The Issue of Multiple Sunsets

by Hopeful_Ink_Hoof

Show time

Trixie stood back on the stage, in the spot she had traded for. She turned to face Golden Spider, needing to keep her busy until the others came up with a plan.

The question: how in the hell was she going to do that?

The first thing Trixie decided she needed to do was get back into character. She was a magician. She was on stage. All attention was on her. As it should be. She was smart, and skilled, and she may not have had real magic beyond teleportation, but damned if she had not practiced long and hard. She was the best magician in the school. The city. The entire fucking state! She was, is, and always will be The Great and Powerful Trixie! And no one, not a two-bit wannabe magician, not some goofy costumed superhero, not even some actual magic using demi-god, was going to show her up.

Spotting the cards where Twilight had dropped them, Trixie reached down and picked them up.

"Hey, Goldie!" she called out. "If you thought as quickly as you shot your white stuff all over everything, you might actually be able to come up with a good idea."

That caused Golden Spider to pause, turning to face her. Did her lenses somehow get bigger? How was that possible? How expressive were they?

"That... was not your usual quipping," she finally said. "I mean normally it's all 'me me me,' and 'I'm so smart.' 'Great and powerful' blah blah blah." At the "blah blah blah," she held one hand and made a matching motion with it, like a goose that was honking. "Any shots at my intelligence or normally something like, 'you cannot possibly comprehend'... whatever you're doing." Her gaze then narrowed. "You've never gone for innuendo or obscenities."

So, she was expecting pompous and arrogant? Trixie could do pompous and arrogant. There was no one more pompous or arrogant than The Great and Powerful Trixie! Widening her stance, she straightened her shoulders and puffed out her chest. Grasping her cape with one hand, she tossed it behind her.

"Perhaps if you did something truly impressive," she called out, "you would be worth The Grrrrreat and Powerful Trixie making an effort." With a huff, she lifted her chin. "So far, all I've seen is a child running around in her underwear, pretending to be a superhero."

Keep it going, she told herself. Keep it going. She thrust her hip out, placing a hand on it. Her eyes narrowed as she continued to watch Golden Spider.

"I bet... I bet..."

She looked around, trying to think of something.

"I bet..."

The girls were suddenly waving at her, trying to get her attention. She had to get to them.

"I... bet..."

Her hands glanced down at the cards, and an idea came to her.

"I bet you couldn't even hit the broad side of a barn!"

She shifted the cards in her grip, splitting the deck in two.

"Really?" Golden Spider asked, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head slightly. "That's the best you could come up with? Making fun of my aim?"

Trixie shifted, the brim of her hat covering her eyes as she gave a massive grin.

"How about a test then?"

"Behold!" The Great and Powerful Trixie cried out, raising her hands. "A deck of ordinary playing cards!" She fanned the cards out. "Fifty-four in total! With thirteen for each suit, ranging from the ace, through two to ten, and finishing with jack, queen and king, and two jokers that are as wild and unpredictable as yours truly!"

"HEY!" magician Sunset shouted from her spot by the stage. "That's my patter your stealing, you two-bit stage whore!"

"HA!" Trixie cried out. "As if The Great and Powerful Trixie would ever even consider copying some no name, no talent, no finesse, wannabe!"

She returned her attention to Golden Spider. With a flick of her wrists, the cards folded back up.

"That means that if I choose a single, specific card, you have a one in fifty-four chance of picking it, if I pick the joker, that's two in fifty-four, if I pick a specific number or other face card, that's four in fifty-four, and if I go with a suit, that gives you a high chance of thirteen in fifty-four."

"So you can do basic math," Golden Spider stated. "What's your point?"

"At the count of three, The Great and Powerful Trixie shall toss the cards high into the air. If you're a great shot, you should be able to hit the queens and no others."

Golden straightened up, crossing her arms.

"Why would I want to do this."

Because you're Sunset Shimmer, Trixie thought, and even if no longer a bully, Sunset Shimmer still needs to prove herself.

At least, that's what Trixie was hoping.

"One."

She readied herself.

"Two!"

Golden Spider tensed, ready to act.

"Three!"

