//------------------------------// // The Great and Powerful Trixie // Story: Living in Equestria // by Blazewing //------------------------------// Can I even express the spirits which buoyed me as I walked back towards the center of town? I felt as if my limbs were completely weightless, that I was strolling across the surface of the moon, my heart feeling as if I could burst into song, if I only knew the words. And oh, it was better than that. I’d proven Ironmane wrong. Whether or not he had intended to report Scootaloo because it would spite me, or because it really was his civic duty, I’d deprived him of a possible chance to have the upper hand over me. I had the strongest desire to find him, shout ‘In your FACE!’ right into his face, and perform the most ridiculous, annoying victory dance I could think of, even if he were completely baffled by the meaning of it. My exuberance seemed to be infecting Pinkie as well, as she was cantering along beside me, in a sort of skipping jog, with the biggest smile on her face. “Davie, you’ve done a really great thing today. Something like that deserves a reward!” “Aw, now, Pinkie, seeing Scootaloo safe and secure in a family is all the reward I need.” Looking down at her, I saw that she was still grinning, so how could I not return it? We’d hardly entered the Ponyville market, however, before Pinkie suddenly stopped. “Pinkie? What is it?” Inexplicably, her teeth began chattering, as if she were standing in a blizzard, but the weather was perfectly mild. When she stopped, I ventured to ask, “What was that about?” “My teeth chattered.” “Well, obviously.” Was this part of her Pinkie Sense or something? “That means we’re about to get an unpleasant visit.” “An unpleasant visit?” For a moment, I wondered if she meant Ironmane, if he was even still in Ponyville. In lieu of that, however, we heard a loud commotion coming from one of the stalls. “4 bits for 3 tomatoes?! You have to be joking!” “Haven’t you ever heard of supply and demand?” “Of course I have, and I demand that you supply me with reasonably-priced produce! Do you know who I am?!” “I couldn't care less.” “What the heck is going on over there?” I asked. “The unpleasant visit,” said Pinkie. Following her gaze, I saw that the keeper of a stall selling tomatoes was arguing with a pony who looked absolutely outlandish. Her coat was blue, and I could just make out the silvery-blue of her mane, as well as her violet eyes. Most of her form, however, was garbed in an enormous purple cloak and wizard’s hat, decorated all over with stars, along with a pair of saddle bags. She looked like a stage magician, or a cosplayer on her way to a con. “Listen, lady,” said the stall keeper, “I run my business my way, and everypony else runs theirs their way. If you don’t like my prices, you’re gonna have to live with it.” “You’ll rue this day, my good woman!” snapped the gaudy mare. “The Great and Powerful Trixie shall let all of Equestria know of Ponyville’s extortionist market dealings!” “I’m shaking,” said the stall keeper, sarcastically. The pony’s outrage at overpriced tomatoes had attracted quite a crowd, nopony in it looking happy. There was also something familiar about the name 'Trixie'. “What’s going on?” I asked Pinkie. “Why does everypony look like she kicked a puppy or something?” Before Pinkie could answer, Rainbow touched down next to us. “Hey, Dave. Twilight was really happy to hear about what happened, and she said tomorrow at 2’s perfect.” “Great, Rainbow. Thanks.” “Something wrong? What are you staring at?” She followed our gaze, and a disgruntled countenance to match the rest of the crowd came across her face. “Oh. It’s her.” “Her who?” I asked. “Trixie…” And then, it clicked. Wait a minute. That’s the Trixie Twilight mentioned?” “Did she tell you much?” “Just that she showed off and ran away after finally being read the riot act.” “Right. Well, we were hoping she was gone for good.” “Is she that bad?” I asked, but neither of my companions answered. Trixie seemed to become aware of the crowd she was attracting, and turned to look at the angry throng. “What?” she asked, snappishly. “Can’t a pony go shopping without being harassed? A star has to eat too, you know.” She said this with her head help up loftily, as if she were someone of noble birth. “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here again, Trixie,” said Rainbow, stepping forward. Trixie’s eyes narrowed in