Dusk Shine in pursuit of Happiness

by bigsnusnu

Chapter 30 - Truths behind the stage

Truths behind the stage

Trixie was quietly resting on her bed, inside her comfortable wagon. Soon she would have to start preparing for her magical duel against Dusk Shine, but for now, all she wanted, or rather needed, was to rest; after all, she had two very busy days.

That same afternoon, Trixie had revealed to Dusk Shine that everything she had been doing since that morning had been part of her plan. Which was completely true, however, what the blue unicorn didn’t tell Dusk, was that her plan had really started from the day before, the day she had sneaked into town, before making her brilliant appearance.

"No... my plan to defeat Dusk was born much earlier..." Trixie said thinking aloud, talking to herself, a bad habit she had acquired by living alone for so long. "It started to form since I knew he was in this town... spreading those false rumors about being a hero..."

Trixie recalled that as she approached the center of Equestria, in some small towns, there was a rumor that a unicorn had saved the princess from the clutches of Nightmare Moon, rumors that only became more numerous as Trixie approached to Ponyville. It was then that she finally knew the name of that supposed hero that had saved Equestria, a name that she knew well and that to only hear it would cause herm blood to boil.

"That cheat! If he really saved the princess and Equestria, why didn’t his name appear in the newspapers? Why didn’t a parade take place in his honor? This stupid town!?" Trixie mumbled annoyed, still lying on her bed. "I know, it's because he invented all that... he would never be able to do something as great as that... It's just like that time... how he just lied to everyone..." Trixie added recalling part of her past.

Once Trixie learned that Dusk Shine lived in Ponyville, she began to devise her plan, the plan with which she would eventually defeat Dusk and unmask him before everyone.

A plan that involved five stages, of which, four had already been completed...

First, she had come to the town in secret, in different disguises, and had started spreading rumors that Dusk was just a fraud. Rumors that for her fortune were very well received by groups of ponies that, like her, already suspected that Dusk was just a fraud. It was so that Trixie, with her good skills to win over the public, only had to light the wick of the problem that was about to explode, encouraging that little groups of ponies who distrusted Dusk, to take action and to confront him.

The second thing she had done that same day which she had arrived hidden in town, was to find some foals that could spread and publicize the show she would perform. Which had turned out better than expected, when meeting with little Snips and Snails, who were so impressed by the magic tricks and fantastic stories that Trixie told them, ended up, without hesitation, doing everything she asked of them, even giving them valuable information to her on the ponies of the town, like how this was a town inhabited by the three races, but mostly consisted of earth ponies, and that in addition there was no schools of magic. All that information was valuable to Trixie, since she was able to prepare a good show, knowing that all those little-used villagers would be easily impressionable.

The third part of her plan had happened that morning, where Trixie had performed her show. There, Trixie had demonstrated her great magical ability, all to win over the public and at the same time to get the attention of Dusk Shine, which went as planned. Thus, Trixie intentionally allowed herself to be lost, with an arranged show, of which the little Snips and Snails were part, who in advance had already been trained by Trixie on what they would have to do on stage. All for Dusk to dig his own grave, raising even more the suspicions that grew against him, and thus causing the public to be partialized in her favor and against Dusk.

Finally, Trixie had recently and successfully completed the fourth part of her plan, which consisted of visiting Dusk, learning of his strengths and weaknesses, and knowing what she would face. All to finally give way to the fifth and final part of her plan, the sunset show, which will happen in only a couple of hours...

Deciding that she couldn’t continue to rest, since she was getting closer to achieving her goal, Trixie got up from her bed and bent down to look for something underneath it.

From under her bed, Trixie pulled out what appeared to be two simple bottles, one with a transparent bluish liquid, and another with a yellow liquid. Then she held both bottles and looked at them carefully as if they were a treasure.

"Yes... with this, I’ll have a guaranteed victory... With this everypony will know that Dusk Shine is nothing but a fraud..." Trixie said again thinking aloud while looking at the bottle with the blue liquid. Then she looked at the bottle with the yellow liquid, however, her gaze changed as she contemplated it, giving her a more serious look, as if she were hesitant about using that bottle or not.

KNOCK KNOCK!

Suddenly someone knocked on the door of her wagon, which caused Trixie to lose concentration and almost drop the bottles with the precious liquid they were carrying, however she managed to hold on to them at the last second, in which she let out a great sigh of relief. Then Trixie carefully placed the bottles on the floor, and stared fiercely at the door, annoyed with whoever dared bother her at such a crucial moment.

Trixie walked to the door and opened it suddenly, then looked from one side to another, but seeing no one, until she looked down and saw who had knocked on her door. It was the foals that had served her faithfully as undercover helpers in that morning's show, Snips and Snails, who were staring at each other in amazement as they saw her.

"You!? What are you two doing here!?" Trixie said annoyed and a little scared to see the two little colts in front of her door.

Quickly Trixie poked her head out of the wagon and looked around, verifying that no one else was nearby.

"Hurry! Get in!" Trixie said annoyed, using her magic to levitate and pull the foals inside her home and closing the door behind her again.

Once Trixie closed the door, she gave a great sigh of relief and then raised her eyes again with a look of annoyance.

"I told you two not to show up here anymore, I don’t want anypony to suspect that-" Trixie began to speak annoyed, looking at the foals, ready to reprimand them for risking all their plan; However, she stopped to see how it seemed that neither of the two foals paid attention to her.

Both young colts had taken the opportunity to enter the home of their idol for the first time to start looking at everything that was in amazement, from his clothes and costumes piled on the floor, to the strange objects that were there, and that Trixie liked. Collecting, as if everything were magical just for the fact that it belonged to Trixie.

The blue unicorn watched with annoyance as both the foals began to look and touch her belongings, now getting ready to stop them; However, she finally gave a sigh and looked away, deciding that she would give them a couple of seconds to observe the 'wonders' of her wagon, as a reward for everything that those two foals had done for her, after everything, if it hadn’t been for them, her plan wouldn’t have gone as perfect as it had happened that morning.

"Oh... What’s this?" Snips asked loudly.

Trixie looked up again and immediately almost had a heart attack when little Snips held the bottle with the yellow liquid, lifting it up and trying to see through the liquid.

"Wait! Careful!" Trixie shouted, running immediately to where Snips was, removing the bottle from his hooves. "You don’t know how expensive this potion is!"

"Oh... a magic potion..." Snips said in amazement. "What’s it for?"

Trixie smiled at the yellow liquid in the bottle, different from the look of doubt that she had when when she had taken it out from under the bed.

"Heh... what’s it for you ask? This potion will make the show much more fun and exciting... With this potion, I'll have my victory assured..." Trixie said smiling. Then, she glanced sideways at one of the corners of her wagon, where there was a dusty box, which kept several things that Trixie didn’t like to see, but that she treasured a lot.

Seeing that box, Trixie's smile vanished and she again looked doubtfully at the potion she held.

"B-But it will not be necessary to use it." Trixie added, carefully lowering the bottle and placing it next to Snips.

"And this one?" Snails said suddenly.

Seeing Snails, Trixie almost had a double heart attack, since the clumsy, thin colt held the other bottle, but for some reason it seems that he had found it boring, and now he was balancing it at the tip of his nose.

"Nooo!!" Trixie screamed terrified, grabbing the bottle from Snails before it fell from his nose and onto the floor.

"That was close!" Trixie thought, giving a strong breath of relief. "This potion will definitely be used, this is my trump card! I can’t lose it!"

"Oh, Great and Powerful Trixie, could you tell us again the story of how you defeated the great Ursa Major?" Snips suddenly asked, taking advantage of the opportunity that Trixie had remained silent while thinking.

"No, that's enough!" Trixie said annoyed, after those foals almost ruined her plans and almost broke the bottle with blue liquid she was holding. "It's time for you to leave, I'll see you two at the show, remember to be in the front row, I'll need you there."

"Pleeease!" Snails said with puppy eyes. "That story is amazing! It's my favorite!"

"That story was just a story, how can they be so naive and believe that somepony can beat an Ursa Major?" Trixie thought, looking and sighing upward, tired of the young colts' insistence.

Then Trixie illuminated her horn and pointed to both foals, who with a great and noisy flash of light, disappeared from the wagon.

After teleporting both foals out of her wagon, Trixie winced when she saw that all her clothes that were on the floor, close to where the foals had been, had also been teleported along with them.

"Teleportation was never my forte... Dusk would have easily teleported those foals without much noise and with more precision." Trixie thought as her mind began to set in motion for the upcoming duel.

"Dusk is an expert with the use of the teleportation spell..." Trixie said thinking aloud, while a malicious smile formed on her lips. "But I'll make everypony believe that I am too, hehe..."

---

The sunset had finally arrived, and with it, was the right time for the magical duel between Trixie and Dusk Shine. The stage was unfolded, the audience expectant, and one of the challengers was already standing on the stage, ready and prepared while her lilac cloak fluttered in the wind, smiling triumphantly as she watched her challenger finally appear on the horizon, approaching her with a look of determination as the audience opened to make way for him to reach the stage. An audience that for the most part looked suspiciously at the lavender colt as it passed by, all because of the events that occurred that morning.

When arriving in front of the stage, Dusk went up quietly, determined to ignore the audience, since he could notice how many fixed eyes were looking at him penetratingly. However, his determination to ignore the public lasted very little, because his heart couldn’t help but startle as he breathed a sigh of relief to see that just like that morning, his friends were in the front row, with very different looks then the ones with anger and mistrust that everyone else had there.

"You finally appeared, I thought maybe you would be afraid of my little challenge." Trixie said with a smile of pride, finally leaving aside her facade of being 'Dusk’s fan' that she had portrayed to everyone that morning.

Dusk Shine didn’t answer, with a calm but serious look, he kept his mind focused, knowing that because of what had happened in the library before coming here, he would need to be alert for the whole time.

"Hmm... This is a rather small place for our duel, don’t you think? That is, we could damage some buildings without meaning to." Trixie said suddenly with a thoughtful face, speaking loudly so everyone could hear her. A question that surprised Dusk, but thanks to his concentration, he didn’t manage to change it. "It's better that we go to a larger area."

At that moment Trixie's horn lit up and a large flash covered the stage and much of the ponies that were there. That flash of light caused Dusk to close his eyes, and upon opening them immediately afterwards, they were completely surprised, as well as all the ponies in the audience that were there.

Both the stage and the audience were now on the outskirts of Ponyville, quite far from the center of town, which was where they had been a few seconds ago. That flash had been a teleportation spell, and not just any spell, it was a very powerful one, one that was able to teleport them and the audience at the same time.

"That's impossible!" Dusk thought losing his temper as his mind began to try to explain what happened. "Even I can’t do that! No pony can do it without help!"

At that moment Dusk turned his head from side to side looking for something that could explain how Trixie had been able to perform such a great feat. Dusk's eyes finally stopped to see some small, fuzzy lines that seemed to be drawn under and around the floor where they now stood, black lines that released a faint smoke as they disappeared more and more.

"That's... She used 'arcane circles'!" Dusk thought as he recognized those lines drawn on the ground.

