//------------------------------// // Episode 11 [Rainbow Dash]: Trixie proves herself // Story: The Daily Show presents: Equestrian Interviews // by Daily Show Ponies //------------------------------// In the short time that she's known him Trixie would never have categorized Jon as the serious type. For the most part she thought of him as just an eccentric human who just last night tried to get his daughter to squirt milk out her nose by using bread sticks as tusks while making walrus noises. However today was different, her perception of him had changed. After receiving news that he wouldn't get his desired guest he made plans to set off back to Equestria to ask her in person...Trixie had never seen a more determined looking Jon Stewart. Trixie watched as Jon went back and forth collecting various trinkets he would need for his soon-to-come trip to Equestria like his wallet, cell phone, and good shoes. After gathering all his belongings Jon whipped out his phone and began to dial. "Who are you calling?" Trixie asked in a demanding tone. "Celestia. She knows Fluttershy is refusing to come on but I'm sure she'll let me talk to her in person." Jon answered as he typed number after number. "You uh...you may want to leave the room for this, we wouldn't want her to find out you're hear somehow." Jon was about to press the dial button when the sight of a Trixie's pointy hat approaching him caught his attention. "Pony feathers!" Trixie yelled as she slapped Jon's phone out of his hand. For an animal that was half Jon's size she could hit surprisingly hard. "OW! What was that for?!" He asked as he rubbed hand. "When you begged me to stay here I only agreed so i could be your magic professor!" Trixie barked. "So if anypony is going to send you to Equestria it's going to be me!" Jon bent over to pick up his phone only to stop mid way to give Trixie a confused look. "You?" He said, standing back up. "You're going to send me there?" "Why of course!" Trixie said in a smug tone. "You don't need that stuffy old princess to help you when all you really need is somepony who is just as fluent in magic as her...somepony like me! THE GREAT AND--" "Wait I thought you said you didn't have enough power to get back home." Jon interrupted. "I mean you yourself said the only way you could get back would be if another pony did it for you." Trixie will still in mid pose when she got interrupted so she slowly lowered her head to look at Jon with narrowed eyes. She really didn't like being interrupted. Jon, in lieu of time, didn't want to start a staring contest that he would ultimately lose. He said his apologies and motioned for her to continue. "...Somepony like me! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!" She finished. Jon didn't comment right away on the off chance she wasn't finished. "Are you done yet?...good." He continued. "But my point remains, how are you going to send me to Equestria when you're not at full power." "For your information Stewart sending somepony to Equestria from this world is much less difficult then sending somepony to this world from Equestria." She explained. "The reason it to me three days, all my resources, and most of my power to teleport here is because I had never been to the human world before, so traversing here I was going in blind...but since I know Equestria very well sending you there will have much less stress on my body." Even for someone like Jon, who was still relatively new to the concept of magic, her explanation made a lot of sense. However the logic behind her reasoning caused Jon to recall why she was stuck here in the first place. "Wait so are you telling me you could have gone home anytime you wanted!" Jon asked as he pointed his arm in a random location hoping that Equestria was in that general direction. "Again you don't understand," Trixie retorted with a deep sigh. "The reason why I can't go back is because even thought I know the layout of my world very well I still don't have the energy to pull off the spell...you see teleporting somepony else is easy but teleporting yourself is much harder." Jon vaguely remembered Twilight saying the same thing the last time she was on his show. Though for the sake of clarity he still wanted an explanation. "Well...how does that work out anyway?" Jon asked. Trixie rolled her eyes and proceeded to walk around his desk, looking rather annoyed in the process. "I'll try to explain," she said. "But it might be hard for somepony like you to understand." "What's that supposed to mean?" Jon shot back. "It means since you don't use magic you might not understand the finer points." She answered. Even Jon had to admit that what she said made perfect sense. "Oh I...I guess you have a point." He said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well could you give it the ol' college try?" Not one to turn down a challenge Trixie obliged by using her magic to levitate a signed baseball off Jon's desk. "Alright...let's pretend that this is you," she explained. "Now watch." With a flick of her neck she tossed the ball across the room over to the nearby couch. "As you can see tossing the ball across the room is very effortless," she continued. Getting up from her spot she walked across the room to retrieve the baseball and placed it back on Jon's desk. "However having to physically bring myself across the room demands a little more energy and concentration...it might not seem like much but multiply that example by a factor of traveling through worlds and you'll probably get the idea." Jon tried his best to understand the Unicorn's lecture but his mind was preoccupied by the thought of being thrown in between worlds like a baseball...it was a mental image he wished he could forget. "Looook Trixie...I appreciate the offer but I think I'll just have Celestia do it," Jon said very delicately. "I mean...you're great but I think it would be in everyone's best interest if--" "Jon...please." Trixie said with gloomy eyes. "I know you don't think too highly of me but...I want to prove I can do this...I know I don't have that much magic in me at the moment but if you give me a chance I know I can do it! So please...give me a chance." Avoiding eye contact proved to be too difficult and soon he felt as if he was at the dinner table. Only instead of a canine begging for food scraps it was a Unicorn wanting to use her magic to transport him through different planes of existences. His initial response would have been a firm 'no' but doing so was a lot harder than he thought. So hard in fact that he buckled under and gave way to her begging. "Oh alright." He said, looking away to scratch his head. "I'll let you perform the spell...but if we're going to do this I'm going to need a change of clothes." And with that a happy looking Trixie quickly began to move some furniture around to get some room for her to prepare. Walking across the room Jon soon found himself at the very wardrobe that his son had previously used to hide. He opened it on both sides to reveal a wall of spare suites, pants, and ties that he had in case of any last minute usage. He was about to take this shirt off when he looked over at Trixie who was still busy. "Uh...do you mind?" Jon asked while using his head to motion towards the door. Trixie stopped for a brief moment to look at Jon. "Not at all," she answered indifferently. "Go right ahead." Missing the point entirely she continued to move the furnishing. Jon felt uncomfortable with changing in front of her but when it was apparent that she showed no interest in looking he began to remove articles of clothing as he changed into a more professional attire. "A thought occurs," he said as he pulled up his dress slacks and tucked in his shirt. "If you've never met Fluttershy before how are you doing to send me to her?" It was fair a question that Trixie hadn't considered, but not being the type to easily give up Trixie submitted a simple solution. "It's quite simple really," she answered. "First tell me what kind of pony she is...species wise I mean." Looking at Trixie through the mirror on the inside of the door Jon tried to recall by memory alone but could not. To fix this he walked over to his desk to look at his notes, multitasking at the same time by putting the finishing touches on his necktie. "Says here that she’s...a...Pegasus." Jon answered. "Huh, I guess she can fly." "If that's the case then she most likely lives in Cloudsdale." Trixie said. "Cloudsdale huh?" He retorted as he slipped on his sports jacket. "That's the place that filled with Pegasi huh?" "Correct. If this Fluttershy is anywhere she's bound to be there." Trixie said to a now fully dressed Jon. "So...what kind of place is this Cloudsdale anyway?" He asked as he looked for his good cufflinks. "Hmm I can't really say for certain," Trixie answered. "I've never been I only know where it is...to be honest I don't know much about it at all other than its location and that fact that it's a city in the clouds." "...A city in the clouds?" Jon repeated as he held on to his sleeve. "Ooooh please tell me their leader is someone called 'Lando Calrissian.'" Trixie glanced over to give him a curious look. She didn't get the reference. "Uuuh nevermind," he said as he continued to look around. "So...this place sounds rather nice. I bet the apartments have one hell of a skyline view...how come you've never been?" "Never had the chance...didn't even know it existed till it was too late,” she said. "I hail from a town far to the east, close to the coastal line so I'm not too familiar with the whole 'Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and Canterlot district." "I see," Jon said now in autopilot. "How interesting." Trixie noticed this and rolled her eyes. "Stewart!" She yelled, getting his full attention as she pointed to Jon's desk. "Left side...second drawer." Jon stood still for a second while Trixie continued to point at his desk. Slowly he walked over and checked that drawer that she had mentioned. Among other things like his checkbook and a loose collection of pens were a pair of shiny cuff links. "Ah!...uh thanks." He said. "Alright...are you ready Stewart? She asked. "As I'll ever be...so how exactly does this work anyway?" He asked. Trixie responded first by making her horn glow with light. "Basically a teleporation spell is very easy to cast but since we're going to be doing this through different worlds I'll need to stabilize a lot more energy than what is normally needed." She answered. "At this much power I could teleport you across the room...maybe even to the other side of the house. What we need is enough to send you to Equestria. So it's all about getting enough magic in my horn without it blowing up in my face." "And do you think you can do that...just handle that much magic at once?" Jon asked. "Oh please," she responded. "The Great and Powerful Trixie can do anything!...behold!" Her horn began to pulsate faster and faster as more magic began to build up at it's tip. Jon, going by experience, quickly covered his eyes before the eventual burst of magic could blind him. Not long after doing so however he heard a sound that resembled a device powering down. When he opened his eyes he saw Trixie rubbing her own horn with a look of discomfort on her face. "...What happened?" He asked with one eye open. "N-nothing!" She quickly responded. "The magic just discharged a bit...don't worry though that was just a practice run...here I go for real now!" Once again a large amount of magic began to build up and once again Jon closed his eyes. However what followed was the same pattern as before, the building up of magic that she could not control. She'd never admit it to Jon or herself but Trixie couldn't handle that much magic at once. "Uh...you ok?" He asked. "I mean I'll understand if--" "Stewart please!" Trixie shot back. "I'm just...I'm just not used to this kind of pressure...Trixie demands that you give me some room!" Jon took a step back and waited but once again the results were the same. A good 15 minutes passed and Trixie was still going through the same three steps over and over again. Build up magic, try to stabilize magic, have magic blow up in face. Wash, rinse, and repeat. To her credit she never gave up but the same could not be same for Jon who was now sitting in front of her with a copy of the day's newspaper in his hands...he was passing the time by trying to do the crossword. Again Trixie tried to harness the vast amount of magic and like before it didn't work. This time she didn't try it again right away but instead took some time to catch her breath. "Hey while I got you here can you help with this," he said. "Seven letter word going down. 'Mystical creature of many animals'...any ideas?" "SILENCE STEWART! I...I almost...had it" She said in between breaths. "Your professor...needs...absolute quiet!" "Sorry Obi Wan." Jon said as he got up to stretch his legs. "Please continue." Now having given up on his crossword Jon moved on to the Horoscope section to pass the time. He looked under Sagittarius which read; "An unwanted guest means to do you harm. Seek help from a close friend to undo the damage." Jon was about to suggest that they skip this idea and just call Celestia but he felt obligated to at least let her try a few more times. Although he didn't show it through his droll expression he actually wanted her to succeed. Proving that she was as magically competent as anyone else was a big deal for her and Jon knew the feeling. Once again Trixie tried to conjure forth the right amount of magic but this time she could barely make it past step two. Her frustration was very visible and in anger she slammed her hoof against the floor. "I can do this!" She said. "I...can do this!" She slowly began to charge her horn at a much slower pace than before. He wanted to spout some encouragement at her but he knew all to well that her pride would not allow her to accept it. Her type only responded to one thing and Jon knew exactly what to do. "You know Trixie I probably could have walked to Cloudsdale by now." He said in an arrogant tone. "S-shut up!" She said. "I'm going to do this, dammit!" "Yeah yeah sure you will," he continued, now in full heckle mode. "I mean hell you couldn't even finish your first semester at Magic College but I'm suuuure you'll get this right." "I'm...not listening." She said as the magic in her horn grew larger and larger. "You know for the record Twilight performed the same spell on me rather quickly when I went to go visit her." Jon said instantly grabbing her attention by the mere utterance of Twilight's name. "And she manage to get it right...on her first try." With eyes filled with rage Trixie let forth a scream of determination bringing with it a bright light. When Jon opened his eyes she saw Trixie in the middle of room, huffing in rhythm to the sound the massive amounts of stabilized magic emanating from her horn. "HA! Trixie told you she could do it!" She announced proudly. "Now prepare yourself Stewart, the time has come!" "Well alright! Let's get this show on the road!" He said with excitement as he lined himself in front of her. "Alright...just relax while I focus on sending to you Cloudsdale." Trixie said as she closed her eyes. While he waited he reflected on how Trixie manage to do what few ponies could ever do, sustaining the amount of magic needed to travel through worlds. He could feel a twang of pride inside not unlike how he felt when one of his children does well in school. He wanted to congratulate her properly but decided against it on the off chance it would break her concentration. "Get ready Stewart..." Trixie warned. Jon obliged and closed it eyes. But as he did a thought crosses his mind, it was something that he didn't think about till just then. "Hey wait a minute," he said as he opened his eyes. "If you're sending me there...then who's going to bring me ba--" Before Jon could finish his sentence the magic in her horn activated completely in a large burst of light, leaving only Trixie behind in the Study. Dropping to her knees Trixie focused on her breathing which was spastic and uneven, unaware that Jon was in even worse shape.