Shining Armor walked the halls of the Crystal Palace. Something was very off, the normally cheery and hopeful atmosphere was replaced with an oppressive, and somewhat evil presence. The unicorn stallion quickened his pace, he then then looked out one of the windows and gasped at what he saw. The Empire was in ruins, buildings toppled over, the skies darkened with black clouds. Further down below, droves of crystal ponies were shackled and linked together with chains, some had tears in their eyes, while others walked but looked as if their minds were anywhere else but here. Shining Armor got a bad feeling that Sombra had returned, he didn't know how, but he never doubted that the tyrant king would return, his defeat felt too easy.
The Prince ran for the throne room, knowing that he needed to get Cadance to the Crystal Heart so that they could repel King Sombra again. When Shining Armor arrived he found that the throne room doors were shut, he tried to push them open, but they would not budge.
“AAAHHHHHH!!!”
Shining Armor’s eyes went wide, hearing the familiar voice of his wife screaming.
“Cadance, what’s going on!?” He shouted.
“No please, you can’t do this! Please don’t I thought – AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”
“TWILIGHT!”
Shining Armor had had enough, flaring up his horn; the unicorn stallion unleashed a powerful burst of magical energy that completely destroyed the large double doors. He quickly rushed inside only to gasp in horror at the sight. Twilight laid on the floor, a black metal collar was wrapped around her neck, inscribed with rune markings. A burn mark was upon her chest, her body was motionless. To his right Cadance also laid sprawled on the floor, with the same kind of collar and burn mark on her chest, and she too was motionless. Shining Armor walked slowly to his wife’s body, nuzzling the side of her face, trying to elicit any kind of reaction from her. Sadly, she did not respond, even worse, Cadance wasn’t breathing, her body cold. He then moved to his little sister, tears welling up and falling in drops upon the floor.
The unicorn stallion nuzzled his little sister, hoping that she might stir. To his surprise, she did. Twilight groaned weakly and opened her eyes slowly.
“Twilight!”
“Shiny…I’m glad…” Twilight then coughed painfully, she then raised her right hoof and gently placed it on Shining Armor’s cheek, “I’m glad I at least got to see you…I’m so sorry, you were right…you…were…”
Twilight then went limp, her breathing stopped. Shining Armor gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as the pain of loss stabbed at his heart. Sadness gave way to anger and fury as he glared at the throne which was swirling with black magic shadows. Within the darkness, red and green eyes stared back at him as a horn glowed with dark magical energy.
“Show yourself Sombra!!! Fight me like a stallion you coward!!!”
A mocking laughter rang throughout the throne room, but it wasn’t the laughter of a stallion, it was the voice of a mare. The shadows began to fade, collecting to a black tattered cape that draped over their caster. It was not Sombra who stood upon the throne, although he wished it was, but instead, it was Trixie Lulamoon. Her eyes glaring wickedly at Shining Armor as purple energy wisped from the corner of her eyes.
“Not quite Sombra, but close enough,” mocked Trixie.
Shining Armor stared at the mare in disbelief, shaking his head back and forth as if trying to dispel an illusion. Unfortunately, this was no illusion nor trick of the mind, Trixie was indeed standing there.
“Trixie…What…What have you done!!?”
The azure mare laughed manically, finding amusement in the stallion’s confusion.
“Oh Shining Armor, did you really expect something different? Did you think our little ‘bonding time’ at the stadium really meant anything, if so, you’re a bigger idiot than that useless shell of a Princess!?”
Shining Armor gritted his teeth in anger, his horn flaring with magical energy. “This is what you were planning the entire time!? Killing your own family, and the only ponies willing to give you a second chance!?”
Trixie merely shook her head, “Tsk, tsk, Shining Armor. I thought you of all ponies would’ve been more suspicious of me than that, but I guess I won you over with that whole ‘Oh woe was me, I was abandoned and alone with a neglectful cheating father and long since dead mother’ act. HA! It looks like Twilight wasn’t the only fool among you!”
