And then there was that one time Trixie became a communist

by Bok

First published 9th of August, 2012

TGAPT goes red.

The Great and Powerful Trixie turns to radical politics.

Власть рабочим пони!

Trixie pulled the tattered remains of her cape closer as the cold night air swept through the forest.

"The Ggggreat and Powerful Trixie should not have to be reduced to manual labor," the unicorn pony grumbled as she slowly piled lumber and twigs into a large heap. When she had judged the pile to be big enough, she produced a small leftover firecracker and lit it with her magic, tossing it into the kindling. A small pop sounded within the little hill of wood, and soon began smoking.

Before long, Trixie had a decent fire going. She huddled around it, treasuring its warmth.

She stared in the fire for a while, her thoughts occupied with her recent string of failures. After being kicked out of Ponyville, Trixie merely recouped her losses and rebuilt her wagon and headed toward Phillydelphia. Through a series of misunderstandings, the city ended up passing an ordinance forbidding traveling sorcery. After that, she headed toward Trottingham, but a string events that she in no way caused led to a very old and very angry dragon being released upon the poor city, and the residents made it rather clear that she was no longer welcome.

This list went on for a while. As it stood, Trixie was technically not allowed in the eastern side of Equestria.

She sighed. Knowing only one thing could dispel her woes, she grabbed a pinecone that she had gathered from a nearby tree. With her magic, she crushed it into a fine powder and dropped it into the mortar and pestle she usually used to make firework powder.

She had discovered that with a little know-how and exposure to air, a combination of crushed pinecone, water, and mushrooms created pinecone moonshine. For the past few months, this sacred beverage had been her only companion.

Scooping up some water from a nearby puddle, it only took a little while for the concoction to be ready. She drank directly from the bowl, and the beverage soon took hold of the unicorn. She hiccuped once and passed out. When she did, her signature wizard hat popped of her head and gracefully landed in the fire, the soft fabric immediately becoming consumed by flame. Trixie may have protested if she had not already passed out.

~

The sun's unwelcome rays hit Trixie's face, and her face squinted. As the sun had no plans to go away any time soon, she groaned and slowly opened her eyes, looking around the camp she had set. Her eyes turned toward the fireplace, and the spotted the ashes of what used to be her hat. She patted around on her head to confirm its fate, and grumbled.

She slowly rose to her hooves, still a little wobbly from the effects of the moonshine. With no other plans, she quickly gathered what few belonging she had. Using her cape and a stick she had picked up a while back, she created a makeshift bindle and headed out, not even caring where her direction took her.

As she exited the forest and took her eyes of the ground to look at the surrounding countryside, her eyes widened a bit. In front of her was Canterlot, its golden and white towers sparkling in the sunlight. Its beauty and wealth reminded Trixie of her failure, and she gave a low growl and the capital city. Just as she was about to turn, she saw somepony coming down the road out of the corner of her eye.

It was the mayor of Ponyville, happy trotting along the road. Her pace slowed as she spotted Trixie, and her humming ceased. When she got close to the unicorn pony, she stopped for a moment. Saying nothing, she simply glared and Trixie and turned direction, towards the path to Canterlot.

Trixie gritted her teeth and ran towards the mayor, "You think you're so much better than me!?" she screamed as the surprised mayor broke into a sprint and left Trixie in the dust.

"IT'S ALL YOUR TOWN'S FAULT!" she bellowed as the mayor disappeared from sight, her voice echoing of the mountain. She breathed heavily for a few second, before finally calming down. Groaning, she sank down near a large direction sign. She hit the dirt a few times in frustration before getting back up. As she did, she noticed that the direction sign also served an advertising post, as many a declaration of royal balls of Grand Galloping Galas of years past were plastered all over the sign, many incredibly faded and worn with age.

It was then that Trixie noticed that underneath all of the fancy posters of pinks and whites, she noticed a splash of red. She leaned forward for a closer look, but the other posters obscured her vision. Fed up, she simply ripped the poster of her interest off the post, sending quite a few more flying everywhere.

She scanned the odd poster, intrigued by its colors and bold words.

CANTERLOT WORKER'S SOCIETY

We fight for the future!

The words were in bright yellow, and in the center of the poster stood three stylized outlines of a pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony. In their mouths they held a spear, brush, and hammer, respectively.

Trixie stood there for a while, staring at the poster. As she contemplated the nature of the ponies that put it up, she also remembered her past failures. Every time one of her schemes had been foiled, it had always been at the hooves of the machinations of the powerful. Whether through a servant of the monarchy or the police force of the city, she had found her politics confounded by those who served the interest of the ruling class and ruling class alone.

Something clicked in her mind, and she slowly smiled. Locating an address in the lower right corner of the poster, she rolled up the poster and put it into her bindle and began trotting toward the ivory towers of Canterlot.

~

Trixie's earned more than a few stares and upturned noses from her ragged appearance. She didn't care. Following the address, her search led her to a small building complex on the far side of the city. A sign above the entrance spelled out "Canterlot Commonwealth College" in plain lettering.

Trixie took out the poster and reviewed it once more, but the address of the group she sought did not get any more specific. Undeterred, she walked inside the main building and began looking around. As she did, she noticed a plain brown earth pony with a book cutie mark sweeping the floor.

She was not used to manners, but she tried her best.

"The Grr—" she started, but quickly cut herself off as the earth pony turned toward and gave her a confused look, "er, do you know where this group meets?" she asked, taking out the poster and showing it the earth pony.

She saw him squint behind his glasses, and then point down the hall.

"Oh, they meet in Room 107. I believe they're having a meeting right now, actually."

Her good manners spent for the moment, she simply nodded and walked down the hall to 107. As she did, she could already hear pitched voices behind the closed door. As she walked closer and stood right in front of it, she wondered if this was really the choice she wanted to make, especially considering her own past with duping ponies out of their money.

She suddenly got cold hooves and turned around, aborting her mission. Just as she did, the door opened. There stood a yellow pegasus pony with pink hair, her mane tied into a neat bun.

“Oh, hello. Can I help you?” she asked, holding the door open.

Trixie swallowed her pride, “Yes. Is this where the Canterlot Worker's Society meets?”

The pegasus beamed, "Oh, good! Good! Another friend of the worker!" she exclaimed, "I was just about to get some coffee, but that can wait. Come in, come in!" she said as she herded Trixie into the small room. Inside were several other ponies, who were sitting at a long table.

"Comrades," said the pegasus, "we have a new friend of the cause!"

"Excellent!" said the white unicorn at the front of table, "Take a seat and introduce yourself."

Trixie hesitantly complied, and sat down.

"So, I believe introductions are in order. I'm Hammer Jammer."

"Smooth Sickle." said the yellow peagsus pony.

"I am Red Flag." a burly black unicorn pony announced.

A twitchy grey earth pony then stood up and raised his hooves, "System Smasher! We need to rise up and—" he shouted before trailing off and huddling back into his corner of the room.

And lastly, a small orange unicorn introduced herself, "I'm Proley," she squeaked.

Smooth Sickle nodded, "Good, good. And how might you be?" she asked.

Trixie spaced out for a second, taking a second to fully realize the nature of the company she had just integrated herself into, "Oh, I'm Trixie."

"And good day, Trixie!" Hammer Jammer added, "If you do not mind me asking, how did you arrive here?"

Trixie paused. When she saw the poster, she knew that there had to be something about it that made her come here. She never did have good experience with dealing with upper-class neighborhoods, and the really well-off ponies never did appreciate her show. It always left her avoiding those types of neighborhoods, but why was she really here?

Trixie sat down her bindle and took out the poster, "I saw this."

"Wow. The imperialists must have missed one when they ripped them all down." Red Flag stated.

"No matter," Hammer Jammer said, "If it brought even one comrade to us, which it just has, then it was worth it!"

Hammer Jammer's enthusiasm encouraged Trixie, and she began to voice her thoughts even more, "It's just that I've traveled a lot during my life, and I've been to a lot of cities. I've kind of seen that rich ponies are jerks..."

Smooth Sickle nodded, "-And the peril of the worker is alarming, indeed."

Trixie shrugged, "Well, I guess...I sort of came here because—"

"Because you have seen first-hoof the squalid conditions in which the working class must be subjected to in order for the bourgeois to live out their complacent lives!"

Trixie wasn't sure what to expect when she came here, but it wasn't this. She retreated into her own thoughts as the ponies around her began telling of the virtual slavery of the underclass.

Trixie grew up poor. It was a desire to escape the poverty in which she lived that she began traveling all over Equestria, unencumbered by a salary or rules. She had been, at first, a very humble traveling magician, who would do a few parlor tricks in exchange for a night's rest at an inn.

As her magic act became more and more elaborate, so did her stage personality. It was then that Trixie ceased to exist, and there was only The Great and Powerful Trixie, who cast away all ties to her past life. With her recent hardships, she had rediscovered humility, and it seemed like the Great and Powerful Trixie was only able to get where she was from the support of other working stiffs like her. Rich ponies only ever treated her with disdain.

Well, she thought, they don't seem too bad. And if they stuck it to the snooty rich folks every once in a while, who was she to judge them by their eccentricities and fiery rhetoric?

"I've kind of realized how bad rich folks are." she muttered.

"Yes, comrade!" Smooth Sickle exalted.

"And I really didn't like seeing how poor other ponies lived."

"Quite!" Hammer Jammer agreed.

"And you believe that a worker's revolution is the only recourse!" Red Flag shouted in the manner of a question, even though it wasn't one.

"Um, yes." Trixie said, not wanting to rock the boat. It had been a while since she'd actually talked to a pony as an equal instead of through her persona, and it felt good. As she thought about it, she began to think that things probably would be better off if the workers ran stuff.

"And the destruction of the state!" System Smasher screamed from the back.

No rules? Trixie could get behind that. "Yes!" she said with less forced enthusiasm.

"And to the means of production becoming the property of the worker and the worker alone!" Proley declared.

