Trixie

Trixie is a unicorn pony and traveling magician who is featured as the main antagonist of Boast Busters and Magic Duel, makes background appearances in Bridle Gossip and The Return of Harmony Part 1, and also appears as an antagonist in the chapter book Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell. She tends to speak in the third person and refers to herself as "The Great and Powerful Trixie" and "The Great and Apologetic Trixie" (At the end of Magic Duel). Trixie visits Ponyville with her one-mare show, in which she shows off, extremely exaggerates, and boasts about her abilities. The name Trixie is a diminutive form of Beatrix. She is called Trixie Lulamoon in some merchandise.

Development and design
Lauren Faust stated that the premise of Boast Busters called for a boastful unicorn character, who was originally envisioned as male. Writer Chris Savino came up with the current character of Trixie and her habit of speaking in the third person.

Trixie is one of the few ponies, along with Big McIntosh, Nightmare Moon, Granny Smith, Snips, and Snails, to have a single reflection in her eyes; most ponies have two, while foals have three.

Trixie is one of the few ponies, along with Lyra Heartstrings, to have a unique first name, though it is still based on the word "tricks".

Trixie's design and color scheme is used for four background ponies in Bridle Gossip, along with two palette swaps. Three of the four background ponies and one of the two palette swaps can be seen briefly near the beginning of The Return of Harmony Part 1.

Before season two started airing, Jayson Thiessen, one of the show's directors, said that he liked Trixie and could see potential for another story featuring her. Trixie was later hinted to return in person during the show's third season at some point.

A cutie mark with the same design as Trixie's but with a different color scheme (a purple wand with pixie dust and a yellow star) is one of the available cutie marks in the games Adventures in Ponyville and PonyMaker, and Trixie's mane and tail styles are among the available manes and tails available in the latter game.

Personality
Trixie first appears in Boast Busters, where she assumes a very theatrical personality and speaks dramatically in the third person, posing and setting off fireworks to complete the full effect.

"I am The Great and Powerful TRIXIE!"

- Boast Busters

She is set up as the antagonist to the protagonist Twilight Sparkle. Twilight's positive, helpful, and humble attitude is contrasted by Trixie's over-the-top boasting. Trixie claims to have saved Hoofington from an attack by an ursa major. However, when confronted by an ursa minor, she admits that her tale was fabricated and that even the ursa minor was an opponent far too powerful for her to contain. This is the only point in the episode where she drops her "Great and Powerful Trixie" persona and speaks in the first person. Despite this brief display of honesty and fear, her frequent showboating alienates the other ponies and classifies her as an antagonist of the series.

In her return episode, Magic Duel, her magic is augmented by the Alicorn Amulet, and she uses this power to take revenge on Twilight Sparkle by cheating in a magic duel, banishing her from Ponyville, and subsequently setting herself up as the leader of the town. She shows no qualms about using innocent ponies (Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Snips and Snails) to prove her power, nor does she seem to care when a spell nearly takes out another (Shoeshine). Through the episode, she has Mayor Mare trapped in a cage, forces other ponies to do manual labor for her, and claims to not "trust wheels." She was also easily manipulated by Twilight Sparkle into a rematch duel so she could prove that she was still better, this was what lead to her downfall. However, upon removal of the Amulet, and the loss of her power. Unlike her last visit, she accepts her defeat against Twilight and meekly seeks forgiveness from Twilight over how she treated her and her friends. At the end of the episode, she once again drops her persona and speaks in the first person, but only for a few seconds before she refers to herself as the "Great and Apologetic Trixie".

History
In Boast Busters, Trixie arrives in Ponyville, having been rumored to be "the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria". At her show, Trixie boasts constantly about her great magical abilities. She claims to have vanquished an ursa major, an enormous celestial bear-like creature that normally could never be defeated by just one pony. Only two ponies, Snips and Snails, openly believe Trixie's claims and proclaim her as the most magical and talented pony ever. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack take Trixie's challenge to see who is better, only to be humiliated one by one. Twilight Sparkle, who fears that she might lose her friends if she shows off her magic like Trixie, doesn't accept the challenge and runs off. Trixie then proclaims herself victorious, and ends her show.

After the show, Snips and Snails follow Trixie, fawning over her and asking to hear more of her stories until Trixie herself tires of it, and sends them away. Snips refers to her as "The G and PT", shortening her title.

Spike witnesses Snips' and Snails' behavior and is far more skeptical of Trixie's claims, telling them that they should not believe her until she demonstrates a comparable feat in front of them. This leads the pair to seek out an ursa themselves in the Everfree Forest. They draw the ursa minor into Ponyville, believing it to be an ursa major, and ask Trixie to use her magic tricks to defeat it. Her stage magic proves useless, and she admits that she can't defeat an ursa major and never has, and that she fabricated the whole story to make herself look better. This confession is the only time she uses the first person perspective. Twilight then uses her magic to soothe the ursa minor to sleep and gives it a "bottle" of milk constructed from the water tower before sending it back to its cave in the forest.

Trixie is surprised to find out that the monster they faced was actually an ursa minor, the baby version of an ursa major, who was only cranky after being woken up by Snips and Snails. After the explanation, however, Trixie resumes her arrogance, saying that Twilight will never have the same power as her, and once again proclaims herself "Great and Powerful."

