"Come one! Come all! Come and witness the astounding magic of the Great and Powerful Trrrrrrrrixie!"
The fireworks exploded, covering the magicians in sparkles and glitter, making the stars on her hat and cape shiny brightly. Trixie the magician was looking as magnificent as ever.
However the attending crowd of earth ponies were less than enthusiastic.
"You are privileged rock farmers! Because today you will be witness to the magic prowess of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria!"
The farmers remained sceptical. The old mare nonchalantly adjusted her glasses while one of the sister simply yawned.
Trixie still smiled, always the professional.
"Behold!" she announced and levitated a couple of rocks, making them dance above her head.
The other sister moved her bangs away, showing total disinterest in the spectacle.
Trixie upped the anthem. "Witness as Trixie turns these simple rocks into a tasty pack of oranges!" she kept the rocks in the air but started shooting beams of magic, turning them one by one into fruits. Pears, apples, kiwis, even a watermelon; but no orange.
She looked back at the audience, expecting to see amazement on their faces. Still she found boredom.
"Still not impressed? Perhaps Trixie should tell you about the time she vanquished an Ursa Major and saved the town of Ponyville!"
Trixie ignited her horn and shooted her magic into the air. The colorful explosion began to swirl and turn taking the shape of a giant bear made of stars.
"The horrendous monster escaped from its cave in the deeps of the Everfree Forest and began terrorizing the ponies. But just when all hope was lost for the ponyvillians who appeared to save them?"
She wasn´t expecting an answer but she still got none.
"But of course the Great and Powerful Trrrrixie!" and she added a second figure of herself, fighting the Ursa. "Using her magic talents, Trixie vanquished the Ursa Major and became the town heroine!!" she loudly declared.
"Oh no she didn´t." one of the sisters said.
"...excuse me?" Trixie asked.
"It wasn´t Trixie who saved the town, it was Twilight Sparkle."
"A-and who might that pony be? Trixie have never heard of this...Twilight Sparkle." she lied.
"Oh just Princess Celestia personal pupil and the most famous unicorn in all of Equestria." the other sister explained.
"Nonsense! I...I mean, Trixie is the most powerful of unicorns!"
"Not quite. We know for a fact that she couldn't do anything to stop the bear, making a fool of herself when she instead made the beast angrier with her antics." the old mare said.
"Also, it was just an Ursa Minor." one of the sisters added.
"And who tell you such lies? What lying-deceiving-slander spreader- dumb as bell of a pony tell you such lies about me?" Trixie demanded to know.
"Our daughter." the father said.
Trixie freezed and took a good look at the farmer family, one unhappy family of earth ponies, all glaring at her.
"...heh. My, what a...coincidence."
*****
..............................release me.
******
Inside a small battered van stationed at a crossroad, the sound of plates and cups being thrown could be heard.
"Stupid, ignorant peasants! How dare they chase me out of their town! Me! The most sophisticated pony they would ever seen in their lives! Idiots!"
Trixie kept throwing her belongings around, tossing them with her magic in her frenzy tantrum.
"And that Twilight Sparkle. Even after I left her tiny, insignificant town she continues to be a pebble on my path! Still ruining my name! Claiming herself to be so talented, ha! She lacks the knowledgeable and skills that makes me so great and powerful!" and she demonstrated them by levitating a shiny red apple and turn it into a coconut. Frustrated, she threw it around.
"She thinks she is better than me...and all because she is the student of the Princess. What was Celestia thinking? She should have chosen me to be her apprentice! But I can´t blame her majesty, those idiots at her school failed to see my potential. Just because I didn´t made the dragon egg hatch. Ridiculous! What pony could possibly do something like that?"
Trixie sit down on her couch, levitated a cup of hay juice and sorted through a pile of fliers. Tossing aside fliers of Sapphire Shore´s parade and the Wonderbolts Derby she came across a newspaper article.
