Trixie had always considered herself a master of the stage. Acting, performance, talent - she was a triple threat of theatrics. She would admit, if she were in a humble mindset, that some of that talent might have come from her father, absent parent though he was.

Good that was all Trixie had inherited from the stallion. Privately, Trixie knew that she wasn’t exactly the most upstanding of ponies, but compared to Jackpot’s brand of rakishness she was practically a saint.

Not that the temptation to be that much worse wasn’t the monkey on her back right this second, though.

“So maybe I shouldn’t have eavesdropped on a master’s meeting,” Trixie grumbled to herself, plodding down the hallway from the chantry’s kitchen. She had just gotten done raiding it of anything remotely alcoholic, only finding some wine coolers for her trouble, and now only wanted to curl up in bed so she could pretend the last few hours of her life hadn’t happened.

But she was in no great hurry, because she knew that her number one headache was just beyond her bedroom door. The purple (an annoying, know-it-all-sounding voice mentally told her “ahem, lavender”) unicorn inside would know something was up the second she walked in. For some unknown reason Twilight Sparkle was good at reading her moods, and Trixie had never been one for keeping secrets. She would probably blurt it all out soon enough and Trixie’s butt would be well and truly cooked.

Nevermind that, of all ponies, The Ancient and Honorable Sol Shard should have been able to sniff her out. Maybe it would have been a stern talking-to, maybe she would have even gotten yelled at, but that would have just been another cheeky mark on her record. One that, in her later years, she could look back on fondly.

But no. Not only had Sol Shard not seen her illusion spell, Princess Celestia hadn’t either. Sure, the princess had been a magical projection, but she was also a living god so Trixie thought that maybe the fundamental rules of magic wouldn’t apply to her. Trixie had almost dropped the spell in shock when the princess had first made her appearance and it was only by the skin of her horn that Trixie had managed to keep her concentration.

So given all of that, Trixie was in a foul mood. Who wouldn’t be, after hearing that you would be nothing more than a stepping stone for some up-jumped magical freak so she could take her place at Princess Celestia’s side. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, she would also be Trixie’s future boss.

“And of course that old goat Solar Comet had jumped at the chance to bring up that incident with the Chronomancer’s Armlet,” she grumbled. The few ponies she passed were giving her a wide berth in the hallway, because it was never good when Lulamoon began talking to herself. “So I wanted to borrow it to see if that time dilation spell was still in tact. Is that so bad? I was going to give it back.” Probably. Maybe.

And hadn’t she paid back that lapse in judgment in spades? A year of her career, gone. Her first journeyman ring, gone. A permanent mark on her record. Trixie knew many other apprentices that had done much worse than borrow an uncategorized magical bauble and gotten tiny slaps on the nose. Trixie knew she had only gotten the book thrown at her to be made an example of - Sunburst’s pet project was getting too uppity, best to knock her down a peg.

“Ahem.”

Speaking of which. Trixie usually had a sixth sense when it came to avoiding her former teacher, but maybe she was getting rusty? She’d been off on her own, doing her own missions, for almost a year now, ever since she’d gotten back her journeyman ring.

But there Sunburst was, leaning against the wall next to Twilight’s and her’s room, looking every inch like a disapproving teacher. He wasn’t mad - he hardly ever got mad - but in some ways that disappointed look on his face was bad enough to make Trixie wish he would. Ponies being mad at her was normal for Trixie, after all, but she’d never quite gotten immune to Sunburst being disappointed.

“Are we going to have to play twenty questions, or do you know why I’m here right now?” he asked.

Maybe it was the way he’s said it - too familiar - that made Trixie want to dig her hooves in. “Trixie doesn’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied. “Trixie suggests that, if you have an issue with something, that you speak to her like an equal.” She saw his jaw clench, which Trixie could deal with. Annoyance was good; anger was better. Safer.

The slightly-older unicorn let out a sigh of air. “Alright, I had that coming after what I did to you out in the desert.” The admission was a well-aimed lance of guilt, straight through Trixie’s chest. She had still been miffed at the way he’d dressed her down when Twilight and she had teleported into the middle of the camp. It had just been too easy for them both to fall back into old ruts of Trixie being irresponsible and Sunburst cleaning up after her.

“...Trixie… I… apologize as well,” she muttered. “It’s just more comfortable, isn’t it?”

Sunburst was quiet for a moment. Nothing about their relationship was comfortable, or even necessarily healthy, with them being so close in age and magical talent (although certainly not magical knowledge, in which Trixie would readily admit that Sunburst was by far her better).

