Author's Notes:

Edited on 01 May 2016

Originally Mare-Do-Well Returns

Also, as pointed out by Wave Blaster, this song seems fitting for Trixie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25a0dBMwYq0

Gilda looks out the window of her office and watches the EIB zeppelin glide towards the griffin enclave like a deadly, colorful blade. While the other griffins and Monte look uneasy about seeing such a thing, Gilda calmly pours a box of shotgun shells all over her desk and loads her shotgun and its ammo belt.

“Its going to be Griffonstone all over again,” says Gilda to herself.

She slams the chamber shut with a satisfying click and looks outside to see the EIB convoy converging on her home. She then looks back at her griffins while adjusting slipping her wrist through a band to link her and her weapon.

“These damn ponies have bossed us around long enough,” sneers Gilda, and when she sees Monte shrinking back slightly as the griffins stare at him she quickly adds: “Except for Monte.”

“Yeah, I’m a zony, anyway, so I don’t count,” says Monte.

“Monte.”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up. As for the rest of you, Brisk Wind betrayed us. She has killed our friends without so much as a blink of an eye despite all we’ve done for her. So we’re going to kill every single one of those EIB fuckers that pokes their nasty faces in here!”

The griffins cheers Gilda tightens the shotgun’s safety band around her wrist, then she looks at the ensemble in front of her with murder in her eyes.

“Assemble your teams. Brisk Wind is mine, everyone else is fair game,” says Gilda.

The griffins cheer again and fly or run out of the room with their weapons at the ready, and Gilda smiles and turns to Monte.

“You do remember what to do, right, Monte?” says Gilda.

Monte puts on a cocky smile. “Of course I do.”

“Good.”

Then she flies out of her loft and charges the zeppelin. Monte waves and looks at Gilda’s safe and frowns when he realizes that it is locked good and tight.

“Well crap.”

Trixie races down the hallway as sporadic popping of gunfire echoes throughout the whole structure. She doesn’t know what the heck happened or why it happened, all she really knows is that she was able to sneak inside with little to no difficulty, and right as she stopped to catch a breather because her sides were killing her, a war sparked in the parking lot. What had been someone demanding the immediate surrender of Gilda turned into a bloodbath. Now she’s snaking through the hallways, trying to keep her head down, as the EIB agents and griffins slaughter each other.

Trixie skids to a stop when a door is kicked off of its hinges, and when an EIB agent pokes her head out she turns tail and gallops down the hallway in the opposite direction. Some bullets whiz past her, but the agent doesn’t give chase, and when Trixie rounds another corner she runs into a room with four griffins arming their weapons. Both sides stare at each other at a loss for words, and Trixie chuckles nervously, apologizes and gently closes the door.

“Get her!”

Trixie eeps and bolts down the hallway as the group of griffins chase after her. As she zips around the corners, occasionally slipping on the polished tile, she silently thanks Celestia that the hallways are too skinny for the griffin’s to fly through. However, she takes that thanks back when a pair of griffin talons snag her off of the ground as if she were some fish in a river, and she is flung into a wall head first. After hitting the wall, and leaving a nice head sized indent, a picture of a flower lands on her head. On top of the throbbing pain in her head and the ringing in her ears, she can’t really see clearly because of the layer of drywall dust all over her face.

Trixie shakes her head and hears a pair of wings flapping. When she looks up she sees a small griffin land in front of her, snarling, with the other three griffins running up and aiming their weapons. Then, Trixie sees a team of EIB agents round the corner and she points at them.

“EIB!” shouts Trixie.

The griffin in the very back turns around, swears and brings his weapon to them. The others follow suit and Trixie runs when both sides pump an impossible amount of lead into each other. While running, she comes across a pair of open double doors that lead to an empty hallway with a room at the very end that has a window showing the inside. Trixie notices that through the window she can see a door that is labeled with an elevator symbol, and its being guarded by three griffins who do not seem to notice Trixie. Trixie also notices that the room is labeled: 505.

