"So, you want to know how the Great and Powerful Trixie got into this mess?"
The strange mare nodded.
☆
It was a few days ago when this all started. Trixie was travelling from Dodge Junction to Canterlot, along a road — more of a dirt path really — that took Trixie along the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. It might have been easier to go through Ponyville, but, well, Trixie was avoiding that place. Sorry, Trixie should stop talking like that… sorry, I should stop talking like that. These things easily become a habit.
There was a particularly steep incline, where the path ran through a patch of poison joke, though thankfully none of it had grown onto the path. Pulling my wagon as I was, I could only walk slowly. As I went past a large oak tree, I happened to notice a sign nailed up on its trunk. The Winter Moon Celebration — the longest night of the year — was being held in Ponyville again, and I suddenly thought that it might be an interesting idea to pop in and see a few old friends.
I took the next turn off the road into Ponyville, setting up my wagon at the edge of the settlement. I took down the hoardings advertising my show, for once not wanting to draw attendance to my presence in town. Evening was coming so I went looking for somewhere to have some supper. I found a reasonably priced burger joint and ordered a hayburger and fries, taking a window seat to watch the world go by.
Having finished my meal, I went looking for the library as I wanted to pay a visit on the town librarian. Imagine my surprise to find a hole in the ground where it had once stood. Asking around, I found out that the librarian, Twilight Sparkle, was now living in a castle at the edge of town, coincidentally not far from where I'd parked my wagon.
I'd known of course that Twilight had become a princess — everypony in Equestria knew that — but I'd assumed she still lived in the library. Anyhow, on the way back to my wagon, I saw the shining castle looming over town. I don't know how I'd missed it on the way in. I noted its position for the morning.
I slept well and awoke with a sense of purpose. First thing after breakfast I trotted to the castle door and knocked. It was answered by a sleepy little dragon, who showed me in and went to fetch the princess.
Twilight came in looking suspicious of me, but who could blame her? After everything that had gone on between us in the past, surely I'd be back for revenge. But I quickly put her at ease, apologizing profusely for my past arrogance, and asked her out for dinner the following evening.
The princess was surprised, charmed even, and accepted straight away. As I was leaving, she realised her error: the following evening was the Winter Moon Celebration, and she along with Princess Luna, the princess of the night, and Princess Celestia, her mentor, and almost an adopted mother to her, would be hosting the occasion. She asked if I could possibly rearrange the date to the evening before the celebration, or the evening after.
"Alas," I told her, "Trixie is not in Ponyville for long, and Trixie shall be very busy today and tonight. It has to be tomorrow night or not at all. You do forgive Trixie, don't you? You will come to dinner with Trixie? With me?"
She thought for several moments, and I worried she would really turn me down, but eventually she smiled and invited me to be her 'date' to the Winter Moon Celebration. Everything was going to plan.
I spent the rest of the day with my preparations, gathering supplies, and making arrangements. It was exhausting work, but that night I slept soundly, knowing I'd finally found a way to humiliate Princess Twilight Sparkle.
The time came for me to collect Twilight Sparkle for our date. I turned up and knocked on the castle door, expecting to be greeted by the dragon again, but was surprised when the door was answered by Twilight herself, wearing a long, flowing pink dress with yellow trims, a diamond necklace, and a thin gold tiara. I probably shouldn't say so, but yes, she looked pretty stunning, and I found myself wishing I'd made more of an effort.
"Of course," I said, "you're all dressed up for the celebration."
Twilight looked at her dress. "What, this? No, later on I need to get changed into the traditional lunar robes and my crown. This is just for our date."
"Oh," I said, surprised that Twilight had made such an effort. "It's not really a date date. Trixie is just taking you out to apologize for her behaviour."
Twilight shut the door behind her. "As far as I'm concerned, that's a date. You know, Spike and Applejack almost managed to talk me out of this, but Fluttershy reminded me that everypony deserves a second chance. So where are we going?"
I tried to recall the name of the café I'd booked a table at — a rather smart-looking establishment near the centre of town. "The Hayfare? That might be what it's called."
