The War of Champions

by Onomonopia

The Misfit

Spotlights shone down on the caged-in stage from all directions, illuminating the two Trixie's as they glared at each other with the same narrow-eyed expression. One of the Trixie's, the fan favorite of the crowd that surrounded the caged stage, wore a wicked smile upon her face as she glared at her foe, while the other Trixie wore an expression that was calm and determined.

"I see that the little memento that I gave you during our last battle hasn't gone away," Trixie said with a smirk as her eyes darted to the burn marks along the other Trixie's chest. "Are you sure that you want to fight me again, Trix? It would be simpler just to give up and go home. No point embarrassing yourself in front of this crowd, wouldn't you say? Or are you just so foolish that you actually believe you can win? Because we both know," Trixie taunted as lightning began to course through her horn. "That you can't."

"Alright, I take back my earlier statement," Trixie finally spoke, shaking her head before grabbing her cape with her magic and hurling it to the side. Her horn glowed with a multitude of colors as her magic was reflected through the crystals that made up her ring. "Kindly shut the hell up." She unleashed a rainbow of magic towards the other Trixie, who let out an annoying laugh while she constructed a cage of lightning to deflect the bolt towards the stage cage. The crowd screamed when the magic struck the cage, but the metal held, yet it was warped badly by the spell.

"Come now, you'll have to do far better than that if you hope to stand even a ghost of a chance against one such as myself," Trixie laughed as she created a cyclone of magic beneath her hooves that lifted her into the air, giving her a tornado as a throne upon which to sit as she began to unleash spell after spell towards her opposite self.

'Trust me, I can do better, but against the power of the word even my most powerful spells won't be enough,' Trixie thought to herself as she rolled to the side to avoid a blast of burning magic, before erecting a barrier of darkness to protect herself from the next wave of attacks. 'But a battle of magic is as much about imagination as it is about power. As long as I can out-think you, I can beat you.'

Trixie slammed her hooves into the floor of the stage and sent crystal fissures erupting towards the other self, causing Trixie to yelp in surprise when the crystals grabbed hold of her hooves and slowly began to consume the mare. The moment her foe was caught, Trixie's eyes burned with green power as she unleashed a hailstorm of dark magic at the other Trixie, who roared in pain as she was bombarded with darkness.

"Not bad, other me, but you are still using Sombra's magic. I still have the power of the word! DOS TOK SHAZAM!" A thunderbolt clapped across the room and shattered the crystals at Trixie's hooves while the force of the lightning descending also hurled Trixie across the stage. She managed to slip into the darkness right before she slammed into the side of the cage, but when she emerged from a pool of darkness she found that the other Trixie was covered in lightning that made her mane stand up on end.

"I will admit that you did force me to use this magic much faster than last time, but all that has done is speed up your demise," Trixie taunted with a uptight laugh as the crowd around her began to laugh as well. Yet, the momentary distraction gave Trixie a moment to place ten discs constructed of darkness around the stage. "Curious. What do you plan to do with those?" the other Trixie asked.

"Allow me to show you." Trixie leapt backwards into one of the discs of darkness, vanishing from sight almost immediately. Trixie raised an eyebrow as she began to look around for Trixie, before a blast of darkness shot forth from one of the discs and struck Trixie in the side, getting the pony to roar in rage as she turned and fired at the disc, only to see her bolt of lightning fly into the darkness. The bolt returned a moment later from a different disc that aimed the blast right back at her, and a moment later Trixie took her own lightning bolt to the chest, which hurled her into the cage.

"I might not have the same magical power to take you head on, but thanks to the magic I have learned, I do not need to," the voice of the other Trixie laughed from within the darkness while the Trixie bathed in lightning pulled herself back up to her hooves, rage flashing in her eyes as she looked into the ten discs, trying to discern where her foe was.

"Show yourself!" Trixie roared before another blast struck her in the back of the head and threw her to the floor. Trixie roared as she pushed herself back up and spun towards the disc from which the shot had come, hurling a blast of lightning into the darkness once again. The moment the bolt vanished, however, she threw up her cage of lightning just in time to absorb the lightning bolt as it shot forth from another disc and slammed into her barrier.

"Now why would I do that, Trixie?" Trixie's voice echoed throughout the entire structure, getting Trixie to look around in frustration for her foe that was hidden in the darkness. "Since it's clear, that I do not even need to be in the same room as you to defeat you. Now better pay attention, because the next volley is coming soon."

