Confrontation II: Twilight Sparkle (5 CP) v. Trixie Lulamoon (4 CP)
This is it: the cherry on top. Trixie stared at me, I stared back at her; not a thousand-yard stare but a one-yard faceoff. The unbalanced tank was proof that it had been moved by none other than magic. Nopony came to mind more quickly than my old rival Trixie. All I have to do now is to relate that with what Trixie’s doing with True Blue.
Ponyville isn’t watching. Only my friends stayed to watch the next several minutes unfold under the unrelenting heat. Regardless, I can bring the entire town’s plight to an end right here, right now. No more red herrings. No more misleading evidence. I’m putting everything at stake this very moment, myself included.
Day 3, 12:11 p.m.
“Okay, Trixie,” Twilight started. “Let’s start with that hunk of sapphire first. Where did you get it? Why is it with you?”
Trixie responded with utter defiance. “The Great and Powerful Trixie isn’t obliged to answer your question. She invokes her right to self-incrimination.”
Twilight’s friends, not exactly lawyers, replied with confused looks as they tried making sense of the term. Only Twilight herself saw that the term “self-incrimination,” being forced to answer under pressure or threat, was totally out of place. In fact, she had the perfect counter; it’s called “probable cause.”
“First of all,” she started. “We’re not in a courtroom. Second, I clearly saw you trying to flee when Rarity saw that glint. What do you have to hide by running, huh?”
Despite lack of understanding for legalese, Rainbow Dash bluntly agreed with her friend. “Yeah!” she yelled. “As if you know your right to self-incri…incra…whatever you said!”
“Zip it, Rainbow,” Twilight replied, annoyed. “You’re not helping.”
As Rainbow Dash quietly left the job of off-court prosecution to Twilight, Trixie gave her answer. “I told you,” she said. “I bought it from a gem dealer days ago.”
“That’s what you said about the gems on stage,” replied Twilight. “Who’s this gem dealer?”
“He runs a shop in Baltimare,” answered Trixie calmly. “I bought it with my earnings.”
A fuming Rarity intervened, perhaps far worse than the client rejection issue she faced early in the investigation. “Now just a minute,” she said. “I’ll have you know that the owners of True Blue wouldn’t be willing to let go of something that precious.”
“True Blue, you say?” replied Trixie, irritated. “Trixie thinks you have the wrong gem.”
“I beg your pardon!” replied Rarity in indignation. “I’ll have you know that my eye for gems is as accurate as Equestria’s renowned gemologists. I know True Blue when it’s True Blue.”
It seemed like this hunk of sapphire just couldn’t catch a break, even with its new owner. Just as it has brought trouble to several ponies in Twilight’s debut case, it continues to do so under the sweltering heat. Even worse, the conversation is still nowhere near the issue of the water shortage. Ponies can’t drink a glass of Sapphire Shake to quench their thirst. Ponies won’t wait for a definitive answer.
Trixie’s attempted escape may be grounds for probable cause, but there’s a reason for calling it “probable.” It still didn’t prove anything illicit. As much as it looked off-tangent, she saw the gem as the key in unlocking one door after another. Rarity’s expertise on gems may be reliable, but it was going to take more than expert opinion to prove that the sapphire really is True Blue. “Rarity,” Twilight said. “Is there a more convincing way to prove that gem’s really True Blue? Some sort of gemological test, maybe?”
“Twilight!” cried Rarity in disbelief. “Are you accusing me of lying?”
“No!” Twilight retorted. “But you aren’t exactly a gemologist. We need somepony or something with enough authority to identify this gem.”
No gemologist was available in Ponyville. All of Equestria’s greatest minds resided in the big cities, Canterlot to name one. Even if there was one, he wouldn’t understand the situation even if he tried. Rarity shook her head, disappointed at the lack of a viable solution. For Twilight, this corridor was effectively closed—and Trixie won this engagement.
Twilight Sparkle loses 1 CP (4 CP left)
“This is a waste of time,” Trixie said. “Trixie shall not be delayed any longer.”
This confrontation made the one earlier look like filly’s play. Nevertheless, Twilight pressed on. With her uneasiness justified, she began taking more careful steps. First, she had to find a way around the roadblock known as the “pseudo-True Blue.” Perhaps her probable cause theory would bear a more ripe fruit.
