It was a very hot summers day in the beautiful town of Ponyille. The sun shined as it never had before, inspiring fillies and colts everywhere to go outside and play. Ponyville's citizens were out and about, enjoying a nice day at the park or smelling a fresh bouquet of roses. It was truly a magnificent day.
But for Twilight Sparkle, local library inhabitant, it was completely the opposite. She had so many things to get done and organized, and without the help of Spike, her purple dragon assistant, they were going to take a lot longer too. Twilight could list the excuses her friends had made to not help her out on a beautiful day like this.
"I need to make a gown for a client,"
"I need to go help Rarity,"
"Sorry, Twi, I have to help Granny bake some apple fritters," she mocked scornfully as she dusted off a book.
She moved over to her desk, which was cluttered with broken quills and discard pieces of parchment, with Owlowiscious lightly sitting on all of it.
"Well, at least I have you for company," Twilight says sadly, as Owlowiscious flies out the open window.
Even more disgruntled, Twilight starts to clean up her messy desk when she hears a faint knocking on the library door.
Twilight sighed as she walked over to the door and tried to compose herself before answering it.
"Hello, what do you wa- TRIXIE?" Twilight said, mouth open.
Out of disbelief, Twilight looked up, and down, and up and down again to see if it really was her.
Sure enough it was Trixie. Same light blue mane, same cutie mark.
"I-I thought you left! What are you doing back in Ponyville?"
"Long story, do you mind if I come in?"
"Sure," Twilight didn't see why not. Sure, Trixie has been a nuisance, but she did help Twilight to put on a show for the Saddle Arabians.
With a sigh of relief, Trixie trotted in, happy to be out of the scorching hot sun, and rested in an old armchair in the messy library.
Twilight, a bit surprised with the dramatic entry, slowly walked over to the armchair opposite of Trixie's and sat down with her.
"So, now will you tell me why you came back to Ponyville?" she asks impatiently.
"Well, after you took away the Alicorn Amulet, I went to other towns, preforming magic shows for little fillies and colts, and I felt happy, like this is what I was supposed to do, but now..."
"Now?" Twilight says impatiently.
"Now-Now I don't know anymore. For all of my life I've wanted to be a great Unicorn, and master my magical abilities, but I never had any proper training. Magic was something I taught myself. After this realization I came back to Ponyville because," Trixie sighed shyly," Well, you're the best pony I know at it. Well, other than the Princesses of course,"
Twilight is astonished. Nopony had ever compared her magic to the Princesses. She felt her cheeks get red, and she shyly uttered "thank you," to Trixie.
Twilight had never seen Trixie like this before. She was now much more respectful and kind. Twilight is happy that she's seeing the real Trixie for once.
There is a long silence between the two, finally broken by Trixie asking, "Would you help me learn magic, I mean, you don't have to,"
Twilight is ecstatic. Deep down, she has always wanted a student in which she could share her own magical wisdom with, except she had always imagined having a filly or colt as a student, not a mare, but she's happy to have a student nonetheless.
"Of course!" Twilight says, as happy as can be.
"Really?"
"Sure, you could stay right here in the library with Spike and I!"
"Really, Twilight? Thank you so much!" Trixie says as she enthusiastically jumps out o her armchair and lunges at Twilight with a hug.
"Uhm, erm, alrighty then," Twilight says awkwardly to Trixie, being taken off guard by the giant hug.
Twilight then levitated the overly enthusiastic Trixie off of her.
Trixie is amazed at how interesting being in the magical bubble-like thing while being levitated is. She tries to stick her hoof out of the bubble to see what it does. The bubble, of course, just stretches and submerges her outstretched hoof in it too. She never pondered what it would levitating be like until now, she was always too busy being the levitate-or.
When Trixie lands on the wooden library floor, she utters a soft "Oof!" and stands up, taking in the sight of the horrendously messy library. This needed fixing.
Twilight saw the look on Trixie's face as she looked around the library and agreed. It did need a lot of work. Twilight is up for it, though. Before Trixie came knocking on her door, she had been determined to clean the library, and she still is now.
