The Ordinary Ponies

Chapter 4: The Terminator of Boasters-Part 2

“You said you defeated Ursa Minor, but how did you defeat it?” Mr. Miracle asked, throwing playful glances at the surrounding ponies. His confident gaze formed a sharp contrast with Trixie’s evasive gaze.

“As I just demonstrated: I defeated it with magic.”

“Fine, show it to us again.”

“What?”

“I said, show it to us again.” Mr. Miracle lifted his chin backwards, and Apple Bloom nodded and walked onto the stage with him, lifting up a wooden board on the stage. “Ursa Minor is not here now, so let's use this board instead - use your magic to destroy it.”

Trixie half squinted her eyes, walked up, and said in a volume that only these two ponies could hear, “Don’t you afraid that I can really do it?”

“Can you? Just give it a try. I just know you’re bluffing.”

Mr. Miracle knew that Trixie couldn't do it, until she was seriously studying magic. Now she couldn't even be able to shoot a magic laser.

Sure enough, after speaking those words, Trixie became weak and could only blink her eyes, panting heavily.

Mr. Miracle took advantage of this opportunity and whispered, “Or you can stop right now. If you're willing to stop telling the lie, I'm willing to help you save the reputation, and it won't be damaged in the slightest.”

“Don't even think about it!” Trixie gritted teeth and refused. Then she took a few steps back, took a deep breath as if to boost herself, and then focused on practicing magic.

Her horn shone brightly, even more dazzling than before. She was sweating profusely and trembling all over her body, probably exerting all her strength to deliver this blow.

Mr. Miracle was a bit surprised and also had a view change towards this bragger queen - pushing limits to cover up the lie, in a sense, “remarkable”. Unfortunately, overdrawing the limit didn’t mean being able to do things she couldn’t do at all. She hadn't studied magic laser hard before, so how could she cast it now?

“Alright, alright, don't try anymore. With just a thin board, you're helpless. Can you still be considered great and powerful?”

“Shut up! Give the great Trixie a little more time, she's almost...” Her horn-light suddenly burst out, and for a moment, Mr. Miracle thought she had really done it; However, after the flash, her horn only intermittently emitted a few magical sparks, and nothing else happened.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who had been pranked in the audience, couldn't help but laugh out loud, while Twilight's expression was very complicated. She was glad she didn't show herself, otherwise she would be the one on the stage now.

Mr. Miracle shook his head and said, “Tsk tsk tsk, if you had known this before, why did you have to do it in the first place?” He then nodded at Apple Bloom, who walked forward and turned her back to the board. With sustaining force from her front hooves and a strong kick from her rear hooves, she kicked through the thin board with one hoof.

“She can easily do it, but you can't.” He was still taunting.

Trixie fell to the ground as if she had lost all her strength, not only physically exhausted, but also mentally. The audience was discussing the situation and shook their heads, ready to leave.

Trixie was almost about to cry, but only almost; On the contrary, she turned sadness into motivation and took a gamble, saying, “This doesn't prove anything! I have defeated Ursa Minor, and I’m the greatest. I can show you again.”

Mr. Miracle raised his eyebrows and got a new understanding of her ability to withstand pressure.

She continued, “Now I'm going to find it, right now! By tonight, you'll be able to see the great Trixie return victorious with the spoils of war.”

Apple Bloom interjected, “So, do you want to ‘once again’ search for Ursa Minor, defeat it, and retrieve the spoils of war for us to see?”

“That's right! Do you have the courage to come with me?”

Trixie asked confidently, as if she was certain no pony would dare to follow. As long as there were no witnesses, she could say anything.

“Indeed, Ursa Minor has a huge volume, sharp claws, and a big mouth can swallow several ponies in one bite. Its strength is unstoppable...No pony can face such a terrifying, fierce, cruel, and merciless monster except the great and powerful Trixie.”

Her description scared the ponies even more, none of them dared to follow, except for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They both anticipated that Trixie wouldn't dare to actually go find the bear, so they immediately raised their hooves and expressed their willingness to be witnesses.

Mr. Miracle didn’t push it too far, or rather, all of these were just parts of his plan. He took the initiative to stop Applejack and Rainbow Dash, saying it was enough with his accompany; Apple Bloom also wanted to follow, but was sternly stopped by Applejack, and she could only pout in silent protest.

Although they had just met this male pony, his behavior and words just now left a deep impression on them. In addition, they did have their own things to do, so they agreed.

Trixie had no idea what he was up to do, and it wasn't appropriate to express angry now, so she had to grit her teeth and go out with him. They walked all the way to the outskirts where there were no other ponies before she spoke again.

“Do you really want to come with me? If I get into a fight with the bear, it won't be good if I accidentally hurt you.”

