After Trixie had regained control of herself we ate some breakfast together so we at least had some strength back from the food to balance out against our interrupted sleep.
We made it out of the wagon after breakfast and Trixie spent a few minutes inspecting the damage to our home on wheels.
The door was hanging together by hope and prayers more than anything; the bear's claws had scraped layers of paint and wood off the outside of it, leaving the panel weakened and ready to give in at any point.
Trixie made me get a couple of twigs and small branches from the undergrowth in the forest surrounding us, and used her magic to layer them over the damage on the door like a patchwork repair job.
It wouldn't last long, but at least it would hold until we got to Los Pegasus, as far as she was concerned.
The bear had only scuffed the side of the wagon by brushing up against it.
A few clawmarks and one bitemark on the back wheel showed where it had tested whether the wagon was edible, but those spots didn't need repairs.
Trixie left them for what they were and just returned to pulling the cart further so we could make it to the city of Los Pegasus before nightfall.
She told me to stay near and focus on making little specks of light appear in the air around me as we walked.
In just the same way as how I had make the smokebombs before, I focused on pulling particles together in the air and then just lit them on fire to create small sparks.
"It's a shame our rest was disrupted," Trixie grumbled. "We will have to make pace for Trixie to be able to sign us up and get enough rest before the first round of the contest begins."
"You mean to tell me the contest begins tomorrow, mom?" I inferred from her words.
I made a few more little balls of particles flare up around me.
"Make tiny explosions, not flames," Trixie instructed. "No, it's starting tonight."
I missed a step and clumsily caught up to her again once I found my hoofing anew.
"What do you mean tonight?" I demanded.
Trixie gave me a sideways glance from under her large hat.
"Just as Trixie said; the contest begins tonight," she repeated herself. "That is why Trixie has been trying to get us there as fast as possible."
"I can't possibly learn all the magic I need to help you out on stage before tonight," I groaned. "I barely know how to do anything besides smokebombs."
"Trixie didn't think you would, Fuu," she returned to me. "These exercises are only the first part of your training. Once Los Pegasus sees what The Great and Powerful Trixie can do and puts her on the mainstage for a year, she will teach you more magic in-between shows."
I expressly made a little explosion of light pop right in front of her face to express my annoyance.
"That's not what you led me to believe, mom. You said that I would be helping you out on the mainstage," I protested.
"Once you are ready for it, yes. Trixie is not going to drag you onto the mainstage until then," she countered. "You should have realised that yourself, Fuu."
I glared at her.
"Los Pegasus is not a place for young foals, you'll see once we get there. You can't be expected to perform together with Trixie until you grow up a little more first," the older mare declared.
I found myself blowing air into my cheeks to puff them out.
This was entirely different from what I had been led to believe by her own words.
I thought we were going to Los Pegasus and do the contest together. That is how she put it before me after all.
If Trixie managed to win the contest, and given my knowledge of her boasting in the show that was a big if, I had fully expected to have to aid her in the shows she would have to perform for the coming year.
Learning that I would not be performing in the city, perhaps at all, made me wonder what her plans for me were instead.
"Don't sulk," Trixie demanded.
"How can I not? What am I going to do for a year if not help you on stage?" I wondered. "You could have just as well left me in Ponyville to study at school. At least I would have been with my friends there."
"And leave you to be corrupted by Twilight Sparkle?" Trixie huffed haughtily. "You know how Trixie feels about her."
"I kind of thought we were past that," I sighed, popping a few more specks of light around us in the air.
"Trixie coming to trust in you more does nothing to change her opinion of that fool of a foal Twilight Sparkle," my soon-to-be mother declared. "You're wholly different ponies."
"That's not what I meant," I grumbled. "Never mind her."
"Exactly, the farther Twilight Sparkle is from our thoughts, the better," Trixie agreed.
I thoughtfully popped another particle ball in the air as if I was popping bubblegum or bubblewrap back on Earth.
The sound was similar, although it came with a small flash of light which the others didn't have.
