Goodbye Forever: Second Chance

The first thing that Trixie noticed as her eyes slowly fluttered open was the extreme lack of lighting.  The world around her had been consumed by silent darkness and tranquil oblivion.  The sky above was just as pitch-black as the seemingly non-existent surface that kept her body suspended in the air.  With the exception of an extremely faint pulsing sound, the never ending void was so quiet that she could almost make out the sound of her own blood flowing through her veins.

Trixie stood on a platform of nothingness and yet, as far as she could tell, she wasn’t spiraling into the void below.  From what Trixie could tell, she was the only resident in this dark world.  In fact, Trixie began to ponder if anything had ever existed here … wherever "here" was exactly.  There was only Trixie and the darkness.  The confused mare decided to do what any sensible pony would do in this situation, walk around.

After taking her first nervous step forward, she noticed that small ripples appeared in the empty space below her hooves.  It was almost as if she were walking on water.  “I’m definitely not in Manehattan anymore,” thought Trixie.  With each careful step that she took into the void, a new question came to mind. “How did I get here?”   “Why am I here?” “How do I leave this place?”  She eventually stopped all together and gave her brain some time to formulate a logical answer.  Now, what was the last thing that she remembered?  Then it hit her, Manehattan.  If she could recall correctly, her body had become dangerously weak.  Oh, and then there was the fact that the snow was coming down pretty hard too.

After adding all of that with how she awoke in this new environment, Trixie came to a final verdict.  She must have frozen to death.  If that was the case then she was somewhat disappointed.  If she had ended up in Tartarus, then where were the tortured screams of over a billion souls?  Where were the lakes of fire?  Where was the head demon in charge and his three headed pet?  The only other explanation that she could come up with was that she had ended up in some sort of Purgatory for those who didn’t belong in Tartarus but had also been denied by the gates of Paradise.  If this was all that she had to look forward to for the rest of eternity, then perhaps she should have fought harder to stay alive.  Oh well, too late for regrets now.

Before long, Trixie was finally able to locate another source of life - or maybe “death” was the word that she should be using, since she wasn’t in the world of the living anymore.  Standing a few yards away was another pony but it had its back turned towards her.  Elated to see that she wasn’t alone anymore, Trixie ran forward as fast as she could with a smile.  “Hey!  You!  Over here!”  The pony didn’t turn around.  It must have heard her.  “Hey,” said Trixie while slowing down to a trot after getting close enough to the pony.  “Um … do you have any idea where we are, or if there’s a way out?  Not to sound cynical or anything, but living in the equivalent of a library during the world’s longest eclipse for the rest of eternity doesn’t sound very exciting.”

The pony before her still wouldn’t acknowledge Trixie’s presence, much to her great annoyance.  “What are you, deaf?  I know you can hear me.  I’m literally standing less than a hoof -” Trixie stopped herself mid-sentence as she stared at the pony for a few more seconds.  After Trixie realized who the pony standing before her was her muscles slowly began tense up.  Light purple coat … violet, purple, and pink mane … and a dark pink star surrounded by five white sparkles for a cutie-mark.

“… Twilight?” called Trixie with uncertainty.  This didn’t make sense.  What did this mean?  Twilight couldn’t be dead too.  It didn’t make any sense.  Trixie was now beginning to entertain the possibility that maybe this wasn’t the afterlife after all.

“Twilight?”  Trixie called again, this time with small drops of fear staining her words.  When Twilight still wouldn’t respond, Trixie hesitantly reached forward to tap Twilight on the back.

The instant her hoof made contact with Twilight’s body, Trixie’s vision was obscured by a sudden burst of light.  The flash was so intense that it forced Trixie to shield her eyes and turn away.  After a few seconds had gone by, Trixie finally opened her eyes.  The unicorn was met with a mixture of shock and confusion.  She was no longer in the darkness.  Instead, she found herself somewhere much worse.

