Trixie woke up to the feel of water dripping on her face. She groaned as she looked up at the night sky above her, her head feeling like it was splitting in two. She tried to remember the day’s events. “Let’s see…Trixie boarded the train…Met Sparkle and her friends…Ah! The two stallions in black!”
Trixie looked around, and found herself completely alone in the dark alleyway. She remembered being slipped a drug of some kind, and feeling like her entire body was on fire. She slowly rose to her hooves, although it took some effort, and she almost fell over a few times.
She made her way out of the dark alley, grunting as she took each step. Once she was out, she took a moment to wait for her vision to return to her. She looked up at the tall buildings in front of her. Something seemed wrong; she was sure that they weren’t that tall before. “Maybe Trixie’s just imagining things. Trixie should go and find a police officer, fast.”
Down the street, a familiar pony caught Trixie’s eyes. It was a brown Earth Pony stallion with an hourglass Cutie Mark. “Doctor!” she shouted as she raced down the otherwise empty street. “Doctor, Trixie needs your help!”
Doctor stopped and turned to Trixie. He looked at her with a confused look, but then bowed politely and offered his hoof. “I’m sorry, miss, I don’t think we’ve been introduced. Are you a friend of Trixie’s?”
Trixie looked at Doctor dumbfounded. “Can you please be serious for once, Doctor? Trixie really needs your help!”
Doctor’s look of confusion returned as he knelt down to look Trixie in the eyes. This is when Trixie noticed that Doctor was two times bigger than before. “Ok, where is Trixie? And what’s the problem?”
Trixie growled at Doctor and flailed her front hooves about angrily. “Trixie’s right here! I’m Trixie!”
Doctor sighed and rose to his hooves. “Oh, I get it, this is one of Trixie’s practical jokes, isn’t it? Very funny, but if you don’t mind, I’m rather busy, so-”
“You call yourself Doctor, but your real name is Time Turner! Your favourite food is hay, your least favourite is pears, and you make lots of gadgets but barely any work! Your latest invention is the TARDIS, which is supposed to be bigger on the inside, but it doesn’t work at all, and seven months ago you had an affair with Berry Punch!”
Doctor looked at the filly with wide eyes, and then with a look of annoyance. “Oh, so Trixie’s been telling random fillies all of my secrets, huh? The nerve of her!” Doctor grabbed Trixie’s front hoof. “Well, let’s go find your parents, shall we?”
Trixie wondered what Doctor meant by “filly” and “find your parents”. She looked at a reflection of herself in one of the store windows right next her, and was shocked at what she saw. Staring back at her was a small blue filly, with a silver mane and tail. It was here, but in filly form. “I’m…No, this can’t be! H-How!?” Trixie gasped in realisation. “That drug…Doctor, listen, I am Trixie! Look, this is my Cutie Mark, see!?”
Doctor examined the young filly’s flank, and saw Trixie’s Cutie Mark there. It was a silver wisp of smoke with a silver star shaped wand. This took Doctor by surprise. Sure, identical Cutie Marks were possible, but…This filly also resembled Trixie in every other way, too. He examined the filly more closely, and his eyes opened as wide as they possibly could. “T-Trixie? Is that…Really you?”
Doctor and Trixie moved back to their hotel room to continue their conversation. Doctor was still taken aback by the whole situation, but the walk back managed to help him calm down. “So, instead of killing you, this drug shrunk you down to the size of a filly? Incredible! Simply incredible!”
“I disagree!” Trixie shouted, fumbling around with a glass as she attempted to pour herself a glass of wine. “I can’t stay in filly form! How am I supposed to perform to my adoring fans like this!?”
“Are you sure you should be drinking? I mean you’re…Y’know…”
Trixie glared Doctor into silence, and brought the glass up to her mouth. She hated using her hooves, but in this form, her magic was too weak to even levitate something. “I really need a drink right now! My head is killing me…” Trixie drank the whole glass of wine in one go, and let out a deep sigh. “So, do you think you can invent something to…Y’know, change me back?”
Doctor frowned and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but without a sample of the drug, I can’t make an antidote. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“Ugh, great, so now the Great and Powerful Trixie is supposed to perform as a filly? How is she supposed to explain this to her fans?”
