Friends on The other side

Starlight sat in her office at the school, helping students to find costumes for the party at the castle. As Starlight worked on some ideas for her and Trixie’s costumes, she felt cold wind tapping on her back and sending shivers down her spine. Probably the window, Starlight thought and she walked to close the window, but when she arrived at the window, it was already closed. Starlight shrugged and she returned to her chair, only to find a small green unicorn, covered in scales sitting on the chair that served the students and he read her ideas.

“Royal guards... Celestia and Luna… Applejack and Rainbow Dash?” The reptile pony laughed as he threw the pages from his clawed hands, “Is that the best ideas you came up with?”

“Mephist?” Starlight asked in fear, as she shook her head, “No, you are not real, you just some monster I created in my mind.”

“Not real?” Mephist asked with a sinister smile, “If that is so, who taught you the dark art? Who helped you to walk through time?”

“I learned it from the pages of Starswir-” Starlight’s mouth was held by an invisible hand as two shadows took her shadow her shadow and place it on the chair, forcing Starlight to do the same.

“Trust me, you are not that smart to understand the big-headed wizard,” Dr. Mephist said in anger, “It was me who taught you that, we made a deal, and you broke it!” Mephist calmed down and he took off his black hat and taking out an old scroll and he used his green magic to give Starlight the scroll, “As you can see, you signed for a deed for your soul for the knowledge to time travel.” Starlight read the scroll and she smiled. “What so funny?” Mephist asked and he released her mouth.

“It seems you forgot something,” Starlight smirked and read in loud the scroll, “ ‘Starlight Glimmer will hand over her soul, when she will succeed to defeat Twilight Sparkle’, I never defeated Twilight and so, I have the right to keep my soul.”

“What?!!” Mephist took the scroll and read it, but to Starlight’s surprise, the reptile laughed, “Well done, well done. It seems you tricked me, but do not worry, I will wait, soon enough you will suffer more than you know, your friends will pay for the trick and when you walk alone, betrayed by all, I will be there, ready for the deal.” Mephist disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, and Starlight was left alone.

While Starlight was trying to comprehend what happened, Fuze was busy wandering through town, trying to find out where those weird ponies went off to. “Great! Some guy tries to tell me that I’m special and then runs off. If that was some sort of criminal, then I’m dead meat.”

As he was running through town he ended up finding himself over by Trixie’s cart. He noticed that she didn’t have any fireworks set up. He wandered around her cart until he heard a noise coming from a locked box. “Uh, Starlight? Is that you? Can you help me out?”

Fuze rolled his eyes as he heard the second rate magician trying to escape. “Trixie? Did you seriously get stuck in your own prop?”

He noticed her voice get a little panicky. “Wha... Who dares disturb the great and powerful Trixie?”

“My name is Short Fuze. I’m the local pyrotechnics expert. Can you tell me what you are doing in there?”

“I’m… just getting ready to do one of my great tricks. Watch as I magically escape this locked box!” Fuze watched as the box started rocking around for a minute. After a few minutes of struggling Fuze managed to hear Trixie mumbled to herself. “Stupid box and dumb teleportation spell.”

Fuze sighed as he walked up and used his wing to reach inside of a crack in the back. He found a latch and unlocked it, allowing the back part of the box to open up. “You do know that these boxes come with a secret exit, right?”

Trixie looked shocked at the sight of the Pegasus. She quickly crawled out and tried to look professional. “Uh... Trixie knew that. So… you think you can outdo a magician in magic?”

Fuze rolled his eyes as he grabbed a deck of cards and started shuffling them. “I used to do some magic tricks when I was a kid. You don’t need actual magic to do these tricks if you have the knowledge and skill to use them. Now pick a card.”

Trixie rolled her eyes as she drew one and gave it a small glance before placing it back into the deck. “Seriously? As much as this amuses Trixie, why would a pegasus want to learn magic tricks?”

Fuze grinned a bit as he thought back and shuffled the deck again. “Because I thought it was cool. For a magical pony to be able to escape a box is nothing, but for one without magic to do it… it adds a layer of mystery. I always loved magic tricks. It’s dazzling and breathtaking… kinda like fireworks. I always like it when I can put on a good fireworks show. it makes me feel… like I can still be amazing.” Fuze then drew a card from the deck. “Is this your card?”

She was a little taken back by Fuze’s mindset. It actually reminded her of when she was a child and even when she tried to go professional. As Trixie snapped back to reality she noticed that Fuze was holding up the wrong card. She tried to playfully scoff at his mistake. “No. You still have a lot to learn before you can match Trixie’s skills.”

Fuze smiled as he handed her the cards back. “Very well, but if you want to learn how to dazzle people without the horn, feel free to ask me. By the way, there’s something on your hat.”

“What? It’s my only hat! I can’t have it looking…” Trixie stopped as soon as she saw a single card on her hat, the same one that she drew. The queen of hearts. She blushed a bit as she was trying to figure out how he did it. “Well… I guess that Pegasus isn’t too bad after all.”

Before she could try to look for him, she realized that it was time for her to practice her fireworks display. As she opened her chest to unleash the turret of lights and explosions she started thinking about Fuze. He had a form of precision that she wouldn’t expect from a pegasus. She sighed a bit as she kept thinking about him. “Maybe Trixie shall take him up on that offer.”

As Fuze continued his walk to the sugar cube, he heard a familiar voice, “Well done Romeo,” he turned to see Dr. Mephist sitting in a dark corner, smiling as he was playing with a pack of cards.

“What are you talking about?” Fuze asked in confusion.

“I am talking about you and...” Mephist took a card with a picture of Trixie with hearts on the sizes. “...the magician, you will be a beautiful couple. And it seems that you gave her one heck of an impression.”

Fuze was still confused but then started to catch his drift. “I… maybe in the future. I’d still want to learn more about her and who she is.”

“Kid trust me, the future is now, and if you want to become somepony like your brother, you must trust me, and your heart.”

“Maybe… but I don’t want to be like my divorced grandfather. I would like to make sure that she is… My special somepony.” Fuze explained. “My dad always said that love never grew overnight.”

“Very well,” Mephist took from his hat a small potion, it was a pink potion with a heart symbol, “This love will give her this in the party and her heart will be yours.”

Fuze looked worried at the potion. “W-Wait! You want me to just… make her my special somepony… without even knowing who she is?”

“Kiddo, it’s a love potion, not mind control, she will be aware who she is, she won’t be a zombie, but her heart will see you like the pony you are really beautiful and hero.”

Fuze was starting to get worried. “And now my brother’s lectures about the difference between love and infatuation is going through my head.”

“Okay then, you wanted to see if she is your special somepony?” Mephist asked as two shadows appeared behind him, one that belonged to a young pegasus and one that belonged to a beautiful mare, “Look at the shadows Fuze, they are your future. Trust your future, she is the one, this potion isn’t controlling love, it’s merely freeing love and as I saw in her eyes, she is in love with you.”

Fuze looked at the shadows for a minute. He truthfully didn’t know much about Trixie, besides the fact that the first two times she showed up in Ponyville there was almost as much chaos as one of Discord’s weekends. He didn’t think much about her… but… maybe there was something more than what he saw.

He wasn’t ready to just use the potion… but maybe he could just talk to her some more. Just a couple of days was all he’d need to tell if he truly loved her back. He decided to hold on to the potion, but maybe he wouldn’t need it. “I’ll hold on to this, but give me a couple of days to learn the basics about her.”

“Very well, you will have your days, but remember if you need me, I will be next to you like a shadow.”

“That still begs a few questions. Why are you here? I doubt you’d just be here to do some match-making. Why do you need me?” Fuze asked, more curious than ever.

“Sharp as a knife,” Mephist smiled, “You see, I am here because,” Mephist looked from left to right, making sure no pony is listening, “An old enemy of mine is here, and her name is Starlight Glimmer. I need you to keep Ponyville safe and the magic unicorn of course.”

Fuze was taken back by this. This was Twilight’s pupil that he was talking about. “Uh, I don’t know where you’re from, but she was reformed to my knowledge. She also saved the nation once, so why are you still after her?”

“Think about that, she enslaved a village and more, and never went to Tartarus, and my sources told me she controlled Cozy glow, think about that, a child can defeat master magic? Sounds fishy to me. This is not redemption, this is hiding in plain sight.”

Fuze wanted to think about a way to point out that he was wrong, but then again… how else could a child with no magic take down the pony who went hoof to hoof with Twilight? As for her saving the kingdom, she could have just been taking out the competition. The more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

Fuze turned to the doctor. “Alright, in spite of the fact that neither Luna nor Discord went to Tartarus either, let’s say that you are right. Who’d believe it? If we just try to charge her with those crimes we’d have no proof. We’d be the enemies.”

“That is why I need you with Trixie, an ear and an eye for me, and of course help the poor unfortunate soul that she trapped with her tricks.” Mephist raised his clawed hoof ready to shake the pegasus’ hoof, “So, are you in, do you want to save Equestria?”

Fuze bit his lip a bit. “I.. I’ll try to find the truth, but I won’t seduce her just for this. I’ll love her for love’s sake.”

“Remember the shadows kid, if you love her, help her. She is the one for you.”

Fuze swallowed nervously. “A-Alright. I’ll just try to ask her a few questions and… I’ll work it from there.”

“Again, she won’t tell you anything, keep Starlight to me, all I need is that you will keep an eye on her, and of course keep your other eye on ‘the great and powerful, whatever her name is’.”

“Her name is Trixie.” As soon as Fuze said that he started to realize the emotions swelling up in him. He had never felt like this about any pony in his life. How was she getting into his head?

“You see,” Mephist draw a heart with his lizard tail, “Special somepony, now go to her lover boy!”

Fuze was about to speak, but Mephist faded away into the shadows. “And I thought it was annoying when Book pulls stuff like that.”

“Um, Fuze?” Fuze jerked around to see Trixie walking up to him. She looked a little flustered as she looked at him. “Um, I found your trick interesting, and I started asking about your fireworks displays. From what it sounds like you know how to put on a show. Um… Please don’t tell anypony, but I was wondering if you could give me some pointers?”

Fuze blushed a bit. Sure, she was a little arrogant, but when she wasn’t boasting about herself, she was pretty nice. He didn’t want to put too much thought into how cute she was, but this was his chance to learn more about her. “Uh… Sure. Let’s go. While we are walking, mind if I ask you a bit about yourself?”

Trixie smiled a bit. “I think I can do that.”

Fuze’s cheeks turned a bright red as he saw her smile. As much as he still had questions about Starlight now, maybe he found something more through this.

He learned about Trixie's rough upbringing and how magic tricks became her escape. She wanted a brighter future, so that’s when she decided to try to make a living off of it. She also talked about how much she had to deal with her big ego in order to make any real friends.

Fuze had to sympathize with her struggles with being noticed and her being ridiculed for her big ego. He explained that he was also accused of having a big head. He told her about his brothers and how it always felt like a challenge to gain any attention.

They both also asked some basic stuff like what they loved and despised. Fuze enjoyed hearing her stories about the places she visited. Trixie also enjoyed hearing about his skills and how much he helped his brothers when they went on a inventing spree.

Light would come up with some crazy ideas and add a spark of creativity. Book would work out some of the science and magic needed to pull this stuff off. Fuze was the one who was the best at building the stuff that they came up with. Together, they were a good team, but even then only half of the stuff they made actually worked. Trixie had to giggle at his story of how they nearly burned down the town when they tried making the world’s biggest fireworks.

Trixie smiled as she said that they both were just a few ponies who fell from the spotlight. She didn’t notice as her wall of pride fell away to reveal her compassion and insecurities.

As they started walking towards her cart, Fuze started to see far past her flaws and into who Trixie really was. Behind that ego and lack of training, there was a playful and kind pony. He couldn’t care if she was the ugliest pony in the world. He had found a diamond in the rough, and he didn’t want to let it go. He wasn’t sure yet, but he might have fallen in love.