---- Curse of the Alicorn ----
Sometimes things happen to ponies... and they change. These changes can be as small as the flowering plant... or as huge as an Alicorn's power.
Pain. That was all she felt now. Pain, and resentful memories. She raised a royal-blue hoof, stained with a big splash of crimson, to her eyes and pointed it at the blurry sky above her. After a few moments of watching her trembling leg, she simply let it fall to her side, leaving the view of the brilliant blue above unblemished. "How... How..." She felt a surge of overwhelming dissapointment as her voice faltered in the search for a word to describe the slate of bright color above her. Tears welled up in her eyes as further searching brought no enlightenment, no sudden realization. She was left only with pain. Pain, and resentful memories.
A dark-blue mane, streaked with light purple and pink highlights, poked into her field of view. Soon following the mound of hair was a pair of purple eyes, twin fires of concern lighting in their depths. Then, one of the voices she hated most in the world sounded in her ears. "Trixie... What happened to you?" Trixie strained herself to cast a spell that would stop the beating of her opponent's heart the second it struck her, but the unicorn's magic simply sparked forth weakly from her horn and veiled the world with a layer of rapidly fading red. "Why are you like this?"
"Twilight... Sparkle..." Anger and hatred leaked a bitter-tasting acid into her mouth as she struggled to lift her body enough to pull the lavender unicorn to the ground. "I... will... k-k-kill you."
"Why, Trixie? Why did you do this? We got rid of the amulet! You shouldn't be this way!" Twilight stamped a hoof to the ground in frustration. Disbelief and anger fought for dominance inside of the unicorn as she stared down at the once-Great and Powerful Trixie. "I thought you changed!"
"And Trixie thought... you were weak... Guess we were... both wrong." The world flashed crimson again as another red-hot surge of hatred flowed through Trixie. "You want to know... Why? Well... why don't you just... use one of those... memory spells that you... know?" A knife of pain dug into her side as she took a deep breath. "You'll never know... otherwise." Trixie smiled at the hesitant look in Twilight Sparkle's eyes. "What's wrong?" She filled her voice with enough venom to make the librarian flinch back. "Scared of the... Great and Powerful Trixie?"
After a moment of silence, the hesitation soon faded into a stiff resolve. "All right, Trixie. I'll bite." Closing her eyes for a few seconds, Twilight focused the little magic that she still had left inside of her to form a memory-recalling spell. "Get ready," she warned, bringing a bitter laugh from the unicorn below her. "All right, I'm going." She leaned in and touched her horn to Trixie's forehead, pushing the spell into the royal-blue unicorn's mind.
Red lightning flickered across the insides of her mind as her magic worked its way past the Amulet's own magic. A few of the bolts flicked across her body, pricking across her coat as she fought through the storms. An unbelievebly white light soon rushed up to envelope her in its warm embrace.
"Wh-what? Where am I?" Her vision slowly returned, revealing to Twilight a landscape of gentle, rolling hills that were covered in mist. "Why am I here? I wanted to see her memories!" A voice roared out in her mind, loud and pomptous like its real life speaker.
"But you are, dear Twilight." The condensed water convulsed violently before it rose up of its own accord, forming itself in the likeness of Trixie. "This is Trixie's mind, and you are in it." The world was covered by a painfully bright, red light for one terrifying moment before she continued. "You see, Twilight, sometimes memory spells can be a little... Trixie." After sparing a moment to give herself a self-satisfied giggle, Trixie turned to stare out into the bare landscape. "When you try to delve into somepony's mind, they can fight you. Sometimes, like now, that leads to a... conversation, between the two. Of course," the unicorn spun around to smile at the confused librarian, "higher level unicorns should already know this. So there was no need for this talk now was there?"
"I...I..." Twilight fumbled with the words that tumbled about in her mind, something that usually never happened to the well-worded pony, before taking a deep breath to solidify her thoughts. "Yes. You're right."
"Well, in that case Trixie will assume you know what to do next. Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle." Another blinding light flashed into existance and filled Twilight's vision with its vibrant color. A haughty laughed teased her lavender ears and by the time her vision had cleared, there was nothing there. She was alone.
"Trixie? Where did you go?" She spun around once, twice, and thrice to no avail. "Trixie?!" Yet another turn yielded her nothing but a wasting of energy and she nearly sunk to the ground with the force of the sudden surge of despair that reached up to grasp her heart in an icy-cold grip. Another laugh cut through the silence, sending chills down the unicorn's spine as she began throwing her eyes in every direction to find the source. "Trixie?" Through the mist she could see the shadowy outline of a pony standing in the fog, who then began to walk away. "Trixie wait!" After a few steps after the shrouded figure, the ground fell away from beneath her and she found herself being cast into a deep abyss. Twilight's scream was shoved back into her throat by the rushing air as she shot downward.
