When Egos Collide
“I set my Malefic Dragon to attacking stance, and lead an attack on your Moonlight Sorceress!” Spike flipped his three monster cards laid out on the table in the library’s main room so that they were facing vertically up from him. Trixie mumbled angrily under her breath as she took two of her cards in her magic and placed them in the ‘discard pile’. “And then I reinforce my keep’s defence, and end my turn.”
Trixie drew two cards, as per her Commander’s ability, and studied them closely. She spent about a minute reading each of their effects, making sure she understood them properly, and formulating about ten thousand strategies in her head. “Come on, grandma,” Spike said impatiently. “You gonna move or not? Heh, not that there’s any way you can come back after that last attack.”
Trixie shot a glare at Spike, and used her magic to lift up his Minion cards. “Trixie needs to reread their abilities!” she declared as she brought them close to her face. She scooped up some cereal and ate it as she read the cards over once more. “Ugh! Trixie remembers when this game was simple, and only had two types of Minions: those with effects, and those without! Now, we’ve got all this ‘Combi!’, ‘Special Event’, and ‘Chain-Link’ nonsense!”
“If you wanna give up, you gotta put your hoof on your deck and say so,” Spike said, taunting his opponent with what would be his seventh consecutive win. “Maybe afterwards, I can help you improve your ridiculously outdated deck.”
A glint appeared in Trixie’s eye, and she put Spike’s cards back down. She summoned a Minion from her hand. “Phantom Holmes, which allows Trixie to see your hoof!” Spike revealed the cards in his claw to Trixie. Nothing to be afraid of. “Next, Trixie activates Call of Calamity! All Trixie needs to do is to sacrifice one Minion, and discard two effect cards in her hoof! Then, another Minion on the field can no longer lead troops into battle… and Trixie chooses your Malefic Dragon!”
“Uh, Trixie?” Spike asked, pointing towards a wheel to the side of the board. Its four sides were decorated with a different pattern, one for each season of the year. They were currently in winter. “It’s gotta be Autumn to use that card.”
Trixie read the card’s effect once again, and noticed in tiny, un-bolded font: “Autumn”. She tossed the cards in her hoof into the air, and turned to her bowl of cereal. “UGH! This game is stupid! Not at all like it was five years ago!”
“So does that mean you give up?” Spike asked in a mocking tone, gathering up his cards. “‘Cause you’ve gotta say it clearly, y’know?”
“Shut it! The Great and Powerful Trixie simply refuses to play such a needlessly complex and overrated game any longer!”
“Come on, Spike,” Twilight said, pulling her nose out of her book to give her number one assistant a pat on the back. “I think you should give her a break,” she whispered. “She looks like she’s about to burst.”
“Yeah,” Spike chuckled, “She looks like you did whenever somepony tried to drag you away from the library to take part in P.E.”
Twilight’s face turned into a disapproving frown. “P.E. isn’t even a real subject, and they expected me to take time away from my precious reading to go outside and just run around, make a fool of myself, and wear out my poor muscles?!”
“Well, you could have done with a little exercise,” Spike said. “Considering you ran out of breath from like, what, ten seconds of running?”
“Not to mention,” Trixie added, her tantrum apparently over just as quickly as it started, “You’re going to end up really chubby if you just stay in here all day and do no working out.”
“Like you’re one to talk, the way you scoff those cheesecakes down, it’s like you’re poisoned and they contain the only antidote.”
Trixie, ignoring Twilight’s retort, circled around the table and stopped just short of her beloved. She reached out and poked the mare’s stomach playfully with a hoof, causing Twilight to bat it away with a blush on her face. “Hmmm… Seems you’re already halfway there, Twilight,” she teased, moving her hooves down to Twilight’s flanks. “But then, Trixie could probably get used to ‘Chubby Twilight’… It’d be like loving two Twilights at once.”
Twilight backed away from Trixie, blushing furiously and sending her a stern glare. “Do you mind? Spike is right there!” Twilight pointed to where the baby dragon was previously sitting, but turned around to see no one there. She lifted her head to the sound of a door closing behind her, and saw a trail of cards leading to the basement door.
“Any more complaints?” Trixie asked, closing in on Twilight once more and nibbling at the librarian’s ear.
“A-Actually,” Twilight said, trying to resist the allure of the showmare currently wrapping her forelegs around her body. “How about first, you finish your breakfast?” Twilight used her magic to scoop some cereal from Trixie’s bowl onto her spoon, and floated it over to Trixie. “C’mon, say ‘aaah’.”
Trixie stared at the spoon un-amusedly. “Don’t treat Trixie as if she is a child. Trixie is perfectly capable of feeding herself. Furthermore-” Trixie’s rant was cut short by the spoon suddenly being lunged into her mouth. When it came out, all of the cereal was gone.
Twilight scooped up another spoonful of cereal, and floated it over to Trixie, staring at her with a devious grin on her face. “Really? ‘Cause you were hanging out with three little fillies yesterday, instead of doing the chores I assigned for you… Sounds like something a kid would do, if you ask me.”
Trixie swallowed the cereal in her mouth, and used her magic to snatch the spoon from Twilight’s. “You can’t use that, Twilight. You already punished Trixie for that.”
“That wasn’t a punishment, and you know it,” she said, thanking Celestia, Luna, and Faust that they had soundproofed Spike’s door earlier that week. The last thing she wanted was for him to know more of her ‘bedroom side’. “A punishment isn’t supposed to leave you demanding more.”
“Trixie can’t help it if your choice of punishment agrees with her,” Trixie responded, turning around to walk back to her cereal, making sure her tail brushed against Twilight’s nose in the process.
Twilight heard the clock ‘ding’, which indicated that it was the start of a new hour. She looked up to confirm this, and found that it was indeed 10:00. She got up and ran over to her work desk in a hurry, and when she got there, she pulled out a stack of papers from its drawer.
“What’s that?” Trixie asked, putting another spoonful of cereal in her mouth. “The thing you were working on after Trixie fell asleep?”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Twilight said, almost automatically. “And yes. It’s-Wait! How’d you know about that?!”
