This chapter is a soft edit with some grammar and spelling corrections. A final edit is pending review and will be uploaded when finalized. I apologize in advance for any errors that were not corrected.

Luna's sky was a pleasant one tonight, shadowed darkly by the absence of tomorrows approaching sun. It lovingly watched over Ponyville, and all its inhabitants with an array of shimmering stars above a rich lavender painted atmosphere. Far below this wondrous night sky, the calm of long day ending for so many gave way to slumber and the resolve of a better tomorrow.

Applejack lay slung over the side of her bed, deep in her drunken state of sleep. Rainbow Dash was sharing a similar experience. A makeshift pillow and blanket of clouds protected her from the elements just outside her front door where she had earlier found herself too weary to move from. Fluttershy and Rarity were again sharing comradery while they traveled back to the boutique to finish their tea, laughing at each other's ideas for capturing the attention and heart of their mutually shared love interest. In the castle nearby, Trixie had been asleep since before Nurse Redheart had left. Starlight was carrying her off to a spare bed to safely rest for the night with Twilight leading the way.

Twilight kept a short distance between the two unicorns behind her. Just enough to open the door to a guest room and pull the blankets back for Trixie. "Starlight, think about it. Can you recall a single piece of literature that ever mentions a pony or another creature bleeding?"

Starlight entered close behind, keeping Trixie floating just above head height. She was visibly exhausted, her eyes lacked their usual luster and showed heavy bags underneath. "No, now can you please stop asking me the same question about some other way I haven't seen or read about blood?"

"I'm sorry, Starlight. I just can't help but feel like we're missing something." She turned back to see just how exhausted her friend was.

"Oh, here. Let me take her for you." Twilight let her magic take possession of Trixie and release Starlight's hold. Moving closer to the mattress, Twilight gently undid the cape and placed it with the oversized hat on a dresser next to the bed.

Starlight leaned over the bed to fluff one of the many pillows the littered the bed. "Thank you again for everything, Twilight."

"No problem," Twilight said comfortingly as she finally lay Trixie down for the night.

Starlight pulled the covers over the sleeping mare, tucking her in. She then pulled one of the spare pillows and laid herself down on it, looking up half-awake to Twilight. "And we're not missing something, Twilight. We're missing everything after our favorite magician cast her spell," she exclaimed comically, her arms raised and head bobbing side to side with googly eyes.

Starlight flopped her arms and face down into the pillow, giving a long sigh. With no response from Twilight, she rolled over and gave a yawn. "I mean, the explosion, what she saw, the humans showing up with their entire house, all of their injuries, all her injuries..."

She rolled over on her cheek to stare at the back of Trixie's head. "And the fact that her wonky spell even worked is a mystery all on its own."

Twilight lowered her head in defeat, turning away to the open door of the room. "I know, I know. There is so much I want to look into if I'm going to understand any of this. There is so much we need to learn about them and how this all happened. And I still need to let Princess Celestia know what happened today."

She turned back to Starlight. "Maybe she will know-"

Starlight was already sound asleep. "Oh, Starlight. You haven't even slept at all since before Trixie's show yesterday. No wonder you're exhausted."

Twilight carried over another small blanket, covering up Starlight for the night. "Sleep tight, you two." She softly spoke, closing the door.

Starlight turned, wrapping herself up tightly in the warm cloth.

Following suit, Twilight yawned, still rather tired from only getting a short nap earlier in the day. More accurately, she was pretty much spent. Two back to back crazy days dealing with Trixie and the problems she caused was almost too much for even a Princess to handle.

"Okay. First things first. Let Celestia know what happened today. Keep it short and to the point. The rest can be explained in detail when..." She sulked for a moment realizing her situation. "As soon as I know what the details are..."

The only humans to occupy Equestria were settling in for the night. Lumberman and Benny were bringing down a second mattress to the living room. The concerns of a weakened foundation could bring the second floor crashing down had Cerb joined them. Thankfully, the living room was large enough to hold the addition of the mattresses after moving some of the other furniture around.

As it was now, Becky was already asleep on the couch, Kelly on the loveseat, and Chris in a reclining chair. Sniff, however, had claimed that all the furniture made his back hurt more, and opted to sleep on the carpet.

