The strings of life

by Pitch Black

First published

A story of what happened to Trixie after the magic duel and how she struggles for a better life.

This is a story about the events that happened, after the magic duel. We all know what happened; Twilight saved the day, with the help of her friends. But do we know what happened to Trixie, what was life for her before and after the duel? This story is a follow up of the events that occurred after the duel, in Trixies perspective. All the hardships, the happy times and the struggles she had to go through. How her life will turn up-side-down after she meets a stallion, with an interesting history.

Cover art by d-tomoyo

Looking for pre-readers.

I hope you like the story and have a nice day.

Prologue

View Online

Hello, I am Trixie Lulamoon, but most of you know me as 'The great and powerful Trixie'.

For a long time now every pony has known me as just that, but that isn't the real me. No, that is just an act. I have to give a good show so I can earn bits. I had to make a good show and attract a lot of ponies and what better way to do it if not with an interesting, full of herself, character who claims that she is the best magician in Equestria and can do all sorts of trick.

To be honest, at first, most ponies came to see me fail and make a fool of myself.

To avoid spell failing, or as the other ponies call it 'fizzling', I only did the spells I knew and practiced the other ones until I perfected them. After a few shows, with no failed spells, I started becoming more famous and had enough to provide standard living necessities. It wasn't much, but it sufficed. Life wasn’t great, but I managed. Until I met her, that is.

Twilight Sparkle, Celestias private student and the bearer of the element of magic. I guess those titles aren't enough for her, she also had to be the Ursa conqueror and the pony that humiliated Trixie. The reason I lost everything and had to work on that stupid rock farm.

Well I can't put all the blame on her, those two idiotic colts, Ships and Sails I think were their names, that brought the ursa in the first place ware to blame as well. Of all the stupid things that I have seen, this tops it all. What was going through their heads when they came up with that idea, thankfully Twilight did take care of it.

Yes, Twilight is a stronger magician than I, but that is to be expected. She was trained by our goddess since she was a filly. While on the other hoof I was an orphan, yes I know, laugh it up I’ve heard all of it.

I won't lie some of the insults did hurt and I was constantly bullied by other foals, a scrawny little unicorn filly was an easy target after all.

As a foal I didn't have any toys and sadly no friends. The only thing that I enjoyed and was proud of was my magic. I was much more talented than the other foals, which was a part of my bullying problem. Even so I was persistent, nothing could make quit learning about magic, its history and all sorts of different kinds of magic.

I was fascinated by it all. Originally I wanted to be a doctor and focus on the medical part of magic, the most complicated magic.

The reason it’s the most complicated kind of magic is because it is the most risky and dangerous. Risky, because even the slightest mistake can be life threatening for both the patient and the doctor. The patient part I don’t have to explain, I hope, it speaks for its self. The part where it’s dangerous for the doctor to perform the spells is a bit more complicated, to explain that I’ll have to explain how magic actually works.

You see, magic is the life force of all living beings. It is the energy that delves in all of us, no matter the race or species.
We can mold and use the life force for many things. The most common use for it is strengthening and stimulating your muscles. That kind of magic is most commonly used by earth ponies, griffins and earth bound animals; the other races use it as well but not as much or on that scale.

Earth ponies specialize in physical strengthening, energy transfer and self-healing magic; they have a large magical pool and a fast magic regeneration, considering they don’t use any concentrated forms of magic.

The only problem is that their magic is bound to their bodies, they don’t have a conductor; a single pint in their bodies trough which they can concentrate the flow of their magic and perform spells, or more concentrated form of their commonly used magic. For example, earth ponies are skilled at farming, gardening and plant related work in general. The reason for this is the life energy that they eradiate and transfer to the plants, while this is in almost unnoticeable quantities it still helps the growth of the plants.

This process is slow and takes a lot of time to accomplish the goal; it is more convenient and takes less power than the ‘direct injection’ of magic. The ‘direct’ approach uses a lot more power, it doesn’t just make the plant go ‘puff’ and make fruit out of nowhere. No, it stimulates the plants growth and gives it the necessary vitamins, minerals and organic matter needed for its growth, thus making the growth cycle a lot shorter.

The bad part of it is that even thou unicorns can make fruit in matter of seconds, it is hard to do it multiple times and not to mention to hundreds if not thousands of plants. That is why earth ponies are most talented at farming and gardening, because their physically better suited for manual work and the more time they spend on their farms the larger and better products they will have due to a larger exposure the plants have to their life energy.

Pegasi specialize in a different sort of magic, a sort that helps them fly faster, gives them more endurance and dexterity, than normal ponies. They can walk on clouds thanks to their ability to control and mold energy in light and not so dense matter, steam, air and etc.

For instance, they can mold their own magic and the magic inside the clouds to generate electricity or to accelerate the process of condensation. They can also control the air, to some extent. If they fly in circles fast enough they might be able to generate tornados.

And then there are the unicorns, one of the only species than can concentrate and use magic that well.
Unicorns specialize in all kinds of magic, thanks to their horn, which serves as a conductor for magic. Thanks to it we can perform more advanced magic than the others. Our magic pools range from small, medium to large, the size depends on our physical, intellectual and mental traits and training.

Oh, sorry. I kind of got carried away. I’ll now explain why it’s dangerous for doctors to use healing magic.

Doctors specialize in mending, fusion and manipulation magic, those are of course the main and the most important three. There are many more kinds of magic that doctors use, but those depend on the pony’s medical specialization.

When doctors tend and heal wounds, they infuse their magic with the patient’s own magic to close up and heal the wound. While doing this the doctor must be careful to completely separate their own magic with the patients, after finishing the treatment, or he might cause magic poisoning to both. If the patient in question is a mare and the doctor a stallion, well then… he might get her pregnant and she might still get magic poisoning.

I am not going to explain how foals are made, it’s… it’s just too embracing. So I am just going to say that if the doctor is a mare and the patient a stallion the doctor won’t get pregnant, but is still in danger of magic poisoning.

The magic poisoning happens when there are two different types of magic present in one pony. This causes the new magic to corrupt the already existing magic. Because magic is the life energy that keeps us alive, there can’t be two different kinds of magic present in one body.

For instance, life energy is always present in our bodies and is a vital part of our existence. To explain this, let’s just say that magic is what runs our bodies, the flow of our blood and our DNA. That is why when there are two kinds of magic present in one body then the pony in question can suffer from mixed DNA or irregular blood flow.

So with that said I hope you now understand how magic works and the dangers of medical magic, to some extent.

Now, to return to my life story.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough bits to pay for the education, so I was self taught. The library was the place where I spent most of my foalhood and free time. Sad isn’t it.

I worked hard and progressed greatly with my studies .Even then I wasn’t allowed to work as a doctor or even a nurse. Not having the paperwork made it impossible, even though I was better than most of the ponies that applied for the job.After all my hard work, after all of those sleepless nights of studying, I didn't get anything out of it. My dreams were crushed and all hope gone.

Alas I had to find some way of earning bits, so I decided to use my skill one way or another. I know it isn't much but it was all I could do, illusion magic and simple tricks were easy to learn and profitable.

So that's pretty much my whole life story, without the boring or painful details. To sum it up, Twilight is stronger than me but she also had a lot more opportunities and a proper education, unlike me.

I know that most of you are still mad at me for the things I did and I don’t blame you. I understand your anger and low trust. After what happened in Ponywille, when I challenged Twilight to a magic duel, I don’t blame you.

Please understand that it wasn’t interlay my fault. Yes, I know I did take the charm and use it for evil deeds, But I wasn’t aware of its power and what it could to pa pony. All I wanted to do is humiliate Twilight a little and be famous again so I could continue my performing again.

But it all went wrong. The power and the temptation were too strong and I was too weak. I let myself get carried away and lost control. Again Twilight saved the day, although she did cheat.

After that I ran away from Ponywille, to the train station to be exact. That is where my story caches up to the present. I am currently waiting for a train to Canterlot, luckily I caught the last one for today.

I just hope I get a decent job there, I’m almost out of bits.