“So what do you like on your waffles, Trixie? Chocolate chips, strawberries, or blueberries?” asked Starlight Glimmer.

“Ummm…” replied Trixie, unsure of which to pick. Starlight was currently behind a kitchen counter, standing in front of a stove with an apron on, using a handheld waffle iron to make several stacks of the doughy pastries, while Trixie watched amazed from a table not too far away.

The morning after was going pretty much as Starlight declared it would the previous night. Away from all the mares she had been forced to bunk with for the past few months, and the noises they made while she had laid awake for hours on end, Trixie found herself able to sleep soundly. Much more than she had been able to do in a while.

In fact, after laying down on the plush mattress she had been provided, she had managed to stay asleep up until Starlight came to wake her. After that, Trixie had been given ample time to freshen up, able to shower and brush her teeth without anypony pounding at the door for her to hurry up. As a traveling performer, she had little free time to ever partake in a vacation, but this certainly felt like one to her.

“No need to be shy,” said the third member of this morning meal, the support group’s founder, sitting at the table with a newspaper in hand, tilting it forward to encourage Trixie towards a decision. “Starlight is happy to make breakfast however you want. She loves to help out around the group houses.”

Not wanting to offend, Trixie came to an immediate choice after being prompted by both of the other unicorns in the room. “I’ll take blueberries.”

“Blueberries coming right up.” Starlight replied, turning to three bowls of toppings she has already prepared.

Grabbing a metal handle sticking out of a bowl of blueberries floating in a likewise blue syrupy substance, Starlight lifted a spoon out of the container, using it to scope out lots of the small fruits before dumping them atop several squares of cooked batter sitting atop a plate. Next, she took in hand a cylindrical can she had set to the side, pointing it at the blueberry covered waffle before pressing a finger down on the small tube at the top it and spraying whipped cream all over. Lastly, she took in hand a basin of maple syrup that had been kept warm on the stove top and poured a fair amount of the sweet substance over the waffle, soaking it in some spots while leaving other parts dry.

“Here you go.” Starlight said, levitating the plate of food over to Trixie, neatly setting it down right in front of her guest. “Enjoy.”

The freshly-made waffle decently doused with sweets, smelt heavenly. The mares’ shelter sometimes had pancakes, but waiting in line for them usually ended up them cooling off before one could get a whiff of their mouth-watering aroma. That aside, food made on mass never seemed to have the same quality of flavor as a plate specifically made for you. Grabbing a fork and knife from the table, Trixie dug into this delicious dessert dish.

As Trixie helped herself to a well cooked meal, Sunset watched her intently from just over the top of her paper. She kept an eye on Trixie for a minute or so, until her own plate of waffles was delivered to her via levitation.

“So, Trixie,” Sunset said, her horn glowing brightly to pick up her own silverware, “I’m so glad that you decided to stay the night. It is nice to know that we can provide a safe space for mares like yourself every once in a while.”

Trixie paused, and then gulped down what she had in her mouth. “You don’t have mares stay often?”

“Not as often as we’d like.” Sunset replied, “The ones who stay over were usually first-timers like yourself who didn’t realize how long the meetings are. Occasionally a mare will stop by if it gets too late out, but those are few and far between.”

“Is there a reason for that?” Trixie asked, using this time to cut her food into smaller pieces.

“I think so, but it’s nothing we did. It’s more... the current state of things.”

“What do you mean?” Trixie asked curiously.

Sunset slipped a piece of pastry into her mouth, and swallowed. “Every mare in Equestria is on edge. They find it hard to trust strangers, and with very good reason. They would rather stick to environments and ponies they are familiar with. Not that that’s a problem if they have their own homes to go to. Unfortunately that’s often not the case. More often than not, mares who endured slavery lost everything, without even a bit to their name.”

“Starlight said something like that last night.” Trixie said, now distracted from her food completely, “That the reason the rooms are singles here were because stallions have better housing conditions than mares at the moment.”

“That is the purpose of the rooms,” said Sunset, “Far too many mares have been confined to shelters, and for far too long.”

“That’s why the committee is pouring efforts into rebuilding homes, right?” Trixie said, trying to look towards positive things.

“Yes, and it’s good that they are trying, but do you know how many times that really works?”

“‘Actually works’?” Trixie questioned, quoting the thing she found odd in Sunset’s statement.

At that time Starlight joined the table, bringing the rest of the waffles she had made with her, which like Trixie’s were covered in blueberries. Having joined her fellow unicorn mares, she decided to likewise enter the conversation. “There are times when mares who have been in a shelter for too long become accustomed with living in large groups.”

“This leads to them refusing to leave the shelters, even when given the opportunity to do so.” Sunset added, picking up off Starlight’s sentence, “In some cases, when a house is made for a mare, they will let another mare take it instead, because they want to extend their sheltered lives. As admirable as this might look from the outside, the truth is that this is unhealthy behavior, not to mention unsustainable. Eventually, all mares will have to return to their lives, whether they are ready or not.”

“Which is another reason we set up rooms here,” said Starlight after taking her first bite of breakfast, “To help adjust them back into normal lives, giving them enough space without completely isolating them. The problem is getting them over their initial dependency.”

Trixie couldn’t say that she herself had any strong attachments to the shelter she stayed in, seeing how poorly most of the other mares there thought of her, but this sounded like something a normal mare might experience. If that was true, then Sunset was doing a good service trying to break that dependency.

“You sure do a lot for your fellow ponies,” Trixie said, returning to her food.

“We try to, at least.” Sunset happily replied, “But there are always issues. That isn’t really worth talking about right now though. Actually, I think I’ve been talking far too much about myself. I should be asking more about you.”

“Why would you need to know anything about me?” asked Trixie, seeing nothing that would merit interest about herself, “I’m nothing special.”

“Nonsense,” Sunset rebutted, “You admitted yourself that you managed to get your hands on the Alicorn Amulet.”

“I’d rather not talk about that…” Trixie said, begging to avoid discussions on that time of her life without outright saying so.

“I don’t want to talk about the amulet itself,” Sunset clarified, “But your ability of discovering that artifact. That alone is an impressive feat. How did you figure out where it was?”

“It was just something I read in a book once,” Trixie said, telling as much of the details as she wanted to admit.

“All I’m saying is don’t cut yourself short. I bet if you told us about yourself, we’d find out a bunch of stuff about you that’s just as impressive.”

“Well…” Trixie said, being put on the spot. Something that she had to admit felt kinda good given the context, “I did go to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns… That was a long time ago though, and I didn’t graduate.” Unfortunately, the show pony had to prefix that important accomplishment in her life with the upsetting reality that she was a dropout.

“Well that’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Sunset chuckled off, “I went to that school myself, and dropped out just like you did.”

“You did?!” Trixie’s eyes widened, amazed that a mare like Sunset was a dropout like herself. Yet despite that setback, she seemed to be a very well off mare if she could run a group dedicated to helping ponies after the greatest disaster Equestria had ever seen.

“And that’s not all. Starlight is a very talented mare who never even went to that silly school. Honestly, I think that far too many ponies put too much stock in how useful that place was when it comes to the development of magic.”

“But haven’t lots of powerful unicorns come from that school?” Trixie questioned, finding Sunset’s statement odd.

“Sure,” Starlight said, “But did they become powerful because of the school’s teaching, or did the school have a high success rate because they only accept foals who were already talented?”

“There have been plenty of ponies who went to that school and never became a great wizard or an alicorn princess.” Sunset added, “And those who did were the very types who became allies to the caribou. If ponies who graduate from a place like that end up that way, it makes one wonder what it is they are teaching them.”