“No!” Doctor shouted, startling Trixie and stunning her into silence. He walked up to Trixie and looked at her with the most serious face she had ever seen him wear. “Listen, Trixie, above all else, you must not tell anypony who you are! No one must know that you are alive! If the stallions in black find out, then they’ll surely come back to finish the job! And they may even target ponies close to you, too!”
Trixie shook in fear as she realised that what Doctor was saying was true. If the stallions in black had tried to kill her once, then they would surely try again if they knew that she was still alive. She looked down at the floor, struggling to hold back her tears. “W-What should I do?”
Doctor looked at Trixie with a look of sympathy. “Well, the first thing we need to do is hide your identity…Then, from there, we can start thinking of how to find those stallions in black clothes…That is, if you’re willing to risk your life to return to your previous form.”
Trixie thought for a few minutes, and then finally shook her head. “I…I’m not sure…I…I almost died today…What if I’m not so lucky next time?” She looked up at Doctor. “I need some time to think…”
Doctor nodded in understanding. “Yes, Trixie. Take as much time as you need. In the meantime, I think you should lay low in Ponyville. It’s a small town, with not many ponies, so it’ll be easier to hide you there.”
Trixie didn’t argue with the idea. She was uncomfortable with returning to Ponyville after what occurred the last time she was there, but in her current form, she didn’t really have much to worry about, as long as she kept her identity a secret. Plus she needed somewhere quiet to collect her thoughts.
The following morning, Trixie and Doctor took an early morning train to Ponyville. At this point, Trixie was in no mood to walk around Manehatten and visit the sites. Especially when the stallions in black could still be anywhere in the city.
Doctor stopped by a clothing shop before they left the hotel, and bought a small brown cape for Trixie to wear, and some fake glasses from a 1 bit store. The glasses were just to make it harder to see the resemblance between Trixie and this new filly, and the cape was to hide her Cutie Mark, since that would be a dead giveaway to anypony who knew her, or who had at least seen her before.
Once the two were in Ponyville, Doctor and Trixie made their way Doctor’s home. On the way, however, they were intercepted by a grey blur that knocked Doctor down to the ground. “DOCTOR!”
Trixie turned around to see Doctor lying on the ground with a grey Pegasus on top of him. She laughed nervously and flew off of him, allowing him to rise back up to his hooves. “Sorry, Doctor. I just didn’t expect you to come back so soon.”
Doctor rubbed a hoof against his side and looked up at the grey Pegasus, forcing a smile on his face. “Oh, Derpy. It’s uh…Good to see you again. How’ve you been?”
“Good! And you?”
“Oh, I’ve been good too, thanks for asking. So, uh, why are you up and about so early, anyway?”
“Oh, well, you know what they say: early bird gets the muffin!”
Trixie looked at Derpy with a look of confusion. “Wait, isn’t it “early bird gets the worm”?”
Derpy looked over at Trixie, and then back at Doctor. “Doctor, who’s this? Is she…” Derpy gasped, and then looked at Doctor with an angry look on her face. “Is she you daughter!? What have you been doing while you were away!? I can’t believe it! So, who’s the mother, huh!?”
Doctor raised his hooves to signal Derpy to calm down, looking around nervously at the few early risers that were watching the scene. “Please, Derpy, calm down. It’s not like that. She’s my, uh…”
“I’m his niece,” Trixie said, smirking at Doctor’s flustered face and forcing herself not to laugh. “I’ll be staying with my uncle Doctor for a while. Nice to meet you!” She bowed politely to Derpy, making sure not to raise her cape as she usually would.
She found it harder than she thought it would be not to use third pony speak, but it seems the practice on the train really helped a lot. Both Trixie and Doctor began to think that hiding her identity might not be so hard after all.
“Oh, I see…I guess that makes sense. He was only gone a few days,” Derpy said, laughing nervously as her face turned red. Trixie wondered how the Pegasus didn’t pick up on that sooner. Derpy landed in front of Trixie and smiled at the little filly. “So, what’s your name?”
There was a long pause there after Derpy asked that. Trixie and Doctor both exchanged wide-eyed glances, and then realised the one thing that they had not prepared: a name.
Inside her mind, Trixie was cursing herself over and over for somehow missing such an important detail. ‘Think Trixie, think! A fake name can’t be that hard to come up with!’
“Well?” Derpy asked.
Without thinking, Trixie straightened up and answered: “S-Star Swirl!”
Another long pause followed Trixie’s answer. Derpy commented on the strange name, but still gave her a warm welcome to Ponyville. Once Derpy took off down the street, Doctor and Trixie continued towards Doctor’s house.
“Why did you pick that name, of all possible names?” Doctor whispered to Trixie.
Trixie shrugged, and just continued walking. “I panicked,” she whispered back. “It was the first thing that came to mind. Besides, why didn’t you think of a name for me earlier?”
“Why didn’t you!?”
“I was hung-over! I couldn’t think straight!”
“You had one glass of wine!”
“I’m a lightweight, ok!?”
The two continued arguing all the way back to Doctor’s house, keeping their voices low so as to not attract unwanted attention.
When the two finally reached Doctor’s house, Doctor insisted on thinking up a better name for Trixie, but Trixie actually liked the name Star Swirl. She thought it was cool, being a huge fan of Star Swirl the Bearded.
“Well, alright, if you’re fine with it…” Doctor said, finally giving in. He then moved over to his workshop, and started searching through a few of his items. “Now, let’s see…I should have a few items here that can help you…”
Later that day, Doctor decided to take Trixie over to the school to have her enrolled as a student there. Trixie argued against this, but Doctor insisted that, for the sake of hiding her identity, she act as much like a young schoolfilly as possible.
The cape Trixie was wearing earlier was left at Doctor’s house. Doctor leant her a device that would hide her Cutie Mark from view. It was a device her built for Trixie’s stage shows, that would change a Cutie Mark’s image from one to another. It appeared to be a thin sheet of plastic upon first looking at it, and when worn, couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. However, it wasn’t complete, and so far, all it could do was hide Trixie’s Cutie Mark, making her appear to be a blank flank.
There was also the limit that it worked off of solar power, with only a one hour backup power supply. Meaning that she had to avoid areas with little to no light as much as possible, or she could run the risk of being found out.
The second item Doctor leant her was a new pair of fake glasses, that also housed a small transmitter and bugging device. Doctor figured that, if she decided to hunt down the stallions in black, she would stand a better chance investigating them quietly, and from a distance. That is, if she ever ran into them again.
Finally, at Trixie’s request, Doctor gave her a ring for her horn. It looked like just a fashionable ring, with a pretty rose pattern on it, but in actuality, it was used to enhance her magic. Just a single press of the hidden button in the rose’s bud on her ring, and her magic would be enhanced to the point of her fully grown self’s magic. Of course, doing so would put a strain on her mind, so he warned her to only do it in emergencies, and to never, ever use it to show off to others, since that would attract unwanted attention.
Trixie reluctantly accepted Doctor’s conditions. She decided that, even if she wasn’t going to use her magic to show off, she would at least feel more comfortable knowing she had some way to defend herself if she were attacked suddenly.
On their way to the school, the two were intercepted by a pink pony, who suddenly bounced in front of the two from out of nowhere. She flashed a big, toothy grin at the two confused ponies, and just when Doctor was about to ask if they could help her, she suddenly closed in on Trixie.
“Hi there! My name’s Pinkie Pie! It’s nice to meet you! You’re new here, aren’t you? What am I saying, of course you are! ‘Cause I don’t recognise you, and I don’t recognise you, it means I’ve never seen you before, and I know everypony in Ponyville, so if I’ve never seen you before, that means you’re not from Ponyville! So, d’you have any friends yet? Wanna come to a party? I throw a party for all newcomers to Ponyville! Oh, you simply have to come! It’ll be so great, and I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends in no time! So, what d’you say?”
Trixie stared at the hyperactive pony as she tried to make sense of her ramblings. The first thought that passed through her mind was that the pink pony was crazy, and possibly dangerous. Then she decided that maybe she was just plain crazy.
Doctor saw Trixie having trouble, and leant her a helping hoof. “Sorry, Miss Pie, but we’re sort of in a hurry. You see, I need to get my niece here enrolled at the Ponyville school, and-”
“Doctor has a niece?” Rainbow Dash asked and she walked up to the group. She looked down at the filly, and a frown suddenly crossed her face. “Huh, have we met before? I feel like we have.”
Trixie flinched when she saw the rainbow maned pony. It wasn’t easy to forget such a colourful pony. And unfortunately, it seemed her disguise wasn’t as effective as she was hoping. She swallowed hard, and then tried to put on an innocent act in front of the blue Pegasus.