The arcane circles were one of the many ways to enhance magic, especially the appearance. In the case of teleportation, if you drew a magic circle in one place and another on another side, with the exact same magic diagram, you could enhance your teleportation and transport several objects from one place to another at a time, provided if they were inside the circle. That would have served as transport between cities if it didn’t have the disadvantage of the circles disappearing after a single use, besides that the same user who drew both circles should be able to use it, so it wasn’t used as a means of travel since you would have to be in the desired place to draw where you wanted to go.

Dusk Shine looked up and looked surprised at Trixie, who only returned her look with a big smile, knowing that Dusk had discovered her trick, but also knowing that it was useless. The trick itself had already amazed everyone in the audience, and the arcane circle has almost completely disappeared, and Dusk tried to explain the operation of those magic circles to the crowd that knew very little or nothing about magical enhancers. I would make it look like I was just looking for excuses to detract from Trixie's great trick.

"By the way, I see that your friends are not here." Trixie added suddenly, still watching Dusk, speaking loudly for everyone to hear. "My spell wasn’t that strong, I was only able to teleport half of the audience, but I heard that your best spell is teleportation... Tell me, can you bring the other half of the audience here?"

Because of this, without even having started the duel, Trixie already had the absolute advantage. Both unicorns knew that it was impossible for Dusk to transport so many ponies with just his magic, and Trixie had shouted as loud as she could that the teleportation spell was Dusk's best spell, and at the same time he had demonstrated, or at least made the public think, that she was better at this spell than Dusk.

"I... I can’t..." Dusk replied with a look of defeat, knowing he couldn’t do anything.

At the response of Dusk, the audience immediately began to murmur as the looks of distrust and displeasure increased in the crowd.

"Step one: make the public believe that I am better than Dusk in teleportation, done." Trixie thought triumphantly, smiling when she saw that as always, everything went according to her plans.

It didn’t take long until the other half of the audience that had been left behind came to where the stage and everyone else had teleported. All guided by Rainbow Dash, who when flying looking for where the others had gone, saw that they had magically appeared on the outskirts of town.

"I’m sorry that you had to come running over here, but it seems like Dusk didn’t want, or rather, he couldn’t do the same thing as I. It's a real shame." Trixie said to the newcomers, with a false look of guilt. Quickly continuing with her monologue so that Dusk couldn’t say anything. "Well, now that everypony is finally here, we'll start with the magic duel!"

The moment Trixie shouted, and took advantage of the fact that the sun was finally and completely hidden, the showmare used her magic to light several torches that were already placed around the stage, thus providing the desired light for the main event. All while the audience erupted in shouts and applause of emotion.

"First, I'll need a couple of assistants." Trixie said loudly once the applause ceased. In that instant she automatically lowered her eyes, finding precisely who she needed, little Snips. "You little one, can you please help me again this time?"

The little Snips jumped with joy knowing that he would be on stage again, next to his idol, and quickly climbed the stage, while the audience gave him a big applause and began to comment how kind and attentive Trixie was with small foals, creating the impact that she had planned. However, although this was part of Trixie's plan and she kept a big smile in front of the audience, her eyes went from one side to the other, as it seemed that something was not going according to her plan.

"E-Excuse me, little one, where's your friend? I'd like him to help us as well." Trixie asked smiling, hiding her annoyance because of the unexpected flaw in her plan.

"Oh, don’t worry, Great and Powerful Trixie, he’ll be here soon." Snips answered smiling and winking at Trixie, as if he was entrusting a secret Trixie knew nothing about.

"Why did they disobey me? I told them to be here in the front row!" Trixie thought annoyed, thinking quickly how to solve that. "Now I'll have to find someone else."

"How about you, could you help me with this challenge I will face?" Trixie said pointing to another pony of the public, to someone who, like the colts, had already chosen who to support in that duel, someone who wouldn’t present problems and who would keep a watchful eye on their rival. Trixie had chosen Bon Bon.

Bon Bon seemed surprised by Trixie's request, however she gave a scathing glance to Dusk Shine, and immediately accepted, taking a step forward to approach the stage. At that moment, another event occurred that fell out of Trixie's plans. As Bon Bon advanced to the stage, Lyra grabbed hold of her and begged Trixie to choose her as well, since according to her, they were inseparable, the bests of friends. At Lyra's insistence, Trixie had finally and reluctantly accepted, and both ponies took the stage with Snips.

"Yes... with three it will also work, it may even cause a better effect..." Trixie whispered thinking aloud as her plan adjusted to the new variants.

"Why do we need assistants? I thought it would be a magic duel." Dusk asked uneasily, who unlike that morning, was more on the defensive, assuming since all that was part of Trixie's plan.

"Of course, it’ll be a magic duel, I'm just making things a little more interesting." Trixie smiled falsely. "And by the way, these are MY three assistants, you have to choose three of yours."

Dusk was surprised by what Trixie said, he didn’t understand yet what she was planning, however he understood that at the moment he had no choice but to follow her terms, since he could feel the pressure of having the public's eyes on him, who would probably hate him even more if he rejected the preparations that Trixie had for that duel without reason. At that moment Dusk turned to see the audience and immediately realized that he had fallen into another trap, which made Trixie smirk to see the doubt and fear in the face of Dusk.

As soon as Dusk saw the audience, he realized that almost everyone in the audience was looking at him with distrust or resentment, all because of what happened that morning. Knowing that, Dusk knew that it would be difficult to ask anyone for help, which made Dusk's only option was to choose one of his friends, who were only Spike and his four friends, since Fluttershy was again absent. Dusk immediately discarded Spike, since he didn’t know what the assistants would do in the duel, so perhaps a baby dragon would be at a disadvantage, so it forced him to choose among his four friends, but that was the biggest trap of all! Trixie was forcing him to choose three of them to the detriment of the fourth! Trixie had discovered how important his friends were to him and now she wanted to break that friendship!

"Hurry, we don’t have all night!" Trixie shouted, not giving Dusk much time to think. "Three, two, one…"

"Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash!" Dusk shouted quickly, knowing that if he didn’t choose on time, it would cause him to fall into another trap that would force him to continue the duel without assistants. "P-Please... be my assistants..." Dusk added without being able to look his friends in the eyes, especially one of them.

The four friends of Dusk were surprised when their dear friend shouted the names, nevertheless the face of Rarity quickly changed of the surprise to doubt and pain, when realizing that Dusk had left of side.

"Rarity, I-" Dusk said quickly, approaching the edge of the stage, seeing the look of sadness on his unicorn friend. Without even reaching to excuse himself, since he was quickly interrupted.

"I see, you chose the strongest, the fastest, and the most eccentric." Trixie said also approaching the edge of the stage, speaking to Dusk but speaking loud enough so that Rarity could hear her. "I congratulate you, it is the most logical thing, to leave the dead weight behind."

"N-No! It's not that, I-" Dusk stammered, wanting to deny what Trixie had said.

"Enough of this insignificants, let's continue with the show!" Trixie shouted, interrupting Dusk again so he couldn’t justify himself. Walking back to the center of the stage while smiling when she saw how Dusk was slowly collapsing.

While the three would-be-assistants took the stage. Trixie used her magic to dim the light of the torchlight for a second. Then she made appear in front of her a bottle, the bottle with the transparent bluish liquid that she had been admiring that afternoon.

"This will suffice, I’ll not need the other potion, I know I can beat him justly." Trixie thought, finally deciding not to take the potion with the yellow liquid.

"What is that?" Dusk asked, afraid of another new surprise from Trixie. Asking the question that the whole public was asking at that moment.

"Madam mayor, could you do us the honor of helping us with this?" Trixie asked kindly, completely ignoring Dusk, while looking at the Mayor, who was curious to hear all the fuss of the show that morning, had attended tonight’s event. Something that had already been anticipated by the cunning blue unicorn.

The mayor, who had attended there, hoping to go unnoticed, was forced to take the stage after the audience applauded and encouraged her to do so.

"Mayor, could you have a drink of this bottle? Don’t worry, I assure you it is not dangerous at all." Trixie said with a smile, uncovering the bottle and bringing it to the mayor.

The mayor looked suspiciously at the bottle Trixie offered, however there were no real reasons not to trust Trixie or participate in that show, so she finally took a small drink of that blue liquid. When finished drinking, the mayor looked at Trixie and the audience, hoping that something extraordinary happened, worthy of a magic show, however nothing happened, that liquid even tasted like simple water.

"Tell me, madam mayor, is there some little secret that embarrasses you and you don’t want it to be made public?" Trixie asked kindly.

"O-Of course not, I'm the highest authority in Ponyville." The mayor responded almost offended. "I must be an example of transparency, I would never tell in public that my hair is really pink, and I dye it gray."

Realizing what she had just said, the mayor immediately covered her mouth, totally ashamed of what she had said. All while the public was surprised at the strange revelation of their beloved mayor.

"This is called ' Veritaserum ', it's a rare potion that makes it impossible to not tell the truth." Trixie said speaking to the public and glancing at Dusk Shine. At that moment Trixie made two glasses appear, serving a little of the potion in both glasses, and then looked at Dusk as she held both cups close. "We’ll both drink this potion, so we’ll prevent any of us from lying or cheating in our duel, what do you think? With this we will finally check if you are as powerful as you pretend to be."

Dusk was now annoyed at Trixie, everything she had said was to make him look like the cheat and the liar that she thought he was, when the truth was that Trixie was the one who had been fooling the public so far. Then Dusk returned to concentrate on the glasses that Trixie was levitating in front of him, thinking that he still didn’t understand what Trixie was planning, what was it that she would gain by having them both drink from that potion?

Finally, deciding that after all he had nothing to hide, Dusk took one of Trixie's glasses and held it to his lips, hoping for safety that Trixie would take her drink first, to know that he was not falling into another trap. Realizing Dusk's distrust, Trixie just smiled confidently.

"I may do tricks for my shows, but I'm not afraid of the truth." Trixie said, drinking the liquid from her potion, which gave security to Dusk for him to do as well.

Once both unicorns emptied their glasses, Trixie glanced at Dusk, checking that he had finished drinking the potion, then she sighed with a look of discouragement, knowing that now it was time to continue with the part of the plan that she least liked, but that it was necessary to unmask Dusk and the mockery about his great power once and for all.

"Before starting the duel, there is a story that I would like to tell you..." Trixie said looking seriously at the audience. "A story that happened many years ago, when I was just a little filly."

"My mother abandoned me at birth, so I was raised by my father, a mediocre unicorn who made children's magic shows to be able to survive with his daughter." He was always a failure with his magic shows, his magic was not strong enough to do great spells, and his tricks always went wrong in one way or another, so he was always made a mockery of all those who saw him... That made me sick... I didn’t like being the daughter of a laughingstock. I realized my skill in magic, which seemed to be far above young colts and fillies of my same age, something my father also noticed. This was how that good for nothing fool decided to collect all the money he had to give his daughter a chance... "

"Once a year, the most prestigious school of magic of Canterlot opens its doors for the small unicorns of the kingdom to test their skills in front of a jury and thus can get a chance to study in that great school, a unique opportunity for a pony of a lower class, since that school is only for the elite ponies, only for the wealthiest and noble blood of the kingdom, so my father used all the money he had to make sure I was the first on the list whom the judges would see and so I would have a better chance of being chosen when they saw my magical potential, despite that, that never happened... "

"The day before the exam I was happier than anypony else, knowing that I could finally show my great power and I would gain a place among the elites of magic, but that day my father became seriously ill... Only then did I realize that fool even gave up eating for days just to save money and give me an opportunity for the day of the exam!"

