Cardcaptor Twilight

by Yukito

Cardcaptor Trixie

“What do you mean by “this was inevitable”?” Trixie asked, her legs pulling her towards the strange woman. “Explain to Trixie why she can’t control her legs!”

The strange woman took a puff of her pipe, and then turned to face Trixie. “Before that, why don’t you introduce yourself?”

Trixie hesitated for a moment before answering. “Trixie Lulamoon, the Great and Powerful.”

“My, that’s certainly a mouthful,” the woman responded. “And my name is Yuko Ichihara. I am the owner of this wish granting shop.”

Trixie raised an eyebrow, suddenly curious about the strange woman. “Wish granting?”

“That’s right. This is a shop that specialises in the granting of wishes. That you’re here means that you have one, correct?”

Trixie thought for a moment. “Well, Trixie would like to win the lottery. She’d like to settle down with a nice mare before she gets too old. She’d like to put that smug Twilight Sparkle in her place. She’d like to-”

Yuko’s laughter cut off Trixie’s list. Yuko rose to her feet and approached Trixie. “No, no, dear. I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood. By “wish”, I don’t mean every little desire you possess. I mean something big…And emptiness in your soul, if you will. Something you have not the power to realise for yourself.” Yuko looked down at Trixie, a demonic grin on her face. “So? Is there anything like that in your heart?”

Trixie flinched, momentarily intimidated by Yuko, but then began thinking harder. “Well…Trixie guesses…She’d like her performances to be better received…”

“I see…” Yuko moved back to her sofa, and sat down again, still staring into Trixie’s eyes. “You specialise in illusionary magic and stage tricks, correct?”

Trixie’s eyes widened. “How did you know that? Are you a fan of Trixie’s?”

“Of course not. I could tell by your Cutie Mark.” The door behind Trixie opened, startling her and causing her to turn around to see who was there. It was a young, slim boy, dressed in black clothing with a white apron and cleaning cap. “Ah, Watanuki, great timing.”

Watanuki looked at Trixie with a curios look on his face. “Uh, Yuko? What’s with the strange-coloured pony?”

“Strange-coloured!?” Trixie shouted, glaring at Watanuki. “How dare you!”

Watanuki jumped back and raised his arms in front of himself. “Whoa! And it talks!? What the heck!?”

“Why are you so surprised, Watanuki?” Yuko asked, taking another puff of her pipe. “After all you’ve seen, why should a talking pony shock you in the slightest?”

Watanuki lowered his arms, revealing a slight redness across his face. “W-Well, when you put it that way…” Watanuki cleared his throat, and turned to face Yuko. “So? What did you want?”

“I need you to fetch something for me. Maro and Moro will show you where it is,” Yuko said. The two girls from earlier led Watanuki away, leaving Yuko and Trixie alone. “Now, let’s discuss your payment.”

Trixie blinked at Yuko, a look of confusion on her face. “Payment?”

“That’s right,” Yuko said. “For every service rendered, compensation must be paid. Or it could cause great harm throughout the Universe.”

Trixie gulped, as Yuko’s words sent chills down her spine. “W-What kind of payment?”

---

“Oi! How did you do that!?” Kero asked, glaring daggers into Trixie’s eyes. “Only Twilight should be able to capture the Clow Cards!”

Trixie stared blankly at the strange creature before her. “What’s this?” she asked, pointing a hoof at Kero.

“Haven’t heard of me?” Kero asked, floating over to Trixie. “I’m the Guardian Beast created by Clow Reed to guard the seal on the Clow Cards!”

Trixie’s eyes widened in shock. “What!? You’re the one whose power rivals even that of Celestia’s!? The Guardian Beast of the Sun, who has the power to topple mountain!?”

Kero grinned smugly at Trixie’s words, until she started poking him with her hoof. “You mean this plush toy is what Yuko was so afraid of?”

Kero responded by chomping Trixie’s hoof, causing her to yelp and shake her hoof until her fell off. He continued glaring at her, until he realised what Trixie had just said. “Yuko? As in Yuko Ichihara?” Trixie nodded. ‘I see…If it’s the Dimensional Witch, then that explains why this filly was able to capture the Clow Cards…’

Twilight pulled Kero back with her magic, and approached Trixie. “Trixie, what’s going on? How do you know about the Clow Cards? And what was that thing you used earlier?”

Trixie pulled out her compass from her bag, and started chanting. It lit up, and a beam of light shot out of it, and made its way towards Twilight’s saddlebag. “Trixie is also on a mission to capture the Clow Cards. This compass was given to Trixie so that she may find them.”

Trixie made her way closer towards Twilight. Twilight flinched at the look in Trixie’s eyes, and started to back away. “W-What is it? What do you want?”

“Trixie will be taking possession of your Clow Cards now, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie said as she grabbed Twilight by the shoulders. She attempted to throw her down, but Twilight managed to escape and back away. “Trixie must collect the Clow Cards! Now hand them over!”

“Now stop right there!” Rarity yelled, rushing in between both Twilight and Trixie. “I will not allow you to harm Twilight in any way! If you insist on resorting to violence, then you shall have to get past me first!”

“Move it!” Trixie yelled, using her magic to fling Rarity to the side. Trixie moved closer to Twilight, knocking away Kero as he attempted to stop her.

