Author's Notes:

Edited on 03 Aug 2016

Formerly Vigilance Is Eternal

Monte gingerly pushes an ice pack against his black eye while glaring resentfully at the bathroom door. The rushing water and frantic scrubbing is all he needs to hear to know what Trixie is doing. She has already taken an hour long shower and an all day bath, which he is sure she used up all of the shampoo and soap to do so, and now she is scrubbing her mouth with one of the two dozen toothbrushes she bought, or possibly stolen in her case.

"You know, you didn't have to yell so loud," says Monte, wincing slightly when he increases the pressure on his bruised eye.

In the bathroom, Trixie frantically scrubs her teeth and tongue with a destroyed toothbrush. When she spits out a glob toothpaste, she tosses the toothbrush in a garbage bin filled with more flayed toothbrushes and empty bottles of toothpaste. Then she yanks out another toothbrush from a grocery bag, brutally rips it out of its package and resumes her crusade to cleanse her mouth of Monte.

"Did you hear me?" asks Monte, his voice slightly muffled from the door.

Trixie spits another glob of foamy, white toothpaste in the sink and shudders in disgust for the unwanted pornographic image it gives her. Monte repeats himself, and Trixie slams down her toothbrush and glares at the door, wanting to do nothing more than to fling it open and punch Monte is the jaw just so he would shut up.

"Yes, I heard you!” exclaims Trixie. “I heard you the first time, and I heard you the hundredth time! I’m not deaf! Goddess!"

To keep herself from putting Monte in a full body caste Trixie goes back to scrubbing her mouth clean of his taste. Admittedly she doesn’t taste him anymore, she tastes more mint than anything else, but she knows Monte. He’s a player, there’s no telling where he’s stuck himself, and she swears to Celestia and Luna, and even Discord, that if he gave her a disease Canterlot will be short one magician.

Trixie scrubs her mouth so hard that she whimpers quietly from the pain the toothbrush’s bristles are giving her. And it doesn’t help that whenever she uses a toothbrush, images of her giving Monte her head find their way to the front of her mind.

Trixie slams her toothbrush down with a frustrated scream while pressing the sides of her head with her hooves. She does not want to remember last night, but her mind is racing to piece together what happened between her and the criminal postmaster. On top of that, her whole body is sore, especially her lower parts, and she hates it. She feels funny when she walks and she’s certain that they were heard last night because her neighbors kept giving her odd looks when they were waiting for the elevator. Add in the fact that she can’t speak Bernesenese to save her life, and it made for a trying morning when she tried to get her large supply of much needed body and oral care products.

Trixie’s thoughts are interrupted when she hears Monte knock on the bathroom door. Casually, nonetheless.

“What!” snaps Trixie.

“I’m going to get something to eat,” replies Monte. “Do you want to come or stay here and think about the fantastic time we had last night?”

Trixie’s eye twitches, and she briefly wonders how hard Monte would cry if she castrated him with a bolt of lightning. To prevent herself from doing something as horrible as that, Trixie takes a very deep breath and exhales slowly while keeping her jaw locked good and tight. She does this a couple more times while reminding herself to breathe before she carefully pulls out a container of minty, oral cleaning leaves from her grocery bag.

“Why would I go out with you?” asks Trixie, anger rapidly returning in her voice as she clumsily opens the package. “You are a perverted, mare-inizing, egotistical snot that just wanted to drag me along just so you can fuck me!”

With the ending words, Trixie throws the container at the door, shattering it upon impact and leaving a horrible, splintered gash on the polished wood.

There is silence and Trixie stares at the door, seething and trembling with her teeth grinding against each other. Moments later she uses her magic to pick up some of the minty leaves and chews on them with obnoxious smacks as she glares at her reflection. She can’t feel anything but disgusted rage at the moment.

“You’re an idiot, Trixie,” murmurs Trixie angrily. “A big, fat, fucking idiot.”

"Hey, Trixie, we’re going need to have a talk about your language,” says Monte. “Secondly, the whole thing was consensual, so stop being a drama queen and get over it."