I considered for a moment what use the two tricks mom taught me had on stage; smokebombs were easy enough to understand the use of.
These little specks of light were throwing me for a loop. When had I ever seen this kind of magic used on stage back home?
"So what good are these little explosions?" I asked out loud, popping another two.
"Distraction, like the smokebombs," Trixie simply stated. "A lot of stage magic is making the audience put their attention on the wrong thing so they don't see you making a switch."
"Misdirection, you mean?" I considered.
"Yes. They also combine nicely; try making a flash of light in the air and follow with a smokebomb in the same spot," the blue magician suggested.
I focused my attention on a particular spot in the air in front of me and flashed it, then followed with a puff of smoke.
"Oh, wow, that's a lot like a firecracker or special effect going off," I noticed.
"Cheap and easy trick, but the both of them have many uses on stage," Trixie explained. "Separately they can just be a flash of light like a stagelight reflecting off a mirrored surface or a puff of smoke to hide a swift exit."
"I can see that," I agreed.
"Together you can make it appear as if there was an explosion on stage. Small or big, they can have the effect of shocking the audience to stop them thinking clearly about what else is going on," the great and powerful performer knew from experience.
"Try a bigger explosion of light, like how you made the big smokebomb, but try to not overdo it this time," she warned.
I hesitated, but then pulled more of the dust in the air together in one spot than I had before, and lit them on fire like they were hit by an electronic charge.
The resulting flash blinded me for a moment and left an imprint in my vision as if I had looked into the flash of a photo being taken.
"Good, you did that with enough restraint this time," Trixie commended me. "Trixie was half expecting a second sun to appear in the air before her, but you held back. Had you done such with the smoke you would not have suffered the ill effects of draining your mana."
"Yeah, I learned from that mistake," I chuckled weakly.
"So the trick is to learn how much dust I need and how to trigger it to create sparks or smoke? Can I do something else with this method of balling up dust particles, mom?" I wondered, thinking I got the base method down.
Trixie smiled under the shadow of her hat's large rim.
"You are getting the taste for it, Fuu? Yes, there is more which can be done with the dust swirling in the air around us," she agreed.
"If you believe you can do it without taxing yourself while we continue on walking, try lining the dust up in a straight line when you hold them in the air before you," Trixie suggested.
"A straight line in the air... like a ribbon?" I considered.
"Not quite a ribbon, no. What Trixie means is a smaller version of that smoke veil you had made earlier. Let light pass through it, but deflect it by lining the particles up in a straight line," she tried to explain.
I didn't know what she meant exactly, but I just started to pull the dust around us until a strip of it hung in the air before me.
It looked more like a thin strip of cloth which barely managed to keep itself together than anything.
"Now feel at the dust and seek out those particles which are elongated. Line those up in the air until they are laid out side-by-side, tip-to-tip in that same space," Trixie instructed.
As I dropped the more round bits in the air and left only the thin strands to turn in the way she told me to, the 'fabric' before me started to shimmer.
The light from the sun hit the straight particles now being laid out in the air and 'broke' upon them, creating a faint rainbow before me.
"Wait, is this a prism?" I realised with surprise and glee.
"That is what Trixie is instructing you to create, yes," mom returned. "Pull more straight particles to this area and change how close they are to one another."
I did as instructed and noticed that the density of the particles changed which colour of the rainbow became more dominant.
Pulling the particles close together only made the thinnest waves of light pass through, turning the yellow light into a light blue, which darkened until slowly turning purple.
Moving them apart again changed the purple light back to dark blue, lighter blue, yellow, orange, then red.
If I thinned out the row of particles the light passed through, the entire range of the rainbow showed again, while forcing more and more layers of them broke the light multiple times to only let the one colour through.
"We're turning left on the road from the North here. Pay attention so you don't wander onto the railroad tracks instead," Trixie warned.
I turned my attention away from the prism experiment in the air before me, noticing for the first time that we were leaving the woods.
