//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - The Broken Mare // Story: A Mare's Journey // by MangaBro //------------------------------// Spike, who's still being held by his tail by the Mare's strong magical grasp, looks at Twilight's fearful expression, and felt a heavy and oppressing surge of dread in his stomach. Never had he seen such fear in Twilight's eyes. "Look! I'm sorry! I didn't know this was your mansion! I swear! Just please let us go!" Spike shouted. "Mine?" Trixie asked, "This isn't Trixie's mansion. What you're in now is nothing more than a simple Illusion!" "An Illusion?" Spike asked "Of course. Did you really think a mansion would just appear out of knowhere?" Trixie asked, "Now child, let the adults talk for a bit." Twilight was confused as to how Trixie could even create such an illusion. Twilight thought thag it may have been because of practice, but when she saw the amulet on Trixie's neck, she immediately knew that it wasn't the case. Trixie was wearing an Alicorn amulet, which enhances the magic of a Unicorn drastically. Rivaling that of an Alicorn. Twilight asked Trixie how she'd gotten her hooves on it, as it's extremely rare to get due to its ability. Trixie told Twilight that she had just murdered a Pony who had a magical wand in Saudia Arabia, and traded it to a draconequus who gave her the amulet in return. Draconequuses are hybrid creatures that exist far beyond Equestria in a land called "Draconia." They have very strong magical abilities. They aren’t seen often by ponies, but they're very famous for their history with Equestria thousands of years ago, and a certain Draconequus named "Discord." Who is believed to be a myth. Twilight gasped in fear and disbelief at the very thought that Trixie would even do such a thing just to get revenge on her. Twilight felt even more guilty knowing that a pony had lost their life over somepony, who wanted nothing more then revenge for what Twilight did. Trixie laughed maniacally at Twilight's expression full of fear and dread. It was so amusing and somewhat satisfying to see her in such pain after what she did. She's been waiting for this moment ever since Twilight left. Flashback Trixie, who felt guilty at herself for disappointing her father by failing the exam. Sat outside the school and looked down aimlessly at her hooves, thinking about how great it would've been if she'd pass the test. Trixie's dad was a famous magician in Equestria. He'd done many stage plays across the land, even doing one for Princess Celestia herself. Though, he was obviously good at magic, that wasn't the thing that Trixie admired the most. Instead, it was the smiles on the faces of the ponies that happily watched him play. Something about it was so special to her. That's why she wanted to join magic school. Though she wasn't interested in becoming Celestia's student like Twilight, or studying for the sake of being good at it. She was eager to learn magic in order to be a magician just like her father. Because she wanted to put a smile on his face as well. While at home, Trixie had waited for her father to come back for a very long time. She wasn’t worried, but she was definitely curious why he took so long. There were only a few students who were taking the exam, so it didn't make sense why he took so long. She waited in anger and anticipation for a few more minutes before going out of the house and to the magic school. However, once she got there, she knew something was wrong. Almost everypony was crowded at the front of the magic school. Interested, she goes up and asks a pink Pegasus what's going on. When the Pegasus told her that someone was apparently murder, Trixie had a bad feeling. She looked everywhere in the crowd, bumping in to numerous ponies, but no matter how she searched, she saw no sign of her father. At that moment, that negative feeling that she felt upon seeing the crowd, got considerably worse when she looked up at the magic school. "Is he still in there?" She thought Suddenly, she noticed a young purple foal run through the crowd and past her with tears flowing down her eyes. It was Twilight Sparkle. "Hey! Wait!" She commanded. Twilight stopped and looked back at Trixie. Who upon seeing her face and bloody horn, knew that something had gone terribly wrong. She was shaking and breathing heavily like she saw something terrible "What’s going on in there? Is my father okay?" Trixie asked. "Your.... father?" Twilight asked "Yes! His fur is the same color as mine and so is his mane! He's one of the people in the graduation room! Did you see him?" Trixie asked. "......" Twilight didn’t respond to Trixie's question, and instead looked down. This caused Trixie to think something terrible had happened. "Come on, answer me!" Trixie shouted. "I'm sorry.... I didn't mean to..." Twilight said quietly as she ran off. "Wait!" Trixie shouted, holding her hoof out, "What do you mean you didn't mean to?" After she ran into the distance out of Trixie's view, and saw Celestia who just came out of the building look around the area, calling out for Twilight. She just knew in her heart that something bad had happened to her father in the building. So, she ran past the crowd of ponies and right past the guards who were prevening people from getting in the area, into the building. Once inside, she saw the door to the exam was opened. She took a deep breath and ran inside, only to see a lifeless skeleton in the seat where her father once was. "....Father.." Trixie whispered. Trixie stared in shock and utter disbelief as she tried to tell herself that wasn't her father. But, she knew that it was and wanted to refuse that what she's witnessing is indeed real. She walked down and went to the skeleton and firmly grabbed her father's hoof bone. It felt so eerily cold. "Hey... this is just... a magic trick right?" She asked, looking at her father's skull while holding his hoof bone, "You can't really be dead... there's no way.." Though his lifeless skeleton was right in front her eyes, she refused to believe that he was dead. She just thought it was a silly magic trick, but when she glanced around the room and saw the pool of blood by the wall. Her hope began to decrease and she began to sob while still holding on to his hoof bone. "Come on! Stop it! Trixie don't like this magic trick! Please wake up! You can't die now! Trixie hasn't become a magician yet!!" No matter how much Trixie called out, her father wouldn't move or respond to her cries. After a few minutes, she stopped and broke down on the floor, her gaze still focused on her father's skull. Knowing that she would never get a chance to make it up to her father for failing the magic test, and how he never get a chance to see Trixie become a magician just like him. Moondancer, who had never left the building and instead hid silently In a supply closet in the back of the school. Heard Trixie's cries and went into the exam room, and saw Trixie sobbing quietly on the floor close to her father's skull. "Trixie?" Moondancer asked, quietly. "Moondancer?" Trixie responded. Moondancer went down to where Trixie was and was shocked to see that her father, who had previously just praised her for passing the test is now nothing but a lifeless skeleton. She then glanced at Trixie, who was still sobbing. "Do you kn-know...what happened..to him?" Trixie asked. "I'm..not sure.." Moondancer replied "Did you see anypony.. by.. th-the room?" Trixie asked, "Please... Trixie needs to know. Moondancer thought back to the sudden commotion that occurred shortly after Twilight entered the room. She remembered Twilight running out of the room past Celestia. "All I saw was Twilight running out of the room past Celestia.... Everything else is kinda fuzzy." She said. Trixie's eyes widened, as she remembered how scared Twilight looked when she ran out of the building. The blood on her horn, and the silence and saddened look of her face before her statement that she didn't mean to. After thinking about it for awhile. Trixie didn't want to believe that Twilight could've done such a thing, but with how she acted when she saw her outside, Trixie had a strong feeling that such a thing could be true. "Trixie... we should get out of here..." Moondancer said. "I'll stay here. Trixie don't want Jackpot to be alone." Trixie said, sniffling. Moondancer wanted Trixie to leave with her, but since she was obviously grieving, she knew that it would take a lot to convince her to leave with her, so instead. She went out of the building. The royal guard noticed Moondancer and stopped her before she could exit the building, asking her what she was doing inside the building, to which she stated that she was hiding in the backroom in fear, and that another student was in the building. Without hesitation, the royal guard let Moondancer leave and went into the room where Trixie sat by her father. "Hey! It isn't safe here!" The guard said, as he approached Trixie slowly, "come with me and I'll take you to your parents." Trixie turned her attention to the gaurd, her eyes bloodshot, and pointed to her father's skeleton. The royal guard instantly knew what she meant, and stopped and stared at her for a moment. "Hey." Trixie stated, "What happened here?" The royal guard then tells her that a magical accident occurred, and that he was told by Celestia, that a young unicorn's magic had gone out of control. When Trixie asked who the Unicorn was, he stated that he didn't know the name, but he knew that her fur was Purple. Upon hearing this, Trixie felt a enormous surge of anger throughout her entire body. She went with the royal guard outside, who offered to take her to Celestia to get her into a foster home, or a foal sitter. She spotted Celestia talking to two royal guards. "Did you find Twilight?" Celestia asked. "No ma'am. We searched all around Canterlot and no sign of her." The royal guard responded. Trixie's heart sank to her stomach, she felt so angry. The fact that Twilight left without a care in the world, and without punishment angered her to her core. From that day foward, Trixie developed a deep hatred for Twilight, and moved away from Canterlot to Saudi Arabia, where she lived for 6 years before moving to Horseshoe Village. While she was there, Trixie trained her magical abilities for her Twilight's next meeting. She wanted nothing more but to see her suffering. Present Day Twilight was paralyzed with fear as Trixie glared deeply into her eyes, and in first time in 10 years, Twilight felt actual fear. Spike desperately shouted at Spike to Twilight to do something, but Twilight was too shocked to move or even respond. Trixie laughed in amusement seeing the fear in Twilight's eyes. "Hahaha!" Trixie laughed, "For a Unicorn who was so talented with their magic, it seems like you can't even see an obvious trick, nor can your dragon!" "Oh, how the mighty have fallen!" Trixie added. "Trixie....I..I.." Twilight couldn't even make up a simple sentence. She felt her legs shake uncontrollably as she continued to stare into Trixie's menacing gaze. She knew that she if didn't do anything, she would surely die along with Spike. But, when she did ignite her horn, something was holding her back from even making a slight movement to any object in the room. She tried do use her magic once more, but her horn barely ignited. It was at this moment that she knew why. She hadn't use her magic for over 10 years. Trixie laughed once again, this time even shedding a tear. "How sad. Trixie expected more from the mare who was the best in magic school." She taunted, "Trixie wonders. Is it the incident that's preventing you from using your Magic? Or, has it just been that long since you've actually used it?" "Incident?" Spike asked. "Wow. You haven't told your dragon about what happened ten years ago?" Trixie asked, "What a snake you truly are!" Spike had never heard from Twilight about any sort of incident. But, he knew something had happened to her. Even knowing that, he wouldn't have guessed that it was so terrible that it would drive somepony to go this insane. "That was an accident, Trixie! I'm sorry for what happened to your father, but It wasn't my fault!" Twilight shouted, tears flowing down her eyes. "You're...sorry?" Trixie asked, her grin fading away, "you're....sorry? HAHAHAHA!!" Trixie began laughing uncontrollably. Her voice now very raspy, like she had sore throat. Twilight and Spike stared at her in shock. Twilight felt so guilty looking at what Trixie has now become. The look in her eyes were that of a fanatic. And her creepy, broken laugh telled Twilight that she had gone through so much pain. After a while, Trixie stopped laughing, and gave Twilight terrifying glare. Her eyes dead now bloodshot and her face dead pan. "You.... do you have any idea what I went through... for ten years? You... took the only.. pony I loved away from me.... and you're...sorry? That's all....? NO APOLOGY CAN FIX WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!" Trixie shouted. "YOU WILL REAP WHAT YOU SOW!! TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!" Trixie then suddenly made Spike disappear out of thin air. "Spike!! Trixie! What did you do?!!" Twilight yelled. "Oh..don't worry about him! I just put him in the middle of the forest! He'll be fine!" Trixie responded, with pure insanity in her voice. "Forget him!" Trixie yelled, her voice now raspy and bloodcurdling, "Now it's just you.. and me!" To be continued!