First Lesson
After announcing to the rest of the village that the day had been saved, Trixie once again got to be celebrated as the savior of East Glade. It stoked her massive ego and pushed any rational thoughts about how she wasn’t really a hero out of her head. So her earlier musings of if she should really keep this up were promptly forgotten. The spotlight was simply too much of a draw for her.
So as partial thanks she had been invited to the mayor’s home that night to have dinner with him, his family, and some other guests. He lived in what looked like the largest building in East Glade aside from Coil’s large laboratory up by the mountains but it was still something that would’ve been considered small for a mansion by Equestria’s standards. Right now Trixie got to sit at the head of the dining table as the guest of honor, something she relished, while Gabriel sat directly across from her. Daylight Gleam sat to her right, here for the night as something of a gift for losing her home, with Senax on her left. Trixie wasn’t sure why the merpony was here but she didn’t have anything against her so whatever. Gizzard was also sitting next to Senax and the rest of the table was filled up with the mayor’s family. His wife, Giselle, Trixie had only just met five minutes earlier and now she had been formally introduced to his children as well. His eldest was called Gabriel Jr., then Guyaven, and lastly Gower.
What’s with griffons and the letter “G”? Trixie had to wonder to herself.
“Are you enjoying your meal?” Gabriel asked her.
“Uh, yeah.” Trixie looked down at the plate of plain carrots and corn. She’d had worse on her travels before.
“Thanks for letting me stay here the night by the way.” Daylight said to their host.
“Least I could do, you’ve always been such a help to East Glade ever since you came here, Daylight.” Gabriel pleasantly smiled at her. “I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to rebuild that house but we’ll start trying tomorrow morning.”
“It’s good we were able to put out the fire so quickly. It wouldn’t have been possible if Trixie didn’t deal with Goliath’s thugs.” Gizzard said in-between bites of foods before a sudden coughing fit overtook him. Senax helpfully started to rub his back.
This probably would’ve been a good opportunity for Trixie to admit that she wasn’t quite what she seemed.
“You’re really amazing, Miss Great and Powerful Trixie!” Gabriel Jr. said.
And that praise pushed any common sense out of her big head.
“She defeated the Nuckelavee and she fought off all those evil griffons and ponies!” Guyaven nodded along with his brother.
“And she did it all on her own!” Gower added at the end.
Daylight snorted and glanced at Trixie. “I’d call you out on that but it is sadly somewhat accurate as to what happened earlier today...”
“Yes, well, this is Trixie’s job after all. Like I said, I’m the greatest and most powerful of heroes.” She grinned proudly, having no problem with the lie.
“Um, speaking of those griffons...” All eyes at the table turned to Senax, who had quietly spoken up. “The reason I asked to be a part of this dinner tonight is because I wanted to ask you something, Trixie. When you fought those invaders earlier today did you notice if any of them was carrying a horn?”
“A horn?” Trixie looked at her in confusion.
“Ah, so that’s what you were wondering about, Senax.” Gabriel said.
Trixie looked around the table, everyone seemed to understand what was going on except for her again. “What are you talking about?”
Senax sighed. “I suppose you would’ve remembered if you had seen it. But a year ago Goliath stole from me a magical horn that’s an heirloom of us merponies. You see, ages ago merponies lived in the ocean to the east under the rule of the great Ponyseidon. However something happened to us, our city on the bottom of the ocean became lost and the merponies were scattered to every corner of the seas, lost and separated. The Horn of Listening is one of three magical items that once belonged to Ponyseidon, and it was the last thing my tribe in particular had to connect us to our long lost home. I need to get it back from Goliath.”
“Trixie sees...” She didn’t really but she at least knew how to act understanding. “One day Trixie will likely have to fight this Goliath, what does the horn look like.”
“It’s a spiral horn that was created from some kind of undersea creature, plated in bronze, with magical runes along its sides that glow when it’s being used.” She told her.
“Well, Trixie will certainly try and retrieve it for you.” Trixie placed a hoof to her chest and smiled in reassurance.
“Thank you, it really would mean the world to me and my people.” Senax smiled but it was a bit of a sad one.
Gizzard coughed again but this time it was intentional. “Right, right, how about getting things back to a bit of a more positive topic? There are kids here after all.” He glanced at the three boys of the mayor, who glared at him for being referred to in such a way.
