Chapter Seven—Twilight's challenge

Not too long after that month, though, I was called on by Twilight for a favor.

I was feeling, put simply, amazing. A forced vegetarian diet for several months, along with more walks than I ever got back home and finally a sleep schedule worth praising, did wonders for my health. At nineteen, I was finally feeling truly at the peak of my life.

But as I said, Twilight asked me for a favor: "I have been… called out," she said distastefully. "Some upstart unicorn that came into town a few months before you arrived got a poor showing here, and I showed her up rather badly on accident. She fled, and has apparently spent the last several months learning new spells in order to take me on in a magical contest."

"So, you want me to take this bitch out?" I asked, patting my pocket with the knife.

"No, no. I just want you to help me trounce her worse than she ever has been, hard enough to make sure she never tries anything like this again."

"Psh. Boring. But whatever. I don't know why you need me, though."

"The rules of her little contest specify that we can only use things that we have magicked or enchanted. I can see an easy loophole in there that means I can use you, since I summoned you here."

"And you really think she doesn't know I'm here, or that you'll try to use me? Seems to me that if I was going to challenge someone that beat me before, I'd make sure to know all their tricks."

"She might, but what can she really do to counter you? Also included in her contest rules is that no pony is to be hurt."

"Yeah, there's your problem right there. No pony is to be hurt."

"I'm sure even Trixie isn't evil enough to hurt another sentient being on purpose."

"I hope you're right, lass. It's my life on the line here." And yours, if Luna finds out I got killed because of this.

"Of course, I won't let you go into it without every protection I can give you. I also won't let you go into it looking like… that. It was okay for the rodeo, but this is MY reputation."

"What's wrong with the way I look?" I asked. My beard, that I mentioned at the beginning, was ragged as fuck, and my hair was really starting to become a bit like a jewfro. My hair, you see, is really, really curly, and when it grows long it grows out, not down. I'm not much a fan of it, personally, but I don't see why it mattered for Twilight. And my shoes were definitely starting to get worn.

She pointed to a body length mirror and said, "Look there and you'll see the problem." Ouch.

"And I simply can't let you go wearing that. Do you still have that costume Rarity made you for the competition?"

"I'm never wearing that again. I don't care if it's half made of diamonds and probably the best armor in the world. I am not putting that on."

"Would it help if I said please?"

"I'm telling you, I'm not putting that on."

"Pleeeeeease?" She even tried batting her eyelashes.

Long story short, I didn't wear the outfit. I said I wouldn't, and I meant it.

With that out of the way, "So what do you propose to do about the rest of my… problematic appearance?" I asked.

"We do have a barber here, and I suppose he can figure out how to cut that ragged thing on your face off. Your mane, I'll leave up to you: You can either straighten it or shorten it." Not even married yet and I'm already being told how to dress.

"Mane? That's called hair. But whatever. I'll probably just have it straightened. The beard… Well, it does get hot. Since you asked so kindly, I'll do as you ask." I didn't tell her I would put my hair in the style called a pony tail, because she probably give me one of those looks and tell me to stop being stupid.

So she took me to the barber. I shit you not, the entire shop was set up like you'd expect in a show coming out of the 1950's. Even the barber looked like he belonged in one of those shows, being black and white himself. It was… disconcerting.

"Oh, hello Ms. Twilight. How can I help you today?" he asked.

"Hello, Mr. Thompson. Navarone here needs a shave. And if you can, he also needs his… hair… straightened."

"I don't know about dealing with hair, but if you mean that mop on the top of his head, I can straighten it out right quick. Getting rid of that stuff on his face might take a bit longer."

"Like I have a bloody choice in the matter. Whatever, Mr. Barber-man. Tell me where to sit so we can begin this farce."

When he pulled out the sheep shears I almost said fuck it. With a pitying look at me, though, he replaced them with a razor. How he was able to hold it with his hooves, though, I don't know, and I saw him do it. This world, man, it doesn't make sense sometimes. Anyway, he removed the scraggle from my face, and it instantly felt twenty degrees cooler in the room.

His method for straightening my hair definitely made sure I was awake and it made Twilight giggle: He dunked my head into a sink full of really, really cold water, and then pulled it all back and put it into what I call a pony tail and what they apparently call normal.

