Tide and Effect

Trixie paced back and forth the tiny space in her wagon, making it tilt slightly as she walked from one side to the other and back. She hadn't scheduled any shows in her week-long bender and it was quickly becoming apparent that she was rapidly running out of money. That night she had woken up sober. She spoke aloud to herself as she paced

"Ok Trixie, you're in pretty hot water here, no place in Applewood is going to let you use their stage and even if they would you don't have enough money for groceries, let alone another show. Maybe it's time you skip town and start over like you had to do with Las Pegasus." She said to the empty wagon.

"Oh but Trixie! Doesn't that show you're just a coward who can't keep to one town because your shows are so bad? If they were good you would make more money and wouldn't have this problem!" Trixie whined, imitating an imaginary Amethyst Star to criticize her.

"No! I can reframe it like… like… a…a tour! The Great and Powerful Trixie Show is on tour east through Equestria! Come and see Ms. Direction as she performs feats never seen before by pony-kind in YOUR hometown!" Trixie said, putting on her booming, advertisement voice.

"Oh c'mon, everypony can see through your facade. You're just a poser and an alcoholic. Where would you even tour next? Train rides cost money too y'know. Face it. You're fucked." Imaginary Amethyst Star snapped back.

"Trixie will perform in Ponyville next, and she will get there for cheap by pulling her wagon. I'm sure the road can't be too hard. And when she gets to Ponyville, she'll pull out all the stops in her first ever show in town to wow the audience and get tons of donations. Trixie will go all in and use every magic prop and firework she has to surely blow the Ponyvillagers away!" Trixie said, only half meaning or believing it.

"You're a whacko, no pony is gonna be impressed by that. What are you gonna do when the show goes south? It's a Hail Mary and the odds are not in your favor." Amethyst said, forever doubting the magician.

"You don't know what I can do, I could do anything, I am the Grrrreat and Powerful Trixie!!! Ponyville will be astounded! Also who are you calling Whacko, whacko? You're the one talking to yourself!" Trixie shot back.

"No, you're talking to yourself!" Amethyst retorted.

The wagon fell completely silent as Trixie realized she had spent about the past 5 minutes yelling at her mirror insanely. It was around midnight. She figured it was probably best to head to bed at this point. The night dragged on as she swung in her hammock restlessly. The blindfold gave her no more comfort as the ticking of the clock went on. Only an hour later she removed it to check the time, before sighing in exasperation.

"It's ok I guess you don't need to sleep during the night. Isn't the night when there's danger? It's safer to sleep during the day where there's no danger" Trixie said to herself, justifying her actions as she walked out of the wagon and hitched herself up to it, slowly but surely pulling it away from the parking lot she had lived in for the past 6 months. The nighttime breeze felt cool upon her face as she trotted along the road, stopping occasionally to look at a map for direction. The hour train ride looked to be about 10 hours by hoof. It's not like she hadn't done this before. As the monotonous road in front of her faded into the background, Trixie reminisced about her start in Las Pegasus and when she had to leave. The Powerful Trixie started by doing street magic, taking coins from ponies ears, card magic, etc. She was just barely getting by for years as she enthusiastically studied magic, busking almost every night along Las Pegasus' streets.
Down the strip were neon signs that bore her father's name, Jack Pot. She even knew the talent agency which hired him, but resisted giving them a call. She knew if her dad became her rival there's no way she would survive. Plus she knew what kind of mafia Gladmane was running in Las Pegasus. Half her life, Trixie's parents had been in debt to him, and when collection day came and you couldn't pay, things got ugly. Once JackPot had properly made a name for himself and started paying off debt, Gladmane and he became business partners. Suddenly Trixies adoring fans were replaced with big tough ponies with trenchcoats who gave her the word to scram off the streets. It wasn't just her but Trixie had a feeling it was her father that had asked Gladmane for a favor. When they ran her out of town, the trip was brutal. Las Pegasus is managed by Pegasus and weather ponies but there's basically no towns between it and Applewood. That meant the city was wetter than its surrounding area, and the trip on hoof was all desert, desert and more desert. Impossibly hot in the day, bitterly cold at night. Luckily Trixie had used the last of her funds to buy a carton of water to take with her, but the rough sand had made her wagon tough to pull. Trixie shuttered and congratulated herself on surviving such a tough journey. She smugly smiled as she thought to herself the trip to Ponyville is a piece of cake compared to THAT. A branch smacked her right in the face to clear her head.

"Fuck! Ow!" She yelled as she held a hoof to her cheek, which had been severely bruised by the unmoving branch she had collided with. She blinked as she observed her surroundings. The moon was full and bright and shone down on the treetops on either side of the road. The paved cobble turned to a dirt path as she gazed into the endless trees, no moonlight shining through their canopy. The thicket of branches and thorns threateningly encroached upon the path as a mysterious fog lay low to the ground. Trixies eyes grew wide as she softly chuckled to herself. It was a tired and exasperated laugh that dangerously encroached upon mania.

"...the Everfree Forest. Hahaha! How could I forget the Everfree Forest?! Hahahaha!" She cackled.

