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Chapter 1: Let the Magic Duel Begin!2,623 words
Chapter 2: Rounds 3 and 41,708 words
Chapter 3: Final Round, And a Confession3,661 words

Chapter 3: Final Round, And a Confession

Tied at 2-2, it's about to be the fifth and final round of a magic duel between myself and "The Great and Powerful Trixie".

While we always loved trading friendly jabs at each other, the spirit of competition got us to overdo it, and our "friendly" magic duel became...not so friendly. Starlight, our judge for it, had been trying to put up with it, but she's nearing her limits!

Round five/final round was going to be a test on a growth spell. Starlight would put a pebble in front of us, and we would use the spell to grow it as much as we could. Whoever did it the best, would win the round, and the magic duel! And Starlight couldn't wait for it to be over!

I struggled with a growth spell Starlight tried to teach me earlier, so I wasn't feeling exactly confident. Trixie seemed to be, and she could even tell I was nervous. Of course, she was going to try to milk it.

With a smirk, she leaned her head closer to me, but stayed about a foot away, and teased, "What's wrong, newbie? You don't look so good."

I shook my head, still looking at my pebble. "Uh, no, I'm feeling good, Trixie. I was just...thinking of my victory dance is all."

That smirk of Trixie's got even bigger, as she inched even closer beside me. "Suuure you were."

Starlight rolled her eyes (again) and groaned, "Come on guys, cut it out! We're almost done with this magic duel, so let's just get this over with."

Starlight picked up a pebble with her magic, and placed it right in front of me, on a spot on the ground that didn't have grass growing, and it was about two feet away. Since I won the previous round, I'd go first.

Starlight noticed something might had been up, so instead of just telling me to get ready, she asked with a bit of a frown, "Buggie, you remember how to do the spell for it, right?"

With a finger on my chin, I answered, "Uh, yeah, I think I remember. I just have to picture it as a bigger and bigger rock in my head, and fire my (Starlight's) magic at the pebble, right?"

Starlight smiled and nodded her head. "Yep, that's how you do it. You ready?"

"Yep, I'm ready, Starie."

Trixie, who still had her head leaned beside me and still grinning, finally moved her head away, and took a few steps back. "And I'm ready to win this, so hurry up, newbie."

"Yeah, yeah"--I waved my right hand up and down at Trixie --"Hold on to your horn, 'Miss Powerful', I'll about to do it."

Starlight did yet another eye roll and groaned, "Just focus on doing the spell, Buggie. Get ready in three, two, one, go!"

I pictured a slightly bigger size of the pebble in front of me in my head, and focused that image on the pebble. I fired a continuous light-blue beam at it, and it slowly grew. As I kept releasing the magic, it grew by about three times it's size till it stopped growing. I couldn't get it any bigger, so I stopped firing magic, and panted, since it tired me out. It was only about a half an inch wide though, so it wasn't too big a growth. Trixie knew it too, so she had some more fun with me.

Trixie walked up beside me again, about where she was standing the last time she milked it. But instead of leaning her head to me, she leaned it down to take a closer look at my bigger pebble/rock, and laughed, "Wow, that's it? I know you're a newbie, but I thought you'll do better than that!"

Not playing (much) attention to Trixie, I stopped panting, and turned my head to Starlight. "Uh, can I get a do-over, Starie?"

Trixie wasn't gonna have that, and she shook her head hard to Starlight. "No! Don't give him a do-over, Starlight!"

Starlight turned her own head and eyes up, thinking about it for a couple seconds. She lowered it, looked at me, and shook her head. "Nope, sorry, Buggie. But, you really did do good. Growth spells can be hard without a lot of training."

Well, that did make me feel a little better, since Starlight seemed like she really meant it, since she's not a good liar. But the way Trixie was acting, she was really gonna do it better, and win. With a big 'ol confident smile, Trixie was ready for her turn. "But it won't be good enough, newbie! Get ready to lose!"

Thinking I was about to lose, I looked down a bit, and sighed, "Fine, Trixie. It's your turn now."

Trixie, who was still standing beside me, now leaned and tilted her head very close to mine, even closer to where it was before, grinning more than ever, and lowered her eyelids about halfway. She was so close, her horn was less than an inch away from touching my head. "Hmm? No comeback this time, newbie? That's a surprise."

