• Published 9th Sep 2012
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Game of Worlds - DualThrone



Six months after finding the Empty Room, unnoticed among the dust and loss, another shadow stirs to reshape Equestria.

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Trixie: Contagion

“…and I confirmed it by using a sphere of Light magic that Twilight Sparkle taught me to probe at the tainted ground,” Trixie explained to Princess Celestia as she stood beside the Sun Princess, gesturing to the sickly black soil in front of them. “The blackness boiled away and actually appeared to recoil away from the mere illumination of the sphere. So based on what Spite told me, Your Highness, this field has been tainted by Void energy.”

Trixie had been surprised, and not a little shaken, by how quickly the princess had responded to the letter she’d dictated to Spike. Barely half an hour after the baby dragon had sent the letter, the solar diarch had appeared in a flash of teleportation magic at the gate to Manechester Table Farm, causing Trixie to just about jump out of her skin. Given how unkind she’d initially been to Celestia’s daughter, she’d been slightly surprised to receive a warm greeting from the alicorn and Celestia had politely asked to be led to the sickened land.

“Trixie, you’re a friend of my daughter and her choice to watch over Equestria in her absence,” Celestia smiled. “You have royal permission to use my name if you wish.” She looked at the field, frowning a little. “I admit that when Spite warned us that our enemy may engineer some mischief, I didn’t expect this. And Carrot Top believed that she saw a bird lingering around the field before she noticed signs of crop failure?”

“Neither she nor Fluttershy could think of what else it might be, Princess,” Trixie replied, still cowed by the diarch’s presence even though Celestia had treated her warmly and invited her to speak familiarly with her. “It’s not a griffin, dragon, manticore, or any other being we know of that has wings—the shape and proportions are wrong.”

“And you believe her description reliable?”

Trixie nodded. “If the Carrot family is anything like the Apple family, Princess, there’s not many ponies that are more reliable.”

Celestia smiled gently. “I asked if you thought her description reliable, not the pony herself.”

“I do,” Trixie confirmed. “Farmponies have to keep a close eye on their crops all the time, and have to be able to tell the difference between different creatures at a distance so they can do the best thing.”

This provoked a soft, almost affectionate, laugh. “It still amazes me that you and my daughter weren’t friends at first sight. You sounded very much like her, just then.”

“Thank you,” Trixie smiled up at the princess. “But yes, I believe her description to be reliable and the land is definitely corrupted somehow. I mistakenly set hoof on it and…” She shuddered. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Wave after wave of pain and sickness and just wrongness…”

“There are a few… downsides to being gifted with magic,” Celestia said sympathetically. “Still, you seem to be well and that’s always a relief. For all the subtlety to it, simply destroying crops and making the ground itself dangerous to walk on is distressing but Equestria will survive having less carrots. What worries me is that this is not the only crop that will receive this treatment; I hardly need to explain what might happen if this ‘bird’ wanders to the next farm over.”

Trixie nodded vigorously at this. “It would be very difficult to cope with the loss of the most basic staple crop,” she said. “Which makes me wonder: why not attack Sweet Apple Acres first? Why attack just next door, destroying a crop that’s very important but not critical.”

“Why indeed…” Celestia mused. “One supposes that this ‘bird’ didn’t want to be noticed by the ponies and non-ponies that have been around Sweet Apple Acres these last few days. And it seems far too perfect that this happens just when Spite and my sister are too far away to return quickly; I have no doubt that Spite knows what the ‘bird’ is, what it has done, and may even have had drinks with it at one point.” Celestia’s eyes twinkled a little at the last.

The tiny touch of humor made Trixie smile despite herself. “Probably not,” she said. “She said very little about the Void directly but when she did say something, I got the impression that she hates those of the Void and is hated by them.”

The solar princess made a thoughtful noise. “So the helper sent to us is of the Void but hated of the Void and hates it in turn. A very mysterious creature, but I feel no hesitation letting my sister accompany her and following her advice about how to best fight the Evils.”

“The Evils, your majesty?”

“It’s apparently a term that is commonly used for beings of the Void.” Celestia glanced over the fallow field, her expression hardening marginally. “It’s not hard to see why: their quarrel is with me, my sister, perhaps the Elements, but the innocent ponies that are suddenly forced to strive harder just to have enough to eat are not their enemy, and should never be a target of their schemes. We will not abide this cowardly attempt to harm Our little ponies; the question is, how can we find the thing doing this, that We might bring it to justice for the ills it’s done?”

“Well, magic infused with Light repels and hurts it, right?” Trixie suggested. “Is there any way to somehow… um, fence in the farms with magic?”

“There is…” Celestia abruptly looked slightly embarrassed. “But Luna is the one who took great pains to become highly educated in rune work and my daughter recently took up that study… but neither of them are here.”

