Sacrifice: Trixie's Lament

“Oh look, girls, it’s Trixie,” some filly said with an air of superiority about her. Her clique of three other fillies all laughed as they encircled the young unicorn.

Trixie watched from afar as two creme-colored fillies and their ringleader, a goldenrod filly, all made fun of the blue filly in the center of them. They called her names, told her lies, made fun of how she looked and talked. It was horrible and it made Trixie want to cry all over again, but she wouldn’t have the chance before the scene quickly became something completely different.

Trixie now found herself looking at a much older version of herself, but the scene was still set up the same; Trixie, though, saw herself being humiliated in Ponyville by her nemesis, Twilight Sparkle, as she defeated the Ursa Minor.

Remembering that disgraceful moment was one thing, but to actually relive it was entirely different. It was worse for Trixie. Much, much worse. For the first time, Trixie was able to see herself in pony, as she cowered from the scene. Trixie, in all of her cowardice, had finally gotten to see just how humiliated she had really been as she left Ponyville heartbroken and defeated with tears in her eyes.

“Trixie does not remember crying,” Trixie commented about herself, “Trixie remembers only how much she hates that arrogant, snobbish pony, Twilight Sparkle.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Trixie didn’t know what had happened, but she had woken up on the floor. She was huddled up in the corner, with only her wizard hat as a makeshift pillow, and her eyes all watered up. Wiping her eyes dry, Trixie looked in the mirror to see that she had been crying while she slumbered. This arose her curiosity and several questions.

Why had she been crying as she slept?

Why did her dream end up a nightmare twice over?

Dreaming of her nemesis was a nightmare in itself already, but why did she first see Ember Crown?

“Trixie is confused,” Trixie said with a bow of her head. “Does Princess Luna not even want me here?” she asked her mirror self as if it would have an answer for her. When she did not receive an answer, Trixie lowered her head and decided she should clean up before getting on with her day.

Trixie soon left her abode and stepped out into the light drizzle of rain. With a defeated sigh, she looked up at the gray clouds, then started trotting her way through Ponyville. After her nightmarish night and now the gloomy day, Trixie knew there was one way to help cheer her up. A nice cup of tea and some conversation. And who else was there to have both with and enjoy their company? Nopony else but Fluttershy herself.

Trudging through the muddy square, Trixie kept her eyes on the road. She did not want to look at anypony else since they were all giving her mean looks. She knew why they did so, but sometimes she wished they wouldn’t.

Trixie has only herself to blame. Trixie thought to herself as she found herself away from Ponyville Square, closing in on the cottage. The cacophony of animal sounds let Trixie know she was very close now and when she came upon the bridge, she saw Fluttershy chasing around a group of squirrels, then a flock of birds, and even then, a bear. What was going on today?

“Umm, Fluttershy?” Trixie cocked her head as the yellow Pegasus chased around a white bunny, Angel, as Trixie knew him.

Fluttershy did not answer Trixie back because she was too busy pulling out a splinter from the bear’s paw. But after she had, she gave the mare her full attention, smile and all.

“Oh, hello, Trixie. What brings you here today?” Fluttershy asked, floating her way over to Trixie.

“Hello, Fluttershy,” Trixie greeted kindly, “Trixie was wondering if she and you might have tea together?”

“Of course we can, Trixie. When?”

“Now, if possible. Trixie would also like conversation,” Trixie told her, hoping for the best as she tried to hide the uncertainty in her voice and the fact that she was beginning to have second thoughts on whether or not she wanted Fluttershy’s company.

~*~*~*~*~*~

After spending a good couple of hours with Fluttershy, enjoying tea with the mare and talking to her about what was on Trixie’s mind, Trixie felt relieved. An amazing thing, if Trixie should say so herself. Which she did, thoughtfully.

“Now that Trixie feels so much better, what shall she do today?” Trixie said, talking only to herself and the empty air around her. With the sound of thunder off in the distance, Trixie looked up at the gray clouds and shook her head. Trixie was not going to let the dank day ruin her for a second time.

A loud gasp made Trixie jump and spin around to see what had made the noise, but when she looked and saw nothing, Trixie shrugged and went on her way back towards her wagon. Trixie got about five steps in before she heard that same whimsical sound again. And for a second time, Trixie looked behind her only to find blank space.

“Err… Trixie must be imagining things,” Trixie concluded before trotting away once again.

“It is you!” A squeaky voice squealed, causing Trixie to trip over her own two front hooves and catch herself in a puddle of mud.

Jumping to her hooves and spinning around, Trixie looked down and stared at a pair of cyan eyes looking right back at her. Trixie raised a brow at the filly and went to say something when she was cut off by the child’s excitement.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie. It really is you!” the filly yipped, bouncing up and down gleefully.

“Uhh,” Trixie reared back as she stared at the little pony and wiped the mud off from her face. “And who are you?” Trixie asked.

“Your number one fan!” the pony shouted, now smiling so big that Trixie thought her face was going to freeze in place.

“Number one fan?” Trixie wiped more mud from herself, then grinned and puffed out her chest. “Trixie is pleased to hear that you are a fan of hers. So what is Trixie’s fan’s name?”

“I am the Awesome and Mighty Aurora!” The little pony excitedly introduced herself, her tiny horn glowing a brilliant plum tinge just before smoke exploded all around her and a bouquet of flowers fell on top of her head.

Trixie covered her mouth and let out a meek giggle at Aurora’s introduction, then quickly recomposed herself before Aurora saw her. “Trixie is pleased to meet you, Aurora.” No! Trixie is not pleased to meet some wannabe!

“I can’t believe I get to meet you. I am so happy!” Aurora squealed. “Where have you been?”

Trixie has been hiding out after her nemesis disgraced her. “Trixie has been travelling all over Equestria, showing ponies and griffons alike just how Great and Powerful she is!”

“Really? So you’ve been to other places?” Aurora’s cyan eyes grew twice their size, nearly meeting how big her smile was, as she listened to her hero speak.

“Of course Trixie has been to other places other than Ponyville. How else would she spread her name?” Trixie said haughtily. “Now if you’ll excuse Trixie, she must be going.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll come with you!” Aurora responded invitingly.

“No, no. Trixie needs to prepare herself for her next show,” Trixie declined, trotting away.

Aurora stopped and cocked her head, her smiling dimming. “Oh, okay. Are you playing here in Ponyville?” she asked her idol.

“Of course. Why else would Trixie travel all this way to Ponyville?” she answered back as she faded away into the distance.

Once Trixie returned home she closed the door, then tossed her hat and cape onto her bed and snarled and grumbled as she plopped down onto it herself.

“Trixie traveled all the way back to this dump to exact her revenge on the one who humiliated her in the first place,” she muttered, but she soon closed her eyes and sighed heavily with resent. No. Trixie returned to Ponyville to change her ways and become a better pony! she reminded herself.

/~/~/~/~/~/

“Behold! The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to show you all her great and powerful magic!” Trixie proclaimed with zest. In her blue magical aura she held a deck of cards which she then rotated and spread out for the small crowd of ponies to see. “As you can all see, these cards are real and not fake,” she said to them, letting each of them see that there was indeed only one type of card for each of the four suits; no doubles or specially marked at all. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will now ask for a volunteer. Anypony want to participate?”

The crowd looked between each other silently, none too enthused to at least humor the show mare whose infamy they knew from only a couple of years ago. Trixie, as if she could taste the stale air that was now around her, began to have doubts. She was even having second thoughts now, on the inside.

“I’ll do it!” a rather high-pitched and very excited pony shouted.

“Huh?” Trixie shook her head and looked down at the space in front of her stage. When she had done so, Trixie came eye-to-eye with a young colt who had the brightest lights in his big ash grey eyes and such a bright smile that Trixie thought she might need sunglasses so as not to be blinded.

“Anypony at all? Trixie is asking only for three volunteers,” she repeated a second time while she scanned through the crowd of ten to twelve ponies.

“Me! Me! I’ll do it!” the colt shouted as he flailed his tiny hoof in the air high above his head.

What is this? A wax museum? Trixie thought to herself as she began to get irritated. “Nopony?” She glanced over the small group of twenty before sighing and looking back down at the colt who was all too exuberant in making it clear to her that he wanted to volunteer.

They can’t all still be holding a grudge against Trixie, can they? She wondered while she helped the colt up on stage with her magic. “So be it. what is your name?”

“I’m Onyx Shine, the strongest colt this side of Las Pegasus!” Onyx Shine’s accent was befitting of his attitude. From her travels, Trixie decided that he must actually be from Manehattan, not Las Pegasus. But what did she know? Las Pegasus was one of the few places she had not been able to go to yet.

“All right, Onyx Shine, Trixie wants you to pick a card!” Trixie told the colt as she levitated the deck down to him so he could pick from it. Onyx Shine’s eyes scrolled through all fifty-two cards until he found one he liked. “And after you have done so, take it but do not tell Trixie, or let her see it,” Trixie commanded, and he obeyed. "Now return it to the deck." She told him, he did so.

Trixie, using her magic, shuffled the deck five times over before she closed her eyes. “Now watch as the Great and Powerful Trixie proves her magic is the best by revealing which card this young pony has chosen!” Trixie projected her voice so that all could hear, even those just passing by in the distance, before she drew a card: “Is this your card?” she asked as she flipped the card around to reveal the two of clubs in black.

