The kiss hung in the air for several seconds, until both of them jerked apart.
Twilight smiled. Trixie’s mouth hung open for a moment. Her expression was of shock. The tears in her eyes were slowing, but still leaving leaving their streaks in the fur on her cheeks.
Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Uh… sorry, I probably should have asked before I-“
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” Trixie wheezed, clearly speaking before she had thought to inhale.
“What? No!” Twilight’s smile faltered. “No, not at all!”
“Is Trixie a game to you? You ignore her and ignore her, and now that you feel sorry for her you decide to play with her?!” The tears were welling again, her strained voice unable to reach the level of dramatic anger she had presented before.
“I just thought that-“
“Save it! Trixie isn’t a problem for you to solve! Especially not that way!” Trixie rolled over, bedclothes wrapping around her as she tried to tumble off the side of the bed. She only succeeded in wrapping herself up and getting stuck in place.
“No, Trixie! I- listen!”
The Trixie burrito went quiet, now facing away from Twilight.
Twilight scooched closer.
“Trixie… It was what you said. About… well, it was a lot of things. But about Starswirl and Larmoya.
Yes, Larmoya is one of the more notable parts of his history, but… I’m sure you know how much she weighed on him.”
Trixie was silent.
“The things he wrote about her were clearly as an enemy, but it’s also equally clear that… he had feelings for her, and her him. He never married, up until his eventual disappearance. That was how much she meant to him.
I became a princess by completing a spell he began. One that attempted to understand the nature of fate. But it was incomplete, because while he was an amazing magician… he didn’t truly understand connection. Friendship. Love.”
Tentatively, breathing a little too deeply, Twilight wrapped herself around Trixie’s cocoon, hugging her tightly.
“But I do. So… if you want to be my Larmoya…”
Twilight’s heart was hammering. She had never dabbled in romance. This was as exciting and terrifying as when she had first begun to study friendship. She felt giddy and nervous all at the same time.
“Then consider your application accepted. But know that I do things better than Starswirl did.”
The round and bundled Trixie shuffled out of Twilight’s grip, and turned over. Twilight felt a chill run down her spine at the look in those eyes.
It was many things all at once. An expression of confusion. Of hatred. Of detached befuddlement. Of deep longing.
At last, Trixie spoke. It was a flat, even tone. Perfectly level, with a hoarseness that matched the tears still flowing down Trixie’s cheeks.
“Twilight Sparkle, if you do not mean every single word of this, Trixie will be incalculably upset with you. Do you understand what you’re saying?”
Twilight nodded. “I do.”
With a rustling of sheets, Trixie stood up, freeing herself from her cocoon and rising to all four hooves. She cast her gaze down at Twilight.
“Then you will prove it.”
The pair of them were stood in the atrium of the hotel. Far above them, the skylight patterned with rain, casting strange shadows over the large room.
Doubtlessly, when the hotel was in operation, this space had seen weddings, dances, and conventions. Now however, it was merely a dramatically open space.
Twilight flicked her tail. “This isn’t going to be a magic duel again, is it?”
Trixie laughed humorlessly. “What would be the point in that? The great and powerful Trixie doubts there is little you cannot beat in a comparison of raw power. No, this will be something else. I presume you remember Magic Missile tag?”
MMT. It was a favorite among students of the school for gifted unicorns. Twilight had only played it once or twice, and never to any degree of competency.
It used a special low strength magic missile. A single, non-homing shot rather than the typical three-prong spell. And… each player could take three hits before they were considered out. That was it.
The simplicity of it added to its trademark chaos. There was no limit on when an opponent could be tagged, nor from what range, nor with any time limit. It was easy to tell what students had entered into a particularly devious game, by seeing who was hiding behind things and getting twitchy as they turned corners. In a place where everypony knew the lay of the land, as well as magic, games could easily become a madhouse of chases, tricks, and spellslinging. So long as you didn’t get hit, you were safe.
Twilight nodded. “I… do. I also, somehow, still remember the spells for it.”
Trixie’s horn began to glow, and soon Twilight’s followed. Around each of them, a set of three small lights appeared, rotating idly around each casters horn.
“For the purposes of not getting wet, Trixie would like to request the game be restricted to inside the hotel.”
“What exactly are we playing for?”
There always had to be a bet. It was why Twilight had avoided the game. Losers tended to get stuck doing homework, drinking experimental potions, or in one memorable occasion, attending every class for a week as “pretty pretty princess celestia” (complete with cardboard wings, dyed coat, and cheap wig).
Trixie smiled. “Simple, Sparkle. We play to see how this story ends.
If you defeat your hated rival, then you will rescue the beautiful damsel. The waifish and pitiable Trixie will be yours to do with as you please.