Starlight tossed a pebble on the ground, right in front of Trixie with her magic, to get her to leave me alone. It was about a foot away from my rock, and it was also on a part of the ground that didn't have grass growing on it, and Starlight groaned, "Augh! Come on, Trixie, let's just do this and end this silly magic duel. Go in three, two, one, go!"

Careful not to move any closer to Trixie, I sidestepped in the other direction to give her some room, but not because I was mad at her -- just annoyed -- but it was really just to make sure her horn didn't poke my eye, because it was so close. Unicorns had done it before in similar spots without meaning to (Starie even did it once!) when I was still getting used to always being aware of their horns. It obviously hurt when it happened!

Trixie's horn glowed, and she fired a continuous purple beam at the pebble in front of her, and it grew to...about the same size as the pebble I grew, then she stopped firing magic, slightly out of breath. Starlight picked up the rocks with magic, and held them to her face to look at them closely. They looked just about the same size, and she couldn't tell which was bigger.

Leaning her head close to our rocks, Trixie asked, "So, which rock is bigger, Starlight?"

I stepped right beside Trixie, and also leaned my head closer to the rocks, about as close as she was. "Is it mines? Trixie's?"

Squinting her eyes, Starlight muttered, "Uh...I can't tell guys. They look exactly the same size."

Starie sat the rocks back down on the ground they were laying on, to try to think of a way to tell which was bigger. But both Trixie and I picked up our rocks to look at them ourselves. Trixie used her magic to do it and I, forgetting I still had Starlight's magic, bent down, and picked up my rock with my hand, and we both tried our best to find a way to say our rock was bigger.

"Wait, Trixie, my rock is bigger. Take a look at them from this angle, see?" I put my rock closer to Trixie's, and pointed at the "angle" with a finger.

Trixie in turn shoved the rocks closer to my face with her magic. "No way! My rock is bigger. You see, Eric? This part is like one-tenth bigger!"

"No it's not, and besides"-- I turned my rock over --"my rock is bigger at this angle by about an eighth of an inch anyway!"

Trixie shook her head. "No, you're just seeing things!"

The two of us turned to directly face each other, as Trixie levitated her rock to her side, and I put the hand with my rock down, so they wouldn't be in our way. Since we were already standing close beside each other, we were looking right in each other's eyes. Trixie's horn was even touching my forehead, which I paid no mind to, and I was lucky it didn't poke an eye! We both squinted our eyes, as I yelled, "No, I'm not seeing things!"

"Yeah, you are, newbie!"

"No, I'm not, 'Miss Powerful'!"

Trixie and I kept this going a couple more times. We even threw our rocks away in the same direction, without really thinking about it, and at around the same time. And, I'll admit it, and even Trixie will if you ask her, but the two of us were really just acting like little kids/foals at this point. We finally pushed Starlight too far, and she just couldn't take it anymore.

"All right you two, QUIET!!" Starlight shouted as hard as she could, with her neck even showing a few veins.

Yep, both Trixie and I both found ourselves facing one of the most famous faces of MLP: the legendary Starlight Glimmer "QUIET!!" face, and for more than just that reason, I felt a powerful wave of nostalgia. Just like how a certain Princess of Friendship did when she was on the receiving end of it, both Trixie and I just shut the buck up! We backed up slightly from each other, turned to face Starlight, and just stared at her, surprised, and wasn't gonna say a word till that Unicorn said we could talk. Trixie also had her ears drooped down.

With Trixie and I both quiet, Starlight slightly calmed down, so at least the veins in her neck disappeared. She focused her glare at Trixie, faced her directly, pointed a hoof, and yelled, "I know you like to mess with Eric, Trixie, but this is too much! You even said this was going to be a 'friendly' magic duel, remember?! This has been anything but 'friendly'!"

Starlight turned slightly to face and glare at me, while pointing the hoof she had at Trixie at me. "And as for you, Eric, I've never seen you act like this before, not even with Trixie! What is your problem today?!"

I thought about what Starie asked -- well, yelled -- and it was then I truly realized why I was this bad, and it was kinda embarrassing. But, I had to say it if, for anything else, to get my big sister to calm down!

"Well...it was because, when Trixie was messing with me so much, I felt a wave of nostalgia, Starie."

Starlight's glare turned into a confused look. She put her hoof down, and asked in a normal tone but confused voice, "What do you mean by that, Buggie? What 'nostalgia'?"

I took a few steps away, looked up, and smiled. "What I was just doing with Trixie, was what I did a lot in my old world with Erica."

