Disclaimer:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro and associations and are used without permission for the sole purpose of entertainment for no financial gain of any kind.
Rainbow Sprinkles, her mother and father, and Fudge Square (Brownie) are my intellectual property, but Lauren Faust can make me an offer if she wishes.
Background and setup:
I had always expected to write a sequel to “Gemini in All Things”. I had the problem of addressing the question of should Trixie seek redemption or be forever lost and destroyed. I decided on both. Either one could be trite and I hate being too trite.
This story is just as much about Twilight’s redemption as Trixie’s. Trixie would not have been as bad if Twilight had sent her to Princess Celestia’s magic school instead of teaching Trixie herself. Still, redemption comes at a price and prices are never cheap.
Every Half is a Whole
(One year after Trixie’s exile)
In the minds of ponies, there is free will as well as instinct. Anypony can aspire to be anything they wish. Free will precipitates choice, which is sometimes called the most powerful force in the universe. Still, that which comes before choice, which comes from the very essence of what you are, can be just as powerful. Instinct is the very thing that colors your world view before you are even born. What choices do you have? Only what you think you have.
The Everfree Forest is one such place which stokes the instinct of every sentient being in Equestria. Even the stoutest of hearts and most seasoned of warriors feels an automatic shiver whenever that name is spoken aloud. Such is the power of instinct.
Nopony deludes themselves into thinking that it is the strange trees, or the unpredictable weather, or even the seemingly unnatural creatures inside the boundaries of that overgrown place. Everypony knows when they are born to avoid the Everfree Forest.
The fact that the strange trees grow, bear fruit, and shed their leaves without assistance is proof that their fear is justified. The fact that the weather changes itself according to patterns that do not seem to make sense without a single pegasus to act upon it is proof that their confusion is justified. The fact that large, powerful creatures roam around with innate powers that can be barely duplicated by the wisest unicorns is proof that their shunning is justified.
Before, the citizens of Ponyville only had to watch out for poisonous flowers, freak lightning storms, sudden rockslides, and hulking beasts that would eat the still-living flesh from your bones. Now, the citizens had to fear one of their own. A dark, twisted figure that took up residence in a manticore cave too close to Ponyville for their tastes.
Funny thing about fear. Fear prevents you from acting, but if left untended that fear will chafe at you until you turn it into anger, which spurs you to act in ways you might never consider wise.
Several large stallions had decided that they had enough of the dangerous mare daring to live so close to their foals. Some of the foals had even dared each other to throw rocks into the cave of the blue unicorn.
The foals had actually run from the strange echoing caws in the forest long before they found the cave, but that fact did not soothe the stallions’ fear. How dare that mare inspire their foals into such foolishness!
The stallions had taken up weapons and came in a group to get rid of her…one way or another. The group of a half-dozen stallions gathered up their courage and gripped their deadly weapons. The pitchforks, clubs, and cutting knives gleamed in the sunlight. The stallions gathered around the mouth of the cave, ready to attack.
The leader of the group, a tall green stallion with a curly blue mane and blue eyes hefted his pitchfork high. His flank symbol showed a square bundle of hay.
He reared up and neighed loudly, “Show yourself, monster! Come on out so we can teach you a lesson about what you did to our foals!”
A weary, feminine voice responded from the depths of the cave, “I did nothing to your foals. They weren’t even here.”
The other stallions all relaxed a bit, losing their nerve.
One of them, a thin orange one with purple eyes and a yellow mane, said, “Well, they actually weren’t here. Their tracks stopped just inside the border. Maybe we should just…” His flank symbol of a white cloud shedding three drops of water was nearly sliced as the green stallion swiped his pitchfork at the orange stallion.
He declared, “Shut up! If it wasn’t for ‘her’, then our foals wouldn’t have got it in their stupid heads to go after her!”
The assembled stallions frowned reflexively. The orange one argued, “Hey, don’t call our foals stupid! They just…”
The green stallion’s right forehoof slammed into the side of the orange stallion’s neck, knocking him a few steps aside.
The green one declared, “Shut up! It’s all this witch’s fault! If she had never come to Ponyville, then our homes wouldn’t have been damaged by the Ursa Minor! It’s all her fault! Now we’re going to defend our families by getting rid of her. Everyone, get ready!”
Suddenly, a bright blue light emanated from the depths of the cave.
The feminine voice spoke, gaining a hard edge, “How many times do you fools have to get beaten before you get it in your heads?”
Several dozen small vines sprouted up from the soil beneath the stallions’ hooves. They grew larger and entwined the stallions in place. The group of stallions all dropped their weapons and began to panic. They tugged and tugged, but the little vines were somehow too strong.
The blue light approached the group of stallions. The strong, masculine ponies nearly wet themselves in terror.
Out of the cave stalked a mare with metal in her face and a metal stump for a right foreleg. Her face announced her displeasure, directly at the intruders.
