“My baby!”
Brilliant Light was a normal mare, who knew and was known by most in Ponyville. She was a lifer, born and raised and wed in Ponyville, and likely to die there as well. At times, when she was given to self-reflection, she would admit to herself that her life was a little bit boring, and would resolve to do something to spice it up.
Seeing the stroller she had been toting her newborn filly around in suddenly take off on its own was not the sort of interesting she wanted. With dawning horror, she watched as the stroller picked up speed, making its way down to the bottom of a hill. Already she could see the future in her mind’s eye, where the stroller would curve up slightly as the hill terminated in a cliff, hurtling through the air before splattering over the ground. “Somepony, please help!” She pleaded to the skies above, praying to Celestia, to Cadance, even to the newly-returned Princess Luna. For once she cursed her inborn Earth pony strength, incapable of averting this situation.
Just as it left the cliff face, the stroller turned from white to magenta, and Brilliant Light blinked. The mare, nearly catatonic with hopelessness, found herself staggering forward to get a better view. It took her a few seconds to comprehend that the stroller had stopped moving forward, its velocity halted completely and stuck in mid-air. It took Brilliant Light a few more seconds to realise the reason for the stroller’s change in colour was because it was enveloped in a magical glow, one that was just now setting the stroller to the flatter ground down below. Blinking again through eyes flushed with tears of despair, she observed in a near-detached state the stroller finally touching steady earth again, not even upturning a particle of dust with its smooth landing.
“Is this your filly, miss?”
She looked down across from where the stroller had landed to the source of the voice, and immediately stuttered out a “Y-yes.” Not satisfied with that answer, she quickly galloped across the upper slopes of Ponyville, before turning at a sharp right angle and down the route she had initially intended to walk her daughter along, a dirt trail that dropped at a far gentler angle than that horrendous cliff did.
In what felt like no time at all, buoyed by the epinephrine that coursed through her body, she found herself in front of the stroller again. Picking up her foal from the stroller to squeeze her, reassuring her own self that her own flesh and blood was safe, she finally looked up to her unknown saviour, toting a large wooden carriage. “You saved my filly! Oh, how could I ever repay you?” Brilliant Light asked, the tears beginning to dry up on her fur.
“Bless you,” The stallion responded, a handkerchief floating out of his pocket hovering over and dabbing at her cheeks, soaking up the stray tears. “It was nothing. Any other pony would have done the same thing if he or she had magic. Although,” He paused, hesitant, “Perhaps you could point out wherever Ponyville’s central open air is? Its plaza, centre, square, whatever.”
“Just continue down the road,” Brilliant stated, motioning to the path the stallion had been trotting along before he caught her child. Now that she was up much closer, she had to note he did look rather handsome, though dirt from the road coated him in light sprinkles. Tall without quite approaching the height of some of the farmer ponies around Ponyville, well-defined muscle shone through his blue fur, no doubt an effect of pulling the large wagon he was currently wearing the harness for. A tousle of light blue hair bordering on white was combed back, with a wicked cowlick in front that curled skywards. Brilliant owed him her gratitude; answering such an innocent question was the least she could do. Still, she was curious, “Er, what are you planning on doing there?”
He grinned, showing off his pearly whites. “First, I intend to clean up. Then, the Great and Powerful Tristan will put on a show this town has never seen before, and Tristan would welcome you as his guest!”
Somewhere else in Ponyville, a unicorn was practising her magic with the dragon whelp she considered her foster brother. After he daydreamed a fantasy aloud about the mustache she had temporarily conjured upon his face, she giggled, “Sorry Romeo. As attractive and enticing as you look, it’s just for practice, and it’s gotta go!” Her horn glowing a pale pink, Twilight Sparkle dematerialised the mustache off the dragon Spike’s lip.
“Wait!” Spike cried, feeling for his mustache, only to find it gone. “Aw, rats,” He said, shaking his fist.
“A mustache isn’t going to make it or break it for Rarity, Spike,” Twilight teased him. “But I’m feeling a little hungry now. How about you and I go get something to eat?” She asked. As she saw Spike open his mouth, she headed him off over the question she was ninety percent certain he would ask, “Yes, I’ll bring a few gems along for you to snack on.”
Spike pumped a clenched claw in the air, bouncing with a wild hop down the stairs, “Alright!” He said. Twilight couldn’t help but feel her day enriched by his enthusiasm.
