Trixie wasn't sure if it was when she purchased that artifact with her last bit, or when she found herself wandering into a ruined shrine in the woods that she first went astray, but astray she certainly had gone. And now she was standing under an alien sky, empty of Luna's moon, or Celestia's sun.
Trixie was afraid that if she was not the guest of this dark and monstrous lord, she would find herself something much, much worse.
So it it was showtime. Time to earn her keep, her welcome. Because she'd rather be a guest to lunch, than the first course at dinner.
Though she might not want to admit it, it had been too long since she had a captive audience.
And who could be more captive than a Lord of Shadows entombed in a half-tartarus doom-world?
Chapters (9)
Tall, dark, handsome, powerful... Of course, he will fall prey to Trixie's feminine wiles. Any pony with taste and distinction does, given enough time.
Oliver sent me here. I am not regretting it. :D
I am now hooked and intrigued, and thus I eagerly await further entries of TRIXIE AND THE BEAST (A romance of the ages which Twilight Sparkle could never hope to match!)
Fave'd!
Interesting title, but the story feels a bit more 1,001 Mareabian Nights, with Trixie as Shahrazad.
I don't know how this story will end, but I hope there's an epilogue where (S7 Finale Spoilers) Stygian or the Pony of Shadows or whoever is confidently extolling their knowledge of current events by asking when Canterlot will be renamed Trixielot based on all the times their heroin has single-handedly saved the kingdom.
*Wipes face and holds up plate* May I please have some more?
8518405
Its looking more like Beauty and the Beast, but there is a definite 1,001 Nights feel ...
Trixie has finally struck the Big Time: She's found somepony with absolutely no hope of being able to refute her stories through experience.
So, is miss Latin Apple a construct? Was she bound to a chunk of obsidian as a way to evade the curse? I have so many questions, and I love it!
YAY! YOU GAVE US MORE! THANK YOU!
.......*ahem* that is to say, a fine job my good man....yes, that is what I meant.
8522176
Believe it or not, Malus is not an OC, she's a character from the comics. Although the comics version didn't come with a thick Lallans burr.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/320698091575574530/375008981187428353/malus.png
So ... Trixie is not in Hades, nor is she in Equestria (despite travelling much of the distance by Equestrian train), but she is in a realm that never sees the Sun. And the "locals" seem to accept (possibly even look forward to?) being turned into a small gemstone.
Whelp, I'm confused and intrigued.
Very interesting so far.
"Tell me, my lord, what peril were you saving those poor earth ponies by slaughtering them?!"
"Tell me, my lord, what peril were you saving those poor earth ponies from by slaughtering them?!"?
Quite enjoying this still. :)
Judging by Trixie's eyes and her comments on her progenitor's anatomy, does Star Swirl's line have a genetic predisposition towards androgeny?
Fascinating story, even with the gratuitous lese majeste.
...I'm sorry, but now all my brain wants to process is the Muppet's Swedish Chef in pony form. I know the lingo is completely different, but my brain wants to laugh at the thought!
Soo much description.
Nothing wrong with it, I'm just bad at caring after the first paragraph or two of detail about an area. 
Curious to see how this turns into a romance, but I have a feeling Trixie is going to have a word with the Beast about his lack of cleaning, especially if he expect somepony as great and powerful as her to live here for a bit.
It's always a treat to read old Ponish here.
I wonder what criteria make things either decay (like the furniture) or remain in stasis (like the aegis)...
8528523
Have you seen the season 7 finale? If so, you've seen the bronze shield. And that shovel holding together the Beast's time-piece.
8528563
Well yes, but I was wondering more about the door that was in great repair.
Trixie was beginning to think that this aggressive refusal to keep one's living-spaces clean and presentable was an inextricable aspect of stallionhood, or at least, stallions living without the benefit of proper feminine oversight.
And thus did the Great and Powerful Trixie begin forging the chains of matrimony to imprison the Dark Beast for the rest of his life. Poor beast. (snerk)
Interesting. I suppose the artifacts of the Pillars have an eternal representation here, but everything else is made of Stygian's magic and memories, including the other ponies. I wonder how plants can actually grow in this realm, I suppose if Styge has working wings, he has working earth pony magic.
8528897 Trixie probably appreciates the fact that he has already made himself and her appropriate thrones... once he clears the junk off his throne.
Pomegranates? Oh no! Depending on how many seeds she ate, Trixie will have to spend that many months out of the year with the Beast as his Queen of
the UnderworldLimbo!...
What happens if she eats more than twelve?
8531471
Then the Great and Powerful Trixie may have a slightly IRRITATING stomach ache! Or possibly a sweet tooth... Actually, I never had that particular fruit myself so I have no idea as to it's taste and can't therefore make a good joke on that part... Hmm.
Hmmm ... I'm thinking Trixie was sent to WhereverWeAre on purpose to break Starswirl's curse. It does sound like the usual "never going to happen" curse escape clause you see in fairy tales ("My descendant, wearing the Alicorn Amulet, must break the curse, yada yada ...). And it is cannon that Starswirl was perfectly fine with dumping his problems on someone else without consulting them first (the Dazzlings, etc.) ...
I'm curious as to who this audience is Trixie is narrating to.
Also, I grow more and more curious by the chapter about Trixie's experience at the Rock Farm. Man I hope there is a S8 episode that is Starlight trying to get her two friends Maud and Trixie to get along with each other.
Oh god, she's having rock farm flashbacks.
"darkling manor returned to our respective work"
"darkling manor returned to their respective work"?
8540727
Nah, Trixie is actually referring to herself, the Beast, the Miller, and the peasants. But that business about 'darkling manors' is clearly a transcription error; corrected.
8540759
Ah, well, glad I caught something there. :)
(And I think I was wondering about the "our" because, while most people might use "our" to refer to a group containing themselves and others, most people also tend to use "I" to refer to themselves in the singular.)
That is a good question ....
And now we'll learn the meat of Stygian's issues with Starswirl ....
8541475
Trixie only really ever drops out of the third person when she's part of a collective first person. It comes up surprisingly rarely. :
8541547
Ah, thanks.
I wonder if Trixie will realize that the amulet is bad news...
Really fun chapter, though I miss the accents already. Heh, singing soup.
That is some curious (and rather literal at times) world-building.
"which by the Lord of Shadows own reckoning"
"which by the Lord of Shadows's own reckoning"?
"and decay which must ahve once had been"
"and decay which must have once had been"?
"sweet-talking stone has never made them do what"
"sweet-talking stones has never made them do what"?
"After a half-dozen of Trixie's failure to produce acceptable"
"After a half-dozen of Trixie's failures to produce acceptable"?
"The great lord of shadows barked out a gravelly"
"The great Lord of Shadows barked out a gravelly"?
"tenant at his own estates' upkeep. Trixie"
"tenant at his own estate's upkeep. Trixie"?
"which looked to be needing emptied quite soon, lest"
"which looked to be needing emptying quite soon, lest"?
"Somnambula the faithful, the trust of nations in her princes"
Just checking, but was that second part indeed meant to be that? It sounds a bit odd to me, so I thought I'd comment on it here in case a typo had gotten involved.
An interesting history though, there; I look forward to hearing more. :)
"as many clean ones she could find, to make"
"as many clean ones as she could find, to make"?
8547209
I've made changes to some of those, that I agree are errors. Some are just style oddities. 'Estates', for instance, is intended as plural in that usage, and Trixie's intending 'stone' as a collective noun... But in general, thanks for reading closely enough to catch these sorts of errors. Can I lure you over to my Discord server, the Company? I turn around chapters relatively quickly, but I can always use another set of eyes on my initial drafts, obviously.
8547272
"I've made changes to some of those, that I agree are errors. Some are just style oddities. 'Estates', for instance, is intended as plural in that usage, and Trixie's intending 'stone' as a collective noun... But in general, thanks for reading closely enough to catch these sorts of errors."
You're welcome, and thanks!
"Can I lure you over to my Discord server, the Company? I turn around chapters relatively quickly, but I can always use another set of eyes on my initial drafts, obviously.
"
Ah, probably not, I'm afraid; I don't believe I've ever used Discord before, for one thing, and those chat programs I have used, I've started them, used them, and then closed them for specific tasks, rather than keeping them open most of the time and jumping into things as I gather (possibly incorrectly; I am aware of gaps in my knowledge regarding Discord) is often the way of such things. Feel free to correct any misconceptions I have about the procedure, but I would guess that the answer, for various reasons, is still probably going to be no; sorry.
edit:
Though I see that it can be run in a browser with no additional installation required, which surprised me. Can it also be used without any sort of account registration?
8547310
OK, thanks for the comment.
8547314
You're welcome.
Also, I just put an edit in which I think may have crossed your reply, duplicating here:
"edit:
Though I see that it can be run in a browser with no additional installation required, which surprised me. Can it also be used without any sort of account registration?"
(You don't have to answer; that was written as part of the earlier stuff.)
8547319
I certainly have never installed a desktop or mobile app. And the only reason I bothered with account registration is because of patron requirements for some of the other servers I'm active in.
8547327
Ah, thank you. Well, I'm still not sure, but the probability is a lot higher than I was expecting.
Oh yeah, I forgot Trixie is wearing a dark magical artifact. Surprised a scholar like Stygian hasn't clocked it.
I rather agree with the majority of the audience on accents, and I'm one of those people who likes full-Applejack. At least we didn't get the english translation of those mechanics singing "beans, beans the musical fruit."
Interesting, did Stygian's realm come from a different dimension?
Huh. I've long suspected that Equestria is either a hodgepodge of open portals through which an impossibly diverse amount of magical creatures stumbled through, but here it looks like Discord tried to create a terrarium deliberately.
(I feel like this cosmology might be very difficult to understand for those who haven't read In the Company of Night)
Does that mean Equestria is what is not a natural occurrence at the top of the chain, but an artificial one?
Stygian refers to his world as "older," which seems odd if he means that in his time stream the deeds of the Pillars had already reached them through gates between worlds. Then it should be "younger." If, on the other hand, he means that he's already heard legends of about identical doubles of the Pillars in the history of his own world, "older" makes sense.
8550054
I'm not going to flat out say that this is not in continuity with In the Company of Night , because I reserve the right to have a better idea further down the line, but their concerns and viewpoints are rather divergent. Sawbones' cosmos was in a basic sense natural, a principle expressing itself in time and space. Stygian's world, on the other hoof, is intentional, a deliberate series of acts, a plot, a conspiracy.
It's also my attempt to work out the new continuity in canon, which ItCoN didn't have to contend with.
Stygian's arrived on scene with stories of the Pillars; his world had some version of them in his history. Seven worlds, seven versions of history. This is, in some part, why we have so many versions of Star Swirl, and why the stories are irreconcilable with each other. Also, how Somnambula and Meadowbrook can exist together
8550013
I, like the show-writers ('ponis rule!') hide my dumbest jokes behind a translation firewall.
Ghosts of the not-dead? Wacky. I wonder how much this has to do with the Alicorn Amulet?
"and laying down against the base of the time-machine"
"and lying down against the base of the time-machine"?
8555545
Oops.
8555033
Oh, I'd say ... at least 50% (maybe as much as 90%), the rest is probably Trixie being descended (however reluctantly) from Starswirl.