Welcome To The Show, Mare
The mechanism by which “cutecentesis” occurs is not very well understood. At a revelatory moment in a young pony’s life, they realize their role in life and the fire burns at its brightest in their heart.
Most ponies only have a little magic that augments whatever their Special Talent may be. A pony with a brewer’s mark and talent may grow grapes or grain more efficiently, or quicken the process of fermentation, for example.
Some marks are clear in their meaning, or have very narrow interpretations; marks depicting gemstones or jewelry indicate that a pony is talented in the procurement, refinement, and or sale of precious materials. Ponies with talents for weather will be marked with meteorological phenomena; lightning bolts, clouds, tornadoes, etc.
Others are less transparent, or wider in their effect ranges…
-Starswirl The Bearded, Magical Mysteries & Mythologies.
Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath, surrounded by six rather small fillies. These six were ostensibly the most brilliant spellcasters of their generations; all were marked for Magic in one way or another, and all had been educated for six years in the hallowed halls of Celestia’s School. She let out her deep breath and opened her eyes. The fillies leaned slightly closer at the prospect of one of her entertaining lectures.
“Unicorns also have a little magic, that matches their special talents. For ponies whose talents are for things like cooking, or singing, or mathematics, this is true. For ponies whose special talent is magic, this is not true. And neither is it true for any ponies who would call themselves my pupils.”
She separated Twilight from the group and rested a hoof on her withers. “Twilight here already knows twenty-five different workings, and the majority of the usages and subworkings of each. The rest of you can and should do the same. Equestria is a big world, and you never know what working will save your life.”
Starlight Glimmer raised her hoof expectantly, pigtails shaking. She offended Sunset slightly, the little filly was far too cute to be allowed to exist. “Miss Shimmer, how many workings do you know?”
Sunset smirked slightly and glanced towards the setting sun. “I know enough that they need to keep inventing new ones, just to keep up.”
Twilight scuffed a hoof, and stared at the checkerboard tiles of the commandeered practice room. She hated the spotlight. She hated the way her friends were looking at her. She wasn't special, she wasn't different… She didn't think any more highly of herself because of the natural ability difference between herself and them.
She looked so miserable it made Trixie want to cry.
As the stories begin, many miles and years away, Trixie jerked awake. Safe once more from the nightmare of that awful day. The way she'd felt when Sunset had divided them and tested their knowledge.
The way her friends had performed feats of incredible ability, where Trixie could barely manage sparks even after six years of tutelage. The knowing sneers and small laughter of the other students, and how her friends had never seemed to see it.
The laughter pounded in Trixie's ears and she forced herself to breathe. She closed her eyes, and opened her awareness outward in an attempt to stave off the inevitable panic attack.
The cushion of the bunk beneath her. The softness of the duvet. The deep, rhythmic breath of Starlight against her ear. She opened her eyes, and took in her world.
Four walls and a curved ceiling. The latter painted night-blue and painstakingly daubed with constellations. Her mother had retired from the road life and left the vardo Trixie had been raised in to the couple.
Starlight had had some difficulty adjusting to life on the road at first, but once those initial hurdles were leaped she'd taken to it like a duck to water. Trixie ignited her horn again and let herself gaze along her treasures.
The wind whistled in the eaves of the vardo, the mechanisms to fold down the stage creaked ominously, and the springs protested as the whole thing rocked gently.
She could feel the warmth surrounding her. She could hear the breath of the world around her, underpinning the songs of night. Her ears flicked as Starlight's soft snores washed across them. She began to settle slowly, to nestle back into the embrace.
Her four walls were squared, and her corner of the sky was at peace. Why shouldn't she be as well?
As Betty would have said, there was more than one way to skin a cat. As Felicity had taught her, there were many ways that an empty belly could be filled.
