-mini stories! - Her Smile? Twilight! - by Colonist!-

You: Twilight? I didn’t know that you dabbled in magic!
Sci-Twi: Unfortunately, neither did I…

*Sci-Twi had asked you to meet up at her place to serve as some sort of test audience for what she described as “outwardly magical, but what really must be impressive sleight-of-hand feats.” Not five minutes into the demonstration and Sci-Twi had already pulled off a fairly impressive trick, disappearing and reappearing an entire chair. Trixie herself would be astonished!*

You: Okay, disappearing and reappearing that chair was definitely too fast for sleight-of-hand. Your geode only covers basic telekinesis, and unless you’re somehow able to kick the chair over into the other room without me seeing or hearing it, then you have me thoroughly stumped! How’d you do it?
Sci-Twi: I wish I knew that myself! I found this magical shroud in my lockers just the other day, and I don’t recall asking for one…or wanting one for that matter.
You: Something the Princess forgot?
Sci-Twi: Possibly. I know that I lend her my locker whenever she’s in town.
You: Wanna call Sunset? She’ll know what to do.
Sci-Twi: Too trivial of a matter to bug her for - I think we can handle this bit of Equestrian magic on our own.
You: To the lab then? Actually, why aren’t we in the lab?
Sci-Twi: A magical shroud isn’t a very consistent variable to test. I guess Sunset’s sort of rubbing off on me with her “winging it” philosophy, huh?
You: So have we established that this shroud is mostly harmless, then?
???: Yo, what is this, a party?

*You and Sci-Twi turn to the door to see that no other than Timer Spruce himself had shown up. Was he expected?*

Timber: Hey man, nice to see you here too.
Sci-Twi: T-timber! Hey, what are you doing here?
Timber: Didn’t you text me to come over? You know me though: fashionably late! No worries, no worries, I’ve been working on that. Five minutes over isn’t so bad!

*Sci-Twi pulls out her phone to check the text chain. She did indeed text both of you.*

Sci-Twi: Accursed group text toggle! Hehe, imagine being tech-oriented and still tapping on the wrong toggles to this day!
You: No problem. One extra audience member isn’t going to be an issue, right?
Timber: Audience? What’s this about?

*You and Sci-Twi get Timber quickly up to speed. Given his experiences with his own sister’s run-in with Equestrian magic, he’s not all too surprised and agrees to lend his time.*

Timber: Heh, well it’s nice to see that you’re engaging in other pursuits that aren’t so nerdy!
Sci-Twi: Excuse me, but what’s wrong with nerdy pursuits?
Timber: N-nothing, nothing! You know that nerdy’s why I love you, right?
You: (whispering) Good save.
Timber: (whispering) Thanks, dude!
You: Yeah. Magic’s kind of a nice direction when I think about how your other self is - the non-bad magic kind, especially.
Sci-Twi: Bad as in evil?
You: No, no, bad as in Trixie bad.

*That thrown shade was enough to elicit a mass chuckle from all of you.*

Sci-Twi: Although now that I think about it, I’m beginning to think that she’s involved in this mystery shroud.
Timber: Is that thing really a mystery shroud though? I mean, it’s got your other self’s marks on it.
Sci-Twi: True, true. Then it’s not so much the shroud itself so much as it is the timing of its appearance.
You: What happened?
Sci-Twi: Just Trixie being Trixie, I suppose.
You: Hey, with Trixie that could be anything.
Sci-Twi: I mean…

*Last week…*

Trixie: In summation, Trixie feels that your services are no longer needed.
Sci-Twi: Huh? But I thought I was doing a good job lending my telekinesis when you needed the boost.
Trixie: That’s…the problem. You see, humanoid version of the obviously superior horse version, Trixie has become way too reliant on outside help when it comes to magic acts, and Trixie’s not sure if she’ll risk losing that asset when said asset begins to demand more pay and benefits.
Sci-Twi: …you don’t pay me. I helped out for fun.
Trixie: Well, that and Trixie has been making a return to more close-up magic: smaller feats of sleight of hand, more independent stuff, and overall stuff that people will be less likely to laugh at when it goes wrong - especially when Trixie will be right in their faces ready to dole out a solid Sunset-style punch in the face!
Sci-Twi: …
Trixie: Well, I’m glad that we’ve come to that mutual settlement. Here’s a severance package of some peanut butter crackers that I keep in my back pocket for instances such as these.

