Mages of Virtue: The Phantom Thief

by Nova Arc

Shadows and Illusions

Sunset sat with her friends as usual during their break. They were all particularly interested in Sunset’s involvement in the Guardian Trials, which was in less than a month.

“So, the trials are coming up, huh?” noted Applejack. “Got any prefered allies in mind?”

“Well, Loli’s apparently happy to be on a team with me, even given my history. Apparently her old teammates left after I… you know…”

“Well, she doesn’t seem to have a problem, dear,” said Rarity, “Which is more than I can say for some other inconsiderate jerks.”

“I guess…”

“Come on, Sunset,” Pinkie exclaimed. “You’re tied with Twilight in magic and could hold your own in a fight against Applejack.”

“She does have a point,” said Twilight. “You’re very talented.”

“And you’re nice,” added Fluttershy. “Not a lot of people are nice to Hybrids.”

Sunset smiled. “Thanks girls.” Suddenly, a phone started ringing.

‘Got the music in our hearts; we’re here to blow this thing apart!’

“And together we will never be afraid of the dark!” The girls sang along and laughed. Sunset checked and saw it was a reminder.

“Oh! Sorry girls. Gotta run. I actually forgot I had to help out in taking in deliveries.”

“What deliveries?” asked Twilight.

“Mostly school supplies. I’ll catch you all later,” she said, waving goodbye as she walked away.”

---

Sunset arrived at the back of the school, just outside the storage room where extra supplies were kept. A large truck was just backing up into the room. Normally the school security unloaded the trucks, but students could also volunteer or be called to help with different things, whether it was for the sake of helping or for extra credit depended on what it was.

Also in the room were two other students. She already knew Bulk Biceps and Amethyst Star. But it took her a while to get the last girl. She was tall, like competing-with-Applejack tall, standing somewhere between 5’11” and 6’1”, with a slender figure, dark complexion, and killer curves. She had long, curly, bright blonde hair with a purple streak running through it and bright purple eyes to match. She was wearing a white tank top, purple skinny jeans, and black high-tops. On her arm was a band designed with a red and white candy wrapper with a yellow fist in it. She just sat on a crate while the others stood at the entrance as the truck backed in.

Sunset waved hello to Amethyst and Bulk, but the last girl just looked blankly passed her, and then looked away. One common fact about Roxy, she wasn’t always as sweet as her name implied. The back of the truck opened and Amethyst pulled out a notepad containing a list of incoming supplies and a pen. Sunset’s hands glowed with magic as she began rearranging the boxes to make room for the new stuff. Bulk proceeded to lift some of the crates out and carry them over to their new spots. Sunset was indeed surprised when she saw Roxy carry out a crate that was about her height. Seeing as she’s President of the Student Council, heavy lifting is the last thing you’d expect from her.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Amethyst walked quickly over to Sunset, who froze, along with the boxes she was levitating. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Um… moving the boxes of notebooks to make space for the practice runes?” Sunset replied unsure.

“So you thought you’d move the notebooks next to the practice dummies? Jeez, let there be some kind of order, huh?” Amethyst looked at her notepad while Sunset looked confused. “Okay, there’s a stack of textbooks behind the spare sparring kits. You can put those there.”

Sunset rolled her eyes, but complied. Amethyst was always very picky about details and organization, second only to Twilight. Even Rarity wasn’t always this obsessive-compulsive. Once she dropped the boxes, Sunset turned around and was startled by the towering figure of Roxy.

“Oh, sorry,” said Rox, which felt odd, considering how cold Sunset thought she was acting earlier. Sunset never really knew Rox, so all her deductions were assumptions.

“Oh, no it’s fine,” said Sunset. “I didn’t hear you come up behind me.”

“Huh. Weird,” Rox replied. “Normally it’s hard for me to sneak up on people. That’s more of Loli’s thing.”

“You know Loli?”

“Crazy Goth chick’s been bugging me for years for the fun of it.”

