The Overworked and Underpaid Trixie

by luckyboys121

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Slice of Life
Length: 3817

Believe it or not Trixie wasn't always the Great and Powerful magacian we all know and love. No, she was once a simple basbysitter, until one particular client changed everything.

While helping Trixie clean out her wagon, Starlight finds a dusty old magic kit that makes her ask a question she hadn't really thought of before, "How did you become a magician?" And so our tale goes back to long before Trixie was Great and Powerful... back when she was simply a teenage babysitter trying to earn a few extra bits.

Cover art by JimboJam, go check them out on Twitter

Published 2020-06-02 01:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-06-02 01:40:01 UTC

Trixie's Humble Beginnings

As Trixie sat on the sidelines groaning she said, "I still don't get why we need to do this."

From out of her wagon came Starlight coughing up dust as she gave Trixie an angry look as if to say, "Isn't it obvious!?"

It was not obvious to Trixie though as she said, "My wagons not that bad."

"Not bad!" said Starlight as she levitated some more stuff out of it and onto a pile that some how seemed to be bigger then the wagon itself. "How do you live in this?!"

"What, it's cozy," said Trixie as she gazed at the pile wanting to just curl up and take a nap in it.

Starlight just sighed at this before saying, "OK, disregarding how unhealthy your life style is for now, if we ever want to try and go on tour together again we need to clear this thing out."

"But I already told you this stuff is important!" said Trixie.

"I know you think that, which is why we're doing this exercise. I've taken everything out of your wagon and we're going to go through each thing one at a time and split it up into two piles, one to keep and the other to throw away," said Starlight.

Trixie paused at this in thought before saying, "You promise you won't get rid of anything I don't want you to?"

"Promise," said Starlight with a caring smile.

"Well then... i'll keep it all, there done," said Trixie with a smug smile as she walked to load everything back in, only to stop as she felt her tail being gripped by Starlight's magic.

"Nice try Trix, but we gotta at least look through it all first," said Starlight.

"AHHH! Fine," groaned Trixie as she crossed her hooves annoyed. "You're lucky the Great and Powerful Trixie, is also the Fair and Agreeable Trixie today."

Starlight briefly rolled her eyes at this before smiling as she levitated the first object from the pile saying, "Alright then, these old rusty hoofcuffs."

"Keep," responded Trixie.

"But, you have these brand new ones too," responded Starlight flatly.

Trixie laughed at this saying, "Please, you think I'm going to use these shiny new ones for underwater escapes?!"

"Fair enough," responded Starlight before moving onto another object. "OK, what about these free weights?"

"Obliviously keep, I need to stay in shape," said Trixie as she attempted to flex her non existent muscles.

"Aha... and when was the last time you used them?" said Starlight noticing a slight pudge from perhaps one too many treats from Pinkie Pie.

Trixie looked annoyed at this as she said, "Well... maybe I have been slacking off lately but I'll start again soon."

Starlight groaned at this saying, "Fine," as she moved it over to the keep pile. She began to think, "I can already see where this is going, I gotta find something, anything she'll definitely want to get rid of!"

She glanced around at the huge pile before her, looking for something anyone would throw away, and she found it. Sitting between some piles of spare capes was a very old dusty box with barely legible faded text on it and upon getting a closer look she confirmed what it was saying, "You gotta want to get rid of this beginners magic kit, I mean look how beat up it is... I don't think you've used it in years," she then briefly looked inside the box saying, "And look the wand is missing from it anyway."

To her surprise Trixie suddenly tackled the box out of her magic field as she hugged it to her body saying, "WE ARE NOT GETTING RID OF THIS!"

"Oh... OK," said Starlight as she approached her friend startled and concerned.

Trixie noticed this as she breathed a sigh of relief saying, "Sorry, it's just this magic kit is very important to me. I used it for my first ever job."

"Oh, your first gig as a magician?" asked Starlight.

Trixie paused for a moment as she blushed saying, "Not exactly."

"What do you mean?" asked Starlight confused.

Trixie's embarrassment only seemed to grow further as she looked to the sides to make sure no pony else was around before moving over to Starlight saying, "OK you can't tell any pony else about this but.... I wasn't always the Great and Powerful mare you see before you."

"Oh really," said Starlight flatly.

"I know! It's hard to believe but years ago Trixie was just your average, but still stunningly beautiful, teenage pony," said Trixie as she began to tell the story.

13 years ago in Canterlot.

As Trixie looked at herself in the mirror she made sure her twin tails where nice and even before looking down and making sure her hoodie covered up her little embarrassing feature and started making her way through her living room. "OK mom, I'm heading out now," said Trixie as she made her way to the door.

She was interrupted though as Sunflower yelled out, "Hold on!" The protective orange mare then rushed from the kitchen with her mane matted in concern saying, "Are you sure about this sweetie, babysitting is a lot harder then you think, especially for a mare your age."

Trixie groaned at this as she she said, "Mooommm! I'm 15! I can take care of myself no problem, and I'm sure taking care of some foal can't be that hard, besides you know I've been wanting that new saddle bag."

"And I keep reminding you your birthday is only a few months away," said Sunflower.

"I know, but I'd like to get it before the new school year starts and... I'd also like to earn my own bits instead of asking you for everything," said Trixie as she uncomfortable shimmied her hooves.

Sunflower smiled at this and shed a few tears of joy saying, "Oh... my little filly is growing up so fast," before pulling her into a huge hug.

"MOOMMMM!" groaned Trixie as she tried to shimmy out of it.

Sunflower cleared her throat saying, "Sorry, it's just I'm so proud of you for trying to pitch in but... are you sure this is the best way to do it?"

"Well why not? Allot of my friends babysit, in fact I was lucky to get this job in the first place instead of one of them getting it. Thanks for telling me to give the new neighbors that muffin basket by the way, if not for that they would have never asked me to look after their foal tonight," said Trixie.

"You're welcome sweetie, but about that... you don't know anything about this foal. What they like or dislike... you don't even know if it's a filly or a colt," said Sunflower in concern.

"Pfft, I can figure that stuff out, how hard can it be," said Trixie with a dismissive wave of her hoof.

"Trust me, looking after a foal is no easy task.... especially when you have to do it alone," said Sunflower as she briefly thought back to just after Trixie was born.

At seeing her mother like this, Trixie sighed saying, "It's just for a few hours, I'm sure it will be fine."

"Well... if you're sure, then good luck my little star," said Sunflower before giving her another hug.

"Thanks mom," said Trixie returning the hug this time before heading out the door.

Soon Trixie found herself approaching the lawn across the street, but to her surprise the parents where already outside getting ready to leave. "Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Shine, I'm not late am I?"

"OH Trixie, no you're fine we just wanted to head out as soon as you got here so we figured we'd get our stuff ready now," said Mrs. Shine as she nervously glanced towards the road ready to bolt for it. "Pearl's inside when you're ready for her."

"You won't be," said Mr. Shine as he buckled up his saddle bag.

Mrs. Shine simply looked at him to be quiet which resulted in Trixie growing concerned as she said, "OK, well... is there anything I should know about Pearl?"

This seemed only to make Mrs. Shine sweat nervously as she awkwardly smiled saying, "Oh not much, she's just your average 2 year old filly. She likes to color and play and... I suppose she's just been a little bit more energetic after the move."

"A LITTLE!?" said Mr. Shine as he made his way over to his wife.

This resulted in her giving him the death stare again before turning back to Trixie with a smile saying, "Well I guess we better get going now. You and Pearl have fun now," before she waved goodbye and started walking away.

Mr. Shine stayed behind for a mometn though and simply gave Trixie a sad look before saying, "I'm sorry," as he joined his wife and they soon dissapeared.

"What was that about?" wondered Trixie aloud before turning to the door. "Well whatever, this shouldn't be too bad... let's see they said she likes to draw." Trixie then reached into her hoodie pocket for some crayons and a notepad she had brought as she opened the door with a smile saying, "Hi Pearl, my names Trixie and I've got a surprise for youuuu."

Trixie trailed off at seeing a surprise of her own as the house was in total shambles with furniture flipped over, boxes flung around the room and their contents all over the place, and finally crayon drawings all over everything. "What in the-AHH" began Trixie before she yelped in surprise at what appeared to be a white blur whizzing past her.

She tried to follow the blur with her eyes but failed as it just kept zipping around before appearing to disappear entirely. Just as Trixie began to wonder what was going on she suddenly felt a weight plop itself on her back and knock her to the floor. She groaned in pain as she looked to see a white pegasus filly with a blonde mane and tail standing on her back. "Well you make quite the entrance," said Trixie already regretting her decisions as she thought, "So this is why her father said sorry."

The filly didn't seem to listen though as she pulled up the bottom of Trixie's hoodie and looked at her flank before saying, "No mark."

Trixie blushed at this as she angrily said, "Yeah, well you don't have one either!" She then tried to slip out from under this filly as she thought, "I already get enough trouble at school being this old and not having my cutie mark yet, I don't need this seemingly demonic little filly poking fun at me too!"

After some struggling she managed to get up but not before Pearl had drawn some kind of crude scribbles on her flank saying, "Now you have a mark."

"Gee, thanks kid," said Trixie sarcastically as she did her best to wipe it off before pulling her hoodie back down. She then took a calming breath before looking over at the filly saying, "Well Pearl, my names Trixie and it's been fun meeting you but maybe we should do something else, like quietly read or eat or something you know... nice."

"I want to eat," said Pearl matter of factly.

"Alright then, let's go make a snack," said Trixie as she thought, "At a girl, you can turn this around." They soon reached the kitchen as Trixie simply said, "Hmm, not bad," as apparently Pearl's burst of energy had spared this room. "OK Pearl, what would you like too-"

Before Trixie could finish speaking the filly burst into the fridge and buried her face in a large bowl of chocolate pudding. Trixie watched in horror as the filly seemed to slurp it up like water before the now nearly empty bowl fell to the floor and the filly burst back out of the room at twice the speed. "Oh I have bad feeling about this," said Trixie as she approached what was left of the pudding and took a small taste, resulting in her entire body twitching from the sheer amount of sugar in it. "Yup, this isn't going to end well."

Trixie exited the kitchen in a slight panic as she was barely able to see the filly as she was flying so fast. At one point Trixie swore she could hear pin ball noises as the filly bounced off the walls and furniture, leaving behind crayon drawings wherever she went.

It was at that point that Trixie started to get scared by all this as she stammered out, "Um Pearl sweetie, maybe you should calm down and we could play tag or something."

This caused Pearl to stop so abruptly that it actually created a shock wave of wind blowing Trixie back. The filly didn't seem to notice though as she said, "I LOVE TAG! I CALL PERMA-IT!"

"What's perma-it?" asked Trixie only to wince in pain as she got her answer.

The filly was now striking her from seemingly every side at once saying, "Tag I'm it! Tag I'm it! Tag I'm it!" over and over and over.

This only caused Trixie's fear to increase as despite the small amount of weight behind each push, the speed alone managed to cause some pain as she struggled to figure out what to do. As she glanced around in panic she caught sight of the turned over couch and dove behind it in panic. Thankfully Pearl was too hopped up on sugar to notice as she continued to fly around tagging the air Trixie once occupied.

As Trixie panted behind the couch in fear she though, "Oh Celestia, mom was right! I should have at least tried to learn something about this filly before agreeing to the job! Maybe then I wouldn't be in this mess." She soon snapped back to reality as she heard the filly giggle at the fun she was having. "Whatever, you're already here just... come on Trixie think! What can you do!?" As she looked at the objects around her in a panic she noticed a shiny box behind the couch with her. She slowly moved closer to it, as not to make too much noise, and saw that written on in sparkly silver letters was "Great and Powerful Magic For Beginners!"

At no point in her life had Trixie ever even seen a magic kit before, let alone tried to use one, but at this point she was willing to try anything. She quickly flung the box open and started speed reading the pamphlet.

It was at this point that Pearl noticed her play mate was gone as she looked around for her, she began to move towards the couch but was stopped as she heard a small pop and saw a puff of smoke come out from behind it.

"Behold the- ACK!" began Trixie before entering a coughing fit as she breathed some of the smoke bomb in. "How do ponies do this," said Trixie to herself before she resumed yelling "Behold the astounding act of the..." she paused for a moment before looking at box again and saying, "the Great and Powerful TRIXIE!"

She then burst from behind the couch wearing the top hat from the magic kit with a huge fake smile. That smile turned real though as something she had spent the last thirty seconds praying would happen, happened. Pearl clapped her hooves, apparently entertained by this, and slowly sat on the floor to watch the show.

"Well then little filly feast your eyes on the greatest tricks in all of Equestria!" said Trixie as she thought, "I'm not usually this loud or cocky but I gotta do it if I want to try and keep Pearl's attention, besides... it's actually kind of fun!"

As Trixie began to pull a roll of hankies from her hoodie sleeve and saw the filly's smile only grow wider, she became filled with a level of joy she never felt before. A level of joy so intense that she failed to notice the slight glow from her flanks.

Two hours later

As the two approached their front door, Mrs. Shine began to get out some bits from her bag saying, "You think this will be enough?"

"You'll be lucky if you don't have to give that money to her next of kin," replied Mr. Shine dryly.

This caused Mrs. Shine to gulp as the two slowly opened the door preparing for the worst, what they saw though was something entirely unexpected. Not the house being a mess, that was expected of course, what they did not expect to see was their daughter sitting quietly as she watched her babysitter standing on a turned over couch waving a magic wand before a bouquet of flowers came out.

Pearl took the flowers with a smile as she said, "YAY! The Great and Powerful Trixie is the best!"

"Why thank you my enthusiastic little admirer," said Trixie with a smug look before she heard a slight thud. She looked over to see Pearl's parents had dropped their bags as they stood with their mouths agape looking at the scene, "Oh, you're back already."

Pearl turned around at this as she said, "Hi mom, hi dad!" before running over and giving them a hug saying, "Thank you so much for having Trixie over!"

The parents simply stood there in disbelief before Mr. Shine broke out of the daze, returned his daughter's hug and then ran over and hugged Trixie saying, "OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

Mrs. Shine soon burst out of her own daze as she turned to her daughter saying, "Well I'm glad you had fun sweetie."

"Yup," said Pearl before letting out a yawn and saying, "I'm going to go to bed now if that's OK."

Mrs. Shine began to smile in abject relief saying, "Of course you can."

This only caused the father to hug Trixie tighter as he began to weep tears of joy and continued saying, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

"Oh, it's no trouble," said Trixie as she struggled to breath at all this.

Soon Mr. Shine released his grip and stood back next to his wife as she said, "Well I must say, you are the best babysitter we've ever had! No one's ever got Pearl to calm down like this."

"You're an angel sent by Celestia herself!" claimed Mr. Shine.

"Um, thank you both," said Trixie somewhat awkwardly at this treatment.

Mrs. Shine then grabbed all the bits from her wallet and handed them too Trixie as she said, "You've earned all this and more."

"Thanks you," said Trixie as she packed up the magic kit and began to have a weird feeling of longing towards it as she said, "Speaking of more... do you mind if I take this?"

"Take whatever you want!" said Mr. Shine.

"Of course you can have it, we never really used it anyway.... I'm surprised you don't have your own though with a cutie mark like that," said Mrs. Shine.

Trixie became confused at this as she realized her hoodie had riden up on her a bit sometime during the show. She looked down at her flank expecting to see another crayon drawing, but was instead greeted to the sight of a cutie mark depicting a magic wand a shimmering moon that caused her to jump up and down in glee.

"So can we hire you for next week?" asked Mrs. Shine excitedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry but babysitting is not for me," said Trixie.

"WHAT!?" said Pearl as she had come back to get a drink of water only to rush into the living room at hearing that.

"Sorry kid, but don't worry, you and all of Equestria can see the Great and Powerful Trixie anytime at one of her Fabulous and Stupendous magic shows!" said Trixie excitedly.

"OH YAY! Can we go mom and dad, I promise to help clean everything up!?" asked Pearl excitedly.

"W-well of course we can," said Mrs. Shine while Mr. Shine continued to weep in joy at all this.

As Trixie smiled at all this she got ready to leave, but then noticed she had accidentally left the flower wand on the floor instead of putting it in the box. She thought about taking it before deciding to hand it to Pearl saying, "Here, hold onto this and maybe one day you can be just as Great and Powerful as me!"

Pearl took the wand excitedly jumping up and down saying, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

Trixie beamed at this as once again she felt that pure joy from earlier before gesturing goodbye with her hat and heading out the door.

She soon reached her house as her mother worriedly greeted her saying, "How did it go dear?"

"Well... you where right about babysitting not being for me... but I did find something more my speed to do for money," said Trixie as she smiled at the box in her hooves.

"And that is how the Great and Powerful Trixie that all of Equestria knows and loves came to be," said Trixie with a warm smile.

"Wow... so what ever happened to Pearl?" asked Starlight.

"Well I saw her at the local shows I did back in Canterlot, and her parents would always come up and thank me. Apparently she started channeling all that energy of hers into practicing magic and wasn't causing trouble anymore," said Trixie. She then beamed with pride as she continued saying, "She said she wanted to be just like me when she grows up and if she's still working hard, she'll definitely get there."

Starlight had her own smile at seeing how happy her friend was as she said, "So I'm guessing this goes in the keep pile?"

"Definitely," said Trixie as she gingerly placed it down.

As they continued cleaning they eventually did manage to get Trixie to throw away a few things, but neither of them cared at this point as Starlight looked at all the stuff they kept and thought, "I guess a lot of this stuff is more important then I thought."

Author's Note

And so now you know the tale of how Trixie became Great and Powerful!

I decided to write this story because I absolutely ADORED all the fan art of babysitter Trixie that was coming out and wanted to see a story of it. When I couldn't find any though I decided to go Thanos and say, "Fine I'll do it myself." I hope more stories come out with this concept (I've already come up with an idea for a sequel but I want to see better writers tackle then me tackle it as well)

Anyway thanks for reading, hope you liked it, have a great day.