//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - A Star Is Born // Story: Bug In The City // by PointlessGizmo //------------------------------// Trixie, for possibly the first time in her life, was at a loss for words as she looked into her friend's grassy-green segmented eyes. Tears flowed down his chitin-coated cheeks, leaving powdery, whitish streaks of salt as they dried. Trixie again placed a hoof around Leech, pulling him in closer to her. This time, Leech offered no resistance, instead burying his face in Trixie's fur and sniveling. "I tried, Leech. I did try to help you, really I did." said Trixie in the most soothing voice she could muster. "It's just that..." "Trixzzie tried at firzzt," conceded Leech, "but then... but then Trixzzie juzzt givezz up and zzsendzz Leech away!" With this, Leech burst into another round of bawling, muted somewhat by the fact his face was still pressed firmly against Trixie's shoulder. Trixie could only rub Leech's exoskeleton comfortingly as her friend let his emotions flow through his eyes and into her own coat, creating an unpleasant-feeling damp patch. She didn't care, not at the moment. She had wronged her friend deeply, she knew this, and she was determined to set things right. Making a snap decision, she released a heavy sigh as she swallowed the lump in her own throat. "Leech... " she began softly, "forget about tonight's performance. I'll call it off, I have no right to ask your help tonight after what has happened today." Trixie couldn't help but cringe as she felt the career she had dreamed of for so long, and had been so close to her grasp, begin to slide away from her. Deep down, however, she knew she was doing the right thing. Leech was in no fit state to help her, and to even expect his help after her failings would be supremely arrogant, even by her standards. To her surprise however, Leech immediately freed himself from Trixie's embrace before half-jumping-half-falling off the couch. He rubbed the tears from his eyes as he addressed Trixie. "No!" he said urgently. "Trixzzie waited too long for thizz chanzze, Leech not going to ruin it for her. Leech will zzstill help Trixzzie, if Trixzzie will let him!" he added, almost pleadingly. "Leech, are you sure you want to, even after that?" asked Trixie uncertainly, an eyebrow raised in disbelief and surprise. "Leech izz alwayzz zzsure!" replied Leech, parroting Trixie's own words from earlier that day with a small smile on his face. After another hug, Trixie took Leech into the bathroom and helped to to clean the tear-streaks from his facial chitin, as well as drying the face-sized wet patch she had in her own fur. With both of them sufficiently calmed, Trixie and Leech headed back into the lounge. Noticing that it was almost lunchtime, Trixie suggested that they again head out for food. Leech eagerly agreed to this, and requested that they go to the same cafe they'd visited that morning. There were always plenty of couples at that particular cafe - a veritable buffet for a changeling like Leech! ---------- Before long, the two were once again seated at the very same table they'd had breakfast at, Trixie having just been served a bowl of carrot soup by the pegasus waiter. Leech was in far better spirits now as he merrily sampled the love from the various couples who invariably congregated at cafes during lunchtime. Some tasted very sweet, most tasted slightly bland, and a few of them even had the same bitter taste he'd gotten from Fancy Pants and the pegasus in the park. Trixie watched with bemusement as Leech gorged himself without even opening his mouth, his facial expressions alternating between joy, nonchalance and disgust as each unique flavor permeated his senses. "We may be roughly the same shape, but changelings are just so different to ponies!" she thought, her bemused smile fading as this thought seemed to stick in her mind in a somewhat uncomfortable manner. "Interezzting meal!" buzzed Leech, smacking his mandibles, "Zzso many different flavorzz! Zzsome of them not too good, though." he added with a slight retch. Shaking the discomfort from the forefront of her mind, Trixie looked at Leech with concerned eyes. "Leech, I understand you want to help me tonight... but I honestly don't think it'll be good for you. Not after what happened earlier." she said, her eyes turning away from Leech and instead focusing on the floor. "Izz nothing!" replied Leech with a dismissive wave of a hoof. "Bezzidezz... zzsometimezz it'zz better to do what izz bezzt for your friendzz inzztead of yourzzelf!" Trixie couldn't help but smile at the little changeling's seemingly endless emotional durability. Had the roles been reversed, Trixie knew she wouldn't have forgiven anypony for being responsible for such a humiliation. And yet just a couple of hours later, here she was sat with her friend as if nothing had happened. Trixie thought that it was unbelievable, inspirational, and most of all... "It's better than you deserve." Trixie's mind told her, grimly. Wincing at the chiding she had mentally just given herself, Trixie glanced towards the clock tower that stood in the very center of Canterlot Square. Early afternoon - she still had much to do to prepare both herself and Leech for the coming evening, so there was no time for sitting around in cafes! Quickly slurping the last of her carrot soup from her spoon, she got up and prepared to leave. As she turned to head for home, she called back to Leech. "Leech, can you go and tip the waiter?" she asked. "Umm... izz Trixzzie zzsure she wantzz Leech to do that?" Leech asked apprehensively. "Oh yes," affirmed Trixie, "to thank him for his great service." With a shrug, Leech headed into the cafe, scanning the room until he saw the pegasus that had served them. He was loading dirty plates onto his saddle area, ready to take them into the kitchen for cleaning. Leech casually strode up to the waiter and, revving his wings to give him a bit of extra pushing power, gave the waiter a huge shove, tipping him onto his side. The dark gray pegasus gave a yelp as he fell, sending the plates he was carrying sailing through the air, some of them landing on the slate-tiled floor and smashing whilst others landed in the meals of other customers. "Thankzz for great zzservice!" Leech said with a smile, before flying out of the cafe and catching up with Trixie, who had mercifully already begun to walk home and had thus seen nothing. "That'zz how poniezz zzsay thankzz? Leech will never underzzstand Canterlot!" Leech thought as he landed next to his friend. ---------- The afternoon seemed to slide by far quicker than Trixie would have liked. Her nervousness increased tenfold with every passing minute, and by the time the early evening rolled around she was a wreck. All her previous ills from that morning had returned with a vengeance. Leech had left the apartment by this stage to clock in with Snap Happy - officially, he would be covering Trixie's premier performance on behalf of the Canterlot Chronicle. Trixie of course, had very different plans for him. Alas, she was unable to think about Leech in her present condition - instead she stared at her reflection in the mirror, anticipation and doubt swirling like an emotional maelstrom behind her eyes. "What if my new powers don't work? What if they run out too soon? What if Twilight turns up?" she thought, barely able to hear herself think over the fierce roar of her blood coursing through the veins of her inner ears and the continuous brutal thumping of her heart. Cantering out of the bathroom on shaky legs, she noticed the time on the clock that was hung upon the lounge wall. There was no further time to waste - it was now or never. Apprehensively levitating her signature cloak and hat over from a nearby peg, it didn't take her long to change into her familiar stage garb before heading out of the door. The walk to Le Cheval Merde that evening felt to Trixie like the longest and most anguishing trek she had ever embarked upon, despite it being mere minutes from the apartment complex. Her hooves dragged with every step as the very atmosphere seemed to be resisting her every attempt to move forwards. She'd heard of how debilitating stage fright could be, but she never thought it'd feel anything like this! Presently she saw Leech waiting for her near to the entrance of the bar, seated at a table outside a bistro that had closed for the evening. Like Trixie, he too was dressed for work with his camera dangling from his neck and his beloved 'Press' hat perched upon his head. Trixie trotted over to greet him, levitating her hat from her head as she did so. Magically reaching into the depths of the oversized cone-shaped headwear, she pulled out a box and placed it on the table in front of Leech. "Izz thizz thing Trixzzie zzsaid Leech izz to uzze to dizztract Twilight pony?" asked Leech, his speech impediment making the sentence difficult for him to say. "Indeed it is," said Trixie with a nod, "as I told you, all you need to do is play with it and when Twilight walks by, ask her to help you. Her eggheadedness and inability to let things lie will do the rest." she added, smirking. With this, Trixie trotted away and, glancing back at Leech for just a few seconds, entered Le Cheval Merde. Leech was left to examine the box that had been placed before him. Straining to read the words, after some minutes he was able to deceipher the text printed upon the cardboard container's lid: PlotDevice Puzzles™ Ltd - 1500 PIECE JIGSAW Printed upon the box was a large picture of hundreds of jelly beans of varying colors. Leech quizzically scratched a hoof to his head. "What izz a jigzzaw?" he wondered out loud. Eager to satisfy his curiosity, he levitated the lid from the box to see what was inside. He found the lower part of the box to be filled with many hundreds of oddly-shaped pieces of thick cardboard, which he tipped out onto the table and spread out in front of him. Scratching his head once again, he ran a hoof through the pile of pieces as he attempted to figure