The two made their way outside, the younger whelp sitting astride the older pony as Twilight trotted along, brother and sister exchanging idle banter on Twilight’s magical studies. Twilight closed her eyes for a brief second. Sighing, she felt lazy. Moving to Ponyville was an acceptable change in her pace of life. It was slower than Canterlot, but making new friends who always seemed to get into antics kept her busy nonetheless.
Still, if there was one thing that was missing, it was the feeling of competition. In Canterlot, Twilight was the absolute best of her age class. As Celestia's student, it was only natural, but she kept it that way through intense study, constant practice and no small amount of drop-ins on university-level lectures. Here, the closest she had to anything approaching 'competition' were unicorns specialised in one talent. It took her intense amounts of mental concentration to come close to levitating the amount of objects Rarity seemed to float around unconsciously. She would never be as talented with a musical instrument as Lyra Heartstrings was, and oh boy was that a familiar face she had to stop avoiding some day. But on the level, there simply was no comparison between her and these 'backwater' unicorns, as more than a few of the snobbier types in Canterlot liked to call them.
Twilight shook her head, trying to rid herself of her ennui. She closed her eyes again, intent on basking in the rays beating down on her, not a cloud in the sky to obscure Celestia’s sun.
At least, that was her intent, until she got run over by what felt like the unholy love child of a Yak and a Minotaur on steroids.
“W-what the?” Twilight cried aloud, body stinging from the grass burns she had incurred on sliding across the ground, fumbling with her hooves for land and finding herself wanting. As the world stopped spinning and her vertigo cleared up, she blinked away the tears that were welling up, before looking over to the side. She was unamused.
“Sorry Miss Twilight!”
“S’ry.”
“We’re really, truly, honestly contrite, Miss Twilight.”
Two fillies looked over at the third, before looking at each other. “There she goes again, using big words,” Said one of the two, an orange pegasus.
“Girls.”
The other filly, an Earth pony with fur the colour of hay bales and a mane of deep red giggled, “Mah big sister says Mac is a walkin’ mathermatics book. Maybe Sweetie Belle is a walkin’ dictionary?”
“Girls.”
“Hey!” Shouted Sweetie Belle, the trio’s third member, a white-furred unicorn with a dichromatic mane of pink and purple. Her indignation was obvious by the way her face puffed up, triggering a fresh burst of laughter from the other two fillies. “Hey, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, stop it, please, seriously!” Just as fast, her face lost its puffiness, as she looked about ready to burst into tears.
“GIRLS!”
The three fillies, collectively known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, hutted to attention. “Wh-what is it, Miss Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked, trembling at the sudden loud noise. That Twilight, just now pulling herself up, had green marks along one side where she had scuffed the grass, didn’t help to calm Apple Bloom down.
Twilight took a deep breath, then exhaled, able to feel her torso decrease in size as her lungs contracted. Taking a brief second to survey her surroundings, relief at seeing Spike also standing, shrugging as he saw her spot him to indicate his being unharmed, she spoke to the three fillies, “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, please watch where you’re going next time. You knocked me over! What if it had been somepony on a ladder, or somepony carrying something a lot more fragile than Spike on her back?”
She was satisfied to see her scolding had indeed left the Crusaders ‘contrite’ as Sweetie Belle put it, the three nervously shuffling under her iron stare. Outside of Apple Bloom, who Twilight had met briefly on her first day in Ponyville and assisted her with some Cutie Mark anxiety, Twilight barely knew them. Sweetie Belle she only vaguely knew through association as Rarity’s kid sister, and Scootaloo even less than that. Twilight would have fretted if they had ignored her, not feeling comfortable enough to bring the issue up with Applejack, Rarity and whoever Scootaloo’s guardian figure was.
A sudden thought brought Twilight out of her worrying, and she resolved to use it as a lesson for the three younger ponies. “What was so important anyways that you were running like a flock of goats?”
“It’s amazing, Miss Twilight,” Apple Bloom said in what Twilight thought to be an adorable country twang, “Somepony new came into town, and now he’s puttin’ on a show in the square!”
“A…show?” Twilight asked, her thoughts about teaching them a lesson thrown to the wayside. “You know what, show me.” If this was anything like some of the Sheepspeare plays she had seen as a younger mare, this should be good.
