Twilight approached the lone caravan wagon with a cautionary gait. She knew this was the one place her friend would run off to, she knew Trixie was clearly feeling upset to have left so abruptly, and she knew the magician need some friendly support more than ever now but had to approach it delicately or she could hurt her pride...again.
What she didn't know was that the floor would be strewn with crumbs and lots of empty packages of peanut butter crackers.
"Uh...Trixie?" Stepping over the discarded wrappers, Twilight made her way to the bedside where she found the azure mare sitting backside on the mattress munching with her sheets halfway over her head.
A gentle prod on her back prompted a yelp and a glare soon after. "You still haven't learned to knock," Trixie grumpily greeted.
"You left the door open," her bookish friend dryly countered. "Trixie, what is all this about?"
"What?" Trixie asked innocently. "I like peanut butter crackers. They're my comfort food."
"I mean why did you suddenly run off and start binging on processed legumes and baked wafers?"
Trixie stared, half lidded into Twilight's eyes, and stuffed another morsel into her frown. "Did you really have to invite her of all ponies to attend my big night?"
"Trixie, she was going to force you to leave Manehattan! We had to do something to try and convince her to give you a chance."
"But did it have to be that? Now I'm going to have to go up on that stage knowing...she's watching me."
Trixie slumped down on her side, rolling the sheets over her, and Twilight gentling pulled them back a bit so Trixie's head could turn back to her.
"Trixie? What exactly is the issue between you and Moonlight?"
"It's not such a big deal, really."
"Oh, I seriously doubt that."
"And just what makes you so sure?"
"Well for starters, you've been using I, my, and me instead of Trixie ever since she arrived."
Trixie started, and then gave Twilight a less than menacing growl. When Twilight didn't flinch, she gave a relenting sigh as her eyes took a more somber slant.
"I...could never please mother. No matter what I did, what I accomplished, it was just never good enough for her. Not once did she ever praise me with a smile, a 'well done', or even a 'you did your best, and I'm proud of you', nothing I did was 'Lulamoon' worthy. I was a failure to my great, great, grandmother's name in her eyes."
"I know this much, that's why you tried to run away-"
But Trixie shook her head at Twilight. "No, Twilight Sparkle. Me running away was just the last straw I took. My mother's disappointment goes much further back than that. Ever since I could light my horn, she drilled me with expectations. 'A Lulamoon never falters, those in the right present themselves with the utmost confidence'. Yet no matter how high I held my head, or how assured I came on, I was met with the same look of disapproval by her. 'I had mastered this spell by your age', 'You should be able to do at least this much', 'Practice this, not that', 'Do not waste my time'. She was always comparing me to herself, and whenever I tried to do any of her spells, they were never as good.
I wanted nothing more than to impress her, and if I couldn't do it with her magic, then maybe I could with some other kind. I started experimenting with other types, I actually found a lot of the things mother wasn't teaching me to be quite fun. When she found out I was playing with illusions and transformations, she admonished me, saying they were pointless and had no use for unicorns of our stature. Still, I had never been so skilled at anything else before. Maybe they weren't as standard as the spells used by archmages, but I just knew these tricks and tinkerings could be made into something grand, something that would live up to our family name. So against her wishes, I continued to play with my 'stage magic'. I was sure she would change her mind once she saw how good I was with it.
Then one day, after months into my practice, I was able to transmute my first firework. I went to show mother and...nearly burned down her bedroom after that. And then...that's when she just gave up. She didn't yell at me, she didn't send me to my room, she just walked out without a word and left me all alone with the ashen remains of my work. The lessons stopped completely, her office was always locked all of a sudden, she wouldn't even look my way at the dinner table. At first I didn't know what was going on, but as the days progressed, I slowly began to realize...my mother had dumped me, me and my magical talents. I could live in her house, I could eat her meals, but I would never be the mare she wanted."
Trixie stroked the edge of her horn as she took a breath to continue. "Do you know why I tried to run away after failing the entrance exam? It wasn't ambition or defiance, it was denial. My mother graduated from Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, valedictorian to boot. It was the most prestigious and difficult of magic schools to get into, every unicorn who was somepony in Canterlot had come from there. If I could have been approved, if I could get in with my talents, it would have no doubt proved to everyone in Canterlot that my magic was not a waste of time, and I would finally be worthy to mother.
...But I didn't. All I proved that day...was that my mother was right. Her mind and skill set got her in, while mine didn't. My talent didn't belong in her world, I didn't belong. That's why I wanted to leave, I wanted to forget it all. The stables, the mages who were deemed better than me..." her tone soured a bit at the next part, "...trying to make my mom happy."
