A Tale of Fantasia

“I still don’t get it.”

Spike broke the silence in the library, gaining the attention of the showmare who still rested before the fireplace. Trixie turned her head to the young dragon seated on a round wooden chair.

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t get you,” Spike continued. “It doesn’t make sense. Why do you always act like you’re this super-great magician who has so much under her belt, and you’re nothing like that. Then Twilight showed you up without breaking a sweat, and you just ran off.”

“Trixie was not ‘shown up’. She simply did not wish to expend her magic before her next show.”

“Yeah, like I believe that,” Spike scoffed.

“Why do you care, anyway? You’re just a baby dragon. What does Trixie’s fate mean to you?”

“It means something to Twilight,” he answered. “So it means something to me too.”

Trixie sighed irritably. “You’re not going to let this go until Trixie talks, are you?”

Spike nodded. “Exactly.”

“Very well,” the showmare groaned. “If Trixie must explain herself to you, then at least promise her this...you won’t speak a word of this to Twilight Sparkle unless Trixie deems it so.”

“Fine, fine.” Spike waved an idle claw to acknowledge Trixie’s request. The showmare then took a deep breath, putting on the most serious face she could, and began.

“I don’t do it on purpose, you know.”

Trixie’s immediate change from third to first person caught the baby dragon off guard as he stumbled from his seat and listened intently.

“I don’t try to become an arrogant showboat every time I talk to somepony. It just happens. It’s how I was raised.”

“What kind of parents would raise you to show off, even if you didn’t have anything to really brag about?” Spike asked.

“I never knew my mother. My father, Hat Trick, always taught me to be loud and proud, even if I had no skills to be proud of. ‘Don’t ever come home empty hooved’, he’d say. ‘If you do, don’t even come back.’ That day came, of course. I left a show with nothing, so I never went back. But I continued to think that if I kept up that same act...that if there was even one pony watching me and I kept that show going, one day, it would pay off and I could come back home.”

Spike was utterly speechless. He could only stare blankly in shock. Then like clockwork, Trixie’s serious expression shifted back to her usual arrogant grin as she broke out in laughter. “Trixie cannot believe you actually fell for that! Oh you Ponyville peasants are so easy to fool!”

Spike threw his arms up in defeat. “I give up. You’re impossible. I don’t know how Twi’s gonna put up with you for however long she’s stuck out there with you.”

Trixie scoffed. “As if Twilight Sparkle is the one who is going to be suffering. The Great and Powerful Trixie wonders how she’ll manage through it all.”

Twilight came casually trotting back into the library with her baked purchases in tow. She set them on the desk next to the map and turned right to Trixie. “All right. Now we’re ready to go.”

“Finally,” groaned the showmare. “Let’s get going.”

While Trixie showed herself out, Twilight walked over to Spike. “Take care of the library and yourself while I’m gone. Especially yourself. I don’t want to come back to find out you pulled another ‘future Spike’ deal.”

Spike’s stomach churned at just the mention of the incident. “Don’t worry. No more ‘future’ anything for me. Ever.”

The librarian giggled. “Glad to hear. Now, if you need anything, you know that our friends would be more than glad to help.”

“Even-”

“Even Rarity.”

“Oh, thankyousomuch Twilight!” Spike shouted, leaping up to Twilight and wrapping his arms around her neck in a hug. The unicorn returned the hug and planted a light kiss on the dragon’s forehead.

“Promise me you’ll be careful,” Spike said, looking up from the hug.

“I promise,” Twilight answered as the two pulled away. “Well, Trixie,” she continued, turning back to the showmare. “Are you ready to go?”

“Trixie has been ready for hours, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie replied arrogantly. “She has been waiting on you.”

With her aura wrapped around them, Twilight lifted up half of the boxes of fresh muffins and latched them to her back with a hoof-crafted leather holding strap that seemed to be Rarity’s custom work. She then hoisted her satchel with Grimoire’s mystical tome in it and latched it onto her side. “Spike, the rest are for you. Don’t blow through them all in one day.”

Spike grinned as he opened the box and greedily eyed the fresh-baked contents. “I promise nothing.”

Twilight stared blankly. “Spike.”

The baby dragon looked up from the box and smiled embarrassedly. “Right, right. No splurging. I promise.”

Trixie tapped a hoof repeatedly on the ground as she stood at the library door. “Do not keep Trixie waiting any longer Sparkle!”

