RIse of the Dark One

by Fenris730

Deals with a Devil

Trixie wasn't sure what to make of the sight before her. Her mind wanted to pass it off as a delusion brought on by her drowsiness and drinking from earlier, but the fact that Puller was seeing it disproved this.
The two made there way into the crater slowly, taking in how huge the large metal craft in front of them.

"What… What is it?" Trixie spoke up, breaking the silence. Puller simply shook his head.

"Can't say I really know. I've never seen anything like it, Miss Trixie." He walked around it , eying it closely, as if expecting it to eat him at any moment. "I'm not even sure it's from this planet."

"Well of course it's from this planet, Puller, where the hay else would it be from?" Trixie growled. Puller just shook his head and pointed up at the stars.

"Out there miss."

Trixie looked up and only blinked. Her glance fell back down to the large metal carriage and this only added to her confusion. "Out there? You mean the stars? Please. How could this thing possible have come from the stars?"

"Aliens, Miss. As educated a pony you claim to be, you've ever heard of aliens?" Puller asked, staring at Trixie for a moment before a loud hum brought the attention of both ponies back to the ship. Before either could speak another word, a small entrance to the ship opened before them, forming a ramp. After a few moments of staring in silence at this new entrance, Puller started to trot forward inside.

"Wait! You're not actually going into that thing? Have you lost your mind?! What if this… alien... eats ponies? What if going in there is exactly what it wants you to do?!"

"Oh come on, how often do you get to explore a space carriage?" Puller said. Unable to argue with that logic Trixie growled and followed him in.

"Fine, but if Trixie gets eaten, she's blaming you!"

The inside of the carriage was huge. as they first entered they found themselves in a large dome shaped room that seemed to be filled with cells. Trixie shivered at the sight of them but Puller kept pressing on.

"Why would anyone need so many cells… " He muttered to himself. "Seems rather weird… Even more so that it seems like nopony's home. This place is emptier than that theatre you performed in 2 months ago." He ignored Trixie's scoff and glare.

"Well Somepony just lost a show's Pay!" she yelled at him, but he continued to ignore her as he examined one of the open cells.

"Trixie, doesn't it strike you as weird that nopony is here? At all?"

"No not really, maybe whatever was using this thing abandoned ship?" She asked

"Hmmm, Perhaps... we should look around some more. " Puller trotted on ahead, Trixie trailed behind rather slowly, still taking in the sight of how huge this place was. She was still trying to convince herself that this wasn't real and that any moment she would wake up in her bed and start another day.

"Trixie! Come here quick!" Trixie was snapped out of her train of thought as she heard puller yelling from another room. She ran to him as quickly as she could to see what the matter was.

She couldn't believe the sight before her. They were in a large room with several magical moving picture frames that all showed different places all over Equestria. Even more baffling is a few seemed to loop the same scenes over and over. In the middle of the room was a console of some kind with blinking lights. Trixie gulped loudly. She looked at one of the picture frames that showed Canterlot castle and another that showed Ponyvile.

"Puller, let's get out of here, Trixie does not feel safe in this thing…." Puller ignored her still as he trotted up to the console.

"I wonder what these buttons do…" He pushed a rather large one in the middle and jumped back as the ship seemed to jump to life. "Oops." Puller backed up more.

"What did you do?!" Trixie yelled as a large metal eye came down from the center of the room. It floated there for a moment, staring at the ponies for a moment before speaking in a metallic and monotone voice.

"Halt. State your name an business."

Puller swallowed before speaking up. "I… I am Puller sir, or ma'am, Puller Wagon. A Humble pony sir, or ma'am, nothing else. This is Trixie, my colleague and I were merely investigating the crash site of your vessel. I…"

"Silence…. Did you say pony?" The eye looked him up and down. "Yes you are defiantly Equine… as is your mate."

Trixie huffed in anger. "Trixie is NOT his mate! We can assure you of that."

"Well there was that one time in Las Pegas…."

"Shut up Puller! Trixie was drunk and we agreed never to speak of it…"

"ENOUGH!" The eye yelled. A gun slid out of the ceiling and fired what looked like a magic bolt at Puller, who swiftly dodged it. Looking down he saw a large scorch mark where he had been standing. "I do not care about your life stories, I only care about where i am! Tell me now, ponies. Is this Equestria?"

Both ponies could only nod slowly, eyes filled with fright.

"Excellent, I have returned at last." The eye shifted it's focus to the moving pictures. Puller walked up behind the eye cautiously and glanced at the pictures as he worked up the courage to speak.

"Um, Excuse me. But what do you mean 'returned'? I don't believe I've ever seen anything like all this before."

A large metal claw came out of the the eye and began to push buttons with slow and deliberate precision. "I ruled this world over a thousand years ago…. and now that I have returned I shall rule it again!"

