WARNING: this chapter will contain gory violence and disheartening scenarios.
Please read on your own risk.

It begins as a nightmare, then it becomes reality.

*****

The night before, the once “Great and Powerful” Trixie was in shambles, as she had dealt with the reality that her former foe, Twilight Sparkle, became a princess. After another long day at the rock farm, the blue unicorn found herself running from a sinister voice that kept calling out to her. She then met the Bringer of the Night, Princess Luna, who had given her a heads up about her “other” side...

*****

Now, she is all cozied up in her cot, resting peacefully inside her dilapidated wagon, figuring out what to do next in her life, and wondering what tomorrow will have in store. Soon after, it is early in the morning, Princess Celestia’s sun has not fully risen yet, and the blue showmare is already waking up from what seems to be a brief slumber. “Wha…? Huh. What a strange transition. One minute I was getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden, it’s morning? Odd!” Trixie retorts with a loud yawn.

She is all alone, so she never even takes account of whether somepony was trotting close by to even her her yawns. A few minutes pass by, and Trixie finally summons her strength to climb out of bed. The first thing on her mind is food, but all she could find in her cupboards are dust and mildew. But in light of her hunger, she begins to ponder around her wagon for a bit. All Trixie could think about then and there is what Luna had told her the preceding night. As she clouds herself into deep thought, many questions start to form into the mind of the troubled unicorn. Some she might have the courage to answer on the spot, while others she cannot put a hoof on until the time comes.

For instance, why didn’t she notice sooner about her old rival Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn? Would she still plan her revenge against Equestria’s newest princess? What would happen if she even plans another scheme against Twilight, and then it fails just like the other times? Would she try to make amends with her, apologize to her, and even ask her for forgiveness? Does she even want to put their differences aside and become friends at last?

As these questions circle around Trixie’s mind in an unpredictable rate, one thing instantly becomes clear as Celestia’s daylight. The first thought right now would not be an easy feat, but something needed to be done. “... I need to go and talk to Twilight. Trixie puts on her signature hat and cape and exits her wagon, beginning her long walk to the one place where she fears that nopony would ever want to lay eyes on her again, especially after everything she had done two years ago… Ponyville.

She soon trots over the bridge leading towards town square, and when she turns her attention to the small town, she starts slowing down her walk and lowers her ears with confusion. Not a single indication of life around her. “What the…?” She begins her brief investigation of the matter, galloping deeper into town. “Where is everypony?” Still, no one popped out, ran into her or even said “hi”. Something clearly was wrong. Now, she starts to get a bit scared, so she darts to the door of Town Hall, eager to know what is going on. The door is already cracked open, and she pops her head inside to see a huge space of emptiness. “Anypony?!” she shouts, hoping to get an answer back. But still, nothing. All she can hear is the wind whistling across the vacant building, so she leaves and shuts the door behind her. “Okay. WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Trixie is now more concern than ever. This town is usually filled and flooded with laughter, joy, playfulness, smiles, and happiness. But now, even though the bright hot sun is looming over the skies, the city that surrounds the “shy and timid” Trixie is now standing as a ghost town…or so it seems.

“Twilight!” Trixie suddenly realizes she has forgotten to meet her, and she frantically gallops all over the empty city. She glances at each and every window and doorstep, hoping to find the young princess… but to no avail. She searches for about half an hour, and she finds herself too exhausted to continue. She drops out onto the hot, unbearable concrete below, when she immediately glances upon a huge sparkling tree structure with gems and royal decorations all over. This is the Castle of Friendship, where Twilight Sparkle now resides.

“This… this better be… it!” Trixie exclaims while she is coughing and catching her breath. Frozen in sheer awe at the sight before her, she takes a few minutes to soak it all in. The Castle is beautiful and uniquely designed. It is the kind of design that Rarity would usually be very fond of; mostly because of its archways, the curtains, the exterior decor lined with ruby and gems that shine like Luna night stars.

It is an amazing sight, and it leaves the blue unicorn distracted for a while… until she reminds herself of the task at hand. “Come on, Trixie. Snap out of it!” She says to herself out loud, regaining her train of thought. “All right then. I really hope she’s in there. And...” She gulps hard and sighs with nervousness, completely unaware of what her apology to Twilight will bring. “... I really hope she can forgive me, even after everything I have done. I just hope she still isn’t mad at me after all of that.” The thoughts of the past are once again forming in her mind and clouding her judgment of those events. With her heart pulse rate reaching its peak, Trixie is now even more afraid of what will happen if she does deliver the apology… but it doesn’t matter anymore. She knows that it is time to make amends, and time to put the past behind them both.

