The Magic of Animosity

Trixie woke up to the shaking of her shoulder.  Opening her eyes and uttering a soft moan, she realized her face was planted into the dirt ground.  She quickly picked herself up and dusted herself off, then noticed the mare that had woke her up.

“What is it you want?” Trixie sneered.

The pony gave Trixie a mixed look between confusion and concern.  “We’re getting everypony together at the Sheriff’s office,” she began to walk in its direction and turned back to Trixie, motioning the way to go, “come on!”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need to associate herself with the common folk of this town,” Trixie said with an air of arrogance, “she is far too sophisticated for that.”

The other mare cocked an eyebrow at Trixie in tired sarcasm.  “Your face was halfway in the dirt a moment ago,” she said flatly.

“Never mind that!” Trixie quickly interjected.  Actually, on that note, why had she been sleeping on the ground like that, she wondered?  But after taking a second look around her, she suddenly remembered what had happened that made her faint.

The black walls were surrounding the town of Appleloosa, enclosing it in a snug cube.  Trixie still couldn’t believe what she had witnessed, and she was devastated once she realized it wasn’t all a dream.

Trixie turned to the pony that had woke her up, “That was all real?!  The cloud, the lights, the black things, all of it?!”

The mare slowly nodded her head.  Trixie fell into a sit in disbelief.

“A unicorn has taken charge an’ is currently taking care of this whole mess, more or less,” the mare said to Trixie.

Trixie turned her head sharply.  “A purple unicorn?” she asked.  The mare nodded, and Trixie let out a loud “hah!” before walking the opposite direction.  “I don’t need her to tell me what to do!” Trixie called out from behind her.

“It’s not like you have anywhere else to go, so you may as well come along,” the mare offered.

“Feh!” Trixie huffed, “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need somepony else’s help—I’ll take care of this entire thing myself!  I’ll find my own way out of this mess!”

Trixie began to walk out to the closest edge of the box that was surrounding the town.  The perimeter was surprisingly large, compared to the size of Appleloosa, that is.  The whole town covered only a fraction of the entire ground surrounded by the dark walls.  It took Trixie a while, but she eventually reached the end of a side, and was face-to-face with the black wall—and face-to-face with her reflection in its surface.  She was reluctant to touch it; just what the heck was it, anyways?  But, she came all this way, so she may as well…

Trixie tapped a hoof onto the wall, and it didn’t even budge.  She pushed harder on it, then began hitting it, and then punching it, but nothing happened.  Physical attacks weren’t doing a thing to this dark barrier; it was time to bring out the big guns, Trixie thought—or rather, the big magic.  Backing up a few feet, Trixie glared at the wall in front of her; she began to focus all her strength into her horn, making it glow intensely.  She was prepared to blast a hole right through the wall, no matter how strong or thick it may be.  It was going to be an all-or-nothing shot, as she was attempting to use as much of her magic as she could to deliver a powerful blow.  After pooling as much power as she could into her horn, and her horn was glowing a bright azure, she let it loose to bring the attack upon the barricade before her.  A massive blue fireball shot out the tip of her horn and exploded when it made impact with the wall, flinging Trixie back several feet; though she may not look it, she was a very powerful unicorn, yet undoubtedly not as powerful as certain others (Twilight Sparkle).  Trixie couldn’t see the effect of her attack immediately because of the dust that was thrown up into the air.  Getting up from the ground, and letting the dust settle, Trixie waited to see the fruits of her labor.  But what she ended up seeing wasn’t at all what she had expected.

The wall was untouched, and pristine.  Not only that, but the explosion had tossed up a couple feet of dirt directly beneath it, and Trixie could see that the barrier continued downwards into the ground.  Digging beneath the wall hadn’t even occurred to her before, but now that she saw this, the idea shriveled away.  Frantically, desperately, she began to dig at the already loosened soil, hoping that she would see a point in which the darkness stopped, and a path to the outside began; there was no such point.  Instead, the barrier continued for as long as she dug, and after a couple of minutes of burrowing Trixie gave up, knowing that trying to dig her way out was useless.  Feeling completely defeated, Trixie trudged back to Appleloosa to join with the rest of the civilians stuck in the same situation she was.

As she walked away, she didn’t notice the pair of pupil-less white eyes that were watching her from inside the dark veil.

The entire population of Appleloosa was scrunched into the area directly in front of and around the Sheriff’s office, the designated meeting area from Twilight Sparkle.  A podium had been dragged out from a storage closet in front of the Sheriff’s building, with PaulaRed standing in front of it and glancing out to the audience, taking a quick head count to see how many civilians had come along.