"Not likely, Princess Celestia and the Elements of Harmony would stop you before you could try." Puller said with a laugh. At that moment the claw stopped its typing. As the silence grew the eye turned on him, glowing a deep red.

"The Elements of Harmony?! They still exist?!" The eye roared.

Puller swallowed hard, regretting those words, he none the less stood up proudly. He was proud to live as a pony under their protection and he wouldn't let any talking metal eyeball tell him otherwise.

"Yes… Yes sir, they do, and they are dedicated to eliminating anything that threatens Equestria!"

These were the poor stallion's last words. Without warning the gun fired at him, reducing Puller into a smoking pile of ash. Trixie watched the scene in shock and horror and cowered as the gun and eye turned on her. Trixie began to cower magnificently, but then heard the voice speaking to her.

"You! You will swear your allegiance to me and not those damned Elements of Harmony or this Celestia, or you will suffer the same fate as your friend! Is that understood?!"

"Crystal." Trixie squeaked out. Any thought of tears or even betrayal were gone.

"Good." The eye and claw went back to work.

"Your…Highness, May Trixie ask… What is Trixie to call you?" She trotted up to it cautiously keeping an eye on the gun that had just recently reduced her companion to a smoldering pile of what was once a pony.

"You will refer to me as…. The Dark One. Now I require you assistance, more of your kind approach."

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Applejack looked around at the sight before her with her jaw hanging open. Never in her life had she seen anything quite like the large metal Carriage that stood before her and her friends.

"Ya'all are seein' this, right?" She spoke up, breaking what had been a very long silence.

"I most certainly am. What in Equestria is it?" Rarity said, her mouth hanging open as well.

"Ah don't reckon ah rightly know. Tain't like nothin' ah've ever seen before." The orange pony looked up to the sky. "Came from up there, what ever it is." She looked behind them to see Fluttershy cowering behind a tree.

"Maybe… Maybe if we leave it alone it will go away?" The pegasus spoke up in what could barely be interpreted as a whimper.

"Not likely. Oh, if only Twilight were here, this spacey stuff is more her plate of oats than ours…" Rarity said, thinking out loud. "We should investigate, It's what she would do." She started trotting ahead of the others and disappeared inside the carriage. Applejack started to follow before turning to Fluttershy.

"Come along Fluttershy, tain't nothin' gonna getcha while ah'm here."

"Um… no thanks, I think I'll just stay out here and… keep watch … out here. Where it's safe and not in there…outside." Applejack rolled her eyes and trotted over to her friend, pushing her in by her flank.

"Come on now, Tain't nothin' to be scared of." Applejack wasn't sure herself if she was lying or not. Once inside, Applejack whistled loudly as she gazed at all the technology before them.

"Wouldya look at all these fancy do dads… This place must be years ahead of us…."

"Could use a serious redecoration though, It's so… dank…." Rarity said with a look of disgust on her face. "And has nopony aboard ever heard of cleaning or dusting? This place is absolutely filthy." She said as she stepped into a pile of ash, some of it getting in her fur. She groaned in disgust as she used her magic to sweep it away.

Fluttershy was trotting slowly behind her friends, her head hung low as she looked around cautiously. "Oh… We shouldn't be here… We shouldn't be here…." She plowed into AppleJack's flank not noticing her friends had stopped. In front of them was a pony, blue with a silver mane, she was laying on the ground, seemingly injured and unconscious.

"Is that… It can't be…."

"Trixie!" Rarity ran up to the unicorn on the ground and placed a hoof on her chest. "She's alive, but barely breathing. Trixie, can you hear me Trixie?"

The blue unicorn groaned in response. "Wha… Where am I?" he eyes opened wide a the sight of the white unicorn that was standing over her. "You?! What on earth are you doing to Trixie?!"

"It's called helping you dear, you look as though you've had a rather nasty argument with a manticore, whatever happened?"

"I… Trixie was investigating this metal carriage with her companion when we were ambushed by something… not of this world."

"Not of this world, Sugercube? Iffin ya don't mind me sayin' that sounds mighty fishy." Applejack trotted up to the console as Rarity was helping Trixie to her hooves. "Than again, nothin bout this place seems rightly proper." She mad her way over to the console and looked at it. "Hmmmm…." She was about to push a button when Trixie yelled at her to stop.

"NO DON'T! That's what Puller did before that.. thing up there shot him!" She pointed up at the gun.

The 3 ponies looked up to where she was pointing. "Well we can't just leave this thing here." Applejack said looking back at the console, ignoring Fluttershy muttering something along the lines of yes we can. "Iffin it's goin' 'round shootin' ponies we need ta figure out how to get rid of it. Girls see if ya'all can help me with this contraption." Rarity trotted up to the console and looked it over as well. Fluttershy reluctantly followed suit. Applejack pushed a button that caused everything to flicker to life.

