Life can take unexpected turns; dreams will change as you grow old. Everypony has heard such clichés, but Trixie never once imagined that he life would go so far off course than what she had planned. Her desires and dreams laid in fame, glory, probably wealth, too. She still wanted all those things, no doubt about that. She didn’t just want to be recognized, she needed to be recognized. Since hard work and long suffering to regain her former status as a respected traveling magician didn’t work out, she turned towards a unique alternative.

She would be a bounty hunter. She could not only make a name for herself and get the reverence, wealth, and glory she sought, but she would have the perfect excuse to let off some of the internal rage that had been building up within her since she lost to Twilight Sparkle…twice! The road of apologizing and atonement held no fruits for her, so she built herself into a bounty hunter, slowly but surely. She trained her body to levels of speed, strength, agility, and endurance that any skilled athlete would have, and she augmented her magical abilities with as many tomes and artifacts as she could find. In addition, she spent a good deal of time learning useful skills, some magical and some generic, to being a good bounty hunter. After a good nine or so months of training and preparation, she was ready to take her first job…

It went splendidly. She was given the task of covertly poisoning the mayor of Stalliongrad over some unpaid debts to a crime ring. Under her former guise of a traveling magician, Trixie had little difficulty entering in without suspicion, getting to the Mayor’s food, sprinkling a little magical concoction on it, and returning to her wagon while the city went through a massive panic as their mayor choked to death. Reports gave no hint of foul play. Trixie had passed her first test with flying colors and she collected her reward with good favor from the crime ring.

From there, her renown increased bit by bit until the name Trixie Lulamoon was one that garnered serious attention in most towns and cities across Equestria. She continued to work at it for a year or so before finally deciding to expand and take a job that nopony would think she could do. With a certain magical spell, she ascended up into the clouds of dubious morality that was Las Pegasus...

…
The Black Wing Bar held the attention of several figures that night, for rumor was that a wealthy pegasus industry owner had a few problems that were best dealt with the aid of a great hired hand. The stallion had already hired two assassins prior to that night, and he was furious at the ineptitude of the agents who sought him out. Trixie’s face was unfamiliar in the clouds of Las Pegasus, but her highest goal of the visit was to get that job.

The pit that was the Black Wing Bar’s entrance was illuminated as Trixie went down and entered the establishment, extinguishing her magical abilities as soon as she saw the bottom and covered her horn with her magically augmented cloak immediately thereafter. It was best to keep the ace of magic up her sleeve, at least for the time being.

Several tough figures glanced her way, but most went back to their business without giving her a second thought. Just some random passer by who was foolish enough to find their way here, right? Trixie was eager to show them how wrong they were about her. Before she even made it to the bar, two stallions had gotten into a fight that garnered the attention of a mare sitting at the bar, who promptly left her seat, and Trixie swooped in and took it right from under the intrigued pegasus pony.

“What’ll you have?” The bartender asked in a rough voice while exhaling the smoke from his cigar.

“Information,” Trixie replied, keeping her face hidden within the cloak.

“That’s more expensive than most of the liquor in here. I hope you know that,” He warned.

“I don’t require much, and I think you’ll be ready to give me a discount.” Trixie shot back with attitude and kept her eyes from the line of the sight of the stallion tending the bar.

“Oh really?”

“First things first,” Trixie told the now curious bartender, “where does the industrialist keep his seats here?”

“You talking about Torrent Rain, the one who owns Nightlander Industries?”

“That’s him,” Trixie confirmed.

“Heh…well, he’s in the back room, but-“

“Hey!” The bartender was cut off by the mare whose seat Trixie had taken.

“Leave me alone; I’m not in the mood for games.” Trixie warned without turning to face the pegasus.

“You better give me back that seat, or I’ll make sure you won’t want to sit down for weeks.” The pegasus taunted with a highly ineffective threat.

Trixie sighed and began to talk with the bartender again when a fast hoof came from behind to strike her down, but Trixie smiled and teleported behind the mare.

“What?” The mare questioned as a magical blast of pink energy that came from behind threw her over the bar and into the bartender.

As the mare shook her head and got to her hooves, Trixie used her magic to smash two bottles over the belligerent pegasi’s head. The mare moved away from Trixie and regained her senses before charging in with her wings to tackle Trixie, who vainly threw a several more bottles towards the furious mare.

Before she could tackle the cloaked unicorn, the pegasus was bound and paralyzed by a magical aura and thrown across the bar, crashing into various tables and landing roughly on the floor.

Trixie slowly made her way over to finish the fight, and was caught off guard when the mare swiftly sprung into an attack sequence after playing possum until Trixie got closer, throwing her hooves at Trixie’s face multiple times; Trixie dodged each one and levitated the mare up and slammed her into the ceiling, and then throwing her to the ground.

The speed that the mare possessed was great, but Trixie’s tact and magical abilities more than made up for her insufficient speed, and the mare got to her hooves one last time to fight the overwhelming unicorn. With the summon of a strong gale, Trixie ended the fight and the mare was ejected right out of the bar.

Everypony stared at Trixie; their attention was easily held in her hoof.

