The Great and Powerful Trixie Rises

by kildeez

Chapter V: Life in Trixievania

Sethisto had never been more miserable in his life, and it wasn’t just because he had been forced into slavery, made to carry buckets of dirt out of the rapidly-growing tunnels beneath Ponyville. It wasn’t just that the work was hard and the red glow of the collar around his neck was his only light. It wasn’t just the nasty looks some ponies gave him as he trotted by, knowing of the relationship he’d had with their enslaver, or the attempts at sympathy some of the other ponies gave him, trying to make it all better with a few kind words (and he wasn’t sure which was worse). It wasn’t just the fact that the wooden stocks he used to carry his buckets were really starting to chafe, although they were, and in fact he was probably gonna need somepony to rub some cream on his back when this was all over, somepony who cared and didn’t mind the cream and hey, maybe even thought the whole thing could be used as a gateway for something a bit more intimate. Somepony like…

“…like Trixie was,” he moaned quietly, a few more tears springing up. It was her! How could this have happened!? Here, he thought he’d finally found a mare who was kind and compassionate and didn’t mind all the “Great and Powerful Trixie” merchandise in his room. For Celestia’s sake, they’d just gotten used to living together! He’d just started using a coaster for her antique coffee tables and she had begun to respect that his toothbrush needed to be sealed inside its own private drawer when not in use. They were really hitting it off! And now that same mare had enslaved not only him, but an entire town in some insane bid at world domination! Yeah, odds were the girls at “Ask Gabby Gums” weren’t gonna have some advice for this.

Sniffling, he trudged along with his buckets, deeper and deeper into the tunnel. In just a few short hours, the citizens of Ponyville (or should he say ‘Lulamoontopolis’) had actually managed to dig a pretty decent-sized series of tunnels, mostly thanks to the guidance of a team of construction ponies that had arrived the day before to evaluate the roof on Town Hall, only to find themselves stuck in the same situation as everypony else.

“Alright, alright, I want dis tunnel linked up with the one comin’ outta the north by two, you bums got dat!?” The forepony announced to the workers and civilians in his tunnel, Trixie’s plans unfolded on a rock in front of him. The brown Earth pony tucked a pencil by his ear and gazed over the plans one more time, scratching at his collar with his hoof. “Man, this stuff don’t make a whole lotta sense t’me,” he muttered to himself.

“What doesn’t?” Sethisto asked absentmindedly.

“Well,” the pony replied, not bothering to look up from the plans. “I can’t figure out what in da hay this Trixie broad is tryin’ to get done with these tunnels. By da looks of ‘em, they just look like a buncha random tunnels goin’ under every street, kinda like your standard water main, but they’re way too big and unformed for dat!”

“A sewer maybe? Like a public works project for improving the town?” Sethisto asked hopefully.

“Yeah, maybe, ‘cept she don’t strike me as the type to be doin’ stuff like…” he cut-off as he looked up from the plans, his eyes narrowing as he realized who he’d been talking to. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Y-yeah, it’s me,” Sethisto replied, staring at the ground to avoid eye contact. “I-I just came down here to move some dirt.”

“Yeah, the pile’s oveh dere,” the forepony pointed at a massive pile gathered at one side of the tunnel, never taking his glare off the little yellow unicorn.

“Thank you,” he mumbled and trudged along, trying to pretend the other ponies weren’t there, weren’t all glaring at him as they continued expanding the tunnel his ex was forcing them to dig.

“Hey, big yellow! Nice choice in marefriends!” One of the locals jeered, the rest of the workers bursting with laughter. Sethisto blinked back more tears, just focusing on filling his buckets and turning back up the tunnel, only to be tripped up by the forepony as he galloped past. The whole tunnel rumbled with cheers and jeering ponies as Sethisto pushed himself back up and hurried to the surface. Cripes, was he going to have to go through that every time he went back? Today was gonna be a nightmare!

“Psst,” somepony whispered. “Sethy!”

“Hmm?” The little yellow unicorn turned to find a hot-pink earth pony leaning against the wall, a shovel in her hand. “Oh, hey! You’re the schoolteacher! Miss…”

“…Cheerilee, yeah, hi,” the mare replied.

“Hi yourself…so…” he continued awkwardly. “…What-what is it you wanted to say to me?”

“Well, first of all, I just wanted to say how sorry I am for…all of this. How things have worked out for you, I mean.”

“Oh,” great, one of them. He so didn’t need this right now. He immediately turned to head back out the tunnel. “Thanks miss; I’ll just be getting back to work now.”

