Act 2: Fame and Failure
A long lineup of foals, yearlings, and even adults were assembled before Trixie's stand, each with a cape, hat, poster, or some other form of memorabilia on hoof, waiting to be autographed.
"There you go," Trixie said as she levitated the holographic card of her visage to the filly at the front. "Someday, that card is going to be worth millions! So keep it safe, but make sure ponies can still see it."
Babs Seed gleefully stuck the card into her satchel. "Someday, I wanna be just like you!"
"Don't we all," Trixie puffed. She patted the filly on the head. "Dare to dream, little filly. Dare to dream."
Suddenly a high pitched scream drew everypony's attention upwards. Plummeting from the sky, a large popped air balloon and its earth pony aviator came into view from behind the Trade Towers. Everypony gasped as they watched the mare falling to her inevitable doom.
"Help! Help!" she screamed.
"Uh, sthouldn't you be helping?" Specs asked from the pile of merchendice next to Trixie as he noticed she was penning a colt's baseball cap.
"Trixie wagers that balloon has about twenty seconds, that should be just enough for one more." With a dot of the i's, she then vanished in a cloud of steam, pen still floating in mid-air for a few moments before it clattered to the ground.
Poofing into the predicted sight of impact, Trixie looked upwards to the incoming projectile. A scratch on the chin, one squint of the eye, and then the other, along with an exposed tongue on the side as she did a few mental equations, and Trixie gave two sidesteps to the left, and one back. She marked the spot on the ground in an X with her hoof. Then, raising herself to rearing height, she waggled her forehooves as her horn glowed. A large, industrial scale trampoline popped into existence right above the X. Trixie then stood backwards to the bouncing toy, eyes smugly closed and a hoof outstretched, ready to catch the passenger that would bounce off it.
"The tension is unbearable. Will the Great and Powerful Trixie succeed in her daring gambit?" Spike scribbled into his reporter pad. He vision was shadowed before he could draw his question mark. Surprised by the sudden and brief lack of sunlight, he looked up to see what had blotted out the sun.
Leaping from the top of one balcony to the next. A pony cloaked in a midnight blue mask and a deep purple suit caught the attention of everypony. A emblem with an M letter emblazoned on her chest coupled a long dark cape, and a wide brimmed fedora of matching colors completed the ensemble. From the edge of a rooftop, she peered down at the falling balloon. And with a magnificent leap, dove straight down at it. At breakneck speed, her cape unveiled a pair of wings that sprung out, pushing her into a full 90 degree turn as she came within level of the basket, scooping up the passenger in distress with her hooves.
As for the balloon, it continued to descend and hit the trampoline below it. With a spring and a bounce, the basket flopped upside down and right over Trixie's head, covering the mare in weaved rope and ripped cloth with a thumping crash. The dazed showmare lifted the weight of ten sandbags off her head and fought to get out of the colored entrapment that impaired her vision. "Huh? What just happened?" she asked as she found the edge of the cloth.
Regaining her sight, she saw something that made her jaw drop. The masked pony gently set the rescued victim on the safe embrace of terra firma. The large gaggle of witnesses crowded around the unknown savior, cheering and applauding. Then, with but a single vigilant glance around the area, the strange pony went as fast as she came.
"Great galloping gargoyles, that pony came outta nowhere!"
"I've never seen such bravery in all my life!"
"How gallant! How noble!"
Excuse Trixie?! was the only thought in the magician's head as Mayor Tux directed the ponies' attention to his speech.
"That's right! It would appear Manehatten has a new hero. A mysterious mare that has done well by our fair city today." The silhouetted remnants of said mare disappeared over the tall building in the distance as everpony watched her go. "I dub this new masked hero 'The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well'!"
Another round of cheers went around, but this time it did not go uninterrupted.
"Mare-Do-Well? More like Mare-Do-Steal-The-Limelight!" Trixie indignantly snorted as she made her way to the center of the crowd. "Have you ponies already forgotten? Manehattan already has a hero! A far better hero who would have made a far more successful rescue had that stranger not come along and interrupt her brilliant plan!"
The ponies all looked to one another with puzzled expressions. "Hey, what's the big deal Trixie?" one of them asked. "So she got to save her before you did. No need to go ballistic."