“Alright, everypony, settle down now!” Paula yelled from a pedestal to the crowd gathered around the outside of the Sheriff’s office.  “Twah’light Sparkle’s got some stuff she’s gotta tell us!”

The entire town hushed down as they watched Paula back away and Twilight walk to the pedestal—slowly, and with a sad look on her face.  It was one of Twilight’s worst days, she could easily say that, but just because she was extremely strained didn’t mean that she shouldn’t try to help the rest of the town.

“As I’m sure you’re all very well aware of,” Twilight began, “there’s been some sort of barrier formed around the entire town.”

The crowd erupted, everyone suddenly talking at once.

“ATTENTION!” Braeburn yelled at everyone.  The noise died down again.

“Thanks, Braeburn,” Twilight said to the colt, and then turned back to the crowd.  “Now, I have no idea what this is or why it’s happening, but obviously we must do something about it.”

Everyone spoke up again, but this time in one unanimous “YEAH!”

“Honestly, I can’t think of a single reason why anyone or anything would go and cut off an entire town from the rest of the world, nor do I know how this was able to be done, but we’re going to find a way out of here.  If all else fails, I’m sure it won’t take long for wind of this to reach Princess Celestia, and she’ll be able to do something about it.  In the meantime, however,” Twilight glanced across the crowd, “We will all have to work together, and above all else, keep calm; I cannot stress this enough, everypony.  Flipping the town upside-down in a frenzy will not get us anywhere, so until we come up with a plan on just how to get out of this place, we’re going to have to ask you all to keep about your daily routine; I know this is a bit much to ask for, but there really are no other options at the moment.”  Stepping down from the pedestal, Twilight motioned to PaulaRed.  Paula took the cue and walked up to the podium again.

“A’right, everypony,” she began, “I think y’all should take Twi’s words to heart as we work together to solve this mess.  Twilight, Braeburn and I are all gonna be havin’ ourselves a brainstormin’ session here inside the Sheriff’s office; if anypony has any ideas to contribute or otherwise, we’d be much obliged.  Also, I should note that Sheriff Silverstar hasn’t been seen since this mornin’, and he’s most likely outside’a the barrier righ’ now.  News of our little predicament here will not take long t’ reach the Princess, ah’m sure.  Meetin’ adjourned.”

Everyone stood still for a moment afterward, each pony looking around at everyone else around them.  After a few concerned looks and awkward silences, the crowd began to disperse, and everyone tried their best as they continued their daily activities whilst ignoring the black border around their town that was blocking off the blue sky and sandy horizon.

“This is ridiculous!” Trixie muttered to herself as she slowly walked back to Appleloosa, dragging her hooves across the dry dirt floor, “And just my luck, too!  Give me fifteen minutes, and I would have been out of this stupid town right now!  Instead, I’m stuck here in this town of simpletons; it’s one thing if they revered and respected me, but now that that unicorn,” Trixie said ‘unicorn’ with gritted teeth, “has followed me here to defame me some more, everypony doubts the power and ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Sure, Trixie could certainly show off with the kinds of magic like what she had just used against the wall, but if she would, it would be a one-move performance—Trixie didn’t have the kind of stamina to use such powerful spells in rapid succession.

When Trixie reached shouting distance of Appleloosa’s outskirts, she sighed loudly and collapsed onto the ground.  “Whyyyy…This is simply awful!  And just why the hay is this all happening, anyways?” she asked aloud.

An Appleloosa resident noticed Trixie from the distance and walked up to her.  “So, how’d ‘handling the entire thing’ go for ya?”

Trixie jerked her head up and noticed that it was the same mare that had woken her up earlier.  “Leave the Great and Powerful Trixie!  She does not need you to patronize her!”

“Hey, we’re all friends here,” the mare replied kindly, trying to open up to the unicorn.  She offered a hoof out in front of Trixie.  Trixie sighed loudly and grabbed it as the mare helped her back up.

“Thanks…” Trixie huffed underneath her breath.

As both the ponies began to walk back into town, each stopped suddenly.  Their ears perked up, and they stood completely motionless.  After a few seconds, they turned around to look at the source of the strange sound they were hearing.  Their eyes nearly bugged out of their heads when they saw what the source of the sound was.

Bubbling out from the cracks in the dirt was a black mass; completely undefinable, save for the two pure-white circles blinking at them, what Trixie and the mare could only assume were the thing’s eyes.

