B-sides and Rarities

Apologetic? Maybe.

Who Trixie tries to cheat? Apologetic? More like “humiliated”. Just like before. Just like for the whole Trixie’s life. It’s not even about Sparkle. Trixie’s parents, kids from school, teachers… Nopony ever looked at Trixie in a way other than a laughingstock. Even the fans… Or at least what Trixie thought was fans… One mistake and it was over.

Since the day Trixie crawled out of her mother’s womb… Humiliation after humiliation. Failure after failure. Sticks and stones, torches and pitchforks. Someone once said that Equestria is a land of friendship. Well, not for Trixie.

But now, Trixie will show them. She just needs to do that the Twilight Sparkle way. Slowly and methodically. Meticulous planning, yes, that’s important. There’s a spell for that, Trixie knows. Princess Celestia used it. But there are also other ways. More difficult, but it’s even better. What is fun in an easy way? Sparkle needed Princess Celestia. Trixie will need nopony. Just like nopony seems to need Trixie.

Okay, time to focus. Meticulous planning. Meticulous. Systematic. Good organisation. Just like Sparkle. Knife? Check. Chisel? Check Pills? Check. Glue? Check. Nails? Check. Ethanol? Check.

Check, check, check and check. Just like Sparkle. There’s no room for even the slightest error.

Everything is ready. Trixie wrote all the instructions on the walls, just in case. Paper wouldn’t be appropriate. It’s too easy to accidentally destroy it. Time for pills. Not too much. Trixie needs a clear mind. This won’t hurt too much. Of course, it’ll hurt a bit, but, as Trixie said, what is fun in an easy way?

Aargh! More pills? No, not yet. It’s all right. Trixie is fine. Once it’s done, she won’t need pills anymore. The first drops fall to the floor. It’s not important. Time for a chisel. Slowly. Any rush can be detrimental.

It’s good Trixie can use magic. Her hooves would be too shaky for such a delicate job. Ethanol, yes. It’s important to be clean. How can earth ponies live without magic? No wonder none of them got that idea. It tingles. But it means that it works. It’d be stupid to get sick at the moment of the greatest triumph. No one would take the Great and Powerful Trixie seriously. Trixie levitates the chisel…

Snap! Who’d say carving is so hard? Trixie’s vision blurs for a moment. Snap! Snap! Trixie needs a hammer. And glue. And more pills. Where was that book? Oh, there’s no book. Trixie wouldn’t risk destroying it. There’s a drawing on the wall. Glue that together. Tie this with that. Pull that. Aargh! Pain. So much pain. But Trixie is strong. Trixie will withstand it.

Pull that out. It doesn’t hurt anymore. Good. Trixie bets Sparkle wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t dare. One more pill. Just one. And some ethanol. Trixie knows that it’s for external use only, but she just has to. Sparkle wouldn’t dare. She may have magic, but she’s not strong enough.

Snap! It doesn’t hurt. Trixie’s magic flickers. Time for the second one. Where’s the knife? Here? When did Trixie put it here? Nevermind. It’s all getting to an end. Just one quick motion. Good. No one will ever say that Trixie is weak. Not after that. Another quick move. It needs to be precise. One error and even magic won’t be able to fix it. Aargh!

Okay. It’s okay. It’d be better if the room stopped spinning. Magic. It still works. Hooves don’t work. Really, poor earth ponies. Once Trixie’s done, she’ll do something about them. What’s that smell? Eww. Trixie’s not gonna mention it to anypony. She bets anyone would do that in her situation, but still it’s kinda… eww. The world is spinning. It’s getting darker in the room. Magic. Nice blue light. Time to grit teeth and finish that.

One stitch, then another. Just like that Sparkle’s friend… Rarity? Yes, Rarity. She’d pass out if she saw that. Trixie’s stitches are that good; not to mention the fabric. Trixie bets she’d never worked with a fabric so delicate… So soft. That’s almost perverse…

Let’s try to stand up… Whoa! Wet floor. The whole floor is slippery. Not surprising. There’s so much left… Some fell off. Trixie needs to sew it back before she puts it on…

That reminds Trixie. Time for some gluing and screwing. But first… Snap! Ouch! Snap! Okay, it’s okay. Trixie will fix it once she’s done, but now she has to hold it… Nothing can fall off. It’d be bad. Snap! No! No rolling on the floor! Snap!

Inhale. Exhale. Did Trixie pass out? Impossible. More magic. More pills. Where are they? WHERE ARE THEY?

What was the next point of the instructions? It should be on that wall… Where are the walls? Trixie can’t see. Where’s that glue… and the screwdriver… Aargh… it hurts so much. Oh, here it is. Magic. More magic. Just put it together… there will be time for corrections later… After first tests… Inhale. Exhale.

Trixie wonders what’ll Sparkle say when she sees that. What the others will say. Oh, they’ll regret that they laughed at Trixie… And then they’ll scream.

Not all of them, of course. Trixie… is not… vengeful… Twilight Sparkle is okay. She humiliated Trixie, but she’s not bad. She’ll just… see… Trixie and… tell that… Trixie is the greatest… and the most… powerful…

Aargh… Magic. It should be better soon. The magic will be far beyond the limits… Without that stupid amulet… Everyone will see… Everyone will know what Trixie did… And they’ll… ouch…

It… it works. It really works! Trixie’s getting lighter… Nothing hurts anymore. It’s getting better. And Trixie feels so wonderful… So warm. Is Trixie flying already? Maybe not, but soon…

Soon, Trixie will fly…

“What a mess…” Riot Control muttered, entering the room. The smell alone was enough for a couple of younger guards to lose the lunch. Trying not to step into one of the puddles on the floor, he approached Front Kick, who was reading the inscriptions on the walls.

“Fascinating…” Front Kick muttered. “She planned all that…”

“She?” Riot Control looked at the body in the middle of the room unsurely. “Are you trying to tell me that it wasn’t some insane sect or something?”

“No,” Front Kick replied. “There are her hoofprints everywhere. She did that to herself.”

“Sweet Celestia…” Riot Control shook his head. “Was she… crazy or something?”

“Definitely,” Front Kick replied. “Though the guys are placing bets whether it was bleeding out that killed her or those painkillers.”

“I bet Dr. Tulp will get crazy…” said Riot Control, watching the drawing on the wall. “It looks like an illustration from some anatomy handbook. I guess he’ll whine how inaccurate her… design is.”

“Maybe,” Front Kick muttered, his eyes focused on a body. “I wonder what she was trying to do? Alicornise herself?”

“Is that even a word?” Riot Control winced, looking at the unicorn mare. Large flaps of her skin were peeled off her sides, revealing that her ribs were snapped, exposing the organs. Riot Control began to wonder where they were, but he didn’t have to think about that for long.

Sewn to the mare’s back, was a pair of large, grotesque wings made of bloodied skin attached to a scaffolding made of ribs.