//------------------------------// // After Show // Story: Show Business // by Natedogg2006 //------------------------------// "Thank you Canterlot!!! The Great And Powerful Trixie loves you all!!!"       The curtains dropped in front of Trixie's face, but the smile on her face did not drop. This was the first performance she could remember in some time where she didn't have to use her magic to drop the curtain for herself, much less set up the stage before hoof. It was a definite plus for the show mare as she trotted off stage to the waiting owner of the play house. This was yet another aspect of bigger performances she found she missed despite how tedious it once seemed, meaningless platitudes with whoever was in charge before they would give up the payment for the performance. The smile still would not leave her face as she went through this routine.       "...and there's a little extra in there for you," he was finishing while offering a fair sized bag of bits, holding onto it an extra second as Trixie attempted to take it in her magical grasp, "just so you don't forget about us down the road," he finished with a wink.       At one time Trixie would have thought a guy like this a creep, now she could see his genuine interest in keeping acts that sold well coming back to his theater. With some more mutual thanks the two parted ways as Trixie made her way to the back of the establishment.       Though this was the biggest show she had played in a while it still lacked some of the glamour she once knew. There was no green room full of goodies for the talent, and the dressing room, while clean and well kept, was meager at best. This still did not dampen her mood as she stepped in to see the sweaty mess she was after such a good show. A few splashes of water and a good towel off later and she decided that the rumbling in her stomach was of much bigger concern then how she looked.        Exiting through the back of the theater she found her cart parked behind it waiting for her. This was the first time something managed to take the smile off her face. She did like her cart, but not as much as her old one. It was smaller than her old one. With all her stuff inside there was only enough space for a single pony to lay down to sleep. With her stuff still in the theater for her show the next night she would have at least some space to move around.       After shoving a few things around and lighting a lamp she found herself frowning even more at the shelf where she kept her food. They were road provisions so they were by necessity prepackaged, bland, and mostly tasteless. And to speak the truth she had become particularly sick of all the choices before her. She remembered the particularly heavy bag of bits now securely hidden under her hat and with a slight squee at knowing what the bag meant to her she decided that she was going to do something else she hadn't had a chance to do in a while, treat herself to a good meal.        As she slid her cape and hat off she moved the bag of bits to a small satchel in the corner before leveling a challenging stare at her reflection in the small mirror above her makeshift makeup area. With a slight strain her horn started to glow and enveloped her own mane. The lighter streaks of blue gradually receded as the darker blue became even darker. With a slight pant of exhaustion the spell cut off, slightly earlier then she had planned, but then again she had just finished a big show. Deciding it was good enough to keep her from being noticed she slipped her satchel over her head and once again exited her cart.       Her show had been an early one, which was a sign she still wasn't where she wanted to be professionally. It did however mean she still had time to make this an early dinner before heading back to her cart to rest before her show the next day. As she walked down the street and rounded a corner that took her out of the theater district and in the direction of where she believed she had seen some restaurants on her way into town she found herself still in a very good mood. Such a good mood in fact that she felt she just had to smile once again as she closed her eyes to take in a deep breath of the brisk evening city air.       "Uhgggh," and that was just the moment she ran head first into what felt like another pony. The other pony had apparently been even more distracted than her as they had lost their footing at the impact and tumbled to the ground, the apparently offending book landing on their head in the process.       "I'm so sorry, I was getting a little distracted. Are you all...." Trixie trailed off as she was helping the mare up. As the mare gathered her senses she had managed to grab the book in a lavender magical aura and started tucking it into the saddle bags around her haunches. Though today hadn't been perfect for Trixie so far she had still believed that nothing could make the day into a bad one, that was until she found herself face to face with the one mare she had hoped she would never see again.        Twilight Sparkle was looking back in order to focus on tucking her book away, thus she had clearly not noticed who she was apologizing to. "No, no, no, totally my fault. Everypony I know keeps telling me not to read while I walk, but you know how it is when you get a new book." She finally faced forward and offered Trixie a sheepish grin in apology. It was clear that Twilight had yet to notice who she was talking to. Trixie remembered of course that she was in disguise but it was one that was mainly used to fool casual hecklers, not one of the ones from the worst group of hecklers she had ever had. She was keen on ending this interaction before the situation could change.        "Indeed. Well so long as everything is alright I'll be moving along then. Sorry again." She quickly side stepped the mare and darted down the street, vaguely hearing something that must have been some form of mirrored apology that she didn't care to listen to as she went. A few blocks later she finally stopped running, slowing to a gentle pace as the encounter replayed in her mind. She briefly considered abandoning the idea of dinner and taking a roundabout route back to her cart for the night.        That idea however was abandoned as her stomach once again reminded her of the reason for her outing. She was hungry enough by now that she could swear she could actually smell something delicious in the air. Then she gave a real sniff. There indeed was a delightful smell in the air, in fact there were lots of them. Her mouth beginning to water she realized her hooves had managed to autopilot her to Canterlot's food district. As she eyed the various restaurant fronts, each more decadent looking then the last she was suddenly wondering just how far she could push her little splurge. Realizing she hadn't actually confirmed exactly how much of a bonus she had gotten earlier she decided a quick check of her funds was in order to figure out just how far down this road she dared venture.        As her hoof reached into her satchel her breath froze in her lungs and her brain grinded to a halt. Her satchel was empty. It's only contents was supposed to be the bag of bits. But as her hoof numbly felt around the bag for the fifth time she still found nothing.        Her mind was still working with all the speed of a particularly lazy snail so she was having some major trouble figuring out what was happening or how it happened. That bag had represented much more than just a good meal, that was the pay off that was going to get her back on top. It was both the payment for the show she just did and an advance on the show for the next night. If it was gone then not only would she be doing her performance the next night largely for free but it also meant she was back to just barely scraping by for who knows how long. Her lungs finally thawing and brain suddenly kicking into overdrive she remembered what her brain had apparently tried to immediately repress. She had bumped into Twilight Sparkle fairly hard, that must have been it. She had started turning before she realized it, the dread of again running into the pony she hated most a distant concern next to getting her bits back. She found herself once again running full speed through the streets of Canterlot. She was just approaching the side street she had come from when something purple jumped out in front of her.       The impact was much bigger this time as both mares tumbled over each other several times before coming to a stop in a heap on the sidewalk. Several high society ponies turned up their noses at the display as they passed by. The mares started to untangle themselves from each other as they tried to get to their hooves. Twilight was the first to stand and offered a hoof to help up the mare who had run into her a second time.       "We really should stop meeting like this," she said as she offered a warm smile. Though Trixie once again did not like the situation she was in it wasn't the biggest thing on her mind.       "Sorry again, but I gotta..."       As she tried to pull away she found that Twilight was holding her hoof firmly. "Wait up..." Her magic opened her saddle bags and a small, familiar bag drifted out enveloped in her magic. "Was this what you were in such a hurry for?"       All turmoil of the situation was suddenly gone, she reached out to grab the bag and hugged it close. "Oh thank you thank you thank you."       "No problem, I tried to tell you back there that you had dropped it but you took off in such a hurry I don't think you heard me."       Regaining her senses Trixie realized she still didn't want this pony to realize who she was, so she had to figure a way to end this quickly but not as rudely as before. "I am sorry about that, I was just... concerned my favorite restaurant would be closed before I got here." She gave a very fake laugh as she noticed Twilight giving her an odd look. "WellthankyousomuchforyourhelpIthinkI'lljustbe.."       "Trixie???"        Alarm bells rang through Trixie's head. The one pony she did not want to notice her just had. This was bad. "Afraid not, my name is Beatrix, now if you'll excuse me.." as she was turning away there was a flash behind her followed by a flash in front of her. She found herself once again face to face with her greatest heckler.       "Trixie." This time it didn't seem like it was a question.       "Beatrix, Beatrix Lulamoon if you must know. Now excuse me..." it probably would have been much more efficient to just take one medium step to the left but Twilight seemed to be making some kind of point by teleporting a mere six or so inches to the side to once again cut off Trixie's attempt to escape.        "The Great and Powerful Trixie."       "You have me confused with somepony else, now I really must ask you to let me leave." It was now taking all of Trixie's strength to keep a neutral expression on her face, in fact the last statement came out through clenched teeth as she struggled to not just shoulder check the mare and take off running. Probably the only thing that kept her from was the previous display of teleportation skill that told her she would not make it far if she tried.        "I know you're using transformation magic, I actually recognize your magic signature from when I helped fix Rarity's hair when you turned it green. Besides that your transformation isn't that extensive, you still look like you."       "All right look," Trixie growled harshly under her breath and through tightly clenched teeth, "you are NOT doing this to me again. If you really don't want to drop this then do you at least have some place we can do this in private?"       The harshness of Trixie's words apparently caught Twilight off guard as she drew back as if she had been struck. If it were any other pony Trixie might have felt bad, but not this pony. Trixie was genuinely happy to see her draw back in fear. The only problem was that the mare seemed to recover quickly and then seemed to gesture for her to follow. 'Seriously, she is really taking me somewhere just to heckle me in private' she thought to herself. Though she didn't like the idea, most alternatives seemed worse. Hopefully whatever this was it would get this pony out of her hair for good, so she decided to follow.