This cage is disgusting. I’ve been living in it for well over a week, I’m sure of it now. I think I was right when I thought it could be close to a month.
My stomach is growling – as usual. The only time I get food is either when I’m about to perform, or if I haven’t eaten for a long time. I can’t say how long, because I can’t measure the days.
If I ever get out of this cage, I will make Trixie pay for what she’s done to me. I’m sure that if it wasn’t for her healing magic I wouldn’t be able to move at the moment, considering how much pain she’s inflicted upon me – but then again, I’m no doctor. If I can’t get home, then I’ll never be anything more than a piano-playing slave.
This is all Trixie’s fault, she brought me here – and those bastard ponies that watch my show. They don’t even care! They either pay their bits to Trixie, or just throw them at me – A few even point and laugh. I can’t believe it. The show was never this grim. Ever.
I’m still not sure if this is all real. It definitely feels real, but this is all just too… impossible. What if I’ve had a stroke? I think the only thing that I can be sure of is that something’s wrong. Whether I’m in a stroke-induced coma or I’m actually a slave remains to be seen.
Trixie will be back soon. She normally comes back after I’ve been alone for this long. It must be hard for her to forget what happened the last time she left me alone for too long.
***
Three weeks ago…
“Wake up, human.” Trixie’s voice barks as a force that feels both cold and warm at the same time takes hold of my chest, dragging me into a sitting position.
My eyes don’t flutter open like the last time I woke up. I’m in much more pain than before – mostly around the face, coincidentally.
“Wake up, Human.” Trixie’s voice demands, the same force envelopes my eyelids, and they snap open.
My head is swimming, and my gaze can’t focus properly.
“Ugh…” I moan slightly, realizing that my lower face and neck feels wet… and sticky… “Sticky…”
“You can hear me.” Trixie isn’t asking… and that confuses me. Is she looking for confirmation to that statement, or does she somehow know it to be a fact?
Well, she get’s her confirmation anyway. As I sluggishly ponder what she had just said, a little groan slips out of my mouth.
“Excellent.” Trixie’s voice shifts closer, and I see a hazy shape in front of my unfocused eyes.
Suddenly, something hard strikes me in the forehead, and my eyes suddenly find focus, showing Trixie’s face only twenty centimetres from mine, her hoof retracting from my head.
“Ugh… Trixie…” I mumble, slumping to one side in my daze.
“You earned that punishment, human.” She spat – literally spat – into my eye.
If I had been any more lucid, I would have flown into a rage at the indignity of having Trixie spit in my eye. As it is, my mouth morphs into an unsteady scowl, and I clumsily reach up to wipe the saliva off my face.
In the process of removing Trixie’s saliva, I accidentally brush the side of my nose, drawing a sudden and sharp stab of agony that makes my head spin.
“Agh!” I cry out as I wrench my hand away, cringing in pain and dragging my legs closer to me away. The hand is stained with blood.
Trixie’s disinterested look doesn’t change as I stare at my hand, and then tentatively poke out my tongue.
I hesitantly curve my tongue upwards and dab the tip against the liquid covering my lower face. It’s blood.
Trixie’s expression remains unchanged as I slowly piece together the facts, realise that my nose is broken from the fall, and turn to look at her again.
“My… My nose?”
Trixie shrugs. “Consider that something to remind you who is in charge here. Now then, lets get this straight: I don’t care who you are where you come from. Here, you are mine, and you will do what I say. I don’t care how you know of my world, or what you know. You’re here to do my bidding, and that is the end of it.”
I have no retort to offer, as I have returned to staring blankly at the blood on my hand. I wasn’t scared of blood, but seeing it on my hand just looked… weird… shocking, for some reason – which was odd. I’ve seen my blood many times before this.
Not acknowledging my silence, Trixie continued her speech.
“And my bidding is for you to play... This.” She moved to one side, drawing my attention to the stained piano sitting in the corner of the cage.
“What?” I shake my head in confusion. “Why?”
Trixie held up one hoof and twitched it from side-to-side. “Ponies can’t play the piano without magic – and with magic we play it very, very badly. Only baby dragons and griffons have the appendages necessary to play the piano – and they aren’t really suited for the task. It’s always confounded me as to why we created the infernal instrument when nopony can use it properly.”
I feel like pointing out the reason they have pianos is because this is a human-made cartoon show, but that will most likely just enrage her.
“But humans… Well, your hands are perfect.” Trixie seemed to purr. “I realised that if I could find a human, I could use it to draw a crowd. Everypony would be astounded by such amazing dexterity and skills.” She smiled sickly. “And now I have you.”
