Warmth. The scent of books. The sound of Spike, nervously pacing nearby. The feel of solid floorboards beneath her hooves. The crackling of the fire.
Applejack opened her eyes. Golden Oak Library was just as she had left it. Trixie was still seated across from her, her eyes squeezed shut. Twilight, for her part, was wearing a look of gleeful satisfaction. It was a look that AJ had seen before. The I-just-solved-a-particularly-complex-problem-and-will-now-get-to-subtly-boast-about-it-to-the-Princess look. .
"Good! Well done! Operation Trixie seems to have been a complete success," beamed the young librarian.
"Wow, Twilight. I thought ye'd be exhausted. Ah musta been in there for near to an hour. How'd ye keep the spell goin' so long?" Applejack carefully flexed her legs, testing the authenticity of the reality she now perceived.
"Oh no! You were inside for approximately three seconds. Thoughts, emotions and state transitions are processed remarkably quickly within the confines of the equine brain. Particularly with unicorns, due in part to most of the activity within the Praecantatio Mens, that's the part of the brain that joins to the horn via a network of neurons that... ahem..." Twilight stemmed her intellectual gushing at a stern glance from Spike, "Glad to have you back with us, Applejack. I knew we could count on you."
Applejack turned to Trixie, who was still seated with her eyes closed. AJ opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it. She was unsure how much of it the azure unicorn had experienced with her. How much she would remember. And if she remembered it all... what words should be spoken?
"Trixie... are ya... are ya feelin' a little better?" the magician did not even stir.
"She's not conscious at the moment. And we're not quite done here. Spike? Did you fetch it?" Twilight moved closer to Trixie, licking her lips nervously.
"Got it right here," the dragon produced a small unadorned wooden chest.
"If my calculations are correct then your presence within Trixie should have loosened the Amulet's grip on her just enough for us to perform an extraction. In much the same way that your Element of Harmony is amplified by your honest nature I believe that the Amulet is surviving by feeding off characteristics within Trixie. Ego, guile or maybe just insecurity. And in the same way that your connection with the Element of Honesty would weaken if you ever stopped being honest so too can Trixie's connection be weakened by exposing her to some humility, openness and comfort," Twilight took note of the look of worry and confusion on AJ's face, "Oh, don't worry. She'll be back to the same old Trixie in a couple of days. It's only a temporary modification so that we can more easily access the "roots" we discussed earlier."
Twilight took a few seconds to think of a agricultural analogy that could explain things to AJ a little better, "It's kind of like when Apple Bloom got her head stuck in that pipe and we had to put grease on her neck to pluck her out. If I just wrenched it out it might damage Trixie. By sending you in to...um... grease her up a bit it will make the extraction a lot easier."
Twilight settled herself in front of the unmoving magician.
"Bring the chest here and open it, Spike, but whatever you do don't touch the Amulet itself. The last thing we need is a rampaging magically supercharged dragon on our hands," Spike walked ceremoniously over to join them and carefully opened the box.
Contained within lay the Alicorn Amulet. Its ruby centrepiece caught the firelight and glimmered ominously.
"Twilight... jus' be careful now, ya hear? That thing in there wants to get the Amulet back real bad and Ah think some nasty stuff'll happen if we let it," Applejack could feel her hair standing on end just from looking at the grim artefact.
"It communicated with you? That's fascinating!" Twilight got very excitable when discussing magic, her tail was wagging like Winona with a new dog treat, "It must have invested quite a lot of itself into Trixie in order to have maintained that level of sentience. Perhaps the symptoms were its way of pressuring the host into reacquiring the Amulet. What did it say? Did it divulge any information regarding it origins? I did some preliminary research but as yet I've come up empty hooved. How responsive was it? How much does it know about the outside world? What does it want? How did you-" Spike gave Twilight a meaningful nudge and she cut herself off.
"Twilight... Ah ain't much good at understandin' magical hooey and mumbo jumbo. It knew who you were, it really doesn't like the Princess very much and its awful mean. That's about the gist of what Ah found out by talkin to it and Ah wouldn't wanna talk to it again. Not for all the apples in Equestria. Now can we jus' hurry up before the... grease wears off."
Twilight gave a nod but AJ could see that the unicorn had made a mental note to ask Applejack in detail what she had seen and experienced later. The Amulet lit up with the glimmer of telekinetic magic and slowly lifted out of its box to hover between the two unicorns. The air hissed and warped as Twilight's magic coursed through it.
Trixie's eyes fluttered open and Applejack felt a lump form in her throat. Her eyes were lifeless and black. Like inky water. It was the darkness. The nightmares. Bubbling just below the surface.
Twilight gradually moved the Amulet closer. The room began to shudder more violently with each inch. Several books toppled off their shelves but neither the purple unicorn nor her staring patient glanced away. Trixie's mouth was moving. Wordlessly, at first, but as the amulet drew ever closer the sound became audible.
"Sleep. Sleep and change. You may delay us but the tide will not be stopped. We can wait. As long as we must. Ours is eternal. You will have vanished by the next heartbeat. Others will come. Drowning in their own ambition, they will beg for gifts that no mortal can bear to receive. And we shall give them what they desire. To their own ruin and to the ruin of all. We can wait as long as it will take. Let time erode your magic, your will and the power of your race. The Golden Age cannot last forever. When you hear the lamentation of the pretender you bow before you will know our time has come round once again..."
As Trixie spoke the words a black smoke trickled from between her lips. Creeping through the air, its tendrils found the Amulet and suddenly it was sucked into the red glow that was emanating out of the ruby. Twilight drew a shaky breath and furrowed her brow in concentration. The flow of smoke thickened and hastened. Trixie's body twitched and shook as it gushed from her.
The whole process was over in a matter of moments and yet to Applejack it felt like it went on forever. Finally, when the flow weakened and then guttered out Applejack realised she had been holding her breath the whole time. Trixie slumped onto her belly.
"Is... is it over?" asked Applejack, her voice trembling.