Defiler: Apocalypse.

Trixie appeared at the Royal Palace's gardens, her mind was her own once again, however some of the dark thoughts remained within her mind, but they were slowly being purged. She looked at herself, however the attachments were there still, she cried quietly and huddled up in the gardens. Now she had the time to reminiscence her memories and think to herself, she recalled seeing Twilight Sparkle and the others, their closeness to one another kept astounding her.

For a moment Trixie could see a  gaseous form of something float closer to her and inspect her, before quickly retreating back off to somewhere. Fluttershy had gotten slightly used to her strange form of being and made her way towards the throne room again, she couldn't speak so that anyone would hear, but she was able to move rather freely through objects. As she entered the throne room she squealed a voiceless squee of happiness as she saw her friends, that were now receiving full medical attention.

Rainbow Dash had seen better days, she couldn't fly for a few days and she hated staying on the ground. Though being with Applejack was of some help indeed, the earth pony calmed her nerves just by being there. They rested together after being checked out by the medical unicorns, bandaged up properly. Rarity was still dying, however the medics had found a way to delay the magical disease and had done so to the both of the unicorns.

Twilight Sparkle was the first to notice the strange gaseous form, walking over to it and circling around it slowly, taking a good look at it.. It was just like Fluttershy, Twilight gasped without even noticing so subconciously. The fluttershy seemed like she wanted her to follow so she did, a surprise awaited Twilight in the gardens, her eyes widening at the sight of what lay before her.

Having stood up Trixie rose her spider-like legs and pulled them back to her back, folded up like wings. The other parts of her were normal now, yet her mane and tail remained rather disheveled. She turned to look around, she was in the royal gardens, yes she'd heard of the beauty, but not that even under such darkness it would still keep its eternal beauty. Her head turned slowly to the lavender being and her eyes focused, she had heard a gasp, now she saw it clearly. ”Twi..light?”, came her hoarse, low whine as she reached one of her front hooves towards the unicorn, only to see her step further away from her.

Fluttershy circled around Trixie that seemed to be rather weakened. Twilight assessed the situation and noticed several differences to her from before, her eyes had returned to their normal beauty as well. She took a deep breath and started taking tentative steps toward the creature. ”How did you get here?”, she asked, keeping her subconcious defensive posture as she fired out another question, ”Are you here to hurt my friends again?”.

Trixie lowered herself to the ground before Twilight to show she meant no harm. Trixie started getting the control of her vocal cords back, ”I-i don't know.. I mean no harm.”, wincing at every word she managed to let out as her throat still hurted enormously at each effort.

Twilight took her time at making her way towards the prone being, slowly inspecting her, before wondering, ”Why did you try to attack Zecora and Spike?”, with a stern tone in her voice, looking her in the eyes to see if she tried to lie to her.

”I were affected by something foul.. It tried to take over my mind by abusing my.. Err, feelings for the zebra. All I really wanted was atleast one friend, I were so lonely in the Everfree... I really don't want to flee again, please don't make me leave again, Trixie is very sorry for everything.”, Trixie replied, wincing slightly as she expected a more violent reaction from the unicorn.

”Stay calm.. I don't think I'm going to hurt you. I've been wondering where you ran off to after your show went awry. So you went to Everfree, how did you survive? And why didn't you come back for your cart?”

”Trixie was scared the townfolk would harm Trixie, laugh at her and toss things at her. Trixie did deserve it for being so mean before, even if it was business, Trixie did go slightly overboard.”

”Slightly? You call turning Rarity's mane green slight?”

”Trixie surely was not expecting for her to react with such explosive content..”

”Fine, that'll do for now. Still didn't tell me how you survived though.”

”The zebra taught Trixie much about the Everfree, even if the zebra did not know of Trixie, Trixie knew her to be friends with the others.”

”Fluttershy..”, Twilight's voice wavered as she looked at the foggy being and then looked down slightly, not noticing as Trixie got up and walked over to her, settling down so she was side by side with her.

Trixie had felt a strange urge to be close and to comfor the lavender unicorn, ”Trixie assumes she was a friend of yours that also suffered the full brunt of the evil that took hold of me later on.. Trixie is sorry for your loss.”

Twilight shuddered first at the strange feeling of being so close to someone, other than Celestia that was. She rested with the strange Trixie, taking the comfort she could from just being close to the unicorn.