Trixie wasn’t sure what Sunset was getting at, but she politely gave a nod before returning to her waffles. As she thought back on her time learning within its walls, Trixie didn’t think the school had been all that bad. She had learned a bit of all kinds of magic studying there, but that was part of the reason she decided to drop out. She only ever learned a bit of magic. Advanced levitation, minor weather manipulation, illusion spells that were more for show than practical use.

Whenever she tried to do something more advanced, it often ending up blowing up in her face, sometimes literally, and she couldn’t justify wasting time and money staying in a school where she was struggling to learn anything. She ended up taking what little she had learned and moved on to making her traveling magic act, using her talents to entertain the cities she passed through and earn a living wage by doing so. It was the perfect occupation for a mare who resigned herself to self-learning her desired craft.

As Trixie made it through her breakfast, Sunset kept an eye on her while returning to her own. “Trixie, forgive me for asking, but you were a black collar during the fall, right?”

A touchy subject, but an understandable one to address. “I was…” she replied.

“I thought that you would have had to have been. Not too many reds have gotten a pardon or parole yet, and those who have often have to wear their collars to let the public know they could be dangerous. All except those who proved they were faking their acceptance of slavery, or those said to be brainwashed by the Crystal Heart. I was wondering for a moment if you were one of those few.”

“And what if I was?” Trixie wondered aloud.

“Then I would have let you finish your breakfast before asking you to leave.” Sunset answered, “Our group doesn’t associate with mares who cowardly avoided the caribou’s torture by giving in, and we find that most excuses given to why they did it to be just that. I really didn’t think you’d be the type though, since you were smart and resourceful enough to locate a centuries long undiscovered artifact. It would take an idiot to willingly accept the bonds the caribou placed on them, and you look to be above that.”

Trixie couldn’t deny that she felt flattered, even if all Sunset said was that she didn’t look like an idiot. Just like with Ambrosia, the smallest compliment felt like the biggest thing to the blue unicorn. “It’s not like I did anything special during the Fall. I was enslaved just like anypony else.”

“But you didn’t let those bastards break you. You held your head up high, took whatever they dished out, and came out the other side undefeated.” Sunset said, “Where some gave in, and others went crazy, you had the fortitude to press through it. Don’t you think that is admirable in its own way?”

Sunset was portraying Trixie as some sort of battle-hardened survivor. How would she react if she knew that Trixie had been at the verge of breaking at the end of the caribou’s rule, and that the only reason she hadn’t given up was that she was too emotionally drained to do so? Her own feelings about her enslavement not being as optimistic, Trixie didn’t have the heart to say she agreed.

“It’s ok to not feel great about what was done to you,” Starlight said, noticing Trixie’s dower expression, “But simply staying a black collar during all of the Fall did more for Equestria than you could ever know. What do you think would have happened if black collars hadn’t been as numerous as they were? When a mare saw another mare wearing that band around their neck, it showed them that they weren’t alone; that somepony else was fighting against their oppressors just like they were. There were many ponies who are undeniably heroes of the Fall, but black collars also could claim the same simply for their perseverance. It’s a shame that their contributions against the caribou aren’t more widely acknowledged, and they’re more often just treated as victims.”

Taking a few more bites off her plate, Trixie finished the food she had been given. “Look,” she said bluntly, wiping her face off with a napkin, “I understand what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to make me feel better, but kind words and desserts aren’t going to be enough to get me past all they did to me. I actually find it a little condescending that you think it would.”

“We’re not trying to be condescending,” Sunset replied, “Everything we said is how Starlight and I really feel.”

“I’m not saying it isn’t,” said Trixie, “But sitting at a table, receiving compliments as somepony gives you a plate of something they clearly made to make you feel better... I feel like I’m a foal and my parents are trying to cheer me up after flunking a test.”

Starlight and Sunset exchanged glances, seeing Trixie’s point. “Perhaps we’ve been a bit heavy-handed.” Starlight admitted, thinking about how all they have talked about was how great black collars were.

“Yeah, but you have to understand that talking about this sort of thing is what we do most of the time.” Sunset explained, “Not only for the sake of ponies like yourself, but in order to help ourselves cope with the horrors of the Fall.”

“No, I get that,” Trixie said, now realizing this might have been a normal conversation between the two that they were sharing with a guest, “It’s just that despite the things I did during the Fall, I don’t particularly feel like a hero.”

Hearing what Trixie had to say, Sunset noticed something in her choice of words. “‘Despite’?”

Having that particular word repeated back to her, the blue mare realized she let slip a little more than she intended. “Did I say ‘despite’? I meant to say ‘considering’. You know, that I really didn’t do anything worthwhile, so I have nothing to be proud of.”

Neither of the other mares bought that Trixie had flubbed her words, especially with the elaborate and non-convincing excuse she just gave. “What exactly did you do during the Fall?” Sunset asked, leaning in close as inquiry filled her thoughts.

“Nothing,” Trixie said curtly, “Nothing that ever did anypony any good, and only got me in more trouble than you could imagine with the caribou.” Trixie had reached a point where she was no longer comfortable with talking about herself or the Fall, and felt that there was only one way to get these two to understand that. “It might sound like I’m being full of myself, but when I was enslaved, I was treated far worse than other mares. I wasn’t just raped and given a light beating when I stepped out of line. I was tortured almost all the time, and with things most mares never experienced. I was beaten till bruised, deprived of sleep, verbally insulted, physically humiliated, and made to feel like I wasn’t worth the literal dirt they’d force-feed me along with the other excuses for food I had to eat just so I wouldn’t starve to death. And this was all after they got bored of me. At first, it was a nightmare of pain and suffering, where they put me in actual torture devices and did things I don’t even want to think about, let alone talk about with somepony else.”

Sunset and Starlight watched as Trixie put her face into her hands, and a small tear crept out from one side of them. They could both see that Trixie had indeed suffered, there was no doubt to that.

“We believe you,” said Starlight, knowing Sunset felt the same by the look on her face, “And it’s terrible that you had to suffer so much at their hands.”

“But this does raise one more important question,” Sunset added, “Why would the caribou treat you like they would treat one of the rebels?”

The fact that Sunset had picked that up out of all that sparked something inside Trixie. Something not as strong as fear, but a strong dread of this mare’s abilities to deduce something like that from details that felt completely unrelated. It was like she was privy to information that a common mare really shouldn’t know.

“I-I don’t know,” said Trixie, scooting her chair back a little to get as much distance away from the mare sitting across from her as she could without outright fleeing, “I wasn’t a rebel, I swear!”

“I believe that, too,” said Sunset, “Because if you were, you would have been blanked.”

Sunset was spot-on yet again, though this time her information was more common knowledge than deduction. Those who had openly rebelled against the caribou, or at least those who had avoided enslavement for a long period of time to have the opportunity to do so, were made an example of once finally captured.

Their punishments, after the initial rape they would endure once obtained, often began by being paraded through every town between where they were caught and Canterlot. Brainwashed stallions, Caribou, and red collars alike would be allowed to pelt them with rotten vegetation, cast stones at them, and would often get to violate them in some public spectacle before moving on to the next town to do the same. Once in Canterlot, they would be delivered to the castle dungeons to begin a long and arduous season of torture in order to break the rebel’s spirit; either to extract information about the location of other rebels, or just for the amusement of the sadists left to deal with these unfortunate ponies trapped in their clutches. It didn’t matter what you said though. If you sold out every mare you knew, if you performed every sex act they demanded, or if you were the very model of a red collar slave, there was no avoiding their inevitable fate for you, which was the grand punishment of blanking.