Onyx Shine’s eyes grew and his jaw dropped.  “It is! It is!” He jumped up and down with joy. “Do another trick!”

Like what? Tape your mouth shut? Trixie laughed to herself at the thought. “Well, it just so happens that Trixie does have one more trick that requires a volunteer.”

“Ooh, really? What is it, what is it?” Onyx Shine was shaking with excitement and curiosity.

“Ah, ah. One volunteer per trick,” Trixie informed him just as she surrounded him in her aura and placed him back down in front of the stage. “Trixie shall now perform a trick that only the greatest have ever accomplished. Trixie shall now—”

“—Conjure up an Ursa Minor!” somepony else blathered out. Trixie was caught off-guard by the sudden interruption but as fast as Rainbow Dash could clear the sky, she recovered.

“Who dares interrupt the Great and Powerful Trix—”

“—Still as loud as ever. And even more annoying than ever too.”

The crowd of ponies all stepped aside, parting like the royal red carpet had just been rolled out for Princess Celestia’s arrival, giving Trixie a clear view of the offending pony responsible for disrupting her magic show.

Goldenrod yellow fur shined lusciously against the sunlight while pomegranate red highlights stole the spotlight on a bowl-cut, punk rock mane-do wrapped around a pair of chocolate brown eyes. The mare stepped up with one hoof in front of the other and nose turned up to the sky as if to say, ‘I am above you’. The adorned silver septum piercing in her nose caught Trixie’s eye as did the three bronze hoops in the newcomer’s upper left ear. Trixie blinked when she finally recognized who this unicorn was.

It can’t be! Trixie screamed. Aside from the dyed mane, the piercings, and the black hoodie, she could not mistake who was standing only five feet before her now. Ember?

“Don’t look so surprised, pudgy,” Ember Crown said with a grin as her horn lit up wine-bottle green and tore down the banner that was raised above Trixie’s head on stage before crumpling it up and setting it on fire, then dropping it right in front of the show mare.

“Pudgy?” Trixie’s glare sharpened. How dare she insinuate that Trixie is pudgy! “Long time, no see, cretin,” Trixie responded in kind to watching her banner finally simmer and die out.

By now the audience had taken off so that they were not in the middle of whatever may happen now that two long-time rivals had reunited. Everypony except for Onyx Shine, that was. The colt found the show before his eyes exciting.

“Cretin”? Is that the best you have, fake?”

Pudgy? Now fake? Trixie will not stand for this! “You are the fake, Ember! Trixie is the real deal!” she defended, hopping offstage and stomping right up to the mannerless unicorn. Not backing down but rather meeting Trixie halfway, the two mares pressed muzzles together as they both snarled and hissed and shot daggers at each other.

“I’m the fake? You’re a real winner, Meek and Powerless Billboard,” Ember Crown answered Trixie hatefully. Trixie felt her nerves being ground against the grind wheel, but being just as brazen and brash as her fillyhood rival, wouldn’t be defeated.

“Don’t talk like you know what you’re saying, Ember. You half-witted hag!”

“Say that again, pudgy. I dare you!” Ember hissed.

“Half-witted… Hag,” Trixie repeated.

Ember Crown headbutted Trixie, then blasted her with a quick magic missile and hurled the magician back against the front of her stagecoach. Trixie bit her tongue as a searing heat rolled throughout her back, but being so hyped up on adrenaline, Trixie threw herself back onto her hooves and stomped one, hard. Unphased by the supposed show of muscle, Ember Crown smirked.

“Trixie will not be stood up by some peasant!” Trixie stomped before charging up her horn and unleashing a powerful magic blast. Believing that the spell was weaker than it looked, Ember Crown shot a blast of her own from her horn only for it to be swallowed whole by Trixie’s.

“What!” Ember Crown shrilled, wide-eyed and stunned. She took the full force of Trixie’s magic and skidded across the dirty ground until she came to a rolling stop thanks to a violet aura catching her.

“What is going on here?” a familiar voice demanded. Trixie blinked when she heard the annoying pitch of that purple mare. When Ember Crown opened her eyes and set them upon the alicorn who had just touched down between herself and Trixie, she got an idea and aptly forced tears from her eyes.

“Oh, Princess Twilight! It’s horrendous! I came here to see my old friend, Trixie, perform,” Ember Crown sobbed, professionally making a show of struggling to get back onto her hooves before she limped towards the Princess of Friendship, “and she attacked me! She indiscriminately attacked me!”

“She what?” Twilight Sparkle’s head snapped towards Trixie, the real injured mare in this situation, and narrowed her eyes. “Trixie, what reason do you have to simply attack one of your friends?”

Trixie stumbled back, scoffing both at the lie Ember Crown had spun so quickly and at Twilight accusing her of being the hostile pony. “Trixie did no such thing!” she argued honestly. “Trixie did not attack her—she attacked Trixie first. Trixie was simply defending herself! And she is not Trixie’s friend! Not even if Nightmare Moon were to rise again!”

