Legion of Shadows

by Strythio

The Great and Thievous Trixie

Sunset had endured some pain in the past few weeks, but not since she had to escape Equestria had she been physically injured even closer to this manner; broken glass had embedded itself in a few places on her back and shoulders, most deep enough to cause some bleeding.

A few were relatively shallow, and merely caused a light scratch on the surface, but as she had been laid out on her back with her saddlebag still on her person, the unicorn would need to move deliberately in order to avoid worsening her situation. Gingerly, she removed her saddlebag, hearing yet more fireworks going off in the distance. Once the saddlebag was safely out of harms reach, Sunset then worked on removing a few of the less embedded glass shards from herself.

It took a few minutes, but once a few tugs with her magic proved that the remainder, the majority really, were stuck in there until greater force could be used, Sunset managed to rise shakily to her hooves.

The train had not just been derailed; it had been completely blown off of its tracks. Another blast of fireworks lit up yet another train car, sending it careening into the air, making a rather rough landing several yards off. Whoever had done this had an obsession with overly showy explosives. Then again, clearly this was also a rather well thought out plan; it was not everyday in Equestria that a train robber goes to the trouble of blowing up the tracks in order to rob the train.

Then again, Sunset had not been in Equestria very often lately, so as far as she knew, this could in fact be the new norm. She highly doubted it though. Much of the attention was still on the very much stopped train and its various cars, all of which were landing in a stacked-like fashion some distance away.

Taking this moment in which the perpetrator might not come hunting for her, Sunset began carefully removing some of the shards of glass, largely using feel in order to locate the shards. Now, logic would have told her that it would make some sense to at least find some bandages first, but logic had been tossed out the train window along with her at this point. Removing the shards seemed to only widen the wounds into small lacerations, but at least there would be little chance of them going in even deeper.

The freezing cold numbed her to some degree, so while she could consider that relief, she also became faced with a rather interesting problem. This problem, of course, was that she had not been paying attention to the deathly quiet that had overtaken the area, and had forgotten about the unicorn that she had earlier spotted on her way to the ground.

"Hoof over the saddlebag unicorn."

The voice was female, but it had an odd authority and malignity to it that almost made Sunset comply immediately. However, she turned every which way to find the speaker first, only to be faced with a brilliant azure unicorn with hair that reminded her of toothpaste, with its pale cornflower blue (like that of cauliflower being lightly tinged blue) with almost white colored stripes.

Purple eyes stared Sunset down, narrowed and focused, sparks of magenta magic emitting from the horn.

"I will not repeat myself. Hoof over the saddlebag, or the Great and Powerful Trixie will have to take it."

Sunset was on the verge of telling this "Trixie" that, as a unicorn, she could levitate it herself if she wanted it so badly; however, Sunset detected a potential advantage in this roundabout way of doing things, as maybe her foe was not as villainous as she had first came off of. Seeking the true nature of her foes and exploiting it had been a talent that Sunset worked on vigorously during her time at Canterlot High.

"Feeling a bit guilty about blowing up a train are we?" Sunset taunted with a wry smile, "Best save your remorse for the bottom of Celestia's hoof. She does not take kindly to murderers and robbers. Just ask Sombra."

For some reason, Trixie cackled at that; Sunset did not see the joke, for as far as she knew Sombra had not seen a warm day in his life since he crossed the royal princesses.

"Trixie will not think twice about sending your face to the bottom of Celestia's shoe on a burnt plate; after all, I am sure you were impersonating Trixie rather poorly for some reason."

Sunset would have been in denial, but then she reconsidered her disguise. This pony's cutie mark was a star-shaped wand leaving a sparkly swish behind it, the swish resembling a cape; Sunset's disguise had kept her own cutie mark concealed, but other than that, she did bear a slight resemblance to Trixie. Nothing for her to get worked up over though and shout identity thief though.

"I did not want to get swarmed." Sunset decided to switch tactics, as threats of punishment clearly were not this mare's concerns. "Hard to have looks like these without-"

"Enough!" Trixie let loose a blast from her horn, sending a flurry of snow behind Sunset. As this had also been where Sunset had been hurling the glass, a few shards of glass also fly into the air as well. Sunset takes a few of these shards in her magic and sends them towards Trixie's eyes with the intention of blinding her. It was a somewhat desperate tactic, as she could have just fired a blast of magic of her own, but she did not want those shards coming back at her either, so she felt it was better to get them away from her blind spot.

No such luck for blinding Trixie though, for she had vanished quite suddenly. Sunset had been thrown off and watched the shards embed themselves into the snow. A few moments later she noticed that hoof tracks were still in the snow, leading off to the right. About to start trailing them, Sunset felt something incredibly warm touch the bottom of her neck. Sunset's eyes shifted from the tracks in the snow to the source of the warmth.

