In the days that followed Gilda’s visit, Ponyville returned to its routine. Sophia smiled as she noticed a remarkable improvement in Starlight’s combat skills with each training session she had with Nova and Tosh. The Ghost and Spectre pair were beginning to put more effort into their sparring sessions.

Sophia suspected at this point that the unicorn could take on any of the Royal Guards and win but it appeared that Starlight wanted more. When asked how far she wanted to go with the training her response was a satisfactory declaration of her intent on proving her point that the guard needed to change their ways.

Even though Luna was back at Celestia’s side, it would be some time before the younger alicorn would return to the political scene. The parliament was still uncertain about what changes the night princess would bring about and a fear of those changes still ran rampant in pony society.

At some point Sophia would need to ask Celestia where this fear of change came from as this fear seemed a little extreme for a race that still held the potential to brave the unknown, from what she had seen of the ponies of Ponyville.

It was a week later that a new pony came into Ponyville carrying a modestly sized caravan. The driver was an azure unicorn mare with a pale cerulean mane and tail with a mark of a star wand with a wave of glitter. Not long after her arrival she began putting up posters for her traveling magic show.

Sophia was no stranger to stage magicians and the poster implied that she was one. What did surprise her was the fact that Equestria had stage magicians given that a third of the nation was made up of spellcasters. On the other paw, she supposed that magic performed in a way that left its method in mystery would still be a form of entertainment.

Always on the lookout for potential talent, Sophia decided to peer into the mare’s mind. She could see a lot of insecurity in the belief that her magic was mediocre at best but she also noticed that she had attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns but dropped out when her grades were slipping and she couldn’t focus on her studying. She used the excuse of wanting to be a showmare in order to avoid the humiliation by her peers. However, she knew that they didn’t buy that excuse. Despite that she had developed an impressive talent for sleight of hoof.

This information wouldn’t have been useful to her but there was something about the mare’s mind that interested her. Her mind seemed to rapidly process information faster than normal ponies, perhaps even more so than Twilight who was a rapid thinker herself. However this ability was not useful because the mare couldn’t keep up with her own thoughts, leading to her appearing as an eccentric pony to others.

Finally, the mare whipped around to face Sophia with a surprised look on her face. “Were you in Trixie’s head?”

Sophia responded to this with a surprised look of her own. Since ponies were normally unaware of her mental intrusions, this was indeed an unusual case. “You noticed that I was looking into your mind?”

“Well it was hard to tell at first, but Trixie felt something weird worming around in Trixie’s head and felt that it was coming from behind Trixie.”

Noticing the third person talk, Sophia figured that it was part of her eccentricity. “The fact that you felt my presence in your mind at all tells me that you have a powerful mind. Usually other psychics could feel a mental intrusion. Since ponies usually don’t sense that I’ve been careless about my efforts. Your reaction tells me that you are a natural-born psychic.”

“What’s a psychic?”

“Psychics can use telekinesis like a unicorn but they also have other mental abilities such as telepathy, also known as mind reading, and elemental kinesis, the generation of elemental energy using psychic power, though the latter is usually used by exceptionally powerful psychics. It’s not as versatile as magic but it still has many uses.”

Trixie was now looking at the bunny with rapt attention. “Perhaps you may tell the Great and Powerful Trixie how to control these powers?” It didn’t take a mind reader to pick up on the pleading tone.

Sophia chuckled with a shaking of her head, “I can see that your psychic powers are trying to manifest but it seems like something is holding it back. I’m not certain but I think it might be your magic. If you can find a way around that your mind will be opened to new possibilities.”

“How is Trixie’s magic getting in the way of accessing this power?”

“I suspect that it has to do with your mana channels extending to your horn and since your brain and your horn are next to each other your magic may be interfering with your psychic awakening. I’m no expert on magic so my best guess to get around it would be to empty your wellspring until the awakening triggers.”

“Hmm…perhaps Trixie will try that out later. For now, the Great and Powerful Trixie has a show to put on.”

“Want an assistant for tonight?” Sophia offered.

“Sure, Trixie has always wanted to do the rabbit in the hat trick but couldn’t afford animals for the shows. Pet stores charge a royal treasury.”