The crossroads we ended up at continued in all directions; to the North of us it led through more forest and toward some distand snow-covered mountains.
To the West were what appeared to be wetlands; a dense mist hanging over the area and keeping me from seeing much in that direction.
A set of railroad tracks came from the East, through the same woods we had come from but not following the forest path we had taken to get here.
It crossed diagonally across the crossroads, cutting the North and West roads from the East and South ones, and then ran parallel to the right of the road further to the South.
"If there's a train going the same way, why couldn't we have taken that?" I wondered out loud, more to myself than anything.
"Because our home does not fit on board of the train," Trixie answered curtly. "Unless Trixie would pay for it to be loaded onto a special carriage, and that Nightmare Night costume she bought for you already helped to deplete her emergency funds."
I dipped my head a little lower and felt my ears droop down.
"I'm sorry, mom... I didn't know money was that tight," I sighed.
"Why do you think Trixie had you do menial jobs in the first week after you arrived here?" she wondered pointedly. "They helped to pay for your food for these past weeks."
I felt a mixture of surprise and shame take hold of me.
Surprise that money was as much of a problem as it was that Trixie had to rely on my doing odd jobs to fill that gap, but also shame that I had not noticed it before now.
The signs had been there; from constantly having the same old sandwiches for lunch, to Trixie being upset about her having had to arrange a costume for Nightmare Night.
She had been frugal in her own way, and I had just assumed it was because she was mad at me for hitting her with her car.
I had to wonder just how close to poverty Trixie was, and how much worse my being there with her had made the situation.
Trixie turned our wagon onto the road to the South, making sure to keep some distance from the railroad tracks, and somewhat forced me to turn with them as I was walking on her left side.
I traced the road we were now on and the tracks beside it toward a pair of bridges up ahead, crossing possibly the same river I had almost fallen into when the weatherponies had sent that storm across the sky above.
The land beyond the bridges was cast in a dense shadow thanks to a thick layer of clouds hanging overhead.
I found myself pulling the rim of my hat up with my magic in an effort to stare up at the clouds, and Trixie noticed I was falling behind as I did.
"That there is Los Pegasus," Trixie explained. "Above the clouds is the city which never sleeps, which is where Trixie will be performing after she parks the wagon in the undercity below."
I looked beyond the bridge and peered into the unnatural darkness beyond.
Street lamps were placed on either side of the road, emitting a blue light from magical gemstones set in them.
They clearly illuminated the road as it continued from the bridge toward a set of large buildings on the edge of town.
More lights were mounted to the sides of these buildings, hinting at where doors or signs were located.
Strings of lights were criss-crossing between buildings as well, giving the whole place a whimsical fantasy feeling.
I was reminded of those old towns from Charles Dickens' christmas story.
The train station the tracks beside the road we were on was leading to was even more brightly lit, sticking out like a sore thumb on the edge of this undercity.
A number of other buildings beside it were set around a square where a balloon was starting to drift up toward a gap in the clouds above it.
It was very clearly the main way for ponies to reach the city above from the train station below.
I was about to remark on it when I noticed the train starting to leave the station; the light mounted on the engine up front piercing the darkness as it started to pull away.
I ran up ahead a little so Trixie and the cart wouldn't block my view of this, to me, famous train, illiciting a huff from my mom-to-be.
"What are you doing now?" she wondered.
"The Friendship Express," I pointed out eagerly.
"Yes, Trixie had noticed," she grumbled. "You might want to sit down and cover your ears before it gets to us."
I looked back in surprise, noting her sitting down on her haunches and placing her own forehooves over her ears for a moment.
She just stared me down until I followed suit, so I sat down on my own haunches and placed my forehooves to my own ears to flatten them against my skull through the fabric of the hat I was wearing.
The train was making its way toward us at an ever-increasing speed, and I watched in wonder as this steam locomotive chugged on.
And then it reached its own bridge, directly beside the one we were aiming to cross over, and it let out an unholy howl as the driver blew the whistle.
