Chapter 11: Where There's Smoke...

Chapter 11: Where There's Smoke...

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"You!"

Twilight Sparkle started forward with a spell building around her horn— only for a flash of golden light to blaze up around her and lift her off the ground. Spike came bounding up the stairs, and he too was caught in the light. Both of them were crammed together, and then ropes came flying out of nowhere to circle around and pull tightly around them. Trixie watched in fear as Twilight and Spike plopped down helplessly on the floor, bound up in ropes glowing with golden magic.

Seesaw grinned as from the shadows emerged a tall, elegant blue unicorn with a horn and a swirling star cutie mark surrounded by shimmering red light— and six more ponies too, those same hooded figures that had surrounded Twilight in Canterlot. "Well done, Lazuli," Seesaw chuckled. "Well, as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

"What are you doing here?!" Twilight snapped.

"Hey, this is a library, isn't it?" Seesaw laughed. "I'm here to check out a book or two. And while I'm at it, I have a few other errands to run."

His eyes flashed red, a column of fire whirled up around him— and then the flames parted and Nightmare Inferno grinned down at them all.

"You won't get away with this— " Twilight started.

"Yes, yes, so I've heard," Inferno sighed, and brushed past Twilight and Spike with a stroke of his wings. Twilight struggled against the rope; Lazuli had it held in place with strong magic, it would take a long time and a distraction to work her way through— "Anyways," Inferno went on, "Trixie! Long time no see, eh?"

Trixie glared back. "What do you want?"

"Oh, my little storm cloud," Inferno sighed, as flames and the telltale glow of magic began to build around his horn, "what have they done to you? Clever use of the suppression spell, Miss Sparkle, and I see you know your Nightmare history well, but that's alright. I'll fix things up here, right as rain." Trixie's eyes went wide and she shrank back under the sinister glow. "Of course, it all wound up taking a much more direct approach, but hey, who says I'm not a stallion of my word?" He grinned maliciously as the flames swirled around Trixie. "So, Nightmare Storm, why don't you come on out and play?"

"Trixie!" Twilight cried.

Spike sucked in a deep breath and blasted a jet of flame over the ropes, burning them to cinders in a moment. Twilight flung off what was left, nailed Lazuli head-on with a blazing shot of magic, and whirled around towards Inferno— only to find two of those hooded ponies blocking her path, horns poking out from under their hoods and glowing with magic. The other three circled around her, all of them daring her to make a move— but then the last one appeared from downstairs, holding a book, and held it up to a satisfied Inferno.

"I'd be saving my strength if I were you, Twilight Sparkle," snarled Lapis Lazuli as she reemerged from the shadows. "You're going to need it."

"I know you're in there somewhere, my little storm cloud," Inferno crooned, as the flames drew closer to Trixie. "And I've got your prey nice and cornered for you. Now come on out!"

"No!" Trixie yelled back.

"Come out!" roared Inferno.

"No!"

"You have a funny way of showing gratitude, Trixie," growled Inferno, his confident smile disappearing. "Who was it who found you when you were at your lowest ebb? Who was it who gave you this power? Who gave you the opportunity to take revenge, to take back everything that was rightfully yours? Well?!"

Trixie slammed her hooves over her ears. "I don't want it anymore!"

"Yes you do! It's still there within you! If you didn't want it anymore— "

"I won't use it anymore!" Trixie's eyes snapped open, even through the flames dancing around her. "I don't want revenge anymore! I want my magic back!"

"Of course you want revenge!" Inferno snapped. "She destroyed your reputation! She turned you into a laughingstock! The Nightmare took your magic from you, you can't back out of this deal now, little Trixie— "

"I don't care!" Trixie screamed. "I won't hurt her!"

Down below, the sound of splintering wood echoed through the library, followed by hooves on the floorboards— and an instant later, Applejack and Rainbow Dash vaulted up the stairs and skidded to a stop— followed closely by Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and a trembling Fluttershy.

"An' just what the hay is all this?!" Applejack snapped.

Rainbow Dash immediately launched herself at Inferno— only for one of those hooded ponies to leap into her path and knock her down with a hard kick. Inferno spared one last scowl at Trixie.

"They don't have the Elements— " Lazuli spoke up.

"They are the Elements," Inferno snarled, as his minions gathered around him. He swept back around towards Twilight and Trixie. "Very well then! You want your magic back, Trixie? You think you've rejected this Nightmare? Then come find me, in the catacombs beneath Canterlot— and we'll see just how far your newfound forgiveness extends!"

"What the hay are you talkin' about?!" Applejack cried—

And then Inferno and his minions disappeared in a whirling plume of fire.

Everyone stared for a moment at the ring of smoldering embers that Inferno had left behind, before Trixie buried her face in her hooves and sobbed. Twilight immediately rushed over to throw her arms around the blue unicorn.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"We saw the lights an' heard you shoutin', what the heck was all that about, Twi?!" Applejack sputtered. "Was that the guy who came after ya in Canterlot?"

"Princess Celestia said there was another Nightmare on the loose besides Nightmare Storm," Twilight said quickly, "and that was him."

Rainbow connected the dots and whirled around on Trixie. "And you were working for him?!"

"Rainbow, shut up!" Twilight snapped. Rainbow stopped short in disbelief; the air crackled with tension. But Twilight turned her attention back towards Trixie, and Fluttershy drifted over to rub the blue unicorn's shoulders soothingly.

"Just, just make this all stop," Trixie groaned. "My magic is gone and my parents are dead and this Nightmare won't go away and all I can do is sit here and cry!" She buried her face in Twilight's chest. "My parents were right after all..."

"Wha— what do your parents have to do with this?" Twilight sputtered.

"Look at me!" Trixie cried. "All I can do is lay here! I can't do magic anymore! I can't get rid of this stupid Nightmare! I can hardly even walk around the room!"

"B-But your legs are healing— " Fluttershy spoke up.

"They were right to leave me, weren't they?" Trixie snarled. "Look at me now!"

"Trixie, I thought your parents gave you up because they couldn't afford to raise you," Twilight interrupted. "What do you mean they were right?"

Trixie scrubbed away the tears. "You want to know the truth? Fine!" She screwed her eyes shut. "My parents were performers just like me, but they really were poor, and they wanted a powerful unicorn foal who could do amazing magic to bring in more money. So they had me, but," she choked back another sob, "but I wasn't that powerful unicorn foal! I was just...average."

A somber silence descended over Twilight and her friends. "They...gave you up for disappointing them?" Rarity murmured.

"Yes!" wailed Trixie. "For disappointing them!" She shook her head. "Yes, go ahead, laugh, all of you! When I tried to take on that Ursa, that was just the best I could do! So go ahead and laugh at me!"

"We're not gonna do that!" Pinkie exclaimed. "That would be mean— "

"So you wonder why I turned into a Nightmare?" Trixie went on, eyes blazing. "That's why! I ran into the Everfree Forest with nothing— not even my own identity! Everything I did to stop that monster came up short! And, and..." She swallowed another sob. "And then..."

"And then Seesaw came into the picture?" Twilight asked quietly.

Trixie nodded painfully. "He...he was, well, we dated a little while in Canterlot." She rubbed her face again. "He was cute and charming and funny and I couldn't really help it. But I wanted to move on and travel and see the world, and he didn't, so we went our separate ways. And then," the flash of anger appeared in her eyes again, "and then in Everfree, I met him again, and I told him what happened, and he fed all my anger and hatred, and he helped transform me into Nightmare Storm. And he sent me to go have my revenge. On you."

"Wait," Rainbow said, "so you really were working with him?"

"Not now, sugarcube," Applejack warned.

"H-He gave me power," Trixie sniffled, "and...and I lost anyways." She shook her head. "Even with a Nightmare's power I still couldn't beat you. And now look at me," the tears started flowing again, "even though I've tried to kill you over and over again, you still keep coming back here to help me, and you still keep trying to make me happy." She wiped away more tears and squeezed her eyes shut. "And you went to Canterlot to find out what happened to my parents, and you stayed with me the whole night when I couldn't take it, and you protected me from the princess and from all your friends," she waved a hoof at the others and sent a shockwave of guilt throughout the room, "and now you're promising to bring back my magic. A-And you've showed me kindness I've never known before, and..." She rubbed her eyes. "So I can't even count on that, can I?"

"Trixie..."

"So look at me now," she groaned. "I'm a wreck. I can't walk, I can't do magic, I'm just a puppet dancing on someone else's strings. And now..." The tears started flowing once more and her words descended into incoherence. "Now they were right to give me up." She sobbed again. "Now I don't know what to do..."

Twilight pulled Trixie close and looked straight into her eyes, stopping the tears. "No, Trixie, they weren't."

"H-How do you even know that?" Trixie wailed.

"I know that because you were strong enough to stop the Nightmare, when I got home from Canterlot and just now," Twilight said. She swallowed hard and ignored the way she trembled, with Trixie this close and her friends all around, shocked into silence. "I'm not doing all this because I want to look good for the princess, I'm doing it because I want to help you. Because I want you to be my," she caught herself just in time, "my friend. And I promise you, Trixie, that I'm going to stay with you— even if no one else will. Because— " she swallowed the growing lump in her throat— "because neither of us wants to be alone."

Silence reigned for a moment in the library— before Trixie reached up, tears still in her eyes, pulled Twilight close, and kissed her.

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