Inner Demons: To Rise Again

Chapters

Prologue
A Bad Time in Hoofington
Canterlot Blues
Rough Times Ahead
Moving on is hard to do...
The more things change...

Prologue

The beautiful stars stared down on everypony, the moon smiled on the events that had just happened. Everypony was happy, now it was the moment that they had been saved again by their newest citizen. Many of them still remembered how she had saved them from Nightmare Moon, with the help of her six newest friends. There would be plenty of time for more stories about them to be written into the annals of history. Tonight was a night that had started with two colts, not as intelligent as their friends, who had decided that it was time for the entire town to see just how amazing The Great and Powerful Trixie was. It had all been Spike's idea, telling them how they couldn't believe a word she said on the basis of not actually having seen her vanquish an Ursa Major herself. Their mistake had cost them greatly, had almost cost the town greatly. Even their setback wasn't as major as the one that a certain showmare suffered because of that terrible night.

Trixie Lulamoon was going to have a long road ahead of her, she just didn't know it yet.

They don't know what I'm capable of. They will rue the day that they made fools of The Great and Powerful Trixie. I'll come back, I'll show them. There was no time for her to stop galloping, no time for her to possibly even think about slowing down. Trixie didn't want to see the town ever again, didn't want to have to deal with the fact that she had been shown to be a fraud. That Twilight! I despise her with every bone in my body. Her... magic. She couldn't possibly know how hard it is to be a showmare. All she does is do her little magic. Eyes looked up into the sky, a tear streaking down her face. Okay, so maybe she isn't such a weak unicorn. Her spells were more than I could accomplish. This was something that would never be acknowledged to another pony, there was no way that he could ever admit to being anything less than the greatest unicorn that ever lived.

This was just small setback. I will just have to find a new hat, it made the entire display more of a show, and I'll find a new audience. There won't be a single thing that will stop me from being able to show everypony just how amazing I truly am. To her, one failure was just one that, one small failure wouldn't stop her from showing everypony just how amazing she was. Ponyville was just one small town, perhaps not even a town by the standards of population. It had been one of the reasons why she had chosen that location. Trixie knew that small places, such as Ponyville, didn't have a lot of magic. She had even studied enough to know that the town was started by an Earth Pony, which meant that it wasn't anything like Canterlot. There wasn't a single great magical source there, or at least the assumption had been that. When she had gotten there, it had been proven right.

If it had been proven right, why am I the one that's running away.

By now, Ponyville wasn't even visible. Eyes looked back, trying to see if anypony had followed her, and luckily they hadn't. If she had to deal with any of them, especially that unicorn that lavender mare, she would lose her mind. Part of her had almost stayed, trying to see if there was anything left of her beloved wagon. That thing cost me a lot of bits. I don't really know if I can buy another one. Eyes looked back in front of her, she knew that she had to put on a show if she wanted to continue her life. She was, by no means, rich. Saving bits wasn't the thing that she had been taught to do, or more accurately it wasn't the thing that she had taught herself. Trixie exuded a sophisticated life, she had an image to maintain. When ponies came to her shows, they wanted to see a success. No success had a ratty mane, no success looked malnourished, no success was seen eating anything less than the best that life had to offer.

Of course, most successes didn't gallop from town with only a cape to keep them warm.

No! I am a success! There isn't a single pony that has gone through life without any troubles. I had a small one, but Ponyville won't ruin me. I won't let them win, I just won't let them. I will come back, one day, just to rub their noses in how successful I am. They will see me for what I am. I am Trixie Lulamoon, I am the greatest Unicorn that has ever lived! Even the biggest success sometimes got down, even Trixie sometimes needed some kind words. If others weren't going to provide them for her, then she was going to provide them for herself. Nopony else was going to keep her afloat, and nopony else was going to make sure that she had a place to stay. She was a self made mare, she didn't need any of them to keep her life on track. Right now, though, she needed to come up with a way to get some bits together. She needed to eat, she needed a wagon, she needed supplies, and she needed some place to rest. All of that pointed to a show, of course, but the question of the location was there.

Hoofington wasn't far away, that would be the place where she would go.

But first, I think I'll rest my head. There's no reason to go in there at night, nopony will be able to see me. Besides, I have to figure out how it is that I'm going to do the show. I have to come up with something that ponies will enjoy, believe, pay me for. Even a boisterous loudmouth knew that it was better to let the flames died down, when it came to the story of the Ursa Major. She could wait, this next show would be about how she defeated something a little more believable.

About a mile from Hoofington, she laid down on the grass. It wasn't the most comfortable place she had ever slept. There was a breeze that was chilling her, the ground wasn't as comfortable as a bed, and she really liked the quiet that her previous accommodations had afforded her. She even missed the darkness of it, not having to look up at the stars. Everything about it was good to her, the four walls being the protection that she so desired from everything that the world outside could threaten her with. It was almost as if all of her success, the money that she had made throughout the years, was made pointless in a single night. All of her success was in that wagon, or at least her memories of what it had brought her, leaving her with only her thoughts. Her mind didn't dwell on the present, didn't go to the future, but instead moved back to a time when she didn't have the wagon.

There was a time when nights like this were the normal nights.

It hadn't been long after she left Canterlot that this had happened. Trixie was, by no means, wealthy. She didn't have much to her name, but she was going to make sure that she got it all. Her two friends, the ones that she had met before, were likely expecting greatness. Her cutie mark was a wand, she had known that it was a sign. Her legacy would be magic, her talent needed to be shown to the world as a whole. Not only that, but she knew that she was going to be one of the greats. That was why she had taken the money, that was why she had borrowed those books, that was why she was now standing in front of a crowd of expecting ponies. They were all there, waiting for her to do something that was worth the bits that they paid. They were all expecting something from Trixie, yet all she could do was stand there and stare at the crowd that had amassed in front of her.

She was scared.

Everybody was looking at her, everybody was expecting something great. Trixie knew what would happen if something went wrong, she would get things thrown at her. There might be an angry mob that would hurt her, aside from the fact that the things they would throw might hurt. All of those thoughts, those things that she knew would happen, stopped her from saying anything for a while. Another few minutes passed, the crowd started to become restless. There were a few murmurs, a few people who were starting to trot away. This was going to be her failure, her inability to keep a crowd. There was no way that she could do anything in front of these people. They weren't jus silently judging her anymore, some of them were quite vocal about it.

Then came the tomato.

Out of everything that had happened, this was the worst. It was also the thing that threw her out of her fear. There was no way that she was going to allow this to continue. A look of fear turned into a look of anger, and Trixie cleared her voice. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will not allow such disrespect!” Her mind had remembered how much easier it was to talk like this, how much more confidence she got when she started to refer to herself as this. It was how she could remind herself that she was great, she was powerful. She would remind the audience of that as well, though there was another vegetable that was thrown in the air at her. This time, though, she had seen where it had come from. This time, it was caught in mid-air and thrown back at the stallion's face.

The crowd looked at him, and started to laugh.

“Trixie told you that she wouldn't allow such disrespect. How dare you, lowly, ponies disrespect the one that saved the town of Trottingham from certain destruction!” Perhaps it was time to push the theatrics up to eleven, to try to make sure that everypony knew about how great she was. It wasn't true, she hadn't saved a town from anything, but that wasn't the thing that the people here wanted to know. These people wanted to be entertained, and the only thing she could do was make sure that they were sufficiently entertained. If that meant lying, then she would do that. There was also an element of joy that came from it, the art of telling a story that made her seem as though she was the greatest Unicorn that had ever lived. This would just be he starting point.

“That's right, ponies of Hoofington. It was I, Trixie, that stopped the Cerberus from attacking the fair town of Trottingham.” A hush fell over the crowd, and Trixie felt a bit of worry come about her. They would believe her, right? They would believe that she had done something in a far off land, regardless of how pathetic it sounded. There wasn't much that she could do to make the show seem better, aside from a visual spectacle. Her horn lit up, and a cartoonish drawing of the creature appeared. “The people of the town were fearful, there wasn't a thing that could stop it. They knew that, by the end of the day, the Cerberus would be there. It would destroy their fair town, and everypony in it. It was only with the powerful magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie,” her horn lit up again, this time a small image of her showed up as well. This was actually more difficult than she thought it would be. “That the Cerberus was forced to retreat, going back to where it came from!”

She really needed to find an easier way to do this.

Ponies started to murmur amongst themselves, almost as if they were trying to figure out if it made sense. A few of them seemed nervous, as if they were going to merely take cues from the crowd around them to make sure that they didn't seem like foals. Did Trixie stop a Cerberus? Was she lying? There seemed to be a consensus, as the crowd stopped for a moment to look at her. Trixie could feel a lump form in her throat, a part of her knew that they were going to become an angry mob right now. That was the fear that quickly subsided, though, as the crowd started to cheer her name.

They believed her.

That had to be one of the greatest moments that she could think of, her words carrying the weight to where many believed that she had done something so grand. A part of her said that it couldn't be true, that she was simply dreaming. Another part said that they were merely humoring her, making sure that she didn't break down. Those parts were soon being destroyed, however, by the idea that she was somepony to be respected. They were all looking at her, happy about her story. Even if she hadn't done anything of the sort, there had been no rescue by her, this was something that hey enjoyed. Trixie had brought a little more happiness into the lives of ponies, and more importantly was making a name for herself in the meantime. There wasn't a loser here, really.

Trixie was going to, eventually, make sure that she was as great as her show portrayed her.

By the time that she awoke, there was a wide smile on her face. Those had been the fun time, those had been the moments when she had showed them all. It was definitely better than now, where her last stop had been something of a giant mess. The only thing that made her feel better was where she was going. Trixie had been in Hoofington before, she had gotten a good name with the people in the town. There was the fact that she had used their name for her own benefit, but that was hopefully not going to be any trouble. There was no reason why they should really care, or with any luck even know. Most of the time, she chose a place that she knew they wouldn't be able to really get news about. It was the art of the lie, the art of making sure that the people were entertained while she kept making money, the art of the showmare.

Trixie was a master of it, it was her life.

A Bad Time in Hoofington

When she stood up, stretching to push the tiredness out of her limbs, thoughts started to flow through her mind. It seemed like an easy enough thing, being a performer. Some thought that it was as simple as getting on stage, and for smaller venues they might be right. When it came to anything with a sizable amount of ponies, such as a place the size of Hoofington, there had to be something more. The sheer amount of preparation, it was something that made lesser equines crumble. Perhaps that was something that made her better than everypony else. Trixie was able to get all of this together, plan it out, make sure that nothing was going wrong, and then she was able to actually perform in a way that everypony actually enjoyed to go to.

First came the actual venue, the place where she would have to make sure that she had. A smaller place might just need something built, and that would cost. Whenever a pony went to a larger town, there was always a place where he or she could go, there was usually a place where ponies could perform. Usually, the pony that owned that would want some money. That was going to be a bit of trouble, with her own reserves being a little low. Trixie was, by no means, completely broke. She just didn't have money to be throwing around, which made this part of the job more difficult than normal. She knew that the risk-reward ratio was high, a good performance here could make sure that she was financially secure for a while, but it was still a risk. This was only the first part of it, and some might say the easiest.

Next came the audience.

Trixie would have to make sure that ponies knew about her show, that they showed up. Each of them would pay a small amount to see the Great and Powerful Trixie, that was the entire idea of the show. The problem came with making sure that they knew about it, that they were excited about it, that they would demand to see her. Multiple nights worth of show, full, would be a great success. If she was able to do that, she could get a new hat and a new wagon. Everything would be great, she would be able to get ready to a really spectacular show in the next town. It didn't pay to not prepare for the next week, for the next day, for the next show that you could put on that would help to make sure that you lived the life you deserved.

And Trixie knew she deserved great things.

The first of the problems took only a couple of hours. She had been here before, the showmare knew exactly where it was that she wanted to go. She even had the luck, or perhaps misfortune, of knowing the pony that was n charge of the building. He had been the one who helped her out the first time, even waved the fee until she had actually gotten a crowd. Part of her had wanted to thank him for that, but she knew that the performance and bits had been more than enough of a thanks. Not only that, but Trixie knew that everything good that happened to her was a mark that she deserved it. She had known it, even then, and it seemed as if the man knew it before. This time, however, the man saw a chance to get some extra bits.

Yelling is how many of her deals start, but Trixie was used to that. Even when she didn't have anything big on the line, aside from her reputation, she seemed to gallop into those types. It was almost as if they didn't know that Trixie was the greatest, most powerful, unicorn. If they knew about her greatness, they would surely do something about making sure that she got whatever it was that she needed. After all, these stages made a lot of money when the Great and Powerful Trixie used them for her shows. As normal, though, the yelling eventually calmed down. It took less time than normal, though, due to the fact that the two of them knew each other.

“I know that you normally ask for your bits up front, but I'm only going to be able to give half up front.”

“Trixie, you know I-”

“That's the Great and Powerful Trixie to you. And, like I was going to say, you know I'm good for it. I'm going to bring a lot of business to this place.”

“Trixie-”

“Ahem.”

“Fine, fine, Great and Powerful Trixie.” It was obvious that he hated having to address her as such, but it was something that he had settled into. The last time, she had made him enough bits. This time, he was hoping that it would be possible to make even more. If he could get thousands, instead of hundreds, then the place could get renovations. There could be a second floor added. Most importantly, he would never have to deal with that loudmouth Trixie again. And so he would be polite, kiss her hoof, and make sure that she went on her way as soon as she was done. Though, if her appearance was anything to consider, she might want to make sure that her appearance was taken care of before the show. That was something that she would have to take care of, though.

“Great and Powerful Trixie, you expect me to just hope that your shows get me the extra three hundred bits that your little show would cost? That's per night, things have gone up since you last came here.”

Even Trixie knew this was a lie, she was being fleeced. If this had been any time before, even a few months, she would have turned him down. There were plenty of places where she could go, and there were enough bits to last for a while. This wasn't normal, though, and the showmare needed bits to get a new wagon. She needed a new hat, new fireworks, new everything. This show, or more accurately these shows, were either going to make her or break her. This was a time when she couldn't say anything about the amount that was being charged. Perhaps that was the worst part, that her circumstances were bad enough to where she couldn't do anything about what was being done to her. It was all Twilight's fault, she told herself, it was all the fault of that lavender mare.

It doesn't matter if she's more power- no, she isn't. She has a lot of magic, but she will never have the show-stopping power of Trixie!

“The Great and Powerful Trixie will have no problem filling these seats. There isn't a pony in Hoofington that won't want to see the greatest unicorn in Equestria. Neigh, the greatest equine that has ever lived!”

That was something that he could count on, her own ability to boast. It was something that he hated, yet at the same time it was something that he admired. The stallion wasn't a foal, he knew about what had happened in Ponyville. It was his job to know what had happened everywhere, and to make sure that everything that happened was something that could be used to his advantage. There was something about her confidence, her bragging, that was contagious. It was almost as if the ponies around her wanted to believe what she said, wanted her to be telling the truth. Such was the power of a good showpony. Regardless of what could be said about the boisterous mare, an insult to her showmanship was something that couldn't accurately be done. She brought in crowds better than most of his other shows.

That was why he hadn't thrown her out yet.

“You sure you can do this?”

“No doubt.”

“Okay, fine. But I'm also taking double my normal fee. Twenty percent instead of ten percent.” This was something that could be considered negotiating by some. He knew that she would cave, there wasn't anywhere else that was as well known. In that way, it was more like legalized extortion. Trixie would pay the fee, if she wanted to be able to have a show that was worth it. She would have to pay the raised rates, the ones that he just raised to deal with ponies that he didn't like. All of these things, she would pay.

The rate of return would be great for both of them.

“Fine. Remember, the show starts in three days.”

The theatre owner nodded his head, though he was clearly thinking about what it was that he was going to get out of this. The fact was, three days was going to make it easy on him. Her shows were mainly about her, so there wasn't any real preparation. She normally prepared fireworks, which meant she had them. These types didn't trust anypony, so every little detail would likely be taken care of by them. He knew that she just wanted a stage, that she would be able to make sure that the ponies came in droves. When they did, he would make lots of bits.

Then he would never have to see her again.

Of course, Trixie didn't know anything about his wishes. She didn't care if he liked her, or if he wanted to have her around. To her, the only thing that actually mattered was that she was going to be able to get some bits. She needed to get a new wagon, she needed to get a new hat, she needed a lot of things. In fact, that was why she was here. One job, she would likely be heading to Trottingham next, and then her life could actually get back on track. There might be a need to go to Canterlot, there were always some good designers there. She had heard about a designer from Ponyville, but there wasn't much of a chance that she was going to be going there anytime soon. Of course, when she did it wouldn't be for her to get a hat or cape either. Her last visit would have to be washed away, but that was a long time from now.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie will be doing some of the advertising. Fans are always appreciated.”

Before the manager could say anything, she was already out the door. Trixie didn't want to give any time for there to be a final word, that would likely lead to another argument. She was going to make sure that there were a lot of ponies there, which meant that she had to do a little of the work herself. This wasn't an idea that she liked, or even wanted, but it was something that had to happen. After I'm done with this little problem, Trixie will not have to deal with another one as long as she lives. Hoofington has a lot of slow ponies with big wallets, and a lot of them that just love a brilliant spectacle. And Trixie is one of the best when it comes to spectacle. As she continued down the street, thoughts went back to the concept of a show. She made everything seem much more grandiose than it was, and sometimes threw in elements of fiction, and then everypony ate it up. The truth didn't matter, entertaining the ponies around her did.

They were almost always entertained.

Another fifteen steps away from the building, the theatre, it hit her. There was something to be said about the show, and it was that it needed beauty. Trixie had always made sure to take care of herself, but that was when she was able to use her wagon. There was no wagon, and her mane seemed to have gotten a little messy. Maybe it was sleeping out on the ground. Then again, Trixie has to do a lot to keep her mane clean. My tail is the same way, they have to be taken care of with the utmost care. Some of it used to be saved by my hat, but without it... my mane is much messier than it should be. If she wanted to be able to pull in a crowd, she would have to make sure that she looked presentable. This was something that meant, of course, that she couldn't sleep outside anymore.

That expense hadn't been foreseen.

Not counting the mount of bits Trixie can expect from the show tonight, expenses are pushing it. There is likely a cheap place to stay. Though, to be honest, Trixie doesn't really have many bits. If she doesn't make a lar- NO! Trixie will not think like that! She will make thousands of bits, tens of thousands! Nothing will stop her! She will show those ponies, those Ponyvillians, that she is not one to be trifled with! As she had thought about that, her inner rant, her eyes had been moving to the different buildings. Trixie needed to find something that looked good without looking expensive, which was the key. If it was too expensive, that would be a problem with being able to deal with the meager expenses that would come along. If it didn't look good, it was likely to end with her having to deal with far more problems than she was willing to deal with.

Things were so much easier when she had a wagon.

A small building, on the edge of town, looked like the best place. It couldn't be much more than three rooms, but the vacancy sign was something that called her in. Not only that, but the small size might mean that she would be able to get in for cheaper. She might even be able to be left to her own devices, which meant that she would be able to get away from some of the ponies there. Above all of that, Trixie was sure that nopony would think to look for her there. If there was some pony she owed, or some pony that had a grudge on her from the show in Ponyville, they wouldn't think to look for her there. It really did seem as though the stars were aligning, at least until she took a few steps in and found that there were a lot of things that would keep her from the place.

Was it even legal to rent out that small space to so many ponies?

Then there was another problem, one of the ponies looked familiar. Trixie couldn't quite place her finger on it, but she was sure that she had seen a pony that looked like that. Eyes went wide, and she ducked, as a piece of furniture was thrown right at her head.

“Why, you little! It's your fault that I have to be here! GET OUT!”

