Marble Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Eight: Hoofington's Dark

Marble Magic

Chapter Eight: Hoofington’s Dark

Written by TheCrimsonDM

Rewrite story so that everypony was turned to stone rather than killed. That way they can be saved in the end when Baast reforms.

The cool spring air brushed by Trixie’s side. The afternoon sun was almost gone and Trixie was looking forward to her meeting with Marble. While Twilight did some research to try and find some way of reclaiming Golden Oak’s journals Trixie went home to prepare for her meeting. With grappling hook and all else packed, Trixie was sure that things were going to go smoothly. All she had to do was wait.

Until then she took care of a few things, watered her flowers, skimmed through her notes on Baast yet again, and contemplated what sort of spell she should be learning next for her show. Being a magician was all about constant learning and growth, not just in magic but in all sorts of skills she had never thought important at one point in time. Her mother though taught her the value of being multi-talented. Dancing, singing, comedy, and of course the magic tricks were all part of her show.

Reading through a spell book borrowed from Twilight she found most of the spells well out of her range of capabilities. From enchanting items with magical properties, to summoning forth hailstorms of fire, these spells were almost all too difficult to even safely try by herself let alone actually learning. After enough reading though she finally found one that looked possible.

“Expert Illusion; False Wall,” Trixie read to herself. “I think I could pull this off.” After reading the framework for the spell itself she realized that it was indeed possible but it was the small details that worried her. To pull it off she would have to be able to craft ever crack, every hole, and every mismatched brick that could be in a wall, otherwise it would just look wrong.

It was almost time to go out and meet with Marble. With her saddlebags already packed, she threw on her black sweat shirt, debated over a choice of hats before deciding on a black witch’s hat from last Nightmare Night, and took off. It was time to go out and meet the most wonderful mare in Equestria, and to do so in style.

The town was as quiet and empty as it should have been this late at night. With nopony around to see her she was able to go straight to Sugarcube Corner without being caught, and better yet she saw Marble waving at her from up above. This had worked out better than she could have hoped for.

One grappling hook later and Trixie was up top on the balcony and in Marble’s warm embrace. Yet again they choose to simply stare up at the night sky and watch the stars. It might have been quiet, but it was far from lonely. Trixie snuggled into Marble and the mare returned the favor.

“Marble, have you ever thought about… us?” Trixie asked.

“Mmhmm.”

“I… I like you, like a whole lot. You already know just what I feel about you, don’t you?”

There was a slight delay in Marble’s response. “Mmhmm.”

“Are you mad?”

“Mm-mmm.”

Trixie pulled away and looked down into that soft purple eye. “Do you like me too?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Not just as friends, Marble. As… something more?”

Marble nodded, pawed the floor and opened her mouth as if to speak. No words came out, instead she closed her mouth leaned forward and kissed Trixie on the cheek. Trixie’s face was on fire and her heart galloped so hard she half expected it to jump right out of her chest. She wrapped her legs around Marble’s back and held the mare close.

“Do you think that one day we could live together? Just you and me?”

“Mmhmm!” Marble said excitedly.

Trixie smiled. “I’d like that.”

***

It was past midnight before the train finally stopped at the middle of nowhere and Starlight Glimmer got off. Spike was asleep on her back but that didn’t bother her. He was lightweight, even if he was far too small for a dragon his age. From her experience with them along the border she knew that dragons grew quick, very quick, and they were extremely dangerous.

The little settlement was nothing more than four or five houses and what looked to be a general store alongside a tavern. This place wasn’t even marked on the map. As far as Starlight could tell it had been small for a very long time. There was a single wooden sign that stood out next to the town that read, “Welcome to Hoofington.”

Starlight walked into the town and was assaulted by the smell of fish. The docks not too far off had a few fishing vessels tied up and a lot of dead fish lay in barrels. She nearly gagged at the smell of it. One time she had been treated to a northerner specialty of salted salmon. It may have been good, but it had a smell that she would never forget.

“Okay, Starlight,” She said to herself. “Go to the tavern, request a room and then deal with the dragons in the morning.”

She walked to the tavern and the silence of the town began to gnaw at her. Something was off about this town, something wrong. Even for a small settlement that made her own town look like a city, it shouldn’t have been this quiet. When she saw the shattered glass window of one of the houses she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Spike!” Starlight exclaimed.

The sleepy dragon’s head rose up and he shook himself awake. “We here?”

“Something is really wrong.” Starlight took a closer look at the houses. Shattered glass, holes in the walls or roof, and some scorch marks on the ground. She looked at one house that had its door completely broken off its hinges and lying on the ground. Only darkness existed in the house, so thick that it looked like a wall. “Why are all the buildings like this?”

Spike looked around, and sniffed a few times. “I can’t smell anypony.”

“That doesn’t help.”

“No, Starlight, I can’t smell anypony. Like, I have really good sense of smell and I know what it smells like when ponies live in a place. It smells… distinct. This place smells empty,” Spike sniffed again. “No… not quite. Something stinks, like rotting food.”

“The fish in the barrels over there might be interfering with your sense of smell,” Starlight pointed out.

“What do we do?” His voice was laced with fear.

Starlight walked to the house with the broken door and peered inside. It was too dark to see anything her horn lit up casting light into the house. The floor was covered in a layer of dirt and a puddle of water had pooled up near the front door from a leak in the ceiling. Pictures had been knocked off of shelves along with portraits and vases had been shattered.

Starlight lifted up a portrait and saw somepony she had only heard of before. An orange unicorn with a golden mane wearing a top hat and black cape stood proudly with a devilish grin. There was a title embedded into the portrait frame. “The Magnificent and Marvelous Magic Marigold!”

“Do you know her?” Starlight asked.

“Uh… no. She looks really, really familiar though.”

“This is Magic Marigold, the Magic Marigold. She was a hugely famous magician when I was a filly, she even performed for Princess Celestia and became her court magician. I had heard that she ran off and simply vanished after a while,” Starlight looked around the house and took a few steps in. her horn granting her enough light to see by. “Nopony knew why, it was a big mystery.”

Spike pointed at a shelf with an upright portrait. “Maybe she started a family?”

Starlight looked and saw a picture of a slightly older Marigold holding a light blue unicorn in her hooves, the white and blue striped mane on the unicorn made Starlight’s heart skip a beat. “We’re in Trixie’s home.”

Spike took a second look at the picture. “Yeah… that does look an awful lot like her.”

Starlight picked up another picture, this one had a filly Trixie in it standing in front of the Canterlot Castle looking terrified while her Marigold tried to comfort her. She actually saw a filly Twilight in the background alongside what must have been her parents. Another picture had a teenage Trixie wearing her purple cloak and hat with tears running down her face and the biggest smile Starlight had ever seen her wear. The cake next to her had fifteen candles sitting in it. Several unopened presents were on the table as well.

“This is where Trixie’s mom lives.”

“Doesn’t Trixie have sisters?” Spike asked.

“Uh… yeah, three of them I think. Doesn’t Dixie live in Ponyville?”

“How should I know?”

Once Starlight began digging around she found more photos. One had a family of five mares. Marigold sat in the back, and then Trixie sat at the front as the smallest one. Three other mares were in the picture all of them had Marigold’s mane style but wildly different colors. If not for the manes Starlight would never have recognized them as being family.

“This is kinda weird,” Spike said. “We shouldn’t be in here, right?”

Starlight looked around. “I don’t think anypony is going to stop us.”

She trotted upstairs and heard a tapping sound. Starlight’s horn doubled in strength and the light cast further out. There wasn’t a threat she couldn’t handle, not with her level of power. The sight she saw before her however was something she wasn’t ready to deal with. The limp body of an orange mare stuck halfway out of the bedroom door.

“Sweet Celestia,” Starlight said.

Starlight galloped over to the mare and knelt down beside her. There were burn marks across the mare’s legs, and a particularly nasty one just underneath her right eye. The mare’s chest lifted and fell slowly. Teal light surrounded the mare and slowly the wounds knitted themselves back together. It took almost a minute but the mare took in a deep breath and sat straight up. She blinked and stared at Starlight.

“It’s okay, I’m here to help,” Starlight said. She looked over the freshly closed wounds, there were scars left over and bare patches of fur but the mare was alive. “Now tell me, Miss Marigold, what happened here?”

She blinked a few times and then rubbed at her head. “I… the dragons were arguing with us about who should own the caves. The caves are uh… a good source of iron and we needed the revenue a new iron mine would bring in… then there was this pink flash of light and… everything is kinda blurry. I remember lasers, pink lasers falling from the heavens and how we were all galloping in different direction. Ponies were being turned to stone, the dragons attacked, I tried to hold them back. Then... I was hurt. I teleported back home. I can’t really remember anything past that.”

“It sounds like you were attacked by something magical. You were lucky to get away, but I guess your injuries were too much for you to handle.” Starlight looked around the house. “Your door was broken off its hinges and the glass is broken.”

“I remember there was a huge explosion, just before the pink laser rain fell,” Marigold said. “Maybe it broke the windows… the door was my fault. I think I was overzealous when I teleported in and ripped it off the hinges.”

Starlight nodded. “You really are as powerful as they said you were. You know I always wanted to go and see your show.”

“Thank you, um… what are you doing here, Star?”

Starlight looked down the stairs. “I was supposed to come and help you and the dragons work out a settlement.”

“I suppose it may be too late for that now.” Marigold looked at Spike. “You brought the princess’s stolen child with you?”

“Uh…”

“The dragon egg was stolen,” Marigold said. “Who do you think led the operation to acquire it?”

“You… you stole a dragon’s egg!”Starlight gasped. She couldn’t tell if that was brave or foolish. Probably a bit of both.

“Celestia wanted a dragon egg, we got one, after that I had to quit. Pregnant magicians aren’t very good at stealing eggs and slaying monsters after all,” Marigold said. “First kid, I think it was… ugh Fancy Pants was the father. Second kid, I don’t remember. Third was at a party, I was drunk, and the last one, my little Trixie. I committed adultery to get her in my belly.”

Starlight blinked. “You uh… sleep around a lot?”

“Hey, just because I know how to have a good time doesn’t make me a slut.”

Starlight looked down. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Marigold smiled. “Actually I was intentionally trying to get pregnant from different stallions. Testing out various gene pools to see who had the most magic. Trixie’s the winner, of course her sisters are jealous. Nixie, Pixie, and Dixie aren’t very good at magic.” Marigold let out a sigh. “Of course the baby well dried up a few years ago, so… Trixie’s it for my legacy.”

“I know her, Trixie, she’s my best friend. We both kinda got ran over by life, and are trying to put ourselves back together one day at a time,” Starlight said.

“I’m glad to hear that she has a good friend. If it wasn’t for me and my great reputation she wouldn’t have had the job she does now. But that’s what parents are for, taking care of their kids. She’s just trying to find her place in the world. Magicians, witches, and wizards all struggle with that at her age. She’ll find it though, and when she does, I’m going to come over and visit every weekend so that I can borrow all the buckloads of cash she’ll be making.”

“What?”

“I’m joking, I don’t need to ask for money.” Marigold gestured around her. “I might live in a small little home, but I have more money than you can imagine in my accounts over in Canterlot. I worked for the Princess directly after all.”

Starlight stood up and followed Marigold as she went down the stairs. “Where are you going?”

“We are heading to the mines. If anypony else is still alive, we need to help them. Also any dragons, I couldn’t let one just die because it’s big and scary. Finally, we need to find out what the hay happened so that we can report to Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“That’s what she sent me here for.”

“You’re her pupil, and you have her kid on your back.” Marigold paused at the door and winked. “I honestly didn’t know why you were here.”

They walked back outside and quickly checked the rest of the homes. Each one was empty, even the tavern. The storm clouds forming up above looked brooding and dark. After finding no evidence they went straight for the mines outside of the village.

“What’s the date?” Marigold asked.

“The fift- no wait, midnight, so it’s the sixteenth,” Starlight answered.

Marigold frowned. “I remember personally sending that letter out yesterday, on the eleventh,” Marigold replied bitterly. “If five days have passed, and nopony is here… darn it. How come I’m not starving to death?”

“I used a vitality spell on you, it has the special side effect of curing hunger and rejuvenating the target as well,” Starlight said.

“Explains why I feel like a million bits. Too bad that everypony’s… don’t expect to see anything good.”

“Is there anything you can think of that would explain why this happened?” Starlight asked.

Marigold began walking a little faster. “No.”

They continued on for a bit until they hit a forest, through the forest they found a large clearing and Starlight’s breath was stolen away at the sight of the clearing. Three huge statues of dragons lay across the field.

Burn marks were scattered about the clearing, singing the grass black. Spike stared on with a blank expression. When Starlight noticed the smaller statues that littered the grounds her heart sunk. Ponies, mares and stallions all stood or lay across the grass. Marigold galloped over to a small section of forest, Starlight wanted to follow but her legs simply wouldn’t listen to her.

“These are… were all living breathing creatures… weren’t they?” Starlight asked quietly.

“If what Marigold said about ponies becoming statues is true,” Spike answered.

“And… we can’t save them… can we?”

“It took the Elements of Harmony themselves to revive Discord, and that only worked because the Elements of Harmony turned him into stone in the first place.”

Starlight bit her lip. “I… I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Reminds me of Canterlot,” Spike said dispassionately.

“W-what do you mean?” Starlight asked.

“When the changelings attacked… there was a lot of fallen ponies.” He met Starlight’s eyes. They were darker than she had ever seen them be. “Is this your first time seeing this sort of thing?”

Starlight grimaced. “I… I’ve seen ponies die before. From sickness or… suicide. But this, there’s so many ponies here. This is…”

“It’s still better than watching your friends get eaten by changelings as you’re forced to run away,” Spike said darkly.

What has Twilight exposed you to?

Marigold returned shortly. She looked ready to put her hoof through somepony’s skull. “The town’s gone.”

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.

“The dragons knew where the village was so we hid the children…” Marigold said. She started off toward the cave. “Let’s check up on the cave.”

Starlight followed. “What do you mean? If there are kids here we should go help them.”

“Starlight, the town is gone,” Marigold said. There was a finality in her voice. “I’m just glad all my babies are living somewhere else.”

A hard lump formed in Starlight’s throat as she processed this. Statues, the entire town was turned into statues. There really wasn’t anyway she could fix this. There wasn’t a spell to turn things back from stone, not unless you could identify what it was that caused it, and even then… it was nearly impossible. She blinked a few tears out of the way. “Oh, okay… why do we need to check on the cave.”

“I think somepony was screwing around in there, and not the fun kind of screwing…” Marigold joked, even though her tone was dark.

They reached the entrance to the cave and walked in without question. Hard rock walls and wooden support beams framed the place. A little further inside Starlight saw an iron door, at least two inches thick lying on the ground, it was full of holes as if something hot burned through them. Three dragons, just a little larger than ponies lay against the wall, they too were stone.

An iron wall, missing the door, stood strong. Just inside it was full of crates, books, and magical implements the likes of which Starlight had never seen. Powerful magic radiated out of the room. On a pedestal in the middle of the room lay an amulet vaguely shaped like an alicorn with a red gem in the center. Starlight could feel the evil coming from this room. Cold energy washed over her and sent chills down her spine.

Marigold walked in, looked around and then turned to face Starlight. “Okay, it’s time to talk to Twilight. We’re in trouble and I need to give her all the information that I can quickly.”

“What is this place?” Starlight asked.

“The real reason we kept this place hidden from the dragons. Welcome to the Hoofington Safe, a room full of hazardous magical supplies, tools, and knowledge. Celestia set this up because it was in the middle of nowhere and unlikely to be targeted for its dangerous secrets. Besides this place smells like fish, that’s a powerful deterrent for most ponies… dragons not so much.”

“So what happened here?”

“Those three dragons broke into the room, without disabling the wards. They set them off, probably got knocked down in the process and unleashed the most unholy relic we had. The Stave of Baast. If I don’t get to Twilight and soon, she will be in great danger, in fact all of Ponyville may be,” Marigold said.

Starlight swallowed. “Oh… that’s bad.”