“You woke Trixie up with your giggling, and your excited cheering.” Twilight blushed, and tried to hide her face behind her papers. “It was cute,” Trixie added with a smirk.
Twilight cleared her throat, and stacked the papers up neatly. “A-Anyway, I’m going to be heading out soon,” Twilight said.
“Another early day?” Trixie asked, almost groaning.
“I’m going to see if I can find Rainbow Dash. She has the evening shift today, so I’ve got to talk to her before then.” Twilight turned around and gave Trixie an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but I want to get this all cleared up and out of the way as quickly as possible. And I figured it’d be best if I talked to Rainbow first. Y’know, to calm her down a bit.”
Trixie simply shrugged, and turned her attention back to her cereal, which was almost finished now. “Well, whatever… Trixie has some new spells she wants to practice, anyway.”
“Oh? Like what?” Twilight asked, approaching Trixie and leaning down to nuzzle her cheek from behind.
“Trixie can’t tell you that; it would ruin the surprise.” Trixie finished her cereal, and got up to take the used bowl and spoon into the kitchen. “That’s why Trixie is going to the Everfree to practice it. Nopony must see it until it’s ready.”
Twilight felt an uneasy feeling pass through her body at the mention of the Everfree forest. “Really? You’re going to such a dangerous place?”
“It’s not that dangerous. No more so than the slums of Canterlot. At least during the day.”
“I suppose,” Twilight said, still uncertain. “… You’re not working on temporal illusions again, are you?”
Trixie shuddered at the mere mention of the type of spell that had been the cause of a two-week hiatus from her shows. “Of course not! At least not yet…”
Temporal illusion spells were the strongest spells in Trixie’s arsenal. She had mastered them not too long ago, with some help from Twilight… The problem was that they required so much magic that just one cast left her magically drained for two whole weeks, something which Trixie never wanted to experience again. ‘And after I put all that work into mastering them…’
“Well, alright then,” Twilight said, following Trixie into the kitchen and planting a kiss on the showpony’s cheek as she washed her bowl and spoon. “Well, just be careful, okay?”
Trixie nodded, and returned the kiss with one on Twilight’s cheek. “Please. If anything tries to attack the Great and Powerful Trixie, it should be their safety that you should worry about.”
Twilight giggled, and walked back into the main room of the library. Meanwhile, Trixie raised an unsteady hoof up to her eye patch, holding it there for a few moments as she contemplated removing it. “… No,” she said finally, lowering her hoof back down. ‘It should be fine. Even with just one eye, I should be able to fend off any creatures in there that would come out during the day.’
Later that day, just after Trixie had eaten her lunch, she sought out a nice, peaceful spot in the Everfree Forest, where she was sure nopony would stumble upon her practicing. It took her a while, but she eventually found just the right spot to practice in: a large clearing, with plenty of space for her spells, surrounded by dense trees (so that, even if somepony should happen to pass by, they wouldn’t see her), and with a refreshing spring nearby that she could relax by when she took breaks from her practicing.
Trixie set her saddlebags down beside the spring, and opened one of them up to pull out the three books resting inside. Trixie decided to start off with something that seemed simple, and easy to perform. ‘I’ve been meaning to look into artificial wing spells for a while now… The ones I make can’t be used for flight. Who would’ve thought the spell could be found just lying around in a small-time library like the one in Ponyville?
‘Well, if the author’s goal was to hide the spell from ponies that would abuse it, it would make sense to hide it in the last place ponies would think to look for it, I guess…’ Trixie read over the spell one last time, making sure she hadn’t missed anything during her previous reading of it.
“Okay, the ingredients are here,” Trixie said as she opened her other bag and pulled out the ingredient listed in the book: gossamer and morning dew. “Now, safety first,” Trixie reminded herself as she cast a spell on the books, creating a small barrier around them. “Twilight would kill Trixie if the books got caught in a magical misfire.”
Trixie stepped into the centre of the clearing, carrying the ingredients behind her in her magic, and closed her eye as she recited the spell in her head. She formed a mental picture of herself with artificial wings, and slowly started to go over the wings’ composition. A small purple light flashed on the tip of her horn, and a wind started to whirl around her.
The glow of her horn grew brighter as Trixie began mumbling to herself, reciting out loud the process that she needed to go through to make the spell work. “Step one…” Her body began to glow purple, and she felt herself becoming lighter. “Step two…” Her body lifted itself off the ground, and she felt a tingling sensation pass through her spine. She prepared herself for step three, when a sharp pain passed through her abdomen. “AGH!”
Trixie quickly cancelled the spell, and fell down to the ground, panting heavily as she waited for the magic coursing through her body to die down. When she opened her eye, she had to wait for the haziness of her vision to subside, before she could see three small spots of something red on the ground. Upon seeing the stains, Trixie realised that there was the familiar taste of iron in her mouth, and she rose to her hooves slowly.
‘A bit too much power… or maybe I messed up the order? Perhaps my body rejected the spell subconsciously?’ Trixie listed in her mind the various reasons as to why the spell had backfired whilst she made her way towards the spring, to gather some water to wash out the taste of blood in her mouth.
Deciding that she would need to do some more research into the wing spell, she decided to instead move on to practicing her next show’s schedule. She started off with a new spell she adapted from Twilight’s recently completed rocks-to-clothes spell: rocks-to-fruit. Obviously not edible fruit, but just as long as the audience didn’t try to eat any of it, it should be fine.
The spell produced mixed results; whilst sometimes the spell would go off without a hitch, and the rock would stay in fruit form until she broke her focus, at other times the rocks were just plain rude, and refused to do what Trixie told them to do.
“Dumb rock!” Trixie reprimanded as she kicked the offending inanimate object, which simply stared back at her, its expression never changing. “Just you wait! Trixie will turn you into a paperweight or something…”
Next, Trixie began using a few illusionary spells that she was sure would drive the audience wild. As it was nearing summer, she decided that a nice, refreshing water-based illusion was in order. Naturally, she nailed it. A little too well, perhaps; Trixie’s spell shot out well beyond the clearing, and she was worried that somepony might notice it if they were walking through the forest.
