//------------------------------// // Twixie // Story: The 63 files // by punisher143 //------------------------------// Not all stories are the same, and the same can be said of love stories. When you think of love stories, most ponies think simple colt meets mare tales where they fall in love and end up married in a few months. It’s not that simple here. She couldn’t say her life had been ‘normal’. A showmare’s life is never normal, but for her it went double that. She looked down at a simple town, where both her troubles had started and hopefully where she will find her peace. One year earlier, she was looking down at the same town. It was simple, just go down there and woo the crowd with some tricks. The bits would come in again and she’d move on to the next town. Two days later she was crying as she looked at herself in a river. “Where did it go wrong?” she asked her rippling reflection, “I did everything right, but it all fell apart. All because of those idiot colts, that Ursa, and him.” The mare’s name is Trixie, although she prefers the moniker “The Great and Powerful Trixie”. At the moment though, she was starting to doubt that. She had boasted about her magical prowess, though that was just to woo the crowd to her side. After all, the more they cheered the more money she got. But that’s all ash now. You see, that trip she took ended in disaster for her. Her home, along with her belongings, was now destroyed. Even worse, he had revealed her to be what she was, a simple showpony with very little in the way of magical prowess. She got up, wiped the tears from her eyes, and looked at the water. “I swear,” she said, her reflection changing to the purple unicorn stallion that caused her so much pain, “You’ll rue the day you crossed The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Of course, before she could get revenge, she had to start from scratch. That was harder than she thought, since her humiliation in Ponyville seemed to spread outside its borders. Nopony would hire her, not even for something as small as a birthday party. She said she wandered the streets of Manehattan for about three days before she finally collapsed from thirst. Poor thing probably would have died right there, if she hadn’t been found. Found by an old stallion who took pity on her. Found…by me. I found the poor thing in an alleyway and decided to take her home. I set her in the guest room where she stirred awake. “Where am I?” she asked. I didn’t say anything and went to get a glass of water for her. When I got back she was trying to stand up, so I had to force her to lie down and gave the water. She glared at me when she drank the water, but I’m sure she was grateful for it. When she finished, I asked for her name. “I am The Great and Powerful Trixie! And I did not need your help.” I had to disagree with her on that, but I didn’t voice it and offered her some food. “Fine, Trixie will eat your peasant food.” I couldn’t help but laugh and went to get her some food. She didn’t look ready to eat anything real heavy, so I just prepared a simple salad for her. When I gave it to her, she just stared at me angrily before digging in. I sat down in a chair and waited for her to finish. “Why are you watching Trixie?! I’ll have you know Trixie doesn’t go for older stallions!” she yelled at me. I told her not to worry, I’m not interested in mares as young as her, and I was just wondering what her story was. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, “too painful.” She then asked what my name was. I told her names don’t matter much, but if she wanted she could call me Rucks. She nodded and went back to eating the salad. When she was done she pushed the bowl away and turned away from me. I took the bowl and left her alone for the rest of the day. She stayed with me for about two days before she was well enough to walk on her own. Of course, I had her stay for another day just to make sure. She always had this angry look on her face the entire time she was around me. Some of the looks she gave me I was sure would make a manticore shrink back in fright. When I finally let her go, I gave her a spare saddlebag, a small lunch, and about 50 bits to get her by. That…seemed to make her angrier. “Why are you being so kind to Trixie!” she yelled, “I’ll have you know that Trixie is more than capable of taking care of herself!” I said I didn’t think so since she seemed to have a tough time getting food. “Why would you care?! No pony asked you to help Trixie! Maybe Trixie wanted to die in that alley-“ I silenced her with a stomp of my hoof. That was the first time she said something that really made me mad. ‘That’s no way to talk,’ I told her, ‘I don’t know what kind of trouble you have in your life, but you can’t just give up the first time you hit a streak of bad luck.’ “And how would you know?” she asked. Up until then, neither of us shared anything about our lives, but I decided to share just one part of mine. So I told her, ‘I don’t ever want to see a mare die in an alley again.’ That caught her off guard, her eyes opening in surprise. I didn’t say anything else, instead I walked past her and opened the door. I told her that if she needed anything, my door would be open for her. She walked out the door and down the street. She only looked back once before I lost sight of her. Never saw her again after that. That was about a year ago now. Life went on and I had mostly forgotten about her. That is, until I received a letter in the mail. And then another, then another. All of them from her, all of them addressed to me. They came with numbers on the envelopes, from one on. In order, and roughly speaking, all the letters said the following. The day she left my care she wandered Manehattan a bit, stewing over whatever caused her trouble. She fantasized about revenge, of burning the whole town down with magical fire, of the look on the stallion’s face when he saw her. How he’d plead for his life, and how she would ignore him. That was her fantasies, but reality had a matter of catching up with you. She knew of a couple homeless shelters and, since she was technically homeless, she could stay there for a while. So she walked, pausing only to eat the sandwich she had been given, and by the time the sun set she was at a shelter. She had a hot dinner and settled into her bed. The past catches up to her as she falls asleep. Sometimes the most humble of starts can shape a pony, and Trixie was no different. She was born the second child to a small family in Canterlot. Her father was a simple magician, not unlike what she would be later in her life. Her mother stayed at home to watch over her, although she was also an assistant for her father’s shows. She also had an older brother, about nine or ten years old when she was born. Her childhood was the best any filly could hope. She played with her older brother, she watched her father’s shows, enjoyed her mother’s meals, and played with her friends. But good times don’t always last forever. When she was eight, her brother came down with some illness. Most of the doctors her family saw said there was either very little or nothing they could do. Her brother didn’t take well to this and grew depressed. His depression was so deep, it worsened his condition. Last doctor the family tried said he had, at best, two weeks. Little Trixie overheard the whole thing and ran to her room where she sobbed herself to sleep. The next day, she decided to try and make her brother smile for whatever time he had left. It took a while for her to find what she needed. Inspired by her father’s shows, she borrowed one of her father’s hats and a cape, both too big for her. She slowly entered her brother’s room and told him she wanted to make him smile. He didn’t smile, but said she could try. She set up for her first magic show. It didn’t go well at first, the filly messing up what should have been the simplest of tricks. After the fifth trick didn’t work, Trixie started to break down. Her brother, saddened by his sister’s tears, told her to keep going. He said that watching her helped him out, even if she wasn’t doing well. Her brother’s kind words emboldened her and she wiped away the tears. She readied herself for one last trick and decided to make it her biggest one. She took her hat off and focused magic into her horn. Her brother was surprised when her horn started glowing brightly. She grunted a little at the effort as her horn was completely engulfed in a light blue light and she reached into the hat. She released the magic in one big burst and pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Brother and sister stared at the wiggling animal in her hoof in surprise, and then the rabbit managed to slip away from her and ran out of the room. The siblings heard their mother scream from downstairs. Trixie started to cry just a little when she heard something. Her brother was laughing. She looked at her brother and saw he was indeed laughing and he had one of the biggest smiles she had ever seen. ‘That was amazing Trixie,’ he said in between laughs, ‘Can you do it again?” Her eyes widened and meekly said she’d try. She did exactly what she did before and pulled the same rabbit out. Her brother smiled and laughed again, so she started laughing too. Her brother insisted she try all the tricks from earlier again and, to her surprise, she did them all almost flawlessly. I remember hearing somewhere that a positive attitude can do wonders for the sick almost as well as any medicine. That was true enough for this story. Three weeks after her first show, after constant magic shows from her, Trixie’s brother made a full recovery. When her brother told her that and hugged her tightly, thanking her for her help, something seemed to click in her head. Magic shows aren’t just about bits or fame. As an entertainer, all that should matter are the smiles on the audiences face. Entertaining for the sake of entertaining, once she realized that it all made sense. She hugged her brother back and her cutie mark appeared. When she woke up, the memory was still fresh in her mind. She didn’t like the feeling it brought, the reminder of how she had forgotten that one simple thing. She pushed the thought out of her head and instead focused on the one thing she did know for certain: revenge against a certain stallion. Her next couple of letters were mostly how she fantasized revenge