The Revenge of the Powerful One

by stack

Tale

CHAPTER 6: TALE

Her mind was returning from a land of bizarre dreams and visions as Trixie awakened slowly wearing a flamboyant tousled mane style.

A few months had passed since that dreadful first day of training, now Zecora’s relationship with Trixie was slowly evolving from being simple comrades to true reciprocity between teacher and apprentice.

A new set of humble skills had been added to Trixie’s abilities, such as the basics of Equestrian botanic knowledge, potion elaboration and a little bit of beginner alchemy. Trixie was pleased with her improvements.

The ingredients filled shelves; the black cauldron and even that obnoxious pile of gold and jewels had become a familiar sighting, but there was something eerie about Trixie’s Grimoire.
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It was rare to see someone near the mountain’s foot at late afternoon, but there they were, descending at a sluggish pace, showing the physical exhaustion that the journey had caused.

“Felling well my young pupil? I hope you are ready to get on your duty”, Zecora rhymed poorly but humorously.

“I guess so, The Great and Powerful Trixie cannot refuse such an opportunity to learn something advantageous, but first, I need a well deserved rest, don’t you think?” replied the blue unicorn, with a barely distinguishable grin while magically levitating her gold filled hat.

The sun was disappearing in the horizon as both entered the Everfree forest, reminding Trixie with her previous encounter with the Cockatrices, and coating fear into her thoughts.

She wasn’t aware of the vast diversity of deadly creatures living in that forest, but she had heard a few rumors before, rumors in which she founded her worries.

“Tell me more about the…Grimoire”, said Trixie inquiring unexpectedly, but she wasn’t met with an immediate answer. Zecora took her time to respond and finally said, “Wait until we arrive home, and you shall see the mighty tome, don’t despair or taunt while we’re heading there, you soon will see this bargain was more than fair”. The shocking meaning of the rhyme restored some hope on Trixie; she couldn’t wait to learn some advanced alteration and elemental spells, the most familiar magic schools to Trixie…And almost every filly in all of Equestria.

The path felt shorter than Trixie imagined and, luckily, both arrived to Zecora’s hut in ease. Eagerness was taking over Trixie’s body as they crossed the hut’s old wood door, rushing trough the entire scene looking for what she thought the book would look like, a huge tome with leather paste and seemingly yellow pages, but nothing resembling that came on sight.

Zecora chuckled at Trixie’s hastening and said, “Patience is bliss, too bad you don’t have this, now time for your reward, I hope you use it ‘wisely’ afterwards”.

The zebra approached to one of the most crowded shelves, and carefully moved several potion bottles, just teasing Trixie’s anticipation, then, it finally appeared.

Slightly smaller and different than Trixie imagined, Zecora produced the book pulling it out with her mouth; without hesitation, the excited unicorn magicked out the book from Zecora’s jaws and stared alertly analyzing the tome.
It sure had a peculiar yet pleasing appearance, offering to Trixie that rewarding sensation of authenticity. With golden ornaments adorning the four angles of the dark blue leather paste, it was placed, in what seemed to be the front cover, an unknown symbol to Trixie, carved profoundly in the paste, presumably for embellishment purposes.

The curious symbol dragged certain attention from Trixie, who asked, “These marks, what do they mean?” Zecora, unable to answer, made a slight shrug as she ironically said, “I don’t know”.

Deviating from the previous matters, Trixie began to wonder many things regarding to the book’s usage.
“Can you explain me more about this artifact?” the magician asked.

“What do you want to know?” that common yet vague way to answer tilted Trixie’s memory, who after a short pause continued the conversation in a tenser way.

“Well…First of all I want you to tell me where did you found this and why do you want to give it to me”, an eyebrow raised in doubt.

“I want to give it to you because you helped me with the dragon, as I promised”, said Zecora slightly confused by Trixie’s redundant question, “as for the place where I found the tome, I guess I just got lucky…”

“Seriously?” anger and disbelief sprout from Trixie’s mouth, “At least give me some details!” Now it was somewhat clear why Trixie hadn’t opened the book to see its contents; she wasn’t sure of what she would find there or if she could trust the zebra, even after all they went trough.

Acknowledging Zecora’s superiority as an alchemist, the idea of getting sedated and becoming an experimentation subject, just by sniffing some strange powder hidden inside the book was luring her volatile and unstable imagination, even while she had a slight advantage in spell casting.

“Some needs are quite hard to satisfy when you are living in exile… you must take what you need from others who don’t, and hope you’re doing the right thing”, she paused to see the unicorn, which was clearly indifferent to her morale message, and seemed to want a concrete answer right away.

The zebra sighted and with calm depicted on her expressions, started to describe how she found such useful item.

“Many years ago when I was young and naive, Adimu, my village, was the place to be. With friends and family, it sure was a happy home.

Although we were a small community surrounded by savannah, we were well connected to the surrounding villages and the vast plains of our country offered a great variety of things to do in order to improve our lives.

There were beast and monsters sharing the land and living among us, so it was the job of the ‘warrior’s brigade’ to ensure the village security.

I wasn’t suited for that kind of job, and being gatherer, as many other occupations in Adimu, required hard training and demanded huge efforts for a young filly like me, so, at a young age I enrolled with my aunt Busara, hoping to avoid tedious obligations, unfortunately for me, that kind of thinking didn’t suited my aunt’s purposes, and I ended up learning some of the things that you’ll learn with me…”

An occasional yawn from the bored listener interrupted the barely ongoing story. “Could you please skip it to the part when you get the book?” The contradictory reaction of the mare drew a frown on Zecora’s face.

“You wanted details, now be quiet and listen!”

Trixie had a long and exhausting day, and wasn’t in the mood to start an argument on how pointless to her the story was, yet, she wanted to know everything to ensure the honest traits of the zebra, her unjustified previous actions were enough to keep her quiet and slightly ashamed as Zecora continued her tale.

“…Like I was saying, with time, my aunt’s knowledge grew fond on me and I found how useful it was to deal with many problems in daily life, cure injuries and preparing medicines to treat the ill, creating potions capable to enhance physical endurance or formulating tonics capable to tame or sedate ferocious beasts, as the one you used today, made me feel important and helpful to my community…”

Trixie, who was comfortlessly resting in the floor, discreetly relocated her attention from Zecora’s tale into her thoughts; to her, it seemed more like motivational self promotion rather than a relevant anecdote, inevitably beginning to wonder if the zebra was intentionally trying to rationalize her “apprentice” tradition, which slowly started to seem like some sort of scam to the paranoiac unicorn.

A few hours of story telling passed while Trixie, with the closed book aside, inconspicuously goofed around with her magic, making miniature whirlwinds with dust particles, when suddenly, some words caught back her full attention.

“…The owner of the book …At first we couldn’t understand his tongue, but he taught us the same tongue we’re speaking in, right after he appeared; needless to say, at that time no one in the village had seen some one like him. ”

“Hold on, what do you mean by ‘some one like him’ and ‘right after’?” Trixie interrupted.

“He was a unicorn, the first I had seen in my life, probably as well as the other villagers. He spoke at us gently and calmly but when he realized that we couldn’t understand his language, his horn started to glow intensely and suddenly, we found ourselves talking and understanding this tongue… As you might suspect, he did that amazing deed in aid of the Grimoire next to you, but at that time I wasn’t aware of that”. Trixie’s eyes widened in amazement.

The unicorn told us that he was there looking for some sort of artifact, from what I can recall, he said something about a rarely shaped stone; but using a black parka and giving us such amazing gift was suspicious enough to gain an audience with the chief of our tribe, Ade.

Being a righteous leader, he spoke privately with the stranger as a guest instead of a threatening foe”. The zebra paused for a moment.

But short time passed and the strange visitor left the village in a rush, we asked the chief what happened but…he only said, ‘Everything will be fine as long he never comes back…’

A few years passed and the villagers slowly forgot the strange incident and the language that came across, except by me, this sparked my curiosity about the origins of the stranger and I wished for his return in order to satisfy my doubts. But one fateful night, almost as a sign, the unicorn appeared again, but not in a friendly way as before, but in a blast of rampaging destruction.”

Trixie, who was bored and somnolent instants before, now was certainly intrigued and fairly interested on the story.

“At first we couldn’t tell what was happening. It was night already and the starry sky was leading everyone to their homes, the peaceful night rewarded us after a busy day. But then, a booming noise alerted us all. The blazing explosion causing the uproar was so big that could be seen from a few miles away, naturally, many of us got ready to fight the upcoming fire, being these common yet extremely dangerous threats, disseminating quickly due to our dry home place, but no one noticed that the explosion was coming from the nearest village until it was too late.

When some of the warriors left rapidly to help the endangered people, what seemed to be a small ball of fire emerged from the destroyed village. At first I thought it was debris from the blast, but soon I noticed that it wasn’t entirely fire and it was heading rapidly towards Adimu.”

The illusionist was bursting in eagerness hoping to hear a detailed description of the Grimoire capabilities, but due the tragic nature of the story, she remained silent.

"It was him, the bearer of the Grimoire, he descended upon the village as a ‘fallen star’ and a burst of flames emanated from him as he landed, consuming the nearer sheds and driving away a crowd of terrified zebras.”

“Zebras?” Trixie interrupted.

“The ones of my kind”, Zecora reassured and continued narrating.

“I ran and hid with my aunt, but he was tearing apart everything and everyone who opposed in his way trough the village. I was shocked; the sound of cracking wood and cries of mercy became louder.

Then, he shattered the door and grabbed my aunt by the neck, choking her with his greyish magic…”

The zebra paused and stared gloomily at the unicorn, who felt the weight of the memory.

