If there was one thing Twilight Sparkle could take from her experience sharing a body with Trixie, it was the unique opportunity to study the differences between unicorns with similar talents. It was common knowledge that each unicorn’s magic manifested in ways connected to their special talent, but now Twilight was learning that said magic operated differently on a much deeper level. Her initial trouble in using magic while controlling Trixie’s body wasn’t because the showmare had less potential power than Twilight; in fact, Trixie had more than enough power to fuel most of the spells Twilight knew by heart. The difficulty stemmed from the fact that Trixie’s magic felt different from Twilight’s; the studious unicorn struggled to find the words as she wrote her notes in between attempts to cast the spells Trixie was drilling her on, but eventually she decided to compare her magic to squeezing a bottle of mustard, requiring focus and effort to output the required energy, whereas Trixie’s magic felt more like pouring out a cup of water, requiring more attention to keeping the magic from “spilling” out of the spell and going to waste. Trixie hadn’t understood the analogy, but Twilight chalked that up to not having to learn to master another’s talent.
Once Twilight formed the mental concept of how Trixie’s magic worked, it took her only a few minutes to make the illusion spell work to her and Trixie’s initial satisfaction. The result was to make Trixie’s blue-coated and silver-haired body a dead-ringer for Twilight’s lavender body, down to the colors and style of her mane and tail and, most importantly, her cutie-mark. The only issue was that Twilight had to keep part of her attention on maintaining the illusion to keep it intact. ‘That is a detail we’ll have to work on,’ Trixie noted, feeling the fatigue from using so much magic despite not being the dominant mind at the moment, ‘Have you honestly never tried illusion magic before now?’
Never got around to it, Twilight responded mentally, It’s going on top of the to-do list after this though.
“Wow Twixie, that’s amazing!” Twilight turned her head to smile at Spike, who was standing just outside the kitchen door admiring the now-lavender unicorn, “I bet I couldn’t tell the difference if you stood next to the real thing.”
“Thanks Spike,” Twilight said. She took another second to admire herself before letting out a tired sigh. “I think it’s high time I took a-” She was interrupted by a faint, all-too familiar cry of “Incoming!” followed by rainbow blur entering the library through one of the higher windows and crashing into a wall, shaking the giant tree enough to dislodge a number of books from their places. Twilight groaned as she refocused on the illusion spell; she didn’t even need to look to know that Rainbow Dash had already picked herself up and was giving the unicorn her usual sheepish post-crash grin. That meant the cyan pegasus had seen her looking “normal,” so dropping the illusion would be a bad idea. “Can I help you?” Twilight asked, looking toward Dash. Please let this be a quick visit, she added mentally.
Rainbow Dash dug at the floor with a hoof for a second, clearly uncomfortable, and not just because of the angry look Spike was shooting her. “Um,” she said at last, “Have you seen Pinkie Pie lately?”
“Not since yesterday,” Twilight answered.
“When exactly?” Dash asked, regaining some of her normal attitude.
“Some time in the afternoon,” Twilight said, thinking back, “Why? Is this…” she paused for a moment. Pinkie hadn’t said anything about not telling Dash about the Gilda surprise, but Twilight wasn’t sure if she could deal with the pegasus’s reaction if this turned out to be the first she’d heard about it. Still, beating about the bush was not something Twilight was very good at; that was probably a big reason she was so bad at keeping secrets. Deciding to just go for it, she took a breath and asked, “Is this about Gilda lurking around Whitetail Woods?”
Dash nodded. “Pinkie told me a little about the welcome surprise she’s trying to set up,” she said, “At first I thought that was cool. But while I tried to go to sleep last night, I started worrying. I’d love it if Gilda and I could be friends again, but… well, you remember what she was like when she came to town last time.” Twilight just nodded. Dash continued talking, but as she went on about her concerns that Gilda hadn’t actually changed, that she might just be looking to make trouble, and how those worries were making Dash question if was ok to feel loyalty to someone who’d been a jerk, the effort of maintaining the illusion spell started catching up to Twilight and her focus began to fade. She didn’t realize that Dash had stopped talking until the rainbow-maned pony walked over and gave her an impatient poke on the shoulder. “Hey, are you ok?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh, sorry,” Twilight said, blushing, “What were you saying?”
Dash snorted and backed up a few steps, “I was asking if you had any advice. You know, from one of your friendship reports or something?”