Trixie blinked. “But…”

Celestia laughed softly. “But I’m the perfect, immortal, all-powerful, all-knowing Princess of the Sun? Part of wisdom is knowing what you don’t know, and runecraft is one thing I cannot do well. Adequately, possibly better than most, but I’m not Luna and Luna is the one of us two that could actually do what you suggest.”

Trixie continued to stare, genuinely at a loss for words for a full minute, before shaking off her amazement. “Then maybe… uh… have the farmers set a watch on their fields and try to interfere…?”

“It may fear the Elements or a few others, Trixie, but I doubt that the thing doing this has any fear of ordinary ponies,” Celestia pointed out.

“Everypony thought Trixie was an ‘ordinary pony’,” Trixie returned, struggling to keep the touch of umbrage she felt out of her voice. “And now, the Elements of Harmony have asked me to help watch over all of Equestria.”

Celestia’s smile was gentle. “Everypony was wrong. But ask yourself: how many earth ponies can learn how to channel the Light with your ease? How many pegasi can fight for their friends and loved ones with magic? How many unicorns are born with talents like yours and my Twilight’s? I fear that if we ask earth farmponies to keep a watch and confront this thing, it will hurt them or do something much worse, and they cannot defend themselves the way you can.”

“Then what can we do?” Trixie asked in frustration. “We can’t shield the fields because we don’t know a pony skilled with runes. We can’t ask the farmers to watch their fields because this Void thing could hurt them. We can’t set up patrols of pegasi for that reason and we can’t expect all unicorns to be capable of the kind of magic that Twilight and I can do. So what can we do, Princess? I can’t… I won’t believe that some evil thing can just ruin pony lives and I can do nothing to help.”

Celestia’s smile turned positively radiant. “Your concern for the well-being of others is noble, and I’m very proud of you my little pony. As it so happens, I believe there is a way that we can keep watch for this ‘bird’ that Carrot Top describes and I shall take care of that personally. And you can indeed do something: every great help begins with a small kindness, and I can’t think of a better small kindness than to restore Carrot Top’s fields to her.”

Trixie considered this and smiled. “Well, it would feel nice to be able to do something about the tainting of the fields instead of just wish I could…”

“Trixie! Trixie!” Trixie just barely got turned around when a familiar red scooter went flying passed minus its customary rider (making Trixie briefly wonder how Scootaloo had managed to stay on it this long) followed by a very familiar trio of blank-flanked fillies, looking none the worse for wear after their high-velocity ride.

“What in Equestria, girls?” She asked, hoping that the question registered before…

“Trixie, come quick!”
“We were jus’ in the market an’…”
“…a large panic…”
“…throwing up all over the place…”
“…at Sugarcube Corner…”
“…livin’ daylights scared outta her…”
“…took him to the hospital…”
“…it sorta looked lahk roofin’ tar…”

Trixie mentally sighed. Too late. “Girls, please, one at a time,” she urged them, aware of Celestia’s visible surprise off to one side. “What’s wrong?”

The three looked at one another before the gazes of the other two settled on Apple Bloom, nominating her as their spokesfilly. “Well, we jus’ got done having a Cutie Mark Crusaders club meeting about yer suggestions for our show so we went ta have a snack at Sugarcube corner,” Applebloom said, the normal (partly faked) flash of resentment at being voted the official speaker ominously absent. “We were passin’ through the market when there was this awful shriek o’ terror from one o’ the carrot stalls.”

Trixie felt her stomach drop. Carrot Top mentioned a crop that was… oh goddesses… oh goddesses… “C… carrot stalls?” She repeated, trying to force the quaver out of her voice.

Fortunately, the CMC didn’t notice her stricken expression. “Yeah. So like good Cutie Mark Crusaders, we go rushin’ over ta see what we can do to help and there’s this li’l colt an’ he’s layin’ on the ground an’ shaking an’ barfing but it’s all black like roofing tar…”

“Are you sure it was a carrot stall, Apple Bloom?” Celestia’s voice was soft and nonthreatening but Trixie caught a glimpse of her eyes and saw that behind an outward placidity, something primal and terrible was beginning to flicker.

“Y… your Highness!” Apple Bloom yelped, her and her friends immediately dropping into bows before the imposing white alicorn.

Celestia’s perfect royal mask, visible to Trixie only because she’d seen such a false face in her own mirror almost every day before a show, bestowed a benevolent and comforting smile on the yellow filly. “You don’t need to bow to me, my little ponies,” she assured them kindly. “Please, answer my question.”

“Yup,” the little filly nodded rapidly. “Still got their sign up fer the real good stuff from Carrot Top’s acres.”

“Thank you,” Celestia smiled benevolently but when she shifted her eyes to Trixie, the flicker had grown a bit brighter. “Miss Lulamoon, I think we need to ask something of Carrot Top.”

