Trixie's eyes focused on King Sombra's false necklace-ensconced phylactery as he sat upon his throne and she performed her more complex tricks. She'd had his guards bring her traveling cart to the castle, and she used its wonders to shock and awe.
"Be prepared to be amazed! For, the Great and Powerful Trixie has brought her marvelous magics to delight and devour your interest!" she announced. And He was enraptured.
So went another display.
"Would you accompany me to my chambers?" he raised a seductive eyebrow.
"There are many preparations to be made." Trixie shot him a wan smile.
"Tea. For a half turning of an hour?"
Trixie looked into his intense eyes, and knew it would be a mistake--possibly a deadly one--to reject him. "Of course," she smiled.
At night, she met him in a drawing room. Piping oolong tea bubbled and servants poured. Sombra loomed over her, casting a shadow across her cup. He gestured for her to sip first. She tried to conjure the teacup into her hooves with her magic, but nothing happened. He smiled. "You will need to use your hoof."
"Like an earth pony?"
"You're so good with your hooves. I would think that for you it would be foal's play."
Trixie fumbled with the tiny teacup, but she managed to tilt it up adroitly enough to take a sip.
Sombra used his magic to imbibe his tea. Trixie noted that his antimagic field ended somewhere between them--it was an impermanent spell, something that needed to be concentrated upon and maintained.
"So... Trixie," he said, allowing her the honor of being referred to by name. "Where did you come from?"
"A land far, far away."
"More specificity," he demanded.
"A land where Trixie's talents were sometimes respected, but a land where ponies had mostly seen Trixie's displays."
"Novelty does have a way of wearing off."
"They enjoyed the displays. Though familiarity made them less surprised."
King Sombra smiled. "But you are still novel to me."
"Trixie is Great and Powerful," she said. "And Trixie is glad to entertain you for a time. But Trixie will, of course, be moving on after sharing her joy... her performative joy... her shows. Trixie will, of course, continue topping the grandeur of her displays so as to build a sense of anticipation."
"Indeed. I find them more and more intriguing each time."
Trixie sipped. And found herself smiling. "Trixie has had many fans and many more have seen her tricks many times and trotted away with enjoyment. But her closest friends assist with her performances."
"I could be part of the show?" Sombra leaned forward and Trixie felt his breath on her face. He snorted with excitement. And even though he was a horrible pony, Trixie blushed.
"You're interested?" This was what she had wanted from this meeting, but the response felt rather more personal and special than she had imagined.
"I am," he said. And he placed a forehoof on Trixie's thigh.
"I will work on some plans," she said, suddenly rising. "It will take time."
"Join me. Tonight. Take a rest."
"I'm... I have plans," Trixie said. "Please, excuse me." She backed away from the table.
King Sombra frowned, but he gestured toward his guards and they opened the door for his magician friend.
Trixie returned to her room and did a double-take. The small quarters had doubled during the day. A wall had been smashed and her room had been extended beyond it and dressed quite sumptuously.
Although the palace's wealth was blood-derived from the suffering of thousands of ponies, her surroundings looked quite pleasant. Moss, lye and other chemicals wiped away the nasty history. She sighed and sat at her desk and mirror and focused on her plan and the saltpeter surrounding her.
But then she placed a hoof on her thigh and stroked it, like Sombra had done. And she thrilled a bit. But, then she shuddered and looked back at the mirror and set a determined mien as she focused on her touchstones: the plan and Starlight Glimmer: her best friend. She needed to delay. Focus.
The next day, Trixie presented her fireworks outside. Flashes of red and green and other colors exploded in a pleasing display as their rockets decorated the heavens.
King Sombra stood at her side, stroking her mane. She whinnied.
"Are your quarters to your liking?" he asked, after the display.
"Yes," she said.
"Is there anything you could want? I'll arrange a fully body massage. Sweet smelling fruits. A spa treatment."
"That would be good!" Mission or not, and evil King or not, Trixie had traveled the road too much with aches and pains to turn down a good relaxing treatment.
"If any pony appreciated you more than I have, tell me what that pony did. And I will match it."
"Oh," she said.
He rubbed his body against hers. She swallowed. "There's a mare. She helped with my show. But she's not around any more. It's why I came," she lied.
"Do you... prefer the company of mares?" he asked.
"I... feel something else with you," she told the truth, quivering. "But... I need to go to the bathroom."
