Author's Notes:

Hey everyone!

So now we find ourselves in the climactic clash of the ages! What will come from twilights decision to wear the aliorn amulet? Can she be reasoned with?

Time to find out!

Read rate love and tolerate!

PS sorry for the poor quality of the chapter, but I really wanted this one done before work. Took me three days to write but it was difficult. Hope you all enjoy!

Later that Afternoon

Mary trotted along the dirt path heading towards her office at Ponyville Town Hall. She had lots to do after she canceled her meetings the previous night. One thing that got her was that all her appointments came to her in person before she even got to the office. They were complaining that Twilight was nowhere to be found so they couldn't rearrange their appointment times.

After settling with new times for everypony, Mary decided to go to the office and meet with some of them today and rescheduled others for the next day. She met with several poines concerning their plants dying around central Mane Street. Apparently for the last two days or so, plants have been mysteriously dying for no apparent reason.

The mayor agreed to investigate the disturbance personally to find out what has been causing the death of the plant life along Mane Street. While many were happy with this, several urged her to hurry with it due to several crops essential to their businesses were at stake. Ones such as Carrot Tops carrots and Daisy's flowers for sandwiches. Even Filthy Rich urged her to find the cause of the disturbance.

Reassuring the ponies it would be taken care of Mary sent them on their ways so she could begin to investigate. After sending the last batch of ponies out she sat at her desk taking off her glasses and rubbed the ridge of her nose. She gave a deep exhausted sigh pulling a bottle of water out from her built in fridge in her desk. Unscrewing the cap, she chugged the water down in one sitting and threw it away in the nearby trash bin.

"Guess I better get started." She grumbled stepping off her comfy chair.

She looked down at the impression she had worn into it over the years. That chair had been here since she won her election years ago. She saw how wide it was and it made her feel very self concussions about her butt. She stood up on her hind legs rubbing her bottom feeling how big it was. She walked over to a mirror and inspected herself using her reflection.

She saw her wide hind, and it made her feel embarrassed. Wonder if Trixie minds that I have a big butt? She wondered inspecting the rest of herself. When she ran her hooves down her sides she realized her hips were in fact very wide giving her a slight hourglass figure when standing.

"Good lord I'm fat." She said running her hooves down her sides.

Once she finished viewing herself, she went over to her desk taking her keys in hoof from the drawer and began locking up her office. Again, she fumbled with the keys, forgetting to put her glasses on. She cursed them every time she missed the keyhole. After a lengthy ten minutes the office was closed up and she put a sign on the door saying: be back after 1pm.

She trotted along the streets heading towards Sweet Apple Acres thinking back to her running election. It was hard fight for her. It was her first election and back then she didn't know how to be a good leader. She focused so much on being well known that she didn't pay attention to those around her and what they needed.

In the end she lost. But from the failure she learned what it truly meant to be a leader and lead ponies. While she was no general or princess, she did learn to listen to the needs of her towns folk. Now, when something of this caliber strikes the town, which increased in frequency since Twilight's arrival, she takes it seriously and tries everything in her power to make it better for everypony.

She past by the empty school yard. It was the middle of the schools summer break. No pony was there as she walked past. The swing dangled back and forth in the wind and a small dog was asleep under the schoolyard bench.

Mary continued to walk down towards Mane Street where she took notice of the vegetation. At the start of Mane and Third Streets. Slowly the green turned brown along Dandy Lane and then three streets down the plants were just dead. The roots were withered and barely standing. A simple touch made them turn to dust, much to Mary's surprise.

"Good gracious!" She exclaimed at the sight. She ran down the street to Carrot Top's carrot stand.

The carrot loving mare was hard at work moving all of her surviving crops away from the affected area. She was placing four small crates of carrots into a wagon. Latching it to herself she saw Mary running up to her.

"Madam Mayor! Good you're here! See what I was talking about! This place is affected by a plague or something!" She exclaimed.

"Carrot Top! I see what you and the others meant." She waved towards the devastation. "I haven't seen anything like this since the parasprite incident."

"What do we do, mayor?" she asked looking at the dying plant life.

"Don't worry Carrot." She said confidently. "Between me and my assistant we'll find the source of this disturbance and put an end to it!"

With a quick farewell the mayor ran off towards Sweet Apple Acres.

