Chapter 7: Whenever The Solution Is Found
Still reading, eh? Did you ever stop for a second and think, "When will these hijinks end? When will they finally get together and just make foals and stuff?" I know exactly how you feel. There are plenty of incomplete fanfictions that I would think the same thing. Not all Twixie stories, either (I'm allowed to have other interests!). So I guess at some point you would think the same about this little story here. I don't mind; heck, I was enjoying the ride! Though, when will this all end and you get to that sweet, juicy, steamy, savory, hot, amazing, stupendous, wonderific fanservice ending when they get together? Well, I've done some research and spoke with some advisers, both of which weren't helpful whatsoever, so I'll just use an answer that an infamous video game company once said:
"When it's done."
...
...
Ok, maybe a few more chapters to go. Ugh Jeez, you had to give me that look!
***
The Shocked and Aggravated Twilight Sparkle never thought she could lose her temper with the one mare that made her heart sing. Setting a boundary only to have it broken, however, sent the bookworm over the edge. Regretfully, this caused her to shout at the top of her lungs towards Trixie in order to relieve her frustration. She now saw her once owned face in front of her contort and its normal color go pale as if she saw a ghost. How she made such a dent in Trixie's physical emotional state is beyond her. She was always so arrogant and brimming with confidence. Giving that kind of look coerced Twilight to feel as if she was an Ursa Minor ready to attack her out of insomnia. Creating this image in her mind caused Twilight to take it down a notch.
“I-I’m... I’m sorry, Trixie,” her wrath quelled as her gaze fell to the floor. “I didn’t mean to yell at you like that. It’s only that I’ve worked so hard on it for so long and...” Twilight paused, distracted by her troubling thoughts of what Trixie’s opinion might be of her now. What she didn’t understand was that liquid brimstone really did take a little more then three hundred and sixty five days to complete for her. Melting a giant slab of it into a vial this small took most of those days of constant heating of various parts to obtain small drops from it. This, and the trial and error that came with it when the liquid wouldn’t sustain its physical state. How could Trixie ever understand this without a long and sleep-inducing explanation?
Either way, Trixie managed to revert her expression back to normal after hearing Twilight’s apology. Making the mess of this was her fault, though. As much as she doesn’t like apologizing, she will once again have to take responsibility for this one. Causing their bodies to switch with no guarantee that it can swapped back was a dreadful burden to carry, after all.
“Trixie is also sorry, Twilight. This mess was her doing, after all. How can Trixie make up to you?” She questioned with a voice full of remorse. Although she had asked forgiveness of this mare before, this time was the most important. Surprised by her sincerity, Twilight contemplated the last question that was asked.
“Make it up to me?” She inquired with riddled thoughts. Immediately, she desired the magician to spend every waking moment with her and never leave her no matter what. For this, it might be a bit too extreme and unfair in Trixie’s case. They both should be focused on resolving their identity crisis first. ‘Marriage and foals could come later,’ she thought.
“Well, first things first,” she began. “We will need to find an alternate way to put ourselves back where we belong,” she said, tapping her chin with the end of her hoof. Trixie had made the potion by accidentally mixing all the right components for it. Without one part of it, the concoction just doesn’t work. The solution seemed painfully clear, now.
“So the first goal would be to recreate the liquid brimstone?” Guessed Trixie, predicting the obvious answer would be ‘yes.’
“Nope,” Twilight smiled. “I think I have another, easier way of doing this.” Wishing she had mentioned it before, Trixie shot a look of curiosity. Was there an substitute ingredient she didn’t mention before? In that regard, why didn’t she mention this other method beforehoof? They could have avoided this entire mess and turned back to normal by now.
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Tell Trixie of your plan!” She exclaimed impatiently, moving closer to Twilight.
“Well, I remember reading about a body swap spell once. It should be in one of the books here in the library,” she explained. Turning around, Trixie looked to the next room where she saw bookshelf after bookshelf of multi pale-colored books. There had to be hundreds just in that one room. Not to mention the ones in the study and the bedroom. Luckily, she remembered how Twilight was easily able to find the book they read earlier. If that’s the case, then this would be a piece of cake.
