SPOTLIGHT
By Mooface5
The moon was bright. It shone down on all of Equestria for the past two weeks ever since that night Princess Celestia and Princess Luna went missing. No pony knew how to lower or raise the sun and moon. Until they were found, the night would last forever.
Twilight Sparkle was at Rarity's house with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Spike. There was strong tension for unicorns everywhere. For a few months now, the number of missing unicorns has increased dramatically. The reports started in Manehattan and moved to Canterlot. Now, the reports are growing in Twilight's own backyard- Ponyville.
The news was terrifying. Fluttershy was too scared to leave her cottage and Apple Jack is even staying home to look over the barn with her family. Most ponies did not leave their homes in fear that they would also be added to the list of missing ponies.
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were partying in the back of the room, pouncing on Rarity's furniture. Rarity was not a fan of this.
"It's getting late," Twilight said looking at the clock, "I need to go home so I can get some studying done."
Since the moon was permanent, clocks were the only way to tell time. However, some ponies would get confused when they would wake up. They might not know if it's meant to be the afternoon or late at night.
"Are you sure you can't stay a bit longer?" Rarity asked. She felt scared for Twilight knowing the missing unicorn count.
"I'm certain," Twilight said as she turned to her little dragon, "come on, Spike."
"Awh, c'mon Twilight," Spike sighed, "can I at least stay? I don't have to do any studying."
"Fine," Twilight gave in easily, "just don't make noise when you come home. I need my sleep."
"Are you sure you want to go alone?" Rarity stepped forward, "it might not be safe."
"I'll be fine," she responded, "besides, if anything goes wrong, I'll just use my magic. It always helped me through many situations."
"Well alright then, Twilight," her eyebrows rose, "just be careful."
Twilight waved bye to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They were having too much of a blast to notice her departure.
The air was cool and relaxing. The wind was soft and gentle; it brushed through Twilight's mane. Even though eternal night was awful and would cause serious problems for nature, it was very lovely to take a stroll in the moonlight.
Twilight made it to her Library home. She pushed open the door and flicked on the light switch. Something was wrong. The walls, floor, bookshelves, tables- everything- was covered in plastic.
"What in the name of"- Twilight started, only to turn to a terrifying face. Before she could put together who it was, she was knocked out cold.
~
Her eyelids slid open and she sprung to life. She was in her bedroom which was also redecorated in plastic. There was a trunk in one of the corners of the room that was not covered in plastic. Twilight could not move- she was bounded to a table that was placed in the very center of her room. All the lights were off, except for a lamp, which did not belong to her, was shining down in her face. She felt as if she was under a spotlight. A trickle of sweat moved down her forehead, making her skin itch.
Her limbs were spread out as if she were on a cross. Magical mist surrounded her hooves. That's what seemed to be holding her in place. She was unable to break free. Just then, she saw something from the shadows emerge.
It was another unicorn. Her horn was glowing. Her coat was a light blue and her mane looked like a snow and ice blend. It curled down, blocking half of her face. As she moved closer, Twilight could see that the other unicorn's forelegs had scars on them. The ones closer to her hooves were light and less visible. As they moved up the foreleg, they seemed deeper and fresher. Some were scabbed over. There were more cuts on her chest, stopping at the neck line.
She moved closer into the light and Twilight realized that she was being held down by Trixie. Twilight's eyes widened and Trixie smirked. Her capturer wasted no time; she pulled a sledge hammer out from behind her back and slammed it right down on Twilight's horn.
The blunt attack was painful. It felt like some pony shot Twilight in the forehead with a rubber bullet. Her horn shattered at the top and it felt like a deep bruise was forming about. Twilight yelled in pain. Her forelegs tried to close in to hold her horn but she could not budge.
"Couldn't have you fighting back," Trixie said, "looks like your magic is out of commission."
Twilight's eyes moistened from the pain. Her head throbbed.
"I hope that wasn't too much," she smiled, "we barely started."
Twilight noticed that Trixie was not speaking in third person like she did the first time they met in Ponyville. She then remembered when Trixie dropped that habit when she admitted she could not, and never did, defeat the Ursa Major.
Trixie nodded her head to get her messy mane out of her face. Twilight was sickened when she saw the left side of Trixie's face. On the right side, Trixie's purple eye stared wickedly at her. On the left, a black hole gazed emptily at her. One of her eyes was missing. Blood was dried up all around the empty socket. Twilight could tell that the blood has never been cleaned up since the event happened, as most of the blood was practically black.
"Why are you doing this?" Twilight yelled, her voice almost breaking from the horror.
