Wizard Detective Trixie Lulamoon is trying to pay rent and solve a monstrous murder case at the same time. How long can she keep dodging death and bullets for, and can she solve the murders before she ends up the next victim?
Wizard Detective Trixie Lulamoon is trying to pay rent and solve a monstrous murder case at the same time. How long can she keep dodging death and bullets for, and can she solve the murders before she ends up the next victim?
This series is a fusion/cross over with the Dresden Files.
It was another misty morning on this dreary Friday here in the city of Manehattan. From the window of my office I could see nothing but giant gray pillars of pony made construction through the light fog. The sun was only barely visible as a burning bright circle above us. It wasn’t an unusual day yet, but I try to never leave that door open to fate.
I turned back toward my office door, the window was still cracked from when a poltergeist got a little too friendly with it. The owner of the building of course didn’t exactly believe that story. At least my name plate was still there. A brass plate that had both my name and my rather unwanted profession written on it.
Trixie Lulamoon.
Wizard.
Yeah, that’s right, I’m a wizard. The best in Equestria I’d say, or at least the best openly practicing one. Which wasn’t hard considering I was the only openly practicing one. Most ponies didn’t trust a unicorn, let alone one calling themselves a wizard. So I got the short end of the stick from most anypony, all the way up until they needed me.
There was a knock at my office door, and I could already guess who it was before it swung open without my permission. A griffon with black feathers stepped in. His claws tapped across the floor as he made his way to my desk. His yellow hawk eyes glared at me, and I met his eyes and glared back. It only took a moment before he averted his eyes but still he looked furious.
“Wizard my great aunt’s tail feathers,” He cursed. “That’s a load of bologna and you know it.”
I still had no idea what bologna was, but I was sure it was some weird griffon food to be sure. “Mr. Grimclaw, look, I’m trying, I actually have a case right-“
“You have two days to pay me what you owe, or else I’m kicking you out of this place. You can go and run your silly magic tricks out of a back alley for all I care.”
Griffons, they loved two things in this world; their money, followed only by other ponies money. Greediest creatures on the planet if you ask me, and I’ve met a few goblins. Still I couldn’t afford to look weak in front of a threat.
“I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, do you doubt Trixie’s ability to pay?” I asked, rising from my chair.
Grimclaw’s eyes flashed up to my horn. “I doubt your ability to get hired.”
I smiled grimly. “Trixie is the most famous wizard in all of Manehattan, perhaps all of Equestria. You should choose your words carefully or else she might just take her business elsewhere.”
“Like anyone would take you, nopony trusts a unicorn, especially not a wizard unicorn,” still Grimclaw’s eyes glanced at my horn before going back to my face. “You better do some tricks, turn rocks into gold or whatever it is your kind does for money, and soon.”
He turned and stormed out of my office. I waited until the door was shut before plopping back into my seat and letting out a sigh. I was broke. It’d been awhile since anyone wanted, or needed to hire a wizard. So I was pretty much screwed if I didn’t get any work and fast.
As luck would have it, fate it seemed was looking out for me today.
My phone began ringing, probably some kid trying to prank me again. Still I pushed a few peanut butter cracker wrappers aside and picked up the phone with my hoof. When I put it to my ear what I heard gave me goose bumps. There was a mare talking so fast I couldn’t understand most of what she was trying to say, but in the background I heard something, the kind of sound a chainsaw would make after being revved up.
“Slow down, miss,” I told her firmly.
“Y-your, Lulamoon? The wizard right?” She asked. Whatever noise was in the background was leaving.
I couldn’t help but to grin as I added in a bit of flair to reassure her that she was indeed dealing with a real wizard. “I am both great and powerful. Now who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
“I’m Flitterbell, I… I need a wizard’s help. Magic help.”
My grin quickly vanished at the severity of her tone. “What sort of help?”
“You don’t understand, I can’t, on the phone, right now.” The noise was coming back again.
I cursed my stupid luck. Though not often technology had a problem working around me. I had spent years reining in my magical influence, but that didn’t stop it from ruining my phone calls on occasion. I decided to pick up speed before I lost her completely.
“Look,” I said in a tone brokering no argument. “I will be in my office at noon, and I would very much like to meet you. Do you think you could meet me than?”
Her voice came back timid, but there was a sort of thankfulness to it. “Y-yes, I can do that. Noon, today. I can be there.”
She hung up and the static noise disappeared with her. I laid back and tried not to be too pleased with myself. It looked like rent might actually get paid this month. Of course it only hit me a moment later that I could have asked for a consultation fee. It was too late for that now, I already told her to come in for an appointment.
Great, I just lost my chance at having good lunch today. I looked over the pile of hayburger wrapers. Burger Queen it is then.
I had hardly gotten past that thought when my phone rang once again. Twice in one day, I must have been on some goddess’s goodwill list because that never happened. I picked it up all too eager to fatten my wallet. Another mare was on the other end, one that held a southern drawl that I quite enjoyed listening too, even if I’d never admit that.
“Lulamoon,” The mare said briskly.
“Hello there, Sugarcube, how might I be of assistance to-“
She cut me off. “First of all, that’s mah word. Second, we have bodies.”
A cold lump formed in the pit of my stomach. “I, uh, okay. Where do I meet you?”
There was surefire venom in her tone when she spoke next. “Applegates Apartments, and Ah want you now.”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see it. “Alright, I’ll be there right away.” I looked at my clock, it was only eight in the morning, my day had just barely begun, and yet I was already sure that it was going to be a lot busier than I had intended. We said our goodbyes and hung up. I didn’t hesitate to get up, throw on my royal purple trench coat and matching fedora before I walked out the door. I had everything I would need for this trip on me, well everything that was legal for me to have anyway.
It was only about a twenty minute drive to reach the Applegate Apartments. They were right next to the ocean, and as my old beaten car pulled into an adjacent space a block down the road I could smell the ocean air. There weren’t many people on the beach yet, probably due to the insistent fog that refused to leave.
The Applegate itself was tall for an apartment complex. The thought of walking up those stairs was a nightmare to consider. The lobby inside was large, and I was greeted with a fantastic looking fountain. A stone statue of earth ponies collecting water as a pegasus was kicking a raincloud, the water actually dropped from the rain cloud into the bucket, overflowed the sides and went into a small pond where it was sucked back up to the raincloud via a stone rainbow. All in all I was impressed, the thing was probably larger than my entire living room.
The earth pony standing by the fountain had curly orange hair, and peach fur. She wore a policepony’s unicorn and was staring bitterly into the fountain. On my approach she spun around and shot a glare through me.
“Oh, so your finally here, Lulamoon,” She said every word dripping with poison.
I flashed a grin. “One can’t rush perfection, Caramel.”
Caramel Apple was not only one of Applejack’s cousins, she was her partner and second in command. I liked Applejack, she was a mare I could respect, doing the best she could in this city. However that did not mean that I liked her.
“Are all unicorns as arrogant as you, or are you an exception?”
My smile grew. “I am the exception to all unicorns.”
Caramel seemed to give up on the pointless banter because she turned and flicked her tail. “Follow me, you’ve wasted enough of AJ’s time already.”
I followed behind her. It was actually a little bit weird how Caramel gave up so quickly. It almost hurt to think that I won that argument so easily, but if the situation was serious enough to call me in, then of course I’d be a fool to waste Applejack’s time.
We used the elevator and I was thankful that it didn’t stop up on us. Unicorns and technology just didn’t seem to mix too well. Even my car sometimes gave me trouble, and I was very careful with it. So when we got off the at the sixth floor I was all too happy to be of that thing. Down the hall I could see that orange mare, her white button up shirt and black pants. She was chewing on a piece of hay, and her emerald eyes stared bitterly at the wall in front of her as if she was staring at her worst enemy. That blond hair was in a quickly put together ponytail.
I walked ahead of Caramel so that I could greet my friend. “Hey, AJ.”
She shot me a glare that was supposed to be reserved for the wall. “You’re here.”
I wasn’t that late, was I? “Of course I’m here, how could the Great and Powerful Trixie leave one of her clients hanging?”
“It’s a mess, Lulamoon,” She said with a glance to the door behind her. “If you want out now, I won’t judge you for being a wimp.”
I smiled at the challenge. “And if you need to feint I’ll be right here to catch you.”
“You wish.”
Sometimes, I really did.
She spat the hay out onto the floor. “Remember, you’re a consultant. I just need to know what I’m dealing with. Any advice you can give us will be helpful.” She paused at the door. “And whatever you do, don’t puke on the crime scene, we’ve already got enough of that from several of the new guys.”
Applejack walked in and Caramel took up guarding the front door. Applejack had one of the worst jobs in Manehattan, she was in charge of the cities DI unit. Dark Investigations. For the most part they dealt with the dark magic, and monsters that would appear in the city. Usually the ones that lived there just out of sight. Back in the day people really respected them, and they were a valuable asset to the city. But as time went on, and with the loss of most unicorns and monsters the city began thinking of dark magic and strange mythical beasts as legends rather than fact. Now it was to the point where DI personal were all the unwanted members of the force. You mess up big time, and get punished by being put on DI. It was a career death sentence. Yet Applejack still did her job, she still fought the darkness as best she could. Though there were things that I knew she couldn’t handle, and she knew that I knew that.
I followed her through the door and my nose was assaulted by the smell of rotting flesh. It took a moment to control my senses, and to push the scent away. Once I had done that I looked around. I wish that I hadn’t. The scene before me was grim. There were… mounds of meat and stained fur on the couch. Two piles, one had bits of blue fur, the other had bits of yellow fur. On the floor I could see a blue leg.
Somehow I kept my insides where they belonged long enough to examine the scene in finer detail, to look for whatever piece- er clue that could point me in the right direction. The leg had been severed and what looked like bite marks had been left on it, chunks of the flesh were torn away. I walked around the couch and wished that I hadn’t, two severed heads lay behind it.
The balcony door was open, probably to try and get the air to clean out. Though I wanted to be sure. I looked at Applejack. “Was the door open when you got here?”
She had a stony expression. “Yes.”
I nodded. Great. Just freaking great.
So it was entirely possible, and likely that the killer had come in through the balcony door. I looked down. It was a good ten feet to the next balcony, which for a lot of the creatures I come up against was nothing, but it was also a dead drop sixty feet down. Most anything I could think of would be horribly injured by such a fall.
Still that didn’t tell me much. Something with sharp teeth, and a hungry appetite had come in through the balcony door, surprised the two ponies sitting here and ate most of them before leaving. That was not much to go on.
“Who were they?” I asked as I stared out the window.
“Cloud Bounce and Kitesail.” Applejack said. “The first was a male pegasus, the other a female earth pony. They were lovers.”
I figured as much, still it would take some more research to go on before I could come to a conclusion. I looked back toward the couple. “How did you identify them?”
“We couldn’t find their… cutie marks, but between their faces and the fact that they lived here we could easily-“
“Their cutie marks are gone?”
“Yes, is that… strange?”
Strange, oh no when a pony gets eaten in their own home like this they usually lose their cutie marks.
I looked at the floor going out to the balcony. There were drops of blood going out and over the edge. “Whatever came in here, it came through the window.”
“Trixie, you didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t know yet.” I admitted. I turned toward her. “Is there anything else? Did these ponies have enemies? Anything like that?”
Applejack shook her head. “We’re still looking into their background.”
I nodded. “Okay, than I finally get to do this.”
I marched out the door, into the hall and found the nearest waste bin. My breakfast decided it wanted to be free, all over a new and empty trashcan. I heard Caramel Apple snickering behind me. Applejack was right alongside me in a few moments.
“You too?” She asked.
I shook my head, and wiped my muzzle off on my foreleg. “I have never seen anything like that before. Applejack, whatever did this…”
“Do you have any clues?”
“Not yet. I can go and do some research, you know my price.”
She narrowed her eyes. “There’s a killer on the loose and you’re still obsessed with money?”
“A pony has to eat somehow, and besides you know that I’m best chance you have of solving this case.”
“You better give me all the details, and not hide anything from me. You try that and I’ll have your ovary’s in jar by Monday morning.”
I nodded even though we both knew that I would probably be keeping secrets from her. After all; my world and hers didn’t tend to have friendly relations with one another. There were things that I could tell her, things that simply knowing would put her life at risk. Still I wouldn’t screw her out of finding her bad guy, I just might have leave the little details out of the picture. Such as whatever the bad guy was.
I only briefly glanced back at the now shut door to Cloud Bounce and Kitesail. Yep, this day is going to suck.
Just outside of the Applegate Apartments I found myself staring at the nearby allyway at unmistakable claw marks, splatters of blood, and a few chunks of gore. From sixty feet above me I could spy the balcony from where the creature must have jumped off of, at least Applejack was considerate enough to not lie to herself or me about the probability of this being some kind of monster. Whatever it was had leapt from the balcony, landed down here and left some marks behind. One single clue that I could find was a massive blood soaked paw print in the alleyway. Oddly enough, there was just one of them and it was larger than my head.
I left the alley way while considering my mental notes. There were a dozen or more creatures that could have pulled off something like this. I would normally say Ghoul, but they were killers of surgical precision, and this was just a bloody mess. Also the massive paw print gave me indication that it was a beast of some sort. The problem, I couldn’t tell which one just yet. If it was a creature of the Nevernever than it could have popped back into its own world after the killing was done.
I approached my car, admiring the way the blue roof was different than the gray metal doors. The black hood looked out of place on it as well. For good reason. My car had been attacked, over and over again since I came to Manehattan. If I looked hard enough I could still see the three claw marks left just above the rear tire from my run in with a pack of rather upset diamond dogs a few years ago. I guess they don’t appreciate being fooled out of their precious gems so much. What, I wasn’t a thief, I was returning the stolen gems… most of them.
I was about to reach my car when a black limo pulled up next to me. The backdoor opened to reveal no kidding a diamond dog holding a tommy gun pointed right at me. The windows were all tinted black so it was unlikely any police would know that he had a gun until it was too late to do anything about it.
“Get in,” the diamond dog hissed. I noticed he had a mohawk.
“Why hello my good sir,” I replied with an air of casualness that made him raise an eyebrow. “If you wouldn’t mind I was just looking for one of my friends. Last name It, first name Suck.”
The dog stared in puzzlement at me. A stallion’s head poked out the side and he gave a slimy smile to the dog. “Oh put that away, we’re here to do business not to be rude to our dear friend here.” He looked at me with eyes that shimmered like stolen gold. “Would you be so kind as to join us?”
It wasn’t a question.
“My mom always told me not to go into cars with strangers,” I replied.
Those gold eyes fixated on me. “I’m sure she did, but I’m no stranger. I’m but a humble friend wishing to speak with you in private.”
I heard the gun click and tried my hardest not to swallow as the fear crawled up my throat. It was important to these thuggish types that you never show fear. Whether they be a demon, or some stallion with a nice car and a thug. Still I didn’t want to risk some bullet holes in my nice new coat, so I decided to give up and go inside the car with the strange man.
Once I was in the door shut behind me and locked. The limo began driving really slowly. I gave my host a glare as I asked, “Okay, so what do you want?”
“It’s not every day that we see a unicorn in our city, much less a wizard unicorn.” He flashed a sickly smile at me. “I have to ask; how does it feel to know you have power over most anypony you come across?”
I tried not to smile too much. “It’s nice, at least until someone decides to start pointing guns at me. That tends to make me upset, and nopony wants an upset wizard. Especially not cramped into such a tight container as for example, a limo.”
His smile faded ever so slightly. “Miss Lulamoon, I’d suggest you keep your threats to yourself. If you know what’s good for you.”
“How can I know what’s good for me if I don’t even know who I’m talking to?”
“You don’t-“ His eyes raised ever so slightly. The sick smile on this pegasus’s lips spread through the air making me nauseous. “Why I didn’t introduce myself at all did I? How rude of me. I am Wind Rider.”
That was a surprise, and even though I tried to hide my reaction as quickly as it came, I could see he could tell that it shocked me to know who I was now riding with. I knew Wind Rider as everyone did, by reputation. A generation ago there were a bunch of warring mobs in Manehattan, and this one stallion cut a blood path through all of them and ended the wars by taking control of everything he wanted, and setting fire to the rest. Some viewed him as a hero that ended the mob wars, most feared him as the warlord he really was. I never expected he would even hear my name let alone set up an impromptu meeting with me at gun point.
“So,” I asked keeping my voice in check. “What do you want with the greatest unicorn in Equestria?”
He locked eyes with me. “Well, I might tell you that.”
His eyes didn’t avert from mine. You see most ponies never looked a wizard directly in the eyes for more than a second, and for good reason. It was impossible to tell when a soul gaze could happen. Though I was too great and powerful to have many soul gazes in my lifetime, it had happened only a few times before, each time was with a powerful soul, either a wizard as great as I was, or somepony special with lots of determination. I had in fact done a soul gaze with Applejack in one of our first encounters, and that’s why she called me in for consulting, she had seen a glimpse into my world and knew that I was the real deal.
I had my doubts as to whether I could ever soul gaze with some tyrannical, self serving, uptight, rich mobster-
Just like that I was sucked away from the car into Wind Rider’s eyes. I saw him standing on top of a mountain of corpses, each one was one of his enemies that he’d used to climb to the very top. All around him the world burned, and he gave a sad, but strong look at this world. There was something clutched between his wings on his back, but they were extended so that I couldn’t see what he was protecting, what was so secret. I knew that whatever it was, it had driven him up this mountain, he would be willing to make the mountain ten times larger in a heartbeat to keep this secret safe.
When I blinked I was back in the car, and Wind Rider was smiling like he had found a hundred dollar bill lying on the ground. “Oh, yes, I’ll tell you what I want.”
I swallowed. He had done that on purpose. He wanted to see what I was made of, and there was no telling what he found inside me. Maybe he found my past, or my power. Either way I didn’t like the way I felt like he had an upperhoof here.
“Okay Windy, what do you want?” I asked.
For a half second that smile died but it came back before I could even blink. “I would like to hire you out, full time. You’d have a nice home, servants, and all the material you could ever need to do your wizarding.”
He needed me. I opened my mouth but for some reason no words came out. His offer was nice. Being a wizard was bloody expensive after all. Full time employment, probably at a price that was far higher than I currently asked. I wanted to jump for joy then and there. But I remembered who I was talking too.
“What’s the catch?” I asked.
“You will need to keep me and my people safe.”
“Your people?”
His smile faltered again, though this time it didn’t pick back up. “Cloud Bounce was one of mine.”
Oh crabapples. If Cloud Bounce was one of his then that meant this whole situation just got a lot more complicated. I made that into a very personal note, I also added the fact that I needed to let Applejack know as soon as I could. She would figure it out sooner or later, and if she found out I was holding that bit of information from her she’d have my ovaries in a jar.
“Why would you need protection though? This could have just been an isolated event.”
His frown told me otherwise. “I would like to hire you, and trust me you would get all the best benefits you could ever ask for. Supplies, a safe location, a nice home, stallions… mares.”
I knew that he wouldn’t just stop at asking for protection, after all to him I could be the most powerful weapon he’d ever seen. “What happens if I’m working for you and we find the one responsible?”
“Well, I know that my people might be a little outclassed here so we may need some assistance in dealing with the problem.”
There it was. I shook my head. “Sorry, but I’m not a killer for hire, Windy.”
I swear one of his eyes twitched this time. “You’d be giving up on the chance of a life time.”
The car slowed down and I saw the diamond dog tighten the grip on his gun. I shot him a dirty look. “Don’t do it, Moe. You fire that thing in here, and everyone suffers.”
Wind Rider gave his dog a look and a shake of his head. “Spot, down boy.”
Spot didn’t relax but his finger slipped away from the trigger. The car stopped and I reached for the door. I unlocked it and pushed the door open. “That was a nice car ride, never been inside a limo before. I don’t plan to do it again.”
“Are you sure that’s your answer?” Wind Rider asked, there was a finality in his tone that made my bones shake.
I stepped out and flicked my tail in disgust. “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not work for criminal scum.”
I slammed the door shut with a rear hoof and saw my car was parked along the street. We’d only been around the block but somehow it felt like it had been much longer than that since I’d last seen my beat up baby. I crawled into my car, turned the engine on and watched as Wind Rider drove away. I looked at my watch, it was only nine. I still had three hours to go before meeting with Flitterbell, and that meant I had plenty of time to do research on the boogy that ate Rider’s stallion.
As I pulled out onto the road I felt like no matter what I did next, it would end up helping Wind Rider. I hated that feeling.
Casa la Trixie, a nice little basement apartment that I had the pleasure of staying in. The little place was comprised of a square cement room with a small hallway leading into my bedroom, bathroom and broom closet. The living room and kitchen were pretty much the same room, and a fireplace stood with still glowing embers at the bottom. Being a basement apartment this place managed to retain warmth during the winter and stay cool during the summer.
I also had an ice box, sure someponies had fancy dancy refrigerators, but when I tried to get one the darn thing just kept breaking around me. Stupid earth ponies and their stupid non magical devices. As for the bathroom I had a shower tub combination. Since I didn’t have any heat to the house I decided wisely against any showers, instead I used my mastery over magic to heat up a tub full of ice cold water.
There were tapestries covering the walls trying to hide the concrete from sight. For the most part it actually worked. Then there were a few posters of the greatest magicians to ever live. Even one of the famous Starswirl the bearded. A bookshelf stood with a collection of paper backs I have read and decided to keep, or new ones that I was probably going to give away to some donation center.
I stepped out of my coat and hat as I shut and locked the three locks on my door behind me all in one swift use of a telekinesis spell. Now that I was home I could get away with using my magic without being starred at. I didn’t go out without my hat most of the time because it was easier to do my job if ponies weren’t staring at my horn.
I threw on my big fluffy purple bathrobe and went to the center of my apartment. There was a glorious rug with some handsome stallion’s face on it, I think he was a detective from some movie recently made, or maybe he just liked fedoras as much as me. Still I moved his handsome mug out of the way to reveal a secret trap door. Down the trap door there was a stair case leading into a spacious square room where the shelves were lined with anything from dragon’s dung to harpy feathers. In the center of the room was a series of tables all which were cluttered with all sorts of lab equipment. There was one section of this room that didn’t match the rest.
A bookshelf lined with action hero comics and a couple of light romance novels featuring unicorn female love interests. On the top of the shelf was a small draconic skull with spikes lining the back of it. I picked up a notebook and a pen before taking a seat on one of the stools.
“Hey, Spike,” I said. “Wakey, wakey, time to get to work.”
The eye sockets of the skull lit up with green light and focused on me. “Oh, good. No it’s fine, you totally didn’t interrupt my nap.”
“Shut it,” I snapped. “I need some information.”
“Try reading books, I hear its good for the brain and we both know that you could use it.”
I rolled my eyes. You see Spike wasn’t actually the skull itself, he was a spirit of knowledge carved from the very fabric of an young dragon’s soul. Some wizard stole a dragon egg a couple hundred years ago and created him, at least that’s the story so far. He was made for the very purpose of collecting knowledge, sort of like the wizard version of a library of encyclopedias. His knowledge was far superior to most any wizard on the plant, and his wit was pretty high up there too.
“I have bodies, and a murderer on the loose. I need some answers.”
“We all need answers. Like, have you ever thought, what is the meaning of life?”
I growled. “Spike.”
“Okay, okay. What’s up boss?”
“That’s better. Now what I found was a couple of dead bodies, they were pretty much just piles of meat and something had been chewing on them. I’d suspect vampires but I can’t think of a reason they’d go out of their way to climb into a six story window just to eat.” I left out that this might have been connected to Wind Rider, Spike didn’t need that bit.
“So what we’re looking at,” Spike said. “Is something that eats ponies, in a very messy way and doesn’t mind climbing up really high to get them?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, well why don’t you sit down and pull up a chair… oh you already did that. Okay, well it’s gonna be a long list, a very long list. Unless you got something else, something specific.”
“I think it ate there,” I almost choked on the own words. “Cutie marks.”
“It… excuse me that’s, wow, okay, I didn’t realize we were going into that kind of territory. Now was piles of meat a metaphor for they were so pleasured that they couldn’t move or-“
“Spike it literally ate their cutie marks. Like a zombie.”
“Ew, no, Zombies thank heavens don’t work that way. Okay now that is a bit of information to go on. Even ghouls do not like to eat cutie marks, usually. It’s sort of a… universal sin to eat one. That’s where a pony’s magic comes from and eating one usually comes with some nasty backlash, you don’t want to know. It takes something either very stupid, or very powerful to eat a cutie mark.”
“It’s just flesh,” Trixie said coldly.
“Would you be saying that if yours just vanished?”
“I…”
“That’s right. The cutie mark might be imbedded into the flesh, but for so long after a pony dies it retains their energy. Not their soul, but their magical self. There are reasons why ponies like to keep their cutie marks covered, well except for those wonderful, wonderful mares that parade themselves like-“
“Spike, stay on topic. What kind of creatures would eat cutie marks on purpose than?”