A voice within Trixie told her that she might be getting in over her head, but she ignored it. She had a group of ponies right here that didn't judge her once on how she looked or behaved, and she wasn't about to throw that away. She wasn't entirely sure on the details of what these folks were getting at, but she'd sort that out later.

"YES!" Trixie announced, throwing up her cape just as she did as a stage performer. When she did, the other ponies in the room broke out in song.

Rise up, doomed of Equestria

Rise up, locked in hunger

A thunderstorm of reason

Rolling across the land

We shall overthrow the chains

Order overthrown, rise up, rise up

We have nothing to lose

And everything to gain

The last struggle begins

Let us group together, and tomorrow

The Ponionale

Will be the pony race!

Trixie joined them as they began singing the second stanza. Radicals though they may be, they accepted her and that was all that mattered. She was a commie now, and proud of it.

Авангардом пролетариата!

Trixie, now fully accepted by her new comrades, was being given a tour of the college. She trotted behind Hammer Jammer, who pointed out various rooms and explained their function.

“Canterlot Commonwealth College was created as an alternative to the more, ahem, traditional venues of higher education. Here, we value the and shape the labor leader of tomorrow!” he explained.

They both passed the brown earth pony that Trixie had asked directions from before, and he waved.

“Hello!” the janitor called as they walked by.

“Greetings, Bookit!” replied Hammer Jammer, giving him a half-salute.

When they rounded a corner and Trixie believed he was out of earshot, she walked closer to Hammer Jammer and leaned toward him, “Bookit's kind of an odd name for a janitor pony. He even had a book cutie mark.”

Hammer Jammer gave her an offended look and appeared as though he was about to say something nasty, but regained his composure, “Oh, I suppose it's my fault for not explaining. This still must be all very new to you, yes? Bookit's our professor of Social Equesthropology.”

“Then why was he-”

“We don't employ janitors here. All of the professors contribute to the upkeep of the school.”

Hammer Jammer turned around as he said this, “Speaking of which, have you considered enrolling here? Ignoring what those idiots up there at Canterlot University say about us, we do offer a very good magic program.”

“The G-” Trixie started once again, but closed her eyes and chided herself with a grunt, “I'm self-taught, actually.”

Hammer Jammer smiled, “Ooh, excellent! Excellent! It's very fortunate for the proletariat that you were delivered to us!”

Trixie opened her mouth to tell him that she didn't understand about half of what Hammer Jammer and his friends said. She even faintly suspected that they made up the word 'proletariat' just to mess with her.

“Now,” Hammer Jammer announced as they stopped in front of an office door, “this is where I spend most of my time when I'm not furthering the cause.”

He turned around to see Trixie standing there with a bewildered expression. Concerned, he tilted his head a bit, “Are you alright, comrade?”

Trixie replied with silence. What the heck was a comrade, anyway?

Hammer Jammer gave a small grin, “You know, you remind me of myself. Young, willing to learn, and just exposed to the literature of the worker, like Trot Sky.”

Trixie was beginning to think her agreement to the struggle of the worker may have been just a teeny tiny bit peer pressure-related, and a worm of doubt began to creep into her brain. Faster than she could repress it, the niggling reminder that she hadn't actually read any radical leftist literature overtook her brain.

“Trotswho?” she blurted out, her own mouth betraying her.

Hammer Jammer's face contorted into pure confusion as he tried to process what she just said. He did a small double-take before returning to normal, “You are joking, right?”

Well, it was out in the open now.

“No,” she muttered.

“You're telling me you haven't read a word of Trot Sky?”

Trixie shook her head, and Hammer Jammer rubbed his.

“What about Rich Angle or Marker Lark? Surely you've at least covered the basics!”

She had blown it. Now her new friend was yelling at her, and was probably about to call security and have her tossed out of the college. Once again, she had ruined everything by running her big mouth. Her mind began piling blame upon itself as her eyes welled up with tears.

“Oh...my,” Hammer Jammer sighed as he walked up next to Trixie and gave her a consoling pat on the back, “If there's one thing I hate almost as much as the bourgeoisie, it's seeing another comrade cry.”

Trixie wiped away some tears and looked at Hammer Jammer, who showed no sign of judgement.

“Come on,” he said, “If you haven't read any of them, then there's always a good time to start. I've always found it very fascinating watch a revolutionary take their first steps into a bigger world.”

He motioned for her to follow him, and he obliged. He walked a little further down the hall and turned a corner before entering a door on the right, with Trixie right behind him. The entrance led into a small, almost cramped library. Even with its cozy rooming, several other ponies were inside, their attention totally devoted to the absolute tomes they had splayed out in front of them.

Using his magic, Hammer Jammer picked up a book from the shelf close to the door. It was a thick brown thing, and looked like it had been read many, many times. He carefully sat it down on a nearby table and cracked it open. He motioned towards Trixie for her to peer in for a closer look, and pointed out a line in the book.

“This book is the very abridged version of all of Marker Lark's writings, but still very useful for a new revolutionary thinker.”

She leaned in towards the pages, and as she did Hammer Jammer dragged her even closer.

“Here. Let's start with Quasi-Mechanical Synthesis...”

~

Hammer Jammer's initial plan was to simply explain a few concepts, leave Trixie to study by herself for a while, and come back to see if she understood the material. However, this young mare was a sponge. She was able to accurately explain collectivist concepts and critiques of the magical/industrial division of labor by only reading a few lines.

He stayed with her until the library closed, and the retreated beyond the horizon.

“I believe that's enough for today,” he stated as he closed the book and turned to her, “we'll pick up tomorrow, comrade.”

Trixie almost let him know that she didn't actually have any place to stay, but her stubborn pride still persisted and silenced her. Still, she needed a reason to not have him suspect she was homeless.

“Do you have anything else I could do for, uh, the cause?” she asked, shuffling the book along the table a bit.

Hammer Jammer looked at the clock on the wall, “It's ten o' clock at night, comrade.”

Trixie merely shuffled the book some more, and Hammer Jammer relented.

“Then again, revolution never sleeps. Wait here,” he said as he exited the library. He returned shortly thereafter, with a heap of posters.

“The imperialists around here like to tear these down, and nobody has been willing put them back up after they were removed for the forty-third time. I'd do it, but I'm so busy these days,” he explained as he plopped them on the desk, “If you could just sprinkle these around town, it would help. Now, they'll probably get torn down the next day, but–“

“Thank you!” Trixie nervously shouted as she whipped up the posters with her magic and darted out the door.

~

Trixie pasted the flyers along every wall she came to. However, she was Trixie, and those flyers wouldn't get torn down this time. Using a spell she normally reserved for playing nasty pranks, she stuck the flyers so tightly to the wall that it would take an hour to peel off, even with normal magic.

She did this to every wall she came to, using more for the even higher-class buildings. She giggled as she did so, taking in the sweet catharsis of ruining rick pony folks' dainty houses. Trixie continued to stick flyers until she completely ran out, and dismayed when she saw that there had only been enough flyers for one block. That, and she may have overused them a bit.

She panicked, running to the nearest one and tried to peel it off. Sure enough, it was much harder to take off than put on and refused to budge.

Trixie continued in vain to remove the flyer, but eventually gave up. Exhausted, she fell flat on her back and groaned, having failed at a very simple task.

She absently stared at the sky for a moment before she got up and began to slowly walk down the street. As she entered the even higher-class neighborhood, she noticed how different they were from the streets that she had escape from. No boarded windows, kept lawns, lighting. It seemed so...

“Bourgeoisie,” she muttered without even thinking.

She stopped as she realized what she had just said. To make sure that her brain hadn't just temporarily short-circuited, the unicorn did a double-check.

“The bourgeoisie are defined by their control of capital, either through the monopoly of magical manipulation or ownership of the means of production.” she stated, operating from what she had learned in her study session with Hammer Jammer.

She began to repeat her learning with more vigor, “the bourgeoisie, through ownership of either magic or capital, do create a permanent underclass. It is consumerist by nature, and makes those who do not possess the means to liberate themselves through magic virtual slaves.”

A fire began to billow within her, “And the only way for the underclass to truly be free it to throw off the chains of oppression. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth pony alike must band together, hoofs linked, and present a united front against the rich! Against the monarchist! Against the reactionaries, conservatives, and class traitors!”

Her heart began to soar and she began triumphantly declaring the word of the worker on a nearby bench.

“Workers of Equestria unite! Throw off the chains of oppression, for those who do not resist and accept being ground into the dust are the real losers! Unite, comrades, and forge a new tomorrow!”

“Shut up!” shouted a middle-aged unicorn pony, who had leaned out the window in his diamond-studded pajamas.

“You shut up!” Trixie bellowed, and from a striking distance, used her innate mystic abilities to magically zip his mouth shut. He protested with muffled screams, and fell back from his window.

Trixie grinned. “That felt...good. Humiliating rich ponies is way better than doing it to the normal rubes!”

Her grin grew brighter as an idea came to her. Before the unicorn she had just technically assaulted managed to free his mouth and call the guards, she ran out of the neighborhood and down the city, and into the forest she had originally came from.

~

When she arrived at the edge of the forest, she began her work by felling a few trees. Using the raw timber, she then carefully molded them into the shapes she needed, eventually assembling them all into familiar components. The pieces ready, she carefully connected them into place, until the whole became something she had not used in some time.

Now came the tricky part. Carefully visualizing the color she needed, she enchanted her creation to display a hue that was most fitting to its new purpose. The enchantment worked perfectly, and at last her project was finished. By the time she had finished, the dark horizon was already beginning to glow, and the sun was rapidly approaching.

No matter. She hooked up her new creation to a makeshift bridle and returned to Canterlot. The extra weight made her extra wary of just how steep the mountain was, but kept reminded herself that this was for all the worker ponies of the world.

She managed to pull her cargo into a large open area in the middle of the city, and quickly began preparing for her task by retreating inside her construction. As morning began proper, many of the well-to-do ponies gathered round to the strange object now conspicuously located in the middle of the square.

When a large enough crowd had gathered, Trixie's red and rebuilt wagon opened itself up, shooting fireworks into the air that exploded into brilliant fizzling stars with crossed hammer and sickles.

Grey smoke exploded on the stage as Trixie revealed herself to the crowd, tattered cape and all.

“Canterlot citizens!” she announced, “I come bearing the news of revolution!”

“This should be good,” Fancy Pants whispered to next to him.

“Yes, citizens! With my awesome magical talent, I will show you the necessity of the destruction of the bourgeoisie and freedom for all of ponykind!”

“Get on with it!” a pony shouted from the back.

“Hmph!” Trixie replied, now fully back into GAPT mode, “Very well! I'll enlighten you! But be warned, as your mind shall be blown by the very same pony who vanquished the...”

Fireworks launched into the air, and exploded into the shape of a fat pony in a business suit.

“...Banker Major!”

“So?” one pony asked loudly.

Trixie ignored him and continued, “Using the magic only available to a unicorn who has realized her true utility and value of magical labor, I spurred the citizens of Hoofsdale to an uprising! They seized his property, and established a prime socialist model!”

“That's amazing, except the part where Hoofsdale doesn't exist,” said a very familiar voice, right in the front of the crowd.

Trixie looked down and her jaw dropped when she saw an annoyed Twilight Sparkle looking straight at her.

Мир и свободу!

Trixie froze there for a moment, her brain still processing the purple pony's appearance. She regained her senses after shaking her head, and ignored Twilight, continuing on with her show.

“Be amazed, equines, as the Glorious and Revolutionary Trixie shows you how to–”

She fumbled as Twilight's disappointed glare pierced her. While her apology back in Ponyville had been sincere, it didn't mean that ponies stopped shunning her. The purple unicorn was probably judging her right now, and whispers of criticism wormed into her ear.

Trixie's face began to turn red and she gritted her teeth and tried to block out the imagined heckling of Twilight and company. She failed, and soon the entire crowd turned against her. Or so she thought. In actuality, the crowd had simply started to disperse as the magician lost her momentum, but the imagined mocking of hundreds of ponies echoed throughout Trixie's head, causing her to cover her eyes and shake her head.

She gritted her teeth and her face turned red as the imaginary mocking and name-calling grew louder and louder.

By this time, the entire crowd had left, sans Twilight and her friends.

“Uh, Twilight? I know she was a jerk to us, but...” asked Rainbow said, pointing toward the shivering blue unicorn.

Twilight sighed and walked up onto the stage to apologize to Trixie, tapping her on the shoulder. “Uh, Trixie? Sorry I snapped at you back there. I'm just really disappointed that you—“

Twilight didn't get an opportunity to finish her sentence, as a blast of pure magic erupted from Trixie and sent her flying across the plaza. Rainbow Dash flew back and grabbed her, and all of them looked on in terror as Trixie was completely enveloped by an orb of magic. Her eyes were glowing whites, and sparks were crackling off her horn.

“THE GREAT AND REVOLUTIONARY TRIXIE WILL NOT TOLERATE DISSENT!” Trixie bellowed, her voice cracking walls and sending small rubble crumbling into the streets.

A second wave of magic sent the girls to the ground, and the orb around Trixie grew even brighter.

“THE REVOLUTION CANNOT BE STOPPED! THE OLD SYSTEM HAS BECOME IRRELEVANT!” she howled, and in a sudden brilliant blast, she was gone.

Pinkie Pie bounced up to her shocked friends, seemingly ignoring the vast piles of shattered wood and rubble around them.

“Hi! Did I miss anything fun?”
~

Hammer Jammer and his comrades were in their small room, discussing the nature of the revolution and when it would be ready. As usual, they all assured themselves that the time to topple the old regime was at hoof, but none of them were ready to make any concrete plans to start it themselves.

Just as they were about to adjourn, a bright flash of light exploded in the center of the room, sending all of its occupants against a now blackened wall. They slowly peeled off, leaving their silhouettes behind as the plopped to the floor.

Smooth Sickle was the first to look up, and was stunned to see Trixie floating there, completely bathed in power.

Proley was the second to get up, and the first to speak, “Trixie? Is that you?”

Trixie looked down and the light around her slowly faded as she floated to the floor, smiling. When she landed, her eyes returned to normal and the electricity crackling around her ceased.

“Greetings, comrades.”

Hammer Jammer pulled himself up and adjusted his tie before leaning in to make sure that the intruder was the same nervous unicorn pony he had sent on an errand the day before.

“I'm sure you have a very good explanation for why you've destroyed our meeting room,” Hammer Jammer said, inspecting one of the pieces of what used to be a table.

Trixie, in a very serene manner, flared her horn up with magic and created an illusion, a stylized retelling of her own memories.

“The Great and Revolutionary Trixie did what you asked, Hammer Jammer,” she said as the illusion showed a very extravagant and well-kept Trixie triumphantly posting flyers all around town, even up to the highest tower as Trixie burst into the throne room and plastered one on Pricess Celestia's face.

“But then, the Great and Revolutionary Trixie had an idea!” she shouted as the romanticized Trixie had a gigantic light bulb appear over her head and rushed off into the forest.

Stylized Trixie then assembled the cart in a manner of seconds in a flurry of smoke and hammer banging, presenting the cart to the chorus of angels, “I would do something so much better than simply post notices all over town in hopes that ponies would come to us! I would bring word of revolution to the ponies!”

Romantic Trixie then bounced up the side of the mountain with the cart on her back, and triumphantly landed in the central square, causing the cart to open up to an impossibly huge crowd of ponies and began to give a speech.

“But!” Trixie interrupted and six long shadows appeared over the crowd Stylized Trixie was giving a speech to, “They appeared.”

Red Flag raised a hoof, “Who's they?”

Trixie scowled, and her the point of view in her illusion spun around to reveal six dark shadows, their eyes glowing red.

“Enemies of the revolution!” she exclaimed, “One of them ever serves the Great Opressor! “

Smooth Sickle held out a hoof, “I'm sorry Trixie, but this is a lot to take in at once. Could you start over and–“

Trixie ignored them, and began identifying each of the shadows as the lightened and revealed their respective owner.

“Applejack! Sold her entire family into slavery!” Trixie declared as a corrupted Applejack came into view, holding a rotten apple in one hoof and a sack of bits in the other. The earth pony was laughing, and her cackling grew louder as she took a bite out of the apple, spewing bits of food out of her mouth as she did so.

“Fluttershy! Imprisons animals and does who-knows-what to them!” she said as a pale and sickly-looking Fluttershy appeared, holding a giant syringe and wearing a surgeon's mask. She squirted out some of the strange fluid inside the syringe, and gave an evil chuckle.

“Rarity! The very model of a decadent bourgeoisie!” spewed Trixie as the white unicorn appeared at her store. An impoverished pony appeared inside the store, looking for a dress. When he pointed one out, the sharp-toothed and rather chubby fake Rarity upped the price by a factor of ten, causing the poor pony to cry.

“Rainbow Dash! The military wing of the capitalist state!” Trixie growled as the blue pegasus pony showed up directing orders to an entire battalion of other pegasi. This Rainbow Dash was overly muscular, and sported a general's uniform. The imagined Rainbow Dash barked orders at every pony that passed by, and blew smoke into the face of all her subordinates with the fat cigar hanging out the side of her mouth.

“Pinkie Pie. She may have once been a friend to the revolution, but her consumerist ways have driven her mad.” Trixie sighed as a Pinkie Pie in a straightjacket was shown, struggling and muttering to herself in a padded room.

The last shadowed pony grew in size, and an evil grin spread across its lips as lightning flashed in the background of the illusion. The bolt dispelled the shadow for a brief moment and gave view a Twilight Sparkle with a mottled mane, cracked horn, and crazed eyes.

“Finally, there is Twilight Sparkle. She holds unimaginable power, and uses it at every opportunity to crush dissent. I have it on good authority that her own town, Ponyville, is a virtual police state due to her constant reports back to Princess Celestia!”

Trixie heaved heavily after he rant was complete, and her comrades simply stared at her in shock.

“That's quite a story, comrade,” spoke Red Flag, his voice full of doubt.

“Not that I doubt your words, but how do you know so much about these six anyway?” Proley added.

Trixie turned to both of them, her eye twitching and her mouth twisted into a snarl. She then remembered she was addressing her new friends, and quickly adopted an overly cheery demeanor.

“Oh, that's easy! Once I tried to bring the word of revolution to Ponyville, and they kicked me out! Then I spent a month spying on all of them! That's not weird, right?” she asked, finishing her sentence with a series of desperate laughs, the last of which ended in a sob.

Hammer Jammer adjusted his glasses, “Are you okay, comrade? I'm starting to think you weren't ready for–”

Trixie's eyes instantly glowed white with power again, and storm clouds began to gather over the college.

“I AM BEST PONY FOR THE REVOLUTION!” she screamed in reply, “AND THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW!”

Trixie's horn produced a blinding flash of light, and in the blink of an eye the room was empty.

~

Trixie and her comrades were promptly deposited into an empty cabin, all of them hitting the floor face-first.

Hammer Jammer scrambled up and and pointed at Trixie in an accusing manner, “What have you done!?”

Trixie smiled, “Oh, this is a cabin I found on my travels, a few miles out of Phillydelphia. Sometimes I would come here to cry. But now it's a perfect springboard for the revolution!”

“Forget the revolution!” Smooth Sickle shouted back, “Take us home this instant!”

Trixie gasped, covering her mouth with both her hooves.

It was at this moment that System Smasher erupted from the floorboards, sending wood and nails everywhere.

“This place has a basement!” he yelled before retreating back into the hole he had created. Red Flag walked over and peeked down it, and a look of awe overcame him.

“Guys?” he said, motioning for them to come closer, “I think you'll want to see this.”

The others gathered around the hole, peering down into the darkness. As their eyes adjusted, they saw what appeared to be a giant stockpile of fireworks and flares, all in varying stages of completion.

Smooth Sickle slowly turned to Trixie, his mout agape, “Did you–did you make these?”