Trixie practically rips the bathroom door off of its hinges, swallowing the leaves in the process, and glares daggers at Monte. He, in turn, returns the same stare as he backs up so she doesn’t punch him, or stab him with her horn.

"I was drunk and you took advantage of me!" accuses Trixie.

Monte’s jaw drops. "Are you seriously going with that?” He shakes his head. “Wow, Trixie, just wow! I know you’re a little loopy and have problems admitting stuff, but... wow! Do you honestly think I will do that to you?"

“I know you, Monte! I’ve seen guys like you. I’ve been with guys like you! All you care about is how many tails you can gunk up!”

Monte scoffs. “Okay, fine, you caught me. I am a pimp who scores the finest tail money can buy. How much do I owe you?”

Trixie gapes at Monte, and to add salt to the wound, Monte pulls out a few bits, mentioning something about giving her twenty for an “average night”. Trixie growls and swats the bag to the ground, spilling their money supply all over the carpet.

“I want an apology!” screams Trixie.

“Apology? Apology?” Monte points at his black eye, vein throbbing and face red. “You punched me, Trixie! Right in my good eye! And you want me to apologize to you, even though you pounced on me? Tell me, oh Ms. Great and Powerful Trixie, how on Celestia’s good, green Equus does that make sense?”

Trixie stomps the ground. “I was drunk, that’s why it makes sense!”

“Oh really? Well, news flash for you, missy, I was drunk, too! And if I remember correctly, I tried to get you to stop, but you were so into me that you were like a magnet to metal.”

“Liar!”

“I don't got time for this. I’m going to have a salad and then I'm off to the bank.”

Monte heads towards the door, but Trixie holds him fast with her magic, prompting him to cast an even more annoyed glance at her. Trixie snorts hot air and stands mere inches away from him, glaring deep into his eyes.

“We aren’t done yet,” says Trixie in a low growl through gritted teeth.

Monte’s horn glows and the azure mist holding him in place disappears with a small pop, making Trixie scoff in disbelief of what had just happened. She takes a step back, still holding her glare, and Monte refuses to look at her as he fixes his jacket with his magic.

“We are more than done, Trixie,” says Monte in a low tone. “You just need to get it through your thick skull that the whole thing was consensual and your idea since you pounced on me, and I said yes. Consent, through and through.”

Monte tries to leave again, but Trixie runs in front of him and stops him by pressing her hoof against his chest and shoving him back. He stumbles a bit and glares at her out of the corner of his eye as he uses hard strokes of his hoof to brush the newly formed wrinkles away.

"Let's get something straight, Monte," sneers Trixie, "being drunk does not mean consent."

Monte stomps his hoof on the ground, and growls loudly as he cranes his neck to the ceiling, swearing to Celestia that he’s going to break something. Then he mumbles incoherently to himself for a moment before before taking a deep breath and putting his focus on Trixie. The whole time Trixie has watched him carefully, just waiting for another reason to smack him in the face.

"Alright, I’m going to put this as simply as I can,” begins Monte slowly with exaggerated hoof movements to emphasize his point. “If you -as in you, Trixie Lulamoon- held absolutely no attraction to me -which would be me, the Magnificent Monte Fountain- then it wouldn't matter how many bottles -as in Wild Pegasus- you had, you still would not have pounced -as in, you would not have started it!”

Trixie tries to protest, but Monte shushes her.

“But guess what?” says Monte. “You obviously were attracted to me in some way because when we drank, we -as in both of us- said yes! And two yeses means consent! END OF STORY!"

Trixie points at Monte, head ready to explode from all the anger boiling inside her. "Bullshit! I call bullshit!"

Monte covers his eyes with his hooves, cranes, his head back, and screams painfully to the heavens, his face turning red hot. Trixie takes a step back, ears folding down to her skull and cringing slightly from how loud he is screaming. Then Monte slams his hooves down and Trixie can only stare as he struggles to form a coherent sentence with sputters and agitated whines. Then he extends his trembling hooves to Trixie, eye twitching, chest visibly heaving and teeth barred. Trixie takes a defensive step back, also growling like a rabid dog while her horn sparks.

