Twilight had her back to the balcony of the library’s upper floor ledge and was quickly losing ground. Still, she maintained her focus, swinging her horn left and right skillfully as she blocked Trixie’s attacks again and again. She now fought back on sheer determination alone to put the other mare in her place.

The lances of light extending from each unicorn’s horn cast eerie blue and violet glows across the walls.

“Sparkle, just give up!” Trixie grit her teeth before every strike, each one bursting into sparks of magic residue.

Sweat from exertion flew off the brow of both unicorns, but neither yielded to the other.

“Never!” Twilight yelled back. She focused harder on the beam of light extending from her horn. “Trixie, you’ve trashed my home, ruined my books, and humiliated me to no end! I’m not letting you get away with this!”

Trixie cackled with delight. “Yes, let the hate flow through you! Friendship is pointless, you see!” She pressed the attack, forcing Twilight to the very edge of the upper landing. Annoyingly, the other unicorn rolled away, moving toward the staircase. Although Trixie still sported her mer-mare fishtail, she was more than able to keep up.

Trixie snarled, charging after. “Come back here!”

Halfway down the stairs Twilight turned around again, her temper a raging storm as she took up a defensive stance. “Come and get me!”

Trixie stopped and struck a grandiose pose atop the stairs. “Surrender, Sparkle! It's no use, I have the high ground!" She followed up with a lightning fast thrusting attack.

“For the last time, no!” Twilight jumped away down the staircase, barely reacting in time to reflect the nimble showmare’s pirouettes and slicing strikes. “You’re going to lose, Trixie! Your overconfidence will be your undoing!”

Trixie growled, thrusting fiercely at Twilight and following close. “Well your faith in your stupid friends is yours!” she countered.

Twilight dodged backward, only to trip, then stumble down the rest of the steps. “Wah! Owowow!”

She rolled all the way down, thumping loudly once she reached the bottom. At the same time, the light beam extending from her horn winked out, though not before shattering a lone nearby vase, possibly the last thing in the entire library that hadn’t yet been destroyed.

“Ooh, that hurt.” Twilight nursed her head, only to look up in time to see Trixie’s light beam swing towards her. “Aaah!”

The light beam struck her dead on the head, and made a loud bonk sound.

Twilight opened one eye. “Huh?”

“Curses!” Trixie scowled up at her horn and bald head.

“Hah, you didn’t get the spell right!” Twilight giggled, and her horn again burst alight with a resounding whum. “If you had, it would’ve done this!”

Trixie had time to gasp before the beam of light Twilight sported poked her in the barrel, and a ripple of blue lightning streaked over her fur. “Aah!” The result frizzled her tail and coat, turning Trixie into what looked for all intents and purposes to be a very fluffy looking stuffed animal. “Wha-hah…? Oh boy.”

Trixie teetered on the spot for a moment until her eyes crossed slightly. She attempted some form of remark, but failed to produce more than a raspberry. “Phhbtt, pbht.” She then fell forward onto her face.

Twilight, beyond exhausted, followed suit, falling backwards with all four legs outstretched while panting. She was grateful for the rest, despite the fact she could probably take advantage of the opening.

“Another five minute break?” Twilight asked, breathing hard.

“Sure,” Trixie responded, her chest heaving. “But after that, I’m going to destroy you.” She struggled to turn her head enough to glare at her rival, but a black eye she’d earned earlier in their tussle prevented it from being easy.

“Yeah, me too.” Twilight laughed in an unstable way. “Destroy you, I mean. Yup.”

The two mares did their best to catch their breaths as they lay there in the barren wasteland that had formerly been Twilight’s living room. The walls bore scorch marks, a roaming band of animated food goods paraded across the floor, the kitchen door hung ajar on but one hinge, and there was no longer a single book left on the shelves.

That last one, at least, was due to Twilight hurling them into the basement and locking the door after Trixie fell victim a second time to the narcolepsy spell.

As for the rest of the library’s contents, the large telekinetic magic blast the two had first mustered against one another had been fierce enough to shove all of the furniture against the walls around them, forming a sort of battle arena out of the main room.