She then sat upright, pounding her mattress occasionally as she started to vent. "And it worked, by Faust, it worked! Out here I became the mare that pleased all with my skills, I became the Great and Powerful Trixie! I was finally happy to be myself! So why?! Why does she have to come and ruin things now? It took me years to put all those unpleasant memories behind me, and never once did she give a chipped hoof to what I did from then on! She wanted me out of her life just as much as I wanted to be out of hers, so why drag me back into it now? WHY?!"
"Because you're an Element of Harmony now."
Twilight and Trixie turned their heads to see the rest of their friends gathered inside the entrance. It actually made Trixie's wagon seem a little crowded and small with this many inside. Honey, the pony in front, stepped forward.
"You're a pony that saved the world, and can solely wield one of the most powerful artifacts in all of Equestria. Moonlight can't afford not to pay attention to you anymore. In the eyes of many ponies higher up, any of us being on their side would be a huge boon to them."
"It is ironic in a cosmic sense," Octavia mused. "Power attracts power."
"Quite," Sherbet agreed. "It's affected all of us to some degree. Did you know that my company's value has tripled ever since the Summer sun celebration? Mosely and I have ten times as many clients and investors than before, it's why he's taking trips every other week overseas. Everyone wants to do business with the Element of Generosity."
Honey gave a pretend wipe of her brow. "Believe me, I am so lucky the world saw Daring Do become the Element of Honesty instead of Honey Do or my museum would be mobbed day in and out. I've heard the whispers almost at least once every day in my halls. 'Daring Do, where is she now? And what world saving discovery is she going to find next?'. Not to mention all the richies wanting to buy any of my exhibits having been labeled 'Discovered by Daring Do', lowest offer I've heard went for ten million bits alone. And I'm doubly lucky Sandy is the type of mare who would never sell the rights to my character to any writer."
"I've had concert listing offers backlogged to as far as five years ahead," Octavia added. "Of course, I do recommend others to those I don't choose."
"Are you sure this isn't just a series of coincidences? I mean, growing up in the palace, I've seen my share of adulation and cajolery, but I think the whole of ponykind better than to treat us like chess pieces in games of power, wealth, and fame. After all, no one's tried to curry favor with me, a simple librarian."
Her friends stared incredulously at her.
"Which was given to you by Princess Celestia-"
"-as per royal decree to her personal student-"
"-with monthly stipend and everything-"
"-so I'm pretty sure everypony knows-"
"-Princess Celestia already called dibs on you!" Spike finished.
Twilight's face scrunched in a scowl of indignant annoyance at the ribbed gang-up on her.
"Hey, what about me?" asked Blossomforth all of a sudden. "I don't think I've gotten any special treatment since I became an Element."
"You sure about that?" Spike asked, knowing all too well Blossomforth's track record.
"Hmmmmm..."
"Thanks for the extra sunflower seeds, Mr. Sprout!"
"Oh, no problem at all for my most loyal of customers. On the house of course!"
"Really? Nice! I'll be sure to tell everyone what great service your seed shop has!"
"Ohhh yes. That would be lovely, and do mention my hours are 6 am to 8 pm Mondays through Fridays...*ca-ching*"
"Hey Blossomforth."
"Oh, hey Stormwatcher. What's up?"
"Well I...thought you might like these..."
"Oh wow! Chrysanthemums! Thank you! I love these!"
"Yeah, uh. I got them from the shop at the Hooflyn Gardens. They're opening a new cherry blossom addition this Saturday. I'm thinking of checking it out, wanna come?"
"You know, you're the tenth stallion today that's asked me about going to that exhibit. I had no idea there were so many guys on this campus that were as interested in botany as I am!"
"Yeah...botany...right..."
"Wow free tickets to the upcoming premiere I've been dying to see and complimentary popcorn?"
"Indeed, congratulations on being our one millionth movie patron!"
"Uh, manager, sir? Our theater doesn't have a millionth customer giveaw-"
*smack*
"Ow! My neck!"
"Oh, and would you like to sign up for our lifetime slushie sweepstakes? Just fill out this sheet, rating what you liked about today's movie experience, and we'll let you know in six weeks if you've won."
"Cool! I'm definitely going to give you five stars at this rate!"
"Sir? That form there is for reputable movie critics only, and we also don't have a sweep-"
*smack*
"OW! My jaw and neck!"
