• Published 16th Feb 2014
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Trixie's Forest Retreat - crowscrowcrow



Following the events of Boast Busters, Trixie decides to hide from the town (and Rainbow Dash in particular) by taking cover in the Everfree Forest. Not every problem can be outrun, and sometimes facing them can have unexpected consequences.

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Chapter 122 - Retrieve *


Homework, the bane of every student.

Trixie chewed on the end of her pencil while she stared up at the dull text book floating above her bed.

How magic could be this boring was well and truly beyond her. What kind of pony found themselves with the power to alter the fabric of reality, and then decided the best course of action was to figure out seven different ways to reheat a piece of toast? All of which also made the toast inedible!

Perhaps a better question was what kind of pony would put it in a textbook. Only a cruel, sadistic pony for sure.

Trixie nodded. Yes, she was going to add whoever had done this to her list.

Oh, yes. She had a list now. Any pony on that list would rue the day they’d crossed her! Someday anyway.

After examining the cover, She put the textbook down and floated her notepad up to her face. She paused only to consider the exact place to add this person. A few quick squiggles with the pencil on her lips, and she was done.

Trixie admired her work.

Trixie’s Great and Powerful Revenge List:
Strict Silence (Professor)
Starlight
Cratos (and his little ninja too.) (Trixie won anyway!)
Moon Rock
Stodgy Jotter (Guy that wrote ‘Magic for Foals Volume II’)
Shiny Pebble (Trixie tripped over it on the way to school.)

Okay, maybe the list was growing a little fast, and maybe some would say it wasn’t exactly healthy to plot the downfall of half a dozen pony’s, let alone inanimate objects, but it made her feel better, so what was the harm? This way, whenever somepony angered her, she could simply write the name down and then no longer need to think about them, without running the risk of forgetting she was mad at them.

It had been a little over a week since she’d been ‘released’ from detention. Much of said week was spent stewing and raving, and it wasn’t until she’d hit upon the idea of making that list that she calmed down a little.

She knew it didn’t really make sense, but it felt like she was doing something about it. Like she was taking control of the situation when she wrote it down like that.

“Trixie!” her mother called from the kitchen. “I forgot to buy butter. Can you go on an errand for me?”

Well, her homework wasn’t going anywhere and any distraction was a welcome one.

Trixie dropped the notebook on her bed and sat up. “Okay, mom!”

She unceremoniously ditched her text book and went to grab her hat, only to find it wasn’t there.

Oh, right. Flitter still has it.

So far Trixie had not asked about her hat and Flitter hadn’t mentioned it, but she was beginning to worry. Flitter wouldn’t be too cowardly to tell her if anything had happened to it, right? Trixie really hoped Flitter hadn’t lost it.

On her way out, Trixie swung by the kitchen to collect the grocery bag and some bits to fund her little expedition.

In the kitchen, Sly Nightsky had already put the bag and bits on the table. She was tending to the stove, making what smelled like spaghetti. “Ah, there you are, sweetie. You know where to go, right?”

Trixie nodded. “Yep. It’s that place you say the health inspector must get their new horseshoes from.” She didn’t really get how that worked, since she was pretty sure the dairy shop didn’t sell any horseshoes, but adults did a lot of things that didn’t make any sense.

Her mom’s face reddened. “Erm, maybe you shouldn’t mention that while you’re there, okay?” Sly chuckled awkwardly. “Well, get going. Stores close in half an hour.” With a fluid motion of her wing she pushed Trixie along.

“Okay, okay. Trixie’s going.”

The trip to the market wouldn’t be all that long, so long as Trixie kept a good pace.

With a little bit of luck, she might even be able to leverage this errand to get out of cleaning later. Not that it was a lot of work, not anymore anyway. Back when they still lived in St. Peterhoof they had a house that was a pain to clean. But, with only four rooms in total, the Hoofington house was way easier, and it didn’t even have a second floor to worry about.

Trixie came to a sudden halt. Her eyes narrowed as she came face to face with an old enemy.

There, in the middle of the road, defiantly staring at her was the shiny pebble.

Aha! Found it!

After giving the pebble a dirty look for a while, Trixie noticed passersby were starting to stare at her. With an unconvincing cough, Trixie tried to look as normal as possible while she picked up the pebble and dropped it into the grocery bag. Maybe she’ll have her showdown later, when there were less witnesses.