Grief slightly invaded the atmosphere as the Zecora continued.

“He noticed me, but didn’t seem to care, he was talking to my aunt and I barely understood what they were saying, when suddenly, she threw Usingizi powders at the slaughterer.”

“Usin...gi…zi?” Trixie doubtfully interrupted.

“Remember the yellow dust I sprinkled at the Cockatrices when I saved you?” Zecora asked, and reassured with, “The one that knocked them out.”

“I remember”, said Trixie allowing the zebra to continue.

“Well, my aunt was free and the evil doer had passed out; when he fell to the ground I saw how a rectangular figure fell out from his coat, it was the book… and my aunt grabbed it.

Luckily enough, the few warriors that went to the other village to help, returned safely and held captive the unconscious unicorn, waiting for further punishment in the hooves of the few that survived the disaster.”

Trixie finally understood why Zecora was willingly giving the book, rather than a reward for her bravery or the accomplishment of her promise, it was a way of getting rid of a painful memory, passing the book to someone “trustworthy”… Nevertheless, Trixie was aware of some “flaws” in Zecora’s tale, even that there wasn’t any reason to think that the story was made up, there was something that kept bothering her, mainly the fact of being considered responsible enough to wield the artifact that nearly killed the zebra.

“Wait!” Trixie thought, “What happened next? How Zecora got the Grimoire from her aunt? How did she knew that the book was the power source of the unicorn? Why does she live in exile? How did she found Equestria if she didn’t knew from where was the unicorn?” Her doubts were strong enough to make a frown on her face.

Zecora noticed this and kept narrating the anecdote, which took an unexpected twist.

“Being an outcaste was not my decision, nor the ones of Adimu… It was the book that kept me far from home.”

Trixie was slightly surprised by the words of the narrator, and couldn’t avoid to ask, “so…it has consciousness or what?”

“…I don’t now”, Answered Zecora, “but one day when my aunt wasn’t around I found the book, and I opened it to peek into its contents… A strong light blinded me, and I lose consciousness… Next thing I know, I’m in the middle of a desert with the book besides me and without the slightest idea on how to return to Adimu.

I eventually reached a strange town called Appleloosa, it was inhabited by ponies, where everyone spoke the language that the unicorn taught me; so I hadn’t many problems expressing myself, but for some strange reason many avoided me, and those who didn’t, told me some gibberish about buffalos and stuff about being a spy…”

Trixie patiently waited for the story to come to and end; Zecora described how she discovered new and amazing things like the railroad that was in current construction or the electricity, ovens and other inventions she had never heard of… But gradually, as the hours passed and the narration became irrelevant again, Trixie lost the interest and ended deprived of hearing how Zecora made it to Equestria and settled her home in the Everfree forest, but most important, how she discovered to use the book, or how she knew so much about it.
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“Trixie!” The zebra yelled, “Prepare the cauldron and set the ingredients for the healing brew!”

“Ok!” Replied Trixie, while magically igniting a fire and pulling the chunky black pot in top of it, and said, “Are we making some? Because we still have two bottles of it.”

“It’s not for us, I’m going to… How did you said it was called?... Ponyville?”

Trixie was shocked, “Why are you going to Ponyville!?” She anxiously asked.

“I’ve been thinking to go and try to sell some of the potions we’ve been making trough the week, hoping to gain some… Acknowledgement… Allowing me to see the Princess… Would you please lend me some of your gold? In case I need to pay something.

The magician was alarmed; this was threatening the surprise factor on her plans.

“Why would you like to go there? Hehehe”, she asked, forgetting the obvious fact that it was the nearest and easiest to reach populated zone around there.

“You can come with me if you like, I understand you have unfinished businesses right there, don’t you?”

The blue mare deviated the subject of the conversation, knowing that she couldn’t change Zecora’s mind, and said, “How many bottles?” Referring to the healing potion.

The zebra chuckled and started to crush some herbs in the mortar on the table.

Comments

[stack]

Sorry for the delay on this one, it was a pretty "busy" week.

[PaulRap Raptor]

Keep up the good work.

[Wind Whistler]

I just read all the chapters of your story today. Chapter six is my favorite one so far because of the improved formatting as well as the story getting more interesting.

[stack]

214238 Thanks Whistler, I'm trying to do my best in this, but since school has started, it's going to be a pretty rough time for this project .
Also, I've been showing my "Friendship" composing some music; not too shabby, but as a beginner whitout acces to good music production sofwares, it's quite "meh" .
Trixie in Trouble.
Joke Battle.
Magician Challenge.
Swarm.
Making Brew.

[Wind Whistler]

218844
Feel free to take your time. I know that I feel rushed when I try to get a chapter done with a self-imposed deadline.

Swarm is a bit catchy. What is it an arrangement of?

[stack]

221067 Parasprite Polka.

[Enderstorm]

our heroin's side

do you mean heroine? because it would be funny to see heroin do anything :P