Out of Sight...

Chapters

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Reunion
Chapter 2: Rise of a Show-mare
Chapter 4: Twilight to the Rescue (Raw Version)
Chapter 5: How could you? (Raw Version)
Chapter 6: Out of Sight (Raw Version)
Chapter 7: Desperate times call for... Friendship?
Chapter 8: A New Beginning
Chapter 9: The Anniversary
Chapter 10: A Soft Kind Laughter
Chapter 3: The Sins of the Father... (Raw Version)

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Reunion

Written by Star-Killer89, Edited by IMacPoneh

HOOFINGTON
JUNE 03 - 6:00 P.M.

“You were right girls. Taking a day off to have some fun was really what I needed” said Twilight Sparkle while walking among the crowd that was attending the Annual Hoofington Carnival.

“Really, darling, you should leave that library more often. Sooner or later you’re going to turn yourself into a book. It wouldn’t surprise me with all the hours you spend with that muzzle of yours buried in those old dusty tomes” replied Rarity.

“Yeah, like being a bookworm wasn’t enough already” added Rainbow Dash.

Twilight giggled in response “Maybe you’re right. Hey, by the way, where are all the others?”

“Applejack just went to the ‘Test your Strength’ game, and I think Sweetie Belle and her friends forced Fluttershy to come along with them to the Haunted House, shouting ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders, Ghostbusters!’, or something like that” said Rarity.

“I saw Pinkie Pie happily bouncing towards the House of Mirrors, and I think Spike just went to buy some cotton candy” added Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t you worry, darling. They won’t miss the rendezvous at the train station”.

“Good, that means we still have some time to check out some other rides” said Twilight, while looking around in search for an attraction they hadn’t tried yet. Suddenly, her attention was drawn by a small crowd, which was starting to collect in a half circle near the boundary of the Carnival.

“What’s going on there?” she asked, addressing herself more than to her friends, and started to trot towards the huddle.

When she got closer, she noticed a little stage right at the centre of the half circle formed by the crowd, and from both sides a small fireworks display was going on, while a jingle, well known to the mare, was playing through some trumpets.

She immediately realized who was going to appear on that stage.

“Great! That quack was all we needed!” Rainbow Dash said, anger in her voice as she caught up to Twilight.

“Oh come on now, Rainbow. Trixie isn’t a bad pony” calmly replied Twilight.

“Pardon me, dear, but I wouldn’t exactly define turning my fabulous mane into some sort of green nest a gracious act” added Rarity.

“Yeah, and let’s not forget how she made me and AJ look like foals with those
cheap tricks of hers” added the pegasus.

“Ok, maybe her manners weren’t so friendly towards us, and yes, maybe she tends to be a little arrogant, but you shouldn’t be so quick to judge”.

“We can’t? What about that little incident with that Ursa Major?” asked Rainbow.

“Ok, first of all, it was an Ursa Minor; secondly, if I remember correctly, it wasn’t her who brought it into town” replied Twilight.

“Sure, but it is also true that if she hadn’t been showing off in the first place, those two little colts would have never tried to prove how ‘Great and Powerful’ she was” added Rarity.

“Oh, come on, girls. Let’s try to forget these little things and go to reconcile with her, shall we?” Proposed the lavender unicorn, a big smile on her face.

“Do as you please. I still think you’re just wasting your time. I’ll be at the Target Shooting” said Rainbow, before dashing away, leaving a fleeting multicolour trail behind her.

“Thanks for your proposal, darling, but for once, I agree with Rainbow Dash. Nothing good can come out of such a mare” said Rarity, before heading off in the same direction as Dash.

“Fine! Do it your way! I’ll just go and talk to her alone!” shouted Twilight, with a little frustration in her tone, before heading for the stage.

The fireworks display and the music had just reached their climax when Twilight managed to reach the front of the row. At that very second, a loud, high-pitched voice declared: “Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” followed by an explosion of blue smoke at the center of the stage.
When the smoke began to dissipate, the figure of a cyan pony with an azure striped mane, dressed with a purple cloak and hat studded with stars, appeared on the stage, followed by a multitude of ponies in the crowd whispering “Ooooooh!”

“Silence, please!” shouted Trixie “And watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!” exclaimed the show-mare, sending the crowd mad with joy and amusement.

‘Well, she certainly hasn’t changed at all since the last time’ thought Twilight.

“It is good to see you all cheering, oh ponies of Hoofington, because it was I, ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ who had magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major from the city of Ponyville, and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!”

‘Ugh, this lie, again?’ thought a worried and tired Twilight ‘I just hope she won’t do anything foalish’.

“Watch closely, as the powerful magic skills of Trixie are able to match that of one of the many creatures that live within the darkest depths of the Everfree Forest. That’s right; I’m talking about the dreadful Barghest!”

Another cloud of smoke covered the stage, and from nowhere appeared a big metal cage containing a mastodontic dog, twice as big as a full grown stallion, with a mane as dark as night, and eyes as red as blood.

Many of the ponies in the front row started to withdraw, struck with panic, while Twilight’s concern only grew with each passing second.

“Do not fear, mares and gentlecolts, and watch carefully as I, ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’, show you that even a beast as fierce as this, is no more terrifying than a kitten, against the power of Trixie!” shouted the mare, tossing carefully away her hat and showing to the crowd her horn.

An aura of a light magenta surrounded her horn and Trixie removed the hook that secured the cage by surrounding it with an aura of similar colour.
The Barghest opened it and slowly approached the unicorn, growling deeply, white foam dripping from the sides of his mouth. The crowd could only watch, mouths agape, in utter silence.

When the Barghest leapt towards her, Trixie’s horn started to glow again, a purple aura enveloping the beast, stopping it in mid-air. The beast simply levitated there, a stunner expression on its face, just mere inches from Trixie’s muzzle
The Barghest started to madly wave his paws in anger, making him look he was swimming through the air. Upon seeing this, Trixie just decided to increase his height by a few more inches, putting a good 5 hooves between him and the ground.

Following this amazing display and the sheer power of the magic Trixie used, the crowd was once again applauding the show-mare, beating their hooves on the ground in excitement.

Twilight sighed with relief ‘Thanks Celestia, it seems she’s getting on the ball.’

With a big smile of self-satisfaction written all over her face, Trixie started to carefully look at the adoring crowd around her, and she couldn’t help but notice the presence of Twilight, who, at that point, was the only pony still standing near the stage.

“YOU!” shouted Trixie, with a mix of contempt and surprise in her tone, addressing the lavender unicorn.

That was enough to interrupt Trixie’s concentration, breaking the levitation spell she was performing and dropping the Barghest painfully on the ground. The beast, not really pleased by the treatment received, started to growl even louder towards Trixie and began to approach the unicorn menacingly.

Trixie, on the other hoof, didn’t’ sense that she was in danger, and kept staring at Twilight “What are you doing here? Wasn’t ruining Trixie’s life once enough for you?” she shouted.

Twilight was surprised by the outburst Trixie gave, and wasn’t able to speak, let alone divert her attention from the show-mare.

“LOOK OUT!” somepony shouted from the crowd, but by the time Trixie turned it was too late. The Barghest had already leapt toward her, knocking her down and holding her between his forelegs, his claws acted as a barrier to avoid her escape and his grinding teeth inched closer and closer to her face, ready to tear into the mare’s flesh.

Panic quickly spread throughout the crowd. Some ponies started to scream, others, like those closer to the stage, started to push each other in a vain attempt to flee from the menace, kicking and trampling each other as the levels of sanity and fear increased.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Twilight, recovering from the temporary shock as she began to plot a solution to help her self-proclaimed rival.

With a flash, she teleported to the stage, just a few inches from the Barghest.

“Hey doggy!” she shouted, and the beast instinctively turned his head towards the source of the distraction.

At that point, Twilight bucked at the creature’s head with her hind legs, a hit that was not as strong as one her friend Applejack could have dealt, after years spent bucking apple trees, but powerful enough to push away the beast from Trixie.

“What the hay are you doing?” questioned a rather angry Trixie.

“Run, I’ll distract him!” replied Twilight, before noticing that Trixie was still standing motionless beside her. ‘Shoot, she must be too terrified to move’.

Meanwhile, shaking his head vigorously to recover from the hit, the Barghest changed his target, focusing on Twilight, who started to withdraw slowly, moving the beast away from Trixie. When she reached the spot she wanted, Twilight adopted a guard position.

“Come on, boy, come to aunty Twilight”.

As if the beast had actually understood Twilight, he dashed towards the unicorn. Waiting for the right time, Twilight cast another teleportation spell, just a few seconds before the beast could reach her, landing the enraged Barghest inside the cage where he was kept.

Materializing just beyond the cage’s gate, Twilight closed it with another quick spell before the beast could realize he’d just trapped himself.
A moment of silence followed, broken only by the sound of her panting and the beating of her heart. She could feel the adrenalin pulsating through her body. Suddenly, a joyful roar rose from a few ponies of the crowd, those who had watched the entire scene in awe, frozen on the spot.

Twilight started to blush, as she approached the cyan unicorn who was only just regaining her footing.

“Pant…pant…are you alright Trixie? Are you hurt?” asked Twilight, offering a hoof to help her stand.

“Leave Trixie alone!” The show-mare shouted “Why did you intervene? Trixie had the situation under control!”

“What?” replied Twilight, half surprised and half irritated “If it wasn’t for me, you’d be lying over there in a pool of blood!”

“No, I wouldn’t, you foal! Blacky would never harm me!”

An enigmatic look was written all over Twilight’s face. “Blacky?”

“Oh no! I have to make the cage disappear from the stage” replied Trixie, as she started to run towards the Barghest. She had only covered half the distance before the big black dog was surrounded by a blue glow, and the beast started to shrink.

“What the…?” said Twilight, approaching the cage as well. What was now inside the cage was a small dog, a Jack Russel with a coat as black as coal. He was cowering in the corner, whining in fear.

“Would you please be so kind to tell me what the hay is going on here?” asked a rather annoyed Twilight.

“Do you really think I’m powerful enough to capture a Barghest alone, or so stupid as to free it on a defenceless crowd without a chain or some sort of magic barrier?” replied Trixie opening the cage and going inside “I just used a temporary transmutation spell on my pet, so that I could put on a show.”

“Soooooo, you was never really in danger?”

“Of course not! Blacky was just playing his role” replied Trixie, turning with a worried expression “But then you showed up and make me drop him. He must have been scared, and that’s why he jumped towards me with that angry expression” she continued, banding to see if her dog was hurt.

“Hey, does that mean it was all fraud?” somepony shouted from the crowd. As the other ponies realized they had been fooled and scared for nothing, a chorus of boos and hisses attacked the show-mare.

Realizing that she had said too much, Trixie tried to calm the crowd “Please, everypony-” she started to say, but was interrupted when a candied apple hit her on the brow, followed by many other foods, like pop-corn or cotton candy.

With tears starting to form in her eyes, Trixie looked towards Twilight for one last time “Why do you always have to ruin Trixie’s life?” she desperately asked her.

“I-“ Twilight said, but she couldn’t add more.
Trixie covered herself and her dog behind her cloak, and with another cloud of blue smoke, vanished from the stage
“Wait, don’t leave!” shouted Twilight, as the mob of angry ponies continued to lash out at the cyan unicorn.

HOOFINGTON TRAIN STATION
TWO HOURS LATER - 8:28 P.M.

“Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you, Twilight. Trixie is nothing but an arrogant foal!” said Rainbow Dash after Twilight had finished explaining what happened.

“She’s the most crook-brag-swashbuckler I’ve ever seen” added Pinkie Pie “She makes me feel like not wanting to throw a party to her, I mean, if she ever decides to come back to Ponyville, and who wouldn’t want to visit our lovely town again? I mean, there’s no other place like-” continued Pinkie, but her friends had already stopped paying attention as she continued one with another one of her usual digressions.

“I only hope that poor little doggy wasn’t hurt” spoke Fluttershy, her voice almost a whisper “How could you do something like that to such a harmless creature, Twilight?”

“Ok, first of all, he was even bigger than the Princess herself when I hit him” reassured Twilight “Secondly, transmutation spells don’t only change the appearance of an object or a living being, but they also acquire all the characteristics due to the transformation. In his case, that dog acquired better resistance and, of course, greater strength”.

“Well, if I was ya, I would’ve taught her a thing or two about honesty. She shouldn’t have tried to fool that entire crowd.” judged Applejack.

“Yeah right! She should have used a real Barghest and put all those ponies in real danger” replied Rainbow Dash.

“I’m just sayin’ that if ya want to fool a flock of ponies, ya can’t expect they’ll just forgive you once they expose your tricks”.

“What happened to that Trixie lady?” asked a worried Sweetie Belle.

“I have no idea. After the mob scattered, I waited almost an hour by the stage, hoping to clear things up with her and to return this” said Twilight, opening her saddlebag and showing to her friends the folded, star covered hat that Trixie left behind during her flight.

“If I were you I’d just keep it and forget about her. It’s unbelievable what some ponies are willing to do just to get a bit of attention from others… Right Rainbow Dash?” asked Scootaloo, turning her head towards the pegasus she considered the coolest in all of Equestria, with a big smile on her face and eyes overflowing with admiration.

“Uh? Yeah yeah sure, whatever you said, pipsqueak!” nonchalantly replied Rainbow Dash.

“Hey girls, this just reminded me that we nev’ah tried to see if our Cutie Mark involves finding and returning lost objects” said Apple Bloom.

“Hey, you’re right!” exclaimed Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in unison. Beating their hooves together, they shouted “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, LOST AND FOUND RETURNERS!”

“Oh darlings, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out if that is your special talent. Look, our train is arriving” said Rarity, as the train to Ponyville approached the station, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders could only sigh in disappointment.

While her friends were getting into their car, Twilight couldn’t help but turn back to the square where the carnival was held, in the hope of spotting Trixie before returning to Ponyville.

Much to her surprise, at that exact moment, she saw the show-mare coming out from behind a house, pulling the cart she used as a house behind her.

The whistle of the train forced Twilight to turn her head back. Spike was leaning outside of the window of their car “Come on Twilight, or the train will leave without you”.

The unicorn stood still for a couple of seconds, unsure of what to do, but finally, she turned to her friends and said “Go on without me; I’ll catch up with you in Ponyville with the next train” she said, before turning her back on the train and heading towards Trixie.

Trixie was slowly walking along the roads of Hoofington. Her efforts, once again, left her packing up and leaving. She felt tired due to the strain it took to move her cart, and she couldn’t enlist the help of the only company that specialized in that kind of service either, since they were closed the day of the carnival.

Leaning out of the window of the cart, Blacky started to whine, sharing her master’s sadness.
“Don’t worry, sweetie” said Trixie, wearing a tired and bitter smile “This time things went wrong, but Trixie is sure in the next town we will have a better luck”. She sighed
“At least I hope so”.

“Ehm…hi Trixie”

Trixie lifted her head and noticed that Twilight was just standing a few hooves in front of her.

Remembering the encounter they had earlier that evening, Blacky started to growl towards Twilight, while Trixie, on the other hoof was far too demoralized to face the lavender unicorn with the same spirit as her pet.

“Go on, what other method have you found to ruin Trixie’s life? Are you going to report me for wanderings? Or maybe you decided to destroy Trixie’s house again?” she then continued, tears forming into her eyes as she looked back at her dog “Or are you planning to take away from me the only creature in all of Equestria that doesn’t consider Trixie a useless waste of magic?”

“Well, actually, your first cart was destroyed by that Ursa Minor. Anyway, I just wanted to return you this” she replied, and magically handed Trixie the hat.

“I thought I’d lost it forever” whispered Trixie, using her own magic to take it from Twilight and hold it at her muzzle level, gazing at it as she lost herself in a sea of memories.

After a while Twilight decided to break the silence.
“Listen Trixie, I’m not trying to ruin your life in any way, nor do I enjoy watching you fail. I just think we got off on the wrong hoof, and I’d really prefer it if there was no resent between us”.

Trixie lowered her head, unable to find the suitable words to reply.

“Well, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I really hope we will meet again, sooner or later” Twilight said, then turned her back to Trixie and headed towards the train station.

She had moved just a few steps when Trixie spoke to her again
“Would-” she started to say “Would you like to hear the story of how Trix…of how I received this hat?” she finally asked shyly.

Twilight turned around and saw in Trixie’s eyes the desperate need to openly speak with somepony, without the use of the show-mare’s mask that Trixie had been using the last few years.

‘Well, I guess I can always take the train back to Ponyville tomorrow morning’ thought Twilight, and with a sweet smile on her face trotted back to Trixie “Yes, it would be my pleasure to hear that story, but first, let me help you move your cart”.

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 2

Author's Note

Well, i think I have to thank some people here...

First of all, thanks to iMacPoneh, for the wonderful work he made in editing this story... for me, writing a story in English when English is not my native language was pretty hard, but he managed to improve the dialogues in ways I could not even possibly imagine.

Than, thanks to the 3 authors that inspired me the most (really, their works are a 1000 times better than mine, so, if you don't follow them already, give their fictions a shot):
milesprower06 : His "Cupcake Chronicles" stories brought me into the world of FanFictions
PatRoison : He suppoted and, most of all, tolerated me while I was writing this story (:D), and he's the one that introduced me to the world of Shipping stories.
adcoon : His "Fillystata" was the first story that made me realize Trixie had a chance to redeem herself, even though in a tragic way.

Last, but not least, thanks to JinZhan for letting me use the Trixie image he created as the cover of this story.

Chapter 2: Rise of a Show-mare

Written by Star-Killer89, Edited by IMacPoneh

HOOFINGTON BORDERS
9:32 P.M.

The sun had already set in the distance, and soon the moon raised by Princess Luna would be high in the sky as it watched over the night.

Twilight had just finished helping Trixie move her cart a hundred yards away from Hoofington’s last built-up area, because, as the show-mare explained to her, more than once she’d been awoken in the middle of the night by police officers, who forced her to move her house or risk being fined for squatting on somepony else’s property.

“Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?” asked Trixie.

“Sure, why not?” replied Twilight and the mares entered the cart. The inside wasn’t very big, but the cyan unicorn managed to find the space to fit a bed, a nightstand, and a wardrobe with an oval mirror right on the wall next to it. She also had a small kitchen and a table with a pair of poufs on either side.

“So” said Twilight sitting near the table “you were saying that hat was a gift from your father?”.

“Yes, he was a magician too and he was the one who introduced me to the world of magic. Actually, he was an earth pony, so he considered his job as an illusionist in Canterlot the closest thing he could ever get to his dream of performing real magic”.

“He wasn’t really famous, and since my mother was rather… ‘allergic’ to the idea of working, we spent a lot of time struggling to make ends meet, but to me it didn’t seem we were having much trouble. That was, until my mother decided that she wasn’t suited to stunted life anymore.”

“She abandoned the both of us when I was 2, out of the blue. I vaguely remember the night before she left, she tucked me in, as she always did, and before I fell asleep, I asked her if the next day we could stop for ice-cream on the way home from the markets. I remember she smiled at me, said ‘We’ll see, honey’ and kissed me on the brow, before leaving my room”.

“The following morning I found my father on the couch, his face tear-stained, and the letter my mother left behind crumpled beneath his hooves. I don’t think he was expecting it either”.

Trixie filled a kettle with some water and put it on the stove.
“Looking on the bright side, with one less mouth to feed, the little money that my father earned was more than enough for two ponies.
After my mother left he started to spent every single minute of his free time with me. I remember I could spend hours watching him perform the tricks he’d have used during his shows, and how happy he was to show them to me. He used to call me his ‘Little Princess’ because, for him, my magic would have been just as powerful as that of Celestia herself”.

“It was during one of these evenings, when I was almost six, that I discovered that my special talent involved magic… More so, the art of prestidigitation, performing the Chinese Linking Rings trick with a flash of magic from my horn”.

“I can’t even explain how happy he was that my cutie mark involved magic” Trixie said, and started to laugh to herself. “He was probably even more excited than I was. Well, of course we didn’t have enough money to afford a cute-ceañera, but my father wanted to give me a present anyway. He brought me to the store where he used to buy his tricks, telling me he’d buy me anything I wanted. It was at that moment this hat came into my life”.

The water was now boiling, so Trixie transferred it to a teapot, added some tea leaves and brought it to the table with a couple of cups.

“Sadly, even the most beautiful of dreams have to end sooner or later, and I guess mine started to fade when I started to attend Canterlot’s Public Magic School. As time passed by, I started to realize that what my father did wasn’t real magic, and it wasn’t long before I started to look at him with pity and contempt, believing that just because I had a horn I was better than him”.

“Moreover, little by little the money my father earned dwindled away. When I turned 16, I also decided that a life of hardship wasn’t suited to the ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’, as I’d calling myself”.

At this point, Trixie had to stop her story, tears already started to stream down her face. Twilight took a linen handkerchief from her saddlebag, one with her monogram and cutie mark embroidered on it and handed it to the mare. “Thank you” said Trixie, and started to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“When I decided to leave my house and announced the decision to my father, he didn’t seem upset, on the contrary he wished me good luck and told me he hoped I would gain the fame and fortune that life denied him. Only several years later I found out that my leaving hit him harder than I thought”.

Trixie broke off again, this time to reach for her nightstand, from which she pulled out two letters. She handed one to Twilight and said “He sent me this one 3 years after my departure. At the time I was staying at the house of an acquaintance of mine in Fillydelphia. To this day, I still can’t figure out how he managed to know that I was living there”.

On the letter there were clear signs that it was been tore into pieces, only to be reassembled and kept together with adhesive tape:

‘ Hey sweetie, it's been a while since we’ve seen each other. How are things going? I heard that you’re living in Fillydelphia since last summer and, since I’ll have to spend a couple of days there too to perform a show, I thought we could see each other again.

Maybe we could perform some magic tricks, like we used to do when you were a little filly, how’s that sound?

I am looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible

Yours
Juggler Lulamoon ’

“When I received that letter, I still had harsh feelings towards him. I blamed him for not allowing me to attend more prestigious magic schools in Canterlot, and I thought he acted that way so that he wouldn’t feel inferior to me. I thought that was why he made me waste all those years practicing stupid foal tricks instead of real magic as well.”

“As an answer, I just ripped the letter and sent it back to him.”

Trixie had to stop herself again to wipe off a new stream of tears from her face.
“A couple of months later, two officers from the Canterlot police squad knocked at the door of my apartment. They said that my father passed away the evening before and that I was invited to his funeral and the reading of his last will and testament the following day in Canterlot”.

“I gained knowledge that, after I left his house, his performances started to fall in quality month after month, to the point where he had to leave the big stage to perform at occasional engagements, like little foals parties and such. Some of his friends also told me that he’d started to drink, and said that it was during one of these engagements that he made his biggest mistake.”

“He showed up drunk and got into a fight with one of the guests, who, of course, pressed charges and demand he pay for damages. He lost almost everything to pay that stallion, and there was a rumour that he had to appeal to some loan sharks to completely extinguish the debts he’d piled up in the aftermath”.

“How did he…” started to ask Twilight.

“The coroner said it was Pancreatic Necrosis, due to Alcoholic Liver Disease” answered Trixie “the only escape he could find to the miserable life I put him through ended up killing him”.

Twilight wanted to comfort Trixie and tell her that it was not her fault, but the cyan unicorn had already resumed her story.

“I attended the funeral, but, for some reason, I wasn’t sad. I mean, I should have been devastated, I should have been near my father’s tomb, crying for the loss of the stallion that raised me, the pony that was with me through thick and thin, by my side for my victories and failures, and the only one who could guide me towards my special talent.”

“Instead, I just stood there during the whole celebration, my mind miles away and my eyes cold. The way I stared at his coffin was like there was a stranger inside, not the one who raised me”.

“I was really surprised, on the other hoof, that my mother had attended the funeral too. She showed up with her new husband, the owner of some sort of company, that she’d somehow managed to ensnare and with whom she’d given birth to a young colt.”

“When our eyes met, we both felt a mutual sense of disgust. I hated her for being the mare that traded her family for a more comfortable life. She hated me for being a useless daughter, born from an unsuccessful stallion that wasn’t able to satisfy her whims”.

“Once the reading of my father’s will started, I could see that my mother’s eyes were shining with greed at the thought that she might inherit something from her former husband.”

Trixie stopped and laughed ironically.
“You can picture what her reaction was when she found out that the only things my father had left to give were the hat and the cloak he bought me when I was young, and that he’d bequeathed it to me”.

“On the road back to Fillydelphia, my feelings towards my father hadn’t changed, even though I thought ‘At least you managed to avoid letting that harpy get her greedy claws on anything that was rightfully yours.’
I remember I was on the train, turning the hat in my hooves, when I saw there was a fabric square sewn on the inside.”

“Once I had unstitched it, I saw that my father had put in some kind of secret pocket, the fragments of the letter I’d sent back, together with this one” she said, giving Twilight the second letter she took from her nightstand.

This second letter, which showed a lot of circular marks, evidence that tears had been splashed on its surface, making some of the words fade, read:

‘ My dearest Trixie.
I want to be honest with you. The purpose of my trip to Fillydelphia was to have a medical examination with a specialized oncologist. I’m afraid I don’t have much time left, but I guess that if you’re reading this letter, than you already know everything.

You see, even though your answer to my previous letter showed me what your feelings towards me have become, I want you to know that my feelings towards you are unchanged. For me you will always be my Little Princess, the daughter who was always amazed, looking on with eyes of wonder as I was showed her some new magic trick. The little filly that fell asleep while listening to the stories of the deeds of Star Swirl the Bearded. You’ll always be the little filly that was suspended from Magic Kindergarten because she punched one of her classmates after being made fun of for not having a mother to raise her. You’ll always be the girl that was crushing on her new teacher at Canterlot Junior School, and the young mare that was so excited when her cutie mark appeared that she started to talk for hours about all the fantastic spells she would perform.

The Trixie that wore her cloak and this hat every day, even while sleeping. The hat that she used to lower on her head, while practising her spells, saying phrases like “When I grow up, I will be as Great and Powerful as my daddy”.

The beautiful mare you became that just left her treasure behind, when she understood how pathetic and insignificant her father really was.

I really hope it will help you to remember those happy moments spent together. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to see you one last time.

For all eternity, your father,
Juggler Lulamoon ’

Twilight couldn’t help but start crying while reading the final words of a stallion who, in spite of all the adversity faced and the pain he had to suffer, had thoughts only for his daughter until the end.

At this point, even Trixie started to heavily cry again “What a good daughter I’ve been, right? I abandoned my father, completely neglecting what he was going through, just because I considered myself superior to him. I pushed him towards his own death, while he never stopped trying to do what was best for me”.

Twilight wanted to stop Trixie and reassure her that she was not to blame for the death of her father, but Trixie continued her story.
“When I returned to Fillydelphia I went through a long period of depression; for almost a year I spent most of the days just lying motionless in my bed, the curtains closed, isolating myself from the world.”

“Since I was becoming a burden, my cotenant was forced to kick me out of the apartment we were sharing, so I ended up on the streets. I guess I have to thank her, though, since that was the time I figured out I had to do something”.

“I started to take all the small jobs I could, until I managed to buy my first cart. After that I decided to use what my father had taught me to become an artist, just like he was.”

“I understood soon that if I wanted to earn the reputation I needed, I couldn’t just stay in one place, so I started to move from town to town, and decided to don the mask of ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ once more, hoping that it would help me gain the confidence and notoriety I needed.”

“Unfortunately, days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and so, after a year of wandering Equestria, those lies became my reality and the mask just contaminated me, turning me once more into the haughty and arrogant mare I was when I left my father’s home. It turned me into a social outcast and made me act like a jerk to everyone I met… even during and after my visit in Ponyville, a year and a half ago”.

As she spoke, Trixie stopped and bowed her head in shame, not only for the way she treated Twilight and her friends, but for the way she acted in the last years of her life in general.

“Oh Trixie” Twilight began “I’m so sorry. If only I’d known back then…I know how you feel right now”.

“HOW COULD YOU KNOW WHAT I’M GOING THROUGH!” shouted Trixie, tears still streaming down her cheeks “How can you possibly know what it feels like to know that you’re worth less than zero?”
“You think I don’t know? You really think I don’t know what your life is really like Twilight Sparkle? You think I don’t know that you are Celestia’s pupil, or that you and your friends are the new Elements of Harmony, or how you managed to reunite the Princess with her sister Luna, or that you managed to defeat Discord before he could turn all of Equestria into a land ruled by chaos?”
“You think I don’t know that you’re surrounded by renowned friends, like that great Canterlot stylist, the former model personally chosen by Photo Finish or the ‘Best Young Flyer’ of all Equestria?”

Twilight was shocked by that sudden outburst of anger, and couldn’t do anything but assume a guilty expression, while Trixie kept venting her rage and frustration.

“Oh, but I’m sure Little Miss Perfect here knows what I’m going through.”

“She knows what it’s like to sleep on a park bench for three months, not having a fixed address and being forced to move every few weeks for miles, without resting, spending all of your energy and getting nothing in return. I’m sure she knows all about what it’s like to rely on charity just to make ends meet.”
“She knows what it’s like to fast for two or three days, exhausting yourself just to allow the only creature in the world who does not consider you a total failure to feed himself!” she added, pointing her hoof towards her dog Blacky, who, since the start of her outburst, was trembling laying under Trixie’s bed, frightened by all the rage his master was emanating.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M GOING THROUGH! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO LIVE A DAY AS TRIXIE, LET ALONE YOUR WHOLE LIFE!” she ended, grinding her teeth and heavily breathing. The way Twilight cowered in fear gave even Fluttershy a run for her money

It was at this point that Trixie’s gaze met her own in the mirror near her wardrobe. Catching sight of her reaction, she winced, realizing that she had once again allowed the arrogant side of herself to get the upper hoof.

She turned her back on Twilight, a shameful expression on her face “I’m sorry. Please, leave before I hurt you further”.

Twilight recovered from the shock and approached Trixie, putting her hoof on the show-mare’s shoulder “Trixie, I-“

But Trixie immediately withdrew “Go, I said. Please. I just want to be left alone” and after that walked slowly to her bed, collapsing on it so that she could face the opposing direction to Twilight.

Realizing that she could do nothing more to cheer Trixie up, Twilight gave in and, slowly, headed towards the door.

Before she left, she turned one more time, noticing that Blacky was now crouching by the side of his master, while Trixie slowly pet him.

With a sad expression on her face, Twilight closed the door of Trixie’s cart and took a brief moment to look up to the full moon, which was now occupying the sky.
‘Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, please, give her the strength to regain’, and with this entreaty, she left Trixie and headed for the town.

In the distance, behind a pair of trees in a nearby forest, two pair of eyes focused on the lavender unicorn, waiting for her to leave Trixie’s house.

“Damn, I was starting to think she was going to stay the night with her” Came a whisper from the shadows.

“Should we move now?” Asked another voice.

“Patience, my friend. We have to be sure no one is around. Only then can we pay that little unicorn a visit”.

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 3

Author's Note

I decided to split the first chapter in half for a couple of reasons.
First of all, keeping all of the chapter around 14-16 pages long was going to be though, while having them of 8-9 pages max turned out to be a lot easier.
Secondly, this will allow new readers to look at the story withouth thinking "Oh God, I need to read a two digit number of pages to keep up with the story? No thanks."
I also added a title to each chapter now...having them only titled "Chapter x" was not really imaginative.

Chapter 4: Twilight to the Rescue (Raw Version)

Written by Star-Killer89, Editing: Working on it ^^;

HOOFINGTON - TRAIN STATION
40 MINUTES EARLY - 00:39 A.M.

After leaving Trixie’s cart, Twilight spent almost an hour looking for a hotel where she could spend the night, but since most of the cheapest ones were full due to the Fair the town was holding those days, while the others were just too expensive for her, she simply decided to take the last train for Ponyville, that was due to leave the station in about 10 minutes.

‘I did my best to help Trixie, but it seems it wasn’t enough.’ she thought, while standing on the platform, waiting for her train to arrive at the station ‘Maybe she’s right. How could I possibly understand what she’s going through? My parents loved each other and our family never had to suffer money issues. They even enrolled me to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the best magic school in all of Canterlot, if not of all Equestria. How could I ever say I know what means to sustain a life of sacrifices, always wandering with no fixed abode? Maybe if I just-‘

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an increasing barking; concentrating on the direction the sound was coming from, she was soon able to identify the shape of a little dog, moving forward her “Blacky?”

The black dog reached Twilight, and kept barking in her direction “Blacky, what are you doing here? How did you find me?” She then noticed something was stuck beneath the dog’s collar ‘That’s the handkerchief I gave to Trixie. He must have followed my scent thanks to that…but why?’

Blacky was still trying to gain Twilight’s attention, increasing the pitch of his barking ‘Why Fluttershy is never around when you need her? I do not possess the same ability she has to communicate with the animals.’ she desperately thought “What are you trying to tell me? Does something happened to Trixie?”

To Twilight surprise, it seemed the dog understood what she just said, spin around and headed back from where he came, barking to Twilight, asking her to follow him ‘Shoot, I really hope Trixie is ok’.

Once arrived at the cart, Twilight immediately realized something was wrong. The door was fully open, and not a single sound was coming from the inside “Trixie? Are you ok?” she asked, while walking through the doorstep. The room showed the signs of a frisk: the table was overturned, with the cups they used to drink tea shattered on the floor, the bed had been torn into pieces, the oval mirror shattered, the nightstand and wardrobe’s contents scattered all over the floor and on the wooden planks there were a couple of blood stains.

‘Ohnononononono!’

She frantically started to look around the room, hoping to find any clue that could have allowed her to track Trixie down “What should I do now? Calling for help? Nonsense, it’s the middle of the night, and there aren’t any houses in the neighbourhood, so it’s impossible somepony saw what happened. Going to the town and asking the help of the police? No, that will take too much time, and I will never be able to even tell them what happened. Uuuurgh, I’m running out of ideas.”

Again, Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by Blacky’s yapping, and she noticed that the dog had laid something at her hooves, a purple conical piece of clothing, decorated with powder blue and yellow stars.

“That’s Trixie’s hat…” Twilight murmured, and levitated it, carefully turning it around and inside out, until something just fluttered on the ground.
‘A horsehair?’ Twilight then suddenly gasped “That’s it! I can use a tracking spell to locate her!” She focused her magic on the thin string she was holding and casted the spell; towards her, a light arrow just appeared, which slow pulsing indicated that Trixie was being held some miles away from her actual position.

“Don’t worry Blacky, I’ll find Trixie and bring her back to you.” Twilight reassured the dog, while trotting towards the direction the arrow was pointing.

After 20 minutes of running, crossing a hard court, a plain and even a forest, Twilight finally arrived near her destination. The magical arrow was now frantically pulsating, and finally the unicorn came to face with the warehouse where Trixie was held captive ‘She must be inside that building.’
Twilight dispelled the charm and started to carefully check through the surroundings. Fortunately, it seamed that the forest almost completely surrounded the place, so she didn’t have to march out form her hideout.
At a certain point she saw Loneshark standing outside of the building, guarding a door, but she decided to keep on turning around the place, in case there were even more abductors outside.

Once she certified there were no other ponies, she returned where the ponynapper was, and started to figure out a way to knock him down; she then remembered that on the other side of the warehouse, inside the forest, she noticed a huge rock that she could use as a weapon.

‘Perfect!’ she thought, and then started to use a levitation spell on the rock.

Luckily, the door that Loneshark was guarding was located near the corner of the building, and the abductor was unwise enough to just stand near the edge of it. Twilight moved the rock from the other side of the building, raised it at a proper height, made it turn the corner, and released it when it was on the vertical of the pony. The hit was hard enough to knock him down.

“Alright, one down. Now I just have to save Trixie.”

Twilight carefully approached the door, opened it lightly and took a peek. The inside was too dark to see what was standing on the other side, so she silently squeezed in.
The light of the moon piercing through the windows allowed her to wander between various corridors, formed by huge shelves, most of them filled with wooden boxes; it appeared the building was some sort of storehouse for some wholesaler, maybe of furniture, judging from the size of some of the boxes.

Twilight continued to wander through the maze, until she heard a feeble voice in the distance, and slowly and carefully started to approach it. When she was close enough to see Trixie, she almost screamed for the shock.
Trixie was standing near a metal pillar, her forelegs tied behind it and her hindlegs tied in front, and she was not having a really great time. Uma had just finished using a big knife to make a series of little wounds all over her body, each one deeper than the precedent, with the 2 deepest on her ears, that now presented each one a deep hole near the top.

Blood was straining all over her body and a little pool had formed beneath her “Please, have mercy! Trixie doesn’t know anything!” she screamed in pain.

“It’s a shame, my lady. I hoped you would have willed to tell me what we wanted. I’m afraid we’re running out of time to use colt gloves.” he said, laying with his magic the knife on a small table near himself and looking inside the briefcase “I hope you believe me when I say that I will not enjoy what I’m going to do right now.” he then added, drawing a pair of old rusty railroad spikes and a hammer from the briefcase, and started to approach Trixie’s forelegs.

“Please, stop! Trixie is telling you the truth! Pleeeeease!”

“Just try to not pass out, ok? Here goes one.” he said, leaning the first spike near Trixie’s right foreleg and lifting the hammer, ready to strike.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Trixie cried with all her forces, while trying to wriggle out from the knots that were keeping her bound to the pillar.

*CLANG-SDLENG*

Uma just stopped the hammer a few inches from the spike, distracted by the noise of something metallic hitting the ground in the distance, and waited a couple of seconds, scanning the surrounding area. He was sure the noise was not made by his partner, since it would have been followed by some foul and unnecessary curses.

No, he knew for sure that it was something else that was wandering around that place. Maybe it was just one of those dozens rats that decided to made the warehouse the home for their offspring, but it could have been somepony else.

“Excuse me for a moment, miss.” he said, laying the hammer on the ground and leaving towards the way of the noise.

After a couple of seconds, Trixie opened her eyes wide and started to breath again, glad that something had lead the torturer away from her, and she regained to wriggle out of the ropes that were keeping her captive.
It was at that point that she felt that something was already messing around with the knots, and she tried to turn her head back.

“TWILI-“ she started to scream, surprised by the presence of the other mare, before one violet hoof was pushed in front of her mouth.

“Shhhh, keep your voice down Trixie. We have less than a minute to set you free and escape from here before that pony will be back.” Twilight tried to use her magic to untwist the ropes, but without success. “Knots. Why did they have to use knots. Can’t you help me?”

“No, I can’t use my magic with this attached to my horn.” Trixie replied, lifting her eyes pointing at the device that was surrounding her horn “The other ponynapper said it’s some kind of magic suppressor.”

‘Shoot! Think Twilight, think!’ she frantically thought, while looking around in search of something that could cut the ropes.

“Twilight, the knife. That’s the knife he was using to torture me on that table. Use that!”

“Of course! Why didn’t I think about that early?” she said patting her head, and used her magic to levitate the knife and put it right under the ropes that were blocking Trixie’s hindlegs, trying to divert her attention from the blood that was stained on the blade “Hold still!”

Once the cyan pony’s forelegs were free, Trixie sighed in relief and adopted once again the normal posture on all her four hooves “Blast, I was starting to loose the feeling of my hindlegs. Hurry up, Twilight, we’re running out of time.”

“I’m working as fast as I can.” she replied, her head lowered almost to the ground just to have a better look of the last knots “This blade isn’t really that sharp, you know?”
She immediately regret to have spoken such words, since she knew that the weapon was used to hurt her just a few minutes before “I’m sorry. Just give me one more second, ok?” she added, and finally managed to set Trixie free.

“Done!” she exclaimed while lifting up again.

Suddenly, a blurred trail passed a few inches before Twilight’s eyes and something metallic hit the ground, standing still on it, in the exact spot where the head of Twilight was just a moment ago. It was one of the railroad spikes, and it managed to pierce the floor for half of his length.

“You are really one lucky mare. I hardly ever miss my target.” said Uma, approaching the two mares.

“How did you manage to be here so fast?” Twilight asked, standing between Trixie and the stallion and levitating the knife towards him in a threatening way.

“Please, just because it appears you managed to knock out my partner so easily doesn’t mean I didn’t prepare some magic alerts in case somepony showed up uninvited. As soon as you entered the area covered by that lamp, I knew there was an intruder.”

“So, if you know I was here, why didn’t you stop me before?” she replied, while starting to withdraw from Uma and approaching Trixie, who, in the meantime, was standing motionless, frozen by fear.

“Well, I would have found it kind of… inconvenient, to interrupt such an amazing attempt of rescue. I was sure no one was following us when we reached this destination. You must be some really talented unicorn, not only for being able to track us down, but even because you was almost successful with your plan.”

Uma started to reduce the distance from the two mares, and to form a psionic blade in front of his right foreleg “My name is Uma Chimamire, first assassin of the order of the Red Hoof. May I ask for the name of my opponent?”

Twilight kept moving herself and Trixie back, until she stopped right in front of the surrounding shelves. She gulped, and with the most intimidating tone she manages to use, said “M-my name is Twilight Sparkle, pupil student of our beloved ruler, Princess Celestia, and bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony, the Element of Magic”.

“Well then, Twilight Sparkle, shall we begin our duel?” Uma said, as he immediately started to leap towards Twilight. Unfortunately for him, the lavender unicorn had other plans, as she had noticed that the supports of the shelves close to them were old and rusty enough to make them easily collapse, and that they were full of huge wooden boxes.

“Run!” she screamed towards Trixie, and used her hindlegs to hit the base of the shelf to her left in the corner that faced Uma. As she expected, the supports just broke down, and the wooden boxes stored in it felt down, piling up in front of her and blocking the path between Uma and them.

Twilight and Trixie took advantage of the situation and started to run through the maze of corridors of shelves, trying to reach the exit.

“So that’s how you decided to confront me? By running away? Well that’s useless!” they could hear Uma yelling towards them “You can’t escape me. Just stop to bring shame on yourself and fight with honor!”

The two mares stopped halfway from the door Twilight used to enter the warehouse, while Uma decided to take another path and started to chase after them. “This is bad. Really bad. I don’t know if I’ll be able to fight him back.” whispered Twilight between a pant and another “Trixie, you need to run for the exit.”

“But..”

“You can’t use your magic while that thing is still attached to your horn, and I guess you’re not really good at barehooves combats, am I right?” replied Twilight, and the beaten look Trixie gave in reply confirmed her concern “Now, I’ll stay behind and distract him. Reach the exit and head west, through the forest. I didn’t have to take any detour while coming here, so if you maintain the direction, you should be back to your cart. Once in Hoofington, head straight to the police station and ask for their protection, got it?”

Trixie reluctantly nodded and asked “What about you?”

“Don’t you worry. At Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns they also had classes of Theory of the Duel and Magical Self-Defense.” Twilight replied, even though she decided to pass over the fact that the practical part of the course was the one that she almost failed “I just need to keep him busy for a while. I’ll reach you in Hoofington as soon as possible. Now go!”

Trixie headed for the exit, while Twilight, hearing Uma approaching towards them, left her hideout; her horn started to glow with more intensity and she threw the knife she used to release Trixie towards her chaser, letting it stuck into a box upon Uma’s head, drawing the attention of the stallion towards her and away from the direction Trixie took.

“You were looking for me?” she asked to the assassin, her knees bent in a defensive position “Then come and get me.”

“Finally, you decided to stop your futile running and to confront me.” he replied, and he started to cast a magic in turn “Brave, but foolish!”

From the tip of his horn, a half-dozen sharp magical bolts were thrown towards Twilight.
The lavender unicorn managed to cast a protective shield around her, but it was not powerful enough to repel the projectiles, which were only diverted and managed to get through the shield; two of the bolts wounded her on the left flank and on the right cheek, while the others passed a few inches away from her.

When the pain started to fade away and Twilight reopened her eyes, she noticed Uma was dashing towards her, with the psionic blade ready to hit. She teleported behind him just a moment before the swing of the blade could reach her, and performed an energy sphere that hit Uma in the back, sending him ten hooves away on the ground.

Performing these three spells in quick succession strove Twilight, who started to heavily pant and sweat ‘Please, stay down.’ she thought, but unfortunately Uma was already starting to lift up again.

He was already on his hooves, showing the back to his opponent, and it seemed like Twilight’s hit had no effect on him, except for a slight burning in his coat.

Suddenly, he started to laugh, weakly at first, but then louder and scarier “This is amazing! It’s the first time in ages somepony manages to hit me. I’m so excited. I may have finally found a match!”

He turned around, a maniac look on his face, untied his ponytail and stood on his hindlegs “Let me show you all my gratitude!” he said and, with a big smile on his face, created 2 psionic blades, one around each foreleg.

It seemed that was not Trixie’s lucky night. She managed to reach the door Twilight indicated her, but found it closed, as it seemed like Uma had shut it before turning to confront them. With her magic suppressed, she had no choice but trying to pick the lock, so she managed to find a string of metal, sharp and thin enough to enter the keyhole, and was now trying to use it with her mouth.

‘Oh father, why did I never paid attention when you were teaching me this trick?’ she cursed herself.

Five minutes had already passed since she started to pick the lock, and she was starting to loose all hopes, when she heard the devices finally turned and heard the noise that the door was unlocked.

“Finally, now I ca-“ started to say Trixie, but stopped when the door opened itself. On the other side was standing Storm, rage in his eyes, a strain of blood dripping from his head where Twilight knocked him with the rock and that was staining his suit, a butterfly knife tied to his left hoof with a string.

“End of the line, you bucking horse!” he said with a tone full of hatred and rage.

‘How can he be so fast while standing on just two hooves?’

Twilight was having a hard time as well. How much time had passed since Uma decided to mean business? One minute? Five minutes? Ten? Twilight was not so sure anymore. Uma’s speed had dramatically increased since then, and Twilight was sure that he was just playing with her now. His movements were so fast Twilight was just able to spot a faint wake of his opponent, so she was firing spheres after spheres of energy at him, missing Uma all the times. As time was passing by, she was starting to pant and sweat heavily more and more, as her magic supply was starting to run out.

Twilight shot another sphere towards his opponent, but again he just vanished before it could hit him ‘Where did he go now?’ she thought, when suddenly the stallion hit her hard on the right shoulder with his hindleg, throwing her on the ground several hooves away.
She didn’t have the time to recover, as Uma reappeared just in front of her, and kicked her in the stomach.

“Gaaaaah!” she coughed, while her breath was taken away and she spat some drops of blood.

“Get up!” Uma shouted and kicked her again harder in the stomach “Come on, get up! Is that all your power? Is that all the ‘Element of Magic’ is capable of? Is that all the fighting will you posses?”.

Suddenly, a scream was heard in the distance “T-Trixie…” Twilight managed to say between the coughs.

“Seems like Loneshark is on his hooves again.” said Uma, taking a deep breath and regaining his composure “I guess this is the end, miss Sparkle.” he then lifted both his forelegs up his head, ready to give her opponent the final blow.

Twilight was on the verge of fading, but she had to react. With all her willpower, she managed to focus long enough to perform another spell and from the tip of her horn erupted a glaring light that managed to temporarily blind Uma.

