Students scrambled across crystal roots and dodged around rocks. The tunnels under the School of Friendship flashed by, poked through here and there by the remnants of the Tree of Harmony. Dozens of young ponies - as well as five other young creatures and a pair of adults - raced pell-mell towards what they hoped was safety.
Somewhere behind them, Starlight Glimmer was battling against a hyper-powered Chrysalis to draw her away. To focus Chysalis' anger on herself so the students could escape.
To sacrifice herself.
None of them had any way of knowing that the first thing Starlight had done was to teleport both combatants to Mount Everhoof - this wasn't the sort of situation you laid out plans for.
So they ran.
Until Trixie stopped. As did her heart.
Starlight had lost.
Trixie knew it. She didn't know how she knew it, but she did. It was that same sense a twin has for when the other is hurt, or how a child will have a premonition of something happening to a distant parent, or a lover--
Starlight had lost, Trixie knew it, and that meant that--
Her heart took a reluctant beat.
Sunburst noticed Trixie had stopped four steps after she did. He skidded to a halt before galloping back and grabbing her foreleg. "Come on! We have to go!"
"...No."
The flat-out denial was not what Sunburst had expected - he'd already started to run again before Trixie's refusal to move jerked him back like an anchor. "Trixie, I know you love your dramatics but there's no time! Who knows how much longer Starlight can hold her off!"
"She can't." Trixie's voice was flat. "She already lost."
Even on crisis, Sunburst's demand for logic burst through. "How could you possibly know--" And then he saw her eyes. And he, too, paled.
A sad, soft smile crossed Trixie's lips. "Sunburst?" She swallowed roughly. "In my life, I've been... I'm an egotist. I'm a coward. I'm a fraud. I've never really been Great or Powerful. An average showmare who talked too big and never knew when to blink." A bitter laugh slipped out. "I wasn't even a good villain when it comes down to it. But my..." Trixie hesitated as her voice cracked. "My best friend just gave up everything to make sure these kids got away safely." She turned herself, facing back up the tunnel towards Starlight's last stand. "I'm going to make sure it was worth it."
Sunburst reached out, giving Trixie's leg another pull - weaker, this time. Merely rote rather than real. "Trixie..."
Turning back, she gave a resigned smirk to the stallion. "Let me do the right thing for once in my life."
"You can't beat her," Sunburst noted quietly.
"I know." Trixie cast her deep violet eyes back to where the battle had been. "But I can slow her." Taking a deep breath, she set her hooves.
Sunburst hesitated, looking between the two directions of the tunnel. He frowned deeply.
Then he nodded. "After they're safe," he hurriedly said, "I'll come back for you. I swear." Then he gave Trixie a final hug and dashed to follow the students.
She said nothing back.
With a soft hum, Trixie lit her horn and projected a broad shield across the tunnel. It was weak - Chrysalis would have no problem breaking through it. But it wasn't there for that. It would at least prevent her from shape-shifting to a fly and sneaking past. One way or another - Chrysalis would have to confront Trixie.
No matter the outcome.
"Trixie?!" Starlight galloped through the root-riddled tunnels as fast as she could manage. After the escape from imprisonment, she had rallied to Ponyville to ensure that the evacuation had gone as planned. It was there at the train station that she'd found Sunburst - and heard that Trixie had stayed behind as a bulwark. He had been just about to double back when Starlight had arrived.
And instead of him, she dove into the caves to search out the illusionist.
"Trixie, where are you?" Starlight's shout echoed through the cave.
A response came finally in the form of a fwumph as a pale pink shield materialized in front of her - close enough that Starlight bumped her nose against it. The whole shield rippled like water at the light impact, implying quite a lot about how little strength it had. "...Trixie?"
Slow, measured hoofsteps echoed across the stone. One careful step at a time, Trixie came around the corner. Starlight's heart missed a beat when she saw the state Trixie was in. Her silver mane blew in an invisible wind. Her eyes were lit up a bright, gleaming white. Each time her hoof touched the ground it spat off a small burst of rainbow sparks. And in spite of that, Trixie looked terrible. Starlight could tell how each breath she took was forced and her cape was soaked with sweat. But what really terrified Starlight is how Trixie was vibrating - like there were two versions of her superimposed over each other, just slightly out of sync.