“U-Uh, no, I d-don’t think we have. M-My name’s Star Swirl. Nice to meet you,” she said as she bowed politely to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes at Trixie, eyeing her suspiciously. Doctor saw this and intervened, pushing past Rainbow Dash with Trixie. “Well, it was nice to see you, but we really must get going. See you!”
“Hey, Doctor, you’re a friend of Trixie’s, aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash asked, causing both Trixie and Doctor to freeze in place.
“W-Why do you ask?” Doctor asked, breaking into a nervous sweat.
“Well, I just heard from a friend that you know her. Could you let her know that what she did to Twilight wasn’t cool?”
Trixie wondered what she meant, and then remembered that she was supposed to meet Twilight for that slumber party last night. A pang of guilt passed through her body. Surely Twilight didn’t wait outside all night, right?
“Twilight waited outside all night! She would’ve caught a cold if we didn’t bring her in when it started to rain!”
Doctor looked down at Trixie, a frown on his face when he saw her shaking and staring at the ground. “Uh, actually…” Doctor turned to face Rainbow Dash, a serious look on his face. “The truth it, I don’t know where Trixie is right now. All she told me is that something of major importance popped up, and that she had to leave right away. So…”
“That’s still no excuse for standing somepony up like that! She could’ve at least said something to Twilight, y’know!?”
Trixie started walking off on her own, not wanting to listen to anymore of this conversation. Doctor apologised on Trixie’s behalf, and followed the little filly. “Hey, are you ok?”
“…I’m fine, Doctor,” Trixie lied, trying not to worry Doctor with her problems.
The rest of the way to the school was spent in silence. Finally, when they reached the school, they saw a large number of ponies, both foals and grownup ponies, crowding around the school building. Curios, the two walked closer to examine the scene. They found out that somepony had vandalised the building.
After pushing through the crowds to reach the front, Doctor and Trixie saw that the wall of the school building had been vandalised in three ways: graffiti had been sprayed on the wall, in the shape of a pony mooning the viewer; sratch marks were running down the wall; and there was a huge hole in the wall, in the shape of a pony’s body. The shape appeared to belong to a Unicorn foal.
“Sweetie Belle, I am most disappointed in you!”
“Ah thought you knew better than that, Applebloom!”
Trixie turned to the sources of the scolding voices, and saw two ponies she recognised as Twilight’s friends scolding a group of three fillies. One filly was a yellow Earth Pony with a big red bow. Another was an orange Pegasus with a purple mane. The final one was a white Unicorn, whose face was hidden beneath her hooves.
Doctor walked up to the two ponies to see what all the fuss was about. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with, Doctor,” Rarity said, turning face her sister with an angry look. “It seems these three thought they could get their Cutie Marks in vandalism, and…Well, just see for yourself!”
A pink filly approached the group, accompanied by a grey filly, both of which looked like they were enjoying the situation. “That’s right. We saw the whole thing,” the pink filly said, giggling as she watched the three fillies glaring at her. “It seems being blank flanks finally got to them, but that’s still no excuse for damaging school property.”
“That’s right, Applebloom,” Applejack said, looking down at her younger sister. “Just wait ‘til ah get you home. Why, Big Mac’s just gonna-”
“Are these the paint cans used to vandalise the wall?” Trixie asked, drawing the group’s attention towards her as she examined the paint cans lying next to the wall. Cheerilee, the teacher at the school, confirmed that they were. “And how did they scratch the wall?”
“We don’t know,” Cheerilee answered. She had a disappointed look on her face. “We still haven’t got them to tell us where they hid whatever they used.”
“Isn’t that strange?” Trixie asked. “They hid whatever was used to scratch the wall, but they didn’t hide the cans? And look.” She pointed to the scratch marks. “If you look closely enough, you can see that the wall was scratched after the wall was painted on. So if they hid the scratching instrument, they must have had plenty of time to hide the cans.”
The group stared at the young filly in stunned silence, contemplating what she had just said. “So you’re saying the cans were planted there to frame them?”
