It began as a nightmare, then it became a reality.

Two very long years have passed since the events of “Magic Duel". While everything seems to be in order in Equestria again, things have long since been downhill for one unicorn, who 24 months ago had had the entire city of Ponyville underneath her bare hooves... at least for a while.

The unicorn's name is Trixie Lulamoon. She used to be a traveling performer, who always called herself "The Great and Powerful Trixie" every time she appeared on stage or in the middle of a crowd. Everywhere she went, she would attempt to entertain other ponies with cheap parlor magic tricks; sometimes her climax would be to teleport behind the audience, while other times she would tell her phony tale about how she had defeated the Ursa-minor. She would also go around and gloat about how she is the most magically gifted unicorn in all of Equestria. However, as she continued to put on shows as she traveled throughout most of Equestria, other ponies were starting to get tired of her persistent boasting and degrading. As a result, her shows became less popular, and more ponies started to hate the young mare altogether.

And then she would confront a lavender unicorn named Twilight Sparkle and her friends on the first day she visited Ponyville. But in an attempt to show off the same staged battle with the Ursa-minor, only with the real thing this time, she could not defeat the bear, thus leaving Twilight to fix the damage the bear caused. Trixie felt excruciatingly humiliated after the other ponies have found out that the blue unicorn was a fraud, so she resorted to exiling herself.

Fast-forward to the day where Trixie discovered the powers of an alicorn amulet. She felt that with it, she can finally exact her revenge on Twilight Sparkle due to the Ursa incident... little did she know that the amulet would corrupt her mind that day. After dueling with Twilight and winning the first match, Trixie exiled the lavender unicorn, turned the entire town of Ponyville into her own kingdom, and made all of the inhabitants into slaves. Trixie’s reign lasted for a good while. Soon after, Twilight had challenged the blue mare for a rematch, and with the help of her friends, she won the duel, and then her friends pilfered the amulet from Trixie’s grasp. Ashamed at all that she had done to Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Ponyvillians, Trixie Lulamoon exiled herself for the second time. Ponyville hadn't seen or heard from her ever since.

Now, after the longest two years of her young life, Trixie was still struggling to find out which path in life was right for her. After a recent history of so many rejections, so many ponies turning their backs on her every time she puts on a show for them, so many tomatoes being thrown at her during almost every show, and nopony to ever turn to... things had proven to be really hard on the blue unicorn ever since the alicorn amulet incident.

She had always lived in her wagon, which she had taken everywhere she felt like going. In fact, despite its state of near ruin, hence the Ursa incident, it was her only home. She would always crawl back into her strolling abode to escape herself from the rest of Equestria, and reflect on all that had happened, what she could have done to bear the sad feelings inside of her, and why these things would happen to her. Every time she tried to redeem herself, she failed. Nopony ever wanted to see a fake magician who boasts and throws insults all the time. She felt like she will always be alone… always rejected… always without a friend in the world… always empty on the inside… always friendless… always feeling as if the world was against her, and that nopony could ever help her, even when she needs it... always hated… and always trapped in her own sea of depression.

*****

Today, which seemed like a brand new day, was just another repeat routine for the “not so great and powerful” Trixie. Every day, she would wake up, put on her wizard hat and cape, go to work at the rock quarry which was just outside of Ponyville, work, and come back home to her wagon. Whenever she was not too busy, she would attempt to put on a show or two somewhere in Equestria; yet, she made it regular practice to dodge tomatoes and other junk being pelted at her. Every single time this would happen, she would question if magic was even in her liking anymore. Many more questions continue to cloud Trixie’s mind every day, leaving her in the middle of a crossroads, uncertain of what to make out of her life. Yet, being a cheap parlor magician was the only thing she felt like she was good at. It was what her cutie mark stood for.

*****

One day during her job at the rock quarry, which is about half an hour away from Ponyville, Trixie is using her magic to finish mining her section of the quarry.

Exhausted from another long day’s work, she asks the nearest male quarrypony if she could take a short break, and he accommodates her request. Trixie’s long days at her job would normally leave her drenched in her own sweat… and blood, sometimes.

The sun is setting in the sky, and while she is catching her breath between each sip of water, word has just gotten out that a princess is returning to Ponyville. The princess’s chariot, carried by two coach stallions, is making its first stop at the rock quarry, where Trixie worked. As soon as she caught a faint glimpse of her majesty in the distance, the blue unicorn instantly becomes nervous. She didn't expect the arrival of a princess so soon, nor would she have any idea what is in store.

