Trixie Searches For Magic

by MagicS

Kept Promises

Even a destitute place like East Glade had things like parties from time to time. Trixie learned that as the whole village had been setting things up today for a day of games and festivities. And it wasn’t even in her honor! Horseshoe and Cornhole courts were set up in the square, carts of carrots, cabbages, corn, and squash were loaded up and brought out for everyone, and much to Trixie’s surprise a few of the villagers pulled out a set of instruments and started practicing for a musical performance. She never would have expected something like that from East Glade.

“Normally this is a once a year thing but we decided to bump it up a bit for you,” Vector told Trixie as the two wandered in the middle of the square.

“How thoughtful,” Trixie said. It was good to know how much mind they paid her.

“Yeah, since we have no idea how much longer you might be here we figured we definitely wanted to at least be able to show you us at our best,” Vector nodded.

Even I have no idea how much longer I’ll be here… Trixie thought.

“Well it seems like I won’t be able to get to my original purpose in coming out here until after I deal with Goliath, so really I could be here a while. He ran away with his tail feathers between his legs last time he attempted to fight me, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was too scared to try anything for a while,” Trixie smugly said. Her ego and false heroic persona getting to her again

Vector chewed on his lip, not sharing her optimism. “He was certainly hurt and frightened after what you did to him. He definitely didn’t think anyone in East Glade could challenge him. But he’s not the type to stay scared for long. Goliath needs to appear strong to his horde, or they’ll likely revolt against him. And he has his own pride too, so coming back and proving himself stronger than you will be important to him.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is not worried. My job as a hero and slayer of monsters compels me to be victorious over anyone like Goliath,” She reassured him.

The earth pony smiled, it was impossible for him not to grin after her grandiose speech. “I know, I really have full faith in you, I just can’t help but be worried too knowing what Goliath is like. But it feels so… empowering and safe to have you protecting East Glade.”

I should probably stop raising his expectations. Eh, whatever. Trixie inwardly shrugged. I’ve handled things pretty well so far, I’m sure it’ll go fine in the future too.

“It also feels great to help people in need,” Trixie replied. “But enough about all that, this is supposed to be a day for partying right? Let’s have some fun!”

“Couldn’t agree more!” Vector said and led her to some of the games.

Trixie’s above-average magical ability gave her a good edge when it came to throwing horseshoes and beanbags so even for something as minor as these games she did a pretty good job at wowing and impressing the villagers. At least until Daylight Gleam beat her at Horeshoes and Vector beat her at Cornhole.

“I have very good hoof-eye coordination,” Vector told her.

Daylight just smugly grinned and silently flaunted her own victory. She knew something like that would greatly annoy Trixie.

“Laugh all you want, I’ll beat you next time,” Trixie said to the white unicorn.

“Are you sure you want to take that risk? The perfect hero doesn’t want to get even more embarrassed now, does she?” Daylight teased her.

“I’m going to make you eat those words!”

The festivities were in full swing soon after that as everyone enjoyed themselves. Senax and the other merponies had made a three-layer carrot cake that looked delicious and Gizzard and his grandsons were busy tying long streamers and lines of flags from rooftop to rooftop of the buildings that bordered the square. Right now East Glade looked a lot happier and more colorful than it normally did. Trixie was kind of peeved that she didn’t have a show or performance of her own to put on for this but it was likely the mayor and Vector didn’t want her to have to do anything for them, this was partly supposed to be for her sake so having her put on another magic show wouldn’t be proper.

“Normally when we put this on it’s not half as fun,” Vector said. “Most of the villagers would still be worried about something or another and we don’t usually take that extra step to really make it pretty. This party is already so much better thanks to you, everyone can just relax and enjoy themselves.”

It certainly seemed to be the case to Trixie. If someone had come in from out of town today they’d have a completely different view of East Glade.

“You know if I had known something like this was happening I would have made a smoke machine or lights or something for the party,” Coil said as he walked up to them, holding a carrot cupcake he had gotten from somewhere.

“That’s fine, this day should be more about the actual citizens of East Glade putting on entertainment,” Vector waved him off.

As he said that the musicians finally got their act started. Trixie had no musical knowledge or interest in it herself but she could still enjoy a good tune. The “band” looked to have five members, a guitarist, a banjo...ist, someone with a washboard, an accordion player, and a fiddler. Some of that didn’t seem right to Trixie but what did she know.