Everypony turned to see a purple Unicorn approaching Trixie. Trixie’s eyes widened as she saw Twilight Sparkle approaching her, and her legs began shaking in fear. She closed her eyes, counted to ten in her head, and clamed herself down. She opened her eyes again, and nodded slowly. “Y-Yeah. I think so.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes as she examined the young filly. She was about to ask her name, but a voice from the pink filly behind her stopped her. “Hold on! Couldn’t they have just scratched the wall with the paint cans? It’s not a very strong wall, you know!? Anything could scratch it!”
Trixie turned to the pink filly, and then to the paint cans. “True, but…Well, just look. The paints cans are in good condition. No dents or scratch marks on them. Not to mention they’re too big to have caused these scratches.” She picked up one of the paint cans, a green one, and shook it. “More evidence that this was planted. No green was used on the wall…So why is there a half-empty green one here with the lid off?”
Twilight lifted a few of the cans with her magic, and noticed something strange. “Wait a minute…This one’s brand new! And it still has the safety seal around it!”
“Safety seal?” Cheerilee asked, examining the can. “What’s that?”
“Spray cans come with a safety seal, which must be removed before they can be used,” Twilight explained, pointing out the barely visible plastic around the top of the spray can.
“And the colour, purple, also doesn’t show up on the wall. So most likely, it was just planted as a decoy,” Trixie said.
The grey filly walked up to her with an angry look on her face. “Maybe they just decided not to use it! Honestly, we saw them standing there holding the spray cans! Who else could it have been!?”
Cheerilee sighed and nodded her head, again looking disappointed. “I’m afraid Silver Spoon’s right. I came out when they called to me, and sure enough, the three were standing there holding the paint cans.”
Trixie ignored the teacher’s testimony and approached the two fillies that were glaring daggers at her. “Alright, then answer this: how did you two know how weak the wall was?”
The two fillies were rendered speechless, and the crowd of ponies around the scene turned their attention on the two fillies. Trixie continued, putting a hoof on the wall. “It certainly doesn’t look weak, and it doesn’t feel weak, either…Also…” Trixie leaned in closer and narrowed her eyes. “It may just be my imagination, but I see little silver fragments here in these scratch marks…Much like your tiara, pink one.”
The pink filly scoffed at the accusation. “My name is Diamond Tiara, and are you saying I did this!? Why would I go through so much trouble to vandalise a school wall and then frame three random fillies!?”
“Because you hate us!” Applebloom shouted.
“Yeah! You’re always giving us trouble!” Scootaloo joined in.
Sweetie Belle simply nodded, her head still in her hooves.
Trixie grabbed Diamond Tiara’s tiara, ignoring her protests, and examined it. “This tip here looks pretty worn out.” Trixie pointed to one tip of the tiara.
Diamond Tiara took back her tiara forcefully, wiped it with her hoof, and then placed it back on her head. “Well, duh! I’ve had it for a while! I was going to get a new one soon!”
Trixie narrowed her eyes at Diamond Tiara, and was about to speak up, when the tiara was suddenly lifted up by a veil of purple magic. From behind Trixie, Twilight approached the pink filly, and examined her closely. “Diamond…Why is there orange paint in your mane?”
Diamond Tiara flinched, and was now starting to sweat nervously. She tried to come up with an excuse, but when she couldn’t she resorted to plan b. “Y-You guys are really desperate to make the culprit, aren’t you!? So, what, you think I somehow knew that these three just happen to pass by the school wall before anypony else, and just happen to pick up those paint cans!?”
“Of course,” Trixie said, once again taking the spotlight. “After all, you set up the dangerous stunt that would apparently earn them their Cutie Marks, right?”
“H-How’d you know-” Diamond Tiara shushed herself quickly, but it was too late now. Everypony heard what she said, and knew what it meant. Nonetheless, Trixie continued.
“The white one over there,” Trixie said, pointing to Sweetie Belle. “She’s been very quiet, and is holding her head in her hooves tightly…Isn’t that because she’s hurt?”
Almost immediately, Rarity rushed to her sister’s side and moved her hooves, checking her sister for injuries. She let out a loud gasp when she saw a rather nasty bruise on her head. “Sweetie Belle! What happened to you!?” she asked, hugging her sister tightly.
“You can tell from the shape of the dent on the wall that a Unicorn foal must have crashed into it with some force. You mentioned that “they were finally tired of being blank flanks”, or something to that effect, right? Meaning that they were tired of not having discovered their special talents. I imagine they were desperate, and willing to try anything to find them.” Everypony around nodded. There was no argument there; the three fillies were famous throughout Ponyville for the stunts they pulled trying to finally earn their Cutie Marks.
