Before My Body Is Dry
The Unchosen One
Chapter 11: Before My Body Is Dry
By MagnetBolt
The portal to the Black Archive yawned open, whispers pouring from the edges like the foxfire dancing along its outline. Even just looking into the space hurt Trixie's head. She'd heard of magic like this, used to create a space inside a saddlebag or chest that was larger than the outside. But this was different, just the inside alone, a space that had no outside, that only had an entrance when powerful magic was used to crack open the world itself. It was in itself a display of power far beyond anything she'd witnessed before.
And that was just the door.
Twilight stepped through without hesitation, vanishing into the gloom beyond. Whatever power was waiting on the other side was going to be enough to destroy Equestria, and Trixie had no idea how she was going to stop her.
“Ugh... mah head... what in the hay happened?” Applejack said, shaking her head as she stood up. She picked up her hat from where it had fallen and put it on.
“Twilight used the Element of Dominance to take control of your mind,” Trixie said. “Trixie supposes that's what it was always intended to do, but she only tried using it that way in the end. Trixie would have done it right at the start.”
“That gate!” Rarity gasped. “Twilight- she already went through!”
“That must be why we woke up,” Fluttershy said.
“Trixie agrees, since once she went into such a heavily warded- wait, how did you know that? You're a pegasus. You shouldn't know anything about magic.”
“I don't know,” Fluttershy admitted. “It just popped in there.”
“Yeah,” Dash said, trying to stand up and falling back down. “Ugh. Guess I'm not going anywhere. But I just remembered that I read in a book somewhere that continual effects would end as soon as the caster leaves the material plane- why the hay would I remember reading that? I never read that! I don't even understand what I remember!”
“That doesn't explain why I'm still stuck like this, and why you're still, um, without sight.” Rarity touched the crystals growing out of her horn.
“Not all spells act the same way,” Trixie explained. “Some just do something and stop, like a lightning bolt spell. Others keep going while you concentrate.”
Applejack scratched her head. “What did Twi do to our heads? Because Ah remember a lot of stuff I shouldn't remember. Ah remember readin' about how the Black Archive was created usin' the Elements of Harmony. But it don't make no sense.”
“Trixie has a sneaking suspicion she might be fighting to break free after all.”
“S-she wanted to give us the information we needed to close the vault,” Pinkie Pie said, quietly. “I-I think we can do it if we change some of the writing on the floor.”
“If we close it now Twilight will be trapped in there!” Trixie said.
“But it'll save Equestria,” Applejack whispered. “You know we can't fight her. She trounced us like we were just foals in a timberwolf den.”
“And the artifacts inside can't be used by normal ponies,” Fluttershy added. “They're even too dangerous for Celestia and Luna to use. Otherwise they'd be somewhere else.”
“Well Trixie is no normal pony. She won't give up just because you are too scared to face Twilight.” Trixie took a step towards the portal and stumbled on her bad leg, coughing up blood as she hit the dusty floor. “Trixie is not having a good day...” She stood up and took more of the painkilling fuzzmint seeds out of her bag. Fluttershy looked at her, worried.
“Um, Trixie... how many of those have you taken?”
“I don't know. Most of the bag- oh. Trixie forgot that you'd all need some too. Here.” She passed them over to Fluttershy, who fed a few to Dash.
“T-that's not the only thing,” Fluttershy admitted. “Fuzzmint is dangerous if too much is taken in a short time. It can have side effects.”
“Trixie will worry about that later,” She steadied herself and stood, the warm feeling from the seeds blocking out the sharpest edges of the pain. “Now, Twilight might have put that plan to slam the door shut into your heads, but that is only because she is just so bad at improvisation. Trixie already has a better plan.”
“And... what is that plan?” Rarity asked.
“First, Trixie is going to go into the Black Vault and try to stop Twilight. In the meantime... you're going to go and get that other princess. The pink one.”
“Cadence? Why?” Rarity raised an eyebrow.
“Because if she can move the sun, she might be able to do something to stop Twilight that won't be as... permanent.” Trixie swallowed at the last word. “Since Celestia and Luna haven't done anything to end the eclipse yet themselves, they probably can't.”
