"And now see how the Great and Powerful Trrrixie will change the card! Behold, the three of clubs!"
"Come on, I saw the double lift, it's obvious how you did it." Her sister grinned with her typical smug smile.
Oh, how much Trixie hated it. First, the double lift she "saw" (which she didn't, she just knew the name of the move and the effect it had) was only at the beginning, barely explaining how Trixie found the right card. Second she performed for her to judge the routine and the performance, not to try to figure out the trick.
"Of course. Then how do you explain the Great and Powerful Trixie finding the card in the deck you shuffled?"
But it didn't matter. Once the audience caught one thing, they thought they figured the whole method out. It didn't help that her sister was Trixie's "practice audience" and so knew a few basics about magic tricks.
"Whatever, I saw it. You can't mind-blow me anymore."
"Just tell if the routine in itself is good or not!" Trixie groaned.
"Meh, it gets repetitive."
"You are just jealous of how the Great and Powerful…"
Before Trixie could even finish her sentence, her sister took her phone out, put on her headphones and left her.
"Fine, if the Boring and Careless sister doesn't want to watch the Great and Amazing performance, then Trixie will show it to her mother!" she shouted.
"Now the audience may shuffle the cards on their own as much as they want."
"Sweetheart, could you do it for me, please? I'm cooking right now."
"No, it's important that you shuffle it, so the audience thinks the Great and Powerful Trixie has no control over the card anymore!"
"I believe you that it will work even like that, I just can't right now…"
"Fine! Here, I shuffled!" Trixie said, roughly shuffling the cards. "But now you think Trixie knows where the card is!"
"Sweety, I don't think that."
"Whatever, here, now see and watch, as the Great and Powerful Trrrixie will cut the deck and with her powerful magic… make the card appear on top!" She turned the top card to reveal a five of hearts. Closely she looked at the expression of her mother, which didn't change much.
"Come on, no reaction?"
Her mother sighed.
"It's not the card…"
"Correct! For the Great and All-knowing Trixie knew that the card given was not actually red! Behold!"
Trixie put the top card in her left palm and slowly moved her right hand over it. Once the right hand was moved back, the card had been replaced with the three of clubs.
"The three of clubs! The card you had chosen!"
"Well done!" said her mother with a faint smile and returned to her cooking.
"Come on, that's all?" moaned Trixie. "You don't know how it's done! You must be amazed and confused of how the Great and Powerful Trrrixie had done it!"
"Of course I don't know how you found the card, but… I don't know how to say it, but it's all the same."
"No, it isn‘t!" Frustrated Trixie threw the cards on the table. "Trixie hadn't used this card trick for months!"
"I believe you, my great magician, but as the audience, I don't know it. All you perform is to show that you can find the card, and while you are indeed good at it, you can't show the audience the same thing over and over again."
"But it's not the same! I learn more difficult tricks, I use different methods, I get better."
"Yes, but…" She sighed. "Listen, you did well and I caught nothing. Now I need to finish the food."
"Now see how the Great and Powerful Trrrixie will remove your card from the deck!" She put the deck on the table and wiggled her fingers above them, while closing her eyes.
"Aaand done! Look for yourself, it's now gone!"
Wordlessly Octavia took the deck and searched for the card, but as Trixie had foretold, it was gone.
"Behold, for the Great And Powerful Trrrixie had moved the card…" she stood up and dramatically looked around, "in your bag!"
Octavia slowly opened her bag and found indeed her card in there. Trixie bowed to her small audience in the cafeteria. Derpy was applauding, while Octavia without any emotion threw her card on the deck. Vinyl Scratch was bouncing her head and listening to her music, probably not even paying attention to her surroundings, Micro Chips and Sandalwood were talking to each other about something unrelated to her performance.
"Seriously? Does only one here appreciate what Trixie just did?" Trixie ranted.
"I mean, it's not bad, I have no idea how how you did it…" Octavia said, but got interrupted.
"You should be in awe of me! I just took your card from the deck with my mind and teleported it in your bag!"
Octavia sighed. "We both know you don't have any magical power, it's all just a trick."
