Marble Magic
Chapter thirteen: Falling Rain
Written by TheCrimsonDM
The sun wasn’t shining today, and Trixie hated it. After losing Marble the night before the least the universe could have granted her was a sunny day. Still she found a new friend, and better yet, one who was offering the impossible on a silver plate for her.
Rarity sat at the table, the plate of steamed vegetables sitting in front of her had hardly been touched. “So I heard from Rainbow Dash that this storm is originating from the Everfree Forest, and if maps are to be believed at all, it’s centered over the old castle.”
Lyra took a sip of her milkshake. “You sure? I’ve only heard of storms coming out of the Everfree once or twice. Usually when something really bad is going on.”
Bonbon ignored her sandwich completely and grabbed Lyra’s hoof in her own. “It’s fine, I used to be a monster hunter remember? Before the uh… you know.”
“You know when you’re identity was revealed to the town I was really impressed,” Rarity said.
“Monster Hunter Celestials,” Trixie said. “My mom helped found the group after she killed the ursa major of Hoofington.”
“Didn’t you used to claim that?” Rarity said.
Trixie stared down at her piece of chocolate cake. “Yeah, I was stupid and foalish.”
Rarity frowned. “We are going to get you and Marble back together, I promise.”
“Why bother? I’m the villain of the story after all,” Trixie said.
“No you are not. You are a victim of Pinkie’s… bigotry. I saw the way Marble was touching you, she doesn’t touch anypony and for good reason. If she was willing to go as far as to kiss you, then you two have a bond so deep that I couldn’t bear it if you two were separated for any good amount of time,” Rarity said.
“But what can you do?” Trixie asked. “If I go near her, Pinkie Pie will kill me… and I don’t think she’s over exaggerating.”
“Me neither,” Rarity said. “But that’s only if she has time to catch you.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow. “We already tried the secret relationship status, we got caught and now we’re both being watched like a hawk. You told us yourself that Pinkie has you keeping an eye out on me to keep me away.”
“That’s what she thinks,” Rarity said with a wink. “But I was wracking my brain all night to come up with a plan, and then it hit me. A little old story about a unicorn wizard who fell in love with an earth pony princess. They came from different worlds and their love was forbidden by their families, so they came up with a plan for eternal happiness. I won’t go as far as they did, mostly because it ended in tragedy, but I will set you guys off on the right track.”
“If Pinkie Pie finds out what you’re doing,” Bonbon said.
“Then she will be furious, but we are close friends. I am sure she won’t do anything drastic to me.”
Bonbon looked at Lyra and then back at Rarity. “What can we do to help?”
Rarity clapped her hooves together. “Be my witnesses.”
“What are you planning?” Trixie asked.
“It is better that you don’t know the details,” Rarity said. “The devil lives there, and only I’m qualified to deal with him.”
“Uh…”
“It was a play on an old saying, I do not actually cohort with most demons or devils,” Rarity said.
Trixie smiled. “That’s good, for a moment you had me worried.”
***
“Oh come on,” Pinkie Pie said. “You don’t have to hide from me. I’m only helping you.”
Marble hid up in the rafters of the loft, just out of sight. When Pinkie Pie had her head turned around she dropped the severed head of a stuffed donkey in Pinkie’s blindspot. When Pinkie turned around and saw the decapitated donkey head with a note stuck to its forehead she frowned.
“I am not letting you go back to her!” Pinkie Pie said. “If you keep this up I will ground you… I promise! I know how to do that! I think… um… no comic books for a week.” Pinkie sounded less than confident about that.
Marble stayed hidden. There were still plenty of hostages up here with her, and she wasn’t playing around anymore. Pinkie had the doors guarded, and refused to leave her room until Marble gave up. Marble would fight for her lover, even if she couldn’t go meet her now. Pinkie Pie had the strongest deterrent just outside of her room, she had the entire town of Ponyville, awake and moving about their daily business waiting like a barbed wire electric fence. Marble couldn’t leave the house with so many ponies outside, it was too scary. Plus Pinkie had hidden the last of the Confidence Marbles which meant that Marble really was stuck in this little room.
