The Lulamoon Files

The Lulamoon Files

Chapter Eleven: Cage Match

Written by TheCrimsonDm

My skills with a lock pick were almost universally useful I figured as I unlocked one of the doors leading to the back of the building. Rarity led me through the crates of normal stuff, antiques, cars, etc, all the way to another door which was again locked. The moment I touched the door I felt my skin tingle with energy. There was magic on this door. Probably a ward to keep outsiders away from the good stuff.

“How did you get in last time?” I asked.

“I followed someone else in, slipped a book right between the door and the wall before it shut. Why? Can’t you unlock it?”

I shook my head. “I could, but this door is warded. You're lucky you managed to do that, this door is probably warded to go off whenever somepony tries to open it without disarming the ward first.”

She frowned at me. “And that means?”

“It could explode and kill us.”

“Oh… that sounds just awful.”

I smiled as I connected my will to the ward placed on the door. “Good thing you have such a good wizard with you. The sneaky and skillful Trixie can get past most any ward.”

It wasn’t a difficult one to wrap my mind around. That wasn’t saying that this ward was simple either, it was just odd. Every time I had thought I was done with the ward, having disarmed it, another ward would show up to replace it. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that while I worked on one ward, another one was being created. Splitting my attention between the two wards I began to work on them simultaneously. I may not have the abundance of raw magical power somepony like Twilight had, but I did have elegance and skill.

When I had disarmed the two wards simultaneously I gave a quiet hooray. I opened the door and stepped through with Rarity close behind me. Of course I was well aware of the danger we were going into, but I only required her to show me where to go, after that I was sending her back to the car. No need to get her in trouble against forces she couldn’t fight.

The door led to a series of abandoned offices. This was awkward to say the least. There was a layer of dust covering everything in here, and no furniture. At the end of the office hall there was another door, this one was merely locked. After opening this one as well I found myself staring into a large open space where all the objects from the black magic auction were still sitting. The only one that I was interested in was that cage with the tarp on it.

Of course I found it. Wind Rider and his goons were standing before both Flim and Flam as the cage was loaded onto the back of a truck. I couldn’t hear what was being said between the two, but I did watch as both Spot and the minotaur got into the truck leaving Wind Rider behind to sign some paperwork for the twins.

The truck’s engines roared to life just as a metal gate was lifted up on the wall. I spun to see Rarity staring at me with the same kind of worry on her face that I was feeling. We galloped back out into the backrooms and into the lobby. On my way out I passed by Applejack and Caramel Apple. Of course Applejack had to put a hoof out and stop me.

I nodded for Rarity to go and get the car before focusing on Applejack. “Hello, nice to meet you here, how was your day, great, great, I need to get going.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What in tarnation are you doing here?”

Caramel Apple pointed to the door I had literally just come through. “I don’t suppose that door was locked before you showed up, wizard.”

I shrugged. “It was open when I got here.”

Applejack almost growled. “Ah’ll ask you one more time. What are you doing here?”

“Seeing the sights, smelling the roses, enjoying a date with my marefriend.”

Applejack blinked. “That… wait, was that white pony your-“

I cut her off as I lifted a smoke pellet from my pocket with my telekinesis and stood on my rear legs. “Enough! The Great and Powerful Trixie has wasted enough time, she is on a deadline!” The smoke pellet hit the ground and I closed my mouth. As the black smoke erupted around me I galloped away, through the main doors and out into the parking lot where Rarity was already waiting for me with the passenger car door open. I jumped in.

“Go! Go! Go!” I shouted as I shut the door and ducked my head.

Her hot rod had no trouble whatsoever in speeding away. It was really only a matter of seconds before we were out of the parking lot and back onto the street. We drove around until we caught a glimpse of the truck with the cage on the back. The flatbed was longer than the cage, but only just barely.

“Okay,” Rarity said. “What now?”

“Now you get as close to the side of that thing as you can and I do some heroic detective business type stuff.”

She shot me a dirty look. “I swear, if you jump out of my car and hurt yourself than I will never speak to you again.”

“Then I better not get hurt.”

We pulled up to the side of the truck. I kicked open the door and pushed myself to the edge of the seat. I Looked down and regretted it. We were moving fast, far too fast for this to be safe. I looked up, the back of the truck was only a few feet away but it might as well have been a few miles. It was lucky that I noticed Spot staring at me with wide eyes before jumping. The truck accelerated and pulled away.

“Crap!” Rarity shouted. I felt a leg around the back of my dress grab me, and yank.

I flew back into the seat and Rarity swerved wildly out of the way. A car came speeding past us going the other way. My heart was pounding in my chest. “T-thanks.”

“Now what?” Rarity asked as she pulled up behind the truck. With the truck moving left to right she was unable to get a good position on its side.

“Stay behind it.” I said as I reached up and grabbed the top of her car. “I’m jumping on the back instead.”

She blinked at me. “What are you? Insane?”

“Yes!” I cried before getting on top of the car. There was no way I was letting Wind Rider get away with a dragon. Climbing up onto the top of the car was scary, and I still have no idea how I managed it without slipping. Once I was on top I got onto the hood, keeping out of Rarity’s line of sight as best as I could. My dress caught the wind and fluttered behind me. In fact I nearly lost my hat and was forced to keep a telekinetic hold on it to keep it on tight.

“Now pull up!” I screamed back at Rarity. Cars drove past us with wide scared eyes. Somewhere in the distance I could swear the sounds of sirens playing along to the whistling wind.

The car inched ever forward. I knew that the truck was trying to accelerate as well, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Neither was Rarity from the speeds she was willing to go. Of course the last thing I expected was for the truck to slam on the breaks. It was like a caged wall running at me. I felt the grind of metal, heard a wicked crunch, and was thrown forward. I grabbed onto the cage, my hooves slipped and I fell. Desperately my hooves sought out a handle and slipped around one of the loose straps on the cage.

Once I was sure that I wasn’t falling any further I looked back and saw Rarity’s car slowing down. Her window shield was cracked, and her front bumper was missing. I looked down and almost screamed as I saw how close my dangling legs were to the rolling pavement. Carefully I pulled myself up and onto the flatbed.

“Okay, Trixie,” I said as I tried to calm my racing heart. “Step one complete. Step two, er… start.”

What was step two? I had no freaking clue. I mean what was I doing here? I didn’t know if I could even wake the dragon let alone what I’d do when the goons pulled into whatever warehouse that Wind Rider owned. Still I swallowed hard and made my way around the flatbed. There was maybe two feet of space for my hooves to walk on, and no rails. This was probably the stupidest thing I’d ever done. When I turned around the corner and saw the passenger car door of the truck open and a gray furry hand come out I knew that it was indeed the stupidest.

The minotaur the came out of the truck was wearing a pair of brown pants and a white tank top. His rippling muscles were exposed and he gave a snort as he saw me. I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to really go from here. With far more ease and grace than I had shown he climbed onto the back of the flat bed. If it was hard for me to walk on this thing than it was a miracle for him. He had to keep one hand on the cage’s straps because his muscles were pushing him away from the cage.

“You thought you could steal from Mr. Rider?” He asked.

I looked around. The buildings were growing smaller now. I could see the oceanfront. “I won’t let you keep this poor creature.”

He moved closer to me. “You're going down, little pony.”

“Know what, muscle head,” I said as I let go of my hat. The wind easily ran off with my hat, and although losing it was painful, seeing the color drain from the minotaur's face was beautiful. “I think you need to take a little trip.”

My purple aura surrounded the minotaur. He was heavy, but as I lifted him up off the flatbed he held tightly to the strap. My horn was still hurting from earlier, but I didn’t let that get to me. I divided my attention from keeping him levitated to pulling out my wand. With a wave of the wand I was able to work a little bit of extra magic. The strap he was holding turned into a snake. I saw the minotaur shriek like a filly as he jerked his hand away. That’s when I threw him out of the truck and watched him hit the water. He rolled across the surface for a split second before sinking.

“Get dunked,” I said as I went back to work on the cage. It really wasn’t that hard. Just undo a few straps, lift the tarp and see the dragon. It was still asleep.

“Okay little dragon, now I just got to-“

A loud thud slammed onto the top of the cage. I closed my eyes for a moment and prayed that I didn’t have to deal with this. Still I knew better. When I looked up I saw that lavender face, complemented only by the raging fire she held in her eyes. A silver sword was held aloft in a red aura, pointed right at me.

“Long time no see,” I said with a smile.

“Warlock.”

“You don’t even have proof that I did anything bad!”

“You’re stealing a dragon, which was foalnapped in the first place. This breaks one of the laws of mag-“

“Are you kidding me!” I screamed. “I’m rescuing the poor thing you jerk!”

Twilight blinked. Her anger however recovered quicker than I’d like. “I don’t believe you.”

“Just hold on one moment, I’m going up there,” I shouted. I had to get closer to the front of the truck before I could actually clamber on top of the cage to meet Twilight. I was actually surprised to find that she waited for me. She could have just knocked me off, that probably would have killed me straight on.

Once I was on top and facing the gray cloak, I wasn’t sure if I’d improved things much. I was still far from fighting shape, if I ever was in fighting shape to begin with. “Thank you for waiting.”

“It would dishonorable if I were to slay you with such an advantage.”

“Oh but killing me when I don’t even have a sword is honorable.”

Twilight’s horn flashed a little brighter and a duplicate of her sword appeared. It landed on the top of the cage. “I was in rage earlier, but you are right. That was unfair of me.”

I tried to speak, to retort, to argue. Of course I was well aware of the irony, I asked for a sword and she just gave me one. That didn’t mean I could freaking fight her, but it was better than I had expected of her. Course what was I really going to do now?

“Pick up your sword and then your trial can begin.”

“What, in, Tartarus, are, you, doing?” I put extra emphases on every single word. “We are on a speeding truck, with a sleeping dragon underneath us. There is a warlock on the loose-“

“You mean, you're on the loose.”

“- and he’s killing ponies with some kind of monster. I just want to get one good thing done tonight. Saving the poor dragon is probably all I’ve got in me. And you want to fight?”

“I am stopping the warlock and doing good.”

“No, you're being a selfish, arrogant jerk and getting in my way of stopping the warlock.”

Twilight snarled. “Raise your sword or forfeit your life, warlock.”

“Screw you! I am not a warlock!”

“You and your friend summoned a dreaded star beast and killed a village. That was before you killed your best friend so you could have all the power yourself. Too bad you did not realize that because she summoned it, the beast would vanish with her life.”

I screamed, it was unintelligible, it was raw, pure emotion. That had finally done it. She’d broken my last straw. No more misses nice Trixie. “Starlight was the warlock, and it was only because she didn’t really understand what she was doing, neither of us did. We were children!” I picked up the sword in my orchard aura. “How dare you tell me that I killed her because I wanted power! It was the only way we knew how to stop the summon. We didn’t know how to use magic properly. She valiantly gave up her life so that we could fix our mistake.”

I swung the blade. Twilight skillfully parried it. Twilight smirked. “You can’t fix murder.”

Twilight’s blade came in fast, and I swung my sword at her own. Twilight’s sword bounced away from my own. I wasn’t really sure how to hold a sword, so I sort of held it like a baseball bat in front of my face. I’d seen sword combat, even tried swinging a sword once or twice when nopony could catch me, but that didn’t mean that I could actually use one. Twilight was raised, trained, and experienced on swordplay.

“How many other warlocks have you killed?” I asked Twilight as we circled one another.

“Two,” Twilight said proudly. “One was trying to attack me while I was on a recovery mission.”

“The other?”

“None of your business,” Twilight spat. Her sword came in, fast. I had to dodge it but compared to Twilight’s swordplay I was slow. A nice long cut burned into my leg. My white dress was cut, and stained red.

“You just ruined my dress,” I said as I took several swings at her. Each one was easily parried by Twilight.

“Two warlocks,” Twilight said. “Soon to be three.”

I had to duck as her sword shot toward my face. Another swing came down nearly cutting my shoulder if I hadn’t jumped back I’d be in serious trouble. Twilight’s sword moved up and came crashing down toward me. I jumped to the side and the blade hit the strap underneath me. It came flying loose. The cage jerked slightly.

An idea popped into my mind. But to pull it off, I’d have to show some of my acting skill. “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight.”

The look she gave me could have set me on fire. “What?”

I swung at her. She parried. My sword came down hitting another strap. “I can’t believe you would be such an idiot. All you can do is read books. You’ve had hardly any practice on swordplay at all.”

She glared at me. “I have had plenty of practice with the other wardens.”

I swung again. She easily dodged and the blade hit another strap beneath Twilight. “But not enough actual combat experience. Face it, you’re a protected little noble you can’t fight somepony like me who's had to fight, cheat, and lie her way through life just to survive.”

A growl escaped Twilight. I didn’t give her time to attack me. I swung several times in succession. Each one missed, each one cut at the straps on the cage. I kept eye contact with Twilight and finally I had her back to the edge of the cage. I smiled.

“What? Why are you smiling?” Twilight demanded.

I turned back and ran, my telekinesis reached in through the back window where I could see Spot. I grabbed the dog’s leg and aimed for the break even though I couldn’t see it. I managed to grab hold of the top of the truck, wrapping my leg around the burning exhaust pipe just as the truck jerked to a stop. Twilight tried to get her balance, rolled over and screamed as the cage, without any straps to hold it down, came flying off the back of the truck. I heard Spot curse from inside the truck. He didn’t stop driving though; in fact it felt like he sped up.

I looked back and saw Twilight still on top of the bouncing cage holding on for dear life. She was screaming at me. I stuck my tongue out at her as the truck sped away. The sword Twilight made for me vanished into thin air. I trusted Twilight would rescue the dragon for me.

Finally, I managed to do one good thing today.