The Stars, the Seal, and the Kraken

by CLAVDIVS CAESAR

Chapter 7: Surcease of Sorrow

Trixie began to shift uncomfortably on the floor. "As much as I hate to break this up, you see, I'm glad I found you, but I hadn't actually been looking for you..."

"Oh. Oh! Uh, right, I'll just. Um. Eh-heh." Twilight zipped out of the stall as Trixie shut and latched the door behind her, and set to work repairing the mirror.

When Trixie emerged, Twilight had washed her face again, but her mane was still a mess. And so was her cutie mark. "I don't know how I'm going to explain that to the girls," she said with a sigh.

"You won't have to. Hold still a sec." Trixie's horn glowed, and with a flash of light, the bald patch on Twilight's flank was covered in a healthy coat of fur, indistinguishable from the rest. "You don't work with pyrotechnics for as long as I have without losing a few patches here and there. And that's real hair, not a conjuration like your moustache spell, so you won't have to worry about it wearing off or getting dispelled."

"That's pretty handy. Can you teach me that when we have the time? I don't work with pyrotechnics so much as live with one."

"Sure thing. For now, why I don't I help you bang that mane back into shape?" Trixie lifted the brush from the grooming kit began slowly working the knots out of Twilight's mane.

As Trixie worked, Twilight looked worriedly at the bathroom door. "Jeez, I hope no one heard me earlier. I was making kind of a racket, wasn't I?"

"It's okay. You had a lot of stuff pent up and it was your first real chance to let any of it out. Besides, I put a soundproofing spell around the room, so I doubt anypony heard much of anything."

"Trixie!" gasped Twilight in a mock-scandalized tone. "Locked door, soundproofed room; you could have done just about anything to me in here. You could have me completely at your mer--" Bonk. "Ow!"

Trixie brandished the hairbrush in a threatening manner, but fought to conceal her smile. "'Nuff of that. Let's just get you presentable so you can go back to your friends before they start worrying."

"Yes ma'am," said Twilight sheepishly.

---

By the time they returned, Applejack and Fluttershy were awake and talking quietly with Rarity over the morning paper, but Dash and Pinkie were still out, despite having somehow traded positions. Trixie still stopped warily at the threshold like a vampire who hadn't been invited in, but Twilight stayed close to her, just inside the door.

"Welcome back, dear," said Rarity. "You're looking much better, I'm happy to see."

"Mornin', Twi. What took ya so long?" Applejack asked cheerfully.

"Oh, uh, Trixie and I were just... talking," said Twilight, blushing. "About stuff."

This time, there was no mistaking it. Rarity and Applejack shared a stern look, and both locked their gazes firmly on Trixie, as Fluttershy gently swatted Rarity with a wing and gave her the "play nice" glare.

Trixie struggled to keep her forehooves on the floor instead of her face. Nicely done, Twi. You managed to make the truth sound like a freaking alibi. Trying to keep an actual secret would probably destroy you.

Twilight was oblivious to the silent exchange, however, having been nervously looking everywhere else. Turning her attention back to Trixie, she asked, "Are you sure you wouldn't like to come in?"

"Don't pressure her, Twilight," said Fluttershy. "She doesn't have to if she's not comfortable."

"No, it's okay," said Trixie, her voice tense. "I can do this." Twilight needs my support more than I need to wallow in my issues. Check your emotional baggage at the door, Trix... She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and stepped in. Opening her eyes again, she looked around and, to her surprise, managed to not completely lose it.

Twilight bit her lip, only now putting together the reason for her reluctance. "I'm sorry, Trixie, I didn't realize... I didn't think."

"Don't worry about it. You couldn't have known."

Twilight took another look at the unconscious princess in her bed. A fresh IV bag now held a milky white liquid, and her bedding looked slightly disturbed.

"Any change?"

"She's stirred a few times," answered Fluttershy. "She almost seems like she's just asleep. A doctor came by while you were out, he said the swelling in her brain's gone down and her magic's almost back to normal, so they took her off the potion and starting feeding her intravenously."

