“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
The mare formerly known as The Great and Powerful Trixie stomped forward through the seemingly endless forest, her anger the only thing left to fuel her drive to press on. Her unkept mane fell haphazardly across her face, constantly making her try to blow it away in a futile attempt to avoid any further amounts of irritation. She had no carriage, no bits, no saddlebags, not even any clothes to help keep her warm throughout the night. But the possibility of freezing was not found with Trixie, instead, she was more likely to ignite from the inside out from the burning rage she was consumed by.
“I will get that stupid colt,” she seethed, her face twisted into a painful scowl. “And I will get Twilight Sparkle, too! She is the cause of all of this!”
After Trixie’s run-in with the town of Ponyville, and more importantly the local librarian, Twilight Sparkle, Trixie had made it her life’s goal to finding a source of power that would allow her to reach new heights, and be able to return to the village and challenge that accursed unicorn to a Magical Duel. Although Trixie loathed the thought, she knew deep down that Sparkle had more magical power than her, which only served to fuel her desire to best her.
Throughout the past few months she had gone from town to town, city to city, scrounging up whatever she could in order to not only get her bye, but to also build up enough bits to buy out some powerful artifact that she knew was out there waiting for her. During her last visit to the city of Hoofington, she had gotten a tip from some wandering unicorn gypsy that there was a strange and powerful artifact lying within the forest neighboring the city. While at first Trixie was incredibly skeptical of such a claim, the promise of a map and detailed descriptions the gypsy offered chewed away at her resolve until she finally gave in. For a measly 50 bits (all the bits to Trixie’s name at the time), the gypsy had produced the promise map, a description of the artifact, as well as the tale to how he came across it.
Trixie was pleased at first, assuming the entire story to be legitimate, and even becoming excited at the idea of finding the powerful artifact. The gypsy described it as a sort of rough stone that had the color of blood, and seemed to suck the light away from its surroundings. A “shadow stone” he named it, going on further to say that he was too scared to come close, let alone touch the thing. His story left Trixie excited, ecstatic even. She felt giddy as she floated the map in front of her when she first plunged into the forest, and couldn’t suppress the smile she wore the entire way there.
But now, any bit of elation she felt had reversed on her, turning swiftly into rage upon discovering that the stone was nowhere to be found. The map had led her directly into the heart of the forest, and though it did lead to a rather peculiar clearing, there was no stone to be found, nor was there any magical trace of its existence. It was at that point that Trixie remembered exactly why gypsy’s are famous... and decided at that moment to loathe the existence of every single one.
She was cheated out of her money, her time, and her energy for the twisted gains of some low-life con artist. Twilight Sparkle was #1 on her list of targets, but the particular pony that led her on this wild goose hunt quickly became a very close #2.
“How dare those measly little ingrates try to make Trixie look like a fool!” she continued on, eyes glaring side to side. Her stomach began to groan loudly, but she paid no heed. “Trixie will become great, Trixie WILL become powerful, and when she does, Trixie will make all of the ponies who dared to attempt to sabotage her attempts kneel before her after her total victory over them!”
Trixie continued on, her course taking her through another small clearing like the one she had been led to earlier. Despite this, it still appeared to be still under the shadow of trees, but again, Trixie paid no heed.
“Ooh Trixie can't wait to see the looks on their faces when she defeats them!” she continued as she stomped forward, her eyes focused straight ahead as her body sluggishly pressed forward, moving in autopilot. “Trixie will win, Trixie ALWAYS wins, Trixie will- Wah!”
Something caught on Trixie’s hoof, making her fall forward onto her face with a loud yelp. As her body laid on the grass, Trixie could feel the anger in her evaporate as her mind began processing her situation.
She was alone, homeless, tired, hungry, didn’t have a bit to her name, and above all else, she was defeated. She had been defeated by Twilight Sparkle, she had been tricked by the gypsy, and only then could she really let the reality of her situation sink in. Nopony was coming to help her, and there was nopony she could go to for aid. She didn’t have any friends, only enemies, and there was nothing she could use to help her. The saddlebags on her sides were completely empty, save for the bits of dirt or leaves that had fallen in and never got cleaned out. There were bits of plant stuck in her mane and on her coat, as well as the thick stench of body odor that comes along with not taking a shower for an extended period of time.
Hatred dissolved into sadness, sadness led her to whimper, and whimpering eventually coaxed her into crying. She laid still on the forest floor, her body only moving from her uneven breaths. The tears running down her cheeks picked up dirt and muck as they slid down her coat, eventually dropping onto the grass below as dirty gray blobs. Her hooves didn’t even come to her eyes to try to wipe away her tears or cover her face, for there was nopony around to try and cover herself from.
In the end, there wasn’t anypony to help, anything she could do to help herself, and no way out of the endless pit she dug herself. She had a name almost everywhere she went, and who would hire somepony as rude and boastful as her, who lied about her own adventures? What kind of pony would be willing to do her a favor, such as give them a room or a bed to sleep in until she got back on her hooves? There was nopony, she had exhausted her options. And as she laid there crying her eyes out, the worst realization eventually hit her.
She was going to die one day, just like she was now, alone and depressed with nopony to turn to. She would not be remembered, she would never have a family, and she would never live up to anything. She was done, finished, at the end of her road.
And yet her mind would not let her stop. The deepest parts of her subconscious still told her that she had to be great, that she had to be powerful, and that nopony could stop her. As she opened her eyes and began taking in her surroundings, she realized the one thing she had left in the world…
Her life. And in order to keep it, she had to get desperate.
Anything would do for her, and possible way to help get some leverage on the world. Her eyes scanned the trees and bushes around her as she began to get back on her hooves, tears still falling but lacking the sounds from her troubled breathing. She knew she had hit rock bottom, but the Great and Powerful Trixie would never quit. She could get desperate, yes, but she couldn’t stop, not now, not ever.
