Rain fell in Canterlot for dramatic effect as a cloaked figure entered a magic shop.
“May I help you, traveler?” asked the shopkeeper.
The cloaked figure pointed to an amulet. “Ah, you have a keen eye,” continued the shopkeeper, “the Alicorn Amulet is one of the most mysterious and powerful of all the known magical charms. Though I’m afraid it’s far too dangerous.”
“Then why in the world are you selling it?” asked the figure.
“You got me,” said the shopkeeper. “I don’t actually own the place; I’m just an intern. So I can't sell it to you.”
The cloaked figure opened a bag and showed a lot of gold coins to the shopkeeper.
“You know what?” asked the shopkeeper. “They don’t pay me enough to not get bribed. It’s yours.”
Meanwhile, sometime later…
“… and that’s how Equestria was made!” finished Trixie.
“Um, that’s very nice,” said Suri, “but I just wanted to know what was for lunch.”
“I’m getting to that,” said Trixie, but she found herself interrupted by the arrival of a lavender unicorn wearing a rather conspicuous amulet. Well, technically more of a light grayish mulberry unicorn, but who’s counting?
“Well, if it isn’t… Trixie,” said Twilight, the aforementioned lavender unicorn in the off chance this wasn’t obvious.
“Oh, hi, Twilight,” said Trixie. She turned back to Suri. “Anyway, as I was saying–”
“‘Oh, hi, Twilight’? That’s all you have to say?” asked Twilight indignantly.
Trixie considered the matter. “Would you prefer I say ‘hello’ instead of ‘hi’? That is slightly longer.”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “Considering you ruined my life, I’d expect you to have a little more to say.”
“Oh, you didn’t realize? When Lightning Dust was going on about punishments, she was using an outdated law book. You actually weren’t responsible for any of the damages.”
Twilight stared. “What.”
“Yeah, we kinda tried to contact you to tell you, but since you thought you were on the run, we weren’t able to get through to you.”
Twilight continued staring in disbelief.
“Staring in disbelief seems oddly common recently,” said Trixie. She turned back to Suri. “Anyway, as I was trying to say–”
“Hey!” said Twilight. “I did not go through the effort of getting this magical amulet and coming all the way back here to get revenge just to be brushed off!”
“How were you planning to get revenge, anyway?” asked Trixie.
“By challenging you to a magic duel to show you that you’re inferior in terms of magical power!”
“Enh,” said Trixie, “no need. You’re the stronger one. I admit it. Now, as I was trying to tell Suri–”
Trixie suddenly found herself blasted into a wall by Twilight. “Screw this,” said Twilight, “everypony in this town is going to suffer my wrath for what happened, because no one thought to defend me.”
“You did kind of run out before anyone had a chance,” said Suri, causing her to get blasted as well. “Yeah, this is why I usually keep my mouth shut around powerful beings who have reason to dislike me,” she mumbled to herself.
Sunset approached, having heard the noise. “What is all of this rumpus?” she asked wearily.
“Twilight’s back and she’s mad,” said Trixie. She pointed a hoof in Twilight’s direction. “She’s over there.”
“Ugh,” said Sunset with a groan, “looks like something else I have to take care of. At least I know what to do.” She walked over to Twilight. “Hi,” she said.
Twilight shot a glare at her. “What is it?”
“Well,” said Sunset in as convincing a voice as she could, “to try to recompense you for your issues, we put together a fund of sorts. So, to make up for everything you went through, we’ve got a rather large amount of cash for you.”
“I don’t want money!” said Twilight indignantly. “I want revenge!”
Sunset shrugged. “Well, I guess the money will go towards its original goal, then: Getting double-ply toilet paper in all the public bathrooms.”
“Screw it,” said Twilight, “I’m tired of this. Sunset, you at least helped against the Ursa Major. And Gilda,” she continued as Gilda spontaneously appeared, “you also assisted. You two get spared. She blasted the two with a magical beam that sent them flying out of the city. A large dome then appeared around the city.
“Ow,” said Sunset, “my head. Did she teleport you to her location?”
“I assume so,” said Gilda. “Did that ‘Appease Twilight’ fund not work?”
“What do you think?” asked Sunset dryly.
“Where’d she get all that power anyway? She was always strong, but shooting us out of the city? Teleporting me to their location despite not knowing where I was? She seems crazy strong right now, even for her.”
“Maybe it was that amulet around her neck,” said Sunset. “I feel like I read something about an amulet that would turbocharge your magic, but I can’t remember the details.”
“And, of course,” noted Gilda, “any information would probably be in that library you have. But we’re stuck out here.”
“Well,” said Sunset, “we had a good run in Ponyville. We had some fun times. But it’s obviously a lost cause at this point, so time to skedaddle!”
Gilda grabbed Sunset as she tried to walk off. “No way! We have to find a way to defeat Twilight so we can get back into Ponyville!”
“Why do you care so much?”
“Uh, well, I kinda left my gun collection back there,” said Gilda sheepishly.
“Of course,” said Sunset with a roll of her eyes. “Well, defusing the situation could earn me some points, I guess. Any ideas?”
“Plenty!”
“That don’t involve guns?”
“Hrm,” said Gilda. “That’s a tougher one.”
“I’ve got one!” declared Trixie as she suddenly popped up.
“Trixie?” asked Sunset. “How did you get out here? I thought she sealed off Ponyville.”
Trixie shrugged. “I dug my way under the dome.”
“But… we were just blasted out. You would’ve had to have dug your way through in a matter of seconds.”
“Hey,” said Trixie, “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Gilda.
“Whatever! Do you want to hear my idea?”
“Sure why not?” asked Gilda. “It can’t be worse than your last terrible idea.”
Trixie ignored the second portion of Gilda’s comment. “I have made the determination that the amulet Twilight is wearing is the source of her recent power! It’s called the Alicorn Amulet, and all we have to do is get her to take it off. Then instead of a super-powered unicorn, we’ll just have to deal with a regular powered unicorn. Also, the amulet may or may not warped her personality, so if we get it taken off she might not be in a fighting mood anyway.”
“How in the world did you know all that?” asked Sunset, confused.
Trixie shrugged. “Last time Lightning Dust and I were in Canterlot, we were looking at random stuff in magic shops for inspiration. One of them had something called the Alicorn Amulet and the owner went on this long spiel about it and how it was really dangerous and stuff, so he wouldn’t sell it.”
“Then why did he have it on display in the store?” asked Gilda.
“Apparently, it was worth a lot, so if the store burnt down or something he’d be able to claim it for the insurance money.”
Sunset waved her hoof in dismissal. “I don’t care about that. How do we get the amulet off of her?”
“How should I know?” asked Trixie. “I’m just the inspiration. You guys are the brains. You figured out how to beat Celestia, didn’t you?”
“Hrm,” said Sunset, “maybe if we could get a large enough army, we could overcome her with sheer numbers.”
“Funny you should mention that,” said Trixie. “See, there’s something I didn’t mention…”
“Oh, joy,” muttered Sunset. “What is it this time?”
“Hi everypony!” declared Trixie as she walked up to them. “What’s going on?”
Sunset looked back and forth between the two Trixies. “I… you… what?”
“Yeah, well, I kinda cloned myself using this cloning pool in the Everfree Forest. There’s a bunch of them running around.”
“Which,” said Gilda, “is how you actually managed to get that tunnel dug so quickly, I assume.”
“How in the world did you get all of these clones around without anypony noticing beforehand?” asked Sunset.
“Hey,” said Trixie, “genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”
“That still doesn’t make any sense!”
“Guys!” said Gilda. “Are we just going to stand around here talking? It’s time to take action already! Are we mice or men?”
“Uh, neither,” said Sunset.
“Exactly!” said Gilda. “Now, where are all the other clones that we can use to help defeat Twilight?”
A sudden stampede of Trixies stampeded in. “Here!” said Trixie.
“Well, I guess we can figure out something based on all of these,” said Sunset as she looked at all of the Trixies. “Uh, which one is the original again?”
“Me!” declared all of the Trixies in unison, except for two which looked around in a confused manner and jumped up and down a few times before saying the same thing.
“Meh,” said Sunset, “I guess we’ll figure it out later. I wonder what horrible things Twilight is subjecting Ponyville to.”
“Work, my slaves!” declared Twilight. “Work!”
“Uh, Twilight?” asked Suri. “I’m not sure what you expect us to work on. We already alphabetized the books you wanted us to do.”
“Exactly!” said Twilight. “Now no one will ever be unable to find their favorite book again!”
“I think she’s a little crazy,” whispered Suri to Flim.
“Next,” announced Twilight, “it’s time to sort the trash!”
“All right,” said Sunset, “you’re sure you have what you need?”
“Absolutely!” said Gilda. “It was actually surprisingly easy to sneak into my house to get my stuff. Now you just need to get Twilight into the town square.”
“That’s going to be the tougher part,” said Sunset. “Getting her there could be–”
Sunset found herself cut off by a loud voice announcing, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE WILL BE IN THE TOWN SQUARE FOR THE NEXT QUARTER OF AN HOUR. THIS IS JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER.”
“Uh, nevermind,” said Sunset.
“It’ll take me a little while to set up,” said Gilda, “so don’t go engaging her immediately.”
After Gilda left, Sunset turned to the various Trixies. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Um,” said one of the Trixies, “some of us already did.” She pointed at several of the Trixies having already walked past Sunset.
“This is why cloning is a problem,” muttered Sunset to herself as she dashed after them.
“All right!” said Twilight to the gathered ponies. “For our next order of business, we will–”
“Hold it!” shouted Sunset as she entered the square. “You may be powerful with that amulet thing of yours, but I managed to find one that makes me even more powerful! Time for a magic duel!”
Twilight looked at her. “That ‘amulet’ you’re wearing looks like it’s made out of plastic.”
“Uh, no it isn’t!” said Sunset indignantly. “And I’ll prove it! Trixie, come here!” Trixie came up to Sunset. “With the power of this amulet, I will clone Trixie, thereby proving–”
A large group of Trixies suddenly ran into the square before Sunset was able to fake casting a cloning spell. “Um… never mind,” finished Sunset lamely. “I guess the gig is up.”
“Jig is up,” said Twilight.
“Huh?”
“That’s the expression, ‘the jig is up.’ You mixed up the two words.”
“Uh, okay,” said Sunset, feeling unsure what else to say.
“Anyway!” said Twilight. “Do you think I’m stupid? You obviously just used that reflecting pool to clone Trixie.”
“Hey!” said one of the Trixies. “Don’t give her the credit. I used the pool to clone myself. Sunset had nothing to do with it.”
“The point is,” said Twilight, “Sunset didn’t have all this amazing power after all. So I don’t have anything to fear. Especially after I do this.” Twilight zapped all of the Trixies but one. “There. Only one left.”
“You sure you left the right one?” asked Sunset.
“Meh,” said Twilight with a shrug. “Does it really matter?”
Just then, a bang was heard and the amulet on Twilight’s neck fractured. “What?” she asked incredulously.
“I think your amulet got destroyed by Gilda’s sniper rifle,” said Sunset.
Twilight looked down at the amulet. “No, not destroyed… just damaged.” Twilight suddenly appeared as though she was thinking extremely quickly. “That’s not enough power left to really accomplish any goals of domination here… but if I were to go there… that would be another matter. See you!” She teleported away.
“That was anticlimactic,” said Sunset. “Well, at least we got rid of all of the clones and it’s just the real Trixie back.”
“Yes,” said Trixie sinisterly, “the real Trixie.”
“Well,” said Gilda as she flew down and landed next to them, “I’m sure the real Trixie will have no problem paying for all the damages caused by this whole thing.”
“What?” asked Trixie.
“The clones sure did a number on the town, and someone has to pay for it. Since you were the one who cloned yourself, you’re liable.”
Trixie frowned. “Screw this,” she said. Her horn suddenly glowed and she zapped herself.
“Did she just zap herself?” asked Sunset.
“Yeah, guess she was one of the clones,” said Gilda. “I figured that mentioning that thing about liabilities would drive her off if she was a clone.”
“Doesn’t that mean the real Trixie did get zapped back to the pool with the other clones, though?”
“You almost sound like you care,” said Gilda.
“Well, if it turns out not to be the real Trixie, it’s a legal headache,” muttered Sunset. “And guess who gets stuck dealing with the paperwork?”
“The mayor’s office?” asked Gilda.
“Exactly!” said Sunset. “I need to maintain some level of decent ties with them. All that paperwork wouldn’t help. But anyway, to get back on track, doesn’t all this mean we have no Trixies now? That might be even worse paperwork.”
“You know,” said Gilda, “that spell confuses me. The reason it can hit the real Trixie is because it can’t tell the clones from the real one, right?”
“Right,” said Sunset. “But getting back to–”
“But how does that make any sense?” asked Gilda. “How does the spell know that someone actually was the person who made the clones? What would differentiate the real Trixie from any random pony? Wouldn’t it have to work on anyone, even if they never made the clones?”
“Well, I’m not that familiar with the spell, but I’m guessing there are residual effects of using the pool on them?” said Sunset. “And maybe that makes it, for the spell, impossible to tell the clones apart. However, as I was saying–”
Gilda interrupted again. “But then why not make a spell that can detect that residual effect? There must be a difference in magic, shouldn’t there?”
“Look, I don’t care!” said Sunset. “The point is, is there no Trixie around anymore?”
“Oh, that,” said Gilda. “Actually, I’ve been totally stalling you.”
“What? Why?”
“Because in order to show the amazing genius that I possess, I needed you to wait long enough for something to happen.”
“And what is that thing to happen?” asked Sunset.
“Hasn’t happened yet,” said Gilda with a shrug. “Have any small talk you want to engage in to pass the time?”
“No!” said Sunset indignantly. “What I want is–”
“Hey everypony!” declared Trixie as she came to the town square. “Sorry I’m late, but it took a while to run all the way over here. All those exercises Lightning Dust has been making me do actually paid off.”
“Wait, what happened?” asked Sunset.
“Wow, my suspicion was correct,” said Gilda. “After the remaining clone popped itself back into the pool, they all threw Trixie out of it, and she came here.”
“Exactly!” declared Trixie.
“And what would you have done if your suspicion was wrong?” asked Sunset.
“Hey,” said Gilda, “if I stopped to care about consequences, I’d never do anything.”
“So what happened while I was away, anyway?” asked Trixie. “As Twilight’s not here, did the plan work?”
“Well, Gilda’s shot appears to have destroyed the amulet’s power amplification, but seems to have left Twilight a bit screwed up in the head. She muttered something about going someplace else. But her tyranny is over for Ponyville!”
“Actually,” said another pony, “the town is probably a little better for her rule. Got the trash cleaned up, got stuff organized… she wasn’t that bad a ruler.”
“You know, I had a question,” said Gilda. “Why in the world did you clone yourself? Not even the usual having to be in multiple places at once makes sense for you, because you have so little to actually do.”
“Well, um,” said Trixie, “I kinda figured that I could do all the crazy stuff I always wanted to but would get in trouble for, but the clone would give me an alibi.”
“That,” said Gilda with her eyes widening, “is brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Is this stupid adventure done, then?” asked Sunset. “I’d like to be able to relax.”
“I guess it’s done with,” said Trixie, “though don’t you think it all feels rather unfulfilling? Nothing is at all wrapped up due to Twilight still sort of being on the run. It seems like a lame way to end an adventure. Let me tell you, if my life was a movie, I’d feel really disappointed if this isn’t concluded more properly soon.”
“For the last time,” snapped Sunset, “your life is not a film or a screenplay for one!”
“Well if it was,” said Trixie, “now would be a great time for me to end it with a great quip!”
There was a pause.
“You’ve got nothing?” asked Gilda.
“I’ve got nothing,” said Trixie.