This is crazy, Trixie thought, her anxiety-driven nausea burning up into her throat. She and Discord had hiked their way around Canterlot Peak to reach its train station. It had taken about a half an hour, but the whole time, she couldn’t keep her mind from racing. Obviously, there were going to be guards. To make matters worse, it had only been a few hours since her conversation with Celestia; she doubted she could’ve spread the memo that quickly, especially with all that’s been going on.
Nevertheless, she resolved to keep her spirit up. Perhaps Celestia managed to let the guards know that she was supposed to help. Perhaps there weren’t guards stationed there. And even in the worst case scenario, she may be able to slide by with her previous experience on stage. She gulped. I hope.
They turned a corner, following an unoccupied railroad under the mountain. Yellow lamps lit the tunnel walls, the light dancing around the vibrant red brick. It wasn’t long before the hollow clops of Trixie’s hoofsteps bounced from wall to wall. Startled by it, she slowed her pace, trying to mute the noise.
“... think that the Princess would’ve closed the gates here,” a meager voice groaned. Trixie stopped dead in her tracks, her breath cold against her chest as she held it. Of course there are guards, she chided to herself.
“We can’t do much about it,” sighed another voice, this one gruff. “If it isn’t ordered, we don’t do it.”
Trixie hugged the wall, taking slow, shaky steps until she saw it: the junction. The railroad forked here; the left side followed a steep grade up the mountain to Canterlot Station, while the other went straight through to the northeast. A little past the junction were the guards in question, and ahead of them was the train. She stepped back, motioning Discord to do the same. There appeared to only be two of them, but there would undoubtedly be more.
Racking her brain, only to draw blanks, she turned to the draconequus, who just lay reclined in midair. “I know that you’re exhausted,” she whispered. “But could you—”
Discord waved a talon in dismissal. “Childsplay,” he mumbled. He floated ahead of Trixie, brushing her side as he went by. After a moment, he snapped his fingers. In an instant, both guards slumped over, heavy snores following.
She didn’t notice that her jaw had dropped when he turned around. “Simple sleeping spell,” he explained, shrugging.
The unicorn shook her head out of her daze. “W-wait, how was that simple? You knocked them out instantly!”
“You just suppress hormones that dictate wakefulness,” he continued. “It can be a little fickle at times, but ponies tend to have the same criteria in order to fall asleep.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then they don’t fall asleep or they die.”
“You can kill somepony doing this?”
“You can kill somepony by doing anything,” Discord groaned, tossing his head back. “Now, then, don’t we have a train to catch?”
Trixie struggled to swallow her irritation down. Even though it isn’t what she had in mind… she had to admit to herself that it was effective. She let out a sigh, walking toward the train.
The Friendship Express looked considerably less friendly in the tunnels. What used to be bright and vibrant colors were muted in the darkness, the yellow light distorting it even further. There were still the ever silly designs of the windows and the cars themselves, but the windows were streaked and the bottoms of the cars were blackened.
The unicorn walked to the third car to the engine, her breath becoming noticeably heavier than when they first began. Is the train really this long? She wondered to herself as she lit her horn and opened the door with a little more effort than she’d anticipated. She then cantered car to car, until she was finally in the front.
“Horsefeathers!” she exclaimed in realization, slapping her hoof against her forehead.
“What is it?” Discord asked, sliding next to her.
“How in the world are we going to control this thing?” she aksed miserably, dropping her hoof below her eyes. She saw a series of little buttons and a lever all on a dashboard in front of her. There was a knob that seemed like a steering mechanism, and a bigger button that seemed like an ‘on’ button.
To her surprise, Discord rubbed past her to the dashboard. He interlocked his fingers, cracked his knuckles, and pressed a button to his right. Immediately, the train hummed to life, the bright lights inside illuminating one by one in rapid succession behind her.