"You are-You stubborn-You-What is-!” Monte suddenly stops, like a switch went off, and he lowers his hoofs, takes a deep breath, and briefly removes his hat to wipe his mane. “You know what, I quit. Go right ahead and blame me all you want, but that still won’t change what happened."

Trixie’s brain fries right at that precise moment, and she cocks her head slightly. She remains stone still in her defensive position with confusion mixing with rage, and her eyes follow Monte as he coolly trots past her. When it gets to the point where she can’t see him, she turns around and watches in bewilderment as the zony hums to himself. When Monte coolly pulls the door open he looks at Trixie over the shoulder.

“Do you want me to bring you leftovers?” he asks.

“Only if there’s an apology with it,” replies Trixie.

“I don’t think they serve apologies, but I’ll ask.”

And with those words, Monte leaves without saying anything else, and right as his tail is outside, Trixie uses her magic to slam the door. She waits until Monte’s hoofsteps fade away before taking a deep breath and pacing around the room, mumbling to herself about how stupid, perverted, and all around rude Monte is. A minute later, she steps onto the balcony and closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, letting the smell of sea salt and the gentle breeze cool off her temper at a fraction’s level.

Trixie opens her eyes and looks at the metropolis spreading all over the white shores of the Bernese coast. The buildings seem like dwarfs compared to the Canterlot skyline, and the density is not nearly as intense, too. Although, Bernese has a heavy Germanic architecture to it that is mostly not spoiled by the modern world. In fact, they actually do a great job of incorporating their traditional styles into the modern, metal monoliths, unlike Canterlot which has a weird fetish of making their building look like metallic and stone hot-pockets. But alas, a small area of Buchtseite had unfortunately fallen for the hot-pocket look. Luckily they are concentrated in the distance and look as though the architects attempted to make them look presentable. Those ugly things, along with the hectic noise of city life, corrupt the view, though.

Trixie huffs and folds her hooves over the railing and continues watching the peaceful scenery, trying desperately to take her mind off of what happened between her and Monte. The more Trixie tries to clear her mind, the more stubborn the memory becomes until it becomes the only thing on her mind.

Trixie groans and goes back inside, closing the balcony door on her way in, and continues her anxious pacing. During her mindless pacing, she finds a bottle of Wild Pegasus with some of its contents still left leaning against the couch. She picks it up and swirls it in her grip, watching the brownish liquid with some disgust. But then she thinks about how much she needs a drink to suppress the madness in her mind, and Wild Pegasus did make things better before Monte was an idiot.

“And me, too,” mumbles Trixie glumly in response to her thinking about how much of an idiot the zony was. Then her ears perk as she scowls and shakes her head. “No, it was his fault.... But he’s right. No he’s not. Yes he is. No he’s not. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes he is! At the very least, both of you are in the wrong!” Trixie groans and slumps to the floor. “Goddess, I need a drink.”

She brings the bottle to her lips and is about to enjoy the warm contents of the bottle, but-

“Ya know, I wonder why ya continue to be so easy when yer supposedly so desperate not to be a victim,” says Sunshine shrewdly from thin air.

Trixie drops the bottle and her heart stops for a moment, and she feels her hair stand as a cold dread wash over her from Sunshine’s voice echoing in the room. Trixie slowly rises to her hoofs, swallowing her spit and ignoring the alcohol staining the carpet.

“Show yourself!” demands Trixie.

“Sure thing, darlin’,” purrs Sunshine right into Trixie’s ear.

Trixie shrieks and swings her hoof where Sunshine is with bone breaking power, but he jumps back with a cackle while flapping his one wing tauntingly. She screams and charges him head on, tackling him in the chest, and they roll end over end of each other like a ball and stop with Sunshine on top, giggling and keeping her pinned beneath him, using his hoofs and hips to keep her down.

“Ya know, I pegged ya for a bottom mare,” he says, licking his lips suggestively. “And I'm glad I wasn't wrong.”

