Chapter 11 Twin Trouble (Part 1)
Written by THEPENMAN
with the help of the amazing ShadowWeaver
It was a normal day for Alex Cooper. It had been two weeks since the princesses had assigned him to learn to use his draconequus abilities, and so far it had gone very well. Alex could fly almost as well as Rainbow Dash, and his magic was so good, even Twilight was impressed. Alex's combat training was as good as ever, and he had even taught Spike a few moves. On this day they were both practicing their techniques when Twilight signaled to them that they were through.
"Good work guys," she said.
“Thanks Twi,” said Alex. “By the way, Spike, your form’s really improved.”
“Well, I take my job as your sidekick very seriously,” Spike said.
Yeah right, Alex thought to himself. He then said, “So Twilight, what’s next on the agenda? Magic practice? Flight training?”
“Actually, we’re having a picnic lunch with the rest of the girls,” said Twilight. “Wanna come with?”
“Awesome!” said Alex, a grin emerging up on his face. “Let’s go!”
Alex had never been more hungry in his life. He was thankful for that picnic that the girls had invited him to, and couldn't help but dive into his food, yet his stomach still remained a little empty despite the egg salad sandwich and the fruit salad that he had practically inhaled.
“Whoa, pardner!” exclaimed Applejack, eyes bugged out at the human’s astonishing eating rate. “Otherwise, y’all are gonna – “ Alex had swallowed too suddenly, and his face started to turn a pale shade of blue. “...choke.” Applejack wrapped her hooves around his midriff and yanked up into his solar plexus, the betraying piece of kiwi from Alex’s fruit salad sailing high over the heads of the ponies and smacking into a tree.
“Ew...” Alex gulped and massaged his esophagus, sore from his throat’s feeble peristalsis.
“Alex, are you alright, dude?” queried Rainbow Dash.
“Yeah, I’m fine...” Alex scratched the back of his head, only to find a certain item missing.... “Where the hell is my hat?!” he hollered out of the blue, taking everypony by surprise. Panicking like a madman, Alex looked left and right for it, only to find his trusty azure beret in the punch bowl. “Oh, cripes!” He plucked it out, but it was too late: the punch had already set, and the hat had heavily absorbed the drink like a sponge in a pool. “Aw, you gotta be kidding me!”
“Alex, there is no reason for you to panic,” Rarity said calmly, despite the scare Alex had given her and the others. She then picked up his hat with her magic blue aura and, with a flash of light, got it back to it’s original state. “Lucky for you, I know a spell to get stains out of clothing,” she said, magically placing his hat on his head.
Alex took his hat off again, inspected it, and sighed with relief as he put it back on, seeing no trace left of the punch.
“Thanks Rarity, you have no idea how much this hat means to me,” said Alex.
“No trouble at all, darling,” Rarity replied. She was happy to help, but it left her wondering what was so special about his hat. The most she knew about it was when he had kindly refused to take it off for his meeting with the princesses, despite the fact that it slightly clashed with his tuxedo, and all he had said about it then was that his hat had ‘sentimental value’ to him. She wasn't the only one curious about his hat. Spike and the girls could all see that he couldn't part with it, and their curiosity was so strong it was killing them. However, they all believed that Alex would tell them when and if he wanted to, so they all managed to hold back on the interrogation.
Well... almost all of them.
“So Alex, what’s so special about that hat?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Pinkie!” said everyone except Alex. They were shocked at how insensitive and outward Pinkie had asked about it.
“It’s okay, guys,” Alex said, sensing the hostility directed towards the pink mare. “I don’t mind. Sort of. Really.” As everyone calmed down, they all watched Alex, waiting for him to tell his tale. Alex sighed. “This hat really means alot to me. It was a present given to me a few years ago by my twin sister.”
“Wait, twin sister?” Twilight asked, confused. Alex had mentioned having an older brother before, but he had never said anything to her or anypony else about a sister. “why didn't you ever mention her before?”
“Well you see, that’s because a few years ago, a little while after she gave me this hat actually, she sort of... disappeared.” Alex said sheepishly.
