Dark magic at my command
Silver Spoon was not having a good day. First, she had woken up with her hair a mess and she had forgotten where she had put her glasses last evening. Damn stupid hen parties and damn spiked punch. Add an headache and another morning of listening to Diamond Tiara’s complaints -not that she didn’t agree with her- and she really wasn’t having a good day.
“Intriguing.” Her friend now, for some reason, seemed captivated with the red eyed mare wearing the black cloak and a strange amulet, resembling an alicorn, of all things. “Silver Spoon, miss...?”
“I require most people to refer to me as the great and powerful, but, for a young mare of such class?” The light blue unicorn curtsied, much to Diamond Tiara’s delight. It had been months since anyone but her servants had given her that kind of respect. “You may refer to me as simply Trixie.”
“Of course. Silver Spoon, miss Trixie seems to be a very powerful magician.” The pink mare said, turning to her best friend of years. “She knew my name and of my... Plight without having ever met me. And she said she might have a solution!”
Silver Spoon groaned. Diamond Tiara had been trying to get out of the engagement since day one. It had led her to try and seek counsel from some untrustworthy ponies, and this mare? Wearing a dark cloak, appearing in front of them on the outskirts of town, drawing Diamond Tiara away to speak to her alone? She definitely counted as untrustworthy.
“Come on, Diamond. Your wedding has been the most publicized event of Ponyville for months, now, and you’re the daughter of Filthy Rich. Not exactly hard to get that kind of information. Also, not even Twilight Sparkle can read minds. How could some no-name unicorn do it?” Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, facing each other, missed the frown that planted itself on Trixie’s face for a moment. It disappeared as they turned to her again, and she chuckled with sophistication.
“My, my. You sure are skeptic, young one.”
“No. I just don’t like charlatans.” Again, Silver Spoon turned around. Again, she missed Trixie’s face turning into a frown, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “Come on, Tiara. Let’s just move on and-”
“DON’T YOU DISRESPECT ME, LITTLE MARE!” Silver Spoon squeaked, jumped in the air and hid behind Diamond Tiara as Trixie bellowed at her, eyes and horn shining with crimson light, her face a rictus of pure rage and her cloak flapping. It was a habit she still had to kick, hiding behind her friend. Fortunately for her health, the frown disappeared soon, leaving behind a self-satisfied smirk. “Don’t you derogate... Or deride.” She turned around, cloak flapping and horn shining as a stepladder extended from her wagon. “You’re in my world, now, not your world...” She then stood on her back hooves with a flourish, as the door opened with a creaking sound. Thing is, she wasn’t using magic to do so. Her horn was ‘clear’, so to speak. “And I got dark magic at my command.”
“SHE’S GOT DARK MAGIC AT HER COMMAND.”
“W-W-What was that?!” Silver Spoon squeaked out, freaked by the sudden chorus of ethereal voices... Without a source. Diamond Tiara ignored her in favor staring at the dark insides of the wagon, fascinated by the show.
“That was an echo, gentlemares.” Trixie slung a front hoof around Silver Spoon’s neck, pushing her up the stairs and inside the wagon, Diamond Tiara right behind them. “Just a little something I picked up in Foalsiana. A little parlor trick, don’t worry.” She suddenly let go of her, pushing her forward and twirling on herself. The door slam shut behind them, much to the white haired mare’s nervousness.
“Sit down at my table.” With a wave of Trixie’s hoof, light shone on a part of the wagon, revealing a table and three velvet cushions. “Put your mind at ease.” Diamond Tiara slowly conceded. Silver Spoon was rooted on the spot. Why was the wagon bigger than what it looked from the outside? “Ponies of such class shouldn’t fear...” She squeaked as she felt something pinch her flank, and ran forward to sit beside her friend. “And there’s no need.”
As she turned around, Trixie pivoted on her back hooves, her cloak obscuring her from sight. “I can read your future.” The unicorn disappeared in thin air as the cloak fluttered to a nearby coat-hanger. “Change it... If you so wish.” Again, Silver Spoon squeaked in fear as Trixie suddenly appeared on the table in front of them with a new cloak on. “I look deep into your heart and soul-You do have a soul, don’t you, Silver?”
