WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?

by CROSSOVER KING

Chapters

Laugh it up
Run the same story
Up in your golden chair
High enough
Are the cracks showing?
Could you be more prepared?
Script all your comedy with paper stained in crimson
Fill up your cup and wash it down
But who's laughing now?
Who's laughing now?!

Laugh it up

It did not matter that it was almost midnight.

It did not matter that it was raining cats and dogs.

It did not matter that both the streets and sidewalks were extremely wet.

It did not even matter that she had to push through dozens of pedestrian ponies all rushing to get somewhere warm.

The only thing that truly mattered was reaching Manehattan General Hospital as soon as possible.

This was on the mind of a unicorn with azure coat, white mane, and dark violet eyes named Trixie Lulamoon that night. Across the land of Equestria, she was known as the Great and Powerful Trixie, a traveling magician known for performing dazzling feats of magic in towns such as Trottingham and Hoofington. In fact, she was just finished with another acclaimed performance in Dodge City when she had received a letter that had shaken her to the core, and prompted her to pack her things before galloping all the way to Manehattan with her wagon attached to her back. It had taken her the entirety of both the afternoon and evening to arrive to the city, but finally, she was there and, despite being nearly out of breath, she had no intention of slowing down even for a second.

Not when the only family she had left was concerned.

It was a couple minutes to midnight when she made it to the hospital and quickly entered there after leaving her wagon just beside the front doors of the building. Once inside, she trotted towards the reception desk and became somewhat relieved when she saw a receptionist pony she was already familiar with sitting there. In addition to her blue scrubs and transparent gloves, the earth pony had a lime coat, crimson mane, and turquoise eyes.

As soon as she saw Trixie coming to the desk, she stood up from her seat and said, “Oh, Trixie, thank Celestia you got the letter we sent. He’s been mumbling your name ever since we moved him to an intensive care unit.”

Upon hearing this, Trixie’s eyes widened with horror and she asked, “Intensive care unit?! He’s become that much worse?! Please, you gotta take me to him!”

“Follow me”, the receptionist replied and together, they started climbing a nearby staircase towards the upper levels of the hospital.

After reaching the third floor, they made a sharp left turn towards a corridor labeled, “Leukemia Patients”, and entered through the fourth door on the right. Once they did, they came across a seemingly unconscious unicorn colt with an orange coat, jet black mane, dark violet eyes (exactly like those of Trixie), and no cutie mark breathing through a respirator and, just as the receptionist had said, was lying on an intensive care unit, which was basically a bed with several tubes, monitors, and other kinds of medical equipment attached to it.

The moment Trixie the colt like this, she burst into tears and promptly moved closer to him. When she was right beshide his bed, she softly said to his ear, “Hi there, kiddo. Guess who’s great and powerful big sis came all the way from the other side of Equestria?”

A few seconds later, the colt’s eyes slowly began to open and he even turned his head towards Trixie before a small smile appeared on his face. He then managed to say, “Trixie… You’re back… I knew you’d come… “

Trixie responded by letting out a mixture of laughter and sobbing, and declared, “Well, of course I came, silly! You really think I’d leave you alone when you’re in this state? How did you end up like this, anyway?”

“I… I don’t really know”, the colt revealed. “I was playing with those toys you brought me in your last visit. Then, I got really hot and everything started spinning, which made me fall to the floor and fall asleep. When I woke up, I was lying here and a nurse said I spent the whole night in the Emergency Room. The heat and the spinning are gone, but I still don’t know where they came from. Do you have any idea where they could’ve come from?”

Trixie then sniffled, stroked her brother’s mane a bit, and replied,”No, I don’t know either, honey. But, I promise I’ll figure it out. I gotta go talk to the doctor for a minute. You just sit tight and wait for me here. I won’t be long, okay?”

The colt nodded in approval and Trixie kissed him on the forehead before walking out of the room and going towards the staircase. She went one floor down, made a right turn, continued walking down a long corridor, and stopped at the seventh door on the left. She then knocked it a few times and, soon enough, a male unicorn with a brown coat, azure mane, and dark green eyes opened the door.

He announced with a surprised tone, “Oh, Miss Lulamoon! I’m so glad to see you here. Please, come in to my office. I was just about to head home, but I can certainly spare a few minutes to talk to you.”

Trixie immediately entered the room and took a seat right in front of the doctor’s desk. After sitting at his own chair, the doctor began to explain, “I assume you’re here to talk about Sunspot’s sudden collapse the other day. Well, there is really no easy way to say this. He is getting worse. His leukemia has progressed to a critical stage and unless we operate on him, he’s only got a couple months at best, I’m afraid. I know you’ve been trying to acquire the funds necessary to afford an operation like this for quite some time, but I strongly urge you to hurry. The hospital is currently a bit understaffed and, in addition to your brother, there are more than a few leukemia patients who are in desperate need of this operation.”

It took Trixie quite a long while to process all this information and she even shed a few more tears in the process. Then, she wiped away the tears and asked, “I understand, doctor. I promise that I’ll get you that money soon. In fact, I just need to put on a few more shows to complete the sum and my next performance is only a week from now. Sure, it’s in a town much smaller than the ones I’ve performed in, but that’s not important. What’s really important is saving Sunspot’s life. He’s the only family I’ve got left after our dad abandoned us and our mom got killed by a drunk cab driver. I cannot afford to lose him too. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to say good-bye to him before leaving for my upcoming show. Oh, and please don’t say to him anything related to what you just told me. I’m gonna try to explain the situation as best as I can.”

The doctor took a few moments to think about what she had said before nodding in approval. He then stood up from his seat, walked towards the door, and opened it so that Trixie could exit the office. Trixie promptly did so and started walking back to her brother’s room while thinking about what she was going to say to him. While she could not tell the entire truth, she could manage to reveal a variation of it that would not worry him. With that in mind, she went down the stairs and kept walking until she reached his room.

She found him just as she had left him and, once again, went to his bedside. Then, she took a deep breath and began to explain, “Hi again. Sooo… I spoke with the doctor and he said the drugs you’ve been taking aren’t affecting you anymore. That’s why they’re going to try… something else. It’s a pretty expensive option, but it’s gonna cure you for good and though I don’t have the money to afford it yet, I’ll definitely find it after performing on just a few more shows. Sounds okay?”

“Hmmm… Yeah, I think that’s okay”, replied Sunspot. “So, after you leave for your next show, you’ll come back real soon, right? Then, I’ll get cured… And we’ll be together forever! Oh, I can’t wait for that to happen! We’ll live in a normal house and you can show me all the tricks you’ve ever done. I wanna be a magician just like you when I grow up.”

Trixie giggled at that statement before stroking her brother’s mane and declaring, “Slow down there, kiddo. I still gotta pull off the next couple of peformances for any of what you just said to happen, remember?”

“Oh, quit worrying. You’ll be fine”, Sunspot assured her. “I mean, when was the last time you blew a magic trick, anyway?”

That question made Trixie think very hard before answering it and, several seconds later, a determined smile appeared on her face and she replied, “Never. The Great and Powerful Trixie has NEVER failed to pull off a feat of magic and that fact is not gonna change any time soon. Just wait a little longer, Sunspot. A few more successful shows and, Celestia as my witness, everything you’ve been dreaming about will become reality.”

As soon as she finished that sentence, her brother wrapped her arms around her neck and, despite feeling her throat being crushed, she hugged him back until he let go a short while later. Then, she kissed him on the cheek, walked out of the room, and headed towards the location of her next performance:

PONYVILLE

Run the same story

ONE WEEK LATER

In the Ponyville town square, a stage unfolded from a wagon as a booming voice announced the arrival of the "The Great and Powerful Trixie". Shortly afterwards, Trixie appeared in a puff of smoke and gave a very prideful smile to the curious spectators. She had been preparing for this show ever since she left the hospital and she was fully aware of the fact that she could not afford any self-doubt or imperfection whatsoever.

However, she had also figured that it would not hurt to increase the boasting she normally did during these kinds of performances. After all, she had to gain as much income as she could before the deadline that the doctor had given her and desperate times required desperate measures.

With that in mind, she dramatically claimed to be the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria before setting off several fireworks and therefore impressing the citizens. A small group of ponies, however, remained unimpressed and one of them, a cyan-coated pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane, demanded to know what made Trixie so special. Irritated by this, Trixie declared that she once saved the town of Hoofington from an "ursa major" by sending it back to the Everfree Forest. She then challenged anyone in Ponyville to step up, saying that she can surpass anyone’s abilities.

Soon enough, an orange-coated Earth pony with a cowboy hat accepted the challenge and performed a rodeo rope trick. In response, Trixie made the rope imitate a hypnotic snake that hog-tied the Earth pony. Next, the pegasus from earlier gathered moisture from clouds to create a mini-rainbow, but Trixie used magic to whirl the rainbow into a funnel and trapped the pegasus in it, spinning her around until she was dizzy.

Right after that, a white-coated unicorn with a lavender mane declined the challenge, saying that she is "above all this nonsense". But when Trixie goaded her into accepting by insulting her mane, she decided to demonstrate elegance by creating a costume out of stage curtains. Trixie responded by using her magic to turn Rarity's hair into a mottled slime-green mess with a stick and two rats' tails poking out of it. The unicorn then ran off in humiliation and even tearfully cried, “Such an awful, awful color!” A nearby green-haired Earth pony frowned on that and said, “Well, I never!”

Immediately afterwards, Trixie overheard a purple baby dragon with green spikes on his back trying to convince another unicorn with a purple coat to confront her. She therefore challenged that unicorn, but she quickly ran away. With no one left to face her, Trixie declared herself as “the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria".

After the show, Trixie was busy packing her stuff and cleaning herself up when suddenly a couple of unicorn colts brought her a smoothie with extra hay, claiming that it was"just how she liked it". They also wanted to hear how she defeated the ursa major, but Trixie brushed them off, telling them she was way too exhausted and that they should not bother her until morning. As soon as they left, she retreated into her wagon, laid on a makeshift bed, and began contemplating on what she had done in the last few hours. She hated to admit it, but she did feel a twinge of regret about challenging innocent townsfolk, beating them at their own game, and humiliating them in front of their fellow citizens. Perhaps, she really had gone overboard with her boasting this time and she should probably give them a proper apology. However, there was also no need to rush it as she was scheduled to perform one more show in the morning before receiving her paycheck and leaving the town for good. Therefore, she could simply apologize to them after the show and depart in peace.

Thinking about all this, coupled with the exhaustion she had felt from her earlier performance, made her fall asleep really quickly and as she lost her consciousness, she began dreaming about the life she was planning to start with her brother after his treatment. They were going to live in a small quiet town like Ponyville, own a real house, and finally become a real family (or as close to a family as they could get). Plus, she was going to teach him everything she knew about stage magic so that he could one day succeed her as a performer and allow her to find a far less stressful job.