‘Okay, really? What is up with that number?’ wonders Trixie.

Then Trixie realizes that the shooting from down the hall has stopped.

Trixie looks over her shoulder, then at the room, then she groans and closes and locks the double doors. When that’s said and done, she takes a deep breath and paws the ground while aiming her horn towards the window.

“This is a really bad idea,” she says quietly.

Trixie gallops towards the window as she charges her horn, sweating and biting back tears of pain as the little ball of electricity on the tip of her horn gives her a splitting headache. When she is within jumping range, she shoots the little ball and jumps through the window as it shatters. She sails clean through the opening and tackles one of the griffins into the wall. While the griffin is disoriented, Trixie socks another griffin in the jaw before she can fire, then she bucks the remaining griffin in the chest.

Right as Trixie is about to make another round, three unicorns in EIB barding rush in from another door and spray the area with lead without so much as hesitating. Trixie swears and jumps over a table and knocks it over to use as a shield. As the bullets shred everything in their path, she squats down as low as she can go and tries not to think about the griffins being shot to bloody ribbons as their squawking quickly vanishes.

Trixie peeks out from her cover and sees that the she needs to get to is right behind the three EIB agents that are approaching her right now. All three have their weapons aimed towards her and are slow and meticulous in their steps as they walk past the three corpse. Trixie goes back in her cover and closes her eyes to think. What would Minty do? What would Pinkie do? What would Gray Muffin want her to do?

As she is thinking, the night of the attack on their apartment replays in great detail. The blood. The smoke. The pain. Sunshine. The revelations of Pinkie Pie and their betrayal. Then she hears two small creaks and clicks.

Trixie’s eyes snap open and she leaps forward, out of the line of fire of the two EIB agents that had flanked her. Their bullets shred the ground to where all that remains is a hole, and when they turn to face Trixie, she screams in rage as she jumps towards one of the agents and uses her hoof as a hook against the agent’s neck. The agent lets out a sickly gag as he is tugged off of his feet and forced on his back. Both unicorns land with a grunt and Trixie quickly rolls to her hooves and kicks a chair towards the other agent. The chair hits the agent in the chest and as she stumbles, Trixie brings her forehoof down on her helmet. The agent hits the ground without a peep and Trixie turns around when she hears a a weapon whirring to life and pales at the sight of the remaining EIB agent aiming a scaled Gatling gun at her.

Trixie runs as the agent shoots at her, tearing apart the wall, floor and anything she looks at with the scream of the weapon to accompany the carnage. Trixie dives into the elevator room and instinctively covers her head as a stream of hot lead breaks apart the walls with merciless intent. When she takes the risk of looking at the elevators, she sees yellow tape over all of them, saying: “Closed For Repairs”.

“Oh, come on!” yells Trixie.

There’s another burst of fire and Trixie shrinks farther into the ground.

“Stop shooting, you maniac!” cries Trixie.

The shooting stops instantly, and Trixie hesitates before poking her head out and sees the unicorn popping out the spent box of ammo and levitating another one in.

“This is a dumb idea.” Trixie says to herself. Then she shouts: “En guard, you fiend!”

The agent looks up as Trixie charges her, screaming like a mad pony. When the agent realizes that Trixie is going for a kamikaze run, he panics and becomes frantic and sloppy as he tries to load a fresh drum. Right when the drum is in, Trixie is already upon him and with one good swing, the weapon is knocked loose with a shower of sparks. Trixie blocks the agent’s attempt to stomp her and counters with a swipe to the head. While the agent is still disoriented, Trixie clambers on top of the pony and kicks the weapon off of his saddle. The agent bucks Trixie off and she lands on her back, and rolls out of the way just in time to avoid getting stomped. Trixie then shoots a small bolt of lightning at the EIB agent’s chest, while still on her back, causing the intense pain in her horn to return.

