Dusk was encroaching on Ponyville. Everypony had closed their windows and was preparing he night. That was when, under the cover of darkness, a mysterious, cloaked figure sneaked over the bridge leading to town and made their way into Ponyville, without once being detected.
Twilight Sparkle yawned, looking about sleepily, as she rised out of bed. The sun was already up and it was blazing hot today. She smiled to herself as she stretched and looked about. 'Spike! Where are you?' she called inquistively.
She heard snoring from Spike's sleeping-basket. Sighing and shaking her head, she trotted over and peered down, seeing the baby dragon still deep in slumber. Gently rolling him over onto his back, she moved her hoof over his eyelid, opening it wide.
'Spike!' she called again. Spike made several incomprehensible sounds that suggested he was tired, followed by one long yawn before stretching and getting up himself. 'Oh, hey Twilight... what's the rush?' he said, in a droning and tired voice.
'The rush? Spike, it's midday! You don't want to be asleep all day, do you?' Twilight said brashly, glaring at him passively.
'Eh? Midday? Alright then... better get up...' grumbled Spike as he slowly surfaced and got out of his basket. Twilight was already preparing to go outdoors.
'I'd better go down to Sweet Apple Acres and see if Applejack needs some help, or visit Rarity and help her design her latest fashion line... there's countless acts of friendship that NEED to be done, Spike!' Twilight spoke in her usual, overdramatic and worried tone.
'I doubt they need help THAT much, Twilight... remember last time? They really didn't need your help then, but still you insisted... then look at what happened!' Spike retorted, in a slightly irritated voice.
'Whatever, Spike! I'm going to go and help someone whether you like it or not.' Twilight replied in an agitated way.
Spike sighed. It was always pointless arguing with Twilight. He walked up to her side and followed her out the door. It seemed as if everypony was out today, all going about their business, seeming cheery as ever.
'Right... I guess we should just visit everypony and see what they need done!' Twilight said joyfully, as she skipped along into the centre of town.
Spike followed her nonchalantly, wishing he could've had another hour in bed. Twilight continued forward and began making her way to Sweet Apple Acres.
They hadn't gone far when Twilight spotted something. Over by somepony's house, stood a hooded figure, looking about shiftily. 'Hey... is that Zecora?' asked Twilight, intrigued. 'I wonder why she'd be wearing her cloak again?'
'I dunno. Go say hi.' said Spike, without the slightest hint of caring. The pair made their way over to the mysterious pony. Suddenly, she looked up at them, and the second she saw Twilight she darted off, quickly merging into the crowd.
'What was that all about?' questioned Twilight, mystified. 'I don't know about you Spike but whoever that is it looks like they could be up to no good. I think we shoud follow them.'
The two started bumbling through the crowd, often bumping into the mass of ponies every so often. 'Oops, sorry!' called Twilight as she knocked into somepony, before being pushed around by a flood of more ponies.
'Gah! So many people are out today! We'll never find that mystery pony at this rate.' ranted Twilight, angered by the amount of uncaring ponies out today.
'You're telling me.' Spike responded back, finding his small size to be an advantage as he dodged and weaved through the crowd. Eventually the duo made their way through, gasping and panting.
'That was ridiculous! Now, where could our suspect of gone?' said Twilight, as she looked around suspiciously.
'Aren't you acting a bit overzealous about this, Twilight? You don't even know who it was.' exclaimed Spike, but he was ignored as Twilight continued her search. He shook his head, wondering what had gotten into Twilight.
Twilight soon spotted a thin, dark alleyway. 'They must've gone down there, surely!' she said excitedly, already bounding across to the shadowy crevice. Spike was about to warn about just rushing in, but Twilight had already begun galloping down the alley before he could speak.
Spike followed after her. 'Here we go again...' he said to himself. Twilight took a sudden turn to the left and ran down another alley. Spike began to have trouble keeping up with her and soon lost sight of Twilight completely.
Twilight finally caught up with the cloaked figure. Backed into a dead end, they had nowhere to run. 'Finally! Caught you! So, why're you hiding under that cloak, huh?' interrogated Twilight.
The cloaked pony looked up at Twilight and stared her down. 'Trixie! You've come back!' Twilight gasped. 'What for? To boast how you can do everything better than everypony else again?'
'Well, if you must know-' Trixie begun but was interrupted.
'I think we've established that I'm a lot better! So why don't you scarper off back to whever you've come from?' retorted Twilight harshly.
Sighing, Trixie frowned disappointedly at Twilight. 'Very well then, I hope we could've been reasonable about this.' she said, before vanishing in a puff of magical smoke.
Twilight scowled. Spike made his way idly around the corner. 'Who was that you were talking to, Twilight?' Twilight spun around, breathing heavily and seemingly in some sort of rage.
Twilight quickly calmed down and smiled. 'Oh, no one Spike. No one... no one at all.' she claimed unconvincingly. Spike shrugged. 'Well, eh, we'd better get back home! Like you said, I doubt anypony REALLY needs help today...'
Spike looked at Twilight curiously, hopelessly confused. He decided to just go with it; that usually worked. They made their way back to Twilight's treehouse relatively fast, as most of the midday crowd had dispersed by then.
