Chapter 14 - Trixie's Treasure Hunt
Bright and early the next morning, Trixie was charging about the apartment whilst putting all manner of items into her saddlebags. She had a big day planned, and she needed to make sure she was well prepared - her future may depend upon the outcome of the coming day's endeavors!
"Water canteen... check." she said out loud, stuffing a small metal bottle into the bag, "Food... check. Lantern... check. Map... check."
From his basket, the still-snoozing Leech sleepily opened an eye. Observing his friend's rushing about and fervent bag packing, he let out a stifled yawn and cleared his throat.
"What izz Trixzzie doing?" he groggily asked.
"Packing for today!" Trixie explained, brightly. "As I told you last night Leech, I've got a big day ahead of me. I'll be out of town for most of it, so if you want an actual physical snack you'll need to make it yourself. I'd recommend something cold - you remember what I told you about using the stove unsupervised, yes?"
"Leech knowzz, don't uzze zzstove without Trixzzie prezzent, otherwizze Leech might cause an 'uh-oh'." Leech replied.
"And by 'uh-oh', you mean 'catastrophic fire'. We've been lucky so far, but I think the Canterlot fire department are getting fed up of us." said Trixie, stopping for a moment to look at the singed ceiling above the stove.
"Leech will be fine. Hazz Trixzzie got planzz to zzsolve magic problemzz?" Leech asked, rising from his basket and stretching his limbs.
"Possibly, Leech. Possibly." answered Trixie, wondering if investigating a dubious legend actually counted as a plan. "Only time will tell. And if I'm going to put my plan into action, I need to get going! Goodbye for now my friend, and I'll see you this evening! Oh Leech, before I go, could you find my compass for me? I'll be needing it on my journey."
"Zzsure thing, Trixzzie!" said Leech eagerly, rummaging around until he found a small metallic object and stuffing it into one of Trixie's bags.
With this, Trixie thanked Leech before throwing her cloak over her withers and fastening it at her neck. For good measure, she activated her semi-invisibility spell with a flash of her horn. The streets were quiet at this hour, so hopefully there'd be nopony around to notice a partially visible blue-tinted silhouette in the dim morning light. Leech heard the clacking of Trixie's hooves on the marble floor as she dashed out of the door and closed it behind her.
"Leech zzsuppozzezz he'd better get ready for work." he sighed out loud, although on this occasion he really didn't want to go. "And Leech normally lovezz hizz job, too." he said sadly - he hadn't felt this crushed since the time a Behemoth changeling had accidentally trodden on him.
----------
It was mid-morning by the time Trixie reached the borders of the Everfree Forest, her one-time home. She'd hoped that she'd never have to return to this place, but knew she could end up living here again if she didn't! She'd caught the train from Canterlot to Baltimare, and upon realizing the train didn't stop anywhere inbetween, teleported from the carriage as the train passed by the forest. Alas, she'd failed to take the train's velocity into account when doing this, and had ended up tumbling and rolling the last few hundred yards to the forest's edge. Fortunately, a low tier shielding spell had prevented her from picking up too many injuries.
Making her way into the forest's foreboding shroud of darkness, she levitated a map from her saddlebag and held it in front of her eyes. She deftly scanned it, and decided to check her bearings against her compass. She rooted around her saddlebags, unable to feel the small, round navigational aid. Instead, she eventually found two metal prongs joined by a hinge, one ending in a point and the other with a pencil attached.
"When will I learn not to ask that dolt to do important things?" she wondered to herself.
----------
Back in Canterlot, Leech dejectedly trudged into the Canterlot Chronicle offices, his usual get-up-and-go having long since got up and left. Snap Happy was quick to notice his employee's abrupt change in demeanor, and immediately became concerned.
"Leech, are you alright?" Snap Happy asked. "You look pretty down in the dumps today. Is there something you want to talk about?"
"No... it'zz OK." Leech replied morosely, not wanting to tell Snap Happy about Tattle-Tale's scheme in case he made good on his threat to ruin Trixie's career.