’Ponyville?’  What was she doing here?  If her memory served correctly, she was standing in the town square.  She looked up into the sky and saw storm clouds.  The scenery matched so well that it made her shudder.  This was exactly how the town looked when she had her final showdown against Twilight.  Trixie broke into a cold sweat as she backed away slowly but stopped after she felt her flank bump into something.  She jumped in surprise immediately after turning around she jumped and it wasn’t just because of the flash of lightning that lit up the sky.  Standing mere inches away her were the ones that worked together as a team to bring her down:  Twilight and her friends, the Zebra with the weird accent, the stallion, the fillies, and the elderly mare.  The new setting felt all too familiar and Trixie began to wonder if she had somehow gone back in time.  Her thoughts took a drastic turn after she taking a second glance at her former adversaries.  It wasn’t the murderous stare they were all shooting Trixie that forced her to back away with caution.  Trixie backed away because they were all wielding knives.

“So, long time no see, huh?  You guys wouldn’t believe the day I’ve been having!”  Trixie stated in an attempt to playoff the fact that something seriously wasn’t right here.

Twilight and the others briefly stared at one another before facing Trixie again and walking forward.

“Listen everypony, if this has anything to do with what I did the last time that I was here then I just want you all to know that I’m sorry.  All I wanted was for my life to go back to the way it was before I met you all, and I was convinced that the amulet was the only way.  I was just so angry.  I couldn’t accept that my mouth had gotten me in trouble.  I wanted … no … I needed to blame something, anything, for what happened, so I picked you, Twilight.”  Trixie’s ears flattened against the sides of her head after recalling the night that she became aware of the Alicorn Amulet’s existence.  “But once I got the amulet, it turned me into something I wasn't.  Please, this was only supposed to be between me and Twilight!  I didn’t mean to drag the entire town into this!”  The intimidating ponies, and zebra, continued their slow, ominous, advance in perfect sync with one another.

Her apology fell on deaf ears as they continued their approach, sending Trixie into a full blown panic.  She turned around in an attempt to run away but was blocked by a large wall of ponies who seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere.  She recognized many of them as the Ponyville residents.

“What’s the rush?” questioned an earth-pony stallion with a sinister look in his eyes.

“Yeah, why don’t you stay for awhile?” asked a nearby pegasus mare.

More of the town’s folk swarmed the vicinity.  Some came from nearby houses, some flew in from the dark skies above, and others seemed to emerge from the shadows of nearby buildings.  Before long, Trixie found herself completely surrounded.  There were so many of them, and they had any possible exits that Trixie could have used to get away blocked off.  She was trapped, and her hopes of getting out of Ponyville unscathed were dropping fast.

Another flash of lightning cracked across the sky.

Trixie turned back around; Twilight and the others were still walking towards her with their weapons drawn.  Choosing fight over flight, Trixie took aim at her oncoming attackers and charged her horn with every last ounce of magic at her disposal.  Ah … magic.  She didn’t think that she’d ever find herself in a position where she willing used the stuff again, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  “Get back!  I’m warning you!  I’ll do it!”

“Do what?” asked Rainbowdash.  “Tickle us to death?”

Trixie had flashbacks about her previous visit in Ponyville.  After replacing the Alicorn Amulet with that cheap fake that was being used by Twilight, she fired her strongest attack spell at the rainbow-maned pegasus standing before her.  She could still remember the humiliation she felt when she saw how ineffective her magic truly was.  The memory only served to sink Trixie even further into the depths of despair. “No …” whimpered Trixie.  The dawning realization of just how powerless she truly was caused her concentration fizzle out, and with it, her fighting spirit was also extinguished.

Shortly after Trixie fell to her knees, a pony who she vaguely remembered as being the mayor of the town burst from the crowd and grabbed her.  Her grip was so powerful that it seemed unreal, even by earth pony standards.  The mayor, while still maintaining her vice-like hold on Trixie, turned the mare towards Twilight and the others.

The crowd erupted with insane cheers as Trixie screamed for help.  The unicorn that defeated Trixie, and all of her friends, were now standing only a few inches away.  Twilight raised her knife high into the air while shooting Trixie a sly grin.

“Help!  They’re gonna kill me!” screamed Trixie at the top of her lungs.

Twilight smiled and said, “What creature in their right mind would help somepony as worthless and self-absorbed as you?  You’re nothing, Trixie, so why don’t you just disappear?”

That was the final nail in the coffin for Trixie.  Everything Twilight said was true.

“Kill!  Kill!  Kill!  Kill!” chanted the on-looking crowd.

Lies, failure, and past regrets were the building blocks that defined Trixie.  Everywhere that she went trouble seemed to follow.  She was a plague in pony form who had befouled Equestria with the profanity of her own existence for far too long.  Maybe the world would have better off without her.  She slowly closed her eyes in resignation.  The moment Twilight plunged the knife as deep as she could into Trixie’s chest, precisely where her heart was, another flash of lightning raced across the sky.

***

“AHHHH!” screamed Trixie as her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.  She began to hyperventilate as she ripped away at the blankets that were wrapped around her torso and checked herself for any serious injuries.  There were no stab marks or any signs of blood. ‘Okay, dead or alive … which one am I?’

’Hold on a minute … I’m covered in blankets?  What the hay?!’  Further inspection revealed that she was resting on a dark red couch.  ’Am I in somepony’s house?’  Before Trixie could further inspect her surroundings, an unfamiliar voice broke Trixie’s train of thought.

“Alright!  You did it Summer!”  Trixie’s body jumped slightly as she turned towards the direction of the voice.

Standing a few hooves away from the couch were two unicorns, both mares.  One was covered in sweat and was panting heavily.  Several sparks danced around her needle sharp horn.  She had a light-orange coat and a short fiery red mane.  Part of her mane grew out in front of her face, concealing one of her dark purple eyes.  Below her eyes were heavy dark bags, signifying that she hadn’t slept in some time.  Her cutie-mark was a silhouette of a pony striking a punching-bag with enough force to cause a large rip, causing sand to fly everywhere.

The other unicorn was slightly shorter than the one that had sparks flowing from her horn.  She had a light pink coat and a curly soft green mane, which contained thin yellow streaks of hair.  Her cutie-mark displayed a picture of a large garden.  She had a smile on her face that filled Trixie with a sense of comfort, but Trixie still felt far from safe.  After all, she was in a house with a group of strangers.

“This is the first time, as well as the last time, that I’ll ever use ‘Thunder’ magic to jumpstart someponies heart instead of a defibrillator,” complained the larger mare while wiping away beads of sweat.  “All that shouting of yours almost messed me up.  Just the slightest bit more focus than what I put in and her heart would’ve popped like a balloon.”

“…Uh … who are -”  Trixie ceased her question as her body began to shiver violently.  Why did she feel so cold all of a sudden?

“Hey, stop moving!  You had a really bad case of hypothermia when she found you.  You’re body needs time to rest, and if you don’t stay warm you could still die.” The orange unicorn pressed a hoof against her nose and winced.  “But in your case, that might not be a bad idea miss funky.  You’re stinkin’ up the whole apartment, garbage eater.”

The memories of being out in the cold began to assault Trixie’s brain in rapid succession.  Based on what she was hearing, the shorter mare with the green and yellow mane must have seen her fall out and decided to come help.  “And you are?” asked Trixie while rewrapping herself and turning towards her rescuer.

“My name is Autumn Daisy,” the pink unicorn answered with a polite bow.  “And this is my older sister, Summer Daisy, but you can just call us by our first names.  Everyone else does.  I looked outside my window and saw you fall over.  At first I thought you just slipped on some ice, but then you stopped moving.”  Autumn was practically beaming, obviously feeling a big sense of accomplishment from her deeds.  “It looked like you were already gone by the time I finished carrying you up here.  After I set you down, I wrapped you up in as many blankets as I could find, and then I ran all the way to Summer’s house.  She’s a nurse, so I figured that she’d be able to help you more than I ever could.  Good thing I got her too, your heart stopped beating at least six different times and your temperature was running at 51 degrees.”