Trixie screams with bloodthirsty rage and shoots an electric ball at him. The ball goes through him as if he is not there and the ceiling breaks apart, raining burnt plaster and wood down on the floor. Sunshine chuckles and presses down on Trixie as he slides off of her, letting his hoofs and chin trail her body. Trixie shudders and whimpers and her whole body tingles with a cold dread, and when his vile tongue rolls out and takes a lick at her chest, she screams and kicks at him. His only response is a laugh, and Trixie scrambles up to her hoofs, her mane is now a frazzled mess with many strands hanging limp in front of her eyes.

“You hit hard, and from what I saw last night, ya like it rough, like an animal! Ya would’ve had a lot of fun with me and my sister,” says Sunshine. “But rather than staying and bein’ happy with us sister, you decided to fight what was meant to be and, well, look at ya now. Miserable and treated like a whorse.”

Trixie’s horn shoots out a bolt of lightning that destroys the bathroom door. Shards of wood fly towards her, and while her horn may be hurting she still charges Sunshine, who has yet to move, and tries punching him in the face. He coolly slides out of the way and lets her hoof hit the door frame, and Trixie swears and recoils, holding her bleeding hoof, leaving a broken frame behind.

With her hoof cradled, Trixie slumps to the floor, panting and covered in sweat and tears. The stench of smoke lingers in the air and the tip of her horn dims as the burning feeling coupled with the fear becomes too much for her. She was perfectly fine when she took the pills, and when Pinkie Pie flushed them Sunshine had become a part of her life again. A part that she hates and fears.

She wants those pills back.

She needs those pills back.

“Why are you doing this?” whimpers Trixie; she takes a deep breath and wipes her nose before she lifts her jaded, teary eyes. “Why can’t you just leave me alone!”

Sunshine sighs in mock annoyance. “This again.”

He sits down in front of Trixie and cups her head in his hooves and forces her to look in his eyes. Her body shivers from his icy touch, and she sees nothing but an endless void of darkness in his eyes, and when he grins broadly, she starts shaking and whimpering. When his hoof caress her cheeks, and she swears she can feel her coat, tears and snot freezing with his touch. He then leans closer to her until their noses nearly touch, and despite her best efforts to pull away, he holds her fast and keeps her still in an iron grip.

“Trixie, you are a dog without master. You need somepony who cares about you,” he says softly. He closes his eyes and takes a sniff of Trixie’s mane, making her shrink back and release a horrified whine. “You need somepony who loves his dog, and makes sure that they are taken care of. You are not taken care of, my precious, and I can take care of you if you will let me.”

Sunshine releases Trixie and she curls to the floor and hides her face, wanting the day to end. She wants to go to sleep under a warm blanket with a soft pillow to rest her head and forget about everyone and everything. Sunshine and Barnville; Monte and the griffin enclave; Brisk Wind and the safety deposit box; the League of Justice and Ponyville.

Pinkie Pie and Mare-Do-Well.

Trixie barely has the courage to look up at Sunshine when she hears him speaking again, but when she does, she sees him staring down at her, looking solemn.

"You need to break free from this fantasy, darlin'. You can’t be redeemed, no matter how hard you try. Besides, you ain't a hero, murderer's ain't heroes, so stop trying to be who you can’t be," says Sunshine.

“I’m no murderer,” whimpers Trixie, her voice cracking and fresh tears running down her cheeks.

Sunshine scoffs. “Yeah, and I was a pharmacist. Keep lyin’ to yourself, and see how far you go.”

Then he leans down and gives Trixie a quick kiss on her forehead, leaving a frost flower to spread like a weed. She jolts from the motion and stares at him, horrified, and Sunshine chuckles and expands his wing.

“That was for good luck, darlin’. I’ll be in touch,” he says.

After that, Sunshine disappears in a cloud of black mist, leaving Trixie alone in the hotel room. She stares at where Sunshine was standing for a second or two before she frantically wipes her forehead. She soon finds herself mumbling incoherently and becomes completely oblivious to what is going on around her. She hears something, but her brain doesn’t register what it is, and when a sandy colored ibex wearing light barding steps in front of her and asks her something, she stops and stares at him blankly. The ibex repeats himself, and this time Trixie regains some of her senses and realizes that he’s hotel security. She looks to her side and that the door had been opened and now three other guards were searching the room with small weapons on their battle saddles.