“Oh my goodness...” she squeals with another big deep breath. “Okay.” She stands up on her hooves and hesitantly approaches the front royal doors. “H-h-here goes nothing…!”

Trixie raises one hoof and knocks on the door, and then slowly backs up in fear. Her ears have not raised up at all since she has lowered them upon entering Ponyville’s limits.

An immense moment of silence… and Trixie’s worry is turning to impatience, but she keeps her cool. And then… the doors slowly creek open in front of the showmare, which caused her to gasp.

The doors then reveal a black silhouette. The figure is as tall as Trixie, except that it has wings and a crown… definitely the signs of a princess.

“Eep!” Trixie starts to quiver in uncertainty, as the princess figure steps outside in front of the shaky unicorn and reveals herself to be none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Trixie delivers a quick sigh of relief, gains her composure, and summons most of her strength and attempts to give the princess before her the very words she has been wanting to deliver for the longest time, hoping that it would bring some type of closure between them and the rest of Ponyville. So she faces the princess and starts to speak…

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I presume?” She answers to the presence of her royal highness.

“Yes?” Princess Twilight answers back, raising an eyebrow and keeping a firm look on her face.

Trixie becomes determined to follow through on her follow and finishes her message. “I-umm… I… I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, would like to bestow my sincere apologies upon a pony whose prowess surpasses that of yours truly.” She lowers her head and continues, “What has become of me from my last two visits here were very insincere of me, and I only did all of that because I wanted some sort of closure. But all I did was make a huge mess of things and become blind of what I was doing. Pretty sure I might have made half of Equestria hate my guts, but I guess I kind of deserve it. I never had any real friends in my life; anypony to tell me right from wrong. That’s why I’ve come to you, your royal highness.” She begins to raise her head to face Twilight.

“Huh?” replies the concerned princess.

“I have come to you and ask for forgiveness. I wish we can put our differences behind us and start anew.” Her ears flip back to their upward position, and she becomes nervous again. “If-if that’s okay with you…?”

A long pause between the two, and Twilight breaks the silence, squinting her eyes to focus on Trixie’s persona. “Is that it?”

“Uh...” Trixie struggles to respond back. “Uh… y-yeah. I-I guess that’s… it.” She gulps.

“No,” the princess utters as her aura darkens to a sinister black and red glow. “It is NOT okay...” Her face turns to anger and spite. She looks like she has the intent to kill the poor unicorn.

In response, Trixie looks stunned, freezing in place and her ears lower again. This is one of the last things she would ever want to hear.

“Do you realize how much you have damaged the last time you were here?” Twilight’s aura is bright red and the skies above Ponyville start darkening. She continues, “You’ve made a fool of yourself in front of everypony, mocked the good citizens of Equestria with your arrogance, and even embarrassed me and my friends! You even lied about that bear that rampaged my town! How is anyone supposed to forgive you after that?! It doesn’t work like that!!” Her voice slowly turns into a heavy and demonic tone, the type that can echo across town and cause many ears to bleed out from the sides.

Trixie trembles at the horrifying sight in front of her, and sweat is trickling down her timid face. She wants to curl up in a ball right now, but she couldn’t, as she is still frozen in place from the angered princess’ disheartening comments.

“You have shut yourself off from the happiness of Equestria because YOU wanted to be alone for the rest of your life! You have been selfish and you always will be!” Soon, her left eye suddenly flashes into a bloodied red ball, which starts to bleed, and her teeth are becoming pointy and sharp enough to rip apart blood vessels and skin. The darkened princess uses her magic to force Trixie to face Ponyville and states, “Look around you, Trixie! You’ve always wondered why nopony ever shows up whenever you step hoof into town?!”

“Uhhhhh...” Trixie, now terrified and wanting to cry, looks around the empty town and replies with her heart beating outside of her chest, “y… y… y-yeah…?”

“Well… now you know why!” The figure snarls and raises a hoof to reveal in front of them what seems to be five different blurry figures.

Trixie tries to make out who the figures are as they walk towards Trixie slowly. As they make their way to the castle’s front where Trixie is, they start to take shape, and then she notices that she has seen them before, but cannot make them out one hundred percent. “Wha…?” Dumbfounded, she quickly wipes her eyes with one hoof, and before she knew it, the figures are right in front of her and darkened Twilight.

The five figures happen to be the five friends of Twilight Sparkle, and Trixie faced against four of them before; however, Trixie couldn’t make them out exactly because of their distorted and blackened physique.

One of the figures speaks out to Trixie in a soft and hurt manner, “How? How could you do this to us, Trixie? Why would you humiliate us? What you did to us and everypony was very unkind of you… and heartless! I really wanted to believe in you. And I thought that we could be best friends, but you…! Oh…!” She then curls up in her ghostly mane and cries.