There was a kindle of hope within her heart, barely kept going by the fog of desperation that took up what space was left. She began turning around, scanning high and low for nothing in particular, just hoping that maybe she could see something to use for anything she could think of. Maybe she could use the branches and leaves to begin making a little hovel, or perhaps she could find a dead tree she could hollow out. She once heard of a zebra that did just that, and she turned out fine, right? Maybe there were some berry bushes nearby for food, or some rocks to make a fire pit. In fact, she was pretty sure the little thing she tripped over was a-
Is that...
For a few moments, there was not a single thought passing through Trixie's mind as she stared in bewilderment at the object before her. Her began to move as if she was trying to form words, but the lack of mental processing kept any words from surfacing. Her hooves twitches, and a few muscles tensed, but the lack of further movement was due to the same reason as before. She simply couldn't believe it, and almost refused to believe that she was seeing correctly. Her eyes blinks rapidly, and her first motion was to rub at her eyes, thinking that something had gotten in them and was impairing her vision, making her see things.
But as she stared again at the space she was just focused on, there was no question. She leaned closer to the object, examining it closely as the memory of the gypsy's description passed through her mind. Before her was a rough, unevenly shaped stone colored a bright crimson, just like the description. When her eyes scanned around the stone, she noticed the dirt and grass around seemed to look as if they had fallen under a shadow, yet they were in the middle of a clearing with the sun nearly at its peak in the sky. And then it hit her...
“Shadow Stone,” Trixie said aloud as her mind recalled the name the gypsy had granted it.
Her hoof, as if moving on its own, slowly reached over and tapped at the object, noticing how the tip of her hoof became slightly darker when in direct contact with the thing. She pulled her hoof away, and in contrast it brightened up slightly, while still unnaturally darker than it should be with the sun overhead. Her brow furrowed, and wondered what kinda of enchantment was placed on the stone in order for it to act that way, or if it did anything else. Her mind briefly ran over a few of the possibilities of what she could do with an artifact of great power, but she kept her optimism at bay until she could figure out if it was truly powerful or not. Thinking of a quick, easy spell to scan for enchantments, Trixie fired up her horn and unleashed the spell.
The moment her magic touched the stone, however, something happened. An unseen force connected to her through her magic, something she couldn't see or feel, only sense through her own magical awareness, something coming from the stone. The magic she fed into the spell that connected with the stone seemed to have triggered a connection right back with her, briefly flushing its own magic in through her horn while implanting bits of mental processes into her brain. The action was so quick and vicious that is scared Trixie, who worried that perhaps the stone was designed to suck the magic, or even the life out of anypony who comes across it.
But as her nerves calmed and she assessed herself and her own magical reserves, she realized she wasn't actually missing any of her own magic. In fact, it felt as if her reserves had grown just slightly. It was odd though, there was a certain taint to her magic, similar to the result of a bit of food coloring being dropped into a bowl of water. The effect was not large, yet still... noticeable, if only slightly.
Trixie stared intently at the stone, wondering if she should attempt such a move again, or if she should simply leave it be. What bit of information she was able to gather from the object was that it was indeed laced with power, though not as if it had been enchanted by another pony. It felt like a piece to a puzzle, only a fragment of what it should be. And yet, the magic she discovered within the stone was... incredible.
She wasn't able to detect exactly how much magic resided within the stone, mainly due to her scan being interrupted, but she was able to catch a glimpse, and that glimpse showed her more magic than she had ever seen with any enchanted item she had examined in the past. It was exactly what the gypsy had promised, a shadow stone, a truly powerful artifact that could pave the way for her great uprising.
“This... this is it,” Trixie whispered, taking hold of the stone with her magic. It once more began flowing its magic into hers, yet she did not fret. Instead, she welcomed the addition to her own reserves, knowing it would only aid her down the road. The pool of energy she was drawing from was immense, and showed no sign of stopping from when she had first grabbed hold of it. If anything, it seemed to only increase its flow the longer her magic interacted with it.
“This is what Trixie shall use to return glory to her name,” she began again, speaking out as if she was making an announcement. “This is what shall help Trixie become great, this is what shall help her become powerful, and THIS is what she shall use to get her revenge on the ponies that tried to make her a fool!” At that, she made a mental note to remove the gypsy from her list of ponies to get revenge on.
As Trixie began walking once more through the forest, the shadow stone firmly in her magical grip and still feeding her energy, she couldn't help but begin to think of what she could do with this seemingly exotic type of magic. The more she thought about it, and the more magic flowed into her, some ideas began appearing into her mind, as if on their own. Formulas and equations for spells, or several spells linked to one major one. Was the stone trying to tell her something? She didn't exactly know, however, another idea formed inside of her mind just at that moment.
In a quiet whisper, as if afraid somepony would hear her, Trixie muttered,“I wonder if I could use this stone to perform a summoning...”
As Trixie cantered away from the forest clearing, another figure stood in the exact spot she occupied upon discovering the shadow stone. It stood on two hairless legs, its purple body towering to twice the height of a normal pony. It wore nothing other than a sash around its waist and some armored plates around its arms, and only carried an odd mace in its right hand, seeming to gently pulse with a strange green energy. It stood upright, its arms falling to either side from a pair of shoulders supporting its head. And on that head that was shaped like a hammerhead shark, there was only a flat mouth above the chin, with a dark line stretching up to its forehead to make a small diamond. There were no eyes, no nose, no hair, no facial features for it at all.
“Hmm,” the faceless creature began, its voice echoing strangely, as if there were 5 others of it saying the exact same thing milliseconds apart. “It seems the time has come...”
After another moment the being swung its mace, and its body shifted itself out of existence.
