Trixie peeked out from behind the stage curtains. She saw a large crowd of ponies gathering on the grassy knoll, murmuring to one another excitedly. More ponies were just coming along to join them in front of the stage, finding spaces where they could sit down comfortably and enjoy the show.
"Looks like everypony in Ponyville has came out tonight," a voice from behind said. Trixie turned her head away from the gathering audience to see her friend, Starlight Glimmer, walking towards her. Starlight Glimmer was wearing a hat with a plumage of colorful feathers in it, and a dress covered with glitter that twinkled in the light.
Trixie chuckled. "Well of course they have, my dear friend Starlight. After the astounding performance of our previous endeavor, how could anypony pass up a chance to be amazed once again by the Great and Powerful Trixie and Starlight?" The blue unicorn struck a dramatic pose at the end of her sentence.
Starlight looked over her costume with a frown. "Do I really have to wear this on stage, Trixie?" she asked. "I feel kind of silly wearing this thing."
Trixie smiled. "Of course, my number one stage assistant. The magician's helper has to look the part for the sake of the performance after all. It is a tradition for stage assistants to wear dazzling outfits when astounding the crowds with magical acts." She turned to look back out at the crowd. "Everyone seems to have arrived now. It is nearly time to go on," she said pulling back the curtain and running over to a mirror to adjust her attire. "Trixie hopes everything will go well tonight," she said with visible worry.
Starlight trotted over to her friend and put a hoof upon her shoulder reassuringly. "It will be just fine, Trixie. This time, you will have me beside you all the way, instead of at the last possible second before you're eaten by a hungry manticore," she teased.
Trixie narrowed her eyes at Starlight for bringing that moment up, but could not resist sharing a friendly giggle with her friend. And Starlight was right; as her assistant for tonight's show, she would not perform alone this time around. Feeling more at ease and assured, Trixie adjusted her hat and turned to Starlight.
"Very well, then. Come Starlight. We have an audience to entertain!"
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The chatter from the crowd of ponies began to hush as the lights above the stage turned on and focused themselves upon the curtains. From seemingly out of nowhere, a loud voice began to speak. "Come one, come all! Come and see the 'Great and Powerful Trixie's And Her Magical Assistant And Greatest Friend Starlight Glimmer's One More Magic Show Before Leaving Ponyville' Show!"
The gathered ponies mumbled with one another until the voice spoke again, this time louder and a little irritated. "It's a working title, okay?"
"Ahem. Um, sorry about that. Er, so without further ado, please put your hooves together for the Great and Powerful Magical Duo, Trixie and Starlight!"
The curtains began to part away, and the crowd gave excited cheers and clopped their hooves on the ground as Trixie and Starlight appeared and walked out onto the stage. The lights shone upon the two unicorns as they smiled and waved to the crowd. Trixie and Starlight looked at each other and grinned before returning their attention back to the crowd.
"To begin tonight's show, we will require a volunteer from the audience," Trixie said aloud. Many hooves were quickly raised amid the watching ponies, until Trixie pointed to a little earth pony filly near the back. "You there, little one!" Trixie called out to her. "Would you like to come up here please?"
The little pony excitedly made her way towards the stage, where she was levitated up onto the wooden platform by Starlight's magic. Standing next to Trixie, the filly looked in curiosity as the showmare revealed a deck of playing cards.
"Now little one, the Great and Powerful Trixie asks that you pick any card from this deck, remember it, and put it right back," Trixie instructed the child. The filly showed that she understood with a nod.
Trixie levitated the cards to the filly and turned her head away, her eyes closed so she could not see what card the filly would pick. The filly picked one of the cards at random - a Cadence of Hearts - and placed it back into the deck. "Okay. All done," the filly said.
Trixie opened her eyes and looked back to the filly. "Trixie thanks you. Now Trixie shall shuffle the deck." Trixie started to do just that, swapping the cards around with her magic for a few moments. Suddenly, the deck slipped out of her magical hold, flung into the air and scattering all over the stage.
"Whoops!" Trixie exclaimed. She winked knowingly to Starlight, who smiled and winked back.
One of the cards landed in the filly's hair. Trixie reached out and took the card, glancing at it for a moment. "Trixie wonders, was this your card little one?" she asked, showing the card to the filly. The filly took one look and squealed in amazement. It was the Cadence of Hearts card.
"Yes! That's the one I picked!" the filly exclaimed in excitement. The crowd of ponies clapped their hooves in applause and cheer, and Trixie grinned as she showed the card to the audience. "Thank you, thank you! The Great and Powerful Trixie's card skills know no bounds!"
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"The next act of tonight's show is not for the faint of heart," Trixie announced to the audience, spotlights all shining upon her. "For our next trick, Trixie shall need her amazing assistant's help."
On cue, Starlight appeared from the backstage curtains, pushing a wooden rectangle box, with a wide hole on either end, out onto the stage on a wheeled table. She brought it at the side of Trixie, and then stood next to it and gave a wide smile while showing off the strange box to the ponies in the crowd, their faces expressing looks of wonder and curiosity.
"For this trick, Trixie's amazing assistant shall climb into the box you see here," Trixie began to explain. "Locked inside, Trixie shall then take this," she revealed a handsaw from out of nowhere, "and cut the box in half, with my assistant still inside."
Small gasps echoed from the crowd, and somewhere at the back Trixie thought she saw a pegasus with long pinkish hair suddenly faint.
Starlight looked over at Trixie with a nervous look in her eyes, but Trixie gave her a reassuring wink and a smile.
Gulping loudly, Starlight maintained her smile as she opened the box and began to climb into it. Her head poked out of one end of the box, her legs popping out from the other. Trixie walked over to the box, still magically grasping the saw. She brought the saw to the halfway mark on the box, and began to tear into the wood.
Besides the sound of the blade at work, audible gasps could be heard from the crowd when the saw had gone halfway through the box. A couple of ponies even fainted.
But their worries were quickly laid to rest when Trixie finally cut all the way through and pulled the boxes apart. "Taa-daaaaah!" exclaimed Trixie chirpily. "Behold Trixie's amazing assistant; now half the pony she used to be!"
The upper half of Starlight rolled her eyes, but quickly fell back into a giggle when she saw what apparently were her lower half's legs wiggling from the other half of the box. She looked at Trixie, then to the crowd as Trixie bowed happily to the row of applause and clapping from the audience.
"I think that went rather well," Starlight said quietly to her friend.
"But of course, dear Starlight. But are you sure Pinkie Pie isn't too cramped in the other half of the box?" Trixie whispered back.
Starlight shook her head. "She'll be fine. You'd be surprised what that strange pony is capable of." She replied with a chuckle.
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And the rest of the night's entertainment went splendidly. Throughout the evening, Trixie and Starlight Glimmer wowed the audience with one magical feat after another, and were met with great praise and clapping of hooves. And by the time the show neared its end, the ponies of Ponyville indeed had seen one heck of a magic show.
The End
Author's Note
It has been a while since I last wrote a story. Kept things short and really basic here. Feel free to criticize if you want. Not that I'll listen to it. Anyway if you like this story for whatever weird reason, go ahead and chuck it in the back of your library or whatever if you want.
By the way, did you know people make money writing MLP fanfics over on Patreon? Almost makes me want to give more of a damn writing stuff. Oh wait...it doesn't.
Might try and update the 'Dash and the Furry-Ous' story at some point. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try and add a little more to it.