“If you’re so innocent, then why did you try to run away earlier?” said Twilight, feeling more confident about this undeniable proof.
Trixie futilely defended otherwise. “I did not!” she cried. “I was simply taking off my harness when you decided to tie my hooves.”
“No, we all saw you trying to run,” Twilight said, then turned to her friends. “You all saw it too, everypony. Right?” They all nodded their heads in reply.
While Trixie couldn’t deny the fact that she tried to flee, she wasn’t about to go down that easily. “Well, that’s…” she said, a bit shaken. “That’s because you were about to attack me.”
“What?” replied a dumbstruck Twilight.
Trixie pointed to her slightly-swollen muzzle, which had been hit after an earlier face-plant. “I hurt my nose because of your ‘harmless’ spell.” Again, from a legalese perspective, she was now speaking personal injury. Twilight had been left speechless by how Trixie suddenly got good in law. Trixie may as well have a second cutie mark in the form of a gavel striking a sound block. It almost seems like when she faced the Diamond Dogs over True Blue.
Oddly enough, that comparison struck a nerve. Could Trixie have been spending time with the Diamond Dogs all this time? True Blue, the gems on her stage, her travel route from Baltimare to Ponyville; everything seemed to fall in place. But before she could raise this matter, she had to give up some ground.
“Fine,” Twilight said calmly and apologetically. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”
Twilight Sparkle loses 1 CP (3 CP left)
“What are you doing, Twilight?!” Rainbow Dash yelled in shock and disbelief. “That wasn’t your fault.”
“No, Rainbow,” replied Twilight. “Trixie is right. My spell caused her to trip and fall. I’m liable for her injury.” Then, she turned to Trixie, teeming with confidence despite losing ground twice. “But this doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, Trixie.”
“Fine then,” Trixie said with a smug. The ruse has done its part. “What other baseless accusations do you have for the Great and Powerful Trixie? She will debunk them all.”
Ticked off by Trixie’s arrogance, the ponies’ urge to strangle her intensified, especially with Rainbow Dash. But they had two good reasons to resist it: first, it would only paint an opposite picture where Trixie was the victim; and second, TV-Y doesn’t take kindly to violence. Nevertheless, her arrogance had to stop at some point—and it started with an odd question from Twilight.
“Did you travel all the way here on hoof, Trixie?” she asked.
An odd question indeed, but one Trixie was more than honored to answer. “Yes, I did,” she replied. “It was a six-day journey through the forest, but even exhaustion failed to faze the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
“I reckon you followed the river upstream,” Twilight said.
“No, I followed the train tracks,” Trixie replied. “They’re a better lead than rivers that branch out to different directions.”
“Why did you walk when you could’ve ridden the train?” Twilight said.
“Trixie must make sure she puts on a show at every town she passes,” Trixie replied proudly. “Everypony must be graced with her presence.”
Skepticism immediately kicked in. “Are you sure there are even towns along the way to Baltimare?” asked Twilight. “I don’t think there’s anything there but trees and mountains.”
“There are!” Trixie answered with gusto. “I was warmly welcomed by a group of dogs near Ponyville. They loved my tricks, although they looked parched and smelled bad. Trixie will never forget such a great audience, especially when I performed my finale.”
“Which is?”
“At their request, Trixie lifted an entire basin of water from the nearby river.”
For the first several seconds, nopony uttered a word in response to what they’ve just heard. With the situation in Ponyville direr than anypony could imagine, even the offhand mention of the word “water” would be enough to stir a hornet’s nest. Trixie quickly put her pride away the moment she saw the ponies’ faces. Now, the front door was open—and it was inviting justice in.
“You know what I think, Trixie?” she said, breaking the deafening silence. “I think you’re a Great and Powerful fraud.”
“What?!” yelled Trixie in indignation. “You accuse Trixie of lying when you have been unable to prove anything about my prized gem? Explain yourself!”
“Oh, I will,” Twilight replied, grinning. “Hold onto that gem while you still can.”
Day 3, 12:19 p.m.
“I happen to know a group of dogs that match your description to a T,” Twilight began. “Assuming they’re the same group of dogs, I can point out that, at that time, you were less than a day away from Ponyville. The only river closest to that location was the one separating Ponyville and the Everfree Forest.”
“What’s your point?” Trixie replied, still infuriated by the accusation.