Sometimes that meant nice dresses. As a filly it had sometimes meant slitting purses while her mother juggled. It had meant learning to read the cards, learning to peer into the crystal. Learning to dance and sing, where things would be accepted “from auntie” without question. Sometimes honesty, sometimes deception. Sometimes earned, sometimes stolen.
Never, ever begging.
When Trixie opened her eyes, she felt none of the things she'd felt during the night. The storm quieted as she took in the sight of her little world. Starlight was on the other end of the vardo watching a pot set on the woodstove. She smiled softly and snuck up behind her, brushing her nose under her jaw and polishing her horn against the taller mare's cheek.
Starlight rolled the spoon held in her teeth to the other side and absently leaned to peck the bridge of Trixie's snout.
The caravan never seemed to be cramped, merely close and comfy. Homey. There wasn't much empty space inside, but the space used was also used intelligently. The bunk they shared, for example, flipped up against the wall and part of the shelf it was built out of dropped down for a table. The woodstove was given its own space, the shelves were built into the walls rather than freestanding. Under motion, nothing moved out of place. Vegetables and dry goods were slung from the ceiling.
They settled down on cushions to a breakfast of oatmeal and sliced apples, and coffee spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Trixie polished off hers with practiced efficiency. She idly toyed with the salt cellar as Starlight spoke between bites.
“Amazing apples in this town. I went out at about dawn and did some canvassing.”
Trixie sipped her coffee. “Hopefully there's somepony in this backwater who's good with Devices. The coldbox has about had it, and the front axle needs looking at.”
Starlight lived for these quiet moments almost as much as she adored the stage. Trixie considered them a necessary evil, only coming alive on the boards. The best part of this life, as far as Starlight was concerned, was the hustle. Scrounging enough bits by tenths and halves to float to the next town.
She snorted softly as she collected the dishes and set them in the sink for Trixie to wash. So many things on their list; replenishing their stocks of water and food, having the Devices and Wonders serviced, seeing to the maintenance of the vardo. Some time to relax, hopefully at a public bathhouse. Most importantly, some time apart.
She reflected that was one of the truisms that lead to a perfectly ideal marriage. They were in many ways a perfect fairy-tale couple and adored the company of the other, but space helped keep it that way. On camp stops in the middle of nowhere, they'd separate for tasks. One would wander off for firewood while the other cooked, and neither would be troubled if the tasks took longer than they should.
“Well, Ponyville is largely an Earth pony town. Probably haven't seen a decent thaumaturgist in a decade. They don't even have a cinema!”
Trixie snorted out her laughter as she moved to do the washing up.
Sunset paused. She glanced up, across the market square. Directly across from the Town Crater (now filled in, tamped, and the skeleton of a new Hall being erected) sat a carriage that struck her as familiar. She shrugged and returned to haggling over the price of onions with Fair Trade. Her ears twitched at the sound of a familiar voice, the flat Northwest accent lilted slightly. The speaker was dickering with the proprietress of another stall. She snorted and paid, trotting towards the conversation with her basket in her teeth.
Before her were two familiar ponies. One she saw every day and one she hadn't seen in a few years. Brass Beauty, the mare that ran the Device stall, chatting with a heliotrope-coated mare in a waistcoat and top hat. Her brow furrowed slightly as she took in Starlight.
The last time she'd seen the mare had been Twilight's twelfth birthday; before her daughter's self-imposed isolation had become complete. She smiled warmly and reached across the gulf of years, brushing her nose across Starlight's ear in the nuzzle meant for a student. As a filly she'd been almost offensively cute, now she stood tall and slender.
Starlight was startled, but only for a moment. She ducked her chin deferentially, and Sunset gasped when she noticed the gold loop around the base of her horn.
“So you and Trixie finally tied the knot, huh?”
Starlight flushed and nodded just once, before glancing back towards Brass Beauty. “Yeah. Trixie's here too. We've been on the road for a few months and some of our conveniences need maintenance.” She turned and started in the direction of the town square, and Sunset fell into step beside her. “Trixie is doing some small things to drum up interest for a show at one o’ clock.”
