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// Prologue 
// Story: Crisis of Infinite Trixies 
// by Rixizu 
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“Damn you, Sparkle! Another!” Trixie raised her empty mug, demanding a refill. She cursed that mare’s name again for reducing somepony like Trixie to this pathetic state. Ponies once called her the Great and Terrible Pirate Queen of the Seas! Or Trixie liked to call herself that, anyway. 

“Haven’t you had enough?” The barkeep replied, whipping a mug with a towel. 

“Trixie will tell you when she’s had enough!” Trixie swung her mug. But she overshot, wincing as her drunken behind crashed from her barstool to the grubby floor below. “I’m fine. Don’t help me!”

But getting back to her seat proved too laborious a task, so Trixie made friends with the floor instead. “It’s fine. I’ll hang out here.” 

“Just get her out of here. We have enough lowlife scalawags in here already.” The barkeep said, sighing. The roughest and lowest of the Middream Sea laughed as they tossed Captain Trixie through the bar doors into the cold street. 

“Fine, see if Trixie will ever return to your establishment!” Trixie said, swaying on her hooves.

“I’m too good for everypony!” But, even drunk, Trixie knew this wasn’t true. 

Thanks to Twilight Sparkle, the fleet captain of Princess Celestia’s mighty navy, and her annoying crew, Trixie had lost everything. When she’d learned that Trixie’s ship, the Starbeam, had entered the Middream, she’d pursued Trixie and her pirate crew with the full force of the law. It’d been a catastrophe, her entire pirate gang beaten and captured. Only brave Captain Trixie had escaped, sneaking away on a lifeboat as the situation deteriorated. No, she hadn’t abandoned her crew, as some claimed. It’d only been a strategic retreat. Besides her eye patch and a few bits, Trixie possessed nothing to her name. 

But that didn’t matter. She’d rebuild and show that goody two horseshoes who was boss. How, she hadn’t a clue, but she’d do it! The Queen of the Seas didn’t know the meaning o the word surrender! For now, this cardboard box would make an excellent bed until morning. As momma always said, a new day, new possibilities!

As Trixie snuggled up with her cardboard box to sleep off her drunkenness, she yelped as the dark alley was suddenly filled with blinding light. 

“What gives?” Had the law found her? Or was she too drunk to realize Celestia had already raised the sun? No, someone had definitely appeared in her alley. 

“Who the heck are you?” Trixie lifted her eye patch to peer at the intruder. 

“Trixie Lulamoon.” A metallic voice said, terror zipped down Trixie’s spine as she gazed up at the odd newcomer. Moonlight glinted off its silver, reflective surface, a behemoth of metal construction. Besides that observation, its spotlight blinded her to its features.

Collecting herself, Trixie stood tall and proud, sobriety returning in a rush. The Great and Terrible Pirate Queen of the Seas refused to be intimated! At least, she hoped the stranger would believe that. She’d forgotten her cutlass back on the Starbeam.

“Trixie Lulamoon of Universe 78111 has been found. She will be eliminated.” The metal monstrosity replied. 

“What?” All bravado left Trixie. She fled towards the ally’s entrance, anything to distance herself from this assassin. What was this thing? Some creation sent by Twilight Sparkle to destroy her greatest rival?

Trixie’s horn lit up to summon an illusion to defend herself, but a mighty hand plucked her from the dirty alley. She flailed, anything to free herself. But it proved impossible, its grip iron. 

“Please, release me! Trixie promises to be good! She’ll retire from piracy!” But the metal monster paid her impassioned pleas no attention, its hand lit up with green energy. Trixie screamed, but it died as her body dissolved to nothing. No evidence remained that Trixie Lulamoon had ever existed. 

“Trixie Lulamoon of Universe 78111 has been eliminated. Mission complete. Returning to Axis.” The metal golem said, its voice devoid of any emotion. It displayed neither pride nor satisfaction that its mission was completed. “Only 27 Trixies remain.”