The two staid that way for a good while, just sharing their warmth with each other. It was Trixie that broke the silence, ”Trixie wonders, if this Fluttershy's dead, then how is she still there in that form. I've a feeling she's not really gone just yet.”.

A thought that hadn't crossed her mind yet came to her, why was Fluttershy there indeed, she had not heard of this kind of a manifestation before, not even read from a book actually. Celestia had many books that treated the subject of death and what happens after a pony dies, yet none of them mentioned this kind of manifestation of the pony that was supposed to be dead. Then again, the elements of harmony weren't exactly the most researched subjects in the books even in Canterlot's greatest archives. Her mind raced through these bits and pieces of knowledge, working it over like it was another of those mental jigsaw puzzles, it didn't take long for her to piece together the parts. Now the only thing she needed was a confirmation to the theory she had come up with, feeling a new vigor rising inside herself as she stood there a moment longer.

”That's because she's not dead. I think. Come, we need to go ask the princess about this!”, Twilight nearly squealed as she was so excited, as if she'd found a new book she'd not read before. The subject of being perhaps able to bring Fluttershy back to life did thrill her beyond measure, after all she'd thought she'd lost her dear friend when she saw the body, now she was not so sure. However when she turned to look at Trixie properly she saw her shuddering on the ground fearfully.

”No please, Trixie can't face the princess like this, they'll kill Trixie if they find Trixie here.. Trixie is a monster.”

”I could go in first and tell them not to.”

”Trixie would perhaps like that idea very much. Trixie promises not to harm anyone.”

Twilight couldn't help but smile slightly at Trixie, before nudging her to follow, leading the way inside the royal palace, heading for the throne room.

In the throne room her friends had however wondered where she had disappeared all of the sudden and were just walking to the exit as they came face to face with the two. The reactions were rather mixed between confusion, anger and curiousity.

Trixie cowered behind Twilight fearfully as Pinkie Pie who had seemingly grown more and more disturbed as of late tried to charge right at her when she saw her, her mane flat, her eyes hungry. Yet when Pinkie saw her friend in the way she seemed frustrated at Twilight for getting in the way, scowling as she started circling around to get at Trixie, who kept trying to hide behind Twilight the best she could in order to keep away from the hostile pink pony.

Zecora was cowering in the corner and trying to hide from Trixie the best she could, surrounded defensively by the commander and his troops.

Big Macintosh and the CMC had gone for a tour of the castle to keep them from causing too much chaos in the planning, the CMC having decided that they might be able to get their castle exploration cutiemarks.

Rarity was occupied with resting in her spot near the thrones, the disease had taken its toll on her already. It was too much for her to try and get up now, so she only observed from her spot.

Spike only stared wide-eyedly at the two arrivals, Angel having hidden behind him, peeking curiously from behind Spike where it was relatively safe.

Applejack seemed slightly surprised to see Twilight so calmly with what seemed to be a monster, but did not join her friends in their defensive poses yet, seeing Twilight was ready to defend the monstrosity. She had decided to await for a explanation, while keeping Rainbow Dash from charging at Trixie as well, putting a calming hoof around her shoulders.

Twilight herself was keeping Pinkie Pie and possibly the others away from Trixie, a bit confused at the ferocious and completely unpinkie behaviour of her party loving friend. She began to try and explain the reason she'd brought Trixie here and that she was no threat, but was interrupted before she could get the first word out of her mouth.

Celestia had intended to calm the situation down, she had been aware of a presence in her royal palace, but hadn't deemed it necessarily dangerous so she hadn't acted. Now that she was going to she found herself cut off as well as a voice all too familiar echoed from the walls.

”Now now, is that anyway to treat ponies that are different from yourselves?”, Discord asked a little disapprovingly as he appeared next to Trixie, scaring the azure unicorn out of her mind with his sudden appearance.. And then Pinkie Pie charged at him, to which he replied by holding her away with one claw-like hand as he yawned. ”Of all ponies Pinkie, you? Oh comeon.. Celestia surely did not have a friendship report on you being so mean.”

Celestia merely sighed as the gazes turned to her, waiting to hear what she'd been up to with the god of chaos. ”Consider him a necessary evil for now, all things will be explained in due time. Now I would wish to hear out Twilight's side on this all, bringing what appears one of the monsters here so openly.”, her voice as calm as ever, perhaps interested, but it was hard to ever tell.

