Trixie Goes Purple
Painting the Town Red
“Trixie will have the flower salad, please.”
Just up the street, not a few steps away from Twilight’s house, Trixie sat at a counter ordering something to eat.
“All alone, are we?” asked the french accented stallion.
“Well, my date couldn’t make it.”
“Ah,” sighed the waiter. “It’s a sad thing, all these young colts running around with young mares like you, but not necessarily a charming mare such as yourself.”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “She’s a girl, and she’s caught up in her studies with Rarity, another good friend of Trixie’s.”
“Oh,” said the waiter, his eyebrows raised slightly. “Then you’re…”
“Her good friend, yes.”
He stared at her, his muzzle scrunched up respectfully, and said, “But, not a moment ago, you called her your date. Yes?”
“Friend, date, what’s the difference?” Trixie asked, her mane taking a swipe at the tip of his nose as she turned.
“The difference is a date is… ” The waiter went on to compare the different aspects of a ‘friend’ and a ‘date’, but Trixie didn’t give him the benefit of her full attention.
Trixie simply offered a rather bored look, and though he didn’t know it, his mane color suddenly switched from jet black to a sleek and almost shining white hue. She stared for a moment before suddenly gasping, “Err, my food! Where’s my food?”
Then, he gasped as well, and was off. Trixie slouched a little in her seat and noticed her horn was dimly glowing. It wasn’t bright enough for the waiter to notice, but that didn’t excuse her to be so lax. Imagine that, Trixie being careful. Such an absurd thought. Needless to say, it would only be a few minutes before her salad showed up.
Smiling brightly, Trixie started to feast upon her salad, taking a minor note that the waiter’s hair had changed from white to a near-neon green. Slowing her chewing ever so slightly, the waiter noticed the blank stare on her face.
“Ma’am? Is everything in order for you…?” Getting no response, he waved a hoof before her face in a vain attempt to catch her attention. “Ma’am?”
Trixie snapped out of her stupor and smiled sheepishly. She figured that if he had yet to notice what had happened, then there was no need to inform him. “Oh! Uh, Trix– I am enjoying this! Deliver my compliments to the chef.” A satisfied look crossed the waiters face, and he departed from the table shortly after.
Glancing about, Trixie took note of almost everyone in the restaurant. Somehow, that small, trance-like snicker was powerful enough to change the whole scenery around her. Ponies with hearts for cutie marks had those swapped with their dates. It wasn’t just her waiter that had awkward hair now, but every employee there that night had a full head of either glistening yellow, green, red or blue neon hair, even if they were bald.
She panicked and tried to stand up, but was immediately shot back to the wall opposite of where she faced by her horn. In the blink of an eye, the whole establishment was dry painted a pretty, red color along with everypony there. A wide radius of thirty feet around her was suddenly blotched out in the finest taste of red. Not even the corners were spared.
By now, Twilight could barely hear the screaming from within her deep studies, and all that yelling going on wasn’t helping Trixie settle down at all.
With her left ear poking up and pointing towards the door, Twilight stopped reading while Rarity kept researching. At least, that’s what Twilight thought she was doing. “Trixie?” Twilight asked. “Must’ve came from upstairs…”
Rarity woke back up, picking her head up from her book lazily. ”And, uh, that’s how crystal theory developed rock candy!”
Twilight gave her a look. “Dreaming about sugar history again?”
“Again?” Rarity asked. “When di– Oh, wait, the sleepover with Applejack. I remember now. Hmm, no wonder she’s always calling me a marshmallow.”
Twilight stood up suddenly, alert of the room around her. She and Rarity were accounted for, but... “Where’s Trixie?” Twilight demanded, looking at the door.
Rarity stretched out her hooves, and yawned before saying, “I don’t know Twilight, but it’s getting awfully late. I need to get my beauty sleep, dearie.”
Twilight turned back to her with a slight frown. “Keep reading while I go retrieve my little copy.”
Rarity winced. “Oh, b-but Twilight! I hate reading!”
Twilight left without another word. There was nothing else she needed to say, really. Rarity knew the importance of this mission she was assigned to. Failure could result in countless numbers of arising problems. She’d seen the lighter side of Trixie’s powers. There yet remained a darker side.
Twilight made her way around the library, poking her head inside each room during her search for Trixie. She found herself in the guest bedroom, and began to entertain the rather frightening thought of Trixie not actually being in the house. After two more sweeps top to bottom, Twilight finally decided to acknowledge the fact that Trixie was, indeed, missing from the library. Dread crept into her system.