"Mmmm...nope! Mind's drawing a blank!" the flower loving pegasus shrugged.
"The point is Trixie," Honey reiterated, "your name now carries a lot of weight and attention as an element bearer, even more so to those with authority in Equestria. Anything you do is going to inadvertently affect those related to you. It's been long enough for news to spread worldwide by now, and our names are being whispered in every place, especially Canterlot I'll bet. That's probably why your mother wants you back home. Many of her peers are most likely expecting her to come back with you."
Trixie sulked, badly. "So that's it? The only reason she wants me back is because everypony she knows sees me as an asset to her? I don't want this kind of attention, I don't want to go back to Canterlot, I don't want to be a noble, and I certainly don't want to be under my mother's hoof again! She doesn't want Trixie, she wants the Element of Laughter! ...All the more reason I don't want to go back."
"Then don't go back! Is this ancient family rule really so absolute that you have to follow your mother's every word?" Twilight waved her hoof in conjecture. "I mean, what's the worse that could happen if you say no? She can't really make the police or royal guards come here and force you to do as she says, can she?"
"It's not so much as making the authorities enforce that law, but rather what that law's existence makes them can't enforce," Honey stated.
"What the law's what now?" Spike scratched his noggin, not even sure if what the archeologist said was a coherent sentence.
"It's true Twilight, that most guards and cops won't so much as lift a hoof to help Moonlight coerce Trixie, but the old matriarchy rules also stop them from preventing Moonlight to enforce them on her own. She could tie Trixie in shackles, inflict corporeal punishment, even place her under house arrest, and she'd still be within legal rights because one, she's a noble, and two, she's her mother."
Twilight felt sick to her stomach. "That's despicable! How could anypony allow a law like that to even exist?!"
"Like I said, everypony pretty much forgot about it!" Honey hastily tried to calm the upset scholar. "Times were different back then, order was more difficult to keep. I'm not saying any noble actually did go so far as to beat their children within an inch of their life, nopony EVER did anything extreme like that in the entire history of Equestria, I doubt Moonlight would try anything like that. But that's the kind of authority matriarchal rule implies. Yes, it's flawed and is way too open ended, but that's how isolated and disorganized governing systems were back then. Ponies didn't know enough lawmaking to realize the full potential of each rule, and today too few know about what lawmaking did go down to do something about it."
Blossomforth flicked her wings in confusion. "This is getting complicated."
"That's politics for you," Octavia said. "'Tis the art of doing nothing to do everything, and doing everything to do nothing."
"It more than just some silly family law," Trixie said at last, lying flat against her sheets. "The traditions are actually only a pretense she's using as a front. I know the real message she's trying to portray for me."
"And what message would that be?" Twilight asked.
"That she's right again, and knows what's best for me. She knew it was best for me to practice magic her way in order to fit in at Canterlot, she knew I wouldn't be accepted at her school with my razzle-dazzle routine......and now she thinks going back to Canterlot is the right thing for me to do."
"Then prove her wrong!"
Trixie's head turned with mild surprise to the little dragon with a claw on his hip and a finger pointed straight at her muzzle. "That's all you have to do! Prove for the first time in life, that she is wrong, and you are right!"
At first the showmare was at loss for words. "Do...do you even know what you're saying right now-"
"Do YOU know how strange you sound right now?" Spike pulled Trixie down by the cheeks to meet him at eye level. "Tell me, who are you?"
"I-I'm Trixie..."
"You are the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie! You're proud, you're fantastic, and you are not that same filly from fifteen years ago she could boss around!"
"Spike!" Twilight whispered under her breath, "What are you doing?"
"Back me up Twilight," her number one assistant whispered back, "I'm on a roll here."
He clambered up on her back and then leapt onto the drawer chest. "You've battled flying foxes, conquered ancient traps in the Soluna ruins, stopped an astral beast's warpath with nothing but some warm milk and a mobile! You think of new spell variations every other week, leave not a single face you meet without a smile at the end of every day, you even got your own fanclub that's comprised of almost every foal in the city. And this all happened because you came to Manehattan!"
With a flick of his wrist he reached inside and donned a top hat, cape, and handlebar mustache. Pointing a white-tipped wand at her, he raised his other claw high above his head in proclamation. "You ARE the greatest magician on the face of Equestria! And you became that all on your own! Your mother says you're better off in Canterlot? We say you're better off here! We don't need Beatrix Lulamoon, we need the Great and Powerful Trixie! Manehattan needs the Great and Powerful Trixie! The WORLD needs the Great and Powerful Trixie! And tonight, you're going to prove to your mother that SHE needs the Great and Powerful Trixie! Because there isn't a pony in the universe that can't be awestruck by the magical, stupendous feats of wonder by the Great and Powerful Trixie!!"
