Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Anything that might remind you of Trixie's return appearance in season 3 is… well, actually, not so coincidental. Like I said, there are occasional post-season 2 pieces of inspiration, even if the Crystal Empire is conspicuously absent in this story.

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Twilight waited by the back door of a casino. This back alley was one of the few places at the Bazaar that genuinely got dark at night. A bit nervous, she set the tip of her horn alight, not too much, but enough that she could see the details of her surroundings.

"Ah, you're early. That's good."

Twilight turned. Trixie emerged from the back door, looking entirely unconcerned about the seedy location she had selected.

"Learn anything?" Trixie asked brightly.

"I did indeed," Twilight said, producing the ears from her saddlebags and setting them down on the ground. "I've concluded that these 'ears' of yours are, in fact, the fossilized ears of an ancient being known only as 'The Beast', who was chopped up into pieces and his parts scattered all over the world some thirteen million years ago by—"

"I know the Beast's backstory, thank you," Trixie interrupted. "I had an education. I just want to know, what magical properties does it possess?"

"Well, let me answer that question with a question," Twilight said. "The first two experts you consulted about these ears, what did they tell you?"

"Um…" Trixie said nervously. "Well, they informed me that in order to implement the items' magic, I would have to cut off my own ears and replace them with the ears of the Beast…"

"Uh-huh, go on."

"And that they would enhance my magical and physical talents, maximize my potential, and grant me immortality."

"Uh-huh."

"…But that I would also become unspeakably evil and overcome with an irresistible obsession with tracking down all the other pieces of the Beast to eventually reassemble him," Trixie said sheepishly.

"Uh-huh," Twilight said a third time. "Yeah, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to myself."

Trixie scowled. "You didn't discover anything."

"Oh, no, I did," Twilight insisted. "In fact, I wrote a 250-page paper on the subject." She produced the huge stack of parchment, barely held together by a single staple. "I won't bore you with the details, but the gist of the report is that, essentially, I can't let you keep these. They need to be destroyed."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Trixie said, pouting. "Don't you think I might have the willpower to resist?"

"Nothing personal, but… no," Twilight muttered. "I appreciate that you hope to use the Beast's power for good… or, at least, something slightly less evil, I don't know what you really do on your adventures, but either way, you can't pull it off."

"But can't I—"

"No," Twilight said plainly. "The Beast is a creature of immeasurable power, so ancient that no mortal can comprehend just how old he is. He would force you to reassemble him, and there would be nothing you could do about it. Setting aside the fact that you'd be giving the ears back to him, leaving you without any special powers or ears, his goal is to bring about an apocalypse just so he can watch the world's mortals try to deal with it. The Old Gods—not exactly a bunch of saints themselves—decided that he was too evil, too out of control, and dealt with him. Barely. Compared to all of that, you? You're nothing. No offense."

"Oh, come on, Twilight," Trixie whined. "We're friends, aren't we? Just give me the ears back and I'll prove to you I can master them…"

"No, Trixie," Twilight said, tugging the ears away with her magic. "I'm not gonna let you do that to yourself."

"Give me the ears, Twilight Sparkle," she growled.

Twilight pointed an accusatory hoof at Trixie. "They have a hold over you," she declared. "The ears already want you to do their bidding. You have to let me destroy them."

"And how do I know you're really going to destroy them?" Trixie hissed, advancing on Twilight. "Maybe they have a hold over you. Maybe you're the one who'll be reassembling the Beast."

Twilight gritted her teeth. "Trixie, I don't like where this is going. Let's just relax."

"No, no, I see 'where this is going'," Trixie said wildly. "You never liked me. You just don't want me to be more powerful than you, ever."

"Can't you see the Beast is messing with your mind? Try to think."

"Lulamoon," said a third voice.

Twilight and Trixie turned toward the source of the voice. At the mouth of the alley stood a pitch-black pegasus mare. Her mane was messy and pale pink, her eyes were blue, and a vertical red scar was slashed across her right eye. She wore a leather belt with a solid gold buckle; the very same belt was her cutie mark.

"There you are, Lulamoon," the mare said. "Listen, we're taking off at midnight. We're not leaving without you, but please don't be late."

"Um… of course," Trixie said nervously. "Thank you, Belt. Um… Twilight, this is Belt, the leader of my adventuring party. Belt, Twilight."

