"Honey, I'm home!" Trixie opened the door of the rusting trailer that was her home. "Oh, Trixie forgot, she has no pony."
She tossed her saddlebags to a side, and then threw herself over the chariot's backseat she rescued from the scrapyard to use as a couch. The inside of the trailer was like that; a collection of makeshift furniture, made out of collected pieces that ended up among the hills of iron and rust. This was Trixie's life. She would usually tell herself it was only temporary, that anytime soon, something would come and she would get back on her hooves. However, after six months receiving, disarming and guarding dozens of tons of metal in various states of wear, Trixie's hopes were vanishing with each day. She got up from her 'couch' and outside the trailer to do the one thing she liked from her new life; gaze into the stars.
Trixie climbed the side of her trailer, to have a better look. There she had a beach chair and what was left of a telescope, she still needed to find a clean mirror to cut to make it work. It wasn't always like this. Trixie once was a star too. Nothing really that big, but as a traveling magician, she was acclaimed and loved by everypony around her, or at least by a vocal majority. Trixie used to love that, to bask in the cheering of the crowds. But that same fame that used to drive her in life, also was her downfall. There was a moment when Trixie thought so highly of herself that the sole idea of someone not praising her was infuriating. At the end of the road, she finally managed to let the worst of her go out and that one moment of weakness cost her all her life.
Trixie considered going back to Opal City, the city where she was born and raised. Where her mother and sister lived. But when Trixie took the path of the traveling magician, she promised she would only come back as a success. But by when she actually reached that success she always dreamed with, Trixie was intoxicated by it. Her life was too perfect to look back. And then, the downfall. Trixie's first idea was to come back to her family, but that same pride that made her forget her family became shame. Trixie was afraid that she only remembered her family because she needed them, and she feared her mother and sister would think the same. At the end of the day, she wrote one good letter to apologize for being apart for too long, and once again started to promise she would come back to visit. That was when she first came to Manehattan, a couple of days after finding the job at the scrapyard.
A month after that, a response from Trixie's darkest nightmares appeared at her door.
Dear Trixie:
It's a good thing to hear from you again. When the letter came, mom almost lost it, I never saw the old mare so happy. I wanted to send this letter to you for some days now, but I'm afraid something happened. Mom had a heart malfunction some days before your letter came. In fact, I believe the one thing keeping her alive was thinking of seeing you again. Don't be sad, she died at night, sleeping, happy for you. The services will be three days after I send this letter. I hope you can make it by then.
Sincerely, your sister.
Gimmix
The moment she read the letter, Trixie readied herself for the trip. She used all her savings for that one ticket to Opal City, to pay her last respect to the pony that gave her everything and she forgot. But when Trixie made it to the city, there was no one at the cemetery. Opal wasn't that big of a city, so there was only one church where she could really ask. Trixie broke down when the priestess told her that Hope Pearlshine Lulamoon's funeral was two days prior. After that, Trixie went alone in the night to visit her mother's tomb, left a rose of glass she conjured by herself, and went back to Manehattan. She thought of visiting Gimmix, but she just didn't dare to show her face at her old home, and she figured out her sister would do better without the load of Trixie's troubled life. When she got home, there was a closed briefcase with a note with her sister's writing. Trixie feared her sister's spite, so she never read the letter. As for the briefcase, she figured it was her cut of the heritage, but she felt unworthy of it, so she left it in a corner to never be opened.
Trixie shook her head, trying to drive away all those feelings. Gimmix was probably living a better life by herself, and Trixie was on her way to get her own back, she just needed to focus. Last week she cut a deal with an old shop owner. He was one of those old collectors of curiosities with a shop filled to the ceiling with dated magazines and mementos from old music concerts, and was about to retire. If Trixie could manage to gather a thousand bits by the end of the month, he would sell her the shop and everything inside it. It wasn't the big breakout she would like, but it topped over the scrapyard by a lot. Trixie sighed, thinking on the many jobs she would need to take in order to earn the money.