“Marble, please, you have to believe me. Trixie is evil and she’s just using you. I don’t know what kind of magic she’s worked on you, but trust me on this she is not a good pony,” Pinkie Pie said.
Marble dropped the body of the donkey next.
“Darn it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed after seeing the body. “Fine, be that way. I’m leaving, and when you feel more like listening to me you can apologize for destroying my friends.”
Pinkie Pie picked up the donkey’s body and head before walking out the door. Marble quickly grabbed a rock and threw it at her sister but the door closed just in time to halt the rock’s advance. Pinkie Pie screamed from the other side of the door, “That’s not an apology, that’s a rock!”
Marble rolled over and sobbed silently. She could see Rainbow Dash circling outside the room. This room was a prison, and there was no escape. Sure Pinkie might have thought she was trying to protect Marble, and Marble really believed that, but Pinkie was in the wrong. If only Marble could somehow convince Pinkie Pie that either Marble really did love Trixie, or that Trixie was actually a good pony.
Slowly Marble’s eyelids closed and she drifted off to a nightmare filled world where all she could see was Trixie. Trixie was always just out of hoof’s reach and no matter how much Marble fought, galloped, or tried, she could not reach her. In the end, Marble was forced to see Trixie from a distance, but never to hold her again.
When Marble heard the door shut, she opened her eyes and realized that she couldn’t even see Trixie again. Rarity was standing beneath her looking around quite confused.
“Um, Marble, are you here? I’d like to talk to you if we can. Trixie wanted me to give you a message, she said she loves you and will get you back,” Rarity said.
Marble rolled off her perch and dropped to the floor silently. She stood just behind Rarity, and when Rarity turned and saw Marble, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Marble waved at her, but didn’t smile.
“Okay, listen here and do not tell a soul. I have a plan to get the two of you back together, but you need to follow my instructions okay?” Rarity said.
Marble pointed a hoof to outside where Rainbow Dash was currently sitting on the balcony and drinking from a water bottle.
Rarity grinned. “I can take care of her. You in?”
Marble nodded. Anything to get my love back.
“Good,” Rarity leaned in and began whispering. “Okay, so here’s the plan…”
***
Trixie walked down the street with her mother by her side. For the first time in a long time she felt the eyes of judgment upon her as she walked. Ponies were giving her mean and disgusted looks. All it took was angering Pinkie Pie to gain the hatred of the entire town. Marigold on the other hoof shot looks right back at them, and on a couple of occasions she even spat curses at them and watched as they turned fearfully away.
“These ponies don’t know what their losing,” Marigold said. “By turning their backs on you they are losing the greatest friend they ever could have.”
Trixie may have agreed, but it was just so hard to keep her spirits up when she thought about how Marble was so cruelly taken away from her the night before. “It’s horrible. I… I just want my Marble back. She belongs to me, not some… evil pink headed freak.”
“Good, let your anger out, you need to express yourself,” Marigold said. “I could call in some help from my contacts. I bet Celestia would have a word or two to say about this.”
“You can’t do that,” Trixie said. “You’d have to spend one of your favors.”
“It would be worth it to help my baby girl get the love of her life back,” Marigold said. “I let the love of my life slip through my hooves once thanks to indigestion and I have never once been able to find true love again.”
“Indigestion?”
“Suffice to say, don’t eat at Sergeant Tomato’s Salad Bar.”
Trixie decided that she lucked out with such a vague answer. “Rarity will get my Marble back.”
“We shall see her plan first, and hope that it plays out well.” Marigold looked up at the castle as they steadily approached it. “We also need to worry about those storm clouds and Baast. She could be casting some sort of magic spell to keep ponies away while she works on creating a new body.”
“Is that really important?” Trixie asked.
“It might be, we don’t know what she plans to do afterwards,” Marigold said. “If she really is evil we will have to stop her, if she is good then we can use her… if she’s neutral we keep an eye on her.”
“I don’t care about her anymore,” Trixie said.
“You should, Baast stole your friend’s body.”
“She promised to return it when she was done,” Trixie said.
“I’ve seen many a body snatcher promise the very same. Only a hoof full have kept their word.”