This seemed to calm the others slightly and they waited for Twilight to explain herself, so she did, ”You might remember Trixie, the boastful magician that once visited Ponyville with a rather unfavourable effects. Well this is her, she was affected by the evil presence that took Fluttershy, as you saw, her additional limbs a good proof of that. Now something happened to let her free of the presence, she woke up in the gardens and has no idea how she got here, we had a little talk.. Turns out she's been hiding in the Everfree since she had no other place to go and feared the Ponyvillians. She apologized for her wrong doings and I thought she might be helpful. She did kind of inspire me  about a few things, seeing how Fluttershy is still around even if her body is dead, makes me wonder how dead she truly is, which we came to ask Celestia about, to see if she could tell us more concerning the subject.”, her voice one that she always used when lecturing about one of her many researches that she conducted in the library before this incident.

This seemed to satisfy even Pinkie who had gone back to where she had been by herself before, now she was paying attention as well. Rainbow Dash looked like she'd wanted to say something, before taking their place with the rest of them near the temporary resting spots. Zecora was still cowering, her mental trauma keeping her in place still.

For a moment Celestia thought to herself in the silence that followed Twilight's explanation, there were no gaps in that for all she knew. She had however noticed the strange aura that Trixie seemed to carry with her, she couldn't detect the original taint from her anymore. Finally turning to look at everyone in the room she nodded, ”Yes, Fluttershy is not dead in your definition of it, she's trapped between this world and the afterlife. However that is Luna's dominion and she is well.. Protective of her own domains, so she's forbidden anyone to enter it unless they're dead that is.”, she sounded slightly defensive, which did not for once go unnoticed by her pupil, that frowned at her knowingly. The grin that spread over Dircord's face did not help at all, but he remained silent for the conversation. ”Discord's presence here is easy to explain. He is the god of chaos, but he doesn't like the idea of Equestria being destroyed either, what would his chaos become without it?”

Twilight Sparkle was frowning mentally at the whole concept of Celestia needing someone to help her in guarding over Equestria, after all the battle she lost with Chrysalis was only due to her reclutance to cause harm, perhaps even her uncanny foresight into the future had something to do with it. This much should be clear to anyone who'd ever studied magic, after all it was the same princess that lifted the sun to the skies everyday and could just as easy bring it down on her foes. To Twilight the concept of Alicorn magic was something that she had studied to understand very well, alicorns used the same magic as the others, but their sources of strength varied. For Celestia it was the sun that gave her unbelievable power, for Luna it was the moon and stars, yet each of the alicorns wielded a wast amount of magical power at their command even without their sources. Twilight had grown past the assumptions that would cloud a normal pony's mind, she wouldn't believe Celestia's defense of her sister's domain fully, there were gaps even in alicorn's magic after all.

The others however seemed to take the news with a mixed up result, questioning where Luna was at the current. Celestia replied to the questions about Luna's absence by telling them she was getting help for them, mentioning Twilight's sister and Cadence.

Celestia would however be approached by her student as she had expected her to after her slip up from the previously flawless outward regal appearance. Celestia smiled benevolently as she saw Trixie still hiding behind Twilight, not wanting to frighten the poor creature anymore. She would agree to having a word in private as Twilight put it, leading them to her chambers and closing the door afterwards. ”Now then what might be bothering you my dear student?”

”The part where you lied ever so casually about the domain, surely you kept a watch over the spirit realms yourself when your sister was gone for a thousand years did you not princess?”, Twilight replied a bit quietly, turning to comfort Trixie every now and then so she would stop hiding already. ”Why would you keep it a secret?”

The princess of sun had made a bigger slip-up that she had intended to it seemed, ofcourse she had overseen that domain as well for a thousand years.. ”Because that knowledge shouldn't be so apparently present in your mind, but you were always the studious type weren't you. Well it is possible to bring her back to this level of existing yet in theory. It however is not a feat I can accomplish, seeing how I live forever myself, excluding a few events. I have no access to that domain.”

Twilight Sparkle looked at her mentor for a moment, before nodding, ”So it would require someone who will eventually die, why?”.

”The spell that one unicorn magician in the past created as his life long dream simulates death of the user, using that to bypass the wall between dead and the living that is between my domains and my sister's. However the magician went insane while trying to cast this spell to bring back her deceased wife, not that the spell was a failure, but what he saw beyond the veil affected his mind rather vastly. He never found his wife, but he brought back something that should have been dead as a evidence to the spell's functionability for the matter.”