The normal response would have been to fight back, maybe throw her out with her magic. That would have been the answer that would have given her the most joy, but it wasn't the response that she ended up going with. Trixie didn't care enough about this small abode, which she now knew wasn't worth her time to care about, to actually lower herself to fighting. She knew that there wasn't any reason to give that mare another moment of her time. The showmare didn't even bother opening her mouth, knowing that it wasn't her fault at all that anything had happened. If this pony was from Ponyville, as was likely the case, then it definitely wasn't her fault. Those two others, her fans, had been the cause of everything that the Ursa Minor had done. She hadn't brought it to town, she couldn't be blamed at all.

Then why did she feel the slightest pangs of guilt?

There was, really, no time for her to dwell on that. Trixie had a job to do, and right now that job was to find a place to stay. She didn’t want to sleep on the ground, the ground was uncomfortable. The showmare was trotting down the street, looking around. To her, it would be the worst possible thing if she couldn’t find at least one place. Minutes turned into hours, but the search turned into there not being a single place that she could stay at. Much to her dislike, it seemed as though the place had turned into a popular tourist spot at some point.

That wasn’t what she expected at all.

By the end of the day, she wasn’t any closer than she was before. The only thing she really knew was that she didn’t want to spend another night outside. That didn’t seem to be something that was going to come to pass, though, her wants being second to what reality had in store for her. Why did it seem that even fate was jealous of Trixie? That was the only way it made sense, the powers that be were jealous of what Trixie was going to be able accomplish. Whoever controlled them, she knew, likely was doing it for some sense of amusement. She was a fighter, though, and told herself that it would only get better from now on.

The fact that she had to sleep about ten minutes from town was another minor setback.

Another day started with a beautiful sunrise, but that didn’t matter as much to her. Trixie was sleeping on the ground, her mane hadn’t been taken care of, and now she had to go help with the advertisement. It had been her idea, of course, but she had hoped that there would be some way for her to get a place to stay. Without the place to stay, the ability to beautify her mane a little, she knew that everypony would consider her t be some sort of hobo. The only thing she could really do, though, was sneak to one of the spas and get something done. Sure, it would set her back a few bits.

By the time she was done, though, she knew it was worth it.

When ponies looked at her mane, they would see just how well it was normally maintained. When they looked at her coat, they wouldn’t see any dirt. Everything about her would look pristine, perfect, just the way that she tried to present herself. Trixie had been a showmare long enough to know that she was the product, that her looks were just as important as the amazing skills that she was able to show off. If she didn’t look like perfection, or close to it, she’d have no real audience. Her recent time in Ponyville had taught her that she wasn’t the most powerful, there was likely somepony else like that lavender mare out there that could make her look bad.

Attitude, appearance, they brought her the fame that she deserved.

All of that aside, it was now time for her to to what the job required of her. After all, she was a product that could only be described as a hot commodity. That was how she would describe herself, after all, with there being nopony else with her sheer show-stopping prowess. Even if there are those with more magic than me, I- No, no, don’t think like that. You’re the best, the brightest, the most talented, the most magical. that lavender mare could never perform some of the things that you have, and she never will be able to. By the end of her thoughts, she knew one thing about herself.

She didn’t even believe her anymore.

Today was going to be a day unlike any other. Trixie wasn’t going to put on much of a show, or really any show, but she was going to go out and see the adoring masses. There would be nothing short of joy at the sight of her, she was sure of it. She tossed aside the memory of the day before, of the woman that blamed her for the actions that somepony else had caused, and smiled at herself. An idea soon came to mind, though, when she thought about the many fans that would want autographs. They would love her, adore her, want to keep her from making sure that hundreds of ponies came to her show.

She would have to disguise herself.

Her horn lit up, little effort being put into the spell that she had done over a dozen times before. Normally, I use this spell on others. I might have somepony else on a big show, make them look like some giant creature, show a more theatrical approach to how I defeated some creature. That works out well, or horribly. Trixie knew, however, that the principle was the same. She just had to use the spell on herself, to make sure that it made her look a little less like herself. This is for the show, Trixie. Even the greatest stars have a little bump here and there. This means nothing about your ability to perform, this is just a minor setback.

Unlike last time, she actually believed herself.

Everything about her seemed to change, almost instantly. Her coat took on an orange color, much similar to the hillbilly that she had seen in Ponyville. Eyes were rose-colored, not that she could remember why that color came to mind. Her mane wasn’t anything special, either. It was straight, a purple color. It reached down a couple of inches under her chin. If she had really been thinking clearly, almost all of it would have seemed familiar to her. She wasn’t one to dwell on such things, though. Trixie was a pony that was there to get things done. Aside from that, most of her focus had been on trying to make sure that this spell would work.

Keeping it up would also be a difficult proposition.

Now it was time for her to get to work, to get the masses excited for when they would be able to see her perform. When she had first started, there had been ponies that helped her come up with methods. They had used her small size, her charming expression, and sometimes simply her beauty, to make sure that ponies came to see her. None of these things had brought in the hundreds she desired, but none of them were done after she had become famous. That was something she she knew would come in handy, when she would be able to get the crowd that would rocket her back into the life she deserved.

The question was, of course, how she was going to get the largest crowd she had ever had.

The fact that the other pony, the manager of the theater, was helping wasn’t something that she overlooked. There would be at least two, unless he hired somepony else, ponies trying to get an audience. Between the two of them, there was sure to be a success. Trixie wasn’t used to small crowds on her own, Ponyville had even come out in force, but that was just with her. She knew that her talent lay with wowing crowds, not with gathering crowds. Hoofington would be a large audience, she could feel it. This would be the place where her dreams came true.

The only thing she could think to do was try to find a large crowd, and then make sure that the word spread. If she told one pony, they would tell others. It would take a couple of days to get the large crowd that way, but it was the best idea she had. In her mind, there was no possible way that this could fail. Trixie could think of no better place than a local tavern. Not only would she be able to make sure that the ponies knew about it, but the bartender could make sure that it spread even faster. She might have to drop a few bits, which were precious, but it would help make sure that the crowd was even larger than before.

Out of all of the investments that she had ever made, this would be one of the most sure.

A deep breath, and Trixie trotted up confidently to the bartender.

“So, a friend of mine’s having a show in town soon.” Innocent enough conversation starter, everypony seemed to like standard conversation. It was difficult to not talk about herself, about how great she was, but that was something she’d just have to do. There would be time for her to show her greatness at the show, when she was making bits. Right now, she had to remind herself, she was a simple mare that was trying to get her friend’s show some publicity. “Any way I could talk you into going?”

A wink came next, this was one of the things that she had been used to doing. Trixie was a beautiful mare, or at least she wanted to believe so. Flattery might be able to get a lot of ponies a lot of places, but harmless flirting got a pony further.

“That depends, who’s your friend?”

That wasn’t an expected question. She had hoped that it would be a simple yes, but it didn’t seem as though the bartender cared much for her attempt. Perhaps it was the same disguise that helped her to blend in with the crowd, the one that she had used to help out with her attempt. “She’s the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“No promises. I’m sure I’d be more likely... If I got some business.”

His voice didn’t sound as enthusiastic as she wanted. Trixie had expected some sort of excitement, some sort of joy at having a friend of the Great and Powerful Trixie there. She was famous, for Celestia’s sake. There was no way that this town wasn’t lucky to have a talented unicorn such as herself. All of those thoughts went through her head, and then stayed there. She would figure out a way to get back at these ponies as well, she would find a way to make sure that they all knew that nopony simply seemed disinterested when the Great and Powerful Trixie was mentioned.

But, there is was, the bribe had been asked for.

“Oh, I’ll have a cider.” A few bits were put down, and then the amount of the drink was put down as well. Trixie knew better than to think that the cost of the drink was enough. She had an understanding with bartenders most of the time. They would help her out, and she would give them a little extra for their efforts. The showmare was sure that this was something that happened all the time, with traveling performers having to rely on the ponies that knew the place to ensure that they got the largest crowds imaginable. There were other methods, of course, but they were ways that she would never see herself doing.

Trixie had pride, she had dignity.

“I’ll see what I can do, sweetie.”

To her, that might as well have been a code. She had paid the bribe, he was going to do everything on his end to make sure that the audience she wanted was there. “Thanks. I’m sure everything will work out perfectly...” The cider was drank, in one large drink, and then Trixie started to trot out. She tried to sway her flank as trotted out. Even after the long years, she knew that she had the charm to make all of this work. The only bad thing was that, despite the fact that all of this was done by choice, there was a feeling of regret. She didn’t blame herself, though, she blamed everypony who had caused her show in Ponyville to go wrong.

She blamed anypony but herself.

That stunt at the tavern, it wasn’t something that could be done often. Trixie hadn’t ever been the type that saved bits, she always lived the best life. The good life cost bits, the best life cost more. Once again, this was something that she knew she was worth. Nothing less than the best for he most talented showmare that had ever graced Equestria. Nothing less than the best for the most talented unicorn that had ever lived. Not even the setback in Ponyville could destroy her spirit for long, all she needed to do was make sure that she got back every bit,

That lavender mare would pay for what she had done.

It actually wasn’t long until the rest of the day had been spent. Trixie couldn’t even remember most of the ponies that she ran into, spoke to, tried to get to come to the show. It wasn’t something that was simple, easy, or fun. The entire time, the nagging feeling that she should just come clean with who she was, use her star power to get them to be wowed, she wanted to just be herself in front of all these ponies. She wanted to lower the trick, to make sure that they knew who they were talking to and who they seemed to be ignoring. Nopony would ignore the Great and Powerful Trixie, that was just something that didn’t happen at all.

It didn’t help that the trick that she used was getting exceptionally difficult to keep up, even though it was something that should have been easy. Even the easiest trick got more difficult if you had to keep it up. The continued strain on her magic, it might have been something that took some of her natural grace from the conversation. Once, and only once, she almost failed to keep up the appearance. But she knew that her trick would pay out in the end. If she lowered the veil, there would be no chance that she could talk to some of the ponies that she was able to get in touch with.

The sheer amount of autographs that she would have to sign would make sure that her day would be spent with adoring fans. As nice as the idea was, and it was an exceptional idea, she knew that her dwindling bit supply couldn’t take a single failed show. Between the rental costs, the extra spa treatment she would have to get, and food, there was very little that was keeping her from plunging below the red in terms of finances. That was alright, though, because soon enough she would have the bits that were required to get the things she needed.

A hat from Canterlot, a wagon from the same location, and some extra supplies to help with a few smaller shows were the main things on the list. Most importantly, though, she would be able to start living again in the manner of which she was accustomed. Trixie just needed to suffer through this, she wold be able to for the sake of her own greatness. She told herself that the setback would only be small, that she would be able to go back to showing the world how Great and Powerful she truly was. All she had to do was make sure that she showed everyone at the show in a couple more days.

Two more days, the show was only two more days.

The morning came, the sun beautiful, and Trixie once again awoke on the ground. This seemed to be a trend, something that she was hoping might end soon. She did hope that she would be able to sleep in a wagon again, right? If she was supposed to be the Great and Powerful Trixie, and she was, then she had to live like the Great and Powerful Trixie. She hadn’t been forced to sleep on the ground since before she was a success. Despite the fact that she found it more comfortable by the night, there was something of an image to maintain. She told herself that there was no chance for her to sleep on the ground anymore, she had to come up with something else.

All it would take was a couple more days.

To say that this day was busy would be an understatement. Trixie tried to do her best to hide who she was again, once again trying to use the same spell. Once again, she tried to make sure that as many ponies as possible came to her show, the one that was coming up quite quickly. The only problem was, each minute using that spell was one more minute that seemed like an eternity. Trixie had been able to keep it up the day before, but it had tired her out far more than she had even thought. Today, she was barely able to keep it going.

It was around noon, only having done it for a scant five hours, that she decided to head somewhere to take a nap. Yesterday must have been more than enough. Trixie will have a large crowd, she knows it. She will start again with the advertising, she just need a few minutes of sleep. Even without the permission of the manager, the showmare soon found herself taking a small nap in the theatre. It wasn’t her finest moment, but she knew that all she would need was a few minutes, maybe an hour at the most, and she would be able to get back up. More work was needed, more time was needed to make sure that everything went without a hitch.

“Wow, you’re really dedicated to the show.” Obvious sarcasm rolled from the stallion’s voice, Trixie blinked as she looked up at him. “I haven’t known at showpony that actually stayed at the theatre for the entire night before a show.”

That wasn’t possible. Trixie blinked a few times, her mind desperately trying to catch up to the idea that she had just slept there for so long. He’s kidding, right? I know that the past few days haven’t been easy, but Trixie did not just sleep through an entire day and a half. Surely, he’s playing some sort of prank on me. “Excuse me, but Trixie thought she heard you say that today was the day of the show.”

“Yep. Part of me wondered how you were going to make sure that the audience was wowed, but this takes the cake. You probably know the entire theatre by now, coming up with something spectacular for the show.” Was he being sarcastic? Did he really not know that Trixie had merely been sleeping there out of pride? Did he not know that there was a part of her that couldn’t let others see that she was simply too poor to afford a good enough room? Regardless of what he thought, she simply nodded her head and agreed with his incorrect assumptions.

“Trixie thought abut a few special tricks, to make sure that everything went smoothly tonight. It will be... Spectacular.” Another lie, but Trixie told it so convincingly. She didn’t know what she was going to really do for tonight’s show. She knew that it would be something smaller, more convincing, better acted, and just overall grand. Timberwolves would be the key to her success, she knew it, but that was as far as she got. Oh, right, I have to make sure that I look the part of the all-powerful unicorn.

“But if you don’t mind, Trixie will make sure that she looks good for her audience. I will be back from the spa before the show starts, roughly three hours, to make sure that everything is set up perfectly.”

Before the manager could say anything, she had already left.

-Show time-

Well, here it was.

Trixie had a few nervous twitches, staring into the mirror at herself. Her eyes kept moving to the empty spot where her hat had once been. It was something that she had grown accustomed to, liked having. It was something that made her feel stronger, smarter, better. The fact that it was gone did more than one might expect, but she would have to move on without it. There was an audience out there, they wanted to be entertained. There was no noise, but that simply meant that they were as reverent as the showmare had desired from a crowd.

Even as she got closer, there was no sound. Trixie was certain that this meant that they were all going to cheer when they saw her.

The sound of a small explosion, and the smoke, was her personal sign to make sure that she appeared out from around the corner. There was no sound still, no cheering. To her, that had crossed the line from reverent to creepy. Of course, she didn’t actually see what the biggest problem was until she had stepped out of the cloud. She was ready to greet her audience, to tell them about her exploits. There were seats for hundreds, perhaps five hundred max. She had been ready to emote, to project, to make sure that everypony got their bits worth.

Not a single pony had shown up.

To say that this meant nothing would have been a lie. Trixie had gone through a lot of things, but this was the first time that she had suffered through an empty show. Even when she had been a new showpony, without a real name, there had been a few ponies that had shown up. This time, there was not a single pony. There were no colts, no fillies, no stallions, no mares. Even the few that she had gotten to agree to show up were missing, the only sound in the room being the sound of her own breathing as she started to hyperventilate. A single minute passed, and then the darkness took her as Trixie unceremoniously passed out on the stage.

By the time she awoke, it was to the sight of a very unhappy stallion.

“Fill up the seats, you said. I knew I was stupid to trust something like that.”

For the first time in a long time, she was afraid. There had been a long understanding that she could bring in huge crowds, and so she had been treated like she knew she should. This stallion was large, angry, and a pony that seemed to think he had been cheated out of bits. “Something must be wrong. This must be a bad dream. Trixie has never failed before to get ponies to come to a show. But, worry not, this was probably just a setback. They probably forgot the day, and they’re co-”

“NO! NO TOMORROW!”

Trixie backed up, almost like he was going to buck her teeth in. “B-but how will you get your extra bits?”

“You’re going to pay them.”

“But Trixie doesn-”

“DON’T CARE!”

A few tears fell as she realized that she had been duped completely. Regardless of how poorly the show did, he was going to get his. Trixie had been a foal to think that she could get the upper hand. Bits came out of a bag, were dropped on the ground. The currency of Equestria, the almighty bit, seemed to be the true most powerful force of the land. She turned, thinking about the fact that she wouldn’t have much to live on for a while. There wasn’t much of a chance for another show, either. The only thing that came to mind was that she would have to head back to the largest city in Equestria and look for what could be considered a normal job.

That hurt more than anything else.

Trixie could have moved on from the Ponyville incident, she was doing so just fine. Even when they had been their rudest, they had at least shown up. Something about this entire situation felt wrong, felt as though it shouldn’t have happened. She didn’t even stop once as she left the town, trying to keep her head up as she trotted out of Hoofington. Small setbacks, that was what she told them these were. But as she laid down, eyes looking up at the stars, she silently cursed them all. She had been cast aside, in a way, by the very fans that had rushed to pick her up when she was smaller.

The final thought, before she tried to go sleep, came to mind.

Could this get any worse?

Of course, it could. The sound of thunder came next, and rain quickly followed. By the time that Trixie got under a tree, she was already soaked. The only good thing about this, if anything, was that the rain was able to cover up the fact that she was starting to cry. This wasn’t right. She was the Great and Powerful Trixie, there shouldn’t be things like this happening to her. Of course, her thoughts on the matter wouldn’t help the fact that she was completely drained of money.

She had to find a way to make some money. Quick, slow, it didn’t matter. The only thing she could think to do would be head back to Canterlot. If any town had a way to help her get back on her feet, it was Canterlot.

Canterlot Blues

Out of all of the places that she could try to go to, though, Canterlot was actually one of the most difficult. It was a rather large distance away, four days trot if she trotted there. That was, actually, the only thing that Trixie could do. It wasn’t as if she knew anypony, had the bits to get a ride there, and she certainly wasn’t going to lower herself to begging. The rain continued to pour from the sky, the tree only being able to shield her from being further drenched. She was still getting hit with drops of moisture, though they lessened by the time that she had moved in to lay right next to the tree trunk.

At least the rain wasn’t going to keep her up, if only the thunder would stop as well. The occasional drop on her head was a lot easier to ignore than the loud crash of thunder. It even prevented her from keeping on one train of thought. Every time she would try to plan out what she would do, and there were many plans on how she could scam some money from somebody else, another loud clap of thunder would shake her from her planning. That was a lot of coincidence, a lot of bad coincidence.

Trixie was no closer to figuring out what she was going to do when she finally ended up drifting out of consciousness.

”You’re nothing but a failure!”

The manager appeared out of nowhere. Somehow, he had gotten larger. There was something else different about him, though. He didn’t seem to be threatening her with violence, he seemed to just have a wide smile on his face. It was almost as if he was happy to point that out to her, happy that Trixie’s last show had failed in the most spectacular fashion. That couldn’t be true, though. This man had depended on her to bring in a large crowd.

“You’re just a big show-off!”

Suddenly, a rainbow-maned pegasus flew down from the sky. She seemed to have a smile on her face as well. “Good to know you got what was coming!” Laughter came next, at her. Trixie turned to look for the manager, the laughter from his direction had changed. Now it was Hayseed from the Ponyville show. That didn’t make any sense, though. Why would the two of them follow her? It wasn’t as if the Great and Powerful Trixie had done anything to them.

“Why’re you wasting your time on her?”

Perhaps even worse than them showing up was when they turned their heads and soon went away. Hayseed galloped off into the distance, and the pegasus simply flew up and away. That would have been a good thing, except Trixie still felt as though she was being watched by somepony. Eyes closed for a moment, trying to think of how any of this could possibly make sense, only to open to the sight of hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at her.

Then out of nowhere, she heard laughter...

With a startle, she awoke.

Trixie almost forgot where she was, the nightmare had seemed so real. All of those ponies had been mocking her, but why. Why would she dream something like that? There was no time for introspection, really, there was only time for her to get up and get moving. If there was a train, she might be able to get there in a day. Trains cost bits, though, and bits were something that she had in short supply.

