The Dead Magician

"Okay, Starlight! Light them up! The Great and Powerful Trrrixie is ready for her final performance BEFORE the performance." The blue unicorn magician said with a cheeky grin as she stared down the fireworks stand on the other side of the small room behind the stage.

Trixie's assistant, The Great and Powerful Starlight Glimmer (also her best friend and assistant to the Princess Of Friendship) rolled her eyes as she adjusted the last few fireworks. "Trix, when I said we needed to practice before the show, I didn’t mean RIGHT BEFORE the show! We were supposed to start the show over a minute ago! Pretty soon the crowd might start asking for their bits back." She gestured over to the curtain. Trixie pulled it aside with her magic and saw the large crowd of ponies that had turned out to watch her show.

Aside from most of Ponyville and some citizens of Canterlot, there were the students at the School Of Friendship, and Starlight's father from Sire's Hollow. Even Discord had turned up, since he and Trixie had become better friends after they saved Equestria from Queen Chrysalis, but he was more off to the side with his friend, The Smooze, which was entertaining itself with a paddleball. Then there was Zecora, the CMC's, Terramar, Spitfire with her mother and Soarin, Thorax and Pharynx, Sunset Shimmer, Cranky Doodle and Matilda Donkey, and Fancy Pants. Everyone had come out expecting a good show, and were a little annoyed that it wasn’t starting yet.

At the front row were Trixie's other friends, Sunburst, Maud, and her boyfriend Mudbriar, both with their inanimate pets. In the middle was Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, seated to next her idol, Star Swirl The Bearded himself, who was staring at Twilight like this show better be the greatest thing he’s seen in the past thousand years. Seated with Twilight was Spike, and her five friends, of course- Rainbow Dash, who was wearing dark sunglasses, either because she wanted to be seen as cool or just didn’t want to be seen at all, Applejack with Big Mac, who were working on a schedule for the upcoming apple harvest, Fluttershy, who had brought an angry Angel Bunny along, Pinkie Pie, who was busy enjoying the free savoury popcorn, and Rarity, who was sewing. Twilight was the only one who seemed to want to actually be there as she waved up at Trixie.

Trixie didn’t even notice, as she squealed with excitement and turned to Starlight. "I am so beyond excited! This is going to be my final standing ovation before I leave Ponyville for my tour... oh, I just wish you were coming too, Starry!" She said as she frowned.

Starlight chuckled as she reached over and ran a hoof through Trixie's silver white mane, making them both smile. "Don’t worry, Miss Powerful. You can send me postcards from your stage in Las Pegasus when you’re wowing the crowd with your power!"

The magician blushed and waved her away. "Oh, you little tease. Just get those damn fireworks ready." Starlight shook her head and laughed as she went back to the box. Then, she had a sudden thought. "Hey, Trixie," She said seriously as she looked up at her best friend. "What’s up with that other magician that performs there? That 'Jack Pot' stallion who performs with his friends? Ponies are saying he looks JUST like you- the mane, the body colour, the talent... hell, he even has similar fireworks!"

Trixie sighed. "No, no, those are just rumours. I never really knew that pony- besides, nopony's talent could EVER amount to the awesomeness of Trrrixie!" She said, always making sure she really rolled the R's.

Unfortunately, Starlight knew the truth: she was lying. Trixie didn’t want to tell anypony, but her relationship with her father was always a little... rocky. Ever since she had left home to become a magician, and ended up becoming a boasting jerk, her father kept sending her angry letters saying that she never should have left home at all and that she was nothing without him, which she usually discarded immediately. After she used a magical amulet to banish Twilight from town, she never heard from him again.

But that was all in the past. Starlight could tell Trixie had moved on and she knew Jack had moved on too, as she heard from tourists that he was performing all over Equestria: as long as it was a million miles away from his great and powerful daughter.