"Trixie will… keep watch, in case something decides to attack."

"Yeah yeah whatever Trixie, kinda busy here." Applejack looked up at the screens around her, they showed Ponyville, Canterlot, Las Pegas, Cloudsdale, everywhere.

"This thing has been watchin' us… But why…" Before Applejack could get her answer, something hit her hard in the back of her head, with a loud crack.

"APPLEJACK!" Rarity jumped over to her friends side, only to be clonked hard upside the head by a large metal pole. Fluttershy gasped and turned quickly, shocked to see Trixie levitating the pole with her magic.

"Nighty Night, Fluttershy." Is all Trixie said before knocking the pegasus unconscious. Using her magic she lifted the three unconscious ponies out into the hall and threw each into the nearest cell. "It is done, master." She said, wiping a tear from her eye hoping The Dark One didn't see. "3 of the elements have been captured for study as you requested."

"Excellent, you have done well, my pet." The eye drone came down from the celling in the hall and it's claw ran through her mane, as if trying to pet her. "With their three friends missing no doubt the other 3 will come looking for them. But Our work is not done." It floated over to the console room and looked at the monitors. Trixie trotted behind it and listened to her new master's words.

"We must send out a message, to this… Ponyville. It will lure any pony who hears it to me. You will await in the hall to greet them to their… accommodations. In the meantime I will will begin reformatting our new guests."

"Re….Formatting sir?" Trixie was unsure of what this word meant.

"Yes. Reformatting." It noted her confusion and continued. "Brainwash them?" Trixie only blinked. "Make their memories go bye bye and make new ones?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Trixie knows what brainwashing is, she just doesn't understand why you need to."

"All in due time, my pet, All in due time, Now go watch over the cells. I have work to do."

With that Trixie turned and trotted out into the hall of cells. She let out a loud sigh. She looked around and made sure nopony (or metal eyes) could hear her before speaking. "Oh Trixie… What have you gotten yourself into…." She stepped outside of the ship for a moment and peered up at Luna's beautiful night sky. She wished she had a cigarette handy, but her packs were still in the carriage and she didn't dare go for them at this time. She sighed and smiled for a moment, she'd always admired the stars that Luna provided. They often made her mind wander as she got lost in their beauty.

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"Wha… What to you mean I can't join Celestia's school for gifted unicorns!" Filly Trixie asked looking up at the registration desk.

"I'm sorry kid, but the rules clearly state that you must have a parent or guardian present with you for the entrance exam, and as you can present neither there's just no place for you." The large pony behind the desk said to the little filly before her with little to no remorse.

"But… But I'm an orphan! I have no one TO be there with me. Can't you make an exception? Please?" The little filly tried her best to look extra cute.

"Security, there's a rather annoying pest out here that needs to be removed." The desk pony said pushing a button.

"Don't bother, I know when I'm not wanted… believe me…." She hoped down off the chair she was on and headed for the door. She watched as a family of unicorns were saying their goodbyes to their daughter, a purple filly, who was no doubt starting her first year at the school.

"We are so proud of you, Twilight. Now you behave yourself and mind everything Miss Celestia tells you."

"I will mommy." The purple filly said, nuzzling her mother.

"And don't forget to write, young lady." The father nuzzled her as well.

"I won't daddy." The filly began to get tears in her eyes as she said the last of her goodbyes to her parents before trotting off in Trixie's direction. The filly quickly wiped her tears and smiled "Hi! I'm Twilight Sparkle. Are you a student here too?"

Trixie shook her head. "No. They wouldn't let me in. I'm Trixie."

"Nice to meet you Trixie. Sorry you couldn't get in. But don't let that discourage you, Celestia told me not all unicorns get accepted in on their first attempt, I'm sure you'll be great and powerful someday."

"Yes. I'm sure I will. Well… good luck I guess." She trotted out the door as the purple filly went bounding off into the halls of the school. Trixie turned and watched her disappear. A tear rolling down her eyes. That could have ben her first friend in the world if she'd gotten in….

"Who needs friends?" Trixie told herself as she left the school grounds. Never to return.

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Trixie looked away from the stars as her eyes swelled up with tears. "Who needs friends?" She asked herself. She turned and trotted into the chip and looked around at everything around her, than to the cell that held the unconscious form of AppleJack, Fluttershy and Rarity. Her mouth formed into an evil grin, looking at the two ponies she'd humiliated back in Ponyville and their pegasus friend. "When you can make a deal with a devil, and gain power that way?" Laughing she trotted off to begin her duties as she heard the arrival of more ponies.