A fate worse than death, with the implementation of powerful magics the caribou would destroy everything you were. That was no exaggeration or colorful use of artistic license, it was an apt description of what blanking was. By strapping a pony’s body in an awful machine and barraging them with powerful magics, they would be stripped of their memories, personality, appearance, and even their cutie mark and special talents with it. Then, in an equally gruesome process, the pony would be rebuilt in the caribou’s image for them - their bodies themselves altered to be more sexually desirable, their minds flooded with lust and submissiveness, and their cutie marks replaced with some disgusting lewd symbol depicting what the blanked pony’s new role was in their kingdom.

It was something so devastating to those who went through it that after the caribou were defeated, it was found that there was no known cure to it. The only solution to it was to inflict blanking to those poors ponies again, and try to rebuild them using the same vile spells that destroyed them to begin with. One might call it successful when it came to the restoration of their physical forms, but when it came to their mentality, it did very little outside of making them act normal, with an emphasis on ‘act’. At least this was what Trixie had heard, as she had never encounter a ‘Re-blank’ face to face, given that most were being taken care of in psychiatric hospitals or given more personal care by family members or friends until a real cure was found.

So how exactly did Trixie earn enough of the caribou’s ire that she earned one part of a rebel’s punishment, but not the other? Trixie knew the answer to this, but it was something she never wanted to discuss - though not for reasons that might reveal her as a traitor, as the caribou had a habit of even blanking rebels who were stupid enough to turn themselves in. No, it was something else that stilled her tongue that she found equally condemning.

However, it began to feel that unless Trixie just fled from this place right now and never looked back, Sunset would find out the details one way or another. Perhaps it would have been better to just spill the details they wanted and be done with it. Not like she wouldn’t have to talk about it at least a little bit if she decided to attend the next meeting.

With a heavy and reluctant sigh, Trixie relented on her silence. “It’s hard to talk about,” she started, “But the circumstances of my capture and treatment were… special, despite how often the caribou and stallions who tormented me drilled in the point that I wasn’t. I really wish it that weren’t true, but knowing what I did and how I was treated afterwards, I can’t think of it any other way.”

There was no way a statement like that wouldn’t peak the interest of any pony who heard it. A mare having been treated like a rebel, only to be spared the ultimate punishment that came with it, saying that the caribou saw her as something special. The reason Trixie said that couldn’t be ego, as no pony outside of a cock addicted red collar would ever find the attention of the caribou as something to brag about.

“Then if you feel like talking about it now, how about we start at the beginning.” Sunset said, intrigued with this unicorn and what stories she might have to tell, “How did you first encountered the caribou?”

“Go ahead and start talking,” Starlight said as she arose from her chair, “I’ll make us some more snacks to make this a bit more enjoyable.”

Trixie watched Starlight leave the table to make some more comfort foods, happily smiling as she did what she believed was helping. With a small shake of her head, Trixie decided to finally give in and explain what she had been alluding to all this time. Perhaps Ambrosia had a point when she said that sometimes it was just good to have somepony to talk to, and depending on the reactions of these two she might find out if it would really be worth participating in another session of group therapy.

“Ok… If you really want to know.” Trixie began, “It all started on the week of the Summer Sun Celebration.”

The sun was setting over Salt Lick City, a bustling pony settlement that was a decent distance away from Canterlot. Everypony was going about business, doing the typical things ponies did. Going to work, eating at restaurants, shopping at stores, and generally enjoying life. These only disruption to their routines was a small stage set up in the local park, where a crowd of fillies and colts had gathered round.

“And for her next trick,” said a blue unicorn standing over the onlookers, dawning a purple cap wizard’s hat, “The Great and Powerful Trixie will make this bouquet of flowers vanish.”

The young ponies watched with excitement as the performer held a small assortment of flowers in her outstretched arm, and then levitated a bit of red fabric up to obscure it from sight. The very second the flowers were out of sight, the mare magician pulled the cloth away, revealing just her empty hand.

“Voilà!” Trixie announce, showing both sides of the hand to prove she hadn’t somehow hidden it there. It was only a gesture, as hiding an item like that would have been impossible, but it was enough to wow many of her audience. Together they applauded, with Trixie happily absorbing the praise they were giving her talent.

Not all were pleased with this performance though, and from amidst the claps came a loud and draw out “Boooooo!” This happened several times, to the point that it could not be ignored, causing all the attention that was being given to Trixie to be pulled towards the young pegasus filly that was hovering above the rest to make the disapproving noises.

Once everypony stopped clapping, the disruptor spoke up to share the reason for their discontent. “You call that a trick?” she asked snidely. “All you did was levitate the flowers away when you moved the cloth away.”

“Is that what you think happened?” Trixie said with a bit of smug, not faltering in the face of this heckler. “Trixie assures you that is not the case, and can prove the power of her magic.” She had faced many ponies who doubted her magic before in her career as a stage performer, and learned that keeping a good attitude was key to confronting them. A bit of proof also helped though, so using her horn she returned the cloth back to the stage, and flipped it around a few times in order to so that the bouquet was truly gone.

The other foals were once more impressed that the flowers were gone, but the pegasus didn’t seem any more convinced than before. “Are you serious? She just dropped the flowers off stage before showing you what’s behind it.”

The filly wasn’t wrong. Trixie had left the flowers somewhere else in order to give the illusion that they had vanished in mid-air, using the moment she revealed her empty hand as a distraction to do so without detection, but it was aggravating when somepony attempted to debunk her tricks for no reason other than to ruin them for others. Hecklers were always a problem when they arose, but she did have ways of dealing with them.

“Very well,” Trixie said, doing her best to appear more amused than irritated by this intrusion on her act, “If you are so sure that Trixie is a fake, then why don’t you come up here and prove it?”

The pegasus treated this challenge like an imposition, giving Trixie a glare that expressed her distaste for this whole thing. She was going to outright refuse, but before she could say a word, the other foals in attendance piped up.

“You should go up there Hocus.”

“It would be amazing to see you up on stage.”

“It would be like those times you did it with-”

The pegasus tensed up slightly, gave a slight growl under her breath, and said “Fine!” angrily before hovering over to the stage, “But only to prove that this is all fake!”

Trixie watched the disgruntled filly take a place right next to her, arms crossed and brow furrowed. This one wasn’t your typical heckler, the look on her face told the stage performer that she would go out of her way to ruin the act if given the chance. Trixie didn’t know what brought about such resentment, but she couldn’t allow her desires to be fulfilled.

“Welcome to the show,” Trixie greeted the filly, “Can I ask my new assistant what her name is?”

“It’s Merryweather.” The filly said under her breath as she shot her eyes to her hooves.

“Hmm,” Trixie undered from behind her lips. She distinctly heard one of the other foals call her ‘Hocus’, but that didn’t really matter right now. “So Merryweather, do you like magic tricks?” Upon the mentioning of magic, Trixie flicked her wrist and made a deck of cards appear in her hand.

“Not really.” Merryweather replied, not changing her sour demeanor in the slightest. “I find them cheap.”

“Well,” Trixie said, shooting the cards from one hand to the other, “Maybe you will like Trixie’s.” Trixie gave the cards a few fast shuffles, before taking the cards in one hand and using her fingers to scatter the cards up in the air. This drew the eyes of all foals present to them, including Merryweather’s, as they floated around in the air above two ponies on stage.

“A card trick?” Merryweather scoffed, watching the rectangular pieces of paper thing plastic start to circle around her in orbit, all faces outwards. “You want to impress me with something as simple as that?”

“Trixie thinks you’ll be more impressed by the end than you assume,” Trixie replied while rotating the cards with their faces pointing outwards, allowing the crowd to see the many different ones they had. “Just take a card and let Trixie do her magic.”

The pegasus rolled her eyes, but snatched a single card out of the unicorn’s levitation spell. As Trixie brought all the other cards back to her hand, Merryweather turned over her chosen card to see what it was.

“It’s the princess of hearts,” the young pegasus said aloud, not caring if her keeping the identity of her card a secret was part of the trick.

“Very good,” Trixie said, mixing the cards in her hand with a riffle shuffle, “Why don’t you slip it back in?” After a few more quick ruffling of the cards, she presented it to her reluctant assistant.

The pegasus stepped up to the unicorn, flipping her card face down to match the deck, and inserted it inside. Once she got it roughly halfway in though, Merryweather quickly moved her hand atop the deck and pulled the stack towards her. “Oops!” she said, voice drenched in sarcasm as the card tumbled to the floor.

Trixie was quick to react, and being a unicorn easily grabbed all the cards with her magic before they touched ground, though not without a breaking out in a bit of a sweat. “Whew” she said aloud, overly relieved for some reason.

“Hmmmm,” Merryweather hummed, the magician’s behavior too dramatic to ignore. She looked at the cards suspended in midair, but found nothing out of the ordinary out of the ones she could see the faces off. They all just looked like normal cards to her. “So I guess you’ll want me to pick another one now?”

“No need,” Trixie said, not only to Merryweather, but to the audience as well, “The only thing my assistant did was make sure the deck was thoroughly shuffled.”

Using her magic, the unicorn brought the cards back together to form a deck, and then proceeded to show off a few more flashy stage shuffles to wow the crowd. There was little doubt that the cards had been mixed in a way that would ensure no normal pony could have tracked the singular card that filly had pulled.

After what seemed like a minute of flashy card play, Trixie finally stopped. “Now, The Great and Powerful Trixie will display her power over this simple deck of cards, and produce her assistant’s card, straight from the top of the deck!”

Lifting a hand up in dramatic fashion, the mare sliced it across the deck, retrieving from the top of it a single card, its back facing away from the audience. For a few seconds she paused to add a bit of suspense to the act, but when the card was turned over everypony could see it was, in fact, the princess of hearts.

The foals watching this applauded, amazed that after all that the performer was able to pick the correct cards after all that shuffling. Merryweather, on the other hand, was not as impressed as her peers. “So what?” the filly said, her annoyance evident, “There are plenty of ways you can put a card on top of a deck.”

“Of course,” Trixie said placing the card back on top, “But is this so easily explained?” Fanning the front half of the deck with a finger, Trixie then flipped the deck upside-down to reveal that the princess of hearts had in an instance moved from the top of the deck to the bottom.

This was a little more impressive than simply having the card at the top of the deck after a long shuffle, something that reflected even in Merryweather’s eyes as she looked at the card shocked, no indication of actual unicorn magic being used to switch its place in the deck. “You have to be using two of the same card.” the pegasus declared, trying to debunk the trick on the spot.

“Oh really?” rebutted the unicorn, shuffling the cards again only to cut them in the middle and once more reveal the chosen card, “Then how does Trixie keep finding it in all of these cards?” She repeated the process of shuffling and cutting the deck over and over, the result always the same. At that point she wasn’t even bothering to look at the card, as if the result was certain every time.

“You swapped the deck!” Merryweather shouted, believing that she had figured out the only means that the unicorn could have accomplished this trick.

“Did I?” Trixie said smugly, lighting up her horn once more to envelope the deck in her magic.

Spreading the entire deck out in a grid, Trixie revealed that there were fifty-two individual cards in the deck, including a single copy of the princess of hearts. Spread out as they were, Merryweather didn’t know what to say. All of her explanations had been debunked, as the show pony had done little that could have given her the opportunity to swap out the decks twice. Noticing the baffled expression the pegasus was wearing, the other foals clapped enthusiastically for this act, Trixie being talented enough to turn something as simple as a card trick into a spectacle.

“Thank you, thank you!” Trixie said as she removed her hat and bowed to the audience, placing all of the cards within her headwear before replacing it upon her mane, “And thank you to my helpful assis...tant?”

By the time Trixie brought her eyes back up to where Merryweather was standing, the pegasus had vanished. For a second the unicorn thought the filly had pulled a trick of her own, but a quick glance around let Trixie see that she had started walking off the stage, already making it to a set of steps leading off it, apparently too angry to fly away instead.

“Hey, Merryweather was it?” Trixie said to the filly, catching her just before she got away, “I don’t know why you’re so upset at me, but I didn’t come here to make you angry. Why don’t you come back after the show and I’ll give you a few souvenirs for being my assistant.”

“I don’t want anything from you,” Merryweather said, still immensely aggravated, “Or any other magician. Just because I couldn’t figure it out, doesn’t mean that what you did wasn’t anything more than a worthless trick. You shouldn’t be proud of any of this.”

With those final words, the filly stormed off, done with any kind of further participation with Trixie’s show. Trixie herself was taken aback by her attitude, but in a way the filly wasn’t wrong. The card trick was just that: a trick, and one pulled off in a way that most wouldn’t really know how to figure out unless they were a unicorn, as the deck itself was the entirety of the trick. Truth be told, every card in the deck was the princess of hearts, but only when handled without the use of magic. When looked at through a filter of unicorn magic, the faces would change to an appropriate card of a deck. That was why Trixie had to make sure that whenever multiple cards were shown, it was while they were in the grasp of her telekinesis spell.

Still, that didn’t give the filly the right to be so hostile just because the trick was ultimately a ruse. All stage magic was, in some way, a deception or distraction on those viewing it. Perhaps it really didn’t matter, but there was something off-putting about this particular heckler. Trixie didn’t have time to piece together what that was though, as there was still a show to put on.

Going back to the stage front, Trixie address her audience once more. “Now, on to Trixie’s next amazing feat of magic! Trixie will dazzle you all with her spectacular-”

At that moment a loud explosion sounded off in the distance, frightening the show pony with a sudden startling noise. The foals all turned their head upwards, making noises of amazement at what they saw. Trixie, turning around to see what had caught their attention, immediately spotted the large rainbow ring stretching out across the sky.

There was no wondering what had created this spectacle of spectrum, as by now, the Sonic Rainboom was fairly known across Equestria. “Rainbow Dash…” Trixie muttered under her breath, knowing that this spontaneous act from the blue pegasus had just overshadowed her show by a large margin, and made the fireworks display she planned for the end of the show completely pointless. It would take some effort to pull the eyes of her audience away from the Rainboom, and even more work to get them all interesting in her act the same way as before.

Trixie was so angry from being upstaged that she didn’t even notice that the Rainboom had originated from above Canterlot, and that the kingdom’s capital was currently surrounded in a bubble of magic. Had she seen it, perhaps the unicorn would have been more aware of the danger she was soon to encounter.

That night, Trixie stayed in her travel cart, as she always did when she went on tour. It was dusty, small, and stuffed with the tools of her trade, but it was her home away from home. While on the road, all she needed was her hammock and a few snacks provided by her adoring fans. Trixie made little off her acts, but she always drew in a crowd, and to her, that was the most important thing. Popularity over profit, admiration over amenities, fame over fortune. It was at a very young age that Trixie decided to become an entertainer, and decided that the real measure of success as one was not how much you made, but how many you made remember your name.

Her performance today added a bit on the goal of notoriety, as plenty of the foals that attended lined up afterwards to get a few souvenirs and autographed headshots after the act, showering the magician with praise for her talents all throughout. For some reason though, Trixie couldn’t get the image of that one little pegasus out of her mind. Merryweather was not the standard neighsayer when to came to one of Trixie’s performances, lacking the general disbelief in her tricks that most would have, and instead displaying outright contempt for Trixie’s profession.

