//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Stealing The Show // Story: Bug In The City // by PointlessGizmo //------------------------------// Several days had passed since Trixie's incredible discovery of her new powers' full potential, days which had been largely uneventful. Trixie, as was her usual way, had become somewhat complacent and had left all the preparation for her cabaret debut until the evening before. Laying on her bed and staring up at the plain, white ceiling, she turned her head to the side with a sigh to gaze upon a calendar which hung on the wall. The next day had a large, red circle around it, and the words "CABARET DAY" scrawled in next to it. Although immensely confident in her new abilities, she still couldn't help but feel some nervousness at what would be the performance that made or broke her. Deciding she had better cease procrastinating and choose which powers she'd take on, she hopped down from her bed and cantered out of the apartment, slowly descending the six flights of stairs to the building's main entrance. Stepping out of the apartment complex and into the fiery glow of the evening's sunset, Trixie's eyes immediately began to scan the area for ponies doing things that would befit a performance of the caliber she was expected to perform. She'd decided against going back to the cabaret again - if she regurgitated a bunch of tricks that the audience had seen just the night before, it would not only prove boring for the ponies she sought to impress but could also attract unwanted suspicion. Trixie decided that the best way to go about the task at hoof would be to gather talents and skills from all corners of Canterlot, so as to keep things interesting and - perhaps more importantly - keep her tracks covered. Finding no inspiration in the immediate vicinity of her home, Trixie prepared to look further afield when a familiar buzz overhead caught her attention. Leech zoomed across the Canterlot skyline, his day's work completed, descending in preparation to enter the apartment via his usual method, through the balcony doors. "Leech, WAIT!" called Trixie, ugently. "I'm out here, so the balcony doors aren't..." She was cut off by the only-too-familiar sound of chitin meeting double-glazed door. "...open." she finished with a sigh. Leech appeared over the edge of the balcony railing, rubbing his head with a forehoof. "Why izz Trixzzie down there?" he called to Trixie. "Looking for... 'inspiration' for tomorrow's show." answered Trixie. "Fancy coming to help me?" Leech flew down from the balcony at once and landed beside Trixie, a smile across his face - he always loved to do things with his friend, and almost never turned down the opportunity whenever it presented itself. ---------- The two walked through the hustle and bustle of the city's cobbled streets, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the evening whilst trying to spot ponies doing interesting things. Leech was telling Trixie about his day, whilst Trixie half-listened as she attempted to spot talents she could 'borrow'. "... Zzsnap Happy wazz pleazzed with Leech'zz photozz. He even zzsayzz Leech ready to try advanced photography zzskillzz tomorrow!" Leech told Trixie excitedly. "Oh? And what skills would those be?" asked Trixie, with genuine interest. "Tomorrow Leech izz going to be trying it without the lenzz cap on!" Leech answered, his chest puffing with misguided pride. Trixie fought the urge to facehoof, and instead continued her talent search. She was, by this time, becoming concerned - they'd seen every street performer in Canterlot, passed by every open-air cabaret and were heading towards the city limits by now. During it all, Trixie had seen nothing that she thought would sufficiently impress Class Act and satisfy the high standards that his audiences generally demanded. As Trixie and Leech left the busy streets behind, they approached the outer walls of the Royal Castle gardens. Trixie let out a long, heaving, sigh as a feeling of severe anxiety began to well up inside of her. "Well, Leech," she said glumly, "we might as well turn back. We're not going to find anything worth using all the way out here, the only things here are Royal Guards, more Royal Guards, and Twilight Sparkle. Nothing here that we could..." Trixie began before stopping. Of course! Why hadn't she thought of this before? ---------- Twilight cantered contentedly across the Castle gardens, having delivered her latest friendship report to Celestia by hoof - in addition, she'd been to the Castle's library to stock up on study materials. Noting the opportunity that lay before her, Trixie quickly positioned herself by one of the gardens' exits and waited for Twilight to trot by. Twilight, knowing nothing of this, proceeded towards one of the large, wooden door-like gates that were set at various intervals into the immaculate white brickwork of the gardens' outer walls. Pushing the gate open with a hoof whilst she flicked through one of her new study books, Twilight wasn't prepared for what awaited her on the other side... "Twilight Sparkle!" cried Trixie in the friendliest voice she could muster, "How wonderful to see you again!" "EEK!" screeched the surprised Twilight, losing focus on her magical grip and dropping the library books onto the ground. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" said Trixie, struggling to contain the urge to laugh. "Let me help you gather up those books." "It's fine, really." replied Twilight, recovering her breath as she levitated the books back up onto her saddle area, where she'd been carrying them before. "Oh, what's this?" enquired Trixie. "Are those magic books?" "Yep, they certainly are!" answered Twilight, forgetting to be angry as her favorite discussion topic was raised. "As the number one student of Celestia, I bet you've mastered loads of incredible and spectacular spells!" continued Trixie, just about able to keep her face from screwing up in disgust at herself. "Toadying to Twilight Sparkle, of all ponies. Yeuch!" she thought. "Well," Twilight replied with a blush, "I have been working on some of the more advanced magics as of late." "Well, from one Great and Powerful unicorn to another, Trixie would love to see a demonstration of your doubtless amazing skills!" said Trixie brightly. Stunned by the fact that somepony else seemed to take an interest in her endeavors for once, Twilight agreed to demonstrate some of her latest accomplishments with almost no hesitation. "What could go wrong?" thought Twilight. "After all, Trixie is a hero now, she's obviously turned over a new leaf. There can't be anything sinister going on here, can there?" Within minutes, both Trixie and Leech were seated on a bench within the Castle gardens, with Twilight standing before them on a patio area paved with red bricks. Both eagerly watched the Element of Magic as she prepared to show them her very latest and most technically challenging magical feats. "Alright then, first up we've got this, which is a more advanced version of the standard object transformation spell..." began Twilight, gesturing towards a nearby patch of grass. "Pffft! Transformation is foal's stuff!" scoffed Trixie, "Any idiot can turn a rock into a horseshoe, or a carrot into an onion!" "Very true, but this version can transcend object groups. The examples you gave were a mineral to mineral and a vegetable to vegetable transformation." explained Twilight. "I can turn this grass..." Twilight's horn gave off an intense violet flash. When it had cleared, the earth was bare where the grass had once been, with a small ceramic mug resting in the center of the once-green piece of land. "...into kitchenware!" finished Twilight with a smile. Trixie was agape. A vegetable-to-mineral transformation? This was incredible! Instinctively, her horn gave a flash of green, although Twilight fortunately didn't notice, being momentarily preoccupied as she changed the mug back into the lush, green vegetation it had previously been. "Next, I've been working on my teleportation skills." Twilight announced. Trixie's ears pricked up. This was one skill she really needed 'help' with. "I managed to get the accuracy of my teleports down to a T," Twilight explained, "but they used up a lot of energy and had a slow recharge time. But more recently, I've streamlined the process..." In a flash of white, Twilight disappeared and reappeared behind her amazed audience. "So... I... can... teleport... rapidly... and... with... total... accuracy!" she explained, teleporting to a different location with each word before ending her sentence back where she had begun. Rapid-fire teleportation! Trixie's horn gave a distinct yet mercifully unnoticed flash of green once again. She was definitely going to use that one! Just as Trixie prepared to absorb whatever incredible power Twilight showed them next, Twilight caught sight of a nearby sundial. "Celestia's beard!" cried Twilight. "I didn't realize what time it was! I'm supposed to be meeting the other Elements at the bistro in Canterlot Square! Sorry to cut things short, Trixie, but I'm going to have to-" "Wait!" said Trixie, barely concealing her desperation. "That's two tricks - for a first show, three should be enough, so if I can get just one more out of her..." her mind told her. "Can you do a Prismatic Orb Shower?" asked Trixie hopefully, having