“Wait!” Cheerilee pressed a hoof on his shoulder to get him to stop. “I want to help you!”

“Help me? Lady, you can’t even help yourself!”

“Well, see,” she sighed. “I might have a way to get you out of dirt-hauling duty for a little while.”

Immediately, the yellow unicorn dropped his stocks and turned to her, practically jumping with joy. “Really!? That’s great! How?”

“I can see you’re all for this. That’s good,” Cheerilee said, pulling out a small bundle of papers. “Our ‘Great and Powerful Empress’ has demanded hourly status reports on our progress, and it’s my turn to take this tunnel’s report to her. Thing is…”

“…You’re scared,” Sethisto replied flatly.

“Aren’t you!?”

“My marefriend just broke up with me by enslaving myself and everypony I know. Once some of the sheer, crushing agony leaves my heart, I’m sure there’ll be room for fear.”

Cheerilee’s eyes widened. “That’s…depressing. Anyhow, it would give you an excuse to leave the tunnels. At least, for a little while. And it might even give you a chance to do some…investigating.”

“Investigating? Who do I look like, Sherlock Hooves? What, exactly, would I be investigating?”

“A reason for all this, you idiot!” Cheerilee yelled, startling him. Calming herself, the pink mare continued: “Look, we both know Trixie has been changing for the better these past couple of years. I’ve heard about the charity banquets and the farmers in dire straits she’s helped out. It’s like she suddenly decided to pull a complete about-face with her life, isn’t it? Isn’t that why you fell for her in the first place?”

Sethisto bit his lip. Truth be told, he’d fallen for the show mare long before this past year, ever since he saw her show in Trottingham. Something about her confidence, the way she carried herself on stage, had always attracted him, and the fact that she wasn’t at all hard on the eyes didn’t hurt either. Then he heard about her charity works and her attempts to help other ponies, and suddenly he had to get closer to her. Funny thing was, Trixie didn’t even know about this: she just thought the wall-to-wall Trixie merchandise in his room meant he was a somewhat-obsessive fan (but fortunately not obsessive enough to creep her out) and her attraction to him was just a happy coincidence. Maybe if he’d told her how happy…maybe this whole fiasco never would’ve happened…

He snatched the bundle from Cheerilee’s hoof in his teeth. “I’ll do it,” he called over his shoulder, already galloping out the tunnel. “Wiff me luck!”

“Good luck,” the pink mare whispered, looking after him in concern before picking up her shovel. “And…be careful.”

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By the time the yellow unicorn made it to City Hall, most of his enthusiasm had completely melted away. Spitting the bundle out into his hoof and hoping Trixie didn’t mind his saliva (she never had before, but things had changed somewhat since those days), he gazed up at the sinister, darkened structure that had once been Ponyville’s Town Hall. A few days ago, its faded paint and crumbling shingles had lent it some measure of small-town charm while allowing it that happy pastel-flavored theme most of Equestria’s citizens were only too familiar with. Now, the magical barrier surrounding it gave it a sinister hue, even in the midday light. Its pastel purples and pinks were now tinted to darker browns and blacks, which combined with the general wear-and-tear to make the whole building look like something out of a ghost story: like that one house outside every small town in Equestria the local foals would constantly dare each other to spend Nightmare Night in.

Of course, none of the stories surrounding those houses were true. They always turned out to be just some big old house that had been abandoned because the previous owners moved out and nopony wanted to fix it up, or some stupid thing like that. And really, if he thought about it, Sethisto figured this was just another case like that: just everypony building up a legend around something that really wasn’t scary at all. Yeah, that was it! Really, the Ponyville Town Hall was just like those big empty houses, except this one was occupied by his ex-marefriend who, over the course of the past twenty-four hours, had broken into a Royal Canterlot vault to steal an ancient artifact, used said artifact to make herself unbelievably powerful, enslaved an entire town, and gone on an absolutely insane quest to take over all of Equestria. Oh, and as her ex-stallionfriend, if any emotion remained between them, it was hatred. Pure, blazing hatred.

Suddenly, the tunnels didn’t seem so bad anymore. At least there the ponies who hated him didn’t have the power to rip open the fabric of reality and summon a massive, multi-tentacled monster to eat him.

Sethisto gulped fearfully, his hooves shaking so hard that he almost lost his grip on his bundle of papers. But it wasn’t like he could back down now! If everypony was super-mean to him before, just how bad would they be if he tried to dump this job back on the local schoolteacher? A pony who probably hosted class for every one of their foals?

