Trixie vs. The World
“May we bring you anything to eat or drink, Your Highness?”
Celestia surveyed her little pony bowing to her. His fashion sense was impeccable, his elegantly coiffered blue mane and tail going well with his immaculate white tie and cuffs, the colour blending in with his coffee cream brown coat. Savoir Fare, she thought his name was.
“Yes,” Celestia decided. Her meeting with the diplomat-prince of Saddle Arabia and his wife had gone rather well, with outstanding evening entertainment organised by her student, capped off by a fireworks performance that seemed vaguely familiar to her. Unfortunately, the actual negotiations that took place during the day demanded high culture, and high culture demanded tiny portions at meals.
In short, she was famished.
Exercising what was to her restraint, she gave the hotelier her order, “I will have two of whatever your chef’s dessert special is, as well as the strongest caffeinated drink you have on hand, please.” Casting her senses inside her room, she modified her request, “Make that three portions, please. I may have to entertain some company before I turn in for the night.”
Savoir Fare bowed even more deeply than before, nose nearly touching the ground, “As you wish, your majesty,” He stated, before finally standing up and moving to leave.
With a sigh, Celestia made to open the door to her suite, only to pause. Living for thousands of years, she had many pieces of art, from statues to paintings, the written word to the orchestra, from conventional art to abstract to modern to postmodern. Despite all that, she still found joy in even the simplest pieces of art where the art and soul of the pony or other creature was obvious in its creation.
The door she stood before, separating the hallway of the top floor of the Ponyville Grande Hotel from her own five-star room (well, five-star by Ponyville’s standards, anyways), was made from the rare Zap Apple tree. Such wood was very rare, needing to be carefully processed. Much like the namesake Zap Apples it bore, it could take many times the amount of time and effort to create boards from Zap Apple wood. Which made it all the more impressive that somebody had managed to actually carve into the wood.
Princess Celestia idly wondered if the younger members of the Apple family even knew about this door, which commemorated their great-grandmother with an exaggerated scene showing the young Lil’ Smith lassoing a giant Timberwolf with the most interesting features. The bolts of lightning it shot from its maw and the trees that were its limbs were obviously a blend of the wild creatures of the Everfree that the Apple clan had battled and to an extent tamed to plant their orchards, and the mysterious Zap Apple trees themselves.
It was making her hungry.
Having appreciated the fine carving, Celestia at last used magic to open the door, quickly closing it behind her. Being the finest room in the finest hotel in a small town the size of Ponyville, which was within a stone’s throw of Canterlot and thus saw very few dignitaries, meant the room was relatively austere to other places she had been. Still, the extra size of the top floor suite was always appreciated, as well as the soft, inviting bed and couches, and the large window that offered an enticing sunset view of the centre of Ponyville.
No longer in public, Celestia allowed the continuous magic that sustained her flowing mane and tail to dissipate, her hair finally obeying the whims of gravity, an even fickler mistress. Levitating a brush off the vanity, she ran it through her hair, working out the tresses that would develop even with her shimmering mane. As she groomed herself, she made her way to the table centrepiece, where she had spread out the paperwork she was to work on in the morning.
A pause. There was a deck of cards on the deck. Using her hoof, she turned over the top card. The picture on the card was of a unicorn of an undistinguishable gender, covered in a bulky cloak. He or she carried a lantern in his or her hoof, never using the horn to light the way. Above the card was the number 9 written in Old Griffin format, ‘IX’.
Who was this again? Ah, right. “You use an interesting calling card. I never did learn why you preferred the Hermit instead of the Magician…Wandering Blue.”
It was always a treat to see her former secret agent pull something new out of her hat, something that had seen her dubbed a Thaumawunderkind amongst her colleagues. Celestia wasn’t disappointed as the table’s shadow, being on the wrong side of the table from the lighting source, detached from where the legs met the floor. Slowly, the shadow compressed in on itself in two dimensional horizontal space, before it grew vertically, taking the form of a mare coloured azure and cyan.
Former secret agent Wandering Blue sniffed in disdain, “The Magician is far too obvious. It’s too easy an allusion to make, power, skill, divinity. It’s also the first card in the Tarot order, suggesting one thinks herself above all others.” With a graceful flourish, she brought her hoof up to her chest. “The Hermit, on the other hand, is a loner by definition, capable of friendship but preferring solitude. He always carries a light with him because the path before him is dark and unknowable. Instead of commanding power like the Magician, he continues to seek wisdom. The Hermit never looks back.”
