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Prologue990 words
Zero Hour1,291 words
Broken Reflection1,223 words
Venom1,338 words
My Enemy's Enemy1,311 words
Afraid of the Dark1,137 words
The Brightest Hour1,612 words
Of My Darkest Day1,529 words
Revenge and Vengeance1,211 words
Fear, Chaos and Pain1,621 words
Two Masks, One Grave1,594 words

The Brightest Hour

The black void was endless before me. I felt weightless as I hung in the void, nothing but space in all directions. I looked down at myself and saw I was still in costume. In my dreams, I wasn't Trixie. I wasn't myself. I was Mare Do Well. I screamed, not in terror, but in frustration. I hated this costume. I hated it with every possible fiber of my being. It ruined my life, it drove my friends from me and made me distant from my coltfriend. I bit at it, but realized my mask was on too. I screamed again in frustration and glared angrily at my costume.

I suddenly was in my apartment. I was all alone in bed, just sitting there. I heard hoof beats approaching and I tensed. I lived alone. The hoof beats continued and I waited. The figure making the noise rounded the door and my chest clenched. A brilliant blue stallion rounded the doorway. He had a snow white mane and tail with crystal blue irises. He was a pegasus and three puffy white clouds overlaped on his flank. "Strattos..." I whispered awestruck. He grinned at me and trotted over without a word. I closed my eyes and felt a tear start to run down my cheek. When I opened them, I didn't see Strattos anymore. I saw rows of needle teeth and an insanely long tongue.

I pulled myself up and screamed in more terror than I ever had. Losing control of my body, I flailed around and kicked up several layers of blankets as well as stretching out several joints that clearly did not want to. I wailed in pain as my injuries took their toll and a door burst open. Several ponies rushed inside and began to try and restrain me, pinning my legs down as two of them administered a smelly herbal concoction to my legs and chest. I breathed heavily and tried to fight back, but slowly began to realize they were doctors. I relaxed and soon noticed the herbal stuff was the same paste I used at home. It made me wary though, since only a handful of ponies knew how to make that.

"Enough." came a voice both regal and familiar. The medical ponies released me and backed away. "She is calm now. Be on your way." the voice said again. As one, the ponies filed out of the room, leaving only me and the unmistakable silhouette of an alicorn. The light dimmed in the room and I felt a lump form in my throat. I had seen this many times before. "P-p-princess Luna?" I tried to say, but my voice came out unusually scratchy and rough. My throat burned from the use of my voice and the alicorn held a hoof up. "Save your voice, my little pony. You will need it later." she said in her stern but kindly manner. She walked forward and I sunk slightly into the bed I was in.

She was just as regal and pretty as I remembered her. The sparkles in her midnight blue mane, her gentle smile and eyes that both reassured and scared me. My mentor, Princess Luna, walked over the side of my bed and said "I do not mean you harm, Trixie. I do have questions that need answering, though." She almost always never beat around the bush and went straight for the problem, but before she asked her questions, she reared up and hugged me. I sat there limply before finally getting the courage to embrace her as well. "Oh, my dear student. I was so worried about you. I could hear you screaming from those nightmares from across the castle." she said in a motherly tone. She hugged me tighter and continued. "All those horrible dreams. I had never been so scared for you in my life."

I kept hugging her and felt tears well up in my eyes. My chest felt like it was imploding as I listened to her. Luna had cared for me since she found me being picked on by schoolyard bullies and I felt more attached to her than even my own parents. They had died a long while ago and I was alone in graduate school when she returned. She found me and took me in, giving me a home when I had none. There was no way to repay her kindness and her words cut me to my core. The mare I viewed as my mother was so upset for me and I burst into tears.

I cried for what felt like hours and she kept me close, gently rubbing my back. I tried to work out several apologies to her, but they came out as garbled sobs. She simply shushed me and kept me in her hooves. When I could finally compose myself, she let go and stared into my eyes. She had been crying too, but I hadn't been able to tell. She reached up and stroked my mane out of my face and said "What happened to you? You haven't written or visited in months and I find you in a costume nearly dead and being eaten by that... thing. What happened, my star pupil?" I gulped and said "I was trying to stop him."

"Why, though? He nearly killed you. I saw him try to eat you!" she said in a slightly exasperated tone. I took a deep breath and said "Because... it's my job." Luna shook her head and said "No it isn't. It's the Royal Guards job to apprehend such a monster." I shook my head and said "You don't understand. He wants me, not just to be caught. He has followed me. I can't explain it, but he wants me and just me." Luna gave me a puzzled look and said "Does it have something to do with this?"

I turned my head and saw my purple Mare Do Well hat levitate over to us. My heart sank and I didn't reply. Luna gave me a concerned look and said "Trixie, why were you wearing this costume? Were you trying to play superhero or something?" I looked down and said "I wasn't trying." Luna's expression became unreadable and she said "What do you mean by that?" Without looking up, I shook my head. "For the past three years, I've been going around Manehatten at night and breaking up crime rings. I use that costume to make me become something other than boring old Trixie. It makes me feel... alive." Luna raised her head and said "Why do this, though? Why risk hurting yourself?"

She had just barely finished her question when I burst out "Because I hate being Trixie!" Silence filled the air and I felt new tears run down my cheeks. "Because... because I hate my life. Ever since that Twilight Sparkle beat me twice, I can't stand to look at myself. I'm a failure, a failure to myself and to you. I thought I could do good as Mare Do Well, but it destroyed my life." I choked out. I had never said that before and for some reason, it felt good. I wanted to continue and Princess Luna stayed quiet. "I did it during a Nightmare Night a couple years back. Some mare was getting mugged and I helped her. I felt alive as I did. Ever since then, I couldn't stop."

"Did anypony notice you doing this?" Luna asked calmly. I shook my head and said "No. Well, yeah actually. All of my friends stopped talking to me when I went out to stop crimes instead of going clubbing with them. Then..." I choked up there. Luna leaned in closer and said "What happened with Strattos?" She knew of my former coltfriend since we met in Canterlot and moved to Manehatten after he graduated college. "He... he..." I couldn't bear to finish the sentence before I sobbed loudly. "He cheated on me and then left!" I yelled. All the unpleasant memories of him I had repressed flooded back to me, causing me to sob like a filly. Luna reached out a hoof and rubbed my head as I cried. "What happened?" she whispered softly. I suppressed my sobbing and forced it out. "I was out being Mare Do Well one night and I came back home early. I snuck into the apartment and heard a commotion. Strattos was grunting and I thought he was in a fight, so I ran to help him. When I busted open the bedroom door, he and some ugly pegasus were..."

I couldn't finish that sentence before sobbing again. That horrible memory made me relive my emotions of that day. All my anger, sorrow and rage had finally broken loose in front of my adoptive mother. I had never felt more betrayed than I had when I saw the two of them together. He had looked happy with her, some expression I had never seen when he was with me. I had made love to him more than once, but he never looked like that to me. Why was she so special? What did that damn tramp have that I didn't?

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