“Yes,” Trixie agreed, seeing that the diarch was trying to avoid frightening the trio any more than they already are. “Don’t worry, girls… we’re going to go help him.” She threw in a smile to mirror Celestia’s. “Thank you for bringing the message to us.”

“Glad ta help, Trixie,” Apple Bloom replied. “Kin we help at all?”

“If you could get Spike, that would be wonderful,” Celestia told her. “We might need to send a few letters, and he’s the best.”

“Sure thing, Princess.” Scootaloo grinned. “Now, where’d that scooter land…”

Trixie joined Celestia trotting towards the gate and glanced back, making sure the Crusaders were still looking for the scooter, before she leaned closer to Celestia. “We don’t need to bother, Your Majesty. Carrot Top told me that they harvested and shipped part of their harvest fives days ago, and that she remembered her cousin saying that something seemed off about the carrots.”

“Yet they sold them,” Celestia noted calmly.

“I guess they weren’t bad enough to be rejected, only slightly more wilted than normal.” Trixie shook her head, anger at herself flaring. “I should have been suspicious… the timing was just too coincidental.”

“You had no reason to be, Trixie,” Celestia told her firmly. “Five days ago would have meant that this creature arrived before Spite did and was bold enough to begin its work with the Elements all around town, any one of them dangerous to it, especially my daughter.” The primal fire flickered even brighter. “This is its plan then: poison some of the crops so they aren’t noticed, then distract by poisoning the land in a way that attracts attention, so nopony thinks anything of the slightly withered crop that has been harvested. I suspect that the withering of the dead lands didn’t become serious enough to warrant attention until anypony that could have seen the tainting for what it was had left.”

Trixie smirked. “I guess it didn’t count on the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

Celestia smiled in a genuine way. “Evil creatures have a habit of underestimating good ponies. Likely, Nightmare Moon had trouble imagining that a bookish little unicorn and her acquaintances could possibly defeat her; likely, Discord was more shocked by who defeated him than by the fact he was defeated.”

Trixie nodded, giving the alicorn a grateful smile, before looking ahead. “Your Majesty, wouldn’t it be faster to simply teleport to the market instead of…” And they were abruptly at the edge of the market. “…er… trotting… never mind.”

Celestia’s eyes had a hint of mischief in them before she grew serious and trotted towards the knot of clearly frightened ponies clustered around a carrot stand. She didn’t even need to ask them to move aside; the crowd simply parted before her like a wave of grain and Trixie followed in her wake, not wanting to see what the poisoning had done to the colt but at the same time, forcing herself to look, sensing that there would be much worse things to come in the immediate future.

Laying right on front of the carrot stand was… something. If she hadn’t been told, Trixie wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was a pony at all, much less a colt. The little pony laying in a reeking black pool of his own vomit was trembling, his eyes clenched shut and the part of his face that was still visible soaked with tears. His limbs were twisted and bony, joints and hooves bleeding lazily from what looked like… claws shoving their way through the skin. His neck had become abnormally long and what had probably once been a fine tail and mane was almost bare, protrusions that looked disturbingly like tendrils forcing their way out where mane hair had once been. Even the side of him that wasn’t laying in the vomit was streaked with a definite pattern of branching black lines that seemed to pulsate with luminous darkness; Trixie looked closer and realized, with a twist in her gut, that she was seeing the poor colt’s veins and capillaries through his coat glowing from the magic-tainted blood flowing through them.

Heedless of the fact that she was getting her coat filthy, the colt’s mother held her child, her face streaked with tears as she brokenly tried to hush the tiny sounds of pain and fear that came from the husk she held, not even aware of Celestia standing over here, looking down at the colt with mingled fury and heartbreaking sadness.

“May I see him?” She asked with a quiet tenderness.

The mare sniffed and looked up at the Princess with an expression of exquisite devastation. “Y… your Majesty…?”

“May I see him?” Celestia repeated, the loving gentleness in her tone somehow increasing. “I wish to help.”

“M… may I…?”

“I would never ask a mother to cease cradling her child while he’s hurt and afraid.” Celestia replied to the incomplete question, her horn beginning to shimmer with luminous Light and power. She leaned down and lightly touched the colt’s forehead with her horn and a wave of soft, silvery light radiated from the point where her horn had touched, running over the colt like fire through dry grass. Where the Light touched, wounds closed, the luminous black lines flickered and died down, the trembling stopped, and the colt slumped against his mother, his breathing ragged but even.

Trixie’s attention was more drawn to the sickly fluid the colt was laying in: just like the blackness on Carrot Top’s fields, the fluid evaporated and shrunk from Celestia’s Light, steaming and bubbling as its opposite thoroughly destroyed it. The sight should have been comforting; instead, it was chilling: a single infected carrot, perhaps two, could do this to a pony, turning their blood and even their vomit black with Void energy.