“Demons for starters. Those guys love the things. Then a whole host of fea that might eat them, either for pleasure or out of stupidity. The later tend to vomit them out later, if they’re lucky.”
Trixie was fast at work keeping notes. This all sounded more useful than she’d hoped for, but if it really was a demon than she was in trouble. After her encounter with the Ursa Major she’d never wanted to meet anything that was summoned to this world again, especially not demons.
“Is there anything else that could help me identify what you’re tracking down?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, but I’ll keep you posted.”
“Cool, can I go out now? I haven’t gotten any fun since the last time you let me out.”
“The last time I let you out you ended up creating a mass live action role playing event downtown. You were lucky no one got hurt.”
“Oh come on, we were just having fun.”
I shook my head. “Not yet. I still need you around the house.” With that said I headed up the stairs. After shutting the door beneath me and replacing the rug I heard at scratching at my window. That had to be my owl, he hadn’t come home last night after going out to hunt. Of course he did that often, sometimes he wouldn’t be back for several days at a time. Yet he was my best connection to the unicorns, though that wasn’t saying an awful lot.
I opened the door and a dark brown owl flew past my head and back into my room where his cage was hidden. Yet he wasn’t the only one there to greet me. A lavender unicorn with long dark blue hair nearly black with a red and purple stripe running through it was there. She wore a gray cloak that covered most of her body, and held a long sword at her side with a ruby jeweled hilt. Her eyes were glaring daggers at me.
“Oh, Twilight Sparkle,” I said as casually as I could. “What a pleasure to see you. What brings you here today? Tea and cakes perhaps?”
“There is dark magic at play in the city,” Twilight said in a voice that was almost as hot as her temper could be. “And there’s only one warlock that I know of here, Trixie.”
“Excuse me, oh so miss perfect. I am no warlock,” I snapped.
“Your record proves otherwise. Now give yourself in and your death will be swift.”
My anger was rising. “How dare you come to my home, insult me, accuse me of warlocking like I was just some punk, and then threaten me on top of all that. You’re a bully, and I want you to leave now!” I went to slam the door but a red aura surrounded it keeping it from budging even an inch.
“I may not have proof yet, but I know it was you. When I find proof of what you did I will come back. You’re going down for this, warlock.” Twilight turned and walked back up the stairs. Only when her aura left my door did it slam shut furiously.
I leaned against it, trying to catch my breath. That stupid warden! I didn’t do anything wrong this time or last. Sure there were rules broken, but would you rather have an Ursa Major or a dead pony? Seriously what the Tartarus is wrong with her?
I slumped to the floor. My face was hot with anger. Jeeze, just because there’s some dark magic at play in this city, that doesn’t mean I am at fault. So what if there’s a new warlock here, those kinds of monsters pop up everywhere all the time. I mean you wouldn’t even be bothering me if the warlock hadn’t killed some-
“Oh crabapples,” I cursed as I stood up quickly. I didn’t hesitate to throw my hat and coat back on. Even if Twilight had just come down here to upset me, she had given me a piece of information that I desperately needed. This murder was done by a warlock, he summoned something most likely a demon, and that meant he might really be targeting Wind Rider. I jumped for joy, at least until I saw what time it was. It was just ten past eleven. I had somewhere else I needed to be.
I strode outside, wishing Owlicious my pet owl goodbye on my way out. I was going to meet with Flitter Bell and take care of my side job while I worked out why a warlock could possibly want to kill off Rider’s men. This day just kept getting busier and busier.
I arrived back at my office just a half hour before my meeting with Flitterbell. Was it wrong that I was looking forward to helping somepony else out, somepony that didn’t have to do with pony eating monsters? Maybe, but then again it was hard to argue with a paycheck.
I waited, reading from one of my paperback books that I had yet to get too. I kept my hat on hiding my horn just in case the poor filly was afraid of unicorns, it seemed like everypony else was. Time ticked by slowly as I continued to wait. It was ten past noon before there was a quiet knock at my door. I almost didn’t hear it.
“Come in,” I hollered.
The door opened very slowly to reveal a white mare, earth pony with big blue eyes and a short cut blue mane. She looked at me with wide eyes with a hint of fear in them. It was once she came in and looked behind her as though she expected somepony to be there that I knew that it wasn’t me she was scared of. She shut the door.
“Flitterbell, I presume?” I asked in as gentle of a tone as I could.
She nodded. “Yes, I… we spoke over the phone.”
“You had wanted to meet me, well now you have. What do you want?”
She looked back toward the door once more. “I think I’m in danger.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And you came to me… instead of the cops… why?”
“T-they don’t know. I mean, it’s just that, it’s uh, not… normal.”
Now I was looking at the door as if expecting a boogypony to jump through it. Which wasn’t unreasonable mind you. “I would like to help you if I can. But I need details, what's wrong?”
“I… well you have to believe me, please believe me.”
“You’d be surprised the things that I’m willing to believe.”
“I saw a monster,” She nearly gasped at her own words. “I know that the EUP wiped out all the monsters a long time ago. But, but I saw it.”
This was a common reaction. Ponies fully believed the lies that the EUP council put out about monsters being dead. They all knew that was a lie, in fact anypony living in a unicorn sanctuary would know that monsters were not gone from this world. The mindless ones were living in unicorn territories, hidden and safe. The smarter ones made homes in earth pony cities, after all it was a perfect hunting ground.
In fact it wasn’t too uncommon to find earth ponies that weren’t quite sure if unicorns even existed anymore. I couldn’t blame them. After all I was an oddity, and boy did my kind hate me for it. Sometimes I wondered if unicorns really wanted the other races to just up and forget that they existed. Of course with one of the leaders of Equestria being a unicorn, that was pretty much impossible.
“What did you see exactly?” I asked.
“It was big, like, like a wall, and it was made out of rainbows. I… it was coming for me. It was chasing me. I thought I was dead for sure. I ran, I ran past the stores, into the parade, and all the way back to my car. I was sure it was going to catch up to me before I got here.”
“Why do you suspect the monster is after you?”
She bit her lower lip. Her eyes darted at my desk. “It wasn’t the first time I’d seen it.”
“Okay, now why would a monster be after you?”
“I, I don’t know.”
“Do you have any enemies? It isn’t impossible to hire ponies to summon monsters for you if you have the right connections. And if it’s made out of rainbows it probably came from the Sun courts, which makes it fea.”
“I… I don’t understand? S-somepony sent a monster after me?”
“Maybe. It’s a working hypothesis.” I scratched at my chin. “Have you ever encountered anything weird before? Magical or otherwise?”
There was silence for a moment. Then she drew out a small box from her purse and laid it flat on the desk. “I… um… I found this.”
I stared at it. The box was long thin, and rectangular. Old burned wood stood out to me with a gold engraving at the top that read, ‘To the True Blood’. I reached out with my senses and probed the box. It was indeed magical, but I couldn’t feel any wards around it. A magical ward powerful enough could easily destroy my entire office if I wasn’t careful.
Oh well, you only live once. I opened the box.
Inside there was nothing but an old gold key. It was large, almost comically so. I couldn’t fathom the lock that this key went too, if it even went to a physical key at all. The magical energy seemed to surround the key. For a long moment I tried to figure out what the key was, what it could do, or what it belonged. When none of those things came to me I shut the box’s lid again.
“This is indeed a magical key,” I said. “Where did you get it?”
“I… borrowed it.”
“From where?”
“The back of a blue convertible,” she admitted. “P-please don’t tell anypony. I didn’t know that it was magic. I swear. I won’t ever do it again.”
I shook my head slowly. “You stole a magical key, don’t know what it does, where it came from, and worse yet who it belongs too.” Judging by the engraving it was someone or something old and powerful.
“Tell you what, this key is probably keeping you in danger. I can take it off your hooves, find out who it belongs too, and then return it.”
She smiled at me for the first time since coming into my office. “Really? Oh but will that keep me safe? What if the monster comes back to find me?”
“It probably is looking for the key, not you. Still I can get you somewhere safe, Flitter.” Saint Mistmane's church was a place I would send ponies that were in danger of the strange and magical. It was the safest place I’d seen yet, and with one of the most caring caretakers I’d ever met.
“Oh thank you, Miss Lulamoon.”
“There is however one thing to discuss before I even consider any of that,” I said.
Her face faltered. “W-what?”
“Why, how you're going to pay me of course.”
***
Nine silver bits. That’s all she had on her. I mean it’s not like I would really turn her away if she didn’t have the money, but that didn’t mean I wanted to do work for free. Flitterbell had decided she really wanted nothing to with the key after I walked her back to her car. She drove off saying that I could throw it away for all she cared, so long as it got the terrible monster off of her. She headed off to Saint Mistmane's Church.
I had already put the key and its box into one of my drawers, warded to keep any magic inside from getting out. Then I went out to start my investigation into this murder scene of Applejack’s. I had only precious few clues to go on, but I knew that Cloud Bounce had been one of Rider’s men. So my best bet was to find out who Rider was connected too. It took a couple of hours and several calls but I eventually found out that Cloud Bounce was quite friendly with a number of other ponies working in Rider’s group as well as a few that were not. One of which had me personally worried, Cloud Bounce had been friendly with a little reporter that I had had the pleasure of knowing.
I knew where this reporter was lucky enough, she had come to Manehattan demanding that I tell her all about the world of unicorns and wizards. Which of course I couldn’t do. That knowledge would put my life in just as much danger from the wardens as it would hers.
Still I could offer up something tantalizing to get what I wanted out of her. I am the Great and Charismatic Trixie after all, how could I not charm her into helping me?
After calling her up we decided to meet up at a local coffee shop. It really didn’t take too long before I was walking in there and looking for my little reporter. As usual she was there early, her pristine white coat was hidden only by a fancy looking brown trench coat. She wore a hat that matched it. Locks of purple mane fell over the side of her face and her eyes were looking wistfully into her cup of coffee.
Rarity, one of the most beautiful and annoying mares I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I took a seat across from her, snapping her attention back to me. I gave her playful grin. “Hello, Rarity.”
“Oh, Trixie, you know you shouldn’t scare me like that dear,” she had an accent that spoke of hidden wealth.
“My bad, but I guess today is just chalk full of surprises.”
“Oh?” she raised the cup of coffee to her lips and tentatively took a sip. Part of my baser anatomy kicked into gear reminding me that Rarity was indeed very beautiful.
“I was doing some research into a case, and it would seem that you might have met with someone and I am very curious about it.”
Her hoof tightened around the coffee cup and a devilish smile grew over her lips. “Oh.”
“Yes, so I was wondering if you’d like to help?”
“I’m sorry, but a reporter has a duty to keep things such as this off record, well until I put it on record of course.”
“Of course.” I nodded, but I could feel the muscles in my back tightening. She was going to extort me for any information that she could in order to help. “So what will it take to loosen those lips of yours?”
“Mmm, what indeed.”
“This is impor-“
“First, why don’t you tell me what it is that you wish to know about? That might help a little bit.”
“You were looking into Cloud Bounce, the pegasus, why?”
“I’ve heard rumors that he was dead.” I couldn’t help it, my eye twitched and she caught it faster than a speeding pegasus. That sly smile grew over her lips. “Oh, how dismal. Well that is what happens when you follow a piece of dirt like Rider.”
“But, why?”
“What could this have to do with you? Honestly, your only interested in the spookyness in our-“ Her eyes widened. “How? How did he die?”
“I can’t say.”
“Police investigation no doubt? They won’t get far, Rider will call of their investigation and start his own if he hasn’t already.”
That was probably true and Applejack was probably going to kick my flank because of it. “You still haven’t answered my question and I seem to have already answered one of yours.”
She looked out the window at the passing by ponies on the sidewalk. “You know I like this place, it’s safe, quiet, and passes lots of little secrets like ours. Rumors do seem to circulate in places like this, sometimes those rumors focus on Rider. For example a rumor that he was looking to get himself a real bonafide unicorn wizard. Imagine it, a unicorn in our city?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it sucks to be the only one here.”
“Well as an earth pony I suppose I’d never understand what it feels like. Still I have to wonder, do you know who that wizard could be?”
“He tried to hire me, I told him no.”
She blinked. “Wait, you? He tried to hire you? Seriously? I don’t know what worries me more, the fact that he was crazy enough to actually hire you, or the fact that you were crazy enough to turn him down.”
“How could I work for a piece of dirt like him, after all his employees seem to be having some trouble with a terrible case of death going around.”
“Okay, fine, tell you what; depending on the answer to my next proposal I will tell you exactly what I was looking into with Cloud Bounce okay?”
I nodded.
“Do you want to see a movie with me tonight?”
I opened my mouth ready to answer, but stopped dead. She had just asked me out on a date. Sure I knew that she was likely just using me, trying to get more information about the world of magic, she had some kind of delusional earth pony obsession with it. Still it was a date, and I was sorely lacking from those lately. Considering how pretty she was I already had my answer.
“Alright, what time?”
“Nine,” She said with a pleased smile.
“It’s a date.”
“Yes, it is.”
For a moment silence hung in the air between us, our eyes met and I had a deep interest in finding out whether or not her grape lipstick tasted as good as it looked. Of course she had to ruin the moment by looking away and clearing her throat. “Alright, darling. You’ve won. I heard that Cloud Bounce was meeting with some very strange animals, and selling them. At first I thought it was likely a rare animal exchange until I heard the description. Looked like dogs, but large as any pony, and better yet they seemed to be made of wood, and alive!”
I swallowed. Celestia’s Hellfire. Cloud Bounce was dealing with constructs, the darn wardens wouldn’t like to hear that.
Her eyes brightened. “Oh do you know what they were?”
I gave her a scowl. “I already answered your questions.”
“Oh phooey, maybe later than. Anyway, I did hear about where he was supposedly selling these beasties at too. A little warehouse on the dock, neutral territory for the gangs. Rider set it up for sensitive deals. Fisher’s Wharf.”
If Cloud Bounce was selling illegal constructs it meant two things; one he had somehow come into contact with a supplier for them, and two that he had found a buyer. I was pretty sure that Rider wouldn’t have touched the magical scene with a twenty foot pole made of solid gold. So Cloud Bounce could have been selling them under his boss’s nose. Still this deal could have very easily backfired on Cloud Bounce, anypony interested in such things would be knowledgeable in the world of dark magic, and most ponies that were did not play well with mortals.
I stood up. “Thank you, Rarity.”
“It was my pleasure, darling. I really do wish you could just sit and spend some more time with me.”
“I have something to look into,” I said.
I turned and left the diner confident that I could start to make sense out of this mess.
I stopped by my apartment to grab a few things before heading out. A metal bracelet that slipped right over my right hoof. An old stave carved from grapewood with several blue-white crystals set along the middle to the top. A wand made from the same wood, only without all the neat little crystals was next to go in my saddlebags. With everything gathered I paused, there was one more thing I could take with me, something that had been very important in the past but I still didn’t know how to feel about taking it everywhere.
My mother’s pocket watch. It was a brass pocket watch, enchanted with simple wards to make it sturdy and work without ever needing to be wound. The back had a picture of six, six pointed stars all of them connected to one another by a blue line of lightning. I never understood what it had symbolized, but it sure looked cool.
I brought it with me, for some reason I felt like I was going to need to know what time it was today. I jumped back into my car and drove off with a pitter patter. My car was doing the shaky thing again already, that was hardly any good.
As I approached the warehouse the smell of sea water and fish assaulted my senses. If there was one thing that I missed about Hoofington it was that it was far away from the ocean. Still I was on the job and I could deal with some dumb fish.
I parked across the street and down the block. Hopefully far enough away that it wouldn’t look suspicious. Carefully I made my way to the dock. It was quiet down here, and no cars were driving by. If that wasn’t odd enough, I also noticed a distinct lack of any homeless ponies. A sinking pit grew in my stomach. Something was wrong here.
The warehouse itself was surrounded by a huge chain link fence. A smirk grew over my lips as I came to the locked gate. A fence and a lock to stop the Great and Skillful Trixie? I think not.
I pulled out a lock pick and looking around to make sure I was really alone. There was not another soul to be seen. I used my telekinesis to lift the lock pick and get to work with my skills as a master wizard. The lock fell to the ground only a few seconds later and I put the lock pick away. Using magic, even the most basic and lowly of spells had a tendency to scare these earth ponies and pegasi. It had been too long since unicorns lived amongst their kind after all.
I walked through the gate and into the warehouse parking lot. It was dead empty. No cars, no ponies, no nothing. Again the mist was blowing in from the sea. I could tell that it was going to be hard to see out here soon, which could work in my advantage in case I had to leave quickly. Until then I simply made my way to the warehouse doors. One of the side doors was unlocked and I opened it without making a sound.
The first thing I saw was a wall of wooden crates. Following this down I kept my ears perked up and listened for any sounds. I could hear a sort of high pitched buzzing sound from somewhere deeper inside. Carefully I made my way around the edge of boxes and saw that the warehouse was filled with large metal crates. In one corner I saw a lion’s paw sticking between the bars of a massive cage, the paw itself was bigger than my head. A few more were filled with crocodiles made of rocks, or giant black plants with pink glowing insides. This place was like a pound but instead of dogs there was an assortment of different magical beasts and constructs. I could hardly believe my eyes.
How did so many of these creatures end up here in Manehattan? Especially without notice? Why were they here?
A few cages had razorwire lining the bars. So much of it in fact that all I could make out was a buzzing sound coming from it, and little round colorful balls on the floor of the cage. Whatever was in there was likely very dangerous. I wasn’t sure what to do with this information. If the Jade House in Canterlot caught wind of this they’d lose their collective minds.
“Who are you?” A cold male voice demanded from behind me.
I spun around, pulled my stave from my side with my magic and aimed it at a cloaked pony. “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! Now tell me who you are?”
“Heh, like I’d do that,” he said with a cold smile. A pale blue light began shining from within his hood, but it didn’t reveal his face. I could tell he was a white stallion, but that limited it down to anypony I’d never met. “It was brave of you to break in here, Trixie, but I’m afraid I’ll have to put you on ice for your trouble.”
A beam of blue energy shot from his horn. I threw up my right foreleg and pumped my willpower into the bracelet. A transparent orchard shield was thrown up around me. The beam struck my shield and began freezing the air around it. After a moment the beam stopped and I dropped my shield feeling a little tired from the effort. The rounded wall of ice stood in front of me.
“Okay, you want to play, then let’s play!” I snapped as I stepped out of the way of the shield. I saw the stallion standing there, aimed my stave at him, and cried, “Lightning!”
A bolt of lightning shot forth from the end of my stave, zigzagging along its way to my target. It hit the smug stallion. The stallion exploded into a mess of icy pieces. Solid ice carved limbs hit the ground and I stood there, frozen with shock.
What? But how? He was real wasn’t he?
The sound of galloping hooves made me turn around at once. The stallion was wearing his cloak and galloping toward the three cages full of wooden dog like creatures. There was a pale blue light covering the latches to the cages, and before I could react the cage doors were thrown open.
“Go,” he told the dogs. “Sic her.”
Between the growls and the pony sized wooden dogs it was no wonder I reacted the way I did when I saw them. I turned around and galloped away. I heard claws scraping against the concrete floor as the dogs gave chase. I got around the wall of wooden crates just in time to see Applejack opening the door. She gave me one look, one that was a mixture of shock and anger. Of course I knew that those dogs could make easy work of me, and I had magic! To them, Applejack would be nothing more than a chew toy.
I galloped up to Applejack, and before her shock could explode into full blown rage I shoved her back out the door she came in from and jumped out after her. Right behind me I saw one of the wooden dogs sliding past as he tried to turn with me. He was larger still than the door, but I wasn’t sure that would stop him. So I shut the door and drew out my wand.
“Bad dog!” I cried as I waved my wand and cast one of my infamous illusions. The door vanished from sight. Leaving just a brick wall behind.
Applejack was staring open mouthed at the doorway. “W-what was-“
“No time to explain,” I told her as I dragged her back up off the ground with my magic. She had her revolver at her side. Upon seeing it I nodded toward her gun. “You might need that.”
She didn’t hesitate to grab it with her teeth and pull it out. Good thing too because that’s when I heard a loud thud from inside the warehouse. It was quickly followed by another, and another. Each time the sounds grew louder, and dust would come flying off of the bricks.
“Oh yeah,” I said absent mindedly. “There’s three of them.”
Applejack bit her handle. “What do ya mean three?”
Before I could answer the wall came exploding outward along with one of the dogs that hit the ground rolling. I pointed my stave and whispered, “Lighting.”
A bolt of lightning flew out and struck the creature dead center in its chest. It exploded outwardly. Twigs, branches and vines came raining down upon the ground. So they were strong, fast, and deadly, but they couldn’t take a hit. That was good to know.
The other two followed on the first one’s heels. I raised my stave but they were fast. I barely had enough time to jump out of the way as one came barreling on me. Behind I watched as Applejack fired her gun. The bullet bit deep into the dog's head, and the body shattered before my very eyes. Yet its collapsing mass still had momentum enough to crash into her sending her a good ten feet back onto the ground rolling. Her gun slid across the pavement.
“Die!” I cried as I raised my stave and loosed another lightning bolt.
The second one too exploded into bits of forest foliage everywhere.
My side exploded into agony as a heavy wooden paw slammed into it. I was lifted off the ground, flew for a little bit, and then hit the pavement with a crack. As I rolled everything hurt. I felt fire on my cheek where I must’ve scraped it on my fall. My stave was all the way over where I had been hit, I’d lost it when I was smacked.
The wooden dog snarled, showing sharp teeth carved from wood. It didn’t hesitate before it took off in a full fledged charge toward me. I bared my teeth, pumped my willpower into my shield and prayed to all the gods that I could keep him from ripping me to shreds. There was gun fire, once, a leg vanished on the dog, twice, part of the dog’s side exploded outward, thrice, and the dog fell into a pile of twigs and branches.
Applejack stood, gun in mouth, a line of crimson running down the side of her face. I stood up and went for my stave. She was at my side in ten seconds flat.
“What was that? Why was that? Why are you here? What’s going on?” she demanded of me quicker than I knew she could talk.
I picked up my stave, my orchard aura casting a faint light around us as I did. I gave her a frown. “AJ, there’s not enough time to-“
A roar erupted from inside. Memories of a giant star bear destroying a village, large sweeping paws ruining buildings as though they were made from wet paper, flashed through my mind. My heart skipped a beat. There was a terrible thrashing inside and I caught a brief glimpse of a scorpion tail larger than both of us combined stalking around the wooden crates. The manticore.
“We need to leave,” I told her.
She almost looked ready to bite my head off, but followed me as I quickly galloped away. “What is that?”
“A manticore,” I told her calmly.
Her eyes widened, but her speed picked up. “Are you joking? I don’t take kindly to those kinds of-“
“No I’m not.”
“Is it going to hurt ponies?”
We hit the sidewalk. “No, the warlock has it under his control.”
“The what?”
“Ugh, shut up and let’s get out of here already!”
We jumped into my car, me in the driver seat and her in the passenger. It choked and sputtered to life and I quickly reversed, turned around and sped out of there. The truth was that if that manticore was going to hurt ponies that it was likely under its master’s orders. There wasn’t much I could do against a manticore. Sure I’m the best wizard in all of Manehattan, but I’m not stupid.
Right about then there was only one place I could think of to get some rest and think about what I was going to do with a warlock and his monstrous minions. Or even worse, what I was going to do about Applejack, now that she’d seen the monsters and heard about a warlock, there was no way she was going to let this go and allow me to handle it my way. What I really needed was a drink, and only one place around here sold Apple Cider good enough for me.
We arrived at the bar, a nice little place just off the street with a lone unassuming staircase down to an old wooden door. There was a sign on the front of the door that read, “This establishment is protected under the neutrality accords. If you want to fight, do it outside.”
I pushed open the old oak door and was greeted with a warm room full of brightly lit lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Spirals had been carved into the wood. A smell of delicious food filled the room being pushed by a few lazily spinning ceiling fans. The place had just barely opened for business, and I knew that it probably wasn’t a good sign that I was already in the mood for some alcohol.
Since it was so early the place was empty. I took a seat at a corner table and Applejack followed me. From behind the counter the giant stallion that ran the place, Big Mac, stared at us with a flat expression. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, well aside from the fact that he was probably worried about what his little sister was going to do to me.
The moment my rear hit the seat Applejack sat herself down and asked, “Okay, Ah waited until we were here. Now tell me, what in tarnation is going on here?”
I knew that I couldn’t tell her everything, not even close to everything. The knowledge alone would put her life at risk and I wouldn’t dare be responsible for that. Still I was being paid as a consultant and I needed to do my part to give her some information.
“We’re sitting inside a bar about to have a serious conversation where I drink some cider, you get increasingly mad, and I leave here with a bloody nose.”
The look she gave me told me at least the last part was going to be true. “What was that thing Ah killed?”
