//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Of Two Minds 
// by CTVulpin 
//------------------------------//

	“Tell me good news,” Trixie said to Spike as she stepped behind the stage curtain.  She glanced at her back and added, “And Twilight, how do I get rid of these wings?”
‘They’re made from gossamer and morning dew,’ Twilight said, ‘Like I said before, they’re fragile.  Oh, and they burn off rather easily.’
“Burn?” Trixie said, glancing at Spike, who was unrolling the scroll in his hands.  “Could I bother you for some flame?” she asked him, “On the wings,” she added when he gave her an odd look.
“Sure thing Twixie,” Spike said with a malicious-looking smirk.  He spat out a jet of green fire that pierced both of the iridescent wings, which quickly disintegrated into ash.
“Thank you,” Trixie said, placing her cape onto her back and fastening the clasp, “I feel much more like myself now.”
“That’s either a good thing or a bad thing, and I ain’t sure which I’d prefer.”  Trixie turned around to see Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie standing just inside the curtain.
“I assume you’re here to thank Trixie?” the showmare asked.
“As a matter of fact,” Applejack said, throwing up a leg to stop Dash from charging, “yes, we are.  We certainly coulda handled those griffons on our own, but you saved us more than mite bit of time and pain gettin’ the job done.  That said,” she added, cutting off Trixie’s preening, “I think ya owe us some explanations, right?” she looked at Dash, who nodded emphatically, and Pinkie, who was keeping a neutral look on her face.
“You can start by telling us why you’ve got Spike with you,” Dash said, pointing at the baby dragon.
Trixie also cast a glance at Spike.  “She’s on her way?” she asked simply.
“Yeah,” Spike said, scanning the letter.
“Good.”  Twilight, the showmare said mentally, these are your friends.  You should explain everything.
‘I agree,’ Twilight said, ‘Thank you.’  Trixie blinked and Twilight took control of the body.  She looked at each of her friends in turn before settling on Pinkie.  “You don’t have to keep the secret anymore Pinkie,” she told the pink pony.
“Okie dokie Twilight,” Pinkie replied, her customary grin spreading across her face.
“Pinkie,” Dash said, giving Pinkie a sideways glance, “Don’t tell me she’s got you fooled with that voice trick.”
“It’s not a trick silly,” Pinkie said.
“Rainbow,” Twilight said, “Please stop jumping to conclusions and just listen.”  She looked at Applejack next and said, “AJ, I hope you’re willing to keep an open mind, because I’m going to need you to be true to your Element.”
“How do ya know about me being an Element of Harmony Trixie?” the farm-pony asked.
“Because,” Twilight said, “the pony talking to you right now isn’t Trixie.  I’m Twilight Sparkle.”  Rainbow groaned and dragged her hooves down her face, while Pinkie simply smiled and nodded.  Applejack’s jaw dropped slightly as she stared at the unicorn mare in front of her.
“Give it up,” Rainbow said, “you’re not going to convince-”
“She’s tellin’ the truth,” AJ said in amazement.
“What?” Dash exclaimed.
“I can sense it,” the orange earth pony said, “She was tellin’ the honest-ta-pony truth.  That’s our Twilight standing there.”
“But… how?” Dash asked, “She was Trixie a minute ago!  And Twilight’s in the hospital right now, comatose!”
“That’s just her body Dashie,” Pinkie said, “Her mind’s hanging out in Trixie’s head right now.”  Dash glanced between Pinkie and twilight repeatedly with a look of pure confusion on her face.
“You knew about this Pinkie?” Applejack asked, “Why ain’t you said anything before now?”
“Pinkie Pie Swear,” Pinkie and Twilight answered at the same time.
“Oh.”
“I, well, Trixie and I were hoping to fix this before anypony could find out,” Twilight said, and then gave Dash a flat look.
“How’d this happen anyway?” Applejack asked.
“Well,” Twilight began, only to be interrupted by a thought from Trixie.
‘May I take this?’ the showmare asked, ‘It was my fault, so I should take responsibility for it.’
“Trixie’s going to answer the question,” Twilight told her friends, “just a second.”  She blinked and surrendered control to Trixie.
“After Twilight came to my aid,” the showmare explained, “We talked for a while and I convinced her to have a little contest with me, to test our performance skills against one another.”
“Pffft,” Rainbow said, barely holding in a laugh, “Twilight putting on a magic show?  I’d like to see that.”
‘I wouldn’t have been that bad…’ Twilight thought grumpily.
“To try and even the odds,” Trixie continued, warming up to the story, “Trixie attempted a spell to transfer our minds into one another’s bodies, so that Twilight would have to work around Ponyville’s… bias against me and I would have had a disguise that would allow me to actually perform without the fear of flying fruit pre-empting me.  However, the spell didn’t quite work…”
“Shoot, that doesn’t sound like much fun,” Applejack said, “So, uh, I hope y’all don’t mind me askin’, but what’s it like?”
