Illusions on the stage
The elegant white unicorn walked at a fast pace through the now almost empty streets of Ponyville, since many of the ponies had gathered in the central square of the town, momentarily discarding their businesses to watch and have fun with a show that had reached the town and attracted everyone’s attention. It was precisely that particular show that Rarity wanted, or rather, should be warning Dusk Shine about.
"Typical, there's a stir in town, and he's the last to know. What is he even doing?" Rarity thought once she reached the door of Dusk's home, the Golden Oak library.
Rarity knocked on the door a couple of times and waited a while for someone to come out or tell her she could come in, but all she could hear was whispers and giggles, even the unicorn thought she heard someone mention her name, but she wasn't sure because the murmurs were heard quietly behind the door.
"Come in." Spike said, finally opening the door from inside.
"Thanks, Spike, why did you take so long to open?" Rarity said hurriedly, without even looking at Spike, just entering the library and looking for who she needed at that precise moment. "Where's Dusk? I'm almost sure I heard his voice muttering next to yours."
"You must be confused, pretty lady, he is not here, it is just YOU and ME." Spike said with a odd accent, speaking slowly and emphasizing certain words.
"Pretty lady?" Rarity said surprised when she heard that word spoken from the little dragon, only then, did she turn around to see the little dragon, she didn't take the time to see in detail when entering the library. "Spike, why are you talking-?"
The unicorn stopped speaking abruptly when she realized what was in front of her and almost missed. Next to the door was her always adorable Spikey-Wikey, but for some reason, he now had a long, leafy and horrible black mustache on his snout, which the dragon touched with the tip of his claw and rolled the tips of it while he looked at Rarity with a flirtatious look.
After a while when Spike looked at Rarity with a flirtatious smile while waiting for a comment from her, and in which Rarity was still shocked and speechless by the aesthetic disaster she was witnessing, the dragon finally spoke.
"Well, what do you think?" Spike asked, obviously referring to his new facial accessory, while still playing with the tips of his mustache and raised and lowered his eyebrows quickly to continue with his terrible act of gallantry.
"Horrible! Awful! What were you thinking, my cute, silly, and tender Spike!?" was what Rarity wanted to scream, but she couldn't say that, because even though she was usually very frank and direct as far as appearance was concerned, since for her there was nothing worse than looking bad; this time she had to make an exception, since she was unable to tell Spike that cruel truth and that could hurt Spike's pride, knowing how attentive and helpful he always was to her. However, her great aesthetic and fashion sense also made it impossible for her to say a fake compliment to that horrid pile of hair on him, so she finally just fell silent, and looked away.
"I... uh... well..." Rarity began to stutter, not knowing how to respond to the tender baby dragon. Suddenly Rarity remembered what she had come to and realized that this was also a perfect way for changing the subject to avoid answering Spike's question. "That's right, Spike, where's Dusk Shine? I need to talk urgently with him."
Spike seemed disappointed to hear that Rarity was asking about Dusk and that she wasn't even paying attention to his fantastic new gallant look.
"W-Wouldn't you rather talk to me? If you have a problem, I could help you." Spike said making one last attempt to be alone with his beloved.
"I'm sorry Spike, but it's something that only Dusk can help with." Rarity answered with a sad smile, trying to look Spike in the eye, but all she could see was that horrid mustache.
"Hngh... okay..." Spike grunted reluctantly as he turned around to go find Dusk, annoyed to see that his plan to conquer Rarity with his new mustache had failed.
"I'm sorry Spikey-Wikey, but I don't have time for your childish things, this time I need to talk to somepony more mature..." Rarity thought, feeling bad for not being able to please her beloved Spike.
"Hello Rarity, what's wrong?" Dusk Shine suddenly said, coming out from the kitchen, which was where he had hidden at Spike's request when they heard that Rarity was knocking on the library door.
"Oh, Dusk, I'm glad-" Rarity answered, coming out of her thoughts and looking at Dusk, stopping in the act, shocked to see that the adult mature pony with whom she expected to speak to, had the same ridiculous mustache as little Spike’s.
"What's wrong, don’t you like our new mustaches?" Dusk said moving his lip to make his new hair accessory more noticeable. "I was practicing some spells when I remembered the problem we had with the sea serpent in the Everfree forest, so I searched and finally found a hair growth spell, after all, as we found out, you never know when a good mustache might be useful, hehe."
As Dusk spoke, the only thing Rarity could do is stand there, paralyzed with a face of total disbelief upon seeing Dusk with that ugly mustache.
"They look great, too!" Dusk added, putting on a gallant face, while Spike, who had approached, made the same gesture, both of them looking deeply at the horizon while caressing the tips of their moustaches.
Rarity, who was still in her stupor, realized that believing that the mustache looked good was fine for little Spike, but it was definitely not the right attitude for Dusk! I mean, how immature could Dusk be!? Then a ray of reality hit her when she realized that she was in love with that cute, but immature colt, it was then that a part of her cried comically when she realized that tragicomedy.
"Well, you still haven’t said what you think of them," Dusk asked again with a naive smile.
"Horrible! Awful! What were you thinking, my cute and silly Dusk!?" Rarity said finally saying what she hadn’t been able to say to Spike.
Dusk was surprised at Rarity's comment, then looked at Spike, who also looked at him, and then they both looked at Rarity as if she was crazy.
"But they look great." They said Dusk and Spike at the same time.
"Enough about the mustaches!" Shouted Rarity somewhat irritated to realize that she had wasted a lot of time and that she had gone there with a mission. "Dusk, I need you to come with me right now."
"Go with you? Where?" Dusk asked confused to see the serious face of Rarity.
"To the town square." Rarity responded by turning around and opening the door, looking back at Dusk while putting on an even more serious face. "We need you to teach somepony a lesson."
"Hurry, over here." Rarity said loudly since the noise of the crowd that were in the town square made it impossible to be heard at a normal volume of voice.
As soon as Dusk and Spike got to where Rarity was taking them, to the town's central square, they saw how a large number of village ponies were there, all in front of what appeared to be an improvised stage, each of the ponies laughing and applauding to a pony who was standing on the stage at that time, a blue-gray pony, who seemed to have a kind of cape and a large lilac hat, but neither Dusk nor Spike could see who it was because of how distant it was.
"Why are all these ponies gathered here?" Dusk asked surprised and somewhat uncomfortable since he still didn’t like being surrounded by so many unknown ponies that much.
"Dusk, Spike, around here!" Rarity shouted again in the hubbub, who had pushed inside the sea of ponies that were there and again told Dusk and Spike to follow her.
Dusk Shine and Spike began to approach the stage following Rarity, pushing and apologizing to each pony with whom they collided with, due to the great crowd that there was. It was so that finally, they both arrived next to where Rarity was, who had stopped very near to the main scene, just where they were, who was already waiting for them was Pinkie Pie, who seemed to be caressing a giant ball of light blue hair.
"Where did you go?" You disappeared without saying anything, that was very impolite!" Pinkie Pie said looking at Rarity while still touching the giant ball of hairs, pretending to be upset.
"You always disappear without telling anypony anything!" Rarity said a little irritated. "Honestly, I'm not one for jokes, but enough of this, I need to see what those two look like..."
At that moment Pinkie Pie turned her head to see who was behind Rarity. There she could see that Dusk and Spike were there, and as soon as they noticed that she was looking at them, they put their faces back on. Pinkie Pie didn’t know how to react when seeing her friends, her expressions were definitely fun, but what definitely caught her attention were the big mustaches that the both had on them.
On the way to the central plaza, Rarity tried to convince Dusk and Spike that the mustaches definitely didn’t look good, but neither of them thought they looked as bad as she said, so finally, Dusk used his magic on his mustache, but not to disappear, but to change the style, changing them to a more lush and curly style. Deciding that he would ask someone else's opinion to prove to Rarity that the mustache looked great.
"Well, Pinkie Pie? What do you think?" Dusk said with his gallant look and showing his new and improved mustache with Spike, who had the same look.
Pinkie Pie put a pensive face for several seconds until she finally smiled and answered.
"I think they look like a couple of plumbers who are looking for a princess, hahaha." Pinkie Pie responded laughing with laughter.
Dusk and Spike just looked at each other, not understanding what their crazy friend had said, but seeing that she didn’t stop laughing, Dusk decided that it was time to make those beautiful and misunderstood mustaches disappear from their faces.
"Applejack! What happened to you!? Did you also face her?" Suddenly, Rarity shouted, who only then realized that behind the giant ball of blue hairs was Applejack, with her back to the ground, tied from head to tail, almost looking like a mummy.
"Hmmppfff!" Applejack shouted, her mouth gagged.
Then Rarity approached her friend and helped her free her snout from the bonds.
"Ptui! I said yes! Huff... She... She said that not only could she defeat any unicorn, but also any pegasus or Earth pony! That bothered me a lot, so I decided to face her. " Applejack responded by spitting the strings from her mouth while still on the ground with Rarity trying in vain to release her from those strong bindings. "I did some tricks with my lasso, but she used her magic to bind me to it."
"Wait, I'll help you." Dusk said quickly, who had been surprised just as much as Rarity to see her friend tied in that way, seeing that Rarity found it difficult untying the rest of her friend's body.
Then Dusk used his magic to loosen the rope internally and thus finally making it loose enough to free her. As soon as the rope had loosened, Applejack could easily shake it off.
"Phew... Thank you, it has been several minutes trying to untie myself, it was quite uncomfortable, although at least it was better than Rainbow Dash..." Applejack said sighing in relief, pointing her hoof to the side.
Both Rarity and Dusk looked at the side pointed Applejack, where only Pinkie Pie, Spike, and that huge ball of blue hair were... That huge ball of light blue hairs! It was only then that both unicorns realized that Rainbow Dash's head peeked out of that huge ball of hair.
"Rainbow Dash! Is that you? She... She turned you into a giant ball of hair!?" Rarity screamed in horror when she saw the ball of hair in which her friend had apparently become.
"It's not that, it's... it's my own hair..." Rainbow Dash replied quite embarrassed. "I competed with her and showed her one of my best tricks, flying at full speed through the clouds so that my speed would attract a few drops of water to form a small rainbow behind me, but she used those drops of water to form a little storm cloud that shocked me with a lightning bolt and... well... I was filled with static and now all my fur is tipped... "Finished Rainbow Dash who was full of shame, mainly for admitting that she had been defeated.
"I told you I was going to go to Dusk to teach her a lesson! It wasn’t necessary to face her!" Rarity said annoyed, but not with her friends, but with who had caused them to be in that shameful situation.
