***

December 2026.

Once upon a time, Trixie Lulamoon - known as the Great and Magnificent Trixie - had just been a simple travelling magician, performing shows. It had been, for the most part, a simple life, where she could get all the adulation her (admittedly pretty big) ego could ever want, without doing anything she considered overly strenuous (occasional dealings with a small town named Ponyville and it's inhabitants aside).

That, of course, had been in the good old days, before the portal, the Barrier - and the war.

More recent times had proven somewhat more troublesome, for a variety of reasons. For a start, getting a travelling license in Solamina's Empire (and whose idea was it for Celestia to change her name to 'Solamina' anyway? What did it mean?) was a massive pain in the plot. The restrictions on Unicorns travelling were not nearly as great as the massive restrictions laid down on most Pegasi - after all, Unicorns were not, as a sub-species, known for being anti-authoritarian or particularly strong-willed - but all the same, it wasn't easy. Trixie had needed to prove that all the available space in her caravan was entirely used for the purpose of transporting the required props for her shows. She had needed to fill in - in triplicate - forms stating the entire inventory of her caravan to the smallest detail.

It had been, in short, mildly irritating.

However, after filling out all of these forms, she had managed to get a license to travel across Equestria, even managing to get an extension allowing her to go to the new colonies being built by Apple Bloom's contractors. Not that she went that often - most of the ponies who lived there were the converted, and while they weren't nearly as bad as some of the more horrible rumours going around said they were, they were still too happy, too cheerful... too darn smiley. They made a great audience, but...

She had considered herself neutral in the war. If it were up to her, she wouldn't even have remained in Equestria, but the Wall had been put up in rather short order after the Barrier's defeat at the hand's of the human magics.

It wasn't like she liked the idea of an entire species getting wiped out - far from it, in fact - but she didn't see there as being anything she could do to stop the destruction. The Great and Powerful Trixie was, in her estimation, a lover, a showpony, an entertainer, a brilliant example of pony-kind... but definitely not a fighter. Some called Trixie a coward for not wanting to fight - either with Equestria or with the Resistance - but as far as she was concerned, it simply wasn't her war.

Unfortunately for her, though ultimately fortunately for many others, fate had decided otherwise.

While in a bar one night, somewhere in one of the new cities in - where was it? Germarey, is that what they were calling it now? - she had met an older Earth Pony stallion with a dull maroon coat and a short, greying mane, wearing a brown leather jacket, a bandolier with a strange silver device held within it, and a patterned red and white scarf. His cutie mark was a broken - shattered even - hourglass. He had sat near her, had a drink, and then he had introduced himself as "Doctor Hooves".

"Trixie's never heard of you," Trixie said with a snort of derision. She didn't know why he was even talking to her: he wasn't her type, far too old, and the brown leather jacket he was wearing was battered and faded.

"You may have heard the name," the stallion replied. "Though not necessarily that I belong to it."

He slid a 'Wanted' poster over to her. It showed a much younger stallion than this one, with a brown coat, brown mane, friendly smile and a completely intact hourglass. Trixie frowned.

"This stallion isn't you," she said shortly, trying to inject as much sarcasm and contempt into her voice as she could. "He's at least twenty years younger than you."

"He is," Hooves replied quietly. "Or he was, a long time ago - before the war."

"You mean to tell Trixie that you are this pony?" she said, quite loudly (she had drunk a lot that evening). "This pony who isnt you? That's what you're saying?"

"I mean to tell Trixie that I am not merely an Earth Pony," the stallion replied, apparently not caring for the volume of her statement. "I am something far more impressive."

Trixie snorted again. "Trixie has heard such things before."

"Of that I have no doubt," Doctor Hooves said with a small, sly smile. "Some of them from your own mouth, I'd venture."

"Why you...!" Trixie said angrily.

"But," the stallion continued as though Trixie had never spoken, "I would not dare come before the Great and Powerful Trixie if I were not prepared to prove my point. If you come with me, you shall have your proof."

"And why should Trixie go with a stallion who is so obviously insane?" Trixie asked.

"Because when you were five, a stallion told you you'd change the world," Hooves replied simply, a slightly knowing grin on his face. "And you know I'm not lying."

Trixie's eyes widened. She barely remembered that time, so long ago it had been.

***

Many years ago...

Trixie Lulamoon didn't know who the tall, dull burgundy Earth Pony stallion was, but the young filly found herself being intrigued by him. He radiated something, an energy that Trixie couldn't quite identify. He was stood by a battered blue box, with words written at the top that she couldn't quite read.