“It took some getting used to,” Twilight said, taking control again, “but it hasn’t been all that bad.  Still, the sooner Princess Celestia gets here with the spell to put me back in my own body, the better.”  She walked past her friends and poked her head through the curtain to look around.  Her eyes fell on the limp form of Gilda and she frowned slightly.  “Well,” she said, “hopefully she doesn’t get here too soon.  What will she think if she sees this?”  She gestured out at the messed-up marketplace and the eight hog-tied griffons as Pinkie, AJ, and Dash joined her out on the stage.  As if in answer to Twilight’s question, a large ball of white light began to appear in the middle of the street.  The ponies who had just started to clean the place up stopped their work and stared at the light until it grew to bright to look at.  With a sudden flare and a warping noise, the light vanished, revealing Princess Celestia, along with a small entourage.  Besides the usual pair of statuesque white pegasus Guards, she was joined by a slightly dazed-looking ash-grey unicorn with a red-and-orange mane and tail styled to resemble flames wearing a necklace made of gemstones and a pair of saddlebags.
“Next time,” the ash-grey unicorn said, blithely ignoring the ponies around him, “I run the teleport spell.  Assuming I can set up a proper way-point before we leave.”
Celestia cast a glance at the unicorn before looking around the marketplace with a genial smile on her face.  “My little ponies,” she said, “Please, get up and go about your business.”  As the crowd stood up and resumed cleaning up the mess.  Celestia made her way toward the stage, avoiding the debris in her way with perfect grace.  Her smile faded briefly as she saw the trussed-up griffons, but by the time she reached the panicked-looking Twilight/Trixie, the smile was back.  “It looks like you’ve had a bit of excitement here,” she said.
“I suspect that’s an understatement,” the ash-grey unicorn muttered as he joined the Princess.
“Oh,” Twilight said, rubbing her head, “Just… just an average day in Ponyville really.”  She grinned widely at Celestia, and the ash-grey unicorn snorted in amusement.  “So,” Twilight continued, looking at the unicorn, “Why did you bring Ashen Blaze Princess?”
“Because,” Ash said, “It is I who constructed the spell which shall restore the fair Twilight Sparkle to her original body.”
“And since he designed the spell,” Celestia added, “he’s currently the only one capable of casting it.  Now, shall we proceed?”
“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, jumping down from the stage and looking at Ash expectantly.
“Yes, right,” Ash said, looking uncomfortable at the attention, “We’ll have to be near your… Twilight’s body.  Sorry, I’m not sure who I’m speaking to.  Can I just call you Twixie for the time being?”  Twilight groaned as Trixie broke down into laughter.
‘Clearly,’ Trixie said through her mirth, ‘the very universe itself has decreed that our combined nickname shall be Twixie.’
“Let’s just get this over with,” Twilight said flatly.  She looked over her shoulder at the stage and asked, “Rainbow, would you mind leading us?”
“Uh, sure,” Dash said, blushing slightly as she hopped down from the stage, “Follow me; we’re keeping it at the hospital.”
“Wait up,” Pinkie Pie said as she and Applejack jumped down as well, “I wanna see this.”  Celestia nodded her approval as Spike trotted out from behind the curtain and jumped down onto Pinkie’s back, and the group made their way out of the market and toward the hospital tent.  They arrived to find Rarity and Fluttershy standing just outside the entrance, talking in low tones.
“‘Scuse us,” Rainbow Dash announced as she approached, “Royalty coming through.”
“Royalty?” Rarity said, disapproval clear in her voice, “Rainbow Dash, what are you- Princess Celestia!”  The white unicorn dropped into a bow, followed quickly by Fluttershy, both of them quivering in different forms of panic.
“Please get up,” Celestia said soothingly, “I’m simply here to lend a hoof with Twilight’s condition.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked, looking up with a small smile, “Oh that’s wonderful.”  Rarity scrambled to her feet and quickly moved the tent flap aside far enough to accommodate the alicorn, although Celestia still had to duck her head slightly to avoid sticking her horn through the ceiling.  As the group filed in behind the princess, Rarity noticed Trixie and narrowed her eyes.
“What is she doing here?” the white unicorn asked.
“Her presence is integral to restoring Twilight,” Ashen Blaze said, locating the cot that Twilight’s body was laying on and trotting over to it, “you know, since Twilight’s mind is currently riding shotgun in her head.  Now,” he continued, ignoring Rarity’s confused reaction and levitating several sheets of paper out of his bags, “Everypony not directly involved in this spell should keep well back.  I need plenty of space in order to set this up right.”  He consulted a paper and then moved an empty cot to sit facing the body’s cot with about four feet between them.  “Twixie,” the ash-grey unicorn said, “lay down there, and make sure the Great and Powerful one is in control.”  Twilight nodded and ceded control to Trixie, who walked over and climbed onto the cot.  “Right,” Ash said, moving on to another paper, “Princess, stand next to Twilight’s body, on her right side.”  He glanced at the dirt floor of the tent, frowned slightly, and then produced a large piece of chalk.  He marked out a rough circle on the floor that encompassed both cots and then began sketching a pattern in the space between the cots.  “If I understand the situation correctly,” he said as he worked, “The reason Trixie’s mind-swap spell failed and trapped both minds in a single body is because magic cannot be used by an unconscious pony, and when one’s mind is separated from their body, they’re technically unconscious.  That’s why the spell has to be used by a third party.  Reversing the effects isn’t going to be as simple as re-casting the mind-swap spell; Twilight and Trixie’s minds are likely intertwined with each other at this point.  I’ll need to remove both minds, and then Celestia and I will help them separate and guide them back into their proper bodies.”  He finished drawing and then looked at the pale blue unicorn.  “Twilight,” he said, “if you can, try to focus on Celestia’s aura.  Trixie, look for me.  That should make things a little easier.  Now, are we ready?” 
