Eternal Despair
Dark clouds hung over the normally peaceful and carefree town of Ponyville. The town had been flipped upside-down with the return of a certain azure unicorn. After making her grand return, she challenged the mare whom she blamed for her recent string of bad luck to a magic contest, Twilight Sparkle. The agreement was that the loser had to leave Ponyville forever. Thanks to the Alicorn Amulet, a mystical treasure that grants whoever possesses it enormous amounts of magical power, Trixie was successfully able to defeat her rival with little to no effort.
However, all great things come at a cost. In the end, some must learn the hard way that the price for greatness can sometimes be more than anypony can bear. The individual must then ask themselves, was it worth it?
In exchange for the almighty dark power that is granted, the current owner of the amulet will progressively become more and more power hungry. The owner of the amulet will quickly develop an addiction to their newly attained strength. If the amulet remains in the owner’s possession for too long, the host will eventually lose themselves to the artifact’s dark power.
Trixie ruled over Ponyville with an iron hoof. Those that didn’t follow her every command, to the letter, would find themselves on the receiving end of her amplified power.
The town’s folk were forced to build a private building specifically for their new ruler. Applejack had to give Trixie applesauce facials, Pinkie Pie, who had her mouth magically removed, was ordered to dance around for the unicorn’s amusement, and Flutter Shy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were forced to design and hang flags, which held Trixie’s face, all over the town. In a word, Trixie’s cruel magic was ruining Ponyville. She was holding the entire town captive, and there was nothing that could be done.
The miserable cries of Ponyville’s citizens were finally answered after Twilight made a triumphant return. Apparently, she had gotten her hooves on a magical amulet of her own. Twilight claimed that her amulet was far more powerful than Trixie’s could ever hope to be.
“An artifact stronger than the Alicorn Amulet? Horse apples!” The tyrannical ruler Ponyville thought to herself. “Ha! Nothing’s more powerful than the Alicorn Amulet and noponys more powerful than the GREAT-AND-POWERFUL-TRIXIE!” The arrogant mare was taken aback by Twilight’s retort.
“Care to put your amulet where your mouth is? How about another duel?”
There was no need to go another round against Twilight. She had her chance, and she failed. Another duel would only prove to be a waste of her time. It wouldn’t matter if Trixie gave her a second, third, fourth, or even a millionth chance. In the end, trash will always remain trash. “Why should I? I already beat you.”
“That’s up to you … but I guess you’ll never see the totally awesome magic from beyond the Everfree Forest. C’mon Zecora.” And with that, Twilight turned her back to Trixie and began her trot, back into the forest.
If it wasn’t for all of the corruption that had taken a firm grip on her mind, Trixie probably would have figured out that Twilight was up to something suspicious. The smart thing to do would have been to ignore Twilight and walk away, but the abnormal increase in her pride, thanks to the Alicorn Amulet, wouldn’t allow it. She wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to prove, yet again, who the superior magician was. Much to Twilight’s joy, Trixie fell for the bait like a ton of bricks.
“Wait!” Twilight stopped in her tracks as her “great and powerful” rival called after her. Trixie then called off the force-field that she had conjured around Ponyville. “Okay okay, you’re on! A second duel!”
Twilight grinned maliciously to Zecroa. Everything was going according to plan. She had Trixie hook, line, and sinker.
Beneath the dark skies of Ponyville, the stage for the final showdown had been set. All of its citizens were in attendance. Trixie would embarrass Twilight, in front of the whole town, for the second time that week. Perhaps the lavender mare would finally learn her lesson; all other unicorns are nothing but mere insects before the great and powerful one.
Since Trixie was the victor of the previous contest, it was only common courtesy for the winner to go first. “Let’s start with a simple aging spell, shall we?”
“Let’s!” barked Twilight.
“Snips! Snails!” The only two unicorns that ever believed in Trixie, even after Twilight exposed her as a fraud, rushed to the malevolent mare’s side.
With a single ruby red beam of magic that had been fired from her horn, the two idiotic school ponies were transformed into foals. “An oldie, but a goodie. Now, let’s see what your little charm can do!”
The time to cast down judgment had arrived.