It took the old mare a while to get there. After ten minutes of running and two stops to catch her breath, she managed to reach the outer rim of Sweet Apple Acres farm. Off in the distance she saw the welcome sign and with renewed vigor she ran up to the sign.

She searched the immediate area and saw a small tree off in the distance with a blue and grey figures resting beneath it. Anger welled up inside of her as she walked right up to the sleeping mares. She cleared her throat to get the twos attention.

"Ahem." Trixie and Maud awoke looking up to a tan mare glaring down at them. "So, glad you two could join me today? How was the farm?"

Trixie got up stretching. "It was, OK."

She turned to help Maud up who thanked her with a nod of the head. "We were resting for a minute." She said.

Mary gave Maud the stink eye, not entirely convinced of the sincerity behind her words, but decided to let it go.

"Be that as it may, I actually need Trixie's help with something."

That caught the mares attention. The unicorn gave Mary her undivided attention waiting to hear what task she was about to perform for her new boss.

"There has been a disturbance in Ponyvilles vegetation." She said pointing to the town. "Something's killing off the vegetation all around Mane Street. We need to look into it. Have you seen Applejack? She might have an idea what's going on?"

Trixie pointed to the town. "She left a few minutes ago to go see Twilight Sparkle. She should be at the library."

"Great!" Mary cheered clapping her hooves. "Since they're together we can kill two birds with one stone! Twilight should know what's going on here! Come along Trixie!"

Mary was off like a shot with Maud and Trixie at her heels heading back to town. When they reached the outskirts of town Platinum was in the la Petite Cafe taking orders when she noticed the three mares running deeper into town.

The three mares made good time to the library. When they arrived the massive oak tree was covered in a shiny barrier. Mary went up to it and had her hoof bounce off the surface. The contact was brief but it was solid like a piece of glass but it swirled like disturbed water would. A ripple spanned outward from the point where Mary touched the barrier, creating a small resonance sound like a large tuning fork being struck.

Trixie also inspected the barrier and immediately recognized it. It was a soundproof barrier that sent sounds to the ground to make a room soundproof. The barrier had been modified to keep ponies out but it was barely holding up as it was. Trixie glanced over to Maud who was inspecting the ground carefully.

"Trixie?" Mary called to her tapping the barrier. "What is this? Some kind of barrier or shield?"

"No, its a heavily modified soundproof spell." Trixie walked up smacking it with her hoof, cracking it. "And not a very strong one either."

"So we can easily get through? Twilight might have the answers we need to stop this plague that is threatening the crops of Ponyville." She pressed against the barrier where Trixie cracked it. Slowly it cracked more and more, but Mary didn't proceed to shatter it.

"I'll see if I can safely dispell this barrier, but it might take Trixie a minute." The unicorn declared.

She walked to the edge of the barrier and closed her eyes. Her horn lit up as she focus on a scan spell to determine the barriers strength. Mary, not knowing the intricacies of magic, decided to leave the mare alone and went to speak to Maud.

She found the grey mare staring at a nearby rock licking it. It looked like any other rock, except it looked old, aged, decaying, and black. Now she was no rock farmer or geologist, but Mary knew rocks didn't rot.

To her shock Maud took the rock in her mouth and thoughtfully began to chew it. She stuck her tongue out in disgust at the sight. Maud then spit it out to the side. What came out of her mouth was a black mesh of material similar to sand mixed with oil. It looked disgusting.

"Bad rock." she said leaning over sniffing the mush. "It has been tainted."

"Tainted?"

"Tainted."

The tan mare looked to the mesh for a minute. "What exactly do you mean by tainted?"

"It has been tainted by dark magic. Powerful dark magic." she looked over to the pile of mush as it liquefied and dispersed over the ground sinking into it.

The dirt around the spot became Darker as it began to turn the earth into a similar state. The rocks cracked and darkened as black ooze secreted from the cracks and the plants, what was left, began to rot and decay as if decades passed in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, from where Trixie stood as beam of light shot from her horn at the barrier shattering it. The unicorn turned with a look of pride on her face. "Got it!"

"Great work Trixie!" Mary cried out hugging her. Trixie blushed as Maud joined in. "Now then let's go find Twilight and get an answer to all this madness." She said marching to the door and opening it.

