You Fell Right Into My Trap!
Twilight Sparkle trotted quietly through the slums of Manehattan, the pitter patter of light rain blending with the distant trotting of hooves to fill her ears with a soft, soothing ambience. It was the perfect backdrop for a pleasant read, but that was not why she was here. Briefly checking for prying eyes, she dived into a nearby alleyway.
Lighting her horn, she took out two pieces of paper from her saddlebag and examined them. The first one donned a portrait of a lilac unicorn's devilish grin, purple and teal bangs cascading from either side of her horn. The glare of her blue eyes bore deeply into her own. "Catch me," they teased. Below the portrait was the caption: "WANTED: Starlight Glimmer, One Million Bits, Dead or Alive!"
Twilight glanced over to her other paper: an intricate map of the city with her current location circled bright red. It cost a lot of bits to acquire that info, but she knew it would be worth it. She scanned the alleyway and spotted her destination, a rectangular section of wall with traces of unusual magic. With a swipe of her horn, she peeled away the illusion and reached a hoof to the revealed, wooden door.
ZAP!
A brilliant bolt of electricity arced from the handle to her hoof but danced harmlessly across her body before disappearing into the ground.
"Ha! Protective Ward? Saw that one coming, Glimmy, nothing a basic defensive enchantment can't stop." Confident there were no more wards, Twilight pushed forward through the door and into the dark.
Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind her. Her surroundings were bathed in a blinding white glow, and Twilight instinctively shielded her eyes. When her eyes adjusted, she looked again and found herself in a wide, empty warehouse. Far in front of her stood her target, the criminal unicorn.
Starlight cackled. "So! You've found my lair! I congratulate you, Twilight, but unfortunately this is where your journey ends!" Her horn lit with bright, teal magic as a giant boulder fell from the ceiling onto Twilight, crushing her with a splat.
Starlight blinked, then laughed wildly. "Hahaha, fool! It's been a long ride, I bid you fare-"
"Oh, you didn't even touch me."
Starlight whirled around in shock and gaped as Twilight walked out from behind the rock, completely unharmed. "How?!"
Twilight brushed off her foreleg. "It's quite simple, really. Before I entered, I cast a quick spell to create a decoy of myself, then I made myself invisible and walked safely behind it."
Starlight smirked. "Very clever. However, I only expected this." She gestured to the ground. "I knew you would fake your initial entrance. That's why I booby-trapped the floor around the rock trap!"
Twilight felt a sharp prick on her hoof. She looked down and lifted her foreleg, spotting a thin needle protruding from the ground.
"Soon the effects of the Ardere flower's deadly poison will render you completely paralyzed, allowing me to finish you off myself!"
Twilight smirked back. "I see, but I already knew you'd use this poison on me." She reached into her saddlebag and levitated out a vial of green, viscous fluid. "You remember the day you bought your Ardere flower? In that back alleyway in Canterlot? You bumped into a mare, to whom you profusely apologized and ran off? It was me, Starlight. I was the mare you bumped into. I had been following you secretly for weeks. Once I knew what you might use on me, I concocted the antidote!" She quickly popped the cork off and downed the vial in one gulp, licking her lips smugly at Starlight.
Starlight only grinned back. "Oh, but I wanted you to know! You remember the next day, when you went to gather the ingredients? The sweet mare you bought the herbs and powders from? It was me, Twilight. I was the mare heading that shop! All the ingredients I gave you were fake! Fake! Your antidote won't save you now!"
Twilight gasped in horror. "No! What did you do to that mare?! Did you kill her?!"
"No, that's always been me. That's my part-time job."
"Oh."
Starlight chuckled. "But it matters not, Twilight! The poison will be reaching your brain any second now!"
Twilight blinked.
Starlight blinked.
"Why aren't you writhing in agony yet?" she questioned.
Twilight snickered. "Oh, Starlight. You thought you gave me the fake ingredients? I knew all along you were my vendor, and I knew you'd try to trick me. So the night before, I broke into your store and swapped the fake ingredients with the real ones! So when you'd try to sell me the fake ingredients, you were really selling me the real ones!"
"But I knew you'd break into my store! That's why I replaced EVERYTHING with fake ingredients!"
"I was prepared in case you did that, Starlight, and I actually made a second antidote at home using my own grown ingredients."
"I didn't know you were a botanist."
