Of Mares and Magic is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Shipping fic between Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon, involving Trixie's attempts to prove her superiority in magic to Twilight.
The story was originally posted on the Pony Fiction Archive, but was moved to the Archive of Our Own as part of the Open Doors project in 2022 when the Archive shut down. As such, it can be read here
now.
Tropes:
- Alliterative List:Trixie: "You can't be serious. Of all the convoluted, contrived, confounding coincidences, this one has to be the least profound, least precise, least possible possibility ever postulated by ponykind. It was just somepony setting off...a firework or something. Nothing at all like this...phenomenon you call a Rainboom. Puerile! Psychotic! Preposterous!"
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Derpy ends up taking Trixie's side in the seventh contest because Trixie didn't gawk or make fun of her eyes when they first met.
- The Chessmaster: Twilight Sparkle seems to outdo even Celestia in this fic. She places Trixie's scry spell on a photo in Trixie's bag to listen in on her, faking Stalker with a Crush behaviour and invoking Loophole Abuse in order to test Trixie's determination and compassion for her. This shows up even earlier when she actually uses her magic at full power for once in the third trial in order to gain the rights to spend time with Trixie through more Loophole Abuse, so she can learn more about her and finally become friends with her.
- Competitive Balance: The purpose of the seven tasks in a Magician's Duel is in acknowledgement that magical prowess can manifest in different ways, and the three most prominent unicorns in the story illustrate this in different ways.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Twilight Sparkle has the most raw magical power known to exist short of the Princesses, but is more likely to rely on that than any sort of finesse.
- Weak, but Skilled: Rarity is capable of incredibly fine detailed work as part of her fashion business, but can't come anywhere near Twilight's or Trixie's strength levels.
- Jack of All Stats: Trixie has neither Rarity's precision nor Twilight's raw strength, but still performs very well in both areas, and that balance allows her to officially retain the title of Great and Powerful.
- Connected All Along: Twilight concludes that Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom caused Trixie to get her Cutie Mark as well.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Derpy and Fluttershy became a couple after the former crashed into the latter's cottage and had to be nursed back to health.
- Glowing Gem: Prism stars are very rare, spherical gems suffused with light magic and glowing with every color of the rainbow. Twilight and Trixie use one as a source of visual effects during their Wizard Duel.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Trixie pulls this on Twilight, because the title they're battling for requires the challenger to go Walking the Earth. Fortunately for her, Twilight has it all under control.
- The Magnificent: Unicorns use a fairly complex system of honorifics which one formally earns under specific circumstances.
- "The Magnificent" is awarded to top students from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns — both Twilight and Trixie can use it; Twilight avoids it because she thinks it sounds gaudy.
- "Great and Powerful" is held by only a single pony at a time, and is obtained by defeating the previous holder in a formal magical duel.
- Our Dragons Are Different: These are what Trixie ends up fighting when she leaves Ponyville to become stronger at magic.
- Over Nine Thousand: At the tournament, Twilight's magic point average is revealed to be this.
- Pair the Spares: Defied when Trixie and Pinkie are talking about the relationships their friends are in.Trixie: I suppose next you'll tell me Applejack and Rarity are-
Pinkie: Oh ho ho, oh no, ha ha ha, noooooo no, wow, that's just... that's probably the silliest thing I've ever heard, those two? Ha HA, that'd be a laugh. Ahhhh, oh Trixie, you've got some crazy ideas. - Recursive Fanfiction: The first chapter of The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments is set in this universe.
- Relationship Upgrade: Derpy and Fluttershy had this before the story began, as did Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. By the end of the story, Twilight and Trixie have gotten here as well.
- Serious Business: Titles are prestigious enough that there are formal rules regarding how they are transferred and competed for, and seventy unicorns end up competing for "Great and Powerful" in the tournament. And the subsequent victor will spend the rest of their life stalked by challengers. Said rules have a few useful loopholes to avoid most of the hassle, though.
- Shout-Out: Sprinkled throughout, including;
- Sea Pony Lyra makes an appearance.
- At one point, Trixie ends up heading into the Everfree Forest to find the CMC, and stumbles upon a certain village.
- The tournament roster contains several minor characters (Blueblood, Lyra, Vinyl Scratch and Moondancer) in order to give the competition more content.
- The first two rules of Rainbow Dash’s Ultimate Unicorn Obstacle Course Deluxe, Mark Three sound suspiciously familiar. It gets lampshaded, too.Trixie: Where is she getting these rules? This sounds like a crazy pony's checklist.Twilight: Why is the second rule the same as the first?Rainbow Dash: It's not! It’s more menacing, since I shouted the ‘do not’ part.
- Stalker with a Crush: Twilight often comes across as this, she's not.
- Technician Versus Performer: Methodical, by-the-book Twilight is the Technician to flashy, showy Trixie's Performer.
- Walking the Earth: Trixie does this near the end of the story to become a more powerful unicorn. By the end of the fic, she has to do it again because it's a requirement of winning the title of Great and Powerful. Fortunately, Twilight pulls her Loophole Abusing Xanatos Gambit at this point.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Trixie is this to her father as part of her backstory as to why she was a bully.
