Chapter Ten

It'd been at least an hour of Twilight embracing Trixie as the blue Unicorn drifted in and out of consciousness, utterly exhausted. About forty-five minutes into the hug, she had stopped crying and muttering about how she failed her only, and first, friends. Though she didn't say it, Luna could infer rather easily that she was also frightened.

Being nearly exhausted of energy and seeing Changelings isn't exactly the most comforting situation, but Luna could think of a few others. Like being trapped on the moon for a millennium.

With a hoof rub to her head, the Princess disregarded the thoughts. She didn't need to scowl and let them broil, though once they got to the Changeling hive, or one of them, she'd have to keep herself calm. Slowly getting up and going to Twilight, she said to her, in a hushed tone, "We shall be outside and checking the parameter around our temporary camp site. Once you both are fit for travel, come out."

Twilight nodded, Trixie readjusting her head, a little yawn coming from her. With a blush of embarrassment, Twilight looked back to Luna and said, "Once I get her in a position she can get around, or at least rest comfortably, I'll go out."

Not even bothering to respond, Luna walked out. A little breath that Twilight was holding in released as the Lunar Princesses hard gaze averted from her. Perhaps it was just the annoyances building up and stress of the situation that was supposed to be her vacation that made her upset. For all she knew, Luna was just in a bad mood in mornings.

Looking around the area, Luna's careful eyes, as young as they seemed in the disguise, could detect just about anything moving. Her ears flicked a it at the sound of something moving, and turning left, her body tensing up, she saw a couple rabbits that came out of their burrow.

Sighing, some of the stress flowing out like her breath, Luna was about to attempt to send something, almost anything, to her Sister so that they could get the Royal Guard to help them. But just as she was about to, a stinging sensation radiated from her horn, a shiver moving quickly along as she rubbed at it's base. Apparently, though she had just rested, her magic was still finicky.

That's when she saw the color of her hoof. It was blue. Not the blue that she was used to, but it was now the lighter shade, that Trixie was. She jumped back a bit in surprise. Luna had expected the potion to have worn off before she woke up, possibly when they were being carried. Luckily it hadn't when the Changelings were about, that would've been a whole mess and then some.

Still though, the fact she couldn't even prepare the spell confused her greatly. Looking towards a rock, she focused on it, the rock gaining a faint outline of light blue magic, lifting off the ground. A smile caressed her lips as she saw that her magic was at least still there. Directing her attention to Twilight and Trixie, a thought entered her head.

Perhaps I could see if I can prepare the spell to enter the Dream Realm? It was a long shot, but it should have some reaction even if she could only prepare it for a moment. Brushing the mane out of her eyes, she stared at Trixie intently, her horn feeling as if it would do the spell. However, this ended as a jolt of electricity ran through her, causing her to jump into the air and her mane to frizzle, her eyes opening widely. Her clenched teeth relaxed as she nearly fell over, shaking her head rapidly.

Apparently she couldn't use any spells that Trixie couldn't. Another rub to her forehead as a slight headache bothered her even more. She would ask how the day could get worse, but it was already pretty terrible, having to go and fetch a person who wasn't even supposed to be here, then return her back to her normal realm within a few days. And that's just the biggest problem on her list.

Her main one was how often Trixie seemed to deviate from their plan. Sure, the Changeling incident, she couldn't help more than likely, being how weak she was. At least, compared to an Alicorn such as herself. The few that were bothering her happened to be when she suddenly ''needed'' Twilight for an unprecedented amount of time. Not only was it annoying, but it slowed them down by an hour or longer.

If she just haven't come in the first place, they wouldn't have to bring as many things, or spent so much time at Twilight's home. They could have been gone within a half hour or shorter time. This brought a bit of anger towards the young blue Unicorn, Luna turning herself around and sitting, putting the growing anger on the back burner for now.

After a minute of Luna doing this, Twilight came up behind her with Trixie laying on her back, her front hooves draped over Twilight's sides. With a sheepish grin, Twilight said, "It's the best I can do, and she isn't that heavy. So what's the plan Princess?"

