Nightmare Trixie looked over to me with an understandable glare of anger.
“This isn’t about saving anypony. You just want the power for yourself, you liar.” I had pretty much taken to ignoring her as best as I could as she struggled in what was basically a stone body cast with an open face area.
“How long would it take to find a way to seal or destroy the Nightmare Force?” Star Swirl ran his hoof against his beard thoughtfully.
“Hmm, it could take some time. Months at least, years at most I’d say. Forcing it into you will be the easy part but you will is going to have to act as the lock keeping it trapped inside you. Do you think you are up to the task?”
“I’ll just have to hope so. Usually the Nightmare Force goes into hosts that’s defenses it’s already broken by emotional pain, and three out of four have been ponies. My mind might be alien enough to give me an advantage.” Star Swirl nodded his head and began a magic circle around Nightmare Trixie and me. After a few minutes of work on Star Swirl’s part, his horn took on its golden aura and his eyes began to glow with golden energy as the magic circle began to glow to match as Nightmare Trixie began to thrash about in anger.
“You selfish fool, I’ll not let you take power which is rightfully mine! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!” I stood firm and looked at Trixie feeling a bit sad at her plight but knowing in the end I was helping her free of the Nightmare Forces grip.
“Maybe you should focus on spreading joy with your shows rather than inflating your own ego. I’m sure you’d find this world to be a much more warm and loving place.” The Nightmare Force began to bleed off Trixie as her normal colored face showed through with tears streaming down her cheeks as the blackness of the Nightmare Force latched onto me and the world went dark.
“Quite the hypocrisy you just spouted, Joshua. Though I do agree Onyxian is a much better name to use in this world. Such darkness in your heart and you thought you’d have any chance to control me.” I saw a pair of green burning eyes looking at me through the darkness. “Such hatred in your life. More than I have seen in this world. What would your friends think if they knew you had been lying to them all this time?” I reached out and in a flash punched the Nightmare Force square between the eyes my fist connecting with something in the darkness as the eyes winced in pain. “I don’t understand, how did you do that?” I punched it again and slapped it across its head.
“Because I know how to hate. It might be the thing humankind is best at. Another thing we learn how to do is direct hate and right now the thing I hate most of all is you.” I reached into the darkness wrenching out a female form that I was rather surprised shared my digitigrade morphology, but at the moment I was on a roll. “You hurt the pony I love and a dear friend of mine. You want me to hate them and blame other people for my own faults. I’m much more likely to blame and hate myself for my own failures, but you didn’t know that. If my friends left me because I lied to them, that’s my fault not theirs.” Those burning green eyes had a bewildered look to them as I locked with them.”You better remember this, you’re stuck with me until I let you and that’s not going to happen until you’re dealt with.” I was back in the waking world looking at a perfectly normal Trixie looking up at me.
“Um, would you be so kind as to let me go now?” I let the stone around her crack and flake off of her body as she shook a bit out of reflex. “Thank you Onyxian. I feel like myself again.” Star Swirl looked at me as the magic circle was still up as I turned to look over to him.
“Well she seems free of its influence. How about yourself?”
“I don’t know, do I look any different?” Star Swirl studied over me and did a round of what I figured to be some kind of magical detection.
“Well, you have done a bit of changin, but if the eyes are the windows to the soul. Then you seem to be yourself in spite of appearances” I looked to my hands seeing my coat had gone to harsh dark almost metallic grey as I noticed my fingers had taken on a claw-like quality to them with my nails growing sharper and thicker.
“Great, I didn’t think acting as this thing’s prison would change my appearance so dramatically.”
“Well, you are still forcing its power to reside in you so a change of appearance could have easily been the least of your worries. If it means anything to you, I am impressed.” The magic circle faded from the ground and Trixie’s head bowed to me.
“I’m sorry you have to hold such evil inside you because of my own weakness.” I reached out and gently gave Trixie a pat on her head before gently putting my hand under her chin to get her to look up as I gave her a kind smile.
“You’re not weak, I really mean what I said to you about your shows. You could be a magician worthy of title if you learned to put the joy of the crowd ahead of your own. You’re a great showmare” Her face brightened up with a weak smile before she pulled away from my hand.
“Well, thank you for the vote of confidence, Onyxian. I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, am running behind on my promise to put on a show for the good ponies of Hoofington. So, I must recover my cart and make haste.”
“Perhaps we can join you? I’m rather interested in the nature of modern show magic. Just how long have I been gone?” We walked with Trixie as she looked over at Star Swirl.
“Well as I recall, Star Swirl the Bearded, you’re from the time before Luna became Nightmare Moon which was over one thousand years ago.”
“Goodness me, I shall have a lot of news to read up on then. Won’t I?”