A golden glow illuminated Twilight's face as she stared up, her eyes closed as she took in the warmth of the midday sun. She shifted a hoof, and it made a solid ‘clack’ against the blue crystal of the castle balcony beneath her.
She was startled by the sudden sound of a footstep behind her, almost falling face over flank into the floor.
“Heh, sorry,” her dragon assistant said sheepishly, “Just thought I'd see how you were. You know, since when you wander off alone and stare into the distance, there's usually something wrong.”
Twilight giggled. “You're right Spike, but it's nothing major, you don't have to worry."
“Twi, you can tell me. I promise I'll try extra hard not to laugh at you.”
Twilight let out a sigh. There was no getting out of this now. “Alright. To tell the truth Spike, I've got a friendship problem.”
“Hold on. You have a friendship problem? But aren't you the -”
“Everypony has friendship problems, even a princess of friendship.”
Twilight walked inside, into one of the castle’s many guest bedrooms. Spike followed her in as she sat down on a cushion.
Spike pulled up a smaller cushion of his own.
“Anyway,” Twilight continued, “ever since Starlight met Trixie, I've been thinking about, well, the way I treated Trixie.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well every other time somepony caused some kind of trouble, I tried to help them change, to learn from their wrongdoings. But Trixie - I just let her run off, I left her on her own, not once but twice. And then when she finally did discover friendship, I tried to tear her only friend away. I just can't believe I -”
“Alright Twilight, calm down. So you mishandled one friendship case. Even the best ponies make mistakes sometimes.”
Twilight scratched at the floor with a front hoof.
“I suppose you're right. I just can't stop thinking about it.”
“Well, why don't you tell her?”
“How?”
Spike put on his most irreverent Twilight impression possible.
“Hey Trixie, sorry for not helping you with friendship and stuff. Wanna go read some books?”
Twilight snorted, trying to hold back laughter.
“You're right Spike, I have to face my problems if I want to solve them. Next time I see her, I'll apologise.”
At that moment, Trixie spontaneously appeared in the room. A couple of seconds later, Starlight barged through the half-open door.
“Trixie! Are you crazy! You could have fried yourself!” Starlight scolded.
“Pfft”, Trixie responded, “the Great and Powerful Trixie is far too magnificent to be fried.”
“Trixie…” Starlight said, gritting her teeth.
“Alright, alright. I'll be careful next time.”
Spike took advantage of a pause in the conversation, nudging Twilight’s hoof.
“Oh! Um, Trixie, I have to tell you something”, Twilight started.
“Yes?” Trixie answered, her snout slightly crumpled in puzzlement.
“I uh… I wanted to uh… I wanted to say thanks for the pretzels the other day.”
Spike buried his head in his hands.
“Oh, you're welcome,” Trixie answered with a smug grin, “Trixie has the best taste of any pony in Equestria”.
“Haha, yep, totally” Twilight said with an awkward giggle, and the same smile she used when pretending to be excited about signing her three hundredth autograph for the day.
“Well, we'd better be off,” Starlight interrupted. “Have a good day!”
“Yep, see ya!” Twilight answered as Starlight led her student out through the fancy wooden door.
Twilight turned to look at Spike, a drop of sweat forming on her forehead.
“The next time you see her, huh?” Spike said, unimpressed.
---
The light ringing of the doorbell sounded as Trixie and Starlight made their way into the Sugarcube Corner cafe. Trixie trotted over to the counter, enjoying the scent of freshly baked pastries.
“Hi Trixie! Hi Starlight! I hope you're having a supertastical day!” Pinkie Pie squeaked as she spotted the visitors.
“Oh, you know, just mastering self teleportation,” Trixie boasted, only to notice Pinkie was nowhere to be found. She turned to see Pinkie had somehow made her way to the shop door in about twelve microseconds
“Hi Spike! Hi Twilight! I hope you're having a supertastical day too!”
Twilight laughed. “Hello Pinkie!” She turned to Spike and whispered. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Of course it is, Twilight. You have to face up to Trixie eventually - besides, I'm sure they'd appreciate your company.”
Satisfied, Twilight turned her attention to Starlight. “Hey, uh, you wouldn't mind if we tagged along with you and Trixie, would you?”
“Uh, sure?” Starlight answered, a little taken aback.
“Great! Thankyou!”
“No problem?”
“Hah!” Trixie suddenly interrupted, deliberately leaning uncomfortably close to Twilight. “So you have finally decided to bask in the pure glory of the Great and Powerful Trixie?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure, we’ll go with that.”
---
It was the perfect afternoon to visit Ponyville Park. A gentle breeze caressed the trees lining the neatly constructed dirt path. On the open grass nearby, three young fillies were playing with a scruffy brown and white dog.
Starlight and Spike led the way up the path, laughing about their involvement in Twilight's constant anxiety-fuelled antics. Twilight lingered behind, listening silently to Trixie.