“Miss, are you okay?” asks the ibex.

Trixie silently stares at the sandy ibex until one of the security officers asks him a question in their native tongue. He looks at the guard, then at Trixie, then back at the guard and gives his reply. The guard nods and leaves the room and the sandy ibex kneels in front of her. She doesn’t pay much attention to him since she is back to looking at where Sunshine was standing moments before, trembling and trying to suppress whatever tears haven’t escaped.

“Miss, can you come with me, please? I just need to ask you some questions about what happened here,” says the ibex gently.

Trixie nods, and the ibex helps her up and leads her out of the room. As she walks down the hall with the security, she ignores the inquiring eyes and quietly thanks him when he orders the guests back in their rooms.

The elevator opens up and a few more guards come out and head towards her room, and when they go inside, she closes her eyes and slumps to the ground. She listens to the whirring of the gears, the cables guiding the elevator, and the gentle hums and obnoxious dings. When the elevator opens, she is led through the lobby, using the back wall as a guide. Trixie lazily watches everything and everyone, but then her gaze falls outside and she spots four unicorn mares wearing light saddles stepping out from two dark colored motorized wagons and walk directly towards the front desk, looking a little too serious to be on vacation. She continues watching them out of the corner of her eye until she could no longer see them.

A few minutes later, Trixie finds herself sitting on a comfortable cushion in a windowless room painted in warm colors. She scans the room and sees family photos of the sandy ibex, books, and various knickknacks. She leans closer to his desk when she sees that one of the knickknacks is a cube with two ibex soldiers touching hooves elegantly engraved on it, and below them is an engraving that she cannot read.

“Epagrýpni̱si̱ Eína Aió̱nia. Vigilance Is Eternal,” recites the ibex, noting her curiosity. “It has been the motto for our guards ever since our inception.”

Trixie remains silent as he flips through a folder that he had pulled out of his saddle.

“I am Officer Ufer, I run the hotel security, and you, Mrs. Fountain, are here for vacation, yes?” he says.

Trixie swallows some spit and barely makes a nod, which prompts Ufer to look up from the folder and stare at her quizzically, but looks down at his papers when Trixie stares back at him without blinking. He mumbles something in his native tongue, and Trixie contemplates whether or not she should tell him about the four mares she saw. The more she thinks about them, the more uneasy she becomes. She doesn’t know if it’s due to paranoia or if her gut instinct is getting better, but something tells her that the four mares from the lobby are not at the hotel for vacation.

“Mrs. Fountain-”

“You need to find Monte,” interrupts Trixie.

“I beg your pardon?” says Ufer.

“Four mares, unicorns, came in your hotel and I think they are after Monte. You need to find him before they do.” Ufer stares at Trixie and she furrows her brow. “Trust me, I know they are not here for vacation.”

The door opens up and a security officer pokes his head in and says something that Trixie doesn’t understand. Ufer replies with an order, and once the guard leaves, he apologizes and slides out a sheet of paper and rolls a pen towards himself. He tells Trixie to describe the mares before sticking the pen in his mouth. Trixie takes a moment to collect her thoughts, and when she does, she describes the four mares down to the finest details. From coat color to cutie mark, and mane style to what their saddlebags looked like, nothing was missed, and frankly it appears that Ufer has some difficulty keeping up with the massive wave of information.

After he finishes down writing the last of the details, Ufer spits out his pen and calls in another guard. Once the guard shows up, he gives him the sheet of paper that has the description of the four mares and after the guard leaves he turns his focus back to Trixie. The whole time Trixieis watching the guard carefully, but now that she has the guard looking for those mares she needs to find Monte before something happens to him. There is no telling when the guards will capture the four mares, after all.

“I have to find Monte,” says Trixie.

She stands up to leave, but Ufer holds up his hoof and orders her to sit down. Trixie freezes in her spot and stares at the sandy ibex with hostility. It takes Ufer repeating his order to get Trixie to reluctantly sit down.

“Your husband is fine,” assures Ufer calmly once she is seated. “He was brought in and is being questioned about what happened to you.”