"Hello," Twilight said brightly, holding out a hoof. "Twilight Sparkle."

"Ahhh, Twilight Sparkle, you say?" Belt said, shaking it. "That's who I thought you were. Knew it as soon as I spotted you. I'm Rose Belt."

Twilight blinked. "Sorry, did you say your name was 'Roosevelt'?"

"Rose… Belt," she enunciated, indicating her hair color, then tapping her belt buckle with a light clink.

As they spoke, Trixie looked uncomfortably introspective. She glanced at the ears, horrorstruck.

"Those ears! You still have those ears, Lulamoon?" Belt demanded. "Damn it, I told you to let it drop. What are you doing now? You can't possibly hope to accomplish anything with them."

"I was just explaining to Trixie," Twilight said hastily, "that she can't possibly master the ears' power, and that the only sensible course of action would be to destroy them."

Belt blinked slowly. "…Trixie?"

"Yes, that's my name," Trixie grumbled. "Trixie Lulamoon."

"As in, the Great and Powerful?" Belt asked.

"Yes," Trixie said in surprise.

"Hmm… that's who I thought you were," Belt said, amused.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Trixie demanded.

"Clearly, you didn't want me to," Belt said simply.

"…I appreciate that," Trixie admitted.

Two hooded pegasus stallions appeared at the mouth of the alley, pulling their hoods back as they approached. The first one's hood was part of his black leather vest; he was dark brown, his mane and tail very long, black and shiny. His eyes were narrow and black, and he had a mustache that grew past the sides of his lips to dangle beneath his jaw. His small size and overall physique was such that he could almost have passed for a mare.

The other's hood was attached to his pale lavender robe. He was of average size and pale pink; he had a thinning mane, a scruffy full beard, and thick eyebrows, all of which were a random explosion of orange, white, and bright blue. His large blue eyes gave him a perpetually surprised expression. He wore a golden headband with an optic lens attached, easily lowered down onto his right eye, and what appeared to be a stick of dynamite inserted into one of several loops on the headband apparently designed for just such a thing. On his front hooves, he wore highly visible steel horseshoes that clanked oddly as he walked.

This odd pair, one clearly an elegant, stealthy rogue and the other anything but, stared at Belt expectantly, neither of them saying a word.

"Just one moment, fellas," Belt said. "The great Twilight Sparkle here is going to destroy the ears of the Beast once and for all." She gestured to Twilight. "Whenever you're ready."

"What?" Twilight said blankly.

"I'd like to make sure they actually get destroyed, if you don't mind," Belt said pleasantly. "Wouldn't want you running off with them, would we?"

"Uh…"

"I'm waiting."

"Right, okay," Twilight muttered, staring at the ears. "Okay, let's see."

She kicked the ears to the middle of the alleyway and took a deep breath. Her horn started sparking with a huge amount of energy, overloading as it had when she had worked to stop the Ursa Minor.

Fire and lightning in Twilight's distinct shade of magenta shot down from the sky, directly onto the ears, assaulting the flaky fossils relentlessly. She cried out in pain at the excess of magical energy flowing from her body, and her cry of agony caused the destructive elements to increase in power.

The stone of the alleyway cracked and crumbled, but the ears were unharmed. Twilight growled and slashed the air with her horn, screaming viciously. A single huge lightning bolt crackled down from the sky, followed by numerous huge meteors pounding their target. The alley was filled with dust and it all went dark…

When the smoke cleared and Trixie provided some light with her own magic, they all gathered around the spot the ears had been. There was a three-foot hole in the pavement, surrounded by blackened gravel. The ears were gone.

"Nicely done, Twilight Sparkle," Rose Belt said, smirking. "You live up to your reputation. I'd expect no less from the personal protégé of the princess."

"You should have seen her subdue the Ursa Minor," said Trixie, with a sideways glance and sly smile at Twilight.

"Anyway," Belt said to Trixie. "The Bazaar shifts in fifty minutes. The instant it does, we're dropping off. It's our best bet of making the Everfree Forest in a timely fashion."

"Very well, I'll be there," Trixie said. "If you'd give me a bit of time to say goodbye to my friend and pay my dues to her, I assure you I'll arrive on time."