Twilight stepped close to the bed, examining her mentor for any sign of life. Her breath seemed deeper, although the mask over her mouth remained. Slowly, she reached out a hoof to touch hers.

It twitched.

Twilight gasped and nearly pulled her hoof away by reflex, but she caught herself. After a few tense seconds, she gently stroked Celestia's leg, and the princess extended it towards her. The movement was slight, not even an inch, but it was a reaction. Celestia shifted her head slightly, breathed deeply, and let out a contented sigh. Twilight was certain for a moment that she would open her eyes right then, but they stayed stubbornly closed, and soon her breathing returned to its former pace.

"She's improving," Twilight whispered. Her head knew that she would, but now that her eyes had seen it, her heart was finally able to believe it. However long it may take, Celestia would be okay. She felt the tears come again, but she didn't mind; these were the good kind.

Twilight shared a smile with her friends and noticed Dash and Pinkie were finally waking up. "Morning, girls."

"Hm? Oh, hey Twi," croaked Rainbow Dash, her eyes unfocused.

Pinkie, in contrast, woke up like switching on a light. "Goooood morning, everypony! Who wants breakfast? Wait, this isn't the bakery..." Looking around for a second, her eyes landed on the crash cart. "Okay, if someone can find the ingredients, I think I can rig that defibrillator into a crude waffle iron--"

"Or," interrupted Rainbow Dash hastily, "we can go to the cafeteria where they've already got waffles."

"Bud I ahreaby gob oud by buldidool," complained Pinkie around the 23-in-1 folding multitool gripped in her mouth. Looking around at the combination of disapproval and terror on her friends' faces, she spit it out onto her upturned hoof. "Fine. I won't mess with the extremely dangerous piece of medical equipment that they might actually need to save somepony's life and okay I think I see your point."

"Right," said Rarity, taking charge. "Now that we're all awake, Twilight, why don't you go ahead and get a nice hot shower, and Trixie and I can take everypony's breakfast requests to the cafeteria."

Trixie blinked and cocked an eyebrow at Rarity. "Me?"

"Why not? We'll have an easier time carrying all that food with our magic, after all, and it will give us a chance to talk, unicorn to unicorn."

Trixie stared at Rarity's conspicuously non-threatening expression, and felt as though a noose was tightening around her neck. "Uh. Sure."

Rarity smiled and levitated a memo pad and pencil off of the end table, as Rainbow passed a folded menu to Twilight. "Alright then, Twilight, what would you like?"

"Hm, I wonder if they-- ooh, blueberry pancakes. And orange juice." Twilight passed the menu back to Rainbow, and looked towards the bathroom door. "And that shower does seem to be calling my name. Later, Trixie, have fun with Rarity!" she said, smiling as she opened the door, completely oblivious to the showmare's impending doom.

---

"No," said Trixie as they turned the first corner down the hall.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Rarity.

"I'm saving you the trouble of asking the question you're obviously going to. And the answer is no. I am not having an affair with Twilight."

"Oh, I already knew that. The effort of keeping such a secret would absolutely destroy her."

Called it, thought Trixie as she turned a suspicious eye towards Rarity. "Alright, then what?"

"Well, it's plain to see that there's something going on between you two, although I haven't been able to tell exactly what. You certainly seem to know a fair bit about each other, and you've been awfully... familiar."

Trixie sighed heavily. "She did tell you, right? About the night after that fiasco with the Ursa?"

"She did mention, briefly, that you'd come back to town to collect your things."

"Right. I had some personal effects I wanted to retrieve, and my insurer's response to my claim was basically 'Thank you, that's one we hadn't heard before,' so I pretty much needed to bring the wreckage complete with embedded Ursa hairs right to their office to prove it. Well, that or get corroborating testimony from credible witnesses, but I didn't exactly feel confident about getting anyone in Ponyville to help me out. So I'd meant to just sneak in after dark, magic my wagon back into a vaguely road-worthy condition, and haul it out of there.