While the stallion diverted one step from her, covering his eyes, Twilight took the advantage and casted one last sphere of energy towards him. Being merely 2 hooves away from her, the shot managed to hit its target, and hurled Uma several yards away, making him land against one of the shelves and burying him under the crates stocked on it.

Twilight was now standing, breathing deeply and exhausted from the fight, and was looking in the direction the stallion was thrown, waiting for any reaction on his part, but it seemed like the crates had knocked him out. She took a minute to finally throw up, due to the kicks she received in her stomach and to the strain she built up during the fight. When she was again on her hooves, another scream from Trixie reminded her they were not safe yet.

‘Hold on, Trixie. I’m coming!’ she thought, and started to head towards the exit, staggering.

Trixie collapsed on the ground and was trying to withdraw from Storm.
“Stay away from Trixie!” she shouted, kicking in the direction of Storm as he was approaching her.

He grabbed her head with the right hoof and slammed it on the floor, making Trixie scream in pain “It’s an easy task he said. You just have to let her say where the money are he said”. He sat on her belly, blocking her on the ground “WELL…THIS…IS…NOT…WHAT…I…CALL…AN…’EASY…TASK!’ ” he shouted, smacking her face after every word.

Storm panted heavily and noticed that Trixie had stopped screaming and was now standing motionless, with her eyes closed. Afraid that he could have accidentally killed her, he put the tip of his butterfly knife into her flank. The pain woke Trixie up, making her scream again, and she tried to unsaddle Storm, but the stallion just moved his weight on his flanks and blocked Trixie more strongly.

“Last chance, sweetie.” he said, putting the knife near Trixie’s throat “Where… are… THE… MONEY?” .

With a last bit of courage, Trixie spitted a mix of blood and saliva into Storm’s face “Buck you!”.

Loneshark lost his control, screamed angrily towards the mare and lifted the knife, ready to strike, when suddenly, one of the boxes crushed at high speed into his face, throwing him off Trixie and sending him fly towards the exit.

Trixie turned her head and saw an exhausted Twilight approaching her “What took you so long?” she ironically asked.

Twilight gave a faint laugh in reply “That stallion was damn tough.” she replied, and helped Trixie to stand up “I don’t think we will have enough time nor strength to run back to Hoofington. There’s only one solution. Stand still!”

HOOFINGTON - ½ MILE AWAY FROM TRIXIE’S CART
2:00 A.M.

Twilight managed to perform a teleportation spell that brought both the mares away from the warehouse.

“Sorry, this is as far as I could teleport us.” The effort she made in performing this last spell left her without magical power, and she was on the verge of fainting, but Trixie supported her.

“Are you alright?” asked the show-mare with concern.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just need two or three hours of sleep... maybe a week, and I’ll be back as new.” she said with a weak smile on her face before paying attention to Trixie “What about you? Your wounds are still bleeding.”

“Oh please, do you really think that these little scratches may hurt The Great and Powerful Trixie?” she replied with pride, but immediately lost her self-confidence and started to shake “You know, I….for a moment, I really thought I was going to die.” she added, and then collapsed on her hindlegs and started to cry.

Twilight approached her and put Trixie’s head on her shoulder “Shhhh, it’s over now. We just need to reach the police station and they will never going to hurt you again.”

The two mares stood there for a couple of minutes, until Trixie had shed all the tears she was holding, and then Twilight helped her to stand on her hooves again “Alright, let’s go.” the lavender unicorn said, and started to head towards the town.

A noise of something cracking echoed throughout the surroundings.

“Hmmm?....LOOK OUT!”

She had no time to react, as a bright trail passed in front of her eyes, and, in just a couple of seconds, the only thing she could see was the body of the other mare collapsing on the ground. A blood-red pool forming beneath her hooves.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 5

Author's Note

Again, this is just a raw version. The edited version will be up as soon as possible.

Chapter 5: How could you? (Raw Version)

Written by Star-Killer89

HOOFINGTON BORDERS - 1 MILE AWAY FROM TRIXIE’S CART
THE NIGHT OF THE PONYNAPPING - JUNE 04 - 3:57 A.M.

“Thirty-scheven mugsh of schider on the –hic- wall, thirty-scheven mugsh of schideeer. You take one down, passh it around, thirty-schix mugs of schider on the –hic- wall. Thirtyschix mugs of schider on the wall, Thirty-hic-schix mugs of schideeer…”

“I can’t believe she actually managed to sing that annoying song till now without missing a single stupid mug. And I can’t believe you actually convinced me to come along with the two of you, Colgate.” rumbled an angry Carrot Top.

“Oh come on Carrot, why did you say that?” replied Colgate in a half-offended tone.

“Why? You even ask me? First of all, at that Carnival, we’ve spent more time waiting in line than actually going on the rides. Then, you forced me to come along with you in this ridiculous ‘All Girls Night’, which, of course, resulted in wandering from pub to pub, watching Berry get drunk.” Carrot started to list, as she was now pointing her hoof accusingly towards Berry “Then, at that pub, the ‘One for the Road’, those 2 colts that where, what, like 16 years old? hit on me for the whole hour we spent there.”

“Then, your marefriend here tried to puke over my hooves, and now we can’t remember the road to our hotel and we’re lost!”

“Sh-She’s not my marefriend!” replied Colgate, who were glad it was too dark to let her friend notice she was blushing “Besides, you can’t pretend for two young mares like us to wander around in a foreign town this late at night. What if somepony tried to attack us? You, at least, attended that self-defence course.”

“Twenty-nine mugsh of schider on the waaaaall…” kept singing a rather drunk Berry Punch.

“How I wish her sister was here with us.” sighed Carrot Top “She would have never allowed her to turn this way…or, at least, she would have remembered the directions to the hotel.” she added, while all the three of them were still wandering around in the woods, trying to find the main path that would have lead them back to Hoofington.

“We couldn’t help it.” replied Colgate “You know that tomorrow is a working day, and Cheerilee could not possibly spent an entire night outside town with us.”

“Great, now we will never be able to go back to Ponyville!” the earth pony resumed to complain “They will find our skinny, dead bodies in the bushes around this Celestia’s forgotten town. My skeleton will be rolled into a ball for the hunger pangs…while your body will be probably clung to the one of your marefriend, while sharing one last, passionate kiss.” she added, with an over-exaggerated romantic tone.

“S-Stop that! I already told you, she’s not my marefriend!” shouted Colgate in reply.

“Berry and Colgate, sitting in a tree: K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” started to hum her friend in turn, with a big smirk printed on her face.

“Twenty-three kisshes to Colgate on the wall, Twenty-three kissheeees…” Berry changed her song.

“E-Enough already!” said a frustrated Colgate, stomping her hoof on the ground “I swear on Celestia, if you’re going to say one more time Berry and I are engage-“ she started to threaten, but could not finish her phrase.

In the distance, a scream of pain echoed through-out the air, with a dazzling sphere of light that erupted behind a scrub of trees before them, while the earth beneath their hooves shook for a couple of seconds.

Carrot and Colgate immediately directed their attention towards the source of the light, while Berry, on the other hoof, didn’t seem to notice anything at all.

“-uuuuurp!” she finished belching “Uh?…Wash…wash that me?”

“What was that?” asked a frightened Carrot Top.

“Who cares? Didn’t you heard that scream? Somepony is in danger!” replied Colgate, and started to head towards the brush.

“Are you crazy Colgate? Come back here. It might be dangerous” shouted Carrot, but her friend was already beyond her sight. “That mare will make us all killed!” she grumped, as she set off in pursuit of the unicorn.

“Hey girlsh, wait for me!” screamed Berry behind them “Schoot! I can’t remember where I - hic - wash….. ehr ….oh, yeshh! Ninety-two kisshes to Colgate on the wall, ninety-two kisshes to Colgaaate. You take one down, passh it around…” she resumed to sing, and started to totter behind her friends.

OUTSIDE HOOFINGTON - WAREHOUSE
2 HOURS EARLY - 1:56 A.M.

Uma was able to regain consciousness from Twilight’s attack pretty quickly, and started to chase the lavender unicorn.

‘How could I possibly be so careless? Me, the best assassin of the Red Hoof. The one who spent all his life training in the art of combat and killing, tricked by a little mare!’ he thought, anger rising from the inside, while he was heading towards the exit.

He finally managed to spot the two unicorns “Time to end our duel!” he whispered, and made a final rush towards them. Suddenly, a glare of light erupted from Twilight’s horn, and an instant later both mares disappeared, just a few hooves away from Uma.

‘Blast, they teleported!’ he thought and, immediately after, he heard a familiar voice in the distance.

Beyond the exit, Storm had also just recovered, and was now tottering towards Uma, with his right hoof pressed on the muzzle.

“BUCK! BUCKBUCKBUCKBUCKBUCKBUCK! Dath bucking horsh broge my noshe!” he was loudly swearing, while blood was copiously leaking from his nostrils “And where de buck were you jusd a few bobends ago, Uma?”

“I’m sorry, I-“ the assassin just stopped for a moment, weighed down by the bitterness that realization brought with it “That lavender unicorn managed to knock me out.”

Storm was just shocked by the revelation “WHAD? Dhat bare was able do defead you?”

“Weren’d you dhe besd assassin around?” he added, while pointing his left hoof toward him “And yed a liddle bare banaged do defead you?”

Uma was not paying attention to the words of Storm, as his look was staring at the butterfly knife that was still tied to the hoof Storm was pointing at him.

“Whose blood is that on the knife? Is that from one of those two mares?”

“WHAD?” Storm was get off hoof by that sudden question “Yesh, is from dadh odher unigorn, bud don’d try to-“

“With that, I can track them down and bring them back here!” Uma immediately responded, while he was still able to not loose his temper towards his partner.

“You gan? Dhen jusd do it! Drack dhem down and GHILL DHEM!” Storm shouted in response.

“Our orders are to retrieve the money.” calmly replied Uma “If I kill them, then-“

“I DON’D BUCKING GARE!” shouted Storm, his pupils like needlepoints, while the anger was making him heavily panting and drooling from the sides of his mouth “You are subbosed do follow my orders, and I jusd ordered you to ghill dhem, gapisce?”

Uma could clearly see that his partner had lost his mind. Still, Storm was right, as their boss ordered him to follow his instructions.

“As you wish, sir.” Uma replied, with a little contempt in the last word.

He levitated the knife in front of him, closed his eyes while focusing his attention on the blood stained on the blade and started to murmur a couple of spells. After a couple of minutes he shout his eyes open.

“Found them!” he whispered, and a moment later he was already gone.

HOOFINGTON - ½ MILE AWAY FROM TRIXIE’S CART
2:05 A.M.

Trixie finally had the chance to catch a breath of relief, as the two mares were finally able to put several miles of distance between them and her ponynappers, and were now heading to the Hoofington police station.

Suddenly, a noise of something cracking echoed throughout the surroundings.

‘Maybe it was just a bird.’ she tried to persuade herself, but the fear it might have been their aggressors was still present inside of her, so she started to check the surrounding area.

“Hmmm?” Her attention was caught by a feeble light beneath the woods, just a few hooves in front of Twilight. Keeping her eyes skinned, she managed to recognise what was the source of that light.

Her heart immediately skipped a beat.

“LOOK OUT!” She shouted, and immediately dashed towards Twilight, who was just caught by surprise by Trixie’s sudden scream.

Twilight was pushed to her left and sent on the ground.

It was at that moment that Uma came out from his hiding, and struck.

He rose his psionic blade and reached Trixie’s body, with a lunge from bottom to top that managed to pierce through her chest.

“TRIXIEEEEEE!” Twilight shouted.

Time for the cyan unicorn seemed to slow down, as she slowly lowered her look on the psionic blade. Her eyes were full of pain and terror, as she coughed out a huge amount of blood, and collapsed on her knees, while a blood-red pool was already starting to form beneath her hooves.

Uma removed the blade from her chest. A large spray of blood immediately erupted from the wound and he stared the last moments of the unicorn’s life.

Trixie couldn’t properly breath, as blood was slowly starting to fill her lungs, while Twilight was frozen on the spot, too shocked to even blink.

“Any last words to your friend?” Uma asked her.

Trixie took all the strength she still had, tears flowing on her cheeks, while the world around her started to black out. She turned her head towards Twilight and managed to whisper “I-I’m..soo-…-rryyyy!”

Uma then gave her the final blow, swinging the psionic blade at the height of her head, dealing a hack towards her eyes, from right to left, leading her to turn on her side and collapse on the ground.

He took a few steps back, and swung the blade in mid air, cleaning it from the blood of the cyan unicorn.

Some drops of blood reached Twilight’s face, and that seemed to snap her out, as her brain finally elaborated what just happened.

“No…….noo……nonononononoNOOOOOOO!” she started to say panic-stricken, while crawling towards Trixie’s body.

After what seemed an eternity for her, she reached the body of the show-mare, and turned her face up “Trixie…. please… answer me!” she started to cry, while strongly shaking her from her shoulder “PLEASE… ANSWER ME!” but the other mare never responded.

“Such a pity” suddenly said Uma, while approaching Twilight “If she just decided to care for herself, maybe now she would still be alive.”

“You…You killed her.” whispered Twilight, her voice breaking with grief as she was still staring on the motionless body of Trixie.

“Yes, but if that may console you, I was actually trying to hit you.” Uma continued, while he started to walk towards Twilight’s back “No matter what Loneshark said, my priority was to keep her alive until she would have told us where she hid the money. Sadly, she decided to save your life.”

“You killed her!” Twilight repeated.

Uma reached Twilight’s back, and created the other twin psionic blade around his left hoof “It seems like you are too shocked to say anything else. Well, don’t worry…” he then added, while he crossed the blades in front of the mare’s throat “…you are going to reach her soon.”

And then, he closed his forelegs.

*FSSSSZZ-CRACK-FSSSSSSSZZZZZ*

“What?”

Uma was totally caught by surprise. His blades managed to cut the unicorn’s throat for a quarter of inch, but he couldn’t go any further, as it seemed something was blocking the blades.

He tried to apply more force, but the result was the same. Something was preventing him to behead that unicorn.

He decided to take a closer look at her, and noticed that all around her body there was a thin yet hard aura, completely covering her and emitting a feeble cream-colored light "An Absolute Magic Field? That’s impossible!”

“You killed her!” said once again Twilight, but this time, there was not fear nor sadness in her tone, but just a growing, irrepressible anger.

Suddenly, the glare she was emitting increased of intensity, as her body started to shift: her lavander coat turned into an intense cream color, her irises changed from a strong purple into a deep blood-red, but what was most incredible was her mane, that started to burn, with the flames replacing what once were her mane and tail.

The sudden transformation caught Uma unready, as Twilight turned her attention on the stallion.

“HOW COULD YOU?” she shouted, as a blast that originated from her barrier aimed towards the stallion.

Uma managed to shield his body behind the psionic blades, and kept the balance on his hind legs, but the energy of the shot was too powerful, as he was tossed a couple of hooves away, leaving a marked rut on the ground.

The shot didn’t leave a scratch on him, and he immediately tried to evaluate the situation. Suddenly, he noticed that deep cracks had started to form on his magical weapons, that shattered into pieces just a few moments after.

Panic and anger started to worm into the emotionless assassin ‘Impossible! My psionic blades are made of pure magical energy. They cannot be broken so easily!’

He immediately focused his magic into his horn and tried once more to pierce the violet unicorn with a series of magical bolts, but unlike the first time, Twilight didn’t try to protect herself. On the contrary, she started to slowly advance towards her opponent, while his shots just seemed to evaporate in mid-air, just a few inches from her body.

Fear was beginning to get the upper hoof on Uma “What the hay is going on here?” he shouted, fear completely replaced by anger.

He performed the twin psionic blades once again, and dashed at high speed towards Twilight.

Before the blow could hit the mare, she suddenly disappeared before his eyes.

‘She teleported?’ was the first thought of the stallion, but then he noticed some traces of orange and yellow flames moving around him.

‘No. This cannot be! She’s moving at an even higher speed than me!’ he concluded, just before Twilight reappeared in front of his eyes and angrily smacked him on his left cheek.

A magical discharge erupted from the tip oh her hoof, drastically increasing the strength of the hit, and smacked Uma with his face on the ground a few hooves away, making him bounce with a loud thump.

“Get up!” Twilight ordered the stallion, while using a spell to levitate him in mid air a few inches from the ground.

As he noticed that the magic barrier surrounding his opponent was now less intense, Uma tried to take advantage of the situation, and swung his right hoof towards Twilight.

Unfortunately for him, he was too far away to deal a good slash and he only managed to wound his opponent on her left cheek.

“Tch!” hissed Twilight, more pissed than hurt, and she dealt an uppercut to Uma’s stomach. Uma started to gasp for air, as the hit was powerful enough to leave the print of Twilight’s hoof on his chest.

Dispelling the levitation spell, Twilight made a 180° degrees turn and before Uma’s body could hit the ground again, she kicked him with her hind legs, hurling her opponent several hooves away and letting him crush with his back against the trunk of a tree.

“Gaaaah!” Uma screamed in pain, as he could feel a pair of ribs cracking, while a small amount of blood erupted from his mouth.

Twilight started again to slowly approach Uma, her hooves leaving hoofprints of burning behind her on the ground, while the tears that was still profusely flowing through her eyes were evaporating almost immediately.

“You’re going to suffer!”

Uma was laying prone on the ground with his left eye shut, but managed to quickly get on his hooves again ‘Shoot, if I don’t do something, she’s really going to kill me.’ he thought, after he spat a blood clot in the ground.

He then stood on his hind legs again, and summoned all the magical power he could, joining his hooves together.

Magic started to flow from his whole body into his forelegs, and after a couple of seconds, around them appeared another weapon, something that was impossible to be even called a sword. Its length was the same as that of a common claymore sword, but the depth was more like the one of a surf board.

“This is it!” Uma heavily panted “This is the showdown. Show me what you got!”

In reality, performing the spell left him almost without strength. This was his last weapon, the strongest and most efficient one, but in order to use it, he needed several seconds to regain his stamina to even swing it.

Twilight didn’t seem to react to the provocation and just stood still, staring at the new weapon Uma had just created with a curios look in her eyes.

Uma started to feel his strength returning, and tried to induce his opponent to attack him “Come on, what’s the matter? Weren’t you going to ‘make me suffer’? Didn’t you want to avenge the death of your friend?”

This time those words breached into Twilight’s mind, as she lightly flexed her head on her right side and started to grind her teeth.

‘That’s it, rush towards me! As soon as you’ll get closer, even your magic barrier and your high speed won’t-…. Wait, what is she doing?’

Contrary to what Uma hoped, Twilight wasn’t rushing towards him with her head down. On the contrary, she held a strong grip on the ground with her forelegs, and started to concentrate her magical power on the tip of her horn, creating a sphere of energy.

Unlike what happened during their first fight, though, flames and bolts also started to erupt around it.

‘Oh no, you won’t! I won’t let you!’ thought Uma, and started to rush himself towards Twilight.

Uma tried to reach her before she could shoot, but the massive weight of the sword drastically slowed him down, and he wasn’t even halfway from his opponent, when Twilight finally released her shot.

The sphere of energy quickly filled the gap between the two, and Uma had just enough time to stuck the blade in the ground and shield himself behind it before impact.

As the blow hit the blade, a cone of mixed flames, lightning and magical energy erupted behind it, and started to push Uma back.

It took all his strength in trying to absorb the shot, but it was just too powerful.

“Ghhh…..Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah! D-DAMN YOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!” was the last words Uma shouted, before the cone of energy completely enveloped him, dragging him several miles away in the dark of the night, burning down everything it could find on its way.

The battle was over. Twilight had won.

After a few seconds, she turned to her normal appearance, and collapsed on the ground.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 6

Author's Note

Just a little notice here (since most of you who read these chapters are not "watching" me, thus you will not receive any blog entry I write) that I will eventually delete in a couple of weeks. If after this chapter I will still have someone who wants to know how the story will go on, do not expect any new chapter at least until Christmas. I will have University finals in the whole month of February and the beginning of March, so I'll start to study for them from December to February.
Moreover, I would really like to write down the second chapter of my other story "Weapon EqueXtria", so most of my free time until the end of the month will be focused on that.

Chapter 6: Out of Sight (Raw Version)

Written by Star-Killer89, Editing: Coming Soon

?????????? - ?????????? ??????? ????????
???? ?? - ??:?? ?.?.

“CODE BLUE, MAINHALL! CODE BLUE, MAINHALL! I NEED A BVM AND A RESUSCITATION TEAM, NOW! ”

‘Why are you still fighting?’
‘Who is it?’

“SHE’S IN CRITICAL OXYGEN DEPRIVATION!”

‘Won’t it be easier to just give up?’

“WE’RE LOOSING HER!”

‘All your efforts are futile.’
‘What do you mean?’

“NURSE, NURSE!”

‘You try and try and try and try…’

“CHARGE!”
‘Why are they all yelling?’

‘…but in the end you know that you will always be a disappointment.’

“Ah knew that mare was nothin’ good!
‘This voice…’

‘You will never truly succeed!’

“Whyyyyy? Why did this had to happen? Of all the worst things that could happen…”
‘I know these voices…’

‘You are so immersed in the world you created …’

“I told her to give up on that stupid mare! I TOLD HER!”
‘What are they saying?’

‘…that you will never be able to live any differently.’

“Oh dear Celestia…please…let this just be a bad dream!”
‘Why is everypony crying?’

‘But giving up would be a too easy way out for you, right?’

“Buwaaaaah! This can’t be really happening… not to her!”
‘What happened?’

‘Well, enjoy the days that are yet to come…’

“What am I going to do now? W-What can I possibly do?”

‘…because they won’t last long!’

“Don’t give up.”
‘What?’

HOOFINGTON - HOOFINGTON GENERAL HOSPITAL
JUNE 17 - 11:31 A.M.

*BIP-SNIIIFF-BIP-HUFF-BIP-SNIIIFF-BIP-HUFF-BIP-GAAAAASP*

She suddenly woke up and spread her eyes.

In front of her everything was blurred, as she could feel that something was covering the upper side of her head, limiting her view and squashing part of her mane.

The sheets around her body gave her a feeling of comfort, warmth and quite as she had not felt in years, yet the needles in her foreleg were like a painful chain, binding her to that very same ease.

She tried to move herself, but the last few weeks she had spent, staying almost motionless, deprived her of all her energy.

She finally tried to speak “Wher-…Where am I?” She managed to say, after a few tries.

“Hmm? Nurse! Nurse, she’s awake.” She could hear a familiar voice saying. It was the voice of a mare, but in her dizziness, she couldn’t immediately recognise who that voice belonged to.

The sound of hooves hitting a marble surface echoed in the air a few seconds later, and another voice coming not too far away started to speak “Oh, thank Celestia… she finally woke up. We were starting to loose all hopes. Here dear, let me remove this mask from your face.” The nurse said, as she passed by the bed where the owner of the first voice was lying on.

“Are you sure that is safe?”

“Of course I am. The doctor said her lungs started to work perfectly fine just a couple of days ago. We kept the mask on her just for good measure. Anyway, what about you? How are you feeling today?”

“I’m fine, thanks.” Replied the first voice with a reassuring tone “I guess I’m getting used to it.”

She felt the weight of the respiratory mask lifted from her muzzle and, almost immediately, a strong scent of septic products, mixed with medicines and long gone blood, filled her nostrils.

“Well, if you need anything else, just give me a call.” Bid the nurse, as she heard a bell sounding from another patient’s room and walked outside.

“Thanks. So, how are you feeling, Trixie?” Asked the mare.

“T-Twilight? Is that you?” Asked back Trixie.

“You can bet your hat and cloak that’s me!” The lavender unicorn happily replied.

Trixie sighed in relief at the news that they were both safe and sound.

