//------------------------------// // Training - Part One // Story: Hand in Hand // by Ponyzilla //------------------------------// Hand in Hand: Chapter Three - Training (Part One) Note: This entire chapter is in Trixie's perspective. She will use proper pronouns when being narrated and she'll refer to herself as, "The Great and Powerful Trixie", when she is actually speaking. The weather in Ponyville was fantastic. Beams of sunlight shone throughout the village, butterflies flew around freely and all of the citizens were having a great day. ... Well, all except two. Twilight Sparkle and I were sitting across from each other at her meal table, mindlessly chewing away at our hot and soft, honey drizzled cinnamon pancakes layered with icing and raspberries carefully decorated around the brims. I had to admit, if there's anything the little purple dragon was good for, it was cooking. However, even so, Twilight Sparkle barely touched her breakfast. I raised an eyebrow. "Twilight Sparkle, why are you not eating breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day, you know," I said pridefully. She stared at me for a moment. The huge bags and dark circles under her eyes made me shudder. Didn't get much sleep last night, it seems. I assumed. She sighed, and looked down at her breakfast. "Eat. We have a long day today," I said sternly. Twilight Sparkle was not one to forget things, so she obviously knew about our training today. The purple pony in front of me did not respond. She sat still in her seat, and poked away at her pancakes, but showed no intention of putting a piece into her mouth. I felt my mouth form a scowl, but I let it drop after a few seconds. True, I felt irritated, but I was in no position to get mad at her. However, after a few moments of silence, I had enough. I stood up and walked towards Twilight. I knelt down beside her. She peered up at me. Her eyes seemed empty. So empty that it frightened me and made me jump back a bit, but I shook my head and regained focus on what I was about to do. I returned to my position. I swiftly reached up, grabbed Twilight's fork, impaled her pancakes and quickly shoved them in her mouth before she could react. I covered her mouth with both of my hooves. For a sleep deprived and malnourished pony, I was surprised to find that holding her back was much harder than imagined. Finally, after a few minutes, she gave up, and began to chew slowly. I took my hooves off of her mouth. Phew, I thought to myself. I pretended to wipe off some sweat. Suddenly, after hearing a significantly loud gulping noise from Twilight, her back snapped straight, and she was no longer slouching. I jumped back in surprise. Her eyes no longer looked empty, and she began digging in mercilessly into the pancakes. I smiled. That did the trick, huh? Score one for Trixie! After breakfast, I took Twilight into the study. She seemed to feel a lot better. Her mouth was barely curving into a smile, but that was better than nothing. Much to my surprise, I found myself worrying about her. I whipped my head around, trying not to think about it. After we made our way into the study, Twilight just stood idly in the middle of the room with a puzzled look on her face. "So... what are we doing here?" she asked. I was almost ready to slap myself in the face with my hoof. Was this girl really that clueless? I felt absolutely compelled to make a snarky remark. "Twilight Sparkle, have the past two weeks really transformed you that much?" I said as coolly as possible. She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?" I groaned. "The Great and Powerful Trixie thought we went through our day multiple times last night." "... You were here last night?" she asked, completely puzzled. That's when I realized it. She didn't talk at all during breakfast, and she offered such a sulky face simply because she didn't remember anything from the night before. I knew if I tried to argue with her, things would turn out badly. I played dumb. "Trixie, uh, guesses she must've dreamt that she was here." Twilight cocked her head, but shrugged it off almost immediately. "So, what are we doing here?" she repeated. "We're here to help you regain your magical abilities." "Regain? Trixie, I don't think that's possible--" "Anything is possible, Twilight Sparkle. You just need to put your heart and mind to it." "I-I guess..." she replied with a confused tone in her voice. I ignored it. "Well then, since you're willing to co-operate now, let us start with a simple page flipping spell, now shall we?" I offered as I pulled out the book on the shelf closest to me and plopped it onto a