"But Twilight spotted me, invited me in for some tea, and we chatted for a while. She told me about the princesses and her friends, I told her about my career and my mother. I felt a lot better about getting shown up by her after I found out who she was, and that she'd never meant to in the first place. I was surprised by how genuinely nice she was, actually; she wasn't holding a grudge or anything, and she really seemed to feel sorry for what had happened. When I felt like it was time to go, she helped me with my wagon and I set off on the road. After that, we wrote a couple times, and she even gave me a written statement for the insurance investigator, which shut down their stalling tactics pretty hard and got me a nice settlement."

By this time they'd arrived at the cafeteria. Rarity read off their orders, but when she was about to give her bank information for payment, the cashier told her that they were all on the royal account. "Luna's orders," he'd said.

"That was nice of her," said Trixie, sipping on her fruit smoothie.

"Indeed," said Rarity. "So, you're telling me that you and Twilight are just two friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time?"

"Basically, yes. It just looked weird to you because you didn't know we were friends. Also, you apparently didn't like me for some reason." Trixie took a slow, deliberate sip. "That may have colored your perceptions a bit."

Rarity allowed herself a demure chuckle; Trixie had scored a fair hit, there. She was quiet for a moment, watching Trixie take another sip of her drink.

"Did you sleep with her?"

Trixie experienced the abrupt sensation of drowning in mango and pomegranate. Coughing the icy mixture onto the floor, she noticed that the food she'd been carrying was now surrounded my Rarity's aura, and hadn't dropped or tilted in the slightest.

"What?!" Trixie sputtered. "No! No, I did not sleep with her! We just--" She snapped her jaw shut like a trap.

Rarity fixed her gaze on Trixie like a dragon who'd caught a thief in its hoard. "You. Just. What."

Frozen in her tracks, Trixie searched high and low for something, anything to look at other than those furious, blue eyes. "We... just... kndamadoutferabit."

"I'm sorry? I couldn't quite catch that. I had something murderously overprotective in my ear."

"We kinda made out for a bit! Okay?"

Rarity relaxed her gaze slightly before passing Trixie's smoothie back to her. "Well. I'm relieved to hear that Twilight was able to show some self-restraint under the circumstances."

"Oh, really. And I'm some awful predator who would have just taken advantage of her if she hadn't been so damn virtuous?" Trixie now glared back at Rarity with equal fury. "I broke it off, Rarity. Me. Specifically because I didn't want to take advantage of her!"

Rarity blinked several times, and slowly relaxed. "I'm listening."

"Are you really going to stand there and make me recite the particulars?" Trixie examined Rarity's less furious but still hard gaze. "Of course you are. Fine." She took another sip of her smoothie before continuing.

"As I said, she invited me in for tea, and we'd talked for a while. And I admit, I thought she was cute. Honestly, I don't think she has a clue how good she really looks. And, well, I noticed her maybe checking me out a little; nothing overt, just the occasional glance that she didn't hide as well as she thought she had. And I started thinking, 'Hey, maybe tonight won't be so bad after all.' I mean, she was a college girl! U.C. may not be a party school, but still, who goes to university and does all their experimenting in a lab, you know?"

Rarity offered Trixie a slight but genuine smile, beginning to see where this was going.

"Yeah. Twilight 'four-point-oh' Sparkle, that's who. But I didn't know that yet. So I start shifting a little closer, a touch there, a nuzzle there, and she starts blushing like crazy and she's got this adorable grin on her face that just won't go away. And then I lean in close to say something, because honestly at this point it's just fun to see how flustered she can get, and before I know it she's got her tongue in my mouth."

"Oh my."

"I'm thinking she's finally gotten tired of playing coy and decided to up the ante without waiting for me. But I was happy taking things slow; I really didn't have any expectation of seeing her again, so I wanted to make the most of it. And then after fifteen, maybe twenty minutes of this, we break off for a moment, just to come up for air, and I look into those big, deep purple eyes of hers..." Trixie hung her head, her ears drooping. "She was just completely over the moon. I hadn't even started to get really frisky, but the way she was staring at me, she was utterly enraptured. Everything finally clicked into place. She wasn't being coy, she was nervous and embarrassed. She wasn't flirting or fishing for my attention, she probably didn't even realize the signals she was giving me. The whole time I thought she'd been playing the innocent filly, but it turned out she wasn't playing.