“So…still think I should pay for that information?” Trixie asked the bartender, who went over and whispered what Trixie wanted to know into the bounty hunter’s ear. Trixie smirked and went into the back room to chat with Torrent Rain about his problem.

Torrent Rain was nasty looking stallion. He rarely made public appearances and kept his life, mostly due to his various activities of dubious legality and morality, hidden. He sat drinking in the back room of the Black Wing Bar, guarded by his entourage of private security. The table at which he sat, made of clouds like everything other piece of architecture and furniture in Las Pegasus and Cloudsdale, held numerous papers and folders which he was digging through. He mumbled to himself in between swigs of his alcohol when a figure suddenly burst through the door, causing the industrial pony to choke and gag a couple time in surprise.

“Torrent Rain, I’m here to take that job you need done,” Trixie stated flatly and with what she herself considered to be an ever so slightly seductive tone as well.

“And who the buck are you?” He quickly asked.

“My name is Trixie: Great and Power Bounty Hunter.”

“Never heard of you,” Rain stated flatly, much to the expectations of Trixie.

“Let me ask you something Torrent Rain, of the two failed attempts to deal with this problem of yours, how many times were pegasi assassins used?”

“Both times,” He answered with suspicion.

“So why don’t you let me take a shot at it?” Trixie asked, using her magic to illuminate her eyes in a pink glow.

“How did you get up here?”

“I’m full of surprises,” Trixie answered and removed her hood, giving a proud and eager look.

Torrent Rain considered it for a moment, looking at her with eyes full of judgmental curiosity and doubt as he finished off the liquor in his glass.

“Alright. How much do you want?” He inquired as he took out a briefcase from under the table, stowing the papers inside of it.

“145,000 bits.”

“145k? Are you crazy, get the buck out of here!” He shouted and waved her off with his hoof.

“Oh really? Crazy, you say? You tried and failed to have this pony removed twice, so my rates seem pretty good, considering that your target will be wary of another attempt on his life and won’t be expecting a unicorn assassin to come after him.”

Torrent Rain stared down Trixie with a look that held nothing but utter contempt and grudging respect before finally nodding in agreement and relenting, passing on the information she would need to complete the task. Trixie smiled as she left the Black Wing Bar and headed out towards the area the target was expected to be.

…
According to the information given to her, Trixie’s target was a former security guard of Torrent Rain who went rouge after a chance gambit landed him with a small fortune and enough power to start ebbing away at his former employer’s criminal empire. By this point in time, the former security agent, known as Hail Rider, had become a threat to Torrent Rain’s covert activities and had the potential to overthrow the industrial owner as the king of crime in Las Pegasus.

Hail Rider operated out of a casino owned by one of his “friends”. From there, he worked day and night, but mostly at night, to overthrow and erase his ex-employer, Torrent Rain. The office from which all this scheming was born sat on the 17th floor (of 21 floors in total). Trixie had the perfect vantage point from a nearby hotel to dispose of Hail Rider and collect the bounty.
She got herself prepared while Rider began to interact with a mare, probably a showgirl, in the privacy of his office. She wasn’t really much of a concern, but it would be best to leave no witnesses.

Trixie’s horn lit up with a magical blast as she took careful aim, trying to have her shot hit so that it would kill Hail Rider and bounce off the mirror on the wall to kill the mare as well. She smirked and fired the blast of pink magic swiftly and with careful precision, only for it to be shot away by a blue blast of similar magical ability.

Trixie looked over and at the other edge of the roof stood Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, ready to fight.

“What in Celestia’s name are you two doing here?” Trixie demanded as she fired a stream of magic at them, both evading with little trouble.

“We work for Hail Rider, duh.” Vinyl answered as she threw a small orb onto the roof, causing a smokescreen to appear between Trixie and the other two.

“But I don’t understand,” Trixie questioned, “when did you two become assassins for hire?”

“Some things are better left unknown,” Octavia remarked as she jumped out of the smokescreen and narrowly missed a flying hoof kick to Trixie’s face.

Trixie rolled back before teleporting to the center of the rooftop. Vinyl used her horn to create a bright flash of blue magic that was intended to blind her opponent, but Trixie laughed as she used a protective spell on her eyes, allowing her to fire a wave of magical blasts at the unicorn that opposed her.

Vinyl was able to erect a magical shield that absorbed the blasts while Octavia wrapped a whip around Trixie’s foreleg, pulling the bounty hunter down before retracting the whip and running towards Trixie as she tried to roll out of the way of Vinyl’s summoned lightning strikes.

A blade retracted from Octavia’s cello bow as the earth pony jumped over Trixie to end the fight, only for Trixie to teleport away at the last second.

Octavia and Vinyl regrouped as Trixie breathed deep and prepared herself. With these two working under Hail Rider, was it any wonder the previous two attempts on his life failed? Trixie drew in her magical abilities and took control of the Las Pegasus winds, creating a small tornado that she sent rocketing towards her two opponents.

Octavia remained silent as she jumped over the roof, throwing her bow into the side of the building as the blade came out and a string wire connected her to her tool. She managed to save herself with a makeshift grapnel tool, but Vinyl’s teleportation spell was blocked by one of Trixie’s better spells, a controlling spell that allowed the user to either make it very easy or very difficult for nearby unicorns to perform magic, and Vinyl wasn’t prepared to deal with a spell of that magnitude.