“No problem. Applejack, Rarity, could you help me please?” Twilight’s two best friends had puzzled looks on their faces as they emerged from the crowd. Trixie didn’t look worried in the least. Whatever Twilight was about to do, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the quality of Trixie’s enhanced abilities. Actually, Trixie was expecting the clueless buffoon to screw up the spell just like the other day.
Twilight aimed at her two friends and fired a pink beam of magic. When the smoke cleared, just like Snips and Snails, they had been transformed into foals. Trixie’s jaw nearly fell to the ground. How could Twilight have improved her skills in such a short amount of time? Could she have been telling the truth about her amulet? No … This proved nothing. She needed to see more in order to come to a solid conclusion. “Oh, ho hum, so you can do an age spell, big deal.”
Twilight smiled and fired again, returning AJ and Rarity back to normal. After the smoke cleared from shot number three, child Rarity stood happily on top of AJ’s shoulders. After shot four, Rarity was her normal self, but AJ had been turned into an old mare. A final shot restored AJ’s youth.
“That … that’s impossible!” How was she doing this? Even with the help of the Alicorn Amulet, Trixie still needed to put some form of concentration into her spells, yet Twilight, with the aid of her mysterious new amulet, was executing such advanced leveled spells one after another, with barely any effort whatsoever. She wasn’t even breaking a sweat. Twilight wasn’t finished yet. She still had plenty of magic left in her reserves.
Trixie watched in horror as Twilight turned her attention to Rainbow Dash, and worked her magic yet again. When the smoke cleared there wasn’t one, but two Rainbow Dash’s. Duplication? Trixie didn’t even know that such a spell even existed!
The horror show didn’t end there … Twilight unleashed her magic for the umpteenth time, and fired at Pinkie pie. Trixie felt her blood run cold as the hyperactive earth-pony pranced around the area while playing ten instruments at once.
“Ooh, one more. I can turn a mare into a stallion!” said Twilight while staring at Applejack.
One flash of magic later and AJ had been turned into a towering, and well built, stallion. Seconds later, AJ’s gender had been corrected.
Time slowed to a standstill for Trixie, and the on looking crowd faded from existence. For what felt like hours, there was nothing in Ponyville except for Trixie, and her thoughts.
Even with the help of that amulet, it didn’t make sense for Twilight to be this powerful. She just couldn’t fathom how Twilight’s skills had improved so much. Trixie’s breathing became shallow as her heart started to race. Images of a proud magician turned public mockery came into her mind. She shivered from the memories of spending hours trying to wash the spray-painted insults from her show trailer, which doubled as a mobile home. Her muscles began to ache as she remembered the soreness in her body from having to spend day after day performing hard physical labor, just too barely make enough money to last through the rest of the week. There were times when she was forced to go days without eating, just so she could save up enough money to buy the very artifact that was currently failing her. How was this happening? The Alicorn Amulet was supposed to put a unicorn on par with the legendary dark unicorn, King Sombra, or so she had heard. She wouldn’t stand for this humiliation. Not again … not after her last visit to Ponyville. Trixie was shocked back into reality by her competitor, in this contest of who had the stronger amulet.
“Well Trixie, looks my amulet is more powerful than yours!”
To add insult to injury, that irritating, evil demon of a unicorn was gloating about how she currently had the upper hoof. That was the last straw. If she couldn’t outperform Twilight, then she’d simply make the lavender mare’s power her own.
“Hey! Give that back!” Shouted Twilight, as Trixie used telekinesis to steal Twilight’s emerald amulet.
Trixie started to laugh. At last, order was about to be restored! “With this amulet I shall now rule all of Equestria!”
Of course, Trixie didn’t really have any desire to seize control of the beautiful land. That was just the Amulet’s influence talking. Despite the dark confidence that Trixie was displaying on the outside, the magician was consumed by only one emotion. Fear. A boundless, and uncontrollable phobia of returning back to her old life. She’d do whatever was necessary if it meant that she wouldn’t have to go back to being a worthless fish in a body of water dominated by sharks and piranhas. Trixie ripped the amulet from her neck, immediately cutting off her bonus supply of magical power, and equipped Twilight’s artifact in its place.
Before Trixie could celebrate, one of the two Rainbowdash’s zipped from the air, and snatched the Alicorn Amulet. Oh, what did that matter? She’d moved on to bigger and better things. What need did she have for that old amulet anymore anyway?