"Why?" Trixie's smirk suddenly disappeared, "you know why, Twilight. You ruined me. Magic was the only important thing to me and you took it away. I took pride in what I've done, in what I've accomplished." She swallowed, "you broke Trixie."
"I couldn't have done that much," Twilight reasoned, "I only exposed you for being a fraud. How could you blame this all on me?"
"Do my ears deceive me?" Trixie exploded with rage, "not only did you publicly destroy what I was but you also ruined my chances of going to the best magic school in all of Canterlot."
The angered unicorn reared away and paced back and forth. Twilight was not sure what Trixie was talking about. She wanted to ask but the pain in her forehead stung when she opened her mouth.
"I was going to get into that magic school, until," she leaned closer to Twilight, "they told me that my magic was not as impressive as the pony before me. That pony was you."
Twilight remembered that day. It was the day she got her cutie mark.
"I was lost," Trixie spoke softly, "ever since you exposed me, I tried to get my life back on track. But I couldn't." She raised her hoof, "I figured if I was no longer the greatest unicorn ever, then no unicorn could be." She brought her hoof closer to Twilight, "these scars, these cuts, they help me keep count."
Twilight's started counting the scars in her head. The number was outstanding, some of the cuts looked like they were infected, as mossy substances were growing in them, "keep count of what?"
"Every unicorn I've killed."
Twilight's heart dropped. It felt as if her lungs were sinking and her blood was running cold.
"I would rub myself on the broken, sharp horns of a unicorn after I killed him or her," she said as a smile slowly grew on her face, "and I've been waiting so long to get a cut from you."
"So you're the reason why all those unicorns are disappearing!" Twilight tried to shake free.
"Not only unicorns," the corners of her mouth kept rising, "I've killed a few earth ponies and pegasi. No real reason. I just felt like doing stuff like that."
Twilight tried shaking free from the magic restraints. It was no use. She attempted to charge her own magic; however, Trixie's earlier attack disabled all of her magic powers.
"I've also started a new tradition recently;" her smile stretched from ear to ear, "one of my recent victims was tougher than usual. What can you expect from an Alicorn? She fought back and ripped out my eye. Since these other unicorns are going to die, why would they need eyes? I decided to tear out their eyes to fill the void in my face." She sighed, "I was never fond of the ones that I've collected. They were not real trophies like I was. That's why I'm still looking for a new eye. Not even a Princess' eye was good enough."
Twilight's jaw dropped. She started piecing things together.
"That's right," Trixie said, "I killed Princess Celestia."
"Liar!" Twilight spat, "that's impossible!"
"It's very much possible," she corrected, "I took out several of her royal guards. I came to her pretending I was in need of help. I took advantage of her kindness and attacked her when she had her back turned. She tore out my eye so I had to rip out both of her's. She called Luna for help, but," she laughed, "I guess she wasn't aware that her younger sister was already chopped up in a black plastic bag."
Trixie walked over to the trunk in the corner of the room. She brought it from her home, which is why Twilight did not recognize it as her own. She opened it. It had two jars in it, weapons that were wrapped in cloth, and a few scrolls. She picked up the scrolls and walked back over to Twilight. "See," she said, "I even have your recent letters to Celestia."
Tears started to run down Twilight's cheek. There was no possible way Trixie was lying.
"Don't worry," Trixie grinned, "I've had many practice with each murder I've committed. I'll be sure to mix in as many ways possible to torture you physically like I've been tortured mentally."
Twilight's vision was blurry from the tears, but she kept eye contact with Trixie the whole time. Trixie was completely off the wagon. Her only eye was jittering. It was as if her pupil and iris was a metal ball suspended between two magnets, trembling in midair.
"You will never get away with this!" Twilight shouted as Trixie moved to get a knife from her trunk, "some pony will catch you eventually!"
"Oh, Twilight," she spoke, wielding a knife in her hoof, "with this plastic placed up, no pony will find my hoof prints. And no pony will find your body. I have a way of disposing ponies."
The purple unicorn's jaw trembled; she realized that Trixie thought everything through. She was full out insane.
"I dump the bodies in black plastic bags outside a cave," Trixie stated, "but not just any cave. The cave of an Ursa Major. The Ursa Major feeds on the dead bodies. If the bodies are ever found, ponies will just assume it was a wild Ursa attack."
Just then Trixie heard something. Her ears flopped. Something outside of the bedroom was shuffling around on the plastic. It grew louder as it moved closer to the door. Trixie picked up Twilight's Smarty Pants doll, that wasn't under the plastic, and stuffed it in Twilight's mouth.