“That’ll be five bits,” said the cream-colored, earth-pony mare behind the counter.

Trixie tilted her head. “You mean two bits.” Her mom had only given her two, so clearly that was how much butter was supposed to cost. Maybe the sales pony thought she could pull a fast one on a little filly? Then she didn’t know the Great and Powerful Trixie.

The contested packet of butter sat on the counter between them.

“Nope, five,” The earth-pony mare repeated and blew a black strand of hair out of her face. “This is traditionally made, high quality, organic butter.”

“Oh,” Trixie looked at the packet. Perhaps she had gotten the wrong kind. “Uh, where is the two bit butter then?”

“It’s all five bits, or more.”

“That can’t be right! Look, uh,” Trixie scanned the cashier’s nametag, then groaned internally, “Buttercup, really? Anyway, Trixie isn’t paying five bits for butter!”

“Heh. Well, you’re welcome to try the next town over.” Buttercup chuckled. “You’d be surprised how few ponies run a diary store around a unicorn town.”

“Trixie will pay twenty bits, or nothing!”

“Not that I’m going to stop you from paying twenty bits if you want… But, I, uh, I think you meant two bits.” Buttercup scratched her head. “You’re not too familiar with haggling, are you?”

“No haggling, a wager. Trixie meant what she said. Twenty or nothing.” She smiled smugly up at the mare. “How do three to one odds in your favor sound?”

Buttercup leaned over the counter as she inspected the little filly with a skeptical, green-eyed, stare. “Look, I’m not going to gamble with a filly just to—” She paused as her eyes caught sight of Trixie’s grocery bag. She gave a hard look, but when Trixie didn’t back down, her face adopted a calculating expression. “Give me a minute.” It was easy to guess what Buttercup was thinking, she was practically counting on her hooves. She stood to lose five bits, or make four times as much. All she had to do was calculate her odds and consider if she liked them.

Trixie waited patiently for the earth pony to finish. She already knew the outcome herself. If one stood to quadruple one’s money a simple one-in-four, or twenty-five percent, chance to win was already fair. The offered wager was two-in-three, or sixty-six percent. In short, the odds were over twice as good as they should be for the clerk.

Apparently mental arithmetic was not sufficient, as Buttercup produced a sketchpad and scribbled on it with a pencil for a moment before she read it over again slowly. “Okay,” Buttercup nodded and turned her attention back to Trixie. “Just so we’re clear, if you refuse to pay after this, or raise a ruckus, I’m not selling anything to you ever again,” she pointed at the grocery bag, “OR your mother. Don’t think I didn’t recognize that bag. Now, are you sure you wouldn’t rather just pay the bits? It’s an awful big gamble for such a little filly.”

Well, Trixie could walk away now and retrieve the three bits she was short from home, then run all the way back and possibly find it closed. Or, she could keep going and risk being eighteen bits short, and then find a new place to buy dairy products from in the future. Her mom would kill her.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not gamble,” she said and watched as the mare behind the counter smirked and reached out a hoof to pull the butter back. With a dramatic flair, Trixie reared up on her hind legs, bringing her on eye level with the mare. “Trixie always wins!”

Looking utterly unimpressed, Buttercup sighed but left the butter where it was. “Is that so? I do hope your school knew what they were doing when they stopped teaching statistics, but who am I to judge? Alright, fine, how do you want to do this? Have you got a die on you?”

“Please, Trixie does not need something so mundane. Besides, who is to say the die is not weighted?” Trixie rested on hoof on the counter to help keep her balance while she was standing up. As nice as she felt it looked, it was darned difficult to keep upright. “Rather, can Trixie borrow that?” She pointed at the pencil and sketchpad.

“No magic,” Buttercup stated firmly while she pushed the two items over to Trixie. “If I see as much as a spark I’ll assume you’re cheating.”

Trixie frowned. “The Great and Truthful Trixie had no intention of using her magic like that, but fine.” She tore a piece from the notebook with her teeth and scribbled something on it, then folded the note several times. With a smile, she pushed the crumbled note into the middle of the countertop. “Keep an eye on that.”

Looking puzzled, Buttercup nodded. “I see it. Now what?”