“An interesting interpretation,” Celestia admitted, glad that at least one of her agents seemed to be getting on well in life. “As enlightening as that was, however, I feel you did not come to me to discuss your calling card. What is it that you are here for, Wandering Blue? I had thought those fireworks familiar, but I am sure you did not come to me to brag about them.” Only one thing came to mind, that being this agent’s last act before she have dissolved the organisation. “Do you believe you can no longer bear the burden of sealing the beast?”
The hermetic unicorn paused, then bowed. “Forgive me, Princess Celestia, for I have sinned.”
Celestia found herself taken aback. This…wasn’t like the typically bombastic Wandering Blue at all. Then again, she probably had left a bad impression on the poor mare with her actions the last time she had seen her. “What did you do, my little pony?” That question, asked in the gentle manner she was capable of mustering after a thousand years of being a royal, was nearly without fail in calming down her subjects.
Wandering Blue was no exception. “After the agency was shuttered, I wandered the land for years. I was bitter, Princess, but I accepted it. I decided to put joy into the hearts of equinity by becoming a travelling stage performer, putting on shows wherever I went, getting to see the land without having to save the nation at the same time for one. It all went fine, until I arrived in Ponyville.”
Wandering Blue sighed out loud. The despair in her sigh was so obvious that Celestia’s heart went out to the poor girl. “I was bitter, I said that already, but it was true. When I heard your student was living there, I admit I overreacted. I wanted to show up somebody who you hadn’t gotten rid of.”
An isolated incident that had been reported to her almost two years ago had been lurking in her mind as soon as she had seen Wandering Blue and remembered her crescent moon and wand Cutie Mark, the Solar Deity’s mind being predisposed to recalling every instance of a sun or moon mark in her realm. It only took a few seconds to link that report with the mare before her. “You’re Trixie Lulamoon,” She realised aloud.
The unicorn was visibly taken back, slightly flinching. “Did Twilight Sparkle tell you about me?” She asked apprehensively.
Celestia shook her head, “No, she did not. However, the mayor of Ponyville, Mayor Mare, sends me a weekly report.” Her eyes twinkled with a hint of nostalgia. “I admit I don’t read the weekly news from every town and village of Equestria, but I make an exception for my student’s place of residence.” Her face hardened. “'A blue mare calling herself Trixie Lulamoon brought into town an Ursa Minor, wrecking several buildings before it was sent back into the Everfree by Twilight Sparkle’,” She paraphrased from memory. A frown lit her face, and it would have been glaring harder than any morning sun were she not familiar with all her secret agents. “I know you would never have done such a thing, Wandering Blue, so what exactly did happen?”
Wandering Blue hung her head low. “Please, Princess, call me Trixie. It was my real name, is my real name, and I prefer to go by it now. Unless you want to call me Bluey.”
“Bluey,” Celestia repeated back in as deadpan a voice as she could. Her frown turned into a mirthful smile, “Very well, Bluey.”
Trixie groaned, “On second thought…never mind. Uh, oh, right, the Ursa minor. I did not bring it into town, but I still blame myself for it. In my show in Ponyville, I bragged about defeating an Ursa major, complete with a whole light show.” Rearing up on her back hooves, she pantomimed a mock performance with her front legs. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is truly the greatest equine to have ever lived!” Landing back down on all fours, she shook her head, “But I didn’t take into account that Ponyville was next to the Everfree Forest, where real Ursas actually lived, and that two foals in the audience would be so careless to lure one into town for me to show off by defeating.”
The Princess raised her eyebrows. Mayor Mare certainly had made no mention of that. As the elected official had always been fairly good in reporting an unbiased account of the happenstances in town (often lining up detail for detail with Twilight Sparkle’s own letters), she decided the Mayor simply had been uninformed. It would be worth looking into later, but for now, a haunting realisation had sunk in for her. “And with your powers restrained so by the Binding Spell, you would probably have been helpless against an Ursa Minor.”
“I did try,” Trixie interjected. “But yes, you’re right. I lacked the power, and so I felt humiliated when your own student handled it with ease.”
Celestia nodded. “What happened next, then?”