"Well, this might cheer you up - we've had a swap-around with some of our reporters' shifts. Which means you've got today and tomorrow off!" Snap Happy said, attempting to sound extra-cheerful in order to brighten Leech's spirits.
"Really? Leech can go home?" replied Leech, his face immediately lighting up.
"Yep. See you in two days, my friend! Hope you feel better soo-" Snap Happy began to reply, only to watch Leech dart away before he could finish.
"Gotta make it out of here, gotta make it out of here." thought Leech as he thundered down the office corridors, determined to leave before a certain unicorn found him.
----------
Leech's heart sank as he found his progress halted by a unicorn's aura snaring him and lifting his body several inches off the ground. He continued to ineffectually gallop in mid-air for several moments as the aura dragged him backwards and into an office, the door closing behind him. Leech ceased his futile running as he was set down in front of Tattle-Tale's desk.
"An' just where d'ya tink you're goin', buster? We had a deal!" Tattle-Tale said sternly as his horn ceased to glow. "Just cos yous got da day off, doesn't mean you get ta keep me waitin'! It just means we got more time ta do what we gotta do!"
"Yezz Tattle-Tale. Leech izz zzsorry Tattle-Tale. What doezz Tattle-Tale want Leech to do?" replied Leech, his gaze shifting to the floor.
"Well, I'm sure you are aware of the l'il problem I've been faced wid as of late. Seems da mooks in charge around here want solid evidence ta go wid my articles. And what evidence could be more solid dan a photograph?" Tattle-Tale began, a malevolent smile appearing on his face. "Tell me Leech - do you know a pony by da name of Class Act?"
"Yezz, he izz Trixzzie's employer." Leech answered with an affirming nod.
"Right. But, did you also know he made his fortune wid da cold storage company he runs alongside his chain a' cabaret bars?" asked Tattle-Tale. "He's what you might call a cold storage tycoon, an icebox industrialist..."
"...a refrigerator magnate?" chimed in Leech.
"Yeah, dat too. Anyway, he's been givin' me some problems recently, so I'm gonna do an exposé on his cold storage company's environmental irresponsibility. Y'know, a bit a' public interest news instead a' da usual celebrity stuff I do." continued Tattle-Tale.
"Zzso you want Leech to do undercover reporting to dig up the factzz?" asked Leech.
"Facts, shmacts. Da reason I erm... 'hired' you is cos you can take da form a' any pony, right? And havin' somebody who can take da' form a' any pony means... I can get photos of any pony doin' anythin' dat I say they're doin'!" Tattle-Tale explained, levitating a large, empty can with 'Toxic Waste' emblazoned upon it from behind his desk.
"What izz Tattle-Tale doing with zzstrange can?" asked Leech.
"It's what YOU'RE gonna do wid it, Leech. See dat photographic backdrop a' one of Equestria's main rivers on da wall over dere? You will take da form a' Class Act, an' den pose wid dis pretend toxic waste can in front of da backdrop. Then I'll take a picture of ya, thus givin' me all da evidence I need to publish my article!"
Leech was horrified - not only was this both immoral and illegal, but it could ruin Class Act. Leech didn't want to ruin an innocent pony's life, just as he'd been reluctant to participate in Trixie's plan during the Gemstone Festival.
"Pluzz, if Leech helpzz Tattle-Tale ruin Clazz Act, there izz chanzze that Leech might ruin Trixzzie too!" thought Leech. "Clazz Act employzz Trixzzie after all! But if Leech doezzn't do what Tattle-Tale zzsayzz... Leech will definitely ruin Trixzzie'zz career!"
Swallowing at the lump in his throat, Leech reluctantly shifted his form to that of Class Act, before scooping up the phony waste can in a forehoof and posing next to the backdrop. Leech put on his best 'sinister' face as the camera flashed and hoped that the tears he was blinking back wouldn't come out on Tattle-Tale's pictures.
