Chapter 5 - A Night At The Cabaret
Trixie and Leech hastily made their way through the crowds of ponies in the streets of Canterlot, Trixie wearing a solidly-fixed expression of intent and focus, her eyes staring and unblinking. Her movement was brisk, with Leech having to break into a slow gallop in order to keep pace with her.
"Why izz Trixzzie moving zzso fazzt?" complained Leech, his buzzing voice at odds with the tangerine-colored stallion he had disguised himself as.
"I must get to the cabaret before the evening's performance starts, I want to see as much of it as possible!" answered Trixie flatly, her attention mostly taken up with navigating through the crowds.
"Why izz cabaret zzso important? And why doezz Leech have to go in dizzguizze?" asked Leech, calling to Trixie from several paces behind.
"Well," she began, slowing down and turning her attention more towards her friend, "I want to see if I can copy any of the talents we see at the cabaret. As for your disguise, well... um... several of the bar staff are allergic to the chitin that your exoskeleton is made from. Yes, that'll do." she finished hesitantly.
Trixie clenched her eyelids as a wave of guilt washed over her - she didn't like lying to Leech, but had to in order to protect his feelings. Mercifully, the ruse seemed to satisfy Leech, and he asked no further questions on the subject during their journey.
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After a short journey, made even shorter by Trixie's maniacally fast trotting speed, the two ponies approached the entrance to Le Cheval Merde. Trixie noted with a smug grin that the sign asking for cabaret acts had been painted over with red letters that read 'position filled'. Her smugness was soon over, however, as she noticed another sign nearby which specified a 'smart' dress code. She looked over to Leech.
"Oh no!" she cried, "You aren't dressed smartly enough to get past those doorponies! I'll be OK with my magnificent cape, but you aren't wearing anything!"
"But Leech doezzn't even own any clothezz!" Leech protested.
Trixie's mind raced. The show started in less than two minutes, so there was no time to go to a store and get Leech some classy clothing. Besides, most of the stores were closed by this time, it was only dining and entertainment venues that were open during the evening and night. A plan soon clawed its way out from the tangled mess of Trixie's scrambled thoughts - it was a long shot, but it just might work.
Trixie deftly used her magic to swipe a hair clip from a nearby pony's tail - so smooth and quick was the process, the Earth mare didn't even notice her once-immaculately styled tail fall out of shape. Manipulating the small metal wire she held in her magical grasp, Trixie soon bent the hair clip into a circle shape, twisting the ends together to complete the ring. She then placed the newly-formed wiry hoop onto Leech's face, resting on his right cheek and encircling his eye.
"There!" she said brightly to the confused Leech. "A monocle makes anypony look classy, no matter the rest of their get-up!"
"Izz Trixzzie sure?" enquired Leech, giving a nervous glance to the two large, white Stallions standing at either side of the door.
By the look of them, they were Royal Guard ponies working second jobs during their off-duty time - they certainly didn't look the type that Leech wanted to cross!
Trixie didn't answer, instead resuming her fast-paced trot towards the entrance to the bar, Leech following behind, his nervousness increasing with each step he took to the stony-faced doorponies. Trixie trotted through the door with no problems, with one of the doorponies even giving her an admiring nod. However, as Leech approached, he was stopped by a large, white foreleg that was thrust out in front of him.
"Just a moment, sir." said the doorpony, gruffly.
"Eep!" squeaked Leech quietly, as he stared into the eyes of the stallion that looked him up and down.
To Leech's surprise, the foreleg soon dropped back to the ground as the doorpony resumed his normal position.
"Apologies, sir, I thought you were somepony I knew. In you go - nice monocle, by the way!" said the doorpony.
Leech wasted no time in scurrying into the bar, silently thanking the powers that be for the fact he didn't have sweat glands!
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Inside the bar, Leech quickly discarded the makeshift monocle - being smaller than an actual monocle, Leech could constantly see it in his peripheral vision which irritated him a great deal. Making his way through the hot, crowded, darkened bar area, he eventually located Trixie sitting at a table near the stage. He trotted over to his friend and joined her, just as Class Act cantered onto the stage. The already-dim lights faded entirely, as a spotlight illuminated the center of the stage.
"Mares and gentlecolts... please, put your hooves to the ground for tonight's Cheval Merde Cabaret Spectacular!" he said grandly.
With this, every pony in the room stomped their hooves, bar Trixie - her concentration was taken with anticipation. If her hypothesis was wrong, she'd be back to square one when it came to figuring out how this new power worked, and her stage show would almost certainly be a disaster. It was all or nothing, and everything hinged on tonight's events - a fact that Trixie was only too aware of.
After the hoof-stomping ceased (with Leech stopping a good 15 seconds after everypony else, attracting several glares from other ponies in the room), Class Act left the stage and the first act trotted into the spotlight. It was a dancer - Trixie sighed indignantly as the tutu-clad Earth mare began to perform ballet moves to the delicate refrains of an unseen harpist.
Trixie didn't even bother attempting to invoke her new power here - she'd already tried it with dancers, and it hadn't worked. She cared nothing for the art, and found it all rather tedious. Instead, she gazed with increasing boredom at the twirling and tip-hoofing pony as she captivated the rest of the audience with her skilfully choreographed routine.
After what seemed a lifetime to Trixie, the dancer took a bow and left the stage to the hoof-stomping of everypony except for Trixie and Leech, who wisely decided not to bother this time, lest he forget to stop again. Trixie's attention was piqued as the next act strode into view - a pegasus singer. Whilst Trixie couldn't hit a note even if it were stood three inches in front of her, she had always wanted to learn how to sing - this could be her chance to learn, rapidly!
Within moments, the cream-colored mare's song filled the room, the pitch-perfect crispness of the notes she sang seeming to cut through the very air itself. The audience was entranced with the strong yet exquisite sounds that seemed to be administering a massage to their eardrums. Trixie looked upward to the singer, and as if on cue, her horn shot out a quick but substantial spark of green energy as the pegasus' image flashed before Trixie's eyes. Trixie flinched instinctively and rubbed at her face to dissipate the spots that had appeared in her vision. Her horn continued to tingle throughout the rest of the singer's act, and by the time Trixie had regained her bearings, the next act was making his way to the stage.
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It was the same magician that Trixie had seen previously, much to her delight. She could 'learn' how to do the Prismatic Orb Shower again, and perhaps some of his other tricks too! Sure enough, the magician performed the exact same routine that he had performed that fateful night when Trixie had first learned of her new ability. Trixie's horn shot a spark of changeling energy during almost every one of his tricks - his transmogrification, self-levitation, and of course the orb shower - but curiously not during his time-travel trick. Trixie could barely stifle a giggle at the magician's expense as she realized that this particular part of his routine must be faked! She also realized that her power could only imitate what the target was actually doing, rather than what she perceived them to be doing, which whilst disappointing in a way, made quite a bit of sense.
Her horn beginning to feel somewhat heavy, Trixie could barely raise her head to examine the final act of the evening approaching the stage. It was another Earth pony, this time a deep brown stallion who introduced himself as an 'improvisation poet'.
"Ponies of Canterlot, please hear my voice.
Give me a subject, whatever your choice.
Whatever you give me, I'll take little time
To convert it to verse, and make sure it rhymes." he said, the rhyming seemingly coming to him without effort.
"Roses!" called a voice from the back of the room. The poet on stage tapped a hoof to his chin for a few moments, before launching into another volley of verbose verse.
"A most noble flower is the rose,
Its scent a pleasure for the nose.
But if you grab it by the stem,
Your hooves will soon have cuts on them!" he quickly said, raising a few chuckles from the audience.
And so the act continued for several minutes, with the audience calling out increasingly random topics in the hopes of catching the poet out, but the poet effortlessly coming up with a short rhyming ditty for everything from dragons to drain cleaner. Although she wasn't especially into improvisation or poetry, Trixie's horn flashed once more as she took on the ability to improvise rhymes. She wasn't entirely sure why, but Trixie was certain it had something to do with the admiration the poet was receiving from involving the audience in his performance.
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After the show had ended and the hoof-stomping had died down, Trixie and Leech were heading for the exit. Trixie felt partially excited at the prospect of testing whether her power-emulation had worked, and partially ill. She felt dizzy and her horn felt very heavy, as though it were physically full of the powers she'd duplicated during the evening. It seemed that the more powers she took on, the heavier her horn felt and the worse she felt overall. She currently held five extra abilities, and Trixie made a mental note that this was most likely the absolute maximum she could withstand before she'd feel too ill to perform.
Before the duo could leave the bar, however, they were stopped by Class Act, who had finished his stage management duties for the evening.
"Ah, Trixie!" greeted Class Act. "How wonderful to see you again. I trust you're still available next week?"
Trixie looked at Leech with trepidation, and hoped he wouldn't say anything.
"Oh yes, definitely!" she responded brightly.
"Izz thizz Trixzzie's new bozz?" Leech piped up, causing Trixie to quickly slap a hoof over his mouth.
"I say," remarked Class Act, "Your friend's got a bit of a strange voice. Is he alright?"
"Oh y-yes," stammered Trixie, "he's just got a bit of a sore throat. I keep telling him to rest it but he never listens!"
"Ah, it's a shame you didn't say anything earlier, we had a couple of strong liqueurs at the bar that would have cleared that right up! Alas, they're all gone now. Well, I'd better start locking up for the night. See you next week!" said Class Act, with a wave of a forehoof.
Without another word, Trixie hurried from the building and into the now much quieter streets, the cool air of the night a stark but welcome contrast to the bar's sweltering heat and humidity, with Leech not far behind her.
"Trixzzie, why did-" began Leech, before being cut off by Trixie.
"No time to explain." said Trixie dismissively. "Quickly Leech, follow me!"
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Trixie began to gallop as fast as her hooves would carry her down the cobbled street, the rush of the air making her head feel clearer and alleviating the undesirable symptoms of her power absorption somewhat. Leech trailed behind, attempting to keep up, the motion whipping his temporary burgundy mane all over the place. Soon, the pair entered a dark alleyway that Leech recognized as the same one he'd run down the previous day. Sure enough, the two soon re-emerged into the stillness and silence of the empty central park, which was equally as beautiful under the moon's soothing glow as it was under the sun's brilliant rays.
As she caught her breath, Trixie looked all around her. Visibility was excellent under the moon's light, and Trixie could quite clearly see that nopony else was around.
"Perfect." she said to nopony in particular. "We're on our own. Now I can test my new power to its fullest..."
Noting that they were no longer anywhere near the bar, Leech shed his disguise with a burst of green flame, returning to his normal insectoid form. He gave a grateful buzz of his wings before meandering over to join Trixie.
"Doezz Trixzzie think powerzz worked?" he asked.
"That's what we're about to find out..." Trixie replied quietly, her voice a mixture of concentration and excitement, with a not-insignificant undertone of fear.
Trixie closed her eyes and thought hard, attempting to recall the powers she'd taken on that night. A green spark emerged from her horn with a pop, and the singer's image flashed before Trixie's eyes. Taking a deep breath, Trixie exhaled and with some trepidation, engaged her vocal chords.
A near-perfect high C note left Trixie's mouth and sailed along the breeze into the darkened silence that surrounded her. Altering her pitch slightly, melodious notes of all kinds effortlessly poured forth from the ecstatic unicorn's lungs.
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Several minutes passed, and Trixie was still pacing around the park, a harmonious vocal melody still gushing from her mouth like a perfect fountain of sound. Just as Trixie was mentally congratulating herself on successfully emulating such an exquisite talent, the metaphorical fountain dried up, and the note Trixie was partway through singing suddenly turned to her usual off-key shriek. Leech clutched his ears as Trixie quickly ceased her performance.
Noticing her horn felt 'lighter', Trixie deduced that she must have used up the musical talent she had absorbed that evening.
"So," she said to herself, "Every power I take on can only be performed once before it's exhausted. Well, no matter - after all, I only need to do each one once on stage!"
Undeterred by the loss of her new singing ability, Trixie decided to test her new magical abilities next. Focusing her mind upon the self-levitation trick she had seen previously, the stage magician's image briefly appeared before her. Her horn began to glow with its usual lilac aura, and slowly but surely Trixie began to rise from the ground!
As the grass beneath Trixie's hooves gradually became more distant, Trixie noted how little effort she was able to accomplish her new tricks with. Her mind began to wonder whether, since so little thought was required, it would be possible to do more than one new trick at once? Deciding to take the risk, Trixie thought hard about the Prismatic Orb Shower. To her amazement, a dozen glowing orbs materialized from beneath her and began to follow her upwards in a stunning, luminous helix.
As Trixie ceased to rise and held a steady altitude of around twenty feet, the orbs caught up with her and began to spin around her, just as before. Observing the incredible technicolor halo of magical light that encircled her, Trixie then began to think of the self-transmogrification spell that the stage magician had performed. Instantly, Trixie's body felt different, as though it were a malleable material and her will was a shaping tool. She imagined a beautiful set of white-and-violet patterned moth wings, which immediately sprouted from her saddle area, throwing off her cape and causing it to flutter to the ground. It landed next to Leech, who didn't notice - he was standing slack-jawed and looking upward at the stunning show that played out before him.
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Trixie felt a jolt as her horn became lighter once again and her self-levitation power ran out, but she held her altitude with a few gentle flaps of her newly-acquired wings. Releasing her control of the spinning orbs that surrounded her airborne form, all of them shot up into the air, with Trixie flapping her wings harder and ascending with them. She gave a jubilant front-hoof punch into the night sky against the breathtaking backdrop of the orbs bursting into shimmering splashes of glowing rainbow light.
"Trixie can do the Prismatic Orb Shower, plus other things too because she has the power!" she joyfully called out, the poet's rhyming skill asserting itself.
She gently lowered herself back to the ground just before her transmogrification power became spent and the wings retreated back into her torso. Her new powers all used up, her horn now felt its normal weight and the other symptoms had all subsided. Trixie looked towards the still-stunned Leech, and gave a long, hearty and slightly maniacal laugh as her adrenaline-filled mind took in the full implications of what she could now do.
"PREPARE YOURSELF, CANTERLOT!" she yelled into the starry night sky above. "FOR ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN DO... THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE CAN DO BETTER!"
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It's going to go to her head. Let's just hope there are no ursas around this time...
Can I get a link to the originalz plz dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png Woona commands it dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Twilight_Sparkle.png
Oh dear. This shan't end well. I'm guessing there's some sort of catch to her show-stealing abilities. Too much at the same time perhaps, or maybe she'll start changing into some kind of grotesque fusion of the ponies she's stolen talents from? Hopefully she'll figure this out before she goes too far.
1361549
I forgot that I could just go into ur stawrys dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png 
Waitz nevermind
Damn dem words be sexy!.
This show is going to be perfect!
The kind of show Trixie's dreamed of since she was small!
This is a nice twist! Also, I would like to see the poet do a verse about, mmm, bananas.
1361553
I don't know what you're talking about... everything always goes according to plan for the characters in my stories!
(I don't want to give too much away, but there's actually a seemingly throwaway line in this chapter that's going to become more pertinent later on!)
Lol the He-Man reference and monocle cracked me up.
Hehehe. You're a naked, pony-sized bug trying to get past the bouncer at a prestigious cabaret bar? No problem! Just wear a monocle!
Monocles make everything more fashionable (No wonder Gregor Samsa was so reviled! He completely forgot his monocle!)
I loved the part with the poetry pony. It got me inspired...
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
A happy dragon loves to chatter
and will readily engage in friendly banter.
But with a grumpy dragon don't be snide
or you'll soon see them from inside.
Drain cleaner, drain cleaner, a gift from god!
Unstops the blockages in your bog.
Be it sinks, or pots, or baths, or showers,
It purges them all with caustic powers
1362328
Do you like mmmmm, bananas without a hitch?
Or are you a no-banana loving b*tch?
Answer me now or pretty soon
You'll find how they taste on the moooooon!
GAAAAH! Somebody stop me!!
(The defendant pleads guilty to the assault and battery of the English language m'lord)
I REGRET NOTHING!
Eeyep, this is going to backfire horribly.
Good thing he's in a fancy cabaret. If he was just at say, a bar, he'd just get yells of 'penis' and 'titties'
3910083
oh, that reminds me of a silly story: a woman was doing variations of that silly song:
someone said his name was Mike, so she sang, "mike, mike, bo bike.." and so on...
then someone said his name was "Rich", causing her to slip up and say "rich, rich bo bitch"...
then later someone said his name was Chuck!
she didn't even try to sing that, she just said, "NO WAY!"