>>911 >The walls of the box fell down to reveal a whole and unharmed Sunny Buns lying on the table, her great wings falling open from relief to be out of their confinement >hoof-stomping applause rolled from the audience, and it was the sweetest of musics to Trixie's ears Dumb character limit.

>>912 >Sunny Buns was similarly affected by the applause >She rolled off the table and onto her hooves before throwing herself into a wing-assisted backflip and landing center-stage >Trixie bowed while allowing her hat to hide the stink eye that she was giving Sunny Buns <Time to get rid of this scene-stealer >Trixie gave Sunny Buns a none-too-gentle hip bump that got a playful giggle in respose <"Thank you for your assistance, Miss Sunny Buns. Now, if you will retake your seat," Trixie said as she pushed the troublesome assistant stage-right and back toward the spot where her blue companion was sitting in the audience, "Trixie will continue her show." >"Oo, what does this box do?" Sunny Buns said as Trixie continues to hip check the larger pegasus across the stage <"That's the Cabinet of Realms," Trixie turned to her audience mid-bump and announced, "which Trixie shall demonstrate next!" >"I wanna see," Sunny Buns said as she hopped away from Trixie and up to the cabinet <"Get away from that," Trixie said, stumbling from a missed hip check >Heedless, Sunny Buns opened the tall cabinet door and slipped inside, the brim of her wide hat squeezed upward by its tight walls <"Hey!" Trixe tried to stop her, but Sunny Buns closed the door before Trixie could catch her >Trixie stomped a hoof in frustration >Except for the blue unicorn in the large shawl, the audience laughed, thinking that this was part of the routine >Seeing an opportunity to keep the show going, Trixie wheeled about to face them and annouced, <"The dimension-bending magic of The Great and Powerful Trixie shall get her out of the Cabinet of Realms" >She reared up on her hind legs and waved her forelegs as though she were casting a spell >As she was about to step on the hidden lever that released the trapdoor inside the box, its tall door yawned open >"Gotcha!" Sunny Buns siezed Trixie by the shoulders and yanked her inside the cabinet, the door slamming closed behind the pair >Outside, the reactions in the audience were varied >The blue unicorn sighed and rolled her eyes >The squire looked uncomfortable as he watched the enthusiastic cat-calling of the peons >The merchants and the newcomers laughed and offered one another the occasional knowing nudge >Inside the cabinet that had been built for one, Trixie and Sunny Buns were pressed against one another chest-to-chest with their forelegs propped upon one another's shoulders >Sunny Buns, being the taller, stared down her nose at Trixie with a teasing grin >Quite cozy in here, isn't it?" she said while wiggling against Trixie <"Release me at once! You are ruining Trixie's show," Trixie complained while thrashing about, the resulting thuds and wobbling looking far less than innocent from the outside >"I think the show is going quite well," Sunny Buns said in a breathy whisper that tickled Trixie's ear >Trixie stilled, the intimacy taking her out of the moment >She felt the warm breath on her neck and the steady beat of a heart against her own, smelled the bouquet of flowers above their heads, heard... >Trixie heard the audience outside whistling and making lascivious remarks, their laughter teasing >Trixie heard no awe, no wonder >A sob pushed its way up her chest and past her lips before she knew it was coming >Her past failures and her now-dashed hope of finding a benefactor took center-stage in her mind >Sunny Buns' grin melted into a frown of horror and regret >Trixie was angered by the sight <"If you had wanted to be a partner in Trixie's act, you could have asked her before the show," she said while striking her forelegs upon Sunny Buns' shoulders <"Of course, Trixie would have said 'no.' And if you had truly wanted to bed Trixie, I... " <She held back the words I am so alone >Trixie hung her head and allowed tears to streak down her face >Sunny Buns' voice dropped several tones, "Oh, my little pony, I am so sorry," she said in a warm, motherly voice that Trixie had to look up to confirm belonged to the same mare >"I will not ask you to forgive me un

>>913 >til I have made this right."

>>913 Liking this quite a bit! Please, write more.

>>915 I am glad to hear it. Honestly, I was not sure how a feelsy bit would work in the middle of an innuendo-heavy comedy. I'll keep going on this until it gets done. Don't worry--Trixie has a happy ending in both senses of the phrase. But first, work and sleep.