"Yes, but it looks magical!"
"It indeed does!" Derpy jumped with joy.
"But… you know, you going around claiming you have magical abilities, while our school had a bunch of… real magical incidents and with the Rainbooms now having actual magic, it kind of…"
Trixie pounded the table with her fists.
"Do you want to say they could do the same?" she shouted.
"No, of course not!" Octavia winced. "But…"
"Trixie is the greatest and most powerfullest person in this school! She was the one who won the Battle of the Bands! The Rainbooms are nothing! They are only magical because they have the geodes!"
Trixie breathed heavily. She didn't notice how close she got to Octavia, while shouting so loud that the whole cafeteria was now looking silently at her. Realizing what just happened, she slowly backed away and packed her belongings into her bag.
"Dudette, you have some jealousy issues, why don't you--" Sandalwood said, but Trixie already left the table and ran away.
Everyone was against her anyway.
She would show everyone. They all thought that only because the Rainbooms had magical powers, that her magic was boring now, but she will prove it otherwise!
Who cares about the magic the band got? Trixie had studied and practiced all of her tricks, she actually had to put effort into it and even can recreate their abilities without magical geodes (of course they would be just illusions, but still)! She would show all them something so magical, the people would stop caring for the Rainbooms and be excited to watch her performances again!
But it all needed a build up, and to grab the attention of anyone she needed a pet -- after all, people liked pets. With a little help in the form of a doggy treat she persuaded Spike to be her assistant in her sawing trick opening.
A little bit of set-up, the right gimmicks, when everything was ready, she went outside on the street, the perfect spot to catch the people unguarded. She quickly built everything for the act and put Spike into the iconic magicians box.
It would blow their minds.
"Today, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie is here to blow your feeble minds with some serious magic!" she declared loudly.
No one paid attention to her.
"Uhhh... Trixie, everyone believes that you're Great and Powerful. You don't have to prove it!" Spike said, his voice showing that he got scared.
"Don't worry, I got this," she whispered.
"I'm worrying! I'm worrying!" yelled Spike when he noticed the sword and closed his eyes.
Silly dog, the sawing trick is the most obvious illusion, especially with the lengths of the box he should know that he was safe. However, his reaction proved for her to be useful: The doggie’s fear so clear on his muzzle, a crowd started gathering, watching her closely and murmuring about the spectacle of the magician.
Time for a little show.
"Magic, don't fail me now!" she said loudly enough for the crowd to hear.
Pretending to be unsure got the desired effect: The spectators were caught in the show and gasped when she raised the sword.
"Abraca…" She swayed the sword down, when suddenly it began to glow in a purple aura. At the same time, other items of hers began to glow the same way and float in the air. "...dabra?"
She couldn't believe her eyes. Finally! Finally, after all this time, the universe saw her potential and gave her magical abilities too!
"Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the Great and Powerful Trrrixie's astounding power of telekinesis!"
The crowd cheered.
Trixie couldn't be happier. The audience were finally astonished by her magical abilities! Now she will be adored again! Who cared about the difficult mind blowing tricks anyway?
"You're welcome. I am all-powerful."
"Mum, look what I can do now!" Trixie stormed into her house, bashing the door wide open and having her magic utensils falling down on the ground.
"Be silent, she's already sleeping!" her sister shushed.
"But it's really amazing! I can…"
"We both know she has to wake up early, so let her sleep!"
"Ugh, fine, then I will show it to you!"
Trixie took her sword and pointed it to the object laying on the ground.
"Abracadabra!"
But nothing happened, no matter how fast she swung the sword.
"Abra… cadabra?"
"I think it's not working," her sister said annoyingly.
"No, it had worked before, I swung the sword and I got the power of telekinesis!"
"Shouldn't there be some threads or ropes prepared?"
"No, it was real magic! I didn't prepare anything, it happened on its own!"
Her sister crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Real… magic?"
"Yes! After the Rainbooms got their undeserved magic abilities, Trixie was finally blessed with also having her own real magic!"
She noticed the weirded out stare on her.
