Chapter 1: Fork in the road.
Trixie was sitting at a local café in the small city of Shetland that rested on the northern boarder of Equestria. Shetland was more of a large town than a city, but the locals preferred “city” to town—so it stuck. Trixie had just finished her show a few hours ago and decided to use the donations she got to get a bite to eat. The ponies of this city were nice for the most part, only a couple of naysayers, and this place was far away enough that nopony had heard of Trixie or the events of what happened in Ponyville, so it was the perfect place to start anew.
Overall Trixie was rather pleased with how the show had gone. She remembered her lessens from Ponyville and didn’t go out of her way to embarrass any naysayers that didn’t have it coming, and she wasn’t too egotistical. Still though, a sharp twinge of shame came over her when she remembered all the lies of heroic deeds she told up there. How easy it was to fall back into bad habits. None of the lies were like the Ursa Major one, but they were lies all the same and no amount of Trixie’s hay and wheat smoothie was going to get rid of that shame (not that it stopped her from trying).
Still though this place was nice, the weather was on the cold side, but the ponies were nice. They actually liked her, or at least her show. It would appear they didn’t have many magicians here, just singers and comedians so a magic show was new and refreshing for them. One pony actually hired Trixie to perform at her little fillies’ birthday party. Sigh, Is this really what the GREAT and POWERFULL Trixie has been reduced to: little fillies’ birthday parties.
At this point Trixie tried to look around at the local ponies and noticed that there weren’t many, if any, unicorns around. It would appear the population was mostly pegasi, followed closely by earth ponies with only a hoof full of unicorns to be found. That’s when she noticed that one of the ponies sitting at a table near her had left his newspaper, and since there was no sign of him coming back for it, Trixie decided to catch up on some current events. It was a local paper, but Trixie noticed the main article on the front-page plain as day. “New Equestrian Princess.” She froze in horror as she recognized the pony in the photo.
“Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie whispered under her breath as she looked at the photo of her would be rival, now with wings. The article went on to tell of the new princess and her life up to this point, daughter of nobility, child prodigy, sister to the Captain of the royal guard, personal student of Princess Celestia, Element of Magic, defeater of Nightmare Moon AND Discord. It also briefly mentioned the Ursa Minor incident but luckily didn’t seem to mention Trixie at all. It also didn’t bring up the incident where Trixie took over the town with the Alicorn Amulet, either. Before, hearing this kind of information would make Trixie scared, or angry with envy, but right now all Trixie felt was discouraged.
Trixie had once thought that she and Twilight were rivals, and that one day Trixie would be able to return to Ponyville and have a friendly competition with her-- maybe even come out on top. But now? Even without Twilight’s ascension into demi-goddom, Trixie knew there was no coming out on top, that no matter how hard she tried, or trained, or learned, Trixie would never be able to stack up next to Twilight. Twilight was so out of Trixie’s league it wasn’t even funny--like an ant trying to fight a lion.
Trixie felt worse now then she had ever felt in her entire life.
There was no reason for this either. No reason Trixie couldn’t have been just as successful. She was born a unicorn, had a special talent in magic itself. Ok, her parents weren’t rich enough to send her to a fancy school like the Celestia’s institute for gifted unicorns, or anywhere like it, but they weren’t poor either. So what if she made a few mistakes in her life, was that all it took? Merely a few mistakes to separate one from godmode and performing birthday parties?
No, it’s easy for anypony to see this was Twilight’s destiny, she earned it. Trixie on the other hoof was just … just a failure it felt like. Tears started to grow in Trixie’s eyes.
“Ahh, but what you fail to realize, is that nopony can earn their destiny. It is always something given to us.”
Trixie snapped out of her thought by this new voice’s apperance, and looking up from the paper. She saw a pony sitting across from her at the table who wasn’t there a few seconds ago. He was a rather thin unicorn who’s horn was on the reddish side, despite his coat being a dark grey color. His mane and tail were a very dark black, almost if they were made of darkness itself. His eyes though, were the weirdest--they were red and black, with the whites of his eyes replaced with a sickly green.
He grinned a wicked grin that showed off his sharpened teeth and began to speak again. “Startled are you? Well don’t worry, I am here to help you, Trixie.”
“W-Who are you?” Trixie asked.
“Who I am doesn’t matter. Who matters here is you, and what you decide to do this day.”
“W-What do you mean? AND what did you mean about the destiny thing!?”
“I am going to give you a choice this day, and the choice you choose today will affect the rest of your life greatly and powerfully. As for the destiny thing, I meant exactly what I said: a pony is given their destiny, nopony earns it. It is to say that it doesn’t matter if you work hard or not, you will still get the same destiny either way. Let’s take that Twilight for example,” The dark pony took the paper Trixie was reading, “She was born of nobility, had connections with the royal family, was gifted with an unnatural amount of magic at a young age, and was educated by the Princess herself. This pony did nothing to earn what she got, she was crafted to get this, practically breed to receive this honor. Hee hee hee. It would be like saying that the clay earned its way to becoming a pot.”
“Are you trying to say that no matter what Trixie does, this life right now is the best Trixie will do?”
He said, “In a way, yes. If you were to accept your destiny, you could become very happy here in this city.”
“Happy?”
“Yes happy. The ponies of this place rather like you--you could easily get a few real friends. I also happen to know for a fact that one of the few unicorns that lives here in this city of mudponies and pigeons, has taken a fondness for you. He works in the post office, I believe, and would make a good husband. You could settle down and have a few foals of your own and perform magic shows and birthday parties on the side. I know it doesn’t sound like the most fulfilling life out there, but it is one you could be content with and find happiness.”
“H-how do you know all this” Trixie asked hesitantly.
He chuckled, his horn glowing slightly. “I know a great many things, but the easiest way to explain would be to just say MY special talent lets me know the matters of other ponies’ hearts. So over time, I learned how other ponies’ feelings would interact with one another given the right circumstances.”
Trixie brought her hoof to her mouth, almost chewing the tip of it. She looked down to try and make sense of what this stranger was saying. “Do, do you really think Trixie could find happiness here?”
“Happiness goes to those who accept their destiny… but Glory.” Trixie’s eyes shot back up to see the Dark stranger finish his sentence, “Glory goes to those who defy it,” he said with his wicked grin. “Those are the options I give you Trixie, stay and live here happily, or accept my offer and obtain glory everlasting with your own hoofs.”
Trixie’s dropped down from the table, and stared at the ground. This was too much to take in so suddenly, so randomly. She couldn’t figure out what to do, say, or even react to something like this.
“I just wanted you to know this, that your destiny lays here in this pathetic excuses for a city, but GLORY still awaits you in the Frozen North.”
Trixie’s head came back up to see that the dark stranger had disappeared. Only a faint whiff of smoke was left where he was sitting. A golden train ticket sat on the table, just beneath the smoke. Trixie looked around, but nopony seemed to notice that a pony suddenly disappeared, or that he was there at all.
What should I do? Can I really trust that pony? Of course Trixie can’t, he had evil written all over his face, but can I really let this slip through my hoofs like this? Trixie thought to herself with conflicted emotions raging inside her.
Trixie sat there, fixatedly staring at this mysteries golden ticket, unknowing where it would take here.