> By Royal Command
>  by Stryke
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> By Royal Command
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Trixie had been having a decent evening by her standards, right up until the scroll had turned up.

She'd been in two minds about maybe trying to cook something. Trixie had already set up a small fire to keep her warm for the long night ahead out under the open stars. Her caravan was long since gone, and given what those thugs had done to it, Trixie reckoned good riddance.

With a puff of iridescent magic, the scroll had appeared out of nowhere. It'd only been thanks to some quick reactions, and her unicorn telekinesis, that it hadn't ended up right in the fire. Trixie brought the scroll over with her magic to look it over more closely. There was an impressive purple wax seal holding it closed, which Trixie broke without giving too much thought to. She caught a heady whiff of vanilla as the scroll opened up, and started to read.

        'By Royal Command, The Great and Powerful Trixie...'

Trixie dropped the scroll with a start, as her magic flared out with the loss of her concentration. Please can Trixie not be in trouble, she inwardly beseeched, not again! I know I didn't exactly get a license for the street performing I've been doing in Canterlot, but c'mon, it's not like I've got the bits yet to actually pay for one. Then again, she couldn't imagine them calling her great or powerful if they wanted to arrest or fine her, even with her admittedly substantial ego.

She picked up the scroll and started reading the flawlessly neat writing again. Trixie hoped against hope that this wasn't a summons to the nearest dungeon. This last week or so had been such a real turn around. She'd finally been able to recapture some of the old thrill in just being able to put on a show, even if it was only performing on street corners to colts and fillies. It really would just be typical for something like this to wreck things just as she was getting back on her hooves.

        'is required to present herself with utmost alacrity...'

Trixie gulped, but forced herself to keep going.

        'to the Princess without delay.'

An audience with Princess Celestia? The very thought made Trixie shiver. She wasn't entirely certain how the Princess even knew who she was, though. The fire sparked, which caused Trixie to jump slightly. It was only the embers shifting, but it certainly wasn’t helping her nerves. That was it, she remembered. There had been that whole unfortunate incident with the Alicorn Amulet that had almost driven her totally insane. The torture and wanton cruelty she'd inflicted had been bad enough, but she still had no idea what part of her psyche had conjured up that whole wheels irrationality. Then afterwards, when she'd helped with Twilight Sparkle's show for the Saddle Arabians, the Princess had been present. That must have been where she knew of Trixie from. After all, her flawless use of fireworks must have been far more memorable than a few floating animals.

She picked up the scroll and tried to give it her full attention again, as her thoughts raced around her head. Perhaps the Princess actually wanted her to perform for the royal court! Images of her performing on the stage that she'd always deserved flashed through her mind and warmed her even more than the crackling fire beside her. Her hooves were quickly kicking up the turf—even though she was laying down—so much that she was all in an excited flutter that it took a real effort to calm herself down enough to focus back on the scroll.

Trixie had to read the next line three times before she could finally believe it said what it really did say. She rolled up the scroll, then unrolled it again, checked to make sure; and there it still was, present and correct.

"Trixie did not just read that," she said out loud. The only response was the crackling of the fire and the quiet stillness of the grassy plains at night-time.  

If anything, the next line was even worse.

After finishing the whole scroll, she put it down and breathed heavily. She would never have expected the Princess to have such a, well, such a vivid imagination. Admittedly, she was said to be thousands of years old. So while Trixie was sure some of the acts were physically impossible—though perhaps more feasible with specialised equipment—she would cede the point that the Princess had infinitely more experience than Trixie ever would.

She was warm enough already thanks to her fire, but Trixie shivered anyway. The scroll had made it quite clear that her presence was not in any way optional. In fact, that had been repeated no less than seven times at Trixie's count, with the final command underlined repeatedly. Trixie wasn't entirely sure what the punishment for refusing an invitation like this was, but she was also sure that she didn't want to find out.

"It can't be legal for her to command me to do this, right?" Trixie asked in the direction of her discarded hat and cloak on the ground. The hat did not venture an opinion either way, and her cloak was equally non-committal. On thinking it over, Trixie was forced to concede to herself privately that, while the Equestrian system of absolute monarchy under the rule of an immortal ruler had worked so far, it was perhaps somewhat lacking in checks and balances.

Trixie swallowed hard as she felt a sudden burn on her cheeks that had nothing to do with the heat from the flames. It wasn't as though the thought had never crossed her mind before. She was sure that every mare of her persuasion—and a reasonable percentage that weren't—would have at least once considered what it would be like to be with an alicorn, and most especially Princess Celestia. There was a reason why models with similar figures like that Fleur de Lis were so wildly popular, why certain speciality shops sold fake horns for pegasi, and why that unauthorised and certainly heavily fictionalized biography with that chapter involving Princess Platinum, Posey and Clover's spell book had been a bestseller for years now.