"Great and Powerful Trixie to you. And just why would some random nopony just decide to waltz and steal the thunder when that balloonist's life was already safely within Trixie's hooves? Hmm? Does somepony in this city actually believe the Great and Powerful Trixie would fail? That enigma may have you thinking the world of her, but Trixie can plainly see that masked weirdo is nothing but a greedy gloryhound!"
"You sure that's not the other way around?" came another voice from the mass.
Trixie gave an incensed huff in the direction of the voice. "Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. Well let this statement go on the record for any of you doubters here. The Great and Powerful Trixie hereby declares anything that Mare-Do-Well can do, she can do better!"
"Really? Can you fly?" rang a third voice. A round of laughter soon followed.
"Hmph! Just you wait and see! The next time that Mare-Do-Well shows her head around again, Trixie will be putting that stage hog in her place!" With that, she turned to leave, nose upturned. And then she tripped over a piece of rope still tangled in her hooves, prompting another bout of laughs.
Somewhere within the back of the crowd, a lavender unicorn walked away, content with the situation that had unfolded. "Phase one, complete."
Panic was erupting at the shipyards as a docking tanker's steam engine malfunctioned and the ship ran ashore against the stone reefs. Cargo and crew spilled everywhere. One large crate in particular broke away from the steel railing and targeted an elderly harborhoof overhead. Unable to hobble away in time, the old stallion squeezed his eyes shut.
However, the crate slowed to a stop just inches before him, wrapped in a bluish aura. Trixie, sweating profusely at the strain of the heavy object, still kept her bold smile as she appeared at the scene of the crisis. "Never fear! The Great and Powerful Trixie is-"
"Can you skip the chatter and save the rest of us now?" shouted a grizzled sailor, who was half buried along with half a dozen others under a large piece of hull.
"Ok, fine, skip the intro. You already know who Trixie is anyways." She slowly stepped around the old stallion towards the crew members. "Just give her a second to...find someplace safe...to set this heavy..."
Her hoof then touched the spilled contents of a nearby broken barrel of lamp oil. Slipping uncontrollably, she skidded off the edge of the dock and into the bay. Her head broke the surface with a gasp only to be plunged back down again as her heavy load followed suit.
By the time Trixie had pulled herself out, soaked to the bone in cold seawater, Mare-Do-Well was on the scene. Trixie grumpily spat the live fish half in her mouth out. "So, Mare-Do-Well, trying to show Trixie up yet again? Well she's afraid she's got the upper hoof over you this time. Whereas her magic could free those ship workers in time, there's little a pegasus' wings can do to assist. Why, you'd have to be a strong as an earth pony to even budg-" Her voice fell flat as she watched in shock at the masked mare who stuck her hooves underneath the half ton slab of metal, and with a grunt, lifted it up enough for the trapped ponies to crawl out. The workers cheered as the heroine set the slab down, but before any one of them could thank her, she darted off yet again.
"H-how? What? What kind of a pony is she?" she wondered out loud.
"Hey lady, need a hoof there?" Called the captain from side of the tanker. "You look like you're all wet!"
The crew laughed at the joke, but Trixie did not think it was funny.
The buzzing drone of power tools was apparent in the everyday humdrum of construction work for the ever growing city of Manehattan. Atop the steel framework of a building being made, a pair of hardhats sat down on one of the beams to enjoy lunch.
"Ohhh boy! Mealtime jackpot for me!" said the tan, bearded one.
"Yeah? Your wife pack you an extra slice of her banana cream?" the gray, long maned one inquired.
"Better than that, she packed me the whole pie!" the worker pulled out an enormous tin that at first glance would make you wonder how it fit inside the little lunch pail. "Want some?"
"Oh, you know I can't resist one of Meringue's pies. Hey Girder!" The stallion drew the attention of a third setting rivets. "Torchwield's got extra dessert! Why don't you put down your hammer and take your lunch break already?"
"Eh, just one more. Wanna keep this support even." The black, spotted stallion gripped the tongs firmly in his jaw as he procured one more hot nail from the bed of coals. Unfortunately, his hooves were not as steady as he tried to align his hammer with the molten metal.
"Ah! Hot rivet! Hot rivet!" he yelped as he accidentally struck a little low, knocking said rivet right into his face. Failing his hooves, his grip on his hammer loosened and fell from his grasp. "Uh oh..."
Down, down, down, the tool fell. Until it struck the foot of the bottom support beam. With a smack, a rivet popped right out. The entire structure creaked. Then like a chain reaction, one beam fell over the next, and the entire framework started to collapse. The workers below scattered as large pieces of metal and wood fell haphazardly.
Trixie arrived, horn at the ready. "Worry not, citizens of Manehattan, the Great and Powerful Trixie shall-ack!" Her hoof instinctively retracted as a large beam skewered the ground a hooves length in front of her.
Just then, a blur of midnight blue brushed past her into the avalanche of bricks and mortar. With a swift motion, the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well hoisted a panicked constructor onto her back and carried her towards the open streets. Trixie watched in astonishment as the vigilante seemed to perk up and nimbly dodge the incoming debris with but a twitch of her ear. In but a span of a minute, four were already a safe distance away from the falling structure.
Looking frantically around, Trixie's gaze drifted from her competition up the increasingly unstable stack of metal parts, and zeroed in on a young spotted stallion still up there, desperately clutching the side of a beam. With a determined look on her face, Trixie magicked up a large beam over a stack of bricks and stood on one end just as a cement mixer crashed down on the other end.
Catapulting upwards and landing on the top, Trixie pried the petrified worker off the framework and unto her back. "Trixie has you, now which way's the stairs?!"
"There!" cried the stallion. Trixie followed the pointed hoof, down and down the flights, all the while steel and wire colliding dangerously close to them as more floor fell away from all sides. "Look out for the- Watch out for falling- On your left! Agh! Your other left!"
The pair barely made it out in time as the integrity of the framework reached 100% failure. The stallion fainted dead away as he slid off Trixie's back, while the mare triumphantly marched forward to face her masked adversary.
"So, Mare-Do-Well, still think you can play in the professional leagues do you? Well, unlike Trixie, you bothered to miss one. Sloppy, sloppy."
*Splatter*
Trixie blinked away the fruity cream of the upturned pie tin that landed on her face. The other workers broke out howling.
"Not as sloppy as you it seems!"
"Yeah. And if you're keeping score, it's still 13 to 1!"
"Hey! I was gonna eat that!"
As the workers departed to get some cold drinks, Trixie seethed as she turned back only to see the vanishing shadow of the costumed champion disappear around the corner.
"What a surprise, running off again. Too scared of Trixie to match her on even ground?!"
"Mare-Do-Well does it again: Construction Catastrophe averted," read Blossomforth from her paper. "12:45 pm, the newest Hay and Stay condominiums extension faced a full week setback when a rouge rivet damaged the supporting framework of the building and caused it to collapse. Lucky for the construction team of Manehattan, Mare-Do-Well was on the scene, allowing not even a single casualty as she braved the danger zone to save over a dozen workers."
She set her paper down on Orange Hotel's lobby lounge table in front of the rest of the seated Manehattan six. "Wow! That Mare-Do-Well gets bolder every time I read about her. She wasn't even wearing the proper safety equipment when she went in there!"
"She certainly cleans up very nicely," Sherbet agreed. "Caring for everypony's safety. Almost makes me wish I was in a dangerous situation myself."
"Hmph!" Trixie sulked in the corner next to a large decorative vase. Her head resting on a haunched hoof, making her scowl appear lopsided.
"Is something troubling you Trixie?" Octavia asked.
"Mare-Do-Well this, Mare-Do-Well that," Trixie nasally mocked. "Is Trixie the only one here who sees that swaggered, self-serving meddler for the pony she is?"
"A great, wonderful hero who saves lives on a regular basis? A pony that everyone admires?" Honey ribbed the showmare.
"Trixie doesn't admire her. She doesn't think she's that great."
"She's...great."
Trixie zipped up, nose to nose with Spike the documenter. "Trixie did not tell you to write that!"
"Sounds to me like somepony's jealous," Twilight snidely remarked over the reading lamp.
Trixie gave her fellow unicorn a cautionary glance. "What? Trixie? Jealous?"
"Trixie is jealous," the dragon wrote down.
"Spike!" the irked magician snapped. The rest of the Manehattan six laughed.
"Correction: Trixie is very jealous."
"Like you said before, it's a passing phase," Twilight smartly continued. "And once it passes you'll look back and laugh and realize just how silly you were in retrospect. And maybe you'll come out a better mare for it."
"Oh yeah?" Trixie now put her face in Twilight's personal space. "Well answer Trixie this if you think it's just her being jealous. If Mare-Do-Well is such a 'heroic' icon, why would she hide her face under that ridiculous garb? Why does she run away from ponies she 'saved' without so much as giving a 'you're welcome'? What possible reason would she have to be mysterious unless she had something to hide? Some ugly, terrible secret? Trixie is not jealous, she is discerning. That masked mare clearly has some ulterior motive she is trying to play at!"
"Or maybe she's doing what a real hero should do," dismissed Twilight. "Exercising a little thing called modesty."
"Actions speak louder than words," Octavia chimed in.
Trixie looked from one member of the group to another as if they had been replaced by pod ponies. "Just what is wrong with you all? Doesn't the Great and Powerful Trixie consider you all her friends? Why are you taking some costumed freak's side over hers?"
"We're not taking anypony's side," Orange Sherbet assured her. "All we're saying is that her humility is admirable."
"Her humility is suspicious!" Trixie corrected. "Would you simply give out free ice cream and expect absolutely nothing in return? Mark Trixie's words, she's going to get to the bottom of this scheme even if she has to do it by herself! Which, by the way, shouldn't be a problem for a pony of her caliber. And the quickest way to do that, is to show that Mare-Do-Well who's boss!"
"Right, like the last three times you showed her," Honey teased. Everyone laughed but Trixie.
"Ha ha ha," she sarcastically snarked. "Go ahead, laugh. That's all anypony seems to be doing at Trixie lately. But this cunning mare still has an ace up her hat." Tapping her horn, she gave a smug grin. "She may be fast, she may be strong, but Mare-Do-Well doesn't have magic on her side! Trixie is, after all, the most magical unicorn in all Equestria, and that's how she shall show the world that she is a better hero than Mare-Do-Well."
As she took her leave from Orange Hotel, Twilight felt up the horn of her own forehead. "We'll just see about that, Trixie."
"Um, Twilight? How much longer is Mare-Do-Well going to stick around Manehattan?" Blossomforth asked all of a sudden. "Cause, Trixie actually seemed pretty upset."
"Just until Trixie can get it through her head that there's always somepony better out there, so there's no reason to go boasting the world about yourself."
"Great, that'll only take about an eternity and a half," Honey joked.
Trixie bitterly stomped down the street in a huff. "Grrrmph...even her own friends would rather Mare-Do-Well be their hero than her. Well, if that's how Mare-Do-Well wants to play, stealing Trixie's friends from her, then the horseshoes are coming off!"
"Fire!"
Trixie's attention shifted to the burning pottery shop two blocks down. It would seem that Clay Hooves, the shop's sculptor, had left the kiln running again one too many times. Already the flames had blocked off the pony's route of escape, and given their position in respect to the closest fire department in town, response time would take at least ten minutes.
"But Trixie can put this out in one." Quick as a whip, Trixie galloped to the nearby fire hydrant one shop down. "And for her next trick, Trixie shall now make this fire...disappear!"
Squeezing open the left hatch, a torrential geyser poured out from the hydrant. With a glow of her horn, the violent fountain became a mighty river directed straight at the shop. "Ahhh...feels good to be back in the groove. Trixie would like to see miss Mare-Do-Well do it this easily."
Leaning against the hydrant in a relaxed, pat on the back position, Trixie's hooves unknowingly pressed the right hatch release as well. A second watery blast from right behind her sent Trixie throttling down the street, stopping her right above an uncovered manhole. Two splashes followed, one was the living river breaking out of Trixie's magic aura and falling into a worthless puddle on the sidewalk, the second was Trixie acquainting herself with Manehatten's sewer system.
Clambering out of the underground stench, Trixie once again saw her accident had given enough time for her arch-enemy to appear. Mare-Do-Well stood directly in front of the burning building.
"Well, here to steal the show again? Too bad, as this is a problem only the Great and Powerful Trixie can handle," she called out from behind. "I suppose with your limited repertoire you could maybe use a raincloud to douse those flames. Oh, wait. Today's forecast by the Manehattan weather department called for sunny skies. There's not a thundercloud for miles! Too bad you don't have one of these!" Trixie rapped her horn. "If you did, you could just conjure your own rain, like Trixie is about-"
Mare-Do-Well flung off her hat, revealing a glowing horn. Within seconds, the sky darkened around Clay Hooves' shop, and a cloudburst flooded the area, extinguishing the blaze. Then, with a leap through the broken door, the enigmatic rescuer dragged out the singed burnt sienna body of Clay Hooves.
"Aahaah...thank you Mare-Do-Well!" he coughed. The nearby spectators cheered as the masked mare of mystery galloped off again.
Trixie just sat there, flabbergasted. "Magic? Mare-Do-Well...is magic?"
A passing mare from the dispersing crowd crossed in front of Trixie, stopping for a moment to look over the sewage covered mare.
"Trixie? *sniff sniff* Ewwww! You stink! *giggle*"
As she continued to pass by, a hot bubbling feeling grew within the pit of Trixie's stomach. However, this time a dark icy chill pinged at the tip of her heart as well.
Trixie slouched over one of the central park bench, watching the gaggle of foals that once sported her trademark cape and hat prance around playing in black masks and purple cowls.
"It's...it's not fair," she muttered in a low breath. "That Mare-Do-Well has a few lucky breaks, and suddenly everypony wants to be her. What about Trixie? Wasn't it just yesterday she garnered adulation everywhere she went? How can they forget about her so easily? All anyone seems to do now is laugh at her, just because she looks bad in comparison. Even her friends."
She closed her eyes, letting out a miserable sigh. "Is Trixie going to be alone...again?"
"Trixie! Miss Trixie!"
The showmare's head popped up and turned to face the graceful little figure of Sherbet's daughter. "There you are miss Trixie. I was searching all over for you."
"Trixie knew it!" the magician jumped off the bench and gave Tangerine a surprise hug attack. "No need to apologize, little manehattanette, even the Great and Powerful Trixie makes mistakes from time to time."
"Mistake? What mistake?"
It then dawned to Trixie that Tangerine was not here to re-establish the Great and Powerful fanclub. "Wait, why are you here?"
"To invite you to join me! Everypony is heading off to the thank you parade for Manehattan's greatest hero, Mare-Do-Well. Father is busy with a client, and I cannot seem to find mother anywhere, so I was hoping you could accompany me."
"What?! Mare-Do-Well...is getting her own parade?!" Trixie was infuriated. Going to a celebration for that...that saboteur to her life was the absolute last thing she wanted to do. "Why on Equis would you think that Trixie would go with you to that parade?"
"Because...you are my friend?" the filly ventured.
Trixie's train of thought hit the brakes. "W-what?"
"We are friends, are we not? Friends do things for one another to make them happy. Like how you always make me smile with that cookie behind the ear trick. A lot of ponies at my school have been doing nothing but talking about Mare-Do-Well for a while now, I can understand why, she is really great. But then I figured not a lot of foals have been going to your shows as of late, and thought you would like some company."
Trixie stared at Tangerine, her mind processing what had just happened. The icy tinge around her chest began to fade to make room for a warm glow. She could recollect now, all the towns and places she had come and left within a span of weeks, admired and adored through her feats of magical wonders. That had been her routine ever since she had acquired her caravan wagon, her symbol of independence and freedom. And yet, here she had been for months now, the thought of hitting the road for her next village hadn't poked her brain for the longest time.
Why was that? Because for the first time in her life, she realized she had a reason to want to stay. She had friends. Friends were...were a special kind of audience. The kind that cheered for you even if you weren't doing anything significant. You didn't need to perform or dazzle to make them like you, you just needed to be there, like how Tangerine was being there for her.
And right now...all her other friends...were with that...that...
"If you really do not want to attend, then maybe we could find something else to do together? Perhaps you can practice some new tricks on me?"
"Actually, Trixie thinks she will go to the parade. There's something Mare-Do-Well has...that she needs to get back."
"Welcome to Manehattan's first, but surely not last, thank you parade, in honor of our city's greatest hero, the mysterious Mare-Do-Well!"
The masked mare stood tall and strong on top of the moving float as Mayor Tux announced her arrival. As the procession went slowly down the street, ponies from both sides waved their banners and threw confetti, cheering for their hero.
"Mare-Do-Well!"
The celebration fell silent as ponies gasped and murmured to each other, looking around for the mysterious echo that called their mysterious star.
The bang of a blue smokescreen covered the area, and Trixie now stood directly in the float's way, her eyes steely focused on the mare up top.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie will no longer stand idly by while you proceed to take everything she has away from her!" She leapt onto the parade float, slowly climbing up the steps to meet her. "You want to play hero? Fine! You take pleasure in making Trixie look like a fool? Sticks and stones! But it will be a cold day in the molten depths of Tartaurus before Trixie surrenders her friends to you!"
Trixie pointed an imposing hoof right at the costumed mare. "Let us have it out! Mare to mare, once and for all! The Great and Powerful Trixie challenges you!"
A moment of tense silence passed, Mare-Do-Well just standing there and staring at Trixie. And then with an abrupt burst of speed, the confronted vigilante sprung off the rear end of the float.
"Oh no! There shall be no running this time!" Trixie scrambled after her adversary. "You will not brush Trixie off again! This must be settled now!"
The chase went on over several other floats. Finally, at the floral arrangement display, Trixie closed in just enough to give a tackling lunge at the fleeing pony. But then Mare-Do-Well stopped unexpectedly, bringing her head down to look at a rare hibiscus hybrid. Trixie ended up tripping over her backside at the sudden change in movement and fell head over hooves off the float and into a muddy puddle on the street. Everypony broke out in a raucous laughter.
Pulling her head up from the sudden impact, Mare-Do-Well poked her head over the side and saw her pursuer messily sprawled out on the pavement. With a quick leap, she was off the float and bending over the showmare.
"Are you alright?" came a muffled voice from behind the mask.
"GOTCHA!" Before she could react, the mysterious Mare-Do-Well found herself grappled, wrestled, then pinned as a blur of azure encompassed her.
"No more games, miss mysterious. The secret is now officially out!" Trixie seized the face of her opponent, ripping the cloth off. "Fillies and gentlecolts! Behold! Your mystery hero is none other than...BLOSSOMFORTH?!"
The two-toned white pegasus smiled meekly at her stupefied friend. "Hi Trixie."
A massive gasp sounded off from everypony. Trixie looked up from the pinned pony, and found there were four more Mare-Do-Wells surrounding her. One by one, they removed their masks for Trixie to see.
"T-twilight? Octavia? Auntie?! Dar-"
"And Honey Do," the archeologist saved. "That's right. The mysterious Mare-Do-Well was not one pony, but all of us."
"We all played Mare-Do-Well at different times," Twilight explained.
"Who else in this city could be fast enough to catch a balloon falling at terminal velocity?" Honey said.
"My gifted ears allowed me to portend the collapsing debris from the construction site via the vibrations in the air," Octavia added.
"I'm not as in shape as I was during my farming days, but if there's anything my family reunion taught me, that Apple strength is still inside me. Enough to certainly lift some steel ship plating off a couple of sailors," Sherbet spoke in turn. "Oh, and the outfits were paid for by yours truly as well."
"Custom designed by me!" Blossomforth chirped.
"And I used my magic to stop the fire," Twilight finished.
"..........why?" was the only sound that came out of Trixie's lips.
"You see, you should be more humble-" Twilight suddenly stopped, her smile vanishing as Trixie brought her face up.
There, on the visage of the azure unicorn, was the most pathetic and miserable look of pain, sadness, and betrayal. Her whole body trembled in disbelieving horror. "Why...would you do this to me?"
The five mares suddenly wore an alarmed expression at the feeble voice. Did Trixie just...break the third pony?
"How could you trick me like this...? Hurt me like this? I thought...I thought we were friends..." Trixie whimpered.
"T-trixie-?" For some reason, Twilight couldn't find any words. The sudden mood swing had caught her completely off guard.
"Do have any idea...what you've done to me?"
*SPLAT*
Twilight's emotional state went on a complete roller coaster as the left side of Trixie's cheek was now decorated by the stain of an overripe, mushy tomato.
"Hey Trixie! You just got your flank hoofed over to you!" came a jeer from the crowd.
The laughter started up again, harsh, and harassing.
"All hail the weak and powerless Trixie!"
"So much for being the most magical unicorn in Equestria, you can't even outmagic a librarian!"
"Tell us, after beating the ursa, did you also sell the ponies of Hoofington the Hooflyn bridge?"
"Looks like your swelled head just popped!"
"Loser!"
"Fraud!"
Trixie stared emptily at Twilight. A tiny dribble of tears leaked from her bloodshot eyes, dripping onto the pavement below.
"T-trixie I-"
A puff of smoke clouded her eyesight, and the next thing Twilight knew, she and her friends were watching the disgraced magician galloping away down the street, the mocking laughter continuing to follow her.
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Way to go Skye! Good transition at the end from teaching a lesson to sad and miserable. Can't wait for the next one. Wonder if this will cause trixie to move to another town.
Poor trixie. Never really was a fan of the mare do well episode and this story shows a well written way that that episode could have gone. Plus sad trixie makes me sad.
And this... is how Mare-Do-Well should have gone.
There's been a few fics exploring this issue and the rather broken aesop of the MMDW episode, but it's interesting to see it here (even if I expected it from the start). Woven into the episode itself, so to speak.
Wow, Twilight. You really messed this up. It will be interesting to see how you patch this up...
Humility is tricky. You try to teach it to someone, pretty soon you realize you need a bit of it yourself.
Now THIS should've been the realistic reaction in the episode.
I'm starting to think that Trixie will want to leave town since no one will come watch her shows anymore in Manehattan. Now I want to see how Twilight and the others will try to patch things up.
They didn't even wait until Trixie's grandstanding actually started interfering with the pony-saving
2630753 Pretty much.
In fact the ONLY pony that's using their head in this situation is Tangerine! The child fillies and gentlecolts is acting more mature than the adults!
While Trixie did need to be taken down a couple pegs, she didn't need to be smacked down into a crater.
2680644 Actually a good point. Shows that Twilight's jumping the gun even quicker than in canon. I'm very eager to see how they'll resolve it.
I am really liking this. Why? Because just like in real life, both sides are shown to be partially to blame, rather than the classic setup of villains versus heroes who come out smelling like roses.
Well, a couple of differences here. First off, Twilight jumps the gun and goes straight to showing up Trixie when the latter was still in her phase of being pretty helpful. Second, one of Trixie's closest fans still stays close to her, unlike MDW where the writers screwed over Scootaloo's character and made her fickle. Third, Mare Do Well was exposed to a far more public audience, completely embarrassing Trixie.
tldr: Twilight, u dun goofed
The irony is that that's exactly what it means to be free. To give something and expect absolutely nothing in return.
That has got to be some variation of the Pinkie Sense!
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I'd beg to differ. I'll grant you that the original episode could've been done better. But who knows what may or may not have been edited out because of time restraints. And it's annoying that people think Rainbow Dash should've been hateful because of the events of that episode. Because that's not how friendships work. Yes, the original episode could've been handled better. But there's no reason to assume RD wouldn't take what the others were trying to teach to heart. Granted, they didn't talk to her first.
Also, I'm not arguing that this story was written better or worse. Granted, it's not restricted by a time limit, which probably works in the story's favor. But saying the original episode is better or worse than this story would be like comparing apples and oranges. In the show, 28 Prank Later revealed that even if they did talk to RD first, she wouldn't have listened. This had Twilight actually try to talk to Trixie first. Granted, she didn't try hard. But this is still the equivalent of Season 1 Twilight. Feeling Pinkie Keen revealed that she tended to be close minded back then. This Twilight follows that general mindset. But this isn't better or worse than the original episode because of the ponies involved. For the original episode, RD's reaction is more or less to be expected from her character. In this, Trixie has more reason to be hurt because these are the first friends she's had. RD didn't need to have friendship defined for her, and trixie was given a definition that would specifically have this response. It's not an inaccurate definition, but there's more to it than that.
I'd say this story is better comparable to No Second Prances, where neither side was in the right.
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On the other hand, Rainbow Dash wasn't lying about her achievements or intentionally making herself look better than the others. Trixie mentioned the Ursa Major and was making herself look more magical than the bearer of the Element of Magic.
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Perhaps. But Rainbow Dash didn't take it as far as Trixie did either.