//------------------------------// // 6. Great and Powerful Boasting // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// While walking through Ponyville, Star Twinkle noticed a huge crowd in the town square. Wondering what it was all about, he decided to watch from far away since he didn't like crowds like this but Applejack, who stood there with the rest of her friends called him over so he practically had no choice but to go over there. “What's going on here?” He asked Applejack after approaching the group. “It looks like some kind of fancy magic show,” she replied unimpressed. “I heard that it is run by the greatest and most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria,” Pinkie Pie excitingly said. “And who is that?” Star Twinkle asked. “I don't know,” Pinkie Pie replied confused. Star Twinkle noticed a small wagon in front of the crowd. He was a little confused by the fact that the greatest and most powerful unicorn was living in a small wagon like that. A loud voice could be heard from the wagon that grabbed every ponies attention. The magic show was most likely starting right now. “Come one, come all!" A loud voice said from inside the wagon. "Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Soon, a unicorn with a blue coat and a light blue almost silver colored mane stepped out of a smoke cloud. She was wearing a wizard hat and a cape, both were purple and had yellow and blue stars on them. The crowd was gasping for a moment after this entrance and the great and powerful Trixie smiled, enjoying every moment of it. “Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!” She said while fireworks and other special effects underlined her performance. The great and powerful Trixie continued to talk about her greatness and how her magic was the most impressive thing that nopony has ever seen before. Star Twinkle was not too familiar with magic but he knew that unicorns usually possess little magic which is connected with their special talent. So he was wondering if her special talent was magic, just like Twilight's and if Trixie's magic is on par with hers. However, some ponies seemed to be a little annoyed by Trixie's boasting, except for Twilight who said that there was nothing wrong with being talented. But the others said that it is wrong to show off your special talent even if you are better at it than anypony else. That is something Star Twinkle didn't understand since he has not discovered his special talent yet. Is it really that bad to show off your special talent? Isn't a Cutie Mark like a representation for that? But how should he know. The great and powerful Trixie overheard all this talking and told everypony a story of her past to let them know what she is capable of. “Only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa major!” She created an image with her magic, showing some bear-like creature, followed by a little picture of herself, slaying this bear. “When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to, but the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the Ursa major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!” The crowd was impressed by her story, except for Star Twinkle and his friends who were just listening in disbelieve. Star Twinkle didn't even know what an Ursa Mayor was, but judging from the reaction of the crowd, it was probably a big deal. Some ponies were still watching in disbelieve so Trixie challenged all ponies in Ponyville. She said that anything they could, she could do better. Nopony stepped for so Trixie randomly picked Twilight, but Twilight was struggling, so Applejack was volunteering. Applejack decided to perform some tricks with her lasso, making the audience cheer for her. She used her tail to spin the lasso and jumped through it multiple time. After that, she grabbed an apple with it and caught it with her mouth, eating it in one big bite. But Trixie was unimpressed. She used her magic to move the lasso and distracted Applejack with it. While Applejack was distracted, Trixie quickly used the lasso to tie up Applejack from behind, making the audience laugh in the process. “Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie prevails,” the great and powerful Trixie said in confidence. After that performance Rainbow Dash stepped up, saying that it is her job to show off. But she might also want Trixie to stop her performance. Rainbow Dash impressed the crowd by showing off some of her flying skills while manipulating the clouds and the air a little, creating a rainbow above her head after she landed back on the ground. But once again Trixie was not impressed and manipulated the rainbow with her magic, making it swirl around Rainbow Dash and throwing her off the stage, much to the amusement of Trixie and the audience. Star Twinkle was not sure what he should think about all that. Sure, her boasting was a little annoying but wasn't this suppose to be a magic show? Why did all that turned into a competition between Ponyville and the great and powerful Trixie? At least he wasn't involved in all of that. Spike suggested that another unicorn should challenge her, to outmatch Trixie's magic. Rainbow Dash and Applejack agreed, hinting at Twilight, who seemed to be unsure about all this, much to Star Twinkles confusion. Rarity stepped up because she thought they were talking about her, which was obviously not the case. But she didn't want to challenge Trixie, she instead said that she was above this ruffian kind of magic. But after Trixie made some bad insult about Rarity's hair, she eventually gave in and walked up the stage. Rarity took some of the curtains that were part of Trixie's stage and formed a beautiful blue dress out of it while also changing her hairstyle to something more graceful. But once again, Trixie was not impressed and shoot a magic blast at Rarity, that turned her hair into a green mess. Rarity knew that she did something to her hair and demanded a mirror. Her friends knew how she would react so they said that it wasn't that bad. Except for Star Twinkle who just plainly said that it was green. “Green hair! Not green hair! Such an awful, awful color!