pan2000

As the two magicians prepare for the duel in Tiamo, Cookie fully heals Abra, and Rey fully heals Trixie.

Both sides insisted on the other side bein properly healed as well so there will be no excuses like "I was injured!", they want the fight to be fair.

Now they are both prepared.

Twilight is encouraging Trixie.

"You can beat Abra! You are the Great and Powerful Trixie, and you are going to single-handedly save a planet from years of discriminations!"

"And the Great and Powerful Trixie will be able to outshine her rival at last!" Trixie comments.

At the same time, Abra Kadabra is being encouraged by Cookie.

"You managed to defeat that fearsome Iron Horn, you cannot lose to your assistant! You know all of her tricks!"

"So does she. This won't be easy, but I still am a Unicornicopian and she is an Equestrian. Considering our physical traits are above theirs, I think I have her.

When creativity is near-equal, strength can save the day!" Abra tells him, preparing his magical hat.

"I think Tiamo will benefit from our victory. I will offer them the best food and you will offer them the best shows every day. They willingly asked for us to protect them, if you remember. They didn't want to face a dreaded dragon again," Cookie tells Abra.

Abra gives him a thumbs up. "Well, we can always rely on the Majestic Dragon for that!"

"Indeed. Spike taught that Argorok a lesson."

As everyone in Tiamo is prepared for the magic show, in Herboss courtroom is in session, and Judge Cocobolo Rosewood is staring at the defendant, Constable Kerd.

"You are guilty of arson, murders and enslaving the planet. What do you have to say for yourself, defendant?" Rosewood asks him, banging her gavel.

"I saved you from Starfleet. I gave you more freedom than they did. With me, conditions have improved.

Also, speaking of war crimes, I was suggested to use a Lily Carnation, and repeatedly prohibited that from happening.

Do as you please, but know you are not imprisoning a bad guy" Kerd tells her.

The defense attorney has to add something. "Starfleet never allowed a Herbolite to have any authority, even those who cooperated with them. My client actually shared his authority with a Herbolite, Cynthia Poisonthorn, and she was more active than him in practice.

So, this is evidence that his claims are true."

"OBJECTION! He still allowed Cynthia and his minions to beat up slaves for disagreeing with them. We can't make his crimes disappear," the prosecutor responds.

"Objection sustained" Rosewood tells him. "The few good points he raises, as well as the fact that he has proven to be delusional about what he does, will spare his life. However, he still committed crimes and deserves to spend his life in prison.

I declare the defendant, Kerd...

GUILTY

That's all. The accused will be escorted to prison."

And everyone who suffered under the Black Legion cheers loudly.

A little later, everyone is having a feast, and eat and drink as much as they like, except the pilots, whom Poe barred from drinking for obvious reasons.

"Come on, not even a liiiitle glass of beer?" Jessika asks Poe.

"No. Except if you don't want to fly on your own when we reassemble," Poe tells her, looking her in the eyes.

Meanwhile, Virago has already drunk one glass. "I think today an anniversary should be marked! How should we call it?"

"Independence Day?" L'ulo asks.

"We have a similar holiday in the country I come from... but I think here it's more accurate. It's not settlers cutting from the motherland, it's natives gaining full control of their lands" Virago tells him. "So, why not?"

"Then... Happy Independece Day!" L'ulo declares.

One hour later, the duel begins!

Trixie and Abra bow to each other.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will not hold back against you!"

"Time to show why Starfleet magic is superior to Equestrian magic! I will be serious from the very beginning!"

Both tip their hats in respect and Abra attacks first, summoning a swarm of mosquitoes to sting his assistant.

"If I win, you will be just my assistant, like you were before!" Abra taunts as the mosquitoes approach.

Trixie summons a couple of frogs that eat all the mosquitoes. "But if I win, we will compete and be free to use our magic in shows! And you will quit flaunting your superiority!"

Abra summons a snake that devours the frogs. "To be honest, I wish we could freely use our abilities out of fights. Celesto nearly made us rusty! Except I can do something even without spells."

Trixie summons a hedgehog that eats the snake, which slithers to bite her, alive and rushes to sting Abra with its spikes.

"Not so fast!" Abra tells her and summons a big fox, which lunges at Trixie but the hedgehog stops it. The fox takes a piss on the hedgehog, leaving it vulnerable, and eats it.

Trixie loses composure for a moment, but regains it fast. "Now you will say 'Foxes are top of the food chain. You have no animal to summon'. And that would be right. But your fox does not have to be eaten. I just need a better animal."

