Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty: Candle's Light

Heart of Stone

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty: Candle’s Light

Written by TheCrimsonDM

A lot of the snow had turned to ice, and was rather annoying to walk through, and at some points dangerous even. Trixie walked with her family toward the outskirts of the town, where most of the snow had just become hard and crunchy, since almost nopony was willing to clean the roads this far out.

Not only did the snow go over Valiant’s legs, but she also slipped and fell three times while still in town. That’s why she ended up riding coach on Maud’s back. Though she looked frustrated for having to do so. Trixie reminded her that they were going to a library and the filly perked up at that.

The old windmill, as far as Trixie remembered from her childhood was the place of ghost stories and creepy tales. Considering it had been a rundown old building, complete with mold, holes in the walls and roof, along with plants growing along the walls, the building had earned its reputation.

Now looking at it, Trixie could hardly relate it to the windmill of old.

The walls had been repaired and repainted a nice white color. The roof was fixed as well, and the plants had vanished. The giant fan blades also spun gently in the soft wind. This was a really wonderful place to look at now, and the sign that hung over it was evidently even better.

“Glowing Gale Library:

Come read by the Candle Light.”

“They actually found a way to make the name of the Library not sound like a fart joke,” Trixie said amusingly

Maud frowned. “You’ve been talking to my sister too much.”

“It was her that wouldn’t stop making the darn jokes in the first place,” Trixie said. She read the sign again and smiled. “I can’t believe she actually fit her name into too. She’s a nerd.”

“We’re going to a library to study, Lulu. I think we’re all nerds,” Maud said flatly.

Trixie rolled her eyes. “I just need something fairly basic before I go trotting into any Gala, or go outside of town again.”

The place had yet to officially open, and there was a sign pointing that fact out hanging on the door. Trixie wasn’t just here for research though; she was also here to pay a visit to one of her dearest and oldest friends. Trixie knocked.

It only took a few moments before the door opened and Candle Light said in a practiced tone of voice, “I’m sorry, the Library isn’t opened yet. There will be an announce- Trixie!”

Candle Light was wearing a red bathrobe and pink fuzzy slippers. Her mane had curlers in it, and she looked particularly surprised to see Trixie standing there. For a moment she simply stared wide eyed at the small group.

“Um, it’s kinda cold out here,” Trixie said. “May we come in?”

Candle Light blinked, twice. Then she hurried back and out of the way. “Oh, of course. Please do.”

The trio entered into the large first floor and Trixie’s breath was stolen away. Huge shelves packed tight with books were everywhere, several aisles of books created a small labyrinth. Where there weren’t books there were glass cases displaying a dazzling array of various objects. Some of which looked like old tribal artifacts, others really, really old books, and there was even a case devoted to rocks.

Of course Maud would walk straight to the rocks, ignoring the fact that Valiant was turning around and reaching toward the books as though her life depended on it. She was however stuck, looking at rocks.

The door closed behind Trixie and Candle Light smiled softly. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t expect that you would actually take me up on my invitation. If I had known I’d have cleaned up.”

The place was spotless, so Trixie assumed that she was referring to herself. “It’s okay, it sort of just jumped on me today that out of anypony in town, you might be able to help me.”

“Help?” Candle Light asked, dread filled her tone.

“I need to look at some books about magic, illusions specifically,” Trixie said.

Candle Light raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you just ask Twilight?”

“Because she and I are… not so close right now. I uh, got in over my head with princess affairs and right now, the last thing I want to see includes any alicorn princesses,” Trixie admitted.

Candle Light nodded. “I assume you are looking for a spell book or some such. You are after all a magician.”

“Yes, thank you so much, we’ll stay out of your mane,” Trixie promised.

Candle Light looked at the filly. “If you want you can let her go read. The children’s section is over in the corner.”

Trixie’s horn lit up and Candle Light, wrapped in a purple glow, was gently lifted from Maud’s back and onto the floor. Wasting no time, Valiant made a three legged gallop, which probably shouldn’t have looked as funny as Trixie thought it did, over to the non-fiction section. Being as tiny as she was, she could only reach the bottom books, but she managed to find a book of impressive size, and stature.

