A/N: Special thanks to Amethyst Blade, Thelykenking, ErekLich, Ally of the Daleks, kojivsleo, The Batmane of equestria, Nightdancer Moonblossom, and ketvirtas for your thoughts last chapter and for not wimping out after our shocking little reveal. I appreciate that not everyone instantly jumped the bandwagon because things aren't 100% happy, because I've been promising a bittersweet ending all the way back from the start and now here we are! Hard to tell what will happen when one hasn't read everything, so I don't get all the sudden pessimism some people displayed, but that's fine. Their loss, and it makes me all the more thankful for those of you willing to keep on going!

Chapter title from "Broken Inside" by Broken Iris.

I realized Trixie would be the final villain of this story when I introduced her and realized Luna wouldn't be the best of parents...which thematically perfectly fit with the whole anti-hero/anti-villain idea of the story, and was a far better way of ending things than just the flat good vs. evil that Thanos offered.

Thank you everyone for supporting the story this far. I have been waiting for this arc for over a year, and so it would mean a lot to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I hope you enjoy in the same manner as last chapter, and I really do hope to hear what you all think!

Luna’s question hung in the air of Asgard’s formerly unique Bifrost for some time as the still recovering crowd of empowered beings thought about what they had just heard.

One of them knew the answer, but then again Loki was unsure about what to say or do at this point. Trixie’s image had disappeared, but her words still weighed in their minds as heavily as if she was still with them.

Luna was crying silently as her question remained unanswered, but even more wounded than her was Celestia. The elder sister had collapsed down on the ground upon the implied revelation that Twilight was dead, having been murdered by one they all considered to be one of their very own family.

Thor was left to look regretfully at his fallen allies and friends, the sight of Fandral being cried over making the warrior actually feel sympathy for his former foe who now was left to weep over their shared friend. The only one not upset by the betrayal was Maiev, who was busy kicking and brutalizing the unconscious body of Kael without landing a lethal blow. They might be sparing him now, but she would be damned if she let him escape any form of punishment, as well as be in any fit state to confront them later on.

The grief of those around him forced Loki to speak, though he only did so once he had approached Luna and brought a hand to her face and another around her long neck. Right now she was feeling the initial grief and pain that Loki’s own mother once had to suffer, and so Loki was brought to face his own past experiences as a traitor as he witnessed the shocked and desperate face of his spouse.

“She is at Jotunheim,” Loki sighed as he realized what he had to say next. Luna would run headlong into the situation out of a mix of parental worry, confusion, and anger, but doing so would not lead to anything constructive, “But I would not go there if I were you.”

“What?” her voice was completely consumed by angered disbelief. Who did Loki think he was telling her to not go and see Trixie who was obviously having some kind of breakdown akin to what both she and Loki had gone through in their own pasts?

Loki could sense her anger and so he sought to explain himself without backing down, “We could use the healing chambers here to make sure we are ready to confront her,” he sternly narrowed his eyes even though Luna could not see his face in his given position, “Or do you want to confront someone strong enough to battle Thanos head on while your skin and fur are burnt, and while your mind is addled?”

It hurt to admit it, but he was right. Luna wanted to kick and scream about this right now, but she was too awestruck to think clearly. She had once confronted a loved one while they were evil when she had less than a clear mind, and it had resulted in the death of a friend. Twilight, Fandral, Volstagg, Heimdall, Sif, and Hogun already had perished and Luna would not allow for another casualty if she could help it.

Silently Luna agreed with Loki with a small nod that moved into a turn of the head to press against him. Her mind was varying between seething rage and utter despair, and it was too much for her to handle. She just wanted to feel the touch of her husband, who she knew was just as familiar with this sort of affair as she was.

It was soon agreed upon that a quick rest in the healing chambers would precede the next stage of this conflict Trixie had brewed, though the responses were merely nods than actual consensus. On the way out of the Bifrost Loki was actually forced to stop his ally of convenience from continuing her beating on the unconscious Elf, who had not moved an inch since his defeat.

“Leave him. We have no business harming someone Trixie coerced into helping her.”

Maiev was less than willing to let go of a grudge, a flaw that had chased her ever since she met Loki, “She said he did not fight her control.”

Loki admittedly was feeling sympathy for the fallen man, who had been controlled much like Loki had once been by Thanos and the scepter, “He was a broken shell when we found him, and then she took control of his mind. We will have to sort through his issues later, but for now I think we would be best to acquiesce to Trixie’s wishes concerning him and bring him no harm.”

Angering an unstable person who had shown herself willing to kill now was not exactly high on Loki’s list of things to do, especially since it was someone he did not consider himself capable of defeating.

Still beholden to Loki for the purpose of using his influence to find her son, Maiev stopped her assault on Kael and left him be. Truth be told she could use the healing chambers as much as any of the others wounded, and it would be good to have a more reliable method of healing than a hospital bed for once.

On the way out Luna only paused to look at her sister, who had only just risen and prepared herself to move forward. The eldest princess of Equestria had her soul crushed in a way she had not felt in close to a thousand years, and she had no way of processing the pain in any concise manner.

Celestia looked up to Luna. Both of them were crying, but they each were fighting to keep it from afflicting their voices.

“We don’t know if…” Celestia started, only for her voice to drop off into the silence that had previously permeated through the room.

Luna did not know which of them was more unfortunate, but the competition mattered little: who was worse off, the mother-figure who lost their surrogate daughter or the mother-figure whose surrogate daughter killed the one lost?

It was easy for them both to see that the day would end up more haunting and painful than either of them had faced before, something chilling for the former villain and for the mare who once had to banish her own sister for a thousand years.

So, when Luna spoke it was an automatic process rather than a deeply held sentiment. Her mind was trapped in the horror of the revelation she just received, and as much as her heart panged for her sister it was breaking under the weight of her own tragedy.

As the others all waited in the healing chambers, Loki found himself wandering about. Asgard had become quite quiet ever since the back-to-back conflicts concerning Lorelei and the Dark Elves, a fact that was compounded by the absence of even the remaining Asgardians due to their presence on Equestria.

Loki had not been wounded as much as the others, and so he took the time they all sat in various states of grief to clear his own mind.

He had not the will to speak with his mother, so he went to the only other place there ought to be any other soul in the castle: the prison.

Upon reaching the prison Loki was pleased to find that everything was in order…outside of the guards with various burn wounds and non-lethal punctures Loki was willing to bet were the cause of ice.

The first cell he sought to visit was the one belonging to his physical double, the Loki who Hela led to him to display a path he could have gone down. Whether he belonged to her world and was her own father Loki was not sure, but he did know that it was thanks to this disgusting monster that Odin was gone forever, his soul lost to a place it would take a miracle to escape.

Odin would not be going to Valhalla, the place after death any great warrior ought to go, because there was nothing left of him to be passed on to the next world. He died protecting his family, saving his wayward son who he had not reconciled with…

Loki had been repressing the feeling of guilt he had concerning Odin’s death. He had once let his feelings out and hang on his sleeve much like Thor had, but since he returned from Hel and since he lost his father-figure he had not been able to muster the same feelings and emotion as he once had. Not only tempered, he had lost a part of him he would never be able to get back. He would never be able to reconcile with Odin who, prior to saving Loki, had expressed distaste and hatred for all Loki had done in recent years.

Reconciliation stolen by the limbless, dying man before him and the same weapon that ruined Thanos’s bid for power.