“Alright, Twilight Sparkle. Where is this book you speak of? Trixie is ready to have her old body back,” the showmare beamed.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Twilight replied absently. Not expecting that kind of demoralizing response, the ground met with Trixie’s body as she dropped to the ground. Refusing to get back up, she spoke from the hardwood floor instead.
“Trixie saw you pull a book down earlier, knowing exactly where it was,” she pointed out, still grounded below.
“Uh, yeah, that was my favorite book after all! How would I not know where it is? The book I’m talking about I’ve maybe read twice and vaguely remember the details in it,” revealed Twilight, treating the fact as if it should have been obvious to her. Simple to figure out or not, Trixie buried her face in her hooves and proceeded to muffle her loud groans of frustration. Hundreds of books to go through with very little clue of which book would hold the resolution to their problem. Beginning to think making liquid brimstone would be the less time consuming choice, Trixie brought her self back up to her hooves.
“Twilight, do you have any idea how long it would take to go though all these books?!” She asked rhetorically as an argument directed at the egghead. Her hoof raised to point to the enormous collection of literature sitting in the next room. Surely, it was a waste of time to go through so many pages of numerous hardcovers only to come up empty each time. Like trying to find a needle in a haystack, somepony would say. Twilight wasn’t that dense about finding a book, however.
“It’s not like we’re going to look through every single book I have. Come with me, I’ll show you what I mean,” explained Twilight, walking past the showmare into the next room. Trixie dragged her hooves, following the mare into the main area of the library where most of the books were located. Coming up to one of the racks, a book floated down to them encased in a blue aura. Twilight faced the unamused magician with the floating book to her side.
“See, all the books in this library are organized alphabetically, separated by genre. This makes it easy for anyone who wants to find a book and doesn’t want to go through the entire library’s stock,” she clarified while slowing pointing around the room, stopping to indicate where each section was. It might have narrowed down the books to only one or two hundred, depending on the genre they would look in, yet it was still far too many books even for them both to be looking. Though Twilight’s exposition wasn’t quite finished as she flipped through the pages, ending near the back cover. The book being held up to eye level, Trixie skimmed the page that was shown to her.
“The index? What about it?” Trixie inquired, looking over the book at her snickering friend.
“I’m surprised you know what an index is,” Twilight teased.
“You’re mocking Trixie again, Twilight Sparkle. Of course she has read plenty of books in her life to know what an index is,” mumbled Trixie with both brows lowered inward. Nonetheless, Twilight summarized what she was showing to the unicorn.
“Well, the index is the group of pages at the end of a book that list terms alphabetically which were used throughout the book. Using this, we might be able to find a certain word we need.” She finished the run-through of her plan by closing the book in front of Trixie and putting it back on its high shelf.
“So all we have to do is look at the index to find the term body swapping? I suppose that makes thing a lot more feasible. Where should we start?” asked Trixie, even though she still wasn’t all that excited about it. Twilight, however, was eager to start the search.
“Hmmm... we are looking for a spell so the unicorn magic section would be a good place to start,” she replied, bouncing over to the opposite side of the room. Behind her, Trixie showed her enthusiasm by lazily drifting over and pulling a book down from the bottom shelf. A good first choice since the book was about figure enchantments. Flipping it over to open the back cover, she skimmed the index down to the letter she needed. She saw the term ‘body shape’ first, knowing that she was closing in on the specific phrase. However, the next one turned out to be ‘body temperature,’ meaning the term ‘body swapping’ wasn’t listed. It was only the first book, so it was understandable.
After one book came another, and setting each one down behind them began creating a stack. The pile grew into towers and soon were accompanied by more tall columns. Yawning out of sheer boredom, Trixie threw back another useless piece of bonded paper into the hordes in the background. Her patience was wearing thin at this point.
“Any luck over there, Twilight?” She asked with a exasperated tone. Twilight had four books lined up in front of her, all with their indexes exposed. Closing all four at once, she stacked them neatly behind her. She had her own piles organized behind her, which compared to Trixie’s was a ratio of three to one.