“I’ve heard of foals hating clowns,” Trixie said to herself as she laid still in her hammock, “But never a magician.”

It bugged the unicorn, but there was really nothing she could do. Tomorrow morning, she was going to be heading back home anyways, this city being the last stop of a year long tour. No better time to bring it to a close than just before the biggest event of the year, when everypony’s attention would be drawn toward the Princess and the Summer Sun Celebration, or “Princesses” as it were. At the beginning of the year, there had only been Celestia, as it had been for one thousand years prior, but over the course of it, three new additions had arrived. Luna, the returned princess of the night, and Cadence, the recently christened princess of the Crystal Empire, had always been around, but only recently had been able to help run Equestria due to extenuating circumstances.

However, the latest addition had only just been inducted barely a week prior, and when Trixie had heard who had suddenly sprouted wings and became royalty, even she was amazed that her rival had made it that far. Not that a pony becoming an alicorn was unheard of, but Cadence really was the only other example of that happening. With Twilight ascending to those ranks, along with the two other princesses taking up the mantle of leadership, and the recent events involving Discord, Sombra, and Chrysalis popping up one after the other, it was hard for Trixie to see how the following year could be any more exciting than this one, and perhaps once hype brought on by the new princesses had died down, she would be able to make her own name known, and take her place in stardom that she believed she always deserved.

“There is always next year,” Trixie yawned, fatigue finally hitting her. A week or two off, and then she’d start anew, hopefully being remembered a little more this time than the last.

With that pleasant thought in mind, Trixie covered herself up and leaned back to rest her head on her pillow. One last act to wrap things up before the festival, then back home. It didn’t take long for her eyelids to get heavy, unknowingly closing them for the last time on the world she had known all her life.

Trixie’s eyes shot open, falling out of her hammock as her body flailed. She had barely enough time to realize that she was falling before her body hit the ground, and not even enough time to scream before a burst of air was forced out of her lungs in the form of a grunt. That was how little time it took for the unicorn mare to awaken into the nightmare that Equestria would become.

While she had nary the time to scream in all this, somepony else did, as what had awoken Trixie from her slumber was the terrified howls of somepony in distress. Of course, Trixie didn’t realize that was what she heard, but when reflecting on things retrospectively, how could it have been anything else?

“Oww…” said the blue mare, rubbing her cheek as she felt at was she thought would be a bruise in the morning, “Who is making all that racket out there?” she then asked herself, angry at being startled both out of sleep and out of her bed, “Don’t they know that Trixie needs her beauty sleep?!”

The words came from her mouth freely, the unicorn not thinking on what she was saying as she uttered them. Then, Trixie started to feel something wrong with the sentence she had spoken. Thinking on it for a moment, she remembered where exactly she was. She was in her cart, which she had parked on the outskirts of Salt Lick City, not having a permit to park it in town for the night. Where she was, she shouldn’t have heard much noise from the town itself, unless it was very loud. As awareness began to grow within her, something else dawned upon her. Looking out her window on one side of the cart let her see only darkness, while the one on the other side was letting in an intense light.

“What in Celestia’s name is…” Trixie said quietly to herself as she picked herself up off her wood floor. She made it to the window before she could finish that thought, and what she saw made her stop it completely.

Fire, large ones, covering several buildings inside the city - buildings Trixie recalled as homes of ponies who lived in that town, houses she had passed by on the way out. A great fire had broken out in the night, burning away all the possessions of those who lived in them. They were so powerful that Trixie could feel the heat from the fires even from the distance she was at, the crackling of the flames joining with a string of terrified and frantic screams.

As all of this unfolded, Trixie could only stand at her window and stare in horrific amazement. The scene laid before her eyes resonated with terror, both from those poor ponies whose homes were being destroyed, and herself as she bore witness to the tragedy of it all. Nary a word left her muzzle as shadowy silhouettes scurried back and forth in the light emitted in the darkness of night. They were surely those of the victims and rescue workers, Trixie believed, with many black figures running around wildly amongst each other, and even into the arms of one another. A part of Trixie wanted to go help, but another part feared she wouldn’t really be able to if she tried. She only hoped that the city’s weather team could work up a quick rain storm to put out the fires as soon as possible.

Wait a minute… Trixie thought in puzzlement as she watched one of the shadows seemingly struggling against another, much larger figure, What’s going on there?

For a few seconds, the two black forms wrestled against one another. At first, Trixie rationalized that the one struggling to get away was a hysterical pony trying to run into the burning homes, but then she saw something that put that idea to question. The larger shadow had moved in a way that it appeared to have reared back, and sent a blow into the smaller one. With what and to what part of the body, it was hard to tell, but she got confirmation when she saw both figures going to the ground, the larger one on top. The unicorn was stunned, more than she had been prior, finding it hard to breathe as she watched what looked to be somepony being attacked by another, but she didn’t want to believe that was true. She took deep breaths, one after another, her mind racing to make some sort of sense of it all, but just as she was on the verge of convincing that what she saw wasn’t actually real, something else happened that eliminated that attempt of self-delusion.

The large figure raised its arm up above its head, its visage more menacing than she had thought previously, before driving it down on the figure beneath it. As the arm crashed down, a loud, clearly feminine scream sounded over all other noises, denoting that the smaller figure was a mare and was in certain danger. The next thing Trixie heard was the scream suddenly peak, which was followed by the larger figure tearing its arm to the side, and casting away something that looked like a piece of fabric.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Trixie finally said to herself, covering her mouth as she backed away from the window. It was fairly simple for her mind to fill in the blanks she couldn’t make out, and with that clarity it became much easier to discern what all the shadows were doing as well.

Now she could see that there were several large creatures running about, tackling ponies and forcing them into submission, each standing at least a foot over the equines, and having a set of antlers atop their heads that noticeably defined them against the other smaller figures running about. These fires weren’t some freak accident at all, but instead part of a planned attack.

Finally understanding the situation, Trixie crouched down beneath the window, turning around so her back was against the wall, hands still cupping her snout. A cold sweat was forming all across her body, and a noticeable tremble joined it. Trixie, while boastful of her talents, was not the kind of pony who worked well in these kinds of situations, or so her experience with the Ursa Minor proved. While hiding in her cart was cowardly, she would not make a bit of difference if she went out and attempted to play hero. That was a job for the Equestrian Guard, or perhaps Twilight and her friends, not a simple magician.

As she sat there in the dark, she could still hear the screams of voices of the town, mostly that of mares, though the yell of the occasional broke through before being silenced by the attackers. It was hard waiting there for everything to end, not knowing exactly what was going on, and each second that passed increased the pounding pace of Trixie’s heart. She might have sat at that spot the whole night, if not for an unsettling idea that came to her.

What if they’re coming? Trixie thought. She hadn’t been parked that far from Salt Lick City, just underneath a few trees a ways out along a dirt road.

It was all too possible that her cart had been spotted, and those creatures were approaching as she cowered in the dark. No doubt being caught by them would be bad, so as much as she would have preferred to wait everything out, it was not something she could do and feel safe at the same time. Trixie had to work up all the courage she could, but eventually, she pulled herself back up to the window.

The fires were still burning, if simmering down as the amount of materials it had to burn turned into char, providing enough light to let Trixie see the silhouettes from before. The chaos had died down a little, with few still running about wildly like at the start of this all. Instead, the shadows were heading towards the center of town in an organized fashion, some leading others by what looked like rope, others hoisting their captives over their shoulders. Those ponies kicked and flailed, while others were forced to march or crawl ahead of those who surely the cause of all this. Trixie felt bad for those ponies, but glad that none of those creatures she saw were coming her way.