“Actually after what happened today there was another reason I wanted to ask Trixie here for dinner.” Gabriel somewhat bashfully rubbed the back of his head. “I am grateful and wanted to treat you but there was a different, special, reason for all of this.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow at the mayor. “What is it?” She took a drink from her glass of water.
Gabriel clapped his talons together and bowed his head. “Would you please teach the unicorns of East Glade magic so we can defend ourselves?”
She almost spat out her water. Thankfully she caught herself, that wouldn’t look good for her image of a flawless hero who didn’t worry about anything.
“You want Trixie to what?” She asked incredulously after gulping down the water.
“We don’t have many unicorns here but there are still a few, and if they could do magic like you then we wouldn’t need to rely on you to keep getting us out of trouble. I know you wont always be around.” Gabriel said. He briefly looked to Daylight Gleam. “I actually had been considering asking Miss Gleam to do this too, but then you arrived.”
“What about Coil?” Trixie asked.
“He’s more a scientist than a fighter.” Daylight answered that for Gabriel. “He’s pretty knowledgeable about magic but not the best when it comes to actual spells and stuff.”
Trixie looked around at the others at the table, it seemed they were all engaged in whether she would say yes or no now. The problem was she had no idea how to teach others magic. She hardly had any idea on how to properly use magic half the time. She was a showoff who relief on bluffs and sleight of hoof. Illusions not actuality. But the villagers here didn’t know that. They thought (thanks in no small part to her own boasting) that she was quite possibly the most powerful magician from Equestria. So why wouldn’t they ask her to teach them? And how could she refuse without either telling the truth and ruining her reputation or just coming off as a jerk and ruining her reputation.
So really there was only one answer.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie would be happy to teach your unicorns magic.” She stoically said, at least attempting to give off an air of quiet power and ability as if she hadn’t almost spit up her drink right before upon hearing the request.
“Wonderful!” Gabriel cheered.
Gizzard and Senax, and especially Gabriel’s kids, looked happy as well. Daylight just regarded her with the same cool look she always did.
“Are you sure about this?” The white unicorn whispered to Trixie.
“But of course, how could I refuse? And who better to teach unicorns magic to defend themselves with than the traveling hero who has conquered all manner of beasts and villains.” Trixie nonchalantly replied.
As Daylight shrugged and went back to eating it was then that Trixie realized that she had come here in the first place to learn new magic for herself. And now here she was accepting an offer to teach others magic. Oops.
“Okay, so you’re the unicorns of East Glade?” Trixie looked over her new charges.
There were four.
It was the next morning and Gabriel had already made sure that the magic lessons would proceed as quickly as possible, the few unicorns of East Glade were gathered up and brought outside the wagon of their new teacher. Trixie was not exactly impressed by the offering. There was a stallion and mare about her age and two young colts who looked like twins. Daylight Gleam, Vector, and Gizzard were also watching over things. Vector in particular wanted to see what kinds of amazing things Trixie would be teaching.
Trixie also wanted to see what she would be teaching.
The four unicorns nodded with big happy smiles on their faces. How proud they were to participate in this, to learn and study under the village’s hero.
“My name is Speckle Wood.” The unicorn stallion said. A lime-green pony with amber eyes and a deeper green mane and tail. His Cutie Mark was that of a campfire.
“I’m Gold Embrace.” The mare said. As her name implied she was a golden pony with a platinum blond mane and tail and a Cutie mark of a golden ring. “And these are my children, Gold Box and Gold Fortune. They’re twins.”
“Trixie had figured as much.” She looked down at the colts, they definitely had a resemblance to their mother but their coats were a darker gold that almost looked brown and their manes were similarly a much dirtier blond than hers. The two of them didn’t have Cutie Marks yet either. “So just what can all of you do? How much magic do you know?”
The unicorns stopped smiling and kind of looked between each other, frowning and shrugging. It was not reassuring to Trixie.
“Er, I can lift things with my magic?” Speckle Wood said. “Like books and small boxes and stuff.”
“I use my magic whenever I’m cooking. You know, stirring the pot, chopping up vegetables, that kind of thing.” Gold Embrace told her with a fairly airheaded looking smile back on her face. “My kids sometimes play catch with a rubber ball using their magic, right?” She looked at them.
“Yep!” The two colts cheerfully said in unison.
“That’s… great.” Trixie’s face scrunched up in worry.
Now I know how Starlight felt when she first started teaching me… not that I’d ever admit that to her. Trixie did her best to keep any sweat or hesitation from showing. I have no idea how to teach these ponies magic. Do I just lie some more and make a bunch of stuff up? I’m good at that, right?
Trixie paced back and forth in front of the other unicorns. “Alright. The Great and Powerful Trixie will try to teach you what she knows of magic. However. I did not plan on doing something like this and thus have no study tools or books on magic with me, so we will be starting from the most basic of basics.” She stopped and stared at them, tilting up her head and trying to look imposing.
The four unicorns looked at her with somewhat blank looks on their faces.
“So what does that mean?” Speckle Wood asked.
Trixie searched around on the ground and finally saw what she wanted. “These rocks!” She picked up four rocks the size of apple cores in her magic and flung them at the hooves of the other unicorns. “Pick them up in your magic, let me see how easy it is for you!”
The unicorns did as instructed, effortlessly lifting up the rocks.
Okay now what… Trixie faux rubbed her chin as if she was contemplating how the unicorns were doing. “Good, good, now we’ll test the limits of your magic!” Trixie turned and pointed into the distance at the mountains far away to the north. “Throw those rocks as far as you can with your magic!”
I have no idea what I’m doing.
The unicorns at least didn’t question her order at all. All four of them stepped forward into a line and threw the rocks as hard as they could. Trixie and the other observers watched to see just what sort of distance the village dwelling unicorns could get. Of course Trixie had no idea what would constitute a good result. She didn’t even know how far she could throw one of those rocks. But she still acted like this was some sort of standard test.
Gold Box and Gold Fortune were only able to throw theirs a few feet, understandable considering their age and the fact they didn’t even have their Cutie Marks yet. Speckle Wood got a good distance on his, it was actually far enough that Trixie had trouble making out the small rock with her eyes. But Gold Embrace was able to throw hers the furthest, it sailed over the spot where Speckle’s landed.
Trixie flashed a grin at the other unicorns. “Thank you! Now The Great and Powerful Trixie has an accurate measure of your magical ability!”
Vector clapped for her.
The blue unicorn graciously smiled at him before turning back to her new students. “Don’t be discouraged if you aren’t happy with how far you could throw the rock, you all did perfectly acceptable and I will teach you whatever I can.”
“Thank you, Miss Great and Powerful.” Speckle Wood said.
“Er, right.” Trixie now started to wrack her brain to try and figure out what she should have them do next. “Sooo, do any of you know how to use actual spells or create shields with your magic?”
A series of shaking heads were her answer.
“Trixie thought not, but that’s okay.” The showpony resisted the urge to sigh in defeat. “I suppose for now then we’ll focus on drawing out your magic and seeing just how much you can generate. So bring out your magic! Push and strain as hard as you can! Really make those horns glow as bright as possible, call forth magic like you’ve never called forth before!” Trixie yelled.
The training went on as Trixie continued to pull random ideas out of her head that at least seemed like actual lessons and training. Luckily for her none of the village unicorns were any the wiser to her suspicious methods and the one person around who could probably see through what she was doing hadn’t spoken up about it. Soon enough she had managed to tire out the four other unicorns and Trixie took that opportunity to call it a day, reassuring all of the ponies of a job well done. When asked when the next lesson would be, Trixie experienced a flop sweat and told them to take it up with Gabriel before any of them noticed her nervousness. They pleasantly said goodbye and Vector and Gizzard went back to the village with them.
So now Trixie was relaxing after those lessons and was preparing to make plans for the next show she would put on in East Glade when Daylight came up to her.
“Wow, those sure were some special lessons. I had no idea that’s how you measured someone’s magical ability.” The white unicorn narrowed her eyes at the blue one.
“That’s because you are simply out of touch with Equestrian unicorn training regimens.” Trixie replied without missing a beat.
“Oh, I see. Training regimens. Not things you totally made up as you went along.” Daylight nodded sarcastically.
“Yes. Exactly.” Trixie glared at her.
They locked eyes for a moment. Piercing blue ones boring into Trixie’s purple ones before Daylight finally gave up and just sighed, shaking her head as she turned around and went to walk back to the village as well. “I guess it’s fine as long as you mean well. The ones who actually live here needed to learn how to protect it from someone someday. They need the help and I don’t have any idea how to teach magic either.”
“Trixie has an idea of what she’s doing!”
In the dangerous mountains past the ravine that Goliath and his band called home there was a dark cloud hanging over the plateau that they used for a base. Not literally, just in the minds of all those who looked at the malevolent and glowering form of Goliath as he stared down the horrified figures of Gibble and Gouge and the other failures who had returned with them.
The griffons and ponies from the advance party were mangled and wet from their tumble into the ravine and the cold rushing river that sat at the bottom of it. It had taken them quite a while to get out and return here without any of their gear and their disfigurements taking away their ability to simply fly out. Thankfully for them they had managed to scale the cliffs before they had been washed too far out into the ocean… but now that they had returned here and thrown themselves on the mercy of Goliath some of them were thinking they should’ve taken their chance with being lost at sea.
“You… what?” Goliath quietly asked of Gibble and Gouge. Even with him being quieter though his deep and crushing voice still sent chills down their spines, maybe even moreso than normal.
“We… we couldn’t bring her to you.” Gibble said.
Goliath’s talon came flying down and smashed his head beak first into the ground. “OBVIOUSLY!” He continued to grind Gibble’s face into the dirt. “Why! How! How were you unable to bring a single pony to me?! How did you end up thrown into the ravine like a bunch of pathetic fools?! Could it be you were so cowardly that you couldn’t even face a worthless pony calling themselves a hero?! What did she do that made you run away in fear?”
“S-She threatened to turn us into teacups and break us!” Gouge said, trying to relieve Gibble of Goliath’s wrath.
The huge griffon’s head turned to stare at him incredulously. “Are you mad?”
“No! She really did that! And she turned Gibble’s binoculars into a teacup to prove it!” Gouge pleaded. “And she fired magical fireballs called fireworks at us, that’s what threw us into the river, it wasn’t our fault I swear! She was just too powerful! East Glade truly brought a hero to protect them!” He got on his knees in begging form to try and make Goliath understand.
“A true hero...” Goliath muttered, lifting his talon from Gibble’s head. “Did you get her name?”
“T-Trixie.” Gouge said. “She called herself The Great and Powerful Trixie.”
Goliath backhanded him in the face and knocked him to the ground. “Hah. Great and Powerful? I’ll show her what those words mean.” He looked out across the dozens of other griffons and ponies. “We attack East Glade tomorrow. But the hero is mine alone.”
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From bad to worse.
Just to point out, it is demonstrated in the show that Trixie definitely knows a lot more spells than your average unicorn, not as much as Twilight and Starlight, definitely, but definitely more than your average unicorn. She has demonstrated the ability to summon a small storm cloud and strike a foe with lightning, as well as an adept level of telekinesis (kinds comes with her job as a showmare) and if anything, despite her boasting and ego, she is a fast learner, given the examples shown in the show. Also, while the Alicorn amulet was amping her magic, she did demonstrate she had quite a range of spells in her repritoire, not counting ones obviously granted by the magical boost of the Alicorn amulet, such as the age spell.
(Also that lightning strike did little damage mostly because her opponent was an Ursa minor, though agreeably it probably isn't too powerful either, but lightning is still lightning))
9801332
Yeah she's definitely above average and has a lot of potential but she's just not a teacher herself or anything (even though Starlight had her substitute at the school once I guess). She knows how to do a lot but her theatrics and impulsiveness can kind of hamper things at times too. Trixie's good but just not Twilight or Starlight good I guess is what I'm saying.
9801764
Yeah, just most people forget that her ego stems from the fact that she IS better than the average unicorn, even if she can't compete with Twilight and Starlight.
(Though in all fairness, Twilight and Starlight are kind of freaks of nature when it comes to magical ability, haha)
Trixie's off the cuff lesson had me chuckling. (Even if Trixie knows a bit of magic, knowing doesn't mean you can teach!) The situation with the Griffons is getting bad.
I expect that Trixie's lessons will be helpfull in a way that surprises everyone and Trixie most of all.
It's perfect that it's Daylight of all ponies calling Trixie out on her charade.
Hopefully she's able to teach some of the other unicorns something, though. She's not Twilight-tier, but she's not completely worthless at magic either.
Aha, so it is the Horn of Listening that those two had back there.