The second figure has a vague country accent and speaks in an angered manner. “No can do, Trixie. You ‘ave lied too many times to us n’ to the rest o’ Ponyville. And you have treated us all good citizens like dirt! How do we know yer won’t do it again? Huh?!” She then lowers her hat and scoffs at the poor unicorn.

“You heartless ill-mannered degenerate!” The third figure cries out with an iffy and posh tone in her voice. “You messed up my hair not once, but TWICE! And you have the absolute nerve to walk around in that horrid vile outfit of yours?! And now you want to redeem yourself? Well let me tell you… In all things fashion, I SPIT at you and your unforgiving presence!!” She swings her head high to spite Trixie and scoffs again.

The fourth figure is glaring at the unicorn with pure hatred in her eyes, as she flew right in front of Trixie with thoughts of inflicting pain on her. “So, you think you can just walk all over us and treat everypony like dirt? Huh?! Well not anymore, Trixie! It's our turn now! It's no wonder you never had a friend to begin with. You say ‘great and powerful,’ but I say you're a worthless, hopeless bully who does NOTHING to ever have a friend! A coward is what you are, and that you shall stay! You will never be forgiven!!” She sticks her tongue out and flies away to the group.

These harmful words are starting to get the best of Trixie. She gulps and retorts, “Why would I let this happen?” Tears begin to roll down her face. Her fear is now replaced with a feeling she thought she’d never contain… shame.

The last figure appears to be the most depressed of the bunch. Her mane was straight and she had bags underneath her eyes. “How could you…?” Her eyes are now watered up. “You were never a friendly type to start. You even took advantage of me, and I was never able to speak that day, thanks to you. Party pooper mean ‘meany-pants’… You just want us all to be miserable because you are yourself!” She chokes up as she continues, “we even tried to give you a chance to be friends and be happy… but your arrogance and pride have filled your black heart, you could never ever have a friend, and never will be! We hate you, Trixie!”

Right now, Trixie just wants to break down in tears after hearing everything from the ghostly figures.

“Yeah!!” the entire group of beings yells back at Trixie.

With these last words, the five figures’ eyes emit a sinister red glow, their faces are now blackened, and they begin to float into a paranormal blur of black. Trixie obviously wants to run away from the scene and hide back inside the comfort of her wagon, but that would never happen as she is still frozen in place by the demonic Twilight’s magic. She then witnesses the ghosts before him dissipate into a huge cloud of black and make their way into Trixie’s opened mouth. As she absorbs this alarming phenomenon, many emotions from her past encounters with these five ponies begin to sink into her mind, soul and heart.

“What’s… going… on…?” the poor Trixie asks, as she feels an undistinguished combination of anger, greed, despair, spite and sadness….

She soon finds herself gasping for breath around a huge black void, where Ponyville and the Castle used to be. She is now all alone with the demonic presence posing as Twilight. Still equipped with sharp teeth and a bloodied left eye, which is now overflowing with a tiny stream of blood, the demon disappears and then reappears in front of Trixie, who is still gasping and cringing and hoping that this living horror will end.

The presence peaks out an immensely evil grin and chuckles darkly. “So, there you have it. Do you see now?”

“I...” Trixie is trying her best to remain sane about all that has occurred. “I wanna go home…!” She begins to sob a little, while planting one hoof on her stomach. She is still feeling the apparition of the spirits that have entered her a minute ago, and the emotions would never seem to die down. In fact, they are making her feel more and more deteriorated by the second. “P… p-please...! Spare me, Twilight! I don’t deserve this!”

“No. I don’t think so.” The demon replies, and then it uses its dark magic and points toward the blue unicorn’s chest.

“Ah!” Trixie yelps as soon as she notices her internal organs are moving around and spinning under the spell coming from the evil figure before her. She presses against her chest, as if she feels like passing down from a possible heart attack, and asks the demon in a panicky manner, “Wha… what is this?!”

Still using its magic on Trixie, the demon chuckles once more and replies, “As a disgrace to the magic of friendship, you have no more say on this matter. I scoff at you for who you are, and who you have become. I’m sick of those who put themselves before other ponies. I’m sick of those who scoff at the word friendship. I’m sick of those whose heart is as black as cold dead stone!” It boosts its spell and continues, “You have proven to all of Equestria that there was no room in your heart for caring or compassion. If you can’t be good to other ponies, then you might as well feel sorry! Since there’s emptiness inside your heart, then there is NO REASON FOR YOU TO EVEN HAVE A HEART!!”