Taking a moment to make sure nopony was approaching, Trixie would have been relieved that she couldn’t hear hoofsteps approaching… had she not instead heard the sounds of howling in the distance.
Quickly, Trixie rushed over to a nearby tree in the direction of the howling, and peeked around it to see if anything was approaching her. It seemed that her last spell had reached quite far and hit a timberwolf nesting ground, because Trixie could see a pack of very disgruntled timberwolves heading her way, and she knew that timberwolves only hunted at night.
“Well then, it seems that Trixie must be on her way now,” she said to herself as she ran over to her bags, packing everything away quickly before placing them on her back. When she turned around, she was startled to see that the timberwolves had already entered the clearing, and were beginning to close in on her. ‘Darn magical creatures… Out of all the types of animal I could have ticked off, it just had to be the one that can smell magic, didn’t it?’
One of the timberwolves – which Trixie assumed to be the leader of the pack, given its size, and that it was in front of all of the others – let out a loud howl, before lowering in an attacking stance, and charging towards the blue showpony in front of it.
Trixie dropped a smoke bomb from her cloak to make them stop for a second, and teleported past the wolves. She started to run away, before she heard the wolves behind her giving chase. No way was she going to outrun them, so her only option now was to fight. ‘Oh well,’ Trixie thought. ‘I at least tried to let them off easy.’
Stopping suddenly and turning around, Trixie’s horn glowed a bright purple as she shot a grin at the approaching wolf pack. The leader pounced towards Trixie, only to pass right through her and crash into the ground. The rest of the pack stopped, and then turned around to see Trixie sitting on a nearby rock.
“Over here!” she sang, jumping off the rock and using her magic to levitate a few of the wolves. The rest charged for her, but stopped when fireworks suddenly started to go off in their paths. Trixie was thoroughly enjoying herself, and could continue this all day, had her horn not suddenly stopped glowing all on its own.
“Wait, what?” Trixie’s eye shifted up, and indeed, her horn was no longer glowing. The wolves that were previously being held in the air fell down to the ground, and the illusionary fireworks had stopped going off. Trixie tried to reactive her magic, but nothing happened. “Again?” she asked herself, but when she tried to take a step back, her body complied.
‘So this time, it’s just my magic,’ she concluded, feeling slightly relieved, but not much, as she was still in a pretty bad situation. She now started shivering and sweating on the spot, and she was certain that the timberwolves could sense her newfound fear.
One of the wolves ran forward, and pounced at Trixie, forcing her down to the ground beneath it. As it lashed its jaw towards her, attempting to take a big bite out of whatever it could, Trixie used her forehooves to keep it at a distance. It wouldn’t last long, though; Trixie’s physical prowess was nothing to brag about, so without her magic, there was nothing that she could do, and on the ground like this, her stage props were inaccessible to her.
“GET OFF OF HER!”
Suddenly, the timberwolf was knocked off of Trixie by a fast (very fast) blue blur, and she wasted no time in getting up and standing back-to-back with her unknown saviour. She could worry about their identity later. For now, the two of them had but one goal in front of them: getting the hay out of this place as fast as they could!
Rarity ground her teeth together and grumbled in frustration as she ran the blow-dryer through Pinkie Pie’s mane. The pink mare simply smiled and stared forward as she allowed Rarity to fix up her hair. As soon as Rarity was done, she let out a sigh of relief, and levitated a mirror in front of Pinkie Pie, so that her patient could view her work.
As soon as Pinkie Pie looked into the mirror, her mane began to shake, and then poofed into its usual curly state. Rarity’s left eye twitched, and she almost dropped the mirror. “See?” Pinkie Pie said, still smiling. “I told you it can’t be fixed!”
Rarity slowly levitated the mirror back down to where she had found it, and her lower lip began quivering as a few strands of her mane stuck up. “H-How? I just… How?!” Pinkie Pie simply shrugged, and the bell to Rarity’s shop rang, prompting Rarity to turn around and address her customer. “YE-ESSS?!”
Twilight jumped and stared at Rarity with concern. Rarity looked terrible; her eyes were wide, one of them twitching, her ears were flapping up-and-down repeatedly, and she seemed to be forcing a big smile on her face whilst her teeth ground together. “A-Are you alright?” she asked cautiously.
“I’m fine!” Rarity insisted, though the tone of her voice didn’t inspire confidence. “I was simply giving Pinkie Pie here a new manedo, that’s all!”
Twilight looked over at Pinkie Pie, who was sitting behind Rarity, fiddling with her curly bangs. She noticed Twilight looking over at her, and waved to the purple unicorn. Twilight felt a pang of sympathy for her fellow unicorn friend; Pinkie Pie’s impossibleness was enough to drive anypony mad. Twilight considered how Trixie would react to her, and then remembered her original reason for being here.
“Rarity, I was wondering if you’ve seen Rainbow Dash about,” Twilight said. “I’ve been looking all over Ponyville for her, but I can’t seem to find her anywhere.”
Rarity, now calming down a little bit, shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, dear. I can’t say that I have. Why do you as-Oh. You want to have a word with her about…” Rarity trailed off, and Twilight nodded.
“Ooh, ooh!” Pinkie Pie cut in, jumping up and down excitedly. “If you’re looking for Dashie, she said she’d be practicing her super-duper uber-awesome epic new flying trick that’s gonna blow you all away, but I’m not supposed to tell you that because she doesn’t want to you seeing it before it’s finished!”
Twilight and Rarity stared at the happy Pinkie Pie for a few seconds. “Uh…” Twilight began, but Rarity cut her off by holding her hoof up.
“Let her get there herself…” A few more seconds passed, and Pinkie Pie jumped up into the air, and let out a horrified gasp. “There it is.”
“Oh nonononononoooooo! I wasn’t supposed to tell you thaaaaaat!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, before running up to Twilight and grabbing her by the shoulders, shaking her back and forth. “Twilight, you have to forget everything I just told you! EVERYTHING!”
Twilight tried to stop Pinkie’s violent shaking, and eventually had to use her magic to teleport herself out. “Okay, okay! I’ll forget what you just told me!” she lied. Obviously she couldn’t just pass up useful information like that, and besides, memory spells hurt…
Pinkie Pie bought it, however, and let out a sigh of relief as she wiped the sweat from her brow. “Phew! Thanks, Twilight! You’re the best.” Pinkie Pie began happily skipping out of the store. “La, la la, la la.”
Shaking the dumbfounded look off of her face, Twilight turned to Rarity to see the other unicorn just as confused as she was. Deciding to break the awkward silence, Twilight remembered her talk with Big Macintosh yesterday, and wondered if she should talk to Rarity about Applejack’s… issues.
“Is there anything else I can help you with, Twilight?”
Twilight hesitated, and then nodded slowly. “I… talked with Big Macintosh yesterday.” Rarity tensed up. She must have known where this was going. “Tell me, how much do you know about Applejack’s parents?”
“Only what she’s told me,” Rarity answered. “I didn’t want to pry, so I never asked anypony else about it…”
“Well, according to Big Macintosh, there’s more to the story than what Applejack may have told you.”
Rarity scratched one of her forelegs with her other and bit down on her lower lip. “I don’t really know much about it,” she admitted, before looking up at Twilight with a serious look on her face.
“Applejack, darling, you’ve been out here for hours now. Your family is getting worried… and so am I.”
“Rarity… It just ain’t fair, y’know? We were all so happy together. Me, Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, ma, and pa… All one big happy family, who all loved each other so much…”
Rarity leaned over and nuzzled Applejack. “It’s not fair, I know. But you have to be strong, for Apple Bloom’s sake. And for your own.”
“It’s all ‘cause of that damn mare from Las Pegasus!” Applejack exclaimed, startling Rarity with her language. “Why did she have tah come and ruin our family?! If it weren’t for her, ma wouldn’t have suffered so much, and pa-”
Rarity embraced the shaking Applejack, causing her to stop her rant, and instead fall to pieces in her friend’s hooves, letting out all of the tears that she had bravely held back during the funeral.
“We were gonna have a lil’ brother, too,” Applejack finally said after a few minutes of crying. “It’s all that darned showpony’s fault… She did this. She took father away, and then mother just…”
“”Applejack, darling…”
“… I don’t know all of the details, but I promised Applejack that I would always be there for her. I can’t betray her, Twilight. Even if…” Rarity let out a reluctant sigh. “Even if Trixie doesn’t seem to be so bad.”
Twilight looked at Rarity sadly, a frown forming on her face, but she didn’t say anything else. She simply nodded, told Rarity that it was okay, and turned to leave the shop. After taking a minute to sit down on a bench outside, and collect her thoughts, Twilight remembered what Pinkie Pie said, and her head perked up immediately.
Rainbow Dash was in the Everfree Forest… and Trixie said that that’s where she’d be practising her spells…
“Oh horseapples.”
“What the hay is your problem?!” Trixie yelled as Rainbow Dash, for the umpteenth time, insisted on ripping Trixie’s foreleg from her body. Or, that’s what Trixie assumed she was doing. In reality, the concerned pegasus was trying to make sure that Trixie’s hoof was okay. Of course, Rainbow’s pride would never allow her to visibly show this concern, thus creating the lack of proper understanding between the two.
“What were you thinking, coming out here all on your own?!”
“And what about you? Could it be that you were following Trixie, to catch her off guard?”
“Get real! I don’t attack ponies when their backs are turned! I was just out here practising my moves, when I saw you about to be eaten!”
Trixie huffed and turned away, limping on her hoof as she walked beside Rainbow Dash through the forest. Rainbow Dash had given up on helping the stubborn mare by this point, much to Trixie’s satisfaction… Though, she did have to admit that she would prefer it if her hoof wasn’t hurting so much as she walked…
“And?” Trixie asked, receiving no answer from Rainbow Dash. “Why did you help Trixie? Since when did you care whether she lives or dies?” She turned to give Rainbow Dash the coldest look the pegasus had seen since her high school days with Gilda… No, even colder than that. It sent shivers down Rainbow’s spine. “If Trixie had been eaten by those timberwolves, she would be out of your hair, and you wouldn’t have had to dirty your own hooves. Twilight would have no reason to be mad at you.”
Rainbow wasn’t sure what look she should be giving Trixie right now: shocked that the showmare would even suggest such a thing, or disgusted that she thought Rainbow Dash would be capable of doing that to anypony. So she just settled for the classic look of unrivalled rage. “Who the hay would do something like that?!”
Trixie scoffed. “Obviously you’ve never been to Manehatten,” she said. “Anyway, Trixie’s point still stands. We’re enemies, last Trixie checked. So why did you help her?”
“… And what would you have done, if it were me about to be eaten?”
Trixie thought about it for a bit. On one hoof, she wouldn’t be putting herself in danger by fighting the wolves (or at least, in theory, she shouldn’t), and, no matter how hard she tried, she could never bring herself to end another pony’s life… or to allow one to end before her eyes, for that matter. Maybe it was a side effect of seeing her parents die, and knowing the pain that it brought out of ponies close to the victim.
“… Well, Trixie would save you, but-”
“Exactly!” Rainbow Dash said, relieved more than she would have thought possible that that was the answer that Trixie had given. “Nopony deserves to die in such an uncool way, and I’m not gonna just sit back and do nothing, when I have the power to do something!”
‘I know that feeling.’ Trixie thought to herself. ‘Or rather, the feeling of not wanting to sit back, but unsure if you have the power to accomplish anything at all…’
“You’re just lucky that you’re important to Twilight! Otherwise, I’d make you walk back on your own!” Rainbow Dash added, folding her forelegs and flying in front of Trixie. ‘Yeah right… Like I could do that, even to her.’
