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// Trixie's Tricks 
// Story: My Little Pony Rangers: Enter the Nightmare 
// by Lance Skyes 
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	Rainbow Dash walked into the computer room in Canterlot Castle to find Princess Celestia talking to another pony that Dash didn’t recognize.
“I understand your concern,” Celestia said, “but we just can’t keep you a secret much longer.”
“Um, Princess,” Rainbow Dash called. “Are you busy?”
The other pony galloped off as Celestia turned to Rainbow Dash. “Not at all, Rainbow Dash. What did you need?”
“I was just thinking, Derpy helped us quite a bit the other day with the Parasprites, even though she did double-cross us at the last minute.”
“So, what’s your point?”
“Is there any chance there could be... a sixth Ranger? For our team, I mean.”
Princess Celestia thought about this question for a moment before she answered. “There just might be, but all in good time. Anything else?”
“Not really. I just came by to ask that one question.” Rainbow Dash turned and flew off. “Who was that pony?” she asked herself, flying towards Cloudsdale.

Meanwhile, at the moonbase, Nightmare was scolding her minions for their failures. “Manticore, you underestimated the Rangers and fled before the battle even really began. Gilda, your feud with Derpy cost you both victory. Zecora, you’re monsters were completely out of control, attacking Derpy.” Derpy shot a smirk at Gilda and Zecora, but it quickly vanished when Nightmare walked over to her. “And you, my ultimate weapon, failed not once, but several times, even when you worked without the others. I would have expected better.” Nightmare then walked down the line to Trixie, who was meditating. “Finally, we come to the one clean slate on this base. I expect you to have a plan for an attack that will succeed.”
“Actually, my lord, I do have a plan,” Trixie said, getting up.
“Oh? Let me hear it.”
“All of them, even the Red Ranger, are dependent on somepony to guide them and give them their power. This one pony, in fact, is your sis- I mean, rival, Princess Celestia.”
“Good save,” Derpy whispered to Trixie.
“As well,” Trixie continued, “your primary goal was to see Celestia gone, anyway. Therefore, my plan is to sneak into Canterlot Castle and cast a spell that will cause Celestia to disappear, leaving the Rangers defenseless.”
“That is incredibly crazy,” Nightmare finally said after thinking about Trixie’s plan. “There’s no way it could possibly fail. I suggest you go down and begin immediately! Derpy, take some Putty Ponies and create a distraction in Ponyville.”
“Really?” complained Derpy. “I’m a distraction now?” Nightmare just stared at Derpy with an angry gaze. “Very well, my lord. I shall go to Ponyville immediately.”
“Good,” Nightmare said, walking to the observation deck on the base. She looked out over Equestria. “This time, Celestia, you and your precious Pony Rangers will fall.”

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash was flying casually by, watching everypony go about their regular day. “Not a bad day,” she said to herself. “Too bad there’s a storm in the forecast for this afternoon.” She then continued flying until she got to Fluttershy’s cottage, landing in front of the door and knocking. “Fluttershy, you there?”
Fluttershy opened the door slowly, looking fairly tired. “Yeah,” she replied yawning. “I’m here.”
“You all right, Fluttershy?”
“I’m fine. Just didn’t get much sleep, last night, that’s all.”
“Anyway, you ready for some cloudbusting?”
Fluttershy yawned again. “Yeah, let’s go.” The two began flying off, but Fluttershy got less altitude than usual and eventually collapsed to the ground. Rainbow Dash flew down and woke Fluttershy up again.
“Hey! What were you doing last night, anyway?”
“Scootaloo came over and just gave me an unrelenting barrage of questions about the Pony Rangers. It was weird but I couldn’t just shoo her away. By the time she found out that I had no information to give her, it was about ten.” Fluttershy yawned loudly again. “But I’m still good for cloudbusting.”
“Fluttershy, get some sleep. I can handle cloudbusting with the other pegasi.” Rainbow Dash looked back at Fluttershy, but she was already asleep. Dash rolled her eyes and carried Fluttershy inside. She then flew off, stopping when she spotted Derpy and a group of Putties. “Not now, Derpy!” Dash said to herself. She then used her element to call the other (awake) Rangers into battle and flew down to meet Derpy, herself.
“Ah,” Derpy said, noticing Rainbow Dash. “Exactly as planned.”  She then morphed and got ready to greet Rainbow Dash.
“Derpy!” Rainbow Dash shouted, landing and morphing in front of Derpy and the group of Putties. “What are you doing here?”
“What? I can’t take the Putties out for a little trot? ATTACK!” Upon Derpy’s command, the Putty Ponies charged at Rainbow Dash. However, there were only about 6 Putties and they were no match for one morphed Ranger. Dash practically knocked them all out in one kick.
“There’s something going on, Derpy,” Dash said, looking down at the fallen Putties. She then looked back up at Derpy. “What’s your game, this time?”
“Oh, Dashie,” Derpy said with a chuckle. “Do I need a ‘game’ to spend time with an old friend?” Derpy then charged at Rainbow Dash, but was knocked to the ground by a... was that seriously a cake that downed Derpy?
“You called for us?” Pinkie Pie asked as she stood several feet away with Rarity and Applejack behind her.
“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash called. “It’s good to see you.”
Pinkie and the others galloped over to where Rainbow Dash was. “Where’s Fluttershy?” Rarity asked.
“Asleep. We’ll need to do this one without her. I’m already morphed, so you know the drill, Applejack.”
“Thanks Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said. She then stepped up with Rarity and Pinkie Pie behind her. “IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!”
“HONESTY!”
“LAUGHTER!”
“GENEROSITY!”
And just like that, it was four Rangers against one. “Well this hardly seems like fair odds,” Derpy said. “How about we even things out? MORE PUTTIES!” Instantly, about 20 Putty Ponies teleported into the battle.
“You three take care of the Putty Ponies,” Rainbow Dash said to the others. “As always, Derpy’s mine.” The others nodded and charged at the Putty Ponies while Rainbow Dash charged at Derpy. Derpy didn’t just see this attack coming... she was expecting it.
“Come and get it,” Derpy said to herself. Just as Rainbow Dash was about to land a punch, Derpy flew up into the air and began flying away.
“Hey!” Dash shouted. “Come back here, you coward!” She then began chasing Derpy through the air.

