*Ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring*
"Ung." Trixie groans as she reaches out from her motel bed and knocks the receiver off the candlestick phone that rests on the end table. Having solved her problem she attempts to go back to sleep.
*Ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring*
Trixie knocks the receiver off the phone again, this time opening her eyes to confirm she'd done so. Looking to the foot of her bed where the albino filly she'd reluctantly brought to her room glowed in contrast to the darkness. She concluded that she must have dozed off and the filly put the phone back up. Trixie rests her head again and waits to fall asleep once more.
*Ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring* *ring-ring-ring*
Trixie was not willing to give a pony who calls in the middle of the night the time it would take to tell them how big an offense it is to interrupt the beauty sleep of one so great and powerful as herself. Trixie one last time hits the receiver up and off its place. She then waits a bit to see if the filly tries to put it back up, yet she just slept there at the foot of the bed. Trixie then sits up and prods the filly with a hoof, "Hey." She harshly whispers, but the filly only responds with a groan and rolls over. She resolves to open up the end table drawer and put the phone in it. She settles back in and closes her eyes.
*Ring-ring-ring*
Trixie reacts immediately and wrenches the entire phone off the table and to herself. Putting the receiver to her ear and holding the mouthpiece not far from her face, "Look here you, Trixie will not stand for -"
"You can't trust her."
The raspy haunting voice causes Trixie pause and she sits up again, "Whom?"
"The cursed filly. Evil plans course through her mind."
Trixie snorts a laugh, "And Trixie is supposed to trust some ghastly voice calling in the dead of night?"
"Yet you trust a filly that would gladly scare the general populace and trap other young fillies?"
"Hmph, what makes you think Trixie trusts her anymore than you?" Trixie retorts.
"She sleeps there at the foot of your bed. By now she could've already finished her plans to trap you."
"Ha! If you think a mere filly can contain the Great and Powerful Trixie, then you're sorely mistaken."
"... Do you truly think you're safe? How often is it that your plans backfire? How many times have you found yourself regretting your decisions and only picking yourself up with some absurd misplaced overconfidence? Now you believe you can tame the world of the cursed, so here I am to let you know that you are far over your head. Only luck brought you these couple of steps and any further in... the world you know will become tainted, you will slip up just like every other time and cause the entire world to suffer for your mistake. You can't escape that filly if you keep her near any longer, and should you dwell any further into the dark you won't escape me." *click*
Trixie rolls her eyes and hangs up the phone. The words "Who was that?" Display along her blanket and Trixie looks to see she'd woken the filly.
"Some prankster." Trixie yawns and goes back to sleep.
Trixie fits on her hat and cape and opens the door to greet another day, but is instead greeted by the angry face of the motel's owner.
"Oh, hello." Trixie says with a hint of nervousness.
"You kept my key, left, came back, and didn't even bother to pay for another night. You even brought a roommate, which isn't allowed at this motel mind you." The mare growls.
"Uh-"
"You're going to hand over my key, leave the premises, and never speak about the call." The mare speaks through clenched teeth.
"Wait-" Trixie tries to question about the call.
"NOW!" The mare bellows, which jump-starts Trixie into quickly gathering her things along with the filly and making her way off motel property.
Trixie sighs as she turns away from the motel and heads down the streets of Las Pegasus. Her folding stall neatly packed in a box on her back and the filly following at her side. As the adrenaline that helped Trixie get away from the crazy motel mare died down she began to think, 'What am I doing? I'm an entertainer! A great one! A powerful one! Now I'm being kicked out of a motel because I can't uncurse enough stuff to pay for it... I didn't even get paid for those jobs' Trixie reaches for the hairpin resting under her hat. 'I'll just sell this, get a ticket back to Ponyville and run small time shows there. At least I'll have my two little fans and a cheap place to stay.'
Trixie looks over to the filly, "You can't trust her." She doesn't really know anything about her but she could tell by the way the filly followed without question that maybe she is lost in this new world outside her window. "You trust a filly that would gladly scare the general populace and trap other young fillies?" Maybe she was looking for a way out for however long she was trapped. "You destroyed my world but I suppose you've earned my respect." Maybe she just didn't want to say it outright. 'If I can know for sure, I can trust her.'
