Moving On

by mike50333

No Escape

So you want to know what happened to me since you saw me last, huh? I need to turn in, but I suppose I have a few minutes. I'll tell you now, though, this isn't going to be a happy story. No vanquishing of Ursa Majors, let me tell you. No, this story might make you sad. Really sad. Which, looking at your face, you probably can't afford.

...You still want to know? Well...do you have any depression meds on you? I'm serious when I say this isn't happy. ... Well, I guess it's for me as much as it is for you. This isn't an easy story to tell...

You're not gonna let up, are you? Fine... Well, I guess the best place to start is...well, the place where it all started...

---

Ponyville. It was a small town, simple and quaint. It wasn't a town of great importance to most ponies. It wasn't home to any great industrial companies, nor the focal point of a corporate chain. Not the home of any governmental figures or political prisoners. Nothing had even happened there in the century of its existence that made it worthy of being noted in the classes of Canterlot. Heck, even my hometown of Neigh Orleans, also small but an industrial hub on the Muzzlesippi River holds enough importance to warrant its place on a map, never mind the history books, before that backwater town ever could. The only way anypony would have ever known about Ponyville was when it was announced to be the site of the Summer Sun Celebration two years ago. It was a town that most ponies would never remember.

It should be noted that I am not most ponies.

As I sat in one of the village's secluded alleys, surrounded by cans of filth and discards, the gravity of what had happened over the last few days began to crush me like stony surf.

I assume one would wonder just what would bring me to the events that had transpired. Well, in two words, rage and desperation.

They are funny things, really. They make for wonderful blinders, not for the eyes as much as the mind. They’re almost like narcotics. You’re incapable of rational thought, and more susceptible to the commonalities that foster ignorance. And we all know that ignorance kills. And my depraving thirst to resurrect my career is what kept up the supply of those intelligence-sapping narcotics. What better to help spur stupid decisions than your entire career crashing down on you in an instant like meteorites upon an eloquently and meticulously plowed, planted, and produced farm?

But now, the narcotics were flowing from my system, even as my mind finally cleared out the remnants of the fading influence of the Alicorn Amulet. And as the events of the last few days replayed on my eyes, I realized just how badly I’d screwed up. How utterly, horribly, I’d screwed up.

It was bad enough to have ousted Twilight Sparkle from her home like some archaic knight rambling on about honor, vengeance and conquest, but I’d actually laid siege to the town! I’d enslaved the entirety of Ponyville’s populous! Turned the town into its own small Chrystal Empire, only under the rule of a corrupted, power-hungry queen rather than a wretched and malevolent king!

All that just to outdo Twilight... To prove to her, to myself, to everypony, that I could be as powerful as she was... To get reputation back, my career…

“I just wanted to make Dad proud again…”

Well, I’d done a fine job of that, now hadn’t I? Showed up my rival in a desperate cheating bid, lost all sense of myself – heck, lost all sense! - and wound up not only being found out as a fraud again, but lost to Twilight in a duel where she used my own skills against me! Smokes and mirrors! That’s my shtick! So now, not only was she the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria, she was the best magician in all of Equestria! In one day, my chances of ever recovering my career fell down the drain and drowned the sewers!

I’d fallen on my haunches at this realization, forehead pressed into my legs as I let the tears stream down with my sobs.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen… None of this-”

"The bitch is still here, huh?"

My head jolted up at the voice, and my heart tried to punch itself from my chest as my eyes landed on a small mob of ponies. I tried to count them, even as my panic mounted. Five? Seven? No, there was more than that. A lot more. Looking at the dozens of legs, I could tell there were a few layers of ponies behind the first line which glared at me with the blood-thirsty eyes of rabid griffons.

My eyes twitched to the far fringes of the group, looking for the slightest opening through which I could run, but they were far too narrow. Even if I could pass the first layer, I still had at least two more to pass through, and they simply would close me in like a falling cavern onto a coal miner. No matter what I tried, I would be trapped. Just like I was now. Staring at them with large pleading eyes, tears still streaming, and standing on legs of noodles, I did the only thing I possibly could. The most pitiful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to do.