They reached the castle doors and opened them. After stepping inside and closing them once more they continued into the castle. They were heading straight for the map room. Marigold smiled for Trixie and said, “This is a nice castle. Looks horrible in Ponyville, but its large and the shape is interesting. Just needs some servants.”
“If I remember correctly there are well over thirty bedrooms and twice that in bathrooms. How Twilight keeps this place so utterly empty is beyond me,” Trixie said. She thought about Twilight lying in a hospital bed. “But without here, it’s going to remain that way for awhile…”
They reached the doors and found them already open. Starlight was inside, hunched over the Ponyville map. Trixie saw it, but she could hardly believe what was on the map. Hovering just over the Everfree Forest was a cutiemark, not at all unlike Twilight Sparkles. Only it was darker, and didn’t have the excess white stars around it.
“Okay,” Starlight said. “What the hay do you make of this?”
Spike stuck his head up over the map. He had to stand on his tip toes to see over the table. “Uh… maybe it wants a Twilight rip off to go there?”
Trixie looked at the map. “I don’t think so. Didn’t Baast say something about reincarnation?”
“Um… m-may I make an observation?” Fluttershy’s voice rang out above them.
Everypony looked up and watched as the mare descended next to Starlight. She was wearing a scarf of brown, red, and green with white trim at the edges. “You see, Discord took me back in time once. We actually met Baast back when she was… good.”
Trixie blinked. “You did what now?”
Starlight grinned. “Time travel, not bad, considering your distinct lack of any horn.”
“A-anyway, she was traveling with a group of other cats and um… they all looked and acted… very similar to our own group…” Fluttershy said.
Marigold stamped a hoof and smiled widely. “Oh I got it! Is Twilight the reincarnation of Baast?”
“Shouldn’t Baast have died for that to work?” Starlight asked.
“All immortals have to die before they become such. Besides that we already know that her body died when her soul was removed and placed into that orb. Twilight is clearly not a perfect reincarnation but she just may be the reincarnation in question,” Marigold said.
Starlight frowned. “That’s… crazy.” She looked back at the map. “And… plausible.”
Fluttershy raised her hoof. “I read this series once where a girl went back in time and met the person she used to be before she was reincarnated thanks to the girl being brought back from the dead with a magical crystal shard.”
“So we’re looking at undead screwing up the entirety of reincarnation?” Starlight asked.
Marigold frowned. “Don’t get me started on undead things. They make the very concept of life, death, souls, reincarnation, heaven, and hell all sorts of confused.”
“Undead are not real,” Trixie said.
“Of course not, baby,” Marigold said patronizingly.
Fluttershy frowned. “But we were fighting wraiths just last wee-“
“If Trixie is scared of undead, then they are not real, simple as that,” Marigold said.
Trixie bit her lower lip. “They’re real aren’t they?”
“Not if you don’t want them to be.”
Trixie gave her mom a sour look. “I know my feelings are crushed right now, but don’t pamper me. Are undead real or not?”
Marigold looked away. “Yes… yes they are.”
Trixie let out a sigh. “Well when I get Guile back that’s an apology from me.”
“How long before the rain st-“ Starlight began.
She was interrupted by the sound of crashing thunder.
“About that long,” Marigold said.
The doors behind them opened up and everypony looked at them in shock. Twilight Sparkle marched into the room, her mane was soaking wet, and there was a bandage covering her head. She continued on until she reached the table. Starlight’s horn lit up and a towel appeared next to her, it levitated over to Twilight who grabbed it with her hooves and began drying her face. When she was through her fur stuck out in odd angles.
“You okay?” Starlight asked.
Spike ran up and wrapped his arms around one of her forelegs. “Twilight!”
A warm smile grew over Twilight’s lips. “Yeah, I am. I’ll be going to sleep soon, medication is pretty hitting me hard.”
“Um… what?” Trixie asked.
“You know what I mean.” Twilight looked at Starlight. “Fill me in on what I missed.”
They did, though they left out the details about Marble and Trixie. No need to give Twilight more to worry about. Twilight looked down at her cutie mark by the time it was over and then at the map. “Well my butt’s not glowing so it’s not trying to call me.”
“Then it is telling us there is a reincarnation of you sitting in the old castle ruins and mucking the weather up?” Starlight said.
