Trixie Searches For Magic

by MagicS

How to Succeed at Everything

Trixie and Daylight Gleam slept in hammocks inside Trixie’s wagon the night after Trixie’s first “lesson”. Neither of them were thrilled with the arrangement but Daylight didn’t want to impose on the mayor or any of her other friends and the hut she had been living in was still being rebuilt. So she came to shack up with someone she didn’t feel guilty at all for imposing on.

Now they were waking up in that cramped interior after an uncomfortable night of sleep, all the boxes and tools Trixie had stuffed inside her wagon made the space for sleeping very small even if it was just Trixie alone. She had learned her lesson about sharing this wagon with someone else on a trip when she and Starlight attempted to travel to Saddle Arabia together. But Daylight made the convincing case that it was partially Trixie’s fault that her place got burned down and that it wouldn’t do well for her reputation if she refused a pony in need.

Daylight struggled to roll out of her hammock, jostling and bumping up against Trixie as she did so, before the white unicorn finally escaped and fell to the floor of the wagon. The crash made some boxes fall over onto her and completely woke up Trixie.

“What are you doing?” Trixie asked as she leaned over her hammock and looked down at Daylight with groggy eyes.

“Trying to get out of this pigsty...” Daylight muttered, kicking away one of the boxes.

“Hey! Be careful!” Trixie frowned at her. “Don’t go kicking around my stuff. And one of those boxes has my Super Mega Deluxe Trixie Special Firework inside it.”

Daylight raised a perturbed eyebrow at her. “Your what?”

The magician rolled her eyes. “My Super Mega Deluxe Trixie Special Firework. It’s a big firework that makes a pattern of my face when it goes off. I used one at the show, remember?”

“Vaguely.” Daylight said as she looked across the boxes strewn about the floor.

“Well anyways I have one left and it’s in here somewhere. And if you accidentally set it off in here that’s goodbye to the wagon.” Trixie told her.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Daylight said as she stood up, using her magic to place the boxes back where they belonged. “Hopefully that was the only night I have to spend in here though, the villagers can probably get my place fixed up by the end of the day.” She yawned and glanced at Trixie. “So what are you going to do today then? I don’t know if Speckle Wood and the others have talked to Gabriel yet about more lessons.”

“Trixie was planning on exploring.” The blue unicorn replied. “That’s actually what I was going to do earlier before those gross mountain-dwellers attacked. I did come here to look for new kinds of magic after all.”

Daylight frowned at her. “Where were you planning to explore, then?”

“I know what you’re thinking.” Trixie also slightly yawned. “I didn’t know what was in those mountains to the east before, so now I’m thinking of heading up north from the village a little bit.”

“You know I still have to recommend against that.” Daylight grimaced at her bunkmate. “There’s a lot of weird stuff that happens out here. Ponies go missing, monsters no one has ever seen before show up, it can be hailing in one spot and scorching fifty feet away, random bursts of magic pop up every now and then. This really isn’t the place to just go out on your own and look around. You ever hear the phrase “curiosity killed the cat”?”

Trixie grinned at the unsure unicorn. “Yes, and I can tell you that that is a phrase I have never put much meaning towards.”

Daylight Gleam facehooved and groaned. “I can tell.”

---

The two unicorns headed into the middle of East Glade shortly after that. Trixie was pulling her wagon with her, she had decided she would put on another show sometime soon so she was bringing it back into the square to get ready as quickly as possible. Trixie was getting lots of friendly and gracious looks from everyone, it did a lot to fan her ego. She waved back to the ponies and griffons she saw, happily grinning to the kids who were certainly looking forward to any new show from her.

“You’ve done a good job of raising morale here. Before you arrived the village wasn’t exactly what I’d call sad but it wasn’t as lively either.” Daylight said to her.

“Obviously they’re just energized from my show and epic victories over evil.” Trixie smugly replied.

Daylight just groaned and didn’t bother to respond any further. She found the blue unicorn impossible to deal with.

Trixie naturally took that silence as a sign of victory and grinned harder at her “friend”.

The two of them then spotted some familiar faces. Trixie deigned to leave her wagon in the middle of the square by the well so it wasn’t blocking off any paths in or out of the place and she and Daylight walked over to the others. Vector, Coil, and Gizzard were all here along with Senax and another merpony Trixie hadn’t been introduced to. She could pretty much pass for Senax’s sister though, the only difference was her… fur? Scales? Had a slightly greener hue and her spiky mane was a hot pink color instead of Senax’s seaweed green.

“Well if it wasn’t the talk of the town herself.” Coil greeted Trixie with a friendly smile.

