The grey stone streets of New Canterlot were lit with a cool blue hue from the many streetlamps placed along their edges, the large luminescent crystals having been turned on less than an hour ago. The numerous ponies that walked the streets were bathed in the glows of their personal magitech devices, the vibrant colours bursting forth, only to render the mares and stallions’ fur a dull paste under the artificial lighting, not unlike the many stars that use to dot the night sky in the past...
With all the electricity coursing through the cityscape, lighting the many skyscrapers’ multitudes of windows up like a inverted mockery of what was once above, ponies were bound together like never before, connected via a web of data that was spun between spindly metal towers that reached into the heavens and ports within the dark void above. But with that connection came a cost, a cost too few were willing to pay, as the machines that fueled the modern world suffused the sky with dust and smoke, covering the world in sparse, intermittent bouts of a faint arid fog which had choked many, only to rise into the sky and clog the natural process that kept the planet cool...
Suffice it to say, the technological progress that had become so rapid, that many took as a given, may not have been what everypony had once hoped.
Amongst those very ponies trotted one who was more than just another creature of this world--no, this one was special, as the technology itself had changed her very being, her genetic code having been altered to create a pony who was meant to serve their creators and go on to change the face of the world as everypony knows it...
Bonk!
“Ow!” A teenage Sunset Shimmer grunted after bumping her snout against a wall.
...Though, one may be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
Shaking her head, the orange unicorn glanced to the side at the magitech slate held in her magic to make sure it was still there, then irately looked back towards the grey brick wall she ran into while lost in her mind, but quickly noticed a poster taped onto it. Flaring her magic slightly to better bathe the poster in her cyan aura, the filly could see the phrases ‘WATCH IN AWE!’ and ‘WITNESS WONDERS BEYOND IMAGINING!’ seemingly embossed in golden, glossy words onto the poster, practically screaming at her and making her eyes focus on a sapphire unicorn mare standing on a stage in the center, raised up on her hindlegs as if to show off her form and entice whomever may view her towards joining whatever performance she may create.
Blinking away what she might’ve mistaken for eye strain, Sunset muttered to herself, “I doubt you can top what I’ve seen...,” But still turned her gaze downward slightly to see the name ‘THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE’ curved up along the bottom, the corners below left with a health and safety warning on one side and a time and place on the other, the latter containing a note about not being in the city for very long, and as for the location itself... “Wait, I live right next to there...” She said, and double-checked the location; the show was indeed to take place in the park just a block away from the high-rise she shared with her ‘mother’, the oft-revered and controversy magnet that was Dr. Celestia. And as for the time of the show...
Turning on and glancing at the screen of her slate, she exclaimed in surprise, “...in less than ten minutes?!” Reflexively jumping and whirling around, Sunset then stared in a slight panic towards her home, the window-heavy penthouse at the top pouring out a golden light, making it appear as though it were a lighthouse amidst the sea of largely-lit buildings in the half-kilometer between it and the wide-eyed mare. “How did it get this late...?” She muttered in bewilderment, as her walk home from the university had apparently tripled in duration, making her take a deep, worried breath at the thought of how ‘disappointed’ Celestia would be in her...
The unicorn abruptly started power-trotting back home, mentally navigating the mildly-dense crowds and occasionally ducking to get around some ponies, all the while taking many a glance back up at her home and the park near it, asking herself if really wanted to actually go to that show...
‘Might give me something to do,’ She mumbled in her mind, glancing up at the large glowing windows of the penthouse again, half expecting the tall, pale form of her supposed ‘mother’ to be there, staring right back at her, ‘Other than what she wants, of course, and... would be more interesting to see than just...’ She looked up at the dark, blank sky, and sighed in sorrow and disappointment.
Eventually, though, Sunset managed to arrive at the edge of the park, as her path home always took her across a corner of that area, and she paused just past the wooden fence on the entrance. Looking forward, her eyes followed the dim grey stone path that she had walked so many times before, enough times that doing so was practically an instinct at that point, but right then, she just couldn’t. ‘What will she say?’ The filly worried in her mind, ‘“Sunset, we have a schedule to keep.” “Sunset, you know we don’t have time to mess around.” “Sunset,” “Sunset,” “Sunset...”’ She could practically hear the words in that powerful, knows-what’s-good-for-you, and slightly raspy voice, her eyes wide and looking at nothing.
“Sh-shut up, old mare...” The orange unicorn spat in an aggravated whisper, though her voice wavered slightly in fear as she knew very well what would happen if she disrespected Her like that...
BANG!
“AAH!” Sunset shrieked and jumped back in terror at the sudden noise, her eyes looking around frantically before turning skyward to notice the blue sparkles raining down from a short ways in the sky, quiet crackling accompanying it. Mouth open wide in shock and lack of understanding, she soon heard and spotted a whistling trail shoot up into the sky, and then explode in a loud BANG!, just like the sound from before, and red sparkles burst forth and fell downward, also like before.
“Oh,” The orange filly mumbled as she figured out that fireworks were shooting up into the sky, and her posture relaxed from the wide, panicked stance she had jumped into, and she quickly recalled the magic show that was to take place in that very park...
Sighing heavily, Sunset resigned herself to fate and started walking off the stone path onto the trimmed grass towards where those fireworks shot up from, navigating through the somewhat dense trees and soon seeing several ponies a short ways in the distance. Getting closer as more fireworks shot up above, the curious mare was then able to see a large wooden stage with a large trailer attached to it and separated by a purple curtain, and around the empty stage sat about fifty ponies, a few of them looking excited with their full attention on it, but most seemed rather bored and distracted by their personal devices.
“WELCOME!” A voice suddenly burst forth, making the distressed orange unicorn let out a sharp ‘Eep!’ and jerk backward in surprise, her eyes opening wide and darting to the stage, which seemed to be where the voice was coming from, but--“AND PREPARE YOURSELVES!”--but the voice was probably just projected with some sort of filter as it didn’t seem to--“FOR WONDERS BEYOND IMAGINING!”--okay and nothing had really prepared her for this--”BECAUSE THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TR-R-R-RIXIE IS HERE!!”
And with that final declaration, the curtains were swept open with a swath of purple fog erupting from them, letting a light blue mare dash out from behind them and skid to a stop front and center on the stage, holding her head high and chest puffed out, calmly closed eyes and a large, confident grin on her face with the star-covered purple pointed hat and cape she wore, as well as her frost-hued mane and tail that shimmered in the illusionary stage-light that came from above and fluttered lightly in an imaginary wind...
A polite applause broke out throughout the small audience, with only a couple ponies cheering on the showmare, and said mare only took it in stride, opening her eyes and looking around at the audience and their plethora of magitech devices that stole attention away from her, and casted a short, but undeniable glance back towards Sunset--and the weirdness of that glance made Sunset perfectly aware of how she was practically prostrating, having jumped back in fear and placed her head on the stubby grass, her rear still raised upward.
Blushing heavily, the orange filly quickly jumped back to a standing position and frantically glanced around her person, as her shock must’ve made her drop her magitech slate as well, but she then remembered how she unsummoned it on the walk back to the park, making herself sigh in further embarrassment and look back up to the showmare, who had begun speaking again.
“...has travelled quite a lot over the years, and during that time, she has encountered many very interesting things.” Trixie spoke with a calm mysteriousness, her hooves taking her walking slowly back and forth on the stage, though eyes never left her audience. “In the dank badlands, there were massive pyramids that were so dark, light seemed to get sucked into them...” Her magic seemed to light if the orchid glow peeking out from under the brim of her hat were any indication, and from around the stage, black whispers of illusionary magic--scarcely visible as they were in the tree-filtered dusk light--coalesced into being and formed a sandy floor atop which were erected several meter tall replicas of the pyramids of which the unicorn spoke, and those words hardly did them justice...
The scenery soon shifted, however, into a wide, vast ocean that glinted and sparkled with the reflections upon it, and the ponies were left to sit upon a large ferry with Trixie seeming to float within the air itself, and behind her... “Beautiful castles made from a strange stone and poked out of the ocean, supposedly home to the mysterious and religious sea-ponies...” From a few meters under the surface of the water, a trio of yellow, purple, and cyan figures could be spotted looking at the audience, who stared back with varying levels of restrained awe...
“And then, upon the summit of Mount Elysium,” The showmare continued, crystallizing the illusion and spiking it into the sky, forming the well-known pattern of the Crystal Peaks mountain range, and among it all sat an immense mountain of pure blue crystal, fluffy white snow forming a cap atop it and supporting a strange castle-like structure that appeared as a glossy white... “There stood the Mirror Temple, a place forgotten to time, but held the secrets of reality and reflections themselves...”
Letting the mountains fade into a cool, icy, and gleaming interior of what was to be that very temple, which was somehow well-lit despite no visible lighting elements, and Trixie looked to stand in the middle of a tall, square room, hovering a magical 3D map before her that looked... incomprehensible. “However,” She resumed, sounding slightly beleaguered, “That was hardly to say those secrets were easy to find inside the temple, as the many rooms and halls were bent in upon each other into knots, feeding through one another, yet hardly ever actually connecting together...” Flicking her horn to dismiss the map, she deftly turned around--letting her magician’s cape swish behind her--and moved ahead to what seemed to be a sliding tile puzzle on the wall, using her orchid-coloured magic to slide them around a bit, but...
The mare quickly jerked herself downward as blazing red beams of light soon burst forth from small cracks within the walls of the halls and rooms, some of them merging into the walls themselves, but many more merely reflected off of them and ricocheted around the rooms, creating a messy tangle of lasers that skated past some of the audience, making them duck back and down a bit, as well as just above Trixie’s head. “Though that was hardly to say anything about the traps that lay in wait...” She said cautiously, projecting her voice with little difference even when being turned around.
“At the center of it all, however!,” The magical mare shouted back, letting the illusions fade back into the park and stage that she and the audience begun it all upon, and jumped up onto her hindlegs while pulling her cape off with her forehooves, draping it like a curtain before her and continued, “Lay this!” Quickly stepping over to her left, she whipped the cape away and revealed a large oval mirror with an ancient-looking golden frame that stood upon a slightly wider base that looked as though it was part of the frame, though the mirror itself looked perfectly glossy and without glare, like it hadn’t aged the centuries the rest of it seemed to have.
“The Mirror Portal!” Trixie called out to her somewhat astounded audience, showing no signs of having moved the mirror with her magic or body, still stood on two legs and used her fore-left one as if to present the ‘portal’ while her pink magic pulled her cape back around her body and reclasped the sparkling sapphire gem around her neck, all before flipping collar back up in dramatic fashion. “This mirror...” She said, and fell back onto her four legs with a soft ‘thump’ before slowly treading around the mirror, eyes locked onto her audience, “Has been rumoured to have some very special abilities, which...” She laughed faintly, gaining a confident smirk, “Well, you’ll just have to see for yourself...”
The amazing magician then stopped and moved back a bit to stand just in front of the mirror and looked at herself in it for a moment, seemingly slightly puzzled, but she soon stepped out of the way and called out to the audience, “This just appears like a normal mirror right now, no?” The audience could clearly see what looked like a normal reflection of the coolly dusk-hued park around them, lit somewhat by the street-lamps though it was, and after some some nods and utterances of agreement from the other ponies, Trixie added, “Well, that shall soon change.” Resuming her walking, she took just a few moments to walk all the way around the mirror, looking to examine every bit of its surface, but when she arrived back in front of the mirror, something was slightly off: her reflection was gone.
A faint muttering of confusion rolled through the audience as the sapphire unicorn stopped just past the mirror, enough to show its surface to the audience but not enough to let her leave its frame. Slowly, she lifted a hoof up towards its surface and then pushed into it, and instead of the usual ‘tap’ of hoof-on-mirror contact, Trixie’s hoof went into the mirror. The audience went silent, seemingly in awe, and then she jumped right through...
...And with a distinct ‘thump’, landed on the reflected stage within the mirror. With no further reaction heard from the audience, the showmare flicked her head around, seeming to look around the inside of the mirror world, and then turned around to face the audience, looking every bit as confident and pretty as she did before. “Well?” She asked with a raised eyebrow, her voice taking an odd quality, as though it really were projected through the glass between the worlds... but that was impossible, right? “Oh, Trixie guesses you’re all too busy being in awe of this magical mirror to applaud...
“Well, if one of you would like to come up and see just what Trixie has accomplished, feel free!” Trixie requested in that same self-assured and grandiose tone she had spoke with thus far, though now it felt a bit stronger. “Trixie doesn’t want anyone to feel cheated out of being amazed at true magic, after all...” She kept that grin up for a short while, and though some reserved muttering was heard though the audience, nopony stepped up. “Well? Does not anyone wish to witness this magic mere centimeters from their face?!” She called out in a louder voice that finally managed to snap one of the audience members out of her reverie.
Sunset Shimmer jerked her head around, dizzy with having regained her senses to the environment around her. ‘Gah, d-did I really lose myself that badly?!’ Steadying herself on her four legs, she shook her head and looked back up at the mare in the mirror, thinking to herself, ‘I didn’t imagine that type of mare or magic would enrapture me like that...’ Quickly recalling how she came back to her wits, though, she glanced around at the rest of the audience only a few paces before her, apparently having moved forward a bit in her reverie, and found that still none of them had decided to go up onto the stage...
Sighing, a bit of nervousness felt in it, she started walking forward into the fairly sparse group of ponies before the stage, keeping her eyes on the stage floor as she felt the several dozen pairs of eyes lock onto her, eventually reaching the edge of the stage which made her suddenly realize that it was actually about as tall as she was. Disregarding that, she put her forehooves up onto the stage and jumped up to let her hind hooves join with an unnaturally loud ‘clack’ against what was probably just hollowed wood...
“Thank you, ma’am,” Trixie then said from beyond the mirror, making Sunset jerk to a stop in her tracks a small distance away from and in front of the mirror, eyes pulling straight up to the magician, who then bowed slightly in thanks and continued, “Now, would you like to take a look at this mirror and see what you can tell about it and Trixie?”
“R-right, um...” The orange unicorn replied weakly, trembling slightly from anxiety, but she managed to recall the few times she gave a presentation to her teachers and classmates in school, then started trotting slowly around the mirror. Looking across the perimeter of the magically-lit golden frame, she could tell it was as old and elegant as it had looked from afar, but now she could see what looked like some ancient language’s symbols embossed across it, though she wasn’t able to tell what they meant.
Sighing, Sunset looked towards the mirror’s back side, which was practically the same as the other side, but only reflecting the dimly-lit purple curtains of the stage/wagon behind her. Of course, the magician wasn’t there either, so something must’ve been up...
Lighting her horn its fiery cyan, the unicorn continued to walk around the mirror while sensing the mirror and the air around it for any ambient illusionary magic, but the only thing she could find was the stage-light. Shaking her head slight as she trotted before the audience-facing side of the mirror, she couldn’t see anything particularly off with it; the depth of field and lighting effect were still visible through the mirror, and there wasn’t anypony else beyond the pretty magician smirking at her and the audience reflected behind her.
Sunset then cast another net with her magic, this time looking for any portal or teleportation magic or magic residue, but still nothing. Shaking her head and chiding her paranoia--she probably would’ve noticed that right away, with space-manipulation magic being very distinct--she then scanned for electromagnetic signals to look for any technology present within the mirror, and while she could quickly tell there was something, the way the signals were processed didn’t seem anything like what she was used to in New Canterlot--even the bleeding-edge quantum tech she knew of still had separate banks and processing units...
Shaking her head in confusion, the scholar gave up and dissipated her magic, and looked back up and the confident cape and hat-clad magician in the mirror, subconsciously biting her lip in bewilderment.
“Well?” Trixie asked with that signature grin, “What can you tell?”
“I-” Sunset muttered, processing how there was no way that mirror could actually be what it was said to be, but at the same time, it couldn’t not be. Gulping down some fear at the prospect of failure, she then spoke with a frail voice, “I don’t know...”
The showmare raised an eyebrow, but instead of a derisive comment at the minimal reply, she instead took a step backward and asked, “Would you like to enter the mirror for yourself, ma’am? To better get a feel for it?”
The other unicorn’s eyes shot open in surprise at the invitation; she knew this was a magic show--not real physical magic, but show magic--there had to be some catch, and while she couldn’t figure it out before, she knew from how confidently it was proposed that entering the mirror would also be part of that trick, but... how could that work? How could that mirror be anything but what it was said to be...?
Taking what was supposed to be a calming breath, Sunset looked again at the world inside the mirror, and then something clicked in her mind; ‘Wait, where’d my reflection go...?’ She didn’t remember not seeing it before then, but at the same time, she didn’t remember actually seeing it, either. Shaking it off, she took a couple slow, plodding steps forward with her eyes locked on the mirror’s surface in incomprehension and soon arrived before it, at which point she slowly raised a hoof up and, while the sapphire mare in the reflection looked invitingly, pushed forward.
The orange hoof met the faint silvery sheen of the mirror, making it part like water on a pond and filling the tip of the hoof with a cool, tingling sensation that could only be described as magical. However, while that one aspect was calm, the rest of the interaction, what with not contacting what should be a solid surface, pushing through something further than that things actual depth, approaching a pretty mare who was looking so nicely at her, all while knowing at least a couple dozen other ponies were looking at her as well, waiting to see what she had to say to consider what that pretty mare was worth as a magician, possibly impacting her livelihood...
Sunset quickly jerked her hoof back out of the mirror and held it just before her, the other hooves planted on the stage feeling so unstable as she shook in a panic, unable to understand something that she knew full well must have had a logical answer, and terrified of what her actions could do the ponies around her, right near her.
“Ma’am?” Trixie asked, her voice quieter and carrying a tint of concern under her usual impregnable confidence, making the paralyzed unicorn’s wide, wavering eyes snap straight to hers. “Are you alright?” She asked in a manner which only her volunteer should’ve been able to hear.
“F-fine,” The frazzled mare stuttered and backed up--she couldn’t deal with this right now, not the stress, not the pressure, not the embarrassment, not the... everything. Her back hoof thumped on the edge of the stage, making her recall it was something she was on, and the realization of nearly making a fool of herself forced her to turn around to hop off the stage’s edge, barely sticking a proper landing on the grass below, and with her mind flooding with a suffocating madness and her eyes fogging up, she ran forward across the grass, dodging around the figures she could mostly make out as ponies until she felt concrete and turned leftward, letting her rote memory guide her to her home.
Shivering orange hooves thumped lightly against the carpet flooring of the large elevator, making the mare feel alone and stranded as the tense, taught blackness pulled down on her closed eyes kept her from seeing the floor number tick up under the low blue hue in the elevator... but she could still hear it.
Ding! Floor 37.
Ding! Floor 38.
Ding! 39.
Ding! 40.
Ding! 41 Ding! 42 Ding! 43-Ding!-44-Ding!-45-Ding-46-Ding!-4-
Floor Fourty-Seven.
The metal doors slid open with a quiet shhhhhhnk! and the warmer light of the penthouse flooded in, making the blackness on the pony’s eyelids turn a dim shade of red. She breathed shakily, and then opened her eyes to see the red-tinted wood that made up the walls of the living room, the blazing orange fireplace with magically discarded smoke sat on the center of the wall to the right, large windows lining the rest of the wall. On the opposite side was a wall-height interactable television screen, its hue shifted to meet the warmer, redder scheme of the rest of the room, including the wood-patterned ceiling and thick, soft carpeting.
And right in the middle of it all sat a coffee table and four sofas, two long and two short, upon which sat...
Nothing.
‘Wait, what?’
Blinking in confusion, Sunset stepped into the room to get a better look, and true to her first observations, there wasn’t anypony on the couch, and looking around the rest of the main room, nopony was anywhere else in the room either.
“C-Celestia..?” She called out, slightly weakly, though some of her senses had returned at the sudden bewilderment that replaced part of her terror. Getting no response, the orange filly treaded further into the room, heading around the arrangement of chairs and towards the large golden wood door on the opposite side of the room, a panel attached to its frame lighting up as she came near, showing a generic hoof icon across it to ask for cutting-edge biometric access to the room.
Ignoring the panel, Sunset stopped at the door and raised a shivering hoof to it, and before she could get a chance to second-guess herself, rapped on it with three weak knocks. Her hoof then fell to the floor as she shook further in dread, just waiting for some admonishing vitriol to be thrown her way... but nothing came.
“She’s... not here...?” The young unicorn muttered to herself in baffled realization, but then let out a small laugh as she remembered, ‘Of course she’s not. She’s hardly ever here, caught up in her work as she is...’ The tense fuzziness around Sunset’s senses faded as she calmed down, even if she was a bit embarrassed at herself for not realizing what should have been so obvious--Celestia would’ve been sitting front and center on the couch if she was there, after all, and if she was interrupted in her room, she’d come out very quickly, trying in vain to play off her irritation as making sure her ‘daughter’ gets the help she needed.
Sighing in relief, the mare shook her head of those thoughts and headed to her own bedroom a short ways along the wall from Celestia’s, pointedly ignoring the numerous diplomas attributed to her creator hanging on the wall between the doors. Quickly jerking open the unlocked, fiery-stained wood door to her room with her cyan magic and closing it behind her, the light from the main room faded into merely peeking out from under the door into the dim room, only lit by the light that managed to make its way through the wall-height adjustable-tinted window, and she quickly headed over to her large bed with its bedside table topped with a digital clock in the corner of the room, hopping onto the bed and planting her face in its soft saffron covers, letting herself relax from the day’s troubles and think on all of what had happened.
While she learned some interesting stuff about using magic manifestation of matrices and transforming them to calculate determinants, it all seemed so... useless. As, while such mathemagic may be useful in further developed education, it didn’t have any use in real life or in any non-scientific career.
Her walk was fine--nothing out of the ordinary, what with the placid street-lamps, faint hint of smog everywhere that seeping into her nose, and dull roar of hoof-steps, cutting-edge electrical carriages, and other pones speaking amongst themselves and their magitech devices.
However, with that magic show, Sunset definitely found it very... entrancing how the Great and Powerful Trixie was able to pull off illusions as large and detailed as she did, especially given how fragile they were when being interacted with by other ponies. And with the mirror... she didn’t really like having to flee the scene like that, as worried about what it may have implied about Trixie herself, but she didn’t really want to worry herself at that moment in bed.
Luckily, there were some more interesting things to think about relating to Trixie, as she looked very pretty and seemed to be having a lot of fun with her magic show despite how exhausting it must have all been, what with putting on a show for as long as she did in front of complete strangers and making a career out of it, all while likely travelling over Equestria, if that cliché travelling performer poster was any indication.
However, Sunset soon realized that’s only how exhausting she’d find being in that position to be, and Trixie could very well truly enjoy every aspect of it... She was rather outgoing and independent, and being so free and unshackled to any conventions could lend itself nicely to that...
Come to think of it, such a free life would be rather nice to Sunset herself, wouldn’t it? Travelling around the nation under star-lit skies, away from the stifling smog and placid ponies of big cities but for the occasional visit, not having to worry about over-bearing creators trying to determine every little thing that she did, including all the borderline-useless stuff she learned on a daily basis... That sounded very nice, peaceful, calm... and travelling with that beautiful and confident showmare would be all the better...
DRRZZZZT! DRRZZZZT! DRRZZZZT!
“Guh...” Sunset groaned out as the alarm wailed on, ripping her away from her nightmares and back into reality, soon forcing her hoof over and slamming onto the top of the clock, stopping its incessant blaring. Pulling her head up off the covers and opening her eyes, she could barely make out the pillows at the head of the bed she didn’t bother to rest on before the dry crustiness of her sleep-saturated eyes forced her to rub them with her hooves.
Eventually, the tired unicorn did manage to finish with that as well as the obligatory huge yawn that came right after, finally letting her turn around to see the still-dimmed windows and the simple golden knob next to them that controlled their tint, and with some mental effort, she grasped the knob with her magic and turned it a bit, which de-tinted the windows enough to let enough more light in to make her eyes wince slightly at it.
Letting that light start to fully wake her up, Sunset took a glance at her clock; ‘7:32 AM’, a time which allowed her about a half-hour before she needed to leave the building to head off to school, and while she would have liked a bit more time to prepare for that dullness, she didn’t really want to be around Celestia for more than that.
Stiffening slightly, the student recalled what happened the day before and how displeased her ‘mother’ would be about it, and even though the odds were rather low Celestia herself actually knew about all of that, it still managed to frighten the filly a bit, especially with the vaguely-remembered nightmare of being tortured by somepony who looked very much like that mare.
The thoughts of the night before slowly started to seep back into Sunset’s mind, though, making her think that it might not be such a bad idea to get away from her creator on a more permanent basis... After all, the routine of waking up from visceral nightmares, heading out through a smog- and light-suffocated cityscape to a school full of boring teachers, simple-minded classmates, and borderline-edible lunch, then head back out and cut through a place that only really served to mock the beauty of what once was to get back to her obsessively-clean penthouse and do a bunch of eye-straining homework (if she had and could stomach it), only to fall asleep and repeat it all the next day was hardly pleasant or exciting in any way.
But, there was that sapphire unicorn she met in that slice of fake-Elysium, who likely travelled all over Equestria in her wagon and seemed to be so much more free, so much happier... maybe that could serve the over-controlled scholar well too...
‘Gah, don’t think like that!’ Sunset shouted at herself mentally, vigorously shaking her head, ‘I cant just abandon all of this! I’ve got-’ Blanking, she searched desperately for something her life that she actually valued, ‘...Enrollment in the top school of Equestria... and access to highly advanced technology and magic that most ponies have never heard of...?’ Shaking her head, she muttered to herself, “I don’t care about those, though...”
Looking around her room, the slightly-panicking orange filly took note of the large, spacious place in which she lived with the warm, cozy hue that saturated its entirety, along with the comfy bed, flat writing desk, and highly-compactable dresser that furnished it. Likewise, the thoughts of the pleasant wooden living room and tidy kitchen that supplied her with a comfortable place to eat some decent meals, as well as the impeccably-clean bathroom that one would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, especially with the one-way mirrors lining one of the walls that were honestly very scary to have in what was otherwise a normal room!
However, all of those things were tainted by Celestia; Celestia talking down to her in the living room, Celestia making dull and mildly-palatable food for her, Celestia unable to have a room on the floor not have some superficial magitech addition that made the room just slightly uncomfortable. Even in her own room, Celestia’s patronizing presence was still felt, as so often Sunset hid there just not have to feel those eyes staring at her...
The mare sighed in exhaustion and despondence, ‘I’m not really planning to just up and leave, am I? After all...’ Her mind’s eye soon brough forth the possible alternative in the form of a gaudy magician’s trailer, it being a decent bit smaller than even the bathroom of Sunset’s own home, and while that would be easier to drive around Equestria, it would have to be a massive hassle to live in there.
Sighing again, the student looked downward and caught a glimpse of her clock, which then caused her to look up to see it read ‘7:53’ in its bright red font. Inhaling sharply, she quickly threw herself off her bed--only to immediately pause; did she really want to go to school, or actually head out to that magician...?
Shaking her head, Sunset knew there was no time to think, and instead went over to her dresser and magically pulled open the top drawer and fished out her scarlet pseudo-leather saddlebags, quickly wrapping them around her body while grabbing some of her harsh-weather boots and a couple jackets--definitely keeping the badass spiked black-and-orange one--as well as that random star-gazing kit in the bottom drawer that she managed to get behind her creator’s back, and stuffed all of it in her bags. Pleased that when closed, her saddlebags didn’t look too different to when they were filled with the physical textbooks and notebooks that were somehow still required to be taken to class, the mare tried to shake off any further intrusive thoughts on her brash decision.
‘Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it,’ Sunset repeated in her head like a mantra as she turned back to the door, and strained in her mind, ‘I’m only going to talk to her...’ However, before the mare could grasp the door’s handle with her magic, she heard a voice through the door, making her freeze in place. ‘That’s right, she’s here,’ She muttered in her mind, breathing slowly in an attempt to calm herself, ‘There’s no way she’d know about last night. She won’t hurt you, Sunset.’
Unfortunately, keeping herself silent while so close to the thick bedroom door allowed the anxious unicorn to hear some of what was being said beyond it, notably the dry, exhausted, and emotionless voice of Celestia saying, “...she’s beginning to show her use already, with her youthful mind allowing her to connect such disparate sections as complex mathematics and particle physics so we may advance further in them...”
How anypony could stand that dreary tone for any length of time was beyond Sunset, but she was at the very least able to parse how her ‘mother’ was really only speaking of her as if she was a tool to achieve magitechnological progress, rather than as an actual daughter. At that point, while such dissociation was hardly surprising, it still terrified and angered the filly herself to be treated like that.
Shaking it off--or, at least trying to--Sunset knew she had to leave to ‘go to school’, and magically grabbed the bedroom door’s handle and turned it to pull the door open, then stepped out into the living room and closed the door behind her to view the massive TV on the side wall in an online meeting, and the owner of that previous dry, scientific voice sitting on the large couch opposite the TV. The tall, pale unicorn with a dusty pink mane and muted golden cutie mark of the sun kept speaking long enough to finish her lengthy sentence, only to finally turn her head to look at the orange filly still standing in front of her bedroom door.
“H-hello... Mother,” Sunset spoke weakly, and gulped in fear as she stood frozen in place, a cold, hollow feeling washing through her body.
“Sunset,” Celestia said in her monotone voice, nearly cracking from its dryness. She didn’t continue to talk, instead just staring back at her ‘daughter’ with her sunken, dulled rose eyes in an observant, calculating manner, with any possible knowledge she had of the filly’s neglection of her curfew unable to be determined. Her interrupted meeting still carried on in the background, ignoring the potential drama unfolding as the many ponies beyond the screen were far too invested into their own scientific exploits to care about much else.
Eventually, though, Sunset took a quick glance to the elevator that led up to their penthouse and said with forced calmness, “Um, I’m going to go to school..”
“Of course,” Celestia replied and nodded faintly, then turned her head back to face the meeting on the screen, the way her ears were swiveled made it clear she was still listening to her ‘daughter’ as the filly trotted over to the elevator, eyes locked onto it while her legs moved mechanically, the cold, hollow terror sinking into her mind forcing her to move much more manually than normal for fear of tripping over her shaking hooves.
Eventually, though, after reaching the reaching the elevator, tapping the panel next to it, and waiting for it to come up to her floor in the terrifying knowledge that her every single move was being tracked by those uncannily-honed pasty white ears, the metal doors opened with a faint metallic sliding and ‘click’ into place. It took all of Sunset’s will not to jump inside and repeatedly smash the digital button for the main floor, instead forcing herself to trot inside and turn around to ‘calmly’ tap the button, letting the suffocatingly warm-hued room of the penthouse get slowly covered by the shiny sliver doors of the elevator.
When the doors finally closed with their faint ‘click’, the terrified unicorn exhaled heavily in relief, all the pent-up panic breaking forth out of her ‘calm’ façade. “Why was that so terrifying..?” She whispered to herself, holding a hoof up to her chest to help calm her frantic, heavy breathing. Shaking herself, she recalled where she was truly wanting to go, and assured herself, “Don’t worry, Sunset; if all goes well... you won’t have to deal with that again.”
Having more time for her idea to sink into her mind, Sunset really started to find herself irritated by all the minor things she had mostly ignored before, with the numerous ponies she passed by on her morning walk through the city on their magitech slates feeling so... disappointing to the young mare, and the dull pavement she trotted across pressing harshly into the bottoms of her hooves. The smog, too, felt sharper and more painful as it got sucked into her throat, and the lack of any real nature as far as the eye could see made the whole place feel so fake.
At the very least, the (hopefully former) student found herself appreciating how she was soon to arrive at a place that held at least a semblance of natural beauty, even if she was a bit worried about what she wanted to do there. ‘She’s probably not even there anymore, is she?’ She thought to herself as she turned a corner and caught sight of the park’s edge a block or so down the road. ‘This entire thing’s gonna be pointless, and somepony’s gonna catch me not being at school, and then Celestia’ll know, a-and...’ Shaking her head almost violently, the fiery-maned unicorn cut that thought off before it could do much damage to her... while not particularly calm mood, it was at least more pleasant than usual.
Sunset closed her eyes as she kept walking, taking a deep breath in an attempt to keep the worrying thoughts out as much as she could, and only when that breath became painful to hold did she finally release it with a voluminous exhale. Opening her eyes back up, she quickly stopped as she found herself at the outer fence of the park, staring ahead at the ‘lush’ plantlife marred by the oft-tread corner-cutting concrete path. Knowing full well she couldn’t predict what could happen, though desperate to escape her nigh-dystopian life, she resigned herself to fate and headed into the park.
Taking slow, measured steps down the short diagonal path, the fiery-maned mare soon came to the entrance to the main section of the park, marked though it wasn’t, and turned rightward to face it and see the large, flashy wagon from the previous was indeed still there! However, Sunset was unable to rejoice as she took note of the large glass tank--multiple ponies wide and even more tall--that was full of water, and suspended in the center with her mane and tail spread and floating about her, was Trixie, eyes closed and looking calm... too calm.
While fear for the beautiful showmare should’ve been wracking through the orange unicorn’s being, forcing her forwards to pull Trixie out and do everything that was needed to keep her alive, she instead locked up in a cold terror, panic coursing through her mind and unfamiliar sensations shook her to her core...
Sunset’s legs shivered and wobbled, soon collapsing and forcing her to land on the ground, though she couldn’t feel any part of it as her eyes remained locked onto that image of a pony floating in a sedated manner in the middle of large tube resonated in her mind, dim and blurry visions with pairs of light spots waving through her eyesight, unable to be pinpointed as the cold hollowness in her body rung like a bell, her face burning like a fever and stomach churning with nausea, all making her feel like she needed to puke while the world around her faded into nothing more than a dim mockery of what she desired, the sound blanking into an indistinct white noise...
“Sunset!”
“GAH!”
Sunset threw herself backward as reality came crashing back into her; the vibrant green trees springing forth out of incorrigible darkness, quiet bursting back into her ears, and the feeling of stubby grass on her back forced her to remember the world around her, and the quick, terrified breaths that flared out of her own throat reinforced her own existence.
“Sunset,” A voice said calmly near her, making the frightened unicorn jerk her wide, wavering eyes up the light blue unicorn standing right next to her, looking down at the fallen pony while she herself dripped with water that trailed down her shimmering frost mane and across her rather worried-looking face.
Shaking her head near-violently, Sunset realized Trixie was talking to her and opened her mouth to respond, “HUZ-WHAH?!”
Trixie smirked faintly in amusement at the incomprehensible response, but still looked worried, and it seeped into her soothing and cool voice. “Are you alright?”
Sunset gulped down some of her terror and took a moment to breathe, closing her eyes and inhaling, holding it for a couple seconds, then exhaling. Opening her eyes to look back up at the magician, she said much more intelligibly than last time, “S-sorry, I’m... decent, just.. not sure what happened...”
The magician looked at her for moment, seeming to make sure of what was said, then nodded and outstretched a forehoof, inviting to help the fallen mare get up off the ground. However, said fallen mare didn’t take and only stared back at it, as water still dripped from it and onto the stubby grass below.
Trixie laughed faintly and rolled her eyes, then lit her horn with its lovely orchid hue and wrapped that magic around her body, sending a short flare of heat through it to swiftly evaporate all the water on her coat. “Is that better?” She asked with a raised eyebrow, her foreleg still extended and ready to help the other pony.
“...S-sure,” Sunset muttered, not sure how to respond, and then decided to grab the waiting foreleg with her own and moved to pull herself up, and with the other unicorn doing the same, got firmly jerked upward hard. “Woah!” She grunted in surprise as she got pulled up past the point of standing bipedal, and ended up nearly falling forward onto her face, but she managed to catch herself with her forelegs.
“Sorry, I must’ve overestimated that,” Trixie said, looking slightly apologetic back at the other mare, but she soon turned around and approached her wagon, heading past the large and still-full tank of water, waving the other pony along with a foreleg.
The orange unicorn scrambled a bit to follow, trotting quickly and glancing uneasily up at the tank as she passed it before looking back towards the closed-up trailer, the stage from the previous night having somehow disappeared, and the curtains that closed it off to the rest of the wagon were replaced by just a wooden wall of that same wagon. At one of its other walls, though, was a door to the interior with a short set of steps heading up to it, with Trixie sitting at the second-lowest one and looking back at her guest.
“So, what are you doing here, Sunset?” The showmare then asked said guest, who stood near her.
“I-” Sunset tried to start, but her cracking voice forced her to gulp down some saliva, and in that short bit of time, something clicked in her mind; “Wait, how do you know my name?”
Trixie laughed a little and moved her head to look around at the park, responding amusedly, “Oh, please, did you think I’d be so ignorant to not know of one of the most controversial things done this half-century?” She shook her head and looked back at her somewhat confused guest, and as per the question in her eyes, continued, “I read the news, of course, unlike so very few many other creatures in this ‘great’ nation that blindly follow the most eye-catching and ridiculous headlines.”
“Oh- um...” Sunset blanched, having to think through her interactions with her classmates and even teachers that seemed to not see her as anything special, despite her genetic alterations supposedly making her one of the most important ponies of her generation... Shaking her head, she focused her attention back on the calmly-grinning showmare, and gulped down her embarrassment so she could say, “I, uh, guess that’s kind of related to why I’m here... a-and talking to you...”
“Oh?” The sapphire unicorn asked as she raised an eyebrow and leaned back onto the steps to her presumed home, “How’s that?”
“W-well,” Sunset started with trepidaiton and her eyes fidgeted a bit, but she forced herself to look at her host before continuing, “First... I want to apologize for running away... um, during your show...”
Trixie smirked and nodded in acknowledgement, and waved it off with a forehoof, “It’s fine. A panic attack’s hardly within your control, after all.” The other unicorn opened her mouth to reply, but the magician cut her off with a pointed look; “Don’t blame yourself. These things can get out of hoof very quickly and it’s difficult to get any semblance of control back.”
The orange mare blinked at the statement and the implication of how it was said, and it made her ask hesitantly, “You... had something like that...?”
Her smirk falling a bit, Trixie looked away and took a few moments before replying, “Used to. Depression.” Sensing the shock on her guest’s face, she looked back toward her and explained, “It may look like it’s all fun and games to me, but this life can be Tartarus sometimes...” Leaning herself forward on the steps so she could stand up, she shook her head, adding, “I won’t say much more about it; it’s rather personal, as you can understand.”
“Right...” Sunset muttered in assent as she watched the svelte trot up the steps and open the door to her home to head inside, letting the door remain open for her guest to look at the compact living space inside; a small kitchenette with some cupboards above framed a window along one of the side walls, and on the far wall was another window, but a few medium-sized crates sat stacked below, likely holding whatever was needed for her magic show, as some rope and flowers stuck out of the one Trixie herself was leaned over and rifling through. On the other side wall, though, were some hooks that held the silky purple cape and hat she wore during her magic show and a pair of light blue saddlebags, and an odd lever that stuck out of the floor near the far corner...
However, despite all of that, the scholar noticed one major thing; “Er, where’s the engine..?”
The sapphire unicorn laughed as she kept going through the crate for a few more seconds, eventually pulling out a medium briefcase-looking box with her hooves. “There isn’t one!” She said with some glee as she spun around and let her magic take the box and set it over onto the tabletop part of the kitchenette, her forehooves thumping against the wooden flooring as she addressed her guest, “I just pull it!”
“Y-you PULL this?!” Sunset practically shouted in shock, eyes darting across the entirety of the wagon’s inside to register how big it was, and given how it looked to be made of pure wood, it would have been really heavy--and that’s not even counting all the furnishings inside the dang thing! It must’ve weighed at least a few metric tonnes, and while the wagon was to be pulled whilst on wheels, which required quite a bit less force to move, it still would’ve been multiple hundred kilograms having to be pulled for likely hours at a time...
‘How strong must she be...?’ The diffident mare thought to herself in a wistful tone, her mind beginning to hone in on how earned the second part of the Great and Powerful Trixie’s title must’ve been. In her mind’s eye, she imagined the strong showmare hauling her trailer along a dirt path amidst the sprawling plains and under a cloud-speckled sky, the mid-day sun lighting everything below in a warm hue and heating it all up somewhat, including the frost-maned pony herself. having already pulled the wagon so far, she started breathing a bit heavier and sweat began to drip down her body, some beads coming from her forehead and trailing down the smooth curves of her face, while others slid down her legs and glimmered to accentuate the firm muscles hidden underneath...
A clearing of a throat snapped Sunset out of her daydream, making her feel the warm blush on her cheeks as her attention jerked back to the real Trixie, who was still standing as she was before and looked back at her guest with a hint of amusement atop her already brimming-with-confidence personality, and asked calmly, “Now then, is there anything else you would like to speak to me about?”
“I-uhm...” The orange-coated mare mumbled as she looked to the floor, trying to push down the heat in her face, but to no avail. “I-I um...” Gulping heavily, she tried to lift her gaze to her host, but the thought of what she really wanted suddenly felt incredibly embarrassing, and she only managed to fidget in place with her hooves tapping nervously against the wooden flooring.
“Trixie can’t heeaar yoouu!” Trixie said with a slightly teasing, but somewhat encouraging tone as she leaned forward to ‘better hear her guest’, the odd third-pony speech from her show peeking back in.
Sunset bit her lip from further embarrassment with the beautiful magician’s face closer than before, but did try to gather some confidence by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in, holding it for a while and listening to the faint thumping of her slightly-quickened heartbeat, and then exhaled voluminously and opened her eyes. The lovely amethyst eyes of her host stared back, no doubt able to see the heart blush on the more timid unicorn’s face, and in an effort to not let the embarrassment creep back in, she rushed out in a bit quicker and louder voice than she wanted, “I want to go with you!”
Trixie jerked back a bit with wide eyes at the declaration, a faint tint of red spread across her cheeks, and it made her guest quickly realize how her words sounded, so she quickly tried to amend, “I-I mean, I want to travel with you... o-on your travelling show a-across Equestria... a-and, um, maybe even help you w-with your shows...” Her voice faded as she realized how her words still felt so... embarrassing, and she let her gaze fall down to the floor in shame.
After a few moments, though, the sapphire showmare spoke up with a thoughtful and disbelieving tone, “Let Trixie get this right; you... want to go with Trixie, across--well, not just Equestria, but the whole world,” She clarified, making Sunset look up just enough to show her surprise, “So you’d have to lose not just your home, and everything kept there, but also your entire culture...” She let that sink in for a few moments, watching her surprised guest ingest the information, and finally asked her, “Is that really something you want to lose?”
“I-” The fiery-maned pony moved to reply, but took a couple seconds to think about it, but she really knew by that point that she had somewhat accepted losing her large home, bleeding-edge tech, and boring fellow ponies. Pulling her head back up and looking back at her host, she said in a mostly confident tone, “Yes. I... don’t really care much for what I have here.”
When Trixie responded with a silent look of surprise and skepticism, the unusually sure mare added, “...I know, that being the creation of a wealthy scientist gets me access to a lot of luxuries most ponies can’t afford, but...” She sighed heavily and with a hint of despondence, “I’m constantly monitored by C-Celestia... and I can tell she only sees me as a tool to advance science rather than as any sort of daughter...” Taking another short pause, she looked straighter into the other unicorn’s somewhat shocked eyes, and said with confidence, “I want to be my own mare, Trixie, and this--you--can help me...” Her assurance quickly faded back into a much stronger despondence as her host’s silent stare forced doubt back into her, ears falling and tears starting to well in her eyes as she finished with a desperate whimper, “C-can’t you..?”
The magician took a moment to let the surprise wear off, but could hardly wipe away her expression of disbelief as she nodded slowly and replied, “Well, maybe...” Sighing with some sadness, she looked away and began, “You obviously saw the audience of my last show, and how... small and unenthusiastic they were... Perhaps having an assistant could help with that.” Her guest opened her mouth with a question clear on her lips, but she was cut off by another question; “But, is that really something you want to do? Your... creator,” She looked back at her guest while she emphasized the word, remembering how that pony was spoken of, “May be rather controlling, but you still must have quite a lot else here that you do want. ...Do you really want to abandon all of that, just to get away from her?”
Sunset hesitated for a moment, the panic of losing everything she knew was somewhat overwhelming, and it made her want to go home, curl up in a ball, and just give up, but... she knew that such a cowardly reaction was never going to help her in the long run, and so she pushed past and looked confidently up to the showmare and stated in response, “Yes, I do. I have a large home, highly advanced technologies and spells, a high-class education... but I don’t truly care about any of that. It’s all just superficial things that are just there, rather than actually helping me in any way. What I really care about is how stifling this place is; everypony is so placid and complacent, the tech and the magic is just noisy with no use to any of it, the school has never really given me any actual challenge, and the environment...” She sucked in a long breath through her nostrils and turned her head to glare out of the side window of the wagon, “It’s fucking horrible. Massive dull buildings trapped in a constant smog that tears at your throat, the sky remaining completely blank during the night for all bar the Moon, if even that, and even the supposedly ‘natural’ place that is this park is so fucking controlled by ponies that it barely only serves as just a mockery of actual nature.”
Turning back to see the surprised and slightly frightened expression on Trixie’s face, she practically spat out, “I hate it here, Trixie. I hate it so much. I’ll happily sacrifice everything I’ve held onto all these years just to get something--some real piece of what the world can actually look like, something I can actually enjoy challenging myself with, something that can actually give me some fucking purpose in life.”
Sunset stood there, looking both furious and desperate as her host took several seconds to absorb what was said, and then finally gain a light smirk as she said, “Well then, Sunset--far be it for the Great and Powerful Trixie to deny something so important to anycreature.” Leaning forward a bit with her grin becoming far larger, she nearly exclaimed, “We shall see what you can do as Trixie’s Amazing and Spectacular assistant!”
A large smile broke out on the other mare’s face as she heard that, all the stress built up preparing for words like those finally being released all at once; she wanted to cry and scream to Elysium about being freed from the nigh-dystopian torment, but that tension fleeing from her body carried with it her adrenaline, and she almost immediately stumbled forward slightly.
That reaction definitely caught Trixie’s attention, though, and she gasped and jumped forward enough to put a forehoof on her new assistant’s shoulder to help keep her up if she stumbled again, and asked worriedly, “Are you alright?”
“I-” Sunset started, but looked up and blushed at how close her face was to the pretty magician’s, forcing her to gulp before she answered, “I-I’m fine... just really tired.”
The sapphire unicorn looked into her assistant’s eyes for a few seconds, seeming to examine her for a moment, and then nodded and pulled back to stand on her four hooves. “You probably need some more sleep,” She said as she turned around and headed back to the crates she had in the back, and looked inside before magically pulling out a pair of huge rolled-up fabric-y things. “It may be morning, but I know how much work can screw with one’s sleeping schedule,” She added, probably knowing how strange her original response was, and rolled out the things to reveal them as an relatively thin sort of grey mattress and a fluffy purple blanket, laying them on the empty space in the middle of the floor, one set flat on top of the other.
“Oh... thank you,” Sunset mumbled back in appreciation, the fluffy blanket looking so inviting as she moved forward to grab one of the corners with her hoof, pulling it up enough to flop face-down on the mattress below, with the blanket falling down onto her back in a somewhat disheveled state.
“Are you comfortable?” Trixie asked warmly, making the tired mare nod into the mattress as her eyes closed and a smile grew on her face. “Good. Now then, I’ll go ahead and pack everything up; we’re going to need to head out in a few hours. You can keep sleeping, though, as I can pull the caravan.”
Sunset was hardly able to respond as she drifted to sleep, letting the magician step of her caravan, as she put it, and close the door, leaving the newly-christened assistant’s mind to linger on the amazing mare who she now lived with; her energy, her grace, her talent, all wrapped up in a strong and beautiful physique that accepted her so quickly and would help her do what she truly wanted. All of that tainted modernity was now behind her, and she’d never look back.
