It was lunch hour at Canterlot High and all the students were gathered in the cafeteria, starving and ready to forget whatever lessons they had learned just moments ago. Rainbow Dash arrived, joining her friends, grouped together at their usual table. While they discussed their boring, mundane school life, Rainbow Dash was eager to talk about the horrible ordeal she just went through, quickly taking over the conversation.
“It was huge!” Dash explained.
“Gosh!” Replied Fluttershy.
“It was terrifying!”
“Goodness!” Gasped Rarity.
“And it was super hard!”
“Rainbow Dash, you say that about every science quiz you take! They ain’t that hard!” Applejack asserted.
“Yes they are! How was I supposed to know you need warm AND cool air to create a tornado? How does the temperature even change like?”
“Maybe if you spent less time sleeping and more time listening in class you’d know.”
“Can't you get off my case, for once? I had to fight an actual tornado this morning.”
“It was just a test, Dash.”
“No, I mean a literal one.”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean- the tornado was an enemy Stand user.”
“ENEMY STAND!?” Applejack shouted in shock.
“Applejack!” Sunset hushed. “You can’t just shout "Enemy Stand", out in the open like that.”
“Sorry, got a little carried away. I just didn’t think they’d attack us while we were at school. I knew they’d be dangerous but that’s just playing dirty.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t yell like that, if they can attack us at school, then there could be other Stand users among the students, too. We're waiting for them to make a move, but we don't want to paint a target on our back, either.”
"But, why?" Dash complained. "I wanna fight these guys now."
"If we cause a disturbance using our powers, then we'll be the ones labelled as villains and I'd rather not go through the whole "You gotta trust me, I'm not evil!" shtick again." Sunset explained.
The girls understood, the situation was awkward enough without scaring and endangering the rest of students at school.
“So, did you learn anything new from, what was their name?” Rarity asked.
"Lightning Dust" Dash answered.
"That's an odd name. What would dusty lightning even look like...?"
“Yeah, well, all we got from her is that some shady guy is commanding these other Stand users. No idea why, though.”
"We did learn that his Stand is pretty terrifying, apparently." Sunset continued.
“Terrifying? Oh, why couldn’t his Stand just be slightly intimidating?” Fluttershy lamented.
“Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy. We’ll all fight him together.” Dash assured. “Unless he sneaks up on you in the middle of the night and gets ya!”
Fluttershy squeaked in fright. “You don’t really think he’d do that, right?”
“No.” Sunset stressed. “Rainbow Dash is just playing. There’s no way this guy would go to the trouble of assembling a team of Stand users if he was just going to do everything himself. You have nothing to worry about... I hope.”
“Unless we defeat all his Stand users, in which case he’ll definitely be coming after us.” Applejack retorted.
“Yeah, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Sunset laughed, anxiously.
Just then an explosion erupted from the other side of the cafeteria. Fluttershy shrieked and immediately hid under the table. The explosion left behind colourful smoke clouds and sparkles as a figure in a wizard’s hat and cape strolled out of the fog laughing maniacally. “Ladies and Gentlemen! Please do not be alarmed, for it is I! The Great and Powerful Trixie!”
Rarity leaned under the table to calm Fluttershy. “You can come out now, darling. It’s just Trixie being silly, again.”
Trixie continued with her deafeningly, loud announcement. “At Midnight tonight, Trixie will be giving an exclusive performance in the center of Canterlot Park, right in front of the park’s center piece: The Time Dial. And the name of this tour de force of enchantment and wonder, I hear you ask? Trixie presents: “The Midnight Carnival”!
There, she will dazzle the crowd with feats of magic beyond human comprehension! You’ll be utterly amazed by the sheer depths of her power and completely flabbergasted by-”
“Excuse me. Did you say midnight?” Asked a lowly nerd.
“Yes, Trixie said midnight. Please pay attention when the Great and Powerful Trixie is proclaiming her greatness.”
“But we have school tomorrow.”
“So?”
“Well, we can’t go to the park at midnight on a school night.”
“Yeah!” Yelled a young man with dreadlocks. “I’ve got a test tomorrow, I can’t afford to lose sleep just for some magic show!”
“B-but, it’s called the Midnight Carnival, it has to be at midnight. I was gonna start the moment the Time Dial struck twelve and I already went to the trouble of making all these flyers!”
Trixie suddenly lifted a box full of flyers in front of the crowd, with her face plastered on each and every one.
“But, I don’t wanna sleep in and be late again, my teacher gets mad when I’m late all the time!” Explained a wall-eyed girl.
“Besides, I heard that park is rather unsafe at night. Why would anyone go there with all those rumours of bizarre ghosts and such lurking in the shadows?” A well dressed girl with a strong English accent pointed out.
“Oh fine!” Trixie yelled. “We’ll have the show after school, is that better!?”
“What time?” Asked the nerd.
“I don’t know. 4:30, maybe?”
The students spoke among themselves for a moment before agreeing with Trixie’s new proposed time.
Trixie breathed a sigh of relief now that her audience’s minor quibbles had been dealt with.
“Very well!” She announced. “The Great and Powerful Trixie’s Midnight Carnival... will actually be at around 4:30 after school.” The other students agreed as they dispersed from the cafeteria.
“Oh, wait!” Yelled Trixie. “Don’t forget to pick up a flyer, I worked hard on these!”
Sunset Shimmer and her friends watched the magician’s antics from their table, dumbstruck by her lack of forethought and planning.
“If she really wanted her show to be at midnight, why couldn’t she just wait until Friday?” Sunset questioned.
“You know how she is." Rarity answered. "Once Trixie sets her mind on something, she refuses to let go, even if it's obviously ridiculous. She can be more impatient than Pinkie Pie. By the way, where is Pinkie?”
“HERE I AM!” Pinkie shouted, appearing from nowhere and nearly giving Rarity a heart attack.
“Pinkie!?” Rarity gasped. “Where were you and why is there a pot on your head?”
“I’ve been hiding in the kitchen since my second class.” She smiled.
“Why?”
“Because of the giant tornado outside! I tried to warn everyone, but they wouldn’t listen, they all thought I was crazy, can you believe that? So then I ran to the cafeteria, put a pot on my head and hid under the kitchen sink for an hour.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.” Dash boasted. “I took care of that pesky tornado.”
“Yeah, I heard!”
“What, how? You weren’t even here.”
“I also heard about that creepy guy with the scary Stand. Some spooky stuff is going on in this town.”
“Pinkie, how do you know about all this, already?” Sunset asked.
“Because of this little guy.” Pinkie lifted a napkin off the table to reveal her Stand, Birthday Train had been hiding underneath it the whole time. The pink pony Stand waved back at the girls. “She sure comes in handy.”
“You heard our whole conversation through this thing?”
“Yeah! It’s like we have some weird, psychic connection or something.”
“Your Stand’s weird, Pinkie.” Dash remarked.
A sudden thud interrupted the girls’ conversation as a box of flyers slammed onto their table. The Great and Powerful Trixie demanded their attention.
“So, Rainbooms.” She addressed. “You’ll be attending my little show this afternoon, right?”
“Not, really.” Applejack replied.
“What!? Why not? What could possibly be more important than the Great and Powerful Trixie’s great and powerful magic show!?”
“I’ve got work to do on the farm, can’t waste my time at some silly magic show.”
The other girls also had their reasons for why they couldn’t attend Trixie’s show: Rarity was still working on her dress project, Fluttershy had volunteer work at the animal shelter, Pinkie had work at Sugarcube Cafe and Rainbow Dash had detention with Coach Spitfire after school for missing gym earlier that morning.
“And what about you?” Trixie asked Sunset.
“Meh, human magic isn’t very interesting.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It’s all just smoke and mirrors, it’s not as impressive as real magic.”
Trixie was furious, how dare these ignorant mouth breathers shrug off her Midnight Carnival like it was some cheap side show. “How can you just push me aside like that!? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. What if I never put on another show like this again!? Then you’ll be sorry you missed it!”
“Sorry, Trixie, but we said 'no'.” Sunset affirmed.
Trixie took a moment to calm herself with a deep breath. “Fine, be that way and after everything we’ve been through together.”
“Oh gimme a break, you locked us under a stage so those Sirens could feed off of the crowd.” Applejack responded.
“So you could beat them with a surprise attack later.” Trixie testified.
The girls remained skeptical, not even Pinkie was going to fall for that lie.
Trixie needed to come up with a better excuse, quickly. “But you have to go! I made flyers and everything! I spent all my money on these! I can’t let them go to waste!” She explained, looking for sympathy.
Trixie's incessant whining aggravated Applejack. “You can’t tell me what to do! I’ve got work to do after school, I can’t go to your magic show!”
“Oh, of course you can, Applejack.” Laughed one of the lunch ladies.
“Granny!?” Applejack yelped, not expecting her grandmother to suddenly jump into the conversation. “What are you talking about?”
“I overheard you little spat with the wizard girl, there. You’re always working so hard, I don't mind you taking today off to see your friend's show.”
“What? But-”
“Don’t you threat, I’m sure Big Mac won’t mind picking up the slack for you.”
“But, I-”
“Oh, and why don’t you take little Applebloom with you, she loves carnivals.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie is honoured that you would allow Applejack to attend her show.” Trixie bowed in gratitude, to hide her sly grin.
“Oh, isn’t she nice. See, Applejack? All you had to do was ask and now we've made everybody happy.”
“Thanks, Granny...” Applejack sulked.
“Well, I guess that’s settled then.” Trixie smirked. “I’ll see you this afternoon, Applejack. Mwahahahahahahaha!” As she laughed, Trixie threw a smoke bomb to cover her escape.
“Oh my gosh! She’s gone!” Pinkie screamed. “Oh no, wait, there she is.” She pointed as Trixie fought to free her cape from the cafeteria doors before making a hasty escape.
“Ah, horse apples.” Applejack muttered.
Thankfully, for the girls, the rest of the school day was uneventful, although Applejack was dreading her inevitable encounter with Trixie. As she walked home she considered ignoring the magic show entirely. Granny would be disappointed, after how “nice” Trixie was behaving, but getting a scolding from her Granny was nothing compared to the torment of dealing with the biggest braggart in the whole town.
As Applejack came up to her house, all she cared about was taking her mind off of the whole situation, with some good, honest farm work, only to be stopped at the gate by a small red-headed child.
“Applebloom?” Applejack asked. “How did you get home before me?”
Applebloom had a look of excitement and wonder in her eye, which could only spell trouble for her older sister. “Granny told me about the magic show in the park!”
“Oh no…”
“She said I could go too!”
“I don’t know. The show’s really, only for big girls.”
“I am a big girl! I’m almost half as tall as you are! That’s big enough!”
“Well, uh, why don’t you go on your own, if you’re such a big girl, now.”
“I can’t go to the park on my own! You heard about the weird stories there, right? I’ll need adult supervision.”
“What about Big Mac?”
“Big Mac’s got work to do!”
“But, I've got... you can’t just... that’s not...” Applejack eventually broke with a defeated sigh. “You can’t make this easy can you, Applebloom?”
“Enope!” She grinned.
“Alright! I’ll take you to the darn magic show.”
“WHOOO!”
Applejack escorted an excited Applebloom to the park where a small crowd gathered. While Applebloom tugged on Applejack’s hand, urging her to follow the crowd to the show, Applejack was lost in thought. This was the same park Sunset was attacked in, twice in fact and then there were the rumours at school. Stories of strange incidents involving ghosts.
“Could they be talking about Stands?” Applejack thought to herself. She looked around the immediate area, but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, but as they headed toward the center of the park, something caught her eye.
“Sis, come on!” Applebloom begged, pulling on her sister’s arm. “Stop your daydreaming or we’re gonna miss the show!”
Applejack checked the clock at the center of the park. “The show doesn’t start for at least another ten minutes. Why don’t you run ahead and get us a seat, there’s something I want to look into, real quick.”
“You better not be planning to ditch the show. I’ll tell Granny if you leave me here by myself!”
Applejack laughed, Applebloom could be pretty devious when she wanted to. “Don’t give me any ideas, I’ll be back for the show, just run on ahead.” Applebloom listened to her sister and found a couple of seats at the front of the stage.
She wasn’t concerned with the seating arrangements, Applejack's attention was fixated on something more mysterious, a strange drawing on the ground. The center of the park was one big concrete circle with the park’s clock placed perfectly in the center.
The clock was just an eccentric art piece the mayor commissioned in the hopes it would make the park look less boring and more modern and artistic. It was named the Time Dial as it not only told the time with its clock faces but also with the shadow it cast from the light of the Sun with the surrounding concrete circle acting as the face. Unfortunately this only encouraged more eccentric artists to draw graffiti around the clock which the park janitors had to clean up on a regular basis.
