//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Flashback! // Story: An Enthusiastic Admirer // by Eyeswirl the Weirded //------------------------------// It had been a few days since Little Trixie had seen the first pony to really cheer for her. Not praise, not congratulate on pulling off higher-level spells, but really applaud. Embarrassing as it had initially been, she loved every second of it, feeling like she had actually done something more than worthy of the prestigious school she found herself in not long after one of the Princess' aides found her manipulating a rain cloud (she really just wanted some shade and perhaps a little snow) in town one hot afternoon. Since then, however, she occasionally had trouble concentrating on things. Apart from magic, of course! Glancing backward at her flank, wand-and-crescent cutie mark as prominent as ever, Trixie smiled. He liked my magic, and magic is pretty much my special talent! Still, as she sat at her desk, things like True/False and Fill In The Blank answer sheets for Draconequus Arcane Theory seemed harder and harder to focus on, or even take seriously. She still got all of her work done, of course, but her thoughts were peppered with what she would do if she ran into Prince Blueblood again. She couldn't just do the same thing twice, could she? How impressive would it be the second time? She needed to think of something bigger, more impressive! She smacked her head against the desk. What she'd unintentionally shown him had been the most complicated thing she'd ever pulled off, and that was the only time she'd ever been able to do it. Granted, I haven't really tried doing it again since then, but- "Trixie? Is everything alright?" She very quickly sat straight up, eyes darting about to see Princess Celestia, and all of her classmates, staring straight at her. She flushed, smiling sheepishly. "Y-yes, sorry, please continue." The princess nodded. "Assessments are coming up soon, so please make sure you're getting enough sleep. Ideally not in class." Trying to ignore the quiet giggles, she managed to concentrate on her work until classes let out for the day. Trotting out of the building, she began to form a plan; she'd find that colt, follow him around in secret, find out what sort of things he enjoyed, and incorporate that into a display of magic! --- The lone colt sitting under the tree closest to the spot he'd seen Trixie Lulamoon sighed. She hadn't been here yesterday, nor the day before that. Or, night before that? Yesternight? When he stumbled across her doing really cool stuff, it was kind of right on the borderline of night and day, what did you call those? He bet his aunt's new favorite would know, she was supposed to be pretty smart. Whatever her name was. Anyway, it was definitely night now with no sign of the best magic-using pony he'd ever seen. It was just as he was standing up to leave that he heard a panicked cry and the rustling of leaves from the branches above. Quickly looking upward, he saw none other than Trixie, floating upside down! He grinned. "Wow, you can fly!" Trixie, guessing that he just hadn't noticed her tail snagged on a branch, nor that she'd been watching him for over twenty minutes, quickly forced a smile. "Y-yes. this is exactly what I meant to do here! Floating! Like this!" She glanced down, or up in this case, towards the grass, trying not to think about landing face-first as the blood rushed to her head. "...Upside down." "Wow," he said with quiet reverence, "I bet you really are the most magical unicorn in Equestria!" She again felt that wonderful stirring feeling in her chest... As well as increasingly extreme vertigo, but mostly the chest thing, and giggled. "Thank you!" Her horn lit up, this would be the first time she'd cast spells upside down, but no time like the present! She focused on a spot in front of her that she was sure her audience of one would be able to see, closing her eyes as she pictured the outcome of the spell. The immediate effect was an increased awareness that she was hanging upside down with blood rushing to her head. Blushing both for feeling silly and the aforementioned relocation of bodily fluids, she concentrated, a few sparks flying from her horn as Prince waited below, eyes wide with wonder. Trixie's eyes opened. "Tadaaaa!" Her only fan blinked, confused. "Um... Nothing happened." She smirked, trying her hardest to shake off the dizziness. "Oh, really?" With a flick of her horn, a pyramidal prism of shimmering light, like a metallic object on which one could see the shining luster of each side at once, hovered in place. Moonlight glinting off it's every angle in a tiny, fluorescent festival, Prince's smile widened in direct proportion to his amazed eyes. "Woooow! It's so pretty!" Stamping his hooves in applause, he caught sight of the moon, realizing he should probably turn in soon. Prince smiled somewhat regretfully. "I have to go now, but it was nice seeing you again." He trotted off. "So