It was not amusing.

"Well, that was amusing," Twilight said as we were leaving. The barber was smiling at our backs as we walked away, my hair still dripping.

"If I had known you found getting dunked in cold water amusing, I would have found better ways to wake you up in the past."

"I don't think it would be too amusing if it happened to me, I mean. But it's funny when it happens to you."

"Of course."

Pinkie Pie just happened to be waltzing by at that moment. And I do mean waltzing: It looked like she was bloody dancing past. Knowing her, I wouldn't be too surprised if she was. When she saw me she stopped, and exclaimed, "Navarone! What happened to your head? It… shrank!" Several nearby ponies turned at her outburst, but seeing it was just Pinkie Pie, they shook their heads and went on.

"Twilight here seems to think we're married, and can dictate how I dress and style myself. I gave her the pleasure of saying yes once, and now she's making me fight to earn her favor."

"Yeah, that does sound about right for Twilight…" Pinkie Pie said."Give her an inch, and suddenly she demands you dispose of everypony in the room and hide their bodies in the pitch black night…" Sometimes I really, really wonder about Pinkie Pie.

"I'm standing right here, you know!" Twilight said.

"Yeah, I know. We were just in the barber shop together, remember?" I said.

"Yeah, Twilight, we're not blind," Pinkie Pie said.

Faced by a dual front of immaturity, Twilight just gave up.

Seeing an opportunity to perhaps cause Twilight more embarrassment, I asked, "So, Pinkie, do you waltz? I saw you dancing by, and that's what it looked like to me."

"YOU KNOW ABOUT WALTZING!" she yelled while grabbing me hurriedly and shaking me for emphasis. "None of the ponies here had ever heard about it before! I can't believe it took a human to finally find me a partner! Why didn't you ever mention it before?" Her tirade complete, she just looked at me with her large blue eyes, practically daring me to say something contrary.

"Well…" I started. Her eyes suddenly got more intensive and her grip got considerably tighter. "I was never very good at it, and it has been years since I actually did it last." Her grip was actually starting to hurt now, and I was wondering how the hell she was doing that with no fingers. "Uh, Pinkie Pie?"

Just as suddenly, she released me, smiled, stepped back, and said "I'll reteach you soon!" With that, she bounced off. I found myself fearing for my life again, and looked at Twilight imploringly.

"Don't look at me; you did this one to yourself." Damn her for being right.

"So when is this little show down of yours set to happen? And… where, I guess?"

"The when is three days. We leave tomorrow. The where… well, let's just say there's more than one reason I'm bringing you along. It's to be in an abandoned castle a day's walk away. She told me to come alone, but I don't guess you count, since you're one of the things I magicked. I would bring Spike, since I technically magicked him to life as well, but I don't think he'd be very useful in something like this."

My mind picked the words 'abandoned castle' out instantly. "You realize, of course, that this is a trap."

"Yes, I do. But I let all my friends know I'm going and when to expect me back. And, as I said, I'm bringing you with me. And don't think we're not going to be more prepared than you know. I remember you mentioning and describing to me how a weapon in your world worked, something called a crossbow. I had one made, as well as fifty bolts. It's a small thing, but it should be enough of a surprise against her if she tries to pull anything. I, of course, can't use it, but you can."

"Oh, hell yes. I've wanted to get my hands on one of those for years! How did you know how to make it, though? And… when did you make it? Didn't you only hear about this, like, yesterday?"

"I had it made a month ago, as soon as I realized you really were trustworthy and weren't about to kill us all as soon as you had the chance. I was just saving it for an emergency. And it wasn't really that difficult to make, but I think you'll find it's probably primitive compared to anything like it in your world. We are not so practiced at making weapons…"

"If it shoots straight and doesn't kick like a bull, I don't care. And I'm really glad to see you finally trust me. I'll be sure not to use it on someone unless they really deserve it."

"To you, deserving it might mean them looking at you funny."

"That's deserving it, not really deserving it. Big difference."

"Oh, and it's not to be used against Trixie unless she actually starts becoming dangerous."

"Just take all the fun out of it… Fine."