When the draconequus turned around, he was wearing a captain’s hat with an anchor emblazoned on the front, the top of it flat as a table. “Like this,” he said nonchalantly, leaning on the dashboard behind him.
Trixie was about to comment on the inappropriateness of the hat when a voice yelled behind them, “Hey! Step away from the train!” She flinched, sticking her head out the window. Three more guards replaced the comatose ones, and they spread out immediately.
She stuck out a little more, waving her hoof in the open air. “Hello? This is the Great and Powerful Trixie, who has been endorsed by Princess Celestia to—” She gasped, pushing herself back into the car as a ball of electricity passed her by.
“Didn’t get the memo,” the draconequus muttered, punching the lever forward. “Let’s get out of here!”
The train lurched into motion, accelerating slowly but surely. Fortunately, the three guards weren’t even close to boarding. When the train sped up, one yelled to the other, “Close the gate!” Not long after, a deafening clank filled the air around them. The train sped up, only to find iron bars inching down from the rock above.
Trixie’s breath felt like ice against her chest. “Discord, we need to go faster!”
“Unless we want to derail the train, we’re stuck at this speed!” Discord yelled back.
“Then what do we do?”
“You’re helpless!” he exclaimed, snapping his fingers. The iron bars came to a halt… for a second or two before they started moving again. Eyes wide, he snapped again and again, but the bars didn’t stop. “Dammit!” he cursed, snapping more. “I can’t keep it up!”
Before long the gate was halfway down. “Pull the brake!” the unicorn screeched.
“You think we can stop when we’re headed this fast?” Discord snapped between gritted teeth. “Not even I can stop the law of physics!”
The gate continued to descend, getting closer by the second. A sick feeling settled in Trixie’s stomach. Is this how I’m going to die? she thought, her blood turning cold. She closed her eyes, turning her head as the bars zoomed toward her…
… No impact came. Trixie opener her eyes, the morning sun blinding her. The first thing she saw was Discord, white-knuckling the throttle and the knob. “Did… did you see that?” he stammered, stiff as a board.
“What happened?” the unicorn asked.
“We hit the gate…” he started. “Then it turned into dust.”
“What?” Curious, she peered out the side window, the wind whipping her mane about wildly. Near the cave exit, Princess Celestia treaded the air, hovering only a few inches from the ground. She waved toward them, and before Trixie could respond, the Princess zoomed into the tunnel, the gate restoring behind her.
“Looks like Princess Celestia came in the knick of time,” Trixie sighed in relief. “But… how did she know?”
“Word... travels fast inside the Canterlot Guard,” Discord’s voice cracked, his shoulders going lax. “When I broke out of my stone prison the first time, Celestia knew within moments.” He took his paw off the throttle, rubbing his neck. “I guess it’s the same thing when I knocked out those guards.”
“How long will they be asleep, by the way?” the unicorn asked, her mind clicking in genuine curiosity.
The draconequus shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve not been around long enough for them to wake up.”
Trixie tried to say “Hm,” but when she inhaled, she yawned. How long did she have this prickling sensation behind her eyes? She picked up a hoof and rubbed them. She hadn’t slept since the night of the attack, and she was definitely starting to feel it.
“Why don’t you get some sleep?” Discord suggested, catching the yawn from Trixie. “It’s going to be a little while before we arrive at Vanhoover.”
She puffed out her chest. “The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t…” She yawned once more. “... doesn’t need sleep.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” the draconequus said, glancing over his shoulder at her. “You’ll fall asleep where you stand.”
Trixie knit her eyebrows. “What about you? You unhypnotized a whole village last night.”
“I’ll be fine for right now,” Discord insisted, waving his paw in dismissal. “Besides, I’m the only one who knows how to drive a train. Pros of being able to reach into other ponies’ minds.” He turned to her, keeping his talon on the knob, making a shooing motion with his paw. “Now go. Get some sleep.”
