There she was, standing center stage on the first row. In a moment of silence while her first shout echoed out across the masses Trixie looked down at her. Eyes open and clearly paying attention she and everyone else stared up at her, waiting for what would come next. The mare she once was stood there, right in front of her without a single smidge of knowledge of her own greatness.
Trixie knew what would happen to her, or at least she had an extremely well-grounded guess. She would most likely have to handle everything she had and today would be the final confirmation. Hiding the frown that threatened to show behind an even firmer smirk she once more addressed her crowd.
“Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie preforms the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!” She could hear the mumbling begin in the background as the scream quieted down by the second.
Trixie started the first part of her act, the warm-up. Minor spells such as levitating a dozen balls and creating and the illusion of a bouquet of flowers followed one another and she could tell they didn’t buy it. Bickering on the front row made its way to her ears as she listened to her former friends reassure this timelines Twilight that being talented wasn’t something bad.
“They aren’t buying it, as planned. Now just to wait for my cue.” She didn’t have to wait long as Rainbow Dash started booing her out for the magic act. Leveling down on all fours she moved towards the edge of the stage before responding to the obvious insult.
“Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do they not know that they’re in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?” How she pushed her head forward on neightsayers really made her feel silly, but she reasoned it was all for a good cause. Now though, she had to dance a dance with the rest of the gang and she could only hope they would play their parts.
With a raspberry Rarity was the first of the five to respond, although not directed straight at her. “Just who does she think she is?” Followed by the amusing display of Spike defending Twilight and she insisting that she’s nothing special. As the two of them left the scene to speak in private to themselves she counted to ten before unleashing another round of fireworks and a fanfare on top of that.
In an instant Rainbow Dash was up in her face, staring down at her from the air. “So, ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’. What makes you think you’re so awesome anyway?”
“Heh, why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major!” The reply came out in the most haughty and arrogant tone she could muster, with the fanfares and fireworks really laying it on thick. Most of the crowd seemed impressed with the Ursa illusion created from blue light, so she left it hanging.
After giving the least believable story ever Trixie simply sat back as the two younglings enthusiastically defended her of their own free will. As she challenged the citizens of Ponyville to the most outrageous competition ever she forced herself not to show any signs of her actual feelings and focused as much as possible on the role. When absolute silence stretched across the area and crickets could be heard in the background, Trixie made her first move.
“Please Applejack don’t fail me now.” Glancing over at the earth pony in question as she exaggerated the looking motion with her head she settled in on the real target, Twilight. “Hmm, how about you!” She really was uncomfortable there. Twilight recoiled as soon as the hoof pointed at her and all the attention came onto her.
Luckily Applejack didn’t disappoint and as soon as the pushing started she snapped and joined Trixie on the stage.
The minutes that followed became some of the worst minutes of her life. She watched as each one of her doubles friends give their own stage performance that she had to one up. She watched Applejack give a fairly impressive performance with her lasso that most likely had taken her ages to learn, before Trixie with a heavy heart and a sour taste in her mouth hog tie her and unceremoniously dump her back down on the stage. Trixie heard as the crowd laughed at the expense of her friends failure and had to stop herself before snapping back at them.
Rainbow followed shortly after Applejack and gave an equally impressive, though less surprising, act around her flying skills that ended with a small rainbow of her own on stage. Without missing a beat from before Trixie picked up Rainbow in her magic and spun her around until a miniature hurricane formed on stage and threw her away, all while Trixie had to stand there on stage smiling and berating them.
And finally Rairty got up on stage and created a dress in front of their very eyes with magic. Trixie had to admit it wasn’t a spell she knew or could replicate, but that didn’t matter. All she had to do was humiliate them, even if the pit in her stomach grew deeper and deeper with every hurtful word she spoke. Seeing Rarity galloping away in tears from the green colour in her mane almost broke herm but somehow she pulled it together in the end.
Twilight now stood alone after three of her friends had challenged her and lost and the other two disappeared somewhere during the ordeal. With a last act of willpower Trixie put on her smug smile and walked over to the edge of the stage once more and resumed pushing Twilight over the edge. Knowing what would come each word became harder and harder to speak, but before long Twilight had already ran away almost in tears.
On that remarkably sour note the crowd gave a rather unmotivated cheer before dispersing in every direction, leaving the viewing area in front of her empty. The only two left in the area were the two colts from before. For all the things that had taken place during the performance, the both of them still looked as star struck as they did earlier when they first ran into her and agreed to spread the news.
“Guh! Trixie is far too exhausted from preforming feats beyond imagination. Begone with you until morning.” Frustration from speaking in third person started showing on her face, but it could be misinterpreted as sleep deprivation and the two colts left backing with their heads held low.
Trixie promptly entered the wagon next to her and crept into the bed and wept.
Being awoken by something slamming on your door wasn’t one of the more pleasant experiences for Trixie, but at least she had seen it coming. A final look around in the room to make sure nothing she needed still was stored anywhere she took the three steps required to get to the door and opened it. After a moment to compose herself and getting back into character she finally responded to the two colts at her door.
“Trixie thought she said the Great and Powerful Trixie did not want to be disturbed! What is so important that you cannot wait until morning to disturb Trixie?” The question was only for their sake. She had seen this play out twice before, once as a part of it and once as a vivid memory and now she would live it from a third perspective.
Watching as the Ursa rip down trees without a care as it moved down the path towards her gave her more than the view she had hope for. Not missing a beat she bolted from the wagon entirely, checking back once or twice to make sure the other two had gotten away from their in time. The second time she turned around the Ursa’s paw down and crushed the rented wagon to shreds, ruining everything inside it.
“At least I didn’t own it, but I bet I will have to pay for it if they catch me.” She knew the next part all too well. She stopped when she came to the end of the alley, sadly trapped between buildings and a cranky Ursa. She took the little rope from the urn she placed there before the show and pointlessly bound together two claws of one paw. A pitiful expression of magic even to her, she just needed to wait now.
Pushing the colts in front of her she forced them away from the monster in the rough direction of the Everfree forest. Trixie galloped down the path and counted the seconds until the real show would start. Then from the shadows she showed up from seemingly nowhere. “Don’t mess this up now Trixie, you’re soon out of the water again.”
Twilight came from a corner and started running directly into the street, seemingly unaware of anything around her. She quietly joined the trio of unicorns and stood paralyzed as the Ursa came ever so slowly closer. The first question from Twilight mouth didn’t come as a surprise to Trixie, though she held her face unreadable.
“What’s going on?”
“We brought an Ursa to town,” Snips, the not-so-bright genius replied followed by Snails shortly afterwards. “Don’t worry, the Great and Powerful Trixie will vanquish it.”
“Well, first hope to be crushed by me coming right up.” The depressing thought didn’t want to leave her mind, but she pushed it away for the moment. “I can’t. I never have. No one can vanquish and Ursa Major. I just made the whole story up to make me look better.”
The next part she couldn’t have hoped turned out better. She watched as Spike pushed Twilight to take center stage, forgetting all about Trixie for the moment as the Ursa proved to be the bigger issue. She had done it herself once, but nothing could prepare her for experiencing it as part of the audience.
Twilight summoned an ethereal wind that blew across the street and calmed the Ursa down enough to give it something and levitate it away. Regardless of how strained Twilight looked Trixie could do little else but stare at the triple over-glow of her horn as it lit up the night with its purple light.
The Ursa floated gently across the town and exited above the rooftops before slipping into the Everfree and out of sight. For a while longer Trixie stood in place and watched as Twilight’s horn kept on glowing, most likely to put the Ursa down in its proper spot in a cave.
As the light finally dimmed and Twilight started panting Trixie steeled herself for the last words she had to get out of her. Walking up to her double she put on the act one last time. “Huh. You might have vanquished an Ursa Minor, but you will never have the amazing, show-stopped ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie.” Before she threw down the second and last smoke bomb she prepared and ran out of town.
She could hear as their voices carried with the wind as they prepared to follow her but got stopped in time by Twilight. She said something and the sound of wing beats quieted down and disappeared entirely soon afterwards. The hoof beneath her thundered on as she moved further and further away from the town.
She paid little to no attention to her surrounding as she moved, focusing intently on getting as far away in as little time as possible so when something unexpectedly crashed into her she had no warning at all before blacking out.
Trixie couldn’t move an inch, her legs were tied to one another and by the feeling of it she was lying on something that moved. She opened one eye to assess the situation, but the sight that awaited her forced both eyes open.
She stared at metal bars going from the floor and up into the ceiling. Wooden planks both above and below her greeted her as she moved her head and somewhere close by a pony dragged something, judging by the sound of wheels. Unable to move she laid there on the uncomfortable planks and waited for whatever had captured her to show up.
Interrupted in her waiting by an irritated wind pipe she coughed a few times trying to clear it, apparently also notifying her captor that she was awake. The feeling of moving stopped and the sound from wheels quieted down as a lone pony made its way into her field of vision.
“So you’re finally awake huh? Glad you awoke so soon so we didn’t have to present to you unconscious. It would look bad,” the pony in front of her spoke but she couldn’t make out any details in the dark and the pony gave away little more.
“Present where?” She had to force the question out, her throat was dry from the coughing and the dust flying around certainly didn’t help.
“To the Princesses of course.”