Trixie’s mind slowly drifted back to consciousness and the groggy mare’s senses came up, one by one. She felt something firm and coarse under her fur. Voices reached her ears, muffled and distant at first, but rapidly getting clearer. There was an unpleasant taste on her tongue that she couldn’t seem to get rid of and her nose picked up a mix of sweat and antiseptics. Her eyelids fluttered open and after a few seconds the light wasn’t blinding her anymore, letting Trixie see that she was lying on her side on a standard issue cot, made of green canvas and a metallic frame.

Ahead of her, a couple of others similar beds were set up, all of them empty. She scanned the area with her eyes, making out a few metal poles holding up a large piece of canvas over her. After a few seconds, her mind finally registered that she was under some kind of big tent, but that fact raised more questions than it answered.

Trixie tried to move, but her body felt heavy and unresponsive... and sore. Trying to ignore the pain, she tried to roll on her back. She gritted her teeth as her muscles protested against the treatment by sending flares of pain all along her body, but finally succeeded and shifted her torso on the bed. She groaned loudly as soon as her left shoulder had some weight touched the bed. Trixie shifted herself a bit to find a more comfortable position. A glance at the aching shoulder let her see many bandages wrapped around it.

“... awake?” she heard some voice say nearby. There were the sound of many hooves, getting closer. Once her ears managed to locate the direction they were coming from, Trixie turned her head to see the newcomers.

Her eyes widened as she saw a white angelic figure approaching. A tall, perfectly white mare with a long, thin horn and pristine wings came to a stop in front of her… Princess Celestia was standing right in front of her…

“Am I… Am I dead?” she asked once her mouth stopped simply hanging wide open.

Celestia blinked a few times, then answered her with a warm, soothing voice. “No, you are not.”

“Really?” Trixie answered flatly. “Huh...”

Not dead then... That would explain the pain, obviously. Being dead was supposed to come with peace and relief, after all. Trixie tried to remember what had happened before she fell unconscious... and immediately regretted it.

Images of demonic creatures flooded her mind. Monsters that seemed to be nothing but barbs and teeth, clawing out of a blazing pit to reach her. She remembered the fire, coming out of the ground, coming out of the monsters’ mouths, coming for her, burning her hair. She remembered the blood. Everywhere there was blood, flesh, bones and there was her in the middle of it, fighting the demons.

Fighting... and losing. There were so many... She remembered the demons closing in on her, she remembered her legs being unable to carry her anymore. She remembered falling to the ground, her magic failing, her muscles failing… her will failing. Why wasn’t she dead?

“Trixie!” Somepony shouted in her ear, making her wince.

She turned to face the voice. A familiar unicorn was staring at her with a worried look. A twitch on the purple mare’s sides caught Trixie’s eyes and she spotted a pair of wings folded against her. An alicorn...

“Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie asked, her voice sounding warbled.

“Yes, Trixie. It’s me. Are you alright?”

Was Trixie alright? She was confused, in mild pain and had horrible memories slowly resurfacing. Definitely not alright...

“Can you hear me?” Twilight asked.

Trixie nodded, stiffly and slowly.

“How are you feeling, Trixie?”

She tried to find an answer, but after a moment of fruitless thinking, she decided to simply ignore the question and ask one of her own: “Where am I?”

Twilight exchanged glances with a few other ponies that Trixie barely noticed before answering. “This is an emergency camp near Hockton. We found you in what was left of the town hall.”

The town hall? That’s right, she was there, fighting the demons. Right when she tried to close...

“The gate!” Trixie blurted out. She sat up so fast that she almost headbutted Twilight in the process. “What happened? Is it closed?”

“What gate?” Twilight asked back, recoiling a little to get some space. “What are you talking about?”

“Wha– You don’t... Is it still open?” Trixie looked around in panic. “Oh no. Oh no, we have to close it!”

Twilight Sparkle pushed Trixie back on her bed. “Calm down, Trixie. What gate are you talking about? Where is it?”

“Tartarus... The gate of Tartarus. In the town hall.”

The two princesses looked at each other with furrowed brows.

“Is that what happened?” princess Celestia asked. “Did creatures from Tartarus attack the town?”

Trixie nodded nervously, looking left and right to spot any sign of the demons. The fact that she couldn’t see any only made her more nervous…

“Some sort of... nightmarish magic came from the town hall,” Twilight said, taking her hooves off of Trixie. “We used the elements of harmony on it and it all stopped right afterwards. The elements must have closed that gate.”

“Are you sure?”

Twilight simply nodded and Trixie took a moment to process the information. She relaxed a little, but unfortunately, her rest was very short-lived, as a multi colored pony flew right in front of her face.