long, Trixie!" She waved goodbye as the magical illusion faded, aware only too late that the motion moved her body just enough to loosen her tail from the tree. One relatively painful impact with soft-but-not-soft-enough grass later, Trixie immediately wanted to see him again, to be told that she was the most amazing mage he'd ever seen, to see those sky-blue eyes locked on her with awe some more... Finding him here had been easy enough, even without the hoofstep-tracing spell she'd spent around an hour figuring out in the library. It had a limited range and wasn't much good if more than one set of hoofprints were detected by the spell, but she had figured it would help find the only other pony she'd seen here in the garden. Getting to her hooves, Trixie grinned with delight as an idea struck, using the spell on Blueblood's fresh hoofprints and immediately being rewarded with a faint glow where he had stepped. Bingo! Closely following the tracks, it wasn't long before she impacted horn-first with a large door. "You got some business in the palace, little lady?" She looked up to see a royal guard standing by the door, eyebrow raised. She smiled, striking the traditional cute-little-filly pose. "Hi there, I'd like to see a friend of mine in the castle, could you let me in pleeeease?" --- Well, that hadn't worked. Luckily, she was able to manipulate two boxes, a long piece of cloth, and a shovel in her magic to form a staircase-tightrope hybrid that she could reach an open window with, only two floors up! Gently lowering the objects back down where she found them before hopping off the window sill, Trixie took a quick look around. Not seeing anypony else in the hallway at the moment, she tip-hoofed into a nearby broom closet, keeping the door cracked just enough to peer out. Not hearing any movement, she cast the hoofprint spell again. As the only reaction were faint little circles of light on the floor, she guessed that nopony had been by recently, and thus there was likely no patrol here. Carefully peeking her head out of her hiding place, Trixie peered about for ponies that might see her just in case before slinking quickly to a pedastal down the hall, moving behind and leaning up against it to stay in the shadows. She spent about a minute listening for hoofsteps or shuffling of armored plating as she fought down the giddiness that came with sneaking into the royal palace, feeling like a grade-A ninja. Through a slow, careful process of moving from hiding place to hiding place, keeping an ear out for incoming guards, and a bit of dumb luck, Trixie eventually found the door marked 'Prince Blueblood'. Sloooowly opening the door, she looked in to see the colt she'd spent the past hour looking for asleep on his bed. She entered as quickly and quietly as she could, closing the door behind her in the same fashion. Trotting towards the bed, she smiled. There you are~! She opened her mouth to say hello and wake him up, but he looked so peaceful that she instead settled for gingerly climbing up onto the bed, resting on her legs, and staring at him as he slept. She spent the next while reminiscing about their past two interactions, tender feelings bringing speed to her heartbeat and warmth to her face. You called me the 'best magic pony in the whole world', 'the most magical unicorn in Equestria'... She liked those titles, very much. As she dreampt about hearing more of them, of being near this colt every day of her life, those dreams became literal when she drifted off to sleep next to him. --- The next morning, Prince awoke with something of a start, seeing Trixie lying next to him on the bed the moment he opened his eyes. "W-what are you doing in here?!" Trixie, roused by the ruckus, sat up, eyes still bleary as she looked around. She was cute when she yawned, he noticed. "Oh, hi," she said a little too calmly, a little grin on her sleepy features, "how are you?" He glanced around the room, not sure how to answer. "I'm... fine?" She giggled, patting his head. "You sure are, mister!" She hopped off the bed, moving toward the door. "I should probably head home now, seeya later!" Love of her life or not, she couldn't quite get away with skipping classes. He sat there in a daze until it was time to start the day. ...What the hay was that about? Did she just appear in my bed? Is that how ponies are born? In the hallway, Princess Celestia had come to wake Prince herself, finding a rare day in which she had time to do so. Instead, she watched, mouth agape, as Trixie, a young filly and one of her students, walked out of the bedroom of Blueblood, a young colt and her cute little nephew. Early in the morning. Is... Is THIS why she looked so tired in class?! There's no way... There's no way! She peeked into the room to find him sitting on his bed, mane messy with what she would later realize was standard bed-head. He looked at her, eyes full of youthful innocence. "Hey Auntie, I think I might have figured out where babies come from!" She