Big Mac stopped by the table just long enough to leave two apple ciders, homebrewed for me and his sister. Applejack gave him a glare that could melt steel. I took a drink of mine allowing the warm liquid to begin working its magic. “Killed is sort of subjective here. I think that was a construct, a forest one if I guessed right. You can’t really kill what’s not alive. Though we certainly stopped them. It’s kind of like a broken car, you didn’t kill the car, you simply broke it.”
“So… it can be repaired?”
“Probably, just like with cars there are some types of damage that can’t be fixed. These things were either designed to break apart when wounded to lesson damage over the long run, or they were very cheaply made. I wouldn’t know which, artifice is not my domain when it comes to magic.”
She glanced at her cider. “You said there was a manticore.”
I took a swig of my drink. “Yep. Not good either. Those things are very dangerous, claws like swords, teeth like wood chippers, and poisonous tails that have been known to kill a person in minutes flat.”
“Uh-huh, and the warlock?”
This one was harder to talk about, it went beyond book knowledge and was connected to unicorn society at its heart. I could only tell her so much. Even if she proved her worth in battle against a few wooden constructs, I wouldn’t dare presume she could handle a warlock. “An evil unicorn.”
“Okay, and what is he doing here?”
“Getting himself into serious trouble.”
“Why’s that?”
I bit my tongue. Oops, shouldn’t have said that.
“Trixie…”
“I… I’m not sure how much I can tell you.”
She slammed a hoof onto the table. “Darn it, Trixie! This warlock brought monsters into mah city, monsters that might very well go around killing ponies. You owe me some answers.”
“The knowledge I have could get you killed.”
“And it’s your right to judge whether or not Ah want to take that risk?”
“It could get me killed too.”
“How do Ah know you aren’t working with this warlock?”
That hurt, and I looked away trying to hide the pain from my expression. Even if she was mad at me, to accuse me of something as wrong as that. I had thought only Twilight to be so cruel. “I am not.”
“Look, Lulamoon, Ah like you,” Applejack said. “But you can’t keep secrets from me. Even if you don’t want to share it because we’re friends, think about what you're doing. Obstruction of justice is a crime.”
“Heh, I’m so sorry, but I can promise you that I won’t hide anything that would actually help you.” Of course I wasn’t going to let her catch this killer either. If she caught up with the warlock he’d kill her faster than she could blink.
She scowled but seemed to accept me at my word, for now. “What were you doing there?”
“I was following a lead to find out what’s going on. You asked for information, and I found some.”
“Oh, like the fact that Cloud Bounce was working for Mr. Rider?”
I cringed.
“So you already knew that? What else are you keeping from me?”
“I was going to tell you, I-“
“You were just busy?”
I lowered my head a little. “I found out that Cloud Bounce might have been selling things under Rider’s nose.”
That revelation had Applejack silenced for a moment.
I decided to add some fuel to the fire to support my standing. “He was working on some illegal trade of constructs from what I heard. Still I didn’t have enough information to go to you yet. I wanted to be sure.”
“And are you sure now?”
“Yes, I am. This warlock probably killed Cloud Bounce for knowing about the monster trade.”
“That doesn’t make sense, why would the warlock be killing ponies that are selling his product?”
I froze. That was a good point, why would the warlock be doing that? I mean if Cloud Bounce had betrayed him than I could see it, but as far as I know Cloud Bounce had betrayed Rider. Rider would be the threat that Cloud Bounce should have worried about, not this warlock. I took a deep plunge of my Cider.
“Lulamoon, Ah think we’re missing pieces of information here.”
I nodded. “I don’t think we can even form a very good theory of why Cloud Bounce was murdered yet. Though how seems obvious now. He was killed by some sort of monster. Not the intelligent kind either, but a savage beast that’s under this warlocks control.” Maybe that was still a bit presumptuous of me, but I felt it was the right direction to go in.
“How can anypony control monsters?”
That question struck me and I stared at her with a dumb look on my face. “What?”
“How does somepony control a monster?”
I blinked. “I… I don’t know.”
“Well do you have any way to find out?”
I looked toward the door. “Like I said, constructs, monsters, and that sort of stuff is not my domain. But I think I can learn pretty quickly.”
“How quickly?”
I shot her a glance. “Why?”
“Because Ah want to know where to focus mah efforts. Ah am trying to stop a bad guy here, Trixie.”
I nodded. “Well I’m not rightly sure just how quick it’s going to be. I will work on it though. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have some information.”
“You’re being paid by the hour, don’t you dare drag this out for a few more bits to yer paycheck. Ponies lives are at stake.”
I rose from my seat, placed a few bits on the table for our drinks and walked toward the door. “Applejack, you wound me. I am the timely and punctual Trixie.”
***
I only lived a few blocks away from the bar, and thus it wasn’t too hard to make my way back to my apartment. Of course when I got to my apartment I noticed a letter stuck through the front door. I pulled it out and walked back inside. Locked the door, and went over to my fireplace. After stocking the fire a little I was able to sit down and take a look at the letter properly.
It was addressed to me though it didn’t say who or why. The envelope was a faded yellow, and looked old. Using just a bit of magic I was able to open the letter and see what was inside. An elegantly written letter lay inside.
Dear Trixie Lulamoon
It has come to my attention that you may be in serious danger. Normally I wouldn’t involve myself in this sort of situation but there are parties involved that might pose a threat to more than you know. You will have precious few allies in the coming conflicts but I assure you that I am one of them. I may not be able to offer much assistance, but I will offer what I can, when I can, and where I can.
Right now I can offer you a place of interest. Have you checked out the place where that key was found?
That was it, the only thing in that letter. No names, return addresses, nothing. Just some cryptic advice about where I could find some answers. Speaking of answers, I wasn’t drunk, yet, and I still had the key in my office. Deciding it worth my time, I decided to go and speak with Spike.
Downstairs I found him on his shelf like always. I didn’t hesitate when I asked him rather pointedly, “Spike, how would somepony control a monster?”
“I don’t know, how?”
“Spike.”
“Fine,” Spike rolled his green fire eyes at me. “There are a few methods one could use. There are mind control spells, the dumber the monster the easier it is to use. That requires a constant connection though and is very taxing. Next you have command objects. Things that would allow for somepony to give out commands to a monster which then follows it, like a dog collar. They’re not as precise as mind control spells but are a lot easier to maintain. The Houses use them sometimes.”
“Where would a pony get one of these collars?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where do the unicorn houses get them?”
He sighed, which felt odd considering he was just a skull. “Silver House is all about artifice right?”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. This had led me nowhere closer to my target. “Okay, so if a warlock was looking to get some command collars, where would they go?”
“Maybe they hit up the local shopping market?”
I scowled. “Shut it, I’m thinking.”
Likely this meant the warlock in question either had materials and skill enough to make the collars, or he was getting them from a supplier. I couldn’t think of anywhere somepony would easily get a hold of magical trinkets like that. At least nowhere legal. Then again I was talking about a warlock, surely he was going somewhere illegal.
“Spike, Owlicious should still be upstairs napping.”
“Oh here it comes.”
“I have a favor to ask of you. I want you to watch the dock, find out where the warlock is going with the animals, or where they come from. And where he’s getting the darned collars.”
“No.”
“But-“
“Not unless I get twenty four hours to explore the city.”
I shook my head. “You know I can’t do that. After the last time-“
“Listen, Trixie. I just want some free time starting at midnight tonight. I’ll be back in twenty four hours, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Really? What’s the worst that could happen? Are you serious?”
If fiery eyes could smile.
“Okay, but before you go I would like to create a couple of things. I need your alchemic knowledge.”
“Oh come on, can’t you just write this stuff down yourself and remember it? I have to do all the work here, it’s completely unfair.”
“Tell you what, when you’re the one facing down evil warlocks I will be willing to let you talk like that. Until then we better just get these done before it’s too late.”
I checked my box of supplies, I still had three smoke pellets left so I could use those. As for the potions I needed a few simple ones. A potion of refreshness, to help me push further if I needed too. A potion of invisibility, because heavens knows that my invisibility spell sucked, and a potion of healing. One of the few skills I had in magic was alchemy, generally I created things that went boom in my youth, but now I’ve gotten pretty good with potions as well.
For the potion of refreshness we used a bottle of Ultra Cola as a base and added some various peppers and cinnamon to spice it up. Making potions was easy. It wasn’t about the ingredients so much as it was about spending time with them, adding a little bit of yourself into the potion, and maybe just a hint of magic as well. Even well trained earth ponies could make potions.
The potion of invisibility was mostly just water and ice. And the healing potion had alcohol in it as well as some minty things. After that was done I opened up the trap door and watched as the green fire leapt from the skull and into the air. It danced its way across the room and back to my bedroom where I heard my owl shriek for a split second. A moment later the owl was flying into the living room with a pair of very familiar green eyes. I opened my window and out flew my possessed owl. As a spirit Spike could possess the minds of animals, even those as sharp as my owl.
He’d be back tonight, and then I’d get my report. Hopefully before my date. Still I had something else I could be doing right about now, a glance at my clock told me it was only about one pm. So I went to my bathroom, cleaned up my scrapes, bandaged my cheek up, and went to bed. I would just take a short nap and get to that key later. After all, it was just like Spike said, what’s the worst that could happen?
I got to my office just in time to miss out with another meeting with the griffon who owned my building. In all honesty I couldn’t handle a second encounter with him just yet. In my office I took a seat and pulled out the drawer that held the box with its key. For several long minutes I stared at the key, my brain starting to itch as I tried to decipher its purpose. It was stained, the once golden key was dark, almost shamefully so, and a few strange symbols had been scratched into the handle. Yet I couldn’t figure out what the magic of the key was.
After a few more minutes I grabbed my hair in my hooves and pulled. “Explain yourself key!”
It tactfully chose not to respond to me. So I got up went to the corner of my office where I kept a small wooden crate and popped it open. A six pack of Everfree Cola and several packages of peanut butter crackers. One soda later, followed by a package of crackers and I was back up to speed. Everfree Cola's slogan was, 'Great Tastes, Everfree Energy'. The soda itself was fine but it was the sugary substance they kept around the inside lip of the drink itself that I was really after. I licked the lip of the lid getting as much of the white crystalline as I could, it was far too sweet but came with a jolt of energy unlike any other.
So a key, with magical properties, and being sought out for by a giant wall of rainbow lights. Yeah, no that made sense, lots of sense. So much sense in fact that I didn’t want to just throw the box across the room out of a caffeine fueled rage. Nor did the box break into a few pieces upon said impact revealing to me the fact that just under the lid, inside a hidden compartment was a folded up document. And that document may not have made sense but it also clearly didn't have the EWP stamp of approval on the top of it.
I just so happened to find all that information out by pure chance and luck. EWP Equestria Work Program, a place that I luckily never had to go to, but so many ponies in this depression did. What could the connection be between this key and a government office? I didn't know but this was my next lead. I left after grabbing a few more colas for the road. I’d already had enough of today’s bull, and this soda was the best ally I could have.
***
Downtown, where the homeless often times filled the alleyways with makeshift homes and burning barrels, one could smell the burning refuge which kept these poor souls warm through the day. Today the Equestria Work Program, or EWP for short was packed to capacity with ponies. I arrived just in time to watch as a stallion wearing a tan suit walked out, escorted by a couple of police. He shouted above the crowd. “Alright filles and gentlecolts, there aren’t anymore jobs today. Out with ya.”
I watched the crowd, probably over a hundred different ponies disperse. Many of whom grumbled or muttered curses as they left. It wasn’t just ponies though, there were donkeys and even a few deer out in the crowd. Those two I felt the worst for. Even if they got the same job as a pony did, they’d get half the pay if they were lucky.
Maybe growing up partly in a unicorn city wasn’t so good to my view on things in the world. Everypony hated me growing up, whether it was the unicorns who scorned my earth pony father, or the earth ponies and pegasi who scorned my unicorn blood. Even so, I’d still get more payment than a donkey. It wasn’t fair, but I didn’t have the power to change minds, if I did I wouldn’t be working so hard to find criminals. I’d just make them turn themselves in.
About ten minutes later the crowd was gone and I was free to step out of my car. I walked down the sidewalk until I got to the EWP office. The doors were closed and inside I could see the stallion along with the cops. I took in a deep breath as I pushed the door open and walked inside. Hopefully my reputation wouldn’t hurt my chances here too badly.
“What?” the stallion from before said coldly. “Didn’t you hear me? I don’t have anymore work today.”
I glanced at the clock. It was about three o clock, the fact that there had actually been jobs up until ten minutes ago was surprising to say the least. Still that wasn’t why I was here. “Actually I’m here to ask some questions about a mare named Flitterbell.”
His eyebrows raised for a split second before lowering into a scowl. “Never heard of her.”
“Oh?” I said blinking at him. I stuck out my lower lip. “Are you sure? Maybe I could help you remember her?”
The stallion nodded back toward his office. “Well, sweetcakes, maybe I have some records of her. Why don’t we take this in private?”
The cops for their part seemed completely disinterested in our conversation. Instead they were very busy looking at a pinup board on the wall. I followed the stallion into the room.
“The name’s Scythe,” he said as he closed his office door behind me. “What brings a dame like you into my life?”
The room was small, but there was a wooden desk, mahogany, and a couple of bookshelves. A couple of filing cabinets in the corner looked neatly stacked. “She seems to have found something and was wondering if I could return it to the owner?”
The stallion took a seat across from me. His brown fur seemed to compliment the desk. “Oh really? And did she happen to mention what this thing was?”
“I don’t remember.”
His scowl returned. “You’re not just here as a friend are you?”
“Maybe not.”
“What is it that you want?”
“Answers.”
“Then might I suggest going to a priest?”
“Ha, very funny.” I reexamined the walls. Portraits of Scythe, what must have been his wife, and his half dozen kids stood out. Next to it I saw a picture of the EWP office and a bunch of ponies standing outside of it, it was such a large portrait that it had to be folded in order to fit into the painting. I saw him standing in the front, and behind him was Flitterbell. Lastly there was a portrait of Scythe with a bunch of other stallions, all of them wearing graduation caps and long black robes. He was being embraced by a white stallion and a gray one, they must have been good friends.
“So you really can’t tell me anything about Flitterbell?”
“No I-“ he looked back at the wall. “Darn it. Well fine, she worked here okay. Until she stole something from my safe. If she’s returning it I might be willing to forget the transgression, but I am not going to rehire her.”
I smiled. “So the key was yours.”
“Yes it… so you know what it is then?”
I gave him the silent treatment as I surveyed the room. There really wasn’t much else to see, though I was beginning to wonder how long his lights would stay on with me in the room. My magic was bound to interfere with them eventually, maybe it was because I wasn’t angry yet.
“Where’s the key?”
“Like I’d tell you that.”
He placed his hooves on the desk, I could sense some hostile intent from him. He must have thought he was dealing with some punk, but that didn’t exactly work against me. “What do you want? Money? Work?”
“What else do you have?”
“I could have you arrested right now.”
“For what? I don’t have your key, and I’m certainly not the one offering up bribes to get it back.”
Scythe pulled out a package of smokes from his suit pocket and grabbed one with his teeth. A zippo came up to his lips and lit the thing. There was a particular symbol on the zippo’s side; it was a mountain with clouds on it and the letter z coming down like a lightning bolt. He must have noticed me looking at it because as he took a puff on his smoke he smiled. “This old thing? Yeah, its gold plated. Got it from my class reunion, and it’s worth quite the pretty penny. Of course you’ve probably never seen gold before, you street rat. Zues’s Academy of Greater Learning is probably above your reading level.”
I smiled at him. “Tell you what we can talk about this later.”
“Wait, what about my key?”
“Why don’t we meet up at Crystal Creak Park? I’ll give you three hours.” I pushed open the door and left. I wasn’t going to stick around while Scythe worked out the fact that I hadn’t asked for anything for the key. This had given me some information about the owner, but even more it gave me a chance to keep my mind busy until I worked out how to stop that warlock who was controlling monsters. That was still a huge problem to be solved, but this could be solved pretty much nowish.
Of course when I got back out onto the street and halfway to my car I had to stop. Static crawled along the back of my neck. My wizard sense was telling me I was in danger.
I couldn’t see anything around me to indicate the threat. There were a few homeless in the alleyway, though they were walking away. Behind me the street was empty, in front of me the street was empty. Only parked cars stood to as relics to pony existence.
A lone black car was diving by very slowly. I stared at it, the windows rolled down and I saw the flash of something steel inside. I had just enough time to throw up my shield as a hailstorm of gun fire rained down at me from the window. The car came to a complete stop and the fire pelted my shield, each hit exhausting me. I galloped to some cover behind a parked green car. My shield was already flickering as I ducked behind it. The bullet fire stopped and I heard the car door open.
Crabapples! I looked around and realized I was sitting behind a car, with just my shield, my aching horn, and no stave nor wand to back me up. Without my tools I was in trouble. My stave allowed me to empower my destructive magic for combat purposes, and my wand focused my illusions to a point so fine that few unicorns could stand a challenge to them. Though I suppose it wouldn’t matter much considering that I wasn’t allowed to kill using magic, not against mortals anyway.
Footsteps grew closer. I looked under the car to see a pair of gray dog legs coming toward me. I searched my pockets and found my first magic trick of the day. I quickly threw down a black smoke pellet and heard the dog round the corner to chase after what he presumed to be a running unicorn. How wrong he was.
The second I saw him in my sights I grabbed him with my telekinesis and pulled his limbs behind his back. For a moment I stared at the white spot around his eye as he gave me a yellow eyed fearful look. I ground my teeth.
“I-I-I can explain,” he begged as the hold tightened.
“See Spot shoot, see Spot run,” I liked my lips. “And see Spot pay.”
I lifted him up into the air, the tommy gun fell to the ground with a clatter. Ten feet up he was screaming. Twenty feet up he was crying.
I couldn't help it. “See Spot fly!”
With everything I had, my cola charged brain sent him flying back with a huge effort of will. I watched Spot fly down the street as my telekinesis let go and he sailed right into the back of someone’s nice four door yellow car. His large diamond dog body collapsed he roof as he sunk into it. The black car began speeding away.
“Not today!” I cried as I jumped out onto the street. With even more effort I grabbed the car with my telekinesis. It was heavy, and the fact that the driver was putting his hoof or paw down on the gas didn’t make it any easier. My head was exploding into all sorts of pain as I lifted the tailend of the car up a foot into the air. I heard a panicked voice shrieking inside, the male driver was in for a doozy. A layer of overglow was already covering my horn but I pushed further still. I knew that I could do it. I just had to keep going.
The back of the car was two feet off the ground. My eyes were stinging, and blackness was edging around my vision. I let loose a cry of pain as something snapped in my head. Still I refused to let go. I heard something, I think it was shouting, but I couldn’t tell. All of my focus was on this one car.
There was a gunshot, the window of the car shattered outward, and my leg exploded into pain. I lost my grip and the car slammed into the earth before speeding off down the road. I collapsed onto the ground. It was hard to see, everything was just so blurry.
My lips were dry, I licked them and tasted metal. On the ground there was a steadily growing pool of crimson. It would seem my leg had struck a leak somewhere down the line. I considered that thought very carefully as I examined the new hole in my trench coat. The royal purple now ruined with scarlet.
That same voice was still talking to me, though I didn’t know what it was saying. I looked over and saw a familiar white face. Her purple eyes were glossy and wet. She looked down at my leg.
“It’s just a leak,” I told Rarity.
Then everything went black as I fell into her soft fluffy white legs.
I awoke to a hammering sound in my skull. The pain was almost unbearable, and for several minutes all I could do was lie in the soft warm bed, the cushiony blanket over me was almost as soft as a pillow. I took solace and comfort in that. When at last I could open my eyes without feeling like the bright lights were going to destroy me as surely as celestial hellfire I realized with a start that I was not in my bed at home.
The room was well lit with a stunning view of the city from a balcony to my left. The white walls were covered with artistic paintings, some of which were strange, and weird shapes, others were picturesque views of the country side farms. One in particular was of a small town that was surrounded by green luscious rolling hills, the small wooden homes and straw rooftops made one feel safe to look at. A few farms lay in the background, one in particular was of a large apple farm.
“A real beauty isn’t it?” Rarity asked.
I looked over and saw Rarity staring at the very same painting. Her eyes gave a distant stare as though she was lost deep in the past rather than the here and now. I watched as she stayed like that, still like a statue, slow rhythmic breathing, the slight curl of her purple lips that would twitch every now and again. She was wearing a red bathrobe and her fur was damp. There was a lovely bonnet over her head.
“That little village is called Appleloosa. A place where earth ponies mostly reside. A few pegasi families moved in, and I think one family of donkeys tried to live there for a stint.” Rarity turned her eyes back toward me. “I think I’d like to visit one day.”
“It sounds nice.” I sat up and the blanket rolled off of me. Rarity looked me up and down and her smile only grew. I gave her a cockeyed stare. “What?”
“Oh, nothing, just admiring some art.”
I looked down. I was naked. The only thing covering me was a bandage wrapped around my right foreleg. With one of the swiftest moves I’ve ever made I grabbed the blanket and dragged it across my bare chest to hide myself.
“And shy too? I picked a real winner.” A melodic laugh escaped Rarity’s lips.
“You’re cruel,” I countered.
“I can be, if that’s what you want.”
Oh no, this was not happening right now. “Look, I just got shot, and blacked out. I can’t do this right now.”
Rarity’s smile faded a bit. “Oh, darling. I already tended to your wound as best I could. The bullet merely grazed your leg.”
“A graze?” I distinctly remember bleeding, like, a lot.
Rarity smiled and with a turn of her head she went back to staring at the old painting. “Yes dear, and a gusher it was. I think you should be more careful. In fact, why weren’t you wearing armor to begin with?”
“Because that’s kind of hard to do and still move about the city. Ponies tend to get worried when they see a paladin marching around the place.”
“Can’t you use your fiddly magic?”
I opened my mouth to argue but stopped short. I hadn’t even considered that as a possibility. Magic armor, proper wizards did that sort of thing all the time. Not that I am not a proper wizard, I’m just broke, and that’s the house council’s fault. Not mine.
“Anyway,” Rarity said kindly. “You can apparently lift cars with your mind. That’s something an earth pony like me would be very jealous of, if not for the fact that it seemed to almost kill you. That gun didn’t make you have a nose bleed.”
I looked back at the balcony. “I wasn’t anywhere near death. But… using magic does more than just physically exhaust a pony sometimes. When pushed to and past the limit of what a pony should be capable of there is a possibility to damage oneself. There are legends of heroic unicorns that died using magic for a valiant cause. Even back in the old times there were stories of unicorns losing their magic completely due to massive amounts of power being used on a regular basis. That is of course complete bull, it was only a temporary damage for most of them as their manalobes were injured.”
“Excuse me, they're what now?”
“Manalobes. Everypony has one, it’s what gives us that special bit of magic that say donkeys don’t have. Zebra’s have them as well, they just evolved differently than ours.”
“Zebras? I don’t think I’ve ever met one myself,” Rarity admitted.
“It’s true, they don’t like Equestria, and can I blame them? The way we are right now, poverty, starvation, racism, we’re not in a good place.”
Rarity nodded. “You know, the last place I expected to see you when I was interviewing the homeless was right outside the EWP office. Whatever were you doing there in the first place? You aren’t that desperate for bits are you?”
I laughed. “No, I was investigating.”
“No, Trixie, what were you doing there? Why did you put yourself in harms way like that? I don’t think you could do anypony any good if you died.”
I couldn’t tell her why I was there, or what I was investigating, could I? Maybe I could on one condition. “I will tell you, but you must swear that it will never leave this room.”
Rarity didn’t miss a beat. “Trixie, I was asking because I want to know. This isn’t for some story, this is because I’m…”
I nodded. “I was investigating an object for a sweet filly. She got herself into a world of trouble, a world she doesn’t understand.”
“So you put yourself in harms way for her, for what?”
“Because… somepony has to be there for her.” I felt my heart breaking at the old memories. Hoofington, a small village home to a bunch of earth ponies and two unwanted unicorns. A place where a dark secret was bestowed upon said unicorns. A place that paid dearly as the Ursa Major was summoned from the depths of deep space to bring ruin to all that lived there. The sacrifice I made to save the village, no if I was honest, it was to save myself, but that sacrifice barely helped me stave off the executioners axe leading to my current placement in life.
I shook her head, fighting off the tears. “It’s not really important right now. So long as I get to where I need to be by six pm.”
Rarity shot me a worried look. “But, it’s five thirty already.”
I jumped out of bed, and completely forgot that I was naked for a moment as Rarity gasped. Of course she’d had to have seen me naked already if I was nude in her bed so I could live with a little shame. I found my coat and fedora lying on a chair and threw them on. It hurt to walk on my leg, but not nearly as bad as a gunshot should have been. My smoke pellets were still where I left them. As I marched to the door of this little apartment I realized to whom this place belonged.
“Nice place you have here, I really like your bed,” I said with a smirk as I walked out the door. “Maybe I’ll come over and borrow it sometime.”
Rarity’s white cheeks went red. “Oh my, that’s so bold of you. I like it. I’ll see you at eight than tiger. Oh and your car keys are in your pocket, and the car’s in the parking lot. Do be more careful next time, I don’t wish to see you injured again.”
