With horror, Trixie realized she’d forgotten to cloak her face in disinterest after the shock of Fluttershy’s unwitting betrayal. She quickly tried to twist into a bemused grin, but it was already too late. Twilight just exchanged a knowing look with Trixie for a moment before she turned her attention back to Fluttershy and motioned to the closet.
"The closet, eh?" Twilight repeated, and shot Trixie a brief glance, then smirked.
“Over there?”
"W-well, yes. B-but you shouldn't go through it without Trixie's p-p—"
“Thank you, Fluttershy.”
Twilight’s voice shook Trixie from her daze, and she found herself giving a sideways glance at the closet. What? No! She quickly returned her gaze back to Twilight, but the damage had been done. To her horror, Twilight was staring right at her hiding place. “T-there’s nothing in there. Hey! Get back here!”
Ignoring her, Twilight made her way toward the closet.
Meanwhile Trixie could hardly breath as her mind raced. It was as though she’d suddenly been dunked in freezing water, her body felt numb and sluggish. It was difficult to think straight in between nearly every part of herself screaming at her own idiocy. She had to do something, anything! “W-wait!” she yelled, and stumbled after Twilight as fast as she could. She managed to catch up and put herself in between Twilight and her destination. “Hey! Don’t you walk away from Trixie! Just who do you think you are, violating Trixie’s privacy without a shred of evidence?!”
Twilight paused as Trixie blocked her way. She looked remarkably more collected than she had a moment ago. “Obviously I am about to find some. Step aside, Trixie. I’m sure you’ve got nothing to hide, right? I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason why the book is gone that has nothing to do with you.” She sidestepped in an attempt to get around Trixie.
“Trixie has no idea what you are talking about. Uhm. Wait, wait! What about the pony that Trixie got the book from in the first place? He knew about it. W-what if he followed Trixie to see where it went?” She said, while consistently mirroring Twilight’s every attempt to walk around her.
Looking frustrated, Twilight stopped moving and glared at Trixie. Still, she did appear to consider the option for a time, then nodded. “That is possible. I’ll be sure to test out that hypothesis.” With a flash of her horn, Twilight’s aura wrapped around Trixie. “In a moment.” keeping Trixie locked in place, Twilight stepped around her.
“No! Let Trixie go!” She pulled against the magical hold, but no matter how much she struggled, she couldn’t get Twilight’s magic to budge in the slightest. Not without a high level counter spell that would most likely make her pass out just from trying it in her current state. Very briefly, Trixie considered doing exactly that, and hope it would force Twilight to abort her search in favor of a trip to the hospital. No, that’s stupid! It will only delay her.
Behind her, Trixie heard the distinct sound of the closet door creaking open. She bit her lip till it stung painfully. What was she going to say? Perhaps she could try to spin a story that she was being set up? Or even pretend that the book just magically appeared there? These were all terrible ideas. The only thing she could do now was fight Twilight, if only she could see her.
Meanwhile, the sounds of books, boxes, brooms and whatever else was being moved around continued on unabated. Panicking, Trixie fought against the magical bonds with all her might, straining her every muscle as she shook and thrashed as violently as the omnipresent glow around her would allow. All she had to do was turn around. How hard could it be?
Rock hard did not begin to describe it.
A faint glimmer of magic made the fur on Trixie's neck stand on edge. But, she couldn't tell what spells Twilight was casting if she wasn't allowed to turn her head to observe the actual spell. Trixie redoubled desperate, hopeless struggle against the holding magic to stop Twilight, but all she managed to do was cause her joints and muscles to ache.
By the sound of books opening and closing, Trixie could only guess that Twilight had already found the spellbook, and was now in the process of magically checking the rest of the books she had hidden away for more illusion enchantments.
She had to stop her! She didn’t know how, but she had to. It didn’t matter how much it hurt, she had to break free right now! Trixie clenched her teeth so hard she could have crushed coal into diamond while she fought. Despite the pain, Trixie's horn began sputtering uselessly, emitting little sparks as she tried finding some kind of crack in Twilight's magical hold. Even if it sent her back to the hospital, she had to break free!