Trixie let out a soft chuckle. “Just like when I was a filly…” The group looked at her confused, except for Doctor, who looked like he was having a heart attack. Trixie quickly tried to recover from her slipup. “Ah, I mean, that’s what my mother would always tell me!” she said. “My mother was a late bloomer too, and apparently, she tried many, many things to earn her Cutie Mark. She told me that all foals that earn their Cutie Marks after everypony else are like that!”
Everypony in the group seemed to buy it. Doctor breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but almost jumped out of his skin again when he saw Twilight looking down at Trixie with that same look she always gave somepony when she was checking to see if they were lying. ‘T-That’s not good! I think she suspects her!’
Trixie tried to return the conversation back to the situation at hoof. “A-Anyway, if you set it up so that they crashed into the wall at a certain time, it wouldn’t be difficult to pin the blame on them.”
Diamond Tiara was starting to sweat nervously, but wasn’t ready to back down just yet. “And where’s your proof, huh!? You’re just trying to protect those three and pin the blame on us, aren’t you!?”
“Then let’s try this: you three.” Trixie turned to the three fillies who were being blamed for this crime. “Am I correct in guessing you didn’t touch all of the paint cans?”
The three fillies nodded, and a grin appeared on Trixie’s face. “Then, we’ll simply check each can for hoofprints. Then we’ll know who touched which can…And we can even tell, from the pattern of the prints on the cans, whether somepony used a can or not.”
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were both shaking now, their eyes wide as they tried to find some way out of this situation. Trixie could see them about to give in, and gave one final push. “Doctor, would you please collect each can and take them back to your place for analysis?”
“No!” Silver Spoon shouted. She then realised that everypony was staring at her, and that there was no way out of this. “We…We did it…”
After confessing to everything, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were taken home by their parents, who assured everypony that the two fillies would be grounded for a while for this. They refused to explain why exactly they went so far as to try and frame the “Cutie Mark Crusaders”, which Trixie learned was the collective name of the three fillies, but Trixie could see the reason in their eyes: jealousy.
After the situation was resolved, the crowd around the school started to disappear. The three crusaders went to their separate homes, after thanking Trixie for her help. They noticed her lack of Cutie Mark, and insisted that she join the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but she had no interest and simply turned them down.
Doctor and Cheerilee went inside the school to discuss Trixie’s, or rather, Star Swirl’s transfer into the school. Trixie was left waiting outside. She tried to pass the time by drawing on the ground with a stick. She never realised how hard it was to use hooves, especially when you can usually use magic to perform mundane tasks like drawing.
“Why don’t you just use your magic?” Trixie looked up to see Twilight Sparkle looking down at her, with an un-amused look on her face. “That is your special talent, right?”
Trixie’s eyes widened, and she quickly turned her face away, attempting to hide her shock. “W-What d’you mean? I-I’m a blank flank, see?”
“Of all the names you could’ve picked, you chose Star Swirl. I didn’t realise you were such a fan of his, Trixie.”
“I-It was my mother that named me. W-Who’s this Trixie? I’ve never heard of her before.” Trixie broke into a nervous sweat as she tried to convince Twilight that she wasn’t Trixie. It was clear that Twilight didn’t believe her, and she didn’t know how long she could keep this up.
“Ok, Star Swirl, we’ve got you enrolled!” Doctor shouted as he exited the school building. Trixie turned to him excitedly and quickly ran to his side. He noticed Twilight looking over at Trixie with a stern look, and started to fear the worse. “Uh, hello there, Miss Sparkle…Um, lovely day today, isn’t it?”
Twilight turned her attention to Doctor, narrowing her eyes at him. “You’re in on this, aren’t you?”
“I-In on what? Whatever are you talking about?”
“You know what’s happened to Trixie, and you’re keeping it secret from me!” Twilight shouted as she stomped a hoof on the ground.
Doctor raised a hoof and asked her to calm down, and then let out a deep sigh. “Alright, Miss Sparkle…I was asked not tell you, but I guess I have no choice. Come with me, and I’ll explain everything.”
Trixie looked at Doctor with a shocked look. Surely he wasn’t going to reveal her secret to Twilight so easily! And what did he mean when he said he was asked to tell her? That was his suggestion!
