The Great and Powerful Trixie didn’t mean for this to happen. Trixie just wanted to have a fresh start. Trixie was a laughing stock thanks to Twilight Sparkle and her friends. But Trixie wished them no real harm. Trixie just wanted things to go back to normal. Instead, Trixie made them very weird.
When I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, woke up from the massive spell that I cast, I looked down at myself and realized that I had become a human, one of those creatures of legend. Or was I ever a pony at all? It’s so hard to tell. But Tracy would venture to say that she was once the Great and Powerful Trixie. Yet, here I am in this small little country village with no way to get out and take my magic act across the world. While somehow I manage to maintain mine, it seems that real magic is unheard of here. Well, all the better for me. Finally I’m the best. Except here in this small village people think that I’m a witch. How did someone as great and powerful as Trixie end up in such a pickle? I don’t have an answer.
My own family threw me out when my magical abilities were exposed. Nobody loves me anymore. I had been the most popular at my high school; I had been deemed the prettiest, the most outgoing, all around the best person to know. Then I started my magic acts. At first, people were infatuated. People like a good mystery and a sense of wonder. But then someone saw me practicing in the field behind my house with no tools or props, not even any fireworks. I don’t know who that person was, but I hate them more than I ever hated Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
Now, I only have one friend. She’s a puzzling friend; I believe that she is one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends, and I believe that she probably hated me as much as I hated all of them. Her name: Jackie Apple, obviously Applejack from Ponyville, where everything fell apart. I made her look like a fool; but here, she understands being different. Though she is very pretty, she didn’t take part in any afterschool activities or go to events. She is always too busy with work at the orchard. Nobody ever really liked her because of that. I hadn’t even been her friend before I was exposed. I don’t think that it was right that I ignored her for all of those years, yet she is so forgiving.
Plus, it’s possible she remembers Equestia. She is always calling people Sugarcube, such a strange nickname. She lives with her Granny, her brother Mac, and her sister, Annabelle. Now I live with them too. They are the kindest people that I ever met. But things are starting to get awkward. I think that I’m starting to fall for Jackie. I didn’t even know that I swung that way, but her beauty is so striking, her smile so bright, and her green eyes so mesmerizing. But I think that I’ve been doing a remarkable job of hiding my feelings. It would be extremely awkward, because she and her family are kind of old fashioned, and in the past, that kind of thing wasn’t accepted. Even now, in this small of a town, it is frowned upon. I imagine if anybody knew, they would suspect me even more of being a witch. And I certainly don’t need that to happen.
Perhaps it is an overreaction, but I fear that they might be planning a witch trial. But, it is the twenty-first century, you know.
I often wonder if anybody else remembers Equestria. I’m too scared to ask Jackie. I don’t want to ruin our friendship by making her think that on top of being a witch that I’m insane.
All I wanted was redemption.
All I needed was a chance.
A new spotlight in which to dance.
But now I've gone
And messed it up again.
I'd rather go back
And patch it up again.
“Hey Tracy, you awake yet?” Jackie yells into the tree house where I’m staying. I didn’t want to impose on her family by staying in the house. Additionally, I’m helping with the work at the orchard. What a change from when I was a pony: being willing to do honest work in return for something. I close my journal.
“Yes! What’s wrong Jackie?” I yell back, heading down the ladder out into the open air. I survey the scenery. The apple trees are in neat lines as always, the sky a crisp clear blue, the air easy to breathe. I then look for Jackie.
Suddenly, my eyes are covered by hands. “Good mornin’, sleepy head. It’s time to start working for the day.” Oh, she makes it so hard on me, I swear.
I pull her hands away from my eyes. “I’ve been awake, I was just waiting for you to come and get me.”
“Ah really appreciate the help, Tracy. Not everybody would do work on this farm, even if in exchange for good ol’ hospitality. You really are a great friend to return a favor like that.”
“Tracy, er, I mean I, wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise. I would have no other way to pay my rent. Nowhere in town with hire me, and I’m not going to mooch.”
“You’re getting good at quitin’ talking in the third person, Trace. Ah’m glad, too. It was kinda weirdin’ out everybody ‘round here.”
“Oh. Sorry. I’m trying. It’s just really difficult.”
“Ah don’t know why you even bother combing your hair before we do work. It’ll just get all messy again.”
“I’m not worried about that. I just don’t want to never be able to comb it again.” I look at my platinum blonde locks and how they contrast with my now tanned skin. I really should wear sunblock, but it just isn’t convenient. If I get skin cancer, then I guess I’ll start wearing it. “Are we going to stand around here all day or are we going to get to work?”
“Work of course.” She pauses. “Ah never would’ve guessed at school that you were such a hard worker. But I guess looks can be deceiving.”
“Very true.” We are walking towards the south fields to harvest them. Picking by hand takes forever, but the Apples just wouldn’t have it any other way. No machinery on this farm. So we reach our destination and begin working. I so want to ask her whether she ever had a feeling that she was a pony. But I’m afraid. I don’t want to lose her. She’s the first real friend that I’ve ever had. You don’t just chance losing that kind of thing with a single sentence. But one of these days, I’d have to. I surely can’t stick around here. I’ll end up dead, or worse. I can’t let the thought of losing her hinder my judgment. Tracy, you have to be logical here. You don’t have a chance with her anyway. Wouldn’t you rather be alive and crazy than dead and dead? Oh, out with it then. What could it hurt? “So, uh, Jackie. Do you ever feel like the life that you are living right now is a lie?”
“What was that? Ah was spacing there for a minute.”
“I asked if you ever thought that the life you are living is a lie.” I do my best to put on my most sincere face. I don’t want her to think that I’m trying to embarrass her.
“What do ya mean?”
“Like, say, I don’t know, like all of your memories seem to be fiction.”
“Well, to be honest, maybe just a little. But you’d better not go around and tell Granny, Annabelle, and Mac. Once again, that’s one of those freaky things. They don’t tolerate them as well as Ah do.”
“Okay. Thanks for answering my question. I was afraid that you might think that I was trying to trick you into something.”
“Ah know you’d never to that, Trace. You’re a good person.”
“Thanks.” And so we lapse back into work as normal. Just like that. Sometimes, things that you think would be awkward just aren’t. Though I guess I didn’t mention the pony thing. That might have made things a little worse to handle. Maybe some other day, when we aren’t behind schedule. Some days, we can just talk nonstop, while others, there is no time for conversation. Then sometimes her brother is in the same field as us, and that just makes things pretty awkward. But I suppose that awkwardness is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn’t seem to bother Jackie. If anything, she seems amused when this happens.
“So, did you know that my brother kind of has a thing for you?” she asks.
“No. Actually I did not.” I was puzzled. How could I not have noticed? “I’m not interested, though. You can tell him if you want. I don’t really ever see him.”
“If Ah tell him and don’t tell him why Ah know, he’ll know that Ah gave away his secret.”
“Oh. Tell him that I have a crush on somebody and I told you about it.”
“Do you really?”
“I do, but I’m not saying who.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Nope. I’m not telling.” How could I tell her when it was her on whom I had the crush?
“Alright. Ah won’t hassle ya.” That was a very good thing. If she had persisted, I would have had to make somebody up. And then she and her family would try to set us up, and then I would be in hot water. Oh life, why do you vex me so? Luckily, the blessed silence continued until we were done for the day. Then we had to go to dinner with her family. Oh joy. Especially after finding out that little bombshell about Mac.
Luckily, dinner is ready when we get inside. I hate it when we have to wait and Annabelle torments us asking how our day went, anything new, and how’s your magic going, Tracy? I always answer honestly; I haven’t been doing any magic. But she wasn’t allowed to torment me, since dinner is on the table. We sit in silence and ate our meal. Usually, there was some joyful talking. But I don’t want to break the silence by asking what was wrong. Finally, Jackie speaks up. “So, guys, how’s it going?”
Annabelle speaks up. “They’re talking about chasing Tracy out of town.”
“None of us want that, Tracy, we want you to understand,” says Granny, gripping the table tightly. Mac simply nods.
“I’ll go, I don’t want to— ” I begin, but I’m interrupted by Jackie.
“Now wait just a minute, Tracy! You aren’t going anywhere if we can find some way ‘round it! Those people are just sick! Absolutely sick! Chasing a woman out of town because somebody doesn’t see how a little magic trick works! It’s our right to decide who we want on our farm and who we don’t!”
“I appreciate it, but really, I can go. I don’t want to get you in trouble with your neighbors,” I say. “I can pack my bags and leave.”
“No. We’ll figure something out.” Granny looked stern. Annabelle and Mac looked like they would be heartbroken to see me go. Jackie had an expression that I didn’t recognize on her face. It was almost like determination, but I couldn’t tell the motive. Why do they care so much about me? I’ll never understand. I care about them, but I don’t know whether I would choose to do the same as they are doing. I don’t know whether I’d hide a fugitive just because I cared. And that’s exactly what I am; a fugitive.
“Do we have a timeframe?” I ask.
“Three months from now, they’ll come,” says Annabelle. So I have three months. Three months to say goodbye and run away.
Redemption has turned to hatred from my peers.
Same as back then. It meets my fears.
For days we continue as always. Working, eating, me going back to the tree house and then we start all over again. A week has passed. We still have no solution. I’m getting up this morning, but I hear voices.
“How are we going to talk to her, Rhyan?” asks the voice of Twilight Sparkle. I hide against the wall. I don’t want to be seen. But I look through the cracks in the floor and see Rhyan Donners, head of all of the sports teams. I’m surprised; she left town as soon as she could on her athletic scholarship and said that she’d never come back.
“I dunno, Teresa. I never really talked to Jackie much in school. I never was drawn to her. It wasn’t until recently that I figured out that she was probably Applejack.” She pauses. “Come to think of it, a girl stands out more in my mind that might be the Great and Powerful Trixie. Her name is Tracy Lovegood. Sounds pretty similar to Trixie Lulamoon.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because there were rumors of her actually doing real magic. Not little tricks with fireworks and stuff.”
“I still say that we just need to find Applejack so that we can figure out this whole mess so we can go back home to Equestria,” says the one with pink hair. I’ve heard enough. I’m making a move.
“Hi. I’m the Tracy of which Rhyan speaks.” I descend the ladder and turn to face them. It’s earlier in the morning than Jackie usually makes it here. “Jackie will be here shortly to pick me up for work.” They all looked shocked. They seem afraid that I will say something about their conversation. “Do not worry. You’re secret’s safe with me. I believe you were talking about your days as ponies?”
“Uh, yeah,” says Rhyan. She a brunette with a muscular build, and she is still staring at me. I am pretty, but come on, blatant staring is just tacky.
“I understand. I feel that I was once a pony as well. And once Jackie gets here, I have a confession to make.”
“Uh, okay then.”
“Do you say anything other than ‘uh, okay’? No no, Tracy is sorry. I mean I’m sorry. I must not speak in the third person. And I must be nice.”
“I was going to say that you’d gotten better about the whole ‘Tracy did this, Tracy did that’ thing.”
“Like I said, I’m sorry for my initial comment. I’m trying to learn not to be so spiteful.”
“That doesn’t sound like a Trixie thing to do,” says the Twilight one. She appears to be of Indian decent “But I do believe that people can change.”
“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. Oh, yeah, I don’t know you guys’ names now.”
“We can tell you later. Here comes Jackie,” says the shy, strawberry blonde. Jackie walks up to us.
“Are these people hasslin’ ya, Trace?”
“No, they are not. They are here to talk to you and I was just speaking to them to pass the time.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Rhyan asks, “Is something wrong?”
“Well, yeah. The town’s having a regular ol’ witch hunt for Tracy here. I was afraid that you guys were part of it and had gotten her. I wouldn’t want Trace to be hurt or in trouble.”
“A witch hunt? Okay. I guess we’d better hurry, then,” says the Twilight one. “Okay, introductions. I’m Teresa Simmons, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Rhyan Donners, Rainbow Dash” says Rhyan.
The pink one speaks next. “Penelope Potters! Or Pinkie Pie!”
Finally the shy one. “Farah Stanly. Or Fluttershy.”
“Well. Ah’m Jackie Apple. It’s a pleasure to meet y’all. But let’s not beat around the bush. What brings you here to Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Do you ever dream that you’re a pony named Applejack?” asks Teresa.
She’s caught off guard. “Yeah. Actually I do. Why? How do you know this? I haven’t even told Tracy.”
“We all also have and memories of being ponies. And I think that Tracy probably does too. Anyway, we came to see if you would like to try to go back to Equestria.”
“Maybe. If things didn’t have to change so Ah couldn’t be friends with Tracy. Then the deal is off.”
“But she’s Trixie!” exclaims Rhyan.
“I can’t see why you can’t still be friends,” says Teresa, punching Rhyan in the shoulder.
“Then Ah’m interested. It’d get us out of a real bind.”
“The only thing is, we don’t know what happened.”
“I know what happened.” I pause. “Jackie has to promise that she won’t hate me.”
“Ah couldn’t hate you, Sugarcube. Ah promise.” She seems sincere. Here goes nothing.
“Trixie did it. Trixie wanted a fresh start. And since Trixie has been Tracy, she has been really good and hasn’t taken that start for granted.”
“I KNEW IT!” yells Rhyan.
“May I finish? I did a spell that was called, ‘Fresh Start’ not knowing what it would do for sure. It just said that it gave everything involving the user a refresh so that one could start over. That is all that Trixie wanted. Her career was ruined. But now Tracy has a friend. Tracy needs help finding out how to fix this.” I am really bad with the whole third person thing when I’m nervous. And Rhyan wasn’t helping.
Teresa seems to be thinking. “’Fresh Start’? I know how to reverse that one, but I need the help of the Elements of Harmony to do it. I don’t have my own magic right now, so I need their magic.”
“I have magic.” I say. “But Trixie can only copy spells.”
“Then we still need to find Rarity. Jackie, we could use your help. We have a lead, but I think that we would have to have everyone for it to work.”
“Alright. If it’ll help Tracy, then Ah’ll do it.”
“You guys go on and find your friend. I’ll stay here and take care of things, Jackie.” I say.
“All right, if you’re sure.”
“I’m positive.”
“Alright then. If time runs out, I want you to run somewhere safe. Stay in the tree house, okay?” She turns to leave, but turns around. She hugs me tightly and kisses me on the cheek. The hug and kiss don’t feel platonic. She rushes off into the sunset before I can say anything.
What can Trixie say; she gets all of the ladies and gentlemen. Especially the one’s she wants.
Redemption still may come
When the day is done.
All I wanted was redemption.
All I needed was a chance.
A new spotlight in which to dance.