The bedroom door opened slowly and Spike walked into the room. "What's with all this"- Spike could not finish his sentence because he was launched across the room by Trixie's magic. Impressively, her magical grip holding down Twilight did not loosen.
Spike smashed into the wall. He sat up holding his head, disoriented from the blow. Trixie sprinted over to him with her head aimed down. She shoved her pointed horn through Spike's eye. The horn hit right into the pupil. His pupil tensed and started closing up. Trixie jerked her head upwards, tearing out Spike's eye. Twilight watched in despair. She tried to yell but her screams were muffled by her childhood doll in her mouth.
Spike screamed in pain. He sounded like several animals entering a slaughter house. His head was still connected to his eye by the optic nerve. Trixie saw the nerve dangle in front of her nose. She took a quick chomp with her incisor teeth, cutting the nerve and releasing the eye from Spike. She jerked her head downwards, throwing the eye to the ground.
"Wrong eye," she said.
She repeated the process, gouging out Spike's other eye. Twilight hated herself because she was unable to help him. She tried hard to use her magic but nothing sparked. Her tears flooded the side of her face. She tried screaming but that only let her Smarty Pants doll fall lower into her mouth. She was starting to gag on one of its plush legs.
Trixie stood back from her master piece. Both of Spike's eye sockets were bleeding out. She tried putting his left eye into her socket but it did not fit.
"I guess dragon eyes don't work with me," her eyebrows rose, almost seductively, "looks like you're of no use to me."
She raised her hoof that was holding the knife and she jabbed Spike right through the heart. The only sound that left his mouth was the sound of air escaping his lungs. There was no will to cry out in agony.
"See that," Trixie frowned as she trotted to Twilight, "you had to watch your friend die just like how I had to watch my dreams die. You reduced me to a spectator and I'm doing the same to you."
Trixie took the knife and started to slice at her rival. She started to give cuts to Twilight like she had all over her forelegs. The cuts were painful, tearing at fur and piercing through flesh. Muscle tissue was damaged and minor veins got tugged for barely a second before they inevitably snapped.
She gave these cuts all the way up to Twilight's shoulder. Trixie's smile started to shiver. She bent her face down to one of the cuts and slipped out her tongue. Trixie started licking up Twilight's blood. Her tongue was now stained a burgundy colour. Trixie then put her lips on one of the cuts and sucked, taking in blood straight from the veins.
Twilight felt every drop of blood that left her leg and into Trixie's dirty mouth. She started getting light headed. Trixie backed off and started slapping Twilight with her rough hooves, preventing her from passing out.
"Trixie will be great and powerful, again, soon enough," Trixie laughed. She must have felt in control as she temporarily brought back an old habit.
Just then there was a knock on the front door. Trixie's laugh came to an end. A sloppy drip of saliva and blood dangled from her lower lip. Her pupil shrunk as she wondered who might have been outside.
"Twilight!" A familiar voice called out, "you left your book at my house."
Twilight's heart nearly stopped. She recognized the voice as Rarity's. She prayed that Rarity would leave or that Trixie would not answer the door. She did not want to lie there helplessly as another friend's life would be taken away.
Trixie turned her back on the bounded unicorn. Twilight tried yelling "stop" or "no" but with the doll still in her mouth, she was unheard.
Twilight listened carefully as Trixie left the room, closing the door behind her. She heard tumbling around, a large crash and Rarity whimpering. Then, there was a terrible silence. Rustles were heard on the plastic floor and Twilight heard Trixie gasp quietly.
Just then, Trixie walked back into the room. Twilight saw that Trixie had a new, fresh cut on her chest. Another added to the count. Rarity was dead. Twilight did not want to believe what happened but all the evidence pointed out that it was true.
"With all the interruptions out of the way," she pumped her chest, "the great and powerful Trixie will continue with her plan."
Her eyelid twitched and she kicked the door close behind her. She opened her trunk and pulled out four long strings of barbed wire. She used her magic to carry it and to individually wrap the wire around each of Twilight's hooves. The barbed wire moved like a snake and went on the under side of the table. It tied itself in a knot, keeping its prisoner in place.
The magical mist faded from Twilight's hooves. Trixie was no longer holding her in place, but if she tried to move, the barbed wire would pierce her.
Trixie picked out a new weapon from her trunk. She took the cloth off of it, revealing that it was another knife. However, this knife was curved and had a thinner blade. She used her magic to walk it over.
She paused and stared at Twilight's terrified face. She pulled Smarty Pants out of her mouth. "Now for the next act," she snorted, "I've already done this to an entire pony's body. I'll only do it to one of your limbs, though. I'm being nice."
