//------------------------------// // Act 3 // Story: Rise // by Lapis-Lazuli and Stitch //------------------------------// "Only when we have been driven into a corner, when all hope has died within us and all that is left is despair. Only when the world has beaten us down to our knees, when life has taken everything but our lives and our pride. Only when our only choices are to die in the mud, or to die on our hooves still fighting. Only then, can no force in the world stop us. Only then, are we capable of doing anything." -High Chancellor Puddinghead ~~~~~Hollow Shades Graveyard~~~~~ Trixie could feel the chill cast over her as she passed through the black iron gates of the silent graveyard. This was not a place for the living, and anypony could sense that in any number of ways. Unicorns in particular felt the powerful aura of death that often imbued such places, and Trixie was no exception. It hung like a pall over the moon drenched grasses that spread out before her hooves, carrying her into the section specifically set aside for unicorns. Unicorns preferred cremation rather than burial - and had since time immemorial. Fire was a power which came naturally to many unicorns, and moving earth was an extreme rarity. So traditions grew up around burning the bodies of the fallen, often it was believed their ashes would carry their magical essence into the next life - or, for some, to be reborn. So the gravesites here were primarily memorials of one kind or another - some of them adorned with crystals, gems, or other ostentation that earth ponies and pegasi might have scorned. The one thing they all had in common were the urns - all of which were topped with the carefully preserved horns of those that lay within them. Trixie did not know where she was going. Her hooves were carrying her numbly along, not really looking at anything, or noticing any movement or life. She just... walked, and kept walking as though her body knew that stopping would mean never starting again. The eldritch glows and gentle shines of silver, gold and enchanted stones glittered across the lawn, until her bowed head nearly rammed into one particularly large stone. Only the barest amount of awareness kept her from bruising her horn still further, and she stumbled into an ungraceful seat on the ground. Trixie glared at the offending slab of marble, her eyes scouring across it for a name to curse for its insensitivity to her plight. Until her eyes settled upon the name carved into the white stone - just one name. But an unmistakable one. Phantasma Lulamoon it read, in bolt equestrian print. Trixie's eyes slowly trailed up to see... Mom. Well, a very superb carving of her anyway. Hat, cloak and all - she stood heroically over the carved head of what looked like a slain dragon. Trixie slowly stood up, circling around the monument (for lack of a better word) to what looked like the front of it, where an inscription explained its presence here... In Living Memory of Phantasma Lulamoon, heroine of Hollow Shades. On this spot, in August of the year 970 SY, Phantasma Lulamoon defeated the dread dragon Ironscale Liberating our fair city from his tyrannical occupation, in the name of the Moon. Vanished in 980 SY, she lives on in our hearts, survived by her daughter. In nomine Lunae Reginae, requiescat in pace. 970... Just a few years before I was born. Trixie thought, gently tracing her hoof across the words, until they reached the word of her disappearance. Trixie bit down on her lip, and laid her head to the gravestone - the only one she'd ever seen for the mare who had meant so much to her. You were even a hero, mother. You never told me. Was there so much left for us to talk about? So much that you never got to say? Tears came again, gently dripping against the white marble as the worst memory of her entire life overtook her.. ~~~~~One fateful day....~~~~~ "... And now, fillies and gentlecolts! The amazing Phantasma will perform one of the most incredible tricks of her career! She will vanish before your very eyes.... without the aid of any magic at all!" The crowd gasped and applause rolled across the stage in a blanket of sound, as the announcer produced the unmistakable bulk of a limiter ring. Designed originally to contain unicorn prisoners and keep them from casting magic spells, they were often used for all sorts of applications in the modern age. Lesser limiters were often given to unicorn foals to help them build up magical strength. This one was nothing less than a genuine military model, designed to completely block all use of a unicorn's horn. The crowd watched in awe as the beautiful light violet coated unicorn placed the limiter atop her horn, and gestured above it to show no strings attached - then focused a tiny bit of magic into the horn to show the limiter ring shorting out her power. The crowd applauded and whistled in excitement, as two assistants loped onto the stage and the announcer spoke again. "And now, the amazing Phantasma shall be bound in chains, and placed into... THIS BOX!" he gestured dramatically, and a flat, featureless black box was produced from someplace back stage. Trixie watched from her