“Let's see...,” Rainbow Dash murmured to herself, checking the image she'd been texted for the eleventh time since receiving it. She was currently standing on the roof of an apartment building on Canterlot's west side, scanning the streets and sidewalks with her binoculars for any sign of the mysterious girl named Amethyst Shine. She'd been alerted by Twilight of her existence not too long ago, and given her sudden and mysterious disappearance after her friends had allegedly cornered her in an alleyway, Rainbow Dash was practically convinced that Amethyst was the true identity of her own costumed rival.

“No sign of Mare-Do-Well since the bank robbery, and no sign of this 'Amethyst' character either,” she said. “Coincidence? I think not. How clever of her to be able to blend into a crowd, like she's not the most suspicious person ever. Well, she can't fool me!” she declared to the city, standing up and thrusting a finger towards the sunny sky.

No reply came, and she drooped. “I seriously need to stop giving big, dramatic speeches where nobody can hear me.”

Sighing, she stowed her binoculars back in her bag, took a sip of water and grimaced at its warmth, then took off into the air.

What to do, what to do?

She'd been sitting in her base for some time now, mulling over how much she wanted to do. Her police scanner was on at a low volume, and she hadn't strayed far from it, but nothing of interest had come over it since her arrival. Not that anything interesting ever came over it in the first place; all she truly cared about were the situations that she could stand to gain something from.

She had so much power, and so little to use it on. It was irritating, really. The adoration of the city was becoming less and less satisfying with each act she took, and even tricking simpletons like the flying brick or those paparazzi scurrying around lately had lost some of its charm. Not that she could ever give them up, of course, she still loved the attention. But it wasn't enough anymore, and neither was taking her well-earned cut from doing her part in taking out the city's trash.

She wasn't about to start simply stealing things either, oh no. The PR disaster that would occur if she got caught, supremely unlikely though it was, would be an absolute nightmare.

But... perhaps she could try a few changes to how she went about her business? There was nobody better at getting in and out of anywhere than her, and surely there had to be some hidden secrets in the city? Nothing she would steal, of course, oh certainly not. But the right information in the right hands – her hands – could certainly make her life easier.

Power was power, regardless of its source. And the truly powerful made their own luck, that she had always known.

All she had to do was take her time, scope out places of interest in the dead of night, and soon enough she'd find exactly what she needed to position herself at the top of the city. And nobody would be able to—

And suddenly her body was frozen, unable to do so much as twitch. She could feel that irritating little part of her welling up inside her mind, objecting, protesting, denying her rightful place in the world. She cursed herself for thinking she'd managed to quell that part earlier; obviously it had only been biding its time.

Unsurprising, in a sense – its strength had made her what she was, after all. And now it was lashing out, fighting for control. She bolted upright unexpectedly, her breaths becoming faster and heavier as she fought to keep her hands away from her own neck. Half-steps forward or to the side, one at a time, with no aim beyond keeping her body's balance while the irritating weakness inside of her swelled up in a veritable civil war.

Heart racing faster and faster, barely able to watch her hands, fingers twitching, inch closer to her neck every second. It was unbelievable, unthinkable, impossible, but she was losing, not again, not like this! She was so close! So close to winning, once and for all! She couldn't let it end like this!

Her eyes glowed white and her cape billowed in an invisible gale as her magic surged, but it only halted her hands for but a moment.

Her hands reached her neck, found purchase, pulled...

And the mask tore away painfully, like a bandage from a wound, the magic in it crackling and clinging like static electricity. And when the purple thing was finally off, she threw it against the wall she was facing with all the force she could muster.

The magic dissipated, and the girl – blue-skinned and white-haired; eyes wide and mouth agape and entire body trembling in terror – fell backwards onto her hands and butt.

Rainbow Dash groaned. She didn't know what was more annoying, the fact that she was still searching for a needle in a haystack, or the fact that she'd made herself hungry doing it.

“Might as well break for lunch,” she said to herself, switching the focus of her search to the nearby diners and fast food joints. She quickly located a place called 'Pappy's', and since it was open and normal-looking people were going in, she decided it would be good enough.

“Now, where to land...,” she muttered next, still ignorant of the roving packs of superhero-seekers attempting to follow her every move. All the same she still ended up touching down in an alleyway, garnering only the barest of attention of people not inclined to do anything about what and who they'd just seen. She released her powered-up form seconds after touching pavement, then headed around to the front entrance.