A pony brushed up against her. "I found it," the mare said while briefly pressing Trixie against the stone wall.
Trixie gulped and didn't dare say anything. Her heart pounded, she licked her lips and planned her final performance.
But before that last performance, she needed to entertain King Sombra. He'd grown bolder and insisted on a chess game, he said, to test her mettle.
Trixie was not good at chess.
He expected her to win.
Other ponies said those who lost to Sombra tended to be executed.
He said that if she lost, she'd be in his power.
She sat at the table and assumed her stage persona, hoping her bluster would carry her. Playing this game was like playing any performance, she told herself. But, in a performance, nopony lost. A performance was entertaining, or it was not. In chess, a pony won, or a pony did not--no matter how entertaining that pony had been.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie looks forward to asserting her dominance," she said, idly taking a piece and testing its weight.
"King Sombra's dominance is well known," he said.
"That's why it's easy to work out how to defeat it."
"I will not be taken so easily." He leaned forward.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie will teach you a lesson."
"And if you lose, I will teach you one," he gestured to a corner, where a pink and blue-maned servant held a bit, a whip, and a saddle.
Trixie winced, hiding it with a smile. "Trixie is more than experienced with such things. Trixie is surprised you would submit to her."
Sombra's nostrils flared. "I am a King!"
"A Queen trumps a King." Trixie picked up the piece.
Sombra's eyes grew wide.
Trixie scolded herself for pushing too far, but she didn't let her feelings reach her face.
Sombra reached for her foreleg that held the Queen, and he took it, staring into her eyes. His hot breath fell on her. "You see yourself as a Queen."
Trixie smiled, trying to salvage the situation. "Trixie would be one with you. Not a bedmare. Trixie will not settle. That's why we've had this delicate dance. You must see this similarly... this game?"
"Indeed," he released her foreleg. "If you can defeat me, I may consider you. But, if you disappoint me, I will grow tired," he shrugged. "It is best we both understand."
"I have a lot of surprises," Trixie said, with a smile, placing the piece back down.
They played for a while. Then Sombra looked at the board and blinked. He had two rooks moments before. Now, he had one. "Open your hoof," he demanded.
Trixie smiled and nothing was in her outturned hooves. On the board, both rooks were present, but one was in a new location.
"You moved my rook," Sombra said.
Trixie arched an eyebrow. "Did Trixie?"
"Clearly you did."
"Isn't it interesting?"
"What?"
"Moving the pieces around. New challenges and puzzles to solve."
Sombra threw his head back and laughed. Tears flowed. "You are clever, Trixie the Great and Powerful. Too clever by half."
They played out the game, and Sombra won. But it had been difficult. His pieces kept relocating.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "This was like mastering unexpected challenges of life, rather than manufactured challenges."
Trixie had smiled, although she was trembling.
"It matters not that you lost. This game, and you, are unique." He rose, and bid her goodnight.
It was shockingly easy to convince fearsome King Sombra to participate in a show for his helmed and unhelmed ponies. The Great and Powerful Trixie whispered in his ear and he'd agreed. He became her partner on stage and she ran him through simple tricks. At first, he didn't follow her instructions well, and the tricks failed. But, he soon learned to follow her commands.
Backstage after the show, he pulled her against a wall and violently smooched her mouth.
"I must have you," he huffed.
"Trixie must demur." She twisted away. "This is not becoming. It's scary. Rude. Evil."
"No mare has denied me."
"They've been too scared. Or beaten down. I--Trixie doesn't know. You are the best option in this blighted Kingdom that you've created, no?"
"Blighted?"
"--Crops failed last season." She recovered with a truth, hoping that would be enough to save her.
"They will not fail again. We will be fertile."
"Will we?" Trixie arched an eyebrow, doubling down. "Do you want a mere bedmare, or a Queen?"
King Sombra hung his head. "But, there must be an end to this game."
Trixie smiled, for his response was what she had been awaiting. "Let's perform the best, most special show. Together. After that, I'll be your Queen."
"The Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive, combined with the Calamitously Chained Coffin!" The Great and Powerful Trixie announced to the gathered herd. "In this amazing performance, only successfully attempted by The Great and Powerful Trixie--correction--only successfully survived by The Great and Powerful Trixie.... A chained pony, ensconced in a chained coffin, will launch itself from a cannon and into the mouth of a deadly manticore. Then, that same pony will re-appear unharmed--not chomped into several bits!"