“Oh yes,” Trixie said, and jumped down the hole, using her magic to cushion her landing. She looked back up to her shocked comrades, noticing the confusion on their faces, “Oh, I've been stockpiling these for a few months now. Was planning to set Ponyville on fire and all that.”

Trixie started rummaging through several of the boxes, all of them marked “DANGER” or “EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE”, tossing several small firecrackers and what appeared to be bombs behind her.

“Trixie?” Hammer Jammer asked, but the unicorn pony ignored him. As she seemed to have tuned out the outside world as she was taking inventory of her armory, Hammer Jammer turned towards his comrades.

“Well, what now?”

He was met with silence, until Proley was the first to talk.

“You know,” she said, “We have been doing nothing but talking about revolution for the past, what, ten years?”

“And the college's ledgers haven't seen black for a while,” Red Flag added.

“A revolution would bring direly required aid to our institution.” System Smasher explained, appearing out of nowhere donning a monocle and corncob pipe. He blew a few bubbles and immediately reverted to his demented self, scurrying off to some corner to rant about communes.

Hammer Jammer placed a hoof on his face and heaved, “Fine. But when we all get thrown in prison don't go blaming me,” he said, and turned to Trixie.

“Trixie?” he said, and the unicorn jerked towards him expectantly,

“I don't know what you're planning–”

“And really don't want to know...”

“But whatever it is, you have our support. Worker's solidarity and all that.”

Trixie beamed, and immediately flew to her comrades and forced them all into a group hug.

“Delightful news, fellow workers!” she practically screamed, and just as they believed they'd never breathe again she let them go and bucked, not kicked, bucked the door to the cabin open. She took several small sacks, filled them with explosives, and pointed to the barely visible skyline of Phillydelphia in the distance.

“We must begin the Pony's War by cutting off the cities. Canterlot is too strong for us yet, but Phillydelphia is like a capitalist stack of chips just waiting to be trampled!”

Before any of her leftist companions could question her simile, she grabbed them all by magic and along with her explosives, carried them out the door.

“The revolution is nigh!” she sang along the road, “Down with monarchy! Long live Ipposcracy!”

Литые с себя оковы капитализма!

Trixie continued to sing songs of revolution and bloodshed of the worker pony as she carried her assorted bombs and firecrackers in a magic aura behind her. Her comrades thanked their lucky stars that she had set them down earlier before one of the TNT boxes poked their horn and exploded.

Behind Trixie, Hammer Jammer and Smooth Sickle were arguing quietly.

"Why are we doing this?"

"Look, we've been talking about dialectics and markets for the past twenty years and we have a chance to change it!"

"With what? Bombs?

"The bombs are rubbish! She has more magic than that little purple twerp that—"

The two professors suddenly rear-ended Trixie, who had stopped and was staring at something intently. It was a lime green earth pony, slowly pulling a large wagon of pears behind her. She paid no heed to Trixie and her little parade at first, but slowed down and stopped when she noticed Trixie looking at her and smiling.

"Uh, can I help you?" she said, one eyebrow raised.

Trixie beamed, "Why yes you can, comrade!" she announced, eliciting a confused look from the earth pony, "You can help spread the cause of revolution!"

Trixie took of of her box of explosives and set it upon the pile of pears in the cart, digging it in so it wouldn't fall off. The earth pony was too weirded out by this strange display of charity to protest. When Trixie believed that her payload was secure, she saluted the pony and begin to walk back down the road.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she yelled at Trixie.

"Tear down capitalism!" Trixie called back.

"Sorry," Smooth Sickle whispered to the earth pony, "Also, Viva la Révolution."

Pear Pin watched the strange procession march off in the general direction of Fillydelphia, and when they were out of sight she began pulling her cart once again.

"Why do all the freaks travel on this road?" she sighed.

---

The plain grey skyscrapers of Fillydelphia loomed in the distance as they began crossing into the suburbs of the city. When they began passing the first few well-kept frond yards with tacky lawn ornaments, Trixie sneered at disgust.

"Look at what the consumer culture have done to these petit-bourgeois. They've sold their very souls for plastic flamingos!"

This was the first thing Trixie had said in a while that didn't immediately call for the violent destruction of the upper classes, and Proley was compelled to join the conversation.

"Agreed, comrade," she said, and pointed toward the green grass of another nearby house, "Why, look at that abode. They could afford to feed fifty starving foals with the money they probably spend on upkeep."

"Indeed! And look at that weather vane! What madman would willingly put a rooster on top of their home?"

The others watched with fascination as each of the unicorns tried to one-up each other in finding the most decadent thing to criticize about the passing houses. It became heated, and reached a boiling point when they saw a house larger than most situated next to what was essentially a ruined shack.

“That does it!” Proley shouted, and jumped onto one of the explosive boxes Trixie was still carrying behind her, “I've been talking about revolution for too long!”

She scrambled inside the box and emerged a moment later, brandishing a rather large firework. With a spark from her horn she lit it, and let it loose against the cheap mansion. In one fluid motion the rocket ignited and screamed toward the house, knocking a hole in the door. All was silent for a second and then an explosion rocked the neighborhood, sending bits of shrapnel and wood everywhere.

Trixie and her cohorts watched the blaze in horror until Trixie realized she was carrying literal crates of evidence. Panicking, she threw the rest of the boxes into the blaze to get rid of them. Not a smart move; giant fireworks instantly sprouted from the fires of the house, visible to anypony within a twenty-mile radius.

"Look at what you did!" Red Flag roared.

"At least I did something!" Proley snapped back, gritting at the unicorn twice her size.

"Calm down, both of you!" Smooth Sickle interjected, "I know some friends here. We can stay there until this blows over!"

The whistles of approaching police was all the prompt they needed to follow Smooth Sickle, who ran off into the seedier part of town.

---

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Mysterious explosion destroys movie set!" a small news filly advertised to passing ponies, unaware of the perpetrators in the bar just behind him.

Trixie looked around the back room that they had been led to. It was dank and foreboding, with paint peeling off the walls and what little furniture there was stripped bare of everything but the moldy wood. Several tattered posters were thrown about the back area. One looked almost identical to the poster Trixie had scene on the post outside Canterlot, and another showed a black hoof smashing what appeared to be Princess Celestia's crown.

The denizens weren't too friendly, either. The grey pegasus pony that Trixie assumed owned the bar was in a corner of the room talking with Smooth Sickle, a rather lanky fellow who had one clouded white eye with a nasty scar going across it. His cutie mark appeared to be some kind of state or capitol building, but set aflame.

This tough-looking pony and Smooth Sickle conversed for a few minutes before walking over to the rest of the group.

"Comrades, this is my brother Sharp Sickle," he said with a smile.

"Mhm," Sharp Sickle grunted, switching the lollipop stick in his mouth to the other side.

"He said he'll hide us from the instruments of the capitalist state, at least for a while."

"Because you're my brother," Sharp Sickle added with a voice that sounded like he gargled gravel. He turned to Trixie, and she avoided looking at his bad eye, "Say, you ain't one of them teachers from that college up in Canter, uh, Canterlet? Lut? Forget about it about it. Whadya doin' with these folks?"

Trixie grinned, "I'm a vanguard of the revolution! Your brother and his friends helped me see that the system is broke and has to be torn down—violently!"

Sharp Sickle scratched his chin, "Mmmm. You ain't like my brother and his wait-and-see friends."

"Hey!"

Sharp Sickle glared at his brother, "When is the last time you actually did any revolutionizin'?"

Proley raised her hoof, "I blew up that house."

Sharp Sickle whipped around to Proley, his eyes wide with shock, "Wait, that was you? The last time we met you said that a socialist upheaval had to come naturally!"

Proley sunk down in the grody bench she was sitting on, and pointed towards Trixie, "Well, our new friend here has made me seen things a bit differently."

The grizzled pony sighed, and set his eyes on the window, "If you spineless horses can be antsed into bomb-throwin'...It can't really be time, can it?"

Red Flag nodded, "The poverty rate climbs each day."

"The working class needs a uniting force!" Hammer Jammer asserted!

"Cutting the branches of a rotten tree does nothing!" System Smasher called from the back of the room.

Sharp Sickle was silent for a moment, and suddenly lit up in a diabolical smile that made Trixie's blood run cold, "Well alright then! It's been a while, but I can call up a few of the old guard. It'll take a while, but I could get this place ready to start a riot by next week!"

Trixie waved her hoof, "I could help! Not to brag, but I'm very good with magic."

"Magic's the only way to explain how you got these chuckleheads to do anything," he muttered under his breath, "Alright, you want to help? There's an old factory just south of town that could closed down due to "lack of profit". Used to make cider. You get that factory cleaned up by next week, and you'll be an official member of the Equestrian Revolutionary Front."

Trixie's jaw dropped, "There's a full-fledged front?"

Sharp Sickle sighed, "Yes! Didn't they teach you about the Fillydelphia Uprising in—oh, nevermind; of course they didn't."

He then turned his harsh eye to the rest of Trixie's comrades, "You all help her. You're useless to me in this city."

Smooth Sickle frowned, "I grew up here!"

"Useless. To. The. Revolution."

Trixie was already out the door, and the others shuffled behind her and she practically leaped at the opportunity to jumpstart the revolution in an industrial area. She could hardly contain her excitement as she trotted toward the general area of the factory; why, she was so excited, she even told passing ponies.

"Can't you seeee? ♫," she hummed to a passing worker pony in overalls.

They had only traveled a small distance away from the bar, so Sharp Sickle heard the first line and a sense of dread washed over him. He peaked his head out of the bar to hear mysterious music with no discernible origin playing along to Trixie's lines.

"Not again..." he grumbled.

"Oh, little worker beeeee? ♫," she sang to another blue-collar pony, grabbing her face and smushing it.

"It's the Gala all over again," sighed Red Flag.

