Celestia’s sun shined brightly upon the land as always, allowing everypony to seize the day in their own way. For one particular Griffon, the first step of seizing the day involved the ancient, mystical Griffon practice of sleeping in until high noon. When she did groggily emerge from the wagon, however, she was greeted by the sight of their stop for the day.
The wagon was parked just off the dirt road. Also off the road was the sight of a pond filled with very refreshing looking water. A few trees circled the body of water to provide potential swimmers decent shade. The sunlight reflected off of the pond to make the liquid glisten with light. Having gone a few days without a proper bath, Gilda felt a dip would be just the thing she needed.
Without warning, the hybrid shot straight up into the air with a powerful beat of her wings. Upon reaching a satisfactory height, she gave another mighty flap to send herself rocketing towards the water reservoir. The resulting splash would put some explosives to shame. A few seconds later, Gilda resurfaced feeling quite refreshed and a small sense of pride. She scanned the surrounding landscape to see a good portion of it completely soaked, as well as the teal Pegasus Lightning Dust whom she didn’t see until just now.
“Oh. Heh-heh. Sorry about that Dust,” the Griffon snickered.
The previously relaxing, currently agitated pony simply looked upon her dripping fur and said, “You know I’m not supposed to get these bandages wet, right?”
“Well, hey, the bandages are for burns right?” Gilda asked. “I bet the water helps.”
“So I guess this is why most Griffons aren’t doctors,” Lightning replied snidely.
“Oh shut up. Where’s Trixie?”
A sudden poof of smoke and a dramatic entrance later, Gilda received an answer to that question.
“Speak of the devil, and she shall appear!” Trixie exclaimed.
“So you’re the devil now?” Gilda mused, stepping out of the pond and shaking herself dry.
“Perhaps. That may be why I condone your violent behavior so much.”
“Whatever. So what’s the game plan today?”
“Mainly this.” Trixie pulled a bag from beneath her cloak and dumped its contents onto the ground. Such contents turned out to be a heap of horseshoes. Gilda and Lightning Dust simply looked at the pile in confusion.
“I’ve heard jokes about mares and horseshoes but this is a bit much,” the Pegasus responded.
“So we just gonna toss those around all day?” the Griffon asked.
Trixie's eyes could not possibly roll any harder at her friends. “These are enchanted horseshoes, girls. We’re here to try them out.”
“Enchanted horseshoes?” Lightning queried.
“Indeed. Each set has been magically altered to have their own special properties. These, for example…” Trixie held up two pairs of blue horseshoes. “…will allow me to walk on water.”
“Really now?” asked Gilda.
“Quite so. Allow me to demonstrate.” The Unicorn fastened the horseshoes onto her hooves and walked towards the pond. Too curious to be concerned, her winged allies simply watched as she walked into the water…or more accurately walked onto the water.
It was difficult to tell at first, but as she got closer to the center of the pond, it was clear that she was indeed walking on its surface rather than being submerged. Once she reached the center of the water, Trixie simply turned to her company with the smuggest look on her face. Gilda simply scoffed and gave the blue pony a small clap, Lightning Dust joining in soon after.
“Thank you, thank you.” Trixie exclaimed as she motioned for a bow. As she shifted her weight, however, she lost her balance and fell into the pond. The horseshoes. of course, remained above the surface regardless of the wearer.
***
Well, they did work, so that’s good, right?” Lightning Dust asked.
“Indeed,” Trixie agreed, still wet. “No need to focus on the negatives. Let’s just focus on the next set.” She gripped a pair of bronze horseshoes with her magic and quickly studied them.
“When did you find the time to enchant these things?” The Griffon asked.
“This morning. You wouldn’t know since you were dead asleep.” The Unicorn then secured the bronze shoes onto her being.
“What do those ones do?”
“If the spell was cast correctly, these horseshoes should grant me increased strength.”
“How do we test that?”
“I could try juggling you two.”
“Try it and I’ll throttle you,” the beaked one threatened.
“You can try bucking that tree over there.” Lightning Dust pointed.
In compliance, the showmare of destiny cantered towards the tree. She then proceeded to stare it down, as if it somehow called her out. She turned her back to face the tree, kept her forehooves grounded and lifted her hind legs to give it a swift kick.