With how big the area was, big enough for a small stage show and it’s audience, it wasn’t uncommon to find graffiti the janitors would miss, but the graffiti Applejack examined was different.
This graffiti was a small circle with three apples drawn inside it. The apples immediately caught her attention, but as much as she loved them, she never really saw apples as nothing more than delicious fruit, not the center of an art peace. She continued to examine the strange drawings.
There were two lines connected to the apple drawing's circle on both sides. The lines stretched all the way out to the border of the park’s clock face. Applejack couldn’t make out where the rest of the lines were connected to with all the people and chairs scattered around the park, but she had a hunch that they connected to the other side of the Time Dial’s concrete face and so, she ran past the crowd and behind the stage to investigate further.
Her hunch was right, on the other side of the face was another circle with a drawing inside and it’s position mirrored the apple drawing. This second drawing was strange, however as it resembled a star with six points. Applejack felt like she had seen these drawings somewhere before, but she wasn’t quite sure where. It could just be a coincidence, just graffiti the janitors neglected to clean up, but there was something strange about them, like they resonated with her.
“What are you doing back here?” Demanded an irritated voice.
“Oh, I should have known you’d be backstage, Trixie.”
“Well, this is my stage, of course I’d be back here, preparing for my act.”
Applejack took a look at Trixie’s stage, it too gave off a strange vibe. “It sure looks old though.” She questioned. “Doesn’t look like it’s equipped with your usual fireworks and confetti.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that, Jackie. That’s where the magic comes in.”
“Jackie?”
“Now! Go take your seat! And prepare to be amazed by my sheer, unmatched brilliance!”
Applejack suddenly remembered why she didn’t want to be here, but she reluctantly followed Trixie’s orders and took her seat in front of the stage while her sister eagerly awaited the show to start.
The stage lights dimmed as fog seeped through the curtains, covering the stage as a drum roll played from seemingly nowhere. The entire crowd waited with baited breath, except Applejack who was fixated on figuring out how Trixie was even doing all of this without any access to electricity. Suddenly, in a burst of smoke, Trixie sprung onto the stage.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Trixie announced, as her voice somehow echoed throughout the park. “I would like to formally welcome you all to a very special, one night showing of: The Midnight Carnival!”
As she finished, fireworks flew out from behind the stage and rocketed into the sky, exploding into a shower of rainbow colours. The crowd was in awe, already impressed with Trixie’s performance, except for Applejack, who remained skeptical.
“Now, for Trixie’s first trick, she’ll start with something simple!” Trixie counted from one to three, on three she snapped her fingers creating a puff of smoke, as a bouquet of flowers appeared in her hands. Impressive, as she was wearing a short sleeved outfit, so she couldn’t have hid them anywhere, but what was even more impressive was when the flowers suddenly rocketed out of Trixie’s hands and burst into the sky like fireworks, raining down flower petals onto the stage and crowd.
“Now for her second trick, Trixie will allow an audience member to select a card, at random from this deck.” The deck of cards poofed into Trixie's hand as she held them out to the audience. They seemed perfectly normal, at the very least there were no rockets attached to them.
“Oh! Me! Me! I wanna pick one!” Cried Applebloom in excitement.
“Very well, little one, choose your card and Trixie will deduce, using her magnificent brain, what your chosen card is!”
Applebloom picked a card at random, the Queen of Hearts, but kept its identity to herself. Applejack refused to be impressed, going from flower fireworks to a card trick just seemed backwards. Trixie clearly played her best trick first and was now relying on childish gimmicks. Or at least, that’s what she assumed.
Applebloom memorised the card and placed it back into the deck. Rather than using her hands, Trixie levitated the deck in front of her, and shuffled the cards over the crowd. The deck returned to Trixie, but simply plucking the card out of the deck with her hand would be boring, so instead the cards formed a circle around her with the front of the cards facing the audience. As the cards orbited around her, Trixie remained focused before swiftly snagging one as it passed by. The remaining cards flew behind her and Trixie flipped her chosen card over and declared. “Was your card, the Queen of Hearts?”
“Ohmygosh! Yes! That’s so cool!” Applebloom screamed as the rest of the crowd cheered. Even Applejack was shocked. Not by Trixie’s guess, but by the rest of her card tricks. It was almost as if she was using real magic, which only made Applejack more suspicious.