extra-special hiding place, snuggled amidst the bright lights and sandbags which dotted the main scaffolding above and behind the stage. From here, she could see Mommy perform all her great tricks, and sometimes even learn how they were done! She'd learned that Mommy was really good at picking locks with her mouth from up here, and that the announcer guy was there to distract the Audience when Mommy needed another moment or two. Mommy was getting all cuffed up now, so she could do her fancy box-escape trick. Trixie still had no idea how Mommy managed it, but it was really cool to watch anyway! The crowd gasped and applauded in all the same places the ones before them had, as Mommy stepped into the black box. And then... she did something funny. She looked up, like she knew where Trixie was hiding. Looked right up at her and smiled in a funny sort of way. Then she turned her head down and was locked into the box, just like normal. Trixie was confused... Mommy never did things on stage that weren't practiced. Ever! That meant something had to be wrong, but Trixie didn't know what it was! The box was shut, just like always. The announcer went through his lines, same as he did at every show. And just like always, the box fell away into pieces and parts and the crowd cheered because Mommy wasn't inside anymore. Then Mommy was supposed to reappear in a big burst of magic and mist, and there'd be lots of applause! But... Mommy didn't reappear that time. The announcer, Mr. Quills looked disturbed. The audience didn't know what to make of it. Trixie started to feel afraid - very, very afraid. She ran out from her hiding place, yelling for her mother. The crowd broke down, and so did the show. Curtains were quickly drawn, and the entire theater was searched from top to bottom, but only one sign of Phantasma could be found. Only the careful attention of Uncle Crackle kept Trixie from running into the streets... as it was, all that they could find of Phantasma Lulamoon was her cloak, and her hat. Light purple, much like her coat - and bedecked with stars and moons. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Trixie held that same hat in her hooves right now, bunched up and hugged to her chest like a stuffy. It was all she had left, all that she could find of her vanished mother. Nopony knew what had happened - nopony knew how the trick worked, after all. Some thought she'd had a panic moment, and her magic had run wild. Some thought she'd run away from some nebulous debt or threat to her life. Some even thought she had been summoned by Celestia herself to... someplace. None of it mattered to Trixie. Her mother had been gone, and she had never come back. Uncle Crackle and Aunt Pop had taken her in, raised her like their own daughter. Trixie had never let that hat, or that cloak out of her sight in the years since. She'd spent untold amounts of money keeping it in good shape, paying for magical restoration whenever wear and tear got the better of it. Even now, Trixie could still smell that faint lavender and vanilla smell that was mom in her heart. I'm so sorry, Mom. I'm such a horrendous failure. Trixie thought in misery, her hooves sliding down to the base of the monument. She'd been fooling herself. There was no career for her to go back to, no stage for her to perform upon. I'm supposed to be an expert in illusions, and I got my flank kicked by somepony I never even saw. And Shadow Song had paid the price for it. Never her, oh no - the universe needed Trixie completely alive and aware every time her failures hurt somepony else. Twilight Sparkle was never to blame for your mistakes, Trixie. You did this to yourself. And for what? For nothing, that was what. Petty self satisfaction - and she couldn't even manage that. She looked up in sadness at the marble mare above her - as unreachable as the stars. If only you were here. You'd know what to do. You always knew what to do, even after Poppa left. Trixie stared into the ground as tears flowed freely, her breath caught on soft sobs. I've tried so hard, Momma. I've tried to be everything you dreamed I could be... Trixie started to smack her hooves into the ground at the base of the statue. I was always so close, but never quite good enough. She slammed her hooves into the ground and gave off a yelp as she felt something sharp jab into her hoof. Trixie's hooves pulled away in sudden shock, as she felt around and found a particularly jagged piece of stone which lay there as if waiting for her. From where it had come, Trixie didn't know - but she was glad for it all the same. I can't do this anymore, mom. She thought. She wasn't great or powerful. She wasn't even competent. She was a broken failure of a wizard, a washed up wreck of a showmare. Trixie plucked up the sharp stone with her hooves - her magic as useless as the rest of her now. I can't be responsible for somepony else getting hurt because of me... Trixie fumbled herself over to the monument - so she could pretend, just for a few moments, like she was sitting at mom's hooves again. Maybe she'd get to see her again in the next world, like someponies said you would. Maybe she could apologize. Maybe Mom