Before she could imagine what that job would be, however, she was awakened in the middle of the night by some pony banging on her door. Even though she was greatly annoyed by this, she nevertheless went to see who it was and came across the two colts who were bothering her earlier. She furiously asked them what was it that they could not wait to ask her about until morning when suddenly, she received her answer in the form of a gigantic blue bear with razor-sharp teeth roaring as loudly as thunder. She screamed in pure terror upon seeing it and became even more shocked when the colts revealed that they brought the creature to Ponyville so that they could watch her vanquish it. Despite her immense fear of the creature, she nevertheless decided to at least try to vanquish it so that both her reputation and everyone in town could be saved.

She first attempted to tie up the bear with a rope, but unfortuantely, she had enough rope to only tie up two of its fingers and the beast very easily broke through the bond with one snap. She then used her magic to form a storm cloud and send a couple streaks of lightning to the bear's backside, but they were so small that they caused little to no damage and only made the creature even angrier than before. When the colts questioned the now-panicking Trixie about the reason for her failure in defeating the bear, she reluctantly admitted that she made up the whole story of her vanquishing an ursa major just so she could look great and powerful in front of the town.

While they were taken aback by this revelation, the bear once again roared with pure rage and as the colts ran away in terror, Trixie just stood there, out of ideas and completely paralyzed from fear. Then, it raised one of its paws to the air and-

CRACK!!!

With a single strike of its paw, the bear not only shattered Trixie's horn, but also sent her flying several feet away and she was knocked unconscious upon hitting the ground.

When she finally woke up, it was still night and the bear was nowhere to be seen. In its place, there was a large group of ponies circled around her, curiously staring at her and exchanging whispers with each other. There was also the unicorn with a purple-colored coat from before standing right beside her and gazing at her with a concerned look on her face.

Upon seeing her, Trixie started rising back up with some difficulty and managed to ask, "W-where am I? W-what happened?"

Just as she lost her balance and was about to fall back to the ground, the purple unicorn caught her at the last second and softly explained, "It's okay. The bear's gone. I sent it back to the Everfree Forest while you were unconscious. It won't trouble you or the town any longer. Oh, by the way, I don't think we've officially met. I'm Twilight Sparkle, the owner of the Golden Oak Library and the personal student of Princess Celestia."

Trixie began to smile upon hearing this and said, "I-I'm Trixie Lulamoon. Nice to meet you, Twilight."

Unfortunately, her smile soon turned into pure horror when she realized that her horn had been broken. As a result, she let out an extremely loud scream and then exlaimed, "MY HORN! It's... IT'S GONE! No, no, no, no! This can't be happening! What am I gonna do?! WHAT AM I GONNA DO?!"

As she began sobbing, Twilight tried to help her regain her composure by saying, "Wait, calm down! I know this looks bad, but it's not the end of the world!"

"Yes, it is the end! THE END FOR ME!", cried Trixie. "Don't you get it?! From now on, I simply can't put on any more shows! Without my magic, I'VE LOST EVERYTHING!"

"Well, it's about darn time you came to that conclusion, missy!", said the orange-coated Earth pony from earlier as she and her equally unamused companions emerged from the crowd. "If you ask me, losing that horn was the best thing that could've happened to you. That way, you can learn a thing or two about just how dangerous showing off your talents and exaggerating your accomplishments are."

"Wait, you don't understand!", Trixie tried to explain. "I need my magic now more than ever! I have a little br-"

"Oh, don't you dare try to come up with an excuse to justify what you did!", interjected the white-coated unicorn with a lavender mane. "You boasting about your abilities and telling implausible tales of success was what led to that horrible beast coming here in the first place."

"I KNOW! And I'm really sorry for that!", exclaimed Trixie. "Please, I'll leave your town first thing in the morning. Let me just collect my paycheck and then you'll never have to see me again."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute!", the cyan-coated pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane replied. "You expect us to pay you for putting on a show where you humiliated me and my friends in front of the whole town, and telling a ridiculous story that made two colts bring here a humongous rampaging monster?"

Right after finishing that sentence, she began laughing extremely hard at what she had said. Soon enough, not just her friends, but also the entire town started to laugh with her. In fact, the only one of them who was not laughing was Twilight as she was rather confused by what was going on.

Trixie, on the other hand, was in so much emotional pain at that moment. The entire Ponyville mocking her, coupled with the fact that the loss of her horn meant no more money from magic shows, was simply too much for her to bear. She was crying even more than she was before and even though she tried covering her ears, the laughing was still as loud as ever.

And so, she could not take it any longer and promptly ran away from there with her wagon as fast as she could, leaving a genuinely worried Twilight to ponder what they had done and how this action could possibly affect them in the near future.

Up in your golden chair

TWO MONTHS LATER

The loss of her horn had certainly taken its toll on Trixie's life. Not only she had become unable to perform her dazzling magic tricks in front of large crowds, but she was also forced to cancel every single one of her upcoming shows. Even though she was perfectly capable of performing a handful of tricks without the aid of her horn, pretty much all of them were standard tricks like pulling a rabbit out of her hat or a series of handkerchiefs from her sleeve. So, she was fully aware of the fact that her audiences would not be impressed by them at all and that she would not receive a single bit as payment.

As a result, she had to quit the show business and work at a different industry in order to both sustain herself and complete the sum of money necessary for her brother's operation. Although she did think about selling her props and other show equipment, she ultimately decided against it, since they did have some sentimental value and she had already promised her brother that she would one day teach him everything she had learned about stage magic.

Unfortunately, as soon as she started looking for a new job in various cities and towns all over Equestria, things did not go well for her in the slightest. Because she was so used to living in a wagon all by herself for long periods of time, focusing on perfecting her performances, and doing pretty much everything with the help of her magic; she did not have a single clue on how to do anything else. She applied for all kinds of jobs (including but not limited to a waitress at a diner, a janitor at a bank, a housekeeper at a motel, a cashier at a boutique, and even a replacement clown at a traveling circus), but she utterly failed at every single one of them and could only hold on to each of these jobs for a couple of days or so.

By far, the most humiliating moment she experienced during this already miserable job hunt took place exactly two weeks after the destruction of her horn at a bar in Fillydelphia where she had applied for the position of a stand-up comedian. She was planning on telling the audience some of the jokes she had heard from her mother when she was a filly. Unfortunately, none of the audience members laughed at any of the jokes she had told and by the end of the show, they were all loudly booing, and throwing their food and drinks at her, which forced her to leave the stage with utter shame. While exiting the bar and running away from it as fast as she could, she wondered whether it was her mother or herself who had a terrible sense of humor.

Then, the very next day, she finally did find a job that she managed to hold on to for more than a few days: packaging and labeling at a chemical plant just outside of Manehattan. Even though the work hours were pretty long and the daily wages were barely enough to pay for a decent meal, it was literally the only job she found herself to be good at, and that was solely due to her old habit of placing her props inside boxes, putting each of those boxes at a different corner inside her wagon, and then labeling each of those corners.

While she seriously thought about visiting Sunspot at the hospital occassionally, she nevertheless came to the conclusion that him seeing her with a broken horn would most definitely crush his very soul and that this much sadness was the last thing he needed at the moment. Therefore, she decided that the best time to see him would be AFTER the operation and instead, she wrote a letter to the hospital that included the location of her wagon (which was parked right outside the chemical plant) and a request to keep her posted in regards to any strange developments in her brother's condition.

Then, after six dreadful weeks of slaving at that disgusting factory and thirty straight nights without much food or water, her worst nightmare actually became reality.

She had just arrived back at her wagon after another long day at work, but this time, she had a gigantic smile on her face. Even though she had to work without break from dawn until dusk, she had finally managed to complete the sum of bits necessary for her brother's operation. So, as soon as she received that day's payment, she quit her job while shouting a few swear words to her boss and co-workers, and then rushed towards her wagon so that she could collect the rest of her bits and deliver the full amount to the hospital immediately afterwards.

Unfortunately, when she was only a few feet away the wagon, she noticed a letter from the hospital attached to the window of her door. Right after seeing it, her bright smile turned into a concerned frown and she picked up the letter with hesitation before going inside the wagon to read it, with her hooves violently shaking with every single she took in the process.

Then, a handful of seconds after she tore the letter open with her mouth and started reading the information it contained, she suddenly dropped it to the floor from learning what she had been dreading to hear for years.

Sunspot was dead.

His leukemia had become much worse during the last couple of weeks and even though he had passed away peacefully in his sleep, it had happened just two nights ago.

The moment she dropped the letter, Trixie burst into tears as all the misery she had gone through her entire life up to that point finally became too much for her to bear. Her father had been absent since her birth, her mother had fallen victim to a freak accident nearly a decade ago, her brother had just passed away after suffering for several years, and all of her desperate efforts to save his life had ultimately amounted to nothing. The absolute worst part of all this was the fact that she could have actually prevented the death of the one family member she had got left if not for the shattering of her horn.

Instead, she had lost both her horn and her magic in a terrifying incident that had caused her to not just give up the only profession she was a master of, but also suffer great embarrassment almost everywhere she had been in. It was almost like the universe was playing a cruel prank on her and-

That was it.

A joke.

All of this.

The entirety of her life had been one big comedy show.

The world was a circus and she was a clown making the audience laugh with her misery.

Trixie had finally gotten the joke.

And it made her sobbing turn into a laughter so loud that it could be heard from several miles away.

"He-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he...

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

High enough

THREE DAYS LATER

In the small town of Ponyville, there was a renowned shop called, "Carousel Boutique". As the name suggested, it had a resemblance to a carousel—or merry-go-round—from the outside, having a largely cylindrical building shape with decorative pillars and pony sculptures lining the lower and upper exterior. It served as the home and workplace of a ladylike fashionista named, Rarity, who made a living designing and crafting glamorous dresses for her customers and friends.

The reason why her designs were acclaimed by many was because her incredible attention to detail. She always knew just the right type of color and accessory to put to each dress, and made sure to add tiny alterations to them so that each dress could be unique in their own way. While this kind of work would often feel tedious for other ponies, but for Rarity, seeing her customers and friends be astounded by her products was always worth the effort.

She did much of her designing in her workroom, which was located at the first floor of her boutique. The room was stocked with materials and supplies such as mirrors, dress form mannequins, movable screens, and a small display stage. She spent most of her work days there and only came out of the room to either interact with the customers or sleep in her bedroom upstairs (which also served as her inspiration room). On one particular morning, while she was just finishing up the dresses ordered by Sapphire Shores (the second greatest pop star in Equestria and Rarity's most important client yet), she heard the sound of the bell attached to her doorstep and quickly exited the room to greet the customer while saying, "Coming! Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique."

However, the moment she took a good look at the "customer", her happiness turned to utter shock and she could not help but let out an extremely loud gasp.