"You do now." Twilight shot a streak of purple lightning towards Starlight, striking her in the chest. "And now you're dead."
Starlight stepped out from behind the mannequin. "I also use decoys."
"My lightning can jump between targets." And it did.
"My shield is lightning-proof." And it was.
"Not against this lightning." And it wasn't.
"I can teleport away."
"I prepared a spell circle to block teleports before arriving."
"I disabled it."
"You disabled a decoy."
"Nahhhh, I'm pretty sure I got it."
"GIRLS!"
Twilight and Starlight looked up from the game board and over to the door, where Spike stared back, visibly annoyed. "Can you two keep your game down while a dragon is trying to have his nap?! Sheesh!"
Spike slammed the door shut and stomped away. Starlight deadpanned at Twilight and raised an eyebrow. "Really? Breaking into my store now?"
Twilight stood up. "Hey, I did say there were no rules. But you won't get away next time."
Starlight grinned back mischievously. "Let's hope you're better prepared."
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- 6-D Pegasus · 1.2k words · 77 2 · 960 views
- 6-D Pegasus · 1000 words · 81 3 · 1.1k views
- Silk Rose · 1000 words · 149 10 · 1.3k views
- 6-D Pegasus · 1.4k words · 105 5 · 1.3k views
- Kodeake · 1000 words · 63 1 · 804 views
- 6-D Pegasus · 2k words · 57 0 · 1.3k views
- 6-D Pegasus · 4.3k words · 65 0 · 516 views
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
1,029 users online
92,444 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Huh, way better than I anticipated, great job!
Needs an AU tag
11650633
Based on the ending, it was just the two of them playing a game, so it fits entirely within canon of them doing something on the weekends or their free time
Truly a battle of dimwits.
I was going to point out that this needs the AU tag. But since it was nothing but a game, don't think you need one.
.
Eeyup.
11650629
Same.
11650649
But we love them anyway
11650636
Ya'll all playing checkers while I've been Chess Boxing this whole time!
Is it just me, or does the cover art just scream "now kiss",
and the whole story just scream "now sex"?
Omg I LOVED THIS
11664473
Glad you did!
I was so into this lol, some part of me wishes it was real and this is how they were for fun before Starlight was reformed
Loved it!
Aw, you’re learning from Trixie.
I was not expecting them to be playing a game, great ending
11651686
.
It does
ehehe
oh love this, Twilight and Starlight just constantly revealing that they were standing behind the other one the whole time
pfft
so she had access to the real ingredients from the beginning, so she didn’t need to actually buy them? that is amazing, love it
just kiss already!
delightful work of oneupsmareship, thank you for writing!
Now this was a fun little twist. Only caught it right before it occurred and got a good chuckle. Two unicorns that skipped a bit on childhood games escalating in a series of nuh-uhs and uh-huhs at a high magical level? Very fun.
And this is why you need to have some rules in place, so players can’t just “nuh uh” each other ad infinitum. Entertaining little exchange, especially since it was all in good fun. Thank you for it and congrats on the judge prize.
Truly they are playing the most intense game of mental chess ever known to ponykind.
Hello! I read all the stories from this contest that won recognition, so have a review. The snag here was that I knew what was going on pretty much from the start. Didn't make the fic boring, but did make it predictable in terms of where it was going. Still quite fun, though.
11778409
Thanks for the review and glad you enjoyed it! I did actually find your review shortly after you posted it from a friend, and that was also the reason that portion of the long description has since been removed.
Originally, I added that a few hours after publish as I had gotten a few comments on here and elsewhere about needing an AU tag, and got a flood of downvotes from what I assumed was that issue (it had 6 downvotes within two hours of publish) so I panicked and added it in, and forgot to remove it after the initial viewing period.
I wish I had removed it far earlier, like when results were published, but hopefully now that twist can remain unspoiled for future readers ^^
11778441
Thanks for the insight! Normally after reviewing a fic I try to post the courtesy note here within a few days, but Covid threw off my schedule this time. Apologies for that, and thanks for the story.
I love how you portrayed Starlight and Twilight's friendship in such a goofy way that fits so well. This read like a well placed, yet consistent uno reverse card sequence.
Dear Celestia, that was a fun story of them just trying to one up each other with magic.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.” ― William Goldman, The Princess Bride
Quite a fun quip of a story you got there Six . Was well enjoyed, Thank you