//------------------------------// // It's Magic // Story: The Trick to Rock Farming // by Silent Strider //------------------------------// Trixie lay down on her bed, her unfocused eyes pointed at the ceiling. The publicity from the fair and word of mouth were drawing more ponies to purchase stones at the farm, and Igneous Rock was gracious enough to give Trixie a raise. There was also the reward for the bandits and the profits from the fair; though she couldn’t count on more of those; she wasn’t here to hunt bandits, and new trips to the fair before new clients could appear would be a waste of time. Trixie sighed. Even with those extra bits it would be a couple months before Trixie could get back to the roads with a wagon of her own, a couple of months living as a simple rock farmer. “Come.” Trixie looked at Maud through the open door, wondering what could make the quiet mare enter another pony’s room. Maud went to her own bedroom, leading Trixie, and pointed at the window. Looking out of the window Trixie gasped. “Princess Celestia! What is she doing here?” “The Princess came to collect stones.” Trixie’s eyebrows clumped together. “What, her stones? Does she always comes here?” “Stones for her school. The stones are usually delivered to a guard.” Celestia spoke something to the bowed ponies in front of her — Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz, Trixie recognized — and looked at the house. For a moment Trixie imagined Celestia was looking directly at her; it ended quickly, though, as Celestia stepped inside her chariot and took off. Maud looked directly at Trixie. “Can you tell why the Princess purchases those stones?” “Perhaps.” Trixie raised an eyebrow. “Do you know which kinds of stone she purchases?” Maud pointed at an open box by the window. “Samples.” “Can you identify them?” Maud nodded. A smile spreading in her face, Trixie asked, “Does this town have a library?” As it turned out the town did have a Library. Outside it was a featureless, if large, gray stone box, with a few windows and a large front door. At least it was fire proof. Trixie was looking at one of the few books about magic in the whole library. “Those stones are for potion making. They must be ground up to be used; it’s why Celestia doesn’t care what those stones look like.” Maud looked up from a book on stones. “Can we sell them? To others?” “We might be able to. But I’m not exactly on friendly terms with any alchemist; it will take time to find buyers, perhaps months.” Trixie went to put the book back on the shelf when she noticed a familiar name in a binding; Stone Cold. She heard that name at Celestia’s School, of that she was certain. Was it at the Artifacts class? Pulling the book she saw that it was a journal. “Found something?” Trixie looked at the book floating in her magic aura. “This one piqued my curiosity. I think I will take it back home.” It had been two weeks already since Trixie started working at the farm. Things had fallen into a pattern; go to the fair once per week, do the chores the other days, sleep, eat. It was calming, at least, and nopony had called her a fake during that time, apart from those bandits. Still, something was missing. Trixie sighed, looking back at her salad. “Are you all right, sugar?” Trixie looked at Cloudy’s kind eyes. “I was just thinking about my old life. I miss the shows, the magic, the fireworks…” Cloudy took Trixie’s hoof on her own. “I know, dear. But don’t worry, you will be back to your old life before you notice it.” Her eyes suddenly glimmered. “Wait, ya said fireworks? My cousin Rose Quartz is throwing a birthday party in a couple days; perhaps I can convince her to have fireworks. Would you like that?” Trixie smiled. “It would help, thank you. I would need to make the fireworks, but I think I can find most of the material here on the farm…” Trixie’s eyes went wide, her mouth agape. Cloudy inched close. “Dear?” “Maud, that’s it! Fireworks! They use the same mineral ingredients as potions, and I know who to sell them to!” Trixie stood, stumbling in her haste. “Maud, come! I have some letters to write, and I need your help to know which materials we can offer!” “Sure.” Maud stood and left. Around the table four ponies stood baffled, looking at where Maud was sitting before. Trixie’s voice sounded from the stairs. “Oh, and if your cousin wants fireworks, tell her that she can have the greatest firework display she has ever seen. It will serve as advertisement, even!” Trixie looked at the fireworks in her hooves. The fireworks display at Rose Quartz’s party had been the talk of the town for the last week, making Trixie the pony to go if anypony needed fireworks. Igneous Rock allowed her to make fireworks in the farm, as long as she did so in her free time and stored them away from the house and the silo, and gave her a discount on the materials the farm could provide; between that, and the requests for raw materials for fireworks that were starting to come — of which Trixie got a cut, as per her standing deal with Igneous Rock — Trixie was earning bits far faster than before. In just a week she should have enough bits saved to get a new wagon, complete with everything she needs for her shows. And if everything else fails, if ponies still think of me as a fake, I can always return here, perhaps lie low for a while. Trixie looked back at the journal she had taken from the library. She knew a bit more about the pony from the journal, she knew that he was important, but she couldn’t remember why; perhaps if she had paid more attention to the classes... The journal itself was unbelievably boring; Stone Cold was an earth pony with great interest in unicorn artifacts, but he had a tendency to just ramble on and on, filling pages and pages with incessant drivel. Trixie wondered if anypony could read that volume without going insane. No matter; she would be ready to go in a week, at which point she would return the journal to the library and forget about it. She left the journal fall upon her workbench… And a piece of paper dropped. Trixie took it in her magic, examining it. The paper was a receipt from a curio shop; Stone Cold apparently sold something to the shop for the sum of… Trixie’s jaw dropped. That was more than she would spend on her whole wagon! What in equestria could be worth so much? Intrigued, Trixie opened the journal, quickly flipping pages back and forth. After a few minutes she found what she was looking for, a page where a square paper was previously attached. This time the author’s incessant drivel might be useful; if he wrote down every little detail, the name of the item would certainly be there. Going back half a dozen pages Trixie found the name she was after, as well as a drawing. “What? He sold the Alicorn Amulet?” A malicious smile took over Trixie’s face; This was just what she needed to win her rematch against Twilight. The amount of bits was a problem, though. Perhaps Igneous Rock will allow me to remain here for a couple more months, until I earn enough to purchase the amulet...