“ Rarity said while running away in, trying to hold her tears back. Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at Star Twinkle as if they were blaming him for Rarity's reaction. “What? What's wrong with green hair?” He asked confused while looking up to his dark green, star-shaped mane. Trixie asked the audience if there is somepony else who dares to challenge her but nopony volunteered. While watching in disinterest, Star Twinkle was poked by somepony on the side almost demanding something from him. He noticed that it was Rainbow Dash, who just pointed at Trixie but Star Twinkle wasn't sure what she was meaning by this gesture. “What?” He asked her. “Go up there and do something about her!” She said in a demanding voice. “What?” He said once again but this time a little bit more surprised. “Yes, it's your turn now to teach this pony a lesson,” Applejack said. He was wondering why all of the sudden they were relying on him to do something about Trixie. Maybe they were desperate and out of options, he thought. Of course, he didn't want to go up there because that would mean that all eyes were focused on him. “And what am I suppose to do?” He asked. “I'm sure you will figure out something!” Rainbow Dash replied. “But I don't want to go up there. This whole thing is stupid,” he said in a rather annoyed voice. But just after he finished saying that, Trixie looked over him and Star Twinkle knew exactly why. “What about you green one? Do you think that you are better in something than the great and powerful Trixie?” It was easy for Star Twinkle to answer that question, even though he was starred at from all directions. “No not really,” he replied in an annoyed voice. Trixie was a little surprised to hear him say that like it was the most normal thing in the world. But shortly after she just raised her head in confidence, while smiling as if she was expecting nothing else. Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration and Applejack was just looking at Star Twinkle in disappointment, of which he was aware. He knew he was feeding her ego but he didn't care about that even if it meant for him to draw some disapproved looks on him. “Well, is there anypony else who dares to challenge the great and powerful Trixie?” She said looking around in the crowd again. Spike wanted Twilight to jump in and end this but Twilight refused and even denied that she was better than anypony, grabbing Trixie's attention in the process. “Hah! You think you're better than the Great and Powerful Trixie? You think you have more magical talent? Well, come on, show Trixie what you've got. Show us all,” Trixie demanded. But once again Twilight refused, denied any kind of talent and ran away to get out of this situation, leaving Trixie without any competition. “Ha! Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie has proven herself to be the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria. Huh, was there ever any doubt?” She arrogantly said while leaving the stage, pretty much ending her show. Star Twinkle was wondering why Twilight acted like that. He knew why he didn't want to compete with Trixie but Twilight had most likely another reason. He asked Spike if he knew something about Twilight's behavior. Spike was also a little confused why she acted that way. In terms of magic, Twilight would have won against Trixie said, Spike. But something kept her from doing exactly that. Whatever it was, Trixie's show was over and nopony cared about her anymore, at least Star Twinkle didn't. Later that night when Star Twinkle decided to go home, he saw how Trixie was still in town. She was in front of her wagon and attempted to get inside but stopped after she noticed Star Twinkle. “Why did she have to park her wagon right in front of my house?” He thought in annoyance. While walking past her, he tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible, cause he didn't want her to get on his nerves. She did seem to notice his glance but was not making anything out of it and got inside of her wagon. A little while later, Star Twinkle was getting ready to go to bed but some noises from outside grabbed his attention so he went outside to look for the cause and saw how Trixie and two other colts run past him. "What are they doing in the middle of the night?" He wondered. But then, the ground began to shake heavily behind him. Almost as if something really huge was landing behind him. He hesitated to look for a second but he eventually turned around and saw a huge blue bear, which was twice of the size than his house. Star Twinkle couldn't move, immobilized by fear, seeing