The air was filled with the sizzle of grease and a bouquet of smells, all of them delicious, as she entered. Pappy's was about halfway filled with patrons; the stool-lined counter was situated right in front of her and the booth seating along the front window-wall extended several yards to her right.

After dithering at the entrance for as many seconds as her patience could last, Rainbow Dash approached the counter and took a seat. Immediately, the big, hairy, yellow-skinned man in the apron that was working the front gave her a nod and a look. “What'll it be, kid?” he asked in a gruff yet amicable voice.

Rainbow Dash smirked. “That depends, what do you got?”

The man smirked right back at her.

The Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon, unparalleled entertainer and master of all magical arts, was quite certain she had set a world record for the fastest outfit change ever.

She was also in the greatest pickle ever. How many magicians could truthfully claim they'd escaped from the clutches of an evil costume? None but her. But said evil costume was still in the vague sort of heap it had landed in after she'd thrown it away. And it seriously creeped her out.

Safe to say, she had no idea what she was going to do about it.

“Okay,” she said to herself, curled against the far wall with her eyes locked on the horrible costume that looked like it could come to life at any second, “Trixie is a beautiful and intelligent woman. She can figure. This. Out.”

She took a breath. “Number one: Trixie is not putting on the Mare-Do-Well costume again. Ever.” She couldn't help but tremble in the unspoken fear that she would lose herself completely if she did so.

“Number two: Trixie is not letting anyone else put on the Mare-Do-Well costume.” That was too dangerous. What if the next person who wore it was less powerful and intelligent than she was and ended up going on some sort of magical rampage? More importantly, what if the suit remembered her and wanted revenge for being abandoned?

That was almost as terrifying as the thought of being taken over by it again.

“And number three: Trixie cannot let anyone know that she was ever the Mare-Do-Well.” She looked towards her hidden stash as she said this, wracked with guilt over what she had stolen. She wanted to return it, she really did, just hand it over to the police and let them sort it all out, but... How could she possibly do that without drawing suspicion to herself? If the police investigated and found out that she had, technically, been the one who stole everything, they'd arrest her for sure! Her life would be ruined!

She took another deep breath, reminding herself that she needed to keep calm if she wanted to get through this. Panic would only result in something horrible.

“Okay. Trixie should make sure she can even do anything with the costume first.” Looking around the room she spotted a yardstick propped up against the dry-erase board; memories of plotting out schemes and drawing floorplans flashed through her mind. She shook them away and forced herself to her feet, and started creeping towards the stick – one eye on the costume at all times, just in case.

Once the yardstick was firmly in her grasp, Trixie began inching towards the costume. Slowly, slowly, hands trembling, beads of sweat beginning to form on her brow, extending the yardstick, reaching out to give the spandex thing a poke—

It moved, she shrieked. Falling backwards onto her hands, she scrambled away as quickly as she could.

Pappy's Potato Burger had rapidly climbed the list of Rainbow Dash's favorite meals. The beef was juicy and cooked to perfection, the cheese creamy, the sauce had the perfect amount of zing to it, and the signature potatoes...

She grunted in pleasure. “Oh man,” she said through a nearly-full mouth, “who woulda guessed putting waffle fries on a hamburger would be so delicious?” She swallowed and immediately took another bite, savoring the crunch and crispness and all the wonderful flavors.

The man working the counter laughed. “Hey, it ain't our specialty for nothin', kid.”

Trixie spent ten of the tensest minutes in her life staring at the costume from the opposite wall, and not once had it moved. “It was... just a coincidence,” she told herself. “Things fall all the time! It just wasn't... balanced, or whatever. Trixie's footsteps must have just shaken something loose, that's all.”

Back sliding against the wall, Trixie forced herself back to her feet. “She'll just... decide what to do about it before trying to touch it,” she said, taking a few cautious steps forward before crouching down to pick up the yardstick she'd dropped in her panic. “That's all. A simple change in plan. Trixie is a genius at adapting plans on the fly!” A crooked smile appearing on her lips as her self-confidence tried to reassert itself, in one fluid motion she stood up straight and brandished the yardstick at her spandex 'foe' like a weapon.

Then she took a deep, calming breath and sat down on the nearest crate to think.

Patting her full stomach in satisfaction, Rainbow Dash sighed happily and reached into her pocket for her wallet. She forked over the cash for her meal – plus a substantial tip – and left with a promise to return in the future.