She was sucked into the tornado and thrown right off the building while Octavia had just landed and was unable to save her from falling. Octavia looked down at Vinyl before turning her attention back to Trixie. Octavia ran forward as the tornado dissipated and Trixie lit up her horn again.

Trixie fired off several shots and was shocked to see that Octavia used her bow to block most of them and was able to completely evade the rest. Octavia was getting closer and Trixie was ready to end the fight once and for all. She ran forward too, lighting up her horn again and forming a pink jousting spear to take Octavia down.

The part time cellist didn’t seem worried and turned her run into a slide as she prepared to take Trixie’s life. Just in time, Trixie was able to get her spear to block Octavia’s bow blade and the two mares locked into place as they tried to overpower the other. Trixie strained herself, but Octavia had the better physical skill set, seeing as she had no magic, and had Trixie at her mercy. Before the blue unicorn could teleport away, a small shadow above her got larger as Vinyl descended in a magical shield orb and fell into Trixie, knocking her to the floor as Octavia escaped.

“Clever,” Octavia commented as Vinyl released the shield orb she had used to bounce off the Las Pegasus “streets” and back into the air.

“Thanks, I thought it was,” Vinyl replied and watched Trixie hold her head as she got back to her hooves. She wasn’t done yet.

Trixie teleported to the opposite edge of the building and bit her lip as she realized that she was being overwhelmed by the pair, and had to break them up and take them on one at a time. Before she could figure out a strategy that would work, Vinyl took out a small black box, opening up many attachments and expanding it in size until it finally looked to be a boom box. She used her magic to start it and let it run, blasting out sounds that made the entire building vibrate.

“You really music is going to help you?” Trixie taunted and created a magical orb of pink energy that floated above her.

Octavia threw several music sheets that were folded to be more aerodynamic at Trixie as Vinyl used her magic to make the sheets blow up when they got close enough to Trixie. Trixie saw through the attack and teleported about twice as close as she currently was to them, getting in front of them but behind the music sheets, and allowed the pink orb above her to shoot down the music sheets that the duo had just thrown at her.

While the magic orb kept Octavia busy jumping around to evade the magic blasts, Vinyl engaged Trixie. Trixie fired shots that Vinyl blocked or dodged and vice versa until Trixie decided to mix things up a bit. She made the illusion that she has summoned a manticore to the rooftop, and while Vinyl shot at the illusionary beast, Trixie teleported behind her and bound her hooves in a magical binding spell.

Just then Octavia threw her bow into the pink orb and it exploded into nothingness as the unicorn faced down the earth pony.
“Now that it’s one on one, I’ve got this assignment in the bag!” Trixie laughed as Octavia remained unphased for a moment, then smirked herself and walked towards the captive Vinyl.

“Where do you-“ Trixie cut herself off when she realized her body wasn’t responding to her commands and was merely trembling and weakening at a rapid pace.

“How…?” She asked Octavia in disbelief.

“The boom box,” Octavia replied, “though I don’t have much taste for Vinyl’s music, it’s quite useful as a paralyzing attack that takes place over a span of time as the victim’s ears are assaulted by the magically attuned vibrations.”

“Incredible…I never guessed…” Trixie gasped and looked down in defeat.

Then, Octavia’s eyes flashed in utter shock as she realized that a fourth figure had just entered the fray.

She turned to find Pinkie Pie, dressed in her black spy wear, shooting two darts down at Hail Rider and his mare friend. Octavia ran towards Pinkie, who laughed and jumped off the roof, disappearing as quickly as she had appeared. Hail Rider and the mare both fell onto the floor as soon as the darts hit them.

“No…we failed…” Vinyl spoke quietly as Octavia stood alone, looking down at the dark streets where Pinkie was, somewhere.

“Everyone loses sometimes, I suppose.” Octavia told her partner as she freed Vinyl from Trixie’s constraints.

“I guess we don’t have any further qualms with you…” Vinyl told Trixie as she released the musical-vibration spell, allowing Trixie to get back up and regain control of her body.

Without any further words, Octavia and Vinyl walked off into the moonlight as Trixie gazed down at the body of Hail Rider. She failed and she knew it. She didn’t do what she set out to accomplish, and furthermore, she learned that she had quite some competition in the bounty hunter-assassin business. The pair of Octavia and Vinyl Scratch was a tough duo to beat, and if Pinkie hadn’t arrived, Trixie didn’t know what would have happened to her. Furthermore, Pinkie herself seemed to be quite the wild card. Trixie’s life was finally getting really challenging, and she liked that.

With her adventure in Las Pegasus over, Trixie decided to return back to the ground level cities of Equestria. She could try and get the money from Torrent Rain, but for all she knew Pinkie had been hired by the very same client. Her life as a bounty hunter was more difficult than her life as a magician in many ways, but Trixie wouldn’t have it any other way as she headed home to train harder and get back to working towards becoming the most feared and respected bounty hunter in all of Equestria.