Summoning every scrap of bravery in his little pony body, Sethisto tightened his hold on the papers and trotted up to the door. Now, how did one greet a monarch? Or, should he say, somepony laboring under the insane delusion that she was a monarch? Well, probably the same way he would’ve been expected to greet the Princesses. Thing was, he’d never had to greet the Princesses before! It’s not like they attended Trixie’s charity balls or ever requested somepony with an extensive knowledge on the rarity of certain Trixie-licensed merchandise. Maybe just a bow when he got in? Oh shoot, but the fact that she was his ex-marefriend probably complicated things. Maybe he should skip the bow and go straight to groveling at her hooves for mercy. Yeah, she’d kinda been into that back when they were…

“WHO DARES DISTURB THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE’S QUIET TIME!?” Trixie’s voice bellowed from inside.

“GYAH!” Sethisto gasped, tripping backwards and almost losing his grip on the bundle of reports. Still completely unsure of what he was doing, the little yellow unicorn stammered: “I-it’s me, Sethisto. I-I have the hourly report from the Northwest Tunnel.”

There were a few moments of dead silence on Trixie’s end, during which Sethisto was absolutely certain she was summoning her magic for one, big lightning bolt to turn him into a smoking crater with some mildly-yellowish ash at the bottom. Before he could go to Plan B (cry and beg for his life) Trixie’s voice returned: “Proceed.”

The door slowly creaked open, the chains across its surface falling away. Every single instinct Sethisto had developed from years of lonely nights watching cheapo horror flicks on the Sci-Filly channel screamed for him to just turn and run and find a really dark corner to hide in forever. But still, he had a report to deliver. Gulping once more, the little yellow unicorn swallowed his fear and took a few, shaky steps inside, puffing his chest out to appear as big and brave and massively over-muscled as the protagonists in every one of those cheapo films he’d watched.

Then the door slammed shut behind him, and he screamed like a little mare in the sudden darkness. Regaining his bearings, Sethisto straightened up. After a few minutes, his eyes adjusted to the eerie, red glow off his collar, allowing him to see. He was standing in a large hallway leading to the main lobby. The cheap linoleum from the day before had been replaced with lavish silken throw rugs from a local merchant, one massive portrait dominating an entire wall, cast in darkness. Swallowing again, the little yellow unicorn took a single step forward, and suddenly a group of torches on the walls blazed to life. Yelping, he leapt back, calmed himself, and continued forward. At the very least, he could see the portrait now: an oil painting of Trixie glaring down into the hallway, her eyes glowing intimidatingly while the amulet shimmered on her throat. Shying away from the painting, Sethisto managed to get through the hallway and into the lobby without breaking out into a full gallop or crying, which had to mean something for his stallionhood, right?

The moment he set hoof in the lobby, a spotlight appeared, then another, and another, lighting up a red velvet carpet leading up to a regal throne made of cookies. He shivered. Trixie had told him about this throne while recounting the last time she’d found the amulet. At the time, it’d sounded like an incredible combination of awesome and delicious. Now, it just looked scary, like the kind of chair Josef Stallion would have sat in.

As he stared fearfully, Trixie appeared in the air just above the throne, hovering in place, the red hue of the Amulet’s magic encasing her body. She descended slowly, her eyes closed, red lightning bolts sparking all around her. She came to a rest in the seat of the throne, her rear hooves crossed and one of her front hooves curled up on the throne’s arm to allow her to rest her chin, just like some of the powerful monarchs Sethisto had read about. Or, at least, had seen in a cheesy flick starring Arnold Schwarzeneighger as a muscle-bound barbarian lord. Trixie’s eyes slid open, studying Sethiso nonchalantly as they glowed a deep crimson in the dark.

And somehow, she still looks amazing to me, and I’d still give my right hoof to be with her,’ Seth mused. ‘Wow. I am pathetic.

“Proceed,” Trixie said, waving her hoof.

“Wha-oh, right!” Seth said, remembering the bundle still in his hoof. He galloped up to the throne, deposited the papers on a little round table by its side, and bowed.

“Is that all?” Trixie droned in a voice that reeked of boredom.

“No…uh…oh Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“Very well,” she snatched the papers up and turned away, a door opening up on the far side of the room. “You may leave.”

