Days in the Mind of One that is Great and Powerful

by The REAL Mister Pkmn

Xavier Breakthrough Project, Day 4: Generosity

Trixie woke up the next morning, going over the possible places Gearbox could be taking her on Saturday. It definitely wasn’t someplace cheap- seeing as all of those accepted more “casual” wear. Plus, it probably had a dancing hall, or was near one. That eliminated all of the more low-end fancy places, as well as most of the middling ones. Her musing continued during school hours, causing a little bit of an attention lapse, but not too much trouble. By the time the end of the school day came, she still hadn’t figured it out. As she was pondering this, she bumped into somebody. “Ow! Watch where you’re going!” As Trixie looked to see who it was, She stepped back. It was like looking into a mirror, except different. It was another Trixie- albeit slightly different. Was part of the azure chitin instead of fur? The other Trixie seemed just as baffled, but recovered quicker. “Oh, great. First I get plopped into Tirek-knows-where by non-changeling green magic, then I find I’m structured bipedally instead of what I’m used to, and now I run into a cheap knock-off version of me? How rotten is my luck right now!?”

Trixie One seethed at that . “Knock-off?!? I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie! I don’t know where you came from, or how you got here, but I know that my magic is probably better than yours!”

Just at that moment, Starlight Glimmer, formerly known as Sarah Gaines, Rarity, and Alex came onto the scene, and all three blinked. Trixie Two raised an eyebrow. “Who’re these people?”

Trixie One turned to see the two others, and blinked. “Well. The mouse is Alex, the white unicorn is Rarity, and the pinkish unicorn... “ Her eyes narrowed. “Starlight Glimmer. What’re you doing here?”

Before things could get out of hand, Rarity stepped in. “Trixie, this is Star Gaines, the Starlight on our side.” she raised an eyebrow. “Surely Maestro mentioned that?”

Trixie One balked. Maestro hadn’t talked about that- it probably just slipped his mind with all that was going on. She just shook her head. She then pointed a thumb to her semi-dopplegänger. “So, any idea how Trixie Two ended up here?”

Trixie Two snapped at that. “Hey! Why am I Trixie Two?!?”

Trixie One smirked smugly. “I was in this world first.” At Two’s galre, One held up her hands placatingly. “Okay, I get it! How about we call you… Trisha.”

Trisha sighed reluctantly. “I suppose that is a little better…”

Clapping her hands together, Rarity spoke. “So, to answer your earlier question, I believe Alex’s magic surge could have dragged Trisha here.”

Trixie blinked. “Does that mean she’s stuck here? What about the important things she has going on in her world?”

Alex shook her head. “Not necessarily. Discord could easily send her home. If she wants to, that is.”

Trisha thought for a moment, but shook her head. “Not just yet. I think I want to stick around for a little while. After all, I’m certain that Lightning Dust, Octavia, Moondancer, and Flutterbat can handle things without me for a little while. It’ll give me a much needed break before continuing the search for the other one.”

Trixie seemed intrigued. “So, since you’re planning on staying, how do you plan on differentiating yourself from me so people don’t mix us up from a distance?”

Lighting her crooked horn in green light, Trisha smiled. “Watch.” She was engulfed in green fire, and suddenly her coloration changed. Her fur was now a dark blue as the chitin disappeared, and her mane and tail had become indigo. Her eyes had changed to green, and her horn had disappeared. At Trixie’s shock, Trisha looked bemused. “What? Did you think the chitin was just for show? That’s not how it is with us shift-bloods.”

Rarity shook herself, and spoke. “You’re part changeling? That’s quite something…”

Sighing, Trixie looked downtrodden. “So you can do something I can’t…” But, it didn’t last long, as she got back her usual smugness. “No matter! I can imitate it if I work hard enough!”

Trisha had to admit she was impressed with Trixie. She smiled. So that’s how I would’ve turned out in a different world, huh? Not so bad, I guess.

Then, they went to find the others that were needed for their little project with Xavier, Trisha going off to look around.

