The Stars Will Guide Her
"Honey, I'm home!" Trixie opened the door of the rusting trailer that was her home. "Oh, Trixie forgot, she has no pony."
She tossed her saddlebags to a side, and then threw herself over the chariot's backseat she rescued from the scrapyard to use as a couch. The inside of the trailer was like that; a collection of makeshift furniture, made out of collected pieces that ended up among the hills of iron and rust. This was Trixie's life. She would usually tell herself it was only temporary, that anytime soon, something would come and she would get back on her hooves. However, after six months receiving, disarming and guarding dozens of tons of metal in various states of wear, Trixie's hopes were vanishing with each day. She got up from her 'couch' and outside the trailer to do the one thing she liked from her new life; gaze into the stars.
Trixie climbed the side of her trailer, to have a better look. There she had a beach chair and what was left of a telescope, she still needed to find a clean mirror to cut to make it work. It wasn't always like this. Trixie once was a star too. Nothing really that big, but as a traveling magician, she was acclaimed and loved by everypony around her, or at least by a vocal majority. Trixie used to love that, to bask in the cheering of the crowds. But that same fame that used to drive her in life, also was her downfall. There was a moment when Trixie thought so highly of herself that the sole idea of someone not praising her was infuriating. At the end of the road, she finally managed to let the worst of her go out and that one moment of weakness cost her all her life.
Trixie considered going back to Opal City, the city where she was born and raised. Where her mother and sister lived. But when Trixie took the path of the traveling magician, she promised she would only come back as a success. But by when she actually reached that success she always dreamed with, Trixie was intoxicated by it. Her life was too perfect to look back. And then, the downfall. Trixie's first idea was to come back to her family, but that same pride that made her forget her family became shame. Trixie was afraid that she only remembered her family because she needed them, and she feared her mother and sister would think the same. At the end of the day, she wrote one good letter to apologize for being apart for too long, and once again started to promise she would come back to visit. That was when she first came to Manehattan, a couple of days after finding the job at the scrapyard.
A month after that, a response from Trixie's darkest nightmares appeared at her door.
Dear Trixie:
It's a good thing to hear from you again. When the letter came, mom almost lost it, I never saw the old mare so happy. I wanted to send this letter to you for some days now, but I'm afraid something happened. Mom had a heart malfunction some days before your letter came. In fact, I believe the one thing keeping her alive was thinking of seeing you again. Don't be sad, she died at night, sleeping, happy for you. The services will be three days after I send this letter. I hope you can make it by then.
Sincerely, your sister.
Gimmix
The moment she read the letter, Trixie readied herself for the trip. She used all her savings for that one ticket to Opal City, to pay her last respect to the pony that gave her everything and she forgot. But when Trixie made it to the city, there was no one at the cemetery. Opal wasn't that big of a city, so there was only one church where she could really ask. Trixie broke down when the priestess told her that Hope Pearlshine Lulamoon's funeral was two days prior. After that, Trixie went alone in the night to visit her mother's tomb, left a rose of glass she conjured by herself, and went back to Manehattan. She thought of visiting Gimmix, but she just didn't dare to show her face at her old home, and she figured out her sister would do better without the load of Trixie's troubled life. When she got home, there was a closed briefcase with a note with her sister's writing. Trixie feared her sister's spite, so she never read the letter. As for the briefcase, she figured it was her cut of the heritage, but she felt unworthy of it, so she left it in a corner to never be opened.
Trixie shook her head, trying to drive away all those feelings. Gimmix was probably living a better life by herself, and Trixie was on her way to get her own back, she just needed to focus. Last week she cut a deal with an old shop owner. He was one of those old collectors of curiosities with a shop filled to the ceiling with dated magazines and mementos from old music concerts, and was about to retire. If Trixie could manage to gather a thousand bits by the end of the month, he would sell her the shop and everything inside it. It wasn't the big breakout she would like, but it topped over the scrapyard by a lot. Trixie sighed, thinking on the many jobs she would need to take in order to earn the money.
