Trixie wasn’t furious. Trixie was REASONABLY enraged. Everything had been going perfectly. She’d shown up to this rinky little one-horse town and taken the whole place under her hoof with only a couple waves of her horn. She’d EARNED her place here. She ran out that stupid purple librarian and PROVEN she was the better unicorn. And now that same goody-fourshoes had the gall to come back and not only challenge the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie, but to CHEAT while doing it! Trixie was having none of it.

“I don’t care where you picked up that chintzy piece of rock, but even CHEATING with trinkets won’t be enough to overpower ME the HIGHEST LEVEL UNICORN!” Trixie shouted at the smug looking Twilight Sparkle standing across the dueling ground from her. “Trixie,” Twilight said flatly, “You realize you have an amulet too, right? How am I cheating if you’re not?”

“Shut up! The Great and Powerful Trixie NEVER needs to cheat, so she CAN’T be cheating now! That would be obvious to you if you were as smart as you think you are!” Trixie’s logic was bulletproof. Twilight rolled her eyes, confident that the plan was still on track. Trixie had failed to keep up with the last two stage-tricks. All Twilight had to do was make the fake amulet a little more enticing…

“Well, Trixie, if-” Twilight’s undoubtably stupid sentence was cut off suddenly by the greatest and most powerful mare present. “You know what, Sparkle?! Trixie is better than you at EVERYTHING! EVEN CHEATING!” Trixie raised on her hind legs, her cloak flowing dramatically behind her as she shouted. “TRIXIE HAS BEEN HOLDING BACK AGAINST YOU! NOW WITNESS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE AS SHE HARNESSES THE FULL POWER OF THE ALICORN AMULET!” Aether currents whipped around the rampant mare, fluttering her cape and mane on faintly glowing winds. The ruby set in the center of the amulet flared brighter than ever before, releasing a blinding shine as magic overflowed from the relic. Trixie slowly began to rise into the air in a crimson aura.

Trixie watched with glee Twilight take a single step backwards from her magnificent splendor, her purple ears pushed flat in alarm. She looked back and forth across the dueling ground to gauge the reactions of her friends. All of them were casting similar glances back to Twilight. This was not part of the plan. Up until now that fool Librarian had thought that Trixie was already tapping the full power of the cursed alicorn amulet. Trixie would show her just how wrong she was. Trixie’s eyes took on the same dreadful glow as the amulet, washing out with a brilliant luminous red, as she filled with all the magical might of a full fledged alicorn.

“MWAHAHAHAHA! Trixie truly IS the greatest and most powerful unicorn who has EVER LIVED!” Her mane thrashed about in a frenzy as the gathering aetherstorm surrounding and lifting her continued to intensify. “Uh.. Girls…” Twilight started, “I think we need to leave.” Sparkle’s friends had surrounded her now, and most of them seemed to be in agreement. “But where can we go,” the white one asked, “That dreadful fishbowl hasn’t gone anywhere. We’re still trapped in town with her.”

Another, smaller, fishbowl globe suddenly fell around the dueling ground. Trixie’s voice boomed with a deep resonance befitting her sheer magnificence. “YOU WILL GO NOWHERE UNTIL YOU ACCEPT AND WORSHIP TRIXIE’S GLORY!” Her eyes were blazing with crimson light, and light even seemed to be leaking from her throat when she spoke. Trixie could feel the power welling up inside her. It was glorious. Trixie knew she could control it, it was all too easy to be its vessel. Across from Trixie, six weak and pathetic mares cowered under an equally pathetic dome shield raised by the town librarian. “TRIXIE DEMANDS YOU KNEEL.” The mares only huddled closer around Twilight. Even now, when Trixie’s full splendor was on display they still flocked to a podunk small-town LIBRARIAN over her. In a justified rage Trixie opened her horn to the energies flowing through her, preparing a spell to scour the shield away with the force of an angry god.

Red Light traced the spirals in her horn, joining together at the tip to form a glowing, spark-throwing orb of energy. “IF YOU WON’T WORSHIP AT MY HOOVES THEN YOU WILL ALL – HURK!” Trixie jerked and bobbed briefly the the wild currents of magic supporting her. It had been sudden and passed in a moment, but Trixie’s chest had HURT. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” She boomed. Trixie looked down at her chest, and cut the spell she had been charging. She frowned. Trixie cut the spell she had been charging. The draw from the amulet’s well didn’t cease. Trixie. Cut. The. Spell. She. Had. Been. Charging. The pain resurfaced in her chest, a feeling of sudden tightness, like her very heart had just tried to break her own ribs. “WHAT… DID YOU DO?!” Trixie repeated, this time with a hint of fear. That idiot librarian had done something to her. Or the amulet. She knew it.

