Trixie is sitting in the middle of what was once a lavish loft. The walls had expensive paintings, furniture was made with the highest quality material, and dishes so clean and pretty that they looked as though they were carved from crystal. But all the beauty of the apartment has been scarred with a brutal scuffle. The furniture and paintings are smashed, the walls have cracks and dents, and the dishes have shattered to millions of pieces, giving the floor a sparkling shine. But Trixie doesn’t care about the destruction of the loft, she’s actually smiling. Her smile is stretched across her face like it’s her greatest victory and she’s staring out the hole that was once a glass door that lead to a patio.

She’s happy to see the sight, and too happy to feel the blood trickle from her head and down her cheek, staining her silvery mane and coat in red. When the droplets splatter on the floor she chuckles quietly, and madly, while looking down on the little red circles. Then she looks at the balcony again.

“You deserved it, father,” chuckles Trixie. “Every broken bone, every drop of blood spilt, every ounce of fear. You deserved it all.”

“Do you want to claim your inheritance?” asks a mysterious a stallion.

Trixie looks over her shoulder and sees the featureless shadow pony staring at her, but she feels nothing but cynical pride and joy. Her father -the great Tirek of her life- has met a fitting demise, and now she will have nothing to do with him ever again.

“Trixie doesn’t want his money. He is gone and Trixie wants nothing of him,” she says, her tone matching the cynicism inside her.

“But you’ve been through so much already, and he wants you to have it as his gift and apology to you,” says the Shadow Pony.

Tears swell up in Trixie’s eyes and yet she still keeps her smile.

“His gift to me? The Great and Powerful Trixie?” says Trixie, her voice is cracking

“Yes, his gift to you,” says the stallion.

“He never wanted anything to do with me, and I with him. Now leave me be.”

“Trixie-”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

A small shock wave shoots out from under Trixie, blowing a circle of shattered glass and other pieces of garbage away from her. She hyperventilates and sniffles, then tries to swallow her tears to keep her smile, but she is failing, despite her best efforts.

“If only I could see his eyes,” whispers Trixie, her smile twists into a frown before continuing. “If only could see the fear in his eyes... He knew he’d be going to Tartarus... and I... I will soon join him.”

Trixie stands up and walks towards the shattered glass doors, leaving a trail of tears and blood behind to stain the floor. The sounds of the city become more faint and the storm louder and stronger the closer she gets to the door.

“Trixie, wait!” says the Shadow Pony, his hoof extended in panic.

“It was always meant to be,” says Trixie in a trance, the city is now silent and the raging storm is all that she can see and hear, drenching her coat with the freezing rain and assaulting her ears with the thunder. “Celestia played me from birth to see how miserable I can be. She did it... She won. She made the Great and Powerful Trixie despise everything about herself. She made me hate me.”

Soon she’s standing on the balcony, and she closes her eyes and feels the cool wind whip through her mane and cool off the warm blood.

“Trixie, please don’t do this,” begs the Shadow Pony.

She smiles sadly as she balances herself on the railing, she trembles for a few seconds before she is able to stand on it firmly, despite how wet it is. She sniffles and looks at the Shadow Pony.

“Trixie’s final act!” says Trixie to her one audience member while trying to use her infamous boasting tone, but her voice is quivering and now tears are streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably. “She will make the life of a menace! A fake! A boastful, greedy tramp!... Disappear!”

“NO!”

Trixie throws herself off the edge and watches in wonder as the lights from the buildings zip past her in a blur, and the howling wind rushing past her brings her comfort, knowing that her miserable existence is soon to end. She doesn’t care that she’ll be going to Tartarus for this, for who she had become. It was all part of Celestia’s game after all and Celestia always win. Plus, the world would be better off without her, all the sneers and stories of her evil prove that she’s nothing but an enemy. Her death will make everything better. One less villain to deal with.

She closes her eyes right before she feels her body connect with the pavement, and-

She wakes up in the infirmary with a bandage with a red splotch on it wrapped around her head. She raises her hoof and touches it, and quickly retracts her hoof, wincing, when finding out the hard way that her injury is still tender.

“You are a crazy little pony, you know that, right?” teases one of the zebra twins.

Trixie shifts in her spot and sees only one zebra sitting next to her bed with a warm smile. His twin is nowhere to be seen, though. This seems odd to Trixie since the two are inseparable, but she’s not too worried about that at the moment. Right now she wants to know how she ended up in the infirmary with a head injury.

“What happened... Wazza?” asks Trixie groggily.

“I'm Adanz.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“It is alright, but you do not remember Mister Muffin throwing a rock at your head after having a magical outburst?” says Adanz quizzically.

Trixie furrows her brows, completely lost and not remembering a single thing about that. “Um... No.”

Adanz shifts in his seat and takes a deep breath before explaining. “Every pony and zebra has a potential for great damage. Our mood affects the magic in all of us. For pegasi, their mood determines the weather for the cloud they are on. Sadness brings rain. Rage brings storms. Earth ponies and zebras are not special when it come to sadness, but when enraged an earth pony can become a nearly unstoppable force. While a zebra is a species that has minor psychic abilities that can be extremely dangerous if left unchecked.”

“You mean like lifting things up and all that stuff?” asks Trixie with big eyes and trying to imagine Adanz lifting up a train with pure brain power.

Adanz chuckles and shakes his head. “No, that’s telekinesis. A zebra’s psychic ability is what led to all the stories about our witchcraft, which holds some truth, but we have done our best to keep the mind control down to self defense only. Some zebras have completely renounced this, most are weak in it, but we all have it.”

“And what about unicorns?”

Adanz leans forward and gives Trixie a stern, yet worried, gaze. “When a unicorn is facing extreme emotional trauma they exert a lot of magic. Because of the diversity of unicorns your species is the most unpredictable and dangerous when it comes to this.”

“Oh, no. What did I do?”

“Some can change their physical appearance, others can manipulate matter around them, others are living bombs.”

“Adanz. What. Did I. Do.”

Adanz sighs and pats Trixie’s hoof sympathetically. “You are a living bomb, Trixie. We were trying to get you test your magical level by hypnotizing you to release your emotions. Wazza tapped a sore spot and you went on a small rampage.”

“Oh my goddess,” gasps Trixie while pressing her hoof against her mouth. “Is Wazza okay? What about the others?”

“Everypony is fine. Mister Muffin was able to knock you out with a brick to your head before you caused too much damage.”

Trixie is relieved that no one was hurt, but now she’s worried that Gray Muffin is mad at her for her emotional meltdown.

“I can assure you that your mentor is not upset with you, Trixie,” assures Adanz with a thin smile. “In fact, he was actually pleased by your power and wishes to speak to you as soon as possible.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” says Trixie eagerly, she feels a hundred times better now that she knows that Gray Muffin is actually proud of her rather than the opposite.

Trixie tries to get up, but Adanz holds her down and points at the bandage on her head.

“You aren’t going anywhere with that bump on your head,” he says sternly.

“Oh, come on! Please let me go!” pouts Trixie.

“No, a warrior needs to know when to fight, when to relax, and when to heal. You need to heal, so I will grab Mister Muffin for you, yes?”

Trixie sighs heavily and nods, and Adanz smiles and leaves the room without another word. She is so eager in her wait for Adanz to return with Gray Muffin that she fidgets in her bed. She drums her hooves on the mattress, her eyes dart around the room, and she even moves pillows around the infirmary with her magic to keep her mind busy.

Thirty seconds turns into a minute. One minute turns into two. Two to five. Five to ten. Ten to twenty. Twenty to forty five. Forty five to an hour. Trixie groans in frustration and slumps on her bed, and then proceeds to using her magic to throw her pillow in the air and catch it in her hooves, then she repeats the process. Finally, after nearly two hours of waiting, Adanz returns with Gray Muffin and Wazza in tow. When Trixie sees Wazza the first thing she notices is that his fur is almost completely black. Her jaw drops and she points at the poor zebra.

“Did I do that?” asks Trixie meekly.

“You did, and you are forgiven,” replies Wazza.

“Trixie, you and I need to talk,” says Gray Muffin, he does an amazing job of hiding this “pride” Adanz mentioned earlier.

“Of course, sir,” says Trixie quietly, suddenly feeling uneasy.

Gray Muffin glances at the zebra twins. “You two, prepare for the next session.”

“Yes sir,” says Wazza and Adanz in unison.

The two zebras bow and speed walk out of the room, and Gray Muffin waits patiently for the door to close, then he waits a good minute before he decides to speak.

“What you did earlier today was both amazing and terrifying,” says Gray Muffin, pride is creeping into his voice now, this makes Trixie smile. “I have never seen anything like it before. Terra was the best unicorn I had, but she preferred up close brutality over using her raw power. But you, on the other hoof, exerted immense power that destroyed the Arena and left dozens of my ponies injured in some way. It was only by sheer luck no pony needed to be sent to the infirmary, save for you.”

“Adanz said I was a um a ‘living bomb’, what did he mean by that? I do not remember the teachers explaining this in school,” says Trixie.

“I think it’s best I show you what Adanz meant. It really is a great sight.”

“But he said-”

“You will find that me and Adanz do not necessarily agree on everything, but if you would like to stay in bed perhaps I can give you some pointers on how to be a proper bed leech.”

Trixie immediately hops out of bed and lands in front of Gray Muffin and grins broadly, despite the evil monkey in her head banging her skull with a metal pan.

“Trixie is no leech! Trixie wants to see that Adanz thing!” she says eagerly. That smile of hers disappears, though, when she sees Gray Muffin staring at her with an unimpressed frown, and she takes a step back and coughs awkwardly in her hoof. “Sorry, sir.”

“Next time you refer to yourself in third pony, Gray Muffin will do the same,” remarks the older pony.

Trixie frowns and feels just a bit strange about that sentence. She also has a strong feeling that her mentor is in a bright mood, considering how their conversation has gone so far. No further words are exchanged about Trixie's third person talk, though, when Gray Muffin starts leading her towards the Arena.