>>913 >Sunny Buns removed her forelegs from Trixie's shoulders and braced herself against the door and the back wall of the Cabinet of Secrets >Trixie was surprised to find that she missed being held >A muted golden light that seemed to come from Sunny Buns' flowery hat illumunated the dim interior <So, the trick that her ridiculous hat was hiding was a horn! ...But I saw her flip in the air. >Before Trixie could puzzle through the illusion, the trapdoor beneath the cabinet fell open, and she fell through it with a squeal and landed beneath the floorboards of the stage >Trixie pushed her own hat back and stared upward through the trapdoor at Sunny Buns'long pink tail >Reddish eyes peered down at Trixie around the flowing hair, and Sunny Buns said, "Meet me at the gate." <"What?" >was all Trixie got out before the golden light in Sunny Buns' hat re-ignited >As an Aura enveloped Trixie, Sunny Buns flicked her tail to the side and gave Trixie a parting wink before the world around her imploded into a speck of light the size of a pinhole and then burst out around her again >Trixie first registered that she was laying on her back on top of soft, warm sod >There were manicured topiaries and flower beds on either side of her, and in a courtyard behind her, a marble statue of a pony seemed to be prancing atop her pedistal in the middle of a seashel-decorated rococo-style fountain >Trixie was in the most beautiful garden that she had even seen >The notion that Sunny Buns had accidentally killed her and sent her to Elysium had just entered Trixie's mind when she heard a great gasp coming from a crowd beyond a tall white wall >The palace wall >Trixie is inside the palace garden! >Looking about frantically, she saw the arched gate with its pair of armored guards >The square where she had been performing was just on the other side >Trixie galloped to the gate and peered around the corner at the great square >Half of the crowd was sitting back on the cobblestone in shock, and the other was bowing their heads >There on-stage, the empty Cabinet of Realms behind her, stood Princess Celestia sans regalia >To Trixie's horror, she looked annoyed >The princess' pillow-soft voice carried across the square, "It looks like Trixie has done it again." <Trixie's knees shook But it wasn't Trixie! It was that Sunny- "Wait, how does the princess know Trixie?" she said while the pieces in her teleportation-addled head fell into place >"Now, if you will all excuse me, my little ponies," Celestia said as she flared her enormous wings, "I have a very important date to prepare for." >With a single beat of her wings, the princess was in the air and flying over the crowd in Trixie's direction >Trixie suddenly realized that she had actually struck Princess Celestia upon the shoulder and ducked behind the gate >Celestia brought herself to a stop mid-air before the gate and turned back to the crowd >"I suppose, since I'm already out here, I should get this taken care of," she announced with a playful lilt >Brilliant light radiated from her, casting the square a shimmering gold, and the sun completed its journey downward and beneath the horizon >As Celestia's magic faded, darkness shrouded the square before gas lamps upon poles puffed to life and cast their warm orange glow upon the assembled crowd >Without another word, Celestia swooped under and through the arched gate >The two armored guards on either side of it were non-plussed as though the princess' antics were not any manner of oddity >Once beyond the gate, Celestia swung around behind the wall and landed right in front of Trixie's hiding place, giving the little magician a start >Trixie backed her backside up against the sun-warmed wall and stared slack-jawed at the undisguised form of her lovely assistant >Celestia bit her lip impatiently, listening to the excited rumbling of the crowd beyond the wall >In a flash, she vanished and "Sunny Buns" appeared in her place

>>917 Yay, Princess Molly!

>>917 >The re-disguised Celestia, still in her flowery hat looked Trixie straight in the eyes and said in her playful Sunny Buns voice, "I've been a very bad girl." >The forbidden fantasies that every adolescent entertained about their deific ruler flooded Trixie's mind >The palace wall that Trixie's hindquarters were pressed against felt cold of the sudden <"Bad girl," Trixie mumbled while staring back into Celestia's eyes >"My inexpert fiddling with the delicate magics inside the Cabinet of Secrets caused us to re-emerge inside the Princess' boudoir," Celestia dictated <Is Trixie being invited into the Princess' bodoir? >Trixie trembled in excitement >The wall now felt wet as well as cold >"You only hope that the Princess doesn't find out what we did. She would be most upset given how forgiving she was the last time that this happened," Celestia finished with a playful smirk >This didn't fit the fantasy at all <Oh! She is giving Trixie stage direction. The show! >Still trembling with nervous arousal, Trixie nodded <"Trixie understands." Trixie's expert stagecraft will simply play off this shaking and blushing as fear of the Princess' divine wrath >Celestia winked. "Good, let's go" >She rounded the wall and trotted with anxious steps ahead of Trixie >She made a show of wincing away as she passed the completely disinterested guards >Following Celestia's lead, both in terms of direction and in tone, Trixie snuck out of the gate and back into the great square >"I am so sorry, Miss Trixie," a pouting Sunny Buns said in a voice that was loud enough to carry when Trixie caught up to her, "I didn't know that it would send us there." >In the most dramatic voice she could muster in her knee-shakingly aroused state, Trixie shouted, <"Foolish assistant! Your, um, inexpert fiddling with the delicate folds of Trixie's- magics! inside the Cabinet of Secrets caused us to emerge inside the Princess' hot chamber- bed chamber. Trixie hopes that the Princess doesn't... " >Trixie trailed off as she noticed that every pony in the square was bent to the ground in a deep bow save the blue unicorn who had arrived with Sunny Buns <Trixie has received boisterous applause before but never bowing. Could this be how Canterlot lauds its best performers? >The blue unicorn sputtered and laughed >"Foolish sister," she called, "Ne'er did'st thou remove thine bonnet from off thine head! Verily, all do know 'tis thee!" >Sunny Buns sighed and slumped >"Would you prefer that we play along, Your Majesty?" asked the squire, daring to look up from his bow >"The jig is up, I suppose," Sunny Buns said before a flash of brilliant light that illuminated the sqaure replaced her with Princess Celestia, the flowery hat still upon her head >As Trixie gazed in awe at Celestia revealed, she felt something that surprised her: sadness that she might not see Sunny Buns again <She was the worst assistant that Trixie has ever had on-stage! She was a scene-stealer, an ad-libber, a comedian. <But she also loved the stage, the applause, the True Magic. >Trixie stared at Celestia's sun hat with its bouquet and the one rose stuck still within it as the Princess spoke again >"Forgive me, my little ponies," she said with a shallow bow. "I am afraid that I have quite spoiled Miss Trixie's performance." >She turned a benevolent, motherly gaze down upon Trixie at her side >A glint flashed in the ancient gem that was her eye, and for that brief half-second, Trixie saw Sunny Buns again >Addressing the crowd, the Princess finished, "From now on I shall leave stage magic to the experts." >While reading a crowd had never been Trixie's forte, she could tell what this one felt by the somber tone of the murmur that rumbled through it <"The Great and Powerful Trixie does not share the stage with other experts," Trixie announced, drawing a questioning glance from Celestia, "She only requires that her assistants be lovely." >Their eyes met again, and they shared an understanding

>>919 Sorry for taking so long. Life sucks.

>>919 Pretty good so far. Nice pic.