Taking a wave of Spike's claw as a cue, the magician's friends began to stomp in applause. And above the small din, the baby dragon's voice called out, "So let me ask you again, who are you?"
"I-I'm...the great and powerful Trixie."
"Who are you?" her audience chorused.
She sat up straight, covers off her head. "The Great and Powerful Trixie."
"Who are you?!" they practically shouted.
With a whip of her cape and tip of her hat, the showmare reared up proclaimed with a grin. "THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRRRRRRIXIE!!!"
The room exploded in a multi-flash of neon colors as she leapt from her bed. "And tonight, she will show Moonlight Lulamoon she is a unicorn of the highest caliber in her most stunning and magnificent performance yet! She will dazzle and amaze with so many magics unheard of, and make her admit how wrong she was to underestimate her daughter's spellcraft. And above all, she will stay in Manehattan!!"
With that, she paraded out, her cheering squad right behind, minus Twilight who lingered to wait for Spike to take off his inspirational getup.
"You certainly know how to ham a girl up," Twilight thanked with a smirk as he hopped on her back. "Did you practice that all night or what?"
"Eh, just took most of it from your annual final exams panic attacks back at the palace."
And just like that, her smirk was gone. "Gee, nice to know I played such a pivotal role in your skill as a motivational speaker."
"And I say, that's no pitbull, that's my wife!"
The theater seats of the Latigo burst with laughter at the maize earth pony stallion with the conic hat and polka dot bowtie. Among those in the front row were five of the most renowned mares in the city, plus their dragon.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Blossomforth laughed the loudest, then turned to Orange Sherbet. "I don't get it."
"The punchline is that he's implying his spouse barks a lot," her older friend explained.
"Oh, I see." Blossomforth rubbed her chin for a moment. "She should probably check herself into a hospital then, ponies aren't normally supposed to bark."
The Orange matron stifled a titter with her hoof as the comedian took a bow.
"Fillies and gentlecolts, Mr. Comedy Gold!" the voice over the emcee speakers bellowed. The ponies took a moment to clap as the entertainer exited stage right.
Twilight looked at the program for the evening's lineup. "It looks like Trixie's on next," she observed.
Honey took a moment to scan the seats behind her. "Funny, I don't see that Moonlight mare anywhere in the audience."
"Maybe she gave up?" Blossomforth suggested hopefully.
"Shucks," Spike said. "If she did, then I'm really bummed out. This was one Trixie act I was actually looking forward to being cocky and conceited. Won't be the same to not see that stick-in-the-mud's jaw drop to the floor."
"I'm sure she's here somewhere," Twilight reasoned. "Either way, we've got to do our best to cheer Trixie on tonight."
"Fillies and gentlecolts, ponies of all ages, prepare to be dazzled by the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" The backstage curtain drew back, letting the echoing voice resonance even louder as the azure magician appeared out of the blue mist that enveloped the stage. "For you are about to be privy to the prowess of the greatest magician in Equestria, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!"
She raised her hooves to spell her name in a burst of fireworks. The audience clapped and oooh'd at her presence. Trixie gave an over the top bow and furl of her cape as she grinned at her spectators. "Now for my first act, can I get a volunteer from the crowd?"
"I shall oblige that request."
The audience fell silent with the exception of the five mares and a dragon gasping and Trixie's jaw went slack as a deep, dark oxford blue unicorn shimmered into visible appearance at the base of the stage.
"S-she was right in front of us the whole time?" Twilight exclaimed. "But I couldn't even sense an invisibility spell!"
Ignoring her, Moonlight's horn blinked to warp the stage's edge into a ramp for her to walk up and meet Trixie eye to eye. "Well, Great and Powerful Trixie? You have your volunteer, shall we begin already?"
Trixie stammered, but only for a second. "Ah...ah, of course. Yes! The Great and Powerful Trixie thanks you for your assistance!" Wiping all dumbfoundedness from her face, she turned to her audience and waved a demonstrating hoof over to her stage guest. "Watch closely everypony, for this mare will soon be completely disassembled and rearranged!"
With a glow of her horn, her magic enveloped Moonlight. The crowd gasped in amazement as they saw the volunteer's limb's split off as if they were parts of a doll, leaving her body hanging in mid-air. The tail, horn and head then also came off, and all of them started to loop around Trixie as if she was juggling them. With a few waggles of her hooves, the unicorn was stacked like a tower of building blocks. "Voila!" she proclaimed.
The audience started to applaud, but then Moonlight gave a condescending sigh. "Abysmal..."
With a zapping flash, she was suddenly back to normal. The ponies watching were befuddled, and apparently so was the Great and Powerful Trixie.
"W-what? How-"
"An image distortion field with added sensory deprivation for the target's perspective. You never pulled me to pieces, you only made it seem that way. A simple injection of spatial rendering would easily dispel it."
Moonlight's horn then glowed in counter to Trixie's. "If you really wanted to physically detach my leg, you would bend the space around it, not the light, as so..."
Trixie's front legs began to quiver as the joints around them disappeared. Unbalanced, she fell to the ground as her legs circled around Moonlight in an orbit.
"As you can see, the air around your limb has been folded to create a pocket dimension for it, isolating it from your body. Once the magic holding the fold closed ends of course, the affected airspace will return to normal. But for now, your legs are, in all aspects, apart from the rest of you."
Trixie's two back legs then came off now and floated over. "In addition," Moonlight continued, "The altered space also gives me the ability to reshape the objects within as well as reposition." To demonstrate, the legs before her began to twist and loop like they were being made into balloon animals. With a flash of the horn, Trixie found herself with all four legs again, but they were knotted together like a pretzel, making her look like she was in some funny looking yoga pose.
A few fits of giggles could not be held back as the showmare painfully untangled herself. Moonlight's face, however, remained impassive. "A parlor trick at best, now why don't you show us something real?"
Trixie collected herself with a shake of the head. "Alright neighsayer, you dare challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? You want something real?" She reared up her legs before bringing them down on the hardwood floor. "Here's real!"
With a groan of wood, and a surge of magic, a huge wooden statue of Trixie's figure rose up out of the floor, towering well over five pony heights in a dramatic pose and flashy smile.
The ponies oooh'd and ahhh'd as Trixie knocked on the base of the imposing figure. "How's that? No slight of hoof here! Solid enough proof of the Great and Powerful Trixie's abilities?"
"C-."
"What?" Trixie took a step back as her mother circled around the wooden model, eyeing every detail.
"A class epsilon metamorphose spell, used on the wood of the stage for a base. Designed for similar, homogenous substances primarily. It reshapes the material, but provides no enhancement or change to the material. It is the third lowest transformation spell by standards and I mastered this level by age eight."
An even larger wooden statue of Moonlight rose up against Trixie's, but the older mare didn't stop there.
"By age nine, I was able to alter the elemental properties of the regents." The light brown wood of the statue suddenly changed to a sleek grey sheen of iron.
"By my tenth birthday, I could inspire dynamic movement by imbuing ambient energy into the product." Creaking and groaning, the iron figure shifted its legs as if it were alive, dismounted its pedestal, raised a solidarity hoof, and smashed the smaller and weaker wooden mare.
Trixie ducked to avoid her hat getting covered in splinters. "Oh...oh yeah? Well here's something the Great and Powerful Trixie invented when she reached eleven!"
Her horn glowed brightly, and the entire pine floor began flourish in green. In a matter of seconds the entire stage had turned into a field of grass and flowers.
"Revitalization spell. You've tapped the latent life force of the organic matter to galvanize a temporary growth. However, the size and quality of the life shown here tells me the spell's strength only reaches the second tier level." Her horn counter-glowed yet again. "Mine can go up to five."
The floor beneath Trixie shook, and without any more warning a trio of tall pine trees sprouted out from right underneath her. Before she realized it, the showmare was suddenly clinging for her life thirty hooves high from the top of a full grown coniferous.
The ponies watching clamored in awe and clapped at the sight.
"They're cheering for Moonlight?" Twilight wondered in disbelief.
"They think it's part of the act," Octavia realized.
"Well at least it beats the alternative," Honey surmised. "Though I can't say this not doing much for Trixie's confidence."
Falling against the many branches, Trixie landed at the base of the trunk with a thud. Getting up, she spat out the pine cone in her mouth, her aggressive face holding a twinge more nervousness in the backs of her eyes.
"Well, how about this then?!" A rainbow fiery serpentine dragon erupted from her horn.
"Unimpressive." It shrank into a tiny implosive dot and with a bang decorated the air as a larger golden hydra that breathed a silver flame.
"Oooo...shocking!!" A thundercloud condensed and shot out wand shaped lightning bolts.
