A Darker Tale

Outside of the town of Ponyville, a small cottage sat pleasantly on top of a hill. The sounds of birds happily chirping in the sky was common occurrence here, for the owner of the home was one who gave wonderful treatment to all animals.

To the side of the home, a collection of small animals consisting of beavers, raccoons and rabbits all sat together as they listened to Fluttershy, a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, explain to them what exactly was going to happen. Her good friend Twilight Sparkle, a lavender unicorn, quietly sat back with her assistant Spike, young purple dragon, as they waited for Fluttershy to finish talking to her animals.

"Don't be scared little friends, Twilight is wonderful with magic." Fluttershy pleasantly said to her animal friends. Suddenly, she flipped around to Twilight, giving her a cold and angry look, startling the unicorn, "Anything happens to them Twilight, so help me!" her words dripped venomous threats with each syllable she stated.

Spike quickly got between the two of them, putting his claws on each to push them apart. "aww, don't worry Fluttershy..." he said as he walked Fluttershy away, "Twilight's magic has gotten a lot better since she accidentally crushed me and Applejack with a giant snowball."

Twilight blushed with embarrassment as she remembered the incident at her first winter wrap up in Ponyville few years prior. She had tried to enchant her snowplow to help push the snow off the fields much faster, but lost control of it, creating a massive wall of snow which made an even larger mess than before.

Fluttershy took a deep breath to calm herself, "Well of course she is good with magic, Twilight is great with magic. I guess I just don't want my little friends to be scared." Her eyes suddenly widen as she looks down to the animals, "Oh, oh! Look how scared they are!"

Despite her panic, all of the small critters had wide grins on their faces as they awaited the test to begin. Twilight walked up and put a hoof on her trembling friend to reassure her. "Don't worry Fluttershy, I promise nothing bad will happen."

"I know!" responded Fluttershy, who was now shaking at this point.

Twilight walked forward to the group of animals and focused her magic. After a second, her horn glowed as her purple energy formed. Then, all of the animals were enshrouded in the glow as they were lifted off the ground. All of the critters cheered with excitement as they felt themselves be lifted off the ground. Twilight could hear Fluttershy panicking behind her, but chose to ignore it to focus on her performance.

Levitating the animals, Twilight weaved them up and down in a mix of different directions. Some she had dive down in a steep arc, while others were pulled up and spun through the air. After a moment; they were flowing in a very smooth figure eight pattern above her head. Chirps and laughs emitted from the animals as they flipped around inside the comfortable grasp of magic.

Spike stared in awe at the spectacle he was watching. "Twilight, that looks amazing!"

Twilight smiled as she lowered the animals down to the ground. Once they were safely down, she deactivated her magic, causing the purple aura to disappear. She brought a hoof up to her head to wipe a way the sweat that had gathered. 'Phew! That takes more concentration than I thought it would be.' she thought to herself. Her thinking was disrupted by the cheering of the small creatures hopping around her, demanding to do it again. Twilight chuckled at how much fun the animals had, "That's all for now, little ones. Maybe we can practice again later, if Fluttershy says it's alright."

The animals all then ran over to Fluttershy, who was still cowering in her hooves. She had been so worried her animals would get hurt she didn't even notice how much fun they were having. Spike giggled to himself seeing her like that. He then turned and smiled up to his unicorn friend, "Your magic has really improved since you came to Ponyville, Twilight. Princess Celestia is going to love it!"

Twilight gave a small grin; normally she never liked others bragging about her skill, but having a compliment now and then always felt good. "Thanks Spike. I have to be at my best when she arrives with the delegates from Saddle Arabia. I can't believe she is trusting me with the entertainment."

POOF!

Twilight felt herself get hit in the side by something quick, knocking her off her hooves. After regaining her focus, she looked up to see a cyan Pegasus with a multi colored standing above her. Recognizing her friend, Twilight glared up at her, "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?"

"Twilight, come quick! It's an emergency!" Rainbow quickly responded.

Twilight's frown disappeared when she saw the panic on Rainbow's face. Crawling up off the ground, she shook dust off her coat before speaking, "What's the matter?"

"Some weird pony came to town and is causing trouble!"

"What!?" Twilight gasped.

Several minutes later, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy arrived in Ponyville. There was a large crowd of pony's all in the streets watching something. Twilight looked around, curious to what was happening. "What's going on here?"

Suddenly, a bright flash of red appeared in the middle of he crowd. As soon as it vanished, a mix of gasps and panic went over the pony's. Then, the crowd dispersed, making room for a screaming white unicorn that was running away from the mass of ponies. Twilight's eyes went wide when she saw who it was. "Rarity? What's wro-" She quickly brought a hoof up to her mouth to what she saw, "Oh my gosh! What happened your hair!?"

Rarity's normal purple mane had been nearly completely burnt off, leaving only enough to hang past the base of her head. Her eyes were filled with tears as she looked up to her friend, "Oh Twilight! I can't believe what that horrible pony has done to me! Look at this!" she screamed as she pointed a hoof up to what was left of her hair.

"What? Who did his to you?" Twilight then looked past her crying friend to see a single pony standing in front of the town hall. It's body was completely covered by a black cloak that hid its entire body except for its azure hooves. Anger coming over her, Twilight walked through the other pony's standing there to confront this stranger. "Who are you? Why did you Do that to my friend Rarity?"

The figure sat still for a few moments before bringing one of its hooves up to the hood covering its head. "Well well well. If it isn't..." it paused as it flipped the hood back, revealing a shining two toned silver mane and azure unicorn head, "Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight's mind immediatly recognized the unicorn as the magician who came to Ponyville years ago claiming to be the most powerful unicorn in the world. She was also the one who nearly caused the destruction of Ponyville from the lie that she created. Despite the fact that this mare never set foot in their town again, Twilight never forgot the name to this fraud.

Looking up, Twilight stared up into the eyes of the one she thought she would never see again. "Trixie."