Trixie finds herself speechless and unable to move for a few moments, but nonetheless, she is quick to analyze the shadow of the alicorn princess, who is speaking to a quarrypony not too far from her breaking area. Soon after, she grows curious as to what the princess looked like, so she decides to carefully inch closer to get a better look and hides behind a rock cart, trying not to be seen.

"Hmm...," ponders Trixie. So far, she can make out the mare's small size compared to the quarrypony, and that she has wings... and lavender-colored fur.

"... No..." Trixie gasps. She is dumbfounded and surprised to see that the princess before her is none other than the pony that she knew, the very same mare that she had confronted in the past, and that she believes to have humiliated her… twice.

"It-it can't be...!" Trixie cannot believe her eyes. "It just can't be!" She tries her best not to make too much noise, albeit she is horrified by her findings. She knows what her name is, but her brain wouldn't allow her to say it right then and there. "She's... an alicorn...?!" Wide eyed, she gathers her strength and attempts to speak her name. She may have known now who the new princess is, but at the moment she wishes that she had not. The thought that the same unicorn who had unintentionally ruined Trixie's image twice is now a princess... that reality started to sink into her mind and heart.

"T... Twi... Twilight Sparkle," she utters with an otherwise sad look on her face, and started to choke up. Right now, she couldn't bear to relive the pain that she felt two years ago. "Pr... Princess... Twilight Sparkle..."

As Trixie starts to slowly back away, Princess Twilight immediately notices a blue unicorn far behind the quarrypony, creeping away.

"Hello? Hello back there!" the lavender princess calls out to her, but Trixie didn’t replied back. "Oh well…," the princess sighs.

The meek unicorn is busy backing away from Twilight, but then she suddenly storms off to the other end of the quarry. She is too scared to say anything to the mare whom she had held a grudge against for so long, and then finding out that the same pony became a princess. All thoughts of getting revenge on Twilight starts to backfire in her mind. She begins to feel even more depressed than before.

Princess Twilight decides to ignore Trixie after seeing her vanish behind a hill of boulders, and she is escorted back to her coach chariot, continuing her route to Ponyville. “Good bye, everypony!”

Minutes have passed, and the blue mare comes out of hiding. With a great deal of uncertainty in her eyes, she mutters to herself, "I... I don't know what to make of this. That wretched good-for-nothing Twilight Sparkle... is now a princess." She is feeling a combination of sadness and anger the more she continues. "I still can't believe the days that she had ruined my career. And then she had the nerve to call herself a princess after all that she had done to me? The Great and Powerful Trixie?" She wipes a single tear from her right eye, and continues her lament. "It's... it's not fair! It's just not fair! I hate her so much, I can't stand it! Why does she have to be so much better than me at everything?!" She begins to cry, but at the same time, she tries not to make a scene. "Ugh...! I really want her to suffer after what she did to me...! But now that she's an alicorn... that's impossible. Should I continue to plot against her? Or do I apologize to her?"

Her sadness is immediately replaced with confusion. "Ugh! I don't know what to do anymore... this is all too much for me... my brain hurts...!" She tries to recollect her thoughts for half an hour, and then she returns to her work position before the quarrypony would notice her absence. But as soon as she arrives at her post, Trixie suddenly feels an uncomfortable sting in her stomach.

The skies are starting to get dark, and even though she is supposed to work the night shift, she slowly walks into a big green office tent and approaches her stallion boss with a request in mind. "Uhh... Boss? I am aware that I'm supposed to stick around and help ya out for another night shift, but... I haven't been feeling up and up lately, so if it's all right by you... the Great and Powerful Trixie would like to humbly request that she takes an early release until she gets better. Please...?"

"Hmm..." the boss ponders. "Well, I normally don't give early releases to workers just because they're sick, but... well..." He spends a few seconds thinking, as Trixie continues to show signs of a sick pony, planting her fore-hooves on her sides. He sighs and retorts, "... Okay, Trixie. I'll let you off the hook. But just this one time, okay? And don't forget, you still need to work a triple shift to make up for it. Do I make myself clear?"

"I fully understand, sir," Trixie replies.

"Good. See you next Monday, Trixie Lulamoon. Hope that you will feel better by then." He politely dismisses her, and she shakes his hoof before escorting herself out of the rock quarry. "Thank you, sir," Trixie says as she leaves the tent with one hoof still planted to her side.

*****

It is completely dark outside. As Trixie timidly makes her way back to her wagon, which is her only home, her walk is interrupted by a mysterious chuckling voice, echoing through the forest.