Her parents were in a shop and they had instructed her to wait outside, which she did dutifully. Still, she couldn't help but feel he was somepony she should talk to. She was quite shy, and talking to anypony - especially a stranger - was scary for her. Still, she plucked up her courage and decided to speak with him.

"Hello," she said softly.

"Hello," he said in return, smiling slightly. "Are you Trixie Lulamoon?"

"Yes," she said simply. "Who are you?"

"That would be a very long story," he said with a chuckle. "You can call me the Doctor."

"What are you a Doctor of?" Trixie asked with wide eyes.

"Many things," the stallion said. "Including, amongst other things, medicine, science, magical researches, tea-making..."

"Tea-making?" Trixie said sceptically, raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Of course," the Doctor said gravely. "Tea-making is a very particular skill, requiring very particular research. It took me many years and a lot of trial-and-error to achieve that Doctorate, and it's the one I'm proudest of."

"Right," Trixie said, nodding. She didn't quite know if this stallion was insane or not, but he didn't look or sound insane, so she assumed not. "What are you doing standing outside a shop?"

"That's part of one of my other skills," the Doctor said. "I'm something of a fortune teller, Miss Lulamoon."

"Really?" Trixie said, eyes wide. "Wow! Can you see my future?!"

"Oh yes," the Doctor said quietly. "I can. I see you doing great things, Miss Lulamoon. Great things indeed."

"Really?" Trixie said excitedly. She had yet to even earn her cutie mark, so hearing this was understandsbly thrilling for the young filly.

"Definitely," the stallion said with a smile. He looked up, and smiled at somepony behind Trixie. "Ah, you must be Miss Lulamoon's family."

Trixie span around to see her mother and father, looking sternly at her and the stranger.

"Yeah we are," the grim voice of Trixie's father spoke. "Trixie, what have we told you about talking to strangers?"

"It's quite alright sir," the Doctor said with a smile. "I was just leaving."

With that, he stepped into the box behind him. A moment later, a great groaning, moaning noise started, and the light on top of the box began flashing. After a moment, the box began fading out of existence, until there was no evidence that it had been there at all. To Trixie, this was marvellous.

Her parents were less impressed.

"Cheap conjurer's trick," her mother said haughtily.

"I've seen better in travelling shows," her father added. "Come on, Trixie."

Trixie didn't care what her parents said. She knew there was something truly magical about what she had just seen, though she didn't quite understand what. One day, she swore, she would find out.

***

"It was you?" she breathed quietly, eyes wide in shock. "You were the pony outside the shop, the one with the magic box?!"

"Oh yes," Doctor Hooves said with a smile. "It's been something of a long time since then, of course, but..."

"But nothing!" Trixie said, leaning forward. "How did you do that trick?! I've spent years trying to figure out how!"

Doctor Hooves - the Doctor - smiled an enigmatic smile. "Well then," he said quietly. "Might I suggest coming with me?"

Trixie frowned slightly. She couldn't say she entirely trusted this stallion - but having said that, she could not deny that he was the stallion of so long ago. She struggled with the thought for a moment, and then, reluctantly, she nodded.

"Alright then," she said. "Show me the secret."

"It would be my honour," the Doctor said.

***

In the cold light of the moon, the blue box looked almost mystical. Trixie frowned at it slightly.

"So," she said softly. "This is it. This is your magic box."

"Indeed." The Doctor, for his part, was content to walk up to the box and stroke it. "It is more than a magic box. It is... my home. My friend. Perhaps the only friend I have left now, that I have not lost to this insane war."

"How can a box be your friend?" Trixie asked.

"Step inside, and you shall find out," the Doctor said. He pushed open a door, and Trixie, still suspicious, stepped past him.

And all her suspicions vanished.

The room within the box was huge, far more so than could have ever feasibly fit into the thing. It was a great, darkly lit, white walled dome, within which was contained a large, six sided contraption, with buttons, levers and switches. At the centre of this construction was a glass column, with many smaller glass tubes within. Set into the walls of the structure were many round, golden decorations that glowed with a soft inner light. The Doctor walked past her, moving to the contraption in the centre. He shut the door behind him, but Trixie didn't notice.

"This is..." she said softly. "This is incredible."

"I'm glad you think so," the Doctor said. He flicked a switch with one of his forehooves, and the great groaning, moaning sound from Trixie's childhood began once again, the glass tubes within the column rising and falling in time with the sound.

"What..." Trixie gulped, unsure how to ask this. "What do you want with Trixie?"

"How about you stop referring to yourself in the third person, for a kickoff?" the Doctor asked with a good-natured smile.

"Trixie... I... prefer to do so," Trixie said with a slight frown.

"Perhaps you do," the Doctor said, "but I find it somewhat wearying."

Trixie harrumphed. "Why am I here?"

"It used to be that I took people - and ponies - away from lives of drudgery," the Doctor said by way of response. "Unfortunately, I'm here instead to ask you to begin one."

"What do you mean?" Trixie asked, narrowing her eyes at him. The Doctor circled his console, his eyes rising to meet hers as he handled his machine.

"I shall assume that you know that right now, millions of humans and thousands of ponies are suffering under the assault of Solamina's Empire?" he began.

"I - yes," Trixie said, "I do know that. What of it?"

"I note you appear to have not picked a side," the Doctor said.

"Trixie is still in Equestria, is she not?" Trixie said with a frown.

"And yet you do not want to be," the Doctor pointed out. "I know you wanted to leave. The wall stopped you."

"I - how do you know this?!" Trixie asked with a frown of confusion. "Nopony knows that I tried to.. ,

"I'm very clever," the Doctor said, cutting her off, his expression suddenly ice cold. Suddenly, the great noise from the machine began slowing, and the glass tubes with it. After a moment, a loud 'thunk' sounded in the room, and the Doctor walked over to the door. "And there's something I think you need to see."

The door to his machine opened, and he gestured for Trixie to step outside.

And she found herself in a nightmare.

She was surrounded by the metal and glass skeletons of giant concrete buildings. Rubble was strewn across a dark road, intermingled with the bodies of Royal Guards, Equestrian Militia and ponies who - though she had never had the 'pleasure' of meeting one in person, Trixie was sure were members of the so-called "Equestrian Resistance".

"Oh my," Trixie said softly, her eyes wide as she observed the horrible sight before her.

"Welcome to the city of Leeds," the Doctor said from behind her. "Once home to over two million people. Now home to ten thousand soldiers and no civilians."

"Were they... were they killed?" Trixie asked, her eyes still scanning the scene of devastation.

"The lucky ones," the Doctor replied quietly from behind her. "The unlucky were converted. I assume you have met the converted."

"I... yes." Trixie had, but she had never thought to ask them about Earth, about the lives they had lived before. In fact, truth be told, she had never once even spoken to one. She wondered what they had been like, if they had lived through attacks like this, seen sights like this. "Did ponies do this?"

"Yes," the Doctor said simply, sounding weary and resigned. "Ponies did this to humans on the order of Solamina, simply because they were different. I never expected it of Celestia, truth be told, but I've seen this story before. Too often."

Trixie said nothing. She had known of the war as an abstract - something to think about briefly, but only as an inconvenience, a reason she couldn't travel so freely or go beyond Equestria's borders.

"And this is the war you seem to think you can ignore," the Doctor suddenly said, his tone accusatory.

"What can I do?" Trixie said harshly, spinning to face him. "The Great and Powerful Trixie..."

She trailed off, her eyes widening in shock at the look of fury etched onto the Doctor's features. Back in her youth, she had seen him as a wondrous old pony, guarding a mystery she desperately wanted to know the answer to. Now, though, he had become a statue of some ancient warrior-king of Earth Ponies, a raging presence who made her quail at the sight of him.

"Isn't powerful enough to stop Solamina? Is that what you're thinking?" he asked, his voice deathly quiet.

Trixie nodded dumbly, eyes wide in fear at the cold rage this stranger was displaying.

"Have you ever tried?" the Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Trixie... I... I would do something if I could," she said, her voice cracking slightly as she quailed under hisgaze, "but what can I do? I'm just one pony... Solamina is an Alicorn!"

To her surprise, the Doctor's face softened considerably, until he had turned back into the genial-looking old stallion she had met in her childhood.

"If there is one thing I have learned," he said, his voice tinged with melancholy, "it is that one pony can do amazing things."

Trixie turned to look out at the scene of carnage again.

"What can I do?" she asked, speaking almost to herself. "I'm not a fighter, not a killer, and I'm not brave enough to try and become one, no matter what you say."

"No, that's all true," the Doctor said from behind her, and Trixie almost bristled at his agreement with her self-assessment. "But I do believe you have a travelling show."

Trixie turned to look at the Doctor again, a frown of confusion on her face. He was smiling, a small, almost devilish grin, and there was a mischievous glint in his eye.

"What did you have in mind?" Trixie asked.

***

"Roll up! Roll up!" Trixie Lulamoon yelled. "See the Great and Powerful Trixie first hand, as she marvels you with her magical might!"

