After the close call that the group had with the Firey card, Twilight and Rarity suggested to Trixie that they stay together from that point on, in case any more aggressive Clow Cards were to show up. Initially, Trixie rejected the proposal, stating that she was not as weak as them, and that she could fend for herself. However, after some more pleading from Twilight’s end, as well as a rather painful reminder of the damage she had sustained from Firey, Trixie eventually gave in.
‘Stupid Trixie, accepting their offer like that! Now I’m here in Twilight’s library, with that annoying dragon kid and that talking plush toy, and I can’t even see Fluttershy because of all the snow outside!’
“Trixie,” Twilight called as she entered the library’s main room from the kitchen area, “Dinner is still going to take a while, so would you like to take a bath whilst you wait?”
Trixie thought about it, and realised that she had actually missed her bath yesterday, because of the whole Firey incident. She looked over at Spike, who was reading a comic book and giggling to himself, and then over to Kero, who was being very noisy whilst playing his videogame. “Very well,” she said. “Show Trixie to your bathroom, then.”
“It’s just up the stairs, connected to my bedroom,” Twilight told her guest, before popping back into the kitchen to finish making their dinners. “Oh,” she added, “Make sure you use the orange towel. That’s the one I’ve set aside for guests.”
“Does it matter?” Trixie asked rhetorically as she made her way over to the stairs. However, she was stopped by an angry-looking Twilight suddenly appearing in front of her.
“‘Does it matter’?! Of course it matters! Proper organisation and order are the key to a happy life! When you bake a cake, you don’t just use soap when you can’t find any flour! When you’re eating dinner, you don’t just grab food from another plate because yours is empty!”
“Uh, Twilight?” Spike asked, grabbing the purple Unicorn’s attention. “Dinner?”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she quickly rushed back to the kitchen as she realised she had left the stove on. “Man, what a neat freak,” Trixie commented, stifling a giggle as she watched Twilight frantically dancing around the kitchen to make sure that nothing had burned in her absence.
“I have to agree with her on this, though,” Spike said. “Don’t use my towel. I don’t want Trixie germs on it.”
Trixie scowled at the baby dragon, who went back to innocently reading his comic book. “Hmph. Trixie is willing to bet you don’t use that towel, anyway,” she said with a grin on her face. “You’re probably still at the age where you hate taking your bathy-wathies, aren’t you?”
“Get real!” Spike shouted. “I got over that years ago!”
“He actually spends more time in the tub than Twilight does,” Kero said. “It’s really annoying. That’s why we always go first.”
“Hey, at least I can actually wash myself. You have to have baths with Twilight like a little kid.”
“It’s not like I can help it! This form was only meant to conserve energy, it’s not designed for daily living!”
“Wait,” Trixie interrupted, looking over at Kero. “You bathe with Sparkle?” Kero nodded. “And, she’s okay with that?”
“Well, I guess… I mean, if I was a pony, obviously it would be weird, but-”
Trixie’s glare cut him off, and he flinched as he felt himself being lifted off of the ground by her magic. The showmare continued to glare as a burning anger filled her mind. ‘Why am I getting so worked up over this? If she wants to let this little plush toy bathe with her, that’s her own business! But…’
“H-Hey! Lemme go, brat!”
A vein popped in Trixie’s head, and her anger intensified. To the point that Spike could actually see flames starting to form around her, and backed away in fear. “You smell,” Trixie said. “Come. The Great and Powerful Trixie shall allow you to bathe with her.”
“Eh? I don’t wanna! I’m in the middle of a boss battle!”
“Don’t care!” Trixie shouted, walking up the stairs with Kero in her magical hold, flailing and struggling to get free. ‘What am I doing? If it was Fluttershy, it’d make sense, but this is Twilight.’
‘Well, at least the dinner isn’t so bad,’ Trixie thought to herself as she sample the food prepared for her by Twilight. ‘I’d still prefer to eat my own food, in my trailer…’ Trixie glanced over at the window one more time, and furrowed her brow as she saw just how fast the snow was falling. “Why the hay was a blizzard even scheduled here, anyway?”
Twilight shrugged as she levitated her glass of water to her lips to take a drink. When she was done, she moved it away to answer verbally. “I didn’t even know there was a blizzard tonight, so I can’t say I know why there’s one. Maybe they messed up over at the weather station or something? Of course, if they had let me take a look at their scheduling, that would never happen…”
“This doesn’t feel right,” Kero said, looking down at his plate of food with a serious look on his face.
“If you need to throw up, do it away from Trixie. She just finished bathing, remember?”
“Not the food!” Kero shouted. “This snow… I don’t think it’s natural.”
“You mean, it’s a Clow Card?” Twilight asked. “But I don’t sense anything.”
“Neither does Trixie,” Trixie added.