“Come one, come all! Come and witness the magic of the Great and Powerful Tristan!”
One wall of the wagon burst outwards, slamming into the ground as several props unfurled to create a stage, complete with curtain and a large sign showing a wand overlaid a crescent moon. Moving her eyes to the stallion on-stage, Twilight noted the overhead sign appeared to be his Cutie Mark, writ large. She had since cleaned up her grass-stained coat with a quick application of magic, and accompanied the Cutie Mark Crusaders to the town square where this mysterious pony had appeared.
“Watch and be inspired by the spectacular and awe-inspiring feats of the Great and Powerful Tristan, as he performs the greatest magic ever seen by pony eyes!” The stallion who was announcing punctuated his declaration with several miniature fireworks, the exploding cacophony of light and sound eliciting a chorus of delighted gasps from the foals among the audience and even some of the adults.
It wasn’t what Twilight had expected at all coming in to the show, sidling in by her friends Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack, who also had shown up. As Twilight herself had come in with her cohort, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had split apart, each trying to get the attention of one of Twilight’s three friends, though Rainbow Dash paid little attention to Scootaloo. Twilight had expected something like a play, perhaps even a one-pony vaudeville act. Instead, this stallion, Tristan as he referred to himself, was putting on a magic show. Tristan certainly looked the part, with a purple hat and cape that glittered with stitched stars of various shapes, sizes and colours, and a white cravat around his neck. He was being a little redundant in his phrasing too, she noted. Then again, what better way to get his name across than to speak in the third-pony?
Taking a brief bow with one limb crossed over his chest and one splayed out to the side, Tristan, who appeared to have made an art form of standing on his back hooves, waited until the audience applause died down before continuing, “Now, let Tristan show his first magnificent and extraordinary act for the audience!”
“Oh my, what boasting,” Rarity commented, before fluttering her eyes, “Although he does look quite good on the eyes, rather like your brother Applejack.”
“Hooves off mah brother Rarity,” Applejack growled, all while keeping her eyes focused straight forward. The orange-furred apple farmer admitted she found herself a little bit taken by the stallion’s magnetic presence, personality aside, and his sleight of hoof as he made a dozen doves appear from his hat was impressive. However, in the short time she had known Twilight, she knew the Canterlot expat could learn to do the same if not better if she so put her mind to it. “Ah’m surprised you’re here, Twilight. Ah thought you’d be disinterested in this, y’know, knowing real magic an’ all.”
“Yeah, nopony’s as magical as Twilight is!” Spike piped up in praise of his sister. Unknown to him, one blue-furred stallion perked up at the words, even as three of him appeared on stage. Smirking, the three started to juggle multiple variant objects, a bowling pin thrown from the hoof of one stallion caught by the middle Tristan, whom himself had thrown an orange and tennis ball to the left of the three doppelgangers. That final Tristan caught them, in turn returning the objects he had to the first Tristan, the three completing a large, continuous loop. He willed his heartbeat to stay steady as the crowd applauded in mad wonder, letting trained instinct take over. Something like this usually shut up the hecklers.
“But I thought you liked Rumble’s brother, right Rarity? I heard you talk him about the other da-” Sweetie Belle looked up from where she had sat herself in front of her sister, only to have a hoof plugging her mouth up. Rarity had hissed in a way that closely resembled the manners of her pet cat Opal, the image complete by her raised hackles and narrowed pupils. Rarity was quite capable of passing along threats through eyes alone, and Sweetie Belle let the topic drop.
“It’s not just magic, Applejack,” Twilight explained, missing the conversation between the two unicorn sisters to the side. She raised her eyebrows in amazement as the middle Tristan suddenly did a backflip on stage, all while seamlessly catching and passing on the objects he was juggling. “It takes physical talent, hand-eye coordination, acrobatic practice and intense mental training to pull something off like that. It would take me years to approach something like what he’s doing.” Then again, Twilight was uncertain how much of what the showpony was doing was physical, and how much of it was magical. Those fireworks earlier certainly hadn’t been set-off from physical explosives. She supposed with the cost of real fireworks, however, any competent unicorn would use the magical type instead. There was no danger from handling magical fireworks, either.