For a moment Trixie paused, as she stopped to consider whether this was definitely from Princess Celestia. The scroll didn't actually specifically say it was from her, now that Trixie thought back over it. Trixie forced herself to settle down and consider the other candidates. There was Princess Luna of course, but from what Trixie knew about the alicorn of the night, she didn't think that Luna was at all likely to be the perpetrator. It just didn't seem to be her style. She wasn't sure what Luna's style of seduction would be, but Trixie suspected it would probably involve abduction in the dead of night by bat-winged guards, and there'd probably be a dungeon in there somewhere along with a lengthy dramatic monologue and maybe some poetry reading. There was also Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but she was all the way away in the Crystal Empire. Surely that meant there was no way that Trixie could be expected to get there tonight, so she was out. Plus there was the whole being married thing. Not that's ever stopped some ponies, Trixie thought cynically.  

Trixie couldn't think of any other princesses other than those off the top of her head. There was Prince Blueblood, of course, due to his old Unicorn Royalty lineage, but the scroll had absolutely been written by a mare, given all of the acts being described. It had been quite explicit about that, so it definitely wasn't just a case of a typo. She'd heard that the changelings had queens. Did that mean that they had princesses too? Trixie wondered. Possibly, she reckoned, but she did figure that a changeling that wanted to prey on her would prefer to do it up close and personal. The griffons had chieftains, the dragons were complicated, and the minotaurs practised a deeply suspicious form of rule called democracy.

Of course, there was also the chance that this was a prank of some kind. It was not like Trixie didn't have enemies that would like to see her humiliated. The entire population of Ponyville for starters, after both of the unfortunate incidents that had destroyed her reputation. Twilight Sparkle had accepted her apology, but she'd been half convinced to this day that sooner or later a Ponyville lynch mob would turn up to settle a few scores. Then again, the magic that had transported the scroll was well above anything that a regular unicorn could pull off over such a distance. Trixie herself had faked something similar in the past with flowers, but that had been all illusion and stagecraft, not something as physical or detailed as this scroll. In fact, it was the kind of magic that only a princess could have access to, and that just left one big white possibility looming large in her mind's eye.

She resolutely got to her hooves, fastened her cape around her neck, and put her magician hat firmly in place. There was nothing for it. She was Trixie, and if Princess Celestia wanted a tryst, then by Celestia herself as her witness, Trixie would give her one that she'd remember. Her pride demanded absolutely nothing less. At full gallop, she reckoned she could be in Canterlot proper and at the palace within an hour. Now if she could just stop shaking and banish the remorseless butterflies in her stomach, Trixie just might be able to come out on top. She let out a little nervous giggle at that last thought and set off towards the great mountain silhouetted against the starry night sky.

<><><>

"Your Highness, there's a mare demanding to see you. Do you want us to tell her to go away?"

Celestia looked up from her private contemplation at the royal guard standing stiffly at attention in front of her throne. "She does know that the day court is in session every morning from ten to twelve-thirty, right?"

"Of course, Your Highness," the guard replied promptly. "Still, she has demanded that she has to see you immediately. She was quite insistent and repetitive on that point." He paused. "I can stick her in one of the dungeon cells for the night to cool off if you want?"

"I'm sure there's no call for that, Sergeant," she replied, tilting her head. "I don't suppose this mare mentioned why she's demanding to see me so urgently?"

"We did ask," the guard said curtly. "She just blushed a lot and made odd noises while hugging a scroll tight to her that she wouldn't let us get a look at."

Princess Celestia arched an eyebrow at that. Her curiosity was piqued, so she instructed the guard to send this mysterious mare to her immediately. It was not as if she'd planned to do anything else this evening, other than have a lengthy bath before retiring for the night.

When the mare was shown into her throne room, Celestia's eyes widened imperceptibly in recognition. Perhaps this may not have been the best of ideas...

Trixie strode confidently towards the throne, placing one hoof in front of another with the air of someone who was born to be in such honoured company.

"Behold! For it is I, the..." Under the calm royal stare, Trixie momentarily stumbled. She centred herself, called up all of her practised stage presence, and continued. "Of course, there was never any doubt that out of all the mares in Equestria, only the most beautiful and attractive Trixie would..." Looking up into Celestia's implacable, unamused gaze, she lost her ability to perform coherent speech entirely, her nerve vanished, and she promptly tangled a forehoof on the carpet and fell flat on her face.

After many thousands of years of practised rulership, Celestia successfully managed not to snigger. Trixie got back up onto her hooves with as much as grace as she could manage. Which wasn't much, but it did get her back up.

"Trixie, what exactly are you doing here?" Celestia asked serenely.

Not trusting herself to speak any more, and not entirely sure she was even capable, Trixie pulled the scroll out of her cape and floated it towards the princess.

