Sometime after shuffling her way out of bed in the morning, Twilight Sparkle found out that she had somehow found the setting on the love spell that made it give love and bludgeon with it at the same time. Thankfully, given that royal resilience that Thorax had talked about, that just meant she had an especially grumpy Chrysalis sitting at breakfast with her.
Pancakes made the whole situation slightly better, though it was hard to fully appreciate when the mare across the table was gagging loudly with every mouthful of her own food. Chrysalis finally huffed and threw the spoon down, crossing her forelegs like a stubborn yearling. "This is disgusting. What is it?"
"Quinoa." Twilight added extra berries to her pancakes. "It's high in both protein and iron, which Thorax said that you need right now."
"It's like sandpaper on my tongue." She then smiled cruelly, baring her sharp fangs. "Perhaps I should go out and kill a few rabbits for my breakfast instead, if you refuse to feed me properly."
"No rabbits."
Chrysalis cackled, her voice dripping with mockery "Why? Are the fuzzy-wuzzy creatures of this land all under your royal protection?"
"No, they're under Fluttershy's." Twilight added extra whipped cream as well. She was a princess now. Nopony could stop her. "And she's not bound under an ancient law not to kill you."
Chrysalis sputtered, but before she could come up with a retort for that, Starlight was hurrying into the room. "Twilight, we have a situation!"
"Students?"
"No!"
"Map?"
"No!"
"Anger bott--"
"One! Time! Just get outside, she's waiting for you."
She?
Twilight looked at Chrysalis, who was alternating between glaring at Starlight and glaring at her bowl of quinoa, which seemed to have been upgraded to co-archnemesis alongside the unicorn, and decided that the chances of something terrible happening in here if she stepped out were acceptably low. "Okay, okay... I'm going..."
Through the castle and out the door, the sight that greeted her...
"Trixie?"
It wasn't a sight that she could call welcome, but it was at least an unsurprising one. The traveling showmare stopped by often enough to come see Starlight, and as much as Twilight had had misgivings before, the two did seem to be positive influences on each other slightly more often than they annoyed each other out of their skulls.
However, it being Trixie didn't explain why Starlight had called it a situation or insisted she come out here. Normally when she showed up, Starlight just let her know she'd be out with her friend and then left. It also didn't explain why Trixie was standing there on the path to the castle with a smirk on her muzzle.
Trixie looked left and right, seeming to be taking note of the number of ponies who'd slowed down to rubberneck at what looked like it might be the next interesting thing--"interesting" in the old kirin proverb sense of the word, at least--to happen in Ponyville. She then bowed, and her words chilled Twilight to the bone.
"I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, hereby pledge mine self, body, heart, and soul, to Princess Twilight Sparkle, to be used in any way that she see fit, as her harem mare."
"Trixie Lulamoon, are you out of your mind?!"
Yanking Trixie into her study had jostled her hat, and she spent a few maddening seconds adjusting it before she laughed a little and responded. "Why? Because somepony would have to be crazy to want to be your harem mare?"
"This isn't about me!" She reared briefly, her front hooves landing on the crystal floor with a loud stomp. "How do you even know about--"
Trixie wordlessly produced a newspaper from beneath her cloak and tossed in on the floor, the headline of Royal Harem Scandal: Princess of Friendship Now Collecting More Than Friends on proud display. "Relax, Sparkle. The Kind and Gracious Trixie just decided to offer her assistance with your little changeling problem." She puffed out her chest proudly. "With me here, that's one more set of eyes making sure Chrysalis doesn't try any funny business."
Alicorn royalty stared at stage magician, and all the sarcasm in the world could not have been enough for painting her next words. "Gee, Trixie, how can I ever repay you?"
"Oh, think nothing of it." Trixie gave a casual wave of a front leg. "Trixie will just take the free room and board that comes with the harem mare position as thanks."
"Fine! Great! Fantastic! I have one egomaniac in the castle already, why not two?" Before Trixie could voice a protest, Twilight had turned toward the door and was moving at the speed of desire to be anywhere but here. "Make yourself at home. I have princess... things... to do."