I grinned. “No injury can stop the brave and valiant Trixie.”
***
On my way to the park I realized that I was in a spot of trouble. Even with my stave in the car I was unable to use much magic, even the slightest of telekinesis spells was causing hot flashes of pain throughout my skull. There was no choice, if I was going to be walking into any dangerous situation I was going to have to do something about it.
My potion of refreshness came in good use. It tasted like an extremely spicy version of my favorite cola. The potion’s effects were immediate. My eyes opened wide, my brain started working into overtime, and all my weariness from the fights earlier was simply gone. It didn’t heal my physical wounds but it did wonders for revitalizing my strength. I tested out some simple telekinetic spells as I drove. No pain, and to boot it felt like my magic was slightly stronger than before.
When I pulled into the parking lot I was sure that I could take on anything that came my way. The afternoon sun shone brightly down upon the city. The tall buildings cast long shadows, and the park itself was massive. It was less of a park and much more like a forest. Odd crystal formations grew out of the grass, and where the shadows were thickest I could see these crystals giving off a soft pink light.
I entered the park, looking for my target. A gazebo made out of pure white stone. This place was home to the homeless, shelter for the shadows, and hunting ground of predators, both mortal and otherwise. Anyone with any sense would stay far away from this place at night. Of course I was also a wizard, and that gave me a certain amount of leeway.
It was a dark and lonely walk through the forest. By the time I found my way to the gazebo in question I had to pull out my mother’s pocket watch. It was ten past six.
“Celestial Hellfire,” I cursed. “If he left already than I’m going to be pissed.” After a day like this, all I asked for was to know what the key did.
Between a warlock with monsters, and a mob boss sending his goons to kill me after asking me for assistance, I seriously just wanted one thing to go right. Just one. Nopony could fault me for wanting that, right?
I licked my lips. I was thirsty and had left all my cola in the car.
The sound of something moving through the bushes caught my attention. Good, he’s finally here.
When the sound didn’t repeat itself I grew worried. Was Scythe not going to show up? What if he found out who I was and went to go check my office? He could just steal the key without me ever knowing. I almost bolted then and there to go get the key. I wasn’t sure what held me in place, but something felt off.
Down the path I came in from I saw a scorpion tail swing out from behind some of the trees. It was longer than I was. I was petrified as the tail vanished back into the forest. It couldn’t be, the warlock had sent the manticore after me. He’d come to kill me. But how did he know where I was? I only told two ponies where to meet me at this-
Scythe was working with or for the warlock. Or perhaps I was even stupider than that and he was the warlock in question. Using some illusion magic to hide his horn. Or simply wearing a hat, I mean that’s what I did.
This time however I had my wand and my stave. I could hold my ground against a warlock and his manticore. I mean what were they compared to me? I was the great and Powerful Trixie after all.
A branch breaking from somewhere in front of me made me take a step back. Of course I wouldn’t be against the idea of getting out of this forest right about now. My eyes scanned the forest very carefully. Every little movement had my complete attention. The sound of snapping branches caught my ear and I took a step back. A huge orange shape emerged from the woods, its lion head was snarling at me, a deep low growl caused my fur to stand out on end.
For a moment our eyes met, the lion’s green eyes stared fiercely into my own. I took this split second opportunity to look at its neck. There was a collar. So it was a command collar that was doing the trick. That didn’t do me much good if I couldn’t fight it.
The manticore charged. It was faster than I thought, far faster than me. My shield only just barely sparked to life as one of its decisively deadly paws slapped down at me. My shield was able to keep me safe from damage, however it still followed the laws of physics. Enough kinetic force could damage my shield, and even if I pumped up my shield with everything I had, that same kinetic force could have other, less pleasant side effects.
In this case the manticore hit me with the strength of a truck. In other words I was protected in a crackling, sparking shield, as it along with myself, was sent flying through the back of the gazebo. I broke one the pillars on my way out, thankfully my shield took the blunt of the damage. As I hit the earth behind the gazebo my shield collapsed. My body slammed into the grass.
I only barely heard the roar over the ringing in my ears as I both tried to get the tingling pain to go away, and breathe again. My bracelet was glowing red hot and burned at my fetlock. The gazebo strained as the manticore crawled into it and peered at me from inside. I wasn’t dead yet, and the beastie knew it.
My stave was only just a few feet away. I grabbed it in my kinesis and pointed it's tip at the manticore. “Lightning bolt,” I muttered as I sent a force of energy down the length of the stave. My meager power was processed, focused, and amplified as it transformed into electricity. The purple lightning bolt flew at the manticore’s face causing it to roar in pain as it reared. The gazebo never had a chance as the monster easily shoved his way through the roof of the gazebo sending chunks of wood left and right.
That was going to cost the city a pretty penny. Worse yet, it wasn’t quite late enough to guess that nopony would be in the park. There were probably still mortals out here, and I couldn't let this manticore hurt them.
I rolled over, stood up and clutching my stave close with my aura I galloped away. I wasn’t sure what to do, but as the horrible deep roar sounded behind me I figured that I’d certainly gotten the beast’s attention. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I made sure to put as many trees between me and the beast as possible. Only after I heard the beast’s earth shaking paws trampling the ground behind me did I realize how stupid this probably was.
Okay, Trixie, you got the giant beast to pay attention to you? Now what?
I wasn’t powerful enough to kill such a creature, and I doubted my illusions or my tricks would do enough to keep it off of me for long. I glanced back and saw that it was squinting at me with a scorch mark over its right eye. Yeah it was pissed.
Trees were merely smashed to the side as it rammed its way through the forest toward me. Yet those were the only reason it hadn’t reached me yet, it was faster than me. So the fact that the trees were thinning out was a problem. Up ahead I saw a lake, along with a dock leading over it. There were a few ponies playing volleyball on the beach.
“Get out of the way!” I screamed as I drew closer to the lake.
The four ponies looked at me as though I was mad. Of course when they saw the enraged behemoth behind me they spun around and galloped away. I wasn’t worried that the manticore would go after them, no it had a much more personal target. My leg was already burning where’d I’d been shot.
“Celestia damn that dog!”
I hit the peer and galloped across it. There was a giant cat after me and I was sure of one thing, cats hate water. It was my only shot. A pathetic one sure, but it was all I had.
The manticore followed behind me. The wood groaned underneath it’s weight and I felt the pier leaning down behind me. I reached the edge and jumped. Water crashed around me as I plunged and dived as deeply and as quickly as I could. It was actually deeper than I had hoped here, almost as though they expected ponies to go diving. A huge shadow soared over me. Something massive hit the water like a boulder creating a massive tidal force that pushed me back. I tried to get control and swim but was lost into a spiral of water all the way up to the beach.
Coughing and sputtering I climbed up onto the beach. Behind me the water was still trembling. The pier was halfway destroyed with a lot of boards missing and massive claw marks covering the wood. Yet no manticore was in sight. I did not like that one bit. I moved further still inland, hoping to get away without being spotted.
That’s when I saw the lion head stick out from the top of the water. It looked around confused for a moment before spotting me and returning to an angry snarl. It began doggy paddling toward me at a speed with which Olympic swimmers would envy. I didn’t realize cats even knew how to swim, I hated the darn things and this manticore did them no favors.
My stave was still locked closely to my side and I pulled it out and pointed at the manticore. Maybe if I blinded it I could get away, it was worth a shot. “Lightning Bolt!”
Lightning flew from my stave, but missed my target. Instead hitting the surface of the water next to it. Electricity spread through the surface of the water, the manticore jerked madly as it was pumped full of electricity. Realizing what I’d just done I decided to amp up the wattage. I didn’t let up on the spell, watching the manticore jerk, spasm, and twitch until finally he was literally smoking out of the ears.
When I finally let go of the spell I felt a good portion of my energy leave with it. I sagged to the side, wiping a hoof at the damp fur over my eyes. It didn’t help at all. The manticore for all it was worth was now doing the best impression of a life preserver I’d ever seen. This was a battle I’d won, mostly by dumb luck and stubbornness, but I still won it.
I looked around and noticed that I was totally alone. The sky was only just beginning to darken. The purple haze in the twilight was only just reminiscent of my trench coat. For one small moment I had earned myself a break. I checked my mother’s pocket watch, it was almost seven. I may have missed my appointment with Scythe, that rutting fool, but in an hour I’d have my date with Rarity to look forward too. That left me with just scarcely enough time to shower, dry, spruce myself up, and find something nice to wear. The painful rumbling in my stomach told me that I’d be chewing on a few peanut butter crackers while doing so.
All in all, maybe I’d earned just a smidgen of a break.
At least that was until Twilight Sparkle, Head Warden walked up to me. Her gray cloak was pushed up behind the hilt of her silver long sword. A red aura surrounded the hilt.
“Trixie Lulamoon, you have killed four ponies with magic, used magic in public in a fight against mortals, attempted to kill a fifth mortal, a diamond dog, and finally you murdered one of Jade house’s missing manticores. How do you plead?”
There was only one appropriate response to those accusations.
I was laughing, it hurt, I coughed up some extra water. Twilight just stared at me like I had completely lost my mind. Maybe I had. It was just too much. After dealing with a freaking manticore of all things, Twilight just had to show up with some dumb accusations and threats. I swear, it was as though fate had personally chosen me to pick on, and this day to be the worst day ever.
“What in the sun goddess’s name is wrong with you?” Twilight demanded.
“You don’t get it, do you?” I replied. “What, did your little books not tell you how to be civil to other ponies?”
“I don’t have any books on crazy mares that go around killing manticores.” Twilight’s sword slid free of its sheath. “After I run you through, I’ll write one myself.”
That silver blade shone neatly in the setting sun. I wasn’t a fool, I knew that I couldn’t challenge Twilight and win. Not like this anyway. If I ever wanted to fight her I’d have to do a lot more preparation work before hoof. Yet there was one thing I excelled at.
“Twilight, Twilight, Twilight,” I said coolly. “I thought you were above this sort of grunt work. Are you a wizard, a warden, or a barbarian, because right now you're showing me some very earth pony like characteristics.”
She snorted. “You dare to trash my good name? I am Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Twilight Velvet and Night Light. I could take you on in any challenge, and still come out on top. I have books on every duel, game, strategy, and sport that wizards have ever used to settle their debts. You, Trixie, have nothing on me.”
“I do have one,” I said with a wink.
“And what is that?”
I blew a raspberry at her. It might have been childish but Twilight was very much a clean pony and being assaulted by my spit gave me just the break I needed. She brought a hoof up to wipe her face clean, cursing at me the entire time. Meanwhile I swiftly pulled out my invisibility potion and chugged it.
Just as Twilight was done cleaning her face I vanished from sight. A tingly feeling covered my entire body. Carefully I stepped away from Twilight, her enraged expression telling me that I had made the correct choice. Then she calmed down and closed her eyes.
Ha, giving up so easily, I knew you were nothing more than an arrogant, angry little-
Twilight opened her eyes again and they were glowing. I had heard about this before, but never managed to actually use it myself. Not yet anyway. The Sight; a gift that magically induced ponies were able to use. It allowed them to see the world, not as we view it with our eyes, but to see it for what it really was. To see all sensations, smells, feelings, and energy. It came with a price however, for whatever a pony saw when using the Sight, they would remember it as fresh as they’d first seen it for the rest of their lives. There was no forgetting what one saw with the Sight. Thus most unicorns chose to avoid using the sight as much as they could, for each use would forever change them in some form or fashion.
Twilight looked straight at me, blinked and her eyes stopped glowing. “Found you.”
I wasn’t sure what Twilight had seen in me, but whatever it was, it was bad enough to kill. Because she raised her sword and thrust it straight at me. I jumped to the side, the sword scraped along my right shoulder cutting a thin burning line across my flesh. Hot scarlet ran down my leg, and even though it was invisible I could feel it.
Twilight made another swing of her blade, narrowly missing me by a few inches. I stepped back, trying to distance myself from her. After seeing what I did to the manticore I would rather not touch the water. I was sure that Twilight knew at least one lightning spell. Somehow Twilight could tell where I was with fairly accurate attacks, even though she only used the Sight once. I was left dodging, weaving, and ducking under her blows. If she could have seen me I knew I’d already be dead, but because of my invisibility I was able to get by with only a few minor cuts.
My horn hurt and my head ached. I was not ready for this. Not by a long shot. Still I needed to do something, dodging forever was simply not an option. Yet her magic was in a weight class far above my own. I could try to use illusions to project a double of myself to distract her, but of course that wouldn’t work because she already knew where I was.
I was forced to take several steps back in quick secession as Twilight made a dangerous combination of swings and stabs that left me with a new cut on my chin. Fighting her with my magic might just provoke her more, leading to her using spells that would annihilate me in a flash.
Another too close swing nicked my ear. I didn’t yell at a single strike, I didn’t cry, I focused on my twin tasks. Avoiding her attacks, and thinking of an escape plan. If Twilight could fight an invisible opponent, my smoke pellets were not much use either. I knew my time with the invisibility potion was at max five minutes.
If only the stupid manticore had been so effectively slaughtered by me. Than I’d have my perfect dis-
I ducked under a blow that cut a few lengths of hair off of my head. Yet I now had my distraction. Still invisible I withdrew my wand. My horn throbbed with the effort but I waved the wand and create a piece of terrible art that Twilight would now have to contend with. I put all of my fear, hate, anger, and desperation into the spell, and if that didn’t make it work better than I’d just be a lying fool.
A deep rumbling roar filled the air as the manticore rose from its watery grave. Half of its body was still charred, but it took flight with those powerful wings. Water fell off it splashing into the lake with a pounding sensation. Twilight froze as she looked up at it, her eyes widened in horror.
“It’s not dead,” She whispered.
With that distraction I spun around and fled. The manticore swooped toward Twilight and I heard her shout as she flattened herself onto the ground. It was circling her. I locked the spell in place, keeping the manticore in a circling pattern as I continued fleeing into the forest. I couldn’t hold the magic for long, so locking the illusion in place would allow it to stay active for a set amount of time, I gave it about a thirty seconds. If it took that long for Twilight to figure out that the manticore’s real body was still visibly resting in the lake than I’d be a miracle worker. Thirty seconds, even with a bum leg, was more than enough time for an invisible, if not bleeding, mare to get back to her car and out of the park.
The invisibility spell didn’t even last all the way to the car, but I was able to arrive soon enough. I jumped in the driver seat, turned the key, and pulled out of the parking lot faster than I could count. Above me I saw a cloud, strangely lit in the sunset, it almost looked like it was rippling. I looked into the mirror and cursed. Between manticore and Twilight, my face was bruised, bleeding, and worst of all; my mane was a total wreck.
How could I ever look good for this date if I was going to be looking like this? Of course that was assuming that I could go home at all. Twilight knew where I lived, and if she was willing to attack me than she was willing to break my door down and kill me. If she ever found Spike I would be dead in a heartbeat. Still I didn’t think she would be willing to risk it just yet. Breaking into a home uninvited took power for a magical creature, tons of power. Even Twilight couldn’t do that and not be left virtually helpless. Of course sooner or later she could probably find a way in without losing too much power.
So to add to my problems I had Twilight trying to kill a warlock, one she thought was me. Scythe and this warlock were connected. Rider’s goon had tried to murder me as well. But to top it all off I was almost out of gas.
As I pulled into a gas station I was at the very least comforted by the fact that Twilight was going to be forced to deal with the manticore corpse before anypony saw it. The police were probably being called right now by those beach goers. So that bought be a couple of hours at the least. Moving a corpse that large would take effort, will, and probably a portal to the Never Never. None of those things were easy or cost effective.
I was determined to buy some gas, bandages, and a cola. I deserved something to pick me up after all this exhausting crap. It only took a few minutes to find one on a street corner. I parked my car next to a gas pump and waited. A young donkey, probably only sixteen years old and with a shaved head came up to my car. He wore a nice friendly smile. Of course that smile faded when he saw how beat up I was.
With a glance at my fuel gauge I said, “Three gallons”
While he was working on fueling my car I got out, went to my trunk, pulled out my first aid kit and went to the building proper. Leaving my stave in the car was for the best though I did make sure my wand was still on my person. The bathrooms on the outside of the building were actually quite clean which was a nice surprise. I used the sink to wash the blood and grime off of me.
My trench coat was dirty, cut up, and stained with my blood. Taking it off only revealed a nice number of cuts all over my body. Washing them wasn’t so bad, but the peroxide stung like the hottest pits of the Never Never’s Sun Court. Next came bandages, and much to my relief no stitching necessary. Sure I still had a healing potion, but that was going to be used when and only when I needed it. Which I was sure would be soon if my luck continued going like this. As for my mane, there was nothing I could really do with it.
After all that was done I got dressed and went back outside and to the front desk. There was a phone in the corner. First I grabbed a soda and paid for both the gas and the drink at the counter. There was a nice stallion in a wheelchair sitting behind the counter, his name tag read, “Ace”. I smiled at him, and even though he returned it, I noticed that his eyes were attracted to the rough shape my once lovely trench coat was now in, as well as my face with all the bandages on it. Though to be fair in this economy it couldn’t have been too odd to see a mare like myself in such a state of disrepair. The EUP council promised to rescue us all from the depression… eventually.
Finally I sat at the phone against the wall and slipped in a nickel. There was only one person with whom I wanted to speak right now, and it was about something that Twilight had so graciously offered up.
When the ringing stopped I heard Applejack’s southern voice cut in sharply. “Applejack here, who is this?”
I smiled. “Oh, AJ. You’re so cute when you're upset.”
From the growl on the other end I could tell my flirtation was not welcome. “Lulamoon. I was wondering when you’d call. What is it now?”
That was rather off putting but I held my tongue back. “I’ve recently heard that there might have been other warlock attacks. Is that true?”
Applejack was quiet a moment. “Listen, Trixie. You’re plumb lucky you called me at home otherwise Ah’d be unable t' tell ya anything. There have been two other cases like the one you saw. Ah just found out, and their recent.”
“Do you need me to take a look?”
“No.”
I let out a sigh. “Thank the almighty sun for that, I really would like to keep what little bit of food I have left in me, in me.” My stomach hurt at the mention of food.
“Ah take it yer having a rough time of it?”
“Are you kidding, I was nearly-“ I cut myself off before I could finish that. She didn’t need to know about the wardens. “It’s just been rough. At least I have something to look forward to tonight.”
“Sleep?”
A smile crept along my lips. “Only if I’m lucky.”
“What are you going on about?”
“Personal stuff, not too important. Anyway I might have found a clue about how these murders are happening. These monsters seem to have collars around their necks, collars that are controlling them. This warlock is a threat to be sure.”
There was silence.
“Applejack?”
“Nothing, just Ah’m surprised you called t’ tell me that. If’n you get any more information you’ll call right?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Yer mah friend, you know that right, Trixie?”
The statement sounded oddly soft coming from her. Almost like she wasn’t telling me something, but was trying to hint at it. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I didn’t like it. “Yeah I know that.”
“If there was more t’ this, you’d let me know. Ya wouldn’t hide things from me would ya?”
“We already had this conversation.”
Her tone grew hard again. “Yer right, we did.”
I didn’t like the way this was going. So I popped the top to my cola and took a drink. It was sweet, bubbly, and kicked my brain back into gear. The weariness was shoving off as cola induced energy came rushing back to me. It occurred to me to check out what time it was. “Oh crap, I’m going to be late.”
“Late for what?”
“My date.”
“Yer what?”
“Nevermind, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”
I hung up and went out to my car, it was already field up and ready to go. The windows had also been washed. I gave a warm smile to the donkey. “Now if only you could fix my mane like you did my car. I’d be all set.”
I tossed a few copper bits his way before taking off. I was going to be late if I didn’t hurry. Oh how I did not want to keep Miss Rarity waiting.
***
I got home just a few minutes before eight. The first thing I did was check to see if Owlicious had returned, and he had. He was resting on his perch in my room. Which meant that Spike had returned home. I pulled the rug free, opened the trap door, and climbed down as quickly as I could. Spike’s eyes lit up the moment my hooves touched the basement floor.
“Spike!” I cried. “What did you learn?”
“Nothing much, just that there were containers being lifted up onto some ship all day. There were a lot of them though so I don’t know how long it would take to get them all done, two, three days.”
“Did you see the warlock?”
“Dunno, but I did see a suspiciously cloaked pony. Followed them for a bit. They went all the way to this nice big building downtown, fancy place, lots of bellboys and ushers. Red carpet and the works. But that there are lots of places like that in Manehattan.”
“Do you know where it was exactly?”
“Nope, because I was almost spotted by the pony. I figured that they could kill me with a mere thought so I backed out right away.”
“Ugh, you're useless. What good does any of that do me?”
“You’re the detective, you figure it out. Now I lived up to my part of the bargain, it’s your turn.”
Reluctantly I sighed. “Fine, you are free to go for twenty four hours.”
His ball of green light laughed joyfully as it leapt out from the skull and flew up through the floor. Not using my trap door, but literally flying through the woodwork. If only I had that kind of power, I’d be able to get up to all kinds of mischief, fortunately I was still alive, and I figured I could live without such powers.
I checked my watch.
There was just enough time to jump under the showerhead and attempt to get twigs and dirt out of my mane, tail, and fur. The shower was cold, but did the trick. Just as I got dried and dressed into a long white summer dress there was a knock at my door. I threw on my straw hat and went to answer it.
There she stood. That perfect white fur embraced by a tight fitting red dress that sparkled in the light of the street lamps. The black hat on her head held a red rose in it and for a moment she assessed me.
With a smile she offered, “Are you ready, darling?”
I nodded. Looked back and grabbed my saddlebags. My wand was in there so I wouldn’t be too out classed if I came across trouble. “Let’s go.”
Instead of taking my car we got into her jet black one, it looked ten times nicer than mine did. I took the passenger seat and she revved up the engine. Of course she forced me to buckle up before actually going anywhere. I guess she didn’t trust me.
“So where are we going?” I asked.
“We’re going to an auction house,” She said with a smile that told me she had something planned that didn’t involve buying some rare antiques.
“Um, that sounds…” I searched for the right words. Couldn’t find any and finished, “Not very romantic.”
“Darling, you wound me. Romance and excitement are bound to happen, after all, we’re going to be doing some investigation while we’re there. I hear their selling something illegal and magical. Also Mr. Rider is going to be there, and I’m sure that you wouldn’t mind getting to ask him a few questions.”
Before I could even complain about that being a terrible idea for a date Rarity had slammed her hoof onto the gas peddle and we were speeding off down the road. It was clear from her driving alone, that Rarity really didn’t care for the rules, because if any cops saw how fast we were going they might just wet themselves. I know I was about too.
It was a rather short ride, especially considering the speed at which Rarity drove, to the supposed auction house. It was a three story tall building, with a large parking lot. We drove up to the front doors where an usher took our car for us. Walking down the red carpet and through the double doors had a surprising effect on my pride. It felt like I was meant to be here, like I was very important. With a beautiful mare by my side I felt like queen of the world.
The lobby was a nice large open space, and several stallions in black suits, or mares in stunning gowns all stood around talking. Rarity led me to a backdoor where a large stallion with black glasses and a suit stood guard. There was a revolver at his side.
“We’re in a hurry, the password is; Shoo-you-buggering-fool,” Rarity snapped.
The guard stepped to the side and let us through. The hallway beyond was dimly lit, and the further we went the less electrical the lighting became. Candled sconces replaced the light bulbs as we neared the end. A door led to a large dining room with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, glowing crystals sat proudly in them casting brilliant soft blue light over the room. There were over two dozen ponies here, a few of them wore hooded cloaks that covered up their faces, but others proudly wore fancy clothing. I could see food being held aloft in telekinetic auras and even if the ponies were wearing hats, it wasn’t impossible to know that they must have been unicorns.
“What is this?” I asked feeling very dumb all of a sudden.
“It’s the Black Magic Auction,” Rarity whispered as we made our way through the small crowd. “Now try not to stand out too much, dear.”
This was lining up to be a terrible first date. It also crossed my mind that if Twilight saw me here, she’d kill me on sight and wouldn’t even have to defend her position to the council. This was the wrong kind of company for a wizard on parole to be having. Still I was curious, what could have gathered such an assortment of wizards, and dark wizards at that.
Mr. Rider was talking to a unicorn with a beautiful white fur coat, and a short cut but very stylish blond mane. He didn’t even try to hide his horn, instead offering a gleaming smile to anypony who looked his way. For a moment I actually found myself wondering what it would be like to spend some time alone with this stunning stallion.
Rarity must have noticed because she nodded toward him with a frown. “That’s Blueblood, he’s a noble from one of the unicorn cities. From what I hear he’s here to get power so that he can bolster his position in politics.”
“So he’s a politician?” I wondered. What house could he belong too. He didn’t look like a Sapphire to me, or an Obsidian. Judging by his suit and tie, I doubted he was Jade either. That left Ruby, and Pearl. Both of those houses had a flashy look and attitude, only one of them was more flamboyant than the other.