I begged for my life.

“I’m sorry for what I did. Please- I swear I’ll go, I’ll never come back again, just let me go! Please!”

“Oh, we’ll let you go.” It was a mare’s voice this time. “We just want to give you a parting gift.”

Blue coat, blond mane. Her face wore a ghastly sneer, no trace of sympathy in her eyes. Her voice was full of silky smooth scorn, with the demeanor an alpha dog would have as the head of its pack. Looking again at the faces of the ponies between me and some remote sense of safety, I realized she was the only mare in the entire mob. She stood front-and-center, surrounded by an assortment of stallions of various bodily constitutions, all brandishing some sort of weapon. Mostly they carried improvised blunt-force objects; sticks, bats, stones, pipes, things that were well able to hurt a pony.

I wasn’t a novice to such situations. I’d been ostracized, I’ll remind you, from many a town after that Ursa Minor event. But in those situations, I at least had the opportunity and space to have a little fun with those mobs. I knew I could escape them, and therefore could make my escapades dashing and spectacular. But here and now, I had no opportunities. There was no escape by hoof as the crowd before me was too dense and the brick wall behind me too tall and thick. I didn’t even have the strength to try a teleportation spell; I’d lost most of what little remained of my reserves trying to conjure up lightning at that spectrum-maned pony. Most importantly, back then, they simply wanted to rid me from their towns, the mobs. This mob wanted to hurt me. Badly.

I backed towards the wall, between the trash cans that lined the alley.

“Please, I just want to go,” I begged again, my voice growing hoarse, the quiver of my throat more pronounced.

The mob was getting closer now like a slow-moving avalanche. My breathing grew harder as I searched for something to defend myself. All there were was trash and the canisters that held them. No loose bricks, no sharp sticks, nothing but trash and cans.

Not seeing any other options, I threw my magic around the nearest can, dragged it between myself and the crowd, whirled around and with all my strength, bucked it at the other ponies. I confess I didn’t think it would do much; I’d never been known for having bulging muscles, but the fear that fed my adrenaline must’ve given me a boost of strength because I heard a very startled and pained shriek as the sound of metal impacting flesh rang off the building walls. Not bothering to see who’d I’d hit, I only thought to repeat the performance, and bucked another can. As soon as my rear hooves made contact, I twisted around and started to run, just as the tin container made contact with the crowd.

To my delight, the group was disoriented with my unexpected attack and I grasped urgently at my only chance to break free. I bounded up over the heads of the mob and with practiced athleticism, bounced off of their backs to the other side of the fleshy wall.

My hooves pummeled the ground as I bounded out of the alley and into the street. Breath rushed out of my lungs, only to be yanked back in as ponies blurred past my vision. As shouts and expletives chased me down, I held on to one chant: Just keep moving! Just keep moving! Darting onto what looked like a main street, my mind was racing. I needed a place I could hide, somewhere none of these ponies would dare bother to follow. But where in the wide world of Equestria could I possibly-

It was then, of all the times it possibly could have happened, that I remembered Twilight's narrowly successful bluff that led to that dreadful second duel. Her discovery of my own ruse, the introduction of her doorstop of an 'amulet', her supposedly finding it in the Everfree For-

Of course, the Everfree Forest! The ponies of Ponyville were positively petrified of that perilous timberland! I too held fright of it after I first left the town. Between the fact that it stretched on into eternity, that Celestia's sun could never hope to penetrate it's black umbrella of a canopy, and the fact that it was filled to the brim with monsters, it's a miracle I made it out the first time. As much as this town wished me dead, I knew if I could just get to that forest, they’d leave me be. They’d sooner have me to rot in there than risk their lives for a petty beating frenzy.

With my plan now in place, I just needed a clear path out of town. How fortunate that I had indeed landed on the main thorough-way of Ponyville. This could work. The town pavilion was on this street. It was risky, but if I could muster just enough power to teleport to the roof, I could get a good clear look at the streets and plot out my escape. From there, it'd be simple luck as to whether a door would smack me in the face or not as I rushed down the side-streets.

It was astonishing just how empty the street was. The closer I got to the pavilion, the fewer the cries of fear and disgust that rang from the colorful blurs became. I was actually feeling good about my chances. That is, until I drew close enough to the pavilion to see the base of the structure. Standing at the front door was a group of ponies. A very familiar looking group of ponies that I definitely could not afford to run into! I skid to a stop and glanced at the streets at my sides. I heard a low growing rumble then; the mob was right on my heels. Seeing the right street was a dead-end, I bolted for the left. I groaned at my worsening luck; this was taking me far out of my way to reaching that pavilion, but then again I had a better chance of losing the mob this way. And if I could reach the rear of the building, I could teleport undetected.

I ducked down street after street, mentally mapping the turns, the length of my strides, trying keep relative track of my position as I beat my long trail towards the tower. The sounds of the mob faded off after another six-or-so turns, and I decided to make a straight path back to the town center before I got lost. Three turns later, my mental mapping skills proved invaluable. A smile burst on my face when my eyes landed on the top landing of the building. With the image locked in my mind, I shut my eyes mid-gallop and poured the remains of my concentration into making the jump. I could feel the heat in my horn increase and my body began to tingle, my very molecules preparing for dematerialization. But even with the image of that landing in sitting on my eyes, I couldn't seem to make the connection. I begged for the spell to work, pleaded with my reserves to gain a small surge, but I knew it was of no use. Making the connection between the two points took up just as much power as did the dematerialization/rematerialzation of one's molecules. The spell has a sort of safety-lock that prevents its execution when the bridge isn't firmly established; were it not for that lock, I'd likely have found myself transported in any random point on the-

...Sorry, kinda went on a tangent, there...

So needless to say, the spell didn't work and I was in a panic. I had to immediately switch to plan B, being, of course, to run through the streets blind and pray that Celestia would have enough mercy on me to not let me get caught. That's when I opened my eyes and turned back onto the main street. And that's when my head-long charge was met with an errantly parked cart. The explosion of wood deafened me as my horn throbbed with agony from the hard crash. Stars danced on the sheet of black that covered my eyes. Not forgetting the reason for my surging run, I stumbled to my feet. And just as quickly had I arisen, my hopes fell with my body as I hit the ground again, forced back down onto my haunches by the hoof of a stallion. I strained against the pressure, willing myself to rise, to run, to escape, but my will couldn’t circumvent the pony that held me down. After a time, I would rise again, but not of my own volition. The burning in my horn spread to my scalp as my mane was yanked toward the sky.

"Gotcha, bitch."

I pleaded for him to let me go, but he would not. Instead, he twirled me around, my rear hooves which still touched the dirt road forced to follow suit.

My eyes took in a blur of color as I was spun around, knowing that I was surrounded now in a ring of death. When the spinning stopped, my eyes locked onto the pony who stepped forward from the ring. It was that same blue mare from before, now sporting a lovely bruise just below her horn. Normally I would’ve given her a lovely complement on her new look.

Normally, I wouldn’t have been held hostage in the middle of a riot, about to be clubbed to death.

“Gee, you’re a slippery little shark, aren’t you?” she remarked with burning sapphire eyes.

“If I were a shark, my mane would be grating your thug’s tongue, right now,” I replied, trying to reclaim some form of witty tenacity. I don’t think I did a good job by the way she smirked at me. My trembling voice probably didn’t help much.

“I guess you’re right. You’re more of a squid. Always causing a fuss before you spurt your ink and escape. But we’ve got you netted up nice and tight. And your ink isn’t going to save you.”

“Please, I didn’t mean to do any of this, I just wanted-”

“Save it! Rodolfo, drop her!”

