Winter is often a time when beings take the time to rest and don’t often travel or even go outside of their homes often. For Xellos though, he found this to be the perfect time to fly around as there would be fewer things to run into and less chance of starting a panic. Even after all these years he still enjoyed lazily flying around whenever he had the chance to, especially since in his old home he was ground-bound.
“It’s times like this that I don’t mind being sent here by whoever that guy was. Of course if I was still in my old body then I’d probably be hiding from the cold as well.” Through all this the monster had been reclining in the air and only then decided to spin around to see where he was.
Looking around he spotted a large city off to his left causing him to angle his flight towards it. “Ah, there’s Manehatten. I really should talk to the princesses some time to figure out what the ponies are thinking with their naming schemes. Either way I really hope that pony is here this time. I’m really curious about what her show is really like without it being interrupted.”
With a small smirk he turns in the direction of the city and starts to descend towards the ground. When he landed on the edge of the city the few ponies that were there shied away but didn’t panic as much as a smaller town would. Even though they may have seen a variety of creatures due to how big the city is, it still didn’t stop them from warily watching him as he walked along the streets.
The ponies that encountered him weren’t quite sure what to think but they could feel that something was off about this creature. For his part, Xellos just ignored the ponies as he wandered from shop to shop looking for his quarry while buying whatever interested him. The shopkeepers didn’t know what to think of him as he came through so they answered as swiftly as they would so that he would leave quickly.
Eventually he found a pony that had seen the mare he was looking for and he made his way in the indicated direction. He was surprised that it took him this long to learn that she was in the city as he would have expected to see signs advertising her show. As he wandered through the city trying to find another clue as to her whereabouts he heard some scuffling in an alley as he passed. He was about to ignore it when he heard a familiar voice yelling from it. “Get back! Trixie wants nothing to do with you!”
In the alley the pale blue maned, azure colored mare was backing away from a pair of brown unicorn stallions that were backed up by a dark red pegasus stallion. The mare’s horn was glowing and she kept it aimed at the three as the advanced on her with their own horns glowing. “Come on doll face, we just want you to come along with us somewhere to talk in private.”
The mare’s eyes widen at the sleazy look that they give her before they narrow once again. “Trixie said no, why can’t you ponies just leave Trixie alone? It’s not Trixie’s fault that that stupid bear attacked that town.” Unfortunately for her they say nothing to her and don’t stop advancing on her. Seeing as they gave no indication of backing off she puts more power into her horn to try and drive them off before a voice stops her.
“Ah, there you are Ms. Trixie, I‘ve been looking all over for you trying to catch that wonderful show of yours. I was unfortunately held up so I was forced to miss your Ponyville show though I heard it was a blast until a couple foals brought an ursa minor into town.” The three stallions turn around in shock to see a tall biped standing behind them, though none of them even heard him arrive.
Trixie was unsure of what to make of the creature but he seemed to be, to her, a fan of hers so she defaulted to her usual stage presence. “Well it’s about time that somepony finally believes the Great and Powerful Trixie’s words about what really happened in that hick town. Trixie would give you and autograph but as you can see Trixie is a bit detained.”
The two unicorns look towards the pegasus for guidance and he waves them towards the biped with a wing. “Looks like somepony doesn’t know when to mind his own business and stay out of dark alleys. Why don’t you two show him what we do to nosy guys like him?”
Xellos just smiles as the two advance on him and doesn't react as their horns start glowing brighter. When they both release a blast of energy a cloud of dust is kicked up as they impact his chest, causing Trixie to yell out in horror. The red pegasus turns back to the mare with a smirk on his face. “Well scratch one would be hero. For how strange he looked I would have figured he would have put up more of a fight and-“ “BURST RONDO!”
He is cut off by the shout and the multitudes of balls of light that come flying from the cloud as they pepper both him and his two underlings, driving them back. The pegasus turns back in annoyance while the other two cower under the barrage of flames. “Come on now, it’s rather rude to just attack someone without even introducing yourself first. Of course judging from your lack of any reaction to that little spell I can tell that you are obviously not what you appear to be.”
The pegasus looks over at his two cohorts before turning back towards Xellos with a sigh. “Good help is so hard to find these days. But I suppose this is what happens when you try to get a pony to do a demons job.” At that his eyes start glowing a deep red as he makes a snapping sound with his wing feathers. As a half dozen bulky bipedal creature appear in the air around him his body starts to elongate in a hideous fashion making him look as if he was a pony made out of sticks with a stretched out and pointy muzzle.