Trixie re-appeared, her head and glowing horn poised directly below Sunset's chin at this point, ready to blast at a moment's notice. "Last chance unicorn. I want your stuff, not your life, but try anything else and there will not be much left of that pretty head of yours."

Sunset cursed under her breath, angry at herself for being cornered so easily. She chalked it up to rustiness from fighting as a unicorn and looked towards her saddlebags, finally relenting.

Using her magic, Sunset levitated her saddlebags towards Trixie, dropping them to her side. For some reason, her seemed to be getting gradually weaker, and it was only now that Sunset recalled her earlier injuries with an acute sense of urgency. She needed to get that addressed, for even though they were numbed somewhat, that did not mean that they had rapidly healed.

In a last ditch effort to appease the fortune rulers and turn this situation around, Sunset tried one of her lesser talents: flattery. "You know, impersonating one of the greatest unicorns in all of Equestria, and this little fight here, has really given me insight to one of my betters. If I may ask, may I join you?"

"I don't need an apprentice." Trixie shimmered for a moment and reappeared a few feet from where the shards of glass had found their resting place, her horn still glowing. When Sunset checked the spot Trixie had last been seen, she realized that there had been no hooftracks that led straight to her. Meaning that Trixie had managed to trick her into thinking that she had been in imminent danger when in fact, the real Trixie had been at a rather safe distance away.

It had been smoke and mirrors, a magical illusion. At this moment, Sunset felt very much like a sucker for falling for such a basic trick. Trixie apparently had been very well named when she was younger, and Sunset could guess she might have had some background as a magician.

Holding back her frustration as all of this added onto the other issue that she was dealing with at the moment, Sunset attempted to continue to stroke her opponent's ego. "But what of all of your talent? Think of it more like a partnership; after all, hauling all of those train goods by yourself must be quite the task."

Trixie seemed to perk up at this, much to Sunset's pleasure. Unfortunately, before she could hear the response, her legs gave way, sending her crashing to the cold ground. Everything began going white, and before she could get back to her hooves, she lost all feeling. The world seemed to disconnect itself from her, and her very mind seemed to wander to the outermost mists of the universe.

It was kind of strange, sudden even, for she had thought that she still had more time. Then again, she had been so focused on Trixie that she had not re-addressed dressing her wounds. Blood loss, though unlikely, may have caused her to pass out; she was not entirely sure, but she was sure that her mind had wandered into dream land long before she could try to figure out what caused her collapse.

---

---

Light began flooding Sunset's vision shortly after this. From a bright white aura to a white coat, Sunest began to assume that she was dreaming. A mare with a flowing mane like an angry thunder cloud and a coat of white stared at her with a serious expression. The mare had both wings and a horn, and seemed to be just Sunset's size.

The bright magenta eyes had an odd amount of friendly youth in them, and contrasted with the frown and furrowed eyebrows. The place for a cutie mark was absent, and it was at this moment that Sunset realized that the mare was not staring at her.

The mare was staring at itself, and more pertinently, its blank flank.

Either she was this dream pony, or this dream pony was her; or perhaps this was a vision? Sunset decided to go with vision rather than a mere dream, and for a brief moment she enjoyed the thought that, if she had just died, she would be reincarnated in the form of an alicorn. A rather nice looking one at that. Maybe the fortune lords had heard her pleas from earlier.

"Nimba!" a familiar voice called out urgently, "Nimba, where are you?"

The pony relaxed her facial expression at the sound of the voice, the owner belonging to the only pony that Sunset could match. Princess Celestia.

"Coming mother!" the mare shouted back, taking one final glance in the mirror before rushing from the room.

Apparently, the pony had been getting prepared inside of a bathroom for something. A large hole for the business, a large tub for bathing, and a simple sink with a mirror attached to it were all that was in this small bathroom. From this, Sunset deduced that the setting was somewhere in the past, perhaps in a noblepony's home.

Upon leaving, Nimba entered a large bedroom; Celestia's icon, the blazing sun, had been posted in the form of banners, paint, and engravings in almost every corner of the room. In conjunction with this was an incredibly large and round bed; so large that three Celestia's could have fit into it. Sitting atop it was none other than Celestia, a small frown on her lips. Her eyes dripped with concern, and Sunset could swear that even some anger resided.

"Nimba, were you inspecting your flank again?" Celestia did not sound very pleased, though Sunset reasoned that this was a very natural reaction to a blank flank as old as this pony appeared.

"Well mother, I still don't have one," Nimba pouted, lips poked out in an attempt at humor, "Every other pony my age already has had their marks for years, but me? Blank as a sheet of unused parchment."

Celestia shook her head, that scholarly expression warning Sunset that a scolding was coming her way. "As a young mare, an alicorn no doubt, you should not try to rush these things. A cutie mark is permanent; once you get it, there is no removing it without altering the very way you live."