Sunset was surprised by this information. Loli was eccentric, to say the least, but Sunset didn’t quite peg her for annoying.

“Really? I spoke to her a few times. She doesn’t seem all that bad.”

“You obviously haven’t been around her long.”

“She’s my roommate.”

Rox froze. “May Faust be with you,” she said. Sunset chuckled. Maybe Roxy wasn’t as bad as other stereotypical queen bees.

---

Trixie stood victoriously, her foot planted on the back of her defeated opponent. “And that, Blossom Forth, is why I am the Great and Powerful Trixie,” she said proudly. The Skyborn’s eyes were still spinning from the beat down.

“Humility, Miss Lulamoon,” said Iron Will. The tall man stroked his goatee in thought as he thought through Trixie’s strategies. “Alright then, would else care to make an attempt?” No one moved. Sunset was about to raise her hand, but hesitated. It’s not that she didn’t think she could take Trixie. In fact, she knew she could take down Trixie in ten seconds flat. “Sorry, Rainbow,” she thought. But she just didn’t feel like it. But someone else did.

“Why not?” Sunset followed the voice and saw Loli Beats stand up from the bleachers and float slowly down to the center of the gym, facing Trixie as Flitter and Cloudchaser helped lift Blossom’s unconscious body off the floor and to the nurse’s office.

“Don’t be too disheartened if you lose to the Great and Powerful Trixie, Skyborn,” Trixie said. “It’s an honor to face her, even if it is to lose.”

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” Loli said. She bent down and used her hand to draw something into the ground. It was barely visible, but just enough. Loli stepped over it so that she was now standing in front of it and tapped it with her the tip of her foot. The seal began to glow and resembled a heart wearing a pair of headphones. From it, her weapon began to emerge. It appeared to be some sort of blade, about five feet long. The blade was wrapped in the same pink streamers that adorned and flowed from the base of the handle, which looked like the handle of a pair of scissors! Just above the handle was a large black circle with a pink cat face on it. “Summoning spell. This just felt like a good time to practice.”

“Well you’d better bring you’re A-game because Trixie won’t hold back simply because you want to try a few new tricks.” Trixie reached into the bag around her waist and whipped out a bunch of cards, which scattered, hanging in the air in front of her. They waited, staring each other down between the cards. But Trixie didn’t have the patience for that.

She flung her hands forward, sending a barrage of energized cards flying at Loli with incredible speed. But the Skyborn was unfazed. In fact, she was smiling. She flipped and slipped out of the cards’ path with acrobatic precision and landed back where she started, although teetering a bit on one foot, but ultimately balanced. “So… is it my turn yet?” she asked innocently.

Trixie growled and sent wave after wave of cards at her opponent. Loli looked like she was having fun, dodging the cards and began to run around the gym, leaving her weapon behind. Sunset watched, or tried to anyway, as the cards tried to hit the pink blur blitzing around the room. Finally, Loli made an advance, zooming towards Trixie. Just as she got in front of her, she vanished, but suddenly reappeared behind Trixie and pulled her hat down over her eyes, cutting off Trixie’s sight. Trixie pulled her hat back up, irritated that her opponent was toying with her.

“Hope you brought sunscreen,” Trixie said, conjuring up a sparking fireball in her hand, “because it’s about to get a bit hot!” Loli found it much harder to dodge the attacks she could actually see coming, mostly because the fireballs expanded after travelling a few feet from Trixie’s hand. Finally, one nailed Loli, sending her flying across the gym and into the wall. “Ha! Trixie warned you not to hold anything back! Maybe now you’d like to demonstrate the special talent of yours that makes you feel so special.”

Loli looked up and winced. That hit most likely scorched her shoulder, but that wasn’t going to stop her. She got up holding her right shoulder… and grinned.