fainted. --- "Will you stop laughing?!" Prince stood flushed, glaring at the three friends that had joined him in the library as they went from barely-concealed giggles to rolling around on the floor. Soarin seemed to be getting a lot of experience talking through gasps for breath today. "Y-you really got an early start, huh? They grow up so fast!" "Nothing like that happened," he grumbled, "I didn't think anything of it when she popped out of a tree, but it only got worse from there..." --- Sometimes a plan works too well. Sometimes you carefully construct a means by which to reach a goal, orchestrate the events that need to happen for it to work, and watch as things slip out from under you and go roaring in the direction you'd wanted, then 10 million miles too far. Luckily, this was not one of those times. Still, making her way to the wing of the local library currently inhabited by Beatrix Lulamoon, if the librarian was to be believed, Celestia couldn't help feeling the misunderstanding that had been cleared up (with as much of her nephew's innocence preserved as possible) a little after she'd regained conciousness was her fault, and would make sure things didn't go quite where she thought they had gone. At least not until those two are older... Walking up behind her, she saw the filly sitting at a table. "Hello Trixie, may I speak with you for a while?" Trixie set down the book she'd been studying, Hiding Places and You; Anywhere You Can Fit by Withered Violets, in preparation for her next Prince-watching excursion and immediately sat up straight, whirling around, chair and all, to face the princess. "H-hello Princess Celestia, lovely day we're having!" She blinked, realizing how that might sound like sycophancy. "I-I mean, of course it is, as always, haha!" Changethesubjectchangethesubject! "How's the palace, nopony snuck in in the middle of the night, I hope?" Gah! Celestia blinked once, slightly confused. Does she not remember walking right past me...? She made the mental note to worry about the castle's security being foiled by a lone foal later. Trixie forced her widest grin, trying her best to look innocent. Sell it! Seeeellll iiiiiit! The alicorn smiled gently. "You're not in trouble, Trixie, I just want to talk with you about my nephew." With nopony else around at the moment, I should be able to speak freely with her. Trixie slowly tipped over, chair and all, neither her facial expression nor her posture changing in the slightest. "Really?" "Really. How long have you two been meeting?" The filly on the floor sat up, righting the chair as necessary, scratching the back of her head with a hoof. "W-well, you remember about a week ago when you told me the Royal Garden was a good place concentrate and get some fresh air?" It is, which is why I told Prince exactly that quite some time before. She nodded, a patient smile on her face as though she didn't know where Trixie was going with this. "Yes?" "A few days after that, I gave it a try." She smiled brightly. "You were right, I pulled off the most complicated spell I've ever done there!" Her grin grew bashful as her forehooves drew to her reddened cheeks. "And, while I was doing it, he saw me..." Once Trixie shared the full tale, Celestia smiled a little wider. "I see. You've grown quite fond of him?" Trixie didn't speak, but the combination of hugging the book to her chest and concealing most of her face with it while giggling merrily seemed like answer enough. Now for the important part. "Have you told him that?" She looked up, her face uncertain. "Huh? I, uh..." She worriedly chewed her lower lip for a few seconds, trying to remember if she'd said the words at all, let alone to him. "I... guess I could try that? "That would be a good place to start, I think." In her head, Celestia laughed with maniacal glee, she could already picture the grandfoals! When they were both older, that is... --- The next day, Prince Blueblood was again free to roam the gardens, hesitating on whether or not that was a good idea when he got home from school later today as he walked down a palace hallway. He liked watching Trixie do her magic, but it seemed like she was getting... Weird. Casting spells all by herself when it was almost dark out? He couldn't think of a reason it was a bad idea, not like anypony's going to come that close to the palace hoping to abduct random foals. Casting them while hanging upside down from a tree? Odd. Apparently sneaking into his room in the middle of the night to sleep next to him? There had to be a reason Celestia looked so freaked out. What would she do this time? Was it a coincidence that she did those things in ascending order of craziness? Would she- "Hi, Blueblood!" Said a nearby potted plant. "Hi, Trixie." He replied automatically, not even turning to look at her until a few seconds after the statement was delivered. The leaves of the encased foilage popped up with a clump of soil resting on Trixie's head as she smiled. "So, what are you up