The magician rolled her eyes, stepping backwards to turn around. “Only because you insist,” she sighed, turning her flank to him. “Goodnight.”
“Morning.”
“Semantics.” She opened the car doors to the open carriage, her eyes drooping. “Stupid locomotives,” she muttered to herself, fighting the accelerated onset of sleep.
She stopped at the third car. She unstrapped her saddlebag from her barrel, laying it at her side. She unlatched it, taking out the necklace once more. It was all she had left of her. She stared at the four-pointed star, a bittersweet symbol of her mother.
She climbed on the bench, tucking her hooves under her head as she lay. Within moments, she was whisked away into a deep, yet dreamless sleep.
When Trixie woke, the sun sat barely above the opposite horizon. She frowned drowsily. She could’ve sworn that the sun stayed up longer. She sighed. I hate autumn, she thought, sitting up. The necklace jingled, sliding off her chest. She gasped, lit her horn and caught it right before it hit the ground beside her.
“Good evening,” Discord’s voice said. He stood in the doorway, leaning on the casing.
She knit her eyebrows. “Aren’t you supposed to be driving the train?”
He jutted a claw back over his shoulder. “I am.”
Her eyes widened in realization. “Oh,” she mumbled.
Discord’s eyes fell to the necklace that was suspended at best an inch above the ground. “Pretty,” he said. “Though I didn’t think you to be a religious pony, Trixie.”
“I’m not,” she blurted, opening her saddlebag out of reflex. She hesitated. “It… was my mother’s.”
The draconequus eyebrows soared upward. “I simply cannot believe it! The Great and Powerful Trixie finally opens up!” He disappeared from the doorway, reappearing by her side. “Well, go on, tell your story!” He placed his head in his claws, a childlike grin appearing on her face.
“She’s dead.” Trixie deadpanned.
Discord’s expression went blank. He waited, as if expecting a punchline. “O… kay, didn’t expect it to go there. I-I’m sorry.”
The unicorn shrugged. “It was a while ago, honestly. Before I went to Celestia’s all-famous academy.”
“You went to the same place as Twilight, then?”
She nodded. “Well, yes. Had I stayed, I might’ve met her.” Her eyes fell to her lap, sighing. “But tuition was too much for me to handle. No matter what sort of job I tried out, it just wouldn’t suffice. So I dropped out.”
“And then the Great and Powerful Trixie was born, huh?” the draconequus asked.
“It was mostly because of my dad,” she admitted. “He left the religion and set out on his own. He’s a disgusting pony, anyway, only searching for money and sex.” She gave an empty laugh. “And I thought that I could be better. I just… ended up being the exact same and worse.”
The draconequus huffed a puff of air out as he stood. “Well, you can’t get as bad as me.” He walked to the window, and his face suddenly went slack. “Uh-oh.”
“What?” The unicorn flipped around, glancing outside the window and around the bend. Following close behind them was a gold-lined carriage filled with Canterlotian guards. They neared the caboose, prying the door open, jumping inside one by one. “That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t,” the draconequus responded. “Detatch the cars!”
“On it!” Trixie responded. She hopped up from the bench, galloping to the opposite door, flinging it open. The chilly northern air burst in, penetrating through her coat as she stared at the joint, focusing. At that point, however, the chariot was empty, and it and the driver ascended farther into the air.
Cursing, she lit her horn, imagining a jack between the two plates of iron. Immediately, a headache broke into her mind, quickly reminding her of the castle. I was able to keep Fluttershy safe then, she thought through the pain. I can do this! She lifted with all her might, but the socket wasn’t lifting fast enough. Through reddening vision, she saw the doors in the other car burst open, the guards leaping into the car.
With one last desperate effort, Trixie yanked her head back, followed by a thick clang. She opened her eyes once more to see that she’d detached the car, and the remaining train was slowing down steadily. One inch became a foot, then two feet, then three. The guards halted at the doorway. Relief flooded into Trixie’s chest.