Belt nodded, then frowned. "Listen, Lulamoon… you do realize we had no intentions of replacing you?"

"Yes, I do know that," Trixie said dismissively.

"You're a great magician, and getting better every day," Belt continued. "But let's be honest: we could use another unicorn on the team. You can't do it by yourself. We wanted to find somepony to back you up, not replace you."

"But you didn't," Trixie said brightly.

"No, we didn't," Belt agreed. "Nopony measured up to you. You're the only one who really… meshes. We're honored to call you our comrade."

"Good… give us a minute?"

"Of course," Belt agreed. She took off straight into the air, followed by the two stallions.

Trixie leaned toward Twilight in a smug, almost flirtatious, manner. "So… where are the ears, really?"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, I know fake magic when I see it," Trixie said sweetly. "You just couldn't bring yourself to do it, could you?"

Twilight snorted. "You're bluffing. You wouldn't know the difference between real and fake magic if it jumped up and bit you."

"Oh? That's rather harsh. Did I touch a nerve?"

"Heh heh, no," Twilight said in amusement. "You're trying to get me to admit I kept the ears. It won't work. You think perhaps I was too taken in by them to want them destroyed, but you're mistaken. With the knowledge you possess, you can't really come to the conclusion that I faked it."

Trixie blinked. "So… they really are destroyed?"

"Well, I didn't say that," Twilight admitted, pulling the ears out of her saddlebag.

"AHA!" Trixie said triumphantly.

"Take it easy, it's not what you think," Twilight said.

"Still, I got you to cave and admit you still have them," Trixie teased.

"Not before I got you to really think I destroyed them," Twilight countered.

"Either way, I totally out-bluffed you."

"In no universe did you out-bluff me," Twilight said, amused. "If we can get back on track and talk about the ears, I want to destroy them. I'd like nothing better. But it didn't take me long to realize that all the magic I had in me would not be sufficient for the task. They're just too powerful."

"Then why pretend you'd done it, hmmm?"

"Well, Belt made it perfectly clear that she wouldn't leave until she saw them destroyed," Twilight said. "I need to search for a method to accomplish the task, and I wasn't going to do that with your boss hanging over my shoulder the whole time. I tucked them away to satisfy her. But make no mistake, Trixie, I will destroy these ears."

"Well… good," Trixie said. "I only just realized how the ears affected me. Thank you for making a wise decision. How do you think you'll pull it off?"

"I had a few thoughts," Twilight said. "Plan A would be to immerse it in magma. Magma has destructive power beyond any magic I possess."

"True, but how will you possibly find any magma?" said Trixie. "There's no place on earth where you can put the ears in magma."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, magma is only magma when it's beneath the earth's surface," Trixie said. "When exposed to air, it becomes lava. So there's no way to find magma unless you're willing to go beneath the planet's crust…"

Twilight's lips thinned and she rolled her eyes. "Nopony likes a smartass, Trixie."

Trixie giggled. "Yes, sorry. But we're talking about molten rock. Molten rock that can destroy anything, you say. Isn't this the same stuff that dragons use to clean the spaces between their toes?"

"Hey, I said it was Plan A," Twilight said, shrugging. "Fortunately, my assistant is a dragon and he can help me determine whether the plan actually works or not. Trust me, I fully intend to wipe these ears off the face of Equestria forever."

"All right." Trixie held up a purse of coins. "Well, here's the fee for all your hard work. A hundred bits, as agreed."

"Thank you," said Twilight. "I'm sorry the results weren't quite what you hoped for."

"That's no problem," Trixie muttered, producing another small sack. "And here's an extra twenty because… just because. I don't know. I like you."

"Aw, you're too kind," Twilight said, grinning. "Take care, Trixie. Be careful out there in the Everfree."

"Oh, you don't tell adventurers to 'be careful'," Trixie said smugly. "You tell them to have fun."

Twilight nodded. "I think the ancient palace is quite a sight. I don't really remember because I was focused on Nightmare Moon, but when you're not doing what I was doing that night, I'm sure it's a very breathtaking spectacle. I think you'll enjoy it."

"Farewell, Twilight," Trixie said, bowing to her. She jogged out of the alley. Twilight watched her, pleased, then apprehensively tucked the ears of the Beast into her saddlebag.