“I suppose so. I don’t claim to know a lot about life, death or all the above. Just that my head hurts and I need some sleep.” Twilight smiled gently. “Okay, I’m going to go sleep on the problem. They wouldn’t let me sleep all night long, fear of a coma or whatever. I’m taking Spike for the cuddles, if you need me or if the storm persists after twenty four hours let me know.”
Everypony nodded.
Twilight stood up and pushed Spike toward the door. He got the message and began walking. She smiled down at him. “Thank you, Spike. I hurt, really bad, and this means a lot.”
“Don’t mention it,” Spike said. “You took care of me when I had that flu so it’s my turn.”
Once they were out the door everypony relaxed a little and tried to come up with a plan. When nopony could, they all decided it might be time to disperse. Yet again the door was thrown open only this time Rainbow Dash jumped in.
“We have a serious problem!” Rainbow Dash said. Her entire body was soaked to the bone.
Starlight walked up to her. “Weren’t you supposed to be guarding Pinkie Pie or something dumb today?”
“I was guarding Marble, from her!” Rainbow Dash said while thrusting a wing at Trixie. “We thought you might have eloped with Marble, but since you’re here that means the note was true.”
“What note?” Trixie asked. Her heart jumped into her throat.
“Like you would care,” Rainbow Dash said. “Anyway, Starlight we need your help with the search party. Marble ran away because Pinkie won’t let her and Trixie date or whatever.”
Starlight frowned. “Well… this is just great. We need to get going, where is she?”
A worried look came into Rainbow Dash’s eyes as she answered, “The Everfree Forest.”
I know you are trying to create drama and conflict by having Pinkie act in such an extreme manner but seriously she is wildly OOC at this point. She treated other enemies far better and they did far more to her than Trixie ever did. Heck take Gilda for example who steals, makes Fluttershy cry with no remorse, put Pinkie's life in danger by crashing her vehicle, and treated her poorly.
She is so over the top that she does not feel like Pinkie anymore.
I just do not see it as being required either. I think you could keep the gist of the story without having Pinkie be that crazy. Just her being upset in a reasonable way would be enough to upset somebody as shy as Marble. Where I think you went too far is when Pinkie threatens Trixie. I just do not see that happening.
Now for the good I did get a laugh with Dash bemoaning how Pinkie sees her as being afraid of commitment. Makes me wonder if Pinkie was on the other end of that with her or what.
7503922 how many of those enemies directly threatened(actual or perceived) pinkie's family in the show? None, so how can this pinkie be ooc when there is no canon "in character" for this situation? It's like complaining about the quality of a car's paint job when there is no paint on it.
7508270
I will turn that back on you, when did Trixie threaten her family directly? Insulted the family sure but actually threaten? I do not recall that. If you are going to claim that just having Marble near her is a threat I would point out that Trixie has not done anything that should reflect Pinkie's current attitude. From Trixie's previous actions Pinkie being suspicious is warranted. I am not saying that Pinkie should not be cross with Trixie or that she should not worry about Marble being with Trixie. My only issue is that her reaction is so extreme compared to what Trixie has ever done. Remember Pinkie is threatening her life To me in order for that to be believable Trixie would have to be more than just a bitch to her which is about as far as I have seen Trixie treat her in this. Gilda was a bigger direct threat to Pinkie's health (when she knocked Pinkie out of the sky) than Trixie was and Gilda was not being influenced by an evil artifact.
7509746 did you not see the (perceived) in my comment? Trixie is a perceived threat. If you knew someone is a child molester, even if they did nothing that directly threaten your hypothetical children, would it be unreasonable to consider them to be a threat to your children? That's basically how pinkie is being with trixie
7510643
You are still missing the point. Trixie has not been shown to be a child molester, a murderer, or anything of that sort. Your point is flawed because it relies on a premise that does not exist. Pinkie does not even think she is any of those things. I just went back and checked the whole story and it does not add up to this. Pinkie is upset with how she, AJ, Dash, the rest of her friends were all treated, insulting her family and leading them all into trouble which clearly shows that Pinkie does not consider her a murderer, a child molester, or any other thing that is truly dangerous. Even after that though she was willing to give Trixie a chance when she said she wanted to be friends (this is in character) which also implies that it cannot be that bad. We know that this failed when Pinkie brought up that Trixie was just trying to use her which we know from being in Trixie's perspective is 100% TRUE. The only reason that Trixie wanted to ask Pinkie that at that point in time was to get close to Marble as she was perfectly willing to go without otherwise. From Pinkie's journal we know that Pinkie was actually willing to give it a chance if she did not feel being used so I cannot say that she feels that Trixie is on that level of bad.
