The sound of hooves applauding a light-hearted show of the night echoed throughout the streets of Ponyville. The sky was alive with the ballet of stars twinkling across the cosmos, the cooling wind caressing over the land calmly.
The moon high above the heavens glowing a vibrant soft blue. The large crowd of multicolored ponies surrounding the tiny wooden stage starting to disperse into the night. A pastel blue unicorn giving the softest of sighs into the sky, the night of laughter and mystery coming to an end.
She trotted over towards her humble caravan without a word, violet eyes lost in deep thought of the distant past. Even if she had a lovely career now full of fans and admirers, her own heart belonged to something lost to time.
Using her magic she flipped the door to her home open swiftly. Stepping inside the dimly lit space of her living quarters, her eyes quickly fell upon a lone star covered chest in the corner. A smile curling over her lips mischievously, she darted over to the wooden box with excitement.
Tiny hooves caressing over the frame slowly. Her mind filling with a memory that she held dear to her heart, creaking the lid up higher the unicorn spotted her memento placed inside a simple glass vase.
A red rose still as youthful today, as it had been years ago. Trixie unable to let it wither by the sands of time, had an enchantment of vitality placed upon it. A costly spell to revive a single flower, yet she knew it was the right choice to be made.
Her mind becoming a fog of memories as she was transported back to that one moment. A dark and damp day from her youth, full of the scent of rain and the mighty echo of thunder. She couldn't recall the name of the town, nor the faces of the ponies shuffling about in their daily lives.
All she remembered was that in the afternoon of this day, her life forever changed.
Her father was asleep on the hotel bed of a claustrophobic room. The stench of hard cider burned her nose as the light of the world had started to shift towards grey. Trixie was only a small filly at the time but adored these long trips on the road with her father.
Even if he wasn't around at night or stumbled into the room blindly in the morning. She was entranced by the wonderment of magic he brought to the ponies of the world. A trade she prayed one day could be mastered by herself. Giggling under the nearby pile of sheets on the hotel floor, Trixie poked her head out into the world deviously.
Her father would be lost in his slumber for a long while yet. This would be her perfect time to finally make her fabulous debut to all of Equestria. Wouldn't her father be proud to know that he had a sensation on his hooves when he woke up from his deep sleep?
Wasting no time the tiny unicorn filly darted over towards a mess of shredded curtains on the floor. She loved the violet color and the star design was just the cutest in the world, picking up her newly created cape she quickly flung it on in excitement.
The next part would be the roughest. Trixie slid onto her belly and slithered over towards her dad snoring up a mighty storm. Her large purple eyes transfixed upon the large magicians' hat nestled over his eyes, her pink tongue poking out of the side of her mouth.
She held her breath for what seemed like a lifetime, extending shivering hooves outward to pluck the hat off his sleeping form. With a squee of satisfaction, her mission was completed. This would be her chance at fame, to finally make her daddy proud.
Outside the front door of the rundown hotel, Trixie stood in the drizzling rain joyously wearing a large oversized hat that nearly engulfed her whole body. Ponies soaked from the lingering storms shuffled by with dreary gazes. The child set up a small wooden box in front of her, readying herself for the show.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, I the great Trixie shall amaze and astonish you!” The filly lifted up on her hind hooves performing a cute little prance in place.
A bored looking pink mare walked over with a look of disappointment over her muzzle. Watching the child wave her hooves over the box mysteriously. The rain above starting to once more pick up the pace.
“With my powers of the cosmos, I summon forth a mighty dragon!” Trixie giggled cutely in concentration, her curly icy colored mane bouncing in place with pure excitement.
Tapping both hooves on the side of the box. Trixie spoke a made-up enchantment full of mysterious sounding words, the wooden lid popping up swiftly in front of a growing crowd of three ponies.
“Behold, a fearsome dragon!” Trixie pulled out a stuffed animal of a pink dragon from the petite space, the toy at least four times bigger.
The crowd simply scoffed with a clear lack of enthusiasm, quickly breaking up and scattering off down the rainy cobblestone streets. Trixie felt a sharp stab of embarrassment cling to her heart. Without wasting a moment, the child darted off beside a brown pegasus near a large puddle of water.
“Alaponzam!” Trixie flipped her hat off her head adorably, with tail swishing in glee.
The stallion gazing down with a quirked brow, to see the filly pull a chocolate ice cream cone out of her hat. Trixie offering the treat to her audience with a beaming smile, only to have the pegasus roll his eyes and blast off into the sky above.
Trixie felt the shockwave splash disgusting water over her body and costume. The treat in her hooves washing away down the gutter as she coughed aloud in shock. Her outfit drenched in filth and mud of her failure as a performer.
The sting of tears burning her eyes as she began to limp towards the hotel in broken silence. Her body was numb with the knowledge she had failed to impress even one pony. Feeling tears run down her cheeks, Trixie just wanted to fade away into the horizon.
“Ahem.” The sudden voice of a filly bounced across the air melodically.
Trixie turned to see a pony her age smiling happily in the rain. The pastel violet filly clutching the oversized dragon in her hooves, her strange multicolored mane in two bouncy pigtails.
“How'd you fit this, in that?” She asked pointing a feminine hoof towards Trixie's wooden box, overflowing in the rain with water.
“Um, magic.” Trixie sniffled using her hoof to wipe tears from her eyes.
“Heehee, you must be really powerful!” The unicorn filly giggled extending her hoof outward to Trixie, offering a freshly plucked rose as a favor of appreciation.
Trixie gazed down to the memento in absolute shock of the moment. Not snapping back into reality to even ask for a name, by the time she found her voice the world had shifted back to grey.
Her fan was gone but never forgotten.
Trixie lifted the vase upward in her hooves lovingly. Wrapping the gift of her beginning in a large embrace, a single tear rolling down her cheek and onto the petals below. Never noticing that Starlight had snuck inside, with a sassy smile across her muzzle.
“Another great show!” Starlight snorted with a sly wink.
“Expect any less?” Trixie hid away her prized possession in the chest, clearing her throat before drying her eyes with a hoof.
“Phst, not at all! I just think you have to be powerful, to be this amazing!” Her friend spoke with a chipper tone, lighting candles inside the caravan with a skip in her step.
The sudden warming glow of light washing away the fog from Trixie's hazy mind. Her heart suddenly exploding outward in a shocking revelation from her childhood. Spinning around Trixie locked eyes with her closest friend quivering, her muzzle agape in awe.
“Everything ok?” Starlight wrinkled her nose sweetly in confusion.
“The gift given during the pour, the item that made my confidence soar.” Trixie leaned inward embracing her friend tightly, tears freely flowing down her face.
“The kind filly I never knew, on second thought…” Starlight returned the embrace with a tender squeeze, Trixie whispering into her ear happily.
“It was you.”
