O Blessed Night

by Dafaddah

Was it worth the wait?

Trixie

Trixie's horn glowed brighter for a moment. Light and shadow outlined in monochrome starkness starvation’s contours on the pegasus stallion and earth pony mare hiding in the barrow she’d discovered. Seeing fear in the pair’s eyes, she winked conspiratorially. “Now those soldiers can’t see or hear us! We are safe in here, so long as none of those crystal oafs physically blunders into our hiding place.”

The stallion and the mare stood unmoving, with only the tremors of their bony limbs giving hint that they were living creatures.

“Tsk. Trixie has a tough crowd tonight! ” Her brow furrowed. “Well, if even the greatest of tricks is not appreciated –” out of her saddlebags she floated a loaf of moonwheat bread “– perhaps this audience is more in need of a treat!”

The earth mare’s eyes grew wide as dinner plates and never once left the loaf as she stepped forward, pushing aside the frail stallion and sinking to her haunches before Trixie. “Charlie! She ‘as bread!”

The stallion, warily picked himself up and settled carefully next to the mare. “I can see dat, Francine.” He smiled at Trixie through cracked lips. “We ‘aven’t seen bread since... since... I done remember.”

Trixie sighed, and with a flourish of her hoof the loaf split into slices, several of which moved to hover several inches in front of each pony’s muzzle. Patiently she waited for them to take the food.

With tears in her eyes and with a trembling hoof the mare pushed one of her slices over to the stallion’s stack. “Ee’s starving,” she said in a gravely voice. “Ee needs more.”

The stallion turned a slack-jawed gaze to the mare. His mouth closed to protest when the mare clocked him solidly on the withers with a hoof. “Mange pi ferme ta gueule, toé!”

Trixie hid her smile behind a discrete hoof and watched as the two began to eat in silence. She was surprised when, given their obvious hunger, they took their time, savoring and chewing each bite as if it was their last.

While they ate, Trixie nibbled happily on the heels of the loaf, which she’d kept for herself. She’d found over the years that few ponies liked the crusts, which were by far her favorite part of the bread. Her preference didn’t pass unnoticed.

“You always eat de crust?” asked Charlie, smacking his lips then biting into a second slice.

Trixie nodded. “Yes. Since Trixie was just a foal, back in Neigh Orleans.” Her gaze turned inward. “Trixie’s Pappi baked the very best bread in the entire world! Every morning, the smell of it used to fill the house and Trixie would wake up and rush down to the kitchen, where Pappi would cut the first slice, and slather it in butter as golden as the sun itself. Then he’d say Mange tes croûtes, pour devenir grande! and watch Trixie eat it as he cut a second slice for himself.”

Francine’s ears shot up. “Vous parlez Prançais?”

Trixie’s own ears drooped. “Not really. Not anymore, anyway.” She sighed. “It’s been a long time since Trixie spoke any Prench. And the little she had learned as a foal she’s forgotten long, long ago.” She chuckled and winked. “And bedsides, even though Trixie always eats her crusts she’s never been more than average height for a unicorn mare.”

Francine swallowed her last piece of bread and licked the crumbs from her hooves. “Thank you, Madame Trixie,” she said, finally showing a tentative smile and bowing her head low. “I would never have tought dat I would be eating bread for supper when I got up tonight.”

“Life is full of wonders, Non?,” Trixie said, making herself comfortable. “So. How did you two end up in this Luna-forsaken part of the Equestria?”

Francine’s smile faded. She exchanged glances with Charlie. “We came up nort, looking for tings to eat.”

“Yes,” added Charlie. “Dere’s still some food left in the forests, if you know where to look.”

Trixie’s brow furrowed. “The only city within a week of travel is Mountreal. Is that where you came from?”

The ponies nodded in unison.

“But, why would you leave?”

Charlie shrugged. “We ‘ad no work. No work, no food. I tought of all sorts of schemes to feed my Francine –” he rubbed his prominent ribs “–but de charcuterie wouldn’t take my carcass ‘cause I don’t ‘ave no meat on my bones!”

While he laughed dryly Francine made as if to clock the stallion again, but stopped when she saw the look of affection on his muzzle. The motion turned into a one-legged hug.

“Ee’s terrible, I tell you!” She nuzzled Charlie briefly and turned back to Trixie. “If we ‘adn’t left, we would ‘ave starved soon anyway. Since de Long Night came food is power and power is food. We got neider! Out ‘ere, dere’s not much food left,” – she raised both forehooves in a gallic shrug – “but dere’s nopony else looking for it eider.”

Trixie felt her stomach flutter. “Times were tough on everypony after Nightfall. Even Trixie had a few lean months, before she was chosen by the First Citizen herself to become one of her secret agents. But things are very close to the way they were before in Canterlot: they started growing night-crops and now everypony has enough to eat. It isn’t the same in Mountreal?”

Charlie shook his head. “The ponies in power are de only ones dat could afford de prices asked by de seedbaggers.”

Francine chipped in: “And dey made a law against anypony growing food for demselves!”