When she did show it to me, I found myself somewhat disappointed. It was a pain to crank back and the aim was a bit off. If she had showed it to me a week before I could have learned how to shoot it, but as it was I would be able to use it to ward off any far away threats and hope they were dead before they got within knife range, and then actually knife them if they weren't.

She also pulled out two brown cloaks, one for her and one for me. I started to feel a bit like Van Hellsing. I'm honestly not sure why she wanted us to go cloaked, but this was her show and I was just following the lead.

Rarity couldn't make me shoes before we left, but promised a pair to be done by the time we got back. So I just went with what I had and hoped they wouldn't fall apart across the terrain we had to cover. If I learned anything from my time here, it's that we make some really shoddy shoes back on Earth.

Anyway, the night passed and we left early in the morning. Applebloom saw us walking through the fields and asked if she could get the gang together to see if they could earn their spectator cutie marks, but we gently rebuked her and continued on our way.

I did make a request to stop off at Applejack's barn to pick something up, just in case. Twilight was curious, but I didn't offer any information so she dropped it.

"So," I asked a few hours later, "what does a magic competition usually involve?"

"Normally, they don't happen. And normally I wouldn't agree to participate in one. But… well, let's just say that she put forward a good argument as to why I should. But to actually answer your question, on the rare occasions they do happen, a certain number of bouts are staged, and whoever wins most of them wins. Basic rules are that anything goes, but she knew I wouldn't accept that so she added that nothing can be done to harm the other contestant. And since I'm pretty sure it's a trap and she won't hold by that, we're going in there protected by as many charms as I can cast."

"That's comforting, I suppose. What if it's not actually a trap, and you tire yourself out casting protection spells?"

"You haven't met Trixie. This is a trap."

"Your conviction inspires confidence. So you know it's a trap. What's the plan?"

"You're my trump card. She probably won't know what to make of you, and that'll put her off guard. If you can get close enough to her and get on her back, we pretty much have her beaten."

"So my job in this is to get in another rodeo match. As if the last one didn't go bad enough…"

"Think about it this way: If she really pisses you off, you have a knife, you're on her back, and we'd be in the middle of nowhere. If I think it's justified, I won't say a word."

"I refuse to believe you're condoning murder."

"Not murder, but self defense. I'm sure it won't come to that, though. We're both pretty good at thinking on our feet."

Says the girl that once ordered an exact replica of Ponyville built in less than five minutes… "I'm sure."

Let me tell you, that was a cold, cold night, sleeping on the ground, outside, without a beard. I was tempted to bury my face in Twilight's mane and dare her to say anything, but I didn't figure she would much like that.

The next morning, we continued on our way, and finally saw the castle looming on the horizon. We ducked behind a little hill to plan our next move.

"You're sure this is a trap?" I asked.

"Absolutely."

"Alright, my money is on two portcullises dropping as soon as we get inside the gate, trapping us between them. Can you cast an illusion of us and make us invisible? We can go before the illusion and have them follow us in, so that she thinks she has us trapped when in actuality we're inside the castle."

"Why don't we just cast the illusion, see if what you say is true, and then leave if it is?"

"Didn't you say she had a good reason to get you out here? I figure, we walked this far, we might as well see this through."

She blushed slightly at the mention of her reason, and that really got me wondering, but I didn't say anything. She agreed to the plan, and we proceeded on our way to the meeting invisible, followed by two doppelgangers.

To no one's surprise, the gates did crash down with our fakes caught between them. We heard laughter from one of the halls, and decided to watch and see rather than investigate. After all, maybe she was just pulling a prank?

Yeah, she totally wasn't. Who knew? Anyway, she came out, dressed in a ridiculous starred pointy hat and a purple cape, and started on a long and dreadfully boring monologue about how Twilight Sparkle had ruined this and that. She didn't look too surprised to see my illusion. It finally did get interesting, though, when she said this:

"I even almost managed to kill your stupid pet back at some competition a month ago! It took me the entire competition to build up the strength to cast that spell, and even then he still managed to escape! Well, neither of you will escape this time!"

"Yeah, this has gone on long enough," I said aloud, causing a very startled Trixie to turn around in shock.

She quickly recovered, though, and before I could vault at her, she disappeared. I snapped my fingers rather viciously.

"Well, I missed my chance. I suppose we should now begin this bloody dance." Twilight just shook her head and opened her mouth to say something.

She was interrupted by a disembodied voice: "You thought to trick the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie, did you? You'll not beat me so easily!"

"Wait, why didn't we just teleport here? Surely you know how to do that!" I said.

"First, we can't teleport long distances, or somewhere we've never been before. Second, now's not a good time."

Indeed, it wasn't. Ropes were starting to come at us in many directions, and I was suddenly very glad I wasn't a Japanese schoolgirl.

I took a bottle out of my cloak that I was suddenly very glad I had liberated from Applejack and took a swig, then pulled out my lighter and hoped to God that I knew what I was doing.

I took a long swig of the booze, almost gagging at the terrible taste, and flicked my lighter. I spit fire at the ropes.

Ropes don't burn very well, as I soon found out. Oh, you can light them on fire, but they don't burn that quickly, at least not with that little amount of fire.

So instead of being attacked my regular magic rope, I was being attacked by burning magic rope. I heard laughter in the air around me.

Twilight saw my plight and just swatted the ropes out of their air before they did much to me, other than smack me around a small bit.

To put it bluntly, though, the entire process hurt like a bitch, and if I still had my beard I would have lost most of it. The good news is that, despite my first degree facial burns, most of the ropes had been destroyed by either the small amount of fire made or by Twilight knocking them away. Twilight killed the rest of them while I did everything I could to ease the burning.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"I twied someting I only ewa saw on TV, using someting I bowowed fwom Applejack." I had honestly expected to use it in a more medicinal sense, in the off chance that I got cut and Twilight was too busy. I put it to a better 'medicinal use' by drinking some of it. "Remind me to never do that again," I said, feeling a bit better.

Clouds were suddenly gathering over the castle, and Twilight motioned us to go inside. I thought the rain might feel good against my burnt lips, but I knew better than to argue. We had just gotten the doors shut behind us when a huge bolt of lightning shot down and exploded against the ground we had just vacated. "Holy shit, this bitch is playing for keeps!" I shouted over the ringing in my ears. Twilight didn't answer, and was instead looking at the room we had entered.

See, this is another case when I would love to be a smoker. I honestly did not know what to make of this room. It was… indescribable, in a bad way.

"Well," I said, thinking back to Celestia's words about sacrifices and power, "we know how Trixie got more powerful. And we know that she is not to escape." Yeah, I'm not going to write what we saw in there. I will say that we later torched the building, and that Twilight still occasionally wakes up in cold sweat about seeing it.

Twilight got very scary after seeing that room. Her eyes started glowing very, very brightly and the storm completely disappeared. Yeah, I could tell then that it was on.

And God, was it. We stuck together, with her dealing with the magic threats and most of the mundane ones before I could even react. It was not a pretty sight we left behind us, and the castle—well on its way to being decrepit anyway—was completely unlivable after we passed through its corridors.

We had to go through all manner of creatures wandering the halls. Snakes were the most common, though we ran into rabid rats and even a raccoon once, though I'm not certain it was actually our enemy; at that point we were just killing anything that moved and wasn't one of us. I dealt with a few of the snakes by taunting them with the cloak and getting them to attack it, then cutting off their heads with my knife. I stepped on the rats. I got lucky and shot the raccoon with the crossbow, but I had to finish it off by breaking its neck.

The magical dangers were worse, but most of them didn't even fully manifest before a very, very angry Twilight dissipated them. One of the rooms we went to was somehow full of water, and I was knocked on my ass as it rushed out. For some reason, there were piranhas in the water, as though Trixie didn't know that piranhas almost never actually attacked people, especially not when they're rushing past you faster than you could even register them in a flood of water.

When we finally got to the throne room of the castle, we discovered Trixie yet again. She wasn't laughing anymore, and seemed to be doing her best to just stay alive against Twilight's onslaught. I had reloaded the crossbow and readied my aim, when a lot of things happened all at once.

