“H-Hey… What are you doing?” Diamond Tiara asked as she backed away nervously from Apple Bloom, her face beet-red and her breathing deep.
“Ah should have noticed it sooner… Yer grace, yer beauty… Though mah father would never approve, ah dare say… ah’m in love.”
“Cut!” Trixie shouted, and less than a second later the two fillies moved as far away from each other as they could and started gagging. Their friends rushed over glasses of water and some mouthwash for the two. “Apple Bloom, Trixie has told you to ditch the accent whilst in-character!”
“Ah’ve tried, Miss Trixie,” Apple Bloom said, chugging her entire glass of water in one gulp. “But ah’ve spoken like this as far as ah can remember.”
“Well try harder. That can be your homework for this weekend.” Clapping her hooves together to gather everypony’s attention, Trixie summoned a stack of papers with her magic and levitated each one to the correct recipient. “Speaking of which, these are your performance reviews for the past week, and your practice assignments for the weekend. Those who do not put the effort in – and Trixie will be able to tell – will have to stay behind after class on Monday to complete the assignments then.”
“Wait, it’s only noon,” Sweetie Belle pointed out. “Are we leaving early today?”
“Since you’ve all made stunning progress this past week, Trixie has decided to give you all a reward. You may leave early, but any who wish to stay to practice are more than wel-” Trixie stopped when she realised that she was now talking to clouds of dust, and when she heard the sound of a door closing behind her she turned around to see her seven pupils outside through a window. “… Very well then. The Great and Powerful Trixie shall just have her lunch and then take the rest of the day off at the spa.”
Trixie approached the bar at the entrance to her theatre house and opened one of the cupboards. Inside contained her stash of peanut butter crackers, which made the showmare lick her lips as she pulled out a packet and brought it over to the counter.
“Class let out early today?” Trixie jumped at the sound of Applejack’s voice.
“Trixie felt they could be allowed to take the rest of the day off, since they have pretty much exhausted Trixie’s lesson plan for this week anyway.” Trixie sat down at the counter and opened up her snack. “What brings you here?”
Applejack motioned to the wagon she was pulling behind her, which was stocked full of barrels. “Heard the place has been booked for a PTA meetin’ tonight, so ah figured ah’d come and drop off some refreshments. Any barrels that don’t get emptied ye’re free ta keep.”
“Very well. Just find somewhere to dump them then.” Trixie dunked her first cracker into the peanut butter and took a bite of it. Almost instantly her face lit up. There was something magical about peanut butter crackers that just made all of the day’s stress go away.
“So how’s the class goin’? Apple Bloom learned how ta speak fancy yet?” Applejack asked, taking a seat at the opposite side of the counter to Trixie.
“Haven’t you seen her practicing at your house?”
“Nah. She’s embarrassed ‘bout us seein’ her practicin’, so she does it at her clubhouse.”
Trixie used her magical to pull out a glass of apple cider from the fridge behind her and removed the cap. “Well, all seven of them are making good progress, but they’re all still sorely lacking in some regard.”
“Hey, mind if ah have a drink? Ah’m mighty parched from pullin’ those barrels all the way here.”
“That’ll be five bits,” Trixie said.
“Cheapskate,” Applejack mumbled as she reached into her hat and pulled out five bits. She exchanged them for a fresh bottle of apple cider from the fridge. “Ah still don’t see why ye’re buyin’ this fancy brand when ah’m willin’ ta sell our own cider much cheaper.”
“Your cider lacks the unique taste that can only be found in this Manehatten brand. Not only does this cider appeal to Trixie more, but with Trixie’s theatre being the only place you can buy this brand in Ponyville, it draws in a crowd.”
Applejack took a drink of her cider. She had to admit that it wasn’t bad, but she wasn’t going to do so out loud. “So, y’all were sayin’?”
“Hm? Oh, right. First off, there’s that Babs Seed filly. She’s certainly got the motivation and the skills to be an actress, but… it feels to Trixie like something is holding her back. Almost as if she is intentionally dragging herself down.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Trixie tried to talk to her about it, but the only thing that Trixie could get from our little chat is that Babs Seed is unaware of the problem herself, and that she seems to be afraid of something.”
“Afraid?” Applejack asked, now concerned for her cousin’s well-being. “Of what?”
“No clue,” Trixie said with a shrug. “It was just the impression that Trixie received from looking at her, maybe Trixie is simply reading too much into it.”
Applejack put a hoof to her chin and though about what Trixie had said. ‘Ah’d better have a word with Babs tonight, just ta be one the safe side.’
“Next up is Silver Spoon. She seems to be a smart, dependable filly, but she’s far too easily distracted, and it throws off her focus and her timing.” Trixie sighed as she remembered a certain incident where Silver Spoon messed up her timing, and attempted to make up for it by rushing herself… resulting in an accident that almost set the entire stage on fire. “Also, Trixie has noticed the fillies in this town like to start fires where it shouldn’t even be possible to do so.”
“Yeah, ya gotta watch out fer that,” Applejack said with a solemn nod.
“The next two, Alula and Scootaloo, and both wonderful actors and very athletic, making certain scenes a breeze for them. Unfortunately, they both have a tendency to forget all of their lines, to overact, and in Alula’s case, to put far too much energy into her scenes.”
“Ah heard Sweetie Belle’s comin’ along nicely though. Rarity said she heard her practicin’ her singin’ and it sounded great.”
Trixie nodded. “Indeed, there is very little wrong with Sweetie Belle… besides her stage fright.”
“Ah.”
Trixie sighed and held a hoof to her face. “Well, that and Trixie may have helped her tap into her magic a little bit… and now she is constantly pestering Trixie to teach her more, when what she should be working on is memorising her lines.
“Finally, we have Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara. Our star players… who are both making the slowest progress out of the entire class.”
Applejack frowned at that news. “How so? Ah mean, mah sister may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but when she’s out fer a Cutie Mark she can be pretty surprising.”
“Well, to start with they both despise each other. And although they have arranged a sort of truce to get along whilst onstage, which is fairly common in the acting world, Trixie has her doubts about how long it can last. After all, they both seem to have relatively short fuses.”
“Er, ah guess so… Filthy Rich and ah’ve been tryin’ ta get those two ta get along for so long now, but nothin’ we do works. Well, they don’t really hurt each other, so we’ve decided it’s probably best to just leave it be for now…”
“Then there’s their acting skills,” Trixie continued. “Diamond Tiara you’d think would be good at portraying the role of a Princess, but just like Scootaloo, she goes over the top. And Apple Bloom is the exact opposite; her accent and her inability to pronounce around half of the words on the script are holding her back.”
“Y’know she can’t really help that, right?” Applejack asked, her brow furrowed as she faced Trixie.
Trixie simply shrugged and bit into her next peanut butter cracker. “Well, we have plenty of time to work it out. But the biggest problem is that neither of them seem to be putting their hearts into it. They both have their own motivations for taking this class, but that’s just it. They’re only interested in taking the class, and are not putting their all into improving themselves.”
“Well, they’re only kids. What can ya do?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. The Great and Powerful Trixie will make sure to whip these fillies into shape before the big day, and when the parents of Ponyville see what a wonderful job Trixie has done, they’ll practically be lining up to sign their children onto Trixie’s course next summer! Mwahahahahaha!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow and backed away as Trixie’s maniacal laughter filled the room. “Er, yeah… Well, good luck with that. Ah’ll just… be goin’ now…”
A full minute later, Trixie’s laughter had died down, and she turned back to Applejack, only to find that the orange mare was gone. “Well, that’s certainly rude,” Trixie said with a harrumph. “And she wonders why Trixie isn’t interested in buying her cider for the theatre house’s bar…”