The city of Canterlot had a rather unique architecture in Equestria. Though the Royal Palace dominated the view, it wasn't the centre of the metropolis. Instead, it was located five hundred meters in front of its main entrance, in a rather modest main square. Despite being surrounded by the marble and gold that made out most of the place, the square itself was marked by a monolith made out of colder and simpler concrete.
Yet, despite it's simpler appearance, it was still the point where all the city's streets converged. Thus, it had become as important as the palace itself. Festivals, protests, reunions. The concrete monolith had witnessed as many events as Princess Celestia.
This is what was on Trixie's mind as she sat in front of the concrete landmark.
The cold breeze of autumn flustered her cape, making her hold tighter onto it to avoid the cold. Even if the sun was painting the sky with a warm pallete of pinks and oranges, the tall buildings along the mountains cast tall shadows over the streets, keeping them fresh, surrounding Trixie with a cold sensation ever since she stepped out of the train. She knew it wasn't the climate, though. Even if the cold started once she was in Canterlot, she had the same unease since leaving Ponyville.
She gave the monolith one last glance before going her way. Taking one of the many tangents to the main road to the palace, the street changed from the furnished stores and royal buildings for simpler and more practical office ones. At the end of the street, after a couple of minutes of her silent march accompanied by the cold breeze and shadows of the sunset, she made it to her destination; The Monarch Trading Company.
Founded fifty years before Princess Twilight's coronation, the Monarch Entertainment Company was the first big trust of Equestria. Though it started its life as an entertainment company some years before that. Monarch Entertainment made chess boards, cards, dice and other tabletop implements. Then it expanded its printing factory to start a couple of magazines. Trixie still remembered reading their fashion and lifestyle one called Black/White from when she was a filly.
That's when the Entertainment company started to expand more and more through Equestria. Books publishing deals became book stores. Two magazines turned into a newspaper, then into a network of local and national newspapers across the continent. By the return of Princess Luna, Monarch Entertainment had a branch on every city and major town in Equestria. Hence its change of name to Monarch Entertainment Company after expanding to radio and television, as well as countless indirect publishers they owned.
As the elevator lifted her to the higher floors, Trixie imagined herself a priestess of old descending to the realms of demons. Sh chuckled, thinking of up as down, black as white and her own limitations put against the vast power she was about to meet. Even is she didn't follow the news too closely, she knew the Monarch Company was vast and powerful. Maybe the second main power after the nobles and Princess Twilight herself.
And so she exited the elevator, mechanically following the small courtesies with the receptionist before a maid opened the main office's door. Trixie waltzed in, as casually as she could keep herself as fear and anger started to boil in the back of her head. She bowed to the young maid, who looked uncannily similar to a younger version of Trixie, and waited for her to leave before speaking.
"I see you still hire mares based on me," she commented in a rather factually tone. "Is that a memoir, or a fixation?" Trixie kept her eyes nailed to the back of the chair, not even blinking as it turned around.
"Sister," Checker Monarch greeted Trixie once they were face to face. "Why, I thought you would appreciate the compliment." She smiled warmly, but Trixie knew the kind of chronic and sustained cruelty that made her sister smile. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I know everything." Trixie answered, keeping her neutral tone and doing everything she could to subside her emotions. She needed to be as cold as a void.
"Oh?" Monarch, on the other hoof, spilled satisfaction each time she spoke. "And what did I do, may you tell?" She made a gesture with a hoof. From a corner in her office, another maid, who also looked like Trixie, poured a cup of tea for each one of them. Once again, Trixie waited until she left before speaking again.
"Are we alone now?" She asked, lifting the small cup with her magic until it was just in front of her face.
"Yes, we are." Checker took a small sip from her own cup. Trixie took the reassurance and sipped her tea too. Checker may manipulate and hurt ponies almost for sport. But she never lied. For a mare like her, lying was too easy, too simple to lower herself to do it.
"I should have realized it at the Gala," Trixie sipped again, savoring the acid pinch of lemon in her throat. "Princess Twilight's first Grand Galloping Gala, right?" She tilted her head to her sister, who nodded in confirmation. "Right," Trixie continued. "But it was too small to notice. Too subtle."
"After all, who would mind just a couple of nobles refusing their invites when so many more still went." Monarch sipper her tea again as Trixie continued. "But then, those same nobles accusing Princess Twilight of favoritism and revealing they didn't went as a protest. That caught some eyes," Trixie measured her tone as she spoke. "Specially if the main paper on Canterlot put their interview on the front page."
"Ah, my sister," Checker faked a warm tone. "Always aware of what I do, yet never able to stop me."