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash commented, lightly beating wings keeping her a few hoof-lengths above the ground. “I bet if it was between you and him, you’d mop the floor with him. Besides, what need do you have for a talent show when you have me around?” Rainbow Dash had many qualities, but tact was not one of them. Being able to pick up on the subtle cues in the ensuing silence after some of the things she said, however, certainly was. “What?” She asked with a frown on her face.
“Well, I suppose we’re certainly covered for bragging with Rainbow Dash,” Rarity commented. As an aspiring high-class lady, Rarity normally wouldn’t have said such a thing, etiquette demanding otherwise. However, she knew her friend Applejack all too well, and decided heading the farmpony off before Applejack said something more blunt and wisecracking was the better option.
“Yeah, and ah bet he wouldn’t last more t’an a few minutes in a rodeo, or even applebuckin’ on the farm” Applejack said, finding something else to talk about.
“Th-there’s nothing wrong with being talented, right?” Twilight asked, fidgeting at how the conversation had suddenly taken a turn.
“Oh, not at all,” Rarity said, before her tone turned acidic, “Except when one hogs the attention with loud noises and bright lights and flamboyancy like him. Just because this Tristan can do what he does doesn’t make him better than all the rest of us. Great and Powerful indeed!”
The pony on stage had had enough, as the commentary from the mares in front had slowly risen both in volume and intensity. Several of the ponies and even a donkey watching had begun to pay more attention to their chatter than to him. Three foals sitting in front had been turning their head every which way instead of looking straight forward. With a quick flash of light, two of the Tristans disappeared, the third catching all of the objects in the air. “My, my, it would appear that we have some neigh-sayers in this audience,” Tristan commented, listening closely to the crowd as he put his juggling balls away.
Only one pony groaned, and he knew exactly what he was going to do. In a small-town crowd like this, typically only the well-educated would groan like that, and in the case of Ponyville it was a demure, dainty purple unicorn on the front who commanded his attention. He would see if he could make her flinch and eliminate possibly the only true threat to his posturing, then move on to the other three annoying mares.
“Who is so ignorant as to challenge the ability of the Great and Powerful Tristan? Do you not know that you are in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all Equestria?” He asked, letting out a dignified snort at the end. For his efforts, he watched the front line, as the three ponies that had been slandering him piped up indignantly. More importantly, a little dragon of all things also attempted to speak, only to get shushed by the same purple unicorn he had been eying earlier.
“Heh, Mr. ‘Great and Powerful’ Tristan, what makes you think you’re tough stuff anyways?” Said one of the three rabble-rousers, a blue-furred pegasus lazily floating in the air. As if she was honestly attempting to intimidate him, she swooped in close to him, blocking out his vision of the crowd, and vice-versa. Well, that settled things. He would attempt his last trump card. If that failed, he would have to move to a less-favoured method to shut the hecklers up.
“Heh heh,” Tristan chuckled, “Why, only the Great and Powerful Tristan, alone among ponies outside of our esteemed princesses, can lay claim to having vanquished the dreaded Ursa Major!” Standing up on his rear hooves to establish an even greater height advantage over the ponies sitting on the grass, with the side effect of causing the pegasus to fly back before she got knocked over, he focused his magic. With a flick of his hoof for a sense of showmanship, coordinated with the actual casting from his horn, a blue outline of a large bear appeared. A genuine feeling of joy seized Tristan at the wonderful faces of awe on the fillies and colts who had started paying attention again, but he moved past it and completed the light show, creating a miniature version of himself.
“In the town of Hoofington on the opposite end of the Everfree, an Ursa Major stumbled into town. When all hoped looked lost, the Great and Powerful Tristan stepped in, and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!” Tristan rattled off the words with a great confidence, as the miniature-Tristan cast its wand, sending sparks flying out. Pelting the Ursa, the star bear turned around, fleeing the mini-unicorn.
“Wow! That’s so cool,” Sweetie Belle said below, her two fellow fillies in mischief and mayhem nodding in agreement.
“Yah, all ah’ve ever seen was Timberwolves, and they scare me bad,” Apple Bloom added.
“Big deal, how do you know that?” Spike chimed in, already fed-up with the way the show had devolved from magic and acrobatics to straight-up bragging. “It would’ve been big news if it happened, and besides, I bet Twilight-“ He attempted to continue talking, but found himself the recipient of a hoof to the mouth, much like Sweetie Belle had earlier.
