There were over a thousand of them swarming the skies. Feathered wings gave way to a furious inferno of orange death as the army of abominations flew down on Ponyville, and amidst it all an azure unicorn and her purple-grey apprentice ran to gather their friends.
"This is the last time I have you try to turn apples into oranges!" Trixie yelled.
"It's not my fault I hit the bird!" Dinky responded. "And you're the one that made the crack about orange juice!"
A small squadron of oranges swooped down at them upon hearing that forsaken pair of words.
"I just want to know how it got so many friends!" the filly shouted, ducking under the assault.
Trixie almost tripped as she held down the urge to vomit at the memory. The truth of the matter was that apparently the story of the birds and the bees had never had produce thrown into the genetic mix. It had taken all her power to keep up an illusion that held her apprentice’s innocence, and possibly sanity, in check. "Oh, I'm pretty sure they just magically multiply like parasprites. At least they're too busy attacking us now to bother multiplying any more."
The two continued to canter towards Bon Bon’s Bon Bons, which was the agreed upon post-training place to meet up with the others and relax for a bit. Hopefully, they’d make it there before the orange menace. New magic was whimsically unpredictable at the best of times and maliciously destructive at it’s worst. Given the fact that a pony would have to be mad to find any practical reason to turn a bird into an orange in the first place, Trixie was pretty sure this fell under the category of new and unpredictable magic. There was no telling what bizarre abilities the half-bird, half-orange monstrosities were capable of using against their friends.
Buildings flashed past the two as they sped down roads, no longer talking in an effort to conserve breath. Finally, their target came in sight. Fortunately, it had yet to be barraged by the brutal swarm of Vitamin C they had created.
That was about to change with the swarm’s main targets running up the doorsteps.
“Let us in! Let us in!” yelled Trixie and Dinky, beating on the door with all their might. Oranges dove at the duo, and Trixie barely managed to deflect them back into the air. After firing off a few illusionary fireworks to blind them, Trixie turned back to the door.
“I swear to Luna. If you don’t let us in, I’ll-” The sound of furniture moving in front of the door interrupted her. The door opened to reveal a cannon, of all things, and the manic grin of the hyper, and possibly trigger happy, pink pony behind it.
“Hi guys! You might want to duck!” Pinkie Pie chirped.
Trixie and Dinky happily complied as a shrill voice rang out from the background. “Fire the cannon, Cap’n Pinkie!” A blast of confetti and party streamers soared over their heads driving off the winged beasts, and the two unicorns crawled inside.
…..
The delicious scent of candy filled the duo’s nostrils as they tried to catch their breath. Normally, the room was filled with shelves upon shelves of all kinds of delectable sweets and a small counter to ring up sales in the back. Right now, however, the candy was stacked behind the counter and the shelves were on the floor barricading the rooms inhabitants from anything that might slip through the door. Pinkie Pie was currently wheeling the cannon back into the makeshift trenches, and Ditzy Doo, Lyra, and Bon Bon were armed to the teeth with kitchen utensils. The source of the shrill voice that had ordered the orange’s sugar scented doom stood on top of the counter grinning at them like it was Hearths Warming Eve.
“Hey, Dinky!” he said in a Trotingham accent. “I know we joked about playing army today, but you didn’t tell me you were bloody well going to make one!”
“Hey, Pip.” said Dinky as she got to her feet. Trixie had moved into a huddle with the other elements and was filling them in. “Nice to see you made it... or it would be if there was actually time to hang out like we planned.” A couple of dull thuds sounded against the doorway. “There was a little bit of a problem with today’s training that we still have to deal with first.”
“Ahh... It’s not a big deal,” the colt chuckled. “You more than made it up to me when I got to order that cannon to fire. We’ll just have to drive those scurvy dogs off before we meet up with the others.”
“You do know what causes scurvy, right Pip?” Dinky laughed. “I suppose that’s our best option right now, although, if anypony would know how to stop this, it’s Trixie.”
…..
“What do you mean you don’t know how to stop them?!” Bon Bon hissed quietly. Her brow narrowed, and her ear twitched with agitation. “They’re attacking my livelyhood, and you don’t know how to stop them? Didn’t you learn not to mess with magic you don’t know how to reverse after you turned Lyra into a bear?” Lyra blushed at the memory.
Trixie snorted. “For the last time that wasn’t my fault. It was those stupid translators and you know it.”
