Trixie Lulamoon in the Hyperverse · 9:45am Jul 29th, 2016
In advance of the storylet coming up today*, here's some background information on Trixie in the Hyperverse as I assume now. If we get more "real background" information from the show, it's subject to change, save for those parts that have or will pop up in an actual story. Please note that some sexual topics are discussed below the break, and that this is not as refined as my stories usually would be. It's my belief that reading either this or Hunting Season is not necessarily to enjoy The Moon's Illusions, but this may give some context if you don't wish to read all of Hunting Season to understand why Trixie is feeling lonely and in need of reassurance from Luna.
Born in Neigh Orleans, Beatrix Lulamoon was raised in large, if relatively poor, traditionalist family. While her parents didn't form a marital herd, just two unicorns in love, Trixie grew up surrounded by siblings; primarily, to her bemusement, younger brothers. She had one older sister and one older brother but three younger brothers and a younger sister; her mother was occasionally known to wryly admit that she might just have some earth pony blood in there somewhere, especially with the three youngest brothers being triplets, and the older brother/sister pair being fraternal twins. Trixie's mother was a matrix-enchanter for a major custom firm in Neigh Orleans; she retired not long after the Crystal Revolution for unrelated reasons.
The wide age difference meant that Trixie in many ways had to act as a second mother to her younger siblings at an early age; her oldest sister was a member of the town guard and a hyper, often busy, throughout most of Trixie's teenage years, and Trixie doesn't talk much about her oldest brother, also a hyper, who left early on. Trixie's father was and is a career staff sergeant in the Neigh Orleans guard, who was always distant, if protective, during their childhood, generally only intervening if there was some argument between sisters and mother. He loved his children, but never really found ways to be close to them. The traditionalist beliefs of his wife suited him just fine as a result.
Trixie's family mainly consisted of unicorns with talents in either minor, specialized magic, or agility in general. It was not a surprise when she received her mark in stage magic, combining her personal enjoyment with entertaining her younger siblings. She gained her mark when she created a light show with a combination of fireworks and illusions that was so impressive that her parents actually worried she'd conjured a dragon from the Badlands! In fact, she proved to be so talented that her teachers recommended her for a small scholarship to take the test for Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She even succeeded, slightly before the Rainboom and the Twilight Sparkle Incident.
Though it would not be until after her second Ponyville disaster that Trixie would discover who had caused a kaiju-class dragon to appear, she felt the effects early on. Always an instinctive showmare, she had alienated herself from the social group of the other two major archmages-to-be, Minuette and Moondancer with her showboating and competitiveness. When her attempts to further demonstrate her synthesis of magical and sleight of hand illusion was overshadowed by the events of the day, it hardened in her a desire for recognition that had been burgeoning since her time being pushed into the background to take care of her siblings.
Trixie only got the equivalent of her bachelor's degree at PCSGU. She wanted the road, and stardom. She traveled Equestria with a wagon drawn by a golem she made herself; while most potent in illusions and legerdemain, she's still one of the most powerful unicorns alive. While she never did defeat an Ursa Major or Minor, before or after Ponyville, she did engage in a number of heroic actions here and there which only whetted her desire for fame.
In fact, part of what drove her to despair and the Alicorn Amulet was that suspicion and hostility greeted her even in places where she'd performed legitimate heroics. A pall was cast over her and she was suspected of causing some of the incidents she'd acted to solve. It was ironically during that dark time that she began praying to Luna, seeing herself as an opposite to Twilight Sparkle in all ways, including devotion to Celestia. The Princess, unfortunately, was distracted by other matters and did not recognize that her proto-archmage was calling, let alone in nigh-mad distress.
It was that madness that finally made the connection. While Trixie was suffering from withdrawal from the amulet, she was again mostly penniless and surviving on the charity of others with the occasional busking. Her increasingly Nightmarish dreams drew Luna, who had tagged her for watch by dreamwalkers after Twilight Sparkle informed the Sisters of the Amulet and its effects.
When Luna found her and examined her in person, she immediately recognized Trixie's true power and skills. Indeed, she flat out foalnapped Trixie to one of the mountain thestral fastnesses, though Trixie herself had no objections when she found out who had taken her, and to where. She did not find the detoxification from the dark magic quite so pleasant, nor Luna's strangely obsessive teaching.
