Beanery

by TCC56

Trixie Narrates A Ken Burns Documentary

"The roots of magic are said to be lost in the mists of time. Though this is true for Magic, it is not so for magic."

"The Sorcerer's Guild has a history which traces back beyond the founding of ancient Unicornia, but the Magician's Guild has kept better track of theirs. It - and magic as we know it today - traces back to the traditions of the earth ponies. In the days before the emigration to Equestria, a bard named Djedi travelled between villages and earned coin by singing and acting out simple plays."

On screen appears the drawing - sketched out in charcoal on papyrus - of an ancient earth pony standing in front of a crowd. Most of the details are too vague to tell, but the shaggy and old pony does have on a vest of some sort as well as a tall, boxy hat.

"As the story is told, Djedi came to a town that had recently been savaged by the unicorn nobility. Unable to oppose the unicorn's stupendous magical might, the downtrodden earth ponies were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs and empty bellies."

"Angry at the cruelty he saw - and worried that he wouldn't be able to earn a meal with a song - Djedi set the standard for every future stage performer and laughed aloud. 'The unicorns are not the only ones with magic', he told the crowd. They doubted him - obviously - but he offered to show them for a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. They agreed, but only if he wasn't lying. Djedi took the challenge, of course."

"Sitting at a table, he placed a child's marble under one cup and placed an identical cup on either side of it. Today, the cup and ball trick is considered the most basic of illusions - but in Djedi's time, no pony had ever performed it before. So when he seemingly moved the marble from under one cup to another, teleporting it at will? The crowd was amazed! Djedi earned his meal that night before moving on."

Another slide comes up, projecting a more familiar image on the screen - one of the earth ponies facing down the unicorns that is shown at the beginning of nearly every Hearth's Warming play across the land.

"The next time the unicorns came to that village, the earth ponies remembered that they could have magic too. They defied the unicorns and later the pegasi, refusing to give away the food they had worked so hard for. They were the first ones to do so and their defiance was the spark that eventually became the Equestrian Exodus."

"Humbly, the Magician's Guild only takes partial credit for the founding of Equestria and declines to make a big deal out of it."

The next slide is projected, showing off the image of a cloaked earth pony galloping through the shadowy streets of a town.

"After the Founding, the practice of earth pony magic proliferated. However, it was forced to do so underground - the unicorn nobles called it an abomination in private and in public said it was a divisive practice, performed by earth ponies who sought to steal the unicorns' birthright. So even as it flourished and spread, publicly magic was seen as witchcraft and disharmonious. That was when the Magician's Guild was first founded as a place to pass knowledge from performer to performer and to keep them safe. It was these times that the tradition of secrecy began among stage performers, and why we still today keep how a trick is performed secret."

"At the same time, calling what we did magic fell out of common use to protect ourselves. We called it slight-of-hoof or legerdemain or hocus pocus to try and distance ourselves from capital-M magic. It didn't appease the snotty unicorn nobles, but the Guild tried."

Another slide - this one of an oil painting. In the painting, an earth pony with a cascading wig of white hair is standing on a stage, posed dramatically with a deck of cards in one hoof and a wand in the other.

"Centuries later, the unicorn hatred of stage magic had faded. They still disdained it as cheap trickery, but no longer were practitioners considered criminal. In fact, they had taken the same place that Djedi had established - entertainers and pleasers of the crowd. An excellent example is the performer known only as I. Faux. Widely considered to be the forefather of the modern card trick, Faux had a weekly booth at the Trottingham Fairegrounds where he performed in front of regular and large crowds. He eventually retired in luxury, becoming the example for modern shows like those in Las Pegasus."

Next up is a very familiar slide: Hoofdini climbing into a cannon, preparing for the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive. The narrator resumes with barely restrained glee.

"It was the amazing Hoofdini who raised the bar next and set the standard for modern stage magic. An escape artist, contortionist and illusionist of the highest caliber, he wowed the world with one death-defying stunt after another. To this day, many of his tricks still remain unsolved. A few - such as the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive - have only recently been replicated by the most talented, skilled and good-looking of performers."

The next section is choppy, sounding as if it were spliced together over multiple takes.

"Hoofdini also set the stage for the Magicians Guild to act as debunkers and exposers of fraud, working hard to ferret out ponies who would try to pass off magic as Magic and use it to swindle innocent audience members out of their bits. Despite the baseless slander, we are entertainers who earn our bits, not thieves."

Next slide: a pair of earth ponies in suits. One tall with a slicked mane and beard; the other shorter with a frizzy poof of a mane.

"Today magicians come in a wide variety of specializations and present themselves in an even wider variety of ways - from street performers practicing the classic cup and ball, to wandering road shows of illusion, to the house acts of Las Pegasus. But no matter the form; no matter the tribe; no matter the skill level - all trace their art back to Djedi and those early earth ponies, playing tricks to entertain and to give each other courage in ponydom's darkest hours."

"Over the next ten episodes, we will follow that lineage across the centuries and delve into some of the most famous practitioners of the illusory arts and many of their greatest tricks."

The last slide comes up - a title card.

A CELESTIAL FILMS PRODUCTION

KEY BURNS PRESENTS

EARTH PONY MAGIC

A DOCUMENTARY

PRESENTED BY

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE

Author's Note:

Prompt: Earth Pony Magic
Bonus: No main characters