Meanwhile, at Canterlot Castle, Spike was on DailyMotion, watching tomodachi wa mahou. (For those of you who are fairly out of the loop, this is the Japanese version of MLP.) “Man,” he said to himself, “why do they make me sound more like a girl than usual?”
At the same time, Trixie was busy sneaking her way into the computer room, past Spike who wasn’t paying any attention, anyway. She made her way to the time warp tube where Celestia was imprisoned. “Now,” she said to herself, “bye bye, sun.” But before she could cast her spell, a voice behind her suddenly stopped her.
“Hey!” the voice shouted. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
“Let’s see,” Trixie said sarcastically. “I’m certainly not a Pony Ranger, so what do you think I’m doing here? Delivering pizza, or trying to destroy Celestia? Your guess.”
“I won’t let you do anything to the Princess,” the voice said sternly.
“Ha! You fool. You dare to challenge the great and powerful Trixie?”
“Yes. Yes I do.” The source of the voice was about to charge at Trixie, but Trixie cast a simple beam of magic, causing the other pony to fly across the room and into the corner.
“Now, where was I?” Trixie asked, turning back to the time warp. Her horn began glowing as she cast her spell, but this caused Celestia to wake up before the spell was complete.
“Trixie!” Celestia shouted. “Spike, contact the Rangers now!”
“Too late, fair princess,” Trixie said as she fired a ball of magic towards the time warp. It hit the tube and caused Celestia to start fading away.
“Princess!” Spike shouted, calling the Rangers.
“Too late, little dragon,” Trixie said, using her magic to throw Spike across the room into the other pony and galloped out of the building, teleporting when she got outside.

Back at Fluttershy’s cottage, Rainbow Dash was still chasing Derpy around, the others were still fighting the Putty Ponies, and Fluttershy was still inside, fast asleep. That’s when they all got a distress signal from Spike in Canterlot. “Ah,” Derpy said. “I’m going to assume that Trixie’s plan worked.”
“Trixie’s plan?” Dash asked. “What are you talking about?”
Derpy stopped and let Dash catch up to her. “You mean you didn’t recognize this as a distraction? Our plan all along was for me to create a distraction here in Ponyville to keep you Rangers busy while Trixie breaks into Canterlot Castle and attacks the unprotected Celestia. And now I can see that it worked, so my work here is done.” Derpy then teleported away along with the Putty Ponies.
“What happened?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash flew down quickly to answer Applejack’s question. “This attack was a trap,” she said. “Another of Nightmare’s minions attacked Canterlot directly and did something to Princess Celestia. We need to get over there, now!”
“How are we going to get there in time?” Rarity asked. Suddenly, the four were engulfed in a white light and instantly found themselves in the computer room in Canterlot.
“Thanks, Rarity,” Pinkie said, “but I never knew you could do that.”
“That wasn’t me, Pinkie.”
“Then who was it?” asked Dash. “Spike?”
“It wasn’t Spike,” a voice said. “It was me.”
“And just who are you?” Dash asked.
Just then, there was a bright flash of light in front of the Rangers and the silhouette of a unicorn stood in the middle. The unicorn then stepped forward and stood in front of the Rangers. Her coat was a bright purple and her mane a darker purple with a hot pink and lighter purple stripe through it. “My name... is Twilight Sparkle. And I am Celestia’s secret weapon.”