“If you insist,” she said. This time, a pink aura enveloped her. Trixie got into her fighting stance and pulled out her weapon: a black wand with a moon and star keychain at the end. An array of cards appeared once again. But this time, Loli moved first; and she was faster. There wasn’t a streak of pink; it was more like flashes of pink silhouettes appearing and vanishing. Trixie let loose a storm of cards, which were now rigged to explode on contact. She switched back to the flames, but she would soon regret doing so as Loli had finally reached her weapon. She yanked it out of the ground and swung at the air, creating a massive burst of wind that scattered the fireballs and caused the flame to trail back to Trixie, who blacked them by extending a pink energy whip from the tip of the wand and twirling it to create a shield. She lashed out and wrapped the whip around the blade of the weapon. She did not, however, predict Loli would run around her and wrap her in her own weapon. Trixie struggled to untangle herself as Loli approached, dragging her weapon behind her. She made her swing, but the Trixie vanished, fading away like a mirage.

Loli grinned and spotted Trixie behind her, her wand raised over her head with a large, bright pink hammer head shimmering with energy at the tip.

“You’re finished,” she said as she brought down the wand… but abruptly stopped. “W-What?” Trixie struggled to move as she stood there, frozen. Loli stood upright and turned to face her opponent.

“No. You are,” Loli replied with a playful flick to the head.

Sunset was confused. “Why did she stop?” she asked out loud, along with almost every other student… almost.

“Y’know, for s showgirl/stage magician, you pay very little attention to detail,” Loli said.

Sunset still didn’t see it.

“The ground.” Sunset turned and saw Applejack. “Look at the ground,” she said. That’s when Sunset saw it; the black line connecting Loli’s and Trixie’s shadows, which extended as Loli walked away.

“What to do, what to do,” Loli said. “Hmmm… so many possibilities…” As she spoke, the shadows began to extend from the ground like black vines. “Hmmm… Nah.” She cut the connection, causing Trixie to jolt forward from the momentum. “Besides, class is over.” As she spoke, the bell rang, signifying the end of the lesson.

“Great work today, class,” said Iron Will. “Now, remember, unlike your other classes, this class is all about external work; how much effort you put outside school. So I expect to see you all taking a lot of missions if you want any points in my class. DISMISSED!!!”

---

“That was interesting,” Sunset said as she and Harmony changed out for their PE kit. “So that’s what Loli’s ability is.”

“Yep,” said Rainbow. “I can’t remember what she called it, but it allows her to manipulate her shadow and do all kinds of crazy stuff with it.”

“Wow. Not a good enemy.”

“Thing is her shadows can only move so fast on the ground and it takes a bit more focus to control the vine ones,” said Rarity.

Sunset pondered this. She now knew Loli’s ability and some of what it could do. Her thoughts on having Loli as a teammate were slowly being reinforced.

Later that night, Sunset talked to Loli as she got dinner ready. They took turns and Sunset had chosen to take Friday and Saturday. They were both in the kitchen, which was adjoined to the living room. It was well equipped and even had a small T.V. mounted on the wall; the royal sister had spared no expense, and that didn’t seem to be a problem.

“So, was there a particular reason you chose to challenge Trixie?” Sunset asked as she chopped up peppers.

“Well, not really,” Loli replied, sitting on the freezer on the other end of the kitchen, sucking on a lollipop. “Just felt like it. Plus, I saw you hesitate when you put your hand up.”

“So you figured you’d go in my place?”

“Um… well, that wasn’t really my, um… I was just…”

“I’m teasing,” Sunset said, giggling.

“Oh, hehe. Right.” Loli rubbed the back of her head.

“You don’t have to take everything I say so seriously, you know? I’m not always so literal.”

“Well, I’m still getting to know the difference.”

Sunset smiled. Loli seemed nice enough. So why did Roxy seem to have a problem with her?

---

“I think she’s doing rather well,” Rarity said to her friends. The girls sat in their room discussing their friend’s progress. “She seems to have gotten close to Loli. That’s progress.”

“True,” Twilight agreed. “But I think she’s still a bit hesitant. She stopped herself from raising her hand to challenge Trixie.”

“Speaking of which,” Rainbow interjected, “anyone else feel like Trixie ain’t gonna let that slide?”