I knew what it was supposed to sound like; I had seen it on television and videos on the internet often enough.
Considering how Earth was inundated with loud sounds, I had never been especially fearful of it.
But in the quiet lands of Equestria, this sound made me tremble in awe at its ferocity.
The train rushed by us after making it across the river, the wind blowing by enough to lift my hat from my head if I had not been holding it with my forehooves.
It was such a rush to see it drive by within touching distance, without fencing between the road I was on and the tracks it was driving along.
And then it had passed and the sound retreated, growing fainter and fainter, and leaving just that peaceful calm which I had come to love about this world.
I carefully removed my forehooves from my ears and turned to face Trixie.
"That was... awesome," I breathed out in a new appreciation of steam locomotives.
"Trixie thinks it's too loud. What is wrong with a wagon like we have?" she grumbled in return.
"Yes, it might be faster, but it is also too noisy. The Great and Powerful Trixie needs her peace and quiet between shows," she complained.
I got up on my four legs again so I could keep up with her pulling the wagon on, but felt my ears droop a little from her negativity.
"I guess it's just something that's going to stay a part of me, mom," I considered. "I always had a fascination for steam locomotives and combustion engines in general."
"Combust some more lights in the air instead, but keep walking," Trixie demanded. "We should have arrived before the afternoon train left for Canterlot."
"Now Trixie needs to make sure she parks the wagon and rush up to the theater above before the contest starts. She hates feeling rushed like that," she sighed.
She picked up speed a bit and rushed over the bridge, and I followed her over the river and into the darkness of the cloud cover.
The moment Celestia's sun disappeared from sight, I could feel a cold start to creep into my coat.
Trixie led the way toward the buildings up ahead, trying not to show she was shivering from the same cold I felt.
"So we find a place to park the wagon, and then we'll... take a balloon ride up?" I guessed.
"That is the plan, yes," she agreed. "The contest is held in the main theater above us. Trixie will have to sign up before the first round begins."
I looked up again at the dark clouds above us.
"So when will you be able to show your stuff, mom? During the first round?" I wondered.
"Trixie expects not because she is late to arrive," she returned with a wry smile. "She stayed longer in Ponyville than she had wanted to."
"Not because of me, I hope?", I coughed uneasily.
"You were too eager to experience your first Nightmare Night, Fuu. How could Trixie keep that from you?" she returned with a wry smile.
I peered back at her in shocked surprise.
Even before Luna's kidnapping me to her old palace and granting me a dream journal Trixie had set her own needs aside for me?
Once again I had missed it, perhaps in my eagerness to experience this Nightmare Night with my CMC friends.
There were just signs that had gone right past me and I was starting to feel like a dumb foal over all of it.
And now we were late to arrive for this show Trixie obviously put all her hopes on.
"Then let's get our wagon parked so you can prepare, mom," I stated decisively. "Just let me know what I can do to help."
Trixie turned her head to look my way, but the cloud cover and the shadow of her hat made it impossible for me to see her facial expression.
"If you could go into the wagon and pull The Great and Powerful Trixie's suitcase out from under the bed? It contains most of the items she needs for her show," she suggested.
"I can do that," I agreed.
"Don't take it out of the wagon, Fuu," Trixie called after me as I turned around. "Just get it out from under our bed."
"Yes mom," I called back, now eager to help her out with this simple task.
I clambered back into the wagon and put the hat I was wearing up on the hook on the wall inside almost on automation.
It had only been two or three days now since I started wearing it, but there was already a familiarity to the act which felt right.
Ducking my head down to peer under the bed, I first noticed my dream journal under the bed, next to my saddle bags which contained the book I still had to return to Twilight's library.
Trixie had made us leave Ponyville so sudden, not giving me any chance to get the book returned or get a new volume, that it was still with us now in Los Pegasus.
I made a mental note to return it as soon as the opportunity arose.
Trixie's suitcase was directly behind my items, and I moved my stuff up onto the bed for a moment to pull it out of its hiding place.
As I set it down on its side to place it next to the wall my hat hang from, I heard something rattle inside as if it fell down along a few other items.
I silently cursed to myself, hoping this was a normal sound to do with the way Trixie had packed her suitcase.
With the suitcase out in the open and within reach of Trixie once she would get back here to our wagon, I put my saddle bags and books back where they had come from.
The wagon stopped moving almost the same second as I finished up inside, and I just turned to face the door and waited for Trixie to come pick up her suitcase.
And waited.
After what seemed like an age and a half Trixie finally came to the door and stepped inside, took one glance at her suitcase standing ready for her, and smiled.
"Thank you, Fuu," she sighed relieved.
"Leave your hat on the hook, but follow Trixie," she ordered. "Stay close; the city above is crowded and Trixie doesn't want you getting lost."
"Yes mom," I agreed.
"Oh, and don't call her mom while we are up there. She is The Great and Powerful Trixie, after all," Trixie suggested.
"If anypony asks, you are The Great and Powerful Trixie's assistant. Use the tricks Trixie taught you on the way here to convince them if needed," she continued.
"Trixie is there to perform and we need to avoid unnecessary questions until the paperwork gets signed," Trixie decided.
"Yes mom," I answered, but then corrected myself. "I mean, the Great and Powerful Trixie."
"It is just for the duration of the contest," Trixie offered with a wry smile. "We can formalize your registration once Trixie wins."
I watched as Trixie pulled her cloak out from where it was stored folded up in a bag under the bed and put it on herself.
She was so confident she was going to win, and I could only hope that it was going to happen the way she envisioned it.
The promise of a year of a solid income, and living together with Trixie as my mom in this weird dual city, was tantalizing.
With Trixie wearing both her hat and cloak now, she looked like the bold stage personality I knew from the show; from before things started to go wrong for her when her boasting got the better of her.
I really needed this contest to go as well as she thought it would.
"From this moment on we're performing, Fuu. Be on your best behaviour," Trixie noted to me.
"Yes, Great and Powerful Trixie," I agreed as instructed by her.
"Follow close behind and don't get distracted," she warned.
Trixie grabbed hold of her suitcase and walked out of the wagon, clearly expecting me to follow.
I made sure to close the door behind us, damaged as it was, and hurried after Trixie.
After the period of emotional damage we both suffered from my arrival in Equestria up to now, it was honestly amazing to see Trixie stride boldly forward in front of me.
Her head was held up high, her eyes to the prize, her cloak fluttering in the air.
She looked almost regal as she took her steps with great purpose, like a proper show pony.
The suitcase floating to her right side was just another part of this air of superiority; not once did it bob or waver as it followed her.
It was amazing to behold and I tried to match her self-confidence in the way I walked two steps behind her myself.
The wagon, I found, had been parked in a hall with multiple other wagons, just one among many.
We walked out of this hall, past a guard post near the entrance, and out onto the street of this dark town.
The lights of the station lit up the area we were headed toward, their light reaching up toward the hole in the cloud cover which a balloon was descending down from.
"Hurry up, Fuu," Trixie admonished me as I had let my attention drift like that.
I increased my pace to catch up to her again, trying to stick close as she had ordered me.
"We are aiming to get on the next balloon up," she noted.
"Yes G and PT," I offered so she knew I heard her.
There was a short snort from Trixie, as if my using Snips and Snails' name for her caught her by surprise.
A second balloon now lifted up from the ground, the pair of them taking a slightly different path from one another so they wouldn't meet up in the middle.
I had the thought that a couple of elevators would do the job faster and could haul more ponies up, but I was looking forward to my first-ever ride in a hot air balloon.
The closer we got to the station, the more other ponies were on the road with us and the closer I felt I should be walking after Trixie just to make sure nopony else would pass between us.
Worker ponies, merchants, and eccentric performers went in all sorts of directions.
It was easy for me to get lost in these masses, which I had not yet gotten the chance to get used to; I was just a small filly among much larger ponies.
Much, much larger ponies when considering the big earthpony stallions hauling heavy goods this way or that.
I had really only known one such big pony from the Apple farm; Big Mac, but some of the stallions walking past would make even him look on the small side.
Some carried these goods on their backs, others were pulling or pushing carts, it made it clear that the station was important grounds for both the undercity and the city above.
Trixie led me through the station, past little shops offering assorted souvenirs and snacks, and richer ponies were lazying about in the food court waiting for their train to come in.
I was starting to feel underdressed, especially with me lacking the collar I had worn for the first weeks of my life here in Equestria.
There was no time for me to stop and gawk at these ponies and what they were all eating, even if the smells from the food court teased my nose.
Trixie kept pace through them, and the crowds parted for her as she carried herself like she was too important to be stopped by them.
I just followed in her wake, trying to keep pace, and doing my best to not get overwhelmed by all the new experiences hitting me.
Past the station, the food court and the shops, and into the open square on the other side where the balloons were tethered.
Four landing zones were set up for the balloons, with one of them waiting for its turn to rise even while the one I had seen coming down before landed beside it.
It was amazing to see the work of the earthponies, pegasi, and unicorns all making sure the balloon landed safely; the pegasi flying up to greet it and steer it in the direction they wanted it to go, unicorns helping to keep the basket stable, and earthponies grabbing onto the mooring ropes to make sure it would be tethered once on the ground.
Trixie ignored the crowds waiting for the other balloon and just walked straight up to it.
Her suitcase opened slightly and she pulled a document out of it which she presented to the pony in charge of the onboarding process.
"You are in the presence of The Great and Powerful Trixie, and assistant," she simply stated with all the boastfulness I knew from the show.
The other pony looked over her document, glanced past it at Trixie and myself, and then rolled their eyes.
"Please board, madam. The balloon is leaving as soon as you are on it," they instructed, much to the chagrin of the ones in queue.
"Excuuuse me, but we were here first," an earthpony mare at the front complained. "What makes her so special?"
"Are you so blind that you cannot see the talent before you?" Trixie scoffed. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to blow your little minds away with feats of magic beyond your imagination!"
"Why, I never," the other mare gasped.
"Please board, madam," the steward suggested once more, waving us through.
"With pleasure," Trixie agreed with a grin.
She climbed aboard the balloon and placed the suitcase into the basket with her before turning to look in my direction.
"Come along, Fuu," she demanded.
I ducked my head down a little in embarrassment at the scene having played out in front of me just now, but joined her in the basket under the balloon as well.
"Up and away," the steward called out, and there was a sudden sense of motion.
The earthponies must have let go of the mooring ropes, and the balloon was now starting to rise up to its destination above us.
Trixie looked down at me standing beside her, and shook her head a little.
"Head up, Fuu," she admonished me. "Be aware that you are with the most amazing unicorn this side of Equestria."
There was a scoff from one of the other passengers, and I could see a twitch in Trixie's eye upon hearing it.
"Let's get to the our destination first, Great and Powerful Trixie," I mumbled. "I'm just a little overwhelmed, is all. There are more ponies here than I'm used to."
My explanation seemed to ease Trixie's concern and she just focused on a point somewhere before her as if she was mentally going over something else.
I was too caught up in the experience of having my first ever balloon flight, even if it was as a young foal among older ponies rather than back on Earth as a human.
The other balloon disappeared as we took off above it, and the pegasi who had guided us up flew away from our balloon and returned to the ground.
We were flying up by the power of hot air, and maybe a little unicorn magic from the balloon operator in the basket with us.
Given Trixie and myself had been the last ones in the basket, we were close enough to the edge that I could just crane my head up to peer over it at the dark landscape below.
It was magical to be caught in this one single light beam coming down around us from the gap in the clouds up above and see the dark lands around us pulling away.
Almost like we were experiencing the Rapture and were now ascending into Heaven by hot air balloon...