The magical force released ripped the tree from its roots and hurled it into the sky. Three pairs of eyes went wide with shock as the tree flew further from sight and eventually disappeared into the clouds.
***
Just outside the city in the sky known as Cloudsdale, a certain klutzy pony was seen carrying a wagon.
‘OK, Derpy. Remain calm,’ a grey, wall-eyed Pegasus internally spoke. ‘The mayor and Rainbow Dash entrusted you to bring these weather team bonuses from Cloudsdale to Ponyville. These are bonuses that everypony have been looking forward to for a long time. You can do this. Just remain focused and ever alert and you be-‘
The mare’s inner monologue was interrupted by a loud crashing noise right from behind her. She turned around to see, of all things, a tree having all but destroyed the wagon. Hundreds of golden bits could be seen bleeding out of the chests from inside the now-destroyed wagon.
“OH NONONONO!” Derpy panicked as she swooped down to try and catch the raining bits. Doing this however, resulted in her detaching from the remnants of the wagon and caused it to free fall to the ground. Because of her sight difficulties, the grey Pegasus didn’t realize this until her decent enough hearing picked up a faint crash from below. Looking down at the ground in search of wreckage that was beyond her sight, and then looking at a foreleg holding 20 bits, Derpy was sure of only one thing.
“Ponyville’s gonna kill me.”
***
“Well, that was an undeniable success,” Trixie said, drowning in her own mystical competence. “Next test.”
Lightning Dust asked, “What else you got?”
“These horseshoes,” Trixie presented a platinum set, “should offer me increased speed.”
This gained the interested of the Unicorn's feathered compadres as speed was something of a specialty of theirs.
The blue mare fastened another set of shoes to her legs and took a moment to prepare herself before she commenced with the test.
“OK, try doing a few laps around the pond and see how long it takes you,” Gilda challenged.
“Sounds easy enough,” Trixie mused with confidence. She crouched her body down into a sprinting position. Having taken a moment to steel her senses, the mare took off. A mad streak of blue ran circles around to pond at a velocity that would put most Pegasi to shame. Gilda and Lightning Dust simply looked at each other bewildered once more by the unicorn's enchantments.
At least they would have, if not for said Unicorn screaming "I CAN'T STOP!!!" to which they simply shook their heads.
"Looks like it's up to us to make her stop," Lightning Dust said.
Gilda nodded in concurrence. "Question is, how do we do that?"
They both looked around briefly until their eyes settled upon a particularly large tree branch nearby. They then looked at each other exchanging sinister grins. Gilda gripped the branch in her talon and focused her attention on the blue blur that was Trixie. With a huff, the Griffon threw the branch into the swirling circle and surely enough, the dashing hooves of the unicorn tripped on the branch. The gathered momentum ensured the mare was launched in the air, flipping around all the while. After maintaining some impressive hang time, Trixie then crashed into the ground just short of the horizon.
Gilda and Lightning made their way to the enchantress-in-training to see her on her back and her hooves still flailing about at high speeds.
***
"Well, they did work," a certain snickering Pegasus acknowledged to a disgruntled Unicorn holding a bag of ice on her head. "You can't say that they didn't."
"Very astute of you, Lightning Dust," Trixie growled. "Perhaps you'd like to observe the sky and let us know if it remains to be blue."
"So I take it that's enough practice for today?" Gilda mused.
"Oh, aren't I just surrounded by geniuses?" another growl.
"So what now?" Lighning queried.
Trixie took a deep breath and pondered on it for moment. "I suppose we should get going. Destiny isn't going to find us here." The blue mare made her way into the cart where she pulled the lever and proceeded to lay down in the hammock. "Wake me up when it's important and not a minute before," she commanded.
The two complied and sat in the front of the wagon. While maintaining silence briefly, they succumbed to a fit of laughter.
"Blue streak speeds by," Lightning Dust sang. "The great and powerful Trixie!"
"Too fast for the naked eye!" Gilda added. "The great and powerful Trixie!"
Their little jingle was met with many objects magically thrown at them from within the wagon.