A facade of the normal "perfect" Goddess came upon Luna as she smiled warmly, "Well, we could head to Ponyville once more, or go for Marceline. We could also travel back to Canterlot, if thou'st think it would be an applicable idea."

A smile graced Twilight's features, never mind her frazzled mane as she saw the mask that Luna had worn, for her sake, "Well, we could talk to Celestia. From what I know, she's been wanting to make contact with the Changelings for some time, in the least violent manner for some time!"

Luna had to resist a small scoff, but of course Twilight would be so informal with her mentor. It's not as if she was her Sister or anything. Still, her smile only faltered for a moment, too quickly retrieved for Twilight to notice, "Well, it might be better to get help from her. If we do go, we think that one of us may have to remain behind, case and point, either us or Trixie, due to our similar appearances, the Changelings, and Poison Joke not too long ago..."

Twilight waved her idea away with a small giggle, "Don't worry, Zecora has a remedy to take care of Poison Joke effects, you'll be fine in a little while once we-"

Clearing her throat, Luna responded, "Well, Twilight, the problem is the fact that this is a vacation. We cannot live on a vacation if there are ponies bowing to us and giving us praise over the simplest of things, especially news reporters, do not even get us started on the matter..."

"Oh, right..." Said Twilight, confirming what she heard. Twilight then sighed, "Well, I'm sure we could explain what happened, let's just avoid Zecora's hut then and get on a train to Canterlot."

Once more, Luna clarified a problem, "But then they'd be suspicious about two of the same pony getting on the train."

Twilight then smiled. It was a smile that dripped with slight malice, as well as her usual strange, scheming look to it. Even though Luna was in a bad mood, it made her smile nervously, her pupils shrinking a bit, "What is thy strange staring for, Twilight? It is uncomfortable when you look at us in such a manner. Cease at once."

"No, absolutely not! We will not do this plan, it is utterly hair brained and ridiculous!" Exclaimed Luna as they walked to Ponyville, already about halfway there by the time Twilight had finished explaining her "brilliant" plan.

Twilight giggled, surprisingly light hearted after what happened with Trixie, "Of course you would say that Luna, you're the one that gets the bad end of the deal. Don't worry though, I'll use a sleep spell so that we can wake you up on the train when we get close, or when we get to Princess Celestia."

Groaning and facehoofing as she continued to walk along, Luna retorted, "But it is completely foalish! Thou'st wish we stuff ourselves inside a bag, which, pray tell why, thou hast withheld how we will do so. And more so, thy hope of this ludicrous plan is't that we do not get spotted, or suspicions raised by our loyal subjects? It's tomfoolery!"

Thinking for a moment, Twilight shrugged, "Now that you've summarized it all, along with a few hurtful insults to my brilliant plan, do you feel any better about it?"

The way that Twilight accentuated the word 'brilliant' made Luna's temptation to blast the Unicorn into next Tuesday apparent. Only to herself, of course. She was very good at keeping her temper, and if not, then mildly grumpy, "NO!"

However, her voice, though an octave lower than the Royal Canterlot Voice, rung true in expressing her dislikes of the plan. Immediately, Twilight's ears tilted back a bit due to the sudden yelling as she smiled nervously and backtracked, "Right, right, then uh- How about we put Trixie in there instead? I mean, she's already asleep and-"

For a moment, about a half of Luna's anger showed it's ugly head. She watched Twilight with careful, calculating eyes and an expression that, to an untrained eye, would see a strange calmness. Of course, the Unicorn knew better, and saw the annoyance, impatience and most of all, frustration as Luna walked up to Twilight, staring her down, "Twilight Sparkle, we do not appreciate such innate annoyances from you of all ponies. We wished simply to have a nice, calm evening and a few days of peace and quiet."

The sternness in Luna's voice reigned past her fake form's vocal cords, and if Twilight wasn't looking to the disguised Alicorn, she wouldn't have mistaken her for Trixie for even a moment. Though she knew that the Lunar Princess wasn't done, she attempted to open her mouth and beg forgiveness. Mostly due to Luna getting extremely irritable from Twilight being so care free and joking. She stood straight, comprehensive about how Luna was going to proceed and to a point, fearful.