“Move!” a deep voice said amongst the crowd. The guards split in twain, revealing a massive unicorn stallion at the tail end. He reared, bucking into a dead-out sprint. Eyes widening, Trixie jumped out of the way when he easily cleared the now ten foot gap between cars. She had barely time to move as a spark of electricity whipped from his horn toward her, missing her by a hare. Heart pounding, she conjured a small shield as the next volt came, this time ricocheting perfectly off. It went through the open doors and soared into the control panel.
Not a even second later, the front car exploded, tossing the train off the rails. Trixie struggled to keep her footing as the train barrel rolled, tossing her onto her side. Her vision spun as she hit all walls inside the train until finally coming to a stop. Her vision blacked out as she fell once more into the back of the car. Everything else fell silent.
She woke a moment later, looking up at the front door of the train car. Her back ached as she tried to stand, but to no avail. Confused, she glanced out the window to her left. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized she was looking at a cliff face.
“Trixie!” Discord’s voice yelled above her. She looked up, and he stood in the door frame, both his claws holding himself in the doorway. “Are you all right?”
“No!” she screeched, standing up in her awkward nook. The train screeched and lurched downward, her heart leaping up to her throat. Electric tendrils of fear paralyzed her.
“Okay, don’t move!” his voice cracked. “I’ll lift you up!”
That was when out of her peripheral vision, she saw her saddlebags on the other side of the door. Mom’s necklace!
Discord must have caught her gaze. “Don’t! If you move anything down there, the whole train will come crashing down!”
Trixie’s heart rent in two. The last thing she could remember her mother by was in that bag. But he was right. Fighting the stinging in her eyes, she felt herself flying upward past the benches, the saddlebag disappearing behind them. When she reached the doorway, the train lurched one more time. With a whip of his head, Discord tossed Trixie in front of her, the cold, damp air penetrated her skin. The front car’s roof and walls were blasted off, the bases of the walls jutting out toward the back.
A second later, she felt herself accelerating backward, the grade of the car steepening. Heart racing, she galloped to the front. Land retreated away from her. She stomped her hooves and jumped, the remainder of the train falling to the ground below. When her hooves touched the ground, she landed awkwardly, and she rolled forward, her flank slapping on the rock.
Grimacing, she flipped onto her stomach, her mind racing. The rolling train had left trenches in its wake, the ground not too far off torn to shreds. She closed her eyes, filling her lungs as deeply as she could while her heart pounded in her chest.
“That was a close one,” Discord’s voice said to her side, a little too nonchalantly.
Trixie opened her eyes, nodding. Her heart slowed down considerably at this point, but along with that, her body ached, and she felt each fall. Something in her mind clicked. “What about that guard?”
The draconequus shrugged. “Probably at the bottom of the cliff.” He stared at the edge, and Trixie followed his gaze. “Shame, really. He got too ambitious.”
The unicorn’s gaze fixed on the cliff, a bout of unbelief clouding her mind. Did that really just happen? She instinctively checked her back for her saddlebags, but they were gone. The torn ground didn’t betray her thoughts either. Did somepony actually just… die because of her?
She shook the thought out of her head. It couldn’t have been their fault. After all, the guard was the one reckless enough to just fire tranquilizing beams in a moving train at a range. However, she couldn’t help but wonder that if she didn’t opt to come, that another guard’s life would be saved. But then again, the country was on the defensive just because of one pony, and they didn’t have enough resources to investigate.
She clapped her hoof on her forehead. Why on Earth did the Two Sisters think it was a good idea to understaff the military?
“... Trixie?”
She snapped out of her deep thoughts, the world coming into view again. “Y-yes?” she stammered, trying to collect her thoughts once more.