The cell had been opened and the man inside was brutalized terribly. While he had previously lost his arms when Loki bested him, now Ikol lay in a puddle of steadily growing blood that came from his legs where the limbs had been severed.

He had been healed so as to not die after the Night Elf conflict with the intent being that he would be locked away forever and suffer in captivity before he died of old age, at which point he would be released to Hela far weaker and decrepit than he had been when he first entered her grasp. Loki intended for him to suffer greatly for his crime of irreversible regicide and patricide.

This though? This was done by a madman, or as the case would have it madwoman, bent on revenge. Trixie likely came here to give brutal justice to him on Loki’s behalf, perhaps thinking Loki too weak to do the deed himself, or perhaps giving the man some kind of cruel mercy…Loki was unsure of which it was given her mental state, but he would not shed a tear for the man left to bleed and die.

“Don’t you…d…d…” Ikol coughed and spat blood as his wounds slowly killed him, “D-d-dare pit…t-ty mee…”

Loki shook his head, “You need not fear that unlikely outcome. I had intended to let you suffer as you were for all eternity, what with your important limbs removed and your magic drained thanks to a visitor who I asked a favor of.”

A visitor now bleeding and beaten by the Bifrost…a visitor who had really only been an outlet for Trixie to indulge her growing insanity.

Loki brought a hand to touch the glass separating them, his mind imagining how things may have gone differently and left him behind this same glass, “When I left you down here I didn’t expect anyone to think of you again. Everyone believes our Father slain by Malekith or one of his men…”

That was enough inspecting this particular prisoner. Loki had little else to say to him, and he would not particularly miss having him around. Ikol deserved the suffering he received, and Loki was not going to waste a healing chamber on the man when they were instead being used to heal people of actual use.

A new idea cropped up as Loki turned to leave Ikol to his fate. Perhaps Trixie had assaulted Ikol not from sheer madness or to dole out justice, but yet another possibility came to mind: Ikol escaped captivity once and caused the death of Odin. Perhaps Trixie ended him to preclude any threat he posed at any given point in the future, though that was yet another thing he would have to consider after he handled her through her hysteria.

“You may continue your suffering as you die. You deserve every moment of it. I do suppose they were correct in ending your possible threat, even if the chances were minimal that you would return to any form of power.”

By the time Loki approached the second cell he had an interest in he was no longer the only conscious person in the hallway. He heard the approach of a person with no armor and a light step, quickly cluing him in on who it was without even facing her.

Sonata paused nervously out of surprise given that Loki noticed her before she announced herself verbally. She was still shaken from the recent battle as well as the conflict from the day before, her gut telling her that perhaps she belonged here with the other prisoners…and that she may end up with them if they lived through whatever Trixie had in store for them.

“The others sent me to bring you…” the singer paused before explaining further, “I…I finished healing first.”

She had only be lightly wounded in the conflict and so she had only needed moments to be brought back to full health in comparison to the likes of Luna, who had shrugged off her wounds in the battle but was actually terribly burned from the fire that had managed to lash across her.

Loki took a moment to look at her and then at the deceased prisoner before him. Not only had Ikol been executed, Lorelei had been as well. A hole in her forehead the size of a common coin revealed that she had been instantly put out of her misery unlike Ikol. The former seductress had collapsed forward when she died however, landing face first into the barrier that kept her from escaping and her whole body buckling forward to join her face in crumpling against it.

Loki thusly confirmed that these two would not be meddling with affairs, and so his mission here was over. Since Trixie, or rather Kael’thas under her control, had taken Lorelei’s powers it was possible that she could have returned the power somehow. As for Ikol, they could have made him able-bodied again and used him as a pawn against them, but instead they chose to actively aggravate them by using allies instead...

It seemed like Trixie was actually trying to goad them into coming after her instead of leave them both confused and without hostile intent. Did she want them to come try and stop whatever her scheme was, or did she want to let them try and fail? So much was still unknown, but Loki was not going to just leave it be.

Loki turned to leave and face Sonata, who was busy looking at all of the defeated guards. Some of Asgard’s finest defeated with ease, displaying Trixie’s utter dominance over men who by most would be considered gods.

There was little time to dally and waste now. If Trixie was trying to goad them into confronting her, she had to be nearing the final pieces of her nebulous plan.

Sonata did not start to leave as Loki did, instead taking a series of steps forward to observe what had been captivating Loki’s attention.

“I believe that our adversaries in this conflict sought to right some of my decisions they believed to be mistakes.”

Loki purposefully left out a few details in the hope that the dull witted woman would be satisfied and so they could move on without him explaining everything.

Sonata was feeling a pang she couldn’t explain as she looked down at the deceased Lorelei. The woman had a feeling that she ought to know who this was, but couldn’t for the life of her remember why as she pressed a hand against the glass, “She…who was…”

Loki sighed as he was pressed to answer more inane questions. In the case that they ran into more mind-controlled foes the Siren would be useful, but in the present she was eating up time, “She was a monster, a witch who was detained after causing untold destruction in this castle, forcing men to fight against one another for her own twisted whim. Nothing of value has been lost here.”

Sonata removed her hand from the glass as she found herself repulsed by the given description. It sounded like what she and the others would do, but they never intended to make everyone kill eachother, “It sounds like you’re right…”

Loki beckoned the Siren to join him in leaving, “Come. We have a child to calm, lest we fall victim to whatever scheme she has implemented.”

Just as Loki had lost his chance to reconcile with Odin, Luna had long ago lost the chance to speak with her mother, Trixie lost her own birth mother, Sonata now was on the opposite side of the paradigm though she would never learn it: her daughter lay dead and she too was deprived of whatever feelings she would have gained from being reunited after centuries.

Everyone was just finishing healing when Loki arrived with the now silent Sonata, though her lack of babbling matched the atmosphere of everyone else present. No-one was speaking as each mentally dealt with the issue at hand. The only one doing much of anything was Frigga, who had joined them all when Loki left.

Frigga had been informed briefly by a bereft Luna, and after offering her condolences the elder woman had paused to reflect. While Luna knew little and Frigga knew even less, Loki’s adoptive mother certainly knew what it was like to watch a child fall into darkness. Not only had she seen Loki lose his sanity once upon learning his true heritage and the reason for Odin favoring Thor, but when Loki was returned to her later after invading not one but two worlds.

“Mother,” Loki greeted softly as he joined the others by the healing chambers. Frigga left Luna’s side to go and greet her younger son.

Loki lowered his voice so that their conversation would be more private, though he was not confident the sensitive ears of Luna and Celestia would be unaware. It was worth the effort though, especially since both of them

He had been the one throwing a cosmic level tantrum before, and he was not about to forsake his adopted daughter for doing what he once had.

Frigga understood and so she nodded before revealing something through a question, “That…man was exerting some kind of influence on the few Asgardians still here, but it is gone now. Have you slain him?”

So Kael had taken control of the remaining Asgardians…but now that he was defeated and unconscious they were free it appeared.

“No. He was being controlled by the true schemer, so I will not punish him for being in the shoes I once was placed into by Thanos.”

If and when Kael came to his senses, provided Trixie was dealt with, they could use him as a real ally. Loki could not trust what Trixie said concerning Kael, and given her insanity it was possible she had just forced him to be her puppet the whole time. The truth would be found later, of that Loki was certain, and he was not going to leave the man’s ambiguous morality and situation unresolved to later haunt him. He could not question an unconscious man who might still be under the sway of Trixie though, so the matter could not be resolved to Loki’s standards yet.