Trixie stood on the stage of her caravan, speaking to a crowd of oonies. This small town in the countryside of Equestria was one of many such places she had visited in the last three months. The old thing looked about as good as it ever had, albeit with a new coat of blue paint. The only vaguely remarkable thing on it was a small symbol, that of a stylised numeral '8' set within a circle.

Trixie began playing magic tricks: pyrotechnics, light displays, the usual sort of thing. She continued this as ponies watched, and as ponies walked on by, taking breaks only every so often.

After a few hours of being there, alternating between performing tricks and having a break, a green Earth Pony mare approached her, looking somewhat apprehensive.

"Hello," she said softly.

"Greetings," Trixie replied. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is having a few moment's rest between shows."

"I - uh - I was just wondering what the symbol on the side of your caravan meant," the mare asked. Trixie's ears perked up.

"'It's an ancient rune'," she said quietly. "'Very few know where it comes from'."

"'You must have travelled a long way to learn of it'," the mare said with a slightly furtive glance over her shoulder.

"'As far as you can'," Trixie replied slowly.

"'Ever travelled as far as the new colonies'?"

"'My shows take me to many places'."

"'I dearly wish I could see such a show'."

"'When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are'..."

"'...anything your heart desires will come to you'."

The mare smiled and Trixie winked, before coughing.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie should prepare for her next show," she said loudly.

"Oh, of course," the mare said nervously. "I'm sorry to bother you."

"It is no bother," Trixie said. "Farewell." For now.

***

That night, Trixie was packing up her caravan when that same mare approached her, along with another mare who had spoken to Trixie later that same day.

That entire exchange had been a code the Doctor had taught her. It had supposedly been distributed by Resistance FM, the Equestrian Resistance's pirate radio station, and anypony who wished to abandon Equestria would use it to let any of the 'trusted' escape routes that they were Resistance sympathisers. Anypony who knew it would, if they wished to escape Equestria, approach her during her show breaks, and if all the responses from both parties were correct, they would meet up with her in the dead of night to be secreted aboard her caravan.

"Excellent," Trixie said, once she saw the two of them. "Quickly now, get aboard and enter through the floor panel."

The two mares did so, giving her a questioning look as they saw the panel. With a smile, Trixie levitated it open, revealing the secret compartment beneath it.

Her caravan had been given a few 'upgrades' so to speak: for a start, there was now a secret compartment the Doctor had added. Though from the outside the door looked like it was merely a panel in the floor (and indeed, Trixie had enchanted it so it could act as such a panel if she wanted), when opened the panel led to a large room, complete with lounge chairs, many months worth of food supplies and beds for at least one hundred escapees.

It was also now steam powered, allowing for Trixie to travel a little easier, but that had been more of a convenience upgrade than anything else.

"How did you manage this?" the mare Trixie had spoken to said in awe, eyes wide.

"Trixie has many secrets," Trixie replied softly. "Now quickly!"

The two ponies dodged into the room, shutting the panel behind them, and Trixie bolted it.

***

The following morning, Trixie was moving her caravan out when she was stopped by a roadblock, guarded by two ponies. These, too, had become more common in Equestria, one of many signs that the country had become something far different than it used to be. These particular ponies were converted, judging by their lack of cutie marks: one was a white Unicorn stallion, the other an Earth Pony mare.

"Excuse me, miss," the Unicorn said cheerfully, his accent indescribable to Trixie. "I'm Captain Fair Law, in charge of the Guard detachment in this area."

"A pleasure to meet you," Trixie said politely.

"All ours, miss," the Guard said with a smile. "I'm afraid we're going to need to check your documents and search your caravan. Standard policy, you see."

"Certainly, Captain," Trixie replied with a smile. "Let it never be said the Great and Powerful Trixie shirks the law." She took out her license to travel from her saddlebag, and gave it to Fair Law. He pored over it for a moment, then turned it over to his colleague.

"Da, this looks in order, keptin," the mare said, her accent worse than the stallion's. "Ve should search the caravan."

Trixie hopped off of the caravan and opened the back door obligingly, smiling all the while. The two guards entered, and Trixie held her breath slightly. After about five minutes, the exited again.

"All clear, ma'am," the mare said. "Apologies for bothering you."

"It's not a bother," Trixie said politely. "Have a nice day."

"You too, miss," Fair Law said with a smile and a wave.

Trixie hopped back onto her caravan and quickly set out again, her caravan trundling along the road quietly. She breathed a sigh of relief as she did so. Her first shipment of refugees was on board and out of their home town. Now all she needed to do was get them to the new colonies so they could leave for Britain.

Well, she mused sourly. That would be easy.

***