So, trotting to Canterlot it was.

Four days, that was all that it took to get there. It didn’t actually feel like four days. Maybe it wouldn’t have seemed so long if she had anything other than her thoughts to keep her company. Her mind kept moving back to Hoofington, to the horrible things that had come from her performance. None of it made any sense to her, yet at the same time there was a weight that had been removed. It couldn’t be the weight of being rich, because she was hardly wealthy, but something else.

Each night, the empty theatre was in her dream.

The first morning, even though it wasn’t hot, Trixie had awoken covered in sweat. Perhaps it was something that had to do with the fact that she had thrashed around the night before. Regardless, the first day’s progress was slow. She was still able to keep up a normal pace, but even that was difficult. Each step felt like ten, but her pride was keeping her going. There was no way that she would let the dream prove to be true. There was no way that she would allow herself to become the failure that she feared to be.

Day two started off a lot nicer. Trixie was sweaty, but the thrashing had obviously been lessened by something. Even though there was the same dream, it didn’t matter as much. It still hit her, but somehow there was something that made it hit a little lighter than the previous day. Part of her wanted to push ahead, to try to get closer to Canterlot, but that wasn’t something that she was going to do. The trip seemed to be almost as important as the destination, though she couldn’t quite figure out why it felt like that.

By day three, she awoke with a smile on her face. That seemed strange, given everything that had happened. She was the Great and Powerful Trixie, she shouldn’t be smiling after having such a poor reception. That didn’t make any sense at all, there had to be something about it that would make sense later on. This was what took up the rest of the day, her thoughts about what it could possibly be. Why was it that she didn’t care what the dream showed her? Another thing was why she was starting to become happier because of it? What was her mind trying t tell her?

It took to the end of the fourth day, when she was right outside of Canterlot, for her to finally figure it out. That day had gone splendidly. No more did she sweat, she felt absolutely rested from her previous night. The smile was wider, it was something that came natural to her once again. The only thing that made any of this make sense was something about the name the Great and Powerful Trixie. She had come up with that for her own reasons, but eventually it had become something of its own. Perhaps she would be able to just shed the expectations.

She would become Great and Powerful, but there was something to be said about the numerous shows. Everypony expected greatness, and on more than one show she had stressed greatly about the idea of coming up with something that was spectacular. Even though stage fright had left her, almost at the same time as one of her first performances as the Great and Powerful Trixie, there had always been the expectations of the fans. Every great artist loves fans, every powerful magician loved admirers, but there was something more to them than simply admiring her work.

They demanded more, and more, and more.

The final night, the one before she would enter Canterlot, she stared up at the sky and thought about everything that had happened. She was still great, she was still powerful, but she was also able to just rest. That was a great feeling, greater than she thought. It was something that hadn’t happened in a long time, her shows always taking up her utmost focus. Even the idea of working didn’t seem to phase her at that point, there was something refreshing about the idea of heading to work for one of the many ponies in the capital.

That scared her a little.

As she stared up at the sky, remembering everything, a couple of tears dripped from her eyes. Trixie closed her eyes, drifting into a peaceful sleep.

”Watch and be amazed at the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

It had been the show that was just before Ponyville, it was a show that started off with a couple of ponies showing up. Trixie looked down at them, a confident smile on her face. Even though it was only a few weeks ago, it still felt like forever. It still felt as if she was staring into her own distant past, or maybe even watching a movie. She wasn’t watching it from her own point of view, after all, it was almost as if she was on the outside of all of this and was simply watching herself.

Trixie, the one on stage, lit up her horn. Just as always, an image of a herself appeared. This wasn’t going to be like the normal shows. Normally, she would just start a story with the antagonist, and then she would proceed to show that she had defeated it. This was a simple trick, and it never ceased to wow the simpletons that she seemed to find as he audience.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not always perform these shows. Sometimes, she is performing missions for the Princess. One such task brought her to a snow-covered land.” Another glow of her horn, and the audience would soon think they actually saw snow. “Everything was going smoothly, when she was suddenly beset by...” Once again, the glow of her horn brought about another image. This time, it was an image of the three Windigo from the Hearths Warming Eve Pagent.

“The dreaded Windigo!”

The audience was amazed, the idea of running into the creatures was obviously unthought of.

“Trixie could not let this evil go uncontested. It was only with her most powerful spells that she was able to end their threat.” The image of herself waved a wand, several waves of what was meant to be magic hit the beasts. Almost immediately, they disappeared into nothingness. This was what it had meant to be the Great and Powerful Trixie. She was the best at what she did. It didn’t matter that the things she did were tricks. Those that she ran into, they thought that she was great and powerful. Not only that, but they were entertained. Cheers emanated from the crowd, telling her that she had done a perfect job.

Each cheer was another sign that she was doing a great job. And if each cheer was a separate cry that she was doing a great job, then there were dozens of proclamations of her great abilities. They were entertained, and she was richer for it.

Nobody lost.

With the dawn, Trixie arose. It wasn’t because of the sun, though that likely would have awoken her even a couple of days ago, but it was a feeling. There were a lot of things that she had to do today, and she knew that she had to hit the ground galloping. She knew that there was no way that she would be able to get a job if she didn’t look, which meant that she had to get into Canterlot. That was actually an easy part, it wasn’t as if there was a lot of security trying to stop people from entering the capital. All she would have to do was walk in, find somepony who was looking for somepony to help them, and then get enough bits to actually start her show again.

It sounded so simple in her head.

In the best of times, Canterlot was the shining city on the hill. It was a place where jobs were being made, businesses expanded, and ponies were employed. In the best of times, all one had to do was simply breathe and look for a job, those two qualifications were enough to make sure that the search was a success. This was actually why Trixie had come to the town, with the hope that there was always another job that somepony could accomplish with their wits and their charm. She would settle for a job that required one of them, actually.

By the end of the day, she had discovered that the continuous expansion wasn’t something that was maintained since her last visit.

News from the streets said that it was a plethora of small events that led to this. There had been an infestation in Ponyville, one that had caused there to be a lot of damage to he town. That was something that she was sure they deserved. Another infestation hit another town, which they likely didn’t deserve. Both of those things were after the damage that the Ursa Minor had caused to Ponyville. All of those bits went to the efforts to make sure that the towns survived, which meant that fewer and fewer bits could be put towards the improvement of Canterlot.

That put a damper on her actually finding gainful employment.

The bad thing that came with that was the bad news about staying inside. It wasn’t something that she had to do, but it was something that a small part of her had wanted. A bad might be more comfortable than the ground, especially if she had been able to stay at one of the better hotels for the night. All of that had taken into account the idea of making some money, which took into account her getting a job, which took into account there actually being enough jobs to where a pony could come in and get one. Of course, there was always the next day, her luck might change the next day.

A few final bites were taken of a sandwich, and then she drifted off to sleep.

By the time the next day came up, she had a renewed hope. Trixie knew that the first day hadn’t done as well as she expected, or hoped, but that hadn’t meant anything. Canterlot was a huge city, the capital of Equestria, which meant there had to be a job. All she would have to do would be to continue through the day, asking around, trying to figure out who needed help. In her mind, the entire day, she knew that something would come. She knew that she had hit bottom, or as close to bottom as she would, and it would all be uphill from there.

By the end of the day, she was sleeping in the same spot and eating a cheaper sandwich.

That was alright, it was another small setback. In the end, Trixie was sure that the next day would be better. All she had to do was try to remain positive, try to make sure that she kept a smile on her face. All she had to do was look good, be confident, and then she would get some sort of job. That was what she told herself when she woke up the next day, anyway. The only problem was that it wasn’t exactly true, it seemed as if few ponies actually needed anyone to work for them.

It was getting hard to remain positive after a few more days of this. Another thing that was getting more difficult to do was pay for those meals. Trixie was getting poorer and poorer, but she was sure that there would be something coming up. Of course, positivity made it all better. She just had to pretend that this was some sort of test, that this was her trying to ration out and see how strong she was. Strong people could go with less food, right? That was how she was able to rationalize the fact that she was slowly becoming unable to pay for her own meals.

Around the fifth day, she had finally figured out that there was a place where the poor went to get meals.

This was Trixie Lulamoon, the Great and Powerful Trixie, though. There was no chance that she could rationalize going to a place like that. Aside from that, it wouldn’t be too much longer before she had a job. She knew that it would come the next day, or maybe the day after that. Optimism was a powerful thing, it led to the denial of facts that could never well lead to somebody being able to survive. The initial optimism was strong for five days, it was the thing that put a huge smile on her face. Trixie actually kept track of the days, there wasn’t any reason why she shouldn’t.

After the fifth day, she stopped counting. There was still a smile on her face, but she had to work hard to keep it as wide as before. Everything she did, she kept the same energy. Anypony who knew how to watch ponies would see that the energy was forced. Another downside of smaller meals was that her nightly sleep had eventually gone up another thirty minutes in the five days. Of course, this was temporary. Trixie told herself that all she needed to do was find that one pony that would be able to help her get her hoof in the door.

By the time two weeks came around, she didn’t even bother with trying to keep up with the count of days. Her smile was almost completely forced. It didn’t matter if she looked as cheerful in her steps, her voice, it was only the smile that she could keep up. Her sleep moved up to nine hours a night, up another half hour. Trixie was still determined, she would find a way to make sure that everything went alright. All she needed to do was figure out how it was that she could find a job. Her small traces of pride stopped her from going to get the free food, even though her bits were all spent by half-way through that week.

By the time the third week came around, everything was forced. Trixie didn’t feel like going anywhere. She needed a job, of course, but there wasn’t any joy to be found in the search anymore. Nopony was hiring, it seemed, which meant that she was likely going to end her journey there. It was hard to remain positive when there were such terrible things happening. Three days into the week, she had caved. It had been a week since she had eaten, and the amount was barely enough to be considered a single meal, but it was still better than the alternative.

Four weeks later, she didn’t even bother smiling. The fact that she only ate one meal a day meant that she had lost a considerable amount of weight. This was actually worse than when she had started off, with there being a few ponies who had helped her out back then. Those bridges had been sufficiently burned down, so that wasn’t something that happened this time. Living outside also meant that her main way of bathing was a stream that she had to walk to. This only happened once a week, so by the end of the week she likely looked like a hobo.

The first day of the fifth week came around, and all hope had left.

Trixie’s weight hadn’t really shrank much over the past week, though it had a little. She was now getting a meal a day, sometimes more if the stallion who was giving out the free-meal decided that it was a good idea to help her out a little more. This wasn’t something that she liked, of course, but it was something that she would have to get over. Pride was great, but it was something that died in the face of not being able to get the food that helps ensure that you continue to live. There would be no way that she would be able to do anything if she wasn’t living, obviously.

It was the middle of the fifth week that something happened.

There hadn’t been a single day when she hadn’t looked for a job. A smile might not have adorned her face, but smiling wasn’t the only thing in life. Trixie wanted to make sure that she survived, that she got back on her feet, that was able to take care of herself. At some point, her idea of trying to get her wagon again was thrown to the side. For now, at least, she wanted to make sure that she didn’t have to rely on another pony. For now, she wanted to make sure that she could feed herself. All of that had pushed her to another day of disappointment, there wasn’t a single job in sight.

Then it happened, the thing that changed everything.

“Get out of here!”

A stallion, in a uniform, was tossed out of the local donut shop. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she was looking for a job, Trixie might have felt bad for what she had just seen. She knew what it was like to be thrown out, like garbage, by somebody who didn’t have any right. At this point, though, her main focus was trotting in there and trying her best to make sure that she looked good enough to get a job. I want to get this, I need to get this. Trixie will not be denied a job again! There just has to be some way that I can impress this man, make him see that I’m a hard worker. I mean, he doesn’t know otherwise. Perhaps for the final time, she forced a smile on her face.

By the time she walked out, the smile wasn’t forced.

“Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice that you just threw out somebody that looked to be an employee.”

“Yeah?”

The stallion was obviously still not happy. Whatever had caused him to need to throw out his former employee was still weighing on him. Something horrible had to have happened. She was smart enough to not ask. If he wanted to say something about it, he would. Otherwise, her main concern was making sure that she got a job with an income.

“Does this mean that you’ll be requiring somebody to replace him?” While the hope had died a while back, is had been slightly revived here. Trixie thought that she might be able to get a job, which would mean that she would be able to keep on living. That was a wonderful goal, at least in her mind. Great and Powerful was out, and surviving was the new big thing.

The stallion glanced at her, looking into her eyes as if he was trying to judge her. It was as if he was trying to measure her worth as a worker, or maybe just figure out what she was trying to get by asking. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her, not from his cursory glance. He saw that she looked small, but that was alright. She also seemed to look a little shaken, but that wasn’t bad. Whatever had happened to her would probably not effect the way that she worked. Perhaps there was something about how small she was that made him feel bad for her, like he should hire her to make sure that she didn’t get any smaller.

“You wouldn’t make me regret it, would you?”

The smile got wider, this was the chance that she had been looking for. All she had to do was make sure that she looked the part, and she would definitely be hired. “Trixie has never been one to make people regret things. And that is not something that would start here.” Perhaps it was happiness that had brought back her old speech patterns. Whatever it was, she hadn’t even noticed it. The only thing she noticed was that he seemed to be lightening up. That was the sign of happy, which was the sign of happy. Her tail actually began to move, almost like a happy kitten.

“I’ll give you one chance.” Eyes looked over the mare, seeing that she was more than a little dirty. This wasn’t something that could be shown to customers, but she was obviously not able to do much about it herself. The stallion went to the register, and he pulled out some bits. They were tossed to her, a smile on his face as he did. “I want you to be here bright and early, around seven. Before you come in, though, I’m going to need you to clean yourself up. Your uniform will be here when you get here.”

The news of the night was that Trixie finally had a job.

She didn’t sleep the entire night, far too excited by the prospect of finally being able to work. Far gone was the old her, replaced by somebody who was just happy to survive. Her dreams had even been displaced by the primal fear of death. But now, now she would be able to get enough food to gain back the weight that she had before. All she had to do was make sure that she did a good job at work. Working without sleep would probably be difficult, but she would find a way to make sure that it was still able to be done. Perhaps the bath would awaken her, make sure that she didn’t slack off on the job.

It cost every single bit that she had been given to get a good bath.

When Trixie got out, she looked like a thinned version of her old self. There was a smile on her face, her mane was washed perfectly. Not a single speck of dirt was on her, which was definitely what was expected of her. She even got to work early, which wasn’t the hardest task with the fact that she hadn’t slept at all the night before. That was something that had likely impressed the stallion in charge, which was definitely something that was worth doing. Trixie hadn’t been told anything about how much she would be making, or how often she would get paid, but the idea of impressing your boss was something that she had learned from her earlier days as a showmare.

Her uniform looked just like the one from the stallion that had been kicked out.

Eyes were wide open, she was still going from pure adrenaline. There weren’t a lot of tasks for her to accomplish, really. Donuts needed to be cooked, which wasn’t something that she was going to be trusted to do right now. There would be customers that would ask for them, she would get what they wanted. Some ponies would come in and ask for coffee, or sometimes tea, and she would have to make sure that they got just what they wanted. Trixie would also be the one that would fill their cups, when they ran low, unless they said otherwise. It wasn’t the most difficult task in the world, but it did sound like one of the most boring.

A job is a job, regardless of how boring it is.

The first day didn’t go all that slow, though. She had expected that time would drag on. There were a dozen customers, each of them seemed to ant to talk to her when there was downtime. It was almost as if they found her to be interesting. They would ask her about herself, how she got the job, and she would tell them the boring story about how she saw the last person get fired for something. Everything had worked in her favor to make sure that she had a job. Trixie left out the parts about her almost starving to death, and what had happened before, those details detracted from the idea that it had been her good fortune that helped her land the job.

If the past Trixie could see herself now, it wouldn’t be pretty.

First day was over, and she was given some bits. It seemed as though her pay would depend on how much was made that day, and that day had been slightly below average. The only thing that made it any better was the fact that she had been allowed to eat a couple of donuts for free. These weren’t things that she normally ate, but Trixie could barely contain herself after she took a single bite. These things were amazing, and the two of them were quickly downed. Dinner from the other pony, the one who had helped her survive up until this point, came before she found a normal spot that she had slept at during the time that she had been in this city.

How long had it been? It felt like forever.

With the sunrise, Trixie stood up. To say that the outdoors was somewhere that she wanted to be, that would be a lie. After the long time, however, it had become something that simply was. If she had a place to stay, that would be one thing. She didn’t, and so she would have to pay to get a bath every day before she went to work. Even the first day, she had made more than enough to pay for the bath. If today was anything like the day before, she would be able to pay for it again. The next day, the next day, the next day, she would try to pay for everything a day at a time. A couple of donuts a day, along with the meal, might be able to put her back to what could be considered a normal weight.

It made perfect sense to her. Everything was finally going to turn around for her, she would finally get back to doing more than simply surviving. This job, it would be the thing that would make sure that she could get a place to truly live. There was something else that she had to do, she knew it, but it wasn’t coming to mind as she finished her bath. This was her second day at work,or at least it was going to be when she actually got there. When she got to work, her uniform was waiting for her. It would, with any luck, be another day like the one before. She had liked the idea

That day was busier than the first.

There was barely enough time for her to finish a thought, let alone enough time for her to have a conversation with anypony. Between filling up drinks, getting the orders right, and making sure that the customers paid what they owed, there was barely enough time for her to eat the two donuts that she had been told that she could have. There wasn’t time for a break, aside from the lunch that lasted only five minutes. This was one of those things that had a positive and a negative. The positive was that she was going to be able to get more bits, as her pay was dependent on how many were sold that day.

By the end of the day, however, she was wore out.

That wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, though. Trixie had thought that she would hate the job by the time she left, but the exact opposite happened. Something about the job made her feel actually useful. It might have been something small, it was actually nothing major, but the previous month hadn’t exactly been the kindest to her. Part of her thought that if these days continued, then she might be able to work her way back up to where she could do something else. Of course, part of her didn’t want to do anything else.

This stallion was nice enough.

For the next two weeks, everything began to pick up. There were orders for parties, plenty of customers, and no time to herself. Trixie barely had five minutes to herself, barely had enough time to go eat dinner, and barely had enough time to get the bath before work started. It was a glorious time, really. She got paid plenty, which helped her to regain just a little more of her previous weight. Ponies didn’t really stare so much, her ribs were barely showing at this point. If things continued like this, she wouldn’t have to worry about bits. If things continued like that, she could get a place to stay.

Of course, it didn’t.

After those two weeks passed, business started to falter. It didn’t seem to be so bad at first, with there being fifteen minutes a day to eat and sit down. Trixie didn’t like the decrease in pay, but that was something that she couldn’t do anything about. Customers smiled when they looked at her, but she was hardly enough to pull in large crowds. Her time in Hoofington had been enough to tell her that her days of large crowds had passed. She didn’t like thinking of that, though. When she thought of that time, she started to get sad. When she thought of the future, everything was bright.

After two weeks of it slowing down, that’s when everything went bad. Before then, it had been a gradual thing. More and more ponies were going to Pony Joe, but he was more established. This donut store would just have to do something to stop that. The decrease in customers only had the effect of giving her time to think about things. Not only that, but she was able to get some of the ponies to talk with her. That was always fun, finding out what was happening in the world around her. Apparently, there had been an infestation problem. How many infestations could there possibly be? She didn’t push, for all she knew it could have just been something that she had already known about.

Soon, though, she was told that she wasn’t needed as long.