Starlight had always wondered if she should have confronted Trixie about this earlier. She felt like she hadn’t been very committing towards their relationship lately- heck, it had only been one or two weeks since they started calling each other their little pet names and started having movie nights on weekends in Trixie's wagon, which even Starlight sometimes had to miss out on so she could have some cozy midnight confessions at the school with her students- uh, I mean... was Trixie crying?

"Uh, Trixie, are you okay?" Starlight piped up, hoping they could just get this show over with and talk somewhere else. Trixie turned away from the dark corner she had just been facing, seemingly wiping tears from her eyes as though she had just been having similar memories. "Y-yes?"

"Oh, uh, sorry, do you need a break? Because we’ve been practicing for hours and it would be a good idea to grab a snack before we performed. I’m starving!" She said, as the sound of her hungry belly rumbling began to fill the room. "Definitely don’t want the audience hearing THAT..." she chuckled. Trixie smirked. "No, no, it’s fine. I’m ready. Oh, but pretty pretty PLEASE can we just test ONE firework first?" She rubbed her hooves together excitedly. "It always helps to have a little adrenaline racing before the show."

Starlight looked worriedly between her friend and the blue swirly fireworks. She really didn’t think they had the time, but she could never say no to Trixie. She groaned and without saying another word pushed the box together with the one on the other side of the room, which was also filled to the brim with fireworks. "So the trick is that you climb in and I cut you in half, and then I open the boxes and there are FIREWORKS inside?"

Trixie nodded eagerly as she began climbing into the box. "Eeyup! I decided to make it even more extreme after my last performance in Griffonstone! Grampa Gruff says he’s seen better tricks in the illustrations on the safety manual for his new BLENDER!"

Starlight chuckled. "What does that guy know? I’m sure when you do this in front of the crowd, they’ll-"

"HEY! START THE SHOW ALREADY!" Cranky yelled angrily from the crowd. "I’ve gotta get home to take my pills in this heat!" Trixie parted the curtain and hissed "Be patient already! The show will begin momentarily.” She turned back around to the sounds of the audience groaning. "Now, where were we?"

Starlight sighed as she helped Trixie climb into the box. "Alright, you’re in. Now promise me you’ll be safe." She said worriedly. Trixie just rolled her eyes. "Come on, Starlight. We’ve been through so much together. I’m sure this won’t be too bad."

Starlight just smiled, knowing Trixie was nuttier than Fluttershy's pet squirrels when they got covered in peanut butter, but she levitated the saw over to the box anyways. "And now, everypony, watch in awe as The Great And Powerful Trixie gets brutally cut in half!" Trixie practiced her booming announcing voice as Starlight began sawing the box in half.

When it was done, she pulled the boxes away, revealing that Trixie was now separated from her legs. "Ta-dah!"

"Woah! Can you FEEL that?" Starlight chuckled as she poked one of her legs. "Of course! There’s more to the art of magic than you think, Starlight!" Trixie teased.

"Great, whatever." Starlight said, seemingly not even caring as her stomach started rumbling again. "Ugh, can we just DO this already? I’m super hungry and I can practically smell the-" She suddenly paused as her nose picked up the smell of fire. "Um, do you smell something burning?" Starlight asked.

Trixie looked worried as she started to smell it too. She then opened up the box her top half was still in, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw that she had accidentally lit one of the fireworks. She screamed and began flying her arms around in fright. "STARLIGHT, DO SOMETHING!"

"TRIXIE!” Starlight screamed as she ran towards the box, but was unable to do anything before the box exploded, gliding the unicorn and throwing her against the wall, knocking her out. Fireworks flew everywhere and destroyed whatever was left of the magician as red blood and blue skin splattered against the unconscious Starlight and the walls, and smoke began pouring out from the curtains, much to the confusion of the startled crowd.

Starlight groggily opened her eyes and shrieked hysterically at the horrific bloody sight in front of her. A minute later, Twilight she the others emerged from the front of the curtain to see what the fuss was about and they all look just as shocked and distressed as they saw the disgusting mess and figured it out immediately.

Trixie was gone.