Since that point only one event happened is that she handcuffed Dash. Not the best thing to do with Pinkie for sure but even so I do not see this as an event where Pinkie would start making serious threats and getting into physical altercations with Trixie.
As an example I will use the show with Gilda.
Gilda treated yells at her and insults her. She insulted her friends, She made her friend cry. If her family was there let us be honest she would have insulted them too. She stole from her friends (the shop keepers are her friends too remember). She broke her stuff and put her life in danger by making her fall from such a great height.
So with all of that how does Pinkie handle the situation (in fact calling it her stye)? She goes out of her way to make a party to try to bring Gilda around to being a better friend in her view.
The way Pinkie is acting right now is more to Rainbow Dash rather than Pinkie. Pinkie could be suspicious and may choose not to trust Pinkie with Marble that is fitting. I could even see her telling Marble not to see her or telling Trixie not to see her. I could even see her making a joke that when you think about it could be seen as threatening such as "stay away from Marble or the next banana peel may have your name on it" which is potentially funny but not so overt (I am sure you can think of something actually funny just work with me here).
Pinkie making such overt threats over such a minor villain does not really jive with her show self. A separate reader said the same thing in a previous chapter when Pinkie jumped at Trixie with really no provocation. Flying off the handle to attack is not a Pinkie attribute (like I said before it IS a Dash attribute).
I personally think the author is trying to make Trixie more sympathetic which I think is a worthy goal but I think the author is overdoing the vitriol from certain characters, especially Pinkie, to try to make more drama in the story. You don't have to make Pinkie so bad just to make Trixie look good. You can make Trixie look good and just have characters like Pinkie be reasonable against her. Pinkie should be suspicious of Trixie but these threats do not fit her.
7512065 I was using those as a metaphor, it is sometimes difficult for me to put my thought processes "on paper" so I use metaphors to help with that, apologies if that caused any confusion
Pinkie perceives trixie as a threat, her reasoning is flawed yes, close to paranoia as well, but that changes nothing, if you legitimately believe someone is a threat, irregardless of whether or not the threat is real, you are going to take steps to protect the ones you care about. That is what pinkie is doing, in pinkie's mind, she has given trixie plenty of chances, and we have seen that pinkie isn't the most rational person out there. If she starts hearing inanimate objects talking to her, and believes that her friends are trying to push her away in less then 24 hours of her friends not accepting her party invites, it is no big stretch of the imagination that pinkie would act the way she is in this story
7512300
See for certain people and characters I could agree. For instance Rainbow Dash would do as you say. She has character traits where she gets angry and would threaten those who threaten her friends and family. In the show she is always advocating attacking the problem. Pinkie does not work that way. She tends to come at the problem in a different way. She throws parties to try to change her enemies. She can get cross but violence is not her MO. When directly attacked (along with her closest friends) she responds in kind but still with a smile and a joke.
Pinkie being upset with Trixie is fine. Her wanting her sister away from Trixie is also fine. Pinkie telling Trixie to stay away is fine. I take issue with how and what she has done. Pinkie has never acted like this even when fighting threats to the entire kingdom which includes her family and Trixie is nowhere near that. Even if being crazy Party of One shows how she acts when upset which is being very cross and surly. She could treat Trixie badly in that case but that is a far cry from physical threats.
Where the author has it more right is that Pinkie has Trixie on the "no friend list". That is something that shows that Pinkie is really upset with her without going beyond what Pinkie in the show would likely do. Dash would normally do the threatening and I could see Pinkie supporting it without actually doing any threats on her own but voicing her disapproval. There are so many ways this could be handled while remaining more in character.