"But it is not fair!" Nimba continued, Sunset almost being amused by the familiar protest in the face of the patience speech, "I am one of the most powerful pegacorns just short of You and Auntie. I can call down meteors, burn heretics with my mind, and even manipulate the nobles with a single bat of my eye! I should have a cutie mark by now for something!"

Celestia rose from the bed, using her natural height to look down upon her daughter with a stern look. "As an alicorn, your specialty is linked to your very livelihood; I would prefer that none of those things brand you for life. And what heretics do you burn?"

Nimba's ears flattened backwards, perhaps out of guilt. Perhaps out of concern about what she had just said, to her own mother of all listeners. "Those who do not believe in the magic of friendship," she muttered, "They threaten to disrupt the stability that You and Auntie have worked so hard for. We do not want another Sombra--"

"Do not speak ill of Sombra," Celestia snapped, cutting off Nimba abruptly, "He is just going through a rough time right now."

"Yes, enslaving his subjects and promoting tyranny is a rough time for everypony," Nimba retorted, now sitting on her haunches and averting her gaze, " He dared to suggest that they had it coming too! No pony deserves to be in chains! If they wronged him so badly he should have just put them out of their misery and called it a millennia."

Celestia's wings flared upwards in anger, though she did not rise from her resting place. This was a surprise for Sunset, as she never saw her former mentor get riled up over much of anything. "Execution and genocide is not the solution to everything! If you are going to rule a portion of Equestria one day, you need to change your outlook on how to treat your subjects; both followers and breakers of the law."

"And that is why Sombra is the only stallion who has tasted the position of alicorn recently," Nimba muttered in as low of a tone as possible, hoping that her mother did not hear her.

Unfortunately, Celestia could read lips particularly well and sighed in both resignation and frustration. "Nimba, it is clear that you are far from ready to succeed me; maybe your lack of a cutie mark is because of your lack of wisdom."

Nimba's ears twitched, and though Sunset could feel the need to retort on that, Nimba suppressed it. She instead took a moment to compose an answer, choosing carefully what she wanted to say. "Even the weak-minded of our subjects get a cutie mark; You and Luna would be the only ones with a cutie mark if that were a requirement. I bet Father would have understood my viewpoint."

"You have no idea just how right and wrong that you are," Celestia then laid herself back onto the bed, showing some signs of fatigue, her wings drooping down to her sides, still stretched out. "The night has already started for at least twenty minutes now; I need my rest for tomorrow's day. I want you to think more critically about this conversation."

"It would help if you told me who my father is so I could ask him, if he is still around, that is." Nimba's retort had a sort of edge to it that, without further context, Sunset could not piece together. Either way, it struck Celestia in a fashion that few managed to strike in a single evening of chatter.

With an angry expression, Celestia, in a restrained voice, ordered, "To your room Nimba."

Nimba's ears perked up, and the mare took a step forward in protest. "But, we always sleep together. It's almost ritual."

"Not tonight." Celestia was resolute with her answer, "Tonight, I need some alone time. And you need some alone time to think about what has so obviously angered me."

And with that, Celestia turned from the still surprised Nimba. After a few moments of hesitation, the young alicorn frowned and stalked off towards a large set of double doors on the other side. "Fine. But when I get my cutie mark in investigation, I am going to ask Auntie about Father again. Maybe then she'll be less reluctant to withhold information."

And with that, Nimba stormed off, though behind her back Celestia began laughing to herself. It only irritated Nimba more that her mother had found such humor in the comment.

"Good night Nimba. Love you."

Despite the earlier hostility, Nimba gave a small smile and, with only a single look back, replied, "Love you too Mother."

---

---

With that, the dream ended, and Sunset awoke to find herself bound and gagged. While not surprised that she did not awake in the cold snow, she was startled to find a fire roaring mere feet away from her position. Any attempt at channeling magic to her horn failed, some sort of suppression presumed to be on it.

Seems Trixie either had taken her prisoner, or was preparing to allow certain thing to happen. Either way, Sunset searched with her eyes for an answer.

The small camp had the backdrop of various train cars, all derailed of course, gathered around as a sort of wall enclosure; each being carefully placed as to fit almost seamlessly between each other. Trixie sat on the other side of the fire, much of her form blurred due to the fire between them and Sunset's viewing from a much lower angle. Not only that, but there seemed to even be train cars formed into a sort of ceiling, with a circular skyview created letting in a stream of moonlight.

It was a full moon, and the lack of the Mare in the Moon was a slight disturbance to Sunset, though she recalled that Nightmare Moon had been liberated from that during her absence, and had since been reformed into Luna. Or was it the other way around? Sunset was not entirely sure, but either way, the full moon's lack of a unicorn head certainly dashed her theory of unicorns being imprinted even on the moon to show their dominance.