The mother mare gave a choked sob and embraced Celestia’s nearest leg, smearing the remains of the vomit that was sticking to her coat all over the limb as she whispered her thanks. Celestia didn’t even seem to noticed her perfect white coat being sullied as she kindly patted the mare on the shoulder. “Your son is resting,” she murmred to the mare. “But he needs to be taken to a hospital, where he can be cared for.” Trixie felt something metal brush by her, jumping slightly as two Royal Guards whom she hadn’t even noticed arrive politely pushed passed her and took position at Celestia’s side. “My Royal Guard will ensure that you get there safely and quickly. I wish you the very best, and hope that all will be well.”

The Royal Guard apparently needed no more instruction than that, for one gently lifted the mother up and let her lean against him while the other gathered up the sleeping colt and carefully walked him and his mother out of sight, probably to a chariot. Celestia smiled peacefully at the gathered ponies. “I’m sure the child will be fine. Does anypony know what happened?”

“She bought a half-dozen carrots,” the market pony, who apparently owned the stall, offered. “She gave him one to nibble on while she continued shopping. I turned away for only a minute when I heard her scream and he was on the ground, shaking and… and…”

“It’s alright,” Celestia said, raising a hoof to stop the stallkeeper. “I… saw what the result was.” She looked around. “Please, continue with your daily tasks, my little ponies. The child has been helped and there is no cause to crowd the stall and worry yourselves. I will see to it personally that this matter is resolved.”

It was a mark of the astonishing trust that the ponies had in their Princess that being bid to stop worrying and go about their lives seemed to be all that was required; the crowd rapidly disappeared in different directions, leaving Trixie and Celestia alone with the stallkeeper. Without anypony else watching, Celestia looked down at the still-shaken stallion. “Where do you buy your carrots?”

“Manechester Table Farms, Your Majesty,” he replied.

Celestial let out a puff of breath and frowned. “Then I’m afraid that I’ll need your stock. There has been word of a plant illness making the rounds between various farms that can infect produce without being visible, and causing extreme illness if the produce is consumed. I shall need to examine your carrots to make sure this illness isn’t in them.”

“M… my carrots made him sick?” He asked, his eyes going wide.

“If they did. you did nothing wrong,” Celestia consoled him. “You cannot be blamed for selling ponies carrots from a farm with an exemplary reputation that looked perfectly fine to you.”

He sagged with relief. “I’m glad.”

“But I do need to examine the carrots,” she added.

“Of course Your Majesty, take them,” he said. “I… need to settle my nerves anyway. So horrible, that poor little colt…” He shook his head and trotted away, his distress hanging over him like a black cloud as he went. With everypony but Trixie now gone, Celestia let her mask go and her expression grew both agonized and tight with anger.

“How dare these Evils!” she exclaimed lowly. “Destroying my little ponies’ livelihoods, poisoning little colts, infecting my subjects with fear? I should like to have them before my throne so that I might mete out fierce judgment against them.”

“Will the colt…?”

The anger went out of her face and stance and Celestia hung her head. “As Twilight would put it, he is the index case, the ‘patient zero’ for this Void disease. And the chances for a patient zero are precisely that. I made him comfortable, ensured that he would survive for a time without pain, long enough for loving farewells…”

“But your magic healed all of his injuries…”

“My magic healed the surface injuries, banished his sickness, vanquished his pain, cleansed his blood of the Void material… but I cannot mold him back into a healthy colt,” Celestia sighed. “The Void disease, in only the relatively few minutes since he bit into the carrot, has twisted his body in ways I can’t repair. When I was under the influence of Nightmare Flare, I could and did twist good ponies into loyal playthings but without the evil power that form gave me, I cannot any longer.”

“Is there any way to get it…?”

“NO!” The vehemence of Celestia’s reply, with a touch of the Royal Canterlot Voice that her sister would sometimes slip into, froze Trixie in place for a moment. “Trixie, I know the question was meant innocently and with pure intentions but I would not seek it if I could. Evil power can only be used for evil; not even I can violate that one ironclad rule.”

Trixie nodded sadly. “Then there is nothing we can do for him?”

“We have done all we could,” Celestia responded. “We arrived to save him while everypony else stood in horror. Kindness was shown to the soon-to-be bereaved mother even though it cannot save her son. One of the rulers of Equestria, a goddess in her eyes, conveyed her son to the hospital on her own sun chariot. He will be comfortable and without pain, and will die without suffering. His family will have time to gather around, love him, and bid him goodbye. Short of making him well, there is nothing else that can be done.” She paused. “Well, one little thing…”

“Slay the monster that murdered him?” Trixie asked.