"I'm not crazy!"
"No, I believe you. However, let me ask you this: What magical power did you say you got?"
"Well, telekinesis!"
"And does someone from the Rainbooms have the same ability?"
It finally hit her. This wasn't her own magic, it was Twilight Sparkle who did it!
"Sis'?"
"Trixie is a fool…" Trixie said.
"Kinda."
"Trixie is an idiot!" she yelled.
"Quiet! Mum is sleeping."
As soon as tears were forming in her eyes, she ran towards her room, closed the door and fell into her bed, hiding her face into the pillow and sobbing as quietly as possible.
How could she be so fooled? How wasn't this the first thing she thought of? Deep down however she knew the answer: She wanted this to happen. The moment the rumors started about magic being real in the world, she wanted to have it, the moment she saw the Rainbooms having magical abilities, she tried out everything to get her own powers. But it all failed. And when she had seen her objects flying around during her performance, she straight up assumed she got her wish fulfilled, without rationally thinking how it could have happened.
A knock on her door disrupted her thoughts.
"Sis', I got your magic things."
She didn't answer. No way she could allow her sister to see the Great but Not-magical Trixie cry on her bed.
"I… I put them down before your door, just so you know."
At least her sister still cared for her, even when she just made a fool of herself. Or she just didn't want to stumble over the objects lying on the floor. Probably the latter. Why would anyone care for Trixie, when she couldn't even do real magic?
Only a little bit calmed down from yesterday, Trixie left her room to eat breakfast and went straight back to her room. She didn't want to go anywhere today. Her sister tried to cheer her up with a shopping trip or a visit to a restaurant, but it was fruitless.
On the internet she kept rewatching recordings of the events that happened in her school, especially the Rainbooms doing magic stuff. They didn't deserve to have it. Did any of them even care for magic before? No! Only she did!
Life was unfair. These girls got all the attention, all the admiration for the magic they got for nothing, while Trixie, who spent her whole life learning magic tricks, could only watch how everyone else stopped paying attention to her.
Since rewatching the same videos wouldn't change anything, she moved to see other magicians performances. She loved watching them. She could try to figure out how the magic tricks she didn't immediately recognize worked, but she didn't want to. She watched them to be fooled, to get her mind blown, to feel like magic was real.
Of course, now she had seen actual magic, but it was usually something trying to mind control her or the Rainbooms doing their things.
She watched famous magicians, she watched the less-known ones, she even got to see a trick that fooled her so well that no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't figure it out.
Then she stumbled upon one video that grabbed her attention. The magic trick in itself was nothing special, the audience were given a “free choice” of envelopes to choose. However, she was surprised to see the audience's reaction to it, even the reaction of herself.
While the other envelopes were empty, the chosen one had a picture of the magician's mother. It was heartbroken to see how the magician told all the things his passed mother did for him, how much she meant for him, while producing different kinds of objects seemingly out of thin air to embellish the story.
It reminded her of one of her own first performances, when she was young and wanted to perform something on her mother's birthday. It failed hard -- she flashed everything and the trick didn't work at all.
She managed to save it in the end, through a combination of luck and creativity, but she felt awful. However, when she saw her mother crying tears of joy and even thanking her for the picture of their family she revealed, she was proud and happy to have touched her heart.
It made her think.
What if she was thinking about her magic the wrong way? Everytime she performed, she only tried to impress others with her technique. She got better every time, but the audience lost more and more interest in her, even before the Rainbooms got their magic.
She thought again of the video she just saw. None of the tricks were too impressive, but she saw the reactions. The audience were drawn in, she too had liked the performance a lot for the "basic magic" used.
What if magic tricks were not about the magic tricks at all?
She stood up and took a notebook, scribbling random ideas.
She had to try something new.
With a long sigh Trixie entered the school. Fifteen minutes before the first lesson would start, during this time the hallway was crowded the most. Today would be more impromptu, but considering the tricks would be more experimental in the first place, it should work.
The first student she chose was Derpy, who was speaking with Bulk. She waved at her, and once seen, Derpy waved back.
“Hello, Trixie!”
“Greetings, Always Amazed Derpy and the Obliging Bulk! Today, the Great and Powerful Trrrixie has something new prepared for everyone!”
What? She was still Trixie.
“However, this time it won‘t be the usual, but something everyone will care about!”
Derpy was listening closely to her dramatic speech, her smile always gave Trixie the confidence she needed. Bulk was polite and nice as always, but his eyes were not on her. Didn‘t matter, she knew how to draw him in.
“Bulk, what‘s your favourite number between one and ten?”
“Ehm, four?”
“Four! Now behold, as the Great and Powerful Trixie will summon…”
She dramatically circled her hands slowly in the air, before pulling something out of her coat.
“A muffin.”
“Woah!” marvelled Derpy and clapped her hands.
Trixie suppressed a chuckle of Derpy‘s amazement and gave it to her.
“Sadly, the Great and Generous Trixie only has one muffin, but you can share it with Bulk.”
“Okay!”
Derpy took the muffin and crumbled it into two halves, but suddenly gasped when she saw a card in it.
“Fourth of hearts! Wow, this is the best trick I have ever seen!”
That was surprising to hear from Derpy. She had always enjoyed her tricks and had seen so many of them, but a simple “put a card into a muffin before giving it” was what she thought was the best? Even Bulk took the reveal well.
Trixie couldn‘t be more satisfied. She didn‘t expect at all how much different the reactions would be once she, in one way or another, made all the acts related to the audience. It was even more surprising considering all the tricks were small, easy and mostly on the spot thought of, not lasting longer than a single minute. But everyone loved it, she even got a few laughs and thank yous in return.
The only act that she considered bigger was with the Rainbooms, where she made Applejack play the cups and balls game, but with apples and pears. Her friends were delighted by Applejack's frustration at only getting the pears, but even the ‘victim’ took it well, saying ‘That‘s why one should never trust those hooligan games‘.
But she wanted to do one last trick for today.
“Trixie, no tricks when eating!” Trixie‘s mother admonished her.
“I'm finished, see? Please, you will like it!”
“Fine…”
Trixie took out a deck of cards and spread them out, showing her mother to choose one. Once picked, memorized and signed with a pen, the card was put back in the deck, but secretly palmed and thrown under the table to her sister.
It was unusual to see her sister so excited during a trick, but perhaps being the first time part of one made the difference. While Trixie distracted her mother, her sister stood up, took the dishes and made the rest.
“And the card is… not signed… Well, then it’s the one under it… huh, I guess the Great and Powerful Trixie wasn‘t able to find the card.”
She gave a nervous chuckle and put the deck of cards away.
“Sorry it didn‘t work.”
“No worries, sweetie, it happens.”
The sisters left the kitchen and grinned at each other.
“This is soo awesome!”
“You really liked doing it?” Trixie asked.
“Absolutely! I can‘t wait to see her reaction!”
How did she never get the idea to include her sister in her tricks? She had seen her perform some basic tricks on her own before. Of course, her skill wasn‘t in any way as good as Trixie‘s, but she had still, if even just a bit, interest in performing magic tricks. Perhaps it was jealousy when her sister always tried to see through Trixie’s tricks?
Suddenly she felt two hands grabbing and pulling her into a hug.
“Mum, what are you doing?”
It didn‘t help her pride that her sister was laughing at her.
“Thank you so much for the flowers!”
Trixie groaned, but didn‘t resist it.
“Does the Great and Powerful Trixie feel flattered?” teased her sister.
“Come here to me!” Suddenly her mother let go and pulled her other child into a hug. “I know you did it too!”
“No, let go of me!”
“I recognize your writing anywhere!” She laughed.
Trixie smiled seeing the scenery before her, before glancing over to the kitchen, where a vase with flowers was standing, on them the signed queen of hearts and a note thanking her mother for everything she did for them.
To think that she was so blind before to see what performing magic tricks was all about. It wasn‘t about making the audience feel through magic tricks, but with magic tricks.
All it took was real magic to understand it.