The maw that held me up unclenched its teeth and I fell onto my haunches. The ponies closed in, weapons branded, some in their mouths and some with magic. All with the intent to make me suffer.

“Why are you doing this?!” I cried, tears pouring from my eyes. “I never hurt anyone! I just-”

“Evicted one of our most precious residents and trapped us in a dome! Lorded over us like some horrid queen, demanding of us unrelenting servitude to you and your images! You’d hoped to use your powers- which weren’t even yours – to try and take over all of Equestria! You think we’re going to just let the likes of you just waltz off and cause suffering to another town?!”

The faces of the others only hardened with her words, stalking closer still.

At that point, all I could do was bury my head beneath my hooves and cry. As the blows poured down like a torrent of rain, my crying turned to agonized wailing. They started with my back and my head, several of the hits smashing into my horn. I twisted and writhed, trying vainly to protect the appendage from their assault, but it was no use. My very brain burned with fire and as I tried to shield my head with my fore-legs, they too received a battering.

When it took too long for me to die or black out, I opted, admittedly far too late, to try and fight back. My writhing turned to punches and kicks as I fought back against the stallions. And I am proud to say that I managed a few blows. One punch on a unicorn landed on his horn and he shouted in the same agony that I’d felt, prompting him to drop his pipe. Another suffered from lost teeth when I bucked his jaw. But when I tried to punch at a third stallion, my miss was to be dearly paid for. Not only did the blow fail to connect, but before I could yank it back, I was hit with the pipe that first pony had dropped. I screamed as fire shot up to my shoulder, and I only wailed harder when I tried to stand on it, instead collapsing onto the dirt again in full-bodied agony.

The agony wouldn’t let up as the blows came down again, hitting even harder now since my show of resistance. I was starting to fade when I head some more voices. They sounded frantic for some reason, aggressive… Reprimanding? A couple stallions yelped and cried out as the blows finally stopped coming, but it was too late. I was falling into the black, though whether I was dying or just fainting, I couldn’t hope to know. I was able grab ahold of the walls lining the abyss that I was plummeting down, and managed to claw my way up a few strides. Just enough to see the face of a purple pony down in front of my own. I couldn’t hear her, though, the world sounded like it was a mile away. I lost my grip again and plummeted just as two words hissed from between my lips.

“…I'm sorry...”

Author's Note:

Wow. Almost one-and-a-half years since I posted my first pony story. How things have changed. A whole new season's come and gone, and our favorite little egghead has ascended to royalty eternal (at least until she finds a protege who will eventually succeed her). Of course, prior to said ascension, we, the fans, as well as the Ponyvillians themselves, got a lovely (I use that word subjectively, of course) redux of an oldie-but-goodie. Our beloved showmare, the Great and Powerful Trixie. Storming into town with cape and amulet in tow, she ousted our beloved purple unicorn and ruled the little village with an iron fist! But our great heroes found the source of Trixie's great power and with this critical knowledge, helped Twilight outmaneuver Trixie, force her to remove the amulet, and saved Ponyville from a thousand years of eventually depleted oxygen! ... Okay, maybe not, I mean they DID have vegetation in there, and since the pegasi controlled the weather, there'd be no winter... Oh, whatever! Cue the Dramatic Chimpmunk music!

Anyway, all that happened, and how does the episode end? With a far-too-well-delivered apology by Trixie, and some well-earned snark-laden forgiveness by Twilight (by the way, am I the only one who thought Twilight thoroughly enjoyed using Trixie's style of bragadocious snarkiness during the second-half? I think it was well earned, not to mention hilarious). Now don't get me wrong, I know the creators were pressed for time, but come on! At least throw in some stuttering! So birthed this, my own attempt to try and give the episode the ending that it deserves (granted, while doing so in a fashion that would never actually be shown in-show.) And after about three months of the first paragraph after the line-break being the only thing i had typed, I finally got the chapter done yesterday morning/afternoon (April 25th).