“Alright, I’m coming, hold your horses,” Twilight grumbled heading toward the door. “Let’s get going.”

“Trixie has been saying that for hours now,” muttered the showmare.

The two unicorns made their way out the door as Twilight made sure she could hear the lock click behind her. Releasing a breath of relief and slowly-growing nerves, the librarian set off alongside Trixie toward the outskirts of Ponyville.

“Moving around the backside of Ponyville will ensure that nopony sees us,” Trixie noted. “We have to reach Everfree Forest undetected. And absolutely NO magic, Twilight Sparkle. That much is a must. One spell out of you, and Trixie’s plan is ruined.”

“I know I kn-”

Twilight stopped suddenly as she felt something slip onto her horn. Glancing up, she noticed that a light blue glow had placed a strange gold ring on the magical appendage. After staring at it for a moment, just wondering what it was, she looked over at Trixie, still confused.

“Trixie cannot risk you even attempting to cast a spell, so Trixie has decided to use her backup plan immediately.”

“Trixie, what the heck is this thing?” asked Twilight, attempting to use her own levitation spell to lift the ring off to no avail. “Why...why can’t I use my magic?”

“It’s an enchanted ring, of course,” Trixie replied smugly. “Trixie’s own design. It will keep your magic from being used in spell form, but it will allow it to flow about naturally as not to cause a buildup in your body and kill you.”

“It blocks my magic? Wait...your own design?”

Trixie continued walking forward. “No further questions. Trixie demands we keep moving onward. We have no time to lose.”

The showmare continued forward, leaving Twilight standing frozen and confused for a split second before following. The path around the backside of Ponyville was abandoned, as it should have been. Nopony in Ponyville with an ounce of sanity would ever go close to Everfree. However, Twilight and her friends were rather well known for putting sanity aside to do some pretty crazy things. Regardless of this, the feeling in Twilight’s gut sank deeper still as she and Trixie continued their trek to the entrance to Everfree.

“Pick up the pace, Sparkle! I would like to get this done in a reasonable amount of time.”

Twilight was drawn out of thought by Trixie’s voice, immediately noticing that she had fallen behind by several feet. “Sorry, Trixie,” responded a semi-dazed Twilight. “I was just thinking.”

“You will have more than enough time to think once we’ve put an end to this debacle,” Trixie grumbled. “Now move it!”

“No need to get all grumpy,” Twilight mumbled under her breath as she caught up with Trixie and the two progressed onward still. After what Trixie would have so called ‘forever’, the two mares finally stood before the border between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. Twilight felt the feeling completely drop to the base of her gut and twist about, filling her imagination to the brim with any number of possibilities.

‘Wolves, living plants, hydra...these woods could have just about anything waiting to tear a pair of ponies to pieces! But...I have to bring Celestia’s magic back to her. I just have to!’

Celestia’s sun hung just overhead as the two mares started their march into Everfree Forest. The loose branches of dead trees danced in the light wind. The only sound heard by the young mares was that of their own hooves crunching through the snow along the path and their own heartbeats as the darkness of the forest began to consume their vision.

“Trixie, please tell me you know at least one simple torch spell,” Twilight pleaded.

“Of course Trixie knows a torch spell,” scoffed Trixie. “What ridiculous notion would ever suggest otherwise?”

‘Everything I know about you,’ thought Twilight. ‘But I guess Trixie is full of surprises this time around...the magic-suppression ring, the map and the ink...she’s been busy since she ran away from Ponyville.’

Trixie focused her magic to the tip of her horn and sparked to life a simple ball of light above herself and Twilight. The sphere illuminated the majority of the area around them, far enough left and right to be able to spot any oncoming attackers, far enough forward to keep their path in view, and bright enough directly on them in order for them to be able to read the map.

“H-how much longer are we going to be here, Trixie?” asked Twilight.

“The path shouldn’t go on for more than another hour,” Trixie answered, turning her head to look at Twilight. “What’s the matter, Sparkle? Are you actually afraid of this place, after everything you’ve been through?”

“I am not afraid!” Twilight shouted. Just as she spoke, an echoing howl sounded across the entire forest, sending both mares into a panic that brought them both up on their hind legs with their forelegs wrapped around one another. After standing there for a few seconds, shivering in place, the two realized the position they were in and jumped back down to all fours, turning away from one another, both hiding an immense shade of red crossing their faces.

“...We should...keep going,” Trixie managed, continuing on the path forward.

“...Right.” Twilight followed, keeping an eye on the perimeter.

