“Scootaloo!”

No response. Only the dense, dark trees of the White Tail Woods. The afternoon sun barely peeked through the tangle of branches overhead, and the grass underhoof was thick as two fillies clomped over it.

Apple Bloom sighed. “Let’s keep goin’. She’s gotta be in here somewhere.”

“Maybe we sent her into the next city,” Sweetie Belle said. “I think there’s another town out this way, past the woods.”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Well, she wouldn’t be out all this way if somepony could follow directions.”

“The container said to use two or three spoons!”

“Teaspoons, not tablespoons!”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “It didn’t say which!”

“It did so!”

“Well… the label should have been easier to read!”

Apple Bloom groaned. “Whatever. Let’s keep lookin’.” They moved on, both calling out Scootaloo’s name. After a few more minutes, they heard a faint response and broke into a trot.

“Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle looked to either side. “Where are you?”

“Up here.”

The two fillies craned their heads; a familiar orange body and purple tail poked out a few feet above them, its head stuck in a tree trunk.

“Good thing we made ya wear that helmet,” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah, great,” Scootaloo deadpanned, her voice muffled by the trunk. “Did my cutie mark appear?”

“Hold on.” Sweetie Belle walked to the side for a better view. “No.”

“Darn.” Scootaloo lifted her hooves and braced them on the tree to push herself back. “Little help?”

Apple Bloom walked up to the tree and turned her back to it. As Scootaloo kept pushing, Apple Bloom bucked hard. The tree shook, and Scootaloo’s helmeted head popped out. She cried out and fell back, landing next to Apple Bloom.

“Well, it could have gone worse,” Apple Bloom said.

Scootaloo groaned and stood up, brushing herself off. “So much for getting cannonball pony cutie marks.”

“Maybe we didn’t use enough gunpowder,” Sweetie Belle suggested. “Come on—let’s go back and see what four spoons can do!”

“Uh…” Apple Bloom looked around the site and tilted her head. “Girls? Where is the way back?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle turned their heads; the woods stretched out behind them, growing deep and dark only a little ways in.

Scootaloo slumped. “Great. We’re lost.”

“Sweetie Belle! You said you’d keep track of the way we came!”

“I did!” Sweetie Belle pointed her hoof. “We came from exactly… um…” She looked around, swung her hoof back and forth, frowned, and scratched her head. “I remember we passed a tree with a funny-looking bush in front of it…”

Scootaloo slapped her forehead. “We could be anywhere!”

“And we were walkin’ quite a while before we found ya…” Apple Bloom frowned. “There’s gotta be somepony out here who can help us. Sweetie Belle, which way is that other town you mentioned?”

“Uh…”

“Never mind. Let’s just find the main road and go from there.” Apple Bloom started walking, leaving Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to follow.

They hadn’t gotten far before Apple Bloom spotted something between the trees. “There!” She ran ahead, and the object came into full view; a wagon sat in the clearing before them, a small staircase leading to the back door and a window under a purple awning on the side. She approached the end of the wagon and knocked on the door. As she waited, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle caught up and stood behind her.

The door opened, and a blue unicorn mare poked her head out to look down at Apple Bloom. “Yes?”

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to reply, froze, and then leaned her head forward. “Wait. Do we know you?”

“It’s Trixie!”

Apple Bloom turned as Sweetie Belle spoke up. “Who now?”

“Remember, the hack magician that came to Ponyville and humiliated everypony?”

“The same one that got the Alicorn Amulet, went nuts, and took over the town?” Scootaloo added. Sweetie Belle nodded.

Apple Bloom grinned and turned forward, Trixie giving her a furious scowl. “Ah thought you looked familiar! Miss Trixie, we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and—”

The door slammed in Apple Bloom’s face.

“Huh. Wonder what’s up with her?” She knocked again—

Trixie pulled the door open. “What?”

“Uh, Miss Trixie, we’re lost and we need a ride to Ponyville,” Apple Bloom said. “Please?”

“Who in the hoof are you three, anyway?” Trixie asked, looking over Apple Bloom.

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Apple Bloom gestured at her two friends as she spoke. “Ah’m Apple Bloom, that’s Sweetie Belle, and over there’s Scootaloo.”

“We know all about you, Trixie!” Sweetie Belle said, coming closer with Scootaloo.

“Yes, so Trixie overheard,” Trixie replied, rolling her eyes.

“Mah sister tried to show you up with lasso tricks, and you tied her up with her own rope,” Apple Bloom said.

“And then you turned my sister’s hair green when she bragged about her looks.”