She stretched her arms a bit and began walking down the sidewalk with her hands resting on the back of her head. “Let's see now... if I were running around trying to hide my secret identity... I'd probably just stay home. So that doesn't really help narrow it down. Where did Twilight say they saw her again?”

Rainbow Dash took out her phone and opened up the messages she'd gotten earlier, scrolling through them to find what she was looking for. “A bus stop, right... Didn't know the routes, huh? Interesting.” She narrowed her eyes in deep suspicion. “Very interesting. She's been around for a couple weeks at least, but obviously hasn't used the buses at all. Which means she had to have moved here recently!”

Grinning at her realization, Rainbow Dash grabbed the geode around her neck and transformed – unaware of the attention she was drawing to herself, even as she flew into the sky again. “Alright, now all I have to do is find everyone who fits the description that recently moved to Canterlot. Should be a piece of cake!” She flew off filled with confidence.

About a minute later, her phone rang. Focused as she was on scanning the buildings and streets, the sudden sound startled her into a short yelp. Stopping in mid-air, she pulled out her phone and answered the call with an angry “What is it?”

It was Rarity, sounding apologetic.

“You're darn right you're interrupting something! I'm in the middle of patrolling! I'm literally in the air right now!” she shouted into her smartphone.

She allowed Rarity to reply and apologize, her face falling into a duller scowl. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now what do you want, exactly?” She raised a brow at the response she got. “Nope. Why, they up to something?”

Then her brow furrowed, but only for a moment before her eyes widened with shock. “No. Way. Seriously?!”

And then the shock dissipated in an instant, replaced by a frown as Rainbow Dash straightened out and sent a few looks around the city below her. “Let me guess, you want me to look for her, right? I mean, I can do that, but I am in the middle of looking for someone else that kinda takes priority.”

She listened to the answer, raising her brow again. “Oh. So? Those three run off without telling us all the time. They can handle themselves.” Another reply, and she rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, I get it. Don't worry,” she grinned, “I'll keep an eye out for 'em and let you and AJ know if I see them.”

Her brow furrowed again in confusion upon hearing what was distinctly Applejack's voice after Rarity's reply. “Uh, hey, Applejack...” She waited for Rarity to finish speaking, then added “What are you two doing together?”

Rarity's reply was swift and confusing, and took the call with it when it ended. “Well that was weird,” Rainbow Dash said, staring at her phone. “She didn't even tell me where Scootaloo and the others were!”

She contemplated calling Rarity back, or even texting her, but soon dismissed the notion with a shrug. The Crusaders were missing, she reasoned, so obviously they weren't going to be anywhere near where they were last seen.

With a sigh and three more people to find, Rainbow Dash took off flying once again.

It had all seemed like such a great idea at first.

She had been woken up one night a couple weeks ago by a mysterious light outside her bedroom window. Irritated, she'd gotten out of bed to close her blinds, only to realize there seemed to be some kind of shooting star flying across the sky. Only it wasn't a real shooting star, because didn't those make noise as they approached? So then she considered it being some kind of alien something-or-other, and it was flying towards her home and that meant she would find it first and it would make her special.

Well, more special anyway.

She'd hurried down to the storefront that made up most of the ground floor of her family's home as quietly as she could, and saw the ball of light just sort of... pass through the back door and then the hardwood floor. Her family ran a Magic Shoppe that also sold Halloween things when seasonally appropriate, and stored their leftover unsold inventory in the basement until it could be dealt with. But Trixie hadn't thought there was anything of value down there, and was confused as to why – and how – the alien whatever-it-was was landing there of all places. Not that she was complaining about the convenience, of course.

It was around the time she had been tiptoeing down the second flight of stairs that her mind, finally fully roused from slumber, considered the possibility that the ball of light had been magical in nature. And not her own sort of magic, either, Great and Powerful though it was. No, she remembered the Fall Formal. And the Friendship Games. And what happened at Camp Everfree. And also, vaguely, the Battle of the Bands, though mostly just that she and her former bandmates had been robbed of their rightful victory.

The point is, she was fairly certain she recognized that weird pony magic when she saw it. What it was doing at her home of all places she had no idea, but she had every intention of finding out.

