Trixie pulled the tattered remains of her cape closer as the cold night air swept through the forest.
"The Ggggreat and Powerful Trixie should not have to be reduced to manual labor," the unicorn pony grumbled as she slowly piled lumber and twigs into a large heap. When she had judged the pile to be big enough, she produced a small leftover firecracker and lit it with her magic, tossing it into the kindling. A small pop sounded within the little hill of wood, and soon began smoking.
Before long, Trixie had a decent fire going. She huddled around it, treasuring its warmth.
She stared in the fire for a while, her thoughts occupied with her recent string of failures. After being kicked out of Ponyville, Trixie merely recouped her losses and rebuilt her wagon and headed toward Phillydelphia. Through a series of misunderstandings, the city ended up passing an ordinance forbidding traveling sorcery. After that, she headed toward Trottingham, but a string events that she in no way caused led to a very old and very angry dragon being released upon the poor city, and the residents made it rather clear that she was no longer welcome.
This list went on for a while. As it stood, Trixie was technically not allowed in the eastern side of Equestria.
She sighed. Knowing only one thing could dispel her woes, she grabbed a pinecone that she had gathered from a nearby tree. With her magic, she crushed it into a fine powder and dropped it into the mortar and pestle she usually used to make firework powder.
She had discovered that with a little know-how and exposure to air, a combination of crushed pinecone, water, and mushrooms created pinecone moonshine. For the past few months, this sacred beverage had been her only companion.
Scooping up some water from a nearby puddle, it only took a little while for the concoction to be ready. She drank directly from the bowl, and the beverage soon took hold of the unicorn. She hiccuped once and passed out. When she did, her signature wizard hat popped of her head and gracefully landed in the fire, the soft fabric immediately becoming consumed by flame. Trixie may have protested if she had not already passed out.
~
The sun's unwelcome rays hit Trixie's face, and her face squinted. As the sun had no plans to go away any time soon, she groaned and slowly opened her eyes, looking around the camp she had set. Her eyes turned toward the fireplace, and the spotted the ashes of what used to be her hat. She patted around on her head to confirm its fate, and grumbled.
She slowly rose to her hooves, still a little wobbly from the effects of the moonshine. With no other plans, she quickly gathered what few belonging she had. Using her cape and a stick she had picked up a while back, she created a makeshift bindle and headed out, not even caring where her direction took her.
As she exited the forest and took her eyes of the ground to look at the surrounding countryside, her eyes widened a bit. In front of her was Canterlot, its golden and white towers sparkling in the sunlight. Its beauty and wealth reminded Trixie of her failure, and she gave a low growl and the capital city. Just as she was about to turn, she saw somepony coming down the road out of the corner of her eye.
It was the mayor of Ponyville, happy trotting along the road. Her pace slowed as she spotted Trixie, and her humming ceased. When she got close to the unicorn pony, she stopped for a moment. Saying nothing, she simply glared and Trixie and turned direction, towards the path to Canterlot.
Trixie gritted her teeth and ran towards the mayor, "You think you're so much better than me!?" she screamed as the surprised mayor broke into a sprint and left Trixie in the dust.
"IT'S ALL YOUR TOWN'S FAULT!" she bellowed as the mayor disappeared from sight, her voice echoing of the mountain. She breathed heavily for a few second, before finally calming down. Groaning, she sank down near a large direction sign. She hit the dirt a few times in frustration before getting back up. As she did, she noticed that the direction sign also served an advertising post, as many a declaration of royal balls of Grand Galloping Galas of years past were plastered all over the sign, many incredibly faded and worn with age.
It was then that Trixie noticed that underneath all of the fancy posters of pinks and whites, she noticed a splash of red. She leaned forward for a closer look, but the other posters obscured her vision. Fed up, she simply ripped the poster of her interest off the post, sending quite a few more flying everywhere.
She scanned the odd poster, intrigued by its colors and bold words.
CANTERLOT WORKER'S SOCIETY
We fight for the future!
The words were in bright yellow, and in the center of the poster stood three stylized outlines of a pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony. In their mouths they held a spear, brush, and hammer, respectively.
Trixie stood there for a while, staring at the poster. As she contemplated the nature of the ponies that put it up, she also remembered her past failures. Every time one of her schemes had been foiled, it had always been at the hooves of the machinations of the powerful. Whether through a servant of the monarchy or the police force of the city, she had found her politics confounded by those who served the interest of the ruling class and ruling class alone.
Something clicked in her mind, and she slowly smiled. Locating an address in the lower right corner of the poster, she rolled up the poster and put it into her bindle and began trotting toward the ivory towers of Canterlot.
~
Trixie's earned more than a few stares and upturned noses from her ragged appearance. She didn't care. Following the address, her search led her to a small building complex on the far side of the city. A sign above the entrance spelled out "Canterlot Commonwealth College" in plain lettering.
Trixie took out the poster and reviewed it once more, but the address of the group she sought did not get any more specific. Undeterred, she walked inside the main building and began looking around. As she did, she noticed a plain brown earth pony with a book cutie mark sweeping the floor.
She was not used to manners, but she tried her best.
"The Grr—" she started, but quickly cut herself off as the earth pony turned toward and gave her a confused look, "er, do you know where this group meets?" she asked, taking out the poster and showing it the earth pony.
She saw him squint behind his glasses, and then point down the hall.