Trixie looked at Scootaloo. “I suppose I did something to humiliate your sister, too?”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Well, I don’t have a real sister. But Rainbow Dash is sort of like my sister, and—”

“Never mind, you’ve said enough.” Trixie sighed. “For the reasons you have just given and numerous others, the Great and Powerful Trixie is not going to Ponyville and has no plans to.” As the three fillies let out a simultaneous groan, Trixie reached out and tapped Sweetie Belle’s horn. “Oh, don’t look at Trixie like that. Just cast a navigation spell—it’ll point the way.”

Sweetie Belle chuckled sheepishly and gently brushed Trixie’s hoof away. “Yeah, um… I’m not so good with navigation spells. Or... any sort of magic, really.”

“Please, Miss Trixie? We don’t wanna be lost out in the woods. Our sisters are gonna be lookin’ fer us, and if we don’t get home they’ll be mighty worried,” Apple Bloom said.

Trixie grunted and turned around. “Very well. Trixie may have a map of the area she can lend you.”

Apple Bloom followed her into the wagon, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stepping in behind her, and the three crowded at the entrance watching Trixie. While Trixie moved to a shelf and began pushing books and scrolls around on it, the three fillies scanned the wagon. Diagrams of devices they didn’t recognize hung from the walls and under shelves, lined with potions and magic props. Jars of powders with faded labels filled a small desk next to alchemy mixing tools.

“What is all this?” Scootaloo asked, looking at a vial of red powder in a holder.

Trixie glanced her way. “That is illusion powder. Trixie is not done mixing it, but when she is, it will create the image of a great dragon in a cloud of smoke.”

Scootaloo grinned. “That is so awesome.”

“Most audiences would agree.”

“What about this?” Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof at a diagram depicting some sort of box.

“That is a transporter box. Trixie currently lacks the materials to construct it, but with two of them, it can modify a pony’s teleportation magic to allow something placed in one box to appear inside the other.”

“Neato!”

Apple Bloom saw a pot of liquid over a glowing red stone, swirls of yellow and green roiling around the top and heat coming off the stone. “And what’s this?”

“My lunch. Daffodil soup, old family recipe.”

“Oh.” Apple Bloom pulled back. Trixie frowned and stepped back from the shelf.

“Alas, the only maps Trixie has are of cities. But Trixie has another idea.” She opened a trunk against a wall, revealing rows of compartments holding various compounds in collapsible drawers.

Scootaloo stepped away from the alchemy table as Trixie pulled the trunk over and opened a spellbook. The three lined up, watching her begin to mix various ingredients.

“So, Trixie, you perform magic?” Sweetie Belle asked. Trixie stopped and slowly turned to look down at her, an eyebrow raised.

“You must be the smart one.”

“What kind of magic do you do?” Scootaloo asked.

“Stage magic, of course.”

Apple Bloom tilted her head. “How is that different from the type of magic Twilight does?”

Trixie scoffed. “Trixie confesses, she is not as skilled in practical magic as Twilight Sparkle. But Twilight pales in comparison to Trixie when it comes to being a proper magician.”

“Magician?”

“Of course!” Trixie turned around and thrust her head into the air. “Any common pony can learn magic, but it takes a rare and special breed to be a magician. A magician needs cleverness, dexterity, charisma!” Trixie smirked and bounced her mane with a hoof. “Stunning good looks and a magnetic personality help, too. It’s all part of being a showmare.”

“Uh-huh… can only unicorns be magicians?” Scootaloo asked.

“Well, it is easier, of course. But there are many tricks even a pegasus or earth pony can perform, if they have the props and proper knowledge of alchemy and spellbinding. There are schools in Baltimare that teach such things.”

“Baltimare?” Apple Bloom looked up at a map of Equestria pinned against a bookshelf. “That’s all the way on the other side of Equestria!”

“Yes, well, have horn, will travel, as the saying goes. I’ve done presentations at their schools for magicians.”

“Where else have you been, Trixie?” Scootaloo asked.

Trixie dropped a lump of red powder in a beaker of water. “Oh, near everywhere, two or three times over. Baltimare, Hoofington, Manehattan, Saddle Arabia, Fillydelphia. I was once in line for a headlining show in Las Pegasus, but lost my contract to some DJ music hack.”

“Have you been outside of Equestria?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Trixie shrugged. “Once or twice. I’ve been to griffon cities, and met a few nomadic zebra tribes near the border. I’ve never been to the dragon clans, of course. Far too barbaric.”

“Wooow…” Apple Bloom glanced between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “Crusaders, huddle up!” The three turned from Trixie and moved down the wagon, whispering.

