Magic Duel

Dear Princess Luna...

Alright, I actually saw some stuff about this episode beforehand, so it's been something I've been looking forward to. The episode title gives a pretty big hint as to why, but it's the wielder of that magic/horn that I find even more appealing.

That's right, Trixie returns for vengeance in this episode! Trixie made my top 5 favorite characters from Season 1. She actually was on my top 5 overall for a little bit, but as I was doing the little write-up I had a change of heart and bumped her down for the Crusaders instead. A tough choice to make, but at the time we just had Boast Busters* and a little mention in Ponyville Confidential for Trixie on the show. Depending on how things play out, most of my lists might be getting adjusted after this episode. =]

*Boast Busters made my S1 top 10, but didn't make my overall favorite episode lists despite being Trixie's at-the-time only episode, because it kind of sucked. Trixie was awesome, but the episode itself was lame. I mean really, she comes to town to put on a free magic show, she even has her own stage wagon with fireworks/trumpets/etc., and immediately Spike/Rarity/Applejack/Rainbow Dash start whining and heckling, interrupting the show. Luckily, they all get embarassed on stage, except Spike, but later Trixie's wagon, which is most likely her home as well, gets destroyed. She suffers the consequences while the instigators pretty much got off with nothing more than quickly forgotten moments of shame. Still, she remained defiant, talking some smack to Twilight Sparkle then running off after dropping a smoke bomb. Which is why Trixie is awesome.

Without further ado, time to watch this episode!

We begin with a dark and stormy night, apparently.

A cloaked figure runs through the streets and enters a shop. Trixie, I presume? =]

The cloaked figure begins searching the shop and the owner appears. He can sense that something drew her to the shop.

She knows exactly what she wants, a strange amulet in a glass case. This is the Alicorn Amulet, one of the most mysterious, and powerful, of all the magical charms. Trixie thrusts out her hoof, but he declines, saying it's far too dangerous.

She puts a sack of bits on the counter, and the Alicorn Amulet is hers!

So, this episode is already looking pretty good. We continue with Fluttershy and Twilight with a bunch of critters. Twilight is apparently going to use her magic on them, and Fluttershy threatens her in case anything goes wrong.

Spike reveals that Twilight's magic has gotten a lot better since she crushed Spike and Applejack with a giant snowball. Did this happen in Winter Wrap Up? It almost seems like it may have, but I'd have to check.

Fluttershy starts freaking out about what might happen to the critters as Twilight begins casting a spell on them.

Twilight uses her magic to give the critters a ride through the air, gently gliding them around. Not sure if this is really a new usage, as it seems like it would be the normal telekinesis type magic, like what she does when she goes through books, etc.

Spike compliments Twilight, who is apparently training to entertain Princess Celestia and delegates from Saddle Arabia.

Rainbow Dash zooms in and tackles Twilight, telling her to, "Come quick! It's an emergency!"

Ponies have gathered at the Town Hall.

Rarity is blasted with red magic and a dress is conjured onto her, giving her much distress. Pinkie and Applejack haul her off to get her into something pink.

Twilight arrives and is confronted by our cloaked friend.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't... Twilight Sparkle."

Yay! Trixie! <3 Twilight recognizes her, "Trixie!" She and Spike both seem super pissed. Far be it from me, but Spike was kind of the one that ruined her life, so if she's back for revenge, you might want to blame him and your other dummkopf friends, not her.

Hello, Twilight.

Hello.... Trixie.

Rainbow Dash flies up and makes a remark, "You call that great and powerful?" Geez, here we go again. Trixie didn't even say her trademark phrase. Luckily, Rainbow gets blasted for her ignorance. Trixie makes one of her wings massive.

Snips and Snails, Trixie's fans and banes from Boast Busters, mock Rainbow's plight, calling her Rainbow Wobble. The crowd scatters as Rainbow flies out of control.

Trixie orders S&S to be silent and zaps them.

"You two! Quiet!"

Her spell fuses them together by the horns.

Twilight is pissed.

"Stop picking on my friends, Trixie!"

