened. Trixie only left out the conversation with Babble involving Fluttershy. It had no bearing on Trixie’s behavior after all. Maud listened, like always without judgment, and when she was done, Trixie received a hug from Maud and Valiant both.

When this got back to Twilight, Trixie was going to have a really bad time trying to explain her actions.

Comments

[crowscrowcrow]

"I'm not a changeling. I'm just a bad friend." Has to be the best defense against that accusation I've ever heard.

Unless she's using hammer space, I have a hard time buying Dee with a battle axe.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

Two ponies, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and a pink unicorn mare with a long purple and teal striped mane tied into a bun.

Starlight great, also where is she.