Trixie leaped onto a nearby abandoned cart. Inside she found a tattered old flat cap. She put in on her head while the music became a settled rhythm, and ponies on the street began to gather around. Ready, she began her speech:

I was like you once! ♪

You slaves of the system! ♪

Broken, tamed and beaten! ♪

Lacking proletarian wisdom! ♪

The music let loose a flourish, and Trixie levitated herself onto the top of a nearby trolley. Several of the ponies were confused,

"What's a proletarian?"

"I was a unicorn once?"

"I can't sing!"

The trolley conveniently broke down, sending steam everywhere. Ponies poured out of the trolley to catch Trixie's next few lines:

See your crumbling cities, and dirty highways? ♪

And you say "Why friend, it's only just a phase!" ♪

You say until you until you dying day! ♪

Well comrade I'm here to tell you ♪

There is another way! ♪

The rather gullible behavior that overtook ponies when they were in the middle of a song worked its magic, and already a few of the listeners were ready to hear Trixie's message,

"Another way?"

"Tell us!"

"Hey, who broke the trolley?"

Trixie took a deep breath, and the music reached another high flourish,

Revolution! ♪

"Revolution?" the entire crowd asked, "What's that?"

"What's that? What's that?" ♪

It's your only hope these days! ♪

In a world bit by greed! So evil, so grey! ♪

But if my words can't make you mad ♪

Listen to my comrades! ♪

Hammer Jammer felt the focus shift to him. He fought with all his being to resist the music and rhymes floating through his skull, but his willpower faded with just a few notes:

I'm Hammer Jammer! ♪

Greetings, comrades! ♪

And what she says is true! ♪

Well all have a story of exploitation! ♪

All of them horrible, and true!

I was a carpenter! ♪

It was hard work! ♪

But rewarding work all the same! ♪

But one day I was "no longer needed" ♪

I discovered worker's rights ♪

And know the capitalist's games! ♪

The crowd said some kind of mini-chorus, and Proley felt in the deepest part of her being that she was next. With a deep breath, she explained her story as well.

The song literally went on for hours, with every single pony in the crowd explaining what horrors the capitalists and aristocracy had inflicted upon them. When the song was finished, the entire crowd cheered with praises of Trixie and the ideals she had woven into her lyrics.

"You're right, comrade Trixie!" one yelled.

"How can we help further the cause of revolution, Trixie?" asked another.

Trixie smiled and pointed towards the direction of the factory, "First, we seize the means of production! Second, we seize the means of everything!"

The crowd roared with excitement and galloped behind Trixie, songs of red banners and new orders following them.

Meanwhile in Canterlot, Jet Set and Upper Crust were attending a dinner party and chatting with Fancy Pants. The conversation was pleasant enough until Upper Crust gasped. Everyone present turned to Fancy Pants, who had taken off his monocle and was looking at it closely.

"I say, my eyepiece appears to have shattered. Very curious."

---

Twilight Sparkle was reading a book in her home when the front door flew open, and Pinkie Pie ran in.

"Twilight!" she shrilled.

"What's wrong!?"

Pinkie grabbed Twilight and held her close, "It's the worse thing imaginable!"

"What? What happened?"

Pinkie's lip quivered, and her eyes welled up with tears.

"Somepony did a musical number without me!" she sobbed. She latched onto the unicorn as she cried a tsunami of tears.

Twilight facehoofed.

Питание-для-масс!

The abandoned factory was falling apart as Trixie and the mob filed into the old building to produce their way to freedom.

The conveyor belts were rusty, the piping was shot, and a piece of the roof had fallen down and nearly squished Red Flag. Many of the workers quietly talked amongst themselves as the high from the song began to wear off, and the reality of their situation began to seep in.

Trixie was undeterred; this was simply a challenge to be overcome, and to test the mettle of her fellow workers. As the workers were walking about the dilapidated structure. Trixie found an old wrench on the floor and picked it up, while at the same time jumping on one of the long-deactivated assembly lines.

She tapped the heavy tool against some of the machinery and the metallic sound echoed throughout the factory, setting all eyes on her. Now the center of attention, Trixie did what she did best.

"Workers of Fillydelphia!" she exclaimed (and wished she still had some fireworks left over for her speech), "the fifth epoch is upon us! Never before have the workers owned the means of production by seizure and democratic ownership of property!"

Murmurs slithered throughout the crowd as the ponies looked to each other with vague confusion. Trixie fought back a gag; how could the revolution succeed if the workers lacked consciousness about their own slavery?

She gave a nervous cough and continued, "We will strike at the heart of our capitalist oppressors by using their weapons of pollution and oppression against them!"

One of the ponies in the back gave a small cheer. Finally, something to feed on.

"Indeed, comrade!" she replied to the pony in the back, "And when we get this factory running once more, the tidal wave of production and shift from the decadence of the rich shall be glorious!"

A few more ponies roused in agreement, and one raised his hoof.

"Uh, Fooler?"

"It's Comrade Trixie, comrade."

"How are we going to power this factory?"

Several of the other ponies whispered in agreement. Trixie hadn't anticipated this, and first shrugged off the question with a nervous laugh.

"Don't be a defeatist, comrade! We will address problems to the production when they arise. For now, let us deal with the problems as they arise. The first order of business is to create a worker's council!"

"A what?"

Trixie's eye twitched. Did these ponies want to remain in eternal bondage to the bourgeois?

"A worker's council! A deliberative body what shall be produced, and in what quantities! Democratic possession of the means of production! Don't any of you remember what I said back in the city?"

"Actually," one pony said, "every time I get involved in a song everything gets kind of fuzzy. How did we get here again?"

Other ponies asked the same, and soon the entire crowd was full of questions.

"What's 'democratic' mean?"

"Will this nail give me tetanus?"

"Where's the free cider! I was promised free cider!"

Trixie started sweating bullets as the crowd quickly turned against her. Hammer Jammer and his companions attempted to quell the crowd, but to no avail. Just when it seemed that Trixie was in danger of losing them all, a sharp hiss followed by a clang sounded outside the factory. All the questioning ceased as the ponies began to run out of the factory to find the source of the noise. Trixie followed, relieved for a respite to think of more propaganda.

The ponies left the factory to find two lanky ponies surrounding a strange contraption, which appeared to have broken down. Steam rose out from ruptures in its metal frame and one of the wheels was broken beyond repair, with the paint peeling off in several places. The two bacon-haired ponies were inspecting the damage, oblivious to the crowd behind them.

"I say Flam, if the 6000 hasn't made it here we'd be done for!"

The mustachioed of the two nodded, and spun the broken wheel. It slid right off the machine and rolled in the direction of the crowd. The twin unicorns followed its movement, and froze when they saw the large crowd behind them headed by an annoyed blue unicorn.

"Oh my," Flam muttered. He adjusted his worn straw hat and composed himself, "Sorry folks! The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 is out of order at the moment! But we'll have her back up and running before you can say pony pulls the wagon!"

Trixie stepped closer to the two, "What are you doing here?"

Flam took off his hat and placed it on his chest, his best attempt to look nonthreatening, "Oh, we're just stopping here for repairs, ma'am."

"What kind of repairs?"

"Well, this contraption you see here is a miracle of modern engineering, but sadly I must admit that she's seen better days. She's supposed to make cider, but we've had a bit of trouble finding customers. Baltimare, Las Pegasus, Ponyville—"

Trixie's eyes went wide as she stuffed a hoof in Flam's mouth, "Wait. Did you say Ponyville?"

Flam nodded and said a muffled "yes" through Trixie's hoof.

Trixie looked Flam straight in the eye, "were you foiled by a loathsome purple unicorn with five friends?"

"Why yes, we were!" said Flim, "Say, how did you know about that?"

Trixie stared off for a second before returning her gaze, "We have a common enemy, it seems."

Flim smiled, "Oh, I wouldn't say enemy. We prefer the term 'competitor'. It's good for business!"

Trixie's thoughtful look faded as she shot daggers at Flim, "Business?"

"Why, yes!" Flim replied, "We're travelling salesponies. He's Flam, I'm Flim, and we're the world famous—"

"Why are you here?" Trixie interrupted.

Flam politely removed Trixie's hoof, "Well, we heard that old factory behind you used to make cider. We were gonna look around in it for spare parts for the ol' 6000 here." To make his point, Flam confidently slapped the side of the Cider Squeezy 6000, which promptly crashed to the ground and the other three wheels rolled away.

"The old girl's seen better days," Flim sighed.

"So," Flam went on, "If you'd just let us by to that factory we'll quickly be out of your mane."

Trixie laughed, an evil haughty chuckle that made the twins' blood run cold, "Ha ha! Yeah, that's not happening. We were here first."

"But—"

"In fact," she said, "you said you were businessponies. Petit-bourgeois, yes?"

The blood drained from Flam's face as he recognized the rhetoric, "Uh oh."

Trixie whipped around and faced the crowd, pointing back at the two brothers, "WORKERS! WE HAVE TWO COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES WHO PLAN TO WRESTLE THE FACTORY AWAY FROM US!"

The crowd booed and hissed. A horseshoe was thrown from the back of the audience, and clunked Flim right on the head.

Flam went to the aid of his brother, and looked up at Trixie, "Fine! We won't loot the factory!"

"THEY WERE GOING TO LOOT THE FACTORY!" Trixie bellowed. Flim started to come to as a mallet was thrown from the crowd and hit him in the eye, knocking him right back out.

Panicking, Flam started to drag his brother away from the crowd. He only progressed a few feet until he backed into something solid. He turned around to see Red Flag glaring at him, flanked by Hammer Jammer and a twitching System Smasher. Red Flag's horn lit up with a red aura and constricted itself around Flam's back leg, lifting him up in the air along with his brother.

Flim regained his senses once again, although the knocks to his noggin had made him loopy, "I'm a pretty pony princess!" he slurred. He tilted his head from side to side as he slowly sung to himself, "No way of knowing where we'll be going, our adventures never end..."

Trixie walked up to him, and Flam clasped his hooves together, "Take the 6000! Take anything! Just don't hurt us!"

"I, uh, we don't want your worthless doodad."

