Just Drive

by gapty

And Don't Say Anything

Flash got into his car and was about to start the engine when Trixie abruptly opened the passenger’s door and sat down without a word.

“Drive,” she demanded, not even sparing him a glance.

“Ehm, Trixie—” Flash began, but was immediately cut off.

“Can’t you hear me? Drive!” Trixie crossed her arms and looked away.

Reluctantly, he turned on the engine. He waited for a second before he released the handbrake and drove off.

It was silent, and Flash, not knowing what was going on with Trixie, bit his lip repeatedly, trying to come up with several ideas of what was going on.

He didn’t dare to ask, not with the bad mood Trixie was currently in. The repeated snorts, the tapping with her feet, and the sudden outrage, when a passenger had crossed the street on red, showed Flash that it would be suicide to upset her even more.

The problem was, he didn't know where to drive. He didn't know where Trixie lived, so he drove back to his own home, hoping she wouldn't object to the turns he took.

But as they approached his house and he signaled to turn in, Trixie turned to him.

“What are you doing?” she asked with a raised voice.

“Ehm, I’m—” Flash stuttered, but Trixie interrupted him.

“Keep driving!”

He scratched the back of his head but followed her order. He had no idea where he was supposed to go, so he didn’t do any turns.

Fortunately, the remaining drive was short, as Trixie ordered him to stop before Canterlot's amphitheatre.

"Come with me," she commanded.

Flash let out a sigh. He had no idea why he was so patient with her. Had they ever even talked before? He remembered how during the Battle of the Bands, he and Trixie's band had been rivals, so they shouldn't have had a good relationship at all. What could she possibly want from him?

"Well, are you coming or not?" she snapped impatiently.

With a roll of his eyes, he turned off the engine and followed her. As they passed the rows of seats, Trixie marched straight onto the stage, with Flash trailing closely behind her.

She finally came to a stop and turned to face him. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and her fists were clenched tightly.

Concerned, Flash took a step back.

"Alright, Flash," Trixie announced. "I'm going to show you two tricks. Tell me which one you like better."

Flash gulped nervously. This couldn't end well for him.

Stretching out one of her arms and hands with her fingers straight, she extended her thumb toward the back of her palm. Suddenly, a playing card appeared, which she then let fall to the ground. She repeated the process a few times before reaching out one last time and producing several cards at once, which she spread out like a fan.

Flash noticed a proud smile on her lips, which disappeared the next moment. She let the cards fall to the ground before stretching out her other hand.

“Now the second one.”

This time, she showed both sides of her hand, and even wiggled her fingers, before with a quick movement several playing cards appeared in her hand. She spread them out like a fan, then closed her hand to a fist. When she opened it again, the cards had vanished into thin air.

Flash's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. That last part caught him completely off guard.

“So?”

“Well, it's…” Flash began, but he paused when he saw the fierce expression on Trixie's face again.

"Second one?" she asked through clenched teeth.

He nodded slowly.

"Of course you do," she muttered, closing her eyes. Suddenly, she chuckled. "Of course you do." Her chuckle turned into a laugh.

Flash raised his arms in defence and stepped backwards.

Trixie's laughter stopped, and she opened her eyes, aiming her gaze in his direction.

"Isn't it crazy, Flash," she said, putting her left hand on her hip, "how easy I have it now?" She stretched out her other hand, and with a twist, a flower appeared out of nowhere. "I can do everything I could've only imagined." She let the flower fall to the ground and reached for her magician's hat. "No one will ever know how the trick is done." She showed him that the hat was empty before turning it around, and a set of cards fell out. "Because there is no trick anymore."

She threw her magician’s hat aside and reached into her pocket. In the next moment, she hurled a smoke bomb at him, covering him completely. When the smoke cleared, he found himself standing between the seats.

“I don’t need to do any tricks anymore!” she yelled from the stage, before tossing another smoke bomb to the ground.

“Because now, I have real magic!”

He turned around and jumped in surprise when he saw that Trixie was now standing behind him.

“I shouldn’t have learned anything at all!” She grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close to her face. “These ten years of trying to be like my father, learning from the books he left for me? These ten years of me standing before a mirror, repeating a trick over and over again until I could do all of them blindly? These ten years of recording myself to catch any flash of the tricks, perfecting them to hide every method?”

She pushed him away.

“I didn’t have to do any of it!” She kicked a chair away. “They were a waste of time!” Another chair fell victim to her rage. “All that effort I had to put in? Absolutely pointless, because now I have real magic!”

She jumped at him and threw a smoke bomb to the ground. When the smoke cleared, they were back on the stage.

Trixie fell silent, her eyes watering and her breathing becoming rapid.

“Why?” she muttered, burying her face in her hands. “Why me?” She broke down into sobs.

Flash watched helplessly, trying to process what she had just revealed to him. What could he say anyway to comfort her? Why had she chosen him to open up?

“I don’t want it,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to have magic. If I have it, what’s the point of a magic show anyway?”

Flash scratched his head, having trouble understanding that part of her perspective.

Trixie looked up, wiping away her tears. “I’ve devoted my whole life to being a magician. I could see myself improving every month, every year. I grew, I evolved, I made progress. But now?” She snapped, and a coin appeared between her fingers. She opened her mouth to say something, but hesitated.

Flash waited quietly as Trixie lowered her head and slumped her shoulders.

“There is nothing more to reach,” she whispered, barely audible. “I have what every magician can only dream of.”

She remained in that position, not saying a single word. Only her occasional sobbing gave her a shake of her body.

Flash didn’t interrupt the silence. He simply kept staying in his place, waiting till Trixie would say something again. It wasn’t comfortable for him, but he didn’t know what else to do to help her.

Then, Trixie took a deep breath and looked up at Flash.

“Trixie is sorry for taking up your time. They're right about you being a good listener.” She snapped her fingers, and the magician’s hat flew to her hand. Another snap and the cards on the ground followed.

“Maybe,” she said, looking away. “Maybe she'll figure something out. Trixie doesn't know yet. But she had to talk to someone.”

She turned back to Flash, a smile forming on her face. "Thank you so much for listening."

With a nod, she turned around and walked off the stage.

Flash watched her go, noticing that her steps were now more confident and her movements more relaxed.

“You're welcome,“ he said quietly with a smile.

Author's Note:

Funnyly enough, EqG Trixie has indeed magic canonically:

In case someone gets confused on why Trixie is angry, I made this blog post, going into details on why Trixie was angry in the first place.

Comments

[CrimsonBrony4812]

This is a really nice story. I haven't watched a lot of mlp or watched eqg at all, but I think you wrote Trixie very well.

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

Interesting, a little rough but a fascinating concept. Usually EQG Trixie is either lusting after real magic or depressed at how its existence renders her skills moot unusual to see both simultaneously

[GT3RS]

Awe, that was sweet

[Mysterysheep12]

My response if I were flash: “so you obtained magic? …. Well use it! Show the world what you can do!”

But hey that’s just me

[Emil]

Pretty soon, she'll realize what new and bigger tricks she can do combining both stage and real magic.

[gapty]

11532469
A great way to be the subject in the sawing trick that went accidentally wrong

11532520
Technically, she just needs magic now, considering the showcase of the two tricks

11532311
Yeah, I was kind of surprised myself too, weirdly enough

11532294
11532356

Thanks a lot for all the comments

[Jymbroni]

Yay, more Trixie love! I enjoyed this unique perspective of how not everyone immediate enjoys having magic especially if you couple it with your previous Trixie story. If you think about it Trixie has spent the majority of her life to be a magician and now that she actually has magic what's left? The grind, the motivation, the drive are all gone and I can only imagine how hollow she feels because she lost her sense of direction. To have everything you ever dreamed of in an instant, but to leave you without purpose; damn that would suck.

[Mockingbirb]

When a new story comes out, and it puts my own story idea into a somewhat different perspective that means I might have to throw some of my old notes aside and change it some.

Anyway, nice short.

Also interesting that someone else (not just me) gave some actual thought to the implications of a few details in EqG suggesting that Trixie's 'fake' magic is a bit TOO effective for 'fakeness.'

[Nullius_OV]

Somewhat of a random storyline, but very well executed. I find myself with the desire to read a sequel where Flash finds the right words and comforts Trixie. Such would be enjoyable.

[Scyphi]

“What are you doing?” she asked with a raised voice.

“Ehm, I’m—” Flash stuttered, but Trixie interrupted him.

“Keep driving!”

...Okaaaaay, but you're refunding him for the gas used, Trixie!

Why had she chosen him to open up?

Knowing Trixie, it was probably a somewhat random selection--he was the closest one about to drive off in a car, so she picked him and worked out the rest on the fly.

In any case, an interesting and quick little character study.

[Emil]

11532633
It's probable that her "real" magic has limits to its scale. If you look at some impressive tricks like Copperfield's "disappearance" of the Statue of Liberty, that would seem to be beyond her "real" magic capabilities. Being able to combine the two still seems like a bigger box of useful tools.

[Raistlin]

11532520

Like becoming EG version of Zee Zatara?

[The Iguana Man]

Huh. That is... a fascinating perspective that I honestly hadn't considered up til now, though I don't know if that's just a deficiency of mine.

Because, true, on the surface, it seems like Trixie can now do all the things she's dreamed of. Except... did she really dream of actually doing them? Or did she dream of seeming to do them.

The thing about stage magic is that, well, it's a skill. And like any skill, there is a great sense of achievement in learning to do it to a notable degree. And with magic in particular, the ability to actually conceal the workings of a trick and appear to be doing impossible things gives a very direct sense of accomplishment - not only is the audience, in the best case scenario, getting that sense of wonder, but you know that you've instilled it by your successful legerdemain. Thanks to your skill, they can, knowingly and consensually, let themselves be fooled. This is largely speculation, admittedly, but I'd imagine there's a great amount of satisfaction one can get from being able to do proper stage magic.

But now? Sure, she can do actual magic, but... where's the accomplishment? Where's the satisfaction? Where's the skill? If she makes a coin appear or teleports a card... it's not because she's done anything special, she hasn't achieved anything. She just... actually did that. After all,comparing the act of setting things up so that, despite being totally normal, you appear to have walked through a wall... to just being able to metaphorically push a button to become incorporeal? Well, it seems obvious to me which is the greater achievement. Ironically, the fact that the magic is really happening means there's no magic in it for her at all.

And she can't even decide not to use real magic for the act, because even if any given audience member doesn't know she could be doing real magic, she'll know. She'll know that she could have actually done what she seemed to and, more tragically, that there's no way for the audience to tell the difference. Even when she does fool them, it won't be doing the impossible, just... playacting the real thing.

And, I'm sure it doesn't help that, by her words, it seems like this ability was just given to her, or something similarly easy. It wasn't something she learned and mastered herself, it just... happened. As tempting as that might be for many, I can imagine it wouldn't make you feel particularly special. And for someone who, I think it would be fair to assume, has some... issues when it comes to self-image and sense of worth, that's not a recipe for a healthy reaction.

So, yeah, very interesting little vignette. All the more since it's from the POV of a character I generally don't care about (and actually using his blank-slate quality to the story's advantage) and focused on a character that I generally find actively annoying. Admittedly, that's more the case with the pony Trixie and this problem is pretty specific to human Trixie, but still, definite kudos. Only real criticism I have is that the whole "just drive" thing seems a little disingenuous as a title and hook, since said driving has basically nothing to do with the main thrust of the story, but other than that, solid work. Kudos.

[gapty]

11534394

I'm just reading this and am mindblown. I kind of had that also kind of in mind… but not that deep as you, and focused way more on how everything Trixie trained is now useless.

But wow, your comment, your view on her situation is so much deeper and way more fitting…

I guess the only thing I can say is: "Kudos for the comment"—if that even makes sense

[TheGJ90]

When Trixie needs to do some great and powerful venting... thank goodness, she picked a great listener in Flash!

[Silk Rose]

I loved this one, so much, in fact, I favorite'd it.
I think it was her anger. I feel for Trixie, I would be hella made if all of a sudden I could just magic stories into existence, after spending so much time trying to get better at writing. I mean, sure it'd be cool, but it would take the fun out of it. Life's about the journey and not the destination, right?

I think I'd be right there with Flash, although I don't think I'd be so bold as to drive home.

I give you the most prized possession a writer can get: theft I mean inspiration. You have inspired me to write a Trixie magic story.

[Prince Leviathan]

Wants it til you have it.

Understandable