“I’m still pissed that you woke up me up like this.  You know I barely get any sleep as it is.”  Summer rolled her eyes and scoffed.  “Helping you take care of some smelly ol’ bum … this isn’t how I wanted to spend my Hearths Warming.  When this is all over, you’re going to pay me 100 bits for waking me up, another 10 for every day that I spend trying to heal her and an additional 50 if she has frostbite.  And don’t get me started about how much you’ll owe me if I have to cancel my reservation at Tall Tale for this ...”

Trixie turned towards a window and saw that it was dark outside.  The sun was still up when Trixie had fallen out so she must have been in Autumn and her sister’s care for awhile.

“So then, Trixie, would you mind telling us what you’re doing way out here in Manehattan?  Or better yet, what you were doing outside in this kind of whether without a jacket?”

Trixie’s eyes shot wide open.  What did she just call her?  She must have heard her wrong.  “… What did you just say?”

Autumn blinked a few times.  The way her guest asked that question made her feel uneasy.  It was as if she’d just said something offensive.  But how could that be?  All she did was ask an innocent question.  “I said, ‘what were you doing outside in the cold?’”

“No, before that.”

“I said … ‘So Trixie’?”

Trixie’s breathing became shallow at the realization that a random unicorn had just addressed her by her real name.

“Hey, you okay?” asked Summer.

‘Impossible!  How does she know who I am?!  The illusion spell should have -’   Suddenly Trixie shot back up on the couch.  She looked around frantically until she spotted a mirror resting on top of Autumn’s fireplace.  To her horror, she didn’t see the disguise that she had conjured back in Ponyville.  She saw her real self.  There were a few minor changes of course, such as her somewhat sickly appearance due to several weeks of being deprived of decent amounts of nutrition, there were cuts and bruises all across her face from several incidents while on the road, and her mane was stained a murky brown thanks to countless nights spent sleeping in unsanitary conditions, but the face that stared back from the mirror was without a doubt Trixie Lulamoon.

“No …” whispered Trixie.

“Is everything alright?  You look a little pale,” asked Autumn.

’No … no.  No …!  No!  NO!  Why?!  How?!  I put everything I had into that spell!  It should have been able to hold up for years before the effects wore off!’  That’s when Trixie remembered just how weak she had become.  Yesterday when she spaced out, she could hardly stand on her own four legs, so how was she supposed to have enough power to maintain something as advanced as an illusion spell?  She must have returned back to normal right before Autumn had arrived.

Wait a minute … Autumn and Summer knew who she was, but she knew almost nothing about them.  Why did they save her?  Did they think that it would be amusing to have a broken unicorn of her public status contained in an apartment like this?  Perhaps they wanted to make a quick bit by tipping off a couple dozen reporters about where she was staying.  She could only imagine what the headlines of the newspapers would say.

No, even worse than that.  The disastrous events that led to her decision to go into hiding.  She enslaved an entire town and assaulted all six of the kingdom’s greatest defenders, not to mention the part where she openly declared her new goal dethrone Celestia herself.  Equestria had banned the use of capital punishment several centuries ago, so she wouldn’t have to worry about the death penalty.  However, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t eligible to a life sentence in the dungeons.

The more Trixie thought on this, the more sense it seemed to make.  There was probably a pretty hefty reward for anypony who was able to turn her over to the guards.  They didn’t want to help her, they were only interested in lining their own pockets!

“Ok seriously, now you’re starting to make me a little nervous.  Are you alright, Trixie?”  Autumn asked once again.

The inner flames of Trixie’s anger were beginning to ignite.

In reality Autumn was frowning, but all Trixie saw was a mocking smile.  The imaginary smile then evolved into laughter, the kind of laughter that she often heard in her nightmares.