Her determination was replaced with a look of horror as she saw Applejack pinned to the floor tied up and was pinned down by Twilight, or at least a stallion that looked like Twilight. The Twilight stallion looked up in shock at the intruders, then he frowned angrily at them for their transgression.

"How dare you force your way into my house and interrupt me and my, AJ, time!" he screamed firing a beam at the mayor.

Trixie intercepted the beam, placing herself between Mary and the beam, raising a shield spell just in time to deflect it up towards the ceiling. The was deflected in such a way that it hit several book shelves in the process scattering burnt papers and leather covers everywhere.

Dusk roared in fury at the sight of his precious books, literally, going up in flames.

"MY BOOKS! MY PRECIOUS BOOKS!" He screamed.

He then proceeded to run around the library and grabbed as many pages as he could salvage. Trixie took this moment to run over to Applejack and helped the distraught mare out. Dusk was too distracted by the burning inferno in his library to notice the mares escaping.

As they made their way to the door, Applejack whispered in to the blue mares ear, "Thanks for saving me Trixie."

"I know you would have done the same for me Applejack." she replied looking back. "We'll talk later."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Pq5kGeuiE

As the sun began to set the mares made it out of the library. Suddenly a roar of anger was heard from the library as Dusk ran out of the doorway. His eyes burned with fiery wrath as he singled out Trixie firing another beam at her. Trixie once again deflected it, but just barely. She turned to face her assailant. Dusk dug his hoof into the ground growling like a wild animal. Applejack stood off to the side with Mary as Maud stood beside Trixie.

"Trixie!" he yelled at the mare. "How dare you take my, AJ, away! You have Mary! Why must you get everything I don't?! Why?!"

He fired a beam again at the blue unicorn, but Maud stomped the ground lifting the earth like a makeshift shield. The beam hit the earth shattering it to dust, but otherwise left the two mares unharmed. Trixie grinned to Maud how smiled back, then returned her focus an Dusk.

"I get everything? Really Twilight? Trixie-"

"I'm not Twilight! I'm now Disk Light!" he bellowed, charging his horn yet again. This time he was prepared. "All I ever wanted was to be with AJ." He said firing another beam at Trixie, who deflected it, but Dusk's lip curled. He expected that. A second beam fired from his horn, but this one circled around the side of Trixie's shield hitting her from the side.

She cried in pain as a burning sensation hit her still recovering ribs from her fight with Applejack. She flew across the ground skipping twice before coming to a halt. The smell of burnt fur and flesh assaulted her nose as did the most intense pain she'd felt up to date.

Mary screamed in horror running over to the downed pony helping her up. Dusk meanwhile faced off with Maud. The grey earth pony picked up a small pebble with her hoof and tossed it up and down in her hoof.

"Ha! You think a small rock like that will stop me? Pfft, please!" He scoffed mockingly.

Maud's lip turned to a smile as she stood up. Dusk stopped laughing, curios to see what was to come next. Maud bent backwards, and with the precision of a top class pitcher, she threw the rock at Dusk hitting him at the base of his horn. He thought nothing of the pebble, so he made no attempt to dodge it.

Oh, how he regretted that. When the pebble hit his horn base, a loud painful ringing echoed in his head causing him to scream gripping his skull like it was going to shatter. Instinctively he fired a beam of energy, it flew off to the side hitting a stand blowing it up. Seven ponies who were watching scattered running away as panic took hold of the citizens.

Trixie now aware of what was going on, pulled Mary off to the side.

"Mary. You have to get everypony out of here." she whispered to her.

"No, I can't leave you to fight her-him alone!" She sobbed tenderly touching the outer part of Trixies wound. "I don't want to lose you."

The unicorn scoffed, putting on her best brave face she'd ever done since she was a filly. She posed heroically with one hoof over her chest, she looked up to Mary greening. "Trixie will reason with her-him. You'll see. Trixie won't die here."

Mary sighed kissing the mare on the cheek. "You better not. Or I won't speak to you ever again."

She then ran off to gather everypony who was nearby and ordered them to hide outside of the fighting area.

To Trixie's surprise, the ponies listened to her very well. Dusk turned to see he unicorn unaware of his position. He grinned menacingly and charged his horn to blast her from behind. As he reared up to fire a voice cut through the air like a knife startling everypony.