“Spike, quiet, please!” Twilight pleaded.
“It’s true, my little ponies!” Tristan exclaimed, settling back down on all four hooves, satisfied at how he was once again playing the crowd. If there were three things Tristan thought himself to be well-possessed in, it was his talent in magic, his talent on the stage, and his charisma. Even the three troublesome ponies in front had shut up for the moment, perhaps sensing they would draw the audience’s ire if they interrupted now. “Tristan truly is the greatest equine to ever live, aside from our esteemed Princesses!” He added the last little bit in a quick, quiet aside. With that declaration, rearing up on his back hooves for a brief few seconds again, Tristan set off a fresh burst of fireworks, several of the stage props spinning or glittering in turn.
“I can’t take this anymore! Please, Twilight, please!” Spike was just about sobbing, laying himself at Twilight’s hooves as he begged her. “Just shut him up!”
“No, Spike,” Twilight whispered, even as she found herself being turned off along with much of the rest of the crowd at the overt boasting now occurring on stage. “Don’t you see how everypony else is reacting to him? I don’t want them looking at me like that!”
Tristan continued, well aware of the sudden shift in the audience, but more than willing to continue until the hecklers were all subdued, “Don’t believe me? Then I challenge any and all of you! Anything you can do, Tristan can do better. Will it be you?” He asked, pushing attention to a pale blue Earth pony, who flinched back, cowering under the sudden spotlight. “Or perhaps, it’ll be you?” He whipped his neck around, hyper focused on the purple unicorn whom he suspected might be trouble.
She gulped, taking a hoofstep back.
“Well, little hayseed?” Wiggling his eyebrows, Tristan kept on egging her, attempting to push her to a breaking point.
“Hmph! I suppose it would be remiss of me to allow you to bully dear Twilight,” The white unicorn who had made one third of the annoying girls from earlier announced, stepping forward and hopping onto stage. With a disgruntled whinny, Tristan turned to face her. “Very well darling, I accept your challenge.”
“Say your name for the crowd please, dear,” Tristan said in what was more a command than a request. He smiled, exposing his teeth in a grin he knew would capture the hearts of the more fickle mares in the audience. “I’m certain you already know Tristan’s name, of course.”
“Of course, darling. Rarity would never think of not introducing herself,” Rarity said, adding a dollop of sarcasm to the word ‘never’ in addition to mocking his use of the third-pony form. “You may think you’re great and powerful with your magic, but there’s more to magic than little tricks and illusions. You also need elegance, dear! Hmm, give Rarity a moment here...Ah, your curtain shall do!”
Tristan wrinkled his snout as Rarity used her magic to tear one of his stage curtains off, silently adding a few bits to the costs he would need to recoup from today’s performance. As the curtain floated over to her form, Rarity cast another spell, and in a quick blur of shape-forming magic, the purple curtain had turned into a form-fitting dress, with a gold inlay Tristan wasn’t quite certain where it had come from. In the process, she had also given herself a coiffure that reminded Tristan unpleasantly of some snobbish aristocrats. “Top that, darling!” Rarity dared him.
“With pleasure,” He smirked in turn. Floating his hat off to expose his horn, he mulled his options for a few seconds. His first instinct was to give her hair a most garish colour, an instinct he firmly squashed down on. A pest she may be, but she was still a lady. In this case, subverting her would be a sure crowd-pleaser. “With pleasure,” He echoed himself, and a beam of magic leapt from his horn, striking the other unicorn head-on.
The crowd gasped.
“What happened?” Rarity demanded, twirling around to face the other ponies, the audible chorus too obvious for her to ignore. Her sensitivity to magic was dead, having sensed no internal changes, which only could mean…It was with a start that she realised hair was partially covering one eye, getting an inkling as to what precisely Tristan had done. ”A mirror! Somepony get me a mirror! What did he do? What did he do?!”
“It’s-it’s,” Applejack found herself stuttering.
“It’s, um…” Rainbow Dash trailed off, holding a hoof in front of her face to hide her expression.
“It’s beautiful,” Spike sighed, and Rarity could have sworn she saw hearts in the lovesick dragon’s eyes.
“Indeed, the Great and Powerful Tristan is more than capable of style,” Tristan bragged as he conjured a mirror, bringing it up in front of Rarity, who found herself breathless. Rarity normally kept the hair on her head well-combed, one half drooping sideways over her head, the other going back and around to the opposite side, both halves ending with distinctive curls. It was, to Rarity, elegant and high-class.
