The Equestrian Zone

by Revenant Wings

Episode 4 - Four O'Clock

At around four o’clock in the Ponyville town square, time seemed to stop except for a single lone object. It was a strangely familiar object that most ponies thought they wouldn’t be seeing again anytime soon. At least, not after it had been crushed under the paw of an Ursa Minor.

The carriage stopped in the middle of the square, a light blue cloud with a star-shaped wand emblazoned on the door that flew open into the bright light of a lazy summer’s afternoon. A short while later a light blue unicorn stepped out, flinging the blue bangs of her mane out of her eyes. The unicorn sighed as she took in the sunlight before stepping back into her carriage.

Inside the carriage was everything the unicorn needed. A small drawer held purple capes with stars emblazoned on them, while a small hat stand held numerous pointed wizard’s hats with the same design. On one end was a bed with the same blue cloud and wand symbol on the blankets, and opposite from the bed was a small desk sitting next to a rather large barrel of fireworks. The unicorn opened a portion of the desk and took out a note she had been waiting to read for a while. Filled with excitement, the unicorn opened the note and began to read.

Dear Trixie:

I don’t know why you should go badmouthing my faithful student Twilight. I assure you both that she is no stranger to the salt lick and that I’m fully aware of what actions she’ll do under the influence of dehydration. However, Twilight is also reasonable and knows better than to get with another pony without telling me or Luna first. So no, I won’t be disbanding her as my ambassador to Ponyville, not while she has friends and lessons about friendship yet to send me.

Princess Celestia.

P.S.: Do not bug me about this anymore.

Trixie pounded the surface of the desk with a bang. So even Celestia hadn’t got enough sense to realize Twilight and her friends had ruined her show. Since being stumped by the Ursa Minor last time she was in Ponyville, Trixie had been unable to get anyone to see her shows from Manehattan to Trottingham, and even Las Pegasus had snubbed her. Now she was near homeless and searching for a job and had yet to get completely back on her hooves.

For a long time, the events of Ponyville had been lingering in the back of Trixie’s mind. Without realizing what they had done, they had ruined her life and had caused her to suffer more than most of them could understand. Sure, there was the Nightmare Moon incident, and the Discord incident, and the Changelings at the Royal Wedding, but weren’t they also caused by that stupid purple unicorn sticking her hoof into someone else’s business and ruining it? Trixie certainly thought so. As a result, Trixie had started an elaborate plan to get back at Twilight and her friends.

Although, if the note from Celestia was anything to go off of, they weren’t the only troubles Trixie would have to fix.

- - - -

“What in the world of Equestria…?” Twilight Sparkle gawked, staring at the note from Celestia on her desk in the Ponyville library.

“What are you looking at?” Spike asked, the dragon hopping on Twilight’s back and nearly clambering on her head to get a better view.

“Celestia said someone wrote her a note saying that I was cheating on her and Luna!” Twilight said. “She didn’t say who it was, but she also said I was neglecting her reports on friendship she gave me to do! I’m a little behind because I found some evidence that was crucial to my work and I’m sure she’ll understand, but I would never forsake her!”

“Does that mean that you need to head to Canterlot again tonight?” Spike asked flatly.

“No. Celestia also said she didn’t believe any of it, so I’ll be good for now. I’ll make sure to add an extra apology on the letter for the next report I sent.”

It was around that time that a knock came on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Spike said.

“Thank you, number one assistant!” Twilight said.

After finishing reading the note for a third time, Twilight went downstairs to arrange some of the books recent patrons had left scattered about the library. Using her magic, Twilight swiftly picked up the books with a purple aura and ran them by her face; all she needed was a quick glance at the title to see where everything needed to go. A few minutes later, Twilight had finished, but Spike wasn’t back.

“Now, what is that dragon doing?” Twilight asked no one in particular.

A voice answered Twilight regardless. “Twilight, darling! Are you home?”

Twilight went over to the door and opened it to find a familiar white unicorn with three gems as her cutie mark standing at her door.

“Oh, hey Rarity,” Twilight said cheerfully. “Looking for a book on the latest fashion trends? I’ve got the most recent edition of Hoity Toity’s fashion magazine, featuring an article with the dresses you made for Sapphire Shores!”

“I’ll have to look into that later in addition to something else,” Rarity said as she made a mental note, “but we have a dilemma in the town square!”

