Chapter Seven

A gentle breeze blew over the leaves and other such flora of the dark, and usually a strange, or perhaps common creature dashed through the grass, or from tree to tree. A few birds scattered from the side of a tree when the crunch was heard as a few more followed, the hooves of a certain pony making quite a bit of noise.

Luna, disguised as a random Unicorn, was walking through the Everfree while keeping a keen eye out in case anything decided it wanted to get a meal, or attack. Marceline was hanging back a bit, mostly unbidden in terms of moving other than when she wouldn't pay attention and hit a tree branch with a quiet thud.

Sighing, Luna looked up to the sky and saw the moon was closer to the horizon than she would've suspected, while it wasn't horrendously close, the point was that she wanted to get somewhere to camp before she got almost too tired to carry on. She whistled to Marceline, a short and stout call to tell her to keep up.

Within moments, Marceline was at her side once more, the look on her face obviously bored as she looked her guitar over, which the Lunar Princess quickly said, in a hushed whisper, "Remember, do not play thy instrument, it could cause any matter of creature to attack us, and we cannot defend ourselves very well at the moment."

Marceline responded with a nod and a small grunt of annoyance. It was no surprise Marceline wasn't extremely patient, but the fact that she was so impatient truly did make her absolutely riveting company. Luna turned her neck slightly, bending it downwards which made it give a small crack and a audible sigh of relaxation.

There were always little rustles in the bushes and trees, but she tried to pay them no heed. Of course she wasn't being stupid about said noises, she still tried her best to spot any trouble before it came close, but worrying about every little thing would cause her to become paranoid, and paranoia could cause her to get herself or Marceline hurt.

Eventually, she slowed to a stop, looking around, the surrounding area more of a clearing. The trees parted, letting the gentle glow of the Moon caress Luna's fake form, as well as Marceline's. Turning to her companion, Luna asked, "Does't thou wish to spend the night in this clearing so we will not have to travel all the way to the home of Twilight Sparkle?"

Not the best in terms of words and etiquette, Marceline simply responded with a shrug of her shoulders and a bored tone of voice, "Sure, whatever."

Luna's face contorted for a moment to one of annoyance before she sighed, reluctantly annoying the less-so yet apparently royal woman. She sat down, her magic levitating the tent out as she pulled the string out from around it, letting it burst open and push a few fallen leaves away.

The tan colored tent was flat due to not being set up, and Luna quickly got to work, or would have, but forgot to remember to bring a hammer or something to set the nails in. She turned to Marceline with a sheepish smile, "Erm, well, as it turns out, we do not have the proper tools to set the tent. Does thou have one to spare?"

A shake of her head was all Marceline had to say, and with a grumble, Luna's horn lit up against as she took hold of the nail. It would most likely hurt a bit, but she'd be able to rest after four are set it. A grunt game from her as the nail was slowly pushed into the soil, and once it was all the way in the aura around the top, which was the only visible part, dissipated as she moved to the next one.

The simple process went on until the fourth one, in which on half way in, Luna's horn began to ache worse by the second. Another quarter and then Luna fell onto her stomach, a few beads of sweat going down her forehead as she gasped. It wasn't permanent, and she'd be fine after some rest, but she wanted a tool instead for a reason.

In a fairly quick fashion, Marceline rushed over and began to kneel down beside Luna, a light concern obvious in her voice, "Luna, are you alright? Do you need something?"

Shaking her head, Luna sighed, slowly standing herself up again, "No, no we're fine, no need to worry. Simply over exhaustion of our magic takes time to build itself once more."

Marceline looked towards the offending nail and, with a shapely rock she picked up, she hammered it into the ground. It didn't take much, and she doubted that the Princess would be able to do even that, so she nudged Luna into the tent, with the Princess of the Night giving quiet protests of being the more 'responsible' one of the two.

Inside the tent, it seemed to be only slightly larger than on the outside, and there were three bedrolls. Luna half-collapsed half-laid down onto one of them, the saddlebag being slipped off and set to the side by Marceline's careful and pale hands.