Trixie dropped back down on all fours for a moment and stuck her hooves in the grocery bag. It was so stupid she couldn’t use her levitation for this. She pulled out one of the bits and the pebble from the road, placing both down on the counter, next to the butter.

“The game is simple. Trixie has guessed one of these three items. There is a one in three chance that she will be correct. Now, you select two and we’ll play.”

Buttercup looked at the butter, pebble, and bit. Her eyes also periodically flicked to Trixie’s horn, but it remained unlit. Finally, she sat down and stroked her chin while she watched Trixie. “I see… I thought it was strange you’d take such bad odds. You think you’ll have better odds than one in three because you figure that you can predict what I, the ‘greedy’ store clerk, will choose, do you?”

Trixie smiled. “Perhaps. Are you ready to choose?”

Buttercup held up a hoof as she looked down at the objects again. “No, give me a minute. It’s too simple. You’re trying to trick me.”

“Perhaps,” Trixie merely repeated while she rested her hooves on the edge of the counter.

It was almost too simple. Trixie didn’t truly have to do anything while she watched Buttercup strain her mind. It was easy to imagine that a greedy person would pick the butter and the bit, leaving the worthless rock. The simple counter would be to pick different, but Buttercup had to have realized by now that Trixie might have figured the same thing, and actually guessed with that in mind.

That kind of thinking very quickly spiraled into a never ending series of ‘if she knows that I know that she knows that I know that she knows…’

Meanwhile, Trixie enjoyed the obvious mental struggle Buttercup was going through. One might have thought she’d be in suspense herself, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Buttercup finally made up her mind. “Rock and Butter.”

“Are you sure?” Trixie’s smile broadened.

“Uh, no, wait.” Buttercup looked down again then quickly up. “Wait, yes! I’m not letting you pull something so obvi—uh, wait.”

And just like that, the spiral began anew. This time factoring in a filly’s smile that may or may not have meant something.

Trixie regretted not bringing anything to read for this. On the other hoof, if she had her textbook she’d be a lot more bored than she was now.

“Yes. Rock and Butter. I’m not changing it.” Buttercup said, confidently.

“Okay,” Trixie said and reached over the counter to push her pebble and the butter off to the side, leaving just the crumbled piece of paper and the lone bit between them.

“Now what?”

“Now Trixie will open the paper,” she reached for it, but Buttercup intercepted her.

With her left hoof, she knocked Trixie’s away while simultaneously grabbing the wad of paper with the other. “No!” The look of shock and surprise on Trixie’s face brought a grin to Buttercup’s. “Weren’t expecting THAT, were you?”

“Hey! Wait!” Trixie cried while she reached out for the paper, but was easily held at hoof’s length by Buttercup.

Holding Trixie at bay, Buttercup kept one eye on Trixie’s horn and the other on the unfurling the piece of paper. “Ahah! ‘Bit’ I knew it! Thought you c—Wait, what?”

Still on the counter between them, lay the predicted, lonesome bit.

Buttercup gaped as she read the paper again then looked down at the bit again. “But, but why were you struggling then?”

Smiling smugly, Trixie straightened out her chest fur. “Trixie just really wanted to see the look on your face.” Trixie swept her hoof across the counter, sweeping the pebble, butter, and bit into the waiting grocery bag.

Buttercup turned red in the face with embarrassment and anger. “You! You little!”

“Oh, brighten up, Muttercup.” Came an unfamiliar female voice from behind Trixie. A lanky pegasus with a red mane and light orange fur flew overhead and landed behind the counter, wrapping a wing around Buttercup who turned even redder. “Aren’t you supposed to only charge two bits anyway? I keep telling you that ‘unicorn-tax’ is not okay.”

“S-shut up, Blossom!” She tried to push the pegasus away, but she didn’t appear to be trying hard enough to actually break free. “She’s the one that started it!”

Trixie huffed, “You hit Trixie!” she said while holding up her ‘grievously injured’ left foreleg. “It was revenge.” While she spoke, she levitated the grocery bag and prepared to make her escape before Buttercup broke free.

“She’s got you there, you know.” Blossom grinned and just wrapped her forelegs around her captive to secure her even more. “Besides, don’t you know who that is?” she asked while pointing her remaining free wing at Trixie. “That one’s little Flitter’s friend, right?”