A radiopack on the floor crackles to life and when someone on the other line speaks, Ufer frantically turns it off, nearly breaking it in the process and spiking Trixie’s suspicions. She watches him intently as he looks back at her. He tries to play it cool, but his new sheen of sweat and irregular breathing ruins his cover.

“Tenants reported a lot of disturbance from your room, earlier. I need to know what happened,” says Ufer while he clumsily wipes some sweat from his face.

Trixie’s eyes focus on him and she doesn’t see a weapon on him, but sas Trixie studies him, she notices something underneath a small stack of papers on Ufer’s desk. At the bottom of the stack is a sheet of paper with some numbers and a formal introduction, and on the paper is a paper clip with something underneath. It is normal to have a formal document in a room of someone of a high rank, but what isn’t normal is having a formal document from a foreign government agency. An agency like the Equestrian Investigation Bureau.

Trixie’s heart starts racing as soon as she sees the EIB seal on the corner of the paper, and she looks at Ufer, her brows furrowing, eyes narrowing and her muzzle scrunching to a snarl.

Ufer cocks his head slightly. “Is something wrong, Mrs. Fountain?”

“Where's Monte?” says Trixie harshly.

Ufer tense up. “As I said. He is fine. My guards have apprehended him and he will soon be questioned.”

“‘Apprehended’?” she repeats dangerously.

“Yes. We have to cover all ends of this incident. It is merely procedure.”

“Is it also procedure to be bribed by a foreign agency that has no jurisdiction outside of its home's borders?”

Ufer's throat bobs with a heavy swallow, and Trixie hears the door open and two extra sets of hooves walk in, but she does not look behind her. Instead she glances at one of the photos, not for seeing how cute a baby ibex looks, but for the reflection that the glass is giving her.

Trixie sees that there are two unicorn mares from the lobby behind her, levitating pistols that have enormous mufflers on their barrels next to them. She moves her focus back to Ufer, and he shifts uneasily in his seat, and she can hear the floorboards creak slightly as the mares step closer.

Trixie then chuckles to herself, and that is enough to make Ufer tense and make the other two aim their weapons at her. She looks at the two mares, and then back at Ufer and shakes her head and buries her head in her hoof.

“Wow, this sucks,” she says, letting out another heavy chuckle, this time filled with anger, and it makes everyone inch back. “Nothing is ever easy! I’m always getting tricked!”

“Mrs. Fountain, please don't make this difficult. Just go with them and spare everyone the trouble,” says Ufer.

Trixie slowly lowers her hoof, and glares at Ufer with the fires of Tartarus in her eyes, and he leans back in his seat slightly while the mares take another step back, each flicking their safety off.

“How much?” says Trixie.

“Enough to get my child through college.” Ufer gulps. “Too bad your husband dragged you into this mess.” Then to the two mares behind Trixie. “You can take her now.”

The mares cautiously move forward, and Trixie shakes her head.

“I'm not going anywhere with them,” says Trixie.

“Yes you are,” says Ufer.

“No, I'm not.”

“This is not up for debate. Get her out of here, already.”

One of the mares taps Trixie’s skull with her pistol and is about to order her up, but in the middle of doing so, Trixie's horn releases a burst of blinding light as well as a shock wave. All the loose items are blasted into the air and everyone, save for Trixie, screams and falls to the ground with their hooves over their eyes. When the light disappears, Trixie’s horn feels like its on fire, but that does not stop her from stomping towards Ufer, who is cowering in the corner and blinking madly. He holds up his hoof defensively, and Trixie ignores the surge of pain as she charges her horn again.

“Where’s Monte!” screams Trixie.

“Luna verzeih mir,” whimpers Ufer.

Trixie lifts up the desk with her telekinesis and she repeats her demand, but all Ufer can do is silently move his quivering lips in a wordless prayer. Trixie then hears a groan and she whirls around and sees one of the mares standing and levitating her pistol. Trixie immediately smashes the desk against her chest without a moment’s pause, crushing her into the wall and shattering the desk. The mare slumps to the floor, bloody and motionless, and the other mare scrambles to her feet and aims her pistol at Trixie, but before she can pull the trigger, she is blasted out the office, across the lobby and into the wall on the other side. She almost goes through, but, just like her partner, she doesn’t go all the way through and falls to the floor, limp.