“Did you open that gate?” she asked menacingly.

“Rainbow! Easy there, girl,” a voice came from behind the pegasus.

“Come on!” Rainbow said, not taking her eyes off of Trixie. “She knows too much about this mess to have nothing to do with this. So tell us, great and powerful Trixie.” She pointed a hoof right in Trixie’s face. “Were you the one who caused all this?”

Trixie hadn’t opened it. It wasn’t Trixie’s fault.

She hadn’t opened it.

“I need to thank you Trixie, you’ve been a great help.” The demonic voice taunted her, laughing as she started to weep.

She hadn’t opened it... It wasn’t Trixie’s fault.

Rainbow Dash kept glaring at her.

It wasn’t Trixie’s fault.

Trixie closed her eyes to get away from Rainbow’s inquisitive stare. This only brought up another mare. A mare watching her with widening eyes. A face going through so many emotions in only a few seconds… Surprise, confusion, sadness, fear…

It wasn’t Trixie’s fault.

“Hey! Are you even listening?” Rainbow said as she shook Trixie with a hoof.

A country accented voice chided the pegasus from behind. “Slow down a minute, R.D.!” Rainbow was pulled back by an orange mare that Trixie recognized as Applejack. Next to her stood Rarity… Most of Twilight’s friend were here, only Pinkie and Fluttershy missing.

“Oh come on, A.J.! She had something to do with this mess. You guys can see that, right?”

“And what makes you say that?” Twilight asked.

“It’s Trixie!” Rainbow answered, pointing at her with both of her forehooves.

The four mares started discussing amongst themselves. Applejack couldn’t make her mind, Rarity seemed to agree with Rainbow Dash, Ironically, Twilight Sparkle was the one who defended Trixie the most. Princess Celestia simply observed them, waiting with her usual stoic expression.

“Spill it, Trixie!” Rainbow was hovering in front of her again. “What did you do? Did you go nuts again?”

Typical. You get your hooves on an ancient and dangerous artifact that corrupts your mind, enact your revenge and become the tyrannical overlord of a whole town once and nopony lets you live it down, ever. Trixie felt rage building up inside her. Why was that stupid rainbow pegasus even asking if she had already decided that Trixie was guilty.

It wasn’t Trixie’s fault!

She should just shut up that noisy mare, shove her hoof right down–

Trixie saw herself back in a large, dark room. A room littered with corpses, beaten, mangled, torn apart... There was blood everywhere. On the floor. On the walls. On every crate, table, on every object randomly lying on the floor. On her hooves. On her face. In her mouth. She could taste it.

The rage was gone, replaced by revulsion. Trixie shivered, holding her shaking hooves in front of her eyes. They were mostly clean now, but dark stains could still be seen in her fur.

“And what’s with your horn?” Rainbow asked, cutting Trixie’s train of thought and making her eyes widen in shock.

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said indignantly.

Rainbow Dash turned around to face her unicorn friend. “What? It’s all... weird,” she said, motioning towards Trixie’s face.

She was grabbed in blue magic and pulled away. With the pegasus away from her face, Trixie could see Rarity scolding her. “Rainbow Dash! There are some things that simply shan’t be said and disparaging remarks concerning one’s horn are definitely one of those.”

Trixie had raised a hoof to her forehead without even realizing it. When it met her horn, she felt it. The thing was still there. She hadn’t even had time to think about how to get rid of it... She never wanted it in the first place. That too wasn’t Trixie’s fault.

“But...” Rainbow tried to protest.

“No buts! No matter the circumstances, there is no excuse for such rudeness.”

“That’s enough, my little ponies.” Celestia silenced everyone with her maternal, gentle but stern voice. “Trixie, in all the time that I have been watching over Equestria, I have met only a few of the creatures that inhabit Tartarus. I know how dangerous they are and I understand why you are scared.”

Trixie nodded weakly. The princess’ words and her gentle voice brought a modicum of peace to the broken mare.

“I have never seen an attack of this scale, though. All of the town’s survivors are here.” The princess motioned to the side with a hoof. Following it, Trixie looked at the rest of the tent.

There was one young-looking pink earth pony mare, sitting up on her cot. Her head was turning around, twitching left and right constantly. Her bright red mane was now a tangled mess around her face after so much shaking. Her lips were working non stop, though Trixie was too far too hear the words.

Not far from her, a white pegasus stallion was sitting on another bed. His head was hanging down, hiding most of his face under a gray and black mane. Except for his chest slowly rising and falling, he was completely still.