"What's your name?" Trixie asks. "How did you get trapped? Where are your parents?"
"I-" The filly spoke for the first time, her voice is gravelly and her eyes strain in focus. "I, uh... do you want the long or short version?"
Trixie levitates the stall off her back, unpacks and unfolds it onto the sidewalk, uncaring that they're in a quiet part of town. "Trixie prefers the version that won't leave any lingering questions." She puts the filly up on the stall and in a flash of magic a glass of water appears in front of her.
The filly takes a sip whilst at a nearby diner a stallion wonders where his glass went. She sets down the glass and quickly lays out her answers, "I don't know. Discord's magic. They've passed. Any more questions?" Her voice, better now due to the water, sounds like that of a fully grown mare.
"Tons." Trixie deadpans. A jeweled box is suddenly thrust onto the stall by a cloaked pony, surprising both Trixie and the filly. The glass of water nearly falls over but Trixie stabilizes it with her magic before looking up to the pony who's now made a mad dash across the street. "Hey! You have to pay for Trixie's services!" Yet Trixie was ignored and left with the box.
"I think that will pay for itself." The filly stares at the box.
Encrusted with a large variety of jewels glimmering in the sunlight, Trixie catches herself gawking at it and reaches out to pick it up. "I suppose, since whomever that was doesn't want it back." With minor curiosity Trixie attempts to open the box. "Mmm..." Trixie groans as she pulls at the lid, "Hnng!" Trixie puts all her strength into it. "Gah!" She sets it down calmly, "Trixie has determined the curse." She proclaims with a sense of accomplishment.
The filly steps forward, examines the box, and presses in a large gem in the front of the box causing the lid to pop open. Stepping back, she sits back down and rolls her eyes.
The inside of the box is lined with lavender silk, which can only barely be seen through a thick coat of dust. Trixie initially finds it odd that the inside has so much dust before determining that it must have been left open a while before being brought to her. She blows on the box and ends up inhaling some of the dust. Turning away coughing and hacking for a moment she then looks back to the empty box. "Trixie doesn't see what's so special about this box." "Do you truly think you're safe? How often is it that your plans backfire?" A mix of disappointment and relief wash over Trixie and she finally decides that she can hang up the cursed artifact business before she gets herself into something hairy. 'A trip to the bazaar and I can live cozy in Ponyville for a while.'
"Where are we going?"
"Trixie is going to sell this box and leave for Ponyville, at least there they'll understand if Trixie is short on bits for a day or two." Trixie saunters through the door of the shady bazaar.
"But what if there's a soul trapped in it?"
"We opened the box, it got its chance." Trixie sets the box on the counter as the stallion she helped with the hairpin strolls up.
He takes a quick look at the box, "Not trying to sell me anything cursed are ya?" He smirks.
"Trixie would like to know how much this is worth to you." She states, ignoring the stallion's question.
However, before the stallion can answer, the filly leaps onto the box. "I'm going with it." She declares.
The stallion sighs, "Well, I don't buy fillies."
"Get off of there." Trixie protests and tries to levitate the filly off the box, but the filly just brings it with her into the air. She tries to shakes the filly off, but doesn't even get so much as a grunt from her. "Fine, be that way." Trixie sets the box and filly back on the counter. "You're not buying the filly, she just happens to come with it."
The stallion raises a brow, "Strapped for bits? I guess I didn't properly thank you for before, and it's not like there's other bazaars in Las Pegasus that'll give you a decent price for that hairpin." The stallion shuffles some things below his counter and passes a bag of bits over the counter. "It ain't much, but I've got a business to run... and, uh, tell you what, I'll let you have any one thing in here for free. I might not have been showing it too much at the time but you really helped me through a period of grief there."
"Of course." 'I dispelled a curse on something so precious' "Of course!" Trixie nabs the bag of bits and suddenly takes her leave.
"Where are we going?" The filly follows with the box.
"Trixie is here to receive payment for services rendered." Trixie stands before the jujube farmer in her shop. "The fee is quite hefty due to the potential danger Trixie had to face."
