//------------------------------// // Unlikely Victory // Story: Out Of Place // by BudCharles //------------------------------// “Uh… we got a bit of a problem”, one of the guards panted desperately as he approached the balcony, Twilight, Trixie and Gold Star following behind him.   “Yes?” Trixie asked.   “Well you see… we kind of forgot, um… there’s only room for two ponies in the chariot.”   “And you didn’t think to tell Trixie earlier?”   Twilight placed a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder to calm her down.   “It’s alright, he just forgot, everypony makes mistakes. Why don’t we just get someone to mind Gold Star – or I could stay behind?”   “No! Trixie demands that we all get there, whatever it takes!”   Twilight sighed, before looking up at Trixie and realising something.   “Hey Trixie, you said whatever it takes right?”   Trixie nodded, unsure where this train of thought was going.   “Why don’t you fly there?”       A few incredibly awkward moments later, Trixie gave her reply.   “You do realise Trixie hasn’t actually used her wings yet?”   Twilight tried her best not to smile, finally somepony else got to experience what it’s like to randomly grow wings – but then she realised, maybe it was a mean thing to do to make Trixie fly, maybe Trixie would get injured flying, some princess of friendship she’d be then, letting her friend down like –   “Actually, you know what, the great and powerful Trixie is more than capable of flying! She just didn’t want to make anypony else feel bad, that’s all!”   Too late. Twilight buried her face in her hooves and wished for the ordeal to be over.       A few minutes later, Trixie was seriously regretting her decision as she went hurtling through practically every cloud in the sky. She began to lose track of which direction was up or down, before being smacked back into reality after colliding snout-first into the chariot drivers. Her cheeks glowed like a pair of volcanic rocks.   “Trixie apologises! She totally didn’t mean to do that! Well actually she did, just not to you specifically! Trixie never does something she didn’t mean to!”   The Chariot Drivers simply rolled their eyes and continued on their way, leaving Trixie to try to keep up.           The sound of angry bickering in the distance became clearer and clearer as Trixie, Twilight and Gold made their way towards Griffonstone’s makeshift government building, pretty much a wooden hut. Inside, Celestia and Luna were desperately awaiting their arrival.   “THAT’S IT! WE’RE ISSUING AN OFFICIAL DECLARATION OF WAR! YOU DRAGONS HAVE 2 MINUTES TO LEAVE BEFORE YOU GET YOUR TAILS TORN OFF!”   “I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, BIRD BRAINS!”   Suddenly, both parties found themselves frozen in their attack poses with a magic aura around them. Silence filled the room, and Twilight released them.   “Now,” she tried to ask, “how did this conflict begin?”   “Why should we listen to you?” a dragon blurted out.   “Because you’re a common pony, we refuse to listen to anyone other than a princess!”   “But Trixie and I -“   “Yes Twilight, that is true”, Celestia responded calmly, “but even so, Trixie is technically the princess here. We’re going to have to rely on her.”   Twilight closed her eyes and prepared for the worst as Trixie stepped forwards and began speaking.       “So what happened?” Trixie began, getting straight to the point.   Both sides immediately began talking over the top of each other.   “ONE AT A TIME!” she impatiently added. “Griffons, you go first.”   “Well,” the griffon leader began, “there’s a major sea port in the Northeast that we griffons use to import materials for our reconstruction projects - and those - those - those pesky dragons decided to burn the whole link to the ground!”   Spike attempted to make a sensible statement by one of the larger dragons behind him began talking first.   “Hah! You’re full of more feathers than one of your wimpy little nests! WE have been using that beach as a fishing spot for years and then you griffons just come in and take it from us! Can’t you just go somewhere else?”   Both leaders then turned to Trixie, eagerly awaiting her response.   After a short, thoughtful pause, Trixie blurted it out.   “You’re both stupid!”       “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Twilight gasped in panic, her mane standing on end.   Trixie ignored Twilight and continued with her statement.   “Seriously, you’d start a war over this? You know wars kill people right? Why would you send your own citizens to their deaths over a tiny beach?”       After overcoming the initial shock from Trixie’s completely uncensored response, the two sides began to quietly mutter about what she said.   “You know, I think Princess Twi - uh -Trixie has a point”, a dragon announced.   “Yeah!” one of the griffons agreed.   Both sides began to happily discuss the future of the beach together, and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.   “Wow, I didn’t know you were so good at diplomacy, Trixie!” Twilight commented.   “Well, it’s a just a natural gift of Trixie’s”, the show pony bragged, causing Celestia to roll her eyes.   The two of them, accompanied by Gold Star, went to take a seat on one of the rocks filling in for chairs, finally ready to relax.           “Now, it’s time for a break from diplomacy,” an announcer began, “prepare to witness an incredible magic show, please welcome to the stage, Quasar Kazam”   The crowd cheered wildly, but the cheers soon turned to confused muttering as Quasar failed to appear on ‘stage’ (really a pile of hay bales with a piece of fabric over them).   “I might just repeat that, Quasar Kazam, you are on stage now!”   Still no sign.       The visibly flustered announcer considered his options for a moment before turning to the audience.   “Uh, while we’re waiting, do any of you have experience doing magic shows?”   He realised immediately afterwards that he was asking griffons and dragons if they could do magic shows, woops. Still, one hoof went up - Trixie’s.   “Oh no, we couldn’t make a princess perform in a magic show.”   “Hey! What are you imply-” Trixie tried to say, her horn flaring ready  for a fight.   “What about Twilight? She’s not a princess at the moment?” Gold Star interrupted.   “I don’t know if that’s the best -” Twilight began.   “Of course! Come on up Twilight Sparkle!”   The crowd cheered wildly as she reluctantly stepped up onto the stage, before quietening down and directing all their focus at Twilight.       After a deep breath, she spoke to the crowd.   “Alright… so since it seems the original entertainment is not going to plan, I’ll be performing an improvised magic show.”   Improvised as in something will almost certainly go wrong, she thought to herself.   “Also, unlike a traditional show, this one will have some educational value as well as entertainment!”   This time, it was Trixie’s turn to face-hoof.       Twilight lit up her horn and created an incredibly detailed glowing hologram showing a medieval-looking village. Trixie’s sense of dread quickly turned to amazement as she watched on. Twilight was actually just as - well - almost as good as Trixie!   Suddenly, the image of a young Starswirl the Bearded came galloping onto the scene.   “This, fillies and gentlecolts, is Starswirl the Bearded! The most famous wizard of all time…”           A few minutes later, Twilight finished her performance, the crowd cheering wildly. Twilight stood up on her hind legs and tried to strike a dramatic Trixie-like pose before trotting back down from the stage, but it looked more cute than dramatic.   “That was quite impressive”, Trixie exclaimed, “of course Trixie is still the most magnificent pony, but you’re a very close second!”   “Thanks,” Twilight giggled, “I had a little experience. Still think I should stick with being a princess though.”   “Trixie also found princesshood to be less fun than she imagined it, not that Trixie had any trouble or anything, she just, didn’t like it, that’s all!   Twilight chuckled, before the two of them became suddenly engulfed by a sphere of light, causing the dragons and griffons to cover their eyes as if they just looked into the sun.       “Whoa, are you alright?” Gold Star squeaked, rushing over to them as they floated into the air.   The two ponies gently descended back to the ground and the light cleared away. The two of them checked their hooves.   Trixie was the first to react, hugging her cape.   “YES!” she declared dramatically, “Trixie is back in her magnificent form! No more mane that smells of old books or mountain of paperwork.”   “Then again, wings and alicorn magic aren’t too bad” Twilight replied with a giggle.   “Hmph! Trixie doesn’t need wings, she’s already amazing!”   “I know, I’m glad to call such an amazing pony my friend. Especially after seeing just how much effort it takes to run one of your magic shows!”       It took Trixie a few seconds to process this, nopony had said anything like that to her before. Eventually she decided any response would be extremely sappy, emotional and non-Trixie-like, so she changed the subject.   “So - what reversed the spell anyway?”   Gold Star raised his hoof.   “Um… I might have an idea.”   “Yes?” Twilight asked, curiosity overtaking her.   “I’ve read about some spells where the counter is an action that has to be taken, rather than another spell. Maybe this is one of those?”   “Of course!” Twilight squeaked, having one of her nerd moments. “Of course! Of course! The spell was designed to let two different ponies experience an aspect of each others’ lives - in this case, talents. Once they begin to understand the others’ talents, the spell counters itself!”   “One thing though,” she added after another short pause, “who would create such a spell in the first place? Who would be so different they have to cast a spell to be understood, so powerful they could make new magic, and so irresponsible they’d risk complete chaos by placing the spell in a public library?”   “Oh,” Celestia said in the calmest grumpy voice in history, “I think I know. And I’m going to give them quite the talking to when we get back to Canterlot.”