"And I realized that I... I just couldn't do that to her. She'd enjoy it, heck she was practically drowning in bliss already, but come morning when I'm not there anymore, she'd be devastated." She met Rarity's gaze again, relieved to see it had finally softened, but her voice was hard when spoke. "If I was the heartless monster you seem to want to believe I am, I could have had my way with her however I wanted. But I didn't, because I didn't want to break her heart."

Rarity chewed on the revelation for several seconds, taking a small sip from her latte. "Well, I must admit, that does sound like her. I suppose I should thank you for taking her feelings into account." Casting her eyes downward, she added, "I do wish she'd come to me about this, however; it must have been rather trying for her, and I'm sure I could have been of some help."

"Mm-hm. Are you entirely sure she didn't try?"

"I most certainly--"

"Hi, Rarity. You're... not too busy, are you?"

"Twilight, darling! I'm never too busy for a friend. How can I be of help?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something. You see, Trixie came back into town last night--"

"Ah, yes, I'd noticed the absence of that gaudy wreckage on my way to see Pinkie this morning. I can't say I'm sad to see the last trace of that charlatan gone from the town... I'm, sorry, dear, what were you saying?"

"Oh, um... Nothing. Just that she came by to collect her things, so, uh, I guess we don't have to worry. About that. Anymore, I mean... I'll be going now."

Rarity blinked several times, her ears slowly sagging as comprehension sunk in. "Oh dear."

Trixie sighed. A moment ago she'd have been happy to twist the knife just a little more, but seeing Rarity's disappointment in herself painted on her face as clearly as her eyeshadow put an end to that. "You can make it up to her later. C'mon, we've got hungry ponies to feed."

---

Bathed and fed at last, Twilight pored over the accounts of the previous night's events in The Canterlot Chronicle and Equestria Daily. Both papers' stories were filled with holes, errors, and speculation, but considering how little even they knew, she didn't feel like she was in a position to criticize. A story below the fold in the Chronicle caught her eye, however.

"Girls, listen to this. 'Hippocampi Sighted in Baltimare. A Baltimare dockworker reported to local police yesterday evening that he had seen a number of hippocampi, or seaponies, sneaking through the port, seemingly attempting to reach the mainland. Despite the traditional depiction of hippocampi having a tail in place of hind legs, the dockworker, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that they were quadrapedal and had an odd hopping gait like that of a frog. Police searched the area, but found no sign of the creatures beyond wet footprints of an unusual shape. During the search, another dockworker reported hearing sounds like a group of ponies diving into the water, but no sign of anypony swimming in the harbor was seen."

Rainbow Dash shuddered. "Yikes. Creepy. Sounds like those fish-toad pony-things that were in that one story, what were they called?"

"The Deep Ponies, from The Shadow Over Hoofsmouth. Yeah, according to the story, they're the truth behind the seapony legends. Another interesting bit: 'Responding to suggestions that the intruders may have simply been ordinary ponies in diving gear, the witness added, "I got a good look at 'em, they weren't no normal ponies. No fur, just wet, scaly hides, and teeth of a meat-eater. And their eyes, Celestia, those cold, black eyes." The witness became visibly agitated while describing them, and insisted on ending the interview and going home. When asked if he intended to return to work the following day, he provided no answer.'" Twilight put the paper down and looked away, thinking. "If I'd read that article two days ago, I'd have dismissed him as a crackpot. Now, I don't know... It's bad enough that the kraken's real, and the valusians. Sure there's plenty of other dangerous things in the world, but..." She shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know."

Trixie, seated next to her on the sofa, started to reach a tentative hoof towards her for comfort, but hesitated, and folded it back beneath her. Looking up, she saw Rarity watching her, her expression appraising, but kind. Trixie watched as she and Applejack had another of their strange, silent conversations, ending in the farmpony giving a slight shrug and looking away. From what she'd heard and read from Twilight, she knew those two frequently locked horns. Still, they certainly seem to have mastered nonverbal communication. She saved the thought for later.

