“This year will be the year! This year the Great and Powerful Trixie´s garden will win Ponyville´s Best Garden Competition! MUAHAHAHAHA!!”

“Umh shouldn't technically be my garden since this is my house, technically? Also, could you please not add those thunder at the end of your sentences? They scare my little friends...”

“But darling, the thunders are an essential part of my act! They give it intensity...” Trixie said, dragging Fluttershy closer to her. “And we´ll need all the intensity we can gather to defeat...her!”

And she pointed to the next door garden where Rarity was adding sugarcubes to Cheerilee´s tea, something she didn´t seemed to like, judging by her expression.

“Year after year, that arrogant unicorn wins the competition...” Trixie said.

“Actually, it´s only been a year and a half since she moved and you moved just a weeks before that so...” Fluttershy corrected her but Trixie was too busy with her monologue to listen.

“But this year, victory will be mine!MUAHA-” Trixie stopped her lightning mid sentence, not wanting to make Fluttershy angry at her. “I meant, ours. We´ll make your garden the winner this year.”

“Honestly, I would rather let this silly contest go away...”

“Oh but Fluttershy, don´t you want other ponies to acknowledge all the hard work you do? Look at this wonderful garden, at this inviting porch, your house is the prettiest house in the whole town and that´s one of the reason why I decided to stop travelling,” Trixie said, nuzzling Fluttershy´s neck and making her blush. “Can you guess the other reason?”

Fluttershy giggled a little“Can I make a suggestion then?”

Trixie nodded while still nuzzling her.

“Would you consider moving your caravan from my front yard?” she asked, pointing at it.

“Why? It looks perfect where it is.”

“Actually, I think the judges would appreciate if we don´t have something so...extravagant there,” Fluttershy explained and her point was proved by one of her animal critters accidentally activating the fireworks.

Trixie pondered the matter for a few seconds but then dismiss it with a wave of her hoof. “Nonsense. They will love it! Actually, I think we should add some more banners and trumpets to the roof!”

Fluttershy sighed while Cheerilee looked at the fireworks and Rarity did her best to ignore them.

******

“Muahaha! With this special potion I bogut to those twin salesponies, I´ll make the flowers grow ten times their size! This will grant me...victory!!” Trixie loudly announced and poured the content on the floor.

She stared at it, waiting for the potion to take effect.

“...”

She kept waiting.

“...”

And waiting.

“Work! Why isn´t working?”

Right on queue, the ground began to glow in a yellow light. Trixie was excited, expecting to see a wall of flowers pop out. Instead the potion made the grass grow taller, trapping Trixie on it.

“Oh hohoho, seems you´re having a little bit of trouble there, Trixie,” Rarity mocked her from the next garden. “You should have follow my example and ask a real expert, not those fraudsters. This magic powder Zecora gave me is sure to make this flower seed blossom into a dashing wallpaper of colours!”

And Rarity spread the powder all over the ground. A little bit of it hit her snout, making her sneeze. Suddenly, her mane turned all curly and puffed again.

“Oh, no! She accidentally gave me some poison joke!” Rarity screamed, as a whole patch of the blue flower grew under her hooves.

Trixie laughed at Rarity's misfortune but she wasn't off the hook either, as the grass kept growing taller and taller.

Fluttershy rushed to get some gardening scissors while Cheerilee sighed and headed downtown to get Twilight.

****

Later that day, Trixie and Rarity competed to make the biggest bird fountain in the garden. Each time one added a statue, the other responded by adding another level, making it bigger and the other pony responded in turn, time and time again.

Fluttershy and Cheerilee watched the whole thing unfold, sharing a lemonade and sighing at the same time.

“They´re going to keep this all day, aren't they?” Cheerilee asked and Fluttershy nodded.

“For the record, I really don't care about winning this competition...” FLuttehrys said.

“Me neither. I´m just humouring Rarity. She keeps insisting my garden is too pretty to go unnoticed. I think she´s exaggerating,” Cheerilee said.

“You seem to get along with her...”

“Well, we´ve know each other since we were fillies,” Cheerilee said.

“I know. arity showed me the pictures of the Hearts and Hooves Day Dance,” Fluttershy said and Cheerilee blushed at the memory.

“And what about you and the Great and Powerful Trixie? You two seem like an odd couple.”

“Do we really...look that different?” Fluttershy murmured.

“I didn´t mean anything with that. It´s just she is so loud and you´re so, well, shy.”

“I think we have a lot in common. She can be very kind at times and, she´s always nice to my animal friends...” Fluttershy responded, blushing.

Cheerilee smiled and patted her shoulder, showing she wasn´t really judging.

They then noticed the big shadow over their heads and looked at their gardens, finding now two huge towers on them.

“Will you two cut it out?” Cheerilee yelled.

****

Finally, the judges for the competition arrived at the afternoon to look at their gardens. Between the ridiculously tall fountains, the giant jungle in Fluttershy's cottage and the poison jokes that turned one of the judges into a squirrel; it was no wonder they got disqualified.

Rarity and Trixie fell to the ground defeated but they soon felt comforting hooves on their shoulders. They got up and shook hooves.

“But next year, victory will be ours!” Trixie announced, grabbing Fluttershy.

“I´ll like to see you try!” Rarity retorted, copying her gesture with Cheerilee.

Both mares sighed at the silly antics of their respective special ponies but decided to just shrugged and ignore them.

“We better start cleaning all that poison joke. Did you get rid of that powder, Rarity?” cheerilee asked.

“I gave it all to Spikey-wikey. He said he´ll take care of it.”

“And did you used all of that potion, Trixie?” Fluttershy asked.

“There was a little still on the bottle but I gave it to that baby dragon. I´m sure he´ll know what to do with it.”

Neither couple noticed the Golden Oaks Library growing three times its sizes and being covered in Poison Joke.