Puffing out his chest and trying to channel as many cheesy sci-fi movie stars as he could, Sethisto crossed the room towards the small ray of light. Swallowing, he reached for the doorknob and slowly began to turn it. What would be back here? Something earth-shattering that would destroy his image of Trixie as the Great and Loving magical blue mare? Something so terrible it would drive him insane just to view it? Still shaking, he pulled the door open just the slightest little crack, peeking through with one eye. “What the…” he muttered at what he saw.

“Always the curious one, arentcha, Sethy?” Trixie’s voice cooed behind him.

“Huh!?” He turned around in surprise.

And then, like a barn owl spotting a field mouse out in the open, she descended upon him, wrapping her hooves around his neck in a powerful, yet tender, hug. “That’s what Trixie has always loved about you!” She gasped, showering him with kisses. “Always curious, never backing down! Ooh, Sethy…you’re so…so…”

“Ugbuh…” he replied, his mind barely able to process the shock.

“Okay,” she said, calming down. Her heart raced as she pulled him in close, whispering into his ear as they embraced. “Sethy, you probably have a lot of questions right now, like why all those ponies are back there, uncollared and working on costumes and plans and whatnot.”

“Fut-aggledah...”

“Just know that it’s all for something really important. Trixie can’t go into details right now, but she will later, promise. Right now, a lot of lives depend on this staying secret, do you understand?”

“Feh.” The yellow unicorn replied, his mouth-brain connection still trying to reload.

“Good. Now, Trixie is gonna put you into a sort of sleep, okay? It’s just to make sure you don’t accidentally say anything to anypony out there. That would be very bad. But she needs you to trust her completely beforehand, otherwise it won’t work. You have to trust Trixie when she says it’s for the very best, and when you wake up, everything will make sense, okay?”

She gazed into his eyes longingly, worriedly, and he realized something. For all her power, what he was about to say could devastate her. Here she was, standing over an entire city as its enslaver, and she was at his mercy, on the edge of being emotionally destroyed by something he said. With that realization, he knew exactly what to say: “Okay, Trixie. I trust you.”

She beamed at him. “I love you, Sethy. I love you so, so much.”

“I…I love you too, Trixie,” and somehow, he felt even happier than that first time he’d heard her say those three little words.

She smiled, her horn sparking with red Alicorn power before she touched it to his forehead, and suddenly the world went blank.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And we add a few gems to accent the cutie-mark, and…there!” Rarity smiled as she added the finishing touches to Colgate’s disguise. “Ladies and gentlecolts, I give you Rarity the Second!”

The dentist stepped down from Rarity’s pedestal and admired herself in the mirror. “Gotta hand it to ya, Miss Rarity, you really know your way around a makeup kit,” she said, tossing her new curly, lavender mane and blinking her perfectly-lengthened eyelashes.

“Well, that is a very nice thing to…”

“If only I could say the same about your dental hygiene!” The dentist whirled around and stuck a hoof covered in white body paint in Rarity’s mouth. “I may not have my records with me, but I can tell just by looking that your gums have receded at least two millimeters since your last appointment! Did you buy that water pick like I told you?”

“Well, um…of course!” Rarity said, looking around uneasily.

“Hmm, you haven’t been using it twice a day though, have you? I think I should…”

“And just like that, we’re moving along!” Rarity said, shooing the dentist out of her dressing area.

“I’ll setup your next appointment later!” Colgate said as she trotted to join the other finished mares. Rarity already had Lyra and Bon-Bon made to look like Twilight and Applejack, but that meant she was only halfway there. She sighed as she trotted over to the other side of the small room. She still had a long ways to go.

“Hey Rares, how’s it goin’?” Rainbow asked as she trotted by, hovering at the lip of a massive cauldron alongside Fluttershy and Cloudchaser.

“Not bad, Rainbow! I’m halfway done! How is your little…concoction coming along?”

“We think it’s coming along,” Fluttershy said, looking down at the bubbling goop below her. “Although I’m still not sure what Trixie could possibly have planned for this.”

“Yeah, y’all sure that Trixie isn’t just messin’ with us, making us make all this oatmeal as a big joke or somethin’?” Cloudchaser asked.