“Nothing about this is comfortable,” he chuckled, echoing Trixie’s own thoughts. “We’re both adults, though, and we can act like it. Magister Lulamoon.”

Trixie might have smiled as well. “Very well, Magister Sunburst. What is it you wish to speak with me about?”

The stallion glanced up and down the hall. The rooms Strauss had stuck Trixie and Twilight in were well away from the rest of the chantry’s residents, but sometimes these walls had ears. Trixie, having lived here for a few years herself, understood that as well as Sunburst did. “I’m talking about your little performance in the attic,” he said a moment later. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have brought down on your head?”

Because of course he knew I was there. He’s seen my illusion spell a million times. “I thought I had you fooled this time,” she muttered. “If Princess Celestia didn’t notice me-”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” Sunburst interrupted. “Not much gets by the princess, Trixie, and that meeting wasn’t purely what it seemed on the outside. You can’t assume anything.”

“I figured that out after the other masters left,” Trixie whispered. It was ridiculous that, between the two of them, they would have noticed any kind of magical eavesdropping in the hall, but they were clutched together like conspiring thieves nonetheless. “Was all of that really just a show for the other masters? Did Sol Shard and the princess really plan all of this out?”

“It seems that way,” Sunburst said. “I tried to get him to explain more to me at lunch, but you know how he can be. I think he likes being mysterious just to aggravate me.”

At least you come by it honestly, Trixie thought, but her eyes slid over to the closed bedroom door. “And all that nonsense about Twilight being the next high magister? Trixie will admit that the unicorn is powerful, but surely not that much. At her age she’s already years behind the rest of the masters!”

“So were you, if you remember. And now look how far you’ve come.” That wasn’t an answer and Sunburst knew it, but he seemed reluctant to show his hand just yet.

Trixie narrowed her eyes. Sunburst would never gainsay his former master, not after everything Sol Shard had done for him, but Trixie knew the stallion’s facial expressions well enough to know that, despite throwing his full support behind the scheme of making Twilight the eventual high magister, that he had reservations. She could see it spelled all over his face.

“You don’t think it’s dangerous? Like Solar Comet said?”

Sunburst gave her a flat look. “I didn’t think you, of all ponies, would care what Master Comet thinks about anything.”

“You’re dodging the question,” Trixie accused. “I let you get away with one, but not this. This is going to directly impact both our lives! Iwant to know what you really think.”

“I trust Master Sol Shard. And don’t give me that look, Trixie. That’s the answer I have,” he said, forcefully enough that his ears pinned back and he rechecked the hallway once the outburst was freed. “Listen, I know it might seem underhanded, what he and the princess are doing, but if they both think it's for the good of Equestria then who are we to say it’s not? They have more information than either of us and you know what’s coming next year.”

Of course Trixie knew. Every master knew that Princess Celestia’s sister was going to return next Summer Sun Celebration and restart a war that had been put on hold for the last thousand years. Trixie had, of course, dragged it out of Sunburst over the course of her apprenticeship, because he was absolutely terrible at keeping secrets. It had shocked Trixie at first, but she figured that the princess, the masters, and Sunset Shimmer had it covered.

What she had overheard in that meeting, though, made Trixie question what she’d been believing about how secure things were.

It made her antsy, and worried. Neither of those emotions were Trixie’s usual state of being and it was more than a little distressing to realize that there might be a real problem in under a year that Princess Celestia couldn’t handle.

Sunburst sighed and Trixie realized that she might have been a bit too open with her concern. It was hard to remember that the stallion was almost as good at reading her as vice versa. “Don’t worry about it,” he told her, trying to smile. “Master Sol Shard isn’t worried, so why should we be? Look at it this way - they’re both already planning for things after the Summer Sun Celebration. That should make you feel better.”

It didn’t, but Trixie appreciated the thought. “Fine. Let’s both pretend that things are perfectly under control. That still doesn’t make Trixie feel any better about being a… a sideshow to an upjumped palace guard!” She stomped her foot, ignoring the way Sunburst frantically shushed her, looking between her and the bedroom door. “Twilight sleeps like a box of rocks. She wouldn’t hear Trixie if Trixie let off her entire trunk of fireworks right beside her head.”

“You’re assuming she’s asleep,” Sunburst hissed, still halfway eyeing the door. “I didn’t think I needed to tell you, but Twilight Sparkle cannot find out about anyof this. It would ruin her for everything the princess has planned. You can’t have those kinds of expectations put on you so early, especially with a pony like Twilight.”

