I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the animated film the Illusionist, directed by Sylvian Chomet , the story is about an old illusionist in the mid fifties , that must learn to accept the fact that people now go for TV and Rock and roll and are not interested in magic tricks any more.
 
The film does a very good job at showing how hard life can be for a showman, not just for a magician but also for all the people that make a living out of entertaining an audience, and a point that is brought a couple of times in the movie is that this kind of life can be very very lonely.
 
Why do I bring this up, Trixie is one of my favorite characters of the show, a narcissist, egocentric, attention loving girl, which still somehow manages to take a humble pie and learn to forgive and forget. She lives to hear other ponies telling her how great she is, but after the show is over and the lights are off, there’s no more cheering, no more clapping, she retreats back to her wagon alone, just with her thoughts. And that’s just in a normal day, how about when she first lost to Twilight, or when her wagon got vandalized, or when she had to work on the rock farm. Now, being alone is hard enough, but in those conditions, for a pony like her, I can’t begin to imagine how difficult that must have been.
 
And I love that after the events with the alicorn amulet, her life didn’t just “magically” fix, she still is an egotistical pony, but is not so self centered any more, which allows her to meet Starlight, probably her first real friend, and even then, she didn’t completely drop her vanity, but now she’s happy sharing the stage, and more importantly, the attention she receives. I want to believe that that’s because she knows she’s not alone any more, and she can happily retreat to her wagon when the show is over knowing that there are ponies out there who genuinely think she’s great, and she thinks they’re great too.
 
But maybe I’m overanalyzing, I really enjoyed the last episode, if I have time I’ll try to draw Trixie again with the rest of her friends.