Trixie rubbed her head, while asking, "Huh? Who's this 'Erica' Eric?"

Starlight put a hoof to her cheek. "Wait, 'Erica'...that's one of your sisters' names back in your old world, right? You mean her?"

Still looking up, I confessed, "Yep, you got it, Starie. Growing up, we would always try to one-up or out-do each other, every chance we got, and we especially went at it when we competed in something. Ha, the two of us just loved doing it, and I guess I just missed it."

"Really? Did you two mess with each other like how we did during our magic duel?"

I put my head back down, still smiling, and turned to face Trixie. "Oh, you have no idea, Trixie. We were actually pretty tame compared to how Erica and I sometimes got." I turned to Starlight with the same grin. "And believe it or not, Starie, when you yelled at us to be quiet just now, you made the nostalgia even stronger. Jenny, the eldest sister in my old world, would yell at us to be quiet too, when we either went too far, or just got on her nerves too much, just like how Trixie and I did to you."

Starlight frowned, and her ears drooped down. "Really? You've never told me about this. In fact...have you been feeling homesick, and If so, why didn't you tell me or Twilight? You know you can come to talk to us about anything, right?"

I tilted my head up a bit for a few seconds, and put a finger on my chin as I did to think. "Well...it wasn't that I was hiding it from you or Twilight. To be honest, I don't think that even I knew it was starting to happen, and maybe that was the real reason I felt so restless at the castle. And, I even kinda forgot that you and Trixie aren't Erica and Jenny, or otherwise I'd kept myself from going too far. So, Starie, I'm sorry." I tilted my head back down.

Hearing that made Starlight feel bad. Her ears drooped down, and she frowned, "Wow, Buggie...I had no idea. If I knew, I'd just stayed back and let you two go at it, if it really makes you happy and feel more at home. I'm so sorry, Buggie." Starlight slightly turned her face so she could look at both my and Trixie's faces. "And I'm also sorry for yelling at the two of you."

Trixie waved her hoof at Starlight. "Eh, it's okay, Starlight, and I'm sorry too. Like I said before: It'll take a lot more than harsh words to lose me."

I lifted my head. "Same here, Starie, and it wasn't fair to make you be annoyed so much anyway...though, I do have a question for Trixie." I turned to face Trixie. "Trixie, first, I want to say I'm sorry to you too. I know I told you and Starlight why I got carried away, but I still went too far. But what about you? I learned pretty much nothing about your past from the cartoon, so did you have a reason too?"

Trixie turned her head and eyes up, then back down. "Hmm...Not really, Eric. At least, I don't have the kind of reason you do. You see, while she's more fun than Twilight, Starlight can still get annoyed when I mess with her, so I try not to do it too much. But not only do you not mind it, you like it, and will even do it back, and I enjoyed it. It felt good to not having to worry...too much, about annoying someone for once. The old me wouldn't had cared, but the new me do. And, I guess I got a little carried away too, so I'm sorry."

Starlight, Trixie, and I joined in a group hug, and when we broke it up, we noticed something really odd, and all three of us turned in its direction.

Starlight gasped and pointed. "Wait, what happened to that rock?"

"It somehow got about two times bigger! Is that mine, or your rock, Trixie? I didn't pay attention when I threw it."

"Uh...I'm not sure, Eric, I wasn't paying attention either. How did that happen anyway?"

"I...think that somehow, one of you did the growth spell in such a way, that it delayed your rock from growing to that size. But, even I'm not sure how that could happen. I might ask Twilight later if she knows."

Since no one paid attention to the rocks when Trixie and I threw them when we were still fighting, there's no way for us to tell for sure who's rock it was.

"Well, how can we tell who won our magic duel, Starie? Maybe we could have a sixth round?"

Trixie smiled, and had a very surprising suggestion. "You know what, Eric? How about we just call it a draw, and I can take a tie."

See? I told you Trixie's really nice when she's not messing with me.

"Well, I don't really like ties, but it's still better than a loss, so I'll be fine with it, Trixie. But we do have to make it official. So, judge...?"

Trixie and I turned to Starlight, who put on a embarrassed grin. "Oh, right, I forgot I'm still the judge of your duel. In fact, I have a better idea than a tie: since I can't tell who lost, this magic duel has two winners. They are: Eric Reed, and Trixie Lulamoon!"

Ha, figures Starie might think of ending it like that. And she's the judge, so what she says for this magic duel, goes. And since Trixie and I both "won", we both did a victory dance: she Moonwalked, and I tried to wave my arms and dance...and it sucked! So I just copied Trixie's Moonwalk, and we ended up doing it together for a bit.

After we got done, Trixie turned a bit away from me and Starlight, and said, "Well, that magic duel was really fun, even with the yelling. But I should go and prepare for my next act, so I'll see you two later."

"All right, see you later, Trixie!"

"Yeah, see ya, 'Miss Powerful'! Oh, and you said you wanted to 'test' my magic skills with that magic duel, so did I pass my 'Great and Powerful test'?"

Trixie put a hoof on her cheek, and rolled her eyes up. "Hmm, I'll give you a 'D-', newbie, and that's a passing grade, so you pass!"

"A 'D-' huh? Figures, but I'll take it."

We waved our hand/hoofs, and Trixie went off to prepare for her next act. With all the excitement, we all forgot, even Trixie herself, that the whole reason Trixie even stopped by the castle earlier, was to ask Starlight for help on her act! Oops. Starie and I were about to go back into the castle, since I thought I trained in magic enough for one day, when Twilight came back, while flying. She had her head tilted down a bit, confused about something.

"What's wrong, Twi? Is that Friendship Mission not work out or something?"

Twilight lifted her head, and looked at me. "That's the thing, Buggie: I couldn't find it."

Both me and Starlight yelled, "What?!"

"Yeah, I don't get it either! I went to where the Map sent me, but no matter how hard I looked, I just couldn't find any ponies that had a friendship problem, or any kind of problem."

"Wow, really Twi?"

"Has that ever happened before, Twilight?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, it never has, Starlight. I was even coming back to see if I maybe went to the wrong place. But"-- Twilight pointed a hoof at her Cutie Mark --"My Cutie Mark stopped glowing about five minutes ago, so I don't know what's going on."

"Five minutes ago, Twi? That's odd--"

Both Starlight and I gasped, then faced and pointed a finger/hoof at each other. Twilight said her Cutie Mark stopped glowing five minutes ago, and that was about the same time when Starlight, Trixie, and I did our group hug. Could that had meant...?

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Buggie?"

"I think so, Starie, if you think we were a part of Twilight's 'Friendship Mission'?"

That puzzled Twilight more than ever, and she asked, "What did you mean by you two being it? I don't remember seeing you guys fighting before I left."

Starlight and I put our hand/hoof down, and I told Twilight, "If we're right, yep! But not because Starie and I were fighting or something. We were about to go in the castle, so we can tell you about it in there. Is that ok, Twi?"

Rubbing her head with a hoof, Twilight answered, "Well, I have no idea what you two are talking about. But sure, we can go in the castle, and you can tell me whatever you think my Friendship Mission was." Twilight noticed my "Unicorn" horn, and pointed at it. "And why do you have that 'Unicorn' horn again, Buggie?"

"I'll explain that too, Twi."

And the three of us went into the castle, and we told Twilight all about it.

And in case you're confused along with Twi here, here's what Starlight and I thought happened, and what we told Twilight. She also thought we were right.

I was starting to feel homesick without knowing it, but my magic duel with Trixie helped cure it. But, if Twilight would've stayed at the castle, she'd either wanted to watch it, or had probably noticed me and Trixie fighting on her own, and stopped it too soon, because of the fighting. If she did, it wouldn't had done on long enough to let me truly realize what I was really feeling. I love my Equestrian big sister Twilight Sparkle so much, but that Alicorn can be a real wet blanket on my fun sometimes! Just like Jenny.

So, to keep the occasional Princess of No Fun from being able to ruin things, The Friendship Map "sent" Twilight somewhere else, and even timed it to give Starlight enough time to teach me the spells I'd use in the magic duel with Trixie. With Twilight gone, Trixie and I could have the full duel, since Starlight didn't stop us too soon. Thus, when we did our group hug, the "Friendship Problem" was solved, and that was why Twilight's Cutie Mark stopped glowing. I also thought it was odd that it was only Twilight that got called, since she's never been sent alone before, even though Starlight got sent alone once...

After the magic duel, Trixie and I became closer friends than before. Though, we still weren't close enough for her to start feeling like another sister to me. But she could eventually; that Unicorn and I sure pick on each other like we're brother and sister; and if she does, I'll have a Great and Powerful sister.

Or a fifth Great and Powerful sister.

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