//------------------------------// // Chapter 38 - Reference // Story: Trixie's Forest Retreat // by crowscrowcrow //------------------------------// The Ponyville hospital was quiet, serene and peaceful. Three sure-fire ways of telling that Rainbow Dash was nowhere near it. In Trixie’s mind they also doubled as signs that it was incredibly boring. Shortly after Rainbow Dash’s stunt, Trixie received her second visitor, or her fifteenth depending on how she counted. The nurse that had chased Rainbow Dash out had returned. She looked a bit familiar and once she introduced herself as Nurse Redheart Trixie had remembered Fluttershy talking about the nurse when she was taking care of her. “Oh so you are the one that left Trixie in the hooves of those two?” Trixie raised an eyebrow as she posed the question. Nurse Redheart looked uncomfortable. She reached for Trixie’s chart. “Regrettably, yes. Fluttershy has a talent for caretaking and when she told me the story I thought I could trust her. And well honestly, I probably could have. If it was just her then I am sure you would have recovered by now…” Trixie smirked. “But you failed to account for her friend? Trixie can see how she might be an… unpredictable factor. Trixie is surprised you have kept her away for an hour already, what did you do? Set up a magic barrier around the hospital?“ “Oh no nothing like that. Frankly I doubt a magic barrier would even slow her down for long. I gave Rainbow Dash a ball.” “A ball?” Trixie looked incredulous. “How exactly is a ball stopping her from coming back?” It hurt Trixie a little to think she had been replaced so easily. Is her attention span THAT short? Nurse Redheart gave a sly smile. “Oh it’s simple, I made a bet with her that if she could break the Equestria ball-bouncing record she was allowed in your room again. She’s pretty competitive you see, and coming back here without doing it would be admitting defeat.” Trixie groaned. “Figures, she would just go for the challenge like a bull to red wouldn’t she?” “Of course, but she will probably just give up when she realizes the record is over three hundred and fifty bounces, plus she needs a witness and nopony is crazy enough to just watch her bounce a ball for hours while counting. So I doubt we’ll see her again.” Nurse Redheart grinned, clearly rather pleased with herself. Trixie was not quite as enthusiastic. “You realize she is no threat, or well intentional threat, to Trixie right? Not that Trixie cares one way or the other of course. And what about Fluttershy? Is she allowed to help Trixie here if not at home?” Nurse Redheart shook her head ”No it would be irresponsible to let Rainbow Dash in either way, that pony is just not build for being indoors. As for Fluttershy, she is allowed to visit, but you will be in the capable care of the staff here. So don’t you worry, you are in good hooves now. I-I’m sorry it was ever any different.” Trixie paused for a moment while looking the earth pony over. By the looks of it she was feeling guilty. ”Well it was originally your decision. However, you are in the employment of Ponyville itself if Trixie is not mistaken? Who should Trixie speak to regarding her damages?” “Damages?” Nurse Redheart repeated with a surprised look, getting a nod in return from Trixie. “W-well I suppose, Mayor Mare would be the pony to speak to. Actually I did not mean to tell you this until later, but she has asked that she would be informed when you were well. I don’t know what it is about.” Of course the local authorities were on to The Elusive and Fugitive Trixie the moment she entered the hospital. Trixie assumes the only reason she is not currently in jail is due to her injuries. “Trixie has her suspicions.” She yawned and grimaced annoyed with her own fatigue. She had been so glad to finally get over that while staying with Fluttershy a few days ago, and now she was back at square one. “It can wait. When are visiting hours?” Trixie groaned in annoyance while she stared up at the ceiling, she was not allowed to do anything. She could not read or move about, since apparently those were both things that they were pretty picky about when it came to head injuries. Of course these were restrictions she also had to deal with when she was at Fluttershy’s. Which had left Trixie with only one alternative, to talk to somepony. Visiting hours were open. Sure hospitals were boring when she was all alone but Trixie had no doubt that time would go by much faster with some conversation. Even if Fluttershy had been a very poor conversationalist