“I doubt it, I-I mean, why would she?” Fluttershy said.

“I dunno…wait, has anypony seen Derpy?”

Suddenly, the mailmare sprang out of the glop and landed at Rarity’s side, splashing the unicorn with the bubbling liquid. “Oh, there you are Derpy.” Dash said. The mailmare replied with a strange sound, like a cross between a cat’s purr and a lawnmower starting up.

“Oh-kay, I’ll just leave you to that,” Rarity said as she trotted to a bench set along one of the walls, where the Cakes were helping Applejack with some baking. Nopony noticed as Derpy donned a fedora and sneaked towards a secret panel on the wall, her eyes uncrossed as she pressed her hoof against a certain plank, which gave with a little click. Immediately, a vacuum tube opened up beneath her hooves and sucked her down, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.

“Next up: Pinkie,” Rarity sang as she trotted up to the baking ponies.

“Hmm?” The two Cakes looked up from their toddlers, playing with Pinkie on the floor.

“Oh my Gawrsh, I guess that’s me,” Mrs. Cake replied, rubbing some dough off her hooves with her apron. “I’m guessing you’ll be turning me into Pinkie now, hmm?”

“Actually,” Rarity said sheepishly. “Pinkie specifically requested Mr. Cake to play her role.”

The stallion’s jaw dropped as he turned away from his baking to the pink mare, rolling around on the floor with his toddlers. “Pinkie!?”

“What?” She asked, looking up from tickling Pound Cake’s tummy. “I love candy, you love candy…”

“But you do realize I’m a stallion, right?” He asked desperately.

“Of course, silly! But who can really tell the difference from a distance?”

Mr. Cake stared at her, jaw agape. “I would think they’d notice some differences, thank you very…”

“Now honey, you know she didn’t mean it like that,” his wife nuzzled up next to him. “You have to admit you’ve always had a somewhat…petite frame.”

“I…what!? I…what!? I…” he stammered, trying to control himself.

“Th-there’s nothing wrong with that, sweet-pea!” She said defensively. “Some stallions are born with big, buff, ultra-muscular bodies, and some just…aren’t.”

His jaw dropped even lower. “I CANNOT BELIEVE…”

Suddenly, the door slammed open, offering a merciful reprieve for the mares as Trixie trotted in with some new pony in tow. “Heya, Trixie,” Applejack said, looking up from the mixing bowl she was bent over. “What’s…uh…who’s that?”

“Hmm? Oh!” Trixie turned and nuzzled the yellow stallion. “Everypony? This is Sethisto, Trixie’s stallionfriend from back home! Isn’t that right, Seth?”

“Yes, oh Great and Powerful one,” the unicorn replied robotically.

“Y’hypnotized him too!?” Rainbow Dash asked. “How’d you convince him to go through with that?”

“That’s just him,” Trixie said, coddling the yellow unicorn. “My little Sethy.”

“Yeah right,” Rainbow snorted, turning back to the cauldron she was working over. “Sounds more like my little doormat to me.”

Suddenly, a red lightning bolt shot out and nailed the teal pegasus, knocking her to the floor. Dazed, she looked up as Trixie teleported to a spot next to her, her eyes blazing, both literally and metaphorically. “Don’t you DARE talk about him that way, you worthless little fly! Trixie could…”

“Trixie! You’re scaring the foals!” Pinkie screeched. Trixie gazed up from Dash, still raging, but the moment she saw the fear-filled tears filling the eyes of the foals in Pinkie’s hooves, the anger abated. Her eyes regained their normal hue.

“Trixie is…I’m sorry, I…” she stammered, backing away from Rainbow as Fluttershy helped her back onto her hooves. “I-I didn’t mean…Trixie is gonna check on Miss Sparkle!” Once again, the blue mare teleported away, disappearing in a flash of red smoke.

“Jeez, what was that all about?” Dash asked. “I was just kidding around!”

“M-maybe we should just get back to work,” Fluttershy said, pointing back to the large, bubbling cauldron. “I’m sure she’s just stressed out.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash replied, glaring upwards, towards the bell tower she knew Trixie had transformed into a workshop for Twilight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh nononono, why are you acting up now?” Trixie whispered to the amulet around her neck as she stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to Twilight’s workshop. “There’s still so much to do! Trixie needs these ponies to trust her, and you’re gonna…”

“Trixie?” Twilight’s voice floated down to her. “Trixie, is that you?”

