Trixie peered cautiously around the maze corner and sighed in relief. She could have sworn she had heard something. Mindlessly she scratched her side. After realizing what she was doing, she cursed Blueblood. The Star Swirl the Bearded costume he had picked out for her was really itchy and uncomfortable. However, it did turn some heads, thanks to the gaudy colors and the bells on the hat. She even got a few compliments and well wishes before she and the other competitors were teleported to Discord’s old maze in Canterlot. The next thing she knew, she was on her own with nothing but a floating crystal sphere for company. She gazed into the sphere and saw ephemeral words form in the glass.
Your goal is to make it to the center of the maze. The judges and the audience will watch your every move from this special crystal ball. Good luck, you’ll need it.
With this in mind, Trixie resisted the urge to scratch at her itching flanks. Instead she focused on walking down the path between the huge shrubby walls of the maze.
Choosing each step with care, the magician reached the next corner and stopped. Trixie pondered what to do next; she really did not want to set off one of Discord’s nasty traps. A malicious grin appeared on her face as she looked up at the ever-present crystal ball. Grasping the orb in-between her hooves, she cast a spell. The crystal sphere became heavy. Just as she hoped, the orb was being held afloat by an elementary spell.
Trixie tossed the ball around the corner. She expected to hear all sorts of devilishly crafted traps being set off, but she didn’t. Instead she heard a whooshing noise above her ears. She looked up, and to her surprise, the crystal ball was floating in mid-air with words appearing across the surface.
Any attempt to destroy this crystal ball is highly frowned upon. This is your first and final warning. Your next attempt to destroy this artifact will have consequences.
Trixie frowned as the message disappeared and wondered why the globe didn’t shatter. Curiosity overtook her as she peeked around the maze angle. The show pony’s eyes widened as she beheld a mirror image of the sky on the maze’s floor. White puffy clouds were floating by on the ground. The maze walls were also much further apart; so much so that it looked like a great chasm was before her. Her hooves were on solid ground, but if she took one more step, it looked like she would fall a very long way down.
“You’re pretty clever,” a voice said out of nowhere. “You are the first pony to use their floating camera as a means to set off my booby traps. Bravo.”
Before her eyes, a chimera materialized over the chasm.
“Discord!” Trixie yelped as she nearly dropped her rod into the abyss.
Discord rolled his eyes. “Well, duh? I swear all you ponies are always so surprised to see me. Where do you think you are? Manehattan? No, sister, you’re in my house.”
The magician gulped. “Wha-what do you want?”
“To ask you a question. Tell me, are you scared of heights?”
The show pony declared, “The Great and Powerful Trixie is many things, but she is not a pegasus.”
Discord roared with laughter at the unicorn’s admission. “Oh, that’s good enough for me.” He snapped his fingers and a bridge materialized into existence.
The magician looked at the construct carefully. The bridge was thin, barely wide enough for two ponies to cross side by side and covered with tiles, no bigger than the size of her hoof. On each tile there was a different engraving. They depicted everything from fierce dragons to lowly insects. The tiles were all different and were changing before her eyes. Where once was a pony engraving, it became one of a hawk, and so on.
“What is all this?” asked Trixie.
“It’s your challenge, my dear. All you have to do is make it to the other side. But, if you put your hoof on the wrong symbol, the tile collapses like so.” Discord lowered himself to a tile. The magical piece of masonry disintegrated. Trixie watched in horror as the pieces fell into the blue and white depths.
“Don’t be afraid. If you fall through, I’ll bail you out,” declared Discord enthusiastically.
Trixie sighed in relief.
“But you’ll be a statue decorating the front lawn of the maze for the rest of the tournament.”
The magician’s relief deflated quickly.
Discord chuckled at the mare’s discomfort. “But hey, don’t worry about that. I like you. So I’ll even give you a hint on what tiles to step on.”
With that, the chimera seemed to tear the very fabric of reality as he wrote a message in the air.
We are the ones that hide in plain sight and feast on what is treasured most. What are we?
Trixie had to blink several times as she read the message. For some reason it was hard to focus on the ever-shifting and shimmering words.