while Trixie was bedridden at her house, it had still been better than nothing. Besides, Fluttershy had actually gotten considerably better, or perhaps simply more comfortable, with speaking to her. So Trixie had impatiently counted the minutes till it was time. However there was a problem that Trixie had not counted on. “Ugh where is she? Trixie thought she would be here by now.” Trixie stared towards the closed door, she expected Fluttershy to step through there any second now, for the past three hours. Grumbling, Trixie brought her hoof up to scratch at the itchy bandages on her face. She knew she was not supposed to do so, but she reasoned perhaps she had to balance out her luck by making sure Fluttershy’s arrival would coincide with her getting caught. Whatever annoying entity had it out for her did not appear to fall for it however. With a groan she brought her hoof back down, but at least Trixie had gotten rid of the itch for the time being. Trixie was not entirely sure it was merely boredom. She knew what it felt like to be bored. This was different somehow. She did her best to keep herself distracted by thinking about her show, going over some old spells, pondering how to get bits, even her imminent arrest. Yet Trixie’s mind constantly wandered to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Whether it was when she thought about what to talk to them with, recalling some event from the last few days, or simply wondering what they were up to. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Trixie started to feel anxious. “What is taking so long… if friends are in the hospital you visit them right? T-Trixie thought we were…” Trixie’s ears drooped as she considered the possibility. “…Maybe, they don’t think so?” A sharp squeezing feeling pierced at her chest. “No! Come on Trixie! I-it’s only been three hours, and Trixie has no idea how far away the hospital is. Fluttershy probably has to feed the animals alone, if Rainbow Dash is busy with that dumb bet. It’s only natural she’s late.” For a brief moment, Trixie considered the possibility that Fluttershy might be in the room next to her, Rainbow Dash had seemed pretty angry. No there’s no way, it was all Trixie’s fault. Rainbow Dash never has to get mad at Fluttershy. Trixie shook her head to get clear the horrible thought, feeling almost ashamed for even coming up with it, Fluttershy was a good pony. Trixie took a deep breath, this was getting her nowhere. “Just because Trixie is lonely—no, alone, Just because Trixie is alone right now does not mean she has to be fixated on it. There are plenty of things Trixie can do.” She nodded a little too vigorously, scrunching her eyes with a whine as she aggravated her headache. Stupid rules. They won’t even give Trixie a painkiller because ohhh it would be so bad if Trixie can’t feel the pain, how would the doctor know if Trixie felt worse? Trixie’s feeling worse right now, what’s he gonna do about it? She sighed, trying to find something else to focus on. Looking around the room, Trixie found there really was not much more to do than there had been since she woke up. Her hoof ran along the frame of the bed, letting it tap idly against it to create a simple rhythm. She smiled with her makeshift music. Maybe Trixie will practice this and do a performance during her show, Trixie never tried music before. Oh Trixie could get them to listen when they get here. Or maybe a private show for Fluttershy, since Rainbow Dash has an excuse not to visit for now, though Trixie thought she would have given up on the bet and just snuck in by now. Her resolve already forgotten. After a little while of knocking on wood and listening to the dull tones, Trixie stopped, her forelegs were starting to cramp. “At this point Trixie would take Rainbow Dash crashing through the window into Trixie in stride!” She gave a longing look at the window, no such luck. “Nothing there but smoke, of course. ”Trixie returned her stare to the door to resume willing it to open, but then blinked slowly. “Wait what?” Her head snapped back to the window, a massive solid black column of smoke spread out throughout the otherwise clear skies. “What on Equestria!?” This is going to drive Trixie crazy if somepony does not come along soon and tell her what that is! It looks like there is a fire, a forest fire? Wait doesn’t Fluttershy live near the forest? Trixie bit her lip. W-wait that’s right. Trixie would have expected Fluttershy to be here by now. Something must be wrong! She felt her breath quicken while she pictured