Discord sighed. “I had a good line that I was going to say, but now it’s hardly appropriate.” He snapped his claws, and Trixie’s saddlebag appeared out of thin air beside him. He shifted weight to the other side of his body. “Don’t ask me for anything ever aga—”
His sentence was cut short when out of a rush of euphoria, Trixie wrapped her hooves around the draconequus’ waist. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She repeated over and over again, hugging tighter than before. Slowly her inhibitions returned to her, and she let go of him, heat rising steadily to her cheeks. “T-take that as a token of Trixie’s gratitude,” she managed, sucking her lips in.
Discord stood frozen in place like a statue, his eyes wide. It took a moment until he finally looked at her. “Right. You're welcome.” A random glove appeared beside him, and she flinched as it slapped him upside his head. He spun around twice, coming to a sudden stop. “Okay,” he said, shaking his head. “What now?”
Trixie bit her lip, looking over the horizon. Were they even near Vanhoover? “We go back the way we came… and follow the tracks?”
The draconequus shrugged. “Might be our best option,” he mumbled. “We shouldn’t be too far from the city.”
Nodding, Trixie and Discord set off, the sun setting farther into the western horizon. She squinted. She could’ve sworn that even sunsets like this were brighter. The ground below them was no longer the spongy, rich soil she’d come to know, but rather rock hard and icy cold underneath the hoof. It wasn’t too long until the night took over, and the star-filled sky faded into view. She caught her breath in her chest at their beauty. How long had it been since she’d seen this full sky?
Trixie lit her horn, her joints aching in the freezing temperatures. It wasn’t a dry cold that bit at the skin, but rather a wet cold that permeated to the bone. She started shivering as the night continued, her mouth tasting like copper. It wasn’t long after that the cold had numbed her legs and ears.
But relief flooded her chest as city lights peered over the horizon. They picked up the pace, Trixie pumping her legs at a near gallop as the station came into view. But suddenly, a force pulled at her chest and she was yanked backwards toward Discord. “What’re you—”
Discord extended a talon in front of his lips, gesturing to silence her. He then pointed in front of him. The unicorn looked to where he was pointing. In front of them, three guards stood in a circle, engaging in idle chatter.
“... but what about the train crash earlier?” one asked, lifting a hoof.
“We lost one of our stallions,” another answered, shaking her head. “Fortunately, he took out two fugitives, though. Not exactly just, but it gets the job done.”
“But wasn’t one of them Discord?” the last recalled. “I doubt that he’d let himself die.”
“What? No, you really believe all that Skye says?” the first chortled. “Guy exaggerates everything to attract the ladies.”
“Which isn’t really attractive at all,” the second mumbled.
“... Trixie?” Discord whispered behind her.
“What is it?” she whispered back.
The draconequus gestured with a talon over his shoulder, away from the guards in front of them. A little ways from them was an exquisite cherry wood door, with a four-point star carved into it. Suddenly, her saddlebag felt heavy. They’re here too? she thought, her foreleg brushing its latch.
“You have that pendant,” he pointed out.
Trixie gulped down the lump in her throat. “I do,” she breathed. “But will they let me in, even after all this time?”
“Only one way to find out.” He gestured back to the guards. “Better than being caught.”
The magician exhaled, lighting her horn and retrieving her mother’s necklace. She carefully walked to the door, rolling her hooves as such to not make noise. At the top of the door was a window, the shades drawn. Her eyes barely even reached the pane.
Holding her breath, Trixie knocked on the door with three apprehensive taps. No response. Anxiety growing colder in her chest, she mustered the courage to knock louder, and the shades opened with a sudden clack, and she stifled a gasp. Two eyes narrowed from the open space. “Could you be…?”
She held the necklace up to the gatekeeper. “Does this answer your question?”
The pair of eyes widened, then rushed out of view. A couple clacks and knocks later, the door finally opened, revealing a sickly thin old mare, skin sagging beneath her eyes. “Welcome, Trixie Lulamoon, daughter of Priestess Stargazer.” She bowed her head. “Come along, now. We wouldn’t want you to get caught by the guard.”