“What happened?” She asked after a few moments.

“You were in a comatose state for almost 2 weeks.” Replied Twilight.

“No I mea-…wait, two weeks? Oh no…where is Blacky?” She worriedly said, as she tried to lift herself from the bed.

“Don’t move, you still have a drip attached to your hoof.” Twilight stopped her immediately “And don’t worry, I asked my friend Fluttershy to take care of him while you were here. He’s with her in Ponyville and so is your cart.”

“Is this friend of yours reliable?” quizzically asked Trixie.

Twilight giggle in reply, perceiving how much Trixie cared for her pet “Yes, she’s the kindest and most caring animal-keeper in all of Ponyville… maybe even of all Equestria.”

Trixie lightly sighed and lied down on the bed again “That’s a relief. Anyway, I was talking about those pony-nappers. What happened? The last thing I can remember was that creepy unicorn sta-….stabb-…”

Trixie couldn’t continue, as the memory of what happened to her started to resurface in her mind. She instantly brought her free hoof towards her chest while violently shaking.

“Are you alright? “ Asked Twilight at once.

“Yes, yes I am.” Replied Trixie, who started to calm herself down “As I was saying, didn’t he….stabbed me… to death?”

“Oh that? Oh no, not to death, really…Even though he went really close.” Firmly replied Twilight.

“What happened then? How can we both be here, still alive?” She then asked, with great curiosity and concern in her tone.

Twilight seemed reluctant to answer that question “I…I don’t know if it’s the case to tell you.”

“Twilight?” Trixie called the unicorn, but it seemed she wasn’t listening to her, as she kept saying “I mean, you have just awakened after a long period of rest.”

“Twilight!” Trixie called her a little louder, but Twilight was still going “Besides, I don’t think reviving what happened to you now would be very-“

“TWILIGHT!” she finally shouted, and this time Twilight seemed to snap out of her talking.

“Uhm, yes Trixie?”

“Tell me what happened.” She begged her “Please.”

A hoofful of seconds passed, where the only sounds heard were the other patients, nurses and doctors talking in the nearby rooms.

Twilight finally sighed in defeat “Alright…. I’ll tell you what happened.”

And so, she spent the following half hour telling Trixie about the events of that night that occurred after the show-mare passed out. About how desperate she was when she saw her lying on the ground motionless, believing she was dead.

Of how Uma tried to kill her too, only to be stopped by some sort of spurt of magic that erupted inside her body.
About how her body seemed to move by itself while she was fighting Uma, as her brain couldn’t even elaborate what was going on.

Finally, she told her how she managed to strike the final blow and defeat the assassin.

OUTSIDE HOOFINGTON - WAREHOUSE
THE NIGHT OF THE PONYNAPPING - JUNE 04 - 4:14 A.M.

‘I’m a dead pony! I’m dead dead dead dead DEAD!’

Storm was nervously trotting back and forth outside the warehouse, thinking back at how rash his order to kill the two mares was. Sure, one of them was reluctant to collaborate till the end, while the other tried to kill him twice, but he also had his own orders to follow, and killing the show-mare before she could tell them where she hid the insurance money was not part of them.

This task was supposed to be his last chance to redeem himself too. Too many jobs had failed just because of his short temper, and the boss had been clear with him “If you manage to buck this up, consider yourself dead meat!”

‘That damn purple unicorn! She ruined everything!’

He knew that it was just a matter of minutes before Uma would be back, reporting that the mares were cannon fodder, but that didn’t cheered him up at all. As soon as they would have returned to Canterlot, his boss would have ordered somepony of his faithful to bring him to a trip to the glue factory.

‘Buck! There’s no way out, I’m a dead pony!’ He was resigning, both hoofs on his head ruffling his mane, trying to find a way out of his certain sentence.

‘Unless…’ He stopped his hooves to better define the plan that was forming in his head ‘Unless I blame Uma! Yes! That’s it! I can say he overdid it again and killed her during the interrogation!’

‘Yes, that’s going to work!’ He continued brainstorming, while he resumed to trot in front of the warehouse ‘I mean, they’ll surely buy that for good! That’s not the first time that psycho killed a hostage while torturing him, and even the boss is just too scared to punish him.’

‘As soon as we go back, I must have a chat with the boss face to fac-‘

His thought were suddenly interrupted by a noise of rustling coming from the surrounding forest.

“Who’s dhere?” he angrily asked, his broken nose still distorting his words.

After a couple of seconds, Uma came out from the brush, but it seemed as if he barely managed to escape from a blaze.

He was standing on his hind legs, leaning with his left shoulder against a trunk, heavily panting. The left side of his face showed deep second-degree burns, spreading from his eye to his neck and the muzzle too, while his left foreleg was completely burned-down, and in more points emerged the half-carbonized bones beneath the flesh.

“Holy shood! Whad de buck habbened do you?” Asked an horrified Storm.

“T-That unicorn…” He started to say with great difficulty “That… lavender unicorn…”

“WHAD? SHE DEFEADED YOU AGAIN?” Storm madly shouted, as he started to approach the unicorn.

“You…don’t…understand!” Uma tried to justify himself “That mare….she…had a monstrous…burst of mag-…ugh... -ical energy… She caught me….off guard!”

“I DON’D BUCKING GARE” Storm angrily replied “YOU WERE SUBBOSED TO GHILL DHEM, AND YOU FAILED! YOU WERE DEFEADED BY A LIDDLE MARE! TWICE!”

Uma was starting to loose his temper, but tried to maintain his composure “If I…remember correctly…that ‘little mare’ knocked…you out pretty easily too….Twice!” he said, pointing his sane hoof towards his associate, as he managed to drift away from his support and kept balance on his hind legs.

“WHAD? WELL, DADH WOULD HAVE NEVER HABBENED IF YOU HAD DONE YOUR JOB WELL DE FIRSD TIME!” Storm continued to complain, as he got closer to him.

“Shut….up.” Uma replied, half in shame, half in anger.

“BUD NOW WE’RE DEAD! BODH OF US!” He kept yelling, while putting his face just a phew inches from Uma’s nose.

“Shut up!” Uma repeated with a more decisive tone.

“DHEY ARE GOING TO GHILL US! AND JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE DOO WEAK DO DEFEAD A SDUBID, LIDDLE-“

“SHUT UP!”

*SWING*

“Gaaaah….Graaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Driven by the anger, Uma had performed another psionic blade on his sane hoof and swung it towards Storm, causing a deep cut at the height of his throat.

Storm was now on his knees, holding his throat with both his forelegs, while blood was spurting from it. Panic and pain flew through his body, as he tried, with his residual energies, to reach Uma with his left foreleg.

He dropped on the ground, dead before he could even hit it with his face, while his blood was watering the grass below his hooves.

Uma was heavily panting, but a little smile started to form on his face. He then burst out laughing, as he realized that he finally did it. He finally got rid of that arrogant annoying stallion, that had made his assignments of the last 4 years a living hell.

However, it was a short pleasure, as the ache from his wounds brought him back to his critical conditions.

He started once more to concentrate his magic on them, reducing the pain while, at the same time, increasing his adrenaline levels to avoid to pass out before he could reach an outpatients’ clinic.

“Twilight…Sparkle!” He began to curse that name “Even if it will… take me years….I’ll have my revenge!”

He then started to stagger across the forest, trying to reach the nearest village to Hoofington.

HOOFINGTON GENERAL HOSPITAL - TWILIGHT AND TRIXIE’S ROOM
PRESENT DAY - 12:03 P.M.

“…and then, I immediately came closer to you. I found out you where still breathing, so, since I could still feel some sparks of magical energy left, I casted some healing spells on you and managed to stop the hemorrhage.” Twilight stopped, while Trixie, for all the time of the speech, had not uttered word.

“But how did you managed to bring me back to Hoofington?” She finally asked her “You were already at your limit when we escaped the warehouse.”

“Well, luckily, it seemed some acquaintances of mine from Ponyville just happened to attend the Carnival in town as well that morning, and passed by the surroundings.” Twilight continued “I guess my battle with that assassin just drew their attention. They helped me carrying you here to the hospital. And we were just in time, as you went through a cardiac arrest just as we arrived.”

“I see.” She softly replied.

“Well, actually I don’t.” She then started to complain “Why in the name of Celestia is my view dimmed?” She annoyingly asked, while pointing the right hoof to her face.

“Oh, the doctor needed to bandage your head due to that stallion’s hit. He suggested to avoid any direct light exposure.”

“Can you please remove it?” Trixie asked her “I can’t really stand one more minute of being blind.”

“Ehr…Sure, let me…just ask the nurse first.” Twilight replied, and called the nurse by pressing a button near the bed of the room where she was still sitting on.

After a couple of minutes, the nurse entered the room and was informed about Trixie’s request.

“I suppose we can remove the bends.” The nurse replied ”But she has spent the last two weeks sleeping. I think we should lower the lights in this room a little more first.”

She headed towards the windows and closed the curtains almost completely, before starting to loosen the bandages over Trixie’s head.

“Now dear, your face has undergone a rather significant damage, so don’t -” the nurse started to say, but that didn’t seem to be the right choice of words that she should have used.

“Why? What? What happened to Trixie’s face?” Trixie started to shout in panic “Twilight, give Trixie a mirror, quick!” She then said, one hoof touching her face, as she tried to fell the damages she had reported, the other stretched towards the direction Twilight’s voice was coming.

It was immediately clear to Twiligh that Trixie was in a real panic, as she regained to refer to herself with the third person.

“Oh, don’t worry, dear.” The nurse said, referring to Twilight “I’ll take it for her.”

After the bandages had been totally removed, the nurse landed Trixie a small oval mirror and, in the reflection, Trixie could clearly see why the nurse tried to tell her not to panic, and that was not only because of the mess her mane had become in those two weeks.

Although it appeared that all the wounds caused by Uma’s interrogation were completely healed, including the two big holes the stallion had pierced through her ears, a big, jagged scar was running towards her face at the height of her eyes, from one side to another. Strangely enough, it seemed that her eyesight was still normal.

Checking the rest of her body, she also noticed there was another scar, a few inches to the right from the center of her chest, where Uma stabbed her with his first strike. This scar, though, seemed abruptly familiar to her.

There was a bigger and darker scar that looked like a six-pointed star, with another lighter six-pointed star beyond the first one, which points erupted from the conjunction lines of the first one. Moreover, other five six-pointed stars-like scars were spread around the first two.

“Twilight?” Trixie started to ask with an afraid tone “Why does the scars on my chest looks like your cutie mark?”

“Really? They do?” Replied a surprised Twilight.

“Let me just se-“ she started to add, jumping out of the bed to approach Trixie, but she just dashed herself through the curtain that separated the two beds and crushed on the ground.

“Oh dear, are you alright?” Asked the nurse with great concern, rushing towards the lavender unicorn and helping her lifting up.

“Watch out were you walk, Twilight. What are you? Bli-” Trixie started to complain, but as Twilight’s head became clear above her bed, and without the bandages that blocked her visual, the words stuck in her mouth.

“For the love of Celestia, Twilight! What happened to you?” Trixie worriedly asked.

She could now clearly understand why Twilight had not been able to avoid that curtain, why the nurse proposed herself to give her the mirror and what were the meaning of those speeches they were exchanging during the first visit of the nurse in their room.

The bright purple irises of the unicorn had turned into a light, pale grey and her horn was lined by a wide, deep crack, which run it in all its length.

“Well…” Twilight replied with a sad smile on her face “It seems that I’m blind… and that I’ve lost 95% of my magical power.”

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7

Author's Note

PLEASE READ, IMPORTANT STUFF

First of all, let me assure you that the proof-readed version of this chapter is on its way... Since I said I was going to release the chapter before Christmas, I didn't want to break that promise (at least I'm safe from Pinkie's wrath XD).

Also, I was able to find an editor for the rest of the story. His name is TheFallen, and I would also like for you to check his latest entry here on FimFiction: Goodbye Hope....

Moreover, I would like to ask, all of you who're reading this story of mine: "What do you think of the story so far? What do you think I need to improve (aside from my English)? What parts where not clear enough? What are you liking/hating of the whole story?"
Please, leave a comment, because I believe that's the only way I will ever be able to improve myself.

Finally, due to the same reasons that slowed me down after the previous chapter, I want to let you know that Chapter 7 will not probably be released before the end of January.

Thanks for your time and see you all with chapter 7. ;)

Chapter 7: Desperate times call for... Friendship?

Written by Star-Killer89, Edited by TheFallen

HOOFINGTON GENERAL HOSPITAL - TWILIGHT AND TRIXIE’S ROOM
PRESENT DAY - JUNE 17 - 12:11 P.M.

“B-but…how did that happened?” Asked a still shocked Trixie.

Twilight sadly sighed in reply “I don’t know...”

This answer confused Trixie. This small statement wasn’t enough for her “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“What I meant is that I’m not sure.” Replied Twilight “Honestly, that was the first time I ever tried to perform a medication spell…I might have made a mistake somewhere in the process.”
She then suddenly smiled “But that’s not important.”

Trixie couldn’t believe what Twilight had just said “Not important? NOT IMPORTANT? You’ve lost your magic! Your own talent, the best thing you were good at. And you became blind too. How can this not be important?”

“The most important thing is that you’re still alive.” Nonchalantly replied Twilight

Trixie was speechless for the way Twilight was acting. She had saved her life, but she’d also lost two of her most precious senses, and yet she was still more worried for her conditions instead of herself.

She didn’t have the time to reply, though, as one of Celestia’s guard just knocked at their door.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but since miss Lulamoon is finally awake, I need to ask you both something. May I come in and have a talk with you? In Private?” He added, referring to the nurse.

“Oh right.” Replied Twilight “I almost forgot about that. Trixie, they may have found some traces of one of the two ponynappers, but they need your help to recognise him. Do you think you can do it now. You know, since you just woke up?”

Trixie, totally relieved that this sudden setback was giving her the opportunity to not thinking about Twilight’s situation, didn’t have to search her thoughts too much on the answer.

“Of course I can do it. I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie, after all.” She proclaimed, raising her free hoof in front of her “Come in.”

As the nurse left the room, the guard approached Trixie’s bed and showed her a photo of a smiling and younger Storm Loneshark “Is this one of the two ponies that kidnapped you?”

“Yes, it’s definitely him.” Replied Trixie, after taking a quick glance “I really hope you’ll get him soon and give him what he deserves.”

“Actually, we’ve already found him.” Replied the guard “And, believe me, he got even worst.”

Both mares were caught by surprise “What do you mean with that?” Quizzically asked Twilight.

“Well, thanks to your account, Ms. Sparkle, we were able to locate the abandoned warehouse where Ms. Lulamoon was held captive, and started our investigations there with the help of the Hoofington Police Department.”

“One of their detectives had found a huge stain of dried blood 30 hooves away from the entrance, and a trail of blood that led further into the forest.” He then stopped for a couple of seconds “We’d found his corpse a couple of miles away, half mauled, maybe by a pack of wolves.”

Both Trixie and Twilight brought the hooves to their mouth with a sigh of terror.

“Are you saying that he was killed by some wild beasts?” Asked a doubtful Trixie.

“No, we’ve excluded that possibility. The coroner’s autopsy showed that the beasts’ wounds have been dealt post-mortem. The cause of death seems to be connected to a deep cut at the level of the carotid. Also, the hide around the wound was burnt, like he was killed with some sort of magical weapon.”

“The other stallion! That unicorn!” Immediately replied Twilight “He was able to create various weapons made out of magical energy. It must have been him!”

“That’s the same conclusion we’ve reached.”

“What about him?” Asked Trixie “Have you find that unicorn too?”

“Well, near the stain we’d also found a trail of blood drops that headed towards a nearby village, nameeeed...” The guard took a moment to pull a notebook out from under his armor and to check the name “Here it is... Bedfoalshire, and some of the inhabitants confirmed that they had seen an unicorn corresponding to Ms. Sparkle’s identikit.”

“Unfortunately, that resulted into a dead end, as we’ve lost his traces there.” He added, as he put aside his notebook again.

Trixie was deeply worried abut this turn of events and moved her look over Twilight, fearing that the henchpony might have decided to conclude his job and killed her.

The guard seemed to read her mind, as he added “Don’t worry. Under the direct order of her highness Princess Celestia, a group of guards is patrolling this hospital and will protect you throughout your stay here. I have also been told to tell you that, if you’ll consider it appropriate, we will provide you an escort when you’ll return to your homes.”

The guard than took a deep breath “That’s all I had to say.”

“Thank you very much. Please, keep us informed on any news about that other ponynapper.” Twilight dismissed him.

“Of course. I wish you a good recovery.” He concluded, before bowing his head towards the two mares and leaving the room.

Almost immediately, Trixie sunk in the bed, letting out a snort of stress. A part of her still wanted to talk about Twilight’s conditions, but she didn’t have the courage to start the speech again, aware that she was the one to blame for what had happened to her.

“Isn’t there anything they can do to heal you? Giving you back at least your view?” She finally asked, after a couple of minutes had passed.

“It doesn’t seem so.” Replied a helpless Twilight “The doctors said they didn’t find a logical explanation for my blindness, and they also fear it will be permanent.”

“I can still use some spells though.” She then tried to cheer Trixie up “You know, I can still levitate lighter objects and perform basic telekinesis. Also, the doctors said that, with proper practice, in a couple of years I may be able to recover even 20% of my magical power.” She added in a cheerful tone.

Trixie was starting to admire the way Twilight was trying to see the glass half full, but the concrete was crashing. Basically, her magical abilities just returned to those of a filly unicorn, if not even worst.

She was still thinking to a solution, when the idea hit her suddenly “Of course! The Elements of Harmony! You could try to use them to change your conditions. I’ve read that they were able to change reality back to normal when Discord spread chaos over Equestria.”

She was really surprised to notice that Twilight’s expression didn’t change, as she said “We’ve thought about that too.”

“So what’s the problem? Why haven’t you used them already?”

Twilight took a couple of seconds to answer the question “The Elements turned into stone.”

“THEY WHAT?” replied a shocked Trixie.

“Yes, they turned into stone. It seems that, since I’ve lost my ability, the Elements lost their powers too.” She lowered her head and kept saying “After all, the first time we found them, they were already in a stone form, maybe because the Princess had lost the right to wield them when she banished her sister to the moon.”

“Princess Celestia always told me that the Elements of Harmony were some strange and complex artifacts, that worked only when all the six of them were combined under the spark of friendship.”

“Maybe that’s why they didn’t work the first time we tried to use them against Discord, because I tried to replace Rainbow Dash with somepony who was not the representation of Loyalty.”

“Also, since it seems that it is Magic that keeps all the other Elements together, without it even the other Elements became useless. At the most, they could be used as paper holders as they are now.”

Trixie saw their last hope evaporate into thin air. She tried to consider other solutions, but she couldn’t come up with any other ideas.

Luckily for her, another distraction came to her aid, this time in the form of another nurse, who entered the room pushing a wheel chair “Miss Sparkle, it is time for your physical therapy.”

“Yes, thank you.” Twilight replied, as she sat with the hind legs hanging down on the bed, waiting for the nurse to approach the wheel chair to sit on “Sorry Trixie, but Doctor Joint is very strict about punctuality.”

As the nurse started to push her, she turned her neck back “We’ll continue the talk later.” She said, before exiting the room.

The time to continue that conversation though never came, as Trixie, feeling the guilt of what her actions caused to Twilight, decided to pretend to have felt asleep once she had returned from her therapy.

HOOFINGTON - OUTSIDE HOOFINGTON GENERAL HOSPITAL
6 DAYS BEFORE - JUNE 11 - 8:34 P.M.

It was the seventh day in a row that Princess Luna had spent visiting Twilight and gaining knowledge about her conditions. As the automatic doors opened, she felt the cool night air brush across her coat, which matched the color of the sky.

After she gave one last look back at the building, she lowered her head, eyes closed and face contracted in a deep expression of sorrow ‘How could that happen to her?’

“Weren’t you supposed to raise the moon like half a hour ago?” A voice interrupted her thoughts.

“TIA!” Luna replied, took by surprise by the sudden appearance of her sister “We…well, thou see …”

Princess Celestia smiled in response “Don’t worry, I do understand there are other important concerns to you right now that required your attention, so, I covered it up for you this time.”

“That was really kind of thee, and we thank thou.” Said Luna “But that doesn’t mean we should neglect our duties towards our subjects. We promise that we will never let that happen again!” She then proclaimed, raising her right hoof to the sky, with a serious expression on her face.

“Well, since we’re both here and without anything to do, why don’t we have a talk?” Proposed Celestia, pointing at a bench nearby “I need to ask you something.”

“Sure, sister.” replied Luna and both the princesses headed towards the vast garden that surrounded the hospital.

“So...” Celestia started to ask “...how are the conditions of the girls lately?”

“We are afraid they are not so good.” Replied Luna “The doctor said that azure unicorn is still comatose, but it seems she finally stabilized. As for Twilight…”

Luna had to stop for a couple of seconds, trying to recollect the exact same words the doctor used “He said that her optic nerves are fine, and all her primary visual… nuclei of the brain are intact. Still, it seems she really is blind, and they still could not determine the source of this phenomenon.”

A cold feeling started to fill Luna’s heart again “What`s worst, is that it seems she will indeed lose most of her magical power.” She added.

“How bad is that?” Celestia worriedly asked.

“The doctor is not sure about that either. He said it could be 70%, maybe 80%. Maybe even higher, if not completely. They still need to conduct a couple more tests.”

At this point, Luna had to stop, since tears started to flow towards her face “Oh, sister! Why did something so bad have to happen to her?” She screamed, while grabbing her sister’s neck, burying her face into her shoulder.

Celestia tried to comfort her sister as best as she could, wrapping a hoof around Luna`s back, while even on her face started to flow down a pair of tears “We must be strong, Luna! The days that are to come will be even harder, but we must not waver. For her!”

~ ~ ~

That day, though, Luna was not the only visitor Twilight received. As a matter of fact, all her friends had decided to spend, in rotation, at least a couple of days with her, trying to provide a moral support; and so, that day it was the turn of Rainbow Dash, which had lingered a little after the scheduled visits time, and was only now exiting Twilight and Trixie’s room.

‘I still can’t believe what those doctors are saying about Twilight’s conditions.’ She was thinking “And all to save the life of that useless mare!” She added with anger in a whisper, as she left.

As she was heading to the stairs that would have lead her to the lobby, her eyes fell on the hospital courtyard, visible from one of the many windows in the corridor she was crossing.
In the distance, the whiteness of the mantle of Princess Celestia shone under the rays of the half-moon, making her clearly visible to the young pegasus.

‘Isn’t that Princess Celestia? Why didn’t she come to visit Twilight with her sister?’

Getting closer to the window, she could see that both Princesses were sitting on one of the many benches that adorned the garden, and seemed like they were calmly discussing about something.
That was until Luna started to hug her sister, and both the alicorns stood there for a dozen of seconds, a veil of sadness on both their faces, visible even from the distance at which Rainbow Dash was.

‘They're definitely talking about Twilight.’ She thought, with a slight sad tone.

Rainbow Dash then started to concentrate the look on their mouths, trying to decipher what they were saying, but after thirty seconds she had spent with her eyes reduced to the size of two cracks, she snorted loudly “Damn, I thought lip-reading was way easier!”

Suddenly, she saw a change of expression in Luna’s face, followed by her screaming.

“ ’TIS A LIE!” she could feebly hear her shouting to her sister, her voice crossing all the distance that separated them and getting through the windows “THAT COULD NOT BE POSSIBLE!”

Rainbow Dash jumped from that rapid change in the tone of Luna “What the…how powerful is that Royal Canterlot Tone of hers?”

“CALM DOWN? HOW COULD WE?” Luna kept shouting, but after that it seemed like she was able to regain part of her composure, as Rainbow could no more hear what they were saying, even though she noticed that Luna had started to cry again.

She kept watching the two alicorns for a couple more minutes ‘What the hay is happening? What do they know that we do not?’

~ ~ ~

Luna remained hesitant for a couple of seconds, but when she raised her head, nothing but determination could be seen in her eyes “What do thou want us to do?”

HOOFINGTON - HOOFINGTON GENERAL HOSPITAL
JUNE 29 - 10:48 A.M.

It was finally the day for Trixie and Twilight to leave the hospital.

During the previous days, Twilight received many visits, both from her friends and relatives, and, in more than one occasion, even from the princesses themselves.

Although the first ones seemed to still bear a grudge against Trixie, especially because some of them blamed her for what had happened to their friend, Twilight’s parents seemed to be much more understanding, as they cared about her state too, and one day Fluttershy even brought her a get well soon card, which read:

‘We hope for you to get well soon, oh Great and Powerful Trixie!
Snips and Snails’

Trixie spent those days almost entirely in bed, as the doctors wanted to make sure she wouldn’t have to face a relapse, while Twilight had to handle long hours of rehabilitation. They also both had to join in some therapy sessions with a psychologist, which, as for Twilight, were focused on letting her face her new handicaps in the most positive way, while, as for Trixie, had the purpose to let her get over with her ponynapping experience.

And now they were there, one next to each other, a couple of hooves away from the exit.

“So, shall we go?” Asked Twilight, as she was levitating a white cane in front of her right foreleg, and she started to cautiously head towards the doors.

“Y-yeah!” Replied a hesitant Trixie, before following her outside the hospital.

“TWILIGHT!” Spike yelled towards her friend, just a few moments before he started to rush towards her and jumped in her direction, holding her between his arms.

“Oh Spike, there was no need for you to come here to pick me up all alone.”

“Who said he was alone, sugarcube?” Replied Applejack and, in a flash, Twilight was able to hear all her friends and relatives gathering around her.

Trixie, in the meantime, decided to remain aloof, feeling like she didn’t want to take part in that touching reunion and, at the same time, she couldn’t avoid to sense how much she felt alone.

As she was starting to think about the possibility to silently leave everypony, she heard a feeble barking coming towards her, and she finally noticed the figure of her little pet approaching.

“Blacky!” She cheerfully said, as her dog was happily jumping in front of her, trying to reach her cheeks to lap them.

“Uhm, I hope you don’t mind if I’ve brought him here.” Shyly said Fluttershy, as she was approaching her “I-I mean, he was really sad during these days he has spent away from you and…well…I thought it would might have cheered him up to see you as soon as possible.”

Trixie couldn’t even tell the pegasus how much joy she’d brought in her heart too “Yes, you did good bringing him to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Thank you very much, miss Flittercry!”

“Ehm…actually, my name is…Fluttershy.” she replied in a murmur.

“Come again?”
“Ehm…nothing, nevermind.”

“Anyway, Trixie wanted to talk to you about her cart.” Trixie continued, resuming her overbearing tone “Twilight told Trixie you’ve brought it near your house.”

“Oh yes. Since I was going to look after your pet, we decided it would be better for him to have a well-known place in hoofy, so we brought it near my cottage.”

She then paused for a second and added in a worried tone “Ehm…Unfortunately, I’m sorry to tell you, but it seems that most of your belongings were shattered into pieces.” She then gasped “N-not that I wanted to snoop around in your cart…I-It’s just that one day I couldn’t find Blacky anywhere and I thought…well…that maybe he was inside your cart, so I…kinda ventured inside and saw all the mess.”

She gasped again “N-not that I believe that’s how you normally live…although maybe that may be true…b-but I know it was that evil unicorn that…”

‘Sweet Celestia, how much of a scared cat is this pegasus?’ Trixie thought, as she was starting to get bored of Fluttershy’s chitchats.

“Listen.” She finally decided to interrupt Fluttershy, which, in response, let out a high pitched Eeep “The Great and Powerful Trixie thanks you for taking care of her pet and her house, but Trixie needs you to show her where do you live and where she can find a company that may help her to move the cart outside your village.”

“Oh, you mean you’re going to leave Ponyville right away?” Asked in reply a bit disappointed Twilight, who was now approaching her with the help of her friends.

“Yes I-…Trixie doesn’t want to cause you any more trouble.”

“Tsk, a little too late for that!” Replied an acid Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded her, before resuming her speech “Are you sure you don’t want to stay a little longer?”

“We would suggest thee to accept Twilight’s offer.” Said a nearby voice.

Princess Luna, escorted by two of her night guards, was approaching the group, with a big smile on her face “We are glad to finally see the both of thee out of the hospital.”

“We’re honored by your visit, princess.” Said Twilight, as her and all of the presents bowed towards her.

“Please, everypony, there’s no need for such pleasantries.” Replied Luna “Also, we’re sorry that our sister could not be here too today, but she had to greet some Griffons diplomats back in Canterlot.”

“We understand princess...” Replied Twilight “...but what did you mean just a moment ago?”

“Well, thou see, my sister and us had spent the last few days thinking of a way to restore your conditions, but the only solution we could find was trying to use the Elements of Magic.”

“Wait a second, I thought the Elements had become more useless than Trix-” Rainbow was starting to reply, when she was suddenly kicked in the flank by Applejack “Ouch! I mean, didn’t they turn into stone?”

“Yes, as they are now, we cannot use them, and that’s also why we suggested miss Lulamoon to accept Twilight’s offer and stay in Ponyville for a while.”

“Pardon me, Princess, but we cannot understand how…her staying in Ponyville may help Twilight with her problem.” Said Rarity, emphasizing her resentment against that idea.

“Thou see, for the Elements to work we need to restore the Element of Magic, but is also true the opposite. We cannot restore the Elements, and consequently Twilight’s conditions, without someone who can represent the Element of Magic. And that’s where miss Lulamoon comes into the picture.”

“You mean…” Started to say Twilight.

“Precisely!” Replied Luna “After a long reasoning, we thought that miss Lulamoon may be a valid temporary replacement for the Element of Magic.”

“WHAT?!” Shouted most of the presents in reply to that statement, Trixie included.

“But, princess, I thought the Elements could only work if they are ignited by the spark of friendship.” Replied Twilight.

“Yeah, and that presumptuous mare is surely not one of our friends!” Added Rainbow Dash, flying a few inches in front of Luna and pointing her hoof towards Trixie.

“That’s why we suggested for her to stay in Ponyville. That will give all of you the time to put aside your resentments and, maybe, just maybe, even form a bond of friendship with her.” Calmly replied Luna.

“B-b-b-but even if her special talent is magic, Trixie surely does not have the same magical power that Twilight possessed.” Said Rarity “I-I hardly believe she would be fit to replace Twilight as the Element of Magic.”

“That’s also why we’ve decided that, starting from today, we will take miss Lulamoon under our wing and make her our personal protégé, so that we will instruct her and increase her magical abilities. Of course, if that is fine with thou, Trixie Lulamoon.”

Trixie was totally speechless. Not only she was finally given the chance to improve her magic skills, by Princess Luna herself nonetheless, but she was also given the opportunity to make up for having ruined Twilight’s life. Furthermore, that was also the chance to make amend for the way she acted towards Twilight’s friends during their first encounter.

“Trixie accepts. But only if that’s also okay for Twilight’s friends.” Firmly replied Trixie.

The girls were caught by surprise, but Applejack almost immediately said “Can ya’ll give us just a minute please?” as she and the other mares moved aside and gathered in a circle.

“What do ya’ll think about that?”

“Are you crazy? That mare is an arrogant foal. Cloudsdale will crush to the ground before she’ll become my friend!” Stated Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t you think you’re a little too harsh towards her?” Asked Fluttershy “She wants to help Twilight out.”

“Or, maybe, she just wants to take advantage of the situation to become Luna’s protégé.” Replied Rarity “Personally, I agree with Rainbow Dash. I don’t trust that mare.”

“Yeah, I don’t trust her either.”

“Spike, what the heck are ya doing here?” Asked Applejack, as most of the other mares turned their heads towards him, just now noticing the presence of the little dragon, who, speaking the truth, was there from the beginning.

“Hey, I thought I had the right to tell my opinion too.” Replied an irritated Spike.

“Girls, I think we should give her a chance.“ Added Pinkie “I mean, no one should spend their life alone, without friends... and I believe Flutters is right. Maybe she really wants to help Twilight.”

“Well, it’s 2 versus 2. It’s up to you AJ.” Stated Spike “What do you think?”

“Ah’m not sure, Spike. Sure, Ah don’t like her either, but Ah would never forgive mah`self if we just let the chance ta help Twilight flow between our hooves just because we don’t like her.”

AJ then stopped for a moment, pondering about her decision.

~ ~ ~

Meanwhile, Trixie was still incredulous about that sudden turn of events, but her excitement quickly turned into doubt, as she approached the princess, saying “Uhm, I’m sorry, your highness, but could Trixie ask you a question?”

“What troubles you, miss Lulamoon?” Quietly asked back Luna.

“It’s about what that white unicorn, Clarity-“

“Rarity.” Twilight corrected her.

“-Rarity, said.” Trixie continued “Trixie believes that she might be right. Trixie is not really sure that she will be able to keep up with the task.”

She then lowered her head in self-pity “Let’s face the truth. Trixie isn’t really that Great and Powerful as she says she is. The best she can do is perform some poor magic tricks.”

“Oh, Trixie…” Twilight whispered in a compassionate way.

When she raised her head once again, though, her eyes were full of hope and determination “Do you really think Trixie will be able to improve herself? Is it even possible to do that?”

“But of course thou will be!” Luna firmly said “Thou see, enhancing your magical potential is not too different to what earth ponies do to increase their strength, or pegasi their flight endurance. With the right training and a proper teacher, your magic abilities will make dragons strides.”

A little smirk appeared on Luna’s face “And, believe us, we`re sever in our teachings and our lessons are tremendously arduo-...challenging.” Luna reworded her sentence, before putting a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile “There’s no way thou are going to fail us.”

Trixie rubbed her hoof on the eyes, wiping off the tears that were starting to form, and smiled back at the alicorn “Thank you very much, princess. Trixie will do her best to not disappoint you. That is, as long as Twilight’s friends will be willing to give Trixie a second chance.”

~ ~ ~

AJ sighed deeply, and finally said “Ah think we should let her stay in Ponyville.”

“Ugh, fine. She can stay.” Reluctantly said Rainbow Dash.

“Well, It seems like I’m the only one who still thinks this is a bad idea.” Added Rarity “But I guess I can try to bear her. For Twilight’s sake.”

They then returned near the others and AJ said “A'right, she can stay and we’ll try out best ta put our quarrels apart.”

“Splendid!” Replied Luna, clapping her hooves a couple of times “Now, we will also want to regularly check on Twilight’s conditions, so we believe it will be better for the two of thee to live closer to each other.”

“I have a spared bed for the guests in the library.” Proposed Twilight.

“No Twilight, thank you. Trixie doesn’t want to be any more of a hindrance to you. The bed in Trxie’s cart will be good enough, once Trixie will have replaced it with a new one… and the furniture too.”

“Well, at least I hope you will move your cart next to the library for the first periods.”

Trixie pondered the possibility for a couple of seconds “Yes, Trixie thinks she can do that.”

“Whatever thou need, do not hesitate to ask my sister and I.” Replied Luna before she started to head back to her carriage “Our presence is required elsewhere, but we will see thou tomorrow afternoon for the first lesson, miss Lulamoon.”

“O-of course. Thank you very much, princess.” Said Trixie as she, as the others, bowed before the princess one last time.

“At the end, you couldn’t tell them your concerns, your highness.” Said one of the night guards on the way back to Canterlot.

“They do not need to know them right now.” Replied Luna with a serious tone “At the proper time and with the proper conditions, we will tell them our suspects. For now, let’s just see how things will evolve.”

END OF STORY ARC 1
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 8

Author's Note

Once again, thanks to TheFallen for the editing of this chapter.

So, now, what does that "END OF STORY ARC 1" mean?
Basically, it means that, starting from the next chapter, the genre of the story will undergo some minor changes. There will still be Sad and Tragic moments (as if there hadn't been enough of those so far XD), but the story in general will be more oriented towards the Slice of Life moments. Also, I would like to experiment another couple of genres as the story will progress (you know, just to see if I'm able to write stories that are not so depressing), so, I hope you will tolerate these decisions of mine 'till the end.
Finally, more characters will be introduced as co-protagonists of the whole story (and I believe you can easily guess who will be one of them XD).

As always, comments about this chapter and the whole story in general are really much appreciated. :)

See you all (with a little bit of luck) next month in Chapter 8.

Chapter 8: A New Beginning

Written by Star-Killer89; Edited by TheFallen
Special thanks toDekomaru

CaNtErLoT - PhOeNiX ThEaTeR
JuLy 19 - 09:04 p.M.

The Phoenix Theater is one of the oldest buildings of all Canterlot. Almost as old as the Royal Palace itself.

Built over a thousand years ago to honor the victory of the two royal Princesses against the Spirit of Chaos, Discord, the Theater was named after the mythical fire bird to symbolize the will possessed by the ponies of those days, to raise the capital and all Equestria from the ashes left by the empire of the old tyrant.

The theater seems to reflect very well it’s name, since, in all the years in which it was open to the public, it underwent at least 18 fires, whether accidental or not, many of whom have also threatened to definitely bring it down to the ground.

However, just like the mythical bird, it has always risen, reaching to present days almost completely unchanged from its original design, albeit being constantly updated and renewed almost every 25 years.

Composed almost entirely in hardwood and Coltara marble, painted in gold and fire red, the theater can accommodate almost a thousand spectators, redistributed in three tiers with 100 seats each, a gallery with 120 seats, a balcony with 170 seats, a box for the Royal Family which can hold up to 50 ponies and two alicorns and a main hall for 350 spectators, in addition to the space to accomodate over 80 ponies of the orchestra, all in a perfect oval shape suitable to amplify even the slightest note.

On this day, the theater was filled to the last place and the crowd was in a total ecstasy.

This was the greatest show Trixie had put on since... well, since she started to be a magician.

She was standing on the stage, front hooves wide open and a big smile pictured on her face, as she was receiving all the admiration and attention of the public.

This was it. This was the respect and fame she was going after for all those years, and she was loving every single second of it.

‘This is for you dad.’ She thought with great pride ‘I finally became the greatest of all!’

“Thank you, thank you everypony.” She said, inviting the crowd to compose once again “And now, for the next magic number, Trixie will need the help of one of you, ponies from the public.”

Immediately, all the ponies present raised their hooves towards the sky, loudly asking to be chosen.

Trixie took a couple of seconds watching at them all and after a quick pondering, pointed at a young unicorn filly, with a light blue coat, greyish mane and pink eyes, standing in the front row “You! Trixie believes you’ll be perfect for this.”

The filly was in a jubilee, happily jumping on her spot as her parents started to push her towards the stairs that lead to the stage, while Trixie used her magic and a couple of smoke bombs to make a transparent pipe appear on the stage.

“Now, my young admirer, what is your name?” Asked Trixie.

“Bloo.” Replied the filly with a high pitch tone.

“Very well, Bloo. Now, what Trixie wants you to do is enter this tube and stand as still as you can. Can you do that for Trixie?”

“Of course, oh Great and Powerful Trixie!” The young unicorn replied in a joy before rushing towards the tube.

“So young and yet so smart, isn’t Trixie right?” Asked the show-mare to the public, sending all the ponies bursting into laughter.

“Now...” Trixie continued, gaining her seriousness back while levitating with her magic a violet drape, so as to completely surround the pipe, hiding it to the crowd’s gaze “...watch in awe, as the Great and Powerfull Trixie will make this little filly….disappear!”

As the drape was free from Trixie’s spell, it lifelessly dropped on the ground, revealing the pipe to be empty, just as Bloo never entered it.

An astonishment sound echoed throughout the crowd, immediately followed by their cheers and several rounds of applause.

“Thank you, thank you everypony.” Said Trixie after bowing a couple of times “It is better now for Trixie to bring the little Bloo back as well. After all, Trixie wouldn’t like for her parents to chase after her for the rest of her life.”

A chorus of laughter boomed again, as Trixie was using her magic once again to let the drape cover the pipe.

“Salute the public, little Bl-” Started to say Trixie, while dropping the drape, but the phrase was abruptly cut in her mouth.

Inside the pipe was not the young filly named Bloo. Instead, a full grown mare, a brilliant jungle green unicorn with a mint mane, held by a black band, was inside it. Beyond her red glasses were pistachio eyes as cold as ice, and the smile on her face overflowed with malice.

“Well well well. If it isn’t the Weak and Useless Trixie.” The mare adjudged towards the show-mare.

“M-Mother?” Replied Trixie, in a state of shock and terror.

“My my. I heard you were having a hard time, but I was not expecting for you to have sunk so low.” Said Trixie’s mother, while coming out of the pipe and approaching her daughter. “Entertaining a crowd of noponies with magic tricks of such a low level, aren’t we?”

As Trixie tried to drift away, averting her gaze from her mother, she noticed that the crowd and the surroundings were disappeared, as now a dark void was endlessly surrounding the stage.

“I mean, what would that poor and meaningless stallion of your father think about you?” Her mother added.

As Trixie was trying to find the courage to reply to that accusation, the dark figure of a grown stallion started to materialize on her left side.

“F-Father?” Trixe asked in fear, as the shadow started to assemble in the figure of a brilliant azure earth pony.

His face was pale, tail and mane reduced to a mere tuft of white mangy hair, eyes sunken and mouth half torn apart, as the rest of his body showed the clear evidence of advanced decay, with rips of flesh hanging all over him.

He rose a skeleton hoof toward Trixie, and with a cadaveric voice sentenced “You killed me!”

Tears started to flow through Trixie’s eyes “N-No! I-I didn’t want to! I d-didn’t mean to…”

Trixie’s mother burst into an insane laughter, that echoed through Trixie’s ears like the banging of a hammer on a table “HA HA HA! Oh Trixie. Can’t you see that you are only capable of ruining the lives of those who surround you?”

As those words were uttered, another dark figure started to materialize next to Trixie. This time, it was one of a lavender unicorn, with her horn torn apart, a giant nerve hanging from the break point, with sparks of magical power flowing through it, while her face showed the empty cavities that once used to be occupied by a pair of violet eyes.

“You did this to me! It’s all your fault!” Accused her Twilight.

“N-Nooo…. I-I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry!” Cried Trixie out, now curled into a ball, her front hooves in her mane as she was heavily shaking in fear.

*HA HA HA*

Her mother’s laughter echoed into her mind, becoming more and more deafening with the passing of time, until another voice, deeper and more dreadful, whispered into her ear.

‘Give up already!’

*BAM BAM BAM*

“HELLOOOO!”

~ ~ ~

PONYVILLE - TRIXIE’S CART
JULY 19 - 09:12 A.M.

*BAM BAM BAM*

“HELLOOOOOO? IT’S THE MAILMARE! IS ANYPONY HOME?”

Trixie suddenly woke up, gasping in the air.

She was sitting in her bed, dripping with sweat, eyes wide opened and short of breath. She took a moment to look around herself, as she then dropped her head back on the pillow with a sigh of relief.

‘It was just another nightmare.’ She reassured herself.

Last days were not easy for Trixie. After she and Twilight came back from Hoofington’s Hospital, most of her mornings have been spent sleepless, as her dreams frequently turned into nightmares.

She was also starting to reconsider the choice she made to become Princess Luna’s protégé. Due to the princess’ nocturne duties, they were forced to set their lessons throughout the evening and all of the night, with the time occurred to Luna to rise the moon as the only break given.

Luna’s classes ranged from astronomy to history (which seemed to be the one subject that, that night, had left a deeper impression on her, judging by how detailed was the Theatre of her dream), from math to practical use of magic, to self defence. All of them performed every single day, one after another, until Luna had to lower the moon, marking the end of the lesson.

Trixie didn’t have time to relax even in the morning, as, on Luna’s suggestion, she also had to hang around with Twilight’s friends, which, on the other hoof, always seemed to be too busy to spend their time trying to form a bond with her.

Trixie believed that most of them were still blaming her for what had happened to their friend, while she was sure that a couple of them had just developed a hatred for her so deep that they were not even trying anymore to bring the Elements back.

*BAM BAM BAM*

“HELLOOOOOOO?” The mailmare kept banging on the door.

“Just a minute!” Yelled a sleepy Trixie, as she dragged herself out of the bed and opened the door.

“Oh, good morning Trixie!” Said Derpy with her usual happy tone, smiling towards the unicorn while her eyes were wandering around, one regardless of the other.

“Good morning miss Doo.” Yawned Trixie back. In these few days she had spent in Ponyville, Trixie was almost immediately able to take a like for this odd mare: Ditzy Doo, or, like most of the inhabitants of the town used to call her, ‘Derpy’.

So clumsy and yet so radiant in her way of being “What do you have for Trixie?”

“Uh, the latest number of ‘Ponies’ has arrived, together with ‘Equestrian Monde’ and today’s ‘The Foal Free Press’.”

Trixie didn’t even know why she was still buying that last newspaper, although the fear that another menace, as dreadful as that Gabby Gums, could have revealed another one of her secrets was more than enough to let her keep an eye on that paper.

“Thank you.” Replied Trixie, while levitating 10 bits into Derpy’s saddlebag “Are you going to Twilight’s house today as well?” She then asked.

“Yep. She’s my last stop for today.” Replied Derpy “You wonna come with me?”

“Sure” Replied Trixie, just like every other morning Derpy have asked her that same question “Just give Trixie a couple of minutes to fix her mane.”

Once Trixie had closed the door to her cart, the two mares had to take just about ten hooves before finding themselves in front of the library that also served as Twilight’s residence, as Trixie’s cart was practically standing near the library’s sign.

They knocked at the door a couple of times before the figure of a little green and purple dragon would appear before their eyes.

“Oh, hey Derpy!” Spike greeted the mailmare “Trixie.” He then added, with a slightly less joyful tone.

“Hey Spike, there’s a package you need to sign for.” Said Derpy, her tone slightly muffled by the delivery list she held in her mouth.

“Is Twilight up already?” Asked Trixie.

“Yes, she’s in the kitchen” Replied Spike while inviting the two mares inside “Feel yourselves at home.”

Trixie went up ahead while Derpy was waiting for Spike to take ink and quill to sign for the package. Crossing the ground floor of the library, Trixie noticed Owlowiscious sleeping on his perch near the window, while Peewee, Spike’s baby phoenix, was happily moving back and forward on the swing inside his cage. Finally, she could hear Blacky barking in the next room, as he was probably begging Twilight for a treat.

‘A phoenix, an owl, a dragon and now a dog. This doesn’t seem like a library at all.’ Thought ironically Trixie ‘More like a pretty weird zoo, if you ask me.’

As she entered the kitchen, she was able to see Twilight standing near the pantry, as she was trying to decipher the content of a jar by smelling it, while Blacky was sit next to her, frantically wagging his tail left and right.

“Good morning Twilight.”

“Oh, good morning to you Trixie.” Cheerfully greeted Twilight, turning her head in the direction of the voice “Did you sleep well?”

“Not really, I had another nightmare.” Wearily replied Trixie “Maybe I should ask Princess Luna to go a little easier with her lessons. I’m starting to think that I’m too exhausted to have sweet dreams.”

Twilight jiggled in reply “Yes, or maybe you’re still afraid about this whole situation. When I became Celestia’s protégé, I couldn’t sleep properly for weeks, fearing I could not measure up her expectations.”

