The Stars Will Aid Their Escape

by Drhoz

Chapter 1

The GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie was, clearly, the most talented unicorn in Equestria, and just as clearly, the philistinism of rustic ponies like the ones she had rightly thrown off behind her, was no fault of hers. She was, after all, Great and Powerful. She was also lost.

The night was increasingly dark, as the moon sunk behind the mountains, and at some point the road had become a track, and the track a trail, and the trees were growing ever more thick and close around her, but even if her caravan hadn’t been crushed to fragments there was no way in hay she would deign to go back and give those amateurs the satisfaction of witnessing her Greatness, ever again.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is unconcerned by such trivia! No doubt there is some village ahead where ponies will appreciate my sheer. Magical. Talent!”

She snorted. Although ... still having her cloak and wizarding hat would have been nice...

The blue unicorn trotted on, never stopping in her monologue, even as the trees crowded in so close that their branches met overhead, occluding every star, and she had to call up a feeble magical glow to even see where she put her hooves.
The trail was now so faint her pace was reduced to little more than a walk.

Something moved in the undergrowth. Her ears pricked up, and she drew herself up into a suitably proud pose.

“Show yourself! I heard you! Come forth and bask in the glory that is the Great and Powerful Trixie!” The pool of light around her was barely enough to illume the edges of the trail. It didn’t need to be. Two eyes, the phosphorescent yellow of jack o’ lantern mushrooms, pupilless and awful, rose above the sickly shoulder-high weeds that hemmed the path.

The timber wolf stepped forward.

Trixie almost bolted. The creature’s knotted flesh creaked horribly as it circled around her, studying her, as if puzzled that such a morsel would wander alone into its domain. She rallied, and stamped her hooves against the path, pushing forward with her magic, shoving the beast back with the force of it. It snarled, like a saw cutting timber, and snapped impotently against the telekinetic barrier.

“Ha! No mere beast can best the Great and Power-“

Another timber wolf joined the first.

She fled. They pursued, their howls like a storm tearing through a forest, their sharp and peg-like teeth hungry for the nutrients in her flesh, hungry to tear and to kill, that they could quicken from the soil soaked with her blood, grow strong when she was little more than bone. They snapped at her hooves, with jaws to splinter limbs.

Dead wood gouged her flank, the darkness ahead total, and the timber wolves were so close now she could feel them pacing her, one to either side, as she galloped in blind panic and tumbled suddenly into empty air.

She didn’t even have time to scream.

***

There was light, when she awoke. Firelight, weak and flickering. The ground under her flank was icy cold, and sandy, and above and around her she could make up the shape of huge rough stone blocks, each many times the height of a pony. She trembled, involuntarily, when she heard the frustrated snarls of the timber wolves, and glimpsed their yellow eyes as they circled around the stones, refusing to come any closer than the very edge of the firelight.

There was another pony in the pit with her, on the other side of the feeble flames. She hadn’t even known he was there, until he moved and spoke. His coat was so dark as to be almost invisible against the blackness behind him. His voice was deep, and soft, and resonated oddly in the mask he wore – a bone-white mask, almost theatrical, that fitted tight over the muzzle below, and showed nothing of his eyes.

“Decided to join me in the land of the living, I see.”

She scrambled to her hooves. It wouldn’t do to seem out of control of the situation, after all.

“Don’t be afraid of the timber wolves” continued the stranger “you’re safe from them here. They’ll lose interest in you soon enough.”

Trixie managed to look outraged. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is afraid of nothing!”

The masked pony somehow achieved an expression of mild interest. “Really? My most sincere apologies, Great and Powerful Trixie. From here it looked exactly like you were galloping for your life.” He interrupted her splutters of outrage and continued “Perhaps you could tell me how one as Great and Powerful as yourself came to be enjoying a trot through the Everfree Forest in the middle of the night?”

She snorted in contempt. “And why should Trixie tell anything to a pony who has yet to give his name? Or wears such a ridiculous mask?”

The mask seemed to twitch in the flickering firelight, the smile momentarily wider.

“Again, my apologies, Great and Powerful Trixie. You may call me Herald. And the mask is for protection. I could always remove it, if you prefer.”

Some tiny part of her mind was screaming. DON’T. DON’T LET HIM TAKE OFF THE MASK. DON’T.

She sniffed, and lifted her muzzle away disdainfully. “The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t care what you do. Trixie would not even be here if not for the petty and jealous ponies that refuse to appreciate her enormous talent.”

“How terribly, terribly unfair. Please, tell me more...”

***

“... and thus a mere fluke allowed a village librarian to embarrass the Great and Powerful Trixie before her legion of adoring fans. No doubt she is gloating over her stolen glory even as we speak!” the mare concluded, with a dramatic sweep of her hoof.

“How awful.” murmured Herald, mildly. “But of course she beat you.”