Her new hair style wasn’t. Gone were the curls. Instead, her hair had been straightened out, with most of it coming down the back of her head, looping around one shoulder to rest below her neck. A small tousle dangled in front, covering the left side of her head and a little bit of her eye. It was simple practicality at its finest. It also made her look…cute, that was the word.
Rarity never particularly liked looking cute, but she felt her cheeks reddening all the same at the adulations of the crowd, the lovesick dragon most obvious of all. Detecting quiet gushing even from the more silent ponies, Rarity decided she could make an exception here.
“Is Tristan not a sharp eye at bringing out the beauty of a fine mare such as you with even the simplest hair style?”
Yes, even with that attitude.
“It looks lovely,” Rarity replied, only somewhat gritting her teeth at the admission as she hopped off the stage in as graceful a manner as possible.
“Consarnit Rarity, how could ya? Now yer gonna give him a bigger blown-up head than he already got,” Applejack said, sighing as she saw only part of it got through her friend, currently doing a quick twirl, drawing a few ‘ah’s from others. “Guess I’m the one to show that braggart who's the top pony around here,” She said, climbing onto the stage to face off.
“And you are?” Tristan asked, having pulled a file out of somewhere to smooth away his hoof. Applejack wanted nothing more in that moment than to wipe the condescending smirk off his face.
“Ah’m Applejack,” She said, playing up her country accent. In a town mostly composed of Earth ponies, if Applejack could get him to make a comment about it, she would turn the crowd against Tristan in an instant. “And ah bet yer fanshy-panshy magic cannut do this.” Getting a rope tied to her tail, with the other end tied into a large open knot, she spun it around several times, performing a few hoop-jumps through it, before sending the knot end at a nearby tree, snagging an apple.
Pulling the rope back with a jerk, she freed the apple from the tree’s nefarious grasp, causing the apple to fall well away from the tree into her waiting mouth, chomping the fruit to pieces within seconds. Letting out a light burp, she turned to face Tristan and said, “Top that mistah.” The loud applause of the crowd for a pony from the hometown team made her blood hot with passion.
Tristan just rolled his eyes as he put his hoof file away, “Oh, ye of little talent. Allow the Great and Powerful Tristan to show what you can really do with a rope.” Levitating the rope with his magic, he untied the knot, then tied the two ends of the rope together to form one continuous circle with a tiny knot. Standing up again, he grabbed hold of the large rope on two ends, then pulled the rope taut against his neck, just above his white cravat. “Everypony can see this rope, correct?” He asked, “You can see how if I pulled it any tighter, it could potentially choke me?”
A chill settled into the crowd. What was this stallion doing all of a sudden? Was he secretly a madpony?
“Watch!” Tristan exclaimed, his voice becoming cracked as he began to gurgle, “N-now you see it, and now-“ And suddenly, he took a deep breath, the rope no longer choking him. It took a few seconds for even the quickest-witted to notice, but when they did several of the foals were quick to lightly cheer. The rope had somehow gone through his neck, and it was now on the back side of his throat.
Twilight Sparkle blinked, suddenly enraptured again. That had to have been a sleight of hoof technique, but whatever he did had been so quick she hadn’t spotted it.
“Or perhaps this?” Tristan asked as he brought the rope from around his neck, sitting down on his haunches, no longer putting all his weight on one pair of hooves. Quickly unknotting the rope, he grasped the ends of the rope in one hoof, then held up a looped section of the rope in the other hoof. “Now watch, as I cut this rope in half,” He stated, and with a precise application of magic, the loop was cut in half.
“Hey! That’s mah rope!” Applejack protested.
“You didn’t see me complaining when your friend used my curtain, now did you?” Tristan retorted, eliciting a blush from Rarity down below as her faux pas was brought up. “Watch closely, one of little faith, as Tristan demonstrates his greatness and restores this rope,” He continued, letting sections of the cut rope free to show two ends above his hoof and two below. While continuing to hide part of the rope from the audience, he used his other hoof to tie the two top ends together, before finally showing the rope in its entirety.
“You tied it into a knot,” Applejack deadpanned.