Ignoring Trixie’s supposed tale, Twilight Sparkle walked up to Ember Crown and bowed her head low. “As the Princess of Friendship, and princess of Ponyville, I sincerely apologize for your rude welcoming. I also apologize for one of my students attacking you without probable cause or legal reason. As my token of apology, allow me to set you up in our finest inn.”

Looking past the bowed princess and straight at Trixie, Ember Crown’s sobbing vanished and a devilish grin took its place. If Trixie hadn’t known better she would have thought that Ember Crown was spitting in her eye, which she pretty much was at this point.

“I humbly accept your apology, Princess Twilight,” Ember said as she reverted back to the victim. “I find your offer commendable, but I must respectfully decline. You see, I will not be staying long. I was just passing through to visit Trixie here when,” she stopped, sticking her bottom lip out as she gave Twilight her best pouting impersonation.

“Yes, I understand. Until Trixie...” Trixie cringed at how vile Twilight seemed to be when mentioning her name, even shooting her another disappointed glare, before returning her attention back to Ember Crown.

“Princess, in return, I simply ask that you teach your student a lesson. Make her understand how wrong it is to attack defenseless ponies. Make her see that she cannot possibly make friends with such a spiteful attitude,” Ember Crown told Twilight before she started to walk away, the limp in her gait evident.

Trixie will show her defenseless and spiteful. Trixie thought to herself before she snapped out of it by Twilight clearing her throat, loudly. “You didn’t actually believe her, did you, Twilight Sparkle?”

“As a matter of fact, I did, Trixie,” Twilight replied. “And as for you, we are going to have a talk.”

“Sorry, Twilight, but Trixie has to clean up and get ready for her next show—”

In a flash of light Trixie rubbed furiously at her eyes, then looked around her in shock. Twilight had teleported both herself and Trixie straight to Twilight’s castle, the throne room, to be exact, from what Trixie saw when she laid her eyes upon the round table surrounded by six tall-backed chairs, each embroidered with the Cutie Mark of Twilight and her five friends, and one shorter one right next to Twilight's own just for her greatest assistant, Spike.

“—Trixie demands she be returned to her stagecoach at once!” Trixie shouted at Twilight angrily.

“Not until we’ve had a talk, Trixie,” Twilight denied, furling her wings against her back and walking past Trixie and over to a smaller table that had a large beanbag chair at one end of it and pillows around the other sides. Twilight sat on the beanbag and motioned for Trixie to sit across from her.

“You can’t be serious,” Trixie gagged. Twilight looked at her indifferently and tapped her hoof on the top of the table twice before laying it back down on her chair. Trixie gulped and choked on her next breath before she joined the alicorn.

“What happened, Trixie?” Twilight questioned.

“She attacked Trixie!” Trixie shouted immediately. “And Ember Crown is not Trixie’s friend like she lied!”

“Trixie, this is no laughing manner. You attacked that mare. I watched you take a swing at her!” Twilight accused. “That isn’t how you’re going to learn from my friends and I, Trixie.”

“How do you know about that?” Trixie cried out as her heart dropped.

“Trixie, my friends and I don’t keep secrets. They told me why you came back to Ponyville,” Twilight answered back, letting the topic change for a moment, “but if you keep doing things like this then we may not be able to help you, let alone you help yourself.”

Trixie stood up and snapped her tail from side-to-side. Twilight Sparkle still thought that Trixie was to blame. That was preposterous! “Trixie has heard enough. If you don’t want to believe her, that is fine with Trixie!” Trixie then took her leave, loudly, flaring her nostrils and snorting ragefully.

“Well that went… Well,” Twilight mumbled. “Maybe I was too hard on her?”

/~/~/~/~/~/

Trixie couldn’t take it anymore. After leaving Twilight’s castle and making her way back to her wagon, Trixie was seething like nopony had ever seen before. From disregarding the looks she got from ponies she trudged past to saying how she couldn’t wait to teach Ember Crown a lesson, Trixie was not going to calm down so easily now, nor did she want to. She needed to vent, to rage out and get it off of her chest, and as she approached her stagecoach she was seriously contemplating just heading straight to Fluttershy’s place, but that thought burned down like her banner had earlier. Trixie was not only mad at her rival, but now she was vexed at Twilight and her friends; the ones that were also Trixie’s so-called friends too.

How dare they use Trixie!Trixie thought they were her friends! Trixie’s thought steamed and boiled as she slammed the door shut behind her and she found herself on her bed, face down in a pillow, crying rivers.

And as Trixie cried the rest of her afternoon away, her thoughts fell silent on a mere three words:

I trusted them...