After Vector had showed their small group the note he then read it out loud for everyone else to hear. Reactions were not the best. The mayor and his wife were still despondent and the rest of the villagers had no idea what to do. Lots of them, the parents, Trixie had to presume, ran out of the square to the mayor’s house when they had heard what happened, looking to make sure their kids were okay. Trixie was kind of worried for herself considering what the letter demanded but she couldn’t imagine these people would actually attempt to tie her up and just offer her to Goliath. At the same time though they might still blame her for this happening.
She could already hear mutterings of other griffons and ponies around who wondered if Goliath would keep taking more children if he didn’t get Trixie.
Trixie really didn’t want to get offered up as a sacrifice.
She wasn’t the only one who was troubled right now though either. Gizzard was beating himself up for not setting watch properly, his grandsons and Speckle Wood were trying to comfort the old griffon but he was having none of it. Daylight and Coil both looked worried as well and Vector kept looking between the note and the mayor, at a loss.
And Trixie was thinking about what would happen when she had to inevitably face Goliath again.
Uh oh. This is bad, this is bad, this is bad. Trixie thought. I shouldn’t have stayed here, this is so bad.
Her bravery and desire to protect East Glade were flying out the window as again the reality and danger of the situation came crashing down on the dishonest blue unicorn. She couldn’t act or look like this was getting to her though, that would make things even worse. For now Trixie had to keep up appearances and make everyone think that their unflappable hero still had their backs. And then she would leave.
So Trixie did what she’d been doing ever since arriving in East Glade. Lie.
“Do not worry, everyone!” She loudly shouted to the crowd of villagers still in the square. “Your great and powerful hero is still here.” Trixie walked over to the mayor and looked down at his kneeling form, doing her best to put a compassionate expression on her face. “Your sons are very dear to me as well and I will certainly not allow any harm to befall them.” She looked back at her group and the other villagers. “I have a plan that will lead East Glade to victory and get the children back safe and sound! You may all rest easy tonight!”
“Thank you Great and Powerful Trixie,” Giselle said to her, suddenly grasping Trixie’s hooves in her talons and holding them dear. “Our children are everything to us, I don’t know what we’d do if anything happened to them...” She started crying freely.
Trixie’s jaw clenched and she had to fight to keep her face from falling at Giselle’s words. Instead she smirked and tilted up her nose. “Have I ever let anyone down before?”
“No, you haven’t,” Grabriel said as he got up, a solemn look on his face. “I believe in you, Miss Trixie.” The mayor then looked out over the other griffons and ponies around. “We’re not going to give Goliath Trixie. We won’t cow to his demands! My sons… I could never forgive myself if something happened to them, but I refuse to allow us to be pushed around anymore! Not when The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to protect us!”
“Yeah, that’s right everyone!” Vector said. “There’s no way we’re just going to turn on Trixie after all she’s done for us! We need to have faith in her again, I’m sure she can defeat Goliath this time too.”
Trixie’s smirk widened into an unhealthily manic looking smile as she disentangled herself from Giselle. “Ehehe, you’re all far too kind.” She couldn’t help the nervous lilt that infected her voice.
“So what is your plan to defeat Goliath and rescue the mayor’s kids anyways?” Daylight Gleam walked up and asked her, tilting her head in question, Coil and Gizzard by her sides.
“Right. The plan,” Trixie furrowed her brow, now trying to come up with something plausible off the top of her head that she could use as an excuse to slip away. “I… have some extra magical devices and items in my wagon for any heroing needs! I shall be back here shortly with them and then we shall discuss our plan of attack.” She reached into her robe and pulled out a smokebomb. “For now The Great and Powerful Trixie shall be off! But do not fret, I will return!” She threw the bomb on the ground and ran off while everyone else coughed and was blinded from the resulting explosion of smoke.
That may have been a bunch of lies but I’m sure they’ll understand later, right? Trixie reasoned to herself.
It was still the middle of the night as the ran out of East Glade towards her parked wagon nearby. She could hitch herself up in a second and then it was run and run and run back west. Hay, maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do but to Trixie it was definitely the smart thing to do. And doing this she could get back to Equestria and tell Starlight or Twilight about what was happening out here and then they could help. Surely that would be better than whatever Trixie could do if she stayed?
She could just lie to Starlight about her turning tail and leaving East Glade to its fate, Starlight definitely wouldn’t want to hear that. Lying to Starlight though… that was something Trixie really didn’t want to do. This whole situation was really a big blow to her ego too. Not the first time that’s happened though and she could totally deal with it! Maybe. Usually she wasn’t leaving behind people in such dire straits.
Nothing would change if I stayed, nothing at all. It’s better like this. The fraud hero told herself. Like always I’m one hundred percent correct!
In reality this is the heroic thing to do. Because I’m giving up all that love and glory back there. It takes courage to do something like that!
Trixie ran through the darkness and finally made it to her wagon, only to gasp in shock when she made a startling discovery.
“My wagon! What happened?!” She screamed.