“Trixie, it's brave of you to want to try and stop her, but you ain't got one chance in a hundred of even slowing her down.” Applejack gave her a skeptical look.
“Never underestimate Trixie's ability to take something simple and turn it into something very complicated.” She smiled. Even though her armor was dented, and she'd just been coughing up blood from the beating she'd taken being thrown around the room, Trixie was an expert at looking like she was in far better condition than she really was. In this case, she managed to look like she was injured and tired, instead of near collapse from pain and exhaustion.
“B-but we should all stick together,” Pinkie Pie countered.
Trixie shook her head. “This is Trixie's fault. Trixie was supposed to keep anything bad from happening to Twilight and she couldn't stop it.” Trixie looked at the open portal. “...I have to fix this.”
“I believe in you,” Fluttershy said, with a smile. She flew over to Trixie and gave her a quick hug. “Be careful.”
“Trixie doesn't need to be careful. She can easily handle this. By the time you get help, Trixie will have rescued Twilight, closed the portal, and saved all of Equestria.” Or she'd be dead. Trixie jumped for the portal, hitting it with a feeling akin to jumping into ice-cold water.
***
Twilight walked down the corridor, one side lit by bright orange flames, the other by ghostly blue torches. The entire Archive was made out of blocks of black, glassy stone, almost like obsidian but far harder, as tough as diamonds. The blocks were irregular, giving the whole place the appearance of having been constructed like a puzzle.
Part of her mind was marveling at the construction. The only way this could be done was with magic, an almost endless number of interlocking bricks. She started mentally undressing the spells used to make it, spells that hadn't been used to shape, but to twist probability until the pocket universe conformed to their desires by default, like a miner changing fate so the diamond he unearthed emerged into the world fully formed and cut to exact specifications. Any tool or working would have been too imperfect, given the things within a chance to escape.
In this place, there was no escape. There was no return from banishment. When something was exiled here it was never intended to return. Even Nightmare Moon wasn't enough of a threat to open the vault. Discord, for all his power, was too benign. Or, Twilight reflected, with a sneer, it was simply that the status quo had become too comfortable for the Princesses to do anything to change it.
The Nightmare stopped at the end of the corridor, the black hallway opening up into a wide circular chamber. Doors of banded gold and silver studded the circumference, each easily as large and ornate as those in the palace. Here though, the ornate nature of the doors wasn't simply to decorate the vault or impress visitors. Only precious metals could contain the enchantments that had been placed on them.
Twilight walked confidently across the room, her eyes only on her destination. Behind every door was something so powerful it could never be allowed out. Or at least, never be allowed out by Celestia and Luna, so intent on preserving the status quo that they refused to make the world a better place. Her face twisted into a scowl at the thought.
Part of Twilight was screaming at her to turn around and walk away from this terrible place. It was the part of her that was still weak, the part that hadn't surrendered to the Nightmare.
There was one artifact here that could fix it all, though. Twilight stopped in front of the largest door, directly opposite the corridor entrance. It was pure gold, incorruptible and eternal, still shining with a mirror finish and glowing softly from within, the wards on it struggling even now to contain what it secured.
Posted to the door, held on by crumbling seals of ancient wax, was a roll of parchment. The words on it were faded now.
<Pisa Sol, The Star Ring
Exiled under the order of Diarch Celestia, Sol Invictus,
on this the 13th year of Discord's defeat>
Twilight was so absorbed in looking at the golden door that she hadn't heard the hoofsteps closing in on her.
"Stop right there!" A small, insignificant voice yelled from behind where she stood. Twilight turned to look. Trixie stood there defiantly, in her dented armor. Her blue coat and silver mane stood in grand contrast to the stark obsidian of the vault.
“We haven't finished our duel,” Trixie said, turning up her nose. “Trixie will not be robbed of a chance to defeat you.”
“I refuse to believe you're serious about that,” Twilight said, rolling her draconian eyes. “Are you even aware of where you are? The significance of this place? There are things here that could destroy you even through whatever pitiful protection you think you have.”
“Trixie is well aware of her own limitations.” She walked closer confidently. “She is also well aware that you can't defeat her without cheating.”
“I'm pretty sure I remember doing a very good job at beating you already.”
“No, you didn't do anything. Twilight is the one who beat me, and that isn't you.” Trixie narrowed her eyes. “You might have her memories, but you aren't her. Trixie can tell when a pony is just putting on an act and yours is particularly awful. It might as well be a foal pretending to be Starswirl the Bearded.”
“I'd prefer to think of it as helping to make all her dreams and nightmares a reality,” Twilight replied, stepping away from the glowing golden door. “Twilight Sparkle was too weak to do what she really wanted, because she was too afraid of what all her friends would think. She was afraid of ever making a mistake where somepony could see. She was terrified just thinking about what she'd have to do as a princess!” Nightmare Twilight laughed. “She used to dream about learning to raise the sun like Celestia. Now I'm holding the sun and moon in the sky and it's easier than she ever imagined.”
“Twilight would never hurt anypony the way you have.”
“Not on purpose,” the Nightmare agreed. “That's part of why she was so weak. Do you know what I am, Trixie? You should be deeply familiar with what drives me.”
“Fear?” Trixie guessed. The Nightmare shook her head.
“No. Fear is weakness. Terror can turn a queen into a tyrant. It keeps ponies awake at night. Makes them think that what other ponies will do is more important than what they will do. It keeps them huddled in their homes in the dark and makes them hide their true power from their friends. It's a sickness that keeps ponies from achieving their true potential.”
“Well then what? Trixie doesn't have all day.”
“Ambition! Greed! Desire! They all mean the same thing in the end, the drive that exists and pushes us towards what we most desire! That is what I am! When a pony builds a house, it's because they wanted to build a home. When they take a lover it's because of desire! Everything great that we have ever done is because of the ambition that we have in our hearts! Real power comes from allowing your greed to rule you and give your dreams form! I didn't make Luna try do depose her sister because she was afraid, but because she wanted to be loved! Her sister stood in her way, in my way, and so she had to be removed. I took away Luna's fear, and she became strong enough to do what she needed.”
“But- look at what you've done! Nightmare Moon was banished, Twilight's hurting everypony she cares about-”
The Nightmare cut her off. “There are always choices and consequences. If you choose to put ketchup on your eggs instead of hot sauce, that's a choice. If you choose to walk away from your job, that's a choice. If you decide to give your money to the poor, that's a choice. All of them have consequences. You might have a bad breakfast, or lose your job, or simply have fewer bits in your saddlebag. In the same way, what I want to do now is a choice, and my ambition is strong enough that I don't care about the consequences. I don't care about hurting Twilight's friends, or disappointing her teacher, or the risks of bringing order to a world of chaos! None of them matter compared to this desire!”
“Trixie is forced to admit that was a good evil monologue,” The unicorn and Nightmare circled each other. Trixie was looking for an opening. Twilight was just playing with her prey.
“But you're missing something, Trixie. It isn't evil. Desire isn't evil. I want to save Equestria. Twilight has seen time and again how many little reminders still remain of the bad old days from when Discord ruled this land. Do you know what's behind that door?” Twilight looked at the golden door. “The weapon Celestia used to bring order. You couldn't comprehend how much power she used to wield. The Elements nothing in comparison. With the Pisa Sol she ended the chaos of heaven and earth and created the world we live in almost from whole cloth.”
“Trixie read about Discord. The Princesses used the Elements of Harmony to defeat him. Not that... Pizza thing.”
“They did use the Elements to imprison Discord. But they couldn't fix the world. You don't understand how badly the world was broken. I don't mean chocolate milk rain and rabbits with the legs of elk. That's nothing. Discord had been acting for ages. Causality was broken. Time had stopped having meaning. No one talks about the time before Discord appeared because no trace of the world was left after he was done.”
“And that thing... is how she did it,” Trixie glanced at the door.
“Exactly. But the Princesses left the work half-finished! They feared that they'd start changing the world more and more, making one little tweak here and one there until they were just as bad as Discord. You see? Fear held them back. And because of that fear we're left with the monsters we have to fight. Changelings and chimaeras and manticores and worse.”
“Worse? Like dragons?” Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes! Just like-”
“Like Spike?” Twilight stopped, looking down for a moment. Trixie pressed the attack. “Would you erase him from the world like some kind of mistake? Trixie has seen how Twilight treats him like a son. Twilight, if you can hear this, you have to fight!”
“Silence!” A wave of force shoved Trixie away. “My ambition is worth more than Spike. More than any of you. I gave you all a chance to join me and you refused! If you cared about Twilight you'd have stood by her side instead of fighting against her! You could have been worshiped. Now no one will remember your name.”
“Trixie promised to protect you. Even from yourself.” Trixie quickly threw a lightning bolt at Twilight, trying to surprise her and succeeding. The bolt crashed into the alicorn, clipping across her chest. Unprepared for a sudden attack, a cross was burned into Twilight's coat, smoking and filling the air with the scent of burned hair.
“So be it.” The Nightmare narrowed her eye and vanished in a teleport bubble. With repeated flashes of magic, Twilight appeared first on one side of Trixie, then another, each time battering her with a kick before blinking away to strike from an unexpected angle. Trixie spat up blood. If not for the armor she'd have broken already. A final kick sent Trixie slamming into the obsidian wall between two silver doorways.
Trixie slumped to the floor, her breathing ragged. She tried to focus, sending out a wave of force to push Twilight back. The alicorn's horn glowed red and the spell collapsed, shattering into sparks and twists of color.
“Really?” Twilight asked. “You're trying to use magic against an alicorn? That's so cute I'd laugh, if it wasn't so pathetic it made me sick.”
Trixie tried to stand and failed, sinking back down. As she slumped, Twilight caught her armor with magic, dragging her up to see her face-to-face, the straps on the armor cutting into her bruised flesh painfully.
“I want you to understand something. I'm not doing this to be cruel.” The Nightmare moved Trixie's limp form around like a puppet. “I know Twilight wants to spend more time with you. A rather base desire, but at least something I can respect. And from what I've seen, well, no one has a greater familiarity with greed and ambition than you do. It's really too bad you're too stubborn to die with anything even approaching grace.”
“Trixie apologizes about not having the grace of a princess,” Trixie gasped.
“Thank you for the apology. Now stop struggling or I'm going to break you so badly they'll think you're just stew in a pony-shaped bag.” Twilight threw Trixie across the room, slamming her into a tarnished metal door hard enough to send a booming echo across the room. Twilight turned and walked back to the golden door, tearing the parchment from the portal to reveal the center of the mystical lock, a mark glowing like the sun.
Twilight's horn lit up with a blaze of red and pink light, novas sparkling along its length. The seal in the center of the door resisted, then shattered as it was undone, leaving cracks in the sun's image. The door groaned as the thick gold plates forming it started moving, each sliding away on their own into cracks in the obsidian bricks making up the wall, disappearing into the impossibly narrow spaces until there was no trace of the door at all.
A blaze of heat washed from inside. Even the Nightmare was forced back by the pure solar furnace that lay beyond. Her horn blazed with light that paled before the radiance shining on her, and a bubble of dark energy surrounded her form, wrapping her in a protective shell of shade. She forced her way past the roaring winds, eye going wide as she finally saw her goal, a pale golden ring, a pace wide, slowly spinning in midair over a pedestal of solid solar flames. In the center of the ring was a point of light too bright to look at directly, like a pinhole view into the heart of the sun.
***
Trixie rubbed her head, taking off her battered helmet. The heat washing into the room was enough to make her dizzy. She tried to shy away from it instinctively, backing into a door of tarnished silver. The seal on it was broken, crushed when she'd been flung into it. The portal slid open with a soft grinding noise as Trixie leaned against it, making her stumble and fall inside.
“Ugh... Trixie needs to learn to let things go and stop being thrown around rooms until proper padding is installed.” The mare stood up, vision swimming. She could barely see anything, but the heat forced her back into the gloom. It was cooler inside, mist reaching around her hooves as Trixie just tried to get somewhere safe.
She bumped into the edge of a raised stage, the perimeter made of raised blocks of the puzzle-like stone. A clumsy step crushed a petal underhoof, and Trixie stumbled back as a ghostly light floated up, wrapping around her and causing her coat to glow as it whisped harmlessly away.
“What was that?” She asked, looking around. A soft silver glow suffused the room, like moonlight. Trixie looked up to see a garden. Most of the room was a planter for a garden of flowers. Ghostly lights like fireflies slowly moved around them like they were being blown in a slow, phantom whirlwind. Trixie could almost hear them, and after a few long moments realized what she was staring at.