dislike. “Well, well, well. if it isn’t one of Twilight Sparkle’s little lackeys.” “Lackey?! Oh, you’re asking for it!” Rainbow pawed the ground. “Careful, now,” said Trixie, in a playfully dangerous voice, “before Trixie gives you another twirl-about. You wouldn’t want that, now, would you?” Rainbow snorted through her nostrils, and looked ready to dive at Trixie, but, out of a sort of impulse, I grabbed her by her tail, stopping her short. She turned an annoyed look at me. “Come on, dude! First Applejack, now you? Let me at her!” “Easy, Rainbow. We don’t want this to turn into a brawl.” “Says who?” “And what, pray tell, are you?” came Trixie’s voice. I had the feeling that the question was directed at me, and indeed, all eyes were turned in my direction. Trixie stepped toward me, eyeing me like an art critic surveying a sculpture. As she approached, I could see that her starry cloak was fastened by a light blue gemstone as a brooch. Her violet eyes roved over me. “Well!” she said, in admiring surprise, “By the grassy savannas of Zebrafrica…” She turned to the townspeople. “Trixie must give you credit, Ponyville. She did not imagine that you had the capacities to capture a live human. Of course, Trixie could have wrangled a dozen without much hassle, but I suppose you went with quality over quantity.” Did she just refer to me as a tamed beast? The nerve…! I had a half a mind to release Rainbow and sic her on this insulting mare, if my fist wasn’t so tightly clenched. “I beg your pardon, miss,” I said, with an attempt to keep myself under control, but Trixie interrupted me. “Oh! You speak. How intriguing. Well, human, The Great and Powerful Trixie would prefer that you refer to her by her full title.” She spoke this title with a lot of grandeur, and even rolled the R’s of it. At any rate, her statement was still infuriating. Before I could speak my mind, however, Pinkie had gotten between me and Trixie, her light blue eyes aflame with anger. “Hey! You leave him alone!” Trixie merely raised an eyebrow. “Trixie is not familiar with you, but she doesn’t doubt you are another of Twilight Sparkle’s cronies.” “She’s my friend, thank you,” said Pinkie, “and so is he, so you do not talk to him like that!” “Awfully defensive of him, aren’t you? Are you his keeper, or is it something beyond that?” Oh, no she didn’t…she did not just go there! Now I was holding both Rainbow and Pinkie back, but I was undecided whether it was because I didn’t want them to get into a fight, or because I didn’t want them to get to her before I did. “What’s your problem, Trixie?” snapped someone in the crowd. I picked out that it was Golden Harvest, the carrot farmer. Trixie’s face darkened. It seemed, somehow, that that one question struck a nerve. She slowly turned to face the crowd. She seemed, moreover, to be in a different mindset, as she didn’t refer to herself in the third person as she spoke this time. “What’s my problem? I have no problem. It is all of you that have the problem! All I did was come to spread my magic and tales of bravery, and all you did was mock me and try to make me look like a fool!” “You sure as hay didn’t need us to make you look like a fool!” said Rainbow. “You were rude to my friends, you meanie-pants!” said Pinkie. “I saw what you did!” “You foals brought it upon yourselves!” growled Trixie. “You doubted my magic, so I offered you the chance to prove it. Is it my fault that you failed?” “All you did was use your magic to twist what we did!” said Rainbow. “That’s all you are, Trixie: a lying, boastful, unoriginal fraud!” Trixie’s eyes widened in shock, but narrowed again in rage. “How dare you! I am a mare of the stage, a mistress of the theatric arts! I shall not be treated like a lowlife by you…you...lowlifes! I’ve had enough! I should never have come back.” She stomped off, as the crowd muttered darkly about her. I followed her with my gaze, and what I saw next gave me a check in my initial anger. It was for a very brief instant, but as Trixie left, she turned her head to look at the crowd again, whose attention was amongst each other rather than her, and, in that instant, her face changed from a look of resentment…to one of hurt sadness. Again, it was only for an instant, as she quickly turned away again and made her way toward the edge of town, but it stood out vividly. In that brief space of time, I couldn’t help but feel some pity for her. Sure, she’d been rather rude and insulting, but then, the crowd was basically feeding her attitude by egging her on. Was she really that bad, or was there more to it than that? I had to know. Numbly, I released Pinkie and Rainbow’s tails, and began directing my steps the way Trixie had gone. “Davie? Where are you going?” “I have to talk to her,” I said, decidedly. “What? To Trixie?” “Of course to Trixie.” “Why?” asked Rainbow, “So she can insult you some more? I was ready to make her eat her own hat when she started treating you like some wild animal!” “All sides need to be heard in an argument, Rainbow!” I said, whipping around, catching her by surprise. “I’ve gotten an earful of everypony else’s side, now I want to hear her side. I should think that’s what Twilight would want, if she'd been here in the crowd.” The two mares looked at each other in silence, unsure of what to say to that. “I’m not asking you to come with me, so don’t think you have to, but I’m going.” Gee, where did this sound familiar? “I’ll go with you, Davie,” said Pinkie, quietly. “Trixie never did anything to me personally, even if she was mean to my friends.” “Well, I still say she’s a jerk,” said Rainbow, defiantly. “If you wanna waste your time talking to her, that’s your funeral. I’ll see you guys later.” With a flap of her wings, she soared off into the sky, the crowd dispersing. I looked down at Pinkie, who nodded, and the two of us headed off in the direction Trixie took. *** Luckily, Trixie never suspected us of following her, as she was some distance off, and we were able to see in what direction she was headed. The spring that was in our steps had subsided, to be replaced with swift but stealthy movements, lest she employ some means of overhearing our approach. Our tracking took us out of Ponyville, back towards the woods where Derpy’s home was. We were just in time to see Trixie duck into them, at a spot further off from the pegasus’s house. Silently, we followed after her. Honestly, I was amazed at how quiet Pinkie was being, due to her usually being so loud and chipper. Perhaps I didn’t give her enough credit, that she did have the capacity to take a situation seriously. Thankfully, as I’d observed before, these woods were much more wholesome in appearance than the Everfree Forest, and traversing them was a trifle. Unexpectedly, we came right to the object of our search, but what an object it was. Sitting in an enclosure, from which branched off a dirt path with wheel tracks (indicating how it had gotten there in the first place), was a large, brightly-painted caravan, about the size of a modern trailer home, with a signpost hanging from it bearing a symbol like a star-tipped wand leaving behind a trail of magic. (Mr. Toad, eat your heart out,) With no small degree of apprehension, I crossed the enclosure, came to the door, and knocked twice. No answer. I knocked again. This time there was a noise, as of someone moving about. An upper panel in the door opened, and Trixie stuck her head out, a disgruntled look on her face. She wasn’t wearing her hat or her cloak, so I could see that her mane was flowing and silky, almost like a shorter version of Fluttershy’s style. Moreover, I saw the telltale horn of a unicorn. “Oh, it’s you,” she said. “Not content with the humiliation Trixie got from the townsfolk, I see. You’ve come to laugh in Trixie’s face, haven’t you?” “Actually, Trixie, I was wondering if I could come in and talk with you.” “Talk with Trixie? What could you possibly have to say?” “I’m not as idiotic as you think I am. I have a functioning brain, though some members of my species choose not to display credibility to that fact.” A rather uncomfortable look came across Trixie’s face, as if reminded of something she didn’t want to have remembered. “I wasn’t going to imply,” she began, but she seemed to catch herself. “That is to say…” She sighed, frustrated. “Very well, you may come in. If it had been Trixie’s old caravan, she might not be so welcoming, as there was much less room.” She closed the upper compartment, and the main door opened. As I ascended the steps, Pinkie followed, but Trixie stopped the two of us. “What is she doing here?” she asked, sharply. “She’s been my friend ever since I arrived in Equestria,” I said, calmly. “She means no harm to you.” Trixie glared at Pinkie for a few moments, though Pinkie tried giving her a weak smile. With another sigh, she said, “Fine, Trixie doesn’t care. Just don’t touch anything.” She stepped away, allowing us to enter. Trixie’s caravan was rather full of trunks and boxes, which in turn were full of magician’s props, fireworks, and other performance miscellany. A wall-mounted bed took up part of one of the walls. Several posters stretched across the other wall, showing Trixie looking triumphant and proud with explosions and smoke billowing behind her. At the end, in stark contrast to these eye-catching images, was an official-looking plaque. I was going over to inspect it, but Trixie cleared her throat loudly, catching my attention. “Please, be seated,” she said, in a stiff tone that must have been her attempt at being polite. She sat at the very end of her bed, while Pinkie and I sat at the other. Besides her magic wand cutie mark, she seemed…oddly reduced without her theatrical attire. I gazed from her to one of her posters. The real deal seemed thinner, as if she hadn’t been eating too well as of late. I even fancied I could see her ribs sticking through her coat, and there was a tired look in the eyes that, on her displays, looked vibrant and energetic. My sympathy for her had found a new thread to follow. “What are you staring at?” she asked, catching me by surprise in my musings. “Er, well,” I stammered, “I, er, just couldn’t help but notice that you, uh…don’t look too well.” “What do you mean by that?” “You look like you could use a good meal, if you don’t mind my saying. Not that I’m criticizing you!” I added, hastily, as she raised her eyebrow. “On the contrary, I think you look nice. I’m just worried that you might not be getting enough to eat.” Trixie continued to stare at me with a raised eyebrow, but she finally allowed herself a smile, giving her mane a flip. “Thank you for your compliment, but Trixie doesn’t need to be told she’s beautiful. As for your concerns about her figure, Trixie is trying to keep it via the most sophisticated diet she could find. If Trixie is feeling generous, she could lend some tips to your pink friend. She looks like she could use them.” “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” asked Pinkie, putting her hooves to her hips with an indignant pout on her face. I could kind of see what Trixie meant, as the gesture only made Pinkie’s plump belly even more obvious, but I had to prevent another argument from breaking out. “Trixie,” I said, levelly, “we didn’t come to start a conflict with you. We’ll agree to be civil if you do the same.” Trixie gave me another steady look, then cleared her throat. “I see. Very well. Trixie shall be as civil as can be managed. What is it you wish to speak of, human?” “Well, first of all, call me Dave, please.” “Dave?…A simple name, in length, but it lacks the flair, the extravagance that a name could have, such as…” “The Great and Powerful Trixie?” I asked, flatly. “Ah! Already our minds think alike!” she said. “You’re much cleverer than Trixie gave you credit for. I may have been wrong about you.” “You may have been wrong?” Trixie looked as if she saw her error, and said, in a more subdued tone, “Very well, I was wrong. You’ll have to forgive me. I’m not always skilled in speaking with admirers off-stage.” Ok, this was at least a step in the right direction… “Well, Trixie, I’m here to listen to both sides of the events you and a Miss Twilight Sparkle were involved in.” And too late, I saw that I’d taken us a step back. “Twilight Sparkle,” said Trixie, in a scornful tone. “How often has that name pervaded my every dream? My humiliating fall from grace, the destruction of my reputation, all because of her!” Her pupils had become constricted to mere pinpoints, and her teeth were gritted. Moreover, a pinkish light was glowing at the tip of her horn, like she was about to fire a blast from it, similar to how Ironmane acted when he first met me. I edged away from her, thoroughly discomforted, and I felt Pinkie protectively put her forelegs around me. Thankfully, her enraged expression disappeared just as quickly as it had come. “I can sense there’s still some enmity against her,” I said, weakly. “Enmity? Whatever do you mean? The Great and Powerful Trixie is a friend to all!” “Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, “If those townsfolk were your friends, I’d rather not meet your enemies.” Trixie said nothing to this. “Pinkie,” I asked, “do you remember when Trixie first came to Ponyville?” “Uh-huh, as if it happened yesterday!” “Can you tell me how it went down, through your eyes?” “Sure! Well, I got up like I usually did, had a nice, big stack of pancakes with strawberries on top for breakfast, then I played with Gummy for a little while, and-” “Pinkie, Pinkie!” I interrupted. “Yes?” “As much as we’d all love to hear how every part of your day went-” “Speak for yourself,” muttered Trixie. I gave her a swift look, then resumed. “Would you mind just skipping ahead to when Trixie arrived?” “Oh! All right! Why didn’t you say so?” My only response was a groan of frustration. “Snips and Snails were running around Ponyville, talking about a super-awesome magical pony that had just come to town!” “Snips and Snails?” I asked. What was next, a pony named ‘Puppy Dog Tail’? “A couple of school-colts. They attend Cheerilee’s class,” Pinkie explained. “We all gathered to see ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’, who was making a lot of booms, sparks, and kablooies from her wagon!” “I hardly think Trixie’s advanced pyrotechnics require such a verbal dumbing down,” muttered Trixie. “She was talking about how cool and awesome she was, and how she beat an Ursa Major single-hoofed! Then some of the others started making fun of her and booing her, which I didn’t think was very nice.” Trixie looked up, as if surprised to hear this. “Well, if all she was doing was trying to be theatrical, I hardly see why that should get everypony in that mood,” I said. Trixie then looked at me with the same expression. “So she challenged everypony in the audience," Pinkie continued, "and said ‘anything you can do, I can do better’, and everypony else was all like, ‘no you can’t’, and Trixie was like ‘yes I can’, and everypony else was like ‘no you can’t’, and Trixie was like ‘yes I can’, and everypony else-” “We get the point, Pinkie,” I interrupted, a bit impatiently. “So, anyway, Applejack pulled off some super-duper lasso tricks, but Trixie just hogtied her!” I looked at Trixie, wondering if she had some defense for this accusatory statement. “Trixie was only demonstrating superior rope handling,” she said, simply. “That apple-happy cow-pony had it coming to her.” “But did you really have to hogtie her?” I asked. “Perhaps not, but it was the first thing to come to Trixie’s mind,” she said, somewhat snappishly. “Proceed, Pinkie,” I said. “Then Dashie stepped in and made a mini-rainbow over herself! It was so pretty! Then Trixie used it to spin her around and make her all dizzy!” “You can warp a rainbow?” I asked, looking at Trixie. “What can’t Trixie do?” she asked, giving a dignified toss of her head. (Stop referring to herself in the third person, for one thing,) “And then Rarity made herself all pretty with her magic, and Trixie turned her mane green!” “Um, oh the horror?” I said, puzzled. “That fashion-loving pony used Trixie’s stage curtains to make her little outfit,” said Trixie, in a justified tone. “She had it coming to her.” “So, borrowing a curtain warrants changing someone’s hair color? Then again, I can’t exactly see Rarity with a green mane.” “Then Trixie challenged Twilight to show her stuff!” said Pinkie. “That must have been impressive to see,” I said. “What did she do, make a miniature replication of the solar system? Perform some teleportation tricks?” Trixie gave a derisive snort. “Well, no,” said Pinkie, “but she did show off her super-awesome hearing skills.” “Hearing skills?” “Yeah! She could hear her laundry calling all the way from her house, and ran off to take care of it! I wish I had ears like hers.” “Wait," I said, the answer dawning on me. "You mean she made up an excuse not to take on Trixie’s challenge? Why?” “Trixie thought,” said Trixie, resentfully, “that she was simply too scared at the thought of humiliating herself in front of her peers, but it seems she only didn’t do it because she was being humble, that she didn’t want to be as big a showoff as Trixie.” “I wouldn’t say being humble with having great power is anything to be ashamed of,” I said, but Trixie just gave a small ‘hmph’. “Then, that night,” Pinkie proceeded, “I heard a loud rumbling coming from outside, so I peeked out the window, and saw a big blue bear stomping down the street! I waved and said ‘Hi!’, but I don’t think he heard me. He must have been really cranky.” “So, this was that Ursa thing?” “Yep! Snips and Snails had brought it in for Trixie to vanquish!” “Wait, what?!” I shouted. “Two little colts lured a dangerous