"Hey Starlight, could you be so kind as to pass the Cramped and Uncomfortable Trixie a couple of those chocolates?"

Flinching and flattening her ears against her head, Starlight Glimmer lit her horn, the electric blue of her magic wrapping around a couple of sweets that the pair had managed to pilfer before she floated them toward her friend. As Trixie's own magic snatched the pair, Starlight held tight. She glared Trixie right in the eyes.

"Anything else to add to that request, Trix?" she inquired, her voice dripping with venom. At Trixie's blank expression, Starlight drew her lips back in a toothy sneer, and added with a hint of ice, "You know, given that we're, for better or worse, stuck here for the moment?"

"Trixie has no idea what you're referring to, Starlight." Trixie blinked a couple of times. She pointed to the chocolate. "Now, are you going to give Trixie, who has had an extremely long, arduous, and taxing day one of those chocolates or will she have to get one for herself?" To emphasize, she cracked her neck and arched her back as best she could in their current confines.

"Ugh." Starlight crossly chucked the chocolate at Trixie, who whinnied and clopped her forehooves together before catches the two candies in mid-air. As Trixie undid one of the wrappers, Starlight repeated with more palpable disgust, "Anything you'd like to tell me?" Her tone was flat, but her eyes burned with fire. Or, that might have been the glow that came from outside their little cubbyhole.

Although it was muffled by approximately one door, a decently-sized office, and a second door, she could hear the clamor and frustration of various creatures. Occasionally, a cry or a crack made its way through, and she also caught an infrequent bashing against her office's door. However, it held, especially with the enchantments she had managed to throw on it right after Trixie had burst into her room and screamed, "HIDE!"

That had been about twenty minutes ago, and currently the cacophony of the mass of students—and apparently other faculty—that had turned out to the hallways that ran through the School of Friendship hadn't died one bit. Not one single iota. In fact, it almost sounded like it had gotten louder.

In the back of her head, she questioned what exactly Sunburst would have done to help out if he hadn't been back in the Crystal Empire for the fifth anniversary of Flurry's Crystalling. Maybe he would have hidden with her and Trixie as well, perhaps he would have had the foresight to not let Trixie do what Trixie did best some days. Maybe he could have actually calmed the crowds without using magic to teleport them all to Tartarus, the Badlands, or possibly instead a little time jaunt back a thousand years so they could be banished with Luna to the moon.

All tempting options, but, as she reminded herself, and as Twilight emphasized again and again: she was reformed. She was nice.

Didn't stop her from sometimes toying with the idea of at least blowing a golf ball-sized hole in her friend. Frankly, it was something that popped up in her mind at least once a week. Not as frequently as the Roaman Empire of old, though.

Humming and tapping a forehoof against her chin, Trixie munched on one of her chocolates. The chewing turned into smacking, which was completely in tune with the absolutely random twitching in one of Starlight's eyelids. A fact that Trixie pointed out with a shrug. "You really should get that looked at by Nurse Redheart at the hospital, Starlight. Trixie is no doctor, but even she in her limited medical experience believes that that is a sign of high blood pressure."

"Oh, no, it's just caused by proximal stress," Starlight snarked. "I have no idea what triggers it, though." She glowered at Trixie.

As she popped the other chocolate into her mouth, Trixie leaned back against the wall of their small room and nickered. "Whatever you say, Starlight."

"Well, I say that you should probably tell me about what that is." Flinging a hoof toward the door, Starlight gestured to the chaos that was still unfolding in the halls. As if they sensed they were being mentioned, the students and faculty in the halls let out in a chorus hollers that practically shook the foundations of the school.

"Say, has the Honest and Discerning Trixie ever mentioned that she's noticed Sunburst checking your flank every so often?" She winked. "Trixie thinks—"

Flushing, Starlight snapped, "Trixie!" She gritted her teeth and flattened her ears against her head. It only took a few seconds for the fluttering in her heart to subside before she prodded a hoof into Trixie's barrel. "Don't. Dodge. The question." She narrowed her eyes. "You're far too obvious."

