"Trixie, will you give us a demonstration of your magic, please?"
The azure-coated unicorn filly took a calming breath. Then she got up from her seat at her table in Ms. Decimal's Light Magic class, and stalked haughtily to the open area at the front of the room, under the watchful eyes of the rest of the students.
Keep it together, Trixie, she told herself. You've totally got this. There's nothing to worry about. Remember: never any doubt!
She felt naked and small without her star-spangled magician's robe and hat, which she wasn't allowed to wear in class. But that just made her all the more determined to show them... to show them all...
... what the Great and Powerful Trixie was capable of...
She swung round to face the class. She lofted her forehooves and called out dramatically:
"Watch in awe, fellow classmates! As the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie demonstrates skill and feats of magic that will leave you breathless!"
Ms. Decimal coughed, and motioned with a forehoof. "Transfiguration, Trixie."
"Uh, yes, ma'am," Trixie acknowledged meekly. Then she flourished a hoof.
With a puff of smoke, a small apple appeared on it.
"A simple little apple," she said airily, tossing it easily from hoof to hoof. Then she smiled. "Or is it?"
With another wave of her hoof, it disappeared in another puff of smoke. Normally at this point, she would have produced it from under her hat. Or pulled it from somepony's ear. But best not to overdo. Never give them time to think about what they've just seen...
Puffing out her cheeks in shock and discomfort, she put a hoof to her mouth, then held it up... with the apple sitting on it again.
The students were beginning to smile, to giggle. Trixie nodded, encouraging it. As long as they're entertained, as long as they're distracted, they're not watching too closely...
Lighting up her horn, she took hold of the apple with her magic, and made it hover in the air before her -- a little unsteadily, but she'd found that actually worked in her favor. Always let the mark think they're about to see a dramatic fail... and then yank the rug out from under them...
Using her forehooves to brush back her light blue mane, she stared fixedly at the apple, hanging before her. She brought her hooves forward and made mystic passes around it.
All eyes in the room were on her.
Suddenly she made a face, covered her mouth with her hooves, and sneezed. And with a brilliant flash of light, the apple was a teacup.
The students laughed and clapped.
"Think you've seen it all?" she asked dramatically. A few more passes, and then she suddenly looked over her shoulder -- and with another flash, the teacup was joined by a little saucer.
"Oh! Trixie almost forgot!" she said, shaking her head. "The spoon!"
She pointed with a hoof into the air, brought the hoof down...
... and with a flash and a clink, a dainty sugar spoon landed in the cup.
Trixie took the cup in her hooves. She made a show of stirring imaginary tea with her magic, and then mimed sipping from it, smirking at the class as she did so.
Suddenly she clapped her hooves together... and with a flash of light, there was the apple again, whole and unharmed.
Which she took a bite out of.
The students laughed and applauded. Trixie bowed ebulliently. "Thank you! Thank you all! The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie..."
"Ahem, yes. Thank you, Trixie," interrupted Ms. Decimal. "Well done. You may take your seat now."
"Yes, ma'am!" Trixie said, once again meek and polite...
...while inwardly melting in relief, holding back the shakes by sheer force of will. She trotted back to her seat and sat herself down, smiling proudly with utter confidence. Not at all like a pony who's just escaped certain doom by the skin of her teeth, she thought morbidly.
Ms. Decimal glanced at her checklist. "Tempest, will you give us a demonstration of your magic, please?"
Across the room, a tall, maroon-coated filly with a plume-like mane got up from her seat and came to the front of the room. She was rolling a bowling-ball before her, with deft kicks of her forehooves. Accompanying her was a smaller lavender filly with a purple mane, who took up a position off to the side, holding an eye-mask on her hoof.
At a nod from the teacher, Tempest ignited her broken horn, which fizzed and sparked angrily.
Starlight Glimmer lit up her own horn, and cast her cyan magic in a conic perfect form on Tempest's broken horn, stabilizing the larger pony's magic. Then she put on the eye-mask and sat quietly, maintaining the spell while making it clear that was all she was doing.
Tempest stared down at the bowling ball at her hooves, readying herself. Then she snapped a crackling electric nimbus of her magic around it, and lofted the heavy ball into the air to hover in front of her, as easily as if it had been a wad of paper.
She eyed the other students, making certain she had everyone's attention.
Then with a toss of her head, she flung the bowling ball high into the air. As it started to come down, she hit it with a burst of energy, transfiguring it into a cinder block. Quickly, she changed spells and cast a beam of energy in the block's path as it fell... which sliced it neatly in half. Then her levitation magic smoothly caught the two halves of the cinder block, just before they struck the floor, and lowered them neatly onto it.
The students cheered. Tempest blushed, smiling uncomfortably at the praise. And Starlight removed her eye-mask and cancelled the spell on Tempest's horn.
"Nicely done, Tempest," Ms. Decimal said. "Starlight, will you demonstrate your magic next, please?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Starlight crossed to the left end of the open area. She sat there, waiting, as Tempest returned to their table and came back carrying a metal basket of red buckballs in her teeth.
Glancing at Starlight to make certain she was prepared, Tempest reached into the basket with her forehooves, pulled out a ball, and tossed it across to Starlight.
Starlight caught it neatly in her magic, slung it around herself a few times, and then launched it back. While she was doing this, Tempest had pulled another ball from the basket and pitched it. Then she swatted the returning ball with a hoof, sending it back toward Starlight as well.
By the same process, a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ball were added. Thereafter Tempest simply kept swatting, punching, and kicking the buckballs as they came her way, keeping them arcing back towards Starlight...
... who was transforming them as they came at her and slung around her in her magic, cycling them through various colors: orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and then red again. Then she began transfiguring them into different sizes as well, from buckballs to hoofballs to medicine balls, and even tennis and ping-pong balls, moving through both colors and shapes with the automatic, machine-like precision of structured spellwork. And Tempest energetically kept returning them -- swat-kick-punch-buck -- in an unending cascade. She was breathing hard, yet evidently enjoying the workout.
The students laughed and cheered excitedly, clapping and stamping their hooves in applause.
At a nod from Starlight, Tempest began slam-dunking buckballs back into the basket as they returned. Finally, all six had been collected again, transfigured back to their original red color and size.