"See as I have Seen. Hear as I have heard. Feel as I have felt." Trixie's voice echoed to her from the blackness, cutting through the sounds of the rushing air. "Live my life as I have lived it, Twilight Sparkle. Become me." Somewhere ahead in the darkness, a small light began to bloom. As tiny as it was, it grew in size until it resembled something like a sun, burning white-hot in the face of darkness. "Become me. The Great and Powerful Trixie." The voice cackled with relish as the white first touched Twilight, pulling the poor unicorn into something that she had never read about in any of her many books.
"Experience my pain, Twilight Sparkle."
Where am I? The question seemed to echo within her, unable to exit through a pair of lips that had ceased to exist. What happened? She felt empty, as if she was nothing but a thought, a mere free-floating consciousness that was trapped in some semi-dark room without walls. After a moment of panic, she took several deep "breaths" to calm herself and shape her emotions back into something resembling their previous state. All right, calm down Sparkle. You've been in worse situations than this. She tried to focus her vision enough to see something, but all she could make out was the strange half-light that coated everything.
Okay... Looking around isn't doing anything. What's next egghead? Twilight allowed herself a small smile at her own use of Rainbow Dash's nickname for her before bringing her full attention back to the present. She held one of her hooves up to her face, waving it rapidly back in forth to see if she could feel anything. Strange. Even though I feel my hoof I can't see it, nor can I move any air. Twilight floated in silent thought for a moment before she finally came to her solution. That's it!
She closed her "eyes" and concentrated intensely, as one might before trying to cast higher level magic. All around her she could feel a blazing warm and a sudden feeling of being. The unicorn remained like that for a few moments after the heat had faded away to a neutral temperature, breathing in deeply and relishing in the feeling of air rushing past her nostrils. As her lids lifted from her eyes, Twilight was pleased to look down and see a pair of perfectly normal, lavender hooves reaching down to touch the glowing floor. "Ah, that's better!"
A voice cut through the eerie noise that tickled the edges of Twilight's hearing, the words amounting to no more than a whisper. "See as I have seen. Hear as I have heard. Feel as I have felt."
The landscape that Twilight had been inhabiting for the past few minutes was suddenly obliderated by a wall of blackness. The silence that had been pressing down against her was shattered by a shrilly ringing alarm clock. The feeling of coolness was replaced by that of a snug warmth that wrapped itself around her. A groan was pushed from her throat as she rolled over, turning away from the harsh sunlight that poked against the shield of her eyelids. "Time already? Trixie swears that she just fallen asleep too." Wait, Trixie swears? Pain wracked her body as she stretched out the still-sore muscles that felt as if they would never unknot.
"Trixie are you awake yet? Don't expect to be staying here much longer if you ain't gonna work!" A hoof pounded against her door. "Get up you lazy mare! What am I paying you for?!"
"Trixie is awake and will be at work shortly, Mister Pie. She simply requires a moment of preparation." An angry snort sounded behind the door and she waited with batedbreath until the sound of hooves on the rough floorboards made their way away from her room. "Trixie cannot take another day of this... this... squallor!" The thought of the amulet and the buried rage that was directed at a certian lavender unicorn were the only things keeping her here, but everypony's patience has a limit. "Soon, Twilight Sparkle. Trixie will defeat you!" She winced as a particulary fierce spike of pain stabbed into her side as she shook a hoof angrily at the ceiling. "Next time, Trixie will not trust a wheel to carry even the smallest of weights, much less a few boulders." An angry muttering from a few doors down sent a jolt of fear down her spine. "Yes, Mister Pie, Trixie is going to go work now."
"Did you enjoy that, Twilight Sparkle?" The world around her faded into a misty darkness once again, leaving Twilight as a floating nothing. "Being the Great and Powerful Trixie must have been an amazing privilege." A small distance away, a misty figure rose up and solidified into the now-familiar shape of Trixie. "You see how Trixie had to suffer? Every day she woke up with her muscles still throbbing from the day before's work. Not that you would know anything about physical labor." The mist-Trixie smiled with mavolence as the last of her words triggered a spark of anger in Twilight's eyes.
After a moment of supresing the fires of anger that had flared up suddenly as well as the numorous objections that had floated up in her mind, Twilight looked at the royal-blue unicorn with confusion and fear, still shaken by what had happened just moments before. "Why... Why did you show me that?" Another flash of violent scarlet filled Twilight's vision and blinded her for a few seconds. "Why, Trixie? Why are you telling me these things?" Whem her vision cleared, the other pony was gone into the darkness once again.
