When his wife had given birth to a foal, Jackpot knew that his life was going to have to change. So he’d postponed his plans to become a full time traveling magician and worked from home, putting his magical skills to work entertaining his daughter, Trixie. Tending to Trixie was not something that came naturally to the stallion who was past the prime of his youth. But ultimately his wife decided to leave him, and by that point Jackpot had become too attached to his little Trixie to consider leaving her with a sitter. If it meant changing diapers, so be it.
But the two years of tending to Trixie, who soon began calling herself “Great and Powerful” like her father, exhausted Jackpot in a way that nothing else had. So it was with GREAT relief that he looked forward to potty training the foal! No more dirty diapers to change! The only downside to that was that he had to teach Trixie himself, and no amount of books or advice from associates could truly prepare him. Still, the stallion made a decision to start the training before his daughter turned two and a half, convinced that the longer he held off the worse it would ultimately be.
Trixie, for her part, didn’t really know or care why her father seemed to be running himself ragged all the time. But she knew that whenever he got like this it meant that some great and powerful change was about to come to her life. And the little one eagerly anticipated it. It began smoothly enough and like any other day. Jackpot woke up and then woke Trixie up, smiling as he did so. After the obligatory diaper inspection (and praising his daughter for successfully keeping her diaper clean and dry), he made a big production out of marching her from her nursery down to the bathroom. “Just beyond this door lies your ticket to becoming a big pony,” He told his daughter. “Soon, you’ll be just as great and powerful as your old stallion.”
Trixie nodded. “Trixie gonna be great and powerful, like Dada!” But then she blinked in confusion. “How Trixie gonna do it?”
With dramatic flare, Jackpot lit up his horn and jiggled the knob on the bathroom door so it would swing open slowly. Once it was open all the way he escorted his daughter inside, and had her stand before what could be best described as a finely decorated trench like object. To Trixie it looked like there was lots of water inside and a hole at the bottom. But it couldn’t be a bathtub.
“What is that?” Trixie asked his father.
“This is a toilet,” Jackpot proudly told his daughter as his smile grew wider. “This is what you’re to use from now on instead of your diapers. It’s how big ponies answer nature’s call.”
Trixie blinked again, looking at the “toilet” and then back to her diaper. Truth be told she’d always been considered to be a nuisance. Every time she’d try to perform magic tricks like her father, it always made her trip and fall, thus screwing up the trick. But at the same time, she had come to appreciate the softness and security that the diaper afforded her. Reassurance that if she did anything her dad would soon be on hand to make all her troubles “disappear”. So she wasn’t sure what to think of the idea of graduating to this “toilet”.
Jackpot grinned. “Ah, I see that you’re stunned into silence at the prospect. Good!” He declared in only slightly exaggerated fashion. “Now, allow me to demonstrate how it works. It’s really quite simple. First, you need to take off your diaper. Don’t worry, this time I won’t make it disappear,” He carefully removed his daughter’s diaper and set it down on the bathroom floor so that she could still see it. “Now, get into position. It’s a little tricky.”
Trixie, not used to the bare sensation across her rump, nevertheless clumsily waddled about. She had no real idea of how she would use the toilet, but she also didn’t want to admit such a thing to her dad. She really wanted to impress him by figuring out how to “perform” this new task he’d given her.
Carefully, Jackpot not so secretly corrected her movements with his magic in order to get her facing the right way. “There, just like that. Next time you try, change up your approach. Think of it as entering from stage right instead of stage left. You may not think there’s much of a difference, but to us performers the difference is extraordinary,” He paused to cough into a hoof. “Anyway, now that you’re lined up properly, you need to lift your tail.”
“Trixie have to do that?” Trixie whined. Doing so made her feel even more exposed than she already was.
“Yes, Trixie,” Jackpot replied in a fatherly tone. “Now lift it up!” When his daughter reluctantly obeyed, he flashed her a big smile. “Excellent! Now you just hold that pose!”
“How long Trixie have to stand here like this?” Trixie protested with a frown on her face.
“Until I say you can move,” Jackpot instructed. “Now just relax, do what you’d normally do in your diapers. Except this time you’re obviously not going in your diapers.” He wasn’t actually sure if his daughter needed to do anything, only now realizing that it might have been better to wait until he was certain of that fact to do the demonstration.
But it seemed that luck was on the magician’s side as he heard some splashes and a steady tinkling sound echo into the toilet. He made sure to keep his head turned so his daughter could have privacy, that was one of the most important things any parent could do for their child. At last, Trixie finished and sighed in relief. “Trixie go potty! Trixie like Dada?” She hopefully asked as a wave of pride washed over her for her act.
Jackpot could hardly contain his excitement! “Indeed Trixie is… er I mean you are!” His daughter’s unusual way of speaking (copying the way her old stallion used to speak when on stage) rubbing off on him. As he tried to contain the blush forming on his cheeks he then explained. “So now that you’re done, let me just wipe you up. Hold still, please.”
