The Ponyville Marketplace was the scene of a stand-off. Broken stalls and ruined food littered the ground between the two groups that were staring each other down. One group was comprised of griffons, with none other than Gilda standing at their head. The other group was led by Rainbow Dash and included Applejack, Big Macintosh, Caramel, Carrot Top, and several members of the weather patrol. The remainder of Ponyville’s population was keeping its distance from the scene, watching from the relative safety of the nearby stores and alleyways between buildings. All those standing in the street showed signs of battle- bruises, black eyes, missing feathers or patches of hair, and Dash was sporting a scratch on her right cheek that was bleeding lightly. The cyan pegasus and Gilda eyed each other in silence for a long time, and then the griffon’s beak quirked upward in a smirk. “Good to see you’ve still got your spunk Dash,” she said, “too bad you’re wasting it defending all these lame ponies.”
“Shut up Gilda,” Dash snapped, “you wouldn’t know real coolness if it came up and bit your tail off.” She flared her wings out and took a few steps forward. “You know, I’ve been beating myself up with worry ever since I heard you were back in the area. I was starting to think you’d changed, that you were here to apologize for being such a jerk to my other friends, and I was going to forgive you!” Tears started to well up in the pegasus’s eyes as she stepped closer to the griffon, but her face was set in an expression of pure anger. “And then… Then you finally show your dumb beak in town with a bunch of thugs at your back, just to prove how big of a bully you really are.” She came to a stop right in front of Gilda, who actually took a step backward in the face of her former friend’s anger. “Get out of Ponyville,” Dash growled, “Get out and take your new friends with you, or so help me…” She let her voice trail off, leaving the threat up to Gilda’s imagination.
The fearful look on Gilda’s face vanished after she took a glance back at her posse of eight griffons. When her gaze returned to Rainbow Dash, she was scowling. Without speaking, she lashed out and grabbed the pegasus in her talons, squeezing just hard enough to start breaking skin before throwing her back toward the group of town defenders. Dash’s back legs hit the ground first and her momentum carried her onto her back. She lay still for several seconds before slowly struggling back to her feet, one wing hanging limp at her side. Applejack was at her side instantly, giving her a body to lean against and glaring death at the griffons across the way. The other ponies tensed, as did the griffons, both groups simply waiting for any excuse to launch into a fight. Just as the tension was about to snap, cries from the east side of the marketplace followed by the sound of rapidly rolling wheels diverted their attention. A small caravan wagon came thundering toward the groups, forcing both to back away and give it space to pass. Those who took the time to focus on more than getting run down thought they saw a blue and purple, manically smiling something on the front end of the wagon before it blew past them. The wagon slowed slightly after it passed the groups and then turned sharply to the right before skidding to a halt a short distance away.
“What in tarnation?” Applejack asked, voicing the confusion of all the ponies, and griffons, as they stared at the contraption. Casting glances at their opponents, the griffon gang and Ponyville defenders slowly approached the wagon, joined by some of the braver spectators.
As they approached, a magically amplified voice rang out as the wagon unfolded into a modestly-sized stage. “Come one, come all,” the voice declared, “Come and witness the wonder that is… The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Fireworks went off, trumpets sounded, and the pale-blue, hat-and-cape wearing showmare appeared onstage in a puff of magical smoke.
“What?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, eyes twitching furiously, “You have got to be kidding me! Why that…” She started to leap toward the stage, only to find herself being restrained by a pull on her tail. She looked back, expecting to see applejack holding on to her and blinking in surprise when she saw it was actually Pinkie Pie, wearing a dangerously serious expression. “Pinkie, what’s the big idea?” the pegasus asked.
“Give ‘er time,” Pinkie said around the mouthful of rainbow-striped tail. Dash tried to protest, but the look on Pinkie’s face brooked no argument. Dash sank to the ground with a sigh and turned her attention to the stage, digging at the ground impatiently with a hoof.
Gilda, not facing any similar restraint from her group, marched up to the foot of the stage and eyed Trixie dangerously. “What’s all this?” she asked.
“Did you not hear the Great and Powerful Trixie?” Trixie replied, her superior attitude cranked to the max, “You are gazing upon the greatest and most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria!” This declaration was greeted by a round of raspberries from the pony group and loud “Boooo” from Rainbow Dash.
‘Easy Trixie,’ Twilight cautioned from her place as the Multiple Mental Occupancy passenger, feeling a slight twitch in Trixie’s face, ‘Stay focused on Gilda.’
I do not need coaching, Trixie snapped back silently, I know how to act! She gave Gilda her smuggest smile and waited for the griffon’s response.
“Great and Powerful huh?” Gilda said, arching an eyebrow, “So what? You’re still just a pony.”
“Just a pony?” Trixie replied in an offended tone, “The Great and Powerful Trixie is more than ‘just a pony,’ my fine feathered friend. The Great and Powerful Trixie wields powers beyond the imaginations of ponykind, and none can boast a greater skill at the vanquishing of monsters. In fact, Trixie stands alone as the only pony to even vanquish the great Ursa Major!”