"Why?" The performer's voice echoed from nothing, a hint of hilarity touching at the edges of the words. "Well, Trixie would have thought that obvious by now." A moment of silence reined supreme before the voice called out again. "Trixie wants you to hurt like she did, Twilight Sparkle. You always wanted to understand, after all. And so you will. All of it." Chills ran down Twilight's spine as another glowing light made its way up to her.
"All of it..."
She was galloping down one of the many back roads of the town whose name she couldn't have cared to remember. Splashes of red flickered across her vision as the magical surges pulsed through her. What is it this time? Trixie-Twilight turned another of the corners to find herself facing a blank wall. "Bah, Trixie will find you, little pony. You cannot hide from her forever." Another surge of magic, this time strong enough to bring an anvil of pain crashing down onto her along with the feeling of power, bringing her to her knees. Hnnn, it hurts! But... It feels so... powerful... Is this what the amulet's magic is like?
She pushed herself up, driven by the force of overwhelming rage that coursed through her veins. "Trixie. Will. Find. You." Red lightning crackled along her horn before lashing out in every direction. Soon enough, a small yelp of pain issued forth from underneath a cardboard box that was tucked away so deeply into a corner that Trixie would have never thought to look there. "Ha! Though you could get away from Trixie, didn't you?" A veil of crimson lowered itself onto the trembling mare that was hiding underneath the debris, pulling the distraught filly out of the mess and holding her in the air as a quivering ball. Why is Trixie after a filly?
"P-p-please! D-d-don't-t h-hurt m-m-me-e-e-e!" The azure pony's scream of fear soon turned to pain and then into a choking gurgle as Trixie tightened her hold. Even though she couldn't speak, the nameless pony looked to Trixie with all kinds of pleading words that urged to be free. A surge of sickness passed through her mind as Twilight finally figured out what Trixie was doing. NO! NO NO NO! NOT A FILLY! However much she screamed it in her mind, Twilight couldn't stop the tightening of her/Trixie's magical grip. The words of pleading and begging never got their chance to be released into the air, extinguished just like the light that had burned inside the little pony's eyes just moments before.
Feeling no remorse, Trixie released her magic and turned away from the lifeless body. "That should hold the pain back for a little longer."
A lingering cloud of disgust clung to Twilight's thoughts as she galloped with Trixie's body away from the small, lifeless corpse that simply stared off into nothingness. What does she mean by... pain? Her muzzle dug into the ground as twin fires of agony blossomed to life along her sides. Red lightning filled her vision and crackled down her throat as she opened her mouth to scream. It lasted for only a few moments but it felt like an eternity to Twilight, who was trying everything she had learned under Celestia's tutilage to escape from the blinding pain that gripped Trixie's body.
Even as the red-hot flames faded away, her sides still throbbed with every beat of her heart. "Not... again..." With blackness teasing around her eyes, Twilight watched as Trixie's hooves moved aside her bloodstained cloak to reveal two full-grown, jet black pegasus wings jutting out of the royal-blue fur that surrounded them. "No... It's getting... worse..." The darkness that was lingering around the edges of objects suddenly grew even darker, becoming as black as the wings that were suddenly now a part of her body and covering everything around her in an inky cloud of unconsciousness.
"And so that is how the Great and Powerful Trixie has lived for the past few months as she made her inevitable way back to this wretched place called Ponyville." Twilight lifted her head to see a pair of crimson irises staring down at her. "Just think... All of those days... Trixie had to kill every day to keep herself even remotely sane. You only felt the end of the transformation." The cruel smile on Trixie's face morphed into a mocking smirk as she jumped back from Twilight's hoof. "Oh? Is our Twilight upset? Trixie cannot imagine why..." The figure leapt aside as another attack, in the form of a magical bolt of lighting, cut through the air that she had just been occupying.
Twilight pushed herself onto her hooves as she charged another attack. "B-be qu-quiet, Trixie. That magic is controlling you! I have to stop it!" I have to bring you back!
"Oh, poor Twilight." The mist-Trixie drifted over to the lavender unicorn and brushed a hoof along her chin. "You actually think there is something to save? The old Trixie is nothing but a memory now. She's gone. I'm the one in control now." Cruel laughter filled the space as red lightning jolted along the sky. "You're wasting your time."
"No!" Twilight's horn glowed brightly as she pointed it straight at the apparation whose taunting smile marred the features of the once graceful mare.
"Yes, Twilight Sparkle... She's gone."
"NO!" Everything dissolved into a blinding purple as Twilight's horn released its insane amount of magic. After an instant, everything was gone. There was nothing but black.
