The City of Manehattan is HUGE! Having never been there, I was wowed by all the sights. Trixie merely took it in stride, though.
"Don't tell Trixie you've never seen Manehattan before, Sunshine!" she giggled. I was agog, trying to take it all in. My mouth hung open in awe of the sight.
"I've been to Chicago many times, but Manehattan has it beat, dead to rights," I stated softly. "Back on my home world, this place was sometimes referred to as New York City, with five boroughs of Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. I think Long Island was considered part of the city as well."
"Trixie does not quite understand, but you said a name that sounds like this city's name. What do you remember about it?"
"Manhattan was where the city's financial center was located, along with the most expensive real estate in the country. New York City was the most populous city in my home country, having nearly eight million people living there."
"That's too many people! Trixie seems to remember what you and your human wife looked like -- eight ... million ..."
"Try not to think about it too hard, lover girl," I said, nudging her lightly with my left fore-hoof. Hearing the pet name I gave her made her chuckle lightly as we pulled the caravan into the city. We passed by residential areas and set up in a nearby clearing which served as a local park for this area. We had expanded the show to include more comedic elements to it, adding more co-operative magic displays, but the thing that seemed to draw the best audience response was when we got wet, usually by either me or Trixie summoning a rain cloud and dousing each other, then a small tornado to "blow-dry" the water off, leaving the mane and tail a poofy mess.
We traveled around Manehattan performing our act for quite a few different neighborhoods before we were approached by a pair of unicorns accompanied by a pair of pegasi, all four of whom were wearing nice suits. The leader of this group was a lime-green unicorn mare, her mane and tail a paler shade of green with a red and magenta streak running the length. Her mane and tail had been curled over to resemble Rarity's.
"Are you Trixie and Amethyst? I am Emerald Twist. My associates and I are representatives of the Manehattan Magic Performers Alliance. We have heard about your shows and were interested in having you compete in a contest we will be holding in about a week or so," she offered.
"Trixie is interested. Please continue," the azure unicorn stated.
"A competition, eh? This wouldn't happen to be the famed 'Manehattan Display' I've heard about, is it?" I asked, a smile crossing my lips.
"Oh, so you have heard about it?" Emerald asked, a little surprised. Trixie gave me a look of surprise as well.
"Amethyst, how do you know about the Manehattan Display?" Trixie asked me.
"I've heard about it from various sources, though I don't know much about it. Truth to tell, I heard you mumble something about it in your sleep, Trixie!" I grinned.
"Trixie has wanted to compete in that event, but never had a partner to help her -- and she has been very busy with her magic show to worry about such a contest."
"Trixie, would you like to stay in Manehattan a bit longer so we can test our skills in the contest?" I asked her.
"Yes, Trixie would like that very much!" she grinned.
"We were hoping you two would be willing to participate -- we have seen one of your performances, and I will admit that I am quite impressed by the display of magic and comedy you two put together. How long have you two been performing like this?" Emerald asked.
"We've been traveling for a couple of months, Miss Emerald," I stated, a hint of excitement in my voice. "Thanks for the compliment -- we've mostly been improvising, adding new elements so we can give our audience a better performance."
"Very well then. Here are two tickets for the event -- you will be staying in a hotel not far from the stadium where the competition will take place. The contest starts in eight days -- We suggest you spend them practicing your skills. Good luck to you two!" the green unicorn said, smiling. She then turned to her associates and they left as a group, returning to the carriage which had brought them to watch our most recent performance.
I checked the information on the tickets, noticing the location was on the other side of town. We were still touring around the south side of Manehattan, and the hotel and stadium for the contest was a bit north of mid-town. I figured it was going to take about six hours for us to pull the caravan there, which meant we could hit a few more neighborhoods before going to the hotel. We decided to improvise our act a bit more, adding a few more wrinkles to it. What had initially started out as an act that lasted about ten minutes for each performance was now up to a good half-hour, though we knew we could improve on it further if we felt the need to.
We packed up the caravan after four more days of performances and pulled it to the hotel we would be staying at during the competition, though we had decided to check in a couple of days early. We paid for the two extra days out of our savings, which had grown to over 5000 bits over the course of our travels. We decided to use those two extra days practicing our magic and improving our co-ordination. We treated ourselves to some excellent food, making sure not to overspend on it. We shared a bed each night, embracing each other tightly as we slept. Trixie was still having some morning sickness, but it was not as severe as it had been. During the week-long contest, her morning sickness abated.
The contest itself was divided into several parts, each one testing our ability to think on our hooves, our ability to co-ordinate our use of magic, the strength of our skill, the ability to cast several different types of spells at once, the endurance of our magic, and the ability or lack thereof to work together. Trixie and I were one pair of eight to compete in the various stages of the contest. Three pairs of contestants did not finish, one pair was disqualified, leaving just four pairs who succeeded in completing the contest. There were certain events in which Trixie and I shone, doing remarkably well and finishing in first place. There were a few other events which proved to be so unpredictably difficult that despite our best efforts, we came up short, and in one particular instance, we performed very badly. When the final tally was announced, Trixie and I had won second place, missing first by just ten points. Trixie was severely disappointed by the results and I tried to console her as best I could.
"Look, Trixie, we can come back next year and try again -- second place isn't bad, considering we had never competed in such a complex contest before," I said softly.
"Second place is for losers, Amethyst. Trixie does not want to be seen as a loser!"
"That just means we have to practice more and train harder for next year, then. Consider it a challenge to improve upon what you already know! I know I will try harder myself."
We returned to our room to collect our things and checked out of the hotel. As a prize for finishing in second place, we received a trophy and a cash amount of 500 bits. We packed up the caravan and resumed our travels, vowing to return to Manehattan the following year to compete once again and finish in first place next time.
"Okay, Trixie, where to next?" I asked as we pulled the wagon once again, leaving Manehattan behind.
"Trixie thinks Las Pegasus would be a good idea," she offered. My face dropped at that mention.
"Uh, Trixie, that's gonna take us a month to get there!" I said in exasperation.
"Do you not think you can make it, Amethyst?" she grinned.
"Well, I know I can, and I've always wanted to see Las Pegasus ... I guess if that's what you want, we can go there," I offered somewhat dejectedly. The caravan never seemed heavier to me than at that point, though I was sure that after a month of pulling it across Equestria was going to have me feeling drop-dead tired by the time we made it to Las Pegasus.