Ponies and Power Armour

by Camolot the Creator

I: Trixie and Luck

As Trixie stepped out the door of the small shop, a new weight around her neck, she smiled to herself. Every moment since running away from Ponyville, humiliated and alone, spent planning this moment, all the hours of research and searching she'd done, every bit of meditation and magical exploration she'd done... it had born fruits, and what fruits were they!

The Alicorn Amulet hung in a package from a strap 'round her neck. She could feel the power, the potential, thrumming just under her coat- she wanted to wield it, to use it against any who would oppose her... but, ah, she was getting a little ahead of herself, wasn't she? Still, she allowed herself to bask in the warmth of power for a few moments longer. After all, she'd earned this through actual hard work, no reason not to enjoy the feeling.

She almost meditated, there, reflecting inward on the flow of the power coursing through her, just about at peace. She hadn't imagined it feeling like this, but she was so very glad that it did feel wonderful. She wondered, somewhere, whether Twilight Sparkle- a spark of anger there- felt this way all the time. Well, maybe she'd ask, after she'd finally defeated Sparkle and felt better about everything. Ponyville was something of a hick town, but not necessarily a bad place... hm.

Trixie frowned. The spark of anger had been there, to be certain, but it was this emotion that truly made a mark in her current mental state. Certainly, she had the power to take revenge now, with the Alicorn Amulet securely fastened 'round her neck and the will to use that power to do something grand, but... what would she do after that? Conquer Ponyville and rule as a tyrant? She frowned again, pushing that peculiar little thought away- megalomania was all well and good when it was a stage act, but her travels had put her in a position to very clearly see what happened to megalomaniacs who thought they could take chunks of Celestia's territory. She'd made a profitable business out of selling the perpetually glowing ashes as nightlights or interesting decorations.

So, then, what to do? She had the power in hand, now, but she very highly doubted it would make her much more than a small bump in the road. After all, despite how much the sun princess liked to play pretend for her little ponies, Trixie knew very well that Equestria had mysteriously had zero attacks and enemies in a thousand years of her rule. She'd found that little tidbit out while researching Twilight, what little she could find, and the fact that Twilight was Celestia's personal student... on one hand, she was now very confident that she'd end up as a collection of those little vials of glowing ash, hocked to tourists and townsponies alike. On the other, she actually felt a little better that the pony that had managed to best her was the personal student of the immortal physical goddess that ruled the country. Soothed her ego a little, that did.

On... further review... perhaps her idea to get revenge on said student wasn't the best of ideas. Oh, certainly, she'd put all this time into earning the bits needed to overcome the hesitation of the shopkeeper and purchase the thing outright without any argument or the usual exchange of ID and detailed background check that accompanied the purchase of most magical artifacts, but now she had doubts. Chiefly, she wondered if it was all that smart to tee off the biggest name out there besides Princess Luna- oh, and that was another wrinkle! Luna would most likely be following right in her sister's wake, and what hints Trixie could find about her in the history books were... not comforting. Not in the slightest.

Other ponies adored and revered Celestia for being a shining beacon of kindness and warmth. Trixie thought other ponies were idiots.

So. On further review, her original plan didn't exactly seem like it would pan out- read, leave only smoldering ashes behind. That was fine. Trixie was creative, and now she was more powerful than a small herd of unicorns, so she was decently confident that she'd think of something. In the meantime... she was getting wet. She'd planned this to coincide with a rainstorm for... dramatic effect? She didn't quite recall, she'd been in the throes of a marvelously brilliant bout of thinking, and she'd known where the amulet was for a couple of weeks beforehand, so it had been relatively easy to plan the entire thing on a day it was scheduled to rain. In the aftermath, she'd just gone with it because, well, why not?

Now... well, here she was. She had the amulet. What in Tartarus was she going to do with it that wasn't going to get her killed?

Grimacing under her hood, Trixie shuffled across the street and to a small porch with an overhanging eave, attached to a Canterlot branch of the Quills and Sofas store. At least here it was dry, and she lowered her hood with relief, then made a disgusted face at her mud-caked hooves. Even in the cobblestone streets of the city, it still managed to soak through the cracks in just the right places to coat an unlucky mare's feet. And Trixie's luck was debatable at best, given the entire 'Ponyville' incident.

She gave a sigh, deciding that she couldn't exactly do anything about that right now, and sat down on the wooden floor of the porch, staring out at the rain. She could feel the magical energy flowing from the amulet from here, and she knew what it could do for her, but... she shivered. It really wasn't worth it. But...