"The Crystal Empire has returned, uh? A kingdom full of ponies that sparks like crystals, as magnificent as Trixie. Umh, that is actually not a bad idea. Those ponies have been gone for a thousand years, they have never heard of Trixie and more importantly, they have never heard of Twilight Sparkle..."
Trixie gave a final slurp at her juice, looking ominously menacing while doing so.
****
.................release my power.
*******
Trixie remained at the edge of the Crystal Kingdom, under the twin towers. Curiously, their shaodow covered her entire body, making it seem like night had fallen upon her while behind her back, the kingdom remained sunny and bright.
"Humiliated, again." she threw a carnival hat away with her magic. "Those ponies...and again, it was Twilight Sparkle fault! How could I possibly know that HER BROTHER was the new ruler of the kingdom? Him and that namby-pamby princess Mi Amore cadenza!" Trixie mocked her name and manners. "They dare chased me out of their town, their precious kingdom!"
Trixie looked back at the splendid city, at the crystal towers and the warming light that irritated from the castle, covering the entire land od Equestria in a warm and protecting light.
"Hmph! Be that way, there are still places in Equestria where Trixie is welcome. Maybe I should aim for a smaller town, one filled with simply earth ponies, the kind that have never seen a unicorn before, somewhere near the Badlands like Appleloosa or Dodge Junction..."
Trixie was making her way back to her caravan when something made her stop. A tingle, a tug, something that was calling her, hidden right at the corner of her eye. Trixie turned over and saw a shine, she approached it and found a red, sharped rock lying in the ground, covered by rocks.
"Umh, what´s this?" she tried to levitate the pointy object but her magic failed so instead she resorted to hold it on her hooves, like a common earth pony. "Must be a missing crystal from the empire. It feels...strange. Almost...good." Trixie held the rock on her hooves, watching her reflection looking back. She couldn´t stop staring.
Something was calling her.
"Well, I guess they won´t miss a single rock. Besides, they never paid Trixie for her services."
With a winning smug, Trixie placed the rock on her saddlebag and returned to her van.
*****
....release me you fool pony and accept my magnificent power.
*****
"Splendid!" Trixie exclaimed looking at alicron shaped amulet. On its center it was the bright red gem she had gathered from the outskirts of the Crystal Kingdom.
"It looks magnificent! But of course it will, after all I carved it myself. Although it is a little strange, I never learned a spell to change crystals before and yet when I woke up this morning the spell was just...there."
Trixie looked at the royal amulet and laughed her worries away. She was just that talented, that was the only explanation she needed. She took the amulet and placed it on her neck...
CRYSTALSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trixie threw the amulet away, screaming. Horrible visions of a dark kingdom, of enslaved ponies, of a sinister laugh have flooded her mind.
Trixie looked at the amulet. Even there in the ground, it still seemed menacing. Trixie levitated a jewel box and placed the amulet inside, taking extra care not to touch it. She hid the jewel box under a pile of pillows and moved to her bed, trying to make the glowing green eyes disappear.
****
.......no.
******
"What do you mean you have no place for Trixie?!" Trixie yelled at the stallion who run the club. Trixie have travelled all the way to Manehattan, ready to perform in the most prestigious magician club in the city but once she arrived, she was rejected.
"I´m afraid I have never heard before of you miss Trixie. This is an exclusive club, we only accept the best of the litter and besides we have our schedule full. There is no room for..." and he cleaned his monocle. "beginners night."
"Beg-" Trixie almost choked in rage.
"I´m sorry miss Trixie. Better luck next year." and he closed the door in front of her.
Infuriated, Trixie headed back down street when she bumped into three excited fillies wearing capes who pushed her out of the way and made her fall into a mud pile.
"Ouh, sorry miss..." a brown earth filly with reddish mane and a tomboyish voice began to apologize but she was interrupted by Trixie´s rage.
"You clumsy, useless, nearsighted, worthless blank flank! How could you not possibly see Trixie walking by, you dumb fillies!"
"Hey, you can´t talk to our friend like that!" one of the fillies yelled but she was interrupted by the brown filly who seemed to be the leader of the three.
