The Great and Powerful Trixie stood rooted to the spot. It was rather irritating for Roseluck, one of the infamous "Flower Trio" of Ponyville, as the one-time stage magician had stopped to ask for directions right in front of the small lot they had rented to sell their wares. The salesmare reached out and prodded the blue pony, hoping to jar her from her apparent stupor. When no reaction occurred, she turned to where the shocked pony was looking. Seeing nothing more unusual than the crystalline castle sprouting like a tree amidst the thatched roofs of the village (which was by now somewhat of an old sight for the populous), she sighed and scooted her table a few inches over, hoping to recover some usable space to interact with other potential customers. A good thing, too, as Time Turner rushed up and started into his usual rapid-fire speech and intensely strange order. While mentally cataloging the flowers the odd pony was requesting, she tuned out the shocked unicorn.
For her part, Trixie was trying to reconcile the tree library she had been expecting to see (and indeed was rather confused to only find a burned stump in it's place) with the massive organically grown structure she now beheld. When she inquired at the market where she might find Twilight Sparkle with the tree being gone, she had expected to be directed to one of the many homes in the area, or perhaps even to Canterlot, the nearest major city and where one might normally expect to find a student of the Princess of the Sun. Taking up residence in a crystal castle, somehow not in the Crystal Empire in spite of how well it would fit much better there than an Earth Pony village, wasn't what she expected at all. Maybe it's Princess Cadence's vacation home...? She had heard from...somewhere, probably the rock farm she'd worked on, that Twilight Sparkle had been a major factor in the defeat of the Changelings during the royal wedding. Likely this had earned her a spot in Mi Amore Cadenza's inner circle, enough to warrant her taking up permanent residence in a castle. Yes...that MUST be the explanation! she thought frantically, That's the only reasonable explanation for what I'm seeing here!
Having reassured herself, she began walking in the direction of the castle. So I merely approach Twilight Sparkle, propose a straight up, no tricks, no amulets, nothing but magic-to-magic, unicorn-to-unicorn dual. Her mental self-pep-talk was working, as the pit that dropped in her stomach at the sight of the new crystal abode didn’t seem as big or as deep as it had before. I shall even eliminate “the magic of friendship” as a variable by declaring this to be a “friendly” bout. Why, what does she have that I don’t…?
Trixie’s pace suddenly slowed, her muzzle dropping as her eyes listed to the ground in front of her, …besides being Princess Celestia’s prized student, the Element of Magic, a dragon hatchling for an assistant… She shook her head, NO! I am The GREAT and POWERFUL TRIXIE! Striking a pose, she breathed deep, pushed a confident smile on her face, and strode onward, I am one of the mightiest unicorn mages on the planet! I did the research to find the Alicorn Amulet, I bested Celestia’s Student AND her friends, and I didn’t need a dragon, hatchling or not, to do any of it! Sure, I had a corrupt magical artifact to do so, but really, that just balanced the scales with Twilight’s Element of Magic! Why, clearly that proves that I’m just as talented a unicorn as Twilight Sparkle, neigh, BETTER! Ego now appropriately boosted and held held high, she rounded the last bend in the road and trotted up to the front door of the castle.
Confidently knocking, she stood back a pace to allow for the doors to swing open. A few moments later, they did, revealing not a servant like Trixie had expected, but the dragonling. He took one look at her and his gaze leveled, a frown sharpening the edges of his face. “What do you want?” he grumped.
She ignored his sour behavior, “The Humble and Penitent Trixie seeks an audience with the Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle. I have business with her.”
The dragon merely raised his eyebrow, “…really?” he groused, but stepped back to let her in.
As she entered the grand foyer, she couldn’t help but be impressed. She didn’t notice a single tool-mark on any portion of the structure itself, save for the obvious locations where somepony had needed to drive a post into the crystal to hang some of the decorations.
“Wait here,” the dragonling said as he closed the main door, “I’ll go get Twilight.” So saying, he toddled off to do just that.
Now having nothing but silence for company, she mentally noted the absence of any servants…or guards…or staff of any sort. It was quiet as, well, a library. “Maybe she just moved the library into the castle…?” Trixie muttered to herself.
To pass the time, she decided to continue the ego-boosting self-talk she had engaged in earlier, hoping to keep her memories of her two earlier…losses of face from overwhelming her when Sparkle finally showed up. Who knows? If I can best Twilight Sparkle, the Princesses might even take personal notice of me! After all, Twilight is the most powerful unicorn of her generation. Defeating her should make it a cinch to get Celestia’s attention. Her lips curled up in a smug smile, Why, such a story of overcoming defeats and emerging triumphant might even catch Princess Luna’s notice, and I hear she knows of spells that have been lost for the last 1,000 years! Now giddy with excitement, she let a giggle escape her lips, I could even catch the attention of Princess Cadence, and be offered a position on her staff! I could end up being the personally selected representative of a Princess to an exotic and foreign land!
Trixie now felt confident enough to take on her unicorn “nemesis,” (though was it really a nemesis if they didn’t even acknowledge that they were one?). Hay, she felt confident enough to take on 10 unicorns! Why, she might even be Great and Powerful enough to take on an Alicorn Princess!
“Trixie!” she heard from one of the branching hallways. “It’s so good to see you!”
The blue unicorn turned to face her fellow unicorn. Sure enough, Twilight Sparkle approached in all her violet glory, complete with pink streak in her mane and tail, her star-shaped cutiemark, her wings…
…wait…
Trixie did a double-take. Being a traveling entertainer did keep one “out of the loop,” but surely this had to be a jest, perhaps a spell that made it so the other mare only appeared to have wings…but no, they fluttered and fidgeted like she’d observed avians of all species do, from birds to pegasi to griffons. Those were wings, all right. Natural, pegasi wings.
Which means…
“OH, COME ON!!!” shouted Trixie at the universe.
-~’~,~@
“So how long ago was this again?” The Embarrassed and Crimson-faced Trixie asked over her second cup of tea.
“About, oh, three months ago, I think?” replied a smiling Twilight. Once Trixie had overcome the drama (an epic of collapsing in on herself and bewailing irony, the universe, and the fickle winds of Fate…Rarity would have been impressed, really) of her first encounter with Princess Twilight Sparkle, she explained that this was the first she’d heard about the ascension.
Trixie thought a moment as she sipped her tea. “Ah,” she said at last, “I was in Griffonstone at the time.”
“Oh!” exclaimed the princess, “The ancient seat of the Griffon nation! You must have loved seeing the sights and soaking up the history! Why, the shear beauty of the Hyperborian Mountains alone must have taken your breath away!”
Trixie gave the alicorn a level gaze, remembering the rough living conditions, the slum-like city, and the utter disrepair of the place. To say nothing of how insufferably rude they were! “…yeah, sure. We’ll go with that.”
“I’ve been meaning to go myself since shortly after a griffon visited Ponyville a while ago, but my duties as Princess Celestia’s student and, well…” she waved her fore-hoof around her expansively to encompass not just the castle, but all that came with it.
Trixie glanced around briefly, “Yes, well, Griffonstone isn’t exactly a hub of news, especially of anything going on outside it’s borders.”
“Well, you knew about Tirek, right?”
Trixie sighed, the memories of being the most magical being in Griffonstone, and therefor the first target of the manavore’s appetite in that city, crowding out all other thoughts for a moment, “Who didn’t know about Tirek? Trixie, er…I was crushed when he took me out like a two-day old foal. I only felt slightly better when I heard the Princesses didn’t fare any better against him…wait…” her eyes lit up, “You mean he drained your magic, too? Then how did you defeat him?”
Twilight chuckled weakly, “Well, actually…” her explanation would have to wait, because Spike pattered into the room carrying an oddly shaped piece of parchment, probably a hoof shorter than Equestrian standard in length and half-a-hoof more narrow in width. It was also astonishingly white for a piece of parchment, which by Equestrian esthetics were usually dyed a subtle tan by the manufacturer if it came out too white. Even the distant Zebra nations used Equestrian standard parchment.
“Twilight!” the dragonling exclaimed unnecessarily. It wasn’t like he didn’t already have the attention of both mares, “This just came through the mirror right after the book started lighting up!”
The purple princess hopped up and grabbed the parchment out of Spike’s grip and headed out of the room quickly. Trixie, her curiosity having been peeked, got to her feet and followed.
When she caught up with the princess, they had entered a room the stage performer had never seen. The center-piece seemed to be a large assembly, only some of which Trixie could guess the purpose of. What she could piece together was that there was a book (presently being examined by Twilight) that was being aetherically connected to a mirror, itself practically glowing with it’s own magic. The mysterious white parchment lay on the floor, nearly forgotten. The writing was face up, and as Spike and Twilight were occupied with the book, she leaned in to examine it more closely.
From: The Desk of Principal Celestia Faust…
Trixie’s eyebrow arched. Since when does the Princess refer to herself as Principal of her school, and why is she using Creator Faust’s name as a family name? She continued to read;
From: The Desk of Principal Celestia Faust
To: Princess Twilight Sparkle
Dear Princess Twilight, we have a situation that requires your attention. In short, our federal government is sending representatives in two days time to investigate the portal and establish diplomatic relations with Equestria…
By now thoroughly befuddled, Trixie picked up the page in her magic and flipped it over, hoping there would be something on the back that would reveal the purpose of the cryptic writing. Alas, it was blank.
“…so I’ll need to go over tonight.” she realized Twilight was speaking, though not to her, “But I’ve got the delegation from Zebrica arriving tomorrow morning, and they’re scheduled to visit for four days! I can’t just drop everything and meet with some human diplomats!” The newest princess was interrupted by a clearing of a throat.
She turned to Trixie, who was holding up the parchment. “What,” began the entertainer, “Is this, what is a…’ha-yoo-mun’, and why is Princess Celestia writing about establishing diplomatic relations with herself?” she paused for a moment, then giggled, “That sounded vaguely dirty and I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”
Twilight stared at Trixie for a moment, one could practically hear the gears turning in the alicorn’s head, when a grin appeared on her face. Far too large and suspicious for Trixie’s liking. A grin that only spoke of potential difficulty in her immediate future.
She wasn’t the only one who noticed, Spike glanced back and forth between the two mares and deadpanned, “No…Twilight, just no! You can’t seriously be thinking…I’ll go!”
The princess, still grinning that grin of the engineer who’d just come up with a solution to a problem only they could see, patted the dragon on the head, “Sorry, Spike. Even as a talking dog, you’re far too young to be a diplomat. No, it needs to be somepony with a wealth of knowledge of Equestria. Somepony who is good at dealing with all sorts of creatures and the unexpected. Somepony who wouldn’t be surprised by sudden changes to their body by magical artifacts. Somepony who…eheh…has had greater than normal contact with the Equestrian government, even if that is as someone of the receiving end of the justice system…no offense Trixie.” The alicorn’s grin turned apologetic to the other mare.
Still very much in the dark, the blue pony deadpanned, “None taken…”
“So you see, Spike,” continued Twilight, “Trixie really would be the best possible choice right now.”
The dragon snorted, “Fine, but I’m saying it right now, for the record: This is a bad idea!”
“Noted,” chirped the princess, who then turned to Trixie, “So, how do you feel about joining the Equestrian Diplomatic Corp.?”
As nonplussed as she had been before, The Befuddled and Confused Trixie realized her map and compass for this conversation were not only not with her, they were likely on opposite sides of the world and would require Daring Do herself to find, “…what?!”