//------------------------------// // Because Of You, I'm Covered In Parasites // Story: J Is For Genius // by SoundOfImpact //------------------------------// Because Of You, I'm Covered In Parasites And thus deserving the scolding of a lifetime. "AIEE!" It was a screech heard all across town. It was a screech coming from a particular tower, from a particular purple alicorn. A purple alicorn who just so happened to have just been coated head to hoof in a mess of leeches, fleas, ticks, really a whole manner of various nasties. Enough of them that they were audible, and it was a very unpleasant sound indeed. A daphne blue unicorn was very gingerly trying to slink away from the situation, pretending to have not seen anything. Unfortunately for her though, she didn't quite manage to slip away unnoticed. "TRIXIE!" The alicorn growled, not daring to open her mouth fully lest anything crawl in. "Yes, Twilight?" She answered as sweetly as possible. "What. Did. You. DO?!" "Oh, not much, I only changed one part of the input matrix to make the output faster." Trixie explained, not quite meeting Twilight's gaze. "Honestly, it was such a minor change that anything went wrong then it must've been your fault." "My fault? MY FAULT?!" The alicorn seethed. "Trixie, transmutation spells are highly unstable, changing any part of them changes the whole thing- OH GODS THEY'RE IN MY NOSE!" Twilight disappeared with a flash of light, popping back into existence in the bathroom, if the sound of spluttering and the shower starting was anything to go by. Trixie stood by awkwardly, watching the few pests that hadn't managed to latch onto Twilight wriggle around on the floor. She scrunched her nose and burned them away with a gentle fire spell. She could hear the sound of her mentor gagging through the walls, punctuated by little squeaks and squeals. "So, uh, let's try again?" Trixie called out. "Second time lucky, right?" "We are going to have WORDS, Trixie!" Her mentor shouted back. "Just as soon as I- UGH!" Twilight didn't carry on, so Trixie concluded that that was the end of the conversation. Trixie didn't really want to know what was happening in the shower, so she decided that she'd call it a night early and try and catch up on some reading. With one last glance at the bathroom door, she shrugged and trotted down the tower stairs until she reached her room, lighting the candles inside with her magic. She flopped down on her bed, and picked up the copy of Forget The Minions: A Guide To Strong Leadership she'd left on her nightstand. It was a dry read, but it was something to do, at least. Being a travelling mare, Trixie had never really had the luxury of having free time until Twilight had taken her on as a student. It had been a couple of years since she'd rolled into Ponyville, and having spent that time under Twilight's watch there was no doubt that she had become a better mage, Trixie just wished that Twilight would just focus on the actual magic stuff and forget about the arcane history and theory lessons. Those were boring. Trixie sighed and glanced out the window, the crescent moon dimly lighting the streets below. Ponyville was a quaint, well defended town. It had to be well defended because it was surrounded on all sides by the Everfree forest, which stretched on for miles in every direction, and made the journey into town really rather perilous. Trixie always thought it was a dumb place to build a town. She slowly worked her way through the book, killing time until she started feeling sleepy. She could still hear sounds coming from the bathroom above. Grunting and yelping, running water, odd buzzes and crashes. It was rather annoying, Trixie hoped it wouldn't carry on much longer, it was getting later after all. Trixie hummed in thought. Realistically, she couldn't understand why Twilight was so mad. Yes, the spell went wrong, but it was really her own fault for not telling Trixie not to change it. If she hadn't wanted to be covered in bugs, all she had to do was tell Trixie not to alter the spell, it really was that simple. Trixie would have to ask her for an apology in the morning. Closing the book and placing it back on her nightstand having made little progress, Trixie stared at the ceiling. She was beginning to feel a little stifled by her situation. It was nice having a room and a bed and a tutor, but she felt like Twilight's teaching style left her with very little room for experimentation or improvisation, something that as a performer, Trixie relished. Twilight's teaching was very by the book. Trixie was looking forward to being able to take what she'd learned and run rampant with it. Interesting things always happened when you mangled spells. Perhaps it was time Trixie put on another show, she thought. It'd be a good excuse to try all the new things she'd learned, and it had been a while since she'd last performed. And stars above the town could use some entertainment. She'd have to start planning tomorrow. She drew the curtains with her magic and snuffed out the candles with a summoned breeze, which also managed to fling loose bits of parchment everywhere. Trixie would pick them up in the morning. She pulled the bed sheets over herself and curled up, hugging the pillow for comfort. She did her best to ignore the banging around coming from upstairs, which had quieted down a bit, but hadn't stopped. Thankfully, Trixie was quite the heavy sleeper. Trixie drifted off pretty quickly. Hopefully in the morning things would be right back in track. With a yawn, Trixie stirred from her slumber. Stretching her forelegs out, she sat up in her bed, blinking a couple of times. Light streamed in from under the curtains, it must have been late morning already. Trixie didn't usually get to sleep in like this, Twilight normally woke her up around six. Not that Trixie was complaining, who didn't like a lie in? It was just odd. Lighting her horn up, she opened the curtains and threw the covers off the bed, sliding off the mattress and onto her hooves, ready and eager for breakfast. She trotted out of her room and up the stairs to the living area of the tower. If it was as late as she thought it was, she'd usually have already started lessons by now, so she was expecting to see Twilight up and about. As predicted, she could hear hooves clopping on the wooden floor, all but confirming Twilight was already there. Trixie crested the top of the stairs, and kicked the door to the floor open. "Good morning, Twi- PAHAHAHAHA!" Stood in the middle of the floor was a very irate looking, very hairless alicorn. Very hairless. No fur, no feathers, no mane or tail. She looked like a freshly plucked chicken. "Something funny, Trixie?" Twilight scowled. "Pfft, nothing at all, Twilight." Trixie snickered. "It's a bald look for you! Very experimental, but don't you think you'll get cold?" Twilight didn't reply, she just continued to frown at Trixie. Trixie just trotted to the kitchen area, sliced some bread, and put it in the toaster. "What's with the new look, anyway?" Trixie asked. "Early midlife crisis?" The toast popped up, Twilight vaporised it before Trixie had a chance to take the slices. "Hey!" Trixie protested. "The 'new look' is because you covered me in parasites!" Twilight shouted. "Do you have any idea how long it took to remove them all?" "I-" "SIX. HOURS!" Twilight exploded, closing the distance between herself and the unicorn. "Six entire hours, pulling and scraping and washing and shaving! Do you know what it feels like to pull a leech off of your ear? It hurts. A lot." "That's-" "I had to spend the whole night making sure I hadn't been infected by any bloodborne diseases. I still haven't finished the last potion yet! I can only HOPE that nothing got into my bloodstream." Twilight continued, now nose-to-nose with Trixie. "Are-" "You know what happens when you get covered in that many little bugs, Trixie? They get everywhere. Everywhere. I had to flush out everything, over and over again." "Ew." "And to top it all off, I can't even tell you what you did wrong, because you changed the spell without telling me, and without working out what you were doing! I don't know why the spell did what it did because I don't know what you changed, so we can't even learn from the mistake!" "Well-" "What were you thinking, Trixie? I thought we'd been through this before, and you just go and do it all over again! Why? What do you have to say for yourself?" Twilight gave the unicorn a hard stare. It was especially unnerving, what with the lack of eyebrows and everything else. "Uh... oops?" Trixie offered. Twilight did not look impressed, and continued to stare a hole into the unicorn. "That's it?" Twilight pressed. "Well, to be fair, it's not all Trixie's fault." Trixie explained. "If you had simply told Trixie not to change the spell before we started, none of this would've happened." "I shouldn't have to tell you not to change the spells!" Twilight cried. "Magic is a precision art, you can't just freewheel casting as you please! I told you as much last time!" "And I told you last time that Trixie can not be constrained by conventional arcane measures! rules are made to be broken!" "Arcane laws are not your plaything, Trixie! What if instead of covering me in bugs, you cause an explosion? Somepony could get seriously hurt, or worse!" Twilight protested. "Well, what if instead of covering you in bugs I cured the common cold? Trixie does what she does for a reason!" Trixie retorted, crossing her forelegs. "We've been over this before, you don't have enough of a grasp of arcane theory to be playing around with spell matrices like that! It's just not safe, not until you can theorise what the output will be!" The alicorn countered. "Innovation is fine, but not at the potential cost of lives!" "Pah, 'theory'. Theory is the fastest way to kill creativity." Trixie scoffed. "You can't expect me to allow myself to be stifled!" "Enough!" Twilight shouted. A proper shout, loud enough that it cause the glass in the window panes to rattle. It certainly shut Trixie up. "I thought we'd worked past this, but clearly I was wrong." Twilight shook her head and turned around, slowly pacing in a large circle around the kitchen. She frowned, deep in thought. Trixie on the other hoof made use of the lull in conversation to make herself some replacement toast. Trixie watched Twilight as she walked, nuder than nude. It was a strange sight to behold. The toast popped up, and survived un-vaporised this time. Trixie liberally spread a coating of peanut butter over the top, and was just about to bite in when Twilight stopped in front of her. "Trixie." Twilight sighed. "I didn't want to do this, but I don't think I have a choice." "Go on." Trixie said, eyes darting between her breakfast and the alicorn. "Trixie Lulamoon, because of your flagrantly dangerous approach towards arcane sciences, I can't in good conscience allow you to continue to practice magic under my tutelage, or in my town." "Wait, WHAT?!" Trixie cried. "Your unthinking attitude poses a genuine risk to both me and the community. As your mentor, and as the high mage of Ponyville, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave both my tower and my town until such time that you can prove that you're ready to continue your studies. I hope that you'll take this time to reflect and do better." "You're kicking me out?!" The unicorn yelped, toast dropping to the floor. "That's correct." Twilight replied. "I don't know where you plan to go or what you plan to do, but I'd suggest you'd get packed up and ready. You have until sundown." "N-now now, let's not be so hasty!" Trixie insisted. "Oh, I don't think I'm being hasty, I had plenty of time to think about it last night while I was removing insects from my body." Twilight said angrily, fleshy wings flared. She breathed out and tucked her wings back by her sides before continuing. "I had hoped that you might have time to think too, I hoped that you might have learned your lesson and that we could have talked about it, but it's clear that you've not learned anything. Honestly it makes me wonder if you've really paid attention to anything I've taught you." "Of course I've paid attention! Trixie's the most attention paying pony around!" "Then why don't you act like it?" Twilight asked, sighing. "I don't want to do this Trixie, but I don't think you've left me with any other options. Just please, do better. I'll happily take you back in when you've made progress, but I can't have you here now, it's not safe for anypony." "Trixie is perfectly safe! You don't have to do this!" Trixie pleaded. "Prove to me that you're safe, Trixie. Spend some time away from here, and prove you're safe when you come back. We can carry on just like normal, but I need to know you've changed." Twilight pulled the door to the stairs open with her magic, pausing in the threshold. "You should get everything you'll need ready. I meant it when I said you had until sundown." With that, Twilight trotted down the stairs, hoof falls growing quieter as she descended through the tower. Trixie stared at the open door frame, mind blank. She gazed down at her fallen breakfast on the floor, and then back to the door frame. "Buck." Trixie grunted as she pulled her cart through the town gates. It had been a couple of years since she'd needed to pull her cart anywhere, and she had a lot more stuff stored in it than the last time she'd used it. It was safe to say it felt very heavy on her back. The cart rattled and groaned, wood no doubt protesting from disuse. Town guards watched on as she trudged her way outside the walls, of course none offered to help. As soon as she was on the other side of the border, the gates slammed closed behind her, leaving her alone on the dirt path out of town. The dirt path through the Everfree forest. The undefended, wide open path through the dangerious, untamed Everfree forest. Trixie gulped. It had taken her most of the day to get her cart packed up and ready to go, meaning she was only able to leave the tower just a smidge before sundown. Because of that, it was starting to get dark. Luckily, Trixie had the foresight to bring a lantern, so she wouldn't be totally blind, no. She'd be alone in the dark in the untamed wilds, but at least she'd be able to see where she was going. Trixie unhitched herself and went to set the lantern up. The inside of the cart was pretty cramped up with all the assorted crap she'd amassed during her time with Twilight, but she'd had the foresight to leave the lantern by the door so it was easy to find. She opened the valve, and called upon her magic to light the wick, generating a small, bright orange flame. Closing the door, she came back around the front of the cart, and floated the lantern up onto a pole protruding from the roof, allowing it to light up the area in front of her a bit better. Well, now she could see, but where exactly was she going to go? The forest stretched on for miles in all directions, and getting off trail would be a surefire way to get lost. She probably shouldn't venture too far before daylight. Trixie sighed and set off down the path, into the thick foliage. The sound of bugs chirping and leaves rustling filled the air, accompanied by the wind blowing through branches. It made for quite an eerie atmosphere. Trixie kept her ears perked up for any of the more fearsome creatures that called the forest home. They usually didn't get too close to the town walls, but she figured it was better to be safe than sorry, at least when it came to wild animal attacks. It seemed to be getting darker by the second. Glancing up, she could see through the canopy that clouds had started to build up overhead. Still, Trixie carried on. She decided that she might as well find somewhere suitable to settle down for the night, the sooner the better. She couldn't just set up camp on the path, that was practically asking to be robbed, or at the very least it was a quick way to get woken up by an angry pony whose path you'd