//------------------------------// // Chapter 107 - Rumor * // Story: Trixie's Forest Retreat // by crowscrowcrow //------------------------------// Ever since Trixie first arrived, the professor had been reading through some papers. He'd made it a point to get them out right after she sat down, rummaging through his drawer to find them, and not saying a word to her. This left Trixie to slowly spiral down the maddening path of anxiety. One which few little fillies could endure for long in total silence, or stillness. Trixie shifted uncomfortably on the small stool she’d been directed to. It felt unnaturally cold inside the office of Professor Silence, almost cold enough to make Trixie reconsider her stance on whether or not the second floor was really haunted. It was sunny outside, wasn’t it? Wait, where are the windows? There weren’t any, just the same dull gray stone walls on all sides, as though she’d walked into a tomb. She hoped that the office was just made to look this way to upset any little fillies that were brought into it, or maybe because the professor was just bad at decorating. He couldn't really be a vampony, could he? Trixie attempted to work up enough saliva to wet her suddenly dry throat as her eyes darted around the room. The office sure looked right for a vampony... Aside from being obviously a vampony’s tomb, the office looked a little like how Trixie imagined a study of some evil, old overlord would look. Though the professor was old, far older than Trixie could ever imagine being, she still felt it safer to keep to her vampony theory for the moment. The shelves on the left wall were filled with stacks of timeworn books, scrolls, and even a globe. On the other side, she noticed something that actually didn't fit her books descriptions of a vampony’s lair. There were in fact, several non-creepy pictures pinned to the wall. Trixie easily recognized one of the ponies on the wall: Princess Celestia, The Ruler of Equestria, she was flanked by about a dozen ponies on the steps of some large building, posing for a group photo. As she stared at the photo, Trixie felt a little warmer just by seeing the smile on the Princess’s face. Hopefully Trixie would get to see her in person one day, if her mom ever made good on her promise to take Trixie to the Summer Sun Celebration. Honestly, Trixie would settle for an autumn, winter, or spring celebration too. So long as the princess was there. With a tinge of jealousy, Trixie glanced at the other ponies in the picture. A young stallion standing on Princess Celestia’s right caught Trixie’s eye. There was something about him that felt familiar. He had fur nearly as pristine white as that of the Princess, though it was sharply contrasted by his charcoal mane. He was wearing the biggest, proudest smile Trixie had ever seen on a pony. Apparently it was contagious, as Trixie found herself smiling as well. The sound of somepony clearing their throat brought Trixie’s attention back to earth. She locked eyes with Professor Silence, who brandished a single eyebrow slightly higher than the other while he regarded the expression on her face. Her smile quickly faltered as Trixie remembered why she was here. To be fair, she’d been nearly sure she was completely forgotten until now, it wasn’t that strange that she would forget too, wasn’t it? She certainly had the attention of the professor now though, and Trixie wished she could go back to being ignored. “So,” The professor gestured towards the door, “What caused this violent transgression to occur?” Frozen in place, Trixie just stared at him, barely daring to blink. What had he just said? After a moment, the professor sighed, and rephrased. “What exactly transpired in the concourse?” She stayed perfectly still, trying to make the least bit of sense of the words that came out of his mouth. “...Oh, for Celestia's...” He placed a hoof over his eyes for a moment, letting a frustrated growl escape him. Then, the professor raised his voice, speaking slowly, as though to a donkey, he accentuated every word. “What caused you to decide to injure Miss Starlight?” Trixie jumped at the suddenly loud sound of his voice. After a few seconds of mind numbing terror passed, Trixie realized she had been asked a question. But to answer it, she'd have to speak, meaning she was going to make a noise beyond running away in this cold, dark, creepy office. It felt so strange to have to actually be expected to talk to him. Trixie then noticed the professor's frown deepening, and realized she had probably been staring at him like a muffin caught in a breakfast rush for over a minute now. Panicking, she quickly rattled off the events of the day: Starlight had provoked her, Trixie told her to get lost, and finally about Starlight’s attempt to get at Trixie by attacking Flitter. “Or, uhm, she would have, if I had not stopped her!” She’d pre-emptively dropped out of third person for the time being, anticipating a backlash if she wouldn’t. “By making her collide into the ceiling, and attempting to throw the filly out of a second story window?” As he spoke, a quill danced across one of the papers, no doubt recording the details of the morning. “Do you realize what that means?” Trixie swallowed with difficulty while she rubbed her hoof along her elbow nervously. “T-that I am in a lot of trouble… What’s going to happen?” Ignoring her question, Professor Silence asked his next one. “How did you do that?” “W-what?” Trixie tilted her head slightly, unsure what she was meant to say. He tapped his hoof down on the papers in front of him. “Miss Lulamoon, at your previous assessment, you were hardly above the level of a class clown. Today, you were able to lift another student off the ground, by yourself, from considerable distance.” he leaned over his desk, staring down at her as though she were a misplaced comma in an essay. “Why have you been hiding your aptitude for telekinesis spells?” Trixie wasn’t sure what surprised her more, that she had yet to be lectured on endangering another student, or that she was being accused of hiding her abilities. The idea that she would have done anything less than show off felt like an insult. “I didn’t hide anything. I only learned how to do it last week!” A single cocked eyebrow on the professor's face betrayed his state of mind. “I practiced. A lot.” Professor Silence stared at her for a few long, quiet moments, then slumped back into his chair. “All weekend.” She added. Ignoring her, the professor's cold, jade eyes strayed from Trixie’s, snaking their way down her body in a manner that sent a chill down the little filly’s spine. Shifting uncomfortably on her little stool, Trixie just watched the older stallion, blatantly staring at her flank. She shifted her tail to cover herself up, and felt her heart thump faster in her chest. Her legs ached with a need to get away which she didn’t understand. Suddenly, Trixie was struck with a horrifying realization. But, surely he would never think of doing something like that to her, even if she’d deserved punishment. It slowly occurred to her that she was at his mercy. Even if she screamed, his muffling spells would probably keep her cries as captive to the room as she herself was. Flitter would be right on the other side of the wall and never even hear a thing! T-teachers aren’t allowed to do that, r-right? Trixie pushed herself as far back on the stool as she could go. There’s no way he’d try to, to spank Trixie! Even her own mother only ever threatened to do that jokingly, and she had to do something really bad first! Professor Silence however, did not seem the least bit interested in spanking her. Instead, he kept staring, seemingly lost in thought while Trixie's own thoughts were going crazy. The ONLY good thing about this, in her mind, was that he couldn't be thinking of draining her blood. The book said vamponies only did that to a pony’s neck, and he clearly wasn't staring at her neck at the moment. Trixie started debating in her head the merits of blood drain versus butt pain, when a sudden glow caught her eye. Looking back at the professor, Trixie saw a sickly green aura lifted up his quill. The quill then began scribbling it across the parchment again. “Your cutie mark. When did you get it?” “L-last week, sir.” Trixie answered quickly. She felt some of tension ebb out of her limbs as she slouched forward. It had only about inspecting her mark? Thank Celestia! He simply nodded, the scribbling quill finished before she was half way through giving her answer, as though he’d already predicted it. “Interesting…” Trixie wasn’t quite sure what he would find interesting about it. Sure, she was absolutely thrilled about getting her cutie mark, but few other ponies had cared. One of the downsides of getting her mark so publicly was that everypony already knew how she’d gotten it, so she only had the chance to tell the story to mom, and Flitter, of course. “D-don’t you want to know how, or what it means?” Looking up from his papers, the professor gave her a look that could have nearly passed as weariness, then shook his head. “I don’t care for your opinion on the matter, Miss Lulamoon. We’ll see. For the next two weeks, after school, you are to come to my office and follow my instructions for one hour. You are dismissed.” His attention drifted back to the papers in front of him. The quill scribbled down a few more lines. “T-that’s it? But, Professor, uh, w-what about Starlight?” Trixie cautiously asked. Immediately after she’d spoken, she wished she had the good sense not to remind him. The quill came to a brief halt as he raised his gaze up just briefly. “What about Miss Starlight?” Taken aback, Trixie stared at him in disbelief, before briefly looking towards the door. She imagined that Starlight was probably still on the other side somewhere, cradling a broken nose. “A-aren’t I in trouble?” He followed Trixie’s quick glance to the door, then shook his head. “Only in the sense that you got caught. Try to be more mindful of your surroundings next time.” Stroking his hoof along his chin, he added, as though it were a mere after thought, “Do try to avoid causing serious harm. There is only so much that can be passed off as ‘roughhousing