The Balance of Harmony

by Thornwing


Chapter Nineteen - Rainbows and Unicorns

“We do not want you here!” The words seeped like venom from the mouth of the emotionally fragile Trixie. Her horn began to glow in a cloud of black and purple as her eyes sunk into a deep red hue.

“Look out!” Shining Armor dove towards Twilight as he pushed them both out of the way of a giant spike of black crystal that shot up from the ground beneath them.

He recovered almost instantly and brought up his own magic shield to defend them all from a shower of black spikes that shot out toward the group immediately after. Twilight used the momentary reprise the shield granted to generate a beacon of light in the design of her own cutie mark and broadcast it into the sky.

“What have you done?” Twilight’s words rang with a level of shock and fear that belied her normal levels of confidence and composure.

She had expected to find something unusual, but this was not the welcome that she felt was warranted. Seeing the troubled Trixie caught up in the battle being waged over the powers of dark magic once again made her question her resolve. She didn’t want to hurt the poor mare, but she couldn’t let her continue on her present course. The barrage of crystal attacks continued as the defensive shield managed to hold. They needed to regroup.

“Retreat!” shouted Twilight as she backed into the group of guard ponies.

Shining Armor kept the magic shield in place as the pack reversed course and headed back towards town. Trixie remained in her doorway – her eyes and horn returning to normal as the threat to her solitude was nullified.

A speeding Rainbow Dash flew towards the retreating team. “Twilight – what’s the matter?!”

They stopped and met up a few hundred yards back into town. Trixie’s hut was no longer visible back in the direction they had come.

“I think we found it.” Twilight looked up at her anxious friend. She then addressed the team as a whole, “Is everypony alright? Is anypony injured?”

Rainbow Dash hovered impatiently overhead as they assessed their current situation. One of the guards had taken a glancing blow from a piece of the flying crystal. It failed to strike him straight on and only left a small scratch in his hindquarter. Luckily, they had all avoided any serious injury.

Within the next few moments the rest of the pony teams converged on the spot. Celestia and Luna set to organizing the guards into a defensive formation around the impromptu base camp that had formed in the middle of the street. Cadance and Shining Armor pooled expeditionary teams to help contain the situation around the target house further south and west of town. Twilight and her Ponyville friends contemplated their options.

“I say we just blast her and sort out the pieces later,” suggested a charged up Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie replied, “Hmmm… I knew I should have packed my party cannon.”

“We don’t want to hurt her, do we?” Fluttershy looked more concerned than usual about the prospect of straight up fighting their way through this problem.

“Absolutely not,” Rarity chimed in. “She’s obviously not in her right mind.”

“Yer right,” said Applejack. “Trixie may be a mess an’ all, but we can’t just blast her ta bits. There’s gotta be another way.”

“I don’t know girls,” said Twilight, having her doubts, “It may just have to come to using our Rainbow Powers and hoping for the best. We don’t really have a lot of options here. By the way, has anypony seen Discord?”

“Princess Twilight.” Celestia joined the group. “I fear the situation is getting out of hand. We must act now before the opportunity to act is gone.”

Luna and a few captains of the Royal Guard approached as well. The reports of dark crystal encroachment were coming in from all over town.

Twilight made up her mind. “Alright, everypony listen up. We need to neutralize the threat of whatever dark magic has infested Trixie. We have to do that without hurting her too. I believe our best bet is using our Rainbow Powers, but focusing them on helping Trixie fight the foreign power within her. This won’t be easy and we all need to stay focused. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna – can I count on you both to keep everypony safe from the dark crystal attacks while we give it a try?”

“We’ll give you as much time as we can,” replied Luna, “but we may not be able to fend off the attack for long. The last time we fought the influence of the element of dark magic, it wasn’t easy.”

“Just give us enough time to let our Rainbow Power work its magic.” Twilight turned back to her smaller group of friends. “Is everypony ready?”

The group nodded in the affirmative and they all took up their positions as they prepared to head back into the fray.

They even more cautiously approached Trixie’s house, this time with their magic shields already in place. The Great and Powerful Trixie stood ready to greet them once again as they approached - her moniker definitely living up to its promise for this latest encounter.

“Why do you torment us? We only wish to be left alone!” The cold words stung like ice as Trixie flung them towards the group. She stood unflinching in the doorway to the dark crystal infused shack.

“Trixie – we’re here to help!” Twilight yelled back across the divide still between them.

“You’ve come to steal our magic again, haven’t you?” The dark glow ignited once again atop her horn. Her eyes melted into a storm of swirling magma.

“This is it girls!” Twilight motioned to her team. “It’s now or never!”

The six ponies formed their circle and called upon their Rainbow Power magic to assist in their plight.

“Honesty!”
“Kindness!”
“Laughter!”
“Generosity!”
“Loyalty!”
“Magic!”

Columns of rainbow colored light shot up around the six ponies as a bright ball of energy formed inside the ring. The Rainbow of Light burst from the confines of the energy source and zipped around them as it gained power and focus. Twilight guided the small rainbow force into alignment with their target and willed it to advance.

She was careful to avoid a straight on blast of energy, opting instead to bathe her target in the rainbow light. Her hope was that the dark energies that had consumed Trixie would lose their hold on her as she helped to reinforce the mind and will of the pony beneath.

The battle was intense. Black crystal shards flew in every direction as even more shot out of the ground all around. The magical barrier produced by the two sisters proved strong enough to hold back the attacks – at least for now. Twilight and her friends concentrated on their target as their rainbow-fied manes and tails danced in the magical energy streams.

Trixie cried out as the Rainbow Power slowly pierced the clouded coating of her horn. “Noooo! We won’t let you take away our precious magic!”

