//------------------------------// // Contradictory Selves - Chapter 7 // Story: Crisis of Infinite Trixies // by Rixizu //------------------------------// “Okay. It seems like our best shot. And heck, what am I worried about? We’re Trixies. We can accomplish anything!” Representative Trixie hoped those bold words made it true. This entire plan was a gamble. They were facing Princess Luna, for Luna’s sake! They were walking into their almost certain doom!  “Perfect! I’ll get ready.” Captain Cosmos clapped her hooves together in delight, beyond confident their reckless plan would work. Despite herself, Representative Trixie took some comfort from the superhero’s relentless optimism.  After ironing out some minor details, the Trixies and Twilight separated to enact their parts of the plan. The royal guard would help evacuate Ponyville before the fight, just in case it got ugly. Representative Trixie glanced at the clock. A scant three hours remained until doomsday. And where the heck was the self-proclaimed Goddess of Mischief? You’d think the arrogant blowhard would have shown up already? Was she injured? But wouldn’t the guard and Ponyville police have found her already?  “Why am I worried about this? The louse is probably just getting sloshed somewhere.” For reasons Representative Trixie couldn’t quite explain, the so-called Goddess’s demeanor rankled something deep inside her.  “Um, Trixie.” A pony said, disrupting Representative Trixie’s musings. “I know you’ve got Equestria to save, but I got something that I need to get off ma chest.” Standing in her half-demolished front door was an apologetic Applejack, hat over heart. “What is it, Applejack?”  “I wanna apologize, Trixie. My memories are jumbled, but I said and did some mighty terrible things under that vile mare’s control. If we’re on the verge of destruction, I want to clear the air first.” But Trixie only snorted, indignant. “Why are you apologizing to me?” “Sorry?” The apple farmer blinked, surprised by this response. “You should apologize to Carrot Top instead. She’s the one you insulted!” While evil magic had twisted her mind, those secret selfish words had originated from Applejack’s heart.   This earned a chuckle from the apple farmer. “You’re right, of course. If we survive this, it’ll be the first thing I’ll say to her when she returns to town. I gotta say, Trixie, you’re a good friend. You really care about that silly carrot farmer, don’t you?” “Darn right I do!” Applejack looked down. “I’m envious of you, Trixie. Hate to say it, but you’ve gotta good bunch of friends. And a good heart, better than mine. Just promise me you’ll fight hard and protect us all. We of Ponyville are counting on you!” “I’ll do my best,” Representative Trixie said, touched by Applejack’s true feelings. This was the real Applejack, not the mare twisted and corrupted by Antithesis. “And I’m sorry too!” Pinkie Pie said, bursting into the room, half-sobbing. “I did horrible things to you! And I called you annoying! Super mean and totally unforgivable!” “I’m not holding any grudges over what happened, Pinkie.” Representative Trixie replied. “And I’m sorry, too. I haven’t been the most attentive to your parties.” And Pinkie wasn’t the worst once you got to know her.  “Annoying, eh?” Applejack said, amused that Representative Trixie had taken more offense from that than anything she’d said. “Just throw her a darn good party to make up for it.” “I plan to!” Pinkie said, perking up. “We’ll need a Saved the World from Our Crazed, Brainwashed Princess party once this mess is settled. And you’ll attend, right, Trixie?” “Sure thing.” Representative Trixie replied. Heck, she’d need one after this mess.  Darn it, and we still have those killer robots to worry about as well! Whatever, one problem at a time, Trixie.  --- “So, uh, this is what you like?” Twilight Sparkle said, trying her best to mask her horrified expression. The Goddess took no offense, used to these reactions to her cursed existence. She’d dropped all illusions, showing her true self. Even the alicorns in her hive mind avoided looking at her whenever possible. “It’s neat!” Twilight said, trying too hard to stay positive. When she noticed something amongst the misshaped blob of the Goddess’s flesh, it piqued her curiosity. “Is that a wing?” she asked. “That’s correct. You, the other Sparkle tried mutating me into an alicorn by infusing me with pegasus magic along with two other unicorns. The experiment failed in the worst ways.” The Goddess replied, not hiding her bitterness. The fall into that cursed vat of chemicals still haunted her nightmares.  “That’s odd. If she was trying to create an alicorn, she should’ve used a pony from each tribe.” “Somehow, it missed her attention.” The Goddess replied dryly. Personally, she blamed her Twilight’s unicorn bias for that mistake.  “Huh,” Twilight said, curious despite herself. A spike of fear stabbed in the Goddess’s heart, worried she might have sent Twilight on the same path as her counterpart. Would this universe’s Trixie suffer the same fate as her? No, stop it. Fate isn’t real! You can change the future! But doubts crept in unbidden, fearing this Equestria would suffer the same doom as hers.  “Are you okay?” Twilight asked, catching the Goddess’s sudden change in mood.  “No.” The Goddess said honestly. “I fear we’re wasting our time, that your Equestria’s beyond saving. After the horrors I’ve experienced in my universe, hope doesn’t come easy. I worked so hard to fix things in my world, tried using my alicorns to improve everypony’s life in the Wasteland, but I often fear I’ve only made things worse!” Separated from her hive mind and left with her own thoughts, it’d given her too much time to consider her failures, how the Wasteland hadn’t really improved.  “Some goddess I am.” Tears pricked her eyelids, misshapen and distorted as they were.  “I’m scared too.” Twilight looked down, ashamed at her own weakness. “This is too much. I’m not like Trixie. I’m not as brave as her. Once, I looked down on her. Considered her an ignorant foal who knew nothing about real magic. But I missed just what a terrific, daring mare she was. If anypony were to become the Element of Magic, it should be her.” She continued. “When I learned about the other Twilight and how she became the Element of Magic, I assumed I’d been robbed. That I deserved it. But, no. I’m not the Element of Magic because I learned the wrong lessons. I was too selfish.” “What a sad pair of failures we are. Can we even save Equestria?” The Goddess asked.  “We must, for everypony’s sake.”  “Yes.” For whatever reason, a warmth grew in the Goddess’s heart, burning brighter still as Twilight hugged her glass tube, ignoring the sight of the ugly, blighted mare within. “Thanks.” The Goddess said from the deepest part of her heart.  Twilight whipped a tear from her eye. “Enough self-pity. We have a job to do, one we dare not fail!” “Right!” They’d win this. They must. “Lower the Mind Stone into my tube. I’ll try connecting to it.” “Be careful. Its power is incredible.” Twilight nodded, dropping a small yellow stone into her tank after opening the lid with her magic. The Goddess marveled such a small stone could cause such trouble.  “Holy!” When it came in contact with her skin, the world opened like an unfolding picture. It was beyond anything the Goddess had even imagined. Compared to her psychic presence before, it was like a blind person gaining sight.  Across the globe, she could sense the thoughts of a dragon lazying in her cave, rolling on a verifiable treasure trove. Somewhere else, she heard a business pony grumble to himself about a client being an hour late and how unprofessional it was. And beyond just thoughts, sensing even the fish swimming in the deepest part of the ocean.  “Are you okay?” Twilight asked, nervous. “It’s a lot. You weren’t wrong about this stone being dangerous.” It was already causing her a terrible headache, the psychic input deafening in its intensity. “But I can handle it.” “Okay. I’m ready to join minds.”  “Yes.” However, she won’t go as far as with her alicorn sisters, making Twilight only a guest in her hive mind. “This is your hive mind?” Twilight thought, amazed. “It can hear your thoughts, too!” Despite joining with the counterpart of her tormentor, the Goddess took comfort from their joining. “Yes, and your help is lessening the mind stone’s burden.” “I’m sorry Trixie, I didn’t realize you were hurt that badly,” Twilight said, reading into the Goddess’s past. “What my counterpart did was wrong! How could she be so stupid?” “Yeah.” The Goddess took some comfort in being called her real name again. It’d been too long.  “But you’ve done some stupid things, too. It’s remarkable how you can turn ponies into alicorns, but the process is wrong, flawed. They can only be unicorn mares for one, and they’re a dead end, unable to have foals. They aren’t the future, Trixie, no matter how powerful or immune to the radiation they are.” “Yes, as everypony tells me.” The Goddess replied, voice wary. “I’m working to fix that problem, okay?”  “I won’t judge you. You were trying to make the best of a bad situation. I see the wasteland, dear Luna. It’s…” Twilight’s voice trailed off, breaking away from the Goddess’s past. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried that far.” “It’s okay. Can I peer into your past? Not anything personal. I want to see Equestria in its former beauty again.” “Sure, I’ve been everywhere on my travels.” Twilight snorted in wry amusement. “I suppose being a fugitive from the law wasn’t so bad in retrospect after all.” Twilight shared her travels as she moved the Goddess from the ship. They needed to get into position for the plan. Tears stung the Goddess’s eyes as the Equestria’s majesty struck her. How she’d missed it, so green and full of life. She saw flowers again. How she missed those, too. The Goddess didn’t fight back her tears, overwhelmed, but in a good way. It was a welcome distraction from their impending doom. If they were to die, the Goddess wanted her last memories to be happy. Odd company, but being alone would be worse.  “Do you think they can do it?” Twilight asked finally. “They can.” The Goddess replied. “Together, we must.” --- “Hmm.” Representative Trixie stared at her mentor, floating high in the air, wearing an expression that delighted in the coming destruction. Part of Representative Trixie worried that their plan wouldn’t restore the princess’s sanity, that this was the true Princess Luna.  While everypony sometimes desired to burn everything on an odd whim, it doesn’t mean they’d like it to happen. Still, it disturbed Representative Trixie that Princess Luna despised Equestria deep in her heart.  One problem at a time. First, Trixie’s motley group needed to defeat her. Representative Trixie noticed Humility giving her a hoof up from a hiding spot in a bush. Everypony was in position. It was go time.  Besides her sat the magic restraining ring they borrowed from the Ponyville police department. While the ring worked on Humility well enough, they weren’t sure it’d work on an alicorn with Princess Luna’s magical might. That whole plan hinged on wishful thinking.  That’s something they should add on the box, “Strong enough to stop a princess’s magic!” But enough jokes. Time for plan A. “Princess!” Representative Trixie shouted at the top of her lungs, leaving her hiding spot. For a second, she feared her maddened mentor would ignore her, or worse. Much to Representative Trixie’s relief, Luna lowered to her student’s level. “Trixie, perfect. It saves me the trouble of searching for you.” Her mentor said.  “Really?” Representative Trixie said, her legs wobbling in fear. It was frightening to have an alicorn’s full attention focused on you, reminding Representative Trixie that only her wits and tricks stood between her and certain destruction.  “It is time we leave this blighted country for another, Cavallia, I think. There, we can rebuild our lives. I’m sure Princess Cadenza would welcome us warmly as guests.” “Huh?” Representative Trixie blinked. That wasn’t the response she’d expected.  “Fear not. Now that the moon is on its destructive course, I only need to apply the occasional magical push to keep it on course.” “Hold on, you don’t want to kill me?” Antithesis “Hate it, Kill it” spell had driven the common citizens to murder, happy to cause lethal unhappiness to a certain Night Court representative.   “Of everypony in Equestria, Trixie Lulamoon, only you are worth saving.” “I think everypony else in Equestria would disagree with that statement.” “No, it’s true. You aren’t perfect, but you have a true, caring heart. You’re the only pony that’s made these last few decades bearable.” “Really?” Trixie’s heart caught in her throat. Was this her mentor’s true feelings? “Yes, I’ve grown tired of the Night Court and its machinations.” Despite being immortal, Trixie saw every year of her life in her mentor’s face. She seemed beyond ancient, each growing year becoming an even heavier burden. “I’d hope you’d breathe new life into it, but that was a foalish hope. It’s come too close to corrupting you, too. That’s why I’m purging the world of its filth and corruption, like cutting down a sickly, useless tree.” “But at the cost of everypony? And what about my friends and their families? I could never abandon them, whatever the cost!” Princess Luna, the Bloody Mare, shook her head regretfully. “It’s too late to search for them. I’m truly sorry about your friends. There are few noble ponies left in Equestria.” “Okay, now that’s just horseapples. You can’t let the Night Court blind you to the good ponies out there!” Was Princess Luna the one who’d gotten corrupted, driven bitter and hopeless by her inability to fix the Night Court’s nobility?  “No!” The pavement cracked as Princess Luna stomped a hoof. “I know my subjects. They fed my sister’s ego and drove her into thinking she stood above everyone else. Their compliance allowed the Night Court to grow corrupt. And I know how they’ve treated you, my student. We saw today what they truly thought of you.” “No!” But Representative Trixie saw her mentor’s twisted logic, hating how it might have some good points. Still, it didn’t excuse the wholesale destruction. Representative Trixie stood straighter, a stubborn tilt to the jaw. “This is wrong. You must know that! And I won’t leave. If I’m to die, it’ll be with my friends and country.” “You’d save them after everypony spit on you?” The red tint to the princess’s fur intensified with her intense frustration.  “Even then.” “Fine, then you’ve made your choice.” Princess Luna replied, her tone cold. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you wish to die, then I won’t stop you.” “Fine.” So much for plan A. It’d been a foalish long shot, but Representative Trixie needed to try. With a wave of her hoof, she signaled to the others to start Plan B. “Now!” “Cosmos Kick!” A familiar superhero threw a leaping kick into the Bloody Moon’s jaw. More startled than hurt, Luna whined in surprise.  Shouting a battle cry, Humility jumped from her hiding spot, magic blazing. Still stunned by Cosmos’s kick, Luna was unprepared for the stun blasts shot her way, each striking her in the exposed side. Human Trixie and the Great and Powerful Trixie appeared next, jumping to restrain the prone princess. Human Trixie pulled Luna’s legs into an uncomfortable position, using her superior height and weight to add much leverage to the move.  “I’m sorry!” Magical restraining ring in her magical aura, Representative Trixie rushed forward.  But Princess Luna recovered with remarkable swiftness, eyes glowing white as her rage unleashed on her unfortunate attackers. “Enough!” With a burst of magical force, each Trixie flew clear of the princess. Representative Trixie grunted in pain as her head struck the gravel road, tearing skin.  “Ouch.” Representative Trixie touched her head, finding specks of blood on her hoof.  “I’m disappointed, my student.” The Bloody Mare said, looming over her. Representative Trixie’s heart caught in her throat. Her mentor was using the expression she only reserved when she really ticked off.  “A commendable effort.” Luna levitated the magical restraining ring, examining it with an eye. “But futile and foalish.” The ring cracked from the pressure of the alicorn’s magic before crumbling to dust.  “No.” Representative Trixie’s voice caught in her throat. “I understand your motive, Trixie. But it was a foolish move. You fight the inevitable. Equestria’s doom was set when I set the moon’s course. But for this transaction, you will be severely punished, my student.” “Oh…” But Representative Trixie didn’t get to finish her curse, blinded by a sudden burst of light. “Sister, what have you done?!” A regal voice said, a disturbingly familiar one. “Not her!” Why was she here? It’d only make the situation worse! “You realize you’ve driven the moon on a collision course with Equestria? They call me insane, but this action is pure madness.” Corona, the Tyrant Sun’s eyes widened when she got a better look at her sister. “And you’ve changed. What’s happened to you, Lulu?” “I’m doing what I should have done millennia ago, putting an end to this corrupt, vile country. You’re free to flee if you wish. I won’t stop you, sister.” The Bloody Moon said, though her stance told she was ready for a tussle.  “This is…” Corona, fallen sister of Luna, said, lost for words. “You must realize this will kill millions!” “It must happen,” Luna simply replied.  “Then, I must stop you for Equestria’s sake. Forgive me, sister. I take little comfort in this.” And Corona charged, an ever-expanding fireball gathering around her horn.