Knowing Rarity’s tendency to exaggerate things and her focus on fashion, Twilight attempted to keep her cool. “What sort of dilemma?” she asked, deciding to ask for more information in case it was another one of Rarity’s fashion problems.

“Trixie’s back!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why would she be returning to Ponyville?”

“I don’t know,” Rarity said. “But she’s in the town square and is standing there proclaiming something about Celestia coming to smite us all.”

Twilight sighed. “Let me see.”

Rarity nodded and led Twilight to the town square, where Twilight saw the familiar caravan with the stage set up and fireworks exploding all over the place. As Twilight approached, however, the unicorn noticed two young colts – Snips and Snails – along with Trixie standing on the stage with a microphone held up with her light-blue aura.

“Listen to me, citizens of Ponyville!” Trixie shouted into the microphone. “The time of the end of your evil is at hand! Celestia’s wrath shall descend on this village for your evil deeds! I have received word from the Princess herself, and she states her wrath will be as furious as the fire of the sun!”

“Yeah!” Snips said. “She’ll be angry with all of you.

“Destroy us all!” Snails said. “Destroy us all! Trixie’s right!”

Trixie’s eyes scanned the clouds and eventually fell upon Twilight. “Look, you citizens of Ponyville!” Trixie said as she pointed a hoof at Twilight. “Knows so many types of magic, but what does she do with it? Nothing! Doesn’t help you out at all and all the magic she’s learned recently is useless! Just for show! She is the evilest one of you all!”

“Nah, man!” piped up a white unicorn with large purple shades. “Twilight’s cool in my book. She helped me get a job DJ’ing at a wedding in Canterlot! She helped me get my first big gig and opened the way for a rave later this week there.”

“You’re the one they call DJ-Pon3?”

“I prefer Vinyl or Scratch when I’m not working the wubs.”

“That ‘wub’ isn’t even music! It’s sent by Discord to cause problems with our fragile ears.”

“I see it as a blood pumper, but it sure ain’t Discord’s doing.”

“Eeyup,” came the voice of a stallion.

Trixie went off on another rant as Twilight and Rarity started walking away.

“Do you think the princess would want to know about this?” Rarity asked.

“Not at this stage,” Twilight said. “If Trixie keeps ups her showboating, then I’ll send a letter to Celestia. Right now, it’d just be a disturbance.”

“I’d say slander is enough,” Rarity said. “She was going off about my dresses earlier, and talk like that is enough to cause bad business if taken seriously.”

“Perhaps, but the effects aren’t noticeable enough to really convince the Princess there’s a definite problem. Let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow morning and if she’s moved on.”

- - - -

The next day, Ponyville was thrown into pandemonium.

The Ponyville Postal Service was overloaded with mail, some to its own boss. One said that a certain grey Pegasus with derpy eyes had bad eyesight and kept sending mail to the wrong addresses. Another said one of the fastest mares in the service went out for salt licks in the middle of their run and started harassing ponies for payment.

But the hate mail wasn’t limited to the post office workers. The weather team got a report that a rainbow mare was skimping out on rain coverage and wasn’t bringing the scheduled showers on time. Filthy Rich got a letter saying that the apples sent to his store had worms in them. A note to the library said that patrons were getting the books sticky and filled with food and that the librarian was doing nothing to make sure the quality of the books were top-notch. Another note said that the town’s star cellist was really a sort of pied-piper and practicing to lure all the little fillies away from their parents. Another noted that a certain doctor wasn’t even a real doctor.

It got so bad that the mayor even got a letter for her poor performance overseeing the last year’s Winter Wrap-Up, regarded to be one of the fastest in Ponyville history.

Even worse, they were all signed off the same way:

I hope your attention has been brought to these damnable acts, and I hope something should be done about this. I would suspect no less than the firing of these individuals as satisfactory.

The Great and Powerful Trixie.

That evening, Mayor Mare sent out an invitation to all ponies in Ponyville – Trixie excluded – to talk about these notes at a special meeting at city hall.

“I am sorry these notes have been circulating around recently,” Mayor Mare began. “Ponyville has been a relatively safe and peaceful place until this Trixie began sending around this series of notes. First of all, I am dreadfully sorry, but there is currently nothing I can do about Trixie.”

“Why not?” came the shout of an angry stallion.