Trixie winces and tries to clutch her horn under her hat, but to no avail. As Trixie fruitlessly comforts her injured horn, she realizes that her spark also had no real effect on her opponent. All it really did was leave a burnt spot on her opponent’s barding and tick him off.

‘Well shit,’ thinks Trixie dreadfully as her opponent charges his horn for a counter strike.

Her opponent hits Trixie in the chest with a telekinetic blast that blows her through another window, leading to a nasty drop, and as she falls she wraps her hooves around a cord that is conveniently near her. Trixie breathes a sigh of relief as she hangs on the cord after looking down to see that she’s a good dozen or so stories up. Then she spots a catwalk not too far from where she is currently hanging. Its a story down and if she can swing herself hard enough she just might land on it. Or she can get kicked in the chest by the insane EIB agent who is using his mouth to stabilize his grip on another cord, lose her grip and barely land on her back on the catwalk. The latter happens.

Trixie groans and coughs as she wobbly pushes herself to her feet, but her ambition to stand up is shot to dust when a set of hooves land on her back, pushing her into the grated floor of the catwalk. Then Trixie is turned on her back and gets stomped on her gut. Trixie grunts and curls up while rolling on her side.

“I loved that saddle!” sneers the agent, using his magic to tug Trixie’s head up so he can punch her in the cheek and let her fall hard. “And you broke it!”

Trixie uses the railing for support as she pulls herself to her feet. “Oh boohoo!”

The agent roars and charges his horn, and Trixie bolts forward and jabs the base with her hoof. The agent howls in pain and falls to the ground, clutching his horn, and Trixie tackles him to the ground and starts pummeling him. The agent beneath her hooves blocks one of Trixie’s punches and in one swift, fluid motion, Trixie finds herself pinned under the agent and is dealt a series of painful blows to her face.

Trixie’s world becomes filled with ringing and flashes of white light as the hooves colliding with her face knock everything into blinding chaos. Each punch makes Trixie feel like her head is going to get crushes and when a lens on her goggles crack and she feels blood trickle down her face, she uses a burst of adrenaline to push her attacker off using her hind legs. The agent lands on hid back away from Trixie, and she rolls to her hooves and makes an attempt to flee. However, the agent tackles Trixie and they both roll over each other, skid to a stop, and then scramble to their feet. Both ponies snort hot air and paw the catwalk as their eyes zero in on each other.

“I’ve had enough of you,” says Trixie through gritted, bloody teeth.

Then Trixie and the agent scream and charge each other as fast as as they can run.

Gilda screams as she rams a pegasus EIB agent into the armored hull of the zeppelin. The impact leaves a small dent and Gilda lets the unconscious pony fall to her death, then she twirls her shotgun and shoots another pegasus in the chest. She, too, falls to her death. A couple of pegasi tackle her and they bounce off of the zeppelin’s hull and tumble down, but Gilda regains her flight and slashes the throat of one of the pegasi that tackled her. After throwing the corpse aside, Gilda grabs the other one before she can fly away and speeds towards the first turbine engine. The pegasus screams in terror and desperately tries to free herself, but the griffin is too strong and throws the pegasus in the engine. The terrified scream and pony disappear in a cloud of red that is quickly overtaken by a fireball carrying chunks of propeller and other turbine engine parts. The engine bellows fiery, sickly black smoke and the zeppelin shudders and dips, and its other engines groan and whine louder.

Inside, the zeppelin shook when the first engine was destroyed, and now red warning lights are swirling in the halls and ponies are scrambling to keep the ship flying. On the bridge Brisk Wind glares at the Captain while she tries to keep the terrified crew calm as they struggle to keep the ship up.

“What just happened?” says Brisk Wind, wrapping her hoof around the railing for support when the ship shakes.

“One of the engines was destroyed!” says the Captain as she runs next to one of the ponies trying to get a status report on the engine room.

