Chapter Twenty Five: Burned
HEART OF STONE
Chapter Twenty Five: Burned
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Twilight smiled and said, “thank you. I’ll come and get you the second I get Scath’s location down. For now just try and have…peace. And be sure not to tell anypony, this is a secret.”
Trixie smiled and said, “alright, after I tell Maud I won’t tell anypony else.”
“No, that’s not acceptable. You have to keep it a secret, from everypony even from Maud, and especially Pinkie Pie,” Twilight warned.
“Hmph, I think not Twilight. I have kept secrets from Maud before and it was horrible. This time I will be telling her everything. I will not ask her to come with us, but you cannot stop me from telling her,” Trixie stated finishing with a stomp of her hoof.
Twilight stayed quiet for a long passing moment before she finally said, “alright you can tell her. But make sure she swears to secrecy on this. No pony can know that the mirror pool has been used again. If they think too hard about it…everypony might begin to crumble.”
Trixie wasn’t sure why Twilight was so worried about anypony learning about this, Twilight seemed even more paranoid about Scath than Trixie was. But at least Twilight was looking a little less stressed out after talking to Trixie. Trixie gave Twilight a friendly smile and watched as Twilight left.
Trixie looked towards the stairs wondering about what Pinkie Pie could be doing upstairs. Maud was in the kitchen so they could have a private conversation about this right now without worry of being heard by Pinkie Pie. Trixie only hoped that Pinkie wouldn’t use her powers to cheat…but Trixie suspected Pinkie Pie was above that.
As Trixie approached the kitchen she watched as Pinkie exited it, and blocked her way. Pinkie Pie said in a quiet tone, “follow me.”
Trixie hadn’t realized Pinkie Pie had come downstairs, and the more she thought about it, the less it made sense to her. Trixie could feel a serious air about Pinkie Pie though, and decided to follow her. Trixie began hoping that maybe she was about to get some of the answers that she needed.
After getting up the stairs and inside Pinkie’s room Trixie found her senses assailed by the strong scent of pine. “What is that smell?” Trixie asked covering her nose.
Pinkie Pie let out a sigh before saying, “that’s pine scented cleanser. It’s really strong, I spent the night at Fluttershy’s and borrowed some from her in the morning.”
Trixie looked up at Pinkie and said, “why would you need something that strong…oh...never mind.” Trixie looked away from Pinkie feeling ashamed of everything she had done with Maud the night before.
Pinkie Pie was quiet for a minute before she explained, “my Pinkie Sense went all crazy a little while ago. Did something happen between you and Maud?”
Trixie’s heart hurt a little as she remembered how angry Maud had been. Trixie refused to make eye contact with Pinkie while she explained, “I asked her about what had happened between you and her…I know something bad happened, I just wanted to help. But when I asked her, she got…angry. It…it scared me a little.”
Pinkie Pie wrapped a leg around Trixie’s neck and pulled her into an embrace. She held Trixie for a minute before finally saying, “I know how hard it is, but you have to stop asking her about that. It was all just a very bad accident.”
Trixie pushed away from Pinkie Pie and said, “but I have told her about everything that I’ve done, at least all that I can remember. My memory isn’t as good as it should be.”
Pinkie Pie cocked her head to the side and asked, “do you have memory loss?”
Trixie nodded and said, “it’s hard to remember things from when I went untreated. Sometimes a memory will come out of the blue and surprise me. But when it comes to the time I wore the amulet, my memory is virtually null.”
Pinkie Pie looked confused for a minute before saying, “of course it’s virtually no. you went through some tough things.”
Trixie opened her mouth to explain what null meant to the pink fluffy brained pony, but stopped as Pinkie put a hoof up. Pinkie Pie asked, “do you trust Maud?”
Trixie nodded and said, “of course I do, she means everything to me.”