"Twilight... I'm sorry."
And then there was pain. Pain, and resentful memories.
Author's Note
Please note that this is incomplete. There will be an Epilogue soon. Not sure of when because of real life stuff going on.
Make sure to point out any errors that you see! I wrote this one from an iPad so it might have a few spelling errors in it here and there...
Epilogue: Wings as Black As Night
Epilogue: Wings as Black As Night
---- Epilogue: Wings as Black as Night ----
However much change sways a pony in their life, they will always be the same pony at their roots.
Twilight Sparkle slowly reached down and brushed aside the light dusting of snow that covered the grave, exposing the rough dirt that filled it. She could have used magic to blow away the offending substance but she felt a sort of satisfaction in using her hooves. That, and she wasn't even sure she could trust her magic anymore. A gust of wind carresed the unicorn and sent a shudder running along her spine. "Oh Celestia it's cold." Her breath misted the air as she spoke, looking so much like the mist that had plagued her trip into somepony else's mind so many years ago.
"Twilight Sparkle, what, pray tell, are you doing here?" The question was soft and gentle, much like a concerned mother would ask of her child. "Tis a cold night for a pony to be out by herself."
"I guess the same could be said for you, Princess Luna." Twilight didn't turn around as the quiet hooves of the Princess of the Night plodded on the dead winter grass.
"We suppose that you are right." The regal voice was tinged with a slight childish pout as the Princess acknowleged Twilight's wit. "Regardless, we do not know of the reason as to why you, Twilight Sparkle, would brave the cold winter air in your condition." A wing brushing against her side was Twilight's only warning before being pulled into a warm hug. "After all," the concern in the voice melted into something more playful, "we were under the impression that the castle physician had instructed you to remain indoors at all times."
"Yes, and I was under the impression that Princess Celestia had instructed you to remain at the Lunar Court to care for things that require royal attention." After a moment of shared silence, Twilight turned to look up at the wise-yet-unwise face of Princess Luna and allowed herself a small smile. "I think we are both out-of-bounds tonight."
"Yes, we think that we are as well." Another moment of silence, longer than before, passed between the two before the larger pony spoke again. "We suppose you are here to visit her as well, Twilight Sparkle?"
"Yeah..."
"You know, Twilight Sparkle, you never did tell us what happened that day you brought her here."
"I don't think I can tell you... Not now, or ever." Agony ripped through the unicorn as she watched Princess Luna turn away. "I... I can't... Princess I'm sorry but..." Tears welled up and overflowed from her eyes as she tried to explain why she couldn't tell anypony what had happened. The sound of hooves rang out in the courtyard as the lunar goddess began to slowly trot away. "Wait!" The echoing sound of hoofsteps stopped for a brief moment as the midnight-blue pony turned to look at the librarian with pained eyes. "I... I can show you..."
The alicorn slowly trotted over to her with an air of apprehension. "Twilight... Are you sure?"
"Yes, Princess. You deserve to know, even if I can't tell you." Twilight couldn't help but look apprehensively at the horn that slowly lowered down to touch her forhead with a magical glow. The events of that day suddenly found themselves resurfacing from where Twilight had buried them deep in her mind. Every second of life, both hers and the snippits that Trixie had shown her, were now Luna's to see. It seemed to take an eternity for the spell to be finished but before long the magical glow faded away from Twilight's consciousness. "There... Now... You know... Everything..."
"It was that dark magic. That amulet that we created in the ages of old. We did not know it had existed any longer." Luna seemed to be babbling out confusion, her hooves nervously trotting in place and in circles as she tried to make sense of the memories. "And... Trixie found it... That must mean that she had... the wings? And the red magic?"
Twilight nodded grimly at Princess Luna's questioning stare. "Just as I do, Princess." Twilight found herself enveloped in the wings of the night once more
The air trembled with anticipation as both ponies shifted awkwardly apart and stared at the headstone with their eyes just barely holding back tears. "Trixie Lulamoon..." Luna's voice caressed the two parts of the name like a cloud touching a pegasus' hooves for the first time. "Friend, enemy, performer." Each description grew more and more bitter as Luna read them from the stone face. "That is not all she was. Not in the slightest." Luna's horn glowed azure as she cast a simple lance of light at the granite, slowly carving out more letters. The tears finally began falling from Twilight's eyes as she watched the Regent of the Night spell out one last word on the surface of the stone.
Daughter.
Wiping away the few tears that she had left to shed, Twilight turned around and spread her wings, flying after Princess Luna on a pair of wings that were as black as night.
Author's Note
Because I can't be bothered to spend any longer on this fic... My mind has been on other things.
Here's the Epilogue, enjoy!