“You got it?” Discord asked.
The magician shook her head as she declared indignantly, “That makes no sense. The Great and Powerful Trixie demands that you give her another question.”
Discord smiled down evilly at the magician. “You can demand all you want, Trixie, but the question remains.”
The Chimera snapped his fingers, and the way the unicorn had come became an overgrown mess of thorn bushes. After that cruel deed was done, an hour glass appeared in Discord’s hands.
“You have one minute to answer the riddle of the bridge. Then it will fall apart piece by piece.”
Panic gripped Trixie as she looked at Discord, the rippling words, the bridge, and back at Discord.
“This is impossible,” Trixie said desperately.
“What’s the matter little pony, having brain freeze?” Discord tittered. “Tick-tock, time’s a wasting.”
Quickly re-reading the question before her, the unicorn put her hoof down on a tile with a spider engraving. Her hoof punched through the tile like it wasn’t there.
“Good try, but wrong,” Discord said mockingly.
“Shut up,” Trixie snarled at the chimera.
She tried again, this time putting her hoof down on a chameleon tile. Again, the magical masonry crumbled under her weight.
“You’re getting warmer,” Discord chimed.
“I said shut . . . wait, what did you say?” the magician looked up at Discord curiously.
The chimera stared back at her expressionlessly.
Trixie glanced at the hour glass. She had maybe twenty seconds left. Searching the bridge desperately, she locked onto a tile that depicted something she hadn’t seen in a very long time. But the tile was too far away to step on.
She looked around for something to throw, but the only thing within reach was the crystal ball. She hesitated, remembering the message the orb had given her the last time she tried to get rid of it. However, desperate times called for desperate measures. Grabbing the ball with her magic and quickly disenchanting its ability to fly, she hurled the orb at the chosen target. The glass sphere flew straight and true, as it landed and shattered on the masonry that depicted a changeling. The tile didn’t crumble.
Trixie’s heart leapt with glee as she figured out the answer to the riddle.
“Time’s almost up,” Discord said from above her.
The magician craned her neck skyward to see the sand was nearly at the bottom. Throwing caution to the wind, Trixie launched herself at the nearest changeling tile, but she was too late. The masonry had already changed and would not support her weight. The unicorn shrieked in terror and tried to change direction in mid-air. But as she had said before, she was no pegasus. Her body crashed through all but one of the tiles. A single hoof clamped on a tile that could change at any moment was the only thing saving her from disqualification.
Discord appeared beside her clapping his paw and claw together in applause.
“Bravo, Bravo. Valiant effort, my dear, but I think it’s time to give up the ghost. Besides being a statue isn’t that bad.”
The show pony ignored him. She knew that she didn’t have the strength to pull herself up, nor the magical genius to get herself out of her current mess. This left her but with only one option. Grunting with effort, Trixie brought up her rod that she was miraculously still holding and pointed it at the tile. She was about to use her weapon of randomness when the crystal ball reappeared before her face. If a crystal ball could look unhappy, this one certainly was. It glowed a fiery orange and a message written in fire beneath its glass surface read.
I warned you.
Trixie quickly changed targets and let fly the magic of the rod. She saw her magic shoot forth over the crystal ball and into the bushes of Discord’s garden maze. The foliage seemed to grow in size and stature and become fuller and greener, and that was it.
Right before the crystal ball surged forward at her head, she heard Discord say, “Hey, thanks. I meant to water those earlier.”
The magician screamed in terror as she fell . . . onto cushions? Trixie’s heart thundered in her ears as she flailed uncontrollably on the soft pillows.
“Calm down, Trixie. You’re alright,” a soft, pleasant voice said.
The unicorn immediately stopped her thrashing and opened her eyes. Before the magician in all of her majesty was Princess Celestia.
Trixie clumsily stood up and tried to bow to the alicorn, but she was too dizzy to manage that. She fell back down on the cushions. “Your Highness, what happened? Did I win?” Trixie asked wistfully.
The princess could not stifle a chuckle. “No, I’m afraid you didn’t. But as Discord said, it was a valiant effort. I’m afraid nopony could make it all the way through Discord’s maze.”
“Oh? So, I could be a runner-up.” Trixie thought. “I would have made it further if that stupid rod . . . ” The show pony’s mouth went dry as she thought of her priceless possession. Where was it? She started to glance around herself frantically. Like Discord had said, she was in the front lawn of the maze, but neither he nor the rod were in sight.
“Looking for this?” asked Celestia. The Princess for a brief moment used her magic, and the rod materialized on the ground between herself and the magician.
Knowing the game was finally up, the show pony closed her eyes tightly and nodded her head.
The Princesses’ friendly demeanor darkened. “Do you realize how destructive a rod like this is, young lady? You put yourself and every pony around you in jeopardy every time you used it.”
The words stung all the more because they were true. Trixie looked down at the ground, tears welling her eyes. She had failed again, and this time there would be no recovering from the shame of this defeat. She had not only let herself down, but Maud, Lyre, Snips, and Snails would again see her as the fraud she truly was.
“Now, with that said, I am very impressed with you.”
Trixie lifted her tear-stained face at the princess in curiosity.
“After Maud watched you fall in the maze, she knew that you would be in trouble for having an illegal magical item. So she went forward to the judges and explained everything. She said that you entering the tournament with this rod was her idea.”
The unicorn’s eyes widened. “That’s not true, your Highness. I entered the competition for the magic lessons with you. She and Lyra could keep the prize money if I won any. I . . .”
Celestia held up a hoof. “This is why I am impressed with you, Trixie. Not long ago, you would have let Maud take the punishment in your stead. And now look at you. You have learned a lot about friendship.” The alicorn smiled and continued, “Maud told me the truth. I just wanted to see how you reacted.”
“You’re not going to punish her, are you?”
Celestia shook her head. “Even though you both have broken the rules of the tournament, no harm was done.”
Trixie sighed in relief.
“But,” Celestia continued, “I must insist that this rod be kept in the royal vaults.”
Trixie winced but nodded in agreement.
“I have been looking for this for some time. It was one of the first artifacts Star Swirl brought back with him from his dimensional travels.”
“Wait, so that rod isn’t from this world?”
The Princess nodded. “It’s magic is undetectable in our world. The note you found with this rod tells a bit of its history. Starswirl wrote that he’d found this item while he was questing with a group of creatures called humans. In gratitude for Starswirl’s service as a magic user, they gave him this device.”
Celestia giggled. “He loved its randomness so much, he called it his party rod. Something this rare and powerful is worth a lot of money, several hundred thousand bits at least. One could do a lot with such wealth. For example, completely renovate a certain rock farm? Or perhaps restore a priceless Lyre.”
Trixie began to brighten at Celestia’s words. “You don’t mean . . .”
“Yes, I do. This rod was found on Ingenious’s land. Maud and her family should be well-compensated for finding such a treasure. The promise that was made to Lyra should be kept, and I will see to it that it is.”
Trixie grinned like a fool. She was happy for Maud and Lyra. It had been a while since she had been actually happy for someone else.
“As for you,” Celestia continued looking down at Trixie with disapproval.
The magician gulped in worry.
“You will not be learning magic from me. In fact, I should probably make an example of you.”
The breath caught in Trixie’s throat.
Celestia giggled, “I’m just teasing, Trixie. Instead you will be taking lessons from Princess Twilight Sparkle in magic and friendship.”
The unicorn turned this fresh revelation over in her mind. Studying magic and friendship with her arch rival? But then again, that beats being punished for cheating in the Princess’s royal tournament.
Noting the magician was pondering her new future, Celestia said, “I must warn you though. Twilight can be a little strict, even by my standards. However, she is an excellent mentor, and I think you and she will become good friends in due time.”
Knowing in reality she had little choice in the matter, Trixie spoke with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “That sounds wonderful, Princess.”
Celstia raised an eyebrow at the show pony but didn’t reply. Instead she picked up the wondrous rod with her magic. “Come, Trixie. I know two little unicorns, a rock farmer, a musician, and my nephew are dying to see you. Well . . . perhaps not my nephew.”