//------------------------------// // 4. What's good // Story: The Hearth's Warming Storm // by Neutron Alchemist //------------------------------// Trixie suppressed a yawn and put another popcorn in the string. Trixie had chosen the easiest job for herself, and was doing it at one tenth of the speed she could have kept. After all, it was not to really make Hearth’s Warming decorations that Applejack hired her, and to asten the work could have been a bad idea, as the fillies would have run out of things to do. On the other hand, the work was coming out really well. It took only a few of her tips for the fillies to learn how to make very nice paper decorations, bows, little boxes and rosettes, even the stallion was showing a truly surprising ability with those peasant’s hooves of him. A decent pile of already prepared decorations for the still unadorned tree was lying at their hooves, along with scattered material, popcorn and cotton wool. Fortunately, for how much skilled they had become, the fillies arranged to slow down the work by themselves. Stopping each time they completed a decoration to check if something had popped up on their flanks, and commenting afterwards the fact that nothing in fact happened. Also the noises coming from the kitchen had become less frantic, and several times the old mare had peeped out of the door to check what was happening in the living room and to rest a little. A signal, for Trixie, that the granny was not having much problems in completing the order for the party. Certainly Trixie could not have said she was having fun. On the contrary, she was bored, and she would have still preferred her nap instead, but she had to admit there was something pleasantly relaxing in the time she was spending with that ‘extended family’ so far. Trixie returned her gaze, from looking at the door of the kitchen, to the three fillies, only to see that the white unicorn one, that ‘Sweetie Belle’, was staring at her, smiling. Trixie raised an eyebrow questioningly. “You are good!” Sweetie Belle said. Obviously Trixie was much more than simply ‘good’, but she was however curious about how the filly had come to that sudden realization. But a quick glance to the other two didn’t gave her any answer, as they seemed surprised, as Trixie was, by Sweetie Belle’s statement. “She is putting the popcorn in the string behind her head,” continued Sweetie Belle turning to her friends. “It’s difficult. Even my sister doesn’t use the needles where she can’t see.” Trixie smirked. The telekinetic sense of touch, the ability to know form, dimension, weight, texture and position in space of what a unicorn was moving with his telekinesis, was part of the telekinesis itself. Without it, it would have been impossible to levitate delicate objects without breaking them. But many unicorns tended to forget it, ending up levitating objects only in front of them, cause it was easier that way. Many of Trixie’s tricks, on the other hand, depended on her ability to manipulate objects out of her and the public’s sight. For that reason, to keep her abilities in practice, she had trained from fillyhood to do everything she could without looking at it, until it had become a habit for her. To be impressed by so little, however, it meant that those three were hungry for real talent. Trixie wondered for a moment whether she should or not do something to satisfy them, but there was not a real struggle on the matter. She was a showpony, after all. “Actually, it was not that good,” Trixie said complacently, while suppressing the glow of her horn below perception level. A much more difficult trick for which nopony would have ever complimented her, but it didn’t matter, since it was for the success of the show. Then, still looking at the three fillies, she stood up on her hind legs. Trixie had to stand on her hind legs for much of her show, so she had practiced her standing position for years, to maintain it without effort while being elegant, until it has become the most perfect she had ever seen. Another thing for which nopony would have ever complimented her. But it didn’t matter, since it was for the success of the show. Behind her, the string of popcorn began to move right and left, high in the air, swaying like a snake, first slowly, then with more and more ample movements. Trixie observed with satisfaction the gaze of the three fillies and of the stallion, almost hypnotized, shaking their heads, to follow the movements of the head of the popcorn snake. Behind them, called by Trixie’s telekinesis, her cape and hat were coming, her cape floating like a manta ray, her hat tumbling. Perfect movements that only Trixie could see, until they passed over the heads of her viewers, startling them and making them look up in unison. Then, with a last graceful movement, her cape tied around Trixie’s shoulders and, with a last tumble, her hat ended up perfectly on her head. The string of popcorn was still moving left and right behind her. Everything was ready. All the eyes were on her. There was no reason to be loud in that room, so her words came out soft, slow. “Watch in awe,” she said. Trixie pointed her left front hoof to the bowl of popcorn, a few step farther. Her hat was not on her head by accident. It was part of her show. It had the function to cover her horn and it’s glowing without Trixie having to bother to suppress it. A unicorn that moved things with her telekinesis was trivial. A pony that moved things pointing them with an hoof, was a show. One after the other, precisely paced, at the same rhythm of the popcorn snake behind Trixie, a movement forward and a stop, moving jerkily in unison, a row of popcorn came out floating from the bowl, marching like soldiers, followed by the wondering gaze of the three fillies and the stallion. Trixie was careful to make that their path was not straight, but had curves while the row lengthened, directed by her hoof, passing to her left. getting closer and closer to the swaying snake, until the first popcorn of the row ended up catched in the string. Then, at every step, another popcorn ended up in it. “A good effect needs little effort.” Trixie reminded to herself. The pace was the secret to move large numbers of objects. If every piece was moving at the same pace, then Trixie could put all of them in a corner of her mind, paying them little attention as they kept moving almost automatically, and turning her mind to the more difficult tricks. Trixie pointed her front right hoof to the pile of decorations ready to be put on the fir. For a well studied moment nothing happened, while the gaze of her public shifted from the hypnotic movement of the popcorn snake to the new target, then the decorations started to move. First they began to just slowly shaking, as if they were only