"Lulamoon, show yourself!" A shout in the dark brought Trixie back from her thoughts. She looked into the direction of the shout, seeing the most bizarre group of ponies she could ever imagine.
The first one to call her attention was a pony covered in fire, who walked normally, not minding the flames over his, or her, skin. When they got closer, Trixie managed to make the image of a black skeleton under the flames. Next to the igneous pony, walked the imposing figure of a giant diamond dog, entirely white, covered by a tattered black jacket and a almost destroyed fedora hat. To the other side, there was a very thin and tall mare. With a black top hat over her head, she looked like an enlarged shadow, an image helped by the mare's black coat and dark blue mane. She had her eyes hidden behind shades, despite being nighttime. Leading them, was a noticeably old stallion, who was probably smoking a lot since he was covered by a small smoke screen. Still, his old-looking features were visible over his cream coat and gray hair. The parade of freaks stopped right in front of the rusted trailer, as Trixie pressed herself in the upper side, expecting they wouldn't notice her.
"Trixie Silverlight Lulamoon," the old stallion called. "We know you live here, show yourself." Trixie's heart beat against her chest like a scared animal, which, coincidentally, was how she felt too.
"I don't think she's around," the burning pony said in an spectral voice.
"Oh, she is, my good doctor, she is definitely around." Trixie stopped breathing. "And I know how to get her out." He looked back the the dark tall mare. "Shade, dear, could you?"
The mare nodded and looked up, at where Trixie was hiding. Trixie didn't see what the mare name Shade did, and she never had the time to guess as she got lifted in the air by a claw made out of the shadows around her. The claw then tossed her at the old stallion's hooves, making her let a scream of pain as she hit the floor and the claw dissipated. The freaks laughed.
"So," the old stallion said in almost a monotone, while looking down at Trixie. "This is Hope's last bit on this earth." She noticed the smoke around him was still thick as he looked back and did a gesture to his companions. They surrounded Trixie, who was still trying to get up, despite the pain. "Don't bother, little one, you won't last too much standing." He knelt down at Trixie's eye level, making her see his pale irises. "You know who I am?" Her only response was a glare at his ghostly face. "I'm the Mist, surely your old mare had a couple of stories about me." Trixie didn't say a word. "Well, I will be, the old witch didn't even mentioned me."
"Trixie has no idea on who you are?" She finally got up, trying to sound secure, but her nerves betraying her voice.
"Listen up girl, because this may be the last thing you will ever hear." He pointed a hoof at the pony that looked like a skeleton on fire. Trixie tried to not look directly at him. "That one there, is Doctor Phosphorus. Your mom designed the cage where he spent ten years locked." Phosphorus passed his hoof around his neck. The gesture was turned up to eleven by his skeleton-like look.
"Trixie is listening," she tried to play the bravado again. "Trixie would also rather not have your friend there leaving cinders all over the place."
"You have some guts, girl, I will concede you that." Mist replied, still keeping his calm tone. "But if you ever interrupt me again, I will end the formalities here along with you life." Trixie looked at him, locking eyes for a moment. She expected to find the marks of a pony who was lying, but to her horror, Mist's ones never gave away anything. Trixie looked away, silent. "Good girl," Mist said. "Now, where was I? Oh, right, good old Solomon Grundy here." The giant diamond dog grunted. "Your mother locked him up too, by collapsing a cave over him. Twenty years, at least." Grundy grunted again, this time showing its fangs. Trixie was still on the floor, intimidated by the freaks, but also trying to figure out what was going on. "Then we have the Spyder."
"Yo," said a mare Trixie didn't saw until then. She noticed it was a turquoise pegasus with a golden mane and tail. She was wearing a red and white bowling shirt and shades. Trixie also saw the black quiver over her back.
