Chapter I
With a flash of purple light, Twilight Sparkle appeared behind her opponent. An almost gentle magical push later Trixie found herself snout first in a tuft of soft grass.
“Mobility is key, Trixie. You have to-” she began calmly, but got disturbed by something pulling at her front hooves. She barely managed to get a glimpse of the pale magenta aura before gravity pulled her head-first into the grass as well.
“You have to not let your guard down, I presume?” Trixie mocked, now towering over her training partner.
With a grunt Twilight lifted herself up, rubbing her snout to remove the dirt and grass sticking to it, as well as to disperse the stinging feeling her involuntary collision with the ground had evoked. “Right, that too.” She blew away a single blade of grass that remained stuck to her mouth and watched it as it slowly descended to the ground, before it was picked up by a gust of wind and carried away.
Meanwhile Trixie prepared herself for the next move, widening her stance and priming her magic. Intently watching Twilight, who still had her eyes set on that piece of grass, she quickly became annoyed by the absence of competitive spirit. “What’s wrong? Stop your plotting and come at me.”
“Let’s stop for today, it’s getting late,” responded Twilight. A shiver crept through her coat. “And not to mention cold.”
“So you’re running away? Now, when the Great and Powerful Trixie is starting to even out our score, you get cold?
“The wind is picking up and the sun is about to set,” Twilight pointed out. “And I haven’t kept any score; if you were counting that’s your problem.”
Trixie harrumphed dismissively. “I’m not cold. Stop making excuses!”
Twilight, already turning away from Trixie and heading towards Ponyville, stopped for a moment. She eyed the azure-coated mare for just a second, noticing her dampened coat and slightly sped-up breathing. A cocky smile flashed over Twilight’s face. “Perhaps I don’t have to exert myself as much as you do.”
Seeing that there was no arguing, Trixie begrudgingly trotted after Twilight. “Wait.” She stopped as something dawned on her. “What is that supposed to mean, you don’t have to exert yourself as much as I do?” But the only answer she earned was a bright giggle.
As they reached the first buildings in Ponyville Trixie ended her still ongoing and one-sided squabble as to who won today.
Twilight took note of the harsh change of volume around her and looked at her companion, who walked unusually close to her. “Something wrong?” she asked with a furrowed brow.
“No!” Trixie hurriedly replied, but eyed her surroundings nervously and raised her voice. “I mean, no. Nothing wrong at all. What would be wrong?” Trixie noticed that she was rather close to Twilight, and returned to a more casual distance. Twilight’s brow crept a bit higher.
This was the second time they’d gone out to study in a more practical manner - although Trixie treated it more as a contest, and both outings had ended with Trixie daring her into a challenge, probably eager to prove herself.
Now that they were in the middle of Ponyville, there was little left of her former boastful and challenging demeanour.
“You know, Nightmare Night is in a few weeks; why not put on a show?” asked Twilight.
Now it was Trixie who arched an eyebrow at her companion. “And who would want to watch that after...” She paused for a moment, visibly recapitulating her exploits in Ponyville for a second. Trixie promptly corrected her posture, looking one or two sizes bigger than the sulking pose she had assumed before, and continued in her more familiar arrogant tone. “It’s not like anypony could appreciate my show around here anyways.”
“I just thought it would do you good to get out once in a while, you know?”
“I know what you are trying.” Trixie stopped in her tracks. “It wasn’t my fault.”
Tensing up at Trixies stern and almost angry tone, Twilight stopped as well, slowly turning around. “I didn’t say that.”
“But that’s what you meant.” She continued with a bad imitation of Twilight’s voice, waving her hoof around excessively. “That would be a great way to admit your fault and apologize for the terrible things you did!” Stomping her hoof to make a point, she galloped towards the library, leaving behind a very taken-aback mare.
Twilight groaned in frustration. “That went well...”
She was convinced that Trixie had to make things up to Ponyville; even if they weren’t willing to forgive her, Trixie had to at least try.
Trixie had simply shown up at Twilight's door two days after she'd fled town, the same day the Saddle Arabian ambassadors had left. The nights had been getting longer and colder for several weeks at that point, which had explained the shivering and disheveled state of the mare on the doorstep. She hadn’t been willing to answer where she had been or why she was in that sorry state, but still Twilight took pity on her and decided to invite her to stay for a while, since it was obvious to her that Trixie had no place else to go. Twilight spotted an opportunity to convince Trixie to reconcile with Ponyville and her past mistakes, or at least help her to get back on her hooves.
It also made her think about Trixie from a different angle. All the time Trixie just ran away from her past deeds, at least the ones Twilight knew of. So what was different this time? Why choose the potentially most unwelcoming community to take shelter in? Twilight couldn’t help but think, hope, that Trixie was willing to turn her life around.
Torn between pity and frustration about Trixie’s mostly self-imposed situation, Twilight began to spin plans on how to to re-socialise her.
This had proven to be harder than she had imagined though, what with Trixie trying to stay cooped up for almost a week, thinking up excuse after excuse not to leave the library and be exposed to anypony but her host. After much failed coaxing, Twilight finally thought up a plan to get her out for at least a short while: asking the Great and Powerful Trixie for help, and thus playing to her still well-developed ego.
And so it was that Twilight asked for help with some practical exercise. Little did she know what she had gotten herself into.
A couple of minutes after Trixie stormed away, Twilight arrived at the library herself. She closed the door behind her and looked around, pleased that the library seemed to be in tip-top shape, before she was greeted by her assistant.
“What’s wrong with her?” Spike grumbled, pointing towards the room they’d given Trixie.
“I'm not sure, Spike, but to be honest I think it's the usual. She’ll probably come around, so just leave her alone for now,” Twilight answered, doing her best to sound convinced.
“Riiiight,” drawled Spike, dismissing the topic quickly, followed by a long yawn. “I made some daffodil sandwiches for when you and Trixie got back. I also cleaned up the mess you left before leaving.”
“Thank you, Spike.”
“No, Twilight.” He glanced over the now properly sorted and catalogued shelves that held today’s study regime. “Thirty-two books, Twilight: thirteen on kinetic manipulation, seven on magical wards, four about ancient unicorn duel traditions and seven on how to fend off bullies.” He recited every topic with a count on his claw. “I know how your studying works; you cross-reference everything and that leaves you with a lot of books. But seriously, can you read them one by one for a change?”
“I think that just adds up to thirty-one.” Twilight completely blanked out the last part of Spike’s complaint. “Are you sure you put them away properly, Spike? I might need them again soon.”
Spike’s jaw dropped, but then his face became a mask of disinterest. “I am going to bed.”
Twilight watched her assistant as he took the steps to the upper level of the library, grumbling the whole way. She could only make out a couple of words, vacation among those she could discern. Deciding to let the matter rest for now, she indulged herself with two of the four sandwiches Spike had prepared. Twilight left the others for Trixie, who would hopefully come out of her reclusiveness sooner rather than later.
While eating, she pondered again how she could help Trixie. There were plenty of books in this library, but few of her efforts had borne any fruit as of yet. Leaving Trixie alone and giving her time had not induced any change, but neither had confronting her. Whatever Twilight did, it would drive Trixie into solitude for a while and set her back to square one.
“Whatever I do,” she repeated, now with sudden realization. It was just a faint hope, but maybe nothing she did worked because she was just not the right pony to help Trixie. Twilight pondered over who she could ask for help. It was clear to her that somepony from Ponyville was out of the question. There was so much tension between Trixie and everypony who had witnessed her past actions that Twilight could only predict that they would suffer the same lack of success.
She quickly rushed up the stairs as a possible solution dawned on her.
“Spike! You have to take a letter!”