“Do you ever feel like you were meant to do something else?”
Twilight blinked, trying to get a feeling of her surroundings. The hallway and barrier were completely gone, in their place was a lake surrounded by fog. She was seated on a small wooden canoe, bobbing up and down against its surface.
Water lapped against the side of their boat, rocking it gently back and forth gently. “What do you mean?”
Across from her, Trixie shrugged. She looked like a completely different person, wearing a beanie, jacket, and dark gray jeans. She stared down at the bottom of the boat, elbows resting on her knees.
“Like something… Everything, even, is just wrong.”
Twilight squinted at her. A faint static filled the air, materializing as a sort of ringing in her ears. “Like with cutie marks? That kind of stuff?”
Trixie shook her head.
“No, like… Like the things that you do, they’re not for the reason you thought they might be for.”
Twilight was quiet, observing her carefully. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Well… Magic. I have it as a pony. I use it as a human. It makes me… me.” Trixie looked up to meet Twilight’s gaze. “It’s what defines me. Maybe even my destiny. I don’t know what I’d be without it.”
“There’s an old story in Equestria,” Twilight began. “About an ancient pony philosopher who managed to get rid of his cutie mark. He wanted to see if he could truly detract himself from his destiny, or what fate decided he should do.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow. “What happened to him?”
“The story goes that he went insane. He tried doing a hundred different things, but in each and every one he found hints of his own special talent. So he felt that in the end he could never really escape it.”
Trixie began to chew her cheek. “Hm.”
“What’s got you thinking about those kinds of things?” Twilight asked carefully.
“I think I’m trying to make myself disappear.”
The boat creaked and groaned beneath them.
Twilight could sense dark magic ebbing and flowing in the waters beneath them. It was rushing back and forth, up and down and in circles. Doing everything but going nowhere. Weighing on them both like stones.
“He showed me something,” Trixie said after an eternity. “He showed me… Everything, actually. All of me. From everywhere. But each version of me… they just looked the same. All of them doing magic.” She spat the last word out with disgust. “Is that really all I am? Some joke with nothing but cheap tricks?”
“Trixie, whatever he showed you… You can’t think of it as real.”
Trixie clenched her hand into a fist. “But what if it is? How can this be all I am, all I’ll ever be, across… Millions and millions of possibilities?”
“Maybe it’s just a part of you,” Twilight suggested. “Not in like… in a negative sense. But more than that it’s always with you. That you always challenge the unknown.”
Trixie hung her head. “Maybe.”
“Discord thrives in chaos. He’s connected across realities… This is what he does. He sows uncertainty, plants doubt. Because there’s nothing more chaotic than fear.” Twilight extended a hand and placed it on Trixie’s knee. “Or maybe even the realization that we can never know anything for certain.”
Twilight felt something pulse beneath the waters and knew that her time was running out. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
A purple glow enveloped them, and the lake quickly faded away.