And she summons a massive tiger, which sends the fox flying on Abra with a single claw swipe. The fox retreats in the hat, the tail between its legs.

And the tiger walks around the stage, growling at Abra. Then, seeing an opening, it pounces.

Abra calculates it and knocks the tiger back, making it retreat, with a hard right hook to the face.

"Then again, Celesto's laws allow us to become physically stronger. And now, time for some real entertainment!" Abra declares as he vanishes in a cloud of smoke.

"Before I took you as my assistant, you were a blowhard. You were willing to do a lot of bad things so you could pretend you are something you are not" his voice echoes all over the place.

No reaction.

"Trixie, without me, you would still be a fraud. And this is why we are not truly equals!" Abra appears behind her and with a karate chop to the neck knocks her out.

Then he flexes to the audience. "I think we have a winner! It's none else than..."

And right behind him, bright pink letters appear.

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE LULAMOON

He turns around. "What the..."

And a trapdoor captures him.

As he falls down, he looks around, the stress eating him alive.

"Where are you?"

And eyes appear all around him.

"The reason I can't outshine my competition usually... is that it's Twilight. I am striving to surpass her... and I won't lose so easily to a mere settler!"

"Y... you are cheating!" Abra shouts, trembling.

The feminine voice echoes around him. "Cheating? I didn't try to end the battle of the summons with my fists, Abra. But since there is a planet at stake and we use illusions anyway...

Why should I care about honor against a cheater?"

Trixie appears behind him and lightly taps his left shoulder, making him jump.

"And I don't even need cheating! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Abra creates mirrors all around the room, which allow him to see his surroundings, and even Trixie herself.

And now her outfit is different. She is still wearing a black top hat, but it now has a silver line, and her cape has turned silver as well.

Her outfit is also a mix of silver and black.

Abra draws cards out of nowhere and throws all of them at Trixie, but she suddenly vanishes, leaving only a few tiny stars behind.

However, Abra has another magic trick.

He draws a saw out of his left sleeve, and turns into three Abras, enhanced enough to be shown in the mirrors.

Each of them is carrying a saw.

Outside, the audience is holding its breath. Some soldiers from both sides are biting their nails.

And suddenly, Abra emerges from the ground, having tied Trixie up to a bed.

"Looks like we have a volunteer for my next and final trick!" He draws his saw and raises it, ready to cut the Equestrian in half.

"Help me! Someone help me!" Trixie begs.

"Well, you wanted to undermine our empire. We could rule this planet together, you know, and entertain the people every day!" Abra tells her. "But you are always so selfish. You don't like sharing anything, right? So much for someone who comes from a civilization that values friendship above all else."

A Stormwolf member from Earth turns to his brother. "Has he ever heard of people who worship a god that preaches nothing but selflessness and love and still kill for greed?"

"I don't think so."

Abra ignores the murmurs of the enemy to not be distracted and with his saw cuts Trixie in half.

However, no blood comes out.

"I should have figured, this never works on a fellow magician. Trixie! How do you manage to escape so easily?"

A moon ascends in front of him, and from inside Trixie comes out, cracking it open like an egg. "By the time you finish gloating, I have thought of five more tricks, Abra. Maybe you are too cocky?"

Abra retaliates with a barrage of cards, but Trixie slides under them.

The male magician turns to a massive statue of the hero that stopped the dragon in the Ten Days of Darkness.

"HOCUS POCUS...".

And suddenly a sock appears in his mouth. He tries to remove it, but another one comes. And another one. And yet another one. Each of them has a different color.

"Abra, you still have much to learn. For starters, calling your spells in front of another magician? Not a bright idea."

As Abra is still struggling with the socks, Trixie decides it's her turn to taunt. "You Unicornicopians can always win, right? You can pull some power up out of a dark place where the Sun doesn't shine. Here, let me get it out to make things more fair."

Abra's eyes bulge in horror as he realizes what she said. And suddenly, his butt starts inflating, until a skunk comes out of it.

"You were planning to distract me with this? Oh, that's a shame!" Trixie tells him. "Wait, looks like we have more asspulls!" And she uncovers a few spikes, five cards that are aces, and a hypnotizing trinket.

Abra takes a step back, cringing in pain. But then, narrowing his eyes, he makes spikes come out and impale her feet. She pulls a rope from her sleeve and ties him up, but he smirks and relaxes, freeing himself from the bonds. Then he ties her up with her own rope.

He becomes four and starts firing more cards, hitting her from seemingly all sides at once. In reality he uses his speed to keep switching places with his clones.

