“Open the d-door! Derpy mail delivery!” An odd voice yelled from behind Trixie’s front door.
Octavia slid out of Trixie’s bed with a loud sigh. She used her improving magical ability to comb her hair quickly and went to the door to see a wall-eyed Pegasus flying upside down in front of her. It made her feel odd still waking up in her friend’s house and seeing this strange pony just continued the trend of waking up to barbaric things.
“Derpy delivery!” The greyish Pegasus said loudly, “Here’s your muffin!”
What? A muffin…?
“Don’t just look at the muffin, take it!” Derpy exclaimed, eyes darting off in conflicting directions.
Taking Trixie’s mail from the derpy pony, plus a muffin, Octavia smiled forcefully before the off-grey Pegasus flew away, upside down. The blue unicorn couldn’t help but wonder how the muffins stayed in her bag as she flew upside down. The bag didn’t even have a top to hold them in. However, Tavi knew she had no time to bother herself with physics defying the derpy Pegasus.
“Trixie is going to be here soon, I shouldn’t open her mail.”
Why did I say out loud?
“I’m quite weird, If I do say so myself.”
I DID IT AGAIN!
“At least I don’t tend to refer to myself in third person.”
Octavia caused herself to giggle at her own antics. She used her magic to set the letter and the muffin down on a coffee table next to Trixie’s couch. She levitated a random book over just to study it. Octavia devoured the muffin while she studied a more challenging spell. She might as well get to work before either Twilight Sparkle or Trixie arrived.
Though the idea seemed quite barbaric, if she could spawn a table before the end of the day, this could possibly motivate Trixie to get better on the cello. All that Octavia wanted was to see her life not go up in flames because of her arrogant friend.
The idea that things are more possible than she had expected kind of excited Octavia. When this whole situation first started, she didn’t think she had a chance to perform the required stunts to wow a crowd. Though she did not know for sure, maybe the tricks she was learning aren’t exactly the hardest a unicorn could learn, maybe Trixie isn’t as good of a unicorn as Octavia had assumed and maybe that it why she is able to learn these tricks. However, making assumptions didn’t help her, so she got back to reading the spell book.
<><><><><><><><>
Trixie knew the second she woke up, that she didn’t sleep very well. Octavia’s bed was firm, her blanket was thin and the window let in sunlight that shone right into her eyes to wake her up.
The grey pony hopped out of her bed with a groan, knowing she had a lot of cello work in the day ahead of her. She also knew that she was supposed to arrive at her own house with Octavia’s cello to work on some symphonies for Octavia’s upcoming performance.
In the corner of her vision, she saw an envelope slide through a slit in Octavia’s door. This startled her for a second because she was still in a morning daze from a terrible night of sleep.
“Does Octavia not get a morning muffin with her mail?” She said aloud, clearing her throat after hearing how hoarse her voice had become.
Trixie picked the envelope up and put it on Octavia’s counter before the temptation to open it got the better of her. Also, she was quite disappointed that she didn’t receive a muffin like she did regularly at her home, but assumed that a different pony besides Derpy must deliver Octavia’s mail.
Trixie looked at Octavia’s cello, lying on its side in the corner of the room, and sighed. Though she had a day longer than Octavia to learn how to play the cello, Trixie wasn’t exactly confident in her abilities, or at least her ability to learn. She had the rudiments and posture down. It really bothered her back, so much that she was impressed that Octavia could stay in that position for more than 5 minutes. Trixie would never call Octavia not athletic again.
After finishing off Octavia’s bag of hay fries, Trixie picked up the cello, put the harness around her waist and with an annoyed sigh, set off on her way to her own home, which was currently occupied by Octavia.
After just two days, seeing life through Octavia’s eyes has really changed her perspective on other ponies. The tea party taught her that just because some pony may seem snooty because they’re high class, when really they’re just as easy to get along with as other ponies if you just try to get to know them. The tea party also taught her to learn how to hold a tea cup with her hooves.
As she walked through the center of Canterlot, still lugging Octavia’s heavy cello behind her through the tiny crowd of ponies, Trixie could swear she heard somepony call Octavia’s name.
Trixie stopped and focused her hearing to see if she would hear it again, until she turned her head around and saw Twilight Sparkle trotting towards her, with an embarrassed smile on her face.
Why in the hay is Twilight Sparkle looking for Octavia?
Once Twilight approached the pony she thought was Octavia, Trixie reminded herself to BE Octavia and to react as how she’d assume Octavia would.
“Um, Who are you?” Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
“OH!, um, my name is Twilight Sparkle. You’re Octavia, right?”
