Twilight Sparkle wasn't upset in the slightest that the train couldn't continue on immediately for Ponyville, particularly when it meant she got to run into a… friend.

"No! You must put all of Trixie's things into a secure baggage car!"

"Trixie?" Twilight stepped a little closer. "What are you doing here?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to take her show further afield than even she normally does. She is going to the Crystal Empire!" Trixie gestured expansively, her horn lighting up to send off some fireworks.

"So you aren't coming to Ponyville to cause more trouble?" Rarity waded into the conversation. "I think we could schedule you in, now that we know you are just full of wind and—"

"Rarity!" Twilight cut her friend off. "So what gives, Trixie? Are you going to give my brother and sister a hard time?"

Trixie heaved a sigh. "Trixie realizes that you might not know this, what with being a little isolated, but The Great and Powerful Trixie is a professional showmare, if ponies aren't enjoying her shows she doesn't make bits. If she doesn't make bits, she doesn't eat."

"I apologize." Rarity hated eating her words, but she had to admit she felt where Trixie was coming from. "As one professional to another, I sympathize. But darling, please don't cause a mess."

Grinning in triumph, Trixie nodded her head to Rarity. "Of course, Trixie is completely reformed from all the silly things she did. She realized she doesn't need to be better at powerful magic than everypony, just her own magic." She gave a nod of agreement with her own third-person narration. "Oh, and she will be late if she doesn't get on her train." She trotted forward, the last step onboard a little rough as the train started moving.

"She is up to something." Twilight huffed a little, watching the train pull out. "Do you think I should write Shining and Cadance a letter?"

"Twilight, dear, I think you could write them a fifty-page instructional essay and it still wouldn't prepare them for Trixie Lulamoon." Rarity gestured to the train coming in from the direction of Ponyville. "We should be able to board again now."

Trixie pulled out the dark tome from her saddlebag and opened it up. Levitating a quill in her magic, she began to write.

On train to the Crystal Empire, encountered Twilight Sparkle and Rarity apparently just having left. Nothing else to report yet.

Quickly putting the big book away again, Trixie got out a smaller, but no less black book. "Ah, now Trixie will learn more about what the foalnapped princess gets up to in the dragon's lair…" She grinned widely and started reading, ignoring the world she was passing-by, until the train started to slow. "Is Trixie already at her destination?" She lifted her head from the exploits of the young princess and her small brigade of stallions, to look out the window.

The snowy and cold landscape was fading in the distance, and was replaced by warm and temperate weather over a huge city. "Trixie thinks she will make a small fortune here." Getting up and carefully putting her book away, the mare made her way to the exit, ensuring her hat was in its place. Stepping down from the train, Trixie inhaled deeply and closed her eyes.

"Hi there! New to the Crystal Empire?" The voice sounded like that of a mare.

When Trixie's eyes snapped open to see who addressed her, she beheld a crystal pony mare wearing some kind of guard armor. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is… new. She heard how many ponies were moving here and simply couldn't live with herself a moment longer, if she didn't bring the greatest show in Equestria to them!"

The crystal pony was a little shell-shocked by the aural attack, and took a moment to regroup her faculties to deal with the "Great" and "Powerful" pony. "Ahem, well, my name is Private Soft Glow." Soft had recovered her momentum, and her smile. "Welcome to the Crystal Empire, and if there is anything we can do to help, you ask, okay?"

Of course, if you could tell Trixie everything going on, including the motives and thoughts behind your leaders' acceptance of changelings, that would be great! Trixie sighed. "If Trixie can think of anything… actually, Trixie wonders if she could get some help finding the best place to set up a… show." Her eyes sparkled, being a spy for Princess Luna was one thing, but Trixie's heart really was in showmareship.

Soft shook her head to get her brains oriented again. "If Trixie— I mean, if you could follow me, I can show you to one of the more popular plazas." She gave the mare a smile, hoping she hadn't offended Trixie. "What sort of show do you perform?"

Trixie looked around, there wasn't just the guard talking to her, a lot of ponies had taken notice of her, which meant it was time to honor the mare's wishes. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will present, MAGIC!" Power poured from her, the afternoon sky was full of bursting explosions and massive, complex fireworks. The gasps of excitement from everypony at the station fed Trixie's ego so well that it had her purring.

Hooves came together all around the station, applause for Trixie's display was loud and obvious, and Soft Glow found herself clopping away almost loudest of all. "That was amazing, Trixie! Maybe you could put on a special show for the Royal Crystal Guard?"