Putting a hoof on her chest, which almost dared Twilight to talk out of line, she continued, "We are not finished. Then we had to endure so many setbacks, we were almost a day late. Even more so, our party was joined by a pony that is such an inconvenience, as much as it is painful to say, that we wish they'd have left us be. Our 'friend' Marceline, who does not know the dangers of this land, has gone missing. Your new found companion, as it were, exhausted themselves to save our lives while we had overworked ourselves. We hast been told to go on a vacation, and yet we are forced to go trudging after somepony we barely even know. Then thou, in all of thy wisdom, comes to us and begins to jest with us while thou carries thy broken and battered ally on thy back, conversing on idiotic plans of hiding in luggage bags?"

Gulping, Twilight lifted a hoof, as if to step back, but her limbs felt cemented into the ground while Luna gave the harsh speech. Even with the potion, it seemed that portions of Luna's form still remained, including her Royal Canterlot Voice, if not less loud, and the ability to freeze anypony in their place if she got angry. And boy, was she angry. The comments she made definitely tore down the mood that Twilight was attempting to put up, and it most certainly hit her hard when she mentioned Twilight's friend Trixie and her 'wisdom'. While yes, she was probably just blowing off steam, it hurt none the less.

Luna continued her rant after a moment of staring at Twilight, her expression changing to that of slight anger, though Twilight knew better, "More over, does thou hast the simplest idea of how soul rending this small event will be? Not only could it cause more problems between the shaky truce between Changeling and Equestrian empires-" Wait, what? When did Queen Chrysalis make any sort of agreement with Luna and Celestia? Twilight ignored the thought and compromised to ask later as the Princess took a second to collect her thoughts, "-Which only serves to bring more destruction of trust and ability to live in peace, thou stands before us, talking of 'plans' and other such idiocy! How doe'st thou feel, knowing that thy jests are making fun of treaties and possible peace? Does thy mind have any such thought to explain thy actions, disconcerning the fact your friend was in tears not long ago? Do you!?"

The rant left Twilight with her mouth half open and her irises shrunk a bit, and Luna with a glare and frown on her face. Something about what just happened made Twilight not only fear the Princess, but feel much lower under her. More than usual. She was always courteous around the two royal sisters, but to hear one of them list off the problems of the past week, and then begin disgracing herself due to how she seemed to lose the importance of what was happening.

For what seemed like the second time, the first being when Trixie began balling in her hooves, Twilight felt dread like a lead weight in her gut. It wasn't a question on Luna's sincerity anymore, now it was a question to her. Do I really have any idea what's going on with this? Am I just making matters worse?

Just as Luna began the rant, she ended it and pulled her hoof away.

Then, she felt the anger just grow more. It didn't worry her, as she has had a lot of anger to be built up over her time, even recently. Not only has Luna withheld her anger, she nearly packs it into a nice, tight little jar inside herself in order to remain calm. Twilight just had the misfortune of tipping that jar and cracking the lid open.

She doesn't deserve this, thought Luna, as she looked between her retracted hoof and Twilight. At that very moment, the authority and frustration vanished, as well as something that the Princess couldn't figure out for the life of her, though it certainly felt familiar.

Taking a small step back, she let out a light breath and said, in a hushed tone, "We are...sorry for this outburst, Twilight. We are just upset with how our situation has been pertained to what was meant to be a relaxing time for us..."

Even after the almost whispered apology, Twilight took a second to take in everything that was shouted at her. After a minute, she came back from the gears in her head turning, albeit slowly. After she came back to the land of the living, metaphorically of course, she realized she'd just frozen up and imagined a few scenarios of being launched off of the planet, locked in a dungeon, or locked in the planet, in a dungeon.

It took a bit of courage for Twilight to speak up as she asked a somewhat obvious question, "Why didn't you...tell me about the state of things before?"

Without answering her, Luna turned and started moving once more, waving Twilight along. She complied, following behind the Night Goddess as she spoke, "Because we had not seen reason to involve thee in that particular matter of the problems at Canterlot. My Sister did not want me getting involved either for...various reasons."