“According to Ponyville law, I can’t cause Trixie to move anywhere because she’s in a public place. According to Equestrian law, Trixie has the right of free speech and is allowed to say whatever she wants.”

“But such slander is harmful to everypony!” piped up another mare.

“She told me I partied too much!” came one voice.

“She said that my treats were so bad I could poison someone!” came another.

“She said that we were horrible parents and cheated on one another!” came another voice.

“She said I’d never be able to get mah cutie mark!” came another young voice.

The city hall became filled with chatter and disgusted remarks about whatever Trixie had placed in the letters addressed to them in hopes of getting one of them fired. It became so much that Mayor Mare had to pick up a gavel and bang it a few times on her stand in order to get everypony’s attention focused on her again.

“Calm down, everypony!” Mayor Mare said. “It seems that a little bit more than the law is required to get Trixie to stop her antics. Therefore, I say we should ask one of our most reliable mares in order to contact the princess and see what she’ll be able to do.”

- - - -

“…and you picked me why?” Twilight Sparkle asked, taking a sip of her tea as she sat on the upper level of the Ponyville library.

“I’m sorry,” Mayor Mare said. “But with the large amount of letters going around town, I wanted you to send this list of things Trixie has said about our citizens to Princess Celestia in addition with a small report of what Trixie has done. The townsponies are getting riled up and I don’t want there to be an incident even worse than a showboating unicorn here.”

Twilight nodded. “I was afraid I would have to do this and really hoped I wouldn’t.”

“I understand how you don’t like to waste the princess’ time,” Mayor Mare nodded approvingly. “But we really need her help right now.”

Twilight put a hoof up to stop the mayor from talking anymore. “Don’t worry. A letter to the princess should be sent by tomorrow afternoon and hopefully we will get a response. If not anything else, she should be able to give us some advice.”

Mayor Mare got up from the balcony and Twilight led her back down and to the front entrance of the library where Spike was waiting with a quill and ink. “Thank you so much, Twilight Sparkle. Your performance around here and helping me has been admirable.”

“Thank you, Mayor Mare, but I’m just the sort of pony who wants to help others out, nothing more.”

“Again, thank you so much for sending that letter.”

Spike stood, quill at the ready. “What do you need me to say?”

- - - -

Dear Princess Celestia,

You may have recalled that in one of my past letters to you, I discussed the lesson of friendship I learned about boasting and how you shouldn’t boast to get another’s attention. You may have also noticed that I talked about a certain mare named Trixie and how events surrounding her helped me come to this conclusion. Well, Trixie is back, and while I have learned my lesson on friendship Trixie has not.

In short, Trixie has been slandering both your good name and the name of every pony in Ponyville. She first started by saying that we were all evil and that you were going to bring your wrath upon us. I know you’re not the sort of princess to do that, but she took it a step further and sent out letters to everyone in Ponyville saying why we were evil, the reasons for which are all lies. The list of these is attached to this letter, created by Mayor Mare herself. We need your help in doing something about this, and we need it quickly before Trixie’s antics get out of control.

I await your response. Hopefully you could at least give us advice on what to do.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S.: When do you want us to meet up at Pony Joe’s again? I’ve heard Luna’s preparing another batch of her famous moonshine.

- - - -

Dearest Twilight:

I’m coming.

Twilight read the note over and over again, which wasn’t hard considering it was only two lines long. While Twilight had expected a response, she wasn’t prepared for such a short response. She also wasn’t prepared for the fact that Celestia was not the one who had written the letter back and that she couldn’t recognize the handwriting.

It wasn’t her brother, Shining Armor. His letters would have the stamp of the royal Captain of the Celestial Guard.

It wasn’t her sister-in-law, Princess Cadence. She often signed off with a heart and tended to have more flowery print than the letter had.

It wasn’t Princess Celestia. While she was concise, she usually had a signature at the beginning and the end of the letter and would state more than just that she was coming.

The letter had come sometime that afternoon as the sun was setting on Ponyville. Aside from a similar rant to the one she had produced two days ago, Trixie had remained relatively silent and didn’t send out any more letters. Things seemed to be proceeding on as normal until there was a sudden flash of green fire and Spike was standing there with a piece of paper in his hand. Now, Twilight was standing in the entrance of the Ponyville library as the moon came over the town and wondered who had sent the note.

Not much later, a knock came at the door. Who could be knocking at this hour? Twilight asked herself as she made her way towards the door and opened it.