Past the racks of witch's costumes, through the stacks of poorly-written books of tricks, over the piles of merchandise from that weird skeleton fad last March, Trixie searched for where the orb of magic had landed. Or she would have, had one of the many boxes not been glowing like a lantern in the fog. She could feel the hair stand up on the back of her neck, and also her head somewhat, but that only spurred her on further. It only proved that whatever had fallen was real magic, of a sort the Great and Powerful Trixie didn't already possess.

She opened the box and for a good few seconds she had to shield her dark-adjusted eyes from the unexpected intensity of the light inside it. But the brightness soon faded enough for her to make out the single object inside – a purple superhero costume with a wide-brimmed hat and a few horse-themed accessories. She didn't have a clue what character it was supposed to be, if any, but couldn't bring herself to care. After all, it wasn't like she followed that sort of nerd stuff.

In hindsight, she probably should have looked into it a little more. Not being able to find records of the character, or even the costume, would have surely raised a red flag.

But instead, she picked it up with an eager grin on her face. Little had she known what a mistake that had been.

She could feel the magic in it immediately; it rushed through her leaving her more energized than even the greatest sugar high. 'This will give Trixie everything she has ever wanted,' she heard herself think. 'Power. Fame. Adoration. And far beyond the likes of anyone else.'

It hadn't been her voice, not really. She knew that now. But she hadn't been able to resist the temptation of the super-suit. She put in on then and there, not caring where she was. And once she had the cowl and hat snug and comfortable, she suddenly felt more alive – more real – than she ever had before. She felt like she could do anything.

And so she did, and without even realizing it at first.

One moment she was twirling in place, reveling in the feel of the suit and the feel of herself, and the next her cape was unfurling itself from around her and she was on the building's flat roof. It startled her, and she stumbled and fell. But her head hadn't felt hurt even after hitting it, so she got back up and cautiously tested a few things out.

Well, the caution hadn't lasted, long all things considered. A veritable joyride under the cover of night may or may not have been had, during which she discovered and tested all of her new superpowers. Before she knew it she had come up with an entire superhero persona for herself, and resolved to start making a name for herself in the coming days and weeks.

She could still remember with crystal clarity appearing back in her bedroom just before dawn, and how difficult it had been to get herself to take off her Mare-Do-Well costume. That should have been another warning sign, but it was another one that she had missed.

It had all gone downhill from there, even if for the most part she was convinced her life was getting better.

But now she realized, truly realized, what she had been doing – what it was making her do, wanted her to do, against her better nature.

She still hadn't figured out what to do about everything, however, and all the thinking was making her hungry.

“Trixie wishes she'd put a mini-fridge in here,” she said to herself, pouting.

“Okay seriously, what is she doing?” Rainbow Dash asked herself, staring at her phone – specifically, at the text she'd sent Scootaloo nearly half an hour ago that hadn't gotten a reply yet. “She always texts me back, like, right away.” She sighed. “Hopefully the squirt just has her phone on silent and this isn't anything major.”

Stowing her phone back into the safety of her bag, Rainbow Dash took off from the roof of the building she'd alighted on and resumed her search. Having three additional girls to look for hadn't changed the needle-in-a-haystack effort she was faced with so much as simply adding more needles to it, but she knew that if she wanted to actually accomplish anything she'd have to buckle down and do it.

At least she had the knowledge that Scootaloo and her friends would inevitably cause some kind of trouble, either purposely or not. That's just how those three operated, and it always (usually) brought a grin to her face to think of the fun they were having. Or had inadvertently caused. Or had brought upon themselves, mostly without actually wanting it. Or some combination of the above.

The point was, she was confident the Crusaders would show themselves sooner or later. The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well was a different story, but thinking again about how she'd completely failed to ever truly catch the costumed “crime fighter” was boring so she put it out of her mind.

She decided to get a bit of altitude, hoping to get more of a bird's-eye view of where she was searching. Canterlot was pretty densely packed in some places, with too many side streets and back-alleys to count. That meant a lot of places to hide, but since it was pretty rare to actually see someone back there, the little movement that happened stood out if you could see it.

Of course even then there was no guarantee you'd find anybody you were looking for, which she rediscovered when she swooped down on some homeless man searching through a dumpster. She froze once she realized her mistake, and the two just sort of stared at each other – her awkwardly; him in astonishment that quickly turned into embarrassment.

“I... I'm just looking for returnables!” he stammered at her.

“Uhh... good luck then!” she replied, hurrying away.