Mr. Rider of course noticed me and with a wave of his wing he beckoned us over. This was not going so well. I kept my eyes peeled and spotted both Spot, now wearing a cast on his arm, and a minotaur next to him nearby. Mr. Rider was certainly protected.
“Well if it isn’t Miss Lulamoon, my dear how has it been?” Rider asked in an almost friendly demeanor.
I could still feel the aches in my bones from my two recent encounters. “It’s been a rough day.”
“I can see that. My apologies to your current situation, if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know,” he offered. “After all, friends help one another.”
It was a challenge, but I managed to not vomit at his false kindness. “Just keep your dog in check, if he attacks me again, being thrown through a car will be the last of his concerns.”
Rider’s eyes widened. For a split second he opened his mouth to reply, but stopped short. He caught himself, steadied, and gave me a hard look. “Oh, well I will be sure to do just that.”
I hadn’t expected that. It looked like he had no idea that Spot had tried to kill me earlier. Which meant that his man was acting without his knowledge. That would be two ponies now that were working under his nose. I could only imagine the kind of punishment that Spot was going to be in for this later.
Not wanting to be ignored anymore Blueblood walked up and held out a hoof. “Hello, fillies, my name is Blueblood, noblecolt of house pearl, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Rarity was dumb enough to reach out. He grabbed her hoof and gently kissed it. I watched with boiling anger barely being held back as she withdrew her hoof and her cheeks went pink. “Oh my, well it’s a pleasure. I’m Rarity, and this is my date, Miss Lulamoon.”
Blueblood’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, the warlock.”
“I am not a warlock.” I felt that anger rising even higher.
“You were. And until you have proven yourself worthy of freedom, you are.” He stuck his nose up in the air. “I must apologize but I will not dirty myself by speaking to a warlock, or their beautiful cohorts. Mr. Rider, I shall take my leave of you, but do keep my offer in mind.”
Mr. Rider smiled that same sick smile. “Oh, I will.”
I turned and was surprised to see that there were two other ponies coming our way. One of them wore a dark gray cloak, similar to that of a warden’s cloak, yet it was ripped and torn at the bottom as though age and fighting had gotten the best of it. She had peach colored fur, and red and yellow locks fell over her face. Her partner was a stallion, a little taller than Wind Rider and had dark gray fur with a pitch black mane, he however wore a red velvet suit with a white frilly undershirt. His horn was almost glowing with red heat and the crown on his head was gold with gems of every shape and color built into it.
The unicorn stallion smiled. “Miss Lulamoon, I am Sombra, the king of shadows. This is my acquaintance, Sunset Shimmer. Princess of the Sun court.”
The king of shadows had earned his infamy. He was a warlock of the highest caliber, and conducted the underground trade on all illegal goods. Many wardens had gone out to bring him down, very few returned, and those that did were broken ponies.
“Sombra,” I said coolly, keeping my inner freak out contained. “I hardly expected to see you here. Didn’t you hear, there’s a mad warden on the lose?”
“Oh, you mean that incident you had with Twilight Sparkle, yes, I’d heard about that. She was quite furious that you just left a massive manticore corpse in sight for the entire city to see. I think she is really looking forward to your next meeting.”
I shivered. “I bet she is.”
Sunset spoke, her tone was quiet, yet commanding, “I think we should get ready, the auction is starting soon and I wish to see what you're selling today, Sombra.”
Sombra beamed. “I bet you all are.” He turned. “Until we meet again, may the dark watch over you.”
While he left, Sunset stayed just a moment longer. “You shouldn’t have come here, Lulamoon.”
With that cryptic and threatening sentence Sunset seemed to have deemed herself done talking to me and left. I stared at her, she felt familiar, as though I should know her better than just a princess of the Summer Court. Then again, I didn’t know the Summer Court had a princess either, I didn’t mess with the Never Never, and it didn’t mess with me.
Mr. Rider took one last look at me. “I hope your affairs are all in order, Miss Lulamoon. Oh, and please keep my offer in mind.”
I watched him leave as well. This was just great. I was sitting here with a mortal earth pony that I had the hots for, surrounded by potential enemies, each of which were stronger or had an upper hoof on me, and the auction for illegal magical items was about to start. How do I keep getting myself into these situations?
In a few minutes the stage lit up with sparkling light that had no visible source. Two unicorns stepped up on stage, both were peach with red manes, and they looked very similar to one another. The only difference was that one of them had a mustache. They wore stripped suits that were almost offensive to the eye.
“He’s Flim,” said one.
“And he’s Flam,” added the other.
Together they said, “And we’re the world famous Flim Flam brothers!”
Even if I thought their style of clothing was disgusting, I did like their flair. For a pair of unicorn brothers I thought it was almost attractive, too bad they were likely too stuck on themselves to know that the one who really deserved all the attention was currently sitting somewhere near the back of the room.
“Alright folks,” Flim said. “Don't we have some treats for you today?”
Flam’s horn lit up and the curtain behind them was drawn open to reveal a pony sized casket that was closed, nailed shut, and chained. I got the feeling that whatever was in there was deadly, dangerous, and beyond my ability to face. Rarity leaned forward as if transfixed by the scene.
“This here is the casket of the one and only vampire pony Count Drake Blood. The first, and last of the true vampiric race. The black court, the undead, the deadly, the life stealing, the rotten, the abysmal. And for the low starting price of sixty thousand gold bits, this can be yours.”
I blinked. That was more money than I think I’d made in my entire career as a wizard thus far. The fact that they were asking for that much meant that whatever Count Drake Blood was must have been worth it. I don’t know what they’d want with a vampire, but I was sure it wasn’t good either way.
A white mare rose her paddle via telekinesis.
Flim smiled, it reminded me of Mr. Rider’s sick grin. “Do I hear Seventy thousand? No. That’s sixty thousand, going once, twice, and sold! Miss White Blood you may have your long departed husband back now.”
That… was a case I was going to stay far away from I decided. It was one of my rare moments of intelligence. Of course after that they sold a haunted car for thirty thousand bits, the ashes of some holy saint for twenty five thousand, and a few other things that I didn’t want to remember. Finally we were at the end of the auction, and I noticed that Mr. Rider had yet to buy anything, though I feared he knew exactly what was being saved for the end.
Flim stood there with a valiant smile as though he’d just made a killing tonight. Considering I think he made near five hundred thousand gold bits, I could see why. He opened up the curtain to reveal a cage covered in a white tarp.
“Here we have the last, and greatest of our prizes for sale,” Flim promised the crowd. “Right now it is under the influence of a deep sleeping spell, because if it wasn’t we could all very well die right now.” There was the smell of sulfur coming from the cage that caught my attention. Something glowed ever so slightly from under the tarp, a deep orange color like fire.
Flam spoke as his horn lit up, the edge of the tarp was covered by his aura. “May I present to you, a real, live, dragon!” he yanked off the tarp and from inside the cage I saw it. The dragon. It had green scales, with black spikes along its back. It was slightly larger than a car, so it wasn’t fully grown yet. Yet still dragons were notoriously powerful, hardy, and worst of all magic. The EUP spent its early career wiping the dragons out of Equestrian Borders and even then went so far as to slaughter them in their own homelands. Dragons still existed to be sure, I mean I was looking at one, but they were endangered and hidden.
“Is… is that real?” Rarity asked in a voice so quiet that I almost missed it.
I swallowed. “Yeah. That’s one Tartarus of a monster.”
“W-what would somepony even want with a dragon?”
“If they could control it, they would have a weapon beyond power. Of course dragons do not like ponies, I can’t help but to think that the dragon there is just wanting to go somewhere quiet to hide out. This… this is pretty much slavery.”
“Your right you know,” Mr. Rider said. “And it would be a shame if nopony came to its rescue.”
I almost spat my bit right there and then. That’s what Rider was after, he wanted a dragon. Of course everypony in this room would obviously want a dragon.
Flim was the first pony to speak after the initial shock in the crowd wore off. “Now folks, this is an extremely rare opportunity, only made possible by our generous benefactor. So you can imagine that the starting price will be understandably high.”
Yeah, like your prices weren’t ungodly already.
“One hundred and fifty thousand bits for this wonderful creature.”
I stared at him and the room fell into dead silence. I barely heard my own breathing over the cold stillness that now filled the room. Everypony was stiff, their muscles rigid, and their breathing short. Every hair on my body was standing straight out, and gooseflesh erupted along my legs. I was terrified, more terrified than I think I’d been that day. What if somepony used this beast on me?
“Ahem,” Mr. Rider cleared his throat calmly. I jerked my head over to see that his paddle was raised.
“That’s One Fifty going once,” Flim said.
A paddle raised up in the crowd and a male voice followed. “One hundred and Seventy thousand.”
Flam jumped in. “One seve-“
A female’s voice erupted from the crowd. “Two hundred thousand!”
“Two ten!”
“Two thirty!”
“Two seventy!”
“Three hundred thousand!”
Finally there was no longer a contender. Flim was able to speak again. “Three hundred thousand going once, twice, and so-“
Mr. Rider stood up and raised his paddle. “Four Hundred thousand!”
I think my gut dropped somewhere when I heard him offer up enough money to buy a small city. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was willing to go that far for a dragon. A dragon under his command! I didn’t know what he wanted with a dragon, but whatever it was it was too much to deal with. I watched helplessly as Flim sputtered, and Flam had to jump in.
“Once, twice, and sold to Mr. Rider. Welcome to the dragon club. Membership is extremely exclusive,” Flam said.
Things were quiet, and as I walked out with Rarity neither of us spoke. All I could think of was what would happen if Rider had a dragon under his command. What would he do with it? Who would be hurt? The city couldn’t exactly stop him already, but with a dragon, the magical world would be unable to do much to him either. Was he really making his play into my world already? Or had he already been there, in the shadows, growing in power and size and it was almost too late to stop him from conquering my world as well?
I didn’t know which it was, but I did know one thing. As I watched Flim and Flam going out the back doors of the auction house I realized that somepony was going to have to stop them, and that this pony was going to be very stupid or incredibly great. I was incredibly great, although I was beginning to feel more and more stupid all the time.
“Rarity,” I said very quietly, very carefully. “Where do they keep all of their stuff?”
Rarity stared at me. “In the back, I was already there earlier, but I didn’t touch anything. I didn’t know what was dangerous and what wasn’t. I… I saw the dragon’s cage, but I didn’t think-“
“Could you get us back there again?”
She nodded. “Yes, but what-“
“We’ll figure that out on the way. Let’s go.”
For a moment Rarity looked at me with horror in her eyes. Then a smile grew over her lips and her eyes flashed proudly. “Oh, I knew you were a fun one. Follow me.”
My skills with a lock pick were almost universally useful I figured as I unlocked one of the doors leading to the back of the building. Rarity led me through the crates of normal stuff, antiques, cars, etc, all the way to another door which was again locked. The moment I touched the door I felt my skin tingle with energy. There was magic on this door. Probably a ward to keep outsiders away from the good stuff.
“How did you get in last time?” I asked.
“I followed someone else in, slipped a book right between the door and the wall before it shut. Why? Can’t you unlock it?”
I shook my head. “I could, but this door is warded. You're lucky you managed to do that, this door is probably warded to go off whenever somepony tries to open it without disarming the ward first.”
She frowned at me. “And that means?”
“It could explode and kill us.”
“Oh… that sounds just awful.”
I smiled as I connected my will to the ward placed on the door. “Good thing you have such a good wizard with you. The sneaky and skillful Trixie can get past most any ward.”
It wasn’t a difficult one to wrap my mind around. That wasn’t saying that this ward was simple either, it was just odd. Every time I had thought I was done with the ward, having disarmed it, another ward would show up to replace it. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that while I worked on one ward, another one was being created. Splitting my attention between the two wards I began to work on them simultaneously. I may not have the abundance of raw magical power somepony like Twilight had, but I did have elegance and skill.
When I had disarmed the two wards simultaneously I gave a quiet hooray. I opened the door and stepped through with Rarity close behind me. Of course I was well aware of the danger we were going into, but I only required her to show me where to go, after that I was sending her back to the car. No need to get her in trouble against forces she couldn’t fight.
The door led to a series of abandoned offices. This was awkward to say the least. There was a layer of dust covering everything in here, and no furniture. At the end of the office hall there was another door, this one was merely locked. After opening this one as well I found myself staring into a large open space where all the objects from the black magic auction were still sitting. The only one that I was interested in was that cage with the tarp on it.
Of course I found it. Wind Rider and his goons were standing before both Flim and Flam as the cage was loaded onto the back of a truck. I couldn’t hear what was being said between the two, but I did watch as both Spot and the minotaur got into the truck leaving Wind Rider behind to sign some paperwork for the twins.
The truck’s engines roared to life just as a metal gate was lifted up on the wall. I spun to see Rarity staring at me with the same kind of worry on her face that I was feeling. We galloped back out into the backrooms and into the lobby. On my way out I passed by Applejack and Caramel Apple. Of course Applejack had to put a hoof out and stop me.
I nodded for Rarity to go and get the car before focusing on Applejack. “Hello, nice to meet you here, how was your day, great, great, I need to get going.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What in tarnation are you doing here?”
Caramel Apple pointed to the door I had literally just come through. “I don’t suppose that door was locked before you showed up, wizard.”
I shrugged. “It was open when I got here.”
Applejack almost growled. “Ah’ll ask you one more time. What are you doing here?”
“Seeing the sights, smelling the roses, enjoying a date with my marefriend.”
Applejack blinked. “That… wait, was that white pony your-“
I cut her off as I lifted a smoke pellet from my pocket with my telekinesis and stood on my rear legs. “Enough! The Great and Powerful Trixie has wasted enough time, she is on a deadline!” The smoke pellet hit the ground and I closed my mouth. As the black smoke erupted around me I galloped away, through the main doors and out into the parking lot where Rarity was already waiting for me with the passenger car door open. I jumped in.
“Go! Go! Go!” I shouted as I shut the door and ducked my head.
Her hot rod had no trouble whatsoever in speeding away. It was really only a matter of seconds before we were out of the parking lot and back onto the street. We drove around until we caught a glimpse of the truck with the cage on the back. The flatbed was longer than the cage, but only just barely.
“Okay,” Rarity said. “What now?”
“Now you get as close to the side of that thing as you can and I do some heroic detective business type stuff.”
She shot me a dirty look. “I swear, if you jump out of my car and hurt yourself than I will never speak to you again.”
“Then I better not get hurt.”
We pulled up to the side of the truck. I kicked open the door and pushed myself to the edge of the seat. I Looked down and regretted it. We were moving fast, far too fast for this to be safe. I looked up, the back of the truck was only a few feet away but it might as well have been a few miles. It was lucky that I noticed Spot staring at me with wide eyes before jumping. The truck accelerated and pulled away.
“Crap!” Rarity shouted. I felt a leg around the back of my dress grab me, and yank.
I flew back into the seat and Rarity swerved wildly out of the way. A car came speeding past us going the other way. My heart was pounding in my chest. “T-thanks.”
“Now what?” Rarity asked as she pulled up behind the truck. With the truck moving left to right she was unable to get a good position on its side.
“Stay behind it.” I said as I reached up and grabbed the top of her car. “I’m jumping on the back instead.”
She blinked at me. “What are you? Insane?”
“Yes!” I cried before getting on top of the car. There was no way I was letting Wind Rider get away with a dragon. Climbing up onto the top of the car was scary, and I still have no idea how I managed it without slipping. Once I was on top I got onto the hood, keeping out of Rarity’s line of sight as best as I could. My dress caught the wind and fluttered behind me. In fact I nearly lost my hat and was forced to keep a telekinetic hold on it to keep it on tight.
“Now pull up!” I screamed back at Rarity. Cars drove past us with wide scared eyes. Somewhere in the distance I could swear the sounds of sirens playing along to the whistling wind.
The car inched ever forward. I knew that the truck was trying to accelerate as well, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Neither was Rarity from the speeds she was willing to go. Of course the last thing I expected was for the truck to slam on the breaks. It was like a caged wall running at me. I felt the grind of metal, heard a wicked crunch, and was thrown forward. I grabbed onto the cage, my hooves slipped and I fell. Desperately my hooves sought out a handle and slipped around one of the loose straps on the cage.
Once I was sure that I wasn’t falling any further I looked back and saw Rarity’s car slowing down. Her window shield was cracked, and her front bumper was missing. I looked down and almost screamed as I saw how close my dangling legs were to the rolling pavement. Carefully I pulled myself up and onto the flatbed.
“Okay, Trixie,” I said as I tried to calm my racing heart. “Step one complete. Step two, er… start.”
What was step two? I had no freaking clue. I mean what was I doing here? I didn’t know if I could even wake the dragon let alone what I’d do when the goons pulled into whatever warehouse that Wind Rider owned. Still I swallowed hard and made my way around the flatbed. There was maybe two feet of space for my hooves to walk on, and no rails. This was probably the stupidest thing I’d ever done. When I turned around the corner and saw the passenger car door of the truck open and a gray furry hand come out I knew that it was indeed the stupidest.
The minotaur the came out of the truck was wearing a pair of brown pants and a white tank top. His rippling muscles were exposed and he gave a snort as he saw me. I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to really go from here. With far more ease and grace than I had shown he climbed onto the back of the flat bed. If it was hard for me to walk on this thing than it was a miracle for him. He had to keep one hand on the cage’s straps because his muscles were pushing him away from the cage.
“You thought you could steal from Mr. Rider?” He asked.
I looked around. The buildings were growing smaller now. I could see the oceanfront. “I won’t let you keep this poor creature.”
He moved closer to me. “You're going down, little pony.”
“Know what, muscle head,” I said as I let go of my hat. The wind easily ran off with my hat, and although losing it was painful, seeing the color drain from the minotaur's face was beautiful. “I think you need to take a little trip.”
My purple aura surrounded the minotaur. He was heavy, but as I lifted him up off the flatbed he held tightly to the strap. My horn was still hurting from earlier, but I didn’t let that get to me. I divided my attention from keeping him levitated to pulling out my wand. With a wave of the wand I was able to work a little bit of extra magic. The strap he was holding turned into a snake. I saw the minotaur shriek like a filly as he jerked his hand away. That’s when I threw him out of the truck and watched him hit the water. He rolled across the surface for a split second before sinking.
“Get dunked,” I said as I went back to work on the cage. It really wasn’t that hard. Just undo a few straps, lift the tarp and see the dragon. It was still asleep.
“Okay little dragon, now I just got to-“
A loud thud slammed onto the top of the cage. I closed my eyes for a moment and prayed that I didn’t have to deal with this. Still I knew better. When I looked up I saw that lavender face, complemented only by the raging fire she held in her eyes. A silver sword was held aloft in a red aura, pointed right at me.
“Long time no see,” I said with a smile.
“Warlock.”
“You don’t even have proof that I did anything bad!”
“You’re stealing a dragon, which was foalnapped in the first place. This breaks one of the laws of mag-“
“Are you kidding me!” I screamed. “I’m rescuing the poor thing you jerk!”
Twilight blinked. Her anger however recovered quicker than I’d like. “I don’t believe you.”
“Just hold on one moment, I’m going up there,” I shouted. I had to get closer to the front of the truck before I could actually clamber on top of the cage to meet Twilight. I was actually surprised to find that she waited for me. She could have just knocked me off, that probably would have killed me straight on.
Once I was on top and facing the gray cloak, I wasn’t sure if I’d improved things much. I was still far from fighting shape, if I ever was in fighting shape to begin with. “Thank you for waiting.”
“It would dishonorable if I were to slay you with such an advantage.”
“Oh but killing me when I don’t even have a sword is honorable.”
Twilight’s horn flashed a little brighter and a duplicate of her sword appeared. It landed on the top of the cage. “I was in rage earlier, but you are right. That was unfair of me.”
I tried to speak, to retort, to argue. Of course I was well aware of the irony, I asked for a sword and she just gave me one. That didn’t mean I could freaking fight her, but it was better than I had expected of her. Course what was I really going to do now?
“Pick up your sword and then your trial can begin.”
“What, in, Tartarus, are, you, doing?” I put extra emphases on every single word. “We are on a speeding truck, with a sleeping dragon underneath us. There is a warlock on the loose-“
“You mean, you're on the loose.”
“- and he’s killing ponies with some kind of monster. I just want to get one good thing done tonight. Saving the poor dragon is probably all I’ve got in me. And you want to fight?”
“I am stopping the warlock and doing good.”
“No, you're being a selfish, arrogant jerk and getting in my way of stopping the warlock.”
Twilight snarled. “Raise your sword or forfeit your life, warlock.”
“Screw you! I am not a warlock!”
“You and your friend summoned a dreaded star beast and killed a village. That was before you killed your best friend so you could have all the power yourself. Too bad you did not realize that because she summoned it, the beast would vanish with her life.”
I screamed, it was unintelligible, it was raw, pure emotion. That had finally done it. She’d broken my last straw. No more misses nice Trixie. “Starlight was the warlock, and it was only because she didn’t really understand what she was doing, neither of us did. We were children!” I picked up the sword in my orchard aura. “How dare you tell me that I killed her because I wanted power! It was the only way we knew how to stop the summon. We didn’t know how to use magic properly. She valiantly gave up her life so that we could fix our mistake.”
I swung the blade. Twilight skillfully parried it. Twilight smirked. “You can’t fix murder.”
Twilight’s blade came in fast, and I swung my sword at her own. Twilight’s sword bounced away from my own. I wasn’t really sure how to hold a sword, so I sort of held it like a baseball bat in front of my face. I’d seen sword combat, even tried swinging a sword once or twice when nopony could catch me, but that didn’t mean that I could actually use one. Twilight was raised, trained, and experienced on swordplay.
“How many other warlocks have you killed?” I asked Twilight as we circled one another.
“Two,” Twilight said proudly. “One was trying to attack me while I was on a recovery mission.”
“The other?”
“None of your business,” Twilight spat. Her sword came in, fast. I had to dodge it but compared to Twilight’s swordplay I was slow. A nice long cut burned into my leg. My white dress was cut, and stained red.
“You just ruined my dress,” I said as I took several swings at her. Each one was easily parried by Twilight.
“Two warlocks,” Twilight said. “Soon to be three.”
I had to duck as her sword shot toward my face. Another swing came down nearly cutting my shoulder if I hadn’t jumped back I’d be in serious trouble. Twilight’s sword moved up and came crashing down toward me. I jumped to the side and the blade hit the strap underneath me. It came flying loose. The cage jerked slightly.
An idea popped into my mind. But to pull it off, I’d have to show some of my acting skill. “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight.”
The look she gave me could have set me on fire. “What?”
I swung at her. She parried. My sword came down hitting another strap. “I can’t believe you would be such an idiot. All you can do is read books. You’ve had hardly any practice on swordplay at all.”
She glared at me. “I have had plenty of practice with the other wardens.”
I swung again. She easily dodged and the blade hit another strap beneath Twilight. “But not enough actual combat experience. Face it, you’re a protected little noble you can’t fight somepony like me who's had to fight, cheat, and lie her way through life just to survive.”
A growl escaped Twilight. I didn’t give her time to attack me. I swung several times in succession. Each one missed, each one cut at the straps on the cage. I kept eye contact with Twilight and finally I had her back to the edge of the cage. I smiled.
“What? Why are you smiling?” Twilight demanded.
I turned back and ran, my telekinesis reached in through the back window where I could see Spot. I grabbed the dog’s leg and aimed for the break even though I couldn’t see it. I managed to grab hold of the top of the truck, wrapping my leg around the burning exhaust pipe just as the truck jerked to a stop. Twilight tried to get her balance, rolled over and screamed as the cage, without any straps to hold it down, came flying off the back of the truck. I heard Spot curse from inside the truck. He didn’t stop driving though; in fact it felt like he sped up.
I looked back and saw Twilight still on top of the bouncing cage holding on for dear life. She was screaming at me. I stuck my tongue out at her as the truck sped away. The sword Twilight made for me vanished into thin air. I trusted Twilight would rescue the dragon for me.
Now that the dragon’s cage was safely away from Rider, and with the one pony that I surprisingly trusted to take care of it, I was able to calm down. Just enough to realize that the truck was still driving, and that Spike hadn’t stopped for anything. I lowered myself back onto the flatbed and sat down. With my wand I tapped the back of the glass on the truck.
Spike didn’t even flinch. He simply stared ahead. His eyes were glossed over, and his movements were a little sluggish. It was odd to say the least. If I had the ability to use the Sight I would have loved to see what was actually wrong with him. Still I could tell something was very wrong.
In the lane behind us I saw a familiar black car with a diamond for a hood ornament. The front bumper was still missing. The truck was finally slowing down as we approached a dock. It slowed down to the point that when it was turning off the main road going to a private dock I jumped off onto the sidewalk. Rarity pulled her car up to the side of the street and threw open the door.
“You,” she said with cold fire burning on her words. “Get in.”