“Two questions,” Candle Light said. “One; she does know that’s a copy of Equestrian History, volume three, right?”

“Yes,” Trixie said. The filly has a higher reading level than I do… it’s not fair.

“Two; is she injured?” Candle Light asked.

Trixie gave her a soft smile. “Valiant got injured awhile ago. Even though the bone was okay, she still can’t run properly. Actually, she might never be able too. Slipping and falling in the ice several times on our way here did nothing to help.”

Candle Light frowned. “Poor dear. I’ll go and get the books.”

With that Candle Light walked upstairs, opened and door and vanished into the second floor. Trixie walked over to Maud and looked at the rocks with her. Maud’s face was stuck somewhere between shock, and bliss.

“Sparkling Twitanite,” Trixie read aloud. “Chunk of Twitanite, White Twitanite, blue, red, green… why is there so much of this stuff?”

“Twitanite comes in many different sizes and shapes. There are theories stating that Twitanite might be connected to Lunarium. Though that’s not proven since that ore hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years, and may not have existed in the first place,” Maud explained.

“Ugh… rocks, named after princesses,” Trixie grumbled. “I can’t get away from them if I went to the moon…”

“The moon is theorized to be made entirely out of Lunarium,” Maud said.

“Is there a rock for Celestia, or Cadence?” Trixie asked mockingly.

“Celestious is a highly explosive and slightly luminescent ore. They say that it can actually grow plants. I am not sure about Cadance, perhaps she’d have some involvement with the Lovers stone?” Maud said.

“Probably, she’s one giant walking aphrodisiac after all. I’ve never been attracted to somepony so hard, and so fast as when I saw her, that has got to suck,” Trixie said.

The floorboard underneath Maud gave a woeful moan. “You were attracted to her?”

“Not my fault, she has a magical aura or something… and she’s pink,” Trixie said. “You know how I like pink.”

“Right,” Maud said. Not turning to face Trixie. “Did she do anything?”

“She let me cry into her shoulder and treated me like a baby for a minute… wait, are you jealous?” Trixie asked.

“I’m just checking,” Maud said flatly.

“She’s married to a stallion, has a foal, and no interest in mares, I’m pretty sure that you don’t have anything to worry about. Besides she thinks I’m a child, one that was pushed into the deep end of the pool by the bully Luna,” Trixie said.

They stayed silent after that, at least until Moondancer came down levitating a plate with three cups of hot coco on it. The smell made Trixie’s hoofs curl. Moondancer walked up to them and offered a cup to each of them.

“It’s cold outside, I hope these help warm you up,” Moondancer said kindly. Trixie noted that Moondancer’s mane was damp.

Trixie nodded. “Yeah it’s freezing out there. These will help a lot!”

“Thank you,” Maud said.

Trixie sipped from the piping hot liquid. As it ran down her throat her entire body warmed up. It was a gift from the heavens themselves.

“How’s the search going upstairs?” Trixie asked.

“Since we don’t have our magic section up to… um… qualifications, Candle Light has been keeping most of the books upstairs. We plan to add a magic section before we open, but Twilight is being stingy with her books,” Candle Light said. She quickly amended, “I um, I mean I don’t blame her, but it’s just uh, hard to have a magic section when your contractor refuses to give you the proper books or funding. Apparently she’s attached to her books, something about her memories of them.”

Trixie frowned. “Yeah, I guess that can happen… Twilight never struck me as being the kind of pony who would get so attached that she’d refuse to give a book away to a fellow reader. She used to have a saying.”

In unison Trixie and Moondancer both said, in voices mocking Twilight, “A reader today, a leader tomorrow.”

Maud gave them both a suspicious look as they burst into laughter. It was then that Candle Light decided to come back down the stairs, there were five books stacked on her back. She had perfect balance as they never once wavered or tilted when she made her way down to them. She set the books down in front of Trixie and leaned into Moondancer’s side.

“Sorry if we interrupted you two,” Trixie said.

“We were just making ourselves look good,” Candle Light said. “It’s no problem.”

Trixie smiled. “So uh, which one of these would have spells for long lasting illusions?”

“Try Illusions are Real volume three,” Candle Light said.