“Yes,” Celestia said.
‘Let’s do this,’ Twilight said.
“We’re both ready here,” Trixie reported.
“Good.”  Ash’s horn began to glow, followed by his gemstone necklace.  He traced the pattern on the ground with his eyes and then tapped it with a hoof, causing it to be begin glowing as well.  Backing up to stand next to Trixie’s cot, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate.  A beam of energy stretched out from his horn and wrapped around Trixie’s head.
Twilight had no recollection of the time spent out of her body during Trixie’s spell, so she was quite surprised to discover that she was still awake, in a sense, when Ash levitated her mind out of Trixie’s body.  She couldn’t sense anything in the usual manner, but she was aware of several points of life around her, including one that felt like it was right next to her.  She “looked around” and found she could identify each presence: Pinkie Pie, full of energy but with a curious melancholy beneath it, Applejack, strong and uncomplicated, Spike, somehow smaller and larger than the others at the same time, and a pure, comforting, enormous aura that could only be Princess Celestia.  Recalling Ash’s instructions, Twilight tried to reach toward Celestia’s aura and felt herself slowly draw closer to it.
‘Twilight?’ Trixie’s voice echoed from the aura she was pulling away from, ‘Don’t leave.’
‘I have to Trixie,’ Twilight answered, ‘That’s the whole point.’
‘But…’ Trixie sounded scared, ‘I… I don’t know where to go.  There are so many… people around and I don’t know which one to go to.’
Twilight stopped and returned to the Trixie-aura.  ‘Let me help,’ she said.  She “looked” around again at the auras.  She described each one to help make sure Trixie was “looking” at them too, and put a name to each one.  ‘Elegant but tense: Rarity.  Firm and fiery: Rainbow Dash.  Soothing and disarming: Fluttershy.’  Finally, they focused on an aura that was quite unlike the others.  It didn’t feel like it belonged to a pony, and it seemed to be in slight turmoil; a strong, almost obsessive net of determination that was just barely holding in a darkness tinted with despair.  Trixie recoiled from the aura, but Twilight held fast.  ‘A troubled soul looking for peace by righting wrongs,’ she said, ‘That’s Ashen Blaze.’
'I’d hate to be him,’ Trixie said, ‘with a mind like that…’ she trailed off for a second.  ‘No matter,’ she said, ‘Go to the Princess now Twilight.  I’ll be alright.'  With a mental smile, Twilight drifted away from Trixie and toward the presence of her beloved mentor.


As Twilight stirred, her friends rushed over to the cot on which she lay.  They all held their breaths as the lavender unicorn’s eyes blinked open and focused.  “Twilight?” Rarity asked quietly.
“Hey girls, Spike,” Twilight said smiling up at each of them in turn.  Her smile grew wider as she looked herself over and found everything to be in place- lavender coat, dark-blue-with-pink-highlight mane and tail, star-burst cutie mark…
“How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked.
“I feel fine Fluttershy,” Twilight said, stretching out and rolling off the cot.  Her stomach rumbled and she gave an embarrassed smile.  “And a bit hungry.  How’s Trixie?”
“Trixie is fine,” the showmare said, standing up on her cot as the group turned to look, “It’s good to be alone with my own thoughts again.”
“Welp,” Ashen Blaze said, rubbing out the magic pattern on the floor, “My work here is done.  I’ll see myself back to Canterlot.  Farew-” He was cut off by Pinkie pouncing on him as he tried to leave the tent.
“You can’t leave yet!” the pink pony said, “you’ll miss the ‘Twilight and Trixie are all better now’ party!”
“Yes,” Rarity said, “We simply cannot allow you to leave without a proper thank-you.”
“I believe I have time to enjoy your company,” Celestia said, “provided it’s kept casual.”
“Yipee!” Pinkie said, bouncing in place on top of Ash, “Just give me some time to get Sugar Cube Corner set up.”  She ran off without another word, leaving Ash with a mixture of relief and disgruntlement on his face.
“So Twilight,” the Princess said, turning to look at her student, “Do you have anything to report on the magic of friendship?”
“Uh,” Twilight said, looking around the room and thinking back at the previous days, “Can I… get back to you on that?  I’ve got a lot to sort through.”  Celestia nodded and left the tent.