Trixie nodded, “How can I help you?”
“Well, I don’t know how to say this, but I need to ask you a few questions about Trixie, if you don’t mind.”
She wants to ask a few questions about ME? Oh my Celestia, Octavia better not have been rude to Twilight yesterday!
“U-um, sure, go ahead,” Trixie replied, interested in what the unicorn would say about her. Nopony is more honest about somepony when they don’t think they’re talking to them.
“I’m assuming you’re going to Trixie’s home right now, I’ll go with you, OK? Just don’t tell her what I’m about to say, OK?”
Sheesh, is it really that bad?
“Go ahead,” The grey pony insisted.
“W-Well, I need to ask you…how have you and Trixie become such good friends? I-I mean, all I do is help her learn magic, which I have been doing for the past two and a half weeks, yet she still ignores me and disregards me. She doesn’t ever consider me when goes out with friends, she just…I just think she’s going to forget about me once she does her performance tomorrow…”
Trixie is going to kill Octavia for treating Twilight like this!
“TRIXIE DOES NO- I mean, I’m sure this is just a temporary thing, in fact, VERY temporary, you shouldn’t take anything she says seriously for now,” Trixie insisted, guessing that Octavia had treated Twilight quite rudely during the past few days.
”What do you mean recently? She’s done this since I met her…” Twilight said, voice saddened.
Her words immediately sent pangs of guilt down Trixie’s body, now that she knew that it wasn’t Octavia that had been treating Twilight badly, it was her. Trixie felt worse as she went through it in her mind, every time she could have invited Twilight, every time the unicorn was sad because of Trixie, every time Twilight made a hint that she wanted to tag along and Trixie had ignored her. It takes a lot to bother an arrogant pony like Trixie so much, but when realizing that she had treated a unicorn that had been training her so rudely and dismissively, it shook Trixie to her soul.
It bothered Trixie even more when she saw that Twilight Sparkle was more bothered than she thought. Unless Octavia’s eyes saw things different than they really were, Trixie could have sworn it looked like the purple unicorn was crying at that very instant. Trixie needed to think and fast.
“W-Well, Trixie is hard to become friends with, u-um, we only became friends because of my guitar-I mean CELLO and the fact that we both like to perform in front of crowds.”
“I-I shouldn’t feel this way though…nopony has ever bothered me like this when treating me badly, I usually can just let it go,” Twilight Sparkle ventured further.
She didn’t necessarily think it was the smartest thing to do, to slowly admit feelings about somepony to their best friend, but she didn’t want to tell it to a pony whose opinion she really cares about. She could tell one of her friends about the feelings she has for Trixie, but the fear of rejection prevents her from working up the courage to do so.
Granted, telling Trixie’s best friend about her feelings for Trixie pretty much guarantees that Trixie will find out sooner or later, but Twilight would rather indirectly tell her, than tell her and be made fun of, ignored and forgotten.
Trixie found Twilight’s last statement quite odd. What Twilight had said so far, wouldn’t have really bothered Trixie if Twilight had told her before switching bodies with Octavia, and doubted that Octavia would have been bothered by it either.
“What do you mean?” Trixie asked, still trying to decipher why Twilight was so dramatically upset over something with such a simple solution. Considering how smart she was, it surprised Trixie that she didn’t just confess it to Trixie in the first place.
Twilight bit her lip. She was at a point of no return.
“I-I…I don’t know…I really don’t understand anything that I’m feeling right now for…for Trixie,”
“What are you saying, Twilight?” Trixie asked, eyes widening as the gears clicked into place in her mind.
“Please don’t tell Trixie…I’m sure I have some book I can read that’ll help me get over these feelings, but right now they’re real a-and it only makes me feel worse when she treats me badly, I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, right? She’s arrogant and self-centered, the exact OPPOSITE of me, but it’s not like somepony can choose who they have feelings for, right? At least I can’t,”
Twilight Sparkle has a crush on me…?
A flurry of thoughts came over Trixie as she put together what she just heard. She didn’t have time to think, however, and spoke before the silence led to awkwardness.
“I’m sure Trixie considers you a good friend,Twilight,” Trixie said, which was the truth at that moment. It was all she could think to say, she had too much going on to even consider her situation with Twilight Sparkle. It was imperative that she learned the cello and she knew she had to phase out all distractions, no matter how sudden and unexpected.
The purple unicorn sighed, with a hint of sadness over her breath, “I know…”
Twilight Sparkle knew that what she just admitted was either a huge mistake or something she’ll be glad that she had done in the future. Dreams come true for other ponies, maybe this time around, could they come true for her?
