Her job in hoof, Trixie trotted off with a cocky smile. Having one felt natural, but so did it falling apart the moment she was in the little filly's room. She sank against the wall of a booth and let out her breath in an explosive gust. "Keep it together, Trixie," she muttered to herself.

All she had to do was sneak into some secure place, grab a box, and get out. How hard could that be? She laughed a little to herself and clapped a hoof over her mouth as she realized how hysterical she sounded. "Okay okay, calm down. Let's review what we can do."

She had been a human, but she was a magic pony. Magic ponies did magic. It was what they were. Trixie cast her eyes upwards and her hat lifted free of her glowing horn. "Telekinesis, check." She looked to the door of the booth as the hat fell back down on her head, blinding her a moment She clip-clopped a moment, hooves striking smooth tile before she pulled the hat back out of the way.

She flopped to her haunches and raised a hoof at the door. "Open!" Her command was not enough to will it open. She tried reaching instead, with her magic. She could see the magic pressing against the door and she bid it slip around it. Ever-so-faintly, she could feel it pressing against the metal from the outside. It was a strange sensation. She couldn't feel 'where' everything was, just that it was there, like her magic was one big, unspecific sensory organ.

She drew it back and flicked her hoof in the way the knob should go. Her magic grabbed it and yanked it aside, opening it.

Looking at her via a reflection in the long mirror in the bathroom was a mare with her brow raised high. She was a pegasus, peering directly at her through the reflection. "Nervous?"

"W-what? The Great and Powerful Trixie does not become nervous," hotly defended Trixie, her face darkening quickly as she scrambled to her hooves.

"It's alright." The pegasus stretched out her wings. "Happens to anypony, really. The boss went and gave you a job right in front of everyone, your first one too! I'd be nervous too." She rolled her eyes as she turned towards Trixie. "Good luck, alright?"

Trixie felt the burning urge to defend her pride, but that wasn't her, was it? She was another person, and she felt grateful that someone cared, even a stranger. "Say... What's your name?"

"Bell Tailslide," she said with a warm smile. "You'll do great, alright?" She held out a hoof.

Trixie trotted free of her stall and met the hoof with one of her own in a firm clop. "Thank you. I'm Trixie, Trixie Lulamoon."

"Nice to meet you, Trixie." She lowered her hoof back to the floor. "I'll see you on the street." She turned and strode free, her light blue-green tail the last thing seen before she was gone.

That was when Trixie realized she was feeling something familiar, yet alien. "Oh..." She realized what it was. She actually did need that stall. For just a moment she looked for a urinal, but it hit her that she was female, and a quadruped. She hurried back into the stall and locked the door. There was a disarmingly-normal looking toilet, though its front extended noticeably.

Did ponies just sit on it?

She supposed that was the option. She hopped up and made sure her tail and cape weren't about to get wet, then let her body do what it wanted to do. Relief flooded her and she sighed as pressure abated within her. Soon she emerged, her tensions lowered on several levels. "You can do this," she reminded herself as she strode for the exit.

None of the others stopped her as she walked past them and the sound of eager gambling. She wondered how common gambling was in Manehattan. It didn't fit what she knew of the city. It might have been a reflection of the New York, but it wasn't that, clearly. As she reached the elevator, she pressed the button with a thought, practicing her magic.

Trixie could do other spells. She remembered it... Wait, when was she in the timeline? Had Trixie learned how to make things into teacups yet?

Did it matter? Trixie, that Trixie, knew it could be done, and even remembered how the lesson went. Just focus on the shape of a teacup and unleash her magic on something. Imagine all the ways that it would turn into a teacup, the more detailed, the better. It was a matter of will and focus. She could do that, right?

Trixie emerged from the elevator into the ground floor of the building that seemed like an ordinary apartment building from anywhere but the floor she had just visited. "A little practice..." She turned to a potted plant that decorated the entry hallway. "Sorry in advance."

The plant did not, and likely could not, reply to her pre-warning. She tried to hold clear the image of the teacup that she wanted. She imagined how the plant might become one, all bright and colorful. She felt power building in her horn, as if her body knew she was about to cast a spell. Good. She lowered her horn towards the plant. "Teacup!"

Bright magic swirled around the plant. With the sound of metal striking the floor, it transformed! It was not a teacup, however. The teakettle wobbled a moment before it stilled. Trixie blinked at her creation. "Huh, well, I still changed it." She smiled and turned for the door. "That's more than I could do this morning!"

She emerged onto the late afternoon street, feeling more confident. She was a pony, a magic one. One of the most magical ones, if one didn't count Twilight and Starlight. Just as the door was about to close behind her, the elevator chimed. Bell came hurrying out towards her, waving a wing at her.

Trixie held the door open for her new friend. "What's going on? You look worried."

Bell pulled a velvet pouch and held it up to Trixie, held in her mouth. "You forgot your stipend."

Trixie willed the bag float from Bell's mouth. "Ah, how silly of Trixie. Thank you." A few bits would certainly make things easier.

Bell saluted with a wing before leaping up into the air. Her wings carried her far and fast, lost around a corner almost instantly. Trixie waved at her as she went then turned back to the street. "Well, now that I have some coins..." She waved down a taxi and hopped aboard with an almost giddy giggle. "Take me to the conference center."

"You got it, Miss." He got to galloping, carrying her smoothly down the streets. Trixie looked over her cab-puller curiously. He was an earth pony, no surprise there. His coloration was more like a cow than a horse though, black and white with spots. He was clearly a pony though, with his upturned ears and swaying, furry, tail. He was also a he, which was hard to miss from the angle given to her.

Trixie looked away with a little chuckle, admonishing herself for peering, even if ponies didn't seem to care. "Did you hear about the conference coming up? Supposed to be a lot of well-to-do ponies in it."

"Oh yeah, sure did." The driver bobbed his head as he went. "I expect some good business carrying ponies to and from there. Rich ponies don't like walking nowhere they don't have to."

Trixie smiled, success... "It's coming up soon, is it not?"

"Just this weekend, right?" He looked over his shoulder a moment, then back forward. "Are you going?"

"Trixie was thinking of stopping by. Perhaps they could have use of some Great and Powerful showmareship."

He laughed at that as he took a left at an intersection. "If you can get their attention away long enough, you're a better pony than I."

Trixie brushed her chest with a hoof. "As if Trixie would fail to entertain." She only realized what she said after saying it, but she didn't take it back. "She is a showsmare, it's what she does."

"Good luck to ya." He pulled up to the curb and slowed. "Here we are. Knock 'em dead!"

"You're too kind." Trixie floated the bag of bits over and bid it open. Peering inside, she saw many coins with subtle differences. She reached in a hoof and tries to let her body decide what was needed. Out came a coin, balanced at the end of her hoof.

"Thanks." He reached over and lipped the coin right from her hoof. "See ya." And off he went, leaving Trixie on the curbside.

Trixie peered at her slightly moist hoof a moment. "Ew..." She shook it a little and turned to the massive building that advertised itself as Manehatten Conference Center. "Trixie has arrived... Let's see what we can see." She trotted for the door, ascending the large stairs the led up to it.

It seemed to be a large open area, designed to funnel massive amounts of ponies at any one time, but that wasn't happening at that moment. It was quiet. There wasn't anyone else standing on the sloping stairs except a lone homeless-looking pony that watched her with faint interest, perhaps hoping for a bit.

The conference hadn't begun yet, so that made sense to Trixie. Despite that, she ambled up to where the stairs gave out and it became a smooth cobbled walkway running along the doors. The glass of the front of the building was almost nothing but doors, double door after double door, ready to open to allow traffic, or perhaps they'd only open some of them if they wanted to control that traffic. Trixie craned her head to look up and saw that there were about four floors to the building. It wasn't the tallest building, by a significant measure. It focused on being wide and deep, rather than the tall sky-scrapers that were around it.

She supposed that made sense for a conference hall. Trixie tapped at her chin thoughtfully, considering the ways she could approach it. "Now's as good a time as any," she spoke to herself as she focused on where the roof met with the wall that she could see. She imagined herself looking down from there even as she cast her eyes across the street, trying to get a proper imagination of all the things she'd see from the new angle. "You can do this..."

She could feel magic gathering in her horn and she smiled. She liked that feeling. She was a magic pony. "Teleportation is teleportation, it doesn't matter what you're sending." She hoped that was true. The show hadn't completely confirmed that. Still, if she could teleport, the whole thing would become a lot easier.

She narrowed her eyes slightly. "And... go!"

She felt magic burst out from her horn in an explosion. Everything became white. She felt burning, but it was short-lived. She existed again, wisps of smoke rising from her form. "Ah ha!" she cried before she realized a problem. She had teleported just a few feet off. She was falling.

The ground was rushing up towards her at an uncomfortable speed. She had no time to think. She had an idea and frantically tried to react. She felt the burning. She smashed into the ground, but she hadn't fallen the entire way. She had teleported right back to the ground and flopped out across it with a loud "oof!".

On shaking legs, she stood back up, laughing a little hysterically. That had gone poorly, and yet, perfectly. She could teleport, and that was so much more important than her accuracy. She could improve that. "Oh, Trixie, you are so Great and Powerful." She flopped down on her haunches, grinning despite the pain of two teleports and slapping the ground. "You will handle this perfectly, and then they will cheer for you."

She reached a hoof to brush at some of her sooty front. "First, a bath perhaps?"

Author's Note

Who's a magic pony,
You're a magic pony,
Who is, you is, Trixie Lulamoon,

Is that how it goes? Well, she's managed something, even if it came with a few typos. She can do this! Maybe?

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