//------------------------------// // A Second Chance // Story: A Sparkle of Love // by angryfrenchfry //------------------------------// Life in the castle has been strange. Trixie didn't know how to really take it all in. She had preformed for royalty before, but has never had the chance to explore a castle so thoroughly. It was simply amazing! After last nights good sleep, Trixie arose around 9:00am. Surprisingly she was kind of excited to see Luna and learn whatever she possibly could about friendship, love, and family. She made her way down the long halls of her sleeping corridor. The walls were laced in red banners which had beautiful designs all the way down them. The ground had the same shade of red carpet that went all the way down the hall towards the throne room. The hallway seemed to go on forever. Every little bit there were different doors that lead toward different rooms. Most of the rooms were for storage, with the exception of one that caught Trixie's attention. The door was slightly open. The blue unicorn made her way inside and found herself in a small library. This defiantly wasn't the real library of the castle. It was small, damp, and it looked like half of the books weren't even on the shelves. There was a pile of small books piled in one corner and another in the middle of the room. Trixie had wide eyes. She had never seen such a messy place. Let alone in the Canterlot Castle! Trixie approached the center pile and began to look through them. "The Lessons in Magic", one book said. Another was the "Best Way to Make a Cake". As she kept looking, one certain book caught her attention. It was big, had gold trim and even a lock keeping it from being opened. The front of the book read, "Looking for Love?". Just as she was about to pick it up, a shadow overtook her vision and she turned around to see Princess Celestia. "Oh my! Princess Celestia! I'm..sorry. I didn't see you there." Trixie was very nervous. "Be calm, Trixie. I simply heard some noise so I came over to see what was the cause of it." Celestia replied looking around the room. "I..I was just on my way to see Luna and this door was open a bit. What is this place..?" Trixie sat up, trying to hide the love book she had found. "Well, this place was the old library where Twilight Sparkle used to study." The princess said. "Twilight?" Trixie started to feel strange in her gut. "So why isn't it still in use?" "When Twilight left for Ponyville, this place became so quiet and dormant. Eventually it started to get really messy. There has been no time at all to begin to clean or restore the quality of the room. So now, it becomes a place that we put away books that have, special purposes..." Celestia trailed off. Trixie looked at the princess with a eyebrow raised. What did she mean by 'books with special purposes'? Trixie really didn't want to ask too much into it, but she wouldn't forget to maybe ask Luna. The magical azure unicorn made her way down the halls after her encounter with Princess Celestia. 'Special purposes'? What on earth was that supposed to mean? She really wanted to ask Luna about it but eventually pushed it to the back of her brain in order to focus on other things that she needed to do today. Finally after trotting down the final hall, Trixie found herself outside the Night Princesses private quarters. The door was big. Bigger that every other door in the entire castle. A dark blue shade covered the main portion of it and a lighter shade of blue was outlined around the edges of the door. Trixie raised her hoof and knocked on the door and a few seconds later, Princess Luna herself opened it. "Oh Trixie! Did you sleep well?" Luna gestured for the unicorn to enter. "It was different sleeping in a castle..." She paused, "But it was nice." "Well, you're just in time! Come over here to the balcony with me." Luna made her way over to the open doors that lead to a balcony overlooking the city. Trixie followed and stood beside the princess. "What exactly are we doing today Luna?" Trixie was a bit confused. Luna sat down and looked out toward the royal city. It was sunny and bright out today. Ponies were tending to their shops and others were walking around town, enjoying the weather. "Trixie, I want you to look down at the city and find something that catches your eye." Luna spoke. Although confused on how this could help her, Trixie did it anyway. Down on the streets on Canterlot were tons of ponies that lived in high class houses and wore fancy clothes. Not much caught Trixie's eye. Soon though, Trixie came across to see two ponies that stood out of the crowd. A stallion