“Slay the monster that murdered him,” Celestia agreed. “And find some way to seize the rest of that crop until we can find a way to make it safe. And then, find a way to protect other crops from infection.”

Trixie considered this. More than likely, whatever creature had done this was a thing of the Void and as Spite had said (and had been vividly proven by both Celestia and Trixie), magic infused with Light was toxic to the Void. It was so toxic that the Void matter had sizzled and evaporated from the mere luminance of the Light magic when…

“I think I have an idea, Your Majesty,” Trixie said. “The matter of the Void seems like it burns and flees from just the radiance of Light magic. What if we set up the patrols I thought of but gave each one a… lantern or something else they can easily hold or put around their neck that radiates Light? They could cleanse fields by themselves and if rays of light from Light magic hurt things of the Void…”

“…any pony could meet this creature and force it to retreat because the Light is poisonous to it.” Celestia smiled. “I may not be gifted with runcraft but runes of sunlight, longevity, and illumination are among the easiest to inscribe. That’s a very clever solution, Trixie.”

“Being a showpony is all about the improv,” Trixie smiled a little in return. “Speaking of improvisation, there may be another way to fight this creature without needing to find it: we could attempt to deceive it. Grifters do it all the time, and I haven’t always been the most… honest about how I keep bits in my bag.”

“I know,” Celestia’s eye got that slightly playful twinkle. “Would you be surprised to know that I made sure I knew everything there was to know about the unicorn mare my daughter was mentoring?”

“Not really,” Trixie admitted. “Did Twilight know?”

“She didn’t want to; your past didn’t matter to her.” Celestia sighed with a touch of fondness. “If I and Luna were mortal, I could easily see Twilight succeeding us when we passed… she would be a very enlightened monarch, I think, possibly the most enlightened since dear old Starswirl.”

Trixie laughed at this. “Queen Twilight Sparkle? As wonderful as that sounds, can you imagine your daughter conducting state business without taking frequent book breaks?”

Celestia’s eyes twinkled mirthfully. “No, I couldn’t imagine that,” she admitted. “So, why did you bring up grifters?”

“Because they get bits from marks by letting the mark believe that they’re winning, winning big, and could win everything… and then at the last moment, they pull their trick, make it impossible for the mark to win, and collect the pot,” the showmare explained. “I think we need to play the same game with this creature: make it overconfident, sure of victory, and then mete out fierce justice upon it. It’s the only way I can think of that we could catch it without needing to find it first.”

“And by making the attempt, we could choose where it attacks and when it attacks and have ponies there to repel and hurt it,” Celestia nodded. “A sound strategy. But one that has to start with the most difficult first step: warning my little ponies of this monster without provoking a panic.”

“Would you like me to attempt to examine the carrots, Princess?”

“Would you?” Celestia smiled. “I think it best that you make the first attempt and see what can be seen without an overabundance of power and experience, what might be seen by another unicorn if they were looking for it.”

“Would you like me to find you afterwards?”

“If you would.” Celestia leaned down and kissed the top of Trixie’s head. “I appreciate what you’ve done, Trixie. You identified the danger and devised a way to address it, at least in part. You have been welcome company, especially when we discovered just what had befallen the poor colt. I hope we shall be able to work together, the two of us with the aid of other good ponies, to repel this assault on Our kingdom.”

“It has been my honor, Princess Celestia,” Trixie beamed, giving the solar diarch her most elegant bow.

She turned away and felt the constant warm presence of the princess recede as Celestia trotted away, and she stepped over to examine the carrots on the stand. Just as Carrot Top had described, every one of them had slightly wilted stems, something that Trixie wouldn’t have even given a second glance to if she hadn’t been looking for it. They were otherwise all that a carrot should be: a deep appetizing orange color, the flesh firm and succulent, no spots of rot, carefully hoof-washed that very morning so they still smelled as fresh as they looked, and stacked in angled rows to emphasize their delicious abundance.

Trixie stared at the carrots and bit her lip lightly. The memory of the sick, almost painful, wrongness of the magic that laid over Carrot Tops’ field came to the forefront of her mind but she tried to shake that off, telling herself that she had a defense against it now and was fully aware of what she was dealing with. Of far greater concern was the fact that Twilight hadn’t been able to give her as much instruction with magical discernment as she had with combat magic and other principles, so she was genuinely worried that she’d be unable to get much of anything off the carrots, assuming that there was anything to get; Trixie was well aware of the concept of a one-use magical trap and it could easily have been triggered, and burned out, when the colt had taken a bite of the root.