“Yes, a knot,” Tristan agreed, before moving the knot all the way to one end of the rope, and then undoing the knot to reveal a whole, uncut rope. “And now, no knot.”
“Wha-how the?” Applejack’s eyes were wide in surprise, and the crowed let out a larger chorus of ‘oh’s this time around.
There had to be a reason Tristan had hid sections of the rope in his hoof most of the time, Twilight observed, and decided a book on magician’s tricks would be in order for her reading backlog when she returned home. That rope...was it a little bit shorter than before?
“Or is that not enough for you, miss Applejack?” Tristan prodded, “Perhaps you need something grander still?” Not waiting for a response from Applejack, whose neck muscles were beginning to twitch, he cast his horn again. The rope lifted up on its own, snaking down to the ground. While the middle section stayed flat along the stage deck, the two ends slowly trailed around to Tristan’s back hooves, before slipping below the small gaps under the centre concave section of his hooves.
Applejack grimaced, and made to let out a snarky comment, when she realised she had to raise her head to keep eyes locked with Tristan. Slowly, she looked back down, and her eyes widened. Tristan’s back hooves were now several feet off the stage deck, standing on the two ends of the rope that were now pointing straight up and supporting the entirety of the stallion’s weight.
“My mother always did say I would reach new heights,” Tristan remarked, eliciting a round of laughs from the audience. “Thank you, thank you everypony,” He bowed once more, before backflipping off the rope ends, landing on his back hooves again. He repressed a wince as he did so, ignoring the pain. This time, he was rewarded with a loud stomping of hooves.
“I got nuthin’, girls,” Applejack apologised to her friends sitting on the ground, before looking back. “Can ah have mah rope back, please?”
Tristan made to, but paused as a seed of an idea germinated in the vast field of imagination that was his head. “Certainly,” He said, “However, since clothing made from curtains appears to be popular today, how about…” With an application of more magic, he knotted the rope back together in a continuous loop, folding it over to make a double loop and decrease the size of the circle. Ripping his remaining curtain off with more magic, Tristan brought it over. With a great deal of finesse, he manipulated the curtain and folded it over, forming several ruffles around one half of the looped rope before tying up the ends of the ruffles to keep it from coming undone. It achieved an effect rather similar to some of the napkin animals Twilight had seen at the fancier diners in Canterlot, only with a curtain and a rope necklace.
“For you, my fair lady,” Tristan said, finally slipping the rope-and-curtain-turned-fashion-accessary over Applejack’s neck.
“Er, I, uh…” Applejack found herself stuttering, then decided it wasn’t worth coming up with a smart-aleck response this time. Instead, she made her way off stage. In the process, she heard somepony let out a loud whistle of admiration, and reddened.
“My, my, Applejack,” Rarity chortled, tapping Applejack in the side with a hoof a few times. “Dare I say you look rather das-“
“Shut it Rarity,” Applejack growled, already feeling enough mortification and not wishing to hear any more.
“Once more, Tristan prevails,” The stallion declared, hoping that would be the last of it. It wasn’t.
“Oh yeah?” That annoying blue pegasus from earlier was in his face again. “Maybe Applejack and Rarity were too nice to really show off their talents, but that’s not a problem for me! Showing off is my job!” Goddesses above, he really despised her voice. “Time to show you what a pegasus like me can do!”
“Your name plea-“ He was interrupted.
“Yeah yeah, try this on for size!” She yelled, before she was off in a blur. Flying through the air at a great speed, she came to a windmill, spinning it around several times before launching herself up further into the great blue, smashing through stray cloud after stray cloud before posing up high, the sun at her back. In complete defiance, the blue pegasus flew straight back through the clouds, collecting condensation with her as she went, spinning the windmill in the opposite direction and flying back onto stage. The condensation she had brought back with her combined with the sunlight she had obtained up high combined to form a shimmering rainbow.
“Beat that!” She said snidely, kicking her hooves off the stage and floating upside down, eyes closed and her front hooves acting as a headrest. As the audience applauded loudly at the feat of agility and style, she threw up a hoof in fake admonishment, “Oh thank you, thank you, but that’s really too much!”
The pegasus may have been blue in colouration, but all Tristan saw at that moment was red.
