Pony POV Series Season Zero: Discorded Ponies

by Alex Warlorn


Who?

"Disappearing Pony Act"

Lo and behold the Great And Powerful Trixie! The all-powerful and greatest magician in all of Equestria! There is no feat of magic I cannot perform! There is no skill or talent that my magic can not surpass! Truly all are honored in be in the presence of the Great And Powerful Trixie!!!

My legendary tales have spread across all of Equestria! There is none who don't know my name! There is ... there is ... none who doesn't love the Great and Powerful Trixie!

Certainly you have heard that on one of my many travels I came to the small hick town of Ponyville, that wouldn't even be on the map if not for the regular visits by Princess Celestia.

How after performing my magic show, and proving my greatness and power once again, two foals didn't wish to take one of my ... stories ... on face value and put ... the Great and Powerful Trixie to the test ... and ... she was ... publicly humiliated, she, I lost everything I owned in one night and had to flee the small no-face-town to save what little face I had left.

The Great and Powerful Trixie finds herself now in self-imposed exile, seeking to increase her already great power to take back her place as the greatest user of magic in Equestria. It has NOTHING to do with being laughed off stage at every burg that Trixie attempted her show at after!

Trixie did NOT break down in tears after her last show ended with jeering and mocking neighs from the crowd before it even started! No she didn't! No the Great and Powerful Trixie is not crying now from the memory! Don't be absurd!

How did the Great and Powerful Trixie begin her path of being a magician and discovering her cutie mark? Pst. It was obvious from the start what Trixie's destiny would be! No. No don't, please don't make Trixie, don't make me remember-

++++

"I don't understand Trixie," ask the magical school's councilor, a gray pony with a black mane and a lightning bolt cutie mark wearing a scarf. "You're upset over your performance review? I've seen your performance review little filly, what are you upset about?"

My parents had practically shoved me into his office after I had broken down crying after reading my teachers' reviews the first time.

I didn't need to read my own review again to repeat it now, it was -very- easy to memorize. "Transmutation: Average. Illusion: Average. Telekinesis: Average. Conjuring: Average. Weather Control: Average. Mental Suggestion: Average!"

"That just means you have lots of potential-"

"That's a nice way to say blank flank!" I snapped back. The fact I was one was besides the point. Or maybe was the point. Being a 'late bloomer' was beginning to be noticed by my classmates.

"Trixie you should be proud. Most unicorns excel in one area of magic and are almost helpless in others. Most Unicorns can't even DO weather control. There isn't a field in the books you aren't capable in. The last time I saw a record like this was this one filly whose about your age in Canterlot-"

As if I cared about something like that.

"But I'm not spectacular in any of them ... " I had been trying to stand out in my classes since the first day. But no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, there was somepony doing it better.

I thought when my parents finally scraped together the money so I could attend a fully blown school of magic that I'd finally be noticed! I had been chosen! Where I didn't have four sisters and two brothers to compete for attention with. My parents picked me. ME! Not any of my siblings, but me! But it was the same story! Only multiplied by a hundred.

It didn't help that back home my parents had had all the imagination of toadstools when it came to names. Mixie. Pixie. Nyxie. Lexy. I was just another face in the herd.

The councilor spoke in a calm kind voice. "The old saying 'a pony of all trades but master of none,' actually says fully 'a pony of all trades but master of none, is often better than a master of one.' "

I didn't hear him. All I heard, was no matter what class of magic I choose, I'd be just another face in the crowd, might as well not exist ... Unless I wasn't -in- the crowd!

I ran away to try and join the circus. That afternoon. I got about ten city blocks and caught that same afternoon. Got sent to the councilor again and spent two weeks confined to my room; which of course I shared with my siblings.

Then I met master, who was substitute teaching that one time, an old magician pony who wanted to pass on his tricks. The class loved the cantrips he threw into the stuffy mundane lesson.

I thought one thing, 'He knows how to get attention.' I jumped at the chance. I wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer but he accepted an apprentice readily.

I originally wanted for my stage name 'The One and Only Trixie,' but master felt it lacked impact, and convinced me to go with 'The Great and Powerful Trixie.' I can not say in the least it was bad advice.

My first practice show at school didn't get the crowd of fillies and colts I wanted, but my next one did from sheer word of mouth! The moment the crowd cheered at my first pyrotechnics I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life, and I felt the tingle on my flanks.

Then for the first time, I said those magic words that gave such a sweet warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Anything you can do, I can do better." I never realized how satisfying and how comforting those words would sound until I finally said them. I was finally no longer just an interchangeable horseshoe, the one and only Trixie! The Great and Powerful Trixie!