Hoping for the best, she lit her horn softly and moved it closer to the pile of carrots, closing her eyes so she could more easily block out distractions of sights, scents and sounds to make it easier to read the spell on the vegetables. A moment later, she found herself laying on the ground a few lengths away, her stomach churning threateningly and a throbbing pain spreading across her back where the trap embedded in the spell had thrown her against a cart. She blinked and tried to move, wincing as her back revolted against the action, and pushed through the pain to get to her hooves. She didn’t know magical theory well but she was pretty sure that weaving that kind of power into an enchantment, enough to pick up a pony and throw them at the slightest provocation, bespoke immense power in the enchanter and enough sophistication to hide such a powerful enchantment from easy detection.

She took a tentative step forward, wincing again as her back protested, and very nearly tripped over one of the carrots that had been thrown free when the trap went off. She gave the innocent-looking vegetable a glare as ponies came rushing over.

“Miss Lulamoon, are you alright?” A mare (Trixie seemed to recall that her name was Berry Punch) asked, head tilting with a concerned expression.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is… don’t touch those!” Several ponies froze in place at her panicked command, hooves and mouths stopping just short of touching the carrots. “Princess Celestia is concerned that the carrots were tainted with a plant illness and asked me to examine them,” she added hurriedly. “She gave me a cantrip so I can handle them safely so please, let me take care of it.”

Some part of her conscience twitched at the lie and how easily and smoothly it came out, but stunned expressions gave way to cautious but not frightened wariness and the ponies respectfully backed away from the rogue vegetables. Trixie gave them what she hoped was a reassuring smile before extending her telekinetic magic and wrapping it around one of the carrots. This time, the spell didn’t lash out but Trixie felt her hold weakening, as if the enchantment was actively struggling against her. She almost dropped it in surprise but, frowning, she sent out more magic through the link and strengthened her grip, hoisting it into the air. She trotted forward with the vegetable in her telekinetic grip and firmly stacked it with those of its kind that remained on the stand.

She grabbed the next and then another, making sure to use more magic then necessary to counteract the odd resistance to her grasp. Finally, there was one left and it was the one nearest to the stand, as if the explosion had caused it to simply roll off rather than be thrown by the force. She seized it like she had the others but unlike the others, it didn’t simply seem to resist her hold: a hammer of force and Void slammed into her head and she toppled, her stomach churning as it tried expel its contents but for the fact that Trixie hadn’t eaten since going to Carrot’s fields. Her vision clouded a moment and then she felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked blearily up at the same mare as before, definitely Berry Punch.

“That’s not a plant disease,” she said lowly. She then looked up and said more loudly. “You look like you’re a bit tired-out from a show, Miss Lulamon. Are you sure you wouldn’t like some help?”

Trixie blinked up owlishly at the plum mare, her muddled brain trying to figure out how the town drunk was both sharp enough to notice the lie that had fooled everypony else, and quick enough to recognize that what she’d figured out shouldn’t be said out loud, and went straight to covering Trixie’s flank. Then her normally-sharp brain unmuddled a little and helpfully pointed out that ‘town drunk’ was a gossipy rumor she’d picked up last time she’d come to Ponyville; it also pointed out that the only thing she’d ever seen Berry Punch drinking was… berry punch. “Yes, the Great and Powerful Trixie could use her beauty sleep. Would you mind to…”

“…help you to your wagon?”

“And tell Big Macintosh where I am,” Trixie nodded.

“Certainly.” Berry leaned down and draped one of Trixie’s legs over her shoulders, helping her to her hooves then provided a solid body to lean against as the blue unicorn carefully walked towards her garish wagon parked nearby. “So, not a plant disease.”

“Yes.”

“Spell?”

“Yes, actually.” Trixie looked curiously at her. “Trixie begs your pardon but…”

“I’m a wine-maker not a wine-bibber,” Berry stated bluntly.

“I didn’t think otherwise,” Trixie assured her. “I was going to say that you show a great deal of fast thinking and discretion for a wine-maker.”

Berry smiled pleasantly. “When you and Big Mac tie the knot and you make Ponyville your home, I think you’ll enjoy getting to know ponies outside just the Apples and your circle of friends. I think we’ll surprise you.” She chuckled. “But outside of that, I’m close friends with Carrot Top; she told me what happened to the fields and everypony in Ponyville is used to watching magic behave… oddly. I just put two and two together.”

Trixie swallowed. “So… how many other ponies would put two and two together?”

Berry shrugged. “Most of them. But I think you underestimate how much we love and trust the Princesses. Most of us are parents, we get it, you can’t always tell your children everything and sometimes you have to tell a lie to them out of love and for their own good. So if Princess Celestia tells us that it’s a plant disease that can cause sickness… well, it’s a plant disease that can cause sickness, even though it’s not.”

Trixie gave Berry a little smile as they got to her wagon. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” The mare smiled broadly. “But in return, I’d like to know what the real truth is. I won’t tell others without your permission, but I think you’ll need more ponies than just your coltfriend and his family to deal with whatever this actually is.”