Twilight frantically ran into the room where she and Rarity were using to research for a cure. The sudden bang of the door startled Rarity awake, her head jerking up while a book stuck to her face. “I AM NOT A MARSHMALLOW!”
“Rarity, she’s– Marshmallow…?” Twilight shook her head, trying hard not to concentrate on the odd exclamation, and instead, she plowed forth with the issue currently keeping Rarity from gaining any actual sleep. “She’s gone! Trixie is gone!”
Rarity blinked a few times, mostly to get the newly formed crumbs from out of her eyes. “Whu…?”
“I looked everywhere for her! She’s not in the house at all!”
“Bu– ?”
“So, I’m going out to find her! We cannot let her get startled!”
“Well that’s– ”
“I need you to stay here and keep looking for that cure!”
“Wait, what?” Rarity stood, her eyes swelling with tears. She was never going to get any sleep at this rate. It was time to pull out the puppy eyes. “But, Twiiiii– ”
*Poof!*
“Enough!” Twilight yelled, her gaze staring sharply at the now secretary-outfitted Rarity. “Find the cure. That’s all you’ve gotta do. A focusing spell and some pay attention enchantments aren’t gonna hurt you… Actually, it might just make you a bit better off in life if I leave them going.”
She turned towards the door, but was stopped right at the doorknob. “Twilight? Would you like the cure in paper written format or announced?”
Twilight nodded, and said, “Announced is fine… and, I think I overdid it, but at this point, whatever.”
Rarity looked at her, clearly unamused. “You can say that again, dearie. A simple ascot would have been more than enough.”
“Oh, come now, Rarity,” Twilight laughed. “Surely you just love your new mane, and the dress makes you look absolutely professional.”
“It’s horribly itchy!”
“Of course,” Twilight simply giggled, and walked out.
As she did, she almost immediately caught onto the blazing trail of chaotic mishaps consisting of mystical magic beyond even unicorn comprehension. It started with the red sector. That’s what Twilight dubbed it to be, because almost half of the nighttime town was painted red by Trixie. And of course, leave it all up to Twilight to clean up the mess. Just perfect.
She quickly jolted to the waiter who turned around, and gave her a scare. The neon hair wasn’t the only thing left behind. His face seemed plastic, almost distorted. He didn’t say anything for a minute, seemingly smiling at Twilight. Yet somehow, he looked familiar.
“Twilight?!” Pinkie asked, scaring Twilight right into hovering over the ground.
“Pinkie, what’s going on? Why do all these ponies have weird faces?” Twilight kept looking around while Pinkie shuffled her hooves.
“Twilight! They’ve stole my secret ability to morph my face into Old Kingdom looks, AND enhanced it with funny hair!”
Twilight watched as Pinkie swirled her hooves around in quick circles in front of her face, lowered them and showed Twilight she wasn’t joking. She now looked just as quirky as the others, but without a funny, glowing mane. Bounding back in fright, Twilight asked, “Who did this?”
“Gosh, Twilight! Trixie’s been here the whole day and you haven’t seen her? Are you sure your eyes are working correctly?”
Twilight growled, “Where did she go?”
With the threat of Twilight’s alicorn wrath presented, Pinkie stopped playing games if only so briefly, and pointed towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
With a hop, skip, and quick teleport, Twilight dashed off toward the cottage just as Trixie herself arrived. Shaking off the red mist that clung to her, she glanced about to try and figure out where she was. Noticing Fluttershy, she set off toward her. “Excuse me!” She called, “Can you help Trixie out?”
Of course, with Fluttershy being otherwise occupied with a squirrel, Trixie’s call did what was expected: she got scared and dove headlong into the squirrel's nest. Trixie could only look upon the scene with a mix of astonishment and questioning. After all, a tree with a pink tail wasn’t an everyday sight.
“Oh dear, and she was doing so much better at that, too…” A silky voice spoke right next to Trixie’s ear. Snapping her head to the side, Trixie beheld the serpentine figure with shock, and launched herself into the very same tree Fluttershy now occupied.
A hearty laugh boomed from Discord. “Oh, heavens! You ponies are just too easy!”
Trixie’s head poked through. She observed the terror of a being. “What… are you?”
Discord yanked Fluttershy by her tail, gave another quick tug, and set her loose. She settled to the ground while gasping for air, and said upon landing, “Oh, Trixie… H-heard of you.”
Trixie nodded. “Yes, we’ve met before… Buttersky, right?”
“Flutt… shy…”
Trixie leaned in. “I’m sorry, what was that?