"Mediocre." The cloud darkened, tripled in size, and sent an entire payload of snow on top of Trixie.
"What's this?!" Trixie stuck an egg into her hat and out came a flock of doves.
"Childish." The doves morphed into a quartet of majestic eagles.
"Behold and be amazed!!" A pair of trumpets, an accordion, bass drum, and trombone appeared and began to play a jovial tune all on their own.
"Feeble." An entire autonomous symphony string orchestra drowned them out.
The entire Latigo was in a delighted uproar at the spectacle, but the five mares and baby dragon in the front seats could only grimace as they watched their friend's desperation grow with each passing magical salvo.
"She's throwing everything she's got at her, but she just keeps dishing it back even harder!" Twilight panicked.
After several more rounds, Moonlight raised a stopping hoof. "I've shown a better spell for each one of your tricks thus far. This time, let's see you best one of mine."
"Wha-? Hey! Woah!" Trixie's white and tan pegasi friends were hoisted from their seats and levitated in front of them both. With a beam from the Lulamoon matriarch's horn, a wizened, elderly archeologist and bawling white foal sat where they once were.
Twilight stared, mouth agape. "An age spell? But...how could you do an age spell? That's only for the highest level unicorns!"
"A level I achieved..." Moonlight declared, "through thirty long years of discipline, exercise, and dedication to the teachings and methods of the Lulamoon stable that have been passed down by generations since it first stood." She then stared deep into Trixie's soul, or at least it felt like that on the receiving end. "And what of you? Can this Great and Powerful Trixie say the same?"
"Ah...uh..." Visible beads of sweat could clearly be seen trickling down her cheeks and muzzle.
"Come on Trixie..." Spike breathed as he shook his fists in a chanting motion. "Come on..."
Trixie gulped, gritted her teeth, and blasted her horn at the age changed duo. Her aura enveloped them brightly, but it wasn't long before her magic began to sputter. With a final grunt, she collapsed on all fours, her spell fading and leaving the couple unchanged.
"Hmph." Moonlight pointed her horn again, and within moments Honey Do was unhunching her no longer gray haired back and Blossomforth was wiping away the spittle from the hoof she had been suckling on.
The audience all stood up and gave a walloping round of applause the curtain closed on the stage and the emcee's voice rang out.
"Fillies and gentlecolts, the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
"Trixie!" Twilight had been the first to leave her seat and gallop around backstage as soon as curtain dropped, but the others had soon followed. They all found the unicorn in question sitting near a corner among some unused backdrops, leaning against the side of a sandbag in stunned silence.
"Trixie, are you okay?" Twilight gently asked.
"I...couldn't beat her...again," Trixie emptily murmured. "And even at my own specialty..."
Her friends looked at each other for a minute, then Honey rubbed a consoling hoof over her back.
"Well we think this was your most spectacular performance yet. You did everything right by our book."
"Yes," Twilight affirmed. "What Moonlight did back there wasn't even fair, turning your act into some kind of...magic duel, and then even going so far as to use something as powerful as an age spell. I can't even do an age spell yet. You shouldn't have to be ashamed of anything that stacked against you."
Octavia nodded. "Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory."
"All too true," Sherbet agreed. "Don't fret dearie, we'll work this out together. It's alright."
"It is most certainly not alright."
Everypony turned to witness the approach of the dark blue Lulamoon leader, making a beeline for her daughter. Instinctively, they all scampered in front, forming a wall between the two. But a simple glow of her horn parted the sea of mares and held them back as she continued to walk closer.
"There is no word or action that can fully express how disappointed I am to see that you have not progressed in your abilities even the slightest since you were a filly. If you had stayed under my house, and under my guidelines, even with your ineptitude you would have been able to do at least half of what I demonstrated by now."
"No!" Twilight frantically protested. "Just because your way works for you, it doesn't mean it'll work for Trixie! Every unicorn has their own way of acquiring magic, it's what makes their spells unique!"
Moonlight's icy glare was all it took stop Twilight dead cold. "I have already taken more than enough recommendation from your circle. Your opinion, while noted, is no longer a deterministic variable in my judgement as of right now."
Spike pointed an accusatory claw at her. "Now you see here, Gloomlight-"
His lips were instantly and literally zipped shut with a blink of her magic. "I've seen all that I have needed to see," the elder unicorn mare proclaimed as she loomed over her daughter, looking down upon her shadowed face. "Beatrix Midsummer Lulamoon the Second, gather your belongings. You are leaving Manehattan immediately...
...and you are not coming back."