Trixie tells Twilight that the two of them have some unfinished business.

 

"You and I have some unfinished business. My magic's gotten better since I was here last. And I'm going to prove it! Me and you. A magic duel. Winner stays, loser leaves Ponyville forever"

 Looks like we have another Ponyverse verbal contract again. Trixie challenges Twilight to a magic duel. The winner gets to stay, the loser leaves Ponyville forever. Twilight just declines and turns her back.

"Forget it! I'd never make a deal like that!"

 Trixie begins using her magic.

"Hm, your choice."

YES! That little bastard Spike is targeted! He's the idiot that caused all of this by mindlessly defending Twilight and attacking Trixie in Boast Busters, and his only punishment was getting a mustache.

Hah, Trixie turns him into a basketball, dribbles him around a bit then shoots a basket.

"Trixie, put him down."

Really, Twilight? She asks Trixie why she is doing this. The following screenshot is from Boast Busters.

See her getting woke up, or at least disturbed from lounging about or whatever, inside her wagon? The wagon was her home, and it was destroyed. Later, the Cutie Mark Crusaders also ran a piece exposing her secrets. Pretty obvious to anyone that isn't Twilight, apparently. why she wants revenge. Let's hear what she has to say.

"Why? Because you humiliated me!"

We potentially see a new use for magic here, although it is similar to what Twilight did at the end of A Canterlot Wedding. (And if you've read The Twilight Wanderer here at Odyssey, you'll notice it's a power I had them using a few times =] )

Geez, ponies are assholes. They spray painted graffiti on her wagon, threw eggs at it. Eggs, aka potentially living things.

"After you showed me up with that Ursa Minor, I became a laughingstock!"

"Everywhere I went I was laughed at and ostracized."

She ended up having to work on the Pie family rock farm apparently. Perhaps it changed after Pinkie's awakening to the world of laughter and parties, but it used to be a place of no talking and no smiling, poor Trixie.

"I even had to take a job on a rock farm just to earn a living! A rock farm!"

"A rock farm!"

Pinkie yells that she's lucky a rock farm would even take 'the likes of you.' What is so bad about Trixie that they are all hating on her? You idiots were the ones that ruined her life, turning her from a sassy magician to a Charles Bronson rock farmer hungering only for revenge.

Trixie uses her magic to pull Pinkie's mouth off with a cursor and drop it in a trash can.

Trixie tells Twilight she wants revenge and will keep casting spells until Twilight accepts the duel. She uses her magic to attack the library, uprooting it and flipping it over, shaking out books which Owloiscious tries to catch.

"Now I want revenge! And I'll just keep casting spells 'til you agree."

"Well? What do you say?"

 Twilight sees her friends' plights and is enraged into accepting.

"Alright, Trixie. Let's duel!"

"Excellent."

 Damn it, Trixie. You're being like Discord. She dispels the magic she had put on all but Pinkie Pie. Watch this come back to bite her in the ass and lead to her defeat.

" If I lose, I won't set hoof in Ponyville again. But if you lose, you're the one banished from this one-horse town!"

 The duel begins. Twilight is already sweating.

Trixie says. "Draw!" and makes her first move, using her magic to throw a wagon.

Twilight saves some hapless pony by catching the wagon, which seemed to take a lot of energy for her to do.

Trixie follows up with a barrage of pies!

Twilight counters by summoning a parasprite, which eats all the pies and spawns another one, which Twilight banishes.

Trixie summons a giant bank of snow and dumps it onto Twilight and the surrounding area.

 Twilight melts through the snow with her magic, then counter attacks by giving Trixie a mustache.

Twilight's friends laugh, and Trixie conjures up scissors to snip off the offending hair.

Trixie orders Snips and Snails to come forwards. She uses chronal alteration magic to make them into a foal and an elderly pony. Just like Star Swirl uses in my Wanderer tale ;) Twilight is confused that Trixie is able to use an age spell, and says "That's only for the highest level unicorns!"

+1 Unicorns/Magic

Trixie is satisfied immensely and asks if Twilight gives up.

"Well, Twilight? Give up?"

Twilight tries to reverse the age spell and fails.

Trixie proclaims herself the highest level unicorn, then tells Twilight it's time to leave.

"Trixie is the highest level unicorn!"

"And now it's time for you to leave Ponyville!"

"Forever!"

Twilight is devastated.This is actually pretty sad, as Twilight wasn't the one who did anything to Trixie really, besides save her and the town from the machinations put into action by Spike.

Twilight's friends leap in front of her and tell Trixie to knock it off, as if they can do jack.

Trixie uses her magic to throw Twilight out of town.

"You fools, she's already gone!"

 She then conjures up a huge glass canopy thing and puts it down around Ponyville.

Twilight doesn't really seem that bummed out about the whole thing, telling her friends to look out for each other and keep an eye on Trixie while she runs off to find a way to help.

Twilight is out by a path and using her magic on a flower, trying to get the petals to close back up, so perhaps she's trying to use an age spell.

It works, for a moment. She rages. Yep, she was trying to do an age spell. She whines that it's impossible, and doesn't know how Trixie can know such advanced magic.

Twilight thinks to herself, that since Spike is gone she can't contact Celestia in Saddle Arabia, so who else can she turn to about magic? Enter Zecora. Zecora tells Twilight she will help train her to beat Trixie. Twilight doesn't see how, since she was doing age spells and weather spells.  Twilight also keeps spilling Zecora's drink. Zecora is also shown being able to do some magic, despite not having a horn, so it looks like my donkey witch in Wanderer may not have been as verboten as it seemed.

Back in Ponyville, Trixie is having the place decorated in her honor.

Applejack is stomping apples for Trixie's applesauce facial. Applejack decides to cop an attitude and says she won't do anything until Trixie lets Twilight come home. Trixie uses her magic to tickle her with feathers until she submits, then slams her into bushels of apples.

Trixie forces Pinkie to dance for her. Rarity is forced to make the Trixie banners while Rainbow and Fluttershy hang them up. Pinkie and Fluttershy weren't even in Boast Busters, but I bet she is anti-Pinkie because it was her family's rock farm she was forced to work at. It seems all the ponies in town are being forced to labor for her, but she still hasn't given Pinkie her mouth back. Rarity pokes her hoof and laments that Trixie's cruel magic is ruining Ponyville.

Twilight has begun her Jedi-like training with Zecora. Twilight is able to stand on water while focusing, but Trixie's claim to be the highest level unicorn distracts her and she sinks. Zecora told her that she must unlearn what she has learned.

New use for magic, water walking.

Twilight apologizes to Zecora, saying she just can't stop thinking about Trixie. She's gone from 'high and mighty' to 'mean and nasty.' So seemingly Twilight didn't really think bad of her before. Zecora tells her she must concentrate.

Back in Ponyville, Trixie has seemingly summoned up a dark and windy storm, since the things in a glass tomb at the moment.

She even had a statue of herself made.

In the library, Twilight's friends are going through her books to try and find a solution. Fluttershy finds the Alicorn Amulet, but is ignored as Rarity and Applejack continue to whine. Trixie apparently told Applejack to grow peel-less apples.

Fluttershy says that whoever wears the amulet is blessed with untold powers. And this thing was just sitting in a shop somewhere. Rarity reads on and it says even though it provides great power, it also corrupts the user.

Fluttershy continues to get ignored as the others read and discuss. The only pony that can remove the amulet is Trixie herself. This sounds really familiar. Not sure what it is though, but 'cursed thing that only the wearer can remove' definitely sounds like something. Applejack says they need to get the info to Twilight, but Trixie's magical forcefield will alert her if they try to leave. Rainbow flies up and has a plan in mind.

"Trying to sneak past the forcefield would be impossible without help, but I know who's got the goods to get into those woods!"

"Fluttershy!"

The plan is for Fluttershy to sneak out and find Twilight. She is mortified. She ends up agreeing, and Rarity says she has just the design for a dangerous mission outfit.

Yep, Trixie definitely summoned up a storm for Ponyville.

