• 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 84 - Redundant

Sitting in the waiting room, Trixie absent mindedly turned the page of a magazine that must have been of considerable archeological importance at this point.

The Ponyville hospital. Trixie had a quiet chuckle as she recalled how fearful she was initially of the idea that she had ended up there, yet now it marked a safe haven. In hindsight, it really had made no sense to even suspect any hospital would be decorated the way Fluttershy’s bedroom was.

As soon as they had arrived, Fluttersy had to turn back to take care of the animals. Rainbow Dash stayed a while longer, and Trixie suspected it was to ensure the hospital was really safe, but then she made some obvious excuse and left. As much as Rainbow Dash was a horrible brat, she had been at Trixie’s side approximately half a second after her collision with the door, and helped her up. Trixie just wished she could have done so without laughing the entire time.

Surprisingly, neither Manners nor Redheart were involved with Trixie’s appointment. Possibly this had to do with them wanting to avoid any chance of running into Rainbow Dash. Instead, an elderly unicorn introduced himself as ‘Doctor Shot’, and announced he would help her through the magical portion of the test first. With a name like that, Trixie could only imagine he was awfully popular with the foals, fortunately she was not required to get any shots herself.

The tests themselves were boring, drawn-out repetitions of the simplest forms of magic, with wires attached to her horn. Apparently all they really wanted to examine was the flow of her magic, as Trixie was not even asked to cast a spell, merely to prepare to do so.

Such simple tasks felt like an insult. What insolence to make the most powerful unicorn in Equestria go through such menial trials! Trixie was tempted to simply begin casting spells for the sake of getting an answer quicker. Either she was fine and the tests could stop, or she was not fine; in which case she was at a hospital already.

Trixie had loudly complained about it of course, and fortunately nopony had tried to call her bluff, but the quiet smile and nod she got from Doctor Shot might actually have been worse.

The only thing that gave her the patience to carry through with it, was the thought that once she was done, she would get to finally get to spend some time alone with Dash. If possible, she preferred to do so without putting herself in a magic induced coma.

Even thinking of herself as the most magical felt more hollow than it usually did, because she knew full well that everypony knew Twilight Sparkle was her better, in terms of raw magical power. Most ponies wouldn’t even make that distinction…

Once the magic tests had concluded, Trixie was brought to the physical examination waiting room, apparently this was Nurse Redheart’s department.

To Trixie’s annoyance, she was unable to go straight in. Apparently, Nurse Redheart had neglected to clear her entire schedule for Trixie, thus she was with another patient for the time being.

The waiting room itself only housed Trixie, and a young, gray-coated unicorn filly who had already been there when Trixie arrived. It struck Trixie as odd. Why was there a lone filly in the hospital? Perhaps she was waiting on somepony? All she had with her was a brown paper bag.

With a sigh, Trixie put down the magazine. It was impossible to even pretend she had any interest in it. She felt like she’d be less bored if she just stared at the wall for ten minutes. However, it seemed somepony else had beaten her to the punch. The filly was staring at the wall with a zoned out look of boredom on her face.

This just will not do. A bored filly in the same room as the greatest entertainer Equestria would ever know? Unthinkable!

From that moment on, Trixie had made up her mind. Though without any actual magic she would have to be creative. For a moment, Trixie observed her surroundings. Since it was just a waiting room there was not much of anything, but there were one or two tricks she could do quite easily.

A short setup session later, Trixie was ready.

It had been a while since this was part of her routine, but Trixie was fairly sure she remembered how to juggle. The only trick to it was to account for the time limit on her motor skills. Starting with a stapler, Trixie gave it a few practice rounds before she added a matchbox, and finally, an empty paper cup to the mix.

For a few seconds, Trixie gave an admirable performance, but her lack of practice quickly made her fumble each item in turn. It took a desperate scramble to catch the stapler before it hit the floor, while the rest bounced off it.

A soft giggling from the otherside of the room caused Trixie to perk up her ears. She looked over to the little filly, holding her hooves over her mouth in an attempt not to let on she was laughing at her.

Trixie felt a smile form on her lips as she leaned down to gather the items back up, and gave the filly a glance as she did. “Oh, you like that, huh? Trixie is not very good at juggling anymore, but she bets she can read your mind. Want to find out?”

The little unicorn gasped as she was ‘spotted’ and looked to her left and right quickly to check if she was being addressed, then looked back to Trixie. “I’m not supposed to listen to strangers. My mom says.”

“Oh, well that’s very respo—wait, did you say listen? Wouldn’t it normally be talk?” Trixie blinked puzzled. She was fairly sure the expression was the same all over Equestria.

Shaking her head, the filly replied enthusiastically. “It’s listen. Mom says talking never hurt anypony, but listening can. She’s really smart!”

Trixie chuckled as she thought it over. It was a bit odd, but she supposed it did made sense in a weird way. “So you can talk, but you don’t have to listen when Trixie tells you to do something?”

“Yep!” the little filly squeaked.

“Trixie understands. Well, then Trixie won’t ask you to do anything. Do you still want to see the trick?” she asked, before writing a quick note, and folding it up.

The filly thought about it for a split second, then quickly nodded. “You are gonna say what I think? I wanna see!”