"Oh what the hell?!" Twilight shouted, the paper held taut in front of her. Everypony in the room balked at her; it wasn't much a swear, but it was still unusual for her to use any strong language. "This editorial in the back. 'Can Equestria Survive Without Celestia?' He goes on and on about the possible political consequences of her death or disability, what it would mean for treaties and foreign relations and domestic government... But does he write a single word about everyone who'd miss her? About Luna possibly losing her big sister, or all her friends and extended family..." Her eyes narrow and her teeth clenched, she ripped the newspaper in half. "Not. One. Word."

Trixie reached over laid a foreleg across Twilight's back. "Whoah, calm down. It's okay." She waited a few moments for Twilight's breath to even out and her hackles to lower. "For what it's worth, I think I know how you feel. When my mom... When she was sick, the entertainment press was writing non-stop about what a great loss it was to the performing arts and to stage magic, and all the contributions she'd made to the craft and the community of performers, and how there'd never be another showmare like her. But precious little about the little filly she was leaving behind, who'd just earned her cutie mark trying to be just like her mom, the soon-to-be orphan who'd have to go live with her aunt and uncle all the way in Fillydelphia..." She felt Twilight lean into her as she sniffed and kept herself from crying by pure force of will. "It seems like, when an important pony dies, the papers forget that there's always other ponies left behind who don't care how important they were to the world, because they were important to them. Not always, but enough for it to sting."

"If, um, if you don't mind, Trixie," asked Fluttershy, "How did your mom, um... die?"

"Leukemia," answered Trixie. "She thought she was just fatigued and overworked, at first. Then she started losing weight but thought she just wasn't eating right. But then her makeup artist noticed that she was bruising more easily, and they weren't fading like they should..." She closed her eyes, trying to trap the tears inside, but they wouldn't be stopped. She felt the gentle warmth of Twilight's muzzle against her neck. "By the time they diagnosed it, it had already spread. They tried every option, some of them made her feel worse than the cancer did. But they were just too late. Eventually she gave up, stopped treatment, and once she had some strength back, put on one last show at the Royal Canterlot Theatre. A month later... she was gone."

Trixie wiped away her tears, eyes still closed. She was sure that if she saw their symathetic and concerned faces, she'd lose what composure she still had. The room was silent except for a brief, faint cough she thought to be Fluttershy's, until Applejack spoke.

"Ah'm so sorry, Trixie... Ah lost mah folks, too, when Ah was young. There was an accident on th' farm, an' they..." her voice started to quake; Trixie opened her eyes and saw AJ keeping hers shut tight the same way. "It was 'fore Ah got mah cutie mark, an' Ah figgered, mah destiny ain't set in mah coat yet. Every time Ah looked at those trees, all Ah saw was what killed mah folks. I just wanted away from there, a life that didn' have nuthin' to do with apples." She opened her eyes again, and shot a meaningful look towards Rainbow Dash. "Thank heavens Ah got some sense knocked back into me 'fore it was too late. Ah still had a family, and Ah'd gone and hurt 'em a second time while they was still reelin' from the first. It weren't jus' that I needed them... They needed me."

The farmpony was quiet for a moment as Rarity reached forward to place a hoof over hers; Trixie was struck by the similarity of the gesture to the one she'd backed away from a short time ago towards Twilight. Her eyes seemed to hold a deeper understanding of her friend's pain than the others'. As the group offered silent comfort, Trixie heard another quiet cough, but missed where it came from.

Applejack turned to face Trixie. "Ah'm sorry you didn't have anyone closer t' home t' take ya in, Trixie. Leavin' home after that was hard enough when Ah thought it was what Ah wanted; musta been even worse for you. If you'll forgive an inquisitive mare, where was yer dad in all this?"

Trixie flinched slightly at the question. "If you ever find him, you're welcome to ask."

"Aw, horseapples."

Trixie chuckled quietly at her rural profanity. "All I know about him is that Mom was angry with him when he left. He's not even really a pony to me, just... a concept. Can't miss what you never had, you know?" Eager to change the subject, she turn to Twilight, who had started trying to repair the newspaper. "You need a hoof with that?"