She gulped at the mare’s inquiring gaze, while Diamond Tiara chuckled. Trixie flourished again on top of the table, ending in a kneeling position. “Make your wildest dreams come true.” She chuckled, her eyes tingling in the dim light of the wagon. She suddenly stood on her back hooves, her horn flashing. “From destruction to creation and divination! I got it all!” After a burst of flame that nearly charred her hair and an explosion of light, they found themselves staring at empty space. “And I got dark magic at my command.” Only to shot their heads upward. Trixie was descending gracefully to her cushion, again without signs of magic being used.
“SHE’S GOT DARK MAGIC AT HER COMMAND!”
The voices without source again. Why wasn’t Diamond Tiara freaking out?! It was way too weird! But no, she just kept on ogling the unicorn’s tricks. She guessed that the more skill she displayed, the better her chances were at helping the earth pony. She got that. But all this...
“The cards.” With a puff of purple smoke, a set of cards had appeared in front of Trixie. “The cards.” They started floating in a circle above them, but they still could only see their backs. “The cards will tell.” The circle suddenly sped up and broke formation, the cards floating around and speeding until they reformed in the shape of a hourglass on top of the table. “The past, the present and the future as well.” Then they turned on their sides and disappeared in thin air.
“The cards.” Trixie trust her hooves forward, cards appearing over them, spinning and dancing before jumping on the table. “The cards!” She raised her voice, and the cards dropped, forming a perfect rectangle with their backs. “Just pick three!” Diamond Tiara wasted no time in tapping her left hoof on three cards in rapid succession. She nudged Silver Spoon, who reluctantly did the same. “Take a little trip into your future with me!” Trixie waved her front hooves over the cards, which disappeared at her passing, gathering into a pile to her right. All but the ones chosen by the two mares, which she collected with her hooves, separating them.
“Now you, young mare, born in Ponyville...” With a tap, the first of Diamond’s cards flipped, revealing a stylized drawing of... Diamond Tiara. Standing on a hill, over-looking Ponyville, where an adoring crowd gazed up at her. “You’re the one everypony would want to be.” The unicorn then leaned forward, nudging the chuckling Tiara in the side. “I know a thing or two about that.”
“Do you, now.” The tiara-wearing mare said, an amused smile on her face. Silver Spoon, in the meanwhile, was getting more and more freaked out. There was Diamond Tiara. On a card. How! What kind of magic was that?! Trixie flipped the next card, showing Diamond Tiara prancing in her house’s main corridor, irradiated by the morning sun, followed by a group of her servants.
“You’re made to lead...” Then, with a spin, the picture changed to what she recognized as a pretty menacing Filthy Rich berating her best friend, who in turn could do nothing but look at the floor. The real one’s face transformed in a frown, her lips set in a thin horizontal line. “But you still got told.” Again, the card spun under Trixie’s hooves, transforming into a picture that made Diamond Tiara’s expression glacial. Her supposed wedding. She was dressed as a spouse and her fiancée wa standing by her side in a chapel full of people. “You’ve got to marry a little pinto ‘cause daddy said so.” Silver Spoon sighed. There was some kind of twisted humor in this. Filthy Rich had let Tiara do anything she wanted all her life only to take away maybe the most important choice ever, for a mare. Trixie chuckled. “A golden cage, but still a cage, huh, Tiara?”
“Sigh... Sad but true.” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and then pouted. She really didn’t want to get married to that stupid pinto with that stupid accent, but how was she going to sustain herself? She had never thought about investing in an activity or learning a trade. Her dad had never given her reason to. She got her good.