Trixie fired a blast of lightning magic from her horn, with the intent of blasting the pegasus from the sky. It would be a beautiful display of her new power. In no time at all, her magic had successfully connected with the rainbow maned mare.
“Ahahahaha! Stop it! Hahahaha, that tickles!”
Huh? What? Did she just say … “that tickles”? She was supposed to be screaming in unbearable pain! Her blood was supposed to be splattered all over the town! That spell should have blasted her half way to Tartarus! Why was she laughing?! “This Amulet is defective! Give mine back!” shouted Trixie.
“Sorry,” Rainbow flew over to Zecora and surrendered the Alicorn Amulet. “This is going back into hiding where it belongs!”
“By the way Trixie,” said Twilight, “The amulet around your neck, it’s one of Zecora’s doorstops.”
The “all powerful amulet” that Twilight was using, fell to the ground and shattered. “No … this can’t be happening … not again … not after everything that I sacrificed just to get this far! This … this isn’t fair! How the Tartarus did she pull off those spells if that damn amulet was a good for nothing fake?!” Trixie’s body went numb, and she almost lost all feeling in her legs. She almost collapsed right then and there.
Twilight began explaining what happened to the visibly confused, failed magician. Twilight’s friends were in on it the whole time. When Rarity and AJ were transformed into foals, that was actually their younger siblings in disguise. The elder Applejack was actually her grandmother, Granny Smith. Male AJ was her older brother covered in orange paint, and the Rainbow Dash duplicate was actually another pegasus named “Fluttershy”.
“You mean to tell me that it was all smoke and mirrors the whole time?” asked a small child from within the crowd.
The extra input from the other citizens came in droves.
“Ha! Even with all that extra power, she still lost!”
“Wow, she’s pretty pathetic!”
“I can’t believe we were actually afraid of that useless unicorn!”
“Great and powerful Trixie my left flank cheek!”
“I wonder how tough she is without that amulet.”
“What a loser!”
“Five bits says she’s about to run away again!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“Ahahaha!”
“Hahahahaha!”
That laughter … it was the same merciless laughter that she had been subjected to each time she tried to perform before an audience, ever since the Ursa Minor incident last year.
Trixie couldn’t take it anymore. The feeling in her body returned, and she ran as fast as she could from Ponyville.
“Hey look, I was right!”
“Good-bye and good riddance!”
Even as her lungs began to burn within her chest, she still pressed forward. She could have probably given Applejack a run for her money during the running of the leaves event. Even after fleeing into Ponyville’s outskirts, Trixie still continued to run. She didn’t stop until she reached her mobile home.
Trixie found herself standing in front of the mirror that hung over the sink in her bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror silently. “How … how did this happen? For once … everything was going my way. I proved to everypony that Twilight was no match for the great and powerful Trixie. I had the whole town under my control for Celestia’s sake!” Trixie slammed her hoof down hard onto the sinks surface. How could that unicorn have sent her running away in shame for the second time in a row? “Revenge against the pony that ruined my life and get other ponies to take me seriously again … that’s all I wanted, dammit! Was that too much to ask?!”
Suddenly, Trixie’s reflection in the mirror changed. Trixie no longer saw herself; her image had been replaced by Twilight’s.
“Revenge against me? To be taken seriously? Please! You used the Alicorn Amulet to cheat the whole time, and you still lost! What a joke!”
“Shut-up …” whispered Trixie.
“Oh? Are your feelings hurt? What are you going to do next, cry like a foal?”
“I SAID SHUT-UP!” The unicorn, who was overcome with anger, slammed her hoof with all of her might, into the mirror.
Trixie’s punch had placed six large cracks in the mirror.
There were now half a dozen reflections staring back at Trixie, who was still seething with anger. One by one, each of Trixie’s six reflections turned into Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and then, as expected, the image of Twilight had reappeared. They were all smiling with satisfaction at their most recent victory.
“Hey, do you all wanna hear a riddle?” asked Pinkie. “What’s blue, sometimes refers to herself in third person, like a pony with autism, and couldn’t cast a decent spell if her life depended on it?”
“Oh … um … that’s an easy one! The great and powerful Trixie!” chirped Fluttershy in a mocking tone.