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“It sounds like we’ve got a big problem,” Berry commented when Trixie was done. While Berry Punch had gone to tell Big Mac where she was and assure him that she was fine, Trixie had worked on preparing a social nicety that frequent visits to Rarity’s Carousel Boutique had taught her: afternoon tea. The presence of the tea was strangely comforting and pleasant and reminded Trixie of the elegant unicorn, who was also comforting and pleasant (after she’d decided that Trixie had made amends for her behavior). Berry Punch, born and raised in Ponyville, clearly appreciated Trixie borrowing the afternoon tea tradition from the alabaster dressmaker.

“More than just a big problem, I’m afraid,” Trixie sighed. “It could strike any field, anytime. The produce could be shipped anywhere in Equestria before we knew what’d happened. We have no idea what the thing actually looks like, beyond a misshapen bird and that’s assuming that it’s not clever enough to use a disguise.”

Berry considered this. “Fine. We have a huge, world-ending problem we can do nothing about. We should go home, hug our loved ones, and await the end.”

Trixie gave the other mare a dim look and received a cheeky grin in return. “That’s not helpful.”

“Neither is exaggerating the problem,” Berry pointed out with a sip of the tea. “So that one carrot that was laying near the stand… what was different about it? It looked like you were trying to pick it up but then you toppled over and started retching like you’d gotten bucked in the stomach.”

“I don’t know,” Trixie admitted. “All the carrots I picked up felt like they were resisting my magic slightly but that one… it fought back.”

“Fought back.” Berry looked askance at her.

“I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like the spell was designed to attack anypony that tried to touch the carrot with magic, and attack hard.” Trixie shook her head in between another sip. “But where could it get enough of it to blast me off my hooves at first and then throw a hammer of magical force at me when I tried to pick it up?”

The other mare considered this. “I don’t know what’s going on exactly but here’s a thought: when a farmpony spreads fertilizer on their fields, the plants under where they keep it are always much larger, stronger, and hardier. Maybe that carrot was at the very center of the field when this thing infected that acreage so it was the most strongly enchanted.”

“So the enchantment on it would be the most durable…” Trixie said thoughtfully. “Something to try at least.” She got up and started towards the door of the wagon.

“What are you thinking?” Berry asked, following her out. “And are you feeling well enough to try it?”

“Considering what’s at stake, I feel well enough to try it,” Trixie replied. “And I’m thinking that if that enchantment is stronger, a little Light might take the fight out of it, as it were.”

“Poison the poison.” Berry chuckled. “It’s poetic, at least.”

“I thought so.” Trixie had worried a little that in her absence, somepony would have absentmindedly picked up the carrot and put it away or a foal had gotten it in their mouths, but the carrot was lying where it had fallen, looking entirely innocent and like any other carrot—but Trixie knew better. This time, she didn’t try to be careful or subtle; right off, she wove the telekinesis heavily with the same magic that she used in her sphere of Light and wrapped it around the offending vegetable. She had a brief impression of something trying to push back but Trixie gave it no chance to attack again, weaving her grip, and the infusion of Light, tighter around it as she lifted it up to put it back into place.

The magical resistance of the spell surged again and this time, Trixie could see smoke coming from the carrot as the Void energy was scorched by the Light. But more than that, in the brief moment of the surge, Trixie could feel the distinct traces of a transformation spell in the midst of the disease—a complex one, rivaling the complexity of the spell Twilight had shown her that gave fully functional wings to a flightless pony for a time. But this one had a sickly feeling of malevolence about it, and vastly more power than it would take to simply add a couple limbs; suddenly the appearance of claws and bone spurs growing through the colt’s skin made a certain chilling sense. What was even more distinct about this spell, however, was what it didn’t feel like: it has no feeling of disease, virulence, or anything else she’d associate with a spell designed to sicken and kill.

Her concentration on the enspelled carrot was broken by a surge of a familiar radiant aura around her and she turned to find Celestia standing at her side, looking strangely distressed.

“Your…”

“Trixie, have you learned anything about the spell?” Celestia interrupted.

“I can resist my telekinetic hold as if it was alive,” she replied, sensing that it wasn’t the time to delay. “And apparently, the carrot closest to the caster when he cast the spell absorbed an immense amount of magic, enough that the spell was complex enough to actively attack me until I scorched it with Light. And… it’s a transformation spell, Your Majesty, an extremely strong and complex one. Twilight could understand what it does but me…”

“You’ve done fine, Trixie,” Celestia assured her with a sigh. “You’ve done more than I could have expected and as much as I could have asked.”

“You seem… disappointed.”