Brisk Wind runs to the window and cranes her neck to get a better look, and sure enough, there is a trail of smoke protruding from a gutted engine. She growls and turns to the Captain to say something, but when she sees Gilda fly past their window, flipping them off, she grits her teeth and swears she feels steam pouring out of her ears.

Gilda lands on top of another turbine engine and shoots at the piece that connects it to the rest of the ship. After firing half a dozen rounds, the shotgun finally tears through the protective casing, revealing wires and tubes. She quickly shoots the exposed parts, sending sparks and other material flying up to her face. The ship shudders and groans as the engine sputters and shakes violently, and Gilda nearly loses her balance, but when she regains her footing, she grins upon seeing that she damaged a piston, too. The piston is spraying out colored, sparkling fumes and making a horrible screeching noise as the damaged metal grinds against one another.

“I’ll see you in Hell!” cackles Gilda while aiming her weapon directly above the piston.

Gilda suddenly screams in pain and falls backwards with a deep gash on her shoulder where she was shot, barely grabbing the ledge to keep herself from falling to her death. Gilda swears and glares at Brisk Wind as she lands with a pistol in her mouth and magnetic boots on, being sure to land on the griffin’s talons. Gilda squawks from the crunching bone and when Brisk Wind aims her pistol at her, she somehow wiggles her fingers out from under and lets herself drop right. Brisk Wind shoots at Gilda, but the first shot misses, and so do the other five bullets that she uses to try to hit the griffin, who is now swooping and flying in loops, cackling madly.

“Awesome aim, dumbass!” taunts Gilda.

Gilda swerves towards Brisk Wind, flips her shotgun to bear and shoots a single shot at her. The barding protects the Dirctor, but the force of the blast knocks back and makes her drop her weapon. The pistol is quickly sucked up by the turbine engine and diced into an oblivion, and small streams of fire pour out from the engine as the rattling becomes more intense.

As Brisk Wind struggles to regain her footing, Gilda lands on top of the piston and fires her last shot into it. The piston pops open and the sparkling fumes shoot out, making Gilda cough and wave the smoke from her face. However, despite waving the smoke away, the fumes make her skin feel tingly and everything becomes brightly colored and sparkly. Even a charging, furious Brisk Wind looks like she was bathed in neon glitter paint.

The pain of being tackled is real, though.

Brisk Wind and Gilda roll over each other on the engine platform and come to a stop near the edge. The black spewing engine is shaking violently to the point where both can barely keep their balance on it, and it sounds like a blender trying to dice metal. Gilda tries to blink the colorful mess away, but it does nothing, and Brisk Wind’s hoof to her face does not help matters much.

Gilda stumbles back and when Brisk Wind tries to stomp her again, she grabs her hoof just above the boot and digs her talons in. Brisk Wind cries out in pain as the claws dig into her flesh, drawing blood and keeping herself locked to Gilda.

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I hurting you?” sneers Gilda.

Brisk Wind swings her free hoof against Gilda’s eye, and the griffin squawks and releases Brisk Wind, and the pegasus stomps on Gilda’s wing. As Gilda thrashes in pain, Brisk Wind stomps on the griffin’s back, sending out another painful cry. Brisk Wind then brings her hoof up for another stomp, but Gilda scrambles out from under and the pegasus’ hoofs hit hard metal. While Brisk Wind swears from the unpleasant feeling of stomping metal, Gilda swings her shotgun against Brisk Wind’s face. The shotgun cracks against her face and sends her flying back and some of her teeth tumbling over the edge. As Brisk Wind tries to get up Gilda rams the shotgun butt on her back and Brisk Wind collapses with half her body dangling over the edge, unmoving.

“You are the meanest dweeb I’ve ever met,” says Gilda. Then she spits blood on Brisk Wind’s mane and pushes her off of the ledge. Brisk Wind falls barely out of range of the turbine suction, but Gilda doesn’t pay any heed to it. If the engine won’t kill her then the ground will. Then Gilda looks at the shaky engine, then at her shotgun. “Sorry, buddy.”

Gilda unclips her safety band, tosses the shotgun in the shaky engine’s suction path and takes flight, grunting when a spike of pain shoots throughout her wing. She was expecting the engine to spew out a fireball and cough out black smoke, but what she wasn’t expecting was the engine to explode. The turbine pops open like a stick of dynamite detonating inside a metallic watermelon, and the force pushes Gilda towards her office with chunks of burning metal flying around her.

The explosion destroys the engine below it by knocking it loose and sending its burning partner falling to the ground. The red hot shrapnel also penetrates the zeppelin and ignites the balloon in the blink of an eye. Fire rolls out of the windows, carrying glass, loose materials, and unfortunate ponies out with it, and the vehicle begins its plunge to its death. Directly towards the main structure of the griffin enclave.

Trixie and the EIB agent stare at each other, battered, panting and wanting nothing more than to end the fight with a swift kick to send their opponent over the edge. Right when Trixie is about to go for another attack against her nemesis, her ears droop and her whole body shrinks down as she watches a burning zeppelin dip towards her, leaving a trail of hellish, fiery smoke in its wake. The EIB unicorn she was fighting mirrors Trixie’s reaction when she sees the burning missile, too. What’s left of the armored balloon breaks through the wall and gigantic decorated windows with an earsplitting mix of stone and glass shattering and the groaning and snapping of destroyed metal. A giant fireball rolls out, barely missing both unicorns, as the remains of the zeppelin’s balloon bursts open, and both swear and bolt down the catwalk.

As they gallop from the burning, monster sized vehicle, chunks of burning brick, bent metal, and shards of glass rain down around them. Trixie continues to swear as she gallops faster, and when the burning zeppelin crashes through the catwalk she is on,the whole thing shifts with a sudden jolt as the majority is knocked off in a twisted mess. The supporting wires snap and Trixie and the agent scream in terror as they scrape their hooves against the collapsing catwalk. When all but one wire remain, the catwalk goes into freefall and swings wildly while the two ponies tumble down. They manage to wrap their hoofs around the railing, but when Trixie looks up she sees that the catwalk is swinging towards a large wall with lots of little windows on it. She does the only thing she can do at that point, and that is close her eyes and braces herself for the worst.

The catwalk slams against something, Trixie doesn’t know what, but what she does know is that she and the agent are sailing through the air, heading towards a window, and both are in for a painful landing. Trixie rolls herself up into a ball as tight as she can go, flies through the window like a fleshy cannon ball, and she rolls across the floor with a layer of shattered glass, and comes to a stop when she hits the wall with a loud, painful thump.

When everything stops ringing and spinning, Trixie realizes her world is upside down and that the agent is sprawled on the floor, eyes spinning and tongue out. Trixie also realizes that she is laying on her head with her hind legs in the air and her back pressed against the wall. Then she falls over with a small grunt and tries to stand up, but crumbles to the ground when she feels the cheap stitches break and her blood ooze out.

“Son of a... Can I please get a break!” yells Trixie irritably.

The universe answers with the last cord snapping and the catwalk falling to the ground with a fireball rolling up to the window upon impacting the destroyed vehicle. Trixie winces as she stands up and limps towards the door.

“Wait,” slurs the agent, his hoof spinning lazily in a feebly attempt to point at Trixie. “You are under arrest for reasons and stuff.”

“Write me a ticket,” says Trixie.

“Okay.”

The agent's hoof then flops to the floor and his eyes close with a sickly “bleh”. Trixie rolls her eyes at the strange imagery and bucks a door off of its hinges. The door hits a griffin with a bandaged face reloading a double barreled shotgun. The griffin squawks and falls to the ground as her weapon skids away. When the griffin pushes the door off of her back, Trixie rams her into the wall, leaving a crack in it. The griffin shoves Trixie away and swipes at her with her claws. Trixie holds up the modified hoofball gauntlet and the talons leave gashes in it, but don’t slice her skin. The griffin growls and punches Trixie in the jaw. Granted the apparatus on her lower face takes the brunt of the damage, the blow still knocks her off of her feet, cracks the apparatus and leaves a bruise on her face.