“Nothing yet,” she murmured. Even she was getting tired from searching through all those books. It’s not like she was actually reading through them in the sanctity of her own body similar to what she usually does. Going through so much of this literature only to come up empty was frustrating. Plus, dusk had already set outside the hollowed tree. It was getting late, and they still haven’t found any kind of answer to their problem. Using her glowing horn, she struggled to pull one of the books on the top shelf. For some reason, this book wouldn’t budge from its place, no matter how hard she tugged at it. Trixie began to notice all the grunts coming from her.
“What’s wrong?” Asked Trixie, walking up to the mare who had her teeth clenched and her head reeling back as if she were trying to fish with her jaw. Looking up, she could see the glowing blue book on the top shelf. The light surrounding it contracted and compressed frantically, but the book just wasn’t coming loose. Irritated, Twilight moved a ladder over to where the trouble making book was located.
“I just need to grab this one book up here. Could you watch the ladder for me?” She requested, climbing up to the top where the book was. Trying to grab it from its side, Twilight gave as much effort as she could to draw this book out. ‘This is one stubborn book.’ She thought as she continued to pull it out with her front hooves. She couldn’t just let this one go, since it may very well be the book they need. Baring her teeth, she sunk them into the spine and started using all of her body strength to pluck it out. An idea popped into her head during this struggle. Using her horn, she gripped it with magical energy. Using both physical and magical strength, her groans became louder and body drenched with sweat.
Finally, the book came loose as Twilight was starting to give in. Unfortunately the momentum from how hard she pulled sent her backwards, off the safety of the ladder holding her up so high. Exhausted, she couldn’t even muster the ability to use her horn in any way possible. Her back that faced the ground met with a soft landing, though. At the same time, a loud grunt could be heard from below her.
"You're heavy... Please get off of Trixie!" Pleaded the mare under Twilight. Coming back to her hooves, Twilight spun around to find Trixie still on the ground. It was the second time today she had prevented harm from coming to the egghead. Maybe she wasn't as selfish as she first appeared.
"Th-Thank yo--" Twilight was cut off by Trixie.
"No need to thank Trixie, Twilight Sparkle. She was glad she could protect her body from further injury," she said, picking herself off the floor and dusting herself off. 'So she only did it for herself... I guess it’s one for one in terms of selflessness,' thought Twilight. It was then she noticed the book she had tried so hard to obtain was sitting on the ground before her. Lifting it up in a cerulean blue light, she flipped the book to the back where the index would be. Looking over it carefully and narrowing down to where the phrase would be, the book was instantly shut.
"It's not in this one, either," Twilight sighed and set the book on top of the smallest pile behind her.
"This is the unicorn magic section. It has to be here! Where else could it be?" Trixie inquired, rubbing her back, which was still in a bit of pain. Asking such a question helped Twilight think of the next spot to look. While it seemed that ‘unicorn magic’ would be an ideal section for the book to be in, it doesn’t mean it’s the only place it could be.
"I know of two more sections... We should split up and cover both at the same time," she said. Despite lying about only protecting her own figure, Trixie really didn't want to leave her crush's side since they have been spending time together most of the day. The mere thought of it made her heart sink and her lips curve up into a frown.
"Trixie understands," she agreed briefly, even though she didn't like the idea. Twilight didn’t want to be any further from Trixie either, yet her mind was more focused on getting their minds back in the right places.
“Great! I’ll go look in the study in the ‘Ancient Pony History’ section. Could you go up to the bedroom and look through my private collection?” She proposed, putting a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder. Throwing her off guard, Trixie couldn’t help but wonder if this should be the other way around.
“You want Trixie to go through your private collection? Are you sure?” Asked Trixie, feeling a little bit uncomfortable going through somepony else’s personal stash.
“Don’t worry. It’s not like it’s a secret collection that only I can look at. Plus, I trust you,” Twilight insisted. Trixie’s face swelled up in a reddish hue in response to her words.
“Y-you trust T-Trixie?” She stammered.
“Of course I do. We’re friends after all!” Twilight beamed. Every time Twilight would compliment the showmare, a blush would come over her cheeks, her heart grew stronger in pulse, and the rest of her body perspired, giving her coat a glistening shine. How she wished she could milk this into even more kind words from the librarian. Her chest might not be able to take that sort of pounding within.
“Trixie is happy we’re friends...” she mouthed in a muted whisper. Twilight swore she saw movement from Trixie’s lips, but didn’t bother to question it.
“Good luck! I’ll check up on you once I’m done,” she said, walking towards the study with her eyes still fixed on Trixie, who was making her way up the steps towards the bedroom. Eventually, the wall adjacent to the doorway for the study felt impact from a silver maned head who’s owner couldn’t stop looking the opposite direction. Hearing a sudden bang across the room, Trixie glanced behind her to find its source. She only found the bookworm standing there, rubbing her head as if she hit it against something. Figuring she was okay, Trixie continued into the bedroom.
A familiar sight was taken in as she had inspected the bedroom that very morning. ‘Seems normal for a pony like Twilight to surround even her bedroom in almost nothing but books. Can’t say I’d do the same,’ pondered Trixie. Standing at the doorway, she could see the upper floor of the room where she had woken up that morning. ‘I’ll start at the top and work my way down,’ she thought as she navigated the stairs that went around the room. Walking past a dresser, an object caught Trixie’s eye, causing her to stop.
She backed up and inspected the dresser closer. The vase full of flowers sitting on the left end isn’t what got her attention, nor was it the single hairbrush positioned in the middle. Above the dresser was an oval mirror with a purple frame and a heart shape covering each edge as if pointing out the four cardinal directions. It wasn’t the mirror itself that intrigued Trixie, but the image that appeared inside. Staring back at her was the face of Twilight Sparkle, which makes sense because her body is under Trixie’s control.
Still, staring at a Twilight that could be manipulated to her will gave the showmare some bold ideas. She began this activity by making faces at her reflection. In turn, Twilight in the mirror made those faces back. Some were stretched out, mocking looks, while others played with contortion to see how far she could oversell an emotion, such as anger, sadness, or joy. Eventually, her heart took the reigns of Trixie and her next expression came from how she truly felt about Twilight. Looking back, that same mare gave her the same loving, flirtatious appearance in return. Leaning over the dresser and closing in on the mirror, Trixie edged closer to the reflection of Twilight Sparkle.
She had lost any logical control over herself as a blush of red appeared on her muzzle. To her --at least in this state of mind-- was the Twilight she longed for and wished to do unspeakable actions with. Only inches away from her mirrored image, Trixie’s breathing started to intensify along with the throbbing of her chest. The air from her lungs were forced out of her mouth, fogging up an area on the reflective surface as she moved slightly closer. Even in knowledge of the predictable taste a mirror could have, Trixie didn’t seem to care now that her lips were pressed up against it.
Her eyes were closed, yet with each few seconds passed, she would slightly open one eye to see the image of Twilight doing the same. Similar feelings being returned in only a visual way, but nonetheless was enough for this magician. To Trixie, Twilight’s lips were ice cold at first, but started to warm up after a while. Letting the contact go only to embrace again, Trixie spent minute upon minute giving her love’s image affectionate kisses, never moving from that one particular spot in the center of the surface. After a while, her mouth opened on instinct and let her tongue swished against an exact copy of another.
The reflection tasted like acidic copper and silver mixed with the bland flavor of glass, though this wasn’t how Trixie would describe it. Instead, it would be the same as the lavender mare’s scent. A strong dose of lilac with a hint of fresh, wood-free uncoated paper. Fitting for a unicorn such as Twilight Sparkle who read every book in the library enough times that it’s surprising she didn’t turn into a pile of bonded paper herself. Both forehooves planted on the mirror, Trixie’s face inched away from the mirrored image of Twilight, only to press her face back into it. Sporadically, she licked that same area at all kinds of angles and movements.
The refletion, of course, mimicked every unpredictable tongue pass. Passion in her heart growing, it was unclear if Trixie would escalate her one sided make out session or if she would come back to reality. In this case, the latter came out being true, but she didn’t snap out of it willingly.
***
Entering the study, Twilight Sparkle paused to take a glimpse of a particular freestanding bookcase in the back corner of the room. Her memories flashed back to earlier that day when Trixie had suddenly put her body in harms way to protect her. In fact, that very same azure back was still in a bit of pain as Twilight rubbed it effortlessly. Has Trixie’s back been hurting like that ever since?
Making her way to the section on the right side of the room, she began her quick yet thorough search of the section’s contents: opening the books to the back of the index and searching for that one specific phrase. Groaning at every failed find, she tossed books in a unorganized mess behind her. Keeping things neat seemed to have been pushed to the back of her mind for once. She only focused on scanning her eyes over each index she found with results being very unsatisfactory. After a while, she took in a full breath and exhaled while sinking to the floor.
Slouched upon the wooden surface, Twilight could smell the fresh pine coming from that very ground. She also happened to catch a whiff of something familiar, yet it was too faint and outmatched from the ground’s natural fragrance. Sitting back up, the scent she searched for became stronger. It was at that time, that Twilight figured out why it was so familiar. Since she was the owner of Trixie’s body, she inherited that jasmine, minty aroma she was remembered for. An acquirement she would begin to abuse.
Laying down and curling up into a ball, Twilight began to take in each flavored breath nice and slow. She wasn’t sniffing it out of pure pleasure, but instead was inhaling it as an act of comfort. It was a smell that made her feel safe and took her mind to a world where nothing could harm her. Using the scent in combination with the memories of Trixie from that very day became the source of heat that kept her warm despite being on a cold surface.
The showmare's sudden quirks, cute outbursts of embarrassment, and the way her voice sounds when she makes inflections with her illeism. Fused together, these traits would make Twilight blush in great depths. Intoxicated in hypnotic fumes and her mind buried deep in her visions of past events, Twilight managed to pull apart both her eyelids from their relaxed state. 'How long have I been laying here?' She wondered. Stretching her legs, she picked her self up and stood on all fours. Back to the present now, she had remembered that she sent Trixie to inspect her private collection of books.
Thinking back to the showmare's first response made her chuckle a little. 'Of course, you can look through my collection of books, Trixie. It's not like there's anything I don't want you to--' Twilight's train of thought derailed at the idea of Trixie finding a certain pile of objects located under her bed. 'What if she found her hat and cape? Or worse...' as she contemplated this, Twilight's pupils shrank while her heart's pulse picked up its pace. What Twilight was referring to as 'worse' was her small rectangular box filled to the top with unmentionable pictures of various mares. It was strange that somepony like Twilight would have such things.
'Research! They're just for research!' Her head yelled as she galloped through the main foyer of the library. Up the stairs and through the opening into her bedroom, she did not see Trixie anywhere. Panicked, Twilight looked over to her bed on the upper floor, still not locating where the magician was. Running around and climbing the steps, she screeched to a halt at what she found. Before her was The Great and Powerful Trixie, who’s face was rubbed up against her mirror.
“What are you doing, Trixie?” Asked Twilight with a raised brow. Instantly, Trixie jumped and woke up from her fantasy. Darting backwards, she pivoted to face Twilight with a shocked expression covered in a crimson red glow. Trixie knew she would need her performing talents to save herself again from misunderstandings.
“Twi-Twilight! Uh... I-- err Trixie was just cleaning your mirror for you!” she stumbled as her arms flailed in front of her and sweat poured from her head.
“Cleaning my mirror?” Questioned Twilight, glancing at the mirror. There was a noticeable wet smudge in one spot on the mirror’s surface near the center.
“With your face?” She asked, curious and non judgmental.
“Huh? Why, yes! Well, no not exactly. You see, Trixie saw a smear on your precious mirror and she tried to wipe it off with her hoof,” Trixie started to believe her own story and continued her little charade.
“So, since there was no kind of cleaning fluids or rags anywhere, Trixie decided it would only help if one were to use a classic spit shine instead. Not that I--” she coughed, choking a bit on an overabundance of said spit she accumulated earlier. With Trixie’s rambling ongoing, Twilight couldn’t help but tilt her head to the right in the midst of trying to understand. The showmare continued with a clear throat.
“Trixie meant that she didn’t mean for her saliva to get all over it! Actually, Trixie did mean to, but-- ahahaha,” beginning to lose track of her own reasoning, she backed away from the puzzled bookworm with hysteric giggling. Suddenly, Trixie collided with a bookcase behind her, causing her to abruptly halt. The impact caused a book on the second to top shelf to lose its place and drop to the ground. Its trajectory was interrupted when it bounced off the top of Trixie’s head. Lucky for her, this prevented her from burying herself any further. Twilight inspected the mirror in question briefly and turned to her anxious friend.
“I, uh... see. Well, I appreciate your thoughtfulness of my belongings, but I do have cleaning supplies here for such an occasion,” she smiled, sheepishly. From the opening top drawer of the dresser came a generic spray bottle and clean white rag. Trixie wasn’t the least surprised she had something like that so conveniently close. Spraying the reflective surface, Twilight wiped over the mess thoroughly until the entire mirror shined and was bacteria free. She put away the supplies and noticed the book near Trixie’s feet.
“Could you put that book back on the shelf for me, please,” asked Twilight, closing the top drawer. Trixie looked at the floor below and found the book near her left forehoof. With a bemused expression, she raised the book with a purple veil. She was going to reacquaint it with its place up above, yet she curiously opened it up to the index page. Giving a quick peek, since she had been doing this for the past couple hours with no results, Trixie dropped the book and pulled away from it. Twilight watched as she did this and approached her with a given question.
“What’s wrong? Was there a bug in it?” She inquired. Snapping back to her ego, Trixie felt she needed to make something clear.
“A bug? Trixie will have you know, Twilight Sparkle, that there is nothing The Great and Powerful Trixie is afraid of,” boasted the magician. Twilight’s eyelids fell halfway at the sound of her obvious lie, yet recuperated once she came up with an idea.
“I was asking because there’s a bug right there!” She exclaimed, pointing at the ends of Trixie’s lavender front hooves. The current owner of those hooves jerked them upwards in response.
“A bug?! Where? Where?!” Panicked Trixie as her head shook around, trying to find the little critter. Laughing in response made Twilight feel justified about the experiment, despite playing a prank on the mare she loved. After a while, she calmed down and was able to open her joyful eyes to see a frowning Trixie, averting her gaze with folded arms.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” She wiped a single tear from her right eyelid.
“What was in this book that made you drop it?” Asked Twilight as she looked down on it. Trixie, who wanted to ignore her for laughing so profusely at her, remembered what it was that caught her eye in the index.
“Trixie saw it! The phrase ‘body swap’ is in the index! See?” She said, crouching down and pointing at the term’s location. Squinting a bit, Twilight looked near where the showmare was indicating with her hoof. Eventually, she saw it and her eyes broadened. There it was in black and white; right where it should have been. ‘Body swap’ was listed and it showed the page that referenced it was number sixty-nine. It wouldn’t be long now before they could finally be back in their own flesh and blood.
***
Author’s Note:
Ok, ok! I had too much fun writing this one. I hope it shows throughout the chapter. I wanted to take a second and thank Vyreinos (Teardrops and Snowflakes; seriously, I’ve been talking about this guy a lot lately) who came up with the amazing idea behind Trixie’s mirror make out session! At first, I passed it off as a silly idea. Then, I thought, “Well, how would that work out, anyway?” and with one thing leading to another, I had the entire scene pictured in my head. In the middle of typing it out, I had to stop and laugh at how ridiculous the entire thing was. Man, major props to that guy. Maybe he should write a comedy sometime. C’mon!
Also, fun fact: During the typing of this chapter, my right shift key broke! I totally don’t use the left one so every time I have to make a capital letter, I had to push down on the very tiny suction cup with my pinkie. For an overdramatic effect, read the second half of the chapter again. For every capital letter, imagine me saying ”ow.” Just like that, 20% funnier! Trevor agrees
...
Stop editing into my notes and laughing at my misfortune which I insisted on doing, Trevor!