"Wait a moment, who is 'SHE', can somepony explain to me what is happening?" Dusk asked, beginning to get dizzy when he didn’t understand anything that happened there.
"I'll explain it to you! I'll explain it to you!" Pinkie Pie said repeatedly jumping in front of Dusk to be heard. Then she sucked in a large amount of air and started talking quickly. "We were all walking around here to pay you a visit, when we saw that there was a large crowd here, then I said, 'Come on!' And we came here, then we saw that all the fuss was because a mare recently arrived in town and was doing a magic show, so I was surprised, and I said, 'We should make you a welcome party!' But they all told me to be quiet, so they could watch the show, so we all stayed to see the magic show the new mare was doing, at first the show was very nice and funny, but then that unicorn said 'I am the most powerful magician in all of Equestria! I can beat any unicorn with my magic!' Then she started challenging some unicorns in the audience to do their best tricks, they did their tricks and she used those same tricks to make them look ridiculous, and the more she won, the more arrogant she became, then Rarity said 'I can't stand this petulant mare any longer! I’m going to bring the true, most powerful unicorn of Equestria to teach this mare a lesson in humility!' Then Rarity ran away while the three of us stayed here, then that mare said, 'I can’t only beat any unicorn, but I can beat anypony!' Then Applejack came up to challenge her, and she did with her lasso 'Whish! Whaplash!' and the unicorn used her magic, 'Whiplish!' and tied Applejack with the lasso. Then Rainbow Dash flew up and made a 'Zoom!’ a ‘Whosh!', And then the unicorn made a storm cloud, and the lightning bolt, ‘Bzzt! ' and Rainbow Dash went 'Puff!' when her hair stopped, and then you came. And that's it! Huff... Huff... "Pinkie Pie finished, giving a big sigh after saying all of that at full speed, making a great summary of everything that had happened, adding their own sound effects and their particular performances of the facts.
Dusk stayed a few seconds processing everything that Pinkie Pie had just said since when she spoke so fast, it took some a few extra seconds to sort and process all that information. Finally, after believing that he understood most of what Pinkie Pie had said, Dusk turned to face the stage.
"So, did all this happen because they faced each other in a magic duel with her?" Dusk Shine said for the first-time paying attention to the mare that had stopped on the stage.
Just at that moment, the unicorn on stage had finished a magic trick, so the audience erupted in applause as she took off her hat while receiving praise from the audience. Without her hat, and with her coat fluttering, revealing her figure better, it was finally that Dusk could see the famous unicorn, her face, and her cutie mark. It was a mare with bluish gray fur, with a tail and manes of grayish blue color, dark pink eyes, and a cutie mark with a new moon with some stars on it and a magic wand at its side. Seeing it carefully, Dusk opened his eyes a little surprised at what he saw.
"She... She's..." Dusk said as he remembered something from his past.
"Well, before finishing the show today, is there no other pony who dares to challenge the Great and Powerful Trixie?" The unicorn shouted on the stage, looking expectantly at her audience. "Is there nopony who dares challenge the most powerful unicorn of all Equestria?"
"You are not the most powerful unicorn of all Equestria!" Rarity shouted loudly to be heard. "You're just a vain pony who enjoys making fun of others, but here is a unicorn that will put you in your place and teach you to be humbler, the most powerful true unicorn of all Equestria!"
At that moment Rarity pointed to her side, where Dusk Shine was, however, to both her and her friends surprise, Dusk had disappeared.
"So, you think you're the most powerful unicorn of all Equestria?" Trixie said looking defiantly at Rarity, thinking that Rarity had been talking about herself.
"Err... No, I didn’t mean me..." Rarity replied, looking for Dusk.
"Oh... so you're cowering now?" Trixie added looking at Rarity and her friends and then glancing at her audience, so they would laugh with her. "I guess you don’t want me to make you look as ridiculous as that ball of hair next to you."
The audience burst into laughter as they remembered how Trixie had sparked all of Rainbow Dash's hair with lightning. Upon hearing how everyone made fun of her friend, Rarity immediately stopped looking for Dusk and looked seriously at Trixie, who returned her look with a mocking smile.
"Very well... I wanted it to be Dusk who did it, but I guess I'll have to be the one to teach you a lesson in humility and wipe that smile off your face." Rarity said furiously, approaching to get on stage.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie kept looking for Dusk, until finally, she managed to see a familiar purple tail behind two other ponies that looked behind them with a look of disgust. Pinkie Pie approached there and found that it was indeed Dusk, who was hiding there for some reason.
"What are you doing here? Why are you hiding?" Pinkie Pie asked looking at Dusk, who remained crouched behind those two ponies that were looking at him with disgust.
"I don’t want to go on the stage..." Dusk replied with a distressed look. "As soon as Rarity started talking, I understood immediately that she was referring to me and that she wanted me to face that unicorn on stage, but I don’t like to be on stage and have dozens of ponies eyes watching me. It makes me feel uncomfortable... and besides, I'm not as great as Rarity sounded."
Pinkie Pie stared at Dusk for a few seconds with a confused face, then she pulled her hooves up and stretched Dusk's cheeks tightly.
"Ouch! What are you doing!?" Dusk Shine asked annoyed, rubbing his cheeks after his friend let go.
"Oops! I'm sorry, I just thought maybe you were Fluttershy with a mask, hehe." Pinkie Pie answered with a sad smile. "It's just that I didn’t think you could be as shy as she was."
"I'm not, at least not as much as she is." Dusk replied looking at the ground. "It's just that I don’t like crowds or being the center of attention..."
"Please, let's give a round of applause to the last challenger of the day!" Trixie shouted once Rarity took the stage, causing Pinkie Pie and Dusk to draw their attention to the stage while the audience began to applaud and cheer for Rarity.
"Hmph, don’t act falsely with me, I know perfectly well that you don’t really want to cheer me up." Rarity said with her brow furrowed as she approached Trixie and began to walk in circles around her, all while Trixie remained motionless, just following her with her eyes as she continued to smile confidently. "You think you're rude with your supposed powers, but magic is more than your coarse habits, a unicorn must be more than just force!"
At that moment Rarity stopped in front of Trixie and her horn lit up. Immediately the blue curtains that were in the background of the stage were released and flew gracefully to where Rarity was, surrounding her completely while her magic was getting brighter and brighter, surrounding her in a big bubble of light. As soon as the light cleared, everyone saw in amazement how Rarity had become in just a moment, turning those ordinary curtains into a beautiful blue dress that she was now wearing, in addition, she had fixed her hair to have a higher and more refined hairstyle, all while she made an elegant pose.
"A unicorn must have style, grace, and beauty, that's what defines a true unicorn of greatness!" Rarity finished with an elegant smile as the audience erupted in applause and whistles of admiration, mares immediately falling in love with the beautiful dress that Rarity wore, and colts falling in front of the beautiful figure of the unicorn.
"So, beauty, huh?" Trixie said patiently after waiting for the audience to calm down a bit. Then she illuminated her horn. "But remember…"
Trixie fired her magic into the mane of an inadvertent Rarity, who only realized that something bad was happening when the entire audience that had been admiring her suddenly fell silent, and now each of them was staring at her hair with a face of horror.
"...beauty is ephemeral." Finished telling Trixie after her magic had taken effect, with a mocking smile as she delighted in her new triumph.
"W-What happened!? Did something happen to my mane!?" Somepony give me a mirror!?" Rarity began to scream, hyperventilating when she realized that her beautiful appearance had been destroyed in seconds.
"Here you go." Trixie said with false politeness as she levitated a small mirror in front of Rarity.
When she saw herself in the mirror, Rarity immediately put on a frightened face when she saw that that petulant mare had turned her beautiful purple mane into a pile of long, stinking green seaweed, which of course was something no one would consider beautiful.
"M-My beautiful mane..." was the only thing Rarity could say while she trembled, and her eyes were still too scared to see the rest of herself in the mirror, without believing what she saw, because her mane had been ruined in all possible ways. "It's... the worst possible color... and the smell... This... This is not possible..." Rarity whispered in horror.
"A round of applause for our participant." Trixie shouted looking at her audience with a kind smile, before glancing at Rarity and putting on a slightly more malevolent smile. "Who just discovered that seaweed is the latest fashion buzz at Town Ridiculous!"
Before Trixie's joke, the entire audience burst into laughter, to the total satisfaction of Trixie. All but Rarity and her friends, who, seeing herself humiliated in this way, unable to run as she was surrounded by ponies pointing at her and laughing at her, she did nothing but stay paralyzed while her eyes trembled as she tried her best not to start crying right there, a force of will that was gradually breaking under the continuous laughter of others, making little tears came from her tender eyes.
POOF!
"Easy, that’s an easy fix." Suddenly Dusk Shine said, appearing with his magic on the stage, right next to Rarity, all before the surprised look of the white unicorn, and before the suspicious look of Trixie.
Then Dusk Shine illuminated his horn and approached smoothly towards Rarity’s hair, and thus, as fast as Trixie was at transforming her mane into a pile of algae, it returned to normal, returning to the smooth, perfumed and well combed purple mane that she initially had. As soon as Rarity saw that her hair was back to normal, she couldn’t help but drop a few tears of happiness and hugged Dusk tightly as she said repeatedly 'Thank you!'
Once Rarity stopped hugging Dusk, he stopped smiling as he turned to look at Trixie, who had just waited patiently with a poker stare at Dusk.
"I'm sorry I interrupted your show, but I don’t like to see you humiliate my friends like that," Dusk said seriously looking at Trixie. "I didn’t want to go on stage, but I won’t let you keep mocking more ponies. My name is Dusk Shine, I'm the one Rarity was referring to, the unicorn who can stand up to you and show you some humility."
Those words said by Dusk sounded great, upon seeing Rarity almost cry because of the tricks caused by Trixie, Dusk couldn’t take it anymore and came to her defense, leaving aside his always friendly way of speaking and now talking to her plainly while his anger was still fresh.
Nopony in the audience moved or made any noise, all were watching expectantly from one place to another, between Dusk Shine, who looked seriously at Trixie; and Trixie, who had lowered her head, causing no one to see exactly her expression at that moment.
"So, your name is Dusk Shine, huh...?" Trixie finally said, without raising her head, speaking very slowly.
Dusk Shine remained motionless, ready to face Trixie's wrath and, if necessary, ready to have a magic duel against her if she asked.