Her wagon was tilted over on one side, the wheels on the left side of the wagon had fallen off and were neatly laying on the ground next to it. She ran up to them to try and quickly put them back on only to realize that the bolts normally holding them in place had been removed. A cold sweat broke out over her body with each passing second as she tried to think of just how in the hay she was going to get her wagon out of here.
“B-but... what… how?!” She repeated as she nervously pranced up and down on her hooves. It probably wouldn’t be long before Vector or Daylight came to check up on her.
She didn’t have the magical strength to levitate the wagon on her own. Maybe she could use her telekinesis to keep the wheels in place while she tugged it? But she’d have to concentrate the whole way and she probably couldn’t go as fast. Her best bet was probably unscrewing the front right wheel and putting it on the back left. But that would still be awkward and difficult for her to move fast with.
“Who did this?!” Trixie shouted in frustration, yanking on the brim of her hat with her hooves.
“Oh hi, Trixie. Back from the party already?” A voice said from behind her wagon.
Trixie stared as Harlequin Black walked around to where she was standing, an amused smile on his face.
“Sorry. I was taking the liberty of sprucing up your wagon when somehow I accidentally dislodged the bolts on your left wheels. And then somehow again I dropped the bolts and it’s just the strangest thing but I haven’t been able to find them on the ground at all. I’m sure they’ll turn up later though,” He cheerfully said.
Trixie’s jaw dropped and she sat down on her haunches. With that on top of everything else, for the first time in the great entertainer’s life she was at a loss for words.
After a minute she composed herself, swallowing and standing back up with a glassy and blank expression on her face. “Okay. Plan B. Think of a plan.”
Her knees started wobbling as she found herself forced into this situation. The reality that she would have to stay and fight barreling towards her like a steam engine.
“Or plan C. Run away and send a courier back for my wagon...” The blue unicorn grasped at straws.
“Trixie!”
The stage magician’s eyes widened in horror as she heard Vector yelling for her. She turned her head to see him, Gizzard, Coil, and Daylight all running towards her.
The four of them came to a halt in front of her. They looked between her and the wagon and were wondering just what was up. Trixie’s eyes nervously darted back and forth, she tried forming words in her throat or think of any sort of explanation but nothing was coming, she just couldn’t get it out. All while she was noticeably fidgeting and her sweat was starting to pour down her face. Her mind was going a million miles a second but there wasn’t a destination for it!
Vector stepped forward with a worried look on his face. “Trixie? Is something wrong?”
Her eyes snapped to him and she shakily brought a hoof up to her mouth as if to nonchalantly cough, but it came out weak and ragged. “O-Of course not, I’m fine. Nothing is ever going wrong for The Great and Powerful Trixie!” She looked at the others, who had varying looks of concern on their faces as well. “D-Don’t worry at all… I didn’t… I wasn’t coming out here to...”
She saw the smiling face of Harlequin Black, the worried look of Vector, the suspicious and inquisitive gaze of Daylight Gleam and the confused expressions of Coil and Gizzard.
“You see I came out here because my plan is… t-the plan to beat Goliath and rescue the kids, it’s… well...” She was unconsciously backing up as she stuttered, looking between them all, right up until her flank hit her wagon.
“I’m… I...” Trixie looked at the five, it was like they were all closing in around her. What did she do? What could she say? What would they do?
Finally the agonizing conflict within her snapped and Trixie flung herself to the ground, covering her head with her hooves. “I’m a fraud!”
There weren’t any gasps like she had suspected. It seems her sudden confession had shocked them into silence. She peeked up to see how they were reacting… and it didn’t make her feel better. Vector was standing there slackjawed very similar to how Trixie was only a moment before. Gizzard looked down at her with an upset and bewildered expression, clearly wanting more of an explanation. Coil actually looked fairly calm and Daylight was just flatly looking at her with an almost pitying gaze.
“I… I don’t understand?” Vector said after he found his voice again.
“Grr.” Trixie growled slightly, her frustration at this whole situation now hitting its peak. “It’s exactly what I said! I’m a fraud, not a hero! I’m a traveling stage magician, not some crazy pony who fights monsters for a living! I don’t even know what a Nuckelavee is!”
“Wait, so then why-” Gizzard attempted to question before Trixie cut him off.
“It was completely by chance! I had no idea where I was going or what I landed on top of when I first came here!” She started waving her hooves over her head in emphasis.
“But why did you let us think you were a hero and you came here to help us?” Vector asked, a monumentally sad and disappointed look in his eyes. He was like a child that had just been told they weren’t getting a present for Hearthswarming.
“Because I thought it would be fun!” Trixie almost shouted in his face. “Because I came out here to find new and unique magic and now I suddenly had a whole village of people praising and looking up to me and The Great and Powerful Trixie loves that more than anything!” She stopped her ranting and started breathing heavily, having tired herself out. “I… felt like doing something new.” She said in-between pants.
Daylight walked up to her with an impassive face. “And you didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until too late.”
“Like you said, I’m not one for planning ahead,” Trixie grumbled at her.
Coil raised a hoof to get the others attention. “If I’m being honest I actually kind of suspected this. I may not have been in Equestria for some time but I never heard about anyone like Miss Trixie. And she doesn’t exactly act like a typical hero would.”