It was a plea of some desperation. Frigga had once lost her son and had still not recovered from the loss of her husband, her partner for thousands of years. Even if Trixie had only been a part of her life just over the past year, and even if Trixie was in the throes of insanity she was still family. The lack of blood relation meant little to Frigga given that she had taken Loki in as her own.

The hurt in her voice brought Loki to embrace his mother, “I fully intend to. Not for her sake or yours though, but for Luna’s.”

Frigga lowered her face into his chest, “I know. I…just feel as if I am to blame for having helped Trixie research these past months…”

Loki was past the point of allowing any further tragedy to befall either him or his family, “Do not worry. Everything will be fine. We are all a family now and I will not allow for us to lose anyone else.”

There was hesitation before Loki left his embrace with his mother. Deep down he felt the fear of having just told his mother a lie. If they could not contain Trixie, they may lose both their lives as well as hers.

It was time to confront her though. No more stalling or wasting of time, and so Loki rallied the motley crew they had at their disposal for what might be their final encounter.

He received nary a response from the others besides a nod per participant and a cautious statement from Thor.

Loki’s response was terse and brought Luna’s attention to him rather than her own thoughts, “Use your best judgment. I aim to bring her back and stabilize her. She needs to learn she is not alone if she is going to overcome the madness that has gripped her.”

“Understood,” Thor agreed, “And when the Elf wakens we will use him to revive the others.”

“Of course. I am most sorrowful that they were dragged into this,” Loki commented, the loss of life involved already too high for him to bear. He lost people who had once upon a time been friends to him, people who he had hoped to one day perhaps call friends again.

Hopefully the Elf would retain his powers once Trixie was felled or brought to heel.

The warrior of the two brothers, having been revived himself, brightened at the idea that they could revive their lost companions. He flexed his muscles and began to boast as he gripped his trustworthy hammer, “I only fear that we will fail to return them home. But if we do, I will kick down the gates of Hel itself to right our failure!”

Loki gave his brother a light touch on the shoulder before casting a glance to Luna, who was slowly trotting towards the exit. Thor stopped his grandstanding and gestured for his brother to go comfort his wife, earning a grateful nod from Loki.

In all honesty Loki knew not how to comfort Luna. When he had broken down and became a villain it took time for him to be reeled back in. Luna had been enthralled by her own darkness for a millennium…

Luna wanted to cry, but she fought the feeling. To cry now would make her collapse and begin upon a path of self-doubt that would cripple her. Thoughts about what she may have done wrong, of what she may have done differently were already nipping at her mind, and she would not give those feelings fuel by physically responding to them now.

What she was left with was an emptiness in her chest. A feeling that history was repeating itself around her and that now she was the one cast in the position she had once despised others for: the loved one who unintentionally overlooked the pain of a family member.

All that remained to see now was if she could tame the beast that her daughter had become, or if she would end up the lonely and heartbroken shell that her mother had become upon her own descent into madness and then banishment.

The same reasoning and thought process which allowed Twilight to quickly ascertain the location of Trixie’s backup Bifrost similarly allowed Loki and the team of powerful beings they had at their disposal to locate Trixie.

The structure was almost identical to the one in Asgard except for a more winter themed look to it than the autumn look of Asgard’s, each matching the overall appearance of the land they were a part of: winter colors to match the frozen world and warmer ones to match the more pleasant one.

None of the group was eager to enter, though at the very least Celestia had a craving for knowledge about what happened to Twilight. While the answer was quite obvious, she had hope that her suspicions would be proven wrong, but it was those same suspicions that kept her from rushing inside.

While assuming they were on a timetable still, Loki decided to use this moment of hesitation productively, and so he approached his beloved who had since steeled herself and forced a grimace on her face in place of the tearful frown she ought to be wearing there.

While the cold air of Jotunheim nipped at Luna through her blue fur she was paying that pain little mind, distracted instead by a pain far harder to bear as she awaited advice from Loki she rather never have had to receive.

“The same strengths that Trixie has won her battles with will now be used against us. The fortitude and willpower she mustered to defeat an Ursa now are our greatest foes. While her magic may bolster her natural toughness and resolve, it is her own stalwart behavior that will make this a difficult confrontation.”

Luna nodded, quite familiar with the determined nature demonstrated by Trixie in previous conflicts: while both Luna and Loki were certainly hardy enough to keep fighting beyond what their bodies ought to allow, the one who had displayed the most spirit in this regard was the apprentice who managed to slay two Ursas with relatively weak magic and tricks alone.

She also had come prepared for that conflict with other utensils other than her own strength…if this trait was to be carried over even through her madness Luna could not tell, but the fact that Trixie had crafted a spare Bifrost and kept it hidden pointed to her being wholly prepared for this conflict, whatever that would end up entailing.

“If we break her will to fight, we can keep her from getting back up,” Luna responded without emotion, her face still embroiled with her deep scowl and her eyes set forward to the closed gateway that would grant them entrance to the most difficult conflict of their entire lives if not physically then mentally and emotionally.

“Ideally that would be the case, but be careful. Her weakness was once her lack of power: now it is grand enough to confront Thanos,” Loki warned, the image of Trixie burning away the invulnerable Algrim imprinted quite heavily on Loki’s mind.

There was no-one present who believed her, not even Luna if she were to look deep enough and fully contemplate the situation. However, there was reason for her to make such a proclamation, one which she quickly made apparent as her stone cold façade cracked for a moment.

With that there was nothing more to say between them all. Luna led the way inside, the gate opening just as they approached it, and a rush of air met them as they moved inside.

In the center of the room was a stand and structure similar to the one in the other Bifrost, where Heimdall’s sword would be placed to activate and control the structure, only this one had the scepter Trixie kept after she “borrowed” it from Luna. A brilliant aura of yellow and blue surrounded it, forming a shield around it that looked to be powerful. A safeguard likely to stop anyone from disturbing its vital role in everything.

A look around the inside of the structure revealed a similar aura surrounding the edges of the structure and a quick reflection revealed to the newly arrived visitors that the surrounding earth and ice was similarly engulfed in the power exhibited. Another failsafe: collapsing the ground beneath the Bifrost could dislodge and render it useless.

While lashing out in insanity, Trixie was by no means unintelligent…though at the same time something in her was keeping her plan from being wholly savvy and unstoppable. What that was would soon be revealed as she came into conflict with everyone else.

The same observation everyone gave the room was the same one that revealed the still body of Twilight over in the back right side of the structure. The door closed behind everyone once the uncomfortable truth was revealed, locking them from the outside world and trapping them in what quickly transformed into a domain of Trixie’s own power. A miasma of energy swirled around the room just as steadily as the blood now pooled around Twilight had come from the wound to her heart.

The one behind everything stood opposite them, beyond the guarded scepter and standing still as everyone else came to terms with the sight before them. To her left and opposite Twilight was the similarly still body belonging to Hela’s partner, the bastard child of Illidan, though it was difficult to tell if he was dead as Twilight was because of the lack of blood and his dubious “living” condition before given that he was raised and lived in Hel.

While Celestia was shocked into inaction briefly at the sight of Twilight, Maiev wasted no time unleashing her fury at the distant Trixie. She flitted across the room with tears pouring down her enraged face, displaying more emotional range in a single face than the entire time the others had known her.