Feather duster in hand, Twilight begins the tedious job of dusting every nook and cranny of the library.
She starts with the bookshelves, obsessively taking out all of the books of one shelf, and then dusting out the empty shelf before she puts the books back in, and then moves on to the shelves above.
Trixie observes this, and not long later, starts doing the same thing, just as obsessively as Twilight (if not a little more).
Now, both Twilight and Trixie could agree that dusting off old wooden bookshelves was not the most fun activity, and may go even far to say that it was in fact, very dull, but to the two mares, this was a very cherishable moment. none of them could have explained to you why, but, well, there was something about the others company that made it worthwhile.
Once Twilight returned the feather-duster to it's place in her cabinet of cleaning tools, she galloped outside, to see if it wasn't to late to enjoy the hot day. Sadly, the sun had set and the once busy town has been hushed by the presence of the moon.
Twilight sighed, returning to the library, and shut the wooden door behind her.
Trixie, on the other hand, was pretty relieved. It took a long time to reach Ponyville, so all she wanted to do was be indoors for awhile. She had already dug into one of the many magic books in the library, this one particularly on levitation spells, titled 101 Ways To Defy Gravity, Raise, Uphold, Uplift,and Upraise Objects. Twilight saw the cover when she came in and remembered when she read it. She too, had been very interested in levitation when she first started magic kindergarten. She would stay up late reading all of its contents and wept for ten minutes straight when she finished it, not wanting it to end. But then she went to her local library and got immersed in another book just as easily.
In the book, Trixie came across a more advanced levitation spell, as she already knew how to do the basic ones, and wanted to try it out for herself. Her horn glowed a light blue as she struggled to put a levitation bubble around Twilight, trying to lift her off the ground. She managed to hover her over the ground for two seconds before her spell broke, and Twilight troted over to her.
"Wow, I didn't know you had that in you. But you were doing it all wrong, you see, you need to start levitating them from the hooves up, not the other way around," Twilight spoke, and as she did, Spike walked through the library door and she lifted him off the ground with her eyes closed.
"Hey! I'm not your Guinea Pig!" Spike protested.
He then tilted his head toward Trixie, and his mouth dropped.
"What is SHE doing here?" he said in a huff.
"Spike, where are your manners? She is my student!" Twilight told him matter-of-factually.
"Student? HER? Are you kidding me Twi! Of all the ponies you could pick to be your student, you chose-"
"Yes, I chose Trixie! And she sure has a lot more manners than YOU do right now!
"Seriously? Choosing that ungrateful little brat over ME? What's going to happen next, Twilight, is The Great And Powerful Trixie going to be your new assistant?"
"Nopony said anything about replacing you, Spike, why are you being so rude to her?"
"Oh, I don't know, she just EMBARRASSED THE ENTIRE TOWN! TWICE!"
"Listen to me Spike, SHE HAS CHANGED. You can't just draw conclusions like that! She is really interested in magic and wants to learn more!"
"Oh, yeah, I don't by that story for one minute. She's just trying to get on your good side so she can take The Amulet again!"
"What? No!" Twilight said, but a little voice inside of her kept on telling her that maybe, Spike was right.
"You know what? I'm sick of this. I'll be at Sweet Apple Acres, around ponies who actually care for me!" he said, slamming the door and making the library shake.
"What was that about?" Trixie said, not wanting to interfere.
Twilight sighed. "I don't know. He's usually really nice to everypony...maybe it's because he's a dragon, I need to read more about them to fully understand what he's going through. I know I have some books in the library about them..." she mumbled as she looked for books about dragons.
Trixie saw how miserable Twilight was. She imagined she would be like that if she got in a fight with somepony dear to her. She, well, didn't have anypony dear to her, though. So she couldn't relate. She was no Pinkie Pie, but she was determined to get Twilight happier.
"It's okay, Twilight, I really wanted to show you the scrapbook I have of all of the places I went to. Do you want to see it?"
Twilight hesitated, but then gave in. "Sure, why not? I've always been interested about Equestria anyways.
