"As you can see, Trixie's hat is empty," Trixie said, showing the inside of her hat to the audience. "But to a magician, an empty hat is full of possibility." She reached into the hat and pulled out a dove, tossing it into the air. There was polite, scattered applause.

Trixie rubbed her chin. "A dove is a bit too traditional, isn't it? There must be something better in here." She reached in, apparently feeling around. Soon her hoof was, impossibly, shoulder-deep in the hat. "Rabbit, rabbit, dove... Please bear with Trixie as she finds something more exciting." She tossed the named animals onto the stage like she was making room, then put her whole head into the hat, then her shoulders, and after a moment she vanished entirely into it, leaving the hat lying on the stage.

The hat wiggled and moved slightly, like it was alive. It hopped twice, and then bulged as something pressed its way out of it, Trixie backing out of the hat and dragging a confused-looking bear, which blinked and looked out at the audience.

"Trixie thought her hat felt a little heavy!" Trixie said, wiping her brow. The audience laughed. Trixie patted the bear on the head, then took off her cape and tossed it over him, the material somehow unfolding to cover it completely. Trixie held it there for a moment, then pulled it away with a flourish, revealing a stuffed toy.

"Much easier to carry!" Trixie declared. She picked up the teddy bear and motioned for a foal near the front to come closer to the stage, giving it to her. The audience applauded as the foal returned to her parents, clutching her new toy.

"She's pretty good," Gilda noted. "She's had her hat off for most of that, so this friend of yours hasn't even been using magic. We'd see her horn lighting up."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie would argue that the real magic is doing it without having to cast a spell," Twilight said. "She taught me a lot about sleight of hoof and picking locks."

"She uses a lot of props," Maud noted. "I'm not sure how she got the bear on stage, though."

"Magic, of course," Twilight said, with a grin.

The back doors of the Marecadian Projection burst open, and the Royal Guard poured into the room, a dozen troops in polished gold armor and a very familiar stallion in his custom purple.

"Twilight! I know you're here!" Shining Armor yelled. Twilight flinched and looked back.

"What in Tartarus?" Twilight swore. "How did he know I was even in Manehattan?"

"Let's get out of here," Gilda hissed.

"For her next trick, Trixie will need a volunteer from the audience," Trixie declared, ignoring the Royal Guard. Twilight looked to the stage and Trixie raised an eyebrow, giving her a look and gesturing to a seemingly-empty box standing up on stage.

"I volunteer!" Twilight yelled. "Gilda, Maud, get out of here while they're busy chasing me."

"There you are!" Shining Armor yelled, galloping towards her. Twilight bounded up onto the stage and ducked into the empty box, pulling it closed just before Shining Armor got to her.

"Hah! Got you now!" Shining Armor declared. He reached for the clasp, and Trixie knocked his hoof away.

"Please, Captain, this is a very dangerous trick," Trixie declared. She produced a sword, and Shining Armor backed up for a moment, preparing a shield. Before he could react, she spun and stabbed it into the box, the steel piercing easily through to the other side.

"What the-" Shining Armor gasped. Trixie grinned and flourished her cape, six more swords appearing at her hooves, embedded point-down into the floor. She picked up all of them in her magic and sent them into the box, turning it into a pincushion.

"Trixie thinks that would take care of anypony trying to hide from the law, don't you?" Trixie asked. Shining Armor paled.

"I was trying to take her alive!" Shining Armor said, horrified.

"Really?" Trixie gasped, acting surprised. She removed the swords. "Please, then, do the honors." She gestured to the handle of the box. Shining Armor pulled it open, and a skeleton fell out onto him. The box was, of course, otherwise completely empty.

"I guess I overdid it," Trixie said, sighing and tossing the skeleton away.

"Where's Twilight? What did you do with her?!" Shining Armor demanded.

"It's an act, Mister Guard. I'm afraid that sometimes ponies vanish." Trixie rubbed her chin. "Maybe we can bring her back." She walked up to the box, closing it. Trixie adjusted her hat and up one of the swords, waving it like a wand.

"If you don't bring her back, I'll-" Shining Armor growled.

"Behold!" Trixie yelled, the sword sparking and glowing. The box shivered, and she pulled it open. The bear that had vanished before looked out, with an even more confused expression. "Oh no! Trixie's volunteer might have met a grizzly end!"

"You're the one who's going to vanish right into a prison cell if you don't bright Twilight back!" Shining Armor yelled.

"That would just be unbearable," Trixie said. She gave Shining Armor the sword. "Trixie will try and fetch her. Make sure to wave the sword three times, then open the box."

Trixie stepped into the box, pushing the bear aside to make room, and closed it from within.

