"Thanks for seeing me." Trixie lowered herself onto the sofa with a sigh. "I wasn't sure how to say this, so I didn't, and now I am saying it." She shook her head with a grunt. "This isn't going to be a smooth session, is it?"
Maya considered the unicorn. "I'll do my best to make this an easy thing. I'm here to help. What brings you by?"
Trixie sat up, composing herself. "I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, as you surely know. Trixie was visiting a friend of hers, Maud?" Maya's nod kept her going. "She mentioned visiting you, and spoke well of you, so Trixie decided to come." She finally caught herself in that speech pattern. "I thought you'd be able to help me."
Maya tilted her head. "Help with what? Please, be as clear as you can." She gently pressed her hooves together. "This isn't a test you can fail. Just speak the truth as you feel it. What's bothering you?"
Trixie was quiet a moment save for some mumbling. "I am a showmare, that is my position, and calling. To entertain ponies and leave them gasping with wonder is what makes me happy."
"Is it?" Maya cocked her head. "You sound nervous. Relax. No pony here wants to judge you or embarrass you."
Trixie gasped with sudden pain. "You don't know what I've been through." She shrank, glancing around. "Look, a lot of ponies make assumptions about me. Some of them are right even." She ran a hoof across her face from the snout backwards. "Trixie is a bit selfish. She is the most important pony in her life, so why shouldn't she be?" She slumped. "Somewhat arrogant."
Maya nodded. "I'm sorry about the trouble you've gone through. Trouble finds many ponies, and I understand what that's like. I also understand that ponies can be unkind, and unfair." She shifted forward. "Is it the other ponies that bother you?"
"You have no idea." Trixie leaned back, her own hooves together. "All of my friends have very busy lives. They have boyfriends, girlfriends, or just, you know, friends. I just have one, and one other that's almost never in town, he hardly counts." She sank lower, muttering to herself. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't made myself such a villain in town."
"What did you do to make them treat you badly?" Maya took notes. "Was it a long time ago?"
"Long time. Long story." Trixie nodded. "I boasted about something I never did. It was a show! I was entertaining the crowd. Most of them were amused enough." She hung her head. "But some colts took it as a call to action and did something incredibly stupid, and I was left accepting the blame for it."
Maya wrote quickly. "I see." She stopped and looked at Trixie. "How do you feel about that? Did you truly have no part?"
"I had a part." Trixie sat up. "I am the one that told them I could handle such a thing. I never told them to invite that trouble to town, that was their idea, but I did tell them I could handle it."
Maya made a fresh note. "And this is why ponies are treating you badly?"
Trixie's mouth tightened, and her nostrils flared, but no words came.
Maya waited patiently, sitting forward. "How does that make you feel? Embarrassed, perhaps, for getting caught in a lie?"
"It wasn't just that," huffed out Trixie. "Trixie was so angry, she saved up, and got this stupid amulet to get revenge, and it just got her, and the town, in more trouble." She clopped a hoof to either temple. "That one was my fault, okay! I thought the amulet would let me do what I claimed I could do. It did, in the end, but so much more than that came with it."
"So much more?" Maya asked.
Trixie stiffened, shivering. "I got this stupid amulet. It gave me all the magic I could want, and took away my mind with it. I did... very foalish things, and may have held the entire town hostage for a little while." She worried her hooves a bit. "Trixie apologized afterwards. I really am trying to make up for that, and for what I said before that too, but they still hate me. It's not fair! I did nothing wrong!"
Maya pursed her lips, writing the whole thing down. "We can't say that is 'nothing', can we?"
"We can." Trixie seemed quite confident in her ability to say that.
Maya let out a little laugh. "You sure can, but, really, they do have some right to be a little mad at that."
"Forever?" Trixie threw a hoof wide. "Trixie apologized. She was ready to kill herself just for their entertainment, but no, their hearts are unmoving." She stamped a hoof. "It's like they want to hate me forever! But they just can't!"
Maya twitched. "Calm down, please. No pony likes to see their loved ones hurting, even if they have to pretend they do to hide the hurt." She reached out a hoof to place on Trixie's shoulder. "And that is a longterm solution to a fast problem. We can fix this, but we can't fix there not being a Trixie anymore. If you're upset, you can't just use the amulet to stop feeling it."
"I can't." Trixie took a deep breath. "I can't just go around threatening ponies for being mean to me. I get that. I got that! I returned the stupid amulet." She shook herself out, tail lashing. "I never got it after that time, never again. Trixie can learn from her mistakes."
She met Maya's eyes. "I know it's not right to use that power. I know. But I don't like all the mean ponies saying mean things. Trixie likes attention, yes, but not all the attention." She rolled her eyes. "Specifically the bad kind. If they want to spend all their time complimenting Trixie, she will find the strength to deal with that."
Maya made a brief note. "Good. Sounds like you've made progress."
"Then you'll talk to them?" Trixie crossed her arms. "Tell the other ponies to stop picking on Trixie." She clenched her eyes shut. "Never mind, they won't listen. Even if you did talk to them, they'd ignore it, and maybe even get meaner."
Maya turned an ear back. "The ponies I've met so far—" She aborted the thought with a nod. "You said you had a friend?"
"I had forgotten one. Maud, you know. Starlight is another." Trixie seemed to spot Maya's reaction. "You know her then?" She brightened. "Yeah, Starlight. She's a wonderful pony. Kind and understanding."
"Very much." Maya smiled. "I really like Starlight."
Trixie beamed. "She has a troubled past too. She really messed things up for a whole town too, but they all forgave her. Hey, they seem to want her to come back, unlike my town of ponies." She flopped back on the sofa with a grumble. "Unbelievable. They won't forgive my mistake, but they'll forgive some other pony's! I just don't understand."
Maya softened, gently stroking along Trixie's shoulder and upper arm. "I'm not mad at you."
"You weren't there." Trixie perked an ear. "But thank you. Look, have you ever felt power, real power? Like you could do almost anything if you put your mind to it?"
Maya recalled her plant magic and how it seemed to grow with practice. "I have, sort of." She nodded. "I didn't abuse that, just to be clear."
"I know, you're a nice pony." Trixie stuck out her tongue at Maya. "Trixie has a hard time imagining you'd do anything on purpose."
Maya hopped to the ground. "It's how I was raised. Tell me about how you were raised. What were your parents like?"
Trixie tensed at that topic. "Trixie would prefer not to go into details."
Maya hummed gently. "I'm sorry. Were they hard to get along with?"
"You can't get along, or not get along, with ponies you barely see." Trixie hopped down, almost nose to nose with Maya. "My father is a showpony, like Trixie. He was, and still is. He'll be one until the end, Trixie imagines. He didn't have time for homelife. Trixie isn't even sure he knows Trixie exists."
Maya took a step back. "Do you have a mother?"
"Everypony has a mother." Trixie narrowed her eyes at the retreating therapist. "Mine was a dressage pony, but she went with my father, cheering on his shows. She cheered so long, Trixie happened." Trixie sat back against the couch, her back against it, rather than sitting in it. "And I was raised on wild tales and little else of him."
"That must have been rough." Maya stepped around, returning to her own seat. "It sounds lonely, and painful."
"I managed." Trixie leaned back to look at her. "What about you? Two happy parents that loved you a lot?"
Maya smiled gently at that. "I loved them, and still love them, a lot. And siblings, and..." She caught on a sniffle. "They're all so far away right now." Faced with the reality that she'd likely never see her family again, she shivered with rapidly mounting sorrow. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. You didn't come here to watch me cry."
Trixie trotted back, standing with a foreleg on the chair. "Hey, we all cry sometimes." She sighed. "I'm sorry I brought it up. You don't have to answer anything you don't want to." She glanced away as Maya quietly tried to calm herself with very little success. "Would you like to see a trick?"
Maya perked, surprised from her funk. "What sort of trick?"
"A Great and Powerful one." Trixie hopped back, spreading her cape dramatically. "Since you helped Trixie, she will arrange a show for you. This is a fair trade, no, an unfair one, for Trixie. She is quite generous."
Maya lifted her hooves. "You don't owe me anything, promise. If you want to put on a show for me, I'd be glad to see it, but don't feel like you owe me anything at all. You came to talk, and you talked. I'll do whatever I can to help you. It's what I'm here for."
"Thank you, but I insist." Trixie danced a circle around the room, bringing out various props. "She will knock your horseshoes off! Have you been to a magic performance before?"
"Other than what I can do?" Maya tapped her glowing hooves together.
"What is that?" Trixie peered skeptically. "Nevermind, it doesn't look like stage magic at all. Show me that hoof."
Maya offered a hoof cautiously. "Here? It's not very good for tricks."
"Exactly." Trixie smiled. "Now, if you would hold this please."
Maya felt the weight of a solid lead ball dropped on her hoof. She had to bring in her other one to support the ball properly and not drop it to the ground. "Wow."
"Heavy, isn't it?" Trixie put a cloth over the ball and ripped it away. There was no ball. It took an instant before Maya even registered she could lift her hooves without the weight. "Did you drop it?" Trixie waggled her brows. "Silly assistant. I told you to be careful with that."
"You tricked me." Maya felt a smile crossing her face. "I'd be really impressed if it wasn't just a simple illusion."
"Illusion?" Trixie crossed her arms. "It's magic. Also, Trixie is pretty sure she knows where the ball is."
"Where?" Maya looked around, but saw no ball.
"Behind you." Trixie pointed.
Maya had to sit up and turn around, but there it was. The ball was right in the seat, where she had to have been practically sitting on it. "How did you get that there?!" She picked up the ball with effort. "Amazing."
"Just a simple trick, but very impressive. You've never seen that before?" Trixie shrugged. "Maybe a bit of stage magic and a bit of pony magic." With a glowing horn, she took the ball back from Maya. "Trixie knows dozens more. Just think, if you spend more time talking with Trixie, you get to see so much more."