would accept it, and they could be together again. Trixie shifted the sharp bit of rock in her hooves and began to dig into her arm with it, the pain a mere distraction against the hole in her heart. The first bright red spots of blood began to trickle down onto the white stone next to her, as Trixie levered the cut into her wrist wider. It hurt, but it wouldn't hurt forever. That's more than enough. Sure, all the things she'd read said to take both wrists, but given how deep that cut was on the first one - Trixie was more than sure it would be enough. No one was going to come out here and save her. She spat out the sharp stone, shining and slick with blood and leaned against the white marble plinth, closing her eyes and feeling suddenly, awfully tired. Time passed. Sleep, of a sorts, came to Trixie. It was not until she felt a stabbing pain...and then a complete lack of pain that she stirred from her uneasy rest. The pain in her limbs was gone, and even her horn didn't seem to hurt so much anymore. Was she dead? Dying? Maybe dying. Yet as she cracked an eye open, she did not look into the heavens, but rather at a dirty blonde mane that hung limply around a pair of bright spectacles that seemed focused on something. A unicorn horn glowed with a faint white magic aura, and suddenly more of the pain in her head vanished. Trixie felt the world come into greater focus, as she began to realize who was sitting here - and holding her hoof no less. The cut in Trixie's hoof was gone, only a puddle of blood around where it had lain told the tale it had been through. The unicorn mare sat fastidiously away from the blood, and had obviously been crying herself from the streaks down her cheeks. "Please be okay.." She whispered, as if praying. "Luna, if you care even a little about your children, please save her..." the unicorn... no, Saddle. Saddle Trelahny had been her name. As Saddle whispered hopefully, her horn only barely, feebly lit with white power. Trixie realized, all at once, what she was doing. She had been healing her. Something she undoubtedly was not even remotely trained for, but had managed to do quite an excellent job at. Or maybe she had been trained... and there was more to Saddle's story than she was telling. As though you weren't the same way. Trixie thought, rather viciously at herself, and exhaled slowly. Saddles' head shot up, her eyes filled with hope and tears and Trixie couldn't help it, she muttered bitterly. "Why did you stop me?" Saddle shook her head and rubbed away the wetness from her eyes with a slightly dirty hoof, then gave it a sad look. "Because I've been down that road, kiddo. It isn't the solution," she said softly, dropping the wet hoof to the ground. "I was an idiot, then and now. I shouldn'ta said the crap I said back in the shop. You were right to give me a talking to for that, and I'm sorry." She shook out her dirty blonde mane, and sighed softly. "Death doesn't solve anything, Trixie. It just makes problems for everypony else." Trixie wanted to glare, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't have any right to be talking down to anypony, right now. "Tri-.." No. No more of that third pony bullhockey. "I-I-I'm sorry I stormed out." She managed, quietly. "I was angry, and scared. I still am angry, and scared. I... thank you for saving my worthless life." She finally managed to get out the thanks, swallowing to try and lube her dry throat - unsuccessfully. "I'm...I don't know what to do. I couldn't help anypony..." That was the worst of it, finally out in the open. Trixie did not know what to do, and for somepony as self-assured as she always had been - that was perhaps the worst thing of all. Saddle nodded, pulling her rear legs up under her and sitting on her flank. "Your life isn't worthless, kiddo. Everypony's life is worth something. I dunno much about you, but I'll bet you got family someplace that'd miss you." She tilted her head as Trixie looked away, cheeks flushed in shame. "Yeah, I figgered. Look, you're up discord creek. So. What can you do bout it?" Trixie blinked and looked up. That hadn't quite been a question. More like a rhetorical one. "You could ask a retired old showpony like me for a little help. I know a thing or two about the kinda magic you'd need." Trixie looked up, stunned into amazement that this mare would even suggest helping her. Yet there Saddle was, bold as brass and with a twinkle in her eye that suggested she was dead bucking serious. "I...Trixie.." She stumbled over her words for a few moments and then shook her head firmly. In her mind, she could only see the gentle thestral who had stood over her body and protected her from harm. The one thestral who had believed in her, without hesitation, from the moment she'd entered town. She looked up at the statue of her mother, standing boldly and triumphantly over a dragon. Mom would have stood up. Mom would have fought. She wouldn't be lying here in a pool of her own blood and all of this dirt. She'd have picked up every tool she could find and fought until she'd won. No time for pity, Trixie. Take the help. There are ponies counting on you. Bury your pride, right here in this