“And, if I may, I think your heart beats for another stallion.” Diamond Tiara blushed at that, avoiding Trixie’s gaze as the unicorn played with the deck of cards. Silver Spoon gaped. She knew about that as well?! “Someone a bit older, who doesn’t even know you exist... And yet, he has your heart hostage.” Diamond’s blush deepened while Trixie fanned out the deck in front of her. She chuckled, amused by the pink pony’s reaction. And then... “It’s big red! It’s big red! It’s big red you crave!” She flipped all the cards, revealing multiple representations of the object of Tiara’s affections, standing proudly under a tree, much to both the earth ponies’ surprise. Then, as she moved her hoof back in the opposite direction, they all disappeared. Trixie then raised her hoof and slammed it on the table, causing the last of Diamond Tiara’s cards, and that only, to flip. “And when I look into your future it’s big red that you’ll claim!”
The card revealed the same picture of the stallion standing near plant-life, only, in this version, he was nuzzling with another representation of Diamond Tiara, much to the earth pony’s delighted face. She cradled the card with both her hooves, a genuine smile on her face. Curiously, Silver Spoon noticed that her friend’s drawing wasn’t wearing her priced accessory in this one card.
“On you, little mare, I don’t want to waste much time.” Silver Spoon shot her head up. Trixie was talking to her, now... And her face expressed pity and... Disgust. “You’ve done nothing but hide.” She thought about a retort, but she came up empty. It was true. “You’ve got a friend, who is much stronger, and in her shadow you survived.” She looked sadly at the first card as Trixie flipped it and started rotating it on the table. The picture faded from her standing behind Diamond Tiara as fillies to the same scene as teens and then as adult mares. “But if she gets married... Who are you going to hide behind?”
Silver Spoon gasped as the second card revealed her, alone in the middle of Ponyville, head held down as dozens of ponies glared and laughed at her. Laughed at her hair, laughed at her glasses, at her cutie mark. She hadn’t taught about that. Diamond Tiara would move to Hoofington after the wedding! She bit on her lower lip and turned to her friend, who was regarding her with sadness. She felt panic settling in, a pit in her stomach.
“But in your future, now ain’t that fun!” So upset she was that she didn’t notice Trixie stand and approach her until she slung a leg over her shoulders again, moving her other hoof to flip the last card. Silver Spoon gasped softly. “There’s a young mare who basks in the sun.” She was still alone but keeping her head up proudly as she walked through a street of Canterlot. The sun shone stronger on her figure, her mane free and flowing beautifully in the wind. She grasped onto the card, bringing it closer. Could she really do that? Could this unicorn really make her... This pony?
“Shake my hoof.” Trixie held out her right front hoof, that same charming smile still in place. “All that you want and more... You just have to shake on it.” The two friends of a life-time stole a glance in each other’s direction. They nodded and together grabbed the unicorn’s extended hoof, shaking it for all it was worth. “Good girls...”
Silver Spoon’s ear suddenly perked up as the chorus was suddenly back, as ominous as before. Everything around them started to dissolve in a mix of rapidly changing lights. ‘W-W-What are those things?!’ Those shapes! They looked like twisted, fanged pony heads with reptilian eyes. “Are you ready?!” The unicorn bellowed as she stood on her back hooves, red lightning crackling from her horn, thunders booming.
“ARE YOU READY?!”
“Are you... Ready?!” With a flourish of her cloak, Trixie disappeared and reappeared a few meters away, near one of the shapes. Its muzzle opened. A forked out tongue extended and handed her what looked like a perfect copy of her own amulet as shining, strange symbols started floating around the trio.
“Wah!” She whipped her head around and gasped. She cried out Diamond Tiara’s name as she saw her best friend being restrained, constricted by long, serpentine creatures.
“Transformation central!” The unicorn blasted the amulet with a red bolt, causing it to start glowing and crackling with the same energy.
“TRANSFORMATION CENTRAL!”
“Reformation central!” Trixie spun her head in a circle, her mane passing over her face, and revealing eyes filled with crimson light and teeth with the same pointed qualities as her... Friends? What were those things?! And why couldn’t she move?! She wasn’t restrained!
“REFORMATION CENTRAL!”