Snips and Snails are forced to pull Trixie's wheel-less chariot out to the forcefield to see who was trying to breech it. Snips and Snails comment that Trixie seems to be getting weirder and weirder.

"Pull, you fools! Somepony set off the magic forcefield, and Trixie intends to punish them!"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't trust wheels. Now pull faster!"

At the forcefield, a bunch of beavers are standing near a log and hitting the field. One begins chattering and moving about trying to explain what they are doing, and Trixie lifts the glass jar thingy so they can leave. Presumably Fluttershy is inside the log. Really, Trixie, you care about the feelings of beavers?

"Stop! You there! What are you doing?!"

Afterwards, Trixie uses her magic to upgrade her chariot to a large bed-looking thing so she's more comfortable.

Snips and Snails start complaining, wondering why she is so mean to them and that they miss the days when she was just a 'fraud.' They deserve all of her wrath.

Fluttershy has successfully escaped inside the log. Fluttershy wants to go back because her outfit got trashed, birds come and tell her they found Twilight, in the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy runs back to hide in the log and they haul her out. Now, Fluttershy lives right near the forest and has gone out there with no fear (I think) before to save the Crusaders. The whole town is in jeopardy and she is going to wuss out?

The birds carry her towards the forest while she whines, "This is me being brave! I want to be brave at home, locked in my closet, with my teddy bear!"

 Fluttershy arrives at Zecora's seemingly without incident. Twilight beats herself up about not recognizing the Alicorn Amulet. Zecora tells Twilight she has learned all of her lessons but one, if she can't beat Trixie's tricks, she must nix her magic and use the six. Hmm, Elements of Harmony reference I'm guessing. Twilight begins writing and says they must get Fluttershy back inside.

Trixie is being hauled back out to the forcefield and is annoyed at the prospect of it being a false alarm, she sees Twilight.

"You!"

Really, Twilight? She says she knows about the Alicorn Amulet, and that Trixie cheated. How is that cheating? As I mentioned, the thing was just sitting in a store, and the guy let it go for a sack of coins. You could have bought it yourself, Twilight. Anypony could have.

"Cheated? Moi?"

Twilight busts out her own amulet, saying Zecora gave it to her and that it's got totally awesome magic from beyond the Everfree Forest, and boasts that it's more powerful than Trixie's. Twilight challenges her to a duel, Trixie doesn't see why she should since she already won.

" Ha! Nothing's more powerful than the Alicorn Amulet! And nopony's more powerful than the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Twilight tells her that's too bad, guess she won't get to see the awesome magic. For some stupid reason, Trixie really wants to see what the other amulet can do, and accepts the duel.

Trixie dispels the glass jar thingy and teleports next to Twilight to accept.

"Wait! Okay, okay, you're on! A second duel."

Back inside dark and stormy Ponyville,  Trixie and Twilight prepare to duel while Mayor Mare is in a cage like Deckard Cain was in Tristram.

"I thank you, friend, for coming to my aid."

Trixie tries to get an easy victory by leading off with the age spell, using Snips and Snails again. Twilight allegedly does an age spell of her own on Applejack and Rarity.

"Let's start with a simple age spell, shall we?"

Trixie is astonished, then dismisses it.

Twilight is smug. Twilight rapidly casts her 'age spells' on Rarity and Applejack.

Trixie says, "That's impossible!" Which is right, this has to be some kind of BS since Twilight was sweating and straining just doing ho-hum telekinesis spells earlier, unless we are to really believe Zecora just happened to have some uber amulet sitting around.

Twilight then sets her sights on Rainbow Dash and creates a duplicate of her with a duplication spell, allegedly. As much as I like Twilight, I'm assuming all of this is bunkum.

She then asks if Trixie has ever seen one pony play 10 instruments and conjurs up Pinkie's one-pony-band thing. Further confirming this is nothing but BS, Pinkie has no mouth yet is playing the tuba. It looks like she actually has an air bladder on the mouth piece, and is playing by smashing her face against it, so kudos to whomever thought of that.

Poor Trixie, seemingly she is letting Twilight's BS get to her.