I nodded and got into her car. We drove away at a normal pace. For several long minutes nopony talked, the radio played some jazz music and I listened to it wishing I was on a dance floor as opposed to in the car. At least I can communicate with dance.
Finally as we pulled into a brightly lit street leading closer to Ryhmes Square Rarity decided to end the silent treatment. “Do you know why I’m mad?”
“I broke your car,” I said lamely. “Sorry.”
Rarity growled. “Try again.”
“Uh… I… I don’t-“
“You almost died!” Rarity snapped.
I couldn’t really respond to that. It was a legitimate concern that I hadn’t expected from her. She cared about me. Part of me had thought, no it had hoped she was just using me to work on a new article. I was wrong, and ashamed of myself for thinking so. Of course she cared about me.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“No you’re not. You’d do it again in a heartbeat and we both know it.”
I lowered my head. “I had to free the dragon.”
“Oh and where is the dragon now? In the middle of the street for someone to just grab and run off with?”
“No, Twilight has it.”
“Who the Tartarus is that?”
I swallowed. “Um, not important.”
“I think it is.”
“Rarity, I c-“
“No, listen to me,” Rarity said, her voice was warmer than I expected. “I was worried about you. This was crazy, and I’ve never done something like that before. In all my years of investigating I have never once been in a car chase, or at least not one like that. I… do you remember that painting of Ponyville that I was staring at in my apartment?”
I nodded too afraid to speak.
“I… that’s where I grew up. I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. There’s this forest there, illegal to enter, guards are posted all along it, but as foals we’d push one another with tests of courage to go into the Everfree Forest. Most foals get caught and in trouble, I… I didn’t. I got in the forest, I went deep into the forest. Inside that place, do you know what’s in there?”
I stared out the window, the streets were all packed with ponies leaving a movie theater. “Yeah, it’s a monster preserve. Protected to keep magical creatures alive, we can’t let them roam the countryside, but killing them off would be both bad for business and immoral.”
“So you can guess at what I found in there?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Rarity let out a sigh. “Once I realized that monsters were still alive, and that ponies were lying, or just plain stupid, I decided to try and get the information out there. To investigate, and report the actual truth. Nopony really wants to hear the truth though.”
“No, they don’t. They're comfortable in their lies of safety. If ponies knew just how dangerous the world really was, and who really ran it, they’d-“
“They’d freak out.” Rarity finished for me.
“Yeah…” And hence the reason I haven’t told anypony about the unicorn side of things. My world had looked the truth in the face and found power in the ugliness. I didn’t want to share that with anypony.
“So,” Rarity said carefully. “Now do you understand a little bit more about me?”
I nodded.
Rarity threw her hat off her head. Her magnificent mane was beautiful, full, and curly. I had once thought that only a fellow unicorn or a pegasi could really attract my attention, but this earth pony was truly stunning. I wish she’d show her mane more often. Rarity gave me a sideways glance. “Trixie, I am going to take you home. But I want you to know, I still like you. So long as you promise to at least take my feelings into consideration next time we go on a date, I’d love to do this again.”
“Can we just go watch a film instead?” I asked.
“Where’s the excitement in that?”
We shared a laugh. It was short, sweet, and full of promise.
Just as we arrived at my place Rarity reached into the backseat and pulled out my straw hat. She gave it to me with a smile. “Don’t go losing your head, darling.”
After getting out I waved my farewells as she went out again. Mom’s pocket watch told me that it was a little past nine. With Spike gone for twenty four hours, I had precious little time to figure out what to do about this warlock murdering ponies. But at least I was sure of one thing. I had just survived a date with Rarity.
I went inside and got dressed into some more familiar clothes. My trench coat and fedora. I packed my stave, wand, healing potion, and my last smoke pellet. Everything was ready for me to go back out there. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I had that key and that was something. Still I felt like my leads were understandably short, except for one. That private dock that Rider’s goon had turned off to, it had to be important. I just couldn’t figure out what for.
Just as I got to my car and was about to head back to my office to grab that key I saw a police car show up. It parked out front and I watched as Applejack and Caramel Apple got out. I stood there as they both shot dirty looks at me.
“Look, AJ,” Caramel said casually. “I need to get home to the kids. Let’s make this quick.”
“Shouldn’t take much time,” she replied.
I watched as they both approached me. There was a stiffness to their movements, tension in their muscles. It looked like they were prepared for a fight, not just an argument. But who were they going to fight?
“Applejack,” I greeted. “How are you doing?”
“Good.”
I looked at Caramel. “Hello, Caramel.”
She glared at me. “Shut it.”
My instincts were telling me to run. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t like the look either of them were giving me. Nothing too bad could happen. We were friends after all, well me and Applejack anyway.
“Trixie,” Applejack said, there was something in her tone, something dangerous. “Do you know either Flitter Bell or Scythe?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Flitter is a client of mine. Scythe is a jerk.”
“Client? How so?”
“She asked me to investigate something.”
Caramel gave her a sideways glance. “See, what did I tell you?”
“Not now, Car.” Applejack looked me up and down. “That’s a lot of stuff, you going somewhere?”
“Still investigating. Why?”
“Investigating what?” Applejack asked
“The case.”
“What were you doing at the auction house?”
“Investigating.”
“Ah need details.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I can’t give you details.”
Applejack glared at me. “That sounds an awful lot like obstruction to justice.”
“Applejack, this is part of my world, I can’t give you those details without endangering both you and m-“
I expected a retort, or a glare, or any of the above really. What I had not expected was for Applejacks’ hoof to hit me right in the nose. Pain flashed across my face as I fell back onto my haunches and rubbed at my nose. There was blood, but I didn’t think it was broken.
Applejack’s eyes told me she was on the edge of something, and that I didn’t want to know what that something was. “You can’t decide what’s safe fer me or not! Ah am not some damsel in distress, Ah am a police officer. Trixie, you are stuck up, arrogant, and getting in my way. Ah think you’ve done more harm than good so far and Ah think you need a time out.”
I blinked at her. “Applejack, what did I do?”
Caramel stepped up. “What did you do? How about murder? There was Cloud Bounce and his girl, they were getting in your business right? Then we have the murders of both Flitterbell who had your card on her, and Scythe the pony that some of our officers reported you going to meet only a half hour before his body was found.”
My eyes widened. “Dead? How?”
“How do you think, you keep murdering them. Turning them into a pile of meat,” Caramel snapped.
Applejack nodded. “Ah’m sorry, Trixie. But if you didn’t do it, yer still getting in the way. Yer coming with us.”
This was not good, really, really not good. Between Twilight trying to murder me, and now one of my friends trying to arrest me I was going off the deep end and quick. I was pretty darn sure that Rider was involved somehow too, but if I told them about my interactions with Rider and the clues I had, they’d only think worse of me. I still wasn’t willing to tell Applejack about the wizards, the houses, wardens, magical crime syndicates or pretty much anything. She still believed that her world was ruled by the EUP, when in truth the EUP were only in charge of mortal affairs. The unicorns were in charge of the rest.
“Put Yer hooves up,” Applejack demanded.
Caramel moved in with a pair of hoof cuffs. I had no way of getting out of this, not easily. I couldn’t hurt Applejack, and though I didn't like Caramel I couldn't exactly harm a mortal. I needed a quick way out, as well as a way to clear my name. Without any more murders happening.
Without much of a choice I closed my eyes tightly. As tight as I could. My wand slipped out of my saddlebags. I heard Applejack gasp, about to tell her partner to stop me, or watch out. I was quicker on the draw, I shouted the power words to this spell, “Brilliant Flash!”
A blinding white-purple light lit up, bright enough to rival that of the sun. The entire street was lit up, every shadow was vanquished in that light. It only lasted a second, but that was enough. I heard both Applejack and Caramel scream. That was my cue. I spun around got to my car, threw my crap onto the passenger seat and started the engine all in one quick motion. My hoof slammed on the acceleration and I was driving off with Applejack slinging curses my way.
That spell did leave its mark on my horn, a dull ache. It was a move that didn’t do any damage, but was a great temporary distraction. They were not going to be able to see properly for at least five minutes. The downside to this spell was that shutting your eyes defeated it, and thus it was a wonderful one trick wonder, but a one trick wonder it was.
I had only two places I needed to go, and with Applejack now after me I was sure that my office was being watched. So that made my choice pretty simple. I was going to that dock, and I was going to find out what Rider was doing with a dragon, and how he was connected to this warlock. I was sure that there was connection there, one that I was missing, and since I didn’t really have much else to lose at this point there was no sense in dragging out this one out.
It was only about halfway to the dock warehouse before what Applejack had said really sunk in. Both Scythe and Flitterbell had been murdered. Ravaged and eaten by some unknown, unstoppable force. My mind shook as I imagined what Flitterbell’s poor discarded body looked like. Bits and pieces of her strewn about all over the place. I had tried, didn’t I? I told her where to find safety. Wasn’t that good enough?
No.
It was not good enough, because the poor filly was dead. If only I’d personally escorted her to the church I could have kept her safe. Instead I just assumed she wasn’t still being followed, tracked, and hunted. That damned key was supposed to be the thing that was following her, but no, it was something else. Perhaps it was guarding the key, and tracked her scent, not realizing that she had passed the key off to me?
I didn’t know, but it bothered me. My insides were like razor wire and knives. I had just talked to her. A few short hours ago. My brain was itching again.
With a shaky hoof I padded the floor of my car for a cola. There wasn’t any there. I dared a look in the back seat. A few empty bottles lay on the floor but not a single full cola. I needed one to think. How else was I going to figure out what was going on? I was missing something. It was close, on the tip of my tongue in fact.
BEEP!
I nearly drove off the road as I swerved out of the way of a passing car. It went on past me and I kept going. My head still hurt. Twilight was trying to kill me. Rider was up to something fishy. A warlock was killing ponies. And worst of all Applejack was trying to arrest me. This was the worst possible thing.
If only I could focus on the tasks ahead of me I could figure this out. Screw my rent, my entire reputation was on the line here. Getting the warlock, clearing my name, saving my life, and paying my rent were all part of the same deal now. A great and wonderful packaged deal that was out of my reach.
That stupid dock was the only place that I could think of to check now. The only lead I had. So that’s where I went. To yet another warehouse on the docks. Manehattan was full of them after all.
Come to the lovely city of Manehattan, here you’ll find evil warlocks lurking in warehouses, evil mob bosses lurking in warehouses, and halpless wizards doing what? Lurking in warehouses!
I finally caught sight of the warehouse, and lucky for me the flatbed truck was still sitting out front. With my car parked down the road I walked the rest of the way to the warehouse. There was an odd stillness here this night. The lights inside the checkpoint were flickering, but nopony was to be found. I walked right past the checkpoint, and continued on to the warehouse proper. The truck was still on, its engine humming along by its lonesome into the gloomy night. The front shutter doors to the warehouse were open a few feet off the ground. I peered beneath them.
The warehouse was empty, several lights overhead were blown, and the rest were flickering at odd intervals. Inside it felt cold, much colder than it did out here. There were dark red stains on the cement floor. The stains were dragged off into a small office space deeper inside.
I swallowed. This looked bad, but as luck would have it, I was here now to do some investigating. I really didn’t want too.
Slipping under the gate was easy enough. The moment I got in the cold bit into my flesh through my trench coat. How did it get so unbearably cold in here? Where were the ponies? There should have been security at the gate, and the driver to the vehicle was gone, despite it still being on.
A sound drew my attention to the outside behind me. I heard hooves clip clopping along, growing louder on their approach. I searched around for any cover, but the only thing I could see was an office room. I quickly and quietly made my way to the office space and hid behind the wall staying as low as I could.
“I swear, the dragon was supposed to be on the truck,” a stallion spoke in a whispery voice.
I listened harder to hear who he was talking too.
The stallion spoke again. “No, no, that wizard from earlier is a fool. She couldn’t have stopped the dragon shipment. She didn’t even know it was coming in.”
Again I tried to hear the voice of the ponies reply, yet none came.
“Yes, my goddess,” he spoke quietly. “I will stop her this time.”
I peered out the door just long enough to see that the stallion in question was the cloaked warlock. He was facing the wall, but nopony else was in here.
He shook his head. “I do not understand how she killed the manticore. It must have been pure luck. There are few ponies out there that could match my skills, and thanks to your help I am made the most powerful in this city. None can hope to stop me… I’m sorry, I meant you, my goddess. None can stop you, your return shall be beautiful, stunning, and full of bloodshed. The war will be a short one.”
I pulled my head back and took in a quiet and shaky breath. This was bad. He was out there, and if he was insane and talking to himself than he was dangerous, if he was actually talking to a goddess than he was even more dangerous. I didn’t want to do this anymore, but at this point if I quit I’d lose everything, including my life. I had to stop him, but I wasn’t sure how. For all I knew he was more powerful than me. Perhaps if I got the drop on him, a surprise attack could work.
The office room I was in offered little in the way of protection. It was dark in here. The lights had blown completely. It also smelled awful. Though I wasn’t sure what that smell was. There were no weapons, no electricity, and no way to sneak back outside. All I could see was darkness, black stains on the carpet, stains that were still wet, and bits of something all over the floor. A dark lump was in the corner, an office chair or something was my guess, at least until I realized it was moving.
Vary carefully I looked out the door again, the warlock was now looking back out the front shutters. So I took the opportunity to send out a small orb of light from my horn, the orchard ball flew toward the lump and I saw Spot sitting hunched in the corner. His eyes were staring at me, blank of any emotion, and the collar around his neck almost shined in the light. I noticed a lock on his collar, but I wasn’t sure why. It looked to be made out of leather, which could be cut off if need be. A lock served no purpose.
Then I looked at the floor. The black stains were long, large, and led over to behind a desk. Along the way there were bits of fur with wet meat still attached, strewn about the floor. I could see a lumpy pile just barely sticking out from behind the desk and dropped the light spell. I no longer wished to be in here.
The sounds of hooves against the cold concrete nearly made me jump. They grew in volume until they reached the edge of the doorway. The warlock’s shadow cast into the room as he looked in. I held my breath.
“Dog, come with me, I will require your assistance yet again,” the warlock said coldly.
Spot rose from his place in the corner and walked past me and out into the warehouse proper. I listened as the two of them walked away. When I was brave enough I peeked around the corner and saw the two going under the shutters and back outside. It was in times like these that I wished I kept a makeup mirror on me, sticking my head out just felt like a bad idea.
After a moment I heard shouts emerging from outside. The voices didn’t sound like they belonged to the warlock or to Spot. I could have stayed in that tiny, cold room with all the meat, or I could leave to investigate further. I decided to leave.
I got all the way to the shutter before realizing that I recognized the voice that was shouting. It belonged to the minotaur. “What is he doing here?”
I looked under the shutter and saw the minotaur pointing a finger at Spot, who just stared blankly at him. Wind Rider was standing a little ways back with two other stallions and a mare all dressed in black suits. They each had tommy guns, save for Rider who held a whinnychester riffle.
“Mr. Will,” Wind Rider said in his cool, collected voice. “Please step away from Spot.”
The minotaur, apparently named Mr. Will did just that, taking a stand next to Wind Rider. The twelve gauge shotgun on Mr. Will’s back was drawn and aimed at the warlock. This was going to be a blood bath, and I was pretty sure that I knew who was going to come out on top.
Rider gave a chilling look to the warlock. “Please, would you care to explain to me why you are on my property with one of my associates?”
“I was looking for a dragon,” the warlock replied. “But you lost it along the way here. Imagine my surprise that even while I let them feed, your men could not tell me where the dragon was. Oh it was disappointing to be sure, but even if the dog’s become a bit blank since I first… befriended him, I was able to gleam an idea of where the dragon went.”
“Oh and where is that?” Rider asked.
“If I told you that, I’d never get the dragon for my army.”
There were several gun clicks but the warlock didn’t even flinch. I stared in amazement. He had already shown his skill in ice magic, and in mind control magic, or at least control over monsters. I didn’t want to know what else was up his sleeve.
It didn't look like Rider was taking any chances. “Then we can’t come to an agreement. Kill him.”
With that gunfire was loosed upon the warlock and Spot. It was like a series of mini explosions, and even from my place behind the wall it hurt my ears. Shotgun shells spread out into deadly fire, tommy guns rattled off bullets, and Rider meanwhile never fired a shot. He only watched with careful, and cunning eyes.
For that split second when the gunfire began I was sure that the warlock was dead. Even I don’t know if I could handle that much fire at once. But the air between the bullets and the warlock had thickened, grew distorted, and cracked with every succeeding bullet. It took me a moment but when it hit me I was dumbfounded.
The warlock had set up an almost invisible wall of ice between himself and the mobsters. The warlock was laughing. “You, mortals thought you could stop me? A wizard! You will die with all the other weaklings when my goddess returns. For I am her champion, her apprentice, and her knight. The likes of you will never be enough to stop me.”
The warlock rose to his full height on his hind legs and raised his hooves into the air. A move he had stolen from a much greater and much more impressive wizard. “Now! Face! My! Swarm!”
The air grew thick with a buzzing sound. The gunfire died out as the mobsters all looked around confused. They weren’t the only ones. I was looking around as well. The sky nearby was moving, rippling as if it was made of water. A rainbow colored wall was there and growing both larger and louder by the second. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that what I was staring at had to be the rainbow monster that Flitter was so scared of. Which meant that she was murdered by this warlock. Which meant that the key was certainly connected to him as well.
I slid underneath the shutters and pointed my stave at the warlock. “Lightning Bolt!”
Purple lightning streaked toward the warlock, but hit something invisible and was scattered in different directions. I could see a scorch mark hanging in the air. The warlock didn’t just make a wall of ice, he made a cubical of the stuff.
He glared at me. “The Fool Wizard! Ha! You too shall be eaten, just like your friend.”
I gritted my teeth. “Buck you!”
The rainbow wall was enormous now. Little dots of color were moving rapidly towards us. I didn’t know what to do about them, but I did know one thing. I wasn’t going to let that warlock kill more ponies. Not toady, not ever. I couldn’t very well strike the warlock down yet, but I could still stop him.
“RIDER!” I screamed as I galloped toward his group.
They all raised their guns toward me. I readied my shield just in case, though it wouldn’t do me much good if they all pulled the trigger at once. “We need to get out of here. That thing coming toward us has eaten every single pony it’s come across yet. We need to get going!”
Rider gave me a cool look that I was having difficulty deciphering. “You’re telling the truth, aren't’ you?”
“Let’s just call it me paying you back for the dragon. Now get going or else it will eat you.”
Rider looked at his men and then the cars they’d come in. “Alright everypony, get to the cars, we’re getting out of here.”
As we all galloped away the warlock was still laughing. “You can’t outrun the cold hunger of death itself!”
I met Death once, handsome fellow, a bit loud, but sweet enough. This wasn’t death. This was just evil.
I was right alongside Rider as we were galloping toward the vehicles. “I am willing to overlook the dragon. My plan was to free it in the first place. But I will not be giving you a lift.”
I scowled. “Whatever.” Of course if I hadn’t stolen his dragon I’d probably be offered all sorts of things. This just sort of made us even. If I died, it was my fate for messing with his property, if I lived, than we were even, I think. It was my trial by fire.
The sky above us was blocked out by those wretched little buggers. Hundreds, maybe thousands of little balls of color swooped down from the sky, each one of them latching onto the stallion who was bringing up our rear. I saw the little eyes of the demons as they grabbed onto the stallion. Their mouths opened up larger than their bodies and sunk teeth into him. He loosed a howl of pain as he was lifted up into the air. A moment later he was covered in them, and pieces of him were raining down.
I looked away. Seeing the aftermath was bad enough, but watching it happen in person was much worse. I separated from Rider’s group as they all ducked into their cars. Mr. Will jumped on top of the back of a truck and the moment his butt was planted he began firing into the sky. I saw the little buggers exploding above me, but it did too little when the mass of thousands of them were still flying above us.
My car was further along. My legs were burning. Sweat ran down my brow. I wanted to scream. I think I did. The moment I hit the car, I swung open the door, jumped in, and slammed it shut. For a moment I thought that maybe I was actually safe. There was a crackling sound as one of the little guys slammed into my windshield. A small crack appeared from the impact.
“Celestia rut me proper,” I whispered as I watched the other little rainbow balls repeat the process. Several cracks were quickly spread over each one of my windows. Dents were popping in my roof as their little bodies hit with enough force to do damage.
I started my car and the radio popped on. I pushed down on the break and screamed. The engine died. The radio stayed on though.
The radio mare had a voice like silk in a storm of doom. “And now a special request from Pinkie Pie to a pony trapped in a bad situation; Rocket for me by Colors.”
If I was going to die, at least I was getting a beautiful mare to sing me into oblivion. It was probably the sweetest voice I’d ever heard, full of vigor, confidence, sexuality, and grace all at the same time. A trumpet blared in the background while she sang.
“It came to town
A new kind of motion
Spread around
Sort of set you frying
Now I’m all through with sympathy
Oh, rocket for me
Every night
You’ll see all the cites
That’s right
Poor and filthy
Now that they’re all down with sympathy
Ho ho ho, rocket for me
Now it’s true that once upon a time
The warscene was all but devine
Now today it’s all rage and pain
So you won’t you satisfy me
Oh Rocket, Oh rocket
Oh rocket for me.”
I sat there, waiting.
And waiting some more.
The sound of the swarm was still buzzing up ahead, barely audible over the sound of the music, but they’d stopped hitting my car. I looked up, the swarm was slowly moving off into the distance. The swarm seemed to be bouncing, swinging from side to side, and having what looked to be a wonderful time. There was a blue one on hood of my car, it’s wings had broken and it’s body was bloody and bruised. Yet it was still bouncing, or flopping in rhythm to the music coming out of my stereo.
I don’t know how long I sat there. Staring at that little guy. I know that I watched it attempt to dance until it finally gave in, closed its eyes, and went limp. Yet I just couldn’t bring myself to move. I had… won? Survived surely, but the swarm actually flew away.
I remembered then something that Flitter had said. The rainbow wall had chased her all the way up until she hit a parade. There was music in parades. I smiled at finding what had to be an important clue in how to defeat the warlock. I turned my key again. This time the engine roared to life, and I was off. Where was I going? Well first of all I was going to get my key and check my messages. After that, I wasn’t entirely sure. One step at a time I suppose.
***
My office was just as I thought it would be. Being watched by a police car in the street across from it. Even though my watch told me it was ten I knew that I could get inside easily enough. But if I went up there I was going to be seen. Now I was really regretting my wasteful use of the invisibility potion.
I parked around the block and got out. The cops were going to see me the moment I went inside the office. At least they would if they were looking at me. Invisibility spells were very difficult. I had managed to go invisible a few times in practice, but only for a few short seconds. The issue was that one had to be able to constantly account for creating a shifting illusion of their surroundings as they moved. So standing still and being invisible wasn’t that challenging, it was moving that taxed me too hard. There were however much easier options available for not being seen.
I peered around the corner of the building and saw the cop car still sitting there. I could make out two ponies inside, though I wasn’t sure who they were. With a flick of my wand I cast one of my grand illusions, perhaps the greatest one yet. A double of myself! I sent my double walking right past the cop car, going toward the office as though she was heading to work. She didn’t look as roughed up as me, but I did add the bandages to keep it more realistic.
The car doors swung open. Both Applejack and Caramel Apple stepped out of the car. Caramel had her gun ready in her mouth. Applejack stomped loudly. “Freeze! Yer under arrest!”
My double looked back, screamed, and galloped down the street in the opposite direction. I heard Caramel’s revolver go off followed by Applejack cursing at him and giving chase. “Don’t you dare shoot her again!”
Caramel followed. “She ran!”
“I don’t care if she’s running, driving, or flying on a broomstick away from us, you don’t shoot her!” Applejack demanded as the two rounded the corner and out of view.
I wasn’t sure how long my double would exist for, but my hope was that it would last long enough. I galloped to the front door of the building, whipped out my bobby pin and got to work on unlocking the door. Within seconds the door was unlocked and I was inside. I locked the door up behind me and went straight for the elevator. I was going up.
Once I got to my floor I got off and spotted my office. Oh how I missed my office. It was like a second home to me, just public. After slipping inside I hit my ice chest for a cold Cobra Cola. The snuggery caffeine drink washed down my throat like godly elixir. The itching in my brain stopped and the aches started to fade. It was no rejuvenation potion, but it was as close as I was going to get.
The key, I was happy to discover, was still inside the desk in its little box. I took a seat and relaxed in my chair, still nursing my cola. I had no idea where I was supposed to go after this. The warlock was out there, somewhere. Rider wasn’t involved with him and he was my best lead. Scythe was dead. Flitter was dead. What in Equestria was I supposed to do?
A tired sigh escaped my lips. It had been a long night. Too long. Being on the run from the cops, as well as from a giant swarm of little colorful round things that ate ponies. Manticores, wardens, and dragons, oh my.
After a few minutes I finished off my cola and glared at the door. My stomach was groaning, and I felt the hunger pains. A few more peanut butter crackers later I was not in much better shape. I was running on darn near empty, but what was I supposed to do now?