“Hey! What d’ya think you’re doing to my friends!?”

Trixie looked up to see a blue Pegasus with rainbow coloured hair landing in front of her. She recognised the pony as Rainbow Dash, the only Pegasus to have ever pulled off a Sonic Rainboom. She glared at the Pegasus, who glared back at her. The two stood there for a few seconds, staring each other down, waiting for the other make their first move.

“Rainbow Dash!” yelled a voice from above Trixie and Rainbow. The two looked up to see a yellow Pegasus floating down towards them. “I think the thunder originated in that area…What’s going on here?” she asked, noticing Rarity lying on the ground, and Twilight hiding behind Rainbow Dash. She looked over to Trixie, and noticed a gash on her left forehoof.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy. I got this,” Rainbow Dash said, turning his gaze back on Trixie.

Fluttershy ignored Rainbow Dash though, and made her way over to Trixie. Trixie turned her attention to Fluttershy, and got ready to defend herself. Until she felt something strange running through her body. ‘W-What the? What’s going on?’

Fluttershy stopped just short of Trixie, who by this point was shaking like a leaf, and whose face was as red as a tomato. “You’re hurt,” Fluttershy said, raising Trixie’s hoof. “What happened?”

Trixie pulled back her hoof, and was unable to pool her thoughts together. She felt her entire body heating up, and was struggling to find the right words. Instead, she turned tail and fled as quickly as possible. She jumped down over the roof of the building, starling everyone on the roof.

Fluttershy made her way to the edge of the rooftop, and saw Trixie lowering gliding down using a hang glider. She sighed a sigh of relief, and explained that Trixie was ok.

Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight, and asked her what had happened. “It’s ok, Rainbow Dash. Really,” Twilight said, trying hard to convince Rainbow that she wasn’t hurt. “By the way, what are you two doing here?”

“Huh? Oh! Well, you know the freak storms that this place’s been having?” Rainbow asked, to which Twilight nodded. “Well, me and Fluttershy were asked to help investigate the cause of it.”

Twilight now noticed the special weather suits that the two Pegasi were wearing, which were made to protect them against lightning. “What about you?” Rainbow Dash asked, laughing at Twilight’s apparel. “You look pretty dressed up. Were you on a date by any chance?”

“O-Of course not! Twilight shouted, her face turning as red as Trixie’s was moment ago. “I was…I was…”

“She was doing some modelling for me,” Rarity said, approaching the two ponies. “I thought a thunderous background would be perfect. That’s why I made the costume out of special material, and asked Twilight to come model for me here.”

Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs, looking disappointed. “That was it? Well that’s just lame…”

---

Trixie opened the door to her trailer and stepped inside. Once she was in, she allowed herself to fall onto her bed. She had been running nonstop since the incident with Fluttershy, and was now completely worn out.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, she began wondering to herself just what had happened. She ran the image of the Pegasus’ face through her mind many times, and each time it gave the same result: she would start to blush, and then shake her head in order to get the Pegasus’ face out of her head.

She eventually tried to get her mind on other things, and remember the Clow Card that she had secure earlier. “That’s right…Trixie still needs to sign her name on it…”

Trixie levitated the Thunder card out of her bag, and placed it onto her table. She reached for a nearby quill, and began writing her name onto the bottom of the card.

---

“And this will really make Trixie’s performances better?” Trixie asked, eyeing the strange manepin that she had been given suspiciously. It was shaped like a butterfly, and didn’t seem that out of the ordinary.

“Of course not,” Yuko said, taking a sip of her tea. “It will simply share your passion with the audience.”

“Trixie doesn’t understand.”

“Well, basically, it will make the audience fall in love with your performance, as long as you continue to give it your best. But, be warned.” Yuko took another sip of her tea, and ordered Watanuki to pour her some more. “It will only work as long as you continue to believe in yourself. If at any point you begin to doubt your own abilities, even slightly, it will have the opposite effect. And the audience will begin to dislike, even resent your performances.”

Trixie flinched at the word resent. Sure, she had had trouble with hecklers before, but she’d never run into somepony who truly hated her performances with a passion. She looked at the manepin, and contemplated whether this was a good idea or not.

“It will only work whenever you wear it. So if at some point you feel like it isn’t working out, you can always just take it off. But keep in mind that if you take it off when ponies are already under its influence…”

Trixie didn’t even need Yuko to finish that last warning. She already had an idea of what would happen. Not only would they go back to disliking her shows, but they would realise that she was manipulating them, and forcing them to like her shows.

Trixie took one last look at the manepin, and was about to return it, when suddenly, memories of her life up to this point started flooding into her mind. Memories of her performances being less than satisfactory, and memories of all the ponies that gave her a hard time, no matter how hard she worked. And finally, memories of the purple Unicorn who had upstaged her, and almost made her lose all hope of ever being a successful showmare.

Yuko grinned as Trixie applied the manepin to her mane. “Now then, as for your payment…I want you to collect something for me.” Yuko took another drink of her tea, and then offered a small key of some kind to Trixie. “The Clow Cards.”

Comments

[Magatsu Orpheus]

I really hope this isn't one of those stories where Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack treat Trixie like the devil, and act as if bragging or being condescending is like a one-way ticket to hell(*cough* Hypocrite*cough*).