Smiling, Trixie lined up a row of six items on the floor in front of her: a stapler, matchbox, paper cup, magazine, coffee mug, and finally a pencil. “Well there is no limit to what Trixie can do, but how about we start easy. Can you think of a number between one and six?”

“I can think of lots of numbers!” the filly proclaimed proudly. “I can count all the way to a hundred! Sometimes. This one time, Miss Cheerilee asked if I could do math on the board, and she said did I good!”

Trixie giggled with the filly’s enthusiasm, noting how quick she was to get sidetracked. “That’s really impressive at your age. When Trixie was that old she only got to ten! So, if Trixie asked you for just one number, what would you say?”

With her options limited, the filly’s brow furrowed for a moment before she came to a decision. “Two, cause lots of good things come in two’s, or lots of two’s.”

“Two, is it? Trixie agrees that’s a good number. How many letters are in two?”

“T, W, O… Three!”

While the filly spelled out the numbers, Trixie motioned at the line of items and counted with the filly. “That’s right! Now what item do you get if you take the third one?” She let her hoof hover over the paper cup.

The filly pointed at the cup. “That one!”

Smiling, Trixie held out the note she’d written at the start. “Trixie bets you can read really good too. What does this say?”

Unfolding the note, the filly looked at the piece of paper with deep concentration. Though whether that was because the filly was not a good reader, or because Trixie’s mouthwriting was atrocious, she couldn’t say. “Mhm… You will choose the paper cup is what it says… Wait! I do have the paper cup!” She held up the cup with both hooves, her eyes wide in amazement as she gasped.

If only all of Trixie’s audiences were so easily impressed. Trixie smiled warmly while she nodded. “The Great and Omniscient Trixie, knows all!” She made sure to put some theatrics in her voice, it wasn’t as if she had much to fear if it was just her and the filly.

“What’s Oh-my-scent mean?” the filly asked.

Chuckling, Trixie briefly debated if she should correct her. “Heh, Omniscient, means all knowing,” she said, while cleaning up the floor and getting the items back on the small table at her side.

“Oh, but that’s redundant.” She stated matter-of-factly.

Taken off-guard by the comment, Trixie nearly dropped the stapler again. “Trixie begs your pardon?”

“You said the same thing twice. Mom says that’s called redundant.”

“Uhm, yes, Trixie supposes it is. She’ll watch out for that in the future, thank you.” Trixie was still not entirely sure what just transpired. Did Trixie just get corrected by a foal? She shook the thought out of her head. The last thing she needed was to get upstaged by her whole, tiny audience. “So, what’s your name?”

“Dinky, what’s yours?” Dinky said, and set the paper cup down, exchanging it for the brown paper bag, and sticking her muzzle inside.

Smirking a little, Trixie considered calling herself something else entirely just to see the reaction, but it seemed best not to confuse Dinky too much. “Trixie. What do you have there, Dinky?”

“Lunch! My mom made them for me.” She pulled out a blueberry muffin. “Good things in two, see?”

“That’s just one.”

“Oh, uhm, it was two before, but I ate one already.” Dinky blushed.

“You still have two halves.” Trixie laughed, switching seats so she was sitting next to Dinky, and looked down at the muffin. “Say, Dinky, want to see another trick? Trixie knows a good one.” She motioned to the muffin. “Can Trixie use that?”

Dinky looked from Trixie to the muffin and back, clearly weighing her options between having herself a lovely meal, and seeing another one of Trixie’s tricks. Finally, she put the muffin back in the bag and held it out for Trixie with an expectant look in her eyes. “Okay, Miss Trixie.”

A warm feeling swept through Trixie, one that she hadn’t felt in far too long, as Dinky chose her act over the meal. Of course she would give the muffin back right after the trick, but it was a clear sign that her audience of one was really enjoying her performance. Trixie’s missed this so much.

Trixie took the bag and briefly inspected it, turning it over and back, then set it down between them. “Alright, now prepare to be amazed at the power of—”

“Trixie?!” Derpy called out in shock, standing in the door opening of the examination room with Nurse Redheart beside her. Her wide eyes locked squarely on Trixie, then quickly to Dinky and back.

“Hey, Mom!” Dinky waved excitedly.

This was just too good. Apparently Trixie was going to get her chance to explain herself much faster than she anticipated. She even had the good fortune of running into, and getting along with, Derpy’s daughter, so this was going to be much easier than she thought it would. But first, the show had to go on, Trixie wouldn’t want to disappoint Dinky.

“Oh, hey, Derpy! You are just in time.” Trixie smiled at Derpy, then added, “Trixie is just about to make your muffin disappear.” She turned her attention back to Dinky, noting the shocked expression on her face at the idea of losing her treat. “Aw, don—Umpf!” Trixie got cutoff as Derpy bumped into her, snatching Dinky up in her hooves.

“N-no!” Derpy cried out. She looked incredibly panicked for a simple magic trick. She held Dinky close, and immediately flew off.

Trixie had not thought it was possible, but Derpy was actually even faster this time, even though she was holding the filly. The entire thing was over within less than two seconds, leaving Trixie shaken as she started to realize Derpy was not coming back. She looked down at the blueberry muffin she was left with. “I-it was just a trick. W-what did Trixie do wrong?”

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

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