It was a unicorn mare with a broken horn, azure coat, bottle green hair, marigold waistcoat, green patterned dress shirt, brown pants that covered up her cutie mark, and a face that resembled that of a clown. It was painted white with tear-like blue markings around the eyes and a bright red smile on the mouth. She was holding a wooden walking cane with her left hoof while leaning against the door with her right shoulder and she devilishly grinned at Rarity upon seeing her.

Rarity, meanwhile, was still gobsmacked from looking at the unicorn before her. Thankfully, she managed to get a hold of her senses after shaking her head a few times and asked, "Um... I-Is there anything I can help you with, darling?"

The unicorn then snickered a bit before replying, "Why, yes, I believe there is, 'darling'. I am in desperate need of a suit for tonight. Now, before you say anything, no, I'm not looking for a regular black tuxedo and pants. Instead, I want something with a little more color in it. Perhaps, something with red, purple, or blue. What do you think?"

Even though, Rarity found this request to be all kinds of odd, she nevertheless managed to say, "Well... I-I'm not sure I have a suit that matches your description, but you're welcome to look at the ones that I do have. This way, please."

As she pointed towards a corner of the shop that contained various types of suits, the unicorn promptly headed towards that direction while also exclaiming, "Oh, thank you so much, dearie! I don't know what I ever could've done without you!"

Rarity responded by giving her a nervous smile and then followed after her. While she inspected the products, the anxious fashionista stood beside her and could not help but ask, "You know, your voice does sound a bit familiar. Have we met before, by any chance?"

Without looking at her, the unicorn replied, "Maybe we did. Maybe we didn't. Memory is such a fickle thing. You never know when you'll forget something important. Like how great and powerful I once was."

As soon as Rarity heard that last sentence, Rarity let out another loud gasp and shouted, "TRIXIE?! Is that really you?! What's happened to you?!"

"Ah, there it is!", Trixie then declared still without looking at Rarity and took one of the items from the shelf in front of her. She held in her right hoof a crimson slim fit suit and merrily announced, "This is absolutely perfect! How much is it?"

Though she stammered a bit, Rarity eventually composed herself and furiously said, "That doesn't matter right now! What really matters is you telling me what are you really doing in my shop, why are you dressed like that, and why in the name of Celestia do you have that make-up on your face."

"Ugh, fine! I suppose I can kill some time with a little chit-chat", said Trixie before finally looking at Rarity. She then announced, "Like I said, I'm here to buy a suit for a big event tonight. I have this make-up on me, because I'm part of a circus now and we'll soon be setting up our tent just outside Ponyville. As for the clothes I'm wearing, they were the only ones I could afford with the money I gained from selling my wagon and all of my props. Why these clothes in particular? I dunno. I thought they'd look cool when I bought them. Anything else you wanna know or will you finally tell me how much the bloody suit costs?"

Even though Rarity took some time to process everything Trixie had told her, she eventually took a deep breath and said, "That would be fifteen bits. I didn't even know a circus was coming to town."

"There's a circus in town?!", a high-pitched voice suddenly asked with great excitement and when the two unicorns turned towards the direction it had come from, they saw that it belonged to a unicorn filly who had the same coat color as Rarity. Moreover, she had pale, light grayish harlequin eyes, and a grayish mulberry mane with pale, light grayish rose streaks.

Upon noticing her, a wide smile appeared on Trixie's face and she happily said, "Well, hello there, young lady! You must be Rarity's little sister. You know, I had a little brother about your age. I'm positively sure the two of you would've been the best of pals if he was here with me today."

Before her sister could give a reply, Rarity interjected, "Wait, did you just say you 'had' a brother? What hap-"

SHLUK!!!

Without giving her a chance to finish her sentence, Trixie used the pointy edge of her cane to stab Rarity in both eyes. As she loudly screamed in very intense pain while covering her eyes with her front hooves and trying to stand on her hind legs, her sister also screamed in pure terror. Trixie, however, only let out a hysterical laughter and tossed the cane to Rarity's head, causing her to lose her balance and fall down. Then, after laying on the ground for a few seconds, she felt the cane a couple inches from her face, grabbed it with both hooves, stood back up on her hind legs, and began to wildly swing the cane in the air, trying to hit Trixie with it.

In response, Trixie casually removed her waistcoat and shirt, threw both them and the suit to the ground, grabbed the frantically struggling filly, covered her mouth, and waited for Rarity to come closer to them. A short while later she did so and the moment she was about to hit Trixie, the psychotic unicorn blocked her strike with her own sister's body and made a pained sound to trick Rarity.

Rarity then swung the cane five more times and Trixie once again deflected each of those attacks by holding the filly's body at their trajectory while also letting out noises that made it sound like she had been hit. Right after the fifth swing, she dropped to the door, placed the filly's blood-soaked and nearly lifeless body right next to her, and begged, "STOP! I can't take it anymore! You win! You've beaten me!"

Rarity did not listen and continued to attack her with the cane, with each of those attacks hitting her sister's body and Trixie still making painful noises. Right after the sixth strike, she made a sound that gave the impression that she was finally dead, when in reality, it was the filly who was finally dead. As Rarity started to breathe very heavily, Trixie quietly got up, picked up her clothes, and made her way to the workroom. Once inside, she wiped away the blood on her body with a large piece of fabric she found there before putting on the clothes and admiring her new look in the mirror.

Then, she headed towards the exit and just as she was about to head out of the door, she announced, "Well, Rarity, it's been fun catching up, but I gotta go now. I need to stop by a couple more places before the big show tonight. I wish you could be there to see it, but fate is really cruel sometimes, isn't it? Anyway, I sadly don't have fifteen bits on me at the moment, but the cane you're holding also costs fifteen bits. So, I guess that's a fair trade. See ya!"

Shortly after waving good-bye and walking away from the boutique, she laughed once again upon hearing a scream loud enough to shatter every single window.

Are the cracks showing?

FOUR HOURS LATER

The entire town of Ponyville was in a state of utter chaos.

Dozens of ponies were gathered in front of the general hospital, demanding to know more about the gruesome murder that had taken place in Carousel Boutique earlier that day. While the Mayor Mare was doing her best to calm down the mob, the townsfolk continued to ask various questions regarding the said incident and grew ever more impatient over time. These questions included the identity of the murderer, where he or she could have come from, and their exact motive behind committing this heinous crime.

However, the most unsettling thing about the murder was neither the giant pool of blood on the shop floor, nor the gauged eyes of the shop owner, nor the body of the victim apparently beaten to a pulp. Rather, it was the fact that there were bloody footprints going away from the crime scene, meaning that the murderer was still out there somewhere, quite possibly planning their next atrocious act. Therefore, the two things the townsfolk wanted to know the most were where exactly the murderer might have gone to and what crime could they be thinking about committing next.

With these questions burning in their minds, the mob was growing more anxious each minute as they continued to wait in front of the hospital for the statement of the critically injured witness. While they were hoping that this statement could shed some light on the identity and location of the murderer, they were still pretty uncertain about the fact that a crime like this was committed in a highly popular store (in broad daylight, no less) and whether or not their remaining heroes would be able to stop the murderer before he or she could kill some pony else.

Speaking of their remaining heroes, they were all currently inside one of the emergency rooms of the hospital, standing beside the bed in which their unconscious friend was lying. Her eyes were covered in bandages, the rest of her body was hooked up to several machines that were preventing her from dying of blood loss, and her friends were all silently sobbing while watching over her.

All of them were trying to cope with this situation in a different way. Pinkie Pie (with her usually poofy mane now deflated) was covering her eyes while also creating a pool of tears on the floor, Fluttershy was embracing her while shedding an equally large amount of tears, Twilight was somberly staring at Rarity's unconscious body, Applejack was somberly staring outside through a nearby window, and Rainbow Dash was pacing back and forth with a facial expression that was a mixture of sadness and rage.

Eventually, Applejack turned away from the window and whispered something to Twilight's ear. Twilight then responded with a nod and this prompted Applejack to leave the room before walking towards the other side of the hospital and going through the back exit. She knew very well that the front side of the building was flooding with scared and confused ponies, and that they would pester her with an endless barrage of questions about if they ever noticed her.

She had absolutely no time to deal with all this. She had to immediately rush back home and check up on how her little sister was coping with the loss one of her best friends.

With that in mind, she started making her way towards Sweet Apple Acres by sticking to the backstreets and making sure that she was out of the mob's view. Once she was a couple houses away from the hospital, she decided that caution was no longer necessary, as nearly the entirety of the town had joined the mob. Therefore, she started galloping towards the border that seperated Ponyville from her family's farm and increased her speed upon reaching there.

Then, nearly half a minute later, when she was less than a dozen feet away from her house, she heard a sound she least expected (and wanted) to hear at that moment.

Laughter.

She immediately stopped galloping and listened carefully to determine who could possibly making that sound at a time like this. A short while later, she became utterly shocked do discover that the voices belonged to Big Mac, Granny Smith, and another mare who sounded very familiar somehow. Unable to wait much longer to find out the answers, she resumed galloping towards her house and when she was right at the front door, she realized that the laughter was coming from the kitchen. Therefore, she immediately entered the house and though she could hear the faint sobbing of her sister from upstairs, she continued onward, no matter how much she wanted to go rush upstairs to comfort her.

However, upon reaching her destination, she came across one of the strangest scenes she has ever seen in her life.

Big Mac and Granny Smith were having afternoon tea with a unicorn mare who had not only a broken horn and a clown make-up on her face, but also a colorful formal attire and a brown leathery briefcase standing right next to her seat. After taking a few moments to process what was going on, she managed to say, "Wha... What in the hay is goin' on here? Who is this stranger?"

Upon hearing her questions, the unicorn turned her attention to Applejack and exclaimed with pure happiness, "Ah, Applejack! I was wondering when you were gonna show up! So wonderful to see you again! It's me, your old pal, Trixie."

In response, Applejack's eyes widened with shock and she let out a loud gasp before asking, "T-Trixie?! Is that really you? Why in the name of Celestia do you look like that? Also, what exactly do you think you're doin' in my house?"

Trixie responded by letting out a frustrated sigh and venting, "If I had a bit for every time I heard that question this week, I probably would've become even richer than the royal sisters by now. Seriously, every pony immediately loses their minds when they see someone dressed a little differently than they normally do. I mean, what has the society we're living in devolved into, am I right?

"Anyways, let's go back to your questions, AJ. After I left Ponyville, I thought really hard about that you had told me the last time we saw each other and eventually, I realized you were right all along. Losing my horn really was the best thing that could've happened to me, because it helped me find my true purpose in life: providing quality entertainment for audiences from all ages as a circus clown. Sure, the stunts I have to pull are a bit painful, but you do get used to the pain after a while and the benefit of making ponies smile is definitely worth the suffering."

