finalperformance.fla
If you were active on the internet in the early 2010s then you have definitely heard of a show called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." It was practically impossible to not know about it with those bright-colored ponies being everywhere on the web.
When the show first aired in October of 2010, people immediately fell in love with the cast of colorful equines and their charming personalities. At first, I didn't really see the appeal of the show, thinking it was like any other kids cartoon airing at the time. Eventually, I would cave in and watch it after my friend would not stop begging me to for a week straight. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself actually enjoying it and quickly became a part of the rapidly growing online community surrounding it.
The countless fanworks I've seen would inspire me to make my own. I would teach myself how to animate in Adobe Flash (now Adobe Animate), the same program Hasbro's animators used to produce the show, and make animations and shorts in the style of the show. In the summer of 2014, I would score a job at Hasbro as one of the lead animators for the show.
Fast forward to fall of 2016, the show was nearing its Season 6 finale. It was a late night, and all the other animators and artists had already left, meaning I was the only one in the office. I hadn't left yet as I was adamant on finishing one last scene before clocking out for the night.
As I saved my work to a folder used for storing upcoming episodes, I noticed another file had been added that wasn't there earlier. The first thing that stuck out to me was the name of the file lacking any sort of production code, it was just simply named "finalperformance.fla."
I informed my boss about the mysterious file, but not before saving a copy of it and sending it to my personal email. I wasn't too worried about getting caught, as Hasbro has always had a leaking problem pertaining to MLP. My boss told me that it was likely just a duplicate of an existing file someone renamed and placed there to fuck with the other animators, and that he would discuss it with everyone the next morning after taking a look at the file himself.
Once I arrived home, I immediately booted up my computer and opened the file in Adobe Flash. It was likely nothing beyond a duplicate file as my boss had already said, but the name alone was enough to peak my interest.
The duration of the episode was only around 10 minutes rather than the usual 22 most episodes have. It must've been a copy of a short rather than a full episode, I thought.
The episode began with a black screen that went on for an unnecessarily long time. I was about to skip forward when a voice suddenly spoke up.
"Everypony always says they'll give you a second chance, but deep down, they never forget."
I instantly recognized the voice as belonging to Trixie, specifically one of her lines from the episode "No Second Prances." I figured the file must contain that episode, but it didn't explain why it was so short compared to the original episode, or why that voice line was at the very beginning.
The screen faded in to show, to my surprise, not the original opening with Twilight and Starlight, but rather Trixie and Starlight.
I was taken aback by this, I thought I was watching an older episode, but I didn't recognize this one at all. Was this an unfinished episode I was never made aware of? That would explain the abnormally short episode length. Regardless, I continued watching.
The scene took place in Trixie's wagon, with Trixie excitedly telling Starlight all about her show she was going to perform for Ponyville that night, and that she personally built a new stage just for the occasion. Something about her voice sounded off. She didn't sound like Kathleen Barr, her usual voice actress, but rather someone doing an (admittedly solid) impression. Starlight responded by telling Trixie she would attend her show. She didn't sound like her actress either.
This was strange, as the voice lines are always recorded early on in the episode's production by their respective actors, Hasbro never utilized stand-ins.
After Trixie and Starlight's little talk, the scene faded to black. This was usually when the intro at the start of every episode would play, but for some reason it didn't this time.
Trixie was now alone in her wagon, looking at herself in a mirror while stroking her mane with a brush in her magic aura. The shot changed to be facing Trixie, the back walls of the wagon now visible. As she continued to brush her mane, a silhouette could be seen walking behind one of the windows. The sound of grass rustling caused one of her ears to twitch, and she turned her head to face the window. By the time she did, the figure was already gone. She paused for a moment, before going back to brushing.
It was now nighttime, and Trixie's show was about to begin, ponies in the crowd murmered to each other as they waited. Suddenly, a smoke bomb rolled onto stage, casting the area in a cloud of smoke. As the smoke cleared, Trixie appeared standing on her hindlegs with her hooves in the air. She introduced herself and thanked everyone for coming to her show, as she did, a few grumbles could be heard coming from the crowd.