Trixie was struck silent by the insult. Her pride boiled up, and she readied a retort that would show this peasant –

“She IS the personal student of the Sun Princess, after all.” he continued.

The unicorn was again struck dumb, this time by a rising horror. She’d endangered the star pupil of one of the Princesses – if the royal court decided to hold her responsible for the damage to Ponyville –

“So of course she had certain advantages a pony of your talent never needed.”

“ – wait, what?”

“She had access to the royal library, after all. All those tomes from the restricted wing. No wonder she could achieve a minor success before the other ponies. You never needed such help, did you?”

Trixie straightened up, unbreakable confidence filling her voice once more. “Of course not – the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie has more than enough sheer magnificence to ever need that.”

Herald nodded approvingly. “What you need is a book of magic she could never have read. One the royal library has never held. And as it so happens...” he turned to his side, and turned back with a heavy tome in his hooves, one that almost reeked of age and gravitas. The cover and bindings were heavy, creaking from disuse, as the mare took it from Herald’s hooves, and opened it to peer at the contents – star charts, complex geometrical figures, and scrawled hoofwriting barely legible in the glow from her horn.

“You’ll find that book quite enlightening, I think. A very powerful pony spent his life on it. It has secrets older than Nightmare Moon, and older than the three pony nations.”

“Trixie demands to know why you would let her have such a book! And what is this cover made from... It’s not... leather, is it?”

“Leather? As in cow hide? Not at all. And I’ll let you use it because I’m sure you’ll put it to good use. Think of me as ... someone who recognises showmareship, and can understand your anger. Anyway... I think you’ll be able to leave now. The timber wolves are long gone. There’s a road just down the slope, that way. If you turn left you should reach the next town in time for breakfast.”

Trixie nodded to the other pony, and rose to leave, closing the book and carrying it with her telekinesis. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will remember your entirely justified appreciation. Once we’ve shown everypony who the real mistress of magic in all of Equestria is, we may even allow you to be our personal assistant.”

Herald chuckled with a dry humour “Believe me, Great and Powerful Trixie, I look forward to seeing everything to achieve with that book, and I eagerly await the day I see you again. I’m sure the other ponies won’t know what hit them.”

Trixie trotted away, scrabbling up the rough steps between the stones. Herald watched until the glow around the book had long faded from sight, and passed a hoof through the dancing flames before him. They vanished utterly, shrinking back into the burning bones with a shriek. The only illumination came from the eyes of the timber wolves, as they slunk between the stones to grovel before him, and lick fawningly at his hooves.

And in that sick light, the mask smiled.

Comments

[Drhoz]

Amused myself writing a short piece last night. It occurs to me I haven't written a fanfic in decades, but here you go. And what do I write? A MLP:FiM / Cthulhu Mythos cross over. Following on from the Boast Busters episode.

It's more an opening chapter than a complete fic, but I'm quite pleased with it. Feel free to suggest directions it can go from here - 'Herald''s meetings with the Princesses and the Mane Six are going to be interesting...

[Mr. Grimm]

This is freaky. I just bought a copy of the Necronomcon from Goodwill today...Not that I practice Necromancy by any means, it was just on sale.

Anyway, this story shows to have a lot of promise, especially as the Necronomcon is in the hooves of somepony as conceited and selfish as Trixie. What does Harold want to do, destroy the universe as we know it? Let's just hope she doesn't summon Grogar from the fiery pits of Tartarus, or else a Faustian pact might be made.

[Drhoz]

*grins* Well, destruction of everything the ponies know will be the end result, unless they can find a way to stop him.

Which edition of the Necronomicon, btw? Simon, Chaosium, or Giger? 841708

[Mr. Grimm]

843590

Simon, I think. And I just had a thought. If Trixie ever summons Cthulhu to Equestria, his chaotic presence would most likely awaken Discord again.....I've just had a mental image of Discord annoying Cthulhu by braiding his tentacles....

[Drhoz]

Heh - various fan art to the contrary, I don't think even Pinkamena or Fluttershy are equipped to deal with the High Priest of the Star Spawn 844017

[VikingOtaku6]

846120 PRAISE AZATHOTH!

[Everglue Horace]

So far so good, if it wasn't written so long ago I might be tempted to make fan art. After five years though I could just as easily borrow or scavenge the elements I like best and make it my own. Naturally, of course, it being a fan comic of more than a few franchises in a popular genre the idea of theft would never cross your mind unless I specifically told you I intended to profit off of your work beyond recognition don't you think?

And, I could easily use the argument that you should be paying me for he privilege of bringing renewed interest in your masterpiece.
Naturally, I find the idea of stealing distasteful but, by suggesting it you may find the proposition of my not not making something less insulting.
There is logic in this argument somewhere even though I really want it to sound less demeaning.