"So, as a way to show my immense gratitude to you for opening up my eyes, I've decided to donate all the money I've gained from selling my wagon and all of the props I used for my magic shows. After all, I no longer need them as a clown and this fine establishment of yours does need as many bits as possible to keep producing easily the most delicous apples in the entirety of Equestria."

As Applejack tried to process everthing that had recently come out of Trixie's mouth, Granny Smith joyously interjected, "Darn tootin, miss! We kindly thank you for your generous donation and telling us all those stories about the fun adventures you had with your little brother. Celestia knows we can use some levity at this time. If you ever need a place to stay, you're more than welcome in the barn."

"Oh, you're way too kind, Granny Smith. There's really no need for that," Trixie replied. "The circus is my home now and, quite frankly, I've been away from it far longer than I should have. So, I'll just leave the money with you and take one more cup of your delicious tea before taking my leave. It was such a pleasure meeting you and I hope to see you again soon."

Right after finishing her sentence, she placed her briefcase on the table and walked towards the stove to pour herself another cup of tea. Meanwhile, a visibly curious Applejack proceeded to open the briefcase and became a bit surprised to learn that Trixie was indeed telling the truth: there really was a significant number of bits inside it.

While her brother and Granny Smith began to stare at them in great admiration, she turned her attention towards Trixie and inquired, "Wow... That is quite a sum you got there, Trixie. Are you sure you wanna donate this much to us?"

"Yes, absolutely," promptly answered Trixie as she continuously took sips from her tea. "It's the least I could do to thank you for enlightening me. Besides, money really isn't a problem. Not these days, anyway."

Though she was taken a bit aback by this statement, Applejack became even more shocked to see Trixie drinking an entire cup of hot boiling tea in only a handful of seconds. Witnessing this incredible feat made her blurt out, "Whoa, slow down! You're gonna burn your own tongue off by drinking this fast!"

"Oh, it's perfectly fine, AJ. Trust me," Trixie casually responded. "I'm a circus clown now, remember? I'm kinda used to intense pain at this point. In fact, this is nothing compared to all the crazy shenenigans I take part in on a daily basis. Anyway, I really should get going now. My next performance is all the way in Appleloosa tonight and my manager will surely kill me if I miss the train. Thanks again for the the tea and I hope my donation helps you out big time. See y'all soon!"

She quickly rushed towards the front door and waved the Apple family good-bye before heading out, with Big Mac and Granny Smith waving back in response. Applejack, meanwhile, did not wave back and instead, began to stare at Trixie with immense suspicion. Even though she was unable to sense any sort of lies in Trixie's words, she could smell something fishy about the reasoning behind her donation to the farm. Also, she seemed way too friendly with her and her family, considering everything that had happened the last time they saw each other, and her sudden appearance on the exact day a vicious murder had taken place in a town full of normally friendly ponies looked somewhat dubious.

With these thoughts circling in her mind, she went outside to ask Trixie a few more questions, while Big Mac helped Granny Smith carry the briefcase upstairs. Unfortunately, not one of them noticed the fact that the oven had been turned on and that there was a small rocket cooking inside it.

Trixie, meanwhile, was casually trotting through the apple orchard and heading back towards Ponyville while also admiring the beauty of the trees all around her. When she was only about half a mile away from the farmhouse, however, she heard the sound of some pony galloping towards her and immediately stopped upon hearing a familiar voice shout, "TRIXIE, WAIT UP! I'VE GOT A FEW MORE THINGS TO ASK YOU!"

The unicorn mare then turned around to see Applejack, with a fierce expression on her face, coming straight at her and stopping just a few feet away. In contrast, she once again smiled at the farm pony and asked, "What's up, AJ? Something on your mind?"

"Yeah, there is somethin' on my mind, alright," Applejack began. "How is it that you suddenly show up here all friendly like a few weeks after you fled here crying? Also, how strange is that you arrive on the exact same day as one of the ponies who called you out on your behavior the last time you were here got seriously injured in her own shop? Not to mention, her sister got killed in the same place and all this happened in broad daylight. Call me paranoid, but I can't help but feel there's a connection between all these events."

Right after she heard the end of that sentence, Trixie snickered a bit and then, bursted out laughing like a mad pony. This made Applejack slightly creeped out and she took a couple steps backwards while ask, "Um, what's so darn funny?"

Trixie responded by laughing for a few more seconds before calming down, wiping some tears from her eyes, and explaining, "Oh, AJ... I'm actually quite jealous of you right now. I tried stand-up comedy before becoming a clown and all I got were dead silence and boos from the audience. But you? You would've most certainly killed them with this theory alone. I mean, you seriously think I had something to do with that gruesome incident you mentioned simply because I got 'called out on my behavior'? What a petty reason to commit a crime like this!"

"Sooo... You had absolutely nothing to with that murder?" Applejack curiously inquired.

Trixie thought about that question for a handful of seconds before answering, "Well, not exactly."

She then started chuckling again, which caused Applejack to intensely glare at her and ask, "What's that supposed to mean? And why are you laughing for this time?"

"Because, this whole dilemma of ours actually reminds of a joke I once heard," Trixie revealed.

"What the heck are you talking about?!" Applejack suddenly shouted. "Tell me the joke!"

In response, Trixie's smile turned rather sinister and she slyly declared, "You wouldn't get it."

KA-BOOOOOOM!!!!!!

In a sudden flash of blinding light, the entire farmhouse exploded and sent both mares flying several feet away and both of them landed on the ground with a heavy thud. Applejack, despite the ringing in her ears and being injured from the shock wave created by the explosion, managed to rise back up with some struggle. However, upon doing so, she came accross the horrific image of her farmhouse being engulfed in gigantic flames and the implied notion that the ponies that mattered the most in her life were now gone forever.

As her eyes widened with immense shock and a river of tears started flowing from her eyes, she screamed at the burning structure, "No... NOOOOOO!!!!!!", before collapsing back on the ground and sobbing with great agony. A short while later, she heard the sound of someone's chuckling and hoof steps coming closer to her, and she looked behind to see Trixie with a sinister grin on her face and holding a rather sharp piece of wooden board covered in ash on one of her hooves walking directly towards her.

"Wha- What did you do?" she asked the clown in a tone full of despair.

Trixie let out a frustrated sigh and answered, "Come on, AJ! The answer is pretty freaking obvious! I blew the entire house and set the orchard on fire! The real question you should be asking is how I did all this. Well, there are several possible answers, actually. A gas leak coming in contact with a single spark... A few stacks of dynamite buried under the floorboards... or... A small rocket normally used in fireworks containing highly explosive elements being snuck inside an oven when no pony was looking. Yes, I think the third option sounds much more plausible than the others. After all, someone who worked at the packaging department of a chemical plant would know all about these ingredients, right?"

Upon hearing this revelation, Applejack's facial expression turned furious and she began to shout, "You scum! I'll- "

SCHLAAAAK!

Before she could finish her sentence, Trixie impaled her right in the back with the piece of wood. As the farm pony once again screamed in immense pain, she said, "Will you now? How refreshing to hear! Certainly not by the book. Speaking of which, looks like you won't be walking off the shelf any time soon. In fact, the idea of you walking anywhere seems remote. Then again, that's always the problem with softbacks."

She then started walking towards a nearby apple tree that was on fire (just like the rest of the orchard at that moment) and picked an apple that had not burned yet before placing it on her right pocket and heading back towards Applejack. Once she was standing right on top of her, she held Applejack's chin up with her left hoof and declared with a menacing tone, "It really is a shame you'll have to miss your friend's debut, AJ. Sadly, our venue wasn't made for the disabled in mind."

"Why... are you... doing this?" a now-crying Applejack asked.

"To prove a point", Trixie replied before holding her apple on her right hoof and adding, "Here's to crime."

Could you be more prepared?

FIVE MINUTES LATER

The explosion that had occurred on Sweet Apple Acres was loud enough to be heard across Ponyville and while the rest of the townsfolk became even more frightened they were before, Rainbow Dash immediately flew towards the direction that the booming sound had come from and arrived there in a matter of seconds thanks to her exceptional speed. However, upon arriving at the scene, she became utterly horrified by her surroundings:

The entire orchard was on fire. The farm house had been completely demolished and was literally falling to pieces while still burning. Every single one of the apple trees had become charred and devoid of any signs of life whatsoever. Worst of all, none of the Apple family members were in sight and Rainbow was immensely afraid of the possibility that they had all perished as a result of this disaster.

Even though what she was seeing and thinking caused her to panic for a brief moment, she quickly snapped back to reality upon realizing that there was still a chance to save everyone in time. So, she flew as fast as she could towards the sky, grabbed the biggest clouds she could find, and placed them all over the burning farm before kicking them as hard as she could in order to pour as much rain on to the fire as possible. Once the majority of the flames had been extinguished, she began flying around the property, hoping to find the Apple family alive and well. After about half a minute of searching, she finally found her longtime friend Applejack alive, but she was anything but well:

She was lying on the ground with tears streaming down her face, with her eyes reddened from ongoing sobbing, and her entire body covered in her own blood, which was still leaking from a wound on her back that was caused by a sharp piece of wood firmly lodged on her spine.

Seeing one of her closest and oldest friends in this terrible state filled Rainbow's very soul with utter horror and disgust. Thus, she quickly flew towards her side and then frantically asked, "AJ!! Are you alright?! What's happened here?! Who or what did this to you?!"

Hearing all these questions made Applejack raise her head towards Rainbow, but upon seeing the cyan pegasus, the expression on her face became one of pure terror and she weakly pleaded, "RD... You... Y-you gotta get out of 'ere. She... S-she's gonna do somethin' to you. G-get away right now."

This only caused the look that Rainbow was giving to Applejack to change from scared to utterly puzzled, but before she could ask the orange earth pony what she had meant by those words, her ears picked up the rather loud sound of an apple being crunched. She turned around to see the source of this sound and became even more puzzled than before to gaze upon a unicorn with a broken horn wearing a clown make-up and sporting a red tuxedo who was leaning against a completely charred tree and eating a large red apple with one hoof.

As the said unicorn took another large bite out of the apple and started crunching the piece insider her mouth in a loud manner, she took notice of Rainbow staring at her with an incredulous facial expression before a bright smile appeared on her own face and she exclaimed with great excitement in her tone of voice, "Oh, hi, Rainbow! How's it going? Like what I've done with the place? I know the flames are a bit too much, but they do kinda add to the overall tone of the art piece, don't you think?"

Rainbow immediately recongnized that voice and although she initially became shocked to discover the unicorn's identity, thinking on her words caused an angry scowl to appear on the face of the cyan pegasus as she asked, "Trixie... You're the one who did all this?"