Trixie paused, before elucidating, “I tried to put on some more shows, but word of what happened in Ponyville spread. After my cart was vandalised and I was heckled far too many times to count, I decided to stop for a while, maybe fade out of the public memory before making a return. I found out about your Elements of Harmony after they defeated Discord,” Here she frowned, “And what a mad time that was! I was held up in travelling to Boltimare by the soapy roads. Anyways, I found out about the Elements of Harmony, and investigated. I apologise, Princess, but you can take the mare out of the secret agency, but you can’t take the secret agency out of the mare.”
“I would expect nothing less from one of my finest agents,” Celestia smiled. “Go on.”
“Thank you, Princess. I found that while most of the Elements’ families lived relatively close to Ponyville, the Element of Laughter’s parents and sisters lived further north in rural country. I made the decision to while away the time by taking a job on their rock farm, while secretly applying magical defenses to the perimeters to protect them from harm if anybody was of a mind to go after an Element’s family. Argh!” Trixie huffed loudly, stomping the floor with a back hoof, “That was the most tedious job I’ve ever done, I simply cannot understand how almost a whole family can be that obsessed with rocks.”
“Rock farming,” The alicorn deadpanned. She knew Trixie was serious, having read Pinkie Pie’s dossier, but still found the whole idea of farming rocks insane.
“Yes,” The self-declared hermit stated. “The actual underlying magical theory in rock farming makes sense, but Princess, if someone overthrows you and you have to go into hiding, I would recommend it not be as a rock farmer.”
Celestia giggled, “I’ll be sure to take your advice, Trixie.”
“Yes! Really, the only reason I didn’t go insane from that was from practice in my foalhood with spending long hours at paying attention to the minutest details at something I had little interest in. Did you know that my father was the one who made that door to this suite?” She suddenly asked, her eyes bright for the first time in the conversation so far.
The taller mare was taken aback, “Really?” She asked. If that was true, then that was quite a large coincidence.
Trixie nodded in a vigorous manner. “My father is Wooden Chisel. His Cutie Mark is a carving knife and chisel over top of one another.”
“Yes, I know who your father is,” Celestia replied, “I make it a priority to read reports on those who were recruited, and that little filly in the School for Gifted Unicorns with a talent for innovating uses of magic was no exception. I was just surprised that something of his all the way out here, and that you recognised it.”
Trixie blushed slightly at the compliment that had been paid to her, but didn’t let it affect her speech. “My father has a few trademark signs that he will slip into most of his carvings as a signature, like how a painter usually signs his or her work. I may not have been interested in what he did, but I still know the difference between all the different kinds of knives and carving techniques, and could recognise his work at a distance. That, and I may have been at home when he was working on that exact door,” She admitted, tapping her front hooves together in an attempt to look like a cute filly fessing up to sneaking food out of the cookie jar.
“But anyways!” She quickly took control of her own conversation, before she revealed any embarrassing details, “I had zero interest in carving, but I was still his assistant for hours on end before I started studying at your school. Rock farming wasn’t exactly easy, but it wasn’t any worse than playing fetch for wood carving.”
Trixie paused, looking like she was about to continue, before her head shot up, eyes wide. In the time span of less than a second, her fur began to desaturate in colour, turning to a pale blue, then white, and finally a partially see-through ectoplasm. The ectoplasm that was Trixie Lulamoon then shrank in on itself, finally creating a shadow of the table from the wrong side of the lighting again.
Celestia blinked just as a knock came on the door. That had been...interesting.
“Your Highness! Your meal is here,” Came the shout of Savoir Fare, muffled by the thick Zap Apple wooden door.
“Coming!” Celestia shouted back, trotting over to the door with a restrained glee, her mane quickly taking on its ethereal flowing form once more, as if buffeted by the solar winds. Grabbing the door with her magic, she opened the door knob, slowly opening to give Savoir Fare time to move lest her poor little pony be standing right behind it, dishes in hand (that had happened once before. She still bemoaned the loss of her precious cake. Never forget).
A large tray on top of a chrome-plated cart held three large plates with covers over top, as well as a cup with a liquid so hot water vapour could still be seen rising from it. Celestia inhaled deeply, the delectable smells nearly setting her off. Attempting to move the hotelier off before she was witnessed salivating in public, she levitated the entire tray off the cart, moving it inside her room and onto the table. “Thank you, Mr. Fare,” She greeted him. “That will be all.”