“Oh, well,” Twilight said, trying to think through the fog of fatigue, “I… Well, I’ve never had to fix a…” She shook her head, trying to clear it out enough to form a complete thought.
‘Don’t you dare pass out on us Twilight Sparkle!’ Trixie shouted, wishing she could do something to help keep the other unicorn awake.
“If you want my advice,” Spike said, “I’d let Pinkie go ahead with her plan and see how Gilda reacts.” He gave Twilight a wink and subtle nod toward the stairs as Rainbow turned her attention toward him. The unicorn just gave him an odd look, not catching the hint.
‘Get out of here you fool!’ Trixie hissed, ‘Before you collapse and drop the spell!’
Huh? Oh… right, Twilight responded, having enough mental power left to remember to keep the reply silent. She began to turn away while Spike kept Rainbow occupied, but lost the fight against exhaustion before she took two steps.
Trixie found herself in control of a body that started to go limp, only to catch itself a split second later in a stumbling shuffle of hooves. She bit her lip and froze, hoping Dash hadn’t heard anything. Her gaze slid toward the pegasus and locked onto a pair of rose-colored, suspicion-narrowed eyes. Twilight… Trixie thought as she and Dash continued to look at each other, Please tell me you’re awake already. There was no response from the other unicorn’s mind; Trixie had to face the Rainbow alone. “Hello,” she said with just the right amount of pleasantness for her stage persona.
“What the hay are you doing here?” Dash asked, instantly belligerent, “What happened to Twilight?” Trixie stood her ground, but blinked furiously, partly in surprise and partly in the vain hope that she could drag Twilight into the controlling position so she could calm her friend down. There was no luck on that front, so Trixie fell back on the tried-and-true performer’s back-up plan: improvising.
“I honestly do not know where Twilight popped away to,” she said, grabbing her hat and cape with her magic, “As for me, I was just leaving.”
“Oh no,” Dash said, going into a hover and shoving her face right up next to Trixie’s, “Twilight wouldn’t just teleport away in the middle of a talk. Besides, I know what her teleport spell sounds like, and I didn’t hear it. All I heard was…” She trailed off and backed away as she was struck by a realization. “You,” she said, pointing an accusing hoof at the blue unicorn, “You were pretending to be Twilight just now, weren’t you?”
“What possible reason would the Great and Powerful Trixie have to do such a thing?” Trixie replied, eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.
Behind Dash’s back, Spike raised a claw and opened his mouth to speak, but the pegasus fired off her retort first. “I don’t know,” she said sarcastically, “embarrass her, ruin her reputation, try and make her as big a laughingstock as you are?”
“Trixie is no laughingstock,” the showmare hissed, “just because all you insular little ponies in this backwater of a town can’t appreciate the wonder that is Trixie-”
“Shut up!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “I don’t have time for any of your lame boasting. What did you do with Twilight? You know what?” she added as Trixie and Spike tried to speak, “Don’t answer; I know you’ll just lie. I’ll find her myself.” Without another word, she zoomed away toward the stairs, the wind from her passing knocking Trixie’s hat out of her telekinetic grip.
“Just great,” Trixie muttered, dropping her cape and focusing on teleporting to Twilight’s room to head off the irate flying pony. Her horn sparked and flared a few times before the aura died away completely; her magic hadn’t recovered enough from Twilight’s efforts to allow for teleportation. Grumbling, Trixie galloped up the stairs and into Twilight’s room, arriving just in time to see Rainbow Dash starting to lift Twilight’s unoccupied body from the bed. “Stop at once!” Trixie shouted, leaping up to the sleeping alcove, “you don’t know what you’re doing!” She tried to wrap the lavender unicorn in a magic grip, but Rainbow Dash cut her off with a kick that sent her tumbling out of the alcove. Trixie hit the floor hard and lay there stunned, eyes rolling as Rainbow got a better hold on Twilight’s body and fluttered out the window with it. With much effort and some painful wincing, Trixie picked herself up and then climbed back into the alcove to look out the window. She made it just in time to see Dash’s tail disappear around the side of the tree, and she pounded the window sill in frustration. “Stupid pegasus,” she muttered as she climbed back down, “I am not going to let you get away from me!” After some quick stretching to make sure she wasn’t too badly hurt from the fall, the pale blue showmare galloped down the stairs, past a worried and confused Spike, and out into the street. A quick scan of the sky revealed a rainbow contrail leading toward the middle of Ponyville, giving Trixie cause to smile slightly as she galloped off in pursuit.
