Equestria's Got Talent

by BudCharles

Extinguishing The Competition

Carefully, Gold Star levitated an apple across Twilight's 'cutie map room' and into Trixie's hoof. Once it landed, he leaped into the air with joy, forgetting his horn was still glowing, and splattered the apple all over the roof. Woops. Gold Star frowned as he stared up at the ceiling, and the newest member of the graveyard of apples that now coated the room.

"Uh, good... job" Trixie half-heartedly said as she panicked to brush as much apple juice off her cape as she could. "You're... improving."

Gold Star smiled widely at the words of encouragement. Trixie, the most awesome unicorn ever, thought he did a good job!

"Of course, the performance of Trixie's student must be flawless in the finals, and this was far from flawless-" Trixie began, before quickly interrupting herself upon noticing Gold Star's smile turning back to a frown, "-so you must... uh... practice more to become even more great and powerful!"

He smiled again, nice save!

-✩-

The competition itself went pretty much as expected for rounds three and four, no dramas or strange turns. The quality got better each time though, and once the finals came around, every act was as good as Trixie and Gold Stars'. There were acts that completely defied logic - mind-reading and self-duplication. There were acts so daring and dangerous they made even Rainbow Dash cover his eyes. And acts that so perfectly blended magic and technology that the two became like one force of glowy amazingness.

Trixie and Gold Star would have to do something truly extraordinary to succeed, and there they were, still practicing how to throw a piece of fruit straight. Trixie was trying not to let on her frustration, but it was pretty obvious that she was frustrated. Every day she saw a news article or poster about some amazing acts, and wondered why she decided to team up with the colt in the first place.

Then the worst possible thing happened...

-✩-

"I'm sorry Trixie!" Gold Star cried out, knocking at the unicorn's bedroom door at five in the morning.

Confused and still ninety-five percent asleep, Trixie stumbled to the door and opened it. She was wearing Twilight's spare flower-covered pajamas, which at any other time would have been hilarious, but Gold Star was too busy with his own predicament to notice.

"Trixie doesn't like to be disturbed, what's going on?" Trixie snapped. "This better not be another book Twilight!"

She looked down and finally detected Gold Star, who was in tears and with an opened letter sitting in his pocket.

"W-What happened?" Trixie asked, her voice softened but also more awkward. She had no idea how to handle the situation.

"I'm useless at magic, the other ponies were right, and I shouldn't be holding you back!"

"Hey wait, what are you talking about? No student of Trixie's is useless!"

"I'm giving up, I'm sorry. I'm going back to Canterlot!"

"No, Gold Star, wait!" Trixie didn't know what to say, but she decided to try and speak anyway. "Trixie would not even be in the competition if you didn't help her. Trixie made it all the way to the finals because of your magic!"

"But you're just going to get humiliated, I'm going to stuff something up, and then everyone will think you're bad at magic, and you're not bad at magic, you're the awesomest magician ever!"

Gold Star raced up to Trixie and hugged her, tears streaming down his face like some kind of dam leak.

Trixie took a deep breath, and thought to herself. What would Twilight say? Little did Trixie know that whenever she was in a mood, Twilight would think to herself, what would Celestia say?

"Gold Star, you know what? Trixie has made mistakes too."

"Really?" Gold Star sniffed, looking up at Trixie in disbelief.

"Yeah, Trixie has made lots of mistakes." Trixie grimaced at the fact she'd have to elaborate on what they were, she had enjoyed a pony actually believing she was perfect for once, but it had to be said. "Once Trixie bragged about something she didn't actually do - and many ponies' lives and homes were put at risk because of her actions; and another time, Trixie tried to drive Twilight Sparkle out of her own town, just out of jealousy for all the ponies who admired her."

"You wouldn't do any of that!" Gold Star argued, still in complete disbelief.

"Trixie knows it's hard to believe, but she really did those things - and learned from her mistakes. Not that Trixie has made many mistakes of course, but she's made some, everypony does."

Gold Star hugged Trixie again, wiped away his tears, and jumped up and down as if nothing had happened. "Okay, I'll keep trying, and learn just like you Trixie!"

"Okay, well, Trixie will see you in a couple of hours alright."

"Okay!" Gold Star squeaked, bouncing away from the room. Trixie put her hoof on her head and collapsed back onto her bed. Thank the princesses that was over.

-✩-

Trixie took a deep breath. On the other side of the curtains were over ten thousand ponies. If this went well, every pony in Equestria would know her name. If it didn't - she quickly shook the thought of her head. She was Trixie. She was the Great and Powerful Trixie. It had to work out. This was her chance.

Gold Star was even more nervous, he was absolutely trembling. If the night went wrong, he was sure it'd be his fault. He mentally went over all the spells he needed, all the tactics he used to keep the power under control. He covered everything, but had an ominous feeling he'd forgotten something, like the feeling somepony gets when they're leaving a motel - they think something got left behind, but they didn't know what it is.

BOOM! The entire stage shook and screaming and the stomping of hooves could be heard as ponies fled the scene. Trixie and Gold Star raced out to see half the stage was had collapsed in a ball of fire, and two ponies were trapped in the wreckage - Gold Star's old friends.

Gold Star didn't think twice - he jumped straight into the middle of the flames to save them, but as he panicked, his water spell over-fired, causing a huge amount of smoke to engulf the stage. Trixie raced in - cape and all - to find Gold Star. Her eyes glowed as she launched a huge bubble of magic, blasting away the smoke to reveal the three young ponies - unconscious but uninjured as well. Gold Star had his arms protectively wrapped around his friends.

Trixie turned her young student onto his side, and he coughed a few times before shakily getting up. The crowd, that had re-gathered around the stage, cheered in a mixture of joy and relief.

-✩-

The next few hours were a blur, the Royal Guard arrived to look for any signs of changeling involvement, Gold Star and his friends were rushed to Canterlot Childrens' Hospital and Trixie rushed there with them. That's all Trixie really remembered, and all she cared about. Her friend - no - yes - her friend was alright.

The next morning, a very flustered young doctor raced into Gold Star's room.

"Is this where Trixie Lulamoon and Gold Star are staying?" he asked breathlessly.

"Yes, that's correct, this is the location of the Great and Powerful Trixie."

Wow, humble, the doctor thought to himself.

"Are we free to go?"

"Um, well, yes, your results were all fine but uh, someone would, uh, like to see you."

The doctor scampered out of the room and bowed enthusiastically. Princess Celestia calmly told him to continue with his normal duties and entered the room.

"Princess!" Gold Star exclaimed, trying to figure out how to bow while still in bed. Trixie, who had been sitting on the floor, was able to bow much more quickly.

"Please, there's no need for that," Celestia smiled with all the brightness of her sun, "I'm here to congratulate you on your efforts yesterday night. Had it not been for both your actions, two ponies would not be here now. I must have a talk with them about their own actions, but I dropped in to invite you to a special awards ceremony this afternoon."

-✩-

Trixie! Trixie! Trixie! the huge crowd of ponies chanted with enthusiasm as said unicorn stepped out onto the royal balcony.

Gold! Gold! Gold! they continued as Trixie's student walked out behind her, and climbed up onto her back to get a better view, before scampering back down when he realised how high up they were.

Princesses Twilight and Celestia followed behind them and the crowd quietened down and bowed in acknowledgement. It did seem rather over the top to Celestia, all the bowing that plagued her life on a regular basis, but at least it got ponies to listen, and Luna seemed to enjoy the custom. Anything that made her sister feel more comfortable in the modern world was worth it, it was the least she could do.

Celestia gestured for the crowd to stand up, and began speaking.

"I'd like to thank you all for being present on such short notice. This is quite a unique occasion, and one that is worth celebrating. Quite often our princesses, our element bearers and our brave soldiers are willing to fight for our protection - to jump in and help when somepony needs saving - and we should all value the contributions they make on a daily basis.

However, it's really something special when one or two ordinary members of our community step up and risk everything to help others - and that's exactly what Gold Star and Trixie did last night. They may not have had a chance to compete in the finals, but they will be receiving a much greater prize. For their bravery, on behalf of all my little ponies, I offer them the highest honor I can, the Medallion of the Three Tribes, symbolising their contribution to uniting and caring for all the ponies in Equestria."

The crowd cheered wildly as both ponies were presented with a medallion - Gold Star by Celestia and Trixie by Twilight. The two of them waved joyously to the crowd outside.

Twilight Sparkle smiled at her student proudly. Trixie didn't say anything, but Twilight knew what she was thinking. Maybe friendship is pretty good after all.

Author's Note:

Here we go, the disjointed scenes again, I thought I'd gotten past that but apparently not :/ Sorry guys. I hope you liked the story anyway ^w^ I think the rest of it went alright, just the pacing is bizarre, and I don't really know why, I just can't connect scenes together.

I don't know if you saw the plot twist coming, you probably all did XD But I felt I had to do something other than just have them plain out win the competition because that would be way too obvious and not really do anything part 3 hasn't done already.

I think an epilogue is in order so that's why it still says "incomplete" :P