“You’re both still exhausted from your battle with Firey. Besides, the Clow Cards are aware of you now, remember? It’s possible that this one is being stealthy right now, but… it’s definitely there. I can sense it, just about.”
“Oh, great,” Spike said as she brought his hands to his face. “This isn’t gonna result in Twilight being injured again, right?”
“The Snow is an aggressive card by nature,” Kero said, much to the dismay of the group. “However, it’s weaker than some of the cards we’ve faced thus far. We should be fine, but I suggest we dress warm before heading out there to confront it.”
A knock at the door startled everyone. Twilight got up and approached the door cautiously, wondering to herself who could possibly be visiting in such weather. Trixie put up her guard, taking out her key and charging magic into her horn as Twilight opened the door.
“Oh my, what a dreadful blizzard!” Rarity shouted as she ran inside, shaking her head to get the snow out of her mane. She was wrapped in many scarves, and was wearing a thick coat up to her chin. “Thank you for letting me in, Twilight.”
“N-No problem,” Twilight said, shutting the door to keep the cold out. “But, why are you-”
“Ah, well, I noticed the odd weather we were having, and even I could guess that this must have been the work of a Clow Card!” Twilight and Trixie deflated a little at that, neither of them having reached that conclusion themselves. “And so, I figured that the two of you would need something warm to wear when you’re out there capturing it! And so, I picked up the pace a bit, and finished my latest designs, based off of the Firey card!”
Rarity opened the saddlebag that she was carrying, and pulled out two pairs of clothing for everyone to see. “May I present to you, the newest in winter fashion, soon to spread across the entire Country!”
Out of the bag came two thick coats, both of which were orange and red. It was clear they were designed to look like raging fires. “Wouldn’t regular coats work just fine?” Trixie asked.
“These have been specially designed by yours truly, to make it feel as if it were still summer outside, even on the coldest of days!” Rarity explained in a proud voice. “With these, there’ll be no need to pay expensive heating bills through the long, harsh winters, and foals will have no problem playing outside, even during raging blizzards such as this!”
“Except, y’know, the fact that they won’t be able to see anything,” Kero pointed out.
“… Okay, so I missed one minor detail,” Rarity said with a sheepish look on her face. She saw Trixie trying one of the coats on, and waited with anticipation for the verdict.
“… Oh Celestia! Sparkle, quick, turn off that damn heater!” Trixie said, her breathing getting faster and her body producing sweat as she began to fan herself with her forehoof. “W-What the hay did you make these out of?!”
“I’m glad you asked!” Rarity said in a cheery tone. “My oh-so-generous Spike-wikey was kind enough to donate some of his dragon scales to me. I recall in Twilight’s books that dragon scales have magical properties, and that they change according to their environment. For example, they heat up in cold environments.”
“Ooh, I see!” Twilight said, examining the other coat with intrigue. “That’s so clever! You could make a fortune off of these, and nopony would be able to copy you, because dragons aren’t exactly commonplace in Equestria.”
“OH GOD, WATER, WATER!” Trixie shouted, holding her just-summoned wand into the air and pulling out a Clow Card. “Watery!”
“Trixie, wait-” Twilight’s warning came too late, as soon, a large volume of water poured out onto Trixie. The showmare let out a relieved sigh at the refreshing torrent of water hitting her face, whilst Twilight used her magic to quickly shield her books against the water, and Rarity used hers to shield her mane.
“Well, the coats work,” Trixie concluded as the water stopped pouring out of the card. Twilight and Rarity gave disapproving glares, but they didn’t last long before Trixie pointed at something behind them. “We should hurry up! We’re almost snowed in!”
Twilight turned around, and noticed the thick layer of snow still building up outside. “Rarity, I think you’d better stay here. You only made two of these, after all.”
“The brat could stay here,” Kero suggested, much to Trixie’s annoyance.
“No, Twilight’s right,” Rarity said with a sigh. “Very well, just… make sure you come back safe, alright?”
“We will,” Twilight said with a warm smile to her friend. Trixie felt strange seeing the other Unicorn’s smile, and almost zoned out, before Twilight turned to address her. “Let’s go, Trixie.”
“… Yeah,” was all that Trixie said in response, before making her way towards the library door. The others looked at her with puzzled looks, with the exception of Kero, who had floated up to Twilight.
“I’ll have ta stay here too. Sad as it is ta say, without Firey, I can’t protect myself against Snow. So, here’s some advice before ya go out. Keep on your guard. Snow will attack you from all sides, and splitting up will do you no good. Stay together, and wait for an opening.”
Twilight nodded. “Got it. Thanks, Kero.” After putting her coat on, Twilight followed behind Trixie, and the two left the library together, stepping outside into the snowy wasteland that was once Ponyville.
Twilight and Trixie trudged through the rapid blizzard that had taken over the small town of Ponyville, Shield to protect their eyes and Float to hover just above the snow, to avoid tripping over their own hooves.
