Trixie's Return Part 3 · 10:45pm Jun 3rd, 2018
So, Spike decides things can't get any worse unless Trixie starts ragging on him for not following a direct order and gathers up Thunderlane, Time Turner, Cheerilee, Ditzy Doo, and Big Macintosh as requested. At the library everypony is confused over what they're doing there and why they were pulled away from helping the town during all this when Trixie jumps out and starts up a little performance piece.
She's planned it out pretty well for something she came up with in five minutes, producing a bunch of illusions to help explain the history of Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Harmony and where they can be located, and even spinning together a prophecy from thin air about how she's supposed to receive the help of these five seemingly normal townsponies in recovering the Elements and saving the sun. As Trixie comes to an end she asks if there's any questions.
Thunderlane: "Soo... you're saying that the five of us are supposed to help you recover a bunch of legendary artifacts to stop the most evil villain ever to terrorize Equestria? And those artifacts are hidden in the most dangerous forest in the entire realm?"
Trixie: "Yes! Precisely!"
Thunderlane: "I'm outta here."
Trixie attempts to get him to stay but Thunderlane won't hear it. As he explains, Rumble is currently waiting with his foalsitters and in a near panic over what just happened. Thunderlane refuses to go running into the Everfree Forest when his little brother is scared for his life and even more frightened over why a fully armored guard came and took Thunderlane away. Ditzy and Big Macintosh have similar arguments against going into the forest when their loved ones are worried about them, and Cheerilee knows that there's plenty of parents in town that will need help keeping their children calm leading her to leave with the three of them. Time Turner leaves soon after, advising Trixie that she might want to leave searching the Everfree to the professionals like the Royal Guards.
Now at this point Trixie finally explodes. She can't figure out what went wrong as she knows from the future that those five jumped at the chance to find the Elements of Harmony. Then it slowly dawns on her that, in the original iteration of events, their younger family members had been cursed by Nightmare Moon and they needed the Elements to save them. This time around that didn't happen for some reason (as I said though, here things went according to canon. RD didn't get chewed out for failing sky-clearing duty, so was closer to other ponies at the party, and so was stopped by AJ before she could attack Nightmare Moon! Naturally Trixie wouldn't realize this.). Meanwhile Spike is curious about why Trixie is so convinced that would work in the first place. Then Shining Armor shows up wondering what Trixie, Twilight, and Spike are all doing here when he's trying to gather everypony at the Town Square in order to make sure everypony is safe.
Trixie is at a loss. She knows where the Elements are but doesn't have the others that are supposed to help her get them. Spike keeps pressuring her about what she's on about, Shining Armor is trying to get them to drop the conversation and get moving to someplace more defensible, and then something pokes her in the back.
Trixie jumps before realizing it was Twilight asking if she was okay. Trixie tries to brush it off, looking for some way to salvage this scenario, but then Spike notices something. Turns out when Trixie jumped she dropped her hat, and the article she stole from the past fell out! And Spike recognizes what it is the second he picks it up.
Now the situation goes from bad to worse as Spike shows Shining the article, proving what he'd been saying for years. What's more is that the article is as fresh as the night he wrote it, the ink still wet in a few places. At this point, Trixie decides to just forget her plans and runs away.
So Trixie guns for what she sees as her last chance: Getting into the Everfree Forest and finding the Elements of Harmony herself. At the very least then she'll be able to keep them out of Nightmare Moon's hooves. Unfortunately it's not that simple. She's just reaching the edge of the forest when Nightmare Moon herself shows up to greet her at the entrance! Trixie demands she step aside as she's going to find a way to stop her and save Celestia...
At which point Nightmare Moon reveals that she's already found the Elements of Harmony. She'd overheard the last order Celestia gave to her student and so, after making her grand entrance, made sure to cut off that option at the root and went for the Elements as soon as she'd left Town Hall (rather than waiting until somepony else thought to use them against her like in both regular and Flipped canon). Just to drive the point home that things are hopeless, Nightmare Moon smashes the Elements into dust fright there in front of Trixie as well as Spike, Shining, and Twilight who just arrived on the scene before flying off.
Now Trixie finally crumbles, realizing that she's let down not just Celestia but all of Equestria. And yet things keep getting worse as Spike asks her about the article she dropped. Seeing no point in hiding things at this point, Trixie admits to altering history so she could steal the article and explaining about how things were supposed to be. Everyone else is in complete shock. Even Spike isn't sure whether to be overjoyed at finally showing everyone he was in the right or horrified over what was stolen from him. Shining steps in before Spike can decide though, and puts Trixie under arrest. Nominally the charge is treason (her actions did undermine the safety and well-being of Equestria and of several national heroes even if she didn't mean for that to happen), but he's planning to leave that up to the courts.
So yeah, it's looking like this is going to be reality now. Trixie gets loaded onto a train in shackles being carted back up to Canterlot to face trial, the only familiar face escorting her being Twilight. As the train goes up the mountain Trixie takes a good long look at the world she'd just ruined...
And then she sees the cave out the train window. The one she found the Grim Maleficarum in.
Suddenly she's struck with an idea, and she begs Twilight to help her get off the train. Twilight, understandably, isn't willing to help her at first, but Trixie explains that she's realized what she did was wrong and she thinks she can fix it. She begs and pleads with Twilight , apologizing for horribly she treated the poor little dragon and Spike and all the other students and for being so stupid and selfish that she ruined all of Equestria...
Twilight is surprised as Trixie bursts into tears during the apology. She'd seen Trixie cry to get her way before but she can tell this time it's sincere and she really feels horrible over what happened. Twilight leaves, seemingly rejecting Trixie, but comes back a minute later having recovered the keys to Trixie's shackles and Spike's article (it was on the train being sent up to Canterlot as evidence for Trixie's trial). She explains Trixie isn't going to have long before they're find out, and says that if Trixie is really sorry for what she's done that she do what she has to to make it right. Trixie promises and leaps from the train.
It's rough going, but Trixie manages to find her way to Grim's cave where he's waiting, sealed in the crystal. Turns out Grim is also aware of the changes and mocks Trixie, asking if she's enjoying her new future. Trixie just yells at the book to shut up saying that she's going to fix things now and starts breaking down the crystal. Unfortunately she can hear the guards outside searching for her, and the book keeps mocking asking if Trixie blames it for altering the past and ruining Equestria. If it's the book's fault that there's nopony to stand against Nightmare Moon.
Surprising even Grim, Trixie admits that the fault lies solely with her. Right before she breaks the crystal.
Grim tries to resist, but Trixie forces him to show her the time travel spell again. She starts casting it just as the guards find her and charge into the cave--
And then she's outside the school again, a split-second after her first visit ended. Trixie doesn't waste time and tosses the article back in the window, listening as the fight between her and Spike goes as she remembers and ends with Twilight sending the article directly to Princess Celestia instead of burning it to ashes like Trixie ordered her. Breathing a sigh of relief, Trixie feels the spell pull her back to her own time.
And she's back in the cave, with Grim laying at her hooves. The book is shocked that Trixie would risk so much and go so far to undo her own wish. It tries to tempt her with other offers but she's not listening, instead tying Grim to some of the heavier pieces of wreckage from her cart (old instruments and props and such) before tossing the whole mess into the river below.
Finally, Trixie sits down in the cave, watching as the rain ends and the sun peeks out from the clouds. She doesn't go out on a funny line or thought, she just contemplates everything she went through before wondering what she can do for Twilight to thank her for giving her that last chance.
While that would've been the end of this story future stories would've involved Trixie coming back to Ponyville to try and find a way to bury the hatchet with Spike and Twilight. Not an easy path by any regard, and one method I entertained was that her first attempt would be to start moving about Ponyville in disguise, helping ponies as a vigilante that Spike winds up pressured to unmask by his boss (Yes, this would've been a Flipped version of Mare-do-Well).
Actually getting along would take a long, long time, but I did plan for the change to be slow and eventually Spike realizing that Trixie truly doesn't mean to cause him any further trouble even though she stays mum as to why for quite a while. Eventually the truth would come out, but that's a post for another time.
Oh, and as for Grim... well, that' wouldn't be the last he's seen or heard of. I wanted a nice big arch-villain of my own and the Pillars of Equestria and Pony of Shadows weren't even glimmers on the horizon at this point.
So, what's the next one for?
A. Equestria Girls
B. The Canterlot Wedding
C. Flipped CMC
D. The Crystal Empire
E. Other (please be specific)
Okay.
Please, go for Canterlot wedding, then (Great Dragon Migration) episode, then I would love to read the crystal empire episodes.
And then Maybe Gabby Gums.
Great ending, there. I'd like the Canterlot wedding too, please.
lets get the big ones out of the way first, so my vote is for B
My vote is for Canterlot Wedding.
B. Again. And I feel good about it this time. It's gonna happen.
But this Trixie one was super good, so I'm actually glad it got to come to light first.
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What I'm kicking myself over is that I forgot to mention the title I'd had for this story.
A Flip in Time
This was also amazing! You have such great plotweaving skills.
I vote for C