"Spyder here is the only one who doesn't know Hope like we do." The Mist spoke again. "But her mother knew her quite well, as your mother personally got her arrested over, and over, and over again." Spider drawn a bow and pointed an imaginary arrow at Trixie. She smirked at the note that sounded when she let the string go. "And finally, there's Shade." The black mare tipped her hat. "And me. We all have some unsettled business with Hope Lulamoon that I wish to settle tonight."
"Trixie doesn't expect it can be solved with diplomacy?" Mist looked at the stars over them, as if remembering something. Seeing an opportunity, Trixie looked at the freaks around her, trying to find an escape route. The only one available was a pony-wide space right behind her, between the burning pony and the giant diamond dog. Yeah, Trixie's options were limited.
"No, it can't," Mist answered as he lowered his gaze over Trixie. "Shade?"
The tall mare tipped her hat again, raising a hoof. something rose from the shadow under her. Something shapeless and black. Trixie's ear twitched as Shade put a hoof inside the mass of shadows. With a quite graceful move, the mare of shadows pulled something out of them. No, not something. Somepony was tossed over the ground at Trixie's hooves. To her horror, she recognized the silver unicorn with azure mane. Her eyes were closed but she knew they were emerald.
"Gimmix!" Trixie jumped at her sister's side as Shade let her fall. She took Gimmix between her hooves, checking for injuries. Trixie's fears rose up as she found the multiple cuts and bruises over her body. She quickly put her hoof against her sister's wrist, thanking to all the gods and entities from above and below when she found Gimmix's soft, but constant pulse.
"Why?" She could only ask.
"Because we hated you mother, more than anything in the world." Mist replied with scorn. "She made our lives hell and got praised for it. We celebrated her death like it was Hearts Warming." Mist got closer to the Lulamoon sisters. "But then, your stupid sister tried to repeat her mommy's act, and we say enough. Now, Grundy, please continue what we started."
He trotted back as the diamond dog punched Trixie right in the jaw, lifting her in the air and then fall back. She lied over her side when without any warning, she felt a new strike over her stomach that made her roll on her back. Then another hit found her rear leg. Then her back. Then her cheek. It wasn't too long before Trixie couldn't even identify where were the hits landing, as her entire body was entirely in pain. Suddenly, the hit stopped coming and Trixie dared to open her eyes. She found the Mist glaring back at her with a smile that only showed cruelty.
"Coward!" Trixie roared in pain and anger. "You can't do anything without your thugs!" She pressed her hooves against her chest. Even speaking too loud was painful.
"Probably," Mist said, regaining his calm tone. "But that's not the point here, isn't it?" He turned around. "Shade, get them inside the trailer. Spyder, bring the package."
The shadows under Trixie and Gimmix came to life once again. Something cold as ice took Trixie by the barrel and raised her over the ground. The mare of shadows directed the shadows to open Trixie's trailer and toss the inside, where she hit the floor headfirst. As she was getting back up again, Gimmix landed over her, still half conscious. The one called Spyder left what Trixie recognized as a pack of dynamite, wired to a chronometer. Shade tipped her top hat at them from the door and closed it. From the outside, Phosphorus melted the door's frame so it couldn't be opened.
"Heartwarming," Mist said. "Now, gentlecolts, mares, what do you say we celebrate in the old style?" The exited the scrapyard, ready to unleash their worst over Manehattan.
Trixie threw all her weight against the door. She's been desperately trying everything she could in the last minutes. But her magic was burned out under the physical pain she was already experiencing. By the end of it, she was just banging her hooves against it. She checked the bomb's timer. They had roughly ten minutes or so before it went off. Trixie sat down, trying to think, but nothing came up, so she did the only thing she had left to do, which was throwing herself against the door again. After the collision, she felt her sides hurting, promising her pain without end if she tried that again. Trixie struggled to raise up and do it again, but a hoof at her side stopped her. She looked back at Gimmix, who just recovered her consciousness.