First, I shot. Trixie was in the middle of casting a spell when my bolt hit her right on the horn, shattering both the bolt and the horn. Second, right after I shot and destroyed Trixie's horn, the spell she was casting just exploded everywhere, and tendrils of magic shot out of the horn, encompassing the room in a brilliant glow of constantly shifting colors. Third, most of the castle roof collapsed under the strain of centuries of rot and the insane magical duels that had been going on and landed on us all, knocking at least me the hell out. Unmanaged magic from Twilight's horn shot everywhere before the flow completely cut off. Fourth, and finally, there was stillness. We had all been knocked completely unconscious from the outburst of magic from Twilight losing concentration and Trixie losing her horn. And, for the record, I was aiming for Trixie's heart, not that I really expected her to have one anymore.

A note from your friend Discord

I figure I should probably put what really happened with Trixie in here.

As soon as I was 'accepted' by enough of the ponies in Ponyville to be allowed to go outside often in my human form, I began taking walks. Sometimes I was gone for hours. Some of these were legitimate walks, just me thinking over the millennia in peace.

Sometimes, I ghosted around this world, looking through minds. I was doing this one day when I found poor, sweet Trixie lost in her mind, tortured by her actions and betrayed by her peers. Or so it looked to her mind, at least. The truth of that matter is a little bit different: She was a braggart with nowhere near the power she pretended to have. She finally got upstaged by Twilight, and her performances were all downhill from there. She tried to learn proper unicorn magic, only to have most of her efforts fail due to lack of patience. She wanted power and fame, not magic.

As soon as I realized this, I sought her out.

I found her first when she was alone, on the side of the road. It was raining heavily, and she had nothing—no shelter, no money, no friends… The poor mare was soaked, freezing. I gently picked her up and brought her through the shadows to a bolt hole I prepared long, long ago.

As soon as we got inside, I set her on a bed that had not been there before and snapped my fingers. Immediately she awoke, fully alert and completely dry. When she opened her eyes I disappeared, and the entire safe haven transformed around her.

"Where… where am I?" she whispered. To her eyes she was in a well-lit one-room home, modestly furnished and rather homey. Her bed was warm and comfortable, well-used. An unlit fireplace stood against the wall, with a cooking spit over where the flames would stand. The window showed sunlight peaking through, with trees right outside. A letter was on the foot of her bed.

Hesitantly, she picked it up. The letter was my test, to see if she could truly be made mine. "Had to step out. Be back in a few hours. If you wake up, the door is unlocked if you choose to leave. There is a town a few miles down the road. – Your friend."

If she chose to leave, I would let her go back to her life of misery and loneliness. If she chose to leave, I would find someone different.

I gave her half an hour. She got up and put a hoof on the door twice. Both times she stopped herself. She was looking out the back window—seeing rolling plains ending in a forest—when I knocked on the door.

She hesitated, looking back and forth between the door and the window. I gently pushed the door open with my new hoof. For this little ploy, I had turned myself into a white pegasus stallion. A very, very handsome white pegasus stallion.

She saw me and froze. "Oh, you're awake!" I said, entering and closing the door behind me. "I was starting to think you would never get up." She was still silent. I furrowed my eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

She suddenly blinked, and nodded. "Yes, I am. Much better now, thank you." She's mine. Her normal personality is boisterous and crude to others she considers beneath her. She speaks in third person and whatnot. "What happened? I don't remember…"

"There was a terrible storm a few days ago. We get some unexpected storms out here coming out of the Everfree forest. I was one of the pegasi on duty that day fighting it when I saw you down below. You were barely breathing, and we were so far from town… I brought you here. It isn't much, but I've had a few friends that know a bit about healing come by to make sure you were healthy enough."

As soon as I mentioned it, I saw her mouth 'Everfree forest?' "Where exactly am I? I don't remember being so far west!"

"We're a few miles outside of Hoofington," I said, walking up to the fireplace. "Bah! Forgot the bloody flint again…" I looked over to her, and then up to her horn. "I don't suppose you could…"

She blushed slightly and summoned a small cloud of lightning over the logs. With a flash that left me blinking, the fire was lit.

I shook my head to clear it. "Thanks, but you don't have to show off for me."