“Yeah right,” Dash deadpanned, “you’d never even seen an Ursa bef-” she was suddenly muffled by a pair of muffins being shoved into her mouth by a pink hoof.
Gilda cast a glance at the pegasus before looking back at Trixie. “Yeah,” she said, “I’m calling you out on that. There’s no way you fought an Ursa and lived. Even a griffon can’t do that without help.”
“Ah my,” Trixie said in a long-suffering tone, “Always with the doubt and disbelief; such is the life of the Great and Powerful.” She went back to her cocky stance and strode the edge of the stage to look down at Gilda. “You want proof?” she asked.
‘Don’t say anything that might cause them to lure an Ursa Minor into town,’ Twilight warned.
“Then the Great and Powerful Trixie challenges you,” the showmare said without missing a beat, “Anything you can do, I can do better.”
Gilda turned her head to the side and regarded Trixie with a single eye. “Anything?” She smirked wickedly and took flight hovering up to look the unicorn square in the eye. “I can fly,” she said, “beat that.”
Trixie gave Gilda a strange look and then chuckled. “Flying?” she said mockingly, “Is that really all you have to challenge the Great and Powerful Trixie with? Certainly you have some sort of unique-”
“You said ‘anything’ Lame-o Trixie,” Gilda retorted, poking the unicorn’s nose with a talon, “I pick flying, so unless you can grow a pair of wings in the next few minutes, you lose.”
Oh no, Trixie thought, panicking behind her façade, I wasn’t expecting something like this.
‘Really?’ Twilight responded, ‘You’ve never been challenged to fly before?'
Never, Trixie thought, I guess it’s just taken for granted; Unicorns use magic, Pegasi fly, and Earth Ponies… do whatever makes them special. I’ve never had to try something so... ordinary to win.
‘Hmm…’ Twilight thought, racking her memory, ‘There’s a spell I used once that can give wings to non-pegasus ponies…’
Quick, use it! Trixie exclaimed, catching Twilight off-guard long enough to blink-switch with her. Twilight froze up for a brief moment upon finding herself in control, on a stage, and with an annoyed griffon hovering in front of her face.
You could’ve given me a few minutes to remember how to cast it, the unicorn groused to her mental partner. Doing her best to re-claim the image Trixie had been projecting to the audience, Twilight thought back to the day of the Best Young Fliers competition, trying to recall how she’d cast the spell to give Rarity wings. O…kay, she silently said at last, I’ve only done this once before, and it was on a different pony. Brace yourself Trixie. She removed Trixie’s cape, squeezed her eyes shut, and concentrated, imagining the pathways her magic would have to follow and guiding the energy with as much delicacy as she could. Whether due to her previous experience with the spell, or to the relative ease of getting Trixie’s energy to flow, the spell left Twilight feeling less worn-out than she had been after using it on Rarity. When the swirling energy faded from around her, the unicorn looked over her shoulder to see a pair of large, iridescent butterfly wings on her back. There you go Trixie, Twilight thought with a proud smile, put them to good use.
‘Wait,’ Trixie said as Twilight started to blink, ‘The spell will break if we switch, remember?’
It shouldn’t, Twilight thought, I’m not maintaining it. It’s supposed to stay put for a few days, or until the wings break. They’re rather fragile.
‘Very well,’ Trixie said, allowing herself to be pulled into the control position when Twilight blinked. The showmare glanced at her back and saw that the wings were still in place. Satisfied, she looked back and Gilda, and grinned wickedly at the griffon’s shocked expression. Flapping her new wings took almost no thought at all, so Trixie took a confident upward leap and began hovering several feet above the stage. Gilda’s beak, which had already been hanging open, dropped even farther. “That’s right,” Trixie said, crossing her front legs and looking down on the griffon, “gaze in awe at the Great, Powerful, and Airborne Trixie!”
Gilda gaped for a moment before shaking her head and flying up to Trixie’s level. “All right,” she said, “You’ve got the wings, but do you know how to use them?” She turned away and scanned the sky. “There,” she said, pointing to low-hanging cloud, “Think you can beat me to that cloud?”
‘The wings come with cloud-walking,’ Twilight noted as Trixie contemplated the dare.
“First one onto the cloud wins?” Trixie asked, descending to the stage, “Agreed. So long as we start on even footing.” Gilda snorted and alighted next to the unicorn.
“Count us off,” the griffon said, pointing to one of her gang members. That griffon stepped forward and flared his wings up as high as he could. Gilda and Trixie both knelt down in preparation and waited for the signal.
“Ready,” the starter said slowly. Gilda snorted and narrowed her eyes, focusing entirely on the cloud. Trixie smirked and began preparing a spell, grateful that her hat was covering her glowing horn. “Aaaand, go!” The griffon snapped his wings down and Gilda took off like a rocket, leaving a cloud of dust that obscured the sight of Trixie vanishing in a burst of light. The showmare re-materialized on the cloud and scooped some of it up to make a pile to lean against as she smiled smugly at the rapidly-approaching and very angry Gilda.
“You cheater!” the griffon shouted, coming to a stop just inches from the unicorn’s face.
“Cheater?” Trixie protested, trying to calm her racing heart as she kept her face impassive, “In what way did the Great and Powerful Trixie cheat?”