Trixie had assumed, since she didn’t have to go to Octavia’s practice, which Octavia would have told Twilight not to come, JUST so she and Trixie could work with each other. However, now knowing Twilight’s feelings, Octavia may not have had the courage to tell Twilight not to come, assuming that Octavia had noticed the purple unicorn’s feelings in the first place.
Oh joy, just more stress for Trixie as she tries to learn how to play a cello and to perform a symphony in front of a large crowd! Oh Celestia help me…
When they arrived, the blue unicorn greeted them with a surprised smile. She assumed that Trixie would be there earlier, because Twilight had told her that she would be an hour late. Octavia came to the conclusion that Twilight must have went to her home to talk to Octavia, without knowing that Trixie was actually Octavia.
“Well, finally you’re here,” Octavia said in a snotty tone, impersonating Trixie, “Trixie has been waiting for 20 minutes,”
So this is how Octavia has portraying me?
“Sorry, I was MUCH too busy doing pointless things because I have to be all smart and stuff,” Trixie attempted, but realized her attempt to mock Octavia only make her laugh.
“I’m sorry if I am here earlier than expected,” The purple unicorn said, “However this means we can get more practice done. Hopefully you’re out of that funk you were in yesterday,”
Trixie was actually pleasantly surprised that Octavia was able to fool Twilight into thinking that her lack of ability was temporary. However, the chance to mess with her friend was something she felt she had to do.
“So, Trixie,” Trixie said to gain Octavia’s attention.
“Yes?” Octavia asked, cocking her head as she tried to figure out why the grey pony had a sly look on her face.
“Didn’t you say you could do a back-flip onto a table you spawned, I’d really like to see that,”
Octavia’s eyes widened as she gave her friend a ‘I know what you’re trying to do’ type of look.
“Oh, Trixie has showed you many times before, you don’t need to see it again,” Octavia was trying to avoid another painful flop onto her back.
“Oh, but I heard you were much better at it now, I feel you must show me,” Trixie pestered with a sinister grin.
“Trixie, you need to be able to do that trick, can you please show us so we can move on? Your performance is tomorrow!” Twilight Sparkle added, sending a shiver down the two other ponies’ spines with her last statement.
“Oc-I mean Trixie, can I speak with you in the other room please?” Trixie said, receiving a confused look for Twilight, “We’ll be back in a second, Twi’.”
It confused the purple unicorn even more that the pony she assumed was Octavia called her ‘Twi’.
Trotting away from the living and Into Trixie’s bedroom, the two frantically tried to decide what they needed to do and/or say to the waiting Twilight Sparkle in the living room.
“Can you do back-flip, Tavi? CAN YOU?” Trixie asked, her hooves on the blue unicorn’s shoulders.
“What do you think? When I tried yesterday, I landed on my back and Twilight laughed at me! I don’t even want to attempt it with her there. I find her quite annoying,”
“She’s not annoying!” Trixie said, oddly defensive of the purple unicorn, “U-Uh…try a back-flip right now!”
“You’re crazy.”
“YOU HAVE TO! THIS IS TRIXIE’S LIFE AND SHE DOESN’T WANT IT TO BE RUINED!” The grey pony exclaimed and then took a deep breath, knowing that she didn’t want Twilight to hear her.
“I know what to do, I’m tired of hiding our situation, we need to tell her,” Octavia chided, stomping her blue hoof on the carpet for emphasis.
“N-NO!” The grey pony once again exclaimed, surprising Octavia.
“Why not Trixie? I mean really, WHY NOT? Do you like the stress we are going through? Do you like all this pressure? I certainly do not. I am going to tell her now if you do not have a legitimate reason I shouldn’t.”
If Twilight knows she confessed her feelings to me, she won’t be of any help...
Trixie opened her mouth, but no words came out as she watch the blue unicorn trot out of her bedroom. She followed her, unsure of what to think, unsure of how Twilight will react, unsure of how SHE HERSELF will react.
“Twilight, we need to talk,” Tavi said, sitting on Trixie’s couch in front of the purple unicorn. Trixie hopped up next to her, avoiding eye contact with the purple unicorn.
“W-What do you need Trixie?” The purple unicorn asked, slightly intimidated by the alarmist tone to Trixie’s voice.
Octavia was only worried about getting her own life back, while Trixie on the other hoof, had a much different dilemma she was facing. The way Twilight Sparkle reacts to this news, will determine whether they get can possibly their lives back or not.