"Gimmix!" Trixie rushed to hold her older sister, letting Gimmix rest her weight over herself.
"T-Tri-Trixie?" Gimmix asked in an almost inaudible voice. "Is that... really you?" She could barely open her eyes, as one was blackened.
"Yes, it's me." Trixie tried to keep her sister standing, but she herself was also in pain. They trembled together for a moment before falling again. She looked at Gimmix, who was struggling to say something, but could only whisper. "Don't speak, save your strength." Trixie's voice quivered as she glanced at the bomb's timer. Strangely enough, Trixie's only regret was that Gimmix was going to die too. She looked at her sister again, who was still muttering. She knelt to hear what were most likely her sister's last words.
"Staff..." Gimmix said between breaths. "Mom's... staff..." She kept repeating those two words.
"Gimmix, Trixie--" she paused. There was no reason to keep the act with her own sister. "Gimmix, I don't understand you."
Gimmix groaned in response. "Trixie... didn't you got my package?"
"Yes?" Trixie tilted her head in confusion. "But what does--"
"Trixie, listen to--" Gimmix coughed loudly. "Listen to me, Trixie. That briefcase is our only hope!"
She said at the top of her lungs. Trixie immediately started to search around in the trailer, until she remembered that the briefcase was under the couch she used as a bed. Stumbling with the little furniture in her way, Trixie finally managed to get her hooves over the briefcase. She saw it had a combination lock, but for an illusionist like her, it was like the lock didn't even exist. Trixie hastily opened the briefcase, finding a strange staff-like object made of bronze with a glass bulb at the end.
"Trixie," Gimmix said from the other side of the trailer. "I don't know if I'm going to make it. So listen up." She stumbled a little, but stood firm, looking directly at her younger sister. "That is our mother's legacy. She wanted you to have it, because she loved you." As she spoke, her voice became softer and lower with each word. "Even when you left she never--" Gimmix started to cough violently, but forced herself to keep talking. "She never *cough* stopped loving you... neither did I."
She then collapsed and fell again against the floor. Trixie galloped the fastest she could to her side, holding her. However, long from giving up, Gimmix's horn lightened up in an emerald aura. Trixie was about to tell her to stop or she would hurt herself, but before she could even say a word, the bronze staff that was inside the briefcase floated in her line of sight, barely held in place by the faint aura of her sister's magic. Gimmix dropped the spell and the staff fell against her chest. She put a hoof over it, pointing at three buttons at the side of the staff.
"Flight... gravity and energy b-blasts." Gimmix's hoof ran down the buttons. "Mom called it the Cosmic Rod." Gimmix coughed once again before passing out.
"Gimmix, no!" Trixie cried out loud. She immediately took the staff in her hooves. It felt heavier than it looked. Instinctively, Trixie looked at the bomb and saw they only had seconds. "Alright, alright, calm down Trixie, just-- don't screw this up!" She looked at the buttons in the staff. "Let's see. Flight, gravity and energy blasts." Trixie repeated her sister's words.
Without a second thought, Trixie aimed the staff's glass end at the ceiling above her and pressed the last button. The Cosmic Rod vibrated for a couple of seconds before shooting a light of white light that blasted a hole in the trailer's roof. Trixie fell silent in disbelief at the small object's power. However, she decided to awe later and held Gimmix strongly against herself. Repeating the buttons' functions, she closed her eyes and pressed the one for flight. Once again ,the Cosmic Rod vibrated an immediately enveloped Trixie and Gimmix in an aura of white light. Trixie started to felt lighter, as if her weight was leaving her body. She looked under her hooves and realized she and Gimmix were floating various hooves over the floor. Without thinking more, she pointed the Rod at the hole in the trailer's ceiling and they were rocketed out of it like an arrow. Just as Trixie drove them outside, the bomb went off, making a explosion that illuminated the night sky.
From various meters in the air, and still holding Gimmix for dear life, Trixie saw it and couldn't believe she was even alive.