This was bad news. Trixie had been getting fewer bits, of course. It had been expected, her pay was tied to their sales. She had also always had a place to stay during the day. This had two big benefits. For one, it gave her something to keep herself busy. During the last few weeks, she had been able to do nothing more than simply think about the job that she was doing. Another thing was that it had given her some place to be during the day. When she had been left to her own devices, she had simply wandered around. Now she was left to do that again, or at least she thought that she was going to be left to do that again.

It was around noon one day, hours had been cut to a mere four every day, when she ran into a pony. Trixie had been doing the financials in her mind, trying to figure out what she was going to do to make up for the remainder, and thus hadn’t been watching where she was going. Eyes looked up, and suddenly she saw a mare that looked as though she was nobility. Of course, there were few ponies that were actually nobility. That didn’t stop Trixie from staring at her, even if she couldn’t quite name her. Upper class was probably a better way to explain her.

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” It had to be the snootiest voice she had ever heard. Trixie wasn’t one to insult, not anymore, but this mare’s voice was just simple the most annoying thing she had heard for a while. It took all of her considerable willpower to make sure that she didn’t say anything.

“My apologies.” That kind of stung, really. Trixie had made a simple mistake, and this mare was making her apologize for it. More accurately, this rude mare wasn’t apologizing on her end. It was infuriating, but it was simply how things went. “I just got off of work, and I was thinking about trying to get another job.” She didn’t even know why she was telling this mare her business, the upper-class mare didn’t seem like she would care.

Strangely enough, her eyes seemed to glisten.

“I understand, dear.” That voice again, it was the most annoying thing she had heard for a while. “I’d like to think that every pony simply wants a job. And I like to help make sure that happens.” Okay, so she was nice and her voice was annoying. At least Trixie was lucky enough to run into a pony that was kind. Ponies didn’t choose their voices, after all.

So she smiled back, not exactly sure what she was getting herself into. “Thank you.”

“It’s no trouble at all.”

It would be trouble.

When Trixie got back to the house, which was more of a mansion, her mouth practically dropped to the floor. This was large, this was extravagant, this was something that would likely be the talk of so many ponies. It was also something that she could tell hadn’t been cleaned for a few days. At this point, part of her was starting to feel really unsure if she wanted to get into this. She knew what it was going to be, or at least she had an idea of what it probably would be, and it wasn’t something that she was looking forward to doing.

The mansion needed a cleaning.

Four hours of straight cleaning. It was worse than the busiest day at her other job. Banisters needed cleaning, floors needed cleaning, walls, and so forth. Things were taking far longer than she could have possibly imagined. The only reason why it took four hours, and not six, was the occasional use of magic when her employer wasn’t looking. She didn’t know if the mare, even though she looked to be a unicorn as well, would like the idea of something like this being done. Some ponies liked the idea of the work being done by the pony, in the most natural way possible.

By the time the work was done, Trixie was worn out. Another thing that could be stated as fact as that the mansion was a lot cleaner.

“That was a great job, Miss...”

“Trixie, Trixie Lulamoon.”

Once again, there was a gleam in her eye. It was actually starting to get creepy, the way that the mare looked at her. Now there were two things that just threw her off. There was the voice, and now there was the eyes. The only saving grace, at least for Trixie, was the fact that she was nice enough to make sure that the unicorn had a job. It even seemed like she was going to pay well, which made sense in light of the sheer amount of bits that she had.

“Actually, Miss Lulamoon, if you would like to come down tomorrow about the same time? I think I have another job for you.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it will be mutually beneficial.”

That wasn’t very encouraging, but Trixie was soon escorted back to the door. There hadn’t even been enough time to ask again. This was starting to worry her, and that was never a sign that she should come back. Of course, the mare did pay well enough. She didn’t even know if her hours would be as high as they were today at the donut store, which were already too low in her opinion. Did she really have the ability to turn down a job?

Could she really afford it?

The next day proved to have the same hours. Apparently, business had stabilized at the donut shop. It was still four hours, though, which definitely wasn’t a great thing. The owner might have been happy, potentially being able to stay open for good, but that still meant that she was going to have to deal with fewer hours than she wanted. The only upside, if there was one to be had, was that she was going to be able to go to the secondary job that had apparently opened up for her.

Her name had been the key, it seemed.

By the time that she got to the mansion, a wide smile was on her face. Nothing could keep her down, really. Nothing would be able to take the smile from her face. This was what she thought, anyway, until she got to the mansion. Trixie was looking forward to helping out again. She was sure that it wouldn’t be cleaning. There was actually little indication that she would be able to guess what it was, but that didn’t matter. Right now, she was riding the high that came with your name once again carrying weight.

Everything was going to be righted again.

“Oh, darling, here you go.” A sack of bits were thrown at her feet.

“But I haven’t done anything yet.” A sweet smile was on her face, no knowledge about what she was going to be forced to do. If she was paid early, that might mean it was dangerous. Another thing that it might mean, and this one was more likely, was that this was a downpayment. If this sack was simply the downpayment, though, the job had to be something with a giant payout.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think you’d run away before you complete the job.”

Trust money didn’t make sense, it only cost the person bits when the pony took off with it. That wasn’t something that could be said abut her, though. Trixie never abandoned a job before it was done, never. Today was not going to be the day that it started.

“I understand.”

With that, Trixie was led into a room. It looked like a large library, filled with likely thousands of books. There were likely some small towns out there that didn’t have this many books. Her eyes went wide, though she tried to hide the fact that she was amazed by the sheer number of books. There was also a projector, something that seemed to be completely out of place when it came to the rest of the library, but that might have simply been how the mare wanted the library to look.

Or maybe she watched films, which would require the equipment that she had.

“I’m going to get a few things to help with your job, you stay here and look around. I know that unicorns like ourselves love books.”

That wasn’t completely false, she did have a great fascination with some books. Before, her desire had been focused on fiction. Her works, her shows, focused on being able to come up with the most original way to tell some of the most mundane things. She had to read. Trixie’s prose, her wording, her inflection, all of that was actually helped out by one book or another. A lot of who she was, or at least had been, was compiled from the books that she had studied.

Of course, now she also had a fascination with stronger magic. If she had been stronger, been able to lift an Ursa Minor, she would have been the one that had saved Ponyville. There it came again, the thoughts of the lavender unicorn that had helped to ruin her reputation. If it hadn’t been for that, Hoofington likely wouldn’t have gone as bad as it had. Memories came bubbling up to the surface, and they weren’t nice to the ponies around her. Her memories were starting to focus on how Great and Powerful she was.

At last, the woman came back with a few reels.

That was actually more confusing than before she had left. Why would she come back with reels? How would a movie help her out with her job? Trixie couldn’t help but show her confusion, which seemed to bring an even bigger smile to the mare’s face. It was almost as if she like the fact that she had just confused her new employee. Sure, it was only a single job. Actually, that was what made it even more confusing. If this was only a single job, it likely wouldn’t be enough for her to have two reels of instructions. A small part of her told her to abort the mission, to head out and to give back the bits. Trixie didn’t abandon a job, though, and this wouldn’t be when she would start a trend.

“Everything will become clearer after you’re done watching these. Don’t worry, they’re important to your job.”

Rough Times Ahead

A few moments later, as one would expect, the lights went out. The show couldn’t start without it, of course. That didn’t stop it from causing Trixie to almost jump, as if she hadn’t realized what was going to happen. It had to be her nerves. She was a mare who saw a lot of things, including an Ursa Minor recently, which probably shocked her recent employer if she could really see what had happened. There was actually a hope that she wouldn’t have seen it, the showmare didn’t like looking like this.

It was visible enough to the employer, though.

The reason why she had been startled was obvious to anypony who knew Trixie. She saw many things that she had known were coming, she always made sure that she wasn’t caught off guard. This entire scenario was something that didn’t make any sense to her. That, by itself, was enough to put her on edge. There was also something about this mare, something that azure mare had to fight down to keep her from just calling this job off and retreating with what seemed to be all due haste.

Finally, the moment that the two of them had been waiting for, the show.

The show opened up to a stage, a very elegant looking one. It was large, made of treated oak. Everything looked set up to where there would be some sort of great show. At the point when the film started to show, though, it was empty.

It seemed strangely familiar. This wasn’t the one that she had, it seemed as if the pony who had put this together spent much more money than she had for any of the shows that were outside. Trixie hadn’t been poor, not by any stretch of the imagination, but there wasn’t much of a need for a grand stage when she was going to make sure that the focus was on her. A shake of her head, she knew she had to focus on what was going to happen.

This was her job, after all.

But why was an empty stage being shown?

The video cut out, after showing the beautiful stage. When it came back, it was once again showing that same beautiful stage. This time, though, the stage wasn’t empty. There were all sorts of amazing things on it. There was a showmare, who looked amazingly like her employer. The only difference was that she looked younger, easily ten years younger.

Okay, it was getting weird.

There were a lot of showmares out there, right? Trixie took a deep breath in, let it out, and tried to focus all of her attention on the show that was coming next. This looked as though it was going to be nothing more than the azure mare being shown an act. Perhaps it was even an attempt to show that she wanted the Great and Powerful Trixie to perform for a crowd. It would be a great way for her old career to bloom again, to have the patronage of one of the rich ponies of Canterlot. That didn’t make any sense, though, given the fact that there was already a mare on stage.

Did she want Trixie to help some other pony shine?

Along with the showmare, there were some props. There was a box, the type that helped with the basic trick of sawing a pony in half. Off to the side, nearly completely behind the curtain, there was a glass tank. It was clear, filled with water.

It was starting to seem like this wasn’t just any show. Trixie wasn’t an idiot, there was a reason why she stuck with what she did. These were the efforts of somepony who knew what she was doing, who was sure enough to put her own life on the line. If something went wrong with one of these tricks, there wouldn’t be a repeat performance. There were some tricks that she would never do. This fact alone made the job less obvious than it had been a few moments prior. She had thought that she was finally coming up with something that it could have been.

Now she was back to the first step of the puzzle.

The crowd that formed around the stage was rather large, easily fifty ponies from what seemed to be a small town. It seemed as though they had come to see somepony who had made a name for themselves.

It had to be the last trick.

Trixie had seen several attempts to make it seem as though you were sawing a pony in half. It was actually one of the most simple tricks. When you started to saw, the pony would pull their hind legs back into the first section. Afterwards, a pair of fake legs would be poking out of the other one. It would look as though you sawed them in half.

Afterward, it was even more simple. You put the two halves, the pieces of the prop. The small piece that helped hide the whole pony moved, the real pony moved their legs back. Everypony would cheer, they were amused by the fact that it looked as though the pony had accomplished something spectacular. It wasn’t anything amazing, though it did always get cheers because it looked amazing. That was something that she could admire, encourage even. This was the type of thing that had gotten her so many cheers in the past.

When the first trick was done, it wasn’t anything spectacular. It had been the most simple thing, cutting a mare in half. It worked perfectly, not a single thing going wrong. The trick was made for the easy crowd. This didn’t stop the applause that came from when it was completed, though. It was almost as if the ponies didn’t care about the sort of tricks that were done they just needed something mindless to keep their minds occupied.

This looked like a crowd that Trixie would have gone after. It wasn’t a crowd with a lot of magical ponies, not a single unicorn was seen from the audience. She assumed, despite the hat, that the person who was doing the tricks had to be a unicorn. There wasn’t much that an earth pony could do when it came to this, much like she knew that she wasn’t going to go out and start harvesting fruits or vegetables anytime soon.

Next came a fan-pleaser, or more accurately another one.

The performer called out to the audience, beckoning forth a seemingly unknown pony. When they got up to the stage, a pack of cards were pulled out. This was obviously one of the many tricks that the average unicorn frowned upon.

“Go ahead, pick a card.” She beckoned to the mare.

When a card was picked, observing eyes looked at the back. It was placed into the deck again, and the cards were shuffled. Not just once, actually, the cards seemed to be shuffled a few times until she put the deck down on the table. Eyes looked into that of her temporary assistant, the intense stare as she stared the other mare’s eyes. A hoof moved, and then a card was shown to everyone.

“Wow, how’d ya know?” It sounded as though the mare in question didn’t know what had just happened, clear shock from the trick.

“A good magician never reveals her secrets.”

It was pretty obvious to Trixie what had happened.

When a pony wants to find a card, they generally make every one different. This could be a subtle feeling, literally removing a small piece of a card, or something more visible. A dot on each card wouldn’t be noticed by any other pony, but simply studying it yourself was enough to make sure that you knew. Trixie had learned that when she had gone around making sure that everyone knew who the truly Great and Powerful pony was.

That was something she really wanted to forget.

When her assistant went back, standing back outside, the third trick finally began. It was a small show, obviously, but the finale was going to be one of the things that kept her name going. This was the type of thing that was going to make sure that everypony knew her name, that they wanted to come to her next show and the one after that.

This was the type of thing that made everything completely fun.

A couple of ponies came, and helped her into restraints. It didn’t make much sense, until she cleared her throat to explain what she was going to do. Everypony suddenly quieted, as if these next few words were going to be some great wisdom that would help them figure out the meaning of life.

“You might wonder why these ponies restrained me, and why they are bringing out the tank of water.” A smile was on her face, as if this little speech had happened a thousand times before. Whether it had or not, that was something that would never be known. “I am going to be submerged into this tank. I will get out of the restraints. Afterwards, I will get up to the top and I will get out.”

The cheering was amazingly loud, even with the size of the crowd. This was a performance to see, it was something that wasn’t done by the average performer. None of them had seen anything like it before.

There was, at least to Trixie, no way that she could die. The mare wouldn’t show a presentation of somepony dying, unless they expected for her to do something along the lines of that trick. Of course, she would have to turn down that sort of trick. She did a lot of things for money, but actually putting her life on the line was something that was above and beyond anything that could be considered reasonable. The only way that she knew she could do that was with unicorn magic, and there wouldn’t be any spectacle from actually using unicorn magic.

Perhaps that was why very few unicorns actually did this sort of trick.

Within a minute of the cheering dying down, the restrained mare was dropped into tank. Anypony who had been watching would see that she had taken a breath, but that was expected from a pony that was going to be going underwater. Nopony even murmured about it, they knew that even a breath would only be able to get her so far. The clock was ticking, she only had so much time before she would likely let out the breath and try to get another.

If she wasn’t out by then, she would have to be pulled out.

Thirty seconds rolled by, there wasn’t much sign that she would get out. When she had been put in there, the total number of restraints was five. One of them had restrained her fore legs together, and one had restrained her hind legs together. The third restrained those two restraints together, something that seemed to be almost overkill to everypony who was watching. The final restraints were one for each of her hind legs to the tank itself.

After thirty seconds, only one of them was gone.

The amazing thing happened within the next thirty seconds, though. A second, third, and fourth one had dropped. Ten seconds after that, the fifth had dropped and she was swimming to the top of the tank. She forced it open, which hadn’t been hard as that hadn’t been locked, and jumped out of it. It had only taken her a little over a minute to do something that some ponies couldn’t do into two.

Then again, two minutes was the high point of some pony’s ability to actually hold their breath.

This was something astounding.

It had been obvious that she wouldn’t die, but even Trixie hadn’t thought it would be that good. She didn't think that anypony could perform that so quickly, so easily. Throughout the recording, the showmare had been trying to get any view of something wrong. Had there been a key that flashed? Had the locks looked as though they hadn’t been secured? Was there something that made them unlock at a certain time? She was sure she would have seen something like that.

None of those had been seen.

Okay, so perhaps Trixie didn’t need to help this mare out. It would have been great to be some help, but it didn’t look as though this mare needed any help. Of course, that still begged the question as to why she was watching this. Another question that was showing up in her mind, more and more, was the question of who this was. With each of the tricks, even though there had been only three, this performer seemed to be a lot more recognizable. There was something about her that made the azure showmare think that she might have seen her somewhere before.

Where, though, was a question that would likely elude her until it was pointed out. Trixie normally had such a fine memory, but names of her fellow performers sometimes ended up being dropped.

The movie moved from that show, though not before showing that there had been plenty of applause from an audience that loved her work. It also showed a grateful smile, as if part of her joy came from making sure that the ponies enjoyed the presentation that had been put on.

The next stage was the same, everything from the size to the color.

This town looked as though it was larger, and more ponies had shown up. There could easily have been a hundred ponies there. It actually looked a lot like Trottingham, the houses had the particular style that gave away the city’s quant charm.

Now it was getting frustrating.

The audience size was one that Trixie would have given some other pony’s left hind leg for. Why another pony’s? She needed her own for her shows, she could hardly give up something that brought so much joy to everypony. There was something else about this that was frustrating, though, in the fact that it looked so familiar. She couldn’t quite place her hoof on it, but there was something about this that struck her as something she should know about.

The stage, the mare, the town, everything about it looked familiar enough that she was wanting to know more details. Part of her assumed that it was just a simple mistake. Trixie had gone from town to town, had seen so many performers. She had actually ruined a few careers in her day, fakes who couldn’t hold a candle to the Great and Powerful Trixie. That wasn’t as important today, though, when the show that was going on was one on a projector.

And it wasn’t about her in the slightest.

All of the expected props were there, even the tank.

With so few tricks, Trixie would normally yawn right here. She had seen them all be done before. The only thing that really captivated her attention was the tank full of water. That was the only thing that really had any value to it.

The rest was cheap trickery.

First came the cards, something that hadn’t been done first last time. A person was called from the audience, one of them that hadn’t had her hoof raised. This wasn’t some earth pony, or pegasus, this was a unicorn. This wasn’t just any unicorn, this was an azure unicorn with a cape and a hat.

At this point, Trixie’s mouth went wide.

That looked so much like her, yet she hadn’t been able to remember. Was it an illusion? Of course it likely wasn’t, that would have taken a lot of effort to do. There wasn’t any reason for it to be done, either. Trixie had been famous, but that fame would have likely taken away from what was being done on stage. At that point, her extreme confidence would have likely done something to upset the show.

Trixie would not say that she was focused too much on herself.

The first trick was always the easiest.

Trixie picked up a card, using her hoof instead of magic, and a slight glow beneath her hat was barely visible.

Okay, this was getting weird.

If she didn’t know what to look for with the horn, something she had been looking for the entire time with the other performer, she wouldn’t have known that this had happened. The amazing thing was that Trixie hadn’t seen a single glow of a horn from the performer, nor had she seen the hat come off. It had even stayed glued to her head, with any luck that was metaphorical, when she had gone underwater. Of course, there could have been a strap that she didn’t see, a small thing that kept it from moving.

Even then, there would be something to see from a display of magic.

The card was put back into place, and the deck was shuffled. It wasn’t just shuffled once, just like the other time it had been shuffled a few times. It was expected that it would happen a few more times, and she would pull out the right card. A look of surprise went onto her face, though, as the performer kept shuffling the cards. The shock changed to a fear, almost as if she had just lost her place. Four minutes went by, before there was something that came from the crowd.

A few ponies yawned.

This was the type of thing that she knew could break a performance. If the audience was bored, they might leave. They might demand a refund, then leave. They might make sure that no ponies ever go to a show again. An unhappy audience won’t be an audience for long, and a bored audience will become unhappy rather quick.

The look of fear was replaced by panic, and quickly a card was pulled.

“Actually, the Great and Powerful Trixie had grabbed this one.” Another small glow, and a hoof moved behind the performer’s ear. The card was pulled out from behind her head, much to the dismay of everyone involved.

“My lovely assistant, everyone. Proving that, sometimes, tricks don’t always go as expected...”

A good performer could always cover up these things, or at least try. The audience seemed to buy the idea that this had been expected, nay planned, and just started to applaud. The look of disgust on Trixie’s face was clear, but she walked back into the crowd and let the performer have her day. Of course, the performer would likely never call on that unicorn again.

The second trick was the easy one, sawing a pony in half.

Another assistant came on stage, this time it was one of her own, and got ready for the display. This wasn’t actually going to be amazing, but it was certainly going to get some cheers. This assistant looked to be the same one from the last one, which made perfect sense. One pair of fake hind legs would always look like her own. The audience seemed to be wowed by her last time, anyway.