“Good. Then trust her to talk to you when she is ready. Maud’s heart moves slowly, but surely. If you be patient then she will tell you everything eventually. She might tell you tonight, or maybe in a few years. But you need to wait for her to be ready. She doesn’t just fall in love with anypony, she chose you Trixie. Take pride in that fact that you pierced her heart…her heart of stone,” Pinkie Pie explained nearly giggling as she said the last part.
It was embarrassing to hear Pinkie Pie repeat that thing Trixie had said to Maud in her song. It was only a song. Hopefully this wouldn’t catch on with the other ponies. She could only imagine them teasing her about it. Trixie let out a sigh, and forgot her own embarrassment for the moment.
It made sense that Maud would take things slower than normal ponies. She never seemed to be one for moving fast in a relationship…Trixie then said, “but wait, Maud tried to sleep with me after only a week of actually dating her.”
Pinkie Pie looked away with a slight blush on her face saying, “I said her heart, Maud’s other parts have always been more active than that. She experiences things through physical actions.”
“Yes that’s true, but Maud’s still a pervert. I mean she has asked me to do some very um…never mind,” Trixie stopped complaining as she realized she might’ve liked those things a little more then she should have.
Pinkie rolled her eyes and said, “I know right. One time when she was in collage I spent the night with her in her dorm. She brought some stallion in late at night, and did things with him. I wouldn’t have minded if I was asleep but apparently he was so good that she began to whinny, so loud that everypony in that wing knew what she was up too…and I was stuck pretending to sleep on the floor.”
Trixie stared in amazement at Pinkie’s story for a moment before realizing that Pinkie Pie had just said that Maud whinnied…Trixie had never heard such noises while being intimate with Maud. Was Trixie not good enough? Was this stallion better than her? Did Maud prefer stallions? Trixie couldn’t figure out whether to be angry or depressed about this.
Pinkie Pie seemed to catch on to the fact that something was wrong. Pinkie Pie coughed a few times distracting Trixie. Pinkie then said, “soooo….you need to trust Maud okay. Think of this as a test, your first big test for your relationship. Don’t push Maud on this, or you will hurt her.”
Trixie forced her fears about Maud and stallions to the back of her mind before saying, “Of course, Trixie is the best at all tests. Trixie went through school with flying colors after all. Even graduating early and with honors.”
Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “wow you graduated. That beats me, by a long shot.”
Trixie grinned, she was proud of her talents. She then turned towards the door and said, “The great and educated Trixie needs to go research…and…oh crap.” Trixie hadn’t meant to say the great and anything. She looked towards her suitcase next to the guest bed and contemplated taking a look at her med’s. But she worried about possibly overmedicating herself, it was one thing to miss a day of meds but to overmedicate…could be very serious. Trixie convinced herself that she had been simply having a rough day, that’s why she broke into character.
***
Trixie walked back downstairs and into the kitchen. There she found Maud washing her hooves. All the dishes were now clean. It was only polite to wash the dishes since they had used them. She walked up to Maud nice and quietly hoping not to disturb her. When Trixie was close she leaned into Maud’s ear and whispered, “I love you.”
Maud jolted and jumped to the side. Maud had never been so jumpy before, and Trixie noticed Maud’s eyes had been raised in the slightest hint of surprise. Maud quickly recomposed herself before saying, “you shouldn’t do that Lulu.”
Maud was still acting strange. It worried Trixie to see Maud like this. “Is something wrong?”
Maud looked around cautiously for a few seconds before saying, “I’m sorry about getting angry with you.”
“You’ve had a rough day, so have I. But everything is better now right? So why are you still so jumpy and worried?” Trixie asked.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the air that lasted for what felt like an eternity. Trixie finally gave up on getting an answer and said, “that’s okay. Look Maud I messed up when I kept secrets from you, and I’m sorry. I won’t make the same mistake again. I trust you.”
Maud gave Trixie a small smile, and Trixie could feel a warm happy sensation coming from Maud. It was still laced with an undertone of fear though, and Trixie didn’t like that at all. Trixie could only hope that she could help Maud out somehow.
After a moment’s hesitation Trixie finally said, “I…uh have business with Twilight today. I need to go and help her stop Scath…it’s supposed to be super secret and stuff. So don’t tell anypony, especially don’t tell Pinkie Pie anything about Scath.”
Trixie stayed quiet for a few moments longer and then added, “I’m also going out to do some research today. I’ll be busy at the Library so if you need me come looking there.”
Maud stayed quiet and even avoided Trixie’s eyes. She could feel a deep pain and fear coming from Maud as the happiness faded, but Trixie couldn’t think of how to help her. Trixie leaned in and kissed Maud softly on the cheek before turning and walking away. Trixie felt hurt that Maud wouldn’t let her in, but Maud was socially awkward. Maybe Maud just needed time to figure out how to say what was on her mind to Trixie.
Maud finally said, “Lulu…you aren’t the monster. You know that right?”
Trixie looked back and smiled saying, “of course. But I still need to stop Scath, she did come from me and it’s my job to clean this mess up. Maybe if I do this, I can be redeemed completely. I mean I will be taking down my own evil…so that could work…maybe.”
Maud wasn’t smiling, not even on the inside. Maud only looked away, saying, “be careful Lulu. I need you to be okay, for me.”
“I promise,” Trixie said. With that she left the house and made her way outside into Ponyville. Today she was going to find the library and do some research. Nopony was going to stop her from her research. At least nopony save Twilight should she find out where Scath was.
***
After an hour or so of searching the town, Trixie gave up on finding it by herself. She had searched all over for the Golden Oaks Library but she could not seem to find it anywhere. Although she didn’t feel any strong emotions towards her today, she still didn’t dare ask for directions. The lack of strong emotions from other ponies was kind of nice, though it was strange.
Eventually she found a nice quiet part of town to sit down for a rest. She laid her back against the trunk of giant, broken, and dead tree, and set her book bag softly on the ground. The body of this tree had been destroyed, and over half of the tree was missing. The idea of lightning having struck here played in her mind. The tree trunk was so big that it must have been impossible to remove.
Trixie relaxed and let out a tired sigh. She had many things to think about now, things she didn’t want to think about of course. Twilight had acted very strange when talking about the Pinkie Pie clones. That being said Trixie only half believed Twilight about them. For all Trixie knew it could simply be a paranoid delusion on Twilight’s part.
Maud was still acting strange, and walled off. It was very concerning to Trixie that Maud wouldn’t let her in, but Pinkie was right. This was a matter of Trust, and Trixie must’ve seemed pretty untrustworthy right now. Trixie still remembered how scary Maud had been when she got angry, and that worried Trixie.
Trixie then remembered what Pinkie Pie had said about Maud’s experience with…stallions. It hurt Trixie to think, that Maud enjoyed the touch of other ponies more than her own. At the very same time it made Trixie angry at her own failure to please Maud. Trixie wished she could only distract herself from these torturous thoughts.
If only she could find the library, she could take her mind of these things and do some research. But she simply couldn’t remember where the Library had been. It was a beautiful Library, made from a hollowed out but still living tree. It was lovely, simply lovely, and the owner was always so kind to Trixie and her mother.
Letting out another sigh Trixie began pawing at the dirt underneath her hoping it would distract her from the ever darker thoughts. To her surprise Trixie felt something hard just underneath the soft earth. Trixie began digging a little deeper and found a book. She had to wonder at how it had gotten there.
The book was in fairly nice shape, not having been damaged by the dirt at all. But there were scorch marks on the book for some reason. Trixie found this to be a very curious thing. Why would a scorched book, be buried just underneath a broken and dead tree. Trixie simply couldn’t figure it out. She was missing something.
Trixie quickly put the book she found into her bag. She had brought the book bag hoping to bring home a number of books from the library. Trixie then began softly digging into the dirt around the base of this large tree. She found some shards of glass, a few pages of burnt paper, and a broken burned picture frame.
Trixie sat all these things down and examined them. The picture frame was burnt and broken, with no picture to be found inside. The pages were all stained with dirt, and/or burned too heavily to read. The book however was something she could work with. There was a small purple lock on the side of the book, but it was damaged from whatever had befallen it. Trixie very easily broke the lock off with a rock.
Excitement filled Trixie’s heart as she opened the mysterious book to find out more about it. Looking upon the first page she found something she had never expected too. The book read.
“Journal entry: day one. Ponyville.
Princess Celestia has asked me to come down here to Ponyville to check on the preparations of this year’s Summer Sun Festival. That would be fine, if it wasn’t for the crazy inconsiderate ponies that all seem to fester in this little back water town. Everypony here is either completely insane, self absorbed, or rude to the point of driving me insane.
I have done well in not acting out, yet. I fear the longer I stay here the more I will lose control over myself. The worst part was when that pink haired freak broke into my new and temporary home, and with half the town threw a surprise ‘party’ for me. Surprise is quite right, but a party it was not. I can still hear them destroying my home downstairs with their loud music, and social…whatever.
Is it too much to ask for some peace and quiet for once? How am I to become the next Starswirl if I am bogged down by others like this. I have a terrible migraine and just want some sleep before the end of the world tomorrow. Did I forget to mention that, I probably should’ve started this log with that. Too late for that now, in fact it is too late for anything, especially a party.
Nightmare Moon is about to be released and I will have to be prepared to deal with her. None of my combat spells are going to be effective I fear. And my horn is not nearly sharp enough to pierce such a monster’s heart. If I am to win this, I will need to find these so called elements of harmony and use them to destroy her.
Destroying threats to Celestia is what I have been trained for after all.”
Trixie stared in amazement at this diary, it was written in such a familiar script. It reminded her of what her own diary used to look like, but that has long since been destroyed. Trixie was curious to find out just who could have written this book. Fascination had taken over Trixie’s mind and all she could think about was her curiosity. Although it bothered Trixie to hear that somepony would even joke about using their horn for melee combat. That was against everything that unicorns believed. Now held by a deeper curiosity she continued to read.
“Journal entry: day two. Ponyville.
As a habit I started a new journal when I came to Ponyville. However I had not expected it to turn out this way. I have an amazing tale of what happened with Nightmare Moon, but I won’t bother you with every little detail of the story. If you’re reading this, then you would probably have already heard most the tale by now anyway.
I was in despair when Celestia had disappeared, I feared the absolute worst. I ventured off alone to fight the evil that is Nightmare Moon but the ponies who I had considered to be rude, and inconsiderate followed me. I simply couldn’t shake them, but that was to my benefit.
The trials we faced in the Everfree Forest led me to believe that I had come across the very elements of harmony I was looking for. My…friends had come to my aid when I needed it most. I figured out that I was the element of friendship magic, and with that realization I was able to channel the Elements of Harmony into a rainbow beam of pure magical force.
At first I had hoped to destroy Nightmare Moon. However when the smoke had cleared I saw not a nightmarish monster before me, but the most beautiful mare I had ever seen. Princess Luna. She looks just about my age, and she is only a little taller then me. Her short light blue mane, and her soft blue fur. I couldn’t stop staring in wonder, I had never thought about what a young Alicorn would look like before. I was…pleased to say the least. Then I saw Celestia reappear.
Celestia and her sister Luna were brought together again. And for the first time in…a long time, I had felt truly satisfied…and happy. I was surrounded by friends, and had saved the day without killing anything. It was so nice to be able to be an actual hero for once. All I ever seemed good at in the past was destroying Celestia’s enemies.
Now I have been given permission to live in Ponyville, so I could stay with my friends. I might never have to fight again. It would be so nice if I could live here peacefully without ever needing to enter battle again. Celestia even promised that she would stop asking me to go on those dangerous missions if I studied the ‘magic of friendship’. That sounds like a load of excrement, but I can at least pretend to study it and enjoy peace for once. Spike also enjoys the idea of a peaceful life here.