“So what about all those other times you saved us?” Gizzard asked her. The old griffon scratching at his cheek while they all ignored Coil’s statement for now.
“Luck! Blind, stupid, luck!” Trixie answered. “I have no idea how everything’s turned out as well as it has so far but that’s how it’s happened!”
Vector looked at Trixie’s wagon and then back at her, his big eyes just boring into her. “Were you going to run away tonight?”
Trixie winced. “Er… maybe? Eheh.” She awkwardly smiled.
“So you were just going to leave us hung out to dry like that,” Daylight Gleam said. It was a statement, not a question.
“I was going to tell someone you were in trouble!” Trixie angrily snapped back at her.
“Long after anything could be done,” Daylight narrowed her eyes at the magician.
Before Trixie could respond Coil moved between them, pushing both of the other unicorns away from each other. “Now hold on here. Regardless of her intentions and the, er, unfortunate thing she was about to do, Trixie has still saved East Glade numerous times now. I think she at least deserves some measure of respect and forgiveness. At the very least we don’t have the time or luxury to be arguing like this, right?”
“Forgiveness? Really Coil?” Daylight scoffed.
The other blue unicorn nodded. “Accidental or not we wouldn’t be here right now were it not for what Trixie did. Truthfully from that point of view we owe her more than she owes it to help us.”
“Tell that to Gabriel’s kids,” The white unicorn rolled her eyes and turned away, sitting down with her back turned to Trixie.
The stage magician couldn’t help but wince at her words and actions. It hit her more than she thought something like that would.
“Now, now,” Harlequin Black said as he walked up to Daylight and patted her a few times on the back. “You weren’t the kindest or most benevolent pony too long ago either. Don’t you think Trixie deserves the benefit of the doubt?”
“Yeah, but-” Daylight scowled, looking back at Trixie and then at the ground with a faint blush on her cheeks. “I thought we were friends.”
Trixie’s eyes widened a bit. “Friends?”
Daylight shifted to face Trixie once again, a tumultuous expression written on her face. Obviously the unicorn was embarrassed and annoyed to admit that. “Well, yeah. You’re annoying but… yeah. Friends.”
“I thought of you as a friend too...” Vector sighed, still looking so sad.
Coil and Gizzard both nodded in agreement. It was a lot for the traveling magician to deal with.
“I’m sorry.” Trixie’s eyes were downcast as she dejectedly looked at the ground. She had Starlight, and Maud was nice too, and Sunburst even, but she didn’t make friends as easily or as often as someone like Twilight. And she just betrayed four people who thought of her as one.
They were all silent for a moment after that but the pressing situation they were in didn’t afford them much time to rest.
“Do we tell the rest of the villagers the truth?” Vector asked Gizzard.
The old griffon shook his head. “Definitely not. Not only would they probably lynch Trixie there’d be so much chaos and panic, we just can’t have that right now. It’s better if everyone thinks she’s their hero so they can at least rally behind her and be less afraid.”
“That still leaves us all in a lot of trouble though,” Coil frowned.
“We have barely more than half a day before Trixie is supposed to be on that bridge, offered up to Goliath,” Daylight said.
Trixie gulped. Goliath would be coming after her and the mayor’s kids were kidnapped and being held somewhere. She didn’t know how to defeat a monstrous griffon like him and even if her lies weren’t revealed yet all the villagers would realize she’s a blustering fraud soon enough anyways.
Come on, I’m an escape artist so can’t I “escape” from a bad situation like this? She frowned inwardly at herself.
And then a light-bulb went off in her head. What Goliath wanted, the children, what her friends were capable of, everything was coming together…
“Hold on,” Trixie suddenly said to get their attention. “I want to help. And I think I have a plan.”
Daylight raised an eyebrow at her. “You think you can luck out again?”
The showpony shook her head. “No, it’s not going to rely on me getting lucky at all. In fact what I’m thinking of is going to put me in a lot of danger.”
“Even after you lying to us I don’t want you to get hurt,” Vector grimaced. “You can just let us take care of things. It’s true Goliath hasn’t done something like this before but we’ve been able to deal with him in the past.”
Trixie held up a hoof to silence him. “I want to help. And I want to prove that although I may not be a hero like I said I’m still The Great and Powerful Trixie and just as amazing as that implies.” She grinned. “Maybe this is a little tasteless for me to say right now, but have some faith in me.”
Harlequin Black seemed pleased and the other four all shared a look with each other. Coil, Gizzard, and Daylight all shrugged while Vector looked at her again.
“Miss Trixie… you don’t even know how saddened I am about all of this,” Vector said. “You were a pony I looked up to so much and I never once doubted you. It’s… truly heartbreaking to know that you were going to run away and let us suffer.” Tears actually welled up slightly in his eyes. “I don’t know if I can have that same trust and admiration for you ever again, but right now we need all the help we can get.”
The orange earth pony sighed deeply. “What is your plan?”
Trixie looked and felt worse and worse with each word, it reminded her of how she felt when she almost ruined her newfound friendship with Starlight. But at least they were giving her another chance. She’d make it up to them, real hero or fake.