-

Xavier was waiting for them, as had become expected at this point. However, Maestro was not present, and neither was Sarah. Aside from that, things seemed normal enough. Rarity, Carmen, and Patricia stepped up to the plate this time. Carmen felt confident, so she decided to start her section first. “Generosity is giving something from the heart, despite the cost to you.”

Shaking his head, Xavier scoffed. “You don’t just do it to rack up favors from others? That’s what it seems like to me.”

Rarity stepped up next. “It may seem that way, but that is not the intention. Generosity is giving something, expecting nothing in return.”

This seemed to give Xavier pause for a bit, but not for long. “That sounds an awful lot like Charity. Why go so far as do that? Is there anything you get out of it at all?”

Patricia then took it from there. “The only thing that someone gets out of being generous to others is seeing the recipient happy about receiving the gift. Whether it be a physical gift, or something more intangible.”

Sighing and shaking his head, Xavier rebutted. “Seeing others happy… Please, as if such nonsense could really make anyone happy.” He scoffed derisively. “If there’s nothing else, then…” He made a move to leave.

Confident that it would have a similar effect to last time, Patricia spoke out. “Actually, we would like to show you an example. If you’d allow it, that is.”

Xavier stopped, still facing away from them. He was certain it was some kind of scripted thing, like he’d accused the previous ‘real-world example’ of being, but he supposed humoring them couldn’t hurt. After all, what did he have to lose? He turned to face them. “Alright then. Where to?”

Leading the way was Patricia, the others following behind. “You’ll see.”

-

A little ways on, they hadn’t quite reached where they had intended. The group came across Maestro and Sarah near the school. What astonished them was that Maestro was standing on a cloud. How he got up there wasn’t a question- after all, the guy could conjure wings. How he was standing on the clouds, however… Trixie just presumed he’d enchanted his shoes with cloudwalking. He then looked to them, and called down. “Hey guys!” He gestured to the collab piece he’d worked on with Sarah. “What d’ya think? It’s just too bad I can’t pocket it…”

The piece was astounding. It was a castle made of clouds- far more ornate looking than Canterlot Castle was ever depicted in the show. Somehow they’d gotten the clouds to look like they were glistening… How did they manage that? Trixie whistled in appreciation. “That is one amazing piece of work.”

Shaking her head, Patricia tried to get the group back on track. “Yes, it’s nice and all, but we have somewhere to be-”

Channeling his magic, Maestro sprouted ethereal thestral wings and jumped off the cloud, using the wings to slow his fall. Once he touched down, He dispelled the wings. “Oh? Taking Xavier to another practical lesson?” As he said this, Sarah touched down as well. “Why not mix things up? After all, I think there is somebody that could use a little generosity over…” He looked around a bit, and then noticed somebody, and pointed towards them. “There!” The figure froze. “Oh, don’t worry, we just want to help you with something. No trouble. Just come on out, all right?”

The figure came into the foreground, it was revealed to be Trisha in her disguise. She looked at the group, and smiled. “Hey. Nice to meet you. I’m Trisha.” She then looked to Patricia specifically, and raised an eyebrow at her. “What’s eating you? You seem upset.”

Catching herself, Patricia tried to calm down. “S-sorry… It’s just… This isn’t how it was supposed to go…”

Astonishment crossed Xavier’s features for a split second. So this was off script now? That made things interesting… He cleared his throat. “So what? Just adapt. You wanted to show me a practical example, right? Now, it’ll have to be a little more genuine, that’s all.”

She flinched at the implied accusation, but Patricia steeled herself. She’d just have to think on the fly now, that’s all. “So, Trisha… I haven’t seen you around before. And yet, you’re an anthro… Can you tell us a little about yourself, and what you think of your experience here?” Hopefully, with this, she could figure out what exactly would be the most helpful- after all, a shot in the dark did nobody any good.

Twirling her mane in her fingers a little, Trisha answered a little. “I’m not exactly supposed to be an ‘anthro’ as you call it. I come from a faraway reality of dark oppression. This world of yours is far brighter than mine… it makes me a little jealous, honestly. Your people… so full of Devotion, Honor, Compassion, Charity, Humor, Empowerment, and connections… it makes me wonder if this is what my world was like so very long ago…”

Everyone stepped back a little in surprise. This… was unprecedented. Even Trixie, who was among those that knew who this really was, had her face colored by surprise. This was not only a non-anthro pony in another reality, but one from such a dark reality as that? The group was all silent, until Rarity spoke. “That’s a dreary image indeed. I can’t hope to understand where you’re coming from, but I hope that you’ll accept this.” Rarity handed a photo to Trisha, who accepted. “Think of it as a reminder of what your world could have been- and still could be.”

Trisha smiled softly. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

Xavier was still processing things as Trisha disappeared in a flash of green magic. A photo. A photo, of all things, helped Trisha out? It made no sense. How could something so meaningless have such an effect? He was still in a stupor as Star went over to him. “Hey. I heard that you had a falling out with a friend a while back.”

He scoffed derisively. “So? You gonna try and use some worthless sympathy? Don’t bother. You couldn’t possibly understand.”

Shaking her head, Star chided him. “That’s where you’re wrong. I know what it’s like, Xavier. To have a falling out with a friend that important to you. It’s like a hole ripped into your very being. Like nothing could ever fill that void. I understand, Xavier. I-”

Xavier turned to face her, and glared into her eyes. “Don’t give me that garbage! You can’t understand! You lost one friend, but that’s as far as you empathy can reach! Do you think that’s all there is to me? No! I’ve lost far more than just one insignificant friend. This world is a bitter, cold place. And how do I know? Because I’ve seen it. I tried moving on before, you know. Tried to reach out, only to be smacked down again and again! After a while, I just got tired of pretending that the world had no problems! That the world was full of ‘good people’! So don’t you think you can understand, latch-key kid. Because you can’t.” After his rant, he stormed off in anger.

The group started to panic. This had gone so well until Star tried to appeal to him. It wasn’t her fault, though- nobody expected him to get so angry about it. However, Maestro cleared his throat, garnering their attention. “Listen up. We must remain calm if we are to make this work. I assure you, this may seem like a setback, but it’s all going well. I know it’s going to take a while, but it’s going to be worth it in the end. We will break through to him.”

With We will break through to him.”

With those words, the panic died down. Elsewhere, Cheryl and Pinkie had met up, at Pinkie’s request. Cheryl spoke up. “So, why’d you call me to your place?”

Pinkie shushed her. “The other person isn’t here yet! We can’t discuss this properly without her!”

There came a knock at the door, which was answered by Pinkie’s mother. She called back. “Pinkie? There’s an Amanda Glyse here… She says you invited her?”

Clapping her hands happily, she called back. “Send her on up!”

Janice’s light brown friend stepped into the room, and smiled. “I’m sure this has to do with the text I got from Patricia about how the lesson with Xavier went today. From her words, it went sour near the end, as usual.”

Pinkie nodded vigorously. “Yeppers, Amy! So! Let’s put our heads together! How can we get that grump to spread laughter?”

Cheryl thought for a bit, then spoke up. “So far, words don’t cut it, and the real-world examples haven’t cut as deep as we wanted them to… Is there something else we could try…?”

Amanda tapped her finger to her chin for a bit, then pointed it to sky. “I think I’ve got an idea…” The three discussed the new tactic for the rest of the night.

Author's Note:

So now day four has come to a close... And yes, the other Trixie is a reference to one of my other stories... One that I plan to update once I can figure out how to write the rest of the second chapter. And look at that! A little more of a backstory for Xavier. It's not a one-and-done event that changed his worldview, rather a repeated event. That's different than the more recent villains of the show, at least. Also, if you want to guess on the "new tactic" Amanda thought up, you're welcome to list your thoughts in the comments below.