Thirty Days, Thirty Twilights

by Esle Ynopemos

22: Dreams of Victory [Dark]

((Prompt: Two ponies are in a competition. One loses... but doesn't realize it.))

“I'm disappointed, Trixie.” Twilight shook her head slowly. “I thought you were stronger than this.”

“Shut up!” shouted the showmare. Her eyes burned bright red.

“Why?” Twilight looked at her. “Why would you put it back on, Trixie? You knew what it did... what it's still doing to you. Why would you let it?”

The corruption had run much deeper this time. Flickers of dark magic sparked from the corners of Trixie's eyes. Her horn had grown curved and sharp, and its original blue color was beginning to flake away from a blood-red core like dry paint peeling off a wall. The Amulet seemed like it was embedded in her chest, pulsing with light in time with her heartbeat. Its clasp had all but disappeared beneath her coat.

It was too tight. It was choking her, squeezing the last of her life out... no. Trixie shook her head. It wasn't tight enough. Not until it had rid her of all her weakness. “Trixie knows why she lost,” she called. “It wasn't the trickery. If Trixie had been powerful enough, she would have seen through your lies!”

Twilight stood in the deserted street, her wings flared. “What does power have to do with—”

“Trixie wasn't strong enough!” A red arc of magic crackled down her leg as she pounded a hoof on the ground. A fissure opened up in the cobbles, splitting the street all the way from her to Twilight. “The first time, Trixie did not use all of the Amulet's power. She... she...” She shook her head violently. “She tried to resist its influence, and so she only was able to use a fraction of its true power.”

The eye of the Alicorn Amulet glowed bright red. “Trixie will not resist this time. She will be the greatest and most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria!”

“I don't understand what you think you want here,” Twilight shouted. “You think that beating me in another duel is going to mean anything?”

“Not a duel,” Trixie said, her horn glowing. “War.” A hazy red gout of magic burst from her horn, arching through the air and striking the buildings on either side of the street. Their foundations crumbled, and they lurched inwards towards Twilight.

Twilight's eyes widened as her sky filled with falling stone and mortar. Her horn lit up, preparing to teleport out of the way.

“You won't get away that easy!” Trixie flicked her horn again, and its glow shifted to a much darker crimson.

Translucent chains appeared at Twilight's hooves. Her teleportation failed, jerking the princess roughly back to the ground. Trixie heard a truncated scream and then nothing more than the rumble of falling rubble as Twilight Sparkle was buried beneath several tons of masonry.

Trixie slowly plodded through the crumbled remains of the structures. She coughed on the dust as she surveyed the ruins, wary of any sign her opponent had survived. She sneered as she spotted a bent purple feather sticking out from beneath a pile of bricks.

“Do you see now, Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie snarled. “Your tricks mean nothing when Trixie can simply bury you. Power. That is the only thing that matters.”

*

“Power...” Trixie whinnied meekly. Her hooves kicked slightly as she stirred in her dream.

Twilight Sparkle peered down at her, her brows knit in concern. “How did you manage to stop her?”

Zecora stood by, holding a bag of ice to her head. She winced. “I wish I could say that I won our bout, but she took me by surprise and knocked me out. Fortunately, I anticipated she might seek the Amulet again, so I had laced its container with a hallucinogen.”

“Good thinking.” Twilight prodded at the Alicorn Amulet with a hoof. Trixie grimaced and rolled over. “If only we could have stopped her before she put it on,” Twilight sighed.

“The addictive influence of the thing cannot be denied,” Zecora said. “Do not judge her too harshly; she could not have resisted if she'd tried.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I don't blame her.” She stared as Trixie twisted and rolled in the bed. “How long will she be out?”

“She will yet slumber a few more hours.” Zecora's expression became grim. “Then she will wake, with all of her powers.”

“Right,” said Twilight, straightening her back. “We'd better be prepared, then, hadn't we?” She glanced around the small hut. “I don't suppose you have another door-stopper around here, do you?”

Author's Note:

This came out a bit grimmer than I'd originally intended.

Comments

[SleepIsforTheWeak]

Trixie was turning into... Sombra?

[JetstreamGW]

This came out a bit grimmer than I'd originally intended.

Alicorn amulet stuff... gets like that. I had the same problem in the first draft of a story I"m writing...

[Esle Ynopemos]

3443475 Sorta, I guess... yeah? I mean, he stands as the biggest example of what happens to a unicorn that turns evil, and there's been a few fan-theories about how he's connected to the Amulet somehow, so I had Trixie become a little Sombra-ish. ...Sombraic? Sombresque? Sombrian?

3443536 It's one of those things that starts to get a lot more upsetting when you take it out of the safety net of a kids show's content rating. You can go from "It makes her mean," to "It's slowly chipping away at her soul," awfully quick.

[Themaskedferret]

3446400 to a surprisingly disturbing degree no less.