“What aren’t you getting about this?” shouted Starlight, an exasperated hoof to her face.
“I don’t know!” Trixie replied. “Not everypony is as quick of a learner as you, Starlight!” She took off her magician’s cap and threw it on the ground before igniting her horn once more. “Come on… come on!”
Sparks of light and magic began emanating from Trixie’s horn, a clear sign of intense effort. Trixie could practically feel a blood vessel bursting out of her forehead. She was happy that they were in a secluded room in Twilight’s castle, because she would be much too embarrassed for anyone else to see her in this unflattering state.
“Just imagine where you want to be, Trix,” Starlight soothingly said, after taking a deep breath. “It’s not as hard as you think.”
“For you, maybe,” Trixie said, trying with all her might to get her magic to do what she wanted. Starlight had been giving her magic lessons for the better part of the morning, picking up from where they had left off previously: teleportation spells. As catastrophic as Trixie’s first attempt at teleporting foreign objects had gone, she had since become somewhat prolific in transporting things where she’d wanted them to go. Transporting living things, however, had proven to be a much more burdensome task, especially regarding herself. Try all she could, Trixie seemed almost physically incapable of teleporting herself, contrary to Starlight’s constant reassurances that the feat was easy, if you knew how to do it. Easier said than done, Trixie soon came to realize, especially for someone that wasn’t under the tutelage of an alicorn.
Magic began building up at the tip of Trixie’s horn, sending crackles of magic out into the open air. Starlight stood back, knowing just how much damage a build up of unicorn magic could do.
“Uh, Trixie?” Starlight said, placing a padded chair between her and her friend. “It’s, uh… really not supposed to look like that, you know. If you force things like that, you’re going to hurt yourself. It’s supposed to be a really quick spell, like flicking a light switch.”
“I’m trying!” shouted Trixie, doing all she could to not erupt. I’m outside the castle, I’m outside the castle. Nothing happened. I know right now I’m inside the castle, but I really, really want to be outside!
The buildup at the tip of her horn began to stretch and contort in an uncontrolled fashion, far too much for Starlight to be comfortable with anymore. “Trixie, stop!” she shouted over the noise. “You’re going to—”
The tip of Trixie’s horn shot a beam of magic forward into the wall, blasting Trixie in the face with energy and sending her flying backwards. She pummeled into the wall with a—THUD—before falling face first onto the floor.
“Trixie!” Starlight ran over to her motionless friend and rolled her onto her back. The worry on Starlight’s face subsided as soon as she saw Trixie’s open but bewildered eyes, spinning around in their sockets as she blinked to regain focus.
“Uh, the… The Great and… Powerful Trixie can’t seem to handle teleportation right now, Starry…” Trixie mumbled, obviously woozy but disappointment still hanging in her voice.
“’Starry?’” asked Starlight, obviously relieved that her friend wasn’t hurt. She used her hoof to wipe some soot away from Trixie’s face and giggled nervously. “You coming up with new nicknames for me now?”
“Mmm.” Trixie closed her eyes as Starlight gently wiped her face. Honestly, the fact that she wasn’t able to teleport as easily as some others wasn’t what bothered her. As with all things the great Trixie had done, she knew she’d eventually get it with enough practice. How else would she have become such an amazing magician? In reality, what gnawed away at her was the constant disappointment she knew Starlight was fostering towards her. She was such an amazing teacher, and seeing the anger and frustration that boiled over in her every time she gave Trixie a lesson stuck in her memory much longer than any word of praise ever could. She just needed to get this right. For Starlight’s sake.
“I told you not to force yourself,” Starlight said, placing her hoof on Trixie’s chest. “You really could’ve hurt yourself back there.”
Trixie opened her eyes. “I don’t understand what I’m not getting about this. You make it sound so easy, Starlight!”
Starlight shook her head. “Maybe I wasn’t putting it the right way. Just because it came fairly naturally for me doesn’t mean it will for everypony. Sorry if I seemed patronizing to you.”
Trixie laid her foreleg over her eyes. “Mmm… maybe just a little,” she said with a smirk. Starlight briefly chuckled.
“But…” Trixie continued, “I still feel like this should be easier than I’m making it. I’m supposed to be great and powerful. This is just making me feel… I don’t know…” She rolled over onto her stomach. “Lame and stupid, I guess…”
“Hey!” Starlight scolded. “You are not stupid!”
Trixie furrowed her brow. “Excuse me?”
Starlight giggled. “Or lame.” She softly began rubbing Trixie’s back with her hoof.