to?" His mouth opened and closed a few times, no intelligible response forthcoming. "Same old, same old? Wake up, go to school, eventually go back to bed, repeat?" Nodding numbly seemed as good a response as any as he tried to work out how and why she was hiding in a plant, or muster the will to ask. She giggled. "Boring, but that's life sometimes." She hopped out of the pot, brushing residual dirt from her coat and levitating it back with the plant. "So," she said with a hint of a blush, "I was thinking I'd join you, we don't have the same classes, but we could walk there together, right?" "Um..." He smiled somewhat hesitantly. "I guess?" Trixie beamed. --- "And then," Daisy interrupted, eyes sparkling, "you told him you loved him, which he reciprocated," she added a few dramatic hoof gestures, "and the two of you were inseparable until tragedy struck, you were separated, and you've finally reunited after all those years?" "Had no idea you were such a romantic, Daisy," huffed a slightly agitated Rose. She chuckled in response. "That's how these things go, isn't it?" The green-maned earth pony turned to Trixie with an innocent smile. "I mean, you both said you loved eachother, right?" "A-actually," Trixie replied sheepishly, "He's, um, never really said it in those exact terms, but he's definitely said other things!" Her audience of three, give or take a few ponies she didn't notice standing by, pretending to make conversation with eachother while listening in, leaned forward a little, eagerly waiting for more. --- "You're really great with magic, Trixie!" --- Rose raised an eyebrow. "That's a few leagues away from 'I love you', don't you think?" Lily nodded in agreement, if only subtly. "Hey," Trixie countered, "it's really romantic in-context, trust me!" --- And so they walked to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns together, neither aware of a few ponies smiling or internally squeeing at the sight of the two little foals, one gazing affectionately at the other, sparks literally flying from her horn as she did, while he occasionally smiled back, as they went. For young colts and fillies, it's very easy to take no notice of the world around them, doubly so when given something else to focus on. In Trixie's case, that something was the colt she was expressing her love for in a variety of word choices. In Prince's case, that something was the filly spewing random magical lights from her horn every couple of steps, like she had an overflowing fireworks factory in her head. The dazzling hues and ethereal shapes were as beautiful as they were hard to ignore, so he didn't really notice that Trixie had been talking to him the entire time until they reached the school foyer, where they'd have to part ways to get to their respective classes, and she stood looking at him. She was smiling widely, but expectantly, as though she really wanted him to say something, so, with a smile, he said the first thing that came to mind. "You're really great at magic, Trixie!" Those weren't the words Princess Celestia had mentioned yesterday, nor any of the fifteen sets of them Trixie had spoken on their way here, but to her, it felt exactly the same. Her heart pounding in her chest, smile widening to dentist-worrying proportions, Trixie threw her forelegs around the young Prince, who stood still in awkward surprise. It was at that moment that the voice of the Ruler of Equestria was heard from behind him. "Hello, Nephew, how are you and your fillyfriend?" He flushed, trying to turn to face his mischievous aunt before remembering the filly rooting him in place. "Sh-she's not my fillyfriend!" Trixie, forelegs still wrapped around his neck, was a much more happy kind of embarrassed. Aww, he's shy! She nuzzled his face with her own before breaking the embrace, quickly whispering into his ear. "I have to go to class now, but I'll see you later~!" Trotting away, she quickly looked over her shoulder, blew a kiss, and headed off, leaving a rapidly reddening Blueblood and an increasingly amused Celestia behind her. The latter leaned down, her voice soft. "So, should I arrange the wedding now, or-" His voiced cracked a little. "AUNTIE!!" --- "Uhm, this is very impressive," said Inkwell, who had seen far stranger things in her day than a filly performing the spell that currently had most of her class floating a few inches off the floor, "but I only asked you to levitate the bowling ball." Trixie, beaming, felt like she could have done much more, the last thing Blueblood said to her spinning in her mind. You're really great at magic, Trixie! "Eh, hello?" The aging teacher tried to get a good look at the slightly over-enthusiastic caster with her good eye. "You can put us all down now." Though feeling no urge to, Trixie complied, grinning triumphantly as her classmates happily reunited with the ground. "How was that?!" Inkwell looked back and forth between her one overjoyed student and the slightly unsettled ones. She had been doing this long