The Earth Pony bowed, “If you need anything else, Your Highness, the staff of this hotel is at your beck and call.”
As he left, Celestia closed the door again, locking it back up. Turning back to the table, she called out to the table’s false shadow, “You know, that shadow is on the wrong side.”
“I know,” The formless voice responded. “When I was doing reconnaissance work, any agents who knew of this spell would know to look for a shadow in the wrong direction when making an intel drop.” It was freaky, how weird it was to hear a voice coming from a mere shadow of all things.
“I find this disturbing,” Celestia stated. “Please change back.”
As Trixie took physical shape again, Celestia lifted the lids off of her dessert plates. It seemed the chef had outdone himself, creating a double-layered angel cake with a creamy chocolate mousse on the inside, hot liquid fudge drizzled on top. Smacking her lips, she nearly missed Trixie continuing to talk, “Unfortunately, I cannot get it to work with clothing or items unless the item is specially manufactured to tolerate being dissolved into magical streams. It took me over an hour just to get a simple deck of cards to work!”
“Oh?” Celestia questioned aloud, as she blew at her porcelain cup, the smell of divinity wafting from it as much as the visible vapours. It appeared to be an espresso with cream, sprinkled with a brown powder she assumed to be cinnamon. “Neighstein’s Mass Energy Equivalence says it should be doable with any object.”
“It does,” Trixie agreed. “However, by the time I worked out how to do it, I had too little magic available to do it with anything more complicated than a pebble.”
“Ah,” The alicorn responded. So many things came back around to that. The escape of that monster had hardly been her finest hour, being pinned down by flooding in Fillydelphia and too busy to help until Wandering Blue had nearly sacrificed her life to recapture it. In the process, although not precisely crippled, the former secret agent’s available magic was severely curtailed, most of it going to sustain the seal that acted as a secondary prison past the Tartarus cell that housed the beast. Like the distant cosmic bodies that became redder and weaker the further they moved away in orbit from her Sun and the earth, Wandering Blue felt as if she was a hundred hoofsteps away, her normally strong, pulsing magic feeling weak, a harmonic melody turned a shrieking cacophony of sounds.
She felt guilt for what she had done right after, and had she the choice of redoing it, she would not have applied the geas. Well, it was better late than never. “Did you want the geas removed, Trixie?”
To her surprise, Trixie feverently shook her head, “No, your majesty. For the longest time, I raged at it. Why was it forced on me when no other agent that I know of had it applied, even after the dissolution of the agency? We were agents because you trusted us, not the other way around.” The passion in her voice was incredible, speaking of a number of years of heartache. “I penned entire essays in my head over why you did it, many reasons that were I in your horseshoes I suppose I may have done myself.”
Taking a sip of her drink, allowing the sweet and slight bitter taste work its way across her tongue, Celestia thought, and at last asked, “What are your sins, young Lulamoon?”
Trixie bared her teeth, viciously smiling, “I thought you would never ask, Princess.”
Standing up on her rear legs once more, imitating the stance of the bipedal species that walked the Earth’s soil, Trixie made a single motion with one of her free hooves, a visual screen appearing next to her. A scene started with a dark, back alley street that Celestia, with a start, realised must have been in Canterlot based on the architecture. Following the view of what appeared to be Trixie’s first-person memories, the vision entered a small shop.
Dusty and downtrodden as the shop was, it was still a shop, one that had more displays than floor space, each shelf stocked to bursting with odd trinkets. Surveying the many items that past-Trixie had briefly glimpsed, Celestia vowed to look more into this shop when she returned to Canterlot.
She renewed that vow when the vision stopped, honing in on a pendant she never thought she would see again. A diamond that practically glowed the colour of arterial blood, housed in a triangular container adored by a stylised red-and-black pony with both a horn and wings, it had been an item near the top of the list of magical artifacts still at large when she had dissolved the organisation.
“The Alicorn Amulet!” She gasped, a rush of memories coming to her. Its original making, an unholy fusion of a white rock that fell from outer space, bathed in the blood of Discord the only time he had ever bled, at the end of the world. Its creator, the first pony it had ever corrupted, her form disintegrating as the magical power boost it offered tore her from the inside. Its second owner, a simple farmer who had caused the creation of the Everfree Forest, requiring the Castle of the Pony Sisters to be abandoned. A long line of owners, until it was eventually lost to history.
