Trixie Lulamoon was not having a good week. She’d essentially enslaved Ponyville, drawing the ire of everypony and had been thoroughly defeated once again at the hooves of Twilight Sparkle. Yet despite all of her failures, she was forgiven. She had tapped into the potent, but dark powers of the Alicorn Amulet and hadn’t even noticed how easily it took control, coaxing the desire to have everypony look to her.
The showmare was aboard an airship, simply wanting to distance herself from where she nearly lost herself and from those she had hurt at the cost of her pride.
Where did Trixie go wrong? She asked herself, while looking out to the east, past the Unicorn Mountains.
The rays of light began to touch the desert on the horizon. The Dry Outpost, near Saddle Arabia, was where she acquired the Alicorn Amulet, and when she met that mare. Ironically, it was aboard this very airship when Trixie last saw that sorceress.
Trixie wanted to be strong like you Lina, and now look at where it got me.
“Next stop, the Dry Outpost!” the airship’s pilot yelled.
////
Trixie wasn’t exactly sure why, but she felt deeply inclined to return to this place, where she stumbled once again on the road to fame.
The showmare got off the aircraft and began to walk about the small settlement. She recalled the first time she was here with Lina, when the other mare somehow detected the magic of the Alicorn Amulet, and when she returned here to buy the item.
She made her way to the outskirts of the town; beyond it just swathes of endless desert until perhaps one hit Saddle Arabia. The morning sun was already intensifying into the heat that was all too familiar with this region. For some reason, Trixie just continued going forward, not turning back to even look at the Dry Outpost.
Nopony had even taken notice that the mare had just gone off on her own, apart from the curious crew of the airship wondering where the owner of the wagon aboard their vessel had gone off to.
////
The heat was beginning to become unbearable but Trixie just continued walking, sand for miles all around and only a fleeting image of the Dry Outpost in the background could be seen.
“What is Trixie doing?!” the mare exclaimed. “Get a hold of yourself Trixie!”
She had already been on this trek, under a more forgiving morning sun, for an hour already . Now the full heat of the desert was upon her. She ran back for the outpost.
It wasn’t an easy feat to be able to climb the dunes. Her hooves just weren’t used to gaining traction over the sand. Over the next, particularly large, dune Trixie had over compensated for climbing over so much that she tripped and went tumbling down.
Luckily, after a moment of being disoriented, she regained her bearings and lowly got to her hooves. It was then that she noticed a blinding ray of light from the ground.
“What is this?” Trixie asked. She tried to levitate the object but it seemed to be far too heavy for telekinesis. So she approached and tried to use her hooves as well. Still the object did not move.
Trixie growled and surged her magical grasp on the item, and gave it another tug with it and her hooves. The light only intensified, which sent the showmare backward as she tried to cover her eyes.
“How dare you!” Trixie exclaimed. She then lunged at the offending object. "Trixie will break you!”
But instead of any sort of collision, the showmare passed through the shining surface.
////
Trixie felt herself fly through the air, much cooler air, and saw that there was a great deal of space between her and the ground. The showmare fell a good six feet before belly flopping on the grass below.
She struggled to get to her hooves, but found that the lengths of her legs were off, her hind legs were longer and made her awkwardly misalign her whole body. Stranger yet was the sensation she felt from her front hooves.
She could actually feel the grass beneath them. Trixie looked down to see strange, pale-colored, claws. “What the-“ Trixie exclaimed and reeled into the air as she would normally have from any shocking realization. But then, as she did, her back hit the side of a tree and she felt oddly…right when she was stuck in this position.
She looked at those “claws” she had. They didn’t look like much in the way of claws, not at least like a dragon’s or even griffon talons. There were other things off about this body of…whatever it was she was now. She noted-
“Take that you creep!” a voice yelled, interrupting Trixie’s thought. It was a voice that she thought she’d never hear again.
////Moments Before////
“It’s almost too easy.” A red-haired sorceress said whispering to the swordsman next to her. “I swear, these bandits are almost as dumb as you Gourry. They literally left a trail of loot leading to their hideout.”
She then stretched a hand out to pick up a coin on the ground from the bushes they were hiding in.
