The sun hung brightly over Ponyville, bathing the town in morning light. Foals sleepily rose and began getting ready for school, packing away their books and hugging their parents goodbye. The farmers at the edge of town began dragging their plows and dropping seeds, ready for another long day of producing the food that kept the town flourishing. Indeed, the entire town was coming alive, with ponies bustling to and fro through every building, preparing to start another exciting day.
With one exception.
Trixie Lulamoon, Representative of the Night Court of Luna Equestris, rolled over in her bed. She had been up late the previous night, with Lyra, Pinkie Pie, Vinyl, and the wonderful Monsieur Bourbon, and as such had no plans to awake anytime soon. A few rays of sunlight shone through her window and threatened to disrupt her slumber, but her horn glowed softly and the curtains moved to block out any intrusive light. Trixie's snores continued uninterrupted, and her dream of being appointed Vicereine of the Court proceeded apace.
"As my first act, I want a magnificent palace erected for me!" Trixie dreamed herself saying. "And it is to have the most luxurious rooms in all the world! A bedroom with a bed softer than a cloud! A wine cellar stocked with every known liquor! And a theatre, so I can give magic shows to everypony in my province! Second I'll start a school for magicians, where every foal who wants to be like the Great and Powerful Trixie -- which of course would be all of them -- will be able to study and master the craft! Third, I want a cake as big as a house! And..."
Trixie's dream, though, was interrupted just before she reached the part where her profligate spending bankrupted the province and sent her scurrying away from an angry mob. A sudden knocking -- although it was more like pounding -- on her downstairs front door forced her awake. Thoughts of gem-studded rooms and magic shows more expansive than the famed Red Magician's flitted away, replaced with a pounding headache and a pounding door.
"Coming!" croaked Trixie, as she staggered to her bathroom and got her mane and tail looking at least vaguely presentable. "And you'd better have a good reason for waking me up so early! It's only..." She looked at the clock. "Nine in the morning! Nopony gets up at nine in the morning!"
The pounding continued.
Trixie finally made it downstairs and threw open the door. "What?"
Pinkie Pie grinned at her and thrust an invitation in her face. "Trixie! This is your invitation to a super-special awesome party!"
Trixie glared at her. "And you didn't mail this because...?"
"Oh, but this party is so incredible and full of awesomeness that I couldn't take even the slightest risk that the letter might get lost! Besides, I want to take a picture of everypony's face when they find out what the party's for!" Pinkie Pie dug a camera out from... wherever it was she kept things. Trixie had never figured that out.
Trixie stared.
"Go on! Ask me what the party's for!"
The sooner I get rid of her, the sooner I can get back into my warm, comfy bed, thought Trixie. "Okay, Pinkie. What's the party for?"
"It's a 'Hurray for Bonbon becoming a princess' party!"
"A princess?" asked Trixie, wondering if this was some weird marital thing between Lyra and Bonbon. She's the princess, and then she's the knight in shining -- aagh! Bad thoughts!
"Yep! She was in Canterlot for a baking competition, and when she came back, she was an alicorn!"
Trixie stared again. "An alicorn?"
"Yessiree! I saw her myself! Isn't it great?"
Trixie turned around. "Pinkie Pie, ponies don't just become alicorns. She probably just taped some wings and a horn to her head or something. She--"
She saw a shadow approaching from overhead, looked up -- and gasped.
Bonbon, confectioner of Ponyville, was doing loops and rolls in the sky, using two big, cream-colored wings to twist and turn. A horn on her forehead glowed with a strange magical light, one more powerful than anything Trixie had seen before, except for Luna Herself.
Trixie's mouth dropped.
Pinkie snapped her picture. "Meh. I think Carrot Top had a funnier face." She pressed the invitation into Trixie's hooves. "Three o'clock at Sugar Cube Corner! Be there or be a muffin!" And then she was racing off.
Trixie didn't even notice. She was still gaping at Bonbon in the sky.
***
"How come she gets to be an alicorn?!" exclaimed Trixie.
Lyra grinned. "Isn't it wonderful? I knew my Bonnie would do great things! Luna even told her that, if she wants, Luna can start training her to help run one of Equestria's client states. She might be the next Exiarch of the Crystal Kingdom!"
Trixie bonked her head against the wall. "But how?"
"You remember that dessert competition she was doing in Canterlot?"
"Yes?"
"Well, she made it to the final round -- the one with Luna judging -- but just before she submitted her dessert, Luna's favorite song came on the radio and she began dancing to it. So when she bit at the dessert Bonnie offered to her, she missed and bit Bonbon's front hoof instead. And then the next day, she had wings and a horn!"
"I've been studying for years to join the Court, and all Bonbon has to do is be bitten by a radio-active alicorn? What a rip off," muttered Trixie.
"I can't believe my Bonnie is an alicorn! And she knows all kind of magic spells. For instance, late last night--"
"Don't want to hear it!" squealed Trixie, running away.
Lyra blinked. "...I'd have thought she wanted to know the spell to make your dishes do themselves..."
***
"Trixie!"
Trixie turned to see Bonbon, now surrounded by a crowd of admiring foals. "Oh. Hi Bonbon." She tried, and failed, to conceal her jealousy. "What's up?"
"Me!" Bonbon flapped into the air, drawing a few 'oohs' from the foals. "Can we talk?"
Maybe she'll tell me how I can become an alicorn too! "Sure," said Trixie. "I was just headed home."
Soon they were at Trixie's home, where the Representative learned, to her dismay, she didn't have any food or drink befitting Bonbon's new positions as Princess of the Air and Grand Poobah of Ponyville. ("They're experimenting with some new noble titles, since the last group didn't really work out," Bonbon had explained. "I'm also the Big Cheese of Trottingham, and the Head Honcho of Vancolter."
"I don't think the titles were the problem."
"Neither did I, but I've always wanted to be a Grand Poobah of something, so I didn't complain. You should see my business cards!")
Fortunately, Bonbon didn't seem upset by Trixie's rustic fare. "Thanks for having me over. I've been doing a lot as an alicorn!"
"Like what?"
"Well, I've already given lots of gifts to the ponies who helped me get started, who invested in my shop, and of course to Lyra. And I threw toilet paper all over Blueblood's estate in Xenophon, and made him thank me and say that it looks better that way." Bonbon giggled. "Luna did tell me that I should take advantage of this opportunity to reward the kind, punish the guilty, and so on."
"Are you done with the rewarding and punishing?" asked Trixie. You haven't reward me yet! And I've done a lot for you! Like that time I was so drunk I bought a hundred bits worth of candy from your shop!
"Oh, no -- there's still a few more ponies to go." Bonbon's smile became mischievous. "For instance, I only just figured out the perfect spell for you."
Turning me into an alicorn? Or at least a vicereine? thought Trixie. "Yes?"
"Remember Lyra's Canterlot debut?" asked Bonbon.
"Yes--"
"Remember how it was a huge deal for her, and how badly she wanted to do well?"
"Uh, yes--"
"And remember how you turned her into a naked bear right before she went, just because you needed a test subject for some weird zebra spell?" Bonbon's smile stretched all the way across her face.
Trixie froze. "... I don't like the direction this conversation is taking."
***
Little Dinky Doo, a purple-coated and yellow maned unicorn foal, scampered home as fast as her little legs could taker her. "Momma! Momma!"
"Yes, muffin?" asked Ditzy, as she opened the door to let her precious muffin inside.
"Can we please go to the Canterlot Zoo this weekend? I was just talking to Miss Bonbon and she says they're going to have a really cool new exhibit!"
"What is it?"
"Some kind of naked bear! But she can do all kinds of tricks, like juggling and card tricks, and she can even mimic speech like a parrot!" Dinky's eyes were wide and bright. "And she's supposed to have really pretty silver hair. Can we go? Please? Bonbon said she'll pay for the tickets since she's a princess now!"
Ditzy smiled and hugged her daughter again. "I think we can manage that."
"YAY!"
