She hadn't taken a hit and there were no wounds.
She wasn’t stumbling and her legs moved in a perfect gallop.
Breathing wasn't hard and she had still had enough stamina.
She didn't need to take a rest, because Trixie was absolutely fine as she moved through the darkness. The filly went onwards as quietly and quickly as she could, so nopony could possibly chase her anymore. Everything was fine and she was going to make it.
“Where’re the brats gone too now. I saw that caped one just a few minutes ago.”
“We’re always just seein’ the caped one.”
“Shut up and search. I’ve had had enough of these bloody caverns already.”
She didn't hear the voices far behind her. She didn't hear because nopony was there, because she had outrun them all.
Somehow Trixie knew that wasn't the truth, though. There were still ponies coming after her, no matter how hard she tried to escape them. She needed to move forward, through the darkness, all alone. Her gait wasn’t perfect, either, long since reduced to a clumsy stumbling.
The left leg on her front was hurting every time she put pressure on it. After a few more steps she decided to looked down in hopes of seeing what was wrong with it. Of course, she couldn’t make anything out. Be it the walls or her own hooves, down here everything was shrouded in darkness. That was actually kind of relieving. She didn’t want to know how her leg looked, now that she could hardly feel it anymore.
Her cape dragged through the dirt and her hat had more holes in it than stars on it. The thought alone made her feel horrible, but she also tried to see some good in it, because they were still with her. Everything would be fine as long as she had both items.
So she continued, stumbling and shivering. How long was it since she’d started her run anyhow?
It sure felt like forever. Surely, she must have bought some time for the others, so all Trixie needed to do now was survive. She didn’t know where she was going, but simply following the tunnel seemed like the right thing to do. Here and there it branched out, but it was really just a blur to the filly.
Trixie would notice turns whenever her head smashed against the wall. By now, she had the worst headache, but there was no way to stop. If she’d stop, they would find her. Once they found her, she would get killed. That was something Trixie obviously wanted to avoid.
She heard the voice of the younger stallion behind her. Trixie would’ve felt more comfortable with the older one, since he’d let them go once, so he was trustworthy. He had to be. Nevertheless, the voice said something about hoofprints to the sergeant, who hadn't hesitated to shoot her twice.
The filly hoped that they’d never find their way back, but she knew that she wouldn't find her own way back either.
There always was the faint hope that around the next corner her friends would wait. That was probably why she was still trotting onwards and also how she managed to keep her tears down. It was only a part, because another part felt like she had betrayed them.
Somewhere deep down she knew what it meant to run away from those things she wanted to cherish and protect. Lyra, Twilight, they’d been able to do magic and she just couldn’t stand it. How often had she talked about being a wizard, how often had she wanted to do a proper magic show, just to have it all crushed in a single day. Was she really this useless in the pursuit of her dreams?
That was when she stopped walking, there in the middle of the blackness. The pain, the cold, the darkness, she tried to take it all in.
A liquid dripped down her leg. It was her blood, she knew, since she’d bled often already. Halting, however, made her realise just how spent she was. Her eyes got heavier, even as bolts of pain jolted through her body. The foal thought it kind of funny, actually. She felt all this pain, but still no tears would come.
Trixie couldn't turn back, Trixie couldn't walk forward. No matter how she turned, she knew that she would find nothing. The end of her path was as black as the beginning.
Why did I try to play the hero? she thought and grimaced.
The voices were coming closer and she wondered if it was alright to rest a little. There were no friends here, no family to aid her. No, she was all alone. So she found herself thinking of nothing as she took one deep breath and started hobbling forward once more.
Now, she was just one filly in the dark .
Trixie didn't quite know whether she had gone blind or if it really was total blackness that ruled here. Maybe she should have been scared either way, but she wasn’t. Not really at least. Everything in the world but her seemed to drown in gloom and an unending road she couldn't even see stretched out before her.
The pathway continued and she just walked in silence. The voices were distant and at the same time they got louder. Her heart was beating furiously and she didn’t know to where she was going.