They were the only ponies. The last survivor was a human. A dark-skinned man, lying down on his cot and the only one she actually knew, if barely. In truth, she knew little beyond his name: Bill. He was asleep and might have looked peaceful, if his hands weren’t clutched tightly around a shotgun.

Celestia’s voice made Trixie focus back on her. “It is important that we know what happened, so that we can prevent it from ever happening again.” The regal mare placed a hoof gently on Trixie’s good shoulder. “Please, Trixie. Can you tell us what you know?”

Trixie shuddered and sobbed. “It wasn’t Trixie’s fault...”

“What wasn’t your fault? What happened?”

Trixie shook her head. “I– I don’t want to think... I don’t want to think about what happened.”

“Please.”

“No!” she shouted, holding her head in her hooves. “No, I don’t want to remember. It wasn’t Trixie’s fault... It wasn’t Trixie’s fault...”

She kept muttering her mantra, ignoring the other ponies present. She had to believe it. It wasn’t her fault, she never had a choice.

Closing her eyes only brought the image back. The dying mare looked up at her, her mouth working silently a single word… “Why?”

Trixie cried.

“I understand,” princess Celestia said. Some other pony tried to protest but was quickly silenced. Trixie didn’t care. It wasn’t her fault.

She just kept crying.

“Rest now, Trixie,” the princess continued. “Get better. We will speak about this later.”

There was nothing to speak about.

“Why?”

It wasn’t her fault.

“Why?”

She had no other choice.

The mare kept watching her, staring with eyes that slowly lost their focus.

She had no choice…

Unfortunately, no matter how much Trixie kept telling herself that, she couldn’t make it true. No matter how much she wanted to believe it, she couldn’t help but think of the other choice.

Trixie slumped, all the energy taken out of her. She did only one thing: cry.

It was her fault.

Trixie didn’t know how much time had passed. Her tears had run out, but she didn’t feel any better.

A doctor had come to check up on her at some point. Trixie let him examine her, barely reacting and answering his questions with small nods and shakes of her head. Everything seemed surreal to her, simply because it was normal. She expected demons to show up at any moment, crawling from under the cots, jumping from the ceiling or appearing right before her eyes... And yet, nothing.

Everything was quiet and the calm was making her more and more nervous. Every time the demons had given her time to breathe, it was only to strike harder afterwards.

Trixie looked around quickly, her eyes settling on the sleeping human for a moment. How they had managed to survive was a wonder...

Next to her bed, Trixie spotted a green armor, dismantled and piled up on the ground, with her bags next to it. She tried using her magic to open them, but she only succeeded in giving herself a headache and making the flap twitch slightly. She groaned and rubbed her temple with a hoof, which did very little to soothe the pain. Trixie scooted closer to the bags and fished inside of them with a hoof.

“Trixie?”

She looked over her shoulder and saw Twilight Sparkle observing her. The alicorn’s violet eyes betrayed her worry, but Trixie ignored it and resumed her searching.

“What are you looking for?” Twilight asked while walking around the cot to stand near the bags. She picked them up in her telekinesis and floated them over to Trixie’s bed so that she wouldn’t have to stretch herself to reach them.

“Thanks,” Trixie muttered. At last, a little smile appeared on her face as she pulled her gun out. She held it close to her chest, the cold touch and heavy weight of the weapon calming her nerves a bit.

“What’s this?” Twilight examined the gun, then Trixie.

“A pistol.” Seeing Twilight Sparkle’s puzzled face, Trixie continued: “it’s a weapon.”

“Really?” She leaned closer, her face almost touching it. “It looks harmless. How does it work?”

“Really well,” Trixie muttered.

Twilight gazed at her curiously for a while. “That’s not what I meant... Is it magical? Are you just supposed to hit something with it? Like a hammer?”

“It’s a kind of cannon.”

“A cannon? That little thing?”

Twilight Sparkle subsequently went into a mostly one-sided discussion about the power of firearms. Equestrian technology had created guns that had to be almost the size of a pony to be considered useful as a weapon. She formulated different theories on the workings of the small, alien weapon.

Trixie didn’t know how the humans had made their guns or how they functioned. She only knew how to use a couple of them and that they were lethal. Her pistol was the weakest one but she still trusted it more than any pony-made cannon. She didn’t mention it to Twilight, but some of the other weapons she had seen were absurdly powerful. Trixie had witnessed that first-hoof, both on humans and demons: bodies were riddled with holes, torn, shredded into unrecognizable heaps of flesh. Some were even vaporized... Messy, but efficient and reliable killing machines.

Just like Trixie.

She went silent as random scenes replayed in her mind, demons upon demons being slaughtered by her...

“Trixie? Are you still with me?”

“Huh? No, sorry,” she muttered.