Cerb helped to guide the mattress down and lined it up with the other. He seemed content with the arrangments of the sleeping area. "Alright. We're a bed short. So I think I'll be staying up. Keep a watch over everything, ya know."

Benny looked up as he spread a sheet out on the mattress. "You really think that's necessary? Being a kids show and all?"

Lumberman waived his hands in disagreement. "That Applejack set me straight on the shit that lives out here. They got trees that turn into mutha fucking wolves and shit." He emphasized his seriousness under a hushed voice, not wanting to wake the others.

A memory of such creatures played itself back in Benny's head. "Oh yeah. The Timberwolves. Fuckers are bigger than the damn ponies."

Lumberman moved up, getting uncomfortably close to Benny's face. "You knew about the fucking Timberwolves and didn't stop me from walking up to their hood like I fucking owned the place?"

Lumberman was clearly rattled and upset about the idea. "I don't even like dogs. How you think I was going to react to some big fucking magical tree wolf, thing?"

Benny smirked. "You don't like dogs? That's both racist and a lie."

Cerb lowered his brow, thinking about that confusingly. "What you mean, you don't like dogs. When we were kids, you loved the shit out of my rottweiler, Panzer."

Lumberman paused, knowing he had no out from his previous statement. He turned away from Benny and backed off. "Yeah, you right. I do like dogs. Just not the shit out there." - He pointed to the forest.

Benny smiled at Cerb and then turned to Lumberman. "Tell you what. Since you know what to look out for, and you already slept once today-"

"That's bullshit, man," Lumberman said weakly.

"-you can take the first watch," Benny offered. "We'll do four, four, and four."

Lumberman didn't know what that meant. "Four, four, what?"

"He means, - " Cerb grunted as he lowered himself down to the mattress. - "You'll stand watch for four hours, wake me so I can take over and man the watch another four hours, and then I'll wake up Ben to do the last four hours."

"Okay..." Lumberman agreed but started doing the math in his head. "Wait? It's like... ten o'clock. That means I do ten til two. You'll do two to six. Then Benny does six until ten, even though everyone will be up by then?"

Benny kicked off his shoes and handed Lumberman his 1911. "It's my house, bro. I shouldn't even have to stand watch. Unless you'd rather we swap out me for Chris?"

Lumberman shot a look over to Chris, not feeling confident about such an alternative. "No. You right," He submitted in agreement. "Maybe if we get a mob of angry squirrels or a pandemic of rabid dear we can put'em in charge, huh?"

Benny just dabbed the gun up and down, still offering it up for him. "At least he can shoot."

Lumberman ganked the gun out of Benny's hand, racked it back enough to see a round was chambered, let it slide back quietly, dropped the mag, and verified it was full before slapping it back into the magazine well. "Bitch please," He said as he raised up the pistol and looked down the sights. "I'm like a fucking ninja-assassin-gangsta with this thing."

Benny scoffed while wrapping himself up in the bedsheet. "Yeah, okay. Just don't put a ninja-assassin-gangsta sized hole in your foot. Gonna be hard to miss them big ass clodhoppers."

Lumberman tucked the pistol in the beltline of his jeans. "Yeah, well. You know what they say about guys with big feet?"

"They wear big shoes?" Cerb asked, trying to sound as if he didn't know the joke.

Lumberman raised his foot, showing off his work boots. "Size twelve and a half, bitch. The ladies love it when guys wear big shoes. They think it's sexy or something."

That wasn't how the joke is supposed to go, but sometimes intentionally getting the punch line wrong is just as funny. In this case, it got another good laugh from the others.

Lumberman stood there leaning against the countertop for a good three minutes, and then a question started scratching at the back of his mind.

He was hesitant to ask, knowing he was going to get shit for it. "So... besides shoot the bad guys... what do I actually do?"

Benny rolled onto his back and stared blankly to the ceiling. "You know, when I got to my first ship, I wondered how dumb someone had to be to need a PQS to stand watch."

"Dude, come one. For real?" Lumberman complained.

Benny smiled and stretched with a groan. "I'm fucking with ya, man. Just stay in the room. Make sure no one or anything tries to break into the house. Keep a few candles lit so you can still see inside the room. And if you hear or see anything suspicious or you think there's a threat outside, just wake us all up."