Spike relaxed, but was surprised when Twilight began using her magic to take down multiple books from their shelves. 'Err... Twilight, what're you doing?' he asked.
'Oh, nothing Spike! You go back to bed or something.' she quickly answered as she threw more books down.
'Riiight...' Spike responded as he observed her curiously. Twilight began reading through the books she'd pulled down, one by one. 'What're you reading, Twilight?'
'Books on spells and power! Better magic, stronger spells!' she exclaimed.
'You're reading those... why?' Spike asked cautiously, as he watched Twilight closely.
'If you really must know Spike, I want to get better at spellcasting. That unbearable boaster Trixie has returned, and I want to put on a magic show that'll show her REAL magic!' Twilight replied smugly.
'Oh-kay then...' Spike said.
Late into the evening, Twilight was still reading books. She closed a big blue tome entitled 101 Ways to Conquer the Arcane, finishing her reading flurry. 'There, Spike! I'm READY!' she shouted maniacally, acting quite eccentric.
Twilight trotted up to the door, when suddenly a tremendous, rapid knocking was heard. 'Who could that be?' Twilight questioned as she opened the door.
Fluttershy was there, with a panic-struck expression on her face. 'Twilight! Twilight! An ursa major is attacking the town! You've got to do something, you're the only pony we know who can!' she quickly spoke.
'An ursa major? Well, that shouldn't be a problem. I've dealt with an ursa minor, how hard could an ursa major be? Especially as I know all these amazing new spells, hmph.' Twilight responded smarmily, seeming to have a higher-than-thou attitude about her.
Twilight wandered around, searching for the ursa major. The moon was full-circle tonight, and it illuminated the area around her. It didn't take long for her to find the beast. It seemed to be preoccupied destroying somepony's house.
The ursa major was truly massive, and it dwarfed what Twilight remembered of the ursa minor. However, she had an aura of self-confidence and didn't show any signs of fear.
'No need to worry, citizens of Ponyville! Twilight is here, and I shall get rid of this ursal threat!' Twilight called in an arrogantly heroic way. 'Now, let's try one of these new spells... meteor shower should do!'
Twilight Sparkle's horn sparkled and glowed as she begun to cast her spell. Suddenly, there was a fizz, and a bang, and Twilight was cast back, flying into a conveniently placed stall. 'What the? This spell doesn't work!' she cried.
'Oh, no...' she said in a concerned and worried voice. The ursa major began destroying more houses. Several ponies had come out of hiding now and were cheering for Twilight, but she seemed incapable of doing anything.
'Don't worry! Uh, let me try what I did before!' Twilight shouted, standing back up. Soon she'd managed to get another tank full of milk and was waving it around in front of the ursa major's face. The huge bear simply swatted it away without interest, causing Twilight's magic to falter and tossing the tank into a nearby river.
'This is helpless! Nopony's magic is strong enough to stop an ursa major! What was I thinking?' Twilight said hopelessly, and she slumped down, upset with herself.
The ursa major raised one claw and was about to bash another house, when suddenly a lassoo grabbed the ursa's arm and held it back. 'Applejack?' Twilight wondered aloud.
Twilight soon spotted the source of the rope. There was the hooded figure, controlling the rope with magic. Trixie was trying to restrain the ursa! Twilight scowled and trotted over to the concentrating unicorn.
'Trixie! What do you think you're doing?' Twilight said in an angry tone, as she approached Trixie. Trixie gave Twilight not much more than a glance before focusing on the rope again.
'If you don't help me, that ursa major will destroy all of Ponyville!' Trixie managed to say. Her abilities were clearly waning and it seemed as if the ursa major would break free at any moment.
Twilight resented working with Trixie but she knew it'd be foolish not to help. The two ponies combined their magical power and began to restrain the ursa major with yet more rope. Before long, they'd completely tied up the colossal creature.
They lifted the ursa major out of it's prone position on the floor and used their magic to place to lay it down far away in the Everfree Forest. Trixie gave a sigh of relief as she turned to face Twilight.
'Why did you help, Trixie?' Twilight questioned her, looking at Trixie with a puzzled expression.
'I've gotten a lot better at magic, you know. After that last encounter I was quite embarrased. I thought I could come back and perhaps start anew. When that ursa major showed up, I saw an opportunity to clear my name with the ponyfolk here.' Trixie explained.
'Well, you certainly impressed me!' Twilight exclaimed cheerfully. 'I thought you'd come back to boast over everypony again, but I guess I was wrong. I'm sorry, Trixie.'
'Hmph. Well, I guess that makes me better then?' Trixie said smugly. Twilight raised an eyebrow. 'Only joking!' she continued, laughing.
The ponies returned to Ponyville. It didn't take long with Trixie's new magical prowess to repair the broken houses, and everypony seemed to be very grateful. Twilight returned home.
'Spike, take a note please.' she asked.
'Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learnt a very important lesson about friendship. Ponies change over time and they learn from their mistakes. You should give ponies a second chance, as sometimes they can turn out to be rather nice.
-Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle'