//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Trixie's New Big Red Life // by Captain-Brony //------------------------------// Trixie swallowed a large lump in her throat, she wasn't sure why she was so nervous; by all accounts she was ready for this. He was right in front of her, attempting to yet again plow the fields with that rusted plow, and yet she remained frozen where she stood by her nerves. Finally she snapped herself out of it, it was only Big Macintosh, and of all the things Big Macintosh was, a judgmental pony was not one of them. "Big Macintosh, I think I can help you plow that field." Trixie said admitingly a little more shyly than she would have liked. Big Macintosh said nothing but raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. "If you would just unhook yourself, then I could try my new spell." Big Macintosh unhooked himself as she asked but he had a look of worry on his face. "You aint gonna use a Come To Life spell are ya? Because Twilight tried that during the last Winter Wrap Up and it didn't turn out too well…" "No, it's nothing like that." Feeling a little more at ease, Big Macintosh walked away from his plow to stand next to her. She made her horn glow it's usual color before shooting out a ray of light hitting Big Macintosh's plow. In a flash his plow changed from a rusted piece of junk to what looked like a brand new shiny plow. It was a rare site to see Big Macintosh with an excited smile on his face, but Trixie enjoyed it none the less as he walked over to examine his plow. He rubbed his hoof across the metal and his smile got bigger. "It's real." he beamed. Trixie returned his smile. "Well of course it's real, the Great and Powerful Trixie wouldn't have bothered learning the spell if it wasn't going to stick." "Hook me up, Ah've got to try it." If Big Macintosh were anymore excited he'd be jumping around like a school boy. Trixie did as she was asked, but she couldn't help but giggle at Big Macintosh's excitement, it was a cute sight. He could have done it himself but it was simply faster to have someone hook him up for him. Once she was finished, he started to work without a moment's hesitation. It was an impressive site, Big Macintosh was pulling the plow with the utmost ease, it was as if he didn't even feel the plow's weight. It was hard to believe that the same plow that Big Macintosh was straining to pull just this morning, now wasn't even slowing him down. It was as if he was walking up and down the field all by himself without anything attached to him. Trixie's smile got even bigger as she watched the colt enjoy himself plowing the fields. Trixie's good time, however, was cut off by Applejack showing up with a somewhat annoyed look on her face. "Trixie, what in the hay are you doin' just standin' around? Ah told you yer job was to feed the pigs this morning." "She's already done her part for the farm today." Big Macintosh interrupted. "Look at mah plow, she did some fancy spell and completely renewed it. Ah'll be done in time to do mah chores, feed the pigs, and help you with apple bucking." Applejack gave a defeated sigh. "Alright ya win. Trixie, Ah guess you've got the day off." A small sense of joy swelled up inside Trixie, she never would have expected a day off. She wasn't entirely sure how she wanted to spend it. She wouldn't have too much time to think about it as three blurred past her to get to Applejack. Now that they had stopped moving, the blurs turned out to Apple Bloom and her two friends, a unicorn and a pegasus named Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo. "Applejack, a circus is in town! And we was hoping you could take us so we could get some more ideas about how to get our cutie marks!" exclaimed Apple Bloom. Applejack frowned. "Sorry little sis, Ah'd like to take you and your friends to see this circus, but me and Big Macintosh'll be busy all day." Apple Bloom pouted at her. "You just don't want to take us because it's not a rodeo circus!" Applejack scowled back at her little sister. "Now it aint like that! Ah'm just gonna be too busy to take you is all!" "I could take them." chirped Trixie. "Ah don't know, Trixie. Mah sister and her friends can be a real hassle…" "Ah think it's a very nice gesture." Applejack turned to her brother with an annoyed look. "Geez yer talkative lately." "Eeyup." he stated as he continued to plow the field. Applejack turned back to Trixie with a sympathetic smile. "Ah guess if you don't mind then it's fine." "YAY!! CIRCUS TIME!!!" shouted the little fillies, making their elder ponies wince at their volume. "So who is this Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo asked. "This is Trixie, she's been stayin here on our farm. She's powerful sweet on mah brother." Apple Bloom answered bluntly. Trixie's face blushed to the redness of a street light. She craned her neck over to see Big Macintosh still plowing the fields completely ignorant of what his sister had said. "APPLE BLOOM!" Trixie shouted, startling the Crusaders. "You silly, SILLY filly! We have to get going or else we'll miss the circus!" Trixie started to push Apple Bloom towards the farm exit with an angry pout on her face. -- The circus was everything Trixie expected it to be, clowns everywhere, jugglers on unicycles riding around, and lots of games. She even got her little friends some cotton candy, which only seemed to add to their excitement. They walked up to a side show which had many odd and strange ponies on display. The first pony they came across was a unicorn stallion who had tattoos all over his body. "Wow! That guy has cutie marks all over his body!" Scootaloo said in amazement. "Yes." Trixie said with an awkward tone. "That's exactly what he has. Let's see the next pony, right now!" As Trixie hurried the little fillies along, she gave an involuntary shudder; she did NOT want to explain that pony to the Crusaders. The next pony they saw was doing something a lot of ponies thought was extraordinary, sword swallowing. He was a rather skinny pegasus pony, even had a sword cutie mark, but it was all just for show. Trixie knew a trick sword when she saw one, the blade would retract as it entered his mouth, then slowly return to normal as he took it out. The swords around his back hoofs seemed legitimate though, even if they were only there for show. "Wow! Wouldn't it be awesome to get a sword eating cutie mark?" said Scootaloo. "And look, he even has some swords just laying around." "Ah'm sure he won't mind if we just borrow a few of them to see if our special talent is sword swallowing." It was unanimous, the Cutie Mark Crusaders charged towards the stage with a sparkle of excitement in their eyes. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SWORD SWALLOWERS!!!" Before the Crusaders could even reach the stage they were all levitated in to the air magically by Trixie. "Not on your life!" Even though they were still held magically in the air, Trixie walked them over to the next attraction which was a very large earth pony who was juggling hay stacks. They seemed to have settled down so Trixie let them go. "Yes, come gawk at Hector The Amazing! Truly there is nopony in all of Equestria as strong as me!" Of course such a claim didn't sit well with Apple Bloom. "Hey! Nopony is stronger than mah big brother! Why I bet he could…" Apple Bloom was cut as Trixie covered her mouth with her hoof dragging her away from the stage. Once they were out of hearing range Trixie took her hoof off of Apple Bloom's mouth. "What'dja do that for Trixie, that yahoo aint stronger than mah big brother! Nopony is! Mah big brother…" "Apple Bloom! I know." "Huh? Then why'd ya take me away before…" "Listen, I know your big brother is stronger, you know your big brother is stronger. And in the end that's all that matters. Who cares if somepony thinks he's better than everypony else, he's just looking for somepony to challenge him. But that kind of thing isn't important to us and it isn't important to your brother, so it doesn't matter. Let the braggers brag, because in the end that's all they really have." Trixie paused with a confused look on her face, something about that sentence seemed off, and what it was that it came out of her mouth. "Did I say that? I guess I've changed more than I thought." "You're even talking in the third person less." "Come on, we'll round up your friends and then we'll go see the show in the big top." -- Trixie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting in the front row of the stands inside the big top tent, watching four slender earth ponies perform acrobatics. The mares seemed to be doing pretty good for themselves cart wheeling about. To enjoy themselves even more, Trixie had bought them all boxes of popcorn. The Crusaders smile got noticeably bigger when the acrobat ponies formed a pyramid and then switched to a tower. "We should try doing some of that when we get home." suggested Scootaloo. "Just so long as you have Applejack's supervision." said Trixie. As they watched a strange thought entered her head. Since she had come to Ponyville she had been shown up by not just Twilight Sparkle but two other ponies that weren't even unicorns. She loved her cutie mark, it meant she was special with magic and giving a show about it. But lately she hadn't been feeling so great and powerful, she felt like Trixie but not the Great and Powerful Trixie she had always bragged about on stage. And some small part of her seemed to tell her, that maybe that was okay. Big Macintosh didn't seem to give two bits about how amazing she claimed to be, all he wanted was for her to live a nice life. Perhaps that was why she liked him so much, he cared about her, and not her magic. Now that she thought about it, the majority ponies she had met before coming to Ponyville had only cared about what she could do with her magic. To be fair though, she was braggart about her magic, she accepted that truth now. But even that she had been doing less and less of, and that might have actually earned her some friends. Maybe just being the plain and regular Trixie was okay too. A small portly earth pony wearing a top hat came out in to the center ring. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, I am Wilbur Edsworth and this is the greatest show in Equestria!" The crowd cheered at his claim as Hector came in to the tent pulling some kind of cage covered by a tarp with three elephants assisting him. "Watch as our strong stallion, Hector The Amazing, lifts four ponies with one hoof!" The acrobat ponies cart wheeled over to the ring master and Hector, using a hoof spring to launch themselves in to the air. The first one landed on Hector's hoof with a one hoofed hoof stand, the other three quickly followed mimicking her by landing on her hind hoof. "Ah still say mah big brother is stronger." stated Apple Bloom. "Eeyup." Trixie agreed with lowered eyes. From her perspective nopony would ever be as amazing as Big Macintosh. In a way, he could be considered 'Great and Powerful'. "Still not impressed, you say?" The ringleader shouted to the audience. "Well then what would you say if I brought in the most deadly, ferocious beast that has ever been captured by pony kind?" "Oooh this is going to be good!" squealed Sweetie Bell. "Please don't be an Ursa. Please don't be an Ursa. Please don't be and Ursa. Please don't be an Ursa." chanted Trixie. Not that she would go out of her way to hate Ursa Majors/Minors, but Trixie had some strict bad luck with them. An Ursa would be perfect thing to trip her up just when things were starting to look good for her. "All the way from Frog Bottom Bog, I give you, the one, the only, HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYDRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Hector pulled off the tarp to reveal the multi-headed beast underneath, iron bars kept the beast inside despite it's constant battering against them with it's heads. The crowd seemed to be nervous about the monster instead of excited. Wilbur frowned at their reaction but put on a lax face. "Not to worry folks, he can't ever get out." he walked confidently over to the cage. "This cage was made by some of our finest workers. He literally cannot get out." He rested his hoof on it leaning against it confidently, the crowd seemed to calm down at this news. Then the bars fell out. Everypony, including the Hydra, remained silent with jaws dropped. Wilbur slowly turned back to the Hydra with a look of concern, the Hydra returned this look with all of it's heads staring down at him with evil grins. "Aw pony feathers." The crowd up roared in a blind panic as the monster started to rampage. "THIS WAY GIRLS!!!" Trixie screamed running down the stands. She heard a stumble and looked back to see Apple Bloom had slipped, her hind leg stuck between the bleachers. "Trixie!! Help!!" Every fiber of her being told her that she should just keep running and never stop, but deep down she knew that if she did do something like that she would never be able to look Big Macintosh in the face, or herself in the mirror. She ran back to Apple Bloom, much faster than she ever thought she could run, she used her magic to force open the bleachers and free Apple Bloom's leg. She levitated the Earth filly on to her back and ran once again catching up with Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo. "What about the Hydra?" "It's the circus' animal! Let them handle it!" Trixie snapped. Trixie only looked back once, and she regretted it. The Hydra had all of it's heads focused on them and was chasing after them with terrifying speed. They were getting close to the exit but a support beam from the tent cut off their path. It was too big to climb over so they tried to run around it but this just lead them trapped into a corner. Apple Bloom fell off of Trixie's back and started to huddle with her friends in fear. Trixie was frozen in terror, there was no place to run, no place to hide, this was it, she was going to die. Then she heard an odd sound which brought her out of her fear, it was coming from behind her. She looked back and saw Apple Bloom and her friends crying behind her huddled in fear. "It's gonna eat us!" cried Sweetie Bell. "Ah want mah big sister!" wept Apple Bloom. "I don't want to die before I get my cutie mark!" screamed Scootaloo. They Hydra seemed to chuckle at the Cutie Mark Crusader's terror. He was enjoying this, their fear, their terror. Trixie glared up at the giant multi-headed monster, he had just gone too far. Her fear was gone, replaced with moral outrage and determination. As Trixie stepped her trembling hooves forward, she earned the creature's entire attention as she stood between him and his next meal. "You think I'm afraid of you?! Of You?!" The Hydra roared with all of it's heads. "Do you know who I am?!" Trixie lit up her horn with it's usual color. "I'm the great and powerful Trixie." One of the Hydra's heads became covered in a magical glow which matched Trixie's horn. It yelped when it was magically swung and hit the other heads in a chain reaction, the other heads turned and glared at it. It offered a sheepish grin as an apology but Trixie's glow never left. A second layer of magic covered Trixie's horn as she lifted a long piece of rope into air and snapped it in to multiple pieces. The pieces flew over the Hydra's heads and tied themselves around the multiple mouths. Tried as they might they couldn't break the ropes. The head that was still glowing suddenly shot out and looped it's neck around the other three disorienting them. A third layer of magic covered Trixie's horn as the Hydra's tail was magically levitated in to the air and got tangled in the mess that the heads had become. As the monster started to lose it's balance a fourth layer of magic covered Trixie's horn, a long piece of the circus tent which was torn from the ruckus was magically levitated in to the air. The piece was straightened out in front of the Hydra's stumbling feet tripping it sending it hurdling forward. It flailed on the ground until it got stuck on it's back, then the circus tent piece wrapped itself around the Hydra's legs hog tying it. It struggled on the ground but it couldn't escape it's bindings, the circus workers started to close in on it slowly as the magical glows started to fade from Trixie's horn. "She beat it!" cheered Scootaloo. "She tied it up with her magic!" added Sweetie Bell "And she gave it an Apple Family twist!" beamed Apple Bloom. Trixie sighed in relief as she collapsed on the ground. The Cutie Mark Crusaders quickly got to helping her up. "I thought my horn was going to pop." "Trixie! You were amazing!" beamed Scootaloo. "Yeah! You're a real creature catcher!" cheered Apple Bloom. "You were…were…were…" Try as Sweetie Bell might, she couldn't quite find the right words that her other two friends hadn't already claimed. "Great and powerful?" finished Trixie. "Yeah!!" came their unified cheers. "Glad to hear it. Now what do you say you all help me back to the farm, the Great and Powerful Trixie is exhausted." The Cutie Mark Crusaders helped Trixie up and started on their way home, unaware that the ring master was watching them leave with a thoughtful look on his face. -- The news of Trixie's victory over the Hydra was well received when she and Apple Bloom got back to Sweet Apple Acres. "YOU WERE NEARLY EATEN BY A WHAT?!" screamed Applejack. Well sort of. "A Hydra!" squealed Apple Bloom as she hopped around excitedly inside the house. "But Trixie whooped it so bad it couldn't even tell which way was up." "She's exaggerating." stated Trixie. "But you did save her, right? Ah mean, it was you that did it?" asked Big Macintosh. Trixie became slightly flustered. "W-Well…yes. But…we were in a bind and…" seeing Big Macintosh smile at her didn't seem to be helping with her fluster. "I just wanted to help." "Trixie," called Applejack. She took her hat off in respect much to Trixie's surprise. "Ah know we've had our differences in the past, but from the bottom of mah heart Ah thank ye, for not just saving mah little sis but for also saving two other fillies that ye barely knew." "Well, we had no place left to run and…OOF!!" Trixie was cut off by a sharp jab to chest from Applejack. "But try to knock off any of that humble stuff around here, aint a good look for you." jabbed Applejack. "But yer alright in mah book, even if ya are a hoity toity show off." Trixie actually enjoyed Applejack's smack talk, things were starting to get a little too embarrassing. Applejack traded smirks with Trixie and then started to chase Apple Bloom up the stairs for her bedtime leaving her and Big Macintosh alone downstairs. "Thank you, Trixie." Trixie blushed. "Oh, I was just trying to help…" "No." Big Macintosh came closer to her. "Really Trixie, thank you. If it weren't for you, we'd all be short a family member." "I-I had to do something and..." "You did wonderful. Ah think bringing you to Sweet Apple Acres is the best thing Ah've ever done for mah family. Thank you." And then, he did something which paralyzed her, he leaned in and gave her an Eskimo kiss. Applejack frowned from the stair case as she watched Trixie spending time with her big brother but it quickly faltered. "Ah guess it's okay."