Illuminating Aegis: Tales of the Changeling King

Trixie Lulamoon, former stage magician and travelling showpony... The Great and Powerful Trixie... that was what she called herself at one point, life was good... in a way, she had money, she had food, she even had her cart. What did she have now? nothing.

The light-blue unicorn grit her teeth as she sat on the curb of some street in Hoofington whose name she hadn't bothered to learn. Tears stung at her eyes as she tried to think of what to do, she couldn't even get booked for a children's party in order to attempt to pay for repairs to her cart. She let out a sigh as she reached into the shoulder-slung bag hanging at her side. "Who am I kidding... I'd have to buy a whole new cart..." She muttered as she pulled out a glass bottle. She examined the cap of the bottle for a few seconds before she began to look for a window sill or something of the sort, it was only a few seconds before she stood outside the window of a closed antique shop with the cap of the bottle hooked against the ledge of the windowsill.

The ex-performer gently placed the bottom of her right fist on top of the cap to aim before she brought it up and sharply back down. A dull thud later the cap popped off the bottle as the mare looked at the fresh bottle of booze in her left hand. "Lets see how the last of my savings taste..." She groaned with a slight grimace as she brought the bottle to her lips. A single mouthful later her face twisted into a deeper frown as she fought the urge to let the bile in her throat out. "Tastes like farm..." once she felt like she wasn't going to lose what little she had eaten that day she brought the bottle to her mouth again.

|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|

When Trixie regained her senses she let out a groan, though something was off. She wasn't laying on the cold ground, she was in a bed... and she was in a robe. The light-blue mare shot into a sitting position, only to bring her hand to her head as she felt a spike of pain shoot through her head.

"You are in quite the predicament..." A smooth baritone spoke from just outside her field of view. "...You've lost everything, but here you have a very rare opportunity."

"W-what... what are you talking about?" Trixie groaned as she turned to see a robed figure in the doorway of the modest-looking guest room. As her vision starts to get sharper she noticed him hold out a strange amulet.

"This artifact is called the Alicorn Amulet..." The winged-unicorn design of the gunmetal-grey iron surrounding a brilliant red gem certainly did draw her attention. "...It was crafted in an age long-past, the process of creating it is only known to three individuals. This tool was made specifically to amplify your magic, no matter which tribe you're part of."

"Yes...?" Trixie prompted, leaning forward a bit as she was hooked on his words.

"I will give this amulet to you, I will teach you how to use your new powers, and in return... I only ask that you absolutely destroy that wench, Twilight Sparkle." The stallion growled.

Trixie gasped once she realized what was being asked of her and her eyes drifted down to the Amulet again. Her muzzle curled into a sinister smile that seemed to somehow reveal the new elation that rose in her chest. "I'm game." She replied simply as she saw her reflection in the mirror-like sheen of the red gem.

|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|

Deep underground, deeper even than she suspected most diamond dogs dared to dig, Trixie let out a yelp of pain as a feedback burst from her magic... no, The Dark Side struck across her arms and sent lightning-webbed scars up the length of both arms. Fortunately for her the scars were light and would heal over in a matter of hours, as she learned from the first few days of being exposed to such energy, but each time the patterns seemed to have a favorite design and thus the scars started to heal a bit slower. The being across from her though... not so fortunate. Tears streamed from the face of a unicorn that was far more pale than her original yellow color had indicated, her vibrant orange mane seemed to have grayed quite a bit. She was curled in the fetal position whimpering as every movement of her body, even the involuntary ones, caused her pain as each muscle twitched like her life depended on it.

"Pathetic..." Sombra growled as he looked at the stunned disciple in front of him. "You aren't focusing, your anger is your weapon... visualize this mare to be Twilight Sparkle, let her taste your wrath. If you waver in your will the Dark Side will swallow you whole and you will be left as nothing but an empty husk of what you once were. Do you want that to happen?" He lifted the light-blue mare by one of her wrists and noticed that she was more than a little concussed from the feedback. "Dammit... She'll lose herself to the amulet if she stays like this..." He lifted her up and hefted her over his shoulder. A small, hopeful thought crossed his mind when he idly noticed that she was definitely a little heavier than when she had passed out drunk in the fake antique shop he was running.

He used his magic to move food to his prisoner and checked her horn-restraint idly before he took his several-greats-granddaughter out of the training room and into the rather large cavernous room that looked like something Spas would dream of becoming. The bath area was constantly run using natural heat vents to keep the water at a fairly even temperature and fresh, a gentle waterfall of warm water mimicked a shower that they could use when needed and he had added several bits of greenery  and artificial lighting to be a surface away from the sun. He sighed as he set Trixie down on one of the vacant seats he had molded out of stone before he went to search for several cleaning supplies.