“Transmogrification... Central!” In a burst of red smoke, she was in front of them again, the floating amulet’s horn going to stab her best friend’s right front hoof, making her yelp out in pain as it drew blood. Again, Silver Spoon remained rooted on the spot, too terrified to do anything but. “Can you feel it?!”
“Aaah... Aaah...” Both earth ponies stared in abject horror as the amulet started shaking and crackling with lightning, and the shadowy serpents extended and distorted into a goo-like substance, completely enveloping the pink mare, from head to tail. Her scream of horror was subsequently muffled. Silver Spoon’s own one wasn’t.
“You’re changing, you’re changing, you’re changing alright!” As Diamond Tiara’s prison started exhibiting cracks, shining with crimson, Silver Spoon’s scream got higher in pitch. “I hope you’re satisfied...” The material exploded, leaving the grey pony to stare in abject terror at her only friend’s transforming body. “If you ain’t... Well, tough luck!” Her ears couldn’t tune out Trixie’s taunting voice, though. “After all, I got dark magic... At my! Co-mmand!”
Nor her boisterous, cruel laughter as the shadows hovered closer and closer to them.
“YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED!”
And then, just as she thought she couldn’t scream any more...
“BUT YOU LOST WHAT YOU HAD!”
“Hush...” She only knew darkness, and silence.
A tiara cluttered to the ground.
Author's Note
Even as I wrote the first chapter about Zecora and Scootaloo, I couldn't stop thinking about making this second one. Doctor Facilier is probably one of my favourite villains ever, and his song kicks some serious ass. So, who could compare to him? I needed a pony who got some kind of cursed power from an external source. And if she carried around some kind of amulet or necklace, even better. I put two and two together faster that you can say 'Great and Powerful'.
The big question, now, was who would she bamboozle. There are no ponies in the main cast other than Scootaloo who I see accepting that kind of faustian deal... That is, in Canon. So, I made the story take place in the future, and created a motivation with a backstory for the only two ponies who shared some similarities with the two guys from Princess and the Frog. And I must say, I rather like what I came up with, especially regarding the new lyrics.
Did you like it?
Poor, Unfortunate Foals
Scootaloo was in a pickle. She was thinking hard about something. She didn’t like thinking, she was a filly of action! But she had to think. Because, she had to understand if she really wanted to do what she wanted to do and she didn’t know.
Another day of not flying and no cutie mark? She had gone through enough for them to not have any effect on her anymore. But this was the first day they called her a name because of that. They had called her an ‘useless chicken’. It had hurt. Mostly because it was true.
She couldn’t fly, and without a cutie mark she didn’t have a special talent yet. The only thing she was good at was riding her scooter, but it’s not like that could be her special talent. Lots of ponies were athletic. She was nothing special on that.
She had ran from school, in tears, and had ended up in the Everfree Forest, of all places. Fortunately, she had been found by Zecora and brought to her hut, where she was working on some kind of magic dooda-stew, for some reason in complete darkness, the azure brew filling the house with light. She told the zebra about her plight, and after a while, Zecora said...
“My little Scootaloo, a solution to your problem I might have. If being young and blank is what you dread, I can turn you in a grown mare.” Scotaloo gasped, eyes wide while the zebra grabbed a large spoon and stirred the stew.
“Can you do that?!” Zecora chuckled at that, leaving the spoon in the brew and walking by her, laying a hoof on her right shoulder, the filly following her with her gaze.
“My dear, sweet filly. That's what I do. It’s in my blood. And I use it to help ponies like you. Poor foals, with no one else to turn to...” Zecora ignored her ‘Hey’ of outrage. She wasn’t a foal! The zebra just kept walking, resting her eyes on a couple masks resting on the walls. Two of the scariest, angry ones. “If you only knew my past, I've been a nasty... They weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch.”
“R-Really?” That surprised her. Zecora had always been nothing but amiable, she thought as the Zebra turned to her again, smiling warmly.
