The theatre was empty now, save for three distraught and exhausted unicorns. The last of the audience had shuffled out and most of them had a lot of questions. How much of the performance was planned? Was Trixie ever in any actual danger? Was this some new performance art piece meant to deconstruct the necessity for a magic show in a world run by real magic? Nopony had any answers and Trixie certainly was not up to facing them.
She had finally gotten the last of the chains off her and she sat on one of her broken wagon wheels, which lay twisted and lopsided on what remained of the stage. Starlight, wasting no time, had silently picked up a broom with her magic and was sweeping up wood chips into a neat little pile. Sunburst was just re-entering after checking up on something.
“So the rabbits,” he began, sensing the tension in the room. “After Fluttershy’s animals were brought into the pen, I guess the back door was left open and a bunch of wild rabbits followed them to the pen backstage.” He waited for a response, but the others remained silent. “So, it was nopony’s fault. It was just a mistake, that’s all. One big stupid mis…”
He trailed off when he realized Starlight and Trixie didn’t care how it had happened. The fact that it had happened at all was the issue. Trixie hung her head low, her mane dropping down and covering her face. Starlight was tired too, but she had a lot she had to say before the day was through.
Sunburst could sense that the two needed time to talk alone to figure out what was to come next. “I’ll … I’ll just see that Fluttershy gets all of her animals back.” He excused himself and left his friends on the quiet, decimated remains of the stage.
Starlight stopped sweeping and looked to Trixie, who had not moved once she got the chains off. “So are we talking now, or…” Starlight asked.
Trixie didn’t move.
“I can talk first if…”
No response.
“Okay, I’ll start.” Starlight took a breath, then paused, not knowing where to begin. She decided to go a gentle route to start, despite her true feelings. “This mess … it’s going to get cleaned up. The ponies and creatures who saw you, they’ll forget all about this in time, I’m sure. It’s not like you’re the first pony to embarrass herself in front of the whole town.”
Trixie remained quiet.
“And even though you put them all … and me … and yourself in mortal danger to-” She stopped herself when she realized she was losing control of her tone. “Look, I may sound angry, but I don’t really mean to. I just…” She trailed off when she realized something.
Starlight released control of the broom, letting it drop to the floor with a clatter. “You know what? I do mean to be angry! I have a right to be! I’m the headmare of this school! It’s my job to be angry when a catastrophe like this happens on my watch because it’s my responsibility to clean it up. I put so much trust in you and look what I got for it! Look around you, Trixie!”
At last Trixie lifted her head up and took in the damage. Starlight could see how sad her friend’s eyes were, but she didn’t care right now. There was no stopping these thoughts from pouring out.
“You couldn’t have just stuck to your old tricks, could you? You had to do something big! And you couldn’t just wait to practice with the animals or that stupid pendulum – made sure they were safe. And Celestia forbid you tell me about them beforehand! You know, your assistant! Your best friend! I tried to talk some sense into you but, no! You just wouldn’t listen! Well, I just have one question for you, Trixie: Was it worth it? Was it all worth it? Do you think that guy was impressed? Do you think he’ll go out with you now that you’ve-”
“He was a talent agent,” Trixie cut her off quietly.
“What?”
“He was a talent agent.” Trixie slowly turned to face Starlight to make sure she would understand everything. There was nothing left to lose now. “From Las Pegasus. I didn’t want to go out with him. I wanted him to book me!”
Starlight’s mouth was agape. Of all the things Trixie could have said to reason her actions, this was low on the list. “What are you talking about?”
Trixie stood up and walked toward Starlight. “That day when I met him, he said he worked for Somnambula’s Palace in Las Pegasus, booking performers for the resort’s stage. And in case you didn’t know, Starlight, that stage is really hoofing big! It can fit a lot of ponies in a lot of seats. I invited him here to show off what I could do because I guess I thought I had a chance at getting booked for a residency at Las Pegasus. Stupid, right?”
“You’re saying this whole stunt was just, what, an audition? You lied to me?!”
Trixie looked Starlight dead in the eye but remained silent. She didn’t completely lie to her friend, but she certainly kept the whole truth to herself, something she was still too ashamed to come right out and say. She broke eye contact and looked down at her hooves.
Starlight’s anger began to boil back up to the surface. “You put our lives, the lives of everycreature here, in danger, to fulfil some sort of … some sort of fillyhood fantasy?”
Trixie snapped back up and pointed a hoof accusatorily in Starlight’s face. She no longer felt defeated, she was focused and on the defensive. “Don’t you dare call my magic a fillyhood fantasy, Starlight Glimmer. This is what I’m good at. This is the only thing I’ve ever been good at and you know it.”
“I know you struggled with it,” Starlight shook her head. “Even in your prime. You only ever got half your tricks right. You lived out of your cramped caravan. It was hard for you.”
“It’s supposed to be hard,” Trixie clarified. “I didn’t do it because it was easy. I did it because it made me happy. I was good at it. And on a good day I could make other ponies happy. I could share my passion for magic and performance with them.”