----------
Using her finely-honed instincts and impeccable strategic thinking, Trixie had managed to locate the former home of Celestia and Luna without the aid of her compass. Well, almost - in actual fact she'd stumbled upon it purely by chance whilst fleeing from a pack of ravenous Manticores. She'd only just made it to the relative safety of the ancient stone structure and closed the doors before the three vicious lion-scorpion chimeras caught up with her. Breathing a sigh of relief as her trembling body leaned against the back of the castle's heavy, wooden doors, Trixie took a few moments to regain her composure. When she had calmed herself sufficiently, she squinted in the darkness as she rummaged through her saddlebags, eventually retrieving and lighting her lantern.
Opting not to waste her energy with an illumination spell, Trixie instead carried the lantern in her aura as she began to scan the vast, empty halls of the castle for clues. Drips of water echoed through the otherwise eerily-silent corridors, save for the occasional breeze being turned into an otherworldly howl by the castle's acoustics. The lantern's light flickered across the damp blocks of stone as Trixie's eyes struggled to find any clues as to the amulet's whereabouts.
As she shuffled through the seemingly eternal darkness, Trixie felt her hoof touch something - it felt like some sort of string, or wire. Moving her lantern down to investigate, she could see that she had indeed hit some sort of trip wire. Her contemplation of the wire was interrupted as a deep, booming, ghostly voice suddenly arose from somewhere, the corridor's echo making it sound as though it were coming from all directions at once.
"Bewaaaaare, traveler! Leave this place at once! Turn back now! Turn baaaaaack!" the voice warned, causing Trixie to instinctively turn and begin to flee.
As she did so, the light of her lantern reflected from something shiny hidden in a nearby alcove. Halting her 'strategic retreat' momentarily to investigate, she trotted over to the alcove to find a small, magically-powered record player, its remarkably untarnished brass horn being what had caught her lantern's light. Attached to the record player was... a thin wire. Tracing the wire back along the walls, Trixie soon came across the same trip-wire that she had touched. Her curiosity piqued, she touched it again... and sure enough, the record player once again played the ghostly warning.
"Heh. Cute. But it'll take more than a recorded message to deter The Brave and Bold Trixie! I wasn't scared at all!" she told herself, before stepping over the wire and continuing on her way.
----------
Soon, Trixie came to a large room which seemed to be in far worse repair than the others. The gaps between the blocks that made up its walls were uneven, loose stones protruded everywhere. Vines were coming in through the walls, and the smell of damp was far stronger in here than in any other room of the castle. Trixie, however, seemed pleased by this.
"Aha! I've read all the Daring-Do books, I know how this works. I bet one of these loose stones opens a hidden compartment when I pull on it!" she thought, setting her lantern down and gripping a loose stone with her magic.
Giving the slab a firm tug, it slid out from between its fellows and fell to the floor with a dull thud. Looking around, Trixie noted that no hidden compartments had opened up and there was nothing behind where the stone had been but the darkness of the forest outside. Undeterred, she grasped another block and pulled, yielding similar results to the first.
"Sooner or later, Trixie shall reveal the Alicorn Amulet's hiding place!" she said to herself, optimistically.
Fifteen minutes and seventy loose stones later, however, the only thing Trixie had revealed was the sheer extent of the room's structural instability. Blocks began to fall from the walls without her pulling them, and Trixie noted with horror that the room's ceiling was beginning to bow. Amid the deafening crashes of pieces of wall falling to the ground, Trixie could just about hear what her mind was telling her:
"OK, so maybe there isn't a hidden compartment after all. Now get the buck out of this room before you end up as The Flat and Squished Trixie!"
Trixie certainly didn't need telling twice, grabbing her lantern and hurrying down yet another corridor just as the hall behind her caved in on itself. This meant she'd have to find a new route out when it was time to leave, although survival was higher on her list of priorities than forward planning at that moment. Hurtling up a spiral staircase, Trixie was somewhat dizzy by the time she arrived at the top. Deducing that she must be in one of the castle's towers due to the spiral staircase and the panoramic view of the forest through the tower's small windows, she once again began to search for clues.
