A Great and Powerful Entrance (Revised 2/5)

Twilight walked through the halls with hunched shoulders, a determined expression on her face even as she tried to avoid garnering attention.

Every student here specialized in some kind of magic, and so they grouped together accordingly. Illusionists, enchanters, constructionists, they all had one part of the school where they mingled and talked about their specialties together.

Twilight’s specialty was magic itself, and she was one of only three foals in the school that shared that talent. This meant there wasn’t really a solid group for her to belong to, one hadn’t been interested, and the other was already graduating and apparently didn’t have time to spend on entertaining a foal.

Sunset had the same problem when she went to school, the only solution was to find an in to one of the groups, or make your own. She had tried most sections with no luck, the few stragglers that would talk to her felt their groups would warm up to them eventually. This led to stilted conversations she eventually realized wouldn’t go anywhere.

Today was the illusionists section, which she’d been to a couple times already. It was an interesting discipline she had studied up on just in case. She’d done so for each section even if it hadn’t helped. She at least had a wider breadth and depth to her knowledge than when she had started, and that was worth it to her.

She walked through a large set of double doors into an artificial forest contained within a magically enlarged room. It was devoted to the study of plant life and all manner of growth magic most of the time. There were a large number of useful but not particularly uncommon plants planted in a configuration much like they would be found naturally.

A loud voice cut through the grounds as she passed the threshold. It took her a moment to find the source considering the room was large enough to hold a festival and have room left over.

Set up on an improvised stage was a little blue filly wearing a hat and cape. A large number of stars and dots, colored in yellow and blue, littered the purple fabric. The stage was a simple construction with a few basic runes etched into the wooden surface.

“Come on, come all, to hear of the amazing feats performed by the great and powerful Trixie!” A few weak explosions went off above her head as she reared up onto her hind legs.

She gave off an almost maniacal laugh before launching into a story illustrated by the illusions set above her stage. The tale focused on Trixie’s adventure into a dark and spooky forest on a quest to defeat the dreaded spider king.

While Twilight was riveted by the pretty light show, she couldn't help but notice that most of the students were ignoring Trixie. Some not even pausing as they chatted among themselves. It was a bit disheartening, but she supposed they all specialized in illusions here. Maybe they just weren't that impressed? Twilight couldn't help but frown anyway.

Twilight trotted up to the stage as the story wound to a close, stomping her hooves in applause. The little filly, who had been frowning a moment before, looked to her with a radiant smile.

“It seems Trixie has gained a new fan. Were you impressed by my dazzling displays of grandeur?” She asked theatrically, voice cracking only slightly in excitement. A few explosions of much smaller size went off over her head.

“That was amazing!” said Twilight in awe. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, the way you incorporated Starry Night’s Dynamic Sky Reflection into that All Purpose Illusory canvas in real time was incredible. I’ve heard it takes a lot of practice to do something like that without the entire spell just breaking down.”

Trixie blushed a little with a happy smile. "Well, Trixie is of course dedicated to her craft. Only the best spells will do, and Trixie might have used a few runes to lessen the strain."

"You can already tie runes into your spellwork?" Twilight asked incredulously, mouth hanging open.

Trixie smiled smugly as she puffed out her chest.

"Greetings Twilight Sparkle, the great and powerful Trixie has decided to grace you with her presence once again." said Trixie, as she set her tray down next to Twilight’s.

After the performance, Twilight and Trixie fell into a surprisingly in depth conversation on the mechanics of runes as they related to active spell craft. Trixie was quite knowledgeable on the subject thanks to her family's business. She was also more than willing to humor a fan.

That seems to have led to Trixie inviting herself to eat with Twilight during her lunch breaks. Considering her lack of friends, she really wasn’t complaining. They spent most of that time talking about illusion theory and Twilight had had to study ahead quite a bit to keep up.

She hadn’t had much luck making friends since Trixie. She was starting to wonder if she'd been cursed, or maybe ponies like her just weren't meant to make friends...

She shook her head violently, startling Trixie in the middle of one of her monologues. She couldn't start thinking about things like that, she'd been down that path before and there was nothing for her there.

She decided she would look somewhere else, there were plenty of foals who didn’t go this school after all. Even aside from how tribalist that would be, not everypony could afford the tuition here, wealthiest city in Equestria or not.

The question was where she should go. She had been to a few of the parks downtown, but never on her own. She supposed she could ask a guard to take her. Maybe tomorrow?

She turned her attention back to Trixie, who was looking at her with a worried expression.

She bit back a sigh and tried to reassure her as best she could. Trixie’s concerned glances throughout the lunch period told her she probably hadn’t succeeded though.

Twilight trot through the street with a skip to her step.. It was the weekend and she finally had a chance to explore. Trixie was too busy to come with her, but Twilight understood how hard she worked on her stage magic. She would just have to tell Trixie all about her trip next time they saw each other.

She kept her eyes out for potential friends, but was disappointed by the largely indifferent adults filling the streets. It was getting colder too, enough that she almost wished she’d brought her jacket with her.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see the gleaming armor of Stalwart Shield. The guard pony was keeping his distance as he watched for danger. He would normally be pretty conspicuous, but Canterlot had been swarming with extra guard patrols lately.

The Princess said it was just an extra precaution for the holiday season, but there were whispers of a threat to Canterlot that refused to be stamped out.

All of that fled from Twilight’s mind as she arrived at the park. She could see a large crowd of foals forming at one end, a decidedly dark atmosphere in the air.

Moving closer, she could just make out the forms of a couple fillies standing defiantly in front of a swingset. An earth pony foal with a grey coat, and a unicorn with a white coat. The unicorn stood out especially with an electric blue mane and oversized purple sunglasses. As she got closer she could make out their tense expressions and a slight trembling in their limbs.

Standing in front of them and trying their best to look menacing were a trio of colts. The one that seemed to be in charge was an earth pony with a sun yellow coat and a baseball cutie mark. He seemed to be soaking in the crowd's attention, his flunkies shuffling nervously behind him.

Out of the corner of her eye Twilight could see her guard escort twitching in agitation. He took a step forward before ultimately stepping back with a worried expression directed at Twilight. Twilight nodded back with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Striding ahead with confidence she didn’t really feel, she struggled not to bow under the weighted gaze of the crowd as they turned towards her. She could make out a few murmurs among the crowd, wondering about the new foal and what she was doing here.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Twilight called out, doing her best to imitate Celestia. She hoped the trembling in her legs was attributed to anger rather than fear.

“What’s it to you?” Asked the leader sharply, barely turning his head to acknowledge her.

“Twilight Sparkle,” she firmly replied. “Someone who doesn’t tolerate bullies.”

Drawing on a few tips from Trixie, she surreptitiously took a deep breath and shifted to a more confident stance. She then forced down the trembling in her legs, staring forward with an unwavering gaze. The leader only looked unnerved for a moment before a sneer came across his face.

“That dumb freak and her stuck up friend are in our spot.” said the colt dismissively. “It’s not our fault they don’t know when to get gone.”

The grey filly standing slightly behind her friend spoke up. “I’d hardly call myself stuck up, and Vinyl is not some dumb freak, you brute.”

She took an aggressive step forward, murder in her eyes. “We were here first, and we have just as much right as anypony to be here.”

Her words were soft and eloquent, her expression stoic. But the anger in her eyes could not be denied.

The colts face screwed up in rage. “What did you just call me?” he asked, completely ignoring the rest of what she’d said.

Vinyl slid in front of her friend, using her body as a shield. Twilight quickly made her way through the parting crowd to their side. Her horn lit up with a bright aura as she took a defensive stance in front of them.

She might not know much about combat, but they didn’t know that.

As her magic corona increased in size, the nearby guard shuffled nervously.

Before anypony could make a move though, the colts lackeys turned tail and fled. The leader looked at them for a moment before turning to face the trio of fillies. “This isn’t over,” he said with narrowed eyes.

The leader turned away from them and ran after his followers with an angry yell. The crowd around them started to part now that the action was over and done with, leaving the three fillies alone in front of the swingset.

The grey filly turned to her with a warm smile. “Thank you for the assistance darling. You may call me Octavia.” She reached out a hoof which Twilight gently shook.

She turned and nodded towards her friend. “This is Vinyl, she can’t talk, but she is perfectly capable of communicating in her own way.”

Octavia looked to Twilight with a steady gaze. “I trust that won’t be a problem?”

Twilight quickly shook her head. “Not at all.” She turned towards Vinyl with smile, reaching out for a hoof shake and getting a hoof bump in return.

Vinyl tapped out a quick rhythm on the ground.

“She expresses her thanks. We’ve been having a lot of trouble with that trio lately. We were starting to think we would have to find a different place to hang out.” Octavia shook her head in exasperation. “Mayhaps it would be best if we did so anyway…”

“Well, I would like to think that’s the solution at any rate.” Octavia’s expression fell. “Truth be told, it seems to happen wherever we go. A few foals decide they don’t like my way of speaking, or Vinyl’s lack of speech, and…”

Vinyl pressed against Octavia’s side comfortingly. “Suffice to say, we haven’t had much luck with making friends in these places.” She smiled at Vinyl wanly.

“It’s alright, I know how you feel.” Twilight chuckled bitterly. “Other than my friend Trixie, it seems I can’t find a single pony at school that will give me the time of day.”

Octavia looked at Twilight with a calculating expression for a moment, before shifting to Vinyl and tilting her head slightly. Vinyl nodded with a confident smile.

“Well darling, it seems your in luck then.” said Octavia happily. “I believe you have made two friends in us today. Isn’t that right Vinyl?” She got an enthusiastic nod in reply, Vinyl smiling at Twilight warmly.

“You really mean it?” Twilight asked hopefully.

“Of course, darling,” said Octavia warmly. “Now, it looks like we have the swings to ourselves for today. Would you like to hang out with us for awhile?” She gestured behind her to the unoccupied swing set.

Author's Note