"Oh my, with all the rumors of my scary ol' window keepin' patrons away an' havin' ta replace the glass, I just can't pay ya right now." The mare looks distraught and her eyes dart about, "Ah!" She scrambles up a basket full of jujube related treats. "I can send you these every now and then, whenever ya want, fer tha rest of yer life. It sounds like a little much but ya saved mah daughter." The mare gives Trixie a big nervous smile.
"Uh..." 'She's going out of business and she's just going to give me her products?' "Trixie will keep that in mind then." She takes the basket and stands the for a moment, processing exactly how she felt about it.
"Lulu!" The mare's daughter runs up and hugs the albino filly who had followed behind Trixie.
"Lulu?" Trixie and the filly question the name in unison.
"Whoops, I mean, Princess Luminescence, Ruler of the World of Light!" The farmer's daughter steps back and kneels before the filly
"Yep, that's me." The filly groans. "Are we done here?" She asks Trixie.
"Well, Lulu, Trixie supposes she's received an adequate offer." Trixie turns to leave and an itch in her throat causes her to cough. Trixie quickly glances back and sees the disappointed face on the farmer's daughter due to Lulu's want to leave so quickly.
The mare speaks up as they go, "Good luck with your future clients! Though Ah'm sure a miracle worker like you doesn't need it."
Trixie wanders the streets in a daze, fretting over her destination, having lost the basket of treats along the way. 'Ponyville!' Trixie turns toward the train station. 'No, pay my motel fees, one more day.' "Should you dwell any further into the dark you won't escape me." Trixie stops, she'd thought the voices were just her memory of that conversation, but it's actually speaking in her head, repeating those words to reinforce doubt. 'A stupid phone prank won't get the best of me! I'm far too-' "How many times have you picked yourself up with some absurd misplaced overconfidence?"
Trixie sneers and begins galloping her way to the motel, "The Great and Powerful Trixie will show you!"
Her vision goes blurry every now and then and without really noticing that she's made so much progress she finds herself bursting through the doors to the motel's main office.
"Leave." The motel owner at the front desk says angrily.
"Trixie simply wishes to know if you keep track of whom calls into the motel rooms."
"All the lines go to the office, you think this dingy motel can afford actual phones? And I unplugged yours, you're annoying."
"How is Trixie annoying!?" Trixie reels back her offense when she realizes what the mare said, "Never mind." She takes the bag of bits from her hat and places them on the desk. "My usual room."
"No."
With a wave of drowsiness washing over Trixie, she decides not to prolong her plans for the prankster any longer. "Fine." She levitates her key, which hangs behind the mare along all the others and tries to stealthily bring it with her as she turns to leave.
The mare however, notices the suspicious behavior and with a quick scan of her surroundings she spots the floating key. "I said no!" The mare hurriedly steps away from her desk which prompts Trixie to break into a sprint.
Making her way out of the office Trixie comes up to the gate protecting the rest of the complex and performs a short range teleport right through the bars, though she ends up upside-down on the other side she quickly recovers and continues to her room. She looks back and notices the motel owner scrambling back into her office for a gate key. With a graceful swish of her horn she sends the key to the lock of her room, and misses. Then again with another miss. She then decides to just grab the key with a hoof and unlocks the door.
"You'll wish you never spoke to Trixie!" She announces on her way in, levitating the phone to herself and then dropping it on the floor, grabbing the receiver by hoof. "You think Trixie is so weak that your little haunting trick will torment me into not chasing you? I bet you're scared of what I could do." Noticing she's dropping her usual third-person speak she tries to focus. "I- Trixie- am- I-" She takes a long breath, "The Great and Powerful Trixie will gallop into the dark reaches of the cursed world and drag your foalish flank into the light where you will surely burn, if you aren't destroyed by Trixie's glorious radiance first! You think Trixie won't be able to escape you? You're the one who can't escape Trixie!" She slams the receiver into the carpet and the entire phone shatters.
The phone evaporates into a dark mist, "Very interesting Miss Lulamoon, I look forward to our next meeting." The mist flows through the air out of the room.
Trixie looks back and spots the motel owner gazing at the mist as it goes. "Was that... the caller? The accursed voice that called any room with two ponies in it? Makin' them hate each other?"
"Trixie assumes this means she can stay one more day?"
Before she could receive her answer her vision blurs worse than before and everything goes black.