"Oh, Savoir Fare's place. The food is very good there."
We trotted along the streets of Ponyville until we reached the town centre, which was already busy, with ponies milling around, decorating the town with crescent moons (which Twilight pointed out were inaccurate as Luna would be raising a full moon that night), setting up the stage for the princesses, and generally getting everything ready.
I waved to Snips and Snails who were helping with the stage set-up — two ponies I knew from previous visits to this town, and whom I'd reacquainted myself with the previous afternoon. They hadn't been keen to assist me with my endeavours, but I may have brought up a certain cosmic space bear they'd brought to town, which I'd taken most of the blame for, and they were eager to make it up to me.
The waiter offered us an outdoor table, but in mid-winter it wasn't really the weather for it — although it was unseasonably sunny and dry, it was too cold. We took an indoor table and looked through the menu. Twilight had recommended one of her favourites, a wildflower soup, so we both had that for starters.
Excuse the pun, but Twilight really was a sparkling conversationalist over dinner. I'd expected her to drone on about becoming a princess, and being a princess, and being an Element of Harmony, and being, well… sorry… Miss Perfect Purple Pony Princess, but she wasn't like that at all. She wanted to talk about me, about the new tricks I'd added to my act, about the places I'd toured recently, and the ponies I'd met.
For a main course, Twilight had a daisy sandwich, and I ordered a hayburger, which turned out to be a much better one than I'd had at the burger joint a couple of nights previous.
We got to discussing my firework spell. Twilight said she'd been attempting something similar as a surprise for a friend's birthday, but hadn't been able to get it looking quite right. She said it was a shame I had to leave town so soon and that she'd like me to teach the spell to her. The Element of Magic wanting me to teach her a spell. I have to admit, I was more than a little bit flattered.
I wasn't sure I had room for dessert, but Twilight insisted I try their strawberry ice cream, so we ordered a bowl to share. I do not regret that decision — it was delicious.
At the end of the meal, Twilight insisted on paying half, which, frankly, I was grateful for. I walked her back to the castle door so that she could get prepared for the celebration. As I turned to trot away, she asked, "aren't you going to come in?"
"I-I… umm… I thought you'd want to get changed for the celebration."
"Yes, but you'll come with me to the celebration, won't you?" Twilight paused and looked down to the ground. "I mean, unless you have something else to do. I know you're leaving town tomorrow. You probably need to pack."
I'd been planning to go to the event, of course, and watch Twilight's humiliation from a distance. The chance to see it up close was at once both delicious and terrifying — I worried about how I might feel when I saw the look in her eye afterwards. My revenge might not seem quite so sweet. "I hadn't really thought about it. You don't really want me there, do you?"
"Of course I do, Trixie. I told you, I've forgiven you for what happened in the past. We're friends now, right?"
I blushed. "Well, if you put it that way, it would be an honour. Thank you, Twilight."
She led me to a seat where I could wait, and went upstairs to get changed into her ceremonial robe. I was surprised upon her return a few minutes later to see her levitating a spare robe behind her.
"Well, if you're my date, you need to look the part," she explained.
I was flattered. It was a smart-looking purple robe with a diamond clasp. "Well, thank you, it's lovely." I took off my cape and fastened the robe around me.
Twilight hung my cape up on a hook by the castle door, and told me that I could pick it up after the ceremony. I had a feeling I might be ponysona non grata afterwards, but I had plenty of spare capes; I could sacrifice this one.
We trotted together back into town, discussing spells and such. In the short time we'd been in Twilight's castle, the crowds had grown considerably. Twilight led me through the gathered ponies and up to the stage.
I stood at the edge, near the curtains, while Twilight took her place in front of a barrel on the stage. Snips and Snails were standing behind the curtains at the opposite side of the stage, and gave me a nod. The trap had been set.
A murmur erupted amongst the crowd and ponies strained their necks upwards to see Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, Twilight's former mentor, fly in and gently land on the stage.
