//------------------------------// // Performance Magic 101 // Story: Room Mares // by TJW //------------------------------// "Oh no... I'm shaking. I'd like to see you try Twilight Spark... errr I mean, Twinloyte Squakkle!" Twilight was already slowly backing to the doorway, maintaining solid eye contact with the twitchy unicorn, "when you least expect it Trixie... when you LEAST EXPECT IT..." Slamming the door on her way out. The force of the slam sent a strong tension down Trixie's spine. Trixie sat motionless, staring blankly at the door, mentally reviewing the recent events. As the stiffness in her back subsided, her thoughts became a lot clearer, could it be that her dominance over Twilight was truly as weak as she had just claimed? She scanned the area around her, noting the bountiful stock of possessions she had by her bed, before viewing the emptiness of Twilight's side. If the purple unicorn was indeed planning a revenge strategy, then perhaps blowing up all her luggage on the first day was not such a great move. After all, Trixie definitely couldn't afford to have her own belongings destroyed, what good is a performance magician without her tricks and equipment? No, Trixie's real reason for having done this to Twilight far outweighed any consequences it could bring; all she could do now was remain vigilant to any tricks that Twilight may pull, but above all she must never show any sign of weakness in front of her room mate, she knew she would have to always maintain her overconfident facade in order to attain true dominance. Having lost track of time, Trixie realised she now had only ten minutes to prepare her bag and make it to her first class, Performance Magic. This was an introductory lesson, in which every student would have to put on a short five minute show to demonstrate their skills, so Trixie carefully selected which of her items she'd need as she devised her performance, stuffed them into her wagon, then headed out. ---------------------------- The Performance Magic classroom' s layout was not as a standard lecture hall, but rather an open space focused in on a large stage, allowing more freedom for the students to practice their routines. For this lesson, a row of chairs were positioned for the students to sit while they waited for their turn, along with a main table for the two professors to lean on as they made notes on each performance. There weren't too many other students here; judging by the building's location, which was the furthest one from the college's primary admin building, it was clear to see that performance magic was not the most popular subject at the CCGU, in fact even for most of the students who were here, this was only their minor. One by one, each pony was called up to perfom, and with each one, more and more of Trixie's ego was refuelled, sniggering quietly as each student put on a rather substandard show, the low grade tricks were what one would expect from a foal's birthday clown. The first just spent five minutes attempting to mould some balloon animals, making it questionable how they even managed to get into the school in the first place. The second played a simple 'guess the card' game with the professors, successfully managing to select the right card on the 52nd attempt. The third was slightly more ambitious, after some preparation time, tried to be shot out of a cannon to land straight into a glass of water. Needless to say nothing went wrong with that. Once the penultimate performer had exited the stage, the dormant bodies of the professors, slumped over the table, once again reanimated as they rose up to stretch their stiff limbs. The hundred page notebook they brought to write about the routines had barely filled a third of a page for all eight of the nine students. The scolding hot burning from the coffee hitting their tongues as they gulped it down provided a stronger feeling for them than any of the shows did. "I can't take any more of this!" Whimpered professor Greenleaf, "the turd I left in the toilet this morning had more of a 'wow factor' than any of these ponies!" "Pull yourself together! We just have one more to go! Somepony called Trixie. Let's just get it out of the way and then we can go blaze one up in the library to help ease the pain!", Professor Sparkup rose from his chair to adress the audience, "Ok great... those performances were top notch! Now to finish us off, please could Trixie take the stage". "Well it's about time! But I guess you have to save the best until last!". Once everything had been set up, Trixie donned her hat and cape, ready to start. "For those who don't know, I am the great and powerful Trixie! With my selection of equipment, along with my extraordinary magical capabilities; I will put on a show, the likes you have never..." "Would you just bucking start already!" Screamed Greenleaf, "you're already a minute in and all you've done is kiss your own flank! I'm getting antsy over here!" "Very well..." Trixie flourished her cape and pulled her hat up to wipe a streaming drop of sweat from her brow, "Let the show begin!". Instantaneously, her horn illuminated, causing two fireworks to fire into the air, exploding just before hitting the ceiling and leaving a dazzling array of assorted sparks and colours, fully captivating the audience's attention. Using the element of misdirection for her advantage, Trixie propelled a number of smoke bombs towards the preoccupied ponies, creating an oblique cloud of smoke to temporarily blind them. Creeping through the smoke, Trixie now created the illusion of teleportation as she appeared behind the two professors. She removed her hat and pulled out a deck of cards, prompting Greenleaf to select one without showing her. There was no falsified overconfidence with Trixie here, she really was as good as she said she was and was working the audience like a dream. Once the card had been hidden by Greenleaf, she summoned a long twirl of ribbon over, which enveloped her entire body then transported her back to the stage while wrapped around her. Trixie's horn glowed brighter to unveil the climax; a final flurry of fireworks took to the air, erupting into a blanket of sparks that poured down over the show pony, who throw one solitary smoke bomb into the audience. A small burst of light cracked out the bomb, followed by a slow stream of magic which started to form a shape, the shape of the 6 of diamonds, Greenleaf's selected card. Trixie had well earned the standing ovation she was receiving from both the students and the professors. When it eventually died down, Sparkup was the first to verbalise his amazement, "young mare, that was incredible! With talent like that, you'll be working every show in Las Pegasus in no time!" Trixie nodded off this compliment, having expected it from the start. "Yes, that's what most ponies tell me" Sparkup continued, "All we need to see now is one final trick to close the performance, then you're well on your way to stardom," Trixie grinned, "That's easy, watch this" ............ "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BUCKING MIND?" whelped Greenleaf, "he's going to need hospitalisation now thanks to you!" "Trixie is not to blame here!" Protested the blue unicorn, "what did he expect would happen when he opened my 'Can O'Bombs' brand can of bombs?" "Why would a can of bombs even be part of your routine?" Just as Greenleaf asked this, the bell alerted for the end of period. Trixie was already starting to make her way out of the hall, "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR'E GOING TRIXIE? What are you going to do about this mess?" Trixie paused in the doorway, "That's not Trixie's problem now, see you next lesson." Then lazily strolled out of the hall. As Trixie made her way down the corridor, an ominous sounding voice echoed its way towards her, stopping her in her tracks, "that was a nice little trick you pulled back there". Trixie scanned around rapidly, from what she could see, she was the only one there, "who said that? Show yourself to Trixie!" The voice seemed to get closer, "you're a very talented pony, Trixie. I think the two of us would get along just fine, if you're willing to be friends." Trixie was unmoved, "why would Trixie want to be friends with the likes of you?" Finally the voice revealed itself, a pony stepped out of the shadows, she had a creamy orange coat with a fiery mane, "because from what I understand, you too have a distaste of a certain purple unicorn we know, albeit for a different reason than I do. My name is Sunset Shimmer". Trixie was confused but also intrigued, "oh really? What's your reason then?" Sunset knew she was starting to get through to Trixie, "Like her, I was also Celestia's personal student. I had a year under one on one tuition with the princess, my skills were growing and I was learning at a far accelerated pace. Up until SHE arrived. From that point onwards all of Celestia's attention was aimed at Twilight... and I was thrown aside. So I left the castle, trying to find my own education sources. That's why I'm here, in fact I'm really in two schools at the moment; the first school is this one, the CCGU and the other school is actually located in another univ... actually don't worry about the other one. The point is, Trixie, that our interests run parallel. I won't ask you your reasons for hating her, all I want to know is if you are willing to help me". Trixie thought it over, Sunset certainly made a good case, "well what did you have in mind then?" "She ruined the one thing that was special to me! So it's only fair that the favour is returned. I say we work together to ultimately destroy Twilight's education, ruining her time at college and therefore putting her through the same suffering as us!" "Trixie can do that just fine on her own!" Sunset was practically pleading at this point, "but together we can do more than 'just fine', we can really do some damage if we combine our efforts! I don't know what she did to you but don't you want to see her pay for it? The important thing is that we continue to act natural around her, if she catches on to us then she'll nark us out; we'll just wait for the opportunities to arise, then pounce on them. So... what do you say?" Trixie's trademark eery grin worked it's way across her face, much to Sunset's liking, "when do we start?".