“T-those are- those are manaflies!” Trixie tried to catch one, and watched as it curved smoothly along the surface of her coat, repelled by the curse. Trixie had learned in school that manaflies were spontaneously generated only in areas of extremely large magic potential. They were never found in the wild, only the product of some of the high-energy magical experiments that went on in laboratories. They weren't really living things, but were more like static electricity or ball lightning.
She'd also learned that if you saw them, you were somewhere you were not meant to be. Anything putting out that much magical power could do anything.
Trixie looked at the flowers that were growing. Almost all had yet to bloom, but looked something like lotus blossoms. The water they were emerging from supported that suggestion. The mist in the room was rising from the pool, and when Trixie looked down into it, she saw inky blackness and, faintly, stars, perversely like she was looking upwards through a veil of water to see the night sky.
“Oh my...” Trixie's eyes went wide as she stepped backwards slowly, abruptly filled with a sense of vertigo. She looked up and away from the slice of sky and saw something rising out of the center of the pool, a standing wave of black water like a column of flowing ice. And perched on top of it, a pale insect, abstracted and made of pure silver and white plates of shimmering opal, forged in the shape of a luna moth.
***
The roof of the planetarium exploded outwards, the shrapnel disappearing into sparkles and flashes of light before even hitting the ground, as Nightmare Twilight took her first step back into Equestria. The Sol Ring hung floating behind her head like a flaming halo, and the power washing over her was already changing her. Every step she took was rimmed with fire, her hoofprints burned into the fabric of the world and leaving an indelible mark even in stone.
“With this power, I will remake the world in the name of Order!” Twilight smiled and looked at the revealed sky. The magical storm she had created vanished in an instant, the clouds carved up into cubes and floating away. The moon and sun, remaining in a perfect eclipse, were dragged to the center of the sky. The stars shivered and surged into motion, arranging themselves into perfect straight lines, meeting in right angles in a logical and efficient grid.
“Astronomers will someday thank me for making their jobs so much easier,” Twilight said, with a sigh of contentment. “I remember studying for weeks to learn the position of the stars! Now we can just number them. It will even help with telling the time, since ponies can just look at the sky to see what time it is. I am a genius.”
“Trixie preferred how it looked before,” the unicorn said, hopping out of the mystical gate of the Black Archive. “The night was full of mystery, and there were always things to discover. Ponies could use their imaginations to create pictures in the stars. Your sky is certainly logical but it lacks subtlety and artistic merit. The work of an accountant instead of an artist.”
“Those are bold words for a pathetic mortal speaking to a GOD!” Twilight turned to face her rival. “Before, I had you outmatched. I was twenty times more powerful than you. Now I am exponentially more powerful, and you are just injured and weaker than ever. Tell me, Trixie, just what are you planning on doing? Because if it doesn't involve getting on your knees and begging me for mercy, your plans are going to change to rapidly becoming a cloud of dust.”
“Trixie is going to stop you with this.” She reached into her saddlebag and took out the silver moth. Even here it was thrumming with power, the air around it distorting slightly.
“You don't even know what that is!” Nightmare Twilight laughed.
“I know it was powerful enough to lock up!” Trixie countered. “And that means it's powerful enough to do something to you!”
“You are nearly correct. Except for two things. First, you have no idea how to use the Moonlight Butterfly. And second, even if you did, you don't have enough magical power to do it. It takes the might of an alicorn to do that. Even if you were at your best you couldn't put out enough magical energy to get it going.” Nightmare Twilight sneered. “Want to reconsider begging for mercy?”
“No. Because Trixie knows something you don't know.”
“And what's that?”
“Trixie also brought this, and she found the instructions for it.” She took out a flower, the only one that had been in full bloom from the midnight pool. A lotus with petals as black as the night sky, the center glowing with restrained magical energy. Trixie bit into the black lotus, consuming it before Twilight could properly react.