“Well I hope you’re happy now. I hope all of this made you happy today. I hope it was all worth it.” Starlight began to pace. “And just so you know, I was the one who carried you through this whole performance. I saved you when you botched your entrance. I protected the audience from your deadly firework barrage. I picked up the slack when you couldn’t keep up. So, good luck making it to Las Pegasus without me by your side.”
“Clearly I’m not going to Las Pegasus.” Trixie gestured to the destruction around her. “Not after tonight. Star Search is probably going to tell all his Las Pegasus friends to stay as far away from me as possible. ‘The Great and Powerful Train Wreck,’ that’s what they’ll call me. I guess that’s as clear a sign as I’ll need to pack it away for good. But thanks for rubbing it in, Starlight. I can always count on you.”
Starlight clenched her hooves in frustration, trying her hardest to control it. A few misbehaving students she could manage, but Trixie was a whole different kind of beast. “Nopony ever told you to pack your magic away for good. You do tricks for the students all the time. Why can’t you just do it for fun and be happy with that? Why can’t that be enough?”
“BECAUSE I WANT TO BE SOMEPONY!!”
Trixie screamed these words out with all the force of a banshee, her eyes red with ferocity. Starlight stumbled back from her friend. Never had she heard Trixie this emotional, and it made her afraid.
“Do you know what it’s like being friends with you? You saved the princesses, multiple times. Sure, I helped but you did all the heavy lifting. You always do the heavy lifting. Twilight took you under her wing as her apprentice. She hoof-picked you to run her school when she left. You’re a hero Starlight, people know who you are. Sunburst too. He was Princess Flurry Heart’s Royal Crystaller! Twilight’s a princess! All her friends got to follow their dreams and make something of themselves. Rainbow Dash made it to the Wonderbolts, Rarity’s an international fashion icon. Everypony got to keep doing what they loved, but not me! I got to give it all up to work at a school where I get to sit in a small office doing nothing all day!”
Starlight didn’t say a word. She didn’t know Trixie had ever felt this way. Trixie paused to catch her breath. She started pacing the stage, kicking around the scattered props and stage bits.
“I chose to work here because it meant I got to work with my best friend. That made me feel special. At the time it felt right, but now … I feel like I threw away what made me happy and chose something easy instead. Magic was hard. Performing for small crowds in nowhere towns, hoping nothing would go wrong onstage, making little money. It was all hard. But it was all mine. That was my story – it was who I was. Maybe if I kept going, I could have made it big. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt like I needed to settle for something less than my dreams.”
She turned back to Starlight, her eyes filled with tears.
“Maybe if I stuck with my magic, really worked on it and kept pushing myself, I could have made it to Las Pegasus. Maybe ponies would have chanted my name when I walked on the stage. I could have been somepony. But I’ll never know that now. I’ve come too far.”
Tears poured down her cheeks and Starlight’s eyes started to fill with tears too. Trixie turned to her wagon, still on its side. The wheels were in splinters. Smoke still wafted up in little wisps out of the holes in its roof. The inside had been charred black due to the discharge of the fireworks and anything that was left inside had been rendered burnt and unrecognizable.
Trixie fell to her knees and wept openly. Starlight trotted to her friend, sat next to her and cried right there by her side. She put a hoof around Trixie’s neck to try to comfort her. Right now, the destruction of the stage, the lies, none of that mattered. It would get cleaned up eventually. Starlight saw a broken pony sitting next to her, and she didn’t know what to do to make it better.
“I … I just…” Trixie managed between sobs. “I don’t know where I belong anymore. If I’m not The Great and Powerful Trixie anymore, I don’t know who I am.”
The unicorns perked up their ears when they heard hoofsteps coming from offstage. They stood up and wiped the tears from their eyes to greet who they assumed was Sunburst. When the pony appeared from behind the curtain, however, it was revealed to be Star Search.
“There you are! Wow, this school’s like a maze,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Star Search! What are you still doing here?” asked Trixie.
“I never left. I was trying to find you backstage, but I got lost in all the hallways,” Star Search huffed. “You were an absolute riot!”
Trixie and Starlight looked at each other, confused. “Me? A riot?” asked Trixie.
“That was absolutely one of the best vaudeville routines I’ve ever seen!”
Trixie looked at Starlight, who shared her confusion. “You mean you liked my magic?”
“Oh, Celestia, no!” the talent agent clarified. “Your magic was as fresh as a week-old sandwich. When you opened the show with that card trick with that obvious fake blindfold, I started rolling my eyes. Nothing about your magic is going to make you stand out.”
Trixie was crushed. She liked to think she was mature enough now to take criticism, but Star Search’s brutal honesty left her embarrassed and humiliated.
“However,” Star Search continued. “Your slapstick is something special.” He laughed and slapped his knee. “When that rabbit wouldn’t let go of your face I was practically rolling on the floor! Then when you shot yourself out of a cannon and into a wall, I just about lost it! You can take a hit like nopony I’ve ever seen before.”
Trixie couldn’t believe it. All this time, after all this work, and he was completely enraptured by all her mistakes. “So, what are you saying?” she asked.
“It means there may be a place for you after all,” he said with a wink.
Trixie’s eyes lit up. “You mean I’m going to be booked at Somnambula’s Palace?!”
“Oh no no no!” Star Search shook his head. “No theatre in Las Pegasus would dare book an act so crass. No, what I mean is, I also happen to represent a smaller company based out of Klugetown.”
“Klugetown?!” Trixie retched. Klugetown was known for a lot of things: it’s grimy and dilapidated infrastructure, it’s citizens’ penchant for exploiting others for their own monetary gain, and for being smack dab in the middle of a desert on the outskirts of Equestria. It was not known, however, for its entertainment industry.
“Yes Klugetown, there’s a big market for this kind of entertainment. You’ll have creatures of all kinds laughing themselves silly at your pratfalls. Everypony knows pain is universally funny, no matter what species you are.”
“I … I don’t know what to say,” Trixie said truthfully.
“Well, I do have some thoughts and adjustments to make to really bring the act together,” Star Search said as he looked around the theatre. “Getting tied up in handkerchiefs is good and fun but adding a pie to the face at the end would be the cherry on top.”
“I’m sorry, ‘pie to the face’?” asked Trixie.
“Oh yeah. You’ll be doing a lot of parties for kids and such, and the old pie-in-the-face gag always brings the house down.”
A moment of clarity hit Trixie as she finally put the pieces together. The slapstick, the kid’s parties, being pummeled with confectionary…
“A clown,” came a whisper. Trixie was thinking it, but the words came from Starlight, who had just broken her silence.
“Sorry, what was that?” asked Star Search, leaning an ear in.
“You want her to be a clown,” Starlight said in awe.
“Ah, and who are you again?”
“I’m … actually, who I am doesn’t matter,” said Starlight. “This isn’t about me, it’s about Trixie. The Great and Powerful Trixie, to be exact.”
“I know, and I believe she was just about to join-”
“Were you asleep during the show? Trixie isn’t a clown. Trixie is the greatest stage magician who ever lived!”
“I’m sorry, Miss, I don’t see what you have to do with-”
“Name me one other magician who can escape an out-of-control giant buzz saw while locked in chains. Name one other magician who can wrangle dozens of creatures onstage and still find time to launch themselves out of a cannon?”
Starlight looked defiantly at Star Search, daring him to counter her.
“The magicians of Las Pegasus don’t do these sorts of things,” he said. “It’s all tricks. It’s fake. That’s the fun of stage magic.”
“Well, Trixie is no fake,” Starlight continued. “I’ve known her throughout the absolute best years of my life and she never fakes anything. She’s entirely authentic. All real, all the time, and that’s what makes her so special.”
Starlight turned to Trixie whose eyes began to well up again, but this time she had a big, grateful smile on her face.
“And she’s certainly no birthday clown,” Starlight said, turning back to Star Search. “So, if you can’t see the greatness of the magician in front of you, then I say she’s too good for Las Pegasus and she’s too good for you.”
Star Search’s jaw hung open. “I’m not sure what to say to all that, but I’m not doing business with you.” He turned his attention back to Trixie. “What do you say, Trixie? I can have your first Klugetown booking ready next week.”
Star Search’s obliviousness was clear to Trixie. All this time he had been talking to her and he was all business, all professional. He had not once addressed her emotional state or altered his tone because of it, even as tears were running down her face. He didn’t care who she was or what she wanted because he didn’t really see her. She was just a potential business investment to him. Starlight was the one who came to Trixie’s defense, even after everything Trixie had done. Starlight saw her for who she really was and still chose to stand by her side.
Trixie looked at Star Search with unblinking eyes. “Thank you for the offer, Star Search, but I’m going to have to say no.”
Star Search raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Um, okay.” He awkwardly stood in silence for a moment. “That’s disappointing. You’ve really got something here, Trixie.”
Trixie turned to Starlight. “I know,” she smiled.
After another awkward pause, Star Search said, “Well, I guess I’ll be on my way then. Have a good night, ladies.” He turned and walked back toward the corridor he came from.
Alone onstage together again, Trixie and Starlight shared a look. Starlight smiled with satisfaction. “I think you made the right choice, Trixie.”
Trixie returned the smile but wavered slightly. Hers wasn’t a smile of comfort, but of uncertainty. “Yeah…” she trailed off. “I guess the stage isn’t going to clean itself.”
Trixie used her magic to pick up the broom Starlight had dropped. She began to sweep absentmindedly.
“Is there anything else you want to talk about first?” Starlight asked.
“Thank you, but I don’t feel like talking any more right now. I just want to get this done and get some sleep.”
“Alright,” Starlight nodded. She used her magic to clear the larger pieces of debris from the stage. “I’m surprised you were so polite to that guy after he insulted your magic like that.”
“He was just doing his job,” said Trixie dryly. “No reason to be rude to him.”
“I guess,” replied Starlight. Then another thought occurred to her. “Think he’ll be able to find his way back through the school?”
“I don’t really care,” said Trixie.