“Yes! Uh, yeah, uh…” Trixie sighed, tucking the amulet back beneath her cloak. “Trixie is coming up!”

“Wonderful,” the purple mare poked her head out into the stairwell. “I have something to show you!”

“Of course she does,” Trixie sighed with relief, thankful for the distraction as she joined Twilight in her small, improvised laboratory. The tiny attic within the steeple atop Ponyville’s Town Hall didn’t seem like much, but Twilight had worked day and night turning it into a functioning laboratory. Beakers and test tubes fizzled and spat while Bunsen burners flickered in the near-darkness, plastic tubing carrying concoctions of varying colors to every corner of the room. Samples of different plants stood in small pots and baggies in one corner, a mortar and pestle nearby. Trixie’s eyes widened. “T-Twilight?”

“Yep?” The lavender unicorn asked as she appeared in one corner. Trixie leapt back as she stepped casually into view.

“Jeez, Twilight! You almost gave Trixie a heart attack!” She gasped. “What is all this!?”

“Oh, this? Well, when you detailed the potion you needed from me, I knew I needed a proper laboratory to create it! So I set this up while you were away.”

“Huh-how did you find time to build all this!?” Trixie asked, still gazing at the complex network of tubes and ampules running throughout the small room. “When did you sleep?”

Twilight blinked a few times. “Sleep?”

Trixie’s eyes widened even further. So that’s why she’s Celestia’s protégé, she realized. She’s out of her freakin’ mind! “T-Trixie just wanted to check in on you,” she said, trying to shake her nerves away. “You seem to be doing alright on your own, though.”

“Ugh, you would think so, but no,” Twilight sighed, snorting in frustration as she turned to the beakers on the ancient desk before her. “When you told me you needed a potion to fake the effects of death, I knew it would be difficult to fabricate, but this one is turning out to be a real mind-bender. I’ve been experimenting with Nightshade petals and Manticore’s venom, but this is all I have to show for it.” She held a beaker up in her magic filled with an eerie, slimy, green liquid that glowed in the dark.

“Is this close to what we need?” Trixie asked.

“Well, it does mimic the effects of death without killing the pony for a good twelve minutes…”

“Okay, so far so good…”

“…and then that pony spontaneously combusts and vomits up their own lungs,” Twilight finished, shaking her head sadly.

“Ah,” Trixie said, backing away from the potion. “You just go ahead and keep working on that, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Twilight sighed and tossed the beaker over her shoulder, watching it explode violently in a corner. “Makes for a cool fireworks show, though.”

“Hey,” Trixie’s eyes lit up as she watched the liquid hiss and spit up little sparking embers. “We might be able to use that after all! It could substitute for a magical attack!”

“Maybe,” Twilight shrugged, taking a seat on the floor. “So, how are things downstairs? Everything going smoothly?”

“Oh, more than smoothly,” the magician replied, hopping from one leg to another like a filly trying to hide a secret they badly wanted to share. “We’ve been found out!”

Twilight bolted to her hooves, eyes wide in full-on panic mode. “WHAT!?”

“Easy Sparkle, calm!” Trixie replied reassuringly. “It’s just by Trixie’s stallionfriend, Sethisto!”

“Oh,” Twilight sighed with relief. “He’s taken care of then?”

“Yes, I have him under a mind control spell like I used on the others,” Trixie replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, good,” Twilight replied, smiling and nodding uneasily. She returned to her beakers for a little while, trying to put off the question that had popped up at the mention of the yellow stallion, but with the conversation stalled, she found no alternative but to ask it. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask: what is it you see in Sethisto, anyway?”

Trixie arched an eyebrow at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re a big, famous showmare with a checkered past and a talent for awesome performances and he’s…” she trailed off, a hoof waving in the air as she searched for the right words, eventually deciding that there weren’t any. “…not.”

“Oh, you don’t know him like I do,” Trixie giggled. “He’s soft, and he’s sweet, and gentle. I mean, he trusts me so completely he let me cast the mind-control spell on him, just like that! What other stallions would just do that for some mare because she asks?”

