WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?

TWO MONTHS LATER

The loss of her horn had certainly taken its toll on Trixie's life. Not only she had become unable to perform her dazzling magic tricks in front of large crowds, but she was also forced to cancel every single one of her upcoming shows. Even though she was perfectly capable of performing a handful of tricks without the aid of her horn, pretty much all of them were standard tricks like pulling a rabbit out of her hat or a series of handkerchiefs from her sleeve. So, she was fully aware of the fact that her audiences would not be impressed by them at all and that she would not receive a single bit as payment.

As a result, she had to quit the show business and work at a different industry in order to both sustain herself and complete the sum of money necessary for her brother's operation. Although she did think about selling her props and other show equipment, she ultimately decided against it, since they did have some sentimental value and she had already promised her brother that she would one day teach him everything she had learned about stage magic.

Unfortunately, as soon as she started looking for a new job in various cities and towns all over Equestria, things did not go well for her in the slightest. Because she was so used to living in a wagon all by herself for long periods of time, focusing on perfecting her performances, and doing pretty much everything with the help of her magic; she did not have a single clue on how to do anything else. She applied for all kinds of jobs (including but not limited to a waitress at a diner, a janitor at a bank, a housekeeper at a motel, a cashier at a boutique, and even a replacement clown at a traveling circus), but she utterly failed at every single one of them and could only hold on to each of these jobs for a couple of days or so.

By far, the most humiliating moment she experienced during this already miserable job hunt took place exactly two weeks after the destruction of her horn at a bar in Fillydelphia where she had applied for the position of a stand-up comedian. She was planning on telling the audience some of the jokes she had heard from her mother when she was a filly. Unfortunately, none of the audience members laughed at any of the jokes she had told and by the end of the show, they were all loudly booing, and throwing their food and drinks at her, which forced her to leave the stage with utter shame. While exiting the bar and running away from it as fast as she could, she wondered whether it was her mother or herself who had a terrible sense of humor.

Then, the very next day, she finally did find a job that she managed to hold on to for more than a few days: packaging and labeling at a chemical plant just outside of Manehattan. Even though the work hours were pretty long and the daily wages were barely enough to pay for a decent meal, it was literally the only job she found herself to be good at, and that was solely due to her old habit of placing her props inside boxes, putting each of those boxes at a different corner inside her wagon, and then labeling each of those corners.

While she seriously thought about visiting Sunspot at the hospital occassionally, she nevertheless came to the conclusion that him seeing her with a broken horn would most definitely crush his very soul and that this much sadness was the last thing he needed at the moment. Therefore, she decided that the best time to see him would be AFTER the operation and instead, she wrote a letter to the hospital that included the location of her wagon (which was parked right outside the chemical plant) and a request to keep her posted in regards to any strange developments in her brother's condition.

Then, after six dreadful weeks of slaving at that disgusting factory and thirty straight nights without much food or water, her worst nightmare actually became reality.

She had just arrived back at her wagon after another long day at work, but this time, she had a gigantic smile on her face. Even though she had to work without break from dawn until dusk, she had finally managed to complete the sum of bits necessary for her brother's operation. So, as soon as she received that day's payment, she quit her job while shouting a few swear words to her boss and co-workers, and then rushed towards her wagon so that she could collect the rest of her bits and deliver the full amount to the hospital immediately afterwards.

Unfortunately, when she was only a few feet away the wagon, she noticed a letter from the hospital attached to the window of her door. Right after seeing it, her bright smile turned into a concerned frown and she picked up the letter with hesitation before going inside the wagon to read it, with her hooves violently shaking with every single she took in the process.

Then, a handful of seconds after she tore the letter open with her mouth and started reading the information it contained, she suddenly dropped it to the floor from learning what she had been dreading to hear for years.

Sunspot was dead.

His leukemia had become much worse during the last couple of weeks and even though he had passed away peacefully in his sleep, it had happened just two nights ago.

The moment she dropped the letter, Trixie burst into tears as all the misery she had gone through her entire life up to that point finally became too much for her to bear. Her father had been absent since her birth, her mother had fallen victim to a freak accident nearly a decade ago, her brother had just passed away after suffering for several years, and all of her desperate efforts to save his life had ultimately amounted to nothing. The absolute worst part of all this was the fact that she could have actually prevented the death of the one family member she had got left if not for the shattering of her horn.

Instead, she had lost both her horn and her magic in a terrifying incident that had caused her to not just give up the only profession she was a master of, but also suffer great embarrassment almost everywhere she had been in. It was almost like the universe was playing a cruel prank on her and-

That was it.

A joke.

All of this.

The entirety of her life had been one big comedy show.

The world was a circus and she was a clown making the audience laugh with her misery.

Trixie had finally gotten the joke.

And it made her sobbing turn into a laughter so loud that it could be heard from several miles away.

"He-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he...

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"