Understanding that she was safe for the time being, the unicorn settled down and took in what she was seeing more accurately, noticing that not all of the aggressive shadows were those antlered demons she spotted before. Many of them looked to be normal ponies, which in some ways scared Trixie even more. It was understandable that some evil forces existed in the world that wished to do harm to ponies, but ponies helping those forces was rare, at least to these extents. Still, Trixie couldn’t deny what her eyes were seeing, and taking note of this she realized that trusting another pony during this situation might be a bad idea. With that in mind, the last thing that concerned her was what exactly these attackers were going to do with their prisoners, with her thoughts more focused on how to make sure she didn’t become one of them as well.

After a few minutes, things appeared to settle down. Ponies stopped being dragged around, and less and less shadows appeared in the light of the still burning houses. As things died down, Trixie took the time to barricade her doors, needing something to do while she waited. She certainly wasn’t getting to sleep, and wanted some time to escape in case she did get discovered, even if it were a few seconds.

Once that was done, Trixie took to waiting and watching, knowing that something like this would inevitably lure in attention from Canterlot, even in the dead of night. The guards would come in, take care of those who attacked the town, and things would go back to normal within a few days. Worst case scenario, Twilight and her friends would be called in to deal with the problem. That seemed to be how most issues were resolved these days. Trixie believed that she was in the clear, able to go unnoticed and not having to be dragged into whatever was going on. The moment that she believed herself safe was also the moment fate decided to prove the mare wrong though.

From out behind one of the buildings, something zoomed out into the light. Something small, but big enough to be seen, flying out of the town as fast as it could. Trixie locked on to the black spot immediately, it being the first bit of motion she had seen in a while, and heard an angry voice yell “One’s getting away!” from within the city. Trixie hardly had to guess that one of the town’s ponies managed to flee, and that it was a pegasus.

She started to feel relieved that someone had escaped, and a pegasus would be able to make it to Canterlot with ease, ensuring that this situation would be dealt with. She expected the winged horse to fly up into the sky, as that would be the best way to avoid capture, but for some reason, they stayed close to the ground. Shortly after leaving the confines of the city, several other, more grounded shadows followed after, including one rather large, antlered one.

“Come on, you can get away…” Trixie said silently, hoping that the flying splotch of darkness escape.

The pegasus had a good lead, and even if they just flew into the forest, there was a good chance for escape. Trixie had a lot of hope for this pegasus, at least until the small shape stopped for a moment, and then started heading directly for her cart, having spotted it in the distance.

“What?!” Trixie shouted on accident, shoving her hands over her mouth immediately afterwards, “No, No… Don’t come this way… I can’t help you…”

Trixie’s words were selfish, but also reflected the reality of things. Past events had proven that she was not suited for these kinds of situations, her magic being far too weak to do anything about something threatening. The only thing the pegasus was doing was leading the others right to her, and making it so they would both be captured. Not that Trixie didn’t have an escape plan, but it was one that wouldn’t be as easy with two ponies.

Regardless, the pegasus was not stopping and would be there in a few seconds. As much as Trixie would have preferred the pony head somewhere else, they weren’t going anywhere else. Since that was the case, Trixie saw that the only thing to do now was help out as much as she could. She unlocked the window, opening it all the way to try and give the fleeing pony a way in without removing the barrier she created at her door.

“Quick! This way!” Trixie called out to the pegasus, figuring at this point that her cart had been spotted by the pony’s pursuers. It didn’t matter if they heard her, so much as it did that the one being chased knew where to head.

The pegasus came right for the window, no doubt hearing Trixie’s call. Seeing that the pegasus was coming, Trixie moved to the side of the window, preparing for the arrival of her guest. With her heart pounding in her chest, she watched the pegasus do as instructed, flying through the space provided without issue. Once inside, Trixie closed the window shut immediately after, locking it, though realized that the barrier of glass wasn’t going to do much to hold off those who chased the pony she was now harboring.

“OK!” Trixie shouted, too scared to control the volume of her voice, “Who is that out there chasing you?!”

Trixie didn’t really care who the pursuers were. It didn’t matter if it were diamond dogs or dragons, she wasn’t going to be able to handle them. She needed to address the pegasus somehow though, and this was the first thing that came to mind. The second thing that came to mind was who she was talking to.

“Merryweather!?” The young filly Trixie met earlier that day was now sitting on the floor of her cart, heaving heavily as she desperately gasped for air, looking worse for wear for more reasons than just needing to catch her breath.

Trixie waited a moment for Merryweather to respond, but the girl was reasonably too scared and exhausted to speak. From the looks of it, she had been attacked while in bed, as she was in a set of PJs, the top part torn in a manner that revealed far more of the filly’s chest fur than Trixie felt comfortable looking at. Her immediate thought was that it has ripped accidentally in a struggle, the real reason why it had been torn that way was still a distant concept to the unicorn who had yet to learn the motivations of the attackers.

As bad as the filly’s current state was, and as concerned as Trixie was for her, the unicorn knew she couldn’t dwell on it too long. Step one of her plan was done, now on to step two, which required a bit of her magician’s talent to pull off. Pressing against the wall next to her window, she watched as two pony sized shapes approached the cart, being lead by one bigger shape with antlers.

“She ducked into that carriage!” shouted one of the ponies.

“And did you heard that voice?” said the other.

“Of course I did,” replied the large figure, stepping into the moonlight to reveal himself as some sort of large, musclebound creature, the likes of which Trixie had never seen before. Though what the creature was exactly was lost on the unicorn, her first encounter with a caribou left a lasting impression when he followed up by saying, “There’s another mare bitch inside that thing. Go pull them out of there, and we’ll have some fun before we drag them back.”

The cold sweat that Trixie’s body produced earlier came back with intensity as those words penetrated through the walls. The insinuation and tone of that phrase was filled with malice and implications that conjured up images that the mare didn’t want to think of as the two ponies hastily went for her front door. Trixie was still very unsure about many things when it came to everything she saw that night, but the one thing she was sure of was that it was time to escape.

Going over to Merryweather, the unicorn got to her knees and grabbed the girl by the shoulders, directing the pegasus to look at her face to face. “Look, I know you’re scared,” Trixie said, blurting out what came naturally to mind, “But I need you to listen to me. I’ve got a plan to get away from these guys, but I need you to work with me on this. Do you understand?”

The filly recoiled a little at Trixie’s demand, still struggling to recover from her own ordeal. At that moment, the magician mare was staring her in the eyes fiercely, which didn’t help Merryweather to overcome the fear she was feeling. As they looked at one another, a sudden jiggling of the cart’s door handle, followed by a pounding on the wooden barrier that shook not only it, but the piles of debris blocking it.

The noise broke Trixie’s locking of their eyes, as she had to turn her head to make sure the barricade she made would be able to hold, and that along with the worry that grew on the mare’s face was enough to make the filly understand the gravity of this situation.

“Ok,” Merryweather said.

“Huh? Trixie replied, turning one eye back to the girl while keeping one eye on the door.

“I’ll do whatever you want, just keep them away from me!” Merryweather answered, shoving her face into the front of the mare’s shirt. She was panicked, in need of some form of comfort, and at the time being this somewhat embarrassing gesture was what she chose to get it.

“Then you need to follow me, and don’t make a sound. Got it?” Trixie said, not having the luxury of time to let her newly acquired ward recover completely.

Understanding that time was against them, Merryweather lifted her head. “What are you gonna do?”

“Well I think you know the secret behind every magician’s trick, don’t you?” Trixie said, giving the filly a confident smirk.

Merryweather took a moment to think, and the answer dawned on her rather quickly. With a light gasp and hushed tones, she said to the mare in front of her, “Make a distraction”.

