It was an eerily quiet Friday night in Bluegrass.
In downtown, buildings scrunched up and huddled together lay before miles and miles of brick road and sidewalk. Streetlights blazed on, emitting bright (perhaps too bright) lights and illuminating the faces of the few who were out and about. Tables, chairs, and benches were not uncommon in this side of the city, though today they were measly occupied—and so, the shops, the eateries, and even the Applesy Racing Stadium with its round trodden track and plentiful bleachers were nigh empty.
One would blame it on a roaming magician.
That costumed blue unicorn stood in front of a semi-circle of an audience, blocking half of the brick road they were on. With a glow of her horn, her yellow traveling wagon unfolded into a spectacle of a stage: cardboard renditions of swirls and rockets and fireworks over a billboard showcasing her cutie mark which was over a brown curtain and some spotlights. Brass on the side topped the prelude to her show as they played a majestic flourish for her.
A bouquet of roses appeared beside her. She grabbed it and bowed, taking off her triangular wizard's hat dressed up in so many stars and circles, complementing her green eyes.
"So, you've come once again to behold the magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"
The audience stomped the road in applause, causing some of the passing carriages to ride slower through the resulting tremor.
She jumped up to the stage. "For my opening act, the Great and Powerful Trixie wants you to come closer to witness a magic trick dubbed by yours truly as 'The Deceptive Card Trick!'"
The many ponies around her murmured amongst themselves.
She groaned. "It's a working title."
A table poofed on stage, between her and the audience. It was covered in blue cloth.
"This trick requires a willing volunteer!" Scanned her crowd with a hoof over her eyes. "A-ha! You!" Pointed at a sea green mare with disheveled pink mane.
"Oh? Me?" she asked. "Another time?"
"Why, yes, Caddo Lake," Trixie said, beckoning her to stand behind the table.
She did so, snaking through the crowd to get there.
Trixie examined her from head to hoof. "Hmm. On second thought, Trixie thinks that becoming a recurring volunteer might hurt her integrity as a magician." She turned to her audience. "You might believe that she's actually a partner in crime if I let her volunteer for the third time. So, the Great and Powerful Trixie shall choose somepony else. But..."
Slipped a hoof behind Caddo's ear, brought out a coin.
Everypony else said their "Woah!'s" and "Wow!'s", focused on the bit from nowhere.
Trixie levitated the coin out of her hoof, swung it before her gathering of prospective fans before she placed it on the table. She turned to Caddo. "Are you satisfied with the opening act to the opening act?"
The mare nodded, grinning crazily as she hopped out of the way and back into the crowd, blending in.
That magician rubbed her chin, scanning. "A-ha! You, the pegasus with the unfamiliar face!"
Ponies gave way to the target of her pointed hoof, a violet pegasus with funky mane.
"What's your name, ma'am?"
"I'm Aqua Burst," she replied, fluttering her way to Trixie's side.
"Ah, the perfect pony for the job!" Trixie declared. She eyed her mane. "Is that natural or dyed?"
"All natural, miss!" Aqua Burst answered in bubbly fashion, scratching the tufts on her head to demonstrate.
"Merely a simple question, for that manestyle isn't common in the previous town I've been to." Trixie cleared her throat. "But, that won't matter, because what you—" pointing a hoof at all of her audience lit up under the glaring orange streetlights "—came here for is a magic trick that will make you doubt your eyes forever!"
The ponies murmured once again, scared and afraid.
Trixie made a smug smile as she levitated a pack of cards, faces behind and backs in front. "What the Great and Powerful Trixie asks of you is that you focus on the cards, especially the cards that each of us will be holding." She gulped, noticing a camera in the audience held by a nervy stallion with shaky legs, the camera wobbling close to the ground. "Oh, do you want to take a picture? Fine. Go ahead. You may preserve this historic moment for the remainder of history!"
A flash, and a picture slid out of the slot, the full image fading in of a smiling Trixie, a nervous Aqua Burst, and a levitating pack of cards, all in front of the curtain.
The magician nodded. "You got it?"
The camerapony nodded, smiling as he turned his cap forward.
"I'll sign it later," Trixie said.
She spread the cards out through most of the table's length, their backs facing up.
Every eye was on the mysterious cards.
Trixie made a gesture toward Aqua Burst. "Pick a card. Any card." She turned away, her back facing the ponies. "The Great and Powerful and Honest Trixie will not cheat in this trick."
Aqua Burst picked a card with a wing. She flipped it over and saw what it was.
"You have the card?" she asked, maintaining her position and never even moving her hooves. "Be careful not to blurt it out."
"Yes, Trixie!" she said, her happy attitude not letting up.
"Show it to everypony and make sure that nopony says what's on the card. Absolute silence, please."
She showed the card to the audience and many of them walked closer to take a better look at it.
Two diamonds.
"Everypony got it?"
"Uh, I think they did," Aqua Burst said, returning the card to herself half-way.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie will take your word for it. Now, remember your card and put it neatly back into the row on the table."
She did so.
Trixie turned around, levitated all the cards, floated them into a neat stack, shuffled them—eyes fixated on the magical dexterity and speed of the act.
She spread them out on the table again.
"I will pull out the card that you've picked."
A card glowed magenta, floating up over the table, back facing the audience.
"Is this your card?" Trixie asked with closed eyes.
Aqua Burst grabbed it with a hoof. She held it close to her face. "Why, yes! It is! Two diamonds!"
Trixie levitated it from her grip and flipped it over for the audience to see.
Two diamonds.
And everypony erupted into cheers and claps, whoops and shouts. A window from the teahouse across the street opened and a waiter stomped his hoof at the sudden applause.
Trixie gestured a hoof toward the pony with the camera. "Take another picture. The Great and Powerful Trixie would like some 'before-after' pictures."
In the lively crowd, a flash. Another picture slid out and what faded in was another image of the same ponies but, of course, slightly different.
He took out the first picture and placed them on one hoof.
A gasp.
"Wait! Everypony, wait!"
The crowd stopped the cheering, looking at him.
"See these pictures?" he said, holding them up. "How come we didn't notice?!"
They gathered around the pictures, inspecting them.
Aqua Burst joined them, flying her way there and floating above the crowd with other pegasi to take a closer look.
Trixie levitated a file and rubbed a hoof against it, gazing upon her growing admirers as they scrambled to see what it was.
"How's that possible?!"
"Should I doubt my eyes now?"
"It blows my mind!"
The camerapony rushed to her and smacked the table with the two pictures. "Great and Powerful Trixie, how were you able to do this?!" He pointed to the pictures there.
The first one displayed a blue-clothed table in front of a green-eyed Trixie in front of a yellow curtain. The second one displayed a brown-clothed table in front of a purple-eyed Trixie in front of a yellow curtain.
She shook her head. "Nuh-uh-uh. True magicians never reveal their secrets."
Trixie added a smile to that.
The magician leaned on her wagon on another sidewalk in another part of Bluegrass, sipping a cup of black coffee. It was brick, too, yet the facades were different. Laundry services, locksmiths, gift stores, a shop that sold grass which was blue.
That caught her attention.
Trixie walked inside, ringing the bell over the glass door as she entered.
The powerful smell of fresh lawn and morning dew.
It was a small department store for lawns and lawn-related tools and equipment. Lawn mowers stood in single file, bags of fertilizer rested on tables, and rolls of lawn were put on pedestals since they were the stars of the show. But, the superstar of this tiny retail was the blue lawn also known as "The Bluegrass Blue Grass". It was like an ordinary piece of lawn, but the grass was blue.
Trixie levitated her cup and put it on the counter where a tired cashier rested her head on as she watched the sole shopper behold the blue grass.
A ring of the bell.
Trixie looked behind her.
A green filly. "Hi."
"Hello there, young one," Trixie said before she levitated her cup back to her, leaving the cashier in a state of dismay as she silently reached out toward the coffee.
The cashier gave up and slumbered.
"What are you doing out here alone?" Trixie asked, looking down on her. "Where's your Mom and Dad?"
"My Mom's ordering coffee. She told me I could go around for five minutes. That's how long it takes for her to get coffee and waffles."
Trixie paid attention. "Well, you should be careful out here at night. You'll never know when a Crystal airstrike might hurt you and make you cry."
"Mom always tells me that everyday," she said.
"OK."
Then, Trixie blinked.
"Where's your Dad?" Trixie asked.
"He's not here," the filly bluntly replied. "He went to a far away place with lots of snow and ice. Mom said that he's a brave soldier."
Trixie gulped. "So, he is. Are you...proud of him?"
"I can only write letters to him." She tilted her head in thought. "He writes back. But, I like it when he's here and I'm here and we're together with Mom."
Trixie stared blankly through the glass door.
Across the street, the coffeehouse. Outside, at a table, a cup of coffee and a mare covering her eyes.
Weeping.
She looked out the window of her wagon's door.
A vast landscape of (not blue) grass. Copses of trees were scattered about, giving the place a spaced out ambience coupled with the cool chilling night breeze which swept up some of the leaves. A mountain range was the end of the horizon. Up above, a purple night sky with streams of clouds blocking some of the stars but never the moon.
On the side, a long and wide dirt road much stepped and driven on as could be seen by the deep markings of horseshoes and the lengthy flat trails of carriage wheels. Beside that, a solitary railroad but no sign or sound of any incoming trains.
She closed the window.
Inside, treasure boxes, extra cards, bouquets of flowers, black hats, bird cages, bits, chained hankerchiefs, small tables, and several magic wands. These were littered about, making a cluttered mess of the whole interior. Over there was a short bed.
She sat on the bed and levitated a sack of bits.
Opened it.
Sighed as she closed it.
"Ponies will get upset if nopony stands up to the challenge." She threw the sack to the wall. "To realize that I might be somepony's only joy left when a dear loved one's 'out of town'...and, that foal. I never got her name, but I know there's so many like her, so many in her place."
She eyed the sack again.
"Does it give me lots of bits? No. It's less profitable to be a magician when everypony's busy with 'the cause' or whatever they call it these days."
She put her hat on.
"But, if the Great and Powerful Trixie can expand her base of fans and support them while doing her best to dodge arrows and not get killed—because being dead is usually bad—then, the Great and Powerful Trixie shall move forward!"
She stood up on her bed and pointed toward the sky. Or, the ceiling.
"Right in the morning."
And she slept.