“You mean, it was all a lie!?” Shining Armor stamped his hoof on the floor, his rage and hate growing with each passing second
“Of course it was a lie! I mean, c’mon, your ‘long lost half-sister!?’ You gotta be kidding me! Although, I must admit, I owe you and Twilight some thanks. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to learn how Sombra wielded his dark magic, now I have more power than I cloud ever have dreamed, but then I thought ‘why stop there!?’”
Trixie’s horn glowed with the light of dark magic. From out of nowhere, a strange object popped in front of them. It was black and gray, with a red ruby at the center, and designed to look like an alicorn. It didn’t take long for Shining Armor to recognize the object, how could he not, Twilight wrote about it in great detail.
“The Alicorn Amulet, how in the hay did you get that!? Twilight said that thing was hidden away!”
“Yes, yes she did. But it didn’t take me long to track down its location, I decided to keep it as an ace should I ever have need of its power. And now, by combining the Alicorn Amulet with my dark magic, it’ll amplify my powers beyond that of the Princesses! If Sombra’s magic was strong enough to match them, just think how much stronger I will be!? But don’t worry ‘big brother’ you’ll be around to see as the Great and Powerful Trixie becomes Equestria’s sole ruler!”
Trixie was about to place the Alicorn Amulet around her neck, but Shining Armor rushed her, tackling the pony to the floor and preventing her from donning the amulet. Trixie and Shining Armor rolled around on the floor, both grunting and yelling as they tried to get the other off. After a few seconds of chaotic rolling, Shining Armor and Trixie separated from each other and quickly shot to their hooves. Trixie saw her chance to attack and took it, unleashing a powerful beam of dark magical energy right at the stallion.
Shining Armor quickly raised a barrier around himself. The dark beam slammed against his shield, nearly sending his mind reeling from the impact. But he held fast. Not wanting to give the psycho mare the satisfaction! Shining Armor then began to expand his shield, pushing against Trixie’s dark magic beam. Trixie didn’t seem to be fazed by this; in fact, she was smirking the entire time.
“You think that will be enough!?”
Trixie’s eyes flared green and red as her horn shined with greater intensity, doubling the size of the beam till it washed over Shining Armor’s barrier. There was a small explosion and the sound of shattering glass echoing within the throne room. A thick dust cloud was kicked up into the air, Trixie smiled triumphantly as she used her magic to part the dust cloud. Shining Armor was on the floor, not moving at all. Trixie then moved closer to her opponent to deliver the final blow up close and personal.
“Did you really think you could beat me, Shining Armor? I mean, you couldn’t even beat Sombra, what chance did you have against me?!” Trixie mocked.
Trixie was two feet away before Shining Armor turned to the unicorn mare, who now wore a surprised expression on her face. Shining Armor had clasped the Alicorn Amulet around his neck, and now his horn was ablaze with blood red mana. Trixie backed away slowly in disbelief, the mare wasn’t a match for him before she learned how to use dark magic, but now that he had the amulet his abilities would be beyond hers now!
Shining Armor rose up, his blue eyes shifting to red as he narrowed his gaze at the backstabbing mare, “You thought you could make a fool out of me, hurt my family!?”
The stallion’s horn shined with red magical light as Trixie was quickly enveloped in his telekinetic grasp. Shining Armor then flung Trixie against the left wall, her body slamming hard against the surface. Without giving her time to recover, Shining Armor yet again flung Trixie across the room into the right wall. He then peeled her off the wall and threw her up into the ceiling. Shining then released his hold and let Trixie fall back to the floor in front of him. Trixie was bruised and beaten, shakily rising to her hooves.
“That was for Cadance. And this…” Shining Armor’s horn gathered a large amount of mana, “…is for Twilight!” He then unleashed it in a beam of crimson light that was more than triple the size of Trixie’s earlier attack. The beam overwhelmed the azure mare continued forward till it exploded violently upon impact. Shining Armor canceled the beam and took a moment to look over his handiwork.
The throne was completely gone, along with the wall behind it. Trixie laid upon the floor, motionless, but groaning and moaning in pain. The wisps of dark magic were diminished, barely a flicker. Shining Armor then trotted over to Trixie, standing over her and glaring down at the mare who took everything from his life. Who ended the lives of his sister and wife!
Trixie coughed and slowly opened her eyes, “I…I surrender…Shining Armor, please have mercy…?”
“Mercy…?” Shining spoke with an emotionless voice. “Mercy is for the weak, and I will never be weak again. And I’ll make sure you never ruin anypony else’s life!”
Shining Armor’s horn glowed red. The only thing to be seen was a scarlet flash of light and a bloodcurdling scream that echoed out in every direction…
~~~
Shining Armor awoke with a start, yelling in fright. Cadance quickly turned around and found her husband sitting upright in their bed, drenched in sweat and panting hard. His eyes were wide open, and his pupils reduced to the size of pinpricks. Cadance, concerned for
his wellbeing, quickly sat up as well and placed her hooves on his shoulders, trying to make him realize that she was there.
“Shining Armor, are you okay!? Talk to me Shining, what happened!?”
It took a few moments for the unicorn stallion to calm down, slowing his breathing back to normal. Cadance could see the fear and pain in his eyes, and it pained her to see her husband in such distress. Whatever kind of nightmare he had must’ve been really bad to make him react like this.
“Shiny, are you okay now?”
“Y-Yeah…I think so…”
“What happened, was it a nightmare?”
Shining Armor nodded in response.
“What was it about?”
The stallion went silent, how could he tell Cadance that his nightmare was about Trixie killing both her and Twilight? How could Shining Armor describe the battle that took place and the brutal way he assaulted Trixie within the nightmare? How could he tell her that…deep down…he felt that Trixie deserved everything he did, even…
“It was nothing, Cadance…Really, I’m fine, promise.”
Cadance looked across from the bedroom and then back to her husband, her concern increasing. “Well…I’m not so sure…” She then pointed in the direction of the wall some feet away from their bed.
Shining Armor looked at the wall, his jaw dropping at the sight. There was a scorch mark on it, and from the looks of it, the magical discharge was strong enough to bore a hole into the wall itself. Shining Armor shuddered upon seeing what he had done in his sleep as a result of his nightmare.
If I had been facing Cadance I could’ve…
The pink alicorn gently stroked her husband’s back comfortingly, trying her best to reassure him that it was okay and that she wasn’t hurt.
“Maybe I should talk to Aunt Luna? She could take a look into your dreams and see what caused this nightmare.” Cadance suggested.
“It’s alright Cadance, there’s no need to get Princess Luna involved over a freak nightmare.”
Cadance raised an eyebrow at that, “Shining Armor, it’s normal for a pony to have a nightmare or two, but ones that intense are something to be worried about.”
“I’m fine,” he assured.
“I still think you should –”
“I SAID I'M FINE ALREADY!”
Cadance shirked away a bit, Shining Armor had never yelled at her before, and certainly not with that amount of anger. Shining Armor realized what he had done and gently reached out to Cadance.
“I-I’m sorry, Cadance, I-I didn’t mean to yell! I’m just tired…Can we please just drop it and go back to sleep?”
The Princess of Love grasped his hoof and smiled gently at him. “Okay, but please, at least consider talking to Aunt Luna.”
Shining Armor sighed, “I’ll think about it…if it happens again.”
Cadance didn’t want to press it, so she reluctantly nodded to his answer. The Royal Couple then laid back down, with Cadance wrapping her forelegs around Shining Armor, believing that her presence would keep her love from succumbing to another horrible nightmare.
Unknown to the sleeping ponies a dark shadow slithered on the floor, its form seeming to have grown thicker and heavier than it once was. The darkness then slipped into the shadows in the corner of the room. A pair of glowing green eyes, with red slits and purple wisps stared at the two sleeping ponies. More specifically, they were staring at Shining Armor.
“Hatred…”
Trixie awoke the next morning; she felt like she had just run a marathon and lifted Canterlot Castle with her bare hooves. Groggily, Trixie turned to one side of the bed to see that Twilight was quietly entering the room. The purple alicorn noticed Trixie’s stirring and walked to the edge of the bed.
“Good morning, Trixie.”
“Morning…how long was I asleep?”
“You were out for a while, you passed out from exhaustion and Shining Armor brought you to your room to sleep. You slept nearly fifteen hours.”
Trixie thought hard about it, trying to remember how it was she came to passing out from exhaustion. It didn’t take long for her to recall yesterday, how Shining Armor helped push her to the edge and tap into her hidden magical reserves. Trixie then remembered the rush of power, so overwhelming, so intoxicating, wondrous, and frightening all at the same time. The last thing she remembered before completely losing consciousness was Shining Armor carrying Trixie on his back, the thought of it made her cheeks burn from embarrassment. The azure mare then retreated into the blankets, covering her face to hide her reddening face.
“I can’t believe I embarrassed myself like that, having him carry me out of the stadium…”
Twilight couldn’t help but let out chuckle, “Trixie, you don’t need to feel embarrassed. It’s something he used to do with me whenever I got really tired during family trips, he’d let me rest on his back, carrying me till we reached our hotel room before putting me to bed.”
Trixie poked her head out from under the covers. Shining Armor did that for her, the very same thing he did for Twilight, his sister. The thought of it made Trixie’s heart swell with a bit of happiness; it was the first act of brotherly love he had shown her sense their arrival. Trixie tried not to get too swept up in the feeling, she didn’t want to ruin it or get her hopes up. Still, this was a little breakthrough.
“He…He really did that? Carrying me up here and putting me to bed?”
Twilight nodded, noting the happy tone in her younger sister’s voice.
“I’ll be sure to thank him later.”
“You don’t have to, after a while it just becomes something that you don’t need to say thanks for, because he knows you’re grateful. But it wouldn’t hurt to do so.”
“That reminds me…” Trixie lowered the blankets and stared indignantly at Twilight. “You sealed us in! What was up with that!?”
Twilight blushed and smiled sheepishly, “I…I thought that you would try to run away from Shining Armor before he could properly apologize, and/or I thought Shining Armor might give up at the last second. So I asked Cadance to help me set up barriers around every entrance and exit within the stadium. I just wanted to make sure that you two actually talked, but had enough room so that you didn’t feel completely trapped.”
“Humph, well…Just…Oh, whatever!” Trixie couldn’t really find a flaw in Twilight’s plan, despite being taken away by Cadance, and suffering her trolling teases, their little plan did work. “Thanks…I guess.”
“It’s alright, I know. But there is one thing I wanted to know. Why did you cut yourself off?”
Trixie raised an eyebrow at that.
“Cut myself off from what?”
“Your magic, Cadance and I could sense that you tapped into your full magical potential, but at the last second you severed your connection and your magic went back to its normal state. I was just wondering why you didn’t let it go.” Twilight asked.
Trixie sat up in her bed, her eyes shifted from Twilight to her hooves. She never thought the day would come when she had to tell Twilight about this, but the powers that be seemed to have thought otherwise. After a few seconds of trying to convey what she felt, Trixie told Twilight why she did it.
“I was scared, Twilight.” She noticed the alicorn’s perplexed expression. “I’ve never felt my magic become that powerful. It reminded me too much of the Alicorn Amulet, the power, the strength, I loved it! But then, I thought ‘What if I become like I was with the amulet!? I don’t want to become that crazy mare ever again!’, and that’s when I stopped…Funny isn’t it, all my life I wanted the magical power that put me on par with you, at least the you that was once a unicorn, and now, when I came close to getting it, I’m afraid of it…”
Twilight never knew Trixie was suffering that kind of trauma. The Alicorn Amulet had left scars on Trixie, physical ones, no, mental ones, yes. Because of that cursed item, Trixie was afraid to use her full power, or to even tap into it. The whole thing would be ironically funny if it weren’t sad. For Twilight, being a student of the magical arts, seeing a fellow magic wielder afraid of the very thing that made them who they were, was almost unbearable.
No wonder she’s been trying so hard to get better with the magic she has right now. She’s actually afraid of her full power. It’s more accurate to say, that she’s afraid of losing control to her power.
Twilight then sighed sadly, “I’m sorry to tell you this Trixie, but your untapped reserve has retreated further into the magical matrix of your soul. When you rejected it, the power snapped back, pushing further away. It’ll be harder to tap into it again, harder than it was yesterday. But Trixie, if you really want to get better at magic, and be the best you can be, you need to accept your power.”
“Not if it means becoming like that again…! I don’t want to ruin the relationship I have with you, and I definitely don’t want to ruin what semblance of a good one that I just now started to create…!”
“Trixie, I performed a scan of you matrix when you were asleep. I wanted to see what I missed. I have to tell you, if you reject it a second time…I don’t think you’ll be able to access it ever again. It’ll retreat so far into your soul that not even years of training and intense meditation will coax it out of you.”
The azure mare sat there, absorbing her sister’s words. The power she sought was right at her hoof tips and she was too afraid to fully embrace it. But could she really risk it, risk turning into that power driven, insane sorceress from before? The thing that made it worse was the “what if”. If Twilight and her friends hadn’t been able to get the amulet off of Trixie, how far would she have gone? Would she have become a cruel, sadistic ruler? Would she have brainwashed the inhabitants to become her own personal army and march on Canterlot? All these questions and more lingered in her head. Trixie was perfectly content with just improving her magical skills with the power she had, but now that she had a taste of what her full power was, she wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore.
“We’ll keep off the magic training until you’re sure, Trixie. I just want you to be aware of this, just in case you feel the surge again.”
“Thanks Twilight, I –” Just then a loud grumbling noise emanated from under the blankets, interrupting Trixie. The sound rumbled again, making the azure mare look down at the source, which turned out to be her stomach. Twilight couldn’t help but laugh a bit at her sister’s growling stomach. Trixie glared at Twilight, her cheeks once again a bright crimson. “Sh-Shut up!”
“I’m sorry, and don’t worry. It’s perfectly natural to be hungry after exerting that much magical energy. C’mon, let’s head to the dining room, they’ll be serving breakfast soon.”
Deciding that breakfast did indeed sound good, Trixie removed her blankets, and made her bed before making her way towards the door with Twilight. The azure mare then paused, causing Twilight to look and see what was keeping her. Trixie was staring at a box that rested on the mantle of her dresser. It was a simple oaken box, with metal edges and a lock.
“Trixie…?”
“Do you think we should show him now?” Trixie asked with trepidation.
Twilight looked in the same direction as Trixie was, seeing the object she was staring at intensely. After a minute of thinking, Twilight arrived at a conclusion. “Not yet. Shining Armor’s just starting to feel comfortable around you, we shouldn’t jeopardize that. We’ll show him that a day or two before we leave. That way we can have some time to deal with whatever comes when we do.”
Trixie sighed heavily, she knew she’d rue that day. This slight amount of progress, Trixie would hate to lose it. She was starting to feel like a part of the family.
“Alright, I’ll trust you in this, Twilight. Whenever you think the time is right.”
“Seems like you’re trust in me is getting easier.” Twilight noted.
“Well…I think you deserve a little of my trust, and I’m feeling in a particularly good mood so don’t ruin it.”
Twilight rolled her eyes playfully at Trixie’s attempt at being superior. The two mares then exited the room, wondering what this new day had in store for them.