“Do you really think that everyone will just let you get away with turning me into a slave?” I finally find my voice – and with it comes my temper.
“Only one way to find out.” Trixie’s smile widens, taking on a demented look in the bad lighting. “But first, I want you to play.”
“Play?” My temper flares. “You broke my nose! I’m not going to play for you!”
Trixie’s smile doesn’t change. “Well, that was easy. Now I know that you can play.
I fall silent. Did I just get tricked by Trixie? Yes. Yes I did.
“Anyway, I need to know just how well humans are able to play this confounded instrument, so you will play.”
“The hell I will.” I glare at the piano in the corner, and then at Trixie – before it dawns on me.
Trixie is in the cage. She’s less than two meters away. I could knock her unconscious right now and escape.
My rage takes over as I realise I can make a break for freedom, and I dive towards the piano, planning to grab the stool and throw it at my captor.
I don’t even make it halfway to the stool before my vision is obscured by the aura of Trixie’s magic.
“Pathetic.” Trixie’s magic lifts me into the air, and then slams me none-to-gently against the bars of the cage.
She turns me painfully against the bars so that I’m facing her.
“Well, I was planning to leave this lesson for later, but I can see that we won’t be getting anywhere unless you understand your position in our… arrangement.”
My head is swimming from its impact with the bars, depriving me of any retort - although it doesn’t stop me from expressing my fury with an ugly and animalistic snarl.
“Now then, I suppose that if you know about me, then you know about the three ponies – Earth, unicorn and Pegasus. Well, each species has its own magical ‘field’. The unicorns have their horns, the earth ponies have their ability to interact with nature, and the Pegasi have their ability to control the clouds.”
“So?” I mumble half heartedly, recovering from my daze.
“Well…” Trixie continued, creasing her brow. “There’s an obvious imbalance in the scale of power. The Unicorns can actively command theirs, and have a much larger ‘reservoir’ than the others. The Pegasus can walk on clouds and live in the sky, and the Earth ponies are simply good with animals and farming. You would think that the Unicorns would be able to control of the other two by using their superior magic.”
I say nothing. She’s starting to lose me, and I really don’t see what this has to do with our situation.
“Well they don’t. In fact, the three pony species co-exist, and the Unicorns will never be able to take control – even if Celestia wasn’t here to keep order.” Trixie leaves Celestia unexplained. Whether she assumes I already know of her, or simply doesn’t care, I do not know.
“The reason for this, is because when Unicorns use their magic on something we must first overwhelm the magic of whatever we are trying to influence with their own, which is why we can manipulate inanimate objects so easily. Other ponies are a different matter.”
My eyes widen slightly, as I realise what Trixie is leading up to.
“Controlling a pony is very difficult. Sure, it’s easy enough to manipulate limbs and other body parts, but seizing control of the mind is much more difficult. By the time a Unicorn has ‘negated’ another ponies’ natural magic reserves, they normally have very little magic left to properly control their new servant. It’s all a very complicated system. There are entire research fields dedicated to the subject.”
The expression of rage on my face is gone now, replaced by a look of utter shock at what she’s implying.
Trixie starts to smile again, and I am surprised by how much this lecture reminds me of Twilight Sparkle – if she were demented and insane.
“So the fun part here, is that-”
“-Is that humans have no inner magic to fight back with.” I finish the lecture for her, hoping that she’s going to deny what I’m saying and deliver some less soul-crushing conclusion than the one I’ve reached.
Trixie breaks into a full grin – her eyes glinting with delight at the look of hopelessness on my face.
“Exactly.” She replies smugly as my heart skips a beat and drops into my scuffed and tattered shoes. “I can seize control of your brain whenever I want – and make you do whatever I want.” She nodded towards the piano, referring to what she wants me to do.
“The magic isn’t perfect. There’s no such thing as precision control when you’re bucking around in someponies head, but I can still make you do what I want.”
Deciding to illustrate her point, Trixie releases me, and I collapse onto my knees, not anticipating the return of control.
Of course, my first thought is of attacking before she can do any-
My thought stops dead.
There’s something inside my head. It doesn’t feel cold, or warm, or painful or nice, but there’s definitely something there… a presence. It’s like having a little bit of extra pressure on the inside of my skull.
“Do you feel that?” Trixie gloats. “That’s me inside your head. I can make you do whatever I want.”
“Whatever you-” I stop as I suddenly raise an arm. There’s no aura surrounding any part of me, and yet I am unable to make my arm return to my side.
My mind is reeling from the info-dump that Trixie has just delivered, while I bewilderedly stare at my arm.