While Trixie regains her footing the bandaged griffin leaps towards her shotgun, turns around and aims her weapon at her. She is about to make a break for it, but there are three silenced shots and two bloody holes pop open the griffins chest and another opens her eye, sending bloody blobs all over Trixie's face and chest. The griffin drops and Trixie's jaw hangs loose as her legs quiver and bubble rises in her throat and chest, demanding she scream. When she looks away from the dead griffin and sees the shooter approaching her, though, all she is able to do is squeak. It is the unicorn she saw at Bon Bon’s candy store armed with a silenced revolver and a vest with the red lightning bolt and wrench of the League of Justice. The aquamarine pony looks uneasy at what she just did, as her weapon is trembling, even with the magic holding it, and she gulps while looking at Trixie.

“Nice costume,” she says uneasily.

“Um... thanks? Who are you?” says Trixie, trying to keep her heart steady as she pushes the pistol away so when it does accidentally discharge it will not take out her brain. That said, she is glad to see an agent of the League before her, but she is too tired and sore to prance around and cheer. Adanz and Wazza will definitely be getting hugs if she runs into them, though.

“I’m Lyra,” says the unicorn with a nervous chuckle. “I’m on your side. I’ve heard about you, Vigilante, and the League appreciates what you’re doing in Canterlot.”

Trixie smiles behind her mask. “Really?”

“Yeah! I know they’ll be glad to have you help us take down the griffins! I mean, it’s been hectic when the EIB attacked. It was supposed to be a simple, get in-poison-get out mission, but nope. These guys show up and bring a war on our heads.”

“You talk a lot.”

“Sorry, you’re just my hero. You fight for justice just like the League.”

Trixie finds herself smiling once again and Lyra notices the blood, fresh and dried, on Trixie’s costume. Her eyes widen and she gently ushers Trixie inside the room she just came from while keeping an eye out for trouble, and once they are inside she forces her to sit down.

“What are you doing?” asks Trixie as she watches Lyra levitate a satchel from her saddle.

“It’s okay. This is some medicine that was given to us by our boss in case of an injury. I think you need it more than I do,” says Lyra.

Lyra pulls out a syringe and uses her magic to pull up a piece of Trixie’s mask and injects the syringe into her neck. Trixie winces as the needle goes in and as the uncomfortable feeling of her cuts and bruises mending themselves to give herself the shine she loves so much. She even feels the chipped off piece of her horn grow back! But that part is incredibly painful and brings tears to her eyes. After Trixie stifles the urge to cry and blinks tears out of her eyes, she sighs with relief as all the soreness fades away, but her relieved smile twists into a curious frown when she feels weird bulges all over her. Then she realizes what just happened.

Trixie looks at Lyra, mortified. “I forgot to take out my stitches.”

Lyra cringes. “Ouch... Well... That sucks for you.”

Thankfully Lyra can’t see Trixie’s eye twitch behind her visor.

“You aren’t mad at me are you?” asks Lyra while cowering back slightly.

“No, Lyra, I’m not mad. I’m happy that I have colorful stitches under my skin,” says Trixie.

“Really?”

“No.”

“Oh... How did you even forget about those?”

“Shut up, that's how! Now, we will not mention this to anypony for any reason, got it?”

Lyra nods.

Trixie takes a deep breath. “Good. Now, where’s the rest of your team? We’ll have to team up if we want to take down Gilda.”

Lyra puts her satchel away. “We’ll most likely be heading towards our fallback point since we’re trying to keep a low profile and weren’t expecting an EIB assault. Especially one like this.”

