The Lulamoon Files

The Lulamoon Files

Chapter Eight: Bad Kitty

Written by TheCrimsonDM

I awoke to a hammering sound in my skull. The pain was almost unbearable, and for several minutes all I could do was lie in the soft warm bed, the cushiony blanket over me was almost as soft as a pillow. I took solace and comfort in that. When at last I could open my eyes without feeling like the bright lights were going to destroy me as surely as celestial hellfire I realized with a start that I was not in my bed at home.

The room was well lit with a stunning view of the city from a balcony to my left. The white walls were covered with artistic paintings, some of which were strange, and weird shapes, others were picturesque views of the country side farms. One in particular was of a small town that was surrounded by green luscious rolling hills, the small wooden homes and straw rooftops made one feel safe to look at. A few farms lay in the background, one in particular was of a large apple farm.

“A real beauty isn’t it?” Rarity asked.

I looked over and saw Rarity staring at the very same painting. Her eyes gave a distant stare as though she was lost deep in the past rather than the here and now. I watched as she stayed like that, still like a statue, slow rhythmic breathing, the slight curl of her purple lips that would twitch every now and again. She was wearing a red bathrobe and her fur was damp. There was a lovely bonnet over her head.

“That little village is called Appleloosa. A place where earth ponies mostly reside. A few pegasi families moved in, and I think one family of donkeys tried to live there for a stint.” Rarity turned her eyes back toward me. “I think I’d like to visit one day.”

“It sounds nice.” I sat up and the blanket rolled off of me. Rarity looked me up and down and her smile only grew. I gave her a cockeyed stare. “What?”

“Oh, nothing, just admiring some art.”

I looked down. I was naked. The only thing covering me was a bandage wrapped around my right foreleg. With one of the swiftest moves I’ve ever made I grabbed the blanket and dragged it across my bare chest to hide myself.

“And shy too? I picked a real winner.” A melodic laugh escaped Rarity’s lips.

“You’re cruel,” I countered.

“I can be, if that’s what you want.”

Oh no, this was not happening right now. “Look, I just got shot, and blacked out. I can’t do this right now.”

Rarity’s smile faded a bit. “Oh, darling. I already tended to your wound as best I could. The bullet merely grazed your leg.”

“A graze?” I distinctly remember bleeding, like, a lot.

Rarity smiled and with a turn of her head she went back to staring at the old painting. “Yes dear, and a gusher it was. I think you should be more careful. In fact, why weren’t you wearing armor to begin with?”

“Because that’s kind of hard to do and still move about the city. Ponies tend to get worried when they see a paladin marching around the place.”

“Can’t you use your fiddly magic?”

I opened my mouth to argue but stopped short. I hadn’t even considered that as a possibility. Magic armor, proper wizards did that sort of thing all the time. Not that I am not a proper wizard, I’m just broke, and that’s the house council’s fault. Not mine.

“Anyway,” Rarity said kindly. “You can apparently lift cars with your mind. That’s something an earth pony like me would be very jealous of, if not for the fact that it seemed to almost kill you. That gun didn’t make you have a nose bleed.”

I looked back at the balcony. “I wasn’t anywhere near death. But… using magic does more than just physically exhaust a pony sometimes. When pushed to and past the limit of what a pony should be capable of there is a possibility to damage oneself. There are legends of heroic unicorns that died using magic for a valiant cause. Even back in the old times there were stories of unicorns losing their magic completely due to massive amounts of power being used on a regular basis. That is of course complete bull, it was only a temporary damage for most of them as their manalobes were injured.”

“Excuse me, they're what now?”

“Manalobes. Everypony has one, it’s what gives us that special bit of magic that say donkeys don’t have. Zebra’s have them as well, they just evolved differently than ours.”

“Zebras? I don’t think I’ve ever met one myself,” Rarity admitted.

“It’s true, they don’t like Equestria, and can I blame them? The way we are right now, poverty, starvation, racism, we’re not in a good place.”

Rarity nodded. “You know, the last place I expected to see you when I was interviewing the homeless was right outside the EWP office. Whatever were you doing there in the first place? You aren’t that desperate for bits are you?”

I laughed. “No, I was investigating.”

“No, Trixie, what were you doing there? Why did you put yourself in harms way like that? I don’t think you could do anypony any good if you died.”

I couldn’t tell her why I was there, or what I was investigating, could I? Maybe I could on one condition. “I will tell you, but you must swear that it will never leave this room.”

Rarity didn’t miss a beat. “Trixie, I was asking because I want to know. This isn’t for some story, this is because I’m…”

I nodded. “I was investigating an object for a sweet filly. She got herself into a world of trouble, a world she doesn’t understand.”

“So you put yourself in harms way for her, for what?”

“Because… somepony has to be there for her.” I felt my heart breaking at the old memories. Hoofington, a small village home to a bunch of earth ponies and two unwanted unicorns. A place where a dark secret was bestowed upon said unicorns. A place that paid dearly as the Ursa Major was summoned from the depths of deep space to bring ruin to all that lived there. The sacrifice I made to save the village, no if I was honest, it was to save myself, but that sacrifice barely helped me stave off the executioners axe leading to my current placement in life.

