//------------------------------// // Smoke // Story: The Revenge of the Powerful One // by stack //------------------------------// CHAPTER 3: SMOKE Her mind was returning from a land of bizarre thoughts and visions as Trixie awakened slowly wearing a flamboyant tousled mane style. “Trixie!, wake up already, I need your help on something!”, Zecora shouted, disturbing Trixie’s habit of staying more time on bed after arousal, but she noticed how Zecora didn’t made a clever rhyme on her sentence and whispered sarcastically, “this must be serious”, using an irony touch on the phrase as she got up. Barely able to walk and her eyes still closing, she managed her way to the door, just to see Zecora staring firmly at the morning sky. “If your training has ‘feng shui’ and ‘inner peace’ garbage, I’m sorry darling but I’m afraid I’m leaving!” Trixie said with inconspicuous anger, clearly she was moody after her nap interruption. “Look above your head, and you shall see a real threat”, said Zecora, returning again to her singular habit. “Fine, fine” Trixie replied as yawned, having finished, Trixie slowly opened her eyes fearing that sunrays might hurt her “20/20” vision; but there was no sunlight at all, an the every day blue sky was replaced by a ditch black, humongous cloud. All Trixie’s sluggishness disappeared instantly, and was replaced with fear. “What in the name of Equestria is this smoke coming from?!” Trixie paused briefly and continued, “is that for what you needed my help, a forest fire?! Buck that!” exclaimed with notorious fear on her words. Zecora looked at Trixie for a moment with a serious expression on her face. “A fire I’m afraid this threat is not, clearly that smoke is from a dragon’s snore”. Trixie was speechless. “D-D-Dragon y-you say?” Trixie said stuttering, suddenly her mind went blank. “Hey…Remember that thing that I needed to do?, well its not done yet and I really need to go back and do it because it needs to be done, so, is not my intention to offend your voodoo traditions but I’m leaving right now!”, said the blue unicorn as she grabbed her hat and cape and tried to leave at full speed. Fear had taken the best of her. Zecora remembered the talk they had last night and asked calmly, “may I ask what is this thing you must do?” Not referring to the excuse but to the only thing that kept Trixie from “waste” time. It worked perfectly. The filly stopped her crazy escape attempt and stared to the ground. “The great and powerful Trixie’s matters are not of your concern”, she said trying to cast away fear and replace it with her usual confident, presumptuous manners. ”Don’t boast about strength because I saved your life from the cockatrices”, said Zecora referring to the chicken headed creatures, she continued. “And since you owe me, I have all the right to ask for your help”. Tension invaded the situation as both remained silently staring at each other. “I tell you what” said Zecora finally. “If you help me to drive away the dragon, I will teach you how to become stronger”. The vague sentence caught Trixie’s total attention, mainly the word “stronger”. Trixie was over analyzing things. “Decisions, decisions…Ok, in one hand, I go with Zecora, intimidate the sleeping beauty and I become ‘stronger’, without forgetting that insignificant life risking factor; and in the other I leave, and stay the same…alive…and without cleaning my name”. Similar thoughts filled Trixie’s mind, suddenly, she glanced at the real source of the smoke. Apparently pride won the battle, and as her fear momentarily vanished and her expressions gained confidence while she approached Zecora, Both realized that the cloud emanating from the tall mountain grew bigger and it was overcasting the team’s sight. Trixie couldn’t avoid asking how two ponies could scare a fully grown dragon. “Alone we can’t, but with this…”, Zecora replied confidently as she grabbed one of the bottles hanging on the house’s branches, and talked again, but Trixie didn’t put much attention on what Zecora said, for her mind was wondering in the many possibilities of this quest. “I’m not sure if this is a good idea after all”, Trixie whispered to herself as the fear grew stronger again. “Let’s go!” Zecora yelled, breaking the trance of Trixie’s fear, in consequence, the blue unicorn started to follow the zebra galloping rampantly to the smoke’s source. As Trixie galloped along, she started to notice that Zecora was wearing her robes and was carrying three bottles, two, filled with water and the one with the blue colored potion. “That potion…What does it do?” said Trixie while galloping, Zecora replied roughly, “shut up, or you’ll be tired soon enough”. “Humph!” Trixie moaned turning her head away and closing her eyes in grievance as she kept up with Zecora’s trot. They had been travelling almost for thirty minutes, when they reached the mountain’s foot, unfortunately, Trixie was too tired to continue, Zecora noticed, and even she could easily go on, she suggested to take a little break before starting climb the mountain. Trixie was relieved, and as she sat on the grass, Zecora gave her one of the water filled bottles and Trixie didn’t hesitated to drink relentlessly. Once her thirst was satisfied, she returned the bottle and asked Zecora if she also had something to eat. “Eat the grass, and your hunger will pass” Zecora replied with mischievousness on her voice. Trixie declined the offer with a frown. “Now that we aren’t running, can you tell me what that potion does? And most important, for what do you need my help?” Trixie inquired. Zecora remained silent a few seconds, probably trying to make a verse to answer, but she gave up, in any case, it was pointless to talk with clever rhymes if she had nothing exceptional or meaningful to say. “This potion tames even the most deadly creatures if smelled…For a short amount of time, the main ingredient for this to work is a plant called poison joke, among other compounds, if we have luck we’ll surely…” “Have enough time to drive away a dragon I presume…So where I fit in this suicidal plan?” Said Trixie, interfering on Zecora’s speech with her characteristic speaking manners. “You will give the potion to the beast in aid of your magic powers…” Trixie didn’t objected at the idea, but her face said it all. “What I gain with helping you? Explain me the ‘strength’ thing”. “…Back home I have a book that can teach you many things, you help me with the dragon affair, and that book gladly to you I will give…” The nebulous phrase filled Trixie’s mind with all sorts of questions, so many that she couldn’t compose a coherent enough to ask. Zecora understood and sighed. She explained calmly to Trixie that the book she was talking about it was called a “Grimoire”, and it was a compendium of magical knowledge, sadly, not being able to wield magic on the most primitive stage, as unicorns do, she couldn’t unlock the full potential of the artifact, than rather being a “normal” book, it counted with magical properties by itself. Trixie’s jaw hanged loosely from its joint. She was totally unaware that something like that existed, being possible that neither Twilight Sparkle or any pony did. An unexpected turn on events had given her the opportunity to improve her magic skills enormously and to increase her knowledge with whatever the Grimoire contained, hopefully, she had a chance to stand against her new nemesis, clean her name, and to prove to everypony and also herself that she was really destined to be the greatest equine who had ever lived…or at least a powerful enough to defeat princess Celestia’s apprentice. Zecora saw the mischievous grin that Trixie portrayed on her face while staring blankly to the ground, and started wondering if offering the artifact to the arrogant unicorn had been a good idea. Zecora didn’t knew for sure, but, as long as Trixie helped to get rid of the dragon, she would hand the artifact as promised. Trixie stood up and said with extreme eagerness, “We have a dragon to meet”.