If there was a thing she could hope for, Trixie did not know what it should be. She blinked, felt dizzy, wanted to fall over, but caught herself and lifted her head once more. In the far distance, she spotted the tunnel getting a bit brighter.
There was nothing more to it.
The hunters, her friends, they were all gone now and the snows were falling once more.
”Tell me, what happened to your home?”
The question of the filly rang through Trixie’s head.
Her parents had been called Great Stars and Powerful Echo and they had been stage magicians.
Everypony had said they had been bad at it, but Trixie had seen their shows and they always made her smile. The little filly remembered sitting there, grass blowing in the wind, the tower by the cliffs rising up and before it the small stage was filled with noise and colors. Her parents would perform their tricks for her and they would do it with great fervor. She had been amazed and bewildered, she had laughed a lot in those days and, at times, even shed tears of happiness.
Trixie remembered sitting beside her mother's bed and looking in her eyes. Tears were rolling down from her eyes and her entire tiny body was shaking.
“You can’t go,” she remembered herself saying with a cracking voice.
The mare smiled at her little daughter and told her; “I should be sorry for all those things I said to you. You have more talent in magic than both me and your father. You still have a life worth living and you still have something to fight for.”
She remembered the sun vanishing beyond the horizon and her father sitting beside her. He put the cloak around Trixie and put the hat on her head.
“Don't ever stop, daughter. You need to find the right path,” he told her and then left.
In her ears the noise remained. He had walked up the stairs and with every step of his came a loud creak, a horrible noise that Trixie remembered better than his face. She heard it, she remembered it and couldn’t banish it from her mind as she looked at her mother. The mare lay there, quiet as a stone on the wayside. After all those tears, all the fighting and all the pain, her mother finally looked at peace.
It was far too soon for that.
“You need to wake up,” Trixie said. "He's going to hurt himself again if you leave now."
The creaking didn't stop and her crying became a wail. Her mother had to listen if she cried for her, right? She would tell her to stop it and then get the father to snap out of it. Yet the mare did not move, no matter how much Trixie howled and sobbed.
Was it because she’d defied her so often, was it because she hadn’t wanted to become a magician, but rather wanted to live in the village with the other fillies and colts? Was that it?
Was her mother sleeping because of her? Was her father leaving because of her? All she had wanted was to be with her friends, she hadn’t meant any harm, she hadn’t meant to be naughty. Her parents shouldn’t leave her.
“Trixie promises to be good,” she said, saying her name to reassure her mother, “she'll be the best daughter you ever had, she'll be a great magician and everypony will like her shows and they will point and say that she is your daughter and, and …”
A door opened at the end of the stairs and then closed, and then Trixie remembered sitting alone in the room.
She remembered sleeping, she remembered going to the bathroom a few times, but she would always go back and sit by the bed where her mother was. The filly stayed there, from sunrise until sundown, then from sundown to sunrise. And every time the stars would show up above the clouds and their lights would illuminate the nightly dark, Trixie repeated the same words she had said to her mother.
Certain spells only worked at certain times, her parents had told her. So she stayed and repeated the words at the same time. Again and then again. As long as she did that, there was a chance that her mother would hear her.
On the sixth day she heard another door open and ponies entering.
Then, the summer snows were falling above Canterlot and she was in the orphanage with the filly by her side. It was the first time she’d done that, this generous filly. She’d lent Trixie her own blanket so she wouldn’t be cold. Of course, that left her shaking quite a bit.
“You don't need to tell me if you don’t want to,” the filly said.
Trixie turned around and looked at her.
“Who are you?” she asked. “Why are you doing this?”
The filly stared out of the window. “It’s a beautiful world outside, strange how you can only see it when its covered in snow and darkness.”
She wanted to answer something, she even remembered words coming out of her mouth, but Trixie didn’t say anything. Instead, the generous filly turned her head and looked at her with cyan eyes.
“Why are you stopping, Trixie?”