“Yes,” Trixie agreed. “When I first saw it on a brief vacation, I knew what it was. This was only a few weeks ago, when you had just visited Saddle Arabia. With none of my old contacts available, and you gone, I took the initiative, pawning everything I owned except for the clothes on my back to obtain the money to purchase it.”
Celestia wished she didn’t have to listen any further. She knew there would be a tale of tragedy in here somewhere. However, she owed it to her little pony, more than just about any other pony, to hear it in full. “What happened next?”
Trixie sighed, bringing her hoof up to her face, batting away tears that were beginning to gather. No matter how good she was at hardening her emotions, what had happened next had left a scar on her. “The Amulet is insidious. I did not even touch it, and already I was obsessed with it. I returned to the store at night, with a full bag of money. However, had the owner not still been up, I would have stolen it.”
“Within minutes of purchasing it, its influence affected me, even buried in my cloak, which I once had specifically enchanted to counter such effects. By the end of the hour, I was doomed to seeking revenge on the only pony I felt to have truly humiliated me.”
“My student, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia whispered loud enough for both of them to hear. Fortunately, she knew this tale would not end in complete heartbreak, having seen the lavender unicorn alive and in good spirits right before coming to the hotel room.
“Yes,” Trixie nodded, elaborating, “Princess, I don’t know what you allowed the agency to know and what secrets of the Amulet you keep to yourself, but let me tell you: the Amulet is trouble. It gives its wearer a significant magical boost, and then convinces you that your actions are just. What is worse, in my case it was restoring the power that I once wielded, meaning I could cast even the most magic-intensive spells I knew. I was lucky that I did not maim or kill anypony.”
“But you disliked Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia took over, deducing the order of events from there. “The Alicorn Amulet magnified that, and you did something which I’m sure to hear from Mayor Mare soon.” Honestly, only the sheer time-consuming task of keeping the Saddle Arabian delegation entertained had kept the Mayor from barging in on her yet if Trixie had done even the slightest thing to upset the peace of Ponyville.
“I challenged Twilight Sparkle to a duel, and when I won, I banished her from Ponyville, sealing the town up in a dome only permeable enough to allow air and light in and out,” Trixie admitted, not willing to sugarcoat her misdeeds. “I abused my magic, and took over Ponyville thereafter, renaming it to Trixieopolis. I was selfish and extremely frivolous during those dark few days, and I am ashamed that I don’t think I can ever make it up to the two colts I especially took it out on. I used an age spell on them multiple times, and made them pull me around without the use of wheels all the time. I still don’t regret stealing the Element of Laughter’s mouth to get her to stop talking, though.”
Even though the circumstances were ideal, it was still a very rare feat to see the Princess’ eyes widen in surprise, even her muzzle slightly open as she went “Buh…buh?” for a few seconds. It was the experience of a thousand years that saw her reassert her calm. Oddly, she chose to address the very last thing Trixie had mentioned, “I suppose I can sympathise with you over Pinkie Pie. But now that the Amulet is off of you, there will be no such thing as that anymore, understand,” She said sternly, former secret agent who understood the consequences of abusing magic or not. She blinked a few times, bringing the topic back to said Amulet, “Where is the Amulet now, anyways? Did you manage to overcome it and take it off?”
“In a sense,” Trixie said. “Twilight Sparkle truly is a great unicorn, not only with magic, but also knowing how to use even weak magic spells. She tricked me, a master trickster, at my own game!” She sighed, pawing at the floor with one of her hooves, “Fortunately, the power trip the Amulet gave me also made me unable to see through what any stage magician worth her salt should have been able to, claiming to be able to also use both age spells and gender-switching spells, when in reality all she did was to dress up the relatives of her supposed spell subjects and change them out. She claimed to have an amulet superior to the Alicorn Amulet, and in my desire for even more power I stole it and replaced the Alicorn Amulet with the ‘Amulet Beyond the Everfree Forest’.”
Mentally, Celestia accelerated the timeline for certain events in her head. Perhaps it would soon be time to attempt a reformation plan, and regardless of the results from that, take a certain book out of storage. “And what happened to the Amulet?” She asked, beginning to grit her teeth a little bit. It almost seemed as if Trixie was deliberately drawing the suspense out on the topic. To be honest, the unicorn probably had her dead to rights on doing something like that, considering the amount of sacrifices she had made for Equestria.
