I just read a story about Trixie not being able to keep up with other students in Celestia's school. This gave me a thought. Is there any stories out there where Trixie has a learning or magical disability that prevents her from being the Great and Powerful mare she wants to be?

Although it's not the dominant topic of any of my stories, my version of Trixie is incapable of learning via books and passed on knowledge. This led to her failing her magical classes and being regarded as an extremely weak mage, when in reality she can only learn by application. In other words, if she's not actively trying to cast the spell, she won't learn it. Since trying to use spells without fully understanding their properties is heavily frowned upon, her options seem limited and the doors of pretty much all professional schools of learning are closed to her. I've only really shown her potential in one story; in the others, she's always held back by her lack of self esteem and fear of ridicule.

Again, none of this is the focus of any of my stories, though it gets brought up a few times. Right now it's mostly background for my interpretation of her character.

I always figured Trixie as the type who preferred to be out wowing others with her magic instead of sitting in a classroom or having her face in a book. If she dropped out then it was because she wanted to do what she loved but did fine academically.

I have a Trixie one-shot where she was forced to drop out of magical school because her magical aura changed colours. In-universe of the story their auras aren't supposed to change colours but hers did since she has a Changeling father (she's one hundred percent biologically pony but her magic is slightly different). Probably not quite what you're looking for, however I'm planning on expanding with a sequel where it means she doesn't quite learn easily from conventional methods.

Looking through my list of Trixie stories I've read, I don't think any of them fit what you're looking for. There are lots where Trixie is mentally or emotionally broken (Hello Big Brother is the closest I know of where trauma from the Alicorn Amulet prevents her from using her magic fully), or perhaps where her family didn't have money when she was younger to get her properly trained.

The other fic that comes to mind that I know I don't have a list was a very early fic, published before Magic Duel was released I think, that was an Applejack x Trixie fic. Trixie's Cutie Mark in the story actually has the magical side-effect of forcing her to prevent in third-pony.

I have an unfinished story sitting around where she's dyslexic and cannot really read anything heavier than a pamphlet without suffering nervous strain, headaches and other stress-related symptoms. However, she's a bit of a magical prodigy who instinctively understands how magic works and can put together her own spells by heart. She was initially taken in at CSGU by a professor who thought she was a genius, but when she proved to be apparently unteachable, he had her kicked out on trumped-up grounds just so he wouldn't suffer from being associated with a "failure". As such, she has very sore feelings about the subject of "conventional education".

4868545 Is it posted or just pad and paper?

5203231 It's not published, but I have it on GoogleDocs, as with all my horsewords. PM me if you want to look at it.

It's unfinished because I couldn't figure out where to take the story further. If you have suggestions on that, I wouldn't mind hearing them.

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This is pretty much what I figure; abandoning her formal education because it was too boring (like Rainbow Dash, and why not, they're already pretty similar) leads her to be constantly underestimated by others as well as herself, while in reality she has magical potential on the level of... mm... lack of concrete power levels makes it difficult to say... Flim and Flam combined? A changeling that has been feeding off Fluttershy's animals? 0.75 Starlight Glimmers? I don't know

Point is I think of her as partially educated at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but mostly self-taught due to wanting to do things at her own pace. But I could see a learning disorder being the reason for that.