“And that's when Trixie teleported herself to your room! A marvellous feat, don't you think?”
Twilight stared at the ground.
“Uh, Twilight? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I'm fine, well done” Twilight answered in a monotone voice.
“Wait, really? You're impressed?” Trixie answered, smiling widely. “Trixie was expecting you to tell her to stop being so self obsessed or something.”
“Excuse me, I've gotta go” Twilight said, before bolting back down the path.
Spike immediately chased after her, leaving the two confused unicorns to watch them fade into the distance.
---
“Twilight!” Spike gasped, breathless, as the two of them arrived back at the castle’s front entrance. “What was that about?
“Does she really think I'd do that?” Twilight said to herself, out loud, as she planted her face into the massive door, with a mixture of shame and exhaustion.
“Does who think you'd do what?” Spike asked.
“Trixie. She thinks I'd call her self obsessed.”
“Wouldn't you?”
“No!” Twilight yelled.
Spike shrugged. “It's honestly not that bad of a thing to say. Kind of true rea-”
“I'm a terrible pony!”
“Twilight, take a chill pill.”
“Sorry, Spike. You're right, I need to calm down. I just… don't know how I'm supposed to apologise. Every time I try to say anything, it goes wrong.”
Spike’s eyes lit up, and Pinkie Pie appeared out of nowhere for a split second to hold a lightbulb above his head.
“What if you don't have to say anything?”
“How does that work?” Twilight chuckled.
“Well, maybe you could write her an apology?”
“Hey, that's not a half bad idea!”
---
“Ugh, this was a terrible idea”, Spike groaned, as he tried not to fall asleep on Twilight’s desk.
The small, cosy study room was lit dimly by a single candle on the table.
Twilight, bags forming under her eyes, cringed at the piece of paper in front of her, before scrunching it up with her magic and tossing it into a bin beside the desk. It joined another ten crushed paper balls and two broken quills.
A sudden scream outside the castle snapped the pony out of her frustration.
“Don't panic!” Twilight called out at the the top of her voice, charging straight through the closed door. “I'm on my way!”
Spike directed an irritated frown at the shattered wooden planks on the floor, before chasing after Twilight.
--
Twilight, her horn lit up with magical light, swung open the castle doors to find Trixie, minus one front limb.
“Trixie! What I'm Equestria happened?”
“Don't tell Starlight!” Trixie answered, tears beginning to run down her face.
“Trixie, calm down, and tell me what happened.”
“Trixie was attempting to practice teleporting but halfway through using the spell she got distracted by a sentient teacup and now her arm is trapped in another dimension!”
“Happens to the best of us” Spike inserted.
“Very helpful, Spike” Twilight said sarcastically.
“Well, can we get it back?” Trixie almost pleaded. Almost. She would, of course, never stoop to such a low as pleading with Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight attempted to open a portal, but it immediately fizzled away, she tried again - no success.
“What's wrong?” Trixie asked.
“Argh! This spell is highly unstable, any kind of internal conflict can throw it off.”
“But you don't have any internal conflict! You're a perfect princess! The sun shines out of your flank!”
Twilight sighed. “Trixie, I'm not perfect by any means. And it's about time I was honest with you about something.”
Spike started quietly chanting “yes, yes, yes”.
“The way I just let you run off, back when we first met, and again after you enslaved Ponyville, it wasn't fair. I should have done something to help you. And I'm sorry that I didn't.”
“Twilight, I-” Trixie started.
“And then when you finally did find friendship, I tried to take it from you, when I should have given you a chance. I assumed you weren't interested in friendship, I assumed you were a bad pony at heart, and now I realise that you just needed a friend, and you were just trying to cover it up, and - and I'm sorry I didn't realise that before.”
“Wow” Trixie responded, pausing for a moment to take the event in. “Th-Thankyou. I needed to hear that.”
Twilight smiled at Trixie.
“And I needed to say it. You think - you think we could start over? Maybe even be… friends?”
Trixie pretended to stop and think about it for a minute, savouring her momentary ability to toy with her ex-nemesis.
“Hmm, alright, Sparkle. We're friends.”
Twilight closed her eyes, pointed her horn, and opened a portal. It stayed perfectly stable.
She reached in, and pulled out Trixie’s missing front limb. Instantly, it teleported back into its rightful place, and the portal closed.
“Aha! The Great and Powerful Trixie thanks you for your assistance, even though she totally could have managed without you!”
“You're welcome.” Twilight giggled
Trixie gave Twilight a quick hug - with both arms - before summoning a puff of smoke and galloping off into the distance.
“You feel better now, Twi?” Spike asked.
“Better”, the princess answered with a nod, before letting out a city-shakingly loud yawn. “Thanks Spike.”
She picked up the little dragon, carrying him on her back as they walked inside. By the time they reached Twilight’s room, Spike was fast asleep.