6 Great and Powerful

CN: Claustrophobia, Drowning, near-death

Twenty years ago

“Trixie!” Sunset looked back over her shoulder and hissed her friend’s name, drawing out the last syllable longer than she should have for it to not be obvious to the audience. She stood there with outstretched arms in the glistening dress Trixie made her wear. A crooked smile was on her lips, as she tried to get the attention away from her magician friend.

A few metres behind her, Trixie tried anxiously to get one of her stage illusions to work properly. The latch on this case never jammed up, so why did it have to start now! Finally, she ripped open the spring lock, hurting her index finger in the process.

She suppressed a foul-mouthed curse and wheeled the chest to the front of the stage.

“Finally,” Sunset breathed, which earned her an evil eye from Trixie.

With a strained look Trixie put the box into place. “Concentrate,” she hissed.

Looking up, the perfect stage-smile was back on her face. The audience never knew how much it cost her right now to do that. But she had to do it. For her career’s sake.

“Dear people of Canterlot. The great and powerful Trixie will now perform the most dangerous trick you will ever see. Watch her, as she will get into this trunk bound by a straightjacket.”

Sunset came from behind and held up a white jacket with leather straps and elongated arms that could be wrapped around the wearer and tied behind their back. She helped Trixie get in there as the girl continued to speak.

“But that’s not all! You will watch me, the great and powerful Trixie not only escape these restraints while in the box.”

Sunset made a knot like Trixie had shown her. Beads of sweat were on her forehead, as she reminded herself of every step of this trick. She promised herself that Trixie could count on her. And she intended to keep that promise. No matter what.

Of course it absolutely didn’t help that her impulsive self just picked this afternoon to break the news of moving to Trixie. So to take the pressure off of her friend, she had to double her efforts. And later, she really had to have a talk with Trixie.

But first, for the big dangerous reveal. She looked stage left and saw the garden hose lying there. With a big tadaa movement of her arms she showed that Trixie had been bound and went to retrieve the hose while Trixie steadily pumped up the crowd.

“Trixie will lie inside the box and will only have three minutes to escape her certain death. As her assistant will open a hole on the top and water from this garden hose –“ she looked at Sunset, who entered the stage again, the dripping tube in her hand “– will pour into the box and slowly drown her.”

The audience inside the cafeteria of Canterlot High gasped as they realised what Trixie was about to do.

She climbed into the trunk, careful not to topple while Sunset steadied it so it couldn’t roll away.

Trixie still almost tripped, having no hands to help her with her efforts. This time a curse did leave her mouth but was instantly replaced with a wide smile as she turned to the audience one last time. “Now for the grand finale! I’d say wish me luck, but you know Trixie won’t need it. Magic is on her side.”

She ducked and laid down on the floor of the box, already trying to get out of the jacket once she was out of sight from the audience.

Sunset looked down on her before she slowly started to close the lid. “Are you sure you spread your arms wide enough? It doesn’t look like it’s gonna be enough” she asked worriedly in a hushed tone of voice.

“Of course I did,” she snapped anxiously, “Don’t you ruin this right now. This is my big break. The talent scouts won’t have me with a sub-par performance. So know your place, assistant, close the lid and start pouring.”

Trixie saw Sunset flinched at her words but she shut the box. The fake lock clicked into place.

After that she heard Sunset address the crowd. Was there a tremble in her voice? Trixie bit her lip. She shouldn’t have barked at her like that. She had to apologise later.

But at that moment she needed to concentrate. Sunset was supposed to give her a minute or two to have a better chance of getting out of the straightjacket. She huffed and tried to loosen the arms to get them above her head, but it was more difficult than it should have been.

Her mind raced as she saw Sunset’s worried face before her inner eye. Maybe she was right. Her arms weren’t spread out enough. Or were they? She had to try!

Another gasp from the audience told her what would happen next.

Water flowed through the hole and drenched her clothes, which would make it even harder to get out of the jacket. She should have been almost done by now, but she couldn’t get her elbow over her head to free her arms.

The water had almost reached her head and she started bustling inside the trunk which rolled a little across the stage. She heard Sunset speak calming words to the crowd, but she couldn’t make out what exactly she was saying.

In a desperate attempt to free herself she held her breath and submerged, struggling against the restraints that were too tight to get out of them. Panic rose in her chest and gasping for air she broke the surface of the water which had filled the trunk almost two thirds of the way.

“SUNSET!” she shrieked, “HELP!”