Celestia caught the scroll in her own magic, unfurled it, and started to read. When she got to the second paragraph, her wings flexed slightly, which on another pony would have been enough of a reaction for the neighbours to hammer on the door to keep the noise down. She got to the end and noted the complete lack of readable signature. In fact, the whole end of the scroll was illegible, aside from the odd word; such was the pace that it had clearly been scrawled at. She permitted herself a small sigh.

Seeing that Celestia had finished, Trixie coughed lightly. "So, where are the royal bed-chambers then? Um, of course, if you want to do it somewhere else Trixie does not mind too much. Or at all in fact."

"Where did you get this, Trixie?" she said, rolling up the scroll again and waving it at her for emphasis.

"It..." Trixie coughed, as she tried to regain her composure. "It just appeared to me by magic I'd guess. Maybe an hour ago now?"

"So you thought that I wrote this?" Celestia asked.

"You didn't?"

"No," Celestia replied, as kindly as she could manage.

"Oh." Trixie tried not to let her face fall too obviously. "Then if you could direct me to your sister's quarters, if you’d be so kind.” Eventually she added reluctantly, “I'm sure that she would not want to be kept waiting much longer." 

"No need!" said Luna cheerfully, appearing right out of thin air behind the unicorn without warning. "We are here already."

Trixie looked up slowly at the imposing presence that towered up behind her. The effect was let down somewhat—or enhanced, Trixie wasn't entirely sure which—by the 'Official Cutie Mark Inspector' t-shirt that the princess of the night was currently sporting.

Celestia's brow furrowed. She could feel one of her headaches coming on. "Little sister, we have talked about this. You cannot keep skulking around the palace like this under a shroud of invisibility. It makes the guards nervous!"

Luna laughed merrily. "Then perhaps they should not follow us about when we are visible, given that we can more than take care of ourselves."

Seeing the expression on Celestia's face, Trixie kept very silent and very still, most definitely not wanting to get anywhere near this clearly often repeated debate between the two royal sisters.

"Now then, what service do you wish to perform for us?" Luna asked, with great amounts of gusto. Seeing Trixie was still cowering with her head down between her hooves, she added, "Please, we implore you to speak up and not be afraid!"

"Luna!" Celestia said sharply. She opened her mouth to try to start explaining what was going on, and paused like that for several moments. In the end she just floated over the scroll to Luna to read it for herself. The last thing that she wanted was to have to somehow explain this whole awkward situation out loud.

Luna quickly scanned through the scroll and—lacking her sister's control and sense of decorum—immediately started to snigger. "We did not write this, although it is a most entertaining missive." She grinned back at her sister. "We think perhaps we could guess who did, though!"

Trixie glanced back and forth between the two princesses before swallowing hard. "Forgive me if I have caused any offence by my misunderstanding. I... I don't suppose you know how I can get to the Crystal Empire this same evening, do you?"

"Oh, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and her husband are in the guest quarters here in Canterlot upon this very night," said Luna helpfully, along with a certain amount of glee as her eyes danced wickedly.

Trixie wasn't sure if her mind wasn't playing tricks in her, but she could swear that Luna's t-shirt had just magically shifted to now read 'Your special somepony wants me' instead.

"Sister!" This time it was a reproachful yell that Luna cheerfully continued to ignore.

"I understand," Trixie said sombrely with her eyes downcast. "You don't think Captain Armour will want to join in, do you?" Her legs were noticeably starting to shake. "I suppose it'd be okay if he just watched..." She trailed off.

Celestia got down from her throne and wrapped a wing around her subject protectively. "Absolutely nopony is going to force you to do anything that you don't want to," she said firmly, in a tone that would brook no disagreement. "That kind of royal command just isn't permitted anymore. I made sure of that long ago."

"It's not?" Luna said, her eyes widening. "Ah, we must depart anon, our beloved sister. A certain pair of musicians are owed our most profuse apologies for certain actions, apparently not befitting our royal office, that were taken on the prior evening."

Trixie noted with bizarre fascination that Luna's magical t-shirt had shifted again and now displayed 'Huzzah, the fun has been tripled!'

"Oh sister, you didn't?" Celestia asked, with clear concern at the potential scandal.

She glanced back once before leaving. "Of course, it was not like we heard any complaints at the time."

Celestia facehooved hard as the wicked laughter exited along with her sister.

The laughter that had been fading suddenly spiked louder again, enough to send vibrations running through the whole palace. Trixie lost her footing again and fell against one of Celestia's golden-shod hooves.

"Princess Celestia?" It was Princess Cadance who had just entered the throne room. Two members of her crystal guard took station by the doors. "Your sister bumped into me and said that you required my assistance. She seemed far too amused about something."

Celestia glanced down at Trixie, who was standing shock-still with her mouth gaping open. She shook her head regally. "My sister has always thought that she's funnier than she really is, Princess."