Jerking her eyes left, then right, Trixie grinned awkwardly. "Trixie doesn't—"

"The whole X and Y Trixie really gives things away some days, Trix." With a smarmy smirk, Starlight watched Trixie deflate, then let out a long, tired sigh.

"Fine," grumbled Trixie. "Trixie—I suppose that maybe I'm being a bit… deflective?" After a couple of low, shallow laughs squeaked out of Trixie, she muttered, "What do you want to know, Starlight?" She shrugged. "I'm sure that things will calm down if they're left alone for a while." For a few seconds, she scrunched her muzzle and gazed to the ceiling. "I think."

"Just… just start from the beginning." Starlight rolled a forehoof on its fetlock, prodding Trixie to move along. Drawing upon some of her time as counselor, she flushed as much emotion from her voice as possible—regardless of how much she felt a burning desire to strangle the living daylight out of Trixie—and shot Trixie a calm, collected smile.

"I'm listening. As a friend." Her grin fractured. "An understanding, caring, concerned friend."

Trixie lolled her head from one side to the other, then she rolled her shoulders. "Okay!" she exclaimed. "So, you remember how Twilight got that memo from Chancellor Neighsay about how the School of Friendship needed to have more physical activities for the students to do?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, and you remember how you wanted some of the faculty—like moi—to look after that?"

"Yeah…"

"So, that's what happened." With another shrug, Trixie rested back against the wall and brushed aside a couple of coat hangers. "See? Simple. Nothing more than—mmmph!" Trixie's eyes shot open as Starlight wrapped her muzzle in magic. In the cramped room, Starlight's horn left it shimmering in a pale, eerie blue light.

"Trixie."

"Mmhm?"

"The whole truth." Starlight's horn crackled for a second. "Now."

When her mouth was released from the vice-like grip of Starlight's magic, Trixie gasped then huffed, a look of betrayal on her face before she straightened herself up. "Very well, I suppose that I could go into a bit more detail, as I remember it." At that, Starlight cupped her forehead in her hooves.

Massaging her temples, Starlight grumbled, "For your sake, Trix, you better remember it perfectly, and there had better be no chance for this to come back on your head." She paused and blinked. "What am I saying?"

"Trixie is glad that you have so much confidence in her." While she slipped back into her show speech, Trixie patted Starlight on the head, and Starlight growled softly under her breath. When she was done, Trixie looked off to the side. "Trixie remembers it like it was yesterday." She raised a hoof, and continued staring toward the door, occasionally making slight motion with her head as if gazing into an abyss.

"Trixie, if you're wanting to do a flashback, first, this is real life. Those don't happen. Second, even if they did, I can't see through your eyes." Starlight furrowed her brow.

"Oh, you're always such a spoilsport," Trixie snorted before falling back down into a casual, almost nonchalant position of lying against the back wall of their room. She pushed more coat hangers out of the way, as well as a spare cloak of Sunburst's and one of her own.

"Yep. That's me. Now spill it."

"Well, Trixie supposes she'll start when she was born, and—"

"You're dodging again."

"Fine. You asked Trixie to choose one of the new varsity clubs for the students to lead, right?" At Starlight's nod,
Trixie bobbed her head in agreement. She closed her eyes. "Then you asked Trixie to begin today, if she remembers correctly." When Starlight gave another affirming nod, Trixie quipped, "So this is technically on you!"

"Trixie…"

"Trixie's only pulling your leg, Starlight!" With a couple of chuckles, Trixie continued with a light sigh, "Well, you remember Rupert, right?" After a couple of seconds of relative silence, Trixie mimed the general shape of a yak, including the horns. "Big, burly, brutish. Could probably crush a bugbear if he rolled over wrong. That Rupert."

Starlight still stayed silent.

Cracking an eyelid open to glance at Starlight, Trixie then rolled her visible eye and huffed, "The least you could do is respond, but Trixie supposes she'll continue her story." Clearing her throat, she carried on as a couple of bangs and crashes sounded outside the office door, "Well, since Trixie was curious about this game called volleyball that the hippogriff students talked about, she checked who all was signed up, and formed our first team!"

"And Rupert was on it…" Furrowing her brow, Starlight caressed her forehead for a second or two. Was there a cure for friendship-induced headaches? She mentally noted for Twilight to take a look into that if the two of them made it out of the school alive. And so long as Twilight didn't kill her in the process.

"Exactly." Trixie punctuated her statement with a sharp nod. "So, Rupert—Trixie is sure you know Rupert—gets quite into the game. This was good for Trixie. She was coaching the team from the sidelines."

"Do you even know the rules of volleyball?" interjected Starlight, her voice strained and in pain. She flashed Trixie a miffed frown.

Shaking her head, Trixie quipped, "No, but the Quick and Witty Trixie picks up on things easily!" She smirked. "Also, she doubts that you know, either, Starlight." She held up a hoof before Starlight could protest, and added, "Anyway, she says that Rupert's involvement was good, because he definitely did. Trixie was merely moral support for the team.

"It also allowed her to plan her tour for the coming summer." She arched a brow. "Do you know how hard it can be to coordinate manticores and cockatrices to perform a synchronized jump?" She didn't wait for Starlight to respond and shifted against the wall. "Very difficult. Rupert taking charge meant Trixie could occasionally chip in, and otherwise rest her eyes while she pondered this challenge."

"You fell asleep, didn't you?"

"Trixie protests this libel!"

"Slander, Trixie. Also, it's true, otherwise you wouldn't be protesting as much." Red-faced and with cheeks puffed, Trixie crossed her forehooves and avoided Starlight's gaze. "Trix, just finish the story." Starlight winced as there was a crack of glass on her office's door. "I can focus on getting us out of here. Maybe teleport outside the school and—"

"Oh, Trixie saw that the entire body was rioting, and it's moved to outside the school, too. She thinks it has something to do with how she treated the 'squashed bug' incident, but she's not sure." At that statement, Starlight raised an eyebrow incredulously, and Trixie coughed into her hoof. "Um, Rupert may have gotten quite into the game, and while Trixie was continuing to question the nature of a manticore and cockatrice show, um…" She shifted uneasily where she rested. "May have pile-driven a changeling into the ground while going for the ball?"

"He pile-drove his own teammate?"

"Yes?" With an awkward grin, Trixie giggled and scratched the back of her head. "To quote him, 'Squishy bug get
in way of ball. Too slow to help.'" Hacking a couple of times and beating at her chest, her cheeks stayed crimson and she squealed, "And Trixie may have tried to defuse the situation."

"Go on…" In her chest, Starlight felt a flame begin to soar, and the edges of her vision turned a soft shade of red. But it was fine. It was all fine. Trixie was going to say that she didn't just ruin species relations by opening her mouth.

What was she saying?

"Well, Trixie may have sided with the changeling student, who claimed that Rupert purposefully crushed her." Trixie shrugged. "Yaks are rather brutish after all."

"You didn't."

"Trixie did."

Briefly gawking at her friend, Starlight at last cupped her head in her hooves and exhaled with a long and exhausted groan. Shaking her head a couple of times, she finally raised her eyes to stare back at her friend. "Trixie, you're the guidance counselor, you know that—"

"Trixie realizes she wasn't on her best behavior." Dismissively waving a hoof and blowing a faint raspberry, Trixie quipped, "If somepony hadn't eaten all of her peanut butter crackers the night before, maybe she would have been in a better mood." At the accusation, Starlight flattened her ears against her head and puffed out her cheeks.

"I was hungry, okay?"

"It's water under the bridge, now, Starlight. Just like how I might have insinuated that Rupert was being barbaric by blaming the changeling student, Chitin, and Rupert then called the changelings wimpy and weak." She coughed. "Chitin may have turned into a dragon and before Trixie could stop her, blew some fire on Rupert."

Heart sinking into her chest, Starlight whimpered, "I-Is Rupert—"

"Oh, he's okay. Just a bit singed." After a quick beat, Trixie wrinkled her brow and hummed. "Well, she thinks show. He did twitch a few times after he turned into a walking fireball for a minute." She rubbed her forehooves together. "Trixie also was pretty sure he was breathing when she asked him to apologize to Chitin for insulting changelings."

As another crash and crack from the door, which Starlight could see through the slats in the closet door that it was beginning to splinter, Starlight yelped, "And how did this start?!"

"Oh, Chitin said that all yaks were idiots and thought with their muscles instead of their brains, then another yak said that changelings would rather stitch blankets than play sports, and also that griffons stunk like rotten eggs, and then—"

Raising a hoof to stop her friend, Starlight placed it on Trixie's muzzle and then hissed, her eyes shrinking to the size of pinpricks as her heart began to thrash against her chest. "Did this start an entire species quarrel?!" She squeaked. "Trixie! Tell me you didn't start a species riot!"

"Uh, Trixie didn't directly start a species riot. That was Chitin." Trixie shrugged. When she was yanked by Starlight's magic, Trixie gulped and sweat began to trickle down her forehead and cheeks as she gazed directly into Starlight's bloodshot look. "Um. Woops?"

Heaving and huffing momentarily, Starlight finally released Trixie with a pained groan and instead dragged both her forehooves down her muzzle. Her horn flashed a few times as she pondered teleporting out, but that wasn't going to solve anything. As Trixie said, it spread outside the school, and also running wouldn't help her avoid Twilight finding out and hunting her down.

Starlight would no doubt end up banished to the sun, or thrown in the deepest and darkest cage in Tartarus, or be first thrown into the deepest and darkest cage in Tartarus before Tartarus was cast into the sun.

Starlight's heart crashed further and further into the pits of the earth as the battering on her door and the yells and crashes of students of all species battling it out carried into her office closet, she finally mumbled, "I guess I just need to let Twilight know, and hopefully she'll be able to calm everypony."

Perking up, Trixie chirped, "Oh! Trixie already informed Twilight!" She pressed a chest against her hoof proudly. "She wanted to make sure that this was handled post-haste!"

Starlight jerked her head up. "Wait, you sent a letter to Twilight? You know what you do to her when you talk to her."

Trixie nodded. "Of course Trixie knows, but she determined that it was the fastest way, since she figured out how the magic was encoded in the letters that Twilight sent to Princess Celestia."

"How did you—"

"Uh buh buh!" Trixie held up a hoof and tapped Starlight's muzzle. "Trixie won't reveal her secrets. But it was not any intention about finding out how to find Twilight and get back at her for humiliating Trixie. Twice." She brightly beamed. "Absolutely not!"

As Starlight opened her mouth, Starlight froze when she heard from outside in the hall, "Everycreature, stop!" It was Twilight. With a weak whimper, Starlight cowered in the corner and huddled against Trixie.

"Well, this is the end, I guess," she sighed. "Good run. Thanks for everything, Trix."

Before Trixie could say anything, Twilight bellowed from the hall, "Where's Tri—" There was a shattering noise of something glass against Twilight, and she cut off for a second before she snapped, "Oh, okay." There was an abrupt burst of magic, and Starlight folded her ears against her head as she heard a few yelps.

"How does stone and crystal even burn?!" a panicked voice screamed as the thundering of hooves and paws pattered throughout the halls.

A cackle escaped Twilight, and Starlight could tell that she was moving toward the office. "Like it? New magic spell. Now. WHERE'S TRIXIE?!"

"Tell Twilight that Trixie isn't here and—" With a scream, Trixie was shoved by Starlight through the door of the closet, and then she whimpered, "Oh, hi, Twilight. Trixie heard that—"

As there was a loud fwoosh of fire, followed by a shriek from Trixie, Starlight groaned and mumbled, "There's going to be so much paperwork tomorrow…"