"Wow, it's really you! You really are The Dusk Shine!" Trixie screamed euphorically, with a big smile, completely changing the arrogant attitude that she had maintained all this time. "I just met The Great Dusk Shine! This is the happiest day of my life!"
Meanwhile, everyone in the audience was surprised at the sudden change in Trixie’s attitude, as she hasn’t reacted this way with any of the other challengers who had taken the stage before. And of all those surprised ponies, nobody was more surprised than Dusk Shine himself, who had been waiting for any reprisal, anything! But he hadn’t expected Trixie to stare at him with admiration as she did at that precise moment.
"I can't believe it, I really am in front of the savior of Equestria! The personal student of Princess Celestia!" Trixie said with a big smile and eyes of total admiration as she began to approach Dusk, but not before turning to the audience to help follow in their admiration. "Come on everypony! Let's give a big and warm welcome to the Great and Powerful Dusk Shine!"
As soon as Trixie asked for the audience's applause for Dusk, there was only a great silence in which no one applauded at the time. Seeing that apparently everyone in the audience was still shocked by the surprise entry of Dusk, Dusk's friends began to applaud him to make the rest of the audience follow them, however, they stopped shortly after seeing that no one else in the audience applauded despite the fact that they did it. That hadn’t happened with any of the other challengers Trixie had faced, even with Rarity there had been no problems, usually when someone came on stage, was immediately encouraged by the applause of the audience; however, it seemed that only Dusk was the exception to that, even worse than that! It seemed that all the ponies in the front ranks looked at Dusk with resentment and distrust.
Everyone noticed the tense atmosphere, all but Dusk, who seemed to not notice the atmosphere around him while he was still shocked by the surprising change in attitude of Trixie.
"Y-You..." Dusk said stuttering, after all his conviction of facing Trixie, disappeared, trying in vain to recover the determination with which he had gone out to confront the blue-gray unicorn. "You were making fun of my friends, and I-"
"Making fun!? No, I would never do that." Trixie answered surprised and putting an exaggerated face of concern. "This is just a show, you know, it's to amuse the audience, after all it's a magic show."
At that moment Trixie approached Rarity, who was still standing next to Dusk and put a big puppy eye look.
"I really am sorry if I made you feel bad, it was never my intention, I guess sometimes I exaggerate a little bit with my show," Trixie said taking one of Rarity's hooves to hold it affectionately, ending with a big smile.
Rarity didn’t flinch at Trixie's performance; she could recognize a bad performance when she saw one, not so Dusk, who was only surprised at how easy it was for Trixie to change her attitude and apologize to Rarity, without either of them having to ask for it.
"So, everything is good now, right?" Trixie said looking at Dusk with a big smile but keeping a penetrating look. "Now tell me, why did you appear so suddenly on my stage? I think you said something about confronting us?"
"Huh... yeah..." Dusk began to stutter, still confused about what was happening, because all that anger he felt when he saw Rarity humiliated, had vanished when he saw that Trixie had apologized so kindly, and she had said that everything she did was part of her show, if so, he had only exaggerated to think that everything was getting out of control, or at the very least that's what Dusk thought.
At that moment Dusk glanced at the audience and saw that all eyes were on him, which immediately made him even more nervous.
"I-I was going to challenge you, b-but now I think it will not be-" Dusk added timidly before being interrupted.
"Challenge me!? But what could I do against the mighty Dusk Shine!? YOU defeated the mighty Nightmare Moon! YOU saved this town from being devoured by a dragon! YOU are almost like a son to Princess Celestia! What could I do against your great and powerful magic!?" Trixie said theatrically, speaking loudly so that the audience could hear her.
"How does she know all of that if she just came into town?" was the only thing Dusk could ask himself at that moment.
Suddenly Trixie lit up her horn, from which a few sparks flew.
"Also, as everyone here saw, I've been doing magic tricks all morning, I'm exhausted! Poor me! I definitely have no chance to beat you..." Trixie said taking a hoof to her forehead and leaving a drop to show how tired she was.
While Dusk was still frozen before the performance of Trixie, without knowing what to do or answer, the public slowly began to murmur things that Dusk couldn’t hear from where he was.
"You can Miss Trixie!" An enthusiastic foal shouted spontaneously from the audience, a small aquamarine unicorn, orange hair, and a cutie mark from scissors.
"Yes! You can defeat him!" Another foal shouted from the audience, a taller one, with mustard-colored skin and green hair, with a giddy look and a cutie mark of a snail.
As soon as those two foals shouted supporting Trixie, all the rest of the audience also started doing the same, motivating the heroine who was exhausted lying on the ground, motivating her to stand up and defeat the evil Dusk Shine.
"All right!" Trixie yelled surprisingly, jumping to her feet. "If the audience wishes it, then I will face this powerful unicorn, despite my condition, and I will do my best!"
Before the excellent performance of Trixie, all the public broke out in applause to motivate their heroine in her last duel of the day; meanwhile, she made a few obeisance’s, enjoying the applause of her fans.
"Wow... If she's tired, the best thing would be not to overindulge it." Dusk said scratching his head, thinking that he didn’t want to take part in a magical duel, let alone in front of so many ponies, but if she was struggling to do it, the least he could do was accept.
"WHAT!? Don’t you realize that everything she is doing is all just an act!? She did all that to make you look bad in front of everypony!" Rarity said, annoyed by Dusk's excessive ingenuity.
Meanwhile, Trixie, who was only a few steps away from Dusk, receiving the applause from the audience, managed to hear what Rarity said. Then she looked fleetingly and penetratingly at the white unicorn and then approached them again.
"Of course, it's a performance, remember this is a show!" Said Trixie, who directedly said that to Rarity and then to Dusk, all while she kept a big smile. "Now that the audience is motivated and will be more interested in watching the show, do not worry, you just have to follow me, we'll do a couple of spells in front of the audience, and we'll decide who the winner is, I'm just asking you not to measure yourself , that you use all your potential against me! "
"Oh, I see," Dusk replied surprised, realizing that everything had only been an act. Then he looked a little more worried at what Trixie had just asked. "You... Are you sure you want me to use all my magical ability?"
"Sure, don't worry, remember that this is just a show, it doesn't really matter who wins." Trixie replied with a big smile.
Then Trixie turned around and headed back to the front of the stage.
"Besides, I know who the winner will be..." Trixie murmured to herself as she turned her back on Dusk, hiding a sinister little smile.
While Trixie began talking to the audience again, Dusk waited patiently where he was, on the side of the stage, and a little more relaxed when he realized that the magic duel would be more of a demonstration to entertain the public than a real fight of magical power. Meanwhile, Rarity kept a hoof in her mouth without removing her view of Trixie, seeing her with a worried face.
"She's definitely planning something...” Rarity thought uneasily, who didn’t want anyone to make fun of or make her darling and naive Dusk feel bad.
"Well, my dear public, since we are facing a special duel, today I will ask for the collaboration of a couple of attendees," Trixie said looking at the entire audience until her eyes stopped on the two little foals that had been the first to shout to support her. "You two, come on stage please, let's give them a big round of applause!"
Again, managing the public at will, Trixie made the whole audience burst into applause while the little foals climbed onto the stage. There, both foals appeared, who coincidentally had the names of the cutie marks they carried, 'Snips' and 'Snails,' both looking with admiration at Trixie.
"Okay, my assistants are already present, with the great and fabulous Trixie, but the true star of the show is still missing, Let's give the powerful Dusk Shine a big round of applause again!" Trixie shouted enthusiastically as she pointed with a hoof towards Dusk to come to the front of the stage next to her.
At Trixie's signal, Dusk walked slowly towards her, again getting nervous when he felt the intense gaze of the entire audience on him. And so, absorbed was Dusk when feeling the eyes of the public gaze upon him, that he didn’t even notice that again nobody in the audience applauded his entrance, although Trixie had requested it; they only heard a couple of isolated applauses from their friends, who did everything possible to motivate the public in favor of Dusk, but they were unable to do so. All this before the watchful eye of Trixie, who seemed not to care that her request for applause to Dusk Shine wasn’t considered by the public.
"All right, now what we're going to do is three tests, we'll both try to do similar spells, and whoever wins two out three of them will be the one who wins the competition!" Trixie shouted for the audience to hear her. Then she went to her new assistants and asked them with a kind smile. "Very good little ones, tell me, what would you like to see?"
"Me! Me!" The tall young colt named Snails shouted with enthusiasm. "I'd like to see something spooky!"
"Something spooky? Very well, I'll do the best I can with the little magic I have left." Trixie answered with a big smile, then with a look of determination.
Trixie's horn lit up, and it seemed that the sky dimmed slightly, making the sunlight dimmer as if a cloud was hiding it. Then, from the shade that the sun was casting on Trixie, her shadow slowly began to rise from the floor, gradually rising and detaching itself from the real shadow of Trixie, until it began to take shape, extending four dark limbs to form its legs, also forming a tail, as if that shadow was a totally dark pony, only that this pony was missing something vital, the head.
Once the pony made of shadows completed its headless form, it stood on its hindquarters and began to jog in circles on the stage, finally rising threateningly in front of Snips and Snails, who couldn’t help but be surprised and a little frightened to see that dark pony with no head in front of them.
The magic lasted only a few seconds, in which Trixie maintained a full face of concentration, but finally, she seemed unable to bear it anymore and fell exhausted to the ground while her horn went out and the magic of shadows disappeared instantly, returning everything to normal.
"Huff, I'm too tired, but it doesn’t matter, I hope with all my heart that you were scared by my little version of the 'headless horse'!" Trixie said with a smile, while the audience burst into applause again.
The audience applauded Trixie to see a very good trick of shadows, something that in itself was difficult for any unicorn, however the biggest reason why the audience applauded with such enthusiasm, was the effort that Trixie had shown, because she really seemed exhausted and still she continued on with the show, which made it inevitable that she would win the sympathy of the crowd. And that's exactly what Dusk thought at the time, who when seeing the spell of Trixie, couldn’t help but think that it was a good spell, but only on a medium level, anyone who had studied advanced level magic could do a better spell than that, including him.
For Dusk, this challenge was something easy to overcome, however, after seeing the effort of Trixie, he didn’t want to do a great spell that exceeded that of Trixie since that would obviously mean underestimating the great effort she had made.
"Remember..." Trixie muttered as she stood up, looking Dusk in the eyes and immediately noticing the doubt on her face. "This is just a show, use your full potential! The public deserves it!"