A sour feeling rose inside Luna while she explained, but this only heightened Twilight's curiosity as she asked, timidly, "Well, i-if it's...no trouble...what is the reason?"

The Princess did not answer her question, and simply continued moving, the feeling growing the more she thought over the sequence of events that brought about such reasons. Many ponies would wish to know them, but out of the interest of herself and her public appearance, she decided to not answer Twilight's question.

This caused Twilight to continue to wonder why the Princess was so tight lipped about the situation on the Changelings. She'd spoken with Celestia on them, and while she did offer some insight, she still didn't mention any sort of negotiations. Still, Celestia had definitely been more informational than her friend Luna. But, reasons were reasons, and pushing her right now wouldn't be a good idea.

They continued their walk in silence, Luna silently wondering how she was going to approach her Sister while Twilight thought of another plan, one not so strange this time around.

Just as they passed Twilight's house, Luna waited on the back of the building as Twilight walked in with Trixie on her back, rummaging through some items to get some smelling salts. After a few minutes of coughing from the stench, Trixie was awake, but only half conscious, and Twilight had to lead her around in her drowsy and barely thinking state.

Through a small series of events, Luna had begrudgingly decided to go along with Twilight's idea, at least partially. She would go on the train as well, but a different one. Since two trains usually ran to Canterlot, it was no surprise she greatly liked the idea of going on a separate train instead of being stuffed in a bag.

Just as they neared the station however, Luna held Twilight up and she had to lean Trixie against a wall, telling her to stay put. Going behind a building, Luna said, with trepidation, "Being as it were, we will have difficulty going to Canterlot as is, but being there, it is impossible to avoid attention. What thou hast to do is use a spell to temporarily destroy the effects of the potion that I drank and, hopefully, the poison joke as well, as it reacted with the drink."

A smile found it's way on Twilight's face as she asked, curiously, "Okay, that's fine. I don't...know that spell though. I read the book it's found in, 'Advanced Dispelling Mechanics, volume two', but I couldn't really...get it right. Last time I tried was when Pinkie accidentally made a love potion and put it in Rainbow Dash's birthday cake..."

Twilight's smile faded a bit as her eye twitched, her pupils shrinking. Suddenly, she was back when Rainbow had taken a bite of the cake, seemingly normal for a few moments, as everypony seemed to be after eating. Twilight had refrained from eating the treat, not wanting to until she was sure that Pinkie didn't put anything in it, which she does when it's a private party with her friends. Nothing dangerous, but always insane.

That aside, she remembered, vividly, when suddenly everypony's eyes locked onto each other, Pinkie diving behind cover and returning with a pot on her head and an overturned table, waving around a rubber spatula. Then, the room was a blur, her five friends, plus a few other ponies, one of which with an electric blue mane and bright red eyes which grinned down at her with a predatory smile.

Not only was it a fluke that they all seemed to take effect at the same time, but it was also a fluke that the one pony, she believed that was named Octavia, dragged her out of there with only a hickey, a light bite mark on her left fore leg, a bit of saliva on her forehead, and a lot of unconscious ponies in the store that would be extremely confused. She still wondered how in the world Pinkie saw everything before the others, but it probably had something to do with the backs of her mane and tail twitching violently.

She shuddered. Dark times.

However, Twilight was brought out of her flashback by Luna's concerned voice reaching her, also lightly tapping her shoulder, "Hm? What? Oh, sorry! I just...stuff. So, what uh, what's the plan for me to learn it?"

The Princess studied her for a moment, slightly concerned for the Unicorn's sanity due to her mumbling things and twitching, before suddenly coming to. With a shake of her head, she decided to tell Celestia later, "A-Anyways, the point is that we can give you some of our knowledge of it, but..."

Twilight's lips formed an 'o', her eyes widening as she realized what Luna was saying. While it wasn't all that common for ponies to transfer knowledge in such a way, it only works if both ponies have the ability to cast said spell, but it was very...intimate looking.

Gulping nervously, Twilight said, "S-So you're saying we have to..." A blush formed on her cheeks as she trailed off.