The duel, which had really become more of an all out war, was utterly wearing both ponies down.

Twilight realized tiredly that she was completely out of ideas. Somehow, or perhaps even amazingly, she was at a stalemate with the cocky, brazen, offensive mare collapsed on the floor just a few strides from her. Maybe it was dumb luck or just sheer determination, but despite just barely hanging in there, Trixie wasn’t giving up.

“Alright, that’s enough of a breather. On your hooves, Sparkle! We finish this now.” Trixie, her legs shaking like thin saplings in a strong wind, struggled to stand back up, her horn spitting a few pathetic sparks before blazing alight once again.

In response, a weighty sigh escaped Twilight as she raised her head from the floor. “Trixie, look, I’m just as upset at this point at you as you are at me, what with the ink you put in my mane, the dozens of books that have been destroyed, and not to mention the property damage—”

Trixie growled. “You completely removed my mane, destroyed those books yourself, and you’ve caused the majority of these burn marks while trying to zap me!”

“Right, right… and let’s just ignore that all of it was caused by you starting this whole debacle.” Twilight would have rolled her eyes, but she’d done it so often they now legitimately felt sore. “My point is that there is no point to this anymore, Trixie!”

Trixie determined look shifted into a frown, the light glowing from her horn casting shadows over the expression. “...What do you mean?” she ventured. “I still haven’t beaten you yet.”

“And you’re not going to!” Twilight raised her voice once again and flung her hooves up in exasperation. “And I’ve already tried everything I know to stop this! I even tried surrendering, but that apparently isn’t good enough for you!”

Trixie growled and shouted back. “Only your total defeat and humiliation will suffice, Sparkle!” With that, she released her spell.

Another blast of magic raced across the room toward Twilight. “This fight is still stupid!” She rolled quickly to one side, dodging the energy blast, which just barely managed to singe her red and black mane. “We have no settled terms for an eventual resolution! We need to stop fighting and talk things out.”

Trixie gritted her teeth, fighting to summon the strength for another blast. “When you get every bit of what’s coming to you and I’m satisfied with the result, then things will be resolved for me!”

Twilight jumped back up to a fighting stance, ready to dodge. “But you instigated all of this!”

“You could have backed down from the start!” Trixie barked back, sweat pouring from her brow.

“Augh, you’re crazy!”

“And you think you’re better than me!”

“You… you—! AUGH!” Twilight, once again more frustrated than focused as a result of trying to talk through Trixie’s sheer bullheadedness, lashed out with yet another spell despite knowing it would only perpetuate things.

Trixie’s hold on her magic broke as Twilight’s spell caught her once again in the muzzle. The spell she herself had been trying to charge shot straight up into the ceiling, resulting in bits of wood and debris raining down on her head from the small hole created there.

“Hah, there, now maybe you’ll be bearable to actually listen to.” Twilight sat down with a smug grin and crossed her forelegs.

Trixie held a hoof to her muzzle while hacking and coughing.

“Honk, honk-ho—” Trixie ceased trying to speak and threw both of her hooves over her mouth, a shocked look crossing her features. “Honk…? Honk!”

Twilight giggled tiredly to the sound of Trixie’s sudden bike horn noises, only to stop and groan after another few seconds of the rather excruciating racket. “Okay, that’s actually much worse than before… which is really saying something, Trixie.”

Trixie continued to honk and honk, stomping a hoof every once in a while to punctuate her meaning, right up until another wave of violet magic washed over her.

“And another thing, you lame-brained, high and mighty foalish little bi— Oh you undid it.” Trixie looked down at herself to look for anything else out of the ordinary, before glaring back up at her rival full force.

Twilight glared back just as fiercely, but also sighed. “Of course I did, and I’ll undo the rest if you’ll just agree we should put a stop to this—”

The sound of knocking at the front door to the library made both Trixie and Twilight look over in surprise.

“Who could that be?” Trixie asked. Her voice dripped with annoyance over her duel getting interrupted. “Sparkle, get rid of them.”

