The Great and Powerful Filly

Chapters

In the tevern
The good bye and promise
A bad father
The two friends
Kindness?
Why so nice?

In the tevern

Winter started about two weeks ago. The Pegasi were eager to come off of their clouds and bring some snow to Equestria. In fact, it seems they were a little too eager; within three days, every road was covered in five feet of snow. That’s why I’m stuck in this seedy tavern on the outskirts of Canterlot for a couple more days until they clear the roads the Pegasi so shortsightedly filled.

“Damn it all,” I mutter under my breath. “I need to be in Baltimare by tomorrow.”

I sigh, thinking about how this current bit of ill luck is going to set back my schedule. This next performance was supposed to be the unveiling of particularly interesting new trick that might draw some new crowds.

“Lousy luck that this would all happen now,” I think as I sip the remaining dregs of apple cider in my mug.

I suppose I should reconsider my pervious “seedy” classification for this tavern. It’s actually not that bad of a place. A bar brawl now and then, yes, but it stays pretty quiet on the whole. The tavern is dimly lit, with the smells of oak wood and dinner’s tulip soup mingling overhead. I have stayed here on several occasions, and know a few of the regulars by name. It’s a relatively small place, but it’s still big enough to hold a decent crowd. It sometimes becomes a destination for caravans travelling between Baltimare and Manehatten, so its size is justified.

I’ve taken my usual seat by the window so as to maintain my view of the crystal clear night sky. Probably a token attempt by the Pegasi to try and help with the road problem. My seat is close enough to the roaring fire to keep my flank warm, yet far away enough from the bar to keep inquiring ponies from attempting to strike up a conversation. The tavern is fairly empty compared to most other times that I’ve been here. Strange, considering the conditions outside. Only a couple ponies linger in the hall; the rest have drifted into the realm of dreams, comfortable in the straw beds of the tavern’s accommodations.

The owners are friendly enough. The wife, the mare that’s tending bar, has a nice green tint to her coat with a lovely short curly yellow mane. The stallion, who seems to be off the floor tonight, has a bright vivid red coat with a clashing blue mane. They’re truly in the business of hospitality, which is nice; a lot of taverns only care about making a little extra money where ever they can.

I give a small laugh to that and think about just almost everypony is out to get money. Even myself, whom I consider to linger on the right side of honest, has been known to swindle a few bits here and there. Those occasions, of course, were emergencies. I do live from show to show.

My thoughts are interrupted by the chatter of two fillies as they run by. One of them bumps my table; whatever was left in my mug tips and spills on to my lap. As I look down at my now sticky wet coat in disgust I hear a soft young voice behind me.

“Girls! Look what you’ve done.”

I look up to see the two stop, look around in confusion, and, once the source of the voice was located, stare at the ground. Both of them gave a mutter of apology before scurrying off to resume their esoteric game. I too turn to look at where the voice is coming from, and am presented with a young mare in a light grey coat and a jet black mane that cascades down to cover half of her face. I put her at my same age, maybe a few seasons older. She glares at the two fillies for a moment before turning a pair of great blue eyes upon me.

“I’m terribly sorry for them. I’ll be sure to get you a new mug and something to clean you up.” She says with a small apologetic smile.

“Why? It was neither your fault for spilling the drink nor your responsibility to take care of it.” I give my freshly ruined coat a quick shake. Seems there was more in the mug than I had thought. As I assess the damage, I notice that some had sloshed on to my had, which I had previously set on the table. I quickly grab it so as that it doesn’t get ruined even more by the cider.

“Oh no not my hat!” I said with a small ting of anger in my voice. But realizing that the grey mare was still there I quickly recomposed myself.

“Well… my Mom and Dad own this tavern so I like to help out if things go wrong or they just need an extra hoof to help out.” she says looking at me with a little bit of question as to why I get so angry over an old blue hat.

Funny I didn’t know that the couple who owned the tavern had a daughter. But then again I never really paid too much attention to the people in this tavern to begin with.

“Well then Trixie would be very grateful for that, thank you.” I say with a smile.

And with that she turns and walks off towards the kitchen. What a nice girl, she must have gotten that from her parents, I think to myself. I then walk over to the fire and set my hat by it so as to help it dry faster.