blocked. It'd be best to look for a clearing somewhere, something out of the way, that way she could set up a campfire too. She kept an eye out for anywhere along the trail where the foliage thinned out. Fortunately, she didn't have to look for too long, as a large gap in the undergrowth came up on the left side of the path, under a particularly large tree. The ground was lumpy and soft, making it hard to pull the cart across, but she still managed to get there easy enough. She pulled around the back of the tree to make sure the cart was mostly out of sight from the path, before unhitching herself and stretching out, relaxing her muscles after the most strenuous physical workout she'd had in ages. How did she ever manage to do this all day, every day? It was going to be a pain getting used to this again. A stiff breeze blew across her withers, causing her to shiver. With only her cloak and hat to keep her warm, Trixie decided that the first thing to do was to build a camp fire. Being under a tree meant that twigs and sticks weren't hard to find, and she'd soon piled a neat stack of firewood near her cart. With a wave of her horn, the fire was lit, and she was already feeling warmer. She'd want to cook some dinner soon, she'd managed to cram as much food as she could into her cart before leaving, but for the moment she was content to just sit by the fire and think out her next move. "Trix? That you?" A voice called out from above. Trixie recognised the voice. "Down here, Dash." She replied. A blue pegsus mare swooped down, dressed in the brown and tan light armour of a Ponyville scout guard, and carrying a long pike. Rainbow Dash, a friend Trixie had made when she first arrived in Ponyville, the only pony in town who shared her competitive streak that wasn't a total bore. "What're ya doing out here? Leaving town or something?" Rainbow asked, settling down next to Trixie by the fire. "You know the forest is dangerous after dark, right?" "Trixie is not leaving town." She said defiantly. "Trixie has merely been... temporarily evicted by Twilight." "Wait, for real?!" Rainbow asked, Trixie nodded. "Geez, that's harsh, you really must've pissed her off!" "You, uh, you could say that." Trixie grimaced. "Well, what are you gonna do now?" Rainbow pressed. "You're not just leaving, are you?" "I don't know, Dash." The unicorn sighed. "Twilight said she'd let me back in if I could prove myself, but I don't really know what to do." "Well, duh, you figure out a way to prove yourself!" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "It can't be too hard, you're like the 5th or 6th smartest pony I know!" "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Trixie said flatly. "I'm just saying, there's bound to be something you can do to prove her wrong!" Rainbow encouraged. "You'll think of something." Then it clicked. 'Prove her wrong'. That was it, Trixie could get back into town much faster if she could prove Twilight was wrong about her! Of course, that would be the only option, because Trixie had done nothing wrong in the first place. It was so obvious! "You might be onto something there, Dash." Trixie thought aloud. "Of course I am, I'm Rainbow Dash!" She boasted. Trixie got thinking. If she could think of something she could do to prove herself to Twilight, if Trixie could do something her own way and have Twilight accept Trixie's way of doing magic, then everything could go back to normal way faster! But what? "Well, I gotta get back to town, rain's about to start. I know you'll come up with something, though. See ya around!" Rainbow picked up her pike and with a swift flap of her wings was up and away. "Wait, what was that about rain?" Trixie called after her. Right on cue, there was a clap of thunder and a single raindrop landed on Trixie's snout. It was quickly followed by a deluge, putting the campfire out and soaking Trixie to the bone even though she was under the tree, because of course it did. Trixie trudged back to her cart, flinging the door open and cramming herself inside, amongst all her junk. She hung up her dripping wet cloak and hat on the door and sat herself down in her hammock. The rain pattered down the the roof of her cart, which she hoped was still waterproofed. She used an illumination spell to light up the inside, since she'd left the lantern outside and really didn't feel like going back out to get it. Most of the space inside the cart had been taken up by a variety of spell books and potion making equipment she'd acquired from Twilight, meaning she had to awkwardly shuffle around to get to anything. One of those books probably had something she could use. If Trixie could perform a top level spell her own way and have it all go right, then Twilight would have to see that there was nothing wrong with Trixie's way of doing things, right? There had to be something impressive she could do that'd make Twilight see the error of her ways, Trixie just needed to figure out what. The rumbling of her stomach made her remember she hadn't had anything to eat. With the campfire out, it looked like it was going to be a cold can of beans for dinner. Just like old times. Trixie was by no means a stranger to life on the road, but after living in Twilight's tower for as long as she had, it was a jarring change. Still, at least it was better than eating pine cones.