"TRIXIE!" It called as a second beam of dark pink flew across the sky hitting Dusk in the head knocking him to the ground.

Everyone turned to see Platinum panting with a smoking hole in her bangs showing the ever so smallest part of a metallic grey horn, much to everyponies surprise. Trixie stared at the mare, gawking at her. She hadn't seen that one coming.

"Platinum, yo-you're a... unicorn?" she weakly asked.

The grey mare nodded holding her head up with pride. She smiled nodding.

"I saw you were in trouble so I came to help!"

"You came just in time! Had you not been here-"

"Yeah I know Trix." She looked around trying to spot Mary. Seeing Maud she noticed the tan mare was missing. "So where's you're marefriend number 1?" She asked casually.

"Har, har. Keep it up Platinum." Trixie warned her. The newly discovered unicorn giggled. By now, Dusk had recovered and charged the mare with his head ramming her in the side. He knocked the wind out of her sending her to the ground. He was surprisingly strong for such a small stallion.

Maud ran over to Dusk jumping at him. He turned to face her realizing she was going to punch him, he raised his shield spell confident he would hold her back. But Maud had a surprise of her own. With fierce determination she rammed her hooves against the pink shield with the force of an ursa. He gasped at the strength of the mare and focused all his energy to repel her, leaving a hole in the back of his shield.

Trixie and Platinum saw this, and together they fired two stun spells at his back. He howled in pain as his body felt numb suddenly and he collapsed on the floor. A flash emitted from his body as a small familiar form appeared on his chest. An item of untold power that Trixie had become all too familiar with.

The Alicorrn Amulet.

Trixie, Platinum, and Applejack realized immediately what the cause of this was. Twilight was under the influence of the amulet like Trixie had been a week ago. Trixie pulled Platinum over to her in a small two pony huddle.

"OK, now that Trixie knows what's going on I have a plan." she explained.

"So, what do you need me to do?" Platinum offered. "A distraction or something? Tell me and I'll do it."

"Good, thanks Platinum." She smiled hugging her in their huddle. The silver mare blushed, she still cared for the arrogant unicorn but she knew now wasn't the time or place. "OK, listen up cause we're only getting one shot at this."

She whispered her plan to the silvery mare. After a minute the two unicorns nodded and separated. Trixie circled around the stallion picking up a rock and using her magic began to mold it into a similar shape to the alicorn amulet. She hide behind a house disappearing from sight with the rock.

Meanwhile, Platinum circled the downed stallion, his motive skills returning, and she stood by Maud and Applejack.

Applejack managed to find her voice among all the chaos and tried to reason with Dusk. She walked up to Maud calling out to him, keeping her distance from the enraged stallion.

"Twi! Twi! I know you can hear me! Why are you doing this?" She cried.

"I told you, my name is Dusk Light! And you know what this is about! It's about us!" he yelled back, barely able to move.

"What do yall mean us?"

"I mean what we could be, AJ." Dusk said his voice was calm and collected. "All I've ever wanted was to be with you, AJ. But you hate everything that I was and now you have the audacity to say you had no idea?"

He took a few steps forward. Maud stepped between them, but Applejack pushed her back. Dusk's eyes misted. "I wanted to be with you for so long now, ever since you saved me all those months ago. Yet I hesitated. It took me this long to gain the courage to tell you how I felt. Then you had to go and say you hated fillyfoolers! You hate ME!" Now the tears were in full flow as he cried his heart out to the farm pony.

"Twi, I don't hate you. You're my friend." Applejack said placing her hoof over her heart.

"You said you hated fillyfoolers. I was one." He glared at her.

The orange mare was about to retort, but the truth was she did hate them. She'd made that point very clear more than once. His glare softened as he walked up reaching for her. "But that's, OK now. I'm a stallion. Now you don't have to hate me and we can finally be together." He pressed his hoof against her cheek.

Applejack couldn't take it anymore. All the stress and frustration of the week and her pent up anger finally reached it's limit. She broke down crying, falling to her knees she covered her face in shame. Platinum felt bad for the poor mare seeing her break down like that was heart wrenching. AJ did her best to cover herself, feeling like she was the worst pony ever. Dusk smiled pulling her chin up to face him.