“Those to fillies are just lucky that a mare such as I can fix this.” I mumble bitterly under my breath.

I then return back to my seat and stare out the window thinking of those two fillies and how they reminded me of my fillyhood. My, what a long time ago that seems like. I went through so much as a filly; what and all with what happened with my family…

The good bye and promise

The nice cool air was pleasant to walk in. the grasshoppers in the grass were chirping and you could catch the occasional firefly in the light of the nearly set sun. We walked on the small dirt road that we made by constantly walking this way over time. I look over to my friend who is walking along side me. Her pure white coat reflecting all the small rays of light that hit her. She looked like an angle with her graceful movement. She notices that I’m staring at her and turns to look into my eyes. I’m swallowed up by the blue ocean of her eyes. We stare for a little while and I’m the first to break away. I start to star at the ground watching my hoofs keep walking along. It was my idea to come here tonight because I wanted to have the best place to tell her something.

“So…” she attempts to start a conversation. “Nice weather tonight.”

I look up at the clear sky. Some of the stars are coming out now with small little twinkles in the sky.

“Yes it is nice out.” I hollowly say. And the conversation ends there.

We continue to walk in silence for the rest of the time. We both could sense that there was a little tension in the air. When we make it to our spot the sun has set and the sky is a black canvas with stars poking holes into the universe. Our spot in a nice soft patch of moss that is surrounded by some bushes. We lay down next to each other and star at the night sky. I think of how I want to tell her the news.

“Bolt, I need to tell you something.” I hesitantly force out.

“Sure! What is it? You can tell me anything.” She says while staring at me.

I take in a deep breath. Cause I know that what I’m about to say might change our friendship. I look into her eyes again and hold it there. I want this moment to last forever.

“Well? What is it?” she says interrupting the moment.

“I… I’m…” I take a deep breath. “I’m going to Magiannulus magic school.”

Silence… that is my answer. I can’t tell what her facial expression is now cause that last bit of light is gone. The silence continues further for another minute but to me that seems like it’s been an eternity. I see the dull white mass in front of me moves and before I know what’s happening I have two hoofs around my neck hugging me.

“Trixie that’s amazing!” she says happily. But I know she is fighting her sadness. The magic school is far away and only unicorns are allowed to be around there. So we would see each other at all except for the couple occasions that I can come home to visit.

“But you have to promise me that every time you visit you are stronger, OK?” she forces out with a small choke. She then buries her face into my neck and I then feel my neck getting a little damp. She couldn’t hold back any more. I feel her body begin to tremble as wave after wave of sobs come from her. I begin to start crying as well now. The two of us just sit there crying for a couple of minutes.

“I promise I will be stronger each time you see me.” I finally force out. I pull her away and look her in the face. Though I can’t really make it out I can still see her blue eyes. Which are now like a disturbed pond rather than a beautiful lake?

“In fact I will be the greatest there ever was!” I exclaim forcing a smile. I hate seeing her sad. It’s the worst thing that I’ve ever seen. So I wait and hope that my pathetic attempt to cheer her up works. Luckily I think it does.

“Well then I’ll be sure to be the best flyer there is in all of Equestria!” she says trying to be strong for me, but mostly for herself.

“Umm. When do you leave then?” she says much more quietly.

“I leave next week and then I’ll be gone for about two months.” I whisper to her.

“Oh...” was her response.

We continued to sit there for a couple more minutes. Or maybe it was hours. I don’t know how long but it was too long for that kind of silence. Luckily though Bolt broke the silence.

“What are we doing? You’re going to a really nice school. Why are why sad about this? Come on we both should be happy!” and with that she jumped up and flew into the air. “Watch I’ll even show you my new move I’ve been trying!” she yelled down to me. Even though it was dark out I could still faintly see her. With her majestic body and form she flew up and up and then stopped. She then began to fall straight down picking up more and more speed as she went. I gasped thinking if she hits the ground she will die. I leap to my feet and I’m about to yell when she opens her wings and pulls away right before she hit the ground. I collapse to the ground so happy that she is still alive, but I’m also angry that she tried to do something so reckless. When she flew back and landed I leapt forward and hugged her yelling.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again?”

She said she was sorry and promised to warn me if she was going to do something dangerous like that again. We then spent the rest of the night sitting next to each other staring at the stars. When the big orange sun began to peak its head out from the horizon we began to walk back home. Back to our small town were class was everything. We walked as far as we could till we had to part ways. I lived in the ‘civilized’ part of town and she lived in the ‘ghetto’ part as my parents put it. Or at least how my father put it. My mother was much more kind hearted.

“Well I guess this will be the last time I see you for a couple of months huh?” Bolt sadly asked.

“Ya, but we could still try to right to each other.” I say hopefully.

“OK! Sure we can right to each other every week.”

Well that perked her up thankfully. We both then give each other a long hug. Neither of us wanted to leave. We both wanted to just stay where we were forever. But because that we both had to be getting home. Me mostly because of my dad. We both exchanged our goodbyes and went our separate ways. It was now morning and my father was not going to be happy to see me not in bed…

A bad father

“Who the hell do you think you are little lady?” the slurred words sputtered out of the orange pegasus’ mouth.

I recoil slightly from his breath. As always its heavy with the smell of liquor. The man who has hated me since the day I was born. My father is the worst father a filly could have. He’s normally always drunk with his messed up green hair. But he does manage to sober up when mom is home.

“why can’t you be more like your mother?” he pauses only long enough to take another swig from his bottle. “she is responsible, dependable, and… something else!”

he had only barely managed to pass high school and by rumors I hear from other pegasi; cloudsdale was pretty happy to get rid of him.

“what would your mother say about this hmmm?” he uses that hmm to take yet another swig from his bottle.

“she wou-…,” I stop myself from continuing that sentence. Arguing with this man was like trying to convince a timberwolf to go vegetarian. you’re only going to get eaten alive.

“what was that? Did you want to add something”

“n-no,” I mumble out.

“no? now listen here you… you…,” he grumbles out unable to think of the right word to call me. “your mother is gone all day or is gone most of the week doing her shows. That then leaves me in charge of you.” The last words are harsh as he blurts out. I recoil slightly since he has the tendency to smack me sometimes when he’s like this.

“well do you want to finish what you said?” he starts staring me down.

“N-no… I didn’t say anything,” I am avoiding his ugly dirty face in hopes that he simply sends me to my room.

“I said finish what you were going to say,” his voice slightly raises as his anger also increases.

“she… would…,” I try to start

“go on!” he barks.

“she would…,” tears start to gather in my eyes for I know if I say what I wanted to it would not end up well for me. “she would be… kinder than you!” I finally manage to shout at him. There is a moment of silence as my words slowly seep into his thick head.

“oh really? She would be ‘kinder than me’,” his voice is to normal for comfort and now I’m starting to fidget. “the only reason she is kind to you now is because she doesn’t have to be with you all the time like I am,” his words are like daggers with each word he spits out, and he knows it. My mother and I are very close; which is probably why he hates me so much. Cause I’m the one who took her away from him.

The tears in my eyes are now starting to stream down my face. I can’t stand being in front of him anymore. I push past him, which took an effort to do since I’m so much smaller than him, and ran upstairs to lock myself in my room. I flop onto my bed and just let the waves of sobs come. It wasn’t too long that I eventually fell asleep; it was a long night and an even longer morning. As I lay dreaming on my bed I sense a presence enter my room. I stiffen in fear that it is my father come to torment me more. But instead a soft face presses against mine. Her face nuzzles mine and then a soft kiss is put on my forehead.

“Goodnight sweetie,” come the pleasant soothing words from my mother.

The two friends

“Come on Trixie try to keep up!” said the mare zooming up the bright green hill. A breeze blows gently over the pasture behind me as I struggle to keep up with her.

“That’s not fair!’ I screamed back, “You have wings to fly up and I don’t!”

It’s a couple minutes later that I make it to the top were a single apple tree is. My friend, whom I’ve known my whole life, is laying against the tree trunk napping.

“You know if you could simply learn how to use levitation or teleportation it would be easier for you to get up here.” She mockingly says. Northern Bolt is her name, but just about everyone calls her Bolt. She’s very bold and the best of our class. No other Pegasus in our class can really even hover over the ground and yet here she is flying up mountains. I’ve always been jealous of her but I also admire her for how strong she is.

“It’s… Not… That… Easy!” I huff through panting breaths.

“Oh come on! You just need to try harder.” She says still laying there.

“You just don’t understand.” I mumble grumpily. I then turn and sit with my back to her. She then rolls over and starts to walk over. And I continue to ignore her.

“Come on have some confidence. Say that you will get stronger!” she says encouragingly.

I keep silent still trying to ignore her. But she can be very stubborn when she has a plan. So she continues to persist. Determined for me to say those words.

“Come on! Just say those four words.” She says nudges my back with her nose

“I will get stronger.” I mumble knowing that if I don’t say something she will never stop bugging me.

“What?” I didn’t catch that.” She says leaning closer.

“I said, I will get stronger.” I repeat with a little more volume.

“Come on if you can’t try at saying that stronger how do expect you will get stronger? “She says sitting next to me.

“I WILL GET STRONGER!” I yell looking into her eyes. They are a beautiful deep blue just like the lake on a clear day. And I just stare into them seeing the fire that she has burning in her heart. I then quickly look away blushing.

“There you go! See? All you need is some confidence.” She says and scoots a little closer to me. “Trixie, you’re going to be great some day.”

“I can only do that if I’m powerful though.” I mumble still looking away from her.

“Ha!” she laughs, “Yes! The great and powerful Trixie!”

Kindness?

My memory dissipates from the sudden sounds of someone walking up from behind me.

“Sorry that took so long.” Says the grey mare, “I had to find a clean towel for you.” She lays the towel on the table and puts a fresh mug of apple cider in front of me.

“Thank you, Trixie still appreciates your kindness.”

“I’m sorry about what happened to your hat though.” She says giving a nod to my hat sitting next to the fire.

“Oh don’t be Trixie hat has had worse done to it. So she knows a couple spells to fix it if something happens to it.” I say giving a sad look towards my hat.

“You seem to have a lot of memories with it. Is it special with a spell or something on it?”

“No, there is no spell on it. It’s just that we have been through so much and I have many happy and sad memories with it.” I say turning to her. I look into her eyes and stare into them. They are beautiful but I can see a lot of sadness behind them. She must have been through a lot in her life.

“Well if there is anything I can help you with just give me a holler.” She says with a smile. It’s sad seeing her try so hard to be nice when it’s easy to tell that she is hurting on the inside. She then turns and begins to walk off again. I open my mouth to ask her to stay longer, I know I wouldn't mind some company, but no words come out I just watch her walk away. Once she is gone I look out the window again at the stars in the sky. Reminds me of that one night long ago that happy but also sad night were I get my dream but practically loose my friend.

Why so nice?

Something is nudging my back. I slowly open my eyes to see that grey mare slow nudging my back.

“You know I think a bed would be much more comfortable then a table.” She says with a small smile.

I had apparently fallen asleep at the table I was at. The fire now was nothing but some burning embers and the other ponies that were here had apparently all gone to bed. The room had gotten cold and it was almost pitch black in the room.

“Trixie would have to agree with that.” I say groggily while rubbing my eyes.

Strange I have never fallen asleep at a table before. I am normally much to dignified to do something like that. Or that’s what I thought before now at least. She smiles and helps lead me to bed. She really is very nice, which is a pleasant change for me since most normally just want me to do my show and then leave. I don’t get to much attention except for when I’m on stage.

“Come on ill lead you to your room.” She says and helps lead me to my room.

“Thank you.” I walk over and start to climb into bed when I realize. “Oh! I forgot my hat downstairs. Could you please get it for Trixie?”

“Sure, no problem.” She replies and leaves to go get it.

“Why is she so nice to me? No pony has ever truly been nice to Trixie without wanting something from her before.” I mumble as I lay my head on the soft pillow on my bed. “But then again Trixie hasn’t had any pony be nice to here for a long time now.”

I slowly begin to drift off. Thoughts of today slowly fading away, but old memories are taking in the space instead.