"Oh. Well, can we go then?"

Trixie's horn glowed and she stepped closer, "Afraid not. You're too dangerous to be left wandering around, poisoning the countryside with your capitalist methods. I think a little re-education is in order."

Trixie's horn grew even brighter, and an bright light engulfed the two brothers. Flam's scream could be heard for miles. Flim simply sung about a pony always dressing in style as the magic overtook them.

---

Sharp Sickle was brushing up on his cider molotov recipe when he looked out the window to see smoke arising from the direction of the old factory. He did a double take, at first thinking that his idiot brother probably just managed to burn the place down. No, this was industrial smoke.

"Well I'll be," he muttered, setting his cidertov down.

He walked outside to get a better look. No doubt about it, the old factory was going at full tilt, and he could just barely make out the sounds of industry and activity all the way from his bar. With nothing better to do, he put on his best flap cap and raggedy scarf and set off toward the factory, wondering how they managed to get it working so quickly.

---

The sounds of churning gears and whirring belts greeted Sharp Sickle's ears as the factory's old rusted walls came into view. Several ponies milled about on the outside, scrubbing the walls and painting them to restore the factory to its former glory. He also noticed the wreck of a strange contraption in the front yard, although it appeared to have been stripped down to everything but its framework. He stopped one of the workers to ask where Trixie or his brother was, and they led him to inside the factory.

Sharp Sickle's jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw the insides of the factory. The machinery had been restored to full working order, and the assembly lines were making cider at a mind-boggling pace. He saw no sign of his brother or Trixie, but did catch Proley overseeing one line of workers.

"Hey!" he called, "You seen my idiot brother?"

Proley looked pointed him toward the back of the factory. As he approached the rear of the facility the whirring of turbines became apparent. At the very back he was greeted with a door that read "HIGH VOLTAGE, STAFF ONLY" with a menacing lighting bolt painted on the door's frame. He ignored it and opened the door.

The roar of machinery and electricity made his ears ring as he saw Trixie and co. watching a turning wheel, which appeared to be the turbine supplying the factory with power.

Smooth Sickle saw his brother and called out to him, "Hey! Get down here! Trixie's telling us about Stage 2!"

Sharp Sickle sighed and complied, standing by his brother as Trixie and Hammer Jammer used an empty wall as a makeshift chalkboard.

"Our production output, oh hi Sharp Sickle, is ten tons of cider per day. Once Flim wakes back up, we can expect roughly seventeen tons of output, assuming we stop there."

"Which we won't!" replied Trixie, drawing an outline of Fillydelphia, "We will use this cider production to gain the hearts and minds of the hard-working ponies of this city. With them behind us, we can unify the entire city's productive capacity!"

"Yes," said Hammer Jammer, "and from there we will be able to build class consciousness. Within a few years we should—"

"A few years!?" Trixie screamed, "We need the revolution now!"

Hammer Jammer frowned, "We can't just up and march on Canterl—"

"Every day of capitalism is one step closer to extinc—"

"Shaddap both of you!" Sharp Sickle roared, "Who the hay is Flim, how did you get this factory working so fast, and where are you getting the supplies to make all this cider!?"

Trixie smiled and walked over to one of the turbines, opening a small hatch on the side and inviting Sharp Sickle to peek his head inside. He did so, and one of his stony eyebrows arched in confusion as he saw a skinny unicorn pony supplying power to the turbine with magic, a green aura dynamo. The unicorn eventually noticed him and lifted his hat, although Sharp Sickle noticed that his eyes appeared slightly glazed.

"Greetings, comrade!" Flam said cheerily, "Is the quota being met?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Sharp Sickle replied, and closed the hatch.

"That would be Flam," Trixie explained, "He tried to stop our occupation of the factory, and I showed them the error of his ways."

"Okay, so who's Flim?"

"His brother. He didn't take the socialist learning as well as his brother. He'll be out for a few more hours."

Sharp Sickle scratched his chin, "Well, that explains Flim and the power source. But what about the supplies?"

Red Flag pointed to a window, "There's a wild apple orchard out back. We have enough to last us for a month."

"Which is why we need to act now!" Trixie exclaimed again, picking the chalk back up and circling Fillydelphia a few more times for emphasis.

Red Flag spoke up, "What about Canterlot? If we take over Fillydelphia, Celestia won't just ignore a commune on her front door."

Smooth Sickle adjusted his glasses, "And the princesses aren't exactly pushovers militarily. Hmmm."

Trixie had spent quite a while in the boondocks, but she wasn't totally ignorant of what went on in the country. She knew of Twilight's escapade against Discord and Nightmare Moon, and how they used the Elements of Harmony to defeat them. Those relics were more powerful than Celestia herself, and if she could get her hooves on them...

"What do you guys know about the Elements of Harmony?" Trixie wondered aloud, fishing for an answer.

Smooth Sickle lit up, "Oh, yes! Very, very powerful magical artifacts! Scholars haven't been able to get a close look due to the security, but they're believed to be physical manifestations of ideals. Starswirl's Second Law of Conversion does state that thoughts have incredibly high magical potential."

"Could a pony make Elements out of ideals other than friendship?"

"Oh, no. The mages that knew how to do that are long gone."

Trixie contemplated that fact for a second before answering again, "What about changing Elements that already exist? Changing them to, say, Elements more friendly to the revolution?"

"That's absolutely, well, I suppose it could work. But we'd need to—"

Smooth Sickle's sentence trailed off, "You're insane! The Elements have the highest security of anything in the world! Nopony can get in there!"

Trixie grinned evilly, "Who says a pony will be the one to get them?"

"Where are you going with this?" Sharp Sickle demanded.

Trixie walked up to the wall and circled various portions of the map, "I know for a fact that the keepers of the Elements and Equestria have made some really nasty enemies over the years."

Sharp Sickle yawned, "And?"

"And they'd just love to see Celestia and Twilight and all her horrid friends sent to the gulags. We've got a few letters to write..."

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The inhabitants of the dark room sat patiently as they awaited the unknown sender of the strangely-worded letter that was sent to each of them to come inside the room. The letter itself was something extremely odd: all it said was to come to the executive room of the cider factory and wait for further instructions, along with personalized reasons for each recipient to travel there. More than one of them expected some kind of trap.

"This is lame," Gilda complained, pulling back the metal ball clicker and letting the tapping commence. Her letter had mentioned a way to get Rainbow Dash to stop hanging out with her loser friends. She didn't really believe that whoever sent it would be able to do so, but it was something to do.

"Agh! Stop the tapping! It sounds like the whiny one!" Rover said, covering his ears. He and his two friends had also received the letter, telling them that if they came they would receive more than enough labor for their gem mines.

"Make me!" Gilda challenged. The diamond dog slammed the table and growled at her rebellion and the two of them angrily glares into each other's eyes before another voice interrupted.

"Silence! Both of you!" Queen Chrysalis demanded. Neither Gilda nor Rover wanted to incur the ire of the changeling queen and quietly sat back in their chairs, still giving each other the evil eye. Chrysalis' letter had told her that the writer knew of a way to guarantee endless of supplies of love.

"I'm just here for the gems," Garble said in-between scarfing down the tray of glittering stones that was laid in front of him, while at the same time swatting Rover's paw away whenever he reached for some. His letter promised free food.

The assembled villains waited for a while. It was almost noon when Gilda spread her wings and got up from her chair, "That's it! I am so outta here. Later, dweebs."

As soon as she had finished her sentence the door flew open and in walked Trixie. Gone was her wizard's hat, and was now replaced by a peaked cap with a red star on the middle. Several medal of her own design glittered on her chess, and she carried herself with cautious arrogance.

"Who're you? You the guy who sent us these letters?" Gilda asked, sitting back down.

"How did you even know our address?" Spot demanded from a corner in the back.

"My letter came stapled to the side of a drone! What's the meaning of this!?"

"Comrades, comrades," Trixie calmly answered them, "I know you you all have questions, and I will be sure to set up a commission to address them. But we must first acknowledge our the first order of business: why I sent your letters."

"That's what we just—"

"I assure you, it is something that will change your lives!"

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and laughed, "Ha! I rule over millions of drones! What could you offer that would change my life?"

"How about a way to get ride of Celestia once and for all?"

"Right," Gilda interjected, "You know a way to kick the butt of someone who's literally a god."

"Yes," Trixie said, and her horn began to glow and she started an illusion. It showed the Elements of Harmony stowed away in a shadow of Canterlot Castle, "By stealing the Elements. Seizing them."

Rover raised his paw, "Uh, what's the Elements? We only really know about gems, digging, and..."

Fido jumped up, "Ooh! We know, uh, nope. That's it."

Chrysalis hovered a few inches above her seat and pointed at Trixie, "It took me a year of planning to infiltrate Canterlot, and I still couldn't get that door to the Elements open when I took over the city! What are you going to do?"

"Break the door down."

"Obviously," Gilda muttered.

Trixie used her magic to pop up avatars that showed cartoon heads of each of her planned accomplices. A red dotted line followed behind them as the graphic representation of the villains moved toward Canterlot, "Look. It's very simple. We sneak in, grab the Elements, and sneak out."

Chrysalis folded her front legs, "And what are you going to do with them? Sell them? I know only that Twilight pony and her friends can use them."

Trixie ceased her illusion with a poof, and smiled, "We're going to use them."

Garble did a spit-take with the gems in his mouth.

"It may sound impossible, but it's true."

The teenage dragon picked his teeth with his pinkie claw, "What? No. One of the gems had a rock in it. Yech."

Chrysalis protested yet again, "And how are you going to do that? Corrupt them?"

"The Glorious and Revolutionary Trixie intends to do exactly that!" she announced and her illusion magic once again flared to life as it showed a very complex array of magical steps, theories, and methods that would be used to turn the Elements to the changeling queen. Chrysalis flew up into the cloud itself and examined each step carefully.

"This is...brilliant," she admitted, "The magic checks out. But there's no way we can get to the room that houses the Elements!"

