Legacy of the Greatest

Chapters

Four Leaves
Eight Points
Ten Minutes

Four Leaves

It was rare for it to rain at night in Canterlot. With the number of evening outdoor parties that occurred in the Equestrian capital, nopony wanted his or her planning work to go to ruin. As a compromise, the weather corps tended to schedule a few heavy days of rain a month, and let the sun shine on the mountain city the rest of the time.

Tonight was one of those rare nights where the rain was unplanned. The pegasi had limited control over the winds, and a heat wave had swept through Canterlot. A warm shower was just what was required to temper the heat, but as a result almost nopony was out on the streets, hunkering inside their dry homes instead.

One mare, however, was walking the streets of Canterlot. She didn't care about being drizzled on. After all, she had traveled in wild conditions across lands untamed by ponykind, through rain, sleet and hail, not to mention the accursed snow, snow and more snow. A light splattering of water was nothing in comparison.

How long was it since she had last been to Canterlot? She had stopped measuring in years long ago, but the mare didn't think it had been more than a few decades. Maybe. It was funny. Time was once something she had bent to her whim, surpassing even her master in. In the end, time had gotten the better of her.

She surveyed her surroundings. Rows and rows of gravestones stood next to one another in solid formation, like the tight ranks of a disciplined platoon of Pegasus soldiers. Some of those buried here dated back to before Canterlot became Equestria's seat of government, back when Celestia and Luna ruled from the castle in the Everfree. Some had only passed away in the last few years.

She wandered the rows, memories of individual ponies flitting back and forth, faces and voices long since forgotten, as she looked for one marker in particular. After a few minutes, she had located it, at the front of the plot allocated to those born into the House of Twilight.

"'Lest We Forget', hmm?," the mare said aloud, reading the epitaph engraved on the tombstone. Only the falling rain bore witness to her reading the epitaph. Above the words there was a carving of a six-sided star, a crude representation of the Cutie Mark of the pony buried here. "After her lifetime, that was the best they could come up with? Or was it something she requested? I suppose something modest would have suited her, even in death."

She sighed, unsure and uncaring if those were tears coming from her eyes, or water dripping from the side of her snout. After so many years, she had resorted to more and more undignified ways to inject excitement into her life. For a brief blip in time, Twilight Sparkle had entered her life like a shooting star, a brilliant beacon of light and fire that had drawn her to Twilight as if she was nothing more than a moth following a flame.

Unfortunately, like a shooting star, Twilight's time had burned up all too soon, her lifespan snuffed out in the blink of an eye. Now, with Twilight gone, she was back to wandering the world listlessly, her final destination never in sight. Even the thrill of the journey was losing its luster.

She felt the hoofsteps of another pony entering the cemetery. Had it been anypony else but for this one or her sister, she would have fled by now.

"While it behooves the younger generation to pay respect to its elders, you shouldn't do it in the rai—oh. It's you," Princess Celestia said. "It's been some time since we last met. Er, what name were you going by in this age again?"

The mare turned around, holding her head up high, violet eyes shining with intensity as she said, "These days, I go by Trixie, The Great and Powerful. Although, tales of Trixie's exploits in Ponyville still linger enough that I will soon have to leave her behind, not to mention how old she is supposed to be by now."

"I see. It is good to meet you again," Celestia said with a nod, looking past Trixie to the gravestone of Twilight Sparkle. "I had always wondered if you met my faithful student, but I have heard of The Great and Powerful Trixie's reputation and her incidents in Ponyville. If you are she, I suppose that means the Alicorn Amulet there was a fake, and it was all a test. Interesting. Didn't we nearly meet the one time, when Twilight invited me to come have a dinner with her new student?"

Trixie wracked her memories, before she at last recalled what Celestia was talking about. "Oh yes, the dinner date with her friendship student, Starlight Glimmer. I remember her, Starlight, that is. I found a kindred soul in her when we first met, even if she only knew Trixie's secrets, and not my own. No offense to you, but Twilight Sparkle was ill-equipped to help that pony work through her deeper issues. Friendship is not a salve-all."

"No offense taken. Like teacher, like student," Celestia said, staring past Trixie again. This time, Trixie knew Celestia wasn't looking at the marker where Princess Twilight Sparkle was buried. "I should have taken more care when I had Twilight as my own student. Even in her last days she still had panic attacks."

"Unsurprising," Trixie said.

"But then, age doesn't always bring with it maturity. The way I heard it, you were jealous of Twilight Sparkle and sought to away the affections of Starlight Glimmer. That wasn't a part of your act, was it?"

"I—" Trixie cut herself off, feeling her cheeks burn. She looked Celestia over. The alicorn wasn't using magic to protect herself against the rain. Rivulets of water pounded Celestia from head to tail, dripping down her muzzle and barrel.

In this cemetery, they weren't ponies who had to outmaneuver the other with words. They were two beings battered about by time's cruel passage, each needing the other, and perhaps to poke holes in one another's shells that had been calcified by time.

Trixie took a deep breath, and she said, "Yes, it made me jealous to hear that somepony had improved on one of his spells, and in so doing achieved apotheosis. Even when I met her twice before, Twilight Sparkle never struck me as the one. It was only later that I learned Starlight too had done the same, even if she didn't achieve ascension. But Starlight was different than Twilight. She might not have had the same spark as Twilight did, but there was something special about her, too. Starlight drew me to her. Only later did I find out she had founded her own village to live her ideology. Even though her intentions were misguided, Starlight showed initiative."

"I can understand that," Celestia said. "I'm not surprised you felt kinship with Starlight. To find another pony who had tinkered with Star Swirl's time spells, I'm surprised you didn't drag her off with you once you left Ponyville."

"I don't like dragging others into my life, or others dragging me into their lives. I had a purpose a long time ago, and I lived up to it."

"Yes, and Equestria still owes you its eternal gratitude."

"But I accomplished it. I should have died long ago. I don't know why I still live through every day, when it's been a struggle."

"You went through this sort of existential crisis before," Celestia noted. "At the time, you said you wanted to explore new lands, and await what the future would bring."

Trixie nodded, and said, "And I have, yet there's still so much more to explore. One of these days, I think I'll cross the ocean to the Western lands. Nowadays however, nowadays, I feel like I'm in a rut. Luna's return brought a new age to Equestria, and the return of several of history's monsters with it, but now it feels like everything has settled. Not that I'm saying I want Grogar to return from beyond the veil, or even worse, for the Windigos to emerge again, but in those few years there was a dynamism in Equestria that I haven't felt in a long time. Now, now it feels like Equestria is merely cruising along again."

"I'm actually envious of you," Celestia said.

"Oh?" Trixie asked. She wasn't honestly surprised. There were a number of things each had that the other didn't, but each of them also had several lifetimes' worth of baggage.

"For a thousand years after Luna's banishment, I had to stay strong, keeping my little ponies safe and holding this nation together. Every day, I regretted not paying more attention to my sister. I could never leave Canterlot to meet ponies in an informal environment. Even the alicorns that appeared throughout the centuries, sharing my rule with me, were only temporary salves," Celestia said, sighing. "After all, none of them had the immortal lifespan of my sister and me."

"I'm not teaching anypony. I reverse-engineered his spell and came up with something different, but the sacrifices I made to do it...no, I won't let anypony else even know it exists."

"I didn't think so. But still, you were about the only constant I had, and your visits are rather infrequent."

"Do you need them anymore? After all, Celestia and Luna are reunited."

"Even now, you do not call me Princess," Celestia observed.

Trixie gave her a piercing look. "You know I'll only ever swear fealty to one Princess, and she's been dead for a long time."

"Not even to her descendants?"

"Not even. Half of them lack her strength of will, and the other half are fops."

"You are the same as always, unwilling to get to know new ponies if they do not interest you first. Speaking of my sister, you should see Luna again. You've only seen her, what, twice since her return?"

"Three times," Trixie corrected Celestia.

"Of course. I forgot you encountered her in Griffonstone during the one summit. Luna has asked after you on occasion since then, but you are difficult to get a hold of."

Trixie paused, and thought that over. She liked her isolation, but she would not begrudge meeting more often with Celestia and Luna. "I'll tell you what my new identity is once I come up with it, how's about that? It should be easier to trace me once you know what name I'm going under these days."

"That would be nice to have," Celestia said, and then dropped the matter. The Princess seemed to cast about for a new topic to discuss, and then looked back at the grave marker. Trixie knew what question was coming before Celestia even asked it. "Do you think Twilight ever had any suspicions about who you were?"

Trixie furled her eyebrows, and said, "I don't think so. Twilight was only in middle-age when I last visited her. Maybe she noticed I hadn't aged a day, but we saw each other so infrequently she may never have realised it. Perhaps Twilight would have realised I was more than just Trixie, but I doubt she ever had a clue who I truly am."

Celestia closed her eyes, looking down at the ground as she let out a soft sigh. "That would make sense. She never did ask me about you. If she had mentioned a blue unicorn mare who seemed to be as young as the day Twilight first met her, I would have known who you were in an instant. Oh, something that just came to mind, now that I remember what 'Trixie' did in Ponyville. Do you know where the actual Alicorn Amulet is?"

Trixie scrunched her nose, thinking of when she had last seen it. At last, she answered, "No, I do not. The last I saw it was in the North, and it has been like a day in Tartarus trying to follow its trail since. I had a lead on the Amulet in Salamagne during the salamanders' civil war, but wasn't able to find it then."

"That is unfortunate. After your 'reign' over Ponyville, I went to retrieve the Alicorn Amulet, glad that it had been found after all this time so I could seal it away, only to be disappointed. It had been an enduring mystery to me these last few decades why the Amulet I retrieved was a fake, when it had been used only a few days earlier. I thought that perhaps somebody had stolen it from the zebra shamaness responsible for safeguarding it after your fight, and replaced it with something that looked very similar. Another one of my students once attempted to do the same with the Element of Magic, though she failed. I had been expecting somepony to use the Amulet any day now, but it seems it is still lost to us."

"That's probably a good thing," Trixie pointed out. "The last time somepony used the real Amulet, it didn't end well."

Trixie could see the pain in Celestia's eyes as her old friend raised her head back up. It surprised Trixie to see, for a brief moment of weakness, Celestia's face carrying the weight of millenia. "Even the Elements of Harmony are not all-powerful."

The two were silent for a few seconds after that. Trixie gave a silent prayer to the thoughts of those who had died the last time the Alicorn Amulet had been used.

"Master did tell you that before, many times," Trixie said, but then she backed off. That brief skirmish had been a long time ago, but she could tell it still pained Celestia. Trixie instead chose to change subjects back to what she had visited this cemetery for. "Twilight Sparkle made a good effort out of it, didn't she?"

Celestia's eyes refocused, honing in on Trixie. "Yes. Her as well as her friends, the new generation of the Element-Bearers. She changed so many lives, and her friend Fluttershy even managed to reform Discord. Discord! I had thought we would forever be at odds, but then, I never knew until then that friendship and chaos were compatible."

"Fluttershy passed away years ago, though" Trixie said. "Do you still trust him?"

Celestia frowned at that. "I am sorry, but it would be inappropriate to discuss such a thing with somepony else. Fluttershy and Discord had a close relationship."

So she didn't trust Discord. Trixie wasn't too concerned in any case. Discord had been fairly tame since his freedom. Outside of his betrayal during the Tirek incident, the draconequus hadn't kicked up too much of a fuss. If he were to pose a threat to the peace again...well, Trixie was no alicorn, and she hadn't been an active war magician in a long time, but the winds of time and wave of change hadn't yet worn her down. She had outlasted whole empires. In the past, serious opposition to Equestria had refocused Trixie, breathing new life into her as she fought to protect the homeland she had once forged long ago. Another go would be no different.

"But again, Twilight Sparkle was something I think we'll never see again in Equestria. Twilight saved my sister, and she saved my last student before her. In a few decades, only a handful of us will remember her as a living, breathing pony than a pony who is present in history books. I hate to think the day will eventually come to pass that I forget what her voice was like, or the colour of her eyes, and someday even the colour of her coat," Celestia said. "She admired you, you know. I suppose Twilight Sparkle will never realise how ironic it is that a pony so often found on the stage would become a pony on the stage."

"She admired me? Which me?" Trixie asked. She knew the answer, of course. Trixie wasn't a pony who could have been admired by the Princess of Friendship and Magic.

"The real you."

Trixie didn't know what to say to that. Instead, she settled for reading Twilight Sparkle's epitaph, "Lest We Forget, indeed."

The two fell silent at those words. There was no more that needed to be said.

Minutes or hours passed. Trixie was certain it wasn't days, since the sun hadn't yet risen. Then again, considering who was standing next to her, that was no longer a reliable measure. At last, Celestia bowed her head to the gravestone, touching her horn against the top, before raising her head again. "I hope to see you at the palace soon," Celestia said. "We really do miss you."

Celestia waited for a few minutes. She added, "Now that the Researcher Princess has left us, perhaps somepony could take her place again?"

Not getting a verbal response, the regal alicorn at last walked away, leaving Trixie behind in the cemetery.

"I didn't think much of you when I first saw you on that day in Ponyville," Trixie said, keeping her eyes straight forward on the tombstone. "Imagine my surprise when you actually managed to get rid of an Ursa Minor, all on your lonesome! I researched you, found out you were Celestia's student. I gave you a test, one you passed with flying colours. You became a Princess, something I would never have predicted. When you took on a student, I attempted to nudge you as hard as I could without creating a schism between us."

Trixie sighed. The rain was falling harder now. "You have your legacy, Princess Twilight. I have mine, the legacy of the greatest, but until I die it'll never be complete. Celestia envies me sometimes. I envy her sometimes as well, but I think I envy you even more. You took with you to the grave a legend that will likely surpass my own. This world doesn't need me anymore, but here I am. I still endure."

Giving the Cutie Mark engraved into the tombstone one last glance, Trixie turned around, leaving the cemetery.

Perhaps Trixie would take Celestia up on her advice about returning to her studies on magic. Maybe she would pay Luna another visit, while she was at it.

Author's Note

If you haven't figured out who Trixie is, it'll be spoiled in the next episode (watching a certain Season 2 episode is essential to realise it).

On seeing the cover art, the words 'The greatest trick the Great and Powerful Trixie ever performed was convincing all of ponykind that she was a mere unicorn' sort of sprung into my head, and it evolved from there. Originally, I intended to leave Trixie a complete blank. After a little bit of brainstorming, I actually came up with an idea for who or what she is. You can suss it out of the text, but I'm not sure how subtle I made it. If you're going to post your guess in the comments, please spoiler it.

UPDATE: Since so many people guessed correctly anyways, Trixie is Clover the Clever, who reverse-engineered a time spell created by Star Swirl and used it so she doesn't age.

Eight Points

Trixie disliked teleportation.

Oh, the actual function was perfectly fine. Rather, Trixie disliked how the majority of unicorns viewed teleportation as the natural endpoint of useful magic. A unicorn's first spell was very often levitation, learned in the cradle. By the time they grew up, most unicorns desired to learn teleportation. Only the more ambitious of magicians persevered through the hard work required, but a sizable number of unicorns eventually learned it. To get there, they trained, they studied, they revised, and they researched and developed other spells along the way.

Then they stopped. Once they had teleportation down, there was no next big project. Rare was the pony who saw teleportation as a mere step in life to learning still more powerful magic or, better yet, creating new magic. Oh, there were still plenty of minor magical spells a unicorn would learn for convenience, but teleportation was the last great wall to surmount.

The spark to push beyond was something Trixie had only seen six times. The first was the stallion she would come to call her master. The day he left this plane of life was the second-saddest day in her life, after only the death of her sovereign. The next three were the only unicorns Trixie had ever taken on as apprentices, after seeing their drive. One had gone on to become a powerful enchantress, creating eight objects of minor renown. The other two had faded even further into history, but it was Spectral Trick and his illusion spells that Trixie had decided to honour in her current iteration of life by naming herself after him and using his spells. All three had gone to the grave, taking the secret of her true identity with them.

The last two ponies had been the late Princess Twilight Sparkle, the only one of those with the spark to ascend, and her own student Starlight Glimmer. Trixie was mildly curious about how things might have turned out for either of those two if Trixie had found them first. Instead, she had to satisfy herself with the fire the two had reignited under Trixie's hooves, making her feel alive for the first time in centuries. That fire still burned, even as both Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer had passed on.

It was that fire that had driven her to finally do research again.

"And so, as proven by the above equations, Fermare's Last Equation can be shown to be entirely consistent with the Ninth Principle of Magic, something creatures of all races have been struggling with since time immemorial," Trixie said aloud, before frowning. That last little bit did not belong in a scholarly paper. The instinct in her to seek harmony, not just with other ponies but with all sapient species altogether, was hard to suppress.

Scratching the last sentence fragment off, Trixie sat on her chair, looking out the window. The Western Sea was roiling. The pegasi had their work cut out for them, taming the clouds that rolled in over Vanhoofer off the coast. Ponies had long since conquered the weather over most of the land, but the ocean was an entirely different beast altogether. From the gaping maw of the waters that stretched as far as the eye could see, the ocean would always spit out temperamental storms.

Trixie could do it, however. She could walk out now, and in one fell swoop of magic, vanquish the wild weather and bring about a few days of calm. But Trixie wouldn't. It had been something she had long disagreed with Celestia and Luna about. Ponies needed to learn to get along without their princesses and, while Trixie was no princess, she was still a one-in-a-million sorceress. Ponies needed to be able to solve problems, and relegate the alicorns to figureheads. Other species had their immortals, but ponykind was unique in how it stuck to the princesses as its supreme leaders, rather like how a foal refused to leave the warm embrace of her dam's body.

If the weather got bad enough that it risked lives, Trixie would go and help. Until then, she had something more pressing to deal with.

"What should I sign this as?" She asked aloud, looking around the room for objects of inspiration. "White Quill? No, too pedestrian." She took a glance out the window. "Storm Front? No, that sounds like a pegasus name. Focus, Trixie, it's a name you're going to use for at least the next fifty years, you should like it." Trixie had started her new life many decades ago, only achieving fame as a middling magician. It would be suspicious for her to sign off on any cutting-edge research when she should be an old mare by now. Instead, it was time for her to acquire a new identity, and come out to the world with a big paper.

"Perhaps you should just use Clover. How many parents name their foals after Miss Clever, anyways? You'd just be one of many. Nopony in their right mind would suspect this Clover is the real one!"

Trixie swung around in her chair, rare panic settling in at the intrusion, only to narrow her eyes. "Discord," she said curtly. The draconequus was in her room, floating around, idly looking at everything.

“That’s me! Oh, how tacky, I can’t believe hotels still actually use these lamps,” Discord said in a mocking tone as he picked up a lamp with an emerald-green shade, and threw it over his shoulder. “They should be using these instead!” From behind his back, he pulled out a lamp of himself. It was in a goofy positioning, as befitted Discord, with his hand holding up the bulb and the shade hanging around his waist.

Trixie raised an eyebrow. Since hearing of Discord’s reformation, she had expected this day, when Discord would visit. She just never thought it would take so long, many years after he had gained his freedom. Nevertheless, Trixie was experienced at conversations with madponies from years of experience, and she would not fall under the angry currents of chaos that was Discord. “I have seen many lamps like those before, at fairs. They actually look very nice, but they are a bit, ah, campy, kitsch? Hotels strive for a bland, generic appearance, so while I would love one of your lamps in my home, I doubt a hotel chain would use them unless it was attempting to be deliberately anti-establishment.”

“Oh, look at you and your fancy words! I recall the last time we met there was a lot less of that and a lot more growls, snarling, snapping and hissing,” Discord said as he set his Discord lamp up on the table, and with a snap of his fingers turned on the lamp.

Trixie bit her tongue. He wants to provoke you into doing something stupid. Do not let him. “Well, the last time we met, we were fighting. I trust you have more innocuous motives for being here today?”

“Oh, yes! I was just dusting my house, cleaning my dishes, when I thought to myself, ‘Hey, you mighty handsome good-looking fool, whatever happened to that one pony you fought, the one who stopped her body from aging? She had some pretty good flanks for a pony, I wonder if she’s still around?’ Lo and behold, here I am!” Discord announced with a proud smile on his face, before slithering up to Trixie, his neck twisting around her own a full circle to look at the desk she had been writing on. “Ooooh, what’s this? A paper on the Ninth Principle? I’ll give you marks for getting your thesis correct, but your conjecture isn’t! Not all species have been struggling with it. Why, my ol’ granpappy solved it five minutes before the start of creation.”

“Well, it’s good to know that my second opinion agrees with me,” Trixie said drily, keeping her heartbeat steady. She wasn’t confident about winning a fight with Discord at all, but Celestia had reassured her about his reformation, though there had been some hesitation. Still, Trixie wouldn’t even give him an opening to be more annoying than he already was. It was a little unsettling for her 'good flanks' to be complimented on by Discord though. “Now I just have to pass through a peer review.”

“Pfft, peer review, schmeer schmeview,” Discord said, rolling his eyes, before he suddenly poofed, disappearing only to reappear as a two-inch-tall figure, standing right on top of Trixie’s muzzle. “Oooh, we’re sorry Mr. Discord, but we think your reports on chaos magic aren’t correct despite me being, you know, the spirit of chaos!” He mocked, wiggling his paws in a gesture Trixie recognised the Minotaurs as sometimes doing, something called ‘air quotes’. “Those fools wouldn’t know a good paper if it bit them on the nose!” The paper in question suddenly floated up off the desk, rearranging itself into a tiny paper dog before biting the two-inch Discord on his nose, finally reforming back into a normal piece of paper and falling onto the desk once more.

He’s more talkative than I remember him being, Trixie thought to herself, but she was genuinely interested in what he had to say. “Did you actually try to submit an academic paper?”

Discord poofed, and then reappeared in his normal size, sitting on top of Trixie’s desk. “I did! It’s too bad half the peer reviewers had to drop out, on account of temporary insanity at the report book changing sizes on them, the ink on the pages sometimes disappearing and sometimes turning into a Rocschach blot, you’d swear they’ve never looked into gryphon art!” He said this as casually as if he was discussing the weather, while picking dirt out of his nails.

“I’ve seen a few of those,” Trixie offered. “The gryphons like to look at them and say what they see in the Rocschach blots. Some psychologists use them, but the majority of gryphons like to come up with the most outlandish things they can think of.”

“Yes, like the one gryphon who could only ever see a pink party pony and a platypus in th—oh, I see what you’re doing, changing the subject, clever of you! In fact, very clever, that reminds me,” Discord said, turning back around to the paper on the desk. “Why don’t you sign this Clover? Just Clover, no need for ‘The Clever’ of course!”

Trixie scrunched her nose, showing the first sign of annoyance in their conversation thus far. “I left that name behind a long time ago.”

Discord rolled his eyes. “Left it behind, sure, painful memories, can’t bear to think of the past, yadayadayada. Sunbutt had to put up without Moonbutt for a thousand years, I think a name won’t hurt you.”

Trixie clenched her teeth, unwilling to say anything.

"Of course, I know where your name came from," Discord mocked. "You may have decided to go by Clover, but that wasn't always the case, was it, Miss Cloven Hooves?”

The mare flinched, suddenly self-conscious of her rear hooves.

Discord saw it, and took full advantage of it. “My, my. You leave your first name behind because of shame, and the second one behind because of painful memories, wasn’t it?”

Trixie flushed. Bad memories of her childhood so long ago came to the forefront. Faded as they were, she could still remember being mocked as a filly for her back hooves. Foals were always mean to others who weren’t like them, such as a pony who had two single-toed hooves and two cloven hooves. Her parents had been tactless in naming her after the latter. Multi-toed hooves had since completely disappeared from equinity, but even then, it had been very rare, causing her to be singled out for taunts.

Cloven had fought to find an outlet to channel her anger into. She had fallen in love with that outlet, the study of magic. She had become the apprentice of Star Swirl the Bearded, and changed her name ever so slightly to Clover, eventually gaining the appellation ‘the Clever’ after her supposed death. It wasn’t a name she had heard spoken in centuries, and while time had chipped away at the memories attached to it, those foalhood taunts still rankled.

“I did, yes,” Trixie admitted. “I had my reasons for it. But I’ve also had more than enough time to get over it. Now I simply choose not to use either name. I don’t care to live in the past.”

“My, my,” Discord said, smirking. “That sounds a little bit like de-ni-al to me!”

“I don’t really care what you think,” Trixie said scathingly.

“Oh, that hurts,” said Discord in a falsetto as he laid one paw over his heart. Then he threw his paws up in the air in a mock shrug. “Oh well, I’ll get over it, just like you got over your identity crisis. Tell me one thing though, Clover. What would Princess Platinum say?”

Trixie winced. She knew what her Princess would have said. Princess Platinum had been one of the wisest ponies Trixie had ever known, and though she was certain her memories of the ruler of the unicorn tribe were coloured by time, Trixie still aspired to be like Platinum. The Princess had been kind, yet willing to be hard when the time required. Those foals who played Princess Platinum for Hearth’s Warming Eve almost universally played her as a selfish brat. Were the mere idea not sacrilege to her, Trixie would have taken the role of Princess Platinum and shown an audience just once what the real Princess Platinum had been like.

“She would have told me I was running away,” whispered Trixie. “That it was OK to go by another name, but to never just shed my past because it was a part of who I was.”

“That sounds like her, alright,” said Discord as he floated off the desk, going over to the window to look outdoors. “She was never an actual threat to me, but that one was always a little spitfire, ready to defend her ponies.”

Trixie blinked, and narrowed her eyes. Even though I intended to control this conversation, I never had a chance, did I? “Discord, what did you really come here for today?”

He sighed. Trixie wondered why it sounded so odd, before she realised she had never heard the draconequus sigh before. Why would he have? If he was bored, he would just create more chaos. If he ever felt anything like melancholy to even sigh, he would still stir up chaos. “You got me, Clover,” said Discord, turning around, now standing solidly on the floor. “Many years ago, I changed my mind. Making friends felt good.”

Discord began to pace around the room. It felt fitting for a being who was always in flux: standing still would have been boring. “Old Fluttershy has passed on, and while I dote on her fillies and grandfillies, it’s just not the same. So one day, I thought to myself, maybe I should go see all those who are still around from when I ruled Equestria! Well, that was a short bucket list. There aren’t exactly many immortals around.”

“How many of them didn’t you antagonise back then?” Trixie asked.

Discord stopped in front of the room’s mirror, then used his paws to stretch his mouth out before blowing a raspberry at the mirror. “Oh, there were more than a few of them I barely met. After all, it’s not as fun to antagonise goats or dragons as it is with ponies or cows, who’ll shriek and panic if they see a snake! But I talked with several of them.” To Trixie’s shock, Discord actually looked genuinely remorseful. “Even now, it’s difficult to curb some of my baser desires, but Fluttershy helped me. Chaos is fun, but not when it results in somebody else’s misfortune.”

“That’s—” Trixie stopped, wondering how to word it. “I never expected to hear something like that from you.”

“Well, time is time, and time changes everything, even me!” Discord said, sounding slightly more jubilant as he swung around, then executed a backflip, only to halt it halfway through as he landed on the ceiling, looking upside down on Trixie. “Even we immortals change. So how long are you going to be wandering this world, pitying yourself and finding new ways to go ‘oh, woe is me’?”

Trixie recoiled, taken aback by the piercing question. She scrunched her nose, thinking about it.

Trixie closed her eyes. Have I really been wandering without any purpose, going astray for this long?

Yes. Of course I have been. What a silly question. I told Celestia as much some time ago. I need something to break me out of this funk I find myself in.

Clover opened her eyes.

“Ah, that’s what I’m talking about!” Discord said, as he let himself fall down to the floor in an unceremonial heap. Standing back up, he dusted himself off. Grabbing Clover by the shoulders, he looked her close in the eyes. “Those passionate violet eyes that I remember, always filled with vim and fire! Eyes that told me I was going to have an entertaining fight! Eyes that I always thought could only be put out by one thing, and one thing only. I was disappointed to realise there were two things that could, but now it’s just death again.”

Wait. This isn’t quite right. There’s still something I have to do yet, the mare thought.

Clover closed her eyes. Trixie opened her eyes.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie was her own mare, and her own life,” she announced. “Maybe it was merely a lie, but I would be remiss not to give her one last hurrah, and to make certain history knows her name.” Walking up to the table, she picked up the quill in her grip, and signed the bottom of the research paper, Trixie Lulamoon.

“Oh? So this is the way you intend to go?” Discord asked. He didn’t sound disappointed, just surprised.

“Only for a while longer,” said Trixie. Then she surprised the other resident in the room by leaning forward and wrapping her hooves around him.

“Urk!” Discord grunted in surprise, but he made no effort to escape the hug.

“Thank you, Discord,” Trixie said. She ignored the revulsion she felt. After all, it was another mare who had fought Discord, in another time. Trixie had never met him before, and she thought she had found a kindred soul. Suddenly, the two hooves she now stood on didn’t feel so bad anymore, either. “I think I needed to be able to talk with somebody who knew me, the real me, again.” Trixie broke off her hug, and fell back down onto all fours.

“Only for a little while longer, hmm?” Discord asked, stroking his goatee. “What do you intend to do first, then?”

“Trixie intends to drop this off at the research society,” Trixie said, easily lapsing back into her third-pony speech, now that she felt alive again. “But before I once more take on Clover’s name, there’s one last pony I need to speak with!”

Author's Note

I recently tried reading of those stories where Twilight goes back in time and is revealed to have actually been Clover the Clever. I couldn't read it: my own story has jossed me. I wonder if I've accidentally done that to anyone else.

So, Trixie having two toes on her back hooves actually references two things. First, it references how unicorns in real-world mythology had cloven hooves. Trixie being from a time ago reflects the whole mythology thing. Animals with two-toed hooves are said to have cloven hooves, a single letter off from Clover.

As well, real-life horses once had multi-toed hooves up to 5 toes, but lost them over time as they fused during fetal development into single-toed hooves. Horses still have several toes but they're no longer expressed. Wisdom teeth in humans is a similar phenomenon, where an increasing number are either born without them or never have them grow out (that this is a variation that only appears in part of the population is why Trixie has only two two-toes hooves, and that's already rare for her time). I'm admittedly compressing hundreds of thousands of years of evolution into a fraction of that time there. Mainly, it's employed as a novelty, but it wouldn't hold up a story on its own.

The end of the chapter is a little wonky. I figure people would be turned off if Trixie completely ditches her identity and returns to her old name, even in thought. I certainly wouldn't have, so 'Trixie' keeps her current identity and the life's experiences she gathered with it for a while longer.

One more chapter to end this fic. This would be posted in a separate fimfiction entry, since it'd be a bit of a artistic whiplash to have it included as a chapter or two after the end of this story, but how would people like to read a non-canon take on this setting where Twilight and Starlight go back in time to sightsee on famous events and figures, only to find out Trixie was Clover?

Ten Minutes

The majestic castle glittered gold against the setting sun, as its splendid grandeur provided a beacon of hope to all ponies within spitting distance of the stronghold. Towers jutted out of the landscape, piercing the heavens above. Less pure white and more the colour of platinum, there were no earthly foes capable of taking the castle and the city that had grown around it.

Yet fall it eventually had, not to mortal enemies but to the interlopers of winter’s heart. The mere sight of brown and green was all Trixie needed to prove this scene to be nothing more than memory. Still, it was a memory that brought a great deal of nostalgia to her, the vivid sight so great and powerful that it had yet to fade away after over a thousand years.

Trixie knew the truth of the dream around her, but she took the opportunity to reminisce. The world was quiet here. The only sound that could be heard was the light clopping of her hooves on the cobbled roads as she walked towards the castle town.

A few minutes later, Trixie furled her brow as she realised she was getting no closer to the settlement. The yellow road somehow always seemed to have the same length left to travel. Trixie sighed. Sometimes, dreams could be metaphorical, and sometimes those metaphors could be a pain in the dock. She understood all too well what this dream meant.

Unicornia was a city that could never again be touched.

Instead, she turned her sights to the falling sun. With its descent would come the moon’s ascent, and the pony Trixie had sensed since her dream began. “Hello, Luna.”

At first, there was no acknowledgement. Slowly, however, a mass of shadows appeared at Trixie’s hooves. The shadows coalesced, then sprout, growing taller and wider until taking shape as a pony, finally gaining colour and depth. Blinking a few times and shaking her head a few times to clear her mind, Luna looked over at the city that never would be again. “I wish I had been born earlier, so that I could have seen old Unicornia even once before its fall.”

With Luna’s appearance, the sun abruptly set, and the moon rose to take its sibling’s place. Gone were the golden hues that lit up Unicornia Castle with a splendid radiance. In its place was the white-blue moonlight. With a pallour that more reflected its own platinum colour, the former home of the unicorn nation showed her true beauty.

“She was a beauty,” Trixie agreed. “So was old Pegasopolis, and even the former Earthville in her own rustic manner.” Of course, she had only ever seen the other two cities briefly. While her mentor Star Swirl was respected enough amongst all three tribes that him and her could briefly step into the land of the other tribes, Clover had never been able to freely explore them in-depth. She never would, either. The Windigos had seen to that.

“I can see how Princess Platinum’s home influenced our own castle in the Everfree,” Luna commented, making small talk. “It is less obvious with Canterlot, though there are a number of spires that seem loosely like the ones in Unicornia. The castle town of Canterlot does not seem nearly as magnificent as Unicornia, however, aside from being built on top of a mountain. Again, I wish I had seen Unicornia at least once in the flesh.”

“Unicornia still exists,” Trixie said. “But only as a pile of ruins. I return there on a pilgrimage about once every hundred years to remember from where I came. I recognise her less and less every century, and soon she will be lost. When your Castle in the Everfree was shiny and sparkling, Unicornia was in the state that castle is in now.”

Suddenly, the castle town disappeared, its vibrant platinums and silvers vanished underneath a mountain of sleet. An eternal snowfall continued to bury the homeland of the unicorns. Here and there, one could make out what once were the stone-capped towers of Unicornia Castle. Only a hoofful of the former towers were recognisable: many more had since crumbled. Unicornia’s legacy was that of loose stones that littered the endless wastes of a world of ice.

The contrast to what Unicornia had been was overwhelming, and Trixie felt guilty as she saw the pain in Luna’s eyes. Trixie herself had had only fifteen hundred years to rationalise the decay of Unicornia. To Luna, the decline had been in the blink of an eye.

Rather like when she returned from the moon to see her own former fillyhood home fallen apart, Trixie thought, her mind wandering off as she attempted to ignore the scene of her own decayed homeland. Celestia and Luna had never asked her where Unicornia was located, and so Trixie would be the last to ever see the city before it finally completely vanished in a world of white.

“Such is the history of equinity,” Trixie babbled. “Maybe we should thank the Windigos for having the last laugh and destroying our old homelands. If not for that, perhaps we would have returned and continued to live separately. By coming south and founding Equestria, we were forced to integrate for the very first time to survive.”

Luna surveyed the fallen metropolis one last time, shaking her head before looking back at Trixie. “Maybe. But it still truly is a shame. However, I am still glad that you managed to vanquish the Windigos. At least me and Celestia had some time to grow up before Discord’s appearance,” Luna remarked.

Trixie chewed her lip. Some days, it was difficult to remember that she was older than the Royal Sisters, so pervasive was their cultural influence. Trixie had never been born under the banner of Celestia and Luna, and was now the only pony alive to predate Equestria as a nation. Still, it meant something, like that Trixie should be the one giving guidance here instead of Luna.

So she tried. “I have many regrets over the year, but founding Equestria wasn’t one of them. Every day I see foals laughing as their mothers and fathers take them out to the park. Cutie Marks these days are for a pony’s true passion in life, not for whatever talent of hers or his is most useful for surviving the Everlasting Winter. With luck, Equestria will never need to call upon her ponies again. I only wish you and your sister could have had a few more years before you too were thrust into your own age of strife.”

“It was a tough time, both before and after we defeated Discord,” Luna admitted, looking at the moon as she reminisced of days past. “Well, I say ‘we’ meaning me and my sister. But even in that, you contributed perhaps more than we did, Clover.”

Trixie shuddered. Even now, hearing her name, her true name, not the name that she had been born with, but the one she had become famous by, left her feeling apprehensive. But Trixie’s resistance to her old name was not what Luna was inquiring about. “You and Celestia were the one who defeated Discord.”

“Maybe, but that was after discovering the Elements of Harmony. You helped delay him to the point that Celestia and I could go on our journey of self-discovery and locate the Elements,” Luna pointed out.

The smaller mare bit her tongue, blankly looking off into space. Even though Trixie had recently chatted with Discord and ‘made up’ with him in a sense, there were far too many old wounds to be healed in one conversation. Besides, thinking about those days and her lost companions still hurt Trixie too much to easily remember them. “I did what I was able to, to the best of my ability.”

“Don’t!” Luna suddenly barked, causing Trixie to jump. “Don’t, please, Clover,” Luna said, backing off from her sharp barking, nearly approaching the opposite extreme in what came close to begging. Don’t sell yourself short like that! You and your two friends were the single greatest threat to Discord’s reign. Every second you fought him, every breath you defied him, it all helped. The suffering of our little ponies was greatly alleviated by the three of you.”

“Defy him?” Trixie sighed, looking up at the sky. There was a wistful smile on her face. “You do realise we never actually stood a chance against Discord, right?”

“You did,” insisted Luna. “I know what you are trying to say. If he truly unleashed all his power, none of us would have stood a chance until we finally found the Elements of Harmony. But what you did was still something nopony else could.”

Trixie knew Luna’s words were true. She knew this both on a logical and emotional basis. However, the strife of that era past till gnawed at Trixie, threatening to tear open the scabs on her heart that time had barely been able to heal. Only Trixie’s recent meetings with Discord and Celestia were finally helping her to move on. “We did what we could,” Trixie agreed. “In the end, Equestria lived on and experienced an era of peace. What brings you to my dream, Luna?”

“I thought I would visit you again when my sister mentioned having seen you at Twilight Sparkle’s grave some time ago,” said Luna. “Alas, but you are difficult at the best of times to track down in the waking realm. I have only been able to meet with you thrice since my return. That leaves the world of dreams.”

“I wasn’t deliberately avoiding you,” Trixie defended herself, but she knew it was a hollow excuse. Even if Clover had long embraced the road as a genuine joy, she still had never returned to Canterlot to see Luna upon the latter coming back from the moon. With Discord, she at least had the reason of him being her former mortal foe. With Luna, there was no such excuse. Clover had been afraid, afraid of encountering anything that could remind her of her past.

After meeting Celestia again and Discord’s visit only a few months prior, Trixie had intended to visit Luna again soon. The eighty years before that, however, Trixie was unable to defend.

Perhaps it was a good thing Luna had taken the initiative to seek out Trixie. Sometimes, a scab would heal quicker when it was picked at.

Luna, to her credit, didn’t press Trixie. Instead, she sat down on her haunches, looking away from the buried castle and instead towards her own heavenly body, soaking in the moonlight. “Tell me about your life in the last thousand years, Clover. Celestia knew precious little of your wanderings. Surely you’ve seen some interesting sights. Explored some ruins, built what would become ruins, created new spells, fought in wars, found new lovers?”

Trixie puffed her cheeks up at that last suggestion. But she found the prospect of idle talk alluring, and sat down besides Luna. “No new lovers, though I’m certain your sister would have loved to hear about them. Oh, but perhaps you would like to hear about my apprentices instead?”

“You took apprentices?” Luna asked, her eyes finally shining with excitement instead of melancholy. For the first time, the Lunar Princess had perked up.

Trixie nodded. “Yes, three of them, all unicorns of course. In this modern era, they were the only ponies who knew my true identity as Clover the Clever. Oh, I suppose I should tell you about Spectral Trick. He wasn’t the first of my three apprentices, but he was the one who inspired my current life.”

“Your current life?” Luna asked.

“Of course. I haven’t wandered as Clover the Clever in over a thousand years, but the Great and Powerful Trixie is merely an alter-ego I conjured less than a century ago. I rotate out new egos ever several decades as they are supposed to grow old and fade out. To be truthful, I often lose my self-identity as Clover as I become possessed by my new characters.” Trixie swallowed. That had happened to her this time, too. She had broken free in her conversation with Discord and asserted herself as Clover, but Trixie felt she still owed her current role a last hurrah. What that last hurrah was, was something she still hadn’t found. “This time, Trixie was so depressed at the beginning that she even began referring to herself in the third-pony. Like Trixie is currently doing, for instance.”

“I noticed,” Luna said, her eyebrows raised in amusement. “You were saying about Spectral Trick?”

“Of course. Spectral Trick was one of three ponies I apprenticed over my lifetime. He had a flair for putting on a show, both with physical gadgets and amusements and illusionary cantrips. I raised him from when he was practically a colt. You won’t find his name in more than a couple of old textbooks, but he was quite an accomplished wizard in his day,” Trixie said, puffing her chest out with pride. “When it came time for me to cast aside my last identity, I decided to honour him in my own personal way by adopting his personal philosophy. He loved to entertain, and he loved the stage, and so I became a wandering magician in his stead.”

“I would have loved to meet him then, if he was able to inspire you so,” Luna said.

Trixie agreed. “He was full of mischief, even in his last days. You would have loved that side of him. Heheh. Sometimes I wonder what Spec's reaction would be to me doing this. I think he would have been tickled silly at inspiring me to perform one of my greatest tricks. Imagine what normal ponies would think if they knew Clover the Clever was still alive, wandering upon them, playing at being a showmare.”

Luna let out a soft giggle at that, muffling it with her wing in front of her mouth. “Some of the ponies in our court at least suspect, correctly so, that me and my sister occasionally go out in public disguised. But our walks are just brief flings, to drop in on the common pony and see Equestria in a way. We have often talked about taking turns at governing solo so the other may live out a mortal life for a few years.”

“It has its upsides,” Trixie agreed. “Princesses are supposed to love all their subjects, but I suspect Celestia has always despised only being able to see their lives from the top. The mortal alicorn princesses can live casual lives, like Twilight Sparkle did living in Ponyville, but she cannot. You are more able than she is in that aspect by wandering the dream realm. I, on the other hoof, am totally free and unrestrained. I can live among ponies as a mere unicorn, and live the life of the unworrying commoner.” Trixie sighed wistfully. “Like Spectral Trick. I think Celestia felt forced to teach students who were supremely talented so as to better Equestria. Spec was never the greatest of unicorn mages, but his heart was akin to my own when I was growing up. He was merely a colt when I first discovered him. Or should I say, he discovered me. He nearly ran me over when I first walked into the village he hailed from.”

Luna was engrossed in Trixie’s tale, allowing the smaller mare to continue reminiscing. “Even then, he was loud. He saw I was a wandering unicorn, and pushed me to teach him magic. In the mind of a young colt, a foreign unicorn from away had to be a mysterious mentor figure, come to take him away, like in one of those stories. Especially since I had a freaky deformity like two cloven hooves, that just made me more mysterious. Heh, and he was right,” Trixie said, smiling softly at the memories. “Of course, he didn’t learn who I truly was until much later, and it took me many months of staying in his village before I realised he was somepony I wanted to teach.”

“I envy you in that,” Luna spoke up. “You are right. Sister does feel pressured to choose the best of the crop whenever she chooses to teach again. Twilight Sparkle, for example, turned out wonderfully, but she was one-of-a-kind. It is rare that Celestia can teach to aptitude instead of talent.”

“Spec would never even have had a chance to be one of Celestia’s pupils, even if he had gone to her school,” Trixie agreed. “Well, enough of that. Regardless of the reasons I chose to teach him, he was still my student. It’s always a joy to watch a pony grow up under one’s teachings, which is why I’m certain Celestia loves to take on new faithful students. What about you, Luna? You must have settled in after nearly a century. Do you think you will teach as well?”

Luna shook her head with mirth. “No thank you. I suppose it is just as you yourself have said, Clover. I would rather teach a pony who suits my own personality, than a pony who is merely magically talented. You said it yourself. You have wandered for over a thousand years, and you have only taught three ponies in that time period. I am surprised, however. I would have expected you to reveal yourself as Clover the Clever to more than just those three.”

Trixie grimaced. There was a good reason for that, but it fell into things she would rather not talk about. It was just like how Trixie had stopped talking about Spectral Trick. If she had talked anymore about him and the joy and memories of teaching, Trixie would also have to speak of how he refused to join her in eternity, and how she eventually buried him with her own hooves.

“I assume Celestia already told you, but I was Equestria’s ace in the hole while you were gone,” Trixie said. “Nopony knew I still lived, after all, so no enemy of Equestria that wasn’t already sealed away could have planned for me. If Celestia ever fell, I would have broken my hermitage and stopped the threat of the day. Were Celestia to die, then Clover would finally return to take Equestria's throne. No matter how many years I went without seeing her, Celestia always trusted I would hold up my own end.” Trixie wrinkled her snout. “I am just glad that measure never had to be taken.”

Luna frowned. “Truly? What would you have done, then, if the Elements had not managed to stop me upon my return to Equestria, and I had usurped my sister?”

“I might have allowed the Nightmare a brief chance to rule, seeing if she was at least tolerable. But going off what I saw of the real Nightmare Moon, I would have killed you,” Trixie said bluntly. “Or died trying,” she added.

Luna flinched at the morbid turn in conversation, even as she had expected Trixie’s answer.

“In the last century, I’ve finally been able to shake off my ennui, thanks to the excitement since your return,” Trixie continued. There was another reason for that, one she didn’t mention to Luna. Trixie had made friends once with Starlight Glimmer, and the other unicorn had occasionally mentioned the alternate timelines Twilight Sparkle had seen with Starlight's time travel spell. Trixie had thought of her own mortality and potential death many times, but to hear of other timelines where a villain had taken over Equestria had driven it home for her. There was no way she would have stood in the background and let Nightmare Moon or Queen Chrysalis take over, which left only one option for what had happened to the Clover of other timelines. Even now, Trixie still wondered who or what had caused the apocalyptic timeline of ash and dust Starlight had briefly talked about in a haunted tone.

That had been the true reason Trixie had begun to shake off her rust after several centuries again. An unknown enemy able to exterminate Equestria wasn’t something she could stand by and wait for, even if it had never appeared in this timeline. A century ago, she would not have been able to fend off any major threat right away. Eighty years ago, she had trained and practiced again in anticipation of Nightmare Moon’s arrival, in the event Celestia’s plan did not work. Clearly, given the events of the Nightmare Moon timeline, Trixie’s preparations had been insufficient. Now, in a battle between herself and both Celestia and Luna, Trixie knew how she would match up.

Starlight Glimmer had once expressed surprise that she, a mere unicorn, could go hoof-to-hoof in a duel with an alicorn. Trixie wondered what Starlight would have said if she found out a mere unicorn could not just battle but defeat two alicorns at once.

“Equestria still owes you so much. Yours is a debt that we could never pay off,” Luna said.

Trixie felt a chill run down her spine. “I cannot believe you would say that after I just said I would have killed you or died trying.”

Luna lowered her gaze, looking at the white snow under their hooves. She made a pawing motion at the ground, before looking back up. “I remember much of my time as Nightmare Moon when attempting to take over Equestria, though thankfully preciously little of when I was sealed away. I would choose death than my alter-ego ruling.”

There was an awkward lull in the conversation, as the world turned quiet under the gentle snowfall. Their dream conversation had gone from depressing to melancholic reminiscing and back to a morbid depressing again.

“Oh. I am curious about one other thing, though,” Luna started, breaking the silence.

“What is it?”

“Why did you never seek to become an alicorn?” Luna asked, looking over at Trixie. “With your magic and knowledge, I am certain you could have achieved it within a few years, if not months. I mean, you wouldn't have attempted it when you were trying to stay incognito, but before that.”

“That’s—” Trixie cut herself off, before she nervously pawed at the ground with a hoof, mimicking Luna’s earlier nervous tic. “In a way, I think it always comes back around to her.”

“Princess Platinum?” Luna asked gently, knowing precisely who Trixie was speaking of.

Trixie nodded. “Yes. I, I looked up to her. I still do. Maybe time has warped my memory of her so she seems like an ideal I could never reach. No, not maybe. I know I’ve forgotten all her bad moments, all but for a precious few. It’s not healthy, but Platinum’s dreams are one of the things I still carry a torch for. Every time I think about the princess, I always think of how Platinum was born a unicorn, and she died a unicorn. I want to do the same.”

She sighed. Luna gave the other blue-furred mare space to breath and some thinking time, and Trixie used it to mull for a few seconds. Then she added, “If the worst-case scenario had occurred and I had to rule Equestria, then I would have gone for it. I would never desire it, but I know an alicorn princess has more legitimacy in the eyes of Equestrians than a unicorn princess ever will again. Reassuring the ponies of Equestria has more bearing than my own ego.”

“Princess Clover,” Luna mused, trying the words out. “I would never have expected to hear such a title in my lifetime.”

“You won’t. Not in your lifetime, anyways.”

Luna was silent for a minute, looking apprehensive. Trixie knew the alicorn wanted to say something, but seemed reluctant to. It wasn’t surprising. Trixie had just spoken such blatant words, after all. So she spoke first. “What is the issue?”

The other mare started, taken aback by Trixie’s prodding. Luna fidgeted a little, looking off to the side at Unicornia's remains, before looking back. “Even we immortals can grow tired of life. It is clear you seem to have been beaten down by your long life yourself, after all. What if me and my sister both decide to pass on to the endless rolling fields of the great pasture beyond before you do?”

It was a question so pointed and piercing that Trixie instantly felt her throat clench. Her eyes softened as she considered it.

“I can only hope you never do,” Trixie said, softly, looking upon the horizon at old Unicornia, the remains of the platinum castle now bathed in moonlight. “All my closest friends chose to leave me than to stay.”

Luna recoiled at those words. The change in the princess’ demeanor was instant. Luna’s ears flopped down, and her muzzle was tightened up into a sad expression. It was a good thing she closed her eyes as well. Trixie couldn’t bear to see the emotions she knew she would have seen in Luna’s eyes. Trixie hated herself for that. She knew what effect her words would have on Luna, and they had hit the younger pony like a sledgehammer.

“I suppose I can empathise,” Luna spoke softly. “I cannot imagine how Celestia felt for the thousand years I was exiled. Even then, she knew that I was to come back, albeit still possessed. Heh,” Luna chuckled bitterly. “If I had been the older sister, would it have been me who everypony looked up to? If that had been the case, would Celestia have gone jealous? Ten minutes in the womb would have made a thousand years of difference.”

Trixie frowned. “I really have been avoiding you too much, haven’t I?” It was a rhetorical question. “What is done is done, Luna. Who is to say if you had been the older twin that you would not have still been the one to turn into the Nightmare? Ponies are diurnal, after all. Unless you think being born ten minutes before Celestia instead of ten minutes after would have changed your talents around so you were the Solar Princess?” Mentally, Trixie chuckled nervously. She had heard from Starlight Glimmer how tiny changes in the way the Sonic Rainboom was disrupted could massively change the villain who fought Equestria in the future. Only after saying those words to Luna had she realised how poor an argument it was.

Luna either didn’t remember Starlight’s accounts or she chose to move past them, allowing Trixie’s argument to stand. “Maybe so. If I still had to be sealed away for a thousand years, I would have liked to be stuck in stasis with the Crystal Empire and Sombra, instead of going mad with envy and being forcibly banished. I still feel guilty to have left my twin sister by herself for a thousand years, but that was by circumstance. You, Clover, you still choose to stay away. You really do need to come around more often. Celestia and I would both welcome you as many times as you wish to meet again.”

“I have been getting better,” Trixie spoke softly. She noticed she no longer even flinched anymore at being called Clover. That was a good sign. “I apologise, Luna. I met both Celestia and Discord recently. I am getting there. I know I am. If Discord can change, then so can I, again. I said I discard my identities every several decades, didn’t I? I told Discord I would go under my true name when I leave the Great and Powerful Trixie behind, and call myself Clover once more.”

Luna lifted her eyebrows. “Truly?”

Trixie nodded. “Yes. Time itself got the better of me after I conquered it, but I know I am winning our latest battle. I won the first war, after all. This time I intend it to be our last.” She paused, not wanting to get ahead of herself. “Trixie has a few things left undone that she must do before I can finally put her to rest. As my homage to Spectral Trick, and as the identity that I held during this last calamitous century, I owe it to send her off into the night with a glorious bang instead of a whimper!” Goodness, even as she tried not to, Trixie was still working herself up.

Luna looked up at the sky, where Trixie’s enthusiasm had just caused an impromptu fireworks display to light off in her dream, sending a thousand dazzling sparks spraying in all directions, with the crackling, sizzling noise of lit fireworks following a split-second thereafter. She looked back down at Trixie. “This Spectral Trick really did rub off on you, it seems.”

“He did, and in a good way,” Trixie agreed. “When we meet again, I would be more than happy to tell you more about him, and my other two apprentices. Spectral Trick really did pull a fast one on me just now. Thanks to talking about him, I think I finally have the best way to send him and Trixie off once more!”

Author's Note

Half this chapter was written in the first month after Chapter 2 was published. The other half took 3 years to write. I feel like I'm attacking my struggle with getting past my laziness and writer's block with some of Trixie's dialogue here :trixieshiftright:

Luna being Celestia's twin sister is an idea I have entertained for a while. While I'm certain lots of people headcanon her as being at least several years younger, there's not an ounce of canon that says this has to be true, with it being perfectly valid they were twins. Real-life equines don't have twins often, but since we have the canon cases of Pound and Pumpkin Case, Flim and Flam, and Pinkie and Marble Pie, it doesn't seem that rare in Equestria (Flitter and Cloudchaser haven't ever been stated to be sisters in canon material, let alone twins). There's the height disparities, but since Nightmare Moon was taller than Luna, it's potentially still a power difference. There's no real relevance to it in the fic though, just an aside Luna mentions.

It's been a long time since I published to this story. However, story details still percolate in my head even as I go on hiatus. Originally this was going to be one more chapter, but now it's going to be two, with a sequel to boot going off the author note from the previous chapter. Some lines in this chapter will set up background for that sequel. There'll be one more character for Trixie to encounter. Who it is should be semi-obvious. Much like twins!Celestia/Luna and cloven hooves Trixie, I've got one more interesting twist to spice it up, too.

When I read through some of the scenes in this chapter and previous chapters, I realise that the way the characters speak to each other sometimes has subtext that the characters in-story realise and so don't need exposition on, but aren't quite as obvious to the reader (but they are more obvious to me since I'm the guy writing the lines). For instance, in this chapter, when Trixie tells Luna she'll never hear the title of 'Princess Clover' in Luna's lifetime, she means that Luna would have to be dead before there would be such a thing as Princess Clover. Feel free to ask if there are lines that don't quite make sense to you.