out what he was meant to do with them. Each of them looked to Leech like a tiny, oddly-shaped picture of a few of the jelly beans that were printed upon the box. ---------- Whilst Leech attempted to figure out the inner mysteries of jigsaw puzzles, Trixie was in the backstage area of Le Cheval Merde attempting to figure out the inner mysteries of just what the buck she was going to do if things went wrong. She'd passed by the queue of ponies waiting to enter on her way in - not only was said queue very long, it also contained some of the most important and influential ponies in all of Canterlot. Fancy Pants, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish and (to Trixie's chagrin) Blueblood to name a few of them. Class Act had even taken the liberty of selling tickets to what was ordinarily a free entry cabaret. Failure was absolutely not an option, not in front of an audience such as this one! "Trixie!" called Class Act from outside the door. "It's showtime. Your destiny awaits!" The unabated excitement in the usually-stuffy bar owner's voice made Trixie shudder even more. Not only was she relying on doing well in her performance, but it seemed that Class Act was too! Feeling more nervous than ever, she left the dressing rooms and cantered onto a darkened stage, taking her place behind a heavy red velvet curtain that hung between the front of the stage and the audience. Trixie closed her eyes and attempted to bring her rapid breaths under control, slowing them to a more 'normal' rate after what felt like hours. "Mare and Gentlecolts!" boomed the voice of Class Act through the speakers either side of the stage, each syllable striking Trixie in the heart with an adrenaline-coated spike of terror and trepidation. "Please put your hooves to the ground for Canterlot's hottest new magical talent... The Great and Powerful Trixie!" With this, the curtain parted, as the spotlight burnt at Trixie's eyes as though somepony had just summoned a miniature sun and placed it directly above the stage. Shaking, nauseated and now half-blinded, Trixie stumbled towards the front of the stage and took in what she saw around her. The low, intense rumble of hoof-stomping gradually ceased as the audience settled in to watch Trixie perform. Sweat again poured from Trixie's brow as she noted everypony in the room staring at her, many with stony expressions. Under normal circumstances, she would have loved this, and had often dreamed about giving such a performance for most of her life. Alas, the reality certainly wasn't living up to the fantasy so far! Swallowing her rising panic, Trixie dutifully removed the first set of props from her hat, and prepared to perform her first act... ---------- Twilight hurried through the streets of Canterlot, the street lamps lighting her way as the evening's light began to decline. She hated being late for anything, and Trixie's show was no exception. Her hooves clicked and clacked as she raced across the cobbles, having run all the way from the Royal Castle's library. As usual, she'd gotten lost in her magic studies and hadn't kept a proper track of the time. She forged ahead, seeing that Le Cheval Merde was in sight just ahead of her. "I hope I haven't missed too much! I don't want to... oh, what's this?" she panted, noticing Leech sitting at a table, messing with something in the glow of a nearby streetlamp. Leech looked up from his pile of pieces and waved a hoof. "Hello Twilight pony!" called Leech. "Good evening, Leech." replied Twilight. "What are you doing out here? Aren't you meant to reporting on Trixie's show?" "Yezz, and Leech will," Leech responded, "but Leech hazz to do thizz firzzt. Trixie bought a picture at the zzstore today but it'zz broken, wantzz Leech to put it back together!" he explained. Confused, Twilight took a closer look at the items on Leech's table, before letting out a gentle chuckle. "Leech, that's a jigsaw! It's meant to be in pieces!" she explained politely. "Zzso how doezz it work if it'zz broken? Can Twilight pony help Leech?" enquired Leech. "The idea is that you put it back together to make the picture on the box." Twilight said, levitating the lid to where she could see it more clearly. "1500 pieces, huh? Well, this shouldn't take too long. I'll get this done in a jiffy and then we'll head inside." ---------- Back on stage, things were going better than anticipated. Where a single pot plant and five plates had once been, there was now a plate and five pot plants. The advanced transformation spell that Trixie had 'borrowed' had worked well. Feeling that particular power beginning to fail, Trixie just had time to change everything back to its original state before with a splutter of green energy, the first of Trixie's new powers became depleted. Although the reversal had been unnecessary to the show, Trixie had begun to get her second wind and had wanted to show off. (Plus, Trixie rather liked the plates and planned to keep them after the show was done with.) There was a gentle hum throughout the room as