She growled menacingly, “Maybe I shouldn’t spare you pathetic morons this time.”
A sick smile blossomed across her face as she taunted, “Maybe I should just eat you all alive and deposit your bones on your families’ doorsteps.”
Suddenly, she blinked, sending an overwhelming wave of blue, concussive energy right at the stallions, point-blank.
The wave slammed into the stallions head-on, breaking ribs and shredding the vines. Several deep bruises instantly formed on their coats. The stallions were blown right off their hooves and pushed a dozen feet backwards.
They instantly got up on their hooves, despite the pain. They screamed incoherently and galloped back to Ponyville.
The blue unicorn held her head high, savoring her victory.
Then, her smile faded. A tear threatened to fall from her right eye.
She shook her head from side to side, as if throwing off the emotions threatening to overwhelm her. She bared her teeth and snarled at the patch of ground before her.
“Why won’t they just leave alone?! Isn’t it bad enough that I’m nearly starving out here? Do they have to keep sending their idiot warriors to bother me?! Are they TRYING to get themselves killed?!?!”
She scraped the ground with the right foreleg, carving a shallow groove in the ground.
She groused, “I’ve got half a mind to just wipe them out…but that would bring Princess Celestia’s wrath upon me.”
The plans in her mind tumbled over and over, unable to form any pleasing shapes.
Trixie declared, “I’d give anything if I could only get those simpletons to just LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”
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Deep in the garden of Princess Celestia, there was a winding path outside of a hedge maze. A gentle breeze pushed the air eastward, forming a pleasant atmosphere in the garden. There were many statues carved to depict historical events or significant ponies throughout history.
One statue formed a crack at the base of its tail. A dark smoke flowed out, moving westward.
=====================
Hours later, the smoke entered Trixie’s cave. Sticking to the shadows, it easily flowed undetected up to the lonely pony. The blue unicorn was trying mightily not to sob loudly as she contemplated her life.
The smoke flowed over to fill the shape of her shadow upon the ground.
It then hissed in a sepulchral voice, “Why so sad, my pretty?”
Trixie stood up instantly, charging her horn. She spun around, trying to find the location of the words. Seeing nopony, she started to decide that it wasn’t anything important.
Impatiently, the smoke demanded, “I’m over here, you fool.”
The blue unicorn challenged, “Show yourself! The Great and Powerful Trixie is no pushover, not especially in her own cave!”
Her shadow seemed to detach from her hooves and flowed up the wall of the cave. It seemed to move as if with a life of its own.
It spoke, “Oh, come now. Empty bravado is so unbecoming. We both know that you’re miserable. Why are you so sad?”
At first, Trixie did not trust a shadow that moved without her moving first.
The shadow crossed its front hooves in a gesture of annoyance.
It demanded, “I can keep talking long enough to keep you awake at night, now tell me! What are you so upset about?”
Trixie just found it so wonderful for anything to just talk to her that she blurted out, “What do I have to be upset about?! Are you blind? I live in a cave! I’m exiled, starving, and attacked everywhere I go!”
The shadow seemed to calm down and gestured for more. It asked, “Why are you attacked?”
The blue unicorn sheepishly said, “Well, I…kinda attacked my teacher. I beat up a few others…but she made me do it!”
The shadow gasped melodramatically, saying, “She made you do it? You mean she provoked you? She was doing something wrong?”
Trixie felt her temper rise. She remembered Twilight Sparkle. She remembered how she was about to be cast out. She remembered the powerful stallion with the dark brown mane.
She cried out, tears streaming down her face, “She was going to kill me! She wanted to make me disappear!”
She sobbed loudly. Sniffing, she felt her rage build until she felt hot.
She yelled, “She wanted to dispose of me in a desert. A desert!! She expected me to just go out into that desert and disappear! Then, she could take…HIM!”
The animated shadow then smiled. It smoothly offered, “That’s so unfair. It sounds like she’s got the mayor wrapped around her hoof. That way she could rule with an iron hoof and make everypony believe anything she wants. Think about it. Even if you survived and came back, who would they obey without question?”
Trixie’s pupils shrank as she contemplated Twilight sending the entire population of Ponyville after her. Her brain exploded with rage and suspicion.
The blue unicorn growled, “She cannot get away with that! I will liberate Ponyville from her grasp! I will rescue them all from her grip!”
The shadow smiled sinisterly and added, “Then, they will all build you a mansion to live in. They will shower you with riches and then your stallion will be with you forever.”
Trixie’s face split into a wide smile. She declared, “YES! I’ll do it!”
The shadow on the wall resumed its former shape. It infused a piece of its essence into Trixie’s mind and body.
It said, “I will help you. Have a small piece of my vast knowledge. Now go forth and liberate Ponyville from Twilight Sparkle. Do it any way you like, but do not stop until she is dead and her element is destroyed forever!”
Trixie’s normally purple eyes turned gray.