//------------------------------//
// The Long And Winding Road 
// Story: Your Tricks of the Trade 
// by Lyrafan38 
//------------------------------//

	The sound of ponies hooves stomping the ground enthusiastically to show their approval of what has become known around town as either logic-defying acts or the greatest show to ever arise across Equestria, the looks of pure shock etched into their faces with either dazzling trick you perform each more mind-blowing than the last it seemed, the knowledge locked into their brains that you weren't just simply boasting your skills.
You didn't call yourself The Great and Powerful Trixie just for nothing. No, your magic prowess was a sight to behold to ponies of all ages and races. 
With a small smile and a slight twirl of your star-studded cape, you disappear in a thick cloud of smoke that almost caused you to cough and give away your secrets, but you managed to hold it in. With that you had finished yet another measly show for this town's inhabitants. You had lost count of how many of these time-wasting shows you had to perform on an almost daily basis. 
This is what you have been dragged down to. A magician-for-hire performing mere filly unicorn sleight of hoof tricks just to earn bits to survive. Surely, being the master magician you are should not have you performing just to get by. 
You were still haunted by that 'incident' you had with Twilight a while back. You had been claiming that you had beaten an Ursa Major that had come from the Everfree Forest, but this Ursa Major was being played by Snips and Snails. And when the true Ursa Major came around, you had no experience in beating one, thus turning your brag in a big lie you were caught in. 
It didn't help your case that Twilight vanquished the creature back to its home place. 
You were supposed to have easily crushed her with your own magic prowess and prove to her that you were not just some pony who claimed that they were merely boasting about her skills. No, you were a being far greater than that definition. You knew magic skills that would make Twilight wish she had never heard of your name before in her life.
You weren't sure how, but somehow you had your flank handed to you and sent to run off with your tail tucked in between your legs. The humiliator, in a cruel twist of fate, became the humiliated. 
You swore by Luna's name that someday that life-ruining pony would get what she deserved. And you would be the pony to deliver your own form of justice to her. You became focused to beat Twilight at her own game, the field of magic. 
You landed with a small Thud! on the floor of your caravan, sending a few pieces of paper flying up and falling down in an attempt of creating an unintentional snowstorm. You never really got around to cleaning the mess of papers in your caravan, and even if you did, you'd have no place to store it. If there's one thing caravans provided, it was a place to store your trash. At least your one didn't.
Let's see.... you thought to yourself. Where is my next show going to be?
You used your magic to pull up a map of Equestria amongst your paper floor. Unlike the rest of it, you always made sure to keep the map in perfect rolled up form, only needing it whenever you did. You used your magic to unfurl the parchment as you traced a hoof along the map to track where you had been.
Let's see.....I've done Manehatten....Trottingham.....Dodge Junction......Appleloosa.....where haven't I enhanced my magic knowledge...? you thought to yourself, mentally crossing out the places with a small swipe of your hoof. You proceeded to examine the map for the next couple of minutes to locate the next city that felt it needed your presence, grace, charm, and magical showponyship. 
You grabbed a quill and began to jot down the places you already performed in an attempt to verify your theory that you had performed pretty much everywhere across Equestria. 
Half an hour later, and many many checks from map to parchment and back to map and so on and so forth, you had pretty much crossed out every city that populated this world. All except for one.
You marked this city with a red circle and a quickly written hoof writing note than said something about Twilight.....resentment.....revenge...... and possibly other things. Truth be told, you're not even sure why you attempted hoof writing when unicorns like yourself could just simply write with their magic. Perhaps it had to do with your quick escape from that town that caused you to write such a sloppy issue about THIS town.
This accursed Ponyville.
The place from Tartarus where you experienced your fall from grace, the place that forcefully shoved you to your magician-for-hire show pony life you're currently experiencing, the place where your greatest nemesis takes up residency, the place where you foolishly driven away from without anypony reaching out to try to help you as you hurriedly packed your belongings in your caravan and fled like your mane, tail, and hooves were on fire.
Yep, that Ponyville.
Taking another look at the map, you judged that it would take roughly a week or two to get back to that place, assuming your rations were still in fair supply. At least you hoped they were. Going shopping wasn't necessarily one of your strong points. Even if you bought saddlebags full of groceries, you most likely either spill them all, ruin them in your "wonderful" attempt at cooking (you gave it your all but still it all ended up being burned to an unrecognizable black crisp; one time you tried cooking a simple daffodil sandwich and ended up setting off an alarm at the nearest fire station a few miles away), or forget about them entirely and letting the horrendous smell fill your caravan and make you think Celestia had sentenced you to death via food smell poisioning.
Yep, this was going to be a rather interesting trip to reclaim your title, to say the least.
On the other hoof, you assumed it was. That place from Tartarus had probably changed since you were last there, but you wholeheartedly believed that its entire population hated you from the bottom of their souls and wouldn't allow you to even take a hoof step into the small village. 
You sighed as you realized that during your exile from Ponyville, Twilight had probably enhanced her magic learning capabilities as well. Heck, she could be even stronger than you by this point, and that was saying a lot. The fear of Twilight magically overpowering you sent a small chill through your spine. You began to wonder what she would do to you if she won. Most likely attempt to banish you the moon.
Yep, this was going to be an interesting trip. You begin packing up your stuff yet again and begin the long and most likely tiring journey to the place were you lost all your showponyship. 
However, you knew you would beat Twilight this time. There was no doubt about that.