Meanwhile, outside of the cart, two stallions took turns ramming the door with their shoulder. They were determined to get inside, a prize waiting for them that they were eager to obtain, but the blockade on the other side effectively held them back.

“What is taking you two so long?” said the caribou watching them, growing gradually more disappointed with the ponies under his command. “You can’t break down a single locked door?”

“Those bitches blocked it!” replied one of the stallions, slamming himself into the door again.

“It feels like they shoved a lot of shit in front of it!” the other said over his associate.

The caribou grunted in distaste. He was not pleased that these two had not only let a little girl get this far away from the town, but we're having trouble getting through a simple wooden door. After all the work he had already done that day to capture, restrain, punish and otherwise put the insolent females of this kingdom under the heels of men where they rightfully belonged, he was hoping that these stallions they dragged around with them would do more than reap the rewards of he and his breathren’s hard work.

“Get out of the way.” said the caribou, growing irritated at the lack of physical strength from the ponies, “I’ll take care of this.”

The two ponies did as they were told, stepping out onto the grass to give the much larger caribou some space. Being much bigger than one of the stallions, and more muscular than they were, the caribou simply took hold of the handle and braced his shoulder against the door before pushing to clear the objects holding the passage shut.

“Fucking pussies.” the caribou said to himself as he entered.

“Do you see them?” asked one of the stallions.

“Not yet,” The caribou replied, “This thing is full of clutter. Boxes everywhere.”

“Want us to come in and help look around?” the other stallion asked.

As much as the caribou didn’t want to do this dirty work, he didn’t trust the ponies not to be incompetent again. “Just stay out there in case they try to make a break for it,” the caribou said as he started shifting through all the things, “And when I find them, I won’t be sharing them with either of you.” he added to himself opening a few boxes.

At first, the caribou just shifted the boxes around the wooden areas around the carpet in the center of the carriage, turning over any spot that looked like the ponies could be hiding behind. Next, he started to look through the boxes themselves, but all he could find were the tools of a stage performer who dabbled in sleight of hoof. The only other thing he could find were fireworks, which he he started to cast aside after seeing so many of them.

“What was this, a delivery truck for that stupid sun celebration?” The caribou muttered, his frustration growing with each box. He was so dedicated to finding the two females who he was sure hadn’t left the cart that he didn’t notice that there was a black cloud formed over his head, in a literal sense. The small cloud hovered over him like a looming predator, and with only a small rumble to alert its prey to its presence, it released a bolt of lightning. All the caribou could hear was a mildly loud crack before a bolt connected with one of the boxes filled with fireworks. A second later, his world turned to light.

From outside the cart, Trixie and Merryweather watched from the safe distance of the forest. By the time the caribou had entered, Trixie and Merryweather had both left it through a secret trap door in her floor, the carpet set up to roll over and conceal it the moment it closed. Had the stallions not been pounding at the door, they might have heard all of that, but they were far too eager to get at the both of them.

Thank you, Twilight, Trixie thought, knowing that this plan had been inspired by her rival. She had taught the blue mare that power was not the only way to defeat an opponent, and thus allowed Trixie to come up with her ingenious plan.

Of course, slipping out of the cart wasn’t going to be enough to get away unseen, so she left behind one of her storm clouds with a timer set to it and one of her trick metal rods in one of her fireworks boxes to attract its strike. Thank you, Rainbow Dash, Trixie thought to herself again, also acknowledging that if not for the Rainboom, she wouldn’t have had them for this moment.

Things were looking pretty good, as she had thought her trap would explode in someone’s face as they got the door open, but it looked like someone was going to get caught up in the blast. That was going to be distracting, for sure, but he was wearing some heavy armor, so Trixie figured he would be fine. Trixie might have wanted to get away, but she wasn’t trying to become a murderer in the process. Her attackers might not have had a conscience, but she didn’t have to stoop to their level.

The two ponies didn’t have to wait long to see the results of her trap, as a moment later, the windows lit up with lights, and the cart filled with whistles and explosions. That was the signal to get going. “Ok Merryweather, you need to go deeper into the forest and then climb into a tree. Hide there until the I come after you.”

“Wait, you’re not coming?” Merryweather said in hushed shock.

“Not yet,” Trixie said, still a little concerned about her carriage. She wanted to know if they were going to burn it down or not. If they did, she would consider it a necessary loss, but she wanted to see if she could retrieve it later. “Now go. I’ll be fine. Just trust me for now.”

Merryweather hesitated, but was ready to obey her elder. Trixie hadn’t led her astray so far, and it wasn’t like she was telling her to do anything dangerous. The filly flapped her wings, preparing herself to leave. She didn’t make it an inch away before something unexpected happened.

With a sudden thunderous explosion, the cart burst into a storm of broken planks and splintered wood. It made everyone standing around it recoil and guard themselves from the flying debris, including Trixie, who did not believe that her fireworks would have that much power in them. The blast was strong enough that it ejected the caribou inside from the cart, landing him in the direction of where Trixie and Merryweather were, close enough for the two to be able to get a good look at him while staying hidden.

The armor had taken the brunt of the force, as Trixie had anticipated, with splintered pieces of wood wedged in the slits and cracks of the armor. Laying on the ground, it looked as if the caribou had been winded by the impact, both from the explosion and connected with the ground, but otherwise, he looked fine. That was… until his head fell backwards, revealing something that stunned Trixie when she spotted it.

There in the deer man’s neck was a sizable piece of broken and jagged board, a miniature stake protruding from a hole in the front of his throat. The injury looked serious, and the horrid, wet-sounding gasps for air he made hurt the stage performer to listen to.

“Thungrox, are you ok!?” Shouted one of the stallions as they ran over to the severely hurt male. The inspected him to check the damage, and were notably disturbed by what they saw. “What did those monsters do to you?”

“I-I’m going to go get a healer.” The other one stammered out and he fled the caribou’s side, “Stay here with him!”

“W-wait a minute, I’m not staying alone here!” The other stallion protested, following right after his compatriot.

Perhaps he rationalized that their medic would get there no less quickly if he was retrieved by two ponies instead of one, but the speed at which his hooves were carrying him showed that he was terrified as to what might happen to him if he were left alone with somepony who could so easily fell a caribou.

That left only Trixie and Merryweather with the caribou. The unicorn watched from her safe distance as the beastly male hacked and gasped for each breath, the noises convincing the mare that he was not long for this world. She wanted to help somehow, but knew that she couldn’t in any way that mattered. Yet she was responsible for this, and that guilt would not leave her anytime soon.

However, that guilt was not shared by the filly next to Trixie, who had experienced first hand the kind of monster that creature was, and knew what danger they were in if they stayed. “Come on.” she said quietly, pulling Trixie by the hand.

“Huh?” Trixie replied, being dragged slightly by the filly, taken from the daze she had been in from the shock of what she had done.

“We got to go.” Merryweather said, “If they catch us, we’re gonna be in big trouble after that.”

Trixie couldn’t argue with the girl, and thus picked up her hooves, running into the woods with Merryweather as she had originally planned.

“So, what’s the plan from here?” the young pony asked, ready to hear what Trixie had in mind after that devastating blow she laid on that caribou.

“The plan is to get you someplace safe,” Trixie said, determined to do just that, “The royal guard will handle things from here.”

“Wait a second…” said Merryweather, slowing her pace down slightly, “What are you talking about? Didn’t you see those ponies that attacked us?”

“What about them?” Trixie replied, admitting to herself that she never got that good a look at them.

“They were the royal guard.” Merryweather said, very seriously for a child her age.

“What?” Trixie said shocked, “That can’t be true.”

