//------------------------------// // 80 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// As soon as Twilight and Tress hopped off the train the next day, they were greeted by the constant hat wearing farmer that was their apple focused sadistic work horse of a friend. Chrysalis was looking as chipper ever since she got back from her hive and even followed them in what they did next. “Hey there you three, how did things go in Appleoosa? I hope good old Brae didn’t annoy Tress too much.” Applejack quickly found herself drawn into a warm hug. Twilight, Tress and even the changeling were hugging her with a strong if gently applied grip. “Whoa, what’s this all about?” “Just shut up and let us hug you.” Tress said with a tremble in her voice as she continued to cuddle the farm pony. Applejack was feeling pretty uncomfortable about being snuggled like this. After a moment they released her and swiftly left the train station, leaving behind a confused farm pony that wanted to ask what that was all about. “Okay, now I need something to get my mind off of that story…” Twilight stood around for a minute in the lazy streets of Ponyville, nothing happened. “You’d think there’d be a problem we could solve almost immediately given we’ve been away for a day.” “Well I would like to know what the hay all that hugging was about.” Watching them turn around to face her, Applejack idly noticed that Chrysalis had simply wandered off to do who knows what again. They all figured Chrysalis probably went to pick up her pet with the slightly hypnotic wings from Fluttershy. Said wings were only effective against other animals and had saved Chrysalis from being mauled quite a few times. In fact she hadn’t been mauled in so long Tress has lost the ability to call her ‘maul me sign’ and now resorts to affectionately calling her ‘cheese legs’. “Well…” Tress started off only to be interrupted by a familiar voice. “Trixie needs your help, please come with Trixie!” The magician looked harried as she dragged the both of them away from Applejack. Applejack sighed and turned back towards the road to the farm, she’d ask about it later as she currently had a business to run and had taken some time off to greet them at the station. They were doing quite fine apparently if they were being dragged into something else like that. Trixie stopped dragging her friends along when she came to a stop near the marketplace. She looked around for something and sighed in relief at not seeing it. “Trixie wants to get a present for Pinkie, but Trixie doesn’t know what to get! It is of the upmost importance to Trixie, so will you take on my trouble? It is an urgent and important thing to Trixie!” It was mostly because Trixie wanted to do something special for Pinkie Pie, she would not be denied actually being humble by asking for professional helpers who could think beyond any box. “This important thing would be what now?” Tress kept her voice even and steady in the face of Trixie’s blind panic. “We’re not having another Winter Wrap Up incident here are we?” “Trixie apologized for that already! Anyway, Pinkie’s birthday is coming up and Trixie wants to get her the best gift ever.” After a moment Trixie looked at the street they were standing on, what she said next shocked the two ponies she dragged to the marketplace area. “I-I want to put a smile on her face. Please, help me find something.” “Trixie did you just… wow. You must really be invested in this if you’re using pronouns in reference to yourself.” It was a bit surprising for Twilight to see Trixie break her long standing tradition of always saying her name even if for a moment. “Pinkie is a hard one to plan for; she’d just as much like a gift that is hoof made as she would one that is bought as long as it’s from the heart.” “Actually, I have the perfect idea of what you should get her. You’re not going to find it in a marketplace and you may actually need Fluttershy’s help with this one.” Tress had an idea cooking in her brain, it percolated a bit and then it finally popped into a resoundingly odd idea. One that was entirely worthy of the thought processes required to get an excellent present for Pinkie instead of an average or mediocre one that the pony would get bored with after a while. “Trixie would like to know why the wallflower would be important in this endeavor.” Trixie wasn’t exactly the best pony around animals, at least she wasn’t Chrysalis. Changelings were supposed to be scary bedtime stories. Instead she’s met a changeling queen who was currently a bit underwhelming, outward appearance and possible voyeuristic streak due to her eating habits notwithstanding. “Fluttershy will be the perfect pony to help you find a present for Pinkie.” Just to make sure they were on the same page Tress spoke slowly. “Just think of something Pinkie doesn’t have yet and remember that she mentioned it during the Nightmare Night. You know, while you were trying to help her with that strange frog suit.” “Oh right, she doesn’t have a pet. Trixie can certainly see what Tress is getting at now. Trixie will seek help from the shy one, thank you for assisting Trixie in Trixie’s time of need.” Trixie immediately set off for the cabin where Fluttershy was seen most often. “Trixie has it from here and will pay you later for your timely assistance!” “So what do you think Trixie will end up getting for Pinkie?” Twilight was curious, now that Trixie no longer needed their assistance they were left standing outside the marketplace. “Hopefully not a cragadile, that’s all I can say.” Tress could only imagine the trouble a pet cragadile would bring to this town. “Yeah, that’s something I’d actually fear having around. Besides it would be dangerous and irresponsible to even bring one into Ponyville, even a baby cragadile is a pretty big thing to take care of.” It was around this time that something else occurred to Twilight. “How would Pinkie even feed it? Carnivores don’t usually make for good pets for any pony. At least Winona, Palatable and Opal are good pets that aren’t too hard to feed.” “Pal especially, considering his diet is almost entirely noodles and pasta sauce.” Tress thought it was sort of adorable that he kept trying to cheer her up, even if it involved bringing dead spaghetti monsters to their doorstep. “So, training? I don’t feel like helping out much more today and it was a boring train ride, I crave something to get the blood flowing.” “Yeah, I’ll get whatever we need for it. Just be waiting in the fields, I’ll meet you there.” Twilight was only just starting to push the Mane-iac to her limits. “Can’t wait, this’ll be fun.” Tress was far more powerful then she had previously been. This was only because she had a clear thinking mind to work with and Twilight’s constant insistence of