and a mare sharing a drink at a cafe. Trixie looked closer to see that they were on a date with each other. The blue unicorn looked down toward the balcony ground. They loved each other. Trixie started to tear up a small bit and Luna put her wing around her. "Those two ponies didn't know much about love when I first met them. They were constantly in fights with one another and could never agree." Luna was calm. "Trixie, do you know why they are together now? Why they have found out that they love each other?" Trixie looked up to Luna and shook her head. "They looked inside their hearts and found a new pony that wanted to be loved and have friends. They wanted to spend time with one another and be part of something better." The princess looked down at Trixie. "I...I want that Luna. I-I need that..." Trixie started to cry harder. "Shh Trixie, it's alright." Luna wiped the unicorns tears away with a hoof. "Go. Enjoy your day Trixie, and think about all I have said. I'm sure you will learn a lot about yourself and what you want." Trixie did as Princess Luna said. She walked out of the chambers and made her way down the long, furnished hallway. She took note of her surroundings as well. There were paintings all around her. Most of them were of different places around Equestria. From Canterlot and Ponyville, all the way to Manehatten. Trixie had been to all of the cities to show off her magic. The unicorn thought of when she was last in the big city of Manehatten. Loud, crowded, and full of ponies who just wanted to make more bits. That was one of the first places she had performed her show, and probably the best response out of all of them as well. Trixie shook her head and continued on. The red carpeted staircase was just ahead and Trixie, still looking around her, was almost about to fall right down. One more hoof forward and- "Whoa!" A voice yelled and a forehoof was now between Trixie and the stairs. The blue unicorn stopped and looked over to see Twilight Sparkle standing there. "Careful where you are walking Trixie. You almost walked right into a world of hurt if you fell down the stairs." "Oh, um...thanks." Trixie was nervous and scared of Twilight. "Where are you off to anyway?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You know, well...oh!" Trixie put on a frail smile. "Princess Luna wanted me to go get her some..uh... vegetables!" Twilight looked at her for a few seconds. Vegetables? Why in Equestria would Luna want Trixie to go get vegetables for her? Something else was going on and Twilight could sense it. The look in Trixie's eyes were of nervousness, pain, and regret. The purple unicorn thought to herself. Is Trixie nervous? Why would she be nervous? Hmm, I need to keep my cool and try and figure out what is going on here. "Listen Trixie, I'm going to be honest with you." Twilight spoke more calmly. "When I first saw you in the castle, I was wondering what Princess Celestia and Luna were thinking, because, well our last encounter wasn't very pleasant. You did almost destroy the town after all." She giggled. "I know...and I'm sorry Twilight Sparkle." Trixie was almost crying again. "All my life I've just wanted to be the best at everything. I think I'm beginning to understand that that's impossible and it's why we have our cutie marks. Everypony is good at something, not everything." She wiped a tear away and looking at Twilight. "I can help you Trixie. I actually want to. Everypony deserves some kind of second chance. I think you and me could really do something great." The almost sobbing blue unicorn looked down, then back up and nodded. Twilight was right. All Trixie wanted was a second chance at, well, her life almost. Not to be cruel or cocky, but to be loving and selfless. "Alright, Twilight Sparkle...and thank you for letting me have a chance." Trixie leaned forward as if ready to give a hug, but quickly went back to her original position. "Just call me Twilight, Trixie." She smiled and pulled Trixie in for a small hug. "Come on, we should go get those, hmm, vegetables that Luna wanted." "Ok, yeah, lets." Trixie smiled lightly and turned back toward the staircase that she almost fell down. "Oh, and Trixie?" Twilight spoke from behind her. "I like your mane too." She winked and trotted down the stairs. Trixie looked to the ground and her cheeks turned a bright red colour. Maybe this was going to be fine. Just maybe, Trixie had finally found a bit of real happiness in her life. She had a chance to start anew, and she wasn't going to waste it. Smiling, Trixie followed Twilight down the stairs and out into the town of Canterlot.