Her mouth opened, didn’t it? The words of the other filly weren’t carried by her tongue, but by the air all around them. It was a ghostly whisper that didn’t belong to anypony. At least it felt so, and at the same time it didn’t. Yet the voice had to belong to the filly, because she, with her ancient eyes was speaking to Trixie, right?
“You ran away for a reason, didn't you? The first time was when you realized that they would take you away from the tower. The second time you ran from the orphanage and the third time from the parents they chose for you. The fourth time you ran with Twilight Sparkle, but only you know why and you need to find the reason within your heart.
“Trixie Lulamoon, do not stop! Under no circumstance must you stop or give up! You are important, you are as important as everypony else on this journey and you might just be the one who finishes it. Stand up. …”
But Trixie didn’t react. She only blinked, for she did not know what to say or what to do. She was sitting here and everything in the world was far away. Her friends, her parents, her other parents, the ponies who took her and even the filly who had lent her the warm blanket and shared so many nights in her company.
“I said, Stand. Up!"
Trixie opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground and she felt the blood on her leg. Darn, the foal thought and then she heard the voices behind her.
“Shit,” a voice shouted in the distance, the raspy one and then there was the sound of a gun getting fired.
Had something happened behind her? No, if it had, then it would most likely be bad. She needed to continue, find another turn, a way back, so that she could catch up with her friends. The piebald filly lifted herself up, albeit slowly. She tried to steady herself as much as possible, which wasn’t really working, but she decided to hobble forward yet again, even though her body cried out for a longer rest.
So she went on, ever through the fading darkness and then she spotted the end of the path. It was leading somewhere brighter, to an end. What strength remained in her legs, she used. Her left front hoof dragged across the ground now, as it didn’t want to be lifted anymore. The pain she felt, the numbness and the sleepiness, all that faded to the anticipation of the tunnel’s end.
And then she stepped through it and was greeted by an uncountable amount of lights, scattered across the walls of a gigantic cave. It was a sort of natural bridge she stood, below it a dark abyss, around it walls littered with glowing crystals. Trixie wasn’t quite able to grasp where she was, but it reminded her of an old friends words, of how the world showed its beauty only in the dark.
She spun around, a smile growing on her face. Then, she stumbled forward again, every inch of her body burning with pain. Now Trixie figured that she could have a proper look at herself, right?
She’d run against walls, had been shot at and sharp stones had dug themselves into her legs at some points.
Whether she should really look wasn’t up for debate, however. Trixie was still standing, so it couldn’t be that bad.
Her left leg had turned blue beneath the red, she couldn’t even make out how many wounds she had there. Her other appendages fared only little better, with bruises and cuts and the occasional the occasional wound. Everything else looked like she’d just talked with her foster parents. The pain was nothing she wasn’t familiar with, or at least that’s what the filly told herself.
Still, her eyes shifted to the side as she walked on. The bridge wasn’t all that wide, all things considered and aside from the glittering crystals on the walls, she couldn’t even see how far down it went. It was a wondrous sight, to say the least, but she did wonder what did lie on the other end.
The filly walked on, her hopes rising as she thought of what she might find. A cliff, a tower, a bed with her mother in it, her father saying that she was his daughter, maybe she’d even find one of her friends waiting there, telling her that she’d reached the Lunarium, too. Maybe she’d find another friend of hers, one who smiled at her and would throw another warm blanket over her shoulders.
A little pony whose parents ran an orphanage and whose name was Rarity.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
“Hey, brat,” she heard from behind her and turned her head.
The staff smacked her across face and she felt some teeth flying out of her mouth. Not only that, but her precious hat fell off and then slowly went down into the abyss, like a feather carried by the air.
In a moment where Trixie’s entire world was filled with pain and nausea, she just watched it fall down into the abyss. Finally, the tears ecaped her eyes, but he didn’t care. Instead the soldier knocked her down with the blunt part of his weapon. As she felt it smash against her head, she let out a cry of pain, a cry for her mother.
