Of Two Minds

by CTVulpin

Epilogue

As a result of her role in stopping Gilda’s gang, and Celestia putting in a good word for her, Trixie was able to spend a couple days in Ponyville to re-supply for her trip to Manehatten. However, despite taking the stage to make a formal apology for her rude behavior in the past, the showmare was denied the opportunity to publically rehearse her new act. She made do with practicing out in Whitetail Wood with Twilight, Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash for company. The showmare and the prismatic pegasus continued to butt egos from time to time, but the others were able to keep them in line.

When the day came for Trixie to leave, Twilight and company met up at the edge of town to see her off. “Good luck,” Pinkie said. The sentiment was echoed by Fluttershy, AJ, and Rarity.
“After all you’ve done, you better knock ‘em off their hooves,” Dash said, giving Trixie a challenging smile.
“Thank you,” Trixie said, returning the smile, “I’ll be sure to give you proper credit when I talk about how I saved Ponyville from a marauding army of griffons; you’ll be the fearless defender who held out until Trixie could arrive.”
Dash mulled that over in her mind and then smirked. “Darn right,” she said.
“Of course,” Trixie continued with a mischievous glint in her eye, “it may be more dramatic if you were to die seconds before Trixie could get to you.” Dash’s smug look vanished, the pegasus puzzling over whether that was a good thing or not.
Have a safe trip Trixe,” Twilight said, horn aglow as she floated a scroll toward the showmare. Trixie took the scroll and looked at it curiously. “That’s a copy of the wing-making spell,” Twilight explained, “I thought you might like to have it, just in case someone challenges you to fly again.”
“Oh,” Trixie said, surprised, “Thank you. I’ll put it to good use.” She opened the wagon door and dropped the scroll inside.
“Feel free to stop by if you’re ever in the area again,” Twilight said, “I can’t speak for everypony in town, but my door will always be open for you. And if you still feel you need to test your skills against mine…”
Trixie chuckled. “Oh, don’t you worry about that Twilight Sparkle,” she said, “Having you in my head for over a day has given me more than enough opportunity to come to terms with our differences.” She turned away and stepped up into her wagon. Pausing in the doorway, she looked back with a smug smile and said, “However, the Great and Powerful Trixie never turns down a challenge. If you’re ever itching to prove yourself, I’ll be waiting for you in Manehatten.” She took the last few steps into the wagon, closed the lower half of the door, and turned around to look out at the group. With a final “Farewell!” she activated her horn and guided the wagon down the road.

---

Dear Princess Celestia,
Your student, Twilight Sparkle, has given me a brief overview about her studies on “The Magic of Friendship,” and encouraged me to attempt to write a report of my own. I

If you are reading this, it means I, Trixie, have decided that I have indeed learned some things that I would not mind telling you about.
First, I’ve learned that friendships can arise from the oddest of situations. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration that the time I spent with Twilight in my head is the closest I have ever been to another pony, but even so, she’s the only pony besides my parents I can recall spending time with outside of my stage persona. At times it felt like she was trying too hard to make me happy, but I can tell she can be a reliable anchor when things get rough. She probably had me on her list of friends before I was even willing to consider the possibility.
From Rainbow Dash, I learned that being loyal to one’s friends can occasionally lead to pain and disappointment. It takes a strong heart to be ready to forgive and forget old wounds, but an even stronger one to get through the moments where you realize that those wounds might never heal. I do hope that Dash learned from me and Twilight that true friends never stop giving each other second chances. The griffon, Gilda, may never change her ways, but for Dash’s sake I hope she does.
Lastly, I’ve learned what may be the most important lesson of all: if you want to make a friend, be a friend.

Sincerely,
Trixie

P.S. On behalf of Mr. Proscenium Arch, I’d like to cordially invite you and Princess Luna to the opening night of the Silver Halter’s new season, starring none other than the Great and Powerful Trixie. It would be an honor to perform for you, and this time the show should reach its proper conclusion.

Comments

[blaa6]

Great...but it was missing Twixie shipping. If you could, consider a return with Twixie shipping.

[RTStephens]

229376
Not every story that Twilight and Trixie appear in needs to be shipping. I actually find it satisfying to read a good ol' fashioned friendship story every now and then.

Read through this again and loved it just as much as the first time. Yay for that!

Now I'll await the sequel, with the dastardly Discord coming in to mess with our favorite ponies for a second round. Till then!

[Azlan]

I agree with R.T., no shipping needed.

[MicroChip]

I have to say that I enjoyed this story beginning to end, both of which were done on great notes. I'll be eagerly awaiting any future stories you write!

[Disguised]

This story, it pleases me.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Ah, an old favorite. Saw this on fanfiction.net a while back. Glad I found it here, too.

[bahatumay]

Thirded; shipping is not necessary for a good story.
I liked this one. We had character development done right (gradually, almost imperceptible), good magic, funny chapter endings, and people (?) getting their butts kicked.

[SuperChaosKG]

Clap. Clap. Clap!ClapClapClapClapClapClapClapClapWoohooYouRocKClapClapFavoritedClapClapClap

[Thespurgin]

I agree with the above, as this is technically friend-shipping. That's plenty shipping for me.

[Still Waters]

Very satisfying story! Was pretty pleased with the little twist on the body-swap thing, that it wasn't a clear cut trade bodies. Definitely fun magic, and what felt like a decent look inside Trixie's head! X3

[Emeral Bookwise]

So I hear tell you're looking for feedback? Well you deserve it. A warning though, I can be most longwinded at times, especially about things I really care about. Also, I’m writing this mostly form memory, so please forgive any mix ups. I fully intend to properly revisit this story one day, but right now I’ve got about 40 fics waiting their fair turn in my to read folder.

This right her was the very first of your stories I ever read, and one of the earliest MLP fics I ever read period back in my early days of getting involved with the extended fandom. I loved it, I really did. The only reason I've not commented on it here before is that was several months ago, way back on fanfic.net, and while when I first found it reposted here I made sure to mark it up, I never even thought to speak my mind. Well that changes today!

So anyway, when I first looked this story up I wasn’t looking for much more than a fairly generic Trixie fix, what I found was a rather interesting, and possibly the most unique, twist on the Trixie is back for revenge plot, it would also serve as my back door into world of the Order-naries, more on that later though. One of the aspects that immediately drew me in was how overall cordial Trixie was. Later I would learn that was because most of the typical angst and animosity had already been dealt with in previous installments, but as I’ve said this was my first fic in this continuity. Anyway, on to the good stuff.

The idea of a mind swap to “level” the playing field for Trixie’s proposed competition is just so delightfully poorly thought out, not only in the fact that she hasn’t properly read all the warnings, but also for the fact that there is no way the socially awkward Twilight could compete in a performance based completion while also overcoming Trixie’s status as something of a pariah, though I suppose that Trixie might have on some level been counting on the latter no matter how much she claims to want to play fair.

This of course brings us to the point where things get really twisted around, two unicorns one body. Characters sharing a body and thoughts is always interesting and with the likes of Twilight and Trixie even more so. The bickering banter is played perfectly, and watching them workout the mechanics by which the shared body control work is delightfully well played. It’s also interesting to see the magical prodigy that is Twilight having to relearn the basics of magic and comparing the differences between working with her own never ending fountain of power and Trixie’s more basic abilities. The whole analogy makes one rather worried just how even more terribly wrong things could have gone had the spell worked as planned and Trixie had actually ended up in Twilight’s body.

Things only get more amusingly awkward as Spike gets involved and the pair have to explain what’s going on. His insistence on fusing their names to save him the bother of figuring out who he is addressing, and their mutual reactions was most amusing. Then things go from bad to worse as Rainbow Dash gets involved, and then even worse still when this Trixie’s Revenge fic turns out to actually be a Gilda’s Revenge fic. The way the pair work together to show up and drive off the griffins was inspired. No violence, just Trixie’s normal stage routine backed by Twilight’s more expansive spell list. From the start this fic always felt to me like it could be an actual episode of the show, and straight through to the end it never falters in that respect.

Things wrap-up from there with almost contrived simplicity, but that’s actually a good thing. Far too many fics forget that Twilight always has the option of writing to Celestia in a pinch. From there I meet Ashen Blaze for the first time, though at this point I really don’t have any reference by which to distinguish him from any other generic scholar in Celestia’s employ. In fact, so new to the fandom was I at the time that I largely assumed him to just be just another background pony to which the community had ascribed a name and history, no different than the likes Lyra, Octavia, or Derpy. How wrong I was, but again more on that later.

I could continue to say so much more, but I need to save something for comments on your other wonderful stories, and I’ve probably more than rambled enough anyway. Please never doubt that you are a great, if underappreciated, author, and please always keep up the great work.

[Majk]

This story is a proof that friendshipping is just as good to read about as ordinary shipping. Well written, well planned, well paced, i don't think i encountered a single moment that made me bored/disinterested.
Respect

[Dr Yeis]

This fic was a lot of fun. Kind of like a story similar to the Emperor's New Groove where two people (or ponies) have to work together and along the way learn something new about each other. Of course you have a unique way of doing this type of story. Ok unique is an understatement. But why is this fic so underated? It's worthy of being on my top 5 trixie fics of all time!

[Prince Leviathan]

229376
There's more to shipping than the romantic variety.
There's Friends/Family and Enemies.

But yes, × is