Trixie and Maud: Heart of Stone

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Fifty Eight: Web of Despair

HEART OF STONE
Chapter Fifty Eight: Web of Despair
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Cold, dark, and dank were some choice words that Trixie would use to describe the part of the Everfree Forest that she now found herself walking through. There were no roads in sight, neither was there very much light coming through the thick forest canopy above her. Her thought’s went back to how Twilight and her friends had gone through this forest during the return of Nightmare Moon and how scary that must have been, at the very least Trixie had a little light to see by.

It was of very little surprise to Trixie that she felt so lost in these woods now that she was considering the fact that she had only read about how to get to the castle and never saw any maps. It would have been much wiser to actually have somepony guide her, but she feared it was far too late for that. She took another quick look around and felt even more lost then she had before.

Trixie continued onward though, she had already made her choice and now she only had to go through with it. The darkness around her grew even worse as she walked forward. Thick white vines covered the trees around her as she pushed ever deeper into the forest.

As the minutes passed by slowly she felt more and more like something was wrong. She looked at her surroundings again, trying to find anything out of the ordinary. The trees were as dense as ever and the foliage was dark and strange. The white vines were all over the place now forming walls that turned into a path for Trixie to follow. She looked up and saw even more white vines stretching between the treetops and only the faintest of light coming down.

A creaking sound startled Trixie’s heart and she quickly held her breath and stood completely still. She looked around with caution but unfortunately couldn’t see anything too far away. The darkness was simply too thick. She had a way to fight off the darkness though she had dreaded using it before, but that sound made her worry about her surroundings now more than ever.

Trixie’s horn gave out a soft purple glow as she concentrated on an old spell of hers. Her horn began to throb in a dull pain as an orb of light materialized out of nothingness in front of her. The pain swiftly went away but it was enough to remind her that she still couldn’t do any real magic tricks, not until she found out how to get it healed, and Red Velvet was the key to that.

The small orb of light hung just above Trixie’s horn a few inches away and gave out a soft blue glow on the area around her. The darkness around her became more apparent but she could at least make out more details about the things around her. The white vines were covering everything in sight, stretching from tree to tree and there was no end to them in sight. The thing that bothered Trixie the most about the vines themselves was how they looked to be stuck to the tree as though they were adhesive but she couldn’t figure out why.

A few leaves fell gently around her as she stood still staring at the vines. She looked up cautiously and saw six glowing orbs staring down at her. Her heart tensed up and fear shot coldly down her spine as she stared at the orbs. Slowly they approached closer, completely silent as they grew wider. A long green furry leg prodded very gently along the side of the tree, two large black fangs appeared just underneath the six orbs.

Trixie could only stare on fearfully as the creature above her got closer, the orbs revealed to be eyes, the fangs sharp and deadly. The green fur and eight legs prodding along the trees as it made its way downward. The two appendages around its fangs began rubbing against each other in delight as it stared down into Trixie’s wide terrified eyes.

“My, my, my, what do we have here. It looks an awful lot like dinner if you ask me,” the creature said right above Trixie’s defenseless head.

Trixie managed to mutter a response in the most dignified way she could possibly manage, “Sp-sp-spider.”

The giant green spider lunged forward and Trixie’s instincts kicked in as she rolled to the side. The spider slammed hard against the ground where she had just stood not but a moment prior. Just as the spider began to face her she reached out with her magic and unleashed a torrent of flame against the creature’s side. The spider screamed for an instant before the opposite side of the spider exploded and a boiling white substance shot out covering the tree line.

Trixie stood up, her horn was hurting and her head didn’t fare any better. She stood silently for a moment before noticing the vines along the trees were vibrating slightly. Suddenly Trixie knew that these were not vines, these were webs. Trixie cursed herself for not recognizing the signs sooner, had it really been so long since she had fought with giant spiders that she had forgotten what their lairs looked like?

Suddenly a familiar male voice whispered besides her. Babble said, “You may want to consider running an option, also don’t forget, blood magic.”

Trixie looked around and after seeing nothing decided to listen to her crazy and began running away. She didn’t know where she was going, but any direction was at least a chance to get away. She looked down gloomily at her right foreleg as she galloped through the woods and cringed. What she was about to do was going to hurt, but at least it wouldn’t kill her… or at least she hopped it wouldn’t.

***

Trixie leapt over yet another fallen tree branch as she galloped at full speed through this forest of nightmares. The forest was a maze of webs that blocked off her escape and made things progressively harder, on top that it was getting more difficult to maneuver through. She made yet another quick turn avoiding another wall of webs and came to a sliding stop. She stared with fearful eyes at the webs ahead of her, they were everywhere with no visible exit in sight.

“Darn it!” Trixie cursed as she turned around hoping to find another exit.

She began galloping back and found another path. She stopped just long enough to look at where she had come from and thanks to the floating orb of blue light she was able to see all the glimmering orbs staring at her. Spiders, spiders were everywhere and they were coming for her.

Trixie choose the new path and took off in a panicked gallop praying to Celestia that she could make it out alive. The walls of web that strung between the trees grew closer together causing Trixie to watch her step more carefully, but even so it looked like this was a straight path through. She could only hope that it would lead to an exit.

“Why?” Trixie asked herself as she continued her gallop. “Why did we do this?” She knew the answer to that though, she was trying to save Pinkie’s and Maud’s relationship; it was already damaged enough, if it got any worse their relationship would break.

As the walls got narrower around and the ground cluttered with branches, rocks, and bones she was forced to slow her gallop down to a quick trot. She could hear the sounds the creaking of branches behind her, and worse yet she felt like she was surrounded by the monsters on every side.

The corridor of webs she was in finally ended and Trixie stopped moving. Her heart sunk as she stared at the old brick wall that blocked off her exit and she knew then and there that she was a dead mare. “Trixie is so sorry Maud, we promised we wouldn’t do this to you… and look at what Trixie has done now.”

Trixie turned and using some more magic she expanded the orb of light and cast a brilliant blue light across the area. Trixie saw the spiders in the trees, each one as large as she was. She also saw the spiders that were on the ground chasing her. Each one looked at her with hungry eyes, their mouth appendages rubbing together in sheer delight of their new meal. Trixie walked backwards slowly while grinding her teeth together.

If she was going to go out, she was determined not to go alone. Trixie looked down at her right foreleg and frowned at the gash that had been torn into it. Trixie had purposely cut herself in hopes that it would let her use her magic with less hindrance; she had been right.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is about to show you what magic really is. Taste Trixie’s incredible blood magic!” Trixie shouted as she channeled magic into her horn.

Her leg began burning where the cut was and Trixie felt the hot blood running down her foreleg. She ignored it as she summoned forth the energy to destroy her enemies. Her horn flashed and a bright orange flame shot out like a flamethrower and the webs around her caught aflame. The fire swathed the area before her, smothering everything in sight with flame.

The spiders caught in her attack screamed and fell to the ground. Trixie’s stomach lurched every time one of the spiders exploded. The longer she kept her attack going, the more her leg burned. Trixie let up the spell after a few moments and watched as the spiders that were left began to retreat. Trixie had not expected to see them turn in terror at her stunning performance, but she was happy with this outcome. Maybe she would get out of this forest alive after all.

Trixie examined her foreleg only to find it coated in crimson, this was not a good sign at all. Suddenly the still burning webs that were around her fell to the ground and Trixie saw her doom. Two giant spiders with blue hair jumped out from the tree cover on either side of Trixie. She tried to move but her world spun suddenly and she fell forward. The spiders landed, their legs pushed her down with incredible strength and in conjunction they sunk there fangs into her shoulders.

Trixie let out a terrible cry as white hot pain flashed across her shoulders but quickly went numb. The spiders pulled their fangs out with a sickening pop and Trixie’s vision began to blur. Trixie felt the world spinning around her as the spiders rolled her over onto her back. She felt something warm and sticky covering her fur.