“Fluttershy showed me the same river, only bone dry, two days ago. She told me that the river has never been that dry before. It was her primary supply of water when she gave up her line to support Ponyville’s conservation efforts. She thought it was the drought, but your story made it clear. It wasn’t from the drought. It was from your magic.”
A distressed Trixie mounted one counterargument after another, but even she knew she was about to break. “You can’t prove that,” she said. “There are other rivers around the dogs’ lair.”
“But you said it yourself, Trixie,” Twilight replied calmly. “You performed a show near Ponyville, which only had the river close to Fluttershy’s place.”
Trixie failed to respond.
Trixie Lulamoon loses 1 CP (3 CP left)
Having regained the initiative, Twilight pressed on with her investigative prowess. As everypony would later find out, Trixie’s arrogance had become her undoing. “By the way,” she said. “The dogs near Ponyville? We’re really close friends with them. I couldn’t think of any other lair than Rambling Rock Ridge, which I recall having a large deposit of gems.”
“You can’t possibly say I got the gems from them?” Trixie said. “Maybe my gem dealer got those gems from that ridge.”
“No, because that’s not my concern right now,” Twilight said. “Fluttershy also mentioned that the dry riverbed was too dangerous. Thanks to that, I was unable to get anything useful from her. But now I know why. At one point, she may have seen your little act and tried to hurry to Ponyville but got captured.”
“The dogs weren’t at the riverbed when I performed the trick,” Trixie replied desperately.
“Really now, Trixie?” Twilight answered. “You’re trying to put on a show. Why would you do so without the audience watching?”
“I brought the water back to their lair—”
“Lies!” Twilight cut her line short. “I saw a huge steel helm buried on the riverbed. It didn’t look too old, meaning it may have been there recently. Maybe the dogs enjoyed your show so much that one of them accidentally knocked off the other’s headgear in excitement?”
Again, Trixie failed to respond.
Trixie Lulamoon loses 1 CP (2 CP left)
Despite the upper hand, Twilight remained vigilant; the possibility of a turnaround still loomed somewhere. So far, she managed to form half of the story. Fluttershy had been pressured into keeping her mouth shut about Trixie’s performance by the Diamond Dogs, but it only explained her association with them. The other half, Ponyville’s water reserves mysteriously disappearing after one night, still remained unsolved. Twilight mentally browsed through her notes as she watched Trixie reel from two lost engagements.
“Fine, you got me,” admitted Trixie. “I was with those dogs. I performed the trick. I got them the water. That’s all I did for them.”
“And I reckon that’s where you got your prized gem,” Twilight replied.
“No!” Trixie answered in defiance. “I told you, I got them from the dealer in Baltimare.”
“If you were really in Baltimare.”
Trixie braced for the worst again. What was her rival going to say this time? “What do you mean?” she said. “I was in Baltimare.”
“Likely story.”
“Prove it.”
“Gladly,” Twilight said, after which she called Fluttershy to the witness stand once more. This time, Fluttershy had to cooperate. “Fluttershy, when did you see Trixie and the Diamond Dogs?”
Fluttershy wasted no time sharing what she knew. “I think it was four days ago,” she replied. “I was eating lunch when I heard some howling and cheering outside. That’s when I saw Trixie moving the water as if some sort of container. When I tried running to Ponyville, I stepped on a loose branch and gave myself away. The Diamond Dogs caught up to me and told me to be quiet or else.”
“Or else what?” asked Twilight.
“That’s just it,” Fluttershy answered. “They didn’t say anything. I was too scared to ask.”
This newfound puzzle piece intrigued Twilight, not because of the coincidence but rather the math behind it. “Interesting,” she said as she turned back to Trixie. “Trixie, you told us it was a six-day journey to Baltimare. But you were already in Rambling Rock Ridge four days earlier.”
Trixie answered back, but even she knew the cat was already out of the bag. “Well, I…” she replied anxiously. “What I mean is…I, uh, left Baltimare eight days ago. Yeah. It was a really long trip. Ha, ha…”
“You couldn’t have spent six days traveling from Baltimare,” Twilight deduced. “For all I know, you were probably near Ponyville this whole time.”
Trixie froze in fear of another breakthrough. It’s as if Twilight, who smirked in reply, could read her like an open book.
“Okay,” Twilight said. “Listen up because it’s gonna get complicated.”
Day 3, 12:25 p.m.
The longest explanation of the case began after clearing her throat. “Okay,” she started. “First, you said that it took you six days to get to Baltimare. I won’t contest the actual distance between Ponyville and Baltimare because it’s irrelevant. But Fluttershy claimed she saw you four days ago. Do the math and guess what? You’ve been in the area way before this whole water fiasco. Forget your summer tour; what were you doing these past few days?"
Trixie was quiet for the rest of the explanation. Still, the rounds were finding their mark.
“I’m also making the assumption that your ability to lift water off the ground is just what the Diamond Dogs need,” Twilight added. “They may have paid you in gems, including their prized True Blue, possibly to supply them with much-needed water. When that wasn’t enough, you would sneak into Ponyville at night to suck every reservoir dry, including the water tank. It would be impossible to pull it off with brute strength, as it would sound loud enough to alert some residents. So you used magic to lift the tank, empty its contents, and put it back quietly. Your biggest mistake, however, is that you failed to put the tank to its precise position, as displayed by the dirt marks.”
The blow to the defendant was undeniably fearsome.
Trixie Lulamoon loses 1 CP (1 CP left)
Just when fate seemed to have decided the victor, Trixie came back with one more trick. “You still haven’t proven that this gem is True Blue,” she said. “You can’t blame me for everything, Twilight Sparkle.”
Just like that, a quick dash to victory had been ruled out. Twilight had yet to prove that Trixie’s hunk of sapphire was really True Blue. She had been denied entry earlier in the confrontation, so the chances of being denied a second time—unless new evidence surfaced—was just as high. What would it take to prove the identity of the gem and, eventually, bring this troublesome case to a close? There must be something amidst the evidence she could use, perhaps dating back to the True Blue incident itself.
Tense moments passed. Trixie, although badly mauled, felt deserving of at least one victory. She heckled at Twilight’s silence, a far cry from the successive stings she landed just a while ago. “What’s the matter?” she said, mocking her by brushing her hoof against the hunk of sapphire. “Can’t prove me wrong about this sparkling rock?”
“I’ll give you something to prove,” Rarity replied angrily, lunging toward her only to be stopped by Applejack biting the former’s tail.
“Hold on, there, Rarity,” Applejack said without moving her teeth. “She’s just rilin’ you up. Don’t fall for it.”
Suddenly, in stark amazement, the investigator lowered her head in defeat and said. “Fine, Trixie. That’s not the True Blue.”
“See?” Trixie replied arrogantly. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is right at some point.”
“But you know what?” Twilight retorted.
“Hmm…?”
“I don’t care.”
Without warning, Rarity rushed to Twilight’s side, asking for clarification literally in her face. “Twilight!” she cried. “Whatever do you mean by what you just said?”
Twilight simply hushed Rarity with her hoof and continued: “You know why? I couldn’t care less where True Blue ends up. The Diamond Dogs can do anything with it as they please. All that matters to me is why you would steal our water.”
Trixie answered with silence.
“Did you realize what you’ve done with your mad stunt?” Twilight added, growing angrier by the minute. “You left Ponyville with no water to drink or use. We all worked so hard to save enough water to last throughout summer, not to mention Fluttershy who had to forfeit her water for everypony’s benefit. Or were you so engrossed in your tour that you didn’t even notice?”
A dumbstruck Rarity stepped away from the two parties, being forced to watch the drama unfold. The rest of the gang was just as surprised. Amidst the sermon, Trixie tried making sense of the sudden turn of events. “Now wait just a minute,” she said but was cut off.
Meanwhile, Twilight’s frustration slowly crept up to its peak. This was a pony who had bore the brunt of Ponyville’s frustration and despair for days. It didn’t take long for rationality to show itself out. “You can keep the gem, Trixie,” she said. “But you’ll also carry the guilt of stealing. I hope you’re happy because we aren’t.”
“I…I…” replied a staggered Trixie as she looked into her rival’s indignant eyes. She felt every ounce of her pride drained from her body, just like how she had sucked the reservoirs dry. Everything her rival had said up to this point had been direct hits. She couldn’t take any more. She lowered her head in shame and said: “Trixie…admits defeat.”
Trixie Lulamoon loses 1 CP (0 CP left)
Twilight Sparkle wins 3-0