Great Powers, Powerful Responsibilities
knock knock
“Come in.”
A cyan mare opened the door of the principal office, letting her starred cape to float as she trotted in. “Did you call Trixie?”
The light violet mare at the desk looked up from the newspaper she was perusing, to give a good look to the counselor of her School of Friendship.
“Oh, Trixie! Thanks for having come so quickly. I need to ask you some questions.”
“You can ask Trixie any question, but first answer this: are you trying to emulate Applejack’s orchard in your office?”
“Wha— ?” Starlight followed Trixie’s gaze up to something perched on her desk. “Oh, you mean, my trees?”
“Trixie remembers only one of them.”
“Well, I thought that Phillis could feel lonely on its own, so I decided to add little Sprout here to keep it company while I’m away,” said her, gently caressing the small leaves of the new ficus plant. “But that’s not why I’ve called you here. Trixie, you’re supposed to be a student counselor, what got into you lately?”
Trixie was taken aback. She wasn’t expecting such a sudden reprimand on her actions from her friend, but then she remembered something.
“Oh, you mean the new Kirin student? Trixie tried to talk to her, but Trixie knows how delicate those creatures are, so Trixie couldn’t make too much pro— ”
“I mean, it’s incredible what you have achieved this past week. Almost all the news is about you!” Starlight said, interrupting her.
“The counselor of our school saving lives and lifting our spirits. Earning her Great and Powerful nicknames for good.” she read, looking down on the main headline of the newspaper, and then flipping some pages. “I mean, how did you even do all those things? That’s amazing and… Wait, what did you just say about the Kirin student?”
“Oh… nothing.” Answered Trixie, now looking at the newspaper with curiosity. “Please, continue telling how this newspaper praises Trixie. And by the way, whose newspaper is it?”
“One of the new griffon students has a passion for journalism, so we thought it could be a good idea to let him manage a school newspaper… But I’m diverging here. Is it true what’s written here?”
“Trixie hasn’t read that yet.”
Starlight turned it towards Trixie, pointing at a certain line. “Here, it says you catched a student during one of Rainbow Dash ‘loyalty exercises’. The poor one was confused by the blindfold and when she let herself fall, she dived in the wrong direction, falling into the old safety net… That was sadly too old to quite stop the fall...”
“Oh, yes, Trixie remembers. It was that Kirin student. Every time she tells the story she sounds so pitiful.”
“And here,” Starlight moved the hoof a bit lower “it says you intervened in one of Fluttershy's lessons, while she was teaching the importance of music in interacting with animals and critters. Music that attracted some dangerous parasprite from the Forest that ate all the instruments. And you used your magic to…” She leaned closer to the page, she didn’t trust her memory with that one, for how insane it sounded “...to ‘direct the wind over some grass and play a melody to kick the parasprites back to whence they came’?”
“Pfft, that’s an old trick. Trixie would have inserted that in her show, if it wasn't connected with some… bitter memories.”
Starlight looked quizzically at her friend. “Maybe, but you have to explain this to me.” She pointed at the last lines of the article.
“‘The most amazing feat of our new hero happened during professor Pinkie’s lesson, when she was out of class to collect more ingredients for our baking lesson. Suddenly, our new fellow Kirin student collapsed on the floor and started to gag, like she was choking, but it didn’t seem like she had something in her throat. Noone knew what to do, but Trixie showed up and without losing a second, she shot the Kirin with a magic beam, saying that she was having an allergic reaction to the nuts in the chocolate frosting. In a matter of istants, the student was again on her hooves and breathing freely’.”
Starlight stopped to read and flipped a page to reveal a photo of Trixie holding up a Kirin in her hooves. “If there wasn’t a photo, I wouldn’t have believed it. Sweet Twilight, I didn’t even know there was a magic substitution for the adrenaline shot! How did you know?”
Trixie stayed there, flabbergasted for some instant. “Did that griffon called Trixie… a hero?”
“Well, after all you’ve done, it’s not hard to see why. This was really amazing, Trixie!”
Trixie shook her head. Then regained her smile. “Of course Trixie is amazing! I’m embarrassed to think you could think otherwise!”
Starlight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, but I think that this deserves a prize. I suggest you check your next payslip.”
At those words, Trixie beamed and jumped to tackle the principal over her desk. ”Thanks Starlight! You’re Trixie’s best!” Then jumped back on her hoof, saying “that’s exactly what I’ll need for my next show! If you may, I think Trixie needs to check some luxury catalog now!”
“Sure! Go on!” she answered, accompanying her to the office door and looking her trot merrily along the hallway.
She hadn’t had the time to go back in, when she heard someone scream in the garden outside the window. That sounded like Rarity’s. Soon other students’ screams joined too.
Starlight hastily opened the window and looked out to see waves of flames emerging from what should have been the silken byproducts of the last Rarity class project.