As they walk down the hallway Gray Muffin explains to Trixie that most Equestrians, particularly unicorns, don’t know about the powers they possess. He claims that the Royal Government reserves this special knowledge for their elite soldiers so that they actually know how to control it should the situation arise. He also explains how the few that figure it out, figure it out either by chance or are well informed. When Trixie asks Gray Muffin what he means about her display of “raw power” being terrifying, his answer is something Trixie is glad to hear, but now fears losing control of her emotions more than ever.

“Since unicorns have direct connection to magic, they face more severe side effects when they lose control of their emotions. Temporary psychosis is the common of these side effects, such as multiple personalities or hallucinations,” says Gray Muffin.

Trixie gulps at the mention of “hallucinations” and she unconsciously looks around for any signs of projections of Sunshine. She doesn’t see him directly, but she swears she see his shadow melt into Gray Muffin’s. Gray Muffin notices Trixie shaking and he stops and puts his hoof on her shoulder in probably the most intimate way she has ever seen him. This day is really turning out to be quite strange.

“Are you alright?” asks Gray Muffin.

“I-I’m fine, sir,” says Trixie.

She smiles uneasily at him and his hoof slides off her shoulder and they continue their walk.

“In cases where unicorns unleash an extreme amount of energy due to emotional distress, such as what happened to you, there is a chance for them to blackout and lose themselves in their alternate state,” continues Gray Muffin. “This is most common with unicorns like you Trixie, unicorns that are living bombs.”

Right as Gray Muffin finishes his lecture they enter the Arena and Trixie sees first hand what she had done. There is a crater in the middle of the arena with charred floor around it, and pieces of the ceiling have collapsed, revealing sparking wires and damaged pipes. Trixie’s jaw goes slack as she explores the damaged room. The floorboards creak and groan in protest, threatening to snap apart, under her hooves, and she leaves a faint trail of hoofprints in her wake. She stops by the edge of the crater and looks down. It is not big, but the idea that she did that amazes her, and a part of her wishes she could remember doing it, but another part of her is afraid that she’ll get nightmares from it.

“We are all capable of good and evil and all posses great power, Trixie, but no matter who we are or what side we are on, our greatest enemies are -and will always be- ourselves. As long as we know how to control ourselves, nopony can break us,” says Gray Muffin.

“I did this?” whispers Trixie.

“Yes, and if we can help you control your power, I believe you can kill Pinkie Pie.”

Trixie is lost in the crater, but when Gray Muffin’s message sinks in, she snaps her focus onto him, completely shocked that he has tasked her with killing the Element of Laughter.

“Wha-What do you mean ‘kill Pinkie Pie’, sir?” stammers Trixie.

“I mean exactly what I said. Roar Shock figured out she was Mare-Do-Well and arranged the duel between the two of you,” says Gray Muffin sternly.

“What? A duel? That's... No, I just can’t kill her even if she is Mare-Do-Well! She’s the Element of Laughter!”

“There is nothing left to laugh about, not while the vile rule Equestria with their deception.”

Gray Muffin kicks some loose floorboards away and his face contorts to disgust as he watches the piece of wood tumble deeper into the crater.

“We have become a society of slaves, Trixie. Slaves held by golden shackles, but we all still bow down to the corrupted government and their criminal allies,” says Gray Muffin distantly. “Pinkie Pie contributed to guarding the evil that has taken hold of Equestria. Laughter or not, she is an enemy of justice and has to be killed if we are to reach a state of True Harmony.”

Gray Muffin kicks off another piece of floorboard and watches it slide down, snorting in disinterest when it crumbles at the bottom.

“You know better than most what evil lurks in the shadows of Equestria.” Gray Muffin looks at Trixie out of the corner of his eye. “Few hold more pain than you, but what Roar Shock endured served as a revelation as to what must be done. He has something planned that will save Equestria and if you succeed in ridding the world of the corrupted Element, then you will have his trust and be a part of our grand plan.”

“What are you talking about, sir?” asks Trixie uneasily.

“I wish I could tell you, but Roar Shock wants to make sure that you are truly loyal to us, and his judgment is all that matters.”

Gray Muffin then walks towards the exit in a hurry and orders Trixie to follow him, which she does with some difficulty keeping up.

“We have a lot of work to do. We only have two weeks until your big test,” says Gray Muffin quickly.

“So, what's this training exercise going to be? Magic?” says Trixie while chasing after him.

Gray Muffin nods and rounds the corner, speaking from the hallway. “Yes.”

Trixie enters the hallway, too... Then gets tackled to the ground and put into a pin by Adanz, giving her sore head an even bigger headache and sending her world in a tailspin. When Trixie does regain some sense, she starts screaming and swearing as she awkwardly tries to wiggle her way out of Adanz's hold. This only makes the zebra cackle madly while Wazza and Gray Muffin stand next to each other smirking at Trixie's misfortune.

“I also realized that we hadn't had a blitz session in a couple of days, so I figured it would be a good idea to have one,” adds Gray Muffin with a smirk. Then he turns and walks away, saying: “Go easy on her. We still need to train her on her magic.”

“I -GAK!- I hate you guys!” yells Trixie furiously.

This only makes the zebras laugh and she swears she hears a chuckle from Gray Muffin, too. This is definitely going to be another long day.

Author's Notes:

Added 6 Nov 2014