//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4, The Grand Reveal 
// Story: The Lost and Broken Trixie. 
// by Shyrose 
//------------------------------//

Sorry for the Delays everypony, been battling sever depression, and this isn't a good story to write that under. Hope you all enjoy this chapter ^.^ I want to give a shout out to my favorite authors. Steel Resolve, Ariamaki, Sleepless Brony,  Lithe Kamitatsy, Yukito, Rainedash, and CoffeeGrunt!


Chapter 4
The Grand Reveal
by Shyrose




	 Trixie just started at him, confused. "What you want to give Trixie? Trixie..doesn't understand, what do you mean?" Trixie shuffled on her hooves nervously, taken aback by the stallion before her. Munching on her carrot with a kind of far off look in her eye, she waits for Ferris' response, slightly afraid of what he might say.

Ferris looked back at her, half a smile on his face.  His horn faintly lighting up as he turned the heat down under the boiling pot of pasta. "Time, Life.." Shaking his head a little as he continued. "Terrible of me, an opening like that with nothing to follow it up with. We're alike, you and I. Shows, Magic.." He leaned against the counter, propping his chin on his hooves. "Pain, despair. I.. just want you to know, you don't have to suffer alone, anymore. I won't promise you roses or sunshine, but I'm here for you."

The carrot fell from Trixie's mouth, surprised she was, to say the least. All the things Ferris could have said, this one, was perhaps the one she least expected. How could he want to be around her? She was worthless, she could only drag him down with her, surely he could find somepony better than some old waitress at a doughnut shop. "Trixie..Trixie will only hurt you, She is a monster, she doesn't deserve your friendship. Trixie will just ruin it like she ruined everything else. Trixie won't ruin you! Trixie won't let you end up like Trixie!" Trixie said, tears in her eyes, as she ran to her room. She couldn't let him ruin his life over her, she wasn't worth it. She won't let him* 

Pushing himself off of the counter, Ferris followed the tearful mare to up the stairs. The over burner clicked off as he walked by. He moved purposefully up the stairs; he wasn't exactly chasing her, but his pace was quick. He hadn't said it.. the L word.. though it had crossed his mind. Nearly slipping into his own thoughts when he reached her slammed-shut door. He rested his horn against it before calling out. "Trixie, I've done a masterful job of ruining my own life. But this isn't about me ending up like Trixie. This is about Trixie not staying like Trixie is now. "

Trixie however, stormed around her room, panicking. Why did he care? Why did she care? What was she doing? Trixie doesn't want to change, Trixie is better of this way. Trixie doesn't need to feel anymore, doesn't need to hurt anymore, doesn't need to hurt anypony else anymore. "Trixie can't change, Trixie won't. If Trixie stays Trixie, then no ponies have to get hurt anymore, Trixie won't hurt anypony else! Trixie.." *she pauses, glancing at the turned over photo on the nightstand, picking it up in her magic, she hurls it across the room, lost in her distress. This pain had come from no where, it wasn't rational, why was she acting this way? These questions seemed to pass right out of her mind as the picture shattered into the wall as she cried out.  

"Trixie will never be Great and Powerful again!" 

Picking up a shard of the glass from the picture with her magic, the aura brighter than she could remember, she brought it closer to her face, examining what she saw. her face was bright now, full of color, no longer drained as she was used to, Fixing a look of icy determination on her features, she levitated the piece back at bit, and held her head high. Trixie was right, Trixie died years ago. All that was left was this. With that, she threw the small piece of death at herself, Intend on ending everything now, with the shards of her broken dream.

"Come on now, there's no need to act like this. Trixie, just come out, I'll finish making dinner." He spouted a few niceties, mostly hoping the calm tone of his voice would ease her pain. Then he heard the picture frame smashing into the wall, that tell-tale twinkling of shattered glass ringing out. He threw the door open, his soft blue eyes narrowing at the brightness of her magic display. He barely caught sight of it over the glare, but he saw enough to send him into action. "Trixie, NO!" There was no time to close the gap between them. A flickering aura of brilliant green light blazing around his horn, sending thick veins of his own magic light into hers. He Pushed, just a little, pushing the barely restrained magic over the edge. The shard of glass shattering under the pressure of two unicorns exerted against it, eroding it to a fine powder as it flew towards her outstretched neck. The grit blasting across her throat and neck, biting into her flesh, but far less catastrophic than the damage a single, sharp shard would've inflicted.

Trixie fell to the ground, sobbing. She couldn't even take her own life. what did it matter, The real Trixie was dead long ago. Crushed by an Ursa Minor. Everything that was left, lay here in a pile of powder and tears. Curling up into a ball, she pulled her blanket on top of her with her teeth, causing it to turn over, revealing a whole other side to it, where the blanket was white on top, underneath it was purple, and spangled with stars of blues and yellows. Wrapping herself tightly in this blanket, she continued to sob uncontrollably, she kept reciting the same thing over and over. that "She will never be Great and Powerful ever again..."

Ferris carefully made his way across the room, wary of the glass on the floor. He couldn't help but smile at the beautiful design of her blanket. It was very much like the mare now wrapped up in it. He stood beside her bed, reaching out and running his hoof along what he hoped was her back, gently stroking the fabric wrapped tightly around her. "Trixie.. you don't have to be Great and Powerful again. Happy and full-of-life is more what I'm hoping for.  A pony like you.. she's made to make pony folk happy. If it's slinging donuts or performing in front of a herd. I know, it's.. unbelievable. Coming from a magician you just met, but I'm being truthful. You've got a friend now. Some pony to cheer for you, and dust you off when you stumble.."

The blanket shuddered with her sobs. but a slight opening unfolded enough for a nose to poke out. "T..Trixie can't make ponies happy anymore, only The Great and Powerful Trixie was loved. Plain old broken Trixie can't do anything anymore. No one will love Trixie anymore. No one can love Trixie anymore. Trixie used to be Great and Powerful. Every pony knew Trixie. Now, no one knows Trixie, no one cares. and Trixie can't blame them, Trixie was a monster. Now, Trixie can't hurt anypony else." Trixie kept crying, pulling the blanket tight around her again.

Ferris bit his tongue a bit. She was practically begging him to say it. It made no sense, this soon, even for the friendly or family sort.  He kept on petting her back, the faint smile her blanket's pattern had given him staying as she poked her nose out. "Trixie, my name isn't no one. It's Ferris. I know you more than anypony else besides Joe has in what, years? I know you. I care about you. So does he. " He sighed a little bit. "I told you what happened. I drug a saw into another pony's flesh. I don't think you've ever done something that bad, and I also think the only pony you're hurting is yourself."

The blankets shook again, her voice meek this time, "...Because of Trixie, half a town was destroyed. An Ursa Minor attacked and hurt alot of ponies, some may even have died, not to mention the property damage. Trixie said she understood the pain of a mistake...but Trixie's mistake is so much more grave than yours. Trixie was homeless for over a year, Trixie lived in the gutter because of it. No one would hire Trixie. Trixie died in the gutters...how Great and Powerful is that?"

That hadn't exactly been what he was hoping to hear. Still, she'd opened up, starting talking about the path that led her here. He listened, quietly, still keeping up the contact of his hoof to her back through the blanket. Considering his words for a moment or two before responding. "You said the Ursa attacked... you didn't say you summoned it, or goaded it, or that it attacked on your command. That sounds more like a natural disaster than something you did. " His hoof moved up to where her snout was exposed, carefully pulling the blankets back so he could look at her face. "And even if it was, I think what you've gone through is more than enough punishment."

"It only attacked cause Trixie said she had defeated one once. You know? Establish an impossible feat, so any lesser feats you perform seem greater by comparison. Then two little colts went out and got lured the Ursa back, trying to prove Trixie's story to the.." She mumbled a name. "But of course Trixie couldn't help, and because of her, the town was half destroyed."

"Of course I know, I invented that bit of subterfuge, you know?" He wasn't trying to tease her, but he couldn't help himself. That bit of banter was almost as good as being on stage. She'd make a hell of a partner. "So.. some annoying kids decided to bring down a beast on their town, and you, not being.. what, an adventurer? couldn't stop it. I've yet to be convinced how this was your fault."

Had Trixie not bragged about her abilities, she wouldn't have gotten heckled, then she wouldn't have shown off in front of the Princess' friends, who in turn got mad at Trixie, and thus denounced her. and so put down, forced two adorable fans to defend Trixie, by attempting to prove she was the more powerful Unicorn."

"Adorable fans? Trixie they're.." He nearly slandered the two colts before he caught himself. Ferris was ignoring, or had missed, the bit about the Princess, but he had latched onto what he thought was an important nugget. "You're trying to protect them, aren't you? Taking all this guilt on yourself instead of blaming them. Monsters don't do that, Trixie. "

"Why would Trixie try to protect them? it wasn't a secret that they had done this thing, they shouted it out loud. everypony knew. And when Trixie obviously failed to defeat the Ursa, the Princess stepped up and solved everything. The remaining ponies chased Trixie out of town, leaving her Caravan, and all her possessions smashed. Trixie's hat and cloak, Trixie's money, Trixie's...life, gone in an instant. As for Trixie's fans? they where rewarded to what they did, it was a lesson to others about how Trixie was an evil monster, how bragging is wrong." 

"So, an Alicorn performed an amazing feat of magic? That literally happens at least twice a day." Ferris stopped and took a breath. His hoof moved up, gently and in vain trying to push her mane back into place. "I apologize for the sarcasm. This all just.. it makes me mad. The worst you did was talk a big game you couldn't back up. Every pony's lucky the damage wasn't worse, and they still had the audacity to run you out like that? Never mind under a princess' watch."

"Well, she wasn't a princess at the time. she was just a really talented unicorn, but that is beside the point. The Princess rewarded Trixie's little fans for their good work. thanks to them, no pony else had to get hurt by Trixie. Thanks to the news of Trixie's failure and lies, Trixie could never recover from the lose of all her possessions and money. The hat she got with the bits from her first show. No one would hire Trixie. The first day Trixie had to sleep in a box, had to eat from the trash, to huddle under a dumpster just for warmth.." *Trixie trailed off, the pain of it all rushing back to her. whimpering into her blanket.

"Shh, Shh.." He tried to sooth her, crawling up onto the bed now, gently rubbing her back again as he drew closer. "There was a first time, but there was also a last time, alright? You don't have to go through that ever again. That nightmare's been over since Joe took you in.. and now that I'm here, you're going to wake up, ok?"

"...Trixie can't wake up anymore, Trixie Is already awake. Trixie was dreaming before...that's all it was..a dream, it was time for Trixie to wake up." Trixie sobbed heavily. "Trixie can barely even use magic anymore, Trixie is just...Trixie is just a Doughnut shop mare now. Trixie didn't care about making others happy, Trixie doesn't care about anything. it hurts to much to care..."

His hoof still slowly moving up and down her back as she spoke. He leaned in close, gently tapping his horn against hers before he slipped off the bed and back onto his hooves. "Why'd you take me home with you? If you're so uncaring and monstrous, why did you take a stranger into your home if you don't want to make anypony else happy..?"