It wasn’t much longer until the two were outside of the Everfree Forest, and were walking through the vast fields heading towards Ponyville. Rainbow Dash realised that Trixie never answered her question earlier, and wasn’t about to let the showpony go without an answer.
“Hey! You still haven’t told me what you were doing in the Everfree Forest, all by yourself!”
Trixie rolled her eye and stopped for a second. She wondered if her magic was still… No, it was working now. When she tried to focus her magic her horn lit up a nice, gentle purple, and she could feel no abnormalities in her magical energy. She was thankful that she could at least move her body this time, but… she was still growing increasingly worried. ‘Best not to tell Twilight. She’s got enough on her plate right now.’
“The Great and Powerful Trixie was, if you must know, practising her magic for her next spectacular performance. Which, by the way, you are not invited to!”
“Pfft! Like I’d even want to go in the first place! Your shows are just… Stupid.”
“Your face is stupid,” Trixie muttered.
“What was that?!”
“Trixie said that you wouldn’t know talent if it zapped your flank!”
“Oh yeah?”
“Indeed! Unless you think you can prove the Great and Powerful Trixie wrong?”
“Oh, just you watch! Can your talent do this?!” Rainbow Dash bolted upwards into the air at a high speed, and circled around a few of the clouds, shaping them into various patterns: a lightning bolt, a skull, and a diamond. She started flying back down very quickly, and pulled herself to a stop just short of crashing into the ground. “Well?” she said with a smug grin on her face, confident that that would put the showmare in her place.
Instead, Trixie simply yawned, and began charging her magic. Rainbow Dash looked up to see the clouds break apart, and then begin to rearrange themselves. ‘LAME, WHAT ELSE YOU GO’ was spelled out in the sky. Trixie grunted, and broke off a part of the ‘O’ at the end to finish the sentence. ‘LAME, WHAT ELSE YOU Got?’
Rainbow Dash gaped at the sight of the unicorn using her magic to manipulate weather yet again, and then turned her attention down to Trixie, who was giving her the same smug expression that Rainbow was wearing moment ago. “Your move, Trashie,” Trixie said, causing Rainbow Dash to furrow her brow.
“Oh, it’s ON!”
The competition between the two ponies escalated rather quickly. It started off with the two ponies taking turns – Rainbow Dash using her wings, and Trixie using her magic – to try and outdo each other. Of course, with the judges being themselves, the results were always the same: stalemate.
It didn’t take long for curious ponies passing by to come and watch the show being put on by the two, and to start making betting pools on who would win once they found out it was a competition. Word spread quickly around Ponyville that Rainbow Dash and ‘that arrogant show-off’ were duking it out, and soon, more and more ponies began to gather to witness the event with their own eyes.
As the audience grew, so did Trixie’s ego, and she was now through with waiting her turn. Rainbow Dash felt much the same way, and the two began performing at the same time, often trying to trip each other up on purpose. For example, Rainbow Dash would use the clouds to distract Trixie when she was focusing, by causing whether effects to hit her, or by simply throwing the clouds her way. Trixie, on the other hoof, would use illusions to startle Rainbow Dash mid flight, causing the pegasus to lose her momentum halfway through a trick.
Needless to say, the two caught on to each other’s antics fairly quickly, and soon began to pay more attention to what the other mare was up to, and make sure that she wouldn’t get the upper hoof.
Applejack watched from the crowd, glaring at where the two ponies were performing. “Oh my, she’s at it again?” Rarity asked from beside Applejack. “I tell you, Twilight certainly isn’t going to be happy with this.”
Applejack simply nodded, but her attention was drawn entirely to Trixie, who was loudly boasting of her skills as she performed trick after trick. “Showponies are nothin’ but trouble,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Ah just hope Twilight realises that, before it’s too late.”
Trixie used her magic to summon small black clouds above Rainbow Dash, which soon gave off bolts of lightning, all directed at the flying pegasus. ‘That won’t work on me again!’ Rainbow thought as she nimbly avoided each lightning bolt, using them to add some style to her movements, before she performed her next move uninterrupted.
The crowd cheered and stomped their hooves, and Rainbow took a break from her performance to stick her tongue out at Trixie, who was not amused.
‘Gotta regain the upper hoof.’ Trixie activated her trusty fireworks spell to create a series of beautiful shapes and pattern in the air, earning ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s from her audience, who had now seemed to have forgotten all about Rainbow Dash… That is, until Rainbow Dash landed next to one of the big launchers. The crowd watched as Rainbow Dash sped up into the air with insane speed, and then…
BOOM!
The crowd watched with absolute awe as they witnessed it: the Sonic Rainboom. They wanted to cheer, but they were too awestruck by the amazing display, complemented by the fireworks that were still going off, to do so.
‘Aaaaand, it’s over,’ Rainbow thought to herself confidently. ‘Nothing can beat my awesome Sonic Rain-’
BOOM!
“OOOOOH!”
“WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, looking down at Trixie in disbelief. ‘Did she just… She did! B-But how?! Only I can perform the Sonic Rainboom! It’s my thing!’
Admittedly, Trixie’s Sonic Rainboom paled in comparison to Rainbow Dash’s. However, Trixie was more than ready for Rainbow’s ‘secret weapon’, By releasing it at just the right time, she was able to make it compliment the original Rainboom by following its trail. It appeared to be an afterimage of the first, and the crowd went positively wild. More so than Trixie had ever seen any crowd go… Ever!
Rarity let out a loud cheer when she saw Rainbow Dash perform some flying cartwheels, which were accompanied by Trixie’s fireworks spell. The two worked together so well, and when Rainbow Dash landed on the ground, with that multi-coloured spotlight shining on her from seemingly nowhere, it was just too much for her to hold it in any longer.
But she quickly regained herself, and tried to act as if nothing had happened. Applejack saw it though, and shot her a disappointed frown. “S-Sorry, Applejack,” Rarity said. Applejack shook her head softly and apologetically. “It’s just… Those two seem to be… awfully in sync with each other, don’t you think?”