“Well then, why don’t you know how to reverse this?” the other unicorn in question enquired. “You’re supposed to be the resident expert on magic.”
“Yeah,” Bon Bon drawled, “I’d hate to have and go tell Twilight the position is finally open.”
“Bon Bon...” Lyra warned. “What have I said about giving others a chance to explain? You can’t just jump down somepony’s throat when they do something you don’t like.”
The candymaker shuffled around on her hooves. “But...”
Lyra shook her head. “No buts.”
It took a few seconds, but Bon Bon finally sighed. “Fine...”
With a nod from Lyra, Trixie began hesitantly. “I don’t know how to reverse this because I had no idea it could happen. The only thing that spell was supposed to do was turn apples to oranges and vice versa. I know how to reverse that.”
“Then why can’t you reverse it now?” asked Ditzy, tilting her head to the side. “It’s the same exact spell, isn’t it?”
Trixie shuffled about uncomfortably. “Sort of...” As her friends’ eyes narrowed into glares Trixie hastily continued. “I didn’t change anything in the spell. It was Dinky!”
“Are you saying you let my daughter simply mess with spells for amusement?” Ditzy’s tone was anything but amused.
“No! It’s just-” The master magician hesitated. “It’s just-” She tried to find the right words for it. “Remember that block Twilight told you Dinky was having with her magic lessons?”
“Yes.” muttered Ditzy, still glaring at Trixie with one eye.
“Well it took me awhile, but after watching Dinky cast magic for a bit I realized the reason she was having difficulty was because she casts magic a bit differently from everypony else.”
“What do you mean she casts differently?” asked Lyra. “As far as I know there’s only a couple ways to cast. Dinky isn’t using song spells, and I know for a fact even you wouldn’t introduce her to the old barbaric method of focuses and fetishes.”
“They used what to cast magic?!” Ditzy sputtered in horror.
“Not that kind of fetish!” Lyra hastily interposed herself between Ditzy and her friend as the mailmare’s muscles tensed. “It’s a kind of magical focus that uses spiritual rather than arcane energy.”
“Oh...” said Ditzy blushing at the misunderstanding. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, she pawed at the ground. “Care to continue?”
“I’m not sure how to describe it honestly,” the azure unicorn said with a rare hint of humility. “Most normal spells will normally have some restrictions and limitations built into them to stop something from going horribly wrong. The original Apple to Orange Spell was like this in that it was meant only to turn apples into oranges, and the only way to bypass these limitations is to send a huge surge of power through them. Only a unicorn as powerful as somepony like Twilight could do that without having to tweak the spell, and, as skilled as she is, Dinky just isn’t that powerful.”
Trixie shook her head. “Dinky is different though. It’s hard to explain, but there are a number of unicorns who simply can’t cast magic when there are limits and binds built into their spells. They function best when their magic is left unfettered and free.”
“Care to say that in a way that isn’t poetically vague?” enquired Bon Bon.
Trixie laughed. “You think I wouldn’t have given one if I could? You of all ponies should have learned from Lyra that magic is as much an artform as it is science. She literally uses music to augment her spells.”
The cream earth pony looked down slightly abashed.
“It is infuriatingly vague though,” said Trixie, sighing. “I asked Luna about it, and she just smiled coyly and gave me an even vaguer answer than I just gave you. You’re getting the condensed version of it. Consider yourself lucky.”
“I’ll consider myself lucky when I’m no longer being attacked by little orange balls that want to beat me into a pulp,” muttered Bon Bon.
“Then it’s a good thing I gave you the short version, because you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you!” retorted the magician with a snicker.
“What do you mean I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me?” asked Bon Bon darkly.
“Well, what we need right now...” Trixie gave a dramatic flourish, “is a distraction!”
“And just what is Bon Bon going to do for this distraction?” asked Lyra stepping between the two.
“Nothing much,” answered Trixie. “She just has to help me whip up a second army of fruit-bird hybrids in the spare lab her mom keeps here.”
“You want me to make a second army?!” sputtered Bon Bon.
“Well, it’ll actually be you and Dinky. I’ll be too busy keeping up a rather complicated illusion up to keep you safe,” said the magician
“From what?” asked Lyra, her eyes narrowing.
“Trust me. You don’t want to know,” said Trixie, her face turning a peculiar shade of green. “Just promise me you’ll burn the lab afterwords.”