----------
"Ah, I bet it's stored in here. Makes far more sense to store something valuable in a tower rather than the ground floor." she thought.
As she looked around, she felt one of the floor stones sink slightly beneath her hoof, creating an audible 'click' sound. A low rumble soon began to fill Trixie's ears.
"Oh no, not another recording!" sighed Trixie impatiently.
However, the source of the sound was not a recording, as Trixie soon discovered. The rumble became gradually louder and was accompanied by an intense vibration through the floor. It seemed to be coming from a corridor that led away from the tower, into the castle's upper floor. Moving her lantern to illuminate this corridor, Trixie's jaw dropped as she noted a huge, round stone rolling down the corridor and heading directly for the tower room she was standing in!
"Oh COME ON!" she gasped out loud. "So cliche it's untrue - Daring Do had to contend with one of these in almost every book!"
Cliche or not, its predictability made the peril no less deadly. Trixie once again went into strategic retreat mode, hurrying back down the spiral staircase from whence she came. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw to her dismay that the stone was also making its way down the staircase, gravity causing it to gather even more speed! Arriving at the bottom of the staircase, Trixie could see that the way was blocked with rubble from the hall collapse she'd caused some minutes previously.
With the boulder bearing down on her from behind and a solid wall of rubble blocking her escape, Trixie was quite literally caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Only one thing for it!" she told herself. "PANIC TELEPORT!"
Just as the round stone was about to roll over the spot where Trixie was standing, Trixie managed to summon one of her infamous panic teleport spells - like normal teleport spells, but with no control over where she would end up. Rematerializing in a flash of violet in an unknown part of the castle, Trixie took a moment to get over the shock of her most recent ordeal.
"The book said the Princesses were against execution!" she gasped. "So why is everything in this bucking castle TRYING TO KILL ME?! They must REALLY not want anypony to get their hooves on this amulet."
----------
Having lost her lantern whilst fleeing from the boulder, Trixie squinted to see through the darkness as she made her way down the corridor. Her magic reserves severely depleted from the panic teleport, she was only able to produce a very dim purple light with her horn. Hung on either side of the thin passageway's walls were various cloth banners depicting various scenes from Equestrian history. Time hadn't been kind to them, the dampness causing many of them to mold and rot beyond recognition.
"This is useless." she finally told herself. "I'll never find the stupid amulet. There's too much castle to look through, it's like finding a needle in several haystacks! What will I do now? I needed that amulet to save my career!" she sobbed.
Noting that she'd lost her tablecloth hood and cloak somewhere along the way, Trixie figure she'd need a new cloak to conceal her identity upon her return to Canterlot. Seeing the various cloth banners on the walls around her, she pulled one down with her magic and fashioned a cloak from it. It had become almost entirely dark green from the years of mold buildup, and smelt nauseatingly musty. As Trixie turned to find the exit, she noticed a small gap in the stonework behind where the banner had once been. Shining her horn into the once-concealed space, Trixie gasped as she beheld a huge bag of ancient golden coins. Gathering up her newly found bounty, her mood improved considerably.
"At least the day hasn't been a total loss!" she thought. "Wait a second..."
Trixie quickly removed her makeshift cloak and examined it. Through the centuries of encrusted filth she could see a picture of... a treasure chest filled with golden coins. Trixie put the pieces together as she examined the other banners that hung around her.
"A banner with a picture of coins on it, had coins behind it..."
One of the banners depicted a scene of ponies fighting each other with swords. Recklessly tearing the banner down, Trixie noted that a secret compartment behind the banner contained the rusted remains of several swords and shields. She tore down several more banners to reveal empty spaces, before finally coming to a banner which caused a grin to appear on her face. It depicted a pair of Alicorns using a red gem to zap a group of angry-looking unicorns.
