Chasing Shadows

by Yukito

15 - Sombra Makes His Move

Three more bangs at Trixie’s door, these ones even louder than before. Trixie, who was in the middle of frying some eggs for dinner, groaned and turned towards her door. She set her stove to low-heat and stomped towards her trailer door. “For the last time,” Trixie said as she pulled the door open with her magic, “The Great and Powerful Trixie is unavailable right now!”

“My apologies,” the grey stallion wearing a dark-blue trenchcoat on the other side said with a toothy grin, “But you see, I really need to talk to you now.”

“You’re the one who’s riding with Trixie tomorrow,” Trixie observed. “What is it now? Trixie told you to come here tonight.”

“Yes. You see, something has come up,” Sombra said, “And I need to go to Ponyville right now.”

“Well too bad,” Trixie said with a huff. “Trixie is leaving tomorrow. You are welcome to leave with her then, but no sooner than that.”

Sombra let out a quiet chuckle as his horn lit up, pulling something out of his trenchcoat. Trixie titled her head at the unfamiliar object floating in the air. A metallic object of some kind in a sort of L-shape. “That’s right. Your people only have a primitive version of this, don’t you? Allow me to demonstrate, then.”

The object shifted about in the air and pointed itself towards a nearby squirrel, happily chewing away at a nut on the warm grass. Trixie raised her eyebrow, wondering what was about to happen…

It all happened in an instant. The sound of something clicking, followed by an explosion of red from the squirrel’s skull. Trixie’s mouth hung open and her stomach churned as she watched the squirrel’s body fall to the ground, blood pouring from its head as it lay perfectly still on the grass.

“Now then,” Sombra said, using his magic to point the weapon at Trixie, “You’ll take me to Ponyville right now, or the next hole will be in your head.”

Trixie stammered for a bit, still staring at the squirrel’s lifeless body as her brain tried to make sense of what she was seeing. She was snapped out of her stupor by the same sound she had heard moments ago, and she turned her head slowly to see a small black hole in the side of her trailer. “O-Okay!” Trixie said quickly, turning back to Sombra and backing up slowly. “I’ll take you to Ponyville already! J-Just don’t do anything rash.”

“That’s my line,” Sombra said, firing his weapon once more, aiming it just slightly above Trixie’s head. The shot made Trixie’s hat fall off, exposing her lit-up horn. Sombra’s own horn lit up, and black tendrils of smoke emerged from all around him, reaching out to the left of Trixie’s trailer. They returned carrying something large and metallic. “This device was created in the world where I come from. It’s technology is far more advanced than anything you could comprehend. Go ahead and use your magic against me.”

Trixie’s brow furrowed. She was not one to back down from a challenge, so she complied and fired everything she had at the smug Unicorn… only for it to hit the strange device that he was carrying and seemingly be absorbed into it.

“What?!” Trixie shouted as she took another step back.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” Sombra asked. “This was created as a means of self-defence against your kind. After all, we’ve been studying magic for centuries and still have only just breached the surface. There’s no way we’d risk entering negotiations with you without some way of defeating your magic. That’s where this comes in. A weapon that can store magical energy, and then release it at will.”

“What are you even talking about?” Trixie asked through gritted teeth, looking around her trailer for something that she could use.

“Anyway, now that you know what you’re up against,” Sombra said, climbing into Trixie’s trailer, “I suggest you get moving. Ponyville, now.”

Trixie nodded hesitantly, and made her way slowly to the front of the trailer, her eyes not leaving the menacing weapon that was pointed at her head the entire time. ‘It’s fine,’ Trixie thought to herself. ‘It’s fine. Trixie heard somepony say they had checkpoints set up at the city’s exits. They’ll search Trixie’s trailer and find this stallion, then Trixie will just duck for cover while they arrest him!’

At the trailer neared the south exit to the town, Trixie braced herself for the incoming search. Two Pegasi dressed in armour stepped in front of her trailer, and she was forced to stop. “Sorry ma’am,” an Earth Pony guard said as he approached Trixie, “But we’ve been ordered to search every vehicle entering and exiting the city.

“Of course,” Trixie said with a grin. “Search away.” She jumped off to allow the guard to climb onto her trailer and search inside through the open door.

“… Nopony in here,” he announced, much to Trixie’s shock.

“Alright, you can go then,” one of the Pegasus guards said as he and his partner stepped aside. “… Something wrong?” he asked the motionless Trixie.

“W-Well…” Trixie felt something brush against her leg, and look down to see a smoky tendril poking out from beneath her trailer. “N-No. Nothing.” Trixie quickly climbed back onto her trailer and worked her magic to start moving it again.

After a minute of moving, Trixie heard movement from inside her trailer behind her, but dared not to turn around. “That was good,” Sombra said from behind Trixie. “Now keep going. And remember, I’m watching your every move from the shadows. One wrong move… and you know what will happen to you.”

Trixie gritted her teeth together and clenched her eyes shut, holding back the urge to turn around and blast the stallion with every last offensive spell she had in her arsenal. ‘Patience, Trixie! Ponyville is where Twilight is! Regardless of whether this stallion knows that or not, once I get there, I’ll have all the backup I need to take him down!’

Comments

[Seether00]

Geez, five updates at once? I am never going to get any work done.

sigh.

First up. Yikes, the sudden violence took me off guard.

Second, what I really like and respect about you is that you always update all your stories regardless of how popular they are. Bravo.

[nightmaster0]

five updates nice. Thing's are getting interesting.

[Pinklestia]

Yeah, Alicorn Twilight and the elements? No sweat!

[Emperor]

Hopefully Trixie comes up with something to stop King Sombra in the end, even as a helping hand for Sunset. And maybe some therapy after seeing a squirrel's head asplode.