The Great and Powerful Trixie threw the cards high into the air, letting them scatter as they did. Before the last one had even left her hand, Trixie conjured another smoke bomb, throwing it at her feet.

No smoke arose as the bomb struck a pillow of webbing instead of the floor. Across the stage, Golden Spider was crouched down, one arm still extended out in front of her. Her lenses narrowed as she smirked, slowly standing back up.

"Did you really think I would fall for that?"

"Well... I was hoping..." Trixie answered, taking a step back. She looked around, trying to come up with a new idea. Clearly, she could not get to the others as easily as she had hoped. It was looking like--

With a yelp, Trixie jumped out of the way as Golden Spider lunged at her. Not ready for it, Trixie hit the stage floor hard, somehow slamming her funny bone against the hard wood and sending a flash of pain and numbness from her elbow to her fingertips. Letting out a hiss, she kept moving, rolling to get back to her feet. She wanted to look to the others, but was afraid to take her eyes off her opponent.

As she stood, she undid the clasp for her cape, holding it in place (Plan A). Her other hand slipped behind her, conjuring up another of her smoke bombs (Plan B).

"You sure you're not supposed to be a bull?" asked Trixie. "You sure seem to charge around like one." She let out a chuckle. "You have all the accuracy of one as well." She closed her eyes. "I bet I could stand here with my eyes closed, and you won't even touch me."

She then cracked her eyes open enough to see without it being noticed.

To her credit, Golden Spider did not fall for the obvious trap and charge again. Instead she dropped low and fired her webbing at Trixie's ankles, wrapping them up. She then gave a hard yank, snapping the feet close together and pulling Trixie off-balance, making her fall backwards.

The moment Trixie hit the ground, the smoke bomb she was holding behind her exploded, covering her in smoke.

When Golden Spider yanked her web, all she got was a pair of empty boots.

Behind her stood The Great and Powerful Trixie. Yanking her cape off, she threw it over the superheroine and yanked it tight.

"Hey!" Golden cried out.

From one of her sleeves, Trixie pulled out a set of tied-together scarves and wrapped them around the cape like a rope. Around and around she went before tying them off. The Great and Powerful Trixie then gave the hero a swift kick in the butt. This caused The Golden Spider to fall forward with a thump.

"Victory is Trixie's!" she declared, smiling.

"This is so embarrassing," Golden Spider grumbled. "Times like this, I wish I had a sixth sense or something."

A golden aura wrapped around the bound hero, lifting her off the ground. She was floated across the stage and toward the reassembled magic box.

"Now to see if this works," said Twilight.

Daydream made a motion and tossed Golden Spider in.

There was a flash of light as she disappeared.

"Well that confirms it," Daydream declared.

"MY CAPE!"

Comments

[J_Q]

Great chapter again, but I was thinking that all the sunsets had to be present for it to work. Plus seeing Golden-Spider in action would’ve been cool too when she wasn’t just attacking Trixie.

[J_Q]

9411662
Also why did she do that. Did Trixie become some kind of super villain in her world.

[Comickook]

Again, excellent job on the action, humor, exchanges and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Trixie's desperation tricks against the Golden Spider to last long enough for Daydream and Twilight to get back into the action were really good and I loved how Trixie's relief over the Golden Spider's defeat got quickly replaced by concern over losing her cape.

I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this next week.

[Comickook]

9411664
Yeah. That was VERY strongly implied (if not explicitly stated) in the previous chapter as well as this one.

[Hopeful_Ink_Hoof]

9411678
9411664
I don't think that I actually stated it, but multiple readers did come to the correct conclusion. In Golden-Spider's universe, The Great and Powerful Trixie is very much a Mysterio style villain who uses illusion and deception. Thinking of it now, imagine her debut by "defeating an ursa major," which was a massive holographic illusion to make herself seem like a hero.

[Comickook]

9411685
Exactly as I figured. Thanks for the clarification.

[FanOfMostEverything]

A shame they couldn't convince the Spectacular Spiderset that they weren't the bad guys, but at least the box is working properly. Also, fantastic showing by Trixie.

[Eroraf86]

Huh. So just toss all the Sunsets back in one by one, and eventually, out pops the real one? Sure, why not?