“Man, it’s loud out here!” Trixie shouted.
“What did you say?!” Twilight shouted back, turning to face Trixie.
“What did you say?!” Trixie asked, stopping along with Twilight.
“I can’t hear you! It’s too loud!”
“What?!”
“Hold on!” Twilight reached into her coat’s pocket, and pulled out a Clow Card. “Bring peace and quiet around us! Silent!” Touching her wand to the card, a bright light filled the area. A moment later, all was silent. Completely silent. Which was a little bit of a disorientating experience, after everything just being so loud that you couldn’t even hear yourself think. “There! Much better!”
“You don’t need to yell,” Trixie said, covering her ears and glaring at Twilight, who had a sheepish grin on her face.
“Oops. Sorry.” She put the Silent card away. “Now, what were you trying to tell me?”
“Trixie was just pointing out how loud it was. What were you trying to say?”
“I was trying to ask you what you were saying…” The two stood in complete silence for a second, before deciding to continue on through the blizzard. “W-Well, at least now we can talk to each other.”
“Yippee,” Trixie said with obvious sarcasm in her voice. “Hopefully we’ll find Snow soon, then Trixie can capture it, and we can go back to the library for some hot cocoa.”
“I don’t have any cocoa,” Twilight said.
“Ugh, what a terrible host you are.”
Twilight turned to Trixie and frowned. “Hey, we only just got back from Appleoosa earlier today! It’s not like I’ve had much of a chance to go shopping for your needs!”
“Well, maybe if you spent less time arguing with Kero about divinations and actually doing it…”
“Divinations are not scientifically possible!” Twilight argued. Trixie rolled her eyes, and covered her ears with her hooves. “Predicting the future is not possible, even with the highest level magic! Even Princess Celestia isn’t able to predict the future!”
“It’s not ‘predicting the future’, it’s divination! And trust Trixie, it works!”
“Trust you? Oh, okay, maybe I will. If you can tell me something.”
“Shoot.”
“What’s with that manepin you always wear?” Trixie remained silent after that. “I can sense some kind of strange magic coming from it! Now what is it?”
“That’s none of your business!”
“It is when it affects my friends! I saw the way Rarity acted different to your show that one time! Especially when you compare it to how she reacted to your show before!”
“Maybe she just developed good taste?”
“Trixie!”
A loud howl interrupted the two, and they both turned to find a large torrent of icicles flying towards them.
“Look out!” Twilight shouted as she reached inside her pocket. “Earthy!” Before the icicles could hit them, a large mound of earth rose up from the ground, and acted as cover for the two Unicorns.
“Hah! It’s mine now!” Trixie shouted as she reached into her own coat’s pocket. She ran around the cover, and faced the direction that the icicles had come from. There, she saw a light shining in the distance, in the shape of a pony. “Gotcha. Firey!”
“Wait!” Twilight shouted, but it came too late. A strong blast of fire came out of Trixie’s card, and soon, the entire area was up in flames. Twilight watched in horror as the town she lived in burned the ground. “N-No way… How could you-” She stopped when the flames started to die down. As expected, the snow around them had melted, and the blizzard in the air had also ceased. However, much to her surprise, the town itself was intact. They were standing in the town square, with a mare in a blue-white kimono kneeling before them, charred and breathing heavily.
Trixie harrumphed. “You didn’t think the Great and Powerful Trixie would torch a town, just to capture one card, did you?”
Twilight frowned at that. “So you would torch a town for more than one card?”
“… Don’t twist Trixie’s words. Now then, we’re not done just yet.” Trixie walked up to the mare still kneeling on the ground, and raised her wand into the air. “Return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!”
Swinging her wand down, the mare was sucked up into it, returning to her card form, which then drifted into Trixie’s hoof.
“… Guess that one’s yours,” Twilight said with a sigh. ‘Huh? That’s odd. I usually don’t care which of us captures them.’
“Was there ever any…” Trixie trailed off as she began to feel herself getting warmer. Then hotter. Then burning. Her breathing increased quickly, and she felt herself dripping with sweat. “T-These damn coats! Didn’t Rarity say they would cool down in warmer weather?!”
Twilight felt the same effect as Trixie, and quickly fumbled about with her coat to get it off. “T-They must be malfunctioning! I can’t get it off!”
“Damnit!” Trixie reached into her pocket, and pulled out a card.
“No! Don’t!”
“Watery!” Twilight ran over to try to stop her, but it was too late. Moments later, a large torrent of water hit them both, washing them down the streets of Ponyville. They only stopped when they both crashed horn-first into the library, both of their horn stuck into the side of the building as the water started to drain away. Twilight crossed her forelegs, and looked up at Trixie with a disapproving frown. “… Totally worth it.”