I will miss my royal tower in Canterlot but at least the Golden Oaks Library will serve as a perfect home for me. Like Starswirl before me, I will become the best magician in all of Equestria. And never again will I have to deal with politics.”
Trixie closed the book and placed it very carefully back into her saddlebags. The element of magic was Twilight Sparkle, everypony knew that. It dawned on Trixie that this had been Twilight’s…diary. Trixie had no idea how this could have even arrived here at the base of this dead broken tree.
Looking up at the tree Trixie felt that she needed to know more about it. Maybe this tree was a favorite spot of Twilight Sparkle’s or…no Trixie refused to believe it could be true. She ran around the tree until she reached a large opening on the opposite side of the tree.
The inside of the tree was hollow. Burned ash and lumber were strewn around the inner base of the tree. The base of a broken staircase, badly burned, could be seen inside as well. Underneath the ash was what Trixie could barely make out as being books. Completely destroyed and ruined, but they were still books.
Taking a few steps back in horror at what she now knew was true. Trixie felt tears begin to run down her face. The old library, the Golden Oaks Library, was destroyed and in ruin. Trixie shook with a mixture of fear, anger, and loss. Twilight had not only destroyed her wagon home, and every single item she had ever owned. Now Twilight has taken from her the only place that she could remember fondly from her foalhood. Was Twilight out to completely destroy everything that Trixie ever cherished?
It didn’t matter, her hopes of learning anything about her father. Or Celestia’s Heroes for that matter were now completely gone. Trixie forced the pain back down and remembered Twilight’s diary that was still in her saddlebags. “Well if she thinks she is getting this back, then she is dead wrong. Trixie will keep this as a token of repayment for this tragedy. At least until Trixie has finished reading it.”
With that Trixie stomped off angrily in a random direction. She may not ever get revenge on Twilight but that didn’t mean that she was going to easily forgive her either. The sin of destroying a library, especially one that belonged to Trixie’s memories so fondly was simply unforgivable. It would take much groveling on Twilight’s part for Trixie to forgive her.
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5215262
Alright. It fitted in well enough with what was portrayed in the show that I felt compelled to check. Like we see Twilight turn 'discorded' on her own when she loses hope. And we have Pinkie who does something similar, on the other hoof... it's Pinkie. I heard a thing or two about the comics which made me wonder if the idea came from there, but since it hasn't I'll have to see what you do with it.
I just finished editing a few mistakes I made with this chapter. Apparently I had misused the italic button, and a few others as well. I even acidently added the wrong name somewhere it really shouldn't have been.
Sorry about those mistakes. I guess I'm still learning how to use this website, lol.
Makes sense. I like this interpretation for Maud.
Awh, Trixie's selfworth takes another clothesline to the throat.
Oh my.
Interesting to see that Twilight is writing her journal with the expectation that someone else will read it in the future. Perhaps in the same way that she probably has read journals of famous ponies in history, such as Starswirl, if any of his journals survived.
Mhm, just what has Celestia been making Twilight do? Her paranoia is starting to seem a bit more justified now. She's had to kill various threats already? No wonder she was closed off. Mhm, could Twilight&Spike have been part of Celestia's Heroes? Also, that description of princess Luna seems to be just a little too detailed for casual observation, do I sense a subtle ship in the background?
This is going to be a fun confrontation eventually.
Notes:
I'll just underline them unless it is not obvious.
Huh, really? Well done!
5226928 Thank you. XD
I'm always glad to see people enjoying the story. and when it comes to Twilight Sparkle, I always thought it was weird how Celestia just tosses her into danger without really considering the threat level. I mean Celestia sent the group against an Ancient Dragon. that could have gone wrong in so many ways, thankfully they lucked out and had the power of The Stare.
So the theory that Twilight was trained to go up against such dangers began, it especially shows true in the Canterlot Wedding episodes. Twilight is one heck of a fighter. She just seems to be against the idea usually.
Again thanks for reading the story. XD
Trixie, take your meds