Chapter 11

The Trophy Room

The news about Twilight becoming the new seeker for buckball was all everypony talked about for the past couple of weeks. All of the Gryffindors felt confident that Twilight will win buckball for their team. That only made Twilight feel more nervous everyday. Everypony was counting on her to win, but she was scared that she would let them down. She decided to talk to Applejack about her fears as they walked down the hallway.

"You shouldn't fret about it too much, Twilight." said Applejack. "I'm sure you will do great." "But, what if I make a fool of myself and cost us the game?" Twilight asked. "Everypony is going to hate me!" "That's not true." the farm pony explained. "Everypony knows you will try your best and we will remain your friends no matter what." Twilight smiled in appreciation for the encouragement Applejack gave her.

"Hey, Twilight!" a pair of voices called out behind the unicorn. She turned around to see Flim and Flam approaching her. "We came to wish you luck on your first buckball match." said Flim. "Yeah, we need Gryffindor to win, otherwise we will lose a good amount of bits that we bet for this match." Flam explained. "Wait, you two are betting? Flim and Flam, I thought Granny Smith warned you to never gamble!" Applejack scolded. "Oh relax, dear sister. What Granny Smith doesn't know won't hurt her." Flim protested.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have some more betting to do." Flam exclaimed. Applejack rolled her eyes and turned back to Twilight. "Everything is going to be fine. You are probably the best seeker Canterlot has." Applejack encouraged. "Oh sure, we are so lucky to have Twilight Sparkle as our new seeker." a voice spoke up sarcastically. A certain blue unicorn, along with her cohorts marched up the hall, approaching Twilight and Applejack. "What do you want, Trixie?" Twilight asked irritated by her rival's presence.

"You are not any better than me just because you became the new seeker! I challenge you and your friend to a magical duel!." Trixie announced. "Hey, Trixie." Snips whispered. "I don't think any of us have been in a duel before." "Oh, quiet you!" Trixie hissed. "Do we even know any offensive magical attacks?" Snails wondered. "Shut up, Snails!" the blue unicorn snapped getting frustrated with her cohorts making her look bad.

"So anyway," Applejack stepped in. "Where are we having this duel?" "We are going to duel in the trophy room at midnight." Trixie replied. "But, if we sneak out tonight, we would get both of our houses in trouble." Twilight protested. It was bad enough that Twilight cost her house 10 points in potions class, but Gryffindor would lose a lot more points if Twilight was caught out of bed.

"Excuse me, but what did you say about sneaking out?" Rarity, who was listening in on the conversation, stared at everypony in concern. "Trixie just challenged me and Twilight to a midnight duel." Applejack admitted. Rarity, in turn gave the farm pony a disapproving glare. "Applejack, this is a bad idea. You would get in serious trouble if you get caught by any of the school prefects." "We will be fine." the earth pony assured. "Besides, this will probably be our only chance to wipe that smug look off of Trixie's face."

Rarity knew she wasn't going to get through to Applejack. "Fine, have your duel, but leave me out of it!" the unicorn huffed. "I am not going to participate in a fight where ponies behave like ruffians!" Rarity turned her back on everypony since she couldn't reason with them. Before Rarity could leave, Trixie taunted her from behind. "Oh, what's the matter? Are you afraid to get a few hairs out of place in that rat's nest you call a mane?" This caused the white unicorn to stop in her tracks. She turned to Trixie with rage in her eyes. "Oh it's on!"

Trixie continued to smirk while Snips and Snails were cowering behind her. "Oh, so you changed your mind? Looks like we are having a 3 against 3 duel after all!" Trixie commented. "Tonight, we are going to settle this. Don't be late!" She then signaled Snips and Snails to follow her back to the Slytherin common room.

Later that night, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity sneaked their way through the Gryffindor common room once they were sure that everpony was asleep. All three of them summoned lights to their wands so they could navigate through the pitch-black castle. They continued to descend down the grand staircase until they reached the third floor where they opened the door to the trophy room.

As soon as Twilight and her friends entered the room, they caught glimpses of trophies and medals neatly arranged in glass cases. Even in the darkness, the awards shined brightly. It was quarter to 12:00, but there was no sign of Trixie, Snips, or Snails. "I don't see anypony here, so I guess we have more time to prepare." Applejack stated. "Let's just get this duel over with so we get back to bed. I've got Gryffindor in enough trouble already." Twilight fretted.

While they were waiting, the three ponies examined the plaques on the trophies. There were awards for potion making, dueling, and wizard's chess. The awards have been really intriguing to Rarity, but the last one on the shelf make her gasp in surprise. "Twilight, I think you should take a look at this!" she exclaimed. Twilight and Applejack surrounded the case where they found the trophy Rarity was pointing at. It was a trophy for the best seeker of buckball, which was engraved to Night Light.

Twilight felt as if she was dreaming. Her father used to compete in buckball? "Gosh, Twilight! You never told us your father was a seeker!" Applejack marveled at the trophy. "I didn't know it myself." Twilight explained still processing the new information she found out. She started to wonder what others secrets she didn't know about her parents. Loud chimes of the clock snapped everypony back to reality. It was 12:00, but Trixie was nowhere to be found.

It took a few moments of silence for everypony to realize that they have been tricked. "Why that no-good lying trickster!" Applejack yelled. "Trixie set up this duel just to get us in trouble!" "Who's there?" a grouchy voice called from the staircase. "Oh no, it's Cranky!" Rarity gasped. "Everypony, quick! Through the back door!" Twilight led her friends through the door where they found themselves in a large hallway with dimly lit candles. They raced to the end of the hall to reach a large locked door. Applejack tried to pull the lock in desperation as she heard Cranky's hoofsteps getting closer. "I can't get the door open!"

"Let me try!" Rarity whispered. She aimed her wand at the lock and chanted, "Alohomora!" As soon as she casted the spell, the lock broke allowing the three ponies to hide in the room. Once they entered the room, Twilight and her friends leaned against the large door to catch their breaths. The room they were in had no candles at all and a heavy breathing sound filled the silence. Everypony turned to the creature making the noise, and immediately regretted their decision to unlocking the door.

Standing right in front of them was a giant, black, three-headed dog. All three heads stared at the ponies with glowing, yellow eyes. It started to growl showing off it's razor sharp teeth. They looked as sharp as the spikes on the collars of the three heads. Everypony screamed at the horrific sight. They ran back out the room and slammed the door shut before the beast had a chance to eat them.

Despite being frightened half to death, Twilight and her friends managed to sneak back to the Gryffindor common room without getting caught. "What do they think they are doing?" Applejack complained. "I can't believe they would keep a monster like that locked in a school!" "Applejack, I think you have failed to notice what that creature was standing on." Rarity explained. "I wasn't looking at it's feet! I was too distracted by it's three heads!"

"That dog was standing on a trap door." Rarity pointed out. "It must be protecting something that we are not supposed to know about." "But, what could possibly be so important that Canterlot needs a guard dog to protect it?" Twilight wondered. "I have no idea, but it is clear that we are not going back to that room! Now if you two would excuse me, I'm going to get some beauty sleep and forget that this night has ever happened!" Rarity said as she walked back to the mares' bedroom.