“For this next trick, Trixie will need a volunteer from the audience!” Trixie proclaimed, as a long box appeared on stage with a puff of smoke. “Now, among all my adoring fans, which of you is brave enough to put your life in Trixie's hands as she saws you in half!”
Trixie’s spectators leapt out of there chairs, desperately yelling for Trixie’s attention. Trixie was extremely pleased with herself, her show was already a roaring success, but it wasn’t enough, there was still something she had to do and with the audience on her side, now was the the perfect chance. Trixie scanned over the many willing participants before she found her perfect target. “Trixie wants... you!”
“Me?” Asked Applejack. “Sorry, not interested, how about you choose someone who cares.”
“Oh, come on, Applejack!” Applebloom pleaded. “You gotta go on stage, it’ll be so cool!”
“It seems our volunteer needs a little convincing.” Trixie declared, hyping up her crowd. “How about it, my adoring fans, let's give her some encouragement!” Trixie and the audience chanted Applejack’s name, over and over until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Oh, gimme a break, fine! I’ll do it!” Applejack yelled. The crowd cheered as she climbed onto the stage with Trixie escorting her over to the box. “So, I just gotta lay down in this?”
“Indeed. And just leave the rest to Trixie.” Applejack laid down in the box and Trixie closed it, with Applejack’s head poking out of the top. With another puff of smoke, a saw blade appeared in her hand. “Now, watch as The Great and Powerful Trixie, performs her most deadly trick! Sawing the lady in half!”
As Trixie approached, Applejack wondered: There wasn’t anything special about this box, nor were there any fake legs to trick the audience. Something was definitely wrong about this trick. There were no safety precautions what so ever. As soon as Trixie lowered her saw, Applejack freaked, as her Stand appeared and swiftly kicked Trixie to the other side of the stage.
The audience gasped in shock as Applejack freed herself.
“What the heck did you do that for!?” Trixie was enraged by Applejack’s sudden attack. “You ruined my favourite trick!”
“What did I do!? You were actually gonna saw me in half!”
“Well, duh! That’s the point of the trick! It’s a classic!”
“But you were literally going to saw me in half!”
“I was going to put you back together again, you idiot!”
“Well, you should have told me! And how the heck were you even going to do that!?”
"If I told you that it wouldn't be a magic trick, you dumb hick!"
The performers would have continued their bickering if it weren’t for the audience’s intervention. Some stared, jaws agape, while others whispered among themselves, but all of them stared at Applejack.
“Sis?” Called Applebloom. “What’s that ghost thingy floating next to you?”
“What are you-?” Applejack stopped mid-sentence as she realised she had summoned her Stand, she did it instinctively when she felt her life was in danger.
“Wait, you can see this thing?” Applebloom nodded in concern. Applejack looked at the rest of the audience, who all looked just as baffled. “Can... all of you see it?” The audience also nodded.
This was quite the predicament. Only a Stand user could see another person’s Stand, but now everyone could see it. Applejack was pretty sure none of the audience members were Stand users, considering how confused they looked, but if that were true then how were they seeing it. That’s when Applejack remembered Trixie’s show, the fireworks, the cards and the saw. None of them felt natural, they were conjured using real magic.
“Now I understand what's going on!” Applejack explained. “I thought something about this show stank and I’m not just talking about your attitude. Those magic tricks of yours weren’t tricks at all! You’re using real magic! You're a Stand user, aren’t you, Trixie!”
Trixie laughed arrogantly at Applejack’s sudden declaration. “Who’d have thought the country bumpkin would be smart enough to not only figure out my little secret, but also have a Stand herself!”
“Stop messing around, Trixie! I've already figured you out. Now, show me your Stand, already!”
“Oh, there’s no need, Jackie. It’s been in front of you this whole time.”
“You mean, the saw?”
“What? No!”
“Is it your cards? Are they your Stand?”
“Of course not! Think bigger.”
Applejack was stumped for a moment. The only Stands she’s ever seen were all human-like in appearance, except Pinkie's, but Applejack couldn’t see anything like that anywhere on stage. That’s when she had a revelation. The Stage, it didn’t run on electricity, produced sound from nowhere and somehow echoed Trixie’s voice without a microphone.
“No... you can’t be serious.”
Trixie enjoyed the look of terror on Applejack's face as she analysed the stage. “That’s right! My Stand: The Midnight Carnival, is the stage itself!"