Trixie shakes her head. “Sorry, if you’re going to be running away I can’t follow. Gilda has information that I need to take down the pony who murdered my friend and I’m not leaving until I get it.”

Lyra looks down. “Yeah, I know what it’s like to lose a friend. I understand what you’re going through... and... well, let’s just say the League helped me avenge her.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

Lyra shakes her head. “Truthfully, I want it to feel nice, but it won’t. No matter how hard I try it doesn't work.” Lyra checks her weapon and puts in extra bullets. “I keep seeing Bon Bon crying. Not because she was murdered, but because I killed her murderer.”

Trixie pats Lyra's shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, I see dead ponies all the time.”

Lyra scowls. “I’m being serious.”

“Me too.”

Trixie can feel Lyra’s confused eyes on her as she walks down the hallway, determined to find the proof she needs to bury Lock and Brisk Wind. Her gut is still telling her that Brisk Wind knew about what had happened and had a hoof in it, and that there is something in Gilda’s files that will link the EIB and the griffins to each other.

“Wait!” calls Lyra.

Trixie stops and turns around to see Lyra walking towards her, now wearing a headset connected to a radio pack that she just now noticed.

“Lyra, you have to go back to your team. They don’t like it when somepony breaks off,” says Trixie.

“I told Adanz that you were here and trying to avenge your murdered friend. He’s going to meet us at Gilda’s loft with his team,” says Lyra with an excited smile.

Trixie gasps as the great news hits her with a cannonball that spreads joy. “Adanz is alive?”

“Yeah. You know him?”

Trixie giggles and bounces up and down in her spot. “Oh, yes! I haven’t seen him in-in, gosh! I don’t know how long! I completely lost track of time, but we were cool!”

Lyra raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, you look weird doing that in that costume.”

Trixie stops bouncing and looks down, scuffing the floor, thankful that her embarrassed blush is hidden. “Right. Sorry.”

“Follow me. I have a blueprint that will take us to her loft.”

Trixie nods and follows Lyra out. The two run down the shot up hallway, hopping over destroyed furniture and corpses. Trixie tries to ignore the flickering lights and the blood all over the floors and walls, but seeing so much makes it hard to ignore. Trixie hears another set of hooves and looks next to her and sees Sunshine running next to her, coming to brutally murder her good mood like the psychopath he is. Trixie makes a low, irritated, growl and keeps her eyes on Lyra.

“Goin’ t’ follow the pretty whose organization ya betrayed, are ya, Trixie?” says Sunshine. "Not smart."

“I didn’t betray anypony.” growls Trixie.

“Right, ya just murdered hundreds of them.”

“No I didn’t!”

“And burned down their home.”

“No!”

“And now ya think ya’ll just drop by and say ‘ello and they’ll accept ya with open hooves?”

“Yes!” Trixie skids to a stop and slams Sunshine against the wall with angry tears swelling in her eyes. “They will accept me!”

Her tormentor merely chuckles and slides into the wall only to walk out of it, next to Trixie, and put his hoof on her back.

“Trixie, take it from a professional, all murderers and traitors lie until their lie becomes their reality, but it changes nothin’. Ya can lie to yerself all ya want, but it won’t change ya and it won’t change the minds of those wanting to kill ya,” says Sunshine.

Trixie growls and punches Sunshine, but he disappears in a puff of fog and her hoof goes through him and leaves a large indent in the wall. Trixie then pulls her hoof out and shakes the dust off of her gauntlet glares at ceiling and walls, hoping to see the demonic presence so she can give him one last punch. But alas, he’s nowhere to be seen, so she does the only thing she can do. Carefully trot down the ruined hallway.

“Ya’ll always be a murderer, and the path yer takin’ will add more bodies to yer list,” says Sunshine. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yer gorgeous when you’re feisty.”

“I’m no murderer,” mumbles Trixie angrily. Then she slumps to the floor and looks down, sniffling. “I can’t be.”