Time of Death

by Starscribe

Chapter 2: Trixie

Twilight Sparkle was hard at work. Ever since receiving a whole castle for herself, she hadn’t had to pack her lab away into a tiny basement that was barely large enough for all her equipment. The castle had plenty of rooms, and so she dedicated one of the biggest upper chambers (where tourist ponies visiting from far afield wouldn’t accidentally stumble into it) to her labratory.

Unlike the rest of the castle (and indeed, the rest of her life), Twilight had allowed the lab to become somewhat messy in the last few months. Ever since… well, she couldn’t think about it. Twilight had already considered the possibility of time travel to prevent the curse from being made, and dismissed it.

There was nothing left to do but confront the curse itself. The wreckage of Twilight’s study was everywhere. A whole table in one corner was weighed down with historical accounts and forbidden spellbooks, anything from Canterlot’s royal library that even mentioned the curse.

On one subject each and every one of them agreed: Doom could not be prevented. Its cost was tremendous—in paying with their own life, the caster’s evil was guaranteed. A stasis spell wouldn’t protect the victims when their time came due. A standing medical team couldn’t revive them. Even moving them to another plane wouldn’t work.

The massive door to the lab swung slowly open, and a pony came in. Twilight Sparkle didn’t even have to look up to know who it would be. The same pony who had visited each and every day since her research had begun.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived,” Trixie announced, leaving the door swinging open behind her. It wasn’t as though there would be any other ponies visiting. Everypony else knew not to interrupt her.

“Hi.” Twilight didn’t even look up, didn’t turn away from the spell she was casting.

In front of her were six shards of differently colored crystal, arranged into a starlike pattern and glowing with internal light. Her horn lit up to match, and most of her concentration was dedicated to keeping the spell in her mind until it was complete.

In the very center of the crystals was a single stuffed doll, with black button eyes and a limp mane.

“No doubt substantial progress has been made since last I visited,” Trixie said, passing the large year calendar mounted to the wall, with each of its months separated and pinned so that a pony could look at the whole thing at once.

Every day on the first month had been x-ed off, along with half of the days in this month.

Twilight didn’t answer, focusing on her spell. She sat surrounded by open spellbooks, most of which were so old their pages were barely cogent enough to hold together. A single violent twist might’ve turned them to dust.

Trixie appeared in a puff of smoke right in front of the table. The snapping sound was loud and abrupt enough that her mind briefly wandered. The pattern of the spell broken, her horn went dark. One of her crystals shattered into several tiny quartz shards, and burn marks appeared on the ground outlining the edge of the ritual.

Twilight sighed, slumping her head into her hooves. She didn’t look up at Trixie. “I’ve explained this to you before, Trixie. Every minute I spend talking to you is time I’m not spending working on a cure.”

The unicorn made a dismissive sound. “Trixie is more than confident in your abilities, Twilight Sparkle. A few minutes to give me a report on your discoveries will not significantly delay your progress. Trixie is quite confident in this.”

“I wouldn’t be,” Twilight muttered, her voice very low. “You remember what Celestia said, don’t you? I’m trying to do the impossible. Every book I’ve read agrees with her. Maybe if I had years to experiment… but we can’t even do that, given the cost of the spell and the risk to whoever we used for testing.”

She looked up just in time to see Trixie turn away from her, with a flash of bright blue tail. “How many other impossible things have you already done, Twilight? Don’t think Trixie wasn’t reminded of that every day after our first meeting. You brought Princess Luna back to Equestria after her banishment. You reformed Discord, you stopped Tirek. Twilight Sparkle can do impossible things.”

She paced away, towards the large blackboard on the far wall. Twilight had covered it in spell-scribblings. Most of them had been crossed out, ideas that she had tested and that had failed. Trixie didn’t seem to notice. “The Great and Powerful Trixie should not have been part of that spell… but she was never in any danger. Not with a pony like you to fix it. If Dirge had wanted us dead, he should have done it then.”