My phone sat there. Staring at me. It occurred to me that there was one pony that I could still contact. One pony that might still have a resource available to help. Though I was positive that they were completely out right now. It was too much to hope for, but I called in anyway.
The phone rang nine whole times before it was picked up. The sleepy voice on the other end spoke in a soothing tone that could bring peace to the middle of a warzone. “H-hello?”
“Hey, Coco, it’s me, Trixie.”
“Trixie? It’s pretty late, so this much be important, right? What do you need?”
“Did a mare named Flitterbell stop by today?”
“The mare you sent to me? Yes. She stopped by and I fed her, I even offered her a blessing but sadly she didn’t want to stay. I attempted to ease her mind by telling her that you would check up on her, but she was really determined to leave.”
“Where did she go?”
“Why do you ask? Did something… did something happen?”
I grimaced. “I just need to know where she went. Please Mother Coco, I need the help.”
There was silence for a moment. “Would you be willing to come into church Sunday?”
“No.”
“She went to her house. I have the address right here for you.”
“Thank you, Coco.”
“You send the Sun Goddess’s lost children my way for help, of course I can return the favor.”
“I don’t do it for your god.”
“No, but you still do holy work.”
I growled. “What’s the address?”
“400 south, Devil’s Ballroom.”
I wanted to scream. Flitterbell lived in Devils Ballroom. Of course she had a magical key and was being chased by a monster. That place was dangerous and the only law was Wind Rider’s thugs. Still it was as good a clue as I could get.
“Thank you, Coco.”
“Please don’t thank me, thank the sun goddess. She is the one helping you, always, even in our darkest nights her light is there to guide us to the next dawn.”
I hung up.
After that I decided to grab a cola for the road and leave. It was well past time to get out into night and go to Flitter’s last known location. Part of me was terrified that I’d find her body there. Another part of me realized that I needed whatever clues she had bad enough to break into a potential crime scene. It was just one small trip down the elevator, and one lucky trip out the front door and back to my car. Applejack’s car was gone now. I suspect they were looking for my vehicle. It was only by blind luck that they didn’t find it on the street.
I got in, turned on the engine and pulled out of there. The roads were quiet, and traffic was low. This meant it only took ten minutes to get all the way over to the Devils Ballroom to start looking for Flitterbell’s place. I found it sure enough, a small single story house on a quiet street. The house itself was a faded blue with an overgrown yard full of weeds. Police tape surrounded the house telling me not to go in. The neighbors houses on either side actually looked worse. I saw a group of young donkeys down the street watch as I parked outside the house. They watched me, or more specifically my car with hungry eyes.
I had learned long ago that the only way to go around a city like this was to move with predatory purpose. I got out and marched my way past the police tape and up to the house. I made double sure that my keys were in my pocket. They were.
I didn’t knock. No point in knocking on a dead mare’s door. I just opened it and walked in like I owned the place. There was no magic barrier, and I felt no weaker inside. Yeah, this wasn't a home anymore, just a murder scene.
The inside was a wreck. Chunks were missing from the wall. Bits of the carpet had been torn up. The sofa was in shreds. I was careful not to touch anything important looking as I made my way further in, over to the kitchen. Food had been splattered against the wall as something hungry had ate it. I didn’t have to guess what that thing was either.
Next the bathroom. This room was in surprisingly good shape. Though when I looked over and saw the stained carpet in the bedroom I knew why. Inside everything had been torn apart. Drawers thrown to the floor, clothes ripped and discarded and dark splatters covered the walls. At least the body had been moved, or more likely bagged.
The thought made my stomach twist. I looked around. There had to be some sort of clue, something, anything. I didn’t want Flitter’s death to be for nothing. I looked through the torn up papers, the discarded clothing, and the ruined bed. Why did Flitter come back here? What was so important that she couldn’t just stay in the church and be safe. Magic things couldn’t have touched her there.
After several minutes of searching I sat down and leaned against the wall. I was missing something. What though? That swarm of monsters had come in here and gobbled up everypony thus far. I mean that shouldn’t have even been possible. Magic creatures couldn’t just force their way into a house, not without losing a considerable amount of power. Each one of those swarming things were pretty weak on their own, so they wouldn’t be able to enter. That warlock would have to had been quite powerful indeed to break a threshold and retain any amount of power, but he wasn’t that strong. I’d witnessed him. The kind of power that he would need to pull this off would be godly.
I banged my head against the wall. “What am I missing?”
A portrait fell off of the wall and bonked me in the head. Glass shattered onto the floor as it landed. I rubbed at my head while lifting the portrait up with my telekinesis. It was another picture of the ponies working at the EWP. I saw Scythe and Flitterbell. This picture however differed from the one in the office earlier. This one wasn’t folded on the end like Scythe’s had been. On the corner of the picture I saw a pony I had met recently. A white stallion with a golden tail. The fedora he wore was black just as was his jacket and pants.
There was another clue. If Scythe was friends with Blueblood, that must mean he had access to knowledge about where to find him. I couldn’t believe that Scythe would be friends with just any unicorn, I was now sure that this warlock was in fact Blueblood himself, but in order to prove that I would first have to find him, and then get a good look at his face.
If only I could prove to Twilight that Blueblood was really out here and acting in clear violation of the first and forth rules of magic than I would be able to get out from under her sword. Still I had to find him first.
The trip to the EWP office was a quick one. I got out and of course the doors were locked. After a quick unlocking of the front door I slipped in without problem. Once inside I made my way toward the office that had belonged to Scythe just a few short hours ago. Inside it was dark, but after flicking on the lights I was able to look around with ease.
First I checked that picture. After taking it off the wall and slipping the back cover off I found that Blueblood was indeed on both copies. He was also on the graduation picture. Him and Scythe had been friends at some point. Yet it was clear that Blueblood was now against both Scythe and probably whoever this gray stallion was.
After looking around I found a few notes in the desk drawer. Yellow note paper with several to do lists on them. The first one was a grocery list for himself and the family. A lot of bread and potatoes went to his house. The next one was a list of ponies who were not going to get any jobs anytime soon, they were blacklisted. Finally I came across a list of his personal agenda.
After work check up on BB at Sun’s Betrayal.
Get a blessing from the goddess. It’ll guarantee my kids collage.
Meet with nosey blue whore, probably introduce her to the goddess personally.
First of all, I am not a nosey blue whore, I am an inquisitive blue lady. Secondly BB must stand for Blueblood and it looked like Scythe was in on this cult thing too. I hated cultist, they were messing around with powers they never understood and simply hoped they could contain. Things always got messy when cults were involved.
I heard somepony outside of the door. I quickly shut the drawer and slipped the painting onto the floor. The door handle rattled. I had no choice, I had to pull out my wand.
“Mr. Scythe?” An old gray maned stallion said as he poked his head in. He wore a guard’s white shirt and black pants. His old eyes scanned the room. Looked right at me, and then moved over as if nothing was there. After a moment he shook his head. “Guess he left the light on again.” The guard turned the light off before shutting the door and leaving.
The moment I was sure he wasn’t coming back I let out a sigh. My wand went back into my saddlebags and I let go of the invisibility spell. My horn still throbbed from all the earlier excitement. I am not a fighter, and I was never meant to be. An elegant creature like myself was meant to use her magic for greater deeds. Muddying my hooves with so much fighting in one day had left me tired, and beaten. Potions, cola, and sleep hadn’t done enough for me.
I grabbed the to do list and made my way back out into the lobby and out of the building. I just had to find out where Sun’s Betrayal was located at. Which was hard considering I had no idea what it was. I was half way back to my car when I heard tires screeching along the side of the road. The black car from earlier was back and it was behind me. I galloped ahead. The window rolled down. Something black and shiny was pointed out the window. A gun!
I ducked into an alleyway behind a dumpster. Explosive fire rang out. It soon disappeared. Carefully I looked around the side of the dumpster and couldn’t see the car anymore. There were no bullet holes in the alley. It was odd to not be fired at for once.
At least until I saw my car.
Bullet holes riddled the engine and the wheels were all blown out on one side. I cursed. This was probably the worst luck I’d had all day long. I mean what was I supposed to do now? Walk after the bad guy?
My watch told me it was already three quarters past ten. I didn’t know why, but it felt like there was a ticking time bomb just waiting for me. What was I supposed to do about it? I didn’t know. Since I couldn’t use the car anymore, I really was forced to walk. Down the sidewalk, late at night, all alone.
It was maybe another ten minutes before I saw a gas station. Surely there was a phone in there. I only had one alley left; Rarity. And I was praying to the Sun Goddess that she was going to be able to give me a lift, as well as know what the Sun’s Betrayal was.
Before I could even cross the street there was a loud siren going off. It lasted a fraction of a second but it had me frozen, even before I heard Applejack’s voice dripping with venom. “Freeze or be shot!”
I froze. I mean what else was I supposed to do? I didn’t even have any smoke pellets on me, not that it would matter none. I had nowhere else to go. Slowly both Applejack and Caramel Apple circled around me. Caramel had the hoofcuffs.
“Now listen here, Lulamoon,” Applejack said. “We chased that ghost of yours around for twenty minutes before I realized that it was trick. You dun went and made a fool of us. An’ Ah’m not letting you get away this time. Ah won’t hesitate t' take you down.”
I lowered my head. “My car just got shot up. Come on. Do I really deserve this?”
“Ah don’t know that yet. You keep on running and that’s not a good sign.”
Caramel slapped the hoofcuffs on my forelegs with way too much force. “It’s also called resisting arrest and that’s a crime.”
“There’s a much higher authority than you out there,” I snarled.
“Oh yeah,” Caramel said leaning in. “Who? God?”
I wanted to head butt her so badly. How I restrained myself I’ll never know. “Get rutted.”
Applejack nodded toward the car. “Thought you’d show up here after Scythe’s death. Caramel, get her in the car.”
Caramel shoved me, hard. “Go on, git.”
I walked, awkwardly with my forelegs cuffed. It was also slow, which prompted Caramel to shove me some more. I glared at her. “You know this is considered police brutality.”
“Not until I break your nose it ain’t,” Caramel snapped.
Applejack just gave me a sad look. “We’ll know if you’re the murderer or not soon I think. You can’t do magic from a cell.”
“Yeah, but I can certainly be killed from one.”
“Now listen here, nopony is going to kill you,” Applejack tried to reassure me. What she didn’t know was that I already had a pissed off warden after my rump.
On my approach to the car I heard a buzzing sound coming from their radio. It was annoying to say the least. I was shoved into the back seat, shut and locked in, and the two cops got in the front. Applejack turned on the car, but it didn’t want to start for some reason. It certainly wasn’t me sending all of my hate directly into their engine to give them more trouble. Why would I ever do that?
The sound was getting louder, which was probably my fault. I decided that I’d rather have a working car than a loud one and stopped hexing the car. Too late I guessed as the buzzing only grew in intensity.
Applejack looked at Caramel. “What’s that noise?”
“Dunno, but she seems to be loving it,” Caramel said with a smirk.
I growled. “Just turn your darn radio off already. You don’t have to torture my ears as well as arrest me.”
Applejack looked back at me. “But the radio’s turned off.”
“Than what’s that ungodly-“ I chocked on my words as it hit me.
Caramel had her hoof on the door handle. “I think it’s coming from outside. I’m going to check it out.”
“NO!”I screamed. “It’s the swarm. It’ll eat you. That’s what’s been killing ponies. Get out of here, drive, go, now. Turn on the radio, it’ll send them pa-“
Caramel hit the metal grate between us with a hoof. “Shut it! I’m going out there and you can’t stop me, murderer.”
“Please, don’t.”
She didn’t listen. She opened the door. She had only taken one step out when I saw an army of the swarmlings cover her foreleg and drag her up into the air. Applejack screamed and reached for her partner but only managed to grab her hoof at the last second. The screams coming from Caramel, I’ll never forget them. They were high pitched and pained, then wet, and then silent. Applejack tugged with all her might, and was rewarded with a severed gnawed off leg. She went white.
I used my telekinesis to shut the side door. Turn the key to the ignition and heard the engine struggling to turn on. “Come on, pal. You can do it.” The car didn’t seem to take too much care of my coaxing though. The window behind me cracked as something hit it. I kept turning the ignition. “Please, work. You can do it, guy.”
Applejack was just sitting there, holding Caramel’s orange leg. I think she might have been crying silently but I was too focused on trying to get the radio up and running to pay attention. There were several more smacks into the windows around us. Tiny holes appeared in the roof where I saw sharp teeth puncturing.
“Come on, please,” I begged the engine to start. The engine rolled over, the light’s came on, and the radio popped onto some lousy talk show. “Crabapples! No!”
One of the swarmlings squeezed through a hole in the ceiling. Its body was cut up by the metal edges but it didn’t seem to care. It came for my head. I ducked and roared. “Change the station! MUSIC!”
Applejack wasn’t reacting. The swarmling came down at me and I rolled onto the floor. It bit into the seat ripping out a huge chunk of fluff and leather. My hat was already on the floor so I pointed my horn at the little critter. “Not today!” A jolt of electricity flew from my horn and zapped the bug. It hit the seat twitching.
There were so many holes in the ceiling now that it looked like it had been peppered with acid rain. I sat up turned my attention toward the radio and focused for all I was worth. I turned the stations until I found one with music. Some blaring trumpets played a hopeful melody and the swarm stopped right above us.
I watched, still amazed as the first time, as the swarm began bouncing in rhythm with the music. Something heavy and wet hit the ground outside the car. I didn't look. After taking up a better position on the seat I used my telekinesis' to put the car into drive, push the gas peddle, and drive us, at a moderate pace, out of there. The swarm didn’t follow.
I got all of five feet before the car stopped. The radio went dead, and the swarm twitched sporadically. Ahead of us stood the cloaked stallion. His horn was lit up with a pale blue light as the hood of the car was encased in ice.
He walked up to the front of the car and both me and Applejack stared at him. He offered that smile I once thought of as attractive. “Oh, it seems like you discovered my little pet’s one weakness. Too bad, Trixie. You won’t get to live to see another day. I’m going through with my plans and you can’t stop me. My ship is being loaded up with all the monsters as we speak and I’ll be gone by midnight.”
I glared at him. “Is your ship named the Sun’s Betrayal?”
“It is a fitting name considering my goddess is it not?” He replied.
A deafening explosion of loud sound was followed by a bright flash. Applejack held her gun and was firing. Shot, after shot, after shot. Six times into the stallion. I watched as the bullets hit a wall of ice and got stuck in mid air between us and the villain. Of course her gun ran out but she kept pulling the trigger anyway.
“I’m going to stop you,” I told him.
He looked up at his swarm, smiled, and turned away. “No, I think my parasprites will kill you first.” He walked away laughing. When I looked up at the swarm again I lost track of him, and of his laughter as the buzzing increased to frantic volume.
Like a rainbow wall of pure hunger and death, the swarm descended once more.
It was a chaos of color all around us. Every second that went by cracks grew in the windows, and pieces of the roof were being torn off. My heart was racing. I didn’t want to die like this. Applejack was trying to reload her revolver, for whatever good it would do her. I was staring wide eyed up at the ceiling. The sky was blocked out by the chromatic parasprites.
I was going to die here. We were going to die here. This whole time I’d tried to keep Applejack out of this fight, to keep her safe. Here she was, still in the fight, only because of me she was clueless, trapped, and helpless here. It was too late to do anything about it now, too late for my realization to effect anything. If only I’d told her the truth from the beginning, she would have stayed out of this fight or at least she’d be prepared to deal with the consequences. Now she was going to pay for all my lies.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
Applejack dropped her gun and looked back at me. “What?”
“I’m sorry. I should have just told you the truth.”
She blinked at me. “Little late fer apologies now, ain’t it?”
I closed my eyes. “Yeah… If… if there’s anything you want to know. Before they eat us, just ask.”
“Will you tell me everything?”
I nodded. “Everything.”
“Good, now work up some magicy voodoo an’ save our hides.”
I blinked at her. “I can’t? I’m not that strong? Even my shield would just be eaten in s-“
“Music! Trixie! I’ve seen you make music with that darned horn of yer’s when yer good an’ drunk before.”
I blinked. It was true. She was right. I could do that. I looked up, and regretted it. Metal screamed in futile protest as the roof was ripped off entirely and lifted into the sky. My horn lit up and surrounded us with an orchard glow. Musical notes flew off the tip of my horn as a trumpet began playing. I couldn’t play anything but a guitar by hoof, but with my horn I could recall and play all of my favorite melodies so long as I had them memorized, and luckily for us, I did.
I wasn’t sure if it would work at first, but when I saw the parasprites begin dancing I was sure that Applejack had just saved both of our skins. It took her a moment to realize that we needed to move. She unlocked the car door, pulled me out and unlocked my hoofcuffs for me. I grabbed my hat. Together we walked away as the parasprites danced away into the night. We left the half frozen and torn up car behind. The roof came crashing down into the backseat only after we were down the street.
Eventually I felt that it was safe enough for me to stop playing music and did so. Of course the moment I did that Applejack grabbed me and forced me against a brick wall. There was something burning in her eyes, something between anger and confusion.
“My partner, my cousin is dead. Explain.”
“I told her not to go out. I begged. Applejack, I am so sorry, but she’s the one who opened the door. She could have gotten all three of us killed with that stunt.”
“She’s dead!”
“I know… and I’m sorry.”
Applejack let go and sat down. She looked at the cement. “If my pa didn’t die during the prohibition Ah’d go get drunk right about now.”
I nodded. “We still have a bad guy to catch. You in or am I going to have to stop him all alone?”
She shook herself and then met my eyes with a steely gaze. “First Ah have questions and Ah expect answers.”
“I made you a promise.” I regretted the promise now, but never let it be said that Trixie breaks her word.
“How is that guy controlling them parasprites?”
“My guess is with a spell. Most of his monsters are controlled via collars, he even used one on one of Rider’s thugs which breaks the forth law of magic.”
“The forth what of what now?”
“Unicorns aren’t just allowed to use magic whenever and however we please. There are seven laws. Ranging from thou shalt not kill with magic, to thou shalt not speak with the Outsiders.”
“Uh, what’s an outsider?”
“An alien being of terrible power that could destroy our minds by simply being near us. Their rare, but I’ve heard of a few cases of them being seen by unicorns. You know, shortly before going insane.”
“Now Ah’m a police officer, and Ah’ve never heard of these laws of magic. Why?”
“Because we have wardens who go around and kill any unicorns that break the laws of magic. They're our police force. And yes they are sanctioned by our government. But like I said before,” I let out a sigh, “we live in two different worlds.”
“So why isn’t a warden dealing with this warlock?”
“Oh they sent one to do the job, my… parole officer.” I shivered at the thought of encountering Twilight again. “She decided to blame me instead of looking for any other warlocks.”
“You got a parole officer? What in tarnation did you do?”
I looked down at the ground. “Let’s move and talk. We need a car, and a shipping ledger.”
“We got both of those at the station, it’s just a few blocks away.” Applejack got up and we began walking. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Can I even go into the police station? I’m wanted aren’t I?”
“Ah never called that in, only me and… only I know about that. And Ah was in the wrong.”
We walked in silence for a few seconds. The last thing I wanted to do was retell my darkest moment to my friend, but I knew that if I didn’t she’d never forget what I’d said and it would eat her up. I didn’t want to lose her trust a second time. “I was a filly, about thirteen. Me and my friend lived in this little village out in the middle of nowhere. Hoofington.”
Applejack nearly tripped. “Wasn’t that place wiped out by the Great War? Griffons right?”
“No, that was a lie the government made up to hide the truth.” I shivered, but not from the cold. “Me and my friend, Starlight, we had found this old trunk in an abandoned house one day. It had all this cool magic stuff in it, we grew up in an earth pony village, we barely knew how to use telekinesis let alone the fact that there were laws about magic. So we got most of our learning from those books.” I left out the fact that I also found Spike’s skull in there.
“So what was wrong with some learning?”
“It was dark magic. Not all of it, but most of it was. Eventually some bullies beat me up. Starlight wanted revenge so we looked though our books and saw this picture of a bear, a star covered bear that was supposed to be able to scare anypony we wanted too. Of course it was an Outsider, a star being. We summoned it not knowing what it really was. We thought it was maybe the size of a small house. It was as large as a skyscraper.”
Applejack gasped.
“The thing wiped out our village. Killed almost everypony there. We didn’t know how to stop a monster like that. Nopony knew how to stop a monster like that. I wasn’t the one to summon it, Starlight was. She was always better at magic than me. A lot better. So when we realized that it couldn’t be stopped we knew we had to make a decision. I… I set the house on fire with her still in it. She stayed in the top part of the house with all the books. I…”
I turned away and blinked the tears out of my eyes. No need to show weakness to Applejack. “Anyway, her crime was summoning an Outsider. Mine was killing. Yet for some reason the wardens took pitty on me and decided to let me have a second chance. I guess it’s because I stopped the Outsider before it could get to a city? I don’t know, I don’t care. Every wizard hates me because of it, but that doesn’t bother me. I stopped the Ursa Major of Hoofington! So that makes me the greatest, the most powerful, and the most brilliant of all wizards.”
There was silence for a few minutes. Finally when Applejack spoke she sounded soft. “Trixie, Ah’m sorry. Ah shouldn’t have asked, even if you did promise to tell me everything. That was… personal.”
“Yeah well, so was that thing with your dad. I guess we’re just equal now.”
To my surprise Applejack actually smiled at me. “Yeah, guess so. Now let’s find us a ship.”
***
It was only twenty minutes later that we had found the ship. The Sun’s Betrayal was sitting pretty at the harbor near the warehouse that I had first found the monsters hidden in. It was a massive cargo ship that could hold more monsters than I could count. Applejack and me both got into her personal car, a little olive green car that looked much better than my own, and that was before my car was halfway eaten by parasprites.
Once we got in the vehicle rumbled to life and we began down the road I couldn’t help but to worry about our upcoming mission. Infiltrating the ship was one thing, but taking on a full blown wizard that had already shown his skill in ice magic as well as having a personal army of parasprites. This was the second most suicidal adventure I’d ever been on, and I did not look forward to it.
Sure the trust between me and Applejack was back, at least enough that she was willing to work with me to stop Caramel’s killer. Not to mention that when we stopped the warlock I’d finally be freed of Twilight’s wraith. I also couldn’t help but to smile at the notion that I’d be able to pay my rent.
The car ride was for the most part silent. I only had one last cola left. On our way to the docks we passed by an alleyway filled with barrels that contained fires as a group of donkeys and ponies both huddled around it. Too often it was that ponies were left homeless, too often it was that they had to huddle together in back alleys to survive. I distinctly remember that there was a Hoovesvile in Crystal Park filled with the poor. A poor little shanty town made of tents and temporary structures. Luckily I didn’t drag a manticore into their homes earlier.
The problems this city faced, neigh that this country faced were larger than I could handle. I could at least try and keep the poor from being abused by the monsters, the magical, and the immortal. My first step was to find this warlock and to kick his perfect teeth in.
When we did arrive at the dock it was less quiet than I’d hoped. There were groups of ponies using massive cranes to lift closed metal containers onto the ship. We got out and walked toward the ship only to be stopped by a couple of stallions. Their trench coats had rips and tears in them, their hats were beat up and dirty.
“Hold on,” one of the stallions said. “This is private property. You can’t just walk right in here.”
I checked my watch. Ten minutes to midnight, but from the looks of this it would take at least twenty for the workers to get done with the crates. Applejack pulled her badge out and nearly smacked the stallion with it.
“O-officer, I’m sorry,” the stallion said as he backed away.
I leaned in and whispered into Applejack’s ear. “This is bad. It looks like he’s hired out a bunch of ponies.”
Applejack nodded. “What’s yer name?”
The stallion straightened up. “Carrot Duke. Most just call me Duke.”
“Alright Duke, tell me what’s going on here?” She asked.
“We’ve been hired to lift the crates up and put them onto the ship. Got paid in advance too we did.”
“How much?”
“Three whole dollars.”
Applejack nodded. “Well that’s good to hear, but we have reason to suspect that your boss is transporting illegal cargo. Tell your fellow workers that the job’s done and to get out of here before the rest of the force shows up and starts arresting anypony connected to this shipment.”
The stallion’s eyes widened, but he turned around and quickly gathered his fellow ponies. There were ten workers in all, and within five minutes they were leaving. I wanted to thank Applejack but there really wasn’t time. The anchor was being pulled up and the ropes had been untied. Even with a few containers left behind the ship was preparing to leave.
We galloped to the ship. The Ramp was dropped before we even got to it. I wanted to scream. From up above I saw Blueblood looking down on us. I couldn’t be certain but I thought he looked enraged. Still he turned and left, thinking himself victorious. What he didn’t realize was that I was still a wizard and though my powers may have been limited in strength there were a few things I could do. One such thing involved telekinesis.
“Applejack, I’m going to throw you onto the ship. Wait for me, give me ten minutes, tops, if I don’t show up try and find the warlock. Shoot him without question, warning, and without him ever knowing it happened. Otherwise he will probably just kill you.”