Trixie lifted it up in her magic and began skimming through the various spells while sipping at her coffee. While she read, she let the others do the talking, and listened in.

“The library looks nice,” Maud said with absolutely no enthusiasm.

“O-oh… um… thank you, I think?” Moondancer said unenthusiastically.

“That’s the way she always sounds. If she says something nice, she means it. So that was certainly a complement,” Candle Light said.

“Oh, in that case, thank you very much,” Moondancer said in a cheery little voice. She was quiet a second. “I-is your filly reading Equestrian History? With a smile?”

“She likes books,” Maud said.

“No, a filly that likes books reads little Red Riding Hoof, this filly likes torture,” Candle Light said.

There was barely a second to act as Trixie saw the blind rage that suddenly consumed Maud’s eyes and sent waves of agonizingly hot anger cascading off of her. Maud moved barely an inch before Trixie’s horn flared up, and Maud sat, as still as a statue, with a purple aura surrounding her. Maud’s eyes never left Candle Light, who wasn’t even looking in their direction. She was actually reading a copy of Ponyville Confidential. Meanwhile Moondancer stared with wide eyes at the situation.

“Maud, calm yourself,” Trixie said in as stern a tone she could make while she was desperately afraid that her wife was about to rip her friend’s head clean off. Trixie then turned to said friend. “Candle Light, that remark you just made was a bad one. Please take it back.”

Candle Light didn’t bother looking up. “What, I’ve read those things. It’s torture on the mind, really awful prose.”

Trixie’s horn began to hurt. She could still feel the murderous intent coming from Maud. Trixie decided to explain the situation, “We adopted Valiant after she had been… hurt by a gang of evil ponies.”

Candle Light lowered the newspaper and looked at Trixie, then at Maud. “Oh… did I cross a line.” she spoke calmly.

“Yes you did.”

“I am deeply sorry, Maud. It was not my intention to insult you or your filly. Please forgive me my insolent tongue,” Candle Light said. She didn’t sound scared, she sounded serious.

Trixie couldn’t hold up the spell any longer and in the instant that it failed, Maud moved at lightning quick speeds. She was in Candle Light’s face in a fraction of a second. For a long moment, Trixie stared in agonizing terror.

“You,” Maud said, her voice as hard as iron and cold as stone, “are forgiven, barely.”

Trixie let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and fell on her back. Maud returned to her seat and sipped at her coco in silence. Moondancer cracked a smile and said in a very calm and quiet voice, “I didn’t know that your daughter was that filly… Valiant Heart. I um, I remember being brought in to look at some of what happened.”

Trixie raised her head, but decided that sitting up was too hard for now. “You were?”

“Oh my yes, Twilight had asked for her best doctor to be on the case and he in turn asked for several opinions and some advice from those he and Twilight both trusted. I was one of them,” Moondancer said.

“What did you think?” Trixie said.

“That she was going to have to have her eye amputated and metal rods inserted into her leg,” Moondancer said without much emotion. “Of course that was only the first couple of x-rays and well… whoever was working magic around to help that poor filly was a miracle worker. She’s recovered from those wounds without much permanent damage. I hear she even kept the eye!”

“She did, and she can sorta see out of it. The eye patch is more or less a personal choice,” Trixie said.

“That’s amazing! Do… do you think I could do some studies, or maybe perform a few tests on her,” Moondancer said, she could barely contain her excitement. “Her ability to heal from such grievous sounds might mean something. Of course there are other tests you should probably have performed on her when she begins having estrous cycles, after all she went through there is a good chance she might not be able to carry a ch-“

“Moondancer,” Maud said with absolute authority. “She’s only six years old, and not a lab rat.” Maud then dropped her voice to a deadly and barely audible whisper. “She’s also my baby, and she will make me grandchildren one day.”

The silence that followed that was so dense that Trixie could almost swim in it. The only sound for a while after that was the sound of Valiant humming to herself as she flipped the pages of the giant book. After so much silence, Trixie jumped back into her own book and continued reading it. At some point, Candle Light and Moondancer apologized and went about the task of organizing the various books, or cleaning the room. It was already clean, but it kept them busy.

