The great and powerful #1: Realization

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         Now its a well known fact that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the most powerful ponies in all Equestria, they have powers far beyond that of ANY known unicorn. This is in part because a unicorn has natural limitations that an alicorn does not.....but what if....what if those limitations could be removed? How far would a pony be willing to go in order to be the best?

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         A loud slam and stomping awoke Alex from his sleep. The Young, light grey unicorn pulled himself out of bed and went down stairs to find, who else, his sister. Huffing and puffing like she always did when she was angry.
         They lived in a two story caravan, brightly painted on the outside but kind of a mess inside. Currently somewhere in the Appaloosa plains.
         "Trixie, Do you have any idea what time it is?" He asked irritated. "I thought you were doing three shows in Ponyville..."
         "Those foolish ponies wouldn't know talent if it came up and knocked on their door!" She said indignantly
         Alex put a hoof to his face. "So what your saying is you didn't make any money?" He look back down at her again, he was just ever so slightly taller than her, with a raggity pure white mane.
         Trixie tilted her head up and crossed her eyes defensively. "It wasn't MY fault! These two stupid fans brought an URSA to Ponyville! It crushed the wagon I had brought with me and all my stage props-"
         Alex cut her off ."All the stage props!? Your telling me that everything you brought with you was crushed by an Ursa!? Trixie!! That stuff wasn't free!" Trixie opened he mouth to interject but Alex, magically mimicking her sister's voice interrupted "I'm Trixie and I don't care about other peoples hard work, I just go around wrecking things"
         The light blue mare stomped her hoof. "Stop it, Alex!"
         Alex used his magic to transform into a clone of Trixie "Stop it!" He echoed in his sister's voice.
         "Alex, your impossible!" She walked past him to a bed in the corner of the room.
         The older unicorn had changed back to normal. "Hey, I'm glad your ok. We'll talk about it in the morning.
         Trixie plopped onto her bed. "There's nothing to talk about!"

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         The next morning Trixie was feeling more like her old self. The confused whispers she could hear outside the curtains made her smile. Trixie cast a side long look at Alex who was standing behind her. "Let us show these country hics what true talent is! The great and powerful Trixie will knock them off their hooves!" She emerged though the curtain in her wizard outfit.
         The performance went spectacularly, as always. After all, she was the great and powerful Trixie! After her final amazing trick and the resulting thunderous applause, she smiled while the curtain closed. Next her brother would go on stage, and with this crowd...these silly Appaloosa bumpkins...he would likely do his comedy routine. How she loathed comedy, but she had to admit, her brother was REALLY good at it. Of course, that was no surprise since his cutie mark was the drama masks of comedy and tragedy.
         She walked down the main dirt road of this Celestia forsaken town and discovered the only thing on interest, which was a an old tavern...a rather filthily...old tavern.She stepped inside, It was pretty empty since most of the town's hand full of residences were watching her brother preform.
         *I'm the great and powerful Trixie! I'm the best there is! Why should I have to preform here!? I should be in Canterlot! Preforming for nobles and royalty!* But even as she tried to convince herself she couldn't help but think of the unicorn that had bested her, The pony who humiliated her! Twilight who had stolen her honer! Shame and rage welled up inside the young blue pony, She felt like she might explode!
         "Excuse me, Missy" Said the bartender.
         Trixie shorted. "My name is not 'Missy' I am the great and powerful Trixie!"
         "Heh well pardon me, 'Trixie' would a young mare like your self care for a pint of cider?"
         She Smiled, here was someone who knew how to treat a legend like herself. "Trixie would love to have some." Trixie took the glass with an aura of blue magic and drank it down. About half way though the light blue unicorn heard a familiar, irritating voice.
         "Well howdy there, I didn't reckon I'd ever see YOU again." She remarked in a less than polite tone. It was that cow poke pony from Ponyville, one of...Twilight's friends. "Heh, when I heard somepony was on stage strut'en around like a chicken in heat, I thought it might be you."
         Trixie's eye narrowed. "Well if it isn't the little hay seed. I should have guessed I might find you here is this back water country town." She smirked "It this where you ran away to after I humiliated you?"
         "Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing. Seeing as how Twilight sure made you look like a fool."
         Trixie huffed and dug at the floor "Does Twilight fight ALL your battles for you? Whatever, I'm out of here! and by the way, the cider was terrible!"
         Applejack snorted. "There's no need to be rude, especially after the hospitality we've shown you. Any who I was GOING to say that if'en you wanted a rematch with Twilight you might just get your chance."
         Trixie, who had started to leave, stopped. "The great and powerful Trixie is listening."
         The orange earth pony continued, "There happens to be a fancy pants magician tournament in Canterlot, three days from now, and it just so happens that Twilight is competing."
         The young blue mare's eyes lit up! She tried not to sound as exited as she was. "Well then, I suppose I'll enter this silly little tournament as well! If only to dis-spell any doubt that I am the greatest and most powerful unicorn in all Equestria."

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         Soon the brother/sister duo was moving again. Trixie used her magic to push the wagon along while her brother held quill pin in a soft white glow, scribbling numbers and calculations. "We had a pretty good take today, Trixie, even after we replace some of the things yo-...er that were lost in the incident with the Ursa...we should have enough left over to eat somewhere nice today"
         Her brother's talking faded into a murmur, sometimes it seemed like he cared more about profit than his sister. Still she knew it was only because he loved her and wanted the best for her. That, however was not what pulled her thoughts away, no, it was this tournament...a chance to prove she was better than Twilight!
         Alex was now rambling on something about a show opportunity in in Manehatten as part of a parade. "NO!"
         The older pony looked confused for a moment "No? You've never turned down a chance to preform."
         "We're going to Canterlot." She said flatly. "I'm going to enter a magic tournament."
         "What? Why? I mean you'd win easy but why are you so interested all of the sudden?"
         She tilted he head down and gritted her teeth at her brother's remark. Normally she would respond with something like 'of course I'll win' but going up against Twilight...She just wasn't sure. There could only be one number one unicorn and she, Trixie, wanted it MORE and that had to count for something, right?

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         A few days later they arrived at the large coliseum where the contest was being held. "Name?" Asked an orange unicorn at the Registration
         "I will be entering as 'The Great and Powerful Trixie'!"
         The orange pony looked up her. "Trixie!? The Trixie? Wow, I'm a huge fan! Good luck! Heh, not that you'll need it. Please Ms.Trixie just go right though that hallway." He said pointing. "and take the third door on your left."
         "Have fun!" Alex called after her. *Oh it will be fun* she thought *As long as I get to beat Twilight*
         "Oh hey Trixie" Twilight said coming out from the small crowed of competing ponies. "Applejack said you might show up, glad to see you could make it. There's...no hard feelings about before, right?"
         "No, not at all. The Great and Powerful Trixie will crush you the same as all her past opponents."
         "Heh Still as charming as ever I see, Well...I'm here to win. I'm just here to put what I've learned to a practical test."
         Soon the competition started, It consisted of three events. In the first event there were 30 large rings of different sizes ponies were timed on how quickly they could stack them largest to smallest.
         The second event was a speed contest the ponies has to move 1,000 apples, one at a time from one large basket to another.
         For the final, and most anticipated event, there was a very large boulder placed in the middle of the arena by Princess Celestia herself. The ponies would each use their magic to lift it as high as they could.
         The young blue unicorn was determined to win, She took a deep breath before stepping out into the area when it was her turn for the first event, the ring stack. A pile of large,brightly colored metal rings were strung out in a tangled pile in front of her. They were a lot bigger up close...at the sound of the starting bell she began to shift through the rings, quickly working out which one was the largest. In no time she had a neat stack and the crowd was roaring. She reared up in a boastful pose to feed the crowd as Celestia reset the field for the next pony.
         When it was her turn for the second event, the apple dash, Trixie had a little more trouble. It was difficult for her to move the apples one at a time without staring to move the next apple before the current apple was in the second basket. She also found it was hard to move them very quickly without damaging the apples. Any major bruise on the apples was a costly point deduction. *Come ON Trixie, you can move faster than this!* Again the crowd went wild. She must have been going pretty fast to get that kind of response. She smiled *I, I think I've got this!*
         Trixie walked up to the huge rock when it was her turn for the last event, She enveloped the huge chunk of rock in her blue magic. She concentrated and began to lift the three ton boulder. She nearly passed out but she was sure she'd lifted it at least six feet then she heard the announcement 7 feet, 10 inches! The highest score ever recorded having broken the previous record by four inches! She dropped the huge rock with a THUD "Ha!,.... lets see her .....beat that!" she said in between huffs of air.
         Because of the way the arena was set up, the competing ponies could not see the others preform. They would have no idea how they did until they all came out for the final announcement from the judges. They passed a note to Princess Luna who began to read out the results in her royal Canterlot voice.
         The row of ponies waited anxiously, many of them looking expectantly at Trixie.
         "In third place..." Luna boomed "With a total score of 830 points, is Pencil" The dark grey pony smiled and came up to claim the bronze medal.
         "In second place, with a total score of 1,020 and an impressive record breaking performance in the boulder lift, The Great and Powerful Trixie!"
         All around her the cheers faded into a soft roar. Second place? SECOND PLACE!? She broke a freaking record!! Who could have possibly beaten her? but she knew....she knew exactly who had beaten her. As she walked up to get her silver medal and turned around she wasn't surprised at all to hear Luna's next words.
         "And in first place, with a grand total of 1,200 points and TWO record breaking performances at both the ring stack and the apple dash, Twilight Sparkle!!
         Rage and pain welled up inside Trixie as she watched Twilight be awarded the gold medal and then stand on the podium above her! Frustration clawed at scenes, the little blue unicorn could hardly see strait. Her whole world was crumbling *No* She thought *No, this can't be, I'm The Great and Powerful Trixie.....The great and, great and..and..powerful..*. She was completely broken, she could not bring herself to believe that she WAS the great and powerful Trixie.
         Something hitting her leg snapped her out of her thoughts. It was a...business card? She held the card and read it quickly 'come back here at midnight tomorrow to begin your quest toward true power' ?
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