“Lina, you say they’re dumb, but they had to have noticed you doing that!” Gourry said, in an excited whisper.
“Hey, what was that!?” a gruff voiced bandit yelled. He turned to where he thought he saw movement. “Eh, was probably a squirrel.” He continued with the rest of his group.
Lina and Gourry exchanged incredulous looks with each other, but remained silent to keep pace with the bandits.
Eventually, the two of them were led to an encampment in the woods. There had to be dozens of boorish looking bandits in the clearing, all surrounding a cooking fire with their ringleader sitting not far off.
Around the man were bags upon bags of gold and treasure. Most striking was the layout of his encampment, everything from furniture to treasure appeared arranged as an outdoor throne room.
“Boy, that place sure had a lot of stuff, eh boss?” the bandit from before asked.
“It sure did boys.” Their leader said. “Just look at all this stuff! We’ll be set for a good long while with all this!”
Lina then jumped up, cape flapping in the air, as if on cue, and landed in front of the mass of bandits.
“Wow, look at all of this loot you gathered. Aw, you shouldn’t have!” Lina said.
The ringleader then stood up from his makeshift throne and yelled at the sorceress. “I don’t know what a runt like you is doin here, but we ain’t just gonna let you come here and say things like that!”
A few of the closest bandits brandished their weapons and edged toward Lina. The sorceress smirked and moved her hands into a position that looked like she was holding a bow and arrow.
“Flare arrow!” she said, and then a streak of fire shot into a bandit, instantly setting him ablaze.
He panicked and then ran into the group of his friends, nearly setting them on fire as well before he ran off.
The other bandits that had approached Lina recoiled and hesitated.
“You witch!” the bandit boss yelled. “What are you waiting for?” he continued yelling at his crew.
Having found new fervor, a dozen bandits moved in with their swords and various weapons pointed at Lina. She, in turn, stretched her hand in front of her and called forth another spell.
“Digger volt!” she said, and a wave of lightning shot out, electrocuting the attackers. Each one of the bandits hit by the spell dropped their weapons and their roar of battle changed into babbling of electrocution.
Despite that, however, it didn’t stop the remaining ranks to push forward. But before they could reach their target, their weapons were cut into pieces by the swordsman that was lying in wait. Gourry jumped out, his blue armor catching the lights of the sun just right as to make it shimmer.
Before any of them could react, they only heard Lina yell, “Fireball!”
The spell essentially blew everyone away from the point of impact in the middle of the ranks of bandits. Those who weren’t down for the count scrambled to their feet and fled. All that remained was the bandit boss, mouth agape.
“Damn you!” he yelled, pulling out a sword.
Lina merely shrugged and launched another fireball in his direction. The bandit boss panicked and grabbed a rather large bag of treasure to shield himself.
“No, the treasure!” Lina yelled, but the spell made contact with the sack and treasure exploded in every direction.
Molten coins, exploded statues, and a mirror flew into the air and into a section of the forest nearby.
“Oh, so you really want this stuff that badly do you?” the bandit boss asked.
He then dove into his piles of loot. “Haha, looks like you can’t do anything to me if you want any of my stuff!”
Lina growled. “Hey, you get out of there! I worked my butt off to track you down!”
“But Lina, you said this was one of the easiest groups of bandits you ever tracked!” Gourry said.
“Shut up Gourry!” Lina exclaimed. “I’m trying to make a statement here! Anyways, for you Mr. Bandit Chief, I don’t need to blow you up in order for me to deal with you!”
"Yeah, you can just leave, you little flat chested pipsqueak!"
"What was that?!" Lina said, her tone darkening. "Oh, I'm not going to let you get away now." The sorceress wore an evil grin.
The bandit boss choked back before retorting, “I knew it was a bad idea to loot that place…”
“Ray wing!” Lina said, invoking her spell.
A burst of air launched the bandit from his hiding place and high into the air.
"Fireball!" Lina said, shooting the airborne bandit with the spell, sending him careening away and immolated.
“Aiyeeee!” he screamed as he flew off into the distance.
“And take that you creep!” Lina yelled to the bandit chief in the distance. She then turned to Gourry. “Now that that’s been settled, we can get to all of this treasure!”
