A Great and Powerful Test

by ThePinkedWonder

Chapter 2: Rounds 3 and 4

At Twilight's castle, I was bored, so I asked Starlight to cast a spell to let me use a third of her magic for a while, and she agreed. Only a few minutes later, she offered to train me a little on how to use more spells, till her spell on me wore off. I jumped on her offer.

A while after we went outside so Starlight could teach me, Trixie stopped by, and wanted to beat test my newbie magical skills, so she challenged me to a best-of-five magic duel. And, I am a "newbie" in using spells, so Trixie wasn't just saying that to pick on me: she was right.

We're tied at 1-1. Starlight's the judge for it, though the way Trixie and I were going, she'd probably have to double as referee soon. The two of us had been trading even more jabs and little insults at each other than we usually do in our normal friendly banter that we both like doing, so our duel's beginning to get a little too heated. Starlight was about to tell us what we'll have to do for round three. And she's hoping Trixie and I would cut out the insults we're doing on each other.

"Okay, guys. For round three, you'll need to do transmutation spells on as many rocks as you can, in ten seconds. You can pick what you want to turn them into."

Starlight used her magic to dump a bunch of rocks in front of us. This was the second time she used rocks as part of the duel. Heh, I guess Maud's rubbed off on her.

I had a very good idea on what Trixie was going to pick to turn the rocks into, and teased, "let me guess, Trixie: you're gonna turn them all into teacups, aren't you?"

"Maybe, newbie. A good magician never reveals her secrets, you know. Especially not a great and powerful one!"

Starlight thought about how Trixie already had turning things into teacups down already, and wanted to even the playing field by telling Trixie, "Wait, Trixie. Now that I think of it, you're mastered turning things into teacups. So, to make it fair to Eric, you can't pick teacups to turn them into."

That got Trixie a little nervous, and she frowned. I guess she doesn't use her transmutation spells much to turn things into something besides teacups.

I took this chance to give a smirk, and taunted, "What's wrong, 'Miss Powerful'? You don't think you're gonna lose, since you can't pick teacups, are you?"

Trixie tried to play it off by shaking her head. "N-no! I don't need to choose teacups! I'll win no matter what I'll pick."

"Well, let's find out, 'Miss Powerful'. Since you won the last round, you're up first."

"You don't have to tell me that, newbie. When do I start, Starlight?"

After giving an eye roll due to my and Trixie's bickering, Starlight answered with, "I can give a countdown, If you two can cool it! You ready?"

Trixie nodded her head.

"Okay, so three...two...one...go!"

Trixie fired out a bunch of purple beams at the rocks, one by one. A lot of her beams did nothing, but others turned the rocks into pink coffee mugs, with an outward design very similar to those off-limit teacups. When her ten seconds were up, she successfully turned five rocks into those pink coffee mugs. Because they looked so much like the teacups she couldn't pick to transmute the rocks into, I thought that might've been cheating.

Pointing a finger at the coffee mugs, I yelled, "Foul! I call foul! Those look too much like those teacups Starlight said you can't transmute the rocks into! If I had a red challenge flag, I'd be throwing it right now!"

Trixie defended herself with, "No, it's not cheating! Starlight said I can't turn anything into teacups. She didn't say I couldn't turn the rocks into something that looks like them."

"B-But, they look too much like those teacups! Don't they, Starie?"

Starlight, while a bit annoyed and rolled her eyes again, still thought what we said for a second. Then told me, "Well, I only said that Trixie couldn't turn anything into teacups, Buggie. And those aren't teacups, so they're fair game."

Trixie stuck her tongue out at me. "See? I told you it wasn't cheating!"

"All right, fine. You got me on that one. I'll just turn more rocks into...uh...cubes, and win the old-fashioned way!"

Feeling somewhat even more cocky, Trixie laughed, "Good luck, newbie, you'll need it!"

Starlight, probably thinking I would return that insult, quickly cut in with, "All right, Buggie. Get ready in three...two...one...go!"

I focused on one rock on a time, and pictured them as a blue cube, firing light-blue beams at them from my little "Unicorn" horn. I couldn't fire them as fast as Trixie, because she's much more experienced at this. But, perhaps because I was concentrating a bit harder, and not trying to go as fast as I could, a better percentage of them were successful in working. But, after my ten seconds were up, only four rocks were turned into blue cubes.

"Sorry, Buggie, but that's only four cubes. So Trixie wins round three!"

I facepalmed weakly, as I was tired from the effort. And being down 2-1 didn't help.

Of course The Great and Powerful Trixie, on the other hoof, was in a much better mood. She was just one win away from winning a magic duel without an Alicorn amulet, and she was enjoying it! She even took a page from my playbook, when I danced after winning the first round by getting on her hind legs, walked backward (Or "Moonwalked") to farther gloat. Guess I shouldn't had done that, huh? Not to mention, after spending so much time with Twilight since I got to Equestria, I have some of her in me, so in a way, Trixie was beating Twilight in a magic duel!

There wasn't much I could say at this point but, "You haven't won this yet, Trixie!"

"Yet."

Round four would be who can create the strongest magical shield. We each would create a shield and keep it up, and Starlight, holding a stop-watch, would toss rocks at them...and yep, Maud has got to have rubbed off on Starlight. Like before, Starie won't throw them at us, but at our shields, which we'll have at an angle. Though, at this point, she probably would want to throw one or two at me and Trixie, to shut us up! If so, this is the closest she can come to do it, without actually doing it. Who can keep it the shield the longest, wins round four.

As I said before, because Trixie's up 2-1, if she wins this round, she wins the magic duel. And, since she won round three, she'd go first again.

With her grin the biggest yet in this duel, Trixie bragged, "Well, it's been fun, newbie, but this will be the last round of our 'fun'."

With my arms crossed, I told her, "We'll see, 'Miss Powerful'."

Trixie put up a purple barrier, and Starlight tossed rocks at it. Trixie wasn't struggling much the first ten seconds, but after that, she grimaced, and was quickly losing energy to keep it up. After a few more seconds, her barrier broke. I really didn't think she could've lasted that long, and was truly impressed.

"Pant...pant...how I do, Starlight?"

"Fifteen seconds! That's really good, Trixie!"

"Hmm. I gotta admit, that was a little impressive, Trixie."

"Ha, a 'little'? I bet you won't even last five seconds, newbie!"

"Augh! Will you two cool it, already?!" Starlight turned to me. " Okay, Buggie, it's your turn!"

I pictured in my head what my shield would look like, and focused it on a spot right in front of me, and a light-blue shield appeared. I willed it beside me, in the same way I do when I levitate something.

"I'm ready, Starie! Let them fly!"

With that, Starlight began throwing rocks at my shield. Like Trixie, I didn't have much trouble at first. But about nine seconds in, it was my turn to start grimacing as it got hard to keep it up. It was really close to breaking at about thirteen seconds, but if it did, I'd lost the magic duel. Worse, Trixie could see I was struggling, and had a big smirk on her face, thinking she was about to win. But, I thought about that, and the spirit of competition kicked in, letting me last till seventeen seconds till my shield finally broke.

"Wow, Buggie, seventeen seconds! I really didn't think you could've held that shield for so long! And you win round four!"

I was tired, but the thrill of victory gave me enough energy to jump up in the air and yell, "YES! I win!"

That big grin Trixie had, when she thought she was moments away from winning, turned upside down into a big 'ol frown, and whined, "Hey, no fair! I was about to win! Even if it was impressive..."

Wow. She actually gave me a compliment. Starlight heard it, and said, "See? you two can give compliments, and still compete, right?"

"I guess we can, Starlight. Still, I could've had my shield last longer if I wanted, but I just wanted newbie here to have a chance."

Now with a smirk on my face, I told her, "Yeah, sure you did, 'Miss Not-So-Powerful'."

Seeing that was short-lived, Starlight groaned, facehoofed, and announced, "Well, Trixie, Buggie, you two are tried at 2-2, so the next round will settle it. Round five will be a test using a growth spell."

Hearing what Starlight decided on what Trixie and I would have to do in the final round, I gulped. Of all the spells Starie was trying to teach me, that was the spell I struggled with the most. And worse, Trixie didn't look worried one bit.

At that moment, it was looking like it would be a great and powerful victory for The Great and Powerful Trixie. And knowing her, she'd not let me forget it anytime soon, if I was unable to pull off an upset.