“You…” I trail off, and turn to look at my captor once more.
Trixie smiles at me. “So, now that we have that sorted out…” She takes a few steps away from me and gestures towards the piano. “Play.”
Author's Note:
Okay, a shorter chapter today. It's basically an info-dump explaining how Trixie's going to be doing things. I'm just setting up for the rest of the story.
I think I caught any mistakes. Feel free (as always) to point them out so that I can fix them.
(By the way, I don't get why so many people insist on the idea of Trixie speaking in 3rd person ALL THE TIME. I disagree with the idea. *shrug* It just seems unlikely to me)
Writing as Trixie is kinda fun. There's a little elbow-room with her personality because she only appeared in one episode, and only showed one defining characteristic. Because there's no way ANYONE can be dominated by a single characteristic, I can have some fun with her personality.
I have never hated Trixie more than I do now.
We need Princess Celestia to say, "I sense a disturbance in the force..." and come and beat Trixie's flank.
So, this is how the Stare works.
Also, I can't wait for the inevitable ass kicking trixie is going to get. Also, I wonder if a touch of stockholm syndrome will kick in.
Trixie you magnificent bitch.
827475
It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The Regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin
He says, "Son, can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes."
La la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum
Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright
Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he's quick with a joke or to light up your smoke
But there's someplace that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As the smile ran away from his face
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place"
Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum
And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it's better than drinkin' alone
Sing us a song you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well we're all in the mood for a melody
And you got us feeling alright
Now Paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And he's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life
It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been comin' to see
To forget about life for a while
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"
Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum
Sing us a song you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well we're all in the mood for a melody
And you got us feeling alright.
Well...
It appears that he's going to have to get very clever, very quickly if he is to survive and have any chance of escape.
Come on man, the long game isn't that hard.
841996 o god thats hilarious and you cloud are very interesting in most fanfics i read/imagined humans are immune to magic or they can use magic much more powerfully then any alicorn i follow this
Only if he had a gun on him.
Fuck you Trixie.
Urge to Kill...Rising
842044
In my opinion, they should be. Taking an object from one dimension and placing it in another would exempt said object from the natural laws of the world he/she/it was summoned into. Granted, seeing as we as humans have yet to look beyond our current dimension (assuming there are physical dimensions with reverse worlds), it's all theory and speculation.
842297 Either that, or that object would have no natural immunity to - or a way to compensate for - forces unique to the new dimension - as what is happening now. (Say that Equestria was the fourth dimension, but instead of the fourth dimension being sideways movement in Space/time, it was something akin to what we would call magic.)
Yes, I know that is bad science. Either way, that's what I'm talking about.
841941 Ditto.
841941 842404 *evil laugh*
You haven't seen anything yet.
...well. Bit creepier than I thought it would be, but in the best possible way.
842403
However, magic would have unknown effects, and function differently on said object. Also, I too, am using bad Science and self-made theories.
...*throws Quantum Mechanics book at you*
That should over-load your brain while I spray-paint graffiti on your house :3.
842403
However, magic would have unknown effects, and function differently on said object. Also, I too, am using bad Science and self-made theories.
...*throws Quantum Mechanics book at you*
That should over-load your brain while I spray-paint graffiti on your house :3.
842432
Also, based on canon and what we know of Trixie, are you planning on giving us some back history for the reason WHY she would treat him in such a way? You don't just go 'slave-lord' because you need money and feel like it. Even the slave trade from several hundred years ago was due to race supremacy and such.
842487 Give me time. Of course there's a backstory to the way she's behaving - but it's a whole different matter on whether or not I can plausibly include it in the story. It's not like Trixie will just tell our victim, and our victim won't ask. Maybe if I write another part from Trixies' POV, then I can probably do something.
842594
You never know. Perhaps he plays a song that touches her mind/heart/whatever on a deep level, and she let's her demeanor slip for the duration of the scene?
PLEASE tell me that at the end of this, Trixie gets raped, stabbed, tortured, decapitated, healed, and then have the same process repeated on her for the next thousand years.
842403 well i guess that makes sence but still its nice to see something different for a change
842487 well that i understand but a. the supreme race is ponies B he is treated like a pet c. i just thought trixie was a cruel bitch
Damn, I really want that guy to rip her horn off right about now.
You've got something great going on here. I'm connecting with your main character and developing a sense of hatred for Trixie, which means the way your story is written is connecting with me emotionally. Not many stories do this, but it's fantastic. Can't wait to see where it goes.
Also +1 for being a fellow Billy Joel fan
I was wondering how Trixie knew that humans have no magical protection, seeing as it is presumable that so little would be known about them in the first place. I suppose she must have figured it out while he was sleeping, which might explain her current behavior as she knows he can't fight back.