Trixie rolled her eyes and went back to her work. She picked up an emerald and dropped it in a beaker of thin red liquid. “All right, Trixie is doing her good deed for the day. This stone, once she finishes enchanting it, will flash to point the way to Ponyville as long as you picture it in your minds. The next time you happen upon Trixie, she expects repayment. Emeralds are not cheap, but Trixie does not need any trouble from…”

Trixie looked away from the beaker at the three, who were still in a huddle, and frowned. “Are you three even listening to me?”

The three dispersed, and Apple Bloom stepped forward. “Miss Trixie, can you do somethin' for us?”

“What this time?”

Sweetie Belle stepped up. “We want you to teach us how to be magicians!”

Trixie raised an eyebrow. “Beg pardon?”

Scootaloo nodded. “Can you show us how to be a cool showmare like you?”

The three leaned forward, their eyes wide. “Pleeeeeeeease?”

Trixie looked between the three, grins of equal width on each of their faces. “Give Trixie one good reason why she should deign to spend her time training any of you.”

“We’ll do anythin’ you say to help us learn!”

“We’ll be loyal and attentive and never give up!”

“We’ll use our powers to dominate the lesser-minded!”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned their heads and stared; Scootaloo noticed and held up her hooves. “What?”

“Those are all traits Trixie admires in a pony, but she has not yet heard proper reason to spend time with you three.”

“Uh…” Apple Bloom tapped her chin. She raised her head, eyes shining. “We have money!”

“How much?”

“About forty bits? Maybe fifty.”

Trixie held out a hoof.

Apple Bloom shook her head. “It’s back at Ponyville, in our rooms.”

“Which is to say, you’re broke.”

“We can pay you, if you’ll just take us back to Ponyville!”

“Out of the question.” Trixie’s door swung open, encased in pink. “Good day.”

“You’re just going to leave us lost in the woods?” Sweetie Belle cried.

“Trixie was just about to finish enchanting an emerald to lead you home, if you wish.”

“But what about our magic lessons?” Scootaloo asked.

Trixie rolled her eyes and huffed. “Seeing as you cannot pay for them, there will not be any lessons anyway.” She turned and removed the enchanted emerald from the beaker, letting the liquid drip off of it.

The three fillies looked at each other. Then, Scootaloo stepped forward. “You know, Trixie, when we get home late—and we will, because we’re lost—our sisters will want to know what happened to us. And I don’t think they’ll like it very much at all if we tell them you kidnapped us and we escaped.”

Trixie’s head snapped up and she turned. “What? Trixie has done nothing of the sort! On the contrary, she would be rid of you three promptly!”

“Well, you may not have actually done it, but that’s what we’ll say,” Apple Bloom said, giving her a knowing smile.

“The nerve!” Trixie glared at them. “This is blackmail!”

“Uh, what’s blackmail?” Scootaloo asked.

“Blackmail is when you threaten another pony that you will do something to them unless they do something for you.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Then, yeah, we’re blackmailing you.”

Trixie rose over them on her hind hooves. The cart shook with the force of her voice, the lamps dimming and casting shadows over her. “This is an insult of the highest order! You three foals would dare to blackmail the greatest and most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “No. We’re trying to blackmail you.”

“I was talking about me!”

“Oh.” Sweetie Belle smiled. “In that case, yup.”

Trixie fell back down on all fours, and the light returned to normal. She slapped her hooves to her face and let out a long, low groan, then flung down her hooves. “Urgh. Fine. If I give you one magic lesson, will you go home and never tell anypony in Ponyville that Trixie was here?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Three lessons.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“One.”

Apple Bloom frowned. “You’re not very good at negotiatin’ for a pony we’re tryin’ to blackmail.”

Trixie floated the newly enchanted emerald beside her. “Seeing as you need this emerald to go home, it will be Trixie who calls the shots.”

The three looked at each other, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shrugged. Apple Bloom nodded at Trixie. “Okay, one lesson, and we’ll go home and never mention you to anypony.” She held out her hoof. “Deal?”

Trixie smiled and shook her hoof. “Deal.” Apple Bloom withdrew her hoof, and Trixie put the emerald down on the table. “We have an accord. Trixie hereby names you her new apprentices in magic!”

The three fillies whooped and jumped into the air. “Cutie Mark Crusader Magicians, yay!”

As their signature call echoed through the wagon, Trixie grimaced and covered her ears. She lowered her hooves when the wagon stopped rocking and glared at them.

“First rule: never do that again.”