That… was probably true. The unicorn seemed to have a habit of overthinking things. “She won’t find out from me,” Trixie promised, though she was sure someone would let it slip eventually. The magisterium was like high school when it came to the rumor mill and Trixie knew that some of the younger masters couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

“It’s all I’m asking for.” A weight seemed to fall off Sunburst’s back with Trixie’s assurance. His smile was more sincere, maybe even sly. “And don’t think for a second I don’t know how good all of this is for you, Trixie. You’re getting first crack at training the future high magister. I know that half the masters at that meeting wanted to be you when the princess said Twilight was yours for now.”

They had, hadn’t they? The thought gave Trixie pause. As… annoying as it was that Twilight Sparkle was being given so much without putting in the necessary effort, Trixie couldn’t deny that being so close to the next high magister would mean nothing but great things for her own rising star - if Twilight met everyone’s expectations. If not, then Trixie could see no better scapegoat than herself.

High risk, high reward. It was just a matter of walking the right line and teaching the right things - and staying in Twilight’s good graces. Which, if she were being honest, Trixie wasn’t certain she was in at the moment.

She glanced at the door. “Trixie might have made a mess of things,” she whispered. She had been a bit miffed at being cut out of the investigation, and maybe had gone a little too hard at the local bars. And maybe she had forgotten to go and see Twilight while she was in the hospital. Surely the mare wouldn’t hold it against her? If Trixie remembered it right, Twilight had been upset herself.

Should have brought her some booze in the hospital. Snuck them in or something. Shared that misery. That’s what friends did, wasn’t it?

She quickly pushed past Sunburst, who let out a surprised huff, and rapped her hoof on the door. “Twilight! Twilight, I’m here and I’ve brought alcohol!” she called out, one of those sad little wine coolers in her magical grip.

“Strauss is going to be so mad you stole his coolers,” Sunburst muttered.

“He can be as mad as he wants once Trixie is back in the future high magister’s good graces,” Trixie hissed, knocking again. “Twilight Sparkle? Are you awake?”

The door fell open under her knocks; Twilight had apparently neglected to even close it all the way. With her usual brashness, Trixie pushed it open all the way and walked inside. But she was stopped short in the doorway by what she found.

“What in Equestria happened in here?” Sunburst asked, voicing (in a less-colorful way) what Trixie was thinking as she took in the state of the bedroom.

It was ruined. The curtain was ripped, torn right off its rod. Sunlight spilled into the room, illuminating a thoroughly tossed room. The beds were pushed askew, and Trixie’s was even turned over on its side with her poor traveling trunks strewn every which way.

“Ugh, what is that smell?” Trixie gagged as she stepped into the room. Her hoof scraped against something on the floor - a pile of ashes - but nothing looked burned. “It smells like rotten eggs.”

“It’s sulfur,” Sunburst answered as he came in behind her. His voice was grave as he took the bedroom in. His eyes flicked from the window to the beds and then down to the floor, where Trixie was trying to wipe her hoof off. “Stop! Stop, don’t move. Let me see what you stepped in.”

“It’s just a little soot,” Trixie told him, but she didn’t object or pull away when his magic took hold of leg and gently lifted it. He stared at the black ash for a moment and then ushered her to step back, which she did. The mare knew that look in his eyes well enough to be stubborn for no reason.

And it seemed like he’d found a thread of something more than just Twilight being a slob of a roommate. His nose pressed so close to the floor that it almost touched what was left of the soot. Trixie was looking over his shoulder when he suddenly reared back up, almost hitting her, and levitated one of her trunks over.

He clambered up on top of it like a mountain goat. He grabbed another and stacked it when it didn’t give him enough height. “Dear Celestia,” he hissed when he was nearly touching the ceiling.

“What’s got you so upset?” Trixie asked, scrambling up after him. Her question was answered when she looked back down at the floor from her higher vantage - and at the blurry soot outline burnt into the wooden floor. “Is that-?”

Sunburst was already climbing back down. “A summoning circle. And a foul one at that. Celestia forgive me, but I think that it may be demonic.”

“Demonic? As in, Abyssal?”

“That’s normally what one means when they mention demons,” Sunburst snapped. Trixie knew it was bad if Sunburst was resorting to sarcasm.

The shock was so much that Sunburst was already out the door before Trixie came to her senses; she had to run to catch up to him in the hall, and she headed him off. He could have pushed past her, but the look on his own face was fairly unsettled.

“We don’t know for sure,” she stressed, mind racing. When was the last time the magisterium had confirmed an abyssal portal? And inside one of its own chantries? “Where are you going to go? To Master Sol Shard? And tell him what? That we found a summoning circle?”

“Yes. Exactly that,” Sunburst said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Trixie shook her head. “We need information first,” she said, trying to sound sure of herself. Tried to sound in control, even if she could barely hear herself think over the heartbeat in her ears. All she was thinking about was how quickly things would go if Sunburst went to go get anyone else. Anything with the stench of the Abyss on it was immediately treated as a top-level threat.

That was not conducive to a good start in the magisterium.

“There’s got to be some way to get to the bottom of this before we go grabbing ponies,” Trixie said. “What about… Rocky Spark’s Incantation of Scrutiny? I’m sure we can get some lungwort from the chantry stores and-”

“You want to use Incantation of Scrutiny for an abyssal incursion?” Sunburst asked, the very idea (purposeful, of course) taking his attention for a moment. “No, Ginger Afternoon’s Seeker’s Denouement is a much better…” His eyes narrowed a fraction as his brain finally caught up with his mouth. “Oooh, I see what you’re doing, Trixie. No, no, no. We aren’t covering this up.”

“Not a cover-up!” the mare quickly assured. “Just fact-finding! Trixie would never suggest a cover-up! Just, you know, fact-finding.”

Sunburst actually thought about it for a long moment, which lit the fires of hope in Trixie’s heart. Just one more push! “Think! If we go and grab Sol Shard, what kind of message would that send to all the other masters about his judgment? We could be undermining Twilight Sparkle before she even officially joins the magisterium! Trixie just wants to do a little investigation, see what’s really going on, and then we can report to Master Sol Shard.”

Oh, come on, she thought, plastering an earnest, trustworthy face on as Sunburst contemplated. Trixie knows you want to have more information first. You hate running to the old goat without knowing everything first.

If Twilight were actually in trouble and if it was an actual abyssal “snatch-and-grab” (what the chantry had begun, in unofficial capacity, calling the distressingly-regular demonic abductions around the country) then it meant Twilight had been up to some very interesting things, because demons hadn’t just been taking ponies randomly. Nine times out of ten it turned out that they had been a cultist, or at least dabbling in some kind of forbidden magic. This was the sort of thing that Trixie could sit on for years, holding it carefully and then springing it on her good friend Twilight Sparkle down the line for the magisterium posting of her choice!

Too small, Trixie thought, forcing any kind of anticipation from her expression. This kind of dirt could get me my own chantry later on! It was an incredible thought, and if some little part of Trixie that still felt indebted to the purple unicorn for that business with the helmed horror was gratified as well then all the better, right?

“We… can look into this a little more,” Sunburst finally, finally, allowed. It took every sliver of control for Trixie not to celebrate, and the stallion was for sure watching for it. Evidently, because he slowly trotted back to the room, he hadn’t found anything.

Trixie allowed herself a single celebratory prance where he couldn’t see her. Nothing too over the top, because now they actually had to figure out what happened to Twilight. It wasn’t like the magisterium had ever gotten back anyone taken by the Abyss, after all. Could be another feather in Trixie’s cap!

“So, are we going with the Seeker’s Denouement? Should Trixie go and see if she can borrow (steal) some gypsum and clover?”

“No, there’s a faster, and better, option open to us. Come in here and close that door behind you, please. Sit in the circle, please.”

So maybe Sunburst seemed a bit frantic. No big deal. Trixie did as she was asked, because he actually asked rather than ordered - Maybe he finally remembers that Trixie is a peer now? About time - and didn’t want to ruin things when he’d already agreed with her.

The stallion hung the curtains back up as best he could, putting the bedroom back into shadow. His own horn was the only thing making any light, which made Trixie’s eyes forcefully adjust. “Which spell are we doing again? You didn’t say.”

Sunburst nodded, his horn’s light bobbing up and down. “Right. Right. How much do you know about spectral projection?” he asked.

“Not much?”

“Then this will be an excellent learning opportunity,” Sunburst said as the light from his horn flashed too bright to look at, making Trixie’s head spin and spin and spin…

Author's Note

Oh man, two chapters in three days? What is this witchcraft?

Also, Trixie flipping back from first to third-person is on purpose. I like the idea of Trixie trying to be a good, responsible, serious pony, but then slipping back into old habits when she's up to her old tricks.

You can take Trixie out of canon, but you can't take the canon out of Trixie. Scheming is just her way of showing she cares.