Twilight groaned at hearing the command. “Next you’ll want a glass of water.”

“That would be excellent, actually!”

“Uggh.” Twilight approached the front door rather than pay anymore mind to her uninvited nuisance. She gave her home a cursory worried glance, but quickly decided that she needed to keep whoever it was from seeing the fallout from tussling with Trixie.

Rather than use her aching horn, Twilight opened the door with a hoof. “Hello?”

“Hey Twilight, why was the door locked? And— What in the name of Celestia’s t—!?”

“Spike, language! Now what’s wrong?” Twilight scowled down at him. She pulled the door shut a bit more to be sure, deciding she probably didn’t want him to see the embarrassing mess the library had become.

In response, Spike stared wide-eyed up at Twilight’s mane strangely red and black pattern for several silent seconds before saying, “Twilight, what’s with the palette swap?”

Twilight briefly looked up at her mane before then blowing it out of the way. “Never mind that.” She pushed back on the door just in time to stop her assistant from getting in. “Uh, Spike— Look, you can’t come in right now!”

“What?” Spike’s voice sounded confused, but quickly moved into ‘worried’ territory. “Twilight, is something wrong? Are you okay? Why can’t I come in?”

In order to dispel any fears, Twilight tried her best to answer her assistant’s nosiness with a calm, rational reply. “Spike, look, it’s fine. I’m just… taking a break from my studying is all, okay? Nothing to be worried about!”

“Oh my gosh! What’s wrong? I knew something was wrong!” Spike almost squeezed in, managing a brief glimpse of his home’s interior, only for Twilight to block him with a light headbutt.

“Ahaha…” Twilight laughed nervously and gave a worried glance behind herself.

The sight of Trixie laying on the floor, her bald head, poofed-out fur and fishy lower half surrounded by a war zone met her.

Twilight faced Spike again. “Yeah, look Spike, nothing’s wrong. Could you just go? It’s not a good time right now.”

“Wait a moment…” Spike paused, then gasped aloud. “You’re not really Twilight, are you!? You’re some changeling spy that’s trying to assume her identity and get rid of me!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Spike, that’s ridiculous. Well, not completely… but it’s pretty ridiculous. The reason I want you to… Look, the reason I…” She was too tired to come up with a good excuse. “Spike, can you just go?”

Spike rubbed his chin and peered up at Twilight suspiciously. “Wait, is there somepony else in there…? And is that a burn mark on the floor?”

Twilight groaned, and jammed her good hoof out the door, along with a small bag she had quickly summoned. “Spike, if you stop asking questions and just go, here are those gems I promised you last week as a reward for doing your chores, and forty bits. Go buy a pizza and stay at Rarity’s or Pinkie’s tonight, okay?”

“Woohoo!” Spike didn’t wait a second longer, accepting the gift and turning to go. “Thank you, Twilight! See you later!”

Twilight watched him race down the street on his short little dragon legs, before finally closing the door with a sigh of relief.

“Alright, now where were we?” Twilight half expected to be caught by surprise by a spell from Trixie, and had held a teleport spell at the ready just in case. What she saw instead surprised her. “Trixie, are you okay?”

Trixie, for her part, was looking down at the fishtail she’d been saddled with morosely. “Twilight, get rid of this thing, would you? It itches and I hate it.”

Twilight blinked. Normally, she would acquiesce to such a request without pause, buuut the circumstances struck her as special. “Uuuh, Trixie, why would I do that? Aren’t we in the middle of something here? Or are you ready to call it quits finally?”

Trixie looked up with a glare, her brow furrowed, until her expression relaxed a short moment later. “Yes. Yes, Tri— er, I think that I am done, if you will undo this silly and bothersome curse.”

“Well... if you're willing to talk this out, then fine, I'll undo just this one.” Twilight rolled her eyes again, but nonetheless warmed up her horn. “And it’s not a curse, it’s an enchantment. You should know the difference, Trixie.”

The release spell for one of Trixie’s several handicaps swirled out from Twilight’s horn, then encircled Trixie. A moment later and her form was restored to normal.