”So you're saying that there are too many risks for too little benefit? What you in your ageless glory might've forgotten princess is how hard friends fight for each other, that is also a thing you taught me princess.”, Twilight reminded her teacher, trying to push her closer to the revealing where she could find such a spell, only to be surprised by her mentor. A white tome with princess Celestia's cutiemark embedded onto the cover floated down to the stunned lavender unicorn.

”It is clear to me that you would keep pressing the matter.. Yes perhaps I have forgotten, perhaps oneday I'll return to the one last original as well and relive the joys of my life with him. Ofcourse you've thought why I play weak even when I could scorch the creature, which if things were so simple I would've resorted to already. However when enemy's a fellow alicorn it is not such a simple thing to just destroy them, alas it is nearly impossible if the other doesn't want to do direct combat, as you learned with Luna before she took proper physical form due to her recklessness as Nightmaremoon, Discord's arrogance.. List goes on. Willing alicorns to take physical form is however possible, but I am quite certain that this particular being is well prepared for that so we must be equally prepared before we engage him, even with our allies I fear we may lose.”, Celestia explained quietly, watching her student's expression with a pained expression on her own usually so emotionless surface.

Twilight opened the tome and navigated the pages to the forbidden spells that Celestia had gathered during her ageless time spent ruling Equestria, listening to her mentor's woes and wisdom while reading through the many spells, before looking up at Celestia, ”What's blood magic?”.

”Blood magic is one of the most dangerous forms of magic one can master. It belongs to a category of dark magic that has been around atleast as long as me and Luna. Blood magic as with any of the forbidden magic types is bound to corrupt its user thus being forbidden by me and Luna, we made sure to take away all we could on the subject, put it away from the view of anyone. To be fair, even learning them will often plunge a weaker mind towards the stagnant pool of insanity. It would be fair to say that the only thing more powerful and dangerous is a type of magic that actively seeks to devour the user when one even sees its runes for the first time without any knowledge in them. This type is the abhorrent power that our foe is using, there's no application of that magic that can yield good end results, it is innately evil. I've lost friends to this type of magic, yet Discord seems unaffected by this due his unknown inheritant traits, however he can't use it too much at once or even he faces the corruptive power of that magic. Once it corrupts the being fully there's no return and the bearer seeks to destroy everything, which even I have come to fear during my years in life.”, her voice had returned to its normal teaching tone, a tone she knew all too well herself from her past, she'd grown to hate that expressionless gentle voice herself even if it gave her a level of security mentally.

Twilight nodded at the information, grateful for the explanation as always, every bit of help was welcome at this point. She back to studying the ancient spells described in the tome, reading over the applications of blood magic and certain specific uses that could be empowered with one's blood. She did read the generic description, but avoided reading the parts about the dangerous type, not that they all weren't forbidden, yet the idea of losing one's mind forever did not sound good.

Silence overtook the room as Celestia watched her student as she studied the spelltome's contents blissfully oblivious to the many other secrets she kept to herself for now. She couldn't gather enough strength to tell Twilight the things she was entitled to know, perhaps for now she could keep it all a secret and spare the details for when things had calmed down.

That blessed silence was broken by a quiet whisper followed by a shift in the lavender coated unicorn's focus as she turned it towards the new source of disturbance, surprised to see Trixie looking at her guiltily, well more guiltily than she'd seen her look before. Celestia had taken notice as well, listening if what she thought she had heard would be repeated louder. Yet as Trixie felt the gazes upon her she hastily shook her head and simply went back to sitting next to Twilight instead of staying under the direct gaze of the princess. After this slip up there were no more distractions and Twilight made it through the spelltome with amazing speed, which still baffled Trixie to a extent, but she was slowly getting used to the bookish unicorn's stunning abilities at absorbing knowledge as well as putting it to the use.

As Twilight stood up she had found the spell, which was awfully complex and required a type of magic she had never performed herself before, well actually it was two types she'd not yet learned of herself. Blood magic's basics she understood quite foggily, but on that part she was particularly confident as it was in the end quite a simple thing to use the natural magic saturated blood and infuse it into ther magic, she was no stranger to conjoined spellcasting rituals either. No, it was the runic spells she had not explored before and this incredibly complex spell needed a lot of them to guide it and function as barriers to pull back the seeker, also to keep out the beings that would take advantage of the uninhabitated body that was left behind. One of these runes would require enormous effort even to be drawn since it basically triggered the creating of the pony's body that is brought back. Once all this sunk in she stared blindly at Celestia for a moment before uttering, ”Prepare a empty room and the necessary equipment.”, her voice weak at the beginning but growing determined towards the end.

Celestia simply nodded and wished her dearest student good luck before leaving to prepare a room for the spell to be cast in. Being alicorn was not so easy, she could not actively participate in the events of Equestria, only guide the things that happened, ofcourse she could still fight other alicorns and the like if need be, but othervise she had pledged not to influence the lives of ponies actively. Instead she had used laws, taxes and such to guide the nobles along with the common ponyfolk for centuries now. She remembered the reason things were this way, even if it was forgotten history to most of Equestria she had once ruled very differently and the noble houses were vastly different from what they were today. The events of that day were burned into her mind and they would torture her for years to come, but it was what she along with her sister had agreed to be for the best. Meeting Defilicus for that brief time she had helped plan things out had ignited a long forgotten flame in her heart that she had very mixed feelings about. The sheer lifeforce that the other alicorn had possessed inspired her perhaps, it had also changed her views on blood magic, now she was doubting herself. She had broken her promise when she agreed to direct the troops that the strange alicorn had summoned back to life once again.

In the end it had been worth it had it not, she'd managed to save her student that she prized over many things in her life. And upon finishing the preparations for Twilight's spell she went to the archives, opening the tome to read it through. After she had read the first words she was fairly certain she had done the right thing after all. A new light of hope had been ignited in her mind and the flame she felt within doubled in immensity, a wry smile crossed her lips. 'You certainly are a piece of work.. Well then I'll play your game as you played mine...' The plan written in there was crazier than she'd trust even Discord to pop up with if asked, but it might just work.

Celestia was nolonger confused, she was perhaps a bit perplexed at her fellow alicorn's ability to see through her and the others, but she intended to pull Equestria through this. She didn't feel so lonely anymore either, it was time for things to flow as intended, to hell with rules.

Discord was sitting next to her, ”You know, that's a crazy plan right?”. He never got his response as Celestia had already headed towards her bed chambers to tell Twilight the room was ready.

Trixie had in the meantime gathered her guts and was now talking with Twillight about the spell and the things it required, having gone as far as to offer her help with it seeing the state Twilight was in. Twilight had agreed to accept Trixie's help in drawing the runes and even in the real channeling process, but had persisted that the blood magic part was left to her at which Trixie had to agree, biting her lip slightly. Their planning however was stopped by the princess that walked in right along with Discord, for once it was Discord's face that was concerned.

”My faithful student, the room you requested prepared is ready, however before that I would wish to give you a gift.”, Celestia spoke with the softest voice she managed and everyone couldn't help but notice the uncharacteristically wide grin that had appeared on her face. Before Discord could question her intentions she touched her student with her horn and felt around for the infection, her magic burning off the parasitic disease without any hindrance. She turned towards Discord and saw him about to say something, probably how she had never done that before, having none of it she walked over to her ex-lover, kissing him right on the lips infront of the two unicorns. She then headed towards the throneroom to purge the disease from the others as well (and give Pinkie some well deserved psychological treatment), but before she left she looked at Trixie over her shoulder, ”We need to talk before you two go do anything.”.

This was going to be too priceless, too crazy to not spin a pun out of if just to spite Celestia, seeing her use her power like that after so long. Discord was just going to make his best joke in Equestrian history when he felt Celestia's lips touch his own rather immensely for a brief moment. Yep that was a kiss no doubt, wait a kiss? KISS?! Discord rarely got stunned, but this was one of those moments, he was supposed to be the one doing unexpected things after all.

”Okay, everything's alright, breathe deep, remain calm... Okay, what the hay? Whatthehaywhatthe-”, Twilight had not just seen what she had seen, it just couldn't happen, could it? Nope, the Celestia she knew didn't just kiss Discord, because that would be insane and she wasn't insane was she. She'd thought she'd gotten over the insanity by now, but no there it was again, a very clear mental image of Celestia doing just what Twilight swore had not happened. ”WHAT THE HAY?”

Trixie was taking this all relatively well, aside from staring eyes wide at the scene that had happened as it repeated itself in her mind. The words were however very clear, 'Trixie we need to talk'. She feared what was to come, those were some mighty ominous words spoken to someone in her position.

