“I’m sorry, you want what??” Twilight asked in surprised.

“A spell to make me anthropomorphic.”

“Anthropo-what?” Spike asked, taking the time to stop admiring his moustache.

“Anthropomorphic, it means to adopt a bipedal state, similar to that of a minotaur,” The bookworm shook herself out of lecture mode. “Fluttershy, why would you want such an extensive procedure? It’s very dangerous and it could result in a lot of motor problems in the first few days as you adjust!”

I looked down embarrassingly and admitted to her. “I… I’ve developed a bit of a liking to… hands…”

The two just looked at me deadpan, before Spike began to raise an eyebrow. “You’re an infant reptile that wants to keep facial hair, I don’t think you’re in any state to judge my desires.” the eyebrow slowly lowers.

“Okay, I get it but… shouldn’t you go to a hospital for this? I’m sure there’s plenty of doctors who-”

“Pleeeaaase! You’re the best spellcaster I know! And you already have a spell that alters shape anyway!”

“Wait how do you know I have that spell?!”

Now it was my turn to shoot her the dreaded deceased cooking utensil. “You live in a public. Library. I know you have that spell because I’ve read it in one of the books here!”

“Oh, right… sorry.” She scratched her head in embarrassment. “I still don’t think this is a good idea.”

“I won’t guilt trip you into doing something for me, Twilight, you’re my friend.”

“Thank you.” she said with a proud smile.

“Which is why I’m going to bribe you instead.” I drop a book on the nearby table I acquired just for this purpose right before I had come here.

“What… what is that?”

“Oh, nothing much.” I give her a sly grin. “Just Celestia and Luna’s diary.”

She gasped. “Wait… their actual Diary?! Like from over a thousand years ago, lost in the ruins of the Castle of the two sisters Diary?!”

“Mhm! And it’s not even locked with any spells, you give me what I want, and I let you keep it.”

“Deal!” we shake hooves on it. “Just let me go grab the ingredients.”

“Ingredients?”

“This is a highly advanced spell, Fluttershy, not only am I going to need physical focai to help guide the Spell Matrix, I’m going to need a surplus of matter if we want your proportions to not be messed up, I can’t just fabricate something from magic alone, sure I can transmute matter into something else, but there actually has to be something there first.”

“Oh… I never knew that… wait, what if you wanted to be something smaller?”

“Oh, the excess mass gets stored in hammerspace, transformations to smaller forms are always temporary as the mass needs to return to its owner after a while.”

“Uh huh… what about the moustache?” I gestured to Spike.

“Growing spells just accelerate what a body can naturally do, just instead of scales, I made it do hair, speaking of…” She cast the reversal spell on the baby dragon causing him to let out a sigh of disappointment. “That was me having his body recycle the matter it expended. Sure if I had a large enough amount of magic I could simply turn the mystical energy into matter, but so far that seems impossible without a strong enough artifact or you happened to be a genuine avatar of the magic you’re using.”

“Wow Twilight, you seem to really know a lot about magic and its applications.”

“Oh, it’s not much really, any unicorn should know the basics like that.” She blushed. “But I’ve never heard of any Pegasi being interested in anything more than weather magic.”

“Well… when you’ve been as nervous about… social interactions as I was, you tend to read in order to pass the time, even if I have my animal friends, I do enjoy some alone time.”

To be honest the actual reason for all this knowledge is my own nerd self and a theory I want to test when this request is finished.

“Hm… hey, since this is to help you, why don’t you follow me and I can teach you more about spellcraft?”

“Really? That’d be wonderful!”

“Ugh, more lectures? Yeah I’ll pass, you go do that and I’ll go see if there’s any salmon left in the fridge.” Our resident baby dragon commented as he left, conveniently making future events that much easier on me.

“Really? 25 different magic tricks?” I said, impressed. “Wow, I’ve only known Rarity to only be able to do 1 or 2 tricks with her magic.”

“Well, Unicorns normally get a specific amount of magic that’s enough to work effectively in their talent, they never need more so they don’t get more.” She took a second to glance at her cutie mark. “But my Talent is magic, so as long as my body is able to handle it, I essentially don’t have a limit to how much magic I’ll get.”

“Cool! Is that the same for Pegasi and Earth Ponies too?”

“Well, your magic is completely different to Unicorn Magic, all of it is based on amplifying your physical traits, so essentially the more well-fit your body is, the more magic your body will have.”

“Wow… that sounds so exciting!”

“But it’s not like you could do anything with it that you couldn’t normally do.”

That’s what you thi-OH SHIT!

“Twilight look out!” I tackled her to the ground, just in time to avoid Snips and Snails…

That meant I was now on top of her.

Directly resting on top of her.