The pure, raw, magic of the amulet couldn’t be stopped. Trixie hated to admit it, but whatever Twilight had done to her was a problem. The Great and Powerful Trixie can fix any problem, but this was a bad one. She felt her wellspring, her very font of magic, being flooded with the alien magic from the amulet. Second by second Trixie felt like her very soul was bloating bigger and bigger inside her. Trixie felt another crashing expansive squeeze in her chest and winced. She could see it now, the ball of raw red magic deep within her core. The light shone faintly through her flesh, the glow outlined her ribcage if she looked close enough. Trixie never thought she might ever consider what she considered next; it is possible for a pony to become Greater and more Powerful than even Trixie could handle.

The Greatest and Most Powerful Trixie knew she had to vent this power somehow. There was too much magic. It was killing her. The resurgence of pain reinforced those thoughts. The light inside shone more intensely. She needed to vent it. If she alone couldn’t contain such glory… she would just need more ponies. Trixie slashed a wide beam of unfocused magic from her horn, raking across the dueling ground, the fishbowl shield, and eventually the surface of Twilight’s dome. Trixie didn’t need a spell to crack the shield, her raw unbridled might was enough. It didn’t do a thing to relieve the pressure at her core. Twilight’s shield spell fell to shattered pieces as the beam traversed it.

Even as the shattered purple shards of planar magic fell to the ground, the blue pegasus amongst them leapt forward like a bolt of lightning. Her hooves extended in a flying punch that was sure to be painful to anypony it struck. The idiot seemed to have forgotten that nopony is faster than the speed of Trixie’s great and powerful mind. Trixie caught the Pegasus mid charge, grasping her in a nearly bone-crunching telekinetic cloud. Trixie, flinching and wincing from the constant roil of magic inside her, floated Rainbow Dash to eye level. “YOU’LL DO.” Trixie needed some of this magic out of her and she needed it out NOW.

Trixie leveled her horn towards Rainbow Dash, as Rainbow’s friends moved to close the gap. They weren’t fast enough. A blindingly bright ruby beam shot from Trixie’s horn, straight into Rainbow Dash’s chest. On the way out of her horn, wisps of red light from her eyes, mouth, nose, and even ears joined the beam. The light in Trixie started to dim, As Rainbow started to overcharge. Rainbow Dash’s ruby eyes lit up with the amulet’s red magic, her mane and tail starting to leave red-tinged contrails of rainbow as she struggled against Trixie’s grip. Most impressive were her wings. Rainbow’s primary feathers started to twitch and pulse with red lighting as she filled with an endless torrent of alicorn magic.

Rainbow screamed. It was a rough and raspy yell, as much a war cry as it was blind terror. The pegasus wasn’t nearly as great as Trixie. Trixie could see that clearly in the intense glow flowing out from Rainbow Dash’s heart. Feeling slightly better herself, Trixie raised Rainbow Dash up higher, bringing her out of reach of her incoming friends. She smirked at them, as she drove another beam of Alicorn energy into the pegasus. “FOR MY SAKE, I HOPE THE REST OF YOU HOLD MORE THAN SHE DOES.” Trixie shook Rainbow Dash like a puppet in front of her strings. Beams of glowing light strobed out from deep inside the ragdolled pegasus. “NOT EVEN A TENTH OF MY POWER AND SHE’S ALREADY BURSTING AT THE SEAMS WITH MY GLORY. “

Rainbow Dash looked weakly to Twilight and her friends with shining eyes. “Girls… I… I feel… like I’m gonna… My chest… it’s too…” A light flashed from deep inside Rainbow Dash and every inch of her flesh was suddenly lit from within like a bizarre piece of organic fiber-optics. She screamed again, a coherent beam of magic spilling out of her mouth while similar beams flew from her eyes. There was a wet cracking noise as Rainbow Dash’s whole body rapidly ballooned in size, her chest leading the way. It was over in an instant. Rainbow Dash’s whole body blasted apart with a tremendous BANG, the raw alicorn magic ripping her to pieces as it shattered and overflowed her too-small wellspring. The magical explosion scattered what was left of her into a bloody splatter ringing the ground between Trixie and the remaining ponies. Trixie only felt relief that her plan was working. She saw a timeline where the steaming mess of meat, blood, and blue fur could easily have been her. Trixie wasn’t going to let that happen. The pain in her chest had subsided, but it was rebuilding quickly.

When Trixie looked at the rest of her emergency wellspring reserves, she found them horrified. They were babbling something amongst themselves about the Rainbow Splash or whatever her name was. It didn’t matter. What did matter was that Trixie already felt full again. Full of greatness, sure, but still uncomfortably full. She reached out with her horn and ensnared the closest mare in her telekinesis. It was the white snooty one, and she released the most ridiculous “WAHAHA!” as she was hoisted into the air. Her friends all pathetically clung to her legs and shouted her name while The Great and All Powerful Trixie dragged Rarity towards herself. A few shakes freed the last of her hangers’ on. “WAIT FOR YOUR TURN, PEASANTS.”

The light in Trixie intensified and she grunted. Once again she felt like her soul was outgrowing her flesh. “BE HONORED… UGH… TO HOLD MY GREATNESS.” Trixie said in her still booming voice to the white unicorn struggling in her magical grasp. The pony had screwed her eyes shut tight, refusing to look at Trixie’s splendor. “No! Don’t! Let me go! I don’t want to explode! Put me doooown!” Great. Not only was she refusing to bear witness to Trixie’s magnificent godhood, but she was whining. Trixie would give her something to whine about. She’d make the magic that she pumped into Rainbow Blast, -Splash, -Dash, … whatever, she’d make the magic that she pumped into that stupid splattermark look like a foal’s first flare.

Trixie raised her horn high, redirecting the flow of magic from the amulet. The point of her spiral shone like a red sun, and layer after layer of overglow bloomed out of her horn. The mare in her grasp cried out “Twilight! Ahahahaplejack! Dooooo Somethiiing!” As if anyone but Trixie had the power to stop what was happening to her. Trixie leveled her All Powerful horn at the mare, eager to feel relief from the crushing pressure rising between her ribs. A single spark arced from Trixie’s overcharged horn to Rarity’s and formed a conduit between the two. Just as the brilliant sun-like shine at the tip of Trixie’s horn started to roll into the arcane bridge between horns, A flash of blazing purple blinded her. Trixie felt pain like she never had before. It was like a drill had rammed itself down her horn from tip to stem, unwinding her spiral the whole way down. She was vaguely aware that Rarity had been dropped, but Trixie was in too much pain to care. The aetherstorm she floated in lost coherency, becoming a loosely threaded wind too weak to support Trixie. She hit the ground, rocking and reeling as she clutched at her head. Her hooves felt wet. “WW WWHAT HHAVE YYOU DDONE?!”

Twilight stood before her friends. She wore an expression of regret. “I- I’m sorry! I didn’t mean… I just wanted to…” Trixie had heard enough, she pushed through the pain and snarled, “WWANTED TTO WWHAT?” Trixie lit her horn to grab Twilight. “AAAAAAAAHGH!” All Trixie saw was a shower of sparks, and she felt as if somepony had just driven a railroad spike through her horn and into her skull. The Great and Powerful Trixie clutched at the base of her horn. Trixie felt nothing but a jagged shattered stump. “NO!” Trixie felt true horror. “NO!” She thrashed on the ground, both hooves desperate to touch the horn that was no longer there. Magic was everything to Trixie, it couldn’t just be gone.

Trixie no longer cared to fear the power welling up inside her. The alicorn amulet flared. Yes. Yes, maybe IT was what she needed. She still had some horn left, didn’t she? With all this power did she really need her whole horn? Yes! Trixie knew that would fix the problem. More magic would make everything alright! With a little more magic she could even get her horn back! Trixie Didn’t even bother standing back up. Trixie laughed and cackled like a madmare, spasming in pain and victory. She opened the floodgates wide.

Trixie’s eyes immediately flared with blinding power, her shattered horn flinging explosive blasts of raw magic in every direction around her. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” Trixie’s back arched as the energies inside her lifted the mare off the ground. Her heart could be seen pounding and pulsing through her ribs, a silhouette of pure energy. Her veins carried waves of raw magic with every pulse, lighting up more and more of the mare from within. A sickening crunch came from inside Trixie, turning her long drawn-out scream into a choked gasp. It was far too much magic for anypony to bear. Trixie’s body started to contort, quivering as she began to swell unevenly. One half of her face bloated with red light, as did her left haunch and foreleg, along with half her stomach and one thigh. What lagged behind soon caught up or surpassed the early growth, her flesh inflating full of magic like a lumpy patchwork doll.

Trixie’s mouth was open wide in a silent scream, the breath having been crushed out of her lungs by the sudden expansion of flesh. Her eyes wide and blank with the glow wreaking havoc inside her. Trixie’s stumped horn still sprayed magic indiscriminately, casting sparks and light bursts everywhere around her. Cracks of pure red light spread across her spasming bloated form, her hide splitting to reveal the pure magic underneath. Trixie pulsed outward again and again, her blazing heart flashing in time with her macabre expansion. Each pulse distorted her body more and more, each accompanied by deep cracks and wet rips.

Trixie was unaware of it, but a purple dome shield lowered over her. Twilight knew how this was going to end. Trixie’s body groaned and gurgled inside the shield, before one final flare signaled her end. Trixie’s whole body ripped apart like she had been stuffed full of dynamite. In an instant, Twilight’s shield was painted solid red. The outside cracked but held. At the same time the fishbowl barrier started to fade, as did the larger one trapping Ponyville. Twilight dropped her shield afraid of what she would find inside.

Anything that could be identified as Trixie was simply gone. What remained was little more than smoking mince meat and bone shards. Most of it was collected in a perfect ring, outlining the edge of where Twilight’s shield had been. In the exact center of the ring lay the reason for all this madness, the Alicorn Amulet. Perhaps more disturbing than the sight of Trixie’s sundered flesh, was the Alicorn Amulet. Not a drop of blood sullied its surface, it was as clean as the day it was forged. The gem neither shone nor gleamed. The Amulet, it seemed, had been contented.

End.