The Great and Powerful Student

by BudCharles

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Trixie, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Adventure
Length: 5281

Now that Twilight Sparkle is a princess, Trixie decides to become her student. But have they bitten off more than they can chew?

Twilight Sparkle is practicing her flying when she crash-lands in front of The Great and Powerful Trixie. Trixie tells Twilight she wants to become her royal student, to be "even more magnificent", and Twilight accepts, since she could learn from having a student. But things end up taking a turn for the worse - being a teacher is a lot harder than Twilight expected, and being a student is a lot harder than Trixie expected.

Published 2015-08-11 15:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-22 12:06:05 UTC

The Great And Powerful Student Part 1

“Let’s see”, Twilight Sparkle thought to herself, “I’ve made the checklist of checklists to make, the checklist of checklist supplies and the checklist of books about checklists”.

Twilight became lost in her thoughts as she flew further and further from Ponyville, the buildings receding into the distance, replaced by trees and open grassland. She didn’t notice and continued to gaze blankly up at the sky.

“But what if the checklist of checklists to make is wrong, I mean I made it before reading the books about checklists! If the checklist of checklists to make is wrong, then the checklist of checklist supplies is wrong too – I could run out of supplies and make the wrong checklist!”

A gust of air suddenly snapped her out of it!

Twilight desperately flapped her wings in an attempt to escape the turbulence, turning around to release that Ponyville looked smaller than her hoof on the horizon. She turned again only for a tree to appear right in front of her face.

THUD!

A couple of seconds later, Twilight re-opened her eyes and rubbed her head slowly. She was able to make out a hazy blue image in front of her and squinted to make it out. The blue character offered a hoof in Twilight’s direction. Twilight blinked and a familiar face came into view – Trixie!

“Trixie?” Twilight inquired as her old ‘friend’ helped her up. “What in Equestria are you doing here?”

Trixie smiled, seemingly pleased by the question. “Well, as you know, the great and powerful Trixie is a truly magnificent unicorn!” She flicked her cape into the air to demonstrate.

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes.

“However, Trixie is not quite as magnificent as she’d like to be. So, now that you’re an important princess – “

“I am not more important than anypony – “

Trixie placed a hoof on Twilight’s mouth and continued. “Trixie was wondering if she could be your royal student, and become even more magnificent?”

Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth, then closed it again before any words came out. She placed a hoof on her chin and gazed thoughtfully at the sky for a moment before looking back at Trixie.

“Actually”, Twilight began with a smile, “that’s not such a bad idea, I could do with a royal student, it’d be good magic practice after all”.

She paused again, before making her final decision. “Alright.”

“YES!” exclaimed Trixie as she leaped into the air with her hooves raised and a huge grin on her face. She then realised Twilight was still watching and tried to land as elegantly as possible.

“What Trixie meant to say is she knew you were going to say that.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Trixie and they began the long trek back to Ponyville.

Twilight returned home to find her castle a complete mess. There were books all over the floor, The Life Cycle of Dragons, The Ultimate Guide to Dragon Behaviour and Dragon Species of Equestria, to name a few. The shiny floor had become a jungle of paper. Any other time, Twilight would have looked around at the floor in disbelief - but she was in the middle of something. Twilight Sparkle never stopped in the middle of something.

“SPIKE!”, Twilight called out.

The baby dragon, halfway through a thick book with a picture of a dragon on the cover, jumped back in shock and slammed the book shut. He gulped and raced over to Twilight and Trixie.

“Yes?” Spike asked, faking a smile. He was too absorbed in his own situation to notice Twilight’s unusual guest.

“I’m going to need two blackboards, a bucket of chalk and The Beginner’s Guide to Magic!”

Spike breathed a sigh of relief at Twilight's failure to notice the mess he'd made, before running off towards the library.

“HOLD ON!” Twilight interrupted.

Spike skidded to a halt and turned around, covering his face in fear.

“Make that two buckets of chalk!”

Spike raced back into the room about a minute later, sweating heavily while attempting to push two old, battered blackboards on wheels with one hand while holding two buckets of chalk and an eraser in the other. Unsurprisingly, after rocking from side to side a couple of times, he tripped over his own feet and the buckets went flying into the air, where they were caught by Twilight’s sparkly magenta magic.

Spike handed over the eraser, somehow still grasped in his hand, before darting back to his book. Twilight Sparkle gently placed the buckets back on the floor and lifted a piece of chalk using her magic.

“Now”, Twilight began, “what category of magic do you want to learn about?”

“Uh… whichever one is the most magnificent?” Trixie replied.

“You don’t know the categories of magic?”

“Of course Trixie knows! She just – can’t recall them right now.”

“Well that’s the first thing you need to know then!” Twilight said, flicking open The Beginner’s Guide to Magic and beginning to write on one of the boards.

“There are several major categories of spells, these include mind spells, appearance spells, energy spells, movement spells…”

As Twilight rambled on, Trixie pulled her pointed purple hat over her face. She came here to learn magic, not fill in a citizenship form!

After roughly a minute of listing examples from each magic type, Twilight finally looked back at her new student and realised something was wrong.

“Is everything alright?” she asked.

Trixie groaned in reply.

“Perhaps we should try a practical lesson instead”, Twilight answered her own question.

--

The first stop in Trixie's "practical task", which Twilight Sparkle had of course spent several minutes preparing for, was Fluttershy's cottage. With that many animals to look after - Twilight thought - there'd have to be something they could help with. Twilight and Trixie couldn't help but hop along the path to the cottage - there were so many pretty flowers lining the way - part of some biodiversity program the creature specialist ponies were doing in the Everfree Forest. Gently, Twilight's hoof tapped the door.

"Oh... um... hold on a second" a quiet, shy voice muttered from within.

A few moments later the door swung open, and Fluttershy revealed herself, carrying a bag of fish-shaped biscuits in her mouth.

"Hi!" Twilight began, "we were just wondering if - wait, what's that?"

"Oh... um... I'm-I'm just about to feed the otters."

"Great! Do you think we could help?"

"I-I don't know, they're usually very friendly but... um... they can be a bit fussy about food"

"It's alright", Twilight assured, "Trixie can do a simple organisation spell, right?"

Both Twilight and Fluttershy turned to the student expectantly.

"Huh? Oh, yes, of course, it'll be a breeze for the great and powerful Trixie!"

"A-alright" Fluttershy finally conceded - she had a feeling that something would go wrong, but she always had that feeling, and things usually turned out okay... right?

Trixie, following the lead of Twilight and Fluttershy, proudly skipped over to the otters' pond, levitating the bag of food with her magic. The pond was a small pool of water near Ponyville's main river, with one or two lilly pads drifting on top, and the otters tended to use it as a place to rest, for the very small percentage of their time that they didn't spend playing around in the river and making a show for the local ponies - they had a reputation for being almost as entertaining as Pinkie Pie.

The otters crowded around expectantly and began chirping at Trixie. Twilight's student focused hard, closing her eyes and imagining the perfect otter biscuit. A select hoof-full of the biscuits floated out of the bag and landed on the floor. The otters were skeptical at first - the treats didn't smell like Fluttershy - but once one of them took a nibble, the entire holt of otters were scrambling for the food. Twilight clapped her hooves excitedly, and Trixie proudly lifted her nose into the air - her success, however, would be short lived.

One of Trixie's hooves slipped on the wet ground, and she lost focus on the spell. Not only did the bag spill all its contents into the pond, but bits and pieces from all over the surrounding woodland came flying over as well. Within a few seconds, a crowd of angry, hissing otters had engulfed Trixie, and she was running back and forth, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Help! Twilight, Fluttershy, Celestia, that random pony from Manehattan, somepony, help! Get them off!"

Calmly, Fluttershy walked over to the otters.

"Um... please calm down", Fluttershy began.

Immediately the otters were soothed by their friend's words and they let go of Trixie, who ran and hid behind Twilight, tossing away the small amount of dignity she had left.

"It was only an accident, she didn't mean to mess your food up, and the food she did give you was very nice."

The otters chattered among themselves, and then decided to calmly walk over to a trembling Trixie and lick her on the face.

"Trixie... apologies for her error", Trixie managed to spit out, first looking at the otters, but then turning to make eye contact with Twilight, as if to ask what should happen next.

"Don't worry Trixie", Twilight assured, "there's plenty of other chances, that was a good effort".

Author's Note

Don't worry, not every story I write is going to start with a main character crash-landing conveniently next to another main character X'D This is just a coincidence.

Anyway this isn't anywhere near finished yet, but I figured I'd upload what I have so far as a chapter and then do the rest as two other, separate chapters. Anyway enough chit-chat as they say. Time is indeed candy :twilightsheepish:

The Great And Powerful Student Part 2

Back at the castle, Spike finally finished his book, sat down, and sighed.

"Still nothing", he commented miserably to himself, "you'd think there'd be at least something about wingless dragons, but no. What if I'm the only one? What if I don't fit in anywhere?"

He sighed again, then looked around, realised the floor was still a mess and began to slowly stack the books littered across it.

Just outside the castle walls, Trixie and Twilight raced past, panting.

"I thought you said we could help you!" Twilight protested, gasping for breath.

Flying about 10 metres ahead of them, Rainbow Dash looked back and laughed. "Yeah, you can, if you can catch me!"

"Rainbow Dash, this isn't funny!"

"Bahahaha -"

SMACK!

Twilight Sparkle and Trixie walked calmly over to Rainbow Dash, who lay on the street in front of a shop wall. Twilight smirked and tapped Dashie's shoulder.

"Caught you", she said, calmly.

"Alright, alright", Rainbow Dash whined, getting back on her hooves and shaking off dust, "you can help build the obstacle course, but I'm still faster!"

Twilight and Trixie followed Rainbow Dash to a flat, long, dry strip of land, which Dash had covered in a big pile of large wooden planks and nails. Twilight remembered it being used for the Summer Harvest Parade, but apart from that the area was usually just ignored.

"Okay, this is the place", Rainbow Dash announced, for some reason expecting Twilight and her student to be impressed.

There was a moment of silence before Twilight spoke up.

"So, is there a blueprint or anything?"

"Of course!"

Rainbow Dash handed Twilight Sparkle a scrappy piece of paper with a rectangle on it labelled "field", and a series of boxes and circles in the middle labelled "obstacle course". Twilight squinted at it, trying to make out more detail, before she realised there was no more detail to be found.

After a few minutes of arguing with Rainbow Dash over the difference between "coolness" and "radicalness", Twilight and Trixie finally figured out what Rainbow Dash wanted them to make. With Twilight watching on hopefully, Trixie began lifting the wood.

At first she tried lifting it all at once, but she collapsed from the weight in a couple of seconds. Twilight rushed to help her.

"Trixie!" Twilight gasped, "don't lift it all at once! Even I couldn't do that!"

"But Trixie is great and powerful, she can do anything!", Twilight's student whined back.

"Sometimes we have to know when not to do things", Twilight smiled, remembering what Zecora said last time Trixie was in Ponyville, "now come on, try again, one plank at a time."

Twilight offered a hoof and helped Trixie to her feet.

Trixie thought about snapping some clever insult at Twilight, but for some reason she stopped herself, and followed Twilight's instructions.

Trixie smiled widely as her task now became ridiculously easy. She almost flung the wood into place, so much so that Twilight had to remind her to be careful. In a few minutes, the whole obstacle course was complete. A series of tall poles for Rainbow Dash to fly around, a huge wheel that had to be flown through at high speed to make it turn, a slide 10 pony-lengths high! It was beautiful, it was magnificent, it was -

"Have we done a safety check?", Twilight asked, snapping away the glazed expression on Trixie's eyes.

"The great and powerful Trixie doesn't need to do safety checks!" protested Trixie.

"Trixie, all construction spells need safety checks!"

"Not this one."

"Yes this one!" Twilight said, her mane starting to stand on end as she anticipated all the things that could go wrong without a safety check.

"Fine", Trixie finally gave in, but before she could do anything, Dashie zoomed into the course.

She weaved around the poles, they shook slightly, but stayed standing. Then she zoomed straight through the wheel! WHOOSH! The wheel spun Rainbow up into the air and wobbled side to side slightly, but again stayed standing. Finally, Rainbow Dash zoomed straight down towards the slide! And straight through the slide, into the ground.

Trixie and her teacher nervously approached the miniature meteorite impact crater in the dirt where Rainbow Dash lay holding her wings in agony.

"Owww!" Rainbow complained "that was the opposite of cool! Not even radical!"

Trixie looked guiltily down at the ground. Twilight made sure that Rainbow was alright, before turning to reassure her student.

"Hey," began Twilight, "you did really well, considering it was your first construction spell".

"Yeah right," came a frustrated response, "you're just saying that! Trixie messed up again"

Trixie hid her face in her cloak.

Twilight was a little taken aback by such a non-Trixie-like comment, but she was quick to reply.

"No you didn't, look, how about you give this one more chance, okay?"

After a moment of silence, Trixie looked up at Twilight and replied.

"Alright, Trixie didn't mean to overreact so much".

Twilight smiled and put a comforting arm around Trixie and they began to walk towards Sugarcube corner. She wondered how Celestia ever put up with her own breakdowns.

Trixie's mood immediately lightened up when she saw all the decorations inside the shop and a smile spread itself across her face. There were streamers everywhere, confetti cannons could be seen on the walls and balloons were tied to every object imaginable. The only things missing were - the lights!

"HAAAI" Pinkie Pie greeted her visitors in her usual happy, high-pitched voice, "can I interest you in any cakes?"

Twilight was about to say no when Trixie placed a handful of bits on the counter.

"Trixie would like a muffin please."

"Coming right uuuup", Pinkie smiled, as she handed over the dessert.

Twilight Sparkle looked at Trixie confused.

"I didn't know you liked muffins!"

"Well of course she does", Pinkie giggled, "fan favourite characters love muffins!"

This didn't make Twilight any less confused, but she decided to just accept Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie as usual.

"Anyway", Twilight began, turning to Pinkie and changing the topic, "I was wondering if we could help with anything?"

"OoooooOOOOooooh" Pinkie replied, "YES! The lights! I need green ones on the walls, pink ones on the ceiling, and blue ones outside!"

"Alright Trixie", Twilight began, "this is a chance to practice light spells and colour spells at once. Now are you confident with both of those?"

"Of course Trixie is, she uses them all the time for her shows", came the reply.

"Alright then, go ahead!"

Trixie's horn lit up and a series of bright white lights lined themselves around the building. So far so good. Twilight and Pinkie watched on smiling. Then Trixie added the colour. Everything looked just perfect! Except, that is, for one rogue green light on the ceiling. Irritated, Trixie changed it to pink, causing two lights on the wall to become blue.

Trixie stamped her hoof and angrily sent a jolt of magic into the lights, causing the entire setup to start flashing the colours of the rainbow.

Finally, Trixie had had enough. She stomped both her front hooves again and ran straight out the door in tears, and Twilight worriedly chased after her.

Pinkie, meanwhile, didn't realise anything had gone wrong. "Byyyyyyyyyye!" she called out, waving happily, "thanks for the lights! I love the rainbows!"

Twilight finally caught up to Trixie at the edge of Ponyville.

"Please", Twilight called out, "don't be upset! It's my fault, I threw all this on you at once, I should have taken it one step at a time!"

"No!" Trixie snapped, "it's not alright! Trixie will never use magic again!"

Trixie used her magic to pick up a rock and throw it away to emphasise the point.

"Please Trixie, listen to me, I know I didn't do a great job as teacher but don't let that stop you! You're a great magician if you'd just use your magic for good! You kicked me out of Ponyville for a whole day remember?"

"That was only because of a stupid amulet!"

"But that amulet amplified your own power! Trixie listen to me!"

"No!" Trixie declared, "Trixie is - I am sick of pretending! I'm useless!"

The two of them finally skidded to a halt when they heard Spike running towards them desperately, followed by the rest of the mane six.

"Twilight!" the dragon called out, panting, "where in Equestria were you! There's an... urgent... message!"

Spike flopped onto the floor breathing heavily and Twilight lifted the scroll out of his hand using her magic.

"Twilight Sparkle," she began reading out loud, "I have little time to write this. The dragons are already approaching. Please get here right away. Canterlot is under attack! I repeat Canterlot is - that's all it says".

Twilight's eyes widened.

"We have to get there straight away girls!" declared Twilight, picking up Spike and placing him gently on her back.

"Wait!" interrupted Trixie.

Everyone turned to face her in surprise.

"I'm coming too!"

"Trixie, it's too dangerous!" protested Twilight.

"After all Trixie's done, you forgave her, and tried to teach her", Trixie argued, "besides, Trixie knows you're dragon lunch without someone as great and powerful as her!"

Twilight smiled, the old Trixie was back.

"Alright", Twilight laughed, "but be careful".

Author's Note

I'm worried there isn't enough detail here compared to the first (and upcoming last) part, but I just can't think of anything more to add in :/ I also feel like Trixie's a bit out of character in this part too :/

Perhaps it's just because this was the part of the story I planned the least - since the whole fanfic was originally going to be script format - and this whole chapter would be one song sequence with all the mane six in it - but due to the site rules against songs and scripts I had to stretch it out into a chapter, and leave Applejack and Rarity's bits out and cut Spike's short so it didn't get repetitive and boring.

The Great And Powerful Student Part 3

The battle had only started an hour ago, but Canterlot already looked and sounded like a warzone. Bits and pieces of burned buildings and signs lay scattered on the streets. Dragons and ordinary ponies clashed viciously on the ground below. The dragons shot blasts of fire at the ponies, who dodged them and struck back with whatever they could find - brooms, chairs, pillows even!

In the sky above, the Princesses Luna, Celestia and Cadance fought Atrocity, the huge leader of the dragons, a dark crimson-coloured dragon the size of a palace, with long fangs and yellow eyes that contrasted so much with everything around them they appeared to glow.

An exhausted Luna fired a beam of starry purple magic, filled with miniature stars and galaxies, at the giant creature. It sprayed off like a fire hose aimed at a wall. Luna struggled to hold herself up, flapping her wings to re-stabilise herself.

"This is no use!" she declared, looking in the direction of Celestia, flying next to her. "We cannot go on like this, a new plan is required!"

"I think our new plan just arrived", Cadance smiled, pointing her hoof in the direction of 8 small figures in the distance - the Mane Six, Spike, and Trixie!

"Okay, we need some kind of plan", Twilight Sparkle noted, watching fearfully as the battle in the sky raged on, the princesses taking turns attacking Atrocity, then avoiding his giant beams of fire, which had already driven back the Royal Guard.

"What kind of plan?" Spike asked.

"Not entirely sure, but we definitely need one very soon!"

Confidently, Rainbow Dash placed herself into the conversation. "I might just have the plan you're looking for".

Sarcastically, Twilight answered, "we're all ears!"

The battle turned around pretty much immediately once the Mane Six arrived on the scene. Pinkie fired her party cannon into the dragon ranks, covering them in silly string and confetti. The ponies behind her laughed and cheered, filled with hopefulness they thought was lost hours ago!

Applejack proved just as effective - with one swing of a garden hose she took out several dragons, wrapping them into a bunch and slamming them straight into a wall - the Canterlot ponies attempted the same but only ended up breaking the hose.

Trixie, standing in open space to the side of the battlefield, charged up firework spells and launched them at the dragons, distracting them and causing them to topple over.

Rarity was initially unsure of what to do, but when one of the dragons tried to attack Spike, that was it! Rarity didn't think twice before charging straight into the dragon army and smacking them with her hooves from every which way. Spike watched on in admiration, Rarity was so strong, so elegant, and she was doing it all for him.

He was snapped out of it when Fluttershy bowled him over, racing towards a large bucket, which she promptly pulled over herself. Spike shook the dirt of his scales and followed.

"Fluttershy, what are you doing?" he asked, astonished.

"Hiding" Fluttershy said plainly.

"They need you out there! Come on, you faced a dragon before."

"Yes", she said, "one dragon. Not one thousand. All the fighting, it's just horrible."

Suddenly, Spike's eyes lit up in realisation.

"Hey", he began, talking slowly so his thoughts could keep up with the sentence, "I know what to do."

Back at the front line, with the battle ferociously raging behind them, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash spread out their wings, scratched the ground and prepared to take off.

"Ready?" Dashie asked, her voice and her face lighting up with confidence.

"I think so", came the nervous reply.

"Awesome!"

Twilight wondered if Rainbow Dash even acknowledged her answer, but there was no time to find an answer.

FLAP! Rainbow Dash was airborne!

Shakily Twilight Sparkle took off, following her nearly directly vertically upwards, feeling a little queasy in the stomach.

To think, she thought flying was bad before!

Rainbow Dash zipped smoothly up into the air beside her. Just the presence of such a great flyer did calm Twilight for some reason. Logically she knew there was no way she'd be safe if something went wrong at this speed, but she still felt as if Rainbow Dash would somehow catch her.

Then the moment came...

Twilight closed her eyes and frowned, her fur standing on end in fear and blowing back from the wind. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and smiled, taking a deep breath of pride with a touch of 'awesomeness' and a hint of 'radicalness'.

Then they stopped, time seemed to slow down as their wings turned them 180 degrees.

With the ground straight below them, they zoomed downwards nose-first!

A cone of air built around them, sparks began to fly out, then it began to glow - first red, then orange, then yellow, then a glorious white, brighter than every sun Celestia raced in the last hundred years.

BOOM!

A huge sphere of rainbow blasted out in every direction, sparkling with magic, followed by another sphere, and another! They passed right through the ponies like a hologram, but they hit the dragons with the force of twenty bucks from Applejack.

The entire dragon army toppled over and the ponies steamrolled over them. Rainbow Dash and Twilight opened their eyes, and Dashie found the time to comment "awesome".

The two ponies then pulled up in opposite directions just before reaching the ground. Rainbow Dash zoomed towards the mane six, and Twilight towards open space. Atrocity seized the opportunity.

Twilight looked up in shock to see a huge pillar of fire flying down towards her! She slowed down in an attempt to turn around but just ended up stopping completely.

Rainbow Dash did a u-turn and flew towards her but she was too far away! The mane six raced over too but they couldn't even reach Rainbow Dash. Just when it looked like Equestria would have one less princess - Trixie leaped in front of Twilight Sparkle!

VWOOM! A magical warping sound could be heard as a semi-sphere of bright magic formed in front of Trixie and Twilight. Twilight looked up to see Trixie's horn aglow, casting a shield spell and dispersing the fire harmlessly in all directions.

Twilight stared in astonishment, that was Trixie! The pony who had tried to drive her out of her own town. The pony who tried to humiliate all her friends. And there that pony was, pouring everything she had into saving her!

Atrocity tried as hard as he could, but Trixie tried harder. The fire ran out, Atrocity roared in anger and turned away, and Trixie finally let down the shield spell, collapsing onto the ground.

Twilight and her friends rushed to Trixie's aid. The student groaned to let them know she was alright, but that was it. Twilight examined Trixie with her magic, then sighed with relief.

"She's alright, it's just shock", Twilight announced. "I - can't believe she did that", she quietly followed, more to herself than anypony else.

A look around revealed the entire battlefield had quietened down to watch Trixie and her friends. Spike and Fluttershy took the opportunity.

Spike hopped up onto Fluttershy's back, and the pegasus took off smoothly into the air. She spiraled up above the clouds, and stopped to hover between Atrocity and Princess Celestia, who were preparing their final attacks on each other. She turned to face Celestia, and Spike turned to face the king of dragons. Spike began to speak.

"Enough! Dragons and ponies don't have to be enemies!" he declared.

The injured dragons and tired ponies on the ground looked into the air and listened out of curiosity.

Spike continued. "I'm a dragon! I might not fly, but I have scales, I breathe fire, I beat all other species in burping competitions, just like you guys! But I was raised by ponies, and you know what, it's worked out!"

"It's true!" Fluttershy added, "we love our little Spikey Wikey! Sure he's different, but that just makes him more special!"

Spike blushed before going on, "I've searched all my life for my place, trying to find out whether I was a dragon or a pony, whether I would ever fit in, and now I realise the truth. I'm both! If I can get along with ponies, so can you!"

"And if we ponies can get along with Spike", Fluttershy finished, a mixture of confident and nervous, "then we can get along with other dragons too".

The dragons and ponies nodded and chatted amongst themselves in agreement. Celestia stopped charging her spell and the other princesses backed away.

Atrocity yelled in anger. "Nonsense! Ponies have always looked down on us! Dragons will always be their enemies! If Spike wants to stand in the way of our victory, then let him get incinerated with his namby-pamby princess!"

The dragon king prepared a blast of fire and Fluttershy and Spike covered their faces in fear. Then - they didn't get hurt. The two of them looked up to see all the pegasi of Canterlot and the whole dragon army teaming up together and driving Atrocity away. The ponies on the ground cheered wildly. The war was over!

The dragons cheered as their old leader flew away, before forming a large circle around Spike and joyously chanting "Hail Spike! Hail Spike!"

"What's... going on?" Spike asked, puzzled.

"Atrocity is gone", the dragon facing Spike replied, "you are our new king!"

Spike's face swung between several emotions at once, excitement - this would be so awesome, surprise - him, a king?, anxiety - what was he going to do?, and relief - he wasn't dead! Spike decided to settle with excitement, if everyone was going to worship him, he might as well be happy about it.

Trixie awoke to find herself on a bed in Twilight's castle, surrounded by the relieved faces of Spike, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. She wasn't sure how she got there - last thing she remembered clearly was using the biggest spell she'd ever attempted - every last scrap of magic she could muster went into it, everything after that was a blur.

"What you did back there was really brave", she heard Twilight Sparkle say. "I'd even call it magnificent."

"Me?" Trixie gasped in disbelief.

Twilight smiled, "yes, you!"

"But, it was just a shield spell. Trixie wasn't even that powerful."

"It's not having power that makes a pony magnificent, it's whether they use it to help others. And you did just that!"

Trixie smiled, amazed. Twilight held her hoof.

"By the way," continued Twilight, "sorry for what happened before. Will you still be my student?"

"YES" exclaimed Trixie, before repeating herself more calmly, "Trixie meant to say yes".

Twilight chuckled and picked up Trixie in a huge hug. The rest of the Mane Six and Spike joined in.

"W-what's that warm fuzzy thing?" Trixie questioned.

"You mean a hug?" Twilight asked. "Wait, you've never had a hug before?"

"No, Trixie hasn't. But the great and powerful Trixie approves of the activity!"

"Well you'll be getting plenty from now on!" Twilight declared, hugging tighter.

"Heyyy" Pinkie Pie suddenly began, "I have to teach you about all the types of hugs! There are huggles, and cuddles, and group hugs, and tackle hugs, and glomps, and -"

"Alright", Twilight's student interrupted, "Trixie gets the idea."

Author's Note

D'aaw cute ending ^w^ Anyway I like this part better than the other 2 but it still seems a bit forced, I guess I'll just have to keep trying. Next story will be a Scootaloo one :D