She blushed deeper. "Sorry. I'm a magician, you see… Showing off is my job!" I could see it in her mind. She isn't usually this humble. Nor does she usually talk like this. That storm absolutely terrified her. If she wasn't so certain that I had saved her life, she would have left as soon as she woke up. And if I wasn't so handsome, she would have greeted me by demanding I be humbled to be in the 'presence of the great and powerful Trixie.'

I smiled at her, "I knew it had to be something to do with magic." Her cutie mark was a flashing wand. "I always like seeing magic being used, myself; I would trade these wings for a horn in an instant," I said, fluttering them slightly.

"You would give up the freedom of air so easily?"

"It is hardly giving it up," I commented, pouring water in from the tank outside through the window and into a pot. "I have seen magic create wings in the past. Nothing overly strong, and they were very flashy, but they worked."

Her mind flinched a bit at that. She thought I was expecting her to be able to do such feats.

I continued, "Of course, I know magic like that is incredibly hard to do. I don't know if I would have the discipline to be able to pull off such feats. Not like my talent would have anything to do with magic, like yours."

I saw her jerk back in my peripheral vision while I started dropping some vegetables into the pot, and continued talking, "I do have a good friend that lives near me, though, that knows a lot of magic. She is old and eccentric, but I've heard it said that Princess Celestia herself sometimes comes to visit her, since her knowledge is so vast. As many chores as I've done for her, she surely owes me something by now, even if it is just a bit of teaching."

I picked the pot up in my mouth for all of a second before it thumped back down to the table. "Gah! I'm so bloody forgetful… Too hard to move the pot after I fill it! I don't suppose you could help me out again?" I asked, finally looking at her.

She blinked, and used her magic to put the pot over the fire. "So… how long have I been asleep?"

"Assuming you passed out during the storm, three days or so. My unicorn friend offered to do some manner of healing magic over you, but mentioned there might be some manner of price involved in your body. I wasn't going to let her do anything that might hurt you."

"Thank you… What's your name?"

I blinked. "Forgot to tell you that too? My name is Regal, friend. I'm the royal guard assigned to these parts, watching the forest for anything that might come out. It's a pretty slow job, thankfully."

"And lonely," she said, looking out the window again.

I bent back over the stew, stirring it with a wooden spoon. "Yeah, it is. I sometimes go for weeks without seeing anypony. It's a job somepony has to do, though. Might as well be me, who has no real family anyway. You know, you never did tell me your name." I turned back to find her staring at me.

"Trixie," she said. "Officially, it's The Great and Powerful Trixie, but after all you've gone through Trixie is fine."

"Well Trixie, it's nice to meet you. You're welcome here for as long as you want to stay."

"I wouldn't want to intrude! There's only one bed, and you surely can't have too much food stockpiled around here!"

I waved my hoof. "I'm used to roughing it; I have a pretty large patrol area and I occasionally have to sleep outside. I don't mind sleeping on the floor. And I grow most of my own food, so my royal pay usually ends up being either donated or used on gifts. I could use some of that to buy food, if I needed to. I could even bring my friend by! I'm sure she would love discussing magic with somepony who is actually born into it; she gets lonely, and is always looking for somepony to teach or talk with." I gave it a beat. "Not that you need teaching, I mean! It's just, she knows so much!"

She smiled, "I know what you mean, Regal. I would love to meet her, if y—" There was suddenly a massive crashing sound heard from a few miles away. I shot to the window showing the forest.

"Hydra!" I opened a chest in front of the bed and started throwing on my armor. "Stay here! It won't be here for another few minutes, and I have to evacuate my friend. I'll send her here. Between the two of you, you can keep the thing from the town while I slow it down." I didn't give her a chance to argue, as I knew she would have, and burst out the door. I also knew she would stay there; I had given her several things she wanted, and had promised or hinted at more.

I waited a few minutes, to let her stew. She stared out the window the entire time. It was quite a shock to her when a very, very old looking mare put a hoof on her shoulder. "Come away from the window, child. Regal will stop the hydra easily enough."

Trixie jumped. "How did you… Where did you…" She turned to get a better look at me. I was a large mare, old and wrinkled. My horn was much larger than the average unicorn's, and my back held two massive scars that looked as though something had been ripped away long ago. My face bore a gentle smile.