"I teleport myself?" Sombra had asked. "It's that simple? No sleight-of-hoof? No illusory copy of me is launched?"
"No," Trixie shook her head. "It's about timing. Once you're launched, the crowd sees a flying coffin. Meanwhile, you teleport away. This will look spectacular. Only someone as Great and Powerful as myself or you could successfully execute it."
Sombra nodded.
And Sombra prepared himself mentally, straining against his chains. They were nothing he couldn't overcome with magic. And he told this to Trixie.
"I love you because of your stage magic. Use of this magic is... obscene for you, isn't it?"
Trixie smiled. "Baby steps, Dear. You won't let me use unicorn magic with this gem," she gestured to her restraint. "So, it is perfect for you to perform this."
"Perhaps some day we can forego the precautions," Sombra smiled.
Trixie smiled too because Sombra wasn't using an antimagic field to protect against her. That provided her an opening. He had hobbled her with the gem restraint so he would no longer need to concentrate on his magic to protect himself. Of course, if his hidden phylactery was safe, then even if she betrayed him, he would re-form. But, unbeknownst to him, Trixie's contact had found and, Trixie supposed, destroyed that artifact.
Trixie reached down and kissed him.
"And we will be married after this," he said, releasing her muzzle and breathing hard.
"After this... it will be at an end," she choked in reply, clutching at the ring-inset gem at her neck and scraping the cord holding it against the coffin's coarse wood and a well-concealed razor.
"Ponies," King Sombra, leaning in the upright coffin at an awkward angle, announced. "My subjects. I have an announcement."
The helmed and unhelmed kneeled. "I will be married on the morrow to this mare--Trixie, the Great and Powerful! You will applaud!"
They applauded.
"Trixie will become my Queen." He motioned for her to kiss him again, and she did, leaning her body against him in the upright coffin and rubbing furiously against a stage-trick sharpened point of his chains.
Sombra wasn't the only pony who could create an antimagic field. Certainly, he wasn't the only pony who could use an antimagic field. Trixie 'accidentally' caught her necklace on the sharpened point she had prepared and severed her gem with it. Using a steady, studied hoof, she deftly covered the removed ring-gem and hooked it against the King's body.
"What's this?" he asked.
"A ring," Trixie swallowed, blanching.
"You were prepared," he smiled, unable to glimpse the ring at the angle he reclined.
"Of course," she said.
"Tradition!"
Trixie exhaled.
"You are truly a catch, Great and Powerful Trixie. Always full of surprises." A knee of his sought purchase against her belly. She shivered and leaned into him.
"Please... tomorrow..." she gasped.
"Of course. Any surprises you have are fine by me, my Trixie."
"You really do appreciate Trixie's talent."
"Of course, my Great and Powerful partner."
"If you knew...." She nearly blundered leaking everything.
"Knew what?"
Her face reddened and she concentrated on anything other than the bile coagulating in her throat. "I'm a coward."
He laughed and his eyes grew large as his heart throbbed against hers. They kissed.
"I never thought--" he blinked, shifting slightly beneath her.
"We can... later," she said, and they kissed some more. Then, she stepped back, hind legs crossed. He blew a kiss to her and she winced.
Bowing discretely, she closed King Sombra's coffin, placed a big lock to secure it, then spun it. She swallowed her vomit and whispered, "Checkmate."
Not too far off, the manticore, a terrifying lion-headed creature that had devoured two guards who captured it for the show, waited, yawning.
Trixie had servants load the coffin into her cannon. Then, she lit the cannon and repeated her well-rehearsed spiel. Moments later, the cannon expelled its occupant and its trajectory was true. Trixie had run the calculations, then she had re-run them, and then she had Sombra's best mathematician, a bespectacled red-maned pony named Sunburst, confirm the accuracy--after correcting Trixie's errors.
King Sombra, still ensconced in his coffin, made his journey to the manticore. The game he'd been playing with her was almost over.
Trixie held a hoof beneath her belly. She could save him. There was no antimagic field or gem surrounding her. But, his feelings were as temporal as a disintegrating sugar spoon in a trick; a union was not to be. That wasn't how the game was played. Unlike a magic show that everypony could enjoy, here there was a winner and a loser.
The Queen of Magic had put her all-too-mortal King in check.