against the stallion, ranging from ruining his own reputation to more…well, you don’t want to know about the ‘more’. One of those fantasies made the bourbon I was drinking at the time harden in my gut. I’ll give her one thing, she’s imaginative when she sets her mind on something. Winter was a hard time for her. Not because of the cold or lack of shelter. No, it was something else. She was in Canterlot at the time, having managed to scrounge up enough bits to get a winter cloak, walking through the main square when she met somepony she thought she wouldn’t see again. Her older brother. He spotted her through the crowd and had called out her name. He was overjoyed to see it was her and started hugging and nuzzling her, the joy in his demeanor evident to anypony who looked. She, for her part, returned the nuzzle and gave a half hearted smile. He asked how she was doing. After all, it had been several years since they had seen each other. ‘Not too well,’ she replied, ‘I hit on hard times.’ Her brother’s smile dropped into worry and he asked, ‘how hard?’ The look she gave was all the answer he needed. He grabbed her by the hoof and said she’d stay with him and his fiancé for the holidays. She tried to decline but…well, older brothers and all that. She was quite surprised at how much of a fun time she had on Hearth’s Warming Eve. More fun than she had in a while. Her brother had told her not to give up, that one setback shouldn’t be all it takes to knock out The Great and Powerful Trixie. She agreed, so she strengthened her resolve and was now more focused on the stallion. The next letter was dated two days after Discord’s release. I’ll never forget that date, when the world quite literally fell apart at the seams. And for Trixie, it was the scariest time of her life. She was in Fillydelphia, fantasizing about her revenge again, when the chaos being came to town. He laughed as he effortlessly turned the town’s ambitions against it. She was one of the unlucky few who remembers her time ‘turned’ completely. I don’t envy her, it was a bad time for everypony. The chaos being had spotted her staring at him and he floated over to her, held aloft by balloons with no strings. “Well well well, what have we here? Do we have a fighter on our hands?” he said and inspected her. His face grew dissatisfied and he conjured up an ice cream cone made of rainbows, “I suppose not. What do you do anyway?” “I-I’m a magician, a showpony,” she answered. “Oh really, and what brought you to that?” Trixie almost answered, but Discord held up his eagle claw, “Don’t answer that, I really don’t care. I’m actually surprised such a useless profession still exists.” “U-useless?!” she said, her voice filling with anger. “Why yes, why would anyone pay to see you do silly little magic tricks like pulling a rabbit out of a hat? Even I can one up that!” The chaos spirit grabbed a running rabbit, opened its mouth, stuck his lion paw in and pulled out a top hat. “See, stuff like that is easy,” he said as he put the top hat on, “anything you could do, I can do better.” The words stung her. She tried to talk, but Discord kept going. “And besides, why do those tricks anyway? For money? Fame? To make them happy? Well, if you’re so good at it, try and make him happy,” he said pointing to a stallion tearing apart several books and screaming about purifying the world, “Or her,” he pointed at a mare clutching at several potted plants, laughing maniacally. “Ooh, what about him!” This stallion was screaming at the top of his lungs and pounding his head against a tree. “If you can make any one of them better, I’d be very impressed.” She looked around at the chaos, how the world was tearing apart all around her. Stallions and mares running all around her, foals begging their parents to snap out of whatever madness had gotten to them. She looked around her and came to a horrifying conclusion. “I can’t,” she said and felt tears gather in her eyes, “Magic can’t stop this. Nothing can.” She cried fully now and felt a coldness run through her body, as if all the colors of her soul was being drained. “I’m worthless.” Her body was now entirely cold, but she didn’t feel anything. Nothing but sorrow. So she fell where she was and cried her eyes out. “Huh, that was easy. No fun at all. I’m going to go check on Dusk Shine. At least he’s a fighter.” Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light. Trixie got up and, still crying, made her way to a park. She felt nothing at the patched purple grass or the erratic movements of the sun and moon. Cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain? Nothing. She collapsed against an upside down tree and sobbed herself out, deciding to wait for death. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Half an hour later, that big rainbow wave washed over her and cleansed her mind, just like it did all of us. She woke up a while later to find the world had returned to normal. Her mind was sane and rational again, but the pain of realizing that her life’s whole meaning could have been worth nothing stayed with her. When Celestia’s guard came by to check on her, she didn’t react to them at all. I had heard that some ponies never recovered from the incident. One poor mare for example is still under the impression that she’s a dog. So the guard took Trixie to Canterlot for treatment. By coincidence, it was around that time that the Elements of Harmony visited Canterlot. Trixie had heard of them before, but had never seen them in person. She was in the crowd during the award ceremony for the Elements. As she wondered who they could be, she saw somepony. She saw him. Raged filled her and she was ready to advance on him when she saw the other ponies cheering. He and his friends smiled nervously at the attention as they walked toward Princess Celestia. When they reached her Trixie came to a horrible realization which was confirmed when a new stained glassed window was revealed. It displayed a scene of him and his friend defeating Discord. They were the Elements of Harmony. They had saved her. Her gut wrenched and her anger chained to despair. “How could I compete with that?” Her next letters didn’t even mention any thought of revenge or the stallion. Instead, she talked about how she went about rebuilding her life. She tried so hard to get someone to hire her, she wasn’t picky about who it was. Finally, after a few days, she got one. A foal’s birthday party, but it was better than nothing. She braced herself for anything that could happen. Jeers. Booing. Not getting paid. Starving. What she didn’t expect was laughter. The young colt and his friends enjoyed her magic tricks, astonished whenever she made a bouquet of roses appear from nowhere. One filly wanted to bring a cat with her, so Trixie, with only a description, managed to pull that cat out of another colt’s hat. Everything she did was rewarded with laughter, cheers, and smiles. The atmosphere was infectious and she found herself smiling too. When the party was dying down the colt’s mother said she was glad she hired Trixie. She gave her a bonus and said she would tell all her friends about her. Words couldn’t have expressed Trixie’s gratitude. Earlier I had noticed a difference in her letters. In the earlier ones she always referred to herself as ‘Trixie’ or ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’, but as the letters kept coming she started dropping that habit and started using personal pronouns more. At her sixth or seventh letter, it dropped entirely. She also said that her dreams were different as well. While she would normally dream of her past or how she would ‘get back at that stallion’, now she was dreaming of more simple and happy things. Parties that went well, new tricks that pleased crowds immensely, but one thing stuck out among all of the other subjects of her dreams. She dreamt of him. Dusk Shine, she said his name was. First time I actually heard his name. One such dream she actually managed to get down before it left her mind. Let me see if I can remember it. The sky was clear and the sun was shining down on the two unicorns. Trixie was taking in the sunlight as she lay down on the blanket. Dusk had invited her on a picnic and she was more than willing to accept. The lunch had been delicious and the conversations that were brought up enjoyable. Now they were just enjoying the day and each other’s company. “This was fun,” Trixie said and leaned against Dusk, “We should do this again soon.” “I was just thinking the same thing,” Dusk said and leaned against Trixie as well. She scooted closer to him and nuzzled against him, breathing in his scent. ‘He smells like lavender,’ she thought. Dusk smelled her as well and they nuzzled against each other. After a while they stopped and looked into each other’s eyes, both a deep purple. “Dusk, I have something I want to tell you.” Dusk tilted his head and waited for Trixie to continue. “Well, I just… um, give me a second.” She looked away from him blushing. Dusk laughed a little and placed a hoof on her cheek. He turned her face back toward his own and smiled at how surprised she was. “W-what are you…?” she started but trailed off as she stared into his eyes. She could lose herself in that deep purple. Dusk leaned forward, closed his eyes, and kissed Trixie. Her eyes widened, but as the kiss went on she closed her eyes as well and leaned into the kiss. She loved the feel of his lips, the warmth of his breath, the sounds he made, and the way he tasted. They pulled away when they couldn’t stand the lack of air and stared at each other. Trixie moved in front of Dusk, sat him up on his haunches, and sat in his lap crossing her forelegs around his neck. Dusk wrapped his own forelegs around her waist and pulled her closer, causing Trixie to giggle and kiss him lightly for a second. “I love you,” she said, finally able to voice her feelings to the purple unicorn. “I love you too Trixie,” he said. Her heart beat faster and she kissed him again, pulling him as close to her as she could. Dusk did the same and after a moment of kissing decided to test the waters as it were. He opened his lips ever so slightly and licked Trixie’s lips. She shivered a little and moaned at the feeling, and she opened her lips. Dusk stuck his tongue in Trixie’s mouth, exploring as much of it as he could while Trixie did the same to him. They were both enjoying this a lot, each of their groans of pleasure driving the other to continue. Dusk fell onto his back, pulling Trixie down with him, and hugged her even tighter. Trixie broke the kiss and looked at Dusk’s blushing face, probably as red as hers was. They breathed heavily for about a minute before they could talk. “Wow,” was all Dusk could get out. Trixie smiled and leaned closer to him. “Wow? Is that… all you can… think of? Was I that good?” she asked and was filled with joy when Dusk nodded. “Well then, I hope you’re ready for more.” I shouldn’t say any more, it’s kind of a private thing. Anyway, if that dream didn’t say it, the last line of that letter does. ‘I think I’m falling for Dusk Shine.’ Her last letter had come not even a week ago. In it she said she was going to Ponyville. After a year of preparation, she was finally ready to face Dusk. She didn’t say whether it was for revenge or for love. I doubt I’d find out either way any time soon. But still… Trixie walked into Ponyville, the sun having set about an hour ago. She made a beeline through the town and towards the tree that housed the library. She had fixed everything that went wrong with her life, everything, but this. If she did decide on revenge, it probably will be a glorious battle. She approached the door and knocked three times on it. I can see it now in my mind, Dusk in one corner and Trixie in the other. She waited a moment before the door slowly opened. If she didn’t lie about her potential, she might have a shot. “Trixie?!” Dusk said at the sight of the blue mare, “What are you doing here?” She might just win. “You know Dusk Shine, I’ve dreamt of this moment for a long time,” Trixie said and stared into Dusk’s eyes, “You better be ready.” Or… “Ready for what?” Dusk asked, his face growing determined and ready for whatever Trixie threw at him. Maybe… He wasn’t expecting Trixie to kiss him. Maybe she chose love. Trixie broke the kiss and looked at Dusk, waiting for his reaction. “W-why did you-?” “That was for saving me from Discord.” Trixie walked closer to Dusk, who backed up a little. Once she was inside, she magically closed the door behind her. She forced Dusk onto his hind legs and wrapped her forelegs around his neck. “And this…” she started and kissed him again. Dusk, although still surprised, managed to wrap his forehooves around the mare. Trixie broke the kiss and looked into Dusk’s eyes, “Is for helping me rediscover my calling.” Trixie pushed against Dusk and yelped a little when they both fell onto his couch. Trixie kissed him again and licked his lips. Dusk closed his eyes and let out a moan as he opened his mouth and Trixie immediately dove in. She was really aggressive, exploring every part of Dusk’s mouth and forcing his tongue to wrestle with hers, sometimes actually able to get into her mouth. Both of their bodies were heating up from the make out session and it showed when Trixie pulled away for a breath. “What was that for?” Dusk asked. Trixie laughed and licked the corner of his mouth. “That was just for fun,” she said and pulled her cloak off. “Did I do something wrong?” “No, this is just unexpected,” he said. He then stole a kiss from Trixie, which caused them both to blush deeply. “But I am liking this.” Trixie giggled and nuzzled her head into Dusk’s neck. “Good, because you’re mine from now on,” she said and fidgeted a little until she was comfortable. “Where have you been all this time?” Dusk asked and stroked Trixie’s back. She hummed in pleasure before answering. “Plotting revenge against you.” “H-huh?!” “But that was before I fell for you.” Trixie looked up into Dusk’s eyes and smiled. “Y-you…” Trixie laughed and kissed Dusk on the cheek. “You heard that right. I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, fell for you and fell for you hard.” She planted a quick kiss on Dusk’s lips and felt her heart flutter when he smiled. “I love you.” Dusk brought Trixie up for another deep kiss. Trixie moaned into his mouth and breathed heavily when the kiss broke. “I guess I have some catching up to do, huh?” he asked. Trixie let out a low ‘mhmm’ and nuzzled into Dusk’s neck, content in just enjoying his warmth and the strokes down her back. After a few minutes Dusk spoke up to ask, “So, what would you have done if you didn’t fall for me?” He didn’t receive an answer. “Trixie?” He looked down to find the blue mare was asleep. Her mouth was slightly open as shallow breaths passed through it. Dusk laughed quietly and levitated a blanket and pillow over to them. He placed the blanket over them, the pillow under his head, and kissed Trixie on the top of her head. She squirmed a little but settled down with a smile. “Good night Trixie, I can’t wait to see if you’re sincere about this,” he whispered and closed his eyes. One way or the other, whether she’s now standing over him victorious in revenge or being held close by the stallion she fell in love with, I’m looking forward to her next letter. After all, nothing ever really ends. This was a lot of fun to write, and I think I'm now a legit Twixie shipper. Ah well, that kind of thing is bound to happen. Though honestly I wish this was a lot longer than it is. Maybe I'll revise it later.