Satisfied that he had everything he began to strip down, moving on to Trixie when he had finished with himself. He carried the cleaning supplies in a crimson-colored aura as he carried Trixie in his arms over to the warm bath area. He gently set her into the water, letting it come up to just below the top of her breasts before he took the brush out of his magical grip and began to scrub away the grime and dirt that clung to the light blue mare's coat with a blush across his nose that he would only ever admit was because of the warm water.

|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|

Trixie hummed a little as she started to wake up, her whole body was wrapped in an absolutely amazing warmth as just about every inch felt like she just received the best spa treatment in her life. Her eyes began to open slowly so that she could get used to the light when she realized just why she felt so good. She almost screamed in rage... almost... if he hadn't hit that one absolutely heavenly spot on the inside of her right thigh with the coat brush within seconds of her vision focusing.

"You need to take better care of yourself..." Sombra grumbled as he continued to brush down her leg without taking his eyes off of his hands. "She never needs to know..." he thought to himself as he grit his teeth while he tried to resist the urge to compliment her body. "Your hooves are cracked and your coat is caked in almost an entire year's worth of muck. I don't care if you used to travel a lot, you should still have found a stream every so often and cleaned yourself thoroughly."

Trixie went from complete bliss to a very uncharacteristic shyness as she wrapped her arms over her bare chest. The blush that formed on her muzzle only increased as she let her eyes trail over his form, tracing each inch of every white and red scar that lined his arms and chest, she could only guess that he had more on his back but she didn't dare ask to see. "I'm sorry..." She squeaked out, feeling like she was being chastised by her pa-... mother... once again.

"Don't be sorry. Be sure to check your hooves for damage, I can't be around to clean you, clothe you and feed you every time you fall unconscious." The ebony unicorn stallion replied as he moved the brush down her legs. His ears twitched as he picked up the almost-silent gasp she let out once his brush met her hoof. With a small nod he moved her right leg away and got up, giving her a very generous view of what he had to work with before taking his place on her other side and began to work on her other leg. "Once you can use your lighting without the feedback burst we'll start on saber techniques." He explained as he moved the brush in short, round strokes.

"Yes, master..." She replied quietly as she tried to keep her eyes off of the very muscled stallion that was giving her admittedly-thin frame more than just a little TLC. "Why? why is he hesitating...? Does he not like me? Perhaps... it's something else... or...-" Her thoughts were interrupted as he brushed a particularly sensitive spot right behind her knee and forced her to let out an involuntary moan of pleasure. The two of them seemed frozen in time as she brought both of her hands up to her mouth in embarrassment. Her wide eyes and pinprick pupils drifted towards the equally wide-eyed stallion as the brush had stopped mid-stroke at the sudden interruption.

The two of them stayed like that for several minutes before he started to brush her again, avoiding the back of her knee as he continued with the treatment. Once finished with her legs he shifted position so that both of her hooves were in his lap as he levitated the coat brush away from the bath and grabbed the hoof file. She bit her lip as he gently used his thumb to massage the frog of her hoof as he filed away at her left hoof first, then the right. The silence continued between them until he used his magic to pass her the mane-brush.

"Run it through each section of your mane Fifty times, it will make sure that you have anything that isn't your mane out and you will look much more presentable when you style it." The stallion explained before he got up to make his way over to the waterfall.

"How do you know so much about stuff like this?" Trixie blurted in confusion as she sat up, exposing her chest to the slightly-cold air.

It took Sombra a few seconds to respond. "When I was prince of the Crystal Empire, I had to learn these things because back then... before I found the power of the Dark Side, the castle staff was far more busy tending to my older sister and were stretched thin across the castle. I had one of my sister's hoofmaidens teach me so that I wouldn't have to use up unnecessary resources."

She watched him walk over to the waterfall, giving her a good look at his heavily-scarred back, before she finally started running the brush through her mane and counted each stroke. Her mind drifted a bit as she said the number of strokes aloud, it drifted to scenes that she would never share to anyone, many of which brought a deeper blush to her cheeks.

...One of which actually involved the mare that was the focus of her hate... That one was a fantasy that she would take to the grave, not even Luna would pry it from her mind...

Training would proceed similarly along the next month... though the ex-performer noticed that Sombra was sharing the bath with her more and more often, offering to groom her (either out of courtesy or some other reason, she still had yet to figure out which.) and sent her mind into such bliss that she knew all it would take was one wrong move for her to accidentally make a new mess that she would have to clean up. While she was focused completely in-training, since she didn't want a repeat of the feedback burst again, whenever she had free time that wasn't dedicated to study she would find her mind wandering to the dark stallion that was so much more gentle than he let on.

"Perhaps... Perhaps tomorrow..." she hesitatingly promised herself as she walked towards the spa-bath and noticed the dark stallion already standing in the ankle-deep water under the waterfall, even from so far away she could see how well he groomed himself when he had the chance.