"Please don't!" Twilight pleaded. She had no idea what Trixie was planning and she did not want to find out.
Trixie looked at her with a smug smile on her face. She trotted to the other end of the table where she met with one of Twilight's hind legs. She placed the curved knife on an acute angle and sliced inwards into Twilight's leg.
Twilight yelped and clenched her limbs. Unfortunately, the barbed wire dug into her and she cried out in pain even more. She retracted slowly, trying to unhook the barbed wire.
Trixie jerked the knife out of Twilight. She had skinned off a huge chunk of Twilight's hind leg. She threw the slab of skin to the side like a piece of steak and continued her skinning. Each time the blade would start a new cut, Twilight would tense up, scratching herself with the barbed wire.
Moving up, down and all around, Twilight's leg was bare, save for the section around the barbed wire. The cutting was too difficult for even Trixie. Her muscles and arteries were exposed. Her limbs were sore and bleeding from the barbed wire's razor cuts. Trixie wrapped her curved knife back in the cloth.
"Looks like you scratched yourself up pretty badly," she stared at Twilight with her empty eye socket that dripped some sort of mucus-like residue, "luckily I have just what you need."
She used her magic to pull out one of the two jars of her trunk. The jar was labeled "Rubbing Alcohol." The bottle hovered over Twilight's foreleg which, just so happens, also to be the same foreleg that Trixie sliced up to mimic the same scars that she has. The jar's lid unscrewed itself in the air and tilted over. The clear liquid poured down onto Twilight's open wounds.
Twilight leaned her head back and yelled. The burning sensation seeped into her cuts. Her whole limb felt like it was on fire. She squirmed and the barbed wire dug itself deeper inside of her. Rubbing alcohol soon got on the wire and instantly went into Twilight as the cuts were made.
"Please!" Twilight begged through tears, "You have to stop this!"
"I stop nothing!" Trixie snapped back. She closed the jar and picked out the second jar. Again, she used her magic to carry it over to Twilight, except this time it hovered over Twilight's skinless hind leg. The container had a piece of painter's tape on the surface of the glass with letters on it, written with permanent marker. Trixie rotated the jar in the air so that Twilight could read the sketchy, handmade label- "Acid."
Trixie then trotted to the trunk, pulled out a glass plate and carried it on her back over to Twilight. She slid the glass plate under Twilight's hind leg.
"I wouldn't want the plastic to melt," Trixie informed, "I've already made that mistake before."
She popped the cap off. The liquid looked similar to the first jar's contents, but Twilight could tell it was not the same. It was worse.
"Wait!" Twilight tried, "don't do it!"
The blue unicorn did not want to listen. She flipped the jar completely upside down. The entire contents were emptied and splashed down on Twilight's exposed muscle tissue. The acid burned more than anything.
Twilight wiggled about, shouting obscenities, letting herself be sliced by the barbed wire over and over again. It felt like a kettle of boiling water was poured directly on her. The cartilage in her limb started to disintegrate and her muscle became scorched. She tried to kick and cry.
The fiery pain was intense. Twilight could not stop moving for the life of her. The pain and sight of her exposed muscle smoking up was atrocious enough to cause bubbling in her stomach. She felt a hot sensation moving up her esophagus.
Trixie heard the gagging sounds from Twilight and predicted that her victim was about to vomit all over the place. Trixie pulled Twilight's head back by tugging her mane with one hoof and slammed her jaw closed with the other hoof. With Trixie's hand under Twilight's chin, there was no way the vomit could be expelled.
Just then, a mixture of olive green and brown liquids seeped out from the cracks of her teeth. Chunks of digested food were blowing out of her nostrils. Trixie let go and Twilight coughed and puked all at once. It ran down her chin and along her neck. The concoction smelt of fecal matter, blocking out the aroma of Twilight's leg that was drenched in the unknown, lethal acid.
Trixie then jumped on the table. She stood over her rival and locked eyes. It was time for Trixie to continue her new tradition. She lined her horn up with Twilight's left eye.
"You don't have to do this," Twilight panted, she was completely drained. She seemed almost lifeless. With one final effort, she shut her eyelids tight and refused to open them.
Trixie used her magic to force Twilight's left eyelid open. And to make sure she would not close it again, she stretched the eyelid off her face and used one of her hooves to pick up her knife to slice off the eyelid. Twilight's voice broke as she felt her eyelid being peeled off.
Once again, she lowered her horn and aimed it right into Twilight's pupil. With a quick head butt, her horn tore into the pupil and popped through the lens. Twilight's pupil shrunk and gripped around her capturer's horn. She felt her iris squeezing tight. Trixie imitated the motion she did with Spike, and pulled her head back, yanking out Twilight's eye. The optic nerve was still attached.