Seconds later, she was back in a comfortable bird's-eye view of the city. And then she stopped to get her bearings. “I should probably invest in a map of the city if I'm gonna keep patrolling like this,” she said to herself. Then a thought occurred to her, and she rubbed her chin. “I wonder how they come up with all that quadrant, sector stuff in sci-fi. Maybe that would help?”

She let that thought hang for a few moments as she flew, then broke out laughing. “As if! I'd rather just memorize the existing neighborhoods. No reason to give everything another name. Nah, I just gotta buckle down and pay attention.”

That was when a hint of purple caught hers. She came to a quick stop in mid-air and spun around, eyes searching for what she thought she'd seen and homing in on an alley between an apartment complex and a department store. She winged it over to the apartment complex's roof and pulled out her binoculars, then leaned over and relocated her presumed target. It was a girl about her age, with pink-purple skin, purple hair, and purple blouse.

Rainbow Dash didn't need much more confirmation than that that she was looking at her primary target. “Gotcha, Mare-Do-Well,” she said softly, smirking in victory.

She watched as the girl skulked through the alley at a fairly brisk pace, stopping every now and then to look behind her or to duck behind whatever cover presented itself – mostly just dumpsters and other trash. Upon reaching a three-way intersection to she stopped in her tracks and went flush with the wall closest to the new path, then sidled over to the corner. She cautiously peered out from hiding, saw that it was a dead-end – and empty to boot – then resumed her quick pace in the direction she'd been going.

After a moment of thought Rainbow Dash arrived at what could technically be called a plan, and immediately set about implementing it. Speeding along the rooftop towards the end of the alleyway, she leaped off without fear. A quick realization caused her to reorient herself into a dive simply to ensure she got where she needed to be in time, and once she felt she was close enough she declared, “Stop right there!”

As she expected, Amethyst Shine immediately stopped in her tracks and looked up – eyes comically wide, mouth agape – as she swooped down in front of her. “What the heck?!” she exclaimed, but before Rainbow Dash could deliver her witty retort the girl turned and fled.

Still, Rainbow Dash smiled to herself and shook her head. “They always run,” she said, despite having never had a criminal run from her, or indeed never having encountered a criminal at all until that day.

She was in front of Amethyst again in a rainbow flash. “Crap,” the other girl muttered, and it was then that Rainbow Dash knew she had her.

Chest puffed out heroically, hands on her hips, smirk with an entirely justifiable level of cockiness on her lips. “You won't escape, Mare-Do-Well!” Dash was proud of herself for being able to pull it all off with having barely even practiced.

She was briefly surprised to see the shock and horror abruptly fade from Amethyst's face, replaced entirely by incredulous confusion. “Mare-Do-Well?” she repeated. “Who the heck are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash barked out a laugh. “Don't act like you don't know! I have friends who told me you disappeared mysteriously earlier. And there's only one girl in town capable of something like that!” Smirking again at her successful build up, she thrust a finger at Amethyst and said “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well!”

'Gotcha,' she thought as she watched the horror return to Amethyst's face.

“Y-y-y-y-you've got the wrong girl, I swear!” she stammered, waving her hands and backing away. “I don't know anything about that Mare-Do-Well character!”

“Oh really?” Rainbow replied, raising an eyebrow as she advanced towards the girl.

“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Th-th-the disappearance was all a, a misunderstanding,” she said. “I just... climbed up the wall and onto the roof!”

“A likely story,” Rainbow told her, unimpressed. “Now come here, so I can give them proof that I caught you!”

She screamed and tried to run away, but Rainbow was still too fast. It took her less than a second to grab Amethyst by the arm, and from there she pulled her in and put an arm tightly around her shoulder. “Now smile for the camera!” she added, pulling out her phone and snapping a quick selfie with the girl she'd subdued.

“Please,” Amethyst said as she struggled against Dash's hold, “you've got this all wrong! I'm really not who you think I am!”

Rainbow Dash snorted, already composing a message letting Twilight know of her accomplishment. “Still don't believe you. Why would I after how suspicious you've been acting?”

“S-suspicious?” Amethyst stammered, her fear and anxiety having clearly reached a whole new level. “I, I don't know what you're talking about!”

That earned a growl. “Really,” she said, anger rising. “So you call running away from my friends for no good reason, mysteriously disappearing from a dead-end alley, and skulking around back here,” she made a vague motion around them with the hand her phone was in, “not suspicious?”