“By Celestia, what kind of creature are you!?” Trixie can only stare in shock at what the pegasus had become and the new creatures weren’t much better. Xellos only yawns as he takes this all in but other than that doesn’t react, to the confusion of those present.
“Brass demons led by a mid-level monster. It has been a long time since I’ve seen either of those that I was beginning to think that there were none left.” He looked over the creatures before turning towards the azure mare huddling in the back of the alley. “I’m sorry about this Ms. Trixie, but I’m afraid that I have to ask you to SLEEP”
Trixie was about to say something before her eyes rolled up in her head as she lost consciousness. The red monster glanced over at this before turning towards Xellos in confusion. “Now why would you do that? You’ve only guaranteed that I will take her once I’ve finished killing you, though in other circumstances you might have been worth recruiting.” With a flick of his skeletal thin wing he orders the brass demons to attack as the start launching flaming arrows at Xellos.
He made no move to block or even dodge the attacks as the attacks started to engulf the area he was in. The monstrous pony just smirks as this happens and he turns to deal with the sleeping mare behind him. As soon as his back is turned though he is stopped as an energy lance strikes him in the back, causing him to stumble. Similar lances strike the six lesser demons but they instead shatter apart as their entire being is destroyed.
“Really now, I would have expected a lot more from a mid-level monster, but if even a weak spell like that can knock you down then I may have over-estimated you.” The quadrupedal demon shakily turns back towards Xellos with a look of intense pain and shock on his features.
“Impossible! How could something like you hurt me so easily? Nothing in this realm should even be able to touch me, let alone injure me to this extent!” He looks at the biped more closely than before and his eyes start to widen, this time in fear, as he starts to realize what he is dealing with. “No! That is impossible, no monsters that strong are supposed to be outside of Tartarus yet so how can you be here!?”
Before he can say anything else a large black cone rips its way out of his abdomen while Xellos leans in close with his eyes open with a cruel look on them. “I’ve been wondering where they all were, but as for why I’m here? Well you really don’t need to know that now do you since you have no reason to care.”
With that the monster pony started to break apart as its body was destroyed by the attack. Xellos just watches as the figure screams as its body is erased from the world before he turns his attention to the two stallions that were still cowering away from him. “Now what to do with you two now that the annoyance is gone.”
The two freeze up under his scrutiny before their eyes roll up in their heads as they both collapse. Shaking his head, Xellos moves to the azure mare before picking her up and leaving the alley. Not wanting to be seen by other ponies just yet he shifted planes before flying towards a hotel he had seen as he explored the city. When he reappeared in the building carrying the mare he earned a few odd looks, but the large pouch of bits he dropped in front of the mare running the front desk was enough to forestall any questions as he rented out a room.
After setting Trixie down on the bed he took a seat as he settled in to wait for her to awaken. He wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do though he first had to learn what the mare was doing. Xellos was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice the mare stirring until her voice broke the silence.
“Where is Trixie? What happened to that creature? Don’t tell me that Trixie was just having another nightmare.” She had yet to notice the other occupant in the room but that soon changed when he lifted his head to look at her. “Of course Trixie could be wrong, who are you and what do you want with me?”
Xellos looked at her for a moment before he leaned back in the chair while putting his arms behind his head. “It’s exactly like I said before; I wanted to see one of your shows for myself. After hearing about you I’ve always been curious about what a stage magician show would look like when unicorns naturally can do magic.”
Trixie looked at him suspiciously for a few moments before she turned her nose upwards. “Well of course any unicorn can use magic, but only Trixie does it with the flare deserving of the word magician.” She pauses for a moment after posing during her last bit of her sentence before she looked a bit sheepish and dropped down again. “Of course Trixie is hitting a bit of a snag setting up a performance lately.”
Xellos looks her over with a critical eye before he realizes what she is talking about and snaps his fingers. “Oh right, the ursa minor crushed your stage. Of course that was all cleaned up and stored away but I did manage to retrieve this without anyone noticing.”
Trixie’s eyes widened as he pulled out a familiar pair of purple objects from the sack at his side. “A-are those Trixie’s hat and cape? But Trixie thought those were lost with everything else I owned.”
As Xellos nodded she floated the objects over to herself as her eyes started to tear up at having them again. She sits there just holding the items to her chest as the tears flow before she remembers the biped still in the room. “How can Trixie ever repay you for returning these to me?”
Xellos just waves this off. “Oh there’s no need for that, I just want to see your magic show for myself. Also you don’t have to worry about everything else that you need for the show, I’ll gladly pay for you to replace everything that you lost and even improve some of your acts if you need to.”