graveyard. her thoughts quietly urged. When this is all over, you can go back to Uncle Crackle. Make fireworks for the rest of your life. Find a nice pony to settle down with, if you survive all this. But right now... Her personal feelings didn't matter. Her safety didn't matter. For the first time she could remember, Trixie didn't give a damn about what happened to herself. Live, Die, it didn't matter. The statue above her was more than a grave stone - it was a reminder. Of the one pony in all the world Trixie wanted most to be proud of her. Mom would have fought. That meant Trixie had better start fighting, too. Get up. She told herself, and pushed herself up to four hooves. Get the buck over yourself. There are bucking lives at stake, Trixie. What are you gonna do about it? Trixie lifted her head, her voice soft but sure. "I need help, Saddle. Would you... Would you please teach me?" ~~~~~~~~~~~ "Aright. Now, what I'm gonna tellsya is gonna go against the grain." Saddle said wryly, her flank parked firmly atop some nameless pony's gravestone. "So what I don't wanna hear is 'That's impossible'. What I wanna hear is 'I'll try that.'." She tapped her hoof to the stone. "So. You need t'learn how to fight. So that's what I'm gonna show you how to get started on. Watch me carefully." Saddle tapped her horn. "Cuz I'm gonna show you somethin' real useful." Trixie shifted herself on the soft grass, and wondered why on earth Saddle had insisted upon teaching her here. Perhaps to remind her of the stakes involved? As though Trixie needed another reminder of how her screw-ups had already endangered lives. Saddle's horn lit up with a silvery-white sort of aura, and after a few moments, a little filly pony cantered out from behind the stone she was sitting on. It was purely a visual illusion, with a little physical solidity thrown in to give the impression that it had weight and could step on the grass. nothing particularly fancy. Saddle winked at her cheekily. "Not much ta look at, eh? Until..." The filly cantered over a good distance away...and then abruptly detonated in a flash of light an energy, leaving a small crater in the place where it had been standing. Trixie gawped. Sure enough, if she'd been asked her opinion on that spell, she'd have said it was impossible. "Bu..But...how?" Trixie blurted out, staring in disbelief. "I... It almost looked like you purposefully over-charged the illusion! That would break the spell, and cause a..." She stopped in mid-sentence and promptly buried her hoof in her face. "That's exactly what you did, isn't it?" She asked, no small amount of ironic humor dripping from her voice. Saddle didn't even have to say a word. She just grinned. "Seems kinda a stupid thing, don't it? What unicorn purposefully bucks up a spell, right?" She leaned towards Trixie, a slow smile on her face. "That's lesson number one. Nine outta ten unicorns will tellya that screwing up a spell is a bad idea, cuz of magical backlash. The tenth unicorn's an illusionist - like you. Like me. Illusions dont cause backlash when they break. Usually, they just kinda poof." She waved her hoof "But... if you shove a whole ton of power into one and then make it break.... Boom!" Saddle grinned roguishly at Trixie, pressing her hooves together. "We gotta find power where other unicorn's are too arrogant to look, cuz we can't win in a fight otherwise." She lifted a hoof and her horn glowed again, a little glowing butterfly appearing in midair, and then landing on her hooftip. "We already use magic to fool the senses. You just gotta be..." The little butterfly lifted off her hoof. Trixie's eyes widened and she almost cottoned on in time, the butterfly exploding in a bright flash of blinding light - Next thing she knew, Saddle was right next to her, poking a fake little wooden dagger into her nose. "Flexible in what yer foolin." Saddle said, with a saucy sort of grin. "Illusions can make ya move silently, blind yer enemies, or give you a nearly perfect disguise. It can also make really big booms, make shields to hide behind with physical illusions, and if you know yer pyro - you can supercharge magical fireworks with your own power by charging up the magic that makes em work just before they blow." Saddle was still grinning like a maniac, though a very friendly one. Trixie gulped and nodded hurridly, and Saddle trotted back to her grave-seat and hopped up on it. "Well, g'wan then!" Saddle catcalled and Trixie felt her eyes narrow. "Show me what you got, Miss Great and Powerful!" She jeered, and Trixie felt a flush enter her cheeks. That conceit had gotten somepony hurt today, and Saddle was throwing it back in her face? Saddle was watching her expectantly though, and Trixie was just pissed off enough to not care about her head still hurting. Trixie planted her hooves and called her magic up through her horn. The backlash still hurt. It hurt like hell, truth be told, but it didn't hurt as much as the memory of Shadow Song lying there hurt. Because of her. Because she hadn't been strong enough. Trixie's horn lit up with bright cerulean power and she called up her very best physical / sight / sound illusion. Saddle wanted