Trixie roared as she unleashed torrents of lightning to intercept the blasts of darkness that emerged from the discs of darkness, yet the sheer volume of blasts coming from the darkness eventually began to overtake her and Trixie felt the darkness begin to strike her from all sides. In an act desperation, she hurled herself to the side to avoid one of the shots of darkness. The shot that missed flew into the warped part of the cage and pierced through the damaged metal, nearly striking one of the spectators outside of the cage

"No!" Trixie yelled from within the darkness as she created two more discs of darkness to absorb more of the stray shots that Trixie dodged. Yet, the moment Trixie realized that the other her had stopped the battle to help out the ponies around her, a wicked smile crossed the thundering face of Trixie as she slowly rose back up to her hooves.

"How very interesting. It seems that you care more about the ponies watching the fight than the fight itself," Trixie cackled menacingly before she unleashed her lightning into the cage around the stage, blasting it to dust. Now she threw her head back with a smile. "Come now, everypony, I have entertained you all for so long and done so much for you...it is time that you all return the favor!" As she said this, her magic reached out and grabbed hold of the ponies around her, pulling them onto the stage where they were all held aloft by tendrils of Trixie's magic.

"What are you doing, you damned fool?! You are bringing the innocent into our fight!" Trixie roared from the darkness, but the other Trixie was starting to figure out from where in the darkness the yells were coming.

"Not at all. I am simply giving them a much closer look at how I fight with my magic," Trixie said with mock innocence before she threw her head back and cackled menacingly. With a flash of lightning, she began to hurl thunderbolts into the dark discs that surrounded her while at the same time angling the ponies that were caught by her magic, so that they were in front of all of the other discs. Another wicked laugh escaped her lips as she saw the thunderbolts launched out of the darkness into the sky, instead of back at her like they once did.

"You call me the coward, yet you are using the innocent as SHIELDS!" Trixie roared from within the darkness, her very rage shaking the discs that hung in the air. Trixie narrowed her eyes with a wicked smile as she finally found what she had been looking for. With a roar of victory, she unleashed all of the power of her lightning into all ten of the discs at once, cackling with triumph as she heard a shriek of pain erupt from within the darkness when the lightning found its mark. A moment later the discs of darkness faded when the other Trixie fell through one of them and collapsed to the floor, smoldering, with her mane and body having been burned.

"Oh my, that truly looks painful. I am so sorry," Trixie cackled with victory in her voice as she sauntered over to the still smoking Trixie, who was struggling to even lift her head so she could glare at the other her. Trixie lifted one of her hooves very deliberately, before she placed it upon the scarred area of the other Trixie's chest, getting a weak cry of pain from her other self while she looked around in triumph. "Hmm, no applause. That's a first. Oh well, this is still my victory!"

"You...bastard..." Trixie moaned with rage and pain as she tried to grab hold of her other self, but Trixie slapped her hoof back down with a chuckle.

"Really now? Don't be such a sore loser, Trix. It's your fault that you allow yourself to be held back like this," Trixie taunted with another laugh.

"You...used...the innocent...as a-"

"As a what, my Dear? As a shield? Why shouldn't I? All these ponies are good for is cheering me on--and letting the world know how great I am!" Trixie exclaimed with a laugh that chilled not only the other her, but all of the other ponies who had watched what Trixie had done and said. "That is what makes you weaker than me, what makes me the better Trixie. It's that you allow yourself to be so concerned with others, that you don't take the time to think about yourself. However, Trixie is all that matters," Trixie said with a wicked smile as she placed a hoof on the other Trixie's head, where she noticed the ring again. "Oh, isn't that a pretty thing? Don't tell me, that somepony in your world actually loved a weakling like you enough to spend the rest of their life with you? How much did you pay them?"

"No...your words...show how weak you truly are. This ring...reminds me...that I am not alone...that there...are others who fight for and with me," Trixie snarled back in reply as she threw Trixie's hoof off of her head and slowly pushed herself back up to her hooves, shaking violently as she struggled to remain standing. "And you...are wrong...if you believe that...caring for others is a weakness, that only through the admiration of hundreds of thousands can you be happy. This ring...reminds me that I have found happiness through my sacrifice, that my sacrifice saved my world! So, if you think...I'm going to let you get away...with using these innocents...any way you want...then you'll burn with me! BLIT O RATE!"

