A blaring red 1,001,000 casts Trixie in a shade of red, turning her coat pur--... Wait... Trixie looks at the number. 1,001,000... That's definitly more than a million. But Trixie isn't sure. Though, no matter how many times she looks away and back, the number doesn't change, either in what it is nor what it means. There's no doubt about it. 1,000 has been added to her count.
"URE!!!" Trixie screams into the void.
"Yes?" comes the reply from an ambiguous source.
"Why is there 1,000 more wishes added to the million I already have to grant?!"
"You broke a rule. Isn't it obvious?"
"What?!" she shrieks. "But you undid it!"
"That doesn't absolve you from your action. You took your sister's life, which is what caused the paradox I had to fix. It doesn't matter if it never was. You still broke a rule, and there is your consequence."
"But, you didn't tell me anything." Trixie snaps back.
"Excuse me? Are you a foal?"
The question takes Trixie for a surprise. "Um, no. But what does tha--"
"I told you the rules. If you abide to them or not is completely up to you. But don't expect breaking them will result in praise. Every rule broken is another 1,000 added."
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Again, are you a foal? You said so yourself that you are not. Rules are rules, Trixie. I am not going to hold your hoof and tell you where you can and cannot step. Now, prepare yourself. You are being called upon."
"Fine..." Trixie says while jerking her head away from the number laughing in her face. Soon, a white light above Trixie bleaches out her surroundings, and she finds herself in a flurry of blue smoke, then the artifact room. Again, the voices impale her thoughts. Again, she chases them away with more numbers. Again, this idiot of a colt stands before her, looking for some kind of release from whatever Tricky has done to him--or the world.
"Let me guess--you wish Tricky was never born, correct?" Trixie says before the colt has a chance to talk.
"H-how did you know?" The colt says, astounded by what might possibly be the most powerful being in Equestria--and his hope at stopping Tricky.
Trixie flips her mane in a rather boastful manner. With pride, she says, "I can read minds," as if that very skill alone makes her better than everypony else. But--at saying it--a realization hits her. She can read minds! This colt, the ponies he hired, and Tricky... She has the ability see it all through her master's mind.
For a moment, she stops counting in her mind and focuses on the colt's face--but, beyond that, his mind. Other thoughts interfere at first: the thoughts of the ponies trapped in the ooze. One is desperately praying to whatever deity is out there to rescue her, while another is thinking that he'll never see his sister again and that he couldn't avenge his parent's deaths, while the last one is thinking that it's oddly warm in here. That the ooze feels nice, though that's probably his mind deteriorating as the ooze does its job.
Trixie forcefully pushes those thoughts out and refocuses on the colt in front of her. First, she hears a foal crying. There's a crib in the darkness. No, not darkness... a blanket. Soft, warm, smells familiar. No, it isn't familiar but the colt's own nostalgia flowing into Trixie.
Then, there's a light. Somepony lifts the blankets. A mare with a silky red mane. The colors around her blur; they're misshapen by the colt's narrow-mindedness. His only focus is on the mare. A smell, acrid, burning, a fire is nearby. A large fire. The warmth is getting more intense.
Trixie tries hard to focus on finer details, but the memories are so broken, so faded.
A sweet voice drips into the colt's ears. Inaudible but they soothe him, and he stops crying... Gentle hooves pick him up and a bright light blinds him... He cries again, wishing for the lights to be gone. Instead, a crackling sound, like burning wood, greets him next. There's that voice again, but, this time, it is as clear as day, "Everything is going to be alright."
The colt takes it in blissfully, but Trixie can sense--in the mare's voice--uncertainty. More crackling and more light... so much light... too much light. Suddenly, a darkness falls. A hole in the memory.
A jolt wakes the colt. Mud splashes in his face, causing him to cry once more... The shushing of a mother tries to calm him--but it's the mare, not his mom. Though, by now the colt accepted her as his mom. He tries to stop crying for her, but the mud stinks at his eyes. Again, the motherly touch... He feels a gentle hoof brush his face.
A terrible roar pierces his ears... Just stop, make it stop... Wind rushes pass his ears, and the huffing of a running mare with the monotonous motion of galloping crash against his senses... His head bobs up and down which knocks some of the mud off his face... An alicorn, blue, laughing as the sun and moon spiral around in the sky, tearing themselves apart... And beasts... demons of all sorts roam around a castle, doing whatever they want under their new queen...
Again... the voice says...
"Everything is going to be alright."
Again... Trixie doesn't believe her.
She pulls out of the colt's mind to see him crying. Soon, she notices her own eyes are tearing up as well. The memories were more than just moving pictures, they were the colt's actual emotions, which she forcefully brought up after he tried so hard to bury them.
"Wh-what did you do to me?" asks the tearful colt, rubbing his eyes all the while.
"I'm so sorry," comes Trixie's reply hardly above a whisper. "How can I serve you? Tell me your wish so I may make it so."