I shook her head, fighting off the tears. “It’s not really important right now. So long as I get to where I need to be by six pm.”

Rarity shot me a worried look. “But, it’s five thirty already.”

I jumped out of bed, and completely forgot that I was naked for a moment as Rarity gasped. Of course she’d had to have seen me naked already if I was nude in her bed so I could live with a little shame. I found my coat and fedora lying on a chair and threw them on. It hurt to walk on my leg, but not nearly as bad as a gunshot should have been. My smoke pellets were still where I left them. As I marched to the door of this little apartment I realized to whom this place belonged.

“Nice place you have here, I really like your bed,” I said with a smirk as I walked out the door. “Maybe I’ll come over and borrow it sometime.”

Rarity’s white cheeks went red. “Oh my, that’s so bold of you. I like it. I’ll see you at eight than tiger. Oh and your car keys are in your pocket, and the car’s in the parking lot. Do be more careful next time, I don’t wish to see you injured again.”

I grinned. “No injury can stop the brave and valiant Trixie.”

***

On my way to the park I realized that I was in a spot of trouble. Even with my stave in the car I was unable to use much magic, even the slightest of telekinesis spells was causing hot flashes of pain throughout my skull. There was no choice, if I was going to be walking into any dangerous situation I was going to have to do something about it.

My potion of refreshness came in good use. It tasted like an extremely spicy version of my favorite cola. The potion’s effects were immediate. My eyes opened wide, my brain started working into overtime, and all my weariness from the fights earlier was simply gone. It didn’t heal my physical wounds but it did wonders for revitalizing my strength. I tested out some simple telekinetic spells as I drove. No pain, and to boot it felt like my magic was slightly stronger than before.

When I pulled into the parking lot I was sure that I could take on anything that came my way. The afternoon sun shone brightly down upon the city. The tall buildings cast long shadows, and the park itself was massive. It was less of a park and much more like a forest. Odd crystal formations grew out of the grass, and where the shadows were thickest I could see these crystals giving off a soft pink light.

I entered the park, looking for my target. A gazebo made out of pure white stone. This place was home to the homeless, shelter for the shadows, and hunting ground of predators, both mortal and otherwise. Anyone with any sense would stay far away from this place at night. Of course I was also a wizard, and that gave me a certain amount of leeway.

It was a dark and lonely walk through the forest. By the time I found my way to the gazebo in question I had to pull out my mother’s pocket watch. It was ten past six.

“Celestial Hellfire,” I cursed. “If he left already than I’m going to be pissed.” After a day like this, all I asked for was to know what the key did.

Between a warlock with monsters, and a mob boss sending his goons to kill me after asking me for assistance, I seriously just wanted one thing to go right. Just one. Nopony could fault me for wanting that, right?

I licked my lips. I was thirsty and had left all my cola in the car.

The sound of something moving through the bushes caught my attention. Good, he’s finally here.

When the sound didn’t repeat itself I grew worried. Was Scythe not going to show up? What if he found out who I was and went to go check my office? He could just steal the key without me ever knowing. I almost bolted then and there to go get the key. I wasn’t sure what held me in place, but something felt off.

Down the path I came in from I saw a scorpion tail swing out from behind some of the trees. It was longer than I was. I was petrified as the tail vanished back into the forest. It couldn’t be, the warlock had sent the manticore after me. He’d come to kill me. But how did he know where I was? I only told two ponies where to meet me at this-

Scythe was working with or for the warlock. Or perhaps I was even stupider than that and he was the warlock in question. Using some illusion magic to hide his horn. Or simply wearing a hat, I mean that’s what I did.

This time however I had my wand and my stave. I could hold my ground against a warlock and his manticore. I mean what were they compared to me? I was the great and Powerful Trixie after all.

A branch breaking from somewhere in front of me made me take a step back. Of course I wouldn’t be against the idea of getting out of this forest right about now. My eyes scanned the forest very carefully. Every little movement had my complete attention. The sound of snapping branches caught my ear and I took a step back. A huge orange shape emerged from the woods, its lion head was snarling at me, a deep low growl caused my fur to stand out on end.

For a moment our eyes met, the lion’s green eyes stared fiercely into my own. I took this split second opportunity to look at its neck. There was a collar. So it was a command collar that was doing the trick. That didn’t do me much good if I couldn’t fight it.

The manticore charged. It was faster than I thought, far faster than me. My shield only just barely sparked to life as one of its decisively deadly paws slapped down at me. My shield was able to keep me safe from damage, however it still followed the laws of physics. Enough kinetic force could damage my shield, and even if I pumped up my shield with everything I had, that same kinetic force could have other, less pleasant side effects.

In this case the manticore hit me with the strength of a truck. In other words I was protected in a crackling, sparking shield, as it along with myself, was sent flying through the back of the gazebo. I broke one the pillars on my way out, thankfully my shield took the blunt of the damage. As I hit the earth behind the gazebo my shield collapsed. My body slammed into the grass.

I only barely heard the roar over the ringing in my ears as I both tried to get the tingling pain to go away, and breathe again. My bracelet was glowing red hot and burned at my fetlock. The gazebo strained as the manticore crawled into it and peered at me from inside. I wasn’t dead yet, and the beastie knew it.

My stave was only just a few feet away. I grabbed it in my kinesis and pointed it's tip at the manticore. “Lightning bolt,” I muttered as I sent a force of energy down the length of the stave. My meager power was processed, focused, and amplified as it transformed into electricity. The purple lightning bolt flew at the manticore’s face causing it to roar in pain as it reared. The gazebo never had a chance as the monster easily shoved his way through the roof of the gazebo sending chunks of wood left and right.

That was going to cost the city a pretty penny. Worse yet, it wasn’t quite late enough to guess that nopony would be in the park. There were probably still mortals out here, and I couldn't let this manticore hurt them.

I rolled over, stood up and clutching my stave close with my aura I galloped away. I wasn’t sure what to do, but as the horrible deep roar sounded behind me I figured that I’d certainly gotten the beast’s attention. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I made sure to put as many trees between me and the beast as possible. Only after I heard the beast’s earth shaking paws trampling the ground behind me did I realize how stupid this probably was.

Okay, Trixie, you got the giant beast to pay attention to you? Now what?

I wasn’t powerful enough to kill such a creature, and I doubted my illusions or my tricks would do enough to keep it off of me for long. I glanced back and saw that it was squinting at me with a scorch mark over its right eye. Yeah it was pissed.

Trees were merely smashed to the side as it rammed its way through the forest toward me. Yet those were the only reason it hadn’t reached me yet, it was faster than me. So the fact that the trees were thinning out was a problem. Up ahead I saw a lake, along with a dock leading over it. There were a few ponies playing volleyball on the beach.

“Get out of the way!” I screamed as I drew closer to the lake.

The four ponies looked at me as though I was mad. Of course when they saw the enraged behemoth behind me they spun around and galloped away. I wasn’t worried that the manticore would go after them, no it had a much more personal target. My leg was already burning where’d I’d been shot.

“Celestia damn that dog!”

I hit the peer and galloped across it. There was a giant cat after me and I was sure of one thing, cats hate water. It was my only shot. A pathetic one sure, but it was all I had.

The manticore followed behind me. The wood groaned underneath it’s weight and I felt the pier leaning down behind me. I reached the edge and jumped. Water crashed around me as I plunged and dived as deeply and as quickly as I could. It was actually deeper than I had hoped here, almost as though they expected ponies to go diving. A huge shadow soared over me. Something massive hit the water like a boulder creating a massive tidal force that pushed me back. I tried to get control and swim but was lost into a spiral of water all the way up to the beach.

Coughing and sputtering I climbed up onto the beach. Behind me the water was still trembling. The pier was halfway destroyed with a lot of boards missing and massive claw marks covering the wood. Yet no manticore was in sight. I did not like that one bit. I moved further still inland, hoping to get away without being spotted.

That’s when I saw the lion head stick out from the top of the water. It looked around confused for a moment before spotting me and returning to an angry snarl. It began doggy paddling toward me at a speed with which Olympic swimmers would envy. I didn’t realize cats even knew how to swim, I hated the darn things and this manticore did them no favors.

My stave was still locked closely to my side and I pulled it out and pointed at the manticore. Maybe if I blinded it I could get away, it was worth a shot. “Lightning Bolt!”

Lightning flew from my stave, but missed my target. Instead hitting the surface of the water next to it. Electricity spread through the surface of the water, the manticore jerked madly as it was pumped full of electricity. Realizing what I’d just done I decided to amp up the wattage. I didn’t let up on the spell, watching the manticore jerk, spasm, and twitch until finally he was literally smoking out of the ears.

When I finally let go of the spell I felt a good portion of my energy leave with it. I sagged to the side, wiping a hoof at the damp fur over my eyes. It didn’t help at all. The manticore for all it was worth was now doing the best impression of a life preserver I’d ever seen. This was a battle I’d won, mostly by dumb luck and stubbornness, but I still won it.

I looked around and noticed that I was totally alone. The sky was only just beginning to darken. The purple haze in the twilight was only just reminiscent of my trench coat. For one small moment I had earned myself a break. I checked my mother’s pocket watch, it was almost seven. I may have missed my appointment with Scythe, that rutting fool, but in an hour I’d have my date with Rarity to look forward too. That left me with just scarcely enough time to shower, dry, spruce myself up, and find something nice to wear. The painful rumbling in my stomach told me that I’d be chewing on a few peanut butter crackers while doing so.

All in all, maybe I’d earned just a smidgen of a break.

At least that was until Twilight Sparkle, Head Warden walked up to me. Her gray cloak was pushed up behind the hilt of her silver long sword. A red aura surrounded the hilt.

“Trixie Lulamoon, you have killed four ponies with magic, used magic in public in a fight against mortals, attempted to kill a fifth mortal, a diamond dog, and finally you murdered one of Jade house’s missing manticores. How do you plead?”

There was only one appropriate response to those accusations.

I laughed.