"Is that mare in our town again?"
"Why does she keep coming back here?"
"Does she not get the hint by now?"
Trixie opened her mouth like she was about to snap back with a remark of her own, but stopped herself. She took a deep breath and smiled.
Without saying another word, she lit up her horn and put on a spectacular light show consisting of fireworks exploding into all different kinds of shapes and symbols like stars and moons. After the show concluded, she once again stood on her legs with her hooves in the air, waiting for the sound of clapping and cheering to fill her ears.
But it never came.
Instead, the audience stood there in silence, everyone was staring at her with varying looks of disdain. One by one, the crowd dispersed as ponies went their separate ways. There were a couple stink eyes thrown Trixie's way, but to her surprise, no booing. A few grumbles, but nobody seemed to care enough to waste their breath. Trixie's mouth was open as if she was going to say something, but she just stood there in stunned silence before lowering her head in shame.
After the crowd had all but left, one pony stood in the middle where the crowd once was, it was Applejack.
"Did you really think ponies would want to see you perform again after that last stunt you pulled?"
I knew what stunt she was referring to, the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive from No Second Prances. But I was confused, the ponies liked Trixie's stunt in that episode, Applejack included. Was this going off an earlier script for that episode? If that's the case, then I was never informed of it. Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone was for that matter, as the entire animation team was given copies of the script before the animation process could even begin.
Applejack shook her head and turned to leave, but suddenly stopped and looked back at Trixie.
"Maybe magic just isn't your thing."
After that, Applejack left, leaving Trixie alone.
Trixie stood on her stage with wide eyes and a large frown. The background and stage disappeared, leaving Trixie in a black void. Her eyes welled with tears, and her ears fell to their sides. The scene changed to what looked to be a black screen at first, before the night sky and Trixie filled the screen, revealing her holding the top of a garbage can. She threw her hat and cape in before shutting it.
Trixie was now walking through the empty streets of Ponyville with a gloomy expression on her face, a melancholic piano tune slowly faded in that I had never heard used in the show before, yet it sounded vaguely familiar for some reason. As she walked, clips from various episodes she appeared in slowly materialized beside her. The first clip was from Boast Busters, and was the scene where Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity berate Trixie and challenge her at her own show. The next clip was near the end of the episode, showing Trixie's wagon getting destroyed, which then cut to the ending scene of Trixie fleeing Ponyville.
Trixie's expression darkened, her frown widened and her head lowered towards the ground.
After that was Magic Duel, showing Trixie's return to Ponyville with the Alicorn Amulet, the next clip was Trixie's retelling of her life after Boast Busters, with her being ostracized and her wagon getting vandalized.
Trixie's eyes welled with tears again, her teeth gritted, and her head lowered even closer to the ground.
The last episode to be shown was No Second Prances, showing the scene of Starlight yelling at Trixie before running off crying. The last clip was of Trixie launching herself out of the cannon.
Trixie was now openly crying, no longer trying to stifle her tears.
Once Trixie reached her wagon, the music faded out and she reached for the doorknob.
"Trixie?"
Trixie turned to see Starlight approaching her with a worried expression.
"I saw what happened at your show, I'm sorry I didn't say anything then, I figured you needed some time alone."
"It's alright, it's nothing I can't handle. You know me, Starlight." Trixie said with a small smile, her eyes were no longer watering, but they were bloodshot from her crying. If Starlight noticed then she didn't mention it.
"I heard what Applejack and those ponies said, don't let them get under your skin, alright? I'll also talk to Applejack about it. You know how she can be, both she and Rainbow Dash are really stubborn at times."
Starlight gave a sheepish smile, which faded as she finally noticed the absence of Trixie's attire.
"Hey, where's your hat and cape? I saw you wearing it at the show."
Trixie began to sweat and choked on her words for a moment before coming up with an excuse.