“I see your parents didn’t teach you proper manners, because the other two actually introduced themselves,” Tristan ground out, and he seized the moment, “Normally, a parent uses soap when the foal does something naughty. I don’t have soap, but maybe something hot will do.” With a great burst of magic, he grabbed the rainbow contrails left behind by the pegasus’ mad dash around, and pushed it together. Under a great deal of pressure, the rainbow condensed into rainbow liquid.
Summoning a bottle to capture most of it for later alchemical purposes, Tristan threw the few remaining drops at the inattentive pegasus’ mouth, who had her eyes closed as she was regaling the audience with tall tales of her own.
Her reaction was rather interesting to Tristan. First, she gasped. Then she clutched at her throat. Next, her face began to turn red, reality mirroring his earlier perception, before steam hissed out from her nostrils, mouth and ears. “H-h-h-HOOOOOOTTTT!” She took off like a rocket, achieving what was definitely a quicker speed than before.
Smirking at how easy it had all been, Tristan looked overhead. In small towns like this, he knew, even on days where no rain was scheduled the pegasi normally would leave a small pile of clouds around in case of emergency. Finding the large cloud overhead in the distance, he concentrated, breaking off a small piece of cloud larger than the puny stray clouds that lazily drifted over the afternoon sky. As a unicorn, weather magic was hardly Tristan’s forte, but merely being able to move a little section of cloud was within his capability.
Bringing the cloud over, he amused himself for a few more seconds at the out-of-control pegasus, before finally putting the cloud in front of her flight route. Whether through instinct or conscious thought, the pegasus kick-started the cloud, triggering an isolated torrent of rain, most of the water slathering her tongue as she attempted to drown herself, if only so her mouth wouldn't be on fire anymore.
“Let it not be said that Tristan isn’t generous,” Tristan proclaimed, garnering another round of laughs. Braggarts like that were always the most fun to show up. With them, Tristan could really let loose, unafraid of an audience backlash. That it had helped him to vent his temper was always a bonus. As the pegasus slowly floated down to earth, attempting to take a few steps only to stagger like she was drunk, Tristan delighted. That it was a mare he had brought low was even better.
Tristan did have to give her props though, whatever her name was. Her performance had been impressive.
“Is there anypony else who would like to challenge the Great and Powerful Tristan now?” Either the slight threatening tone he had now adopted seemed to do the trick, or the rest of the audience had learned from the three mares who had challenged him, and had all been grounded, one quite literally. Bringing a hoof up to remove his hat, he bowed his head, “Thank you everypony, you’ve been a great audience! Tristan needs to take his break now, and replace his curtains, these two fine mares have taken a liking to them!” This time, the outpouring of stomping hooves was tremendous. Tristan exalted in it.
Twilight Sparkle had seen enough. This stallion, the self-proclaimed Great and Powerful Tristan, truly was talented, and a little good-looking too. He was also arrogant, conceited, and a bully to boot, and she was still feeling hurt from the silent scorn he had placed on her with those eyes of his. She didn’t think she could stomach another minute of his performance after what he had done to Rainbow Dash. Given the amount of whining he had been doing before being distracted by Rarity’s new hairstyle, neither could Spike.
“C’mon Spike,” She said, turning around, “We’re going home.”
“Sure thing Twi,” He said, taking one last moment to daydream over Rarity’s new look before hopping onto Twilight’s back.
“Consarnit, ah better get back to work mahself,” Applejack commented, having been drawn away from her stall where she was selling apples to watch the show. She made to leave, then stopped, turning around to face her younger sister. Opening up her saddle bag, she passed a hoof full of bits to Apple Bloom, “Now y’all be careful. You can stay and watch, give ‘im a bit or two if you think he was worth it, and then stay out of trouble. Ah don’t want Carrot Top yellin’ at me again over your idea for eyesight-related Cutie Marks again.”
“Yes, do be careful, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity added as she made to leave too, a wave of vertigo passing through as memories passed. Somehow one of them had heard about carrots boosting eyesight, and then the three decided to eat them until they ended up puking. Cleaning up after Sweetie Belle was bad enough, but having to listen to her sister cry about her fur turning orange for a few days was the absolute worst.
“Don’t worry, sister!” Apple Bloom said, a fake innocent smile on her face.
“We won’t do anything rash,” Sweetie Belle promised.
“Yeah, you hear that Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked aloud. Hearing no response, she looked around. “Rainbow Dash? Rainbow Dash? Huh, she’s gone already, aww…”