Sunset raised a brow as their hooves clicked in time over the cobblestone. “Does she have a Deck of Truths?”
Starlight scrunched her snout a bit before smiling. “They belonged to her mother.”
Trixie blinked as she watched Starlight and Sunset approach. She cleared her throat and adjusted the upturned collar of her cape. She shuffled the cards on her little table carefully.
She took a deep breath, carefully keeping her head tilted slightly downward to hide her face behind the brim of her starred hat. Shame flushed her features, at having failed and in turn having been abandoned by her teacher and her friends. She schooled her expression and tilted her chin up to show her slight smirk.
“I didn't think I'd ever see you again.”
Sunset snorted as she settled across from the azure pony. “I've been keeping an eye out. I went to school with your mum, you know.”
Trixie snorted softly in return. “Yes. That was then. This is now. I failed out despite everypony's best efforts. Now you wish to learn things only the Great and Powerful Trixie the Magnificent can teach you.”
Sunset glanced down at the worn cards between them. Did she? Yes. She produced a silver half-bit from her pouch and drew a cross with it, before tucking it back away. One paid for a lie, but crossed silver for the truth.
Trixie closed her eyes and riffled the cards, shuffling them with deft snaps. In school, Sunset had only known her to excel with a fine control of telekinesis- she had no true Trick, and barely a smattering of illusive workings.
Sunset closed her eyes and let her own aura touch the deck as the cards flicked. Between them, Trixie snapped selected cards face down in an arrangement only she had the meaning of. After several moments, both opened their eyes and Trixie cleared her throat.
She waved a hoof over the card in the center, flicking it upright. “This matrix is relationships. Each card is a particular pony, surrounding yourself in the center.” She lifted her hoof off the middle card.
It was a gold-coated mare with a sunfire mane and tail. Her left hindhoof was bound in a noose, her forelegs tied behind her withers and the pony hanging with her horn facing the top of the card. The bottom edge of the card was stamped with the Pegasus rune XII, the top printed with ‘The Hanged Mare’ in Earthen script.
“This is you. The card is reversed- which inverts its ordinary meaning. It signifies that you are defined by an opportunity you missed- something was meant to happen or you desired it but it did not. It means that you are slow to change and adapt, that you have a strong ego and are resistant to the opinions of others.”
Her hoof moved up, to the cars closest to Sunset. “This card is the Mother.”
She turned it upright. The printing of the card was split diagonally, reflecting the image across the middle. The printing proclaimed it as ‘III- The Empress’. The pony was white with a pastel three-colored mane, and both horn and wings. Her muzzle was pointed down towards the center of the card, as if the crown and peytral bore immeasurable weight. The other half’s mane was a flare of reds and yellows, and she bore the weight of rule proudly with a haughty expression.
“She is both upright and reversed, meaning that to you and others she is both aspects. Upright she is a bringer of life and abundance, of new opportunities and beginnings. She is a perfect nurturing mother, guidance and love personified. She has lead you to where you are today and taught you to care for others as she does.”
Her hoof circled to the other half. “But she is also a tyrant. She brings life and death in equal measures. She is warm but cold at the same time.”
Sunset frowned as Trixie turned over the next card, her voice dropping into a lulling rhythm lilted by her accent. She glanced up to see the pony's eyes closed. “This is the Daughter. Zero, The Fool.”
A pony strode the edge of a precipice, balancing on left fore and rear right legs with the others held out. Her right fore supported the pole of a travelsack, and her chin turned skyward in delighted curiosity. Sunset pursed her lips as she recognized the printing as Twilight. “The Fool symbolizes the beginning of a journey. She is optimistic and curious about the future and what it will bring, and will be guided along her travels to a deeper understanding of herself and The World.”
Faster now, reaching the end of the spread. “The Sister. She is The Lovers.”
An oppressively pink alicorn nose to nose with a white unicorn, horntips touching. In the negative space between them, one eye glowed green out of the darkness and another in red. “The Lovers signify unity and choices. She brings ponies together in peace.”
The second to last card, just beneath her own with edges touching. Another reflected card. The upper half of the reflection bore a full moon over a landscape, with a wolf howling upward. The other half was darker, the moon marked by the Mare.
“The pony you desire. She is The Moon, and a paradox. Ponies fear her but she fights their fears. Insecurity, insomnia. Lack of clarity and unhappiness. The Moon influences The Hanged Mare; from the perspective of her position your card is upright. To her you will be a seeker of truth, and can help her admit what she won't. A good pairing.”
The last card. Trixie hadn't reacted to any of the cards but in turning this one her jaw clenched and her eyes tightened shut. “What lies before you.”
Another reflected card. A burning wizard’s tower stretched towards each edge of the card, lightning striking each touch.
“... Both meanings of The Tower are ill. Upright it is catastrophe, destruction, accidents. But it is also change unexpected, rebuilding; burning down to create anew. Reversed it is loss, volatile situations, obstacles. It means that destructive change will happen, but you will grow from it.”
Trixie opened her eyes and gathered the cards. Sunset cleared her throat before leaning across the table to peck her forehead. “Thank you, Trixie.”
She rose and gathered up her saddlebag full of groceries to return to the library. Trixie halted her with an uncharacteristically soft and quiet voice. “We're having a show at one. Will you come?”
Sunset smiled and closed her eyes. Friend's daughter, former student, her daughter's unknown half-sister. “Of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world.”
As she left, Trixie reshuffled her deck and laid the cards faceup to let the sun touch them. Aside from the values and suits on the border, each card was blank.
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Nice - I like it.
I was looking forward to the arrival of these two. Should be fun.
Ok, now THAT was a "true" reading.
What does the cards being blank symbolize? When Trixie gave Sunset her reading it was very specific and I wonder if Trixie may know more then she realizes about things that happened in the past?
Reminds me of a Starlight/Trixie exchange I only thought of earlier today:
"You read cards, tea leaves, even the frogs of ponies' hooves. But you think astrology is bunk?"
"You know Trixie's feelings about wheels. That includes the zodiac."
In any case, it is kind of funny how Friendship is Witchcraft turned Pinkie into a gypsy when we had one in one of the earliest episodes. It'll be very interesting to see how the show goes with the bonds Trixie's forged in this timeline. And that bit with the tarot reading was very cool indeed.
Also, the talk of devices and wonders has me wondering if anyone's openly dealing in talismans...
going to this time, it either going to go very bad or very good
9432539
I assume it means that the images on the cards appear tailored to the client. They are without art until dealt, allowing the arcana to have art that is specifically relevant to the reading.
I think we've reached the point where this timeline truly diverges from the original.
I'm just curious how Starlight got to Celestia's school.
Starlight & Trixie are married!? I always knew they make a cute couple.
1) I am highly amused by StarTrix shipping happening this early on.
2) I like how you describe their home life.
3) It's nice seeing Starlight having a healthy outlet rather than starting a cult.
4) that reading was amazing. I dabble in tarot irl, and the way you described each card and their relations was expert.
5) the cards returning to blank is a great detail, shows each reading truly is customized for the recipient.
Well, this simplifies matters somewhat. Certain problems go away by default to be replaced by more relateable ones.
9432524
Thanks.
9432526
""FUN""
9432531
Thanks
9432539
See the other reply to your comment.
9432561
I might be missing the talismans part (or forgot). There's definitely someone who makes fetishes but...
9432607
No comment.
9432609
Got it in one. The cards are blank (but marked with suit and value). They're like psychic paper- when the client's magic touches them they gain imagery.
9432647
By train, presumably.
9432793
They're adawable.
9432825
1) It's been going for like ten years! They pretty much grew up together, one semester of school at a time.