“T-Trixie?” Fluttershy trotted down the rest of the stairs in a hurry. “Twilight! S-something’s wrong with Tri-Uwah!” In her haste, she tripped on her way down and crashed, sprawling out at the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately she only had two steps left to go.
“Ah! Fluttershy, are you okay?” The sound of several books dropping unceremoniously to the ground was followed by an audible cringe, coming from the librarian mare. Still, she quickly abandoned the books in favor of speeding past Trixie, and helping Fluttershy off the ground.
“Look!” Fluttershy pointed at Trixie.
As soon as Twilight turned around, she gasped and the glow around her horn vanished. “Trixie! What are you doing!?”
As the magic around Twilight dissipated, so did Trixie’s restraints. The moment she lost the spells support, her legs buckled and she crashed to the floor. Trying to right herself just sent another aching wave through her body, so she stayed slumped to the ground. Dazed with her sudden success, Trixie stared at Twilight and Fluttershy for just a moment. Trixie’s free! Quick! In an instant, Trixie recalibrated her options. Twilight was on the other side of the room. Twilight was a hard target. The book was right behind Trixie. The book was flammable. This was her last resort.
Her neck felt stiff as a board, and even creaked, as she turned towards the books behind her. Her eyes darted along the ground and scattered books in search of the black cloth and the spellbook while she readied a fire spell. Twilight might catch on the moment she saw the flames, but Trixie would only need to hold out a couple of seconds.
It wasn’t there.
Trixie blinked, then quickly looked back at Twilight. Twilight didn’t have it either. Her brain felt like it was exploding. This didn’t make sense. “What?”
The next second, Fluttershy was beside to her, and wrapped her in a hug. Then immediately retreated at Trixie's gasp of pain, “Sorry! Sorry!” she whimpered. “A-are you okay? Where does it hurt? I-it looked painful. What ha-happened?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s okay, Fluttershy. It was only a simple holding spell. It can’t hurt a pony unless they do something monumentally stupid. Like say: keep fighting it instead of holding still, but even then it essentially only bruises.”
“S-she’s right. Trixie is fine,” Trixie said, shooting Twilight a brief glare. Trixie turned her attention to Fluttershy, and pulled her back into the hug. A dull ache through her protesting limbs told her that was a bad idea, but what did they know? The soft, warm feeling of Fluttershy against her fur was much better medicine than taking it easy. And, far more importantly, she felt like it was the only thing that currently kept her from breaking down into blind hysterics. Where is the book!?
“Okay, Trixie. Where is the book?”
Trixie gave Twilight a look that could have petrified a gorgon. “Excuse Trixie?” At least this confirmed that Twilight did not have it, which was good. But then, who did? The only thing Trixie could imagine was that she misremembered where she’d hidden it. Perhaps she had a sudden stroke of genius and moved the book before going to bed.
“You had to be really insistent on escaping if you hurt yourself on a basic holding spell. I am pretty sure you know perfectly well the odds of breaking free are slim to none unless you exceed the force originally put into the spell. What else could possibly be so important as to drive you to try that?” She explained it with an infuriatingly lecturing tone.
“U-uhm, girls? C-could you maybe… n-not…” Fluttershy sputtered miserably to no avail.
Trixie’s blood ran cold. Even now, Twilight was still on this? That she was technically right had nothing to do with this. Now she was just being unreasonable! “Let it go already!” She yelled while she forced herself to her feet, leaving Fluttershy on the floor as she took a few unsteady steps towards the unicorn-pitbull hybrid. “Why would Trixie resist? Gee Trixie isn’t sure! Maybe it was because you were holding Trixie against her will while you rifled through her personal things? You megalomaniacal sociopath! Why do you keep hounding Trixie? You’ve found nothing!”
“I know it has to be you! You were in my house. I show you, and only you, the book, and suddenly it goes missing. There isn’t any other explanation that makes sense!” Twilight glared at her with steely determination, but she couldn’t hide the shimmer of hurt in her voice. “I thought of you as a friend.”
