Out Of Placeby BudCharlesChaptersNice Going, TrixieThe Show Must Go OnArt Of The DuelSpellboundUnlikely VictoryNice Going, TrixieTwilight Sparkle buried herself in Geological History of the Crystal Mountains. So fascinating, she thought, to think they used to be a sea floor! Her immersion was suddenly disrupted when she heard her student exclaim “Trixie could do this easily!” Twilight peered over Trixie’s shoulder, her expression turning to one of dread. “Uh, Trixie, I’m not sure that’s really a good idea – that spell is experimental, and highly complicated.” “Nonsense, the Great and Powerful Trixie is more than capable!” Trixie snorted. Twilight tried to protest again, but it was too late, Trixie’s horn had already begun to glow. A large aura of light surrounded the two of them for a few moments, then dispersed into the surrounding air – it looked as if nothing had changed. “See, Trixie told you she – wait, why does Trixie’s voice sound different.” The two ponies examined themselves in increasing horror as Twilight realised she was now Trixie, and Trixie realised she was now Twilight. Twilight gave Trixie her most menacing death stare possible. “Uh… Trixie totally knew what she was doing”, Trixie made up on the spot. “Yeah, Trixie meant to do this!” “Really?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. “Then I suppose you know the counter spell?” “Well, Trixie was planning to – uh –” Twilight raised her eyebrow further. “Alright, fine, Trixie may have made a small mistake, and may have no idea how to reverse the spell.” The two of them sat silently in shock for a few moments before Twilight began contemplating what to do next. “Okay, uh… alright, it’s going to take at least a day to reverse this, which means today’s diplomatic meetings are going to be thrown off.” Twilight’s breathing began to speed up. “But if the diplomatic meetings are thrown off, that means the other nations will think Equestria views them as unimportant – and if they think we think they’re unimportant, they might declare war on us – and then all of Equestria could be thrown into chaos for years, and it could all be my fault!” “CALM DOWN!” Trixie snapped. Twilight instantly got the message. “Ah – sorry. What we should probably do is go see Celestia, she’ll know exactly how to handle this!” With that, Twilight and Trixie held hooves and teleported straight for Canterlot. “Ahh!” Celestia squeaked as she dropped her half-eaten slice cake on the floor. “Sorry”, Twilight replied. Celestia quickly regained her composure and smiled at the two of them, wiping the icing off her muzzle as elegantly as possible. (It didn’t work.) “That’s perfectly alright Trixie, I could probably have done without the extra ‘nutritional benefits’ anyway. Now what brings you here?” “Well you see, that’s just the issue. I’m not Trixie.” “You’re… not?” Celestia asked, only letting on the smallest hint of puzzlement. “No, the actual Trixie,” Twilight began, “decided it’d be a good idea to try a complicated experimental spell – so long story short, I’m Trixie, and Trixie’s me. So we came here to ask for your help.” “Oh.” Celestia replied. Twilight winced. She knew Celestia better than anypony. That ‘oh’ was saved only for the direst of circumstances. Whatever was coming next wouldn’t be good. “Well Twilight, we have a small problem”, Celestia began. ‘Small’ meant ‘near-cataclysmic’ in Celestiese. “The Equestrian constitution says the nation is ruled by the alicorn princesses.” “I don’t understand,” Twilight asked, “what’s the problem?” “Well, you’re not an alicorn… and Trixie is…” “You’re saying -?” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Yes – Trixie is technically a princess. It will take at least a day to change the constitution, so until then –” Trixie jumped up and down with excitement! “The Great and Powerful Trixie is now PRINCESS Trixie? This is the best thing ever! Of course she does deserve it, after all…” Twilight chewed her hoof with a new-found level of anxiety even she previously thought impossible. Meanwhile, Trixie continued to brag about how great she was. “…this is going to be so great! Wait – hold on,” Trixie finally realised, “what about Gold Star, Trixie promised to help him practice for the upcoming show today. With all this princess stuff Trixie will be unable to –“ Twilight stopped chewing her hoof and decided to reassure Trixie. “Don’t worry,” she began, “I can help train Gold Star, he’ll understand. We can work on a counter-spell too.” “Alright then,” Celestia interrupted calmly, “in that case Trixie, you should come with me, it is your turn to answer the public’s questions this morning.” Before they parted ways, Twilight whispered something in Celestia’s ear. “Please, keep Trixie from doing anything crazy.” Gold Star sat in his room, eagerly awaiting Trixie’s arrival. He’d researched all the latest developments in the field of magic and couldn’t wait to share them, plus he was going to start practicing for the awesome routine Trixie had planned for him! “Hi Trixie!” he squeaked as Twilight knocked gently on the door and entered. “Listen, Gold Star, there was a little magic mistake,” Twilight explained, “and Trixie and I kind of switched places. So – I’m Twilight.” “WOAH! That’s so cool! What spell did you use?” Twilight chuckled, a little taken aback from getting the complete opposite of the response she was expecting, but glad Gold Star was happy. “Well, I think we should get started with the practice first. I’m going to be searching for a counter-spell soon so I can tell you all about it then, alright?” Gold Star nodded enthusiastically. “So, what were you and Trixie planning anyway?” Gold Star ran to the other side of his room and battled his way through a labyrinth of mess before finally locating a chalkboard with pictures drawn on it. He pulled it out, causing a series of crash sounds as the assorted toys and writing utensils covering it were grabbed by gravity. Twilight was a little put off by the mess, but impressed with the amount of effort the young colt had put into planning this presentation. Gold Star cleared his throat as professionally as he could, before beginning his explanation. “So, Trixie and I will be part of a show about the three kinds of ponies working together. The Earth Ponies are going to send in their best potion experts and farmers to grow a massive series of plants, then the Wonderbolts, representing Pegasi, are going to have an awesome race through an obstacle course at the top. So what Trixie and me will be doing –” Twilight flinched slightly at Gold Star saying ‘me’ instead of ‘I’ this time, but managed to look past it. “– is creating an awesome obstacle course out of magic! We’re going to be making portals, magic acceleration ramps, rings of coloured fire – we’re even casting a special spell that makes music play when the Wonderbolts fly through certain areas!” “That does sound pretty awesome,” Twilight said with a smile, “but are you sure you can pull it off? I mean those spells are highly complicated – and need a lot of precision. If something goes wrong it could be very dangerous.” “Please Twilight?” the colt asked, tilting his head slightly and making his eyes as sparkly as possible. “Alright,” Twilight reluctantly accepted, “since you’re so excited about it, I’ll help teach you – but before we do any of that, you’re going to have to work on precision, alright?” “I know it’ll be hard, but I really really want to learn! And I’ll try my absolute best!” Gold Star replied. “Okay then. Let’s get started.” Twilight smiled. “Alright my little ponies!” began Celestia, from atop her castle balcony. “I know you’re all eager for Princess Twilight to answer your questions – and indeed your questions will still be answered. However, I must inform you that due to a… technical complication and a legal roadblock… Twilight Sparkle is unavailable at the moment. So instead, the pony who’ll be answering your questions is Trixie Lulamoon, in the form of Twilight Sparkle.” “Of course,” Trixie interrupted, pushing in front of Celestia, “the Wise and Approachable Trixie is more than qualified to answer any question!” We’ll see about that, Celestia thought to herself as Trixie went galloping downstairs to meet the ponies lining up to see her. About half the crowd had left after hearing the news, so at least Trixie would only cause half as much damage. First in line to see Trixie was a young filly. She raced up to Trixie excitedly and quickly bowed. “So, what’s your question for Trixie?” “I wanted to know,” the filly began confidently, “why does the sky look all blue?” “Seriously?!” Trixie snapped. “You thought that was worth asking a princess! What a ridiculous question!” The filly’s eyes filled with tears, and before Trixie knew it, the filly was crying out loud, and the crowd were staring in shock and chattering, appalled by Trixie’s response. “Uh –” Trixie began, trying desperately to win back control of the situation. “Um, what Trixie meant to say, is that’s a wonderful question, but perhaps it’d be a better idea to ask a… science teacher… or something.” It did nothing – the filly continued crying. Trixie shuddered, she remembered the times she was chased out of town, tomatoes flying at her cart. She could recover of course, she was Trixie – but not this time. Everyone in Equestria knew her now. If she made one mistake she could never show her face in public again! Trixie sighed – she’d have to use her last resort. After staring at the ground for a moment to prepare herself for the upcoming trauma, Trixie stepped forwards and gave the filly a hug. Instantly, the filly’s face lit up! She stopped crying and squeaked excitedly. “Oh my gosh! I got hugged by the Great and Powerful Trixie! And she was also a princess! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! My friends are going to be, like, so excited!” Trixie took a deep breath in relief as the filly ran off excitedly and the crowd calmed down. Crisis averted. “Now, what is your question sir?” Trixie asked the next pony in line, a rather grumpy-looking stallion. “Was it right for my daughter to get suspended for sticking gum on a table?” “EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH” Trixie exclaimed, face-hoofing. This would be a long day. Author's Note I know the idea of Twilight and Trixie switching places has been done before, but it usually involves Trixie getting revenge and such - whereas this fic has a "good" Trixie (good by Trixie standards) who just causes it from sheer arrogance, so I kind of wanted to see where that idea could go and I think you'll like it if you give it a chance (and I don't screw it up) XD Anyway in terms of actual writing, I think this went pretty well (by my standards anyway), the pacing isn't a complete trainwreck like it usually is :P The dialogue seems a bit awkward for some reason but I think the characters feel right. Maybe I'm just happy to be writing Trixie again, she's so fun to write XD The Show Must Go OnTwilight Sparkle watched on anxiously as Gold Star lit up his horn. The colt took a step back, pretty much walking into the wall behind him, before blasting a nearly blinding beam of magic light at the other side of the room. Twilight’s mane was blown into her face as a shockwave rippled through the entire building. Twilight brushed it away to reveal that instead of the front yard, Gold had opened a portal to Doughnut Joe’s store on the other side of Canterlot. Gold Star quietly mumbled a “sorry”. “I don’t understand!” Twilight thought aloud. “You did great on the pop quiz, the flash cards, the four-page university-level exam, you had literally everything right!” Gold Star stared at the ground, now covered in the remains of a book too close to the beam of magic. “I guess you were right, it’s just too hard, I’m just not good enough to do it.” “Are you kidding?” Twilight said confidently, lifting Gold Star’s chin up with her front hoof. “You got into the final of the biggest magic competition ever!” “Yeah, then Trixie had to save my flank because I couldn’t even get a fire extinguishing spell right.” Twilight thought about pointing out the anatomical errors with the colloquial use of the word “flank” but quickly dismissed the idea. “Don’t be silly, you just need more practice with precision magic – and I just need to find the right way for you to practice, so you know what that means?” Gold Star just gave a confused “uhh…” in reply. “It means research! Take me to your library!” Twilight said with a smile. Gold Star smiled back at the idea of more magic research and happily bounced out of the room, seemingly forgetting about the fact he turned his room into a landfill. Twilight followed along as they headed for West Canterlot Local Library. “Errrrrgggghhh!” Trixie groaned as dramatically as possible before collapsing in the least majestic way possible on the castle floor. “Thank Celesti – uh… - thank you that that’s over!” The almost glowing white princess standing next to her opened her mouth, about to speak, but was cut short by Trixie’s ongoing complaining. “Can you believe that one stallion thought it was worth wasting Princess Trixie’s valuable time to talk about his relationship problems?” “Well that is your job” Celestia answered, as gently as possible. “Ugh, Trixie doesn’t care! At least she can finally get on with a nice, calm, sensible lunch break!” “Well, there is a small issue with that,” Celestia continued, “Twilight had organised a diplomatic lunch in the Dragon Kingdom today, so Luna and I will be having lunch there and… you’ll be included as well.” The light, jingly sound of Trixie’s magic was followed by loud gasps of shock as she attempted to lift up a sandwich and place it in her mouth. “What?” Trixie demanded in frustration, spitting out what was going to be a very nice lunch. “What’s wrong with picking up a sandwich?” More gasps sounded across the long rectangular table, dragon ‘officials’ pausing in the middle of table-top brawls and food fights to stare in shock at Trixie’s behaviour. “Trixie,” Celestia whispered quietly, “it is customary for dragons to eat with only their mouths, claws and magic are to be used only for throwing food.” “Oh.” Trixie replied quietly. “Hey, Tinsel!” the large orange dragon across from Trixie called out in an attempt to break the awkward silence, “how about an arm wrestle?” “The name is Trixie!” came a very unimpressed reply. “Whatever, whatsyourface, arm wrestle?” the dragon repeated, reaching his tomato sauce-covered arm towards Trixie. “Uh… Trixie would rather not actually” the pony said, squirming a little at the thought. More gaps of horror. “Seriously?” Trixie complained. “Arm wrestles are kind of like hoof shakes for dragons,” Celestia explained, “it is customary to accept them. Not doing so can be seen as a sign of distrust and disrespect.” “Well Trixie doesn’t care, Trixie will not get sauce all over her perfectly good hoof!” “Hey, it’s your weird pony food!” the dragon argued back, “deal with it!” At just the worst moment, the glorious King Spike walked into the room, dressed in a comically oversized cape. The dragons and princesses all turned and bowed to him in reverence – well, all except Trixie. Trixie realised too late she was supposed to join them as a dragon caught a glimpse of her and called out angrily, “HEY, SHE’S NOT BOWING!” That was the final straw. The table devolved into an uproar as an angry mob of dragons surrounded Trixie and threw her in front of Spike. “DUEL! DUEL! DUEL!” the crowd called out eagerly. Spike frowned uncomfortably. “Sorry Trixie,” he stated, “if I don’t go ahead with this it’d probably mean war. I’m afraid I have to challenge you to an official dragon duel.” The local library was about the size Ponyville’s used to be, though not part of a tree. It was packed with ponies, though being a library it was still quiet. Drawing very little attention to themselves, Twilight Sparkle and Gold Star trotted contently over to the magic section. There was no place the two of them would rather be. “Ooh” Twilight blurted with a smile, using her magic to lift Practical Teaching Methods for Precision Training towards her. Gold Star located his favourite book in the library, 101 Most Awesome Magicians of All Time and sat down to read it next to Twilight. Too late the two of them heard a stallion call out “hey, isn’t that Trixie?” Within seconds, Twilight and Gold Star found their reading spot surrounded by a noisy and excited crowd, pointing cameras and pieces of paper in their direction and asking for pictures and autographs. “I’m not Trixie,” Twilight tried to protest, “there was a spell that went all wrong and –” It was no use. The crowd were far too excited over “Trixie” being there to listen to her. Twilight lifted Gold Star onto her back and tried to make it out the exit, only to find herself confronted by another gathering crowd. “Show us a magic trick!” a filly up the back called out. “Yeah! We want magic!” added a stallion up the front. Soon the whole crowd joined in the chorus. What in the hay does Trixie like about this? Twilight thought to herself. She sighed and decided to give in. “Alright, one magic trick, but that’s all.” The crowd cheered wildly! Author's Note Just to let you know, in the first story of this series Spike became the king of dragons. I know that seems rather... well, out of place (hehe), to just throw that in to this story but I can't just ignore my own prequel's canon, sorry :P Anyway I hope you still like the rest of this, and I might do something useful with the Spike as king thing at some future point in a sequel to this sequel to a sequel but right now it's just there XD Heck I might as well make my own season the way this is going XD Art Of The DuelTwilight Sparkle stood staring at the massive, very eager-looking crowd gathering around her. Her gaze quickly found its way to Gold Star. She non-verbally asked him for help, but all she got was a shrug in response. Okay Twilight, you can handle this, come on. Twilight stood up on her hind hooves, she nearly fell over but managed to regain her balance. With a very unconvincing smile, she declared "prepare to be dazzled... by the uh... Great and Powerful Trixie!" With that, she magically launched a series of fireworks into the air, and the crowd cheered wildly. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and began to head for the edge of the stage. "Where are you going?" a member of the crowd called out disapprovingly. "I - uh - Trixie said one trick, that's all! I - ugh - Trixie isn't prepared to pull off a full performance safely." "BOOOOOOOOOOOO! WE WANT MAGIC!" came the overpowering reply from the audience, repeated several times. Twilight took a deep breath and trotted back to the centre of the 'stage'. "Okay, just this once", she finally gave in. The booing faded into cheering and thunderous applause as Twilight stood there petrified. This made the crowds at royal speeches seem like a quiet chat with friends. Twilight's eyes darted upwards as she tried to think of something to do. Uh huh! She lit up her horn and shot a beam of magic into the crowd, causing a mare in the audience to sprout a thick, black mustache. What were you thinking Twilight, she thought to herself, somehow not noticing the crowd cheering wildly and holding up the lucky pony who got a mustache from the 'Great and Powerful Trixie'. This is terrible, this is terrible - uh huh, I know what'll turn it around! Twilight took a step back and lit up her horn. She'd been practicing this spell recently out of curiosity and become quite proficient. With a flash of magic, beautiful butterfly wings sprouted from Gold Star's back, sending beams of colour flashing all over the crowd like a disco ball at one of Vinyl's parties. The crowd cheered wildly as Gold Star flapped his new-found wings, smiling widely as he lifted himself into the air. Seemingly out of nowhere, a breeze began to pick up, lifting the young colt into the sky. Thinking it was part of the act, the crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed as Gold Star was blown further into the air and began to drift towards the other side of Canterlot. Twilight wasted no time in chasing after him, the crowd happily moving out of the way to let her through before joining her in her pursuit, cheering her on wildly. Things weren't going any better in the dragon kingdom. Trixie and Spike found themselves surrounded by thousands of dragons, all cheering on - or more roaring on - their young king. Celestia buried her face in her hooves in disbelief, while her sister leaped into the air. "Take him down Trixie!" Luna called excitedly. "You can't seriously be enjoying this?" Celestia whispered in disbelief. "Ha! Thy hath grown soft, sister! Not enjoying a good duel once in a while!" Trixie and Spike squared each other up. Trixie smiled confidently, she could take this little pipsqueak easily, she was Trixie, she overpowered a future princess once! Spike meanwhile took a brief look around him. His eyes lit up with realisation, but he didn't let on whatever it was he realised, and turned back to Trixie. "GET 'EM!" Luna called out, which seemed to be enough to signify the start of the battle. Spike attacked first, blasting a beam of green fire at Trixie, which the pony easily held back with a glowing pink shield spell, before charging at him with his horn lit. Spike leaped out of the way, causing Trixie to fire the spell straight into the wall of the cave. With a loud rumble, a pile of rocks came crashing down in front of Trixie. The pony jumped back, startled, and Spike took the opportunity, racing towards her while she was distracted and sending a massive beam of fire into her side. Trixie went flying into the air and came crashing down about a metre away, stirring up a pillar of dust. The three princesses raced to Trixie's side in concern while the dragons continued to cheer wildly. "Will she be alright?" Cadance asked. "Pretty sure she will," Spike explained, "the flame I used wasn't high temperature, just pressar - pressher - fast-moving air. Only her pride will be hurt." Celestia lifted a dazed and sorry Trixie onto her back with her magic, and dragged Luna away by her front hoof before she could start fangirling over the battle, all while doing her best to keep up a calm and friendly smile. On the plus side, it seemed like Trixie's strategy of 'start a fight with the leader of the country' was a surprisingly effective diplomatic strategy. She'd never seen a group of dragons look happier. Back in Canterlot, Twilight was, unfortunately for her, completely conscious. The whole performance had gone tumbling down the stairs like Spike after waking up early, and now Gold Star was in serious danger. Alright, alright, stay calm. You're going to resolve this. Although if you don't, Gold Star could be seriously injured, or worse! And Trixie's career could be destroyed! And you could be demoted from princess, and sent back to - STOP IT, just do something Twilight did her best to take a deep breath while running as fast as her hooves could carry her - it wasn't easy - before creating a massive magic net in front of Gold. The net held for a few short moments, but then disintegrated as quickly as it appeared. The crowd following behind her cheered as they caught the little bits of magic rope that rained down on them. She thought to herself for a moment, and then decided to go for another strategy. She created a giant lasso out of magic, and flung it in Gold Star's direction. Unfortunately for Twilight, she wasn't quite as talented as Applejack in the field of lassoing, and ended up catching herself, causing laughter from the crowd. Quickly, Twilight regained her footing and continued the chase, her cape starting to blow in front of her face. Okay, one more shot, come on, this has to work. She pushed the cape away from her face in annoyance and aimed a spell carefully in Gold Star's direction. A bubble of magic formed around the young pony, and he began drifting towards the ground. Yes... yes... POP! The bubble hit a lamp post, and it was back to square one. Stupid architect! Twilight's eyes widened as she noticed Gold Star approaching the cliff face at the edge of Canterlot. The crowd began to realise this might not be a performance and gasped in shock. Twilight skidded to a halt and panicked, face-hoofing a couple of times before suddenly having an "AHA" moment! With no time to lose, Twilight Sparkle lit up her horn an sent a huge flash of light across the sky, which lasted only a second, The wind slowed down to a gentle breeze, and Gold Star gently fluttered his way to the ground, his wings disintegrating as soon as he touched the ground. The crowd cheered uncontrollably, and Twilight ran up to Gold Star and gave him the tightest hug of his life. He giggled with a mixture of joy and relief, not knowing how else to react. Suddenly, Twilight's face lit up with realization. "Of course! That's it! Gold Star, I think we've found your solution!" "We... have?" Twilight quickly lifted Gold onto her back and raced back the way they came, followed closely by a crowd of adoring fans snapping pictures and begging for autographs. Trixie got up to find herself back in Equestria. She looked around to find herself in a dark room, with bright lights scattered about, reminding her of the night sky. She was greeted by an excited voice. "Trixie! Thou art awake!" Trixie attempted to reply but was cut short by Luna. "We would - I would personally like to thank thee for bringing back the art of duelling! We - I can give thee lessons?" "Uh, Trixie would rather not..." "Nonsense! Thou art highly talented, and have wonderful potential!" Trixie couldn't help but smile at this, Luna did raise a very valid point. "Well, Trixie is pretty amazing, Trixie admits that. Alright, once this whole body-switching thing is over, Trixie will give it a try. Maybe." Luna clapped her hooves excitedly and called for her guards - a few minutes later, they returned with a set of armour, covered in beautiful illustrations of the night sky. Trixie examined the armour silently, she didn't know how to say it without seeming... 'nice'... but it looked amazing. "It... suits Trixie." Luna gave Trixie a surprised look. "Really?" "Yeah, Trixie has always liked the night sky. After all, it is Trixie's cutie mark, and anything to do with Trixie must be awesome!" "Y-you like the night?" "Of course, it's Trixie's favourite time to perform! It's like there's a billion magical spotlights in the sky!" Before she knew it, Trixie had been pulled into a hug of such epic proportions it was like being hugged by an Ursa Minor. "Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou!" Luna declared, close to crying with happiness. Trixie stood there awkwardly. Did I... say something?, she thought to herself. Author's Note Ugh these thees and thous are confusing XD I think I got it right but sorry if I didn't XD Anyway I'm still having issues with pacing, this went faster than a bullet train driven by Rainbow Dash, but I think I got the characters okay, and Twilight trying to imitate Trixie is a funny mental image XD EDIT: Paragraphs messed themselves up again, sorry, you'll have to read through a block of text. I don't know why they do that. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-UOm6r2ifqAzNKOZVKF5-TTuCT1PAd-19xg09UuJil8/edit?usp=sharing Here's a Google Doc with the proper paragraphs as they appear inside my writing box XD SpellboundCelestia walked towards her sister’s room. The castle hallways were quite calm at this time of day, so she didn’t have to stop every two minutes to smile at a guard. Not that she minded, they were just doing their jobs – the constant socialising was simply a bit much, especially after the… interesting… day she was having so far. She was glad to have a break. In the room itself, Trixie let out an impatient sigh, before looking back towards Luna. It seemed the princess had completely missed Trixie’s signal, as she continued with her life story. “And thus, he dropped the scrolls all over the pavement! It was not funny he insisted, well we certainly found it funny.” Earlier in the conversation, Trixie would have tried asking if Luna meant ‘we’ as in herself, or as a collective. By this point, all she wanted to ask was ‘when will this be over’ but the annoying “politeness” thing Twilight had taught her got in the way. Finally, Trixie was given her way out. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! Luna recognised the sound. “Sister, can thou not see we are busy?” “No I can’t,” came the giggly reply from Celestia, “but I can hear you are!” Luna groaned and put on her most unimpressed look. With that, the door swung open and Celestia turned to Trixie, who looked as if she’d been forced to listen to a panicked cat being dragged across a blackboard stretching halfway to the Crystal Empire. “Trixie, I need to ask a favour, is it alright if I take you away from Luna for a bit?” “YES!” Trixie yelled out at the top of her voice, before correcting herself. “Ahaha, what Trixie meant to say was yes, Trixie must fulfil her very important duties, after all, she isn’t best princess for nothing.” With that, Trixie quickly scampered out the door, Luna calling out behind her in the Canterlot Voice. “WE UNDERSTAND THOU MUST FULFILL THY DUTIES! WE HOPE TO SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN DEAR FRIENDS, WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES DO NOT US PART!” Celestia caught up with Trixie about thirty seconds later, finding her panting in a heap next to a massive stained glass window. “Is… she gone?” Trixie asked, giving her most dramatic exhausted pose possible. “Yes,” Celestia said, her voice tainted with a hint of scepticism about Trixie’s ‘exhausted’ state. “Now I believe I asked a favour of you?” “Oh yeah, what was Trixie meant to do again?” Trixie leaped back on to her hooves, all her tiredness magically vanishing. “Well, as Twilight is unable to complete her regular duties, you will need to sign a few documents she was planning to complete today.” “No problem, Trixie is excellent at writing! It’s nothing more than moving a pen around! The great and… uh… administrative Trixie is more than capable!” “Thank you for co-operating,” Celestia said with a smile, “I’ll show you to the study.” A few minutes later, Trixie found herself in a dark, wooden room, surrounded by multiple piles of paper, taller than her. “So, how much of this is Trixie signing again?” “Oh right, the whole lot,” Celestia replied casually before walking out. Trixie’s eye twitched slightly as she stared at the monstrous situation she had just locked herself into. Back at Gold Star’s place, Twilight had finally managed to distract the crowd long enough to get inside. She hurriedly carried Gold Star up to his bedroom door before collapsing in front of it. Gold swung the door open and dragged his temporary mentor inside. “So you found a solution for something?” the young colt asked. “Oh yeah!” Twilight exclaimed, “Remember what I used on the wind?” “You never told me actually.” “Oh… right. Heh. Well, I used an inhibition spell!” “Oh! I heard about those! Starswirl used one to turn an angry dragon’s fire –” “-INTO SMOKE!” they both continued together, before giggling aloud. “Exactly!” Twilight continued once the laughing fit subsided. “So imagine if we used an inhibition spell – on your magic!” “That’s a great idea!” Gold Star squeaked. “This was a terrible idea”, the young colt sulked a few minutes later. “I tried it a hundred times and nothing happened.” “Maybe you’re just not aiming it right?” Twilight reassured him. “Aim is important when you’re casting spell on yourself.” She investigate Gold Star’s stance, before adjusting the position of his front legs and his horn. “Try now,” Twilight smiled. Gold Star charged the spell, closed his eyes – and – WHOOSH! He opened them to see a flash of light surround him, before it dissipated into the air. “Did… it work?” he asked cautiously. “One way to find out!” Twilight exclaimed happily. “An exp-“ “AN EXPERIMENT! Wait, how did you –” “You always do that face before you say ‘an experiment’” Gold Star said with another giggle. Twilight blushed a little before continuing. “Heh, right, I do get a little hyped about testing things. So, you remember that portal spell from earlier? The one that disturbed Doughnut Joe?” “Yeah?” “I want you to try that out again. Just a portal from here to the other side of the room.” “Are you sure?” “Positive! I know you can do it!” “O-okay…” Gold Star answered, charging up his horn. Immediately, he noticed it felt different. It was way easier to focus on the spell, and it seemed to be aiming directly where he wanted it to go. He launched the spell with a quick zap, and sure enough, found himself staring into a perfectly placed portal. “I DID IT! I DID IT TWILIGHT!” the filly squeaked, jumping ecstatically up and down. “I just wish Trixie was here…” “Why don’t we go show her then?” Twilight smiled. “It’s just a quick walk to the palace!” She then noticed the massive mob outside the window. “On second thoughts, let’s teleport there instead. Trixie’s mane began to stand on end and both her eyes were now twitching. How did Twilight deal with all this nonsense? This wasn’t paperwork, this was literary torture! For the second time that day, Trixie was saved by a knock on the door. “Hi Trixie!” she heard Gold Star call out. “Hello,” Twilight added, “we just wanted to show you something. If you’re not too-” “YESYESYES!” Trixie almost squeaked, “SHOW TRIXIE! SHOW TRIXIE!” She darted out of the room, dropping a piece of paper on which she had written “who cares about economic protocol, just build the blasted hospital!” Out in the castle hallway, Trixie watched eagerly as Gold Star charged up his portal spell. The young colt noticed Trixie’s eager expression and started to think about how bad it would be if he messed this up. If he interrupted Trixie’s work just to mess up again. He charged the spell and – it opened a portal to Ponyville. The biggest misfire yet! He laughed nervously and tried again – Manehattan! Then Cloudsdale! “I don’t understand!” the colt finally cried out. “It was working before!” Twilight wanted to answer him, but she couldn’t think of anything. It had to work, right? “I’m sorry” Gold Star said softly as he approached Trixie, his head hanging down in defeat. “I’m sorry I let you down.” “Don’t be silly, you just need more practice, soon you’ll be as amazingly talented as Trixie!” “No,” Gold protested, starting to cry, “I’m just bad at magic! I’ll never be as good as you! You’ll have to do the show alone all because I messed up!” “Come on,” Trixie tried to reply, “you’re Trixie’s student, you have to succeed eventually!” “What if I don’t?” “Don’t be silly, of course you –” “What if I don’t!” Trixie took a deep breath, she was going to have to give him an honest answer. She thought to herself for a moment, then made up her mind. She gave Gold Star the biggest hug possible before answering. “Then Trixie would still be your friend, because you care about Trixie, and Trixie cares about you – and what spells you can or can’t do will ever, ever change that! Now stop being such a silly filly!” The young pony giggled and hugged back. “Well I’ll be an even friendier friend!” “Don’t be ridiculous! The friendly and outgoing Trixie is clearly the most friendy!” Twilight suddenly had a moment of realization! “I’ve got it! Gold Star, try the spell again!” “Now? But… I thought the inhibition thing didn’t work?” “Just give it one more go, okay?” Gold Star sceptically went along with it. He got into the correct stance, charged up his horn and – a portal to the other side of the hallway! He did it! But how? “Wh – what did you do?” he asked Twilight in amazement. “I didn’t do anything,” Twilight smiled, “you believed in yourself!” “So you’re saying all I had to do was believe in myself... that’s kind of weird.” “Of course not! You had a real problem, without the inhibition spell it still wouldn’t have worked! It’s just – that was only part of the problem – and believing in yourself was the other part.” “That kinda makes sense, but I think I’ll stick with magic, psychology is confusing!” Twilight giggled. “Good idea, the psychology majors I knew were some crazy cucumbers!” She turned to Trixie. “So what now? Looks like we’ve done our jobs for the day, all that’s left now is to find that counter-spell.” Suddenly, a pair of guards came rushing down the hallway. “PRINCESS TWILI – UM, PRINCESS TRIXIE – AND YOUR FRIENDS, WE NEED YOU AT ONCE! IT’S A DIPLOMATIC EMERGENCY!” “Well, so much for that idea” Twilight sighed. Author's Note Woo! I like this one a lot better than the other 3 chapters! Don't get me wrong, I still think I suck XD I just suck less XD Unlike Trixie, who is incredible at writing! P.S. HEY, THE PARAGRAPHS WORKED! Partially anyway XD Unlikely Victory“Uh… we got a bit of a problem”, one of the guards panted desperately as he approached the balcony, Twilight, Trixie and Gold Star following behind him. “Yes?” Trixie asked. “Well you see… we kind of forgot, um… there’s only room for two ponies in the chariot.” “And you didn’t think to tell Trixie earlier?” Twilight placed a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder to calm her down. “It’s alright, he just forgot, everypony makes mistakes. Why don’t we just get someone to mind Gold Star – or I could stay behind?” “No! Trixie demands that we all get there, whatever it takes!” Twilight sighed, before looking up at Trixie and realising something. “Hey Trixie, you said whatever it takes right?” Trixie nodded, unsure where this train of thought was going. “Why don’t you fly there?” A few incredibly awkward moments later, Trixie gave her reply. “You do realise Trixie hasn’t actually used her wings yet?” Twilight tried her best not to smile, finally somepony else got to experience what it’s like to randomly grow wings – but then she realised, maybe it was a mean thing to do to make Trixie fly, maybe Trixie would get injured flying, some princess of friendship she’d be then, letting her friend down like – “Actually, you know what, the great and powerful Trixie is more than capable of flying! She just didn’t want to make anypony else feel bad, that’s all!” Too late. Twilight buried her face in her hooves and wished for the ordeal to be over. A few minutes later, Trixie was seriously regretting her decision as she went hurtling through practically every cloud in the sky. She began to lose track of which direction was up or down, before being smacked back into reality after colliding snout-first into the chariot drivers. Her cheeks glowed like a pair of volcanic rocks. “Trixie apologises! She totally didn’t mean to do that! Well actually she did, just not to you specifically! Trixie never does something she didn’t mean to!” The Chariot Drivers simply rolled their eyes and continued on their way, leaving Trixie to try to keep up. The sound of angry bickering in the distance became clearer and clearer as Trixie, Twilight and Gold made their way towards Griffonstone’s makeshift government building, pretty much a wooden hut. Inside, Celestia and Luna were desperately awaiting their arrival. “THAT’S IT! WE’RE ISSUING AN OFFICIAL DECLARATION OF WAR! YOU DRAGONS HAVE 2 MINUTES TO LEAVE BEFORE YOU GET YOUR TAILS TORN OFF!” “I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, BIRD BRAINS!” Suddenly, both parties found themselves frozen in their attack poses with a magic aura around them. Silence filled the room, and Twilight released them. “Now,” she tried to ask, “how did this conflict begin?” “Why should we listen to you?” a dragon blurted out. “Because you’re a common pony, we refuse to listen to anyone other than a princess!” “But Trixie and I -“ “Yes Twilight, that is true”, Celestia responded calmly, “but even so, Trixie is technically the princess here. We’re going to have to rely on her.” Twilight closed her eyes and prepared for the worst as Trixie stepped forwards and began speaking. “So what happened?” Trixie began, getting straight to the point. Both sides immediately began talking over the top of each other. “ONE AT A TIME!” she impatiently added. “Griffons, you go first.” “Well,” the griffon leader began, “there’s a major sea port in the Northeast that we griffons use to import materials for our reconstruction projects - and those - those - those pesky dragons decided to burn the whole link to the ground!” Spike attempted to make a sensible statement by one of the larger dragons behind him began talking first. “Hah! You’re full of more feathers than one of your wimpy little nests! WE have been using that beach as a fishing spot for years and then you griffons just come in and take it from us! Can’t you just go somewhere else?” Both leaders then turned to Trixie, eagerly awaiting her response. After a short, thoughtful pause, Trixie blurted it out. “You’re both stupid!” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Twilight gasped in panic, her mane standing on end. Trixie ignored Twilight and continued with her statement. “Seriously, you’d start a war over this? You know wars kill people right? Why would you send your own citizens to their deaths over a tiny beach?” After overcoming the initial shock from Trixie’s completely uncensored response, the two sides began to quietly mutter about what she said. “You know, I think Princess Twi - uh -Trixie has a point”, a dragon announced. “Yeah!” one of the griffons agreed. Both sides began to happily discuss the future of the beach together, and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Wow, I didn’t know you were so good at diplomacy, Trixie!” Twilight commented. “Well, it’s a just a natural gift of Trixie’s”, the show pony bragged, causing Celestia to roll her eyes. The two of them, accompanied by Gold Star, went to take a seat on one of the rocks filling in for chairs, finally ready to relax. “Now, it’s time for a break from diplomacy,” an announcer began, “prepare to witness an incredible magic show, please welcome to the stage, Quasar Kazam” The crowd cheered wildly, but the cheers soon turned to confused muttering as Quasar failed to appear on ‘stage’ (really a pile of hay bales with a piece of fabric over them). “I might just repeat that, Quasar Kazam, you are on stage now!” Still no sign. The visibly flustered announcer considered his options for a moment before turning to the audience. “Uh, while we’re waiting, do any of you have experience doing magic shows?” He realised immediately afterwards that he was asking griffons and dragons if they could do magic shows, woops. Still, one hoof went up - Trixie’s. “Oh no, we couldn’t make a princess perform in a magic show.” “Hey! What are you imply-” Trixie tried to say, her horn flaring ready for a fight. “What about Twilight? She’s not a princess at the moment?” Gold Star interrupted. “I don’t know if that’s the best -” Twilight began. “Of course! Come on up Twilight Sparkle!” The crowd cheered wildly as she reluctantly stepped up onto the stage, before quietening down and directing all their focus at Twilight. After a deep breath, she spoke to the crowd. “Alright… so since it seems the original entertainment is not going to plan, I’ll be performing an improvised magic show.” Improvised as in something will almost certainly go wrong, she thought to herself. “Also, unlike a traditional show, this one will have some educational value as well as entertainment!” This time, it was Trixie’s turn to face-hoof. Twilight lit up her horn and created an incredibly detailed glowing hologram showing a medieval-looking village. Trixie’s sense of dread quickly turned to amazement as she watched on. Twilight was actually just as - well - almost as good as Trixie! Suddenly, the image of a young Starswirl the Bearded came galloping onto the scene. “This, fillies and gentlecolts, is Starswirl the Bearded! The most famous wizard of all time…” A few minutes later, Twilight finished her performance, the crowd cheering wildly. Twilight stood up on her hind legs and tried to strike a dramatic Trixie-like pose before trotting back down from the stage, but it looked more cute than dramatic. “That was quite impressive”, Trixie exclaimed, “of course Trixie is still the most magnificent pony, but you’re a very close second!” “Thanks,” Twilight giggled, “I had a little experience. Still think I should stick with being a princess though.” “Trixie also found princesshood to be less fun than she imagined it, not that Trixie had any trouble or anything, she just, didn’t like it, that’s all! Twilight chuckled, before the two of them became suddenly engulfed by a sphere of light, causing the dragons and griffons to cover their eyes as if they just looked into the sun. “Whoa, are you alright?” Gold Star squeaked, rushing over to them as they floated into the air. The two ponies gently descended back to the ground and the light cleared away. The two of them checked their hooves. Trixie was the first to react, hugging her cape. “YES!” she declared dramatically, “Trixie is back in her magnificent form! No more mane that smells of old books or mountain of paperwork.” “Then again, wings and alicorn magic aren’t too bad” Twilight replied with a giggle. “Hmph! Trixie doesn’t need wings, she’s already amazing!” “I know, I’m glad to call such an amazing pony my friend. Especially after seeing just how much effort it takes to run one of your magic shows!” It took Trixie a few seconds to process this, nopony had said anything like that to her before. Eventually she decided any response would be extremely sappy, emotional and non-Trixie-like, so she changed the subject. “So - what reversed the spell anyway?” Gold Star raised his hoof. “Um… I might have an idea.” “Yes?” Twilight asked, curiosity overtaking her. “I’ve read about some spells where the counter is an action that has to be taken, rather than another spell. Maybe this is one of those?” “Of course!” Twilight squeaked, having one of her nerd moments. “Of course! Of course! The spell was designed to let two different ponies experience an aspect of each others’ lives - in this case, talents. Once they begin to understand the others’ talents, the spell counters itself!” “One thing though,” she added after another short pause, “who would create such a spell in the first place? Who would be so different they have to cast a spell to be understood, so powerful they could make new magic, and so irresponsible they’d risk complete chaos by placing the spell in a public library?” “Oh,” Celestia said in the calmest grumpy voice in history, “I think I know. And I’m going to give them quite the talking to when we get back to Canterlot.”
Nice Going, TrixieTwilight Sparkle buried herself in Geological History of the Crystal Mountains. So fascinating, she thought, to think they used to be a sea floor! Her immersion was suddenly disrupted when she heard her student exclaim “Trixie could do this easily!” Twilight peered over Trixie’s shoulder, her expression turning to one of dread. “Uh, Trixie, I’m not sure that’s really a good idea – that spell is experimental, and highly complicated.” “Nonsense, the Great and Powerful Trixie is more than capable!” Trixie snorted. Twilight tried to protest again, but it was too late, Trixie’s horn had already begun to glow. A large aura of light surrounded the two of them for a few moments, then dispersed into the surrounding air – it looked as if nothing had changed. “See, Trixie told you she – wait, why does Trixie’s voice sound different.” The two ponies examined themselves in increasing horror as Twilight realised she was now Trixie, and Trixie realised she was now Twilight. Twilight gave Trixie her most menacing death stare possible. “Uh… Trixie totally knew what she was doing”, Trixie made up on the spot. “Yeah, Trixie meant to do this!” “Really?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. “Then I suppose you know the counter spell?” “Well, Trixie was planning to – uh –” Twilight raised her eyebrow further. “Alright, fine, Trixie may have made a small mistake, and may have no idea how to reverse the spell.” The two of them sat silently in shock for a few moments before Twilight began contemplating what to do next. “Okay, uh… alright, it’s going to take at least a day to reverse this, which means today’s diplomatic meetings are going to be thrown off.” Twilight’s breathing began to speed up. “But if the diplomatic meetings are thrown off, that means the other nations will think Equestria views them as unimportant – and if they think we think they’re unimportant, they might declare war on us – and then all of Equestria could be thrown into chaos for years, and it could all be my fault!” “CALM DOWN!” Trixie snapped. Twilight instantly got the message. “Ah – sorry. What we should probably do is go see Celestia, she’ll know exactly how to handle this!” With that, Twilight and Trixie held hooves and teleported straight for Canterlot. “Ahh!” Celestia squeaked as she dropped her half-eaten slice cake on the floor. “Sorry”, Twilight replied. Celestia quickly regained her composure and smiled at the two of them, wiping the icing off her muzzle as elegantly as possible. (It didn’t work.) “That’s perfectly alright Trixie, I could probably have done without the extra ‘nutritional benefits’ anyway. Now what brings you here?” “Well you see, that’s just the issue. I’m not Trixie.” “You’re… not?” Celestia asked, only letting on the smallest hint of puzzlement. “No, the actual Trixie,” Twilight began, “decided it’d be a good idea to try a complicated experimental spell – so long story short, I’m Trixie, and Trixie’s me. So we came here to ask for your help.” “Oh.” Celestia replied. Twilight winced. She knew Celestia better than anypony. That ‘oh’ was saved only for the direst of circumstances. Whatever was coming next wouldn’t be good. “Well Twilight, we have a small problem”, Celestia began. ‘Small’ meant ‘near-cataclysmic’ in Celestiese. “The Equestrian constitution says the nation is ruled by the alicorn princesses.” “I don’t understand,” Twilight asked, “what’s the problem?” “Well, you’re not an alicorn… and Trixie is…” “You’re saying -?” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Yes – Trixie is technically a princess. It will take at least a day to change the constitution, so until then –” Trixie jumped up and down with excitement! “The Great and Powerful Trixie is now PRINCESS Trixie? This is the best thing ever! Of course she does deserve it, after all…” Twilight chewed her hoof with a new-found level of anxiety even she previously thought impossible. Meanwhile, Trixie continued to brag about how great she was. “…this is going to be so great! Wait – hold on,” Trixie finally realised, “what about Gold Star, Trixie promised to help him practice for the upcoming show today. With all this princess stuff Trixie will be unable to –“ Twilight stopped chewing her hoof and decided to reassure Trixie. “Don’t worry,” she began, “I can help train Gold Star, he’ll understand. We can work on a counter-spell too.” “Alright then,” Celestia interrupted calmly, “in that case Trixie, you should come with me, it is your turn to answer the public’s questions this morning.” Before they parted ways, Twilight whispered something in Celestia’s ear. “Please, keep Trixie from doing anything crazy.” Gold Star sat in his room, eagerly awaiting Trixie’s arrival. He’d researched all the latest developments in the field of magic and couldn’t wait to share them, plus he was going to start practicing for the awesome routine Trixie had planned for him! “Hi Trixie!” he squeaked as Twilight knocked gently on the door and entered. “Listen, Gold Star, there was a little magic mistake,” Twilight explained, “and Trixie and I kind of switched places. So – I’m Twilight.” “WOAH! That’s so cool! What spell did you use?” Twilight chuckled, a little taken aback from getting the complete opposite of the response she was expecting, but glad Gold Star was happy. “Well, I think we should get started with the practice first. I’m going to be searching for a counter-spell soon so I can tell you all about it then, alright?” Gold Star nodded enthusiastically. “So, what were you and Trixie planning anyway?” Gold Star ran to the other side of his room and battled his way through a labyrinth of mess before finally locating a chalkboard with pictures drawn on it. He pulled it out, causing a series of crash sounds as the assorted toys and writing utensils covering it were grabbed by gravity. Twilight was a little put off by the mess, but impressed with the amount of effort the young colt had put into planning this presentation. Gold Star cleared his throat as professionally as he could, before beginning his explanation. “So, Trixie and I will be part of a show about the three kinds of ponies working together. The Earth Ponies are going to send in their best potion experts and farmers to grow a massive series of plants, then the Wonderbolts, representing Pegasi, are going to have an awesome race through an obstacle course at the top. So what Trixie and me will be doing –” Twilight flinched slightly at Gold Star saying ‘me’ instead of ‘I’ this time, but managed to look past it. “– is creating an awesome obstacle course out of magic! We’re going to be making portals, magic acceleration ramps, rings of coloured fire – we’re even casting a special spell that makes music play when the Wonderbolts fly through certain areas!” “That does sound pretty awesome,” Twilight said with a smile, “but are you sure you can pull it off? I mean those spells are highly complicated – and need a lot of precision. If something goes wrong it could be very dangerous.” “Please Twilight?” the colt asked, tilting his head slightly and making his eyes as sparkly as possible. “Alright,” Twilight reluctantly accepted, “since you’re so excited about it, I’ll help teach you – but before we do any of that, you’re going to have to work on precision, alright?” “I know it’ll be hard, but I really really want to learn! And I’ll try my absolute best!” Gold Star replied. “Okay then. Let’s get started.” Twilight smiled. “Alright my little ponies!” began Celestia, from atop her castle balcony. “I know you’re all eager for Princess Twilight to answer your questions – and indeed your questions will still be answered. However, I must inform you that due to a… technical complication and a legal roadblock… Twilight Sparkle is unavailable at the moment. So instead, the pony who’ll be answering your questions is Trixie Lulamoon, in the form of Twilight Sparkle.” “Of course,” Trixie interrupted, pushing in front of Celestia, “the Wise and Approachable Trixie is more than qualified to answer any question!” We’ll see about that, Celestia thought to herself as Trixie went galloping downstairs to meet the ponies lining up to see her. About half the crowd had left after hearing the news, so at least Trixie would only cause half as much damage. First in line to see Trixie was a young filly. She raced up to Trixie excitedly and quickly bowed. “So, what’s your question for Trixie?” “I wanted to know,” the filly began confidently, “why does the sky look all blue?” “Seriously?!” Trixie snapped. “You thought that was worth asking a princess! What a ridiculous question!” The filly’s eyes filled with tears, and before Trixie knew it, the filly was crying out loud, and the crowd were staring in shock and chattering, appalled by Trixie’s response. “Uh –” Trixie began, trying desperately to win back control of the situation. “Um, what Trixie meant to say, is that’s a wonderful question, but perhaps it’d be a better idea to ask a… science teacher… or something.” It did nothing – the filly continued crying. Trixie shuddered, she remembered the times she was chased out of town, tomatoes flying at her cart. She could recover of course, she was Trixie – but not this time. Everyone in Equestria knew her now. If she made one mistake she could never show her face in public again! Trixie sighed – she’d have to use her last resort. After staring at the ground for a moment to prepare herself for the upcoming trauma, Trixie stepped forwards and gave the filly a hug. Instantly, the filly’s face lit up! She stopped crying and squeaked excitedly. “Oh my gosh! I got hugged by the Great and Powerful Trixie! And she was also a princess! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! My friends are going to be, like, so excited!” Trixie took a deep breath in relief as the filly ran off excitedly and the crowd calmed down. Crisis averted. “Now, what is your question sir?” Trixie asked the next pony in line, a rather grumpy-looking stallion. “Was it right for my daughter to get suspended for sticking gum on a table?” “EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH” Trixie exclaimed, face-hoofing. This would be a long day. Author's Note I know the idea of Twilight and Trixie switching places has been done before, but it usually involves Trixie getting revenge and such - whereas this fic has a "good" Trixie (good by Trixie standards) who just causes it from sheer arrogance, so I kind of wanted to see where that idea could go and I think you'll like it if you give it a chance (and I don't screw it up) XD Anyway in terms of actual writing, I think this went pretty well (by my standards anyway), the pacing isn't a complete trainwreck like it usually is :P The dialogue seems a bit awkward for some reason but I think the characters feel right. Maybe I'm just happy to be writing Trixie again, she's so fun to write XD
The Show Must Go OnTwilight Sparkle watched on anxiously as Gold Star lit up his horn. The colt took a step back, pretty much walking into the wall behind him, before blasting a nearly blinding beam of magic light at the other side of the room. Twilight’s mane was blown into her face as a shockwave rippled through the entire building. Twilight brushed it away to reveal that instead of the front yard, Gold had opened a portal to Doughnut Joe’s store on the other side of Canterlot. Gold Star quietly mumbled a “sorry”. “I don’t understand!” Twilight thought aloud. “You did great on the pop quiz, the flash cards, the four-page university-level exam, you had literally everything right!” Gold Star stared at the ground, now covered in the remains of a book too close to the beam of magic. “I guess you were right, it’s just too hard, I’m just not good enough to do it.” “Are you kidding?” Twilight said confidently, lifting Gold Star’s chin up with her front hoof. “You got into the final of the biggest magic competition ever!” “Yeah, then Trixie had to save my flank because I couldn’t even get a fire extinguishing spell right.” Twilight thought about pointing out the anatomical errors with the colloquial use of the word “flank” but quickly dismissed the idea. “Don’t be silly, you just need more practice with precision magic – and I just need to find the right way for you to practice, so you know what that means?” Gold Star just gave a confused “uhh…” in reply. “It means research! Take me to your library!” Twilight said with a smile. Gold Star smiled back at the idea of more magic research and happily bounced out of the room, seemingly forgetting about the fact he turned his room into a landfill. Twilight followed along as they headed for West Canterlot Local Library. “Errrrrgggghhh!” Trixie groaned as dramatically as possible before collapsing in the least majestic way possible on the castle floor. “Thank Celesti – uh… - thank you that that’s over!” The almost glowing white princess standing next to her opened her mouth, about to speak, but was cut short by Trixie’s ongoing complaining. “Can you believe that one stallion thought it was worth wasting Princess Trixie’s valuable time to talk about his relationship problems?” “Well that is your job” Celestia answered, as gently as possible. “Ugh, Trixie doesn’t care! At least she can finally get on with a nice, calm, sensible lunch break!” “Well, there is a small issue with that,” Celestia continued, “Twilight had organised a diplomatic lunch in the Dragon Kingdom today, so Luna and I will be having lunch there and… you’ll be included as well.” The light, jingly sound of Trixie’s magic was followed by loud gasps of shock as she attempted to lift up a sandwich and place it in her mouth. “What?” Trixie demanded in frustration, spitting out what was going to be a very nice lunch. “What’s wrong with picking up a sandwich?” More gasps sounded across the long rectangular table, dragon ‘officials’ pausing in the middle of table-top brawls and food fights to stare in shock at Trixie’s behaviour. “Trixie,” Celestia whispered quietly, “it is customary for dragons to eat with only their mouths, claws and magic are to be used only for throwing food.” “Oh.” Trixie replied quietly. “Hey, Tinsel!” the large orange dragon across from Trixie called out in an attempt to break the awkward silence, “how about an arm wrestle?” “The name is Trixie!” came a very unimpressed reply. “Whatever, whatsyourface, arm wrestle?” the dragon repeated, reaching his tomato sauce-covered arm towards Trixie. “Uh… Trixie would rather not actually” the pony said, squirming a little at the thought. More gaps of horror. “Seriously?” Trixie complained. “Arm wrestles are kind of like hoof shakes for dragons,” Celestia explained, “it is customary to accept them. Not doing so can be seen as a sign of distrust and disrespect.” “Well Trixie doesn’t care, Trixie will not get sauce all over her perfectly good hoof!” “Hey, it’s your weird pony food!” the dragon argued back, “deal with it!” At just the worst moment, the glorious King Spike walked into the room, dressed in a comically oversized cape. The dragons and princesses all turned and bowed to him in reverence – well, all except Trixie. Trixie realised too late she was supposed to join them as a dragon caught a glimpse of her and called out angrily, “HEY, SHE’S NOT BOWING!” That was the final straw. The table devolved into an uproar as an angry mob of dragons surrounded Trixie and threw her in front of Spike. “DUEL! DUEL! DUEL!” the crowd called out eagerly. Spike frowned uncomfortably. “Sorry Trixie,” he stated, “if I don’t go ahead with this it’d probably mean war. I’m afraid I have to challenge you to an official dragon duel.” The local library was about the size Ponyville’s used to be, though not part of a tree. It was packed with ponies, though being a library it was still quiet. Drawing very little attention to themselves, Twilight Sparkle and Gold Star trotted contently over to the magic section. There was no place the two of them would rather be. “Ooh” Twilight blurted with a smile, using her magic to lift Practical Teaching Methods for Precision Training towards her. Gold Star located his favourite book in the library, 101 Most Awesome Magicians of All Time and sat down to read it next to Twilight. Too late the two of them heard a stallion call out “hey, isn’t that Trixie?” Within seconds, Twilight and Gold Star found their reading spot surrounded by a noisy and excited crowd, pointing cameras and pieces of paper in their direction and asking for pictures and autographs. “I’m not Trixie,” Twilight tried to protest, “there was a spell that went all wrong and –” It was no use. The crowd were far too excited over “Trixie” being there to listen to her. Twilight lifted Gold Star onto her back and tried to make it out the exit, only to find herself confronted by another gathering crowd. “Show us a magic trick!” a filly up the back called out. “Yeah! We want magic!” added a stallion up the front. Soon the whole crowd joined in the chorus. What in the hay does Trixie like about this? Twilight thought to herself. She sighed and decided to give in. “Alright, one magic trick, but that’s all.” The crowd cheered wildly! Author's Note Just to let you know, in the first story of this series Spike became the king of dragons. I know that seems rather... well, out of place (hehe), to just throw that in to this story but I can't just ignore my own prequel's canon, sorry :P Anyway I hope you still like the rest of this, and I might do something useful with the Spike as king thing at some future point in a sequel to this sequel to a sequel but right now it's just there XD Heck I might as well make my own season the way this is going XD
Art Of The DuelTwilight Sparkle stood staring at the massive, very eager-looking crowd gathering around her. Her gaze quickly found its way to Gold Star. She non-verbally asked him for help, but all she got was a shrug in response. Okay Twilight, you can handle this, come on. Twilight stood up on her hind hooves, she nearly fell over but managed to regain her balance. With a very unconvincing smile, she declared "prepare to be dazzled... by the uh... Great and Powerful Trixie!" With that, she magically launched a series of fireworks into the air, and the crowd cheered wildly. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and began to head for the edge of the stage. "Where are you going?" a member of the crowd called out disapprovingly. "I - uh - Trixie said one trick, that's all! I - ugh - Trixie isn't prepared to pull off a full performance safely." "BOOOOOOOOOOOO! WE WANT MAGIC!" came the overpowering reply from the audience, repeated several times. Twilight took a deep breath and trotted back to the centre of the 'stage'. "Okay, just this once", she finally gave in. The booing faded into cheering and thunderous applause as Twilight stood there petrified. This made the crowds at royal speeches seem like a quiet chat with friends. Twilight's eyes darted upwards as she tried to think of something to do. Uh huh! She lit up her horn and shot a beam of magic into the crowd, causing a mare in the audience to sprout a thick, black mustache. What were you thinking Twilight, she thought to herself, somehow not noticing the crowd cheering wildly and holding up the lucky pony who got a mustache from the 'Great and Powerful Trixie'. This is terrible, this is terrible - uh huh, I know what'll turn it around! Twilight took a step back and lit up her horn. She'd been practicing this spell recently out of curiosity and become quite proficient. With a flash of magic, beautiful butterfly wings sprouted from Gold Star's back, sending beams of colour flashing all over the crowd like a disco ball at one of Vinyl's parties. The crowd cheered wildly as Gold Star flapped his new-found wings, smiling widely as he lifted himself into the air. Seemingly out of nowhere, a breeze began to pick up, lifting the young colt into the sky. Thinking it was part of the act, the crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed as Gold Star was blown further into the air and began to drift towards the other side of Canterlot. Twilight wasted no time in chasing after him, the crowd happily moving out of the way to let her through before joining her in her pursuit, cheering her on wildly. Things weren't going any better in the dragon kingdom. Trixie and Spike found themselves surrounded by thousands of dragons, all cheering on - or more roaring on - their young king. Celestia buried her face in her hooves in disbelief, while her sister leaped into the air. "Take him down Trixie!" Luna called excitedly. "You can't seriously be enjoying this?" Celestia whispered in disbelief. "Ha! Thy hath grown soft, sister! Not enjoying a good duel once in a while!" Trixie and Spike squared each other up. Trixie smiled confidently, she could take this little pipsqueak easily, she was Trixie, she overpowered a future princess once! Spike meanwhile took a brief look around him. His eyes lit up with realisation, but he didn't let on whatever it was he realised, and turned back to Trixie. "GET 'EM!" Luna called out, which seemed to be enough to signify the start of the battle. Spike attacked first, blasting a beam of green fire at Trixie, which the pony easily held back with a glowing pink shield spell, before charging at him with his horn lit. Spike leaped out of the way, causing Trixie to fire the spell straight into the wall of the cave. With a loud rumble, a pile of rocks came crashing down in front of Trixie. The pony jumped back, startled, and Spike took the opportunity, racing towards her while she was distracted and sending a massive beam of fire into her side. Trixie went flying into the air and came crashing down about a metre away, stirring up a pillar of dust. The three princesses raced to Trixie's side in concern while the dragons continued to cheer wildly. "Will she be alright?" Cadance asked. "Pretty sure she will," Spike explained, "the flame I used wasn't high temperature, just pressar - pressher - fast-moving air. Only her pride will be hurt." Celestia lifted a dazed and sorry Trixie onto her back with her magic, and dragged Luna away by her front hoof before she could start fangirling over the battle, all while doing her best to keep up a calm and friendly smile. On the plus side, it seemed like Trixie's strategy of 'start a fight with the leader of the country' was a surprisingly effective diplomatic strategy. She'd never seen a group of dragons look happier. Back in Canterlot, Twilight was, unfortunately for her, completely conscious. The whole performance had gone tumbling down the stairs like Spike after waking up early, and now Gold Star was in serious danger. Alright, alright, stay calm. You're going to resolve this. Although if you don't, Gold Star could be seriously injured, or worse! And Trixie's career could be destroyed! And you could be demoted from princess, and sent back to - STOP IT, just do something Twilight did her best to take a deep breath while running as fast as her hooves could carry her - it wasn't easy - before creating a massive magic net in front of Gold. The net held for a few short moments, but then disintegrated as quickly as it appeared. The crowd following behind her cheered as they caught the little bits of magic rope that rained down on them. She thought to herself for a moment, and then decided to go for another strategy. She created a giant lasso out of magic, and flung it in Gold Star's direction. Unfortunately for Twilight, she wasn't quite as talented as Applejack in the field of lassoing, and ended up catching herself, causing laughter from the crowd. Quickly, Twilight regained her footing and continued the chase, her cape starting to blow in front of her face. Okay, one more shot, come on, this has to work. She pushed the cape away from her face in annoyance and aimed a spell carefully in Gold Star's direction. A bubble of magic formed around the young pony, and he began drifting towards the ground. Yes... yes... POP! The bubble hit a lamp post, and it was back to square one. Stupid architect! Twilight's eyes widened as she noticed Gold Star approaching the cliff face at the edge of Canterlot. The crowd began to realise this might not be a performance and gasped in shock. Twilight skidded to a halt and panicked, face-hoofing a couple of times before suddenly having an "AHA" moment! With no time to lose, Twilight Sparkle lit up her horn an sent a huge flash of light across the sky, which lasted only a second, The wind slowed down to a gentle breeze, and Gold Star gently fluttered his way to the ground, his wings disintegrating as soon as he touched the ground. The crowd cheered uncontrollably, and Twilight ran up to Gold Star and gave him the tightest hug of his life. He giggled with a mixture of joy and relief, not knowing how else to react. Suddenly, Twilight's face lit up with realization. "Of course! That's it! Gold Star, I think we've found your solution!" "We... have?" Twilight quickly lifted Gold onto her back and raced back the way they came, followed closely by a crowd of adoring fans snapping pictures and begging for autographs. Trixie got up to find herself back in Equestria. She looked around to find herself in a dark room, with bright lights scattered about, reminding her of the night sky. She was greeted by an excited voice. "Trixie! Thou art awake!" Trixie attempted to reply but was cut short by Luna. "We would - I would personally like to thank thee for bringing back the art of duelling! We - I can give thee lessons?" "Uh, Trixie would rather not..." "Nonsense! Thou art highly talented, and have wonderful potential!" Trixie couldn't help but smile at this, Luna did raise a very valid point. "Well, Trixie is pretty amazing, Trixie admits that. Alright, once this whole body-switching thing is over, Trixie will give it a try. Maybe." Luna clapped her hooves excitedly and called for her guards - a few minutes later, they returned with a set of armour, covered in beautiful illustrations of the night sky. Trixie examined the armour silently, she didn't know how to say it without seeming... 'nice'... but it looked amazing. "It... suits Trixie." Luna gave Trixie a surprised look. "Really?" "Yeah, Trixie has always liked the night sky. After all, it is Trixie's cutie mark, and anything to do with Trixie must be awesome!" "Y-you like the night?" "Of course, it's Trixie's favourite time to perform! It's like there's a billion magical spotlights in the sky!" Before she knew it, Trixie had been pulled into a hug of such epic proportions it was like being hugged by an Ursa Minor. "Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou!" Luna declared, close to crying with happiness. Trixie stood there awkwardly. Did I... say something?, she thought to herself. Author's Note Ugh these thees and thous are confusing XD I think I got it right but sorry if I didn't XD Anyway I'm still having issues with pacing, this went faster than a bullet train driven by Rainbow Dash, but I think I got the characters okay, and Twilight trying to imitate Trixie is a funny mental image XD EDIT: Paragraphs messed themselves up again, sorry, you'll have to read through a block of text. I don't know why they do that. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-UOm6r2ifqAzNKOZVKF5-TTuCT1PAd-19xg09UuJil8/edit?usp=sharing Here's a Google Doc with the proper paragraphs as they appear inside my writing box XD
SpellboundCelestia walked towards her sister’s room. The castle hallways were quite calm at this time of day, so she didn’t have to stop every two minutes to smile at a guard. Not that she minded, they were just doing their jobs – the constant socialising was simply a bit much, especially after the… interesting… day she was having so far. She was glad to have a break. In the room itself, Trixie let out an impatient sigh, before looking back towards Luna. It seemed the princess had completely missed Trixie’s signal, as she continued with her life story. “And thus, he dropped the scrolls all over the pavement! It was not funny he insisted, well we certainly found it funny.” Earlier in the conversation, Trixie would have tried asking if Luna meant ‘we’ as in herself, or as a collective. By this point, all she wanted to ask was ‘when will this be over’ but the annoying “politeness” thing Twilight had taught her got in the way. Finally, Trixie was given her way out. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! Luna recognised the sound. “Sister, can thou not see we are busy?” “No I can’t,” came the giggly reply from Celestia, “but I can hear you are!” Luna groaned and put on her most unimpressed look. With that, the door swung open and Celestia turned to Trixie, who looked as if she’d been forced to listen to a panicked cat being dragged across a blackboard stretching halfway to the Crystal Empire. “Trixie, I need to ask a favour, is it alright if I take you away from Luna for a bit?” “YES!” Trixie yelled out at the top of her voice, before correcting herself. “Ahaha, what Trixie meant to say was yes, Trixie must fulfil her very important duties, after all, she isn’t best princess for nothing.” With that, Trixie quickly scampered out the door, Luna calling out behind her in the Canterlot Voice. “WE UNDERSTAND THOU MUST FULFILL THY DUTIES! WE HOPE TO SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN DEAR FRIENDS, WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES DO NOT US PART!” Celestia caught up with Trixie about thirty seconds later, finding her panting in a heap next to a massive stained glass window. “Is… she gone?” Trixie asked, giving her most dramatic exhausted pose possible. “Yes,” Celestia said, her voice tainted with a hint of scepticism about Trixie’s ‘exhausted’ state. “Now I believe I asked a favour of you?” “Oh yeah, what was Trixie meant to do again?” Trixie leaped back on to her hooves, all her tiredness magically vanishing. “Well, as Twilight is unable to complete her regular duties, you will need to sign a few documents she was planning to complete today.” “No problem, Trixie is excellent at writing! It’s nothing more than moving a pen around! The great and… uh… administrative Trixie is more than capable!” “Thank you for co-operating,” Celestia said with a smile, “I’ll show you to the study.” A few minutes later, Trixie found herself in a dark, wooden room, surrounded by multiple piles of paper, taller than her. “So, how much of this is Trixie signing again?” “Oh right, the whole lot,” Celestia replied casually before walking out. Trixie’s eye twitched slightly as she stared at the monstrous situation she had just locked herself into. Back at Gold Star’s place, Twilight had finally managed to distract the crowd long enough to get inside. She hurriedly carried Gold Star up to his bedroom door before collapsing in front of it. Gold swung the door open and dragged his temporary mentor inside. “So you found a solution for something?” the young colt asked. “Oh yeah!” Twilight exclaimed, “Remember what I used on the wind?” “You never told me actually.” “Oh… right. Heh. Well, I used an inhibition spell!” “Oh! I heard about those! Starswirl used one to turn an angry dragon’s fire –” “-INTO SMOKE!” they both continued together, before giggling aloud. “Exactly!” Twilight continued once the laughing fit subsided. “So imagine if we used an inhibition spell – on your magic!” “That’s a great idea!” Gold Star squeaked. “This was a terrible idea”, the young colt sulked a few minutes later. “I tried it a hundred times and nothing happened.” “Maybe you’re just not aiming it right?” Twilight reassured him. “Aim is important when you’re casting spell on yourself.” She investigate Gold Star’s stance, before adjusting the position of his front legs and his horn. “Try now,” Twilight smiled. Gold Star charged the spell, closed his eyes – and – WHOOSH! He opened them to see a flash of light surround him, before it dissipated into the air. “Did… it work?” he asked cautiously. “One way to find out!” Twilight exclaimed happily. “An exp-“ “AN EXPERIMENT! Wait, how did you –” “You always do that face before you say ‘an experiment’” Gold Star said with another giggle. Twilight blushed a little before continuing. “Heh, right, I do get a little hyped about testing things. So, you remember that portal spell from earlier? The one that disturbed Doughnut Joe?” “Yeah?” “I want you to try that out again. Just a portal from here to the other side of the room.” “Are you sure?” “Positive! I know you can do it!” “O-okay…” Gold Star answered, charging up his horn. Immediately, he noticed it felt different. It was way easier to focus on the spell, and it seemed to be aiming directly where he wanted it to go. He launched the spell with a quick zap, and sure enough, found himself staring into a perfectly placed portal. “I DID IT! I DID IT TWILIGHT!” the filly squeaked, jumping ecstatically up and down. “I just wish Trixie was here…” “Why don’t we go show her then?” Twilight smiled. “It’s just a quick walk to the palace!” She then noticed the massive mob outside the window. “On second thoughts, let’s teleport there instead. Trixie’s mane began to stand on end and both her eyes were now twitching. How did Twilight deal with all this nonsense? This wasn’t paperwork, this was literary torture! For the second time that day, Trixie was saved by a knock on the door. “Hi Trixie!” she heard Gold Star call out. “Hello,” Twilight added, “we just wanted to show you something. If you’re not too-” “YESYESYES!” Trixie almost squeaked, “SHOW TRIXIE! SHOW TRIXIE!” She darted out of the room, dropping a piece of paper on which she had written “who cares about economic protocol, just build the blasted hospital!” Out in the castle hallway, Trixie watched eagerly as Gold Star charged up his portal spell. The young colt noticed Trixie’s eager expression and started to think about how bad it would be if he messed this up. If he interrupted Trixie’s work just to mess up again. He charged the spell and – it opened a portal to Ponyville. The biggest misfire yet! He laughed nervously and tried again – Manehattan! Then Cloudsdale! “I don’t understand!” the colt finally cried out. “It was working before!” Twilight wanted to answer him, but she couldn’t think of anything. It had to work, right? “I’m sorry” Gold Star said softly as he approached Trixie, his head hanging down in defeat. “I’m sorry I let you down.” “Don’t be silly, you just need more practice, soon you’ll be as amazingly talented as Trixie!” “No,” Gold protested, starting to cry, “I’m just bad at magic! I’ll never be as good as you! You’ll have to do the show alone all because I messed up!” “Come on,” Trixie tried to reply, “you’re Trixie’s student, you have to succeed eventually!” “What if I don’t?” “Don’t be silly, of course you –” “What if I don’t!” Trixie took a deep breath, she was going to have to give him an honest answer. She thought to herself for a moment, then made up her mind. She gave Gold Star the biggest hug possible before answering. “Then Trixie would still be your friend, because you care about Trixie, and Trixie cares about you – and what spells you can or can’t do will ever, ever change that! Now stop being such a silly filly!” The young pony giggled and hugged back. “Well I’ll be an even friendier friend!” “Don’t be ridiculous! The friendly and outgoing Trixie is clearly the most friendy!” Twilight suddenly had a moment of realization! “I’ve got it! Gold Star, try the spell again!” “Now? But… I thought the inhibition thing didn’t work?” “Just give it one more go, okay?” Gold Star sceptically went along with it. He got into the correct stance, charged up his horn and – a portal to the other side of the hallway! He did it! But how? “Wh – what did you do?” he asked Twilight in amazement. “I didn’t do anything,” Twilight smiled, “you believed in yourself!” “So you’re saying all I had to do was believe in myself... that’s kind of weird.” “Of course not! You had a real problem, without the inhibition spell it still wouldn’t have worked! It’s just – that was only part of the problem – and believing in yourself was the other part.” “That kinda makes sense, but I think I’ll stick with magic, psychology is confusing!” Twilight giggled. “Good idea, the psychology majors I knew were some crazy cucumbers!” She turned to Trixie. “So what now? Looks like we’ve done our jobs for the day, all that’s left now is to find that counter-spell.” Suddenly, a pair of guards came rushing down the hallway. “PRINCESS TWILI – UM, PRINCESS TRIXIE – AND YOUR FRIENDS, WE NEED YOU AT ONCE! IT’S A DIPLOMATIC EMERGENCY!” “Well, so much for that idea” Twilight sighed. Author's Note Woo! I like this one a lot better than the other 3 chapters! Don't get me wrong, I still think I suck XD I just suck less XD Unlike Trixie, who is incredible at writing! P.S. HEY, THE PARAGRAPHS WORKED! Partially anyway XD
Unlikely Victory“Uh… we got a bit of a problem”, one of the guards panted desperately as he approached the balcony, Twilight, Trixie and Gold Star following behind him. “Yes?” Trixie asked. “Well you see… we kind of forgot, um… there’s only room for two ponies in the chariot.” “And you didn’t think to tell Trixie earlier?” Twilight placed a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder to calm her down. “It’s alright, he just forgot, everypony makes mistakes. Why don’t we just get someone to mind Gold Star – or I could stay behind?” “No! Trixie demands that we all get there, whatever it takes!” Twilight sighed, before looking up at Trixie and realising something. “Hey Trixie, you said whatever it takes right?” Trixie nodded, unsure where this train of thought was going. “Why don’t you fly there?” A few incredibly awkward moments later, Trixie gave her reply. “You do realise Trixie hasn’t actually used her wings yet?” Twilight tried her best not to smile, finally somepony else got to experience what it’s like to randomly grow wings – but then she realised, maybe it was a mean thing to do to make Trixie fly, maybe Trixie would get injured flying, some princess of friendship she’d be then, letting her friend down like – “Actually, you know what, the great and powerful Trixie is more than capable of flying! She just didn’t want to make anypony else feel bad, that’s all!” Too late. Twilight buried her face in her hooves and wished for the ordeal to be over. A few minutes later, Trixie was seriously regretting her decision as she went hurtling through practically every cloud in the sky. She began to lose track of which direction was up or down, before being smacked back into reality after colliding snout-first into the chariot drivers. Her cheeks glowed like a pair of volcanic rocks. “Trixie apologises! She totally didn’t mean to do that! Well actually she did, just not to you specifically! Trixie never does something she didn’t mean to!” The Chariot Drivers simply rolled their eyes and continued on their way, leaving Trixie to try to keep up. The sound of angry bickering in the distance became clearer and clearer as Trixie, Twilight and Gold made their way towards Griffonstone’s makeshift government building, pretty much a wooden hut. Inside, Celestia and Luna were desperately awaiting their arrival. “THAT’S IT! WE’RE ISSUING AN OFFICIAL DECLARATION OF WAR! YOU DRAGONS HAVE 2 MINUTES TO LEAVE BEFORE YOU GET YOUR TAILS TORN OFF!” “I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, BIRD BRAINS!” Suddenly, both parties found themselves frozen in their attack poses with a magic aura around them. Silence filled the room, and Twilight released them. “Now,” she tried to ask, “how did this conflict begin?” “Why should we listen to you?” a dragon blurted out. “Because you’re a common pony, we refuse to listen to anyone other than a princess!” “But Trixie and I -“ “Yes Twilight, that is true”, Celestia responded calmly, “but even so, Trixie is technically the princess here. We’re going to have to rely on her.” Twilight closed her eyes and prepared for the worst as Trixie stepped forwards and began speaking. “So what happened?” Trixie began, getting straight to the point. Both sides immediately began talking over the top of each other. “ONE AT A TIME!” she impatiently added. “Griffons, you go first.” “Well,” the griffon leader began, “there’s a major sea port in the Northeast that we griffons use to import materials for our reconstruction projects - and those - those - those pesky dragons decided to burn the whole link to the ground!” Spike attempted to make a sensible statement by one of the larger dragons behind him began talking first. “Hah! You’re full of more feathers than one of your wimpy little nests! WE have been using that beach as a fishing spot for years and then you griffons just come in and take it from us! Can’t you just go somewhere else?” Both leaders then turned to Trixie, eagerly awaiting her response. After a short, thoughtful pause, Trixie blurted it out. “You’re both stupid!” “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Twilight gasped in panic, her mane standing on end. Trixie ignored Twilight and continued with her statement. “Seriously, you’d start a war over this? You know wars kill people right? Why would you send your own citizens to their deaths over a tiny beach?” After overcoming the initial shock from Trixie’s completely uncensored response, the two sides began to quietly mutter about what she said. “You know, I think Princess Twi - uh -Trixie has a point”, a dragon announced. “Yeah!” one of the griffons agreed. Both sides began to happily discuss the future of the beach together, and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Wow, I didn’t know you were so good at diplomacy, Trixie!” Twilight commented. “Well, it’s a just a natural gift of Trixie’s”, the show pony bragged, causing Celestia to roll her eyes. The two of them, accompanied by Gold Star, went to take a seat on one of the rocks filling in for chairs, finally ready to relax. “Now, it’s time for a break from diplomacy,” an announcer began, “prepare to witness an incredible magic show, please welcome to the stage, Quasar Kazam” The crowd cheered wildly, but the cheers soon turned to confused muttering as Quasar failed to appear on ‘stage’ (really a pile of hay bales with a piece of fabric over them). “I might just repeat that, Quasar Kazam, you are on stage now!” Still no sign. The visibly flustered announcer considered his options for a moment before turning to the audience. “Uh, while we’re waiting, do any of you have experience doing magic shows?” He realised immediately afterwards that he was asking griffons and dragons if they could do magic shows, woops. Still, one hoof went up - Trixie’s. “Oh no, we couldn’t make a princess perform in a magic show.” “Hey! What are you imply-” Trixie tried to say, her horn flaring ready for a fight. “What about Twilight? She’s not a princess at the moment?” Gold Star interrupted. “I don’t know if that’s the best -” Twilight began. “Of course! Come on up Twilight Sparkle!” The crowd cheered wildly as she reluctantly stepped up onto the stage, before quietening down and directing all their focus at Twilight. After a deep breath, she spoke to the crowd. “Alright… so since it seems the original entertainment is not going to plan, I’ll be performing an improvised magic show.” Improvised as in something will almost certainly go wrong, she thought to herself. “Also, unlike a traditional show, this one will have some educational value as well as entertainment!” This time, it was Trixie’s turn to face-hoof. Twilight lit up her horn and created an incredibly detailed glowing hologram showing a medieval-looking village. Trixie’s sense of dread quickly turned to amazement as she watched on. Twilight was actually just as - well - almost as good as Trixie! Suddenly, the image of a young Starswirl the Bearded came galloping onto the scene. “This, fillies and gentlecolts, is Starswirl the Bearded! The most famous wizard of all time…” A few minutes later, Twilight finished her performance, the crowd cheering wildly. Twilight stood up on her hind legs and tried to strike a dramatic Trixie-like pose before trotting back down from the stage, but it looked more cute than dramatic. “That was quite impressive”, Trixie exclaimed, “of course Trixie is still the most magnificent pony, but you’re a very close second!” “Thanks,” Twilight giggled, “I had a little experience. Still think I should stick with being a princess though.” “Trixie also found princesshood to be less fun than she imagined it, not that Trixie had any trouble or anything, she just, didn’t like it, that’s all! Twilight chuckled, before the two of them became suddenly engulfed by a sphere of light, causing the dragons and griffons to cover their eyes as if they just looked into the sun. “Whoa, are you alright?” Gold Star squeaked, rushing over to them as they floated into the air. The two ponies gently descended back to the ground and the light cleared away. The two of them checked their hooves. Trixie was the first to react, hugging her cape. “YES!” she declared dramatically, “Trixie is back in her magnificent form! No more mane that smells of old books or mountain of paperwork.” “Then again, wings and alicorn magic aren’t too bad” Twilight replied with a giggle. “Hmph! Trixie doesn’t need wings, she’s already amazing!” “I know, I’m glad to call such an amazing pony my friend. Especially after seeing just how much effort it takes to run one of your magic shows!” It took Trixie a few seconds to process this, nopony had said anything like that to her before. Eventually she decided any response would be extremely sappy, emotional and non-Trixie-like, so she changed the subject. “So - what reversed the spell anyway?” Gold Star raised his hoof. “Um… I might have an idea.” “Yes?” Twilight asked, curiosity overtaking her. “I’ve read about some spells where the counter is an action that has to be taken, rather than another spell. Maybe this is one of those?” “Of course!” Twilight squeaked, having one of her nerd moments. “Of course! Of course! The spell was designed to let two different ponies experience an aspect of each others’ lives - in this case, talents. Once they begin to understand the others’ talents, the spell counters itself!” “One thing though,” she added after another short pause, “who would create such a spell in the first place? Who would be so different they have to cast a spell to be understood, so powerful they could make new magic, and so irresponsible they’d risk complete chaos by placing the spell in a public library?” “Oh,” Celestia said in the calmest grumpy voice in history, “I think I know. And I’m going to give them quite the talking to when we get back to Canterlot.”