enough to know that you should encourage talent. Or was it healthy appetites? Foals needed their nutrition and all that, but it was hard to remember sometimes. Her age must have been catching up to her... Regardless, she nodded to Trixie. "Really good levitation there, Missy, right class?" The others applauded, some more hesitantly than others, but to Trixie it was all the same. They like me! He was right, I am great at magic! She wanted more, more spells, more applause, more cuddles with Prince, more of a lot of things! And she'd get them, she'd show everypony she could how great she could be! And she'd start by showing Prince Blueblood. --- "And that's how I hid under that floor tile!" The young Prince, his back against a wall and still trying to fend off a heart attack, could only stare in silence at the beaming filly that had popped out from under a perfectly flat slab of pavement. It was a pity he was still scared out of his wits for the first half of her explanation, because he kindof wanted to know how that worked now. Trixie's ear-to-ear smile faded to a normal grin as she noticed that he didn't look all that impressed this time... What had she done wrong? "Well, I have to go now, see you later!" Quickly waving a hoof and trotting off, she figured it was just as well that she regroup for now, she'd had to wait under that tile about forty minutes longer than planned and it was just about dinner time. Watching her go, Prince opted to move along as well. To whatever he had been doing before. What had that been again? One thing's for sure, he thought, she's definitely getting weirder... --- Leafing through the notebook she had put together with all the important tips she could find in a dozen spell books, how-to guides, and a few various manuals, Trixie slapped a hoof to her forehead. "Of course," she muttered from under her bed, "never reveal your secrets! That's why he didn't look amazed!" She wouldn't repeat that mistake again, next time she'd be all about the performance, and dazzle him right off his hooves! --- "I-I told you before, Trixie, coming in here is tres-" "It's only trespassing if you enter a stranger's home, silly!" She had just climbed in through a window this time, calling out to him before she entered so he could see the broom she was gracefully balanced on and had levitated up to his windowsill before jumping in, leaning the broom against a wall, and posing nonchalantly. Prince couldn't decide whether it was good or bad that, for what must have been at least the fourth time she'd come to his room late in the day, he was starting to get less uncomfortable when it happened. It was, of course, easier to deal with than when she popped up in the bathroom, as he was starting to work out a system. "What," he asked as patiently as he could, doing his best to keep the slow-building panic out of his voice, "do you want, Trixie?" "I've got a new trick to show you!" --- The garden was the first place he'd met Trixie, so it seemed unlikely that he'd be able to avoid her here, but he was increasingly sure that nowhere in the castle was safe. "You really go all over the place, huh Blueblood?" He wasn't startled by her voice this time, but he was startled by her popping out of a rose bush, not a scratch on her, perplexingly, with one of the lush flowers in her teeth. She giggled, giving him an affectionate smile as she tucked the rose into his mane. "It's so nice that you take me places, I guess that's what your cutie mark stands for?" She nuzzled his face tenderly, her voice quiet. "I'm always wondering where we'll end up next~!" He could only mutter nervously. --- "Fifty-eight knots, two square meters of space, soft as silk and sturdy as stone!" She touched a hoof to her chin, face contemplative. "Probably." Her enthusiastic grin returned. "What do you think?!" Prince wriggled a bit on the ground, not sure what she'd expected him to say. "It's... a very, um... nice, net?" She giggled. "It's a love net! See the holes?" Holding what he could of it away from his face, Prince could see that the rope was woven into a net of hearts. Somewhat triangular ones, but hearts none-the-less. He couldn't decide whether he should be more impressed or terrified. "Can you please let me go now?" Trixie gently patted his head, smiling peacefully. "Only if you don't run away again. Really, I know you're an active, athletic colt, but it's so hard to keep a conversation going when sprinting through the town!" The second one. Definitely the second one. --- "It's really cold tonight, huh?" "...Trixie, I'm almost sure sneaking into the palace at night is trespassing." Cuddling slightly closer to him under the blanket, she giggled. "Nonsense, it's not trespassing when it's so cold outside that you can see your breath, right?" "Um-" "If it were, who knows how many ponies might freeze?" He might have found her smile cute if not for the last few weeks. "My house was too far away by the time it got really chilly, so this is a completely