"This- just can't be!"

  Applejack tries to flee as Twilight announces her last trick, turning a mare into a stallion.

Trixie can't believe it.

Twilight starts boasting about how much better her amulet is, Trixie rips it off of her and starts laughing, saying now she can rule all of Equestria. Stupidly, she pulls off her own amulet to put on Twilight's presumably fake PoS.

Trixie eagerly puts on the new amulet. Rainbow swoops in and steals the Alicorn Amulet, Trixie tries to zap her but instead of 'writing in agony' she just tickles Rainbow.

'Witness, my subjects, gaze upon an even greater and powerfuler Trixie!"

Trixie is confused and Twilight begins to explain. The amulet was really one of Zecora's door stops.

Trixie asks how Twilight did those spells, no pony can do those spells, Twilight says she is right, she didn't do them.  Twilight explains that Zecora has taught her a lot about magic, including when not to use it. She knew she couldn't beat the Alicorn Amulet with her magic, so she had to use a different kind of magic, the magic of friendship.  Twilight seems to be quite friendly towards Trixie, despite what happened.

 We see Fluttershy with Twilight's list as well as the ponies friends and family.

 They are seen painting up Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to look like their big sisters.

Painting Big Mac to look like a male Applejack.

Painting and dyeing Fluttershy to look like Rainbow, and Granny Smith to look like Applejack.

The ponies then waited behind some Trixie statues and leapt in when required.

Trixie asks about the 'pony with the 10 instruments' and Twilight explains that that wasn't magic, it was just Pinkie Pie.

Trixie's storm clouds begin to disperse and a glorious new day breaks for Ponyville.

For ponydom's greatest champion, Twilight Sparkle, rose to confront the darkness that we, in our pride, would not face.

Sometime later, Twilight is performing her magic show with the critters for a crowd, including Celestia and Saddle Arabia horses? For some reason they think this is a really big deal, it seems kind of meh but I suppose she does have their lives in her magical grasp.

A flurry of fireworks start to go off, which amazes even Celestia. It obviously was not part of the show, as Twilight is surprised. Which pony do we know can do fireworks? Yep! Trixie!

She tells Twilight it's the least she can do, since she went Charles Bronson revenge mode then psychotic mode on Twilight and her friends because of the amulet.

"It's the least I could do."

"I treated you and your friends so horribly when I was wearing that Alicorn Amulet..."

"I just couldn't control myself."

 Aww, who could refuse that look?

"You can forgive me, can't you?"

 Twilight says she forgives her and Trixie is pleased.

"Oh, good."

Trixie runs off into the night after vanishing in a cloud of smoke, just like before. Yes! Trixie rocks.

"Don't you think the Great and Apologetic Trixie is the most magnificent humble pony you have ever seen?"

 Although she trips... =]

It begins to zoom in on the moon, and Pinkie climbs through, still without her mouth. A portal is ripped through the backdrop and Twilight emerges, zapping Pinkie's mouth back on, and the episode ends as she takes a deep breath.

 What I learned from this episode:

• Trixie is awesome, but to be fair I already knew that.
• Lots of magic in here, age spells, weather spells, parasprite conjuration, water walking, pie summoning, wing enlargement, mouth removal, possibly more.
• I was looking forward to this episode, and it did not disappoint. About halfway through I began having some doubts about some lame ending to it, but it worked pretty well. I liked that Twilight was friendly towards her, and she got to run off with a cloud of smoke again.
• The Alicorn Amulet, how did Trixie know where it was? The owner said something drew her to the shop. Did the amulet itself? If so, why?
• This episode also introduced the concept of 'levels' for unicorns. If you go by D&D rules, Trixie would have been a level 5~ in Boast Busters, due to use of 3rd level spell Lightning Bolt along with 2nd level spells Pyrotechnics and Animate Rope. Twilight would be 13~ at the start of Crystal Empire due to Reverse Gravity, a 7th level spell. I'd have to try and see what some of the stuff Trixie does here would be, but Twilight's comments about the age spell only being for super unicorns would probably mean '9th level' if you're going off D&D terms.