Luna wanted her fated archmage, but could not permit someone to come to such power who was willing to wield dark magic or to torment others. She promised Trixie knowledge, training, and vaguely high position if she was willing to truly devote herself to changing her paths; to defeating her own ego. She even made Trixie give up using the third person to refer to herself outside of performances… mostly. In stressful situations or when particularly disrespectful of someone, she retained a tendency to revert. Along the way, the alicorn became quite fond of Trixie's fierce passions, ready and razor wit, and the way the chesty little showmare moved so sinuously in performance.
Needless to say, Trixie had already had Lunar leanings, if not for the right reasons. Conversion to the Sacred Rite came easy for her, and she proved her way early on as a potent and cunning participant by taking over the production of carefully concealed pendants of identification. Hers were layered and concealed far better than any before, and to this day, are given to members of the cult who do not live in thestral holdings. While worshipping an alicorn is not technically illegal, pony society as a whole has been heavily influenced by Celestia's fear of being worshipped.
Her apology tour was something that Luna discussed with her, a way to both re-introduce herself to the public and to reach out to the far-flung members of the Sacred Rite to help unify them with the new pendants. To say that Luna was most displeased with Trixie both risking her own life in depression and attempting to sabotage a fellow alicorn was putting it lightly, and Luna demanded that Trixie not only apologize in private and in depth to Twilight, but also to Luna herself for risking one of Luna's prized servants.
Trixie's time with Twilight turned out for the better in the end. Trixie grew to respect Twilight's accomplishments, and Twilight forgave Trixie's sabotage attempts in front of Celestia, with but slightly grudging grace. Reports that Luna pushed the two together and said, "Now kiss!" are surely exaggerated, and might be conflated with the dates she took Starlight on.
Trixie's time with Luna, on the other hand, lead to something far deeper. Luna had always known that Trixie would become her archmage if she proved worthy, but the zealotry of the converted pushed Trixie to a deeper devotion than any archmage had for their alicorn**. As she reformed and refined, gradually, she took on more and more duties at the top of the cult from its aging thestral high priest, who eventually flat out told Luna that Trixie was more emotionally and spiritually suited for the job, about a year after No Second Prances.
Luna encourages her followers to speak their mind and then obey, so took the counsel under consideration. She and Trixie meditated on it, and Trixie was repeatedly and constantly exposed over several weeks to the prognotropic and psychotropic effects of Luna's pheromones. In the end, the omens were right, and the high priest handed over the office to Trixie with exasperated impatience to retire and spoil his great-grandchildren. He is one of Trixie's few close male friends, and still advises goddess and high priestess both from time to time.
Trixie has served as Luna's chief adviser and representative on spiritual and mystical matters for three years now. She has made more than a few enemies at court from her sharp sarcasm and tendency to hold a grudge, but more honorably, from her defense of the thestrals as they come into the light after a thousand years of hiding. As dangerous foes have arisen at the borders of Equestria and within, she has proven to be a deadly mistress of her arts. Her spells can shatter minds with fear, lead the canniest beasts and sharpest hunters en masse to their doom. She can cloak entire armies from sight, sound, and scent with ease, and she maintains her prestidigitation talents as well, supplementing her illusions with non-magical tricks to confound enemies expecting the arcane alone.
And she is frightened for her future. She has been madly in love with the tempestuous Princess of the Moon, one of the few mortals able to make love one on one with her without becoming utterly dreamthralled or moonswept. But she has always known that her mistress could not achieve full release with her, or even with her and a fine selection of cult members of thestrals, just work off an edge. She's seen Twilight Sparkle after a full, true session with Luna Selene Solutae, and perhaps that more than anything else has contributed to her awe of the mare, rather than simple respect. But Princess Celestia has ordained a marriage for the royal bachelorette herd; one that shall focus around Celestia herself... and be anchored by the strange alicorn stallion, Shadow Hopper.
Trixie is fond of saying that her dislike of males has nothing to do with either her lesbianism or having to sacrifice a good portion of her pre-PCSGU childhood to help raising the triplets. This is quite true; in fact, much of Trixie's grumpiness with males is really more of a combination of matronization combined with no real social interest, then played up with her eternal sense of the dramatic. It merely manifests as her biting sarcasm much of the time. She remains relatively fond of "the boogers," as she refers to the triplets, even if she still nags their youngest sister to try to watch out for them.