Trixie just shook her head, making her face look hurt, and a touch perplexed. "Do you do this to everypony you meet? Nothing in your story of working to stop Nightmare Moon mentioned you accusing your new 'friends' for being spies with her, or working with her in anyway. But, they were all there when she woke up, weren't they?"
“If any of them had been named ‘stars’ then maybe I would have considered they were responsible for what happened. Of course I didn’t accuse my friends! What does that have to do with anything?”
Trixie pointed a hoof at Twilight in an accusatory manner "Trixie just wanted to try to be your friend! What did she do to get on your bad side like this!? Is this really all about you 'thinking' Trixie stole a book?"
Literal steam was coming out of Twilight's nose at this point, making Trixie a touch concerned about being immolated in fire. Ironic for that dream to come true through her student. she thought wryly.
Much like Trixie's had a moment before, Twilight’s hoof shot out. But, unlike Trixie's, Twilight's actually made contact, pushing the unicorn a little. Twilight pushed with every word she screamed out.
"ONCE A BOOK THIEF, ALWAYS A BOOK THIEF!"
Growling, and feeling a bit sore from the constant pushes, Trixie rammed her head against Twilight's hard. Twilight fell back, actually falling over with a pained yelp from the sudden headbutt.
Ignoring the pain, Trixie glowered down at the lavender mare. "How dare you! Trixie stole a book, and now you brand her a monster for it! Are you going to blame her every time something goes missing for now on!? You paranoid fr—"
PPPSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!
Trixie and Twilight both screamed out in shock as a line of water came between them. It was icy cold! They both leapt away from one another to escape the stream. Trixie glanced over to where the water was shooting from, only to receive a nasty shock. Fluttershy was there with a hose, giving her and Twilight the closest thing to a glare that Trixie had ever seen on her face.
"S-so, c-can we please stop this now?"
"Fluttershy! You don't understand! She—" Whatever Twilight was trying to say was cut off as a blast of water shot into her face.
"Hah! Serves you right! You... umm...?" Trixie trailed off in confusion as she was introduced to the torrent of water as well, but it wasn’t quite the same. Glancing down at the stream, Trixie saw Fluttershy was indeed hitting her with water again, but was only shooting at her chest, soaking her fur and forelegs as it dripped down. No matter how she looked at it though, it was all together incredibly ineffective at actually forcing her to be quiet. She gave Fluttershy a questioning look.
"W-well," Fluttershy started, continuing to hold the gushing hose pointed at Trixie, splattering the cold water against her chest the entire time. "I can't hit you in the face, Trixie. I-I don''t want you to get hurt again. S-so could you, maybe, please, stop talking for a little bit?"
Twilight finally stopped coughing up water. "Gah… Okay, okay, I'm willing to talk, just stop-ARGH!"
Twilight was cut off again by the hose.
"O-oh... S-sorry Twilight." Fluttershy mumbled with a blush. She stepped on a bend in the hose to stop the water. Her blush only deepened when she found both unicorns were now silently staring at her. Neither of them was willing to risk another shot of water, and that meant waiting to see what Fluttershy had to say.
After a few false starts, Fluttershy finally summoned up enough courage to talk to the pair of drenched and shivering mares. “T-Twilight, you hurt Trixie, a-and I know you're scared. I can't even imagine how bad it was to wake up and find out somepony went into your home. But, that's no excuse for how you're acting.”
Fluttershy swallowed nervously as she briefly looked at Trixie. “T-Trixie. It wasn’t r-right of you to t-talk about Spike like that…” She looked as though she had more to say, but held her tongue while Trixie merely nodded.
Trixie and Twilight exchanged nervous glances with each other. It was amazing how much could be conveyed with a single look between ponies in the same bind. Cease Fire. No sudden moves.
“I-I’m really sorry about this,” Fluttershy motioned at the hose and the pool of water the three of them were standing in, her eyes remained aimed at the puddle, avoiding both of them. “B-but… Rainbow and I t-tried really hard to make Trixie feel safe here… s-so, I don’t think it’s a good idea to come here and p-pick a fight. If that’s okay…
“N-now, I think it'd be best for you to go home, Twilight. I-I hope you feel better, and that you find the book your looking for, but I need to take care of Trixie right now. U-unless you're not well enough to go home. Do you think you'll be okay to go home?"
Twilight just nodded her head, eyeing the hose in Fluttershy's hooves warily.
"O-okay, I'm glad to hear that. I'll speak to you later, Twilight."
Twilight nervously smiled and nodded again before heading to the door. Once reaching it, she turned towards Trixie one last time.
"I'm still going to keep an eye on you, I don't trust—"
She yelped as Fluttershy shot her with the full force of the hose, causing her to careen out of the doorway and land in a wet heap by the fence outside.
"I'll see you later, Twilight."
Then Fluttershy shut the door.
Trixie waited with bated breath for a little while, but she did hear a set of soggy hoofsteps pacing around in circles outside, accompanied by unintelligible muttering through the thick door. Twilight was still out there. Probably working as hard as Trixie was to understand what just happened. Trixie hoped she went away soon. It made her nervous.
“So, uh, can Trixie speak now?” She glanced down at the hose. It remained motionless.
“O-oh, yes. It’s okay now, Trixie. I… well… I’m sorry. I didn’t know how else to separate you two… it works for the—”
“Animals.” Trixie finished for her. “Yes, Trixie gathered as much.” She chuckled lightly, it wasn’t even surprising anymore.
“…I was going to say, the times that Rainbow Dash gets in a fight.” Fluttershy folded the hose up to trap the water as best she could.
Caught off guard, Trixie blinked rapidly. “Huh? Really?”
Fluttershy blushed. “N-no.” She admitted, and swiftly turned around, then followed the hose back to the faucet, shutting it off properly.
Trixie trailed behind her with bemusement, dripping water all over the carpet from her soaked fur. She knew Fluttershy had intervened mostly to keep Trixie from getting hurt. But there was one little detail that seemed out of place. "Be honest with Trixie. You just did that last shot at Twilight because it was fun, right?"
"W-well...m-maybe a little" Despite Fluttershy’s best efforts to hide it, Trixie caught a glimpse between those pink locks, of a smirk.
A sudden knocking on the door made Fluttershy squeak and clutch the hose to her chest. “I-I didn’t mean it. I-it was a j-joke. I’m really sorry.”
Trixie rolled her eyes as Fluttershy’s moment of heroism fell through, and made her way to the door. As bad as her day had been, she figured it couldn’t get much worse anyway. Exactly as that thought passed her mind, she suddenly pictured an angry mob with torches and pitchforks. Still, she opened it anyway. Bring it.
Rather than an angry mob, it was only Twilight. Though Trixie wasn’t convinced that she was the lesser of the two evils. Far from it.
“Hey,” Twilight said flatly. She let her gaze drift from Trixie, to Fluttershy, and finally to the flooded floor. To Trixie’s surprise Twilight’s horn suddenly lit up, and before she could do anything she was engulfed in a flash of bright magenta. Half a second later, Trixie warily blinked the pink spots from her eyes while she heard Twilight say. “I’m sorry.” Followed by the sound of teleportation.
Gah! What did she do this time? It took Trixie a few dazed moments of investigation to really notice what had happened. Fluttershy was still here, Trixie herself was too. All the water had evaporated from floor, carpet, and fur. Twilight was gone.
Further inspection also revealed that the saddlebags whose contents Twilight had dumped onto the floor were back by the doorpost, and were filled with everything that had fallen out of them. Granted all the supplies were in the wrong place, and organized alphabetically, but it was the thought that counted.
With a long sigh, Trixie dropped down onto her haunches. It was over. Twilight had bought the story of her innocence, or at the very least deemed it more prudent to act as if she had. Either way, Trixie felt a massive weight fall off of her shoulders.
It left only one tiny-little-inconspicuous problem. She’d lost the actual book. Trixie knew on some level that it would be something she would lose her mind over as soon as the euphoria of having survived wore off, but that was something for future Trixie to worry about.
For now, present Trixie crawled onto the couch, barely recognizing that Fluttershy was asking her something. She was just too exhausted to reply.
Good luck to you, Future Trixie.
With that last thought, she curled up, and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.