Right after she did the sonicrainboom at the best young fliers competition; Rainbow Dash had spent the next six weeks checking her mail eight times a day waiting for an offer from Spitfire to try out for the Wonderbolts. Pinkie Pie had convinced Twilight to give her temporary wings and then Rarity had then spent the better part of two days sticking feathers to them, redoing Pinkie’s mane, and making Pinkie an imitation Wonderbolt uniform until Pinkie was a near perfect imitation of Spitfire.
She then paid Rainbow Dash a personal visit inviting her to the next Wonderbolt tryouts. She’d held the charade for almost ten minutes before Rainbow Dash realized the ploy. She then wanted to kill Pinkie for the next two weeks before they all had a good laugh over it and Rainbow Dash was able to get her life back to normal.
Oh how she missed those days.
The point was; Rainbow Dash had seen illusions cast by a real magician, and had seen makeup applied by a professional fashionista. After Derpy agreed to be alicorned, some smoke machines flooded the stage, Derpy fell into the smoke and then something that looked like an alicorn emerged from the smoke a moment later; but it wasn't Derpy.
Only three of Trixie’s four pegasi assistants were in uniform. The fourth, Dash assumed, had snuck out the side of the stage a few minutes ago and was now flying back and forth over the stage which some cheap illusions thrown over its colors and a fake horn glued to her forehead that lit up whenever Trixie cast a spell with her real horn which was fit snugly under her hat. The crowed ‘ooohd’, the Wonderbolts ‘ahhhd’ and as the smoke around Trixie’s hooves started to clear; Rainbow Dash burst out laughing.
Derpy was stuck. Her back half had disappeared down a trapdoor that was in front of Trixie but her head, wings, and forelegs a clearly visible, wriggling mass of klutz. The smoke was rising from the front of the stage, obscuring her from most of the audience, but having the front row of a viewing box had its advantages, and Dash was enjoying hers; pointing eagerly so the other Wonderbolts would see.
Trixie had also noticed the half-Derp, and looked horrified as she desperately tried to pull any available smoke into a shroud around Derpy as hissed wickedly over the microphone, “What are you doing get down there!”
Derpy's voice responded weakly, like she was struggling, “I... can't, I'm stuck.”
“The audience will see you now get down!”
“But I'm stuck.”
Trixie's places both forehooves on Derpy's head and shoved violently; Derpy didn't go down but did let off a pained squeak that made Dash stop laughing. The smoke cleared some and Dash saw the way Derpy’s wing had twisted. She couldn’t go down the hole without either breaking her wing or being raised up enough to be seen so she could re-configure.
Trixie would not take the second option.
“We should do something.”
“Like what?” asked Lightning Streak, “Sure it sucks we saw the trick, but Trixie can get her down that hole, see she's helping her down right now.”
Trixie's voice came back over the microphone, “You’re going to ruin my magic show, now get down!”
Derpy’s voice was cracked with pain, “I'm trying.”
If Rainbow Dash flew down there, she could buck Trixie’s head open and then lift Derpy out; right after Trixie blasted her from the air in one spell like she had twenty minutes ago. Trixie was distracted, but one of her unicorn assistants had eyes trained on The Wonderbolt box, almost like she was guarding it. Rushing Trixie wasn’t a good idea. “Cause a distraction.” She ordered Spitfire, and was rewarded with a blank stare.
The smoke was really starting to clear now and Trixie hissed angrily, almost loud enough to be heard by the audience, “You get down the hole right now, or I will make you disappear forever!”
Derpy whimpered in pain, and Rainbow Dash had an awesome idea; and turned to Fleetfoot, “Take off your clothes.”
That got strange expressions from several teammates, but no response; so she flicked Fleetfoot in the annoying face, and grabbed the annoying hat and cape. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do next, but she had the vague idea that she could fly to Trixie unhindered if she blended in and had always been good at making up awesome on the fly. Pulling a cape over Fleetfoot’s face with her teeth and grappling at the clasp with her hooves, she felt like this was a pretty good idea.