"I spent all night and the next morning with my father, even knowing that I had lost my place when I didn’t show up that morning. Finally, my father died... His last words were to go to the exam and promise to show my power to the judges and so I will finally win a good life, a life that he hadn’t been able to give me. "

"That afternoon I saw my father for the last time and I ran to the school where the exam was being done, determined to fulfill my father's last wish and to beg the judges that even if I were the last one on the list, they would see me, give me a chance!"

"When I got there, I saw with astonishment that there was no pony there, only one of the judges who was leaving the place. I asked him what had happened to all the applicants, and he replied that everypony had left and that somepony had already been chosen to enter the school that year, somepony who left everypony surprised with his great magical power. Then the judge pointed me to the ceiling of the room ... I couldn't believe it, there was little left of the ceiling, everything had been destroyed, and not only that, there were dragon scales in it! It seemed that the young colt that had passed the exam hadn't only destroyed the roof with a great beam of energy but had also made a huge dragon appear there. That was impossible! No filly or colt could do that! Even the judge himself couldn’t believe it, all the judges didn’t! That magic was of an advanced level! Not even the judges could do that! However, after that had happened, before the astonished gaze of the judges, the very Princess Celestia had appeared and had welcomed the magic school of Canterlot to that foal, all because she herself had seen from afar that magic from his castle."

"After the judge told me what happened, he left without a second, it didn’t matter how much I begged, nor did it matter that I showed him how advanced and strong my magic was to somepony my age. My chance had vanished, all because of a foal that played dirty... That was commented for weeks in Canterlot, the tricky foal that deceived even the princess, I’ll never forget that name... Dusk Shine... "

When Trixie finished speaking, the audience was silent, all surprised and stunned by the new revelation they now knew.

Trixie looked at Dusk with a deep look of hate as small tears peeked from the edge of her eyes. She didn’t want to cry, but it had been inevitable that she would be moved to remember that sad part of her past, something also inevitable to do since she had decided to tell that, and the potion she had just taken made it impossible to hide what she really meant. She could have avoided that very emotional memory if she hadn’t taken the potion, however it was necessary for her plan, after all she needed the truth to finally be known about Dusk.

"Now tell me..." Trixie added drying her tears with her hoof, still seeing Dusk with hatred. "What trick did you use? How did you pass that test? How did you do that powerful magic!? It was all a trick, wasn’t it? You didn’t do it!"

While Trixie told her story, Dusk had listened stoically, determined not to be affected by what Trixie said, whatever it was, but when he realized what it was about and that it was also his own past, Dusk froze. Nerves, totally frightened of what Trixie was counting, realizing what he had indirectly caused in the past without realizing it.

"I-I..." Dusk started stuttering, struggling with his nervousness and with the very potion he had just drank and made it impossible for him not to respond, glancing nervously at his friends who were on the stage behind him, who were motionless and silent as all the public present, looking confused.

"Was it you who made that powerful spell or not!?" Trixie screamed furious once more.

"No... It wasn’t me." Dusk finally answered, sadly lowering his head.

The audience had listened excitedly to Trixie's story, getting excited along with her in every sad moment she suffered, and now that same audience was also looking at Dusk with hatred, even some began to boo him, all the while he kept looking sadly at the floor.

"Sniff... Well, at last everypony knows the truth, it was something I needed everypony to know before we started our duel." Trixie said more calmly, drying the last tears that were still in her eyes and then put a totally serious look. "Your judgment has come, now we’ll start the duel!"

Being quick as lightning, as soon as Trixie finished saying that sentence, she illuminated her horn and made strings that were next to the stage tied to each of the assistants who had climbed the stage, both the three assistants of Dusk like the three of her.

"Waahh!" Lyra and Bon Bon shouted in unison as they were being tied magically.

"Not again!" Applejack shouted annoyed to be tied again, looking at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who were in the same condition as her.

"What are you doing!?" Dusk said surprised to see what Trixie had just done.

"As I said, it's time to start our duel." Trixie answered, looking with determination at Dusk. "I said that the six of them would be our assistants, but I never said how they would help us."

At that moment Trixie used her magic to levitate the six ponies that were tied: Snips, Lyra, Bon Bon, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, and levitated them slowly to the side of the stage, being levitated over a large mud pit that there was there.

"Catch them." Trixie said suddenly, ceasing to use her magic on the three friends of Dusk Shine, causing them to begin to fall.

Anticipating his movement, Dusk quickly used his magic to keep them levitated before they fell into the mud.

"We’ll test our resistance by levitating our helpers on the mud at all times of the duel, so if one drops his three assistants at some point, he will automatically lose the duel." Trixie said, speaking again loudly so that the audience could hear how her confrontation with Dusk would develop.

"I knew it, I knew that mud pot wasn’t there by chance here." Dusk thought, remembering that the pool had caught his attention when Trixie had made the stage appear there. "That's why I didn’t choose Rarity, I knew that if somehow Trixie occupied that pool of mud in the duel, Rarity hates getting dirty more than anypony."

"Trixie, don’t you dare let me go!" Bon Bon shouted, looking suspiciously at the mud puddle that was a few feet below her.

"Easy, my concentration is perfect, and I would never drop a friend in the mud." Trixie replied with a confident smile, then looking at Dusk. "Well, now that everything is ready, I will say the rules of the match, I’m sure you won’t have no trouble keeping a simple levitation spell while you use other spells during the duel, right?"

"This is bad... In the library she discovered what my strengths and weaknesses are, and now she's exploiting them!" Dusk thought worriedly, knowing what Trixie wanted to achieve with that.

The magic consisted of three basic elements to be conjured: 'Power', 'Concentration', and 'Imagination'. To make a spell all in one would require lots of concentration on the conjuration of this, then he had to gather his magical power in his horn and in the object that was affected by it, and at the same time he had to imagine and create in his mind a final image of what he wanted achieve with that spell. All unicorns knew those three principles and handled them, however it was also true that for all unicorns it was always easier to handle one of those three elements. In the case of Dusk, his fort was 'Power', which made his spells very powerful; in the case of Trixie, her strength was 'Concentration', which made it easier for her to do several things at once with her magic, as she had shown in the library, being able to levitate more books at the same time than Dusk; or how she did it right now, making them both have to do a levitation spell while they would have to do other spells at the same time. As she continued to prove it minute by minute, it seemed that everything was within Trixie's plan, and Dusk couldn’t escape.

"I’ll choose different types of magic that we’ll use in different duels, and only that kind of magic can be used in that duel, whoever wins three duels will be the winner." Trixie said, continuing her explanation of what the duel would be like. "I don’t think you have any objections, after all you are the one who supposedly defeated Nightmare Moon, you must be a master in all magical arts, isn’t that right?" Trixie added with a sarcastic smile.

Dusk Shine only nodded slowly, knowing that Trixie maintained control over the audience and that if he refused, the only thing he would achieve would be for the public to suspect him even more.

Then Trixie approached the mayor, who had stayed on the side of the stage, and asked her to be the judge and to give the countdown to start the duel, something that the mayor reluctantly accepted, since she didn’t want to move again onto the stage after the shame that had happened, however she did it since she couldn’t refuse a request when everyone was watching.

"Very good, First Duel! Alteration magic!" Trixie shouted, announcing the kind of magic that would be used in the first duel.

Dusk narrowed his eyes slightly as he realized that Trixie had also noticed that he was not good at altering spells.

"Come on Dusk Shine, you can beat him!" Mayor Mare whispered to Dusk, still annoyed to have been manipulated by Trixie, understanding a little of the public pressure that Dusk must be facing.

Then the mayor cleared her voice, raised a hoof, and looked at the audience as she counted down, while both Trixie and Dusk were on guard, looking at each other, pointing their horns while they maintained a faint glow to the keep their levitation spells on their helpers. Trixie smiling confidently, and Dusk with a worried look as his horn seemed to cast some small sparks of intermittence.

"Five... Four... Three... Two..." The mayor began to count, expectantly, like all the public, ready to witness that magical battle. Everyone was waiting expectantly for the countdown to end, all but two ponies, Trixie and Dusk Shine, who had already started fighting in their minds before the mayor had even begun the countdown, a struggle at the speed of thought, anticipating the moves of their opponents.

"Since my strength is not in alteration magic, I’ll stay on the defensive and wait for Trixie to attack, she’ll probably use..." Dusk thought, imagining the duel step by step in slow motion.

"... a spell of alteration to the floor, alter the density of the wood so that the floor acts as quicksand, then he’ll have only two options, alter his hooves to resist the change, or..." Trixie thought, also predicting the movements of her enemy.

"...jump it before it takes effect, conserving magical energy... When I move to the side, she can alter the curtains or the ropes that hold it in. The curtains will be slower to alter since they are tightly grasped, so she’ll surely use the ropes, altering them so that they act as whips and bind me, I’ll be alert, however, taking advantage of the fact that I jumped, I’ll be unbalanced, so she’ll reach to grab one of my back hooves, in that moment I’ll counterattack, I’ll alter her cape..."Dusk thought.

"...alter the cape to make it heavier and prevent me from moving, I’ll have to stop looking at my target and take off my cape before being immobilized by his weight. As soon as I take my eyes off him, I won’t be able to see where he is looking, so I won’t know what his next move will be. He’ll have two possibilities, alter the ground like me or alter my hat. The most effective would be to attack my hat, alter its shape so that it blocks my sight, it’ll succeed. However, I’d not only alter the ropes, but also the curtains, and these should have already unhooked and act as a huge blanket that will also hinder his sight..." Trixie thought.

"We’ll both be blindly fighting against the altered fabrics that we have on top of us, the first one that manages to get rid of it and see... Wait, she’ll use..." Dusk thought scared.

"...the gem that binds my cape and that I took off when he used his spell. I'll throw it and alter it so that it shines brightly. So..." Trixie thought with a twinkle in her eyes.

"...if I don’t remove the curtain, I couldn’t see, if I take it off, I’ll not react in time and I’ll be blinded by the light of the gem. Helpless, she’ll again use her alteration magic on the floor and catch me with the change of density... Probability that Trixie will win... 100%..."Dusk thought without hope.

"Checkmate." Trixie thought as a smile formed on her lips.

"Two... One... Start!" The mayor shouted with energy, beginning the duel.

After the mayor's shout, exactly everything that both unicorns had thought of, which was the most feasible way for both to follow, finally arrived at the same inescapable result, Dusk being trapped on the floor altered as quicksand after to have been screwed by the light of Trixie's gem.

Before the fierce and swift magic attack of both unicorns, all the audience were surprised, bursting into a applause after such a brief but heated duel, clapping with enthusiasm to the Great and Powerful Trixie, who smiled at the applause of her audience.

"F-First duel, winner Trixie." The mayor said, surprised a little when she saw Dusk Shine lose.

"What’s wrong mayor, do you find it hard to believe that a simple unicorn like me can defeat the supposed savior of Equestria?" Trixie said loudly for everyone to hear her, reading the mayor's mind.

"Yes, he's definitely a fraud!" Some adherents to the group 'We Hate Dusk' began to shout from the public, who each time were becoming more convinced that Dusk Shine was just a big fraud.