Even though the aspiring and hopeful future magician would rather do anything else, she obeyed as she felt an odd paper substance make contact with her rump. Then she saw the used rolls of it be discarded into the toilet. Obviously, she was supposed to use whatever that stuff was when she was done. “And now, watch as I, the Great and Powerful Jackpot, make it all disappear!” Jackpot dramatically declared to his audience of one! “Keep your eye on the toilet!” Her daughter obeyed without hesitation, her eyes fixating specifically on the water below her.
Suddenly, Trixie heard a mighty roar, and the waters below her started spinning and swirling rapidly! She watched as they pulled up everything floating along with it the paper substance and was sucked down through the hole. After a few seconds, the water swirled down the hole and disappeared! And then the water came back, but the paper didn’t! “Thank you! Thank you!” Jackpot took a bow for his imaginary audience before turning to Trixie. “And that’s how you perform the greatest magic trick of all, making your number one and number two disappear. All that’s left is to wash your hooves.”
However, Trixie was puzzled by something. There was a part of this new “trick” that she didn’t quite grasp. And whenever she was stumped on something magical she knew there was only one pony that she could turn to to help her figure it out: Her dad. “How Dada do it?” She questioned.
“Do what, Trixie?” Jackpot inquired in an unsuspecting tone.
“How Dada make everything in toilet disappear?” Trixie asked and then shot him the best pair of pleeding, puppy dog eyes possible. “Dada show Trixie! Trixie wanna learn!”
Hesitating, her father agreed. “I don’t see why not. There’s no harm in you knowing.” Jackpot said, somewhat surprised. “Do you remember that loud noise that you just heard?” After his daughter nodded her head, he gestured a hoof to an oddly colored tile. “If you press down this pedal, the noise will make the toilet flush.”
“Flush?” Trixie blinked.
Jackpot nodded his head. “That’s right!” He explained. “It will never back up. I recently cast a spell on it to make it strong enough to make whatever’s in it disappear. It’s just like a magic trick.”
“So, Trixie press it, and flush make everything in toilet disappear?” Trixie asked, beginning to put two and two together.
Her father again nodded. “Correct! You’re a smart little filly. Someday you’ll be even more of a great and powerful magician than your father. But for now, we need to get those hooves washed. Come on, you’ve seen everything you need to see. And I’ve taught you everything you need to know. You repeat the performance step by step whenever you have to go again.” But, unknown to the stallion, he had just given his daughter a chance to play a trick on him! Jackpot was heading for trouble!
Trixie started thinking about the trick again. Where did everything that was flushed disappear to? It had to go somewhere since it didn’t come back up in the toilet. There was no way it just made everything disappear without a trace. Suddenly an idea popped into her mind, a very naughty idea in fact! She could’ve just asked her father, but the little filly was feeling kind of emboldened by her father’s praise. If she was truly going to be as great and powerful as her dad, she would need to figure out everything about this “trick” for herself. And that included where everything disappeared to.
So instead of obeying her father’s wishes, Trixie not so subtly went over to the pedal. “Time to find out where it all goes!” She thought to herself, as she quickly pressed the pedal down!
The toilet began flushing again! It was now or never! Trixie jumped down into the toilet and splashed into the waters which started swirling around and around! She couldn’t back out now even if she wanted to and she didn’t. She spun faster and faster, and the waters started to pull her towards the hole at the bottom!
Upon hearing the toilet flushing again plus a loud splash, Jackpot turned his attention over to it. “OH NO!” The stallion gasped at the top of his lungs! There was Trixie spinning around and around in the toilet! Realizing that his daughter was playing a trick on him, he rushed over to the toilet as fast as he could! But it was too late! “TRIXIE!” He exclaimed watching as Trixie was sucked through the hole! After a few seconds, the water rapidly swirl down the drain and disappeared! Then it returned, refilling the toilet. But there was no sign of his daughter anywhere! Trixie really did make herself disappear! And he knew where his daughter was likely to end up.
Sighing and realizing what fate awaited him, Jackpot took a deep breath and held his nose as he prepared to teleport! “Hold on, Trixie! Daddy’s coming!” He thought to himself, vanishing as soon as his horn had lit up fully!
A moment later, Trixie and her father both reappeared in the bathroom, both considerably wet and smelly and Jackpot holding his daughter away from him with his magic. He set to work on preparing a bath for the two of them. “Trixie!” He sternly declared as he glared at his daughter. “Don’t EVER do that again! You scared your old stallion half to death!”
Trixie whimpered and shrank in her father’s gaze. She hadn’t meant to make him worry so much. “Trixie no mean for Dada to get upset. Trixie just want to know where toilet make everything disappear to.”
Jackpot simply sighed as the waters in the tub began to heat up. “Well, now you know. Where it disappears to is a place that nopony is ever meant to be in. It’s damp, dark and smelly.”
“Trixie understands. Trixie no make herself disappear with toilet again.” Trixie promised.
“Good,” The stallion sighed again as he turned off the tap and gently floated his daughter into the tub before stepping in himself. “Because now we’re both going to have to be scrubbed clean.” In his mind he was thinking to himself. "I sure hope this isn’t why my wife left me. I didn’t think I was that bad with foals.”