This Is Trixie's Might (Trixie I)

And somehow they found themselves running again. That was something Trixie had thought she would never do again, run away from the home she loved. They hurried through the narrow path and she did not know where they were going, maybe to a better place? Maybe to a place far worse? Trixie didn't know, but she didn't look back. They all were following Lyra, the one who had the light, the pony who had never believed in magic. Trixie hated it. This pony and everypony else had just realized that Canterlot was broken, they had realized their families were gone. The next time they were stopping, they would all go crying again.

The only pony who had no tears left was Trixie, she had always endured, always hoped, always dreamt of magic and a better tomorrow. She had sat on the window sill of her room in the old orphanage, the day before her new parents had come and had looked at the sky. There she had spotted a single star, shaped like the ones on her hat and cloak. From the filly's point of view it had been as bright as the sun, even though it had just been one small star in a sea of them.

She galloped, her hooves making a clacking sound on the rocky ground. Not that she cared. Nopony cared about the rocks beneath them. Derpy had Twilight on her back now and the brown filly was holding on, while the one beneath her stared forward, not quite knowing what she did but kept doing it anyway. Octavia panted, Trixie could hear and she felt her own legs getting weaker. Were 'they' even following the group? The little filly didn't know and in truth, she didn't even want to know.

She only had wanted to know what that star had been. That night its had looked like it had dedicated its light to her, and summer snows had fallen, like they had done the day the princess of the night had held her own wake. Trixie remembered a filly by her side then and she didn't remember her color or mane, only how she had said that the sky was beautiful. She had spoken to the ugly, little Trixie.

She hit a rock with her hoof and stumbled, falling face first into the dirt while her friends still moved forward, none stopped. She was lying there for but one second, the longest second. There were fewer gems in the walls and the crystals were all but gone. The ground wasn't made of soft sand but hard, dark rocks, some of which had edges that could cut.

In that one second she closed her eyes and saw the room again. Six beds standing side by side with only a small corridor that lead to the door. The stink was unbearable and the window was almost always open. The only times it wasn't was because they had been ordered to close it. Her own bed was always neatly done, as if nopony would ever touch it. She never had slept in it, only on the sill, where she could see the city and dream of princesses and dragons.

Just like at this moment, with the summer snows falling. The orphanage had been placed on a higher ground outside the city so that the normal folk wouldn't be bothered by the parentless little ponies. On one hand, that meant long walks if the town was to be visited, on the other, that they had lots of space for themselves. For the nights it meant one more thing: Canterlot. It was an ugly town, coated in tones of brown with steam rising from the factories and dirt covering every inch of it, but the factories didn't work at night and the dirt was covered by darkness. What remained were the black silhouettes of buildings on a dark blue background with black clouds above and a few holes through which the light shined. Now, Canterlot was only towers and spires, a conglomeration of shapes and structures that looked like a piece of art. And it had been the only beautiful thing Trixie had learned about the city. Nopony else even looked out of the window, everypony had to be asleep, because if a pony wasn't, they would be put in detention.

Small flakes of white were falling and she looked up to the sky she only knew to be covered with smog and smoke, the air nearly unbreathable. She had heard about the factories, how ponies had to wear masks and most workers didn't even make ten years there. Someday, if no family picked her up, she had to work there, too. Thinking about it made her feel sad, so she didn't dwell on it. What she thought about were snowponies and a clear sky. She smiled at the window. A single light gleamed in the middle of the room. Sugar High insisted on one being lit, just like Trixie insisted that when she had to leave the room at night another filly had to come with her. The light caused a reflection which Trixie, at that point, still enjoyed. Her coat was both brown and white, her mane part white, part black and her eyes were a shade of the darkest green. She had always loved her own appearance, since it reminded her of bother her parents. Her mother, who had always walked around with a mess of a black mane and her father whose white mane had always been adorned with ribbons of various colors. She could still spot most of her teeth in that reflection, too.

Within it she saw the door swing open and another filly entering. This one had a coat as white as the snow outside and a well combed, brownish blonde mane. Her unicorn horn had been taken off like Lyra's. The only filly here who wasn't an orphan. Oh, if Trixie would only have been able to remember her name.

She remembered how it went. The filly tip-toed across the room and seated herself beside Trixie, looking silently out of the window. There had been an air of grace about her, but her mane was dripping wet. She sometimes cleaned herself at night, both herself and her sheets and nopony but Trixie had noticed until now. It was this filly's secret, whyever Trixie had never quite understood, though it was probably for the same reason most ponies here kept secrets. For the fear of punishment.

They both sat like they did and for minutes, maybe even an hour, neither said anything.

"It's beautiful," the other filly whispered, then looked behind her, hoping not to have woken any other ponies.

"Uh huh," Trixie answered. That was the only thing that needed to be said at that moment. The world was covered in a beautiful white and this moment there would be engraved in her mind forever. That thought didn't need to be spoken out and both of them could just stare at the snow falling forever.

It would stop, Trixie still knew, but the moment was theirs.

The other filly then did something Trixie didn't remember. She turned around, her eyes a tone of cyan a normal pony couldn't possess and with a fierceness of old age in them the filly would not have believed to exist. They looked at each other but the silence lasted not a breath.

"Trixie Lulamoon, do not stop!" The voice belonged to the filly she remembered, but only for the first two words, then it drifted off and became something different, something new, a power with a will of its own.

You still have something to fight for!

And the second was gone, Trixie touched the ground, feeling a sharp pain in her mouth. Next time she wouldn't scream while falling, because biting her tongue hurt. Yet, she knew that she had to stand up. If not for anything else, then for the sole fact that magic still existed in this world and all her dreams would soon be answered. She hurled herself forward, only barely hearing a voice behind her, shouting: "Dammit, there's really more kids down here! GET THEM!"

Trixie heard them but she wasn't listening. She didn't know who this voice belonged to and the tone sounded dangerous, too. She didn't want to be caught, she wanted to be free and she wanted to see the Lunarium. The filly wouldn't stop and her friends didn't appear to slow down either. With a determination only a child could bring up they galloped farther and farther into the dark. The path was straight but still they had to watch where they were going, rocks and crystals were on the ground, some were pointy, some had edges. More than once Trixie felt a sudden sting and a sharp pain on her hooves. The path got narrower and narrower and then the light orb vanished, Trixie didn't even know why. Not until she fell, her feet slipping under her and herself being propelled onto her back.

With six different sounding 'AAAAAAAH's they went down a natural slide. Down and down they went until Lyra hit the ground and the others landed on her.

When they hit the ground this time, they didn't just stand up, because they were immediately sucked in by what they saw. They were all feeling like they had just woken up in a world filled with magic. The cave was monstrous with walls made of crystals and a glowing stream in it's middle. The sand they had landed on was the same as before, the moon sand as Trixie recalled it. There were a few holes in the walls and some of them could be reached through narrow paths a filly could easily climb. All were leading into the blackness again.

After a few moments Twilight said one thing and she was too astonished to cough: "Luna's garden."

Trixie had heard that story. How Princess Luna had build a garden beneath the castle for all the children in Canterlot to play in. A giant playcave, so to speak. Trixie, like any sane mare had believed it to be a myth since the entrance had never been found.  Yet they were here and–

"You're squashing me," Lyra whined and as Trixie looked down, she realized that they were still a heap of ponies and got up immediately. The others followed suit. Lyra then immediately spoke up again, "Anyway. . . This is just destiny. The first fillies in this garden since Luna left. We should totally play here!"

Octavia, wise as she was, shook her head, "We were just being hunted Lyra. I don't think we'd lose soldiers this easily."

Trixie took that moment to think about that. Being hunted by equestrian soldiers, but found only one thought to be appropriate for this kind of situation: We should keep running.

Twilight nodded, "I agree. We should follow this stream up. Then we should get further into the mountain and hopefully deeper down. That's the way to go."

If only they had some reassurance as to where exactly they were going, Trixie thought, but there was no time to question things. A noise came up from behind them, from the slide.

"Hide," Octavia said quickly and looked around, finding a formation of rocks to their left. They hurried in this direction, following the river down and jumped behind the rocks. They heard a thud, a cry of pain, clearly male.

"Storm, you buckin' idiot, watch where yer goin'!" A hoarse voice grumbled, coughing.

"Shut it, you dumb bastard. If it weren't for you they wouldn't have run. Really, I have better things to do than to friggin' chase after kids," a second voice said, a bit younger but the annoyance was overshadowed by the sound of expectation and enjoyment. "Or, actually no, I've got nothing better to do than chase kids."

"And shoot kids," a third voice then said, this one belonging to a female and she spoke the words in the same tone tone any other mare would have stated that yes, she had her hair just styled. A moment after that voice had spoken, the thud of this pony landing on the ground came. It was softer than the others.

The other two spoke up in unison: "Sarge!" with what sounded to be utter amazement.

"It wasn't that slippery, guys. You could practically walk down there."

No answer.

"Well sarge. . . Uhm, you don' need to come. We can find and kill them kids all on our own."

"What do you mean ki-. . . Storm, Black, why aren't there any corpses?"

"Uhm. . ." Both male voices seemed to be wondering exactly why, or at least they were thinking.

"They could be here and listen to us, you mules!" 'Sarge' exclaimed.

"Yup!" the voice with what Trixie thought to be a dumb accent said.

The came the sound a hoof made when it hit another pony's face. "You idiots! How're we supposed to lure them out now?"

"They're probably behind one of the rock groups," the other, younger said. Trixie knew what that meant. She hadn't spotted that many actual rocks in here. The others were all cowering.

"Wait here till they're gone," she whispered in a sudden turn of madness and leaned around.

The trio was made up of three ponies. The one with the rough voice she figured was the brown, small stallion with the strawhat and the very untidy looking Canterlot Guard uniform, the younger one looked not much cleaner but was tall and lanky, he had a white coat and the female was a black, elegant pony who had her uniform clean and even wore boots. Not many ponies could afford proper boots. What they all had were long bladed staffs that had guns atop of them. She hadn't really any idea about the equestrian military but she already knew she didn't want to be hit with one of those. Luckily, all three had turned towards a smaller group of rocks in the other direction, which Trixie figured meant they hadn't actually seen anything of them but the light of the orb.

She then moved both as quickly and quietly as possible. There was a third group of rocks that might've made an excellent hiding place, right on the other side of the small river. Her eyes were focused on the three, who themselves were trying to sneak up on the stones. One misstep and everything would be lost. Trixie stepped into the water, fully aware that if she moved too fast, or lift one hoof too high, even if she did it just once, could spell doom upon them all. Her movements were pretty graceful she thought, and the river, while wide, wasn't very deep. She took about half a minute to the other side, making no noise. The eyes of her friends were focused on her but none moved. That's good, she thought.

Not one single step produced a noise that would have given her away, she was a bit clumsy on normal occasions, but somehow it all worked out, as if an old friend was watching over her like a guardian angel. That's what she wanted to think, that and how there was a tower by the cliff, just waiting for her.

Reaching the other side she looked at the rocks and then at one of the holes, which lead into the blackness. She couldn't even tell whether it was a dead end or not. A smirk found its way to her face.

One step, another step, both very quiet. Then, just as she entered the hole she spotted a little rock in the corner of her eye and kicked it with a little force, the rock flew through the air and then hit a wall and the sound resonated through her ears. Suddenly, she felt the adrenaline rushing through her, her senses sharpening and regret kicking in. As the stone hit the wall the noise sounded like the hammering of a thousand drums to her, and it reached the three.

The mare called 'Sarge' reacted immediately and turned her staff towards Trixie. Without hesitation she let her hoof move over the gun and a split-second later the shot erupted with smoke and fire and Trixie's hat flew off her head, six holes in it. Trixie, while regretting what she had done immediately, only did one thing, the sane thing:

"THEY'RE ONTO US!" she yelled, "RUN!" and started galloping, hearing a voice behind her.

"Damn brats, after them!"

With a frightful shiver she picked up her fallen hat, before she galloped into the darkness, a smirk on her face. Her plan had worked out and for whatever reason she had decided to run into certain doom to leave her friends to find the Lunarium.

Why? She asked herself but found the answer long since engraved in her mind, ever since the night, the snow and the promise she had made.

This right there, right at that moment. This was all she could do to reach her goal. This was Trixie's might, Trixie's determination. If it meant to sacrifice herself to bring magic back, so it would be, but nopony Trixie called her friend would ever be hurt while Trixie was around and could do something about it.

Don't stop, the voice echoed through her head, You are on the right path.