“Trixie?” She heard from outside and the water stopped pouring in as the hose was yanked away. “TRIXIE, HOLD ON!” Sunset screamed and she heard rattling from the lock. “It’s jammed!” Sunset’s muffled voice was panicked and shrill.

Trixie couldn’t speak. Her arm was stuck behind her head and she struggled to keep her mouth above the water line. Her own rapid breathing rang in her ears.

Something hammered against the box and the water splashed in her face, leaving her coughing and gasping for air.

Finally the lid swung open and someone pulled her out of the trunk.

The blinding rays of the spotlights deprived her of her sight and all she could hear was Sunset yelling Nurse Redheart’s name and feeling her fiddle with the straightjacket to get her out of it.

Today

At the backstage of the Canterlot Amphitheatre, Trixie paced nervously back and forth between Sunset and Twilight. Both looked worried at the magician.

“Don’t be nervous. It will be awesome, trust me.”

“Of course it will be awesome, Sunset Shimmer!” Trixie replied anxiously. “The great and powerful Trixie is always awesome. Failing isn’t an option,” she huffed, but wasn’t so sure about that herself.

The last couple of weeks flew by like a jet and her mind tried to make sense of what had happened.

She was standing here, in one of the largest venues in all of Canterlot and was about to perform a magic show. No, not only a magic show. The biggest magic show she had ever done. She still couldn’t believe that over seven hundred tickets had been sold. Twilight really had outdone herself with that.

Trixie smiled and reminded herself that she had to thank her for this later. Twilight really did mean it when she said she wanted to help her find an opportunity to show what she is capable of.

She stopped mid-pace and looked at the two other women, dressed as her assistants. ‘Two beautiful assistants,’ her mind added. She couldn’t help but smile.

Both Twilight and Sunset smiled back, apparently very relieved that Trixie seemed to relax a little.

Sunset looked down at herself and then she bent her arm and propped her hand onto her hip.” I can’t believe you got me wearing this thing again” she smiled provocatively, gesturing down at herself.

As soon as the words left Sunset’s mouth, Twilight seemed to shrink down a couple of centimetres.

Trixie looked from one woman to the other. Both looked positively stunning in their black dresses; slitted to the hip; sequinned from top to bottom. And yet the differences were obvious. Sunset, although dressed practically most of the time, wore the dress with an assertiveness that you just have to bring with you.

Twilight on the other hand looked sheepish and embarrassed in her skintight piece of cloth. Trixie couldn’t decide who would resonate better with the audience. A purple haired shy assistant, or a redhead assistant with stage presence.

Both were a very welcome addition to a magician’s toolkit, because both could misdirect different parts of the audience. Twilight apparently wasn’t used to big crowds anymore. Her band years were long in the past and even then she was a backup vocalist. Now she had to be center stage and deceiving the audience.

“Well, Sunset. I was inexperienced the last time you wore this,” a somber expression flickered over her and Sunset's face alike.

“But I have become much more experienced since then. Tonight I will be the great and powerful Trixie,” she vowed. “And nothing can stop me from being fabulous!” She smirked at the other women who genuinely smiled back.

“I know you can do it, Trixie,” Twilight provided and came a little closer to put a hand on her shoulder. “I believe in you.”

Twilight let go of her and stretched out her arms. Both Trixie and Sunset went in for the hug and Trixie held tight.

She inhaled deeply and shivered for a second as the felt warm breaths on either side of her neck, goosebumps erupting all over her body.

Trixie cleared her throat and took a step back. All three of them were smiling. All three of them had a slight blush on their face. Neither of them was trying to hide it nor cared.

Trixie took a deep breath and looked over to the stairs leading from the backstage area up to the stage.

Usually she wasn’t nervous before a performance and she sure as heck wasn’t going to start now. They had been practising everything about the upcoming show. And although it had been twenty years since she last saw them, the past weeks had been inspiring.

She felt that she could trust these two. That they cared. She felt– not alone. They would help her be great and powerful. The dumb and washed-up Trixie would not be a part of her anymore. It ended here. Tonight. She would show Canterlot what she was made of.

A wide smile on her face, she climbed the stairs in front of her and her well trained stage-self kicked in, ignoring the blinding spotlights that were on her. Both Twilight and Sunset were at her side, only a few steps behind, one on her left, one on her right.

With a well practised movement she spread her arms and went to the front of the stage just outside the circle of lights to look at her audience and greet everyone that had bothered to show up.

The great—,” she started and tumbled over her own words. She faltered and cleared her throat gaping at the fully loaded seats. People were even standing in between and behind the rows. The sheer amount of eyes that were looking at her was breathtaking. Tears welled up in her eyes and her chest heaved and dropped heavily.

Sunset and Twilight flanked her without getting in front of her and Sunset began whispering out of the corner of her mouth. “Trix, you have to start. Everybody is waiting.”

Murmurs from the audience grew louder and everybody was either concerned or puzzled if this was part of the show or not.

Trixie just stood there, ingesting every bit of atmosphere that engulfed the theatre. And then, in the blink of an eye everything inside her head clicked into place.

Memories started to rise up as she stared blankly into nothingness.

***
The great and powerful Trixie, smoke bombing her way out of a situation, where she made her point and didn’t want or need any objections.
***
The great and powerful Trixie, talking to a couple of peers, explaining how she could not have botched the performance, it had to be the clumsy stagehand.
***
The great and powerful Trixie, at a magic show, being so much into impressing the audience that she forgot in which secret pouch she hid her extra deck of cards.
***
The great and powerful Trixie, in front of an audience during a street performance, yelling at everyone after they told her she failed every trick because of her ostentatious presentation and her lack of talent.
***
The great and powerful Trixie, on the hospital wing’s bed, surrounded by Nurse Redheart, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity, already telling everyone how it was not her fault for almost drowning but the equipment’s and that everything would be awesome the next time she would be on stage.
***
Trixie, working hard with Twilight and Sunset to get the stage act in front of the amphitheatre’s live audience to work.
***

Sunset waited another second and while she looked helplessly over at Twilight, she saw that Twilight’s amulet around her neck glowed in the faintest of colour. She reached for her own, and the moment Twilight reciprocated her look, she tapped on it, to show what was happening.

Twilight looked down and her eyes went round. She looked at her hands, then at Trixie’s back and finally, she couldn’t help herself. She closed her eyes, stretched out her hand and concentrated. A purple spark erupted from her fingertips and a soft: “Ooh.” went through the crowd.

The magic flipped through the air and bounced from Trixie’s shoulders back into Twilight’s hand who looked at it with curious astonishment. “It’s back,” she whispered under her breath.

After that, Trixie blinked several times and with a swift motion she wiped the tears from her eyes, being brought back to the here and now. She turned and faced her lovely assistants who looked at her questioningly.

Trixie moved in between the other women and turned around, adjusting the microphone at her cheek.

Shoulder to shoulder with the others she raised her voice again.

“Distinguished guest. My name is Trixie Lulamoon.” Her words echoed through the speakers that were placed all around the theatre. “These are my partners for tonight”. She placed an arm around the waists of either of the women standing next to her. Polite applause superseded the confusion of the audience.

“Together we will present you with a show of wonders and magic. These two women are responsible for you looking in one direction while the magic is happening in another.” She winked at a camera and the big screen above the stage showed her face in full view.

Twilight and Sunset stood there silently and smiled awkwardly as Trixie obviously threw all of their plans out of the window and improvised the start of the show.

“Furthermore, they will help me orchestrate my magic and keep me safe in the process.” She squeezed Sunsets waist a little. From the corner of her eye, she could see the redhead next to her blush.

After that she took a step back and gave the others a gentle nudge to get them in front of her. “Please give it up for Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer!”

Applause kept rising and Sunset got into her presenting-the-magic-stance, hands in the air, a big smile on her face. Still awkwardly stiff.

Twilight wasn’t that quick to react and her chest kept rising rapidly.

Trixie saw that she was close to hyperventilating and moved in a little to lay her hand on Twilight’s shoulder and get her mouth as close to her ear as possible.

Almost inaudible and too quiet for the microphone to catch the words she whispered: “You got this, Twilight. I believe in you. Thanks for doing the same for me.” Then she turned to Sunset and mouthed four words: “Do you trust me?”

Sunset hesitated for a brief second and then nodded. Trixie looked back at Twilight and noticed her rosy cheeks. She looked in her eyes and lost herself for a second in the clear purple that was so much of a contrast to Sunset’s light blue ones.

“Let’s do this,” Twilight spoke under her breath.

Trixie smiled and stepped forward. “Let’s begin!” she shouted.

Blue sparks sprayed from devices at her wrists above her head and fireworks – shot from the edges of the stage – rose up in the sky, wailing and exploding into star showers above the crowd.

The audience “Oh’d” and “Ah’d”, leaving Trixie enough time to quickly brief her friends on the new set-up. She turned, pulled down her mic to her chin and wrapped her hand around it.

“I’m sorry for the change of plans. I couldn’t do it. Everytime stage-me kicks in, I lose control and everything goes wrong.” She smiled tentatively. “This time, I will do it right. We will do it right. Let’s give Canterlot a show they’ll remember.”

“We knew you had it in you all along,” Twilight said.

“It’s gonna be fantastic,” Sunset added.

The next two hours the three women worked the magic show seamlessly. Whenever something was about to go wrong, either Sunset or Twilight swooped in to catch a rolling apple, or find the missing dagger just in time to finish the trick without the audience ever noticing.

Trixie, knowing her tricks the best, instructed the women on the go on what to do while they were doing it. Her stage-smile more often than not transformed into straight-up laughter and pure joy radiated from her every time the audience clapped for one of her tricks, astonishing them.

She danced around her friends between tricks and everything she learned and worked hard for as a performer came out as naturally as breathing.

For her finale, Trixie and her partners worked on a vanishing act that required perfect timing and care.

“And now for the grand finale, you will see something that will make you question your eyes even more than you might have done tonight anyway,” she preluded.

With a wave of her hand the sprinkler at the top of the stage began raining down on them.

Water running over her face and drenching every part of her clothes, she still smiled when she climbed a ladder to an elevated platform 4 metres above the stage floor.

As she reached the top, she turned to face the audience again.

Twilight and Sunset stood at the front of the stage, an arm’s length apart, hands on their hips. Water kept running down their faces and their breathing was heavy from the more than taxing show they delivered. But they still smiled proudly and braced themselves for the upcoming big ending.

“Honored people of Canterlot,” Trixie yelled against the roar of the artificial rain. “Please let the rain be a reminder, that I can not cross distance without you noticing the water parting ways. Still I will be vanishing and reappearing in an instant, beating time and space for all of you to see. And I want you to count down from five to one to give you absolute control about what will happen next.” She held up her hand. “Please start the count”

The audience fell silent as they listened to Trixie’s voice, watching the water drizzling down on the performers. The spotlights on the three women made the rain visible around them and on Trixie’s command they started counting down.

5…

4...

3...

2...

1...

With a loud bang the lights flashed one last time and then went dark. A heartbeat later they flickered back to life and Trixie was gone from the plattform.

Everything on the stage seemed to slow down to a point where it almost felt that time had stopped. The water froze and just hovered midair.

In the middle of the stage Trixie had appeared in between Sunset and Twilight, holding them in her arms, both seemed to have fainted.

A blue light emanated from her and with a blast of energy the rain shot in every direction away from them.

Trixie’s eyes flashed bright blue and an invisible force lifted her and her friends up in the air. With a glowing beam of light two blue stubs appeared on her head, resembling pony ears. Despite it being soaked, her hair doubled in length and flowed in smooth, wavy movements around her face.

The power that emitted from the flowing form of the magician and her two partners even overshadowed the stage lights and every single pair of eyes from the audience was locked onto the newborn pony form of Trixie Lulamoon, stage magician.

Very slowly Trixie sank back to the ground, supporting her partners, who now stared at her with open mouths.

She bent over Twilight, still supporting her at the back and tears glistening in her eyes. “May I?” she croaked.

Twilight blinked and then let out a little laugh. “Sure,” she answered lightheartedly and met her lips half way, kissing her partner wistfully.

Purple sparks burst out from Twilight's hands, tingling over their bodies.

Their lips parted as Trixie felt a hand on her cheek, belonging to Sunset. As she turned, she could see the silvery white flash in Sunset’s eyes. Hot flames made her cheeks go red as Sunset saw her thoughts and Trixie gazed into her light blue eyes.

“Yes,” Sunset whispered her agreement, reached around Trixies neck and pulled her into a demanding kiss.

Breathless and with weak knees she pulled them both up. She watched the blue light radiating from her skin as she was made aware that they weren’t alone.

The whole Amphitheatre erupted into cheers and applause. People sprang to their feet and cried in awe.

Trixie looked around and had the biggest smile on her face.

“Thank you Canterlot!” she screamed into her microphone, threw her head back and laughed in relief, tears of joy mixing with the rain from above.

Author's Note:

So, that's it. Thank your for reading my first ever romance story between three of my favourite Equestria Girls.

I do hope you enjoyed this one.

What I found out is that I can't write a pure romance story. There always has to be something else. In this case the missing magic. It is a good A-plot with the romance filling up the B-plot slot.

I will see what I can come up with next. First up is a little scene set in the middle of chapter 5. It was requested by my proof reader and who am I to not oblige. ^^

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