Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Trixie, with some difficulty, had harnessed herself to the wagon and managed to pull it as far as the local unemployment office. There were many such buildings set up all over the country by the Department of the Treasury to help those without jobs find work. They claimed it was for the common good, but really just wanted to reduce the number of benefits checks they had to write every month.
The offices were also prime gathering spots for day laborers--everypony knew that.
“Hey!” Trixie called to the group standing on a corner near the office. Most were huskily-built earth pony and pegasus stallions. They were passing around a bottle of spiked punch, each taking swigs from it and cracking jokes.
“Who wants to fix up this wagon? I’ll pay you ten bits!” Trixie called.
Immediately, the group turned around.
“Me work?”
“Give me the job!”
“No, I want it!”
“I’m fully qualified!”
“Whoa, whoa, gentlecolts, easy,” Trixie soothed. “You asked first,” she said, pointing at the first one to have spoken up. “Fix up these wheels, give it a new coat of light blue paint, and furnish that cabin. Make sure it’s all structurally sound.”
“Me work?” the stallion asked again in a heavy Stalliongradian accent.
“Yes, you work. I don’t have all day!”
“Me work?”
“Argh! Alright, somepony else can do it!”
“BUT ME WANT WORK!”
About three hours of haggling later, the job was finally done. Trixie had to spend fifty more bits on supplies, and the stallion she had finally hired soon demanded another fifteen bits compensation, threatening to crush her like a toothpick if she didn’t pay up.
“Thank you, sir!” Trixie chirped, hoping to leave as fast as possible. She saddled up and began to pull the wagon down the main road out of Las Pegasus. She was hungry, but 15 bits wouldn’t buy much more in Las Pegasus than some greasy garbage from McFlimFlam’s or Burger Princess. Trixie didn’t know what was in their daisyburgers and hayfries, but they definitely didn’t contain the fresh daisies or crisp hay advertised on the glossy posters.
At the edge of town, a large sign marked the start of Carriageway One, the main road across the country. The distances to major settlements along the way as indicated, too.
‘Ponyville in one thousand and forty-two miles, eh? Let’s go see if I can show Twilight a few things about magic.’
Twelve hours of almost nonstop galloping down the carriageway left Trixie very tired. She had only stopped once at a rest area near Appleloosa and wolfed down a double quarter-daisyburger with cheese while there. One of the wheels on the wagon had broken off mid-journey and it had made the last three hours a real pain.
She was panting heavily as she pulled the wagon off the exit to Ponyville, which was illuminated by the setting of the sun.
‘Already missed a whole day on travel, huh? Whatever. I guess I’ll sleep in the wagon again. I did have a bench installed, and it probably won’t be too hard to find a spare blanket somewhere that I can use for a pillow.’
Trixie found a suitable hitching spot by what appeared to be the town hall, unhooked her sore flank from the harness, and climbed inside the wagon. After rummaging around for a while, she finally found a small piece of cloth the handystallion had left.
‘It’ll have to do.’
Folding the cloth lengthwise twice and laying at at one end of the bench, Trixie got in her improvised bed and quickly dozed off to the sounds of the birds chirping goodnight in the nearby trees.
Morning came with a knock on the door of the wagon’s cabin.
“Whoever is inside this wagon, please open the door. It is illegally hitched and we will tow it if you do not comply to move it immediately,” came a stern voice from outside.
Trixie shakily stood and walked two steps to the door of the wagon. She opened the small shutters that covered the window and peeked out.
“Good morning, ma’am,” the stern voice, now clearly that of a police officer. “Will you comply with our request?”
“Do you know who I am?”
“No. Do you have identification?”
“Sure do!” Trixie grumbled indignantly, reaching for her citizenship card--everypony had one--and sliding it out through the narrow slits in the shutters.
“Trixie Lulamoon, eh?” the officer said, peering over the card. “Well, Miss Lulamoon, will you now comply with our request?”
“No! I’m a traveling magician, and this wagon functions as my stage! I was going to set up my act here!”
“Outside of the police station’s carriage garage?” the officer asked incredulously.
Opening the door and peeking around its frame, Trixie saw that she was not in fact hitched in front of the town hall, but rather blocking the entrance to said garage.
“Heheh. Oops. I’ll move it, then,” Trixie said brightly, exiting the cabin and hooking herself up as the police officer went back inside. She then pulled the wagon off to find a more suitable location. After a while, she came to a large, open area accented by a fountain that was surely the town square.
Hitching the wagon once again to a small wooden stake, she realized that all magicians needed costumes, and decided to go about finding one--with only five bits left she really couldn’t hope to actually buy one anywhere, even in such a likely-economically-depressed backwater.
‘Magicians are good at sleight-of-hoof. Just lift one from a clothing store. There has to be at least one nearby,’ Trixie decided.
She approached one of the locals, a gray pegasus with an amber mane and tail, bubbles for a cutie mark, and soft golden wall-eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, uh, can I, uh, help you?” the pony replied.
“Do you know where I can steal--I mean buy some clothes from?”
“Oh, uh, try, uh, maybe Carousel Boutique? It’s the big, uh, well, circular building over the bridge, I guess.”
“Thank you!”
“Don’t, uh, mention it!”
Trixie trotted briskly to the building the pegasus had described. A sign hung in the door: “CLOSED. BACK IN FIFTEEN.”
‘These country ponies have no sense of time.’
“Hello, ma’am, may I help you?” asked a white unicorn with a stylishly curled purple mane and three diamonds emblazoned on her flank. She tilted her head at Trixie, who was sitting on a soggy tree stump near the boutique’s entrance.
“And you are...?” Trixie replied.
“Oh! Where are my manners? I’m Rarity, proprietor of this fine establishment! Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic and unique!”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m just in town and thought I’d pick up some new garb. Browse the racks, see if anything catches my eye.”
“That’s quite alright, dear,” Rarity assured, unlocking the door. She pushed it open, and Trixie followed her in, a small bell tinkling as the door shut.
Rarity went to the back of the boutique and began to unpack some boxes. Trixie quickly began to peruse the various outfits, and soon found one to her liking. It was a purple cape with yellow, white, and light blue stars that fastened around the neck with a faceted diamond. It came with a matching wizard’s hat.
Looking up to make sure Rarity wasn’t looking, Trixie stuffed the cape and hat into her saddlebags and trotted out of the boutique just as Rarity made her way over to where Trixie had been.
“Wherever did she go? Oh, well. Maybe she just forgot something.”
“Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of The Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie cried out to the passing crowds. She had extended a wooden platform from the side of her wagon and donned her magician’s getup. Ponies slowly began to gather around as she, doing what Swirlstar did, created a fizzling fireworks display around herself.
She noticed out of the corner of her eye Twilight, with the dragon she kept as an assistant--maybe his name was Scales? Spock? Spike?--edging towards the stage. Rarity was closeby. She gulped audibly, hoping that the fashionista wouldn’t notice her stolen costume.
“Watch in awe, as The Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!”
She conjured up a bouquet of flowers, just as Swirlstar had, and tossed it out into the ever-growing audience. A small blue unicorn colt with a messy orange mane and scissors for a cutie mark caught it.
The audience, however, soon became a bit bored, and so Trixie decided to sweeten the pot. “Did you know that only The Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major?”
She accompanied the jest by projecting a neon depiction of her smiting a large bear into the sky. The crowd’s jaws mostly dropped. Twilight rolled her eyes dramatically.
“Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians: anything you can do, I can do better!”
Trixie sighed heavily as she lay on the hard bench in her wagon’s cabin trying in vain to fall asleep. She hadn’t gotten a chance to catch up with Twilight, but if she was going to make a living, she’d have to move on and perform in another town tomorrow. After all, she doubted anypony in Ponyville would actually want to watch her lame act again.
“Ahh! Trixie! We have a problem!” came the furious pounding of two of her admirers at the door. They had brought her a milkshake earlier, but after that had just become pains in the flank.
“What is so important that it warrants disturbing The Great and Powerful Trixie?”
“We brought an Ursa Major to town so you could vanquish it!” one of them crowed excitedly.
“Yeah, vanquish it so we can watch!” the other encouraged.
“Are you out of your little pony minds?!”
“But you’re The Great and Powerful Trixie! You vanquished an Ursa Major!”
“Okay!” Trixie gulped, assuming a meek battle stance. “Stand back.”
“So, Trixie. What brings you here, and since when were you a street performer?” Twilight asked as Trixie sulkily sweeped up the remains of her wagon, which had been crushed to bits by the now-vanquished Ursa Minor--thanks to Twilight.
“Long time, no see, Twi. Anyways, It’s a long story.”
Twilight plopped down. “I’ve got time.”
“Well, for starters, ‘Tia kicked me out.”
“Wow. Really? That doesn’t sound like her.”
“Said you and her sister were too much of a hooffull and that I wasn’t good enough. Then silly me hitched a train to Las Pegasus and gambled all the money away. Down to pennies, I decided to take up street magic to earn my living, and now I’m here.”
“Well, I’m really sorry if that’s the case. Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe stay at my place for a while? I have a spare bedroom.”
“No, it’s alright,” Trixie sighed as she piled the broken wood up into a heap and lit it on fire with a spark from her horn to destroy it. “After all, there are other towns.”
Twilight chuckled. “You sure? Your reputation as a bit of a braggart might follow you around.”
“Yep. This was just a minor setback,” Trixie said optimistically. “Ponies do love a good show, after all.”
She finished burning the last of the wood. “I ought to be going now, I guess. Nice seeying ya, Twi. Catch up later, I suppose,” Trixie called as she trotted off.
Twilight stood without a word and headed back into town as Trixie broke into a full gallop and sped out of Ponyville.
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
719 users online
763,176 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
That was a short chapter...
Welp. not much to comment on here.
stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/2535437/abandon-thread-o.gif
new chapter... more reading.....
The Twilight and Trixie interaction..... I like that.....
tho I must say to ya..... Don't burn yourself out ok?
2283481
Remember, Luna has absolutely no magical ability at the moment and is kind of busy with reintegration into society. Additionally, after this, she'll be locked in a basement by Celestia with some bread, cheese, and a gaming PC.
Flim and Flam own the most prolific fast-food chain in the world.
Why even ATTEMPT to sell cider. You're already set.