And Starlight relievedly doused her horn. She put a hoof to her head, wincing a bit but smiling proudly.
"Nicely done, Starlight," Ms. Decimal said. "An impressive demonstration!"
The two ponies gathered their props and returned to their table, nodding companionably to each other.
Then Ms. Decimal looked to the other lavender filly seated at their table.
"Twilight, will you give us a demonstration of your magic, please?"
Twilight Sparkle rose and came to the front of the room. She self-consciously consulted a small pack of index cards held in her magic.
"Transfiguration," she stated with calm precision, "is the alteration of the physical form of matter by applying transformations through thaumic field space. So it's basically all about geometry... which implies topology."
With her magic, she held up a wooden cube.
"Topology is the mathematics of shape, that is, the forms objects have irrespective of transformations. One aspect of topology in particular is genus, or loosely speaking the number of holes an object has. More precisely, it's the number of times you can cut through it without chopping it in two pieces. For example, a simple block like this is Genus 0, because it has no holes."
A flicker of magenta light, and the cube became a white plastic sphere.
"A sphere likewise has no holes, so it's also Genus 0. But a doughnut..."
The sphere transfigured into a pink-frosted doughnut with green sprinkles.
"A doughnut has one hole, so it's Genus 1. And so does a teacup."
In a flash, the doughnut became a teacup.
Trixie scowled darkly, her forehooves crossed in annoyance, feeling she was being upstaged here.
"Another aspect of topology," Twilight went on, "is orientability: loosely speaking, whether a surface has a consistent 'inside' and 'outside'. A doughnut has an inside and outside, so it's orientable. However, a Klein bottle..."
The teacup shimmered, and transformed into a bizzare glass shape, somewhat like a bottle, but with a neck that curved round, stuck through its side and reconnected with its surface inside the bottle.
"A Klein bottle's surface is one-sided, since its inside is smoothly connected to its outside. And its surface can be cut twice without separating it into two pieces." Twilight paused briefly to consult her cards. "Thus, it is a non-orientable, Genus 2 surface."
The bottle shimmered, and was replaced by a large soft pretzel. "And a pretzel, since it has three holes and a distinct inside and outside, is an orientable, Genus 3 surface."
She took a bite out of the pretzel, chewing with satisfaction on an object that had formerly been a block of wood.
"It's also yummy," she said, grinning. "Now, in applying transforms between genuses, there is always the possibility of power-sucking singularities as you add or remove the holes. However, this can be neatly avoided by appeal to the uncertainty principle..."
Twilight went on, at length and in detail. Eventually the teacher felt obliged to call a halt to the impromptu lecture, complimenting Twilight on her usual "very thorough and instructive" presentation.
Twilight nodded, blushing, and returned to her seat.
And Trixie silently fumed.
She was jealous of the lavender filly's easy, bookish didacticism. Plus the way she ruled the roost at the table she shared with her two friends. It was pretty obvious that it was Twilight's table... anypony else seated at it was merely a guest. And too, she was jealous of how Ms. Decimal always chose to conclude the homework demonstrations with Princess Celestia's prize pupil... like some grand finale spectacle, after which there was no point in anyone else even attempting an encore.
But most of all, Trixie was jealous of Twilight herself... the Princess's prize student, who never worried about anything... who never got anything wrong... who never, ever lost her cool.
That kind of perfection just burned Trixie up. For what reason, she couldn't quite put her hoof on -- it just did.
With the homework demonstrations concluded, Ms. Decimal assigned reading for the remainder of the class. So the students dutifully opened their books, turned to the next chapter, and sat in quiet study.
Except for the three other fillies seated at Trixie's table, who were whispering to each other. "Wow! Those new students are really talented," said Minuette, a light blue filly with an hourglass cutie-mark. "Starlight's spells are just amazing! And Tempest's really coming along too, even though she needs help with her magic."
"She's kinda scary," said blue-maned Lemon Hearts. "The way she's always looking around, like someone's about to attack her? And what's with that scar across her eye, anyways?"
"It must be really nice," sighed pink-maned Twinkleshine, "being one of Princess Celestia's hoof-picked students. And they're such good friends already! You just don't see one of them without the other two."
Lemon Hearts snorted dismissively. "That's just because Tempest follows Twilight around like some kind of guard-dog. And Starlight... well, she follows Tempest around to help her with her magic."
"Hey, did you know," Minuette said, "they have an entire tower room at the library all to themselves?"
"Oh, yeah... I heard about that," Twinkleshine agreed. "Twilight asked Princess Celestia and got the key to it." Her face fell a little. "And now only she and her friends get to use it."
"That sounds wonderful!" Minuette said, starry-eyed. Then she looked at the others. "What? It totally does! It sounds just like a clubhouse."
"To which none of us ordinary ponies are invited," Lemon Hearts grumbled.
"Right." Twinkleshine looked sad. "Twilight used to hang out with us. But now that she's got her own little circle of friends to study with, she hardly says 'boo' to the likes of us."
"Not like she ever said much to begin with," Lemon Hearts allowed. "Seriously? Does that pony do anything but study?"
Minuette was staring into space thoughtfully. Suddenly she beamed in excitement. "Hey, I've got a great idea! We should totally have a clubhouse of our own! We could meet in the back room of Mom and Dad's crafts shop up the street, and study together and stuff. Let's get together after class and go ask them!"
Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine looked at each other.
"Sounds good to me," Lemon Hearts finally said.
"Sure, I'm in!" Twinkleshine agreed. "How about you, Trixie? You wanna come?"
But Trixie was still staring across the room at Twilight's table, a scheming look on her face.
Twilight was already snout-deep in a book again. Probably one of her own, since she'd long ago finished the class text. Beside her, Tempest stared at her own textbook, chin resting on one forehoof, idly rolling a buckball back and forth on the table with the other. And at the end of the table Starlight was trying to read too, though in a fidgety, distracted sort of way. Every now and then she ran a spell that shuffled and sorted the colored pencils lying on the table before her. She was clearly paying more attention to tweaking the spell than focusing on her book.
"Don't even bother, Trixie," Twinkleshine warned. "Twilight's not going to pay any attention to a pony outside of her little group."
