Darkness. That was all Trixie could see in the bleak, humid, swamp she ran into. The air was hot, heavy, and every pore in her skin felt like it was discharging enough sweat to drown herself in. The night was dark, the moonlight barely peeking through the closed canopy of the trees above, her legs sloshed through the dank sludge of the mud and murky water beneath her, staining the bottom of her dress with the brown of filth and muck. Her hand trembled in anger, fists clenched, and nails biting into the palm of her hand hard enough to almost draw blood.
It all started so simply. She rode in on an unassuming town, thinking they'd be another fast way to earn a few extra bits. She made sure to add a little bit of flair to her act, and definitely win the crowd over like it was no big deal. She pulled out her usual acts, magical finesse, bright lights, a tale of her awesome endeavors throughout the land. Surely noone would get into a huge ruckus over her arrival, and she planned to skip town as soon as the bits stopped flowing. But that all changed when she came by, ruining her image, making her look the biggest fool in the entirety of Equestria. Maybe having those two dimwitted boys awake an angry Ursa Major didn't help, As she knew daring to cross that was suicide in it's own right, but surely being driven out of town wasn't the proper punishment.
She told herself that over and over, it was supposed to be easy. Maybe she didn't get driven out of town so much as make a hasty retreat into the nearby Everfree, and maybe she couldn't exactly live up to her own haughty tales, but surely noone could blame her for trying to make an honest living? Surely a backwater town like that knows that a woman has to do a little extra if she wants to make it into the show business.
Trixie sniffled, wiping her hand across her ear strewn face. Maybe she was over reacting, maybe she should stop and go back before she ventures too far and won't be found again. But what point was there to go back? Her cart? That was destroyed by the giant bear that roared into town, and all her belongings but the clothes on her back and the little amount of bits in her pocket.
She stopped her trudging to look around her area. The calls of the animals went silent, and a chill ran up Trixie's back. Something wasn't right. She could feel something wrong. It wasn't a life or death feeling, as one would get when they feel stalked by a predator. No this feeling was different. It wasn't normal. It wasn't human, or animal.
It was simply wrong.
She turned on her heel ready to sprint back the way she came, but found only a mass of vines. She turned again, only to see the pitch black swamp before her. She stumbled a bit and tripped, falling onto her hands and knees into he murky swamp. She groaned in disgust, beginning to pick herself up, when her hand brushed against a stony object.
Rising to her feet, she looked down upon it, seeing the faint outline of what appeared to be the top half of a skull. Looking closer, she noticed that it had a gray, stony appearance, weathered, and had quite a bit of dirt in one of the eye sockets. Intrigued, and with that wrong feeling growing even stronger inside her, she bent down tentatively to pick it up. She tapped it once, afraid it might burn her, and tapped it again, before grasping it in her hand and lifting it up for a closer look.
All the while, that feeling of dread and despair just conitnued growing, until it was gnawing at her very bones. Her hand trambled, afraid and confused. But her eyes would not leave the relic in her hands. She brought it closer, watching with a hypnotic stare as some of the dirt in the eye fell out on the ground, leaving it exposed.
The eye was dark. Too dark. Almost as if nothing, not even color, light, or anything could escape it. It was pure black, pitch dark. And all of it was making her even more afraid. she felt she shouldn't hold it. It was wrong. It couldn't, no, shouldn't exist. he gazed deeper, finding she couldn't look away from the eye of the evil mask in her hand.
Then the pain came.
An almost unrelenting throb of pain exploded in Trixie's head with the force of a runaway train. She fell to her knees, her other hand grasping at the side of her head as if to pull the pain out of it. Her other hand continued to clutch the mask, almost as if she was unable to even release the vile thing. Her eyes burned, hot tears cascading down her face once more, but even still, they couldn't tear away from the abyssal sight of the mask. A range of emotions flooded through her, emotions she shouldn't even have needed to feel at that point. boiling rage turned to jubilation, then turned to a deep sadness, then towards comfort, as if in the arms of a lover, then it faulted back to rage, fear, loathing.
And suddenly, as quick as it came, it left. Along with the dreaded feelings and dark abysmal thought. Her head didn't even have a trace of pain left inside, no longer hurting from the great assault a mere moment before. She picked herself up, still holding the mask, and smiled. Something clicked in her head, and a new thought entered Trixie's mind.
"There's nothing that can stop me with this" She thought, gazing much more tenderly towards the mask, which almost seemed to be humming in her hand. "Whatever power is inside of this, it's going to be mine. All of it. And the little whore won't be able to stop me this time. Perhaps I should summon upon this mask's will? Mayhaps release it upon the world and control it?
She didn't question where those thoughts even came from, but she knew two things. She was going to need others to follow her. Convince them to help her complete the ritual needed to unlock the spirit within.
And she knew nothing was going to stop her from acheiving the greatest fame in Equestria.
She turned on her heel back towards the enclosed vines, staring as they slowly slithered like snakes aside to show her the path out. She grinned Devilishly, relishing in her newfound discovery. Dawn was just beginning to rise above the treeline, the sky turning a blaze of purple and orange, shedding more light upon the dirtied woman, whose slender figure made way through the slowly lightening swamp. The cranes shrieked in outrage in the distance, the crows crying above her as she slowly walked out of the swamp of nightmares. The sun rose steadily, and when she finally emerged in the morning sun, dirtied and looking absolutely disgusting, All Trixie could think of was the future.