"That's the Princesses depowering the evil unicorns from centuries ago! The amulet must be here!" she thought, her entire being tingling with excitement.
She threw back the banner to reveal nothing in the hidden compartment except for a scroll. Levitating the heavily stained parchment over to her, she unrolled it and began to read:
Sorry, but the Alicorn Amulet is in Another Castle.
----------
Hours later, Trixie angrily stomped through the gates of Canterlot as evening fell. The weather had changed during her long, treacherous journey back, and heavy rain fell from the blackened cloudy skies. It didn't matter to Trixie though, despite her luck in finding the coins she was incensed with fury at missing out on the Alicorn Amulet. As the rain soaked her moldy cloak, causing its smell to become even pungent, Trixie gingerly felt the lump on the back of her head with her hoof. As it turned out, teleporting onto a moving train was just as hazardous as teleporting off one.
Deciding that she couldn't bear to go home and give Leech the bad news, Trixie instead decided to take a long, slow walk around Canterlot, trotting solemnly down a side street that she had never traveled down before. Looking around, she noticed all kinds of strange shops she'd never realized existed in Canterlot.
"Mortar Brick's Building Repairs... Bitsan Piece's Bric-a-Brac... Another Castle Antiques and Curios... Mann Co... Lord Howard Hertz Budget Dental Surgery..." she began, reading the shop names out loud.
Trixie suddenly stopped walking as inspiration struck her.
"Hold on... Another Castle Antiques and Curios? I wonder..." she wondered out loud. "It's a long and pretty tenuous shot, but what the hay - it's all I have!"
----------
Trixie ran up to the decrepit-looking store and pushed open its door, a small bell tingling as she entered the dusty, grimy room. All kinds of weird and wonderful items lay upon the shelves around her, from old pegasus armor to rather creepy ancient creatures preserved in glass jars. From across the dimly-lit room, the shopkeeper trotted over, startling Trixie as he emerged from the murky gloom.
"May I help you, Traveler?" he said softly. "Hmmm... something drew you to my shop. Something..."
"It was the name." Trixie interrupted, less softly. "You have quite possibly the worst name for an antique shop I've ever seen. But, and I know this sounds ridiculous, I think your shop may hold something I'm looking for."
The shopkeeper looked a little irritated at Trixie's insulting remarks about his shop's name, but retained his cool demeanor as he flicked back his plaited mane and adjusted his strange, foreign-looking hat.
"Well, my grandfather named the shop. I merely inherited it from my father, who in turn inherited it from him. It is traditional for the firstborn of each generation of the MacGuffin family to take ownership of this shop and continue our hunt for Equestria's artifacts." the shopkeeper explained.
"Wait, YOU'RE MacGuffin? As in author of the MacGuffin's Guides?" asked Trixie, somewhat shocked.
"Ah, you have a keen eye." replied MacGuffin with a smile. "I did not write those guides, but my great-great-grandfather did. Since then, my family has dedicated itself to locating the treasures that he described in his books."
"What do you know about the Alicorn Amulet?" Trixie asked, becoming bored with the history lesson.
"The most mysterious and powerful of all the known magic charms! I have it here. My father acquired it some decades ago, and I have been its protector ever since." answered MacGuffin, producing a glass dome from behind the counter.
Trixie's eyes became as wide as saucers as she gazed upon the Alicorn Amulet within the dome. She quickly turned to MacGuffin.
"How much do you want for it?" she asked, urgently.
"Oh no, I couldn't possibly." replied MacGuffin. "It is far too powerful and dangerous to leave my custody."
"This is a shop. You sell stuff. The Alicorn Amulet is here. So sell it to me!" Trixie replied, increasingly desperately.
"Isn't there something else you'd rather have?" asked MacGuffin, as he looked around nervously. "How about this glass orb? Legend has it, this orb gives you control over Timberwolves! Or maybe this book, the last remaining translation guide for the ancient language of Hasharbanu! Or maybe even this club, said to have been owned by the legendary neighanderthal Tarpan?"