caressed by the wind. Then those at the top began to move in a circle. Soon all the others followed them, as if they had been caught in a whirlwind. Finally, directed by Trixie’s hoof, the whirlwind of decorations rose from the floor, high, above the viewers’ heads. At that point Trixie was standing with both her forelegs pointed to the sky, her cape agitated by a non existing wind, a hieratic expression on her face, her gaze, as anypony’s other, pointed to the decorations’ whirlwind above their heads. She knew the popcorn string, that was still swaying behind her, was then almost completed, so, without anyone noticing, she stopped the exit of other grains from the bowl “The Show has to flow, one marvel after the other, The transitions must be highlighted, or not shown at all.” Then she divided the whirlwind into three different rotating circles, one above the other, the central one slightly larger than the other two. Slowly turning, while keeping her forelegs pointed to the spinning circles, trixie moved them across the room, towards the fir, until they were above the popcorn string, then she turned the swaying motion of the snake in the upward spiral of dragon ascending to the sky, counter rotating in respect to the decorations’ circles, and enclosed it into the three rings. “Watch me now.” Trixie was not looking at the audience, but she knew them being agape and thrilled for what had to come. She knew it, cause it was for those moments that she had become a performer. A moment of joy only for herself, as outside she had to maintain the most dignified expression. The moment when every eye was admiring her and what she was doing. The moment when their attention was in her power. She was born to be in the spotlight. She continued to slowly move the flying carousel in her magic field, until it was directly above the three, then she slowly lowered her front hooves, making it descend, until all the objects were circling around the fir. It was not enough. Trixie knew perfectly the tempo of the show. She knew that the tension was at it’s peak. Somepony just good would have performed the finale at that point. Somepony great would have stretched it to the limit. Trixie then put all the spinning carousel in a corner of her mind. The show was not finished yet. Trixie slowly raised her forelegs again, making all the cotton wool they had prepared, rise from the floor and levitate in the air above their heads, then, as she was standing, her front hooves raised, staring at the tree, she made the wads of cotton gather over the fir, in a single layer, turning, more slowly at the periphery, faster at the centre, like the layer of clouds over a tornado. Trixie noticed the sweat was wetting her forehead, and her teeth were clenched. She was then moving too many different objects to manage to maintain a relaxed expression any more. “If you cannot make them believe something, make them believe something else.” Trixie frowned her eyebrows and bared her teeth, showing a far exaggerated effort in respect to that she was actually doing. To make things more credible she managed to suddenly widen the orbit of some object, and resume it right after, as if she was no longer able to hold them. Then she looked for a moment at the fillies with a worried expression, and was satisfied seeing them look back at her frightened, in their eyes the fear that all the carousel was about to explode in the room. But actually, Trixie had already found the right place for each one of the decorations she was juggling with, and had tied them with her magic. That was the moment. With a last, sudden, movement she lowered and crossed her foreleg, while closing her eyes and lowering her head as well. What she had to do was not something she could have done while disturbed by the sense of sight. Every decoration left its orbit and fell on the tree, as pieces of iron attracted by a magnet. Trixie laced every one of them in its position at the same time, while wrapping the popcorn string around the fir, and leaving the cotton wool fell apparently casually, like snow, over the tree, while actually directing it where its position would have seemed more ‘natural’. In reality, four pieces of decorations missed their planned spots, Trixie managed to recover two of them and fixed them in different positions, while for the last two she could only let them fall behind the tree, out of the sight of the viewers. Part of the cotton wool fell wide of the fir too, but that seemed to only make the snowfall look even more ‘realistic’. She was sure that nopony noticed the errors, and besides, she had not expected not to do any. All in all, it had been a pretty good juggling performance, counted the fact that she had not practiced it before. Trixie slowly turned to face the audience. With her eyes still closed, she made a deep, long studied, bow, and finally get back on her four legs. Then, opening her eyes, she enjoyed the view of three fillies and a stallion agape, speechless and motionless. “Now, that was good,” she complacently said. Apple Bloom was the first to move, slowly starting to alternately stomp her front hooves to the floor, at first without even changing her expression. The others soon followed her, stomping faster and faster,turning their agape expressions into a joyful smiles and screams, until the applause turned into a rumble so loud that even the old mare emerged from the kitchen to see what was going on. “Thank you, thank you,” Trixie said, bowing again, and mocking the end of her real shows with a far too serious tone. “You are too kind. It was a pleasure.” Trixie was a little surprised to hear her own words. To make fun of her job was not like her. Usually she would have boasted her greatness even for a so small-scale success. It was deserved after all, ever since her performances had begun to have success. It was part of her reward for all the time and efforts spent in learning stage magic. All the people that had mocked her in the past, when she was too inexperienced to perform very well, she could marvel them by then, as she had demonstrated to be better than they would ever be. But, for some reason, she was taking more pleasure in having fun with that small crowd without much professional involvement that time. Maybe it was that domestic atmosphere, that she was not used to… Slowly the rumble ended, and the three fillies started to chat each other, commenting some part of the performance, like every crowd used to do at the end of the show. But, only shortly after, the three stood silent, and Trixie noticed that Sweetie Belle was again staring at her, looking like somepony who had something to ask. “Yes?” Trixie encouraged her. “Can we ask how had you earned your cutie mark?” Sweetie Belle asked smiling, backed by the other two. “Err… Well…”