This time, they would be wowed a little less so.

From the edge of the shot, a small glow was seen. This was likely some sort of problem with the projector. Magic was being perfected, but the technology didn’t seem to have that same focus. The show was going perfectly, though, until the performer started to saw the box in half. This was, of course, just fake. There was no real danger in the mare getting cut in half. Yet there was a shrill scream, almost as if she had been cut with the saw.

A couple of drops of blood were seen on the saw as it was lifted up.

A look of sheer horror was on her face. The performer hadn’t seen this coming, neither had the assistant. None of the audience knew that this wasn’t staged, at least not until the reaction from the performer made it obvious. A few of them started to try to get onstage, trying to do anything they could do to help.

Smoke soon covered the stage, and when it dissipated the woman was gone. The final act was on the stage.

It was obvious that she wanted to save her show.

“Worry not, my lovely audience, t-that was just buildup to my final trick. After all..” It was obvious that she couldn’t spin the truth to make her look better. She was starting to panic. “Okay, so I’m not perfect. But worry not, this is the thing that will show you all everything that I can do.”

This time, there were an additional two restraints that were thrown on for good measure. Both of her fore legs were actually restrained to their corresponding hind leg. It was almost as if she was making up for the previous failures with the most spectacular show.

Trixie was almost ready to cry.

What had happened? To her knowledge, that should have been the most simply of tricks. This last one, though, was going to make or break the show. This last one might make or break the mare that was trying to salvage the rest of her career. Was that something that made the two of them similar? Another question came to mind, and it came in the form of wondering if this was the reason why Trixie had been called in at all.

If a reputation was ruined, then she might actually be the one to help.

Then again, it was coming back to her that she might not be the right pony for that particular job. Trixie was starting to remember this day, and it didn’t seem like it was going to be one of them that ended very well. If she remembered right, this show would have one of the worst endings that a show could possibly have.

With all of the restraints, the mare was dropped into the tank.

This time, the top was locked from the inside.

A whole minute passed, very quickly, with only a single lock being removed. There was something different about this trick, as if it wasn’t quite as planned as the others. Anypony who saw her expression would see a small look of panic. The show continued, though, with her continuing to try to find a way out of it. With only one getting taken off in a minute, things weren’t looking good.

But nopony would go into something they weren’t sure of.

Two minutes passed by, and now there were three that had been removed. This was almost the halfway point, though the fact that it had taken two minutes was something that definitely wasn’t planned. Why would she had done the first in only a minute and then this long to take off fewer restraints? The fact that there were more overall didn’t bode well for her, though the audience was sure that she would be able to do something about all of them.

This had to be for show.

Three minutes passed, and the moves had been panicking for the last minute. Her attempts to remove the others seemed to be quick, but at the same time less focused. Another couple of them got removed, however, mostly seeming to be removed by sheer force. The finesse seemed to have left somewhere around two and half minutes.

Everything was becoming sluggish as time when on. When four minutes came, and passed, there were still two more to go. The precise became the imprecise, the elegant became the brutish. She was trying to get out of there. Even if she got the last two off, there was still the final lock that would have to be removed from the top.

Still, the audience assumed the best.

It was five minutes when she had finally gotten the last removed.

It was also five minutes when she floated to the top, her movements ceasing.

Three ponies, earth ponies, quickly came running on stage. Even with their combined strength, it took another thirty seconds to actually get the tank to break completely. All of the water went rushing out, as did the unconscious mare. With that, the show turned black. The final scene was one of panic, where everypony was doing their best to try to save their fallen idol. Everypony seemed to think that she might have died.

“She didn’t make it, you know.”

The lights came back on, and another pony was standing behind her. The employer had turned on the lights. Who was this?

“Don’t bother turning around, he will kill you.” The mare continued on, a smile on her face. It seemed as though this was going to be her death. Trixie hadn’t expected it to end this way, a crazed mare killing her for no reason. “I’d love to have him stab you in the back, to end your miserable life, but that isn’t how we’re going to play this game. I’m going to have you die in the same way that you killed my little girl...”

Then it clicked.

“I didn’t k-”

“SHUT UP! If it hadn’t been for you, meek and powerless Trixie, she wouldn’t have gotten flustered.” The mare motioned with her fore leg, and the azure showmare could feel that the knife had been stabbed a few centimeters into her right fore leg. “What was it? You couldn’t stand another pony getting any recognition? Do you just love making sure that everypony around you feels worse about themselves? She did this for fun, and you had to ruin her to the point that she messed up and died.”

That time, it hurt.

Trixie knew that she couldn’t do the same trick that the mare in the video had failed at. Not only was this not her type of trick, but normally a pony would practice the trick. Then you got into the wound on her right fore leg. All of those added up to the one thing that was certainly not on the list of pleasant things.

Trixie would die.

At the very least, I have some time to think of something. There isn’t a tank in this room, which means I have to be taken into another.

Eyes scanned for anything that could be used to help facilitate her escape. There were books, there was a projector, there was an angry mare that wanted her to die by drowning, and there was a pony with a knife.

Wait, there were books.

A couple of books went flying to hit the pony, though the knife stabbed at her as soon as they landed a blow. This time, the stab didn’t connect fully, it was merely a cut that was starting to drop blood. Trixie would have to rush out of there, though, with the two wounds. Mouth moved to grab the bag, this whole thing would have been worthless if she didn’t get out of there with something other than her life, and then she charged at the exit.

Surprisingly enough, a unicorn horn is indeed sharp enough to hurt somepony.
 It would have been so bad, and warranted, if the cut had been into the crazed mare. Trixie was the one who felt it stab into her side as she passed the mare, though that didn’t really stop her either. There was no time to be in pain, adrenaline was pushing her to rush out the door and toward the nearest hospital. A moderate wound on one fore leg, a small one on another, and the stab into her side. It was almost as if the mare had given up on the elaborate revenge, merely going for something more direct.

Luckily for Trixie, that had failed.

Perhaps failed had been a little too grand of a term. Trixie was bleeding, which was definitely not a good thing, and she was still rushing to try to get out of the mansion. The only thing that gave her any comfort, a feeling that was in short supply, was that there shouldn’t be anything that would be able to stop her from leaving. If there was even a single thing, that might be the difference between her escape and the insane mare’s revenge being fulfilled.

Luckily, she got out.

Unluckily for her, she had been bleeding the entire time. One fifth of a mile, full force galloping, and then she dropped like a rock. Trixie hadn’t even noticed that she had been splashing more blood with each passing moment. Perhaps it had been the fact that she had been charging, and that had led to the muscles contracting and more blood spurting out. Either way, her vision left her as she began to wonder about one final thing.

Was this what she wanted to leave behind? Nopony cared about her these days, nopony cared whether she lived or died. Perhaps it was karma, payback for everything that she had done in her own life. Perhaps this was it, a deserving death for one who had actually caused the death of another pony. It hadn’t been her intent, but it had happened regardless.

With that, she was out.

”Is this heaven?”

Eyes looked around, the entire landscape was beautiful. There were trees, beautiful and perfect. The grass was waving in the wind. All of this was just plain perfect. She saw apples, growing on the trees around her. Her horn lit up, one of them coming down to be caught by her hoof. When she took a bite, it might have been the most wonderful thing she had ever eaten. It was certainly the greatest apple she had ever eaten.

It wasn’t as if that was a low bar, either.

If that was the only thing that was good about this place, though, it would have been alright. Everything seemed to be coming together. The slight breeze, the sunset that made the entire skyline a gorgeous orange. When she finally looked away from the trees, she saw a stage. It was a mix of both her own and the one of the other mare, though for the moment she was merely thinking of the fact that she could enjoy herself while maybe doing a few shows.

There might not be many out here at that point, but there might be more eventually.

A smile was on her face, she slowly trotted up to the stage.

Almost an hour passed with her doing basic tricks. There was a glow of a horn, and flowers appeared in a poof of smoke. When she wanted to pull a rabbit out of a hat, both the rabbit and the hat just seemed to be there. It seemed strange at first, but that thought was soon cast aside. These weren’t the most spectacular tricks, they weren’t likely to get her standing ovations. Nopony would likely care about these things, regardless of how flashy she made it.

At the same time, though, she didn’t care. Trixie was having fun, and nopony could stop her.

Another hour passed, and another soon left afterward. It must have seemed strange to see her just performing these small tricks, at least if there was anypony there. That was another thing that was strange. Trixie didn’t even notice that there wasn’t anypony there, or was actively ignoring the fact. It was almost as if she was trapped in her own little world, as if her own fun was far more important than what anypony else thought.

After about three hours, though, Trixie just stretched and went to sleep.

“Get off the stage! We didn’t come here to watch somepony sleep!”

It was strange to awaken to this. Trixie couldn’t remember the last time something like this had happened. Had it happened before? She looked at the crowd, there were twenty or more ponies waiting for something to happen. They hadn’t been there when she had gone to sleep, she would have noticed them. If there were ponies there now, though, then that meant that she had to do something.

They would enjoy her tricks, she just knew it.

Trixie started off with something basic. The audience didn’t seem to notice, just as she hadn’t, that the things she needed to do her tricks were just there. They weren’t there before, but that wasn’t important. First, there was the simple trick with a hat. This time, though, a rabbit wasn’t pulled out. That would have been a little more mundane than she was going to show the audience. A hoof reached into the hat, and when she pulled it out there was an animal that nopony expected.

Who expected a lion to pop out of a hat?

Everypony started to cheer.

Trixie bowed, loving every moment of what was happening. This wasn’t the last thing she did, however. An audience member was called up next, and a pack of cards was used to perform another basic trick. When she guessed the card right, which wasn’t actually much of a guess, everypony cheered again. It was almost as if they didn’t care about what was done, as long as she was enthusiastic about doing it. There was probably a lesson to be learned from all of this, but she was too busy having the time of her life. It was certainly better than the previous month had been, anyway.

After an hour passed by, something changed.

It started off with a normal trick, sawing a mare in half. When she looked out into the crowd, they seemed to be waiting for what they probably knew would happen. Trixie had an assistant, who once again appeared from nowhere, and started the trick. It was beautiful, everything was going perfectly. When she was about to make the cut, however, something changed.

There was a glow of a horn in the audience, and there was a scream of pain as she cut into her assistant.

A look of complete shock appeared on her face. Trixie knew this trick, there shouldn’t have been any trouble with it. She had no clue how she could have gotten this wrong. Did she stop quick enough to prevent this mistake from being fatal? It would be absolutely horrible, bordering on the worst thing she had ever done, if this was going to turn into her killing somepony. Eyes scanned the crowd, trying to find a doctor.

When she looked back at the assistant, she was gone.

“Well, well, well.”

A familiar voice pierced the audience. The look of shock didn’t leave Trixie’s face as the mare walked up. How could Trixie be standing on stage and be walking up to the stage? Was this double merely an illusion? That made perfect sense, as everypony seemed to have the act as though this was normal.

This most certainly wasn’t heaven.

“It looks as though we have another phony.”

What? But how? Why? There had been a time when that had been her way, when pointing out that others were fake was something she did. Those times were behind her now, right? Was this her punishment for everything that had been caused by her actions? Trixie had to stop herself from looking afraid. Why was this dopple-ganger calling her a phony?

“You can’t even perform a simple trick. That, truly, is pathetic.”

Each word hurt, more than she would have thought words could hurt. Perhaps it was the fact that everypony else was starting to join in. She could hear them, mocking her. Ponies who had, mere minutes before cheered her, were now laughing. That word, phony, started to be repeated again and again. Each time, it started to sound as though there was another Trixie there.

It didn’t take long before it was a chorus of Trixies.

The laughter, the taunting, it kept getting louder. What had she done to make them so mad? It was worse than Ponyville, and that had been something that could have been considered the low point up until now. Hadn’t Trixie suffered enough there? Hadn’t Hoofington been enough of a double-dose of horrid things?

Apparently not, even her afterlife seemed to be filled with these sorts of things.

“You really are an idiot.”

This voice wasn’t the voice of the crowd, it was another familiar voice. This voice was that of a mare who had died before, the mare whose death could be laid at her hooves. Trixie cowered, both away from the crowd and from the newest pony who had joined them. She didn’t want to have to deal with any of this. Part of her wanted to close her eyes, to hope that something as simple as that would cause everyone to disappear.

Everything had to go back to where it could be.

“What are you doing here?”

Why was that mare asking Trixie why she was there? She didn’t make the choice to be there, she simply was. Eyes looked up, questioningly, at the mare. What could she possibly mean by that? When she looked, though, she noticed that the mare was almost crying.

“I should hate you, but I can’t.”

What did she mean?

“I forgive you.”

Forgive her? That didn’t make any sense at all. Trixie knew what she had done, and her punishment wasn’t being forgiven. Her punishment had actually been death.

Forgiveness was slightly worthless, actually.

“It isn’t your time to be here. Wake up.”

Eyes fluttered open, and Trixie was laying in a hospital bed.

That didn’t make any sense, she knew that she had died. She had to have died. How could she have survived? Trixie could remember the wounds, the pain, passing out in the middle of Canterlot. She remembered every vivid detail, and she remembered what she could only assume was something of an afterlife.

Or not, she was still trying to piece that one together.

A stallion peeked into the door, and then practically fell in.

“Well, well, that was unexpected.” The doctor started, walking toward her bed. A chart floated up, and the stallion started to glance at it. “You lost a lot of blood there. Nopony here knew if you’d survive, though a few minutes later would have definitely sealed your fate.” But how had she gotten there? There was, really, only one way to find out.

“And how did I get here?”

“Don’t you remember?” The doctor then facehoofed, as if he had just realized how stupid that question just sounded. “Fancy Pants apparently found you, and had you brought here.” Eyes looked at the surprised mare, then he chuckled. “It’s a good thing it was him, too. After the time you spent here, it’s isn’t going to be cheap.”

She was alive, she wasn’t in massively paralyzing debt. There was a feeling that she had to get out of there, though. That mare had almost killed her, and she was rich enough to try again. Nopony would likely care if Trixie died. There was something else, though. She had determined that it had to be some sort of dream, now that she knew she was alive, but her mind had obviously been trying to tell her something. Her mind was obviously trying to make sure that she did something, and that something would likely not involve Canterlot.

It all went back to that thought, right before she thought she was going to die.

Was this what she was going to leave behind?

“So, how long do I have to be in here, Doc?”

“By tomorrow, you should be able to leave.”

That day couldn’t end quick enough, she wanted to take the slim amount of money that she had left and find a way to get out of there. There was no destination planned, not yet, but that didn’t matter. Trixie had to take that first step.

Moving on is hard to do...

Alright, so what can I do after I get out of here?

It wasn’t as if there was much else to do, and she needed to get that good first step. A bad first step would likely lead to another hospital, or in the worst case scenario it might actually lead to a very real case of death. That had been what the mare had been trying for, though fortunately it hadn’t been a complete success. As she thought, her eyes moved to see the calendar. How long had she been out?

The azure mare had apparently been out for a grand three days, if her memory served her correctly.

Three days?! There are a lot of things that need to be done. And now Trixie has to be here another day? Calm down, calm down, it’ll all be alright. After today, you have to just figure out a way to get out of here. But where to go? Her horn lit up, and a piece of paper moved from the table nearby. A pencil came with it, though it stayed in her magical grasp. Even though she couldn’t get out of there that day, Trixie was still magical enough to do something as mundane as writing down notes.

Where should I start? I know! There are places that I can’t go, I think I’ll start there.

Places that Trixie can’t go:
Hoofington
Ponyville.

Those two quickly came to mind. The first was the place where she had been dealt the most recent blow. Not a single pony had come to her show. That didn’t even take into account the mare who had yelled her out of a building. Trixie wouldn’t go back there for as long as she could, possibly never if she could get away with it. Then came the second place, and that one was obvious because of the Ursa Minor attack. Even though it hadn’t been her actions that had brought it, her words had likely been a small portion of the reason.

Also, it was obvious they blamed her.

That didn’t even take into account that there was a lavender mare that annoyed her greatly. Trixie knew she was a better pony than before, but she still didn’t like that unicorn. She had been so quiet, likely thinking about what she could do that Trixie could not. The lavender showmare knew that she had been thinking, back then, about anything she could do that was better than what any other pony could do. Of course, some might have said that the list in question was inflated. Some might have said that Trixie thought that she was better at some things that she wasn’t.

That wasn’t relevant to her current train of thought.

Alright, so is there anywhere else that I would not be allowed to go? Is there anywhere else where I would be laughed, chased, or yelled out of town? That would be a harder question if she had to think about every single angry pony, there were always ponies, always those who found her methods and presentation to be angering. The reason why Trixie hadn’t ever stopped, until recently, was because the hecklers could be silenced. They were the minority, and they were the ones that everypony would turn on if it seemed as though it would benefit them the most.

I don’t really know of anywhere else. If I’m going to keep this with me, though, I think I should make a special note. I have to make sure that I don’t make the mistake of coming back here anytime soon. The pencil had fallen, as he thoughts had been wondering, but soon enough it was lifted up and pointed at the piece of paper that was sitting on her belly.

Don’t come back to Canterlot unless absolutely necessary. And if you are forced to, make sure that you are within sight of a crowd at all times. Do not, do not, DO NOT, let yourself be somewhere that has no potential witnesses. There is no reason to believe that the mare isn’t unhinged enough to try again. That quick note had been long enough, perhaps too long, to emphasize the point. Trixie knew that her health depended on not being in the situation again. Next time, there might not be the same luck that had ensured her survival this time.

There was no way that she could pay for the hospital bill anyway, and Fancy Pants would likely not put forth the money.

So far, she had put down three places that she needed to steer clear of. Two of the places had been show related, with her presence obviously not being welcomed, and the third had been health related. All of that still made it obvious that she didn’t know where it was that she needed to go. Even without there being a single place that she needed to go, as there likely wasn’t, there were dozens of places that might be nice to go to. Trixie could treat it as a vacation, using the time to figure out just what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

That sounded like a good idea, anyway.

Trixie glanced over to the clock. Almost an hour had passed, and there were only eight more hours to that day. That didn’t take into account her sleeping, which she planned on doing until the next day. She would go to sleep around 10:00, and she hoped to wake up with the sunrise. With that, she could get out of there and get out of town. She still hadn’t decided what it was that she was going to do, though, or where she was going to go.

Alright, so how can I get around?

More notes had to be taken, more possibilities.

Ways to travel:
Just walk
Get a wagon again
Use public transportation

The first one had a problem with what would happen at night. Trixie loved the stars, loved the moon, but there was something to be said about sleeping in a building. When there was a cold wind, the walls could keep her protected. The same could be said about rain or snow, both of which would come eventually. There was the upside that it would cost her nothing, which would mean that she could use all of her remaining funds to take care of herself. Either that, or she could save them up and use them in the future in whatever venture she ends up going on.

With the second, there were a lot of upsides. If there were winds, snow, or rain, there wouldn’t be any problem. The walls would keep her protected. Not a lot of animals attacked a wagon, either, leading to there being less of a chance for something to happen to her. Trixie could deal with wild animals, but she didn’t like the idea of something attacking during the night. The list of downsides was smaller. One of them was monetary, in which she would have to spend a lot of money for it. The other was a lack of laying out under the stars, which was actually more comforting than she though.

Finally, there was the third option. It had the benefit of being cheap, without also being something that meant she would be outside. Normally, it referred to trains. There was one huge downside, though, when she thought about it. There were parts of Equestria that weren’t able to be connected through the many methods. If she chose that, she would be limiting the potential places that she could head to.

Another alternative was to use more than one.

