“Eyes On You”
Interlude: The Element Of Magic
“Is my hair alright? Should I brush it again? Maybe I should do my horn--”
“Ugh!” growled Spike. “For the hundredth time – your hair looks fine, your horn looks fine, your hooves look fine, you look fine! What’s gotten into you? Since when do you get nervous about telling ponies you’re the Princess’ student?”
Twilight rounded on him, knocking her dressing table as she went. “This isn’t ‘ponies’, Spike, this is Trixie!”
“Um, and Trixie is different because…?”
Twilight huffed and fell back onto her haunches. “I don’t know! What if she gets jealous? Or what if she thinks I'm making it up? I've only just gotten her to start trusting me, Spike – I don't want to ruin that!”
Spike put a claw to his face. “Twilight, you’re making way too big a deal out of this. Anyway, didn’t she ask you to tell her?”
“Well… yeah,” muttered Twilight. “But--”
“I rest my case,” said Spike, folding his arms across his chest.
Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but realised that she didn’t really have anything more to add. After a moment of staring at Spike’s resolute stance, Twilight finally gave a sigh and got to her hooves. “Fine.”
Spike smirked and opened one eye. “That’s what I thought!”
Twilight parodied him as she trotted over to the door. Part way over the threshold, she stopped. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?” she called back.
“Nah, I’ll pass,” said Spike, waving a dismissive claw. “You two have fun though,” he added with a smirk.
Twilight rolled her eyes and started down towards the lobby, magically closing the door behind her. She took the stairs at a slow trot, more than once stopping to run a nervous hoof through her mane. When she reached the bottom, she saw that Trixie was already sitting at the table – head atop her hoof and looking thoroughly bored.
“It's about time!” said Trixie. “What were you doing – rehearsing? Trixie's salad is getting cold.”
Twilight cocked her head as she strode over to join Trixie at the table. “Your salad was always cold...”
Trixie fixed her with a deadpan expression. “Yes. It was.”
With a little giggle, Twilight climbed up onto the stool opposite and pulled her own bowl of salad towards her. “Sorry. We can get started whenever you're ready.”
“Take your time,” said Trixie sarcastically.
Twilight gave her a sheepish grin. “Oh, haha, right… So, you want to hear about the Princess... Um, where should I start?”
“It’s your story,” said Trixie, shrugging. “How about telling Trixie how somepony from the backwater town of Ponyville even got to meet the Princess?”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “Huh? Who do you m--” She cut herself off and raised her eyebrows in understanding. “Oh! You mean me?”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “No, Trixie means Rainbow Dash...” she deadpanned. “Of course Trixie means you!”
Twilight giggled and shook her head. “Actually, I’m not from originally from Ponyville – I was born and raised in Canterlot.”
“Canterlot?” Trixie repeated, raising an eyebrow. “You?”
“That’s right!” chirped Twilight. “Why do you sound surprised?”
Trixie blinked, then shook her head to refocus. “T-Trixie isn’t surprised! She just finds it a little hard to believe. Trixie has been to Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle, the ponies there are nothing like y--” She broke off mid-sentence and her cheeks suddenly gained a hint of red. “W-What Trixie means is… they’re all--”
“Snobs?” Twilight finished helpfully. Trixie stared for a moment longer before closing her mouth and nodding. “Well, I’ll grant that a lot of ponies in Canterlot are… like that… but not everypony. My parents were nice ponies, they didn’t believe in all that ‘highborn, elite’ nonsense.”
“Trixie… sees,” muttered the showmare. “Well, at least that explains how you got to meet the Princess…”
Twilight smiled and nodded. “She travelled around Canterlot quite a lot, for somepony with all her responsibilities. The first time I met her… well, saw her anyway, was at the Summer Sun Celebration when I was just a little filly…”
Twilight told her everything – the whole story that ended with her getting her cutie mark and being enrolled into Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. It was nice to tell the story out loud, and nicer still that she had an audience that didn't see fit to interrupt every two minutes. Trixie was silent almost the whole time – she just sat, watching and taking in every word until Twilight finished her recount. By the time the story had finished though, Trixie had a quizzical look on her face.
“...You turned your parents into flowerpots?” she muttered. By her tone, Twilight couldn't tell whether she was amused, disbelieving or just completely lost. Probably a bit of each...
Twilight gave her a sheepish grin. “I couldn't control my magic back then... To be honest, I'm still learning. But it's gotten a lot easier since Princess Celestia took me under her wing – she's the best teacher I've ever known.” She smiled at the memory.
Trixie looked down at the table. “Trixie sees...”
“Is something wrong?” asked Twilight. “You haven't touched your cold salad.”
“Neither have you,” Trixie pointed out. She met Twilight's eyes with a thoughtful frown. “There's more to the story, isn't there? Trixie wants to know what happened.”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
“It sounds like you had a wonderful life in Canterlot, but now you're living in Ponyville? Did something happen between you and the Princess?”