"U-uh... they're just at the cleaners."
"...at midnight?"
"Well of course! The great and powerful Trixie needs to look her absolute best for her next show!"
Starlight stared at her for a moment, before she smiled and let out a chuckle.
"Alright, well, I'll leave you to it then. Just remember what I said, don't let what happened tonight get under your skin. If you ever want to talk to me about it, I'm always open."
Starlight turned to leave, and gave Trixie a friendly wave as she walked.
"Goodnight! See you tomorrow, Trixie."
"See you tomorrow..."
As Starlight finally left, Trixie's smile did too.
"I guess..."
Trixie once again reached for the doorknob and stepped inside.
Trixie was now sitting on her bed with a miserable expression on her face, letting her legs dangle over the edge. She stared at the ground for a few seconds, before her horn lit up, levitating something off her nightstand towards her.
It was a photo of her and Starlight, she looked at it for a moment before she levitated the photo away, revealing another photo underneath it. What, or rather who was in it shocked me.
On the photo was a filly Trixie, no older than 5-years-old. That's not what surprised me, though. Standing next to her was a tall orange mare with a curly mane just like Trixie. I recognized this character immediately.
It was Trixie's mother. She looked exactly as she did in the one and only comic she ever appeared in.
No father was present in the photo, though Trixie's father hadn't appeared on the show yet, so at the time I didn't think much of it.
The scene faded to white, revealing the exterior of a wooden house. An upbeat piano tune accompanied the scene. On the interior, the same filly Trixie from the photo was running around the house without any awareness of her surroundings. She slammed face-first into a table leg with a vase on it.
The vase wobbled and began to fall, but was suddenly caught in a magical aura belonging to Trixie's mother. She gave Trixie a disapproving look, while Trixie returned a sheepish smile. Suddenly, both of their eyes shrunk to pinpricks as a loud ringing sound abruptly replaced the music. Smoke slowly crept into frame as they both turned to face the source of the smoke: The kitchen, or more specifically, an unattended oven that caught fire.
The scene briefly cut back to outside to show the wooden house going up in flames. On the inside, Trixie and her mother were running to the front door in an attempt to escape, only for a large piece of the roof to collapse and block their path. Trixie's mother desperately looked around for any means of escape. Unfortunately all of the windows have already been blocked by fallen debris.
With no more options left, she did the only thing she could do. She readied her magic and teleported her daughter out of the carnage. The teleportation spell seemed to exhaust her completely, as she panted profusely before falling to the floor of the burning house shortly after.
Outside the now completely torched house stood a helpless Trixie staring at the wreck before her. There was nothing she could do to help her mother, all she could do was cry.
I felt sick. Sure, there wasn't any blood or gore, but no scene in the show has ever gotten this dark or emotional.
Back in the present, Trixie had the most miserable expression I had ever seen on any character's face in the show. She was staring at her hooves, tears streamed down her face, eyes bloodshot, and her teeth grit against each other so hard it looked like they'd break.
Growing up with My Little Pony, Trixie was always my favorite character, so this hurt a bit to watch, so much so that I almost didn't notice what was behind her.
It was Twilight, or rather, her head.
The head resembled Twilight's appearance in Lesson Zero, only without the messy mane. It floated behind Trixie, towering over her while shrouded in darkness. Its eyes and mouth were featureless, only black voids filled their place.
Trixie continued to sob as the head floated in place, not moving an inch. After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence, save for Trixie's sobbing, two words slowly appeared in its eyes.
"Join her."
I felt a chill run down my spine. I had only one clue as to what that could mean, and it made my heart sink.
The scene cut to black, before returning a few seconds later to show Trixie no longer crying, but instead giggling to herself. The giggling soon turned to laughter, which grew more manic as she grabbed her head with her hooves. The laughter was now flat out psychotic, her tears returned as the laughs bounced off the walls.
I was growing more and more uncomfortable, and was considering pausing the project and resuming it the next morning, before Trixie's horn suddenly lit up as if she was casting a spell. The scene cut to black once more, and when it returned my mouth hung open.
Trixie's wagon was now completely engulfed in flames. Trixie herself just stood there with a smile on her face, not even attempting to escape, and I knew exactly why.
She casted a spell to set her wagon on fire, not just out of pure anger and would be something she would regret later. No, she was right where she wanted to be.
The sound of the flames grew louder, and the screen darkened before turning black completely. All sounds ceased.
The scene slowly faded to white, a peaceful melody played in the background. I was confused when Trixie faded in on the left side of the screen, I was expecting the white to fade away to the next scene. Then it hit me.
The angelic sounding music, the white void...
Was... was this supposed to represent some sort of afterlife?
My suspicions were confirmed, when Trixie's mother faded in on the right side. She was smiling at her daughter, but at the same had a sad look on her face.
Trixie looked at her mother in shock, clearly never expecting to see her departed mother ever again. She returned her mother's smile with one of her own, tears rolling down her face. The smile didn't last long, however, as her mother pointed at her own nose. Trixie shot her a confused look, before her smile dropped. She brought a hoof up to her nose and brushed it across her snout. She stared at her now stained hoof, the camera focusing on it.
Blood. Her nose was bleeding.
When the camera cut back to Trixie, smoke was emitting off her body, and she began to cough and sputter.
She looked back at her mother with a look of horror on her face. Her mother merely smiled with that same sad look, and closed her eyes as she slowly faded away. Trixie lifted her hoof back up in an attempt to tell her mother to come back, but it was pointless.
The music grew louder as Trixie's coughs turned to desperate gasps for air. The music and Trixie's gasps were abruptly cut off when the scene changed back to the wagon. The wagon was destroyed and charred beyond repair, pieces of the roof were scattered on the floor as the night sky shined through.
Then I noticed Trixie, or what was left of her.
Her charred body laid in the middle of the floor, her mouth hung open in a permanent scream. She looked almost unrecognizable. It wasn't overly detailed, but it was bad enough for me to resist the urge to vomit.
The screen faded to black, with the only sound being the wind.
As the screen remained black, a panicked voice could be heard.
"Trixie?! Are you there?!"
It sounded like Starlight. She knocked on what I presumed to be a very charred door a few times while quietly pleading to herself.
"Please don't be home, please don't be home..."
When there was no response, the twisting of a doorknob followed by a door creaking sounded. Starlight gasped, clearly not expecting the door to be unlocked.
The sound of hooves pressed against a wooden floor, followed by the sound of her horn lighting up.
There was a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, before the sound of a bloodcurdling scream echoed through my speakers.
Starlight screamed Trixie's name with all the energy she could muster. I shuddered in my seat. I had never heard an acted scream that sounded so genuine.
After a few seconds of silence, an image faded in that read, "Two weeks later..." in the same fashion as the "To be continued..." screen at the end of the two-part episodes.
Starlight was sitting on the edge of her bed looking out the window with an empty look on her face.
The sound of knocking caused her to look in the direction it came from followed by a voice I hadn't heard the entire episode.
"Starlight... can I come in?"
Starlight paused for a moment, before replying with a solemn "Yes." The door slowly opened to reveal Twilight with a similar dejected look on her face. She walked in and sat on the bed beside her.
Neither of the two said anything for a few seconds, Starlight continued to stare out the window and Twilight fidgeted in place while occasionally glancing at Starlight.
After a few seconds that felt like hours, Twilight finally broke the silence.
"I-I've been visiting Applejack lately, and she hasn't been working on the farm as often as she usually does, she told me that she still feels guilty about what she said that night."
"She should."
It was very quiet, but I knew I heard Starlight say something like that, Twilight didn't seem to have heard it, however.
"I know you miss her, Starlight. We all do, but you can't stay in this room forever. Isolating yourself away from ponies like this will only hurt you more."
At first, Starlight didn't move an inch, before she slowly turned to face Twilight with the same blank expression. There were bags under eyes, and her eyes were bloodshot as if she'd been crying.
Twilight's expression grew more uncomfortable, and she opened her mouth to say something, before Starlight beat her to it.
"When I found Trixie that night, she wasn't wearing her hat or cape. She told me after her show that she dropped them off at the cleaners. She didn't."
Starlight paused, then looked to the side, before turning back to Twilight, the latter listening intently.
"The next day after her funeral, I was walking through Ponyville, before I accidentally walked into a garbage can. You know what was in it?"
Starlight got up from the bed, and crouched to reach under it. A second later, she arose holding a familiar hat and cape. I was expecting them to be dirty, but to my surprise they were as clean as ever.
"These."
Twilight gasped, finding it hard to believe that the arrogant pony she once knew would throw away her beloved accessories. She frowned, but then smiled upon noticing how clean they were.
"You... you cleaned them? Starlight, that's so swe-"
"I'm not finished." Starlight said with a bit of edge to her voice. Twilight flinched, not expecting the sudden tone shift, I was taken aback a bit as well.
"That's not all I found. There was something in her cape, too."
I cringed in my seat, I felt like I knew where this was going.
"There was a note in it. I've been rereading this note every day since I found it, and it never leaves my head. It was written a week before her last show."
She reached into a pocket that the cape apparently had, and pulled out a crumbled piece of paper. She sat back down next to Twilight and handed it to her. As Twilight read it, her voice changed to Trixie's while a flashback sequence played.
"To my great and powerful friend, Starlight Glimmer.
Hi, Starlight. Or at least, I'm assuming that's who is reading this, hopefully. This is something I've been wanting to get off my chest for a long time now. And even still, I don't have the courage to tell you it face-to-face. I'm sorry, but I didn't want you to worry about me. I didn't want to risk hurting you again like I did last time. I didn't want to lose the only friend I had again.
Growing up, I didn't have many friends, and the friendships that I did have didn't last long for one reason or another. I got into an argument a few of my former friends once, after which we turned and went our separate ways. But before they left, one of the kids said something that stuck with me.
"Maybe magic just isn't your thing."
Shortly after I attended Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, my mother would pass away in a house fire. Without the one pony I looked up to in my life, I lost all motivation or will to do anything. I stopped showing up to school, and I wouldn't eat anything unless my caretakers forced me to.
When all seemed lost, my father, who was and still is a traveling magician, returned to Canterlot, he heard the news about what happened to my mother and took me in. I lived and travelled with him for years. As I did, he taught me all the magic tricks he knew. Eventually, I would grow into the mare I am now, and would leave home to fulfill my dream of becoming the world's greatest magician just like him.
Haha... that never happened, did it?
As I performed more and more shows, and more and more ponies came to watch, I earned enough money to get my own wagon. I felt unstoppable. Then one day, I arrived at a place I had never been to before, Ponyville. I thought this time would be like any other, and at first, it was. Ponies cheered and stomped their hooves in excitement as I did my thing, I did magic tricks and told them all about how I vanquished an Ursa Minor. Of course, I didn't actually do that last part, it was just a story.
Then something interesting happened.
Three ponies in the audience challenged me, saying how they could do so much better than my magic. They all came onto my stage one by one. An orange earth pony farmer, a rainbow-maned pegasus, and a white unicorn with a purple, curly mane. I outdid them all with relative ease, and hopefully teaching them a lesson in the process.
Then came night time. Two colts from the show took my claim of "vanquishing an Ursa Major" to heart and brought an Ursa Minor to the village. The Ursa caused a bit of a ruckus and destroyed my wagon in the process. I attempted to fight the Ursa, but then a purple unicorn in the audience from earlier showed up and easily put the Ursa to sleep. I was embarrassed, and ran off into the night.
Having no wagon, I was forced to live in the wilderness for almost an entire year. I tried to get in contact with my father, but I had no idea where he could possibly be. Nobody would take me in, I was ostracized from every town I visited. No one wanted to associate with the laughing stock that was beaten at her own game. I eventually got a new wagon, which was promptly graffitied while ponies laughed at me. I was at the lowest point I had been in my life since my mother died, and was rapidly losing hope. I tried to That purple unicorn ruined me, I thought.
Suddenly, I remembered where I've seen that mare before. Her name was Twilight, she was a student at the school I went to, we've never interacted with each other until the Ursa incident. That's when I decided my new goal would be to get back at this Twilight by besting her. But I couldn't just use the same tricks, I needed something more. That's when I discovered the Alicorn Amulet. An artifact that would make my magic stronger! It was perfect!
I had no idea what I got myself into.
The amulet took control of me, I no longer had any say in my own actions, I could only do what it wanted. After being taken over by the amulet, I returned to Ponyville and challenged Twilight to a magic duel on the terms that if she lost she would be banished from her village. Due to the amulet's strength, I won by a landslide.
After her banishment, I forced the inhabitants of the village to do my cruel and childish requests. Later, Twilight managed to return to the village and tricked me into wearing a fake amulet, after which I was freed of the amulet's influence. I felt guilty for what I did while wearing the amulet, so I asked Twilight for her forgiveness, to which she accepted, much to my surprise and gratitude.
Despite seemingly moving on from my grudge against Twilight, life didn't get much easier for me, I was still a fail an outcast. It didn't help that word of my latest mess up spread really quick. After around a year of a stressful life, I came across you at the spa. I still remember our conversation clearly.
"You ever have one of those days?"
"For me, they're all one of those days."
I wasn't lying when I said that.
You never judged me for my past, you always listened to everything I said with a smile on your face. You are the only one who didn't push me away.
You were the only one who wanted to be my friend.
Then you know what happened later that night. I'm still really sorry about that. But
You deserve better than me. You really do.
- The Great and Powerful Trixie"
Twilight was sobbing. Her hooves trembled as she could barely hold the note. She slowly looked over to Starlight, whose once blank expression was now replaced with a hate-filled glare.
Starlight wordlessly walked around the bed and opened the door, not even giving Twilight as little as a passing glance.
"S-S-Starlight? Please don't go..." Twilight choked back a sob.
Starlight stopped for a brief moment, then exited the room, shutting the door behind her.
The scene cut to black for a final time. There were no end credits. No music. Nothing.
I sat there in stunned silence for a good five minutes, unable to wrap my head against what I just watched.
After I finally gained my bearings, I shut off my computer, as the monitor followed shortly after, covering the room in complete darkness.
I didn't get much sleep that night, and how could I? There were too many questions going through my mind.
Who made it? Why did they make it? Did someone manage to break into our servers and add it to our files? Did one of the animators make it?
I had none of the answers to any of these questions, and it was driving me crazy.
When I arrived at work the next morning, my boss was already there waiting for everyone else to show up. Once they did, he led us all to a viewing room, which we typically used for screening episodes during their production. As we walked, I noticed a few nervous glances being passed around the animators. I don't think I was the only one who watched it.
Once we were seated, he, unsurprisingly, played back the episode in its entirety. During the watch, there were varying reactions from the animators, most of shock except from a select few who likely have already watched it.
Once the episode ended, he looked at all of us with an unamused expression and demanded whoever created it to fess up. When nobody could give him a satisfactory answer, he sighed and told us all to just get to work.
Nobody ever did figure out who was responsible for the episode's creation. Everything was relatively normal after that, everyone seemed to have forgotten about the whole ordeal and moved on from it. I myself continued to animate on the show until it's run ended in 2019.
I really wish I got proper closure on this, but it's been over six years since then, so I doubt I ever will. I still think about the episode sometimes, and wonder if it was maybe a passion project of some sort.
The hard drive I had the episode on has long since died, so there's no hope in me ever getting my hands on a copy of it again. The only proof I have of its existence are the two screenshots I provided above that were found on a now defunct MLP forum.
I just hope it resurfaces one day. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated if anything ever comes up.