“There will be lots of dancing soon,” Gizzard said as he plopped down in between them all, just getting finished with his work.

“Ugh, dancing?” Daylight Gleam grimaced. “Count me out. I’ll stick with Horseshoes and eating.”

Trixie could agree with that sentiment. Dance, like music, held no real interest to her. The last time she had even been to a party she could think of where there might have been dancing was when she got her medal from Princess Celestia. Let Twilight and her friends have the embarrassing dancing and singing. Also she didn’t want to look silly in front of the villagers, it was bad enough that everyone saw her lose at Horseshoes and Cornhole, she wasn’t about to make a fool of herself.

She and the others deigned to watch from the sidelines for a bit as a number of the villagers got in a big circle and started dancing in the middle of the square. The music was fast and frantic and the dancing matched it, the party becoming a big hoedown.

“Trixie has to say that she’s surprised,” The magician said while they all watched.

“Me too,” Daylight nodded.

“This is pretty much the one occasion where you’ll see everybody in East Glade really let loose,” Vector said to them.

There was something nagging at Trixie though and she only just now realized what it was. “Where are all the kids?” She asked, noticing that despite the loud festivities none of the children of East Glade were running around.

“Oh, they’re at the mayor’s house,” Vector answered. “This will go on well into the night and things slow down a bit, and there’s alcohol so we don’t want the kids around that. All of the children have their own special little party in the mayor’s house.”

“Trixie sees,” She said and looked out around the partying ponies and griffons again. She saw Speckle Wood juggling some boxes with his magic to the delight of others, that brought a smile to her face too.

“Well I’ve had enough of standing around, ready to lose at Horseshoes again, Miss Great and Powerful?” Daylight asked Trixie.

Trixie scoffed. “No thanks, I’ll take my time to enjoy the other festivities. My magic is clearly meant for greater things than throwing a horseshoe around anyways. Oh but that’s perfect for you.”

Daylight rolled her eyes and didn’t rise to Trixie’s obnoxious bait. She left the others and went to play Horseshoes and Cornhole with anyone who was interested.

Now the typical group minus Daylight watched and listened to the band perform. Trixie couldn’t help but think how any performance she put on would have completely outdone this but she kept that rude thought to herself. She still surprisingly found herself tapping her hoof in tune with the music and looked at her companions to find them doing the same or moving their heads side to side. The music did at least perfectly fit what sort of celebration this was. Happy, loud, fast, almost chaotic as every member of the band seemed to be playing as if they were the centerpiece. Sometimes the guitarist would suddenly go into his own tune, strumming an entirely new song while the rest fought to keep up. Next up the accordion player would loudly mash his instrument right in the middle of the fiddler and banjo player going at it, creating a strange cacophony of sounds that somehow still sounded right.

Discord would probably appreciate it. That jerk.

“How long has East Glade been here anyways?” Trixie suddenly asked Vector and Gizzard out of the blue.

Both of them were a bit surprised to be asked that. They looked at each other for a second before Gizzard answered her.

“Huh, beats me?” He scratched the top of his head. “That’s a good question but Gabriel’s probably the one you want to ask it to. The merponies came here… couple hundred years ago if Senax tells it right. So East Glade was already going strong back then. It’s an old place.”

“Yeah,” Vector put forth. “Don’t really know who first settled it. Griffons from Griffonstone most likely.”

“I say, I’m somewhat surprised that you don’t have a greater knowledge of your own home,” Coil said to the two of them.

Vector just shrugged. “When you’re busy avoiding monsters and horrible weather calamities that come with no warning your whole life some things just get left on the wayside.”

“Actually I might be of assistance when it comes to the history of East Glade.”

“Gah!” Trixie yelped from the sudden unexpected voice right next to her. She jumped up and turned to see Harlequin Black standing no more than an inch from her. “Could you perhaps not sneak up on people like that?!”

“My apologies,” He smiled sincerely at her. “I merely couldn’t help but overhear you all.”

“So what do you know about East Glade?” Gizzard asked their new arrival. None of the others perturbed by his sudden appearance like Trixie.

