Double Prime

by Little Jackie Papercut

Seeing

The tower pierced the canopy of the Everfree Forest for all to see. It was a calming thing, the ponies of Ponyville all agreed. To them it was like a good friend watching out for them. In large part, this was because it was a good friend watching out for them. Or at the very least, that was what it represented.

In the room at the top of the tower, its sole inhabitant stood before the window, observing the town she loved so much. She smiled softly at the sight of the library, that other beacon of peace; she broke into a grin as her eyes swept over the apple farm, which, while impressive from the ground, was simply breathtaking from above; she suppressed a laugh at the palatial cloud manor, a testament to one pony's complete lack of restraint.

In the park, there was a light green unicorn laughing and joking with her friends as she strummed a lyre serenely. Her coat partially camouflaged against the grass, she was almost totally invisible from this angle and distance, but the watcher in the tower knew she was there, not from the small crowd that had gathered but from the unmistakable mane of the mare who constantly accompanied her. A pair of teenaged fillies trotted eagerly toward some inscrutable destination, a third lagging behind, her head hung low. It almost brought a tear to the tower mare's eye, as one of the sad filly's friends noticed her behavior and turned to help her.

There were a few couples on dates around town. The mare observed them talking and laughing, and smiled; she watched them bicker, and laughed. She saw a local schoolteacher, sharing a simple smile with a rugged-looking stallion, and felt a small twinge deep down.

So focused on all this, she hadn't noticed that a mirror behind her, a tall, well-polished mirror framed with intricately-carved ebony, had begun glowing gently. No fewer than twenty mirrors hung along the walls of the room, but this was by far the largest and most magnificent. It very well had to be, after all; it had the most important purpose. A few more seconds, and a bright light sprang from it, bathing the room.

"Am I interrupting something?"

The voice was instantly familiar to her. "Not at all," she replied. "In fact, I was just thinking of you." Slowly she turned, meeting the eyes of a reflection that was not her own.

"Oh?" The pony in the mirror permitted a small laugh to escape at the incredibly cheesy line the mare had said so many times before. "And what exactly were you thinking?"

"That I've been up here alone in this tower for too long. I'll be coming into town in an hour. I'll see you there."

"I'd like that, but," the pony coughed politely, "please leave the costume at home this time. I don't want everypony to panic because they think Trixie the Great is on the clock again."

Trixie barely suppressed a snicker. "Alright, fine," she said. "But in return, I want you to wear something sexy."

"No."

~#~#~#~

As Trixie trotted past a local diner, a brown unicorn waved her over to a table, indicating an open seat.

"Heya, Trixie," she greeted. "Here to save our butts again?" She grinned broadly as she asked this, clearly well aware of Trixie's destination.

Trixie smirked. "Oh, certainly! Fear not, gentle Clockwork, for Trixie the Great has this catastrophe well in hoof!" she declared dramatically, then idly looked around before leaning closer and whispering, as if revealing some vital secret, "By catastrophe, I mean-"

Clockwork jammed a hoof into Trixie's mouth to silence her. This move would probably have provoked Trixie's ire had it not been completely anticipated. This was, after all, one of her oldest and closest friends, even from before the Storm.

Trixie also made a mental note to be irritated at how much of her life seemed to have become defined by the Storm, even if it was almost entirely for the better.

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean," Clockwork snickered. "You do have time for a chat, though, right? You don't ever seem to come into town to talk lately."

Trixie carefully schooled her expression to carry something almost accusatory. "You could come visit me instead, you know. It's not like I live in a tower to not be seen." Her tone may have sounded hurt, but beneath that, still reflected the same jest.

Clockwork drew in a sharp breath. "I dunno, a tower in the Everfree sounds like exactly the kind of place ponies disappear," she said, then after a moment of thinking about that statement, began poking at Trixie. "On the other hand, you're here, so it can't be that deadly."

Squirming and twisting, Trixie swatted her friend's hoof away, a task made more difficult when the sun chose just that moment to glint off a customer's hoofwatch and catch her square in the eye, as if Celestia herself had decided to join in on the teasing. "Hey, I took a direct hit from the Storm. Did you really think I'd be done in by a few trees?" she asked, drawing back and making to pull the brim of her hat down to shield her eyes, forgetting for a moment that she wasn't wearing it.

Even the most brilliant minds of Equestria still didn't understand the Storm. On that day, four years ago, a great storm of magical energy surged forth and started changing things on a fundamental level. Terrifying beasts, already common in the more unruly forests and fens of the world, were now found in increased numbers, many times imitating something inoccuous, even posing as ponies, and though it was hardly a daily occurrence, Trixie had come to consider halting rampages and the like merely part of her routine.

Ponies were affected as well, and in no place moreso than Ponyville. The town had been close to the epicenter of the Storm, though by the time anypony had realized what was going on, it was too late to track it to the source. Trixie had been one of the lucky ones. When the storm had hit, she had been practicing a spell meant to dazzle the town and make ponies throw themselves at her hooves in awe.

It had been a small, private audience that had watched as she was struck in the middle of gathering her magic by a bolt of raw magical potential. It had surged through her, elevating her power to incredible levels. Her spell, meant to conjure from the earth itself an item of indescribable beauty, had instead cascaded uncontrolled, briefly turning Ponyville into a shining citadel.

The timing had been perfect, because it was just at that moment that the creatures of the forest had begun to swarm. Trixie, in agony yet energized thanks to the magical charge, had stumbled forward to meet them, along with a few brave defenders. She had called out to them to allow her to make this stand alone, fueled equally by a need to burn off the excess energy and an opportunistic desire to be loved by all for what would surely be an easy task.

They would have none of it, and if she could have spared the attention to recognize them at the time she would have known why; they were led by Rainbow Dash, the one pony who hated and distrusted her more than the rest of the town put together, and not without reason. And in the end, Trixie had to grant her grudging gratitude for that, because while she had gained the magic to repel or subdue a great many of the creatures, in the end she did not have the focus, discipline, or mental fortitude to keep it up long enough, and had been narrowly saved by Rainbow Dash's timely intervention.

Though she hadn't been the hero of the day, she did get some recognition for her actions, and so after that, she went on to defend the town again and again. The magical overcharge had lingered for a while, gradually fading. It came as a surprise to Trixie when one day she realized that she no longer possessed the absorbed excess at all, but rather her own, albeit strengthened a bit from her recent activities.

The rest is history. The Great and Powerful Trixie ceased to be an entertainer who boasted about her power at every opportunity, and rose to become the hero known as Trixie the Great, going out and proving it. While she could never match the bravery or power of the Elements of Harmony, she did stand beside them through many battles, and developed her own special advantages, not the least of which was the tower from which she watched over Ponyville.

Back in the present, the unicorns chatted a bit, about Trixie's newest spells, and Clockwork's newest inventions. A mechanical wasp hardly seemed practical to Trixie, but Clockwork brushed her comments aside, assuring her that it would have an important use someday. Soon, Clockwork finished her meal, and Trixie decided it really was time to be going, since she still had business to attend to before her final stop.

"I'd appreciate it if you could stop by the lab later," Clockwork said before she left. "And bring your lover along, I could use a good eye on the Aura Amplifier." With a final hoofshake and a promise to make that visit happen, they parted ways.

~#~#~#~

A crowd had gathered outside town hall for the event. The whispers were deafening, every discussion focused on the same topic; the leader of the Wonderbolts, stopping here in Ponyville after a wildly successful tour. Near the head of the pack was Scootaloo, scanning the sky eagerly for any sign of the flying ace.

So focused was she, in fact, that she almost didn't notice when the crowd went completely silent. She didn't notice when they parted behind her, turning almost reverently. And it took her a moment to register the slow hoofsteps approaching. Slowly, it dawned that somepony was coming, and she cautiously turned around.