"Lulamoon, show yourself!" A shout in the dark brought Trixie back from her thoughts. She looked into the direction of the shout, seeing the most bizarre group of ponies she could ever imagine.
The first one to call her attention was a pony covered in fire, who walked normally, not minding the flames over his, or her, skin. When they got closer, Trixie managed to make the image of a black skeleton under the flames. Next to the igneous pony, walked the imposing figure of a giant diamond dog, entirely white, covered by a tattered black jacket and a almost destroyed fedora hat. To the other side, there was a very thin and tall mare. With a black top hat over her head, she looked like an enlarged shadow, an image helped by the mare's black coat and dark blue mane. She had her eyes hidden behind shades, despite being nighttime. Leading them, was a noticeably old stallion, who was probably smoking a lot since he was covered by a small smoke screen. Still, his old-looking features were visible over his cream coat and gray hair. The parade of freaks stopped right in front of the rusted trailer, as Trixie pressed herself in the upper side, expecting they wouldn't notice her.
"Trixie Silverlight Lulamoon," the old stallion called. "We know you live here, show yourself." Trixie's heart beat against her chest like a scared animal, which, coincidentally, was how she felt too.
"I don't think she's around," the burning pony said in an spectral voice.
"Oh, she is, my good doctor, she is definitely around." Trixie stopped breathing. "And I know how to get her out." He looked back the the dark tall mare. "Shade, dear, could you?"
The mare nodded and looked up, at where Trixie was hiding. Trixie didn't see what the mare name Shade did, and she never had the time to guess as she got lifted in the air by a claw made out of the shadows around her. The claw then tossed her at the old stallion's hooves, making her let a scream of pain as she hit the floor and the claw dissipated. The freaks laughed.
"So," the old stallion said in almost a monotone, while looking down at Trixie. "This is Hope's last bit on this earth." She noticed the smoke around him was still thick as he looked back and did a gesture to his companions. They surrounded Trixie, who was still trying to get up, despite the pain. "Don't bother, little one, you won't last too much standing." He knelt down at Trixie's eye level, making her see his pale irises. "You know who I am?" Her only response was a glare at his ghostly face. "I'm the Mist, surely your old mare had a couple of stories about me." Trixie didn't say a word. "Well, I will be, the old witch didn't even mentioned me."
"Trixie has no idea on who you are?" She finally got up, trying to sound secure, but her nerves betraying her voice.
"Listen up girl, because this may be the last thing you will ever hear." He pointed a hoof at the pony that looked like a skeleton on fire. Trixie tried to not look directly at him. "That one there, is Doctor Phosphorus. Your mom designed the cage where he spent ten years locked." Phosphorus passed his hoof around his neck. The gesture was turned up to eleven by his skeleton-like look.
"Trixie is listening," she tried to play the bravado again. "Trixie would also rather not have your friend there leaving cinders all over the place."
"You have some guts, girl, I will concede you that." Mist replied, still keeping his calm tone. "But if you ever interrupt me again, I will end the formalities here along with you life." Trixie looked at him, locking eyes for a moment. She expected to find the marks of a pony who was lying, but to her horror, Mist's ones never gave away anything. Trixie looked away, silent. "Good girl," Mist said. "Now, where was I? Oh, right, good old Solomon Grundy here." The giant diamond dog grunted. "Your mother locked him up too, by collapsing a cave over him. Twenty years, at least." Grundy grunted again, this time showing its fangs. Trixie was still on the floor, intimidated by the freaks, but also trying to figure out what was going on. "Then we have the Spyder."
"Yo," said a mare Trixie didn't saw until then. She noticed it was a turquoise pegasus with a golden mane and tail. She was wearing a red and white bowling shirt and shades. Trixie also saw the black quiver over her back.
"Spyder here is the only one who doesn't know Hope like we do." The Mist spoke again. "But her mother knew her quite well, as your mother personally got her arrested over, and over, and over again." Spider drawn a bow and pointed an imaginary arrow at Trixie. She smirked at the note that sounded when she let the string go. "And finally, there's Shade." The black mare tipped her hat. "And me. We all have some unsettled business with Hope Lulamoon that I wish to settle tonight."
"Trixie doesn't expect it can be solved with diplomacy?" Mist looked at the stars over them, as if remembering something. Seeing an opportunity, Trixie looked at the freaks around her, trying to find an escape route. The only one available was a pony-wide space right behind her, between the burning pony and the giant diamond dog. Yeah, Trixie's options were limited.
"No, it can't," Mist answered as he lowered his gaze over Trixie. "Shade?"
The tall mare tipped her hat again, raising a hoof. something rose from the shadow under her. Something shapeless and black. Trixie's ear twitched as Shade put a hoof inside the mass of shadows. With a quite graceful move, the mare of shadows pulled something out of them. No, not something. Somepony was tossed over the ground at Trixie's hooves. To her horror, she recognized the silver unicorn with azure mane. Her eyes were closed but she knew they were emerald.
"Gimmix!" Trixie jumped at her sister's side as Shade let her fall. She took Gimmix between her hooves, checking for injuries. Trixie's fears rose up as she found the multiple cuts and bruises over her body. She quickly put her hoof against her sister's wrist, thanking to all the gods and entities from above and below when she found Gimmix's soft, but constant pulse.
"Why?" She could only ask.
"Because we hated you mother, more than anything in the world." Mist replied with scorn. "She made our lives hell and got praised for it. We celebrated her death like it was Hearts Warming." Mist got closer to the Lulamoon sisters. "But then, your stupid sister tried to repeat her mommy's act, and we say enough. Now, Grundy, please continue what we started."
He trotted back as the diamond dog punched Trixie right in the jaw, lifting her in the air and then fall back. She lied over her side when without any warning, she felt a new strike over her stomach that made her roll on her back. Then another hit found her rear leg. Then her back. Then her cheek. It wasn't too long before Trixie couldn't even identify where were the hits landing, as her entire body was entirely in pain. Suddenly, the hit stopped coming and Trixie dared to open her eyes. She found the Mist glaring back at her with a smile that only showed cruelty.
"Coward!" Trixie roared in pain and anger. "You can't do anything without your thugs!" She pressed her hooves against her chest. Even speaking too loud was painful.
"Probably," Mist said, regaining his calm tone. "But that's not the point here, isn't it?" He turned around. "Shade, get them inside the trailer. Spyder, bring the package."
The shadows under Trixie and Gimmix came to life once again. Something cold as ice took Trixie by the barrel and raised her over the ground. The mare of shadows directed the shadows to open Trixie's trailer and toss the inside, where she hit the floor headfirst. As she was getting back up again, Gimmix landed over her, still half conscious. The one called Spyder left what Trixie recognized as a pack of dynamite, wired to a chronometer. Shade tipped her top hat at them from the door and closed it. From the outside, Phosphorus melted the door's frame so it couldn't be opened.
"Heartwarming," Mist said. "Now, gentlecolts, mares, what do you say we celebrate in the old style?" The exited the scrapyard, ready to unleash their worst over Manehattan.
Trixie threw all her weight against the door. She's been desperately trying everything she could in the last minutes. But her magic was burned out under the physical pain she was already experiencing. By the end of it, she was just banging her hooves against it. She checked the bomb's timer. They had roughly ten minutes or so before it went off. Trixie sat down, trying to think, but nothing came up, so she did the only thing she had left to do, which was throwing herself against the door again. After the collision, she felt her sides hurting, promising her pain without end if she tried that again. Trixie struggled to raise up and do it again, but a hoof at her side stopped her. She looked back at Gimmix, who just recovered her consciousness.
"Gimmix!" Trixie rushed to hold her older sister, letting Gimmix rest her weight over herself.
"T-Tri-Trixie?" Gimmix asked in an almost inaudible voice. "Is that... really you?" She could barely open her eyes, as one was blackened.
"Yes, it's me." Trixie tried to keep her sister standing, but she herself was also in pain. They trembled together for a moment before falling again. She looked at Gimmix, who was struggling to say something, but could only whisper. "Don't speak, save your strength." Trixie's voice quivered as she glanced at the bomb's timer. Strangely enough, Trixie's only regret was that Gimmix was going to die too. She looked at her sister again, who was still muttering. She knelt to hear what were most likely her sister's last words.
"Staff..." Gimmix said between breaths. "Mom's... staff..." She kept repeating those two words.
"Gimmix, Trixie--" she paused. There was no reason to keep the act with her own sister. "Gimmix, I don't understand you."
Gimmix groaned in response. "Trixie... didn't you got my package?"
"Yes?" Trixie tilted her head in confusion. "But what does--"
"Trixie, listen to--" Gimmix coughed loudly. "Listen to me, Trixie. That briefcase is our only hope!"
She said at the top of her lungs. Trixie immediately started to search around in the trailer, until she remembered that the briefcase was under the couch she used as a bed. Stumbling with the little furniture in her way, Trixie finally managed to get her hooves over the briefcase. She saw it had a combination lock, but for an illusionist like her, it was like the lock didn't even exist. Trixie hastily opened the briefcase, finding a strange staff-like object made of bronze with a glass bulb at the end.
"Trixie," Gimmix said from the other side of the trailer. "I don't know if I'm going to make it. So listen up." She stumbled a little, but stood firm, looking directly at her younger sister. "That is our mother's legacy. She wanted you to have it, because she loved you." As she spoke, her voice became softer and lower with each word. "Even when you left she never--" Gimmix started to cough violently, but forced herself to keep talking. "She never *cough* stopped loving you... neither did I."
She then collapsed and fell again against the floor. Trixie galloped the fastest she could to her side, holding her. However, long from giving up, Gimmix's horn lightened up in an emerald aura. Trixie was about to tell her to stop or she would hurt herself, but before she could even say a word, the bronze staff that was inside the briefcase floated in her line of sight, barely held in place by the faint aura of her sister's magic. Gimmix dropped the spell and the staff fell against her chest. She put a hoof over it, pointing at three buttons at the side of the staff.
"Flight... gravity and energy b-blasts." Gimmix's hoof ran down the buttons. "Mom called it the Cosmic Rod." Gimmix coughed once again before passing out.
"Gimmix, no!" Trixie cried out loud. She immediately took the staff in her hooves. It felt heavier than it looked. Instinctively, Trixie looked at the bomb and saw they only had seconds. "Alright, alright, calm down Trixie, just-- don't screw this up!" She looked at the buttons in the staff. "Let's see. Flight, gravity and energy blasts." Trixie repeated her sister's words.
Without a second thought, Trixie aimed the staff's glass end at the ceiling above her and pressed the last button. The Cosmic Rod vibrated for a couple of seconds before shooting a light of white light that blasted a hole in the trailer's roof. Trixie fell silent in disbelief at the small object's power. However, she decided to awe later and held Gimmix strongly against herself. Repeating the buttons' functions, she closed her eyes and pressed the one for flight. Once again ,the Cosmic Rod vibrated an immediately enveloped Trixie and Gimmix in an aura of white light. Trixie started to felt lighter, as if her weight was leaving her body. She looked under her hooves and realized she and Gimmix were floating various hooves over the floor. Without thinking more, she pointed the Rod at the hole in the trailer's ceiling and they were rocketed out of it like an arrow. Just as Trixie drove them outside, the bomb went off, making a explosion that illuminated the night sky.
From various meters in the air, and still holding Gimmix for dear life, Trixie saw it and couldn't believe she was even alive.
Author's Note
Yes, this is my late tribute to David Bowie.
Now, I know DC Comics' Starman has little to nothing to do with the Chameleon, but it was reading that comic that I got to meet Ziggy Stardust and that cosmic magic in their music. I don't only have lots of respect and admiration for the Man Who Rocked the World, but I also owe him a lot. If anything, Mayor Tom's works over the years and his undying will to keep going at it until the very end is what inspires me most of the time to try and emulate that resolve. I love writing, I love reviewing , I love playing the violin, I love doing what I manage to pass as drawings in DeviantArt and I love art, and all that love is in no small part possible thanks the one and only David Bowie.
Rest among the stars.
P.S.: Yes, of course I'm crying right now.
Special thanks to VampDash and Lunar, who helped in the early stages of this chapter.
Two hours passed since Trixie arrived at Manehattan's general, carrying an unconscious Gimmix on her back. Despite being admitted within an inch of her life, after one of Trixie's longest waits, the doctors assured her that Gimmix was already out of danger and was sent to a room for recovery. A nurse tried to attend Trixie's injuries, but she refused any attention until she saw Gimmix's bed entering the appointed room. Thankfully, the nurse only had to apply the first aids, but nothing more serious than a suture in Trixie's side where the giant diamond dog slashed her with its claws. After all was said and done, the nurse left Lulamoon sisters alone in the room. There was some kind of riot going on in the city, and apparently, a blackout as Trixie noted when the lights flickered for a moment before going completely off. But she couldn't care the least for it.
All she cared for was her sister. Now Trixie was alone in the darkness, watching at Gimmix sleeping her injuries through. Her hooves were still holding the Cosmic Rod.
A soft snore coming out of the bed tranquilized Trixie. She finally let a long sigh she has been holding since using the Cosmic Rod to save her and Gimmix. Trixie lowered her gaze to take a better look at the strange item. She still couldn't remember how she managed to land herself and her sister without crashing against the floor and finishing what the bomb couldn't. In fact, every event in between her flying away from the scrapyard on fire and getting Gimmix into the hospital was a big messy blur in Trixie's memories. The only thing that felt real for her where Gimmix's words, which echoed in Trixie's ears.
"That’s mom's legacy. She wanted you to have it, because she loved you."
What the hell was even happening anymore was beyond Trixie's comprehension. However, a snort coming from the bed interrupted her inner contemplations.
“Ugh, what the…” Trixie lifted her gaze to see Gimmix trying to sit up in her bed. “Where am I?”
“Gimmix!” Trixie ran for her sister. “Gimmix, you need to rest.” She lifted a hoof to hold Gimmix down, fearing her wounds could get worse if she moved. However, as stubborn as only a Lulamoon could be, Gimmix kept pushing until Trixie decided the strain wasn’t any better and let her sit.
“Trixie?” Gimmix recoiled. “What are you-- agh!” She put her hooves under her ribs, where the bandages were tinting in red. Gimmix looked around her, cracking her neck from side to side. Trixie remember the gesture; her sister would do it any time she was confused or surprised. “Are we alive?” Gimmix finally said. “How?!”
“Thanks to your sister,” Trixie proudly put a hoof over her chest, eyes closed, but only for a moment. She immediately locked gazes with Gimmix, shifting to a more serious expression. “But also thanks to this,” Trixie extended her left hoof. Gimmix looked down to see the Cosmic Rod firmly held in her sister’s hoof. Trixie left the device at Gimmix’s side on the bed. “Now it’s your turn to explain, Gimmix.”
“Wow,” Gimmix took the Rod in her right hoof, inspecting it. “Mom told me about this one. So old, so simple.” Trixie was carefully listening, waiting for her sister to answer. When that didn’t happen, she tapped her left hoof against the floor, loudly. “Oh, right, explanations.” Gimmix raised her gaze. “I guess you didn’t read my letter with the briefcase.”
“No,” she hesitated. Trixie didn’t want to upset her sister. “I didn’t.” Even if they both made it out of the scrapyard before the explosion, Gimmix already got beaten beforehoof. However… “Well, Gimmix,” Trixie tilted her head down and looked at her sister from beneath her eyebrows. “I was attacked on my own home, by ponies I have never seen before tonight.” Gimmix looked up at her sister, holding the Cosmic Rod tighter between her hooves.
“I guess you’re right to be angry.” She turned her head aside, closing her eyes and nodding.
“I’m not as angry as I should be,” Trixie put her left hoof over Gimmix’s. “I’m more happy that you’re alive, Gimmix.” They looked at each other and shared a small smile. “But I still want answers.”
“Alright,” Gimmix bit her lip, struggling to find the right words to say. “Trixie, do you know about mom’s work?”
“Of course,” now it was Trixie’s turn to look aside. “She was a researcher of crystal tech.” Trixie remembered how many times Hope would talk about her daughter wasting her talents in shows and tricks, instead of studying ‘something serious’. “Like you, Gimmix.”
“I said work, not job.” Gimmix either didn’t see Trixie’s reaction, or was kind enough to ignore it. “Have you ever heard of the Star-Mare?”
“No, not really.” Trixie levitated the stool from the corner of the room to be next to the bed. “But I guess you’re about to tell me about it now. Aren’t you, Gimmix?”
“Well, ugh, if you insist,” Gimmix tried to sit up on the bed, but her injuries held her down. Seeing this, Trixie helped her by bending the bed’s head. Once Gimmix was at eye level with Trixie, she began her story.
It began in Opal City, a warm night of May.
Hope Lulamoon was a mare of science. It guided her life since as far as she could remember. She followed only logic, and for that, she grew apart from the world around her. However, there was more in her heart than her head could carry. For all the coldness of her exterior, Hope Lulamoon was not a pony of pure logic. Under the numbers, behind the logic and reason, there were ideals. She was, for all her life, a dreamer.
That’s why she was at the rooftop of Opal’s highest skyscraper. Hope held the Cosmic Rod in her magic one last time before letting it go and holding it with her hooves. She was nervous, even anxious, but never afraid. Hope had checked the numbers over, and over during the entire month, while waiting for the clearest night in the weather schedule to do this. There was no more room for doubts, only for action.
Sighing out her last hesitation, she pointed the Cosmic Rod to the stars and activated it. It began to glow in a gold and white aura that surrounded her. Hope looked down at the streets, dozens of meters under her hooves as she took the first steps. A spark of fear tried to crack her, but it was eclipsed by the excitement of success. The skies were no more a limit for Hope Lulamoon, or for anypony else anymore.
In that night, guided by the stars, a hero was born. And thus, the legacy of Starmare began.
“What in the name Princess Celestia on roller skates?” Trixie interrupted her sister’s tale. “Hang on, let me get this…” She hesitated. This wasn’t only it too much information for her to process, but it didn’t even made sense to begin with. “You’re telling me that mom created a device that--” Trixie paused to recollect what she just heard. “This thing!” She said while holding the Cosmic Rod. “This thing can collect, store and redirect the magic of the stars?!”
Gimmix only nodded, knowing any other reply wouldn’t satisfy her sister. She also wanted to move as little as possible due to her injuries.
“And instead of, I don’t know, sell its patent, or donate it for public use or anything reasonable--” Trixie interrupted herself again. She needed air and light and time and space, and only the first one was available. “She somehow decided to use it to fight crime?” Trixie looked around her to avoid Gimmix’ nod. She looked for any sign that it was all a dream. There was no such luck, so she had to confront what was passing as reality at the time. “This is so surreal.” Trixie slid down the stool and sat on the floor with the Cosmic Rod now held between her hooves. “Am I stoned again? Damn, I need a sponsor, and a phone to call a sponsor with.” She hid her head between her hooves, taking deep breaths. “I don’t feel drugged. Was mom on drugs at the time?”
“Well, it was the seventies,” Gimmix interrupted her sister’s rant. “So there’s a good guess.”
Trixie looked up and began to laugh. It hurt for Gimmix to laugh, but she did so anyways. Trixie rose up from the floor and hugged her sister. Both sisters shared a moment of lucidity at the ridiculousness of the situation. For that moment, there were no worries for them.
For a moment.
“Trixie,” Gimmix was the first to speak. “We need to do something.”
“What do you mean?” Trixie separated herself from her sister to look at her.
“I tried to be like mom, I did the best I could.” Gimmix looked aside, as if ashamed to look at her sister in the eye. “But those criminals. They’re monsters, and they’re on the loose because I couldn’t do better.”
“Gimmix, that’s not your fault.” Trixie stroked her sister’s cheek, making her look back. “They were mom’s problem, not ours.”
“But--”
“No buts,” Trixie let her shoulders fall. She felt so tired at the moment. “Gimmix, I don’t understand most of what’s happening, but I do know this: We have no business here. They almost killed us and we survived out of pure luck.”
“No, Trixie.” Gimmix began to agitate. “The Mist and the others, they’re psychopaths. If we don’t--”
“We won’t do anything.” Trixie said firmly. “You didn’t ask for anything of this and mom had no right to making it your problem.” Trixie stood around, kicking the Cosmic Rod into a corner. “I will take care of you while you recover, and as soon as possible, we’re leaving before those monsters know we’re still alive.”
“No, Trixie!” Gimmix called for her sister, trying to get up. “There are innocent ponies that-- *cough*” Despite the pain, she took the IV off her left hoof and got out of the bed. “Trixie, listen t-- *cough* Listen to me!” Trixie turned around and discovered, to the horror that Gimmix had trotted all the way from her bed to be next to her. She was shaking, with a slight trace of blood behind her. “Please…” Gimmix called once last time before falling into Trixie’s hooves.
“Nurse!” She called. “Nurse, help!”
The nurse busted in and, after seeing Gimmix’s state, called for help. The world became silent as Trixie saw her sister being carried into the bed again and then rolled out of the room. Her sister was fighting for her life and when she needed her most, Trixie didn’t know what to do.
Air and light and time and space. In the hospital’s gardens, there was only air and space. The night had engulfed the light, and Trixie felt how the time was closing around her to do the same.
She followed the nurses to the ICU, but they didn’t let her in. She had to wait there, were a parade of other ponies in critical condition passed in front of her. Trixie tried to avoid looking at them, but eventually, she did so. At first, it looked like any hospital in the world, but sooner than later, Trixie noticed how the badly hurt ponies accumulated in the hallways. The paramedics had to improvise once they ran out of rooms and beds. Trixie wanted to go, but she couldn’t leave her sister.
“It was a walking skeleton, all green and glowing.” Trixie heard one of the injured ponies said.
“He kept repeating the same rhyme, ‘Solomon Grundy, born on Monday’.” She recognized the name.
“Black claws, like made out of shadows.”
“Arrows raining all over the place.”
“He called himself ‘The Mist’.”
Trixie stood up from her little corner next to the ICU’s door. She couldn’t take that anymore and went outside as quick as she could. Once she was out, in the garden, she tried to calm herself by trotting around. She would have loved a good smoking and drinking to calm down her nerves. Trixie never in her life felt so crushed by the world around her. When she noticed her hooves were trembling, she set for sitting in a bench under a fig tree. Trixie went limp, trying to abandon her body and escape the parody of horror that her life had just become.
All she wanted was peace and quiet, looking at the stars.
“Excuse me, Miss Lulamoon?” A mare’s voice called her.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Trixie opened her eyes and looked at her side, where a nurse was standing next to her.
“Your sister, Gimmix,” Trixie embraced herself for the worst. She didn’t want to fall apart in front of another pony. “We stabilized her. She’s back in her room for observation.”
Trixie hugged the nurse immediately, thanking her for the good news.
“No need to, Miss Lulamoon.” The nurse awkwardly patted Trixie’s back to comfort her. “I was just fulfilling my duty.” An ambulance passed next to them, going full-speed out of the hospital. At the same, another one entered, with its siren still crying the emergency. “Speaking of which.” The nurse softly released herself from Trixie. “I’m sorry, but I must go. Other ponies need help too.” The nurse ran inside the hospital, leaving Trixie left alone once again.
Alone with her thoughts.
“Yes,” she finally said. “They do.”
Trixie was standing at the rooftop of the hospital. She looked down and slapped herself in the face. Her cheek was becoming sore at this point, due to the repetition, but Trixie needed the adrenaline. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself. In reality, she just couldn’t decide on what to do. Therefore, she was standing still on the edge of rooftop until there was enough willpower to do anything else.
“This isn’t fair,” Trixie said aloud. “At all.”
She kept coming back at her mother’s memory. Trixie tried to imagine what was happening in her mind when she did to do the same thing Trixie was about to. She looked at the Cosmic Rod, tightly held between her hooves. Her mother, the brilliant Doctor Hope Lulamoon created it to play Don Rocinante at her time. At that moment, Trixie realized how little did she connect with her own mother. Yes, she provided for her when a filly, but beyond that, Hope was always absent. The most memorable interactions Trixie could recall were mostly fights, and one or two quiet moments at Heart’s Warming, maybe.
“I can’t do this.” Trixie turned around and trotted for the door. She couldn’t do what her mother did. They were too different, always.
Hope Lulamoon was a renewed member of the Equestria’s scientific community, constantly making breakout after breakout. Same with Gimmix, who made her first patent, when Trixie was still a teenager. By then, she was already used to not understand a word from the talks on the dinner table, and to be ignored each time she tried to change the subject. Except for the times when Gimmix would catch something Trixie said and ask her back about it. Sometimes, if the right wording were involved, even their mother would pay attention.
Trixie stopped her hoof mere centimeters from the doorknob and stomped it against the floor. She did it again and again in frustration and anxiety. Once again, she looked at the Cosmic Rod. The three buttons looked slightly bigger than before. Trixie mentally ran through Gimmix’ instructions. Flight, gravity and blasts, from top downward. She once again put her left hoof on the first one.
Like before, the almost blinding white and gold light surrounded Trixie. Her hooves left the ground as she slowly opened her eyes. As she did so, all troubles seemed to stay down in the rooftop as she kept ascending- She was flying; it was amazing
In her excitement, Trixie pointed the rod’s tip to a side. She quickly hovered in that direction before accidentally pointing the rod down, crashing against the floor. Trixie quickly rose, still amazed at what just happened. She didn’t notice immediately, but she was smiling.
Trixie looked up, scanning the night sky. It took her a moment to do so, but she finally found what she was looking for, the Crux Australis. It was one of the first constellations Trixie learned about. She always used it as a guide when traveling. Once again, she used it to focus in the path ahead of her.
“Okay,” Trixie whispered. She needed to be quiet. Not say anything. Not think anything. Just do. Trixie galloped towards the edge. Once she ran out of rooftop to run with, she made that final jump.
During the split-second she was suspended in the air, between the impulse of her jump and the pull of gravity, Trixie pointed the Cosmic Rod at the Southern Cross. Like a nova, Trixie’s body illuminated with the device’s power. Like a comet, she rocketed up in the skies and towards the city, leaving a gleaming trail behind her.
Like a star, Trixie shone against the darkness of the night.
Starmare was flying again.
Author's Note
I can't believe it took me two years to pull this chapter off. I mean, yeah, I can totally buy it takes me that long to get something out of development hell (just ask the readers of I, Monster). What I can't believe is that, even after two freakin' years, I actually followed up. Even if this is not a great chapter, it is a chapter to begin with, which is more that I could have expected from myself at this point with this story.
Well, if you guys are still there, hope you enjoy this follow-up to Trixie's crossroads with her mother's past, her sister's plead and her own sense of responsibility. As always, don't forget to comment bellow and let me know your opinions.
P.S.: Two years! Amazing.