“He did.” Twilight’s voice was a quiet squeak. Yet she’d tried being tactful. For over a month Trixie had been visiting, and each and every time she took valuable time away from developing the cure.

Twilight pointed at the diagram in front of her. “Look at this, Trixie. This is… a shallow copy of the spell you saw. It should be familiar to you.”

Trixie returned, prancing more than walking. Yet for all the show her appearance presented, there were subtle signs of her distress just under the surface. Her mane was no longer styled, and whatever scent she generally wore was replaced with the natural smell of somepony who hadn’t seen a shower in too long.

“You know Trixie isn’t a mystical researcher like you, Twilight. Magic like this has never worked for me.”

“I know.” Twilight pointed anyway. “Look, this loop here… this is what makes the Doom impossible to reverse. You’ll see it isn’t a charm, it isn’t an enchantment… it isn’t doing anything to you.”

“Well, yes,” Trixie admitted. Her eyes scanned over the diagram, apparently uncomprehending. “I don’t feel any different. I always imagined that was more because the spell itself failed. You’re struggling for a cure, and Trixie appreciates that effort, but when the rest of the year goes by we’ll find it wasn’t necessary.”

“No.” Twilight couldn’t keep the frustration from her voice. “It isn’t an enchantment because it’s a time spell, Trixie. It…” She struggled for words to explain such a complex concept. Despite her public persona, Trixie had never learned much about real magic. “You don’t feel different because the spell targets who you’ll be in the future. This is temporal sympathy. When it comes due, it’ll… it’ll have already happened. It will be future retroactive. Or… in some respect, it’s like you’re already dead, you just don’t know it. Dirge killed the pony you’ll be. We can’t stop him, because he already did, even if we can’t see it from here.”

She slumped back into the cushions. “I’m sorry. It isn’t right you were included. It isn’t right anypony was included. Dirge should’ve just gone after us. We would’ve beat him, taught him why what he was doing was wrong, and it’d be over.” She lowered her voice to a bare whisper. “This is hopeless.”

Trixie seemed not to hear her. She turned away with a dismissive flourish from her cape. Her usual outfit had collected dirt around the bottom, but the showmare hadn’t noticed. “Does Twilight Sparkle need the help of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Are you admitting that you need Trixie’s contributions to solve this conundrum?”

Twilight probably shouldn’t have been awake. She’d been doing this nearly every few days, staying up for night after night to test increasingly desperate gambits. None had brought any more success than the last.

“You’re gonna die!” Twilight shouted, so loudly that her voice echoed through the library.

Trixie just blinked, staring at Twilight. Her mouth didn’t even move.

Twilight’s ears flattened to her head. But she’d already come this far. Might as well finish what she was thinking. “Trixie, Celestia told me the spell couldn’t be undone. It’s been used against ponies close to her before, and she hasn’t been able to stop it. Princess Celestia wasn’t able to stop it. You hear what I’m saying?”

Trixie twitched once, as though a troublesome insect had landed on her shoulder. Then she twisted away, through the lab. “Princess C-Celestia is… is mistaken,” she stammered. “This isn’t like that. The Great and Powerful Trixie is not going to die because some fool pony decided to get back at her rival and thought she was a friend. No show should end that way.”

“It shouldn’t,” Twilight agreed. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to try and stop it.” She wanted to reach out to the pony across the room, to reach over and apologize. But unlike many of the ponies Twilight had interacted with, Trixie had never grown that close to her. She was a pony who would likely always rub her the wrong way, no matter what she did.

She couldn’t help but feel guilty. “I’m going to stay in this lab every day until I find a cure,” Twilight said again, more calmly this time. “I’m not going to give up, even if Celestia has. If there is a way to help you, I’ll find it. But you might want to start thinking about what you’ll do if there isn’t one. Maybe… go back home. Live with your family and the other ponies you love. Enjoy your time with them while you still have it. Most importantly, stop distracting me. If I’m talking to you, I’m not helping you.”