“They’re in perfect harmony,” Applejack said, turning her attention back to the two performers. In particular, she focused on Rainbow Dash. “… Loyalty ma hoof,” she said with a huff, before turning around and walking away.
“Applejack!” Rarity called out, chasing after the disgruntled farm pony. “Applejack, darling. Please tell me you aren’t angry at Rainbow Dash because of this…”
“… Ah always knew Rainbow wasn’t exactly the most modest pony on the planet. She never could resist showing off her talents whenever the opportunity presented itself. It’s just… Ah thought she was different, y’know?”
“She is, Applejack,” Rarity insisted. “Come, now. You know that Rainbow Dash would never put herself, or her image, above her friends. Especially not after that whole Mare Do Well fiasco.”
“Ah… Ah guess ye’re right, Rarity…” Rarity walked up to Applejack and nuzzled her gently. “Ah hope ye’re right,” Applejack mumbled under her breath.
Rarity sighed, and offered to accompany Applejack back to the farm. ‘I guess that, sometimes, honesty can be a burden.’
After the show was over, Rainbow Dash and Trixie, who had now completely forgotten about their previous hostilities towards each other earlier, were basking in the self-felt well-earned praise that they were receiving from the townsponies. Once the crowd began to dissipate, Trixie began limping her way back to the town, a large smile on her face and a great feeling of satisfaction within her.
“Wait,” Rainbow Dash called out, stopping Trixie in her tracks. “Um… You know…”
“You have some pretty good moves,” Trixie said, turning to face Rainbow Dash with a neutral expression. “… Just not as good as the Great and Powerful Trixie’s.”
Rainbow Dash frowned, and landed on the ground in front of Trixie. “Oh yeah? The crowd was totally rooting for me more than you, and you know it!”
“Only because Trixie’s spells made your performance look better. If they were separate performances, the Great and Powerful Trixie would win hooves down.”
“Pfft! In your dreams!” Rainbow Dash responded, the two mares glaring at each other once again. After a few moments, Rainbow’s face softened, and she let out a quiet sigh. “… We did work kinda well together, huh?” Rainbow Dash kicked the ground with a hoof, and looked around to make sure that the last of the crowd had indeed gone. “… Um… I just wanted to tell you… You’re pretty good with that thing,” Rainbow said, pointing at Trixie’s horn.
“Well, duh,” Trixie said, moving her cape to show off her flank. “Magic is Trixie’s special talent. Of course she’s good at it.” She let her cape fall back down again. “Though it usually doesn’t take two shows for ponies to realise that.”
Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip, and looked around again, this time more thoroughly. “To tell you the truth…” Rainbow leaned forward, and began speaking more quietly. “I never really had a problem with your magic or your showing off or anything…”
“Oh?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “It’s just, my friends didn’t really approve of you, and… I dunno, I guess I just didn’t want them to feel like I was betraying them.” Rainbow Dash shuddered as a familiar feeling passed through her body. “Actually, the week before you came into town, I… lost a friend from my foalhood.
“The worst part was, it was either her, or my Ponyville friends… I couldn’t have them both, and… It just felt so wrong, betraying her like that, even if it seemed like the right thing to do.”
“How can that ever seem right?”
“She turned on my other friends, when they were just trying to make her feel welcome.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah… So, I guess I just didn’t want to relive that feeling again… I didn’t know you, so I didn’t have a problem giving you a hard time, and trying to drive you out of town, for the sake of my friends. I guess sometimes, loyalty can be a bit of a burden, huh?”
“… Whatever,” Trixie said, turning her head away from Rainbow Dash. “Look, the Great and Powerful Trixie deals with hecklers all the time. And, as far as hecklers go, you three were actually kind of pleasant.” She smirked as she faced Rainbow Dash again. “Like a teacher scolding you for being late to class. Compared to the big bullies that use physical violence, it’s actually a breath of fresh air.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled, fully understanding where Trixie was coming from. “So, we cool?”
“… If the Great and Powerful Trixie were to hold a grudge against everypony that had ever wronged her, she would never have any time to put on a show,” she said, reaching her hoof forward.
“A simple nod would have sufficed,” Rainbow Dash said, extending her own hoof and bumping it against Trixie’s. “And I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time before.”
Trixie’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, running Rainbow’s last words through her mind once more. “… Did… Did you just apologise?”
Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure why, but she had the feeling that she had just messed up big-time. Regardless, she felt that honesty was the best policy right now. “Uh… Yeah?”
Trixie closed her eye and put a forehoof to her chin. “Nopony’s ever apologised to Trixie before… She’s not sure how to respond…”
Rainbow Dash stared at the mare in disbelief for a second, and then cracked up with laughter when she saw that she was being serious. “N-No way! You can’t be serious!”
Trixie frowned, not at all amused by this situation. “One hundred percent,” she said.
Rainbow Dash calmed down a little bit, and wiped a few tears from her eyes. “Well, what do you think you should do?”
Trixie thought about it seriously for a second. She had never encountered this problem in books before… Books? Twilight! Twilight was an expert in friendship. What would she say to do in this situation?
“… Twilight would say to apologise, as well,” Trixie said. She opened her eye again, and tensed up as she stared at Rainbow Dash, trying to find the right words to say. ‘Why is this so hard? Just… Say that you’re sorry for giving her her just desserts!… Maybe a little rephrasing is in order, first…’
“S-Sorry,” Trixie muttered, so quietly that she was sure that Rainbow Dash hadn’t heard it. “Trixie’s sorry… For how she responded to your heckling!” she finally managed to say, taking heavy breaths after she was done, as if she had just been holding her breath for a while.
Rainbow Dash found Trixie’s difficulty with apologising absolutely priceless, and a little adorable. “Ah, don’t worry about it,” she said, stifling her laughter as best she could. “I probably would have done the same thing if I were in your position back then.
“More importantly, how did you perform that Sonic Rainboom earlier?”