Hmmm, Trixie thought. That sort of feels good.
“You’re probably just… I don’t know,” Starlight pondered, “going about it the wrong way, I guess.” She looked at the charred mark on the wall. “Well… I don’t guess. I know. Maybe I should explain it differently to you.”
“But the way you explained it makes perfect sense!” exasperated Trixie. “’Just imagine where you are now, imagine the place you want to be, and imagine a link between them!’ That’s exactly how you explained it to me!”
“That is exactly what I said,” admitted Starlight. “But that’s the way I do things. You should do things the Trixie way. It’s seemed to work pretty well for you so far.” She paused. “Well, mostly.”
Trixie sighed. She really wanted to do this for Starlight. They hadn’t had a lesson in real magic in a while, and Trixie didn’t want this one to end disappointingly. She just didn’t know how else she could do it! It was like telling somebody to try and imagine a new color. There seemed to be no way she could wrap her head around it.
“Come on, Trix,” said Starlight as she laid down next to her. “I know you’ve got this. And I think you know it too. Because you are great and powerful. More so than I think you even realize. The only thing getting in your way is you.”
Trixie turned her head to hide her smile. Starlight always knew the exact thing to get her back in the game. “You really think I can do this?”
“I know you can.” Starlight stood up and offered her hoof to Trixie. “Come on. One more shot before I have to head to work.”
Trixie took Starlight’s hoof and stood up. So what if she couldn’t wrap her head around it? She was the Great and Powerful Trixie! She’s been in way tougher situations than this before and ended up alright! She could totally impress Starlight with her magic skills—right here and now!
“You’re right, Starlight Glimmer!” Trixie exclaimed as she put her hat back on her head. “Trixie is amazing, isn’t she? Stand back and prepare to be amazed by the teleportation skills of The Grreat and Powerful Trrixie!”
Starlight rolled her eyes. “Knock ‘em dead, Trix.”
Trixie stood firm in the middle of the room, thinking back on her first days of learning stage magic. Back then, she had a certain method of learning tricks. Starlight wanted me to do things the Trixie way? Okay. Let’s do it the Trixie way.
She took a deep breath.
Breathe.
Just… breathe.
Clear your head as much as you can.
The canvas of her mind became blank—an empty space, devoid of any presence, light, or color.
Conjure the image only of what is most important to you.
Okay, okay. The room I’m in… I’m in Twilight’s castle. Where do I want to be? Hmm. That waterfall just outside of Ponyville. The one I went to when I wanted some time for peaceful contemplation.
Here. And there. Me. And Starlight. The link between us.
The tip of her horn ignited, much more subdued in power than before. Starlight smiled.
Take me there. Take me there. I’m going to go there. No, Starlight and I are going to go there! I’m going to teleport! And nothing can stop me!
Her magic aura increased in intensity. The cape on Trixie’s back began to blow from the energy being put out before her.
Starlight raised her brow. “You can do it, Trixie.”
“I can do it!” Trixie shouted. “I will do it! Teleportation spell, go!”
“Heh, Trixie, you don’t have to shout that whenever you WOA—”
A wave of magic pulsed out of Trixie’s horn and enveloped the two of them before doubling in on itself and disappearing, taking the two unicorns with it. Silence filled the empty room.
---
On the outskirts of Ponyville, a calm, serene waterfall gently cascaded into a large pond, before continuing down into a secondary drop-off below it. Ducks trotted happily along the circumference of the pond, searching for a nice lunch to fuel their day. The sound of the flowing water mixed with the chirping of the birds gave all who surrounded it a sense of peace, only stymied by the large and sudden burst of energy twenty feet above the pond followed by the screaming of two unicorn mares.
“—OOAH, TRIXIE!” Starlight called as she reappeared above the pond, taking a quick, accusatory glance at her friend before they both plummeted directly into the pool below them.
“I did it!” Trixie yelled, although neither of them could really hear her words, due to the fact that she was completely submerged under water. Noticing that water was quickly filling her mouth and lungs, Trixie briefly panicked before snapping her mouth shut and swimming to what she assumed was the surface of the water. After a brief moment of worry that her lungs were going to explode, Trixie finally breached the surface and began to heavily cough out all of the water she had consumed.
“I—COUGH—Starlight, I did it!” She looked to her right as Starlight surfaced as well, taking a deep breath of air and quickly looking around to get her bearings.
“Darn it, Trixie!” Starlight turned to the side and spit out a stream of water. “Why in Equestria did you teleport us into a lake?!”
Trixie stuck her nose up. “First of all, Trixie teleported us to a pond, not a lake. Lakes are much bigger.”
Starlight furrowed her brow in anger.
“Secondly,” Trixie continued, “I think you’re burying the lead, here, Starlight Glimmer. I finally did it! I can teleport myself!”
Bearing her teeth, Starlight asked, “And why did you bring me with you!?”
“I wanted to prove my work!” Trixie smiled. “If a magician does a trick in the middle of a forest and nopony is around to see it, did it ever really happen?”
“Eugh,” Starlight scoffed. “Let’s just get onto the shore.”
The two swam over to the edge of the pond, hoisting themselves onto the land and getting up onto their hooves. Looking back into the pond, Trixie found her cape and hat floating away half-way towards the second fall, so she briskly levitated them both out of the water and over to her.
“Now, you know me, Starlight,” Trixie said as she began to wring out her clothing, “I’m not usually one to toot my own horn.”
“Uhh…”
“But I have to say, I’m fairly proud of myself! You were right! All I had to do was do things my way! You’re such a good teacher!”
Starlight let out an exhausted breath. “Deep breaths, just like Twilight taught you. Uh, well, thanks, Trixie.” She began to wring out her hair. “You really… outdid yourself this time.”
“I did!” Trixie beamed. “Thank you for noticing! I can’t wait to try this again! I won’t ever have to walk again for the rest of my life!”
“Oh, Celestia, I am soaked!” Starlight moaned. “And right before work, too! Oh, I’m going to have to go home and dry off now, darn it…”
For the first time since they’d gotten on dry land, Trixie actually looked over to make eye contact with Starlight. In her moment of pride, Trixie didn’t even notice how distraught Starlight was.
Oh no, Trixie thought. I messed it up again, didn’t I?
“S… Starlight, I… I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just really liked this pond, and—”
“I know you weren’t thinking, Trixie. You never think.” Disappointment was evident in her voice. Again. This was exactly what Trixie was hoping to avoid. “Ew, I got some gunk in my hooves, too. I’ll need to shower now. Oh, I’m gonna be so late. Twilight is going to kill me!”
“Starlight… I was just trying to…” Impress you, were the words that wouldn’t come out.
Starlight brushed past Trixie and headed back towards Twilight’s castle. “I know what you were trying to do, Trixie. You can’t do anything without making a big, grandiose event about it, can you? Ugh, I don’t even want to talk to you right now, I need to get back home.”
Trixie’s heart sank. Things were going so good just a minute ago! Gosh, why does she never think of the consequences?!
“Star, come on. I’m sorry.” She approached Starlight, extending a hoof towards her. “I can do better next time.”
“I got to go. I’m glad you’re finally able to teleport.” With that, Starlight’s own horn ignited, and in a flash, she was gone. Teleported back to Twilight’s castle, no doubt, to try and undo the mess Trixie had so easily made.
Trixie looked down and kicked a solitary rock as hard as she could. Darn it! Time and time again, Trixie does what her first impulses instruct her to do. She greatly enjoyed her times out here by the pond, and she thought she could finally share that with her best friend. Instead, like she always inevitably does, she messed it up. She couldn’t even count on Spike’s fingers the amount of times Starlight had stormed off in anger because of something she’d done. Times like this were different, however. Starlight had been angry at her a multitude of times before, that was for certain. But this time, she was disappointed. Probably more than she’d ever been in Trixie. Somehow, that hurt more than all the anger in the world ever could.
“Ohh,” Trixie shoved her hoof in her face, “I am such a screw up.” Putting her hoof down, Trixie looked around the pond, wondering what her next step would be. “I guess I should make it up to her. I always tell myself that I should do that when I get to her like this.” While she had technically never made anything up to Starlight, Trixie was constantly attempting to distance herself from the mare she used to be. This was that chance.
“Yeah!” Trixie said, a new pep in her step. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to take Starlight out to a nice, apologetic dinner tonight! And this time… I am actually going to leave a tip!”
With vigor and determination in her heart, Trixie quickly galloped in the direction of her wagon. “Wait a minute…” she paused. Once again, Trixie closed her eyes, imagined her wagon, and tried to form a link between the two.
Her horn glowed, energy swirled around it, and she could feel the magic conjuring up within her. Her body tensed, readying itself to take flight in between dimensions for a fraction of a moment. And then, while all of the world seemed to disappear around her, Trixie summed up all the power that she could, and—
*poot*
Trixie’s horn dulled out with a dud, unable to take her anywhere.
“Okay, yeah, guess I need to work on that a bit more,” she said, before starting off into a gallop.