At the center of all, a Nirik in full blast.
Starlight charged her horn to teleport in the middle of the action, when she heard a swooping sound that stopped her.
In amazement, she looked as all the flames poured from the fabric into the tip of a blue horn.
Of a cyan pony.
In a purple mage dress.
“How— ” She started, turning her eyes to the empty hallway where Trixie was trotting just some seconds before.
Then she looked back to see Trixie put a hoof on the shoulder of the Nirik, probably to try and calm him. While still ablaze in flames.
She shook out of her stupor immediately and yelled “Stop! You’ll burn alive!” at her, but it was drowned in the screams.
With no other options, she teleported as close as she could to the pair, only to find Trixie fully hugging the aggressively squirming student. She didn’t look like she was in pain, and was actually speaking to him.
“...and I know you feel lonely. But trust me when I say everybody here cares about you. I know, because I do too.” At this, she squeezed even harder, as if she was trying to convey her words through her hooves.
The Nirik flailed harder at first, but then he started to subside as a few drops of tears had been forming in his eyes. The now Kirin sobbed into her mane as he returned the hug, drenching her with the same liquid that quenched his flames.
“I… I’m sor… sorry…”
Starlight was stunned. She watched Trixie soften her grip to let the student move more freely, and noticed a thin glow around the mare that was quickly dissipating. Probably a barrier to keep the flame from scorching her.
“Trixie, how…” She started, before being drowned in the cheers that erupted all around her.
Students and teachers alike began closing on the duo, trampling the headmare with little to no regard and pushing her backward. They were chanting their savior’s name. No, their hero.
Aware of the impending crowd, Trixie gently unhanded the Kirin and teleported away, leaving everyone startled in the garden between the burned dresses.
Starlight regained her balance, but she felt like she had to sit on her rump, her brain still unable to process what had just happened.
Right, what the hay just happened?
Everycreature was now asking the same question, except for the teachers tending to the Nirik at the center of the mass, and Rarity still crying on her knees in front of the charred fabrics of her class creations.
Starlight recoiled as her brain started to run again.
That cannot be Trixie.
She couldn’t have controlled those flames. She does not have the power to transform back a Nirik. She doesn’t speak in the first person.
But most of all, she doesn’t teleport. She poofs away.
A flash on her left made her twitch. She turned to see a little griffon with a camera that was almost a third of her whole size.
“Oh, no, it seems I’m too late. She’s already gone.” She quickly rolled the film to get ready for the next shot, but then noticed the mare staring at her. “Headmaster Glimmer! I’m so happy you’re here. Have you perhaps witnessed it? How about releasing an interview with me?”
“I…” she sputtered, overwhelmed by the pressing of the young student. Her eyes darted for an instant behind him, where she glimpsed something glowy, retreating into a drain.
The griffon noticed her eyes going wide, so he turned, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Frowning, she faced her headmaster again, only to find her madly giggling.
“What?”
“Sorry, Giovanna…” the mare recomposed herself with a sigh. “Say, have you heard of the so-called Young Six?”
“Oh? The new bearers? Sure, they’re renowned all over Equestria, and I know they attended this school… but how is this related to—”
“When they were here, this place was a lot smaller but still they managed to liven it up every day. There was little to no quiet time with them around, and it was impossible to get bored. And I guess, that especially was true for a good friend of theirs.”
Giovanna scowled, showing a bit of her griffon’s nature. “Yeees, that’s surely a nice story for the journal, and I expect an ol… experienced mare like you really like to bring up good memories, but could we please talk about— Oh wait! I see the Kirin! Sorry, headmaster, gotta chase the news while it is still hot! Oh, that’s good, I could add this to the…” She said, continuing to speak to herself while running towards her prey.
Starlight stood there a bit more, still smirking, eyes on the drain.
She just had the perfect idea.
The hallway now felt a bit tighter than before, but that was for a good cause.
Still, this didn’t prevent the cyan mare from pouting.
“Don’t you like it?”
Other pouts followed.
“I thought you would be happier with a real award for your incredible deeds.”
“The increased pay would have been a great award too.”
“Oh, come on, how many other ponies can tell to have their own personal statue?”
At that, the counsellor seemed a bit pensieve, but then cheered a bit. “Well, Trixie guesses this could be a good prize too…” said, before adding with another pout “...if only you had written the inscription correctly…”
Starlight smiled slyly, saying “Sorry for that. But now I think you should go—”
“Deal with the Kirin. Yeah, yeah. He seemed to have grown incredibly attached to Trixie. Go figure why.”
Starlight watched her go, then turned proudly towards the marble statue of Trixie in front of her.
On the pedestal these words were engraved:
To the true Protector and Hero of the School of Friendship
The Great and Powerful Treexie