"It's fine, AJ. It's how you are now you don't have to change, I've already done that for you." He pulled her close to hug her. "Now we can be happy and you can still hate fillyfoolers all you want."

Did Twilight really go this far just to prove she care for me? she thought. No, this madness had gone too far.

"No."

"...What? What do you mean, no?" He said surprised.

"I mean no, Twi. I don't any of this." She looked up pleadingly. "I don't want you to change for me! You were already amazing as you were Twi! Look I was wrong! I realize that now. I don't care if you're a fillyfooler or not, I just want mah friend back!" She threw herself at Dusk. "Please Twilight! I don't care anymore! Just turn back to the friend I loved and cared for!"

"But you said-"

"I WAS WRONG, TWI! I WAS SO WRONG!" She cried out pulling him to a hug. She was trying so hard to get her friend back but it was hard to say these things. She now knew she was wrong with how she viewed others, but to think the lengths Twilight, her closest friend would go to show her affections scared her.

Where did I go wrong, pa? She thought bitterly at herself. She always cared for Twilight and it hurt her to see the unicorn suffering so much. Was she really that blind? How had Applejack missed all the signs? Her thoughts were broken at the sight of Trixie sneaking up behind Dusk.

She had a small object in her magical grasp. AJ focused on the object seeing it as an imitation amulet. She spared a glance to Platinum who was whispering to Maud. The grey mares ear twitched every so often as she nodded to whatever the mare was saying. Once finished the two separated circling the stallion and charged him from his left and right.

He yelled in surprise as he felt the mares tugging at his amulet. Even Applejack joined in, not because she knew what was going on, but she desperately wanted to save twilight.

"Ha, you think that'll work?" He laughed creating a blast around his body sending all three mares to the ground. "Only I can remove the amulet! " He said tapping the artifact on his chest.

"Think again loser!" Trixie cried.

She ran from behind him charging her horn with three layers of magic. The first was holding the amulet she made, the second was an illusion to make the real amulet look like the charm Twilight gave Trixie get her to willingly give the amulet away. The last was a spell to stun him again but not enough to immobilize him. He needed to move for her plan to work.

She planed to make it look like she swapped the amulet with the doorstop Zecora gave to Twilight in hopes it would provoke Twilight to switch the mock amulet with the real one. Twilight was surprisingly perceptive, but the influence of the alicorn amulet might be enough to lower for focus enough for this to work.

As she charged him, Dusk turned to see the unicorn leap over him. His eyes widened as a pink stun spell hit him face first as he felt his chest being tugged at yet again. This time though, he felt a pinch on his chest. Trixie skidded to a halt past the stunned stallion grinning as she held up the mock amulet.

"Time for the real show to begin." She said.

Dusk growled as he recovered from the hit and run. He looked down at his amulet to see it was the charm door stop Zecora gave him to help stop Trixie and free her from the amulet.

"What? But how?!" he cried searching the ground for the amulet. He fell to the ground searching spot after spot for the amulet but couldn't find it. Just as he was about to give up a whistle go this attention. He looked up to see Trixie with the amulet in her hooves. She was tossing it up and down as she leaned against a building. She looked over mockingly at him wiggling her eyebrows at him.

He was positively livid now. Not thinking he rushed Trixie. She turned to flee but was caught by his aura. A dark pink ring gripped her neck as he lifted her from the ground choking her. Trixie dropped the mock amulet and Dusk reached for it. He laughed loudly as he glared at his captive.

"Oh, Trixie you failed to get away I see." he laughed. "Guess I really am the better unicorn after all. I have the amulet again and now you have no way to stop me."

He gripped the charm and ripped it off placing the mock amulet on his chest. He began to laugh as he threw Trixie to the ground making her bounce once as she did. As she bounced she grabbed for the amulet , which was still disguised as the door stop charm and hid it from sight. As Dusk finished mocking Trixie he turned to Applejack returning to his calm state. He had a hunger in his eyes the likes of which Applejack had never seen before. It was the look of a hungry predator.

"Now, AJ. We can finally be together." he cooed, reaching out to her. She stepped back taking an aggressive posture as Maud and Platinum stood by her side to protect her. Dusk scoffed at them. "Please, I have the alicorn amulet. What can you possibly do to stop me?"