"So... don't go outside?" Lumberman asked.

"Alone?"

"Yeah."

"No."

Lumberman was relieved to hear the good news of staying indoors. "Good, because fuck that noise."

Cerb turned to his side and tried to get comfortable. "Speaking of noise. If I start freaking out in my sleep. Either let me sleep through it or wake me up without touching me..."

"You think you're gonna be alright, here?" Benny asked with some concern.

"Yeah," Cerb readjusted himself. "I normally don't sleep long enough to dream anyway... if I'm lucky."

Lumberman hated these conversations. As much as he loved these guys, he didn't know how to relate to the horrors they had seen. "We got ya, man. Get some rest."

Lumberman looked at his watch. It was 10:26. Another three and a half hours until he'd be waking Cerb up. He turned his attention to the outside and looked out one of the windows.

The night sky was beautiful here. Something to be appreciated. That is to say, he would have appreciated it if not for the fact the distant edges of the Everfree forest were dark. No light could be seen shining in or out. His imagination couldn't help but imagine the terrors that must be in there. The kind of terrible beast that dwarfed and frightened the wild animals that kill and maim people back on Earth.

Trixie stirred in her sleep. She was having a typical self-indulgent dream, the kind she usually dreamed of. On stage and performing for an audience, a particularly large crowd at that. It was the size she knew she deserved. They stretched out far enough she couldn't even make out the faces of the ponies in the back.

Her tricks were wowing the crowd. "Thank you! Thank you!" She shouted to the masses of ponies. "Now for my next trick!" - She reached into her cape, ready to pull out a prop that would shoot out sparks above the audience. The sparks were made to burst into snowflakes and white butterflies. It was sure to amaze them.

She was about to pull it from her hidden pouch as a crash and snap of a metal beam breaking erupted from the back of the audience. She tried to hold back her concern, keeping an intense look about her, like the stage performance professional she prided herself as.

"Don't mind that folks, I'm sure management is taking care of it." An awkward laugh escaped.

She snapped back into professional stage performer mode. "The Great and Powerful Trixie! Will now pull from the frozen mountains of Yakyakastan, bringing you dazzling lights! It's pure white snowy weather! And the delicate flyin-"

Another distraction clanged and bashed too loudly to be ignored, crashing just outside of her view.

She let go of her prop, standing upright on her hind legs and looked out to the backside of the audience. "What is the meaning of this? Trixie came to do a show and will not tolerate being interrupted."

She squinted sharply, struggling to see what was so distracting. Still not seeing anything, she lowered the brim of her hat to block out more of the stage lights. Nothing stuck out, and not even the crowd gave her a hint as for where to look. They were an extremely attentive audience, waiting for the next trick in anticipation, completely undistracted.

Trixie thought about that. She'd never had an audience so perfectly focused on her. Then she felt the cape that was draped over her back. She hadn't felt it earlier. Why, though? More importantly, how was she not able to? Then she felt the tightness of her hat around her brow. How had she not felt that before, either?

"What is going on with my cape?" She demanded.

Confused by the sudden sensation, she reached back and grabbed it with her hooves. She pulled it forward and examined it, but didn't feel the cloth in her hooves. Not at first at least. Slowly, the texture came alive as she loosened her grip, the silken fabric sliding down along the strands of fur. Her body finally becoming aware of all its sensations.

The cloth fell back completely, slightly swaying, and tugging down on her shoulders. And there, the weight of her body was now realized. She looked down along her barrel, pulling along her skin from her stomach to her ribs. The sensation starting numbly until she felt herself with the sense of touch restored.

"What is going on? Is this some kind of dream?" Trixie's question now had an unmistakably clear answer.

She returned her sight upon the unchanging mass of ponies awaiting her next trick. Another crash came, this time she could see it. The stone wall at the end of the building she was in was falling over and crumbling. The steel supports buckling and warping out of shape, exposing the darkness that was pushing forward. The crunching and swirling darkness of a familiar emptiness invading her performance.

"Oh, sweet Luna, this is a dream."

A stream of jagged shaped light formed to her left. She backed away, frantically. The same lighting she had seen before while performing her failed spell danced along the stage next to her. Frightened, yet her attention remained drawn to it. She could see the lighting burning and scaring the wooden stage.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! LUNA! If you can hear me! Please make this stop!" Trixie pleaded, hoping it indeed was a dream. Some awful nightmare she could just wake up from.