“Perhaps you’re right.” Said Trixie as she reached the other uicorn “Anyway, what are you baking?”

“Oh, Spike and I were trying to make some banana muffins." She started to explain "It’s Wednesday, so Derpy should arrive at any minute now.”

“She’s already here. We came togheter.” The show-mare replied, as she glanced at the jar held between the hooves by Twilight “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Do you always put coarse salt in your muffins?” She quizzically asked.

“What?” Twilight replied with surprise, as she put a hoof inside the jar and tasted its content, making a disgusted face when she attested that was not sugar.

“Ugh, I told Spike a hundred of times to not change the order of the objects in the kitchen.” She started to complain “How am I still supposed to recognise the spices if he keeps moving them around?”

She then regained a calm tone and asked “Why won’t you lend me a hoof, what do you say?”

“Yes, with pleasure. Just tell me what you need.” Replied Trixie, as she used her magic to put away the salt and took the sugar instead.

“Well, first of all, we nee-“ Twilight started to instruct her, but was abruptly interrupted by Derpy, who had just entered the kitchen together with Spike.

“GOOD MORNING TWILIIIIGHT!” She started to scream “HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAAAY?”

“Ugh, for the twelfht time, Derpy, she’s blind, not deaf!” An annoyed Spike scolded her.

“Whoops, my bad.” Midly replied Derpy “Anyway, what are you cooking?”

“We were trying to bake some muffins. Banana muffi-“ Started to say Trixie

Derpy gasped in delight “Ooooooh, I love muffins. Can I help you? CanIcanIcanI?” She frantically started to ask.

Both Twilight and Trixie started to laugh in delight “Sure, why not.” Replied Trixie.

~ ~ ~

“So, tell me, how are things going with that friend of yours? Time Turner, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked Derpy, their plates already emptied, as Trixie was now serving them all some coffee.

“Oooooh, the Doctor is the best!” Replied a joyful Derpy, as her cheeks started to turn red “Yesterday, he brought me and my little muffin on a picnic near the Neighagra Falls. It was sooo romantic.” She said, her look lost in the distance, as a smug smile started to form on her face.

“The Neighagra Falls? You must have left pretty early in the night to be there for lunch.” Replied a surprised Twilight.

“Oh, that’s quite easy with the T.Aaaaaa…..” Started to say Derpy, but stopped in mid-sentence “...aaa-I mean, y-yeah.” She then continued, while heavily sweating “W-We actually left a little past midnight, but, you know…I can’t say no to Hoowsy, heh heh.” Her mouth twisted in a fake smile as her eyes tried to unnecessarily divert Twilight’s gaze.

“Well, the important thing is that you’ve spent a pleasant day together.” Added Twilight with a big smile on her face.

She then winced, as she just remembered something important “Uh, right. Trixie, Fluttershy passed by earlier and asked me if you could go to her cottage before midday.”

“What for?” She curiously asked.

“I don’t know, she didn’t told me.”

“Oh, ok.” Replied Trixie a little surprised “Will you come along?”

“Oh, I would like to, but I have to do a couple of commissions in town later.”

“Are you sure you don’t need a hoof with those?” Asked a concerned Trixie.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Replied Twilight with a smile “Spike will come with me.”

“Ok.” said Trixie, as she used her magic to levitate the plates and the cups they had just used into the sink “I should better be on my way then. See you later Twilight. Till next, miss Doo.” She greeted the two mares as she left the kitchen.

“Byeeee!” replied both mares, waving her hooves towards her until they heard the slamming of the front door “Do you think she suspects something?” Asked Derpy after a dozen of seconds.

“I don’t think so.” Replied Twilight, as she cautiously jumped off the chair. She then drew up her white cane and started to head to the back door “Come on, let’s go! We have a long day ahead of us.”

PONYVILLE - FLUTTERSHY’S COTTAGE
11:45 A.M

“Oh, thank you so much for coming here with so short notice.” Fluttershy greeted Trixie “I didn’t know who I could ask this favour.”

“So, what can Trixie do to help you, miss Stutterdry.” Asked Trixie.

“Uhm…It’s…Fluttershy.” Coyly whispered Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry, Trixie couldn’t understand what you just said, what was that?”

“Oh...uhm…it’s nothing.” Replied Fluttershy “Anyway, I called you here because I really, really need somepony to look after the animals I’m taking care of. You see, I’ve a very, very important…uhm… commission I have to perform in Cloudsdale that will probably take me up until sundown.”

‘Another pony that has a commission to do? What’s up with everypony today?’ Annoyingly wondered Trixie.

“So, as you see, I would really need somepony to take care of them while I’m away… I mean, if you want to.” Concluded Fluttershy, her front hoof twirling a few inches from the ground and her look focused on the terrain.

“And your first thought was that Trixie could do that for you?” Oddly asked Trixie “What about your other friends?”

“Oh, the girls had already….other plans.”

“So, Trixie was your last resort, is it?” Stung Trixie “Well, don’t worry Butterfry-“

“Uhm….it’s Fluttershy.” Fluttershy tried to correct her again with a very low tone.

“-Trixie, in a fit of generosity, will give you a hoof.”

“Really? Oh, thank you so, so much!” Replied Flutteshy with a soft smile.

“So, what does Trixie has to do?”

“Oh, that’s simple actually, you just need to feed them in a couple of hours and keep an eye on them… You know, just make sure they won’t start to fight each other or stray too far away.”

Fluttershy then stopped for a second, a big concern stamped in her eyes, as she moved her look towards an old toolshed.

“Oh, and one last thing,” She then added, with a serious expression on her face “If you could, please, avoid to go into my shed.”

“Why so?” Curiously asked Trixie.

“Oh, you see...” Said Fluttershy, regaining her charming tone “It’s just that it’s a real mess in there, and some implements are really sharp, so I don’t want something to drop on you.”

“Ooooo…kay?” Replied a not fully convinced Trixie.

“Good. Well, I’d better go now.” The pegasus said, turning her back to Trixie “I’ve left the fodder for all the animals inside my cottage.”

She took a couple of steps away from Trixie, lowered her head towards one of her critters and seemed to whisper something to it, before she spread her wings and took off the ground “And remember: stay out of my shed, ok?” She added, turning one last time towards Trixie.

“Don’t worry, Trixie won’t even look at it if that can reassure you.” Promised Trixie.

FLUTTERSHY’S COTTAGE
6 HOURS LATER - 06:25 P.M.

“This has not been ‘simple’ at all!” Moaned Trixie.

Taking care of dozens of little creatures revealed to be harder than Trixie thought, as she had to trot all day around Fluttershy’s yard, chasing after chipmunks, rodents, birds and dozens of other little critters. And she wasn’t even able to peek into the shed once, as Fluttershy’s personal pet Angel mounted guard in front of the door all day.

She even tried to bribe him with a tuft of carrots, but the mild little creature just slapped them into her face and intimated her to regain her duties.

“How can Clutterguy do this everyday?” She asked out loud in frustration.

“That’s because Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness. She’d be able to tame even a hydra if she would ever want to.”

“Spike!” Exclaimed a surprised Trixie “What are you doing here?”

“I came to inform you that you can come back to the library.” Said the baby dragon “It seems Luna decided to bring forward today’s lesson.”

“Great, seems like Trixie will not be able to relax for five minutes straight today.” Replied an exhausted Trixie “What about Sputtereye’s pets?

“Don’t worry about them, Fluttershy will be back soon.” Replied Spike, putting even more emphasis on the correct name of her friend than before “She was able to complete her commitment earlier and stopped by the library for a little chat with Twilight.”

‘Wonderful, she can linger in chatters while Trixie is breaking her spine all day.’ Thought an over irritated Trixie. “Very well, let’s go.”

As both Spike and Trixie left Fluttershy’s cottage and went beyond the horizon, a yellow and pink figure came out of the bushes beyond the shed and approached the door.

“Did she peek inside?” Asked a worried Fluttershy to the little rabbit, who responded with an energetic shake of his head.

“Good boy Angel. Tomorrow, I’ll make you the biggest citrus salad with the largest cherry I’ll find.” She promised the rabbit, while opening the shed’s door and going inside “After all, we couldn’t allow Trixie to see this before due time, could we?”

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 9

Author's Note

PLEASE READ, PRETTY IMPORTANT STUFF IN HERE

First of all, I would like to thank Dekomaru, owner of the Twixieanswers tumblr blog, for letting me use his character Hazel as Trixie's mother.
Go check out both his pages (Be careful though, there are a lot of romance and d'aaaaaaw pictures in both XD).

Moreover, I would like to warn you:
Do you remember ~~the 21st night of September~~ when in the last Author's Notes I wrote I was going to experiment a little with the future chapters of my story?
Well, this one (and many more chapters to come) is an example, as, like I wrote last time, the story will be more Slice of Life oriented, in order to achieve my initial goal: "Create a story about Trixie's redemption".
Redemption is not something you obtain immediately (or with 2-3 chapters), but it requires time and effort. So, Trixie will spend a lot of time trying to make amend with Twilight's friends, thus having the story more focused on the "everyday events" the characters have to face.

Finally (and this is why I wanted to put this little Warning here), in the next chapter (and probably the one after that too) I would like to experiment a little more with a different genre that will not, and I repeat, WILL NOT become the main genre of the whole story. I'll do this both to make the story advance and to see if I can handle this type of stories too.
Just wanted to tell you all beforehand, instead of receiving a shower of "Dislikes" and "Hate messages" when the next chapter(s) will be released just because I wanted to venture in that direction.

See you all in a month with chapter 9.

Chapter 9: The Anniversary

Written by Star-Killer89; Edited by TheFallen
Special Thanks to FEuJenny07 and Dekomaru

PONYVILLE - ON THE WAY TO PONYVILLE’S LIBRARY
JULY 19 - 06:38 P.M.

“So, how was taking care of Fluttershy’s pets?” Asked Spike, as he had no more random topics to talk about..

“I guess Trixie’s previous outburst of frustration was already a clear sign it was like Tartarus.” Replied Trixie with a slight tone of annoyance “They fought each other, run in every direction, bit Trixie on every inch of her skin... Not to mention how that fluffy white little monster acted towards Trixie.”

“Ha, seems like you have made the acquaintance of Angel Bunny.” Said Spike, as a little grin appeared on his face “Yeah, he can act like a real jerk from time to time, but deep inside he really cares about Fluttershy’s sake.”

“That might explain why she hasn’t trasnformed him into a pair of slippers already.” Ironically concluded Spike.

As they approached Sugarcube Corner, Trixie’s stomach begun to growl with the same ferocity that only a Timberwolf could match “Tsk, that’s right, I haven’t eaten a bite since I left the library this morning.” murmured Trixie.

“Hold on a moment Spike.” Trixie imposed on the dragon as she started to head towards the store “Trixie’s hungry. Let’s grab something to eat first.”

“W-What? Now?” Asked Spike with a strangely worried tone.

“Yes, now!” Firmly replied Trixie “Why, can’t Trixie stop even to put something in her stomach now?”

“T-That’s not that.” Said Spike, passing Trixie and acting in front of the door of the pastry shop “But, what about your lesson with Luna?”

“That’s a more than a valid reason to avoid Trixie to faint before the lesson’s break.” Explained Trixie, as she pushed the little dragon aside and opened the door “Besides, Trixie didn’t have in mind to eat the equivalent of an entire dinner. We’ll be back outside in less than five minutes.”

“WAIT!” Spike shouted in vain, as he entered inside the confectionery too.

Despite the hour, the place was practically deserted and not a single pin drop could be heard, except for some little noises coming from the kitchen, indicating the presence of the Cakes near the stoves.

‘Oh thank Celestia, she’s not here anymore.’ Spike thought with relief, as Trixie had already reached the counter and started to ring the bell.

“Just a minute!” Chirped Mrs. Cake from the kitchen.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Cake, take your time.” Replied Spike back.

“Take your time?” Repeated Trixie with a critical tone as she turned her head to face Spike “Weren’t you the one who was putting pressure on Trixie to move?”

“Well, yeah, but...” Spike started to explain, but he was interrupted by Mrs. Cake.

“Spike? Is that you?” She said as she was entering the room “Don’t tell me Pinkie forgot to br-...”

This time, it was Mrs. Cake the one who had to stop in mid-sentence, as she just noticed the presence of Trixie in her shop too “Oh, hello Miss Lulamoon.”

“Greetings. Trixie wanted to buy some sweets she could eat on the way home, but it looks like a horde of hungry locusts had just passed and beat her on time.” Stated Trixie, as she took a look around to ensure that the room had not been completely cleared out from every kind of sweet.

“Oh yeah, unfortunately for you, the pupils of the Elementary School has made a stop here this morning during a trip, while in the afternoon we were.... engaged with a special request, so my husband and I didn’t have the time to prepare other sweets.” Explained Mrs. Cake “But if you give me a minute, darling, I’ll check if we have something left in the back room.” She then added, as she went back to the kitchen without waiting for Trixie’s response.

‘Tsk, unbeliavable.’ Thought an even more annoyed Trixie “Say, wasn’t that friend of Twilight working here with you?” She then quizzically shouted after her “Couldn’t she give you a hoof?”

“You mean Pinkie? No, she had a...commission to do in town, so, she wasn’t around here to help us.” Replied Mrs. Cake.

‘Her too? This is getting ridiculous!’ Thought an over irritated Trixie.

“We only have these left, dear.” Said Mrs. Cake as she returned in the room with a tray full of soft round pastries with slices of banana on top of them “Is that ok with you?”

“Ugh, Banana muffins? Again? Thank you but Trixie wil-...” Trixie started to decline the offer, before her stomach started to growl again even louder “Ehm...On second thoughts, Trixie will take them.”

~ ~ ~

NEAR PONYVILLE’S LIBRARY
06:53 P.M.

Trixie couldn’t drive away the sensation that there was something suspicious in everypony’s behavior that day.

First of all, the fact that Twilight and Fluttershy couldn’t properly explain what were the duties they had to take, and now even Pinkie seemed to be busy with a generic commission ‘What did they all had to do today that was so important? Why were they all so vague?’

Then, that harsh rabbit guarding the entrance to Fluttershy’s shed ‘Why was he standing there if there were only some implements inside?’

Then, the first words of Mrs. Cake: “Spike? Is that you? Don’t tell me Pinkie forgot to...”, that kept ringing in her head ‘Forgot to do what? Why did she stop in mid-sentence? Was Spike in any way involved in what she had to do?’

There was also the whole matter of the anticipated lesson ‘Luna is such a strict and scrupulous alicorn. I can’t believe she waited till the last to inform me of such a change of schedule.’

Finally, there was the fact that Spike kept jawing about this and that with her throughout the whole route from the moment they left Fluttershy’s Cottage ‘He had never been this noisy with me in these last 3 weeks. What took him all of a sudden?’

As she was still wandering between these thoughts, they finally arrived in front of the library. The sun was still radiating a lot of light, but oddly enough the curtains of the ground floor were all closed, and there was an unnatural silence surrounding the place.

“Well, here we are.” Said Spike.

“Indeed, here we are.” Replied Trixie, while staying still on the spot, a couple of yards away from the door.

“Sooooo, are you going to go inside?” Asked Spike.

She looked back at the little dragon, who was suddenly in a cold sweat, and had an unnatural big smile painted on his face, but she was too tired to question him about this suspicious behavior, so she decided to open the door anyway.

The inside of the library was in a total darkness, as Trixie tried to get her way inside while being disoriented by the sudden change of brightness.

“Twilight?” She called “Princess Luna? Is anypony in here?”

It was at that moment that the curtains were suddenly drawn, illuminating the room.

“SURPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!!!!”

After Spike had drawn the curtains, light could finally pierce inside the room, which was now dressed up with balloons, confetti and paper chains. A big table had been placed on the left of the stairs that led to the upper floor and a big bowl of punch, different kind of treats, a gramophone and half a dozen of presents were set on top of it.

A party hat was put on top of the wooden horse head situated in the centre of the room, while a big green-light banner was hanging all over the room, with the sign ‘WELCOME TO PONYVILLE TRIXIE’ written in bright azure letters boarded in blue.

Trixie didn’t expected any of this, as Pinkie, Fluttershy, Derpy, Luna, Spike and Twilight were approaching her.

“What is all this?” She asked with a mixed tone of surprise and confusion.

“Can’t you read the banner?” Replied an overexcited Pinkie “It’s your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ Party.”

“But Trixie has been to Ponyville for the last 3 weeks.” Said Trixie “Besides, Trixie already visited town 2 years ago.”

“Well, duuuuh. We know that!” Replied Pinkie “And that’s why we’re celebrating today.”

“Maybe you don’t remember it, but this same day, 2 years ago, was the day you first visited our town.” Said Twilight.

“And that’s why Twilight asked us to wait till today to throw the party.” Added Fluttershy “She wanted this to be a…well… surprise.”

“And you can’t imagine how much I was sorry for not having thrown this party the first time you set hoof in town again.” Said Pinkie with an irked tone.

“So that’s why you drove me away from the library for the entire day?” Asked Trixie, followed by everypony’s nodding.

“We even asked Fluttershy to instruct her animals to distract you all day, so we could finish to decorate the library.” Added Spike.

“I’m sorry for that.” Sadly said Fluttershy.

“What about that pesky little rabbit guarding your shed?” She asked Fluttershy.

“Oh, that was a sudden decision.” Admitted Fluttershy “You see, I suddenly remembered that I had left your present inside that, and I didn’t want you to see it in advance and ruin the surprise.” She continued, pointing her hoof at a squared box adorned with a blue wrapping paper and an azure ribbon, matching Trixie’s color scheme.

It also had a greeting card attached, that read: ‘From Fluttershy to Trixie.’
Strangely enough, the name of the pegasus was written in bold letters.

Trixie then turned towards Luna “What about today’s lesson?”

“On Twilight Sparkle’s advise regarding the recent nightmares thou are having, we believed that we may have gone a little…too heafty with our lessons, so we decided we could allow thee a day off.” Replied Luna.

“I…I don’t really know what to say.” Said Trixie. She took a moment to look around with more attention, and she noticed some out of place objects which were standing near the buffet “What are those things?”

“Oh right, were are my manners?” Said Pinkie, hitting her brow with a hoof “Trixie, let me present you some old friends of mine.”

“The little green fella is my pet Gummy.” She said, as she pointed her hoof toward the 2 feet long alligator “Then we have, from left to right: Rocky, Sir Lintsalot, Mr. Turnip and Madame le Flour.” She added, as she introduced Trixie to a pile of rocks, a clump of lint, a bucket of turnips and a sack of flour.

Trixie was catch off guard, but since Pinkie was still staring at her and the other ponies warned her to play along with that further oddity of hers, she presented herself to them “Ehr….Nice to meet you all?”

“Trixie’s a real character guys. I bet you’ll get along pretty well with her.” Pinkie added, as she bounced away towards Derpy. At the very first occasion, Trixie drew the attention of Fluttershy, and as soon as the shy pony approached her she asked “What is the meaning of all this?”

“Oh don’t mind those objects.” Fluttershy replied “Rainbow Dash once told us about them too. Pinkie just wanted to have as many guests at your welcome party as she could.”

“Speaking of which, aren’t some of your friends missing?” Curiously asked Trixie.

“Oh….well… we asked for their help to organize the party…but….wel-“ Fluttershy started to explain, but she was abruptly interrupted by Pinkie.

“Oh, we totally asked them to join the party but Applejack said she still had 7 acres of apples to buck for tomorrow’s market while Dashie said she had got a huge backlog of naps to catch on with and finally Rarity just grumbled something about a ‘show-off’ and a ‘green mane’ and slammed the door so I guess she was having some problems with a customer anyway since they seemed to be busy already I decided to not bother them any longer.” Said Pinkie with a cheerful tone as she finally took her breathe once again.

“Oh….I see.” Replied Trixie with a little sadness in her tone.

“Give them more time.” Added Twilight while carefully approaching them “I don’t really think they hate you. You just have to know each other better.”

Trixie raised her head towards Twilight and gave a faint smile “Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”

“Oooooh, what are those long faces girls?” Pinkie interrupted them “LET’S PARTAYYYYY!”

~ ~ ~

PONYVILLE LIBRARY
8:57 P.M.

Trixie was having the best of fun for the first time in years. Sadly, Luna had to leave the party earlier due to her royal duties, but all the other guests were still having a good time, as Pinkie was leading a little conga train made by herself, Derpy and Spike all around the library, while Fluttershy was trying to convince Gummy that the punch bowl was not a good place for a night swim.

The only pony that looked out of place was Twilight, who had spent most of the time alone on the first step of the stairs, chatting only occasionally with her friends.

Trixie tried to approach her with a natural tone “Not much of a party animal, are you?”

Twilight smiled in response “Until 2 years ago I would have answered that question with a yes. I was more the type of pony that enjoyed spending the night in a quiet room, reading a novel or studying some ancient scrolls, but I must say life here in Ponyville had changed my behaviors.”

She then bowed her head and sighed “I guess I just have to learn to live with the prospect that I might no longer be able to carry on that lifestyle.”

“It’s all my fault.” Said Trixie in an afflicted tone “If you had never met me, you would still-“

She stopped in mid-sentence, as Twilight had just hitted her on the head with her cane “OUCH! What was that for?”

“Don’t even think for a second that this was your fault.” Twilight scolded her.

“But it was.” Replied Trixie, rubbing the point where she was hit as she was on the verge of crying, both for the emotional state she was into and for the hit she received.

“No it wasn’t.” Firmly replied Twilight “You did nothing wrong to deserve being ponynapped, and you didn’t asked for my forgiveness. I decided to approach you in Hoofington, and I decided to put my life in danger for you.”

Twilight then smiled and extended her hoof towards Trixie and after a couple of tries she was finally able to reach her shoulder “If something bad happens, don’t put the blame only on yourself. Never.”

Trixie was able to smile back at Twilight “Thanks Twilight.” After a couple of seconds, she decided to lighten up the mood “I-I think I’ll go getting something to drink, excuse me.”

Trixie looked beyond Twilight’s shoulder, but noticed that the bowl was empty ‘Not a single drop in the whole room.’ She thought, as she get closer to the table and levitated the bowl ‘Let’s see if they have prepared some more in the kitchen.’

As she approached the kitchen, she could hear a pair of voices whispering inside the room and, intrigued, she slightly opened the door and peeked through it. She could see Fluttershy and Pinkie’s profiles, as they were speaking to each other.

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep this thing a secret.” Was saying a worried Fluttershy.

“You’re right Flutters.” Replied Pinkie “We must at least tell the others, but not today. Today is Trixie’s special day, and I don’t want to divert the attention from her.”

“You’re right.” Replied Fluttershy in a joyful and yet at the same time dispirited tone “We’ve concealed it for 4 months. Waiting a little more won’t be the end of the world.”

She then leaned towards the pink pony and gently kissed her on the mouth, and Pinkie returned it with even more passion, holding Fluttershy’s face in her hoof.

It was at that moment that the bowl crashed on the ground, as Trixie loose her focus on it, causing Fluttershy and Pinkie to simultaneously turn towards the door and detecting her presence.

Trixie was really embarrassed, as she tried to justify herself “T-Trixie didn’t want to spy on you on purpose, Trixie swears!”

A few moments later, the other guests approached the kitchen too, attracted by the noise of broken glass.

“Trixie, are you alright?” Asked Twilight, as Spike was helping her to reach the source of the clamor.

“Ah gee, that bowl was made in Canterlot.” Complained the dragon “And it was pretty expensive too.”

“Say Pinkie, why are you holding Fluttershy’s face?” Asked Derpy out of the blue.

Everypony turned their attention towards the two mares, as they only now noticed that they were still in the same position as when they were kissing. Both their faces turned red, as they immediately withdrew from each other.