The sorceress then went for the closest sack of treasure and began to examine its contents. “Let’s see, gold, gems, the usual.” She said, and sighed. “Just once, I’d like to find something a bit more interesting whenever we take down a group of bandits.”
“Like a statue or something? Hey, didn’t we find like a really important statue a long time ago?” Gourry asked.
Lina recalled a particular statue. It was made of orihalcum and got her involved with a plot to resurrect the darklord Shabrinigdo. A chill went down her spine.
“Eh heh, maybe nothing that interesting.” Lina said.
“Well, I just remembered how you had it with you for the longest time.” Gourry said. “Say, whatever happened to it anyway?”
Lina stopped, and walked over to the blonde swordsman and smacked him over the head. "You blockhead! Don’t you remember anything?” she asked angrily.
Before Lina could continue berating Gourry, the both of them heard someone moving about in the trees nearby, and they both instantly turned their attention towards the sound.
Then, a woman came tumbling out of the forest, cape and hat crumpled over her form. When the woman got to her feet, Lina saw that the woman had light blue hair tied back, and aside from the suspiciously familiar hat and cape, she was completely naked.
“Lina is that you?” the woman asked.
And then it clicked for Lina. “Trixie? What are you doing here?” She asked.
Gourry was at a loss for words, but held a hand over his eyes.
“And what the heck are you doing without any clothes on!?” Lina said, bolting for Trixie and immediately closing the former showmare’s cape. “Sheesh, what are you doing walking around like that? You’re gonna catch a cold or let some guy see you naked!”
Trixie looked down at the sorceress; she was much shorter than she remembered. “What’s wrong with that?” Trixie asked. “Trixie doesn’t always wear her hat and cape you know.”
She then opened the cloak, exposing Lina directly to her chest.
Lina turned red and covered Trixie back up with her ape. “Quit showing off! Just keep that on until we can make you decent alright?”
“Trixie still doesn’t understand, but if you insist.” She said and followed Lina.
The sorceress then pulled off her own cape and began to rummage through the various storage pockets it concealed. “Ha, this should do it!” Lina said as she pulled out some clothes. They were a light blue woman’s longsleeve shire, vest and pants with gold trim. “Here, put these on.”
Trixie looked at the garments. “Do you think you can help Trixie?” She asked.
////
Lina and Trixie returned to the clearing where Gourry still stood with his eyes covered.
“You can look now Gourry.” Lina said flatly to which the swordsman complied.
“Hey, I just didn’t want you to get mad at me or something.” Gourry said. “Especially if I said something about your friend having bigger-“
He was cut off when Lina punched him behind his head.
“I get it Gourry.” Lina said, barely able to contain her contempt. “But I don’t get it Trixie, why are you here?”
“Wait, who’s Trixie?” Gourry asked. “…And why do I feel like I should remember that name?"
“You really don’t remember Gourry?” Lina asked. “Remember that time in the desert when when you got kidnapped and we had to fight that jackal-horse monster?”
Gourry still had a blank stare.
“We were ponies.” Lina said
“Oh yeah.” Gourry said. “Now I remember, Trixie was that cute little blue pony with the starry hat! But she’s not a pony Lina!”
Unbeknownst to Lina, Trixie blushed at the way Gourry referred to her. And for a second time, the sorceress struck the swordsman in the back of the head.
“While my friend here has trouble figuring out things, I am still curious Trixie. Why are you human?” Lina asked “I wonder if it’s because you left your world. And I still want to know why are you here.”
Trixie shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Uhh, Trixie may have found another mirror to your world somehow. And then she fell out of a tree.”
“Well then, we should probably find that mirror to get you home then?” Lina said.
Trixie then led the others to where she made her abrupt introduction with this world. Just as they cleared the tree line, Trixie spoke. “Well, it would look like Trixie fell out of the mirror in that tree.”
And as if by fate a gust of wind blew and shook the mirror free of the branches and sent it crashing to the ground. Everyone grimaced and flinched when the mirror shattered.
Lina then moved with her arms bent at her sides towards the debris and then turned around. “Well, how about I show you around?”