Twilight Sparkle let out a weary sigh. “Listen, Trixie,” she started softly, “I know how horrible things must have been...”

“I doubt that,” Trixie answered flatly, not out of spite, but simply as a fact.

Twilight ignored her and kept talking. “I’m just trying to help. Tell me what I can do and I’ll do it.”

“Could we talk about something else, then?”

Twilight Sparkle considered this for a while and thankfully agreed. Even if it was just for a short time, it was nice for Trixie to take her mind elsewhere. Twilight told her a few tales of what had been happening to her and her friends recently. Trixie even chuckled a little when Twilight explained how they had organized a grand tour of the Crystal Castle for a random tourist instead of the Equestria Games inspector.

With her mind distracted, Trixie managed to relax slightly as time passed. A nurse brought her some food, Twilight sometimes left to take care of something around the camp or discuss something with her friends, but always came back by Trixie’s side, talking with her or simply reading one of her books.

Day turned into night and a simple lantern was struggling to illuminate the two ponies in the darkness. Trixie grew nervous again: anything could have creeped up to her in the darkness and she became more and more careful, scanning the tent with watchful eyes, focusing all of her attention on tracking the monsters. Every shadow needed to be examined carefully. Any movement could betray the demons’ movements and give her the early warning she would need to survive.

The light went out.

Trixie yelped and immediately jumped to her hooves, ignoring the pain it raised in her body. She also concentrated and levitated her pistol in front of her. Trixie’s head felt like it was trying to explode from the exertion, but she forced her magic to work despite the pain.

She scanned the shadows quickly and kept her ears up, waiting for the smallest sign of the demons that were going to appear.

“Trixie? What’s wrong, what are you doing?”

Trixie shushed Twilight. The demons were going to take advantage of the darkness to surprise her. They always did. Trixie waited, breathing through clenched teeth, her body coiled up like a spring and ready to jump into action, ready to fight for her life.

Nothing happened.

“What are they waiting for?” she whispered to herself. “Come out already...”

“Trixie, calm down!” Twilight commanded her. “You need to rest...”

“Rest?” Trixie looked at the newest princess with a dumbfounded expression. “Rest? They’re coming! First they get the lights, then they use the shadows to creep up. They always do...”

Twilight’s stern face turn into one of surprise, then quickly to a sad one. “Trixie, nothing is going to attack you here.” She let out a sigh. “I turned the light off.” The lantern was lit back up by a flick of purple magic.

It took Trixie almost a minute to process Twilight’s explanation. She let her pistol drop on the bed, soon followed by herself as she let her exhaustion take over.

“You should try to sleep. You look like you really need it.”

Trixie took a quick look at herself. Her pale blue coat was covered in bandages. She couldn’t see her injuries, but she could certainly feel them. Even where she wasn’t hurt, her muscles were stiff and sore. Trixie couldn’t see her face -and didn’t really wanted to- but she was certain that she was a complete mess to look at, too. She had been cleaned, obviously, since she was no longer covered in blood and gore, but only the strict minimum.

Trixie needed rest, a bath including at least two shampoos, a massage (once her wounds would be closed) and a few strong drinks. What she could get was another matter, though. There were probably neither a spa nor a bar in the camp... At least she had a bed that was almost comfortable. Trixie lied down and tried to find a position in which she could relax. A blanket floated over her, led by Twilight’s magic.

She stared at the alicorn a while. “Why?” she finally asked.

“Hmm?” Twilight watched her with her usual, curious eyes.

“Every time we’ve met, I’ve been mean to you and your friends. Why are you so nice to me?”

“Well... One thing I’ve learned from Fluttershy is that kindness can bring out the best in anypony. Or anydraconequus... Besides, the last time we talked, you asked me to forgive you and I did.”

“You really did...”

“Of course. I would much rather be your friend than your enemy, Trixie.”

Trixie stared at Twilight for a good while, trying to detect any hints of dishonesty in the purple pony. She simply looked like the awkward bookworm that she had always been, with a naive smile on her lips.

Trixie stayed silent and simply lied back, waiting for sleep to take over. Eventually, her exhaustion won and she drifted into unconsciousness.

Trixie was awoken by somepony shaking her lightly. She opened her eyes and saw Twilight again.

“Are you awake? Good. We might need your help.”

Trixie sat up and shook the tiredness out of her head. “What’s going on?” she asked, her voice sounding harsh and her throat scratching her. She managed to ask for water between coughs and quickly, a canteen floated near her, wrapped in a purple glow.

Trixie reached out with her own magic in reflex and was relieved when no headache accompanied the pink haze around the canteen. After her throat had been soothed with some water, she looked back at Twilight, waiting for her explanation.