“Oh…ehr…well…” Tried to explain Fluttershy.

“Yeah…well….you see…” Tried Pinkie with no more success.

Trixie, on the other hoof, was now extremely calm, and said “If you’re holding yourself because of Trixie there is no need. You can tell them immediately.”

“Are you sure it’s ok for you Trixie?” Asked a surprised Pinkie “This is your special night.”

“Don’t worry for the Great and Powerful Trixie” The cyan unicorn reassured her “Trixie is a mare that can share the lights from time to time.”

“Oh Celestia….Pinkie, I-I don’t know if I’m ready to tell them yet.” Whispered Fluttershy to the pink pony, but Pinkie seized the opportunity, as she grabbed Fluttershy’s hoof in her own and timidly smiled at her.

Fluttershy quietened her worries, smiling back at the earth pony; she took a deep breath and said “Girls… Spike… Pinkie and I… We… We’ve started to date each other….as a couple!”

A moment of disturbing silence dropped in the room, but it was almost immediately replaced by shouts of joy.

“Oh my... Congratulations girls.” Said Derpy.

“Ooooooh, I’m so happy for you two.” Said Twilight on the verge of crying.

“Way to go Pinkie!” Said Spike, winking at Pinkie and giving her a light punch on the shoulder.

Both Pinkie and Fluttershy were caught by surprise by the reaction of their friends.

“A-Are you ok with that?” Asked a worried Pinkie.

Now it was the girls the ones who were caught by surprise by that statement “Of course we are Pinkie. Why shouldn’t we?” Asked a curious Spike.

“Because it’s not usual.” Said Fluttershy with a shaky voice “You know...being a....’Fillyfooler’...” The word pronounced by the yellow pegasus with a mix of fear and disdain, as Pinkie put a hoof around her shoulders, trying to comfort her.

“Girls, you’re our friends.” Started to reassure them Twilight “We've known each other a long time now, and this news can’t in any way make us think of you in any different way than before.” She continued, while the other presents started to nod, confirming what she was saying.

“For us, you’re still Pinkie Pie, the most hyperactive and friendly party organizer around, and Fluttershy, the most kind and caring pegasus of all Equestria.” Continued Twilight “And, now, the sweetest couple of the whole town.”

Tears of joy started to flow on both Pinkie and Fluttershy’s eyes, as well as a big smile of relief appeared on both their faces.

“Thank you Twilight. Thank you all!” Was able to say Pinkie after a while, as she wiped the tears from her face.

“And now you must tell us everything.” Added Twilight towards them, as she started to bombard them with questions “When did you started to prove these feelings for each other? Who proposed? How long where you keeping this happy news away from us?”

“Well, as for me...” Pinkie started to tell “...I guess it all started almost two years ago. The day that meanie grump bully of Gilda came in town.”

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 10

Author's Note

First of all, once again, a special thanks goes to FEuJenny07 and Dekomaru for their pre-reading role regarding the final part of this chapter. Their suggestions were really helpful to improve that brief romantic part.

Secondly, I think a little explanation here is needed as for the date I choose for the anniversary of Trixie's first visit into Ponyville: the season 1 double episode “Friendship is Magic”, was set during the Summer Solstice (June 20th-22nd), and since the episode “Boastbusters” was aired a month later, on November 19th, we can all presume that Trixie’s first visit in Ponyville was indeed a month after the Solar Solstice, and here’s why it is July 19th.

Finally, as I stated in the warning I released some days ago, next chapter will be mostly focused on how Pinkie and Fluttershy started to develop their feelings for each other. If many of you are not the fans of shipping stories or romance in general, I will add a Skip to this word note at the beginning of the chapter, but I would really like to have as many of you as possible to read that part too.

See you all in chapter 10 (possibly next month).

Chapter 10: A Soft Kind Laughter

Written by Star-Killer89; Edited by Sam
Special Thanks to FEuJenny07 and Dekomaru

NOTE: For those who don't want to read the romantic part of the chapter, skip to: “And…that’s it.”

PONYVILLE - 2 YEARS AGO

“…the meanest kind of mean meanie-pants there is. I can take it, but no one treats Fluttershy like that. No. One.” Said Pinkie with a mixed tone of anger and determination “This calls for extreme measures, Pinkie Pie style.”

She then started to make plans on how to expose the true Gilda to Rainbow Dash, but she suddenly stopped.

She was a little surprised that she decided to act only after Gilda abused Fluttershy, that it was her way of behaving towards the yellow pegasus to convince her to take extreme measures.

But then again, Fluttershy was the kind of pony that had always lead others to protect her, so, maybe she just wanted to protect her as well.

“Maybe I just don’t want anything bad to happen to her, like everypony else.” She said to herself.

But it was just a short-lived thought, as she shook her head and regained to trot towards Sugarcube Corner “No time for inner dilemmas, I need to plan everything out.”

2 WEEKS LATER - PEAK OF THE MOUNTAINS NEAR PONYVILLE

“…Just because you're big doesn't mean you get to be a bully.” Fluttershy was scolding the dragon, as she started to trot on his muzzle “You may have huge teeth, and sharp scales, and snore smoke, and breathe fire.” She continued, now staring directly in the dragon’s huge eyes “But you do not-- I repeat-- You do not! Hurt! My! Friends!”

‘Dear Celestia, is this the same Fluttershy?’ Asked herself an upside-down Pinkie ‘Is this the same pegasus that flew off crying because she was yelled by a griffin just a few weeks ago? And now she’s facing a dragon all alone?’ She thought with a mix of incredulity and admiration.

“…Now go pack your things.” Was saying Fluttershy, as she flew back on the ground “You just need to find a new place to sleep. That's all.”

Pinkie and the other girls started to approach her, cheering for the great deed she was able to perform.

‘She’s stronger and braver than I thought.’ Cheerfully thought Pinkie.

After a while, as they started to go back down the mountain, Fluttershy approached her “Uhm… are you ok?”

“Of course I am.” Firmly replied Pinkie “Why are you asking?”

“Oh, it’s just…. you know… You came out of the cave pretty beaten up and I was worried-”

“Don’t worry your little head Fluttershy.” Replied Pinkie with a big smile, putting a hoof on her head and ruffling her mane “It will take more then a surly dragon to take down this party pony. Uh, speaking of which, I should totally throw a ‘Thanks for having saved Equestria from a hundred years of smoke cover’ party. Hey girls. Giiiiirls, everypony’s invited to Sugarcube Corner when we get back!” She started to yell, as she bounced away to reach the others.

Fluttershy took a deep breath of relief “Thank goodness.” She whispered.

1 MONTH LATER - BORDERS OF THE EVERFREE FOREST

“…It's a good idea to stop and listen to your friends' opinions and perspectives-” Twilight was reporting to the Princess, as she was sudden interrupted by the clash of a pair of crash cymbals Pinkie was using to drive the parasprites off Ponyville “-even when they don't always seem to make sense.”

‘I can’t believe Pinkie had the solution for the problem the whole time.’ Thought an incredulous Fluttershy ‘And what have we done? We just decided to ignore her, thinking she was just blabbing nonsense.’ She then lowered her head in shame ‘Twilight is right, friends do not act that way. I only hope Pinkie is not mad at us.’

“Well DUH, why do you think I was so frantic to get my hooves on all these instruments?” Pinkie was explaining to Twilight “I tried to tell you.”

“We know Pinkie Pie, and we're sorry we didn't listen.” Said Twilight, as everypony started to apologize “You're a great friend, even if we don't always understand you.”

“Thanks guys, you're all great friends too… even when I don't understand me.” Replied Pinkie.

‘She’s full of surprises and is always ready to forgive other ponies. She’s so…. wonderful.’ Thought Fluttershy, while a feeling of great happiness started to fill her.

3 MONTHS LATER - PONYVILLE’S MARKET

“Are you sure you don’t miss your modelling career Fluttershy?” Asked Pinkie, as the two mares where walking across the market while doing shopping.

“Not at all, it is harder than many ponies thinks.” Replied Fluttershy “I had to wake every morning at sunrise, spend more then 2 hours just for make up, stay at the photo studio all day, wearing dozens and dozens of different outfits and posing for hours…All without a single bite in the stomach, because I could have ‘Ruined my perfect figure’.” She mimicked Photo Finish’s accent, as both her and Pinkie burst into laugh.

“Well, it’s kind of a shame though that you had to suffer all that.” Started to say Pinkie “But I have to say you were really pretty on those magazines covers.”

Fluttershy’s cheeks started to turn red “Y-You really think so?” She shyly asked.

Pinkie just started to feel a little embarassed, as if she just said something awkward to her friend “S-Sure. I mean, not that you’re not normally pretty.” She kept saying, as she started to blush as well.

“I-I mean…” She started to nervously looking around “O-Oh look, asparagus. I Really need those.” She then said, adding a slight chuckle as she started to trot towards the stand.

Fluttershy stood on the spot for a couple of seconds “She thinks I’m pretty.” She whispered, raising a smile, and then followed her friend.

1 WEEK LATER - APPLELOOSA

Pinkie was in the backstage, practicing the song she was going to sing to both the ponies of Appleloosa and the members of the buffalo tribe, when she saw Fluttershy coming towards her.

“Uhm… I’m sorry Pinkie. May I interrupt you for a moment?” Shyly asked the pegasus.

“Sure thing Fluttershy.” Replied Pinkie “What can I do for you?”

She timidly approached the pink pony and said “Uhm… I wanted to apologize for the way I acted before.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Pinkie, tilting her head with a curious expression.

“Well… you know… hugging you in that way... in front of everypony…” She said with her eyes instinctively pointed to the ground, trying in every way to avoid looking at Pinkie’s face.

“But I liked your hug.” Replied the pink pony, as she then started to lightly blush “D-Don’t worry about that. It didn’t bother me.”

Fluttershy seemed to realize that the situation was degenerating, as she impulsively added “A-After all, we are just friends....right?”

“Y-Yeah!” Replied Pinkie, slightly subdued “The best.” She then added in a firmer tone, with a smile on her face.

Fluttershy took a sigh of relief “Thanks Pinkie.” She finally said and then started to leave.

As Fluttershy walked away from the stage, tears of desprair started to run on her cheeks “Stupid, stupid Fluttershy. You wasted your only chance.”

1 MONTH LATER - APPLEJACK’S BARN

The surprise party the girls had set up for Pinkie was practically over. All the other girls had already left, but Pinkie and Fluttershy offered to help Applejack clean her barn up.

As Applejack had left to discard the confetti and paper chains used to decorate the room, the two mares found themselves alone.

“Hey Fluttershy?” Started to say Pinkie, approaching the pegasus while she was busy putting away the boxes of Pinkie’s presents “I wanted to thank you all.”

“For what?” Curiously asked the yellow pony.

“For everything. For the party, the cake, the presents. Everything!” She replied with joy “I was really sad when I thought you didn’t want to hang around with me anymore, and I think I overreacted a little.”

Fluttershy giggled in reply “Yeah, you were pretty scary.”

“But, really, I want to thank you all.” She added as she approached Fluttershy “Thanks for being my friend.” She concluded, as she started to hug her.

Fluttershy was at first caught by surprise and her heart started to beat faster, as she was torn about what to do, but after a while she simply returned the hug “I…we will always be there for you.”

Applejack coughed in the distance “Do ya’ll mind if I join this emotional moment of yours, pard’ners?”

Both Fluttershy and Pinkie giggled in reply “Persmission granted.” Replied Pinkie, as both her and Fluttershy holded one hoof towards the farm pony, inviting her to join them.

8 MONTHS AGO - SUGARCUBE CORNER

“Again, we’re so, so, so much sorry for having left you and Rarity behind in the desert.” Was apologizing Fluttershy.

“Oh don’t worry Flutters.” Replied Pinkie “Actually, we had a lot of fun, and I believe this experience has improved my friendship with Rarity too. After all, that’s the longest time we ever spent together alone.”

“Oh, I see.” Said Fluttershy a little relieved “I’m glad for you.”

“Yeah, that kinda reminded me the time when me, Dashie and Spike spent that night with the buffalo tribe...”

As she heard those words, Fluttershy couldn’t help but be saddened a little, because it was then that her hopes seemed to have been permanently damped.

“...however, there’s only one thing I regret about this event.” Kept saying Pinkie in a serious tone.

“Uh...oh, what is it?” Curiously asked Fluttershy, putting aside her sadness and paying attention to her friend once again.

Pinkie slightly lowered her head and, with a little smirk on her face, shyly said “Unlike the last time, you still haven’t jumped towards me to give me a hug.”

As she rose her head again, she could see Fluttershy leaping towards her, a huge smile on her face, as she grabbed her in a hug and said “I’m happy that you’re back.”

To her surprise, Pinkie’s heart started to beat a little faster, a warm sensation flushed over her and, oddly enough, she felt a little happier too, as she smiled back to Fluttershy and returned her hug “Me too.”

2 MONTHS LATER - FLUTTERSHY’S COTTAGE

After the Iron Will incident, Fluttershy had invited both Rarity and Pinkie to join her for a cup of tea, but Rarity declined the offer, saying that she had some business to back at Carousel Boutique, and now the two mares were the only occupants of the room.

“I still don’t know how will I ever be able to make amend with you girls for the way I treated you.” Fluttershy was apologizing.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Replied Pinkie “I’m just glad the old, nice Flutters is back.”

“No, seriously, I-I really mean it.” Firmly continued Fluttershy “I acted awfully towards you and Rarity. I insulted your intelligence, your passions and your talents.”

She then started to heavily cry, as the memory of how she acted was still tormenting her “I called you frivolous, a-and...said that you were throwing your lives away on p-pointless activities that nopony cares about. I….I acted like a real monster.”

As she lowered her head and let the tears flow, Pinkie approached her, put a hoof on her shoulder and lifted her head with the other one “You’re not a monster. Like Rarity and I said earlier, you were just influenced by the teachings of that minotaur.” She told her in a reassuring tone “We never thought for a moment that you were a monster, nor we would ever think it.”

Fluttershy sniffed a couple of tears back “For real?”

Pinkie smiled in reply “For real!”

Fluttershy was really glad to hear those words and, once again and instinctively, her heart suddenly started to beat faster as this time, however, maybe beacause of the fact that now Pinkie was just a few inches from her, she also started to hyperventilate.

She couldn’t help it. She had seriously tried to repress her feelings towards Pinkie. She tried to act naturally when she was in her company. She tried not to spend every single moment she was away from her desiring to see that fluffy pink mane by her side. She really tried to consider her only a dear friend.

But she couldn’t continue to repress that part of herself anymore.

“Are you ok Flutter-“ Started to say Pinkie, but was abruptly interrupted, as Fluttershy, caught by her emotions, leaned towards the pink pony and rested her lips on her mouth, finally kissing her. Her heart beat faster and a warm feeling returned as their lips met.

Pinkie was caught by surprise and her brain wasn’t able to properly analyze the situation. So, her body decided to take control, as she instinctively reached for Fluttershy, eyes closed and lips stretched to prolong that sudden outburst of passion.

Fluttershy, however, almost immediately detached from her and started to blush all over her face, fear starting to form on her face as she realized she might have just pushed herself too far.

Feeling no more the contact of Fluttershy’s lips on her own, Pinkie reopened her eyes, and the expression of embarassment on her friend’s face seemed to shook her from that state.

“I-I....I....” Pinkie tried to say, but the words seemed to get stuck in her throat “I....gotta go.” She was finally able to speak, as she left Fluttershy’s house in a hurry, dazed and confused.

“No, please wai-...” Futtershy started to say, raising her hoof towards the door to stop her, but it was too late. She had already gone.

“Oh no. What have I done?” She whispered panic-stricken after a while.

She left the kitchen, run upstairs in her bedroom and threw herself on the bed, face buried in her pillow, deeply crying “Oh Celestia, what have I done? I’ve ruined everything!”

5 WEEKS LATER - FLUTTERSHY’S COTTAGE

Pinkie was hesitant. She proposed to ask her friends to give the Cakes a hoof to deliver the cake they had made for this year’s national dessert competition, and now there was only one pony left to ask. Yet, she has been standing for more than 30 minutes in front of the door, trying to figure out the best way to start the conversation about what happened between them more than a month before in that same cottage.

She hoped the day they’d spent at the spa the week before with their friends could have helped to set matters straight, but she couldn’t find a moment to take her aside and speak with her face to face.

After a while, a little disappointed by her lack of courage, she gave up, and decided to leave.

‘Maybe I’ll try again when we’ll be back.’ She thought, but as soon as she started to turn away, the door opened, and Fluttershy started to come out of her home, only to stop a second later, as she was face to face with the pink pony.

“H-Hi Fluttershy.” Coyly greeted her Pinkie “I-I was just going to knock the door.”

“Uh…uhm…h-hi Pinkie” Replied Fluttershy, as she started to hide her face behind her mane, the shame for what she did still clear on her face.

“I need to tell you something.” Finally said both mares at the same time.

Immediately, Pinkie added “Y-You first.”

“O-Ok…please, come in.” The shy pegasus said, as she let Pinkie enter.

Once they were both in the living room, Fluttershy took a deep breath and draw upon all her courage “I need to apologize for the way I acted towards you.”

As Pinkie immediately tried to interrupt her, she rose her hoof towards her mouth “Please, let me finish. I…I acted under personal instincts, regardless of your thoughts or feelings.”

“T-The truth is I….I think at you as more than a friend, but…but...” She started to say, a huge fear in her voice and tears already forming in her eyes “But I don’t want this feeling to become a barrier between us and our friendship and…and I don’t know what to do anymore.” She concluded, as she down and finally allowed her tears to flow on her face, which she immediately covered between her hooves.

After a while, she felt her head lifted and saw Pinkie a few inches away, as she had also moved her mane aside and was now looking her deep in her eyes “Don’t cry, silly filly. I also consider you more than a friend...” She started to say with a bitter smile on her lips “...but I’m still not sure what these emotions I feel for you exactly are.” She added, as it was quite some time that she was trying to sort what were her feelings towards the pegasus, failing to date.

She then helped Fluttershy to her hooves and said “I think I will need a little more time to figure this thing out, but I promise you one thing.” She added, as she put both her hooves on Fluttershy’s shoulders and said in a reassuring tone “No matter what, I will always remain your friend.”

Fluttershy wiped her tears and asked “Y-You promise?”

Pinkie smiled in reply and said “Pinkie Promise.” as she mimicked the movements of her personal oath.

“Thank you.” Said Fluttershy, as she lept towards Pinkie and started to hug her, partly afraid of what her future answer would have been, but most of all relieved that, despite everything, she had not ruined their friendship.

4 MONTHS AGO - CANTERLOT’S CASTLE

That was the best wedding ever.

Sure, the changelings invasion had almost succeeded in overthrowing the princesses government, but everything turned for the good, as Cadance and Shining Armor were able to defeat Chrysalis and banish her and her subjects from the capital. And now, the girls were all in their rooms, exhausted after a long night of celebration, both for the close shave and the wedding.

Fluttershy was already blissfully sleeping in her bed, when she suddenly woke up, as somepony was gently but insistently knocking at her door. Still half asleep, she dragged herself to the door and opened it. On the other side stood Pinkie.

“Sorry to bother you Flutters, but I need to talk to you.”

“Oh…Pinkie. You’re not giving me any bother. Please, come in.” She replied, as she stepped aside, allowing Pinkie to enter. She climbed on the bed and sat down, inviting Pinkie to do the same “So, what did you want to talk about?”

After a while, Pinkie took a deep breath and said “Well, a lot of things happened in these past few days…I mean, the wedding, the changelings invasion…”

“Having ignored the warnings of Twilight about that fake Cadence…” Added Fluttershy with a little shame.

“Yeah. It really seems that break down she had 7 months ago taught us nothing…” Sadly continued Pinkie “I’ll really have to organize a ‘Forgive us for not having listened to you once again’ party when we’ll be back home… Anyway, all of these things made me think.”

“About what?”

“About us.” Firmly said Pinkie “I mean, think about it. First Nightmare Moon, then Discord, and now this meanie queen Chrysalis. And what about that manticore, the dragon on the mountain outside town, the parasprites infestation, the hydra, those dogs that ponynapped Rarity…”

“What are you trying to say Pinkie?” Asked Fluttershy with a curious tone.

“I think I understood that we do not live common lives, well, at least not at the same level that normal ponies live… I mean, we face new dangers almost every week, and many of those are deadly ones.”

She then stopped for a second to catch air and repeat in her mind what she wanted to tell “So, I started to think ‘What if the next time we won’t be so lucky? What if one of us will be seriously injured? What if that will happen to Flutters before I had a chance to clarify my feelings for her?’ So, in the last few hours, I seriously thought about what I felt for you…”

“A-And….what is the asnwe-” Shyly started to ask Fluttershy, but her words were cut off, as Pinkie had leant towards her and had started to gently kiss her on the lips. Fluttershy was caught by surprise, but after a moment, she started to return the kiss.

They remained in that position for almost 20 seconds, but for them they seemed like no more than a couple had passed, while they both savoured the flavor of the lips of the other one. As their mouth parted, Pinkie said panting “I love you Flutters.”

Fluttershy smiled in reply “I love you too, Pinkie.”

And so they stood there all night, one in the hooves of the other, in a warm embrace, without speaking a word, both of them just happy to have finally expressed their feelings.

~ ~ ~

“And…that’s it.” Concluded Pinkie.

Immediately, all the guests stepped even closer to Pinkie and Fluttershy, wanting to learn more. About how they lived the days after the love confession, if they had any plans for the future “And most importantly...” Asked Spike “...when did you understand it?"

All the presents, except for Trixie, who had heard the whole story from afar, feeling out of place once again in presence of such a display of affection between ponies so united.

PONYVILLE - PONYVILLE LIBRARY
JULY 19 - 10:27 P.M.

The party was over, but everypony decided to stay a little longer to help Trixie and Spike cleaning up. As expected from the baby dragon, he was the first one to fall asleep on his feet, so, after they brought him upstairs to his bed, Twilight and Derpy decided to make some coffee, while the other girls were taking the main hall back to its usual aspect.

Trixie was using her magic to dust the bookshelves of the remaining paper chains when Fluttershy and Pinkie approached her “Hey Trixie, we really wanted to thank you.” Said the pink pony.

“What for?” Replied Trixie.

“For helping us telling the others about our relationship of course.” Continued Fluttershy.

Trixie chuckled ironically in reply “Trixie did nothing.”

“Oh, but you really helped us.” Replied Fluttershy “You gave us the opportunity to tell the others. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know how much longer we would have kept this a secret, so…thank you.” She said, smiling towards her.

“Well, let’s just say we’re even for this party then.” Said Trixie, as she turned her back on them and bitterly added “I suppose Twilight and Luna will be glad that this plan they had organized to make Trixie socialize with you had gone well.”

“Actually, this wasn’t Twilight or Luna’s idea.” Replied Fluttershy “It was Pinkie’s.”

Trixie turned her head intrigued “What? Is that true?”

“Yep, Twilight and Luna had nothing to do with this, well, maybe, except the part about postponing the date to make it concur with the anniversary of your first visit.” Replied Pinkie “Anyway, I can’t take all the merit, since the first one who decided to make it a surprise for you was none other than Flutters herself.”

Fluttershy started to blush and tried to cover herself behind her mane “I didn’t do much, really.”

“But, why going through so much trouble for Trixie?” Asked an increasingly skeptical Trixie.

Pinkie giggled in reply “Because we wanted to be your friends, silly.”

That simple answer deeply touched Trixie’s feelings “You…wanted to be…Trixie’s friends?”

“Yup.”

“Even after what Trixie has done to your friends the first time she came to town?”

“Well, at first we really didn’t like how you tried to humiliate them.” Said Fluttershy.