“Not many,” Twilight admitted.

“Oh, but he’s so much more than that kind of stallion,” she cooed, hugging herself, not noticing the red tint entering her irises. “He’s just so cute that sometimes I wanna grab him by the mane and tear his damn throat out!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. She took a few steps back from Trixie. The blue mare bolted upright as she realized what she’d just said and turned to the purple mare. “I…I…I should check on the others!” She gasped, getting ready to gallop right back down the long, twisting staircase.

“Trixie, wait!” Twilight gasped, leaping forward to grab the magician’s shoulder. “What in Equestria was that!?”

“It was nothing, nothing!” The blue mare squealed. “Really! Nothing at all to be worried about, nothing to…”

“Oh my sweet Celestia, it’s the Amulet, isn’t it?” Twilight asked.

Trixie bit her lip. She knew Twilight was smart, but she hadn’t expected her to hit the nail on the head so quickly! Her shoulders slumping, she fell on her haunches and bowed her head, defeated. “Yes, it’s the Amulet. Its influence is trying to work its way deeper into the mind of Trixie.”

“Oh gosh,” Twilight gasped, kneeling at the other mare’s side.

“The Princess warned Trixie this could happen,” the blue mare moaned, cradling the Alicorn Amulet in her hooves, her eyes wandering over its wicked, black surface and the evil it contained. “It’s worse now than last time because it knows Trixie is trying to use it for good.”

“It ‘knows’?” Twilight asked, gazing at the small jewel. “I didn’t think a piece of jewelry could think.”

“Trixie’s not sure. Princess Celestia just mentioned it in passing and then Princess Luna mumbled something about a ring and a weird little creature called a ‘Frito Braggins’. At any rate, that’s part of the reason why she picked Trixie for this job: because Trixie has experience with the Amulet and she knows how its influence feels, and so she thought Trixie would be able to fight it better than any other pony.”

“Trixie, that’s terrible,” Twilight whispered, her hooves pulling the other mare in for a hug. “You’re risking so much for this…I honestly had no idea!”

“Thank Trixie when this is over, Sparkle,” Trixie replied, tugging herself out of the hug and wiping at her eyes. “Thank Trixie when Equestria is safe.”

“So…you talking in third pony again?”

Trixie nodded sadly. “Just another effect of the Amulet’s influence. Trixie will keep fighting it, Twilight, but she isn’t sure…she isn’t sure…”

“Just remember why you’re doing this, Trixie,” Twilight said, pulling her right back into the hug. Trixie sniffled, and Twilight ran a hoof through her mane, whispering into her ear: “You’re a good pony. Always remember that. You’re a good pony, Trixie Lulamoon.”

“I-thank you,” the tears were starting to flow more freely now. “I’ve done so much to you and your friends, and for you to just forgive it all…just, thank you. Thank you so much.” Trixie let out a long, shivering gasp. What had she ever done to deserve this? Somepony telling her it was going to be fine, caring for her in a time of need, she never deserved something like this. She felt so lucky just because Twilight was there. So very lucky that this kind, gentle, unicorn cared so much for her. This kind, loving, adorable, dorky, beautifully colored, intelligent, well-figured, gorgeous…

Holy dear sweet Celestia! Thinking fast, the magician pushed herself out of Twilight’s grip, trying (and failing) to keep her cheeks from flushing a deep red.

“Trixie?” Twilight asked, a touch of pain and confusion in her expression.

“Well, wouldja look at the time! Trixie should check on all the other ponies now!” The blue mare gasped, looking at a non-existent watch before darting down the stairs, leaving behind one very confused scientist.

After a while, Twilight shook her head sadly and turned back to her work. “The stress of dealing with that amulet must be getting to her,” she mumbled as she focused on creating a compound that WOULDN’T cause a pony to crap out their lungs.

And just a few steps below her, Trixie sighed and peered through her hind legs at her marehood. “Oh nononono, why are you acting up now…”

Author's Notes:

Doo-be-doo-be-doo-bop, doo-be-doo-be-doo-bop...DERPYYYYYYYYYYY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsYREFwxYFI