Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Time Made

"So. Ready to go yet?"

"Not yet. I need to mentally and physically prepare for the trip, assuming you always drive like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're trying to get pulled over by cops and give your passengers nausea at the same time. I want these eggs to still be inside me when I get home."

"You didn't seem to have problem with it yesterday."

"I was just too tired to complain. And distracted."

"Distracted by how awesome I am?"

"Well, if being awesome is what you want to call it, I'm not going to stop you. But I wouldn't call it that."

"Sure. So, what do you want to do while we wait? And by the way, great job with the eggs. I guess I could get used to your laziness if you at least end up making brunch for me."

"How dare you."

"Only fair when you do it, huh?"

"You used me."

"Oh you think that's me using you? You haven't seen anything yet."

"...Right. Want to, uh, wanna see a magic trick?"

"Sure."

"Right, then."

"You kept that in your sleeve all this time?"

"There's a separate pocket for it, and you get used to it. It's not as annoying as you'd think. Anyway. Look at the cards, and tell me when to stop."

"Stop."

"Alright. Now I want you to look at the card you're seeing, and keep it in mind."

"You stopped late."

"Excuse me?"

"I caught you on that. You stopped after I told you to, you already know what card I'm looking at."

"You could have just said you knew the trick."

"I don't. I just caught you doing that."

"People don't catch that sort of thing. It's the whole point of the trick, it happens too quick for you to notice."

"Too quick for others to notice, maybe. Not me. Horse magic, remember?"

"Ugh. Right."

"I've told you, we could do great together. No one would ever be able to figure out your tricks if I was helping you with them."

"Please stop offering that."

"Why?"

"Because you're right. And I'm really tempted to take you up on that offer. And I don't want to."

"Uh... why not? I'm not sure I get it."

"You're right. Nobody would be able to guess it. Not just spectators. We could fool anybody, any other magician out there would be left wondering how we ever possibly pulled things off. With enough luck and trying we'd get noticed, get famous, probably go on television and score a big show somewhere fancy. And then we'd be basically celebrities, and life would all be driving downhill from there."

"I think I missed the part where any of that is a bad thing. It all sounds pretty nice to me."

"It does. But I'd be cheating. The point of magic is to make the impossible look possible, and if I just use something that by all means should be impossible in my routine then I'm not just fooling people. I'm cheating. I'm playing a different game than everyone else is, and that means it's impossible for me to lose. And if they can't possibly win, then it doesn't mean I'm good. I don't need to be good. And I don't even need to be me, because if cheating is what gets me to the top then everyone else could have done the same thing in my place. I prove nothing that way."

"...Oh."

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There's a motivation Dash can understand. If Trixie doesn't reach the pinnacle because she really was the best, what's even the point?