“And me.” Daylight stared flatly at him.

“Of course, of course.” He chuckled at her annoyance.

“Don’t be upset, Daylight. Everyone can’t help but be overshadowed when around me.” Trixie said without a hint of sarcasm.

The white unicorn did her best to keep from exploding, a vein bulging out of her forehead. “So, what’s everyone doing here then?” She ground out through clenched teeth.

“Nothing much really, we just all found ourselves here.” Coil shrugged.

“Actually I did come here for more of a real reason.” The other merpony standing next to Senax said and then looked to Trixie. “Miss Great and Powerful Trixie? I wanted to ask you to dine with me and the others of our tribe. Senax said she mentioned this to you?”

Trixie was surprised but quickly hid it. “Uh, yes, she did! And The Great and Powerful Trixie would be happy to accept your offer miss…?”

“Vahar.” The other merpony happily smiled. “I’m so glad! Everyone else will be ecstatic too. Does tonight work for you?”

“Tonight is fine, Trixie hadn’t made any definite plans on anything yet.” Trixie said. Again she was kind of pushing her original mission here to the side but the merponies offered a lot to her and she knew that they had knowledge of some ancient magical artifacts too. The exploring and her next show could wait, it wasn’t like she was on a tight schedule or anything either.

“I hope you like carrots.” Senax grinned at her too.

The two merponies excused themselves after that, going back to their homes to prepare the dinner in Trixie’s honor, just leaving the four ponies and Gizzard to chat. At least until Daylight also excused herself from the group to go check on the progress of her house. Vector continued to ask Trixie a variety of questions about her magic “training” and what else she would be doing around here while Coil attempted to get a word in about what sort of adventures and journeys she’d gone on back in Equestria.

Gizzard however was quiet the whole time, he just kept looking up into the sky for some reason every few seconds. And as much as Trixie loved to talk about herself she couldn’t ignore her curiosity any longer.

“You looking for something, Gizzard?” Trixie asked him.

“Hm? Oh.” Gizzard did a double-take and had to blink a few times before he registered who was talking to him. As if he had forgotten that the others were there. “Not really, no, my grandsons are up patrolling the sky right now.”

Trixie’s eyes widened a bit in surprise. “I didn’t know you had grandsons.”

“Hn, two of them. They insisted to take care of watching over East Glade for the next few days. Said it was to give me some time to rest.” Gizzard scowled. “Bah! I aint that old yet!” As if to counter what he had just said the griffon suddenly went into a coughing fit. Hacking up his lungs for a moment before managing to stop. “Me and my big beak… anyways, they’re keeping up a tighter watch than just what I did. Everyone’s concerned that Goliath might come here soon to get back at us. You.” He stared at Trixie.

The faux-hero for her part merely smiled. “And The Great and Powerful Trixie shall be ready for him when he does attack. You all saw how easily I dealt with the others, this “Goliath”, leader he may be, is surely no match for me.”

The orange earth pony of the group couldn't help but worriedly grimace. “Yeahhh, the thing about that is that Goliath really isn’t like other griffons.”

Trixie scoffed. “His name starts with a G doesn’t it?”

“That’s tradition.” Gizzard muttered and looked away while Coil snickered.

“Be that as it may.” Vector continued. “He’s a violent and dangerous griffon who we’ve only managed to appease thanks to them having no interest in farming or gathering food for themselves. Please be careful, I know he’s going to come after you and East Glade soon thanks to that earlier scuffle.”

“Vector has the right of it.” Gizzard nodded. “We-”

Whatever Gizzard was about to say was cut off by a high-pitched whistle from above.

They, and the others in the square for that matter, looked up to see a fairly young griffon rushing through the sky. Trixie saw that he was coming right for their small group and she backed up a bit to give him room. The griffon landed in between them, panting and sweating frantically, and wheezed for a second before opening his beak and practically yelling in Gizzard’s face.

“Gramps!” What had to have been one of Gizzard’s grandsons said. “I saw them! I saw them coming right now!”

“Hold on for a second!” Gizzard grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake a little sense into him. “How many? Goliath?”

The grandson nodded. “Not just some, there were a lot. It looked like Goliath and everyone he has with him. They’re coming down from the mountains heading straight to the bridge.”

The other villagers in the square, who had obviously seen Gizzard’s grandson fly down here in a hurry and were listening in, now started to panic just like they had the last time. Gizzard just sighed and shook his head while Vector and Coil tried to calm some of the nearby ponies and griffons down.

“Well I guess that’s it. Moment of decision I guess?” Gizzard said while looking at Trixie.

Now Trixie at this point could’ve slowed down for a second and remembered that she had defeated those earlier thugs by pure luck and bluffing. And defeated what was a horrible monster also by pure luck. She could’ve thought about this and realized that she still wasn’t exactly a hero like her friends were and that she might be in a bit over her head. However her pride, carefree attitude, and ignorance were doing a good job of ruining any chance for common sense to prevail.

“Have no fear! The Great and Powerful Trixie is here!” She shouted loud enough for everyone in the square to hear her. “Do not worry, citizens of East Glade! For I shall protect you again!”

Trixie’s voice had a powerful effect on the villagers, just that short speech helped more than anything Coil or Vector could do to calm them down. The confident grin on the hero’s face assuaged their fears and Trixie could hear them begin to talk back and forth with each other about how surely they would be okay with The Great and Powerful Trixie here to defend them.

The blue unicorn motioned to her friends and Gizzard’s grandson, beckoning them to follow her. “Come now, we shall go meet this Goliath head on. If he refuses to leave you alone then he will have to face me!”

They did follow after her as she began to walk to the bridge. Vector fully believed in her but he was still worried since he knew what Goliath was like and she didn’t.

“He certainly wont back down.” He told her. “I’m certain it’s going to come to a fight, we’ll help you in any way we can.”

“Yes, don’t forget you’re not doing this alone. The rest of us might not be heroes but we’ve all fought to keep this village safe in past situations.” Coil reminded her.

“Thank you.” Trixie smiled at them. “But you don’t need to worry. After all this is the reason I’m here.”

Well not really. She thought. But they don’t need to know that. This is going to be great! I can save the village, have everyone fawn over me some more, then I’ll have no problems exploring the mountains and then I can put on some even better shows and go home to rub it all in Twilight’s face! Perfect!

Meanwhile on the path from the eastern mountains that led down to East Glade, Goliath led his band of violent thieves and pillagers. There was no hiding out or running around somewhere else to get the drop on the village. Goliath wanted East Glade to know he was coming. Gibble and Gouge quietly walked behind him, both of them sporting fresh wounds and bruises from their earlier treatment at his claws. The large carrot patch they walked through was left untouched for now as they would want to take all of their spoils after dealing with Trixie.

Goliath kept his piercing eyes on the town and the Horn of Listening tucked under his wing stub. His large and frightening eyes could make out the townspeople running about from building to building, some of them coming right up to the far side of the bridge. He smiled in eagerness, happy that they weren’t just hiding. It would make things more fun if they fought back or foolishly tried to reason with him.

He didn’t see anyone that matched the description of that “hero” yet though.

Instead as he got closer he saw the mayor standing alone in the middle of the bridge. Everyone else that had the courage to come out was crowding around on the village side.

Goliath licked his beak as he reached the bridge, motioning for his subordinates to stop he stalked out along the creaking boards of the bridge by himself. Acting like a lion getting ready to pounce on its prey.

The mayor was shaking and clearly terrified but to his credit he didn’t run away. The sweat cascading down his feathers was something he couldn’t help though.

“Well. If it isn’t my favorite chicken to knock around.” Goliath said as he stood in front of the mayor, completely dwarfing Gabriel.

Gabriel was slightly too frightened to speak up so Goliath continued.

“I came here for the… hero. Where is she? I’m going to crush her beneath my talons.” He threateningly wrung them in front of the mayor’s face.

While that was going on Daylight Gleam stood amongst the crowd of villagers, silently stopping Speckle Wood and the other unicorn trainees from doing anything stupid.

“Where is that obnoxious unicorn?” Daylight whispered under her breath. She uneasily watched Gabriel confronting Goliath. Daylight had the desire to help but knew from a couple of prior experiences that she couldn’t take the large griffon in a fight, and he wasn’t even alone either. The whole lot of them had come to East Glade.

Finally Gabriel found it in him to speak to Goliath. “We’re not letting you boss us around anymore.” He gulped. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to help us and she’ll defeat you. Y-You should just leave, Goliath.”

The giant, fearsome griffon looked down at the mayor like a rowdy child that had just been told no by its parents. “Do you have a death wish?”

To the villagers close enough to hear him ask Gabriel that a fresh wave of fear broke out over them and Daylight debated just attacking him now.

“Go away-” Before Gabriel could finish his sentence a large talon was clamped around his shoulder, the sharp digits digging into his skin.

“No more talking.” He lowered his head to glare right into Gabriel’s eyes. “The hero. Where?”

“Make way! Do not fear, The Great and Powerful Trixie is here!”

The crowd began to part and Daylight and Gabriel both looked back to see Trixie coming to help them, her head confidently held high and a smug grin on her face. Goliath looked up to see the blue unicorn clad in her robe and hat and sneered at her. The villagers were standing in awe of her, happily moving aside to allow her through while the brigands behind Goliath who had confronted her earlier nervously shuffled about.

And as Trixie walked to the front-line right before the bridge she finally got a good look at Goliath.

And froze.

She luckily stopped right in front of anyone besides the mayor so none could see the sudden bead of sweat that fell down her forehead (to all behind her it just looked like she had halted in preparation for her confrontation with the evil griffon). The grin was still on her face but her eyes told the truth, wide in fear and realization.

Trixie has made a terrible mistake. She thought. Because looking upon a gargantuan, battle-scarred griffon, staring her down with murderous eyes, that gave off an aura of “I want to eat you”, finally reminded her that she was not really a hero despite her lies and exaggerations. It was the Ursa Minor all over again. How was a unicorn that couldn’t beat a burlap sack supposed to deal with this?

The Great and Powerful Trixie was not especially good at remembering all her lessons.

“So you’re the hero of East Glade?” Goliath growled at her with his deep and intimidating voice.

“That is correct.” She automatically replied without thinking.

A dark chuckle rose from Goliath, he lifted up Gabriel and threw him over Trixie’s head and into the crowd. She could hear some surprised squawks and screams from behind her as the crowd either scattered out of the way or bunched up to catch him. Honestly she wasn’t sure which happened. And she wasn’t about to tear her eyes away from Goliath to check.

“I’m going to enjoy showing you what happens when anyone crosses me.” He grinned and looked back over his shoulder at his lackeys. “Do what you want with the village, I’ll be taking my time with The Great and Powerful Trixie.”

A few evil grins and laughter rippled through the attackers and they slowly began to walk forward across the bridge. Every step they took the citizens of East Glade took a step back, quaking in fear and waiting for their hero to do something.

The blue unicorn hadn’t taken a step back yet. Instead she gulped (another thing thankfully unseen by the villagers) and loudly shouted. “The Great and Powerful Trixie shall defeat this evil thug! But she needs something first! So cover for her!” And then she turned tail and quickly began running back into East Glade, straight for her wagon.

Okay, fun while it lasted, time to get out of here. She thought as she pushed her hooves to the limit. The villagers thankfully did get out of her way though, trusting that she had something up her sleeve.

“Coward!” Goliath yelled and ran after her.

Daylight Gleam saw Trixie running and shook her head in exasperation. “Liar...” She muttered.

But the white unicorn jumped in Goliath’s way all the same, knowing she’d have to fight now anyways. Coil joined her too and the two unicorns put their magic together to create a strong honeycomb shield that blocked the middle of the road. The advantage they had was Goliath’s lack of wings and his anger clouding his head.

However Goliath had a better advantage: brute strength.

The gargantuan griffon tore through the magical shield with a defiant roar as if it was as flimsy as tissue paper. Both Coil and Daylight were knocked aside, Vector going to help Coil up while an unfortunately timed coughing fit handicapped Gizzard from also doing anything.

And so Goliath charged after Trixie. No other villager was stupid or courageous enough to try and stop him.

“Trixie will have to put her journey on hold, this is certainly the time for me to go.” She panickedly said to herself as she ran down the street back to town’s square. Not a thought was in her head anymore about the villagers.

“Come back here! I’ll tear you limb from limb!” Goliath yelled from behind her.

Luckily he didn’t seem to be gaining on her just yet but his voice sent a fresh wave of terror through her and she nearly screamed trying to make herself go faster.

Trixie was soon able to see the empty square in front of her with her wagon standing right in the middle. And the fresh smile she had at knowing she was almost there instantly fell as another realization hit her.

How am I going to outrun him while pulling my wagon along?

It was unthinkable to leave her wagon behind. But she also really didn’t want to get torn to pieces by a griffon that looked like he ate dragons for breakfast.

Any more debating on the matter was thrown aside as Trixie again heard Goliath scream at her.

“There you are! There’s no place for you to hide anymore!” She could hear his bounding steps reaching her.

“Gah!” She yelped and darted to her wagon, instead of tying herself to it though she ran right inside of it and slammed the door shut, the sudden heavy motion causing all of the junk and tools inside to fall all over. Boxes of ropes, scarves, and fireworks all emptied their contents onto the magician.

“I’ve got you!” Goliath said as he reached her wagon. The griffon was far too large to go inside the wagon but he was able to easily tear the door off its hinges and stick his huge head inside. His sharp and angry eyes looking over the interior for his prey.

Movement from under the stuff caught his eye and Trixie peeked her frightened head out just in time to see the large griffon grin at her and reach a talon into the wagon to grab her.

“Hahaha, you’re mine you pathetic hero.” He mocked.

“No way!” Trixie exclaimed in fear and panic-fired a bolt of magic at Goliath.

He actually swatted it aside like it was nothing, the sparks of the magic scattering to the floor of the wagon. “Hah! Weak coward!” His talon again moved forward to get her like an inexorable force, utterly impossible to evade or stop.

Trixie grit her teeth and closed her eyes. Save me, Twilight!

A sizzling sound and the smell of smoke reached both the ears and noses of the two in the wagon.

“What?” Goliath looked down to see a lit string sending off sparks as it sped into the back of a large, cylindrical object pointed at him.

Now what Trixie saw when she opened her eyes was her Super Mega Deluxe Trixie Special Firework about to fire.

“Uh oh.” She pulled her hat over her face while Goliath raised a confused eyebrow at her.

“Too scared to even look at-” He didn’t finish as the spark finally made its way down the lit fuse and ignited the firework. A blast of uncomfortably hot sparks bathed Trixie for a second while her special firework shot right into Goliath’s face.

“AGHHH!” The griffon yelled as he was blown backwards and out of the wagon, where the firework promptly exploded in his face in the middle of town’s square, creating a huge pattern in Trixie’s face and catching his feathery body on fire. “Gahhhh!” He screamed in agony as he rolled around, temporarily blinded and in immense pain but succeeding at putting out most of the flames. Unfortunately for him though he didn’t notice that the Horn of Listening was also knocked away while he rolled on the ground, it bounced a few times and came to a stop a couple feet from the well.

Coughing, Trixie emerged from her wagon. She was smoking and covered in a bit of soot but otherwise unharmed. A number of other villagers were also crowding around the streets that entered the square, watching the whole thing while the rest of the fighting went on around the bridge.

“You-You little!” Goliath yelled as he tried to fight his way back up and attack her but the firework had taken its toll on him. He was barely able to open up one eye to glare at her. “D-Don’t think this is over, s-something like this is nothing! I’ll be back for you and everyone else here!” He wheezed and turned around, half-running and half-limping away from The Great and Powerful Trixie while a small flame still danced on top of his feathered head.

The unicorn was a bit too stunned to move or do anything right now.

“Did I just… win?” She asked herself.

It took a few minutes but Daylight, Vector, the Mayor, and everybody else soon filed into Town’s Square. Daylight walked up to a shocked griffoness who was staring at Trixie.

“What happened?” She asked. “We were fighting those other guys and then there was an explosion and Goliath comes running out down the bridge? Did Trixie do that?”

“Y-Yes.” The griffoness responded. “She used one of her magical fire missiles on him, he was so scared and hurt that he ran away right after… it was incredible. The fire even made her face when it exploded!”

As the “truth” of what happened made its way through the villagers they ecstatically realized that they had just won and their hero had made Goliath retreat all by herself.

“A cheer for The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Gabriel yelled.

The citizens of East Glade were more than willing to listen and agree. A deafening cheer went up in celebration of the hero, one that even Daylight Gleam wholeheartedly took part in. Every grateful pony, griffon, and merpony were all raising their hooves or talons in the air in appreciation of their savior.

This noise snapped Trixie out of her funk and her eyes quickly darted back and forth. Realizing she was supposed to be the perfect hero she composed herself as best she could and gave a grin to her audience.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is victorious again!” She yelled, causing a fresh wave of cheers. Trixie managed to keep on her mask of confidence and elation as she stood there waving to the villagers but her common sense hadn’t been overwritten by the glory this time. Much more quietly she nervously chuckled and spoke to herself. “Ehehe, I need to get out of here.”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[MagicS]

9805992
Coil is typical scientist/professor guy voice. Gizzard sounds old and rustic, with his voice a bit scratchy, he sounds like he's on the verge of coughing something up every time he speaks. Vector sounds like a generic background character. The most average sounding guy you could think of. And Daylight is grumpy Twilight except with a lower pitched voice, in my head I always pictured her as looking like a palette swap of unicorn Twilight in the first place.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

That "fight scene" between Trixie and Goliath made me laugh. Not so tough now eh, Goliath?

[redmar]

Trixie has just made things worse for herself by making Goliath angry. I hope Trixie will remember the lesson after this adventure.

[RoboRed]

Man she's just gonna stumble her way into victory until the key moment where she can't quite, isn't she?