Illusions of Grandeur
Chapter 1:
Trixie was powerful, she was awe-inspiring, she was an Alicorn. Her strong wings beat slowly, lowering her to the ground as intense magenta magic spread from her horn, taking the path of least resistance to the ground. Where the magic landed the dirt illuminated in her trademark magenta, creating a landing circle of sorts. She spoke out as she gracefully stepped onto the earth, addressing the ponies crowded in front of her.
“I am the Great and Powerful Trixie!” She began, her voice ringing out across the land, everypony hearing its call, “Behold my power!” She then-
The psychiatrist interrupted her there.
“Ok, I think I’ve heard enough of this particular dream.” Dr Ideate declared, scribbling down some more notes in his little black book.
“But Trixie was just about to get to the best bit! The ponies were going to bow down to her and-” Trixie began indignantly before being unceremoniously cut off once more by the psychiatrist holding up a
hoof.
“We’ve been meeting three days a week for what now? Seven weeks?” Dr Ideate asked rhetorically, “In all of that time I’ve come to one single conclusion from everything you tell me. You have severe delusions of grandeur.” The psychiatrist gave his diagnosis to the mare sitting in front of him who looked at him in disbelief.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie has no such ailments!” Trixie declared, jumping to her hooves for emphasis.
“You see what I mean? Right there, delusions of grandeur. You not only refer to yourself in the third person but you bestow upon yourself the title of ‘Great and Powerful’.” Dr Ideate reasoned, trying to get Trixie to see things from the point of view of some other pony, his attempts failed.
“Trixie has earned the title fair and square by being Great and Powerful.” The show mare harrumphed, sitting back down and angrily crossing her forelegs. The psychiatrist sighed and rolled his eyes.
Dr Ideate closed his notebook and pushed his glasses back up his muzzle so that they were resting afore his eyes before glancing at the clock and back to Trixie.
“Listen, our hour is over and out next meeting is next week Tuesday ok? We’ll talk some more about this and try to get you cured.” Dr Ideate said in a more friendly voice, even if he did make it seem like delusions of grandeur were a disease that could be treated with injections and pills. Trixie was not won over and stood, grabbing her cape and leaving the room before slamming the door behind her all in one fluid movement. Trixie had been forced to leave her hat at home after some clumsy colt had spilled his drink all over it, leaving it sticky and smelling of oranges, but she still wore the cape, the material billowing out from behind her as she trotted out of the hospital where Dr Ideate held their tri-weekly meetings and headed for her wagon.
Eight weeks ago Trixie had been performing for a crowd in Canterlot when an accident involving her performance placed a stallion in hospital with multiple injuries to his legs. Whilst she was being placed under arrest the arresting officer overheard one of the ponies in the crowd talking to his neighbour.
“Is she crazy or something? Why does she keep trying to do these stupid performances?” The officer had taken those words into consideration and told the police office where she had taken Trixie that there is the possibility that she was insane. One thing had led to another and Trixie had been released after only one night in prison, she was then sentenced to go to a psychiatrist three times a week until she was either issued a bill of clean health or sent away to a mental hospital, whichever one came first. However, they also didn’t want to spend too much money on this one pony and thus she was sent to the cheapest psychiatrist they could find, namely Dr Ideate of the Ponyville hospital.
Trixie arrived at her stage wagon which she had parked at the edge of the Everfree Forest, she had put it there with the knowledge that she had to lie low for a while after her last performance in Ponyville, also there was the fact she had been banned from performing until her psychiatrist sessions were complete. Trixie hung her cape up on a hook by the door and closed it behind her, lighting the candles dotted around her home by hoof, she still hadn’t gotten the hang of controlling fire spells. Trixie was sorely tempted to just ignore the psychiatrist’s diagnosis, but cheap as he was, he was a pretty good psychiatrist. Over the seven weeks she had been to see him he had developed a sense of trust about their meetings, making her think twice about his ideas instead of just dismissing them. Did she really have delusions of grandeur? Surely not, she was indeed Great and Powerful and should be addressed appropriately, even by herself. But as much as she hated to admit it, Dr Ideate’s words had an air of truth about them.
Trixie dispelled her unwanted thoughts and picked up the stack of books she had ‘borrowed’ from Canterlot library last time she was there, they were all on illusion magic. Trixie was a big fan of illusion magic, she liked the way she could make things seem so different from what they were, the way she could create projections of things that weren’t there. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much chance of displaying her illusion magic during her performances, illusions aren’t the most impressive magical feat and were unbefitting of one so Great and Powerful. The only part of her performance where she used illusion magic was the fireworks, projecting them coming up from the barrels she kept at the back of the stage and having them explode for emphasis. She chose the book she wanted to read and set the others down on the desk beside her bed. She flopped down on the small chair with a sigh and began to read.
She had been reading for around an hour when she decided she needed a drink. Once she had quenched her thirst she picked her book back up and thought to herself ‘This book is pretty good, I wonder who the author is?’ She looked at the plain cover, it read ‘On the concept of basic to intermediate illusionary magic’ and below that ‘A thesis by Twilight Sparkle’ Trixie visibly recoiled, the name of the pony that managed to disgrace her was enough to send her reeling from the tome. She promptly opened the window and threw the book out, hearing a satisfying splat as it landed in the mud. Trixie let out a sigh that she had once more been thwarted by Twilight Sparkle before retiring to her bed, she didn’t want to read any more tonight. Before she clambered into her bed though, she performed a quick check on the rest of the books to make sure none of the others were any of Twilight’s, luckily there were none. She allowed herself a small smile before slipping into sleep.
Once she had awoken and brushed her mane, she donned her cape and sat down at her desk to write a shopping list. Her pale magenta magical aura surrounded her horn as she telepathically picked up a quill, dipped it in ink and began to write. She had not quite yet mastered control over her telekinesis and her list looked almost illegible, like it had been written by a little filly. As soon as that thought passed through Trixie’s mind she screwed up the paper in disgust with her hooves and chucked it into the bin behind her. ‘This would be a lot easier if I just projected an illusion of the words onto the paper, it would take a lot less time and would require less precision.’ She mused, unfortunately, she didn’t have any idea where to start when it came to projecting illusions of words, it wasn’t the same as a regular object where you could just visualise the object and use your magic to project the visualisation, words weren’t objects and the technique would likely be different. ‘You know, I think there was a section on projecting words in that book I was reading yesterday...’ She stopped, remembering the author of the thesis.
“Horsefeathers.” Trixie muttered before opening the door to her wagon.
She quickly checked if there was anypony nearby, there wasn’t, and went to retrieve the book she had thrown out the night before. Hesitantly lifting it with her magic she spoke to nopony in particular,
“The Great and Powerful Trixie should not be messing around with this disgusting mud and stupid book.” But she knew that if she didn’t learn how to project words now then it would very likely come back to bite her in the flank later on, as things often did. She floated the tome in front of her and re-entered her home before pulling out some old papers and setting the book down on them. Doing a quick damage check she could see that about half the book was completely covered in mud along with several rips and tears through some pages. She turned back to the contents page, which luckily had stayed intact, and found the section on projecting text.
“Page Two-hundred-and-forty-seven” She read aloud before flicking through the decimated pages to page 247. When she reached it she once more threw the book out the window. The page was completely soaked in mud, the brown sludge obscuring all but two words in the top left corner ‘Projecting text’, the title of that section.
She stood, fuming, the thought of projecting text now obscuring her thoughts, she had to find out how to do it, she would not be bested by a muddy book, especially not one by Twilight Sparkle. She thought about where she might find another copy of ‘On the concept of basic to intermediate illusionary magic’. Canterlot Castle likely had only that one copy, and if they had others they most probably wouldn’t let Trixie anywhere near them. She thought of anyone that might have a copy but could come up with nothing. There was only one thing she could do, find the original. And where was the original? Ponyville Library of course, home to Twilight Sparkle.
“Horsefeathers.” Trixie muttered once more.
Chapter 2:
It was clear to Trixie that going there in her cape and hat (even if she couldn’t wear her hat anyway) was a bad idea, she was sure the villagers would remember her and her previous performance.
“Disguise it is.” Trixie sighed, she hated having to go around in disguise, what was the point in hiding such a magnificent mare as her? However there was no reason to make getting the book difficult for her, especially as she wanted to get it as discreetly as possible, there would be no end to her embarrassment if Twilight found out she was using her thesis for research. Trixie was tempted to put an illusion on herself but she was pretty sure that Twilight would see through it in an instant. With another sigh she donned a pair of glasses and a hooded coat that would not only cover her face in shadows but also her Cutie mark. Checking in the mirror to make sure she was suitably disguised she left the wagon, gently closing the door behind her.
Though she was on the edge of the Everfree Forest it didn’t take her long to reach the library, the path clear and easy to navigate. She looked at the ponies’ faces as she walked by them, making sure that they didn’t recognize her. She made it to the tree house without any confrontation and entered the library. There she was, Trixie’s nemesis, reading through some old tome and making neat notes in a small notebook she had levitating in front of her. She stopped writing and looked at the visitor.
“Hello there, have you come to borrow a book?” Twilight asked in a polite voice, putting down the notebook and standing to greet her. Trixie wasn’t expecting this, she was hoping she would be allowed to browse in peace, but then again, if she got Twilight to find the book for her it would mean less work.
“Uh yes, the Gr-” Trixie began in a deeper voice than normal in an attempt to disguise it, but quickly stopped herself, “Ah, um, I was looking for a copy of ‘On the concept of basic to intermediate illusionary magic’, do you have one?” Twilight’s polite grin turned to a smile of happiness.
“Well you’ve come to the right place! I happen to be the author and I’d gladly let you borrow my original copy, as long as you’re careful of course.” Twilight said, locating the book quickly and handing it over.
“Is that everything?” Twilight asked, Trixie replied with a nod, struggling not to get angry, that irritating smile of Twilight’s always managed to rile her. “Ok then, I’ll just need to write your name down and you can borrow my thesis for up to three weeks.” Twilight said, walking to a table where she kept a registry, she levitated the quill next to it and looked over at Trixie expectantly.
A name? Trixie was not expecting this, she thought she would be able to get the book and get out without any sort of interaction.
“Are you ok?” Twilight asked when Trixie failed to respond, she looked worried, she was used to weird ponies but this one seemed to be especially odd. Trixie snapped out of her reverie.
“Oh! My name is... it’s Tia Star” Trixie responded quickly, spouting the first thing that came to her mind, inwardly she cursed Twilight for making her utter such a stupid name as her own. Twilight seemed not to notice Trixie’s anger and quickly jotted down the offered name.
“Ok! We’re done, thanks for visiting.” Twilight said, walking back to her own book and levitating the notebook again. Yes! She had the book, she was home free. Trixie let out a smile, hidden by the hood’s shadow, and walked towards to door, book now safely in her saddlebag. Just as she reached for the door though with her hoof it was flung open, knocking Trixie flat on her back as a small dragon walked in, piles of paper in his arms.
“Twilight?” The dragon called, struggling to see around the mountain of paper in his small arms, “I got the paper!” Twilight once more lowered her notebook and looked at the dragon,
“Oh good, put them down over there please, I’ll need some later,” Twilight said before noticing the mare on her back by the door. “Spike! You knocked over a patron!” Twilight said disapprovingly, moving over to Trixie to help her up.
“Sorry.” Spike said, plopping the paper down before turning to Trixie. Twilight stopped in her tracks once she had reached the show mare, the sunglasses had fallen off her face and the hood had slipped enough to allow Twilight to view her face.
“Trixie?” Twilight asked disbelievingly, “What are you doing here? Are you planning to destroy my thesis?”
Trixie struggled to her feet and brushed herself off.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie has no such thoughts!” She declared incredulously, reverting back to her normal speech patterns. Twilight frowned.
“Then what are you here for?” Twilight asked, Trixie looked slightly embarrassed, she quickly tried to come up with some excuse but could think of nothing.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie was... uh...” Trixie replied sheepishly, “She was looking to read the book.” She finished lamely. Twilight was still confused.
“But... why?” Twilight said, not satisfied with the answer Trixie had supplied. Trixie gave a small unintentional blush and hesitantly answered.
“I... wished to learn something from it.” Trixie responded, head lowered and for once she used the first person pronoun. Twilight was taken aback, she had never seen Trixie humbled in this way before. Trixie was surprised too, perhaps she had taken the psychiatrist’s words to heart more than she realised? Twilight didn’t really know how to respond.
“I, uh, ok then.” Twilight eventually said, she didn’t for a moment doubt Trixie, there was truth in her eyes.
Trixie stayed with her head down for several moments before sighing and looking straight into Twilight’s eyes.
“Do you want your book back?” Trixie asked without a hint of sarcasm, Twilight silently shook her head.
“No, but I’m going to have to change your name in the registry.” Twilight replied with a smile, she seemed to harbour no ill will towards Trixie. For a moment Trixie forgot herself and let out a laugh, it was an awkward laugh of someone unaccustomed to the action and it quickly and abruptly stopped.
“Yes, well the Great and Powerful Trixie must be off, farewell Twilight Sparkle.” Trixie said curtly, turning and departing the library through the door which Spike had left open. Spike himself was in the corner with the paper, a confused look on his face. The door closed behind Trixie and Twilight stood staring at where Trixie had been for a few seconds more.
“Trixie seemed... weird, weirder than normal that is.” Spike said, Twilight agreed.
“She’s not really that bad a pony.” Twilight said, more to herself than her assistant.
‘What are you doing Trixie?’ Trixie thought to herself as she walked back through town towards her wagon, ‘You’re losing it, that was Twilight Sparkle there, remember her? How could you act like that?’ Trixie seemed oblivious to the stares she got from the villagers as she walked through town with a frown on her face and cloak slipping down her back. Trixie’s anger grew as she walked, what had even happened back there? Why so humble? However, seeing as she was the Great and Powerful Trixie, the blame must have been somepony else’s. The only other pony she could think of to blame for her feelings were of course Twilight Sparkle, and so that was where she directed her anger.
“Stupid Twilight Sparkle thwarting me again, forcing me to reveal things.” She muttered as she neared the wagon. When she got inside she forcefully removed the cloak and flung it across the room, watching it as it hit the far wall and fell to the floor in a heap. She had left her sunglasses at the library and so couldn’t throw those too, this thought furthered her anger. Trixie grabbed the book from her saddlebag and had half a mind the chuck it out the window to suffer the same fate as its copy. But she knew that it would be extremely foalish and she would regret it later. She gave a sigh and put down the book on her desk.
She donned her cape and sat down at the desk, feeling slightly better now that she had the familiar feel of the cloth on her back. She opened the book and quickly found page 247 before greedily reading, slipping into reading mode. She read on through the day, hardly pausing to throw together a quick lunch before continuing. She had long since passed the section for projecting text and had gone back to the beginning of the book, reading it all the way through from cover to cover. She was so completely absorbed in her reading she didn’t even notice night falling and had completely forgotten the reason for getting the book in the first place, to make a shopping list. She finished the tome just as her small clock chimed for 10pm. She let out a ‘phew’ as she shut the book, she had to admit it, the book was good. It told her everything she needed to know and more, and there was a handy glossary in the back so she managed to get what was going on. She glanced over at the clock.
“Ten?! How could I have been reading for that long?” Trixie exclaimed, checking outside the window to confirm that it was indeed night-time. “I didn’t even go to the shops, or test any of the things in the book.” She sighed to herself. She was tempted to stay up further and practice some of the new illusions posed in the book but a massive yawn cut off that train of thought. She gave another sigh and removed her cape, carefully placing it on its hook before putting the book on her bedside table in case she wanted to check anything during the night. Satisfied that she was ready, Trixie climbed into her bed and curled up under the blanket, mind full of the various spells in Twilight’s thesis.
