Trixie and the Mirror

by Mightyfinemorning


The Great and Powerful Trixie talks with Princess Celestia

Could she be so sure? Was this a dream? Or was it not?

The Great and Powerful Trixie looked at the mirror. She saw her own reflection: a unicorn with a blue fur, wearing the dress that her friend Rarity made. The purple dress, as she requested back in Ponyville, bore the symbol of the six-pointed stars, a sign of deep friendship between her and Twilight Sparkle.

But something was not right, Trixie said to herself. Her own self-Trixie who was inside the mirror-she did not look happy. How could she, surrounded by her friends and honored as a hero, bear an expression conveying doubt and caution? What had become of Trixie?

So there was the Trixie inside, there was Trixie right here, her very own being. So what was she, Trixie who was watching the mirror to find her own self, wearing then? She quickly glanced over her body. A blue pointed hat and a mantle, tied with a small gem brooch, reminding her of travelling magician’s costume she once went to watch with Twilight and others. What was the significance, she could not guess. Nevertheless she liked the cloth. Trixie did not feel strange to wear them, as if she was meant to be in this attire from the first place.

Her mind, however, clearly signaled a warning to the familiarity, the ever vigilant guardian of her own self, Trixie the Great and Powerful magician, giving the benefit of a doubt. Her horns caught a flow of magical energies that clearly differed from her usual environment. Change of place; dreams could do that. But was that all? Could she be so sure?

Maybe she could have been mistaken. She was familiar with lies and deceits and a little bending of reality and dishonesty and blatant lies. A quick glance was not enough. There was a possibility that the figure inside the mirror was anything but what Trixie thought it was. She looked more closely into the object, pondering if she would be able to find some features that she missed, small minuscule details that could maybe convince her by means she did not yet discover that this strange simulacrum of her was not Trixie at all, and this was just a real strange dream, perhaps slightly magical in nature.

Then Trixie inside the mirror talked. Trixie outside listened. Her own voice, by no doubts, the subtle pronunciations and tones unmistakably hers. Trixie talked more. Trixie listened.


“Then where is her? Where is this other Trixie then?”

She is right here, Trixie said to herself as she continued her observation of the Trixie inside the mirror. This Trixie from that world is here, in this world which was that world for this Trixie, at least from that Trixie's perspective. This Trixie's opinion? Well, she could not be so sure. A magician’s riddle, a fine elaborate play; truly mysterious and wonderful, except for the fact Trixie was not the magician this time, but the audience left at her own to gaze at the trick and be awed.

“To be honest, I do not know. I did not realize till now. How could have this happen? I would have thought this incident as another trickery of the spirit of the disharmony, except for the fact that the creature lies motionless in the stone once again. Then what could have caused this? Alas, there are some things even an alicorn with her fathoming cannot unravel.”

The serene smile of a ruler who knew displaying her inner turmoil could affect others around her. Trixie felt somewhat relieved as she observed the sun princess’s face inside the mirror-world. If what was she seeing was real, what she feared did indeed happen, then at least for now, it would be better to take care of the matter in a private manner. Not very good of causing a ruckus when there was a grand celebration going. But was Trixie inside the mirror good enough to pull the show? Was she like her own self, the Great and Powerful Trixie, the master of illusions and tricks, the royal magician?

“This Trixie…she looked in the mirror. She saw her own self. Trixie saw Trixie. Trixie inside the mirror, she was talking to Twilight Sparkle, the lavender unicorn of whom this Trixie does not take fond of. But other Trixie, she was so different. Or at least that’s what this Trixie thought and continues to think so. Well, she found herself in other Trixie’s place. Trixie was Trixie essentially, nothing seemed wrong-like a magician’s trick. Nothing looked wrong, but one knows-a fellow magician knows-some trickery has been made, that she had been made to believe something that seems right, but not quite so.”

A very interesting observation, Trixie said to herself as she lightly chuckled, gazing at the mirror. That Trixie inside sounded very much like her. She was much closer to her own self than she expected her to be. Perhaps she could, to a some degree, have a sigh of relief after all at the fact that Trixie there was much like Trixie here.

“A change of place. I assume our own Trixie might be in your place.”

“And this Trixie on her place, probably.” Trixie inside the mirror said with a grave tone, the voice of a cunning magician unraveling a trick.

