Tricks, cloaks and wands: The Lost Tales of a Traveling Magician

by divinearcadia

On a Chilly Spring Morning

To get this out of the way, I have no control over the characters of and related to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This is a piece of literary fiction, the events of this story are not intended to reflect the actions or incriminate anypony.

Chapter Four: On a Chilly Spring Morning

It was almost a month later that Trixies apprenticeship was finally approved. Her Aunt had been adamant and dutiful in her screening of Olive Branch, asking for copies of personality reports and character references from his past apprentices and colleagues. He was invited back several times to the main house to share a evening meal with the family so they could all get to know each other and for both Trixie and Olive to get slightly acquainted with one another. Olive talked of some of the early stages of her apprenticeship to give an idea to what she would be doing. Surprisingly enough, she would be able to stay with her Aunt and Uncle for the first year as they would be anchored by the Guild until she passed the apprentices test for proficiency in street performance. Trixie was still left in the dark about what her special talent was, but she was reassured that everything she would learn was to help her talent be the best it could be. They all knew that Olive Branch was a traveling magician, but even after seeing a few of his performances and asking about his special talent they were still left in the dark.

“A magician never reveals his secrets.” He replies with a sly smile and a wink.

During that month of waiting, word had spread around her school about her looming apprenticeship. Some of the ponies there were like her in not having their cutie marks yet were envious of her stroke of luck but wished her luck all the same, while the others who did but were not apprenticed tended to keep their distance. The teachers who knew what it was like to be an apprentice gave her encouragement and support when her nerves got the better of her and she went to talk to them.

It seemed like such a short time passed for her, this past year. She still wasn't entirely herself after the passing of her Father, but she knew that she would be a little bit better the next day and so on. Her parents lay at rest, nothing could change that, but she knew they had loved her more than anything. She wanted to make them proud of her, to show them she was alright and could make it on her own merit. For that, she would make the best of what the aged stallion had to teach her.

Trixie was up early, helping around the house as usual in the warm bustle in the back kitchen. Two months have passed since she began her apprenticeship under Olive Branch, but he still hadn't taught her anything about her talent, or so she thought. He had her sew patches, albeit clumsily, on worn traveling cloaks, grind up all colors of pigments into a fine dust that would stain her coat and hooves for days, and glue stacks upon stacks of paper into thin cylinders. She knew she had a test to pass in under a year for street performance, but it seemed like she did nothing but do chores that Olive didn't want to do himself. She said as much to him when she met up with him in the public performance square.

“You know how your Aunt makes such delicious breads Trixie. I should hope so after living with her for so long. Pray tell me what it takes to make a simple loaf of bread.”

“Well you have the flour, water, and the yeast,” she says a little confused, “but what does bread have to do with what we're doing?”

“This is exactly the same. All these little things that seem boring to you right now, are in the fact the ingredients to making a truly spectacular show. You may not see the big picture, but think about it dear. The tubes you glue together hold the confetti and powder you cut and grind after I treat it so it doesn't turn everything it touches that color. The patches you sew on our cloaks now and in the future will keep us dry and warm in bad weather so we don't get sick. There are many other things I have yet to teach you, but for now, you don't have to worry about the test. You're a smart filly, you learn things quickly and if you don't succeed the first time, you keep at it until you do. I have a sneaking suspicion that you won't have to worry about passing the test.” He finishes with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

For a while Trixie is quiet, looking at the ground and scuffing her forehoof against the worn planks of the floor. She looks up with a small smile and nods, reassured by his explanation. I'll have to step up the learning process for this one, he thinks, She's definitely eager to learn.

A week after her talk with Olive Branch, Trixie began her lessons in gymnastics and some minor sleight-of-hoof. It was hard work and slow at first, but she worked at it. Olive started her off with some extensive stretching exercises. Trixie had trouble with these because she had only run a little and done a few minor acrobatic things while in school. After getting the forms memorized, she begins to practice them at home, after she wakes up in the morning, once she gets to Olives wagon and finally before she turns in for the night. It's not long before she's able to match Olive's abilities in acrobatics, but the sleight-of-hoof she only practices with him. Soon she's able to, if clumsily, pull a bit from behind Olive's ear and make a bouquet of flowers appear as if from nowhere.

“Very good Trixie, very good.” Olive says watching her practice in the wagon. “Soon you'll be able to perform as my assistant during my scheduled appearances my dear.”

“Really!?” Trixie says with a look of ecstatic happiness lighting up her face.

“Yes my dear,” he says with a chuckle, “Lets give it a few more days. You can help me this upcoming Saturday.”

“This is great! I can't wait until I tell my Aunt about this!” She yells as she hops around excitedly, Olive smiling at her enthusiasm.

That Saturday was a cold in a brittle way. There was a layer of ephemeral frost covering everything, but under the harsh sunlight it quickly melts and evaporates leaving the a world duller place. The preparations are made right on the cusp of dawn by Olive and Trixie, placing the filled paper tubes in little boxes hidden behind the carved front of the platform. After setting the stage for their performance, the pair goes behind the platform to stretch since the chill has made their muscles rather stiff. After warming up a bit, Olive coaches Trixie in what she'll be doing once again in the order of acrobatics and behind the scenes manipulation. By the end, she ends up more nervous than excited and she says as much to Olive.

“Never fear if something goes awry dear. Sometimes it's the mistakes misfortunes during an act that makes it memorable. You just have to be quick of mind and wit to turn it to your advantage. I've made some truly spectacular mistakes during my performances, but I never let them stop me from performing again. Never beat yourself up for a mistake Trixie, it only leads you down a path that's good for nopony.” He says with a serious expression but a kind smile to let her know he's speaking from experience. She just nods with a look of determination on her face. “Now remember to smile my dear, and to keep a spring in your step as you're my sprightly young crier to help me gather a crowd.”

From that point on, the day seemed to pass in a blur of bright light and happiness. Being as bone tired as only a young pony can be after a day starting at the crack of dawn can be, Olive escorts her back home to help her get to know the fatigue that will likely be her constant companion over the next few years. Trixie, barely awake, makes her way up to her room and promptly goes to sleep.

From that day onwards, she now has the responsibility of not only assisting Olive, but her other duties assigned to her previously as well and magic lessons on top of that. These new lessons revolve around illusions and subtle manipulations. She knows complaining won't help her at all, so she goes about doing things when she finds a lull in between shows and lessons from Olive. At first, she's finishing all of her allotted chores close to and sometimes after midnight. On those nights, she simply sleeps on the small cot given to her near the front of the wagon. As she gets more proficient in her chores and in managing her time, she soon finishes before ten o'clock and is able to trudge back to her Aunts home.

I wonder how Olive has made it so far, she thinks to herself as she lies in bed too fatigued to quickly fall asleep. All of the seemingly endless things that needs done before his next performance, having to stay up far later than anypony should just to finish up everything that needs done for the next day? She shivers at the thought of sleepless nights grinding away at powders and stitching up rips in costumes. Her thoughts trail off as she falls asleep, dreaming of the day she stands alone on the stage, Olive beaming in pride at her successful debut performance in the audience.

Trixie is awake two hours before dawn. She had spent the night again in the wagon with Olive after a long night of extra preparations. She hadn't been up that late in months aside from the late nights trying to master the spells he taught her. It was the morning of her street performers license test at the guild and the anticipation, stresses and sheer excitement left her little time for her to sleep. The order would be drawn by lots with no forewarning, so each pony would feel the same tension of a looming performance. That was even a part of the test as Olive had told her. She gets out of her cot as quietly as she can and goes outside to stretch and practice her acrobatics. As she closes the door, Olive raises his head, smiles and turns back in with memories of his own initiation and the trials and toils he went through as well.

There they were. At the reception desk to the guild. This was it. Olive checked them in and leads her down a side hallway. She had been given a tour soon after becoming an apprentice, but her mind was filled with a white noise as anticipation and nerves pushed all thought from her mind. They soon came to rest outside of a pair of age darkened double doors, other pairs of masters and apprentices here for the testing as well. Olive leads her past them and into a side room that's unoccupied and closes the door behind them.

“I think it's time for you to look the part of an aspiring performer my dear.” He says with a smile. Before they had left, he spent a little extra time inside of his wagon and came out with a slightly bulging saddlebag under his cloak. It was from this that he pulls out a small cloak, light blue and shimmering as he drapes it across his foreleg. The look in her eyes changes from her slightly dazed and unfocused stare to full attention as she gasps at the gift.

“Olive,” she says as tears of happiness well up in her eyes, “Thank you so much!”

She runs forward, completely ignoring the shimmering cloak to throw her forelegs around his neck in a tight hug. Olive chuckles gently at her enthusiasm at the gift and pushes her back with his free hoof. “You can thank me by going out there and showing them all I taught you my dear. You have your materials with you I take it?” She nods, dropping her own set of saddlebags with a slight thump. “Good. Now lets get you settled into your new mantle.” He says with a glow of magic taking up the cloak and settling it over the younger pony. Upon closer examination on the interior, it consists of two large folds of a darker blue fabric, longer and folded back into the hem of the lighter colored fabric. This darker fabric is sewn all over with pockets of all sizes and volumes.

“It may be a bit much for your first time with it, but I have faith you'll know what to do. It's not too much of a jump from your practice cloaks, just make sure you're comfortable with your placement.”

She nods enthusiastically and promptly sits down to put everything she had brought with her in a pocket. She had been working with different cloaks with all kinds of pockets in them this last month and had started to get a system down for her props. Once she has everything tucked way, and a final adjustment to make sure it's balanced properly, she sets her face in a determined look and nods to Olive that she's ready. Olive takes her saddlebags and they leave the side room together. During their time aside, more masters and their apprentices had arrived. They all look at the odd pair with looks ranging from condescension to disbelief that they would even be there.

“You're still taking on apprentices Olive?” Says a middle aged pegasus, an eyebrow raised and a smug smirk across his face. “I had thought you retired years ago.”

“Apprentices are always worth the effort, retirement will come when my hooves tire of the road and my joints no longer move. Then I'll be long gone from this world and satisfied with my lot at that.” He replies coldly, barely making a cursory glance in the offending pony's direction. The only response he gets is a muffled snort of derision. Trixie doesn't know of the raging competitiveness amongst the various performers yet, so she stays silent and follows Olive at the end of the line.

A few minutes pass and the doors open, a clerk ushering the ponies through the doors. They walk into a middling auditorium with a shell shaped amphitheater at the far end. They proceed down the middle aisle in pairs and part, masters to sit along one side of the front row seats with the judging masters sitting in the other half, and the apprentices lead up a side staircase and behind the scenes. Once there, they're instructed to remain silent and respectful of the other apprentices, to enter the stage promptly when their name is called and to exit the stage via the opposite side once their time is done and to wait there respectfully until all the applicants have completed their examinations. With that, the clerk leaves and a powerful silence descends on the young ponies. It seems as though time begins to stretch for them, all but Trixie showing their nerves by fidgeting while she surreptitiously stretches and mentally reviews what she'll do for her performance.

“Stratos Dancer, please take the stage for your test.” Calls a rich voice. A pegasus around Trixies age jumps slightly and nervously walks onto the stage. From their vantage, they're left unable to see due to a curtain. They hear various whooshing sounds and thuds as he performs for his test. “Very good Apprentice Dancer, you may relinquish the stage.” The same voice says. A small round of applause accompanies his conclusion, silence descends again.

“Trixillianna Lulamoon, please take the stage for your test.” Her heart pounds in her chest, it's her time to show everypony what Olive had taught her. Quickly with a burst of magic, she levitates five medium sized paper tubes from her cloak, placing them equidistant from one another in a slight semi-circle. She holds them there temporarily before detonating them in a cloud of light are dark blue powder and silvery confetti. Using this for cover, she quickly dashes from behind cover while keeping low and tumbles through the thickest part, coming up on three legs with her right foreleg reared in a position of action. She twirls quickly backwards, magic flaring again as she pulls a bouquet from the back of her cloak and as she flourished it causes a small cloud of flower petals to accompany its sudden appearance. She smiles and with a quick glance lofts the bouquet to the single mare judge she sees with a flourish of her cloak. From that position, she pushes off with her other foreleg into a back flip and quickly pops three brightly colored balls from her cloak and begins to juggle. Quickly following, she adds a fourth, then a fifth and then she lets her magic do the work as she takes all of the balls and flings them into the air, creating multiple illusory copies of each ball. The effect is like a small firework display and then a multicolored patchwork parade as each colored ball group begins to bounce and weave in intricate patterns, the actual balls having dropped to the stage floor.

Now to bring out the show stopper. She thinks, panting heavily and sweating profusely from the sheer amount of magic she's using.

Her horn flares blindingly bright as another collection of colored clouds of powders explode, these clouds are light blue a metallic silver and a smaller one of deep maroon. After drifting aimlessly for a short moment, they begin to move with purpose, swirling and reshaping quickly into the shape of the little pony on stage. Only this pony is several times the size of the one who was on stage who is nowhere to be seem. The larger pony opens her eyes looking out at the crowd and rears, hooves flashing before slowing to a stop and cascading down and around the pony who stands in the same position as her avatar. She just stands there, panting heavily, sweat slicking her sides. She stands there for a few moments, silence filling the auditorium.

“Ahem...” Cough-cough. “That. That will be all Apprentice Lulamoon, you may relinquish the stage.”

No applause accompanies the words. She turns in the silence a feeling of warm lightness enfolding her, a gentle ringing in her ears. Her mind remains blank as she waits with a slightly shell-shocked looking Stratos Dancer. From their position, they can see the stage unobstructed. A quick wave of magic tidily cleans up the thin coats of color and confetti left on the stage. She stands near the back of the area, head hanging slightly as she stares into the middle distance. Time seems to have no meaning to Trixie as she stands there amid the quiet whispers of Stratos and her other fellow apprentices. Without her noticing, all the apprentices are now there. A quiet wind of whispers fills their small waiting area as the judges collaborate upon their decisions.

“All apprentices, take the stage and form a line. We will now deliver our verdict.”

They file out together, Trixie near the rear and still in a daze. The stallion standing before the stage possesses the rich voice they had all heard.

“You are all very talented ponies, there is no doubt of that in our minds. You have all shown us what you have learned from your Masters and how you made these lessons your own. As such, you all have passed the test for street performance proficiency.” He pauses for a short moment as the young ponies cheer. He clears his throat for silence. “But, there is amongst you a very special young mare whose talent is a bright and shining star amongst your stellar performances. Apprentice Lulamoon, step forward please.”

What?! She brings her head up sharply at the mention of her name.

“We award you the award for most talented apprentice. We hope to see your application for full Guild membership in five years.” He finishes with a warm smile.

She was stunned. Trixie was standing in the office of the Guild leader for traveling and stationed magicians with Olive. After being led into the office, she soon finds out that the award is accompanied by a plaque to be displayed amongst the youth member awards for perpetuity, a seventy-five bit cash prize for both Apprentice and Master, and after taking off her sweat dampened cloak that she had attained her cutie mark. It was a five-pointed star-tipped wand before a swirling star dust colored cloak. It was the day she would remember as the beginning of the rest of her life.

Olive has had many apprentices over the years, all of which he had treated as though they were his own family. Many of them had gone off to royal courts and prestigious theaters while some had chosen the never-ending journey of road magicians like himself. Each having talents that he had helped guide them to. Each is a warm, pride filled memory for him. But this young filly who he had found in a alley being bullied, frightened and alone, has become a mare prodigious talent.

Now for the real test. He thought that night as he relaxed at the small table in his wagon with a tall bottle and a short glass, moonlight angling through the small window and reflecting off of the dark liquid in the glass. How well will she do with only me and herself to rely upon, traveling of her own volition and surrounded by strangers and dangers? Will she break under the pressure? Or will she be a mare of shining talent?

Olive takes the glass in hoof, pausing halfway to his mouth as he watched the shaky reflection on its surface for a short moment, then downs its contents in one swallow.

Author's Note:

Next time? The journey that will sculpt this pony into the mare you know.