Chapter Seventy Six: Unexpected Betrayal
HEART OF STONE
Chapter Seventy Six: Unexpected Danger
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Yet again Trixie found herself in this desolate forest in the middle of the night. At the very least it was warm here in the Everfree, but then again it was always warm in the Everfree. With a small amount of pain building up in her head, Trixie managed to cast a light spell. Even with some light to see by, Trixie still found the darkness nearly impenetrable. The darkness crept in all around her and it threatened to smother the poor unicorn.
It took awhile with her injured hooves, but Trixie finally arrived at the old deer outpost. The old place creaked and groaned as Trixie made her way up the mushroom staircase towards Red Velvet’s home. Once there Trixie walked inside and found Red Velvet lying down reading a book.
“Fascinating,” Red Velvet said, casually. “The alicorn’s were truly wonderful. Did you know that Celestia has had several of her students ascend to alicornhood over the course of the past thousand years?”
“Yeah, I remember learning a little about that. They all left her after a few years though, right?” Trixie asked, as she stepped inside.
Red Velvet looked up at Trixie with a kind smile. “Hello again, and yes they do have a tendency to leave. It’s rather difficult for an ascended alicorn to cope with a few of the big changes in their lives. Immortality leads to them being forced to watch as their loved ones grow old and die, becoming immortal also leads to great difficulty in giving birth. These two factors typically lead her students to go out and attempt to find the meaning behind life, true inner peace, or anything that will give the will to continue living.
“I believe that only two of her past students have ever returned from their pilgrimage. One of them wanted to meet their old teacher again and discuss plans to grow the kingdom. The other one had learned about Celestia’s ancient sin, and wanted to fix it. These two alicorns got into a conflict, and after a long bloody battle, they were each cursed by Celestia in a vain attempt to stop the fighting.
“Following this Celestia banned all knowledge of the Alicorn Empire, and the origins of Canterlot. Anything that could possible spark a war between her students was made secret and locked away inside her castle. Celestia was enough intelligent to decide against destroying any of the information though. Unfortunately that action lead to another one of her students to go out and rebel, this happened within the past decade,” Red Velvet finished her explanation with a small smile.
“Wow, you really like your history,” Trixie said lamely.
“I simply want the truth. Sometimes the truth is hard to find, and can be difficult to acquire.”
Trixie found a place to lie down in front of Red Velvet before looking up at the tall unicorn with pleading eyes. “I have something to ask you.”
“If you need somepony to change your fur and mane back to normal, you may need to speak to a better pony than I. I’d only ruin it,” Red Velvet explained nervously.
“No, it’s not that,” Trixie said. She took a quick moment to change her fur and mane color back to normal. Now returned to her usual blue self she let out a sigh. “I want my magic to be fixed.”
Concern spread across Red Velvet’s face and for a moment silence filled the large open room. Just as Trixie believed that she would never receive a response Red Velvet finally spoke, “You do realize that this process could very well kill you.”
“I know.”
“And that it will change you.”
“I don’t care, I just want my magic back. I want to be powerful again.”
Red Velvet let out a sigh. “You may regret this afterwards, the changes will be with you for the rest of your life.”
Somewhere deep inside Trixie’s heart, she knew that this was all wrong. Her magic was improving all on its own, but that wasn’t exactly the point. Trixie wanted to be punished for what she had done to Maud, and this was the only way she could think of accomplishing that. Whatever Red Velvet was planning to do seamed horrible, but in the end it didn’t matter. If this killed her, then so be it, if this transformed her, then so be it, if everything ended up alright, she supposed that she’d have to learn how to live with that.
Red Velvet stood up. “I shall return swiftly, there are a few items that I’ll require to do this. If you want you may read up on alicorns. It may help pass the time.” Just as Red Velvet turned around she added, “And you will need to remove your jacket.”
Red Velvet vanished into the backroom afterwards. Trixie removed the stolen jacket and took Red Velvet up on her offer. The book Red Velvet had been reading was missing a proper cover but the first page said all that she needed to know.
”The Seekers of Truth: The Alicorn Empire.
Once long ago before Celestia and Luna were born there was a time of disharmony. None of the three tribes we know of today lived in harmony with the others. The sky raiders from Butterfly Island would continuously raid earth pony villages. The nordic earth ponies were forced to band together with the giants antean, in order to defend their villages. Unicorns were not much better as they worked together with dark forces such as the umbrum to destabilize the other tribes. It looked as though true harmony would never come to be.