"Take off her face." The snarled response wasn't what Starlight had expected.
"What?"
"Take off her face," Trixie repeated with a bowstring-taut voice. "Trixie will give you one chance, Chrysalis. I'm not fooled. You daring to pretend to be Star--" Her voice hitched for a moment. "Pretending to be her only means I'm going to blast you harder. Drop the disguise and I'll make it quick."
Starlight's eyes widened. "Wait, no! Trixie, it's me! I'm okay!" She waved her hooves wildly. "You can stop... whatever it is you're doing!"
Another step forward, and another burst of sparks. "Oh, this? It's just a trick I learned from the Alicorn Amulet. Attuning yourself to an evil artifact isn't difficult - and as it turns out, you can do the same to other things, too. Like these roots."
"The Tree?" Starlight's eyes darted to the crystal roots all around them. "You directly connected yourself to the Tree of Harmony? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! The girls don't even really do that with the Elements, and they split it six ways!" She pointed at Trixie and her practically pulsing form. "Can't you see what it's doing? Your body can't take that - Trixie, it's killing you!"
And a slow, sad smile came to her lips. "It's worth it."
That smile became a scowl. "And since you won't drop the disguise, I guess there's only one way this goes." The tip of Trixie's horn started to glow more brightly, focusing the energy she had accessed to a single point.
Panic rose like bile in Starlight's gut. She was pretty sure she could get out of the way of the blast Trixie was charging - the windup was way too long and teleportation covered a lot of the sins of poor dodging - but channeling that much power would probably rip Trixie in half on the atomic level. Desperately, Starlight searched for a solution - and one lept to both mind and lips. "Klutzy!"
The burning point of light fizzled. Trixie's entire form trembled painfully as she suppressed the energy - and her voice trembled with her response. "D--draconequus?"
Starlight nodded, breath held tightly.
Trixie collapsed as her power cut. There wasn't even a transition as best Starlight could tell - one moment the illusionist was a powerful, flowing bastion of magical glory, and the next she was a tired pile of blue hooves and purple cape. The air-thin pink shield around her wafted away like paper in the wind. As it evaporated, Starlight charged to her side and scooped up the exhausted magician.
Cradling Trixie in her hooves, Starlight gently stroked her friend's sweat-slick mane. "You stupid, stupid idiot. That could have-- that should have killed you! How could you risk yourself like that!"
And her response was a weary grin. "Of course it would have killed Trixie. If Trixie had been Stupid and Foolish instead of Great and Powerful."
Starlight blinked as it clicked into place. "It was--"
"And you said Trixie's illusion magic needed practice."
Tears of relief pricked the corners of Starlight's eyes. "So you didn't use a dark ritual try to channel the most powerful artifact in Equestria through yourself in a suicidal--"
Trixie put a hoof against Starlight's mouth to silence her. "A good illusion needs a basis of truth. And you have to admit, if it made you pause it would have slowed Chrysalis down for sure." She let out a low groan as she tried to get to her hooves again. "I just wish I didn't have to hold it like that for hours waiting for her."
Helping her up, Starlight snorted. "You know you really scared me. I thought you were going to vaporize any second."
Trixie barked a sharp laugh. "And it serves you right! Making Trixie think that Chrysalis had beaten you!"
And Starlight was very, very quiet. "...She did beat me." She swallowed a hint of bile. "It's just that she wanted to make it slow so she could enjoy it."
Blue forelegs clenched around Starlight as Trixie grabbed hold with desperate need. "You're okay though, right?"
Starlight nuzzled Trixie. "Yeah. I'm alright."
Leaning into her - half for support and half from desire - the illusionist nodded. "That makes Trixie very happy."
"Come on, Trix. We still have to go save the world, and I can't do that without you."
A little chuckle snuck out of Trixie. "Because friendship is magic?"
Starlight turned and planted a quick kiss on Trixie's forehead. "Something like that."