Shining Armor looked at the sword in his hooves and awkwardly waved it three times. There was a flash of light and a crash of fireworks, and the stallion vanished, leaving the stage empty. The box opened, and Shining Armor stepped out.

"What the- how did I get in the box?" He blinked. The sword was gone, and in its place he was holding a stuffed bear. Shining Armor growled and threw it to the ground. "Spread out and search backstage for them!"

The best thing about Manehattan was that you could get lost without having to go too far. A few blocks away from the Marecadian Projection, Trixie had taken the small group to an unmarked club set in the basement of an old brick building. It had once been a speakeasy, during the brief time that Princess Celestia had outlawed alcohol (she claimed it was an object lesson about how moderation is more valuable than proscription, though some historians quietly noted that the morning the prohibition was put into effect she was nursing a terrible hangover,) and now it was slightly more legitimate, but still discreet.

"That was a nice escape routine, Trixie," Twilight said. "I liked the part where you kept them distracted for a few minutes so I could get out from under the stage."

Trixie nodded in approval. Her hat and cape occupied the seat next to her. Without them, she seemed almost like a completely different pony.

"I couldn't allow my beautiful assistant to get hurt," Trixie smiled. "Though now it looks like I'm owed a favor. And one from the second-best sleight of hoof artist in Equestria."

Gilda sipped at her scotch and tilted her head. "Second-best?"

"I taught Twilight everything she knows, not everything I know," Trixie smiled. "A magician always needs to have a few tricks in reserve for a rainy day, just in case a critic shows up and demands something new."

"So what do you want?" Twilight asked. "I think I can fit something into my busy schedule."

"It should be easy," Trixie said. She reached over to her hat and pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. "Have you seen this?"

Twilight took it and spread it out on the table. It was an advertisement.

"The Equestrian Championships of Magic," Twilight read.

"I was invited to participate after a tour in Las Pegasus. While I was there, I saw the most curious thing - a casino with all of its gold flying off into the sky." She smirked. "It made me think of my old friend, Twilight Sparkle, and how she almost got me kicked out of school."

"I apologized for that," Twilight said, quickly.

"Well, considering you also wrote half of my essays, I decided to forgive you. You did even more work trying to keep me in school than you did getting me into trouble," Trixie said. "But you're a skilled rogue, and that's what I need."

"Why do you need her?" Maud asked.

"The same magician has won at the Equestrian Championship every year for the past five years," Trixie said. "Black Tie isn't a terrible magician, but I have a feeling that he hasn't been winning fairly. I saw him in Las Pegasus once and he was sort of clumsy, though he had good enough stage presence to recover from his stumbles. There have been too many accidents and too many coincidences for me to believe he's playing fair."

"A magician never plays fair," Twilight said.

"That's why you never beat me at cards," Trixie noted. "So I want you three to act as..." She tilted her head. "I suppose bodyguards is the best description? I don't want you to sabotage him, but I want a level playing field."

"It'd be easier to wish him luck," Gilda said. "I hear it's traditional to break a leg or two, and we can definitely help with that."

"No violence!" Trixie said. "I won't stoop to it."

"So just keep an eye out for you?" Twilight asked. "Why do you need me for that?"

"Because regular bodyguards are hopelessly dull," Trixie said. "A bit like your bird-brained friend here. I need ponies who can see tricks and traps coming. You know the old saying - to catch a thief, use a thief."

"Hm. Well, that does sound pretty easy," Twilight said.

"I'll pay for meals and a hotel room while you're helping," Trixie added. "It's the least I can do. If I get through it safely, I'll pay you what I can. Does that seem fair?"

"I've never been a bodyguard," Maud noted. "I suppose it's just like what I used to do, but in reverse."

"That's the spirit," Twilight said, patting her on the back.

"Do those meals include drinks?" Gilda asked.

"As long as it's not totally unreasonable," Trixie said, nodding.

"Great. I'm in. Bartender, another scotch."

The Equestrian Championship of Magic was one of the most exciting events of the year. This was because unlike the similar-sounding Canterlot Sorcery Awards, the ECM wasn't about clever spellcasting or making a panel of grey-bearded professors read your thesis.

The ECM was about the show. Ponies of all races were invited to compete. Black Tie, the five-time champion that Trixie was so worried about, was an earth pony who did all of his tricks with only skill and masterfully constructed props.

The ECM was always held in Manehattan, in an open-air amphitheater named the Scallop that ensured that there was plenty of room for the larger acts and to accommodate the needs of any pegasai competitors.