Just as a heads up, in case you didn't see it in the story description, there will be a continuation of sorts after this. I'm treating this short story as a sequel to another story that I'm currently planning. I'm still in the beginning stages thereof, but I'll drop some hints on where all of this is going as I post later chapters. Also, fun-fact: a lot of the exposition that I came up with for Trixie didn't even arise in my planning for this story...which I can hardly even say I planned; the closest to planning that I'd come to with this piece is making a decision on what title to use and the synopsis, which I must've revised bits and pieces of five-times before the story passed moderation on this site... Dammit, went on a tangent again! Anyway, the exposition on Trixie's past-life actually came about during my planning for the first act of the story that will come immediately after this one: Demons Flee Beneath Their Wings. Early spoiler, it stars Trixie and Rainbow Dash. Also, both have wings.

I'll let that sit and simmer for a few minutes...

Anywho, I've dragged this A/N out long enough. I should have the next chapter out by Thursday. Or next week. Or July. We'll see.

Oh, and please, please leave your thoughts and critiques (preferably critiques that go past a few mere sentences) below, I absolutely thrive on them.

Grace and Peace, and Happy Writing.

Comments

[Coalsmane]

Have you ever vistsed the Trixie Supremecy group on Deviantart? http://trixiesupremacy.deviantart.com/

[Pyro The Reader]

Oh boy, Trixie getting beaten, it's already a great story. Course that could be because I have utterly no sympathy for her. To each their own I suppose.

[mike50333]

I've seen it off-and-on as I searched for epic Trixie art. I'll be sure to give it a closer look this week. When I finish my fiction, here, maybe I'll post it there, too.

SPeakin of fiction, what are your thoughts on this, the first chapter? Personally, aesthetically, I think I could have lengthened the chase and fight scenes...

[Mike the Red]

Curious to see where this goes. Looks promising.

[Dleifragcat]

Quite interesting indeed... continue my good sir!
Aesthetically, I enjoyed the writing and the story itself starts out with the usual 'Can Trixie redeem herself? Oh look, an angry mob' but you've made it much more than that, at least for the 1st chapter. Action scenes are usually short, especially if it's a 1 vs mob situation and in some cases there's a for the writer to make it powerful and short on emphasis compared to having a long scene drag out, but with the chance to implement more stuff in it with their own important scenes.
Writing Science: you always have choices.
I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to this story.

[interested1]

i thought that the short fight with the mob was because that is how fights usually go when your alone and fighting a mob.
very short and one sided.
enjoyed the story very much.

[mike50333]

2477673 Hmm. Well, I suppose you'll enjoy the next chapter a good fit. As I have inserted into the beginning of this chapter, this isn't exactly a happy story. If anything, it'll be bitter sweet.

...Curses, now you know too much...

...And now you must make cupcakes with me...

2479039 I have to agree with you on the issue of the mob, I reckon not much can be done to make it more realistic than it already is (which is a big plus in my book! I'm learnin', maw!!! ) I did find the chase to be a bit lacking, though, and have added a little to it. I also modded the beginning a bit to give it that storytelling feel. If it looks odd to you or anyone else now, I assure you, it'll make sense by the end of this story.

Also, how can you people leave me hanging with the punctuation errors like this?! Shame on you all!

Edit 4/25/13: I'm sorry, but there has been yet another round of changes (Jesus, I should wait a week before posting each finished chapter at this rate)! I'm not saying what, where, or when, but I dropped a piece of exposition in a tad too early. It has thus been removed and will be dropped in its proper place later in the story. Also, when I said in the Author's Notes that the 'story' had been finished yesterday morning, I meant the chapter had been finished (though with all the edits I seem to have had to make sense it passed publication, that obviously was a lie). I'm yet working on the story-proper. Will begin writing out the second chapter tonight. May have it finished by Saturday Afternoon...

Don't make edits when you've first woken up in the morning unless you've had your coffee, people.

[Golden Parchment]