At Trixie's words, Dusk shook his head loudly to clear his doubts. Trixie had asked him from the beginning to show her all of his abilities, she did all this to deliver a good show to the public, and if she asked him to please not stop, he couldn’t ruin the show. Finally Dusk closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them with a more determined look, determined to comply with what Trixie asked of him.
"Okay." Dusk said seriously as his horn began to brighten.
Unlike the dim opacity with which the sky darkened with the magic of Trixie, when Dusk used his magic, the sky darkened completely, as if the night had fallen surprisingly, only without the Moon and without any stars in it. firmament, the only thing that could be seen was the scenario in which Dusk, Trixie, and the two foals were standing. Then in front of Dusk, rising from the floor, appeared a large shadow, very similar to how it had happened with the spell of Trixie, only that this shadow seemed much more grotesque, as if drops of hot pitch fell from it while taking shape and it rose to a much larger size, being about two ponies high, slowly taking the form of a huge horse, with enormous black hooves, a black tail, and a large black head, making all kinds of terrifying and dreary sounds while his body took shape. Upon completing his form, the horse's eyes opened suddenly, showing an unnatural glow, while a large and ghostly whinny that made all the ponies in the first-row step back a bit, because although they knew it was part of the show, that ghostly shadow was something terrifying to see and hear.
Finally, the ghostly horse trotted to the side of the stage, turned abruptly, and then trotted at full speed towards Snips and Snails, while the head of the ghostly horse burned and disappeared, leaving only a terrifying headless horse heading towards those terrified little colts.
"WAAAHHH!" Shouted at the same time terrified Snips and Snails, hugging each other while the ghostly horse ran towards them to ram into them, but when it rammed them, all the shadows disappeared, the sky became clear again, Dusk’s horn stopped shining, and everything went from back to normal, except for the little Snips and Snails that continued to scream with their eyes completely closed.
After running out of breath and screaming at the top of their lungs, both foals fearfully opened their eyes and saw that everything had disappeared. Then both foals looked at each other, seeing that they were hugging each other, and quickly pushed themselves out of that hug.
"That... That was terrifying..." Snails said excitedly, still shaking a bit, breathing intensely after almost having a heart attack when he saw that terrifying ghostly horse.
"You didn’t just use shadow magic, you also used illusion magic, huh?" It was an interesting mix...” Trixie said with a thoughtful look, talking to herself. Then she realized that Dusk was still at her side and she immediately put on a big smile. "Wow, you're really amazing! I could never match that! You definitely overcame me!"
"Colts and mares! It's obvious who was the winner of this challenge!" Trixie shouted with a big smile at the audience. "With his advanced level of shadow magic, he has definiley surpassed me, let's give a big round of applause to the great Dusk Shine for winning his first challenge!"
Again, nopony in the audience applauded Dusk, the only thing the audience did was murmur among themselves, all with a face of discomfort and concern. Seeing that, without anyone noticing, Trixie gave a fleeting smile of satisfaction.
"Very good! Time for our next challenge! If I lose this I will have lost two out of three and I will accept my defeat." Trixie said turning around with an exaggerated smile to look at Dusk again.
"O… okay..." Dusk said a little surprised with how well Trixie had accepted losing the first duel, although of course, as she had said, there was no doubt that her magic had been more convincing to scare the foals and to the public.
"Tell me, little one, what will our next duel be about?" Trixie asked, approaching Snips with a kind smile.
"I... I always play near the Everfree forest, and sometimes it gets dark, and I get lost." Snips said as if he was trying to remember something. "I wanted to know, what can I do in case of getting a stray… getting lost?" Snips finished saying as if he himself didn’t know what the word ‘stray’ meant.
"Oh, very good! This will not only be a magic show, but it will also serve to teach important things to the little foals and fillies of the town, that's good!" Trixie said full of energy as if she was used to acting in front of small foals and fillies.
Trixie walked to the front of the stage and looked at each colt and filly that was in the audience, watching them with a warm smile.
"This is very important, you should never go alone to dangerous places, but if you do get lost and you don’t know how to get home, what you should do is make a signal! Something to warn anypony passing by that you are lost, and you need help." Trixie said speaking as if she were an elementary school teacher, all while the foals and fillies watched her attentively and their parents smiled at the sight of that kind pony teaching her children safety things.
As she spoke, Trixie illuminated her horn and a large beam of light shot into the sky.
"A light is the best thing you can do to get the attention of somepony who is far away and can’t hear you, especially if it's at night." Trixie said with a big smile.
Suddenly Trixie's horn let out a few sparks, her beam suddenly went out, and she put a hoof to her forehead while it looked like she was going to faint. Dusk immediately approached her to catch her, but just as Trixie was about to fall into Dusk's hooves, she recovered instantly and was back in a firm position.
"I'm sorry, dear public, but as I said, I've used a lot of magic today and I'm a bit exhausted." Trixie said with a pained look, which meant that without even asking for it, the audience gave her another strong applause to motivate her and thank her for her delivery despite being so exhausted.
"Maybe Dusk Shine can continue with the demonstration, and in the process win this duel." Trixie said with a kind look.
"That's not fair, all he has to do is make a light stronger than yours, that's not fair!" Snips said annoyed. "Do something else!"
Immediately the public began to support what Snips had said, all of them looking with resentment at Dusk while some began to mutter among themselves again.
"What do you want me to do…?" Dusk asked, who only then began to notice that he didn’t have the favor of the public at all.
"What happens if a pony who gets lost in the forest isn’t a unicorn and can’t make a light with his horn?" Snails asked with his always reckless look.
"Yeah, and what happens if it is daytime? What other signal can be made?" Snips asked, looking defiantly at Dusk.
"Huh... I..." Dusk began to stutter, feeling strangely pressured by the foals' questions, glancing at the public and becoming even more nervous to see that for some reason everyone was looking at him with a scowl.
"Hmm... I know! I know another signal that can be done! And by day!" Dusk said suddenly, using his horn to make appear with his magic a few branches of wood next to some stones.
While Dusk began to stack them with his hooves the wooden branches he had made appeared, everyone in the audience looked at him with confused faces, not understanding what he wanted to do, the same face that Trixie tried to put on, because as soon as Dusk got the wooden branches, she couldn’t help but put a strange grimace, as if for some reason she tried not to laugh.
"I have gone to the Everfree Forest a couple of times and I have seen that there is a lot of these in it." Dusk said loudly to the audience, proud of his wit. Lifting a branch and a stone with its hoof. "Pinewood and flint! With this..."
Then Dusk hit a couple of rocks near the wooden branches, which immediately made a few sparks jump and started to light the branches.
"With this fire-" Dusk continued speaking until he was interrupted.
"That's your advice!? The foals must make fire!? Don’t you know how dangerous it can be!?" A mother who was next to her foal shouted from the audience.
Immediately the entire public began to shout annoyed against Dusk for the irresponsibility he was teaching the children, unlike the kind and safe advice of Miss Trixie. Meanwhile, Dusk just bowed his head, but not by feeling intimidated, but to hide his smile, as he knew that this could happen and no one in the audience expected what was going to happen.
Without warning, only a few seconds after lighting the small fire, the flame went out on its own, leaving only a large column of smoke that rose to the sky. As soon as the flame of the bonfire was extinguished, everyone in the audience was silent, as they didn’t understand why the fire had suddenly gone out without anyone's intervention.
"Everfree forest is quite humid, so it's not hard to find wet wood." Dusk said continuing his explanation after the boos against him suddenly ceased. "Wet wood makes it difficult to keep a flame, it only generates smoke, also, as I said, this is pine wood, a soft wood that ignites fast but doesn’t keep the flame, that's why it's perfect to make a smoke signal!"
Only then the ponies of the public realized that from the beginning Dusk had wanted to make a smoke signal, not a bonfire. Besides this sign wasn’t small, Dusk had managed to make a large column of smoke with only a few branches of wood, something that was definitely more striking than the light that Trixie had done.
While Dusk smiled, proud of himself for believing to have surprised the audience by making them believe something and then giving them a surprise turn at the end, his smile was erased when he saw that the audience not only wasn’t smiling with him, but that they began to they murmur among themselves with worried looks, even now some began to point at him while they looked at him angrily.
"How awesome! Look at all the smoke you can make with just a couple of twigs...!" Trixie said approaching Dusk and looking up at the large column of smoke that had appeared, then turning again to speak to the audience. "I definitely can’t beat the intelligence and cunning of the great Dusk Shine! I have been completely defeated! Let's give a big round of applause to Dusk Shine! The savior of Equestria and hero of Ponyville!"
As soon as Trixie pointed to Dusk for him to be applauded, the audience stopped muttering, and everyone remained silent for a few seconds, with deep glares of hatred.
"He is not a hero!" yelled an angry pony from the front row of the audience, finally breaking the awkward silence.
"Yes, he's a fraud!" Another pony shouted from the audience, adding to the ten cries of hate against Dusk that began to be heard from the audience.
All this took Dusk's total surprise, who was surprised and scared to see all the hatred that so many ponies had in the audience, because although only the first rows of the audience were the ones who shouted with hatred, the rows in the back kept silent with looks of doubt while those in the front row talked with them to try to put them against him too.
"You deceived us, you cheated the princess and the whole kingdom! You are a fraud!" It was heard shouting to a pony from the audience, one of the screams that Dusk managed to hear clearly from all the cries of hate that came to him.
"D-Deceive the princess? D-What are you talking about?" Asked Dusk stammering, without moving from where he was and not knowing how to react to see that almost half of the ponies present there seemed to hate him.
"I'll tell you what we're talking about!" A mare responded from the audience, one of the few ponies that Dusk recognized among those ponies that shouted against him, was Bon Bon. "With everything we just saw, we could prove it... Everything that happened on the night of the Summer Sun Celebration was a trick!"
"Yes, you are a fraud!" They began to support Bon Bon other ponies, all while Dusk looked confused and scared at all of them, still not understanding what they were talking about.
At that moment a small group of ponies, including Bon Bon, who seemed to be the leaders of the group called 'We Hate Dusk', turned around and looked at the rest of the ponies that were in the audience.
"Don’t you think it's too much of a coincidence that Princess Celestia disappeared right in front of him and that it was he who was actually 'rescued' the princess?" A pony shouted, pointing to Dusk.
"Yes, and what about the supposed appearance of Nightmare Moon?" Said another pony also pointing to Dusk. "Don’t you think that Nightmare Moon looks too much like the shadow pony he just made appear?"
"Yes, everything to pretend to be the savior of Equestria!" Bon Bon said looking at Dusk with resentment.
"That's ridiculous!" Applejack suddenly shouted, who along with Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, stood in front of the group 'We Hate Dusk' and confronted them. "We were there too, and we accompanied him to save the princess!"
"And what if he also cheated on you? And if everything was an illusion as he just did to make it more realistic in the shade?" Replicated another pony of the group 'We Hate Dusk'.
"And how do you explain the appearance of Princess Luna!?" Rainbow Dash yelled furiously.
"Yes, and do you think that the princess wouldn’t have noticed if somepony had tried to deceive her?" Rarity said also annoyed.
"Princess Luna? The one that nopony, not even in Canterlot, has seen since she supposedly came back?" Bon Bon said in a tone of irony. "How is it that no pony has seen her in public yet?"
"Yes, I also believe that Princess Celestia did realize her deception, but she forgave him for being her favorite student." said another pony from the group 'We Hate Dusk', looking with hatred at Dusk. "I think the princess followed suit because otherwise he would have gone to jail!"
The public was quickly divided into three camps: those who totally distrusted Dusk, who were a large part of the public; those who didn’t know who to believe but who little by little began to believe in the conspiracy theories proposed by the first group; and those who completely believed in Dusk, who were basically his four friends there.
"And he not only lied to us that time, he also lied to us when he told us that a dragon was covering Ponyville with smoke!" Shouted one of the ponies from the group 'We Hate Dusk', pointing it out again. "If he made all that smoke with just a few branches, he could easily have done all the smoke we saw the other day and cheated on us again!"
"Yes, everything to make us believe that he is a hero!" Shouted another one of the ponies who hated Dusk, looking at Dusk and facing him. "Tell me, were you not the one who expelled that supposed dragon!?"
"Huh... I... I don't..." Dusk stammered, totally stunned to see such a large number of ponies shouting at him and looking at him with hatred. "It... it was actually Fluttershy..."
As soon as Dusk responded and named Fluttershy, he realized his mistake, while the audience still looked with more hatred at Dusk.
"And now you want to make us believe that the shy Fluttershy was the one who drove out a huge dragon!" How much more of a liar can you be!?" Bon Bon yelled furiously.
As soon as Bon Bon shouted, the whole group of ponies 'We Hate Dusk' turned to face Dusk, with furious glances, ready and willing to go and get that lying colt kicked out of his town if necessary.
The friends of Dusk, noting that those ponies were willing to attack Dusk, tried to move to stand between them and Dusk, but they found it difficult for all the audience around them and the commotion that was being caused, everything was getting out of control!
While Dusk was still on stage, he was frightened to see as part of the audience that watched him with hatred in the first row was approaching the edge of the stage to get on to his level and approach him with bad intentions. While also on the stage was still Trixie, who had her head down, and therefore couldn’t see what expression they had at that moment.
Three ponies reached the stage, all while the audience near them in the front row kept shouting against Dusk and supporting those ponies that were going to face him. Meanwhile, Dusk watched in fear as they approached him, and took a couple of steps back completely scared.
"STOP!" Trixie suddenly shouted, getting between Dusk and those ponies that wanted to attack him. "What do you think you all are doing!?"
Before the surprise intrusion of Trixie, everyone fell silent, both the public, Dusk and the ponies that climbed the stage, all looking intently at the blue-gray unicorn.
"Dusk Shine wouldn’t be able to lie to an entire town!" Trixie said theatrically, standing in front of him and taking his face between her hooves as he pulled him close to her face to look at him penetratingly. "All this must be a misunderstanding, you really are the hero that everypony believes in, right?"
"I..." Dusk said nervously before the fixed look of Trixie, without having time to answer correctly.
"Of course, you are, you even defeated me in the magical duel we just had!" Trixie said without giving Dusk time to speak, continuing her monologue, talking exaggeratedly while the entire audience was totally attentive to everything she said.
"But Miss Trixie, you only lost because you were tired." Said the little Snips, who was still on stage with Snails. "If you had all your strength, I'm sure you would’ve won!"
"No, you can’t believe that, I just lost." Trixie said melodramatically putting a hoof on her forehead. Removed it from her forehead and looked at the audience with a smile. "I know, that there are no doubts about the power of Dusk, we will face the sunset again, after all I just need a couple of hours to rest and recover all my magic."
"At sunset we’ll meet again in a real magical duel, and there, Dusk will show that he really is as powerful as he claims to be!" Trixie added moving to the front of the stage, leaving Dusk aside and speaking to her captive audience at the top of her lungs. "And I will do my best to show what a humble unicorn can do against the power of the Canterlot elite! It will be a great magical duel, so don’t miss it! This very evening in this same place!" Trixie added ending her act, making a small bow.
"Trixie! Trixie! Trixie!" They began to shout enthusiastically Snips and Snails, emphasizing that the rest of the audience would join them, giving Trixie a new heart while the unicorn enjoyed all that attention.
"Thank you very much, we'll wait for you right here at sunset! Meanwhile, I'll be signing autographs onstage!" Trixie shouted down from the stage as a crowd of older and younger ponies rushed forward to ask for her autograph.
As Trixie came down from the stage amid the din, Dusk had been frozen by the rapid turn of events. A few seconds ago he was about to be lynched, and now, for no apparent reason, he would have to face Trixie again in another magical duel. What was going on!? It was as if the audience was part of Trixie's show and this was as or fussier than Trixie herself!
For their part, the small group of ponies in the group 'We Hate Dusk' had remained standing, staring at Dusk. Then that group turned around and withdrew slowly, with Bon Bon at the head.
"Well, in a few more hours we’ll see if in reality he is powerful enough to have saved Equestria, or we’ll see if they were all just pure deceptions." Bon Bon said annoyed as she left the place with that small group of ponies that accompanied her.
Meanwhile, Dusk's friends remained off the stage, where they had been when they began to argue with Bon Bon’s group. All of them looked at Dusk, and he immediately understood that they were as much or even more scared than he was after everything that happened, the situation had definitely gotten out of control.
Dusk started to get off the stage, too, towards his friends, when a noise distracted him.
"Psst! Hey, Dusk!" Trixie said from below the stage, who was on the opposite side of Dusk's friends, surrounded by a large group of ponies.
Trixie reached out to whisper something to Dusk, which he immediately understood and crouched down near her, so he could hear her.
"I'm sorry I exaggerated a bit, but it was the perfect opportunity to get the ponies excited to attend another show at dusk. By the way, I wanted to visit you later, you know, to talk about the show this afternoon and fine-tune some details." Trixie added whispering in secret from her fans.
"What's all this?" All this is still part of the show!? Did those ponies really wanted to kill me or what!? I don’t understand anything!" Dusk thought scared and confused by Trixie's words. Had everything been part of the show? Was it really safe for him to continue with all that?
Dusk didn’t manage to say anything to Trixie, since she was forced by her fans to move from there, in order to go behind the scenes to sign more autographs, as she had promised. Only then Dusk's friends went on stage to go with him, because as soon as they saw that he had talked to Trixie again, they understood that he could be falling into another trap, after all, it was Trixie that had caused this disastrous situation to happen.
"What was that mare telling you?" Pinkie Pie asked as soon as they arrived.
"She told me she wanted to meet up with me to finalize some details about the show this afternoon." Dusk answered, still looking at Trixie as she walked away smiling at all the fans around her.
"What!? She can’t possibly believe that you’ll continue on with this charade, she’s only using you!" Rarity said very worried.
"Is she using me?" Dusk asked still confused. "I... I don’t know... It's true that this whole situation was strange, but she was the one who saved me from the furious crowd."
"It's because that mare knows how to handle the public at her whim like jelly on her hoof!" Applejack said also worried. "She makes you look like a criminal and makes everypony see her as a heroine."
"What? She never said any of that." Dusk said even more confused.
"We know, and that's the worst! She's manipulating everypony so that they think and say what she wants, without having to say it herself, she's a first-rate manipulator!" Rarity said looking annoyed in Trixie's direction.
"Wait, do you all agree?" Dusk asked looking at his friends one by one. "None of you trusts her?"
"I know manipulative mares like her, sometimes I take advantage of the situation, that's why I know her kind very well and I know she is using you." Rarity answered confidently, strangely proud to admit that even she was sometimes a little manipulative.
"I definitely know when someone is lying, and she's definitely either lying, or hiding something... possibly both." Applejack answered with a serious look when Dusk looked at her.
"My instinct don’t lie, and neither does my tail." Pinkie Pie responded with a look of alarm when Dusk looked at her, pointing to her tail, which was shaking slightly. "She's definitely planning something!"
"I... I don’t have a reason, but I'm upset with her for what she did to me!" Added Rainbow Dash finally, a little embarrassed for not having a strong reason to distrust Trixie as her friends had.
After listening to his four friends, Dusk put a hoof on his chin and put on a thoughtful face while meditating on what he should do.
"I don’t know... I definitely trust you, but I didn’t see her at any time being mean to me, she even seemed to support me." Dusk said innocently, not wanting to think badly about other ponies, remembering how Trixie had supported her when she had asked them to applaud him or when she came out to defend him when the audience pounced on him. "If she had bad intentions I would’ve noticed, I mean, I'm not that naive, am I?"
At that question, his four friends bit their tongues, not wanting to hurt his pride, after all Dusk had many qualities, such as being very studious and intelligent, but neither of those qualities could remove the fact that Dusk was too naive in many other aspects, especially to notice other intentions or hidden truths, something that they themselves had to live with every day since he kept confusing their attempts to approach him lovingly by seeing it as a simple gestures of friendship. In that aspect he was as cunning to notice second intentions as a two-year-old colt could be.
"By the way, where are Spike and Fluttershy?" Dusk asked, getting a little out of the subject when he noticed that two of his best friends were still missing. "If Fluttershy had been here, maybe she could have explained how she really drove the dragon out of the mountain."
"Naah... That would be pointless, what she did was too incredible, literally, that is, if I hadn’t seen it myself I would never believe it." Rainbow Dash said scratching her head. "Also, I haven’t seen Fluttershy since that day, I think she still needs time to absorb everything she did."
"And Spike fled as soon as Rarity came down from the stage... I don’t know why." Pinkie Pie said thoughtfully.
"And then... What will you do?" Asked Applejack, returning to the main theme that called them at that time.
"Hmm... I don’t know, Trixie said she was going to visit me in the afternoon, maybe I can ask her some questions there and clarify for myself her true intentions." Dusk answered again putting a pensive look. "Also, I think helping her on her show is the least I can do, after all, I think it's a debt I can pay for all those years ago." Dusk added putting a small smile to remember something, talking more with himself than with his friends.