"If Trixie could get some help getting her wagon from the train, she is likely to agree." Trixie's ego was fully inflated, but getting close to the guard was part of her task here. "Trixie has heard some interesting things about the Royal Crystal Guard." She started marching for the back of the train, where her wagon was strapped down.

"Interesting things? Oh, like accepting anypony?" Soft started helping the ponies roll the wagon down a pair of ramps and onto the station. "I think it is about time. If a mare can be a princess, why can't she be in the Guard?"

Trixie puffed out her chest at the implications. "Of course, anypony should be allowed to be anything they want." It struck at the heart of her own existence so much that she found herself liking the mare. "Trixie was referring to the species restriction being lifted."

Getting the wagon down and off the platform, Soft was working a little too hard to reply at first, but once it was down and on the street she gave a huge grin. "Well of course, if a crystal pony wants to be in the guard, why not? King…" She took a deep breath. "King Sombra used us to… well, he made us fight for him. I can't really remember much of it, but I remember us being fairly effective."

Freezing in her tracks, Trixie felt something pulling at her, emotionally. It was hard for her to quantify, but she felt she had made her new friend feel something bad. The Princess taught Trixie about this. The "s" word would be appropriate, but Trixie dislikes that… "Trixie wishes she could do something about such ponies that want to do that." There, perfect. Trixie is safe from the "s" word again!

Soft perked up and looked at the unicorn. "Really?"

"Of course."

"That's fantastic! Oh, come right along then. Here, I can even pull your wagon for you." Soft leaned in and pushed under the simple hitch.

"Trixie appreciates the assistance." And of course Trixie did, she was Great and Powerful after all.

Soft Glow leaned forward, her body pulling the cart along and getting it rolling. "Yup, Prince Shining Armor himself asked us to invite any unicorns we knew to join the guard. He will be so happy you agreed to join!"

Trixie was so focused on the interesting title Soft gave Shining Armor, that she almost missed the end. "Wait, what? Trixie did—" Stopping, Trixie pondered the situation. It could work out, but then Trixie would be having to do actual, her whole body trembled as a shudder ran from the tip of Trixie's tail, all the way to her snout, work… Trixie gave a soft whine. "Well, of course Trixie would be so happy to join, but first she must put on her show."

"This is going to be awesome!" Every hint of the horrible memories that Sombra's mention had brought were gone, Soft Glow grinned wide as she kept the little wagon moving. "We could even end up in the same unit. You will see, Captain Gilt is the best, too. She doesn't care about who or what you are, only that you are willing to put in all the work asked of you."

"Prince Shining Armor isn't the Captain anymore?" Trixie's mind dove away from the thought of actually having to do hard work. Trixie likes entertaining more, Princess Luna is going to owe Trixie so much.

"No, he is helping Princess Cadance run things these days. The Captain of the Guard is Gilt Wings, she is very strict and… you'll see." Soft almost pranced, the weight of the wagon was nothing to her.

Trixie knew she needed to write all this down, but there wasn't a chance to just pull out a book and start writing all these delicious secrets she was finding out down. "Trixie is a little tired after her long train trip, she will likely need a little relaxation time before her show."

Soft was, by now, quite used to Trixie's strange speech patterns. "Well, I could talk some others into helping you set up. What do you need? A stage? Special lights?"

Shaking her head, Trixie struck a pose. "The Bright and Illuminated Trixie doesn't need special lights, she is a star!" She let loose with another spell, sending a ball of white-blue light bursting into the sky, where it hovered for a few moments.

When they reached the plaza, Trixie climbed into her wagon and set her book up.

Shining Armor being hailed as Prince, will investigate. Found informant in the Royal Crystal Guard, joining up to keep close. Guard restructured Captain is now Gilt Wings.

Trixie put the tome back down and carefully folded it up in her bags, hiding away the moon symbol on the cover. "And now, the Sneaky and Observant Trixie will put on a show these ponies will never forget!" Magic was one thing, but Trixie always kept props with her too. She gathered up the never-ending handkerchief, a small bevy of smoke-bombs, collapsible flowers, and several other tricks. Once she was sure she had enough tricks to really be worth her name, she stepped out of the back of the wagon and was staring right at a changeling. "AHHH!"

Gilt waited for the pony to relax. And waited. When the blue unicorn was still shrieking minutes later she lit her horn, flashing with green fire, and became a perfect copy of her. "Am I better like this?"