Excitedly, Trixie got her saddle bag and pulled out a worn book from it. She went over to a couch and flipped through the many pages, with Twilight at her side.
She comes across a photo of her dressed in a magnificent dress standing in front of The Castle in Canterlot.
"That was me when I went to the Galla," she said, remembering that night.
"You were invited?"
"I was in Canterlot around that time, and a Unicorn lost me in a duel, so she gave me her Galla ticket," she said, now remembering it, feeling quite sad for the Unicorn who didn't get to go.
They stayed up nearly the whole night, giggling and "Ooo"-ing and "Ahh"-ing at all of the wonderful pictures Trixie had of almost all of Equestria.
Trixie awoke, finding herself laying on the couch, a purple blanket tucking her in. She smiled, happy that Twilight cared enough to not just leave her sprawled out on the couch, scrapbook in hand. She then remembered last nights events, and looked around for her scrapbook. She finally found it resting on top of her saddlebag with a note on the top.
Trixie,
I have gone out to the Couch and Quills store to see if they have any beds so you can have a permanent sleeping place, and not have to sleep on that old, uncomfortable couch. I have picked out a stack of books to read, and I trust you'll read them before I get back.
Regards, Twilight Sparkle
"A permanent sleeping place..." Trixie read out loud. Permanent? Trixie giggled. She hadn't had anything permanent for her whole life. It has always been one town after another, being ridiculed and upstaged. Trixie sighed and shook her head. This was no time to think about that, she had her studies to focus on.
Trixie looked around. Sure enough, she spotted a stack of books as tall as she was right by the bookshelves. Trixie sighed, as reading was not one of her favorite pastimes, and levitated the first book, Do You Have What It Takes To Conjure an Apple?, toward her.
She was halfway through 50 Shades of Neon: How To Change A Pony's Vision when she heard a loud knocking and nervous chattering outside the library door.
In her best Twilight imitation she said "Yes, what is it?"
"Uhm, Twi, Spike came over last night 'n told me that Trixie was right here in y'all's library. I thought he was just jokin' 'round 'till I saw her in y'all's window last night. I've been meaning to come by 'n ask you what's goin' on," said a pony in a thick western accent.
Trixie cringed when the pony mentioned her name like it was cursed. She knew that she had been rude to them in the past, but after what happened she swore she would never boast about her magic again. She's been trying to strive to make up for all of her horrible deeds by being respectful to every pony she meets. She debated with herself on opening the door or not, and decided not to. It would be better to meet them when Twilight was around.
Twilight. Not to long ago, Trixie had sworn her revenge on this name. but now, she could see why she had so many friends. She accepted her apology and even let her be her student for Celestia's sake! Trixie was really starting to warm up to her. She had spent nearly her whole life keeping to herself, trusting nopony. But now, now things were changing. It felt like she was a flower, and she was finally blooming. She had always striven to lead a social life, and have friends and stay in one place, and Twilight was really helping her.
"Oh, that wasn't Trixie, that was er... me-yeah, me, Spike must've been mistaken," Trixie said in her Twilight imitation.
"Oh, 'kay then. If ya need to talk, you know where to find me!" she said.
Trixie uttered a sigh of relief as she heard their hoofsteps get farther and farther away from the library. New ponies that wanted her dead were NOT something she had been looking forward to.
She decided to take a break to get some fresh air when the ponies, Twilight's friends she is guessing, are out of sight. She trotted outside, and admired the beauty of Ponyville. She has to admit she had missed it. The beautiful clear skies, the quaint, village look of all of the buildings, the flora and fauna. Her breath is taken away at all of the beauty. She closes her eyes, enjoying the moment, when she hears a familiar voice.
"Trixie? What are you doing?" Twilight let out a little giggle.
Trixie opens her eyes, smiling. "Oh Twilight, can't a girl have some fun?"
"It looked like you were put into a trance!"
Trixie laughed at this remark and made her eyes go cross-eyed.
Twilight rolled her eyes in a joking way and walked into the library, shortly followed by Trixie.
"You've read all of the books, I presume, no?" Twilight says, getting into business.
"Uhm...of course," Trixie replies, lying. She was almost finished, so it shouldn't make a difference.
"Okay then, show me,"
Twilight trotted to the far end of the library.
"Show you what?"
"Show me everything you learned how to do, and we can expand upon it as we go. Fire away," Twilight says, smiling.
"Oh, okay then," Trixie says, quickly trying to remind herself of all of the spells.
((Just want to thank everypony for all of the favorites and comments and all of that! Thank you soooo much!!!!))
Slightly sweating, Trixie smiled a smile that was more of a plea for help. She had absolutely no idea what exactly she was doing. She remembered reading a book about optical illusion spells, and racked her brain to think of them.Optical illusions, optical illusions.
"I'm waiting!" Twilight chanted from the end of the room.
"Okay, maybe not optical illusion spells," Trixie thought to herself. There was one book about conjuring apples, maybe she could remember a spell from there.
She tries one last time to remember, but Twilight has her beat. She has no idea what to do. Trixie sighs, trying to think of one last way she could try to redeem herself. Head down, she gives up.
"I don't know, Twilight. I-It's hard for me to learn spells just like that. I need time to look them over and memorize them," Trixie admitted.
"I know that silly, you should stop acting so sad. I was testing you to see if you were some magical genius that could memorize spells just like that," Twilight says, trying to cheer her pupil up, "Even I can't memorize spells like that, I don't even think the Princesses are able to just read through a spell and automatically know how to do it. It takes practice, of course. Now, bring your books and come over here so I can help you,"
Trixie feels a bit better because of what Twilight said, but she still is quite down. She just doesn't like failing, even if it was something as hard as memorizing spells in an instant.
Still a bit gloomy, Trixie raises her head and goes to the stack of books. She does a simple levitation spell and the first book lands right next to Twilight, who, oddly enough, had glasses on.
"I never knew you had glasses,"
"That's because I don't usually feel comfortable wearing them around my friends,"
"Why?" Trixie asks, hesitating to add that she looked great in them. Twilight did, though, with the last glimmers of sun shining through the beautiful purple glasses perched upon her violet nose. It looks as if it were taken right out of a novel, and Trixie looked awe-stricken. She has always seen Twilight as pretty, but she has never seen her as, well, beautiful.
Twilight shrugged. "I dunno," she says. Twilight had no idea why she wasn't uncomfortable around Trixie, maybe it's just because she's her student- no, she knows it's more than that, she can, well, feel it. She has no idea what this feeling is, though.
With her glasses, Twilight read the spell with Trixie, both of them feeling quite awkward around each other. Trixie classifies the awkwardness as first day of school jitters, but Twilight can't seem to put her hoof on why.
"Okay, now try it, I'm sure you can do it now," Twilight tells her student, putting a small wooden owl statue in the middle of the room.
Trixie aims her horn at the statue, a brilliant light blue glimmer shines, and what used to be a statue is now an apple.
Excitedly, Trixie picks up the apple, and examines it. Not a bruise in sight. She gives it to Twilight.
"No, I can't, it's your first magic-made apple, I don't want to take that away from you," Twilight says, declining it.
"Fine, we'll eat it together. We'll both take a bite of it on the count of three," Trixie says, raising the apple to both of their faces.
"One, Two- Twilight! Did you already take a bite out of it!" Trixie exclaims, and sure enough, Twilight smiles with apple bits stuck in her teeth.
They both erupt with laughter on the floor, having the greatest time of their life. They turn to face each other.
"Trixie," Twilight says sternly, joking around with her.
"Sparkle," Trixie replies back, trying to keep the serious look on her face.
They get back up when they hear a knock on the door.
Twilight trots over to answer it, and swings the door wide open.
"A delivery for Miss Twilight Sparkle, please sign here," the buff delivery Pegasus says blandly.
Twilight takes the clipboard and signs her name on it, handing it back to the Pegasus.
"Alright boys, bring it in," he says as some more Pegasi come into the library with a large box.
"Where do you want it?" one of them asks.
"Up the steps, please," Twilight instructed.
When the deliverers were finished, Trixie came up to see a beautiful bed. The frame was made out of logs which were painted turquoise, and had soft, light blue sheets on top of it.
"Like it?" Twilight asks her.
Trixie absolutely loved it. It could've been any bed, what mattered is that it is hers. Not temporarily hers, not hers for two years, it was hers. Forever. Permanent.
She's really starting to like that word.Permanent.
She smiled her biggest smile, and hugged Twilight, saying "thank you," a mile a minute.
Twilight embraces her hug, happy that somepony else is happy.
Trixie wakes up, the sun shining through the window. Even though she had a sound sleep, her eyelids felt like they had rocks on them. All she wanted to do was to drift back asleep...
"Trixie! Get up sleepyhead, we're going to visit somepony!" she heard Twilight yell from down below.
Oh no. Visiting somepony. Trixie groaned as she falls back down on her bed, pulling her pillow tightly around her head.
Twilight walks up the wooden stairs. "Come on Trixie! She'll be expecting us any minute!"
Twilight looks at her student, obviously not overly enthusiastic about meeting her friends.
She goes over to the side of her bed, and sits down.
"Are you sure? My friends are very understanding, I'm positive you'll be fine!"
Trixie looks at Twilight though a tiny hole in her pillow. "A-Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure,"
Trixie gets rid of her pillow, and sits on her bed, on the verge of tears. "Your friends stopped by yesterday. They talked about me like, like I was some sort of monster,"
Trixie couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She starts crying on Twilight's shoulder, hugging her.
Twilight starts to stroke her soft mane. "It's okay Trixie, let it all out," she says, surprised at herself. She usually never lets even her dearest friends cry like this on her shoulder. It makes her feel to uncomfortable. But when she's with Trixie, it feels as if all of her worries or barriers disintegrate. She has no idea why, though. She doesn't want to just shrug off this feeling, either. It's new and exciting, like a breath of fresh air.
Trixie smiles a crippled smile at her friend. Friend. It feels weird calling Twilight her friend. Almost as if it were out of place.
"Tell you what, how about we just meet Fluttershy today, okay? She's very nice," Twilight suggests.
Feeling better, Trixie nods her head in agreement, and gets out of bed.
They arrive at her cottage, greeted by a beautiful bridge and lots of bunnies. There were spotted bunnies, gray bunnies, and everything in between. Trixie walks slowly behind Twilight, not particularly sure that this was a good idea.
Twilight looks behind her to see none other than The Great and Powerful Trixie cowering behind her because they were going to see Fluttershy. She tried as hard as she could not to giggle, but it was too much and she let out a loud laugh.
Trixie did not see what was so funny and made a sour face at Twilight. She couldn't keep it for long, though, and started giggling with her.
They composed themselves as they knocked on the cottage door.
"Yes?" cam a quiet voice as the door swung open.
"Oh, Twilight, so nice of you to stop by, wh-who is behind you?"
Trixie sighs, and steps forward.
"Y-You! What are you doing here!" Fluttershy exclaims.
"It's okay, Fluttershy, she's staying with me in the library, I'm teaching her," Twilight tells her.
"I-I'm sorry for what I did, if I could go back in time, I would try to fix what I did," Trixie says.
"Come in, I'm making some tea, want any daisy sandwich?" Fluttershy offers.
Twilight is the first to enter, closely followed by Trixie.
Trixie's mouth is opened with shock. She knew that Fluttershy loves animals, but she never knew she had this many of them. There were squirrels and bunnies and cats and turtles and many, many more. Twilight must've seen her face and whispered, "I know, it's a lot to take in,"
"A lot to take in" was understating it. Trixie had never seen this many animals in one house.
Fluttershy came in the room, daisy sandwiches in hand, and sat down on the log sofa.
Both Twilight and Trixie took their daisy sandwiches and ate them blissfully, forgetting how hungry they were.
"So, are these all your animals?" Trixie asks.
"No, I have more outside," Fluttershy responded.
"MORE?" Trixie exclaimed, mouth wagged open.
Fluttershy and Twilight giggled at Trixie, happy and content.