Twilight smiled and waved a hoof. “Oh no, nothing like that! The Princess actually sent me here to take care of the festivities for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
Trixie blinked. “...That was months ago.”
“Well that's not why I stayed, obviously,” said Twilight, rolling her eyes. “Did you hear anything in the news about Princess Luna's return?”
Trixie blinked again. “Don't tell Trixie you had something to do with that as well?”
Twilight bit her lip. “Well... maybe just a little...”
* * *
Trixie listened intently as Twilight recounted the tale of how she and her new friends had set out on a quest to find the Elements of Harmony, ultimately using them to redeem the dreaded Nightmare Moon and single-hoofedly save Equestria. Trixie, having made up similar stories in the past, knew full well how to tell when somepony was embellishing a story for their own benefit. But, as hard Trixie wanted to believe otherwise, it seemed that Twilight was telling the truth...
“...and then the Princess turned to Luna and welcomed her back with open arms – it was really touching. Of course, Pinkie Pie thought so too, and she wanted to throw a--”
“Stop,” said Trixie. Twilight did so, cutting off mid-sentence and frowning at her.
“Is something the matter? Am I going too fast? I'm sorry, I guess I just got carried away--”
Trixie shook her head. “It's not that. Are you really telling Trixie that you embody the Element of Magic? Does anypony ever believe that?”
Twilight opened her mouth, then huffed and looked down at the table. “It does sound a little far-fetched, doesn't it?”
Trixie mimicked her – frowning down at her salad bowl. “But it's true...”
Twilight nodded slowly. “It's really not that big of a deal though. I've hardly told anypony about it, and Princess Celestia agreed to keep the details out of the papers.”
“She 'agreed' to?” said Trixie, furrowing her brow at Twilight. “You asked her to do that? But... why? You would've been famous!”
A smile found its way back onto Twilight's face. “Probably. That's why I wanted it to be kept a secret.”
“That... doesn't make any sense,” said Trixie shortly.
“Well, would you want to see your face on the front of the newspaper?” countered Twilight. “To have ponies coming up to you in the street and praising you whenever you walked out of the door?”
“Yes!” said Trixie with exasperation. “I can't believe you'd pass up an offer like that!”
Twilight chuckled. “Maybe you would've made a better Element of Magic.”
Trixie opened her mouth to counter, but the words caught in her throat. She broke from Twilight's gaze and turned to the side. “I... Trixie couldn't do that...”
“Why not?” said Twilight. “You're a magician, aren't you? All those tricks you did at your magic show were really impressive. And I saw how you stood up to that Ursa--”
“Don't make fun of me,” Trixie snapped, casting a glare at Twilight.
Twilight threw up her hooves defensively. “I'm not! Really, that was one of the bravest things I've ever seen – and I've seen some pretty brave things since I came to Ponyville.”
Trixie shook her head and frowned sadly. “Trixie made a foal of herself in front of everypony. How is that brave?”
“Are you kidding?” said Twilight. “Standing up to something that big to protect those two colts, even when you had no idea how to vanquish it – you're practically a hero, Trixie!”
“Don't hurt yourself, Twilight,” warned Spike, trudging down the stairs and disappearing into the kitchen.
Trixie stared silently at the table, her lip turned up in thought. Thinking back on it, she'd always told herself that she did what she did in some vain attempt to protect her reputation. But she didn't really have that much time to think back then – it was kind of difficult with an Ursa breathing down her neck...
“...Is that really how it looked?” she muttered.
Twilight seemed to hesitate. “Well, I was kind of panicking at the time, so I don't know what everypony else was thinking... But yes – that's how it looked to me.”
Trixie pondered it for a moment longer, before shaking her head. “Trixie couldn't vanquish it though. A real hero would have vanquished it...”
“Not necessarily,” said Twilight. Trixie looked up at her questioningly. For her part, Twilight offered a faint smile as she went on. “There's something Princess Celestia always used to tell me. 'Strength isn't the only way to be strong'.”
Trixie stared at Twilight. Then she broke eye contact to give it some thought, before finally turning to stare again. “...That doesn't make sense,” she deadpanned.
Twilight giggled. “That's what I told her. She never did tell me what it meant, but I always thought of it like this – Just because you can't physically do something on your own, it doesn't necessarily mean you're weak. Sometimes, real strength is having the courage to move forward anyway, to stand up for your friends even if you know you can't win...”
Pausing, Twilight gave Trixie an earnest smile.
“...and sometimes it's just having the courage to ask for help.”
Trixie's mouth fell open a little – her tongue wandering about her mouth as she made sense of Twilight's words. “You're... very thoughtful this evening, Twilight Sparkle...” she muttered.
Twilight's eyes widened and she blushed. “Ahaha-- W-Well, I guess you just have that effect on me...”
Trixie found herself smiling at that. Anything else she had to say was pre-empted by the growling of her stomach. “...We should eat,” she said abruptly, forcing her eyes down to her yet-untouched bowl of salad.
Twilight cleared her throat and nodded. “Right. I'm starving.”
* * *