reading table. 'Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone', it read. I opened the book to a random page and waited for Twilight Sparkle to react. However, she just stared at the book. She wasn't even sure about what to do. My eyes twitched a bit. This was getting irritating. "Miss Sparkle," I said, "could you please try to flip this book to the next page?" "How?" she asked. No way, no way, NO WAY. She is COMPLETELY CLUELESS. It's like-- she was separated from reality! -- Huh? Wait a minute... I pondered for a moment. "With your magic, of course," I replied. Her eyes lit up. "Magic? I LOVE magic! ... But my BBBFF says I need to improve more on it. He's starting to think that I'm not actually a unicorn, you know... But I know he's wrong! I have a horn to prove it! See?" she pointed towards her horn that was standing on her forehead. As expected... She has made herself believe that she was a filly again. The force feeding, not knowing what to do without instructions... she's like a newborn foal that needs to be guided through life... But why? How? Why was she so sad this morning? I asked myself. Admittedly, a lot of questions flowed through my head, and I was unable to answer any of them. I paced around the room, and Twilight just stared at me. ThinkthinkthinkthinkTHINK, TRIXIE! What would you do if you had a little filly? How would you raise her? I paused for a moment and I felt my face blushing. I had never thought about raising a foal before. I slapped myself with my hoof. Snap out of it! I shouted in my head, but it was no use. I paced around even faster until I felt myself digging a hole into the ground. I looked up, and there was Twilight Sparkle, giggling at me. I blushed even harder. It was... pretty cute seeing Twilight giggle like a filly. But there was no time for that. I slapped myself even harder, and I began to focus on the task at hand. I climbed out of the shallow home made hole, and stood in one place. Almost instantaneously, an idea sprouted inside of my mind. "Come on, Twilight Sparkle," I said, "we're going to go see Zecora!" Twilight and I walked through the Everfree Forest until we reached Zecora's hut. I knocked on the door, and sure enough, the zebra opened the door and welcomed us. "Ah, friends, welcome to my hut. Can I assume you are in a rut?" she asked. "Actually, yes," I admitted, "Twilight Sparkle here has some... psychological issues." "Oh my, that doesn't sound good. I will find a book, sit down if you would," she offered. I found a tree stump to sit on. Twilight, on the other hand, was bouncing around the hut, examining everything Zecora owned. "Wow! Is this the legendary Ponyzilla mask?" she questioned as she poked a mask that looked much like a dragon, crossed with a pony's face. I shuddered. The hut wasn't exactly very... welcoming. Moments later, Zecora returned with a book and placed it on the table in front of me. Much to my surprise, the book didn't have a title. It was just a book with a brown leather cover and dust scattered everywhere. "This is a book I believe that should help you and your friend. Take it with you, consider it a lend," she said as she pushed the book towards me. I picked it up with my magic. A light blue aura encased the book. I smiled at Zecora, and bowed at her as a sign of gratitude. I signalled for Twilight Sparkle that it was time to leave. She frowned, but complied. She waved goodbye at Zecora, and we walked back to Ponyville. When we got back to the library, I placed the book down onto a random table, and opened it up. I skimmed the table of contents until I found the appropriate chapter. 'Disassociation', it read. I flipped to that chapter. I jumped back the moment I saw the page. "DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME CONSULTING A BOOK. SEE A PSYCHOLOGIST IMMEDIATELY." I groaned. What WAS this?! I flipped to the other pages, and sure enough, ALL of the pages in this book had the same phrase on it. Was this some kind of a joke?! I groaned, but thought about it for a moment. Maybe this was what Zecora really wanted to tell me. I should take Twilight to a professional instead of reading what was on a book. I sighed. It was pretty much inevitable. I shouldn't waste time trying to fix it by myself. I turned around and shouted. "Twilight Sparkle, get over here!" No response. I raised an eyebrow. "TWILIGHT!" Nothing. I got up and wandered around the house. Nopony. Nopony was in the house. The little dragon was in his room, taking a nap, but Twilight was nowhere to be found. A sudden pang of realization hit me. Oh no... I thought to myself. She must've ran away... But where to?