Crystal Empire Part 2 · 5:07pm Jun 23rd, 2018
So yeah, corrupted Luna is on the loose. Shining starts fighting her and tells Spike to find the Crystal Heart while Thunderlane gets the kids somewhere safe. Turns out Luna's real target is Cadence though, but by the time she gets upstairs Cheerilee has already taken her outside and Shining seals himself and Luna in the throne room to keep her contained.
Spike meanwhile is turning the rest of the castle upside-down looking for a way up to the spire's roof where the Crystal Heart was when he bumps into a slightly furious Trixie. Since Spike left so unexpectedly (and then the kids showed up, and Cadence looking like death warmed over) Trixie's next trick failed so she's come up to chew him out. When asked about the show she just says she "picked an understudy" to handle things. (Cue Ditzy trying to carry on the magic show herself, starting with sawing Big Mac in half much to the displeasure of his child-hood trauma).
Anywho, Spike sums up the situation for Trixie at which point they hear something blow up in the throne room. Worried for Shining, Spike runs over and see the shield is falling and Luna is standing triumphantly over Shining Armor. Things seem grim, but then Trixie intervenes with her Wandering Mist spell and Luna finds herself running in circles in the throne room. Spike and Trixie try to rescue Shining, but as they do he points out that the fight blasted open a hidden stairway in the floor. He doesn't know where it goes but if Spike hasn't found a way up by now then there's no other choice but to try it. Spike and Trixie head down, Trixie hiding the open floor with another illusion, while Shining gets his second wind and resumes trying to stop Luna.
Outside the show isn't going as well as it was with Trixie running things, and Cadence is weakening fast. Twilight, Cheerilee, and the kids are doing what they can to help keep her strength up while Time Turner and Thunderlane try to raise the Crystal Ponies spirits with a stand-up comedy routine (that's going about as well as could be expected). Not helping is that some of the Crystal Ponies are starting to notice the gaps appearing in Cadence's shield and wondering what the black stuff beyond it is.
Back in the castle Spike and Trixie race down the hidden stairwell and reach the infamous Nightmare Door. It proves just as elusive as canon until Spike puts a forcefield of his own around it to stop it in its tracks. Trixie takes advantage of that to open the door...
And finds herself back in Ponyville in the middle of the night. She's confused until Spike appears next to her dressed like a Royal Guard, blaming her for destroying Equestria. Trixie is frightened now and keeps seeing the other Flipped Six, Celestia, and Nightmare Moon mocking her for thinking she could be a hero when she's just a selfish mare who only cares about being the center of attention--
Until Spike snaps her out of it. Trixie's free of the Nightmare Door but still breaks down in the aftermath, and winds up revealing her time-travel adventure and its results to Spike which finally explains to him why she's been trying to make amends so suddenly. Much to her surprise, Spike actually forgives her for the attempt as it's pretty obvious she's already been giving herself no shortage of grief over it even though she's learned her lesson. Realizing that the door shows anyone that opens it an illusion of their worst fear, Spike and Trixie face it together and see an Equestria falling to Sombra. Combining Trixie's magical talents with Spike's Illusion Ender though ends the nightmare and breaks the door, revealing the stairs up to the spire's tip.
Just in time too, as Luna manages to defeat Shining and starts after Cadence.
Spike and Trixie race up the stairs (no gravity magic this time, just running. Though Trixie does use a spell that she used to make herself strong enough to lug her cart around to help both of them). Meanwhile the Crystal Ponies become aware of Sombra and the danger he presents as Luna shows up and knocks out Cadence to break her shield. Luna also gets herself restrained by Big Mac before she can hurt anypony else (thankfully she's been worn down quite a bit by Shining) but the damage is done and now the remaining Flipped Six start working to protect the Crystal Ponies while hoping Spike and Trixie can find the Heart in time.
At the top of the tower they do, thankfully, and seeing Sombra is already inside the city Spike runs for the Heart and triggers the final trap. He's knocked out when the Crystal Cage seals him in, and Trixie starts trying to find a way to get him out, panicking and admitting that she's no hero and she doesn't know what to do now...
Then she sees Sombra racing towards them and sees the Crystal Heart and realizes there's only one thing she can do. Grabbing the Heart, Trixie races back down the stairs promising Spike she'll come back with help.
So yeah, Trixie is the one that gets to be the big hero this time. Sombra catches up to her on the stairs and tries to tempt her into handing over the Heart by promising her a position as his empress and she looks like she's going to accept for a moment, only for the "Trixie" Sombra spoke with to reveal herself as an illusion while the real Trixie jumps off the tower with the Heart. Seeing Trixie carrying the heart and diving towards them with it fills the Crystal Ponies with hope, and Cadence comes around and magics the drapes from Trixie's stage into a crash mat to save her. The Heart flies into its proper place and Trixie calls upon the Crystal Ponies to charge it drive the rapidly-approaching Sombra off once and for all...
And it works! The Crystal Heart is recharged and Trixie charges up a fireworks illusion to add some razzle-dazzle to Sombra getting crystallized and shattered. The Heart also purifies Luna and the Elements of Harmony and releases Spike from his trap, just in time for him to groggily walk to the edge of the spire and see what happened.
Flash forward a little bit and the team is packing up to head back home. All except Shining and Cadence who are going to remain in the empire as its new rulers. The others are wondering where Spike and Trixie are when the duo shows up, talking to one another. Seems they've finally overcome their differences as Spike says he was glad to have Trixie around and jokes with her about how it feels to be a real hero now. Trixie is surprisingly less of a braggart about it, just relieved that everything turned out okay (which the others all agree is how they feel most of the time after their adventures). As it stands everypony is looking forward to getting back to Ponyville.
At which point Trixie reveals she's not going to join them. It's not that she doesn't want to, but after saving the Crystal Ponies and becoming a hero to them she feels a sense of responsibility to stay and help them. After all, they'd been crushed under Sombra's hoof for so long she doesn't think it's right to have their big hero just up and leave on them, and "If there's on thing the Great and Powerful Trixie won't do it's disappoint her fans!". Cadence and Shining Armor are all too happy to welcome Trixie to stay with them, and Luna gives some parting words about how proud she's sure Celestia will be of Equestria's newest hero. Before leaving, Spike gives Trixie his favorite quill, the same one that he used to write the article that cemented their rivalry. Now that they've settled matters he thinks it's "a nice feather to add to her cap" and the two say goodbye.
As the train pulls away, Trixie lets off one last fireworks show and invites the team to come back and visit anytime. Amidst all the sparkles, nopony notices the quill shimmer with a soft rainbow light.
And that's it. More or less this would've been the end of Trixie's most important character arcs. She started her story feeling entitled to be the beloved hero of Equestria, spent some time as a villain before realizing how bad she was, worked to redeem herself in the eyes of those she'd wronged, and finally comes out the end the hero she'd wanted to be but with a better understanding of what that truly means. Not that I wouldn't have more plans for her, but after that much focus I figured she'd take a back seat until the next time all of Equestria's heroes were needed to stand up to a major threat (and you can probably guess which one based off the final "shot" for the story).
At the same time, revisiting all of my ideas for this I feel like this is kinda the weakest "Flips" for the Flipverse. It doesn't change very much at all and I had to contrive quite a few coincidences so that Spike and Trixie could make it to the same spot Twilight did on her own in canon. Granted part of the point to that is that Twilight was chosen for these sorts of responsibilities where as Spike and Trixie weren't, but I can't help but feel like I had them get a little too lucky with Luna smashing open the path to the nightmare door for them.
Anywho, I think it's time to take things in a slightly different direction. No poll this time because I already know which major event I'd like to cover with the next post. Before that though I might put in some individual character posts, at least for Twilight and the Flipped CMC so you can know about their focus stories, but as for bigger stories...
I'm covering the Flipped Equestria Girls movie, because it's one that I've really wanted to tell folks about for a while. Stay tuned!
Overall good story with a nice twist. Thanks for sharing the idea with us.
Now I'm imagining what'll happen if/when Sunburst moves to the Empire and encounters Trixie ^^ Loving these glimpses into the Flipverse, these all sound like such awesome episodes!