Meanwhile, Dusk Shine used his magic slowly to alter the floor and get out of the trap that Trixie had made, breathing with some difficulty while his horn for some reason began to throw sparks of instability. Dusk immediately looked at his three friends, who were still levitating fortunately.

"Next duel! Elemental magic!" Trixie shouted, glancing at Dusk with a smile, who just frowned. They both knew that that was another of Dusk's weaknesses, he didn’t have much command in elemental magic.

Again, Mayor Mare got in the middle of the stage and began the countdown while Dusk and Trixie looked at each other from each end of the stage.

"Five... Four... Three... Two..." The mayor counted while, as before, the duel had already begun in the minds of the two unicorns.

"This time it’ll be Dusk who will attack first, since he knows that if I attack first, I will have a hundred percent chance of winning in the second attack. He’ll start with a remote attack, given our environment, he’ll attack with a gust of wind. Knowing his attack, I’ll defend myself with a wall of mud, elemental earth magic." Trixie thought.

"But it's not just elemental earth magic, the mud contains water, and while the earth protects her, she’ll use the water to attack me, the most effective way would be using ice needles, I'll have to use magic of darkness, so she couldn’t aim them at me, and that way they will not reach me, but..." Dusk thought.

"There are torches, I can use them to take fire and make them surround the darkness before it completely covers the stage. Being confined, the only elemental magic he can use to get out will be the wind... Wait! How sneaky! The ice needles that I would throw at him will have melted and he’ll be able to open a path straight to me to attack me." Trixie thought slightly worried.

"She’ll have already thrown her earthen wall at me to block me in. My strongest elemental spell is the light, I’ll use a beam of light to get through the wall and hit her directly, there will be no escape, my win!" Dusk thought, slightly with relief as his horn lit up intermittently.

"Two... One... Start!" The mayor shouted once more to start the duel in the real world.

As it happened the first time, everything happened as both unicorns had seen it in their minds, from Dusk's gust of wind until Trixie threw the earthen wall to defend herself from Dusk's advance and threw a strong ray of light that went through the wall and hit Trixie squarely, causing her to back off a couple of steps, however, to the surprise of both unicorns, Trixie was not defeated by Dusk's beam of light.

They both stared at each other in surprise for a second, until Trixie, being the less surprised of the two, acted first. Trixie used a strong gust of wind that made Dusk spin hard in the air, causing him to fall to the ground, leaving him totally stunned.

"Second duel, winner Trixie." The mayor decreed for the second time in that confrontation.

Again the entire audience erupted in applause, and again Trixie bowed and was grateful for the applause, but this time as she did, she glanced at Dusk, who remained on the ground breathing hard.

"What's wrong with him?" I'm sure his light magic is more powerful, I had no escape, he should have won, and he was also surprised! Why?!" Trixie thought confused.

As Dusk began to rise with effort, the light of his horn was fading.

"Waaahh!" Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie shouted, feeling that the magic that made them levitate disappeared.

"No!" Dusk screamed, struggling to make his horn work again, managing to use his magic only partially, as he managed to hold only two of his friends before they fell into the mud.

SPLAT!! Pinkie Pie fell into the mud before Dusk managed to use his magic on her. He quickly used his magic to hoist his other friends, while Pinkie was now completely covered in mud, only her tender and always happy light blue eyes could be seen.

"I-I'm sorry Pinkie... I think I was careless..." Dusk said sadly, speaking with effort when breathing.

"Doesn’t matter." Pinkie Pie said smiling, then running her tongue over her face to clean herself. "Spit! Hey, this isn’t chocolate!"

"Look, he dropped his friend, he can’t even do that! Instead Trixie can levitate her assistants without even trying!" Another of the ponies that hated Dusk shouted from the audience, leading the boos to the unicorn lavender.

"It's too early for him to be tired..." Trixie thought uneasily, who would enjoy making fun of Dusk at another time, but as something happened that she couldn’t understand and that came out of her plans, that kept her uneasy.

"Hahaha! Miss Trixie was right, that potion made it more fun, Haha!" Snips said laughing, closing his mouth quickly when he realized he had said that aloud.

Fortunately for Snips, it seemed that nopony paid attention to that comment, it was silenced by the great booing of the audience towards Dusk, however Trixie did manage to hear what he said. Then Trixie approached the edge of the stage, where the six 'helpers' were being levitated, and approached Snips with her magic towards her, so that no one else could hear what they both said.

"What did you say?" Trixie whispered, not sure what the foal had said.

Snips tried to look seriously at Trixie, however he finally couldn’t help but smile, proud of what he had done.

"I gave Dusk a bit of that yellow potion, it was very easy, I just told him I was selling lemonade, hehe." Snips laughed remembering what happened moments before Dusk went to face Trixie.

"What!? How was that- !?" Trixie replied confused, pausing to realize what had most likely happened. When she teleported the foals out of her wagon, she not only teleported them with some of her clothes, but also with the yellow potion.

"Well, thanks to this brat I lost my only magical weakening, and how expensive it cost me..." Trixie thought annoyed by the imprudence of Snips and his own carelessness not to notice that this potion had disappeared with him. "Besides, I had decided not to use that potion in this duel, I wanted to win-"

Suddenly a revelation of something more important frightened Trixie, who turned scared to see Dusk, who looked exhausted while doing everything he possibly could to keep levitating his three friends.

"How is it that he can continue to levitate his friends and still use other magic spells if he took that potion? That explains why he is so tired, but then... How much magical power does he have can he still use even after drinking the potion!?" Trixie thought scared, for the first time thinking for a second that maybe Dusk was not a total fraud as she thought.

While the audience was still booing Dusk, Trixie couldn’t help but feel some compassion for him, even a slight admiration for the way he refused to lose even though he had everything against him. However, she quickly dismissed those thoughts when she remembered that because of him, she hadn’t been able to fulfill her dream or the last promise she made to her father.

"I didn’t want to win like that... but to win is to win." Trixie thought as she looked at Dusk resentfully. "This is the punishment you deserve for living a life by deceiving others..."

"Gosh... Snails has been taking a long time with the other surprise..." Snips suddenly said, who was still levitating next to Trixie, breaking with his comment the concentration of Trixie.

"Another surprise? What are you talking about?" Trixie asked suspiciously.

"WAAAAHHH!" Suddenly a loud scream was heard, coming from among the trees that were at the edge of the forest, next to where the magic duel was taking place.

That scream caused some ponies to look toward the forest, hoping to find the source of that cry, however the vast majority just continued to boo Dusk. This, until another noise was heard coming from the forest, a huge roar that made everyone present, including Dusk and Trixie, who looked frightfully into the dark forest that was at their side.

Surprisingly, out of the trees, a thin young colt ran out, it was Snails, who ran out in a terrified direction towards where they all were. Trixie immediately knew that the foals had probably done some madness, however she didn’t manage to ask Snips, since the few seconds that Snails appeared running from the forest, there were strong footsteps as the trees opened to leave pass a huge creature that apparently followed Snails. The creature in question appeared to be a huge bear, tens times larger than Harry, the bear of Fluttershy; this bear also had a translucent blue skin, in which dozens of points shone, as if his skin was made of the mantle of the night; on his forehead he had a huge bright star, while his fiery red eyes stared intently at his prey, little Snails, who ran terrified for help.

ROOOAAARRR!

As soon as the huge bear roared, all the ponies that were in the audience exploded in panic, some began to run in different directions to hide from that huge beast, while others, became paralyzed by fear, crowded in front of the stage, to scared to even move a muscle and that the huge beast would hunt them.

"Wooow... Is that an Ursa Major? Then it was true there was one in the Everfree forest..." Snips said surprised, falling to the ground after Trixie lost her concentration with the roar of the beast and stopped using her magic, which she caused not only Snips to fall in the mud, but also Bon Bon and Lyra.

"Great and powerful Trixie! Help us!" Snails shouted, once he arrived at the front of the stage, totally exhausted from so much running, having been terrified but now being calmer, since he knew he would be safe with his heroine. "Get rid of that Ursa as you did in the story you told us."

"A-An Ursa Major!? You planned this!? You brought it up here!? Are you crazy!?" Trixie screamed, totally frightened to see the madness that those two foolish foals had made. "I never faced an Ursa! It was just a silly story I invented!" Trixie added scared, who inadvertently told the whole truth, because of the potion she had drunk.

"I-It's getting close!" A mare of the public shouted, totally scared while watching the Ursa begin to walk towards them.

"Trixie! What are you going to do!?" Another pony of the public shouted, looking with despair at the blue unicorn.

Trixie didn’t know what to do, all her instincts shouted at her to flee and save her skin, however for some reason, the desperate cries of her audience prevented her, she couldn’t disappoint them, they trusted her!

"I-I'll face it..." Trixie said stammering, with a look of fear that little by little was transforming into a more determined one.

"I'm stronger than Dusk Shine, I'll prove it by saving them all for real! Everypony will see!" Trixie thought firmly to give herself the courage to do what she would do.

Trixie came down from the stage and stood between her audience and the huge beast, which kept a fierce look as she slowly advanced towards where the ponies were.

"Think, think, think!" Trixie thought quickly, thinking of what to do to save everyone. "An Ursa Major is not any beast... It’s an astral creature, which means that I must attack with elemental magic of light!"

At that moment Trixie began to shine her horn, gathering more and more energy in her as the Ursa approached her.

"It's huge... And I'm tired of having so much magic in the duel... A normal attack will not be enough, I must end this in one shot! One shot with all my energy!" Trixie thought desperately, calculating her chances of success while putting in every drop of magic she reserved for what would be her attack towards the beast.

When the huge Ursa was close enough, and when Trixie could no longer stand the tension of the power accumulated in her horn, she finally released a powerful beam of light that hit the huge beast squarely, causing everyone to be blinded by the impact, the only thing they could hear was the Ursa's huge cry of pain.

"I did it!" Trixie screamed euphoric with her eyes closed after being blinded, but relieved to hear the Ursa's scream, which meant that she had hit the mark and defeated it. Then she slowly began to open her eyes as the light around her died away and everything returned to normal. "That’s what happens if you dare challenge the Great and Powerful..."

Trixie was not able to finish her sentence. As soon as she could see clearly again, she saw with terror that the Ursa was still standing exactly where it had been before losing sight of it, only now it had a huge scrape on its chest, right where Trixie's beam had hit; besides that, the ursa was still intact.

ROOOAAARRR!!!! roared the Ursa furiously, this time running in for an onslaught towards where the ponies were.

"Everyone, run away!" Dusk screamed in despair, seeing that the beast was heading to ram them and that everyone was still stunned after what happened.

Immediately all the ponies of the public that were there began to run, fleeing quickly from the place, only one pony remained in between the Ursa and the stage, Trixie, who had remained paralyzed in fear after seeing that her great attack on the beast was all for nothing and now the huge Ursa was heading towards her to ram her.

"TRIXIE!" Dusk yelled, running and pushing her at the last second, just before she was crushed by the Ursa's onslaught. Both unicorns fell heavily against the ground while the Ursa had followed along with his onslaught.

Only when Trixie felt that Dusk had pushed her to save her, was when she finally woke up from her daze. However, she could only go from bewilderment to horror and impotence, seeing that the Ursa’s attack, had hit the stage completely, who now stayed there, destroying every table of what her precious wagon had been. Each book, photo, clothes, memory, was now crushed, burning in flames after the torches from the stage fell on it, making it even more terrible to see the image of the ferocious Ursa destroying everything among the burning ruins of what it had been her home.