“Oh, only what I’ve asked around about. But I can say that Vector’s guess was half right, it was actually a group of griffons and ponies that founded this town together several hundred years ago. Back then ponies and griffons almost entirely kept to themselves, but the two families that led the initial settlers here were a bit different. You see one family was a group of merchants from Equestria that dealt in textiles. The other was a griffon family of minor nobility from Griffonstone who purchased from them. It just so happened that the son of the textile merchant fell in love with the griffon family’s daughter on a visit. And she reciprocated his feelings quite warmly.” Harlequin Black told them all while his same old smile stayed on his face. “Now this was even more uncommon back then than it is now but luckily for our star-crossed lovers they both at least had the support of their families. So wishing to go someplace new where they could live in peace and not be bothered by others the two families used all the money they had to get everything they needed to make a totally self-sufficient village. And they brought others with them that were interested in settling a new location and they ended up coming here. That’s how East Glade was born.”

“Rather romantic,” Coil said.

Vector smiled warmly as Harlequin Black finished telling them the story. “It really makes me happy knowing East Glade’s founding has such a positive history to it. These mountains may not be the nicest place, I’d still even say cursed, but we can at least say our town is a bright spot.”

“Or at least it should’ve been were it not for Goliath and all the other misfortune plaguing us,” Gizzard said, giving Vector a bit of a flat look.

“Well, yes, but the history is bright.” He tried to reason.

“Yes, East Glade on its own would be a very nice town,” Harlequin Black agreed. “The founders just ended up choosing a rather unfortunate spot. They wanted someplace more out of the way and private than safe. That was their initial concern.”

“And then of course it just so happened that the merponies showed up here later on?” Coil asked.

Harlequin Black nodded. “Indeed. But you all already know about what happened to them.”

Gizzard rolled his tongue around in his beak, a dismayed look etched on his face. “You know it occurs to me that how rude we’ve been to outsiders in the past kind of goes against what this place was founded for in the first place. We’ve gotta fix that in the future.”

“I don’t think anyone would blame you for that kind of thing considering all of your troubling experiences with outsiders,” Coil said.

“Be that as it may,” Vector interjected. “I think Gizzard is right. We need to make up for those past mistakes.”

“Well just remember to treat the next traveler as great as you’ve treated Trixie,” Trixie told them. Then paused. “Or maybe almost as great, I’m special after all.”

After that. Harlequin Black quietly drifted back into the crowd and the others continued to chat together and enjoy the party. Gold Embrace decided to start performing with Speckle Wood and the both of them really wanted Trixie to watch what they could do, so she and her group went over to their performance. The two unicorn students seemed to be inspired by her entertaining self and that’s why they were doing stuff like juggling. Instead of just using their magic for everyday uses, now they were doing fancy stuff like that with it. Perhaps Trixie was giving them the wrong idea of what a hero used their magic for. Or even what a normal unicorn would use their magic for.

Speckle Wood and Gold Embrace were quite proud of what they were able to accomplish with their magic now though so Trixie figured it was a good idea to humor them and intently watch the show they put on. Like Trixie had thought it was mostly just them juggling or tossing things back and forth, but even that was impressive for the two of them and it was still an unusual sight to the others who lived in East Glade who weren’t used to seeing that many unicorns.

“The both of you have improved quite a bit on your magical control,” Trixie said to them after they were done. It was a bit of a lie though since she didn’t really know what they could do before but the two of them gladly accepted her praise.

“Thanks, we’ll get even better so we can protect East Glade just as well as you can.” Speckle Wood happily grinned at her, matched by Gold Embrace.

“Don’t be upset if that’s a little difficult to accomplish,” Trixie told him, patting him on the head and then wheeling around to face the others. “Alright! What else is there to do today?”

Trixie got her answer as the formally chaotic and loud music slowed down quite a bit. Now instead of the rowdy dancing that had been going on the ponies and griffons started pairing up and danced in a much slower and formal fashion. The calm, classical music floated out through the entire town square, it seemed like it was a signal for everything to get quieter as conversations hushed and ponies playing games paused to let the new ambiance take hold.

“We like dancing like this too,” Vector whispered in her ear.

It was no more enticing to her than the previous dancing had been though. And now it was too quiet, Trixie would’ve preferred some more noise. Maybe she could go back and play Horseshoes with Daylight.

Before she could do that, Coil sidled up to her.

“Care to dance?” Coil asked her.

“Excuse me?” Trixie looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

“This is quite a bit more my speed than the, er, “boogieing” from earlier,” He said.

“I’m surprised you even know how to dance,” Trixie told him, he really didn’t seem the type.

“One can’t stay in Canterlot for as long as I had without learning to at least ballroom dance a little bit,” Coil answered. “And now that the music and dancing has switched to slow it’s just the time for that.” He held a hoof out to her for her to take.

The magician looked down at it. “Eh, alright.”

Trixie shrugged and took it, Coil leading her to the middle of the dancers. She might as well see if she could have any fun dancing around. This adventure of hers was a place for all sorts of new experiences and if Coil at least knew how to lead she might not look that bad. At least hopefully not bad enough that Daylight would tease her about it.

“Just so you know though I have no idea what I’m doing,” Trixie told him.

“Don’t worry, just move with me.” He reassured her, making sure she had her hooves in the right spot before they began slowly twirling and moving with the music.

Naturally the two blue unicorns from out of town become the center of attention with their dancing, even if Trixie’s was noticeably amateurish. It was like that as the dancing continued into the evening and then the night, Trixie was a fast-learner and she wanted to prove she was naturally the best at anything she tried. She was happy that even something like this ended up being a performance for others. Daylight Gleam came to watch the dancing too and didn’t have anything bad to say, everybody was just enjoying the party.

Later at night now, Gabriel and his wife went over to the well in the middle of the square and rang the bell to get everybody’s attention. The dancing stopped and Trixie gathered with her usual acquaintances.

“Thank you, thank you, everyone for making this an even better celebration than it usually is!” Gabriel yelled out to everyone after the absurdly loud ringing stopped.

His words were met with cheer and applause, griffons clapping and ponies stomping on the ground.

“We couldn’t even have it were it not for our esteemed visitors!” He continued and gestured towards Trixie’s group.

Trixie was more than happy to wave at everyone around her and bask in the glory.

The mayor waited for the noise to quiet down again before he continued. “I know I’m going to be saddest most of all when The Great and Powerful Trixie has to eventually leave East Glade but until-”

“Somebody! Help!” A voice yelled from deeper within the town.

The crowd turned to see a brown mare with a graying mane running to the square from down a street, she looked haggard and beat up and was running full force like a Hydra was chasing her. As she got closer to them Trixie saw that she was a bit advanced in age and she couldn’t remember seeing her at the party beforehand.

“Fall Weather?” Gabriel said and ran over to meet her midway. “What’s going on?”

“I was… I was...” The mare was out of breath. “I was looking over the children… and then he came.”

“Who?!” Gabriel asked even though he probably already knew.

“Goliath...” Fall Weather choked out. “I don’t know how he snuck in without anyone noticing but, but...”

Trixie and the others had run up to her now upon hearing the name Goliath. Vector and Gizzard went to steady Fall Weather while Gabriel kept her talking.

“What happened? Are the children alright?” He asked her.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and shook her head. “He took them, your children only, he took them.”

The villagers erupted in gasps of shock and Gabriel fell to his knees like a puppet with its strings cut. All the life and energy seemed to empty his body at once. Giselle was right there next to him too, talons covering her beak and tears spilling down her cheeks.

“T-That’s not all, he left me this,” Fall Weather showed them a crumpled up piece of paper she had been holding in her hoof.

Vector took it and opened it up so he and the rest of Trixie’s group could read it. The parchment looked like it had clearly been torn out of something in the mayor’s own house and the black ink that the note was written with was jagged and shaky looking, clearly the result of someone who didn’t have much experience with writing.

A fresh wave of uneasiness spread over those who read it:

Tomorrow at noon, have the hero tied up on the bridge. Have her alone. If you don’t you’ll never see your kids again.

Simple, to the point, and troubling.

Comments

[Raistlin]

9801764

Is has been said before, but we tend to forget neither Twilight or Starlight represent the average unicorn. Most of them stick to levitation, glowing things, shooting weak beams and few other spells mostly related to their Marks.

[Crowborn]

Hmm....

Is Trixie going to Harry Houdini this?

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Well. Crap.

[redmar]

Trixie is in deep trouble now and I wonder how she will be able to solve this.

[RoboRed]

I wonder how Trixie is going to work her way through this one.

I also sit here wondering what Harlequin Black's angle is...