The answer came as a surprise.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight said. “What are you doing here?”

“Princess Celestia shared thy letter with us and asked us to come down here to assist thee,” the dark blue alicorn said. She coughed for a minute, then spoke again. “Sorry, still getting used to not using the royal ‘we’. Anyways, Celestia is busy at the moment with something regarding the zebra kingdom but felt the situation needed attending. As a result, she sent me. It’s nice considering I was able to stretch my wings for a nice long flight on this beautiful night.”

“It’s nice that you’ve come,” Twilight said, bowing slightly out of respect. “But… you really should send more notice.”

“Did you not get my letter?”

Twilight blushed. “Oh, that was you? You really need to add a greeting so I know who it is.”

“The quality of my letters aside,” Luna said, “where is this Trixie? I’ve been sent to reason with her.”

“She’s in the town square,” Twilight said.

“Lead the way,” Luna said.

Twilight nodded and she and Luna walked through the moonlit streets of Ponyville until they reached the town square, quiet and dark except for a single light coming from the light blue caravan. Twilight and Luna approached and Luna raised a hoof to knock on the door.

“Who is it?” came a voice from inside. “Who disturbs the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“Princess Luna demands an audience with Trixie,” Luna said.

Trixie came and opened the door. The dark-blue alicorn towered over the light-blue unicorn, but Trixie was unfazed. “So, you’re friends with Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie observed. “I suppose the royalty is as evil as these citizens are.”

“Trixie Lulamoon,” Luna said. “Twilight Sparkle has sent my sister, Princess Celestia, a letter informing her of your little stint regarding the hate mail in addition to what you’ve been saying about her in the town square.”

“Ah, that little information about Celestia coming down to bring her wrath upon Ponyville? That won’t be necessary.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. She turned around to Twilight Sparkle, who was as clueless as Luna was and could only shrug. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve figured out a way to do this myself.”

“Explain yourself.”

“Well, a few years ago, I attempted to disband an Ursa Minor from Ponyville…”

“…Snips and Snails woke one up and led it here to see if you could,” Twilight interrupted.

“Let me finish!” Trixie said. “Anyways, I tried, but the Ursa crushed my home and forced me to rebuild my caravan. Also, Twilight upstaged me and managed to put the Ursa Minor back in its cave in the Everfree Forest. Afterwards, my reputation became ruined. I couldn’t perform anymore because everypony started hearing about what Twilight Sparkle did with her magic and how she supposedly ‘put me in my place’. So, because of Twilight Sparkle and the residents of Ponyville, I became nearly homeless and penniless.”

“This is a sad story,” Luna said unsympathetically, “but it explains nothing of what has been going on here recently.”

“True. However, I thought about those events for a few years and realized that I was not the one in the wrong. The ones who were the problem were the citizens of Ponyville for causing me to suffer like I did. So, I came back with the intent of making others aware of what they had done wrong.”

“You do realize slander is against our laws, correct?”

“It was not slander. It was free speech and irritation. I mailed the companies and let them know of their problems and hoped they would respond reasonably, but the people of Ponyville are as ignorant as the rest of them. As such, I’ve devised a brilliant plan to take care of the situation myself.”

“And what would that entail?”

“My magic will reach its peak at four o’clock tomorrow afternoon. At that time, I will cast a spell that will shrink all of them down to so small a size that I would be able to crush them under my hoof! Of course, the spell won’t affect me and it won’t affect a few others who have been kind to me like the colts Snips and Snails, but every evil pony in Ponyville will be shrunk to miniscule size at that time tomorrow!”

“What would be the purpose of such a thing?”

“It would be to point out just how evil the ponies here really are and to make them feel ashamed of what they’ve done to me!”

Luna shrugged. “Fine.”

Twilight and Trixie gasped. “What!?”

“Fine. Do whatever you want. Come along, Twilight Sparkle. There’s nothing much we can do here.”

Twilight stared at Luna, but followed nonetheless as Trixie went back inside her caravan.

“What do you mean ‘fine’?” Twilight asked as the two approached the Ponyville Library.

“Everything will be fine,” Luna said. “Firstly, no pony has that sort of magic available to them. Secondly, if Trixie does manage to come up with something, my magical power would be able to revert all ponies back to normal size. Whatever happens tomorrow, everything will be fine.”

