//------------------------------//
// Persona 
// Story: Show Business 
// by Natedogg2006 
//------------------------------//

"Sweet Celestia, this must seriously be what it's like when pegasus ponies sleep on clouds." The hostility running hot through Trixie's veins had some fair time to cool as Twilight Sparkle had led her deep into Canterlot. Even more so as she realized how much nicer the neighborhoods got the further they went. She could hardly believe it when she walked them all the way up to and then through the gates of Canterlot Castle, none of the guards trying to stop her. Some of them even smiled and greeted her by name. That had been helpful as Trixie had only been partially sure of the ponies name. They had finally stopped when Twilight had led her into a room and closed it behind them. 
     
Anger mostly forgotten in place of whimsy she could not stop herself from exploring the room for a minute before sitting down and then laying back onto what looked like the most comfortable bed she had ever seen, and it did not disappoint. Twilight had apparently better remembered what they were here for as she made a somewhat impatient noise from next to the bed. Sighing as such a pleasant experience was interrupted she figured it was time to get whatever this was going to be over with.
     
"I don't know what you expect to accomplish as far as hurting me more then you already have, but if you really have more trolling left in you I guess get on with it."
     
"Me hurting you, I brought you here to give you a chance to apologise for the way you treated my friends."
     
"Apologise??? I'll have you know I was actually pretty mellow on them as far as hecklers go." Trixie had leaned up on the bed, propping herself up on her fore hooves to actually face Twilight as the anger once again flowed through her. "I can't afford my own security so I have to deal with ponies like that myself. I didn't do anything permanent to them for jumping up on stage like that, which is more than they'd get from most showponies. If those were your friends then I'll just go ahead and say, you and your friends are the biggest group of jerks I've ever seen. And when you're in this business you see a LOT of jerks."
     
"Us jerks? You come strolling into town and start talking down to everypony and we're the jerks? I've never met such an ego maniac in my life. What did you expect to happen when you started acting like that?"
     
"While yes, I do expect some heckling when I do an open air performance like that, but the whole show became nothing but dealing with them. I didn't even get time to promote my tour. I mean seriously, what is wrong with you ponies. You'd think you all never saw a stage show or something.
     
"Stage show???? What kind of show involves you coming in and acting like you're the greatest thing in the world?"
     
"..... All of them....." The anger had quickly left Trixie, replaced by genuine confusion. Twilight was taken aback by the sudden change in tone and couldn't figure out how to respond. "..... Wait, you all seriously thought....." Confusion was replaced by utter bewilderment as she tried to piece together what she remembered from the incident in Ponyville with the information she had just learned. Suddenly her head jerked back and she fell back into the bed, cackling madly. "You ponies.. hahahahaha.. really.. you really thought.. hahahahaha."
     
Trixie's bewilderment from before was now firmly transferred to Twilight as the mare watched the display. "Uuuummm, did I miss something?" 
     
"Oh yeah.. hahahaha.. I'd say you missed something alright.. oh sweet Celestia I wandered too far into the sticks this time around.." As her laughter subsided Trixie heaved herself further up onto the bed. She suddenly jumped up, standing on her back hooves and presented herself as if the bed were a stage. "Twilight Sparkle," her voice now resembled what Twilight remembered from when she had first met the pony. She drew back, preparing for what might come next. "It is my great pleasure to inform you," her voice raised even higher, "that The Great And Powerful Trixie," her voice suddenly dropped into a flat monotone and she slumped her shoulders and stared deadpan at Twilight, "is a stage persona."
     
Crickets could actually be heard coming from the castle garden as the ponies stared at each other. Gears moved in Twilight's head as she tried to read Trixie's blank face.
     
"That.... What??? How does that make any sense? You made yourself look like a total jerk. Why would you want ponies to think you're that kind of pony to promote yourself."
     
Trixie gave a half hearted shrug and replied, "puts flanks in seats." The sheer lackluster reply made a powerful twitch start rapidly assaulting Twilight's eye. "And to tell the honest truth she's not even really my persona. The framework for her was entirely passed down to me from my mentor. If you thought I was a jerk you would have totally hated him, he really knew how to work it."
     
"....Okay, I'm confused. Why would you want ponies to hate you? I would think having a nice persona would make people like you and want to see whatever show you were putting on."
     
"And you," Trixie plopped down onto her flank, "would be entirely wrong about that." Twilight just stared, she was not used to being this confused for this long so she just waited for Trixie to continue. "I don't claim to know the exact psychology behind it but in general the more cartoonishly over the top you act the more ponies will come to see your show. 'It's all about spectacle', as my mentor always used to say." 
     
"Spectacle?"
     
"What is so complicated about this? I come in, claim I'm the greatest thing ever, ponies are intrigued, they come to see what the commotion is all about. Maybe some of them hope to see me fail, maybe some of them come to throw fruit at me, maybe they really want to see if I am as good as I claim. I'm not, but I can fake it with the best of them."
     
That statement struck Twilight hard, it was definitely not something she could imagine coming out of the mare she had seen in Ponyville. "Okay, you really are completely different from what you were back then so I guess I gotta believe you. And I guess I get it on some level". Smiling a little Trixie let her front hooves slide along the bed until she was laying on her belly. "So basically any attention is good attention as far as you care."
     
"Exactly!"
     
"That isn't exactly a good policy to live your life by. Being mean isn't going to make ponies like you."
     
"It isn't how I live my life, it's how I run my career. Ponies don't need to like me so long as they pay to see me."
     
"And ponies really come to see the Great and Powerful Trixie even though she's so arrogant.
     
"They certainly come to see her more than they ever came to see 'The Bewitching Beatrix'." Twilight quirked her eyebrow inquisitively. "The persona I created for myself when I first started my career. If my mentor hadn't seen something in me and decided to take me in and really teach me the business I would have never gone anywhere. Never thought I'd have to go back to that afterward though."
     
Trixie's voice dropped to a much more somber tone at the end of that statement and for some reason the beginning of the conversation started replaying in Twilight's head. "You said I had hurt you. When you said you had to go back did you mean..."
     
"That a bunch of ponies caused me to cut my tour short and lose the faith of pretty much every promoter this side of Mainhatten. That they made my Ursa story that used to draw huge crowds into "slaying the Ursa", an industry term for killing your own reputation. Made me the biggest joke ever among the major magic acts. That they caused me to lose my home, all my possessions, all the stuff for my act, and basically everything I've ever worked for my whole life." Twilight's face had gone pale and she found she could not look away from Trixie as her form seemed to slump as far as it could against the bed. "Yes, that is what I meant."
     
The silence was deafening to Twilight as she continued to stare at the pony in her bed. She kept hoping Trixie would say something, her brain needed something to form some sort of response to all she had just heard. Trixie however had no intention of making the situation easier for the mare she saw as having ruined everything for her. Her stomach however had other plans. 
     
A long, deep groan rumbled through the mattress she was on. It was obvious both ponies heard it.  With a glance over to a clock on the wall she added, "and you're also the pony who made me miss dinner after a big show. Now instead of getting to actually celebrate my first big show in a long time I get to go back to my new, much smaller cart, choke down some canned applesauce, and just go to sleep." She let her body fall sideways on the bed as if she had no more strength left in it and continued to lay there.
     
The silence still pressed down hard on Twilight, but she decided she had to say something, anything to try to respond to what she was being accused of. "Listen, I know it doesn't mean much, and that it won't make up for much, but I'd like to try to make at least some of this up to you. Will you at least let me treat you to a meal."
     
"You'd be hard pressed to find a place open at this point, what did you have in mind," Trixie asked disinterestedly. Twilight took that as the only form of agreement she needed and was already walking towards the door. She opened it, and upon poking her head out Trixie heard her call out to somepony and an exchange of muffled chatter. Returning after closing the door Twilight spoke. "She said dinner already ended so it would take a few extra minutes to prepare, but it still shouldn't take too long." 
     
"You can get room service in the castle".
     
"There's very little you can't get in this castle."
     
"Well I guess having it brought to us is a good idea, because I really don't think you're getting me out of this bed any time soon."