The Princess laughed awkwardly, nodding, "Yes, we must touch our horn to yours and transfer it through a few moments of magical, and physical contact. And, thou must also give us some sort of information for it to work properly."

Not only was Twilight blushing and looking stunned, but the Lunar Princess was refusing to meet her gaze, a slight blush of her one on her cheeks. If anyone had seen this, they certainly would have gotten the wrong idea.

With a small flourish, a small light on the end of Luna's horn was seen, the same color as her magic would normally be. Begrudgingly, Twilight stepped up to her and leaned her forehead forward, looking down as Luna did the same, about two seconds of contact being made.

Something like an electric shock ran through both of them as a gasp came from Twilight, she stepped back once it was complete. Luna shot her eyes wide open. This definitely dispelled our sleepiness. Thought Luna as she rubbed at the base of her horn, the stinging returning for a few moments.

Twilight shook her head, the blood flow to her cheeks slowing down and coming to a halt as she calmed, sighing. Luna remained much more tactful, turning and walking towards Trixie with Twilight right behind her.

But as they neared the corner, they found that Trixie was waiting against the wall, seemingly a lot more awake then beforehand. She looked to them, a solemn look on her face, and Twilight knew just about why. She put a hoof around Trixie, giving her a light hug, "Don't worry, we're gonna get her back, remember, you did the best you could."

"Yeah..." Muttered Trixie as she then shut her mouth, contemplating.

The Night Princess had received a hooded cloak to wear so the three could get to the train station, though only Twilight went in to buy tickets. Incidentally, the clothing only made her look more suspicious, but Twilight simply decided to let her think she was being stealthy. After all, she looked adorable with the thing around her. Not that anypony will ever hear me say that. Twilight told herself.

Trixie clamored onto one of the trains, Twilight following after saying goodbye to Luna, and arranging to meet up behind some buildings in Canterlot's outer area to use the spell, as Twilight would build it up and see if she could get it right along the train ride. Luna then waited on a bench for the train that would come shortly after Twilight's.

Once on the train, the conductor began to ring the bells, calling, "All aboard! Train is leaving the station!"

Twilight yawned lightly, looking to Trixie, who buried her face in her hooves on the table between them. She looked absolutely disheveled, disoriented, dis-everything. It made Twilight sigh, leaning forward and gently putting a hoof onto her's in an attempt to help her friend.

Meanwhile, as the train left, Luna took her hood off, no longer needing it now that the train had left, and waited patiently, if not irritably, for the next one.

It had been two hours since the train left, Luna only a half hour or so away from them, as Twilight watched Trixie carefully. It seemed that she was still torn up a lot by not being strong enough to save her friends, just like Twilight does. A small realization, whether it was right or wrong, dawned on Twilight.

Trixie looked up to her. She tried to beat her, if not to impress her, then to one up the lavender Unicorn and feel accomplished. Perhaps there really is a more deep seeded issue than just not having friends? Twilight thought to herself in silence, not sure how to approach the situation. On one hoof, it was Trixie, an arrogant show mare who seemed to desire nothing more than publicity.

But on the other...it was Trixie. The same Unicorn who nearly fizzled herself out of magic the night before protecting her friends, who almost begged Twilight to help her, and who Twilight held crying, in her hooves, sobbing about not being fast enough, good enough, strong enough.

Her thoughts trailed off, and before she had a chance to stop herself, she asked quietly, "Trixie, why are you so...upset?"

The blue Unicorn, her face relatively normal other than looking tired, sighed and said, "Why do you think, Twilight?"

Oh no, not another rant. Just as Twilight began to wonder how many ponies she managed to make angry per day, she was interrupted by Trixie glaring at her for a moment and then laying her head back down.

Leaning her head against the window, she sighed inwardly and spoke quietly to herself, "Gonna be a half hour..."

Author's Note

Now that we're getting the story really moving along, I'm getting really excited for the more fun parts of it. I hope you all enjoy, have a good morning/day/evening/night!

P.S I might have to change to the 'Mature' rating for later chapters the way this is going, gee.