The crowd ate it up as I tore down the top students with their own signature magic tricks! One unicorn whose specialty was fire magic, red coat and black mane with a blue flame on her flank actually shouted, "I challenge you to a game of catch the fireball!" And she shot it right at me with the full intention of burning off my new cutie mark... The crowd laughed and stomped their hooves as I used my telekinesis to make it chase her instead! People LOVE seeing those who were better than they were get pulled down to their level, and I was happy to oblige this basic need in my show.

I made myself a costume based on my master's (with a little help from my mother), but with a more eye-catching color scheme than my master's grays and whites.

Later I read up somewhere that there were members of high society that spoke in third person. Well, if it was good enough for upper crust snobs then it was good enough for the Great and Powerful Trixie! And the crowds loved that too.

And meanwhile I still found myself invisible the moment the spotlight went out.

I had no intention of staying in Hoofington knowing that.

++++

"Thank ... thank you for listening ... to my story. The Great and Powerful Trixie does not share herself with just anyone."

"Oh, listening to ponies' thoughts has been a habit of mine lately," so said the floating magic wand with blue twinkles behind it just like Trixie's cutie mark.

It told me, er, Trixie how it was my friend, my ally, a force of magic that only sought out the best and brightest and the most worthy.

It wished to aid the Great and Powerful Trixie by giving her the greatest magic tricks she could hope to perform! Yes! Finally! A break! After having her life stolen from her, the Great and Powerful Trixie would be on top where she belongs! I can't wait to see that purple pony's face!

Ugh! How dare the Twilight Sparkle I imagined look at me with -concern and worry-! How dare she ask me if this is what I really want! Of course it is what I really want! Ugh! Just go away, Trixie does not care for your sad eyes!

The strange visitor who is a giant version of my cutie mark gives me a couple of scrolls, promising that any one of these spells will be the grandest displays of magic I could imagine as I read the almost swirling letters. I memorize them with ease, they're rather simple, but the results seem rather elusive. But the swirling pattern just draws my attention in, almost like they're moving.

A pony wearing a tuxedo gallops into the rundown apartment I've been staying at and shakes me. "Miss Great and Powerful Trixie! What are you doing? You're on in twenty seconds!"

Huh? I don't have any shows arranged! I haven't for months! Ha! Another worthy gift from my benefactor. Normally Trixie would never lower herself by accepting the kindness of strangers, but if this strange visitor was really some abstract embodiment of herself, then it wasn't really help from others was it?

I'm in full costume before I even know it, I rush out the door and instead of finding the shoddy apartment complex I find myself on my old magic stage but several times improved in a theater! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE gets into her act with new flourish and zeal!

Trixie can't remember the last time she had a crowd this big! All of them looking at her! Looking at her! She was the reason they were here! They had come for her!

Trixie begins her act with her flashy fireworks display triggered by her magic, getting the 'oohs' and 'aahs' Trixie only deserves which quickly became stunned silence at her display of power! Then Trixie shows off her spectacular illusions and beautiful imagery, then getting into her fantastic tales that swooned the crowd to no end! In no time at all she came to her climax! Biggest spell ever? One of the rules master had taught her was never do a trick you hadn't rehearsed first. But the more Trixie thought about it, the less she can resist! The more I want to see it! The more I have to see it now!

The words still swirling in my head as I think about them, I cast the spell, creating the wildest more fantastic display of lights and colors I could have ever imagined! The sun and moon rose together, stars swirled into a living ocean, colors of every shade clashed against each other in a symphony! Stars swirled into the shapes of the living constellations, all of them dancing to Trixie's whim! The sun and moon eclipsed, a galaxy spiraled around Trixie sparkling a thousand colors! The audience was blast by encompassing sounds that would knock anypony off their hooves! And with the adrenaline still running high it was over.

"I ... I did it . . I DID IT!" I panted, joy tingling inside me.

No one clapped or stomped. No one smiled or frowned. They stared through me with casual indifference. A few yawned. A couple began talking about yesterday's hoofball game. They simply got from their seats and began to calmly hoof away.

I stare in shock, heckling I was used to, cheering I lived for, mockery I had been forced to endure, but ... no reaction at all? Like I didn't exist?

"Wait!" I shouted, no one even looked back at me. They didn't even snigger, they might as well have not heard me. They didn't stop. They were all leaving. They didn't even turn back to look at me. "No! Don't you dare turn your flanks on the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Not even a fiery retort which I would have welcomed.

I galloped in front of the last two ponies to leave, a finely dressed unicorn stallion and Earth pony mare. They bumped right into me like I was an invisible wall and looked about for a bit before I began.

"How dare you! You should feel honored to witness the grandeur of a performance by the Great And Powerful Trixie! How dare you treat her like some cheap background act! My arcane performances are not some ... some ... sideshow!" I Trixie's words twist she so angry!

The unicorn didn't look intimidated at all and acted like they were trying to explain something to a tree. "Well yeah, I guess it was really good, for magic I guess. It's not like anyone actually pays attention to that sort of thing anymore. Everyone's figured out already any unicorn can do magic. It was just a fad watching magic for entertainment."

A-a FAD?!

The mare said, "We heard how you had taken it to the next level, thought we would give the idea one last try, we've seen so many. It was better, but only in it's own mundane, ordinary, average, run of the mill way. It only shows show magic is nothing special." The mare giggles to herself.

N-nothing special?! No, Trixie will never cry before an audience.

The stallion said simply, "In the end it's just magic, and any unicorn can do that… the fad for actually ENJOYING show-mages is so five minutes ago." I fell to my knees. I didn't stop them from leaving, but they still -pushed me aside.-

"Poor poor Great And Powerful Trixie ... " It was my benefactor.

"YOU! What went wrong!" Trixie demands!

"What 'what' went wrong?"

"Your spell! Everyone just left! It was like they couldn't see me!"

"There's nothing wrong with the spell Trixie ... maybe you just didn't do it right, after all, that above average spell IS impossible for just a mundane -average- unicorn to properly perform! Twilight Sparkle did it without breaking a sweat! Everyone loved her when she did it. That spell just reflects the real skill and power of the user ... how people react to it is exactly what the unicorn is like ... if they just walked away like you don't exist ... maybe it's cause you don't. Maybe you don't really know magic after all, maybe magic is just a little too hard for an -average- unicorn like you to handle."

"No ...! Shut up!"

"What kind of entertainer can't take a few simple honest reviews Trixie? Don't you know that's part of the show? Maybe you should go home to your family, maybe your parents will have time for you now that your brothers and sisters are all famous and known, unlike you, of course. Of course there's isn't Trixie the daughter anymore, just average Trixie the magician who can't even do one spell right."

"YOU BE QUIET! QUIET I SAY! TRIXIE C-C-COMMANDS IT!" I feel tears begin to sting.

The giant magic wand floated right in my face, it was -looking- into my eyes, "Oooooh Trixie, maybe I'm being too hard. After all, there is one trick you've managed to do spectacularly. You're completely invisible, always have been, it comes very natural to you."

"NO!" I cried, I had to get away, as far away as possible from the taunting voice. I ran outside, the ponies outside didn't even pause for me, they bumped into me like I wasn't there, I called out and no one even turned their ears.

"PLEASE! Can't anyone aid Trixie? Anyone-?!" No one apparently. I grab a random pony in panic and they just shrug me off not even looking at my face. They keep bumping into me again and again from both sides throwing me off balance. I fall into a heap, I grind my teeth, the memory of the swirling letters makes my head hurt... . Were the words for the spell ... too much for an average unicorn to hold onto? ... Why do I keep trying? Just to keep failing? Why do I keep entertaining people, who forget my name five minutes later? Why should I put so much effort into something that's gone in an instant?

No one cared about just another unicorn.

" . . . I hate theater, I hate being a magician, I HATE MAGIC!" I scream at the top of my lungs, the tears coming freely now. No one even looks at me, too busy with their own lives to have time for a stranger in need. No one ever does. People are only your friends when they feel like it. So what's the point of being friends at all?

I hear some noises around me now, it doesn't matter. The Average and Invisible Trixie. I'm not anything special, I'm not anything. I'm nothing. Who cares for a unicorn that's the same as any other?

+++

The ponies of Hoofington, kind-more-often-than-not ponies as they were, gathered around the poor pale blue unicorn with unnatural looking muted gray colors. She couldn't seem to hear what they were saying, begging to be heard even when they asked what was wrong. It was like she couldn't even see them.

Then she went catatonic. She went from not being able to hear them, to not caring.

An unicorn mare claiming to be the unicorn's sister screamed in her face in horror trying to get the grayed out unicorn's attention.

High above, Discord shape shifted into his true from from his disguise.

"You weren't anything too special my dear ... just the only other Element of Magic to be born through one or two unicorns a generation ... I had to 'test out' breaking the weaker, stunted, underdeveloped version before trying it on the major deal. You have my thanks my dear. Now I know how to crush the other Element of Magic that has actually realized her potential and the meaning behind her power. A Element of Magic that has no one to support it, with no bonds connected to it, is a glass doll waiting to be crushed."

- The Pathetic and Irrelevant Trixie