this monstrosity in front of him. This giant beast roared at him on top of his lungs, making him run away in fear. He was running along with the three ponies who ran past him before until they reached a dead end. The bear had no problems following them, because of his size so it was pointless to run away from him forever. They all stood there while this huge bear came close and closer. While in the face of danger Star Twinkle recognized the two colts that accompanied Trixie. They continuously adored Trixie, back then at the magic show. He didn't know their names, though. “Great and Powerful Trixie, you've got to vanquish the Ursa,” said the small one with the light blue coat and the orange mane. “Yeah, vanquish so we can watch,” said the slightly bigger one, with the light orange coat and the turquoise mane. “It took a lot of trouble to get that thing here,” said the small one, leaving both Star Twinkle and Trixie in shock and confusion why they would bring this thing to Ponyville in the first place. But they believed that the great and powerful Trixie could handle this Ursa and eagerly awaited some magic from her. Star Twinkle didn't know what he could do so he prompted her to try at least something. Trixie pulled off some of her magic and tried to stop the Ursa, like trying to tie him up with a rope or striking him with lightning that came out of a cloud that she summoned. All the tricks that she used before to deal with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. But her magic was not enough. The rope was way to small to hold down anything and the lightning that she summoned didn't even scratch him. After running out of options Trixie ran away, followed by Star Twinkle and the other two colts. The Ursa continued to run wild in Ponyville, waking the citizens in the process and causing a huge mass panic. Twilight soon joined the four scared ponies and asked what happened. Her reaction was similar to Star Twinkles and Trixie's after hearing the explanation from the two young colts, who still waited for Trixie to vanquish the Ursa but then Trixie admitted something. “I can't, I never have. No one can vanquish an Ursa major. I just made the whole story up to make me look better,” she admitted. The two colt were surprised to hear that from her but Star Twinkle and Twilight were not surprised at all. “Big shock,” Star Twinkle replied in sarcasm but he apologized after Trixie gave him a mean look and he realized that this is no time for jokes. The Ursa Major stood right in front of the group of ponies, who didn't know what to do now. Until Twilight stepped in front of the beast with a determent look on her face. She used her magic to manipulate the air around some cattails, creating a sound that calmed down the giant bear. Her horn began to glow even more intensely than usually, probably because she is utilizing more magic. She levitated the water supply container of Ponyville and replaced the water inside with milk that she took from the cows inside of the cow stall. Meanwhile, the Ursa slowly fell asleep from the sound of the cattails and Twilight levitated him back to the cave where he was sleeping before, giving him the milk from the container to drink. Star Twinkle saw it with his own eyes but he couldn't believe it. Everypony was impressed by Twilight's magic but instead of accepting compliments, she apologized and didn't want anypony to hate her. Of course, everypony was surprised to hear that after this performance. As it turns out, Twilight was worried that her friends wouldn't like her anymore if she would use her magic as they did with Trixie. But it was obvious that they didn't like Trixie because of her behavior and not because of her magic. After all Twilight's magic is part of her, so there would be no reason to hate her for that. So a Cutie Mark is not only your special talent but also part of your personality, Star Twinkle thought to himself. Magic was Twilight's special talent and everypony knew that. It would be unfair to treat somepony different just because of their Cutie Mark. After all that was clarified, Twilight explained who she knew what to do with that Ursa Major. She did a little research after Trixie's bragging earlier that day to verify if it is possible to vanquish an Ursa Major all by yourself. But as it turns out, this giant bear was only an Ursa minor, a baby. Which only opened up the question how a real Ursa Major looked like. Star Twinkle didn't even want to think about that. But even after this performance, Trixie seemed unimpressed and continued to brag. “Huh. You may have vanquished an Ursa minor, but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” she said while running off in the distance after summoning a smoke bomb. Twilight wanted that the two colts, who were responsible for all this to clean up the mess in Ponyville and so they did. Everypony helped to clean up the mess, the Ursa Minor has caused in Ponyville. Star Twinkle was walking by Trixie's Wagon, which was destroyed by the Ursa Minor and decided to remove it first. “She was a traveling magician. So that was pretty much her home. Must be hard for her to continue her work now,” he asked himself. Star Twinkle didn't understand it but for some reason, he felt bad. He always only cared about himself...since there was nopony else to care for. He didn't even know that he was capable to fell like that