become somewhat attached to that particular trick in recent days. Twilight snorted. "Of course, who can't? Now that really is foal's stuff!" she laughed, effortlessly summoning the familiar orbs of energy and twirling them around her body. ---------- Some minutes later, after a spectacular series of rainbow-colored flashes from Twilight and an altogether more muted green flash from Trixie, Twilight bid Trixie and Leech farewell and headed towards Canterlot's main streets. Trixie and Leech trotted from the garden some time afterwards, a devious grin spread across Trixie's face despite the discomfort of her horn. "Perfect!" she cackled. "That silly filly just gave me my meal ticket to stardom! Wait til the ponies of Canterlot see these tomorrow!" With this, the two friends cantered across down, heading back towards their home. As they passed through Canterlot Square, they noticed Twilight and her fellow Elements plus Spike sitting around an outside table of a nearby bistro. Keeping their heads low, they forged ahead and hoped that Twilight wouldn't notice their presence or attempt to acknowledge them in any way. "Hey! Trixie! Over here!" called Twilight, giving a wave. Trixie cringed and gritted her teeth as she cantered over to her gathered rivals. Leech said nothing, instead locking piercing gazes with Rainbow Dash as he instinctively licked the remains of his broken left fang. It seemed that Leech could hold a grudge just as well as Rainbow could - she still hated him for what happened back in Ponyville! "Hello, Twilight." said Trixie flatly. "Why have you called me over?" "I just saw tomorrow's show being advertised!" explained Twilight. "Why didn't you mention it earlier? I've just bought a ticket, I can't wait to see what kind of magic you're going to come up with! I just called you over to wish you luck! Right, girls?" "Break a leg, darling!" "Go get 'em, sugarcube!" "I bet it's gonna be super-duper...um... looper!" "Yay!" Rainbow said nothing, still gritting her teeth and staring at Leech, who had his hackles raised and was seemingly poised to take a flying dive at the cyan pegasus! Trixie's smugness and excitement crumbled like one of Granny Smith's hip bones upon hearing this news. Bidding a subdued farewell to the Elements, she silently trudged away. She picked up Leech in her horn's magical grasp as she passed him, taking him away before a fight broke out. Setting him back onto his own hooves once the bistro was out of sight, he resumed walking alongside her. "I can't believe it!" said Trixie, her voice beginning to crack. "Just as soon as I get a perfect repertoire for tomorrow, it turns out she's going! I can't do her signature tricks in front of her, she'll expose me!" "Leech could take her plazze, like Leech did with Rainbow pony?" Leech suggested. "We couldn't do that, not to the personal student of Celestia!" sighed Trixie. "Then we really would be heading for the dungeons! Besides, we're meant to be heroes now. That's not what heroes do." "Oh." replied Leech sadly, realizing his moral compass still needed a bit of fine tuning. "Besides, your role is going to be covering my moment of glory for the press!" Trixie quickly added, noticing how crestfallen Leech looked. To Trixie's relief, Leech did indeed appear to perk up considerably at the news. ---------- Neither Leech nor Trixie said any more for the rest of the journey back to the apartment complex. After a slow, longer-than-usual slog up the stairs, Leech and Trixie entered the apartment. Trixie slumped onto the couch with a sigh as Leech lit the lanterns, the evening's dappled sun having long since given way to the infinite black sky of the night. "Trixzzie will think of zzsomething!" ventured Leech, attempting to encourage his friend. "Trixzzie alwayzz doezz!" "But what can I do, Leech? She's the personal student of Celestia, and a massive egghead to boot. There's no way I could outsmart her." she said with a frown. "If Trixzzie cannot outzzsmart her, Leech zzstandzz no chance either!" added Leech dejectedly. With this, Trixie's eyes opened as wide as saucers, as with a renewed vigor she leapt from the couch, completely forgetting her worries and the discomfort in her horn. "Leech! That's it!" she cried, scooping Leech up into a hug. "That...izz...what?" grunted Leech, the air being squeezed out of him by Trixie's vice-like embrace. "There IS a way we can keep Twilight away from the show tomorrow! We can't outsmart her..." she began, releasing her hold on the now-breathless changeling. "... but we can use her own studiousness against her!" she finished with glee. With this, Trixie began explaining her plan as Leech listened intently to her every word.