testing her boundaries. Forty seven minutes later, Twilight sat in grassy hills and fields outside of town with Tress. They were sitting across from each other in the relatively empty fields as no other pony was around. Twilight on her side of the field had a ton of skeet shooting ceramic plates meant for archery practice. Tress slowly stood up spreading her hooves slightly apart from each other taking a stiff stance while staring Twilight down. “Tress, transform and please try to do it slowly.” It always mystified Twilight every time she watched Tress transform into the Mane-iac, especially the change in her cutie mark which was still a complete mystery as to why it does that. The cutie mark itself wasn’t hard to understand why it looked like it did, it was a representation of Mane-iac’s special talent after all. A cutie mark was not entirely indicative of one’s destiny and Twilight knew that for a fact, because she knew her best friend wasn’t truly evil. A cutie mark was only there to remind you of what you’re best talented at and not what else you could do if you put enough hard work into it. “Okay, bringing out the psycho in me, better be prepared for it Twilight.” Tress closed her eyes and she crouched down and brought her front two hooves to her head and let out what sounded like a pained gasp. The change starts from the tip of her nose as her fur changed from pink to grayish blue color and it rippled as her face started to expand and grow as soon as that area of her body was covered in livid fur. Tress’s crystal blues eyes shifted, starting with half her pupils turning red and the rest of her eye color turning green. Her mane started to slowly fade from light blue into a solid green starting from the roots going outward. The end of the transformation centered with all the changes coming together at her cutie mark which slowly warped into its new shape. A dark grin now crossed Tress’s face as she proudly stood there facing down Twilight. “Ready?” Twilight needn’t have asked that, Mane-iac’s mane lazily waved a single tentacle at her while the rest of it stayed unmoving. Twilight levitated twelve of the skeet plates into the air, spread them out and then launched them all at Mane-iac randomly one or two at a time at a rapid pace. Tress crouched down and waited until the plates neared, then she spiked out her coat and had caught each plate without damaging it. All twelve plates spun on five inch spiked out points of fur. She manipulated her coat to gather all twelve plates into her hooves and then looked at Twilight with a decidedly evil grin. “Think fast!” Mane-iac flicked eleven plates back at Twilight on differing trajectories and speeds. A spark of surprised went off in her friends eyes before they started glowing slightly along with her horn. Twilight narrowed her sight on each plate coming at her. They all started moving at a slower pace as she expanded a field of magic outward that stayed connected to her horn so she didn’t lose the magic. She was concentrating her mind to everything coming at her to a fine point, the first plate entered the magic field and Twilight did nothing. The plate zipped past her at dangerous speeds, given Tress threw each one with incredible strength. An impact from one of them could really injure her. The second disc entered the field and with the barest of flickers it deflected away from Twilight when she created a pinpoint barrier for the barest of seconds only using a minimal amount of magical power. The next five were deflected or alternatively let by; by the time Twilight was done she had used very little magic in protecting herself. Mane-iac was swinging her hair around to launch the last plate at Twilight, she let it loose and it blurred towards Twilight. Barest of a centimeter from her forehead the plate simple bounced off Twilight looking like it had hit her, she hadn’t even flinched. “So I should ramp up the difficulty of your training then?” Twilight asked lazily as if that last plate hadn’t completely freaked her out. She didn’t even think she could deflect something moving that fast and she had with minimal effort on her part. She was quite surprised by her own abilities at time to create a pinpoint barrier an inch in diameter and barely a centimeter thick in a milliseconds notice. “Please do speed the warm up a bit. If you don’t ramp it up, defending yourself will become the mane event here.” Mane-iac chuckled darkly before she smiled at Twilight with her ridiculously white teeth. One would have to thank most super powers for including good teeth, looks and health as a side benefit. “You need to learn how to protect yourself from dangers using what you have and could use the training as well you know, so it should be our training that you need to step up. Let your hair down and start pushing me harder already!” Twilight floated into the air using her gravity spell and levitated at least ten or so plates up. She spread the plates out in all directions while keeping a magical field expanded from her body. Tress grinned maniacally and waited for Twilight to get started. “Bring it.” The plates all shot for Mane-iac at incredible speeds and she reacted, it was the beginning of a very interesting training session. Mane-iac soon had a swirling swarm of plates shooting at her from all angles and she was throwing the plates back at Twilight while the unicorn floated around multitasking three different spells at once. She could tell Twilight was having some trouble doing three things at once and went easy on her friend. A few hours later, it was getting into the evening and Fluttershy came upon the scene of Tress and Twilight’s battle. She could see they were almost huddled together taking a nap. She was smiling at how adorable the two look napping in a pile of shattered ceramic plates and they did look comfortable. Hearing their stomach’s grumbling, Fluttershy knew bringing a loaded picnic basket all the way out here was a good idea. She simply plucked the basket off her back with her left wing and also pulled out her medical kit with her right. The medical kit was a foregone conclusion as she knew they’d need some attention after apparently having quite a fun time out here. “Hey Fluttershy, are you having a picnic with Tress and Twilight?” The shy mare squeaked and turned to Cheerilee and nodded slightly. The teacher idly wondered what happened here to see so many wrecked skeet plates and no archery equipment anywhere nearby. “May I join you then?” “Of course, I made enough for five ponies. If you don’t mind me asking, can you please help me move them onto the blanket; those plates can’t be very comfortable to sleep on.” Fluttershy with a little help from Cheerilee managed to move both Tress and Twilight over to the blanket she had laid out.