the audience whispered to each other about what they had just witnessed, with many of the previously stony looks now changed to expressions of wonderment. "Now, ponies of Canterlot! Prepare yourselves for the Great and Powerful Trixie's next amazing feat!" proclaimed Trixie, her usual stage grandeur flooding back after her initial success. Her horn also felt lighter by this time, having jettisoned one of the stored powers. Focusing her energies and thinking of teleportation, Twilight's image once more flashed before Trixie's eyes as she felt the rapid-fire teleportation spell flow through her body... ---------- Outside, things were progressing a little more slowly. Twilight sifted through the pile of cardboard pieces, rapidly levitating each one before her eyes before setting it down into one of two piles. "What izz Twilight pony doing?" asked Leech. "Sorting out the ones with straight edges." answered Twilight abruptly, attempting to concentrate on her task. "Leech can help!" buzzed Leech, levitating some of the pieces that didn't have straight edges up to his face. "What are you doing?" wailed Twilight, noting that some of the pieces Leech held were beginning to bend. "If Leech breakzz thezze peg bitzz off, all piecezz have zzstraight edgezz and Twilight pony not need to zzsort!" he answered proudly, believing he was helping. "Don't do that!" cried Twilight, removing the pieces from Leech's grasp before he could do anything with them. "Look, just watch what I do and then you'll know for next time, OK?" ---------- Inside Le Cheval Merde, the floor of the main performance seemed to be in danger of collapse, such was the intensity of the hoof-stomping that was taking place. Several of the audience members now had silk roses as a memento of their evening, delivered to them by Trixie without her having taken a step. The teleportation routine had been an even bigger success than her first trick, and by now Trixie had the audience eating out of her hoof. As the hoof stomping died down, Trixie once again addressed her now admiring audience. "For Trixie's grand finale, Trixie shall perform her stunning rendition of that classic routine, the Prismatic Orb Shower! But do not mistake this for any mere magic kindergarten version, my dear ponies. Oh no, what you are about to witness is possibly the greatest version of this legendary spell that you shall ever lay your eyes upon!" she pontificated grandly, raising a unified 'oooh!' from the audience. Her horn now feeling so much better for being relieved of two-thirds of its burden, Trixie concentrated harder than she had ever done before as Twilight appeared before her eyes one last time... ---------- The brief, fleeting image of Twilight that Trixie had seen was doubtlessly of a neater appearance of the real Twilight at that particular moment in time. Her mane looked as though she'd been standing in a gale, her pinprick pupils darting about her widened eyes as she scanned the useless pile of cardboard fragments that lay in front of her. To her, they all looked like the exact same picture of a few useless segments of jelly beans, utterly unsortable other than those with straight edges and those without. She stared at them for a moment, the image of half-complete jelly beans branded into her retinas. "What madpony created this thing?" she snarled, her nostrils flaring and her teeth gritted. "Izz there problem?" asked Leech innocently. "Problem? Why no, Leech, there's no problem at all other than this thing is impossible, impossible, IMPOSSIBLE!" Twilight cackled maniacally, her sanity slipping away by the second. Both Twilight and Leech were distracted from their puzzle-based problem when they heard a deep, thudding wave of sound coming from inside Le Cheval Merde. "What in Equestria is that?" gasped Twilight. "It'zz Leech'zz cue!" answered Leech, immediately taking flight, as Twilight galloped behind him. The two entered the bar to the absolutely deafening roars of cheering ponies, their combined hoof-stomps forming the pulsing bass-line of congratulation that they'd been able to hear from outside. Twilight watched in awe as Trixie stood upon the stage, bowing before an audience of Equestria's most important celebrities and nobleponies. Leech scooted down to the front of the room, deftly weaving through the tables, chairs and cheering ponies, and readied his camera. With some difficulty, he managed to maneuver the camera to his eye, pop off the lens cap, and hit the shutter release. The blinding flash of the flashbulb briefly enveloped the entire room in a bright white haze, but nopony noticed - least of all, Trixie who was still preoccupied with soaking up the praise that rained upon her from all angles. The next morning, doormats throughout Canterlot had the morning edition of the Canterlot Chronicle land upon them - emblazoned upon the paper's front cover were two things. Firstly, a slightly crooked picture of Trixie taking a bow before her audience. Secondly, a large headline above it which simply read: A STAR IS BORN!