…

“Fluttershy? You can get off me n-”

“Give me a minute.” I say as I internally savoured the rather intimate contact with her I wouldn’t be able to have for a while.

The blush that grew on her face was a good signal to finally get off with a stuttered. “S-sorry.” and a silent nod between each other to never speak of it again as we turned to the two battering rams in training.

“Snips? Snails? What’s the hurry?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Snips said. “There’s a new unicorn in town!”

“Yeah!” Snails added. “She looks to be the best magic user in Ponyville.”

“No wait, in all of Equestria!”

“Really now?” I said, faking intrigue.

“Yeah! She’s in the town square right now! We’re heading there right now to watch!”

“Well, this’ll surely be interesting, come on Twilight, let’s go meet the new mare.”

“But what about-”

“Don’t worry, those ingredients aren’t gonna go anywhere, and besides, you might meet a new friend to discuss magical theory with.”

“Oh… that actually sounds rather nice! It’ll be like me and Moon… dancer… uuuuuuUUUUUAAA-SORRYI’LLBERIGHTBACK!” and she sped off, yelling for Spike.

“Wow… I… I actually didn’t expect that, welp, no harm no foul, it wasn’t like she was gonna get a friendship lesson out of this episode once I was done with it.”

“What are you talking about?” I blink and turn to Snips, not realizing they were still there.

“Nothing… come on or we’ll be late for the show!” I say, going at a brisk trot.

“...come and witness the amazing magic, of the Grrreat and Powerful Trixie! Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic witnessed by pony eyes!” *fireworks*

I had to admit, watching the lightshow through pony eyes was much more engaging than with a human perception… maybe it had something to do with bigger eyeballs in general.

I did not have the time to ponder the science behind the ridiculously cartoonish eyes of pony physiology, for I needed to worry about my friends and make sure they didn’t do something stupid like…

Hmm, lemme think about it, how about attacking a performer for doing her bucking job!!

“My my my, what boasting.” Rarity commented with an eye roll, which got her to see my current, unamused expression. “...what?”

“This is her own personal travelling magic show, with expensive looking fireworks, an even more expensive looking carriage that can turn into a stage, with Ponyville clearly not being her first stop.”

“Well I don’t see why she has to be so flamboyant about-”

“Rarity… are you honestly criticizing somepony… for showing off? You gonna get your reality check or do I have to remind everypony about that time during the dragon migration when your disguise of a female dragon-”

“OKAY! OKAY! That’s… quite enough…” she noticed the crowd staring at her now tomato colored head, to which she grew even more embarrassed and fled.

I’ll… I’ll need to apologize to her later.

“Gosh darnit Fluttershy.” I turned to Applejack. “Why’d you have to go and bring that up.”

“I admit I went too far, but I’d be remiss if I just let her or any of you verbally attack a performer for doing what she needs to.”

“Why would she need to brag about how ‘great’ she is?” Rainbow asked as she flew over to us. “The Wonderbolts don’t need to brag about how awesome they are.”

“Exactly, the Wonderbolts, a group of stunt fliers and a Celestia endorsed branch of the Equestrian military, they’re the most well known team of Pegasi in the world… but Trixie here is a travelling performer, she doesn’t have the benefit of advertising, or government funding, or dedicated fans showing up to her every stop, the only way she’s gonna be able to put on big enough shows and get any payment is to show off and entice ponies with dazzling tricks, she needs to make them think she’s better at magic than them so they’ll actually be impressed.” I then gave a solemn look. “But that might not be the only reason.”

“Huh?” the two once irate ponies looked at me.

I led them away from the stage, but still in view before whispering. “She might not be trying to convince them… she might be trying to convince herself.”

“What?” Applejack said in disbelief.

“I may be wrong, but from what I saw, what she has is a shell, something to keep her true self protected from the rest of the world, she doesn’t look like she’s from Canterlot, and most Earth Pony towns aren’t as nice as Ponyville, she’s probably been alienated, or abused.” This got a gasp from the two. “And when her Cutie Mark came in, being a talent around magic, that might’ve made it worse, as every time she’d try to express her talent it’d be seen as showing off and she’d be tormented further. That’s why she has a life on the road, why she never stays in one spot, and why she acts so confident and boisterous… because if she didn’t she’d probably break down into tears right there on the stage.”

“That… that’s horrible! Why would anypony do that?!” Rainbow asked in shock… oooh boy they were not gonna like the answer.

“Maybe they thought ‘there’s nothing wrong with being talented, ‘cepting when someone starts showing it off like a school filly with fancy new ribbons’, or maybe they got annoyed that the pony being a show off was drawing attention from them, like their fancy new flight techniques.”

I could very well see the look of horror the two had.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush, you were clearly going down a path those other ponies had, it might’ve been heckling at first, a little contempt, but then you’d start to hate her, blame her for things that weren’t her fault, call her a villain, when that’s the last thing she needs.”

They looked like kicked puppies, that very much made it hard not to try and feel bad.

“Gosh I… I’m so-”

“Don’t apologize Applejack, neither of you should, I stopped you before you made that mistake…”

“So… what do we do? Hiding behind something like that can’t be good for her.”

“No it isn’t, and with Snips and Snails idolizing her, it’ll just give her artificial ego an unhealthy boost.” I get an idea. “Meet me here at her carriage after the show, I’ve got an idea.”

{idea}

To clarify, the reason I needed them to wait was two-fold, we needed to have no distractions when my plan went into motion… and I needed to explain to Rarity why I brought up that embarrassing story (I won’t spill… unless everyone asks nicely) and I also needed to apologize.

Now onto current events, I’m going make the first move, and that moment came as I headed over to Trixie leaving her stage.

“Ugh, what do you want? The Great and Powerful Trixie does not have time for Autographs.”

“How about a hug?” I say immediately.

“What?”

And with that, I pulled her into an embrace of affection and understanding.

“H-hey! Unhoof the Great and Powerful Trixie this instant!” there was struggling, and screams of outrage, then slowly exhaustion… “Why… why are you doing this?”

“Shh, it’s okay, you don’t need to hide anymore.”

“Hide? W-what does the Great and Powerful Trixie needs to hide from??”

“It’s not the Great and Powerful Trixie who is hiding, but rather it’s the pony who hides behind her.”

“What are you talking about??” she started to enact a second wind to try and escape. “Stop! Let… let go of me!”

I did not, I saw the progress, I needed to keep holding her for a little longer.

“I… I mean it! I mean… the G-Great and P-Power...ful…” despite her efforts, she fell apart, crying and holding me as she couldn’t handle the warm, unconditional embrace.

There we go… I let her continue to cry as her facade broke apart, the Great and Powerful Trixie making way for just Trixie Lulamoon.

That was when phase 2 came in, AJ and Dash came over, representing the Pegasi and Earth Ponies of her past.

“Hey, Trixie, right?” Rainbow began. “That show was… really nice.”

I smiled, and let Trixie go this time when she tried to get out of the hug. “Oh… thank you.” the whole emotional tide had washed away the pompous attitude, and what was left was…

Ironically? What I was supposed to be, shy and adorable.

“Yeah, but we wanna ask if you could… change it a little.” Applejack said carefully.

“Oh?” she looked up from under her hat and-HNNG!! Too cute!!

“Yeah, if it’s not too much trouble, could we see more o’ Trixie, not the Great and Powerful mask? This you seems much nicer.”

“Yeah, friends shouldn’t need to hide who they are.”

“F-friends? Really?”

“I mean, if you don’t mind, that is… I think you’ve been too long without.” I said.

At that, Trixie Lulamoon gave a smile and stood up a little straighter. “O-okay! I’d like that!”

“Great! I’ve already got a spot to park your carriage at the farm.”

“And I’ve gotten you some extra shows around town.”

I blinked and looked at the two of them.

Wow girls, way to show initiative, though by the looks of it, I still have the higher charisma in this party… fuck! Now I wanna play some Ogres & Oubliettes.

I shook my head clear of nerd urges and decided to make use of their hospitality. “The road is a lonely place, would you please consider staying here? Make more friends? Maybe have something you didn’t before.”

I looked to Trixie, who was now teary-eyed, before tackle-hugging me to the ground. “Thank you!!”

And that was how Trixie Lulamoon became a new resident of Ponyville! And became heart-attack inducing levels of cute overnight.

{Bonus For Joke Lovers}

“Alright, you arrive at the city gates.” Spike began. “The guards stop you and-”

“I act to seduce the guards!” I immediately say.

“Fluttershy, I get you’re a Bard, but there’s two things I have a problem with involving this.”

“Hm?”

“1: you can’t just seduce everything for no reason! And the last time you did that you went and described everything after, so Twilight had to give me ‘the talk’.”

“I’m not seeing a problem here.” I giggled at Spike’s deadpan expression.

He sighed before moving on. “And 2: I don’t care that the 6th Edition lets you act out conversations instead of rolling for realism, but for Celestia’s sake Big Mac has tipped the table three times already after you’ve used that ‘sexy voice’ of yours, could you please just roll?!” he said exasperatedly, making the crimson stallion become more crimson.

“Aww… it’s not my fault he lives up to his namesake.”

Author's Note

behold! more chapter! I got serious for a moment! our daring protagonist plans for a change in figure! and I may or may not have angered several fanboys with my alterations to the plot! lemme know your feed back and...

please don't hate me...