Indeed, the one hidden element is a measure of rebellion against her traditionalist mother, who repeatedly pushed her to find a stallion to beget grandchildren on and just herd with a preferred mare. Trixie's stubbornness hardened against the idea and she pushed back hard. As a result, she integrated an active dislike over mere passive disinterest and matronization for so long that she generally reacts with habit on the subject. That said, Trixie's self-confrontation and sardonic personality would not spare her if she actively mistreated or denigrated males beyond a certain sharpness of wit. Certainly, neither Luna nor her thestral underlings have ever had real qualms about the way she treats male members of either the Lunar Guard or the Sacred Rite of the Great Mother.
Trixie's primary concerns involving Shadow Hopper are mostly shared with Zecora, who is technically the highest priestess of the priesthood Celestia wishes she didn't have. Both mares are not inherently conservative, but have concerns about putting an alien scion (despite his present form and eternal soul), and a young one, at that, in such a position of emotional power over the overwhelming majority of the living alicorns. They recognize the intent of the rites if not all their permutations and the links concern them both.
Zecora has some distance from the matter, but Trixie's heart as well as her soul belong to Luna. She has been her goddess' submissive lover since her initiation into the Sacred Rite as Luna's archmage, let alone her rise to high priestess. Luna cares deeply for her, as well, and the gently stern, half-motherly, half-warleader way she treats Trixie in and out of bedroom sports moments has only deepened Trixie's crush.
Trixie is aware that she cannot in and of herself hold Luna's lust, let alone her overflowing love, but is somewhat dependent on Luna as the core of her stable life. She does not wish to be cast aside, and has no idea how closed a herd marriage designed specifically to satisfy the wild divine passions of the Sisters as well as secure the next generation marriage might be. She has no personal onus against Shadow Hopper, finding him "slightly less messy but no less overemotional than most males."
Ironically, Trixie herself is a near-herdwife. Aside from her ritual relations and personal flings with other Sacred Rite members and high-ranking Lunar Guardsmares, Trixie's longest term mortal relationship is a friends with benefits nigh-futafriend in the person of Starlight Glimmer, the Grand Archmage. Starlight is married to the royal crystaller and adviser of the Crystal Empire, Sunburst, though the randy pair of hypers have a somewhat open marriage.
With the exception of 'for science' and 'because Cadance says so,' they usually consult with each other first, but Sunburst recognizes how deeply Starlight and Trixie care for each other. Were it not for Trixie's devotion to Luna, she might have married the pair long ago, for she also counts the gentle, nerdy Crystaller as a good friend, and his hugs and counsel are among those she permits without sarcasm. Still, Trixie may not be aware of it, but Luna herself would love to see Trixie bear Starlight some daughters, and has occasionally broached the subject of marrying them off with Cadance and Twilight, who have to remind Luna that the old clan marital laws have been mostly in abeyance for centuries.
Luna sulked quite mightily at Celestia after hearing she'd nixed the ability of maretriarchs and alicorns to force marrying-off except under some truly extreme circumstances.
Trixie is a five foot six normal unicorn mare with blue hide and a frosty, pale blue mane and tail, both with paler streaks. She still generally wears relatively flashy clothing, including her tall wizard's hat and high-collared cape, both in lavender with white stars, though these days she wears the dark navy starfield robes of the Night Archmage rather than a magician's acrobatics-tailored suit. Her dark, grayish-violet eyes usually have some twinkle of humor in them, even when she's angry or sarcastic, as though she's well aware of a dark joke at reality's expense-- or her own.
Her frame is that of an acrobat, as well, with long, willowy limbs, strong, supple fingers, and slender sounders. Her hips flare dramatically, producing an unmistakable waggle in her saunter, and her main body-obstacle to her physical theatrics has always been her impressive rack, which has settled up to a GG cup with her more sedentary lifestyle these days. She's known to snark that her ass seems to be trying to join it in betraying her showmare's code for the plush life, at least until Luna starts making lewd remarks about enjoying healthy-looking mares.
*IE, when I'm not in screaming pain from my ride into town today, or trying to wake up from not sleeping for way too long. It's edited and coming, promise!
**Not necessarily any archmage for any alicorn, though. Cadance doesn't mind if her Shiny, archmage of abjuration, brings some fine Apple booty home, but she does smugly note that she'll always be first in his heart as well as first in line for tapping that tight butt or riding that big ol' Shinycock.
...Nice. I can now see more precisely why she snarked so hard at hopper back in chapter 20 of Hunting Season.