Celestia smiled. “I am, and it’s wrong of me to feel so. You’re the first pony outside of my daughter that I’ve trusted to act as my hoof in anything for nearly a thousand years. But that is my disappointment.” Her face became lined with worry. “I flew in the direction the chariot would have taken; I should have overtaken them almost instantly, yet I haven’t seen them at all. My Royal Guard are exhaustively trained, able to fly in any weather or recognize when the weather is too dangerous to fly in, yet it is as if they’ve gotten lost. They’ve… it’s been centuries since that’s happened, and both Canterlot and Ponyville are places they fly to constantly.”

“Could carrying a distressed passenger and her ill colt have changed anything about their route or how they fly?” Trixie asked.

“They would have gone slower and taken the quickest route,” Celestia grimaced. “Moreover, I’ve spoken to Carrot Top and by now, most of the infected crop has reached its various destinations: Manehattan, Stalliongrad, Hoofington, Baltimare, Neigh Orleans… Canterlot. I expect to hear news of outbreaks soon, and that doesn’t even consider the possibility that the creature may have done its work on crops of alfalfa, tomato, apples, daffodils, daisies… anything that ponies eat in large amounts, this beast may have made diseased.”

“It’s late in the season for most of those, Your Majesty,” Berry Punch offered. “And those that it’s not late for would be a poor choice to taint.”

Celestia appeared to not have noticed Berry Punch standing nearby, just close enough to overhear without being obvious about it, because she turned and looked at the mare curiously. “Please explain, Miss Punch.”

“Alfalfa and tomatoes were harvested and shipped well over a week ago,” the earth pony explained. “And both daffodils and daisies are so common that they’re harvested as needed throughout the season. The only of the major crops that’s left is apples, and Sweet Apple Acres is clean.”

“How can you…?” Celestia glanced at Trixie. “Ah, I see. How much are you aware of?”

“Most things,” Berry admitted. “I asked for the entire truth when I helped her back to her wagon after the strong spell knocked her on her flanks and covered for her, although I could tell that what was going on is no plant disease.”

“I appreciate your discretion, Berry Punch,” Celestia smiled.

“Think nothing of it, Your Highness,” the mare responded cheerfully. “Any questions any of us may have had about whether our Princesses have our best interests in mind were answered long ago. We trust you, Princess, like foals trust their parents and like our parent, we’re aware that you have to occasionally be less than honest for our own good. Telling everypony that some evil thing is running around infecting random food crops couldn’t have ended well.”

The solar princess beamed at the earth pony before her smile disappeared back into her worried expression. “I’m grateful for the trust of my little ponies but we must still contend with the fact that the distribution will lead to pandemic, and I must find that chariot and the Royal Guard that were with it.”

“Before you go, Princess, how complicated would it be to create a few of the lanterns I suggested?” Trixie asked. “This started in Ponyville; it’s more than possible that the creature is lingering to ensure that its attack is playing out according to its desires.”

“Of course, Trixie.” Celestia gave her a smile. “I seem to recall that Rarity keeps a great store of gems at her Carousel Boutique.” With a small surge of magic, a pouch of bits popped into midair and Celestia floated it over so Trixie could take it in her telekinesis. “If she was here, I’m sure she’d refuse compensation, so it’s very fortunate that she isn’t here.”

Trixie tested the weight of the pouch. “Not the least of which because there’s enough bits here to buy the Boutique itself.”

Celestia chuckled. “Being generous with the Element of Generosity seems appropriate to me. I’ll be here when you return.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Trixie turned and, flanked by Berry, trotted towards the prominent dress shop. It was as colorful and elegant as she remembered, garish but somehow subdued in a way that its white-coated owner would approve of. The only thing that was new was as tattered yellow flag with a black spot in the middle tacked to the door. Looking at Berry and getting a sinking feeling, Trixie trotted closer—and immediately felt like she’d walked into an invisible wall of the sickly, noxious energy of the Void. It was fully as strong as the pallor that hung over Carrot’s fields but more… solid somehow, like it had been concentrated.

Trixie gritted her teeth and brought out her sphere of Light, pushing the Void back as she leaned in to examine the strange flag. The tacks that were driven through the fabric were strange-looking, their heads rectangular and off-center and stamped with a cluster of three tiny stars in a triangle. The flag itself was careworn, threadbare, and had clearly been subjected to both weaponry and being partly scorched by fire. Trixie had the sudden impression that she was looking at something that was ancient, and the recognition that no resident of Ponyville could have put it there made her back away.

“What the hay does that mean?” Berry asked, pointing at the flag.

“It means we need to get back to Princess Celestia,” Trixie replied grimly. “Because whoever put it there somehow did it without being seen and that flag is far too old to have been put here by anypony. I think it’s safe to say that this creature infecting carrots isn’t the only person at work.”

Author's Note:

I realize up front that some of this chapter has a very "mailed it in" feel to it so more than others, feedback is desired to see if I can unknot some of what plagues it.

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