Her foolhardy attempt at avenging her son was met with near instant failure, for the energy swirling around the room swatted her aside with such force that she slammed heavily into the left wall and crumpled down to the floor after only getting just past the scepter.

Celestia was crying too, now forcibly faced with the situation she had dreaded ever since Trixie revealed her true nature. Loki felt disgruntled at the sight but was not broken up, feeling responsible for Twilight’s demise but also aggravated that she had so unintelligently stumbled into the lair of their foe. Twilight was book smart, but her lack of tactical sense and savvy had cost her everything this time and not just some championship game. This was not some happy-go-lucky encounter where just showing the power of friendship would win, it was a life or death situation Loki believed that she would have understood given Trixie’s power. He was wrong, and now Twilight was dead.

Blame would not be tossed around at the time however as Celestia took little time to set about her own revenge, forming the most powerful beam of energy she could muster after having her power partially drained by the Sirens. The energy surrounding the scepter reached all the way to the ceiling, where the Bifrost’s opening was focused, and so Celestia had to move to the side to fire at Trixie. Luna tried to shout for her sister to hold back, but it was too late and Celestia poured every ounce of energy she had at Trixie: Celestia may not have wished to slay Trixie or anything of the like, but she was emotionally pressed to her limit by the sight of her dead student.

Celestia’s attempt to avenge her student and loved one was swatted down near instantly as the mist of energy swirling about the room carried her energy around the yellow and blue light in the center, taking it around a bend it originally was not going to go on before circling around the structure completely and coming straight back to collide with Celestia.

The miasma of energy had made the attack come back stronger than it had been let out and so in a single stroke Celestia was rendered unconscious, though most definitely not slain.

The two most bereaved members defeated in moments, the rest of the force assembled by Loki held still to await some kind of acknowledgement from their foe who had defeated two of their number without lifting a hand.

Currently in her Elven form, Trixie’s back was to Luna and the others, but none of them could miss the sight of the indigo helmet she wore. Its blue was much like that of Nightmare Moon’s regalia, but the style of the armor was more like that of Loki with two horns coming off of it like his own. A purple cape hung down from her shoulders where it attached to her new cloak with the same shade as her helmet. Only one of her arms had a gauntlet on it, once again in the color of the helmet, while the other remained bare.

Her outfit was a deliberate mimicry of what Luna and Loki both wore once upon a time. Of what they wore when they were at their very worst.

Trixie did not turn around as she spoke up, “So you’ve come. It is time we finish our chapter in history. You come here for answers,” she paused to glance back with a stoic countenance, “and to stop me from a plan I started with the knowledge you all would disapprove from its very inception.”

Given what Kael had revealed, was Trixie trying to implement some form of massive mind control through the powerful structure she had created? That question gripped through the minds of those still capable of thought, though by spending the time to think about the meaning behind all of this they gave Trixie a chance to continue her speech.

Trixie finally turned around fully and began to move, though it was slowly and it was with a hand cast towards the bloodied body she was approaching, “Upon this stage we will spill the red ink that will determine the path which all lives take from here on out. We will determine if my final show is worthy of changing the world, or if your garish blundering will instead capture what the books will say about this day.”

“Trixie…” Luna whispered as her own fears were confirmed. Trixie’s eyes were cold, distant, even beneath their glow of magic.

When Trixie reached Twilight she lowered herself to stroke the deceased Alicorn’s face, her face even displaying a bout of sadness as she did so, “You know, I’ve…seen myself standing here for quite some time.”

Loki stood beside Luna and placed a hand on her shoulder. Attacking wildly and without thought would not accomplish anything, but perhaps waiting a moment to hear Trixie out could give them some kind of edge. Luna was not, however, ready to strike her daughter just yet. Equal parts hurt, angry, and confused, Luna honestly did not know what to do to confront her unhinged student.

Trixie stood up fully and continued her slow pace towards the others, coming towards them on their right while circling around the edge of the rounded building, “When I was put in a coma by the Ursa conflict, Hela visited me in my long sleep…”

The pseudo-Elf brought a hand to her head and tapped the helmet she wore gently.

“It felt like years in there, with time even more distorted in my mind than it was in the area around me. She taught me things. She helped me learn,” Trixie stopped her movement to cast a glance aside to where Hela’s companion lay, then to the platform the scepter was pouring energy forth from, “But, at the same time she revealed herself to be a mentally damaged psychopath. For every moment she spent teaching me, she spent ten showing me things that would harm me.”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed as they returned to focusing on Luna and the others, a glint suddenly in her eye as she coldly looked them over.

“She showed me your then future argument with Celestia at the Equestria Games about how you were using me. She showed me instances of you belittling and chastising me, or at least the version of me present in Hela’s distorted world…”

Luna seized up at the revelation that this was all a result of her own actions as shown by her own daughter to her other. She remembered well when she darkly threatened to murder Celestia if she ever dare insinuate that she was using Trixie, despite the truth there was in the idea.

Was she to blame for Trixie’s fall just like Celestia and their mother were to blame for some of Luna’s fall, and Thor and Odin once were to blame for Loki’s own?

Trixie gave a sick grin at the thought of her own pain and misery, hardships faced before that together had culminated in this outcome, “She showed me killing you. She showed me a sight of Loki betraying you. That wicked being we call Ikol paid for that crime,” she explained the fate of the dying prisoner, only to lose her grin to snarl, “But worst of all, she showed me standing here after what we are about to do. She showed me all of your corpses. She has shown me so many realities and universes that it was as if I was living a whole new life…”

Trixie shook her head violently as she brought a hand up to grip it, pain suddenly cropping up in her head that she could not heal. As she convulsed in pain and let out an infuriated yell Luna moved to approach her and comfort her, but Loki stopped her in her tracks. Given how volatile Trixie was right now he did not trust the young mare around Luna, who seemed to be the object of her current hatred.

While still gripped in pain Trixie’s tone began to rise into one of enraged shouting. The pain even reached the point that Trixie had to grab her head with both hands, though after a moment of this she cast them aside with fury and lowered her gaze to the ground, which she stomped on with a distinct ferocity.

“She showed me the times my mother abused me. She showed me the moment I was conceived, and since I was unable to fall unconscious I was forced to watch every moment of it!”

This shocked even Loki, who up until then had been the only one to not outwardly show some kind of emotion to Trixie’s impassioned monologue. While Hela had outwardly brought harm upon him, she had been also torturing Trixie with horrific visions ranging from murder to the rape that conceived her. The insane mistress of Hel tortured those she thought befitting of it, and if the Trixie in her own world had gone insane it would greatly explain why she was so cruel towards this one: the visions of Trixie slaying Luna were likely from her own past, which would explain why she had Thanos take Trixie along with Loki to suffer in Hel.

Hela had, in an effort to punish Trixie for the actions of her counterpart she would yet become, ended up pushing her in the very direction that caused the conflict. She created her own villain, or at least set Trixie down the path to become the mad woman she was now. It was a mixture of Hela revealing dark things about Trixie’s own life and Luna living up to those dark visions that brought them here today.

The pain gripping Trixie seemingly faded as the thoughts passed by, and while she stumbled to one side for a moment she quickly recovered and stood up straight with a smile, a complete turn around from her appearance moments before, “When I got out of my mental prison I locked those bad thoughts away. I tried to pass them all off as inconsequential, as nothing but nightmares…”

Her hands balled and tensed as Trixie once again started shooting daggers at Luna, who was the true cause behind her downfall.