The snow-coated Everfree path seemed to go on for miles, but luckily the two mares had a bit of luck on their side. Nothing had attacked them or detected them and they had arrived before Zecora’s hut without so much as a distraction.

“Please do not tell me you planned on stopping in here, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie complained.

“I need to pick up a few things from Zecora,” Twilight replied. “Just a few potions in case of emergency.”

“Well, be quick about it,” the showmare snapped. “We’re making good time. Don’t louse it up.”

Twilight walked up the small hut and rapped on the door three times. It didn’t take long for the zebra to answer, and Twilight was immediately welcomed inside.

“Twilight, my friend, how might I help you this day? Do you need any potions to keep evil at bay?”

“Actually, Zecora, a few basic antidotes will do,” Twilight replied. “I’m just going on a little trip, and they might come in handy.”

“Cures to your ailments are something I can do, and because you’re a friend, not a bit it will cost you.”

“Thank you, Zecora, really, but I’ll gladly cover the ingredients...except I can’t exactly use my magic to get my money out right now.”

The zebra looked at Twilight with a confused stare before she noticed the ring, eyeing it curiously. “This jewelry of yours, it is not of normal make. It suppresses your magic, and it just cannot break.”

“I know,” Twilight replied. “It’s...well, I can’t really say-”

“The showboating magician that I saw outside...are you on a trip, and she is along for the ride?”

Twilight sighed. “Guess I can’t avoid telling you. We’re tracking down the key to a magic spell book that used to belong to a unicorn named Grimoire Fantasia.”

Zecora’s expression quickly turned to one of shock. “Please, Twilight Sparkle, repeat that name. I pray that it is not one and the same.”

“Grimoire Fantasia,” Twilight repeated as Zecora’s face remained the same. “...You know him too?!”

“Zebrica’s legends tell of a mage of great skill, but he used his talent to bend ponies to his will. Deep within his tome lay his darkest spell that caused such effects, even to zebras as well. Death and decay littered Equestria’s path, and not one single soul could escape from his wrath. Even the princesses, who did fight well, were not nearly strong enough, and in the end, they fell.”

“What kind of monster would be capable of such a thing?” Twilight inquired. “I mean, I knew he was bad enough to be sealed away, but to beat the princesses...”

Zecora nodded with a neutral, solemn expression. “Fantasia’s magic was beyond the divine, and he plagued all races...yours and mine. When Starswirl the Bearded confronted the beast, he had used all his spells and was spent, to say the least. Against Starswirl, Hocus and Clover the Clever, the three bright mages sealed Fantasia away forever.”

“So...he’s gone forever? We can just go get the key to the book and go home?”

Once again Zecora nodded, still serious. “If the spells are what you seek then you should find no confrontation. But if some ponies were to hear you possess the book, you may have a situation.”

“Who else could know what kind of spells the book has in it?” asked Twilight.

“Ponies with unique connections, power and no moral objections,” Zecora answered morbidly. “Should Las Pegasus be your way, let nopony lead you astray.”

A rather feeble earth pony stallion with a violet coat and black mane rushed his way through the slot machine-lined hallways of Las Pegasus at full gallop, making his way into the office of the Golden Apple Casino’s owner. He was immediately stopped by two much larger brown-coated earth pony stallions more than twice his size.

“State yer business,” spoke one of the titanic stallions in a deep voice tied to a southern drawl.

“I-I need to see the capo,” replied the puny stallion. “It’s about that book he’s been lookin’ for.”

“Sorry,” said the other. “No appointment, no-”
“Let ‘im in,” called a voice from inside the room, holding a much thicker accent than any of them.

“...You got it, boss.”

The two stallions stood aside as the small earth pony shuffled his way into the room nervously. Seated behind a large hickory desk was another stallion around the same size as the guards. His coat was deep crimson, his mane a pure black and his cutie mark a golden apple with a triad of coins in the center of the fruit.

“M-Mister Apple Capone, sir.” the young stallion bowed before the capo.

“Rise, Grapevine.” Grapevine stood back up naturally and smiled nervously. “Now...what’ve ya got fer me about the book?”

“Well...it ain’t where it’s s’posed ta be in the museum,” Grapevine replied. “Somepony’s got it, and they’re lookin’ fer the key.”

Apple Capone gave his cowering associate a slight grin, looking down to his desk where a map of Equestria sat, marked off with several paths leading to the Stones of the Arcane.

“Excellent.”