Trixie hesitated, but then decided to give Rainbow Dash an abridged version of her Cutie Mark story. “Well… It’s actually how Trixie got her Cutie Mark. It’s an illusory image, based off of the real thing. Trixie witnessed it, when she was just a filly. It was by the second pegasus ever to perform the Sonic Rainboom. Your predecessor, in a sense.”
“Hold on,” Rainbow Dash said, “When you were just a filly? About nine years ago?” Trixie nodded. “Dude, that was me!” Rainbow exclaimed, her voice full of pride.
Trixie’s eye widened. “I-Impossible!” she protested. “If it was, then why did it take you nine whole years to perform it again?! Trixie thought that the pegasus that performed back then had died or something!”
“Weeeeell… The first time was only a fluke. It took nine whole years of intense training to finally get it right again.”
“N-No way…” Trixie quickly grabbed Rainbow’s shoulders, and began shaking the pegasus roughly. “You must tell Trixie everything! The entire story of the Sonic Rainboom! That way, Trixie can use it in her shows!” A glint appeared in Trixie’s eye. “You will become famous, Rainbow Dash! With Trixie’s shows, your name will become a legend across Equestria!”
Twilight trudged her way out of the Everfree Forest, her mane and tail a complete mess, with leaves and twigs sticking out of them, scratches all over her sweaty body, and mud all over her hooves. She had been searching for Rainbow Dash in the forest, when she saw a Sonic Rainboom (two, actually), and began following it back in the direction of the town.
Taking deep breaths, Twilight looked around to see if she could find the blue pegasus. She did. She found Rainbow Dash sitting in the middle of a field, with what appeared to be Trixie sitting in front of her, choking the pegasus to death with her hooves…
“WHAT?!”
Twilight ran forward as fast as she could, determined to break up the fight before somepony got seriously hurt… or worse. “STOOOOOP!” she shouted, teleporting in between the two mares. “Don’t do it! You two don’t have to fight each other!”
Twilight opened her saddlebag up, and levitated out a large stack of papers. “I was going to bring you both back to the library first, but I guess here is fine. I have here a lecture that I spent all night putting together, on why the two of you should be friends!” She walked forwards a bit and turned around, so that she could see both of them at the same time. “You’re gonna love this! Especially the pop quiz at the end.
“Right, let’s begi-” Twilight was cut off by the sounds of laughter coming from her audience, and glanced up from her paper with a disapproving frown. “Yes? Is there something you would like to share with the class?”
Trixie and Rainbow Dash exchanged glances, and then looked back at Twilight. “Actually,” Rainbow Dash began, “There’s really no need for that, Twi.”
“We’ve already worked everything out,” Trixie finished. Twilight gaped at the two mares, not sure if this was some kind of elaborate hoax that they were playing on her… or if maybe Rainbow Dash was actually just an illusion that Trixie had conjured up. It wouldn’t surprise her. “It seems we needed to work our hostilities towards each other out of our systems,” Trixie added.
“And what better way that a little healthy competition?” Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and did a quick somersault, quickly accompanied by two sparkles going off behind her, courtesy of Trixie’s magic. Twilight continued gaping at them, and the two were beginning to grow worried. “Uh… Twi?”
“No,” Twilight said, confusing the other two mares. “No, no, NO, NO!” Twilight threw her papers on the floor, her left eye and the hairs in her mane twitching as she did so. “NO! I spent all night working on this lecture! I’ve had trouble sleeping because you two got into that huge fight together! You can’t just… resolve things, just like that!”
Trixie looked at Twilight as if the librarian was going insane… And she feared that that was probably the case. She simply shrugged, and leaned forward to nuzzle Twilight’s cheek. “Sorry, but we just did.”
“Well, I refuse to accept it!” Twilight responded. “You two! Start fighting again, right now!”
Trixie looked over at Rainbow Dash, who, much like the showmare, was holding back the urge to collapse on the floor in a bout of laughter. “Um… Sorry, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, looking up at the sky, “But, I should really get going now. My shift’s about to start, y’know?”
Rainbow Dash waved the two farewell, and dashed off into the sky, leaving behind a rainbow trail in her wake. Trixie waved goodbye as well, before realising that Rainbow hadn’t told her about the Sonic Rainboom. She heard a loud groan from behind her, and turned to see Twilight kneeling down, picking up her papers with a sad expression on her face. ‘… Ah well. I can ask about that later. First, my mare looks like she needs me.’
“Twilight?” Twilight responded simply with a nod. “… Would you like to come home with Trixie, and we can take a nice, hot bath together?”
Twilight finished gathering her papers, and let out a depressed sigh. “… Sure,” she said, slowly rising to her hooves and stowing her papers into her bag. She began following Trixie, her head hanging low as she walked.
“And maybe later,” Trixie continued, “You can give Trixie your lecture. Trixie will listen to all of it intently.” Trixie immediately felt her movement stopping, and her body becoming light. She looked down to see that she was floating, and looked behind her to see Twilight staring back at her, her eyes wide and sparkling, and her mouth stretched into a very wide smile.
“Well, what are we waiting for?!” she shouted enthusiastically as she immediately began running back towards the library, dragging Trixie behind her in her magic. “You have plenty of paper for note-taking, right? Don’t worry if you don’t. I’ve got plenty that you can use! I know it won’t be much fun taking the quiz on your own, but maybe I can reward you if you get a perfect score! Oh, and just wait until we get to part sixty-five! You’re gonna love it!”
Trixie sighed as she allowed herself to be carried away by the other mare’s magic. ‘Well, that certainly did the trick… Unfortunately, I think I’m going to regret this later.’
“Oh, just FYI, the lecture will be a full three hours long with no break, and if I catch you falling asleep, I will not be happy!”
‘… Something tells me that I should be more nervous than this, but that appearance, and that attitude… Why couldn’t the teachers at Celestia’s School be this hot?’
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So cool!
Double update! Yay! Xmas!
so some showmare from las pegagus had an affair with applejack's father and cause their family to break up
woo! update!
Commence read.
Well they made up nicely.