“I couldn’t though. While I was in her world I suffered every moment, but I suffered nearly as much upon returning and learning that little had changed. The mare I loved as if she was a mother still would use me as if a tool in her own conflict with her sister, and my once soft heart couldn’t do anything but go along as if everything was fine.”

Trixie paused to shake her head sorrowfully, while the others stood awestruck at what they were being told. Thor was caught in a conflict between wanting to hurl Mjolnir at Trixie and wanting to embrace his niece.

Luna, however, was trying to not collapse as began to see why her loved daughter and student had turned on her and engaged in some mad plot to make the world kneel under her.

She was hurt by what Luna had done despite being like an idol to her: she had the person she trusted most hurt her just like everyone else in her entire life had.

Trixie gesticulated to Luna with one hand, going from an extended open palm to a clenched fist which she brought in to her breastplate, “I love you, Princess Luna, but I hate you equally for failing to live up to the expectations I had of you. You came and changed my life so long ago, but you did so for your own self, and you only enjoyed the fact that you helped me as a secondary notion to your intention to get even with your sister.”

There would be no argument from Luna about the harm she had inflicted upon Trixie, harm that perhaps others had questioned or brought up but that she had ignored or deflected until now. She was guilty of the same oversight that she once despised Celestia for, and now she was seeing the seeds of her own faults come to fruition.

Luna bowed her head, unable to look her student in the eye as she thought about the pain she would see there. Pain that she had once held in her own heart and eyes from a loved one’s neglect, “Trixie, I love you…you…you know that. I…” Luna found her voice cracking as she tried to find a way to apologize and own up for her wrongs both, as dodging the blame now would do little to calm the eldest of their children, “I did exactly as you said though, and for that I accept your anger. I deserve it, and I will do anything I can to make it up to you. Please, come home. I don’t want to lose you. I…I…”

The Princess of Night’s head lowered further as she thought about her own pain now. The pain that once upon a time belonged to Celestia and their mother, who ended up dying of grief born of her daughters conflict, “I don’t want to lose you like my mother once lost her daughter. Please, I will do anything for you…”

Trixie held a hand up to silence Luna and her mother did so just as Trixie responded to the plea, her head shaking slowly as she closed her eyes.

“I…it is too late for that,” Trixie stated, quite ready to exact her vengeance but also gripped by a sudden pain now that Luna admitted her faults.

If Trixie had been suffering for so long, there was a question Loki would have answered, “Why did you not ask for help?”

For the first time since their arrival Trixie focused on Loki, her eyes displaying less hatred but also less sadness than when she looked at her surrogate mother, “Luna hadn’t changed in my absence. Not enough at least,” Trixie’s gaze briefly returned to Luna, who she began to scowl at once more before neutrally glancing at Loki again, “She had admonished me for a failure outside of my control because of her own impossible expectations, leading to my confrontation with the Ursas. If I came to a mare like that and said my feelings were hurt, what kind of response should I expect but to be laughed at? Be further harmed?”

The accusation stung Luna, who didn’t believe herself to be so callous as Trixie said, but at the same time not being and not believed to be were two separate things.

Trixie snarled as she brought her attention back to Luna, “You once chastised Twilight for displaying weakness,” she calmed herself with a deep breath, but not before her body convulsed briefly, “But after awhile I lost that reason. I no longer feared drawing your ire, of being hurt by you, because your confrontation with Celestia happened. You proved that Hela wasn’t showing me random, harmful things…she was showing the future, even if it was only one of many. It validated what I already knew about the past.”

“I wanted to hide it all again. Bury my feelings, but then my mother came back into my life…and she too proved Hela right…” the recent pain of losing that same mother, who Trixie had begun to want to reconcile with, gave her pause, “Then we had the Dark Elf invasion…”

That brought a smile to Trixie’s face, but it was not a jovial one born of good cheer: it was one born of a mad cackle bubbling to the surface that soon found itself erupting from her as Trixie began to think about the catalyst to her insanity.

“From the moment I took the Aether I knew I couldn’t give it up. Its power was intoxicating, and that is not even to mention the feeling the Nightmare force it had subsumed gave me!” Trixie shuddered with pleasure as she thought about the power coursing through her body, though she calmed down upon speaking again, “But to wield that power I needed a way of not letting it surpass my meager capabilities…of controlling it without losing my mind.”

“The Gauntlet was my way out, but my own restraint kept me from acquiring it,” she laughed madly again before quickly reeling herself in and giving off a colder countenance, “I held back at points in my fight with Thanos with the fear I would destroy it along with him. When you have such powerful magic, reigning it in is quite difficult. I knew I would be doomed if I lost it, and I had to struggle with my own sanity versus the lives of everyone.”

Trixie raised a hand in front of her to observe, one where the Infinity Gauntlet would have completed her outfit if not for its destruction.

“But my hesitation cost me my chance. I was defeated temporarily, during which my mother died and deprived Thanos, and me, of the tool we both needed.”

Trixie lowered the hand as she turned her back on the others and began to reverse her approach, now putting distance in-between them while also offering her back up as a target. Whether she knew that the others who had come to face her were too scared to take the opportunity or not would not be revealed, though if so she was right because they stayed in place due to that fear and did not capitalize on the opportunity.

“I knew if I let loose and I wasn’t able to use the Gauntlet I would have gone down this road. I have been planning it for so long after all as I have slipped more and more into this madness along the road,” she snorted and shook her head again, “I had triumphed over my feelings that drove me to this path though. I had recovered some of what made me who I am…”

She brought a hand to her forehead and began to laugh madly again as she thought about that: once upon a time she had been a lowly magician whose arrogance and lies brought her to ruin and to be the most reviled showmare in all of Equestria. But through it all, she had been herself, even as others tore her down and made her life miserable. Now that she had been raised to live among gods she had felt her soul torn away piece by piece because of the continued pain she had experienced under them.

Trixie sighed and let her shoulders hang as she continued to speak, “Given time, I may have been able to overcome the struggle. I may have found a way to permanently rid myself of this power that is tied to my very being, for as much as I crave its feeling I also cannot relinquish it. The Aether will not leave me…”

Luna glanced over at the scepter in the center of the room, which continued to course with power as it did whatever Trixie set it to do.

Trixie glanced back at the scepter before stopping her movement right where she had started, “I can’t say Hela made me do this though. She may have shown me those things, but my falling into place with her visions was my own doing. I wanted to fall in some ways. I wanted this for so long. I chose this and I refuse to be ashamed of that decision, whether I live or die today.”

As Trixie began to pace again Luna felt her eyes slowly widen. Trixie had wanted this? Then Hela merely opened her eyes to the possibility of this, and she openly chose to fall into madness because of her lost faith in her mentor and the pain coming from her shattered feelings and affection?

Trixie approached the defeated bodyguard of Hela and kicked him with enough strength to send him brutally careening into the nearby wall, at which point she tilted her head back and let out a sick laugh, “Still, I can see why that impudent daughter of yours Hela is so insane! This power…being able to see into worlds and places I never thought imaginable…”

Her laughter continued on into a full, mad cackle with random intermissions which demonstrated the true level of her insanity in that she could not even sustain the laughter as if she was forgetting what she was doing every few moments.

