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// Prompt #569-Like A Phoenix 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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“Thank you all for coming and seeing the Great and Powerful Trixie!” called Trixie, as her show ended and the crowd began to disperse. A large portion of the crowd put a few bits into Trixie’s hat, which she had placed at the edge of the stage as her show had concluded. Sighing, Trixie moved back behind the curtain that served as her backdrop, took off her hat and cloak, and activated the spell on the cart that folded it back up again. She exited the wagon via the back door, and moved around to the front, where the harness was waiting, almost expectantly.

It was the work of a moment for Trixie to hook herself up, and shortly after, she was trotting out of the small hamlet, heading back to her hometown, and the completion of her tour of Equestria.

****

Trixie unhitched herself at the top of the hill, chocking the wagon’s wheels. Fillydelphia, her hometown, was splayed out below her. Taking a moment to breath in the air of her home, and gagging as she took in the air that had drifted from over the seaweed farms and processing, she rubbed a hoof along the outside of the wagon’s wall.

“Well,” she said, “Time to say goodbye.” And with that, Trixie poured as much power as she could into her horn, and shot a beam of pure magic at the wagon, blasting it to peices. She had already pulled everything important from the wagon, which was really just her cape, hat and bit pouch. Then, Trixie switched from brute force magic to more finessed tactics, and used levitation to keep pulling the wagon apart, eventually leaving it as little more than a pile of wood.

Screwing up her eyes in concentration, Trixie then performed the hardest spell she knew. A spark floated from her horn, and landed on the wood. It instantly caught on fire, and Trixie stayed and watched until the fire had died down, taking care that it didn’t burn anything else by accident. There was a small lake nearby, and Trixie levitated some water from it to make sure that the ash pile was not going to light up once more.

Once that was all done, Trixie began to trot down the hill and into Fillydelphia, heading straight for the carpenter’s where she had gotten her last wagon, the wagon before that, and the one before that. She was already planning her next show as she walked through the town.

‘Maybe a magical theatre? Trixie has not done that yet. But then the issue is what story to tell,’ thought Trixie, pushing open the door to the carpenter’s workshop.

“Trixie needs a new wagon!” she declared to the shop owner, and dumped her sack of bits on the counter.

“Right,” said the carpenter, “same arrangement as last time?”

Trixie nodded.

“You gotta preference for a layout this time?”

“Trixie is going to be doing a magical theatre this time, and her wagon should be appropriate for this.”

“Right,” drawled the carpenter, “I’ll get some plans drawn up.”

Trixie nodded, and headed out the door. She did this every time she finished a tour of Equestria-she headed home, destroyed her wagon, and had another one built before heading back out again, applying what she had learnt on the next round. The only thing that she ever kept constant was herself.