Canterlot had a train that went to a few places. If she could find a place that sold wagons for cheaper, then she could get one from there. Or she could just walk from there, depending on where she was going next. Actually, there aren’t that many places that sell the type of wagon I would want. And I doubt I can get it much cheaper than I can here. If I go that route, I’ll have to get it tomorrow and then head out of town quickly. But I still have to decide the first place that I’m actually going to head to. I still have to figure out the first place that could possibly just take me in without questions.

After all, I really don’t want to answer any questions.

Another hour passed, and nothing had been decided. Trixie still had no idea where she was going, or even where it would be nice to end up. The only thing that she had decided was that she was hungry, which eventually ended when a nurse brought a plate of delicious looking salad. Of course, it was all devoured within the span of a few minutes. She had been really hungry, which was likely the product of being out of it for three days.

That was something that she still didn’t like to think about.

I just have to move on. I can’t focus on what happened, I’ll never keep my sanity that way. I have to think about what I’m going to do from now on. I have a places that I have to go, I have ponies to meet, I have things to do. The question still went through her head, wondering exactly what it was that she was going to do. Trixie could see herself trying something new, maybe singing or dancing. For all she knew, she could start trying to sell things. That was something that seemed strange, but perhaps that was something that would be good.

There wouldn’t be the same expectations, and she wouldn’t have to use her name. After everything that had happened, she wasn’t sure that she wanted something that would involve her name. Perhaps after a few more months, the name of Trixie Lulamoon would be one that would bring about smiles again. Right now, though, Trixie just wanted to make sure that there wasn’t another repeat of before. She knew, above all else, that a unicorn horn was a lot sharper than she had expected it to.

Still, she had to remember how she wanted to move.

Alright, so I have to figure it out right now. I have to decide something. Eyes moved to the clock, realizing that a couple more hours had passed. She might end up going to sleep soon, and then she would want to get out of there as quickly as possible. Quick, quick. I have to figure out how to move out quick. And then I have to make sure that I have a way to keep safe. Storms, blizzards, animals, and maybe even a few crazed ponies trying to get their revenge on me. The last one, and blizzards, are actually the most possible. Snow will be coming soon, winter is close upon us. And I know there are some ponies who definitely want revenge.

The decision had finally been made, she was going to get a wagon. It was slightly made out of fear of what might happen, of course. There was something comforting about going around in a wagon, much as she had before. It was almost as if Trixie would have some semblance of normalcy back in her life. She didn’t have to think about the fact that she had nearly starved, or died of blood loss, or what had happened in Hoofington. The only things she had to think about were where she was going and what she was going to do when she actually got to her destination.

One step down, the other two had to be decided.

If I can’t stay in Canterlot, I can’t go to Hoofington, and I can’t go to Ponyville, that takes out some of the places I know of. Las Pegasus would be good, but there is a certain...problem with me being there. After all, it’s a pegasus town, I doubt it is ground level. There is Stalliongrad, that’s always a good place. Well, I think it is. Then again, I thought that Hoofington was a good place. Obviously things change, and sometimes they don’t change for the better.

I suppose that I might go there later.

Where else is there? There’s a whole kingdom, of course. But I should probably come up with somewhere for me to go. If she had known this was going to be so difficult, she would have asked for a map. Trixie wasn’t used to not knowing these things, not having an idea of where she was going to eventually go. It was made worse by the fact that she still didn’t have any idea for a big action. She was, essentially, vacationing at this point. That was something that she hadn’t really done before in her life.

What did one do when they were on vacation?

Wait, I do know of one place. Trottingham should be excellent around this time. I can’t really say I’ve been there in a while. And if I have to stay anywhere, that would be the place where I’d want to wait out the winter. Either there, or Manehattan. Both places have their own unique charm to them. Though, I have to admit, Manehattan is not really much of a choice right now. It is too close to Ponyville, and they might have heard about what happened. A nod of her head, as she finally decided where she was going. Everything was coming together, everything was leading to Trottingham.

Her head started to dip, tiredness setting in.

“I’ll just decide what I’m doing on the way.”

Nopony would blame her for shutting her eyes for a little bit. Trixie was just going to rest, she was going to try to make sure that she was ready for the big trip that would start the next day. It might have even been a case of something from the hospital. There were some tubes that were in her legs. For all she knew, something in there was making it more difficult for her to actually stay away. In the end, though, it didn’t matter why she was going to sleep. A few more nods of her head, and the azure unicorn was unconscious.

Eyes fluttered awake, and once again she was on a stage. This was the same stage as before, one again empty. Trixie had to admire the sheer beauty of the stage now, though there was a hint of sadness that she couldn’t ignore. She knew what had happened here, she knew what it was that caused her to remember this. It was guilt that kept the stage on her mind, and part of her knew that the showmare, whose name she still didn’t know, would soon be appearing. Part of her said that she should forgive herself.

That was been the part of what Trixie was sure had been a dream. After realizing she had been in the hospital, a near-death experience was taken off of the table. She had been dreaming, not dead. Perhaps the drugs that had kept her alive, or something about a surgery, had caused her mind to put her guilt into center stage. Either way, she reasoned that something similar was going to happen this time. The drugs were going to make sure that she saw what was likely the most powerful image in her mind.

She was wrong.

The mare did appear, but there was something different about her. At first, the showmare didn’t bother looking at Trixie. It was almost as if she was ashamed, or maybe that she couldn’t bear the thought of looking at her. This had to be the part where Trixie would eventually tell herself, using this other pony, that she had to forgive herself. She knew it was a dream, she knew this was coming next.

“You killed me.” It started, the voice cutting deep. Still, the specter of her past didn’t turn to look at her. “I didn’t do anything, all I wanted to do was provide a show. All I wanted to do is make ponies smile, and you took that away from me.” No eye contact, no turning, merely looking away as the azure unicorn started to shake.

“I-I-I didn’t mean to.”

It was at that time, suddenly, that the mare turned. Her face didn’t look like it normally did, or even had during the show. This time, Trixie saw the face of the dead. She saw the face of a mare who had drowned, though it was more than that. She saw a face that looked like that of a victim that had died months before. To say that it was disgusting would be an understatement, and the sight of it caused Trixie to take a few steps and fall offstage.

Somehow, she fell into a tank of water.

With the closing of the tank, and a lock on the outside, Trixie was stuck. She tried to use magic, but nothing worked. Her hoofs smacked the glass, but it didn’t give. Her breath was held, but it couldn’t be held forever. Even a pony who had prepared for this sort of thing couldn’t hold their breath forever. Without her tricks, without her strength, without anything, she started to succumb to her fate.

Water rushed into her lungs, and it was over.

A snap to attention, Trixie looked out the window to try to figure out if it was morning yet. Perhaps it was her luck that it was, though she was worn out. This was almost as bad as if she hadn’t slept at all, a feeling that she knew from the many years of being on the road. With any luck, that sort of thing could only be a temporary thing. She enjoyed her sleep, she needed her sleep, there wouldn’t be any way that she could go on a trip if she had to deal with those more than once.

Nopony could say that she wasn’t tough, but even she needed to sleep every once in a while.

Why had this happened? She hadn’t thought of that day before, it had been forgotten, but it was firmly in her mind now. Trixie couldn’t stop thinking about that show, that mare, and how everything that transpired had caused a death. Then it moved on to the fact that her actions had caused a mother to lose a daughter. It made sense, the more she thought about it, that the mother would have done something like that.

Of course, she would never admit that to anypony.

A few moments after she had awoken, the thoughts about the nightmare still fresh in her mind, a nurse came in with a tray of food. It was breakfast time, obviously.

“A last meal.”

Trixie’s eyes snapped open. Oh gosh, this was going to be the final meal that she had. This nurse was working with the mare, the rich mare. She was going to die there that day. The azure mare started to shake, a hoof went out to grab for the nurse’s hoof.

“L-last meal?”

This couldn’t be it, could it?

“Yeah, the doctor said you’d be able to leave today. I figured it’d be nice to get a good meal, or whatever this is, before you go.” Eyes looked into hers, a confused expression on her face. The nurse didn’t know anything about what she was talking about, didn’t know anything about the mare who had tried to kill Trixie. At least, that was how everything seemed.

It made sense.

You have to calm down. There isn’t a single pony here who is trying to take your life. None of them have been paid by that mare. They haven’t. As the nurse left the room, Trixie started to glance down at the food. Just take a bite, everything should be alright. This is a hospital, there isn’t a single pony here who is trying to hurt you. There isn’t a single threat in this hospital. All you have to do is eat this food, sign a waver saying you’re leaving, and then you’re out of here.

Next, you get a wagon and head toward Trottingham.

Yet, she couldn’t will herself to take a bite. Those words still went through her head, the fear taking its toll. What if the nurse had put something in the food? That mare, the one who had wanted her dead, was obviously a pony of means. If she wanted to pay off a nurse, it wouldn’t be much trouble. The nurse would have gotten paid, and Trixie would soon be dead. It would likely be overlooked, maybe it would look like some sort of accident with a medical overdose.

That wasn’t going to happen.

She couldn’t wait for them to kill her.

Trixie did her best to get up from the bed. The fact that she hadn’t rested the last night be damned, she was going to get up. There wouldn’t be any wires, tubes, or anything else that would prevent her from finding her way to get out of this building. She knew that her life depended on it, and if not that then at least her health depended on her ability to get out of there without any trouble. It wasn’t even as if she had to worry about making sure that she had everything she brought with her.

Aside from the cape, she had her pouch of bits.

Eyes looked out into the hallway, but there were plenty of nurses. She could count five, but it was at that point that she quickly pulled her head back into the room. Trixie wasn’t going to get caught, but getting out the normal way seemed to be something that was completely out of the picture. That won’t stop me. There has to be some other way that I can get out of here, a way that will ensure that I’m able to get out without a single pony trying to stop me. The doctor seems nice enough, but that might just be a ruse.

And then the nurses...

If it hadn’t been for that nurse giving everything away, I would have never known.

There had to be another way, and she would think of it. Eyes moved around the room, and she practically face-hoofed. It didn’t take a genius to realize that there was one way that she could get out of there without too much trouble. Trixie quickly moved over to the window, looking out to see if there was a quick-and-easy escape. She was quickly met with the fact that she was on the second floor, which was something that would be considered more than a minor setback.

She almost thought about jumping, but wasn’t sure if her cuts would reopen with the impact. Trixie wasn’t somepony to let something as small as a giant fall, or more accurately a giant drop, stop her escape. It would stop her from jumping, but she had something else that could help to make sure that she could at least survive and get out of there. Unicorns could lift things with their horns, and she had seen that lavender mare lift something as heavy as an Ursa Minor with hers.

Obviously Trixie could easily lift herself.

Her horn lit up, and Trixie slowly started to lift from the floor. It wasn’t perfect, it was wobbly as she tried to stabilize herself. This just felt weird, with her focus having to be forced onto the task at hand. She actually dropped the first time, the sheer feeling of being lifted into the air was enough to freak her out at first. The second attempt went better, and she was soon floating out of the window and down toward the ground below.

Everything was going perfectly, at least until a nurse had apparently come in to look at her. There would be no murder plot that day, Trixie was escaping. Of course, the scream of the nurse didn’t let loose their obvious schemes. The cries were about the fact that a patient had gone missing. It was almost as if she was worried, but the azure showmare knew a lot better than to go by something as easily faked as a tone.

The sudden scream did have an unexpected effect, though. Trixie had been concentrating, making sure that she was focused. She had been about three feet off of the ground when it happened, and her focus was shattered. The only upside was that it was only three feet, and it was merely painful. She would live though that, pain was just something that ponies had to get used to.

No time to dwell on the pain, she knew she had to get going.

Trixie was quickly galloping away, trying to make sure that she didn’t stop for anything. She didn’t know if her wounds would open again, but it was good luck that they hadn’t. It was also that good luck, or so she assumed, that led to there not being a single pony outside of the hospital to look for her. While she might have been great, there was absolutely no chance that she could take down a nurse. This would have even given the mare, or perhaps mares, the opportunity to take her down without having to resort to trickery.

Accidents happened, and sometimes the things that looked like accidents really weren’t.

Trixie’s own paranoia was likely going to get the best of her, but of course she saw it otherwise. As she looked around, trying to find the place where she had bought her previous wagon, she kept her eyes looking for anything out of the ordinary. She had to be ready for a nurse, or two, or somepony with a knife, or a unicorn that was performing some sort of spell. When she got out of there, she could relax a little. When she left the city, there was much less of a chance that she would have to deal with a pony that was after her life.

Another few minutes of walking, and she finally discovered the shop.

The stallion didn’t even bother to look at her, which was good. Trixie still had a couple of scars, her side had some stitches. She wasn’t exactly looking her finest, and she didn’t want anypony to take the time to look at her until she did. A mare had to think about her appearance, after all, at all times.

“Trix-”

She was cut off with a hoof.

“I know, I know. The Great and Powerful Trixie requires something befitting a pony of her greatness.” The stallion started, still staring down at a newspaper. “Just pay the same amount you did last time, and I’ll have it done in a couple of hours. I know how I made the last one, so it shouldn’t take the whole day.”

Something about this actually made her calm down a little.

“Here you go.”

A third of the money from the bag, which was amazing considering how much the original had cost, was soon sitting on the table in front of the stallion. He didn’t seem shocked, it was almost as if he assumed that she was rich. It might have been the way that she carried herself last time, or the fact that he was simply too busy to look at her, but it was almost as if he thought that this was the same Trixie as before.

Of course, times had changed and so had Trixie.

Alright, I have a few hours to spend. I could go out, get something to eat and drink, and come back here. Then again, the nurses might be out there looking for me. If I wait here, I’ll be bored. Not to mention that I’m still tired as ever. Eyes looked out, across the street was a donut shop. A question went through her head, even as she tried to figure out what the best course of action would be.

Why hadn’t she noticed that before?

Either way, it seemed like a great opportunity to get something to eat. Even if she didn’t get anything to eat, there was the chance for coffee. That stuff truly is the nectar of the alicorns. I don’t think it would be a horrible idea for me to go over there and get a cup. Eyes looked over to it, only for a small blob of doubt to enter her. She had thought about the nurses, but she hadn’t thought about everypony else. If she went over there and got the coffee, then there might be something wrong with it.

It could be poisoned.

Okay, so coffee was out until she had left the city. Trixie knew better than to eat, drink, or do anything else from within the city limits. The only thing that the azure mare could do was sit there and wait, hoping that she would be able to get out of the city before too long. That would give her enough time to make sure that the wagon was alright, and then a small journey before she would eventually be able to get some sleep that night.

Her plan was perfect.

Without coffee, without anything to do beyond stand around, time seemed to drag on. The next two hours seemed like a small eternity, no end in sight. By the time an hour had ended, she was sitting there. The floor wasn’t the most comfortable place, but it was certainly better than standing around for the next hour. It would have been even better if she wasn’t feeling as though she was about to slip out of consciousness at any point.

Although, some sleep might be good.

By the time an hour and a half had passed, Trixie’s head was starting to droop. She needed some rest, the last night hadn’t been good on her. It wasn’t that she had never gone a night without sleeping, she had gone plenty of nights without sleeping. There was something to be said about her injuries, the ones that she had sustained at the horn of the unicorn and the knife, that made everything worse. Wait, that doesn’t make any sense at all. How could that make it worse? Then again, they probably had to do some sort of surgery. That would have needed some medication, and that likely...

Okay, full paranoia hit her.

Trixie shook her head a few times, trying to shake the tiredness and the thought from her mind. She had been at the mercy of the people at the hospital. But that was quickly pushed into the back of her mind, the sudden thought being something that forced her to become completely aware of everypony around her. Eyes even looked out at the ponies that were passing by, the combination of what had happened in the last few days having more than a little bit of an impression on her. When I get out of town, when I get out of town. Canterlot isn’t the safest place right now, I have to get out.

Another ten minutes had passed, time was starting to go slower.

By the time that the rest of the twenty minutes had passed, Trixie had discovered a new method of making the time pass. If she started to lightly tap her head against the wall, and proceed to increase the force behind it from there, everything seemed to speed by. The next twenty minutes had seemed to pass by as quickly as the ten before it, which was certainly an improvement from her perspective.

It happened, the hours finally ended. Trixie heard him come, though at first she cautiously glanced to make sure that nobody was with him. She was given a weird look for her troubles, but she had already paid. That seemed to be the main thing that the stallion cared about. He likely didn’t want to become a part of the giant drama that was the assassination attempts on the mostly innocent Trixie Lulamoon. It was mostly innocent, of course, because she knew exactly what it was that caused the mare to want her dead. It would almost be understandable, except for the fact that she didn’t think that way about herself.

As down as she ever got, Trixie never wanted to be murdered. She doubted, very much, that she would ever really want that. Life was one of those things that she wasn’t ready to part with, even if she had to part with everything else.

Alright, focus! I have a wagon, but I have no food. Then again, I can’t get any food from here. There should be a small village a few days away. That won’t be pleasant, but I’m sure it will be possible. And I might be able to get it cheaper. Cheaper, lacking in poison to kill him. There isn’t a downside here. The only downside was that it meant she wasn’t going to really be able to eat the next few days. It might be good to get some sleep, but that wasn’t even going to happen for quite some time.

It wasn’t noon yet, a couple hours from it. Trixie wanted to be ten hours away from the city, which meant she had a lot of traveling to do. Of course, it wouldn’t be completely pleasant. Ten hours of travel was something that she hadn’t been forced to do on her own for a long time. She could barely remember it, actually. That wasn’t important, right now she had to get ready t get moving. The energy, from startling herself, was still giving her the energy that she was missing from the coffee.

So she was soon rushing out with her beautiful wagon.

Nothing of note had happened while she was in the city. Her eyes glanced around, making sure that she saw everyone around her. It wasn’t as simple of a task as one might thing. The only thing that helped was the fact that she really wanted to get this done, and she was fully alert after she had scared herself earlier. Something didn’t seem right to her about the fact that she had gotten out of the city without any trouble.

That was a good surprise, though.

It had only taken fifteen minutes, another surprise actually. She would have expected it to take twice as long, possibly even up to an hour. The shop where she had gotten her wagon wasn’t exactly in the outskirts of the city. It was actually closer to the middle, the exact middle. There might have been something to be said about her pace, though. Trixie was going to get out of the city, and she was going to do it in as little time as ponily possible.

Just because she was of of town, though, didn’t mean that she could slow down.

The first hour went extremely slow, which should have been expected. Trixie’s pace was fast, but she was still worrying. She was still thinking about that morning, that mare who had said those words about how that was going to be the azure mare’s last meal. If It hadn’t been for her quick thinking, that might have been the end. It had all been because she had put the clues together, the nightmare giving her the chance to see the smaller details that she would have normally overlooked.

After the first hour, and a respectable distance, time started to go by quicker. Her pace didn’t slow down, she didn’t stop thinking, but everything seemed to blur together for the rest of the day. Without any food to look forward to, there was no reason to stop. Trixie couldn’t even keep track of time, there was no way. The only thing she could do was look up at the sky, see the sun, and estimate what time it was.

She had never been good at that.

It didn’t take a genius to know when it was time to stop for the night, though. Aside from the darkness, which came quicker than expected, there was a feeling in her legs that told her to stop. It was almost as if they were rebelling against the mare, trying to stop her from taking another step. Every single time she tried, they ached. Trixie had been determined to get away from the city, and to her knowledge she was far enough away that she would be able to take a rest for the night. There was no chance, or at least almost no chance, that she would be followed out this far.

That made sense, even to her.

I think it’s time to get some sleep right now. Tomorrow, I can continue. If I get the same pace, I should be able to get almost the rest of the distance to the next town. I should be able to get some food there, which is definitely something I’m getting. Eyes moved to the wagon, a smile on her face. This was another thing that she was looking forward to. Trixie hadn’t realized how far she trotted, and she still didn’t know how long she had trotted, but her legs hurt from it.

It was time for some sleep.

Her hopes didn’t turn out to be what happened, though.

The last thing she felt before her eyes quickly opened was that feeling. Trixie had been pushed into the tank, her horn wasn’t working. Water had filled the tank, this time the tank had started off completely empty. This time, her drowning would have been something that she would have had to endure the lead-up to. Water had filled her lungs again, and then her slumber had been completely killed. If it had been morning again, that would be one thing. The moon still high in the sky, Luna’s beautiful night taunting her with her own inability to sleep.

There was something that she had barely noticed in the wagon, though, that soon changed that. When Trixie had looked around, there was a bottle. She couldn’t go to sleep right now, the images were fresh in her mind, so the only thing she could really do was think. There was only one thing that could get her mind off of those images, and that was a curiosity. Why was there a bottle in her wagon? This would have been a small curiosity, likely it had been some sort of mistake by the stallion that had built the wagon.

When she went over to get it, though, there was a paper under it. Trixie moved the mottle out of the way, the moonlight helping her read the words. The fact that she was still tired, a side effect from not sleeping, didn’t help her in the slightest.

Dear Trixie,
I decided that you’ve been a pretty good customer. Last year, I was able to get my hooves on a few kegs of Apple Family Cider. This is, without a doubt, the greatest cider I have ever drank. You don’t seem so bad. I had decided to put it in bottles, savoring every last drop.

I decided to give you one of the bottles.

You can thank me by buying from me next time.

Sturdy Hand

Apple Family Cider is the best cider he has drank, and he’s giving me some so I’ll buy more of his stuff later. Got it. Most of the letter had actually proven to be completely unreadable to her, but that was alright. Should she trust him? Trixie had know the stallion for more than couple of years, and she counted him amongst the trustworthy. There had also been the fact that he had built the wagon, a strong wagon, and had only charged the same amount as last time. That was something that she liked, the predictable nature of it.

The cork was soon removed, and she sniffed. Did it smell like cider? If it did, she would have to trust him and take a drink. If it didn’t, she would throw it aside. That stallion would have thrown his trust away. Luckily, both for her and for the stallion in question, that sort of thing wouldn’t actually happen. This wasn’t just apples made into cider, though. This smelled like a small bottle of liquid heaven, with a strong smell of what could only be described as burning.

What did burning smell like?

Well, obviously it smelled like the cider.

What did it taste like?

The odd thing was that she didn’t really taste a burn. It must have been a problem with my nose. This stuff tastes delicious. Within the span of fifteen minutes, the entire bottle was gone. Not only was the entire bottle gone, but Trixie felt magnificent. She couldn’t remember the last time in the last few days that she had felt this good. It might even contend with the top five, or at least ten, times of her entire life. There was nothing that could go wrong, she felt as though she could get out and start walking again.

Her legs didn’t even hurt.

Trixie stood up, her determination to move forward great. Almost instantly, though, she realized that maybe she had stood up too quickly. Her flank quickly hit the wagon, and her eyes started to droop. Maybe she would need just a little time sitting. She still knew that she would be able to do this soon. Her desire for a sit became the desire for a small nap. All it would take would be fifteen minutes, and she would be able to get back up and get moving to the next destination.

Where was it again?

Oh, right, she had wanted to go to Trottingham.

Eyes closed, though there had been the fear of that dream. She didn’t want to deal with those images again. Trixie didn’t want to deal with that fear, that feeling of water rushing into her lungs. The strange part was that she had never experienced it herself. A rational mare would have considered this, thrown it into the real of implausible, and just went on with it. Every bit of it felt real, every bit of it felt as se imagined something like that would go. The feeling of a lack of oxygen, and every minute fearing death.

That didn’t actually happen this time, though.

The sun came up, but Trixie did not. She did not dream, though. As the day continued, several ponies passed by her little slice of paradise. Noon came by, and she still wasn’t awake. That actually made it less likely that she would be able to get to the town by the end of the day, or even by the end of the next day. She was not a marathon mare, she had no intention of doing anything more than keeping up a good pace. Right now, actually, she didn’t even intend to do that. Right now, her only intention was sleep.

That plan had come to fruition.

Night came, and she did not stir. This would have been the type of night that she loved, the moon was a small sliver in the sky. Trixie wasn’t going to awaken, though. Nothing could really get her to get up, or even do more than move slightly. Her snoring, though, started at some point that night. Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice would have had a hard time overcoming the volume that she was producing. Night had came, and eventually night had left without anything that could make it seem as though Trixie was waking up.

It wasn’t until a few hours after the sun came up, again, that she started to move.

Trixie stretched, a headache being the biggest worry that she had at that point. She didn’t know that she had just slept through a day, though she was starting to get really hungry. That could easily be attributed to her former walking. On the upside, my legs don’t hurt as much. It could have been that cider. I haven’t slept that well in a while. Yep, good old Apple Family Cider is able to make sure that I... no, that isn’t going to happen. You are much better than this.

Drinking won’t happen, you’re better than that.

Strangely enough, the day went by quickly. Trixie wanted to push herself to go as far as possible. There was no way that she would be out of a town for too long, she needed to get some supplies. Even when she was forced to stop, and eat some of the grass, she didn’t stop for long. The grass wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t something that she knew could sustain her. There wasn’t enough grass growing along the path, and she was sure that it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to stray from the path. Even fully awake, and mostly rested, those words were still there at the back of her mind.

That would be her last meal.

It had been her hope that there would be a restart, a mental block that would stop her from focusing on the horrible thing that was proving to be the worst thing that could have been said to her. Trixie was still thinking about it. The only thing that had happened is that it started to become less important with each passing hour. Even by the end of the day, when she was at her best, it was only something she could easily ignore. When she was walking, thinking about everything else that had happened, it wasn’t there anymore.

Perhaps it was good luck that ended her day by a stream.

To say that Trixie was thirsty would be an understatement. Actually, I’m making really good time. If I just continued for a few more hours, maybe four at the most, I’d be at the town. And there are only three days from there to Trottingham. And that’s if I don’t get this pace again. If I can step it up, or keep it at this, I might be able to cut a whole day from it. Maybe I’ll find a way to stay up, starting tomorrow, to where I don’t even have to sleep. If I don’t have to sleep, I’ll get there even faster.

That’d be so great.

Trixie pulled her head from the stream, heading off to what she was going to call her own last rest. The next day, she would head to the town and figure out a way to not have to sleep. Perhaps she would get some coffee for that day. Sugary treats would likely help keep her energy up at other times, but she wasn’t sure that they would suffice to keep her up the entire trip to Trottingham. She also didn’t know if it would be healthy to rely on something like that to be able to stay awake.

Come on, this is it. I’m at the final stretch. I get to this town, I get supplies, I go to Trottingham. But first, I get some sleep. Perhaps it had been her previous, cider-induced, sleep that gave her the confidence that this one would succeed. All she needed to do was get one more night of sleep, eight to ten hours, and then she would be able to deal with the rest of the time with anything else. That was the plan, and she was going to stick with it. One more night of sleep, one more night of sleep.

That can’t be too hard.

By now, she was laying down in the wagon. It was comfortable enough, though one of the things she would have to get would be blankets. Trixie wasn’t one that couldn’t deal with the cold, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t prepare for it at all. While she was safe inside the walls of the wagon, she wouldn’t have to deal with anything else. Right now, though, she didn’t have the blanket. Right now she would just have to get her sleep without that.

And a pillow. I can afford a pillow, and so I should get one.

Eyes were closed, ready for a lovely night of sleep.

Everything faded away into nothing. When Trixie opened her eyes, she wasn’t looking at the same stage as before. This was something of a relief. It wasn’t just any stage, though, this was the stage that she had performed on. This was the type of stage that had been used so many times when she had gone to smaller towns. She wasn’t as comfortable as she had once been, standing there, but she knew that this couldn’t be the same thing as before.

Trixie had become quite aware of her own dreaming, though for some reason it was still as if she was watching a movie.

It turned out that everything started off brilliantly. Trixie was on stage, telling about her feats of grandeur. That wasn’t anything new, it was actually quite old. She could barely remember er last show, actually. It was in Ponyville. But the mare on stage was telling a great tale about how she had defeated the Timberwolves. The story itself was almost meaningless, really, compared to everything that went into the show.

People came to see fireworks, displays of magic, and anything else that was used to make the story come alive in front of their eyes. All of Trixie’s tales had always had spectacular special effects.

Everything had to be timed perfectly. If even one thing was off time, the entire show might be marred irreparably. This had been her trade, her art. The dream pulled back, from seeing it in Trixie’s own sight, to seeing it from an outside perspective. She had never been able to do that, of course. When one did the shows, they weren’t able to see how it went. There had always been the assumption that everything went perfectly and that the audience adored her for her many feats of greatness.

Or they loved the spectacle of the lie.

There was no way that she could have really foreseen just how amazing the shows actually looked. If this was a dream, and she was sure it was, then she didn’t want to awaken. She didn’t want to have to deal with any other reality than this one. This show was beautiful. The words droned out, which might seem strange considering they were her own words, and the spectacle of everything took over. The images, while generally crude, made her feel as though she was there herself.

Fireworks were beautiful, they kept her in the trance that the images had started.

If that was what the shows were like, then she should probably go to one of somepony’s.

The dream reeled back into first person, Trixie, as she went off stage. This had been a good show, not to mention a good dream. Nothing had gone wrong with either. When she got offstage, there were even a couple of fans waiting for her. She couldn’t tell who they were, one of their faces was covered up by a giant bouquet of flowers.

Those had been the days.

With everything going so well, Trixie trotted right up to them. None of them really looked all that familiar, but a fan was a fan. Not only that, but the flowers looked delicious.

“Are those for me?”

“Yes, yes they are.”

That voice was enough to unnerve her. Trixie knew that voice, it was the mare from Canterlot. The words of many a great pony went through her mind, all of which were varying degrees of the most obvious command that she could have thought of. She turned away, wanting to get away from there before something happened. They were offstage, there was very little chance of anypony would be able to actually see them.

Immediately, she felt herself being stopped.

It was magic, sadly. It was something she should have been able to do something about. For some reason, though, she couldn’t.

Her back was turned, so there was no seeing what happened. It didn’t take that, though, because she felt it. Trixie hadn’t actually been bucked before, but she guessed this was what it felt like. This wasn’t some weakling, either, this was obviously the stallion that had been in the group.

She buckled, a cry of pain escaping.

Not a single pony came.

It seemed as if the stallion wasn’t going to be alone with this, either. Again and again, she felt herself being bucked. Ribs were broken, legs cracked, and the final blow that she felt was on the back of her head. There was a cracking sound, and then she finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

With a startle, Trixie jumped up.

Where was she?

Oh, right, I’m heading to ton. I was just asleep, nothing actually happened. I don’t have to worry about it. All I have to do is get up, go outside, see that it’s day. As she said this, the mare stood up and got ready to leave for the day. There was only one problem with this chain of events, and it was the fact that it wasn’t morning yet. It wasn’t even about to be morning, if her calculations were correct.

A sigh escaped, and she trotted back to where she had laid down.

It was going to be a long night.

Sleep, sleep, sleep. Come on, you can force yourself to sleep. Wait, why am I talking to myself in second-pony? Whatever! Just sleep! With that, Trixie rolled over onto her back. She had heard from a stallion, one time, that sometimes restlessness came from the position that you were sleeping in. It hadn’t made much sense at the time, back then she didn’t have a single problem getting to sleep, but right now they were the most important words that she had ever heard.

There was no such luck for Trixie, though.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t tired, but every single time she closed her eyes something happened. It ranged from the sight of the mare’s face, though that barely happened, to the feeling of the buck that had started the beating that she had taken at the hooves of those ponies. The worst thing, though, was when there was a sound. Oh Luna, she’s coming after me. She’s going to actually get her revenge. There was very little that Trixie could do if that was the case, but she still worried greatly about the concept of her life being ended.

Hour by hour, time crawled by. Trixie still forced her eyes closed, still tried to make sure that she got some sleep that night. Even fifteen minutes, a nap by anypony’s definition, would have been enough. It didn’t make any sense, though, she had found it easy to go to sleep that one night.

What was different now?

It didn’t matter, Celestia was gracing Equestria with her brilliant sunlight.

This is horrible. I should be moving by now, but I just can’t move. And what was it that happened last night? I should have been able to sleep. I should have been able to do something to get some rest. How am I supposed to continue through the day, trudging along, without a single moment of rest? Gah! I’ll just have to force it. I don’t have any other choice in the matter, now do I? With obvious effort, which was something that made it good that she was alone, Trixie stood up and shook herself. She didn’t know a way to get herself energized, but she had heard that this sort of thing might help.

Unfortunately, it did not.

That didn’t stop her from getting out, and getting ready to trudge on. There were places she needed to go, ponies she needed to see, things she needed to do. As of now, she didn’t know what was in that third category. She hadn’t actually decided what she was going to do, but that didn’t matter. Trixie was going to get to the town, get some supplies, then get to Trottingham. Her want to head to the town was hampered, though. It felt like she wasn’t going anywhere, as if she was simply sitting down. That didn’t even begin to say anything about the fact that she felt like the day went on for years.

Oh, how the last day had proven to be much better.

By the time the day had ended, Trixie didn’t know what to do with herself. Her eyes held an exhausted look, her expression was basically bare. The only thing that pushed her forward was her indomitable will. She wouldn’t stop, she wouldn’t. Okay, so maybe I should stop for a little sleep. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? All I need to do is get some sleep, and tomorrow will be alright.

So much for not stopping.

Trixie was actually quicker to get into the wagon, to lay down, than she had been the entire day. One could only assume it had to do with the lack of sleep, with the hope that she wouldn’t be awake until the next day. That was what she hoped. Eyes were closed, and she tried to force herself to sleep again. As she started to drift off to sleep, though, the face of the rich mare appeared in her mind. Words about murder, about how Trixie was a murderer that was going to get what she deserved, were whispered softly.

Every minute felt as though it was ten. By the time that sixty of them had passed, an hour, the only thought that went through her mind was that this wasn’t working. Trixie wasn’t sleeping, she was just laying there. She couldn’t imagine what could cause something like that. Her mind even went back to the dream, the forgiveness, as if to try to quell her own nightmares. That didn’t help, though.

In the end, she got out to start moving again.

Time became something of a useless measure. Night became day, and day became night. It was an endless cycle, of course, with one thing in common. Trixie would close her eyes, try to get to sleep, and she would see that face. She would hear those words. One time, she could even swear that she heard the voice of the showmare that had died. It didn’t make any sense, though. None of it made any sense.

An entire week passed this way.

She hadn’t even realized that she had passed through the town, and was at Trottingham.

Eyes were puffy, face a mess, mane didn’t look so good. Her expression was a frown. This wasn’t the expression of somepony who was on vacation. Trixie needed to figure out how to deal with this, or she would eventually just drop.

At least she was in a big town, there might be somepony there who could help her.

The more things change...

Alright now what? I thought that something was going to come to me when I got here, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m no closer to figuring out what I want to do now than I was yesterday or the day before. Frick, frick, frick on a stick. You have to come up with something. You can’t just walk around town all day. Trixie’s head moved slowly, much as the rest of her was, from person to person. She wanted to get a good view of what was happening, what was there. If she could get an idea of what it was that this town had to offer these days, she might be able to actually come up with something.

Nothing came to mind.

She stopped walking, it would be much easier for her to glance over everypony this way. Once again, she told herself that this would help. All she needed to do, she told herself, was get a look at everypony and every building. She needed to think about it, processing it, and then everything would become crystal clear. That might not have made sense to anypony else, but it seemed like the perfect way to figure out what to do. Trixie didn’t want to stand there all day, after all.

It was only noon, there was no way she would stand there all day.

Sadly for her, ten minutes passed wihout much being figured out. She didn’t know what to do, and it wasn’t as if glancing around was really doing any good. At this point, everypony was blurring together. It was actually starting to give her more than a little bit of a headache. Come on. Shake it off. I know I can do this, I know I can think of something. This should not be so hard. All I have to do is figure out something to do. Nothing was helping, though, nothing was coming together into a cohesive idea. Trixie had to think of something, she just had to.

Standing around isn’t working. I can’t get a good idea of what this town is anymore with just standing here. Why did I ever think that this was a good idea? I have to start moving, I have to make sure that I cover as much ground as possible. At this point, her thoughts would likely seem as though she was throwing ideas at the wall. Something had to stick, and hopefully it would be something good. Trixie was sure that she wouldn’t really have to trot all the way through the town, anyway. There was almost no chance that she would lack a good place in this town.

This was Trottingham, this was a place that she had always wanted to come to.

This was a place that she was coming to at her worst, or so it seemed to her.

Her first idea had failed, and now the rest of the day was going to be spent on the wonderful task of walking around. That hadn’t been what she really wanted to do, the hope had been that she would find something within the span of ten minutes of starting to walk. Those ten minutes had passed, though, without much happening. The only thing of note to happen was actually when she had accidently ran into a wall, which caused those around her to have a chuckle at her expense. A week of walking, nonstop, was the thing that had led to this wonderfully funny event happening.

They wouldn’t understand even if they did ask her what was wrong.

The sun started to fall, the normally beautiful sunset was just another reminder of the sleepless night that she was going to have. It wasn’t even as though she had found anything to do, though she did find somewhere to park her wagon for a long time. That had been some good news. That was the only good news today. I’m lost, cold, thirsty, and hungry. That last one, as if her stomach was echoing her thoughts, was accented by a growl. If she could figure out a way to get rid of those things, all of them, that would have been great. It would have been even better if she could get rid of the fact that she hadn’t slept in the past week.

It would be good, but it wasn’t likely to happen.

Focus on food right now, and drink. Focus on the things that you can do something about. You can’t force yourself to sleep. I do think that there was a place that served food, a nice restaurant, that we passed by about a while ago. And I have some bits. What’s the point of having these bits if I never spend them? This can be a nice thing that I do for myself. Who knows? Maybe I’ll eat a lot, get that nice full feeling, and somehow go to sleep. After all, I always feel like taking a nap after a nice meal. This was about as scientific, and logical, as Trixie was going to be right now.

Maybe after a good meal, everything in her brain would start working normally again.
It took her a while, a longer while than she remembered, to get back to the place she had seen before. From the outside perspective, Trixie likely looked like a fool. There were multiple alleys that she had stepped into, some of which led to dead-ends. It wasn’t her most perfect time, but eventually she came upon a place that looked as though it served food. This had to be the place that she had seen, her memory wasn’t that bad.

Then again, you almost walked right into somepony’s house just a few minutes ago. There’s no real proof that it won’t happen again...

Her fears were soon allayed, however, when she entered the building. There wasn’t a family getting ready to eat, and she wasn’t smacking into a wall, but there were ponies that were getting ready to eat. Some had their food, and were eating. Servers were going around, taking orders. Everything fit together to say that Trixie had finally gone the place that she had been looking for. Of course, it would likely cost her a lot of bits to get the amount of food she was thinking of eating, I can’t spend too much tonight, I have to think about tomorrow and the next day.

Maybe I should be thinking about what I’m going to do for bits next week. There won’t be enough to last forever, unfortunately.

Tonight, however, was focused on tonight. Trixie needed food, drink, and a place to stay. Actually, the third is being taken care of by my wagon. I need food and drink. By now, she was being taken to a table. There wasn’t much of her attention given to the waitress, though a cursory glance revealed a mare that was slightly younger than she was. She would have looked for a cutie mark, a way of determining if this was just a job or her special talent, but that would have taken her eyes to the mare’s flank. It might have been awkward to do so, or at least that was what she assumed.

Now I just have to decide something from the menu.

As she continued to look over the menu, the waitress just stood there. She didn’t look like she was liking the diea of standing around, but she did. That was likely taking bits from her, something that Trixie herself wouldn’t do. Or maybe there’s something about being a waitress that entails waiting. That is in the name, after all. At this point, the best multitasking that Trixie was capable of happened. The azure mare was able to both think about that and choose what she wanted off of the menu. This might have seemed like nothing to every other pony, but it was something of greatness to her.

“Pasta with parmesan.”

”And to drink?” The food order had been written down, though the small size of the order likely helped out. Trixie couldn’t help but wonder how earth ponies were able to write with their hooves. It seemed almost impossible for her to think about using something other than magic to write down whatever needed to be written down.

“Strong apple cider. The stronger the better.”

The waitress rolled her eyes, but went away to make sure the order was completed. After all, Trixie was the customer. She was the one paying for whatever it was that she ordered. Actually, this might not be as expensive as I thought. I just have to have a drink, or two, three tops, and then I’m out of here. I go back to my wagon, I should be able to sleep, and then I head into town tomorrow. Yep, perfect. Eyes continued to glance down at the table, until the food itself was placed in front of her. That meant the drink had been placed a little bit ago, and yet she hadn’t drank it.

That was a problem that might soon be solved.

When Trixie took the first drink, she almost spit it back out. It took all of her willpower, which was low at this point, to swallow it. Note to self, do not ask for the strongest anything. It will only end with you needing to get a different drink. At the same time, though, she knew that the drink had cost a few bits. She wasn’t the type to waste, not even something she didn’t like. All she needed to do was start drinking through it. Another drink was taken, and it seemed to be a little better than the first.

By the time she got to the last drink, it was one of the best things she had drank.

The food didn’t disappoint, either. Maybe it was her hunger, but something about the way they made the pasta made it to where she didn’t want to stop. Eventually, she would have to, she knew she would run out, Bite after bite were almost shoveled into her mouth, though, until she was completely done. Oh boy, it was so delicious. She almost thought about getting a second order, but something stopped her. Trixie knew that she had eaten enough, eating too much would be a bad thing for her health.

She might need another drink, though..

”That’s the spirit. Another cup of the same stuff.”

Wait. I know my nobody is here with me, I know that isn’t how I sound like when I think. That’s... Eyes looked up from her plate, a chair was now sitting across from her. In that chair was a lovely mare, an earth pony mare that she had met a long time ago. It was the performer, the one who she had... the one who had died in the accident. It wasn’t something she had wanted to think of, yet it was something that kept being forced to be a part of her days. It would have been so much easier if she could just forget.

”Ah, but why would you want to forget me? We’re going to be the best of friends!”

Trixie did her best to ignore her as the waitress walked up, but it wasn’t easy. A couple of tears were starting to form, only the clearing of a throat enough to snap her to attention.

”Would you like anything else, ma’am?”

“I’ll have a-another of your strongest ciders, please.” The mare was still sitting across from her. “Actually, make that three. I forgot that I’m expecting company, a business meeting.”

The waitress didn’t believe her, but that didn’t matter. Once again, she walked off to go get the orders. That was something that she was starting to really like about this place.

”Come on, say something. I’m not just going to disappear, you know?” The mare, the ne who shouldn’t have been there by all logic, seemed to look around. ”I’d never leave you love here, Trixie. What type of friend would I be if I just left you alone?”

Friend? Friend? Trixie knew well enough that this mare wasn’t going to become her friend. She knew that this mare wasn’t even there, or at least the last vestiges of her rational mind were telling her that. Her brain told her that it was a tired hallucination, that it was something that appeared because of a lack of sleep. It made sense to the rest of her brain, but that wasn’t helpful when she couldn’t get any sleep because of the mare that she saw in front of her.

”It isn’t my fault that my mom wants to kill you.” It was almost as if this pony could hear her thoughts, which was definitely not something good. ”And it isn’t my fault that the accident happened. We both know that.” The mare glanced back at Trixie, who was barely containing those tears at this point, and gave her a look of pity. ”I told you that I forgive you. Well, really, it wads forgave. It was in the past, more than a week ago. And here you are, still like this...”

The drinks came, luckily enough.

“Bottoms up.”

With those two words, and none to what she hoped was simply a tired hallucination, Trixie quickly started to drink all three of them. The first one was down, the second was down, and quickly enough the third was down. This will definitely hurt in the morning. Why did I think drinking was a good idea? I don’t drink much, and I certainly don’t drink like this.

”Yeah, why did you drink like this?

Yep, still there.

Trixie pulled out some bits, dropping them on the table. She knew that she had to get out of here, her sanity depended on the idea of her being away from this mare. There was no way that she was going to stay here and listen to a mare talk about how she was going to be her new best friend.

Certainly not a mare that she had killed.

”Geez, you really need to loosen up. If I forgave you, you should be able to.”

That was it, that was the comment that oddly enough caused her to cry. “Why did you forgive me, though? How could you forgive me for something like that? I... I...” No more, Trixie was going to quickly retreat from this entire scenario. Not only that, but more and more ponies were looking at her. They didn’t see the mare, they didn’t see anything more than a unicorn that was talking to herself while crying.

It wasn’t her best moment.

Sadly, it didn’t get any better when she stood up. Maybe she stood up too quickly, or maybe it was just movement at all after drinking what she drank, but the last thing she saw was the mare run over to her to try to stop her from falling to the floor. Of course, the earth pony didn’t exactly have any physical substance, so her arms were about as helpful as the air itself. That was actually a comforting thing, as the unicorn’s head hit the floor.

She might have just knocked herself out, but at least that earth pony wasn’t real. That was a tiny victory, something many would consider less important than the fact she was lacking in the consciousness department.

When you’re unconscious, time doesn’t mean anything. There is no reason to care about the start of a day, the end of a day. Hours, minutes, seconds, are nothing more than concepts. All of this was especially true of Trixie, who hadn’t cared much for those concepts even before she passed out. In fact, at this point she would hope that weeks would pass by before she was able to awaken again. She had a lot of sleep to make up for, and this seemed like the perfect time.

At least this time, just like before, she dreamed of pure nothingness.

A day would have been nice, a week better, but neither of those turned out to be true. When Trixie awoke, the familiar headache of a hangover making itself known, she could see the light of day. In times like these, Celestia was the enemy of her eyes. The sun might as well have been mere feet from her face, at least that was how she felt. Of course, that wasn’t really the case. Even she wasn’t dumb enough to think that it was true. Alright, try to... gah, headache. Was my thought-voice always so loud? Stop thinking, Trixie! STOP THINKING!

Gah, you just got louder.

A quick glance around told her that this wasn’t the restaurant. It wasn’t the street, which means that she hadn’t been tossed out. There was the chance that she had, actually, but it hadn’t been permanent. She couldn’t recognize this place, which meant that her wagon was definitely crossed off the list. Trixie didn’t know anyone here, so there was no chance that she would have been taken anywhere by a family member or a close friend. In fact, the only pony to talk to her that wasn’t the waitress was the pony that she had imagined was there.

”Nuh-uh, I’m totally real. And I went to go get a pony to help.”

As if on cue, she appeared.

“Ugh, Trixie is not in the mood to talk to you.... whatever you are.” Hooves went over her face for a few moments, with the hope that she wouldn’t see the mare when she opened them again. It was true that she could still hear her, but part of the battle was trying to make sure that she wasn’t seen anymore.

”You forgot my name, didn’t you?” When Trixie moved her hooves, she saw an unmistakable expression. It was almost as if she had offended the hallucination. Of course, she wasn’t drunk. Why would she keep hallucinating this mare? A lack of sleep couldn’t be blamed either, as she had been asleep for an unknown number of hours. ”You can just call me Smiles. All of my friends do... or they would if I had a lot of friends! And you’ve been out for shortly over twelve hours, little missy. Time to get up, look at the beautiful sun, and go out into the world.”

“I will not!” Of course, there was one thing that came with yelling. Trixie was not in any condition to deal with yelling, not even from herself. It felt as if she had been hit in the head with a skillet, each decibel above normal talking being a new version of pain than the one before it.

”You will not what?” A voice came from behind her, a stallion who seemed to have just entered the room. It was quite obvious that he was confused, which was to be expected. Trixie knew that she was alone, knew that she would have to deal with this mare. It would have been easier if she had not known a name, or more accurately been reminded of a name that sounded like the most innocent mare who had ever lived.

Guilt was never fun.

“Nothing. I was simply reciting the lines of a play I’m supposed to be in soon...”

”Uh-huh. And what, pray-tell, would this play be called?”

“Errm...” Think, think, think, think. Trixie threw the blanket over her head, as if that was going to make sure that she didn’t have to answer the question. It made sense to her, she would just pretend that she had passed out again. Wait, no, that doesn’t make sense at all. I have to come up with something that makes it seem like I’m asleep. He won’t believe I’ve passed out, he doesn’t seem like a complete idiot. The wheels were turning in her head, which was still as painful as the idea itself sounded, until she came up with the most brilliant thing she could come up with.

“Can’t hear you, I’m asleep.”

”Hehehe, I don’t think he’s going to fall for it. Good luck, though, Trix.”

She could already tell this was going to get old quickly. Even if he somehow left, that would mean that she would be left that mare. What did she call herself?

”Smiles, duh. I only told you that about three minutes ago.”

Yep, this is already old.

”Sure, sure, and I’m Starswirl the Bearded.” A chuckle came next, obviously the stallion thought he was clever. It wasn’t true, even the hallucination had a hard time keeping a smirk on her face. Trixie knew that meant that it wasn’t even funny to the perpetually happy, or her mind’s representation of rhe perpetually happy. ”I’m not leaving here before you tell me something that makes sense. I might have a job, but I can miss it today to stay home...”

Alright, so this stallion lives here. But the question remains how I got here. I still don’t know what really happened after I blacked out. For all I know, he rushed in and took advantage of me. Or maybe I only passed out because he got the waitress to put something in my drink. That would make perfect sense.

”No it doesn’t, silly filly. You passed out because you drank a lot after not eating for a while. Even I know that, and you’re determined to say I’m not real!”

That was obviously not a good retort, Trixie would have hoped her mind would come up with something beyond that.

”I’m still waiting.”

The sound of a hoof hitting the floor was heard. It was obvious that she would have to come up with something, anything, to make sure that he didn’t think that she was avoiding anything. Trixie wasn’t the type that went around telling others about hallucinations. This was partially because she couldn’t remember the last time that she had seen something that wasn’t there. She was usually the model for perfect health, mental and physical. Right now, she was a little worse off than she actually wanted to admit that she was.

She would have to come up with something.

“Okay, so it was really a thought that I yelled out. I had been thinking about what I should do. Part of me came up with the idea that I should get up, go out.” That was mostly false, but there was enough of the truth there to make sure that it might be believable. She knew that ponies sometimes blurted out their thoughts, it had happened to her before. Last time, though, it was about that Ursa Minor. This time... well, I was actually just talking to myself. There’s a bit of a difference between the two, but he will never actually know the truth if I have anything to say about it.

”Nope, you were talking to me.” The smiling mare trotted up beside Trixie, her face right in front of the unicorn’s. ”And I don’t think you should really say something like that to this stallion. The truth will help you out, he’ll be able to tell you that I’m real enough to go Trick or Treating on Nightmare Night!”

There was no way she was going to respond again, it would make her lie obvious. She would have to wait until later, or with any luck she could just get used to the idea of ignoring that voice. Would it be possible? Another thing that she wouldn’t bother doing was look at the stallion. This was, of course, out of fear that she might be discovered. Trixie hadn’t had good luck with her lies recently, or luck with much in general. The less she put herself in danger, or the chance of danger, the more it would be possible for her to just glide on through.

This could be said to be a part of a five month plan, which she was coming up with as she went along. Of course, not a single part of my plans had anything to do with going crazy and seeing a pony that isn’t there. At least... I don’t think that they do. Eyes moved to Smiles, who was now in a secretary outfit a few feet back. It was almost as if she was mentally questioning if it had actaully been her plan.

”Nope. I just sorta showed up on my own. And aren’t you glad that I did?”

No, Trixie was not happy at all.

”That seems like a good enough reason.” It was obvious that the stallion didn’t believe her, but that was hardly important. He was willing to buy what she said, or at least glance over it enough to where she didn’t have to tell him any more. ”So, where should I walk you to, miss?”

And there it was, the question she didn’t want to answer. Trixie would have to admit that she only had a wagon. That wasn’t something she was willing to admit, not to a stranger. Travelling had its perks, and the wagon wasn’t so bad. The simple fact was, though, that her entire impression was based on her passing out drunk. She had already decided that if the stallion had drugged her, she would likely be dead right now. Best case scenario, she would be strapped down to some sort of torture rack where she would suffer until she eventually died.

”Miss? Are you spacing out again?”

Alright, so all I have to do is get a room for a night at some hotel. He might try to check up on me, so I have to actually have a room. I should have enough bits to-

”Hey, lying’s bad. And enough bits to what?”

Trixie quickly looked for the pouch that had been attached to her. It had carried all of her money, yet she hadn’t thought to make sure that she had it. Only now did she realize that she didn’t feel any weight that should have come with cash.

”Oh boy. Don’t tell me you got robbed while I was off getting that nice unicorn over there.”

She had.

Of all the worst things that could happen, that was the worst possible thing. Trixie was completely out of money, only had her wagon, didn’t have a lie to rely on. She couldn’t come up with an address, that was likely to end if he decided that he was going to actually take her to the location. Even if her lie worked, it would die there. That didn’t even take into account the fact that she didn’t know any of the addresses here, which meant that she would be trying to come up with a place that might not actually exist. That would have been funny, but not to her.

Most importantly, it meant that everything that had happened was for nothing.

Trixie had worked hard, harder than normal, to get what she had. That money had been the product of her surviving an attempt on her life. It was all gone, though, along with her hopes of actually being able to go through with this little vacation. The other thing that was gone was her ability to care if anypony else saw her cry. There were far more important things right now than worry, one of them being to cry until it felt like she should stop. Tears formed in her eyes, the azure mare didn’t even bother trying to make sure that they didn’t come flowing out.

“It’s not fiar... it’s just not fair.” As soon as she started, she wasn’t stopping. Maybe this was the thing that Trixie needed, a good cry to help cleanse herself. If that was the case, then the tears that were streaming down her face would be the things that helped. For all she knew, it could help get rid of that hallucination somehow. That wasn’t what she was thinking about, she was focused on what had brought her to this point. “I had a full pouch, so full of money that I had earned.

I earned every bit!

And now it’s all gone. ALL OF IT.”

Trixie buried her face in her hooves, the wailing still being heard through her forelegs. Everything good that had happened seemed to come crashing down, only leaving the bad things. Even the reminder of what she had done, this mare named Smiles, was going to haunt her forever. This was not the type of thing that she thought would happen, what she wanted to happen. She didn’t even listen for anything to be said, it didn’t matter. Trixie just wanted to cry, to be left alone until she decided that she had cried enough. After everything that had happened, she knew she deserved a good cry.

She was cashing in on all those other times that she hadn’t bawled her eyes out.

Ten minutes passed before she had realized it, and even afterwards she didn’t. There was no way for a person who was crying, and this lost in herself, to really understand the concept of time. She didn’t even hear the hallucination say anything, thougb something told her that things were said. Trixie was starting to think that maybe the stallion had run away, that maybe he had proven to be smart enough for that. Also, she reasoned that her mind wasn’t going to send forth a hallucination while it was focused on the breakdown.

”There, there. It’s okay. It’s going to be alright.”

That was the worst way of comforting somepony, and Trixie knew she wasn’t alone with that knowledge. This unicorn, if that’s what he really was, had to know that it wouldn’t help. She felt a hoof pat her back, which was a good continuance from what had been done with the words. It still wasn’t right, it wasn’t right at all. She had paid her dues, she had gone through everything that was required of her. In her mind, she went through things that the average pony didn’t have to deal with. Right now, it seemed as though she was being kicked while she was trying to get stabilized on her feet.

”Just let it out.”

Gee, he’s giving me permission? Oh, I’m so lucky that I don’t know what to say. By now, she had been able to quiet herself down a little. Tears didn’t stop, they might not for a while, but at least the wailing had stopped.

”Oh, you didn’t need permission silly-filly. He just wants to let you know he’s here for you.”

Trixie’s luck definitely wasn’t there, otherwise she wouldn’t have just heard that.

How much time had passed by the time she had stopped crying? There was no way for Trixie to know. It could have been a half hour, an hour, or more than that. In reality, the entire time of her episode lasted around thirty minutes. Her eyes were puffy, which happened when you cried. Her throat was scratchy, and it hurt. Crying hadn't been kind to her, really. Was it ever? Did she want to move? Trixie could stay like this all day, the only thing stopping her being the fact that she was actually in somepony’s house.

That would likely hinder her ability to just lay there all day.

”You alight now, Trix? I feel really awful that you’ve had to deal with all of this. I wish there was something I could do to help.”

That would have been a lot better if it was real. Trixie knew that this was a mental projection, it was her wish that something different had happened. It was her guilt at killing the mare, even though the mare forgave her. Of course, that doesn’t make any sense at all. I shouldn’t feel guilty. That happened a long time ago, I was a much different pony. Besides, it was a complete accident. How could I have known that something like that would happen? There’s no way that she could blame me.

That’s why I saw her forgive me, because even I know it.

”Duh. It totally was an accident. I told you I forgive you for that. Now if only you could forgive yourself...”

That didn’t make any sense, Trixie knew she already forgave herself. She knew it was an accident, unforeseeable, something that could have happened to anypony. It was bad luck that it had happened to her, a product of two ponies interacting that likely should have never been forced to interact. If she had been in any other town right then, any other city, there wouldn’t have been the set of circumstances that had led to a death.

”Hellooooo. I said I need to move. Stop grasping onto one of my forelegs. It’s starting to cramp.”

When had that happened? Trixie had been crying, her hooves had been under her face for support, but at some point they had moved. At some point, the pillow had proven to be enough support. Her hind legs were wrapped around one of this stallion’s, though the reasoning behind it evaded even her. Quickly, they were removed and she rolled onto her side. Even though she felt a little better, there was still that urge to not show her face.

“I’m sorry.”

”Nothing to be sorry for, really. I’m just glad that I’m able to move a little.”

Alright, so now there was the question that was on her mind. If she was poor, and she was, the question of how she would scrape by came to mind. It had taken her a long time to find a job before, and that had been in Canterlot. There was also the question of what this stallion would say to the idea. Trixie had come out with her problem, that she was broke. It was something that she should have kept to herself, really, but the shock of it was something understandable when it came to her losing it.

”I’m sure we can find you a new job. It won’t be glamorous, but there has to be something that you can do around here.”

”Well, I take it that you don’t really have anywhere to go now. After all, hotels do cost bits.”

Ouch. That was true. That didn’t make it hurt any less when he said it.

”I do know of a job around here, if you’re interested. Just nod if you’re interested.”

This didn’t make any sense. There was no way that ponies would help ponies they didn’t know. It just doesn’t make any sense. Ponies don’t help ponies they don’t know. They don’t owe them anything. If I were in his position, I don’t think I’d do the same thing. Does this make me a bad pony? Or does this simply mean that he’s better than average?

”You’re not a bad pony. I’m sure you’d help him out if you were in similar a similar position.”

That was something that Trixie wouldn’t agree with.

“I don’t have a choice, do I?”

”Not if you want to eat.”

”And eating is good!”

“Fine, tell me about this job.”

”It’s nothing major. I run the local library, and I could always use some help. Plus, sometimes I have to head out, being a library barely pays the bills, and tutor some unicorns. You wouldn’t imagine how much ponies will pay to make sure their foals can do basic spells..”

Something told her that this was the start of a bad few weeks. This was a unicorn that was likely much better at magic than she was. It wasn't good at all.