If however, you are laid low by your great and powerful adversary, you will leave. And you will banish all thought of Trixie from your mind.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What? Why? How does that benefit you?”
“It doesn’t! But this isn’t about Trixie. This is about you, Twilight. Within this story, you seek to save Trixie from herself, and thus Trixie is both your antagonist and your prize. If you mean what you said by kissing her, then you will fight and win. If you do not… then the story is over.”
“I… don’t know about this. And I particularly don’t know about that “do as I please” bit. Can’t we just talk abou-“ as Twilight was talking, a white bolt of magic fired from Trixie’s horn and thumped into her, sending her backwards a foot or two. Along with its electric sting, one of the three lights orbiting her horn dissipated.
“No! You said you meant it, so now you’ll prove it! For heroes, there are trials! For saints, there are temptations! For you…” another bolt fired from her horn. This time, Twilight saw it coming and dodged to the side. It burst into a puff of light on the ground behind where she had stood.
“There is the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie roared, lost vigor flowing through her. She was a disheveled tear-stained mess, but for the first time since her arrival at the falls, Twilight could see the same energy inside her that she remembered from the stage.
Trixie fired another bolt, and Twilight dodged again, this time firing a bolt of her own. Trixie ducked under it and cackled. “Excellent! Now, catch Trixie if you can!”
Twilight prepared to dodge another missile, but instead, Trixie turned and ran, vanishing into one of the many hallways branching off of the atrium. Twilight groaned.
Into the labyrinth it was then.
Twilight gave chase, each hoof impact disturbing the layer of dust that covered the carpet. The hallways were spacious, but wove back and forth in a way that was just confusing enough if one didn’t have time to pay close attention to the numbers. Twilight was carefully noting them as she went however. No sense not using her particular skills for an advantage.
Trixie’s hoofprints were easy to follow… up until they weren’t. Twilight sighed. This was the same hallway they had come through to enter the atrium, and the paths all crossed each other, making it hard to tell which way Trixie had actually gone.
So, she’d just have to pick a set and follow them. Trixie hadn’t said anything about banning find-pony spells, but Twilight was a little distracted by her own thoughts.
Did she want to win this?
She trotted along, instinctually lifting every ornate planter filled with dead ferns in order to check behind them. Was winning this worth it? The way Trixie had framed victory made her feel uncomfortable. As if the showmare saw a happy ending to the story as one in which she ceded control of herself. In which she was merely a plot point in Twilight’s story.
As Twilight turned a corner, her senses prickled, and she threw herself to the floor in time to dodge a bolt of light. As it burst on the wall behind her, she fired her own down the hall where it had come from. Trixie was nowhere to be seen.
The showmare’s voice, however, echoed around her. It had a cruel and villainous lilt. “Missed! So sorry Sparkle! The Great and Powerful Trixie isn’t going to be that easy to find. Not that you truly care.”
Twilight grimaced. “Of course I care! I’m playing into your game, aren’t I?”
“Only because you see Trixie as a problem to be solved!” Two more bolts. Twilight took off running, dodging them both as she tried to follow their source. “You just want her to shut up so you can feel good about fixing her!”
That stung worse than any of the bolts could have. “Is that really how you see my friendship?” She couldn’t hide the hurt tone.
“Then why did you kiss Trixie?!”
Twilight couldn’t answer. Even in the moment, when she had said all that stuff about Larmoya… she didn’t quite know what was pushing her to say it. It had just felt right. All of the emotion that was driving Trixie had sparked something inside her. Something that she now struggled to put to words.
“Because… “ Twilight stood still, trying to figure it out. “Because being a princess is driving me crazy. When you were talking about rivalries and stories and me being what I am now… I just… I needed you to see me as me again.”
“What?” That voice sounded very close. Twilight lept around the corner and fired, but there was nothing there. She did, however, hear Trixie yelp in surprise. That was odd.
She continued however, as she advanced down the hall cautiously. “I’ll admit, things work out for me. More than they should. But recently, it’s become too much. Nopony will treat me like me anymore. The only ones who treat me like I’m Twilight are my friends. And hearing all of that stuff you said, about stories… I’m still coming to terms with my own. I don’t know who I am at the moment, or who I’ll become in the future. And that scares me.”
Trixie was silent.
“After all the parties were over, after the coronation… The first night home alone was awful. I was up too late and started thinking about the fact that I was now an alicorn, and all of the things that meant for my future.” Twilight could feel her eyes watering now.
“I don’t want it.” Her voice cracked. “I want to go back to being a librarian. I want to live comfortably in a little house full of books. I want to get old along with my friends. Along with everypony I know.”