She wasn’t done yet though, and with a mighty effort she used her magic to summon forth another spray of fire and covered the two spiders around her with the hot flames. The spiders screamed, fell, and exploded. Trixie hated it when spiders exploded but it was the fastest way to kill them.

Her strength was draining quickly but she managed to push herself up off the ground. She saw a few strands of web were surrounding her middle section, she tried to pry them off with telekinesis but found that the web was not wanting to move. She left the web on as she walked with slow steps toward the brick wall. With the webs around her now destroyed she could see an old wooden door and moved towards it with increasingly difficult effort.

She used her magic to open the door and walk inside, she shut the door once inside. The orb of light illuminated the small building. The room was still very dark even with the orb of light, but she could see a table, a chair, a bed and some shelves. Books were scattered all over the floor and a layer of dust covered everything in sight.

With careful and slow steps she walked towards the table but with every step the room got darker. When she got half way to the table her forelegs went numb and she fell to the cold ground, hard. The fall didn’t hurt and she didn’t care, there weren’t any spiders in here and that was all that mattered. The room was getting darker.

She saw an open book in front of her lying on its side. Trixie carefully used telekinesis to lift it up and read the mouth writing. It was written with poor skill and she could only wonder why this was here. It didn’t look all that old, but it was here in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

“I know that this plan has taken a long time to come to fruition. I had to wait for so long just to be able to free that despicable creature from the depths of Tartarus. I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t needed, and I wish that I could only tell Celestia of what I plan on doing. Celestia would never agree to this though. We need to stop them, someway somehow. I will sacrifice everything in order to make this work, my reputation, my family, even my life.

Should you ever find this my princess, please know how deeply sorry I am for doing this to you. With the greatest of apologies, Starswirl.”

Trixie stared in silence at the book as the world got darker. She tried to read more but it was already too dark to read anymore. Trixie closed her eyes, they felt so heavy now, why? Her brain felt slow, and fogged but she knew one thing for certain. Twilight could never see this book, protecting Twilight’s faith in her hero was the least that Trixie could do.

The world slowly slipped away from Trixie’s grasp as she felt herself being pulled to someplace far away. Whatever it was, Trixie was too tired to fight it.

Comments

[TheCrimsonDM]

5647607 technically, the show itself is considered Slice of Life. And the first two episodes star the mane six going out and defeating Nightmare Moon. Adventure seems to be a simple part of "normal" life in Equestria. But in all seriousness I originally wanted to add the adventure tag as well, but the system only lets me choose one. So I choose the one that fit the story most.

[crowscrowcrow]

Wow, I somehow missed two updates? Better correct that.

Just as the spider began to face her she reached out with her magic and unleashed a torrent of flame against the creature’s side. The spider screamed for an instant before the opposite side of the spider exploded and a boiling white substance shot out covering the tree line.

Damn, Trixie. Not bad for a magic cripple. Though I am surprised that this didn't appear to come with any pain or bleeding. Maybe she'll find out what the toll was a little later, when she's coughing up another lung. Later on she has cut her leg to facilitate her magic use, but I don't think she had yet during this scene.

Trixie just killed something like five sentient creatures after she stormed into their home. I hope that doesn't come back to bite her when anypony else finds out. On the other hand, it might be interesting to see what kind of fallout that might cause. The manesix (except twi) never really killed anything, let alone a person. Even with the deep ones it is questionable if killing a hivemind creature really constitutes as killing a person, but now...

It didn’t look all that old, but it was here in the middle of the Everfree Forest.
-
With the greatest of apologies, Starswirl.”

Huh, supposedly Starswirl lived a thousand years ago or so. Perhaps he enchanted the book somehow to make it withstand the passage of time easily, or Starswirl has been around much more recently than was commonly believed. The text does seem to indicate that he has been working without Celestia's knowledge, and that he waited a long time for his chance. Either option seems feasible. Maybe we'll learn more when, (or if), Trixie wakes up.