Genetic Dead End

by peacevic

Chapter 5

Genetic Dead End ch. 5

Trixie had never found herself in a full-fledged chase.

This lack of experience was really taking its toll on her at the moment, as she desperately tried to keep up with Twilight and Peacevic. Any embarrassment the magician would have felt from the knowledge that the bookworm was physically outclassing her had been asphyxiated some time ago, and she wasn't faring much better. She gasped out, "Who is that? Who are we chasing?!"

"Her name is Magdha," Twilight replied, her voice grim. "But I don't understand how she can still be alive. My brother shot a beam straight through her lung!"

"It doesn't matter how, just keep running!"

Trixie wouldn't declare herself to be Peacevic's best friend, but they'd known each other for a few years now- mostly crossing paths at various industry events. And yet, in all that time, she'd never seen him this... angry. She'd have to be completely inept to not realize the fact that the rapper had been hiding something from her all this time, something that involved this mysterious Magdha.

Said pony must have tired of being chased, because at that moment twin spirals of magic popped into being on either side of the fleeing figure and two corpses lunged out of the apparent portals. Peacevic and Twilight had said they were facing a necromancer, but the title was little more than a word to Trixie then. She hadn't been able to wrap her head around what it meant, not until she saw the zombie ponies.

Trixie loved her talent, and loved being able to entertain with it. The thought of magic being twisted like that...

"Blow past them!" Peacevic shouted, snapping her back into focus.

Her nausea tamped down some, Trixie quickly realized something Twilight and Peacevic already knew- namely that shambling undead horrors weren't exactly agile. The three of them were able to easily dodge the clumsy grabbing attempts of the zombies. Trixie grinned in exhilaration and called out to their summoner, "You'll have to do much better than that to get rid of Trixie!"

Magdha skidded to a halt and whirled around. Trixie, Twilight, and Peacevic stopped as well. None of them liked the smirk visible beneath her hood.

Another portal blazed open, far larger and more brilliant than the other two. Slowly, another pony emerged. This one lacked any sign of decay, seeming indeed to be an average earth pony instead of an undead monstrosity.

And he was painfully familiar.

"Dad..." Trixie gasped.

Twilight's eyes widened. She looked from the retreating Magdha, to the stunned Trixie, and finally to the newly-resurrected Lulamoon the Magnificent. Then the princess' horn lit up.

Trixie didn't realize Twilight's magic was wrapping around her until she felt it lift her up and set her back down in a sitting position. When she opened her mouth to ask why, Twilight simply said, "You need this."

As one Twilight and Peacevic dashed past Lulamoon, who nonchalantly examined his hoof instead of moving to stop them. Once they were gone, Lulamoon strode towards his daughter.

"D-Dad... I..."

He shushed her, and gently touched a hoof to her horn. The contact brought an unexpected shock, causing Trixie to recoil from the pain.

"Ah, there we are," Lulamoon said with a crack of his neck. "Sorry about that, but that necromancer laid some sort of compulsion on me. Would've made me say all sorts of things to hurt you, like psychological warfare." He shrugged. "You'd be surprised at all the neat little tricks you can learn when you die. I just borrowed some of your magic and broke the spell. Always remember, Trixie, that no matter what the living may think, the dead are the only true masters of the dead. Especially when the dead pony is as brilliant as I-"

He shut up as Trixie threw her forelegs around him, sobbing. "D-Daddy!"

"Come now, my dear, it hasn't been that long since we last saw each other." Despite his words, Lulamoon didn't try to pull away.

"I've missed you so much..."

"I've missed you too, Trixie." After another few moments, far too soon for Trixie's liking, Lulamoon disengaged from the hug. He looked around. "So, where are we?"

Trixie suddenly realized, to her surprise, she had followed the hooded necromancer out of the town proper. The only hint of the village were a few of the taller buildings, just barely visible behind a rise. "We're in Ponyville, Dad. Or close to it, rather."

"Ponyville? What are you doing in a place like that?"

"I... I found my sister."

Lulamoon's face fell. "Oh. You, uh... you know about that, huh?"

"I know about Detrot, too." The dead pony said nothing. For a while, neither of them did. Then Trixie continued, "You left them. You left her."

"Yeah," Lulamoon affirmed.

"Why? You were so great to me, and then I find out you just abandoned your wife?! Abandoned your unborn filly?! Why?! Why does it seem like you had two different personalities?"

"Why do you?" Lulamoon countered. "Even before I died, you would only refer to yourself in the third person around anypony who wasn't me."

"Because... Because that's what the crowd expects. The pride, the mystique. That's the image they have of a magician, and I have to live up to it."

Lulamoon nodded. "That's how it was with me, in a way. You only ever saw the pony I wished I could be. The pony I hoped I would one day become. Until you figured out what I did to your mom. Then I was worthless all the time."

"You're not worthless, dummy. Not to me." Trixie sniffled.

"But I am worthless, Trixie! What I did to Ingenue, to your mom." He pointed toward Ponyville. "To the mare from this town. We have a filly together, and I can't even remember her name!"

"Her name's Applejack," Trixie told him. "My sister's called Apple Bloom, and she's amazing! I've never seen anypony try as hard at anything as she does. She's kind, and honest, and forgiving."

Lulamoon chuckled ruefully. "Then I guess it's a good thing she never met me, I would've just ruined her."

"You don't think you've ruined me, do you?" Trixie demanded.

"No! You're the best daughter I could ever have hoped for, and a better pony than I ever was. You're so smart, and skilled at magic. Teaching you was so easy." He smirked and finished with, "Not to mention you would always drive the colts wild when we rolled into town..."

Trixie blushed. "Dad!"

"I can't help it- I'm your father, I'm supposed to embarrass you. Even when there's nopony around."

It took a while, but eventually Trixie recovered. Once she did, she quoted, "The worth of a pony is the legacy they leave behind."

"See what I mean when I say you were easy to teach? You've never had a problem remembering what I told you," Lulamoon said. Then he frowned. "I do hope you're not still following that, though. Turns out a pony's reputation in life doesn't mean all that much. You can't throw a rock in the afterlife without it hitting a pony who was 'the greatest of their era'. Don't poison your life adhering to one of my ego trips."

"Dad, you idiot, you don't get it. 'The Magnificent' isn't your legacy, I am. Apple Bloom is. You may have done some awful things, but we turned out okay. Kind of. So... maybe you're not so worthless. Right?"

Lulamoon sighed. "I don't know, Trixie. I wish I could agree. Maybe I will, one day. After all, I've got a long time to mull it over. But with what I've done..."

"About that," Trixie pushed. "I asked you 'why', and you kind of answered, but mostly just deflected my question. Just like you always used to. Well, that's not going to happen today." She stomped in irritation. "You're going to explain what drove you to act the way you did. You're not evil, Dad. After seeing that necromancer, I can say that for sure. So, why?!"

"I was pretty evasive, wasn't I? Sorry. Old habits are hard to break. I'm just not one for talking about my feelings. I guess..." He trailed off and slowly turned towards the town, his eyes dampening.

Worried, Trixie asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"It seems like we're out of time. You should go, your friends might need your help," he replied, an easy smile replacing his previous expression. Trixie had seen it before, as it was his default reaction for when life chose to be ironic.

That fact didn't make it any less exasperating. "But- I-"

"Before you go, there's one last thing you should know."