Eventually Trixie found the spell she needed. Pulled out a personal journal of hers and began scribbling down notes for it. This spell wasn’t too complex but it took a lot of energy. She might have to practice it all night to get it right.

After that was done, Trixie looked at Maud and lowered her voice so as not to be heard, and said, “Honey bear, you just threatened two of my oldest friends. I know that you’re trying to protect our daughter, but this was going too far. They didn’t mean anything by it.”

Maud replied in a voice just as quiet. “Val doesn’t know about some of our future concerns yet. I want her to believe in things, even if they are impossible… I… I don’t want her to end up like me.”

Trixie nodded. “We can wait to tell her, get her checked up when she’s older. Right now, she just needs our love, and support. I get that, I really do. But can you at least apologize for nearly killing Candle Light. I already turned her into an earth pony, I don’t need you finishing the job.”

That got one very strange look from Maud. “You… transformed her into an earth pony?”

Oh crap. Trixie looked around. Couldn’t find a way out of it and sighed. “Not with magic. What I did to her was worse than any death could be. Please don’t ruin what little amount of friendship I have left with her.”

Maud frowned, stood up and walked over to Candle Light and Moondancer. “I’m sorry.”

That was all Trixie wanted to hear. So after that, they returned the books and got ready to leave. Complete with filly on Maud’s back. Before they could actually depart, Candle Light and Moondancer walked up. Trixie stared again at the pink fuzzy slippers, she wanted a set for herself.

“Trixie, if there is anything else we can do to help you…” Candle Light said. She left the end of the sentence hanging; Trixie knew that Candle Light wanted to help, but that right then, she was probably also wanting some space from the wrath of Maud.

“Thanks,” Trixie replied. “I’m good for now, but I’ll keep in touch, okay.”

Candle Light nodded.

With that said, Trixie and family left.

***

Another dream came to Trixie that night. Or rather another nightmare. Trixie found herself standing in Celestia’s throne room, Red Velvet was standing at the throne, her horn was lit up and she was working some sort of spell. The room was deftly quiet, the kind of silence that should never exist.

“Just watch my back, make sure that nopony goes through that door,” Red Velvet said, her tone was friendly but serious.

Trixie looked at the doors. It was as if time slowed down to a halt. Nothing happened, but she could feel it. A slight rise in the room’s temperature, and a shiver running through her. She knew it was going to happen.

The doors burst open, and Celestia marched through. Her eyes were alight with the kind of fury that she’d seen in a mother when somepony made a crude comment about her daughter. Celestia’s horn lit up, and the room grew hot.

“No, Celestia, wait!” Trixie cried.

Celestia didn’t wait. Her horn flashed fire, and a streak of orange flames flew towards Red Velvet. The mare let out a scream, a horrible scream that just wouldn’t end. Seconds went by, minutes, hours, the scream wouldn’t go away. Finally at long last it died down.

Trixie shivered and shook, her body was cold, and tears ran down her face. She didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to see what Celestia had done to one of her friends.

“Just watch my back, make sure that nopony goes through that door,” Red Velvet said, her tone was friendly but serious.

Trixie looked up, and her stomach sunk. Red Velvet was standing there, her horn was lit up with a red light, a baleful evil red light, and she was smiling. Her entire body was also burning, a good half of it was charred black. Trixie turned toward the door.

Celestia broke in. her horn lit up with an angry fiery wrath. The menacing laughter filled the room, and Trixie could see above her the baleful red orb. It delighted in Trixie’s agony. It wanted to see her fail to protect her loved ones.

As fire raced past Trixie, the red orb taunted her. “You see, this is all your fault. It was because of you that your friend is going to die. She just wanted to do something good and you took that away from her. You ruined everything yet again.”

Red Velvet began screaming that terrible cry.

Trixie covered her ears with her hooves. “NO! Make it stop! Make it stop!”

The red orb laughed again. “It’s your fault she dies!”

The screaming went on, and on, and on until Trixie was sure it couldn’t go on any longer. Once it finally quit, Trixie let out a quiet whimper. For a long moment she stayed still praying that it was all over.

“Just watch my back, make sure that nopony goes through that door,” Red Velvet said, her tone was friendly but serious.