Upon speaking the words of magic from long since past, a massive explosion was created in the center of the stage, hurling both Trixie's to opposite ends of the arena. Trixie roared in agony as the impact sent pain coursing through her burned body, yet with determination and strength she forced herself to rise before her foe and hurl herself at the other Trixie once again. Her horn flashed with many different colors as the ring on her horn began to amplify her magic, and when she unleashed her magic upon her foe, it was like a beam of aurora that barreled down towards the other Trixie.

Trixie gritted her teeth while she created her cage of lightning to defend herself from the onslaught of magical power that nearly consumed her, but to her horror she found that the sheer will that Trixie was pouring into her attack was beginning to overpower her lightning. With no other options, she teleported herself away from the attack and reappeared just in time to see the blast of magic pierce through the shield of lightning.

"Where...did you get that power?" Trixie asked the other her as she slowly turned her head to look at the other Trixie, but the slight fear that she had held turned into a smile when she saw that her foe was barely able to stand. "So, it seems that you used all of your strength there in a desperate gamble to defeat me at the last second. I commend you for holding an ace for so long, but really, you should have used it right from the beginning. Maybe then you would have actually had a chance to defeat me."

Trixie's laugh turned into a snarl as she charged her horn with the divine lightning that had struck down so many foes, dimming the light in the room so it almost seemed that her power was sucking in the very light around her. Trixie took a step back as she watched the other her point the horn right for her chest, knowing that none of her spells would be strong enough to stop the attack. Yet, when she looked behind her to see the crowd of spectators who were frozen in fear, unable to move in the face of such power, she gritted her teeth and she turned and created the strongest barrier that she could muster.

"Heh, a hero to the end, huh? Fool!" Trixie roared as she unleashed the full might of her power towards Trixie. The stage was blasted apart. The torrent of sheer magical power shattered the air while barreling towards Trixie, who braced herself as best she could as the magic prepared to consume her...only to be stunned beyond words when she found that time had come to a complete stop. She looked at the other Trixie to find her frozen in place, while a slight turn of her head showed that the crowd was just as frozen as the mare.

"I see. So I guess this is what the mare was talking about," Trixie weakly smirked when she turned around--to see a massive, silver dragon looking down at her with its arms crossed. "So, is this the part where I get my fancy new accessory, or are you here to take me to the afterlife?"

'Heh, seems that some of Sombra's humor rubbed off on you,' the dragon replied with it's own smirk, before clearing his throat and taking on a more regal look. 'You are an interesting one, Trixie. I've been watching you since the moment that you overthrew Morgaine years ago, and I must admit that I have never seen one so...willing.'

"You've been watching me for years, huh? That's not creepy at all," Trixie replied with a weak chuckle, getting the dragon to smirk in response. "And what do you mean by, 'willing'?"

'Willing to sacrifice yourself for others, no matter who and no matter where. You care very little for yourself, and through the guilt you assumed in nearly taking down all of Equestria, you decided to dedicate your life for others,' the dragon continued as he looked around at the crowd. 'Even now, you were willing to die to protect the ponies who only a few moments ago were supporting the very 'you' that you have sought to be rid of.'

"Of course I would. I help all who need me, regardless of who they are," Trixie said with as much determination as she could. "I learned the day that I nearly destroyed Equestria that I should never put my own goals and dreams above the lives of others--that others always come first." To Trixie's surprise, the dragon shook his head slightly at her with a smirk still upon his face.

'Yet, are you willing to sacrifice the happiness of your family to achieve those goals? Are you willing to break the hearts of your husband and your children to save this world?' The dragon asked, but he held up a hand before she could answer. 'I know that your answer is 'yes', Trixie. That was just a question on the test. But what I want to tell you is, that I did not give you my Element because you are so ready to sacrifice your life for others. I gave you my Element because of what you sacrificed for the merry band of misfits that roll around with you. For Starshine, you sacrificed your solitude; for Sombra you sacrificed your belief about him being evil. For Armora, it was the belief that she was nothing more than an enemy, and for Bark...well, you got me there. But these are the actions for which I have deemed you worthy, not because you do what so many other heroes do.'

"So, are you going to keep talking or am I finally going to get the power that I need to defeat this braggart?" Trixie asked with a weak, but still cocky smile. The dragon threw his head back and began to laugh loudly before looking down at Trixie with amusement in his eyes.

'Oh, I chose well. Very well, my Champion of Sacrifice, put an end to this fight.'