"Oh, don't worry about me," Trixie replied craftily. "The Great and Powerful Trixie can always find a way!"
Catching Starlight's eye, Trixie waved a forehoof.
Smiling happily, Starlight waved back to her.
Trixie returned the smile, and glanced smugly at Twinkleshine and the others.
Oh yeah, she thought. Trixie's got an in!
It was complete happenstance. At least, anypony else who'd been there would have thought so...
In the open section of the Canterlot Archives, Starlight Glimmer trotted out from the bookshelves, a tall stack of volumes following behind her in her magic. She found an empty carrel and thunked down at it with a sigh, then began sorting the books into piles. There were the reference books Twilight had asked her to look up, the ones on horn-magic that Tempest needed, and then her own stack of material, to be sifted through for her homework assignments.
Assignments, plural. It was a challenge keeping track of them, let alone completing them.
"Wow," she muttered to herself. "I thought going to Celestia's School was gonna be sooooo great. Should've asked about how much homework there was first!"
"Oh, tell me about it," said a weary voice from over the carrel divider. "I've never had so much reading to do in my life."
"You think maybe it's a test?" Starlight asked, glad for a sympathetic ear. "They wanna see if we'll crack under the pressure?"
"I think it's just busy-work," the voice said. "To keep us from working on our real talents. It certainly cuts into my practice time."
"Yeah," Starlight grumbled, staring at the books in front of her. "A lot of this stuff we'll never use. I like my method better: finding simple spells I can chain together to do practical things."
"Same here. I don't get all this theory... structure and types and recursion and bleahhh. Why not just teach us spells we can use? And there's all the tests, too. Just to make sure we can parrot back all the boring stuff."
Starlight smiled at that. "Kinda like it's a badge of honor," she said, "knowing all this trivia."
"So true!" the voice agreed. "It's all about status in this town. And you know, no one says anything? But I'm sure they look down on me, just because I'm not from Canterlot."
"I'm new here myself," Starlight said. "And I've been trying to make friends, but it's hard. They keep talking about this pony or that pony, and I'm like... who? And they look at me like... what, you don't know? Where have you been?"
"Righhht! It isn't what you know," the voice agreed, "it's who you know, around here."
Starlight laughed, delighted. "Finally!" she said. "A pony I can relate to!"
The pony on the other side got up and looked over the divider. It was Trixie.
"I could tell I was gonna like you!" she said, smiling sweetly.
Trixie's attention was abruptly brought back to the present by Ms. Decimal rapping a hoof on her desk.
"Before we break for lunch," she said, "I just wanted to remind you all that your independent projects for this quarter are coming up later this week."
Trixie smirked. She had no worries about her project. She was certain she was going to ace it --
"And I also wanted to let you know that Princess Celestia herself will be honoring us by observing the presentations personally."
"Aaaaaah!"
Trixie clapped her forehooves over her mouth. Her veins were like ice.
Glancing around, she gritted her teeth and then lofted her snout proudly. "Oh, just... excited... that the Princess will have the chance of seeing the Great and Powerful Trixie's... ah... magical skill in action!"
"Yes, thank you, Trixie." Ms. Decimal said. Then she looked around at the other students. "So it should be obvious that we'll want to put our best hooves forward, show the Princess that we value her attention and guidance."
The students were murmuring excitedly as they got up from their tables and headed for the door.
But not Trixie.
She'd already bolted from the room like a blue comet.
Starlight stared after her, puzzled. "What's got into her?"
Tempest huffed. "Probably worried her ego would explode," she said dryly. "And didn't want to take the rest of us with her. Truly selfless, that one."
"I'm... just gonna go check on her," Starlight said. "I'll meet you back at the room, okay?"
Twilight looked hesitant for a moment. Then she nodded. "Sure, Starlight. We'll see you there."
Getting up, Starlight trotted out into the hallway, then looked around.
In the distance, she could see the outer door at the end of the hallway swinging shut. She went to it and pushed through, into the cool morning air outside.
She looked around. There was no sign of Trixie.
Then she heard the sniffling, coming from under an ornamental hedge.
Lifting the branches with a hoof, Starlight found Trixie sitting in the dirt underneath, hunched into a ball, forehooves wrapped around herself, rocking back and forth. There was an air of edgy tension about her, like an overtightened harp string.
"Trixie?"
"Hey, Starlight..." the azure pony replied weakly.
Starlight crawled in under the bush and sat down, putting a hoof around her friend's shoulders. "What's the matter?"
Trixie wiped her snout with a forehoof. "Oh, nothing. Just my entire world has come to an end. It's only a matter of time now."
"Why? Because of the independent projects? I thought you'd finished figuring out what you were going to do last week."
"I did," Trixie agreed, hopelessly. "I even knew just how I was gonna pull it off too. It was going to be soooo spectacular. But now I'm never going to pass!"
"Why not?"
"Because Princess Celestia will be there, watching us... and because... um..."
Trixie shook her head, ashamed. Then she looked Starlight in the eye.
"I'm a fake, Starlight," she said flatly. "I can't do real magic! Aside from levitation, and a few utility spells."
"What?" Starlight stared at her. "How's that even possible? You passed the entrance exam to get into the School, right?"
"The exam?" Trixie rolled her eyes. "I cheated, Starlight. It wasn't even very hard. Pretty much everything I showed them was stage magic. Just like the transfiguration act I did in class this morning." She exhaled wearily. "And I was up all night practicing that one!"
"Wow..." Starlight said. "You're really good. You had me fooled completely."
Despite her misery, Trixie smiled a little. "You never even saw the Great and Powerful Trixie switching things in and out of her mane, did you?"
"Seriously? I couldn't tell at all. It looked totally real to me. And, well... if you're that good, why are you worried?"
Trixie's face twisted miserably. "Because Princess Celestia will be there! I'll never be able to snow her like that. She's gonna see right through my act and have her guards on me in a hot second." Trixie shivered. "I'll be lucky if I'm just expelled, and not thrown in jail for my crimes. Or maybe banished to Tartarus! Or maybe banished to Tartarus, and then thrown in jail! Starlight, what am I gonna do!"
She buried her head in her forehooves, and resumed rocking agitatedly, snuffling and sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm gonna have to just run away," she finally moaned. "Just leave the School and try to make it on my own with my stage-magic. Before they discover I'm a fraud and buck me out themselves."
Not certain what else to do, Starlight pulled her friend close and hugged her. She thought hard.
Then her eyes lit up.
"Trixie, there might be another way. But it's not gonna be easy."
Trixie sniffed, and managed to loft her snout proudly. "The Grrrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie is up to any challenge!"
"You're going to have to ask for help."
Trixie's eyes went wide.
"What?!"
In Twilight's tower room at the School's library annex, Twilight and Tempest were seated at a worktable on the room's main floor, close to the staircase leading down to the entrance. In the distance, amongst the shelves, Spike and Grubber could be heard chatting with each other as they reshelved books.
Tempest was steadily working her way through a treatise on the types and characteristics of horn magic, every now and then firing up her horn experimentally to check something she'd read.
And Twilight, jeweler's loupe in her eye, was peering at a gemstone clamped in a vise on the table before her. There was a hammer and fine-edged chisel floating in her magic, which darted back and forth uncertainly. There were also dozens of broken shards littering the table's surface, remnants of previous attempts.
Every now and then, Tempest looked up from her book and glanced at the top of the stairs. Noticing this, Twilight stared at her. "What is it, Tempest?"
"I told you," the larger pony said. "Unlocked doors bother me. I finally persuade you to ask the Princess for a key to this place, and you never use it. Even late at night, when you should."
"I don't want anypony thinking that I'm keeping them out," Twilight replied. "That I'm stuck up or something. Anypony is welcome to visit." She sighed. "It's just that nopony ever does. Which... I suppose is my own fault, really."
Tempest stared at her, an eyebrow raised. "Oh?"
"I started studying way up here originally because this place was so unused. I didn't like being disturbed. And that's because... well, you may have noticed, I'm not all that great at making friends."
"You did all right with Starlight and me," Tempest pointed out. "You just showed us how much you care. Given that, I'd have thought you'd have no trouble making friends."
"That's just it!" Twilight said, thumping the table. "I always overreach! I put my feelings out there, show other ponies how much I care about things -- about how they're feeling, about all the things that I know and like... and I get nothing back. Just discomfort, or else the usual fake, socially correct mask everypony else wears all the time. No one ever opens up with me, lets me see who they really are."
She grimaced. "And that... that just makes me feel so awkward, Tempest! I just don't know where to take it from there." She shrugged. "So... after a while... I just stopped trying."
Tempest stared at her. "You know what you need to do? You need to smile more, to laugh more." She rolled her eyes. "And yeah, I do know that's me saying it. But it's true. You're always so studious, Twilight. So diligent, correct, and proper. You know, half the time I forget you're younger than I am?"
"Well, that's just because I'm the Princess's personal student," Twilight replied. "It's... well, expected of me by everypony around here. You and Starlight didn't have that history, so you could see past it."
Tempest nodded. "True. And Starlight and I, well... we didn't really have a choice about showing you who we are. Because who we are is all there was. Me, in particular... I mean, we both know I wear my heart on my boxing gloves."
Twilight smiled at that. Then she sighed. "I wish I had more friends like you and Starlight: ponies who don't see me as the Princess's student. Ponies I can just be me around. So... well, I guess I leave the door unlocked on the chance that somepony like that does decide to wander up here to visit. Even though I know it's unlikely anypony will."
"That..." Tempest said, "is just so you, Twilight. But getting back to the point here... if you don't get in the habit of locking that door, anything might come waltzing right through it."
Downstairs, the door opened. "Twilight? Tempest?"
"We're up here, Starlight," Twilight called, peering at her gemstone again.
"Oh, great!" Starlight trotted up the stairs. "Because I brought a friend with me."
"A friend?" Twilight looked up. And then the loupe fell from her eye. The hammer and chisel clattered onto the table.
"Trixie?"
"Hellooo, Twilight," Trixie said cautiously, waving a hoof.
Twilight and Tempest exchanged a glance. "Told you," Tempest said. "And weren't you saying something just now about anypony being welcome to visit?"
Twilight gave her a sour look. Then both of them frowned at Trixie.
Starlight looked from them to Trixie and back in surprise. "Sorry... you three know each other?"
"You... could say that," Twilight said, evenly. "We've... had our differences."
Tempest snorted. "Trixie's the one who got everyone started calling me Twilight's attack dog." Her head tipped, evaluatingly. "Which... I don't mind actually. I consider it a compliment..."
Her gaze narrowed. She frowned at Trixie again.
"It's the way she says it."
"And in class," Twilight said -- uncomfortably, as if she disliked talking about a fellow student that way -- "Trixie's such a braggart, and a show-off. And the spells she demonstrates..." Twilight shook her head. "Half the time I think she must be faking them, because there's no way a pony her level should be able to do spells like that so easily."
Starlight was about to reply. But then Trixie beat her to it.
"You're right, Twilight," she said quietly. "Trixie is a fake."
The other three ponies stared at her.
Trixie shrugged. "Most of my spells are just stage-magic... just sleight-of-hoof stuff. Starlight said I should come clean with you. And she was right."
"Because," Starlight quickly added, "Trixie really needs our help."
She and Trixie rapidly explained the situation. Twilight's expression throughout was unreadable. Tempest's was anything but. "So," Tempest summed up darkly, "you're both an egotist and a pathological liar. I'm impressed."
"Trixie is a stage-magician," Trixie said archly, pointing a forehoof at her magic-wand cutie mark. "There's a difference. Yes, Trixie lies and deceives, but only to entertain ponies, to make them laugh by showing them something they never would have expected to happen."
"Well..." Twilight replied, "I'd say cheating your way into Celestia's School goes way beyond that. What I can't figure out is how you were able to do it. I mean, the ponies who judge the applicants... they're supposed to be top notch. And really harsh judges too!"
Trixie rolled her eyes. "It was easy to snow the examiners -- like, disgustingly easy! They're so used to judging real magic talent, they don't know what to look for. Trixie could've been doing spoon-bending, and they'd never have realized why she kept close to a table with a hard edge on it."
"Uh... what?" Twilight stared at Trixie, mouth wide open. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"Oh, come on, Twilight!" Trixie laughed. "Are you that naive? Nopony's that perfect! Especially not someone who's set themselves up as an expert. It's exactly what makes them so easy to fool."
Twilight just stared, speechless.
"But, Trixie..." Starlight asked, "what if they'd hit you with a task you couldn't handle?"
"I was sweating, Starlight!" Trixie agreed. "The whole time! But then I lucked out. The one thing they asked me for that I couldn't figure out on the fly, I just went ahead and fluffed it... and then showed them a trick that looked way more cool than that. And they gave Trixie credit for it! It's like they were hoping I'd show them up."
Trixie shook her head, ashamed.
"I never meant to cheat, not really. Just a trick or two, to impress them, since my real magic was so pitiful. But once Trixie's on a roll, doing her act, there's just no stopping it. When ponies are happy and applauding, I just can't help myself. I can't help wanting to do just one trick more, top every marvel with a better one. In the end, Trixie gave them the works, an entire show! And the exam ponies, they just ate it up. Trixie passed with full marks!"
"Okaaaay..." Starlight said, wide-eyed, "that is just..."
Trixie winced. "Incredibly dishonest?"
"I was gonna say... totally amazing!" Starlight said, hugging her. "I would never have had the guts to pull off something like that!"
Trixie smiled weakly, and shrugged. "It's what stage magic is all about, Starlight: letting the audience see exactly what they want to see." She gestured with a forehoof. "Earth ponies and pegasi dream of being able to do directed magic like unicorns. Unicorns wish they could do alicorn magic like Princess Celestia. And the exam ponies? They were looking for students with really strong magic, for some reason. Trixie just showed 'em what they were looking for, and they totally bought it."
She sighed.
"And after that, having gotten myself into the School, there was no way out. The Great and Powerful Trixie had to keep using stage-magic, so nopony would realize she was a fraud. And since I had to spend so much time practicing my routines to make them flawless... I had no time to study real magic. So I could never catch up."
"Trixie..." Twilight began.
"You're right, Twilight," Trixie said, nodding. "It was cheating, and Trixie is sorry for it. Trixie promises to tell the truth about her abilities from now on. But... Trixie has dug herself into a huge hole here. And... well..."
Her voice dropped almost to a whisper, her eyes lowered.
"... she really needs help getting back out of it."
At that, Tempest's expression visibly softened, just a bit. Even Twilight was looking uneasily sympathetic.
Starlight looked at the two of them. "I thought," she offered cautiously, "that Trixie might help us with our independent project. That way she wouldn't have to be faking things in front of Princess Celestia. And we can figure out how to square everything else afterwards." She put a hoof around Trixie's shoulders. "Because... she's my friend, Twilight. I don't want to see her get thrown out of school, just when she's trying to turn it around."
Twilight and Tempest looked at each other uneasily. And then came to an unspoken agreement.
"Fine," Twilight said, "but only so long as we're not helping her to keep cheating."
"Thanks, Twilight," Trixie said gratefully.
"Don't thank me yet," Twilight muttered. "We still have to find some way you can help us. I mean, if your magic's as lousy as you say --"
"Trixie's horn magic is lousy," Trixie corrected her testily. "Trixie's stage magic is without compare!"
"Stage magic won't help," Tempest said sternly. "Not with our project."
"We're doing a team demonstration," Starlight quickly explained. "We're working on converting raw magic into a form in which it can be stored, kind of like a battery, and then turned back into magic later, to work spells automatically."
"It's basically a storage loop," Twilight added, relaxing a little as she slipped into lecture mode. "We convert magic to a physical form, and put it in a self-sustaining loop so it doesn't snap right back to being pure magic again. It's like transfiguration, but applied to magic energy itself. And it's different from putting an enchantment on a gem, because the energy isn't locked into performing a specific spell."
Starlight nodded. "Tempest and I provide the source of magic energy," she said. "We run it through this gem..." She indicated the gemstone in Twilight's vice. "Which will have an enchantment that Twilight's working on, that transfigures the stream of magic to physical form. And the gem itself will have a shape that focuses and channels the energy into an arc --" She traced out a circle with her hoof. "-- that cycles around and back through the gemstone, reinforcing itself and keeping the storage loop stabilized."
"But the gemstone has to be shaped just right," Twilight said, "to keep the stored energy properly in phase." She picked up her hammer and chisel in her magic again. "And it's taking me forever to find the right cleavage planes to shape it."
"Oh?" Trixie reached out her hooves, and grabbed the hammer and chisel from Twilight's magic field. She eyed the gemstone for a moment, then positioned the chisel and gave it a swift, firm tap --
-- and the gem cleaved perfectly, leaving a smooth surface that would only require a bit of polishing to finish.
The other three ponies stared. But Trixie simply shrugged. "Hoof-magic," she said airily. "It gives you wonderful dexterity. You lose that if you rely on your horn for everything." She stared around at them. "What? You think the Great and Powerful Trixie would let anypony else build and fix her props? Huh!"
Twilight stared at the gemstone. And then nodded.
"I think... we just found something you can help with," she said flatly.
The independent project demonstrations were held on schedule... though not quite as planned. Ms. Decimal was just about to lead the students out of the classroom and down the hall to the School's auditorium, when she abruptly came to a halt at the classroom door, her eyes wide.
"Princess Celestia!"
"Hello, Hex!" The regal white alicorn smiled disarmingly. "Would now be a good time to do the project demonstrations?"
"Well of course, Your Highness! But... we'd assumed that we'd be meeting you in --"
"I thought it would be more fair to the students if I came to visit them in the classroom, where they're comfortable. This isn't a command performance, after all. We don't need to put our pupils up on a stage, under bright lights. I'm only here to see how everyone's progressing in their work."
"Oh! Absolutely, Your Highness. And it's most considerate of Your Majesty!"
"You've met Raven Inkwell, my aide, of course," Celestia went on. "And this is Sterling Shield of the Royal Guard..."
Ms. Decimal was bobbing so furiously at all the introductions that the students couldn't help but giggle.
The Princess herself cast an experienced eye over them, making sure they felt at ease in her presence. "We'll observe things from the back," Celestia finished. "Just carry on as if we're not here. In as much as you can," she added, with an understanding laugh.
"All right, students!" Ms. Decimal clapped her hooves anxiously, as the Princess and her companions moved to a clear area at the rear of the classroom. "We'll go in order, as planned!"
The demonstrations proceeded, and as she'd said the Princess merely sat quietly observing, occasionally whispering to Raven, who took notes for her.
Finally, Ms. Decimal called Twilight's group to the open area at the front of the room.
And the Princess sat just a little straighter, watching them attentively.
The four ponies arranged themselves in a row. Tempest was at one end, with Starlight beside her. Next was Trixie, who had taken the opportunity to don her magician's hat and cloak for the demonstration. She was unfolding a small metal stand in front of her. And last was Twilight, who shuffled through her notecards, cleared her throat, and began speaking:
"Since the early days of research magic, as far back as Star Swirl himself, it's been known that structured magic, in particular recursive magic, can be made self-executing. But spellwork still requires power from a magic-user for the spell to operate. It's been theorized that a stable, self-sustaining source of magic power could exist, which would allow --"
Trixie, becoming increasingly restless under the impending flood of dry technical detail, coughed loudly, interrupting Twilight in mid-flow.
Then she lofted her forehooves dramatically.
"Fillies! And gentlecolts! And your most regal Majesty!" Trixie doffed her hat and essayed a deep bow in the Princess's direction. "The Grrrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie begs your indulgence as we present to you:
The Ring of Awesome Magic Power!
"Trixie!" Twilight whispered furiously. But there was no stopping the azure filly. "Allow Trixie," she intoned grandly, "to introduce her assistants for today's performance. We have the valiant Tempest Shadow, whose strength and magic power are legendary! Starlight Glimmer, whose skill in spellcraft is beyond peer! The learned and studious Twilight Sparkle, who has crafted the enchantment contained in this focus gem!"
Unhooking the gem from the collar of her cloak, she held it aloft on her hoof, turning it so it sparkled under the classroom lights.
"Shaped painstakingly by the hooves of Trixie herself, this simple gemstone will provide a spectacle never before seen by pony eyes! For today, and today only, Trixie and her humble assistants shall demonstrate... the capture of raw magic itself!"
With ostentatious care, Trixie gently set the gem in its holder atop the metal stand. Then she gestured grandly to Tempest and Starlight. "Whenever you are ready, my good ponies!"
Tempest was scowling at her furiously, and even Starlight was looking uneasy. But Twilight motioned urgently for them to proceed, so they resignedly did. Tempest set herself steadily on her hooves, and lowered her head, lining her horn up with the gemstone. She charged her horn, which fizzed and sputtered until Starlight cast her own stabilizing spell on it. Then Starlight cast a remote-projection spell as well, linking her magic reserves to Tempest's so the larger pony had both sources of magic to work with.
Tempest set her gaze firmly on the gemstone, and then projected a solid blue beam of electric magic into it. It was instantly transfigured and rechanneled, bent up and around into a large, gleaming white ring of plasma energy, flowing through the gem, glowing hot and slowly increasing in density as it took in more and more magic.
"Behold!" Trixie cried, waving her hooves. "Raw magic, converted and stored in a physical form, making it accessible and reusable on demand, for spellwork of all kinds!"
Princess Celestia was nodding, clearly impressed. Ms. Decimal was smiling. The students were cautiously applauding. And Twilight nervously sighed in relief. The presentation style might be a little unorthodox, but it appeared to be a complete success. If only Trixie didn't --
"But wait!" Trixie called. "There's more!"
She doffed her hat and dug into it with a hoof. And came up with a second gemstone, this one with many more facets than the one on the stand.
"Watch in awe, as the Great and Powerful Trixie amplifies the storage capacity of the Ring of Power a hundredfold!"
Before anyone could stop her, she'd smoothly swapped the gemstone for the one on the stand, without even interrupting the arc of energy.
"Trixie!" Starlight hissed. "The enchantment spell isn't tuned for that!"
"Don't worry, Starlight!" Trixie whispered back. "It'll be fine!" She raised her voice again, dramatically.
"The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie --"
There was a loud snapping sound -- and a crack appeared in the gemstone. Immediately, the ring of stored magic began pulsing and thrumming irregularly. There was a nasty-sounding edge to the thrum, increasingly grating and dissonant.
"Eeep!" Trixie jerked back in shock, her eyes wide.
"Trixie!" Twilight shouted. "What did you do! We've got to shut this down! Tempest --"
"Wait, Twilight!" Starlight called. "The power stored in the ring's out of phase! We can't just shut it down! Not without a cascade failure! All that power will dump right back into thaumic space! It'll take out half the School building! The power we're sending into it is the only thing keeping it stable!"
"Ahem!"
All eyes looked to the Princess, who had stood up and was eyeing the ring of unstable energy with calm attentiveness. "Sterling Shield, have your troopers evacuate the other students, and then clear the building. Get everyone to a safe distance, and keep them clear."
"At once, Your Highness!" the officer moved swiftly, snapping out orders to his fellow guards standing in the corridor, and helping Ms. Decimal usher the wide-eyed students out of the room.
Raven edged closer to the Princess. "Your Highness," she asked quietly, "shouldn't we do something about..." She gestured with a hoof at the angrily thrumming ring.
Celestia eyed her. "If necessary," she whispered back. "I wish to see how this plays out."
Raven nodded uneasily, then huddled close to the Princess, eyes wide.
Twilight was staring at the ring of energy, her mind working furiously to understand what she was seeing. Her eyes lit up. "There's a regularity to the phasing!" she cried. "Every six and a half seconds, it drops back into alignment, just for an instant. If we can put back the old crystal right at that point, it might stabilize!"
Her magic snatched the crystal out of Trixie's startled hooves. She held it over the cracked crystal, nervously, counting under her breath, working out the exact timing -- and trying to work up the nerve to make the switch...
Oh my gosh! she thought. How do I do this? How do I swap it in fast enough?
"We've only got one shot at this," she whispered, fretfully. "What if I'm not fast enough? What if I get it wrong -- get us all incinerated, or blown into a million pieces? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?"
Trixie was staring at her, wide-eyed. And then she spoke... very quietly.
"Twilight? Please let me fix this. I can do it. Let me try."