Trixie didn’t say anything for several long moments. Eventually she shook her head. When she opened her mouth to speak again, it was far more like herself. Any trace of the pain she’d briefly displayed was gone. “The Great and Powerful Trixie realizes that you have to keep working on a cure even if it isn’t really necessary. She looks forward to seeing the look on your face when the year runs out and she is still perfectly healthy.”

Twilight sighed, taking a brush from the tools on another nearby table and cleaning away the broken crystal. She took a fresh pink quartz from her drawer and placed it onto the diagram in the specified area. She didn’t actually resume the ritual though, not with Trixie still there. It wouldn’t do her any good just to waste more supplies.

Celestia had given her a small fortune to research a cure, but those bits weren’t unlimited. She would have to be smart if she was going to live on them during the rest of the year and buy reagents.

“Trixie has decided to help in the way she knows. Trixie is going to go back on tour. A pair of colts in town have been asking if I would take them on for a season… Trixie thinks she will.” Trixie made her way towards the door, her hoofsteps coming much more quickly now.

“You will keep Trixie abreast of your research, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course, Trixie. If I discover anything promising, you’ll be the first pony to know.”

“Good, good.” Trixie opened the heavy door, which sung slightly as the crystal of the castle rubbed together. “Trixie has faith in your abilities. Not that she expects to need it. Trixie knows how ponies can overreact, even powerful famous ponies. She is sure it will not be as bad as you say.”

“Of course she is,” Twilight muttered, not loud enough for her to hear. “Good luck, Trixie,” she said, looking up just in time to see Trixie making her way out. Despite what she had said, the unicorn’s shoulders sagged, her ears were flat, tail tucked between her legs.

Twilight caught one last look at a pair of wide, forlorn eyes, before the massive crystal doors snapped closed.

I’m sorry you had to be a part of this, Twilight thought, after she was gone. Of all the ponies to be caught up and harmed as a result of Twilight’s actions, Trixie had been next to last on the list. Why had Dirge wanted to use a pony Twilight had hated at one point in her life to get back at her for thwarting him? Why use a pony Twilight barely knew?

Twilight Sparkle banished the thought and went back to work on her spell. She would keep working with every waking hour, as she had done over the last month.

A few hours later, Spike brought a plate of sandwiches in for lunch and a brief conversation. When she didn’t respond, he left the plate on the table beside her, quietly slinking out. Twilight didn’t touch them.

She had more important things to do than eat.

Comments

[TanjaSolaris]

You know I am kinda wondering why you choose Trixie to be the one cursed for Twillight. I figure Spike would have been a more natural choice

[PonyDragon]

This story hits right in the feels.

I'm just leaving this here:

[Doctor Disco]

Everybody knows that everybody dies.

But Twilight is going to try anyways, isn't she? Good on ya, Twilight!

8143188 You never know what may happen Her tinkering with the curse might accelerate it!

[abphinsom]

8143013 Well it seems to me to be a mistake on the part of the caster, with the exception that perhaps Twilight feels even more guilty because she's not actually all that close to Trixie, and yet she was picked anyways.

[OminousBrony]

8143013
Dragons live for thousands of years if something like a nap can be 100 years long. Would be kinda hard to steal that many years from one being.

[Yami Vizzini]

Well, curious to see where this will go. Kind of funny to see Applejack and Trixie have the same "impossible" thought about Twilight.

[The_Foreman]

My first thought is make some clones. Its targeting who they will be, so it wont target an offshoot of who they are. This is incredibly nihilistic, but it could work. The spell might even accidentally target the clones, who knows.

As for why the spell targets Trixie, my guess is its targeting who will most devastate the mane 6 at the time of death without targeting any of the mane 6. Right now Trixie isn't much to Twilight. But because the spell is cast on Trixie, Trixie becomes more important to Twilight. This creates the assumption that its own casting is taken into consideration for the spell. Spike or any of her own family members wouldn't be surprising choices and it might also take that into consideration.

Quite frankly though, I think trying to follow that rabbit trail will lead to us doing more work than Starscribe thinking "Eh, Trixie is probably the better target"

[Oreng Pingvin]

what if you just die prematurely and then become the highest undead