“How dreadful! Trixie is appalled at these ponies’ misuse of the First Citizen’s generosity.” She stomped a blue hoof, and then winced at the loud sound it made in the confines of the barrow. Trixie motioned the same hoof over her lips then moved it to touch the back of her ear.

They listened in silence for a minute, the only sound the occasional staccato tramp of hooves on the march. “Perhaps,” whispered Trixie, “we had better be discreet until the Crystal Empire’s army has passed us by. This might be a good chance to get some rest.”

She was glad when the two ponies nodded. They all settled down as best they could, the packed earth vibrating against their bellies to the cadence of the passing army.

---

Scootaloo

Behind her on knees and elbows, Spike stared into the thicket into which Thora and Scootaloo had crawled. The slitted pupils of his reptilian eyes were open as wide as they could, giving him night vision way better than that of most ponies, which Scootaloo suspected was, along with his destrier scale size, one more reason he was so effective in defending Ponyville. Unfortunately, his bulk was now his undoing! “Hey girls, there’s no way I’m going to be able to crawl into that tiny hole! Are you sure it’s safe?“

From up ahead, Thora’s childish voice was muffled by the thick underbrush. “Of course it’s safe, this is one of my food growin’ places, I come here all the time and there’s never any critters in here! Well, almost never. And when there is, they’re smaller ’n me and run away, so we’re perfectly safe!“

Crawling behind her in the cramped tunnel, Scootaloo smiled into the gloom. “Awe, feeling a teensy bit overgrown, Spike? I remember when you were shorter than I was! Besides, Thora hid this place pretty ga-ahhh-hahhh!”

“Hey Scoots!” Spike frantically shoved his head into the hole until his broad shoulders were wedged solidly into the dense brambles, preventing any further motion inwards. “What is it? What’s going on?”

Inside the ‘boma’, which is what Thora called her construction, Scootaloo pushed out of the tunnel and up onto all fours. She gulped and stared at the several columns of pale fungus that towered upwards. The moon was barely visible through the thin branches that comprised a minimal roof over the two pony-lengths wide clearing. With a buzz of her stubby insect wings Thora flew up and knocked the top of one of the columns until a chunk of fungus the size of her head broke off, which she nimbly caught in her forelegs before landing in front of Scootaloo. She nibbled a piece from the edge of the white mass in her hooves and swallowed it down with a grin. “See! Belly food!”

She offered the huge piece to the gawking pony. “I’ve seen ponies eat this fungus before and they didn’t get sick,” she declared with satisfaction.

“Spike, you won’t believe this!” said Scootaloo. She sniffed the chunk, then with a shrug took a large bite and swallowed it down while looking up at the fungal growths. “There’s enough here to feed half of Ponyville for a week!”

“Enough of what?” Spike struggled to pull himself free of the opening. “Hey! You don’t even know if that stuff is safe to eat! And don’t go doing anything stupid like eating –”

“Boop!” said Scootallo as she poked him in the muzzle. Spike looked up, surprised at her sudden reappearance in the close confines of the tunnel. She had found him looking over his shoulders in turn. “Caught in the branches?” She licked crumbs of the fungus from her lips. “You’d better figure out how to get unstuck, just in case this stuff does make me sick!”

With a heave Spike managed to free himself and rose to his feet as Scottaloo crawled out, the big greyish lump of fungus still cradled in her forelegs. Close behind, the changeling foal carried several more large chunks of fungus in her magic field.

“There’s way more of that in there!” she exclaimed happily. “And Thora says she has a few more such moon gardens hidden away nearby, and that they’re pretty easy to set up as well.” Behind her the little changeling nodded vigorously, a huge smile on her young face. Scootaloo made to lead the trio back to Sweet Apple Acres. “If I don’t croak on the way home, I’d say our food problems are over!”

---

Trixie

Trixie waved at Francine and Charlie to stay hidden in the thicket. In the moonlight, the last columns from Sombra’s army had emerged from the Porte du Havre, the main gate in and out of the walled city of Mountreal. The tyrant had stayed long enough only to cast half the population under his thrall, and then left with his augmented army. The columns loaded onto the last ship waiting. It cast off to join the rest of Sombra’s fleet navigating the several hundred miles upstream to the Great Lakes and the continental rail hub of Chicacolt.

She squinted up at the sky, and flashed her horn briefly once, then longer, and twice briefly again. In less than a minute a shadow passed between her and the moon, and a sarosian stallion landed next to her, wearing pitch black armour. He approached, head held aloof and his expression neutral as Trixie waited.

Ooh, he’s a young one! And quite handsome! Being the professional mare that she was, Trixie made a mental effort to return to protocol.

“The day is long,” she said to the colt, er stallion!

“But the night is eternal,” he replied. His expression softened. “So you must be Citizen Lulamoon!”

She leaned in and nuzzled him briefly on both cheeks. “Greetings, fellow agent of the Republic! You may call this mare the Great and Powerful Trixie, or just Trixie in a pinch.”