“Who’s that?”
The cape unclasped, and Dash fell backwards with the cape, dropped the hat over the edge, caught it, and spun around to save Derpy Hooves before Misty's question had sunk in. A dark red unicorn stallion with a black mane had appeared on the stage in front of Trixie; she had no idea who he was or how he’d gotten there, he was just staring silently at her from a few feet away; as she looked back in confusion.
Then in a move so fast that almost anyone else would have missed it, the guy lunged forwards and launched one hoof into Trixie’s chin; snapping her head back, knocked her onto her hind hooves and left her open for a blast of telekinesis that hurled Trixie against the back wall with a loud, meaty thud.
It was beautiful.
Trixie’s assistants looked at each other, looked at him, and then and then one of them got the bright idea of lighting her horn and then face planted through the floorboards before she could finish her spell. The fake Derpy had been the next to go, smashed onto one of the giant speakers, and then the other unicorn lost her horn and consciousness in that order.
Dash almost wished that this guy would slow down so she could appreciate his awesome. There were three pegasi left, one of them ran for the exit and the other two were stupid enough to oblige Dash’s need of seeing awesome-red-guy inflicting more carnage. One of them took a direct charge and would be taken care of soon enough; but the one coming from behind stayed out of the stallion’s line of vision. Based on what Dash had just seen; this guy probably didn’t need any help… but what if he did?
Dash had just gotten dressed up to launch a sneak attack and it would be a shame for it to have been for nothing. Besides, smashing timber wolves had been ten times more fun with AJ then doing it herself, so why should Trixie’s minions be any different? Before she knew it, Dash was diving towards the last pegasi, hooves barred for attack.
Her disguise worked perfectly.
Her hat covered her mane, tucked her tail underneath the cape and pulled it over her cutie-mark; and her coat was already close enough to pass for azure. The Trixie pegasi cast one glance at her and then looked back like she was weighing up whether to launch a surprise attack or run from awesome-red-guy, who’d just dispatched her friend, and didn’t see the danger tearing towards her from behind.
Dash primed a kick for the aimed head, then changed her mind last instant to aim for the barrel met wing to make sure she wasn’t lethal; and was rewarded with a pained squeak as the Trixie pegasi went spinning out of control. Dash hovered there for a moment feeling pretty good about herself, and then awesome-red-guy appeared right in front of her, twenty feet off the ground, and then kicked her right in the back of her head.
Dash plummeted to the corner of the stage, her wings instinctively flailing around to slow her fall, bounced once and was then pinned to the floor, by the throat, by the red stallion. The fall had knocked the air out of her; the hoof cut off any more air from coming in and she felt dizzy from the impact.
She tried talking, but no words came. The stallion’s eyes noticed something above her, where the hat used to be; then turned and stared for a moment at Dash’s cutie-mark and rainbow-tail. The pressure relented slightly, he looked confused and was then struck broadside by a powerful magical blast that knocked him well clear of her.
Dash rolled over, tried to breathe, and noticed Trixie was back on her hooves, mad as Tartarus, cooking up a second massive blast which she hurled at the red stallion, and which he easily deflected off his shield. The stallion charged Trixie, horn glowing like he was working on several spells; and then a scream broke his attention as the blast he’d deflected impacted the pegasi Dash had hit earlier; turning an almost-saved fall into an unconscious barrel roll that headed straight for Derpy.
The stallion seemed to turn in mid-air, threw half a missile at Trixie which she caught on a shield by blind luck, and then teleported backwards to stand in front of Derpy. The pegasus hit him with a thud that could be heard across the theater, and as the breath was knocked out of his lungs, Rainbow Dash was able to breathe into hers, and Trixie aimed something nasty at the red stallion.
