Trixie's vision swam as she woke from a dreamless sleep with a very stiff back. Did she roll off her bed and spend the night on the floor again? She tried moving a hoof up to her aching head, but found it weighed down. A curious tug confirmed that something was binding all of her hooves.
"Hurry up!-" a sharp voice called out to her right. "They're almost here!"
Trixie opened her eyes to an almost black room. A candle or two stood atop a few wooden cabinets that had seen better days. The air smelled dusty and old, causing her to wrinkle her nose in displeasure.
"Hurry with those lights, we can't let them catch us!"
The headline Famous Magician Found in Deviant Act of Bondage During Drug Raid! flashed through Trixie's mind and she began to struggle in earnest. Her whole body felt strangely sluggish though, and try as she might, she just couldn't concentrate enough to use a spell to undo the ropes.
Trixie's headache only got worse as a loud crashing noise came from somewhere nearby. Looking to her right, Trixie flinched away at the sudden candlelight as somepony began lighting up a few candles near her.
"W-what's happening?" Trixie rasped out with a dry throat.
"Fuck, and now she's awake too. Clyde, hurry!"
A somber voice replied angrily. "Hush, Sweet Lilly, we still have a few moments before they make it here. Now give me the knife and we'll start."
As Trixie's eyes adjusted to the dim light, she could faintly make out the silhouette's of two ponies clad in black robes. One of them had a blue coat and raspberry colored mane along with a effeminate physique. While she didn't want to assume anything since her run in with a very touchy drag queen a few months ago, Trixie figured this one to be Sweet Lilly.
The other, whom Trixie guessed to be Clyde, stood a hoof taller than Sweet Lilly, and had a deep brown coloration with a short cobalt mane. Both sets of eyes however, held a grim determination in them as they looked her over that Trixie immediately feared. She knew that look, it never spelled anything good for her. She tugged at the ropes holding her to what she could now see to be a stone table as yet more candles were lit up in the room.
"H-hello, c-could you maybe release Trixie, or-"
"Open this door, in the name of the Imperial Guard!" called a muffled voice from nearby.
Sweet Lilly looked to Clyde again. "We can't stall anymore! Are we doing this, or has your 'faith' deserted you!?"
"D-doing what?" Trixie nervously asked, noticing a few other robe clad ponies bracing a large, barred door ten feet in front of her.
The door shook again as something rammed against it.
Clyde turned to Trixie, and closed his eyes. "As a mother loves her child, so too does the child love its mother. Tonight, we show this love by weakening the bonds that cruelly embrace her with this sacrifice."
The raspberry colored pony slowly began slipping off Clyde's Robe as he continued to speak.
"As the old prophecy spoke, the stars will aid in her escape. Thus, we present to you one with a star as their mark to guide you on your journey back to us."
The robe dropped, and Trixie's eyes widened in horror.
Brown bat-like wings spread out from Clyde's back, quickly standing to full mast from his sides. Ears, longer and more full of fur than a normal pony's stood at attention from the sides of his head. Trixie screamed as Clyde bared fangs no pony should have at her.
"THEY HAVE A HOSTAGE! GET THIS DOOR DOWN NOW!"
The booming from the door increased in volume as the bar holding it shut began to give in under the assault.
A strange humming noise begin and a new light drew Trixie's attention away from letting out a second scream at the monster in front of her. She turned her head to the right and quickly realized the slab she was on had runes engraved on it, runes that had begun to glow as two cloaked unicorns to the side fed power into it.
She could literally feel his presence as Clyde approached her. Trixie's head whipped around to him as she grunted and pulled at the ropes binding her, horn sputtering uselessly as something blocked off her magic. A dagger, glowing in tune with the table was clutched in Clyde's hoof.
"W-wait! D-don't do this! Trixie is too beloved to die here!"
A Thestral! her mind screamed. She was about to be killed by a legend. A myth that the nunnery told misbehaving foals before bedtime. Don't act out, or the night mother's servants would come for you, they had said. But surely she hadn't been that bad of a foal, right? And why come after her now?
"O-okay!" Trixie sobbed out. "M-maybe I wasn't t-the best growing up, but I don't deserve this! Trixie didn't know those leaves would make Mr. Frisbee's behind itch for a month! A-and Trixie's mark isn't-"
BOOM!
The room rocked a little as the door shattered in, unleashing frantic chaos as a half dozen guards stormed into the room.
"PUT THE KNIFE DOWN!"
Clyde continued, his voice empty of emotion. The runes around Trixie grew brighter, causing her fur to stand on end. "This hollow emptiness..."
Crash!
"Hold them back! We're almost there!"
"Trixie's mark! It isn't a star! Wait!"
"This blackened pit in your soul..."
"Hold her down and grab whatever the hell that is!"
"Let her fill you with righteousness..."
The knife raised. The guards shot crossbows and spells at the Thestral, only for Sweet Lilly to jump in the way and crumple to the floor under the barrage in his place. The table glowed brighter, almost blindingly so.
"Nightmare Moon, make us whole!"
"It's not a fucking star! It's a-"
An arrow hit the Thestral's shoulder, causing him to grunt and miss his mark.
The knife came down, stabbing through Trixie's shoulder instead of her heart. She cried out in pain, barely able to see the Thestral get tackled to the ground.
"It...it's a w-wand..." she whimpered out as the light consumed her.