Looking outside for a few moments, Marceline decided it didn't matter much right now and zipped up the tent door, knowing she'd be going back soon, so it was little to worry about, hopefully.

A blue mare, shockingly looking like Luna's disguise, trotted through the mostly empty field. Where was she going, you may ask? Well, the field itself was uneventful, but the, usually, sleepy town up ahead was not. While it would take another day or so to get there, Trixie was making her plan.

One of the grandest plans of them all, and it revolved around Twilight Sparkle, though not how it usually does.

She smiled to herself, talking in third person like always, "Trixie shall try a different approach to her earlier plans. Yes, indeed, she shall be successful this time around, for she is the Great and Powerful Tixie!"

Her hooves were raised into the air, as if fireworks or cheering crowds were around her. She then realized how silly she seemed, and, with a blush of embarrassment she took to trotting at an even pace, avoiding all the malicious-looking valleys and mountains.

However, no matter how long she forced herself to walk, the moon was a nagging reminder of what time it was, and how heavy her body was whenever she took a simple sit down. Trixie groaned lightly, annoyed at the implications of her tired body. Not only would she be at the town much later than she expected if she continued on after resting, but Trixie had spent too long planning to just stop.

After another half hour of walking, she finally fell forward, her front hooves over her head and her body splayed a bit on the cool grass. Perhaps simply finding a comfortable place for rest would be a good idea. But, because of her sometimes irrational behavior, Trixie had simply ignored the almost-necessity to bring a tent. How could anyone expect the Great and Powerful Trixie, of all ponies, to find an inn to stay at!

Not only was it irritating to try and go find one, it would demean her ego below it's dangerously high levels, and that she just couldn't have. Well, she wouldn't have it, if she didn't absolutely need sleep at that very moment. With a begrudging body and mindset, she turned herself around and walked off towards a small roadside motel type of housing she had passed about an hour ago. Funny, they had offered to help, but she of course refused.

At some point, Trixie knew she'd have to deal with her ego, especially when she went to go see Twilight, it always led to her downfall. But for now, she treated herself as well as she wished too. But only for now.

With a triumphant smirk, over what she had no idea, but Trixie continued on her way towards the motel with an air of confidence about her.

Celestia's sun made it's slow ascent up above the horizon, the beams of light shining against a random tent in the middle of a forest. The Princess grumbled and turned on her side, still fast asleep, but the feeling of heat was coming from a different source other than the two arms wrapped around her, as well as the semi-cold body against her back. Marceline, however, was fairly awake, small lines under her eyes as she yawned, slowly unwrapping herself from Luna's body and sat up.

Looking around the tent, she saw nothing quite important to look over, or be worried about, so she elbowed Luna lightly. As much as she was worried about the Princess, she knew that worst comes to worst, they go back to Canter-whatever it is and get her checked out by a doctor, or her sister Celestia.

In either case, Marceline then moved over to the saddle type thing and began to look it over, making sure it wasn't harmed in any way. As she looked through the random assortment of items, she did happen to find the red cloth, cut up and seemingly especially for herself.

Looking over to Luna, the blue Alicorn's body beginning to stir, she sighed with a bit of unhappiness due to being a bit of a burden on the Princess of the Night. Taking up the red cloth she separated a small rag from it and put the rest away into the pocket, drinking the pigment out of it slowly.

At an extremely slow pace, Luna began waking herself up, she stood on her front hooves, however shaky as they were. Looking around just as Marceline did, once she didn't see a fault she collapsed onto the bedroll again and yawned, her eyes seeming extremely tired, no matter the fact they slept at least eight hours, which is more than she usually got.

Luna shook her head a bit to get her head not-so ready to pass out again, and she did the same for the rest of her body slowly. The large wings fluffed out slightly, Princess Luna stretching by placing her frontal hooves forward and pushing her back hooves backward. A slightly loud 'crack' resounded as she did so, showing the fruits of her stretching.

Sitting up, finally, Luna looked over to Marceline with half-open eyes, "Good morning to you, Marceline."