Trixie nodded at her lower half appreciatively, before turning a slightly pouty look toward Twilight. “And what about that grammar spell you put on me? Undo that as well?”

Twilight hesitated, but gathered the energy required and did so. It was difficult, and made her grunt with effort, but she pulled it off. “There, now I think we have a lot to talk ab—”

“Haha!” Trixie interrupted, threw a hoof up to the sky. “It was a ruse, Twilight! Trixie had no intention of giving up so easily, and you have fallen so predictably for her—”

“Oh in the name of Celestia, please no,” Twilight murmured, and placed a hoof against her forehead, doing her best to block out whatever third person speech Trixie had jumped into.

Trixie wrapped things up, standing tall on her hind legs and pointing at Twilight with a hoof. “So, in conclusion, Sparkle, you will never defeat the Great and Powerful Tri— Oof!”

Twilight had heard enough. “That’s it!” With a battlecry, she leaped forward, tackling Trixie at her middle. “I’ve had enough! I’m just teleporting us to the local police department. I should have done this to start with.”

Trixie regained her bearings and shook her head. “What? Y-You wouldn’t! This duel should stay between you and I!”

Twilight didn’t answer, she just continued to gather strength for her spell.

Trixie’s courage quickly broke, her haughtiness melting. “Wait, Twilight, I can’t go back! If I get any more misdemeanors, it’ll be my third strike! I hate community service!” She struggled to get free, but Twilight’s hooves held fast. Her eyes shut closed in the face of the brightening light on Twilight’s horn.

“Should’ve thought about that sooner, Trixie! You had your chance!” Twilight resigned herself to all the explaining she’d had to do, but she really hadn’t thought things would ever escalate the way they did.

She released her spell.

...

Ever so slowly, Trixie cracked one eye open, dreading what she would see. Oh no, they’re going to put me in hoof-irons, and throw me in a cold cell, and then— Wait a second. Her eyes popped fully open.

“Sparkle?” Trixie watched as the other unicorn looked up at her horn with a clear face of worry. “Are you… out of magic?”

Twilight looked at Trixie cautiously. “It— Uhm, I think so. I must have used too much unraveling those spells from you—” She barely finished speaking before cringing and leaning away from her adversary’s outburst.

“Haha! Yes! I did it! I have done it! Me!” Trixie began to break down into a fit of giggles, holding herself in her own hooves. “Trixie has won!”

Twilight started to try and back toward the front door, but it seemed Trixie’s revelry wasn’t quite enough to keep her unnoticed.

“And you.” Trixie grinned wickedly, looking at Twilight. “Any last words, Sparkle?”

Twilight swallowed hard. “Why, what are you going to do, Trixie?” She knew Trixie was a jerk, selfish, egotistical and a bunch of other things, but not actually dangerous. Still, hearing that phrase sent a chill through her.

Trixie shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh please, Sparkle. Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you, but this little tussle with you has given me some excellent ideas about how I can get even.” She lit up her horn, intending to levitate over several sheets from a newspaper thrown into the corner.

“For starters, how about we go for a little walk through town?” Trixie sneered at Twilight victoriously. “I think letting everypony know firsthoof that you lost to me, and—”

A sound akin to a bug zapper flickering out filled the room, followed by the disappearance of Trixie’s magic aura from around her horn.

Trixie stared up at her forehead in confusion, her mouth making a little ‘o’ shape. “Oh. Uh oh. That isn’t good.”

Twilight burst out laughing, her worry immediately replaced with amusement. “Hah, who’s laughing now, Tri—”

Trixie interrupted Twilight. “I ran out of magic second, so I still win! Hah!” She jabbed a hoof at Twilight’s chest. “Take that, Sparkle!”

Twilight stared a moment. Then she just covered her face with her hooves. “Right, sure, whatever.”

After a moment, Twilight picked her head up again. “But… But you hadn’t cast anything since before I removed that enchantment from you, so that means you’d already run out of magic before that. So don’t I win?”

“Silence!” Trixie shouted, wearing a stern look. “You can prove nothing!”

Twilight groaned. “Whatever, I don’t care, this whole debacle was a pointless exercise meant to satisfy your ego. Even my trying to calm you down or put you in your place was impossible because you’re so thick headed!”

Trixie stomped a hoof in frustration. “Trixie’s revenge and inevitable domination of Twilight Sparkle is not pointless! Nor is she thick headed… her head is of a perfectly normal size, thank you.”

“Gah!” Twilight threw her hooves up in exasperation. “You’re completely impossible, you know that? I mean, look at us!” She began waving a hoof to indicate the two of them. “Look around you. You can’t honestly say either of us won anything after today, can you?”

Trixie looked everywhere, even at her own bald head, before nodding slightly. “Perhaps you are... right, Sparkle.”

“Ugh, why do I even—” Twilight blinked in brief confusion. “Wait, really?”

Trixie let out a snort of resignation. “Indeed. Half right, anyway. Trixie must agree that this is far from the absolute victory that she wished for.” Once again pointing a hoof to the sky, Trixie declared, “But it is victory nonetheless! So, I’m leaving.”

With that, Trixie casually began to trot toward the door.

Before she could reach it, however, Twilight slid to block her path.

“That’s not what I meant, Trixie, and anyway, you can’t just leave all of... this!” Twilight paused to point back at her home. “You’re going to stay and help me clean all this up before you can go anywhere.”

Trixie gave the mess a brief look, then made a harrumph as she turned up her nose at Twilight. “Trixie shall do no such thing.” She looked down to glare at Twilight next, poking her in the chest with one hoof. “Trixie is tired and sweaty. She needs a shower, a wig, and a trip to the good-will to collect her things. What Trixie does not need is to clean up some other pony’s mess!”

One of Twilight’s eyes twitched in time with each and every poke Trixie gave the sore spot on her chest.

Without warning, Twilight roughly shoved Trixie back, keeping her from the door. “Trixie, you’re helping me and that’s final! The broom’s in the closet, now hop to it!”

Trixie gasped, holding one fore hoof up in an offended gesture. “You dare!? I— Trixie will—” She went silent, then shoved back at Twilight.

Twilight recovered from the shove, glared in return, and then shoved the other mare back again.

“That’s it!” they both said at the same moment.

Twilight let out a scream as Trixie suddenly charged towards her. She braced for the coming impact only to realise Trixie’s true intentions when the mare skidded to a stop in front of her and reared up as if to strike at her with her front hooves. Without thinking, Twilight attempted to respond in kind, rearing up to defend herself.

“Have at thee, Sparkle!” Trixie bellowed with all the bravado she could dig up, sending a flurry of swinging hooves at her opponent.

“I’m going to kick your teeth in, Trixie!” Twilight spat.

The two continued in this way until Twilight landed a lucky blow, throwing off Trixie’s wobbly balance and giving her a second black eye to join her first.

“Hah, take that, Trixie!” Twilight shouted, only to let out a solid, “Oof!”

Trixie squeezed Twilight’s middle as she tackled her. “Payback time, nag!”

The two began to roll on the floor, their fight going on to whole new levels of vicious.

Trixie pulled on Twilight’s hair with hooves, Twilight bit Trixie’s leg, blows were exchanged and words that were so dastardly they could curdle milk were yelled back and forth.

It was so intense and consumed so much of their attention that neither of them noticed the front door creaking open.

“Your mother was a hamster!”

“Well your father smelled of elderberries!”

Twilight and Trixie snarled and growled, the two of them rolling there, exhausted and more than spent. Both of their breaths caught, however, at the sound of voices in the front door’s opening.

Several darkened silhouettes entered the doorway, bright light flooding in behind them. Both Twilight and Trixie raised up a hoof to shield their eyes, until finally the shapes turned out to be five other ponies and a small, baby dragon.

"See, I told you the place was trashed,” Spike proclaimed. “And— Woah, Twilight, why’s Trixie here?"

“Whoa nellie.” Applejack promptly moved up to Spike and placed a hoof over his eyes, only to be shoved out of the way by a speeding white blur.