And there she was. Rainbow Dash trotted forward, her body dipping slightly every third hesitant beat, as it tended to.

Her pace slowed to a halt as she approached Scootaloo, and she looked the filly over, smiling gently. She placed a hoof on her shoulder, then eased forward into a warm embrace. "How ya doin', squirt?" she whispered.

Scootaloo had a good family and good friends, but truth be told she still always felt alone before she met Rainbow Dash. Back then, more than half her short lifetime ago now, she had no idea why the ponies she cared about were such small comfort to her. It was only after she started chasing rainbooms that she understood that she really hadn't had anypony to look up to, to want to be like.

By a fluke of her bloodline, she was a pegasus born to a pair of unicorns. While they were good ponies, she couldn't ever emulate either of her parents' talents. Without magic, she would just never be dextrous enough. Meanwhile, like most pegasi, she was passionate about flight, but had nopony to teach her or fly with her, and as a consequence had grown up one of the least flight-capable pegasus fillies in Ponyville. Her mother had built her something to help, a device named after her, designed to help her accelerate along the ground and get into the air, but that was the best they could do for her.

So when she met Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo saw in her something that her friends and family couldn't provide; she saw a mentor, a teacher and role model. She wanted nothing more than to be just like Rainbow Dash. So she had spent years trying to get the mare's attention, and Dash had taken notice. She had seen how unfalteringly loyal the fanatical filly was, and that had eventually persuaded her to give it a shot. Neither of them ever regretted it. They became close quickly, and to this day they were as much like sisters as any two ponies in Ponyville.

Scootaloo snapped out of her reflections, returning a just slightly more hollow smile to Rainbow Dash. "Better," she said truthfully, though she wasn't entirely sure what that meant.

Rainbow Dash nodded, patting her twice, and without another word proceeded up the steps of town hall. She turned to face the crowd, and waved to them, her smile magnifying into something truly ecstatic.

Then, quite suddenly, she took to the air, accelerating for just over a second before overhead, there was a great boom and rainbows spread in every direction. Before any eyes could catch her, a rainbow trail above them had spelled out, "I'm back, Ponyville!"

~#~#~#~

Applejack stared at the apple, daring it to suddenly swell up and burst or something.

When she noticed it on returning to the farm after Rainbow Dash's little welcome-back, she had thought it was just a bad apple. But on examining closely, she realized every apple on this tree bore exactly the same sort of discoloration. The same dark blue dots. And they all seemed to have a light blue tinge to them, as well.

So here's the question, Applejack thought. Who in the hay cross-pollinated an apple tree with poison joke?

It could have been a prank, but it takes years for an apple tree to mature. It was hard to imagine any prankster to be willing to wait that long for the payoff. If they were, then maybe Applejack owed them a little respect, and a little fear. And everypony who knew about poison joke knew it wasn't something you messed with. It seemed a little odd that they'd pull a stunt like this knowing that to an unsuspecting victim it could be dangerous.

Well, there was one pony Applejack could think of who might have done it, expecting much faster results and not considering the risk. But Applejack wasn't even sure if Rainbow Dash could spell "cross-pollination". So this was just another of those freak occurrences that were a little too common for AJ's liking. She turned her back on the tree, and trotted over to a barrel of water. After staring at the calm surface for a moment, she took an unnecessarily-deep breath and dunked her head in.

As much as she hated the unpredictability the Storm had brought, giving her things like poison joke apples and carnivorous plants disguising themselves as her trees, Applejack couldn't deny it hadn't all been bad. The roiling magic permeated everything, and in some cases it had very simple, straightforward, and outright beneficial effects. The trees of Sweet Apple Acres, for instance, had acted as lightning rods of a sort, allowing the soil to absorb a lot of magic and become more fertile than ever.

Prior to that, Applejack had been thinking about leaving Ponyville. Apple farming was an important part of her life, but the farm had entered a bit of disheartening decline. To even be able to keep the farm running, she would have needed to seek another source of revenue. But now, with both the quantity and quality of apples dramatically increased, things were actually pretty comfortable.