"What? A debt from years ago? What are you talking about?" Rarity asked surprised.
At the question of Rarity, Dusk left his thoughts and returned to reality, only realizing that apparently, he had been thinking aloud while remembering something.
"I... I'll tell you another time, I mean look at the time!" Dusk said a little nervous, looking towards the clock tower to quickly change the subject. "I think I'll go back home to wait for Trixie, and see if Spike is there, see you!"
Then Dusk quickly said goodbye and started jogging towards the library, regretting a bit for leaving so quickly, but talking about his past was a topic that always bothered him, plus, he wanted to solve a pending issue with Trixie before telling his friends that certain part of his past. Meanwhile, Dusk's friends stayed where they were, just watching Dusk move away from them.
"Can you believe that he's still hiding things from us!? How many secrets does he keep!?" Rainbow Dash said annoyed to see that Dusk was running away without answering what Rarity had asked him.
"Easy, I'm almost sure that little by little he will tell us more about his past, I think he just decided that this wasn’t the right time." Applejack said with a calm look, then touching her hat and squeezing an edge of it. "Besides, we all have our own secrets..."
At Applejack words, they all stopped grudgingly staring at Dusk, after all, their friend was right, because they all keep secrets that still didn’t see the light, a great example of that had been when they learned recently of Fluttershy’s trauma when they went up to expel the dragon.
"Also, I think there's something more important for now." Applejack said seriously, turning to face the other side, giving a more determined look. Something that her three friends also did, since they understood in the act to which Applejack referred. "We should have a talk with that Trixie."
In Sugarcube Corner was the most requested pony of the moment in Ponyville, the self-proclaimed 'Great and Powerful Trixie', sitting at a table, signing the last of the autographs to a couple of fillies who were there in line. Beside Trixie were two mares, who she talked happily with, they were: Bon Bon, who when Trixie saw that she entered Sugarcube Corner, invited her to sit next to her; and Lyra, who always accompanied her best friend Bon Bon, and by luck also ended up sitting next to Trixie, something that the young magician didn’t like at first, but as soon as they started talking about Dusk Shine, she discovers that Lyra seemed to know him a little, Trixie immediately changed her attitude towards Lyra to a more kinder one.
"So they say that Dusk Shine is a lousy librarian?" Trixie asked with great interest, after Bon Bon and Lyra told her about the time they both went to the newly reopened library.
"Absolutely! We couldn’t read anything in the afternoon!" Bon Bon answered annoyed. "If it hadn’t been because Rarity and the others, beging me to give him another chance and to not spread rumors about Dusk Shine, I would definitely have told everypony I knew about that. Only now I realize that I should’ve done it anyway, let everypony see the fraud that he is. "
Then Bon Bon put on a worried face as she remembered what had happened in the Trixie show.
"If it hadn’t been for your magic show, I wouldn’t have noticed, now everything is so clear, everything fits! It was all a trick! I do not know how I didn’t realize it before!" Bon Bon said with a look of resentment.
"Come on, Bon Bon, I think you're exaggerating, and I already told you that the library was a misunderstanding, and that he just got distracted because they were all fluttering around him to get his attention." Lyra said with a smile, trying to calm her friend, knowing that Bon Bon had never been a supporter of Dusk, but it seemed that since that morning the distrust she had towards Dusk had turned into hatred.
"Fluttering around Dusk, who are you talking about?" Trixie asked with great curiosity.
It was at that precise moment that the doors of the bakery opened, revealing on its portal four colorful and well-known mares that when they saw that Trixie was there, they looked at her with a penetrating look.
"Oops! It seems they caught me talking about them..." Lyra said laughing a little at the situation that they appeared just when she was talking about them and Dusk. Only then did Lyra put on a worried face. "Wait, I never said it was them... Or did I...?"
Lyra looked askance at Trixie, hoping that she hadn’t understood what she had just said, after all she almost missed what she had discovered about what Dusk's friends felt for him, something she had discovered the day that she had gone to the library next to Bon Bon. However, it wasn’t necessary for Lyra to say their names, for Trixie's nimble mind was able to understand who she had referred to, for those same four mares had been the only ones who had defended Dusk when the public turned against him.
"Now I understand...” Trixie thought as a glint appeared in her eyes as she saw Dusk's friends approaching. A fleeting smirk formed on Trixie's lips, who immediately hid it.
"Weren't you signing autographs behind the stage a little while ago?" Applejack asked earnestly, once she and her friends arrived in front of the table where Trixie was.
"That's right, but some fans decided to invite me to this place to eat some cakes." Trixie replied with a smile, using her magic to take a piece of cake with her fork and bringing it to her mouth while smiling. "Tell me, do you also want an autograph?"
"Don’t get smart with us, you know perfectly well that we didn’t come here for an autograph." Rainbow Dash said defiantly.
"Cake... I-I mean, yes, we didn’t come for that!" Pinkie Pie said quickly, who for a second seemed hypnotized to see the strawberry cake that Trixie was eating. Drying off the drool she had dropped without realizing it.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, my apologies. So, tell me, how can I help you?" Trixie said without letting go of her exaggerated friendly smile.
"Why did you do that to Dusk!? Why did you make him look bad in front of everypony? You made everypony believe that everything Dusk has done was a lie!" Rarity said very angry.
"I don’t know what you're talking about, I never said anything like that." Trixie said making herself offended. "The only thing I did was defend Dusk, in fact, I even gave him another chance to prove to everypony that he is as powerful as he claims to be, I helped him and this whole show was just another example of the deep admiration that I feel for Dusk Shine." Trixie finished saying, without letting go of her smile but also looking penetratingly at Dusk's friends.
"Well, if you really admire him as much as you say, you wouldn’t need to prove anything to show how powerful Dusk is." Rarity said with a triumphant smile, having finally found a gap in Trixie's arguments, to show that what she said wasn’t true.
For a second Trixie stopped smiling and looked fiercely at Rarity, but immediately she smiled again kindly.
"I really admire Dusk Shine, I just want him to prove to everypony what he really claims to be, after all, if he is truly the savior of Equestria, he can easily win in a magical duel against a simple and humble unicorn like me, so everypony who has doubts can see the real Dusk." Trixie finally responded with a smile.
"Exactly, everypony will see the true fraud that he is!" Bon Bon suddenly got angry, who was still sitting next to Trixie.
"Bon Bon... Don’t get involved..." Lyra whispered to her friend, who understood the tense atmosphere and that this was a fight they shouldn’t get involved with.
"Dusk isn’t a fraud!" Pinkie Pie said annoyed, looking towards Bon Bon.
"Yes, we have been by his side in each of the terrible situations he had faced! He really risked his life to save Equestria and Ponyville!" Added Rainbow Dash, also looking annoyed at Bon Bon.
"But who knows... Maybe you saw things that were never really there." Trixie said with a thoughtful face, looking towards the ceiling and then at the four mares facing her. "Maybe you were blinded... for love."
The four mares were paralyzed and blushed at what Trixie said.
"Bingo!" Trixie thought, smiling with satisfaction at the reaction of the four mares.
"W-Who told you... that?" Rarity said nervously, still blushing.
"Nopony, I just deduced it, because of the way you all protect Dusk. When Dusk used his magic, everypony realized that Dusk's supposedly heroic acts might have been a lie, but you are not the only ones who follow and blindly defend Dusk." Trixie said, still smiling. "And that attitude that doesn’t listen to reason can only mean three things: either you're crazy, or you're in love, or you've fallen under a spell."
"Don’t call us crazy!" Pinkie Pie yelled, surprisingly angry to hear the word 'crazy'.
"We're not in love with that fool!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the same time, totally blushed.
Trixie smiled to see that they themselves had given her the opportunity for her next move.
"Hmm? Then, if it's neither of them, maybe it's a spell." Trixie said as she stood up and moved towards the door while she continued talking. "Have you ever thought about it? Did some or all of you fall in love with Dusk's beautiful face just to see it? Do you see him as if he was the ideal colt? The perfect colt to love? So, maybe Dusk could have used some spell to make you all fall in love with him, after all, that would be a simple thing for somepony as skilled with magic as he is. "
At that moment, just as Trixie had reached the door of the bakery, she turned her head and looked at the four mares she had left behind, who, to her satisfaction, they had looks of confusion.
"Just think about it... See you later!" Trixie said with a big smile, closing the door of the bakery behind her.
As she retreated, Trixie couldn’t help but smirk at what she had just done.
"It doesn’t matter if they believe me or not, now that doubt will exist in their hearts forever, even if it is a small doubt, but it will remain there and grow over time like a virus." Trixie thought laughing, proud of herself for the power that her words could have in the hearts of the other ponies.
Trixie looked around until she found what she was looking for, the village library. Then she brought back that kind smile that she always had and began to go there.
"Step by step, patiently moving all the pieces of the board to achieve my goal." Trixie thought as she approached Dusk's home.
KNOCK KNOCK!
Trixie knocked softly on the door of the village library.
"Come in!" Dusk Shine's voice said from inside.
The showmare opened the door and entered Dusk's home. There she could see who she was looking for, Dusk Shine, but it seemed that he wasn’t even paying attention to her, since he kept his back to her, looking towards a small door on the side of the library.
"Ahem!" Trixie coughed for Dusk to pay attention.
"Oh, hello Trixie, how are you?" Dusk said turning to see Trixie with a friendly smile, and then looking back at the door with concern. "Get out of there now! You're worrying me!" Dusk added shouting at the door, hitting it a couple of times with his hoof.
While Trixie, who had entered the library with a big and exaggerated smile, gritted her teeth irritably while trying to keep her smile, because if there was something that irritated her, it was feeling ignored.
"Did I arrive at a bad time?" Trixie asked kindly, maintaining her smile with effort.
"Huh? No, it's nothing, or maybe yes, the truth is I don’t know." Dusk said worried. "What happened is that when I went back to the library, I discovered that my brother was locked in the bathroom, and he still hasn’t come out, I don’t even know why he’s doing this!" Dusk added shouting annoyed at the door so that Spike would finally open the door.
"Your brother!?" Trixie asked very surprised.
At that moment Dusk looked down to the ground, where he could see that under the door, a flow of thick red liquid came out. Immediately, fearing the worst and that it was a sign that Spike was hurt, Dusk used his magic to force the bathroom door to open, which opened suddenly, finally seeing what was behind it... On a small staircase, in front of the bathroom mirror, was Spike, holding a small brush, who took a scared jump as he heard the door slam open.
Dusk had entered the bathroom with a scary face, which only increased when he saw that both Spike, and much of the bathroom, were with large red spots. However, the more Dusk looked, the more he began to realize that he had apparently exaggerated, and his face slowly moved from fear to total confusion.
"That... that's not blood..." Dusk said slowly, thinking aloud.
"What!? No, of course not, could you not tell that it was just red paint!" Spike said as confused as Dusk, pointing to the floor, where there was a bottle of red paint, which was the one that had spillt and flowed under the bathroom door.
"And why is the bathroom full of red paint!?" Dusk asked beginning to get irritated after realizing that he had been unnecessarily frightened.
"W-Well, I had a hard time painting my back scales..." Spike said turning a bit so that Dusk could see him well.
Seeing Spike's back, Dusk again put a face of confusion to see that Spike for some reason had been painting the main scales of his back, tail and head, all painted in red. Dusk just kept quiet with a disbelieving face as he tried to understand the reason why his little brother had done such madness.
"What didn’t you hear me!?" Spike said looking at Dusk after understanding that his older brother still didn’t understand what he had done. "Rarity said green was the worst color, and all the scales on my back are green! Now I understand why the mustache didn’t work!"
At Spike's words, Dusk just opened his mouth, not believing how ridiculous his brother could be when it came to something related to Rarity.
"Don’t be a fool! Clean it up and take off that paint now!" Dusk finally shouted irritably, slamming the door.
Just when he closed the door, Dusk just remembered that Trixie was behind him all this time, who was looking at Dusk with a face of total surprise and confusion.
"I'm sorry... It was just a problem with my little brother, hehe." Dusk smiled sadly, looking at Trixie.
Meanwhile, the unicorn was still perplexed by everything she had seen. She had arrived at Dusk's house with a fail-safe action plan, prepared for any eventuality, yet nothing had prepared her to witness such a ridiculous scene of seeing a baby dragon in a bath painting his scales while Dusk acted as a clumsy older brother.
"D-Did you say that it was your brother?" Trixie asked confused, asking the first question that should be answered.
"Oh... yes, he's my younger brother, obviously we're not blood brothers, but we've been together since I was a foal and he's just a newborn baby." Dusk said with a smile, understanding perfectly the confusion Trixie had, after all, that was something he had already got used to answering.
"I see, so he treats the lizard as if it were his family... That's interesting, maybe I can use it later." Trixie thought, meditating as she finally got out of her surprise state and put her plan back into action, something that, despite the surprise, it had already started well, after all, she had come to Dusk's home, to get information about him.
"So he's your little brother, that's very cute!" Trixie said again with a big smile, ready to begin her attack. "Although I must admit that I was somewhat scared, when you said your brother was there, I thought you were referring... to your older brother."
Dusk's smile was instantly erased when he heard what Trixie said, looking worried. Dusk spent a few seconds in silence, without answering anything, like Trixie, who knew immediately that she had hit the nail on the head with his comment.
"You... Do you know my big brother?" Dusk asked, trying to hide that he had become nervous.
"Of course! I mean, not personally, but who wouldn’t know the new captain of the royal guard! One of the most talented and recognized unicorn of the princess's personal security corps!" Trixie said, again acting theatrically while she kept smiling. "As I heard, no other pony ever became such a young captain, it is an admirable achievement, ALMOST as much as YOUR own achievements..."
Dusk listened intently to what Trixie said while his eyes couldn’t help but show some discomfort as he listened to what she was saying.
"Yeah... I guess my brother is amazing... it's more than likely that I'll never be as talented as he is..." Dusk said looking down as he remembered part of his past, then he looked back at Trixie, putting on a sad smile. "And about my achievements, you're wrong, I guess I was just in the wrong place at the right time."
"Oh, please, enough of the false modesty!" Trixie said with a big smile. "Because I hate it." Trixie thought resentfully, completing the sentence in her mind while on the outside she kept her facade smile.
"Yeah, hehe... Huh... W-Well, now that you're here, tell me, how can I help you?" Dusk asked quickly, not wanting to talk more about his older brother. "You said you wanted to talk about the show this afternoon."
"Oh, yes, silly me, I almost forgot." Trixie said, banging her head gently and pulling her tongue out tenderly. "Well, in the show we'll both go on stage, but this time we'll both do magic at the same time and we'll compete to see what spell is more powerful, nothing great, don’t worry. Although I must admit, that’s just an excuse to be able to meet with you alone. "
"An excuse?" Dusk asked.
"Of course, I know that you are the personal pupil of Princess Celestia, and surely you know many powerful spells." Trixie said getting closer to Dusk, looking at him with admiration. "I'd love it if you could teach me some spells! You know, show me some spells to see if I can do them."
"Huh, do you want me to teach you?" Dusk asked surprised by the turn of events.
"Yes, my father always said, if you want to be the best, learn from the best!" Trixie said with a big smile.
At Trixie words, Dusk remained surprised for a few seconds, then put on a thoughtful face while deciding what to do. Normally he would be reluctant to teach magic, since he always tried to do the right thing and follow the laws, and he wasn’t at all a certified magic teacher, and if he had to teach magic, he would need to first teach the theory from books before putting it into practice. However, there was something Trixie said that made Dusk decide to accept, only that time.
"If that's what you want, I guess I could teach you some spells..." Dusk said with an unconvincing smile.
"Thank you! Thank you very much! I really appreciate it." Trixie said with a big and exaggerated smile.
During the next hour, Dusk began to make a sample of many different types of spells, such as transformation spells, telekinesis, and alteration among others. Every time Dusk showed her a spell, Trixie tried to do it, getting only mediocre results, and every time she failed, Trixie just smiled and praised Dusk for being better than her.
While continuing the spell show, Trixie began to become more talkative, becoming more and more curious about Dusk and his life, asking about his tastes, his relationship with the princess, and especially about his past, questions that Dusk avoided answering given that he didn’t like to talk much about his past, much less tell about this to a mare he had just met, no matter how nice and friendly Trixie was with him. Finally, what they talked about most in their final minutes was about Dusk's arrival in Ponyville and how he had met his friends, something that Dusk was very willing to tell, since he could avoid talking about his past, and also because in a certain way he was proud to tell how the friendship of his friends had changed the way he saw the world.
"Oh no, I failed again!" Trixie said with a pained face after a dozen books fell to the floor that Trixie had levitated with her magic after trying to imitate what Dusk had done a few seconds ago.
"Hmm... Don’t worry, it's always difficult to independently levitate and control several objects." Dusk said, who had put on a confused face for a second, but he quickly exchanged it for a kind smile, beginning to levitate a couple of books with his magic again. "Let's try with only five books this time."
"Yes... I suppose it's the best, I think my limit is to lift 10 books, I have a hard time trying to levitate and control more, hehe." Trixie said smiling with embarrassment, doing what Dusk ordered, levitating five books and spinning them around her. "So, continuing what you were saying, after you saved Princess Luna and went back to Ponyville, what happened?" Trixie added, looking at Dusk, repeating her kind tone that she had a while ago, when Trixie tried a spell, failed, and asked Dusk a question.
"Princess Celestia asked me to stay in Ponyville to study the magic of friendship, and that's what I've done since that day, studying that magic while I enjoying my time with my new friends." Dusk answered with a sincere smile.
"And what did your parents say, are they proud that you saved Equestria?" Trixie asked curiously.
Dusk was silent at Trixie's question as both unicorns stared at each other while both slowly turned the books around them with their respective magics. Dusk didn’t respond immediately because he felt bad about his parents or his family, in fact it was the opposite, but the fact that Trixie insisted so much on knowing about his past and about his family was something that was starting to bother him.
"Trixie, why are you so interested in knowing about me?" Dusk asked finally, saying what he had been wondering for a while.
"Well, it's because you're very interesting!" Trixie answered with a big smile. "This is how you come to know other ponies and how you become their friend, isn’t it? Talking and learning more about that pony."
"Hmm... yeah, I guess you're right..." Dusk replied with a thoughtful face, while Trixie's mouth winced, making a fleeting smirk as she saw that Dusk had believed her.
"But I still haven’t ask anything about you." Dusk added, looking with a friendly smile at Trixie. "Tell me, what about your parents? Are they proud that you have become a famous star of a magic show?"
"Huh!?" Trixie said surprised, so much that she almost dropped the books that were levitating around her. She hadn’t expected it to be Dusk who would now ask her about her past. "I... huh..."
At that moment Trixie realized that she couldn’t keep her smile fake when talking about her parents. Immediately she began to think of a lie to tell, however as soon as she opened her mouth to lie about them, a small pain in her heart prevented her from doing so. Finally, Trixie took a big breath and decided to tell the truth, although, only part of it, after all, Dusk didn’t need to know more details about her life.
"I never met my mother, it seems that she died when I was born, so my father was the one who raised my first years of life, but he also died when I was just a filly, so the truth is that I lived almost All my life alone...”Trixie finally answered, looking at the ground sadly.
"Oh... I... I'm sorry... I'm very sorry for your loss." Dusk said looking affectionately at Trixie, regretting having asked about such a sensitive subject, and also because of Trixie's expression, it was obvious that even if she tried to hide it, apparently that was an issue that affected her.
When Trixie saw Dusk in the eye, she felt a strange warmth and serenity inside her... How many years has it been since anyone looked at her like that?
"D-Don’t worry, I never met my mother, and my father... well, he was a naive pony and without ambition." Trixie said with her eyes still melancholy, trying to smile again. "Since I started living alone, I forged the goal that wouldn’t be like either of my parents: I wouldn’t be a stranger like my mother was, nor would I be a pony without ambition like my father was. I present myself as the Great and Powerful Trixie, so that no one will ever forget my name or forget how great I am. "
Immediately, at the end, Trixie realized that she was saying something unnecessary and that she was leaving her own plan, so she quickly erased the thoughts about her past and returned to focus on what mattered at that moment: using that basic magic to levitate the books and keep talking about Dusk, not her.
"But stop talking about me." Trixie said, putting back a big and exaggerated smile. "As you show me some barrier spell, how about you tell me about your cutie mark? How did you get it?"
At Trixie’s question and the sudden change of subject, Dusk was paralyzed and became nervous, now talking about him, who for a second lacked concentration and almost dropped the books he was spinning with his magic, as Trixie was asking about another of the many points about which he didn’t like to talk about, his cutie mark.