*Trixie roughly grabs Sci-Twi’s hand and shoves said peanut butter crackers into it before walking away.*

Sci-Twi: …okay.

*Trixie stops dead in her tracks and turns around, now with a scowl on her face. Sci-Twi swears that it looked way more comical than it intended to be.*

Trixie: Ok
ay!? OKAY!? Little miss humanoid version of the obviously superior horse version is given the boot from an astounding conjuror such as myself, and all she can say is “okay!?”
Sci-Twi: I’m sorry, it’s just -
Trixie: One should be falling apart when faced with such rejection! One should say [in impressive Starlight-ish voice impersonation], “nuuuuu, Trixie! Please take me back! I live to assist you, to adore you, to lick the ground that your feet have once stepped on!”
Sci-Twi: …eew.
Trixie: Oh, you are going to get it! Magic is everywhere, Miss Nerd Sparkle, and you’ll find that it can strike when you least expect it. Why do you think magic explains everything that your science cannot?
Sci-Twi: …it doesn’t?
Trixie: Augh!

*Trixie stomps off, leaving Sci-Twi speechless.*

*Present day.*

You: Okay, so the girl’s insecure. She’ll get over it just fine. I don’t think she’d put a hit out on you or something.
Timber: Dude, I wish I was there to see that meltdown!
Sci-Twi: Which brings me back to this shroud…I wonder.

*She had tested it on a chair just fine. What about on herself? Could she teleport? Sci-Twi gets on the bed and throws the shroud around herself. She wills herself to teleport. Her face drops when she feels a little lighter on the clothes, and the shroud falls to show her standing in her undies, much to yours and and Timber’s delight.*

Timber: Whoa-ho-ho! I’m liking where this is going, but this is bold even for you!
Sci-Twi: N-no, wait! I was trying to teleport! H-hang on!

*Sci-Twi does the same thing that she just did with worse results. She grips onto the shroud, refusing to let it drop from her now nude figure.*

You: You okay? How about now?
Sci-Twi: N-no! Don’t look!

*She reflexives throws the shroud over herself and this time successfully teleports. You and Timber are left wondering about what happened until you find your phones buzzing with various texts and alerts of a nerdy-looking girl running naked down the street on the other side of the city.*

Timber: Dude, we gotta go get her!
You: Right behind you!

*The two of you get into his truck and speed off. From behind the corner of the house, a familiar girl snickers to herself.*

Trixie: Oh Trixie, you’ve really outdone yourself! One simple lock-picking trick, a magical journal entry later, and poof, you’ve got yourself a magical externally-suggestive shroud at your disposal, courtesy of a clueless pony princess!
???: Whoa…consider Trixie impressed!

*The source of the voice steps out from behind the first girl. It’s the pony version who had come along to watch the spectacle. She offers a hoof bump to the first girl who proceeds to chuckle at the misunderstanding and redefines it with a returned fist bump.*

Trixie: I’m really liking this form of “bad magic.”
Pony Trixie: I know, right!? Not evil, but mischievous enough to be devious!
Trixie: You know what? I like you!
Pony Trixie: Of course. I know!
Trixie: It’s one of those instances where “A” equals nothing, and “B” equals nothing, but when put together, you get this!
Pony Trixie: Yay!
Trixie: So, how about it, other self? Got any “volunteers” and “eager audiences” waiting for a demonstration of our greatness?
Pony Trixie: Oh, I love how you use use those quotations! And yes! Let’s go over to my side of the portal and see how the audience reception will go there, hehehe!

*The two Trixies run off. Sooner or later, their shenanigans will come to an end, but that was a problem for their future selves!*