“I’m… Fluh… Mmh…”
Trixie simply lowered her head in aggravation. Then, Discord choked up, “Oh, she’s Fluttershy! Honestly, don’t you have someplace other than here to occupy? I mean, look at me! I’m standing!” Discord make a leap, but fell right to the hard ground face first.
“But, you have wings, don’t you?” Trixie asked.
Discord scraped his face off of the pavement, looked at her while elevating his chin with a paw, and said, “You’ve got some pretty unstable, and untamed magic building up inside of you. It’s almost cute, how you painted that portion of town red. Literally. Brings back memories, though my first painting of everything in sight consisted of pink and purple with a splash of blue.”
Trixie shook her head vigorously. “What do you mean untamed? I can– ”
The wind bristled her shoulder, and Discord asked, “Start up a tornado?”
Trixie looked up at him. “How’d you know?”
He chuckled, “Haha, my dear, sweet filly. I’ve got magic that would amaze you. Power that can’t possibly be controlled, but fortunately for all of you, is... I am Discord, the spirit of chaos, and you’ve got half of my power stuck within you. Duplicated magic, too. Twice as potent, believe it or not.”
Fluttershy looked up at the fiend to ask timidly, “What are you talking about, Discord?”
He smiled with his single fang showing, and patted Fluttershy on the back. “Mind if Trixie and I have a… small, private talk?” She didn’t have much choice as he already had begun sliding her along, into the house. With the door closing and Discord stepping down, and over the small stream, Trixie followed behind with hesitence.
“Well? What’s this talk you’re going on about? Trixie hasn’t got all day!”
He silenced her with a claw touching her lips, and said, “Shh… Notice that? Balance. The two shades are united once again. With their momentary reunion comes momentary respite. I can’t use magic, and your magic can’t escape your horn. Unfortunately, this is only temporary.”
“Unless…?” Trixie walked in front of him, and sat, a serious look on her purple face.
“Unless, I use a spell that’ll nullify your magic for about an hour and a half. All you have to do is promise you’ll never tell Twilight mine and Princess Celestia’s secret, and you’ll have some much needed peace for a bit.”
Trixie shook her head in bafflement. “Why can’t I tell Twilight?”
With a sinister grin, he said, “Because later on in life – your life, Trixie – you’ll find out about Twilight’s feelings.”
He’d said it so quietly, Trixie could hardly hear him, but did. “Her feeling? For who? Me?”
“Bah, I’ve spoiled enough! Do you want in on the totally awesome, super cool, can’t-live-without-it secret or don’t you?”
It didn’t take Trixie that long to nod solemnly. “What has Trixie got to lose?”
He snickered, pausing before beginning to speak. “Princess Celestia knew Twilight was beyond ready to lead Equestria as another fellow alicorn, but the only way to grant Twilight her princesshood was to allow me my powers back. You see, alicorn magic is a much more utilized thing, something only somepony such as Twilight Sparkle could handle.”
Trixie looked out at the fireflies floating right over the stream. “So, you gave her some of your own magic.”
He corrected her, “I gave her settled magic. Giving Twilight my ungodly gifts would be like letting a filly drive a waggon through and ice cream store! That’s the deal with Fluttershy back there, and why we’re buddy-buddy.”
Trixie nodded in understanding. “You calmed the chaos, and re… Err – re – something…”
Discord crossed his arms, allowing her a moment to try and guess the word. The longer she stayed near him, the less destruction came to the town, after all. She gave up with a heavy huff, and he answered, “Reformed it. I was reformed so that Twilight could harness my powers and become an alicorn. Though, by the sounds of things, she has done an excellent job so far. She might’ve even been able to harness it without my powers being touched at all!”
“Trixie can probably use this to her advantage,” she said with a toothy grin.
Discord jumped up quickly, saying, “Well, not only that, but you’ve got another hour before this spell wears off. I’d use that time wisely if I were you.”
Trixie stood and looked at him, a bit surprised. “Wait, I thought you said another thirty minutes with that hour.”
He simply shrugged. “I lied about how you being near me stops your magic, actually. I placed this spell on you the moment you arrived.”
“What?!” Trixie stared at him, completely caught off guard by his methods. He then snapped his fingers, and just like that, he was gone with the breeze. Trixie stood all alone, her purple mane being blown by the wind. “Trickster!” she yelled. Soon taking off, galloping towards where she thought was town, she wondered how Twilight was doing, and hoped she’d run into her Highness within the hour granted to her. Unfortunately, Trixie was just as bad with navigation as she was with magic. Instead, her path was leading her to Sweet Apple Acres.