Twilight’s Birthday After Party

by aquilerafroot

Chapter 2

The six Elements of Harmony felt their jaws drop.

Twilight was the first to snap back to her senses. “Wow, it seems like somepony changed the name of her show, but not her stage name…”

“At least she seems more modest now,” sniffed Rarity, who was huddled against Twilight; Princess Luna sat on her left, and Princess Celestia on Twilight’s right. “And I would never hold a grudge.” She rapped her hooves on the ground in applause.

The other ponies followed suit, but the Element of Magic was the one that rapped the hardest. I’m glad I could see you again, Trixie. I hope you have the made the most of your new start in life…

A cloud of mist billowed on the stage, partially shrouding the mare who was wearing a glittering mask and a magnificent purple cape.

“Wheeeeeeee! It’s Trixie!” squealed Pinkie enthusiastically, seemingly forgetting about the last time they had encountered the showmare. In truth, it was quite impossible for anypony to give the premier party pony a bad impression.

“Yeah. Trixie… huh.” Rainbow Dash caught Applejack’s eye and rolled her eyes, but she was a bit glad for the magician for managing to find another performing job after the fiasco at Ponyville.

“Watch in awe, as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!”

“Hopefully she gets to finish an actual routine instead of showing off, this time,” remarked Rarity.

“Oh, I hope she has changed… but I’m pretty happy for her, since she got to continue being a show magician,” Twilight replied.

Turning to her mentor, Twilight whispered in the alicorn’s ear, “Princess Celestia, it turns out that we’ve met her before! I told you about her in my report - she helped me realize that it’s okay to be proud of my talent, but modesty is equally important as well. I’m not sure if you remember it? It was a pretty long time ago.”

The Princess of the Sun nuzzled her faithful student as the unicorn on stage set off a brilliant display of fireworks, illuminating the darkened penthouse with dazzling flares that sparkled and danced. “Of course Twilight, I remember everything you’ve written to me. And of course I would never forget that you banished an Ursa Minor! I was in fact deeply proud of you, if I haven’t told you before.”

Twilight blushed, and after turning her attention back to the show, couldn’t help being impressed by the display of magic. “Um, wow… it seems she has improved quite a lot since last time!”

The eight mares watched as Trixie sent multiple beams of light weaving through the room, the rays then twisting and whizzing in the air as they changed colors, finally looping back to form the brightly glowing letters:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWILIGHT SPARKLE

“Wooow!” exclaimed the six Elements in unison.

“Attagirl, Trixie!” hollered the orange cowgirl. “This just completely changes mah perspective about ya!”

"What? Who dares to interrupt the Great and Powerful…” the unicorn stopped in mid-sentence when she finally took a look at the audience and saw the two alicorns, and Twilight Sparkle.

She of course already knew that the performance was for the mare who had humiliated her back in Ponyville; it was one of the reasons she had decided to wear a mask.

She was informed of this by the mare that had booked the show on a moment’s notice in the afternoon. Trixie barely had time to gather her gear before she performed that very night, but the extra payment was more than enough to make her readily agree.

“Oh! Your Highnesses, the Great-I, I apologize for not noticing your Highnesses before, I wasn't told that I would performing for such… esteemed guests!” the robed equine stammered as she bowed her head.

Rainbow and Applejack wore expressions of utter astonishment, stunned that Trixie was even capable of humbled speech, and they giggled quietly.

“Trixie, it was our pleasure to watch you perform,” replied Princess Celestia graciously. “And I must say your control of your magic is quite impressive. It seems you have improved much… as my most faithful student has told me.”

“T-thank you!” stuttered the masked magician. “And happy birthday, Twilight Sparkle!” she managed to utter.

The birthday mare locked eyes with Trixie. “Thanks, Trixie! And um, you can continue? I’m really looking forward to the rest!”

Trixie bit her lip and looked down, a faint blush on her cheeks, but quickly composed herself and stood up straight, brushing back her cape.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie’s next trick will be…” With a flash of her horn the room lit up again, specks of light dancing and flickering before shimmering into an explosion of colors that slowly shifted and morphed into the image of a bird’s eye view from atop a snow capped mountain; it was like a projection, but without a physical screen.

As her audience watched, the view lurched and it was like they had launched themselves off the mountain, steep cliff walls rushing past with accompanying sounds of whooshing wind growing audible, then louder and louder. Trees and lakes dotted the landscape in the magical projection, and magnified at alarming rates as the illusion took them down into the embrace of gravity.

Twilight held her breath as the projection panned up, just as it seemed they were about to hit the trees, and there was the sound of leaves rustling as the projection took them to glide parallel to the ground, fields and forests, even the glimpse of the occasion settling here and there as they soared on.

It’s pretty advanced illusionary magic, thought Twilight, beaming as she looked up at the stage. The illusion shifted again, tilting back upwards as the landscape dropped, and finally they rose so high they could no longer see the ground. They soared into the clouds, which always made Twilight think of her mentor and the soft downy feel of her feathers whenever they hugged.

An attendant trotted up to them with a platter filled with drinks and Celestia took one for herself, one for Twilight, while Luna took her own. The waiter then looped back from behind them so as not to obstruct their view before offering the drinks to the remaining five mares.

Twilight took the drink, looking up at Celestia questioningly, but the alicorn just smiled before saying, “Give it a try Twilight, I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Twilight nodded, encouraged by Celestia’s words, and took a small sip of the drink. It tasted sweet with a small splash of sour, which reminded her of orange and cranberry and pineapple.

She had barely registered the fruity flavor though before the sweetness receded, leaving a much harder taste, something metallic, something chemical that seeped into her senses and quickly mixed with the sweetness in an aggressive way – if she’d never known tastes could be aggressive she did now.

It was only a small sip but it lingered for so long, even after Twilight had swallowed a few times. She took another drink, this time bigger than the first, and the fruity sensational came back in a wave of sweetness, flooding the hard taste before ebbing back again, the two blending in a way that was much more pleasant than her first sip.

“Princess? What kind of drink is this?” she asked after taking a few more gulps. While it didn’t taste entirely pleasant it was something new, and strangely her senses seemed to have been slightly modified, the metallic taste lingering on her tongue and inside the walls of the mouth and throat, acting like a filter that turned everything in her sense of taste into an explosion of pleasing and threatening sensations at the same time.

Celestia merely smiled and brushed Twilight with a wing, and Twilight suddenly had the notion to lick the pure white feathers…

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Comments

[thedarkshark24]

I posted a comment and got some more

[aquilerafroot]

1304431
In a way you did! It's not much more though, though more will be here pretty soon (hopefully)

[thedarkshark24]

1304460 still though these chapters were nicely wrote and advanced the plot nicely without giving the future so i say to you good show sir also

[Mossflower]

1304478
well...i remember the story's existence, i don't remember quite what it was about, and i had completely forgotten that had commented (funny thing; seeing your own comment and not remembering why you wrote that in the first place). a little re-read will be needed, but after that everything's chill.

[kajisora]

yayyy updates!
Good to see this is still going

[Lunas_Sloot]

Did twilight just ... get roofied.. by celestia?!