Autumn cautiously crept towards Trixie.  She was going to check and see if her hypothermia had perhaps turned into a high fever.  The sight of her approach alarmed Trixie.  “Stay back!  I know what you two are trying to do and it won’t work!”   Trixie kicked the covers off her body and rolled off the couch.  She screamed the instant that she landed on the white carpet below.  For some reason, every cell in her body had erupted in burning agony.

“Trixie, are you alright?!” shouted Autumn.  “Summer, what’s wrong with her?!”

The medic trotted forward and examined Trixie.  She was swelling up like a balloon.  “Autumn, you know how if you stay outside in the cold for too long your hooves go numb?”  Her younger sister nodded.  “And you know how it hurts like Tartarus when the feeling comes back?  Well, I’d say it’s the same situation with her only worse.  She was out there for Celestia knows how long, so she isn’t just feeling it in her hooves, she’s feeling it everywhere else too.”  Autumn’s eyes widened with terror and pity.  She couldn’t imagine how much pain her new guest was in.

“That’s one of the things about hypothermia; it’ll disappear once the body warms back up, but not before leaving a present for you to remember it by.”  Summer wrapped Trixie, and the covers on the ground, inside a yellow cocoon of telekinetic magic.  While Trixie was suspended in the air, Summer was able to catch a quick glance at the unicorn.  There was a strange red swelling around her two front legs where her coat ended and her hooves began.  ’Frostbite.  You already owe me an extra 50 bits Autumn.’   Next, she dropped Trixie, who was still screaming and flailing about in the air, back onto the couch.  Her horn radiated with power once again and fired an enchantment spell on the covers, making it so that they forcefully pinned Trixie down.  “There, now stay put.”

“No!  Let me go!”  Trixie tried to break free but to no avail.  The covers felt more like heavy weights now.  They had her held down tight.  If she were at full strength, she could have freed herself through a great deal of effort, but not the way that she was now.  Her body had warmed up a bit, but she hadn’t improved all that much physically.  It was only through her determination to escape that she had been able to find the strength to roll off the couch as quickly as she had done moments before.

Autumn sighed sadly as she looked to her big sister.  “Is that really necessary?”

“She shouldn’t be moving right now.  If we let her kick and turn then she’ll just send herself back into cardiac arrest.  If that happens then you may as well start planning a trip to the morgue.  Giving her heart more boosts won't work a second time, It's been too soon.”  Summer then fired a muting spell at Trixie.  Her furious shouts were suddenly silenced.  Trixie opened her mouth but there was no sound.

How dare they?  First they hold her captive and now they take away her right to speak?  Just wait until she got her strength back!  She’d fire up her strongest spells and – … no.  She wouldn’t do anything.  She couldn’t do anything.  If she’d learned anything from her recent string of nightmares, and her experiences in Ponyvile, it was that all of her spells were mediocre at best.  If these two mares decided that they wanted to hurt her, then there wasn’t much that she could do about it.

Deciding in the end that it was useless, Trixie turned her head towards the back rest of the couch in frustration.

“Take notes, Autumn.  That's how you get somepony to pipe-down,” Summer said flatly.  Without another word, she turned around and walked towards the stairway that lead to where Autumn’s bedrooms were.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“It’s six in the morning and, thanks to her, I haven’t gotten any sleep since 10 o'clock yesterday.  Where else would I be going?” asked Summer sarcastically.

“But what about Trixie?  What if she needs something?”

“Oh she’ll be fine.  Just look at her, she’s probably on her way to sleep right now, which is where I should have been ages ago.  Now, good morning, I’ll see you later.  Oh, and Happy Hearths Warming everypony...”

Autumn looked back to Trixie, she was still facing away from her.  The pink unicorn sighed sadly.  ’Well, at least I have a new guest for the holiday...’  A yawn escaped the mare’s mouth.  It would appear that her elder sister wasn’t the only one in need of sleep.  She took one final look at her house guest before walking upstairs.