“Oh?” Buttercup relaxed and actually leaned back against Blossom as she looked at Trixie again. “You know Flitter?”

Already half-way to the door, Trixie stopped and turned around. “Flitter Bouquet?” Trixie replied, puzzled. “Uh, yes? Why, do you know her?”

“Of course we do, she’s one of ours,” Blossom laughed and took to the air again, causing Buttercup to tumble over backward with a cry as her support suddenly vanished. This time, she landed beside Trixie. “Why don’t you come have dinner sometime? So the rest of us can finally see you? You’re all she’s been going on about ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’.”

“Pff! Flitter almost never talks.” Buttercup chimed in from the back as she got her hooves under her again.

“I meant relatively!” Blossom called over her shoulder. Her attention quickly returned to Trixie. “So, anyway, what do you think? Flitter would like it I’m sure.”

Trixie felt as though something was going on she wasn’t catching on to, but she nodded all the same. “Sounds good to Trixie. Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Oh, yes, I’m positive. Not right now, of course, I’m sure you have dinner waiting on you at home already. We’ll discuss a good time, and then Flitter can officially invite you at school once we’ve worked out the details, alright? Alright.” Blossom had wandered off back to the counter already and quickly claimed the pencil and sketchpad to write it all out on.

Rolling her eyes, Buttercup leaned on the counter as she looked at Trixie past the cheerful pegasus. “Blossom, if you’re going to go nuts anyway and be a pain to everypony, maybe you should think about inviting her family too? Misery loves company.”

“Oh! Good idea!” Blossom whirled back around on Trixie and smiled brightly. “You’re all invited! Uh, you should probably bring that up at home yourself, see if they would like to come. Just so I have some idea of what to plan for: how many ponies are there?”

“Two. Mom and Trixie.” Now that Trixie thought about it, she should probably hurry back home or dinner was going to be cold.

“Oh…” Blossom’s smile faltered briefly before she noted it down on the pad, afterwards her smile had returned. “Well, the two of you are more than welcome then! Pass on the—I-I mean, forward the invitation to your mother, okay?”

“Trixie will. Thanks, see you then!” Trixie waved then ran toward the door.

“Wait!” Buttercup called out just as Trixie was on the threshold. “How did you know what I’d pick? Was it just luck?”

Without slowing down, Trixie looked over her shoulder, flashing a magnificent smile. “It was easy. Hasn’t anyone told you before…?” She answered just before moving out of sight. “Never gamble with a magician.”


With a steely gaze, Sly Nightsky stared her daughter down across the dinner table after she listened to Trixie tell the story. “So, you were disrespectful to an adult, gambled, CHEATED, and refused to explain yourself?”

“Uh, well, when you put it like that…” Trixie scratched her neck awkwardly. She put on her best smile. “But, Trixie got the butter? And an invitation, so she couldn’t have been that mad!”

“I’m disappointed in you, Trixie.” Her mom shook her head. “That’s only because you got lucky and they happened to be your friend Flitter’s… uhh… they happened to know her. If it wasn’t for that do you know what could have happened!? You were surrounded without knowing it, and you had no exit plan at all.”

Looking down at her hooves, Trixie’s chest ached. She hated letting her mom down. The rest of the lecture was not quite right though. Blinking slowly, Trixie met her mother’s eyes. “Uhm, mom? What else did Trixie do wrong?”

Tapping a hoof to her chin, Sly looked thoughtful. “Well, for starters you had no way of ensuring that this Buttercup character would not deny having made any kind of wager after you’d won. Between some little filly and a store clerk, who is going to be believed? You should at least have had somepony near enough to overhear the wager being made.” She shot Trixie a mischievous grin. “Ideally, you could even have a stooge back you up. If it looks like the crowd is on your side you usually get your way.”

Stooge. Trixie knew that term. It stood for an audience member that was secretly a partner of the magician on stage. They were good for providing a seemingly unbiased perspective, while in reality they merely acted in accordance with the magician’s wishes.

“What else?” Trixie asked. It was rare for her mother to wear an expression like that, as though she were the cat that ate the canary.

“Well, the most important thing is to always be aware of your surroundings.” Her mom grabbed a spoon and drew a rough shape of the store in Trixie’s mashed potatoes. “From the counter you’d have to keep an eye on what routes are available to you. Do you see how there are three exit points? The front door, the back door, and the window. In order of most desirable.”

Trixie nodded, though she hadn’t noticed the backdoor while she was there, it made sense that Buttercup had some way to get to her stock without having to walk around from the outside. “They blocked both doors, so… you’re saying Trixie should have dived through a window?”

“No, no!” Sly chuckled and got up from her seat while she drew a crude map of the street in her own potatoes and pushed her plate toward Trixie. She moved over to Trixie’s side of the table, wings outstretched in excitement as she moved. She stood behind Trixie and wrapped one leg affectionately around her while she used a wingtip to point at the mashed-potato-window, and then at the street map.

Since when did her MOM play with food? If Trixie tried that she’d be in so much trouble.

“That’s only a last resort. It will make a lot of noise and you’d be in the middle of the street, not to mention it really hurts. Glass is hard when you run into it and sharp when you fall onto it. Hah, don’t even ask how you are supposed to get the shards out! I only did it once, and I’m still finding splinters.” She shuddered. “Seriously, you’re way better off doing just about anything else, including just giving in, because sometimes escaping is more trouble than it’s worth. Obviously talking your way out is the best.”

“Right, talk, okay,” Trixie replied, puzzled. It wasn’t exactly rare for her mom to talk about her past, but it was always pretty mundane stuff or stage performances; where was this glass story all this time? On top of that, wasn’t she supposed to be getting punished? Instead, she was getting… this? Trixie was alright with that! She smiled and hugged her mom’s foreleg while she listened to her.

“Exactly what to say and how to say it depends on the situation. It’s not as simple as it always being right to try and reason with somepony. Sometimes it’s much easier to bluster or get angry, some will back down from confrontation if you are scary enough. Your father was downright terrifying if he wanted to be, just a glance could send somepony packing…” Sly’s voice trailed off, and she looked down at Trixie, letting their eyes meet. Feathers tickled Trixie’s face as Sly brushed her mane away. “You have his eyes, you know.”

“Trixie noticed that.” Trixie smiled proudly, recalling how easily she’d made Starlight back off.

“Oh, you have?” Sly smiled down at her. “Good, but remember that it’s not always the right approach to show strength. Sometimes, showing weakness will get you much better results.”

Trixie quirked a brow. “Trixie does not believe you. Flitter does that all the time and it never gets her out of trouble.”

“Well, that’s not true, is it?” Sly smirked. “I hear a knight in shining armor quickly comes to the rescue when she acts like that, isn’t that right?” She booped Trixie on the nose.

Trixie felt her cheeks catch fire and huffed. “T-Trixie is not a knight.”

Sly folded her wings around Trixie. “Of course you are, if you weren’t wearing armor this would drive you crazy.”

With the wings, came a warmth and softness all around Trixie that had her practically purring. “Mhmm, what would drive Tri—Ahaha!” A sudden, ticklish, assault by fiendish hooves on her sides left Trixie laughing maniacally while she tried to escape her seat. “Aha! No! Hahah!”

“Oh, my mistake.” Sly grinned as she let her hooves rest on Trixie’s shoulders. “I guess you weren’t wearing armor after all. Well, I hope you remember that next time you get yourself into trouble, you can get hurt just as easily as everypony else.”

Trixie leaned back in her chair, gasping in relief as she could breathe properly again. “T-that was dirty… Shouldn’t you have just told Trixie not to get into trouble?”

“Why? Are you going to listen? I sure never did, and it’s starting to look like you’re a chip off the old block. I’m saving a lot of time this way.” She gave Trixie a tight hug before letting go and trotting back to her own seat. “Besides, if you are going to get yourself into a mess anyway, I’d rather use that time to teach you how to get out of it.”

“So, that’s what that was about?” Trixie pointed at the mashed potato map. “Trixie appreciates it, but she still doesn’t think pouting will get her out of trouble someday.”

“Heh, you’d be surprised. Now finish your plate. I want that whole store eaten before bed.”


The playing cards fell to the floor once again, accompanied by a frustrated groan.

For once, the groan wasn't from Trixie.

"Why won't this work!?" A red-faced Flitter stomped her hoof down on the tile floor of the filly's bathroom. "It makes no sense! I can levitate a deck with ease, but I can't cut it in two?"

Trixie snickered while she listened to Flitter rant, it was cathartic. Finally she got to see what the timid thing looked like when she was actually frustrated past the breaking point. "Trixie told you it was harder than it looked, you didn't really think Trixie would fail if it was easy?"

“Uh, well, no…” Flitter gathered the cards back up in her hooves and cut the deck manually, then frowned. “It’s just this is so easy with our hooves, but with magic it’s like trying to do it one-hooved, it can’t be done.”

Trixie pushed open the stall door and made her way to the sink. A quick flash of magic got the tap running for her. “It feels that way. Trixie’s been trying forever and it just does not work. Trixie knows she saw the professor do it, but maybe it was some kind of illusion?” She threw up her hooves in vexation, inadvertently throwing water around. “Gah! If only Trixie had paid attention! She could’ve read his stupid magic and figured out if it was a trick.”

“No, it wasn’t a trick,” Flitter said while she held the cards up with one hoof and used her magic to lift the top half of the deck. “Remember that time you got your cutie mark? When—“

“No, Trixie doesn’t remember that at all,” Trixie deadpanned while interrupting Flitter. “What was that like?”

With a hurt look on her face, Flitter scowled at Trixie.

Trixie wilted a little. “Sorry, Trixie didn’t meant to…” She sighed. “It’s just that Trixie’s not used to not making any progress at all… She’s supposed to be good at this.” It wasn’t entirely true, she also had not made much progress during her detention, which had been equally frustrating, but a little progress was still something.

Flitter’s expression softened. “It’s okay… I was just going to say that it’s not a trick, because I saw it before. Sunny Days was trying to compete with you, or uhh, join in… I’m not really sure which… But, she was levitating three plates at the time, remember?”

Did this mean Sunny Days was above Trixie in magic ability?

“NO!” Trixie cracked the porcelain in the sink as she slammed her hooves down. “Trixie is NOT worse at magic than freaking Sunny Days!” She growled while giving herself a hateful glare in the mirror. How could she let this happen?

Behind Trixie, the sound of cards hitting the tiles could be heard again.

“I-I didn’t mean that! J-just, you know, she did it once. Oh, my, that looks, uhm, broken.”

Trixie wasn’t paying attention to the damage, she was too busy with magically picking up the cards from the floor, or trying to. Although Trixie felt as though she ought to absolutely be able to handle ten cards at once after hearing such horrible news, she did as terrible as ever. Each second item she picked up meant losing her grip on the first.

It didn’t take long for Trixie to lose patience with it again.

“Graah! If that airhead can do it, why can’t Trixie?!”

“S-so, uhm, d-did your mom want to come?”

“Huh?” That question was so incredibly out of left field, that it actually left Trixie momentarily speechless. By the time she’d made sense of it, the fire of impotent rage that had been burning inside her before had faded. “Oh. To dinner you mean? Yes, she wants to come.”

“Good,” Flitter looked nervous, but flashed a relieved smile. “I, uhm, I was hoping you could come this Friday? I mean, if that’s a good time for you?”

“Trixie is pretty sure that will be fine. Do, uh, do we need to bring anything? Trixie isn’t sure how this kind of thing goes.” She gathered up the cards one by one then held the deck aloft in her magic. She still felt silly that she could hold the whole deck, but not two cards.

“No, I don’t think so. Just, you know, you two.”

“Okay.”

“Okay...”

They both stared at one another in silence for several long, increasingly awkward moments.

Trixie cleared her throat. “Ahum, thanks, for the invite... and, you know… Trixie feels better.”

Showing a bright smile Flitter nodded. “No problem! So, uhm, what do you want to do next?”

“The same thing we do every time Flitter: try to take over the world.” Trixie rubbed her hooves together manically.

“Okay, ” said Flitter, without missing a beat, “And after that?”

“Well, Trixie supposes we’ll go find Sunny Days and experiment on her.”

“Uhm… what kind of experiments?”

“You know, to find out how she manipulates multiple objects like that.”

“Oh, but, uhm… Couldn’t we just, you know… ask her?”

“Mmm,” Trixie hummed as she considered the option, stroking her chin as she did. “No.”

“Okay.”

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