While her usually royal tone was now diminished, as she was both generally tired and she had failed to not exhaust herself once more. Thankfully it wasn't to the level of when she was on her balcony, or she would've possibly been hurt badly, or at least her magic would've been damaged.

Marceline offered a small nod in answer and put the now almost white cloth into the little pocket satchel on the saddle. Luna was about to use her magic to levitate the potion over to herself, but stopped herself and instead asked Marceline, as she was closer, "Marceline, could you reach into our satchel and find the potion we use to disguise our royal appearance?"

With a shrug, Marceline said, "Sure."

After a few minutes of bumbling about, and reaching into the wrong pockets and not exactly understanding Luna's sometimes slurred speech, Marceline eventually found the clear-looking bottle and handed it to Luna. Uncorking it, the Princess downed a little gulp, her muzzle scrunching up for only a moment.

The changes began once more, this finally waking the Princess up from her not very deserved sleep.

Standing up, now able to without puncturing the tent, she unzipped the tent door and walked out, yawning once more but in a different voice, her mane and tail obviously messy and not very well kept. Of course, they're better than they were beforehand when she hadn't changed, but Luna didn't care much for aesthetics, that was mostly her Sister's job.

Calling over the Marceline, she sighed, "Come now Marceline, let us get a move on, the faster we depart the easier we will arrive to the nice little hamlet of Ponyville."

Marceline came out of the tent with the saddlebag, quick to move under the shade of a tree, holding it under one arm and gently setting it against the ground, "What about the tent, are we just going to leave it here?"

Looking back, she then made an 'Oh' noise and silently began pulling the small spikes out of the ground, letting the tent deflate. Marceline snickered lightly but Luna didn't care much, simply wishing to get this chore over with. As soon as the tent collapsed, she took the little almost plastic-like spikes and put them in one of the many pockets of her saddlebag, the tent itself being rolled up with some effort.

Holding it in place with her hoof, a tired Luna asked Marceline, "Could thy use the string to tie the temporary shelter so we need'st not to buy another?"

Blowing a bit of hair out of her eyes, Marceline just floated over, taking the string and began to wrap it tightly but make a simple knot so it wouldn't be hard to undo.

As soon as this was over with, Luna pulled it up and set it in her saddlebag, she then requested once more, "Could you kindly set this on our backs, we simply can't at the moment..."

With a sigh of fake annoyance, Marceline moved over and picked it up, with some effort as it proved to be heavier than it was before somehow, and set it on Luna's back. As soon as it was in place she took off on a slow pace of walking, Marceline taking a moment to catch up, but only a moment.

After a minute they had settled on a semi-slow pace down through the Everfree, Marceline having to intentionally avoid the sun's harmful rays. It took Luna a half hour, almost as they reached the edge of the Everfree, to notice this and stopped, looking Marceline over, "You're avoiding the light, so we can only assume...wait, does the light bother you?"

A laugh come from Marceline, however it only lasted a few seconds before she deadpanned at her, "No, of course not, it's not like I'm a vampire or anything."

Luna then smiled a bit and turned, she continued on her way, "Then there's no use for us to worry. Come on then."

Grumbling to herself, Marceline let her slight ego get the better of her and she didn't respond, until they passed Zecora's home and the trees began to become much more sparse than the middle of the woods, and she eventually had to begin stopping and going around the sun bathed areas in order to avoid the painful burning.

Marceline attempted to gain Luna's attention on the matter, but she continued smiling, a bit smugly, acting a bit childish as she decided it was payback for her snooping around in the Princess's room. Finally, Marceline had to make a quick jump to the left, knocking into Luna, whom wasn't steady on her hooves in the first place. She fell forward and on her side, a small yet steep hill welcoming her descent.

Or it would've, if Marceline hadn't quickly let her guitar hang from the sash and taken hold of Luna's back hooves. A yelp escaped her as she frantically yelled at Marceline, only a few octaves away from the Royal Canterlot voice, "Marceline! Pull us up this instant!"

Fright was indeed in her voice, though Marceline had no idea why she was so scared when there was just a small, albeit steep hill. Other than that, there were just some flowers, weird blue flowers. Though, she didn't understand, Luna most certainly did as her frontal hooves flailed about uselessly.

A smile crept up on Marcelines lips as she said in a slow, teasing tone, "Oh, I don't know, the sun is getting in my eyes, I might just forget for a second..."

Gulping, Luna tried her best to look at Marceline, but failed and let her head hang downwards, "Marceline, thou does not understand the predicament, those flora are magical and they can cause strange things to happen to a pony's body please you must not-!"

A quiet, "Oops" left Marceline as she hovered downwards a bit to stop the fall from being too painful and let go of Luna. She let out a loud yelp, a few grunts, and then a large gust of air left her lungs. Immediately, she stood, looking around the flowers and absolutely horrified. Well, not absolutely, but it was on more of an 'Oh sweet mother what will happen' sort of way.

Marceline floated down, careful to avoid the said flowers and snickered at Luna, whom looked up with a pout and slight glare on her face. She jumped up, grabbing Marceline's legs with her front hooves and pulled her down into the flowers with herself, the Vampire Queen's base guitar slipping out from her strap and landing safely in the brush. Marceline then gasped and they both rolled about comically, one trying to escape and the other trying to get her almost buried in the blue flowers.

Eventually they ended up out of the patch, Marceline giving one final shove and Luna landing on her back just a foot away and a bit dazed. They both stood up, looked at each other, and huffed. Luna reached into her bag and pulled out an umbrella, handing it to Marceline, "Here, thou may use the device to keep the sun off of thy form."

Wordlessly, and with a bit of frusturation almost visible in the air around them, they continued forward, both of them having a bit of dirt on their hair and fur, or in Marceline's case, clothes and skin.

Luna knew they'd have to reverse the effects, though it might not have an effect on Marceline, it certainly would on Luna. Perhaps Twilight knew where to get the herbs and such. Moving forward, Luna decided that it would be a very long day.

A purple cape with stars on it was swaying a bit in the wind, the Library now in sight of the Great and Powerful Trixie. She smirked, making her way towards it with confidence around her like bees to honey.

As soon as she walked up, she heard a small commotion inside, and chuckled lightly to herself, deciding it would be absolutely amazing to pop in unannounced and surprisingly. She cleared her throat, ready to say, or rather yell her opening, her magic taking hold of the door as it suddenly flew open. Even though it was already a bit open, she still pretended as if she blew it off it's hinges and hopped inside, extending her forelegs in the air, "Behold, it is the Great and Powerful-"

Twilight's voice rang out, with a tinge of worry and a metric ton of confusion, "Trixie?"

Sighing, Trixie went back on all fours and said, "You know Twilight, you could at least let Trixie finish her opening before-"

Finally actually taking a look inside the home, Trixie saw two things that confused her, and shocked her. One, there was an bipedal alien floating in the air with a guitar of some sort, staring at her with some shock and holding an umbrella. Two, there was another her who had her jaw open wide in shock, small guttural noises escaping her as she apparently tried to make an explanation.

Twilight, Trixie, and Luna all looked at each other with forms of slight fright and extreme confusion. Immediately though, the real Trixie tackled Luna to the ground and nearly proclaimed, "Changeling!"

However, she only got to the point of, "Changel-" before a loud 'thud' was heard, and her unconscious form fell on top of Luna's, the back of Marceline's bass having smacked her on the top of the head just hard enough. Twilight was aghast, the door slowly shutting by the end of Marceline's guitar as she cleared her throat and said, "So uh...what's up?"

Author's Note

Aha, ho ho, my attempts at comedy are absolutely hysterical are they not.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, took a bit to get done and it's not perfect, but I tried. Trixie will be a recurring character, there will be more than one relationship *cough cough* and there will be more than one person or two people being followed at times. It's all a matter of time, my friends.
In the mean time, stay tuned, and have a nice morning/afternoon/night!