"No..." Trixie said in a choked cry, unable to stop herself from crying when she saw that she had lost everything, especially what she had most treasured for years, a dusty box full of memories.

"Oh no!" Dusk said with a serious tone of terror in his voice, looking away from the Ursa on the destroyed stage to see next to it, which was where the mud pit was, where Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Lyra, Bon Bon, and Snips remained after the ursa destroyed the stage.

The six ponies that had served as assistants during the magic duel, were still tied up, and were fighting against the ropes to be able to free themselves and be able to flee from there. Trixie saw where Dusk was looking and saw the great danger in which those ponies were in, almost only partially freeing themselves from the ropes that bounded them, but they wouldn’t have enough time, because Dusk and Trixie were not the only ones that realized that they were there, but the Ursa had also noticed them too.

"No! No! No!" Trixie thought terrified when she realized that the Ursa had noticed the ponies in the mud. Then she, just as in the duel, began to calculate at the speed of thought how she could rescue those ponies, dozens of possible paths and solutions. "If I do nothing, there will be a fatal outcome... If I move and attack... No! Fatal result... If I throw this... Fatal result! If I make them... Fatal result! No matter what I do! There are no possible options! There is no way to save them!" Trixie finished thinking completely terrified after seeing all the possibilities and realizing that unfortunately her calculations have failed.

"There is one!" Dusk Shine shouted, who had done the same mental calculation as Trixie did. Shouting while running at full speed towards where the ponies were in the mud. "Only one possibility!"

"There isn’t any, we both get the same results in the duels! There is no way to save them!" Trixie thought desperately, not understanding what Dusk was referring to, since no matter how much she analyzed it, she couldn’t find a way to save those ponies.

What Trixie didn’t know was that she had unconsciously left a factor out of her equation, a factor that was impossible for her to consider, a factor that would also have been impossible for Dusk to add if it hadn’t been for all the time, he had spent in Ponyville.

Dusk ran with all his strength, arriving just as the Ursa raised its huge claw to hit those ponies that still couldn’t fully untie their bonds. Then, while the claw of the Ursa came down to hit the ponies in the mud, Dusk arrived with all the impulse that he could muster, and gave them a strong push, in addition, he used his magic to teleport them and transported them out of there.

The factor that Trixie hadn’t considered in the equation was...

"Self-sacrifice..." Dusk thought turning and closing his eyes, just when the Ursa's claw was already in front of him. Knowing from before while running there, that when pushing and transporting his friends out of there, he wouldn’t have enough time to save himself.

The strong blow of the Ursa hit Dusk completely and caused him to fly out and hit strongly against a tree.

"DUSK!" The friends of Dusk cried terrified. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, who had finally got out of their bonds, and by the little magic that Dusk had left, were teleported just a few steps away; near to Rarity and Spike, who had ran away when Dusk ordered them, and who had run back to realize that their friends were in danger, but unfortunately weren’t able to make it before Dusk sacrificed himself.

The five friends of Dusk ran to where Dusk had hit, touching him immediately while they feared the worst after seeing such a brutal blow.

"I’m... I’m fine..." Dusk said weakly, who fortunately was still alive and conscious, although he felt that all his bones were broken.

"Easy, we're here." Applejack said softly, putting her hat under Dusk's head so that it would lean better.

ROOOAAARRR!!

The Ursa roared again as it turned and put its eyes on the nearby town, where it could be seen that several ponies were hiding, seeing it with evident fear for their lives.

"Hide..." Dusk said weakly. "I must stop this..."

"Don’t repeat this, you know that we’ll not go anywhere." Pinkie Pie smiled tenderly. "We know what you want to do, we are with you."

The Ursa began to walk towards the center of town, when surprisingly a small rock hit its back, which made it turn with a furious look for the culprit. There it saw five small ponies and a small dragon, all holding stones in their hooves, with determined looks on their faces.

"Over here, beast!" Dusk yelled as loud as he could so that the Ursa could hear him. "We’ll not let you get close to the town! It's our home and we'll protect it!"

The huge Ursa gave a loud roar and began to move quickly back to where Dusk and the others were.

"Well... it's coming here... Now what!?" Spike said totally nervous when he saw the Ursa approaching them.

"I-I have an idea..." Dusk said, trying to stand up despite his aching body. "Give me a moment, I need to concentrate..."

At that moment Dusk closed his eyes tightly and tried to concentrate his magic on his horn, which lit up slightly, but instantly a couple of sparks flew, and it went off again.

"Dusk... It's getting closer..." Rainbow Dash said trying in vain to hide her fear, seeing that the Ursa was already almost in front of them.

Dusk's horn repeated the same process several times, but it was always the same result, his horn was not able to channel the energy he needed.

"Huff... Huff... I don’t understand... Why’s my magic not working!? I... I'm exhausted... I don’t know why..." Dusk breathed with difficulty, opening his eyes with despair to realize that his plan wouldn’t work anymore, that for some reason his magic seemed to have ran out quickly from the duel with Trixie.

"You can’t! It's useless! The potion must have exhausted all your magic reserve!" Trixie thought screaming in her mind, paralyzed with fear as she saw Dusk and her friends from afar face the Ursa. She hadn’t wanted to move because like Dusk, she had run out of magical energy, and without it, she felt too exposed and vulnerable.

"DUSK!" Rarity shouted desperately, hugging her friends, once the Ursa arrived in front of them and raised it’s huge claw to give another fierce attack.

The four mares and Spike hugged Dusk, hoping he could save them and make the plan he said had occurred to him.

"Come on! Come on, it's the same with the dragon! I can’t stand still! I need to do something!" Dusk thought desperately, feeling the warm embrace of his friends over him, who had once again placed all their trust in him. Meanwhile, just for a fraction of a second, a faint rainbow glow passed through his eyes. "I don’t need a great spell! I'm not interested in proving that I'm a great and powerful wizard! I just want to save my friends!"

In that instant Dusk's eyes flashed for a second, just as his horn finally brightened. From the horn came a huge beam of light that hit the Ursa's face squarely.

"How…!?" Trixie said totally open-mouthed to see that Dusk had managed to cast a spell even though his magic had been consumed.

While the brightness of Dusk's spell of light was fading, as it happened with Trixie’s spells. The young mage realized that despite what it seemed in the first instance, Dusk's spell had been different from the spell she had made to attack the Ursa. While she had attacked the Ursa with a beam of dense light, which hit the Ursa directly, Dusk caused the light to focus in front of the Ursa's face, forming a small but bright ball that floated in the air, like a little star, which now kept floating in front of the Ursa, who seemed hypnotized by the little star.

Then, Dusk moved his head backwards, which caused the small star that had formed to fly towards the Everfree forest, leaving a great wake, as if it were a shooting star.

As the little star moved, the Ursa immediately went chasing it, totally hypnotized by that light, following the star back into the deep Everfree forest, thus finally leaving everything back mired in silence and tranquility.

"Phew...!" Dusk sighed heavily, finally turning off his horn, so tired that he almost fell by himself, but fortunately his friends were there for him, they held onto him and prevented him from falling. "Thank you." Dusk smiled at his friends, as always happy to have them with him.

"How…?" Trixie said suddenly, approaching with a face of total astonishment and bewilderment. "How did you do that, and... What did you do?"

"Oh, that little magic star?" Dusk answered with a small smile, thinking that Trixie was asking him about the spell he had occupied. "Thank Celestia, that I realized that it was an Ursa minor and not an Ursa major, otherwise my little trick wouldn’t have worked, after all the Ursa minor’s always follow Polaris, right?"

Trixie stared at Dusk with a strange look, not knowing what Dusk meant by what he was saying. Besides that, that huge beast had just been an Ursa Minor!? In that moment more doubts appeared in Trixie's mind, so many that she didn’t know where to start, however the biggest doubt hadn’t been answered, how Dusk was able to do a high-level spell since it had no magical energy? If she hadn’t seen it herself, she wouldn’t have believed it.

During the duel, Trixie had already valued Dusk being able to perform spells when he was so exhausted. For that there was only one explanation, that Dusk truly had an enormous capacity and magical power, that seemed to be something undeniable. Added to how Dusk had discovered that this was aa Ursa Minor and not a Major one, something even she didn’t notice! And create a plan in such a desperate situation... Dusk Shine must have been smarter than Trixie had believed. And, also the courage he had to face the Ursa and to sacrifice himself for his friends...

When Trixie realized that her opinion of Dusk was changing so radically, she frowned, becoming angry with herself.

"So, you're not a fraud... You're really talented..." Trixie said annoyed with herself for what she was admitting. "But still... I can’t stop hating myself for being beaten by a spoiled child like you..."

"I... I'm sorry for everything you suffered." Dusk answered with a sad look. "I know you think I'm a well-to-do colt of Canterlot, but it's not like that, my family only has a weak military lineage, we're not noble or rich, if it was not for that test in which the princess accepted me in the magic school, my destiny would have been very, very different..."

Trixie looked Dusk in the eye. No matter how hard she tried, she found no spark of falsehood in that look, only honest and trustworthy eyes.

"And on the day of the test..." Dusk said quietly, finally feeling more relaxed to finally be able to have a conversation with Trixie without her interrupting or attacking him continuously. "You're right, I wasn’t the one who made that powerful spell that broke the ceiling, or at least it wasn’t my magic..."

Upon hearing that, Trixie gave a look of bewilderment, not understanding what he meant that it wasn’t his magic.

"When I was doing the test, I felt a strange power flowing through me." Dusk Shine continued speaking, with a somewhat embarrassed look. "I don’t know what happened, I only know that I was filled with a strange magic, a magic that made me feel very happy, something that caused so much magic that I had to expel it through my horn..."

"Are you saying it was you? Only you don’t know how it happened?" Trixie asked slightly frustrated, discovering that it seemed that Dusk had been the one who had performed such a foal feat, something she would’ve found impossible to believe if she hadn’t seen what had just happened with the Ursa.

"No... I really think it wasn’t me who did that." Dusk answered honestly. "I recognize the trace of my magic, that magic was something else, it was not only my magic, I've never felt it again-"

At that moment Dusk turned and looked at his friends with a face of astonishment.

"No. I did feel something similar again..." Dusk thought as his mind worked quickly. "I felt something similar when I faced Nightmare Moon, and now also, although on a much smaller scale... But Fluttershy isn’t here! Maybe if she had been here like the last time... Maybe everything is..."

Dusk's mind was about to reach an answer that would’ve been amazing and far-reaching for him, however, he finally undid that crazy idea for a simple and logical reason.

"It's impossible... I didn’t know them at that time..." Dusk thought somewhat disappointed, giving his friends a simple smile.

A bustle began to be heard again in the environment. The ponies of the public, who had run out to hide after the attack of the Ursa, finally returned after checking that everything had returned to normal, except for the stage, which was totally destroyed.

"Why did an Ursa suddenly attack the town!?" Several ponies shouted to meet everyone, trying to find an explanation.

"Are you fine?" Other ponies said, who had seen from afar, Dusk and the others facing the Ursa.

"Who expelled the ursa? Was it you Trixie?" A pair of ponies asked, approaching the showmare.

Trixie looked in amazement at those ponies who believed that she had saved them. Accepting that would easily duplicate her reputation as a powerful magician, but was it right to do so? Trixie decided and opened her mouth to answer; however, she was interrupted by another pony.

"She didn’t save us, she was the guilty one!" Said a pony who had Snips and Snails on their hooves, who had a scared face when they saw all that crowd. "I heard when Trixie and Snips were talking about a surprise, just before that huge beast appeared!"

The mood of the crowd changed immediately, those who came to thank Trixie for having saved them, now looked at her with distrust and fear because of the terrible situation they had experienced. Trixie looked around, and for the first time since she had come to the village, she didn’t see any kind smile or face looking at her, only looks of distrust and anger... For the first time she experienced what Dusk had to live with every day.

"She wouldn’t be able to do that!" Suddenly Dusk Shine said with a sad look, to the surprise of everyone, especially Trixie. "I think if there is anypony to blame for what happened, it would have to be me, I don’t know why, but during the whole duel I couldn’t channel my magic correctly, if I had done it from the beginning, none of this would have happened."

At that moment, the audience stopped looking at Trixie suspiciously and looked resentfully at Dusk, even more, now it seemed that everyone in the audience was looking at Dusk with hatred, while those who had always looked angrily at Dusk, now it seemed that at any moment they would lynch Dusk for risking their lives to proclaim himself the culprit of all that disaster.

"Why is he blaming himself? He lied only to show a false humility, because the fool didn’t work, now everypony hates him even more!" Trixie thought without understanding Dusk's attitude, looking confused towards her rival while her thoughts and feelings conflicted. "Everything... Everything is happening as I wanted it to happen... I achieved my goal! Everyone hates Dusk Shine! This is what I wanted! But then... Why, why don’t I feel happy!?"

Trixie watched as the audience began to boo Dusk and try to approach him while his friends tried in vain to calm the atmosphere, while Dusk just kept a sad look on the floor. Then, seeing Dusk fixedly, Trixie could see as a small thread of blood began to fall under the mane of the colt, in front of his ear, all from the strong blow that the Ursa had given him. Trixie put her hoof on her chest to feel a twinge of pain to see him in that state, even more to see how despite everything that Dusk had done to save the entire town, all the ponies there booed and look at him with such hatred, without anyone appreciating what the clumsy lavender unicorn had done for them.

Suddenly, a revelation came to Trixie's mind, something that made her completely astonish and see with even more astonishment Dusk.

"That fool... It's not like he wanted to be humbly falsely, he really believes this is his fault!" Trixie thought angrily.

While the public began to push the friends of Dusk to try to take him to make him pay for declaring himself to be responsible for everything that happened, a scream made all the noise go away.

"What are you all? STUPID!?" Trixie screamed suddenly, totally angry, not knowing if she was more upset with the attitude of all those ponies, or with herself. Then she made her way through the crowd and stood in front of Dusk, who just stared at her in surprise. "We are both still under the effects of the truth potion, so now you answer to everypony... Were you responsible for the Ursa attack?"

"...No..." Dusk said, responding to the fact that he didn’t want to answer as bluntly as he did.

"Was it you who casted a spell to get the Ursa out of here and save the town?" Trixie asked loudly for everyone to hear her.

"... Yes..." Dusk replied somewhat embarrassed to be forced to say something so unassuming in his opinion.

"Did you and your friends save Princess Celestia and take down Nightmare Moon?" Trixie asked again.

"Yes..." Dusk replied.

"So, you've saved this town and these ponies more than once... And they still distrust you..." Trixie said looking seriously at Dusk and then looking at the ground sadly. "Everything I said about being a fraud is not true, isn’t it?"

"I... I suppose so..." Dusk responded timidly, seeing how the ponies around him stopped seeing him with hatred and began to see each other with confused and embarrassed looks.

"I manipulated them all... I'm the fraud..." Trixie added sadly, still looking at the ground, no longer knowing if what she was saying was due to the potion or because she really needed to free herself from the weight she felt and wanted to say it for her own account "I spread false rumors because I didn’t believe that Dusk was capable of doing everything he did... I used tricks to make him look bad, and I used tricks to give me advantages in the magic duel, all so that everypony could see me defeat him..."

"You didn’t manipulate us..." Bon Bon suddenly added, who had been cut off from the crowd when they started booing Dusk Shine. "I and many others always believed that Dusk was a fraud and a bad pony, after having seen him scream at the princess in such a way... It's something I still can’t forgive!" Bon Bon added, looking with a serious look at Dusk, remembering what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration, the trigger for half of the people to hate Dusk, since not everyone could forgive him for being so rude and evil to scream to their beloved princess.

Bon Bon approached Dusk and looked at him seriously, all while the audience watched everything carefully, not knowing what Bon Bon would do, since she was one of the leaders of that group that had always disliked that Dusk was in the town.

"You have been involved in all the recent disasters that have affected the ponies, which is a valid reason to suspect you." Bon Bon said still looking sternly at Dusk, then lowering her gaze to hide her face. "But then I saw what happened tonight... When we were trapped in the mud, you sacrificed to save us... Besides... I also heard how you shouted at that beast that this was your home and that you would protect it, calling your attention so that Ursa attack our houses."

At that moment Bon Bon raised her eyes and everyone could see how her look towards Dusk had changed radically. Now she was looking at him with a look of regret.

"I was very wrong... We all were, it seems that you were only in the wrong place at the wrong time... Or maybe it's the other way around, you're in the right place at the right time, just to save us from some disaster..." Bon Bon added with a distressed look and a warm smile. "Heh... I still think you're clumsy... quite awkward actually, but now I also know that you're a good pony, a pony who is capable of taking risks to save me, Lyra, your friends, and everypony here in town... Thank you... For everything. Please, forgive me." Bon Bon finished adding, bowing her head slightly in sign of repentance, looking with a shy smile at Dusk, waiting for him to accept her sincere apology.

At the gesture of Bon Bon, Dusk just froze, red with shame after hearing how that mare who had always looked at him with hatred, now finally looked at him like a normal pony, even with a little admiration. And it was not only Bon Bon, it seemed that the words of the mare had penetrated deep into the hearts of everyone present, who now shared the same look of repentance and gratitude that Bon Bon had, which made Dusk blush even plus. Dusk had always believed that he didn’t care what others thought of him, so long as his friends knew the truth, but now that finally the looks of hatred and distrust of him were over, Dusk's heart felt a new joy, the to be finally accepted by all the people of Ponyville as one of them.

The ponies that surrounded Dusk began to get closer to him, they took him among their hooves, they raised him, and with voices of joy they loaded him to take him to the village hospital so that his wounds would be healed, the wounds that he had by saving his beloved town. For his part, Dusk was surprised to be lifted up and carried between cheers of joy and gratitude to him, then, the only thing he could do was smile to feel so loved and accepted by all there.

"Heh... What a fickle town..." Trixie whispered to herself as she watched the ponies happily carry their hero.

Then Trixie realized that she was not the only one who had stayed behind, Dusk’s friends were also there, the four mares who had accompanied him at all times and smiled as the town had finally accepted Dusk, decided to stay back so that Dusk could enjoy that moment with the other ponies of the town without having to worry about them being there. Seeing them there, looking at Dusk with smiles on their faces, Trixie couldn’t help but ask herself a question.

"I don’t understand, don’t you doubt him? Not even with the lie I told you that he could have bewitched you?" Asked Trixie looking at the four mares, remembering how she had looked at the doubts on their faces that morning in the bakery, however now there was no doubt about their feelings in their eyes.

The four friendly mares of Dusk looked at each other in confusion and then looked at Trixie.

"We never believed what you told us, because none of us fell in love with him at first sight." Applejack said. "Some of us fell in love with him faster than others, but none of us fell in love with him as soon as we saw him. It was after meeting him that little by little we were feeling something for him."

"Besides, none of us believes that he is the perfect colt as you said." Rarity added with a thoughtful look. "He is clumsy, naive, childish, distrustful..." Rarity began to enumerate while everyone nodded what she said.

"But we still like him!" Pinkie Pie added with a big smile, then looking at Trixie with a look of pity. "In the morning we looked at you with doubt, not because we doubted the things you said, but because we realized that you don’t know anything about love."

At what was said by Pinkie Pie, Trixie was shocked and amazed, as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown in her face, then she blushed completely

"I-I've never been in love..." Trixie said covering her mouth instantly. She wanted to say that she did know what love was, but since she was still under the influence of the truth potion, she involuntarily told them that instead of saying what she wanted.

That made her blush even more and quickly turned her gaze away from the mares, just watching where the crowd kept marching, carrying Dusk Shine. Then she stared at Dusk from a distance while a crazy idea flashed through her head.

"No, it's impossible, he's still my enemy!" Trixie thought, dismissing immediately the crazy thought she had had about Dusk. Then, as her blushed face returned to normal, she continued to watch Dusk Shine move away as she looked more serious. "That's right, what happened today doesn’t change the fact that he's still my enemy... Even so... I think I still owe him an apology, but I won’t do that in public anyway!" Trixie finished thinking, still wanting to save some of her dignity

---

A new day had dawned in Ponyville, and Dusk Shine was resting in his bed, with several bandages on his head and torso, while also baring the pain all over his body.

The previous night, the ponies of the town took him to the hospital, where they could verify that although Dusk had several injuries, there was nothing real serious, which was a great relief after the great blow he had suffered. There he was bandaged and administered some medications, and although he was recommended to stay a couple of days under observation, Dusk insisted that he was fine and that he would rest in his own home.

Dusk's rest lasted little, as someone knocked on the door of the library.

"Spike!" Dusk shouted for his little brother to take care of whoever he was, since he needed to rest his body.

"I'm going!" Spike shouted from the first floor.

"I-It's me..." Trixie's voice shouted from outside timidly, and when she heard Dusk's scream, she had to make him understand that she needed to talk to him.

Immediately Dusk Shine got up and went down the stairs, surprised after hearing Trixie's voice, one that he thought he wouldn’t hear again. Then Dusk came to the door just as Spike opened it.

"Hello... How are you?" Dusk said timidly, seeing a Trixie who had lost all the arrogant presence she had the day before, now she was standing shyly, with a fearful look.

Trixie looked doubtfully into the library once the door opened, she had expected to speak alone with Dusk Shine, however there was also his dragon. Finally, she decided it didn’t matter if it was just a baby dragon listening to her, so she sighed heavily and finally spoke.

"I... came to apologize... for everything I did yesterday." Trixie finally said, making a great effort to leave her pride aside and admit her guilt.

"Oh... I-It's not necessary, don’t worry, hehe..." Dusk replied surprised by the humility that Trixie was showing, which looked totally out of place for her characteristic proud personality.

After that an uncomfortable silence that followed between the two unicorns, in which Trixie didn’t know what else to say, since she was not used to asking for forgiveness; and Dusk, who got nervous when someone was as open as Trixie was at that moment, as well as the sudden change of attitude.

"W-Well... that's it, I think I have to go." Trixie said finally breaking the silence, looking back. "The best thing is to leave this town as soon as possible before I continue to soften."

"Will you leave town right now?" Dusk asked surprised, strangely with some pity. For some reason, he felt he would like to talk more with the mare that had so much in common with him, especially now that it finally seemed that their relationship had improved.