Everypony seems to warm up to Trixie except AJ, and I wonder when those Stalkers are going to show up again. Trixie seems to get more problem with that poison she got also, most interesting
I really like how Trixie and Dash made up in this chapter, nice job.
Trixie fell into that one pretty deep lol
Okay, wait. So... instead of blaming her father for being seduced away from his family, she's blaming the other chick who tried/may not have tried to do it? And in turn, just because her occupation was in the performing arts, all showmen are now unacceptable in her eyes?
That doesn't seem to me like she's being very honest with herself. Feels like her familial piety is stronger than her Element here.
Um, didn't Derpy and Trixie have an awkward apology-fest a couple chapters ago?
1853692
A broken home can mess you up. Badly. For one thing, it's much easier to blame the stranger you don't know, than the father you grew up loving and idolizing. No, she isn't being entirely honest with herself, and she is being more than a little unfair. ESPECIALLY when she saw RD, who has already declared her intention to becoming a showmare, (Though perhaps the fact the Wonderbolts appear to be a military unit a la the Blue Angels makes it okay.) performing as well, and was completely ready to drop her like a bad habit. She has some big psychological issues to be worked out, and she is going to be super stubborn about it. This is not gonna be pretty.
You know... looking back, it really did seem like Dash would've had no problem with Trixie's show before that glare. Also, wow. Using Gilda like that? *Nods* I never saw it like that.
Great way for them to make up.
And don't worry, Trixie. I feel efter school will make the test all worth it. 
Need twilight in a short skirt business suit, hair in bun and glasses please.
Great chapter nice to Trixie and Dash have buried the hatchet. You can't help but love Twilight. Wanting to fight so she could give them the lecture she worked so hard on.
lol. That was awesome.
Am I the only that noticed that there is some RariJack in this fic or is it just me. I think just me but I would like to thnk so just to add a little more spice to this fic.
Anywho great work on this fic I loverz your Yukito I love your writing style and keep them coming.
This chapter was great! I love how you characterize Trixie in this story.
1855722
I actually like RariJack (second fave MLP shipping :3), but in this story, I'm trying to write it so that Applejack and Rarity's relationship can be seen as either very close friends since childhood, or romantic feelings between the two of them, depending on what the reader prefers. Please let me know if I'm doing a good job with that ^_^
1853855
Sorry, never heard of it
Heh Twi was soooo adorkable.
Looking forward to the next chapter. Gotta love light hearted romance stories.
1856304 okay i think i'm just going to assume rarity and applejack are just really close friends and nothing more i just dont like any of the mane 6 being in a romantic relationship together or being lesbians except twilight of course
As soon as I saw the RariJack, I was like
I'm a fan of AppleDash, as you can obviously see by my profile picture.
Aside from that, this has to be the best Twixie fanficiton I have EVER seen in MAH LIFE
If it weren’t for her, ma wouldn’t have suffered so much, and pa-”
“It’s all that darned showpony’s fault… She did this. She took father away, and then mother just…”
That doesn't necissarily mean an affair. The showpony could've caused an accident that got her father killed. You know, like accidentaly start a fire and he went in to save someone. Or it could've been an affair. And if I obviously missed a line where it was blantantly stated, point it out to me.
Great chapter. Can't wait for more.
1856304
Well I totally dig it and I think you are doing a great job with this fic, and keep up the good work bro.
1853692 1853927
I have a feeling we're going to see instances where each of the mane six have difficulty living out their elements.
For Rainbow Dash, she could have been loyal to Guilda, but instead she betrayed her in order to be loyal to her ponyville friends.
Applejack needs to be honest with herself, but it's going to be painful and hard for her to do, and we've all seen how stubborn she can be.
1867132
RD didn't betray Gilda, she gave Gilda the opportunity to make nice with her new friends, even after G's jimmies went into to maximum over-rustle. It was Gilda who snubbed RD, and left. However, Rainbow's personal sense of loyalty has some difficulty with that. She didn't betray Gilda, but she FEELS she did, by not managing to reconcile the situation, not to mention Gilda's last words to Dash.
1867338
She didn't necessarily betray Gilda, due to Gilda being a bitch. But Kage is correct.
In matters of loyalty, you have to choose who to remain loyal to. Essentially Dash COULD have sided with Gilda, despite how ridiculous it would have been to keep up - Gilda doesn't live in Ponyville, and Dash does. Dash would have excluded herself from her group of friends for the sake of a visiting buddy.
That said, despite Gilda being a huge bitch (which I'm sure is normal behavior where she comes from, being a predator species - and not caring enough to tone it down for the kinder and softer ponies) did care a lot about her relationship with Dash. Dash did have a strong bond there that she could have been loyal to. She chose the stronger one, even if it was a newer bond.
I loved the last thing going through Trixie's mind
I enjoyed this chapter VERY much and love the progression keep up the good work
Are you going to show snips and snails in your story
1901905
I plan on having a scene involving them either 2 or 3 chapters later, depending on whether I decide to split the next one I'm working on into two parts or not.
1902525 what about shining armor and princess cadance are they going to make another appearance
1902525 and also twilight parent's are they going to meet trixie soon
1923940
Oh... I thought it was present in any animal that had a tail...
Let's just assume that ponies in Equestria are built slightly differently than ponies on Earth, shall we?
1854220
Closest I could find on short notice. Enjoy.
Trixie and Dash working together!?
We're doomed.
Side note
quite possibly one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Loving this story, everything about it.
SO AWESOME THINGS ARE HAPPENING
I feel for twilight. I had finished a whole science reasearch paper in the two days we were given for it, barely any sleep for two nights, and then my teacher made it due the following wednwsday
Because if they were that hot, Trix, then nopony would ever pay attention to the lectures, they'd pay attention to the profs.
“Nopony’s ever apologised to Trixie before… She’s not sure how to respond…”
That's false Derpy apologized not too long ago...
4986402
I think she meant no pony choose to apologize first rather than no pony ever apologized.
Thank you for staying true to how ponies are meant to be portrayed.