It was probably a bad idea to try to ban all reporters from coming anywhere near her castle.
Probably.
She could still fantasize about it.
She'd had some letters sent, and confirmed that the story was all over Equestria. It was the talk of the nation, the idea that the newest princess now had the former leader of an enemy army lounging around in her castle. The situation had led to a lot of curiosity about what other old laws may still be on the books, and the royal sisters were in the process of combing through records to find anything else that might cause trouble if suddenly invoked.
Twilight could question why it took so long for such a combing to take place, but this was Princess "Oh By The Way, There's Another Ancient Villain Who Is Still Alive And Could Still Have A Grudge" Celestia. Luna could at least be excused by the fact that she'd been away for so long that it was reasonable for her to assume it'd all been taken care of already.
It was probably also a bad idea to put together a homework assignment for the sisters to come up with every last thing they could think of from Equestria's past that could rear its head and bite them in the collective flanks in the near or far future. As tempting as it was, it would likely only ensure that the one thing the two had collectively forgot would be the next disaster.
Twilight tried to put it out of her mind. It was time for bed, and she'd placed a spell on the room that would detect any changelings in the vicinity, so if nothing else, she could guarantee that her mattress was Chrysalis-free for the night.
She pushed open the door, walked into the room, and stopped in her tracks.
Without her hat and cape, Trixie looked strangely naked, in a way that Twilight herself, as a pony who went around unclothed more often than not, could not hope to achieve. And this naked Trixie proceeded to stare at her with a heavy-lidded gaze, bounce her eyebrows up and down, and grin around the rose in her teeth.
Twilight only felt slightly bad for the yelp of pain that resulted from Trixie landing on her backside in the hallway before she slammed the door.
An old associate of Trixie's had once compared her to a cat.
It had taken some time to get out of the stallion in question why. At first she'd thought it was commentary on her inherent elegance and stage presence. Then she'd come to the conclusion that it must be due to her intense focus and cunning in achieving her goal of being a famous stage magician. Eventually, however, she'd gotten out of him that it was because she had apparently perfected the art of I meant to do that.
And so, as her rear end continued to throb from the harsh landing, she got to her hooves, flicked her tail, sniffed dismissively, and prepared to go on her way to the room that had been set aside for her, while pretending that the rose she was holding was merely a midnight snack for herself.
She didn't expect a, "Hmph" to come from seemingly thin air, and a unicorn statue she'd earlier assumed was a poor-taste decoration of Twilight Sparkle's to burst into green flame. Chrysalis stood before her, head held high in haughty distain. "A valiant attempt, but if she turned down my renowned beauty, there was no way that you would have a chance."
A lesser pony may have shrunk under that gaze, coming from a creature that looked like a twisted mirror of an alicorn. Trixie, however, had once gone with her closest friend into the heart of the changelings' lands, and so merely fixed her with a smug smile. "So you struck out too, huh?"
Chrysalis sneered. "I can't strike out if I wasn't intending to score." Her expression twisted into a fang-baring grin. "I was just seeing how much I could make the little pony squirm."
"What a coincidence. That's what I'm doing too." She chortled. "The princess could use some shaking up now and again, with how uptight she is."
That seemed to send the mare into deep thought, and Trixie found herself wondering if Chrysalis even recognized her. As painful as the thought of being forgotten by anyone was, she had been rather focused on Thorax and Starlight during the whole rescue-mission-turned-revolution. Her wings buzzed in a way that almost sounded like a hum of thought, and then she spoke. "I have a proposition for you, pony."
"My name is Trix--"
"Don't care." The dismissive wave of her hoof had Trixie fuming, but she ignored it. "I'm supposed to go on walks through town for my health and Twilight Sparkle is duty-bound to come with me." She flashed another fanged grin. "Tag along on tomorrow's little venture and we can combine our forces to keep 'shaking her up.'"
Despite the recent insult, Trixie found herself grinning back. "You've got yourself a deal."
They bumped hooves, and Operation Make Sparkle Combust With Embarrassment was born.