"I just... I really don’t like talking about my cutie mark." Dusk answered with a sad smile, scratching his head. Quickly thinking of a way to avoid answering the question. "Why don’t you tell me about your cutie mark? What does it symbolize? Is it related to 'The Royal Legacy'? Do you know anything about that?" Dusk added, moving a little closer to see Trixie's cutie mark.
"The Royal Legacy? What's that? I think I've heard it somewhere, but I'm not sure." Trixie responded by feigning ignorance on a subject she had often heard from some wealthy ponies.
"Of course, it’s something without real foundation, since the official genealogical records exist only for a few hundred years." Dusk started talking, excited to talk about history, putting himself in 'professor mode'. "But it is assumed that long before the alicorn princesses arrived, there was a large group of powerful unicorns, a council, who were in charge of moving the Sun and the Moon. This advice for unicorns was enormous, because year after year more was needed, power and more unicorns for such monumental work, however, that in turn implies that the first group of unicorns must have been very small, perhaps only two or three unicorns. It’s said that those first unicorns that were able to move the Sun and the Moon for the first time are those who had cutie marks in the beginning with the shapes of the Sun and the Moon. And as it is known that the symbols of the cutie marks can be transmitted in the same family if a strong bond is generated with your descendants, as it happens with the houses of the nobility, in which grandparents, parents and children share common symbols such as fleur de lis or family coat of arms; then it is said that those who today show cutie marks related to the Sun or the Moon, is because they are descendants of those first unicorns of royalty. This is called 'The Royal Legacy', although I repeat again, that is something that can’t be proven, it is just a crazy theory."
"Oh... How interesting." Trixie said, feigning interest. "But the moon of my cutie mark is because I'm interested in astronomy, it's not because it's related to anything from my ancestors or my family."
"That's right, hell with those silly ideas that the ponies have of nobility about giving themselves heirs of royalty, if I shine, it will be for myself, not for a foolish rumor about having a bond with my ancestors." Trixie thought seriously while she kept a false smile towards Dusk. "The nobles always believed themselves to be better than the others...”
"Oh... I see, although I will tell you that the nobles of Canterlot probably treat you very well just for confusing the origin of your cutie mark." Dusk smiled, thinking a little about the ponies of the capital. "They are something... superficial."
"And you don’t?" Trixie added with a fleeting, scathing look, unable to avoid saying out loud what she thought. "You’re different from them?"
"Huh!? I... well, I-I think so, I'm a little different from them..." Dusk replied timidly when he noticed the fleeting change of attitude of Trixie.
The unicorn immediately realized that she had left the role she represented and tried to quickly return to her submissive attitude.
"I-I mean, I just thought that maybe you should know a lot about the Canterlot nobility to say something like that, hehe." Trixie said quickly, returning to her exaggerated smile.
"I... yeah, something like that, that is, I lived for many years surrounded by the elite of the nobility of Canterlot." Dusk said with a nervous smile. "I'll just say I didn’t have an easy foalhood."
At that moment, Trixie lowered her head to hide her face, hiding the look of hatred she made and couldn’t help but express at that moment.
"Your foalhood wasn’t easy...?" Repeated Trixie clenching her teeth in fury. "YOUR FOALHOOD WASN’T EASY!?" Trixie screamed furiously.
For a second Trixie's horn lit up sharply, making all the books on the shelves of the library tremble as those that were spinning around her began to spin at a tremendous speed around her. But as fleeting as it was, Trixie's horn went out and everything went back to normal, then she raised her head, showing again a big and exaggerated smile.
"Oops, I'm sorry, I think I lost focus." Said Trixie keeping her smile, but in the background nervous to realize that she almost sabotaged her plan.
"Yes... that seems..." Dusk said slowly, who had been surprised by Trixie's magical outburst. "That was a lot of magic at once..."
"I think it was luck, hehe." Trixie said with a kind smile. "Or maybe it's because you've taught me so well!"
Dusk remained with a pensive face for a moment and then looked back at Trixie.
"Is there any other spell you want me to show you?" Dusk finally said, putting on a big friendly smile.
"W-Well, I've been told that you're very good at teleportation." Trixie said holding her smile, relieved that her plan was in order.
So Dusk showed Trixie his teleportation spell, followed by a few elemental spells, all performed to perfection by Dusk, and performed in a way that was little more than mediocre by an always smiling Trixie. So they spent about an hour more, until Trixie had finally felt satisfied.
"Well, I think that's enough for today, we should also rest, since in a couple of hours we'll have our magic show." Trixie said with a smile, seeing the clock on the wall of the library, which indicated that there were only a few hours left until sunset.
"Yes, I suppose it was a productive afternoon." Dusk answered, remembering that they had seen several types of spells in a very short time.
"Thank you very much for everything! You really are a great teacher!" Trixie said approaching Dusk and taking his hoof to say goodbye. "I'm in debt, if you need anything from me, just ask!"
Then Trixie turned and walked toward the library door.
"See you at the show!" Trixie said smiling kindly, turning to see Dusk one last time before leaving.
As soon as Trixie turned to see the door, not seeing Dusk, her friendly smile disappeared, changing it to a more sinister one.
"Everything went perfectly again." Trixie thought smiling proudly as she opened the door to finally leave that dirty library and leave behind such an unpleasant company. "Everypony is like a pawn in a chess game...”
"Trixie..." Dusk suddenly said just before Trixie left the library completely.
"Yes?" Trixie replied, turning back to see Dusk and putting back her false smile.
Dusk didn’t respond immediately, he seemed indecisive in what he was going to say, but finally he dared to say what he thought, what he had been thinking all afternoon...
"Trixie... Why are you lying to me?" Dusk asked with a slight look of concern.
At the question of Dusk, this time it was Trixie who didn’t respond immediately, just stood still, keeping her big smile.
"What do you mean?" Trixie finally asked, still smiling.
"Well... The truth is that my friends told me not to trust you, that you just wanted to use me, but as much as I tried, both in the show and here, there was no flaw in your attitude that would lead me to think that you were lying to me. " Dusk said looking with some distrust at Trixie, who just kept smiling at him. "But if there's one thing I've learned here in Ponyville, it's that I have to believe my friends, even though I believe something different."
At Dusk's final words, Trixie's smile faltered for a second.
"I don’t like to suspect or think badly about others, but if I take into account what my friends told me, and I had to put myself on the defensive and be more suspicious, there is definitely something that caught my attention..." Dusk added. Staring at Trixie. "That magic hit wasn’t luck, wasn’t it? That was something I was thinking about from the moment we started practicing spells, but it was something I didn’t want to believe in. You... were holding back, or am I wrong?"
While Trixie listened to Dusk speak, she slowly lowered her head, hiding her expression, while her smile disappeared. Finally, after Dusk finished talking and they spent a few seconds in silence, Trixie raised her head, showing for the first time that day on her face what she really felt, she had erased that exaggerated and false smile, and now she looked at Dusk with a mocking smile and a penetrating look.
At that moment Trixie's horn lit up quickly and a wind ran through the main hall of the library, then her magic levitated a hundred books and each book began to make different turns, all moving around the room, all making different types of turns, all before the surprised look of Dusk, who saw that mare that had pretended that she couldn’t levitate more than 10 books, now effortlessly levitated more than a hundred books, making each one make an independent movement, something that even Dusk didn’t think he could do, since controlling so many independent objects at the same time was something that required great concentration and power.
Finally, as sudden as it had begun, Trixie's horn lit up even more, causing each book to stop instantly in the air, then each book flew briefly to the exact spot where it had flown from the beginning, leaving all the room orderly and silent, before the surprised look of Dusk, while Trixie maintained a proud and delighted smile.
"Well yes, it seems that it wasn’t just luck." Trixie finally said, looking smugly at Dusk.
"W-Why did you do it?" Dusk asked with a slight fear.
"What? Using you to show me your spells?" Trixie asked smiling with malice at Dusk. "Because I needed to know the true magical potential of my rival, to know which spells you are better at and the ones that you aren’t... At first the idea was to make you think that I was useless for you to have some false confidence in our duel, but since the truth is now uncovered, I can tell you, besides I couldn’t stand having to smile and pretend to be somepony who is as mediocre in magic as you are!"
"I-I didn’t use-" Dusk began to say before being interrupted.
"I know you didn’t use your full potential, that's obvious, but with what I saw, it's enough to give me a clear idea of your limits, your capabilities and your strengths." Trixie replied, smiling with arrogance.
Dusk was silent for a second, remembering everything that had happened that morning.
"Why did you even defend me this morning?" Dusk asked confused.
"Because making you fall is easy, but what I wanted was to see you shattered on the ground and witness how nopony ever thinks of you as a true unicorn." Trixie replied looking at Dusk with hatred. "During the show, I could hardly contain my laughter when I saw the audience turn against you, just as I had planned... Did you really think that surprising the audience with that smoke signal would’ve work? That is just being one step ahead of your rival, I'm always five steps ahead of my rivals!"
While Trixie spoke to Dusk with genuine hatred in his voice, Dusk realized that what he had suspected was nothing compared to reality. It sounded like Trixie not only had tricked him into showing off his magic show, but she for some reason hated him deeply.
"Why me?" It was all Dusk could say, without understanding what he had done to cause such hatred on Trixie's.
"Because I hate ponies like you." Trixie said looking down at Dusk. "I hate all those favored ponies who have never had to fight for anything in life, everything was given to you on a silver spoon, you had a life full of luxuries and comforts, and yet you complain about how unfortunate you are!"
Dusk opened his mouth to try to say something, but was interrupted by Trixie, who continued with her hate monologue.
"And I especially hate you for being a fraud." Trixie added as a shadow seemed to cross her eyes as she remembered something. "You're just as despicable as my father." In his magic shows, he said he was the most powerful unicorn of Equestria, yet he was always humiliated and ridiculed by all those who challenged him. He was a fraud, just like you and your supposed heroic acts! But I am different, my power is authentic! I’ll not be a failure like my father nor a fraud like you! I’ll show everypony that I am the best and I’ll defeat anyone who dares to challenge me!"
At that moment Trixie turned around to head back towards the exit door, keeping her hateful gaze on Dusk Shine.
"I’ll show in front of everypony that I am the one who deserves to be recognized by the princess, and that I am more capable and powerful than any other pony in Equestria!" Trixie said almost in a scream, while making her horn shine and with her magic she made all the books in the library jump off their shelves and fall to the floor, causing a disaster. "And that includes you!"
After that, Trixie finally leaves the library, with a determined and serious look, eager for the sun to set so she can show everyone in the town, that Dusk was nothing more than a fraud, both his power, his achievements and... his past.
# End of chapter 29