“What- you idiot!” Twilight yelled. “Where did you even get that?! With that much raw magical energy-”
“With that much energy Trixie will be able to defeat you!' Trixie countered. She'd found a scrap of parchment in the room that had said the flowers stored ambient magical energy. After a thousand or more years soaking in the mana that suffused that room, they were probably the most potent magical energy source in all of Equestria. And after seeing what had been released from just crushing a petal, Trixie had been able to guess what would happen if she used a whole bloom.
She hiccuped. Manaflies flew out of her mouth. A terrible burning started inside her.
“Hmph. Less than impressive,” Twilight noted. Before she could say anything else, Trixie's coat suddenly stood on end and blazed with a silver sheen to match her mane, the curse straining to contain the energy within her, the power welling an looking for somewhere to release.
Trixie hiccuped again, more raw mana spilling out and floating away, her body feeling like it was tearing apart from within. She could see the silvery sheen burning away as the power tore apart the curse that had been placed on her, starting to unravel it at the edges.
“You've signed your own death warrant,” Twilight noted, rolling her glowing eyes. “I don't even need to do anything now.”
“Then you can just... lay down while Trixie beats you!” Trixie yelled. The mana finally found a way out , exploding through the curse along the chakras of her spine, flaring out from her back in a multicolored trail like burning sheets of flame. Trixie charged Twilight, the burning inside her driving her to movement.
The alicorn blinked away in a ball of flame, letting Trixie fly past her, the unicorn blindly crashing into a wall with enough force to explode it, the fragments breaking into dust as they hung in midair around her.
“You have some power now, but you lack the knowledge of how to use it!” Twilight shouted. A wave of solar fire launched towards Trixie. The mare braced herself and created a shimmering shield, shining in seven colors. The solar flare tore through the first layer, stripping a color from the rainbow, and Trixie barely held on as six more completely removed her protection. Before Twilight could launch another attack, Trixie charged again, the mana pouring from her back pushing her forward like a jet, flapping in the air like great wings, turning in midair to strike from behind.
Twilight stopped it without looking, Trixie crashing into a shield of magenta fire.
Twilight laughed. “This power... it's wonderful, isn't it?” A wave of force crashed out of Twilight, cracking the remaining walls of the planetarium and knocking Trixie off balance for a moment. Time seemed to slow as Twilight leaned in and lightly tapped the mare with her horn. Even that tiny contact was enough to send the smaller mare flying, smashing through the cracked stone wall and out over the castle, crashing into the foyer.
Twilight followed, lazy flaps of her wings carrying her at dizzying speeds, the air shattering with a sonic boom before her and turning to fire in her wake.
“You have endless power at your hooves and this is all you have to show for it?” Twilight asked, as she stormed into the foyer, landing in a crater, fire exploding around her. Trixie pulled herself out of the rubble she'd landed in and countered with an ice spell, holding the solar flames at bay.
“Trixie is learning fast, and she's not very impressed by the pyrotechnics you're using!” Trixie strained to keep her voice from cracking. She couldn't even feel her broken ribs or torn shoulder. She could only feel the energy inside her.
“You're nothing but a bag of blue fur around that lotus you ate!” Twilight yelled. “You're worthless, just an accessory to the raw mana!”
“What does that make you?!” Trixie demanded, firing off a bolt of blue lightning. Twilight knocked it away casually.
“Don't compare us. I've already mastered using the Pisa Sol.” Beads of light gathered along the ring and drew inwards before erupting in a supernova, the shockwave sending Trixie right through the wall to land outside in the courtyard, chunks of stone the size of houses landing around her as she rolled to a stop.
The last of the curse boiled away, leaving Trixie's coat a dirty blue instead of the shining silver it had been a few moments ago. She struggled to stand, the raw mana floating out of her dimming and flickering. The silver butterfly fell out of her saddlebag, tinkling as it hit the ground.
“I suppose that's all you had. I'm disappointed,” Nightmare Twilight said, setting down lightly, her hooves burning marks into the stone of the courtyard. Steam hissed around her as puddles and rain-slicked stones dried out. “I should have known you'd only be able to provide amusement for a few moments. Power like that simply can't be used by somepony like you for long.”
“Trixie understands now,” Trixie said, as she found the strength inside to stand. “Trixie thought it was strange that you'd take that artifact when you have the memories of Luna to draw on. Even if that Sol Ring is stronger, it's obviously one of Celestia's weapons, not Luna's.”
