CHAPTER 1


It was another beautiful morning in the magical land of Equestria. The sun has just begun to rise over the horizon, no doubt through the magic of Princess Celesita, and casts a warm glow over the hills and trees. Critters of all sizes began to stir as the warm bath of the light of a new day beckons them from their nests and holes that they all come to call home. The smell of the morning dew can be found through the light morning breeze, bringing a cleansing to the mind and spirit to all who partook. On this morning, a long shadow was being cast from the winding rough road. The tranquil quiet that once stilled the air was disturbed by the clopping of hooves and the squeaking of wheels as they labored to carry the wooden cart being pulled.

The cart itself was small but large enough for a single pony to live in comfortably with a moderate amount of possessions, and on one side an advertisement The Great and Powerful Trixie! was painted in various shades of blue and stars and a single crescent moon adorning it. The humble abode came to a slow stop, and a sigh could be heard from the pony who was just pulling her home. Trixie, the powdery blue unicorn, unhitched herself, her horn glowing a matching blue hue that surrounded the hitch that levitated off her body, allowing her to move out from underneath and set down the cart gently. She let out another long sigh as she looked to the horizon where the sun rose from, kicking at some small rocks that littered the rough road.

"Trixie shouldn't have stayed up so late to watch the meteor shower," Trixie said to no one.

She kicked another small rock as it rolled down the road a little before coming to an immediate stop. She looked up to the sky, where the morning sun now hung, and reminisced on last night's beautiful shower. It started fairly late, and lasted well into the night. But of all the showers that she's seen in her days, none were as spectacular as the one that she beheld on this night. The stars themselves seemed to have been raining down as if the dark night sky was hiding a predator, the stars startled prey running for their lives. But what was peculiar about this meteor shower was that some had managed to puncture the atmosphere and come crashing to the earth, one of which landed not too far from where Trixie was staying that night. That is why she awoke at such an early hour this morning, to explore the meteor that landed before anypony else decided to investigate.

Trixie yawned before hanging her head, removing her starry pointed wizard hat from her head. She then shook her head along with the rest of her body, an attempt to wake herself up.

"Now is not the time for Trixie to regret not getting enough sleep," She told herself.

She levitated her hat back onto her head, then lifted the hitch to her cart with magic and tucked herself back into it, and once again the calm morning was filled with the sound of clopping hooves and creaking wheels and wood. A couple of hours have passed before Trixie reached where she believes that the meteor she's been tracking landed. She looked to the sky, then to the tree line of the forest in front of her, and after some quick calculations she deduced that what she's looking for is somewhere in the forest. But that's where the problems began, for it wasn't just any forest she stood in front of. No, the forest she stood in front of was the EverFree Forest, a well known forest to everypony that was home to countless dangerous wild animals. Trixie swallowed dryly, quickly beginning to regret ever wanting to look for the meteor. She was beginning to consider giving up for her search, and turned to go back, but something in the back of her mind stopped her from leaving. She turned her gaze back to the dark depths of the EverFree, and the nagging feeling that stopped her from leaving was now even stronger, and growing still. Something was telling her to abandon all fear of the deadly forest, to venture in and find what she sought. Soon, she felt compelled to oblige to this strange sensation, and with a flex of her magic unhitched herself from her cart and slowly made her way in.

The moment she crossed into the shadows, Trixie felt a rush of wind go past her. It was a peculiar wind, ominous almost, as if whatever conjured it was telling her to turn back and leave. It caused Trixie to shiver in a mix of cold and fear, and she found herself looking back to the light, to where her cart sat. Surely whatever's been driving her to find the fallen rock couldn't keep her from following her gut feelings and just leave. But that was not the case, as the sensation came back and pulled her attention back to the path in front of her, and without even knowing it ventured foreward. Trixie's ear twitched as a mysterious, high pitched ring softly began to sing on the thick air, and she turned her head left and right, wondering where the source could be coming from. She followed it as best she could, the sensations that led her into the forest now leading her to the sound that was becoming slightly louder as she got closer to wherever it was coming from. The ringing only grew louder as she ventured forth, almost driving her to grinding her teeth in annoyance, but it then all of a sudden went dead quiet. She looked around nervously, wondering why, until she saw the only clearing she's come across since she entered. She made her way through the thicket, and found out why it was the only clearing.

The crater that was made by the meteor was fair in size in comparison. Trixie has seen enough craters to know that much. But what made this particular crater odd was that as wide as it was, it was also fairly shallow, with a small outcropping of rock in the center of the crater, almost like a pillar. She carefully made her way down, grateful that she didn't have to descend very far, and slowly made her way in to the epicenter. There, she saw what had made the crater, sitting on top the small upheaval of rock and dirt, but it was nothing that she'd had ever seen before, certainly no meteor. Everywhere else, the earth was smoltering, still smoking from the initial impact made earlier that night. Everything but the makeshift pillar and the supposed meteor. She approached the stone, but once she got close enough, she quickly realized it was no meteor that fell here. Instead, Trixie had found what looked like some sort of amulet or chestplate, intricately carved from stone with great detail, with a small, red polished gem in the shape of an upside-down tear drop sitting in the center. She didn't know what any of the symbols that adorned the plate-like charm meant, but she's seen enough charms and trinkets to know that they were some kind of incantations to empower it. She felt compelled to approach it, but she could also feel the magic that pulsed from it, and it felt dark, evil. This evil was also strong, enough to make Trixie shudder in a nameless terror.

Suddenly the sensation of evil vanished, causing Trixie to look around, confused. She didn't have time to think it, for as soon as the evil presence was gone, she heard something in the air, a voice, soft enough where she couldn't hear it clearly, but loud enough to be noticed. Her ears twitched left and right, wondering what it was.

"...I can sense it."

Trixie jumped and squeaked when she heard the voice. She quickly whirled around, looking for whoever, or whatever, spoke. "Wh-Who dares sneaks up on the great and powerful Trixie?!" She demanded, receiving no answer.

"Do not fear me," the strange voice echoed. Trixie's ears quickly twitched, picking up where the voice was coming from, and quickly wheeled around, finding no one but the strange artifact in front of her. "You harbor a desire in your heart. Yes...a desire I know oh so well."

Trixie started to shake with fear, her eyes darting everywhere in front of her for any sign of whatever was talking to her. "Y-You know nothing of Trixie's heart, phantom! Show yourself!"

"Oh, but I do," the voice answered but ignoring the unicorn's command, "You harbor vengeance in your heart. You desire to see one who has humiliated you suffer the way you have suffered."

Trixie was shaking heavily now, what fear that had a hold on her was now in an iron grip. Should she wish to run now, it was impossible. How did this phantom know about that? Could it read her mind? Her heart? Her soul? She dreaded what else it could do.

"...I can offer you the chance."

Trixie stopped shaking, her interest quickly and oddly piqued. The red gem adorned on the artifact began to glow faintly, drawing in the unicorn's gaze, and filling her with a sensation of great power. She'd only felt this kind of power once before, when she wore the Alicorn Amulet, but the power she was feeling that was coming from this strange object vastly overshadowed that of the cursed trinket. Soon what fear she had was replaced with the heated passion of desiring nothing but seeing Twilight Sparkle suffer by her hoof, and a grin began to stretch across her face.

"All I ask, is for you to house of what remains of my soul," the voiced echoed in the unicorn's mind, "Agree to this, and all of my power shall be yours to wield."

"Trixie agrees," Trixie said, not even giving a moment's thought. "With such power, Trixie will make Twilight and her friends tremble before the new great and powerful Trixie!" Her horn lit up as she picked up the artifact, placing it against her chest. The relic adheres to her, enveloping in black wisps of energy, as it morphs into the shape of an amulet, slightly smaller than it's original shape, and tightens firmly around her neck. Trixie feels the exhilarating rush of all of the relic's powers, causing her grin to stretch from ear to ear, then breaking out in a cackle. The power she felt coming from this relic was wholly unfamiliar to her, practically alien, but she didn't care, for she now had the means to exact her revenge on Twilight. Her reveling was cut short when she felt a rumbling in the earth, the source quickly coming into view. It was an Ursa Minor, a large, transparent, star-studded blue bear that could clearly tower any of the houses in Ponyville. It let out an earth rumbling roar as it made it's way towards Trixie.

"Humph," Trixie scoffed as she confidently let the Ursa charge her as she polished her hoof, "You dare trifle with the great and evermore powerful Trixie?" The Ursa made no response as it quickly closed the distance between them. Trixie yawned as she turned to the Ursa, and flexed a small amount of her newfound power. She lifted the Ursa with ease as it ran, and proceeded to lift and drop it onto the ground repeatedly until it went starry-eyed and limp. She scoffed again as she gave a slight nod, sending the Ursa Minor flying backwards back into the forest, where it crashed with a thunderous boom, followed by the Minor's mewing as it ran away injured.

Trixie couldn't help herself as she cackled loudly, levitating in the air as she continued to weakly flex her new power, causing the winds around her to swirl violently, bending and swaying trees. She calmed and returned to the ground, and made her way back to her cart with haste, unaware of the black-robed figure that stood watching as Trixie left, it's large, cone-shaped helmet hiding it's true face, before disappearing in a cloud of black pixels.


~Meanwhile, in Ponyville...

It had been a restless couple of nights for Twilight Sparkle. It all started the night of the meteor shower, when she and her friends decided to meet up to watch it together. It was a spectacle for all who attended the viewing, which was pretty much the entirety of Ponyville, even those who had to wake up early later that morning. Ever since that night, however, whenever Twilight would drift into her dreams, they all shifted to the same dream, or rather, the same nightmare. They all start the same; Twilight and her friends are in the presence of Princess Celestia in her day court. But then, the room darkens, and one by one, her friends are incased in what looks to be amber pillars, crafted to look like four-sided obelisks that reached from the floor to the ceiling, their positions and faces frozen in terror. Twilight would then turn and plead to Princess Celestia to save them, only to find her being encased in a larger obelisk herself, the same fear frozen in her body and on her face. The room would begin to crack like glass then shatter as the throne room changes drastically, her captured friends and Princess remaining, going from the ivory and golden theme of the solar Princess to one of dark, cold stone. There were no windows, the only source of light coming from glowing stone orbs in metal cradles, runes and lines that lined the walls and floor that softly, but eerily, glowed in light blues and reds. And at the center of this room, sitting in a stone throne, she saw the mysterious, bipedal figure in black robes and a strange, conical helmet.

At this point, Twilight would find herself waking up in a cold sweat of terror, but it didn't end that way this time. Instead, the figure arose from the throne, then disappear and reappear in front of Twilight, causing her to fall over and stare at it, unable to move. The figure would then raise and hold out one of it's forelegs, holding it above her, then let it fall slightly. She was met with the ear-slpitting sound of glass shattering, and Twilight was made to witness as the amber pillars containing her friends began to shatter one by one, her friends disappearing in the falling shards. She wanted to scream, scream as loud as she could and command the figure to stop, but no sound came from her agape mouth. The figure then leaned over Twilight, bending at such an angle that, despite having no idea what it was, knew that such a bend was unnatural, and a portion of the helmet folded away, revealing a disgusting mouth. The figure continued to bend over more, until it was mere inches from the greatly horrified Twilight, and she could feel it's breath on her fur. She shook, waiting for what it would do to her, and only saw it's lips move, as if it were trying to communicate with her, but she did not understand any of it. It then shot straight back up, then disappearing and then reappearing next to the obelisk containing the frozen Princess Celestia. Twilight's eyes grew wide as it raised it's arm again, holding it in front of Celestia's crystal prison, then dropped it, causing the last obelisk to shatter, Princess Celestia disappearing along with it. Twilight shook with anger and shock as the figure bent back and laughed loudly, and finally found her voice and shouted loudly, causing everything around her to shatter like glass, leaving her in oblivion and causing her to fall before she snapped out of her nightmare, and back to reality.

Twilight sat up in her bed, panting heavily as sweat dripped off of her muzzle and her heart racing a mile a minute. Her mind was still fixated on the nightmare she just had, seeming almost all too real to her this time. She buried her face in her forelegs as she rubbed off the collecting sweat from her face, then she noticed that Spike, the small, purple and green scaled dragon, was looking at her with worry dripping from his face.

"Woah," Spike said, coming closer, "Twilight, you okay?"

Twilight paused a moment before nodding and putting on a fake smile. "Yes, I'm fine, Spike."

Spike looked at Twilight with some skepticism as he crossed his arms. "Clearly you aren't," he said, "You're screaming woke me up again, this time from a really good dream I was having." He came closer and spoke in a hushed tone. "You had the nightmare again, didn't you?"

Twilight looked into the little dragon's eyes and knew that there wasn't any point in hiding it from him. She sighed, the smile leaving with her breath, and nodded. "Yes, Spike. But it was different this time. It felt so...real, more real than any of the other times I've had it. There was also more to it this time."

"R-Really? How much more?" Spike asked nervously.

Twilight shook her head, trying both to remember the dream as well as wanting to forget it altogether. "That cloaked figure...the biped...it shattered the glass pillars that everypony was trapped in, including the one that trapped Princess Celestia. I'm not sure why, but it felt like it was some kind of threat directed at me."

"That actually sounds pretty scary," Spike said, a claw to his chin. He then looked to Twilight, and rested his little claw on her hoof in an attempt to comfort her. "But it's was just a nightmare. Nothing more than a bad dream, right?"

Twilight looked to Spike, and slowly began to calm as her Number One Assistant brought up a very good point. No matter how scary a dream is, it's only just that, a dream. She nodded as she hopped out of bed. "You're right, Spike," Twilight said, using her magic to perfectly make her bed. "A dream is a dream, no matter what." She came over and patted Spike on the head, who enjoyed it, brief as it may be. "Now then, let's start the day."

"Gladly," Spike said as he made his way downstairs to the kitchen to start breakfast, while Twilight went through her morning wake-up checklist. Like clockwork, Twilight managed to finish her morning routine, resetting her checklist and tucking it away back into a drawer, and joined Spike just as he finished making the last batch of pancakes. They each build their own on their plates, and dug in. "Hey Twilight, you still think that a meteor landed during the shower?"

"Of course I do, Spike," Twilight answered after waiting to swallow what pancakes she had in her mouth. "I know for a fact that one landed someplace nearby, but I'm still working on the math to find out it's trajectory, and therefore find out where, exactly, it landed." She points to the large chalkboard that rests in the main library, nearly covered from top to bottom with equations and graphs.

Spike nodded as he took another hearty bite from his stack. "Well, when you do find out where it landed, let me know. I wanna go with you when you go looking for it."

"Promise," Twilight said, nodding.

"Pinkie Promise?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I Pinkie Promise," Twilight sighed, making all the gestures that go with the promise. The two continued to enjoy their breakfast in peace until there was a hard rapping on the door.

"I got it," Spike said, quickly hopping down from his seat and rushing to the door. Twilight heard the door fly open, Spike must've been slammed against the wall by the door, and was quickly met by Rainbow Dash, huffing as she tried to catch her breath.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, coming down from the table. She then saw the worry on her friend's cyan and rainbow-maned face, causing her to return the expression. "What's going on?"

"Trixie," Rainbow Dash managed to spit out. She took another moment and caught her breath, and looked to her friend. "She's back. Again."

"Trixie?" Twilight pondered, raising an eyebrow, "Why is that so bad?"

"Why?" Rainbow asked, " WHY?! Twilight, she's calling you out again!"

"Again?" Twilight scoffed. "Rainbow Dash, you and I both know that after we helped her get the Alicorn Amulet off, she was done with that."

"That's not what she's saying," Rainbow said, poking at Twilight's chest. "In fact, she's saying that she's found something even stronger than the Amulet. She's even going on about how she tossed around an Ursa Minor like it was a rag doll after she found this new power!"

Twilight's jaw dropped, along with her skepticism. She quickly got up and close to Rainbow Dash, studying her face and hoping that she was kidding, but she only saw sincere worry on her face. "That's impossible! What could be possibly more powerful than the Alicorn Amulet? And more importantly, how did she get it?"

"Beats me," Rainbow Dash answered, shaking her head, "So what are you gonna do?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Twilight answered rather quickly, hanging her head. She and her friends had enough trouble when they tried to separate Trixie from the Alicorn Amulet. Who knows how much trouble they 'll have to go through in order to separate her from something even more powerful than that, if she can be at all? Twilight shook her head at the thought, then quickly met eyes with the cyan pegasus. "But anything's better than sitting here and doing nothing."

"Now we're talking," Rainbow nodded in agreement. She made her way back to the door, Twilight on her tail. Twilight stopped to move the door, and saw Spike still flattened against the wall. She used her magic to peel him off the wall and inflate him, then levitate him onto her back.

"C'mon, Spike," Twilight said rhetorically, and dashed out of the library, where Rainbow was trotting place waiting for them.