Trixie ignored the alternatives that MacGuffin offered her, sweeping them all off the counter with her hoof. Without saying a word, she levitated her bag of golden coins from her saddlebag and dumped them harshly onto the counter. MacGuffin took a moment to examine the bounty that lay before him.
"I say! Ancient Equestrian currency! Solid gold, all of them! And you're offering me all of these just for this one silly little amulet?" he breathed, barely able to contain his excitement.
Trixie again said nothing, merely smiling and nodding. MacGuffin looked back at her, his smile even broader than hers.
"Would you like that gift-wrapped?"
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Yeah, I'm ill. However, I also can't sleep, hence the uber-long chapter for y'all.
*cough cough cough....*
*Dead*
True, because a real manticore has the face of a human.
I see your refrigerator magnate, and raise you this:
Trixie is wanted in Fillydelphia for doing a disappearing trick after posing as a psychic. Some might say she is a small medium at large.
This chapter is the best one yet, and had me on edge. Trixie battling the dangers of the castle only to find the Amulet was missing, Leech being forced to pose in as Class Act and dump fake toxic sludge into the river...
And then you referenced Tarpan, and the sheer amount of joy I felt simultaneously killed me and revived me.
I am so thankful and grateful, I just don't know what to do...
I should probably update 'The Neighanderthal'...
Poor Leech... Nothing goes right for him. Everything goes wrong around him.
Let's just hope that Leeches special ability to make Murphy's Law into an active agent that hates everything gets directed on to Tattle-Tale in the most career destroying way possible. The creep deserves it for blackmailing poor Leech.
1846325 That pun was bad and you should feel awesome.
Dang! You gave me half 'a heart attack when I read "Hasharbanu"! I literally leaned back in surprise! Totally unexpected and so awesome! -but a little FYI: I may change the Romanization of Hasharbanu (right now I'm looking at a change that might result in "Has'arbanu"), and I'll tell you if/when that happens... if you want me to, that is.
Hmm... "intellectual"?
... ... ... I dunno how truthful that is, but I like it!
Oh! I guess I should actually comment on the chapter! ... Uhm... Right! I liked what you did with Trixie hiding herself under cloaks here; very skillful turn from "character development" to "plot (not that!) relevant." Not easy to pull off, and even a... simpler example like this one has me nod in approval.
1855869
Dude, you created an entirely new language to accompany your fic. And then wrote a reference guide for it.
I definitely class that as intellectual.
1856757
Bah! I'll never understand why people make out languages to be such a major indicator of "intelligence." I mean, as soon as you understand linguistics, then languages are easy! Once you understand, say, what the "lative case" is, then you can automatically apply that knowledge to every language that has the lative case, learning much more quickly what is meant when the lative case is used!
...
Okay, maybe that is a bit much to expect of anyone who just wants to learn another language, but has no interest in linguistics...
Oh, and in case you were curious, the Romanization problem has (most likely) been solved, and the change doesn't affect the spelling of Hasharbanu.
I've just gotten to read the rest of this on my Read Later list. I stopped reading for some odd reason, and i have no idea why!
Thanks for the Behemoth cameo.
Consider yourself watched and favorited!
Cameo? I get a cameo?
th09.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2012/002/3/0/squee_meme_by_onewhogreeteddeath-d4l2t2x.jpg
Also, I got the Mario reference.
anothercastle.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/mario.jpg
And sorry I'm just reading this now. I've been writing too much, haven't gotten around to it.
Oh god. Refrigerator magnate. Someone stab my eyes out for witnessing that pun.
Not good...
Trixie, put it back!
And I wonder how long it's going to take for Leech to realize he can ruin Tattle-Tale's career as well...
oh, brother...wrong type of "compass"...
believe it or not, i saw a similar gag in the comic strip "B.C."