An explosion of divine might rocked the entire arena, causing Trixie to gasp in shock when she laid her eyes upon the being who stood in the center of the explosion of magic. The Trixie who just a moment ago could barely stand now stood proud and tall, with a golden tiara around her head with their cutie mark in the center of it. But now, her body radiated with divine power while a golden cape streamed behind her, yet her eyes shone with the purest of silvers as she looked over at her foe with a triumphant smile on her face.

"W-what happened to you? What is this power?!" Trixie roared at herself before hurling another thunderbolt at Trixie, only to watch in disbelief as the bolt struck Trixie in the chest and vanished.

"This is the power that I have been given because of what I chose to do with my life," Trixie explained as she began to walk towards the other her, the very wounds that a moment ago had crippled her now gone. Trixie slowly backed away as the sheer wall of power began to wash over her, yet when Trixie got too close, the other Trixie found that she couldn't even move in the face of such power. All she could do was look up with fear into the eyes of the other her, the silver eyes that radiated with a power that Trixie would never know. Yet there was no anger in the eyes that looked down upon the other, less powerful Trixie. Only pity.

"I used to be like you. I used to believe that if I surrounded myself with thousands of adoring fans that I would feel wanted, that I would feel like I was truly alive," Trixie said. "That no matter what I did, as long as it garnered me attention and fame, that I was doing it for a just cause. That as long as I was loved by my fans, I was happy. But then I discovered what it truly meant to be loved by somepony, to truly be cared about and loved not just for my strengths, but for my failings as well. A small colt taught me that. Then, I learned what it meant to accept who you are and what you've done, no matter how much it pains you. Sombra, the one who gave me this ring, taught me that."

"So, what's your point?! Are you just trying to tell me about how much better you are because you got a fancy power up?!" Trixie roared in fear at the divine being before her, yet all the other her did in reply was shake her head sadly.

"I wondered for the longest time how you managed to beat me, wondering if, that by choosing a life of fame and notoriety, you had hit upon a secret that I did not know. I wondered if you had made the better choice. But after talking to the ones I love and know," Trixie drifted as she looked out across the crowd, seeing their hate-filled faces glaring at the Trixie that lay on the ground before the Champion of Sacrifice. "I see that I was right all along."

"So what are you trying to say?!" Trixie spat back at the other her.

"You are a part of my life that I wish that I had never had to see again. The greedy me, the one who desired attention from all and who didn't care what they had to do to get it. But now...I am grateful that I got to meet the past me and have the chance to battle with her, because now I see what I could have become had I stayed on that path: Alone, angry and always demanding more affection from others who didn't truly care about me," Trixie said before she turned around and created a portal back to where the others were waiting for her. She then turned and let loose a stream of magic into her foe that caused Trixie to cry out in pain before she collapsed to the ground, struggling to lift her head as her now weakened magic could barely get her horn to glow.

"I know now, without any doubt, that I am truly happy with where I am in life, regardless of this Element or what has happened here. And while it was my greatest test to overcome myself from the past, it is time I left you where I left all of my self doubt and hatred for myself," Trixie said as she walked into the portal, turning one last time to look at the weakened Trixie with strong eyes. "Behind me."

She vanished into the portal as she said this, leaving the other Trixie to drag herself to her hooves and let loose a roar of hatred and despair, hating how she had been dealt with so easily.

"DAMN YOU! If it wasn't for that Element, I would have beaten you!" Trixie roared at where the portal had been a moment ago.

"Indeed, you would have," a very powerful voice said from behind her, getting Trixie to turn around to see a black-clad pony with a long beard. "But with my aid, you may get the chance to do so again. That is, if you are willing to join me and...fuel the fire." He didn't need to bother asking that part, for Trixie's eyes answered for him.

Author's Note:

MORE TRIXIE!

Comments

[seeker of truth n]

Damn that was a good chapter

[FleetlordAvatar]

5882360 If a bit confusing at times.

[The Hat Mann]

Other Trixie joined Star-Swirl? Should have seen that one coming.

[Fireeaters]

welp. That happened.

[Sci]

That makes two of the "good guys" that are bad guys that turn out to be really bad guys!

[Mr-Astounding]

Achievements earned (all Trixie):
Greatest "Show" of All (Obtain the Element of Sacrifice)
What TRUE Power is (Defeat "Yourself")

[Husky Wang]

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