Trixie’s eyes narrow as this sounds too good to be true for her and she voices this fact. “And what do you expect from Trixie other than just seeing Trixie’s magic show?”
“Well I would ask that if you wish to challenge Twilight again that you practice more, but you really don’t have to do anything else.” Xellos starts going through a few motions with his hands. “Really, cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye; I really don’t want anything else from you. It would be nice to have a casual friendship and betraying a friend’s trust by lying is the quickest way to lose it…” “FOREVER!”
Trixie lets out a shriek as a poofy pink pony head pops out of her headwear that proceeds to eyeball Xellos. She watches in confusion as the head disappears back into the hat but when she looks into it a moment later finds it empty. “W-w-what in Equestria was that!?”
Xellos just eyes the hat in amusement before he casually waves the incident off. “Oh that would be my adopted many times great-niece that lives out in Ponyville. She tends to do that if you make her special promise though I have no idea how she even knows it is happening. Of course I don’t think anyone would want to deal with that by breaking a promise made that way.”
Trixie slowly shakes her head as she hoofs at her hat in confusion trying to figure out what just happened. Xellos looks thoughtful for a moment as well as he looks at the hat. “Of course that does remind me that if you want to rival Twilight then you may want to master teleporting if you haven’t already. Anyways how about we go out and get everything you need for your show now.”
Trixie doesn’t have anything else to say as she is dragged out of the room into the city. Over the next couple months the two start rebuilding everything that she had lost during the incident in Ponyville. Trixie even managed to put together a few new tricks for the show and at the end of winter she was finally ready to begin her first performance in months.
Xellos sat out in the audience as he waited for the curtains to rise on Trixie’s new stage. He kept an eye out as there was angry muttering by a few ponies in the audience and he suspected there to be trouble over the rumors of what happened in Ponyville. Soon enough fireworks were launched from the stage as Trixie began her show though it didn’t take long for the heckling to start. “Well isn’t this is a surprise? The mare that almost destroyed a town thinks she can just show up around here?”
Before Trixie or anyone else in the audience could say anything else, the stallion that spoke up was struck over the head by a staff. “Oh quiet down you, some of us are here to watch a show and not listen to you spouting lies about a mare that was almost killed when two foals drug a dangerous creature into town.”
There was muttering through the audience at Xellos’ words but none of them wished to speak up against him. Trixie gave him a thankful look as she continued her show as if she wasn’t interrupted, much to the enjoyment of the crowd.
Xellos watched as Trixie showed off her magic and was rather impressed by what she could do with her magic. Sure there wasn’t much power behind what she could do, but the variety of things she pulled off was rather amazing, even for a unicorn. At the end of the show Xellos met up with Trixie backstage to congratulate her.
“Well I must say that you really do have a rather impressive show with a good amount of variety. From what I can see you may be able to do more things than even Twilight can right now and much of what she can do she pushes too much power into.” Trixie looks a bit surprised at first but then starts preening a bit at the praise.
“Well of course, was there ever any doubt? Trixie is only the most amazing unicorn of all time.” Before she could really get going she was interrupted as Xellos set a few scrolls in front of her. “And just what are these for?”
Xellos just smiles before explaining. “Well you do have an advantage on Twilight in that you’ve used your spells more and know many more, but she still is obviously more powerful. I saw how exhausted that sole teleport you did took out of you so I thought that these would be a good reward for a successful show.”
Trixie looked miffed at the combination of praise and criticism but when she unrolled the first scroll, her jaw dropped in shock. “T-this is the spell I saw you use when we first met. But how can this be possible, from how this reads anypony could cast it, even non-unicorns.”
The biped just smiles at her reaction to the gift. “Of course. What, you expect those tribalist unicorn schools to bother looking at magic that is used by other tribes or races? You just have to look at the zebras and their alchemy which is much more advanced than anything in Equestria to realize something is wrong with them.”
Trixie looks over at the scroll that Xellos had brought her from her old stuff a month back detailing her graduation from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns before turning back to him as he continued. “Now just imagine how Twilight would react if you get the jump on her in researching an entirely new form of magic that she knows nothing about.”
The azure mare looks at him for a moment longer before the corners of her mouth twitches upward which soon descends into laughter. “Oh yes, Trixie can just picture the jealousy on her face over that. Yes, Trixie thinks she can make real good use of this information indeed.”
After a couple more minutes explaining some of the finer details of the spells the two finally separated towards their own paths. Trixie began the start of her reborn career while Xellos went back towards Ponyville and the fun that was bound to happen in the future there.