Oh how her former classmates would likely laugh at her now for such a notion. But it had made plenty of sense, with the unicorn capital of Equestria also being the national capital, with Celestia taking up residence there after the first Nightmare Moon incident. So even if they were to mock her now, she could easily retort that she worked with what knowledge had been available.

At this thought, Sunset's gag was removed via levitation, Trixie likely noticing her awake at last.

"I see you are awake," Trixie commented, placing the gag to the right side of Sunset's head, "You should be grateful to Trixie for saving your life."

Considering she was the one who put her in harm's way in the first place, Sunset personally counted that as even, though she spoke no such thing. After all, she did have the courtesy to bandage up her wounds. Plus, Sunset had to keep this unicorn buttered up, especially now that she was practically a captive. "So, what is with the restraints? I thought you had changed our mind about a partner."

"I did." Trixie sneered, a glint in her eye, "When I dragged you over here and patched you up, obviously I needed some way to keep your limbs from flopping all over the place."

Magic, maybe? Sunset would have retorted that levitation would have worked just fine, but reminded herself that, presumably, Trixie also moved her loot and the train cars as well. There was logic in not further straining herself to levitate Sunset back to her hideout.

"I see. So, mind untying me and unsuppressing my magic?"

Trixie laughed, and then levitated a poster with Sunset's cutie mark on it. In bold letters, Wanted described the nature of the advertisement. For a few moments, it meant nothing to Sunset, until she noticed the cutie mark that was framed in the description box. A sun with red and tan rays and a center divided between the colors of red and yellow. It looked very much like her own cutie mark, just short of a proper dimension comparison.

"You were a wanted pony. Celestia was willing to offer a kingdom's worth of bits to the pony who brought you in alive, and a castle's worth for any who brought you dead. That was years ago, but there is no expiration date, and I doubt you became less dangerous over your time in exile. I will remove the physical restrains, but your magical one remains."

Damn, so Trixie had done some research. Or better yet, had been holding onto that in case she got a lucky break such as this. Sunset realized that her charade was over, and at this point, she would be faced with blackmail. As her physical bindings came undone, the rope seemingly snaking itself from her limbs, Sunset took a moment to reach a hoof to her horn.

It felt rocky, as if she had crystals sprouting from it. Whatever this suppression spell was, it was very effective, as Sunset couldn't even channel enough magic to levitate a snowflake. And that was saying something; maybe she really had underestimated Trixie's skill with magic.

"Found that nifty spell in that book of yours," Trixie boasted, gesturing to herself with a wide grin and a hoof to her chest, "You have no idea how hard it was to do that. Took me almost an hour just to cast the spell, and another thirty minutes figuring out how to keep it on your horn."

A hour and thirty minutes? That seemed like a rather short time considering how effective the spell was, but Sunset reasoned that this particular spell must not have been overly complicated; either that, or she had been out of it for far longer than she had realized.

"So, what now?" Sunset pondered, as she had never exactly been on this side of Equestria's law before, not to mention she did need to get to Canterlot at some point.

"A representative from the Market is coming to inspect and trade the goods for bits," Trixie explained, gesturing to the train cars, " Live merchandise, jewels, and of course, magical items go for very high prices. Anything else is pretty variable depending on the condition."

Sunset took a harder look at the train cars, only just now noticing that, while some of the glass had been blown out, much of it was still intact. Additionally, the train cars that formed the wall-like structure had various shadows moving within them, some rather violently at that.

Flash had earlier mentioned that he had had a contact in Canterlot, and that some major deal was going down later on this very day. Though he doubted that she would get involved, he did mention occupational hazards, and was the one to choose which colors she would use for her disguise. While it could all be a coincidence, Sunset began to suspect that there was some sort of connection between these incidents. If indeed Flash's contact had any communication with Trixie, then sticking with her would be the easiest way to find the contact, perhaps without having to walk the rest of the way to Canterlot.

"How long did it take you to do all of this?" Sunset inquired, both genuinely curious and wanting to keep some sort of conversation going.

"A magician never reveals her secrets." Trixie cackled, posing triumphantly, "Trixie hints that that hardest part was setting up the fireworks."

That did not at all answer Sunset's question, but she decided not to press further on that matter. Every unicorn had their secrets, and apparently, the logistics behind this would be Trixie's for now.

"Now then, that tome that you took?" Sunset assumed that Trixie had not discarded it after obtaining that one spell from it, and she wanted it back, as she had been far from done with it.

Trixie levitated said tome above her head with that same smile on her face, overly confident that she was in full control of the situation. Sunset would have killed for the chance to wipe that smug look off her face. "This one? Well, I suppose, though I will need your new partnership with me in writing before I hoof it over."

Comments

[Strythio]

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There is some comedic relief in there, so for the most part, it should feel less like a Dark story and more like a Comedy. However, not all of my jokes may send a chuckle through every chapter, but I do try.