“Well unless she asks for a rematch, ain’t much she can do, really” said Applejack.

“You kidding, right?” Rainbow said. “Trixie’s got a bigger ego that a cumulonimbus cloud. She’s planning something as we speak.”

“Rainbow, just because Trixie is a peacock on an ego trip doesn’t mean she’s always going to be up to something,” Twilight said. Then she thought about that for a second and remembered what happened during the Battle of the Bands… “On second thought, maybe we should keep our eyes open. Just in case. I certainly don’t want to be locked up under a stage again.”

“Agreed,” they all said in unison.

---

Trixie finally arrived back in her room... well, storming in, anyway. She was carrying several bags, which got Sunset and Loli to deduce she had been on some shopping spree.

“Hey, Trix,” Loli called out. “Dinner’s in the fridge.” Trixie said nothing and stormed into the study opposite the bedrooms. Loli looked at Sunset and said, “You don’t think she’s still mad at me for beating her today, do you?”

“What? Nah,” Sunset replied. Then she thought about it. “But maybe try to keep your distance until this whole thing blows over.”

“Good idea.”

Meanwhile, Trixie could just about make out what they were saying from the study.

“You think this will just blow over?” she said to herself. “No one embarrasses the Great and Powerful Trixie with cheap moves like that and gets away with it. Trixie demands satisfaction!”

Back outside, Loli and Sunset sat by the TV, watching the news.

As of recent, it has been recorded that nyctores attacks have become even more aggressive, some of them going as far as trying to cross town borders. Luckily, the Royal Guard as well as resident mages have been able to keep them out of the towns.

Sunset and Loli watched intently as the network played a recording of Guards armed with assault rifles firing at a Nox Ursa as it tried to cross into a city. Their white armor with gold and blue accents contrasted the extra-dark purple fur of the evil creature.

“Yikes,” Loli said. “And that thing’s just a baby!”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied. “You do not want to see mama bear.”

“Ever wish you took a different path in life?” Loli asked. “Or have you always squeed at the thought of being a battle mage who was assigned to protect her home?”

“Well, I guess at a point all I ever wanted to do was study magic,” Sunset answered. “But as time went on, with timberwolves and nyctores and everything, I think I just decided that maybe I could use what I learned to help people. But…”

“Hm? But what?”

“I guess got a bit carried away at some point.”

“Hey, Sunset? If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to never beat yourself up over bad things you made in the past. I mean we’ve all made some bad choices before… like when I thought that it would be a good idea to prank ten of the richest Espers in Chantalot by dumping a vat of chocolate ice cream on them at a dinner party!”

“Um, I don’t think that’s the same thing as trying to turn your school into your personal zombie army,” Sunset said.

“Trust me, Sunset. I’d rather have that on my head than having to deal with snobby jerks who think that the only way for me to reconcile with them was to be their maid for a week… each!”

“Wait, wha-” Sunset couldn’t finish her statement as she tried, and failed, to keep herself from laughing.

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Laugh it up,” Loli said with a grin.

“Wait, did you actually…”

“Nope. Luckily, Princess Celestia found it hilarious and convinced them to let it slide. She was also really grateful that I didn’t hit her. Plus, the chocolate ice cream went pretty well with the chocolate cake at the party. So in the end, I made the princess happy and made myself happy; it was win-win!”

“Well that’s one way to look at it,” Sunset said with a smile. “Is that when she invited you to the school?”

“Nope. That was a year after I got accepted.”

“Wait, really? Wasn’t that a bit risky?”

“Hey, it was risk and reward. Besides, everyone who isn’t a stuck-up government official knows that Princess Celestia loves a good prank. Personally, I think that if she wasn’t a princess, she’d be the greatest prankster in all Etheria!”

“Because she’s an Omnian Archmage?”

“And because she has an appreciation for it!”

“Well, she certainly doesn’t hide during Nightmare Night.”

“Well I didn’t see her last year.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Really? Well, I wasn’t here for it last year, so I wouldn’t even know. But that is odd.”

“Well, I think it had something to do with her dedicating that night to the return of Princess Luna and not wanting to “steal her spotlight” I guess. I mean after being remembered as Nightmare Moon for so long, it wouldn’t be odd to see people cowering behind Celestia.”

“Fair point.” Sunset herself, despite rough nature at the time, would probably also have cowered at the sight of Princess Luna. Thinking about it, they had quite a bit in common. “Were you scared?”

“Well, she is an Omnian Umbramancer with the power to manipulate gravity, darkness, and dreams. Not to mention that her Nightmare form was both hot and scared the pigtails off me. So yeah, I’d get her autograph, then run and hide in an everything-proof bunker!”

Sunset chuckled, but soon realised something Loli said. “Wait, “get her autograph”?”

“Hello? She’s pretty much the Queen of Nightmare Night, which, BTW, is my favorite holiday ever! Of course I’ve got to show my appreciation!”

“Oh… kay....” Sunset was still confused.

“What?”

“Uh… Nothing.”

“You think I’m weird?” Loli asked with a smile.

“What? No! Just… different from most people.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. Normally people run from the things that go bump in the night. Me? Not so much.”

“Let me guess; you watched too many horror movies as a kid so now nothing scares you.”

“Oh, no. There are still quite a few things that scare me. But I’m generally not afraid of the usual stuff. You know, like spiders and zombies.”

Sunset looked somewhere between absolute confusion and bursting into laughter. Then, a question came to mind. “Hey, do you know Roxy?”

Loli raised an eyebrow. “How can you be in this school and not know Roxy? Wait, did she say something about me?” suddenly, Loli’s expression was one of contained excitement.

“Um… well…” Sunset was wondering how to put it. “She said something about you.”

Loli noticed the hesitation. “Good or bad?”

“Um… I wouldn’t exactly say “bad”, but it wasn’t rea-”

“She said I was a pain in the ass, right?”

“Well, she didn’t use those terms exactly.”

Loli sighed. “Yep. Figured.”

Sunset was worried at how Loli sank back in her chair. “What does she have against you? In my experience, you’re a pretty nice person.”

“Yeah, well…” Loli sighed. “You know how sometimes you want someone you look up to to notice you, so you do something a little bit… overboard?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve had a few of those in my life.” A memory flashed through Sunset’s min; the image of a giant hole in the side of the royal banquet hall!

“Yeah. Turns out I only got one strike with her before striking out.”

“What did you do? Mess up her hair?” Sunset joked. But she stopped smiling when she saw Loli fidgeting. Sunset’s eyes shot open. “No…”

Loli laughed sheepishly. “I know everyone knows never to mess with her hair, but…”

“Jeez. How bad was it?”

Loli gave a sheepish smile. “Well, turns out she’s not so big on fades or mohawks… or anything that requires her to cut her hair lower than a couple inches.”

“You did- How are still alive?!” Sunset said, her surprise growing.

“To be perfectly honest…” Loli answered sheepishly, “I have no idea. Nurse Redheart herself was surprised that all I got was two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a major concussion!”

“Well, now I know I don’t want to see her sour side.”

“No,” Loli said. “No you do not.”

Author's Note:

So, a little bit of character development and relationship building. Sorry it's a bit shorter than expected, but I hope you're enjoying where this is going, because next we're going to see the first major conflict and finally seriously get into the main story. Like, comment, fave, tell your friends, 'cause it's about to get real!

Comments

[DreamRiftSaga]

Hmm..... So Loli is basically a not-as-smart, not-as-cautious, funnier, female Shikamaru Nara?

Also, I feel you should have at least given Trixie more credit on her skills. This may be a bit of a biased thought, considering I absolutely adore Trixie, but every story I read about her makes her seem weak...

[Prince Leviathan]

7254496
Well, she is a little weak in the magic department, but her personality and creativity makes up for it.

-from a fellow Trixie fan