Trixie woke to the smell of vegetable stew, very close to her. She weakly inched towards it, almost knocking the bowl over. She didn’t care, using her magic to lift the spoon with the oh so delectable food into her waiting maw. It burned slightly, but she didn’t care, shoveling more and more into herself until she felt she had enough strength to open her eyes.
The first thing she saw was hay, piles of it, in fact. She was laying in the middle of a barn. She finished the soup and stood up, noting that she was still pretty weak, despite the stew’s nourishment. She walked outside, blinking at the bright sunlight, and looked around. It seemed she was back at Sweet Apple Acres, judging from all the apple trees. There was somepony out in the fields bucking trees, but it wasn’t Applejack. It was a stallion, with a red coat, but that’s all she could see from this distance.
“Well, look who’s up.” Applejack trotted up to her, “Ah thought you were gonna sleep all day. Wouldn’t be good to be late for your class, would it?”
Trixie groaned, “Does Trixie really have to teach a bunch of foals?”
Applejack chuckled, “It probably won’t be as bad as you think. You teach the little guys a bit of magic control, maybe a few simple spells, then you’re done. Sounds simple enough, right?”
“Magic is not just ‘a few simple spells,’ nor is it simple at all! It’s a complex art that must be studied and improved upon constantly.” Trixie hated having to explain this, but she supposed it did give her practice for later. “I have what, twenty hours to teach them magical control? It can’t be done, and frankly, I think it’s ridiculous that the Mayor expects it to happen that quickly.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared.” Applejack stuck her tongue out her, “ ‘The Great and Powerful’ Trixie getting all flustered over a small performance in front of 8 school foals. Oh how the mighty have fallen!”
“Trixie is not scared! She just sees no point in this exercise!” Her cheeks, however, betrayed her, reddening at Applejack’s teasing words, “They won’t even learn much in the time Trixie has been allocated.”
“Well, let’s just see how it goes. You’re on in an hour, so you best be getting cleaned up.”She pointed towards the house, “There’s a bathroom in there, feel free to use anything you need.”
Trixie walked into the house, not even bothering to thank her. Applejack just shook her head and walked out into the field.
Inside the house, Trixie was having difficulty finding the bathroom. She looked downstairs, but there was just a living room and a kitchen. Moving upstairs, she located it and entered, locking the door behind her. “One hour she says. How does she expect The Great and Powerful Trixie to be show ready in that time? The ponies in this town...” She set about taming her wild mane. It had fallen into disrepair after all her time in the wilds. It felt so good to be brushing it again, she could feel the knots untangling, leaving it straight and silky smooth once again. She had to wet it down quite a few times, but she managed to get it into presentable condition within the hour.
Heading downstairs much better than she had felt in a while, she was almost beaming with happiness. She could not believe that just washing and brushing her hair could make her feel so good, but then, appearances are everything, especially right before a performance. If that’s what she could call this thing she was about to do. “Oh how the mighty have fallen indeed...”
Applejack looked over as Trixie exited the house. She gave a small whistle, “You clean up nice, miss Trixie.” She grinned, “The foals sure will be impressed with you.”
Trixie blushed, enjoying the attention, but annoyed at the mare. “Stop teasing Trixie, you’re the one who told her to fix up, remember?”
“Oh, Ah know, that was a sincere compliment. Not everyone’s out to get you, you know.” With that, she set off, on her way to the schoolhouse.
Trixie stared for a moment, her mouth agape. She cantered after the other mare, who was moving quite fast. She was in for an interesting day, indeed.
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“Alright, class time to clean up for today. Any unicorns whose parents signed the permission slip, stay here. The rest of you are free to go.” Cheerilee began erasing the board while the fillies and colts behind her began cleaning up in an organized, chaotic sort of way that only children are capable of.
“See you later, Sweetie Belle. Have fun with your special magic classes.” Scootaloo said, while moving towards the door with Apple Bloom.
“Yeah, see you guys. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to do stuff without lighting anything on fire!” Her eyes lit up with hope.
“Oh please, like you could ever do anything right!” A mean spirited taunt from the lips of a small purple earth pony rang out, “Maybe your special talent is being the worst unicorn ever? I’ve never seen a filly light their pencil on fire while trying to take a test before!”
Scootaloo and Applebloom had already left, so Sweetie Belle was alone in her angry stare at none other than Diamond Tiara. “The fire was put out quick, Miss Cheerilee said it was no big deal. Besides, at least I can learn magic, unlike you who’s stuck with being a snooty jerk all the time. What does your cutie mark even mean, that you’re the best at wearing that tiara?”
Diamond Tiara had nothing to say to that, and seeing as Silver Spoon was out sick that day, she had no one to back her up, “Yeah well, uh, shut up!” She ran out of the schoolhouse.
Sweetie Belle giggled, it felt good to one up on that bully. She sat at her desk, waiting for these ‘special’ magic lessons to start. The only pony at the front of the room, however, was Cheerilee. Now, Cheerilee was an awesome teacher, best that anypony could hope for, but she wasn’t a unicorn. She raised her hoof, waving it around to attract attention.