"No, no, I'm getting it." The ragged tears were proving more difficult to align and mend than the neat fractures of a glass mirror, but a trail of purple light worked its way down as the first sheet was made whole.

Trixie heard another rasping cough, and finally spotted its source. "Twilight..."

"Just... Gimme a minute, here," she replied, lifting another pair of half-sheets with her magic and fastidiously aligning them.

"Twilight."

"I mean, sure it's nowhere near the level of burning a book, but I still feel awful about it, you know--"

"Twilight!" Trixie hissed, reaching across to shove the paper down from in front of her face and pointing across the room.

"What?" Twilight snapped, before following the line of Trixie's leg. A plastic water bottle, surrounded by a faint trace of golden light, trembled slightly on the end table near Celestia's bed. Slowly, it slid towards the edge, before tumbling to the floor and rolling away.

"Pr... Prin...cess?" Twilight rose slowly, unsure of the truth of what she'd seen.

A faint, raspy voice struggled to answer her, dry as a desert wind. "T-Twi..li..." Celestia began to cough again, loud and ragged, her whole body shaking. As Twilight dashed towards her, she managed to croak, "W-water."

Twilight snatched the fallen bottle from the floor with her magic, wrenched off the cap, and gently moved the oxygen mask from the princess' muzzle. Lifting the bottle to the her lips, she whispered, "Here you go. Not to fast." Celestia sucked desperately at the mouth of the bottle for a moment, but slowed once the liquid reached her dry throat. They quickly fell into a rhythm, Celestia swallowing another small sip as Twilight tilted the bottle for her.

Half the bottle gone, the princess closed her mouth and gave Twilight a faint nod to indicate that she was done. Squinting against the light, she looked up at her teary-eyed but smiling pupil. "Twilight," she said softly, a faint smile on her lips. "You look terrible."

Twilight made a sound like a hybrid between a laugh and a sob, before answering with a grin. "You should see the other guy." She lunged forward, burying her face in her mentor's neck, sobbing in relief. Celestia slowly moved a trembling forehoof over her pupil's back, and craned her neck around her. After a few minutes, Twilight pulled away, her face a tear-streaked grin. "We were all so worried about you."

"I know, dear." Her eyes opened wider, and her voice was clear but faint. "But I'm... Well, alright, I'm pretty far from fine. But I will be. Admittedly it's been some centuries since I've taken much of a thrashing, but I've bounced back before and I will again." She lifted her head slightly, and for a brief moment her mane rippled as if blown by an unfelt wind before falling still. Looking around the room at the other ponies, she said, "Could you girls give my pupil and I a minute alone?"

Applejack quietly herded the rest of the group out of the room, and once they were gone, Celestia's face darkened. "What's wrong?" asked Twilight.

"I know what happened last night. Once I had healed enough to begin to dream, Luna came to visit me. She told me about Trixie, and... And Sergeant Steel-Eye."

Twilight stood there silently for a moment. She felt she should answer, but all she could think to say was, "Oh."

"Twilight, I know this ordeal must have been very hard for you. I know Steely wasn't as close to you as your parents, or your brother, or Spike, or those six mares waiting in the hall. But I know he... he mattered to you. He was somepony you cared about. And I know that on some level, you might blame yourself, that part of you likely feels responsible for his death. But you're not."

"I... I know. I talked it over with Trixie earlier, she called it survivor's guilt. I know, rationally, that it's not my fault, but it doesn't quite feel like it's true. Whenever I try to remind myself of that, I feel a little like I'm deluding myself." She hung her head and sighed. "I think it's going to be eating at me for a while."

"Twilight, look at me."

Lifting her head again, she met her mentor's pained eyes.

"You mustn't blame yourself. Nothing you did led to Steely's death. Nothing you hadn't done could have prevented it. I can't bear the thought of you punishing yourself for something completely out of your hooves. It wasn't your fault, Twilight." Celestia looked away, her eyes unfocused. "It was mine."

Twilight stared at her mentor, her jaw slack. She wanted desperately to argue, but couldn't string together the words. She couldn't even comprehend the concept enough to refute it; to her mind, Celestia was just constitutionally incapable of such a thing. She's just taking the blame so I won't, she thought, she must be.