"The Egalitarian and Democratic Trixie disagrees. I happen to know of something kept on the very grounds of Canterlot that will help us get into that vault."

"And would that be?"

"The statue of Discord. We'll smash it down with his stone head."

Gilda flew up from her chair, "Oh no! We are not fooling with that! I am still picking cotton candy out of my ear from that crazy freak! See you dweebs later!"

Before she could open the door she was caught in place by Trixie's magic and struggled, "Let me go you hippie dork!"

"But Gilda," Trixie mocked, "Don't you want to be friends with Rainbow Dash again?"

"Dash would never talk to me again if I had something to do with letting Discord out! Let me out!"

The other villains in the room looked on in horror and Trixie shook her head, "Tsk tsk tsk. I'm afraid that line of thinking is exactly why Equestria is such a horrible, capitalistic state nowadays. I think you need a little insight."

Before GIlda could respond Trixie shot a brilliant white beam from her horn that caught the griffon right between the eyes. Her eyes went cross and she slumped to the floor. She lay there for a few second before getting back up.

Gilda looked at her claws contemplatively, "Man. If I could tear down capitalism, I'd be able to go anywhere I want. Me and Dash could hang out all the time!" She saluted Trixie, "Trix, whatever your plan is, I'm completely behind it! Workers of Equestria unite, dude!"

"What did you do to her!?" Chrysalis screamed.

"Made her see things my way. Just brainwashed enough to be a useful idiot, but still dumb enough to never question orders. To be fair, I had some practice on some fatcat brothers before her."

By this time Rover, Spot, and Fido were trying to climb out the window before the revolutionary unicorn brainwashed them too. She set them on the floor and they sprang up a moment later, proclaiming their loyalty for Trixie.

Chrysalis had been too shocked to take action so far, but knew it was now or never to break out. She ordered the two bulky changelings she had brought as bodyguards to charge Trixie as she broke out the window, but Trixie easily zapped both their brains and switched their liege in an instant. The queen had almost made it to the window before Gilda and the diamond dogs tackled and wrestled her to the ground, holding her in place.

Trixie slowly walked up to her, smiling, "You didn't really think I'd ever let a monarchist ally with me, would you? And that letter, did you ever pause to think why you didn't just burn it? Propaganda. In just a few short days we've gotten so good at it that I can just show a pony the color red and turn them to the revolution. I bet changelings, even queens, are even more weak to suggestion."

Chryalis hissed as Trixie blasted her. She managed to fight her for several minutes before her eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped to the ground and then rose back up.

"Comrade," Trixie said, "What's your name?"

"Queen Chrysalis, comrade!" Chrysalis responded. Her eyes weren't glazed over and her voice hollow like the Flim Flam brothers; the control she wad under was much like the kind she had placed on Shining Armor.

"No, no, no. That will never sound right. Do you want to see the world 'queen' on the state newspapers after we tear down the kingdom? No, your new name is Vanguard Chrysalis!"

Chrysalis nodded, and gave names to the others too. Gilda became Comrade Gilda, the Diamond Dogs became Fellow Workers Rover, Fido, and Spot, and the two changeling bodyguards were renamed Red 1 and Red 2.

Garble continued to eat, oblivious to the entire battle. It wasn't until Trixie's glowing horn practically poked him into the eye that he looked up, "Huh? Hey, you got any more rubies? There was only live four in h—" he managed to say before he was also re-educated.

---

Canterlot's security had been significantly beefed up since the changeling attack. Magic fields in place now automatically detected changelings, and Trixie was forced to leave them back at the factory. Chrysalis was powerful enough to evade detection with her disguises, and so was paired with Gilda to retrieve Discord's statue. Trixie, Garble, and the Diamond Dogs would move ahead and clear the guards that could stop them.

Evading the guards in the garden was easy enough for the griffon and the changeling queen. Gilda already had enough experience dodging the fuzz and Chrysalis would simply morph into a pot or bench whenever a guard came walking by. Not that it mattered; the garden was lightly patrolled anyway.

However, measures were still in place. A pair of guards now stood in front of the statue, mostly for show but still capable of raising alarm. They needed to be dealt with. Gilda put on her best well-behaved act and Chrysalis morphed into a tiny little unicorn filly as they both walked up to the statue.

"What's dat!" the disguised Chrysalis asked, pointed toward the statue frozen in perpetual disbelief and horror.

"Eh, that's just some nerd who thought he could take on the Elements of Harmony."

They walked a little closer in-between the two guards. The two soldiers just assumed it was the child of some rich parents and her bodyguard and paid no heed, "Oooh! How'd they turn him all rocky?" filly Chrysalis said in the most adorable voice possible.

"Like..." Gilda started, and reared back her claw before punching one of the guards in the side of his head and knocking him out, "This!"

The other guard whipped around but was unable to do anything as filly Chrysalis partially dropped her disguise and one her front legs resumed its normal side. She jumped up and karate chopped the guard on the head, sending him to the ground on top of his buddy. Gilda and Chrysalis high-fived before turning to the statue.

Gilda scratched the back of her head, "How are we going to move this dude?"

---

The guards in the gardens and the castle stood vigilantly. Nothing could come in their sight without the words "Halt! Who goes there?" being uttered.

At least, nothing above the ground. The Diamond Dogs worked busily digging through mountains, ever so often coming up under a guard and pulling him down if he was judged to be too dangerous. The tunnel stretch from the gardens to their current location, which was now under the foundation of the castle. Gilda and Chrysalis were dragging the statue from the back of the tunnel, and would be quite a while to make their way to the front. This gave Trixie and co. all the time in the world to make a tunnel directly beneath the building that housed the Elements.

When Chrysalis and Gilda finally came to the front of the tunnel, everything was ready. Trixie and Chrysalis combined their magic to shoot a hole at the top of the tunnel. The magic penetrated every floor and shot out of the roof of the castle. This also caused whatever guards they hadn't snatched to be immediately alerted to the intruders, and they had precious seconds before they were apprehended. Garble and Chrysalis flew as hard as the could while lifting the statue as Trixie contributed by levitating it as they shot up the holes they had created, to the top room. The dog were right behind them, hopping up every floor of the way.

The statue landed on the top floor with a clunk as the entire team assembled.

"It's now or never, comrades!" Trixie shouted. She ordered the Diamond Dog to pick up the statue and run toward the magical door at full speed while the rest followed behind. Discord's stony head acted a kind of magical battering ram, the sealed doors broke open to a small chest; their objective.

Trixie snatched it and prepared to wink a distance away from her castle. Hopefully even the nonactive Elements would give her an even bigger boost. "See you later, comrades!" she stated with a wave and her magic charged.

Swarms of guard pegasi and what appeared to be Princess Celestia could be seen whipping by the windows as Gilda turned to Trixie, "Wait, what? Aren't you taking us with you?"

"Revolution requires sacrifice, comrades! Your sacrifice!" she replied, and with a bright flash she was gone, her accomplices abandoned to their fates.

---

Trixie's friends from the college were in a state of relative panic at the factory. Trixie had been gone for days; there's no way she could have been successful in her little scheme and taken so long. There was also no way they could ever return to Canterlot; they were known associates of a terrorist now.

System Smasher had begun a long rant about states crushing everything when he was blown against the wall by an explosion of teleportation magic. Trixie emerged from the white light, holding a small orate chest and a giant grin on her face.

"Comrades," she said as she opened the chest to reveal the Elements inside, "The revolution is now."

☭

The skies of Fillydelphia were choked black with smoke as Twilight and her friends approached the city. They couldn't help but notice along the way that various posters and signs had been posted along the road depicting Trixie as a revolutionary figure of the common pony, her face saturated with the red and yellow hues of revolutionary propaganda.

Their journey had begun towards the city when a raid on Canterlot had occurred, and the Elements of Harmony had been stolen. Chrysalis and some other old friends had been captured in the process, and interrogated.

According to the letter Twilight had received, Chrysalis swore up and down that she had nothing to do with the theft and the last thing she remembered was being pinned down and blasted in the head with some kind of mind spell in an old factory near Fillydelphia. Celestia didn't believe her but instructed Twilight to head there anyway while she pried some actual info out of the changeling queen. Luna was searching the countryside in the meantime, keeping a lookout for any strong magical signatures.

"Trixie's gone full-tilt nuts, hasn't she?" Rainbow Dash said from the back of the pack, her front hooves folded.

Fluttershy whimpered, "A lot of these posters are saying really mean things. 'Smash the crown', 'Rise up and crush the state', 'Pinecone Vodka is Mandatory'..."

Rarity was grudgingly complimenting the stark aesthetic of the propaganda when two mean-looking jumped out from behind one of the posters. One of them carried a chain is his mouth while the other levitated a sledgehammer with his magic.

"Hey!" the grey unicorn shouted, "Whadya doin' in the USTT?"

Twilight arched a brow, "The what?"

"The Union of Socialist Trixieist Trixiedoms, you subservsive!"

Before Twilight had an opportunity to explain herself the two ponies launched themselves at the group, screaming at the top of their lungs. She acted instinctively and quickly loosed two bolt towards the partisans, hitting them and knocking them out. They moaned and the weapons hit the ground with a thump as they recovered their senses.

It wasn't a very powerful disarming spell, and soon the grey unicorn that had just seconds earlier wanted them dead got up and looked at Twilight, rubbing his head, "Ugh. What happened?"

"You went all crazy and tried t' attack us!" Applejack replied.

The grey unicorn winced as he rubbed a sore spot on his head, "Oh. Oh! That wasn't my fault! Some big hotshot unicorn moved into town and's been brain-zapping ponies left and right! Me and my pal here were trying to escape when she caught us and zapped us too. Said something about 'permanent border duty' or somethin' weird like that."

"Where is she?"

The green earth pony that had attacked them spoke up, "She's holed up in that old factory over there. The one where all the fireworks keep shootin' out of. You don't wanna go there. Last pony that said somethin' mean about her got turned into a baby."

Twilight nodded, "We'll be careful, sirs."