The shape continued to rise from the ground, staring at the two ponies.  Its body seemed to consist of the kind of goop you’d see being mixed in a witch’s cauldron.  The black form was literally bubbling out of the ground, as if there were an unseen vein of oil that had just sprung below.  Apparently fully raised from the ground, standing as high as the ponies that it was looking at, the bulk stood motionless a few yards from the two ponies; it a murky pile of black slime that was staring intensely at them, and it didn’t have any emotion in its eyes, nor did it say anything to the ponies.  Then abruptly, the mass suddenly began to change shape; Trixie and the mare flinch a few inches backwards.  As the gunk that made up its body shifted, pieces of it continued to bubble upwards, small spheres of total black fizzing off the surface of the thing and dissipating in the air.  It continued to stare, at Trixie specifically, and the two ponies watching were shocked when the mass had finished its transformation.

What was a pile of dark slop a few moments ago now had a perfect profile of Trixie, an exact copy had it not been completely colored black.  Trixie stood, dumbfounded at this thing.  What was it?  Why did it copy her?

Then, without warning, the fake-Trixie lunged at the real one, and Trixie managed to dodge to the side just as the thing nearly touched her.  It stood motionless again, and slowly turned its head to the side to stare at the blue unicorn for another few seconds.  Trixie could only stare back in horror, and the mare accompanying her fell to the ground, paralyzed with shock.  The black mass squinted at Trixie again, knelt down a few inches, and dove at her again.  Trixie preempted the second attack, and quickly dodged the creature, along with giving a swift kick of the back of her hoof square in the being’s head.  The impact sent its head spinning freely on its shoulders, like a greased gear on a piston.  As the black beast’s head slowed and it regained its bearings, it looked at Trixie again.  Trixie took a battle stance, and the creature appeared to back off; it then looked over to the other mare, who only looked back in fear.  The thing decided to go for Trixie’s company instead, and jumped towards her.

“DON’T LET IT TOUCH YOU!!” Trixie yelled at mare, whose name she had never even learned.  Unfortunately, her warning fell on deaf ears, and the mare instead cowered behind her arms in hopes that it would deter the monster from coming at her.

The bubbling mass impacted her, and its body began to shape-shift again, this time overtaking her body; the black slime quickly coated every square inch of her skin, hair and face.  She never even had a chance to scream before being covered by the creature’s form.  Trixie looked on in dismay as the new pony rose up, the same white eyes as before staring back at her.  Trixie took the battle stance again, but the creature didn’t attack this time; instead, it continued to look on, practically paying no mind to her, and instead appearing preoccupied with something else, going on internally.  Unfortunately for it, though, Trixie wasn’t going to let it continue uninterrupted.

“YOU…!” Trixie screamed at it, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!?  If you think The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to let you attack her, and then possess some Appleloosian, then you’ve got another thing coming!”  With that, Trixie gathered any and all lingering magic back into her horn.  Only minutes ago, she’d performed a very powerful attack, and she herself wasn’t even sure if she was going to be able to produce any powerful spells, but she couldn’t just leave this creature like this, not when it attacked and overcame another innocent pony!  Trixie could feel magic gathering in her horn again as the horn began to glow; the creature started to take notice of its surroundings, and of the magical pony in front of it.  Realizing what the unicorn was doing, the black pony-outline started to make a run for it, but it was already too late.

Trixie didn’t want to harm the mare that was inside of the black goop, assuming she was still alive; she used her magic to draw in as much water and moisture from around the surrounding area that she could—the surrounding area being a desert didn’t help very much, and strained Trixie more than she had expected.  Water collected at the tip of Trixie’s horn and combined with the magic adjacent it.  The dark pony took a single step away before Trixie unleashed the power from her horn once again.  A massive spray of shimmering water pumped from Trixie’s horn in a fast, narrow stream straight at the creature.  The collision between black pony and enchanted water created the distinct sound of bones cracking.  Flying into a nearby house, the possessor was thrown up against the wall, helpless to the spray of magic that was tearing it from its possessee.

A few seconds later, completely out of breath, Trixie opened her eyes to see exactly what she had just done; the sound of bones cracking hadn’t exactly lightened her spirits.

What she saw was the mare from earlier, sitting upright against a house, apparently unharmed and soaking wet.  The black goo from before was nowhere to be seen.  Trixie ran up to the mare, relieved to see that she wasn’t hurt.

“Are you alright?” Trixie asked, concerned.

“Yeah,” the mare replied as she struggled to get up.  Getting her footing, she stood back up and groaned as she stretched out her back, the same cracking noise as before being heard.  “I think you kinda threw my back out with that blow.”

“Whoops,” said Trixie in apology.

“Hey,” the mare said reassuringly, “as long as we’re both alright, right?”  The mare looked up at Trixie and smiled.  Her smile quickly turned into a frown though as she said, in a more serious tone, “Now just what the hay was that…thing that attacked us…?”