The Lost Alicorn City

Rainbow Dash grunted as she rammed herself against the wall of magic for the fifth time, trying her hardest to break through it, only to bounce off it again with a sore head.

“You’re wasting your time,” said Trixie as she watched the pegasus’ futile attempts to breach the barrier. “Believe Trixie, she’s tried.”

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs as she hovered in mid air, and glared over at Trixie with gritted teeth. Her five friends also stared at the showmare trapped with them inside the giant bubble. Trixie looked like she hadn’t had a decent shelter in a very long time. Her coat was filthy, her mane and tail were unkempt and also dirty, and she looked a bit thin, like she hadn’t been eating too well. Her hat and cape also looked like they hadn’t been washed in a long time.

Yet despite all this, the arrogance in the blue unicorn’s voice hadn’t seemed to have changed one bit since they had last seen her.

Twilight had a lot of questions for Trixie, but at the moment she knew they had to deal with the current situation they were in.

“How long have you been in here?” Twilight asked the blue unicorn mare.

“Almost four days,” said Trixie. “Which reminds Trixie, you wouldn’t happen to have any food, would you? Trixie is starving!”

“Weren’t y’all smart enough t’ bring any food with ya before y’all came out here?” asked Applejack.

Trixie snorted. “Of course Trixie packed food with her, you silly farm pony. She is not a foal. But Trixie ran out two days ago.”

Fluttershy, being the kind pony that she was, reached inside her saddlebags with her muzzle and pulled out an apple in her teeth. She walked over and handed it to Trixie, who quickly snatched it up with her magic and began biting into it like there was no tomorrow. She obviously hadn’t been lying when she had said she was hungry.

It was then that Twilight noticed something else inside the giant bubble with them. There was a large wooden chest lying on the ground in the center of the area.

“What’s in there?” Twilight asked, gesturing to the chest.

Trixie looked at the chest, juices from the apple dribbling down her chin, and then looked back at Twilight. “It’s the trap’s bait,” she said. “Trixie was walking along when she spotted the chest. When Trixie went to investigate, she became trapped in this magical prison. Anything can get into it, but nothing can get out.” Trixie went back to eating her apple.

Twilight went over to the chest and opened it up with her magic, only to find it was completely empty. She rubbed her chin with her hoof in thought.

“Don’t bother looking in there,” said Trixie to the purple unicorn mare. “There’s nothing in there. Trixie has checked a hundred times.”

“I think that’s the point,” said Twilight, looking up at her friends and Trixie, who all looked back at her with confusion. “This is another challenge. The last challenge was a test of our patients. We had to be patient in order to find a way through the enchanted area. Remember? So what does this challenge test of us?”

Before any of them could make a guess, Twilight continued.

“A pony is walking along, sees a chest, and goes over to it, expecting it to have something of value inside it. This challenge was made to trap greedy ponies, to keep them from getting to the city.”

“Well it sure as hey works,” said Applejack, looking over at Trixie out of the corner of her eye. Trixie huffed and tossed her now finished apple core onto the ground, sticking up her nose at the orange cowpony.

“Shush,” Twilight hushed them. “I’m thinking. Now, the opposite of greed is generosity, which is one of the qualities the book said we’d need. So-” Just then, Trixie interrupted.

“Book? What book?” Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow as she glared at Twilight curiously.

Twilight’s horn glowed and the black book floated out of her saddlebags. Then, to her surprise, Trixie’s expression became angry and she pointed an accusing hoof at her.

“YOU THEIF!” Trixie shouted, allowing her anger full reign. “SO YOU’RE THE PONY WHO STOLE TRIXIE’S BOOK!”

Twilight backed up a bit in surprise, afraid that Trixie might try to attack her. She levitated the book behind her. “You’re book?” she exclaimed. “This book was sent to me by the Princess!”

Trixie snorted. “Yeah, right! The Princess of Equestria stole Trixie’s book, and then sent it to you of all ponies. Very likely story. GIVE IT BACK NOW!”

Suddenly, all of Twilight’s friends hurried over and surrounded Twilight, glaring angrily at Trixie.

“Hey, back off you!” said Rainbow Dash. “Twilight didn’t steel anything!”

“That’s right,” said Applejack. “And do you honestly expect us to believe that you ever had this book, you lyin’ two-bit!”

“It’s the truth!” the blue unicorn shouted, stomping her front hoof. “Trixie can prove it! On the twenty-sixth page, there’s a map of Equestria, isn’t there?”

Twilight opened up the book and turned it to page twenty-six. Sure enough, the map was right on that page.

“She’s right!” said Twilight, at which her friends were shocked. Twilight looked at Trixie. “How did you know that?”

“Trixie had the book for some time before you stole it from her. She studied it and learned everything she could from it.”

Twilight was shocked. The only way Trixie would have known that the map was on that page was if she really had seen the book before, and had looked at it for at least a little while. Twilight believed Trixie really was telling the truth.

“Trixie, if you had this book, how did you come by it? And how did you loose it?”

Trixie sat back on her haunches and crossed her forelegs. “That’s a long story,” she said.

“Well, as much as I’m sure we’d all love to hear it,” said Rarity, “right now, I think we should focus on getting out of here.”

“Right,” agreed Twilight. She looked at Trixie. “We can all talk later,” she said as she put the book back in her saddlebag. “Now, as I was saying, generosity is one of the six qualities listed. So in order to get out, maybe we have to be generous and put something inside the chest. Something of ours that is at least a little valuable to us.”

Rarity, being the generous pony that she was, took off her saddlebags, set them on the ground before her, and began searching through them. Her horn glowed with blue light as she levitated out a pink and white striped scarf with her magic, and dropped it inside the chest.

“There you go, darling,” said the while unicorn mare.

Twilight wanted to protest, wanting to put something of her own into the chest rather that see one of her friends sacrifice something, but she knew generous Rarity wouldn’t have it any other way. So Twilight nodded and closed the chest.

They all looked around them, expecting to see some sign that it had worked. When nothing happened, and the giant bubble around them was still there, Rainbow Dash angrily rammed herself against the wall a sixth time. But again, she couldn’t break through it, and only succeeded in hurting herself more. She grumbled angrily as she rubbed her head with her hoof.

Trixie chuckled in amusement. “Well that didn’t work.” She turned to Twilight. “Any more bright ideas?”

Ignoring Trixie’s mocking tone, Twilight actually did have another idea. “Well, seeing as we are all trapped in here, maybe we all have to put something in the chest.”

Taking Twilight’s knew idea into consideration; Twilight and her friends all began looking through their saddlebags for something of theirs to put in the chest.

At first, it was difficult for Twilight to find something to give up. She had some food, but she didn’t really think that could be considered something of value. She had the book, but she knew they would still need that later on in their quest.

Eventually she found the perfect thing. She pulled out her favorite feather pen. She was a little reluctant to part with it, but she knew she could always get a new one from her pet owl, Owloysius.

She levitated the pen over and dropped it into the chest.

The rest of her friends all put in their donations as well. Rainbow Dash put in her flying goggles, Fluttershy put in her favorite hair brush, Pinkie Pie put in her party cannon(No one was sure where she had been keeping that thing this whole time), and Applejack, to everypony’s surprise, actually took off her stetson hat and put it inside the chest.

“Don’t worry y’all,” the cowpony said. “I can always get another hat back home.”

Rarity had already put something in the chest, so all who was left was Trixie. They all looked at her, waiting for her expectantly.

Trixie shrugged. “Trixie doesn’t have anything to put in the chest.”

Applejack scowled. “Ya have your hat and your cape, don’t ya?”

Trixie gasped at the notion, not wanting to give up either her hat or cape, but she soon realized that she had no other alternative.

She looked back and forth between the hat on her head, and the cape around her neck. Finally, her horn glowed and she magically took off the hat, deciding that she ultimately wanted to keep the cape more. She lowered the hat into the chest with the other objects. Then Twilight closed the chest again.

Almost instantly, there was a flash of light around them, and then the giant bubble around them vanished. The ponies cheered as they trotted out of where they had been trapped.

“Thank Celestia!” sighed Trixie with relief. “Of course, Trixie would have figured out how to get out of there eventually on her own.” She turned to Twilight. “Now if you would just give Trixie back her book, we can both go our separate ways.”

“We need this book, Trixie,” said Twilight, attempting to reason with the show mare. “The Princess has sent us on this mission to find the lost city, and without the book we’d be lost.”

Trixie huffed. “Well, even though Trixie studied the book pretty well before she came out here, it appears she still needs it as well. And it WAS stolen from Trixie.”

“I have an idea,” Pinkie Pie popped up. “Come with us! That way it will be like we all have the book. Plus, the more, the merrier!”

Even as she had been saying it, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity had been shaking their heads at her, mortified by the idea of Trixie traveling with them.

Trixie seemed to share their dislike of the idea. “The great and powerful Trixie travel with the likes of you?” she said with disgust and let out a fake laugh.

“Well, Trixie, we are all heading to the same place," Twilight said. "Plus, it would be a lot safer if we stick together.” As much as Twilight didn’t like the mare, she didn’t want to see Trixie go off by herself and get herself hurt… or worse. “So what do you say?”

Trixie thought about this for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and stuck up her nose. “Fine,” she answered. “Trixie will travel with you for now.” Then she opened her eyes and glared at them. “But Trixie demands her fair share of the credit for finding the city, as well as an equal share of the treasure there.”

“What ever treasure we find there will belong to the Princesses,” stated Twilight. “But I can promise you a fair share of the credit for finding it.”

Trixie gritted her teeth and looked like she was about to protest, but then her expression softened and she closed her eyes and nodded. “Very well. Trixie agrees.”

“HURRAY!” shouted Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down around Trixie happily. Trixie recoiled away from the pink party pony and stared at her like she was insane. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity groaned with disappointment that the rude and annoying Trixie was going to be traveling with them now.

“Come on, girls,” announced Twilight, getting their attention. “Lets keep moving.”

The seven ponies set off again through the forest.

A/N: I hope you readers are enjoying this story so far. I appreciate any feed back you give me. I enjoy hearing your opinions.