“Huh”, questions the blue mare. The chuckling starts high-pitched and faint, and it eventually turns deeper and more sinister. “C-come out here, whoever you are! You don’t scare the Great and Powerful Trixie!” she retaliates, even though she is vibrating rapidly, not knowing where this strange sound is coming from. She begins trotting down her path and tries to ignore the mysterious voice… but it wouldn’t go away. In fact, it grows louder and louder, and it even calls out Trixie’s name with a devilish tone…

“Trixiiiieeeeeeee…”

The blue unicorn freezes herself in place and gulps. She becomes more and more frightened as the demon-like voice continues to call out to her. Her fears have immediately overpowered her depression, and she starts to gallop in an attempt to escape her sinister subconscious… but it is no use.

“Trixiiiieeeeeeee…!”

She starts to gallop faster and faster down her path in the middle of the dark woods, trying to convince herself that this voice is all in her head. “I’m- I’m not scared! I’m not scared!” Trixie continues to convince herself that she is all alone and that the voice is not real…

“TRIXIIIIEEEEEEEE…!”

She whimpers with no end while trotting down the blackened path, but the voice’s reluctance is beginning to best her emotions, and she starts to panic. “L-le-leave me alone!” Now, she is worried that she might never leave the woods and that the voice would follow her for the rest of her life. She begins to gallop faster...

“TRIXIE!!”

A couple of tears are rolling down her eyes. She then questions if she is going crazy right now. “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” she yells a complete uproar as she keeps sprinting and sprinting. With the voice clouding her thoughts of peace, she panics even more and soon discovers that she is no longer on the blackened path. She finds herself lost in the vast woods, but she didn’t care anymore. All she wants is for the voice to stop…

“TRIXIE!!!!!!”

“Noooooooooo…!” Trixie yells back at the voice again. Soon after, a sudden red and orange flash has formed in front of her eyes for a brief second. She then has a vision; one which seems as if the woods she is in is engulfed in flames, and that she could hear screaming and crying in her head. She immediately gasps and blinks, then she finds herself back in the calm dark forest, still being pursuited by the mysterious voice. “LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE!!” She has been running and sobbing for two minutes, lost in the dark and unforgiving wilderness. Drained of all hope of ever finding her way out, all she could think about is shutting the voice up. And then...

CRASH!

She finds herself unable to move, as she has collided head-first into a huge tree trunk. Afterward, she moans and becomes unconscious.

*****

Some time later, Trixie is finally able to come to and wakes up in front of the same tree trunk. Occupied by a sharp headache, she dizzily looks around her, alone in the deep dark woods... lost.

Until a few moments later, a tall dark blue figure with floating hair descends from the tree tops and lands onto the trunk in front of Trixie. To Trixie's surprise, the figure standing before her reveals herself to be none other than Princess Luna, the bringer of the night.

"Shocked for a brief moment, the blue unicorn shyly greets the night princess, "P-Princess Luna?"

"Yes, Trixie Lulamoon. I am the princess of the night and guardian of your dreams," Luna replied.

"My d-dreams?" questions the blue mare.

"Indeed. I have been monitoring your troubles that have been clouding your judgment of reality."

This statement has brought back the look of uncertainty in Trixie's eyes.

"Care to share some of those troubles with me?"

"Well... umm... it's... uhh..." Trixie gulps hard as she tries to find the words to say. "Well, Princess... I-I haven't been feeling like myself lately."

"I see. Would you like to explain why?"

"Umm... I... My whole life has been in shambles ever since I came face to face with that pesky Twilight Sparkle," she scoffs.

"Hmm... Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Luna says, puzzled.

"Yeah... her..." Trixie becomes slightly agitated after mentioning Twilight's name. She then starts to coil back to the times of her last two encounters with the lavender unicorn, who is now an alicorn. It would appear that she is going to have a hard time letting go of this grudge against Ponyville's newest princess. “But I still have no idea how she could even consider herself a princess after all that she had done to me.”

"Might I ask, do you have something against Princess Twilight, Trixie?"

"Heck yeah. I hate her so much. She humiliated me, and made fun of my good name in front of everypony. She ruined my career! Everywhere I go, my magic shows bomb, and I have to focus more on dodging tomatoes than doing everyday magic tricks! And to make matters worse, that purple pest is now a princess?! Ugh!"

Luna shrugs after Trixie’s demonstration of her angst against Twilight.

"I’ve been trying to think of ways of getting revenge on her, but now… I don't know what to do, Princess. Can you…” She pauses for a moment and gulps. “Can you please help me? Because I have nopony else to turn to." Trixie sheds another tear.

Luna thinks for a while, and then replies, "I'm afraid I cannot help you with your grudge, Trixie. Only YOU can solve that problem."

"Is that so?" Trixie says with confusion on her pale blue face. “How can I possibly ignore all that she had done to me?”