"Oh, they meet in Room 107. I believe they're having a meeting right now, actually."
Her good manners spent for the moment, she simply nodded and walked down the hall to 107. As she did, she could already hear pitched voices behind the closed door. As she walked closer and stood right in front of it, she wondered if this was really the choice she wanted to make, especially considering her own past with duping ponies out of their money.
She suddenly got cold hooves and turned around, aborting her mission. Just as she did, the door opened. There stood a yellow pegasus pony with pink hair, her mane tied into a neat bun.
“Oh, hello. Can I help you?” she asked, holding the door open.
Trixie swallowed her pride, “Yes. Is this where the Canterlot Worker's Society meets?”
The pegasus beamed, "Oh, good! Good! Another friend of the worker!" she exclaimed, "I was just about to get some coffee, but that can wait. Come in, come in!" she said as she herded Trixie into the small room. Inside were several other ponies, who were sitting at a long table.
"Comrades," said the pegasus, "we have a new friend of the cause!"
"Excellent!" said the white unicorn at the front of table, "Take a seat and introduce yourself."
Trixie hesitantly complied, and sat down.
"So, I believe introductions are in order. I'm Hammer Jammer."
"Smooth Sickle." said the yellow peagsus pony.
"I am Red Flag." a burly black unicorn pony announced.
A twitchy grey earth pony then stood up and raised his hooves, "System Smasher! We need to rise up and—" he shouted before trailing off and huddling back into his corner of the room.
And lastly, a small orange unicorn introduced herself, "I'm Proley," she squeaked.
Smooth Sickle nodded, "Good, good. And how might you be?" she asked.
Trixie spaced out for a second, taking a second to fully realize the nature of the company she had just integrated herself into, "Oh, I'm Trixie."
"And good day, Trixie!" Hammer Jammer added, "If you do not mind me asking, how did you arrive here?"
Trixie paused. When she saw the poster, she knew that there had to be something about it that made her come here. She never did have good experience with dealing with upper-class neighborhoods, and the really well-off ponies never did appreciate her show. It always left her avoiding those types of neighborhoods, but why was she really here?
Trixie sat down her bindle and took out the poster, "I saw this."
"Wow. The imperialists must have missed one when they ripped them all down." Red Flag stated.
"No matter," Hammer Jammer said, "If it brought even one comrade to us, which it just has, then it was worth it!"
Hammer Jammer's enthusiasm encouraged Trixie, and she began to voice her thoughts even more, "It's just that I've traveled a lot during my life, and I've been to a lot of cities. I've kind of seen that rich ponies are jerks..."
Smooth Sickle nodded, "-And the peril of the worker is alarming, indeed."
Trixie shrugged, "Well, I guess...I sort of came here because—"
"Because you have seen first-hoof the squalid conditions in which the working class must be subjected to in order for the bourgeois to live out their complacent lives!"
Trixie wasn't sure what to expect when she came here, but it wasn't this. She retreated into her own thoughts as the ponies around her began telling of the virtual slavery of the underclass.
Trixie grew up poor. It was a desire to escape the poverty in which she lived that she began traveling all over Equestria, unencumbered by a salary or rules. She had been, at first, a very humble traveling magician, who would do a few parlor tricks in exchange for a night's rest at an inn.
As her magic act became more and more elaborate, so did her stage personality. It was then that Trixie ceased to exist, and there was only The Great and Powerful Trixie, who cast away all ties to her past life. With her recent hardships, she had rediscovered humility, and it seemed like the Great and Powerful Trixie was only able to get where she was from the support of other working stiffs like her. Rich ponies only ever treated her with disdain.
Well, she thought, they don't seem too bad. And if they stuck it to the snooty rich folks every once in a while, who was she to judge them by their eccentricities and fiery rhetoric?
"I've kind of realized how bad rich folks are." she muttered.
"Yes, comrade!" Smooth Sickle exalted.
"And I really didn't like seeing how poor other ponies lived."
"Quite!" Hammer Jammer agreed.
"And you believe that a worker's revolution is the only recourse!" Red Flag shouted in the manner of a question, even though it wasn't one.
"Um, yes." Trixie said, not wanting to rock the boat. It had been a while since she'd actually talked to a pony as an equal instead of through her persona, and it felt good. As she thought about it, she began to think that things probably would be better off if the workers ran stuff.
"And the destruction of the state!" System Smasher screamed from the back.
No rules? Trixie could get behind that. "Yes!" she said with less forced enthusiasm.
"And to the means of production becoming the property of the worker and the worker alone!" Proley declared.
A voice within Trixie told her that she might be getting in over her head, but she ignored it. She had a group of ponies right here that didn't judge her once on how she looked or behaved, and she wasn't about to throw that away. She wasn't entirely sure on the details of what these folks were getting at, but she'd sort that out later.
"YES!" Trixie announced, throwing up her cape just as she did as a stage performer. When she did, the other ponies in the room broke out in song.
Rise up, doomed of Equestria
Rise up, locked in hunger
A thunderstorm of reason
Rolling across the land
We shall overthrow the chains
Order overthrown, rise up, rise up
We have nothing to lose
And everything to gain
The last struggle begins
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Ponionale
Will be the pony race!
Trixie joined them as they began singing the second stanza. Radicals though they may be, they accepted her and that was all that mattered. She was a commie now, and proud of it.