Trixie then uses a smokescreen to poorly conceal her exit from town. After it dissipates, she is seen galloping out of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash starts after Trixie, but Twilight stops her, certain that Trixie will someday learn her lesson about bragging on her own.

Multiple Trixies can be seen in the background shots of Ponyville's town square in Bridle Gossip and The Return of Harmony Part 1, along with ponies with the same design but different color schemes.

She is mentioned in Ponyville Confidential as being in the Gabby Gums column of the Foal Free Press which reveals her secrets, but is not elaborated on in the episode.

Trixie makes her second appearance in Magic Duel, returning to Ponyville and wreaking havoc using with her new magic powers (fueled by the Alicorn Amulet), and then confronting Twilight Sparkle challenging her to a duel as revenge. Trixie explains her motive for revenge is because after the time Twilight Sparkle had showed up Trixie when she defeated the ursa minor, Trixie could no longer perform her traveling magic show as other ponies in Equestria mocked and ostracized her for it, and then she had to take a job at Pinkie Pie's family's rock farm to earn her keep, which in the end humiliated her. She proceeds to beat Twilight in the titular duel, and banishes her from Ponyville.

She then takes over Ponyville, remaking it in her own image, forcing its citizens to do labor for her, and punishing anyone who refuses. She is especially hard on Snips and Snails, constantly making them work harder. When Twilight returns claiming she knows Trixie cheated, Trixie fakes innocence, and when Twilight claims to have an amulet stronger than Trixie's she quickly calls this impossible but accepts a second duel when Twilight keeps mocking her. In the second duel Trixie was only able to cast one spell before staring on in horror as Twilight performs spells that she herself cannot. Immediately after Twilight wins, Trixie steals her amulet claiming she can rule Equestria with it. She removes her Alicorn Amulet and puts the new one on, but this turns out to all be a trick set up by Twilight, and Rainbow Dash snatches away the Alicorn Amulet and gives it to Zecora to put back in hiding. At the end of the episode, Trixie provides fireworks to back Twilight's entertainment provision, then apologizes to her whilst putting on her hat and cape from Boast Busters, explaining that the amulet had corrupted her and she couldn't stop herself from being cruel to everypony. Trixie asks Twilight for forgiveness, to which Twilight obliges. Following her declaration that she has become the "Great and Apologetic Trixie", she repeats her smokescreen escape, tripping over whilst doing so.

Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell
Trixie is featured as an antagonist working together with Gilda the Griffon in the book Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell. She is first mentioned in chapter 9, "A Head in the Clouds", and first appears in chapter 10, "Drinking the Lily Pad Slime". Gilda calls her by the nickname "Trix".

My Little Pony mobile game description
A traveling magician and one-mare show, Trixie likes to show off and exaggerates about her magical abilities.

Hasbro Showroom 2013
Two Trixies, along with two each of Rainbow Dash and Applejack, appear in a 3D-animated video regarding 2012, done by Vink for Hasbro Chile.

Merchandise
A translucent mini-figure toy of Trixie, named Lulamoon in Europe and Trixie Lulamoon in the U.S., appears in the fourth wave of mystery packs. Her pose and mane style are the same as the Rarity mini-figure toy mold. The collector card accompanying the toy has different descriptions between the European and U.S. releases, respectively stating that she "has a favourite star" and "is great at magic tricks".

Trixie Lulamoon was later released in brushable toy form as a single release in the Pony Wedding eighth wave of Playful Ponies and with glitter on her cutie mark as part of the Toys "R" Us exclusive Collector Series Friendship Is Magic Favorite Collection Featuring Nightmare Moon. According to the Pony Wedding single package, Trixie Lulamoon "is great at magic tricks, but sometimes she likes to show off a little too much".

A second Trixie Lulamoon mini-figure toy appears in the fifth wave of mystery packs, again with the same pose and mane style as the Rarity mini-figure toy mold but without any translucency. The European release includes a collector card stating that she "likes showing off", while the U.S. release includes a collector card that uses the same description as the first U.S. collector card.

A third Trixie Lulamoon mini-figure appears in the sixth wave of mystery pack toys, this one with the same pose and mane style as the Twilight Sparkle mini-figure toy mold and with a three-dimensional star as part of her cutie mark. The U.S. release includes a collector card that still uses Rarity's pose and mane style and the same description as the first U.S. collector card.

Several T-shirts featuring Trixie were released by Mighty Fine and distributed through WeLoveFine and/or Hot Topic. One T-shirt distributed through Hot Topic features Trixie on a wanted poster that parodies the "Have You Seen This Wizard?" wanted poster for Sirius Black seen in the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Quotes
"I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians: anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers? Anyone? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived!?!"

- Boast Busters

"When Trixie is through, the only thing they'll call you is loser."

- Boast Busters

"Huh. You may have vanquished an ursa "minor", but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

- Boast Busters

"Trixie is the highest level unicorn!"

- Magic Duel

"The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't trust wheels."

- Magic Duel

"Witness, my subjects, gaze upon an even greater and powerfuler Trixie!"

- Magic Duel

"Don't you think the Great and Apologetic Trixie is the most magnificent humble pony you have ever seen?"

- Magic Duel

"And once the unlucky ponies who get a cup of 'cider' from this barrel take a sip, I'll swoop in and perform a magnificent spell to save them from the horrible taste!"

- Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell

"The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't have all day, Twilight!"

- Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell

"Trixie will go with you, too!"

- Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell