//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Let the Magic Duel Begin! 
// Story: A Great and Powerful Test 
// by ThePinkedWonder 
//------------------------------//

Welcome back, Eric Reed here.

Well, today I was sitting in a chair in my room at Twilight's castle, bo-o-o-o-red, trying to think of something to do. I was tired of reading, so that was out. Twilight had just left on a friendship mission, and most of the others were busy, so it was just Spike, Starlight, and me at the castle. Spike was taking his "beauty nap" while "Starie" was reading in her room. 

It's times like these I wished I were a Unicorn, so I could use magic to amuse myself. But as I was thinking that, I remembered that Starlight could make me one, kinda, by casting a spell to temporarily give me a small Unicorn-like horn on my head, and a third of her magic.

Knowing that Starie wasn't gonna be doing anything that'll require her to be at full-power anytime soon, I went over to her room, and knocked on her door.

"Come in."

Opening the door, I saw her on a chair, reading on her desk.

"Hey, Starie, I have a favor to ask."

"Ok, what is it, Buggie?" 

"Remember that spell you cast to give me a little Unicorn horn before we faced Chrysalis? Could you recast that spell on me?"

"I could, but why?"

"I'm so bored, and I want to play with some spells to amuse myself for a while."

"Eric, you really shouldn't just 'play' with spells without mastering them first. Even if you know the basics on how to do a few spells from watching our cartoon, you're not truly trained in magic. It can be dangerous to just mess around with them with your level of knowledge on Unicorn magic."

Trying not to laugh at the irony of getting this kind of lecture from Starlight, I asked, "What if I promise to just use levitation on stuff like cups or books? That's not a big deal, since all Unicorns can do that, right?"

"Oh, well, if that's all you want to do, that's no problem." Starlight stood up and walked closer to me. "How long do you want the spell to last? I can have it last up to four hours."

"How about the whole four hours?"

"Figures you'll want that. Okay, just stand still, and I'll cast the spell."

Starlight's horn glowed light-blue, and she fired a small blue beam of magic at me. I grew a very small horn on my head, gained a third of Starlight's magic, allowing me to use spells, though I only knew how to do a few. Plus, she only wanted me to use basic levitation, so it wouldn't had mattered if I did know more.

I tried to levitate a book on Starlight's drawer, just to make sure she got the spell right, and I could do it. "All right, thanks, Starie!"

"No problem, Buggie! Have fun! Just don't forget that you said you'll only use levitation, ok?"

"I remember, and I'll just use that," I left Starlight's room, and headed to the library part of the castle, where I had the most stuff to levitate. You know how Twilight has a lot of books, right?



In the library, I was "jugging" three books over my head using levitation over my head, and it was pretty fun.

As I was wondering how Unicorns could be bored if they can do stuff like this anytime they wanted, a voice playfully called out.

"Only three books, Buggie? Can't you do more than that?"

Surprised, I lost the grip of the books in my levitation, and they landed on my head. I turned and saw Starlight, giggling about what she just made me do.

"Hey! You meant to make me do that, didn't you?"

"Maybe," Starlight said with a smirk on her face.

"But, what are you doing down here, Starie? I thought you wanted to read?"

"Yeah, but I can do that later, you know I'm not like Twilight. But, I was thinking about how I said you're not trained in magic."

"I remember, and that was why you...wait. Are you gonna say what I think you are?"

Starlight's smirk turned into a mischievous grin. "Yep! You want me to train you a little with your -- well my -- magic, while that spell on you is active?"

"Oh, yeah, Starie! Where you want to do it?"

"Let's go outside and do it, okay?"



Because of how Trixie once accidentally teleported the Friendship Map out of the castle when Starlight was teaching her teleportation, Starlight wanted to teach me outside, right outside the castle. She didn't want anything like that happening again! Because I'd be firing magical beams, like how Starlight does when she uses most spells (save for a very few like teleportation) I left my hat in the castle, so it wouldn't be in the way.

"What do you want to teach me first?"

"All right, I'll first teach you a weak growth spell. To do it, you must..."

During the next hour, Starlight would try to teach me some spells that she thought I'll be able to do, though I couldn't fully get them down. It turns out, the reason I could teleport as "easily" as I did when up against Chrysalis, was because I was so emotional at the time. Without that fire, it's not so easy to for me to do spells, even with Starlight directly teaching me how to do them. It made sense since Starlight said her magic's partly linked to her emotions, and I was using her magic.

As I was struggling with one of them, a new voice called from behind me and Starlight.

"Having trouble, newbie?"

It was Trixie, without her magician get-up, chuckling. Starlight and I had already told Trixie about the spell she used to give me the ability to use magic. She quickly figured out we did it again, so she wasn't that surprised that I was using magic.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Hi, Trixie. What are you doing here?"

"I was stopping by to ask if you could help me with my next show. Why's Eric using your magic again?"

"He was really bored, so he asked if I could give him the ability to use magic. Then I thought I'll give him a little training."

"I see," Trixie came a bit closer to me, with a smirk. "So, how many times you messed up, Eric? forty? Fifty times?"

"I haven't messed up that many times!"

"Yeah, Buggie, you only messed up thirty-five times."

"Not helping, Starie. And you were keeping count?"

"Aw, don't worry, Eric. It's not easy to do spells right away. Even I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, had a little bit of trouble at first."

Now it was my turn to put a smirk on my face. "Like how you kept saying 'teacup!' thinking that's how you do transmutation spells, Trixie? Yeah, I saw you whine to Starlight when you couldn't do it."

"Hey! I didn't whine to her when I had trouble doing it!"

Starlight chuckled, and said, "All right, that's enough, you two. But Eric really is doing well, considering he wasn't born with Unicorn magic, and barely has actual experience in using it."

"Oh yeah. It's like our 'cartoon' can teach spells to otherworldly beings better than we can to other Unicorns."

Trixie then thought of an idea.

"Hey, I know what we can do. Eric, let's have a magic duel!"

I put a finger to my chin as I thought about it. "A magic duel? You mean like the one you and Twilight once had? I don't know, Trixie..."

"Come on, don't be like that. You know I'm a better pony now then I was back then. This will just be a friendly little duel."

Starlight cut in and asked, "You just want to finally beat somepony - er - someone, in a magic duel with your own magic, don't you Trixie?"

"What, no! That's not it! I just want to test Eric here, and see what he can do."

Trixie's no Twilight or Starlight, but she's still far more experienced in magic than me, and better in spells than a Unicorn like Rarity is. Unlike me, Trixie was born with her Unicorn magic because she's, well a Unicorn. And Starlight's been teaching her too, so I thought I'd had little chance to beat her. But, maybe the fire of competition could help me learn the spells Starlight's trying to teach me better. Since Trixie might start bugging us if I kept saying no, I figured why not?

"Okay, Trixie, you're on!"

"You sure about this, Buggie?"

"Yeah, Starie, I'm sure. I love a challenge, you know."

"That's the spirit, Eric! I knew I liked you for a reason. Let's do it!"

"Wait, what rules will we use, and what spells do we use for it?"

"Well, Buggie, Trixie, at least more-or-less, knows the spells I was teaching you, so we could have those spells be the ones you two use."





The three of us moved to a wider area that's better suited for my and Trixie's magic duel. Starlight decided the rules would that Trixie and I would each use one of the spells Starlight was teaching me, and that Trixie's at least familiar with, in a best-of-five magic duel, with the first to win three rounds winning our duel. Whoever did the spell in a round best, or at all, would win the round. Starlight would be the judge.

The first spell Starlight had us do was a materialization spell: creating something out of nothing.

"Okay, Trixie, Buggie, you each must materialize as big a red rubber ball as you can, and whoever ball is the biggest, wins the first round."

"Well, you heard the judge, Trix. Ladies first."

"Fine by me, I wanted to go last anyway"

"Oh, ha-ha."

In case you're wondering why Trixie's picking on me so much (even for her), and why I seem to be doing it to her a bit too, this is actually part of how we became friends. But outside of her barbs, she's actually really nice, once you get to know her. The two of us love taking friendly jabs at each other like this. It's even a reason why she likes me, even if it does sometimes get on Starlight's nerves. Starlight mainly just tolerates it when Trixie takes jabs at her, but I truly enjoy her barbs...most of the time. Since Trixie knows it, she doesn't hold back, like she tries to do with Starlight.

And just in case you're wondering: no, Trixie doesn't like me.

But anyway, back to our magic duel. I pictured a big red rubber ball in my head, and focused it on a spot in front of me. I fired a light-blue beam on the ground, materializing the same red rubber ball I had pictured in my head. It was about five inches tall. Guess the fire of competition did the trick, because It could barely materialize a thing when Starlight was trying to teach me this spell before.

With a smile, I yelled out, "Yes, I did it!"

"Way to go, Buggie! that's by far the best you're done with that spell!"

"Not bad, newbie, not bad. Now stand back and let The Great and Powerful Trixie show you how it's done!"

Because Trixie didn't have her hat on when she came by, she didn't have to worry about it being in the way of her magical beams. Her horn glowed, and she fired a pink beam on the ground, creating the same kind of red rubber ball I did, but it was slightly smaller, but only by about a third of an inch. 

Starlight put the balls we created beside each other, and took a close look at them. "Eric's ball is bigger, so he wins round one!"

"Ha! In your face, Trixie!"

Safe to say, Trixie wasn't happy. She whined, "What?! I lost?! How could I lose to Eric?!" 

I danced around a bit, waving my arms (Hey, I never said I was a good dancer) as I continued to gloat. I didn't think I'll actually beat Trixie once, so I got a little carried away with my gloating. And yeah, she wasn't enjoying that.

"How you like losing to a 'newbie' Trixie? Oh yeah, Eric Reed, one. 'The Great and Powerful Trixie', zero!"

"Okay, good job, Buggie, let's go on to round two."

"Yeah yeah, let's go to round two. That was just beginners luck, newbie."





For round two, Starlight would toss some small rocks in my or Trixie's direction (but not at us) with her magic, one at a time. We had to catch and hold as many as we could with our levitation, and whoever can do the most, wins. Unlike round one, this felt more like a test on the limits of my levitation skills, then a test of spells. But, Starie's the judge, so what she said the rules are, does. Since I won the first round, I went first again.

"Okay, you ready, Buggie?"

"Yep!"

"All right, here they come!"

"Don't crack under the pressure, newbie."

"You be quiet and let me focus, so I can go up 2-0!" Yep, I think I'm as bad as Applejack and Rainbow Dash, when it comes to wanting to win competitions.

Starlight rolled her eyes, getting annoyed at the smack-talk. She picked up two rocks with her magic, and toss them near me, and I caught them with "my" magic, with ease.

"Not bad, Buggie, but I'm gonna keep them coming."

Starlight tossed more rocks, one by one, and once I got to five rocks, I started struggling.

"What's wrong, newbie? You can't handle holding a few rocks?"

Hearing that made it a bit easier for me to hold them, and Starlight tossed one more, which I barely caught. But, once I tried to grab a seventh rock she tossed. I reached my limit, and couldn't do it. It made me drop all the rocks I were holding up.

I wiped my head, a bit tired from the effort. "Whew, that was harder than I thought."

"Six rocks, that's good for your first try, Buggie. Okay, your turn, Trixie. You ready?"

"I'm ready, Starlight. This is nothing: I could win this with my eyes closed."

"I'll like to see you try it, Trixie."

"Well, I don't feel like it, so maybe next time I will. Throw me some rocks Starlight!"

Starlight groaned, then, just like she did with me, Starlight tossed two rocks in Trixie's direction, which she easily caught. Then she tossed more, one by one, till Trixie was levitating six rocks. Unlike me, Trixie was still barely breaking a sweat. With a snug face, she looked at me to make sure I knew it.

"You see, newbie? I told you this was nothing!"

I stood there, thinking I should've remembered that Trixie probably would be able to levitate things a lot better than me. And that I probably should've kept my mouth shut.

Starlight tossed a seventh rock, which Trixie caught easily. Still looking at me, "The Great and Powerful Trixie" stuck her tongue out, to further rub it in.

Starlight announced, "All right, Trixie wins round two, so it's tied at 1-1!"

With her most snug voice yet, Trixie told me, "Well, newbie? Still think you can beat me, The Great and Powerful Trixie?"

"It's not over yet, Trixie!"

At this point, I probably should've admitted that I just might've bitten off more than I could chew, but the fire of competition wouldn't let me. Round three was about to start, and I wanted to take down Trixie in this duel!

My Great and Powerful test was just beginning.