Now it was her turn to cry. She had had these thoughts, but she hadn’t vocalized them. Feeling them rise up her throat was like coughing up saltwater.
“I’m scared. Scared Celestia will do something stupid like hand me the throne. And then I’ll do something stupid that leads to Equestria collapsing. I keep telling myself I’ll cope with it. That I’ll grow into the role, and I know I will… but right now I’m scared and upset and I just want to be myself again.”
The air in front of her shimmered, and Trixie revealed herself, the illusion that had been cloaking her falling away. The pale blue unicorn gave Twilight a conflicted look. “Trixie… had no idea.”
“No, everything you said makes sense. From where you’re standing, I have everything. It’s pathetic of me to complain about things being too wonderful. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through everything you have, and I’m sorry I let you down when you needed me.” Twilight sank to the ground.
Trixie shuffled her hooves a bit, sitting down next to Twilight. “Trixie is sorry too.”
“But yeah. That’s… that’s why I kissed you. When I heard how much me being a princess broke you… I understood it completely. And along with all the larmoya stuff, I just… I wanted to tell you it would be ok. That you could be who you wanted to be.”
“Because that’s what you tell yourself, and you could see Trixie needed it.”
The two sat. As Twilight worked her way through her tears, Trixie nestled against her side, and her tail flicked to the side, laying across Twilight’s.
“Trixie admits defeat, Sparkle. She is yours.”
Twilight laughed, the sound hitching on her tears a little. “Trixie, we each took one shot. We’ve hit a draw.”
“Well, Trixie concedes!”
“No. I don’t want you as some thing that I have as part of my successes.” Twilight nestled her head into Trixie’s shoulder, and one of her wings spread out across the showmare’s withers. “I want you to be another pony who knows how I feel.” she took a deep breath. “Do you know what Starswirl wrote about Larmoya in one of his last known journal entries?”
Trixie managed to coax a smile across her face. With a practiced drama to her read, she stared off into space and recited from memory;
“Even all these years later, on this anniversary I think of my greatest foe. Wicked in temper, vain in manner, and cunning in her pursuits, Equestria is safer without her. And I am lonelier, for the only unicorn to ever see me as I am is gone. I am Starswirl, master of magicks, archmage to the thrones of Equestria, and hero of history… But never again will I have the chance to be “You dumb scruffy jerk”, “Meddling nitwit”... “
“or “Swirlie”.” The pair of them finished in tandem.
“Trixie sees what you mean. But… is that really something you think she can provide?”
Twilight chuckled softly, closing her eyes and feeling her ear flick in the crook of the other mares neck. “I sure hope so. I like to think being a rival will let you see past all the princess glitz and see me for who I am.”
“Hm. Using Trixie’s copious hatred as a method for love. Very clever, Sparkle.” Trixie smirked.
“Speaking of clever, I didn’t properly compliment you for turning yourself invisible. That’s a pretty complex illusion.”
Trixie chickled. “You want to see impressive? Behold, the true ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Her horn glowed, and the hallway around them melted away. Twilight failed to stifle a gasp as the open air of the atrium revealed itself around her.
“I knew the numbers on the doors were repeating themselves! We never left the atrium, did we?!” Her eyes lit up with glee. “Trixie, that’s incredible! I’ve never seen an illusion that complicated!”
Trixie attempted a cocky grin, but it melted into an embarrassed blush. “Trixie didn’t get any real use out of it. She had been planning on tormenting you with increasingly strange visuals, all to keep you turned around and confused while she processed her emotions.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t impressive! And I’m sure you can show me your bizarre nightmare world some other time. After all, I imagine the Great and Powerful Trixie will have plenty of battles with Princess Twilight Sparkle, won’t she~?” She intoned flirtatiously, swishing her tail back and forth as she cast a glance over her shoulder.
Trixie’s blush deepened and she smiled back. “You will learn to fear the true power of magic, Sparkle! For the Stupendous and Terrible Trixie will be an ever-present thorn in your side!”
Twilight laughed. “You’re stupendous and terrible now?”
“Do you have any idea how repetitive ‘Great and Powerful’ gets? I’m not going to use it all the time.”
“Well, if the position of the sun is right, then I think the stupendous and terrible Trixie is going to miss the train back to Ponyville with me if she doesn’t start moving now!” Twilight took off, giggling to herself. Trixie took a moment to be stunned, before rearing up and dashing after the suddenly mischievous unicorn.
“Wait! Twilight, that’s not fair! I’m tired from that illusion!”
“Catch me and you can kiss me again!”
“Ooooooh! Get back here!”
The hotel was not alive, but the groan and creak of its timber seemed to possess a happy edge to it as the two mares chased each other out of its front doors.
It always did like a romantic ending.