The logic struck her like a brick to the head. Twilight had blamed herself for distracting Celestia, but Celestia blamed herself for allowing herself to be distracted. Dropping her guard in order to warn her pupil gave the kraken its opening to strike, and it was her rescue from the battlefield that got Steely killed.

Twilight didn't want to believe it. She couldn't believe it. But before last night, she realized, she'd have been unable to conceive of the princess ever being seriously injured, much less rendered comatose and nearly killed.

After a long silence, Celestia spoke again, still looking away. "I'm sure the doctors will want to examine me. After that... I think I'd like to be alone for a while. I'm still very tired, I need to rest. I'm... I'm sure you understand."

"I... Sure. If you change your mind..." Twilight saw the tears beginning to fall from Celestia's eyes. "Okay."

As the door closed behind her, it blocked out a sound that Twilight had heard only once as a filly, late after her first Nightmare Night at the palace: the sound of Princess Celestia crying.

Comments

[Malloryiii]

I really liked this chapter. You've done a wonderful job with dialogue and characterization, but then again you always do that. Keep up the good work!

[DreadedCandiru2]

Well, good things cannot be rushed, can they?

[pwny]

There's gonna be tentacle rape right? That's the only reason I would invoke cthulhu.

[Lurks-no-More]

This a take on Twilight and Trixie that I don't think I've seen before... Very nice! And the deep ponies are surfacing, too...

I'm very much looking forward to the next chapter(s)!

[Tygerburningbright]

766070 BAD PWNY get your mind out of the gutters
nice chapter also good take on trixie.

[GiftedMonster]

It does make me wonder if Nyarlothep is going to make an appearance, or perhaps some Shoggoth's?

Perhaps even Lord Azathoth himself, the Nuclear Chaos?

More please!

[RTStephens]

Very interesting dynamics between all the characters (even if I think that there's some unnecessary shipping going on) and I'm looking forward to more in the future!

About the only thing I can offer as a critique is that Trixie's vocabulary feels really overblown when she's explaining things. It doesn't feel like natural speech to me. More like she's reading from a textbook or from a script. I think if you tone down her flowery speech a bit, it will feel less awkward.

Other than that, good work!

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I like the character interaction. Seriously, everything was fifteen kinds of awesome here. Poor... everyone. *Hugs*

[CLAVDIVS CAESAR]

767368

Nyarlathotep's been done.

He was voiced by John deLancie. :D

[ClockworkMage]

Well, aside from any Lovecraft stuff, this fic did what I never thought a fic would manage to do.

I... I'm gonna go read some Twixie now. Willingly.?

[Samdamandias]

Moodwhiplash much?
Adorkable Twixie
Oh F***, it's Cthullu!
Pinkie Pie is random
Holy Hell, what did Cthulhu do to Canterlot and Celestia?

[CLAVDIVS CAESAR]

804861

It got rejected by a far pickier prereader than whoever read my previous stories, but nevertheless had some valid criticisms. I haven't been able to put the time and energy into polishing it for a second try.

[sarahpenguin]

This was excellent as well, I really am enjoying this :)

[Borg]

"Bud I ahreaby gob oud by buldidool," complained Pinkie around the 23-in-1 folding multitool gripped in her mouth.

Yeah, I know that feeling.

U.C. may not be a party school, but still, who goes to university and does all their experimenting in a lab, you know?

Clearly you never saw Twilight pre-Ponyville. I'm no party animal, but I did do the whole "oh hey, friends are nice to have" thing five to ten years earlier than her. I think that if I can do all my experimenting at UC in a lab, she can do the same at U.C.
I am currently taking arguments as to why my argument is invalid; please hold as the reason that I'm right anyway takes them all on at once . . .
Yep. Doesn't matter. I know being antisocial, and I know Twilight. The only experimentation she could have done is the solitary kind. The odds of anything else are 0%

You should see the other guy.

Yeah, he is pretty ugly.

[Acadians6545]

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I think Trixie was referring to experimenting with the same sex not partying or did misunderstand your words