Just as the last bits of dark energy looked to be clearing from the typically blue horn, a deep and resounding blast burst forth. The gigantic shockwave flattened the dark crystal hovel. It also struck the team’s fortified position destroying the magical force field and knocking the ponies back a good distance.

Twilight and the other rainbow-fied ponies were quick to recover having been doubly protected from the final onslaught. Their rainbow colors quickly vanished as they returned to their normal states. The rest of the team were not as lucky. Many of the ponies, including the princess sisters, had been flung back down the street and were now in various states of recovery. There were bound to be some injuries.

Twilight had no time to dwell on the well-being of the others. She swung over towards their antagonist and took stock of her current condition. Trixie lay on the ground beneath a twisted heap of black crystal shards. Her eyes were closed and she wasn’t moving.

“Trixie!” Twilight shouted as she maneuvered to land amidst the broken crystal shards all around. “Please, say something!

She scooped up the head of the defeated mare and with every last ounce of will that remained to her, struggled to find any signs of life. Twilight checked for a heartbeat and could hear a faint one still remained. A very light and wispy breath also escaped Trixie’s nostrils as her chest rose and fell in tortured and broken rhythm.

Twilight hugged the poor unicorn as her own tears ran down her cheek. Her other friends had now arrived and were busy trying to remove the pile of broken crystal from around the pair of intertwined ponies. They worked quickly and soon had Trixie’s hind quarters free of the pile of debris.

The young pony’s eyes shuddered as they finally opened. She looked up into the face of her Alicorn assailant. It took a moment, but the realization finally came through. Trixie let out a word along with a slightly bigger breath, “T-Twi-Twilight?”

Her head rolled back and Twilight caught it as she helped to keep her upright. Twilight called out to her team for some water to hopefully aid in the revival process. One of the recovered guards quickly obliged as he brought forth a small canteen. Twilight poured a bit of the water over the waiting mouth of the mare still lying across her foreleg.

After a couple sips and a bit of time to process a more complete recovery, Trixie finally came back to her senses. The ponies quickly began to tend to her wounds.

“Twilight, it hurts.” Trixie’s eyes were filled with tears as she looked up into the face of her longtime rival, pleading for help.

“Trixie, we’re all here to help.” Twilight continued to hold her tight as the rest of the team worked to fix up her broken hind leg.

The force of the blast and the ensuing collapse of the house on top of her served to deal quite the blow to her back end. Having Twilight hold her hoof and stay at her side helped Trixie to cope with the pain. Her back left leg would need to be set and field dressed before they could attempt to move her to more lasting accommodations.

“I’ve been a terrible pony.” Trixie sobbed as she dropped her normal bravado and self-reflecting method of speech.

“We don’t blame you at all,” Twilight worked to soothe the despondent pony. “We’re all your friends and there’s no way we would let you suffer through this alone.”

“Thank you for helping me, Twilight, and thank you for being a real friend.” Trixie sniffled as she winced at the pain coming from her broken leg and her severely bruised ego. “The dark magic was just so powerful I couldn’t resist. Once it had a hold on me, I completely lost control.”

“You really are amazing on your own, Trixie – no dark magic needed.” Twilight gave her a smile and tried to keep her mind off the pain of her leg.

“How was it you came into possession of this magic, young one?” Celestia appeared over Twilight’s shoulder as she leaned in to question the young pony.

The ponies of Canterlot and the Crystal Empire had never had to deal with Trixie in the past and were still unfamiliar with the way in which she could be tied to all this. The mystery was quickly solved as Trixie laid out her story:

“I came to the Crystal Empire to get away from the rest of everypony that ever knew me. I lived as an outcast elsewhere and wanted to make a fresh start here. I don’t have many skills, but I was able to piece together a place to live and provide the locals with a bit of help as I worked to prove I belonged.

One day while I was working in the fields clearing crystals, I found a curious piece of something. It was black and hard, but it wasn’t a rock or a crystal. It did seem to give off a magical glow - almost like it could have been a fragment of a Unicorn’s horn. I took it home with me, and from that point on, everything gets a little fuzzy.”

“Do you know where the item is now, little one?” Celestia seemed insistent that they find it at once.

“It’s probably under that pile of rubble that used to be my house.” Trixie pointed out the pile of broken crystal that lay behind them.

Luna and Celestia both broke from the group and set about magically tearing away the broken layers of crystal shards and thatch that were once a poor excuse for a home.

“Everypony back!” yelled Celestia as they came close to the bottom of the pile.

A small black and glowing object could now be clearly seen as the last bits of junk were removed. Twilight gently laid Trixie’s head on a pile of thatch that she brought up to her side as she stood up to get a better look. No sooner as she had done so, a black beam of dark energy shot toward her.

“Twilight, look out!” Celestia’s reactions were quicker and she shot out her own energy beam of light deflecting the dark energy blast.

Twilight responded by throwing herself into a defensive stance and countering the attack with a magic energy beam of her own. Her magic struck with eagle-eyed precision as the small piece of black horn crumbled to dust. The now disintegrated object swirled up into the air as a magic essence floated away from the charred ground on which it once lay.

Twilight and the rest of the ponies watched in awe as the dark energy swirled around and slowly drifted over towards her. The gemstone within her tiara pulsed with light as the dark stream of magic swept up inside it.

Trixie gazed in wonder at the magical spectacle unfolding before her. “What was that?” she whispered over to Twilight.

“We have Sombra’s evil influence to blame for that, I’m afraid.” Twilight swung around and struck a commanding pose before the group of ponies around her. The pulsating glow of the light upon dark gemstone atop her head bathed the group in an ominous light.