"Of course!" Trixie replied with unwavering enthusiasm. "Who else could create a masterpiece such as this? I mean, I'm definitely gonna try to one up myself in the future and there's a very good chance that I'll succeed one day, but you know what they say: you NEVER forget your first one!"

Then, she started giggling and this enraged Rainbow so much that she flew straight at her with an incalculable speed (creating an ear-deafening sonic boom as a result) and punched her in the face hard enough to not only knock her down, but also make her cough up blood. In spite of her severe injury, however, Trixie quickly got back up and continued to giggle, which made Rainbow even angrier than before and caused her to deliver another punch to her gut that sent her flying towards the tree she was leaning on earlier, breaking it in two in the process.

Unfortunately, this did nothing to deter Trixie in the slightest, as she slowly managed to stand back up and her giggles turned into legitimate maniacal laughter, making Rainbow both slightly confused and utterly infuriated at the same time. Therefore, she not only took another swing at Trixie with her speed to knock her down, but also started repeatedly punching the homicidal clown in the jaw. The latter, despite several gallons blood and more than few teeth dropping from her mouth, laughed harder with each punch, which in turn made Rainbow hit progressively harder.

Even after taking a dozen punches to the jaw and the jaw itself nearing the edge of breaking as a result, Trixie still kept laughing at the top of her lungs and this actually prompted Rainbow to have a brief moment of despair over how useless the beating had proven to be before coming up with the idea of shooting to the top of the clouds and then descending back towards the ground, intending make Trixie pay for everything she had done and put a permanent end to her abhorrent mockery. As for Trixie herself, however, she became immensely excited by Rainbow's sudden ascension and her wicked smile only grew wider with each second that passed during the subsequent descent. As the cyan pegasus came closer and closer towards her, she could not help but mutter to herself, "Come on. Come on, I want you to do it. I want you to do it. Come on, hit me. Hit me. You wanna hit me?!"

Rainbow responded by letting out a gutteral scream of pure unadulterared rage and when she was only a few dozen feet above Trixie, the clown exclaimed with utter impatience, "HIT!!! ME!!!!"

However, this only resulted in the complete opposite of the effect that she was hoping for, since hearing her exclamation caused Rainbow to finally snap out of her murderous rage and realize the full extent of what she was about to do. Unfortunately, pausing her high speed descent for only a couple of seconds was all it took for her to lose both balance and control before crashing into the ground half a mile away from her original target, creating a huge crater in the process. Trixie, meanwhile, became immensely disappointed by what had just occurred and after letting out a groan out of annoyance, she made her way towards the said crater in order to see whether or not Rainbow was still standing.

Then, much to her amusement, she discovered that the cyan pegasus was indeed lying on the ground, unconscious and horribly injured. Both of her wings had been broken in multiple places, nearly every one of her feathers were scattered all over the place, her entire body was covered in bruises, and there was even a large open wound on her forehead. While still irritated by the fact that her original plan had not gone in the direction that she was expecting, Trixie nevertheless felt somewhat satisfied with the overall result. So, she gave a simple shrug to the said result and promptly began her departure from the orchard, even going as far as dancing like a ballerina around the completely burnt apple trees as she moved along.

Unfortunately, her newfound happiness was short lived as she was suddenly hit by a purple magic blast of unknown origin when she was only a few steps away from the exit gate. Thus, she was flung a dozen feet in the air and upon landing back on the ground with a heavy thud, she let out a much louder groan out of annoyance than before and even shouted, "What's a mare gotta do for a minute of peace?!"

In response, the one who had shot her in the first place lifted her up with magic and then walked towards her to reveal themselves to be none other than Twilight Sparkle, who had an absolutely furious expression on her face. Immediately after reaching Trixie, she proceeded to yell, "Tell me who you are RIGHT NOW!!!"

Trixie's only response was letting out a sinister chuckle and asking, "You sure you can handle the punchline?"

Twilight had no time for games, however, as she proceeded to hit Trixie's face with a second blast of magic, which not only flung the manic unicorn an additional dozen feet away, but also burn her face just enough to cause the clown make up to melt away. Then, as soon as Trixie stood back up to face Twilight, the latter became both shocked and horrified to discover the former's identity, even collapsing on the ground in the process.

"No... No, it can't be..." she muttered with utter despair, to which Trixie maniacally laughed in response.

"Oh, but it is. In the diseased flesh!" she exclaimed before laughing so hard that it could be heard across the orchard while Twilight continued to sit in silence and hang her head in shame while also shedding a handful of tears.

"So, now what, Sparkle?" Trixie then asked. "Are you planning on taking me to the dungeons of Canterlot, the mental asylum in Manehattan, or the good old cemetery right here in Ponyville? In all honesty, I'm totally fine with whichever one you pick."

Upon hearing this, Twilight looked back at Trixie with despair, utterly clueless on what to do next.

Script all your comedy with paper stained in crimson

SIX MINUTES LATER

As a sudden flash of light appeared directly above her head, Trixie was forced to cover her eyes for a few seconds before squinting them in order to get a good look at her new surroundings. The room that was once completely dark was now being illuminated by a small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and it appeared to be a library of sorts with the walls resembling the interior of a giant tree. Even the table she was sitting at looked to be carved out of wood and sitting at the opposite side of the said table was a very stern-looking Twilight Sparkle, whom Trixie correctly assumed to be the librarian of this humble but fine establishment.

When she finally finished observing the new environment she was placed at and fully opened her eyes in the process, she gave her signature wicked smile to Twilight and said, "Hmmm... I should be mad that you didn't go for any of the options I've presented to you, Sparkle, but I do very much appreciate it when ponies start thinking outside the box and use unconventional methods to solve difficult problems. In fact, I already sense some kind of kinship between the two of us and I really am curious to see what you've got planned for us this evening. By the way, where is that little dragon that was always following you around the last time I was in Ponyville? I sure hope I didn't scare him off or anything."

Twilight responded by taking a deep breath and declaring, "Spike is still at the hospital, because he wanted to stay by Rarity's side. In case you don't remember, you gouged out her eyes and tricked her into murdering her own sister earlier today. Now, if you don't have any other questions, let's get one thing straight before we start, Trixie."

"We are nothing alike. I strive to defend Equestria and its citizens from dangerous threats, while you strive to cause destruction and chaos wherever you set your sights on. The only reason I brought you here in the first place was because none of those options of yours could help repair the damage you've done to Ponyville and the rest of Equestria. So, unless you prefer to see the very civilization that me and my friends worked so hard to protect crumble into nothingness in a matter of days, then I suggest you take this seriously. Understood?"

Trixie simply let out an amused chuckle in response and motioned for Twilight to proceed. Twilight then sighed in utter exasperation and continued, "Right after your first visit to our town a few months ago, I did a little background check on you to find out why exactly you seemed so upset about your broken horn. There weren't many sources to conduct a proper research from, mind you, but thanks to those I did manage to find, I could get a good grasp on why you did all those horrible things today. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is... I am so sorry, Trixie."

The said clown immediately stopped smiling upon hearing that last sentence and tilted her head in confusion as Twilight continued in a much more somber tone than before, "Even though it doesn't excuse or even justify the things that you did today, I do understand the reason why you felt the urge to lash out at my friends. If only I had known about what you've been through a lot sooner. We could've prevented so much devastation from happening to both sides. My friends wouldn't have been horrifically injured and you would've been living happily with your brother by now. I have brother too, actually, and I can't even imagine how I would've acted if I had lost him the way you lost your own brother. So, if there's any pony around here who could understand what you're going through, it's me."

After hearing all this, Trixie frowned at Twilight and lowered her head in deep contemplation for several seconds before finally asking, "Can you, though? Can you really understand how I feel about all this without experiencing it yourself?"

Twilight became a little confused by that question, but still managed to reply, "Well... not exactly... but I CAN understand if you talk to me about it. I may be the only pony in this whole town whom you can talk comfortably about your feelings. I know that sounds kinda lame, but it's the only way I can help you resolve your problems."

"Why?!" Trixie angrily questioned Twilight as she lifted her head back up to meet her gaze. "Why would an upstanding citizen such as yourself even think about helping a filthy degenerate such as myself? Just look at what I did to your home and your friends in the span of a few short hours. The only rational explanation for helping me is so you could write a bestseller book about it and add that book to your already impressive collection here!"

"NO!! No, it's not about that at all!" Twilight began to explain while also trying to hold back the tears in her eyes. "I genuinely want to help you, because even if my friends don't feel the same way, I actually do feel responsible about what happened to you. I may not have had any direct involvement in the things that caused your life to be bent out of shape, but I also did nothing to prevent those things from happening in the first place. I didn't act quick enough to stop the Ursa Minor from smashing your horn to pieces and I didn't defend you against the townsfolk when they were laughing at your misfortune. I didn't help you then, but I do have the chance to help you now. Please, let me use it. You don't have to be alone anymore."

As she listened to this explanation, Trixie's facial expression visibly softened and she began thinking about Twilight's proposal. After several seconds of pondering, however, she looked at Twilight straight in the eye and declared with a very serious tone of voice, "I'm sorry, but you're wasting your time. I can't be helped. It's far too late for that."

Twilight's eyes widened in horror upon hearing that answer and she frantically said, "No... No, don't say that! You know as well as I do that this is not true! There is still plenty of time to save what remains of your soul. Just because you wanted to get back at the ponies who wronged you in the past doesn't mean you-"

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

Trixie's sudden burst into laughter and the resulting interruption of Twilight's speech caused the latter to be both utterly confused and a little intimidated at the same time. After the former was finished with the said laughter, she took a moment to catch her breath and then gleefully said, "Oh, come on, Sparkle. Do I seriously look like a pony who would care one bit about something as petty as revenge? I maimed your friends simply because they were awful. In fact, there just so many awful ponies like them all over Equestria that I thought we'd all benefit from the absence of a few. You know, so that actually decent ponies wouldn't suffer tragedies similar to mine."

Twilight responded to this statement by raising an eyebrow and asking, "What do you mean there are so many awful ponies all over Equestria? Which kind of ponies are we talking about here?"

"You seriously don't know?!" a now legitimately baffled Trixie inquired. "Do you have any freaking clue about what life is like in places other than Ponyville and Canterlot? Have you ever actually traveled to anywhere besides those two places? Well, I have and I can say without a shred of doubt that almost all the ponies I've encountered out there are as awful as those bullies you call friends! Not one of them bother to spend enough time to get to know ponies other than themselves or even try to understand what the other pony has been through! They all just YELL and SCREAM at each other! No pony's CIVIL anymore! I mean, if I had been the one who was maimed by a psycopath and then left bleeding on the sidewalk, they would all walk over me without a second glance!"

Even though Trixie's eyes had become full of tears as she finished her loud rant, Twilight simply stared at her in complete disbelief for a handful of seconds before stating, "That... That's not possible. I'm sorry to say this, Trixie, but it almost sounds like you're making excuses for the bad choices you've made in your life. I've visited more than a few places outside Canterlot and Ponyville, and none of the ponies I've seen displayed those behaviors you just described. Now, I know no pony is perfect, but I also know not all ponies are awful."

Upon hearing those words, Trixie once again looked directly at Twilight's lavender eyes with an expression full of repressed rage and declared, "You're awful too, Sparkle."

"Me?! I'm afwul?!" Twilight exclaimed with a completely flabbergasted look on her face. "H-how am I awful exactly?"

"Sneaking me in here without any pony's notice," Trixie began. "Trying to talk me into changing my ways in the guise of helping me with my emotional problems. You actually have no intention of helping me whatsoever, do you? You don't even like listening to me. You just wanted to convince me into forgiving your friends so that I wouldn't tell anyone about the fact that they played a role in the death of an innocent foal. If that's true, then I guess I was wrong about sensing a kinship between us. Was I?"

Twilight only response to this question was staying completely silent for nearly half a minute while her facial expression slowly but surely changed from one of bewilderment into one of panic. Trixie immediately took notice of this change, as well as the few drops of sweat pouring down her head, and after letting out a deep sigh of utter disappointment, she revealed, "Looks like I was, indeed. Well, guess what, Sparkle? There's not a single force on this world that can stop me from revealing this dark secret of ours to the public. You can try to keep me here as long as you want, but consider for a moment what's happening outside this very moment. Like you said earlier, the whole town is in chaos and the authorities are no doubt knocking on every door to find the one responsible for this mess. So, the only question is how much longer do you think we can stay here before their little witch hunt reaches us?"

Just before Twilight could have the chance to answer that question, she heard a loud banging on her front door and a rough voice shouting, "In the name of the Royal Guard, open this door right now!"

Then, the moment she turned around to answer the order, Trixie pulled out a small knife hidden inside the sleeves of her suit and lunged towards Twilight before putting her in a chokehold with her free hoof and using the one holding the knife to cut the purple unicorn's horn. While the said purple unicorn struggled as hard as she could to free herself and even tried to use magic against her assailant, she was simple unable to concentrate while also gasping for air, which bought a manically laughing Trixie plenty of time to completely sever the horn from Twilight's forehead.

Right after she had finally managed to do so, the front door was broken down and two white-coated pegasus guards entered while holding their spears at the ready. Upon spotting the two mares struggling with each other on the floor, they quickly rushed to seperate two and grabbed Trixie by her forelegs before dragging her towards the entrance in order to take her into custody. As they did so, however, Trixie looked back at the mutilated and utterly devastated Twilight while also exclaiming, "I hope you're now happy, Sparkle! I just helped you take take the first step towards understanding me! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

She kept laughing even as the guards dragged her outside with no resistance from her whatsoever. Meanwhile, her latest victim was left wallow in her sadness and terror at not only what had just happened to her, but also what was about to happen to the rest of Equestria.

Fill up your cup and wash it down

SEVEN HOURS LATER

The entire population of Ponyville was gathered in front of the town hall for an announcement by Mayor Mare in the middle of the night. While the townsfolk were still wondering what exactly the purpose of this meeting was going to be, pretty much all of them were certain that it had something to do with the gruesome murders that were committed by an unnamed pony or creature earlier that day. It had been several hours since the ear-deafening explosion that had utterly destroyed Sweet Apple Acres and killed nearly every member of the Apple family residing there. All the citizens were then forced to return to their homes for not just their own safety, but also be searched by the royal guards for any possible suspects. On top of all that, the said royal guards were actually sent to the town much earlier in order to investigate another murder that had taken place in the Carousel Boutique.

So, needless to say, the every single one of the citizens had become extremely frightened of these recent developments and were heading towards the town hall with the desperate hope that the one responsible for all this was finally caught. They were all whispering amongst themselves about what each of them went through that day, as well as what they were suspecting to hear at the meeting, continuing to do so even as they gathered in front of the town hall and only going quiet upon seeing their mayor exit the building.

The said mayor then trotted on to a podium with a rather bright smile on her face, cleared her throat, and began, "Fillies and gentlecolts! I sincerely apologize for calling you here at such a late hour, but I do have some very good news to share with you all. I am pleased to announce that the pony who committed all those atrocities earlier today has finally been arrested by the royal guard!"

The entire audience erupted into cheers upon hearing this news while also talking to each other about the fact that they can finally go about their daily lives without further trouble and the possible identity of the murderer, as well as their motivation for all these terrible acts. However, they all went silent once again when Mayor Mare banged on the podium three times before continuing, "Furthermore, the captain of the royal guard has allowed us to see the face of the culprit in order to prevent any more speculation and put our minds at ease. So, without further ado, I present the one responsible for all the chaos and dread that we experienced today: Trixie Lulamoon!"

The mere mention of this name filled every single member of this audience with both shock and horror, made only worse by the sight of Trixie herself exiting the building with a manic grin on her face while also being chained by her front hooves and a royal guard on each side holding the said chains. However, despite being chained, she actually managed to make her way towards the audience while performing a little dance for them along the way, with the guards accompanying her struggling really hard to hold her steady in the process.

Once she was right beside the podium that Mayor Mare was standing on, she gave a complimentary bow to a befuddled, but also terrified audience before waiting patiently for the next announcements. She did not have to wait for long though, as a few seconds after her bow, an unamused Mayor Mare asked, "Well, Miss Lulamoon, do you have anything to say before you depart for Canterlot in order to face judgment for your heinous crimes?"

Trixie's smile disappeared as she took a moment to think about what she was going to tell the audience and as soon as she figured it out, she proceeded to clear her throat and say, "Knock. Knock."

This caused some of the audience members to whisper with one another about what she had meant by that, while others kept staring at her with even more confusion on their faces. Mayor Mayor then curiously inquired, "Um... Who's there?"

In response, Trixie's smile suddenly came back as she announced, "It's me, mom. Dad accidentally fell off our balcony just now. His skull is all over the sidewalk! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

The mood of the entire audience shifted from confusion to utter disgust, as the ponies in attendance were either groaning or facehoofing upon hearing this joke. Meanwhile, the guards holding Trixie's chains were not only doing both, but also contemplating about why they were assigned to this duty in the first place and even going as far as questioning their life choices. In the midst of this swirl of negative emotions, however, Trixie was still smiling from ear to ear while also still giggling at her own joke.

That is, until three hits on the podium from a visibly exasperated Mayor Mare finally restored order to the audience and caused to become completely silent once again. She then declared, "If you are not going to take this situation seriously, Miss Lulamoon, then it probably is best that you leave our town immediately to face the appropriate punishment for your petty acts of vengeance. Guards, could you please escort her to-"

"VENGEANCE?!" a now gobsmacked Trixie suddenly interrupted her with a shout before hitting her own head on the floor of the podium four times.

Then, she turned her attention towards the audience and asked, "You actually still think any of this was about getting back at those ponies for insulting me and driving me away when I first arrived here? Are none of you capable of using your freaking brains for even a minute? If I really wanted revenge, I could've simply broken into their houses in the middle of the night and sliced their throats with a tiny knife while they were asleep. And then what? Back to living inside my miserable old carriage that's still parked just outside a disgusting chemical factory? What do you think could've possibly changed about my comedy of a life if I had just gotten something as trivial and pointless as revenge?"

Most of the audience were intently listening to her words while the others tried to come up with a counter argument before eventually giving up and directing their concentration back towards her. Just then, Mayor Mare once again inquired with immense curiosity in her tone of voice, "If the reason for your return to our town wasn't revenge at all, then what exactly was it? Why did you still end up tormenting Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, if you had no intention of getting back at them for what they did you whatsoever?"

As soon as she heard these questions, Trixie turned her heard towards Mayor Mare and took a deep breath before solemnly explaining, "I seek the one thing that every pony wants in this cruel and unforgiving world of ours: acknowledgement. I wanted not only those three ponies, but also this whole town to understand exactly what I was feeling after you drove me away from here. I wanted your so-called 'heroes' to understand what it feels like to lose the one part of yourself that helps you find your purpose in the world, as well as protect the ones you hold the closest to your heart."

"Oh, yes, it wasn't just my horn that I lost during my first visit to your town. I also lost the only family that I had left. Who would that be you may ask? Well, let's just say if I had never gone through what happened that dreadful night, I might have actually had a decent shot at saving him from dying all alone at such a young age."

As she heard the sounds of gasps out of pure horror from not only the audience, but also Mayor Mare and the guards, a genuinely satisfied grin appeared on her face for a split second before suddenly disappearing. She then continued, "In addition, I wanted them, as well as you lot, to understand how it feels to be responsible for the loss of the ones you not just care about, but cherish with all your heart. To put it simply, fillies and gentlecolts, I wanted this whole town to get a glimpse of the pain that's still burning my very soul, so that I could make you all realize just how much you took from me, and also what happens when mentally depressed loners like me are abandoned and treated like trash by the society."

The audience once again dissolved into murmurs after Trixie wrapped up her speech. While some of the ponies were still staring at her with widened eyes and dumbfounded expressions on their faces, the vast majority were busy discussing what they had just heard, with several of them could be heard saying how shameful the actions of their resident protectors truly were and that they were the ones who had brought this misery upon the town in the first place. It was only after they heard an equally shaken Mayor Mare clearing her throat that they turned their attention back toward the town hall, which was followed by her announcing, "Well, it seems you have given us much to consider, Miss Lulamoon. I think we all understand the reason why you did the things you did now and we are all truly sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, as deplorable as our behavior towards you were, that does not change the fact that you still committed horrible crimes and simply must face their consequences sooner or later. So, gentlecolts, if you could please escort her to-"

"Hold on, ma'am. Before we do anything, there's something very important that you should know," one of the royal guards still holding her chains suddenly interrupted. "If what this mare has just said is indeed true, then what we have learned so far should be thoroughly investigated. Then, we shall report our findings directly to both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who will no doubt carefully review the situation before passing any judgment on Miss Lulamoon here."

Mayor Mare became absolutely shocked upon hearing this and even gasped in horror, but then managed to say, "Y-You're reporting this to the p-p-princesses?"

"Afraid so, ma'am," the other guard replied. "In fact, it's very much possible that, in order to pass a fair judgment on all parties involved in these recent crimes, they'll personally arrive here in the near future and begin an investigation of their own. If that ever comes to pass, then there's really no guarantee that they're going to be all that forgiving towards to either Miss Lulamoon or those who participated in her mistreatment. May all of you have a nice day."

Right after saying all this, both guards pulled Trixie's chains to move her from the podium and then, proceeded to walk with her through the onlooking crowd and towards the edge of the town, where their carriage was waiting for them. However, just as they had reached the exact center of the crowd, a visibly panicking Mayor Mare began trotting towards them and although, the guards tried to block her path, she nevertheless pleaded, "Trixie, wait! I know you have every reason to be angry with us, but I am begging you, please try to convince the princesses to show some mercy to Ponyville and its residents. If they ever hear the full extent of what we unintentionally caused, there's simply no telling just how brutally they're going to punish us for it."

Unfortunalely, right after hearing these truly desperate pleas and contemplating them with a stoic expression on her face, Trixie's maniacal smile returned with a vengeance and she even started snickering as she said, "Oh, I know... How about another joke before then?"

As Mayor Mare looked at her with an expression that was a mixture of anguish and befuddlement, she continued, "When I was a little filly, my mother constantly told me to smile and put on a happy face. She even told me I had a great purpose in this world: to bring happiness and laughter to every pony."

"And you know what?"

"I haven't been happy... for even one minute... OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!"

As soon as she shouted those words with immense rage, she leaped straight at Mayor Mare and plunged the broken horn deep into her neck, spraying several gallons of blood everywhere and causing the crowd to run away screaming. Even though Mayor Mare herself was unable to shout or even speak a word, she made a series of gargling noises before passing out from blood loss.

All the while, the guards were struggling to keep Trixie back, but she was simply too strong and erratic for them to handle properly. Thankfully, a much larger group of royal guards, who were all patrolling the empty streets at the time, had heard the commotion and successfully restrained Trixie before carrying her towards the carriage headed for Canterlot while a couple of them stayed behind to bring Mayor Mare to the hospital.

As for Trixie herself, she was swiftly tossed inside the carriage, which started moving as soon as the door was shut tight and locked from the outside. As she stood back up, she touched the blood stain on her horn and stared at it in deep thought for several seconds before finally deciding to touch it with her other hoof and sliding both stains across her mouth, drawing a smile made of blood on her face in the process. Trixie then maniacally smiled once again, confident that no matter what was going to happen to her in Canterlot, she was going out with a bang.

But who's laughing now?

EIGHT DAYS LATER

Princess Celestia was absolutely disgusted by what she had just read in the report in front of her.

Shortly after the arrival of a recently apprehended criminal named Trixie Lulamoon, who had caused much chaos in Ponyville and severely injured four of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, she was informed about the crimes that the said mare had committed and her apparent reasons for committing these crimes. Unable to fully comprehend these reasons and not wanting to believe the accusations that the mentally broken mare had thrown against the very ponies she trusted most besides her own sister, she ordered the said guards to conduct a full investigation in Ponyville in order to find out what exactly transpired there.

She received their report a week later, and both she and Luna were utterly shocked over its contents. Their shock soon turned into rage as they summoned the four ponies who were left crippled both physically and emotionally by Trixie's actions. Needless to say, the said ponies did not receive a warm welcome by the princesses when they arrived at the throne room in the Canterlot Castle the very next day, and the injuries that they had received the previous week did not gain them any sympathy whatsoever.

"Twilight, how do you explain the horrendous things that are written in this report?!" Celestia asked as she put the said report aside and faced her student, who had an extremely nervous and apologetic look on her face.

"I... I don't know what to say, Princess Celestia," she began. "My friends and I had no idea what Trixie was going through when she first arrived on Ponyville. We only saw her a simple showboating magician and treated her as such. We never once thought we would be causing so much damage as a result."

"No, you most certainly did not," Princess Luna interjected. "Thus, your short-sighted and hypocritical actions have led to not only your current state, but also the loss of six innocent pony lives, including three foals and the mayor of Ponyville!"

Twilight and her friends all flinched, especially Rarity and Applejack, upon hearing Luna's words. Celestia then sighed and continued, "Even if you didn't know about Trixie's difficult life, you still had no right to treat her the way you did. I am immensely disappointed in all of you. As the current bearers of the Elements of Harmony, you were supposed to not only protect Equestria from threats, but also inspire its citizens to uphold the very virtues that you represent. Instead, the only things that you inspired are mayhem and disharmony. The way my sister and I see it, you have demonstrated just how unworthy you are of those elements."

While her friends all silently bowed their heads in utter shame, Twilight tearfully pleaded, "Princess Celestia, please, we didn't mean for any of this to happen! We've made some huge mistakes, but we can still make up for them, right? Please, tell us how to fix the mess we've cause and we'll do anything you say!"

Unfortunately, her pleas were met with Celestia shaking her head in disappointment and Luna declaring, "You may not have intended for these tragedies happening in the first place, Twilight, but you still have no clue in regards to the consequences of your actions. Allow me and my sister to show you."

Immediately after finishing her sentence, both her and Celestia's horn began to glow. Then, in a bright flash of light, they were all teleported to the middle of a square in Manehattan. While the facial expressions of the princesses remained angry as they looked at their new surroundings, the expressions on the faces of Twilight and her friends turned from confusion into pure dread.

What they were looking at was nothing like the Manehattan that they were familiar with, because at that moment, the entire city was full of mayhem and anarchy.

There were violent protestors wearing the exact same clown make-up that Trixie was wearing all around them. They were breaking into shops to steal various items, setting buildings on fire, and attacking the royal guards who were desperately trying to contain the situation. While none of them were focused on the royal alicorns and their companions who had just teleported to the center of an ongoing riot, the said onlookers could clearly see how this once-majestic metropolis was crumbling and burning all around them.

What terrified Twilight and her friends the most was the fact that the rioters all looked exactly like the very pony that they had mistreated and shunned, almost as if her spirit had possessed the citizens of Manehattan and influenced them to commit acts just as terrible as her own. Thus, with a desperate need for a reason to all this madness around them, Twilight asked the princesses, "What... happened here?"

In response, Luna sighed once again and revealed, "Before her return to Ponyville to exact her vengeance on you, Trixie was somehow able to acquire the medical records of her brother from the Manehattan General Hospital and mailed them to a local gazette. Apparently, the editor was so intrigued by the story that he arranged an interview with her, where she revealed everything that happened on her first visit to Ponyville, as well as everything else that happened until her second visit. She then requested an anonymous journalist to accompany her to the town, where she not only committed acts just as depraved as the ones we are seeing here, but also delivered a grand speech that made the townsfolk gathered there and even the Mayor Mare corroborate her story, which was all the evidence the anonymous journalist needed to paint a clear picture of the events."

Just then, she picked up a newspaper that was printed exactly one week earlier from the sidewalk with her telekinetic magic and showed the front page to Twilight and her friends, which caused them to become even more horrified than they already were, since it contained both a picture of Trixie as she was delivering her speech and a detailed description of the events that transpired during her first visit to Ponyville.

"Just one day after the article was published, we started receiving reports of regular civilian ponies wearing clown make-up starting riots all over this city," Celestia continued. "Judging from their behavior and appearance, we believe that they feel immense sympathy for what Trixie's been through."

She then turned to Twilight with an angry look on her face and finished, "As well as deep resentment for the supposed heroes who made her life much worse than it already was."

Just then, one of the rioters struggling with a royal guard pony noticed the alicorn princesses and their companions before grabbing the attention of the other rioters by pointing at the visitors and shouting at the top of his lungs, "HEY!!! It's those ponies who ruined Trixie! LET'S GET 'EM!!!"

Right after hearing that, every single protester in the area started rushing towards the direction that their shouting comrade was pointing towards. Even when the princesses conjured up a shield to protect both themselves and their guests, the oncoming swarm of clown ponies started attacking the said shield relentlessly, pounding on it with either their bare hooves or whatever object they could find, including bricks and crowbars.

To say that the ponies inside the shield created by the princesses were deeply unsettled by what they were seeing would a total understatement. They were surrounded by all sides by angry civilians, all wearing the same clown make-up that Trixie had on her face when she was terrorizing Ponyville. On top of all that, every single one of them had immense hatred in their eyes and they were doing everything in their power to break through the shield in order to make the sources of their hatred suffer a whole lot more than they already had.

Meanwhile, the said sources of hatred could do nothing but stare at the swarm of ponies around them with absolutely terrified expressions on their faces. Applejack and Rainbow Dash could neither run nor fly away no matter how much they wanted at that moment due to the severity of their injuries, so they simply held each other for much-needed comfort. Rarity was unable to see anything, but she could still perfectly hear the angry noises that the ponies outside the shield were making, so she covered her ears in a desperate effort to drown out those noises. As for Twilight herself, she was standing completely still, while also contemplating in silence how could she and her friends have messed up so badly that they were now under attack by the very people that they had sworn to protect at all costs.

Nonetheless, their attention was soon diverted when they heard the sound of a tiny crack forming on the shield, making the princesses finally nod to one another and teleporting their group back to the throne room in the Canterlot Castle. As soon as they returned to their thrones, Luna asked, "So, Twilight, how exactly do you plan on putting an end to all this chaos?"

Still reeling from the nearly traumatizing experience that the princesses had put her and her friends through in order to teach them a lesson, Twilight took a moment to compose herself before taking a deep breath and solemnly replying, "I don't have a plan. Not for this. I was wrong. There's no way we can fix this by ourselves. Instead, we should be punished for causing the chaos we just saw. In fact, we deserve to be locked up in the dungeons just like Trixie was, since we're all just as guilty as she is for this mess."

Her friends briefly looked at her in bewilderment upon hearing this suggestion, but as they thought about the situation more thoroughly in their heads and recalled everything that happened since Trixie first arrived at Ponyville, they all came to the conclusion that they have done enough damage and perhaps they really do deserve to be punished like this in order to atone for their sins. Meanwhile, the princesses looked at each other with uncertainty for a moment before turning back to the four and Luna announced, "Your punishment won't be that severe. Even though Trixie was clearly the victim of your hypocricy and ego, it doesn't change the fact that she committed all those crimes with her own free will."

Celestia continued, "That being said, we have decided to strip you four of your respective positions as the bearers of the elements of Magic, Honesty, Generosity, and Loyalty. As for what will happen to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, they-"

"PRINCESS CELESTIA!!!!" they suddenly heard a royal earth pony guard shout as he barged into the room. "You need to come quick! There's an emergency outside!"

However, before he could tell them more, a black spiky vine appeared behind him and started dragging him back the way he came from by his hind legs. Immediately afterwards, Celestia shot a beam of magic from her horn directly at the said vine, severing its hold on the guard's legs and allowing Luna to telekinetically move him beside herself. Then, the two sisters teleported themselves, Twilight and her friends, and the guard pony right outside the castle, and they were all met with a sight just as horrible as the one in Manehattan.

Almost the entirety of Canterlot was covered in the exact same type of vine that they had just seen. The civilian ponies were running away in order to avoid being caught by the vines, while the royal guard ponies were doing the best they could to cut them down to prevent them from spreading any further and free the civilians that had been trapped by them. Needless to say, the situation was just as chaotic as the one in Manehattan at that moment, and the ponies who were observing it from afar were both perplexed at what they were seeing and exasperated by the fact that they had another problem to deal with.