A few hours later a crowd of ponies gathered in the central square of town around the caravan turned stage parked in the area. The citizens were curious about the “new unicorn in town” and at least a few were excited by this. There were also some skeptics but Trixie was used to such naysayers.

Once enough ponies had gathered it was time to begin her show. She quickly donned her stage persona before making her grand entrance. “Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” With a burst of one of her smoke bombs she made her appearance on her stage and captured the audience’s attention. “Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs impossible feats of magic that will leave you mystified.”

Spike scoffed, “Yeah, right!”

Trixie heard the dragon’s comments and while there were a few who were beginning to lose interest, such as Rainbow and Applejack, Trixie decided to show the audience a few of her illusions that she had honed with training. The audience’s attention returned when it appeared that some of the illusions depicted her in situations where her life was at risk but she emerged unscathed each time.

“It’s awesome, I guess, but I bet it’s nothing compared to what Twilight or Starlight can do,” Rainbow commented.

“Rainbow!” Twilight scolded.

“You know more spells than I do, but only because a lot of my time had been training under Nova and Tosh,” Starlight admitted.

“Why are ya putin’ yourself through that, anyway?” Applejack asked.

“To show the Royal Guard that their training regimen needs work. Did you know that they are using a codex that hasn’t been updated in centuries? It’s a wonder how we haven’t been conquered yet.”

“Trixie can hear you in the back, you know,” Trixie called out. “Perhaps the Great and Powerful Trixie needs to issue a challenge to one of you to prove her greatness?”

“Twilight will take you up on your challenge!” Rainbow declared.

“Rainbow, don’t volunteer me for things!” Twilight growled, her teeth beginning to grind.

“Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie asked. “The Great and Powerful Trixie couldn’t ask for a better challenge. Come up here and let us face one another in a contest of magic!”

Having no other choice now that she had been called out, Twilight made her way to the stage where she faced the blue mare. “Alright, am I naming the challenge or are you?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie knows how powerful a student of Princess Celestia is but how great are you without your horn?” Before Twilight could respond, a ring was placed around Twilight’s horn and one was placed on Trixie’s horn immediately after.

“Hey! What gives?” Twilight demanded.

“For this challenge, we only need our hooves.” Trixie then pulled out a deck of cards and shuffled them in ways that the audience didn’t think possible without unicorn magic as the cards flew into the air only to land in the deck. “Now, pick a card.” Twilight picked the five of diamonds before Trixie shuffled the deck again. She then picked out the two of clubs. “Is this your card?” Twilight shook her head. Trixie then picked the nine of hearts and the seven of spades which Twilight also shook her head to. “Then it must be this one.” She reached above Twilight’s head and pulled a card from behind her ear that she didn’t know was there. It was the five of diamonds.

Twilight was gobsmacked by what happened. “What? How? I didn’t even see you put that card there! I didn’t even feel that the card was there!”

Trixie smirked, “Maybe now your friends will stop neighsaying the greatness of Trixie’s magic.”

As Twilight returned to her friends who were equally stunned, Trixie then took off her hat to announce her assistant for the show as she pulled Sophia out of her hat.

The rest of the show continued for another half hour with Trixie and Sophia showing off more illusions, including one where Trixie tapped her horn on the bunny’s head and she ended up multiplying. The multiplication was the result of Sophia creating illusionary copies of herself with her psychic powers.

Once the show was over, Spike couldn’t help but be impressed by what the two did though he did overhear two colts, a short, pudgy unicorn with a grayish opal coat and an orange mane and tail and a pair of scissors for a cutie mark as well as a lanky amber unicorn with a turquoise mane and tail and a snail for a cutie mark, talking about Trixie’s performance. However, Spike noticed a point in their conversation where they believed that if Trixie could defeat Twilight Sparkle then she could defeat powerful monsters such as an Ursa Major.

Spike felt that was a huge leap in logic and could only hope that the conversation was innocuous as he returned home with Twilight and Starlight.

That night as ponies were headed off to bed a loud roar was heard in the distance and the roars grew louder over time. Ponies began to leave their homes to check out the noise only for them to run back inside screaming as they spotted a giant, blue and transparent ursine creature running toward the town and they didn’t look happy.

The two colts, Snips and Snails knocked on the door to Trixie’s caravan and awoke the now cranky unicorn. When they told her about the coming Ursa Major who had just made it into town and let out a deep roar, Trixie panicked and fled with the two colts as the Ursa crushed the wagon.

When cornered the two tried to encourage Trixie to vanquish the creature they worked so hard to lure here which made the mare furious at the two.

Unfortunately Trixie’s magic was completely ineffective against the Ursa. The three managed to slip away between the creature’s legs though the Ursa was now rampaging around town causing panic among the populace.

Twilight, Starlight and Spike arrived to see what was happening. It was the two colt’s who answered. “We just thought that if Trixie could defeat Twilight Sparkle she could defeat an Ursa,” Snips said.

“Seriously? What kind of logic is that?” Spike demanded.

“We can deal with them later, Spike,” Twilight offered. “For now we need to take care of this problem. Good thing you told us about what they said earlier. Starlight, you still haven’t recovered from your sparring earlier so you handle number sixteen. I’ll try to handle the rest.”

“You should let Trixie handle the heavy lifting,” came a voice from behind them. Looking behind they found Tosh approaching.

“Why would we do that? Her magic wasn’t anything to write home about,” Spike questioned.

“It’s for her own sake.”

“Are you insane?!” Trixie cried out. “There’s no way Trixie can lift that creature with her magic!”

“When pushed to the limit, you may find what you’ve been looking for.”

Trixie had no idea what the zebra was talking about but since they didn’t have time to discuss the matter they went along with the plan. Starlight began by creating a melody using the wind blowing through the nearby pond’s cattails to soothe the Ursa’s rage while Twilight ripped out the nearby water tower and emptied it before sending it through a barn and somehow milking enough cows to fill it. The creature accepted the gift and began sucking on the giant makeshift baby bottle.

Meanwhile, Trixie struggled with all of her magical might to lift the Ursa but to no avail. Tosh encouraged her to push harder but this only succeeded in depleting her magical reserves.

That was when a new strength surged through the blue mare. As her horn’s glow faded her eyes began to glow the same color as her aura. With strain, she actually began to lift the creature off the ground.

“Do not lose focus, girl. Mass is only a limitation you impose upon yourself,” Tosh instructed. “Of course, since you have just awakened to this power, I can give you some assistance. Tosh’s eyes glowed white and Trixie suddenly felt that the burden on her mind had lessened. Tosh moved forward toward the town edge and Trixie followed him, doing her best to focus on keeping the Ursa lifted. The mare had no idea that her horn wasn’t lit and that she was actually lifting the Ursa with her mind.

“Good. Keep it up,” Tosh encouraged. “We are heading toward the cave. We’re almost there.”

“Unh, the Great and Powerful Trixie is getting a great and powerful headache,” she grunted.

“That’s to be expected. With proper training you can master this new power. You don’t need to decide on that right now, but if you do decide to seek guidance, Sophia and I will give you that.”

After a few more minutes of strain the Ursa was placed inside the cave. However, the strain was too much for Trixie and she collapsed and blacked out in front of the cave. Tosh chuckled as he hoisted the mare onto his back and returned to town and the expecting crowd that gathered.

“Sweet Celestia, is she alright?” Rarity asked.

“She is exhausted after her psychic awakening so she only needs rest,” Tosh answered.

“Psychic awakening?” Twilight asked.

“As interesting a topic as I am sure you believe it to be, I will not be taking questions on the matter. You can direct any questions to Sophia.”

“Oh, I will,” Twilight ominously stated. Spike and Starlight knew that look and began to feel pity toward the bunny.

Tosh decided to carry Trixie back to his house since he found her mobile home had been destroyed in the attack. Since the household was stocked up on painkillers, Nova, Sophia and himself were the ones in the best position to help her right now.

As for Snips and Snails, their parents found out what they did and soon found themselves grounded for a very long time. With any luck they would be able to end their punishment before they were adults.

Author's Note

Hope you like the changes I made to Trixie for this story. I have big plans for her.