beast into Ponyville?!” Then again, I vaguely remembered Twilight saying something similar. “Trixie still shudders upon remembering those two little imbeciles,” Trixie muttered. “It turns out Trixie couldn’t take care of the Ursa, because she never had before! Her whole story about doing that was just a big, fat lie! I later asked Applejack, since she represents the Element of Honesty, what her take was on lying if it was part of your job. She just looked at me and said, 'It ain’t no job I’d be anxious for, sugarcube'." I looked at Trixie, who had visibly winced when Pinkie gave this frank testimony to Trixie’s lie. “So then Twilight showed up and started doing a bunch of magicky stuff, which calmed the Ursa down, put it to sleep, and sent it back where it came from.” “Now that’s what I’d expect from a pony like Twilight,” I said, satisfied to hear that Twilight had indeed demonstrated impressive magic. Trixie gave me a sour look. “And then Trixie just ran away, saying Twilight was still nothing compared to her. Then Twilight said-” “Stop!” snapped Trixie, her expression livid. “I’ve heard enough of your infuriating recollections! All you've done is remind Trixie of why she should never have come back! Now, if you please, I want the two of you to leave, at once!” “But, what about your side of the story?” I asked, flummoxed. “That was the point of our visit, to give you a chance to tell your version, out of fairness.” “Fairness? You dare talk to me about fairness?” asked Trixie, in a dangerous tone. She got up from her bed and started advancing toward us, a glint of resentment in her eyes, and her horn aglow once more. Pinkie and I jumped up in turn and stepped away as she advanced, both of us very pensive as to what she might do. “You don’t need to hear my side of the story,” said Trixie, in a passive-aggressive tone that transcended into full anger as she went on. “What good would it do? You already have a full and true account from this pony’s memories!” She pointed at Pinkie. “You already know the truth: The Great and Powerful Trixie is nothing but a fraud, a liar, a boaster, a sham! Everypony in the world can boo her, shun her, drive her out of town, leaving her to wallow in her own misery and broken dreams, while they get to go on with their lives, living happily ever after! Because that’s all that matters at the end of the day, isn’t it?!” Her rant had reached fever pitch, and she was practically shrieking by this point. Pinkie and I were flattened against the wall. From my spot, though I was still very much mindful of the bitter unicorn, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at the wall-mounted plaque, which I now saw was a diploma. I could only read the larger words: Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and the recipient was…‘Beatrix Lulamoon’? Was that Trixie’s real name? “And you can tell little Miss Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie went on, bringing my eyes back to her, “that I don’t care how skilled at magic she thinks she is! She’s still the one who ruined me and drove me to a life of hunger and rejection, and I would die a happy mare to know that that haunted her every dream until the day of her death!” I felt Pinkie’s forelegs close around me, and could feel her shuddering from fear at Trixie’s rage. I couldn’t exactly blame her. At last, however, Trixie’s anger seemed to ebb away, and the glow vanished from her horn, though she still had a miserable expression on her face. She seemed to be fed up at last. “Please, just go,” she said, quietly. Pinkie and I looked at each other, and we silently agreed that this was all we could do. We passed Trixie and made our way out of the caravan, back into the clearing. As Trixie was going to close the door behind us, however, I said, “You’re right, Trixie.” She looked up, surprised. “It’s not fair that you have to suffer like this, though I can’t say you didn’t bring it upon yourself partially.” She averted her eyes in a pained way. “I know you’re not a bad pony on the inside, and it’s never too late to make amends and right wrongs. Please, don’t just throw us out with ill feelings. We only want to help you.” Trixie regarded me in silence for a little while, her expression sad, but she didn't answer. She let the closing of her door do that for her. Pinkie and I took our leave, the spring in our steps from earlier completely vanished by what we had just experienced.