One day a new tribe appeared from across the sea, their old homeland gone forever. The new tribe was known as the Alicorns. They first settled in what would now be known as southern Equestria, and built enchanting cities. After seeing the dysfunctional tribes constantly at war, a deep sorrow filled their giant hearts. As the strongest race they saw it as their job, their duty, to help guide the lower tribes along a more peaceful path. Their plans worked too, at least until two young alicorns disappeared one day.
Celestia and Luna were the two sisters that had vanished one day. After having gotten lost in the forest, the two sisters were taken in and raised by some of the other races. Eventually they moved from village to village with a purpose. It took just over a year, but they had managed to unite the tribes under a single banner; their banner.
The two sisters returned to the alicorn empire with an army of the lower races, they all had a single goal in mind, that of destroying the empire that had so lovingly taken care of them. An impossible war was waged, for where the alicorns had power and flight, they lacked two things; willpower, and large numbers.
The war was short but it left the alicorns devastated. Without enough members of their species left to continue on they were doomed to extinction. However the alicorns were offered a kindness from the newly crowned Princess Celestia.
Celestia offered to put the alicorns into a pocket dimension where time would stand still for them, and one day when the world finally became peaceful again she would allow them to return with the chance to start anew. Few alicorns resisted this offer, and those that did all swore the curse of the Crimson Tide on the Princess. It wasn’t long before any alicorns who had escaped Celestia’s spell vanished, either dead or in hiding.
With the alicorns gone from the world Celestia was left in charge of what little remained of the other races. Only a few hundred of any one tribe was left, and many tribes such as the antean were left to either die, or bread with the other races until their unique traits were virtually gone. Anteans were lucky enough to be able to bread with earth ponies, hence why the rare trait of giant earth ponies persists to this day, sadly other races such as the ghost ponies were left to die out.
Time becomes blurred at this point as Celestia and Luna vanished for centauries leaving the tribes to work together or become extinct. They almost all died, but somehow managed to find peace in Equestria. After Celestia and Luna’s reappearance it looked as though things were only going to improve.
Now it’s been just over a thousand years under Celestia’s rulership and we still have not seen the return of the alicorns. So the question remains, where are they, and why haven’t they been returned? Is a thousand years of imprisonment not enough for the poor alicorns? Children, mothers, teachers, and artist were all locked away by Celestia’s order; these were not soldiers, but civilians. Can they not be returned?”
Trixie forced herself to stop reading at that point. As engrossed as she was into the story of the alicorns it looked like Red Velvet was already back and with her levitated a small wooden box, and the very wand that she needed to take back. A sad smile was worn by Red Velvet as she said, “I’m sorry it took so long. Shall we get started?”
***
The wand held a soft blue glow as it was gently held in Red Velvet’s magical grasp. The blue glow from the wand, and the red aura from Red Velvet’s magic fused to make a timid purple light. The box on the other hoof looked much more sinister with its red glow. Something from inside the box drew Trixie’s attention, and a fearful suspicion began to rise inside her. With great effort Trixie forced herself to ignore the box and focus instead on what Red Velvet was doing.
“What are you going to do?” Trixie asked, a slight panic was beginning to rise in her.
Slowly Red Velvet used her hooves to open the wooden box and the malevolent red glow intensified. A sudden urge to peek into the box and take whatever was inside came over Trixie but she managed to fight it off, barely. There was something familiar about the glow which only raised Trixie’s suspicion.
“I will be using these two artifacts in conjunction with some ancient bones to change you. It will be an excruciating process, in fact there is a very high death rate for this ritual. This method was discovered a very long time ago, it’s almost like a shortcut to something that you shouldn’t be able to obtain without great effort, and death. Usually this ritual takes a sacrifice to work, but with this much magic I should be able to cheat, although it’s going to destroy one of the artifacts,” Red Velvet explained.
Suddenly Red Velvet’s horn became brighter as she lifted the object from the box. The amulet she pulled out was vaguely shaped like an alicorn with a glowing red gem in its center. This was the Alicorn Amulet, the very thing that started Trixie’s life into the downward spiral that almost ended in her death. Suddenly Red Velvet’s powerful magic made a lot more sense.
“I believe that we can thank King Sombra, and his cohorts, for this amulet, although I personally try to use it as little as possible. Its tainted magic is very dangerous over periods of prolonged exposure.” Red Velvet slipped the necklace around her neck and suddenly Trixie reached out with a hoof to grab it.
Trixie stopped as a red beam shot out from Red Velvets horn, hitting the wand and then bounced back into the box. The only thing she could do was watch in horror as a few bones were lifted out of the box and floated in the air for only a moment before turning into ash.