Trixie gasps in paralyzing terror, as the demon toys with Trixie’s insides and finally… something appears to poke on Trixie’s chest from the inside, as if it wants to get out. Trixie is trying her very best to stay strong from the spell, but she is too weak to the demon’s powers. And with one final thrust of the devilish apparition, a heart violently shreds through Trixie’s chest and out in the opening, leaving behind a blood-filled rip of the opening, and Trixie screaming in bloody murder. This leaves the poor Trixie coughing up some blood and assuming she was going to die right on the spot…. However, Trixie is still moving and breathing normally with some gasps and a look of extreme confusion.

“What?! I’m… I’m still alive?!” She shakily observes her ripped-open chest and the demonic Twilight hover the unicorn’s still-beating organ in front of her using magic. “I… I don’t understand…!” Salty waters begin to pour from her eyes once more.

The demon chuckles again and retorts with the floating beating heart under spell. “Ah. But do not fret, my dear subject. This is only… A BAD DREAM!” It then dissolves the heart into ashes, leaving Trixie even more shocked than ever.

The trust is out. Trixie is still dreaming… but, for some reason, this nightmare feels kind of… real.

“As you can see, Trixie Lulamoon…,” the presence says as it steps backward away from the unicorn. “... I am not real. Not yet, anyways.”

“WHAT?!” Trixie demands for an answer, hoping to wake up from this terrible dream.

The demonic Twilight’s skin burns into a boiling orange and red mix and feedbacks, “You will be seeing me again in the real world soon enough! When we meet again, you shall see the final error of your ways! And there’s nothing you can do about it!” It then conjures a huge walls of flames behind it.

“Wait! No! Stop!” Trixie screams loudly and sprints towards the being, not wanting it to let the nightmare continue. “Don’t! I can change! Please!” Tears instantly flow from her eyes. “I CAN CHANGE!!”

“Good bye for now, foolish pony!” The evil creature gives a maniacal laugh and begins to consume itself into the firewall, but Trixie is not going to let that happen.

Trixie attempts to get close to the fiery figure in an effort to talk it into stopping it from entering the flaming barrage in front of her. But her efforts have run short, as an unknown force pushes Trixie far away from the scene, and the demon finally sinks its form into the wall, and the entire scene vanishes before Trixie.

Now, Trixie was alone…. Completely… alone… deep inside the vast space of nothingness. Isolation begins to take advantage of the broken Trixie.

“T-Twilight…,” she hesitantly utters. “N… n… no…!”

Left with a huge bloodied rip in her chest and feeling a hundred emotions at once, she suddenly starts to cry for the final time, and even if she wanted to hold it in some more, she could not. She finds herself with her face in her fore hoofs and breaks down bawling. It is not the kind of crying to show that you have been lost a loved one or gotten hurt; instead, it is the kind that you feel like all hope has disappeared. She no longer cares if anypony else would be there to hear her cry: she only wants this nightmare to end so badly. Everything has proven too much.

And then, after a good few minutes, Trixie slows down her sobbing and begins to sense another ghostly apparition behind her. She slowly turns around to see another black floating silhouette in the shape of a mare. She could not tell exactly who it is, as the picture before her is vague.

“Um… h-hello?” questioned Trixie, wondering who this mysterious pony is. “Anyone there?!”

A brief moment of silence, the figure begins to fade away from sight and memory. And then…

“BBBREEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!”

Right from out of the blue, a bright distorted white face with an open smile, snake-like tongue and evil eyes, appears and fly towards Trixie in one split second. It is about to attack her, when all of a sudden…

*****

Trixie wakes up frightened and finds herself back inside her wagon. It was already apparent that she was dreaming all along.

Hyperventilating, she takes several deep breaths and calms herself down. As she recollects her thoughts, she plants a hoof on her chest to see if her heart is still in her body. “Oh, thank Celestia, it was all a dream.” And then another thought brings her back to when she talked to Princess Luna the previous night. She believes this nightmare has something to do with something trying to bring her bad dreams into the real world. She now knows what should happen. “I have to go talk to Princess Luna again. I think she said something about this creature making my nightmares real...” She ponders this thought for a couple of minutes, then she gears herself up with her signature hat and cape and steps outside her home and into the open.

What unfolds before her would change the way she sees the world around her forever. The moment she steps outside would mark the beginning of both an adventure and the search… for what threatens to seal her fate.

END OF CHAPTER

Author's Note

What's up, fellow bronies and furries!
I promised you that this chapter is where the REAL horrors begin, and here we are!

I just hope I did well on this one. Still pretty new to writing a horror story.
Anyways, things are only going to get more interesting in later chapters!

All critiques are always welcome! ;-)