“True enough,” Twilight nodded. “But this did what I needed it to.”
“That's not all, though,” Trixie said, holding onto the Butterfly. With the curse gone, she could hear it, like bells, a soft sound in the back of her mind, whispering things to her. She looked at the artifact, the up at the Nightmare. “Celestia and Luna are equals. Trixie is willing to bet this is just as strong in its own way. But you can't use it.”
“I can do anything,” Twilight said, frowning.
“Trixie doesn't think so. You have one limit.” Trixie floated the butterfly to her horn. “You're a Nightmare. That's all you were able to create with the Smooze. That's all that you were to Luna. You can't use this because Luna was the Princess of Dreams, and you don't have real dreams, just greed and anger!” Trixie closed her eyes and poured what magical energy was left inside her into the Moonlight Butterfly.
The air rippled as rainbow waves erupted from the Butterfly, appearing like spreading slicks of oil on water. Nightmare Twilight's eyes went wide and she stepped back in surprise.
“You don't know what you're doing!” Twilight screamed.
“Trixie knows enough. She's going to save Equestria, even if she has to do it the hard way.” Trixie held the Butterfly high as the waves grew thicker. It had told her just enough to know how to use it, but not enough to know how to stop it once it started. A tear ran down her cheek. “I'm sorry, Twilight.”
“No!” Twilight screamed, struggling, as a vortex opened, dragging her and Trixie inwards. There was no escape. The Nightmare tried to lash out with the Sol Ring and found the world already slipping away.
She and Trixie were caught.
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I still don't even know what those things were supposed to do. Is that ring just a, like, a nuclear magic generator? Where did Trixie find instructions? Why was that thing the first thing she stumbled upon in the archive? Is it like, lonely and directed her towards it? Or uh... yeah I have no idea what is going on.
Cursed Cliffhangers! >.< I totally got all the references, having played that particular CCG. Fun, expensive times. Very curious to see what happened to the both of them and where they went. I don't remember the butterfly from anything though, really wanna know where it sent them to. If they can still move when they get there, i have a feeling a few minutes later Nightmare Sparkle is gonna make sure Trixie can't.
Epic. Trixie continues to show that she is willing to do anything to win, no matter how much she hurts herself in the process. Rock on, best pony.
Now, Trixie sacrifices herself and Twilight to save Equestria. Please let them be saved while The Nightmare is left behind.
Maybe Trixie will be an alicorn after all this (I know, wishful thinking.)
Magic: The Gathering references aplenty. I approve.
I'm not sure if I said this before, but I pity the Nightmare. It has only one function: to lose. Its purpose is to bring out the worst in ponies so that other ponies can be inspired to rise up and defeat it. It exists to make other ponies look good.
And Trixie is looking good (aside from the internal bleeding, the broken bones, the exhaustion...
... you know what I mean!). So I'm guessing that was a Black 'ole she created at the end there. Neat!
Till next time!
Well they survive?
Probably.
4136889
Calling the ring a nuclear magic generator isn't entirely inaccurate. Think of it like having all of the power of an exploding sun to call on to fuel your magic, and just constantly outputting that much energy.
The reason Trixie found the Black Lotus and Moonlight Butterfly is primarily because Twilight threw her into the door and broke the lock! It's also, as you suspect, somewhat sapient and was able to tell her how to use it.
As for what's happening, well, Trixie got her flank kicked a few more times and then pressed a Big Red Button and hoped for the best. We'll see how that works out for her.
This seems to carry a lot of duality with it. It's extremely similar to the fight between Nightmare Moon and Celestia...in my opinion.
I'm hanging on the edge of my proverbial seat as I wait to read the next chapter.
Pisa Sol! Sweeeeeet! A GGG reference in an MLP fic means I can now die happy (after I finish reading this story of course!)
Kudos to you!
Final Fusion: APPROVED!!! 
Presumably, after all this is over, Trixie will be able to forge the leftover shards of the Butterfly into a totally sweet spear, right?
So many references.
Black Lotus always was an over-powered
cardartifact.Well if they become as bad a Discord, what's the point, you stop Discord only to become him, you become everything you fought to stop the what's the point.
Darn you for one-more-chaptering me this entire story.