2) The cozy home scenes appealed to me. I intended to show that Trixie was slightly off and up Starlight's importance and their relationship by having her be grounded a bit with Starlight.
3) Well she went to CSGU, found friends, and met her girlfriend like twenty years earlier than she does in canon.
4) I tried! That's been in the plot document since September.
5) The cards gain imagery based on the client's subconscious, and the shuffle is probably influenced by the action of the same on their magic while touching it. Also a nice inversion here- metaphysical hoodoo objects like Tarot decks are "charged" in the light of the moon. A Deck of Truth basks in the sunlight- if you recall Celestia's musing on demesnes, Truth belongs to the day.
9433034
It's cute that you think we're done.
Okay I have to admit, this skill of cards was the best thing I EVER COULD IMAGINE TRIXIE DOING.
Loved It! Thats That whole scene with Trixie in sunset Up to the wnd is Very Interesting. And im looking Forward to whats next.
9433081
9410580
Are you following the story? If so it should pop up in your news feed when posted.
Hell of a thing and one nasty omen, eh?
I am interested in seeing where this goes and I hope it won't be too long before Sunset's other students make an appearance as well.
So Trixie can pull off tarot card fortunes... Interesting.
9433081
Love the Tarot reading, I wonder when the Lunaset ship will actually pick up speed?
Trixie is Twilight's half-sister in this one?
9435928
What rock have you been living under? That was brought up quite a long time ago...
I love the very last paragraph here.
Oooh crap. That brought shivers. The next chapter is going to be very interesting, and with a "true" reading there...!
Trixie is sounding far more G&P than most would portray her. I was going to comment that a few of those cards already seemed a bit too specific, but the last paragraph was even more interesting.
I always thought that her episode was a bit unfair, so hopefully it goes better this time? This part already is showing a lot of butterflies.
9449223
Sunset obviously wants to go flirt. Sunset is somewhat implying that while what they say probably won't happen, they can make their own fun or still have fun with the event.
9449229
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Tuesday comes from the Norse god of Justice, Tyr, who bears a striking resemblance to Flash Magnus. Likewise, Thor'sday is probably Rockhoof. Saturn'sday would be Starswirl as they kinda fit together like the rest.
Exploding geodes I don't quite remember, or anything about rock farming yet. Twothings Avenue is Georg; see the chapter where they're first renovating the library and the sheer list of "[Object] from [Stuff] & [Things]."
9449263
I don't exactly remember how it went down here because I'm bad. In canon it was more Gilda basically threatened Pinkie with bodily harm, shrieked at everypony present and made a huge ass out of herself.
9449282
It's a metamagical object of Truth, not a vaguely interpreted mundane thing produced by a playing card company (and companies that exist to make money off crystal hippies), of course they're very specific. (Special note to Trixie reading with her eyes closed.)
As for the rest a big fat NO COMMENT.
Oof. I love the various Arts and it's cool to see the Cards being used, especially with accurate representation of reading, rules, and use.
But that reading... that's a pretty rough one if ever I heard.
(As to the truth of the Cards, Sir Terry Pratchett had the right of it: You can read the future in a pot of chicken noodle soup, tell fortunes with a battered pack of playing cards, or summon ghosts with scrabble tiles. What matters isn't the pomp and circumstance, but will and skill.)
[PS: Please don't try to summon ghosts or demons with scrabble tiles unless you know exactly what you're doing. It will not go well for you.]
9506115
It's actually a general spread I used to read for people, and the way that I would read it. The results were usually considered pretty spookily apropos.
9506128
What, that style of reading or that particular spread.
If you're talking about style, I've had a few readings and seen plenty more. There are a ton of different ways to draw; what matters is that the cards are linked to the right person, and the right questions are asked.
I'm still not adept enough to do readings on my own using cards, though.
9506838
That layout.
9432526
*a thousand Pinkie clones perk up their ears*
Well that's definitely an oof!