after spending so much time alone. He was approaching the wagon and tried to clean this mess but he was surprised by what he saw on the other side. It was Trixie who lifted some of the remains with her magic while trying to cause as little attention as she could. But that didn't work at all because Star Twinkle could see her clearly and she noticed how he was staring at her. They both looked at each other awkwardly until Star Twinkle broke the silence. “What are you still doing here?” He asked her. Her awkward look turned into her usual confident face expression and of course, she spoke in her typical manner. “This wagon belongs to the great and powerful Trixie! So if you don't mind, green one, Trixie want's to retrieve the remains of her wagon, so that she can leave this stupid little town,” she added. It was impressive how she still had the same attitude after what happened today. She actually managed to lift all the remains about her head but it obviously looked very stressful for her. Star Twinkle couldn't watch how she had so many problems lifting her wagon and came up with a stupid idea. “Try to bring the pieces inside of my house, it's in the middle of the night. You can stay at my place until tomorrow and leave in the morning,” he said while leading the way to his house, which was only a few hoof steps away. Trixie felt mocked but after realizing that she had no other place to stay, she ultimately gave in and followed him inside with the remains of her wagon above her head. She placed the remains of her wagon inside of Star Twinkles house, piece by piece and stepped inside. Of course, she was not impressed by Star Twinkles house and felt like she was under treated, giving him an arrogant look. “Yes I know, it's not really big but its better than nothing, right?” He said to her but she didn't give him a response and just looked at him as if he was unworthy to talk to. “My bed is just up this stairs, you can sleep there,” he said while pointing at a wooden staircase. “Do you really think that the great and powerful Trixie would go so low and sleep in a bed of a pony like you?” She quickly replied with her usual attitude. “Well, you don't HAVE to sleep in my bed. If you want to sleep on the ground then fine. I don't care,” he replied annoyed because of her answer, even though, Star Twinkle was trying to be as nice as he could. Once again Trixie felt mocked, she didn't feel comfortable to be treated like that but she was also too tired to complain anymore and walked upstairs to get some sleep. Star Twinkle stayed downstairs letting out a big sigh of frustration. “Well I hope at least SHE sleeps well,” he said before he looked at the remains of Trixie's wagon, that laid in front of him. On the next day... Trixie woke up early in the morning. She wanted to leave Ponyville as soon as possible so she tried to sneak out of Star Twinkle's house. She went downstairs and was shocked at what she saw. The parts of her wagon were gone. The first thing she suspected, of course, was that Star Twinkle had something to do with this. “What did that green pony do with my wagon?” She angrily said. “Where is he anyway?” She added while looking around in Star Twinkles house. But she couldn't find him so she went outside. “If Trixie finds this pony then...” but she stopped her sentence after what she saw outside. It was her wagon, fully repaired. She couldn't believe her eyes and wondered how it could be. The wagon was completely destroyed last night and now it looked like it was never damaged in the first place. While inspecting the wagon from the other side, she noticed how Star Twinkle was still hammering some nails on the walls. Star Twinkle noticed her and greeted Trixie but it seems like he was quite tired after working all night on the wagon. “You did this? All on your own? How did you manage to repair it so quickly?” She asked confused with wide eyes. “Well, repairing things is my job,” he replied casually. “But why?” She asked still not knowing why he did it after how she treated his friends. “I don't know. It just felt right to me to do this,” he replied while in truth he didn't know the answer himself. Star Twinkle finished his work on the wagon and Trixie was ready to go now. She was getting in front of the wagon so that she could pull it behind her and attempted to leave Ponyville. But she stopped for one second and turned around to Star Twinkle who just looked at her with an emotionless look on his face. “Thank you,” she said in an uncomfortable quiet but also honest tone. “Your welcome,” he replied. Once again she attempted to leave but she then turned around again to Star Twinkle to ask him something. “What's your name anyway,” she curiously asked. “It's Star Twinkle” he replied with a light grin. Trixie gave a light grin back at him after hearing his name. “Star Twinkle,” she repeated to herself. “The great and powerful Trixie shall remember that name!” She said in her usual boasting manner as she left Ponyville with a smile on her face. He didn't know why he did this. It wasn't like him to invest so much energy and work for somepony else. He would have never done something like this a while back ago. But he was too tired to worry about all that now. After Trixie was out of sight Star Twinkle went inside of his house and closed the door. He let out a huge yawn, immediately collapsed on the ground and fell asleep.