"Oh, no," Trixie stopped her with a hoof. "I wasn't aware yet. You know I don't read much press these days." Trixie adjusted herself on her seat before sipping some tea again. "But you just confirmed it now, didn't you?"
"Why lie?" Checker answered, finishing her tea. "I just printed a column about how many foreign emissaries were coming in comparison to the local ones. Some nobles too exception to that, and I sent a reporter to know their side of the story." She shrugged. "You can't accuse me for having a paper now, can you?"
"Of course not," Trixie lowered her unfinished cup. "I guess running a piece against the Wonderbolts, accusing them of not doing their job as a military force on the borders was just business too." Her sister nodded again. "Nor the study supporting the industrialized mining of magical gems close to the Everfree forest, or publishing the cards to the director complaining about Discord's acts in Ponyville almost daily."
"Free press." Checker replied simply, beaming with pride as if Trixie just listed her accomplishments.
"So, it was free press too when no one reported on the displaced diamond dogs produced by gem mining?" Trixie asked, pushing her chair away from the desk to sit more comfortably. "Or printing in first page how the Court rejected her motion to stop said gem mining, without mentioning it was to prevent the wild life disruption?"
"Of course it was," Checker nodded again, smiling wider than before. "After all, I'm free to decide what is newsworthy and what isn't."
"It wasn't newsworthy when the School of Friendship graduated its first generation?" Trixie asked, letting out some hurt in her tone to satiate her sister. It worked, making Checker chuckle under her breath, but there was no reply besides that.
"Checker," Trixie finally stopped holding herself. "What are you doing?"
"Why, my dear Trixie, it should be obvious." Checker Monarch got up from her seat. "Princess Celestia stood a thousand years. you really think she did so unchallenged?" She trotted away from her desk, towards a painting hung on the wall to her left. It depicted a single unicorn standing proud over a hill, with a group of ponies below, bowing to her as a coat of arms in purple and silver shone over her head. "An entire family waged war on her for generations. Daughter after daughter." She turned around sharply, not smiling anymore, but frowning menacingly. "But what would you understand about a lineage?"
"I understood enough," Trixie got up from her seat and towards her sister. "All the senseless pain and sacrifice." She looked at the painting of their ancestor too. "That's why I left."
"If you understood, you wouldn't be asking me what am I doing," Checker turned away from her sister and went to the window. Trixie considered following her, but she knew it was pointless. There were no more bounds to claim between them. "I'm doing what any other Monarch was born to do since a thousand years ago."
"So, this is it?" Trixie asked, not hiding her sorrow anymore. "You will destabilize a Princess on her first years just because our mother told us to?"
"I know you wouldn't understand." Checker turned around, bathed in the first rays of silver from the moon. "I'm creating something better."
"You have only created pain," Trixie corrected her. "Ever since we were foals, that's all you always did."
"Pain to whom?" Checker started trotting over Trixie. "To the little ponies that work for me? That owe me?" She came to face her sister. "Or to those weak ones in my way?" Trixie trotted back to make some distance, but her sister followed, almost backing her against the wall. "Should I stop myself because of others?"
"I know you won't" Trixie looked down in a mixture of sadness and fear of the pony who made her run away when she was little. "You never stop, no matter who gets hurt."
She turned to leave. There was no use in talking anymore. Trixie never really had any hope her sister would stop. Yeet, deep down, she didn't want to believe it either. But she never made it to the door. Trixie felt her own strength leaving her as her hooves went limp and she felt on her barrel.
"Oh, my poor Trixie, always one move behind me." Checker trotted along her sister and kneeled to be face to face with her. "Did you feel safe when I drank the same tea?" She taunted. "Didn't you consider I would poison the cup too?"
Breathing became an effort to Trixie. It was as if her entire body didn't have enough strength to live. She felt her sister's magic under her shin, pulling her gaze up to meet the violence of Checker's eyes. The sadistic glee of seeing her prey being hurt.
"I... knew," Trixie said between gasps. There was a sting of pain under her lungs that stopped her from saying more.
"Oh, you knew?" Checker said in a disappointed tone. "Then you knew I wouldn't let you leave here with your life, knowing what you know?" Trixie nodded weakly, slipping in and out of consciousness as the poison claimed her life.
"Then why did you came here?" She released Trixie's head from her magic, making it fall hard against the carpet.
"To... stop... you." Trixie closed her eyes for the last time. As she did so, she couldn't keep the illusion that prevented her horn from lighting up in a green and blue aura. And aura Checker Monarch recognized too late as her own body also succumbed to her sister's poisoning spell.
"Heh," Checker snickered before starting to cough violently. "Of-- *cough* course."
With her last strengths, Trixie reached for her sister's hoof, barely touching it.
Then, all went to black.