He nodded. “My name is Meteor.” He gestured towards the thicket. “Those two can come out, now.”

Trixie felt heat the rise up to her face. “Of course!” Looking back, she nodded and called out: “Francine! Charlie! This is our expected contact. You can come out.”

“Our?” Meteor gulped as the two skeletal ponies left the bushes and clopped cautiously over to stand in her shadow. “I was told you work alone.”

Trixie shook her head. “Usually Trixie requires no assistants to do her work, but in this case the two ponies shared their shelter when Trixie truly needed it. And as they are locals, they’ve made it much easier for Trixie to spy on Sombra’s army and have been very helpful in gathering intelligence all the way from the northlands to Mountreal.” She looked at the sails of the departing ship in the distance. “However, it looks like our trek is at an end. We can’t keep pace with sailing vessels on hoof.” She sighed and shrugged. “Meteor, you will have to fly onwards on this mission alone.”

“Ahem!” said Francine. “Per’aps we can ’elp.”

Trixie and Meteor turned in unison towards the scrawny mare.

“I know dis colt in de port wit a fast boat. Ee’s been runnin’ bootleg into Equestria for years and ‘as never been caught. I’m sure he could be ‘ired to carry us, for de right price.”

Meteor made a dubious face. “Do we do stuff like hire criminals in Her Secret Service, Trixie?”

Trixie’s brow furrowed and her eyes widened. “But, of course. All the time, in fact!” It occurred to her that perhaps this young agent was not the most experienced in the stable. “So tell me, have you been in the service long?”

Meteor raised a forehoof, rubbed the back of his head, and grinned sheepishly. “Actually, this is my second day on the job. The First Citizen said to get here fast, and well, I guess I did.” Seeing the shocked look on Trixie’s muzzle he quickly added. “I suspect she was hoping you would train me in the rest of this business.”

Trixie swallowed. “So what do you know about being an agent so far?”

“The verification phrase, and Morse code for one letter.” He smiled brightly. “But I am a fast learner!”

Trixie nodded slowly. “Trixie is most certain you are...” She turned back towards Francine and Charlie. “Go hire the boat. And make sure it has room for four of us.”

She followed the scrawny pair chatting happily with Meteor as they led them down towards the docks. She somehow couldn’t concentrate on what they were saying.

Two days! What was she thinking!

---

Diamond Tiara

“Mush-room! Mush-room! Mush-room!” Little hooves banged the huge slabs of the kitchen table in time with the words. Sonny and Goldy sat to either side of Thora who, after several moments of careful observation, added her voice and hooves to those of the other two youngsters.

Diamond Tiara sighed and rolled her eyes while patiently stirring a large pot of fragrant white fungus.

“Kids, you know you can’t eat the new food Thora found until three suppers after it’s been tasted by one of the grownups. And it’s only been two nights.”

“But it smells so good,” observed her son, “how can it be bad?”

“Soap smells good, too, but if you ate it it would give you a tummyache, wouldn’t it?”

Her son was not that easily brushed off.

“But you’re cooking a whole lot of it for other ponies! How come they get to eat it?”

“Because they’re adults, and Scootaloo didn’t get sick after she ate it, and with the damage to the carrot patch the other night we need some other food for those ponies now.”

“But... Thora can eat it,” Sonny insisted, “and she’s the same age as me! How come she can eat it and I can’t?”

“Because she’s a changeling and we already know it’s safe for her,” said Diamond.

“How come we know it’s safe for changelings?” asked Goldy.

“Because her mother, the changeling queen, told her so. And she’s been eating it for years.”

Goldy’s eyes grew wide and a huge smile split her muzzle. “If Thora’s mom is a queen, does that mean Thora is a princess?”

Diamond considered as she added some spices into the pot. While nutritious, the fungus had a rather subtle flavour that she was trying to bring out. The fragrance rising in the steam seemed to argue that she might have succeeded! “I guess that does, dearie.“

“Then if Princess Thora says we can eat the mushrooms, then aren’t we supposed to obey her?“

“She is not your mother, I am, and that’s the end of it!” From the corner of her eye she looked on as the foals sulked on their benches. “You can have some at breakfast tomorrow, and not a minute earlier!“

“Yay! Mush-room! Mush-room!” The refrain started again with all three foals cheerfully banging the table.

Oh, to be young again! she thought, then looked out of the kitchen window into the dark night. This is nothing like when we were foals. She felt a tear form, and brushed it away absently. But this is what we have.

Comments

[Dafaddah]

10112037
Your wish is my command! (Yeah, I know, this was almost four years between chapters, but better late than never!)

PS - Your comments on the new chapter would be most appreciated.

[Dafaddah]

7131834
Fixed, almost four years later. When I procrastinate I don’t foal around!

[Ice Star]

10121385
Well, I finally got around to getting through my unread chapters. I certainly enjoyed it, especially with Trixie being Trixie. She’s an excellent driving force for the story and for exploring the ominous happenings.

I couldn’t help but giggle at the mushroom bit, though.