Twilight stared curiously at the princess. “If you say so…”

“Until then,” Luna said, “I would like to use the library and will need a pot of coffee.”

- - - -

At three o’clock the next afternoon, Trixie had announced her plan to shrink all of Ponyville, and everypony was gathered in the town square to see what exactly happened and if Trixie could do such a thing. For a little while, Trixie kept spewing her usual rant about how the wrath of Celestia was going to come down and she was warning them of their impending doom.

A few minutes till four Luna and Twilight Sparkle showed up at the scene.

“I could understand needing the library to read,” Twilight said, “but why did you need to drink two whole pots of coffee?”

“I needed the caffeine,” replied a jittery Luna, now running in place and slowing down to a trot. “I’m not usually up at this time, but because my magic may be required, I need to be awake for it. The caffeine is helping with that. For me, this is usually the equivalent of you staying up until four in the morning.”

Shortly afterwards, the clock at Ponyville tower rang four times.

“At last!” Trixie said. “The time of your doom has come! As the one assigned to this reckoning, I shall cast my magic and strike down those who have been chosen to bear the brunt of Celestia’s wrath!”

“How dare you use my sister’s name like that!” Luna called out.

Trixie laughed as her horn began to glow a bright blue. “We shall see who is the one in the wrong soon enough, Princess Luna! My magic is at its peak, and thus you shall be marked!”

Trixie began to surround herself with a light blue aura as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. Eventually it became so bright that the entirely of Ponyville square was engulfed in the bright blue light that blinded everypony for a fair while afterwards. There was a distinct hum of magic in effect and many ponies began to scream out in horror.

“We’ve been marked!”

“What are we going to do?”

“Celestia’s wrath is coming!”

But as the light faded away, Twilight Sparkle noticed nothing was wrong. Aside from Snips and Snails on the stage and any fillies in the audience, no pony had shrunk down to anything smaller than everypony else. However, a small circle was beginning to gather in the middle of the crowd, caused by a few ponies staring down at their hooves in astonishment.

“Make way!” Luna called. “Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle coming through!”

The crowds parted as Luna and Twilight made their way through towards the circle and eventually found the cause of the ponies’ astonishment. There, in the middle of the circle, stood a small blue unicorn no bigger than Twilight’s front hoof staring upwards in a mixture of horror and confusion.

“But… but… wait a minute!” Trixie shouted. “That magic wasn’t supposed to work that way!”

Luna lay down near Trixie on the grass and lowered her horn to the unicorn. Luna’s horn started glowing a dark blue, causing Trixie to scream out as its aura surrounded her.

“Hey! What are you doing? Put me down, I say! This is not how the Great and Powerful Trixie should be treated!”

A moment later, Trixie’s request was granted as she flopped over on the grass of the town square. Luna stood up, looked around, then back to Trixie.

“You said your magic wasn’t supposed to work that way?” she asked.

“Stop repeating what I said!” Trixie snorted.

“You said your magic would shrink any pony in Ponyville who was shown to be evil,” Luna said. “Unfortunately for you, it seems your magic worked. You shrank; therefore you were the one here in Ponyville who was deemed evil enough.”

“What!?” Trixie said. “Certainly there must have been a mistake!”

“That’s the thing. There isn’t. By disrupting the harmony of this fair town, you have done more than any of these ponies have deserved. For that, you were evil enough that the spell shrank you down to no more than the size of my hoof.”

Twilight walked forward and stared at Trixie’s smaller body on the ground.

“Twilight!” Trixie pleaded. “There must be something you can do to help me!”

Twilight shook her head. “I was wrong, Trixie. You are a greater magician than I am. I have yet to be able to figure out a spell that makes an evil pony shrink enough to be stepped on by those who are not. But… why would I need such a thing when the spell’s already been cast and the faults already shown?”

Comments

[NightmareMoon]

Awesome!!!

I suggest doing "I Shot an Arrow Into The Air" and "And When The Sky Was Opened," because they're really great episodes!

[Revenant Wings]

952242 And When the Sky was Opened is on my list of stories to do, but I'll go ahead and look into I Shot an Arrow into the Air and see if I can't apply some pony characters to it.

[NightmareMoon]

952332 Ooh, I have an idea for I Shot An Arrow Into The Air, maybe you could base it on the Hearth's Warming Eve play?

[Perception Filter]

Orgasmic.