Fluttershy’s house, which she sudden realized was incredibly flammable, going up in flames. Trixie felt sick as her body began to tremble, she had to let somepony know. “Doctor! Nurse! Anypony! Hello?” Shouting at the door surprisingly had an actual effect, the door opened and an unfamiliar nurse stuck her head in. “Is everything okay in here miss?” The nurse, an orange coated mare with a brown mane, looked Trixie over quickly, but upon finding nothing obvious wrong with her eyes drifted to the chart by the end of the bed. “Yes yes Trixie is fine, but with her keen senses she had detected a great threat to ponyville!” She jabbed her hoof at the window. “Okay miss calm down. My name is Nurse Manners and I can assure you there is nothing to be alarmed about. The smoke is far too high up to pose a health risk to anypony but pegasi and the source is nowhere near this hospital. You are safe here.” Nurse Manners put on a smile while she spoke in a slow soothing tone. Trixie blinked, and was silent for a just a moment. I-is she condescending Trixie? She narrowed her eyes at the nurse. “Trixie is aware she is in no danger, even if the hospital was on fire The Great and Powerful Trixie would be just fine. But Trixie knows a pony that lives near there and wants somepony to check on her, right now.” Nurse Manners rose up a brow at Trixie’s tone. “Miss…” She glance down at the chart. “Doe, please calm down. A lot of ponies have come in with concerns about the smoke and we are very busy attending to all of them. Everypony else here is worried about their friends and family too, we cannot simply send out a pony to every single one of them can we?” “Lulamoon! The Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon is not just everypony else. Trixie is not asking, she demands you send somepony to the cottage by the forest at once! This is important!” ”I assure you miss Powerful, everything is under control.” With a roll of her eyes Nurse Manners closed the door, leaving Trixie to her own devices. “Come back here this instant! You cannot just leave without Trixie’s permission! Somepony has to go there right now!” No matter how much Trixie shouted at the door there was no further response. Trixie shook with rage. “How dare you ignore Trixie! Fine!” With a quick motion she threw the blankets off her and slipped her rear legs over the edge of the bed, shuffling into position to drop herself down. Trixie’s body already protested heavily against even these simple motions, her muscles stiff and aching badly. As Trixie sat on the edge she peered over it towards the floor, if she had to guess she would say it was about a two story fall straight down. Who in their right mind builds these beds that high! Trixie swallowed nervously, it felt just a few minutes ago that she nearly collided with the tiles and now she was about to give it a second try. The thought of messing up the landing scared the weakened Trixie, she knew her body was prone to give out on her. It only took one more look towards the black smoke outside for Trixie to steel herself, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes before letting herself slip off the bed. Strangely the ground was an awful lot closer, or the fall much faster, as she felt herself impacting the tiles almost immediately and stumbled forward to maintain her balance. After a few awkward, shaky steps Trixie raised her head proudly. “Hah no mere bed can keep The Gre—no time for this!” Trixie made her way towards the door at a fairly quick trot, actually impressing herself with her own resilience. This isn’t so bad. Trixie will be there in no time. Once she stepped into the hallway, Trixie could hear the muffled sounds of distressed ponies coming from the main lobby. As much as she would have liked to get out as soon as possible, she had to at least check if Fluttershy was not among the group there. The journey down the hallway proved to be much more exhausting than Trixie had anticipated, every aching step witling away at her stamina. Twice Trixie had paused to lean against the wall and take a break to catch her breath, she did not dare lay down and risk never getting back on her hooves. But she’d made it. To the staircase. “Oh come on, can’t it be a lift? On reflection Trixie does not relish the thought of using a lift during a fire, even if it is not here. Wait it IS not here right?” A soft hiss escaped Trixie as she could feel another flared headache coming and closed her eyes tight, doing her best to clear her mind to just the essentials. Fire. Fluttershy. Find.