After a long, silent walk through Ponyville, the trio eventually reached Doctor’s house. He asked to wait outside while he searched for something. Trixie wanted to go inside, but Doctor’s insisted that she’d be just fine.
And so, Twilight and Trixie were left on their own outside. Twilight looked at Trixie with a frown on her face. “Why, Trixie? Why didn’t you say anything? If you didn’t want to be friends with me, you could have just told me so…I was worried that something may have happened to you.”
Trixie wasn’t able to answer. Part of her wanted to just reveal the truth, but another part wanted to find some way out of this situation as quickly as possible. Twilight moved closer to Trixie, and continued speaking. “Please, Trixie…Tell me what happened to you.”
“It was a family emergency,” a voice said. Trixie and Twilight’s heads shot up, and looked towards Doctor’s house. The voice came from vaguely that direction, but more importantly, it was Trixie’s voice. “Sorry, Twilight. Trixie should have told you, but it completely slipped her mind.”
Twilight moved past Trixie and looked around. “Trixie? Are you there?”
Trixie looked towards the front door of Doctor’s house. Was this another one of Doctor’s inventions? In any case, Trixie saw this as her chance. She pushed the button on her ring, and used her magic to create an illusionary image of herself, which came out from behind Doctor’s house.
“Trixie!” Twilight shouted, running over to the image.
“Don’t come any closer!” the image appeared to have shouted. Trixie made the image turn its head, so that its horrible lip synchronisation wasn’t noticed by Twilight. “Trixie only came to apologise. She doesn’t wish to stay any longer.”
“W-What? But…What about-”
“The slumber party? Trixie’s changed her mind. She’s fine without friends, for now.”
Trixie cringed at how stupid Doctor was making her sound, but she knew that it was for the best. This way, Twilight wouldn’t involve herself with Trixie anymore, and the chances of her finding out Trixie’s true identity would lower.
“Trixie must go now! She has a lot of work to do! Farewell, Twilight Sparkle!”
Trixie took this as her cue to make the phantom image run away into a dark alley. As expected, Twilight chased after the image, but Trixie dispelled it before Twilight could reach the alley. When Twilight didn’t return, Trixie assumed that Twilight must have still been giving chase.
Trixie, now content that Twilight didn’t know her true identity, made her way inside Doctor’s house. Once inside, she saw that she wasn’t the only one relieved that Twilight bought the deception. Sitting against the wall with a hoof to his forehead, wiping away a nervous sweat, was Doctor, and in his hooves, a red bowtie.
“Is that what you used to mimic my voice?” Trixie asked, pointing a hoof to the bowtie.
Doctor nodded, and then looked over at Trixie with an apologetic look on his face. “I’m sorry, Trixie. I didn’t have much time to think of something better. And I figured that, this way-”
Trixie cut Doctor off. She didn’t need him to explain. She was just thankful that Twilight didn’t find out Trixie’s true identity. “It’s fine, Doctor. And…Thank you.” An awkward silence filled the room, which Trixie tried to break immediately. “But…Why a bowtie?”
Doctor sat up and laughed, holding the bowtie up above his head. “Because in the future, bowties will be cool!”
Trixie sighed and slammed a hoof to her face. She then took a minute to think, and then faced Doctor with a determined look on her face. “Doctor…Do you think I could borrow that sometime?”
Doctor turned to Trixie. “Sure, but why?”
“Because…I can’t leave things as they are right now…And if I’m going to find those stallions in black, then I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
Doctor’s face turned serious once again, and he examined Trixie for a moment. He saw that she was determined, and wouldn’t back down. Sighing, he handed the bowtie over to Trixie. “Just…Be careful, ok? I’m willing to help you, but I have no intention of dying because of this.”
“I understand,” Trixie said as she reached for the bowtie. She grabbed it and examined it for a bit, checking to see how it worked.
Doctor turned around and walked over to his computer. “Well, I may be able to help you find leads…I don’t mean to brag, but I should be able to hack into the various precinct data banks throughout Equestria. If anything that looks like it could be related to those stallions in black shows up, I’ll let you know.” Doctor turned around to face Trixie, who looked rather worried about something. “Is…Something wrong?”
Trixie turned to Doctor and held up the bowtie in her hooves. “Can I get this in purple, please?”
Doctor sighed and facehooved. “I guess some things never change, huh?"