“That’s murder, Lulamoon. Ah can’t jus-“
“No, Applejack. That’s the law. Warlocks get killed without question.”
“It’s not mah law.”
I grabbed her in my telekinesis and was prepared to throw her when I saw her eyes go wide. Her leg lashed out and slammed across my side with more than enough force to knock me over. I landed on my side, and where I was just a second ago a sword came swinging down. It hit the concrete and sent sparks flying.
I rolled away and back up to my hooves before facing Twilight. “What the Tartarus are you doing?”
Twilight glared at me, yet kept a careful eye on Applejack as well. “I tried to give you an honorable dual, but you cheated. You cheated like you always cheat. Whether it’s in school or it’s in combat you just can't stop cheating, you dirty cheater!”
I blinked. “Seriously? That’s what this is about? Because I cheated off your tests and got you in trouble? That’s all?”
“I was in trouble because of you! My perfect school record was ruined. I knew you were nothing but a dirty cheating warlock when I first met you, and now I know for sure. Look at this. You're literally standing here, in front of the cages of stolen monsters and transporting them illegally.”
“It’s Blueblood who’s doing the illegal stuff, I’m the one trying to stop him,” I countered.
“Blueblood? The self proclaimed unicorn prince?”
I nodded. “Yeah the, wait, self proclaimed. What does that mean?”
“He’s been discredited, there was an investigation into his bloodline a few years back and he doesn’t have an ounce of royal blood. No connection to Queen Platinum at all.”
“Okay,” I nodded absently. This was probably useful, though at the moment I wasn’t sure how. I was a little more preoccupied with the sword being pointed at me. “Listen, Twilight, I don’t want to fight you. If we came to magical blows… you’d win.”
“Then give yourself in and I will assure your death is quick and painless.”
“I am not a warlock! There is one on that ship right now, and about to sail away.”
Twilight growled. “Stop lying. Even if there was, he is just your accomplish I’m sure. Blueblood might be a chauvinistic pig with the ego the size of Mount Gloom but that doesn’t mean he would ever use enthrallment or kill ponies.”
“He’s up there, and if you just look you’ll see it for yourself.”
“What I’ll see, if anything, is an illusion. I’m sure.”
Applejack finally had enough of being on the sidelines. “Twilight, was it?”
Twilight shot her a dirty look. “What?”
“Ah’m an officer of the law, and right now yer interrupting a police investigation by standing in our way. Ah’d suggest you get out of here before Ah arrest you.” Applejack said this all too coolly.
Of course Twilight snickered. “An earth pony cop? Telling me that I’m going to be arrested. It would be the shame of my family if I got arrested by the likes of you. No, I think you misunderstand the situation here. I am the good guy, I am the one trying to bring an evil doer to justice and you are getting in my way. Although I would be remiss, I am not afraid to hurt you.”
Applejack walked up to her with one smooth motion. “That’s funny you should say that.”
“Why?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Because,” Applejack moved like a rattlesnake. Her body lashed out, picked up Twilight’s and threw the unicorn over her back and onto the ground. Applejack whipped out her gun and aimed it at the downed unicorn. “Ah’m not afraid to hurt you either.”
Twilight stared up at her dazed. Her sword lay on the ground where she had previously stood. “I, but, what?”
I smiled. “Twilight, you just don’t get it.” I lifted my stave up above her head. “You're not the center of the universe.” I brought my stave down.
Twilight rolled out of the way. “I never said that!” Twilight’s sword was covered in a red aura, but Applejack put her hoof down on it and kept it from moving. I was hoping that Twilight would be willing to at least give us a shot, especially after being knocked down by an earth pony, but of course she was too stubborn.
Her horn took on a sinister red glow and I had just enough time to raise my shield as a beam of crimson energy lanced forward and slammed hard into my shield. Now I’d done it. Wardens detested using magic to kill, mostly because it was a violation of the laws, even if wardens were never blamed for it. Pushing Twilight this far meant that I was in serious trouble.
My head was aching already, and every second that I stood there trying to block out the energy attack, was another second my energy was being drained. My bracelet was already glowing and I watched cracks appear throughout my shield. I wasn’t sure what to do. Really I couldn’t do much. I hated to admit it, but Twilight was stronger than me in terms of raw power, she was vastly superior. I didn’t stand a chance.
Applejack on the other hoof thought otherwise. She walked right up to Twilight who was too focused on her warlock to notice and with a mighty left hook across Twilight’s face she sent the unicorn slamming into the earth. Twilight was out cold.
I dropped my shield, panting. “That, was, holy crap.”
Applejack looked back at the ship. It was moving already. “You gonna throw me or not?”
I nodded. Grabbed Applejack in my telekinetic aura and lifted her off the ground. With a running start I made my way to the edge of the dock. I was able to throw her up without any difficulties, even if my horn was complaining. Applejack landed on the ship and after waving for me to come up next I got as far back as I could from the dock. I only had one shot at this, and of course I had never done it before, but my telekinesis was strong, and I had my stave. Just a little manipulation of kinetic force and momentum and I should be able to pull this off.
I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. I really hoped this worked.
With all my focus pumped into my stave, as well as a good deal of energy I galloped forward. The edge of the dock came up rapidly. At the last possible second I wrapped myself up into a telekinetic cocoon and jumped. For a brief moment I was scared. This had never even occurred to me in the past to try out. Anything could have gone wrong. Yet for once in my life. Things worked out.
My weight was almost completely gone and I was gently lifted up into the air. I kept rising to meet the side of the ship. Applejack was keeping pace right alongside me. Of course even if the spell was working correctly there was one thing I hadn’t accounted for correctly. My trajectory was off. I hit the height of my jump before reaching the ship and began sinking slowly.
I was going to hit the side of the ship. I kept my concentration on my weight. The metal wall drew nearer and I braced myself for impact. A pair of orange hooves wrapped around my foreleg and as my body hit the ship and all of my weight reappeared I dropped a few inches. Applejack looked down at me with gritted teeth.
“What have you been eating?” She chided me as she dragged me up.
I scrambled over the railing and hit the floor. “Shut it. I’m petite.”
Applejack laughed. “Sure, an’ Ah’m a supermodel.”
I growled. I knew what my weight was, and I was underweight thank you very much. Still I was up here alongside Applejack and our mission was looking like a possible one now. My stave, wand, and healing potion were all still with me. I even still had the key. Applejack was here with her gun. Come what may we were ready for it.
The ship was strangely quiet. As we walked across it and made our way toward the large open deck the silence was already gnawing at me. Surely Blueblood wasn’t piloting the ship all by himself. There were dozens of large metal shipping containers here. That wasn’t even accounting for what must have been inside. From our position overlooking the deck I saw a pony, his gray coat blended into the shadows. Around his neck he had a collar, and his eyes were glazed over. Just like Spot’s.
Next to him however I saw one of the wooden wolf constructs walk out of the shadows. It was sniffing at the floor. Great, so enslaved ponies and guard dogs. Finding Blueblood was going to be more problematic than I accounted for.
“AJ, you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Applejack already had her gun out in her mouth yet spoke clear as day, “Ayep, dazed ponies and more dogs.”
The skill with which she spoke with stuff in her mouth astounded me. Still it was good that she was on the up and up, I was going to require her gun skills sooner or later with those dogs around. I just hoped that I could get to Blueblood before hoof.
Carefully we made our way down the stairs and to the containers. My bag was vibrating. I opened it up and looked inside only to find the key was shivering. There was no reason it should be moving on its own. I didn’t understand. The sound of claws tapping against the metal floor made my heart skip a beat. Me and AJ pressed our sides against the metal container and listened. The key shook more the louder the claws became. There was a loud thud from somewhere over back the way the sound was coming from. Claws scraped along the deck as the dog gave chase. The key’s vibrations calmed down until it was barely even noticeable.
“The key is connected to the dogs,” I whispered. “It was shaking when the dog was coming close to us.”
“What does that mean?” Applejack asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Okay, so what good does that do us?”
I smiled. “It's our very own genuine monster detector, no static radios here.”
We continued on our way. I hadn’t the foggiest clue as to where Blueblood might be hiding but I still had to find him. Find him and stop him. A sneak attack would be our best bet, getting him before he can create a wall of ice. That would be a challenge but I was sure we could pull it off.
The further along the side of the boat we went, the more shaken my nerves grew. The containers were useful for cover, and with the key in hoof we were able to avoid the dogs. When we had finally made our way across the deck to the door I began working on opening it. The key began vibrating again. The wheel on the door turned slowly. The vibration got stronger.
“Trixie,” Applejack said.
The wheel was still turning. “Not now.”
“This is important.”
“I said not now. I’m almost-“ the wheel stopped and the door popped open. I looked back excited. My smile fell as I saw the six wooden dogs circling us. Behind them stood the warlock. He had finally removed his hood to reveal his handsome face, though his scowl was anything but attractive. “-done.”
“You,” Blueblood said in a cold tone, all the warmth from our first meeting was gone. “How did you get here?”
“I jumped thiiiiiiiiis high,” I said as I threw my legs up into the air.
“Oh so you think your cute?”
“Blueblood, please, I’m adorable,” I said with a wink.
Applejack had a wide stance, and was trying to keep her eyes on all the timberwolves at once. “What do we do?”
Blueblood smiled. “Yes, warlock, what will you do now? You have been cornered and I know that you are not a combat focused wizard. Your skills are for deception not fighting. So what will you do?”
I stared up at him. I still had questions, and I needed answers. “I have a few questions if you don’t mind, Prince Blueblood.”
“Oh my, using my title already? I love it when mares submit.” I was wrong, he wasn’t attractive, he was just a prettied up jerk.
“Why did you kill Scythe? Wasn’t he your friend?”
“He let the key slip from his hooves when that brat stole it. So when he told me that some blue thief was trying to blackmail him I realized that his existence was harmful to the goddess’s plans.”
“When you went to kill Flitterbell, how did you get her inside her house? Only an intelligent and powerful wizard could pull that off.”
“I just knocked on the door.” He shrugged. “She recognized me, so when I told her that I was concerned for me dear friend Scythe she let me in to talk about how he was involved with monsters and even tried to send me your way for help. She was busy packing. I guessed she was trying to run away with my key, but when I killed her and my parasprites didn’t find the key in her house I knew that I had wasted some of my precious time.”
“And Cloud Bounce?”
“He sold the Timberwolves to me. These wonderful hounds you see before you. Unfortunately what he didn’t know was that I realized he was working undercover for the unicorn empire. They have their spies everywhere. So before he could report to his superiors or summon the wardens I got to him. Too late perhaps considering that one warden has already taken my dragon from me. I was close to having a dragon, but you and that warden got there first. She delivered the dragon to Jade House representatives before I could react.”
At least that explained where the dragon was. Though to hear that the unicorns were using pegasi as spies now bothered me. It wasn’t uncommon for them to have spies in the mortal world, but the fact that they were watching even Wind Rider was a concern. Had I been in contact with a spy and didn’t even know it? I really hoped not.
“So, this key. Seems important. What’s it do?”
Blueblood smiled and the air chilled. “I think that the Q and A session is over now. My Timberwolves are still hungry.” A particularly large Timberwolf, one with blue glowing eyes stepped up next to Blueblood. “Meet Chopper.”
“You take the three on the right. I got the three on the left.” That left out the big bad seventh but I was working on that.
Blueblood’s lips were almost trembling from excitement. “Sic ‘em boys.”
All the dogs saved for the biggest one, Chopper, charged at once. Applejack’s gun fired, one of the dogs exploded into a mass of twigs. My stave lashed out smacked the nearest one in the face while my telekinesis lashed out and grabbed hold of the other two. The one I hit exploded, and the two I’d grabbed were unable to move. Out of the corner of my eye I saw another one fall to Applejack's gun, but the last one jumped over Applejack, it was heading open mouthed for me. Applejack’s gun fired and I was showered with twigs, branches and thorns.
It took very little effort from there to throw the two paralyzed ones up into the air a good twenty five feet. They came back down hard and shattered upon impact. My horn was aching from the effort of will that took, but they were down. Only Blueblood and his Chopper remained.
“Give it up,” I said.
Blueblood smiled and backed away. “No, I don’t think so.”
Chopper walked forward, his claws scraped along the deck. Deep low growls emitted from him as he surveyed the quick mess we made out of his pack. Yet I got the feeling he was doing more than just looking around. He stopped just a good ten feet in front of us. He gave one mighty bark and I flinched back.
Chopper still didn’t attack. It was like he was waiting for something. But what could he be waiting for. Something tugged at my mane. I yelped as a thorn ripped itself loose from my hair and flew toward Chopper. The twigs, branches and thorns scattered along the deck all rolled, bounced, and flew at Chopper. I watched in terror as Chopper grew, and grew, and grew some more.
Applejack had grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and pulled me away. I followed her around the dock as Chopper grew six times larger. He was already bigger than either of us but now he was as big as a two story house. He loosed a mighty howl that shook the boat.
“This is bad, this is really bad,” I muttered as I followed Applejack.
“What do we do about that?” Applejack demanded.
I looked back and met the giant Timberwolf’s eye. “I don’t freaking know. I’m skilled in illusions not combat. Honestly I don’t know how I survived up until now. I mean I fought a freaking manticore!”
“You fought the manticore? And won?” Applejack asked, flabbergasted.
Chopper put a paw down on one of the metal containers and walked over it. The metal dented inward as his weight was pressed on it. “Doesn’t matter, it won’t help us here.”
A light blue beam of energy flashed in front of us and hit the deck. I managed to grab Applejack by the tail and yank just in time as the deck in front of us erupted into several spears of ice. I saw Blueblood standing on top of one of the metal containers. His horn flashed again. This time I raised my stave and pointed at the beam of light. I focused my will into my shield and the ice slammed hard into it freezing in a half bubble shape with icy spikes on the other end. My stave still raised I tapped into my evocations and shouted, “Whirlwind Gust!”
The ice shattered and flew out in a spreading ark over the lower deck. I saw Blueblood’s horn light up and an instant later the ice I sent flying back hit an invisible wall. He was quick on the draw that was for sure. Yet he wasn’t our only problem. Chopper was already making huge strides toward us. The ship rocked with every one of his steps.
“This is going to suck,” I told Applejack.
She looked at me with a pair of confused eyes. “What do you mean?”
I channeled all of my energy into my stave. Last time I tried this I didn’t have my focus, I didn’t have my tools. This time I did. Chopper was made out of wood, and loads of it. With my stave aimed at him I was able to send out a telekinetic wave that wrapped around Chopper. His entire body was wrapped in my orchard aura and pain flashed through all of my senses as I attempted to stop him from moving. Of course I only slowed him down.
He was nearly upon us. I shoved more of myself into the spell. Something inside my head snapped. A metallic taste filled my mouth, red hot liquid ran down my nose. This time Chopper did stop. More than that I could feel every single piece of his body. He wasn’t one giant creature, he was thousands of branches stuck together. I screamed with the effort it took but I managed to not lift Chopper, but rather push him off the edge of the ship. With a giant splash that rocked the ship enough to cause me to lose my balance and fall over I knew I’d succeeded.
Of course my limbs wouldn’t obey me when I told them to get back up. I stared at myself in confusion. Applejack was by my side. “Trixie, you're bleeding. Are you okay?”
I shook my head. It hurt. This was bad. Blueblood was going to be up here any moment with both himself and his parasprites to kill us. If I couldn’t move we were screwed. Again I tried to move my limps .My legs twitched.
“N-not good,” I said. My lungs burned and for a few seconds all I could do was cough. Crimson splattered onto the deck from my lungs. “Celestia’s flaming rump. I think, I think I’m done.”
Blueblood was already here. The smile on his lips was sickening. “Oh my, that was impressive. But of course you were never a match for me.”
Applejack had her gun trained on him in seconds. But he wasn’t having it this time. Blue light flashed brightly from his horn and a shotgun spread of icy pellets shot out at Applejack. I saw her jump to the side, yelp, and then she hit the deck like a rag doll. Her side was peppered with steadily growing red spots.
Blueblood smiled at her and then fixed his gaze on me. “Tenacious wasn’t she? Yet powerless as most earth ponies are. I was impressed she would even dare to fight against her betters but perhaps that’s your fault. She believed you to be a proper unicorn, yet your blood is dirtied with mud pony genetics. You could never stand up to me.”
My insides were twisting over Applejack. She wasn’t moving. She was just lying there. I needed to do something. Anything to help her. Yet I was half way in the grave myself, what could I really do?
Blueblood looked up into the night sky. “What a wonderful night it is.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you doing this?”
Blueblood fixed his gorgeous gaze at me. Somehow even if he was the second most evil thing I’d ever encountered he was still attractive. “Because, the goddess needs an army for when she returns. Soon she will come back to this world, freed from her lunar prison. When she does, all of the little sun worshiping fools will meet their demise. The unicorns will be put where they belong, beneath me. I might not be related to Queen Platinum, but I have royal bloodlines that go far deeper than some pathetic unicorn. I am related to the Sun Queen herself.”
I glared at him. “You? But you use ice magic? That’s, that’s-“
“The Moon Queen’s domain. Who did you think was my goddess? The Moon Queen was imprisoned over a thousand years ago, when she tried to bring the world a night so vast and deep that there would be no escape from it. Of course she will return, and when she does, the night will never end, and your precious sun loving friends will be trapped in the glory of an eternal darkness.”
So that was his plan. To bring back the Moon Goddess, and to give her an army of monsters. He looked up into the night sky and laughed. “Come my swarm, devour my enemies!”
There was a terrible buzzing. From out of the sides of the ship I watched multicolored prismatic streams of parasprites fly up into the air. They quickly gathered together into a massive cloud of angry buzzing above Blueblood. His horn was still glowing.
“Eat them,” he ordered.
The swarm came down upon us. For a very short moment I was terrified. I tried my magic, and my horn merely sparked and fizzled. I was going to die. There was no way to get out of this one. The only thing I had on me was a dumb key. I pulled it out and smashed it in a fit of rage. A solid note rang out loud and clear. The Parasprites stopped dead in their tracks.
I looked up at Blueblood, and his eyes were wide in horror. “You, you can’t. The key! The control key! Why do you have it?”
I smiled as I hit the key again. The parasprites jerked awkwardly. It looked like any kind of tone might affect them, but more so than that, I believed this key had special properties to control these things. Perhaps it even had special properties to control more. I thought about the collars that all had locks on them, this key couldn’t fit them, but maybe it wasn’t meant to go into the locks. Maybe it held a deeper symbolic message, a spell command that I could use.
Blueblood’s horn lit up. “I’m going to end this, end you, before you get a chance to start being cleaver about that key.”
I grinned, or perhaps grimaced, hard to tell. “Buck, you.” I rang the key again.
The parasprites jerked once more.
Blueblood screamed, I threw the key at him. Whatever spell he was preparing was dropped as the key bounced off his chest and he went diving to catch it. Every muscle in my body was burning as I rolled over. Blueblood missed the key and it hit the deck bouncing and ringing out as it did. I saw Applejack, her body motionless, but I also saw her revolver sitting right next to her.
It burned like liquid fire being washed over my nerves as I pushed myself up and limped to her side. If I was going to die here, by Applejacks’ side, than I was going to at least do so with style. The last few steps I collapsed and hit the deck hard. I reached out and bit the handle of the revolver and turned toward Blueblood.
He finally managed to grab the key and rose up triumphantly. He wasn’t even looking at me. “Now you can’t stop the parasprite swarm from eating. HA!”
I pulled the trigger. No fancy words, no one liners, no nothing. While he was looking away I shot him and the bullet went right through his neck. The key was held aloft in his light blue aura but fading quickly. He looked over at me, surprise clearly written on his face. “But… but you can't.” Blood fell out of his mouth with every word.
I dropped the gun. “I did, and killed all three of us in the process.”
He took a few steps forward. Narrowed his eyes and though he should not have been able to speak I could hear words through gurgling and they made my very soul turn cold. "You will never stop the goddess."
When he fell over I relaxed. Next to me was Applejack, she was bleeding out into a puddle of warm red liquid. For a moment I watched her. Content to die by her side. She was my friend, until the very end. A small breath escaped her lips and I nearly shot up straight.
It took my last remaining strength, but I had a chance. A very slim, very small chance to save her. I pulled the last of my potions out of my pocket, it was in a flask and I lifted it up to her lips. Without magic, and only trembling hooves this was made a thousand times more awkward than it should be. I managed to get enough of the potion down her throat that I could see the holes on the side of her body change. Little half melted ice pellets were pushed out of her skin and the wounds sealed up afterwards.
After that I allowed my body to completely collapse. We were drifting off to sea, with who knows how many brainwashed ponies and caged monsters. I was dying from magical overexertion. The parasprites kinda just flittered about in the air, not eating us. Yet Applejack was alive. I watched as the parasprites slowly drifted away, going in every direction and the stars were once again revealed to me. With a painful and slow check of my mom’s pocket watch, I found out it was half past midnight.
“Well,” I said quietly as the blackness washed over me. “Goodnight, Applejack. We made a good team.”
Then I fell into the dark abyss. Content to go and meet death once more. I just hope he wasn’t shouting this time.
I woke with a start. The cold night sky and the metal floor had been replaced with dark walls covered in royal purple tapestries and my bed. My body was covered in bandages. At the edge of my bed lay my trench coat and hat, cleaned, folded, and set out just for me.
For several minutes I stared at it. Two quiet voices in the living room were talking. Owlicious sat in the corner of the room staring at me with his knowing eyes. I rolled out of bed and while I got dressed I listened in as best I could to the conversation. It was Applejack and Rarity.
“Will she be alright?” Rarity asked, her tone was full of concern.
“Ah’m sure she will be, sugarcube. She’s been in rougher patches than this. Ah’m glad you showed up though, Ah don’t know the first thing about cleaning or sewing,” Applejack said.
I took a second look at my trench coat. It was fixed. All the cuts and tears had been repaired. That brought a warm smile to my lips as I made my way out into the living room. I saw Applejack sitting on my lazycolt chair, and Rarity was pacing in front of the fireplace. The light coming in from the windows told me it was morning. I had slept all night.
“Good morning,” I said as I walked in.
Rarity looked at me, and without any warning she galloped over to throw her legs around me. It hurt a little but I gladly accepted the embrace. Rarity sniffled. “I was worried you wouldn’t wake up.”
I nuzzled into her shoulder. She smelled like marshmallows. “Oh come on, I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie. How could I ever die?” I looked up at Applejack. “You wanna get in on the group hug?”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ah’m just glad yer okay. Wasting yer potion like that to save mah life. Ah’m never gonna forgive you fer that.”
I smiled. “Guess I’m in trouble than.” I felt well rested for the first time in forever. “I must have needed sleep, I feel great.”
“You should,” Applejack said. “You’ve been sleeping fer over a little over thirty two hours.”
I blinked. “Thirty two- what?” It hit me. “Oh crap, I have to pay my office rent or I’m screwed.”
Applejack smiled. “Ah hope you don’t mind but Ah took the liberty of giving most of yer check to that slimy griffon already.”
“So, my rents paid?”
“Ayep.”
I relaxed into Rarity’s embrace. She still hadn’t let go, and I was not complaining. “Anything else?”
“That warden of yers showed up yesterday. She had a letter to give to you, but Ah wouldn’t let her in. If she wanted in, she was going to leave all that magic at the front door.”
I smiled. “Serves her right., where’s the letter?”
Before Applejack even answered I saw it on the table. I lifted it up with my telekinesis, my horn was still a little sore. It was a nice purple envelope with a bubblegum pink letter inside written with red ink. There was an image of an open book imprinted onto the background of the letter so that it almost appeared to be as though I was reading from an open book.
“Dear Trixie Lulamoon.
I have written this letter to inform you that you are no longer under the wardens watch and have been deemed rehabilitated. I am also apologizing for my actions. I had reason to suspect that you were the warlock , but I was just using your past against you. For that I am sorry. You did admirably in your fight against darkness and brought down an even more dangerous threat than I was willing to admit could exist. One of our own, a long time wizard from a long time unicorn family was responsible for all of this.
I have personally seen to the rescue of the creatures which were captured and enthralled. Both monsters and mortals alike have been rescued. Thanks to you.
Once again, I am terribly sorry. Should we meet in the future, let it be under a much more peaceful banner.
With deep Regards, Captain Twilight Sparkle.”
I stared at the letter for several long minutes in silence. Twilight apologized, she actually apologized. Maybe I could forgive her for all the crap she’d given me in the past. Not saying that I would, because I could still feel the stings from her blade across my poor shoulder. There was going to be some nasty scars from her. Still I’d rather have her as a friend than as an enemy any day of the week.
With my two closest friends here with me, and no more probation from the wardens, I was finally free. Free to do whatever I wanted. And I knew exactly what I was going to do. I pulled away from Rarity just enough to meet her eyes, and her lovely lavender lips. She gave me a warm inviting stare.