He sneered at them as he charged his horn preparing to fight again she he noticed a shadow looming over him.

"I have the power to stop you Twilight." Trixie said holding up the doorstop charm.

He turned to see the unicorn standing on her hind hooves holding the charm in her hoof. She looked battered yet, determined. Like she knew something he didn't but he wasn't sure what it was.

"You think you can stop me with that Trixie?" he said turning away from her. "Once I take care of your friends I'll be rid of you and nothing will stop me from being with the mare I love!"

Trixie grinned as the wind blew from behind her, causing her mane to fly over her face covering her eyes. She smiled releasing her illusions revealing the real alicorn amulet to be in her grasp. Dusk went wide eyed as his amulet turned into the doorstop charm. He spun around as Trixie placed the real amulet on herself. Mary had just arrived to see Trixie placing the alicorn amulet on her chest. In a desperate attempt to stop her, she ran to her hoping to stop her in time. "Trixie no!" But it was too late. As soon as the artifact made contact with her, a blast of red shot from her blasting everything within twenty feet of her away.

Dusk flew to the ground as did Mary. Trixie stood up from the carnage as a ethereal red cloth formed around her chest like an X and flowed out of her like a long scarf flowing in the wind. Mary, Maud, and Platinum looked a the mare in horror as she charged her horn blasting Dusk. He tried to deflect the beam with a protective spell but the shear force broke through hitting him square in the chest.

A crater formed fro the blast as a limp figure of Twilight Sparkle fell into the newly formed crater. She fell with a dull thud as Trixie simply stared at her defeated foe. Applejack ran into the hole to get Twilight. She was unconscious but otherwise she was unharmed. Everyone was relieved by the fact. All the mane six and many other poines, who weren't watching the fight gathered to see all the commotion.

They watched as Twilight fell into the hole in the ground and as she did. Nopony wanted to get near for fear that she would attack them. But the mayor promised them all that the danger was over. Murmurs began to spread across the ponies like a wave and slowly they gathered around the proginal student to see if she was alright. All of them were relieved to find out that she was fine.

But Trixie was another story.

She stood in place like a statue. Her face darkened under the cover of her mane. Whispers of power echoed in her mind. The promise of fame and fortunes beyond her wildest dreams. Promises she'd heard before, yet no matter how hard she tried the whispers didn't dissipate.

Mary looked at her concerned. "Trixie? You alright dear?" She nuzzled her making her sway a bit. "Trixie? Come on love, what's wrong?"

Nothing.

"Little moon? We won you can take the amulet off now." Maud said stepping in the conversation. She too nuzzled the mare, again she made no response. Then, Platinum joined and she too tried to talk to the unicorn.

"Hey, Trix. What's up? Come on take the amulet off. You don't need it anymore."

The mares pleaded with her trying to coax her to take the amulet off. Rainbow Dash and Rarity both tried to convince her to take it off as well. But the unicorn made no acknowledgment. Just then she leapt into the air throwing a smoke bomb to the ground and disappeared using a teleportation spell while hidden from the smoke bomb.

As the smoke cleared she was gone. Everypony was now in a full panic seeing the alicorn amulet was yet again at large with a host. Not wasting a beat Mary rallied the others together.

"Alright mares we need to find Trixie. I know we have our differences." The other two mares grumbled to themselves. "But I thing we can all agree we ALL care for Trixie, so let's work together to find her."

Maud and Platinum gave each other a sideways glance nodding. "We'll help. Where do we start mayor?" Platinum asked.

"We should breakup and look at all of Trixie's regular hangouts in Ponyville. We have to find her before anything happens to her or worse..."

Mary trailed off not wanting to think about what Trixie was capable of with the amulet. Once they discussed where to look they broke apart to search town for the azure mare. Maud searched the farm, Platinum searched around the town hall and her work, Mary searched her home and the lake. Trixie was nowhere to be found.

The three mares were aided by the majority of Ponyville, while Applejack took Twilight back home to let her rest, promising to help in the search once she was settled in. Meanwhile Mary's mind was racing a million miles an hour. She feared that Trixie would make a bad decision like Twilight nearly did. It's true that the amulet was powerful and it took over Trixie once before, but she had something now that she didn't before. Friends.