Several blocks later, a moaning echo alerted Trixie to the fact that Twilight was returning to consciousness. ‘What’s going on?’ the librarian asked, seeing that they were no longer indoors.
“You’ve been kidnapped,” Trixie replied, keeping an eye on the fading rainbow streak in the sky.
‘Kidnapped?’ Twilight asked, confused, ‘Why? Where are you taking me?’
Trixie rolled her eyes. Let me rephrase that, she said mentally so as not to attract more stares than she already was, your body was stolen and I’m trying to catch up to the pegasus who did it.
‘What pega…’ Twilight began, and then stopped as pieces started to fall into place in her mind. ‘Rainbow Dash,’ she said, sounding weary, ‘My disguise fell apart right in front of her, didn’t it? What did you do?’
Nothing at all! Trixie said defensively, She jumped to conclusions, kicked me, and flew off with your body before I could get four words out. I seriously doubt she would’ve listened to reason anyway. Not coming from the Great and Powerful Trixie anyway.
Twilight sighed and traced the rainbow contrail as best she could when Trixie glanced at it. ‘There’s a good chance she’ll take me to the medical tent,’ she said, ‘We’re heading in that general direction anyway.’
Well, since you know where that is and I don’t, I’ll let you take over. She blinked control over to Twilight, who immediately tripped and somersaulted several feet down the road, ending up on her back covered in road dust and an aching nose.
“Ow,” Twilight said, rubbing her nose, “Next time, slow down before we switch.” Trixie muttered an apology as the bookish unicorn glanced at the fading rainbow contrail in the sky and then leapt back into a gallop. Although she had a good guess where Rainbow Dash was heading, Twilight did her best to stay ahead of the contrail’s fading end just in case the pegasus had decided to do something unexpected. So focused on the sky as she was, she didn’t realize she’d entered the marketplace and nearly collided with Applejack until the orange farm-mare brought her to a stop by grabbing her tail.
“Now, just where are you rushing off to?” AJ asked, giving the blue unicorn a suspicious look as the latter picked herself off the ground once again, “It wouldn’t have anythin’ to do with why I just saw Rainbow Dash flyin’ by with Twilight hangin’ from her like ragdoll, would it?”
‘Oh of course,’ Trixie said with pure sarcasm, ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’s in town, so everything out of the ordinary must be her fault!’
She’s correct this time, Twilight pointed out flatly. She mulled over her options for handling this new confrontation, she’s a bit biased, so being honest might not… wait. Applejack is the Element of Honesty! She’ll know it isn’t a trick if I explain. She realized that Applejack was waiting impatiently for a response and opened her mouth to give it, only to be interrupted by a gust of wind announcing Rainbow Dash’s arrival on the scene.
“The jig’s up Trixie,” the pegasus declared, “Twilight’s in the doctor’s care, and I’m on to your little plan.”
“What plan?” AJ asked, looking between the two ponies.
“Messing with Twilight’s image,” Dash announced, clearly wanting to make a scene, “She put Twilight in a coma so she could take her place and…” she trailed off as she tried to think of a good way to spoil a reputation. Twilight saw her chance and took it.
“There’s no ‘plan’ Applejack,” she said. The farm-mare blinked in surprise at hearing her friend’s voice come out of Trixie’s mouth. “Trixie simply-”
“Oh no,” Dash said, interrupting the unicorn by shoving a hoof in her face, “Don’t even try using that voice-change trick.” She exchanged her hoof for pushing her face right up against Twilight’s, forcing the mare to take a few steps back. “Why’d you even bother coming back here anyway?” she asked, “All you do is cause trouble and mess with my friends! And this time… this time you took advantage of Twilight! Don’t think I haven’t heard how she protected you when you tried putting on your stupid show yesterday. How could you stoop so low?” Twilight’s mouth hung open under the onslaught of accusation. She knew she had to speak up to explain everything and defend Trixie, but she couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
‘Twilight,’ Trixie’s mental voice sounded worried, ‘Look around.’ Twilight complied, casting her eyes left and right. A crowd of ponies was gathering around to watch Rainbow berate the unicorn, and none of them were looking very happy. ‘This is starting to look like a mob,’ the showmare said.
What do we do? Twilight asked.
‘Simple, just give me control.’ Twilight blinked. “Good,” Trixie muttered, taking a defensive stance and glancing around, “and now…” She reared back, waving her front hooves dramatically, and then cast a smokescreen spell and teleported away.