"Trixie, I believe I've found your partner!" Twilight Sparkle declared confidently, Gold Star excitedly trotting behind her. "Meet Gold Star!"
"Where is he?" Trixie replied, puzzled.
"Right here" Twilight laughed, gently pushing Gold Star up to Trixie's front hooves.
Trixie leaped back. "A colt? You expect the great and powerful Trixie to enter alongside a pony who's barely five years old?"
"Um, seven" the young pony corrected quietly, all the excitement leaving him.
"Look, Trixie", Twilight said. "This young pony was crying on his own because he didn't have a partner. It would absolutely make his day - scratch that, make his life if you would just give him a chance."
Twilight should have known better than to use an emotional argument on Trixie.
"So you expect the great, powerful and magnificent Trixie to just team up with some random colt you discovered on the street? He's probably not even good at magic!"
Twilight winced at Gold Star's reaction. The little colt lowered his head and prepared to walk off. Twilight desperately argued with Trixie. "Alright, fine, look at it this way. This might be the only chance you have to enter the competition. And if he loves magic enough to enter, he's got to be alright at it, right?"
Trixie sighed and turned to face Gold Star, who she noticed had begun to tear up slightly. She didn't want to admit it, but she did feel a little hint of guilt. She quietly approached him again.
"Trixie... apologises", she forced herself to say, "and would like to be your partner."
Gold's face lit up and the young pony bounced in circles around Trixie!
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he squeaked, "I promise I'll do my absolute total fantasmical best!"
The colt stood still and saluted Trixie, smiling.
Maybe he's not so bad, Trixie thought to herself.
-✩-
The line moved forwards again and a pair of disappointed unicorns were seen stomping away from the far end of it. Trixie was undaunted, she looked completely ready to go - and Gold Star decided if Trixie was undaunted, he'd better be undaunted too. The colt smiled confidently and held his head high, mimicking his new mentor.
"I'm glad you're confident and all," Twilight interrupted the two of them, "but don't you think you should practice?"
"Nonsense! Trixie and her assistant - partner rather, are more than capable already!"
"Trixie, we've been through this before," Twilight continued as calmly as possible, "it doesn't matter how good you are, you have to practice something before you do it. Besides, you need to come up with an act, you know that with your occupation."
"Wait," Gold Star interjected, "you mean Trixie is a show pony?"
Gold Star's face lit up even more as he imagined how incredible Trixie's shows must be.
"Of course," Trixie said proudly, "Trixie is Equestria's best show pony and Princess Twilight's important royal student!"
"Now, listen, being my student doesn't make -" Twilight tried to say.
"OH MY GOSH! You mean I get to perform with a show pony who is also the student of the Element of Magic herself?" Gold Star squeaked.
"Uh, yeah, I guess", Twilight smiled.
"Oh my gosh oh my gosh, what are we going to do? There's so many amazing awesome tricks I could learn! Are we going to do a teleportation spell, or a firework spell - or an age spell?" The young colt looked up at Trixie starry-eyed.
"Trixie may do those things, your job is to hold the props." Trixie replied.
"Oh. You know I'm not too good at props and stuff. I'm a lot better at -"
"Nonsense, Trixie saw how confident you were, you'll do a great job. Now as Twilight said, let's go back to Ponyville and practice!"
Trixie thought she was being reassuring, but didn't notice the anxious look on Gold Star's face. Twilight Sparkle wanted to intervene, but she knew it would be better for both of them if they worked it out on their own. She just hoped they'd do it sooner rather than later.
-✩-
It was late at night by the time Trixie and Gold Star had made it back to the auditions, only a few ponies were still waiting - and they were the very last in line. The bright lights and cold, clear air added to the intense atmosphere.
Gold Star trembled and moved closer to Trixie's side.
"Is Trixie's assistant cold?"
"N-no. Just nervous."
"Don't be silly, no assistant of Trixie's should be nervous!"
The attempt to reassure Gold Star just made him feel worse. The young pony closed his eyes and tried to think about all the new spells he'd heard about recently. It didn't work.
"Uh, Miss Trixie Lulamoon and Mr Gold Star?" a voice finally called out.
The two of them made their way up to the stage, located in a large, open wooden room. They saw Twilight Sparkle on her own where the crowd used to be, and three quite tired-looking judges sitting at a bench.
"Alright," one of the judges said with a tired but pleasant smile, "could you tell us a bit about yourselves?"
Gold Star remained quiet, just hoping for the whole situation to be over, but Trixie was more than happy to speak up.
"I'm the great and powerful Trixie, and this is my assistant - ahem - partner, Gold Star."
"Great and powerful? Like the confidence! What do you do for a living?" the second judge asked.
"Trixie is a professional show pony in Ponyville, and Gold Star is a student I believe."
"Alright, always good to have a professional act. Well, let's see what you've got planned for us!"
Trixie naturally opened with fireworks and a monologue about how wonderful she was. Once that was over, she levitated a hat from off-stage and placed it in Gold Star's hooves. With one spell, she then caused Gold Star to disappear, then reappear inside the hat, which she of course pulled him out of.
In the crowd, Twilight watched on with a rather neutral expression. Trixie was usually much better than this. She knew they should've waited another day. The judges were similarly unimpressed.
Trixie paid no attention to the audience and continued - she began to lift up the stage curtains with her magic and pull them towards the judges - the curtains appeared to continue extending infinitely, changing colours every few metres and wrapping their way around the room. The coloured areas then began changing through all the colours of the rainbow, before catching on fire with coloured flames. This was more like Trixie! Oohs and aahs came from the judges, and Twilight clapped her hooves together in excitement.
Trixie smiled and with her magic she caused the curtains to burn back into their usual size, converting the flames into a firey blade of magic. She launched the blade at Gold Star, and just before it reached him it disintegrated, safely passing around him like water from a hose. More fireworks went off, Trixie and Gold Star bowed, and the crowd (a.k.a. Twilight Sparkle) went wild.
It seemed to all go well from Trixie's point of view, the audience liked it, she showed how amazing she was - but the tone of the judges' conversation didn't sound very positive. The judges finished discussing the act with each other and spoke up.
"Listen, Trixie, you did an incredible job, you're clearly skilled with magic - but this competition is about teamwork, I didn't see Gold Star do anything except stand there", the first judge told her.
"I agree," the second added, "a good performance, but not what we're looking for."
Gold Star grimaced. "I'm sorry Trixie," he whispered, "I-I did my best."
Trixie paid no attention, she just stood there in shock. She was going to be kicked out of the competition in the first round! This was impossible!
"Look," the third judge finally stated, "we still have one place to fill in, and it's either you or the weird jelly tub pony who's still lingering backstage. I'm not even sure he's a unicorn. The others are right that you shouldn't go through to the next round, but we don't have much choice, so consider this a warning. We loved your performance Trixie, but show us what Gold Star can do. We're looking for the best unicorns in Equestria, not the best unicorn, understand?"
"Yes", Trixie muttered in reply, completely taken aback by what just happened, "thankyou."
"Alright, best of luck in the next round", the first judge smiled, and with that Trixie and Gold Star walked down from the stage, both in shock.
Once they were out of the building, Twilight Sparkle gave them both a big, reassuring hug. The disaster that had just befallen them disappeared in an instant, and they happily hugged back.
As Trixie and Gold Star walked towards the train station, Twilight noticed Gold Star apologising and Trixie hugging him in response. Finally, she thought to herself she gets it.