Cadance looked nervous and started checking all the darker corners of the room. "She's not doing the spider game again, is she?"

"Thankfully not." Cadance breathed out a sigh and then shuddered slightly. Celestia was pretty certain that she knew the answer to her next question, but decided to ask it anyway for sheer peace of mind. "I don't suppose you know anything about this scroll that was sent out earlier this evening?"

"No, I've been with my Shining for the last several hours," she replied with an utterly radiant smile that almost knocked Trixie flat on her back.

"My apologies for disturbing you then, Princess. Please pass on my regards to your husband."
Cadance nodded and turned to depart. Celestia rested her wing lightly on Trixie's head to stop her from following.

"Just what is she?" Trixie breathed in quiet awe. "I've never seen her before now, and I'm already misting up."

"The princess of love does have an aura to her, doesn't she?" Celestia said lightly.

"Okay, let’s just forget about the scroll." Trixie said, and made to follow her again. The pressure on her head increased, which caused her to settle back down.

"She's married, and even if she wasn't, Princess Cadance has never given me the impression that she's into mares," Celestia said.

Trixie had been trying to not fixate on the memory of Princess Cadance walking away, and so completely missed the odd inflection in Celestia's voice. She was going to remember that perfect sight for a very long time, Trixie was sure of it. Shaking off that wonderful thought, she looked up from under the comforting shelter of Celestia’s wing, her face both concerned and thoroughly confused. "So if you didn't write it, Princess Luna didn't, Princess Cadance didn't and there aren't any other princesses in Equestria as far as I know of. So who did?"

Celestia looked down with a certain amount of disbelief. "You were not around Canterlot, any town, or even any village in Equestria just a fortnight back for the coronation celebrations?"

"Um, no," Trixie admitted, not wanting to add that she'd been sleeping rough in the Whitetail forest at the time, what with her having been run out of Fillydelphia in regard to certain questions about a certain substantial unpaid loan. "Why's that, did somepony get made a princess?"

"Trixie, you have met Twilight Sparkle. That is correct?" Celestia queried. "She has mentioned you a couple of times in her correspondence to myself."

"If this is about that amulet..." Trixie said weakly, while looking around for the nearest exit.

"Relax, my little pony." Celestia fixed her with her gaze. "I am aware of what the Alicorn Amulet can do to any mind. Even if perhaps questions could be asked about why you chose to seek it out in the first place. Anyway, my student did have at least some good things to say about your bravery and some skills with magic."

Trixie noticeably perked up to hear that she’d earned at least some modicum of respect from the mare that she had considered her rival. Something still didn’t make sense to her, though. "But what's Twilight Sparkle and this other pony who got made a princess got to do with this scroll, Your Highness?"

"Trixie, you have read the scroll," Celestia said, patiently as a mountain range. "Surely you must have some insight into the mare who wrote it?"

Trixie thought for a moment, and her brow furrowed beneath her pointy hat. "Whoever she is, she either has a lot of experience, or none whatsoever and has just read a lot instead. Probably the latter, as I'm sure this act," Trixie said, and pointed to a particularly graphic part of the scroll, "is physically impossible outside of somepony's imagination, even with magic."

Before she could stop herself, Celestia said, "Oh, it's possible."

Trixie fought down at least six separate questions that were inexorably bubbling to the surface after that little disclosure. Trixie shook her head to clear her thoughts and then continued. "She also might find it hard to connect with other ponies, given the indirect form of contact in a scroll over choosing to deliver her command face-to-face. Possibly she only learned to make real emotional connections with other ponies—outside of immediate family, of course—later in life, and so has at least some lingering social anxieties. She's certainly intelligent, though, as I'd need some time with a dictionary to work out what some of the words in there refer to. The scroll was also written in perfect Equestrian before the writing falls apart at the end, where I imagine her eagerness for the meeting she had planned out in her head got the better of her."

"That's very well reasoned, Trixie," Celestia said, with actual pride glowing in her voice.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” said Trixie, brushing a hoof slowly in circles against the floor. The show-mare was surprised by herself to be expressing such modesty, but she figured it was probably inspired by the company that she was currently keeping. “I do work crowds for a living as part of any performance, so I need to know what makes ponies tick.”

"Now doesn't that at all remind you of a certain pony in particular?" Celestia pressed.

Celestia permitted herself a small sigh as Trixie was visibly beginning to sweat under the pressure of not being able to work out the obvious. "Perhaps this would be easier to explain in Ponyville. Come, we will take my chariot."

<><><>

"You came!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she bounced around Trixie. Rainbow Dash had also been hanging around outside of the Ponyville town library, but was totally struck dumb by whom Trixie had brought with her. Pinkie, though, was currently completely oblivious to anypony but her quarry. "We've got to get you looking presentable, if you're going to be with a princess!"

"I—" Trixie started to say, but was cut off as Pinkie grabbed her. The hyperactive assailant was now wearing a hat sporting a massive feather.

"I may not know as much about fashion as Rarity, but for this kinda party, now this I can do! Anyway,” Pinkie said, and pouted. “She'd just go for some swanky lingerie with gems on and stuff, and that's boooring!"

Trixie felt like she was at the centre of a particularly concentrated tornado, as Pinkie rushed around placing various frilly things about her.

"Tada!" Trixie looked down to discover that she was now wearing a particularly scandalously cut Fancy maid outfit. So much blood rushed towards her cheeks that she felt dizzy.

"Pinkie," somepony said reproachfully from behind her.

Pinkie had her tongue stuck out in fierce concentration as she looked over her creation. "Maybe that's too much. I honestly never know," she confessed, though given she was still grinning wildly, she didn’t appear to mind too much. "Hang on!"

When the tornado settled down once more, and the town of Ponyville had mercifully stopped spinning, Trixie found that the maid outfit was gone, and was now replaced with four socks snugly fitted upon each of her hooves. Her mane had been drenched, so it hung slickly down about her face.

"Nah, too last year. Okay forget the outfit. Dashie, she's got to do stretches to get her nice and limber first, right?" Pinkie waved a hoof in front of her friend's face, in an attempt to get her attention. "You know tons of stretches, so you should show Trixie some to get her ready!"

Rainbow Dash was still rendered insensible by Princess Celestia glaring at the pair of them. The glare from the princess of the sun was enough to even persuade one of the elder dragons to go away and go and do something more productive with their life. That her mane was actually dripping molten lava, which was dripping down and eating away into the turf by her hooves, was also not helping Dash’s current state of mind.

"Pinkie!" yelled Celestia finally, and stamped a hoof hard enough that it sent small tremors spreading out across the town. Somewhere in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, a cockerel started to crow.

"Oh hi, Princess Celestia!" Pinkie said while waving happily, having finally decided to notice her. "Wow, Trixie, I didn't expect you to bring a friend along to the party, and certainly not her!" Pinkie nudged Trixie repeatedly in the ribs conspiratorially. "Not bad, not bad at all!"

"Pinkie, I'm not here as a party favour," Celestia said, without sounding at all exasperated. She then stopped as she remembered the last time she'd had cause to say that, well over a millennia ago. Damn that fool Sombra. "I would however like to know how anypony could have thought this abuse of power was appropriate." She floated the scroll over to Pinkie to read.

"Well, Twilight was feeling a bit lonely and Dashie said..." Pinkie came to a particular section and fell unusually silent.

"Ah." Rainbow Dash had been peering over her shoulder, and was looking like she'd eaten something that hadn't agreed much with her.

"Twilight wrote the scroll?" Trixie said slowly. "But Twilight's not a princess."

Ignoring her, Pinkie looked at Celestia, while frowning somewhat. "This is totally my fault, Your Highness. Please don't do anything rash and especially not banish her to magic kindergarten!" Trixie raised an eyebrow at that.  "I'd have to explain it to all of our other friends and they'd get angry and I'd be sad and then they'd be sad..."

"Pinkie Pie, please just explain," she paused, and then added, "clearly and concisely if possible."

"Well since Twilight became a princess—"

"She's not a princess," Trixie said quietly, as if she was definitively stating that the sky was in fact blue.

"Well, Twilight's been a bit down about the whole being perpetually single thing," Pinkie said, pulling out a hoof puppet for emphasis. It just about looked like Twilight—it was certainly purple, anyway—and had a tiny 'forever alone' sign hanging around the puppet's neck. "She was complaining that everypony is just going to see her as a princess, after she grew those wings, and not want to be with her for being her." The puppet Twilight nodded along with Pinkie, mirroring her every motion.

"Ahah!" Trixie announced brightly. "Twilight does not have wings, so this must be a totally different pony! Not Twilight Sparkle at all, who is not a princess, who does not have wings, and we're just standing outside of her home for absolutely no reason, right?" There was a certain note of desperation in her voice, if not outright denial.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and then picked up where Pinkie had left off. "I think it was when that jerk Blueblood came sniffing around. It was the final straw, Princess. Rarity ran him out of town in a spectacularly vicious fashion, but I don't think that made Twilight feel any better. It was pretty funny, though." Dash grinned, as she enjoyed that particular memory.

"And then you decided to give her the idea of a booty scroll," said Celestia, while raising an arched eyebrow.

"It wasn't like that!" Dash protested, and then looked sheepish. "Okay, maybe it was a little bit like that. I was just over at the library reading the new Daring Do and Pinkie..." She glanced over at Pinkie who had put away the puppet and was now advancing on Trixie with a pair of garters and a gleam in her eye. "What were you doing there again?"

"Twilight was feeling down, so I just had to be there!" Pinkie exclaimed, her eyes gleaming. She'd given up on the garters after Trixie had resorted to hiding behind Celestia.

"Right, so she was complaining," Rainbow Dash continued, "and I said, well, if you don't want somepony going after you for being a princess, why not handle it like a princess and pick somepony yourself who wouldn't care about that stuff. Seemed pretty obvious to me," she said, drawing herself up and flexing out her wings.

"And then she got really flustered and excited," Celestia surmised. "Which was shortly followed by her demanding parchment and ink."

"Pretty much," agreed Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie nodded. "Well, first she got this scary look in her eye, and then she said she was going to ask—I'm just emphasising that Twilight did say 'ask'—Trixie to be with her."

"Then I got really cross and asked whatever she wanted to do with a big meanie like that," Pinkie said, and stuck her tongue out at Trixie.

Rainbow Dash placed a restraining hoof over Pinkie's mouth, and diplomatically shuffled her out the way. "I'm sure she doesn't mean any offence, Trixie."

"None taken," Trixie said, her eyes wide as she stared at Pinkie, who was saying a few muffled things to the contrary.  

"Oh, Twilight," Celestia sighed. "I wish you would just breathe, take a moment, and then think these things through."

"Sorry, Princess," Rainbow Dash offered. "I really didn't think she just go and order somepony to turn up. I mean, Rarity totally would given half the chance, but not Twilight."

Pinkie wiggled out of her grip, and poked the pegasus hard in the side for the dig at their mutual friend.

"Hey!" said Dash with a start. "She so would anyway," she added, though in a far more sotto manner.

Pinkie glared at Trixie for a moment, before her expression shifted seamlessly back into its usual cheerful glee. "You're just lucky Twilight and my dad like you," she said. It hadn't been conveyed as a threat, just a statement for Pinkie to be happy at.  

"I will go in and talk to her," Celestia said, glancing at the library's front door. "Poor Twilight. This is not going to be an easy conversation for either of us."

Trixie had finally pulled off the last of the socks and looked up. "Princess, would you mind if I talked to her first?"

"Trixie?" Celestia said in clear surprise.

"She saved me from that amulet's influence, so I feel like I do owe her, and she was good enough to accept my apology afterwards," Trixie said, with her head bowed. "Anyway, I'm sure this is all some silly misunderstanding, given how she's totally not a princess."

Pinkie, Dash and Celestia all exchanged looks. "If you're sure," Celestia said uncertainly. "Go ahead, Trixie. But, if she even looks like she might be casting a want it, need it spell, then shout and we'll all be right up there in moments."

"The infamous want it, need it?" Trixie laughed. "Now Trixie knows that you're having fun with me, Princess. A perfectly goody-four-shoes mare like Twilight wouldn't even have the first idea about performing a spell like that."

Leaving behind the very stunned threesome, who were all at a total loss for words, Trixie stepped inside the library. At first glance, the treehouse appeared to be completely deserted. Under further investigation, she found a bulge under the bed covers upstairs that could well conceal a pony under it.

"Twilight?" Trixie ventured.

The covers were flung into the air as two wings shot up to full attention. Twilight Sparkle was revealed looking very red-faced and thoroughly embarrassed, and she tried to get her wings to come back down and be properly civil.

"Hello, Trixie," she said shyly. Seeing Trixie standing totally slack jawed with her eyes bugging out, she said, "Err, Trixie?"

"Wings!"  Trixie blurted out.

"Um, yes," Twilight said, admitting that she did in fact possess new appendages. The wings in question were still refusing to behave like body parts in a polite society should. "Are you okay? You've gone really pale."

"You're really a princess, and an alicorn, and this isn't some crazy, crazy dream brought on by my fears of inadequacy? Trixie asked, her voice shaking.

"If it's any consolation, you do have a better shot at being the most great and powerful unicorn in all Equestria now," Twilight said, with a wink.

Trixie telekinetically picked up one of Twilight’s pillows off the bed, and brained her with it.

"I may have deserved that," she admitted. "Though a book I was reading did say that diffusing awkward situations with humour was a good idea." Twilight gave Trixie a hopeful smile.

"What were you doing under the covers anyway?" Trixie's face soured somewhat. "You didn't get to that part until well into the second half of your scroll."

Twilight blushed again. "Oh, so you did read the whole thing." Then she looked guilty. "I saw Princess Celestia with you when you arrived. And it would have been hard to miss when the tree started shaking. She must be terribly mad at me. Again."

"Trixie certainly wouldn't say that she's overjoyed, but I asked if I could talk to you first."

Twilight's face brightened, before a puzzled expression came over it. "But aren't you mad too, since I basically ordered you to, well..." she trailed off. "Do quite a lot of things," she finished lamely.  

"Not really," Trixie admitted, giving Twilight a thorough examination. "Your friends outside explained where you had been coming from, that you have a tendency to get over enthusiastic, and not think things through when it comes to stuff like this. Anyway, I've tried being mad at you before, and that didn't go well for anypony. Especially not me. I'm just wondering why you decided on Trixie of all the mares and stallions out there in Equestria?"

"I—"

Trixie cut her off before she could get a word in. "I mean, all your friends are gorgeous in their own individual way. Isn't that yellow pegasus with the butterflies on her flank a former model? I'm sure of it. Hey, I was probably an evening or two away from doing something absolutely unforgivable myself, the way my mind was going back when I had Ponyville under my hoof. It starts with apple facials, dancing and backrubs. Trixie doesn't like to think where it could have led."

"They're my friends!" Twilight protested, while trying hard to shake off that particular mental image. "Anyway, I wouldn't want to ask them for..."

"A one night stand."

"Well, I wouldn't call it that—"

"A spot of casual fun with some rough bit on the side, then?" Trixie said bitterly.

"No, not at all!" Twilight said loudly. "I think that you're really attractive." She squeaked in an almost perfect impression of Fluttershy as she realised what she'd just said, and fought the urge to dive under the covers.

It was Trixie's turn to blush hard. "Really?" Then she coughed to disguise her flush of enthusiasm, especially as she wasn’t sure quite where it had come from. “Alright, so I might have gotten that impression from the scroll you sent me. But Twilight, you don't know anything about me, other than that I've shown up in your town twice, and it hasn't gone too well either time."

Twilight sat up straight on her bed, and started to recite in the smooth manner of one well-versed in the art of the dissertation. "Your parents died when you were young, and you spent some time in several orphanages before you were officially adopted by your uncle Con Job. You did apply to the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns, but failed to qualify for the needed financial assistance to be able to take the entry exam. You had your first performance as a magician on Bridleton pier, and after building up enough bits you then travelled, right up until you arrived at Ponyville."

Trixie stared at her in shock after hearing her whole life up to the Ursa Minor incident, so concisely laid out. "I suppose that's how you also know that I'm into mares," she said sarcastically.

Twilight missed the sarcasm entirely. "Oh no, that was all public record. I know you're into mares from the fan letter you sent to Spitfire five years back. I think I've still got it around the library somewhere."

Trixie felt her jaw hang open loosely. She'd thought she had been shocked to discover that the replacement amulet had been a zebra's doorstop, but that had nothing on this. "How?" That was pretty much the only word that she could get out.

"I'm a princess now," Twilight said, just a little smugly. "And I've always liked to research."

"Twilight," Trixie said slowly. "I'm not going to lie, but that's a little creepy."

"It's not creepy!" Twilight protested, jumping off the bed with her wings flared. Seeing Trixie slowly backing away and glancing towards the tree-house's windows, her face fell. "Oh Trixie, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking."

Trixie patiently waited until Twilight had calmed down somewhat, and then cautiously patted the alicorn's back awkwardly.

"Look Twilight, I'm really not mad, though I am concerned. So Trixie is devastatingly attractive. I'd be the first to tell you that, but—and this is rare for me to admit—there's plenty of other mares just as, and even more, attractive than me. So I've got to know, why me? There hasn't been any others that have come into town, caused a mess, and then promptly caught your eye?"

Twilight's eyes glistened and it looked like there might be a few tears threatening. "You do magic," she said simply.

Trixie blinked. "But all unicorns do magic, don't they?"

“No they don’t!” Twilight stamped her front hoof. “Take my brother who I do love dearly, but he knows his shield and that’s it, along with the usual telekinesis, of course. It’s a great spell, that shield of his, don’t get me at all wrong, but he just doesn’t see the need to adapt his magic to do anything else. Nearly every other unicorn is like that. They know a spell or two to do with their special talent and never bother trying to learn something new.” She paused and gazed at Trixie, meeting her eyes in a sudden moment of honest connection. “You’re not like that though, Trixie. I’ve known that ever since you used actual honest-to-Celestia battle magic when you attacked that Ursa Minor.”

“It really wasn’t much of a lightning bolt.” Trixie scuffed a hoof on the floor self-consciously.

“Doesn’t matter,” Twilight said, shaking her head vigorously. “I got these wings just for creating entirely new magic, and that in your own way you’re trying to do something like that too... Well, I don’t feel so alone.”

“But surely there were lots of unicorns like that at that school you went to?” Trixie said, her disbelief showing clear in her face.

“It’s not like you’d expect,” Twilight said flatly, remembering her own disappointment like it was the first time. “It’s all so ridiculously specialised. If you want to be a musician, an astronomer, or some dusty expert on the history of magic, then it’s perfect. For a pony like myself, though, who wanted to learn magic in its entirety, not so much. That’s one of the reasons why Princess Celestia tutored me personally pretty much my entire time there.”

“Huh,” Trixie said, and sat back down on her haunches. “Trixie has never really thought of it like that before.”

“So now you know,” Twilight said quietly, and bit her lower lip hard. “You better go send the Princess up to lecture me. Have a nice life, Trixie.”

For a moment, Trixie considered walking out the door. Then again, while it hadn’t been exactly a conventional way of getting her attention, it had certainly been effective, and it had been almost adorable in its earnestness when looked at from the right angle. Coming to a decision, Trixie flashed her a cocky grin.”Hey now, there’s no need for that kind of attitude.”

“You don’t want to leave?” Twilight asked,her face glowing with sudden hope.

“Ask me again, Twilight,” Trixie said, getting closer to Twilight so that their faces were almost, but not quite, touching.

“By roy—”

Trixie interrupted her with a quick snort of laughter. “Not like that, Twilight! Ask me normally.”

Twilight’s mouth opened into a small circle. It would be so easy to just lean in and kiss the azure mare, them being so close, but she knew that it would just drive her away. The last thing she wanted was to take advantage once more. “Um, would you like to go and get some hay smoothies sometime?”

“Sure.” Trixie smiled warmly. “That sounds like fun. Y’know, Trixie believes that right now counts as a sometime.”

Twilight laughed hard with delight. “And then we can—”

“If you’re thinking about anything in that scroll, then no,” Trixie said firmly. “Not until we know each other far better, anyway. Don’t get Trixie wrong. You are pretty cute, and the way you played me a couple of months back to get that amulet out of my hooves was an absolutely beautiful bit of showmareship, so you’ve more than got that going for you,” Trixie said, looking into Twilight’s eyes matter of factly.

Twilight met her gaze, finding herself completely lost for words.

“You might even learn something from my clearly superior style,” Trixie said, brushing a forehoof against her chest. “That floating animal display you did for the Saddle Arabians was technically proficient, Trixie supposes, but it needed that extra bit of panache to make it truly great.” She paused, and then spoke more seriously, “Still, you can’t blame me for wanting to take this slow.” Seeing Twilight’s face fall in barely concealed disappointment despite the compliments, Trixie added, “Though maybe we could hold hooves when we get there.”

“Y’know, I think I’d like that,” Twilight said, her entire body practically quivering with happiness.

"I do believe you have something to do first, though, Twilight," said Celestia, entering into the room from where she had been perched on the balcony outside.

"Princess!" Twilight leaped back from Trixie like she'd been stung on the nose. "How much did you hear?"

Celestia smiled ominously as she brushed past Trixie to stand over her former student. "Oh, enough," she said. "Now, what do you think that you need to do?'

"I could write you a report about how abusing your power over others is always wrong?" Twilight guessed, which got a small laugh.

"No, I don't think that will be necessary. Anyway, occasionally abusing your power, such as by snooping in on private conversations, can be quite enlightening," said Celestia, glancing aside to give Trixie a conspiratorial wink.

Twilight hung her head. "I shouldn't go over the top and instead always think through the consequences of my actions," she said softly. "Especially now more than always."

"And?" Celestia prompted.

Twilight sighed. "And I should remember that breathing exercise that Princess Cadance taught me."

"I'm glad that you realise that, Twilight," Celestia said, bending down and lightly nuzzling her. "I do understand, though. It is a hard thing, standing apart from others in any respect, even for a princess such as ourselves. There are no easy solutions, even if we have the power to make them so."

Twilight looked back up at her with eyes filled with questions that she wanted to ask, but not enough to want to say out loud.

"But enough of that," Celestia said, with a wave of a forehoof. "Now, I do believe that somepony mentioned hay smoothies?"

"Um, yes," Twilight said, though her body language practically yelled that they were going to be hay smoothies for just the two ponies and Celestia was not supposed to be included.

Trixie suddenly felt a surge of defensiveness shooting through her as she saw Twilight hunch her shoulders. Guess she doesn't need the want it, need it spell after all to make me feel like this, she pondered. Right, time for some Great and Powerful intervention!

"It's okay, Your Highness," said Trixie, leaning in and lightly giving Twilight a peck on her cheek. "Trixie is a big pony and doesn't need a chaperone."

She made towards the front door and turned just before stepping through. "You coming, Twilight?"

Twilight sat there for a moment in a stunned stupor, rubbing the cheek that Trixie had just kissed, and not quite believing that it had really just happened. She shook herself and yelled, "Yes!"

Celestia watched as Twilight headed out the library with a speed that Rainbow Dash would have admitted wasn't half bad. She smiled with relief, and perhaps a certain small amount of wistfulness, before vanishing in a flash of magic back to her palace in Canterlot.

<><><>

The sun rose the next day over two royal guards waiting patiently stock still by the chariot in the middle of Ponyville.

One of them finally broke and glanced to his compatriot. “Do you think she’s coming back?”