She gave Amethyst a deadpan stare, and watched the other girl's emotions move from horror to anger of her own. “I was running away because your friends decided to chase me,” she spat derisively. “And I've been 'skulking around' as you put it for the same reason! I have been freaking the heck out all morning wondering who could possibly want to be chasing me, and seeing how someone like you got involved, I'd say that was a pretty reasonable decision on my end. And for the last time, I didn't 'mysteriously disappear', I just climbed!”

Another snort as Rainbow Dash focused more on sending another text to Twilight – as proud as she was to have achieved one of her goals, she had a duty to her friends to get them involved with a major lead to Sunset's counterpart. And she was pretty confident that if Twilight knew what happened, Sunset would learn of it pretty quick too. And Sunset's magic seemed like it would be extremely helpful in getting the truth from what was turning out to be a pretty tight-lipped perp.

“Yeah, well, we'll find out the truth soon enough,” she said with confidence despite not getting a reply yet. A car passing by the alley's ending caught her attention, and it occurred to her that allowing Amethyst the potential escape route was a bad idea no matter how impossible it would be to get away at the moment. “Come on,” she grunted, yanking on the girl's arm to follow her back deeper into the alley.

“Wha... what are you gonna do to me?” Amethyst asked, voice now trembling as she followed reluctantly.

“Who knows?” Dash replied just as she got a new text. She read it quickly – a request from Sunset to stay put as she was coming ASAP – and smirked. “We'll have to wait for my friends to get here to find out.” A thought occurred to her, and she glanced back at Amethyst out of the corner of her eye. “But, uh, if you stop lying and tell me the truth, the less they'll have to do.”

“B-but I have been telling the truth, the whole time!” Amethyst said, voice filling with desperation. “I really don't know anything about that Mare-Do-Well person or whoever it is you think I am! I'm innocent, I swear!”

Rainbow Dash fought the urge to pump her fist and smile, so excited was she to have gotten the opportunity to say something she'd always dreamed of. “That's what they all say!”

She led Amethyst into the side-alley with the dead end.

Trixie had come up with a plan, and like all her ideas – with one exception – it was brilliant. She couldn't afford to let someone else find the Mare-Do-Well suit, so she had to dispose of it. Of course, as far as she knew cutting it up or lighting it on fire wouldn't work, so outright destruction was off the table.

But there was a dumpster nearby, and she knew from experience that it was collected on what was probably a regular schedule. At the very least the trash was picked up in this low-use section of the city on a monthly basis, she was confident of that much. So all she had to do was stuff the costume into a bag, tie the bag up, sneak it to the dumpster without being seen, and toss it in. Easy! And flawless, as far as Trixie was concerned.

After that, she'd be free to return her ill-gotten gains as she pleased. First, though, she needed to do the actual disposal step.

“Okay, Trixie, you can do this,” she said to herself, taking a cautious step towards the pile of costume – still unmoving. She had a dusty old garbage bag in one hand, empty save for some discarded snack bags and such, and had decided to keep the other hand free. “Just remember: you're not putting it back on, no matter what.”

She took a deep breath, crouched down slightly, and took one last step towards the suit. “No matter what,” she repeated at barely more than a whisper, reaching out with her hand.

And then she tried to sweep it into the bag in one swift motion, but the moment she touched the fabric a bolt of something passed through her – starting as an electric sensation in her arm, and ending as a major headache.

I knew you'd be back.

Trixie gasped at the sound of a voice – her own voice, but at the same time not quite hers – echoing in her thoughts. On instinct she tried to stumble back, let go, get away, but found herself holding tight to the costume's cape even as she fell onto her rear end.

The voice laughed, a cruel mockery of her and her own. Shocked? Don't be. I am power. Your power.

“T-Trixie... does not understand, but she doesn't need to,” she said. Unable to keep her nervous shaking at bay, she nevertheless managed to raise her garbage bag enough that it fell open. “Just like she doesn't need to play superhero any longer.”

Oh? Giving up so easily? Pathetic. Although hardly surprising. You've always been pathetic, haven't you?

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does n-not know what you are talking about,” Trixie told it. Or was it herself? Wasn't she just talking to herself? Trixie wasn't certain, and that frightened her.

'Great and Powerful'? Hah! More like 'Weak and Inadequate'. Face it, you were nothing but a joke before me, and you'll be nothing but a joke if you give me up.

“Y-you take that back!” Trixie stammered, unable to come up with a wittier retort or indeed to keep her cheeks from flushing. To her horror the suit began to squirm in her grasp, though try as she might she was unable to simply drop it. “Trixie doesn't need you! And Trixie doesn't want you, either!”

What did Trixie ever accomplish before meeting me? Nothing! No fame, no adoring fans, no power. Just a footnote in the yearbooks, and two-digit audiences on a good day.

And now Trixie was getting angry, and along with her anger she felt the familiar, welcome feeling of unadulterated spite welling up inside her. She let it fuel her, and gripped both costume and garbage bag tighter. “Oh yeah? Well let's see who's powerful when you're in a dumpster!”

With a surge of willpower Trixie finally thrust the enchanted – or was it possessed? - costume into the bag. And even with it somehow moving on its own, with several fierce grunts and yells and blows from her fists and knees she managed to break her own grasp on it and force it inside.

NO!

The single word resonated in her mind, but it was cut short when she let the costume go. And for a moment Trixie was relieved, wiping the sweat from her brow and sighing victoriously.

Then the suit began to thrash inside its black plastic prison with enough force to cause Trixie to flinch and let go of the bag. And to her surprise the movement didn't stop there, but rather seemed to become even more furious. It only took seconds for the first puncture to be made, and seconds more for enough of the bag to be shredded for the costume to worm its way out.

And, to Trixie's horror, the costume stood up. It inflated almost like a balloon, filling out with the shape of her own body despite remaining so obviously hollow. Its entire false body glowed a sinister violet save for the eyes, which were as white as moonlight.

“Wha... what are you?” Trixie asked it, falling back onto her now-empty hands and pushing herself away from the thing that was looming over her.

I'm you, but better. Stronger. Faster. Smarter. Without weakness.

Even without touching it she heard its voice still, echoing in her head. The parts of her that weren't scared witless forced her left hand to creep towards a hidden pocket, and find something within she always kept on her in case of emergencies.

And I no longer have need of you...

It advanced on her, and Trixie screamed as she scrambled back to her feet and turned and fled.

You won't escape!

It thrust forward a hand and a magical lasso sprang forth from it, shooting towards Trixie like an arrow. But Trixie was too fast for it – her hand left her pocket, and in one fluid motion she stopped in front of the locked exit to the lair, spun on a heel, and threw Trixie's Patented Magician's Exit at the ground. It went off with a cloud of smoke, and suddenly she was on the other side of the door.

A good magician never reveals her tricks, not even to herself.

Valuing her immediate personal safety over the plan she'd concocted to cover up her mistakes, Trixie fled down through the building as fast as she could – using a second Magician's Exit to bypass the barricade at the top of the stairs. She took care neither to scream nor to look back, lest she court unwanted attention. And even when she finally made it back outside to the street, she did her best to remain completely nonchalant. Especially when some girl on a motorcycle passed by her.

Well. That had not gone to plan. She had wanted to simply overpower and intimidate the weakling into putting her back on so she could finish her takeover. Evidently she had underestimated the thing in some regard.

Which, all in all, wasn't good. She was losing strength rapidly, having used most of it simply by moving. It wouldn't be long before she couldn't do that any more, and she'd be trapped in the lair.

She needed to find a new host. A stronger host, in body at least. One that wouldn't want to give her up. One who truly understood the power she had. One she could take over, and finally do as she pleased.

But she couldn't stay inside. Inside was impossible to get to by others. Inside meant no hosts.

The window was open. It always was – too hot, too stuffy with it closed. It was her only shot at freedom. She took it – using the last of the magic she could afford to lose, she moved just close enough to jump. She let the air carry her from there, and she drifted just enough to land on the windowsill. Halfway outside.

Not good enough. Only had enough magic left to wiggle. But the truly powerful made their own luck, so she summoned up a lucky breeze to pass by. It caught her. She was in the air, falling, and then she wasn't.

The alleyway. Always an alleyway. Shadows and secrets, always her territory.

Time passed. She didn't know how much. But then she felt it. A host. A new host. Coming towards her. With a dog.

The dog stopped. Growled. But the host didn't. Spoke. Unimportant. Approached. Touched.

A scream, and she was reborn anew.

Author's Notes:

Trixie's cutie mark by The-Smiling-Pony.