Dash tackled Trixie before she could take the shot, head butting her jaw to divert the blast and then kicked wildly with both forehooves. Trixie buckled and Rainbow Dash went stumbling over her and almost went face planting into the floor. She caught herself with inches to spare, but before she had a chance to regain her balance her wings were swept out from under her, and then she did faceplant into the floor.
Trixie let out an enraged scream and cuffed Dash across the face, turning her onto her back. She tried to struggle, but her body was engulfed under a torrent of Trixie’s suffocating magic, pinning her legs and wings to the floor as Trixie leapt to plunge her horn into Dash’s chest. Her last effort to raise a leg to kick Trixie failed, she couldn’t even look away as she watched the horn descend; jutting from a face bearing a strange mix of anger, fear and desperate determination until it burst into red pain as the stallion blasted her into oblivion.
Dash felt the sudden release from Trixie’s power, and was able to breath freely; then a second missile flew over her to batter a Trixie who was now badly burnt and extremely unconscious. The stallion’s horn was still glowing, his eyes fixed on Trixie like he wanted her to get up, or else deciding if he wanted to hit her again even though she was down; then Derpy gave a small gasp, and his horn died away.
Dash sat up and tried to take stock of what remained of the stage and Trixie’s forces; strewn about in various states of wellbeing and consciousness, but at least they were all still breathing… she thought. The front rows of the theater were empty, though most of the back rows were still packed with bewildered ponies; though at least one person must have ran out to find the nearest patrol of royal guards. Dash came to this last conclusion based on the fact that there were about a dozen of them on their way coming down from the back isles right now.
Dash tried to think about how this had started; awesome-red-guy had teleported onto stage and bashed Trixie without explanation. But there was an explanation; Trixie was going to break Derpy’s wing trying to force her down the trapdoor, anyone who looked closely would be able to see that. Dash turned around in just enough time to see awesome-red hurriedly lifting Derpy out of the trapdoor with his telekinesis; saving the damsel in distress, and destroying any evidence she’d ever needed help. Dash realized her had had fallen off at some point, and snatched up another one that one of Trixie’s lackey’s had dropped.
“Are you alright?” Awesome-red asked Derpy, who nodded shakily in return. Awesome-red looked up at the guards, who were about half-way down the isles; then glanced back to Rainbow Dash. “We should split up.”
“Right.” Nodded Dash; Derpy hadn’t broken any laws or thrown any punches, but the guards who’d just come in didn’t know that. If Derpy got caught she would be free by that evening; but while the guards were doing that Dash and the red stallion could run away, far away; maybe someday they would even come back. Awesome-red put one hoof around Derpy’s shoulder, and both of them disappeared; leaving Dash alone on the stage with the Royal Guards coming fast.
“Buck.” She muttered and then scanned for possible escape routes. The Wonderbolt viewing box was completely empty; there was a door right behind it that led to the outside but getting there would mean flying directly over several colts brandishing cameras and she wasn’t sure if her disguise would hold up close, assuming it hadn’t failed her already. Windows big enough for her to fly through were too far away for her to reach before the pegasi guards did. One unicorn aimed a stun-spell on her and Dash galloped backstage, locked the door to the dressing room from the inside and then ran to the back exit, only to remember that it was locked.
She planed her front hooves on the concrete and then gave the door a solid buck, causing it to tremble slightly, then jumped as the door she’d locked crack with a solid ‘boom’. Bigger ponies than her were separated from her, by a smaller door, than she was to freedom. She needed a better plan and began frantically searching the room for anything she could use.
She kicked off the lids of a few boxes that had randomly been dumped in the middle of the room and found packages of white powder. She didn’t have time to figure out what it was so she moved onto some cupboards, hoping for a smoke machine or a spotlight to blind the guards, but didn’t see anything but costumes.
Another boom cracked the door open further, and Dash desperately kicked off the lid of the next crate she saw, which went flying off and collided with the base of a table still lit with a dozen burning candles from when Trixie had tried to seduce her. The table teetered, and then fell, spilling the candles into the first boxes she’d opened and onto the white, powdery… phosphorous!