Her look turned contemplative as she began turning over her options. Certainly, she couldn't take her revenge on Twilight as she'd planned, at least not without pretty severely lethal repercussions... but, then again, there were more things that the power of the amulet could get her than revenge. It would make her one of the most powerful unicorns in the world on merit of raw strength alone, and that was phenomenally useful no matter the case. How much would someone be willing to pay to have that much power shoring up their magical strength? How much would nations pay her to throw that strength behind defenses and spells?

A grin spread across her muzzle as she considered this. Yes, with the power of the amulet behind her and her knowledge of magic, limited though it was, she could live as a queen! Oh, certainly, a lot of it would be trial-and-error mixed with brute force when things refused to work, but it would all work out, she was sure. The issue was moving far enough from Equestria that the laws of the land would interfere. Military contractors required pretty severe background checks, after all, and they'd certainly want to deprive her of such a strong magical artifacte for use by someone more qualified- by their standards, that was. Trixie was plenty qualified.

She rubbed her hooves together and breathed on them for warmth. So, moving that far, that quickly... she'd have to take an airship. She frowned again; no, then customs would take issue with her taking a powerful magical artifacte out of Equestria without the proper documentation triple-filed and checked by thirty bureaucrat's grandmothers. So, what then?

Trixie had never learned to teleport. She'd left Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns far too early for that, and even then, only a fraction of the graduating class learned the spell matrices necessary to pull off a short-range hop, let alone a longer one. This didn't trouble her all that much, she knew that it was possible to brute-force a teleport without etching the proper matrices into the vita navitas; after all, unicorn foals were known to pull off short range jumps during magic surges. However, a longer one would be far more risky, especially if she was aiming across continents. Despite this, Trixie was confident that the sheer strength the amulet would gift her could overcome this gap in knowledge and allow her to pop over to, say, Griffonia, where she could be rolling in the bits!

She smiled to herself, wide and perhaps slightly evil, as she rubbed her hooves together. Yes, that would be a far better and more satisfying revenge, to come back a mare rich and powerful beyond measure. Perhaps she would even parade her achievements in front of Twilight Sparkle, fix up some structures in that hick town and plaster Trixie's own name across them in large letters- oh, wouldn't that just be the sweetest of treats? And thus, she was set on her course.

She slipped the chain of the amulet over her head, letting it settle around her neck. She waited a moment, then...

Her head drifted backwards, something nearly resembling a moan escaping her throat. The sheer power thrumming through her veins was... well, nothing short of intoxicating. In that moment, she felt she could do anything, crash through any barrier, climb to the highest peak with but a spell. So enamored was she with this new-found power that she put all her strength at once into a teleport... and blinked out of existence, leaving naught but a rainy night and a slightly damp section of wooden porch.

The first hint that something wrong was searing pain throughout the entirety of her being. Such was its strength that she didn't even cry out, only stumbled mentally from the sheer overwhelming punch that was this sudden agony. She couldn't even scream, her lips locked together, all muscles tight as steel cords. She felt sick, like something was terribly wrong with her, but she couldn't figure out what... blearily, she hitched her head up with a fair amount of difficulty.

Everything around her was crimson, soaked in a bright red fluid that coated her hooves, the cracked ground beneath them, even extending to what looked like dilapidated shopfronts. Bits of... stuff, slightly charred and smoking, were scattered throughout the area, and the air smelled like a Griffon-catering diner.

In front of her was a figure that almost looked like a minotaur, but clad in rusted metal armour. The figure appeared to have been forced to the ground just before... whatever had happened, given that the armour was pretty badly rent and messed up by what looked like claws, and it was holding up an arm for protection. It seemed to be staring at her in consternation or shock, but she couldn't tell through the black glass visor.

She would have observed more, thought about what was happening, but at this point she jerked her head down and was sick all over the ground in front of her. She stared at the mess in disgust for the briefest moment, then the entire world tilted sideways and went black.

Author's Note:

Welcome to my attempt to introduce Trixie and fix the travesty that is the writing of Fallout 4! I've got extremely detailed plans of exactly what I want to do... but you'll just have to wait and see, eh?

Comments

[FridayPie]

Did she telefrag the plot deathclaw?

[Camolot the Creator]

9405848
Yes.
Yes she did.
no regrets