legal matter of survival!" Trying to ignore the weird feeling of somepony else's body heat in his bed, he maintained as much of his resolve as possible. "No, really, I talked to Auntie about it and-" "Would Princess Celestia approve of ponies freezing their tails off?" "W-well, no, but-" Trixie grinned wider, nuzzling him. "Then thaaaat settles it!" Prince sighed, he had been so sure this time... --- Left turn! Strafe! Duck under the canopy! Turn right! Keep running! Havetokeepgoinghavetokeepgoing! Climb the boxes! Jump the fence! Turn right again! Cross the bridge while keeping low! I'll try rolling this time! There was no time to slow down, no time to turn and see if she was still behind him, because the moment he did would be the moment he'd see that insane, grinning face, trip over something, and end up pinned down again! He'd run, run until he could be sure he'd be alone for a while, or at least not near her! Through the alley! Left turn! Run on the wall! That didn't work. Get up! Keep running! Behind the shop! Turn ri- The next thing Prince knew, something had caught him, like a thick, soft cord being pressed just under his neck, slowing him to a stop before flinging him backwards with the same force with which he'd run into it. In mid-air, it looked like a giant rubber band. His head stopped ringing shortly after he landed, lying on his back, but he didn't dare open his eyes because- "Heeheehee! You know, you might make a good alicorn someday, you flew at least twenty meters!" Somehow, just this once, he had hoped that not seeing her wouldn't let her appear. Hesitantly looking at her, standing above him and cheerful as ever, he pointed a hoof in the direction he'd been flung from. "How?" She giggled. "I worked out an algorithm to figure out where you'd go on your afternoon jog and set up that rubber band to catch you! Sorry to interrupt your exercise, but I figured once you opted not to climb up to the city walls again the roof of the hat shop was probably out, you know?" He was just about sure of it now, there was no escape, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He sighed to himself, maybe Auntie Celestia would know what to do, if he could get a minute to talk to her? --- A slightly tattered notebook impacted a nearby wall in Trixie's room as she suppressed a scream of fury. She was better with her magic than ever, yet fewer and fewer ponies, her classmates, instructors, and even Blueblood, looked impressed anymore when she performed spells for them! Flipping through her notes on a nightly basis, reviewing and even amending some sections over and over, she was sure she had been doing everything right, so why wasn't anypony happy to see her do what she did best? I'm losing him, she thought, he hasn't cheered or praised me in forever, but I've only gotten better since I started! Is there another magical filly...? Taking a full minute to contemplate it, she shook her little head. No, if there were another unicorn as talented as me, I'd have seen him watching her, we're almost never apart, after all! She paced her bedroom for almost an hour, desperately wracking her brain for answers. When she stopped, both because her hooves were getting tired and because she was struck with a thought that had never occurred to her before, she couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. "I'm not good enough," she uttered, "he wants something more..." Somewhere in the time they met, he must have changed his standards, expecting Trixie to get-well, hadn't he called her the best magic pony in the whole world? He had, in exactly those words as Trixie regularly reminisced! That was what he wanted, and she was just doing the same old - though still perfectly magnificent!- spells all the time. She had to be better, to really be the most powerful unicorn there ever was, to be so great she could raise the sun and the moon! At the same time! But she'd never learn to do that in Canterlot, both because there's only so much studying can do, and because she'd inevitably get distracted following Blueblood around instead of what she'd really meant to be doing, as her grades were starting to show. She'd have to leave town, set out on her own and become the greatest, most powerful unicorn the world had ever seen! And that meant leaving him behind. Looking around her room, there was little here that meant much to her anyway. Her classmates, her home, her family, it might be many years before she saw them again. As she packed a bag, Trixie decided that didn't bother her, because the most important pony in the world to her would be waiting for her at the end of it all, and when she saw him again, she'd be ready to make him hers. There was just one last thing to do. --- Negligent. Celestia had been negligent, and now that she was walking to the last place Trixie had been seen, the gardens, she knew to what extent. Inkwell had mentioned Trixie was proving boastful in class more and more often, but it sounded like a step forward