foals’.” Trixie blinked uncomprehendingly. Her confusion was apparently picked up on, or maybe vamponies could read minds, as Professor Silence gave her an impatient look. “Miss Lulamoon, we’ve already had our little chat about wheat and chaff, and I resent having to repeat myself. Now, go home, and be here tomorrow.” Trixie dared not breath another word, fearing to break whatever fragile charm had compelled him to let her go. She hopped off the stool and swiftly made her way back to the door. She paused for only a moment, looking back at him as though she felt all of this would make sense if she literally viewed it from a different angle. It didn't help, and after a moment Professor Silence seemed to catch on that she was still in his office, and looked up from his papers with an annoyed expression on his face. Trixie's blood froze in her veins and her eyes widened as their gazes met. Trixie was sure he’d decided right then and there to help himself to a chilled beverage! She quickly pulled the door open just enough to slip through it, then shut the door in the same motion. In her haste, she’d slammed it much louder than she anticipated. The feeling of relief to be out of the office was rudely interrupted by a high pitched scream right next to Trixie, making her leap for the ceiling with a startled cry. "Eek!" "Gah! Flitter? What on Earth!?" Flitter had apparently been waiting for Trixie in the hallway. Judging by her wide eyes and frozen ridged stance, she had not been expecting any loud noises to announce Trixie's return. "S-sorry," Flitter managed to squeak out, trembling on her hooves while she glanced around skittishly. Trixie sighed. She couldn’t be angry with Flitter for being on edge on the supposedly ‘haunted’ second floor. How Flitter managed to still be scared after she spent an hour cleaning up here without any signs of some filly-devouring ghost trying to eat her was beyond Trixie. Although… Starlight was nowhere to be found. Heh, Trixie should be so lucky. “Forget about it. Come on, we’re leaving,” Trixie said while she made her way to the stairs. “R-right!” Flitter quickly caught up to Trixie, glancing at her uncertainly. Once they were back on the ground floor, she finally asked, “so… are you in trouble?” Contemplating the question for a moment, she gave the only answer she could. “Trixie is… not sure…” Trixie yawned. She hadn't slept well after all the stress of the previous day. Even if she had, the first class that morning was about the early history of magic. Specifically Unicorn magic. For the most part it consisted of a very boring, very long, lecture on how poorly organized early magic used to be, and how it was eventually formalized into schools. The only part that was even vaguely interesting was the mention of a few schools eventually being forbidden, but the professor didn't go into any detail, so Trixie once again found her head almost hitting the table. A jab or two from Flitter managed to stir her awake when the professor was walking by, and Trixie would give a groggy nod of appreciation to Flitter each time. Considering how useless what they were studying was for modern times, Trixie found it impossible to care. When she could focus her thoughts, her mind kept wondering back to her 'punishment', if she could even call it that. An hour of detention each day for two weeks? He can't be letting Trixie off that easily, can he? "Did you hear about Starlight?" Trixie perked up an ear as she heard a green coated filly two desks to her left speak in hushed tones to another filly. Trixie should probably have known their names by now, but she just had never taken much of an interest. "She got hurt yesterday, right? What happened?" "Broke her nose. They say she fell down the stairs." Folding her ears back, Trixie suddenly felt very self-conscious. She hadn't meant to hurt Starlight... Okay, she had. But she was angry at the time! Even if Starlight had it coming, Trixie didn't feel as victorious as she had in the moment. Not victorious at all actually, more like she'd done something wrong. Ridiculous! It was her fault for threatening Flitter! A-at least Trixie thought she was... According to Flitter's account, Starlight had not done anything to her, aside from make some very awkward conversation. Of course, it was possible that was because Trixie was supposed to witness whatever Starlight was going to do to Flitter, but she couldn’t be sure. “And you believed that? That’s not the real story.” “What do you mean?” “She got into a fight with somepony on the second floor!” Although she was not really paying attention to her babbling classmates, Trixie’s ears once again perked up attentively. A cold chill ran down her spine as she realized there was another small thing she had not taken into consideration at the time. What would her classmates think if they figured out what she’d done? “Yeah, right! If she was up on the second floor. I’ll bet the ghosts got her!” “Do ghosts break noses? Sounds more like she got scared and ran into a wall.” The conversation broke down into laughter. Oh, right. Her classmates were idiots.