"I do believe that you have been feeling a rough conflict of emotions for some time. Your grudge has prevented you from seeing what really matters in life. And because of that grudge you have against Twilight, you have been struggling trying to figure out what you can make out of your own life. But Trixie, no matter how you look at things, you cannot hold onto this grudge forever. I would really hate to see you like that."

"Well, I have been holding onto this grudge for about two years after that time she took that alicorn amulet from me." Trixie lowers her head in shame.

"Nopony is forcing you to become friends with her, but regardless of what happened two years ago, getting back at our new princess will only lead to dire consequences. Revenge is never the answer. You should know that."

Trixie scoffs in disagreement. "Yeah right. You should have seen what she did to me the first time I came into Ponyville. I was minding my own business, putting on a show, and then that lavender loser and her stupid friends came to me and messed it all up."

Luna gasps in horror from hearing the young mare’s rant.

"It was atrocious! I could not defeat the Ursa-minor, but she could without even breaking a sweat?! It’s no wonder why everypony hates me! It’s because of her! She always has to find a way to be so much better than me at everything! I swear, one day I’ll make her pay! I’ll make them all pay!!” With fire in her eyes, she fumes for a few seconds before calming down.

“Trixie, calm down!” Luna yells back in response of the rant.

Trixie is breathing heavily for a moment, but she has finally calmed down. Both mares slowly start to gaze at each other. The blue mare soon lowers her ears and tears are starting to pour from her eyes. “Oh my dear Celestia...!" Trixie covers her face and begins to sob again.

"Let me tell you something, Trixie...," the blue princess calmly says as she lifts the unicorn’s head to face her eyes. "You may not want to hear this, but it's best to either make up with her or just leave her and her friends alone. That's all I can tell you."

"H-huh?" she replies after wiping some tears off her face.

"I have high hopes for you, Trixie Lulamoon. I know you have what it takes to rid yourself of this grudge within you, and seek out a better and happier lifestyle for you and all of the other ponies. And I know Princess Twilight Sparkle very well, Trixie. She saved Equestria in many ways that not every pony can accomplish. You and I both know that she is a good pony. But the longer you hold onto this angst, the more you conceal yourself from what is really important in life; and what is important for your own well-being. I believe in you. And I also believe that Twilight didn't mean to do what she might have done to hurt you. I'm sure you realize that too, but you have got to stop putting yourself into this wall you're in. This isn’t healthy for you or anypony. You need to realize that nopony is going to want to see your face as long as you continue to behave like this.”

Trixie closes her eyes shut again and gulps, trying hard not to shed another tear, but she is already letting another drop roll down her face.

Luna continues, “You have a rare gift, Trixie, and it's up to you to find out what that gift is. There are times in life that you must face your fears. Because sooner or later, that time will come, and it is up to you to prepare for that moment."

“Moment? What moment?” the blue unicorn questions, as she looks up at the dark blue princess once more.

“You’ll know when the time comes. Trust me, Trixie. Trust me that you will become a better pony for yourself, for Princess Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and everypony else.”

“I… I trust you… Princess Luna.” Trixie says as she hesitantly gives a forced smile.

They both hug each other for a few seconds. "Good night, my little pony. I hope you can find it in you to become a successful and happier little mare, and that you can find a way to confront your darker side. I wish you the best of luck."

"...See you again soon, Princess," Trixie replies with a timid goodbye wave.

The bringer of the night starts to back away and prepares for flight. With Trixie watching, she then zooms upward and flies out of the woods, vanishing into the night sky.

Once again, Trixie is all alone; but it no longer matters. All she could think about is what the Princess of the Night has told her. She sighs. Using her illumination spell, she finally trots back to the path she was on earlier, finding her way back to her wagon.

At long last, she finds her wagon and steps inside to prepare for bedtime. "No voices this time, thankfully." she thinks to herself with a forced smile on her face. Yet she has no idea that the voices would be the least of her worries. Later that night, she would begin to have a very strange dream, which would soon become an overwhelming nightmare. In it would reveal itself to be the most shocking reality check of her life. "Now what does she mean by 'confront my darker side?' Sounds peculiar…," Trixie ponders. She then falls asleep in her cot, and begins to dream...

END OF CHAPTER

Author's Note

What's up, fellow bronies and furries!
This is my very 1st take on a horror-ish genre. I really want this to be a "what if" kind of story.
Note: this all takes place 2 years after "Magic Duel".
For now, I will be focusing on this fic. The other fic of mine "Rupert Meets Equestria" will be on a short hiatus for the time being.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I DID ON THIS FIC!
Constructive Criticism is a PLUS. Thank you! =^_^=