Live in Tranquility

by StayAwhileAndListen

Remembrance

There had been a time before Trixie had struck out on her own. She had been a mere filly, living in Canterlot with her parents. Every day she had studied basic magic, determined to gain entrance to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Every new spell she mastered was a treat, for she could run off to go and perform it for all of the less magically inclined foals at her school. They had always been so easy to impress, so long as none of the snooty unicorn girls showed up to heckle.

They were the ones she tried to hide her new spells from, older mares who had already learned way more than she could have known at the time!

She told herself that they were only better because they were older, that she would show them when her time came. She was going to be a powerful wizard!

She just needed to pass her entrance exam first.

“You call that impressive? Any unicorn who can't do that might as well just throw their horn in the trash!”

“You'll never get accepted with that!”

“They're going to laugh you out of town!”

–

Trixie awoke with a start, her heart pounding hard enough that she could feel every individual beat reverberate through her chest. Her head throbbed with a sharp pain that made her wince, as she gently rubbed the spot with a lone hoof. She could feel the cold stone beneath her, pressing into her side and leaving her shoulder with a dull ache whenever she shifted it.

She was no longer outside, and obviously she was no longer within the comfort of her cozy carriage. Surrounded by stone walls on all sides, and enshrouded entirely in darkness, Trixie quickly realized that she had been placed into some kind of prison. She couldn't even see the walls in front of her, but it wasn't too difficult to discern how small the room was when she didn't even have enough room to properly stand or take a few steps. Reaching up with a hoof, she could feel something else, hard and slightly damp, the best she could assume was that it had to be the door!

She waved her hooves around frantically in a manner that likely looked rather silly, searching for the handle in a desperate attempt to escape whatever prison this demented town had thrown her into. Luckily she found the handle rather quickly, just an average metal handle that felt as though a bit of its plating had chipped away. Using her own magic, a soft glow emanated from her horn as she used it to grip a hold of that handle, trying her best to turn it, and giving a rather annoyed sigh when the knob refused to budge.

“Locked.” Trixie mumbled to herself, as the entirety of the situation started to catch up to her. She stood up tall on her back two hooves, one of the only ways to actually have a decent amount of room to move inside of that space, “Hey! This isn’t funny anymore! The Great and Powerful Trixie demands to be set free! Are any of you mules listening to me out there?! Somepony open this bucking door!”

There was no answer, likely not even a single soul out there able to hear her anyway. It didn’t stop her attempts to get the attention of absolutely anypony she could. Trixie’s screams only grew louder, her own fear growing as nothing came. No help, no hoof beats from the other side of the door, not even an angry voice yelling at her to shut up. She just kept pounding upon the door, at times even attempting to use her own magic to force it off of its hinges, to no avail.

“Please! I’m still stuck in here!” How long had she been in that tiny room? Had they just locked her in and left her to rot? In the back of her mind she knew there was nopony on the other side of that door, but the rest of her just felt that if she kept trying to bust it down, to scream and yell for attention, that maybe, just maybe she could get herself free.

She lost track of time, not that there was any way to actually keep track of it in a room so dark that even when her eyes adjusted she could barely see her own hoof in front of her face. Her throat had gone hoarse, and she had worn her legs out to the point of just slowly banging her head against the door, “Anypony... Trixie is still here...”

It wasn’t much longer before the Great and Powerful Trixie finally gave up, just flopping down onto her side, legs curled up and burning with pain. She had overdone it for sure, but she had just wanted so badly to get herself freed. Trixie still wanted to free herself, as without her own constant screaming and pounding, the tiny cell grew rather eerily silent.

Being left alone with nothing but one’s own thoughts in a dangerous situation was unfortunately rather self-destructive. A pony couldn’t help but begin to wonder if somepony would come back for her. Perhaps they would, but even then, would that truly be preferable to remaining alone there? What if outside of that small enclosed space was her own demise, just waiting for somepony to drag her out? The growing migraine was more than enough reason to believe that anypony who could come for her in such a place would very likely be equally as violent as the stallion who had knocked her unconscious.

Trixie shut her eyes as a quiet whimper escaped from her dry throat. She was exhausted from her escape attempts, and the sudden grumbling of her stomach didn’t help calm her down any either. She hadn’t eaten in at least several hours, having pushed through much of the afternoon and evening just to try and get herself to Greenhoof. To think she had been so sure of her self that day, ready for anything the world could have thrown at her.

And now there she lay, hunger pangs hitting her, throat parched and her head pounding in a room too cramped to properly even stand in.

She was going to die there, rotted away in some tiny hole in a wall.

–

The day of Trixie’s entrance exam had come, and the poor filly had been stuck waiting out in a hallway, watching one by one as other young fillies and foals her age went in to impress the board. She had ended up next to last on the list of potential students, and though she had entered into that building confident in her abilities, she had grown only more and more nervous as pony after pony left their exam, head hanging down in shame as the instructors inside would coldly yell out, “Next!”

She could feel the energy draining from those halls as time passed, eventually only herself and her father left. Trixie had started to get up, heading over for the door, as she noticed one more filly who had been given her chance first.

There hadn’t been a single smiling face leaving the exam room that morning, and by that point Trixie had started to consider leaving, the harsh words of the older ponies still fresh in her mind.

Then she stopped herself, as she realized that she was quickly letting herself fall into the same trap! She needed to believe in herself, she had practiced for almost a full year in preparation to join a real magic school! Those other fillies and foals just hadn’t worked hard enough, or let themselves choke.

Taking a deep breath, she watched the young purple unicorn enter into the exam room. The poor thing hadn’t even gained her cutie mark yet, a sure sign that her test was doomed before it even began. Trixie had received her months earlier, a large showy magic wand that she had been sure to show off to nearly every pony in all of Canterlot! She was born to do magic, to become a great and powerful wizard!

With newfound confidence, she smiled up at her father, more prepared than ever to pass whatever challenge they could throw her way.

Confidence quickly gave way to shock and awe as the entire hall was rocked by what sounded like an explosion! She and her father rushed over to the window, watching in silence together as a magnificent, circular rainbow spread over the entire sky.

“Incredible...” Trixie’s mouth hung wide open as the spectacle hung in the air for only brief moments before dissipating away, though lost in awe, she had managed to ignore the bright flashes that shot through the window of the door to the exam room. By the time she had run back to it, she could hear... talking?

“I’ve never seen a filly with such marvelous talent!” An adult voice exclaimed, excitement dripping from his tone.

“I can’t believe we actually found a student this year! Somepony who could even impress the Princess!” Another said, obviously one of the exam proctors, “There’s one applicant left on the list.”

“I say we just end the exams right now, what could she possibly show us to improve upon that? Celestia found her pupil, let this one try again next year.”

Were they planning on skipping her?! Just because that blank flank managed to get in? No, she couldn’t allow such a thing to happen! Trixie had to get accepted!

“WAIT!” The filly girl yelled as she ran directly into the door, slamming into it and forcing it wide open, “You can’t just throw me out before I can show you everything I've learned!” She had studied so hard, she had worked for so long, despite what others had said about her skills never being good enough. She couldn’t let it end so suddenly!

Unfortunately, on the other side of that door had not been the waiting exam room, but instead an infinite voice of nothing that she had stumbled directly into, and found herself quickly being pulled through. She let out a scream, this couldn’t possibly have been happening! She had never even gotten her chance!

A calm, almost affectionate voice whispered into her ear, “It’s okay Trixie. Such ambition can only serve to drag you down. Your emotions will never let you live down the humiliations you’ve been forced to suffer. Wouldn’t it just be easier to do away with them?”

–

*CLICK*

Trixie’s eye’s fluttered back opened to the sound of a rather ear splitting squeaking of metal hinges, though she had to shut them nearly immediately as light penetrated into her tiny cell. She had no idea what was going on, but as she dared to open her eyes again, she could only see the door, practically wedged up to her face. Sliding back up to the back wall of the tiny room, she saw a red stallion staring back at her. His eye’s narrowed as he looked down at her, lips curled into a rather tight frown.

“Get up and get out of there, before they come back.”

Even half asleep, in pain, hungry and extremely thirsty, Trixie didn’t waste another second before leaping out of that hellhole.

Comments

[Alex Warlorn]

Yeah. I'm not the first to imagine Trixie was going to take the entrance examine just before Twilight Sparkle. To be frank, this fits her much more than Starlight Glimmer. The way she says 'their precious' cutie marks, implies she still sees cutie marks as something vile.

But REALISTICALLY, shouldn't Trixie have been bombarded by propaganda all that time?