“But then Twilight told us that, maybe, that was your way to make a good impression on us all.” Continued Pinkie “A way to show us what you were capable of.”

“So we both decided to forgive you, because we were sure that, deep inside, you really didn’t want to hurt them.” Kept going Fluttershy.

“Plus, I think what you’ve done to Dashie with that rainbow-tornado was a pretty funny prank.” Concluded Pinkie with a short chuckle.

Trixie couldn’t believe her ears “W-What about Twilight? It’s my fault if she’s now blind and powerless.”

“We would never blame you for that.” Replied Fluttershy in a worried tone.

“Yeah, we would have done the same to save you from those meanie ponies.” Immediately added Pinkie.

Trixie was overwhelmed with both incredulity and happines for the fact that, after all the grudge and suffering she had brought upon those who surrounded her, there was still somepony who wanted to be her friend “T-….Trixie doesn’t really know what to say.”

Both Fluttershy and Pinkie smiled “Then just tell us that you accept our friendship.” Said Fluttershy, as both her and Pinkie held out their hooves toward Trixie.

A couple of tears of joy started to flow on Trixie’s cheeks, as her hoof started to tremble as it was reaching the other two “Yes…Trix-…I will gladly accept your friendship.” She said, as her hoof reached the girls.

And that was the moment when pain started to run through her body.

“G-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!” Screamed Trixie, as she had to curl in a ball, while pressing her chest with both hooves.

“Oh goodness! What’s happening Trixie?” Asked a worried Fluttershy.

“M…..MY CHEST!” Replied Trixie, followed by another scream “It….it BUUUUURNS!”

The two mares tried to calm Trixie down, but the pain was simply unbearable, as she continued to shake and scream in agony.

“W-We need Twilight!” Finally said Pinkie after a while “She will know what’s goin-“

Pinkie didn’t had the time to finish the phrase, as light started to erupt from Trixie’s face and from the scar on her chest, which started to pulsate. Trixie arched her back up in the air, giving one last scream of pain…

… and then it stopped, just as suddenly as it started.

Trixie banged on the floor, heavily panting, as the ache started to fade.

“Oh goodness, are you ok Trixie?” Asked a concerned Fluttershy.

Trixie took a while to answer between a pant and the other “Y-Yes….I….I don’t know what happened.”

She then lowered her head to see what may have caused the pain, but what she saw was totally unexpected “What the…?”

Part of the color of the scar caused by Uma’s strike on her chest had changed, as from a lightly dark brown, the two lowest star-shaped scars were now of a different color: one blue and one green.

In the distance, they heard the sound of something bumping against the wall of the kitchen, followed by Derpy’s voice of concern “Twilight, please, wait a second…”

After a second, Twilight showed in the room, as her face were twisted in pain too “What happened? We heard somepony screaming.”

At the same moment, even Spike came down the stairs “Ugh….I taught the party was over already, why are you still making so much noise?”

“Please Spike, go get a glass of water.” Fluttershy told him “Trixie felt sick. Hurry.”

“Oh…A-Alright Fluttershy.” Replied the dragon, as he immediately leapt towards the kitchen, while Derpy was helping Twilight reaching the other girls “Can somepony please tell me what just happened?”

As Pinkie and Fluttershy started to explain what happened to Trixie, Spike returned with a glass of water, and handed it towards the unicorn.

When Trixie started to levitate it in mid air, though, the glass started to vibrate, and after a second it shattered into pieces.

“Oh come on! That’s the second one you break today!” Scolded her Spike, but Trixie barely heard him.

“I-I didn’t even use half the power I normally apply to levitate it.” Said a shocked Trixie “What the hay is going on with me?”

CANTERLOT’S CASTLE - LUNA’S CHAMBERS
10:57 P.M.

“Your highness, a letter just arrived from Ponyville.” Said one of the two bat ponies that usually had the task to protect princess Luna, giving a closed envelope to her.

As Luna went through the letter, her gaze turned more and more concerned after every line “Oh no!” She said in a feeble whisper.

The guard istantly noticed her expression “I will immediately inform Princess Celestia.” He proposed, as he started to leap towards Celestia’s chambers.

“NAY, WAIT!” She screamed towards him “I mean…nay, wait. Our sister does not have to know this.”

“But, your highness, Princess Celestia ordered us-“ Started to reply the bat pony.

“Do we need to remind thee that thou are supposed to obey our orders?” Asked Luna with a hint of anger.

“O-Of course not, your highness.” He replied lightly frightened “But if your highness is so concerned about those news, we need to take action right away.”

“We will personally take care of this situation.” Replied Luna “We repeat, our sister must not be warned about this whole thing, is it clear?”

After a brief hesitation, the guard gulped down, hit his chest with the hoof and lowered his head “As you order, your highness.” He said, before leaving the room.

As Luna was left alone, she turned towards the fireplace of her room, used her magic to place the letter inside of it and burnt it up ‘We will deal with this whole mess…We will definitely find a solution.’

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 11

Author's Note

First of all, thanks to Sam for for having (temporarely) replaced our common friend TheFallen for the editing of this chapter.

Secondly, once again, a big thanks to FEuJenny07 and Dekomaru for the help in writing this whole romantic part of the chapter.

I hope I was able to entertain you once again, even if this was not an easy genre for me to write.
I would really like to read your impressions about this romantic story (Even though I've already realized that I'm better at writing sad stuff than lovey-dovey one ^_^).

Finally, a little bad news.
Due to some IRL problems (a.k.a. University finals) that will keep me busy until September, the release of new chapters might be slowed down, meaning that I'm not sure if I'll be able to write down the next chapter in time for the beginning of June.
I'll try to do my best to balance my school life and that as a writer. Please, bear with me until then. ^_^

Chapter 3: The Sins of the Father... (Raw Version)

A/N: WARNING. Read the description in the Author's Notes first.
Additional tag: [Action]

Written by Star-Killer89, Editing: Working on it ^^;

PONYVILLE - SWEET APPLE ACRES
JUNE 04 - 11:30 A.M.

"And that's the last one, AJ" said Rainbow Dash, while moving the last cloud full of rain upon the fields of the Apple family.

"Thank ya kindly, sugarcube" replied the orange country pony "This drought was really going to threaten our annual yield for the cider season. I really own ya one".

"Then you'd better remember what I asked you in return."

"A'right, a'right. This year I'll store 5 mugs of cider just for ya."

"10 mugs!" replied the cyan Pegasus with a firm expression on her face, crossing her front hooves while still flying.

"7 mugs…and, just for this year, I'll put a limit of 2 mugs per customer, so that ya will have more than Pinkie." replied Applejack, spitting on her hoof and holding it out to Rainbow Dash "Deal?"

"Deal!" answered Rainbow, spitting herself on her hoof and bumping Applejack's one.

"A'right now, let's go eating somethin', shall we?" suggested Applejack, while heading back to her house "Hey, do ya know if Twilight came back home?"

"No, I haven't seen her since yesterday. I went to the library this morning to borrow the new Daring Do book, 'Daring Do and the Lost Colony', which, by the way, is going to be AWESOME!" for a couple of seconds, Rainbow's attention was completely focused on the new adventure of her favourite fictional heroine, but her thoughts were roughly interrupted by Applejack, who started to cough to get her attention back "Ehm…yeah, as I was saying, I went to the library, but Spike said she didn't come back last night."

"Well shoot, I only hope she's a'right" replied Applejack, while opening the back door of the kitchen and letting Rainbow Dash enter her house "To tell ya'll the truth, I wasn't so sure to leave her alone with that foal of a show-mare"

"Ah, don't be ridiculous AJ." ironically laughed Rainbow Dash "Sure, I hate Trixie too, but I don't really think she will ever be much of a challenge for the 'Element of Magic'!"

"It's not that, sugarcube. It's just that I had a really bad feeling when the train left Hoofington yesterday." she then took a moment to sigh and added " I only hope to see her back here safe and sound."

"Oh, come on! What's the worst thing that could happ-" the words of the pegasus were interrupted by the knocking coming from the front door.

Since Granny Smith and Big Macintosh went to Ponyville for the weekly food purchases just a couple of hours before and her little sister was still at school, Applejack was caught by surprise "Who in tarnation might be at this hour?"

PONYVILLE'S SPA
11:45 A.M.

"Thiiis is what I call relax!" said Rarity, laying prone on one of the couches near the thermal baths, wearing a bath robe and a bath towel around her mane, face covered with a mud musk and pickles slices on her eyes, while enjoying one of Quake's massages.

"Yeah…this is really….uhm….pleasant" replied Fluttershy, who, on the other hoof, was appreciating one of Lotus 'less energetic' shoulders massages "I mean….yesterday was fun too, but that spooky house really stressed me a lot. By the way, thanks for coming here today with me, even if it was a work day."

"Oh darling, please, don't even say that. After a whole day spent waiting in line with sweated ponies just to get on such dirty rides, I think a whole week at the Spa wouldn't be enough to recover. Speaking of which, would you like to come with me to Twilight? I was going to bring her Galopping Gala dress back and invite her to the Spa too this morning, but Spike told me she wasn't home yet."

"Oh goodness, I really hope she's fine" said Fluttershy with an anxious tone.

"Oh relax, Fluttershy. I believe that her train just had a little delay and she was forced to leave this morning. Still, I don't understand why she wanted to meet that awful mare again; personally, I would lock her in a dungeon and throw the key away".

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little bit about this whole Trixie accident? I mean….after all, she just casted a temporary spell on your mane".

Rarity just removed the pickles from her eyes and turned towards Fluttershy with a serious expression on her face "Nopony messes with my mane, Fluttershy. Nopony!".

"I'm sorry ladies" said the pink pony named Aloe approaching the two mares "But it seems somepony is requiring your presence at the entrance."

Rarity just switched her attention on the earth pony "Pardon me, dear, but could you be so kind to tell this somepony that my friend and I are really busy right now and will not fit to be seen for another hour?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that" the Spa pony replied "They said they wanted to see the both of you immediately."
Fluttershy and Rarity stared at each other for a couple of seconds, both with the same perplex expression on their faces.

SUGAR CUBE CORNER
12:13 P.M.

"I'm sorry Pinkie, could you please go upstairs and check on the babies?"

"Sure thing Mrs. Cake" replied the party pony, laying down a tray of fresh cooked cupcakes and bouncing towards the stairs that leaded to the room of the two baby twins singing a tune between a bounce and the other.

"Oh, and, please, be quiet" Mrs. Cake stopped the pink earth pony "They're supposed to be sleeping".

"Okey dokey lokey" replied Pinkie. She stopped her bouncing mid-air and managed to swiftly land on the floor before leaving the kitchen.

'Sometimes I really wonder how she manages to do such things.' thought Mrs. Cake before starting to frost the cupcakes Pinkie just baked.

This was going to be just another ordinary day at the bakery, with a lot of work to do, and a really short time to look after her children; her husband had to leave for Manehattan that morning to solve a problem concerning the supply of the ingredients for their sweets, and the mare that helped her babysitting the twins, the unicorn Sparkler, was already busy with another couple's child.

It was on times like this that she blessed to have somepony reliable like Pinkie to count on, even if the pink pony tended to act a little oddly sometimes.

Mrs. Cake just finished to display the new threats when the bell of the door started to ring, and the figure of a tiny purple and green figure approached the display window "Oh, hello Spike" she welcomed the baby dragon.

"Good morning Mrs. Cake. Is Pinkie inside?"
"Right over here Spike" Pinkie replied coming out from the kitchen and bouncing toward him "Oh, the twins are still sleeping" she added, passing by Mrs. Cake.

"Thank you very much, darling" Mrs. Cake replied, before heading to the back of the shop to cook some more sweets.

"Hi Pinkie. Here's what you were looking for" said Spike, handing the pink pony a book.

" 'The Most Greatest Pranks Ever Thrown in History, by Jokey du Farce'. Oh, thanks Spike, I can't wait to try some of these with Dashie" replied an overexcited Pinkie Pie.

"Yeah, Twilight told me there are some very creative pranks there; besides, she recommended me to tell you to avoid the chapter where fire is involved".

"Okey Dokey. Hey Spike, do you want a cupcake? It's on the house" Pinkie asked, holding the tray with her mouth and handing it towards the baby dragon.

"Gee, thanks Pin-" started to reply Spike when the bell of the door rung again, and two heavy armored pegasi entered the bakery "Twilight's assistance Spike and the 'Element of Laughter' Pinkie Pie?" one of the two asked them.

"Y…Yes?" Spike anxiously answered "What would Princess Celestia's guards want from us?"

The second soldier started to say "I'm sorry to inform you that there was an…incident in Hoofington, involving the Princess's student protégé and bearer of the 'Element of Magic', Twilight Sparkle".

At the sound of this words, the tray just dropped lifelessly from Pinkie's mouth on the floor, rumbling all over the shop; the noise of the metal tray hitting the ground echoed through the whole shop and made Mrs. Cake shout from the kitchen "Is everything ok, Pinkie?"

"What do you mean there was an incident? How is Twilight? What happened to her? Where is she now?" asked Spike, with an increasing worried tone added to each question.

"Please, we need to hurry." said the first pegasus, opening the door and leading them outside "A chariot is waiting for you. We will personally escort you to Hoofington and inform you about the event. Your other 4 friends were just informed by our companions and are already on the road. The princesses want all of you to be present."

When Spike and Pinkie heard that even the 2 princesses were waiting for them, their fears just got worse, and they jumped on the chariot, which was immediately pulled in the air by the two royal guards.

"Oh Twilight! How much trouble were you in?" Pinkie anxiously whispered to the wind, before one of the two guards started to explain what happened to her friend.

HOOFINGTON - TRIXIE'S CART
THAT SAME DAY - 00:12 A.M.

Almost an hour had passed since Trixie's burst against Twilight, an hour spent thinking if the decision to open her heart to the violet unicorn wasn't just a mistake, if her behaviour towards her wasn't too harsh, if she had done anything good in her whole life, but, most of all, an hour spent crying on her bed, while reminding all the good moments spent with her father.
For all this time, her dog Blacky just stood on her side, curled near her face and occasionally lapping her cheeks, trying to comfort her; suddenly, his ears stood straight hearing the noise of hooves coming towards her master's house.

He immediately stood upright and began to bark towards the door, just moments before someone started to gently knock at it. Trixie wiped away the tears from her eyes and headed to the door "Hush now Blacky!" she ordered her dog while opening to her visitor "If it is you again Twilight, I would no-"

"Pardon me ma'am." Trixie's look was not staring on the violet mare, but on a dark blue coated stallion, with mane and tail really short in length, both salt and pepper colored. He was wearing a black suit, with a dark violet shirt beneath, standing with his shoulder near the doorpost while smoking a cigarette "Can we have a little talk inside?"

Trixie's surprise was soon replaced with concern, sensing that her new guest was a bad lot "I-I'm sorry, but I mistook you for somepony else, so, if you will be so kind to leave…" she said, while closing the door.

"Please, milady" said another voice, coming from a male unicorn, who was holding the door; he had a light orange coat, with a long black mane styled in a ruffled ponytail and with a shaved extended goatee, while his tail was collected by several thin bands.
"We-" he continued, with a strange foreign tone Trixie couldn't well recognise "We do not want to do this the hard way." and he just swung the door open, letting himself and the other stallion inside the cart.

"H-How dare you introducing inside the house of the Great and Powerful Trixie? I could let the both of you arrested for housebreaking. Trixie demands you to leave immediately!" she said, trying to sound more intimidating then she was scared, while her concerns was validated by Blacky, who had started to growl towards the 2 stallions since they showed up towards them.

"Please, Uma, put our house owner in a…more comfortable position, would you?"
"As you wish." the unicorn replied, casting a spell that pushed Trixie on the ground, slamming her on the planks with all of her legs wide open.

"W-What's going on?" Trixie started to scream "What do you want from Trixie?"

"Will you SHUT THE HELL UP?" the earth pony shouted, hitting Trixie in the head with his foreleg, knocking her out. He looked down at the motionless show-mare, and sighed "Why does nopony ever just be quiet and do as I say them?" He then addressed the other pony "Uma, turn over this hovel! I'll wait outside."

Before he could reach the door, Blacky stood in his way, growling in his direction, forelegs bended and ready to attack the strangers that hurt his master. "Piss off, you little squirt!" he said, kicking away the small Jack Russel with no physical effort, sending him fly across the room and letting him bang against the table with a whine of pain, bouncing near Trixie's bed.

"We've already lost too much time. Just move already!"

After a few minutes, Uma reported to his accomplice "Nothing inside!"
Storm sighed "I guess we will have to take an interrogation, but not here. Take her with us, we're leaving!"

OUTSIDE HOOFINGTON - WAREHOUSE
1:10 A.M.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead."

Trixie was brought back to reality by a bucket of cold water just thrown at her. She coughed and tried to move, but she found her hooves were tied to an old steel rusty pillar, and felt that something had been attached to her horn.
She looked around, and found herself in a wide dark room, dust settled all over the place, the sound of rats scampering in the distance, with the only source of natural light coming from the moon, that shone towards some little broken windows located near the roof.

Above her, a lamp was turned on, blinding her for a moment, while a blurred silhouette of a pony just appeared before her. Panic started to raise inside her chest "W-Who are you? What do you want from Trixie?"

"Oh, that's easy to say. My name is Storm Loneshark and I was an…associate, of your father. More specifically, your father came to our organization, some years ago, and asked for a little loan."

"So you are an usurer!" replied Trixie.

"Oh, please. Usurer makes me look like a bad pony. Let's say I'm more like a…generous wheeler dealer. Now you see" the earth pony started to walk around the pillar where Trixie was tied to "your father borrowed a high sum of money from us and, unfortunately, was not able to give it all back before his early departure. The only thing we ask from you is to extinguish your father's debt with us…with a little interest, of course."

Trixie started to laugh ironically "And how is Trixie supposed to do that? In case you didn't notice when you took Trixie from her home, I'm not too well off, and Trixie's father didn't leave her any sum of money."

"Oh, don't think you can fool me." he added, drawing up his face menacingly to Trixie's one "We both know that your father signed a life insurance, many years ago, and designed you as his heir. We've turned your father's house inside out, but were not able to find the contract and that means he somehow managed to send it to you before his death. Now, just tell us where did you keep the money and I'll swear we will release you without a single hair hurt"

Trixie just lost her confidence and was starting to panic "What are you talking about? Trixie knows nothing about this life insurance and my father never sent me any contract."

"Hmm. It seems we are going to force the information out of you. Uma!" Storm called the henchpony, who suddenly appeared to his side "Dammit, stop using those ninja tricks with me, would ya?"

"I'm very sorry, sir. What may I do for you?"

"It seems that our guest here is a little reluctant. Would you please…persuade her to share the information we want?" said Storm, with a grin forming on his mouth.

"Of course, sir" said the unicorn named Uma, bowing before his partner and turning towards Trixie.

"Well, I would like to watch this interrogation, but I have better things to do. Plus, I really can't stand the look of blood and suffer. Oh yeah, for your information, that device attached to your horn is a magic suppressor, just in case you would try any trick to set yourself free. Also, we are several miles away from any built-up area, so shouting for help will be useless, but, on the bright sight, this allows you to scream as much as you want without bothering the neighbours."

"I'll be on the lookout, Uma." he than added, while he was heading to the exit door "And please, try not to exaggerate this time. I would like to see her willing to talk and still alive when I'll come back."

"As you wish, sir" replied Uma, while Storm left. Uma went closer to Trixie, and showed her a smile that was as natural for the stallion as it appeared scary for the mare "I need to apologize for what happened at your home, milady. My partner tends to be a little rude when he doesn't obtain immediately what he wants, but I can ensure you that dragging you here fainted was not on our intention."

Trixie could't explain why, but this hench-pony was creeping her out; he looked so tranquil and polite, and his actions and manners made he look like a gentle-pony, yet, he emanated an unexplainable disturbing aura "W-What are you going to do to Trixie?"

"Oh, you see, milady, as much as I despise the methods used by my partner, I'm just his subordinate, so I have to obey at his commands, and, as he asked me, I am afraid I will have to convince you to cooperate with us" he then lightly sighed "one way or another!"

At those words, Trixie started to heavenly sweat, fear rising inside her every second spent with that scary pony "W-What do you mean with that?"

Uma's expression didn't show any sympathy for the mare, and his eyes were as cold as ice, the kind of eyes of somepony who had already killed another pony… a lot of ponies "Well, you must understand I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice. I never want to hurt anypony, but that's what I did for all my life, and that's the only thing I can do!"

He then took a brief breath and continued "You see, I come from a very distant country, far away in the east, and I was born in a monastery between the mountains, held by a clan of assassins which raised the most talented killers for hire in history for centuries. I spent my first 14 years with a dozen other colts and fillies, training everyday both physically and spiritually."

"One night, the leaders put all of us in the yard we used to exercise and presented us a challenge: 'Today you are going to face your own brothers and sisters, and only one of you will live to see another dawn' they told us, and left us there, killing each other. While most of us were just too shocked or too afraid to even move, others moved quickly, and started to slaughter the other ponies as fast as they could. When one of them, a filly I had a crush on, just launched towards me, with a blood thirsty gaze in her eyes, savouring the moment when she was going to take my life, I acted on instinct, and my horn produced this."

His horn started to glow and a rod of magical energy formed just a few inches away from his right foreleg "This is a Psionic Blade. I used it to stab that little filly through her heart, saving my life. My memories are a little confused about what happened later, but I still remember that, when the sun rose, I was the only one standing in that field, and that I was covered in blood and guts".

Trixie's heart was beating really fast in her chest, and she was almost on the verge of collapsing for the fear.

"I guess" he added, while a sad smile started to form on his face "the only good thing that happened was that I also got my cutie mark that exact same day." As frightened as Trixie was, she couldn't divert her attention from the flank of the stallion; there was a clear representation of the blade of energy the earth-pony was performing in front of her eyes, but it was blood stained, and behind it there was shown a single sprit of blood.

"Now" Uma continued, letting the psionic blade disappear "I've trained for years to master my talent, and I only use it in real battles, when I know that only me or my enemy will survive, so, luckily for you, I will not use it on yourself…still" he added, using his magic to draw up a briefcase to him "I'm afraid I will still have to use some of my personal instruments on you if you'll be unwilling to tell me what Storm wants. So, I'll ask you again….where did you put the life insurance money?"

At this point, Trixie lost all her confidence, her cheeks were bathed in tears, her body was heavenly shaking and the only noise she could hear was the beating of her heart, which started to sound like a jackhammer "Please… Trixie already told you. Trixie knows nothing about those money."

Uma sighed "I guess you leave me no choice, then."

'Why does he always have to waste so much time?'

Storm was starting to get impatience. He already worked with Uma, and knew that he'd already lost a dozen of minutes just to tell their hostage the story of his past, hoping that would be enough to let her cooperate with them. He never asked to the henchpony if the story was actually true or if he just had a wild imagination, and even if this method turned out to be useful in more then one occasion, he still preferred a more direct way of action, kicking the hell out of his hostages until they spilt the beans.

He was going to give Uma just another ten minutes before going back inside, and decided to light another cigarette. It's at that moment that something hit him hard on the nape, making him collapse on the ground, knocking him out.

"Alright, one down." said Twilight, coming out from her hideout "Now I just have to save Trixie."

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 4

Author's Note

This is the raw version of the chapter. Unfortunately, my current editor had been slowed down by IRL issues, and couldn't edit it before.
He said he'll probably send me the edited document soon, but I wanted to release it anyway, so, excuse me if this chapter may have some errors, but English is not my native language. :(
I'll upload the corrected version of this chapter ASAP. If you find some of those errors I was talking about, feel free to point them out