//------------------------------// // Picnic of fools // Story: There's Magic in the Air // by Clopficsinthecomments //------------------------------// Trixie - Day 3 “Well then, what if I instead of a flower… I gave you a whole bouquet?” Trixie flicked her wrist, letting the spring-loaded stems shoot from her fake sleeve before she plucked them free and handed them to the young fan, bouncing in front of her after having just received her autograph. “F-for me!?” The young colt’s eyes glistened as he took the flowers to his chest and hugged them. “Thanks!” “Anything for such a handsome young stallion!” Trixie smiled. The colt’s father nodded at her. “Thank you kindly, ma’am.” He wrapped a hoof around the colt’s shoulders. “This will really cheer him up.” “Of course! Just… make sure he doesn’t eat them — I’m not sure if the factory that makes them is concerned about culinary quality.” Trixie grinned. “Eat them!?” The colt squeaked as he danced on his hooftips. “I’d never! These are going up on my wall, forever!” He trotted away with his father, both of them chatting about the show happily. Trixie smiled as they departed, happy to have gotten through the last of her Manehattan shows without incident. She loved the city, and especially her audience members, but the ponies here always seemed to be a rallying cry away from forming a mob. It had been the same in Ponyville, of course, but her long-term residence in the provincial village had helped to spread a more positive view of her personality — nearly all had learned of her changed ways and forgiven her… unlike in the big city. “That was very nice of you.” A familiar voice spoke from behind her. “I guess that’s why you have so many returning fans every year…” Trixie turned and noticed the light grey pegasus with ruddy red hair, sipping a coffee with a soft smile as he watched from a nearby bench. “You!” Trixie’s ears perked up; her eyes opened in pleasant surprise at seeing the stallion from the previous night once again. But her reaction didn’t have the desired effect — the pegasus flinched slightly, eyes darting guiltily from side to side. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you again, I just happened to be walking through the park and —" “No, no!” Trixie coughed out. “You’re not bothering me at all! I’m, uh, happy to see you.” “I was just thinking that I had been so rude the other night—" “No, I was rude — it had been a long day, and I snapped off at you—" “Then I just ran right out of there, after knocking on your door—" “I was wondering if… “If it’s OK with you… “Want to get a coffee?” Both ponies said at the same time, after fumbling over their words. The air was thick with tension, two pairs of eyes staring at one another for a few moments… before breaking down in chuckles. “Aren’t I supposed to say ‘jinx’ now?” Trixie grinned. “Then you can’t say anything until another pony says your name.” “I think so.” The stallion laughed back. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind having the ability to put my hoof in my mouth taken away from me.” He reached his hoof out to her to help her up from the impromptu autograph table she’d been sitting behind. She considered the hoof for a moment — considering… gracious, a bit old fashioned, but charming. It would do. She took his hoof in hers and let him help her up. A small part of her mind clicked — how long had it been since she’d had another stallion make physical contact with her, with any kind of romantic intent, in the past months… years? She realized just how starved for affection she truly was. “Well, we can’t have that now, can we Mr. Jot?” Trixie smiled back, nodding to make sure he would understand that he was no longer jinxed. “Oh, just Jot!” “Well, Jot, please continue to address me as the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie turned her nose up slightly, the r’s rolling off her tongue with well-practiced flourishes. She watched with amusement as Jot’s eyes widened in surprise. “R-really?” “No, of course not… I’m joking.” Trixie giggled, bumping her hip against his. Gods, it was fun to be flirting with a stallion again! Why had she chased him off the previous night, anyway? “So, where’s a good cup of coffee to be found around here?” The two trotted along toward the center of the park, making small-talk. The stallion seemed content to stay on incredibly boring, safe subjects. The weather, the city and how it had changed over the past year... throwaway questions about her travels and what she had eaten the night before. Trixie was no master socialite like Rarity, but even she could tell that this stallion was beating around the bush. Not that she was doing much better. She’d always been awful at this part of the elaborate dance of socializing with the opposite sex. She’d learned long ago that her usual manner with mares — boasting, self-aggrandizing, haughty… tended to not work out so well with stallions. In a society where mares outnumbered stallions three to one, they could simply pick somepony else. Still — bits of her ‘self-confidence’ managed to leak out in their idle chat. She couldn’t help it if she was amazing! “...they’ve actually cleaned up the park a lot — no more crazed wildlife, like timberwolves or raccoons… there was even a rumor about an ursa minor running amok for a while!” Jot motioned around him at the beautiful expanse of trees. “You know, Trixie once assisted the princess of magic herself, Twilight Sparkle, in subduing a wild ursa minor.” Trixie hummed with self-satisfaction, holding her chin up. Internally though, she was roiling. ‘Why did you have to say that? It’s not even true!’ But she couldn’t help it — this stallion only knew her from her stage shows! And if she wasn’t great and powerful… what was she? “Wow!” Jot exclaimed. “I bet the kids in town must have been going nuts after that!” Trixie smiled, happy that her little boast hadn’t been ill-received. “W-well… not really… actually two colts were pretty big fans.” Trixie grinned, remembering the two young teenagers. “You’re so good with foals — how do you manage?” Jot asked, as he casually used a wing to swat away a branch that hung over the park path. “Oh well…” Trixie sighed, trying not to think about how she had treated those two colts only a few moons later. “Foals just have so much love in their hearts — you don’t need to blow them away with impossible stories or feats of great power… you just need to give them a little bit of encouragement, and they love you! You can be their hero so easily.” Trixie sighed, kicking the ground with a hoof. “Unlike with grown-ups, to have respect you need to be so much more… to be a hero… it’s pretty much impossible.” The soft-spoken words slipped out of her mouth with a touch of sadness. “Unless you’re a princess…” “It’s hard to be great and powerful, huh?” Jot grinned at her. The remark brought her back to reality; she’d just made herself seem weak, vulnerable. How very un-mare-like! She quickly straightened her shoulders and flipped her hair back. “Hah! Not really! Not when you’re Trixie!” She added a haughty chuckle to the mix. “It just comes naturally!” “Uh...huh…” Jot seemed a bit off-put by her statement. Perhaps she needed to crank up her self-confidence even further? “I just wonder why ponies far and wide don’t fall down at Trixie’s hooves, recognizing her as the most powerful magician in Equestria!” She tapped her forehoof to her chest before gesturing outwards, “It’s not like Trixie didn’t single-hoofedly save everypony from the return of Chrysalis!” Jot cocked his head slightly. “Um… didn’t Starlight, King Thorax, and that chaos dude help out too?” Trixie stumbled slightly, clearing her throat with a cough as Jot went on... “You don’t need to pump up the amazing stuff you’ve done to me — you know you’re not on stage, right? You don’t have to put on an act if you don—" “Well hey there, feather-butt!” A mare chirped from nearby, standing up from the small picnic blanket that she and her two friends had spread across the small grassy clearing to the side of the park path. Trixie could see that strewn about the small sheet were numerous bottles of cider — clearly, this young mare and her friends were well into their cups on this lovely summer afternoon. Trixie looked from the pastel-pink unicorn to Jot with wariness, unsure if the reporter knew this mare. “Do I… uh… know you?” Jot asked, cocking his head. “Not yet, stud.” The unicorn tottered slightly, swishing her tail and wiggling her eyebrows. “But you will… Why don’t you ditch the old bag and come hang out with me and my sorority sisters? Down a few ciders, head back to our place, and let me rock your world?” “Excuse me?” Jot looked more confused than insulted, but his wings were already shuffling, his back stiffening with alarm. “Petunia!” One of the other unicorns stood up from the picnic. “Leave ‘im alone. You’re smashed.” She trotted down to the path as well. “Sorry about my friend, she’s from a rather sheltered Baltimare family — she has some more… traditional views on stallions.” That was an understatement. Trixie scoffed aloud. It was like something out of an old comic book — the out of touch sorority jock aggressively hitting on a stallion. All that was missing to make it complete was some misandrist statement about how he should know his place... “Awww… buck off, Tulip. No mare will say it anymore, but everypony knows a fine piece of stallion like that..” She looked over Jot, licking her lips like a wolf, “Belongs in the bedroom, making babies, taking care of a mare’s needs.” She took an awkward stumbling step closer to the pegasus. “C’mon baby, why don’t you make me the luckiest mare in the Pie-Cupcake-Cupcake Sorority house tonight.” “Pfft…” Trixie laughed, shaking her head at the soused lout. The mare quickly craned her head to look at Trixie with a fierce growl. “What the buck are you laughing at?” “You. You’re like a bad caricature of a Saturday morning cartoon villain.” Trixie clicked her tongue. “Pathetic.” The last mare of the trio stood up from the picnic blanket, a sturdy looking unicorn who seemed to be half a drink short of losing consciousness. “Wha the feck is all this racquet…?” She staggered forward, taking position next to her other two friends, violence flashing in her eyes. “Is she givin’ you trouble Petunia?” “What did you just say to me you ugly bitch?” Petunia prodded Trixie right in her chest, the sharp edge of her hoof tip digging into her painfully. “Why don’t you just fuck off?” Trixie growled slightly, hackles rising. “Why don’t you try to make me?” Tulip, the one mare who had seemed to have any semblance of sanity, quickly took station next on the other side of her inebriated friends, a scowl setting across her face. “Hey lady, you should just butt out and get out of here before you get hurt.” “Nah, fuck that.” Petunia smiled, glancing over Trixie’s shoulder. Trixie’s eyes started to move that way, wondering what the drunken lout was looking at… before realizing too late that it was a textbook distraction to set up a vicious sucker punch. “I wanna hurt her!” Trixie only saw the blur of the unicorn’s forehoof as it flashed through the air. Instinctively, her nose began to scrunch up, already anticipating the stinging strike that she was sure would land flush against her face, with the full drunken force of the ne'er-do-well's body weight. But another grey blur intercepted her vision, as Jot slid into the punch, letting the strike deflect off his forearm. The look on Petunia’s face was one of shocked surprise as the stallion stepped into the force of her punch, positioning his body under hers. For a moment it looked as though he was about to flip the stunned mare ass over teakettle, pivoting her around and slamming her down with all the force she’d tried to punch with... which Trixie thought would have been a fitting and justified punishment… but he shifted instead, using an ingenious slip of his wing to trip her and bring her to the ground, pinning her under his weight. “Calm the buck down!” Jot snarled, pressing hard into the unicorn’s shoulder joint. “Would you look at that, Tulip?” Petunia grunted from the ground, “stallion’s got a little fight in him — cute…” “Let her up, asshole!” The unnamed third unicorn snarled. “I will... once everypony just calms down!” Jot coughed. “You two better take a couple steps back, or I’ll pop your friend’s shoulder out! I know how! I wrestle at the Y every Friday!” Trixie could see Jot wasn’t lying — he was big for a pegasus, not sleek and lithe like many city-stallions tended to be. If anything he looked as strong as one of the earth ponies that worked in Ponyville’s many farms. His powerful muscles flexed, easily overpowering the drunken mare and keeping her pinned in the dirt despite her efforts to get up. “Lemme up!” Trixie blinked as she watched her new friend pin the smaller mare with his strength. On the one hoof, she was impressed and grateful that he’d helped her to avoid taking a solid blow directly to her face. On the other hoof, he looked… scared, unsure of what to do. He looked like he needed help. She wasn’t sure why that surprised her: perhaps she had been in too many altercations if this sort of scenario wasn’t evoking the same feelings in her, but her life on the road and her adventures with Starlight had given her valuable experience. “Ain’t that cute, he knows how to wrestle — owch!” Petunia grunted her snout pressed into the earth as Jot added a bit of extra leverage. “So fuckin’ what.” The surly unicorn growled, “I know magic.” Her horn lit with a sparking yellow glow, quickly encapsulating the pegasus in her magical field and lifting him away from her friend. Jot’s legs thrashed helplessly in the air. All those muscles did him no good now, his wings panickedly flapping and thrashing at the air, desperately trying to escape the magical field. Petunia’s magic added to the levitation field, smoothly spinning Jot upside-down. The stallion vainly swam against the field, trying to hide the more private parts of his body from view as the unicorn mares easily pulled his limbs away, exposing all to see him. “That’s enough!” Trixie growled, charging her horn. “Put him down now, or else.” “Or else what?” Petunia laughed, now all the way back up on her hooves. “Why don’t you get the buck out of here?” Trixie grinned to herself. Of course, it would have been better if these three mares had just put her brave, if somewhat foolhardy, companion down. But with just how annoying and obnoxious these young college mares had been, Trixie had been hoping that they would continue to push the envelope… and give her more than enough reason to unleash her abilities. The law would already be clearly on her side: Equestria, in general, frowned very heavily on using magic against non-magic users — besides being quite unsporting, it could be dangerous for a skilled unicorn to lash out against an earth-pony or pegasus who had little to no magical defense. But Trixie was no pegasus or earth-pony. She was a unicorn. A unicorn with experience. A quick teleport of one of her smoke bombs from her saddle bags into Petunia’s still open muzzle was an unexpected and clever way for her to start the row. So many novices expected the first blows in a magical confrontation to be bolts of energy or a battle of contested telekinetic force. Trixie had learned from many practice duels with her friend Starlight that if you were outmatched in terms of raw magical talent or power — there was still a whole world of sneaky and effective tricks that could bring the fight to a conclusion in your favor. Not that Trixie was admitting that Starlight was more powerful than her… it was just… Starlight had a better warm-up routine… yes, that was it. Trixie needed her tricks to stand a chance, but once she learned how to warm-up properly, she’d easily overpower her friend. Speaking of tricks, the smoke bomb went off in Petunia’s mouth, sending the mare’s eyes wide with fright as a small explosive singed her mouth and sent choking, acrid smoke down her lungs. She fell backward onto the grass, rolling back and forth, hacking and heaving as she gasped for air — entirely out of the fight. “W-what the f—" her surly friend started to turn toward Trixie. But she was too slow. Maintaining the magical field on Jot meant that her casting time would be way too delayed to set up any magical trickery defense against Trixie. A quick flick of her horn and the spell blast caught the mare square in her side. “Wh-what did you do to me… I don’t… feel so gooo…. *BLEGHHH* The next thing to come out of the mare’s muzzle was a set of novelty, spring-loaded, pop-can snakes. Vomiting and coughing out the bizarre objects for another few moments, she desperately covered her mouth… whereupon she noticed the corner of a handkerchief sticking out of her left nostril. With her avenues for getting oxygen rapidly diminishing, she grasped the edge and pulled, hoping to clear the obstruction. Of course, a whole line of handkerchiefs, tied corner to corner began to come out of her nose; the classic gag-novelty trick now used to stun and panic a foe. As she continued to pull, the mare’s eyes flashed to one side: streamers were now pouring from her ears! “What did you do to my friend!?” Tulip shouted, her horn alighting as she tried to diagnose what was wrong with the panicking, once-macho mare. “Oh, I’ve just made it so her body has become a party-favor dispensary… nothing too fancy — her orifices will just be expelling some fun for you three for the next hour or so.” Trixie giggle-growled at the last pony of the trio that stood any chance of engaging her. “Her… orifices?” Tulip asked, her confused face turning from Trixie to look at her friend. The mare’s stunned face, handkerchief line coming out of her nose, streamers pouring from her ears, hoof covering her mouth, paused, eyes flaring even wider in momentary shock. “EEEP!” *Ppppptttt!* A small ‘poot’ of sound came from her rear, accompanied by a light shower of colorful confetti that sprayed out and showered down over the still writhing Petunia, falling like ridiculous candy-colored snow. It was all too much for her, and her eyes rolled back in her head, as she slumped backward, totally passed out. “Ha!” Trixie let out a single chuckle, then proceeded to imbue the handkerchiefs with a snaking, coiling spell… not too dissimilar to one she’d used years ago to bind Applejack when the farm-pony had tried to interrupt her first Ponyville show… and quickly bound the hooves of the two incapacitated mares. “Amateurs!” Trixie turned to face the last remaining mare. Doing her best to project as much menace and confidence as she could. She’d always found that half the battle was a good, menacingly evil attitude. “Care to try your luck?” “You’re crazy!” Tulip stumbled backward, her horn flaring up as she prepared to deflect any spell from hitting her. “J-just leave me and my friends alone!” Trixie snorted derisively, flicking her hair back. “Just take them and get out of here.” Tulip struggled with the ensnaring handkerchiefs for a moment, never turning her back on Trixie, until giving up and simply picking her two friends up in her magic and levitating them back toward the picnic spot they’d just vacated moments before. “I… I’m gonna tell the cops about this!” Tulip whined, still retreating without showing her back to the magical pony. “Y-you’re a menace!” Trixie heard a grumbling voice from the ground beside her, where Jot had landed in an ungainly heap after the magical field holding him aloft had turned off. Jot had found his voice and bellowed furiously, “Tell them what? That you were drunk and disorderly in public? Besides you don’t even know who—" “Remember this the next time you try to face the Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon!” Trixie proclaimed theatrically, throwing her hoof out in the air with pride. “Trixie!” Jot groaned. “What?” Trixie looked down at him. It almost looked like he was disappointed… hadn’t she just rescued him? “Nothing… just… I think I see now why you catch so much bad press.” Jot got back to his hooves, using a wing to brush off the dirt that he’d gotten on his legs. “What do you mean?” Trixie asked, using some of her magic to help and sweeping a kinetic field down the right side of Jot’s flank, brushing away some of the leaves and twigs that had snagged in his fur. It wasn’t until she’d already rubbed against his flank that she realized just how intimate that contact could be construed. She quickly snapped the magic off her horn and tried to suppress the growing blush on her face. Jot seemed to be blushing too. “Nothing… I’m just glad I can refute whatever bogus story those mares dream up… if they even do go to the cops, that is.” “Thanks.” Trixie nodded. “These things never seem to turn out in my favor.” “Of course!” Jot smiled. “You really saved my butt back there. I guess pegasi really don’t stand a chance against unicorns, huh.” Jot sagged a little bit. “Really sucks to feel so helpless, despite being bigger, faster… it’s all useless against magic.” Trixie shook her head vigorously. For some reason she hated seeing Jot feeling down — she much preferred when he was upbeat and chatty… and ready to laud her praises, of course. “No! Not at all… I know some earth-pony and pegasus mares in Ponyville who could take down even the strongest unicorn mages!” “I guess…” Jot’s shoulders still slumped, and he gazed wistfully at the retreating trio of lugubrious mares. Trixie saw that her words had little effect on him, so she slid in beside him and gave him a little hip-check, hoping to jolt him out of his funk. She wanted him to be happy; he should happy… he was in her presence, after all. “Seriously! I could show you a few tricks to make those three a cake-walk! You’ve definitely got the physique and the size to do it!” Trixie pointed at Jot’s strong limbs, her eyes sliding over his powerful back muscles… and his flank. “Y-yeah?” Jot asked. It was apparent to Trixie that he’d noticed where her gaze had been lingering… she quickly coughed to clear her throat and looked back at him. “Sure! It’s just a matter of technique!” “W-well…” Jot rubbed the back of his head. A small grin finally started to appear on his face — Trixie was surprised by how much it warmed her mood… obviously it was just a case of wanting to make sure a fan was happy! “I guess if you don’t mind… I can’t always depend on you being around to save my flank.” Trixie shook her head with a smile. “And it is a flank worth protecting.” Even as the words slipped out of her mouth, Trixie felt her brain catch up to her. ‘What did you just say out loud, you bucking idiot?’ She resisted the overwhelming impulse to slap her face with her hoof, instead opting to smile like an idiot. “Uh… thanks? Y-you too…” Trixie watched as Jot blushed as he failed to resist what was likely a similar urge, slapping his face with his hoof. Trixie giggled, throwing her mane back and glancing back at herself. “It is a nice flank, it does belong to the great and powerful Trixie, after all.” She threw up her chin with pride. This got a more wholesome laugh out of Jot, who shook his head cheerfully. “How about we exchange that coffee for a drink instead? I could use one after this little sideshow.” Trixie glanced out of the corner of her eye, head still held high with pride. Her mouth cracked into a full smile. “Trixie will allow this.” Both ponies laughed again as they made their way further down the trail.