"AAAAHHHHHH… huh…" Trixie blinked a little, leaned to one side and inspected the perfect copy of herself. "You have all of Trixie's wonderful features perfect, but you aren't quite Great and Powerful enough." She gave a self-satisfied nod.

The speech pattern confused Gilt for only half a second. "Well, if Trixie isn't perfect, then there is clearly something wrong with the world." She watched as the mare looked shocked. "What? Didn't you expect Trixie to be better than the original?"

"There is only one way to decide which Trixie is the most Great and Powerful!" Trixie was actually enjoying herself far too much to remember it was a changeling she was verbally sparing with. "We will both perform, and let the crowd decide."

Gilt knew she was caught in a game, but it was one that wouldn't hurt anypony. "Very well, but you will find this Trixie to be Great and Powerful indeed." She copied the other pony's vocal styling, but was surprised when magenta magic started shoving items under the cape she had created. "What—?"

"A Trixie, even a third-rate one, would never go on stage without her tricks." Trixie was having more fun than she had in a while, and that made her want the other Trixie to do well. "Now come, an imposter like yourself must surely be good enough to be Trixie's assistant."

Tossing her duplicated mane, Gilt trotted after the original Trixie. She waited for the mare to pull back the curtains of the makeshift stage that had been built, and opened her mouth.

"Welcome—" Both Trixies started, then stopped. "Hey, what—" Gilt was good at her "copy me" game, and was playing it to great laughs from the crowd.

Turning to the audience, Gilt implored them. "You have to help Trixie! A vicious changeling has tried to take her place!" She waved a hoof at the real Trixie, who was looking on in equal parts shock and delight. "You must help decide which Trixie is the real one!"

Trixie pulled her jaw up and lifted her hoof to point. "No! That Trixie is the fake one, can the faker do this?" She focused her magic, casting one of her older spells, creating a pinwheel spinning in the air, spraying sparks.

"Oh, Trixie sees how it is. First, she will copy you, perfectly she might add." Gilt had paid attention to the spell, and mimicked it closely enough that it would take a prodigy to detect the difference. "And then, to prove she is the real Trixie, she will do this!"

Trixie watched as a giant dragon flew out of the other Trixie, swam around in the air a few times and then exploded into motes of light. "Simple magic, any Trixie could do that!" The pure, joyful laughter of the crowd fed Trixie's ego, making her copy of the dragon feel even easier to cast than it should have. "But only the real Trixie can go completely invisible!" Dropping the smoke bomb, Trixie quickly worked an illusion to make herself harder to see, and slipped off to the wings.

Glaring at the smoke that cleared, Gilt knew she was in trouble. Not only hadn't Trixie given her any smoke bombs, but she didn't see the spell that she felt had been cast. "This game is silly. If the fake Trixie wants to run away and leave Trixie to do her show, very well!"

Panting and leaning against the side of her wagon, Trixie was all-but drained of her magic. She hadn't just put on a great show, it had been the show of a lifetime. "Trixie… Trixie doesn't know who you are, but she appreciates the effort you put in…" She was puffing so much she barely got all the words out.

Gilt let her disguise drop. "Gilt, Gilt Wings. That really was amazing. I have never seen so much done with just illusion magic. You had me struggling toward the end, how did you get the detail so perfect on Princess Luna?"

Trixie was in so much shock at hearing the name of the other showmare, that she slid slowly, and bonelessly, to the ground.

"Huh, must have really taken it out of her. Would have been bone dry halfway through, myself, if the crowd wasn't the best buggin' meal I have ever had." Gilt's horn flared with green light, gently picking up Trixie and putting her to bed in her wagon.

Author's Notes:

Cadance: what other mares do you think he'll choose to disguise as?

Cadance looked off the edge of the parapet, watching something zooming around the sky. " 'Other mares'? I don't know as he will ever give up being Rainbow Dash, look at him go!" She sighed and looked back. "But you aren't going to settle for that, are you? Alright, I had a crush on... Fleur Dis Lee, in school. If I was going to ask him to be anypony, I would certainly have to work at thinking of anypony else." She turned back to watch her husband.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and I they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, I they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! I They will pick one question per chapter.

Support me on atreon

Join me on Discord. Please use your FimFic name as an alias. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.
Mephia
Nils
Ian

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava
Boulder
Jeffh4