Ufer swears in his native tongue, and Trixie walks over to the mare she rammed into the wall and takes her pistol. As she checks the pistol, she can hear Ufer sobbing and begging, and when she aims it him, the ibex’s forehooves shoot up and he begs her not to shoot. His begging gets more frantic when she presses the pistol against his head.

“Where is Monte!” screams Trixie.

“I don’t know!” sobs Ulfer.

“You got three seconds to know!”

“But I don't know!”

“One!”

“Please, I have a son!”

Trixie presses it harder against his skull, and he shrinks down further until he’s practically a ball.

“Two!” screams Trixie.

“I don’t know! All I know is that a mare named Dusty Swirl wanted him! I don’t know where she took him! Please, you have to believe me!” cries Ufer.

Trixie growls and pistol whips him, leaving him to lay on the floor with a bloody gash. Before Trixie leaves his office, she takes a map of the hotel and the paper sent by the EIB, and when she turns it over, she finds a picture of Monte and a copy of his travel information clipped behind the sheet.

Trixie quickly marches her way towards the exit stairs, and when the two other mares she saw from earlier come in there is a moment of hesitation on both sides. However, once both of their horns glow and silenced pistols come out from their saddle bags, Trixie raises her weapon and shoots at them sporadically. She shoots at them until they drop, and then just to be safe, she empties the rest of her ammo into them. The two mares crumble and roll down the stairs, leaving a trail of blood and stop at the bottom as a pile.

Trixie's throat goes dry and her body shakes as she fails to avoid the growing pool of blood. She inspects the bodies and saddles, and at first she doesn’t find anything of value, but then she finds a couple of EIB badges, some Bernese currency, a map of the city, and upon finding it she sees the bank and the hotel she and Monte are in circled in red.

Trixie sees Sunshine out of the corner of her eye, grinning and clapping his hooves, but she is currently too busy mentally kicking herself about forgetting the bank and Monte's connection to care.

She puts on one of their saddles stuffed with the evidence, grabs the unused weapons, the ammo, and speed walks up the stairs and across the lobby. She keeps the bloody side of the saddle to the wall, which makes for an uncomfortable feeling since she had to put the saddle on backwards, and tries to look calm as she treks through the lobby. Although, in spite of her best efforts, Trixie knows that she is being watched. She can feel wandering eyes locking on to her, and when a security guard walks past her, she gives her a strange look but continues her walk. Trixie looks over her shoulder as she passes and sees the guard walk into the staircase leading to the security sector.

Trixie’s heart races and she picks up the pace.

Then the alarm sounds.

Trixie swears under her breath and gallops towards an area marked Parkhaus/Parking Garage. The intercom sounds in both Bernsenes and Equestrian, but being able to understand what is being said over the chaotic clamoring and noises made from the sudden stampede would be a miracle for most.

After entering the stairwell that leads to the parking garage, Trixie runs as fast as she can, and even skips a few steps, which inadvertently leads to her slipping and falling a couple of times, but she still manages to reach her destination without any interference from hotel security.

As soon as Trixie bursts into the parking garage, she quickly scans the area for anyone or anything that can possibly pose as a threat. She does not see anyone around, but that does not stop her from looking over her shoulder and sweeping her stolen weapon around as she runs through the seemingly endless rows of parked vehicles.

The parking garage is well lit, but it still makes finding someone or something difficult since everything looks the same, save for giant numbers painted on the concrete walls. And after a few minutes of crazy exploring, and evasion of panicking staff and alerted guards, she comes across a rack full of keys. Before making a move on the keys, Trixie looks around to make sure no one is approaching, during which she spots a line of neatly parked bees not too far from her. It doesn’t take her long to find the one she likes. A blue bee with metallic racing stripes and a large, tinted windshield on the front.

She stares at the chosen bee and the number it is under, and she turns back to the key rack and immediately spots the appropriate key. She looks at the key, then at the bee again, then she gets a devilish smile and pulls the respective key off of its hook and gallops towards her chosen vehicle.