Just then, Celestia came to a realization about the source of the vines and it made her even angrier than she was earlier, causing her to shout, "Discord! What have you done?!"

She then started hovering in the air with her wings before turning to Luna and saying, "I'm going to the Tree of Harmony to tear out the roots of these vines. You stay here bring as many ponies as possible to safety."

"Understood," replied Luna. "Good luck, sister."

Celestia nodded with determination and began flying as fast as she could towards Ponyville. Before an even more befuddled Twilight could ask her what was going on, Luna turned to her and her friends, and declared, "I suggest you go inside the castle for shelter. I am going to find more ponies in need of it."

Just as she took off to do just that, Twilight came to a realization of her own and exclaimed, "Wait! Where's Trixie?!"

Righ afterwards, she began trotting towards the castle with the intention of going to the dungeons to make sure that Trixie was still in her cell and keep him there if she had managed to get out. Despite hearing her friends yelling at her to stop from behind, she kept going, since she knew all too well how dangerous Trixie was and if she could stop her from causing even more trouble than the city was already facing, then she could both save lives and redeem herself a bit in the eyes of the princesses. Thus, she quickly entered the castle and made her way down the stairs towards the lower levels of the building.

When she finally reached her destination, however, she became both shocked and disappointed to find every single one of the cells had been opened by the vines, and that there was no sign of any of the inmates, including Trixie. Nevertheless, she started searching the prison from top to bottom and once she finally reached Trixie's cell, she instead found a stone brick on the floor with the words "Just missed me!" carved on it, along with a smiley face.

Upon seeing this, she threw the brick aside and let out a scream of pure anguish before crying on the floor, convinced that she had become an utter failure.

Who's laughing now?!

NINE MINUTES LATER

On a hilltop overlooking Canterlot, sitting on a throne made of water balloons and surrounded by cotton candy clouds raining chocolate milk, was the almighty lord of chaos and disharmony himself, Discord. Though he was encased in stone some time ago by the Elements of Harmony, he was freed thanks to the chaos that he had sown the seeds of nearly a thousand years ago. While those same seeds had stopped growing due to the power of the Tree of Harmony, their recent outburst from the ground as full-grown spiked vines could only mean that both the tree and the elements that it drew power from had been neutralized, which was even more satisfying for Discord.

He was finally free to create as much chaos and have as much fun as he wanted, and his biggest source of entertainment at that moment was watching his vines cover the entirety of Canterlot and cause its inhabitants flee in terror. In fact, he was having a ball watching the show from his water baloon throne, while also eating a bowl of green peppers and drinking a glass of grape juice.

"Chaos finally reigns supreme!" he exclaimed with pure joy. "Everything is as it should be."

"I couldn't agree more," he heard a female voice from behind say. "It's so beautiful, isn't it?"

In response, Discord turned around to see Trixie with her clown make-up back on her face and then stretched his neck out so far that his head stopped only a few inches away from the mare before asking, "And who might you be? A circus clown who lost track of her circus due to the ongoing panic and confusion? Well, good news, my dear. The whole world is gonna turn into a circus soon, so there's no need to fret!"

Trixie giggled at these words for a bit and then replied, "Oh, I am a circus clown, alright. Just not the usual type. You see, this wicked world of ours has always been a circus. You're just bringing out its true colors for everypony to see, and I do appreciate your efforts very much."

Discord, both confused and intrigued at the same time, raised an eyebrow at this explanation before the rest of his body flew from the throne and re-connected with his head. Once his neck regained its original length, he said, "An interesting philosophy, little miss. You must've gone through quite an ordeal to gain a perspective like this. Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask you to tell it to me any time soon. To be perfectly honest, I'm quite tired of all these tragic backstories popping up everywhere you look. Instead, how about we move on from the past and look towards the future, shall we? Now, do tell, what do you hope to accomplish with this skewered but also intriguing worldview of yours?"

To answer Discord's question, Trixie put a hoof on her chin and pretended to think for an answer before stating, "Well, I did succeed in breaking Twilight and most of her friends both physically and emotionally, while also driving a whole city to madness. Perhaps, I should travel around Equestria and introduce my new cure for reality to every corner of the land, so that everypony can forget about their problems forever. What do you think?"

Discord's jaw literally dropped to the ground when he heard all this and then a smaller version of his head emerged from his mouth while screaming "WHAT?!" at an extremely high-pitched voice.

"Yep, I actually did pull off something you tried and failed miserably the first time you broke free from your stone prison," elaborated Trixie. "Well, two thirds of it, anyway. Oh, and there's also that little dragon who was following Twilight wherever she went. I'm sure he and the other two friends of hers would make excellent appetizers for the chaotic party you'll be throwing for Equestria."

After listening to all this, Discord's jaw returned to his mouth and his ears began releasing hot steam like a locomotive as he furiously exclaimed, "I should reduce you to a puddle of slime for costing me the fun I was planning on having with those meddling ponies!"

The eagle claw on his left arm started glowing and he prepared to unleash all the magic charging inside it towards Trixie, who seemed completely unfazed by this action and even raised an eyebrow at it. Instead of releasing the magic at her, however, Discord instead fired it at a spot right next to Trixie, creating a top hat wearing frog tap dancing on his hind legs in the process.

He then let out a sigh and said, "But I suppose I owe you a tiny bit of thanks instead. After all, those same ponies would've no doubt zapped me with their shiny little elements once again if I were freed as a result of all the chaos caused by the seeds I planted ages ago. I mean, can you imagine if they actually set me free out of a desire to help me reform and be good like them? Now, that would just be silly."

"Oh, trust me, they're not nearly as pure as you think they are," Trixie retorted. "In fact, I was robbed of someone very dear to me because of their actions and there's no way I can get him back at this point. So, now, my one remaining purpose in life is getting the other ponies to realize how much of a joke life itself truly is, and convince them to let go of their pesky morals and troubles forever."

Growing more and more intrigued by Trixie's mindset with her every word, Discord took a moment to ponder about her statement (while also stroking the goat hair on his chin) before saying, "You just keep on surprising me, miss. Come to think of it, to repay you for making Twilight Sparkle and her friends too weak to stand against me, I could bring your loved one back from the dead. Or, better yet, send you back in time to prevent his passing in the first place. After all, I possess the phenomenal cosmic power to reshape all of reality to my liking, and reality does include time, doesn't it?"

Upon hearing this proposal, Trixie began to seriously think about whether or not she should accept it. After nearly a whole minute of contemplation, as well as weighing the pros and cons of the deal's consequences, she answered, "Tempting offer, but not interested. I don't think I want Sunspot to see me like this. To see what I've become. Besides, I've read enough time travel stories to know that messing with the flow of time never really works out the way you want it to."

"Oh, fine, then! I'll think of something else," Discord replied with exasperation. "But now that you've given me the idea to do so, I'm planning on taking that little dragon you mentioned on a joy ride across time and make him bear witness to all the terrible tragedies that happened in the history of Equestria, including yours. That should be enough to break both his mind and spirit, I believe. What do you think?"

A devilish smile appeared on Trixie's face as she listened to this new proposition and then she declared, "Now, that sounds like a great idea! Not only will Twilight learn what it means to have a brother taken away from her, but also the little dragon will get to find out just how flawed and immoral the ponies he looks up to really are! By the way, what do you plan on doing with the remaining two friends of Twilights that I haven't broken yet?"

"Oh, I'm sure the vines sprouting out of the ground on Ponyville have gotten a hold of them by now," explained Discord. "If not, there's plenty of room in the good old reference box!"

Right after saying that, he snapped his fingers and conjured up a blue police box right next to Trixie, much to her amazement and confusion. He then added, "Yes, it might not look like much, but believe me when I say that this rusty contraption of mine can take you anywhere you want at any time you want. Well, not mine exactly, but I did manage to take it from its original owner and left her to suffocate in the cold depths of space. Anyway, I'm now going to Ponyville to pick up the little dragon and, depending on their current condition, those two friends of Twilight Sparkle who are yet to have their brains scrambled from their emotional trauma. If you want, I can use it to drop you off at a place and time of your choosing, or simply do so with just a snap of my fingers. After all, it's the very least I could do to thank you for breaking the will of the greatest obstacles on my path to total chaos."

Trixie, not even a little bit disturbed by Discord's explanation, once again started contemplating about her next move and after several seconds of doing so, she finally replied, "You know what, I think what I really need right now is a challenge. I mean, making the entire city of Manehattan throw their reason away is impressive and all, but let's face it, the living conditions of the ponies there were so apalling that it wouldn't really take much to start a riot. Well, what if I introduced my brand of madness to a community so pristine and devoid of any chaos that its residents go about their everyday lives without a single frown on their faces? Now, that's what I call a real challenge for a clown such as myself."

Discord let out a sinister chuckle upon hearing this and he even turned his arms into bones as he pressed his fingers together a few times before stating, "Excellent. I know just the place you're looking for. A small town near the eastern border of Equestria. It would be my pleasure to send you to it, so that you can liberate its residents from their mundane lives and reach your full potential as an agent of chaos. I see a bright future ahead of you, my little pony, and I'm confident that this arrangement will greatly benefit us both."

He then prepared to snap his fingers to teleport Trixie away to her destination and just before he did so, he added, "Oh, and before you ask, no. I am not doing any of this out of kindness or a desire to be buddies with you. I'm only doing it in order to settle a small debt between us. Rob me of my fun one more time, and I will personally shove you into a green portal leading to a random corner of the multiverse. Good-bye for now!"

As soon as he performed the snap, Trixie disappeared from her original spot in a brief flash of light, and then re-appeared at a completely different location in another flash of light just as brief as the previous one. Immediately afterwards, she began to observe her new surroundings, which appeared to be nothing more than a barren wasteland. Upon looking down the hilltop she was standing on, however, she saw a small village so drab-looking and passionlessly designed that it was made up of identical houses lined up on two sides to form the equal sign. Then, upon closer inspection, she noticed that while every single one of the residents were smiling, none of them looked like genuine smiles, as they all seemed rather forced and unnatural.

It was at this moment that Trixie finally came to realize she had arrived at the perfect place for her challenge. Thus, with a genuine and devilish smile on her face, she pulled out a party horn from the pocket of her jacket, and joyfully exclaimed, "This town needs an enema!" before blowing said horn.

Author's Note

And that is a wrap, ladies and gentlemen! Finally, after four years of writing this story, I really hope that I have managed to bring it to a satisfying conclusion. I know this final chapter leaves things open-ended and there is definitely set-up for a sequel, but I am not entirely certain when or if I am going to write the sequel story. Maybe one day in the future, but right now, I just want to thank everyone who has followed the story from beginning to end and supported me throughout this incredible journey.

Hope to see you all in my next storytelling endeavor. Take care. :twilightsmile: