Chapter II
HA-CHEEEW!
The little pony woke up with a fright when she sneezed and hit her nose against the rock wall, becoming delirious for a brief moment. Cautiously, she brought her hoof up to massage it, which caused her to whimper in pain. It took her a while to notice the carmine blood on her hoof from hitting her nose against the hard, rocky surface.
She had just been awakened from a nightmare beginning to form. Thankfully she woke up before anything horrible started to happen. Prolonging a tired and sad exhaling breath, she slumped back against the smooth rock wall. Her life as a vagabond had only started the night prior, yet she already felt defeated. The thought of going back home left her petrified with terror and panic, though. Her parents would be absolutely infuriated; she would most likely receive the beating of her life from her father. Abuse wouldn't be all, either. Whenever she did something that really enraged her father, he would start to touch her, as well as commit other types of inappropriate harassment that she did not want to think about. The filly would rather starve or freeze to death than return home.
Her eyes drifted over to a pile of small stones that sat a few feet away from her. She levitated three of them over to her using her magic. Her underdeveloped skills, however, made them wobble in the air rather than smoothly hovering toward her. When they were in front of her face, she held them still, suspended in the air. Carefully, she started to maneuver the little rocks in a circular motion, making them spin. Her eyes squinted in concentration as she gradually increased the rotation's speed until she reached her current limit of skill. The rocks were now spinning at a moderately fast pace.
Now she attempted adding an extra dimension to the trick: making each rock spin sideways while simultaneously having them rotate collectively in a circle. Her tongue poked out as she concentrated heavily on pulling off the little feat. It was slowly beginning to work; each rock was now individually spinning on their own axis, albeit just barely. The strain was too strong for her too keep it going, though. That was one thing she had difficulty with, building her stamina. So she abruptly stopped spinning the stones and let them fall to the ground in front of her.
Trixie felt like she had just galloped a whole marathon. Her breath was short and she felt little drops of sweat on her forehead, which she wiped off with her hoof.
Becoming a big name magician was the filly's ultimate goal in life, which made her practice superfluously. She got the idea after reading an article about an up and coming magician from Chicacolt named Abby Cadabra. The article described in detail the amazing acts of magic the pony performed that bedazzled the audience, as well as leaving them mystified. One of her highlighted stunts was casting an illusion spell that reportedly made it seem as if there were ten or more duplicates of her. She killed the lights, sending the theater into pitch black darkness so that nopony knew which was the actual Abby when they came back on. Then, Abby manipulated the copies of herself to interact with audience members. One such pony told the interviewers that one of the duplicates asked to shake his hoof after asking what his name was; when he touched the copy's hoof, it vanished in a puff of smoke. In the end, everypony was more than satisfied with what they paid for and believed the show to be spectacular.
The headline of the article spawned a new and now regularly used nickname for the magician; it read "Abby Cadabra: The Chick of Tricks". This name sat with the little filly, and she wanted to come up with a stage name for herself, which is where she came up with 'Trixie'. She hoped that one day she would be able to astonish ponies with her impressive and amazing magic. Her shows would leave ponies speechless with their jaws hanging open. She would one day be famous and popular, idolized and admired, great and powerful.
"Great and powerful..." Trixie quietly muttered. Before she could expand on her thought, though, the unmistakable feeling of nature calling presented itself to her. She groaned in irritation as she got on her hooves.
"Well, Trixie," she mumbled to herself. "Your first day on your own..."
With that, she packed her quilt, and roamed out of the refuge, searching for a place to relieve herself.
~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~
"Here you are, miss. I hope everything is alright with you."
The words from the yellow front desk mare went through Trixie's one ear and out the other. Her eyes were fixated on the plate of food the employee just placed on a marble table in front of her, drooling over how appetizing it all looked. Hot and fresh bread with butter, a big plate of hay salad with carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes, french onion soup, and a tall glass of ice cold water to top it all off.
Trixie looked up at the concierge mare, who noticed tears starting to form in the magician's eyes.
"Oh ma'am...I can never thank you enough for this."
The mare stood there smiling in sympathy. "Oh, it's no problem. Just remember to stay hidden as much as possible; the hotel manager would NOT be pleased if he knew I let somepony like you in here."
"Oh, yes, of course, absolutely, I will!"
They both chuckled awkwardly, shifting their eyes to other objects in the immense room to avoid eye contact with the other. While she wasn't looking, Trixie gazed up at the concierge. Her lip began to quiver, and she was on the brink of tears. But she held it in to appear strong.
Suddenly, the blue mare hopped out of her seat and gave the other mare a tight embrace, which startled her and made her begin to blush. Her stomach started to churn from the horrid stench the other was emitting, but decided to let it be for the time being and comfort the distraught pony.
Five seconds or so went by before Trixie's eyes shot open and she backed away from the other pony. "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am, I completely forgot about the repulsive condition that I'm in! Please, I'm—"
"Hey, hey, hey, easy!" the employee interrupted. "It's perfectly fine, I'll just change out of this uniform and put on a clean one. You just worry about getting food in your system."
The pony trotted back to the front, wondering how she was going to find a way to sneak out and change into a fresh uniform. Meanwhile, Trixie darted her eyes quickly to check if anypony else was watching her, relieved to find out that nopony could really see her from where she was at. Abandoning proper etiquette, she began to grab hoof-fulls of her food and shoving them into her eager mouth, levitating her spoon simultaneously to scoop up soup to eat. She silently prayed that her undernourished stomach would allow her to take in all of her food and beverage.
She felt glorious; it was as if a hole in her abdomen was being filled. Not only was her starvation being satiated, but she was correct about the food itself being incredibly tasty and delicious. It wasn't long at all before she had completely polished off her plate and emptied her glass of water. She felt a whole lot better than she had felt in a long time.
As she slouched back in the cozy hoofchair, she began to feel the discomfort of feeling like she was going to explode. She leaned back over and clutched her stomach gently, groaning in mild pain. Then, without warning—
BAAAAAHH!
Her hoof quickly covered her mouth as she shrunk down in the chair. She hoped that nopony heard her release the loud belch. It was such plebeian behavior, she knew it, but she couldn't help herself. Besides, she realized that it made her stomach feel infinitely better.
"I can see that you're all better."
Trixie flinched in surprise. The employee who was so kind enough to provide her with the meal stood next to the chair, donning a fresh, new uniform, who then chuckled quietly to herself. It was apparent that she had heard, much to Trixie's chagrin.
"Please excuse my rude behavior." she answered in embarrassment.
"Oh, it's alright. I'll just take this dirty silverware and bring it to the back kitchen of the restaurant."
"Thank you so much."
"Now I'll let you relax here five more minutes or so, but you'll have to get going soon. I truly am sorry."
"Now don't be," persuaded Trixie. "You've done so much already."
"Well, you're absolutely welcome, miss...?"
The blue mare was confused as to what the other was trying to get at, but soon realized what it is. "The name is Trixie, ma'am."
"Trixie...I think I've heard that name before..."
"Really?" Trixie replied softly.
"Yeah..." the yellow mare silently thought shortly, before shaking off it off. "Well, like I said, five more minutes or so."
"Alright. Thank you very much."
With that, the employee left to return the dirty dishes. The magician frowned, thinking back to when she was well on her way to stardom. But that all crumbled, and she was sure that she would always remain just a blip on the radar.
~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~ ~/~
"It was so wonderful to see you again, Twilight. Goodbye!"
"Goodbye, Princess! It was wonderful to see you as well!"
The princess of Equestria simply gave a small smile and waved her hoof in goodbye as her star protégé left the private meeting room that was reserved for their get together on the third floor of the Royal Canterlot Library. She was genuinely happy from her meeting with her mentor. The princess, in Twilight's mind, was like another parent or guardian, a matriarch to whom she adored and loved unconditionally.
She step out and reentered the amazing library she admired so much. A feeling of nostalgia hit her; she could recall practically living in this building like it was only the day before. The first thing she noted was the smell—a scent she was enamored with, that of fresh books and their pages. The pony took in a deep breath, let the air enter her nostrils, and finally released a soft sigh of contentment. Then came the books themselves. Hundreds and hundreds of shelves filled to the brim with seemingly endless amount of books and novels. They were like a magnet, pulling Twilight in, begging her to forget the world and get lost within the pages of one of them. Be it an exciting and spellbinding story, or an interesting and informative essay, it didn't matter; Twilight would be more than willing to read it. The temptation from the book shelves was strong, but Twilight had other matters to attend to, so she resisted them with all her will power and moved on.
Turning away from the rows of books, she proceeded to canter over to the staircase that led to the second and ground level. Her hooves clopped quite loudly in her ears, and she feared she was being too noisy. The librarian at the front desk gave her a reassuring wink and smile when Twilight silently checked. She nodded back, relieved. Regardless of the librarian's answer, her hoofsteps were carefully placed the rest of the way down the stairs anyway.
Her thoughts drifted to what she talked about with the princess. There were the obvious topics that got the conversation started, things such as how they had been lately and if anything new was going on. The rest of their chat was mainly comprised of memories. Of course, there was nothing wrong with just reminiscing. One such memory popped up immediately in the conversation: The Grand Galloping Gala. Twilight had reached the point where the memory of her and her friends' faux pa at the previous one became more amusing rather than embarrassing. She was able to brush the dirt off her mane from that experience and simply have a good laugh about it. The wonder of whether or not the festivity would continue this year despite the whole incident had been much of a concern to her, and was glad to hear that there was to be another one this year.
And list just went on and on. The parasprites swarming Ponyville; the poison-joke being misconstrued as a curse by Zecora; Princess Luna wanting to be accepted and adored by everypony (Twilight remembered to ask how she was, happy to know that she was doing fine); Pinkie Pie getting bent out of shape when she thought all her friends didn't love her anymore; the conflict of territorial ownership between the buffalo and the Appaloosians. Twilight even recalled the day she left for Ponyville. If it hadn't been for that experience, who knows where she would be right now. She probably would still be in Canterlot, studying endlessly, and still a recluse with nopony to call a friend. Of course, she never gave friendship much thought other than at how trivial she believed it was. How could she have been so ignorant, so asinine, so fallacious? It still bemused her, but she tried to not dwell on it excessively. The past was a history made up of old and fragile memories, and she needed to focus on the present and plan for the future.
They talked a bunch, but out of the vast collection, the memory of Trixie and the whole Ursa Minor incident was more prominent than any other one. Something about the magician unicorn infatuated Twilight Sparkle and she could not figure out why. Was it her confidence that attracted the lavender pony? Twilight's research on the intuitive social behaviors of ponies concluded that one was more drawn to those with high self-esteem. Even though Trixie took it way too far—which made her an annoying, pompous braggart—deep down, she couldn't help but admire the strong credence Trixie had. It would make sense; Twilight was always a pony who was quick to doubt herself more than believing that she was capable of doing something. That was a trait she most definitely envied. Perhaps it was her appreciation of the magician's natural talent, which eerily reflected her own. Trixie was different, however. The way Twilight had learned magic—thus affecting the way she used it—was through a strict and methodical systematic structure. It was clear to her that Trixie was entirely self-taught. The signs and idiosyncrasies were subtle, but she was still able to notice them considerably. It was yet another thing she envied; everything she would do was always done by the book, and she often wishes she could just wing it and learn on her own. The mare didn't bring these feelings up in conversation; whatever it was, she didn't think it was anything worth dwelling on excessively.
In no time, she had reached the bottom level and was exiting the library, walking down the grand steps. At the bottom she stood on the sidewalk and looked up at the structure; it still amazed her as much as it did when she had lived in this city.
Money was sort of an issue with her. She figured she could spare the bits that she had and walk to the hotel she was staying at—the Four Seasons—which wasn't too much of a hike from where she was. So with a light bounce in her step, she trotted up the pathway to the intersection on the left-hoof side of the library. As she waited for the signal that it was okay to cross the street, she pulled out her MLP3 player and pressed shuffle. The lovely sound of a synthesized strings section came in, holding out a long, single note. It was soon followed by a steady rhythm of sticks and percussion, and then the low riff of a bass guitar.
I've been here before a few times...
And I'm quite aware we're dying...
The signal was given, but Twilight stood in a daze momentarily. This was one of her favorite songs and it managed to captivate her every time she heard it.
And your hooves, they shake the goodbyes...
And I'll take you back if you'd have me...
"Do you mind moving along?"
Twilight turned around to see an annoyed stallion, and finally realized she could go across. With a rubicund complexion, she uttered an apology and went on her way.
So here I am, I'm trying...
So here I am, are you ready?
Suddenly the image of Trixie popped into the pony's head. She was able to see her face, her gorgeous honeydew mane that complimented her true blue fur beautifully, as well as her stunning plum irises. Twilight was perplexed; why was she having these thoughts?
Come on,
Let me hold you, touch you, feel you
Always...
Kiss you, taste you all night
Always...
She wanted to stop listening to the song, no matter how much she loved it; but she kept it on, believing that it was simply hearing the song again in a long while that was putting her in this enigmatic state of mind. Unbeknown-st to her, however, it was more than just that.
And I miss your laugh, your smile...
I'll admit I'm wrong if you tell me...
I'm so sick of fights; I hate them...
Let's start this again for real...
Twilight switched to the next song, "Equestrian Idiot" by Green Hay. A sigh of relief released itself from the pony's mouth as the bizarre feelings went away. Once again, as she reached the steps to the entrance of her hotel, she wondered why the magician was so fascinating to her, but quickly decided to forget about it.
Perhaps I should just go up to my room and get some well deserved shut-eye Twilight thought.
The pony wasted no time walking through the front doors and trotting over to the front desk to get everything in order. She was assisted by a sunshine yellow mare with an amber yellow tail and mane and luscious green eyes.
"Hi. Princess Celestia has a deluxe suite reserved for me." Twilight informed her. She always felt a little stuck-up whenever she tells ponies that she gets the highest accommodations when in Canterlot.
"Oh, you must be Twilight Sparkle, correct?"
"Yes! How'd you know?"
"It's not often that the princess of Equestria reserves a room for somepony here," stated the mare. "And when she does, it's nopony else but you."
"Oh, heh, right." Twilight stammered, flopping her ears down in embarrassment. The employee barely acknowledged her, though, for she was looking past Twilight a bit.
"I hope you're better now, ma'am." she told the mystery pony behind Twilight. "Unfortunately, you'll have to leave the hotel now." she added penitently. "Like I said earlier, I'm truly sorry and really hope you understand."
"Oh, I understand perfectly. Thank you so much!" the other pony responded.
Twilight froze. Her eyes widened and her ears perked up. The familiarity in the voice was intense. She knew she had heard it somewhere before but wasn't able to put a hoof on it.
The front desk receptionist returned her attention to Twilight. "Anyway, here is your room key, Miss Sparkle. You are on the 21st floor, room 2112."
"...Twilight?" the pony behind her asked incredulously. With that, it hit Twilight as to who it was that was behind her. She just didn't believe it. Sure enough, though, when she slowly turned her head around to see who it was, her thoughts were proven correct.
She swallowed. "Trixie?"
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WOW! well done! that was REALLY good, a few minor errors but nothing substantial. I REALLY liked it!
keep up the good work!
Seeing that this story updated just made my night -- I cannot wait for the next chapter!
52928
Thanks for your very kind words. And I proofread/edited thoroughly, but I guess I missed some stuff. Oh well. I'll do better next time.
52974
I can't wait for the next chapter, either! Hopefully writer's block won't get in the way.
Thank you very much, though.
53013 IF there was one thing i could remove from the world, it would be writers block, im halfway through a chapter of my one story, i have been for 2 weeks, halfway through writing a song parody, can't think of anything else, don't know if this counts but im also drawing a character .gif for my friends game, and can't get the right shape, I hate these 2 simple words, writer's block.....and artists block...okay 5 words.
Also can't wait for next cliffhanger you got there.
53059
Ain't writer's block the son of a female dog?
Well be on the lookout for the next chapter, which I'll hopefully have up by the end of the week. ^_^
53084 Ain't writer's block the son of a female dog?
YES FINALLY! NONE of the kids at school get that! they only know the term as an insult, not the actual meaning.
Finally, someone else as smrt as me. (spelling error intended)
Sure enough, though, when she slowly turned her head around to see who it was, who thoughts were proven correct.
You meant her, right?
I gotta say, the pace of this story is slow, but in a good way! The fluidity between scenes, the details like Twilight making noise with her hooves or Trixie's endurance practice with rocks; and the eventual meeting of the two, all contributed to this spectacularly executed story. Sir, I am not worthy. Heck I write Twixie myself and feel ashamed and jealous when reading this! Clearly, this is on par with other Twixie stories such as The Ballad of Twilight Sparkle or Of Mares and Magic (Oh yeah, I went there). This is at least how the story has gone so far. I doubt it'll get dull or anything like that.
Please. PLEASE don't stop writing this.
I demand an immediate submission to Equestria Daily as soon as possible. Get you some readers and high ratings, man. You deserve it right now.
53091
Holy crap, man. Thank you SO much for the praise!! I'm so flattered.
I'm currently waiting for an email from EQD to see if they'll accept my story or not. If more people like this as much as you do, or even half as much as you do, then I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be accepted.
Like I said, Your accolades really mean a lot to me. Thank you VERY much.
This is Bucking amazing!
MOAR!
No but seriously this is really good.
Thank you, zomglul! I shall provide more as soon as possible.
If anypony here is willing to be an editor/proofreader for me, that would be appreciated SO much, and it'll make my life a little easier. Plus, whoever does gets to see the next chapter before anypony else does.
I can't stand the wait
I would edit for you but my comp is full of viruses, its so slow ATM.
57225
I can't stand the wait, either!
Damn, well, anypony else want to?
I love this story. Can't wait to hear more about Trixie's life story!
Once again, nice flashback with Trixie's painful past...powerful and emotional stuff right there. It's kinda weird how Twilight always usually starts out with feelings for Trixie...not that I'm complaining; I love it when I see it, since the two were made for each other. Oh, and again, nice reference to Green Day's "American Idiot"; I can tell SOMEONE'S a music lover, like myself. It's so cute when writers incorporate little town, music, book or other parodies into stories; it's nice! Ooh, a cliffhanger...Twilight and Trixie meet! I can't wait to see more!
By the way, as I do with all stories I track, I saved both chapters onto Microsoft Word and edited them as I read along, since it's what I do. After eight years of computer class and 14 years of writing, I kinda love being a grammar/spelling/punctuation/everything Nazi.
Hey I might as well, I'm a good reader so I might pick up on some grammer errors, and misspelled words.
I have a week off of work, so I can spend about an hour or more proofreading if you'd like me to.
Zomglul, that would be fantastical if you could do so. Of course, I'll need a pony who's well educated with grammar.
EP-PayPhone: First of all, who uses pay phones anymore?
Anyway, hopefully you won't have to wait too long. I'm close to being finished with the next chapter.
And Tailslover13, yes, I am a big fan of music (it's actually my main passion, with acting and writing tying for a VERY close second). Anyway, thank you for your wonderful praise.
That goes for all of you, thank you for your wonderful words! For a pony who has low self-confidence, it really makes me feel great.
It hasnt updated yet?
72125
No it has not, unfortunately.
Writer's block, man. I'm pretty sure that EqD is not going to accept my story, so I'm not stressing over the 3,000 words per chapter minimum rule, making it a bit easier. Hopefully before Christmas the next chapter will be up for you to all enjoy.
TY TnT pairing is the one I love the best.
I like your relaxed pacing:Romance never needs to be rushed.
The backstory snippets are nice too :)
I'd love for you to publish another chapter when it's ready (but no pressure)
wow!! it was really good!!
can't wait to see another episodes.
Thanks to both of you guys for the kind words!
Hopefully before 2012 comes around, I'll have the next chapter completed.