Trixie's Forest Retreat

by crowscrowcrow

Chapter 20 - Resolute

The school bell chimed clearly through the Hoofington streets, calling the unicorn colts and fillies to attention. Another school day had begun.

Trixie had found herself a seat in the back of the class still embarrassed with her introduction the day before, her only condolence that she had not been stopped when she ran out. But as she had returned to school it had become clear she had only delayed the rest of her humiliation, and possibly only made it worse by showing how much it got to her.

The day had only just started and already the teasing had picked up right where it left off. Even when it was not directly aimed at her, she could see some of her classmates imitate one of her spells, or tricks as they were now called.

It was a simple trick, let a pony pick a card then shuffle it back and divine which card they taken. But instead of a trick shuffle the unicorn colt preforming the trick had tagged the card with magic, blindingly obviously at that, and just levitated it out of the pack after shuffling. That did not seem to stop the laughing though, the point had never been to show they could do it like she did, just how pointless of a trick it was to a unicorn with actual magic.

Trixie let her head sink down on the table, hiding under her hat. Even if everybody could still see her, it was still close enough that she did not have to see them. At least she had been able to get a desk at the rear wall, hiding herself back there she was able to escape most of it during class, but she dreaded recess.

She snapped out of her various doom scenarios when she noticed someone talking to her. It was barely audible. She lifted her head to be able to peek out from under the brim of her massive hat at the pony that had taken the desk next to her, when did she get there? Trixie had not heard her approach.

At the desk sat a filly just a little bigger than herself, Trixie was almost sure she had not seen the pony the day before. Although it was entirely possible she had simply not noticed the filly, she seemed quiet while her mane and coat were in dull dark shades of purple and gray, making her easy to overlook. Almost nothing about the pony stood out, except for one thing. Or two actually, a pair of bright red fiery eyes that were completely out of sync with the rest of her.

A bright ruby red hue, almost like she was staring into a smoldering fireplace instead of another ponies eyes. Gah that’s right! This is a pony! She snapped to attention and broke out of the awkward silent stare. “Uhm hi! I’m sorry but… could you repeat that?” If there was a fireplace anywhere at this point, Trixie would swear it was in her cheeks, burning with embarrassment.

“Uhm… I-I said m-my name is Flitter Bouquet. You’re Trixie right?” Flitter Bouquet looked nervously at the smaller filly. “You uh, left early… But… I thought it was really cool, what you did I mean.”

Trixie blinked slowly, this filly thought she was cool? She did a quick glance around the room to make sure she was not addressing someone else, or had a group of snickering friends standing nearby. After failing to find either, her gaze returned to Flitter. “You did? Did you miss the whole part that came after?” The last question came out more accusingly than she had meant it.

Those red eyes swept down to the floor, Flitter shook her head slowly. “Well… No… It was not nice… But it was still really brave to make a whole show out of your introduction. Nopony else did.” She lifted her gaze back up to meet Trixie’s, giving a smile. “You didn’t see but… I just froze. It was really awkward…”

This was unexpected to Trixie, she had assumed everypony in her class would be mocking her, but it seemed she was not alone in setting up lousy impressions and actually found an ally. “You think I was brave? T-that’s one way to look at it I guess. Thank you.”

“Uhm actually… There is something else… I-I told my parents all about my first day. A-and… They thought maybe… I should uhm.” She bit her lip, closing her eyes briefly to take a deep breath. The next words so quick Trixie had trouble registering them. “Please teach me how.”

Trixie blinked and took a moment to collect herself. “Teach you what? How to do my spe—… trick?” She had to admit it felt nice to think someone was actually interested in learning how to do the tricks properly, but the purpose entirely escaped her.

“N-no I mean… how to be… brave.” Flitter spoke so quietly.

Trixie had to strain to make it out but it clicked soon enough. Perhaps in the end all parents thought the same way? A smile came to her face, looking over the shy filly and nodded. “I’ll try, but on one condition… My mom said I need to ask someone to help me learn magic, can you do that?” It was not like she really had much choice, Flitter Bouquet was easily the nicest of her classmates so far.

“Teach you magic?” Flitter seemed genuinely surprised but nodded with an excited smile. “I can do that, I can do some already but… I don’t want to show it here… If that’s okay.”

Trixie smiled back, sitting up straight at her desk and giving a look around the classroom. “I understand, I don’t really mind. Hey let’s use the recess to find a good spot?” She could not believe her luck, in one conversation the period she dreaded the most became the one she looked forward too. “Being confident is easy. Just believe you are worth their time, or keep telling it to yourself until you believe it.”

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

A bit of a delay, ironically on the young Trixie chapter which I claimed would have no further delays.
To be fair it was not caused by the young Trixie story this time. But by me being completely unprepared for how much of a giant time and energy sink it is to try making the earlier chapters more grammatically accurate. I'm still not done. >.>
Knowing is half the battle though, I'll be more reasonable with my time. ^^
Thank you for your patience.

Comments

[Knight of the Raven]

'Just believe you are worth their time, or keep telling it to yourself until you believe it.'

Do you have somepony in mind, Trixie?

I liked the line 'If there was a fireplace anywhere at this point, Trixie would swear it was in her cheeks, burning with embarrassment.'

I found two mistakes;

add a comma after 'Trixie had found herself a seat in the back of the class'

and

samewise after 'Uhm' in 'Uhm hi!'

[jxj]

Another going Trixie chapter. I really like these in general because Trixie doesn't have much of a backstory.