“Oh, that,” Trixie waved a hoof in the air. Yep, she had been dragging it out. “There is a zebra shaman living in the Everfree Forest. She took it away in a box.” The mare blinked, “I honestly never really got a chance to look at the box. It would be worthwhile attending to it. I don’t know if it would affect a zebra at all, but I understand some of the town’s fillies regularly visit her, and the Amulet may still be able to corrupt them even through a box with several seals on it.”
Celestia paused, faint memories from a few of Mayor Mare’s reports coming to her. “Yes, I think I know who you are talking about. The Amulet will have to be retrieved for better safekeeping than a zebra’s hut in the Everfree, no matter how good her alchemy skills may be at hiding it. I don’t suppose you could obtain it?”
Surprisingly, Trixie shook her head fervently, her eyes showing an anxiety just short of raw panic. “No, no! Ah, sorry Princess, but I don’t trust myself with that artifact after having been corrupted by it once. Besides,” She let out a nervous chuckle, helping to defuse the tension that had shown up in her body, “The zebra would probably catch me, and then torment me with her rhyming.” Standing up on her hind legs, she made an attempt at a couplet, “’Come back for corruption evermore? This isn’t the amulet you’re looking for.’”
“Agent…that was horrible,” Celestia deadpanned.
“And that’s why I never attempted to sing in iambic pentameter in my shows,” Trixie agreed. “But that was what I had to report to you, Princess, unless you had need of my services again?”
Celestia stopped, and pondered. “I forgive you for your sins, Trixie, but you had no real need to ask for it. The Alicorn Amulet is one of the few items of power even I cannot seem to destroy. I threw it in the sun, once,” She said nonchalantly as she at last sipped her drink, the caffeine-heavy fluid having cooled down over the course of their conversation.
It was fortunate Trixie did not similarly have a drink of her own, or else she might have done a spit take right then and there. “And that didn’t destroy it?” She asked, eyes wide.
The Alicorn of the Sun shook her head, “No. The Amulet reappeared within Equestria within a month. All I have been able to do is seal it away for a short period of time.” The Princess sighed, and it was a deep sigh, one that Trixie could tell was weariness begat by an untold age. Most ponies only saw the kind, formal Princess that performed at Summer Sun celebrations, conducted many of the formal events throughout the year, and occasionally held open court. Trixie knew of the Princess who fought hard behind the scenes, always fighting the next fire that threatened to flare up and consume Equestria. Sometimes, she wasn’t able to extinguish it. “Every time, it finds its way into the world at large again. The first few times, a pony stole it. After I put on enough seals and traps that even I would take weeks to disassemble them all, it just started disappearing on its own. Only the fact that it has taken longer and longer each time to escape, going from a few days, then a few weeks, a few months, and two years the last time it got out has kept me encouraged.”
“That’s…wow,” Was all the normally talkative Trixie could say, suddenly very glad that she had held onto her morals long enough that she hadn’t done any permanent harm.
“Yes,” Celestia nodded, “I suppose it was wrong of me to even think to ask you to retrieve the Amulet again. I can’t ask Twilight Sparkle either, as she has never handled dangerous magical items like you did working for the agency. Luna and I will need to take a day off very shortly to retrieve it, then seal it again. I am hopeful we can put it away for a decade this time.” Her expression was hard as diamond. The very look of it would have sent most ponies cowering.
“But enough of that, Bluey,” She said, adoring the nickname that Wandering Blue had picked up and intent on using it over her real name. “I have no intent to reform the agency. I’m sorry to say, but I won’t be able to suppress news from getting out of the events that have occurred in Ponyville, either.”
“I wouldn’t ask it of you, Princess.”
“Very well. In that case, you will be unlikely to perform as a travelling entertainer, either. I love all my little ponies very much, and I am glad most of them will never be exposed to the horrors of the Amulet. But it is that very same reason that I know many of them will be unable to understand you were corrupted by dark magic not of your own control, and they will despise you for your actions.”
A few tears trickled down Trixie’s face. “I know.”
“In which case, what do you plan to do now?”
Trixie paused. She actually had put some thought into this. “The Crystal Empire has returned,” She slowly said. “It seems to me that even if you will not bring the agents back together again, monsters still wander the land. The Windigos will be awoken from their hibernation now that the Empire is back.”
“Yes,” Celestia admitted, impressed that Trixie had done her research so thoroughly. “The Empire itself is protected by the Crystal Heart, but the small settlements outside of the dome are not.” For those ponies who could rough it, the baby blue sapphire mines were a lucrative opportunity, especially now that there was a big city nearby. Diamond dust flowers, which only bloomed at high altitudes and latitudes the night before, during and after the full moon, were a rare magical ingredient. Snow lettuce, a delicacy with a flavour that could enhance even the lowliest dish, could not be grown in artificial environments, requiring the ambient magical energy of the land of eternal snow to flower.
“I will defeat the Windigos,” Trixie proclaimed, and Celestia knew it was to be so. “My magical strength continues to build day by day, and while it will be many years yet, I will eventually be back at my former power before I had to give most of it up on a permanent basis. I will attempt to find a few of the other former agents, and see who will accompany me. One of them even lives in this very town, but she knew to stay out of my way when I had the Amulet.” She sighed, looking wistful, “I thought I had found a pony, not a former agent, but one with an incredible strength of will. She was the single strongest Earth pony I have ever seen, capable of throwing a large boulder over a kilometer away. Even Agent Stonehenge would not be able to match her in raw strength. Alas, she is getting her Rocktorate in Rock Science soon.”
“I…see,” Celestia said. She would have asked more, but if Trixie did not think of this unknown mare as a threat, then she doubted she would be a future villainess, no matter how strong the mare was. “I will not support you from Canterlot, but Princess Cadance may from the Crystal Empire. I shall send a message to her and Prince Shining Armor, and they may choose to deputise you, if you so wish.”
Trixie nodded, satisfied. “Thank you, your Highness.” Having finally come to say all she needed to get off her chest, she asked, “By your leave, if I may?” She had a sinking feeling when she saw a mischievous look on the Princess’ face.
“Not so fast, Bluey. There’s still a matter of the utmost importance that I need your advice on.” Trixie gulped as the Princess left a long, dramatic pause before she finally asked the most important question of the age, “What Tarot Card do you think I would be?”
Trixie just about facehoofed, but held herself back. Bringing a hoof up to rub her muzzle, she thought about it. “The Empress or The Sun would be the obvious choices,” She stated, “But I think you would be The World.”
“Oh?” It was obvious the Princess wanted to hear Trixie’s reasoning.
“The World can be said to be the end, not in a physical sense but a metaphysical sense, and also the beginning. Which makes your choice of pets interesting. Um, you were the only Princess to rule the land for a thousand years. Even as disasters happened year after year, you were the one constant, the single pony keeping the entire system from being overturned. As an Alicorn, you represent the unity of all Ponykind, wielding the magic of the three main tribes. As a living goddess, you straddle the line between mortal beings, and those who live completely in the heavens, raising the Sun, and while Princess Luna was gone, the Moon as well. You are The World.”
Celestia blinked. That…had actually been the most profound thing said to her in several decades. Damn, Wandering Blue was good. “That’s…thank you, Wandering Blue,” She said, letting her feelings go to mirror Trixie with tears dribbling down her own cheeks. “You may go. Just be sure the next time we meet isn’t for you to confess taking over the Crystal Empire,” She teased.
“Thank you, Princess,” Trixie said, embarrassed at the reaction her analysis had brought upon the princess as well as Celestia’s little tease, and wishing to escape quickly. Using telekinesis, she opened up the single large window to the room, before her body itself turned into a light blue mist. As the mist moved out the window, it teleported, now free of the anti-teleportation seals of the room itself. The Tarot card deck had gone with her, save for a single card: The World.
“Goodbye, Trixie Lulamoon,” Celestia spoke to herself, taking another sip of her drink as she put the remaining Tarot Card away in her private folder. Ah, the glories of cappuccino. “May you find peace with yourself.”
She suddenly smiled. Her and Wandering Blue had been so busy talking that she had forgotten her manners, and neglected to offer the former agent a piece of cake! Oh well, more for her!
Bon Bon paused from her baking, as the familiar feeling of a teleporting pony lit her magical senses up. Turning around, she verified who it was before speaking, “How did it go, Bluey?”
“I am in the clear!” Trixie declared, sweeping Bon Bon up into a one-armed hug. “How would you like to go to the Crystal Empire with me?”
Bon Bon shook her head. “Sorry, Bluey,” She apologised. “Unfortunately, the Bugbear is still out there. I don’t feel comfortable in leaving Ponyville until it’s captured, even if I have to be the one to capture it, and if that happens, I doubt it’ll be anywhere near that far north. And besides,” She nervously touched her hooves together, “There’s my roommate as well…”
“Say no more!” Trixie laughed, sweeping Bon Bon completely off her hooves, “Best friends, right?” She punctuated this with a waggle of her eyebrows.
“Bluey!” Bon Bon rammed a hoof hard into her former coworker, hard, knocking the blue-furred unicorn to the floor, and Bon Bon with her. However, it did nothing for the blush that had crept up her cheeks. Oh, why couldn’t she have been born with red fur?!
Trixie chuckled, “It’s alright, Sweetie Drops. I understand. For now, let’s…” Their impromptu reunion only a few days earlier hadn’t been exactly the greatest, possessed as Trixie was by the Amulet, and Bon Bon completely unable to do anything about it, but now it was time to do it properly!
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6268797 Her lack of background is something I'm grateful for. I have multiple ideas for possible origin stories for Trixie, and in fact I expect my next story to be on one such idea. I liked your Trixcord fic, by the way! I read it before signing up for an account, else I would have left several comments on the story.
6273619 As you can see from Chapter 2, Trixie doesn't quite mind it, though the circumstances at the time certainly left her disgruntled.
Depending on if you consider the IDW comics canon or not, Trixie's story has essentially come to a satisfying close. She's successful and on the way to making friends.
As for this chapter, glad to see that Trixie got her closure with Celestia. It was a little bittersweet, but I like that they both were able to get some hard feelings off their backs. Onwards to monster hunting!
Ah, that monster. See, I don't consider that sucker a monster but more like a force of nature. Kinda like how you mentioned Lovecraft.
Well done!
A good continuation, and nice to see that Trixie is optimistic about her future. She's always struck me as the kind of individual who, when she falls, will do everything to get back on her hooves again. (Hence why I don't much like stories where she's a defeated homeless vagrant or whatever.) My only complaint is that Trixie goes into a little too much detail on the whole Magic Duel debacle - we the readers know all about it already, so it's a bit superfluous. A minor issue, though.
Trixie does put on two notable reappearances in the IDW comics, where she's a successful performer and not ponysona no grata after all - a police officer tells her that he knew about the "Ponyville incident" but was willing to look past it, which suggests that ponies are a lot more forgiving than the fandom give them credit for. (And supported in Princess Spike. "You caused all sorts of disasters and problems? But you're sorry about it? Okay, you're forgiven!" And I'm not being sarcastic. It's one of those things that make me love the show even more.) So I'm guessing your take is to some degree jossed. But who cares? It's still a really cool idea.
Actually, I would not mind at all to see a sequel about Trixie in the Frozen North. Aside from the potential for many terrible things for her to fight, a talented magician would probably be very welcome among the crystal ponies, given how starved for entertainment they probably are. They've been gone for a thousand years, after all. (Also, Chasing Winter was a good story. Trixie does have a lot of potential as a protagonist.)
6283210
Thanks for your comments.
I am aware of the IDW comics, but have not read them, so I was referring to canon specifically only as the show goes. I heard about the Changelings having once been sealed in a volcano in the comics though, and considered having Trixie chase after that in the ending instead of going north. However, I would have had that certain pony getting a Rocktorate in Rock Sciences go along, which would have changed canon.
6283256
I did consider a sequel since I had an idea that could easily be linked to the aftermath of this fic, and still am. Un/fortunately (depending on whether one likes happy settings with happy endings or dark settings with bittersweet endings), I'm a mean, mean person and the sequel would ditch that 'Sad' tag for a straight up 'Tragedy' tag.
Yukito does do a Trixie in the Crystal Empire right as it opens up, though
Awww that was so sweet!
Hmm. It is a satisfying ending to this two shot. Call me whatever you like, I tend to lean more towards the happy endings or at least a hope for the future.
I have always liked Trixie (Equestria Girls notwithstanding; I can't like it), and I think it is a very interesting take on her to have been part of that agency.
I love the idea that the Alicorn Amulet cannot be destroyed, only contained for a while. That certainly makes it a menace, and the fact that you tied it to Discord makes sense of it being unpredictable.
I was sad that she didn't offer Trixie and cake! However, I'm glad you mentioned it again in the end.
I must say again, well done!