Either way, I feel sorry for the guy. I also feel sorry for Trixie, as she's simply digging herself deeper into the inevitable comeuppance she's going to get.
I have never wanted to flay something alive until now.
843543
Ponies believe in Equality and friendship, so I doubt a majority would treat him as a pet. Granted, I would give Trixie hell trying to get into my mind, such as imagining very disturbing images in hopes that she'd leave me alone. That, or tell her I play a different instrument :3.
I never wanted to flay something alive piece by piece while dumping table salt on it, until now.
I thought Trixie was a showmare, not horse shit.
844807 like images from a grimdark or something worthy of a clopfic?
844887
You're on the right track
This is actually kind of hot if you look at it from an S&M angle. (Yeah I'm sick like that)
843946 Thanks. Remember, I don't update this as fast as I could, because I'm juggling two stories. (Worst idea ever. Seriously)
843985 Well, let's say that I'm writing this from a 'real life' perspective, and in real life, you don't understand everything that is happening around you. This allows me to hand-wave a few fine details like how Trixie understands this much about humans when they are considered a mythical creature and all their books are kept in the archives of Librarys, because our main character will never find out.
844807 Okay, I decided that the last chapter was enough of an info-dump that I shouldn't over-explain any more than I had, but there is more to Trixie's mind powers. Namely: She can't read thoughts, or see what the MC is thinking. I decided that would make the situation hopeless.
845041 ...
845762
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
845762 then how.. but why... i dont even know how to respond to this
My recommendation for the main character : go postal when he gets the chance.
Wow...I've never really hated Trixie, even in stories where she's the villain...but I think I really want this to end with the protagonist breaking her horn with a shovel or something. And boy is Celestia gonna be pissed if she hears about this....
845770 847072
Okay, what are you two referring to? Because there are a couple of things you could be complaining about.
847346 You'll just have to keep reading to find out.
847511
Communism. I blame it.
847511 the whole trixie can control his mind but cant read it doesnt make sence
850555 Uhh... Actually, it fits with how magic seems to work in the show. There's a difference between controlling the brain with magic, and literally seeing inside it. Unicorn magic has never been able to allow it's user to view another place, so why would it let them view someone's thoughts?
Take the 'Want it need it' spell. It can influence everypony to REALLY want something, but no-pony has ever viewed another pony's thoughts.
(Also, my definition of 'control' is rather loose. The way I view it is that Trixie sends impulses to our MC's brain, which his body follows)
851684 OK so he has no way to defend himself your skating on some thin ice dear sir
853457
853482 well that was fast i wonder why you spend so much time on da internetz and youre not finishing your story
853494 It's called coincidental timing. I frequently take short breaks whenever I'm waiting to check FIMFiction - and also, I'm writing the next chapter for my other story. I alternate between the two.
You have successfully managed to make me mad. Consider this fic a success. I have very little to really talk about though, sorry.
Simple Solution:
Trixie knows the Piano Guy knows about her and her world, but doesn't know how much or how he knows.
Piano guy: Your meant to be dead!
Trixie: What?
Piano guy: 'thinks' you haven't just brought me through space you brought me through time. (Startled tone.)
Trixie: what did you say about my death?
Piano guy: Where I come from you've already been killed.
Go on to give some story about how history tells that she kidnapped some mysterious musical creature and this action somehow leads to her brutal death. Don't say you kill her, or she might kill you first. Say something about her being found out and then being arrested imprisoned and then murdered in jail or something like that. In order to 'change history' she can't have a musical slave so she lets you go.
842668 Not even Discord's that vicious. But there are nasty things that can be done that don't involve violence.
I hear the moon's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Oh, wait...
I would have always thought that those without magic couldn't be influenced by those with magic. My reasoning being is that I found magic would be like a magnet, only able to affect certain things. Everything in the Pony-verse is saturated by magic simply by being there and magic users would only be able to grasp the present magic within said object. The magic would be like a weight, the larger the object the more magic it would have thus making it heavier. So, it would stand to reason if something were to not have magic it would be unaffected by magic. You wouldn't be able to grasp something that wasn't there. Of course, if one were to use magic on an object to mess with the person/thing that didn't have present magic would be a different thing entirely.
I kinda had it figured that Humans had a sort of Anti-spark. Where we have negative energy.
And our power is in manipulation.
"I feel like pointing out the reason they have pianos is because this is a human-made cartoon show..."
Ah...but whose to say life isn't a pony-made cartoon show. It's very cartesian like that.