“Huh?” said Rainbow Dash, she and the others getting even more confused.
“I... suppose I should start at the beginning,” Alex said, preparing for the long story he was about to tell.
“My sister and I may be twins, but she was still a little bit different from me. Sometimes she could be bossy and boastful, but once you got to know her, she was actually a really nice person. As we grew up in the orphanage, we found out that we were natural born troublemakers. We'd always be playing pranks, stealing things, and just causing chaos in general, which is kind of ironic given my draconaquus nature.
“Ha! We almost never got caught, unless of course we were doing something really big. In those cases, while our plans were successful, we usually got caught later on and Sam would have bail us out of trouble. Another thing about my sister: she loved magic. Well, actually we all loved magic, but we each were fascinated by a different field. With me, it was all about the magical creatures. Sam was all about magical items, like talismans and potions and stuff. As for my sister, her interest was in magic spells. In fact, given the combination of her love of magic and the pranks that we pulled, I would sometimes call her Trix.
“The only problem with her love of magic, though, was that she was terrible at it. She could barely even do a simple card trick. She was always messed with for this, and she always got really angry about it. The night she had disappeared was actually right after one of her failed performances, and she had gone to take a walk outside and vent her anger, taking a spell book I had given her many years before, which was already really old, with her. She never came back. She had always dreamed of being a performing magician. so much so that she had already given herself a stage name. She liked to call herself The Great-”
BOOM!
A reverberating explosion blasted through the air, causing all the ponies’ ears to prickle and stand on end. Alex looked off in the distance, and saw a billowing stack of purple smoke swirl from the source of the blast, a little scorch mark in the grass about seventeen yards that was still smoking. “What the-!” Alex tried to get a closer look at the culprit: an azure unicorn with a mane and tail as silver as steel, her mauve cape singed in places and wizard hat askew. He and the others watched as the mare grumbled angrily and tried to redo whatever she had performed.
She seems familiar, thought Alex, still perplexed by the phenomenon of the blast as he tried to get a good glimpse of the mare. However, due to the blockade of ponies and dragon trying to get a good look at her, Alex couldn't get a good look at her, much to his irritation. The blue unicorn lets out an exasperated yell and stomps on the ground, a small squad of vials filled with different-coloured liquid bubbling as they swam around her via her periwinkle magic aura. Do I know her from somewhere?
“Greetings, Ponyville,” said the azure unicorn in a slightly familiar voice. “I've come back to grace you with my presence yet again!”
“Oh, boy, here we go again,” hissed a surly Spike under his breath. “I thought that Twilight knocked her block off like last time....”
“Actually Spike, after she was freed from the Alicorn Amulet, she apologized for how she had acted,” Twilight told him.
Okay, who the heck are they talking about? Alex thought. Just then, the familiarity of this mare suddenly came to his mind. No... it couldn't be. Could it?
Just then the blue mare shouted, “Be prepared to witness the awe inspiring, totally gorgeous, and completely incredible, Great and Powerful Trixie!”
It is, Alex thought blankly, despite the fact that he was completely astounded. Alex pushed past the other ponies, a scowl growing on his face, as he came face to face with the blue mare. When she saw Alex, her mouth opened in shock.
“Wha... it couldn't... you... here... how... huh!?” the blue mare began to babble uncontrollably.
“Hello Trixie. Long time no see,” Alex said.
At hearing her name, the blue mare’s eye’s shrank to pinpoints, then she jumped, blown off her hooves at the sight of the human. “Whoda- Whadda- I- HUH!? ALEX?!” Finally understanding that the person standing in front of her was completely real, Trixie ran back inside her trailer, locking the entire thing up. The other ponies looked at Alex with confused looks on their faces.
“Alex? You know Trixie?” asked Rainbowdash. “How?”
“While the answer is quite simple, it will most likely raise more questions,” said Alex, “so are you guys really sure you wanna know.”
“Let me think... Yeah pretty much,” said Spike. “So how do you know Trixie?”
“Simple,” said Alex. “She’s the sister I was talking about.”