her to improvise eh? She could do that. It hummed to life, a ball of radiant energy that whirled and spun into a form - that of a young dragon which roared its defiance across the graveyard. It hurt. Gods help her, but it hurt.... but pain was a distant, pointless sort of thing right now. Now she had to do something she'd never done before. The dragon illusion soared over Saddle's head with a blast of wind that sent her mane flying behind her, and conjured an impressed look on her face - The construct soared up into the air, and then dive bombed down into a gravestone some distance away from that both. Trixie grabbed the magical threads she'd built with it and then mentally yanked on them, surging power through every facet of the illusion. It went against every single thing her mother had ever taught her. It was one of the hardest spell casting things she'd ever done. The effect was spectacular. The dragon hit the gravestone and detonated into a massive flash of light, sound and force which knocked Saddle clean off the gravestone. Trixie had to grab at her hat to hold it steady, and the shockwave pulsed out her cape in a pleasingly heroic sort of manner. It damn near laid her out with a reaction headache but... Trixie stared, completely ignorant of the pain. She slowly walked over to where the strike had hit, as Saddle hauled herself back to her hooves and blinked at her as she walked past. Where once there had been an unknown, untended gravestone - there was now a hole. A hole at least two feet deep, and two feet across. Trixie stood at the edge of it, staring down in nigh incomprehension. She'd never done anything even remotely this powerful before. Her telekinetic blasts were pathetic in terms of raw power, and every other offensive spell she'd tried to master had simply fizzled, but this. This was incredible. "Whoa, nelly." Saddle observed as she came up beside her. "I knew your special talent was Illusion, but this is somethin' else." For just a moment, Trixie felt herself filled with a fierce pride. One that she very quickly deflated. So what. I can blow a big hole in the ground? That's nice, but not precisely something new or useful. Still. It was a step in the right direction. "Looks like y'get the basic idea. Now look." Saddle spoke up, startling Trixie out of her thoughts. "I can't teach you specifics. You're gonna have to find your own tricks, like any good magician. Keep yer mind flexible, figure out how to make yer magic work for you, and you'll be fine. Aright?" Trixie nodded a little bit, and tried to conjure up a smile. Saddle shook her head and grinned at her. "Just... Don't give up, Kiddo. Givin' up is fer sissycorns .You're not a sissycorn. You're a goddamn Lulamoon." Trixie stared at her suddenly, wondering what her last name had to do with anything. Saddle grabbed her shoulders and squeezed them. "I'm not ignorant kid. Your family's got roots in this town, and all of em speak of you folk bein' more stubborn than the bloody Apple clan. Your family doesn't quit, kiddo. So don't you go startin." Trixie absorbed those words for a few long seconds and nodded. She turned and secured her hat firmly on her head, and tightened the cloak around her neck. No. She supposed she never was very good at quitting, even when she probably should have. She should have quit after what happened in Ponyville. She should have quit after the Alicorn Amulet. And now she was here, because she didn't know when to quit, and more ponies were getting hurt because of her. Her hooves picked up, one at a time, to carry her back to the town. Trixie wasn't going to let anypony else get hurt because of her. No matter what it took. ~~~~~~~~~~ It was the work of maybe twenty minutes to make her way back to the inn, and the stone store room where her precious few belongings were being stored - including the massive boxes of fireworks. She stared at them for a moment, then closed the door firmly behind her. One by one, she loaded her stage vest up with the very best in the boxes. The splitter rockets, the big boomers, the roamin candle bundles. Then she grabbed a randomly discarded sack and (after assuring that it was dry) loaded it with the famous packs of fire-crackers and dragon-rockets that were the most basic of her uncle's works of art. She sealed the rest of the boxes back up and turned resolutely towards the door, the sack of explosive potential over her shoulder. Nopony was around at this hour, most of them in the midst of their... work day? Work evening? Whatever. The moon was high up in the sky. If Trixie had to venture a guess, It had to be something like... what? Two AM? She squinted up, wishing she had a clock to go by. The moon had just come up when Trixie went unconscious the first time, so that had to be about seven or eight, being very early spring. She'd been out for... a couple hours at most, or the Nurse would have said something. Figure eleven pm. Another hour of wandering about town. The... fight... and then some unspecified amount of time till Saddle had found her. All of these thoughts were rendered irrelevant when a thunderously loud bell pealed off twelve gongs, signifying midnight. Trixie