After gathering herself more Trixie turned to face the others with a wicked smirk, her eyes widened from her madness, “There’s no other feeling like it! I am equal parts empowered and withered by just holding it in my grasp!”

She cast a hand to one side and then gripped it, the place her hand had pointed to exploding violently as the magic she was surrounded by and in control became volatile under her command.

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely! Isn’t that right?! Our family all know that very well, and neither of you can criticize me over this feeling!” she shouted at both Luna and Loki, who each admittedly had to cede the point given their own histories under the thrall of power.

Trixie gestured to herself grandly before waving that arm away with haste, “But even so, what of my own corruption? Would it really be all that bad if I just won? I’ve lost everything! I’ve had so much taken from me, I’ve felt my soul shattering and breaking for so long, that all I have left besides the pain are the ideals you placed in me! That of being a good ruler who looks out for their subjects fairly and with a kind heart!”

She shook her head as she realized she had still not gone about explaining her plan to them, and a good part of her really wanted them to know. Know so that they could fully oppose her and not solely face her to avenge their loved ones, but to oppose her ideology as she expected since she first got the idea to do this.

“Today I will bring about a new era, but not just to our four worlds! I can reach into the universe itself and pull it to suit my desires now that I have all of this power, I just need the time to harness it! No world will remain unconquered, no person untouched by my influence! Today I erase the weakness we living beings all share!”

Her maddened motioning towards the magic floating around them and focusing in the very center of the room was interrupted by a curt, infuriated voice of someone no longer able to sit back and listen.

Loki was faster than Thor and could have stopped him from assaulting Trixie, but there was little he could do to force the man to bite his tongue as he took a single step forward and called Trixie out on her actions.

“What of the lives of Fandral, Volstagg, Sif, Hogun, and Heimdall!?” the god of Thunder yelled as he waved his hammer only those worthy could wield at Trixie, “What of them!? What reason did you possibly have for dragging them into your private conflict!? What of your friend, who you so callously murdered when she came to help you!?”

“I needed you to have proper motivation to come here and fight me. To give you all a chance to stop your own downfall, or else this performance I am putting on would be so boring.”

Her answer was all Thor needed to begin twirling his hammer around to prepare it to launch forward at Trixie, who just laughed as he went through the futile effort.

“I regret that it had to come to such drastic means, but I succeeded in motivating you, haven’t I?”

The hammer launched forward and Trixie laughed as it sailed true towards her. Her magic attempted to alter its trajectory to protect her from the incoming weapon, but it failed to do so and the hammer struck her straight in the gut. The weapon’s attack stunned her for a moment as it began to push her back and her heels dug into the ground beneath her, only for Trixie to have to teleport to the side to release herself from the attack.

Mjolnir sailed around the room and returned to Thor’s hand, who was still furious even after seeing his attack connect. His hammer had a vague method of choosing who was worthy of it, but the magic belonging to someone so mad and wicked would not be able to do the job.

Trixie straightened herself out and let her bones snap into place as her body instantly healed from the damage it took, the physical goddess more irritated than truly harmed, “You think yourself so clever. Try that again.”

“As you wish!” Thor responded to the taunt and flung the hammer forward again to unleash his wrath, though he was unable to follow up on his words in any fashion as the hammer disappeared from sight only to then reappear flying in the opposite direction to strike the warrior with the same attack he had just unleashed.

Thor tumbled back from the powerful blow, though it did not defeat him like Celestia’s reversed attack had. He was winded and knocked down to his knees but the warrior who had likely fought more battles than all the others in the room combined was not going to let himself fall victim to his own attack and so he powered through the hit to force himself to his feet.

Trixie used the moment everyone’s attention turned to see how Thor was doing to continue her dialogue, though Luna was just beginning to get an inkling as to why she was saying so much.

“This portal is the gateway to everything that exists. When it finishes I will be able to extend my power, my ability to control others, to all of existence,” she jabbed a pinkie towards the swirling vortex of power, “When that happens, you will have lost! Only those in this room are safe from its power, so your free will is to be spared. This wouldn’t be as fun or as great a show if I just made you slaves too.”

Luna grit her teeth as her feelings other than grief began to boil to the top, “You can’t just…”

Trixie cut her off with a sudden shout, “I can’t what?!” she scoffed as she turned her full attention to the mare whose mistakes broke Trixie along the path they had shared, “I can’t!? I can’t make others bend a knee to my desires because of what!? Because it’s wrong? That’s bad comedy coming from a dictator who once upon a time would have killed everyone who dared cross them, including their own sibling!”

She then turned to look at each of the others in the room while continuing to shout at them, her hands seizing and moving as if she was stopping them from doing something: most likely conjuring magic and hurling it at those she was facing, “You all would not be in this situation if you had put half as much effort into what you do as I have! I am the hero of this story, I am the one who will come out on top after all of my sacrifices! I’ve done everything I can to improve and get stronger, while you vile beings have sat back and let your egos keep you in check!” she grabbed ahold of her own chest and growled at the others, “The hero always wins, which is why I will triumph where you shall fall!”

Luna balked at Trixie’s assertion of morality, her own eyes taking a glint to them as she listened to Trixie’s proclamation, “You think we’re the villains here?”

“You are brash, arrogant, obsessed with controlling,” Trixie answered, “You do as you please, and if someone opposes you, they are damned to be considered an enemy even if they are family!”

“We rule to help! How else could Equestria function without the power of Celestia and I?”

It became a battle of words as Trixie responded with growing fury, “Help your own egos, maybe! You’re selfish, and your pride would lead us all to ruin!”

“And how are you being any different!?” Luna shouted, now just as infuriated as her wayward kin. Loki moved to calm her but she shoved him aside. If Trixie was to criticize her for her selfishness and emotions, then she would not deprive her daughter of what she hated most, she would give her the full range of her feelings and not hold anything back now.

Trixie continued to shout back in escalating volume, “This whole time I’ve only done what’s necessary to be the good person you all want me to be, and now I am going to drag you all down with me when I end this! People like us do not deserve to live happily ever after! We don’t have it in our DNA!”

Luna stomped her front hooves down and ignored another attempt from Loki to calm her, “You’re wrong, Trixie! Just as you’re wrong about all of this! Don’t you realize your own hypocrisy? You wish to control others, yet you’re no better than any of us, who you dare criticize for our lording over others!”

“I never claimed myself to be perfect or free from the crimes you all have committed before!” Trixie screamed at the top of her lungs, though her voice cracked at the very end, leading into her almost sobbing as she continued to try and hash out words with Luna, “The difference is that I can’t live with myself being like this and I realize how terrible I am, and I am going to fix that with blood if need be! That is what separates us!”

Luna noticed out of the corner of her eye that the power concentrating in the center of the room had grown in size: Trixie had been stalling them with words to buy herself time.

“Enough!” Luna commanded as she tensed her body anxiously, awaiting the moment she would have to change from battling with words to battling with magic and weapons, “If you are going to run your mouth, you had best get on with backing up your words for I will not allow you to stall any longer! I refuse to accept your ideal, for I cannot trust some mad whelp with the fate of the everything!”

The discovery of what she was doing made Trixie halt in her impassioned shouting match, her mouth going from a deep scowl to one of complete amusement.

