Chapter 4: The Poor and Broken Trixie

About half a year passed since that event at Ponyville; Trixie found herself back where she started: broke, homeless, and alone. At first, she hoped that no one heard about the news and she could continue on making a living, but word spread surprisingly fast and Trixie found herself out of work. It was hard for her to find jobs; as a result, she struggled to even afford food. There were many days she would go hungry. She wandered endlessly around Equestria praying that there would be someone kind enough to take her in; but rarely did they even let her stay for one night. Trixie had nothing except the painful memories that haunted her every day.

Trixie was at a bar one night having a couple of drinks. She stared at the half empty glass that sat in front of her with a frown. The bartender stared at her with curious eyes as the depressed unicorn took a sip of her drink.

"Hey, you okay?" the bartender asked, "You don't look so good."

Trixie only answered by nodding slightly.

"Say… you look familiar." The bartender continued, "Aren't you that Great and Powerful Trixie who went around saying she vanquished an Ursa Major or something?"

Trixie gave a half smile and said "No. You must have me confused with someone else."

"Ah. Well, I heard that it all turned out to be a bunch of garbage, 'cause I heard somepony found out that she made the whole thing up to make her look better."

"Well, I guess you couldn't blame her for trying." Trixie replied.

"I haven't heard from her in a while. She's probably retired."

"Probably..." Trixie said.

She finished up her drink and left a small tip on the bar and started to leave. But she stopped when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Hold it right there!" said the voice.

She turned around and saw it was Regal Romance staring her down as she walked over to Trixie. She looked very annoyed by Trixie's presence.

"You can't hide from me!" she said "I know who you are, Trixie!"

Everyone at the bar immediately stopped what they were doing when they heard Trixie's name and looked at the blue unicorn who stood before them.

"Oh… h-hello, Regal." Trixie said with a nervous smile, "It's been a while. How have you been?"

"Don't start that act with me!" Regal said now close up to her, "You have no idea what you did to my best friend!"

"Who? Oh, Flourish!" Trixie said nervously, "Um… how is she doing?"

"She hasn't been the same, no thanks to you!" Regal said in anger.

"Regal, I'm sorry! I-"

"Oh! You're sorry? You attacked Flourish and you're sorry? You're not sorry, Trixie, you're a monster!" Regal said poking Trixie with her hoof, "You'll never find anywhere to go! Nobody wants to be with you because you're a selfish, inconsiderate monster!"

"But… I…" Trixie pleaded.

"Get out! GET OUT!" Regal shouted.

Trixie slowly retreated out the door as Regal continued to shoo her away. Trixie left the bar and never looked back. Regal always did like to pick on her, mainly because she saw Trixie as a dork; but Trixie saw that this time, it was out of pure hatred. She knew that any hope of making amends to Regal was all but gone.

Trixie continued on to the next town in search for a job. She was walking down the road next to the woods. It was a dark night so Trixie used an illumination spell to keep her path visible. As she was walking, two ponies approached her. Trixie felt a little uncomfortable that they were following her, but she tried to ignore them. The two ponies got close behind her as they were walking.

"Excuse me, Miss." One of them said.

Trixie looked back to see them and she immediately recognized who they were. One of them was the waiter at a restaurant that she at half a year ago and the other was the green pegasus from that same town who kept bothering her.

"Well, look who it is!" said the waiter, "If it isn't the Great and Powerful Trixie."

"Yeah!" said the green pegasus, "It's been a while since we saw you."

"Hello. Um… why are you following me?" Trixie said nervously.

"Giving me the cold shoulder again, eh?" the green Pegasus said hovering up close to her, "You really are Trixie, just as I remember you."

"Oh… It's nice to see you again, but I need to get going. It is kind of dark, you know." Trixie said nervously.

"No! We would like for you to come with us!" the waiter said with a snide smile, "Someone very special would like to meet you."

"I… really need to get going…" Trixie said trying to walk away.

"No! We insist!" the green pegasus said grabbing her hoof.

"You wouldn't want to keep your friend waiting, would we?" the waiter said grabbing her other hoof.

The two ponies dragged Trixie into the woods against her own will.

They kept dragging her on and on through the woods. Deeper and deeper they went; it seemed like hours they kept dragging her. Trixie wanted to fight back, but she knew she would make things worse if she did. She tried to wriggle free from their tight hold, but they were much stronger than she was.

Finally, they stopped in the middle of the woods. Trixie found herself face to face with a rusty food trough. It looked like it had been abandoned in the woods for years as it was filled with murky water with crusty brown leaves floating in it.

Trixie looked at the ponies holding her hostage nervously. She had no idea what they wanted from her.

"She'll be here any moment now." Said the pegasus, "In the meantime, why don't you have drink?"

The waiter held Trixie's hooves behind her back as the green pegasus dunked her head into the dirty water before her. Trixie tried to hold her breath for as long as she could, but she started sufficating. When the green colt yanked her head out of the trough, Trixie coughed as she tried to catch her breath.

"Not so great and powerful now, are you?" he said.

He dunked her head into the trough again, this time a little longer that last time. Trixie thought she was going to drown until finally, a voice stopped them.

"That's enough, you two!" said the voice.

The green pony yanked Trixie's head out of the trough and shoved her to the ground. As water dripped from her wet face, she coughed out water and tried to breathe.

"Let me get a good look at you." Said the voice.

Trixie looked up and, to her horror, she found herself sitting face to face with a blonde haired pink unicorn: Flourish Twinkle. Flourish looked at her with a twisted smile; her mane was tangled and messy as if it was uncared for in a while.

"F-Flourish?" Trixie said.

"Oh! The Great and Powerful Trixie remembered my name! What an honor!" she said mockingly.

"Flourish, I'm sorry!" Trixie pleaded "I know what I did was wrong! I was out of control! Not a day went by without me thinking of what I did! Please forgive me!"

"Forgive you? Do you have any idea what happened to me because of you!" Flourish shouted, "My friends committed me! My best friends sent me to a mental institution because of you! They thought I was crazy!"

"Flourish, I had no idea…" Trixie said with guilt.

"Oh… but that wasn't all for me." Flourish continued, "I just had to find you, Trixie. After all, we were schoolmates, right?"

"What are you going to do to me?" Trixie said.

"I thought we'd catch up on old times…" Flourish said with an insane smile.

Trixie was frightened by those words. She backed up and fled as fast as she could.

"COME BACK, TRIXIE!" Flourish's voice echoed through the trees.

Trixie ran for her life as fast as she could. She couldn't face Flourish at all. Suddenly, Trixie stopped to a screeching halt; as there was a cliff right in front of her. Trixie tried to turn around to go back, but Flourish dashed out from the trees and tackled her to the ground. Flourish had her pinned to the ground.

"Come on now, Trixie. We have a lot to talk about!" Flourish said with a twisted smile.

"Flourish, please stop! I didn't want to hurt you!" Trixie begged, "I wasn't thinking right! I-"

"SHUT UP!" Flourish said punching Trixie in the face, "I wanted to give you a chance! I wanted to stand up for you! I wanted to be your friend! But apparently I wasn't good enough to be your friend!"

"We can still be friends, right?" Trixie said with an innocent smile.

"Oh, sure. We can be the best of friends." Flourish said with a smile.

Trixie smiled back hoping it was the truth; but Flourish socked her in the face again. Trixie felt blood trickling out of her mouth.

"Why would I want to be friends with you?" Flourish said "Why would ANYPONY be friends with a monster like you?"

Trixie quivered with fear and sadness as Flourish stooped down low and close to her face.

"Remember what you said to me before we last met?" Flourish said.

Trixie fearfully shook her head .

"You said I was nothing. Remember?" Flourish continued, "Well, I have something to tell you. You're talentless. You're not good at anything. Your cutie mark is a lie; your life is a lie. You were never good at anything and you never will be. You're the one who's nothing."

Trixie didn't respond to those words, but she was hurt by them. Tears streamed down from her face. Flourish looked at her with a stern look; she looked at the quivering, pathetic unicorn beneath her. That cold stare beamed down at the whimpering magician without any trace of sympathy.

"Are… are you going… to let me go?" Trixie said through her tears.

"Go?" Flourish said cracking a smile, "Trixie, Equestria has no need for the likes of you. I'm going to do them a favor."

Flourish wrapped her hooves around Trixie's neck and lifted her off the ground. She struggled to breathe as the insane unicorn squeezed tightly. Flourish dangled her over the cliff. Trixie looked down as the cliff looked deeper and deeper.

"Flourish, no! Don't… don't do this!" Trixie said struggling to speak, "Don't kill me! I… I don't… wanna die…"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is begging for mercy?" Flourish said with a cold smile, "You always were pathetic. It's a shame it took me a while to notice that."

"N…no! P…please!" Trixie begged, "I'm sorry! I… I'm sorry…"

"The time for begging is over." Flourish said, "Goodbye, Trixie. Goodbye forever. And good riddance!"

Flourish dropped Trixie off the cliff as her blood-curdling scream echoed from below. Trixie kept falling screaming in terror for her life, until she hit her head on a rock jutting out from the side, knocking her unconscious. The last thing she heard before passing out was a loud, unpleasant snap. As her unconscious body landed on the ground, Trixie could hear the voice of mysterious pony ringing in her head laughing at her.

"YOU'RE GONE! YOU'RE ALL GONE!"

This would have been the end of the Great and Powerful Trixie. But fate had another plan for her…

Trixie woke up and immediately noticed she was inside someone's home. She realized that she couldn't move at all, but whatever she could move hurt greatly. She then realized she was covered from neck to hoof in casts. The next thing she realized was that she couldn't use magic. Trixie tried to figure out where she was and how long she was out. She saw that the walls were covered with shelves filled with books as if she was in a library.

"Oh! You're awake! That's wonderful!" said a voice.

Trixie looked over and was surprised to see a familiar purple unicorn standing at the doorway with a big smile on her face.

To be continued…