“But you'll find that nowadays, I've mended all my ways. Repented, seen the light, and made a switch...” With her striped plot to her, Scootaloo didn’t nothing the frown that marred the Zebra’s face for an instant as she moved her arm to point at her hut. “To this.” When she turned around, she was smiling again. “And I fortunately know a little magic. It's a talent that I always have possessed...” She started to walk in her direction again. “And dear filly, please don't laugh, I use it on behalf of the miserable, the lonely, and depressed...” She passed her, and in doing so she missed her added, whispered... “Pathetic.”
“Huh?” Scootaloo whipped her head around, only to find nothing.
“Poor unfortunate foals.” She jumped in her seat as Zecora’s voice was now coming from the other side of the hut. “In pain, in need. This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the filly...” She continued, pointing at two masks, these ones deformed in desperate rictus of fear. “And do I help them?” The zebra returned her gaze to her, making her flinch with its intensity. “Yes, indeed.” She chuckled, as the strange stew started bubbling. “Those poor unfortunate foals. So sad, so true.” Zecora hoisted herself up, front hooves on the cauldron, the mists of the mixture covering her in light blue. “They come flocking to my cauldron crying "Spells, Zecora, please!" And I help them!” She finished, her voice raising in a final crescendo. “Yes, I do.”
“T-That’s really nice, Zecora...” Scotaloo continued, a bit nervous nonetheless. She would never admit it to anyone, but scary things, well... Scared her. And her hut, bathed in the light of the brewing potion, counted as scary.
“Now it's happened a couple times, someone forgot about my thanks, so focused they were on their goals.” Zecora continued, a hurt look on her face as her gaze fell on a collection of fetishes that lined one side of her home, before letting it go with a deep sigh. “Yes, I lose sometimes my temper, but I’ve been the best friend ever to those poor, unfortunate, foals.” She concluded, walking back to the young pegasus, chuckling. “So, my young Scotaloo, does a little deal interest you?”
And that’s where she found herself at an impasse. She really, really liked the thought of that. Being grown up, having her special talent, being able to fly-Flying! She would finally be able to fly with Rainbow Dash! Really be her student! But, there was something holding her back from saying yes. “I-If I become a grown up...” A big red bow, and a squeaky voice prone to crying a river. “I won’t be a Cutie Mark Crusader any more.”
“No more crusading for you, my little filly.” Zecora chuckled at the small pegasus’ plight. “Looking for something you have... Now, that’d be silly.” She laughed and then suddenly raised one hoof. “Oh, and there’s one thing we haven’t discussed.” It broke Scootaloo out of her reverie. “The matter of payment still has to be touched.”
“P-Payment?” Scootaloo’s eyes went wide, suddenly fearful. “But I don't have-”
“It’s not riches or money. A mere trifle I desire.” The zebra cut her off, smiling amiably, her eyes little more than slits at this point. “In exchange for my magic, it’s your voice which I require.”
“M-My voice?!” Scootaloo squeaked out, her hooves instinctively going to her throat. “But without my voice-”
“You'll have your mark. And big strong wings.” Zecora, again, cut her off. “That’s enough to live a blast. Just think of Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow Dash? “Have you ever seen someone talk about her voice?!” No, she hadn’t. “The only thing that matters is her flying.”
“T-That’s not...” Her rebuttal died on her lips.
“If she had been given your same choice, she would already be accepting! And after all, dear, what is idle babble for?” Nothing. Talking hadn’t brought her her Cutie Mark, not learning to fly faster. “Come on, dear! Ponies are not impressed with conversation, just look at that silly Twilight Sparkle!” Zecora continued, the stew behind her increasing its bubbling to the point that it was becoming noisy, the zebra raising her voice accordingly. “She fusses, talks and babble, and she only gets in trouble!” She walked closer and closer, her wide eyes in the young filly’s face, before turning around and bucking the wall behind the both of them. “And you are a pony of action!”
A bunch of pots fell into the cauldron, causing an explosion of red smoke, which filled the hut along with intense crimson light, the mixture bubbling like magma. “Come on, you poor unfortunate foal...” Again, Zecora disappeared inside the smoke. “Go ahead!” And again Scootaloo jumped as she reappeared behind her, making her squeak in fear. “Make your choice!”
“I'm a very busy zebra and I haven't got all day.” The smoke condensed in front of Scootaloo, forming a shape at the same time familiar and alien. A strong, tall, beautiful orange pegasus with a purple mane, her strong wings flapping on her sides. “It won't cost much...” She stretched her hooves forward. She could almost touch her, feel her strength and confidence. “Just your voice!” Only for the smoke to disappear, the image falling to shambles right under her gaze.
“You poor unfortunate foal!” Twirling around, the zebra grabbed onto a bunch of herbs, throwing them into the cauldron. Another explosion of smoke and light, this one green. The zebra raised herself on her back hooves, grabbing the smoke with her front ones. “It's sad... But true.” Zecora’s voice was mournful for but a second as the smoke in her hands condensed into two floating objects. A written scroll and a bowl filled with a black substance.
“If you want to cross the bridge, my sweet, you've got the pay the toll.” The scroll floated in front of her, and Scootaloo gulped as Zecora leaned a hand on her right shoulder. Could she do it? Give up her voice? Being a Cutie Mark Crusader? “Take a gulp and take a breath and go ahead and sign the scroll!” The bowl floated to her hoof, covering it in the black, gooey stuff. She wouldn’t be able to talk...
But she would be able to fly. To be the best. Like Rainbow Dash! She raised her inked hoof. “Wings and talent await you, my dear, they’re waiting for the fall...!” She scrunched her face, determined. She took her decision. She trust her hoof forward, leaving a hoof-print which burst to flame as soon as she raised her hoof back. “Of this poor! Un-fortunate! Foal!”
The whole scroll burst into flames, the ashes from it hovering to and inside one of the masks in the hut, lighting its mouth and eyes with orange light. Zecora chuckled as she turned to the cauldron, the light back to blue as she waved her front hoof. “Equinus, caballus, come winds of the Equestrian Sea!” Scootaloo found herself floating upward as the hut started shaking, winds blowing and distorting everything around her until she could see nothing else but herself. “Larengix glaucitis, et max laryngitis, la voce to me!” And she could hear nothing but the rush of air, and Zecora’s echoing voice. “Now, sing!”
Scootaloo opened her mouth, summoning all the power in her vocal chords, remembering the talent pageant. All the work she had done with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, the fun they had had in preparing their performance...
“Keep singing!” Zecora bellowed, and she obeyed, even as a claw made of pale green smoke approached her, and then trust herself down her throat. She kept on singing all the while, but after the smoke pulled back, her voice wasn’t coming out of her mouth anymore.
It came from the small, shiny globe held by the sharp claw, which closed itself around it with crushing strength.
A bolt of white light hit her, and she spasmed in a pain which she couldn’t vocalize any more, her body stretching and mutating. The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was Zecora’s crazed laughter.
Author's Note
The idea started with me listening to this song. I didn't see the theatrical release of The Little Mermaid (or maybe I did but don't remember. I was one, at the time) but I loved the animated series and when I got around to watch the movie, I loved Ursula. How she starts actually appearing pleasant enough, luring in Ariel with a promise of help, and even as she reveals more and more of her colours in the song, the red-haired princess still can't understand where the fraud is. Even as Ursula goes from amiable and persuasive to plain crazy, the offer still sounds good to her. The ultimate bullshitter.
I found myself thinking of a pony version of the song. Who could be singing it, and why? The real villains of the show didn't exactly fit with her personality... Then, I re-read the word cauldron. Cauldron made me immediately think of Zecora. Now, for the why. Who would be interested in making such a deal, and why would Zecora offer one?
In the beginning I thought about Pinkie, for some reason, and that Zecora was doing it to teach her yet another lesson on friendship... But that wouldn't do. This was Ursula's song. I couldn't disrespect her. She needed an evil counterpart.
So, I decided to make Zecora straight out evil, and changed from Pinkie to the one pony in the whole show who looks like would agree to such a deal the most: Scoots.