The grey unicorn grunted as they both began to walk off, "She's your problem now, sister!"

---

Trixie overlooked the factory with a sense of disappointment. No, no, no. Production was only at 120 percent, they'd need to at least double that if they wanted to have enough supplies to take over nearby Baltimare. The workers would have to pull sextuple shifts!

"Hammer Jammer!" she called, and the white unicorn instantly appeared beside her lest he incur her wrath.

"Yes, Comrade Trixie?"

"Tell Red Flag to tell the workers that my five-hour plan needs to be done in three."

"But comrade, there's no way that—"

Hammer Jammer's words were cut off as Trixie unleashed another round of brainwashing magic on the poor unicorn. By now everyone in the city had received the same treatment, and were all ready to lay down their lives for the Fillydelphia Commune and the glorious socialist revolution that it was a harbinger of.

Hammer Jammer's thoughts were immediately supplemented with the absolute importance of pony communism in one city, and he nodded weakly, "Yes, Comrade Trixie. A committee to draft the revised plan will be formed and the workers will be notified."

"Thank you, Comrade Jammer. That will be all."

Hammer Jammer bowed out of Trixie's sight as she adjusted her hat. By now she had ditched the cape and was wearing a full military uniform with dozens of medals of her own creation. Order of Trixie, Hero of Trixie, Genius of Trixie's Socialist Ideal, she had them all. She was considering arranging another ceremony to give herself the much-coveted Trixie State Award when Proley came galloping up to her.

"Comrade Trixie! We're being invaded!"

Trixie dismissed her worries with a wave, "Not to worry, comrade. Our guards will make short work of them."

"That's just the thing! A purple pony and her friends tricked Chains and Mug Shot into abandoning the cause! They're in the city right now!"

Trixie's eyes flared with power, "What!?"

The leader of the USTT immediately gathered her compatriots from the college (with the exception of System Smasher, who had gone missing around the time Trixie returned with the Elements) with her magic and vanished, leaving the workers of the factory to their own devices.

The instant Trixie was gone, they raided the cider warehouse.

---

Something was very wrong with Fillydelphia. The entire city had taken on a fearful tone, and the colors within it seemed almost drained. Everypony avoided talking and seemed almost frightened to even speak. As they passed a gigantic romantic billboard of Trixie in a snow-white military uniform giving gifts to small fillies, the signature spark of teleportation magic erupted from in front of Twilight.

Trixie appeared in the bright flash along with her chosen comrades, all of them so absolutely broken that they had but one thought: crush the fascists.

"Trixie!" Twilight shouted, "What have you done to Fillydelphia?"

The Great Leader of Fillydelphia smiled, "I've made it better! Look around you, Twilight Sparkle! What I did to Ponyville during our magical duel was peanuts compared to the glory that I've elevated this city to!"

"What in tarnation are you blabbering about?" Applejack said.

"Trixie, I really thought you had learned your lesson when you apologized."

Trixie's eyes glowed, "When I left your miserable town, the ponies just got worse! Do you know how quickly the capitalists will work against you when you annexed a town!?"

"Capitalist?" Rarity said, "What are you talking about? You sound like those Worker's Society posters they put up around Canterlot."

A devilish grin creeped over Trixie's mouth, "The harbingers of the revolution! They've shown me that the only way to fix this horrible world we live in is to burn it down!"

Trixie then began a long rant against the rich oppressors, giving Twilight and company time to form a plan on how to dealt with the power-tripping unicorn.

"We should just leave," Fluttershy suggested, "I mean, without that amulet, she'll just tire herself out eventually."

"No way!" Applejack vetoed, "If we leave her alone, there's no tellin' what else she might do to th' town."

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth, "Twilight, just duel her again. It's like the only thing that'll make her shut up."

"I don't know, Dash. She's even nuttier than before; I don't want to hurt her by accident."

"Do you see any other options?"

Rainbow Dash was right; they couldn't just abandon the town to whatever horrible plans Trixie had for it. Most of the citizens were cheering Trixie on as she finished her speech with the guarantee that they would march on Canterlot, and Twilight had enough.

"Trixie, stop!"

The Great Leader laughed, "Oh, this is quaint. What are you going to do. Oh, let me guess: you want to challenge me to a magical duel!"

Twilight sighed, "if that's what it takes to stop all this."

"Very well! If I win, you will join me in glorious revolution!"

"And if you lose?"

"Not going to happen! Not when I have this."

A small chest appeared from behind Trixie, one Twilight recognized instantly.

"The Elements! You were the one that—"

"Don't say 'stole', Twilight Sparkle. I merely returned them to their rightful owner: the workers of Equestria!"

"Give them back, Trixie! They won't even work for you!"

Trixie opened the box and took out the Element of Magic, "That's where you're wrong."

Something was wrong. The crown that housed the Element of Magic glowed with a dark aura, and the symbolic jewel perched on the top of it had morphed into a crossed hammer and sickle. The jewel itself had turned blood red, with gold ribbons of grain surrounding it.

"The crown thingy!" Twilight gasped, "What did you do to it!?"

"Made it better," Trixie responded nonchalantly, "Oh, I'm sorry, you probably want to know how I made it better. Turns out you can twist the Elements just so if you find something like friendship. I've found something lightyears better than friendship: socialist camaraderie!"

The original holders of the Elements could only look on absolute terror as the necklaces, each adorned with red flags or burning cidertov jewelry and the like, sprang to life and wrapped themselves around the necklaces of the five ponies Trixie had brought with her. Trixie laughed all the while, explaining each corrupted Element.

Hammer Jammer was the Element of Anti-Fascism, Proley was the Element of Labor, Red Flag was the Element of Worker Solidarity, Smooth Sickle was the Element of Self-Determination, and Sharp Sickle was the Element of the United Front.

"And I am the Element of Revolution!" Trixie screamed as the power of the dark Elements coursed through her. The light around Trixie and her comrades grew ever brighter as Twilight quaked in fear of the reality Trixie had created. How was she going to defeat a pony that was completely invincible now?

Twilight told her friends to seek cover as each of the holders of the corrupted Elements took a pony to obliterate and began chasing them down. The necklace shot out brilliant streaks of red, and everything it hit turned into more propaganda of Trixie. Twilight had run into a large skyscraper to escape Trixie's assaults and the magician had followed, chasing her up, up, up to the very roof of the building. Twilight was backed to the very edge of the rooftop and looked down below. Various flashes of light let her know that her friends where still avoiding their attackers, but they couldn't dodge them forever.

The blue unicorn's horn brimmed with raw magic as she pointed it directly at Twilight's jugular, "Any last words before you see the light?"

Trixie delighted in seeing Twilight struggle to think of any answer that would spare her. Right before Twilight began pleading for her life, she pointed at something behind the communist leader.

"Who's that?"

Trixie could only turn around about halfway before something solid hit her in the side and her crown came tumbling off the top of her head. She scrambled to her hooves to see System Smasher placing the crown on his head with a determined and coherent look in his eye that was very unlike him.

"System Smasher! What are you doing?"

"Saving the world from serfdom!" he shouted back. "I've known my comrades down there a lot longer than you have, and what you have done to them is not not the sign of a friend of liberation!"

The Element of Revolution grew bright and the white outline of the crown changed in shape as System Smasher continued, "My spark is the desire to free everypony, not give them a new set of masters. I am the Element of Anarchy!"

The crown's jewel had morphed into a black bomb with a lit fuse, and Trixie lunged toward System Smasher to stop him.

She was too late. The crystal fuse of the bomb lit and sizzled into the gem and a monochrome rainbow shot out from the jewel and wrapped itself around Trixie. In mere seconds the unicorn was forced to realize the ramifications of her draconian socialist state and what more she would have to do to justify it. At the same time the magic from the Element cleansed Fillydelphia of Trixie's propaganda, restoring the city and its citizens back to normal. When the dull rainbow had finished deconstructing the Great Leader's worldview it sent her flying over the horizon until she disappeared with a twinkle.

Twilight had shielded her eyes from the brightness, and when it had subsided she looked to see a shaking System Smasher with the normal Element of Magic at his hooves. She didn't care that he was filthy or that he talked to himself as she ran up and squeezed him tightly, "Thank you! Oh Celestia, if you hadn't come along..."

System Smasher pushed her away, "Sorry madam, I am needed elsewhere. Liberty will not die!" he cried as he lept off the building. Before he smashed into the ground he used a flag pole to decelerate himself and land on the ground gently and up to his friends that had just been restored to their normal selves.

Smooth Sickle had just regained his senses when he saw System Smasher standing above him, frowning. "I know, I know. You warned us about the state."

Red Flag got up next, "I think I'm done with Mark Lark and Sharp Angle literature for a while. Who's that pegasus anarchist writer you're always carrying on about?"

"Free State," System Smasher replied.

"Yeah, I think the library needs a few more of his books," Proley added, "these past few days have taught me...things."

The professors of the college slowly walked back toward Canterlot, leaving Twilight on the top of the roof and her five friends standing in the middle of the street.

"Spike's never going to believe this," Twilight mumbled to herself.

---

Trixie'S arc sent her straight to the other side of Equestria, somwhere outside Vanhoover. She landed and bounced several times before her skid was stopped dead by a post not unlike the one outside of Canterlot.

She was right back to square one. The force of the Element of Anarchy had completely destroyed her Great Leader clothes, and now she didn't even have her old cape and hat to keep her warm. She also couldn't go back to the college; System Smasher's blast of magic had completely turned her off to the idea of a worker's revolution, and the idea frankly disgusted her now.

When she had enough strength to open her eyes, she saw a faded poster taped to the bottom of the post. It showed a flag with a dark red background, but with a white circle in the middle. Within this white circle were four black interlocking hooves, and text beneath the flag.

NATIONAL FRONT FOR PONY UNITY

Magical Purity is the Future!

Trixie noted the location and time of the meeting place. Entrepreneurship had failed her, labor had failed her, and even revolution had failed her.

It was time for a Third Way. She got up and began making her way toward the city.