“Th-thank you, oh Great and Powerful Trixie,” he gasped in relief, turning to head back down the hallway he entered through. This was so great. He’d half expected her to blast him with some spell to transform him into a bean burrito the moment she saw him! He should just run right back to the tunnels, happy to still be alive…

He paused.

He hated that word, should. He probably SHOULD have stopped buying Trixie merchandise after he’d needed to take out the second mortgage on his home to keep his collection going. He probably SHOULD have reconsidered spending all his vacation weeks and holiday money on a trip out to the country just to see if he could help out at one of Trixie’s charity balls. He most certainly SHOULD have just told Trixie it wasn’t a good time when she asked him to move in with him, rather than quit his job in Manehattan and sell half his belongings to pay for the trip to her tower.

Yeah, Sethisto really sucked when it came to following his own advice. He’d thrown caution to the wind a million times before, though, and he saw no reason to start listening to himself now. Steeling his resolve, he whipped around and screamed: “TRIXIE!”

The little blue mare paused, her star-studded cloak flowing behind her. She turned to him, actual surprise behind the crimson glow in her eyes.

“What in Celestia’s name happened!?” He barked, his eyes suddenly blazing with rage. “You were doing great things to help other ponies! You paid for a farmer’s foal to have a life-saving operation for pity’s sake, and now this!? What’s going on!?”

She turned on him, rearing up on her hind hooves. “How DARE you talk to your…”

“No, how dare YOU! I loved you! With every piece of my soul, I loved you! You were this awesome magician I saw in Trottingham with all the confidence and all the power I knew I could never have, and I loved you!”

She paused, descending back on all fours. The glow in her eyes flickered. “Tha-that really was you at Trottingham? And…and you…”

“Yes, okay!? I loved you from that first moment I saw your show! I couldn’t get you out of my head! That’s why I have so much of your stuff! Not for the collector’s value like I said, that was a bunch of horse manure: it’s all worthless, overpriced crap! And I still bought it!” His voice shook, tears streaming from his eyes as he continued. “I loved you every day, and when you started running the charity balls, I loved you even more! I had to get close to you! That’s the only reason I volunteered to help! I’ve loved you for years, and the day you said you loved me back was the happiest of my life!”

“I-I can’t…”

“AND THEN YOU THREW IT ALL IN MY FACE!” He screamed, rage rejoining the multitude of emotions bubbling up in his heart. Angry tears blazed wet trails down his cheeks while his voice boomed throughout the Hall: “You took that love and you destroyed it, and for what? Some insane dream for world conquest!? I would’ve GIVEN you the world; all you had to do was ask, you stupid mare! And instead, you just threw me aside like a kid’s…”

Suddenly, Trixie’s gaze darkened. The brim of her hat dipped low and lightning shot across the room, grabbing Sethisto and pinning his hooves to the ground, his muzzle sealing itself tight beneath his collar. Eyes widening in fear, the little yellow unicorn could only watch as Trixie strode up to him, looking down at his bound form like one might look down on an anthill. “Your admission of your love for your Empress is the only reason she is now sparing your life,” she hissed. “Go now, before she changes her mind.”

The lightning-shackles disappeared, and Sethisto leapt to his hooves. “Th-thank you, oh Great and Powerful Trixie,” he gasped, pressing himself against the far wall. She bowed her head again, covering her eyes with the brim of her hat as she disappeared through the door on the far side of the room. Still shaking, the little yellow unicorn waited a few moments before getting to his hooves and turning back down the hall. Okay, he REALLY should just leave now, should just gallop back to his hole in the ground and his stocks and…

There was that word again. Should.

Sighing at his own stupidity, Sethisto turned back to the lobby. The door on the other side of the room beckoned, promising to answer all of his questions. Could Trixie really have turned so evil in such a short period of time? And where were the Elements of Harmony, anyway? What was she doing to them? And just what had she been working on all day, back here in the dark?

Puffing out his chest and trying to channel as many cheesy sci-fi movie stars as he could, Sethisto crossed the room towards the small ray of light. Swallowing, he reached for the doorknob and slowly began to turn it. What would be back here? Something earth-shattering that would destroy his image of Trixie as the Great and Loving magical blue mare? Something so terrible it would drive him insane just to view it? Still shaking, he pulled the door open just the slightest little crack, peeking through with one eye. “What the…” he muttered at what he saw.

“Always the curious one, arentcha, Sethy?” Trixie’s voice cooed behind him.

“Huh!?” He turned around in surprise.

And then, like a barn owl spotting a field mouse out in the open, she descended upon him.