“I don’t know ‘bout great and powerful.” Applejack was fighting to hold back her laughter. “Did y’all see that spell she used on Rainbow?”
“Hahaha, yeah! Did she seriously think that she could hurt me with that?”
“I’m surprised that she thought that she could hurt anyone with those skills!” said Twilight. “I’ve never seen magic as pathetic as hers, and I make trips over to Canterlot’s magic kindergarten every now and then! I still can’t believe that she thought that fake amulet was the real deal!”
“Now that’s not very nice Twilight,” Rarity burst into hysterical laughter. “Even if it is true! Ha! I bet Sweetie Belle alone would have been more than enough to overpower that failed unicorn in that magic duel you just finished stomping her out in, and she doesn’t even have her cutie mark yet!”
“Great and Powerful Trixie? More like “The Weak and Retarded Trixie”!” laughed Fluttershy.
Trixie screamed like a manticore as she fired a spell at the mirror, which only reflected the spell back towards its enraged caster. Trixie was knocked onto her back by the force of her own attack. There were now black scorch marks and singed fur on her face from where she had gotten hit.
The evil reflections couldn’t stop laughing at what they had just seen. “Okay, just stop it now Trixie before you fall even lower on the pathetic list!” laughed Twilight. “Why don’t you do the world a favor and give up magic!”
That was the last straw. Trixie finally flipped her lid. She punched the mirror again and again and again. Broken glass, and blood from her cut flesh, spewed everywhere. Despite the sting in her legs, Trixie continued to attack the mirror. The imaginary reflections of Twilight and her friends had long since vanished, but she didn’t care. After awhile, Trixie calmed down enough to stop her attack. She took deep breaths as sweat dripped from her now messy and unkempt white mane. Trixie looked into what was left of the mirror once more, and what she saw disturbed her even more than Twilight’s image. Instead of Twilight and the others, she saw a failure. She saw a weak unicorn that would never be able to compete with anypony who showed signs of being even remotely decent in magic, let alone a prodigy like Twilight Sparkle herself. Due to all of the cracks in the mirror, Trixie could see her horrifying reflection from hundreds of different angles. It wasn’t just on the mirror, but she could also see her reflection in the shards that were scattered across the bathroom. Everywhere she turned, she was met with that same image. The images served as a reminder that she no longer had the right to call herself a unicorn. Her very existence was a disgrace to anything that could use magic.
That’s when Trixie heard it again, the laughter. Twilight and her friends, she could still hear them! The fuse had been relit. Trixie stomped around until she found a hammer from her tool kit. She always kept the hammer around, and a few nails handy, in case one of the wheels on her home fell off.
The unicorn slammed the tool against the remains of the mirror in the bathroom, until it fell off its hinges, but she didn’t stop there. She ran into the living room and attacked her tables, her chairs, her windows, dishes, the front door; anything that she laid her eyes on was fair game. All sorts of debris got sent flying. It looked as if her home had been hit by a tornado. Not even her book shelves were safe. She tipped them all over, and tore page after page from her spell books. She stopped her rampage after something caught her eye, the display case that held her old showmare uniform. Her famous purple cape and hat, both decorated with plastic objects that represented the mystery of the night sky.
She dropped the hammer and just stood there in silence. She reached into the case and pulled out her hat. She held it tightly in her hooves and walked outside. As she stood outside her home, still holding her cherished hat, she began to have flashbacks about how good her life had been, and how suddenly she had lost everything. She heard it again, Twilight’s voice. “Why don’t you do the world a favor and give up magic!” The hurtful message from her imagination replayed itself over and over like a broken record. A single tear fell from Trixie’s face as she made her decision.
She walked back inside her home, through her damaged front door. She put her hat back inside the display case. She wrapped herself inside a black cloak that had been stored inside of her closet. She enchanted her body with the strongest illusion spell that she knew. Now if anypony saw her, they’d see Trixie as an earth-pony and not a unicorn. Before leaving her home for good, and living the rest of her days in silent exile, she took one last look at the outfit she wore as “the Great and Powerful Trixie”. She took a final moment to reminisce about the days when she’d travel Equestria, dazzling whoever was willing to watch with her magical talent.
“Never again …” whispered Trxie, as she disappeared into the night.