Twilight stood with her back to the door of the library, staring down the intruder Trixie, who somehow managed to teleport inside, even despite Twilight’s protective spells.
How did she get in? Her magic shouldn’t nearly be strong enough to get through mine! This is Trixie we’re talking about!
“So what do you want, Trixie?” Twilight asked, having zero patience for Trixie’s nonsense and wanting to get her out of Twilight’s library as soon as possible; an ache in Twilight’s chest serving as a reminder that she was already on a ticking clock without this added stress.
“Is it so wrong for me to want to pay a visit to my good buddy Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie flashed a manic grin, and Twilight just crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow; she didn’t even bother to point out how wrong that sentence was.
“Why are you here?” Twilight repeated sternly. Getting clear information out of Trixie always proved a torturous ordeal even on the best of days, and Twilight was not having one of her best days.
“Oh come on, Twilight,” Trixie groaned and rolled her eyes, placing a hand on her hip and cocking her head lazily to the side as she shot Twilight a bemused glare, “don’t be dense. You and I both know there’s only one reason I would be searching you out.”
“Historically,” Twilight pondered, tapping a finger against her chin, “it’s been to show me some new magic trick you’ve thought up, only to blow yourself up in the process. I’d prefer if you didn’t explode inside my library, but if it will get you to leave faster, then by all means self-destruct away!”
“The old man sent me,” Trixie said, her tone draining of its wittiness and turning icy cold.
“Oh,” Twilight felt a heave in her heart and she grasped it as she fell short of breath. “Why?”
“Why do you think, Twilight?” it didn’t take long for Trixie’s jovial façade to fall away entirely, which wasn’t much surprise to Twilight; their dislike of each other had always been mutual, and Trixie likely didn’t want to be here anymore than Twilight wanted her here. “How do you think he felt, when his prized student turned her back on him?”
Twilight didn’t have to ponder the question to know the answer; the old bastard’s pride must have been devastated by Twilight’s betrayal, and his pride was dwarfed by his possessiveness. It didn’t matter to Twilight though; she knew she couldn’t have stood even one more day under his thumb.
“I don’t care,” Twilight shrugged, and she opened the door to the library, gesturing outside. “You can tell him I won’t be coming back.”
“He was so humiliated, Twilight!” Trixie laughed eerily. “Don’t you feel a little bit bad?”
Ah. There’s the sarcasm again.
“Leave, Trixie.”
Trixie sighed in frustration, slapping her palm against a bookcase.
“You know I can’t do that, Twilight,” Trixie groaned. “You may have turned away from the old man, but I’m still a loyal student! I promised I would bring you back, or at least flush you out of hiding!”
“How did you know where I was?” Twilight asked. The last thing she wanted was Trixie, or some other serf of the old bastard, to track down Spike or Rarity or one of the others.
“It was no secret that you fled to Equestria,” Trixie said, “and the rest was just divination magic. I’m a lot more talented than you think, Twilight Sparkle.”
“So what, then?” Twilight hissed, taking a bold stride toward Trixie that was cut short by another pang in her chest, but she didn’t let that shake her confident posture. “Are you going to try and drag me back to Zebrica?”
“Absolutely not,” Trixie grinned wickedly. “Like I said, just as long as I flush you out of hiding, I can return home with my head held high, and to be frank I’d rather do that than have you back anyway. Who do you think’s getting all the attention from the old man without you around?”
“Sunset?” Twilight answered drolly, and the furious twitching of Trixie’s eye was a more satisfying answer than Twilight could’ve hoped for.
“Anyway,” Trixie grumbled, “I honestly don’t know what you see in this bloody country. I’ve only been here for a few weeks and already I feel like tearing off this fake skin. I mean, why pretend to be a miserable little pony, when you could be a dragon?”
“I am where I want to be,” Twilight replied sternly, “and I won’t be going back.”
“Good,” Trixie smirked, brandishing a set of glistening, pale blue claws on one hand, “I was hoping you would say that, anyway. Less trouble for me, since I was never planning on bringing you back in the first place.”
“This is your last chance, Trixie,” Twilight said, her eyes glimmering with violet flame. “Leave this library now, or you might not be able to leave at all. I won’t have you, or that old bastard, threatening the life or the relationships I’ve built here!”
“Face it, Twilight,” Trixie purred, her own eyes shimmering with pale pink flame, “your life was over the moment I stepped inside.”
“You didn’t step in, you teleported,” Twilight said flatly.
“Would you just let me have my moment!?” Trixie stomped her foot on the ground.
“No,” Twilight said as the wooden floorboards of her domain sprung to life, transforming into thick roots that wrapped around Trixie’s neck. “I don’t take kindly to unexpected visitors in my home.”
Trixie’s horn flashed and she teleported out of Twilight’s attack with a wheezy cackle.
“If you really weren’t expecting me,” Trixie flashed a grin, showing off her razor-sharp fangs, “you’re an even bigger fool than I remember.”
Twilight took a deep breath. She wasn’t about to lose her home, or the life and relationships she’d built here for herself and Spike.
And if she had to tear through Trixie to protect that life, then so be it.