Gilda gave Trixie a look of utter confusion as she tried to find her voice. “You… you teleported,” she said at last.
“Yes,” Trixie said, nonchalant. Twilight, she said mentally, do these wings give me other pegasus skills?
‘I’m... not sure,’ Twilight replied, ‘Why?’
You’ll see, Trixie said, turning her attention back to Gilda, who’d been rendered speechless again by Trixie’s blasé attitude. “Do you have an issue with Trixie’s methods?” she asked in a prompting manner, “Or are you just blowing smoke?”
Gilda’s beak snapped shut and she lashed out with a hand, grabbing Trixie by the neck and dragging her closer. “Don’t toy with me Pixie,” she growled, “you know darn well what I’m talking about.”
“Unhand Trixie,” the showmare demanded, knocking the griffon’s arm aside. She took a step back and made a show of composing herself before settling onto her rump and giving Gilda a flat look. Then, without warning, she jumped up and kicked at the cloud with both hind legs, adding a spark of magic just to make sure the white mass broke apart completely under Gilda’s front legs. Gilda tipped forward into the gap and tumbled through the air with a shriek, hitting the ground before she could recover her balance. “You never specified how we had to reach this cloud,” Trixie shouted down as she peeked over the edge of the cloud at Gilda.
Gilda stood up slowly, shaking her head to clear away the strange chirping sound in her ears and to stop her eyes from spinning. She glared up at Trixie with one eye, and then turned her attention to her cronies, who were looking at her with a mixture of expectation and worry. “What are you goons looking at?” Gilda snapped, “Go teach her a lesson.”
Eight pairs of wings flared open and eight pairs of eagle eyes locked on the hovering blue unicorn in the sky. The griffons jumped into the air and began flying toward Trixie, spreading out to approach from as many angles as possible. Trixie’s irises shrank as she looked around for an avenue of escape or, by some small miracle, somepony coming to help her. As the griffons drew closer, Twilight spoke up, ‘I’ve got an idea. Give me control.’ Trixie complied and Twilight began charging magic. At the last minute, just before the griffons reached her, she forced the magic into a teleport spell and re-appeared on the stage. The griffons back-pedaled, but most of them ended up colliding with each other. Meanwhile Twilight wasted no time in casting another spell. Three long ropes materialized out of thin air and began wrapping around the dazed group, lashing their legs together and tying the whole group into a rough jumble of feathers, fur, and outrage. Twilight took a hold of them in her magic and lowered them gently to the ground before releasing everything and catching her breath.
‘You know,' Trixie said, 'I could have done that.’
Probably, Twilight responded, I don’t mind if you want to claim credit for doing that. Everypony else is going be giving it you. She blinked control back to the showmare and then added, ‘Now you need to make sure Gilda’s going to leave.’ Trixie nodded imperceptibly and took advantage of the twenty-second post-switch period to close her eyes and take a calming breath. When her eyes opened, they locked onto the slightly sagging Gilda, who was trying to maintain her tough look despite the pain from her fall. She opened her mouth to begin taunting the griffon, but was interrupted the sound of a fiery belch from behind the stage curtain. Trixie sighed and cast a glance behind her to see Spike poke his head out from behind the curtain and holding out a scroll. ‘Finally! Princ-’ Twilight began.
Later, Trixie thought sharply, I’ve got a show to finish. “So,” she said aloud, turning back toward Gilda and raising herself up with her wings, “What do you think of the Great and Powerful Trixie now?”
“I still say you’re a lame little cheater,” Gilda growled, limping toward the stage, “All you did was pull a bunch of cheap parlor tricks on me.”
“True, but those tricks took the wind out of your feathers pretty quickly.” Trixie and Gilda both stared in amazement as the speaker, Rainbow Dash, flew up onto the stage and landed next to the showmare. Dash looked Trixie square in the eye and said in a low tone, “I don’t know what your motive is, but I can’t help but admire your courage in coming back.” She gave Trixie a wry grin before turning on Gilda. “Just how cool are you anyway, if ponies like Trixie here can beat you?”
“What?” Gilda asked flatly, eyes narrowing dangerously.
‘Oh great… she provoked her…’ Twilight moaned with an imaginary face-hoof.
“I’ll show you ‘beat!’” Gilda roared, pouncing. Dash flinched and spun around to bring her rear hooves to bear, but Trixie acted faster, conjuring up a small storm cloud in Gilda’s path. A bolt of lightning shot out and hit Gilda in the face, knocking her out. Trixie stepped smoothly to the side as the griffon crashed onto the stage and rolled over once to lie on her back, face blackened and eyes rolling in slow circles.
Trixie gave a derisive snort in Gilda’s direction, and then flared her butterfly wings wide as she reared back and declared, “And thus the Great and Powerful Trixie has once again proven herself to be the greatest in all of Equestria!” She settled back onto all four hoove,s picked up her cape and turned to walk backstage. “Was there ever any doubt?” she asked flippantly.
“Yes,” Rainbow Dash answered emphatically, echoed by several ponies in the audience.
“Ingrates…” Trixie muttered.