Spyro sighed while he slowly ate his breakfast. He wanted to see Trixie again but wasn't exactly sure how to sneak off with more food. They had noticed even if no fingers were pointed. He was also trying to reason out why Trixie disliked Twilight. Sure she could be a bit annoying to the young dragon, but she was, for the most part, nice, smart and, above all, polite. What if she's evil?! No, wait… that's dumb. Evil ponies did not beg for food which led him back to his original problem. If he wanted to learn more magic, then he was going to have to either tell the truth or steal more food.
He chose a half-truth. It was just food after all. "Hey, P… I mean, Mom?"
"Yes?" Pinkie said while not bothering to look up from her morning customers or the cash register.
"I was wondering if I could have some food for a picnic me, Spike and Claws are going to have."
"Sure!"
He wasn't surprised that he got away with it. The better question was why wouldn't she believe her own son? In a flash, she returned with various picnic items, albeit ones laced with gems for the occasion. He figured he could pick them off. "Thanks, Mom!"
"Sure thing. And have a great day!" Pinkie said as an alarm rang. "Stupid alarm clock!"
He chuckled while leaving the shop before he paused. "Where is she?" He draped the bag she let him borrow over his back and looked around the town. There was no magician in sight so he chose to do some exploring. He remembered that Trixie had said she would be somewhere away from ponies, but the other side of town from the bakery could mean anywhere, he figured. "If I was a… hmm." He also figured that using his old trick of 'eenie meenie' was not going to cut it. The first spot he thought to check was near and around Fluttershy's cottage, but she wasn't there.
"There's that forest, whatever it's called," he said as he made his way to one edge of town. The place he was thinking of was called The Whitetail Woods. It was quite big and he soon discovered that most ponies would ignore the place, with only the occasional visitor. He couldn't understand why. To him it was quite tranquil and a welcome change from the Everfree Forest. He spotted several areas where the trees crowded around and the light from the sun cascaded down. He liked that. "She has to be here. She said away from other ponies…"
He walked around while he examined the path. Covering it were dead leaves all over. As he walked, he used some of his magic to levitate dozens of leaves in the air as he shoved them aside. He was enjoying himself and eventually he figured out how to make the leaves follow a pattern and he formed a massive tornado of leaves. Spyro was able to maintain the twister for a while until fatigue took him over. He stopped the magic flow as he panted on the ground.
"Hmm… That wasn't bad. A bit choppy if you were trying to impress an audience."
He was momentarily surprised before whipping around and smiling. "Thanks. I was just having fun though."
She nodded and turned around to walk back to her campsite. It was small, but to him it looked like a nice change of scenery and, in fact, reminded him of something from a certain video game he used to play. He couldn't quite remember the name of the game, but he shook those thoughts aside.
"Oh, I brought some food! Oh…" He had forgotten to pick out the gemstones. He then gave a bashful smile while she groaned.
"It's fine. Gems don't taste like anything to a pony so let me just…" In an instant, the gems were sucked off the food while her horn glowed. She then gently deposited them down in his waiting claws and without skipping a beat, she began to eat and spoke again after the first bite. "Thank you."
"Sure." An awkward silence overtook them, but the child was slightly excited to just be there.
"Do you always travel?" he asked, breaking the silence.
"…Yes."
"Why?"
"Tri… I have always been on the road since I was little."
"All by yourself?"
"Yes, it—"
"What about your parents?"
As it turns out, that was the wrong thing to ask. She glared down at him, but he didn't feel fear. He just knew that asking that was a stupid thing to do.
"I will not be discussing that with you…" Trixie hissed.
She began to eat again and silence took over the campsite once more. He sighed and began to eat his share of the food. The tasty gems did little to ease his conscience. He sometimes felt lower than others or stupid during adult conversations, but he could figure things out. He assumed that something had happened to her parents, and whatever it was, it was not good.
"So how come you don't like Twilight?" he asked, causing her to choke on the last bit of her food and cough a few times. There was no glare this time but a soft longing look instead. "Trixie?"
"I told you bef—"
"None of my business?"
She smirked and nodded.
"Did she do something bad to you?"
"No, Spyro, s—"
"Did you do something bad to her?"
"No! Why do you even want to know?"
"Cause Twilight's my friend and my teacher and you're my friend!"
"The day I call a dragon my friend… Starswirl's Beard, why me?"
"Human," he said in a flat tone.
"What?"
"I used to be a human but somehow ended up here inside the body of a dragon. So… you are now friends with a human!" he responded proudly.
Her mind went blank. She barely even tried to fathom what he meant. She simply assumed it was a child playing around. "Wonderful, Spyro. Just wonderful."
"You don't believe me, huh?"
"I have never heard of a human, so no."
"Oh yeah? Well I've never heard of, uh… Hey what's this?!"
She turned to her side and, to her shock, he had disappeared. Turning around, she eventually spotted the dragon who was now rummaging around in her wagon.
"Hey! Get out of there!"
"Ooh, this is cool! Wait, what is it?"
She groaned and walked over to the wagon to inspect his findings. She then sighed in relief. "Those are just some of my props for my shows. Would you please put that down?"
"Only if you show me what they do!" The child had several jars clutched in his claws with empty threats to drop them. She was about to grab them with her magic, but then she realized that he had magic of his own. She figured that he was indeed bluffing, but then had another idea.
If this stupid child gets a show, then perhaps he'll stop asking me so many questions… Worth a shot.
"Very well. Just place each jar on the ground right here." She pointed to the dirt road and he obliged. "Good. Now pay attention." She lit up her horn and then pointed it at the first jar which was colored red. In an instant, the top of the jar flung off while red smoke began to form from the opening. The child's eyes lit up in amazement, but she was far from finished. She lit up her horn once more and pointed to a blue bottle on the opposite side and the same thing happening, but this time she gathered the smoke on each side and phased them up through the air to form a few twists around each other. Her horn lit up once more for the two remaining jars in the middle. The two sprang up, but what came out was not smoke, it was two brightly colored spheres. The spheres each latched onto each smoke trail and lit them up brightly as they exploded like fireworks. The jars then resealed and her horn stopped glowing. The child was about to clap, but then he realized it wouldn't quite work as well with his claws.
"That was awesome, Trixie!"
She smirked. "They don't call me The Great and Powerful Trixie for nothing, kid."
"Can you teach me that, please?!"
"That will take a considerable amount of skill and I doubt you are up for the challenge." Her smirk was still plastered on her muzzle, but then she looked down to spot the annoyed look of the dragon. At least, she thought it was annoyance. Taking a closer look, she saw something closer to… shame. She hesitated and sighed.
"But, I did promise to teach you magic and you have brought me food. So let's begin!"
"Cool! What's next?!"
"Smoke is next," she replied simply.
"Aw! When am I gonna learn how to summon lighting?!" It had become a simple obsession for the child. He never wanted to hurt anyone, but it would be cool, in his eyes, to summon such forces on a whim.
"No clue, but the magic I'm about to teach you can be wonderful for escape acts and… escaping others. So do you want to learn it or not?" Simple enough spell. He'll learn it and leave so I can have my peace!
He nodded and waited for the new scroll to levitate to him. He caught it with his magic and read it over and over until he had it memorized.
"Okay… Hmm?" He trailed off as he attempted the spell. The first few tries of the spell caused magic to quite literally fizzle from his horns. On the fourth try of the spell he did, in fact, cause a small amount of smoke to come out of his claw as he waved it about, but it was quick to disappear.
"Hmm, how much energy are you putting into it, Spyro?"
"A lot?" He had never heard Twilight say something like that before when it came to magic. He was stumped.
"You need to put your all into it! If you are ever going to impress… Well, if you ever want to be a true magician, then all of one’s magic must be pushed to give it your all! Now show me again!" she ordered, causing him to frown, but then he reasoned that she knew more about magic than him.
He forced the spell out again, only this time, he concentrated as hard as possible. The smoke came out gray, filling their entire campsite, then the smoke started to randomly change color until, finally, he had enough. He stopped the spell and began panting from the exertion.
"Good, Spyro. Keep practicing spells like that and pretty soon you will be ready for the bigger things in life, but for now, that’s it." She turned to dismiss him, but after a moment, she realized that he hadn’t left. Why has he not left?
The dragon chose to stay and began to randomly cast the spells he knew while giggling to himself a few times. Trixie stared at him for a long while. It had been a long while since the mare had seen anypony, or dragon in this case, practice magic with such whimsical curiosity. The grin never left Spyro’s face, but the more he enjoyed himself the more she began to remember locked away feelings from long ago.
"Spyro…" She tried to think of something else, but the memories had already begun to flood in. She barely noticed that her voice had trailed off or that the child had begun to stare.
"Yeah?"
"I think…"
Spyro had ceased all magic completely, but her memories were already there, hitting the inside of her head over and over. She first smiled at some warm memories, but they soon turned sour and then dark. She shuddered and held in her tears and turned her head to Spyro.
"Spyro, I think you should leave."
"But why?"
"Please…" Her voice shuddered once more and Spyro could tell that she was not angry, happy or disappointed in him but very sad. He had hardly ever seen a pony, human or dragon speak like that. All he could do was slowly nod and, hesitantly, he left the woods. When he was out of earshot and back in Ponyville, he took a seat and sighed, staring down at his feet.
"What just happened?" It was a clear question and he really meant it. He had no clue what had happened. He was playing with his magic and then Trixie changed and, boom, he had to leave. He lay near a tree for a long while, mentally counting the time until he had to see Twilight for his daily lesson. "Maybe Twilight would know…"
On his way to the library, he kept going over whether or not he was going to tell Twilight anything. If he didn’t, then his two spells from Trixie would have to remain hidden forever, he thought. If he did, then Trixie might get in trouble. At least, he reasoned she would since she coaxed him into taking some food for him. Taking the food was his choice, but she was still the adult there and he knew how those situations tended to pan out.
He decided that he would take a cautious approach and lie. He frowned when he realized that he had been doing an awful lot of lying lately. Couldn’t it work out if he fixed a problem and no one got in trouble? Wouldn’t that be the right thing to do? He decided that, yes, it would be the right thing to do.
Spyro opened the library door and walked in to find his teacher ready and waiting. He almost chuckled when he realized that she had always been in that exact same spot on the couch each day at the same time. He was late.
"There you are! You’re ten minutes late which means we need to cut that much time from my studies! Now sit down!" she commanded in an authoritative tone.
"Uh, sorry."
"That’s fine. Now, where should we begin…" She began to lecture him on the histories of magical unicorns and some other nonsense that he was not paying attention to in the slightest. He simply nodded his head every once in a while until he found the perfect opportunity to interrupt her and ask about Trixie.
"Twilight?" Spyro interrupted.
"What is it? Do you have a question on Star Swirl?" she replied in an excited tone.
"Uh, no…"
She face hooved but beckoned for him to continue.
"I was just wondering… have you ever heard of someone named Trixie?"
Her quill that she had been holding in her magic nearly snapped in two. "Wh-why would you ask about her?"
"Well, I heard a few things around town. Did she do something bad?"
"Well… kind of. I guess I can talk about her for a bit if you’re really curious. But then it’s right back to studies!"
He nodded.
"Right, she is a show mare or was I believe before she came to Ponyville. She publicly boasted about being the best and her ability to take down an Ursa Major."
He shook his head at hearing that.
"Oh, I keep forgetting you wouldn’t know about some animals. It’s basically like a giant bear the size of my library or sometimes bigger. Anyway, apparently she had gotten a little fan base with two colts named Snips and Snails and they decided to prove her right to everypony by bringing an Ursa Minor, which is like a baby Ursa, to town. I had to eventually intervene and put the Ursa to sleep and bring it back to the wild. I never wanted to show off what I could do in front of others because I was worried my friends would hate me for being better at magic, but as it turns out they liked that about me. Trixie’s trailer was crushed by the Ursa and I never saw her again."
"Oh, um, so is everyone mad at her?"
"Well, I’m not quite sure. I’m not mad at her if that’s what you’re asking. As for the town, well, that’s up to them I’m afraid."
"But wasn’t it those kids' fault?"
"Yes, but if she hadn’t boasted then they wouldn’t have done that. Anyway, we should get back to the lesson, Spyro."
After a while, his thoughts lingered back to helping Trixie in some small way. He ignored all of Twilight’s history lessons until it turned back to magic.
"Now, today you will be learning how to make small objects turn invisible!"
He frowned. "Oh? Cool!" he said with fake enthusiasm.
"Yes, I thought you’d like it. Now let me just…" She levitated the scroll over to him, but he already had the spell fresh in his mind. Without thinking, he waved his hand and the scroll vanished. It shocked Twilight because the scroll with the text on it was facing her and not him. He then realized this after a second and gave a bashful smile.
"…How did you do that?!" she demanded.
"Lucky guess?"
She was not buying it. "I haven’t known you long, Spyro, but I know when you are lying. Who taught you this spell? I know for a fact that none of the basic magic books in the library have it and my scrolls were locked away."
"Uh…Trixie taught me how…"
"She’s in Ponyville?!"
"Maybe?" he offered, hoping for the conversation to stop. Trixie never actually told him to keep her visit a secret, but judging from how she acted, where she was hiding and what Twilight told him, he figured she was supposed to be kept secret.
"Spyro… Where is she?"
"You’re just gonna get her in trouble!"
"I never said that. I just wanted to talk to her," she said in a calm voice.
"I don’t think she likes you, Twilight."
"…Good point, but I want to be her friend."
"She barely wants to be my friend. Plus, she told me to leave earlier and it was kind of creepy…"
"What happened?"
Spyro sighed and told Twilight everything he knew about Trixie. Twilight asked about the spell and he told her he knew one more but that was it.
"I see. So she has been asking you for food as a way to teach magic lessons?"
"Yeah. Is that bad?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit timid.
"No. I mean, she hasn’t done anything wrong and she certainly hasn’t taught you anything violent or anything. I’m not sure why she sent you away for just casting spells around her, but maybe it's something troubling her… Hmm."
Spyro sighed when he noticed his teacher getting that far off look, the kind where she gets lost in thought for minutes. "Twilight?"
"Oh sorry. How about this? You keep seeing her for extra magic lessons and we keep it a secret for now. Don’t tell Trixie I know about her yet."
"Really? Why?"
"Well, I…" Twilight sighed. "Look, when Trixie lost her trailer and was run out of town I felt really bad for her. From the sound of things, she is still a traveling mare, but that means a hard life. I doubt she would accept help from me and I really doubt her shows are going well anymore, but if you offered her food each day for lessons and friendship, then maybe we can still help her. Understand?"
"I do. Only one problem… I’ve been kind of taking food from the bakery."
"Oh, well, we can’t have that. Normally I would punish you, but you did it to help somepony. So come to me each morning and I’ll have some food for Trixie. You will give it to her each day, but you will not say who it’s from, got it?"
"Got it!" He cheered but then immediately groaned. "What if she doesn’t want to see me anymore?"
"I wouldn’t worry about that. I think she just needed time to herself. Grownups sometimes get that way, Spyro."
"…I noticed," he muttered.
She gave him a stern look but dropped the subject. "Right, hopefully she’ll stay out of trouble and so will you!"
"'Kay. Now what?" Spyro asked and Twilight blinked in surprise.
"Um, I guess we’re done for the day. You already know two new spells so, that’s it!"
"…I want to know a lightning spell…" he muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing! I guess we’re done. Do you think I should go talk to Trixie?"
"Approach her slowly and it should be fine. Have a nice day!" Twilight waved, but the dragon was already out of earshot after the door slammed shut.
Spyro debated on how to approach Trixie. Thinking it over, if she was still mad or if she was ever mad in the first place, he didn't know. Her eyes did not show much emotion and he knew those situations were bad. He decided on something more risky, as long as the situation called for it, and by that he hoped that Trixie was not upset or crying or worse.
He returned to the campsite to find it devoid of one Trixie. "Where’d she go?"
"Right here. Was just fetching some water."
He turned around to find Trixie with a jug of water in her magical hold. He examined her eyes and noticed no puffiness or signs of crying and sighed in relief. He then sprang into action.
"Trixie!"
"Uh, yes?"
"I have a deal to make with you!" He grinned and offered his claw.
"What?" Her voice sounded less than amused.
"I'll keep bringing you food and you keep teaching me magic!"
"I thought we already had that deal."
"We do, but I was hoping I could be your… apprentice! That’s the word right, apprentice?"
Trixie paused when he heard this. Hmm, I’ve certainly never had one of those before, unless you count those two annoying colts from before that ruined my life. Twilight teaches Spyro, but maybe I could teach him better! Very well, not like I was planning on going anywhere anytime soon…
"Very well, Spyro, you shall be Trixie’s apprentice!" she announced triumphantly.
"Sweet! Can I learn lightning spells now?!"
"…No. For now I will teach you more illusion magic."
"Fine. Can you teach me now?"
"Not right now, I must— Er…"
"That’s fine. How about we just hang out?" he offered while sitting down next to her.
"I think—"
"Please?" He tried his best to make his eyes wide and pleading, but to Trixie they simply looked creepy when compared to a colt’s.
"I do—"
"PLEASE?"
She groaned when his eyes widened more. "Alright fine! Just stop it with those eyes!" She resisted the urge to say they were creepy.
"Um, okay. So what do you do for fun?"
She hesitated and wracked her brain, trying to think of some subject matter that had anything to do with fun. After a few moments, the awkwardness showed up and she hated that.
"Don’t you ever have fun?" he pressed on.
"Well, I’m too busy trying to live my life!" she replied defiantly in a huff of anger.
"Doing what?"
"I'm a show mare! I travel all over Equestria and hold dazzling feats and shows for hundreds of ponies to come see! I don’t have time for fun, not when I’m adventuring and setting up my shows!"
"Sweet!" Spyro jumped in the air and cheered. "So when is your next show?"
"Uh…" Her mind drew a blank. She knew that it had been well over two months since her last show and it certainly did not end well. She looked back at her trailer for a moment and sighed. "I'm working up to it."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I… Wait, why do you even care?!" she demanded with newfound anger.
"Cause you’re my friend?" he replied, not believing it himself. He knew some things about friendship and Trixie certainly wasn’t acting friendly.
"I told you—"
"You never said you weren’t my friend! Now are you or aren’t you?"
Geeze, this dragon is all over the place. First he wants to know magic, then about my shows and now he’s insecure?! "Yes, you are my friend." she reassured. A deep pit in her stomach made her say that in desperation, but she controlled herself enough to say her sentence in a calmed manner.
"Alright, so when is your next show?"
"I don’t know, alright?!" she snapped at him. Spyro flinched and backed up a few steps. "I don’t know…" Her last sentence was quieter than a whisper. She twitched one of her hooves a few times, nervous for hurting her friend.
"Is it because of the Ursa thing?"
"Who told you about that?! Was it Twilight?!" Trixie walked forward, but the dragon was too frightened to move. "You will not mention that incident in my presence!" She was shrieking as loud as possible. The child had never heard an adult yell quite that loud before, neither here nor in his world. When he snapped out of his senses he found himself trembling. Trixie was in a small state of shock and was not blinking or moving.
"Trixie?"
"I—"
"Are you okay?" He was still trembling, but he knew that she was the real one in trouble.
"Am I okay? I just outright yelled at you and you are asking me if I’m okay?!"
"That’s what friends do. I think…" He muttered the last part as he grew more unsure of himself.
"No, I’m not okay. I’m sorry for yelling."
"It’s alright. I know you said not to mention it, but what happened after?"
Trixie looked into his eyes and saw no level of deceit or hesitation. She had first assumed that Spyro was sent by Twilight to discover her location perhaps or send her to jail for the incident like so many others before him, but he was being sincere.
"After the incident, Tri… I tried to start my shows up again in other towns, but as it turns out word travels fast, even to cities. I relied on those shows for business. It was essentially my job. It started slow; first most of the towns would deny me a license to publicly display my shows. It wasn’t that big of a deal since I made most of my money in the cities, but soon they followed the same rules.
"So I had to try other jobs, and for a while it wasn’t terrible. I could at least eat and live comfortable enough for the circumstances. But like I said before, word travels fast and eventually the bosses of the jobs I was working started to question my cutie mark. They started to question how satisfactory of a job I was doing, but that wasn’t enough, no." Her voice turned bitter. "Soon, they recognized me from newspaper clippings maybe or just word of mouth, and eventually I couldn’t get any job and was run out of any city or town I came into contact with. I don’t know why I came back to Ponyville. I guess I just stayed because you were feeding me." She finished and hung her head in shame.
For a while, Spyro contemplated running straight back to Twilight and asking her for help. This situation that Trixie found herself in was far above any of his skill levels and he knew it. He hesitated, thinking up another idea for a good while until he finally heard the sniffling. Trixie had begun to cry.
"Wha?" Spyro ran up and hugged her around her neck for all he was worth. No words were spoken for at least ten minutes. Halfway through, she dried up her tears after returning the embrace. "Why do you care so much, Spyro?"
"I don’t know. You’re my friend?" he offered once more.
"Alright, I guess that makes sense."
"You don’t have to keep giving me magic lessons you know. If you need food, I can get it for you."
"No, it’s alright. I actually don’t mind. It gives me something to do."
"'Kay. Are you feeling better?" he asked. He didn’t feel sincere at that moment but felt it was best to ask.
"Yes. Thank you very much, Spyro."
"Sure!" He stood up and was about to explain that he should be heading home but stopped and turned back.
"You know everyone hating you sounds kind of stupid if you ask me," he said.
"Stupid?"
"Well, yeah. You weren’t the one that brought the Ursa that destroyed stuff. If you’re a show mare, then isn’t your job to make people excited and… entertain?" The last word came off as foreign to him.
Trixie smiled. "Yes, it does sound quite stupid when you think about it. Thank you again."
"Sure, um, I need to head home, but maybe other ponies can forgive you. I can try and help…" He didn’t want to mention Twilight, but she was certainly in the back of the dragon’s mind.
"If you can. And thanks again."