“Wait,” Trixie cried out, her heart racing as panic took over. “Please stop, I changed my mind!”
A soft smile crossed Red Velvet’s lips. “Well I haven’t.”
The ash flew with sudden eagerness at Trixie! The ash collided with her face, causing Trixie to cough as the bone dust filled her nostrils and lungs. It tasted like dirt and she wanted nothing to do with it. Her eyes watered and her throat constricted as it became harder to breath.
A dark feeling pressed over Trixie’s heart and spread out over her entire body. Her mind felt clouded as she tried to process what was happening. A burning fire filled her lungs as she continued fighting for air, the struggle was quickly becoming deadly. Finally her back screamed in agony, and burned at the shoulders, her vision began to turn black.
For the first time Trixie caught a glimpse then at the real Red Velvet; the manic look in her eyes, the wicked smile, and the crimson glow from her horn. The scariest moment was when Trixie saw Red Velvet’s shadow; it had wings! Trixie tried to beg for help but only managed to cough even harder. Red Velvet was enjoying this immensely.
“You see my friend, I’ve been watching you ever since my escape last year. If it hadn’t been for an old teacher of mine, I’d still be locked away in that horrible place. I needed somepony to help me. That pony needed to be broken beyond repair, and only after being shattered to the point of death, could they help me.
“Celestia once tried to wipe my existence away from everyponies memories, but thanks to the Heart of Harmony I was able to remove her awful curse. Now that the curse is out of the way, and my magic restored, we can get to work on what needs to be done. First I will transform you into my little monster, and then we will stop him, we will stop Ash.”
Red Velvet stood and the room became cast in a deep red light, black streaks became strikingly visible on the walls. “I’ve done a lot of experimenting for this and it would seem that only a self destructive pony can survive, a pony who wants to be hurt is the only one that can survive the process.
“I’m sorry that I had to break you so hard, Trixie. Nopony should have to suffer like that, but for my mission to be complete, I needed to ruin you.
“I’ve also been changing you, slowly, preparing you for the transformation for a while now. Why do you think that your back has been in so much pain recently?”
The agony in Trixie’s back hit a high point and then something inside her moved! She froze in terror and it moved again. Something was in her back, and it was pushing against her shoulder. A new understanding of the word pain was discovered as the thing slowly clawed its way out of her skin, this was when the screaming began.
Her mind had fogged over and her vision was almost completely black when she decided to look at her back, to see what was killing her. The flesh at her shoulder was torn open, blood running down her sides. A tiny bone was protruding from her shoulder blade, it looked small and strange, with glowing runes etched upon it. The cool night air singed at her open wound and she could do nothing more than whimper.
Suddenly the bone took on a life of its own and it wiggled out, growing slightly. With the new movement came new torment, and Trixie shrieked. Spit flew from her mouth as she screamed, again, and again, and again. Finally her mind gave up and with one final howl of agony Trixie was finally allowed to pass out.
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5994946 Her real name is Candle Light, but everybody calls her Fire Light; because she sets things on fire by accident. It's a nickname.
5987422 I have to admit that I really like it when I get insightful comments from people. It helps me to figure out what I did right, or what I did wrong. In addition I find it amusing when people speculate about what's going on in the story. XD
5995051 I find it a little ironic that you began posting comments today, just as I posted the newest chapter. XD
Wow, you sure posted a lot of comments today, it's been fun reading through them. You have made quite a few good points, although for the interest of story telling telling, I can't confirm any of you're awesome theories. I can however confirm the fact that Trixie makes bad decisions when she's upset, sometimes they are really, really, really bad decisions.
Glad to see you enjoying the story, and thanks for the comments. XD
5995336
It's been a slow day at work, so I had some extra reading time.
I planned to hit them all, but of course as luck would have it I didn't have enough time to read and comment on the last chapter.
Glad you had fun though. I sure did.
Darn.
Fortunately, bad decisions lend themselves to good stories.
The nice thing is I never feel like I have nothing to do, you always have a chapter or more that I haven't read yet ready.
Eventually I'll have to reread the whole thing. Maybe once it is finished. I keep thinking back to how Pinkie described her relationship with Fluttershy early on and if it contained any hints to her feelings back then that I didn't pick up on.
Interesting thought that the process can only work on a pony that doesn't want it to.
I wonder if we are seeing the birth of alicorn Trixie. Considering the theme we've got going here.
Vindication!
Wow, chills down my spine.