In the eyes of the audience, all four Abras conjure a wall of spikes at once in front of them, ready to crush Trixie.

"Even Dementia of Titan's Trio had trouble with my tricks, while you can't even surpass Twilight. And from what Grand Ruler told me... she would die to the first flower monster Titan's forces sent at us. Good luck escaping this one!"

Twilight tries her best not to use her magic to sew Abra's mouth, while Finn pats her in the back.

Rarity whispers to her ear. "It's ok, I know you can cast fire and ice. No plant can survive both simultaneously."

Trixie touches one of the walls. "Well, looks like they are dense as usual. How do you plan to kill Trixie with spikes that don't impale... oh. Silly Trixie! She forgot you are going to close the walls in!"

Abra makes mirrors all around the arena and has a clone watch around in every single corner.

Then the walls start closing in, while the Abras and the mirrors detect nothing suspicious.

Trixie is helplessly struggling until all four walls close in and crush her, making blood spurt out and a sickening CRUNCH! to be heard.

Then Abra draws a Tarot card that shows The World, and shows it to everyone "This is the end of our journey. And also shows that this world is still at the hands of Starfleet!"

"Uhm, you are holding it in reverse" a voice is heard from the crowd.

Abra looks down, and his card is now upside down.

"Huh?"

"You did not win! The fight continues!" another voice comes from the crowd.

"You are good, but not good enough."

"If you were a bit less loyal to Grand Ruler's nonsense, you would never fall in hard times. But now you have to waste your talents!"

"And that makes you so rusty!"

The Abra clones spot Trixie in the audience. And then another one. And yet one more. And another. And another. And another.

Twenty Trixies emerge from the audience and all charge at the Abras, while the real Abra curses. "Fucking ketchup and trapdoors" he says in a tone nobody but himself hears.

Then he raises spikes from the ground, all around the stage, so the Trixies can't approach him easily.

Alas, all of them vanish in a cloud of smoke and appear inside the stage not long after.

It doesn't take long for the real ones to find each other, as Trixie ambushes Abra and punches him hard enough to draw blood.

However, Abra recovers and backhands her hard, then punches her in the gut viciously. This makes a bruise and winds Trixie, sending her skidding close to a mirror.

"A fistfight? Have you forgotten who is physically stronger between us two?" Abra says as he blocks a kick and headbutts the mare before landing two hard hooks, first right and then left.

Trixie is knocked further back into the mirrors, and throws two punches that are blocked. With all his might and speed, Abra throws a very hard direct punch, dashing, but Trixie sidesteps and makes him punch the mirror, his right hand bleeding profusely from the glass shards.

"For seven years, you will play second fiddle to Trixie!" Trixie exploits how his opponent is stunned to make a cup of coffee appear and throw it at him, scorching him.

Enraged, Abra rushes at her, but she makes a banana peel emerge under him and makes him slip, then knocks him down with an uppercut.

"Trixie knows she is weaker than you physically. So she challenged you in a way you would get too cocky!"

Abra coughs some blood, then suddenly, he vanishes! And he appears close to the mirror, holding a glass shard in each hand.

He throws the first one at Trixie, wounding her in the left shoulder. The second one is fired next, but Trixie recovers and makes them switch places. The shard hits Abra in the chest and knocks him out.

"You are good. But you are not Trixie."

And the Tiamoans, as well as everyone in Stormwolf, erupt into cheers.

"TRIXIE! TRIXIE! TRIXIE!"

And the magician more than appreciates the cheers.

So, one day later, Starfleet leaves, and Tiamo sees itself as neutral in its stance.

Stormwolf leaves as well, because there are other planets to save. And especially to not influence the elections.

However, everyone who helped save the planet gets a medal.

Even Cookie and Abra. Abra still feels bad about his loss though.

Cookie pats him in the back. "It's ok, Abra. You did your best. You nearly won."

"But the Grand Ruler does not care. He only wants complete success. For him I am now a total failure. Either someone does something or they don't. He does not appreciate efforts. I am useless."

"Not to these people. You beat Iron Horn, Celesto will forgive you."

Trixie gets a medal that's solid gold, unlike everyone else in Stormwolf, who gets silver, and the members of Starfleet, who get a bronze.

"See? The Great and Powerful Trixie surpassed you, Twilight!" she points a finger at the princess.

"Enjoy your victory. I will just let you know I would beat him far more easily" Twilight tells her, winking.

With the liberation of Tiamo, Stormwolf plans to reunite.

It's time to retake United Equestria.