Each of the princesses stood in front of matching barrels. At the climax of the ceremony, the barrel behind Celestia would release a dozen white owls who would fly off majestically, the barrel behind Luna would release the same number of nighthawks who would soar over the crowds in formation, and the barrel behind Twilight would blast her with poison joke petals.
Of course, it was supposed to be grey owls, but I'd made arrangements with Snips and Snails to… should we say, alter the evening's programme of events?
The ceremony started as planned, with the traditional songs and readings performed perfectly. At last it was time for Luna to raise the moon. I thought she looked a little nervous, but she glanced towards her sister for confirmation. Celestia nodded and smiled, and Luna seemed reassured by that.
Luna reared up onto her hind legs, unfurled her wings to their maximum reach and rose into the sky, the bright, pearl white moon behind her, silhouetting her form — at least for those ponies who had had the wisdom and foresight to get a place in front of the centre of the stage. The moon high in the sky, Luna slowly descended to the cheers of the gathered crowd.
The lid of the barrel behind Celestia lifted and the owls flew into the air, upwards in an ever-widening spiral, with the crowd looking appropriately awed by their synchronised flight display. The owls formed a circle in the sky before scattering in each direction. I have a natural eye for showponyship, and I can tell you, I was very impressed by it. I made a mental note to find out who had trained those owls and get in touch with them. Adding something like that to my act would be… sorry, I'm digressing.
Luna instinctively ducked when she heard the lid of her barrel open. The nighthawks flew out at speed, swooping low over the heads of the ponies in the audience. I chuckled to see several of them flinch at the birds narrowly missed their heads.
I looked at Twilight, who was standing bathed in the soft light of the moon, without a clue about what was going to happen and suddenly felt sick. How could I do this to a pony who had been nothing but kind and forgiving towards me? As I saw the horn of the unicorn in charge of lifting the lids start to glow, I knew what I had to do. I dashed across the stage and shoved her out of the way.
I saw her stumble and fall into Luna as the poison joke petals began to rain down on me.
☆
"So that's how I ended up here," Trixie said, finishing off her story.
The zebra looked up from her cauldron at Trixie's red nose and curly hair, which gave the unicorn the appearance of a clown. She suppressed a giggle. "That can't have been easy to regale. Thank you for telling me your tale." Zecora threw some leaves into the pot, and the potion bubbled. "But one last question to make things clear: Twilight why did you come here?"
Twilight walked over to stand beside Trixie, wrapping a hoof around her. "Trixie may have made a mistake, but she's owned up to it, she's apologised, and she's put it right."
Trixie smiled. "Thank you, Twilight. That means a lot to me." A slight blush came to her cheeks.
Zecora lifted a ladle of the brew she'd been making. "Trixie, the potion is now ready. Here's the spoon, so hold it steady."
Trixie took the spoon into her magical field and guided it towards her mouth. She drank down the bitter-tasting mixture and shuddered. "Thank you, Miss Zecora."
Zecora chuckled. "Just Zecora, not so formal. Look, your mane is back to normal."
Trixie put a hoof to her mane. It certainly felt normal. "Twilight, has it really worked? Do I look okay now?"
Twilight smiled. "Better than okay."
A grin formed on Trixie's face. "Thank you, Mi— I mean, Zecora."
The unicorn and alicorn said goodbye to Zecora and started the journey back to Ponyville.
Twilight looked at Trixie who seemed lost in thought. "What's the matter, Trixie?"
"I was just thinking about how after this latest stunt I need to take you out on a whole new apology date."
Twilight smiled. "But you didn't do anything. You might have planned to, but you changed your mind."
Trixie's ears drooped. "Oh, okay."
Twilight stopped and prodded the ground with her hoof nervously. "Of course, we could still go out for dinner some time, right?"
"Of course!" Trixie said, smiling widely, her eyes shining in the bright moonlight. She flung her forehooves around Twilight in a hug that almost knocked the wind out of the alicorn.
"Okay, okay!" Twilight extricated herself from the unicorn's embrace. "Next time you're in town, come by the castle, and we can go out for a meal or something."
Trixie regained her composure and nodded. "It's a date!"