“Do you know anything about these humans?” she asked, while pointing with her hoof in one corner of the tent. Trixie followed it and saw Bill, fidgeting on his cot while Applejack was trying to get him to calm down.

“He’s been really agitated since this morning,” Twilight continued. “We found him near you in the town hall, so I assumed you would know him…”

Trixie nodded and jumped down on her hooves. She silently walked towards the confused human. Once she was close enough, she noticed that he was rocking back and forth and cradling his shotgun between his arms, holding it close to his chest like a security blanket.

“Bill?” The man stopped moving for a second and turned his head in Trixie’s direction. He studied her for a while before looking away and mumbling under his breath.

“Come on big guy, don’t you fret now.” Applejack was by his side, trying to reassure him. “You’re safe, ain’t nothin’ gonna come after you in here.”

“Safe?” he repeated numbly. He then started to chuckle. “Safe… Nowhere! Nowhere is safe.”

“Bill,” Trixie called him again. “It’s over.”

“No,” he answered while turning to face her. “It will never be over. They‘re still there.” He shook his head. “Don’t you understand? They’re still there! Every time I close my eyes, I can see ‘em. I can hear ‘em. You can’t stop ‘em. No one can...” His voice was shaky as he gripped on his shotgun even harder. “They’ll be back, Trixie. They’ll be back soon, I know it.”

He reached in his vest with a hand, rummaging around for a bit.

“What’s this?” Twilight asked as he fished out a small red cylindrical object.

Trixie’s eyes widened as she recognized a shotgun shell. “Where did… I thought you didn’t have any left.”

The man was turning it around in his fingers, as if he was fascinated by the shiny red tube. “Always keep a spare. Always…” He inserted it in the shotgun’s underside.

Twilight and Applejack both winced at the metallic clacking noises the gun made when he pumped it.

Trixie carefully took a step forward and put a hoof on his knee, trying to be reassuring. “What are you doing?”

“They’ll come back,” he said. “They’ll be back, Trixie. Nothin’ we can do…” Bill gave her the most defeated look she had ever seen. Not even tears in his eyes, just an empty looking gaze. “They’ll come back… but they won’t get me. I won’t let ‘em.”

“What are y– NO!” Trixie shouted when she saw him place the end of the barrel at the base of his jaw.

Before anypony had time to do anything, her ears were ringing from the detonation. The screams of the two other mares sounded muffled in her ears as they all witnessed a large chunk of the human’s head fly away and paint the tent’s canvas in red.

Trixie watched as his body toppled and fell on the floor, blood pouring out of the remains of his skull. She didn’t even flinch. She simply stared, helpless, while the two other ponies stepped back in panic. After a minute or two, Trixie turned around and went back to her cot.

She lied down on her side, facing away from the scene and stayed there, unmoving.

“Trixie?”

She opened her eyes. Twilight Sparkle and her five friends were standing in a semi-circle in front of her.

“Trixie,” Twilight started. “We need you to explain to us what happened in Hockton.”

Trixie simply let her head fall back on her pillow.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash called her with her grating voice. “Don’t ignore us. We know that you know something, so spit it out already.”

Trixie grunted in reply.

“Um... Trixie?” Fluttershy’s voice was so soft that she had to strain her ears to hear it. “It’s really important. I know that you don’t want to... But could you please help us?”

“Whatever has transpired here, we must do our best to help these poor ponies,” Rarity motioned at the two survivors left. “We cannot simply wait until they...” She let her sentence hang in the air.

“Kill themselves?” Trixie finished for her. The six mares cringed.

“Please, Trixie,” Twilight Sparkle said. “We need to learn exactly what has happened.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. And you don’t want to know.”

“Maybe we don’t,” she answered. “But we still need to. We will do everything we can to save those ponies.” Twilight pointed at the two survivors. “We’ve already been unable to save that human. We’re not sure the other one will survive either and–”

Trixie sat up at her words. “Wait! The other human?”

“Yes. The other–”

“She’s still alive?”

“For now... The doctors are doing their best to keep it that way.”

“Incredible…” Trixie smirked. “That crazy girl made it…”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. “She did, but if she ever wakes up, we have to make sure that we can… help her. We need to understand everything.”

Trixie sighed, her shoulders slumping a little. “Fine, fine… I’m not sure what good it’ll do but… I’ll tell you.”

Author's Note

I've had that weird idea for a story a while back and wrote a draft for a couple of chapters. They've been collecting virtual dust in my google drive for a long time...

So I thought I'd publish it and see what happens. If there's some interest for this crazy stuff, I'll write the rest. If not, to the trashcan it goes ! Let me know what you think.