“I’ll be a good girl,” she said loudly. “I’ll never run away again!”
He spat on her before he knocked her over the head once more. It wasn’t something she wasn’t used to, but that didn’t make the pain any less bearable. She wept and cowered before him, hoping that he’d see that she couldn’t take anymore, but he didn’t care.
She felt the blunt of the weapon smacking across her face, beating against her body, piercing into the wounds. Trixie cried out with every hit, blubbered out noises which should have been apologies, but he only kept on beating her without saying a word.
He only stopped when he was out of breath, leaving Trixie to twitch and moan and spit out blood. That was the moment the soldier finally said something.
“Unicorn filth.”
Why she decided to look up, she didn’t know, but since this was probably the end it didn’t matter anyhow, right? Before her stood the tall and lanky pony, but she could hardly make out what expression he made while looking at her.
Blood, tears and sweat made her eyes hurt, but somehow still, his own stood out to her. Grey eyes burning with an angry fire, the worst kind of eyes. He lifted his staff and pointed the blade at her. Trixie also saw the gun that was attached to it and understood what would follow next.
“I don't know why those things are down here, but they've already gotten Sarge and Black, you dumb brat,” he snarled. “I'll kill you and any other brats I'll find on my way out and then I'll probably end up having to tell their families that the griffons got to them first. This isn’t how I wanted my bloody day to end, but I’ll take some enjoyment in pumping you full of lead.”
She regained a bit of focus during his speech, noticing that his uniform was torn up and that claw marks were running down the side of his face. The wounds were turning black.
Trixie half-expected him to finally pull the trigger, but he seemed to enjoy both her pain and the chance to rant.
“Aw, whatever, Sarge’s family’s from Canterlot, so they’re probably dead and I think Black’s family is a bunch of hillbillies on the frontier, so nobody cares. And if I play my cards right, I might get a promotion for all of this. Well,” he said and Trixie could swear he was smiling, “All’s well that ends well, right? Any last words that don’t involve you begging for your mommy to come and pick you up?”
Trixie didn’t want to say anything to him, because he was a bad pony and the only thing she wondered was why she’d even run?
Maybe because she had told herself to run away, because she had a life worth living for, a life of her own that nopony else could control. It was given to her by her parents, alongside the hat and the cloak. They all belonged to her and all she ever wanted was to make them proud.
No, that wasn’t it.
All she wanted was to be what they couldn’t, because unicorns were good at magic and magic could bring happiness to all. Her eyes turned away from him and she looked to the side, to the stars and the edge of the bridge.
Trixie groaned. The pain was sharp, but was this really where it would end? What lay at the end of this road if not the thing she’d always searched for. She’d come here to bring back what the world once lost and every part of her was screaming. Yes, she would take the dive.
Between sobs and tears, the pain and the sadness, the fear and the anger, she was answering the voice and Rarity and herself. She answered them the one question, the one that was important to her, the one solitary most important question that she had known until this moment and the one she had never known the answer for.
The question why she was still running.
“Trixie shall become the greatest wizard the world has ever seen!”
She yelled it out and assembled all her strength. With one swift motion she jumped to the side, to where the darkness awaited and then she rolled off the edge. She heard the gunshot, maybe she even felt it. Maybe it was nothing but a scratch, maybe she was already dead.
Still, the wind was all around her as she fell. Down and down and deeper down. Everything was going by so fast, but she couldn’t even find the strength to blink or move as she took a dive head first into the depth.
She went past her hat, which now had so many holes in it, it was barely recognizable, but for the ring of the brim.
Above her, the outcry of the soldier shattered the silence as the nightmarish beasts descended upon him. Strangely enough, Trixie didn’t feel happy about it. He was dead, gone and lost forever.
Never would he know what magic and harmony were and have a chance to tell somepony else of the fate of his comrades. Now that she was falling, she felt sad for him, but also for herself. At least it was ending on her own terms.
Trixie smiled just before felt a sharp pain going through her body as she hit the ground and everything turned black.