“Come on, do you want to play the ‘coward game’ with me? I know your plan, so if you want to bribe me and let me go back tonight to lie for you, just forget about it.”

“Do you really want to force me to find Ursa Minor? Do you have to see me being eaten by it with your own eyes before you stop?” Trixie anxiously admitted her own lack of strength. “I don't understand, I don't even know you! Why are you biting me and not letting go? I didn't even provoke you!”

“Didn't you provoke me? Are you serious? Let me have a recall: first, tie me up with a rope, and it won't automatically release; second, prank Applejack in front of all of ponies, and her sister Apple Bloom is my good friend; third, publicly mock me for ‘not having a cutie mark’, although I'm not particularly angry about this one.”

“But, but...” Trixie looked a bit guilty, but with her temperament, it was harder for her to admit her mistake than to reach the sky. “It's all because you provoked me in the first place! If it weren't for those words you said on my first meeting -”

Mr. Miracle shook his head with a serious expression and said, “Don't you understand? All I did was to prevent another bigger disaster, whether it was for you or for Ponyville! If I were to tell you when you insist on telling this lie, it would cause those two little unicorns finding the real bear, what would you say?”

“What?!” Trixie was immediately shocked. Of course, she didn't believe it at all. “Stop messing around, even if Ursa Minor’s nest is really nearby, how could they just find it so easily?”

“They just can, I know! That's why I came with you alone, just to give you a chance. Although I know there is a truly powerful unicorn in Ponyville who can solve the problem, your reputation - if it really come, your reputation will be completely ruined.”

Trixie still looked incredulous.

Mr. Miracle stroked his forehead and sighed, “Do you believe my words? Never mind, it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. I'll go back and tell them now - Trixie admits she's a fraud, and defeating the bear is a complete lie.”

“I didn't even admit it!”

“You think they trust me or you? Don't forget, just now in the town square, you couldn't even get off the stage.” Mr. Miracle remained steadfast.

“What do you really want me to do?”

“Accompany me, or rather, I'll accompany you. I would say that although you don't have the ability to defeat the bear, you have the ability to mislead and confuse it. When it was preparing to attack Ponyville, you led it in another direction. In this way, the ponies can know you were lying before, but your reputation can be preserved - misleading the bear is another achievement.”

Trixie was still hesitating, her lips twitching, unsure whether to accept or reject. Mr. Miracle felt that his words had all come to this point, and if Trixie was still stubborn, then she was not worth further help.

“Why are you doing these things?” Trixie asked a little scared. “Isn't it contradictory that you want me to embarrass myself in front of ponies while also trying to maintain reputation? What do you really want?”

Mr. Miracle wanted to say that he was preventing her from using the alicorn amulet to cause another disaster because her jealousy towards Twilight due to losing face.

Instead of evolving into that, it was better to give her a good lesson now and made her remember the importance of being down-to-earth in the future.

But he couldn't say that. He was already surprising enough to say that Snips and Snails would look for the bear before.

“Just to teach you a good lesson. If you want to hold a grudge, just hold a grudge against me.” He could only condense it into this sentence.

“You're such a psychologically twisted monster!” exclaimed Trixie. But in the end, she succumbed, as if her pride and self-esteem were crushed all over her body. “I…I will do it, but remember, this is not over.”

“If this can make you learn magic seriously, stop lying, and retaliate against me with a magic laser, I’m willing to accept it.” he said, moving forward and gesturing for Trixie to follow.

“What else do we need to do now?”

“To cover the lie, we need to do the whole set. We need to create traces of your struggle with the bear in forest in the wilderness, so that other ponies can believe us. Both you and I just need more scars and dust.”

……

In Ponyville, Snips, Snails, and Spike were still discussing whether Trixie is the greatest unicorn.

“Trixie accepted the challenge and went to the wilderness with that unfamiliar pony. It won't be long before they can bring back the spoils of war,” Snips argued.

“Come on. ‘Whether pudding tastes good or not is only known after eating it’; whether she can defeat the bear is only known after watching it. What if she uses some means to persuade that pony to lie?”

“Do you really think so?”

“What else? Anyway, I won't believe any of their words unless there's a real bear defeated by her come out in front of me!” said Spike with his claws wrapped around his chest.

“Even if they retrieve the spoils of war, you still don’t believe it?”

“No, I don’t. I said it's impossible unless it's in front of me.”

“You're making a fuss for no reason!” Snips continued to argue.

“You're making trouble for no reason!” Spike was not polite.

In the end, Twilight forcibly took Spike back. On the road, Spike kept complaining, wondering why Twilight refused to reveal herself.

“Spike, you've seen it too. The result of Trixie’s showing off herself is that Mr. Miracle speaks of her, and she won't be able to ague. If I were to show off magic, I'm afraid I would be treated like her.”

“Didn't you see that? Mr. Miracle took the initiative to expose Trixie, and every pony was shocked by him, thinking that he was so reasonable. If it was you who went up, then the one who show off will be you!” said Spike patiently.

Twilight immediately stepped on her hooves, and Spike flew out due to inertia. She said seriously, “I'm not studying for showing off! If I do it, what's the difference between me and Trixie?”

“Okay, okay, your goal is even more noble, okay?”

They chattered incessantly and returned to Golden Oak Library.

On the other hoof, Snips and Snails still couldn't forget what Spike had said.

“Snails, he said, ‘Whether pudding tastes good or not is only known after eating it.’ Do you think it makes sense?” Snips asked.

“I don't think so -” Snails shook his head in confusion. “- for example, if a pudding made with green peppers, chili peppers, eggplants, and so on, you can tell immediately that it doesn't taste good, so there's no need to taste it at all.”

If Mr. Miracle were here, he would be very surprised because he felt this sentence contained another philosophy - although hearing is false and seeing is believing, sometimes obviously impractical plans or obviously impossible results don’t necessarily need to be proven by practice.

But Snips wasn’t Mr. Miracle, he wasn’t even an adult, so naturally he couldn’t understand. He corrected, “That's not what he meant! He meant to see everything with our own eyes.”

“Oh, I see!” Snails had a belated expression.

“So, do you think the same as I think?” Snips rubbed his hooves excitedly.

“What? Do you mean what's for dinner?”

“No! It's us who brought the bear over and let Trixie defeat it in the middle of the town. In this way, every pony will believe it, and she will also accept us as her magic apprentice because of our contributions.”

“Magic apprentice! Cool!” Snail's eyes lit up.

As soon as they said it, the two unicorns, unaware of the coming danger, immediately came up with a plan and headed straight for Everfree Forest.

It seemed that even if Mr. Miracle knew the trajectory of the event and had the intention to change it, what he could do was actually quite limited.

Snips and Snails found a huge cave as the afternoon approached dusk, and they did avoid the various dangers in Everfree Forest. In the end, they found it - the size of the cave entrance clearly indicates that there were significant creatures living inside; On the open space extending from the cave entrance, there were several huge paw prints scattered.

They were actually not afraid at this moment, just grateful that they had found the right place. Like an old saying said, “A newborn foal isn’t afraid of tigers.” They swaggered inside, and the deeper they went, the darker it became. Within a few minutes, it became pitch black.

“I can't even see my hooves, how could we possibly find a bear?” complained Snips.

“Wait a minute.” Snails used all his strength to use magic, and his horn intermittently emitted a golden light until it stopped flashing and became stable and long-lasting.

“This’s much better.”

But as soon as the light illuminated the cave, they felt a surge of heat behind them, as if some creature was spraying.

Looking back, a huge bear was fiercely staring at them, with blue translucent fur all over its body and a faint view of the starry sky. It had a North Star symbol on its head and a bloodthirsty mouth, which was extremely terrifying.

So they both screamed and ran back to Ponyville, with the bear chasing closely behind them.

At this time, Trixie and Mr. Miracle had returned. They were covered in mud and dust all over their bodies, and Trixie's magician hat and cloak had become torn and dirty, indicating that they had experienced a great battle at first glance.

In addition, they also toppled several trees at a certain place in the forest, opened the ground, and created the illusion of giant creatures wreaking havoc there.

“I hope your plan will work,” Trixie said angrily.

“You'd better first recall what you're going to say then.” Mr. Miracle wasn't tolerating her at all, but what surprised him was that no pony came to greet them. He suddenly had a bad premonition.

They could only hear screams echoing from deep within the town. Accompanied by the sound of collapsed buildings, shattered wooden boards, and clear roars, Mr. Miracle already knew what had happened. “I told you! They still brought the bear into the town!”

“What?!” Trixie was completely shocked. Although she didn't believe as much as before, these intertwined sounds made her unable to doubt. “How could that be? How could this be possible?”

“Why are you still standing there? Let's go over quickly.”

“Wait, if that's really Ursa Minor...do we really have a chance?” Trixie asked.

“We have to! In a sense, both you and I are responsible for it,” Mr. Miracle said. His hooves were trembling and his heart was beating too. However, he knew there were some things he could and must do. So he didn't care about Trixie and rushed straight over.

Trixie swallowed a mouthful of saliva and followed up.

In the center of the town, the mad bear is attacking all the buildings it saw, and the panicked ponies were scattered and fleeing. Snips and Snails, the two culprits, were still running wildly by the name of Trixie.

“You're actually right! What should we do?” after seeing this, Trixie asked anxiously.

“I know there is a truly powerful pony in town...You go to find her, and I will mislead the bear and try my best to avoid it damaging the building.” Mr. Miracle took a deep breath and seemed to have made a big decision.

“Wait! It should be me who misled it, as you originally planned.”

“What are you thinking about? That's just a story we worked together to make up!”

“Perhaps it was a story before, but not now. I, the great and powerful Trixie, am about to prove abilities!” Trixie mustered her strength, dropped her magician hat, and rushed out before Mr. Miracle replied, running and shouting, “And I don't know who the pony you're talking about is! You go to find her!”

Mr. Miracle didn't know what to say, but he had gained a third brand new understanding of this filly. So he rushed towards Golden Oak Library at the fastest speed.

On Trixie's side, she was actually very scared, very scared, several times more scared than Mr. Miracle, but her thirst for fame and fortune overwhelmed her fear, giving her a false impression that she could definitely mislead the bear.

She ran back to her caravan, quickly put on the rigging, and then pulled the cart towards the bear, running while casting magic, the nozzles sprayed various fireworks towards it.

The bear was attracted to her and was also annoyed by the fireworks, chasing her away from the center of the town. But this wasn’t a long-term solution.

The distance between her and the bear was gradually narrowing, but fortunately, she managed to turn the danger into safety with several spiritual moves. She only hoped that the truly powerful pony could appear soon.

Just when the situation was extremely critical, a melodious music swept over - it was the sound of broken reeds in Ponyville, blown by the wind.

Then the drowsy bear rose from the ground, suspended and flew back, while from a distance, a water tower tank filled with milk could also be seen floating towards it. The bear lifted the large water tank in the air, groggily drinking while sinking into dreamland. Afterwards, it and the water tower tank flew over Ponyville at an extremely fast speed, over the wilderness, over Everfree Forest, and all the way to the cave.

Trixie was not only amazed, but also realized that she had lost all her physical strength. She dragged the caravan that had ran out of ammunition, and back to the town square, only to find that every pony was cheering for Twilight.

They threw her into the air and caught her over and over again, while other ponies farther away stomped their hooves to show respect.

The ponies noticed Trixie and walked up to question her one after another, “Didn't you say you were looking for the bear? Why is it attacking us just now?”

Mr. Miracle still wanted to help Trixie fix her lies, but he needed to consider how to make his words credible enough. Trixie saw this and knew that the cost of lying was really high. In the end, she admitted, “I'm sorry, that I said I could defeat the bear was all fabricated...I actually don't have that ability.”

Mr. Miracle paused for a moment and looked at her with some relief; However, afterwards, this sense of comfort disappeared completely.

“But the great and powerful Trixie proved that although she can’t defeat the bear directly, she can mislead the bear and keep it away from the town square, which is equally great as defeating it. Ponyville did not suffer greater losses, and you all have to thank me - Trixie, who dares to admit her mistakes and is incredibly brave.”

Spike muttered to himself, “If you hadn't come here at first, we wouldn't have had this disaster!” Then his words were blocked by Twilight.

Twilight stepped forward to help smooth things out and said, “In a sense, it's true. If she hadn't attracted all the attention of the bear, I wouldn't have been able to focus on casting magic. It's precisely because she mentioned the bear that I went to read a book specifically to find a way to deal with it.”

“Fine, maybe she really has that kind of ability.” “But her magic is terrible.” “Yes, although she proves that she is a bit brave, a bit versatile, and a bit great, it still can’t change the fact that her magic is ugly.” …

It seemed that the audience had acknowledged one side of Trixie, while denying the other side. Should she celebrate or be distressed? Trixie's face darkened as she playfully shouted, “What do you know? It's your loss that you can't enjoy my fantasy performance! If I go perform somewhere else, you'll regret it!”

After speaking, she pulled the caravan and walked out of Ponyville. After walking for a while, she pursed her lips and turned to look at Mr. Miracle, feeling a surge of anger in her heart. Wait and see, one day I will make this pony believe in my strength! She thought to herself.

The crazy night ended, and Snips and Snails were punished to clean up the mess. Twilight returned to Golden Oak Library feeling a bit tired. She had planned to write her weekly journal the next day, but suddenly felt a surge of inspiration, so she finished writing it that night.

“Dear Princess Celestia, I learned a very valuable lesson this week. 'Don't show your ability at will' doesn’t mean 'never show your ability'. When you are a friend, you should be unreserved. On the other hoof, whether it is speech, magic or other skill, there is something worth appreciating. It is important to use it correctly. Your loyal student, Twilight.”