The lighting froze in place, glowing brightly and changing into a crystal-like structure. It crinkled and cracked, hardening in front of her.
"Luna Please! Am I being punished!?"

A blur of darkness shot out in front of her. Obscuring her view of the crystalized lighting. She cowered in fear. The Princess of the night and pony of dreams had come to punish her for her abuse of magic and the harm she had caused.

"Luna, please! I'm so sorry!" Trixie cried out, tears welled up, and she begged for forgiveness. "I didn't know it was going to hurt them!"

"For my next trick! Trixie requires a volunteer!" Trixie's voice shouted out just behind the crystal lighting.

The sound of her voice caused her to freeze in place. Was Luna mocking her?

Trixie's voice came again from somewhere else on the stage. "Why hello there my little pony friend. Have you ever dreamed of having wings like a pegasus?"

Trixie's voice played to the crowd. "I'll take that nod as a yes!" Her voice rang out, cheerfully amongst from the sound of crunching and swirling darkness.

The crowd burst in the cheers and whistles, compelling Trixie to finally look up.

"Prin... cess?..." Trixie squeaked, more frightened then she had ever been in her life.

What she saw amassed before her was not Princess Luna. A shadowy haze clouded around the jagged crystal of light. Looking further, churning inside the haze looked to be raw oil, jagged black crystals, and masses of metal folded and pressed with fine edges that were just as dark as the abyss it came from. It condensed down on the lighting, crunching and cracking it open. The light pulsed out like it's last dying breath.

Meekly, Trixie fumbled her words, hoping the Princess of the night would hear her plea. "Luna... please..." Adrenaline coursed through her veins, ready to make her flee this frighting sight, if only she were not too scared to move

Again the dark mass pressed down on the lighting, shattering it. It's crystal pieces flying out in all directions with the roar of thunder and erupting like a stick of dynamite. The rush of adrenaline let Trixie watch it all as if in slow motion.

The blast threw Trixie back to the edge of the stage. She was reeling in pain and screamed out. "Ahhhhhhhhh! Ow! Ow! Oh my gosh, it hurts! It hurts! It-"

Her eyes opened to terror. Shards of crystal pierced her legs and face. She could actually see the thin shards jutting out of her muzzle. Blood oozing out of every wound.

"No! Please! Luna! Starlight! Twilight! Somepony help!" Trixie screamed.

"Trixie!" Starlight's voice pierced through this nightmare.

Trixie, in a foolish panic, jumped up on all fours. Long strands of the crystal pressed in deeper and snapped apart from the weight of her body pressing down against the stage.

"Sweet Celestia!" She grunted, stricken with a level of pain she never knew existed. Fear and adrenaline were the only things keeping her upright. "Starlight! Help me!"

"It looks like you could use some help from your faithful assistant," Starlight called out in a far too cheerful voice.

Trixie didn't care about the tone. She frantically limped forward closer to her voice. "Yes! Please-"

"-with your next trick!" Starlight called out. "But I don't think this little colt wants to give up those wings. Ain't that right little guy?"

Trixie moved up far enough past the mass of darkness pulsating on the stage to see Starlight doing the magic show with another Trixie. They did not seem to notice her, nor the dark mass that was attached to some dark tendril stemming from the morbid wall of mashing metal and glass.

Still approaching ever closer, it's chaotic sounds of destruction swallowing the auditorium and the many ponies filled its seats. The darkness slowly advanced on ever closer.

"She can't hear you, Trixie." The sweet comfort of Twilight's voice came from behind.

Trixie spun around, the blood on her face splashing onto the stage and dripping into her mouth. "Twilight! What's going on? I need your help! I'm..."

Twilight was glowing and shimmering like a crystal pony. Her face was cold and distant, and she was looking forward as if ignoring Trixie entirely.

With a closer examination, it appeared that this wasn't Twilight. Not the Twilight Trixie new. She was different in a way that Trixie couldn't understand exactly, but it was obvious at the same time.

"Then why bring me here if they can't hear me?." Another Trixie's voice protested in anger.

Trixie fell on her back on her flank, confused at what she was now looking at. Another Trixie ran out in front of this different Twilight, arguing angrily.

"I can't keep watching this fucking thing killing everypony!" The new Trixie screamed. It even used that human word she heard earlier.

"Can you saw a human in half, though?" The human Kelly called out and carting over a large box to be sawed in half from.

Starlight would have paid more attention to this new site, but she was overtaken with many new illusions of many more Trixie's, Starlights, some of the humans, and audience members that she had never seen. They all flooded in, intersecting and phasing through each other like hallucinations or ghost.

The sound of bending and snapping metal overtook Trixie from behind. A wall of the abyss rose high above her. The stage lights gleamed on the many sharpened edges of the towering terror. The maddening noise triggered a response of flashes of multiple jagged lights striking around her. Each dancing for only a few seconds before repeating the same patterns as before.

"No. Not again!" Trixie forced herself up, pushing herself to the back of the stage, hoping to find some escape. She frantically limped her way to its edge. Her legs were soaked, the sensation of her hot blood coating her fur was distracting enough that she had to look down to understand just what it was she was feeling along with the pain.

Such a sensation only fueled her fear. She quickened her pace grunting and yelping in agony. Stumbling, she stepped too hard on a tender spot, driving one of the shards farther in. Her leg buckled with an audible grunt of pain and she fell forward, rolling off of the stage. The sound from the crystalized bolts of lighting exploding. One after another, as each was shattered and its flying debris could be heard tacking themselves into the floors and walls and flying just overhead.

She landed in the dirt and covered her face, fearing more of the crystal daggers would find their way to her, but there was nothing.

She opened her eyes and pulled her forelegs away from her head. To her amazement, no blood, no shards, no pain. Like it was all a dream... wasn't it though?

She got to her hooves and brushed herself off. It was still night, and she was outside by her wagon. Right, where she had first seen the crystal bolts and mashing darkness.

"How did I get all the way back out here?" She asked blankly into the open air of the night.

Her wagon was just as she left it. Though her props were missing and the tattered canvas had been removed. Perhaps Starlight had taken care of her things, and she was only now finding out.

"Trixie Lulamoon," the cold sounds of the doppel Twilight called out.

Trixie's heart raced at the sound of that voice. She turned around. Both angry and frightened. "You! What was that back there! Were you trying to kill me?!" She eyed the glowing creature impersonating the Princess.

"Trixie," the doppel spoke with a tone that seemed vacant of life. "Why don't you show yourself to me?"

"I'm right here you creepy copycat," Trixie spoke through her gritted teeth.

The doppel continued forward, her head looking around and surveying the area. "I called out to you in whispers, but you did not respond. I spoke clearly, yet you did not answer. I thought it would be too much to assault you with the royal Canterlot voice, yet you seemed unphased."

"Well, I hear you loud and clear now. You got something to say?!" Trixie yelled, her anger boiling over into her horn. Stage magician or not, she was ready to throw down with this faker.

"Are you hiding from me?" The doppel asked blankly. "Or is it simply that I that can no longer see you?"

"Say wha?" Trixie dropped her guard, her horn letting go of the magic it was building up.

The doppel came to a stop. "There is so much I can no longer see, now. I need to know if you have the humans. I cannot sense them, nor can I see or even feel anything past your bridge."

Trixie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What! You know about them?! -" Trixie ran up to the doppel. "Please! You have to help me! I brought them here on accident, and I need to get them back home!"

She stared into the face of this fake Twilight waiting for a response.

"Hey! Are you even listening?!"

The doppel stepped forward, phasing through Trixie. "Everything has changed, and this world is in danger. More danger than before the echoes of the mirror."

Trixie stood stupefied. Was this a ghost? Did the ghost just say the world was in danger?

She turned again and followed alongside the imposter. "What do you mean the world is in danger? Shouldn't you be telling this to one of the Princesses or maybe-"

"The world of man beyond your reflection is gone from us. Equestria will be consumed by the empty world of darkness." The doppel narrated, walking alongside a Trixie she could not even see.

Trixie kept pace but grew angry with the one-way conversation. "The world of man is gone? You mean we can't send them back? And-and-an-and what do you mean the world of darkness is going to consume us?

"Yet... the many bright worlds of hope and longing can save us before the fifth year passes." The doppel spoke with what almost sounded like optimism. "Their passions have fallen, and their love has grown narrow-"

Trixie hung on those words. Why did they seem so familiar?

"- but their devotion is unlike any others." The doppel finished.

Trixie's mind performed an instant recall.

"You didn't bind the spell to anypony. It just describes their character traits." Starlight explained, taking a hoof to lower the book enough to look over the traits in the spell. "Passionate. Loving." her eyes narrowed, "Powerful devotion? Really?"

Trixie's horn flared up, causing the book to slam shut. "Well." She pulled the book back to her side, sliding it under her cloak. "They didn't have anything else I could use." She huffed in protest. "You think they'd have a spell for fans or an audience. This was the next best thing."

"That was part of my spell! Are you trying to say that my spell summoned them specifically?" Trixie demanded.

"Trixie. Even if I am a distant reflection of yet another reflection, I have waited for over a thousand years to be strong enough to protect those my mothers and fathers sacrificed themselves for. Even struggling against the vines of chaos that dug at my very roots. I will protect this world as only I can, though I do not know how. A thousand years of plans that were set in motion forever ruined by a ripple in time."

The two stopped, now just on the outskirts of a desolate-looking Ponyville. Trixie rubbed her head in an angry tantrum. "I literally don't understand half of what you just rattled off! Do you even know if I can you hear you, or are you just talking because you like the sound of your own voice?"

"I hope that you could hear this, Trixie. I hope that this was not all in vain." The doppel called out to the empty streets.

A flash of light sparked far out ahead of them. Another silent bolt of lightning struck the ground and began to dance.

Trixie immediately started to back away. "Ugh, miss Crazy Twilight Sparkles. I need- We need to leave here. Like, now!"

"I can no longer venture out this far to you, Trixie. I have used too much power, and it seems to bring the dangers of both the dark and the bright worlds closer. I may have to send others," The doppel said before she closed her eyes and began to glow brightly.

Her color faded away, faintly letting the sight of a jagged mass of white crystals coming into view before she faded into glimmering sparks of light that drifted off and dissipated into nothingness.

Trixie danced in place, watching in a panic as the only source of information was leaving without knowing she could be heard. "Send others? Who?! What else aren't you telling me?! -" She followed the sparks up into the empty air. Bucking Tartarus! Who are you?!"

A familiar explosion off in the distance echoed into ear-shot.

"Oh, no..." Trixie turned to face the source. Another glowing streak of light tracing up to the clouds crumbled and fell to the ground from farther ahead. The sound of its crystal structure sent a chill through her body. The chill was doubled with a bright light glowing brightly close behind and the sounds of the Earth by her hooves being scorched.

Trixie turned and backed away from the jagged bolt of light that danced over the ash and char left in its wake, fearing another spray of crystal daggers like before. The arc flickered about the ground until it to grew stiff and hardened. The crystal structure forming with the foreboding sounds of what all but made her feel the wounds from earlier were reopening. Slowly she continued to move away, hoping that if she didn't provoke the structure, it wouldn't shatter like before.

Another step back and her hoof splashed in something. It was wet and frigidly cold. Her leg jerked up out of reflex from the bitter coldness that stuck to her. She tried to kick it off, flicking her back hoof and dragging it along the grass. Not only did it not come off, it was getting colder, painfully cold.

The coldness dug deeper, pricking at her hoof like pins and needles, forcing muffled grunts Trixie tried to hide from the crackling bolt still in front of her. She winced, swallowing the pain and hoping to stay undiscovered, but the pins and needles pierced through the hoof. The cold stabbed deep with icy venom as if a swarm of artic wasp was attacking it.

She collapsed to her side, still kicking her leg, her frantic breath barely enough to fend off the desire to scream. In the glow of the bolt behind her, she finally made out the source of pain. The darkness had found her and was attached to her hoof. It seemed to move on its own with tiny jagged hardened pieces dragging across itself and pressing down into her flesh. She forced her leg still enough to examine in horror what had attached to her. Then, as if aware it had been detected, the dark mass slowed its swirling and churning, expanded itself out like a pufferfish, and quickly drew back inward, crushing Trixie's hoof.

Trixie screamed in agony while she was reaching down and holding her leg just above the ankle. "It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's just a dream. Soon you're going to wake up Trixie. Starlight will have breakfast wait for you and-"

The black mass crushed down again, the cracking of keratin and bone popped like lumber breaking under pressure. Helplessly she screamed alone as the amorphous dark entity continued to break the limb it clung to.

Trixie's reached her limit of pain, she let her fear and anger take control of her judgment. Her horned flared brightly as she charged it to lash out in any way she could. She took aim at the invading mass and unleashed what power she could.

Unfocused blue streams of magic beamed onto the crushing mass. Sparks erupted with a puff of smoke as the attack climaxed and burst in a flash of light.

Trixie lay on her back, panting heavily. There was a pain still there, though the stabbing cold was replaced with burning crushing pain. The smoke drifted enough for her to look up and see the bloody results. The black mass was gone, gone along with everything below her ankle. Sorrow washed over her entire being as she stared at the exposed bone and charred flesh. Her body forever marred and mutilated.

With bated breath, she thought to what this meant for her, but the night wasn't over. A mass of churning crunching glass and metal sounds rose from the ground where she had unwittingly stepped just moments ago. Light from the glowing bolt flared brighter with hues of crimson and violet, revealing more of the flowing black monstrosity. She was trapped between a rock and a hard place with one leg now unusable.

She looked back to the bolt it was close to its next phase. The black mass condensed itself, preparing to attack the light source like it did before. Trixie then realized the difference between these two. It was not the crystal bolt that had attacked her, but the darkness that had caused it. And she wasn't about to relive that experience if she let the dark mass to go unchecked.

Dark clouds gathered low to the surface, hiding what few stars shined. Trixie slowly stood, limping back to the source of light. "I don't know what you are or what your problem with ponies is," Trixie snarled with nothing but contempt for this mindless evil entity that poised itself before her. "- but you just bucked with the wrong mare, tonight."

She backed far enough that her flank touched the bolt. It spooked her, and she turned to it, expecting it to break or attack, but it just continued to glow cordially. It was warm to the touch, yet soothing. Nothing like she expected.

Trixie decided there and then that if it wasn't going to attack her, and the approaching darkness didn't like it, that was good enough for her to trust it.

There was no better place to take a stand. She turned back to her new enemy, eyes focused, and horn charged. Just above, the dark clouds were billowing up, circling above as Trixie waited for the mass to move.

"Trixie grows bored of this standoff. How about you come a little closer so I can show you a magic trick?"

Like a bull drawn to red, it darted forward, just as she had hoped. Trixie huffed and strained her magic. Her horn sparked, and the clouds overhead unleashed a torrent of lighting. Blinding light and booming thunder rocked the Earth in front of her. She shielded her eyes and prayed she would not be overtaken by the cold stinging mass of death.

Her eyes slowly adjusted back to the night, revealing dust and smoldering chunks of smoking debris. It had worked. It actually worked. She mustered all of her ego for one prideful moment.

"Tada!" She took a bow before rising gracefully and standing proud. "I've been working on that for a while now."

She brushed the hoof of her front right foreleg against her coat, mock polishing it. She carefully stuck it out in front and examined the shine. "I was saving it for an Ursa or something like that, but I guess you'll do."

The ground trembled, and more of the mass emerged, pooling itself together and groaning with the sound of twisting metal bending and breaking upon itself. Trixie dropped her mockery and again took a serious stance as best she could with three legs. The dark clouds above slowly starting to reform themselves under her command. The concentration of watching her surroundings while calling upon so much magic was overtaxing her while fighting off the pain of her mangled leg.

However, when pushed into a corner and her confidence bolstered by being able to wound this shapeless abomination, she wouldn't let the fear control her. "What are you waiting for?! Even with three legs, the Great and Powerful Trixie will stand her ground!"

The ground bellow Trixie suddenly fell out from under her with the crash of the Earth itself being driven down by a long straight tube of crystal that was previously unrefined and jagged.

Trixie dropped seven feet down, landing on all fours. The exposed bone from her missing hoof pierced into the compressed dirt below her, holding it in place as the rest of her body collapsed. She wailed loudly, pulling her leg back against her body and cradling it.

"What the hey?!" She kicked the large tube-like structure. The impact rang out like it hollowed metal pipe would. "Same team, idiot!"