About thirty minutes later they were all brought to the throneroom and Celestia explained herself to them all, the truth about how the tome had helped her see the truth. That she had partially forgiven herself for the past that had caused the deaths of so many ponies. Knowing it would raise questions she had decided to tell them everything else as well, about Defilicus and many things about her past too. She left out the parts about Twilight's bloodline still, but she did explain Trixie's condition and that she was no threat even if she appeared different from others, this gained Discord's approval, which led Celestia to explain the next part of the plan. She'd let Twilight explain what she was going to do herself, which was met with some resistance, but eventually they agreed to let Twilight go cast the spell after being convinced that she could pull it off.

Later on Twilight and Trixie bid their goodbyes to the group in the main hall, receiving the goodbyes from them in turn as each of them left to do their part so this could all be brought to its ending.

As the two unicorns walked towards the chamber reserved for their spell to be completed in Trixie remembered that she had to go meet Celestia before helping Twilight. She felt a shiver run through her being as she turned to Twilight and whispered, ”You go ahead.. I just remembered Celestia wanted to have a word with me before we do this.”, before starting to make her way towards the throneroom that would now be empty as everyone else had gone to do their parts in the plan.

When Trixie arrived to the throneroom she saw that Celestia was sitting on her throne, waiting for her. She made her way to the feet of the throne and bowed before it, ”You wanted to talk princess?”.

Celestia looked up from the tome she had been reading and nodded slightly, ”Did you really think I couldn't sense who or what you are from miles away dear? Your presence is a hard one to forget after all Trixie, or should I call you Trixie of the third noble house Lulamoon? I do know you decided to leave your lastname behind for a reason, to spite your family's heritage if I righfully remember. Yet here you are, hundreds of years after I banished your house and the others for using the final stage of that evil magic. Cannot help but wonder why would you risk staying here even after finding out where you were.”.

This time there was no panic in Trixie's features, but something else, a slightly different demeanor than she'd been using just a moment earlier. She stood up and looked back at Celestia as she spoke, ”With all due respect Princess, when I saw the heir of the two houses I'd only read about in stories appear to protect me I was very confused after all she could've so very easily end my life right there. She knew me, I could tell it by the look she gave me, but instead of smiting me down all I saw was a smile before she.. Died. Then everything went blank and I woke up in the royal gardens, but before I could make my escape the one that I expected never to see again arrived to the gardens. She was slightly doubtful at the beginning, but in the end she did accept my apology quite easily which was the last thing I could hope for after all I'd done to her and her friends, so I decided to follow her. Perhaps somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I'd be able to find atleast a degree of redemtion for my family's past deeds by helping her, well that and she is perhaps the closest Trixie has ever been able to call a friend..”, her voice only wavering at the two last sentences.

Before Trixie the sun goddess staid prone on her throne, simply looking down at the azure coated unicorn deep in thought, as if considering what she had heard from Twilight's letters about this particular pony in the past, comparing it to the things she'd heard just now. ”Well well, looks like the great and lonely Trixie has finally found the right path. I've made my decision on your fate. Your punishment for breaking the banishment is..”, she started before pausing for the dramatic effect for a moment, then continuing, ”To watch over the last living heir of the first two noble houses and my prodigious student Twilight Sparkle. If I see a single hair miss from her once you two come back I'll personally see to sending you to the moon. Oh yes and do keep your mouth shut about her heritage, she does not know it yet, neither does her family. Now go, she must be wondering where'd you run off to.”, with a slightly amused tone underlying her usually regal voice as she watched Trixie's reaction to the news.

The azure unicorn's mind took its time working over each word told to her by one of the rulers of Equestria herself. She did find the brief suspense nearly heart stopping as a whole as she stood there, however her expression changed many times as she took the full meaning of the words in, ending up in one of stunned awe. While she did not wish to be sent to the moon she would find the whole a very acceptable task, she'd get to be with Twilight and now that she knew who Twilight truly was she couldn't help, but smile very widely as she bowed to the princess once more before hastily making her way to the room where Twilight would be waiting for her. 'I still can't believe it, this is the biggest chance to redeem myself and my family I'll probably ever get.. Well there obviously is the bonus of it being Twilight I have to protect, she's just so nice. Never thought her to be the descendant to their bloodlines though, a dark past indeed.', were the thoughts running in her mind as she neared the door to the room where Twilight would be, probably faceplanted into the tome to study somemore before the final go mark. She remembered to blank her face into a somewhat more fitting setting for it not to be so disturbingly happy as she entered the room, however the slightest smile she'd chosen to wear faded away, being replaced with a horrified, shocked, look on her face.