"Twilight!" Rarity cried. "Don't tell me, you actually have a special someponyyy-IIIee!?" Her girlish squeal of delight cut a bit short, interrupted by a shrill sound of horror. "Oh my word! Twilight, what happened to your mane? It’s hideous! And... Oh. Oh dear. Is that... Trixie you’re with? Ick." She followed up with a brief look of disgust, her prior horror forgotten. "Well, I'll judge you not, Twilight. The important thing is that you’re happy, and you can rest assured that we’re all happy for you, too."

Twilight blinked at her friends, three of whom were giggling, then at Trixie—who looked equally as confused and abhorred—then back to her friends. Rainbow Dash was laughing the hardest out of them, unsurprisingly.

“No. No! Guys, this isn’t what it looks like!” Twilight struggled to get free from under Trixie, but it was difficult. Her struggles likely weren’t helping her case. “Spike!” She stuck her assistant with a glare. “What are they doing here!?”

Spike was scratching a claw behind his scales in confusion. “Uh, well, after you gave me that bribe I figured something had to be wrong, so I went and got everypony, and then I wrote a letter to—”

Twilight groaned, letting her head fall back to the floor with a thump, trapped under Trixie as she was.

Meanwhile, somepony else let out a gasp of delight.

“Does this mean I get to make a wedding cake!?” Pinkie burst out.

“Absolutely not, Pink one!” Trixie jabbed a hoof at Twilight’s friends, also trying to stand up on shaky legs. “What Sparkle said was true, but I was only here to beat her! Get revenge! Nothing else.”

The room was quiet.

“Sooo, Twilight’s into that sort of thing, huh?” Pinkie head tilted.

Twilight’s face reddened fully in less than point-three microseconds. “No! This is a huge misun—”

“And back up, no cake!?” Pinkie looked at her like she was crazy. “Is that a Gypsy thing? Because I don’t want to discriminate… Pft, well fine, no cake, but if you two are going to elope that’s going to upset a looot of ponies around here.”

Spike tried to look around at somepony for answers, specifically as to why Twilight was entangled with Trixie, but quickly found a wing over his eyes and Fluttershy leading him outside. “Hey, but, what’s going on?”

“I think we should have a talk outside, Spike. Oh dear.” Fluttershy gave a cursory glance behind herself, before rounding the corner and shutting the door behind herself. “What do you know about, uhm, birds and bees, Spike?”

“Uh, some of them sting and the other ones sing?”

Twilight gave a final shove, the last of her strength, and stood up from under the dead weight that had invaded her home. “Dash, stop laughing! Look, everypony, listen carefully. Trixie came over trying to look for a fight as usual, and then—”

A blinding flash of light interrupted Twilight mid-speech.

Everypony present let out a mild cry and covered their eyes with a hoof. When the light dissipated, a voice entered the room.

“Twilight Sparkle! Are you alright?” The voice was unmistakable as Princess Celestia’s.

Twilight rubbed her eyes and looked up at a large figure suddenly standing over her. Her pupil’s slowly shrank into tiny pin-pricks. “Oh. Princess. Hi. Yes, I’m fine.” She stared a bit longer and could have sworn her life flashed before her eyes, then in a rush she whirled to face Applejack.

“You sent for the Princess!?” Twilight cried.

Applejack rubbed a hoof behind her head, her stetson tilted back. “Well, Spike said it might be serious, so we just went ahead and did it, Twi’.”

Twilight collapsed—again—onto the floor, this time in anguish. “Oh nooo.”

Princess Celestia, in the meanwhile, had been looking around the entirety of Twilight’s home, taking in the responses to her presence, as well as studying the sheepish and shifty looking blue unicorn staring sheepishly at her from a far corner.

“Twilight, am I interrupting something?” the Princess asked, smirking coyly.

Twilight’s jaw dropped. It took her nearly a full minute before she could recover enough to speak. She looked around the room, then at herself, then at the disheveled showmare some ways away. “Princess Celestia… I can explain.”