facehoofed. How had she not noticed the town bell? Ugh, put her in nappies and lock her in a crib, Trixie had clearly reverted to the age of four. Trixie trotted quickly along the boulevard, ignoring the sidelong glances of anypony who passed her by. They could hate her. She no longer really cared all that much about their personal opinions. But by the Moon, she would show them she kept her promises. The streets passed her in a blur, blending together into a murky miasma of forgotten memories. She was tired, she hurt, she was fighting off a truly horn-splitting amount of backlash, and she was probably running on stubbornness alone. She ought to be in bed, trying to recover from this headache. She ought to get some rest, and tackle this problem after she'd slept for about a day. Which meant of course, that she'd hear the screams and clattering hooves that likely presaged another attack just a few minutes later, just as good sense was starting to reassert itself in her brain. Her head came up quickly at the sounds, hoofsteps picking up into a fast trot. Good sense flew out the window. No more. Her thoughts ran, as she rounded a corner at top speed.No more ponies get hurt because of me. No more alicorn amulets or ursa minors. No more Shadow Song's. It was the town marketplace. A huge open field of wooden and stone stalls, carts and shops. All around Trixie, chaos reigned as ghostly ponies scythed through the crowd all around her - most of them just getting slammed into carts and sent screaming in terror. Fires had already broken out in several places in the square where food stands had gone unattended, and the press of ponies trying to escape was simply making matters worse. In spite of the very best efforts of tiny squadrons of thestral guards, nothing seemed to be capable of stemming the tide. It was a nightmare scenario waiting to happen - if something didn't break up the fight quickly, someone was going to die. Trixie wasn't going to let that happen. She threw open the mouth of the sack on her shoulder and forced her magic to come to life through the pain and misery of the backlash. She knew she was damaging herself - knew that every ounce of magic she used just meant making it worse. But sense was not on the menu in Trixie's head. Her emotions were raw wounds, her mind wracked with guilt and pain. She was far from thinking properly. She only knew there were ponies here in danger... and she was going to do something about it. Her magic began to grasp a bundle of the dragon rockets from the sack as she gathered her strength beneath her... there. Down one of the main thoroughfares, four or five of the ghostly illusions were charging a line of armored thestral guards. Trixie took off, dodging through the terrified locals and past debris scattered about the square. The guards were holding themselves well - but sure enough, their spears and swords did nothing to their foes. Ghosts. Illusions - she didn't know. She didn't care. She would fight with every weapon she had, damn the consequences! With a wordless battle cry, she loosed the dragon rockets into the air and triggered their tiny fuses - sending them screaming into the faces of the ghostly foes. Only half knowing what she was doing, she grabbed at the tiny cores of magical substance in the rockets and tried to flood them with her power - Sure enough, the bottle-rockets detonated right in front of the charging front rank of ghosts with a series of small but powerful explosions of light and sound. They sounded like a handful of massive rocks hitting the solid earth, and the ghosts flinched in the face of them. They flinched. Which meant they were no such ghosts at all. More Illusions! She exulted, plowing through the line of thestral guards, she screamed at the apparitions with a scratchy voice. "I DISBELIEVE!". She forced power through her horn and fired off a half dozen, half assed telekinetic bolts...and the ghosts vanished in a puff of magic and logic. She panted heavily, knowing she'd put out far less power than the first time... Wait...Why did that work this time? She thought blearily, as the guards stared at her in amazement - though she did not see their looks as she ran towards the next cluster of ghost-illusions. Think, Trixie! Think! What did you just do? She frowned as she ran, squinting her eyes to try and see through the thick smoke from the burning stalls. I think... I forced the illusions to break. Instead of allowing my disbelief to take its course. I had to do it because everypony else around me still believed in their existence. The reason it was so hard on me the first time was even I still half believed in them! That made sense, from a purely magical-theory standpoint. Her thoughts came to a grinding halt as a ghostly lance just barely missed her after being hurled by one of the illusions - thunking realistically into one of the carts. Gahh! I have to remember they can hurt me until I break their power! Trixie hurled herself back into the path - drawing out bundles of dragon rockets and letting them loose at her foes. They seemed to be endless, coming at the market from every direction in the town. She dodged under a blade and hurled a packet of fire-crackers into one illusions eye and the pure magical backlash of the firework going off actually dissipated it all by itself! Every little success brought a fiercer and fiercer grin to Trixie's face. She felt strength flood her limbs, and fought through the pain that lanced through her horn with every cast spell. One by one, the bundles of thestral guards began to organize behind her. Little by little, a wall of bodies and willpower began to ease the pressure on the fleeing ponies of the town. Trixie dashed from one end of the square to another, hurling her fireworks her foes with reckless abandon - Little by little, her sack of basics began to run dry though - and the pain in her horn continued to grow worse, and worse. Every moment I buy them, is another moment for them to escape. she thought, fatalistically. She would not stop fighting - not until nopony was left in danger. Then...The ghosts began to retreat. By design, by pain from so many backlashed spells, or perhaps even Illusions this thorough could feel fear, they began to run. A massive cheer went up from the line of thestral guards, and the ponies standing behind them. Trixie stood panting in the middle of the market square, her cloak and hat scorched and dark with smoke, and a warm fire burning brightly in her heart. She hurt - Oh sweet Luna, she hurt, but she had fought them off. She had stood her ground and held against the tide. For the briefest of moments, Trixie let herself relax. Trixie could have predicted that everything would get worse in that moment. That was simply the way of the universe for her. A massive burst of power flashed in the sky, and a ghostly undead dragon swooped down towards the market square. It was massive - easily big enough to cause a truly massive amount of devastation. It roared in ancient anger - sending nearly everypony in the square to their knees. It was the most powerful illusion Trixie had ever seen in all of her life... And one that sent a thrill of anger into her mind. This charlatan, however powerful they thought they were - thought they could intimidate her with such a blatantly obvious fake? Even still - the crowd behind her believed - oh yes, they believed quite thoroughly. Their terror was palpable even from this distance... and that moment, that single instant was when it hit her. How any of this, how ALL of this was even remotely possible for a single unicorn to pull off. It was a glorious, terrifying and sickening method - and Trixie could not help but admire the mind that had come up with it. These illusions had been fed into reality by the very fear of the townsfolk. It made perfect sense. It was no different than what she did on stage to amuse and amaze - if your audience believed what you created was real, the amount of power you needed to feed into it diminished. It stood to reason then - create a bunch of highly difficult to create and maintain illusions, and use them to build up belief in their existence. Slowly, one by one, add to the horde until you had an entire army of illusory soldiers that nopony could harm. Little by little, the locals would come to believe ANY such vision was real - and right now, there was a dragon the size of several large houses swooping down upon them. Trixie knew what she had to do. Her head raised boldly as the dragon's body crashed into the market square in front of her, and roared its mindless rage at the crowd of ponies behind her. Trixie simply smiled at it - the crowd staring at her in disbelief. I'm going to have to break their belief that these things are real. I'm going to have to break the belief of an entire town in these illusions, and that's going to kill me. It was a terrifying sort of thought. If breaking the belief of just one pony had nearly sent her into a coma, an entire town was going to be far, far worse. It didn't matter. When the townsfolk ceased to believe in these things, the local mages would be able to do the rest of the cleanup with ease. Nopony else would get hurt because of her mistakes. She would save an entire town with nothing but her own little magic and a few fireworks. Mom would have been proud. Trixie thought, unaware of the silvery tears that ran down her cheeks. It's a hell of a curtain call, Trixie. Not the kind of thing everypony gets to do. And that was fitting for her. Perhaps, when they dust finally settles... They'll finally call you The Great and Powerful Trixie. Yeah. That would have to be good enough. Trixie whipped her cloak open and screamed with all of her might. "You do not frighten ME!" Trixie bellowed towards the dragon, which snorted in confusion and backed up its massive bulk - crashing into some of the shops that surrounded the square. "I know what you are, foul creature! I know the truth about you, and all of your ilk! You are nothing more than dewdrops and glamor! You are a fake! A phony! A fraud! An Illusion designed to terrify these good ponies!" Trixie stomped her hoof into the earth - and a tiny bit of magic sent the sound of it rippling through the square like the hooftstep of a giant. She took a deep breath in the silence, her words intense. "And I, The Great And Powerful Trixie fear no illusion. I deny you, foul beast! And so I BID YOU BEGONE!" Her horn lit - with every ounce and scrap of magic Trixie had left in her soul - An artillery barrage of fireworks burst out of her cloak a second later. The big Boomies went off with the force of cannon blasts, and hurled black balls of concentrated sonic magic into the face of the dragon. From beneath and behind her - a rocket barrage from the splitter rockets engulfed the air around her in flames and flying, screaming projectiles. And last, but by no means least, the bundles of Roamin candles exploded in rapid fire colors and explosions. It was a finale performance her Uncle Crackle would have been proud of, and the finisher that came next was no exception. Trixie's could no longer see - so terrible was the pain that lanced through her head. She could not hear, or even think - but this was not the act of thought. Though she could not see it, her horn had gone translucent white. A white mist began to spread from her shoulders and burst into a radiant cloak of light around her body that whipped and whirled with impossible force amidst the color fireworks and explosions. Amidst the light and sound, Trixie's mind calmed, and her breathing slowed. The white cloak of light billowed and spread into a pair of arcane wings from her back and her eyes were filled with a pure white light. There was no fear in her now. No hate. No anger. No pain. Around her hooves, little geometric patterns etched into the stones. Her power exploded silently, in a column of white power that sped towards her foe. That sent the dragon into a screaming fit of fear - a single, solid beam of energy - easily two feet thick - lanced through the heart of the undead dragon ghost - which screamed its last and then vanished in an explosion of magical dust and energy which rocked the town with a wave of force that billowed out Trixie's cloak in a heroic enough fashion that even she would have approved. Trixie had no feeling in her horn, or in her body. She had no sense of her magic. She had given everything to that final blow. The white cloak of power vanished into the air and her body collapsed to the cold stone of the market square, unmoving. Her thoughts were all she had left, amidst the searing, white hot pain of her own mind, and all she could feel was satisfaction. Silence had descended over the square, or perhaps Trixie had simply gone deaf. She didn't know - and didn't care. Whatever power that illusionist held over the town was now finished, and done for. Trixie had won. The townsponies were safe. And that was enough. Trixie slowly pulled open her eyes. She could feel herself becoming so tired. So very tired. Her eyes found the bright moon, hanging above the town like a blessing from Luna herself. Trixie allowed herself a smile as she felt the warmth of life slowly leeching out of her. She'd get to see Mom again. She'd get to see Poppa again. And nopony would ever forget what she'd done here today. Nopony would forget her name, at least not here. Maybe they'd put her statue next to her mother's. That would be nice. It would say, Here lies the Great and Powerful Trixie. Worthy daughter of Phantasma. Heroine of Hollow Shades. Yeah. That sounded good to Trixie. Trixie stared up at the moon, and wondered what death might feel like. The light of the moon overtook her, and she welcomed it with open hooves. Luna... bear me into light. she thought faintly... But the end did not come for Trixie Lulamoon. A sudden warmth of life flooded through her body, and her eyes snapped open in stunned surprise to look up into the tear-brightened eyes of... Nurse Cross? "HURRY, CELESTIA DAMNIT!" screamed the nurse, somewhere off to her left. "SHE'S GOING INTO SHOCK! GET THAT BUCKING STRETCHER OVER HERE NOW!" She screamed again, then turned those bright eyes back to Trixie. Her eyes widened, and Trixie wondered what surprised her so much. "You're conscious! Stay with me, Miss Lulamoon. Do not go to sleep, I don't care how much you want to!" She scolded Trixie with a jabbed hoof, as a clatter of burly hooves filled Trixie's ears. "Get her on there! We're going to lift you a little, Miss Lulamoon. Stay with me!" Nurse Cross continued, and Trixie nodded a tiny, small amount, licking cracked and suddenly dry lips - a tiny searing lance of pain in her horn making her wince. "Oh goddess above..." whispered the nurse, looking up at Trixie's forehead as a gentle power lifted Trixie's body atop what felt like a thick cloth suspended between two poles. "Trixie, do not attempt any magic! None!" She said firmly, as the stretcher slowly lifted on the shoulders of a massive pair of earth ponies. The nurse stayed right with her as they began to move. "Stay with me, Miss Lulamoon. We're going to get you help - the very best help we can. Clear the way! Somepony get us a wagon, RIGHT NOW!" Trixie did not know what was happening, but staying awake didn't seem to be on the menu - her eyelids felt too heavy and slowly began to close. "Oh, Celestia - Hurry! We need to get her to the hospital!" Were the last words she heard from the Nurse, as unconsciousness overtook her once again...