So much like her. This Trixie also agrees Trixie outside the mirror said to herself. She would have come to the same conclusion, had she found herself in the same place. So the event somehow happened, the change taking both of Trixies and putting them in each other’s world? But how, she wondered. How could such an event take pace in the first place? By what means? She tried to recall her memory still fragmented into pieces after collapsing before her friends. The days she spent at Canterlot took quite a toll on her body and mind, eventually making her body forcefully order an immediate rest. She heard Twilight saying to get Pinkie and Fluttershy.

Darkness overtook her back then, her consciousness slipping, her thinking process eventually coming to a complete halt. But what happened after then? The data was lost as her own self could not have been present when extreme fatigue overtook her. By instinct she took a hiatus. What was the value of asking herself then? How could one search something that was lost, sank deep in Celestia-knows-where part of her mind? Nevertheless she began unraveling her thread of thoughts, attempting to access deeper part of her buried memory. But how? How could Trixie possibly pull out that was so enrooted in her mind, the contents disintegrated into unrecognizable microscopic bits?

Maybe she had to look further back. That might yield some hints of which Trixie could expand upon her search. Then she would be able to find an answer to this strange situation. Before Trixie was talking with Twilight, what was she doing before then? Where was she?

Canterlot old changing room. Perfume scents etched into the room, becoming the very part of its structure. The ancient fragrance engraved into the very place, olfactory particles rising like small mists whenever one made her move. The place would have had seen better days. Nopony used to go there anymore, and precisely that was the reason why Trixie chose to take a visit in the first place. She was very eager to keep away from the ponies keep bumping unto her, and she wanted to find a quiet secluded place before the celebration started, straightening her thoughts, doing the magician’s work.

Trixie kept summoning her past memories, letting them enter into her process of thoughts, which was busily working around to produce a logical explanation to the issue. She hurried to retrieve and fully restore the data. Her head felt dizzy from the ordeal. But she had to act quickly before the data would become virtually impossible to salvage. Her body felt stiff. She ignored. She wanted to lie down on the bed and pray she would wake up back in the comfy bed of Canterlot. But no, that would have been too easy. She dismissed the call. Dreams might have worked out that way. They were complicated, but there was an easy solution to them: just wake up. A pony was bound to wake up from her visit to the immaterial realm of dreamworld, where the place always seemed so magical and full of surprises.

But it was empty. Entire world could vanish instantly. All the complicity inadvertently nothing, destined to sink into void that defied categorization. If Trixie was in a dream, all she had to do was to wake up. If not, then she stuck with what she got. She told herself that there was no way she could escape from where she truly belonged. She could play around with it for a while, but in the end, she could only warp and alter for a brief period of time. She was a magician, not an alicorn; she was ultimately bound in the reality. She skirted along the very edge, stood at the threshold defining the real and the false. The Great and Powerful Trixie as a magician might venture-and very often she did-into the unknown; but she would return eventually. Tricks and illusions she mastered; they were under her control. They had to. Or else Trixie was not so Great and Powerful.

Then what was the possibility of her wrongly analyzing the situation? What if this was indeed a dream and Trixie has not figured out yet? Her magician’s mind always dealt with endless possibilities of everything she thought, imagining something that could have happened, never happened, might happen in the future and was thought to be happening right now. Mastery before manipulation, clarification before control; a magician’s word of wisdom. But now, Trixie had mastered nothing. Everything she could not clarify. So how could she manipulate and control of the situation? A world beyond her reasoning she found herself in, and Trixie, though being Great and Powerful, found it very hard to progress further in her search.

Maybe she was indeed in a dream. Maybe. The answer was simple enough, a comforting one. She was seeing her own self inside the mirror. It made sense. She was watching her own reality in a dream. That statement Trixie thought plausible. She was so tired. Her mind must have strayed into the hallucinatory realms of which she often skirted along while she was pulling tricks during her show. So why was she thinking this was reality in the first place? This had to be a dream, right? Or was it? It must have been due to lack of sleep, for Trixie found it absolutely difficult to summon her will to carry out the task of sorting out her tangled thoughts. She thought of lying down on the bed again, but her troubled mind, however exhausted it was, dutifully followed the last order that was given: make sense of the current situation. She continued to look into the mirror.


Maybe this was a dream. No, she forcefully said to herself. The Great and Powerful Trixie carefully contemplated the situation. She was inside the mirror. She should have woken up in her old cottage. Instead she found herself in a world where she was the hero and the lavender unicorn was her ‘friend’. She was inside the world inside the mirror.

She levitated the cup with her magic and drank the tea, the sweet liquid thankfully helping her to cope with her disheveled thoughts. She woke up inside the Canterlot Palace. The memory she summoned. There were contents inside her piece of thoughts, like candies and chocolates in a box of sweets. She would pick each part one by one and analyze it. Starting from where? No matter; her mind would eventually wander in such a way that she would deal with it. Waking up, comfy bed in Canterlot. Starting point Suggesting what? Meaning Trixie here clearly possessed a certain status, maybe beloved by the alicorn princesses…

She could taste the food. That felt so real.

Some dreams could be so realistic.

Then that dream must be reality.

There must be a line that defines dream and reality, some clarification.

Being able to taste the food. That could be one of the standards to differentiate between dream and reality.

How? Could she be so sure? So which world is real then? What is real anyway? Could Trixie answer all the questions she asked herself? If this was not a dream, there was the issue of defining reality. What was real? What was truly real that it had to be the definite reality that stood among everything else?

It was a scary thought of which Trixie tended to avoid when dealing with her endless stream of thoughts. Illusions were based upon reality. From honesty came falsehood. Truth spawned lies. A magician’s tricks came from the real world she lived in; the more she wanted to fool her audience, the more she had to be familiar with the truth, the real world where she belonged. Hence the magician’s wisdom: mastery before manipulation, clarification before control.

After all, her job demanded how much she could get away with tinkering with the reality around her before everything she knew fell apart. Lies. Varying degrees of truth, but still skirting very close to the truth, of the real world she lived in.

So what would happen if the order she believed in was wrong? Like the crowd seeing what the magician wanted to show, fooling her crowd, she was tricked, wasn’t it? This time Trixie was down below the stage, right? But she could not be so sure. Or was it? She needed more data to analyze. But Trixie has been doing that since last night. Last night, but really, how could she really know? No real answer, her reasoning dissolving into complete chaos, all the strings of her thoughts tangled even further.

Last night. She slept. Woke up in the night, which was for her a morning, since at least several hours had passed. Was it still morning back in her world? In here the sky was still in the domain of the Moon Princess, shrouded in a black veil, stars forming patterns of which she tended to stay her eye away from. Back to the question: so which was the real time she could cling to, of she could use to produce her tricks and lies if necessary? Her talk with her own self was not much of a help. Even her head continuously demanded to be relieved of the enormous task it had to undertake, overloaded with her own thoughts and questions and information all jumbled up.

Change of plan then; She had to-and could-improvise, make up for the situation. She should have always kept the maxim so closely in her mind. Neighsayers. They were always there, jealous of the Great and Powerful Trixie, wishing her ruin. But a magician was always ready for those who did not take her seriously. She had to. There could be a change of plan. She might throw off something completely new she hadn’t prepared, making one trick right on the spot. Then those who dared to challenge the Great and Powerful Trixie would watch in awe, their mouth agape, look of embracement in their faces. Then Trixie would laugh at their insolence to challenge her in her very own domain, the show of the Great and Powerful Trixie. She was the master, she was Great and Powerful.

Why, then, could she not remember the old wisdom when confronted by the star-bear? But no matter, she thought. Back to the more immediate issue. She would deal with those neighsayers later. She would show. But not now; she had more pressing concerns. Like finding herself in a completely strange world that somehow resembled her reality.

She turned to look at Princess Celestia. She too seemed to be immersed in her own thoughts. What was she thinking? Presumably thinking about her, of this sudden change between Trixies, working her alicorn mind to fill the gap that was suddenly imposed upon her process of thoughts, determined to solve the problem.

Maybe, she could help Trixie, and Trixie could help her? To master, to clarify, more information always made things smooth, albeit adding complexities to the issue. More she could analyze, more the princess could, gathering from her ageless experience, produce some hints they could both find it useful.

“Princess Celestia.” She turned to face Trixie, the concern slightly visible on her face. “Trixie is not still sure about this. She admits-“Trixie frowned a little, suppressing the horror of what she was about to say. Unexpected consequences. Then do something else. Improvise. “She is Trixie. She is the Great and Powerful Trixie. But sometimes she has to admit that she is not yet so Great and Powerful enough. She admits-admits that her mind cannot comprehend the situation she has fallen into.”

The words left a bitter taste in her mouth. She felt another twitch inside her, like the last time when she was forced to watch the lavender pony defeating the star-bear, the whole scene like a dagger directly piercing through her chest. But she was Trixie, Trixie the Great and Powerful. “Trixie knows, she knows to be Great and Powerful she must be so sure of her shortcomings. To fix or to mend or to make up, doing whatever she feels it to be necessary. To become greater and more powerful.”

“Just like Trixie I would expect her to be. She always wanted more she could add to her inventory of tricks and skills.” Princess Celestia grinned a little.

Trixie raised an eyebrow; only a little though, so subtle that nopony would ever notice. “This Trixie you look here never performed any great deeds. She definitely is not the hero who saved Equestria. She is a magician. She delves in the art of bending and altering of reality. She fools. She tricks. She deceives. She excels at disrupting the order and rules of the world, temporarily though the task may be. She is not the hero you expect. She is not like Trixie you hold so dearly, your highness.”

“Surely that we all expects from Trixie we know of. Indeed, she is a magician. That was the reason why she could be free from the influence of Discord. She knows his methods so well.”

“But this Trixie is not her. This Trixie may look like her, but she has met her ruins. She failed to beat the neighsayers. She can only blame her very own incompetence.” So that was her weapon. That was other Trixie though, not her. Then what about her? Could the Great and Powerful Trixie have done the same as Trixie have done?

“Nevertheless you pulled a fine trick. Even Twilight never suspected that something was not right. A great show you are putting on right now. Truly marvelous; I for one had to make it sure, to see it with my own eyes. I could not be so sure. It was very hard to confirm my suspicion until you spoke to me. Well played, Trixie.”

“She feels honored by your highness’ compliment. But unfortunately that does not solve her questions. What brought this Trixie here? What is this world exactly? If this is not a dream, is it a reality? So this Trixie is a dream version of the other Trixie? Who is Trixie then? This one or the other one? Trixie finds it so hard to think, so hard to reason. Even the magician mind of hers demands rest. So the Great and Powerful Trixie asks Princess Celestia. What happened? What really happened? What is going on? She needs to learn more about this world.”

Trixie refilled her cup. The liquid, it kept her reasonably well under the pressing circumstances. Talking with the solar princess she never done it before; but her magician-self prevailed, guiding her actions and speech. After all, she was the Great and Powerful Trixie. She would not falter even in the presence of the ruler of Equestria. And it would give her courage to admit her ignorance. Accepting defeat; but one should be aware of her shortcomings. To improve, to become greater, more powerful, more befitting of her title.

“Mastery before manipulation, as they say.”

“Clarification before control, to remind once again.”

“Truly a magician you are.”

She nodded. The princess was right, but she felt it was not enough. To make sense of the situation, she needed evidences. The more the better. She recalled the first moment when she stared into the mirror. Her own self talking with the lavender unicorn. Trixie talked with her. Twilight Sparkle. “Princess Celestia.” She kept her voice well. She was, after all, a magician. She could trick others to see, or not to see. Nevertheless the princess recognized the small tremble in her tone.

“Is something bothering you?” After a while the princess spoke.

“Yes. This Trixie still cannot really know of this world. She just cannot figure it out-what happened to her really? Her mind she finds it now so intolerable of her own self commanding it to sort out. So after a careful calculation and analysis Trixie concluded that she needed to know more to understand and assess her situation."

“Well, I hope there is something I can do. Unfortunately, as I told you before, even I currently do not possess a plausible explanation of this incident.”

“But princess, surely there would be something that you can tell me? Trixie will tell hers: you know she is not the hero. You know she has somehow gotten into this world by accident. Clarification before control. If you may allow, I would like to propose to approach the question in our own perspective. For Trixie, one day she somehow came across a mirror. She did not know back then, but it was clearly magical in nature. The Great and Powerful Trixie should have known better. To not cast a watchful eye at the suspiciously mundane objects, that was her fault. Truly a magician as great and powerful as her would have immediately recognized the magical aura. But no, Trixie was, she was-“

“Tricked, as you say?”

“Yes. Tricked. Fooled. So unfitting of her title.”

“This is interesting. A mirror you say? This object you speak of, what did you see inside? What did it show?” Her tone was still perfectly calm, not a single hint of urgency to be found. Still, Trixie caught the tiny bit of anxiety in the alicorn’s word, a sign of her distress, however infinitesimally small it would be for the moment. Trixie too, was troubled now, her mind thrown into turmoil ever since talking with Princess Celestia, desperately trying to cling on to something of which she could define it as reality, as truth. She checked her voice-was she good enough to remain calm, maintain her posture?

“She saw Trixie. She saw her own self talking with the lavender unicorn, Twilight Sparkle. Why, she wondered. Why was she with her? She scoffed it as a base joke, very lowly in forms; made only to spawn hatred and rage. Very different from a magician’s trick, not very entertaining, but really despicable.

“Why, do you hold any grudge against Twilight?”

“Yes.” Trixie said without hesitation. She could be frank if she wanted to. And she wanted to make sense of the world she was into; if the sun princess could help her in some way, then she in turn could afford to be more cooperative.

“Then you have played your show well, Trixie, for I did not see my protégé running to me yelling ‘Princess Celestia!’ with in great distress. So, back in your world, are you not a friend of Twilight?” To Trixie's amazement, Princess Celesita seemed to be more amazed with the fact that she masked herself really well than her feud with Twilight. Oh well, she quietly told herself: focus more on the immediate problem.

But Trixie felt something-it was small, but there was no way she could ignore it. Envy, perhaps? Student of the very ruler of Equestria. That explained her superior magical abilities. Trixie suppressed the slight twitch in her fur, the all too familiar feeling of having rash all over her body. Control. Control. She muttered to herself. The sign of her irritation. Mention her name, and she got the itch that reminded her of the humiliation, that very night when the real star-bear stood before her. Now she seemed greater and mower powerful than her. No. Trixie was Great and Powerful. Perhaps for now, that might be the case. But she learns from the princess herself. One day, she would rise. Where would Trixie be then? That was what Trixie saw.

She kept her calm look. As she constantly reminded herself, back to the question she was facing right now. Control. Focus. Certain feelings were better left to be hidden. Certain things that would not hurt one’s honesty. Like a magician’s show, reveal some, hide anything else.

“This Trixie you see here, your highness, she certainly does not befriend Twilight and her group of friends. Bearers of the elements, she has met them before, but she is effectively a stranger to them.” Trixie slightly adjusted her eyes to see the look on the princess’s face. Was she surprised? Probably not. The sun princess saw and heard what others could not. Maybe she could bestow some enlightment to Trixie.

“It is most unfortunate to hear that, for Trixie I know has been a good companion of the bearers ever since they saved my dear sister from the her fallen state. While not representing any of the elements, she proved to be a powerful ally in the bearers’ quests, hence for the very celebration honoring her among Twilight and her friends.”

“That is why this Trixie thought this world was nothing more than a world based upon wild imagination. She never saw nor heard of the bearers until very recently; she never spoke directly to your highness or the moon princess till now. She is but a magician. Trixie was-and continues to be-just Trixie.”

“I am very intrigued by your story. So you would have not known me and the bearers, and only met them by pure chance? Please, I must request you to tell more. In return I will tell my story; story of Trixie from this world. Perhaps our exchange of information might yield us some clues to make sense of this situation.”

Trixie nodded. The memory brought her moments she wished to drown deeply in her thoughts, but if it was to gain a better understanding of this world, she figured she had no other choice.

“She will present her story.”

And she would have to expose her downfall once again. But she was the Great and Powerful Trixie; if it was necessary, she would make it happen. She would, for the sake of being Greater and more Powerful, would tell her story to Princess Celestia. She was the Great and Powerful Trixie, after all.

"She is a travelling magician, wandering all over Equestria's cities and towns. On one particualr occasion, she found herself en route to a small town called Ponyville..."


Trixie thought it was very interesting to hear her story-different version of her, maybe, or a illusory creature that mimicked her. But she felt Trixie inside the mirror was indeed Trixie, Trixie who happened to be in 'another' reality. Maybe. Perhaps. But at least that seemed most plausible to her.

"So, what is the story of the Great and Powerful Trixie, Trixie wonders?"