for the formerly shy filly. Rare was the day that anypony acted out even a little when she herself was in charge of a classroom, so she supposed she must have missed it. Blueblood complained about her every now and then, but she thought he'd just been embarrassed, as colts are wont to be when shown affection. Sneaking into the castle regularly? Chasing him around town? Lying in wait for him in places she'd worked out he'd go to? If they had been older, these might have even been criminal offenses, depending on the circumstances, most of all the first one, and those were just the ones Blueblood had shared off the top of his head. In hindsight, I probably should have let him keep talking, but I have enough to go on now. It wasn't too late to straighten everything out, maybe even keep a chance of the romance she'd hoped would blossom between the two foals if she played her cards right, she just needed to talk to Trixie again. Maybe she could steer her towards a lifestyle supportive of both her interests, magic and Prince, respectively? Twilight could always use another friend, I'll bet they would get along well... As she stepped out onto the grass, guards at the doors hastily saluting, she asked them if either had seen a little blue filly recently. A minute later, she found Blueblood sitting by himself where the guards had pointed her, staring off into the distance. "Blueblood? Where is Trixie?" He didn't turn to look at her. "That's... a good question, Auntie." "What?" He shrugged a little, his voice soft. "She said she was going away somewhere, that she'd be the greatest, most powerful pony in the world. And..." Celestia regarded him with a concerned frown. "Yes?" She went to him, of course she did! She suppressed the urge to swear, if she'd just waited by Blueblood a little longer, Trixie would have come on her own! Now he looked her in the eye, his face the picture of somepony walking through a graveyard alone that just heard a voice behind them. "She said 'I'll be back for you!'" The young Prince would live in fear after that day, at least for a little while. As the years wore on, he managed to worry less and less about the crazy filly that followed him under tables and in bathrooms until he almost forgot about her entirely. Celestia, for her part, did all that she could to find Trixie, but to no avail. Her parents had no idea she'd even departed, (and seemed more concerned about a missing bag of bits when they were told) and nopony in the city saw hide nor tail of her after that night, vanished without a trace. --- Quite a few of the listeners that had gathered around Trixie in Sugarcube Corner were practically holding their breath, including Pinkie Pie and the three fillies that first abducted the showmare. "So," an anonymous voice from the crowd asked, "why do you call yourself great and powerful?" She struck a haughty pose. "Because the Great and Powerful Trixie is Great and Powerful, of course!" Nearly all present took that to mean it was just something she came up with one day and decided to make a title of. Pinkie smiled, waving her forehooves enthusiastically. "Well, it was a great story anyway! I'm almost sad Bluie and his friends missed it, but they can hear it when you tell them yourself, so I'm not so sad!" Her smile vanished. "Oh, shoot, I should have invited them all while they were together! Well, actually, I don't think they're all together right now, they've been doing the 'let's split up, gang!' thing a lot lately, it's getting kinda rare that they're all in the same room! I think all six showed up to the big charity race a little while back, but that was outside, so I don't think it counts. I guess you could just tell the story to all of them one by one?" She beamed, pronking in place. "Ooh! You should only tell all of them certain parts so they have to piece it together like a story jigsaw-puzzle, that'd be a great trick!" Starting to get a feel for how to deal with Pinkie Pie, Trixie tried a friendly smile as she opted to play along. "Yes, Trixie should do... that. But first, Trixie needs to find him again, so if anypony knows where he is...?" Scootaloo spoke up, angrily shaking a hoof. "He was right next to that evil son-of-a-" She was cut off by Sweetie Belle, who smiled innocently as she put a hoof over the mouth of her vindictive friend. "He was in the library with Mr. Shining Armor, Mr. Doctor, and Mr. Soarin." Paydirt! "At the library, you say? Well, Trixie is pleased to have regaled you all with her story, but she must return to her task and, uh-" she glanced at Pinkie, who hadn't stopped jumping up and down, "regale it... again?" She stood on her hind hooves before crying out "Farewell!" and vanishing in a puff of purple smoke. In the ensuing coughing fits by those forced to breathe magic smoke indoors, where it dispersed much more slowly, nopony noticed a loud impact by the door or the mark on the frame vaguely similar to the shape of a unicorn's forehead when the room was clear again.