Her eyes surveyed the landscape with an unwavering resolve. She had traveled long and far, dodging the laughing of those lesser than herself. She had been ridiculed, persecuted, and mocked on more than one occasion. But here… Here is where she would start a new life.
Her cloak, ragged and filled with the many tears of travel, fluttered in the wind as a heavy rain fall descended upon her, drenching her once majestic clothes in water. A pointed purple hat, once lovingly stitched with stars and crescent moons, hung limply against the side of her saddened face, accenting the frown as she ran forward towards a pub that sat on the shores of whatever town she had stumbled into.
The pub was warm and welcoming, only a few stallions stood by the fireplace, their glistening armor suggesting of their rank. She walked past them with her head held high, ignoring the snickering of one as she passed. She quickly took a seat at the table and sighed, tossing her hat off as she waited for somepony to serve her.
What came however, was something even she did not expect.
A tall creature approached, walking on two legs like a minotaur, but lacked the coat of one. Strangely this creature lacked barely any fur at all. It stood as tall as Celestia herself, but lacked all of the regality as it tapped a quill against it’s dirty apron as two deep blue eyes gazed down at her.
It’s dress was strange as well, clothing adorned it from foot to neck, leaving only the arms and the head bare of any cloth. The mare sat up straight to address the waiter.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands food and drink strange creature!” Trixie proclaimed with an elegant wave of her hoof.
The creature rolled it’s eyes and tugged at its small patch of fur on it’s chin.
“The dirty and obnoxious Trix better have some bits.”
Trixie curled her mouth in a frown as she poked the creature much to its apparent discomfort.
“Do you know who I am? Are you not struck with awe?”
The creature snapped her hoof in its hand, the grip firm yet gentle, as it brought its face to hers and frowned.
“Listen, I may not have been here long, but I can already tell you and I aren’t seeing eye to eye. So I’ll tell you now, I don’t serve vagrants and bums so if you don’t have the bits then stop dirtying my floors.”
Trixie stared slack jawed at the snarling creature and pulled back her hoof. She never recalled being stood up by any matter of creature, she was far to powerful.
“Trixie assures you she has plenty of bits, but will only give them when she receives proper sustenance.”
The creature stood tall and looked down at her with a skeptical scowl before sighing and scratching the top of his head. He then walked back to the kitchen and disappeared, drawing the stallions from the fireplace to Trixie’s table.
“Hey there, aren’t you that unicorn that vanquished the Ursa-Minor?” One asked with a thick undertone of sarcasm.
The other laughed as he wrapped a hoof around her shoulders. The disgusting scent of jura filled the air around her as he breathed heavily, pressing his chest against her.
“Why don’t you show all of us just how great and powerful you are in bed huh? I’m sure a powerful unicorn like yourself would have no trouble with three guards of the princess.”
Trixie shuddered and tried to break free but found the other two surrounded her and blocked off an escape. She closed her eyes and tried to focus her power on a simple teleportation spell, but quickly found her horn shot only an array of sparks much to the amusement of the guards.
“Oh that’s pretty! Now lets show you our horns!” The apparent leader yelled as he pulled at her cloak with his teeth.
“Hey!”
The three stopped and looked behind them as the creature towered over them with a tray of food and drink in one hand, the other placed on the shoulder of the one pinning Trixie to the table. Her eyes looked up with fear and the creature growled as he glared at the guards.
“Take your grimy hooves off my customer.” It growled as it’s fingers dug into the stallion.
The leader laughed and put a hoof to the floor and ground it to emphasize his desire to fight.
“And what will you do biped? You gonna take on three of Princess Celestia's guards?”
The biped placed the tray in front of Trixie and pulled a strange object from behind his back, which was secured by it’s apron drawstring. The object was cylindrical and almost as tall as Trixie herself, with various dents along the shaft.
“No, I’m going to beat the shit out of three of the princesses guards. You know what this is called? This is a bat, bartenders where I come from use them to deal with obnoxious customers like you and let me tell you, in the hands of a man like myself it can be a very powerful tool.”
With that he swung the bat in a swift arc and met the guards helmet with the bat, his head flying to the left as his body followed. Quickly releasing the grip on Trixie the other guard rushed to head butt him but found his neck being pinned as the man swung to ride his back, using the bat as a reign.
“Giddy-up boy!” He yelled as the guard bucked him around.
With a quick leap the man landed on one of the tables and leaped over the guard, planting a swift kick into the side of his face. With two of the guards out he glared to the third and pointed menacingly at him.
“You next?”
Trixie looked over to see the guard in question let loose a thin stream of urine on the floor as he dashed out of the bar, his wings flapping wildly as he took to the rain strewn skies.
“You… You will regret that! When we inform the princess…”
The man groaned and produced a scroll from his pocket, unfurling it for the guard to see.
“Do you know what this is?”
The guard stared with an open mouth and let loose a few explicative’s before the man slammed the tip of his bat into the floor.
“Get out.”
The guard still looking horrified raced from the pub along with his partner, shattering the glass window and overturning tables as they fled. With a heavy sigh the man slumped into a seat, looking to the shattered room before rubbing his eyes with a free hand.
Trixie without any thought in her mind, looked to all the wreckage and looked back to the man, this strange creature had single-handedly taken out three of Celestia's royal guards.
Without even speaking she fled out the door, leaving the strange creature alone in a wrecked pub. She raced through the rain with her eyes wide from fear, disbelief, and…
What was this emotion?
She cringed and spoke out loud as if to herself.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not know guilt! Trixie does not!”
She was unable to complete her thought as she cried out in pain, tripping over a branch as her hoof twisted painfully. She looked up as her face became caked in mud as a small shack came into view. Trixie brought herself up with a grunt as she paced to the house, pushing open the door as she collapsed on a carpet, not even looking around or caring who owned it.
“Trixie just… Trixie just need to rest…”
Chapter 2
Trixie awoke to the warm sensation of sunlight, the birds outside chirping loudly as she strained to open her eyes. She looked down to see a blanket draped over her, the dull shades of browns only complimented by sewn in leaf designs. She yawned as she got a better look of where she collapsed but something was amiss.
She was sleeping in a bed.
She pulled herself up and winced at the pain in her hoof, but gawked s she pulled it from the covers completely bandaged up. With a growing concerned expression she looked to the bed stand where a picture of three creatures like the “man” she had encountered the night before with their arms around each other, the first was a short one with a speckled uniform, medals adorning his chest as he looked to a “man” next to him, but this one was slender with all of the qualities of a mare.
“My brother and mom, last time I ever got to see them.”
Trixie almost shot out of the bed as she looked to the door way where the man from the previous night stood, his arms crossed as he stared at her. He had no shirt and his pants rode slightly low, but the bags under his eyes were what drew her attention.
“My brother was a soldier, a knight. My mom ran a schoolhouse in northern LA but I don’t suppose you even get what I’m saying.” He added with a sigh as he walked away.
“If your hungry meet me in the kitchen, I doubt you’ll be doin much walkin with your leg anyway.”
Trixie looked again to her leg and hobbled out of the soft bed, wincing as she landed on the floor. She proceeded to walk past various strange and exotic instruments of unknown ability, even passing one that resembled a bow with a large wooden beam nailed to it.
“Crossbow, helps me keep the griffons from bothering me, a writ of passage only works on ponies you know.” He exclaimed, opening a swinging door to the kitchen.
Trixie looked at him with wide eyes and decided it was time to ask the question that nagged her so much, well, one of many.
“Trixie wishes to know, what manner of beast are you?”
The man looked into space for a moment and sighed, his hand scratching the back of his head.
“I thought I wouldn’t be the only one but… I’m what’s called a human. Kind of like a minotaur or a Diamond dog. Where I come from there are billions of us, here? I think I’m the only one.”
Trixie mouthed the word to herself as she asked another question.
“Where did you come from? How did you get here?”
The human merely pushed her questions aside as he pulled a skillet from a drawer, lighting a flame with kindling from his pocket.
“I don’t remember much, I remember home and then I ended up here. I just want to live in peace with what’s left of my pub.”
Trixie recoiled at the memory of the fight.
“Why did you let Trixie sleep here? Why did you bandage Trixie’s leg?”
The human chuckled.
“Thomas. Thomas bandaged you because Thomas couldn’t just throw you out into the rain.”
She frowned at his attempt to mock her but was thankful he had given her his name.
“Trixie thanks you Thomas.”
Thomas merely nodded and threw a liquid mix into the skillet while humming a familiar tune. He pointed to a stack of potatoes and looked at Trixie.
“Make yourself useful and peel those potatoes will you? I’m sure with your fancy magic you can do it lickity split.” He added while tossing a peeler to her.
Trixie looked disgustingly at the pile of dirty potatoes and looked back to Thomas as he flipped a flapjack into the air.
"You do not honestly expect The Great and Powerful Trixie to peel potatoes do you?"
Thomas looked over his shoulder and grinned as her stomach growled loudly.
"If you want to eat than yes, I do expect you to peel some potatoes."
Trixie shot him a scowl before lowering her horn in deep concentration, the potato slowly rising albeit shaking with the peeler. As Trixie raised the peeler even higher she suddenly cried out and both the spud and the peeler went flying. Thomas barely had time to react as the peeler impaled itself into the wall near his face.
He looked at her with a grin and pulled the peeler from the wall, tossing it back to her as he flipped another pancake. Trixie sighed and once again raised the peeler, beads of sweat dripping from her brow as she took the first layer off of the tiniest spud.
"Ha ha! Trixie has shown this potato who is mighty!"
Thomas looked at her and smiled, his eyes twinkling with cruelty and comedy.
"Great job, only ten more to go."