"Yes, after yesterday, many ponies here look at me with hatred, so it's better that I leave as soon as possible." Trixie replied with a sad smile. "The good thing is that I’ll be able to travel lightly, since the Ursa destroyed my wagon and everything that I had, so it’ll be a new beginning for me."

At that moment Dusk remembered that the Ursa had destroyed Trixie's stage, which had left the blue unicorn devastated when witnessing it. Then something else came to Dusk's mind, something that he had in his mind since he had returned from the hospital.

"Wait here a moment!" Dusk suddenly said when Trixie turned to leave. "I'll be right back!"

Then Dusk turned around excitedly and ran back to his room, stumbling as he took only two steps, since he was not yet able to run so abruptly, then he got up quickly, gave a silly smile to Trixie, as if nothing had happened, he climbed the stairs to his room, leaving Trixie and Spike looking where he had gone with expressions of confusion, not understanding what Dusk wanted to do.

"Hehe... I still have a hard time believing that fool can really be stronger than me." Trixie laughed thinking aloud, with a hint of her characteristic arrogance. "Since we weren’t facing each other in a fair match, we'll never know... But I guess I'll count this as a defeat."

"Of course, it was a victory for my brother, no one can beat him in magic! He's the best!" Spike said puffing his chest with pride, who was still annoyed with Trixie, since in his opinion, everything that Trixie had done against Dusk deserved more than a simple apology.

Trixie gave a sharp look to Spike, who immediately regretted bothering Trixie.

"Dusk Shine’s magic is strong and skillful, but easily deconcentrated." Trixie said seriously. "I have more experience in magical duels, and I never lose my duels... or at least almost never."

"So, Dusk is the first to defeat you?" Spike asked with a smile of brotherly pride.

"The second..." Trixie replied with a slight worried look, as she remembered something and began to talk more to herself than to Spike. "That time in Saddle Arabia... I never felt so helpless... She made me look ridiculous... I never saw anypony that strong in magic... I don’t think even Dusk would be a good rival for a pony like her."

"Haha, now you're bragging." Spike said with a confident smile, looking defiantly at Trixie. "So, what is the name of that supposed unicorn that is more powerful than my brother?"

"... Her name was..." Trixie replied, remembering the name she would never forget, the name of who had defeated her for the first time in one of her trips.

At that moment Trixie mentioned a name, upon hearing that name, Spike's smile disappeared completely.

"I'm back! Sorry to interrupt your conversation." Dusk said once he returned to the front door of the library. Then he focused his gaze on Trixie. "I know you want to leave as soon as possible, but I thought you'd want to take this with you."

Then Dusk showed Trixie what he was holding on his hoof, what appeared to be a great photograph. Trixie looked confused at what Dusk was showing her, then she took the picture and saw it more closely. Trixie's heart seemed to stop from amazement when she saw who the photograph was, it was a photograph of her father, specifically one of the many autographed photos that he used to give in his magic shows.

"You are the daughter of the 'Great Lulamoon', right?" Dusk said with a smile. "I knew it from the moment I saw your cutie mark yesterday morning, it's almost identical to your dad's."

Meanwhile, Trixie looked up and saw Dusk with amazement, as she would never have expected him to have an autograph from her father, and her astonishment only increased at the statement he had just made, which made it impossible to say a word.

"This morning, I was just thinking... when I asked you about the origin of your cutie mark, you told me that the moon and the stars were because you like astronomy, but yesterday, when I told you that the Ursa Minor always follows Polaris, you didn’t seem to understand what I was referring to." Dusk said recalling his conversation the day before. "If you knew astronomy you would know that the Ursa’s skin and their behavior is a reflection of the constellations in the night sky, that's why an Ursa Minor pursues bright lights, because the brightest star of the night belongs to the constellation of the Ursa Minor."

Trixie was still frozen where she was, not knowing what Dusk wanted to do with what he was saying.

"Do you remember what we talked about yesterday about the cutie marks and the Royal Legacy?" Dusk asked surprisingly.

"Huh?" Trixie said again surprised by the sudden change of subject.

"When we talked about the Royal Legacy, I told you that some cutie marks are inherited by a strong bond that can be generated from one's descendants." Dusk said with a tender smile. "I think your cutie mark doesn’t have the shape of a moon because you feel part of an old royal lineage, rather it's because you really loved your father, even though you say he was a fool."

Trixie's mouth opened to say something, but she was not able to say anything, her feelings were very confused at that precise moment.

"You know... If it hadn’t been for your father, I would never have dedicated myself to the study of magic." Dusk said with a small, sad smile, something that once again took Trixie's total surprise.

"When I was a young colt, I was very bad at magic, I couldn’t do even the basic spells that other colts of my age could do." Dusk added with a tender smile while remembering his past. "I was so frustrated, I decided that I would stop trying to be good at magic, that's until my grandmother took me to one of the magic shows of the Great Lulamoon, then I saw him, he was... terrible, his magic tricks always came out bad and everypony ended up laughing at him, hehe..."

Trixie continued to look at Dusk with a puzzled look, knowing that Dusk was describing perfectly how ridiculous her father's magic shows were.

"At the end of the show, I stayed with my grandmother until everypony else left, then the Great Lulamoon approached and made a small light appear on his hoof, which immediately exploded in his face, then he just smiled at me, but I couldn’t smile at his foolish act. I asked him why he kept doing magic shows if all his tricks went wrong, that it would be better to give up something that he wasn’t good at, then the Great Lulamoon, without dropping his smile, did the trick again, only this time thousands of stars illuminated the entire tent, changing color and leaving trails around as they fell. I had never seen such a beautiful magic... 'If you practice, you can achieve anything.' That's what he told me that day."

"Your father was a great magician, but I think he preferred to make others laugh than to demonstrate his great power..." Dusk added, finishing his memory. "I was always in debt to him for that advice, so yesterday, when you asked me to face you in a duel, I couldn’t refuse you... I owed him as much as I owe you."

Trixie had been frozen, not knowing how to react, her lip trembled as her eyes did their best not to close, trying in vain not to look weak at that moment. Then she lowered her eyes and saw once again the picture of her father, who was smiling wearing his typical wizard's outfit, one identical to the one she was wearing at that moment. Then she turned the photo and one last emotional blow hit her deeply. There, written with her father's hoofwriting, it was written: 'For my biggest fan, don’t give up and always smile.' That was what her father always told her, that she always smiled at the world.

Trixie clenched her teeth and bent her head down so that Dusk wouldn’t be able to see her face.

"Hnng... I-I... I'm sorry... Sniff! I-I got something in my eye..." Trixie whispered, taking a hoof to her eye to wipe away her tears as she did her best to keep her voice from breaking.

"Yeah... don’t worry, those things happen." Dusk said with a tender smile, respecting the fact that Trixie tried to look strong despite how emotional she was.

Dusk waited a few seconds for Trixie to calm down, until she finally lifted her head and looked at Dusk.

"Thank you." Trixie said softly, her eyes bright with tears and a tender look that Trixie had never gave Dusk until then. Seeing her that way, for some reason Dusk couldn’t help but look away and blush slightly.

"B-By the way... W-What were you talking about with Spike before I arrived?" Dusk said nervously, scratching his head, trying to change the subject so that Trixie was not forced to talk more about something that moved her so much.

"Oh, that!" Trixie said, immediately taking the opportunity to change the subject. "I was telling your brother that-"

"Nya~! Nya~! Dusk won! Dusk is stronger than you and always will be!" Spike interrupted suddenly, grinning at Trixie while mocking her face. "You can never beat my brother~ You can never beat my brother~!"

"Spike!" Dusk shouted annoyed, surprised by the sudden outburst of his brother, especially when he was finally getting along with Trixie.

Meanwhile, Trixie was also surprised by the baby dragon’s mockery. Then she slowly lowered her head, and slowly squeezed her teeth in anger as her competitive spirit and pride returned to her.

"It's true... I mustn’t leave my pride aside... My goal is still intact!" Trixie thought, raising her head with a look full of determination.

"The lizard is right!" Trixie said glaring at Spike and then looking back at Dusk Shine seriously. "This isn’t the end, don’t forget that you are still my enemy, my eternal enemy! Yesterday you only won one battle, but soon I’ll become stronger and I’ll challenge you again, and I’ll prove that I’m stronger than you! I’ll show you why everypony call me 'The Great and Powerful Trixie'!"

At that moment Trixie quickly levitated the photo that Dusk had given her, and turned around quickly, then looked back one last time, giving Dusk a fleeting smile of confidence, something that Dusk, who also responded with the same smile, both saying with their eyes 'We’ll face each other again!'. Then Trixie turned her back to Dusk and ran away.

Once she had gone far enough, reaching the outskirts of Ponyville, Trixie slowed down and eventually stopped. Then she again levitated her father's photo in front of her and smiled at the only memory left of her father, the memory given by her great enemy...

"Enemies... No. Rather rivals." Trixie thought as her cheeks blushed slightly at the thought of Dusk Shine, deciding that it was not necessary to hate Dusk to be able to face him, because in fact, she felt the total opposite feeling of hatred in that precise second when thinking about him.

On the other hoof, as soon as Trixie was out of sight, Dusk gave Spike a small blow to the head.

"Why’d you do that? You were being rude!" Dusk said annoyed, looking seriously at his brother.

"W-Well... S-She called me a lizard! So now we're even." Spike replied with a nervous look.

"Huff... Well, she's gone, but the next time you see her, I want you to give her a big apology!" Dusk said sighing, not wanting to turn the matter around, after all Trixie had left the town, and he just wanted at that moment to finally rest his aching body.

That's how Dusk turned around and headed back to his room, while Spike stood by the door, watching his brother walk away. As soon as Dusk climbed the stairs fully and was out of sight, Spike gave a big sigh, looking worriedly at his brother's room.

"Phew! That was close." Spike said with a sigh of relief and passing a claw across his forehead to wipe away the sweat. "If I hadn’t interrupted them, Dusk would’ve heard her name again."

Spike really regretted being so rude and making fun of Trixie at the time, but that was necessary for him and his brother.

"Dusk has already made new friends, he doesn’t need to be tormented by his past again." Spike thought worriedly. "Besides, if he knew where she was... I don’t know what he’d do..." Spike finished thinking, closing the library door behind him, hoping never to hear the name that Trixie had mentioned, the name of the mare that had defeated her, and who had made Dusk suffer so much.

# End of chapter 30

Author's Note:

Thank for waiting =D
and as a reward, for those who haven't seen it yet, here is the fifth special comic :)
Special Dusk Shine - Halloween

Thank you so much to Firestorm808 and Ze207ro for their help in translation, review and correction :)
So if you liked, thank them too =D

Comments

[Mallory S Nocturne]

Loved the sherlock-styled battle between the two unicorns...

[BrawnyBold]

Now Dusk got himself a tsundere! Another great chapter written!

[K-O-D-E-X]

I still wanna punch Bon Bon in the throat, same but a lot less for Trixie.
So that leaves Starlight and Sunset, hmmmm... either way what a tease.
A good chapter indeed.

[dshadow14]

I must end this in one shit!

You might want to fix that last word.

[bigsnusnu]

9353474
haha xD sorry, fixed!
thanks ;D

[bigsnusnu]

9353324
I'm glad you like it =D
thanks for comment ;)

[bigsnusnu]

9353411
every harem has to have a tsundere, although I guess that space is occupied by RD haha
I'm glad you like the chapter, thanks for comment :)

[bigsnusnu]

9353426
now we have to wait for how Bon Bon will react from here on :)
I'm glad you liked the chapter, thanks for comment ;D

[Mix-up]

I'm expecting it was Sunset Shimmer who crushed him good. It was a nice chapter, I liked you take on the episode and there wasn't really any parts that was lagging at all, it was mostly all interesting, good job on that. I think Trixie's back story was much better flushed out and I felt the interactions fun between Dusk and Trixie, I though Snips and Snails were more fun and proactive in wanting to help Trixie and ultimately unwittingly working against her made it more fun. I think the drinks had it's good and bad parts but I did like the drug part of Dusk. I think that the reason for Trixie using her anti elitist stance is just an excuse to hide her jealousy for dusk a bit over dramatized with the death of her father but it added it's own charm with having a link between Dusk and Trixie to bond over with. Nice to see Bon Bon was unrepentant in her opinions and and Trixie had nothing it.

Looking forward to the next chapter, keep it up.

[MagicLover2128]

Very nice, some scenes of the duel reminded me of the Robert Downey Jnr Sherlock Holmes film.

It was a bit satisfying to see Dusk finally get some relief from all the vocal abuse and hate by the Townsponies of Ponyville when they all realised he was mostly innocent in his accused crimes.

Though I still wanted to see them all get a major tirade from Celestia when she found out about all the hate and distrust against Dusk Shine.

[Yuxria]

9353324
That's what I was thinking!!

[bigsnusnu]

9353812
I´m glad you like this chapter ;D
about Trixie, she is not really bad, it's just that her way of being sometimes leads her to do things that she should not xD
anyway, I hope the next chapter also you like it :)
thanks for comment ;)

[bigsnusnu]

9354153
I'm glad you liked the chapter
about Celestia, haha who knows how she would react, actually there are many alternatives xD
thanks for commenting ;)

[bigsnusnu]

9354245
a mental battle, analyze your opponent and see all the possible variables. This is something that only skilled and intelligent unicorns can do... and Sherlock Holmes of course xD haha
thanks for comment ;)

[Bronze Inkwell]

Wowza! This was intense! And I can tell that no mare is invulnerable to the idiotic and dense charm of Dusk Shine! Except maybe the princesses. Though I think Luna might have a crush on him. After all, Nightmare Moon made him dream that he was a servant of Luna. Though if I know NMM, anypony that goes against her would be sent to the dungeon, not forced to be a servant. Anyway, I'm very impressed that you make a small comic/ picture for every chapter you make. Not many stories have that. Other than that, thank you for making this awesome story, and I hope you continue this story or make any other story as awesome as this one.

[Dustcan]

So Trixie just speeches she's an orphan out of nowhere? That's pretty out of place to do in front of a crowd.

And Dusk take's a swipe from an Ursa into a tree and basically walks away with just some bruising?

[bigsnusnu]

9355432
Yes, I did a couple of MLP comics before, and then I came up with this story, but it was too long, so I decided to write it but at the same time draw some drawings in each chapter and make it like a light novel, something a little more original :)
I'm glad you like it =D
About other stories, I have several ideas, but unfortunately I lack time xD

[bigsnusnu]

9355512
Not exactly, before taking the truth potion, Trixie mentions that she does not like what she is going to do (talk about her past) but that it was unfortunately necessary for everyone to learn about Dusk's true nature.
and about the blow of the ursa, well, Dusk ends up bleeding, and for a happy world like the one that show us in the TV show, I think that in itself is already quite serious haha, ​​about something more explicit, I'm sorry, I don't like it be so gore xD haha

[Bronze Inkwell]

9356668
Who doesn't? Also, are you going to do an interlude chapter based off of the christmas comic, where the mane 5 try to get a kiss from him. That would be hilarious to see. Or for them to try and get Dusk the best present but ends up finding out that Dusk had moved away to visit his folks for the holidays.

[Dustcan]

9356679

Meh, Trixie's just felt forced and out of place.

And for all that buildup over several paragraphs about "sacrifice" and the ursa threat taking a clean hit from it and still being able to walk it off comes off like a cop out.

[DavisSentoV5]

Wow.... Who knew Trixie's past was so deeply & emotionally connection to Dusk's past in more ways than one....

I think you kinda missed an opportunity here, Snu. During Trixie's apology, Dusk should had told her that he sent a letter to Celestia about Trixie's story & how he unintentionally ruined her chances of being enrolled to the school, and that Celestia wants Trixie in her school.... But that's just me overthinking on how I want Trixie to fall in love with Dusk

P.S. Who is the mystery mare that hurt Dusk!?

[bigsnusnu]

9364398
xD well, there are other plans designed for the future of Trixie :)
and about the mysterious mare, we'll find out, at some point ;D
thanks for comment :)

[DavisSentoV5]

9364891
But I wanna know now about the mysterious mare! Also Merry Christmas!!!

[Armored Core]

happy new year to all, when can expect first conquest of dusk

[mrmidnight]

9364398
I theorize its cadence would make sense if you look back

[DavisSentoV5]

9395470
I'm not sure about that, She was (kinda) openly mention in chapter 22 by Dusk without hesitation.

[mrmidnight]

9395516
Like i said its just a theory... A PONY THEORY THANKS FOR READING!

[bigsnusnu]

9392552
happy year for you too =D
and about Dusk, we just have to have faith xD haha
thanks for comment ;)

[Sonicfury01]

I do not wanna be a killjoy in this chapter but.....

Am i the only one who remembers that RD and DS's bet are not done yet in the last few chapters?

[belmontzar]

Aww I caught up :3 now I need to wait like everyone else.

As for the Mystery Mare, based on some basic story changes, my guessed are either Tempest Shadow or
-TAKE THAT sound effect-
Moon Dancer.

Take into account how close Twi and Moon were in canon, mow replace Twi with Dusk, a young Male unicorn. The funny answer though would be Zecora herself.

[bigsnusnu]

9407814
That's right, I wonder if any of them will remember it at some point haha
very well in realizing that detail, I thought no one had noticed :) the answer will be in some more chapters ;D
thanks for comment :)

[bigsnusnu]

9428383
xD who knows, we'll have to wait a little longer to find out who that mysterious mare is :)
Soon more chapters ;D thanks for comment :)

[bigsnusnu]

9505142
Celestia is simply bossy and does what she wants haha although it is usually for the good of others :)
sorry the late answer but I was 1 month without technology xD
thanks for comment :)

[Twilight_the_spy]

AAAAA WHO IS THIS MYSTERY PONY WHO HURT DUSK ITS KILLING MEEEEEE

[bigsnusnu]

9829761
soon... xD haha
thanks for comment ;)

[KarmaSentinal]

Ok, I thought Trixie might have been his past friend, but after reading the chapter I'm thinking it might be Sunset Shimmer.

[bigsnusnu]

10154338
we'll have to wait to find out :)
thanks for commenting, I hope you like the story :)

[JDAF]

Very interesting chapter.
I kind of wonder who unicorn beats Trixie?
Is it Starlight?

[bigsnusnu]

10558155
We'll have to wait a bit to find out who that mysterious mare was
thank you for comment

[TheOneWithoutAName]

No smoke bombs? Where are the smoke bombs?!

[bigsnusnu]

10836567
maybe in this universe Trixie lacks a bit of theatricality haha but I promise smoke bombs will be back when Trixie comes back sometime

[F14m3rz]

"No... It wasn’t me." Dusk finally answered, sadly lowering his head.

Ah, clever. Dusk honestly believes that his prowess on that day was undeserved, and thus, "he did not do it". Neat. Massive RIP to Spectacle and Jack Pot, though.
static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/8/8a/Comic_issue_40_Trixie%27s_mother.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20180416193043
static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/f7/Jack_Pot_ID_S8E5.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/180?cb=20180416192914
They will be missed.

"Very good, First Duel! Alteration magic!" Trixie shouted, announcing the kind of magic that would be used in the first duel.

Dusk narrowed his eyes slightly as he realized that Trixie had also noticed that he was not good at altering spells.

... Huh?
static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/0/07/Twilight_turns_her_parents_into_plants_cropped_S1E23.png/revision/latest?cb=20120214080954
static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/3/3d/Spike_gigantic_head_sticking_out_spire_cropped_S1E23.png/revision/latest?cb=20111209132726
Turning things into other things has been a skill of Twilight's since the beginning. In fact, as zimmerwald1915 noted (he can be pretty cringe at times, but this is actually one of his only good takes), "alteration" is one of her most consistently impressive feats.
{Among her unparalleled feats of transfiguration are creating animate life from inanimate objects: chickens in Every Little Thing She Does. The pony-to-breezie transformation was unparalleled until The Movie. Both have different limitations; the hippogriffs required and still require an artifact, while Twilight's spell (seemingly) required a template creature.}

"A-An Ursa Major!? You planned this!? You brought it up here!? Are you crazy!?" Trixie screamed, totally frightened to see the madness that those two foolish foals had made. "I never faced an Ursa! It was just a silly story I invented!" Trixie added scared, who inadvertently told the whole truth, because of the potion she had drunk.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Dunno if this is the same in Spanish versions, but in the English version, Trixie will almost always refer to herself in the 3rd person, unless she stops putting on airs.

"The second..." Trixie replied with a slight worried look, as she remembered something and began to talk more to herself than to Spike. "That time in Saddle Arabia... I never felt so helpless... She made me look ridiculous... I never saw anypony that strong in magic... I don’t think even Dusk would be a good rival for a pony like her."

"Haha, now you're bragging." Spike said with a confident smile, looking defiantly at Trixie. "So, what is the name of that supposed unicorn that is more powerful than my brother?"

"... Her name was..." Trixie replied, remembering the name she would never forget, the name of who had defeated her for the first time in one of her trips.

At that moment Trixie mentioned a name, upon hearing that name, Spike's smile disappeared completely.

THE MYSTERY.
IT GROWS.

[bigsnusnu]

11540031
about Trixie's parents, you have to remember that here not everything happens exactly the same as in the tv show. So these little changes happen, and even though they seem small, they cause a big future change, like with Trixie's final attitude.

about Dusk's alteration magic, it's the same. In that universe, Dusk didn't specialize so much in that magic.
Although I think Twilight wasn't an expert either, since in Ponyville she is seen practicing turning oranges into birds. Also, the transformation of giant Spike, it was an accident haha

about Trixie's accent, in Spanish she does speak in the third person, but not always. I guess it could have improved on the translation. It's something that you'll be able to see with the way of speaking of Applejack or Luna. Which, unfortunately I cannot translate the way of speaking of them because my knowledge of english is neutral. It's something that some of those who translated included it and others did not sorry

and finally, yes, more mysteries!! haha
I'm glad you liked the chapter, and thank you very much for commenting

[f0st3r21]

I like this resolution better than the show. Trixie wasn’t chased out of town having lost everything and there was a mutual connection between MC and her. She also promised to return in a better manner than the show.

I wonder if Dusk could have given Trixie a letter of recommendation? They have adult classes at CSGU, right?