“They were all wearing royal armor,” Merryweather explained, “And when me and my mom were attacked, I think one said something about…” Recalling the event that led to her fleeing for her life caused the filly to clam up, a series of traumatizing images flashing before her eyes.

“Okay,” Trixie said, seeing that the younger ponies didn’t really want to talk about what had happened, and for reasons Trixie didn’t have to be a mind-reader to tell, seeing as the girl mentioned a loved one who wasn’t currently around, “I believe you, but that doesn’t change the plan. Neither of us is able to deal with this, especially since all my things were destroyed.”

Trixie honestly didn’t believe her having her things would have made any difference, but it was a good enough excuse for a child to understand.

“But don’t you worry about your mother or any of your friends,” Trixie said confidently, “Trixie is sure that the princesses will take care of this in a day or two. She even knows Princess Twilight personally, and will bet that she’ll take on these invaders herself.”

Merryweather didn’t reply, finally coming down from all the excitement of the night. She just wanted some place to rest now, and was too drained to care about anything else. Unfortunately, the safe place Trixie had in mind was not very close, and it would take a solid day for them to reach it on hoof, but there was no need to tell the disheartened filly that. Better to let her keep a hold of all the hope she could.

“And that was what happened when I first met the caribou,” Trixie said, finishing the retelling of the event.

“That was... amazing,” said Lyra, fully engrossed in Trixie’s story.

It had been a few days since Trixie had stayed the night at the meeting place, long past the breakfast, and Sunset Shimmer had talked her into telling her tale to everypony else. She agreed to at least recount the first part of it, in order to test the water as to whether people even cared, but so far, everypony was showing an interest Trixie hadn’t expected.

“To think that somepony took out a caribou right as the invasion started.” said one of the stallion present at the meeting, happy to hear that this unicorn made sure first hand one of those bastards got what he deserved.

“It’s really not as amazing as it sounds,” said Trixie, blushing from all the attention she was getting. It had been some time since anyone took this much notice of her without her being at the end of some guy’s dick.

“Are you kidding?” said a earth pony mare, “You saved that little girl from those monsters. You’re a hero.”

“But I had to kill someone to do it,” Trixie replied, “It might’ve been on accident, but I did something horrible.”

“Can you really think that taking the life of a caribou is a bad thing?” said another stallion, “They had no problem taking our lives. Brainwashing us, taking our freedom, making us their slaves and sex objects. They might not have killed any of us, but if they weren’t stopped then, they might as well have.”

“I get what you’re saying,” Trixie said, knowing the horrors of such a life first hand, “But shouldn’t we be above that?”

“It depends,” Sunset Shimmer interjected, having listened to this story twice now, “As we all know, we were saved from tyranny with an act of violence, but we didn’t let that single act of violence turn us into monsters. It was something we needed, but used only when there was no other option.”

“But…” Trixie was still torn. This internal dilemma couldn’t just be solved by the approval of others, but she did understand the stance the others were taking against their enslavers. Trixie would have probably been conflicted by what she did to that caribou for the rest of her life, had not another pony in the group spoken up just then.

Carrot Top, having listened intently to Trixie’s tale of heroism, noticed something that others probably wouldn’t have, as they lacked the information that she had. “Did you say that the caribou’s name was ‘Thungrox’?”

“Yes, I did,” Trixie answered. The unicorn felt that the caribou at least deserved to have his name remembered by the one who killed him.

“Then you’re off the hook,” Carrot Top said, crossing her arms as she leaned back with a smile, “I knew that bastard.”

“What?!” Trixie said, jumping out of her seat, rushing over to the earth mare, and staring her dead in the eye.

Carrot was unphased, and just continued to explain what she knew, “It’s really hard to forget a stupid name like that, harder when they’re the one who stole your farm, and even harder when you had to live next to them for the better part of a year.”

“How are you sure it was him?” Trixie asked, as for all she knew ‘Thungrox’ was a common name amongst caribou.

“Well, it would be a heck of a coincidence if there was a mute caribou with the same name,” Carrot Top said, trying to contain her laughter, “So don’t worry, he was able to go on treating women like dirt, despite suffering throat trauma you caused him.”

Trixie back-stepped and slumped down in her seat, a weight suddenly lifted from her shoulders. She hadn’t killed anyone, the caribou managed to survive their encounter with one another. It was a small relief, crossing off something that haunted Trixie for a long time.

“Congratulations, Trixie,” Sunset said, “I’m sure that this is wonderful news. You can no longer be considered a murderer in any way.”

“I… I need to lay down,” Trixie said, this news over-stimulation her mind.

“Wait, you can’t end your story there,” said a pegasus mare, “What did you do next? What happened to Merryweather?”

Many others in the meeting agreed with this mare. They needed to know more; about what Trixie did next, about what happened to the child she picked up, and about how Trixie eventually got captured.

“Give the girl some space,” Sunset said, standing up from her seat, “There will be plenty of time for Trixie to continue later. For now, we should let her rest. Starlight, could you help her?”

Starlight went to her fellow unicorn and helped her up to her hooves, using her body to support Trixie as they left the meeting room. Sunset joined them upon exiting, the three unicorns heading to the guest room Trixie had been using for the past few days. Once out of earshot of the others, the two mares addressed Trixie in private.

“I told you they’d like it,” Starlight said gleefully, “It’s a really inspirational tale. Really shows that even the fall itself wasn’t just hopelessness.”

“Yeah, you sure won them over in there,” Sunset added, “Might have to make you into the poster mare of our organization.”

“Please don’t,” Trixie said, her mind still at odds about all this.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a joke,” Sunset said, “I wouldn’t put that much pressure on a mare still deciding whether or not they want to stay in our group.”

“But at this point, you have to admit that it’s not that bad”, said Starlight, “Everypony here is happy you decided to share this experience with them.”

Trixie had to admit, she did like an environment where everypony was happy with her.

“Yes, at the very least stay to help encourage the others.” Sunset said, “Just remember what I said about that last part you shared with us. There is no need for them to know that messy detail about your past.”

Trixie nodded, knowing exactly what it was the fiery maned unicorn was referring to. What she had shared that day in the meeting was only a little bit of what she had done during the fall, and she had already told Sunset and Starlight everything else. While the caribou’s death had been proven false, it was only one rock removed from the pile of regrets that was her past, and Trixie agreed that some things were not needed to be known publicly.

Author's Notes:

Hey there people. It's been a while, with holidays, my gaming habit, and overall personal laziness getting in the way. I decided to take some time off and finish Persona 5, which has been sitting on my shelf for a while, and is part of one of my favorite gaming series. So yeah, sinking 134 hours into that contributed a bit to this late release. however, I also decided that since I took so long I should make the new chapter that much bigger, to help entertain you all for a longer period of time between this and the next update.

So part of this update was something that I had in mind when I first came up with the idea for this story. Originally this story was suppose to come with a sister story that would have popped up at this point, which would have been solely dedicated to Trixie's time in the fall leading up to her eventual capture, since the first chapter of this story indicates that that does eventually happen. The basic idea was that things that happen in Trixie's past would happen there, and things in her present would happen here, and in order to get all the information you would have had to read both stories.

In this way, events of trixie's past where to eventually catch up with her in one way or another, and she was depressed and trying to escape from her misery in one story, the other one would still have her relatively happy and working towards her eventual despair. All in all, i thought it was a good concept at the time, but now I fee that doing that might not work out so well, so I'll just be posting those parts in the story proper and just segway into them. Still, might have been neat to have a "two story" tale that linked all the events together, creating a bigger universe that anyone interested could look into. Maybe I'll try something like that later down the line.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I'll see ya all after the holidays.