//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 - Rampage // Story: Trixie's Forest Retreat // by crowscrowcrow //------------------------------// The late afternoon sun shone down pleasantly on all of Ponyville with only a couple of puffy white clouds lazily drifting by. The warm weather perfect for a picnic, casual stroll, or as one pony preferred, a quick nap in the sky on one of those clouds. Warm sunrays shone through the window, warming up the floor of Fluttershy’s cottage, and Trixie’s hooves as she crept away from the door. Many things raced through her mind in the couple of seconds in between the heavy landing outside and the sound of a hoof on the front door. Trixie, being a storyteller, felt it was just plain wrong for the weather to be this beautiful right before she was going to die. She felt certain scenes like this, where the enraged antagonist stormed in, should come with dark overcast skies, rain and lightning. For a brief moment, she had managed to convince herself that if the weather did not match, then surely neither did the situation. Surely the door was going to swing open and reveal a smiling face ready to let little mistakes go, then talk about it in the sunshine. But then the door opened and that last ray of hope quickly disappeared. Trixie shook from mane to tail, staring up at the bright vibrant colors glistening in the sunlight, sharply contrasted against the clear blue sky. Such warm colors, yet still they chilled her down to the bone. “R-Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow Dash’s eyes quickly fixated on Trixie for a moment a look of surprise on her face as though she had expected not to find her, but it soon steeled into determination. She walked closer, letting each hoof land with enough force that Trixie could feel the tremors. “Whoa, so you’re still here huh? Well, that saves me the trouble of looking for you!” Rainbow Dash said. Trixie backed away, while Rainbow Dash closed in on her. “T-Trixie—” “Trixie this, Trixie that! Can’t you speak like a normal pony!?” Her wings flared out, blocking the sunlight leaving Trixie in the shade. “Great and Powerful Trixie, huh? I bet you felt real Great and Powerful picking on Fluttershy of all ponies!” “N-no!” Trixie tried to step back again, but found herself pressed into a corner trapped in by the wooden walls. Rainbow halted just barely an inch away. Nearly all Trixie could see was the anger within her eyes. “Oh you can’t? Well I guess that’s just one thing you can’t do better, then. Was that your idea? Show Fluttershy that you are better than her too?” Trixie reared up on her hind legs, feeling her back pressed against the wall. Her hooves raised to shield her face. Blurry memories of their last encounter rose to the surface while every fiber of her being screamed at her to escape somehow. “G-go away! Leave, leave Trixie alone…” Two hooves struck against the wood next to Trixie’s head as Rainbow Dash pinned her to the wall. ”After what you did? Humiliating me, my friends, threatening Ponyville and taunting Twilight afterward. Fluttershy still told me to find you! This is how you repay her? You play with her, chase her out of her own house, and decide ‘well that was fun, Trixie will have lunch.’” She jabbed a hoof towards the set table. Trixie could feel Rainbow Dash’s hot breath against her hooves while the voice vibrated through her bones. She trembled all over, trying her best to hide her head behind her forelegs, she could maybe take a few hits to the body, but her head was already feeling like it was about to explode. Her tears ran down her muzzle, and her voice cracked. “N-no, not my fault… Rainbow please… I-I didn’t me—” ”The worst part is. You aren’t even sorry for what you did. You didn't even try to ask me how Fluttershy was.” Rainbow pulled her hooves back from the wall briefly, then slammed them back down, watching Trixie flinch in response. “You’re just scared for what I’ll do to you!” Trixie said nothing this time and just sobbed into her hooves. She wanted to claim she did care, but Rainbow Dash was right. She had not spent a single thought on Fluttershy’s condition or making it up to her since the door opened, but only cowered and tried to get out of whatever punishment she was to receive for her actions. As she thought about, her reaction to what happened in Ponyville had been the same: merely fleeing consequences whenever they loomed up, just like back home. “Do you understand what you did wrong, Trixie? Don’t worry, I will make sure you do.” She leaned in closer to the shrinking Trixie, who sunk through her legs, trying to avoid her. “You’re scared of me, aren’t you? No matter how nice I act, no matter how much I might promise not to hurt you, deep down inside you’re terrified. You could not even look me in the eye this morning, you want to run and hide. And it feels terrible, doesn’t it?” Trixie swallowed. She tried her best to summon up the courage to reply, but settled for merely nodding to the questions. Her whole body quaked, and she could not stop crying just being near her, despite absolutely nothing bad having happened to her yet. She just waited in terror for when the lecture was over and the punishment began. “Good, I want you to remember that fear: that feeling that you are just a breath away from something horrible… 'Cause that is how Fluttershy feels, about everything, all the time.” Rainbow Dash pushed away from the wall, letting her forehooves land on the floor again. She turned away from Trixie. “The difference is Fluttershy is brave. She does her best every day to be kind to everypony, even if she’s scared. Even if it’s you, and you decided to torment her. Think about that.” With a thud, Trixie slumped down the wall onto her haunches, still huddled up in the corner. Her hooves had slipped down from their defensive posture to stare at Rainbow Dash in shock. Had that been it all along? Fluttershy had not just been merely shy, but also actively scared of her? She felt a crushing pain in her chest at the thought of putting Fluttershy through what she had just experienced herself. Her eyes tearing up as she stared up at Rainbow Dash. “I-I’m… Sorry… I didn't think. I’m so sorry… Where is she, Rainbow Dash? I-I have… have to make this right, please. Y-you can do what you want afterwards…” Rainbow Dash turned her head, looking down at the crumpled form of Trixie quivering in the corner as she pleaded. She stared at her silently for a moment before she finally pointed up a hoof towards the staircase. “She went through the window. She’s upstairs in her bed.” Trixie scrambled onto her hooves, nodding at Rainbow Dash. “T-thank you…” She slipped past her and climbed the stairs. She quickly reached the second floor and looked around briefly. There was the door to the room she’d been staying in the past three days, but there were no other doors “What the… Where is the door to Fluttershy’s room...? Oh!”