"You shouldn't expect a pony as old as I am to walk everywhere, dear. If I thought Regal would let me, I would have taken care of that hydra in an instant, but I suppose you know how he worries." I moved over to the stew and started stirring it a bit with some chaos magic, making sure my horn was also glowing. "Though you might not; he said he didn't actually know you when he brought you here. So, what brings you around these parts?"

"Oh, I'm just a traveling magician. Regal certainly seems to think I have more magic than I do, though…"

"Oh, he thinks the same of most unicorns. He always had a fondness for all things magical… That's probably what made him sign up for the royal guard." I tapped the spoon against the lid and sat on the bed. "He was heartbroken when he was stationed out here, away from everypony. I know he gets so lonely… I keep him company when I can, but I'm often busy with something or another for the Princess as well."

"He mentioned you sometimes teaching unicorns…"

"Oh, I do, occasionally. I haven't had a student in a while, though. Celestia rarely finds anypony willing to travel all the way out here to learn from me; I suppose I've been forgotten over the years. I think it's been near fifty years or so since I last taught somepony. Celestia would like to keep me closer, but I've grown weary of the stuffiness of cities like Canterlot." I saw Trixie mouth 'Fifty years?' before I finished. I gave her a second, before looking her up and down. "Hm. You're a magician, you said. I know they don't learn all that much real magic. Plenty of tricks and a few useful spells, but nothing that powerful. If you agree to stay here for a little while and keep us both company, I think I could teach you quite a bit. Some of it is magic that no pony has used in centuries. Some of it is kept only for the princesses themselves."

"And you would just be willing to give this magic to me? All I have to do is stay here and learn it?"

"There might be a bit more to it than that, but basically yes. What I have to teach is hard, but there are a few ways of making it easier. Some of it isn't for the squeamish, either; there's a reason the princesses keep it to themselves."

"If you don't mind my asking, if they keep it to themselves then how do you know it?"

"Because I am friends with a powerful creature, older and stronger than both of the princesses combined. There is much he can do for the likes of us." Her eyes flicked to my back. "Do you know what an alicorn is, Trixie?"

"That's what the horn of a unicorn is made of, I think."

"Yes. But it is something else as well. An alicorn is a pony that has pegasus wings and a unicorn's horn. Celestia is an alicorn. Luna is an alicorn. I was an alicorn, long ago. My friend could make me whole again, if I but asked him. Would you like to meet him, Trixie?"

She was silent for a minute. She finally gave a slow, weak nod.

I smiled, and began to change. As I changed, so too did the room we were in. I slowly expanded, growing upwards into my true shape. The room we were in grew cold and tall, cave-like. When the change was finished, I smiled a toothy grin. Trixie stared on wide-eyed.

"Trixie," I purred. "I have been told a bit about you. Sit, sit!" I said, placing a sofa next to her. I summoned a throne for myself, and sat back. She just gaped. "You'll catch flies like that, my dear. Please, sit." Stiffly, she did so. "I'm sure you have a few questions."

"Where… where did she go?"

"She's waiting in Regal's cottage for you to return. For her, the wait will be instantaneous. When you have powers like mine, you can do all manner of things." I snapped my fingers, and a flower called Heart's Desire appeared in my hands. I casually stretched my arm farther than it should be able to go and put it behind her ear. She watched, wide-eyed. "Unlike our alicorn friend, though, I can see into your mind." She flinched. "I know your true heart's desires, Trixie. Revenge, fame, power. And behind all that, you want something more. Something… deeper. Friendship, perhaps? Or maybe love?" I waved my hand. "I can give you power. Through power you can obtain revenge and fame. I can give you power to rival that of Celestia herself. But I know you aren't ready for the sacrifice it would take, yet. I foresee that you will be, but you aren't yet."

"What kind of sacrifice would it take?" she whispered.

"Close your eyes," I said with a smile. She did, after a second. I leaned in close and gently pressed a finger against her head. She flinched, but made no other movements. I showed her ruling alongside me, dominating Equestria and the world. Her head bore a crumbled horn, gnarled and ghastly. Her body was changed, corrupted in some ways and beautified in others. Before us bowed Celestia, Luna, and Twilight, all in forms of obeisance. There were others around us, standing proud and victorious, but she didn't recognize them yet.