Twilight stared at her. She'd so rarely heard Trixie speak that softly and meekly before. It was... unsettling.
"Why should I?" Twilight snapped, desperately. "You caused all this, Trixie! You and your ego -- and I'm not sure which is worse! You forced your way into our project to save your hide. And you put everypony in danger, just so you could put on one of your performances."
"You're right." Trixie nodded. She winced, then went on. "And I'm sorry, Twilight! I'm a show-pony at heart... I just couldn't help wanting to do one more trick, one more show-stopper... because... well..."
She took a deep breath, and then charged into it.
"... because I wanted to show you up!"
Twilight blinked, astonished.
Trixie nodded. "I've always been jealous of you, Twilight! Of how flawless, how perfect, you always seem to be. I had to prove I could do something better than you. And that was wrong, I know! But look, we can talk about that later. Right now, somepony has to swap back that gem. And of the two of us, I've got the faster hooves. So let me do it." Trixie's eyes took on a pleading look. "Please, Twilight? I can fix this! Let me try! Trust me!"
Twilight shook her head, amazed. "Why in Equestria should I trust you, Trixie?"
"Why?" Trixie suddenly looked very small, very scared. "Why? Okay, you want the truth? You want the really honest, rotten, horrible, stinking truth here?"
Her face twisted in a mixture of fear and abject embarrassment. The words came out in a rush:
"Because I know I can do this better than you! And I don't want to get blown up either!"
The two ponies stared at each other.
And then... despite herself... Twilight smiled. And then she laughed. The look on Trixie's face was priceless. Twilight had never seen her so abjectly, humbly terrified before...
... she looked just like Twilight felt, right at that moment.
"All right, Trixie," Twilight said.
Tempest grunted painfully. "Will somepony please do something? Shut this thing down, one way or another? I can't keep dumping magic into it forever!"
"Uh, right... sorry, Tempest." Twilight's magic swiftly returned the gemstone to Trixie's hooves. "Okay, Trixie. What do you need me to do?"
Trixie looked from the gem to Twilight, astonished. "Just... be ready to put up a shield," she said. "Around the three of you..." Trixie swallowed. "... just in case Trixie isn't quite as fast as she thinks she is!"
Twilight nodded, and moved to stand next to Tempest and Starlight.
Trixie held the old gem on her hoof, held her other hoof over the cracked gem. She focused on the near-blinding radiance of the ring, saw the momentary alignment come round, then vanish. Saw it come round again, and vanish again.
So fleetingly, impossibly short...
You've got this, Trixie, she told herself, readying the gemstone. Just keep it together, and remember: never any doubt... never any doubt... never any...
The gemstone was in place. The cracked one was resting on her other hoof, the ring of energy was stabilizing, albeit with a minor oscillation in the circling flow. As with the best hoof-magic, her reflexes had completed the switch on auto-pilot, before her mind could even catch up.
"Done," she breathed... astonished that she still could.
Tempest cleared her throat. "Is it safe to stop now?"
"Uh, yeah," Twilight said. "Back off the power... slowly!"
Tempest did so, her horn glowing softer and softer until it fell silent. Starlight cancelled her spells as well. And they all stared at the whirling ring of stored energy, thrumming softly as it cycled through the gemstone.
"I think..." Twilight said cautiously, "... we get to live today."
And then something amazing happened. The remaining oscillation in the stored energy, refracting through the original gem, visibly split into separate spectral bands of magic... of all the various types...
Before their astonished eyes, the ring blossomed into a gleaming rainbow. It was stable, clear, and utterly dazzling to the eye, as it steadily consumed the energy stored in the ring.
And nopony who'd once seen that entrancing spectral light could ever quite forget it...
"Trixie..." Starlight breathed. "Is that what I think it is?"
"I... have no idea, Starlight," Trixie admitted weakly. "What is it?"
"Well..." Twilight said, just as amazed, "I think it's a spectrum -- of magic energy! I'd say you just figured out how to split the thaum, Trixie! That's incredible! Nopony's ever done that before! Not even Star Swirl the Bearded!"
"Oh... my... gosh..." Starlight said, impressed despite herself, staring at the rainbow ring. "Way to go, Trixie!"
Trixie looked around at them. She cautiously smiled, uneasily and gratefully.
And then she looked up at Princess Celestia, eyeing the four of them with an unreadable look.
Trixie gingerly spread her forehooves.
"Ta daaaaaa...."
That afternoon, they were all back in Twilight's tower room, working on the writeup of their unexpected findings, which was the only thing that Princess Celestia had requested of them. After, of course, complimenting them on their extraordinary teamwork in bringing the wayward "experiment" under control...
Trixie shivered. She'd had the distinct feeling the Princess's choice of words on that point had been exactingly deliberate... as well as extremely generous in the circumstances.
"Look, I know I've said it before, but... I'm sorry." She looked around at the other ponies. "And I'd understand if you didn't want me hanging around here anymore."
Twilight looked up from the notes she was scribbling.
And then she smiled. "Well, that wouldn't be fair," she said. "Because then Starlight would have to choose between hanging out with you... and hanging out with us. And... I'm not sure I want to risk that!"
Starlight hugged her friend. "Tempest?" she asked, looking at the taller pony.
Tempest eyed Trixie for a long moment. Then she shrugged. "What the hay. You remind me of someone I used to know, a while back."
"Um... thanks?" Trixie offered.
Tempest scowled at her. "It wasn't a compliment."
Trixie scowled back. "Fine!" Then she looked at Starlight. "Sooo, bestie... what do we do for fun around here?"
"Um, study?" Starlight suggested.
Twilight nodded. "Not being incinerated, or blown into a million pieces or zapped into an alternate dimension, we do still have that history test Friday."
"Oh. Yeah." Trixie nodded. "Right. Good call."
Starlight beamed. "I'll race you to the history section!"
Trixie tipped up her snout. "The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie knows not where this history section you speak of is to be found... and yet, with her miraculous powers of divination and precognition, she shall still arrive there ahead of you!"
"You're on!" Starlight replied. The two of them scurried away to the stacks.
And Tempest sighed, irritatedly.
"Tempest?" Twilight asked. "What's the matter?"
The maroon pony shook her head. "I still don't trust her," she said. "Every time that pony opens her mouth, all kinds of alarm bells go off in my head."
"It'll work out," Twilight said. "We just need time to get used to her."
Tempest looked sour. And then rolled her eyes, fatalistically. "If you say so, Twilight."
"Relax, trooper," Princess Celestia said. "You are not in any trouble. I merely summoned you to ask you a brief question or two."
"As you say, Your Highness!" The guard pony relaxed a hair, yet still held himself at attention, standing on the carpet before the Sun Throne.
"Now, when the student named Trixie arrived at the School on orientation day, I understand you were the guard on duty at the registration table."
"Correct as usual, Your Highness."
"The clerk of the day has recorded her name as 'Trixie Lulamoon'," Celestia said. "I would like to ask what name you heard her give."
"Uhm..." The guard looked uneasy. "Would Your Highness permit me to consult my notebook?"
"No." Celestia's reply was firm -- though with a kindly air. "I specifically wish to know what you recall from that day."
"Well..." the guard nervously rubbed his neck with an armored hoof, then realized he was doing it and snapped to attention again. "Now that Your Highness asks, I did take note of it. It struck me as unusual at the time..."
"Yes?"
"I think she might have given the name 'Trixie Luna Moon'..." the guard hazarded. And then he shook his head. "But that would just be ridiculous wouldn't it, Your Highness? I mean, what family would dare name their daughter... uh..."
He froze, seeing the sternly forbidding look the Princess was giving him.
"Erm. With your permission, Highness, I'll just shut up now. And... get back to guarding things?"
"That would be wise," Celestia replied coolly, nodding in dismissal.
After the guard had hastily removed himself from the Audience Hall, Celestia sighed to herself.
Luna, she thought. My dear, sweet Luna... what are you doing now?
Trixie tucked herself up in bed in her dorm room, and then stared across at the night-dark window.
What a day, she thought. I nearly get myself bucked out of school for cheating, nearly get my friends and myself blown up, nearly set every pony who knows me against me for life...
... and then I make the discovery of a lifetime. And end up as one of Celestia's personal students, assigned to help figure out... whatever it is I've discovered...
Trixie didn't know how she'd managed it. But she wasn't going to complain. It was like Father had always said: You never know how the cards will fall, Trixie. So the only way to win is by paying attention... and then stacking the deck...
And Trixie had done it. She'd gotten herself a seat at Twilight's table. She was one of the special students, for whom the ordinary School rules didn't apply. And in the process, she'd also managed to make friends, of a sort, with Twilight Sparkle herself.
Trixie wished she hadn't. It didn't make things any easier. Because when Twilight had laughed at Trixie's miserable, humbled expression...
... Trixie could see that Twilight was laughing with her, and not at her. She could see Twilight wasn't perfect herself, that she could be nervous, scared, and even at her wit's end, just like any other pony. And hence she welcomed and accepted that in others. Trixie could see that Twilight was that rare kind of pony who really understood, who really cared... who saw the small, scared pony underneath Trixie's defensive show-pony exterior...
... and willingly accepted it. Trusted it.
She can see who I am, Trixie thought. And she still wants to be friends.
Trixie sighed.
Why did Twilight have to turn out to be so nice?
She wasn't certain why that closeness felt like such a liability -- It just did.
Then Trixie yawned, and decided it was a better idea to be wracked with emotional turmoil in the morning, when one was fully rested and better able to deal with it.
Gradually, she relaxed. Gradually her eyes slid shut. She drifted into a light doze...
Her eyes snapped open.
She'd heard a sound. A familiar, horribly familiar metallic scraping sound, as of armored hooves on the brick wall outside. Suddenly the room seemed much larger, darker, and colder than it had been. There was an undeniable feeling of being watched, coldly and implacably...
She didn't want to look... she didn't want to see. She had to force herself to turn and look... at the window...
At the eyes... peering in through the window at her.
They were large eyes, green and luminous, with reptilian, slit-like irises. And there was a fanged mouth, gaping wide and glowing like red-hot lava... grinning hungrily at her.
A blur of night-dark tendrils of smoke, and standing before Trixie in the middle of the room was an immense, night-black alicorn in silvery armor.
The nightmare cackled gleefully. The sound was like a chill blade being stroked gently up and down her spine.
"I hope thou has not forgotten our agreement, little one?" Nightmare Moon eyed Trixie coldly. "I assist thee in attending Celestia's School, help thee become great and powerful, as thou desired... and in return..."
She leaned closer, grinning hungrily.
"In return thou stands ready to serve me... when I shall call upon thee."
Trixie shivered. At first, the dark mare's offer of being her mentor and guide had seemed a dream come true -- but all dreams had their price...
"Thou shall position thyself close to Celestia's protégé, Twilight Sparkle," the nightmare went on. "And be ready to act, as I shall command thee..."
She laughed, hugely and insanely.
"For the time is fast approaching, Trixie Luna Moon! I shall be free of my prison, and Celestia shall be imprisoned in my stead! And none shall stand against me! None! My power shall be boundless -- my Night shall know no end!"
The mare's voice thundered in Trixie's head, overwhelming her. Trixie's thoughts became muzzy, sluggish... she had to struggle to get words out. "And what of Trixie?" she said, weakly. Her voice was so uselessly small and powerless. "You said Trixie would be safe, and would go on being Great and Powerful... forever..."
"So we did," the Nightmare acknowledged. "And so we shall, if that be thy will. We shall be merciful and generous to all those who stand with us, when the thousandth solstice reaches its untimely end."
"Oh." Trixie nodded. "Trixie wasn't certain."
"Be certain, our loyal servant!" Nightmare Moon said. "Be very certain! And remember, Trixie Luna Moon, always remember...
... never any doubt!"
"Never any doubt..." Trixie repeated, dutifully. "Trixie will remember."
"Good. And now, little one... sleep."
Her long, dark forehoof touched Trixie's forehead, below her horn.
Trixie drifted off, into warm, dark, safe, depthless, dreamless slumber.
And as she did, Nightmare Moon smiled, coldly and evilly. And then, with a rush of swirling shadows, was gone. The room was suddenly much brighter and warmer.
For it was cold and dark... very cold and dark...
... in the Moon, where the Nightmare was imprisoned.
The End
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.