Trixie then used her magic to remove the eye from her horn and insert it into the gap in her face with the nerve still linking Twilight and the eye together.
"Can you see what's inside of me," she asked Twilight, "can you see why I feel the pain that you're feeling? Of course you don't. No one does. No one understands Trixie."
She tugged on the eye until the optic nerve gave way and snapped like a rubber band that was pulled too far. Twilight shrieked out loud, her voice breaking from the constant yelling and increased pain.
She thought of her friends. How she said bye to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie- how they barely said bye back. Maybe that was the best image she had of them. Them having fun, jumping around.
Trixie tossed the eye to the side as if it were nothing. She jumped off the table and grabbed the last item from the trunk. She raised a chisel with her magic and picked her sledge hammer off the floor with her hoof. She mounted the table again and stood over the tortured Twilight.
The princess' student was looking worse than Trixie at this point. Her limbs were all cut and bleeding. Her foreleg was completely sliced up. Her hind leg looked like a raw piece of meat. Her mouth left a trail of throw up that ran down her neck. Her eye was a black hole like Trixie's.
The chisel floated right to the base of where Twilight's horn met her forehead. Her forehead still throbbed from the first assault. The chisel stiffly held itself in place as Trixie put both hooves on the hammer. She swung the hammer into the chisel. The blade dug under the horn. Trixie then dropped the hammer and grabbed the chisel's handle with both hooves and used it like a crowbar to break off Twilight's horn.
Twilight tried moving her legs in to kick off her attacker but the barbed wire was too tight. The wire started cutting veins and blood would spurt out of her.
The purple horn fell off her head. The chisel was also dropped. Trixie brushed the horn and tool off the table.
"Trixie is the best unicorn in all of Equestria," she leaned towards Twilight's face, "and Trixie always will be."
Twilight thought of her friends again. How Spike and Rarity were killed in her own home. How Fluttershy is safe back at her cottage home with her animals. How Apple Jack is at the barn staying with her family. Her tear glands squirted out their last drops. She was all dry of tears.
"Well," the arrogant Trixie smirked, "it looks like our show has to come to an end. This is the great and powerful Trixie signing off for tonight."
Her hoof picked up her trusty knife. She raised it above Twilight's chest. She stared into Twilight's empty eye socket and into her dark purple eye. She lowered the knife quickly, bursting through Twilight's sternum. The blade dug into her heart, deflating it of blood.
Blood poured out from all around the knife. It ran like a river down Twilight's body. She coughed up saliva and mucus. A second cough surfaced, this one spitting out blood. Her right eye rolled back into her head as her empty socket fizzed up with blood.
Twilight Sparkle was dead.
~
Trixie was on the balcony of Cantelot's castle. She gazed upon the moon and the stars. It has been two nights since she murdered Twilight Sparkle. She remembered dumping three black plastic bags in front of the Ursa's cave. From a safe distance she would watch the Ursa Major devour two entire bags and feed another body to her Ursa Minor.
Both of her eyes were focused on the moon. One eye actually receiving the image. The other, a darker shade of purple, looked blankly at the moon.
The balcony was high off the ground and overlooked most of Equestria. This was Trixie's final show. She was too far off in her own mind. She believed that every pony was in love with her- Wanted to be like her. She was the best of the best. All the competition was eliminated.
She was wearing Rarity's saddle bag. She slid it off her back and used her magic to open one of the pouches. Out floated Twilight's sharpened horn.
"Time to add the last one to the count," Trixie started to tear up.
She controlled the horn to hover around her neck. She placed both of her forelegs on the balcony's railing. She allowed the horn to dig into her skin, deeper than usual. The horn poked through and she quickly made a slice from one neck tendon to the other. She tore open her trachea and major arteries in the process.
After slitting her own throat, blood gushed out of her neck. She quickly used her forelegs to purposely launch herself off the balcony. It was a long drop from the bottom but she knew she would bleed out before she reached the ground. She imagined the ground as a crowd of ponies- fans that would catch her and carry her like a champion.
She managed to turn around as she fell. Her eyes were fixed on the moon. The mist of blood sprayed through the sky like a water sprinkler. In the back of her mind she heard hooves stomping, cheering and clapping. She heard a crowd of ponies applauding her. The stars and sky faded black and only the spotlight from the moon was visible.
"I am the great and powerful Trixie."
Soon, the moon faded and shrunk. It looked like a firefly that kept furthering itself from Trixie. The roar of clapping came to an end. The curtains were making their final close. The spotlight turned off.