Before Trixie's eyes was a rather gory scene, blood had spilled all around the room, it was rather fresh, the scent of decay was present with the overwhelming scent of iron. Anyone could feel the disturbing undertone of magic that had been used, it wasn't the normal feeling she'd get from the usual everyday spells no matter how powerful the spells were, it had been blood magic that had been cast. The red and lavender fog poured out of the now open door, the residuents of the spell cast. In the middle of the runic circle of magic laid the unmoving body of the pony Trixie had just been assigned to protect with her life.

It took all of Trixie's mental ability not to throw up at the sight and scent of the room, it was a disgusting sight to say the least. She closed the door behind herself as she stepped into the room, looking around herself hastily, finding the spelltome, there was no time to call Celestia for help, so she followed the steps from the tome and executed them to the best of her ability, placing herself right next to Twilight as her presence was ripped right off of her physical being. She'd used the remaining residuents of Twilight's powerful magic to replicate the spell as her own potential was far below that of the lavender coated unicorn's. Now she was being flung through the barriers that protected the particular part of Luna's domains in a brilliant flash of colours. The world blackened in Trixie's eyes for a moment before she managed to open her 'eyes' again, looking around the black interior of the room, she could navigate by the red outlines that painted out the world around her.

Trixie started searching for Twilight, but it didn't take her long to realize that Twilight Sparkle was right there, just outside the room, she could hear words of someone else as well, the two were discussing. She sneaked to hide behind the doorway so she could hear what they were talking about. The results of her snooping left her somewhat distraught, it was no doubt a evil entity that was coaxing Twilight to stay here forever. She'd heard enough when Twilight started sounding entranced, sprinting into the view of the two and yelling, ”Twilight if you stay here then all will be lost, think back to your friends Twilight, what about them? You can't just abandon Fluttershy here either!”, angry at the both of them, Twilight for nearly falling into the trap, the other for trying to take away her Twilight. At the moment she didn't think her own thoughts sounded so weird at all, she was after all protecting her ma- no, definately not her mare, but friend, yes a friend. That might've been hard to explain if she'd said it out loud, instead of just sounding like it, she did have to admit she was awfully possessive, perhaps because she only had Twilight. For now she pushed that mess of thoughts out of her head and proceeded to stare down at Twilight.

It didn't take long for Twilight to remember the reason for her coming here, the entity's presence had made her temporarily forget due her curiousity. Twilight stood away from the beast and back to Trixie's side, giving her a quiet yet thankful look, before politely declining the entity's lures, which made the entity disappear for now as it sought another way to get past the protections.

They both knew that as time passed there would be only more and more of those entities trying to drag them down so they could get back to the real world, or even parasitically leech along with them to the world, sharing their bodies so they made their way towards the throneroom as quick as they could. After all that was where they'd seen the vague form of Fluttershy just before they both left for this stage of existing, however Fluttershy wasn't there anymore. The two then headed towards the gardens, hearing a strange offbeat pulse starting to follow them.

Twilight looked quickly behind them, not seeing anyhthing just yet, but it was getting stronger so she wouldn't stop as she explained what she thought the noise to be, ”Those are probably Luna's guardians that guard this specific plane. They've picked up on our presence here and are after us now.”, sounding slightly exhausted from keeping her form in this place already, the currents were straining them both as they tried to chain their temporary presence to this place permanently. Yet the both of them were stronger than your average run of the mill unicorns that only focused on one type of magic, even if Trixie mostly used illusions, thus being able to prolong their enduring in that realm without becoming a part of it.

As they arrived to the gardens they spotted Fluttershy who was about to be absorbed into a enormous writhing mass of limbs and goo. They pulled Fluttershy out and retreated from the creature, even if shaken to see something so absurdly denying any laws of physics.

The writhing mass noticed them and from somewhere within it emanated a wild growl as it started advancing towards them hungrily, having noticed that these beings were not of its natural habitat so devouring them might allow it entry to somewhere new where there was more to feast on.

Fluttershy was rather decidedly snuggling her wings and shivering on the ground eyes closed so Twilight picked her onto her back, as she had tried to use her magic to lift her friend up, but seemingly their magic did not work in this place. Trixie who had distracted the monstrosity from gaining on them leaped next to them and so they started their mad rush towards the exit of this maddening place. Hundreds of faces seemed to start appearing from the walls as they made their way towards the room, hands trying to reach them, tearing at them both, the pulsing had gotten very strong by now.

They made their way into the room once they reached it and placed Fluttershy on the materialization rune that began to work on breaking her chains to this place so she could be returned to the primal stage of existing again. Trixie held the door as something started bashing against it with a great force. Twilight prepared their exit rune sphere so that it would seal up and self destroy right after they had gone back to their bodies, which she had already done to Fluttershy's runes.

As Fluttershy finally disappeared along with the runes around her the door broke and Trixie just barely made it inside the rune sphere with Twilight as the writhing mass sprang towards them hungrily. Just as they too disappeared they saw Nightmare Moon's face smash upon the barrier that held the beast back, its eyes had been torn out, but the jaws had grown.. Then they were back.

The first thing that happened when the two of them got up was Twilight getting her face smacked by a azure hoof, followed by a rather tight hug. ”You crazy mare.. Don't you ever, never do anything like that again. Atleast without me.”, Trixie would growl rather angry at Twilight still for going in alone and trying to leave her behind, but as her feelings subsided she simply blushed, turning to look at Fluttershy instead.

Twilight blinked, that was all her stunned brains could do, this was happening way too fast, so she was going to do the only logical thing, sit down and think this all over. Then she was abruptly knocked over by a mass of pink and yellow, as soon as she thought she'd registered all this she was in a bearhug from the same source. Twilight got that rare dumb smile on her face as she let her friend cry into her mane, ”It's good to have you back Fluttershy.”, after which she blacked out, either due the mental strain or the fact Fluttershy was a very strong pony when she wanted to be, which often leads into lack of air during hugs.

After the merciful darkness had lifted off of her eyes she noticed she was in her old bed chambers, resting on her bed. She lifted herself slightly so she could see better and saw a very concerned yellow coated pegasus, who however blushed, hiding behind her mane as she noticed Twilight to be awake. She thought she heard a very quiet whisper sounding a lot like, 'sorry', from her friend, to which she responded with a smile, ”I'm just glad you're back Fluttershy, we all missed you so much.”, pulling the shy pegasus onto the bed for another hug, this time she wouldn't get choked either.

Trixie walked in after letting Celestia know that things had gone well with bringing back Fluttershy and that Twilight would be fine, seeing she had already regained much of her power she had used in Luna's less spoken of domain. She still felt a bit shaken by seeing Nightmare Moon there, but atleast she wasn't able to come with them. As she entered the room she saw Fluttershy hugging Twilight, not knowing how to feel about this since she did like Twilight and she'd admitted she was rather possessive of her, but she could understand that Fluttershy was a friend they'd all thought they'd never see again so she simply joined the hug. She was happy she'd managed to help Twilight in gaining back her friend, it had been a close call with all those things trying to get to them.

For now everything was alright in Equestria for the three until they finally broke the hug and Twilight gave Trixie a look that was mainly curious, but demanding as well at the same time. Trixie knew that she'd have to explain herself to Twilight once they were left alone for a while.

A guard arrived to the room's entrance and requested Fluttershy to come with him, saying there was someone that wanted to meet her without delay in the gardens. Fluttershy said her quick goodbyes to the two friends she'd regained, one of them new. A surprise would wait for her in the gardens, for once it would be a happy one.

After they were gone Twilight shut the door after them and turned towards Trixie, calmly wondering, ”So what's with the punching, the hugging and the part where you told me not to go without you next time?”, being as usual too eggheaded to understand the concept that was rather clear to anyone else, love.

Trixie felt a bit of relief as she started explaining herself, ”Well uh, Trixie was a bit upset since you didn't wait for Trixie to come along so she could keep you safe and well Trixie was happy we got out of there alive, the last part is Celestia. She told me to keep you safe.”, lying partially and somewhat akwardly, but it seemed to pass for the bookish unicorn who nodded understandingly.

”Odd way to keep me safe though.”, she muttered to herself and sat back on the bed for now, ”Perhaps a while of rest before we go to Celestia and see what's up next?”.

To that Trixie had nothing to add, climbing onto the bed with Twilight and leaning slightly against her as she got comfortable, hiding her blush from her.

”Good night Twilight.”

”Good night Trixie.”

And in the gardens a joyous reunion took place without the two unicorns even knowing. All they knew was the warmth provided by the both of their bodies against each other as they rested.