"Why are we here now?" Gilda asked, following Twilight as she walked through the backstage area. Trixie had given them disguises - actual ones that weren't just fake mustaches. Gilda's feathers were currently grey and slicked back, with green rings around her eyes and purple stripes that made her look almost more like a pigeon than a hawk.

"You know we always case the joint when we can," Twilight replied. Her coat was a sage green that looked like the upholstery in a bank, her mane a lighter shade streaked with gold. Trixie had slapped a fake cutie mark of a bit on her flanks to cover her distinctive stars, and she was as anonymous as any mare in a crowd. "Just keep your eyes open and think about how you'd sabotage the competition, and we'll work from there."

Trixie had even provided them with lanyards that marked them as being part of the staff so they could get in without having to do any breaking and entering. It almost felt like cheating.

"Trouble at twelve o' clock," Gilda muttered, as they turned a corner. Shining Armor was arguing with a severe-looking unicorn mare wearing a pinstripe vest that matched her mane, grey with thin black lines.

"Let's hope these disguises hold up," Twilight whispered.

"I keep telling you, there's no money involved," the pinstriped mare hissed. "Admission is free and there's not even any prize money."

"And I'm telling you Twilight Sparkle is in Manehattan suspiciously close to the event. We almost caught her at a magic show before she pulled a disappearing act," Shining Armor said.

"No doubt," the mare said. "If it was good, perhaps we'll invite her next year."

"Invite her-" Shining Armor growled in frustration. "She's going to try and steal something, you mark my words!"

"Your words are marked and noted," the mare said. "Now, unless you have a warrant I must ask you to leave. This is private property."

"You want a warrant, I'll get one," Shining Armor said. "I'm trying to do you a favor!"

"Oh, what's this behind your ear?" The mare asked, her tone still dry and annoyed. She reached behind Shining Armor's ear and produced a playing card. "Why, it's the three of clubs. And what's that written on it?" She turned it to show the Guard Captain. Written in red marker were the words 'Get Out'. "I believe this is indeed your card."

"You're going to regret this when that mare steals the shoes off your hooves," Shining Armor declared, as he stormed towards the exit. He nodded to Twilight and Gilda as he passed them. "Excuse me, ladies."

Twilight watched him leave, and gave Gilda a smirk.

"I take it you two are the assistants Miss Lulamoon told me about?" the mare said, once Shining Armor had left.

"That's us," Gilda confirmed.

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss...?" Twilight asked, offering a hoof.

"Pinstripe." Twilight should have been able to guess that. "It is unfortunately my job to deal with the prima donnas that come here. I trust that Miss Lulamoon hasn't sent you to complain that she needs some special muffins for her breakfast, or massages backstage, or..." Pinstripe sighed, closing her eyes as if fearing the next answer. "'Special considerations' with ladies of reasonably-priced moral character?"

"No, we're just here to act as security," Twilight said, opting for honesty. "She hired us to make sure no accidents happen to her. Hopefully not to anypony else, of course, but they're not paying us."

Pinstripe gave her a long look. Twilight started to sweat.

"I suppose," Pinstripe said, eventually. "At least you seem more trustworthy than that Guard Captain. I think he is one pauldron short of field plate, if you get my meaning."

"Why's that?" Twilight asked, her smile fading. Part of her wanted to defend her brother.

"He thinks some thief is going to try and sneak in," Pinstripe rolled her eyes. "I don't even know why she'd bother."

"I can't imagine," Twilight agreed. "So, Trixie has some concerns about the security around here and the accidents..."

"Naturally," Pinstripe sighed. "Tell me she isn't buying into the rumor about Pepper's Ghost."

"Pepper's Ghost?" Gilda asked.

"During one of the first ECM gatherings there was an accident involving an escape artist that... failed to escape," Pinstripe said. "She was named Ghost Pepper, though on stage they called her Pepper's Ghost for her ability to seemingly walk through walls. A cunning trick, though it fell apart from a wide viewing angle. There are always accidents, especially before a major performance. After her untimely passing, it became a trend for performers to blame these accidents on Pepper's Ghost."

"Well, the ghost of Ghost Pepper, who was known as Pepper's Ghost," Twilight said.

"Correct," Pinstripe said. "Really, I think Miss Lulamoon is being paranoid, but if it makes her feel better you're free to look at anything you wish, as long as you don't mind an escort to ensure you aren't here to cause the accidents you say you wish to prevent."

"I wouldn't mind that at all," Twilight said. "Especially if it's a beautiful mare like you."

"Flattery stopped working on me two coltfriends ago," Pinstripe said. "Now, if you'll follow me..."

The Scallop was a nightmare for anypony trying to do security, but it was masterfully constructed if one was a thief. Years of serving as a stage for magicians both during the Equestrian Championship of Magic and the regular stage shows that went on during the spring and summer meant that it was riddled with trapdoors, hidden mechanisms, and abandoned props.

"We stopped investing in locks years ago," Pinstripe noted, as they went through a security door that Twilight could have picked by sneezing on it. "With so many escape artists coming through, it seemed rather pointless. Bad locks weren't worth the trouble to open and stayed closed, good ones were picked almost as soon as they were installed. It became, as you might imagine, more secure to use locks that they wouldn't open just for fun."

"Where's this lead?" Gilda asked, tapping a talon on a trap door.

"The undercroft," Pinstripe said. "Sort of a basement that runs under the stage. Mostly for maintenance use, though we haven't cleaned it in decades and there's a considerable amount of junk stored down there as well. We stopped throwing anything out after we accidentally sold the wrong prop and revealed the method behind one of Miss Surprise's better routines. She wasn't terribly upset, but it rather spoiled the fun for her fans."

"I can imagine," Twilight said. "Magic shows are only entertaining if you don't know how it's done."

"It does lose its charm when it merely becomes criticizing skill," Pinstripe agreed. "Would you like to go into the undercroft?"

"I'll stay up here," Gilda said. "I don't really like tight underground places." What she really meant was, she didn't like being anywhere she couldn't make an easy escape from.

"I wouldn't mind seeing it," Twilight said. She also didn't like being anywhere she couldn't get away from, but unlike Gilda she could teleport short distances, including upwards.

"As you will. I'll have one of the stagehands escort you. I don't like being down there myself if I can help it - the dust bothers me - and I have paperwork to attend to."

"...Sulfur and bat guano?" Maud asked, watching Trixie.

"Alchemy, if done properly, is a useful way of creating props," Trixie explained. "Disappearing ink, flash paper, fireworks, that kind of thing."

"You could do all that with magic." Maud gave Trixie a blank look. To be fair, most of Maud's looks were blank. However, this was the kind of blank that meant she didn't understand, rather than the blank look of somepony who's just looking five minutes into the future and seeing your corpse.

"The most important thing about being a stage magician is knowing when not to use magic," Trixie explained. "Magic has rules. Telekinesis works this way, lightning works that way, and so forth. What impresses ponies is when you do something and it breaks those rules."

"Like... taking coal and turning it into a ruby instead of a diamond?" Maud asked.

"Either one would be a wonderful trick on stage," Trixie said.

"It's not that hard. It just takes time and pressure. We did it on the farm before things got bad."

Trixie stopped what she was doing and looked over her shoulder at Maud, who was staring into space, getting lost in thought.

"If you fell in with Twilight Sparkle, that's a good indication that things have gotten bad," Trixie said, carefully. "No offense. She's one of my oldest friends, but she's hardly a pony you can consider a good influence."

"No, she... did me a favor. I didn't like my previous line of work. This is better."

"Rock farming was worse than this?"

"No. Not rock farming. I... took care of problems."

"Oh, right. You mentioned that you sort of did the opposite of the bodyguard thing." Trixie looked uncomfortable. "So you don't do that anymore, do you?"

Maud's gaze snapped to Trixie, and she stood up, walking towards her with firm steps. Trixie shrunk back a step, and Maud lunged.

Trixie screamed, shielding her face as Maud shoved her to the ground. The window broke behind her, and a flaming crossbow bolt hit the small alchemy lab she'd set up in the hotel room. Maud stood over her, protecting her as something exploded, sending broken glass and sparks across the room.

"We need to leave," Maud said. Trixie nodded and grabbed her hat from the desk just before a second bolt could hit it.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie knows how to make an exit," Trixie said. She pulled her cape over them like a blanket, and there was a moment of darkness. When she removed it, with her usual flourish, they were standing in an alleyway across the street.

"...How did you do that?" Maud asked.

"Magic, of course," Trixie said. She smiled until she saw Maud's back. "You- you're hurt!"

"Hm?" Maud asked, glancing at herself. Shards of glass had pierced her skin in a few places, and blood was starting to seep into her dress. "Oh. I didn't feel it before." She took a wobbling step and fell against Trixie.

"We need to get you to the hospital," Trixie said, holding the sturdy pony up.

Maud shook her head. "It looks worse than it is. We have to find Twilight. This is more than just somepony trying to win a contest. They want you dead."

Author's Notes:

Yes, Trixie is quite successful here. She's really a great showpony when given half a chance - even in canon she draws a crowd with no problem at all, even in a town she formerly enslaved. Of course she also rubs some ponies the wrong way...