"Let her go, guess some ponies think that just because they have their Cutie Mark they can treat ponies like garbage."
"What did you sa-" but Trixie got interrupted again, this time by the filly kicking back some mud into her face.
"Who´s looking like garbage now, uh?" and the three fillies left, laughing out loud.
Trixie remained in the mood, her anger building up. Frustration, shame, resentment. All those negative feelings, awakening the darkness near her.
****
....yesssssssss.
*****
"Ignorants! Fools! They don´t know me, they know nothing about me! But I´ll show them, I´ll show them all!"
The pile of pillows trembled as if something buried beneath it was shaking.
"They want to see great feats of magic? I´ll show them the greatest feats of magic ever performed in the history of Equestria! Feats that even the Princess will envy!"
The pillows were now jumping into the air, expelled by the red evil magic hidden under them.
"Yes, I will show them such spells that not unicorn could perform! Not even Twilight Sparkle!"
At the mention of this name the pillows were thrown expelled, one of them hitting Trixie.
"Wha-"
She turned around to see the jewel box engulfed in a red bright. Curious, Trixie opened the box, taking the amulet out.
"Crystals enhance magic, don´t they?"
Trixie put the amulet on, forgetting all about the nightmarish vision she saw the first time. This time she had no visions at all, instead she felt the magic energies coursing throguh her body, making her eyes glow with the red light of dark magic.
"Let´s give it a try..."
She pointed at a pear, wishing to turn it into an orange. She succeeded, better than she expected.
"Well well..." she said as the giant orange broke her coffee table.
"Why don´t we check in for beginners night?"
****
The club owner had no idea what just happened.
In the middle of the act, this unicron have burst in. He ordered the unicorns bouncers to kick her out but she turned them all into toys, laughing as they bump into each other. The magician at the stage tried to stop her, creating a rain cloud above her head. The unicorn smirked and the magician hat come alive and chase him out of the stage. Once in the stage the unicorn smiled at the audience, an awful bestial smile and shoot a beam of red magic that the owner had never seen before at them. The rch ponies in the audience watched in horror as their scarfs and top hats turned against them, robbing them of their money and scaring them out of the building.
The owner felt a shadow covering him and saw the unicorn approaching him, her eyes glowing red.
"Greetings. I am the Great and Powerful Trrrrixie!" and while saying the "r" her tongue turned viperish.
*****
Trixie laughed and threw the bits she collected from the culb that night into the air, like if it was confetti. She threw herself into the pile of gold and playfully rolled on top of it.
She was happy.
"Finally, things are improving for the Great Trixie." she placed the amulet in front of her eyes. "And its all because of you, my prrrecious little treasure."
Trixie kissed the amulet and rest her head on the coins, drifting away into dream.
****
Darkness.
Nothing but darkness.
Trixie was surrounded by an endless darkness, unable to see anything.
But she wasn't alone.
Something else was next to her.
....good. You have released my power. You did well, my little ssssslave.
"Who said that? Who is there?!"
Trixie released the darkness around her was caused by clouds, heavy black clouds. The clouds began to gather, taking into a solid shape. A shape covered in armor.
Trixie shivered as the sound of metallic hoofsteps came closer.
She saw the green glow on his eyes, the red shiny horn; the shape of a unicorn stallion.
The stallion stood in front of her, piercing her with his gaze.
"Wh-who are you?"
"I am King Sombra!" and he stomped the ground.
KNEEEEEEEEEEEEELLL!!!!!!!!!!!
The shadows gathered as King Sombra approached Trixie, licking his viperish tongue.
"You have done well, my pretty slaveeee..."
"Wha-what? What are you tal...who are you?" Trixie cried.
"SILENCE! Stop quivering you pathetic creature!" the roar of Sombra was so intense that all the darkness around trembled. "I am the rightful owner of the Crystal Kingdom. I am the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria! I am King Sombra and I will have my recover my kingdom!"
Trixie remained still, too terrified to say anything while Sombra took the opportunity to walk around and explain the situation to her.
"My physical form has been destroyed but I managed to hold enough of my essence inside my horn. But I still needed another unicorn to find it and allowed me to use his magical energies to resto...are you even listening? What are you doing?!"
What Trixie was doing was realizing she was still wearing the amulet in the real world so she was pulling trying to take it off. SHe eventually succeeded, waking up back on her bed. She threw the amulet away, promising to never wear it again.
*****
....I can wait. I waited a thousand years for my revenge. I can wait.
*****
Vanished,
Forbidden.
Rejected.
Trixie looked at the fliers with her image scattered across Canterlot and felt her heart break. She was no longer ignored, that was for sure; but the price was that now she was considered a criminal. All the unicorns around her whispered and looked the other way.
"You! Hold it right there!"
Trixie saw the royal guards coming after her and resorted to one of her old tricks to escape. Her smoke curtain was still too short but luckily she had the chance to escape back to her van.
Back in the safety of her van, Trixie realized she had literally nopony to turn to. Half of Equestria labeled her a criminal and the other half won´t help her. She noticed how quiet it was inside her tiny van. It was the deafening sound of loneliness.
She heard another sound then, a small cackling sound, almost like laughter. It was coming from the bright necklace that lied on the ground. She picked it up, its red light seemed almost like a mocking laugh. Furious she put it on...
****
Again Trixie found herself surrounded by darkness and thick smoke and its center it was the armor cladded King Sombra. Curiously, his semblance wasn´t one of anger, he seemed more disappointed, like a teacher waiting for his student to admit her failures.
Trixie put on a brave face and walked in front of the stallion.
"I have returned..." she announced.
It seemed almost like Sombra was resisting the urge to say "duh."
"I understand that you are able to communicate with me when I´m wearing this amulet and in that case it means I, Trixie, is the one in charge."
Sombras was starting to grow impatient.
"Therefore, I must warn you that if you try to do anything at me or even just talk in a way Trixie doesn´t like, this amulet will be put in a box again and throw into the ocean, understood?"
Sombra said nothing.
"Understood?!"
"Understood..." Sombra said and Trixie turned around, proud of herself. "...Trixie-Ditzy."
Trixie frozen in place.
"How did you called me?"
She turned around and found Sombra displaying a smug smile, the same smug smile Trixie would do if she had control over another pony.
"I said, how did you called me?"
"One of the benefits of being locked in this state is that I have plenty of time to watch at some entertainment..."
Sombra waved his hoof, causing the smoke that twirled and changed shape until it took the form of a sort of window. The window showed the image of a building that Trixie recognized as Canterlot Magic Kindergarten. The image moved inside the building, into a classroom were a unicorn filly without a Cutie Mark was being mocked by her classmates.
"Trixie-Ditzy, failed again! Can´t perform a simple spell!"
All the other fillies pointed and laughed, the teacher simply turned away disappointed while the little filly cried humiliated.
"NO! Don´t look at that! Don´t!"
Trixie rushed against the window that turn into a harmless puff of smoke.
"Poor little thing. Always the laughing stock, right Trixie-Ditzy?" Sombra mocked her.
"Don´t call me that! I´m not a failure, I´m Great and Powerful!"
"Hardly. You can´t even do something as simple as turning an apple into an orange." and he created an apple from the smoke. A green apple.
"Don´t insult me! At least I´m not trapped inside a rock, oh you mighty King!"
For a second, Sombra reverted to his bestial state but he quickly regained his senses.
"I may be currently trapped but for a glorious moment, I ruled over an entire kingdom! I was respected!"
"That´s not what Trixie heard. She heard all the Crystal Ponies hated and feared you." she was recovering her usual confidence.
"Good. Fear is a powerful motivation just like your fear of failure..." Trixie raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "That's why you travel from town to town. You are so desperate to get attention, to get ponies to notice you, to like you." Trixie did her best to ignore the King, despite his words hitting the right spot. "Is that all matters to you, to make...friends?" and King Sombra laughed, a deep arrogant laugh.
"I´m not looking for friends. I don´t need them, I just want them to recongize my talent. I want their respect!" Trixie explained.
"Fool. Respect is not something you ear, respect is something you take."
Again, Trixie raised an eyebrow intrigued only this time her curiosity was genuine. Something in the King´s word got her attention. Still quiet, Sombra waved his hoof, causing the window to return.
This time the portal was set on the Royal Castle and it slowly moved into the Main Hall. This was an image of times of yore, when both princesses ruled the kingdom. Celestia and Luna were sitting on their thrones while a unicorn stallion kneeled in front of them.
Princess Celestia was levitating a scroll in front of her. Once she finished reading she put it down and said "Your research is quite impressive, counselor; but I´m afraid that we can´t allow you to further explore it."
The stallion straightened up, surprised. "But your majesty..."
"Kneel, servant!" Princess Luna shouted.
The stallion put his head down back. "My apologies but I must say, I don´t understand. My research proves that the crystals from the northern kingdom will greatly improve the power of unicorns. Why are I not allowed to travel to continue my research?"
"I understand your motives, counselor and I know you have only the best interest for the kingdom in mind." Princess Celestia said. "But our relations with the Crystal Kingdom are not strong enough to send an emissary who would, for a lack of a better word, spying on them. Also, i have my reservations about emplying the power of the crystals. Our greedy ancestors wasted their life digging the caves below the castle and what for? I believe is best we leave this matter rest."
"But your Majesty..."
"Our sister has spoken! How dare you raise your voice witouth permission!" Princess Luna got up, her eyes shining in rage. "Your research has been proved to be dangerous and unnecessary! We share our sister thoughts on the matter! Our decision is final! Retreat from the palace! At once!"
The stallion bit his lip, fighitng the urge to commit the biggest crime against the crown. Instead, he put his head down and slowly backed down.
Before the image vanished, Trixie was able to hear Celestia saying "you were a little harsh, Luna."
"...you were rejected." Trixie said.
Sombra no longer looking angry, he looked sad, hurt.
"They made a mistake...but I proved them wrong. I travelled to the kingdom, I gathered the crystals and with their power I took control of the land. I did it! Celestia and luna tried to destroy me but they were only able to hold me down. A thousand year I waited under the frozen ice for my opportunity to return, to take back my crown! And once I was finally free, when the power was at my hooves again...I WAS STOPPED! A foolish unicorn and a baby dragon! They ruined my plans! But this time it will be different, I will recover my body, I will recover my kingdom, I will bring darkness to their lands! I...am...KING SOMBRAAAAA! And I will rule them all!"
His final roar caused the dark space to shake as thunder and lighting escaped from the clouds.
Sombra stood still, gasping for air when he felt a soft hoof caressing his face.
"I understand."
Now it was Sombra´s turn to raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"I understand that pain. The truth is... that I´m not that talented. My magic is weak and my skills are poors. But when I held your amulet, when I felt your magic coursing through me, I felt...powerful! I want that power. I want to be strong! I want to truly be great and powerful!"
"You can be great and powerful if you swore loyalty to me..." Sombra said.
"I will...my King."
Sombra smiled and took Trixie´s hoof. The clouds gathered around them, slowly closing, engulfing them into darkness.
****
A group of pegasi were handling flier across the land. One particular cross-eyed grey mare was clumsy flying in circles, dropping half of the content of her saddlebags.
One of the fliers fell next to a hooded figure. The figure took the flier and read outloud:
"Princess Celestia welcomes the ambassadors of Saddle Arabia on their visit to the town of...Ponyville! Well well, what a coincidence. This looks the perfect opportunity for our appearance, won´t you agree...." and Trixie removed her hood. "My master?"
Inside his jeweled prison, Sombra laughed in anticipation.
Trixie smiled too, looking down the hill at the quaint unsuspecting town of Ponyville which soon will meet the true greatest unicron in Equestria.