“Yes, Sweetie Belle?” Cheerilee asked, trying to get everything on her desk organized.
“Well, I was just wondering, on account of you being an earth pony and all, how are you gonna teach us magic?” Sweetie Belle raised her eyebrow quizzically.
Cheerilee laughed, “Oh no, my little pony, I’m not going to be teaching you magic. The Mayor invited someone special here to do that job. I’m just here to supervise.” Still chuckling, she started putting papers into her saddlebags, preparing for her walk home later.
“Oh, that makes sense.” Sweetie Belle looked down and tried to practice a little, using magic to lift her pencil. Yet, every time she started to grip it with her magic, it would begin to smoke and she had to stop. Eventually she just gave up, taking to staring at the clock or observing her fellow unicorns. There weren’t very many of them, just her an-
“Greetings, little ponies. I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, have decided to grace your school with my presence and supreme magical ability!” With an explosive entrance, and some smoke, Trixie was on the scene. “Come, come, we must move outside for Trixie’s lesson to begin. It is far too cramped and... flammable in here.”
They all filed outside, eager to begin. Sweetie Belle had heard about Trixie from her sister. She seemed fun, fireworks and hair changing and all. She suppressed a chuckle from escaping her remembering how Rarity had looked.
Trixie gathered them in the playground area. “Now, unicorn magic is the most versatile of the three pony magics, for obvious reasons. We have a horn to direct our magic, and have conscious control of it. This also makes it very dangerous, as you can put too much energy into a spell, harming your body. You must learn your limits, and never try anything outside your comfort zone unless absolutely necessary. Understand?” After a nod from everypony present, she continued. “Normally you will learn a spell on discovering your special talent and earning your cutie mark. This is a unique spell to you, no one else may cast it, and you must never try to cast a spell unique to somepony else. Is that understood?” Another round of nods. “Good. Any questions?”
A hoof shot up, and after a nod, “What happens if you put too little into casting a spell?”
“An excellent question, young pony. Now, The Great and Powerful Trixie herself has never had this happen, but she has heard stories. Putting too much into a spell overcharges it, so putting too little under charges it. As the spell nears completion, it realizes it has too little energy and draws more, and more, and more, until it has enough to complete. Normally this isn’t a bad thing, self correcting spells can be useful, but sometimes the spell takes more than you have to give, and that is never good. Or a spell could take enough, then more than that, turning it into an overcharged spell. As your magical reservoir tries to cut it off or take the excess back, and the spell tries to take more, a magical backlash happens. An explosion of pure magic sends you flying. Now, you are relatively young, your reservoir is small, so this probably means nothing to you, but to a powerful mare like Trixie, this is a bad thing.”
“There are general spells every unicorn can learn despite what his or her special talent is. Telekinesis, Light, Ward, these are all rudimentary spells. Telekinesis will never take more than you give, it is very tightly controlled. Same with Light, it will only be as bright as the amount you put in. These are good for testing your limit, you can attempt to lift something very heavy, and if it doesn’t work, you cut off the spell and that’s it.”
Trixie looked around, the group seemed to be enthralled in what she was saying. This is almost too easy, they’re eating out of Trixie’s hooves. She was putting on a good show, even without all the effects. “So, these are the spells we’re going to start with. Find something small, a rock, branch from a tree, anything you think you could lift.” The kids began spreading out, looking for that object. They all came back with something, some with much bigger things than the others. So naive, but if they want to try. “Now, telekinesis works like this: You surround the object in your magical aura. Then, just as if it were your hoof or mouth, lift. Don’t put too much into it, or things will start flying all over the place. Just enough to lift it three or four inches.”
All the ponies tried, concentrating on their horns to activate the magic, then on the rock to direct it. Some couldn’t even light their horns, others the object of their choosing, only one or two even got the object to wobble, and one’s stick was crackling with flames. Trixie walked over, looking at her with eyebrow raised. “And how did you manage this? A pony as young as you shouldn’t even be able to make a spark, let alone flames this hot.”
The pony looked uncomfortable, “I don’t know, this just sort of happens whenever I try any magic!” She hung her head in shame.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Unicorns control the magic, if you didn’t want flames they should not appear!” This commotion caused the others to stop their work and stare. “Try once more, on this stone. Surely you cannot light stone on fire. Just try not to think about flames at all, just lifting the rock.”
“Okay, I’ll try...” She concentrated, focusing her magic into the rock. It began to glow, dull at first, but then getting red hot and still not lifting.
“Alright, stop. Trixie has seen enough.” Breathing a sigh of relief, she did so. The rock stopped glowing and began cooling.
The filly looked devastated, Trixie tried to think of something to say, but words failed her. The poor thing took this as a sign of failure and ran off, a trail of tears streaming down her face.
Trixie could only watch as she ran, unable to do or say anything. Cheerilee came up to her, “Good job, Trixie. Drawing attention to the problem student is not the way to teach anypony.” She turned to the rest of the unicorns, dismissing them. Everyone cleared out, leaving Trixie alone, staring off.
“But I’m The Great and Powerful Trixie... All I can do is draw attention...” She muttered sadly to herself.