This structure was mostly translucent and filled with the same multi-colored lights she had seen when she opened the portal originally. Up close, she noticed it's mass and size much bigger than the one that demolished her bridge.

It was impressive in size. It seemed to have been embedded into the Earth itself, but it was impossible to estimate how far down it went. The same could be said for how high it went. It towered well past what her eyes could see. Looking at it now, it wasn't so much of a tube as it was a pillar. A pillar with no distinguishable start or end that was wider than the pillars used at Canterlot Castle.

Looking past the pillar, she could better see the situation she had literally fallen into. The pillar had cratered the ground at least seven feet deep. The crushed Earth gradually tapered back up to a normal height of what she guessed to be a length of a tennis court. Not that she played much tennis these days.

Feeling safe enough from the pillar at the moment, Trixie retrained her eyes, looking for more of the black substance. The large mass was no longer in sight, but three smaller spots of it were still in the crater. They bubbled up angrily and started rolling down the long slope and convened on each other. The masses pooled together to one large puddle of churning mess of oil, dark shards, and the amorphous clusters of barbs and serrated metallic forms, it crawled closer.

She refocused her horn, trying to align another strike of lighting, but the connection felt distant. She looked frantically for her clouds, but they were all beyond the edges of the crater. She'd have to do something else to fend off this threat. Another blast like she had used on her hoof was the only option she had. Unfortunately, it would have to get closer. That attack was only effective if cast up close and personal.

Her horn glowed, the magic would be more focused and precise with a longer charge time. She steadied herself upright on her front legs. "That's right. Come closer! Trixie prefers up-close magic."

The black mass pulled itself into a tighter form, balling up in its center and building up like it did the last time when it moved to strike. The oily substance that flooded down began to boil. It bubbled up, popping and hissing while gaining speed. More and more of the oil sizzled and evaporated as it drew closer, leaving more of the lethal solid contents to be exposed. The jagged shards and twisted metal edges that were this thing's brutal weapons that had mutilated her earlier shinned in the glowing light from behind her.

It was thirty feet away, still not close enough. Trixie had to calculate the best timing she would need before she could cast this spell.

Twenty feet, still too far. "Get closer and die," she screamed internally.

Fifteen feet away and it was nearly only a disjointed tangled mess of metal, and crystal blades with spikes fixed to a mass of exposed muscle and tendrils riding a thin pool of oil.

Twelve feet now, and at seven, she would unleash her wrath.

Ten feet away, and her body was rocked off-balance, blindsided from some unseen force on her right side.

Immediately all sight was stolen. Her eyes were open, but darkness was all she could see. She tried to move, but her body was entangled, wrapped in bindings that cocooned her in a trap that heated the air was struggling to breathe.

She gasped and struggled to free herself, frantically trying to push away the slick bindings.

"Let me go, now!" She screamed in desperation.

Instinct took over again, and she released the torrent of magic from her horn in rapid bursts, ripping through and exposing the blinding light that lay beyond it. She wasted no time digging her hooves through tattered shreds of her bindings, bucking and trying to fight her way out.

Her horn glowed bright, ready to blast the first thing that came within range. More bucking and frantically pawing her way to a smooth carpeted floor and dark blue crystal walls.

Starlight hovered in the air, protected by a magic shield she had placed.

Trixie looked down the bedsheet and blanket that lay draped off the edge of the bed, shredded and smoking. The great and powerful magician horse had successfully freed herself from the royal linens.

"Bad dream, or should I just not nudge you in the morning to wake you up from now on?" Starlight asked, clearly not impressed.

Trixie blinked a few times, still trying to grasp how she was in Twilight's castle and not impaled or covered in a murderous black ooze. "A thousand-year-old evil clone of Twilight Sparkle from the Crystal Empire can't find me in my dreams to tell me what we need to do with the humans to stop our world from being consumed by darkness," she managed to spit out in one breath. "and the darkness tried to kill me."

Starlight stared back, baffled behind the protective barrier she had created. "What?"

The bedroom door slammed open. Twilight stood in the doorway, her horn battle-ready, and her magic shield glowing around her. "I heard screaming and somepony being attacked. What happened? Are you both okay?"

"Twilight..." Starlight sighed exasperatedly. "I think our annual end of the world scenario has come early this year."