“So you could tell,” Trixie laughed, “To be truthful, you have come at a fortunate time. I have invested nearly all of my power into my scheme. After all, opening a gateway to everything in existence and powering the device that will go through it and forcibly change people’s minds with its brilliant light, does indeed take a great deal of power.”

Loki narrowed his eyes in observation of the power coursing around the room. She was working on slowly adding more and more of her energy to that of the scepter, which upon further observation had faint signs of a shattered gauntlet and gems around it: had Trixie managed to find the pieces and retrieve them from their destination with her power?

If so, that would mean she found something horrifying at wherever that place was…for the gauntlet had not gone alone, and what seemed to remain of what had been torn apart was completely in shambles. The power of just the destroyed stones must have been a terrible task to tame, not to mention bringing all of that together in a way that could be harnessed and used in addition to Trixie’s own baffling power.

Loki found himself with a slack jaw momentarily: they weren’t actually in the Bifrost, not really. They were in a created, controlled environment that resembled the inside of the Bifrost, one where Trixie lorded over what happened to some degree. By creating her own world, she could then better use it to control such massive energy, which was something she was not naturally attuned to doing.

The reason Thor’s hammer could disappear and reappear as she pleased was because she could warp the physics of this world as she saw fit, but the reason she couldn’t stop the weapon from striking her at first was because she couldn’t change the properties of an actual object. She was powerful enough to accomplish such a feat as creating her own world, much like Luna’s dreamscape she likely based it off of, but Trixie had not had the hundreds of years of training to truly master it: she was skillful and powerful, but still could not make up for the gap of time.

Trixie formed an orb of magical energy and sneered at the others as she stood across from them all, “Even so, the pittance of strength I have is enough to handle you, so come at me! What are insects like you to a living god such as myself?!”

Thor and Luna each launched themselves forward at the prompt, though the until then silent Sonata spoke up quickly to try and keep things from devolving into physical combat.

Even though Trixie had played the Siren trio like a fiddle for her own ends, Sonata had liked Trixie when she was with them. She even had been saddened that Trixie did not want to join them in more than a business related manner, and while Trixie betrayed her and the others Trixie was the only one present who had ever been something she could call a “friend”. No matter how this would end with everyone fighting it would be heartbreaking to Sonata, who had lost every other thing she could consider close to her.

Even Loki had given up on the front of geniality and diplomacy, as the only way to stop Trixie now would be to defeat her as revealed by her unwavering dedication to her scheme, “This is not the time for sentimentality!”

“He’s right you know,” Trixie laughed before boasting in an overly haughty voice, “I killed Twilight. I have defeated his monster of a daughter, Hela, and her servant died in vain trying to save her. All he could do was keep me preoccupied until you arrived, but now he can join his father in Hel! Your Asgardian allies lay dead because of me, and I seek to erase the evils of free will! So come, fight me if you dare, for the only way you will ever hope to undo this is by ending my life!”

Thor had never stopped charging at Trixie with his supernatural speed and so he reached her just in time for her to sidestep him and smash him across the back of the head with her single gauntlet.

The counterattack made him spin in place, but the seasoned warrior used the momentum to swing his hammer right where Trixie’s head ought to be. Instead it sailed through air and left him off balance as Trixie created a blade of energy beneath him. Thor carried himself in a direction away from Trixie to avoid being impaled upon her conjured weapon, though it still managed to slice through his thick armor and tear his billowing cape halfway through the midpoint as it moved behind him.

Not to waste an opportunity Trixie grabbed Thor by his cape and planted one heel down before spinning and tossing him in the direction of Luna, who had just fired a powerful magic attack at her. The magic struck Thor and sent him back towards Trixie, who stopped his reversed momentum with a punch.

Despite the rapid beating Thor struggled to rise to his feet, and due to never having dropped his weapon he also attempted to swipe it at Trixie’s legs.

Unfortunately for him, she had teleported to be beyond him and closer to the others, her wicked smirk having returned as she prepared to return fire at Luna.

“Come, try and kill me, for I have no problem giving you the sweet embrace of death!”

Luna unleashed a second attack, this time a burst of lightning that arced in a distorted fashion to lessen the chance it would miss Trixie, though this attempt was no more successful than the first beyond not striking an ally.

“When all of you villains are powerless, defeated…” Trixie teleported just before the electricity would have touched her, reappearing right beside Luna to strike her with the magical blade in hand, “That’s when this will be all over.”

Her blade caught not Luna but Loki in the gut, the King of Asgard having foreseen Trixie’s attack on Luna given her outrage and focus on punishing Luna for the slights the now Queen had brought upon her adoptive daughter. Loki would have gone straight for Odin or Thor when he was still mad, so he could not imagine Trixie acting outside the perceived norm of their family in that regard after she dealt with any immediate threat.

Trixie twisted the blade in Loki’s gut as he moved to retaliate with his twin glaives, “Because people like you are the reason everything like this happens!”

His blades just barely nicked her as she ducked under him and move to strike Luna, the energy blade disappearing the moment she let go of it. Trixie was nowhere near as powerful as she ought to be and that included the power lent to her by the Aether: she was focusing everything she had on opening the largest portal in the sky right above the Bifrost and purposefully out of their view given that they had no way of seeing outside the structure or the created world she had placed inside of it. If Trixie were at her fully powered state there would be no question about her avoiding that attack, but as it was a trickle of blood now marred the glowing green of the twin glaives.

She was boasting her supreme power, but for the moment she was exhausted. Like with Thanos after she drained him, the more time that went on the less of an advantage they would have against their enemy.

“You lie!” Trixie growled as she attempted to impale Luna, only to find herself slashing through an illusion.

Trixie twirled around to impale Loki again with a newly summoned dagger, but midway she was intercepted by the form of Luna tackling her. Not about to be trampled underhoof, Trixie teleported as well and buried her dagger into Luna’s side, “You manipulate everyone around you, even your loved ones!”

Luna howled out in pain as the blade pierced some of her internal organs, the Queen quickly going about healing her wounds with her magic even as Trixie prepared another attack. Luna utilized the effective but cowardly tactic of constant teleportation she taught Trixie to escape the follow up attack, but the wave of energy unleashed by Trixie managed to arc around and slam into Luna regardless by catching her off guard with a sudden jolt of direction.

As the energy carrying the colors of not only the Nightmare force and the Aether but Luna’s own impaled its former owner, Trixie teleported again to unleash a furious punch across Luna’s jaw.

“Everything is only for your own personal gratification,” she followed up the jaw strike with a knee to the leg, aiming to harm but not kill Luna, “your own sense of pride and ego!”

Luna teleported away again just as Trixie connected the strike, though this gave her little reprieve as Trixie’s all-out assault on her continued. This time Trixie utilized some of the energy swarming above Luna to come crashing straight down on her, also tossing the body of Twilight aside due to Luna’s new position as the power crashed down heavily on the area.

The use of the energy on something other than the opening of the portal would likely set Trixie’s plan back by some interval, but the maddened schemer seemed not to care so long as she could inflict pain on Luna. Overpowered by the attack and Trixie’s current abilities surpassing her own, Luna tried her best to rise even as she felt a heavy stream of blood escaping down her side and as she felt her bones crack under the attack. While not lethal the attack should have at least felled Luna in some form, but she kept rising to the challenge despite the massive pain by tapping into a resource only she could use out of everyone present.

As Luna struggled to rise Trixie continued the onslaught by hurling lobs of energy straight at Luna and blasting away fur and skin with each and every magic strike, “You don’t care who gets hurt, you don’t care what damage you do, so long as you are the ones who are on top in the end!”

Even torn asunder from the attack, Luna remained standing, though it was with bent legs that threatened to buckle at any moment. However, despite her power advantage, Trixie was wheezing after her attack on Luna. She was stretching her own power usage as she attacked and attacked, having started the battle with only the energy she had managed to acquire during her distracting monologue that would not only provide them with her reason for her betrayal, but also time to rest and not be instantly slain with what little power she still held given how much she invested in the Bifrost.

Trixie stumbled towards Luna as she tried to catch her own breath, “I’ve seen that all too clearly…”

She used some of the last vestiges of her power to teleport out of Loki’s way and to appear right next to Luna, with her adoptive father stumbling as his intended strike did not bury itself in Trixie but in the wall behind where she had stood.

Trixie raised a palm in front of Luna’s head and began to try and call forth more energy to finish her mentor off, “You taught me well.”

Taught. That word made Trixie’s resolve falter. Her arm shook and she fell a step back as she winced and her body began to convulse.

Trixie was crying as she tried to steel herself for the final attack. She wanted to end Luna’s life, but something was keeping her from doing so. She wanted revenge for how Luna had spurned her, had used her, but even now when she had the opportunity to do so she could not finish the job.

“You’re the only one who ever truly taught me anything…” Trixie sobbed as she continued to fail at finishing her self-appointed task at meting out justice for Luna’s actions, “You’re the one who took me in when no-one else would…”

Luna rose up to her full height as Trixie continued to stumble. Instead of comforting her or playing on the emotions now rising in Trixie, Luna looked her dead in the eye and gave her a dark glare.

Trixie had slain the Ursas who were killing ponies. Trixie had killed Algrim when he was a direct threat to her family and had hurt Luna. Trixie had killed Blueblood by accident if her words were to be believed about losing control.

She killed Twilight for finding out her secret too early, but even then she seemed to regret it. Furthermore she was actively trying to provoke them with it, as if to say “I am so evil as to kill someone innocent” and then goad them into attacking her in retaliation.

Trixie was not a killer. She was not a monster, and even madness had not changed that. She had killed Twilight to get them to come after her. To get them to try and stop her. So despite all her posturing, despite everything she tried to do to get them to attack her, she was just a lost child throwing a tantrum and she knew it.

This was what Luna believed, with her deep knowledge of her beloved student and daughter. She had not taken in a sociopathic monster, she had taken in a broken mare who even at her worst was not an evil person.

Trixie gaped as Luna took a step forward towards Trixie’s outstretched, quivering hand, “Do it! If this is what you truly want, what is holding you back!? Until you hold the strength to kill those who have wronged you and those who you love, can you truly say you are wholly devoted to your ideals?”

Trixie winced at the harsh lecture, but Luna continued as she let loose the emotions she had been feeling this whole time.

“I am ready to die for my sins. For what I have done to you and to others. So go ahead. If this is what it takes for this to end, I will gladly give my life. I only wish for my family to be happy, and if I must die to accomplish that so be it. But I know you are not a villain, Trixie, much as you would like us to believe otherwise! So go ahead, try and kill me, I know that you cannot muster the strength to do so!”

Caught between utter rage and complete despair, Trixie began to shake her head and repeat the mantra she had once said to Blueblood before losing control.

Luna’s attempt to call out Trixie’s true morality by pressing her to the breaking point almost worked, but Trixie snapped a moment before she could reel herself back in. Her attack would have struck and killed Luna if not for one hitting her first.

Trixie stumbled to her right after being blindsided by an impressive beam of light from her left. The distraction caused Trixie’s attack to fly off to the side and hit nothing but the wall, and with it Trixie was left with almost nothing to fight with.

A look to the side revealed the recently awakened Celestia, who had dashed over to the side near where Thor and Illidan’s son lay to get a clear shot at Trixie that would not miss and hit Luna. So distracted by Luna’s speech Trixie had ignored the other threats in the room including Celestia and even Loki, who stood behind her and was prepared to plunge his blades into her body should she actually slay Luna. While he had affection for her as a parent, his devotion to Luna superseded his feelings towards Trixie, and he would grievously wound her if need be to save Luna.

Celestia looked to Trixie, who had quickly put space in-between herself and Loki upon rediscovering his presence.

“And the same goes for you, Trixie!” Celestia shouted, “I was nearly broken by having to live a thousand years without my sister, living every day with the knowledge that she had fallen and was gone because of my own failures as someone she trusted and loved. I can’t imagine what she would go through if you were taken from her, especially if you were to leave her forever,” she had lowered her head while recounting her own history with Luna, and threw it up to look Trixie in the eye again, “Don’t throw your life away! There is always time to make amends, so long as you live on!”

Trixie casually avoided Loki’s attack by teleporting, even if the effort made her wheeze in pain, “How can you…” she coughed as she reappeared by where they all started. Her mind was left in a state of confusion by the fact that Celestia almost sounded like she was forgiving Trixie, “I killed your student! I killed someone who ought to have been like a daughter to you!”

Celestia turned her head to look at Thor, who was finally rising from his previous defeat, “I have seen the dead return to life more than once these past few days, and if your hesitation and words have told us anything, you killed her to goad us into killing you.”

Luna closed her eyes at the revelation that Celestia was on the same page as her. Trixie was trying to get them to kill her while also accomplishing some kind of goal, though Luna could not fathom everything going on in Trixie’s mind. She had been pressed for far in her depression that she desired death, something obvious to her foes as they continued to face her.

“If we cannot forgive, we cannot move on. Your mother said that to you before she died…” Luna chimed in, her words slow as she coughed up blood while speaking, “Trixie, we’ve come so far…Please, things don’t need to end this way…”

While previously tame the past few moments, Trixie went from confused and conflicted to cackling and smirking madly again. Her moment of regret had passed and had morphed into her previous smug insanity, her moods as fleeting as could be expected by someone not in control of their mind.

“I would suggest you stop giving me time!” Trixie laughed as she called enough power to launch a medium strength attack at Celestia, “At this point I’ve already brought Earth under my influence, and Equestria will soon join it with so many Asgardians and Jotuns there.”

Celestia took the attack head on, not fast enough to avoid the sudden lurching forward of the magic because of how Trixie was in control of the dimension they all had stepped into.

“I subjected the Jotuns to some mind control previously. Experiments for this…” she continued to laugh weakly as she tried to continue her recovery, but Trixie was at too much of a disadvantage from the very beginning to have the power to actually win when so much was required to do as she pleased. If they had come right after defeating Kael she would not have been nearly as drained and have bested them easily, but them taking time to recover while she continued her plan gave them this heavy advantage in an otherwise unwinnable situation, “You may have noticed they’ve been a bit out of it as a species…”

Trixie spoke no further before she was forcibly thrown to the side and pinned against the wall by an invisible force, only to then have a barrier of ice thrown in front of her to seal her off from everyone else.

Body ravaged by the severe beating he received after his defeat and by the battle that left him unconscious, Kael stood in the entrance of the Bifrost after suddenly teleporting inside of it to the surprise of everyone inside.

We Remember Everything

by Thunderscourge

The Thinning Line Between, You and My Sanity, Is Quickly Fading, Takes Just a Breeze to Cause a Storm, It Takes Me to Cause a Tragedy