In the vision I turned to her and said, "What would you give to make this true, Trixie?"

She was staring at the princesses. Tears streaked Celestia's face, and Luna looked considerably older. Luna still had defiance in her gaze, but hid it behind a façade of sorrow. Twilight looked completely broken, faded away. Her mane was mostly grey, and her horn didn't reflect any light.

"…Anything…"

I smiled.

I left her under the supervision of Regal and the alicorn with no name—both of which were just me, of course. She learned much, and quickly. Learning is so much easier when you have magic as strong as mine supplementing your mind. In time she began to love Regal, which is exactly what I needed.

"I'm being reassigned," Regal told Trixie over dinner.

She dropped her spoon.

"To a little place called Ponyville. Apparently they get all manner of monster attacks there, for some reason. I'm supposed to guard some unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, or something like that. She's a student of the princess, and is often called into dangerous situations." I shrugged. "I just wanted to warn you. I know your studies are progressing well with our friend, and you wouldn't want to leave them behind, so you can keep the house; I built it myself so the princess has no hold over who lives here."

She felt sorrow, first, and then a great rage when she heard the name Twilight. Regal didn't know anything about Twilight, other than that he was supposed to be protecting her. "When are you leaving?" she asked in a very clipped voice.

"Tomorrow, sadly," I said. "I would have told you sooner, but the princess doesn't believe in giving advanced notices."

"Can't you ask to stay here a little while longer?" she asked in a tone that would have broken my heart if I still had one.

"Sadly, no. When the princess demands it, we jump. This border is quiet, anyway; there hasn't been an attack ever since that hydra. I'm sure you and our friend could keep anything at bay, anyway." She smiled weakly at the compliment. I tried to get her to laugh a few times, to no avail.

After we retired for the night, she whispered aloud, "Discord, we need to talk."

I immediately pulled her to me. "I want to hurt somepony," she told me. "Badly."

I smiled widely and began outlining plans.

A few months later, Twilight and Navarone confronted Trixie at the old castle. I had given Trixie many powers and many traps, but I made sure Twilight had more on her side. In the end, when Trixie failed, her horn was destroyed and I pulled her away from the castle, back to my lair.

She woke up weeping.

"What is wrong, my beautiful Trixie," I asked, looming over her.

"I failed!" she moaned. "So many preparations! So much power! And I still failed! And not only did I fail, I lost all of my magic forever! You lied to me, you monster!"

I let her finish her tirade, before gently picking her up and rocking her lightly in my arms. "No, Trixie, you did not fail. You did exactly what I needed you to do: Your sacrifice is complete, and you are ready." I stopped rocking her and held her up to look me eye to eye. "Do you still wish to serve me, knowing what our future will be when we win?"

She considered. A minute passed. I knew her answer for she finally said, "Yes, Discord. I will serve you, if it means Twilight will bow before me."

I let her go and she squeaked, expecting to fall. She hung suspended in the air. I reached across the world, into the castle where her battle was lost, and grabbed some of her broken horn. My eyes bored into hers with an intensity that caused her to sweat; she tried to force her eyes away from mine, but couldn't. "Die, Trixie," I intoned, "Daughter of Celestia." I brought my hand with the alicorn pieces in a great arc down upon her head, and impacted the spot where her horn had been with an explosive rumble.

Her eyes opened as wide as they could, turning completely black. A fierce white light shone from my hand, illuminating the dimly-lit cave. I held my hand against her head for a minute. When the ritual was complete, I tenderly removed my hand and arm. On her head stood a cracked, incomplete horn. It was broken, as was any of her connections to the pony race. "Die, daughter of Celestia. And rise, Trixie, Servant of Discord."

Her eyes slowly cleared of the blackness, returning to their original light purple, holding an intensity they lacked before. She slowly descended to the floor and looked up at me. "Master," she whispered, bowing her head. Her horn shifted slightly in its magic field, the pieces gently bouncing against each other as they hung above her.