When she surfaced again, Applejack heard somepony behind her shuffling their hooves. Turning, she flinched at the sight of Derpy the mailmare. Derpy cleared her throat and reached into a saddlebag for a parcel, setting it on the ground. "Delivery from Twilight," she said with a smile.

Then she exploded.

~#~#~#~

Twilight bolted to her feet at the sound of the distant explosion. "What was..."

"Must've been Derpy again," Spike said, not looking away from his appointed task of polishing the library windows. "Third time this month."

Twilight nodded uncomfortably. "I should pay her a visit some time. It can't be easy," she said, still staring in the direction of the sound. "I wish there was something I could do... if only my magic was what it used to be..."

While some ponies had gained magical power during the Storm, Twilight found hers diminished. It was distressing, even catastrophic, but she had learned to live with it. Her friends got her by most of the time, and of course that was a more important kind of magic than her spells. But it was at times like this, when a friend was obviously suffering from a magical problem, that she deeply regretted not being able to to conjure a spell to help them out.

This was actually how she'd discovered the problem. When the Storm had hit, Twilight had been attending to some urgent business in the Everfree Forest, so she was completely unaware of the attack on Ponyville until she saw Rainbow Dash afterward. The pegasus had found herself with a deep gash on her flank, though she refused to explain how she got it. Twilight had moved quickly, pouring all her power into a healing spell.

The wound barely reacted. Twilight's spell had failed. Through the intervening years, she continued trying to summon more and more magic, and was never able to reach even a tenth of her previous power. It seemed that her days of researching and testing new spells were over. It hurt, but the past was the past, and accepting that helped more than Twilight would have expected.

She sighed. "Well, I hope she was at least able to deliver those packages first. That would be months of work down the drain... "

Spike didn't seem to hear that. He was a little preoccupied admiring his handiwork, posing in front of the window.

Both of them were snapped out of their thoughts rather suddenly by a knock on the door. "Were you expecting someone, Twi?" Spike asked.

Twilight nodded, a sheepish grin on her face. "We'd better not keep her waiting," she said, directing her magic to open the door.

~#~#~#~

Trixie knocked three times, then turned, leaning against her paramour's door. She glanced at the sky, reflecting on how it had come to pass. No matter what had transpired before or after that, the day she earned the love of this one pony was the day she felt truly forgiven for her previous behavior.

Before she could ruminate enough for a flashback, however, she was interrupted by a loud ringing sound. Trixie covered her ears against the noise, looking to the source.

The clock tower rose from the middle of Ponyville, its south face proclaiming the turning of the hour to Trixie. Half-obscured by the structure, Trixie saw the library, and idly thought she would have to pay it a visit sometime soon. While she was contemplating, she heard a sound behind her, and the door began to open.

"Come in, come in. I'm just getting a few things ready," came a sweet voice from inside.

With a smile, Trixie swept through the doorway. Inside, she looked around and saw nopony. Near the far wall, she spotted a mirror, and flashed herself a toothy grin.

Her reflection winked back.

Comments

[Doctor Derpin]

I must say... I approve of this story... interesting idea with a nice trixie x twilight start. Have a moustache!

[ScootzTheRipper]

What?

[Little Jackie Papercut]

494174
Who?

[nemryn]

494543
Huh?

[Night Fire]

Oh wow, big man, took off my comments. Guess you can't take somebody dealing out the truth? Hypocrite.

[Little Jackie Papercut]

518661
You begin from two incorrect premises; that I am bothered by criticism, and that your comments had any grain of truth in them. The former can only be proven or disproven when I receive some actual criticism. The latter can be easily disproven by the fact that when I asked you to elaborate so that your comments would serve any useful purpose instead of just being random insults, you failed to do so, indicating that there were no details to provide.

There is no standard by which I'm required to keep pointless insults in my story's comment thread, but if you feel so compelled to send them in, be my guest.