Trixie looked behind her to see the trees continued on until the horizon. She apparently had already been in the Everfree Forest for a little while. Now she was just getting to the part that was the thickest and spookiest. She briefly considered going back in her wagon to hide for the night, but then her mind generated a ton of frightening possibilities, like some animal scratching at her door, or a who-knows-what burrowing into the wagon and suffocating her while she sleeps. She figured it better to press on, though the harness was just beginning to rattle with fear. She dimly lit her horn to light the way as she ventured forth into the darkness slowly but surely, the dirt path well trodden by ponies who had found the quickest way to leave the area. As the thicket encroached on the sides of the path, Trixie pulled harder to break the branches that kept on getting her wagon stuck. As the magician struggled to keep her dim light lit her mind wandered to a terrifying possibility. What if the path hadn't been trodden by ponies, but by some great big animal, and instead of out of the forest, it led to its den. Trixie shook the thought from her mind as she pressed on through the foggy dark. It was soon becoming difficult to see in front of her, even with the light. Her heart sank as the sound of the bugs in the trees grew louder, the owls and night-birds communicating above. Trixie stood completely still, paralyzed as something small and rodent-like scurried past her hoof. The light spell finally faded, plunging her into absolute darkness. She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for something terrifying to attack.

For a moment there was nothing but the great timbre of the forest surrounding her. But when she opened her eyes again, she found there was a faint blue glow coming from the ground. It grew only brighter as Trixies eyes adjusted. Along both sides of the path were patches of a beautiful deep blue luminescent flower, lighting the way through the fog. The magician's fear subsided for curiosity as she bent down to examine the flowers. The closer she bent the more she realized how bright they actually were. Bright enough to serve as a flashlight.

"Huh. Well that's neat" Trixie said thoughtfully to herself. She levitated a flower off the stem and placed it in her hair to help light the way above her. She smiled at the ingenuity. The flowers were so much easier than a light spell to maintain. With the path lit in front of her, Trixie pressed on down it with new confidence.

As Trixie continued down the now lit dirt path she felt as though she must be getting close to the exit, as there were lit torches along its sides every once in a while. She heaved a sigh of relief at the promise of safety as she saw the sky above her begin to lighten with the beautiful pinks and oranges of dawn. The torches grew more frequent on the sides of the path as she reached a bend. More and more, Trixie grew aware of the fact that pieces of dirt and pebbles were beginning to stick to the underside of her hooves. She lifted them to wipe them off to no avail, They seemed completely stuck. She sighed, hoping maybe she'd find a river or stream to bathe in once she was out of the forest.

A sudden snapping of sticks caused Trixie to look up into the trees, where a family of birds seemed to be gathering sticks for a nest. Unfortunately anything discarded fell down onto the magician. Trixie groaned as she felt 10s of little sticks and twigs fall onto her back. She shook to throw them off to no avail. A particularly long and spindly stick fell onto Trixies nose and stuck there as if welded. Trixie shook her head and blew air up towards her nose, trying to blow it off and getting more and more confused by the minute. She stopped moving for a moment and attempted to undo the leather harness around her midsection to unhitch from the wagon. Her hooves stuck to the side of the wooden supports holding the harness, and all at once she became aware that the harness itself was sticking to her skin.

She frustratedly jiggled the spindly wooden supports attempting only to get free. Having her front hooves now completely stuck to the wood, she threatened to tip over forward on her face if not for the large wagon counterweight. As a last attempt, Trixie aggressively threw her entire body weight at the support, her flank sticking to it. With the crunch of wood breaking, Trixie rolled and successfully threw herself from the wagon, albeit taking the leather harness and one of the wooden supports with her. The success brought her a rush of adrenaline in her sleep-deprived brain.

"Haha! Take THAT, Hoofdini!" She yelled victoriously, having rolled into the bush and thus now having tons of sticks and leaves stuck to her head, flank and legs. Her front hoof was now stuck out in front of her along the side of the wooden support. The long stick along her nose and a well-placed leaf on her chin gave her a fu-man-chu style beard and mustache.

"Hello Traveler, are you hurt?" Came a voice. Trixie craned her neck upwards to see the upside-down silhouette of a pony in a cloak carrying a torch on the path next to her wagon.

"Hi there. I'm fine, how are you?" Trixie said sarcastically. "...how long have you been watching?"

"To be honest, quite a while, your 'great escape' did make me smile." The hooded pony laughed.

"Could you uh… help me out a bit here? My name's Trixie, the Great and Powerful. You might have heard of me?" Trixie said embarrassedly.

"My name's Zecora, and I could, you have 'power' enough to break sound wood, but Trixie you seem to be 'greatly' Sticky" the pony said. Her accent seemed foreign and she seemed to like rhymes and wordplay. Trixie briefly marveled that she'd probably do good in show business.

"Har-de-Har. I don't know what happened. I swear I'm not like this normally." Trixie said, so embarrassed she felt she might cry. Zecora tied a rope to Trixie's hoof and pulled her out of the bush and back onto the main road where she was able to right herself and get a good look at the hooded pony. She wore her hair in a Mohawk and seemed to have stripes all over. Trixie didn't mention anything, just grateful for her help.

"Thank you" Trixie said, tears welling up in her eyes as she realized not only was this the first pony she'd talked to in days, this pony was also being extraordinarily kind to her. Zecora gave her a knowing look.

"Ah, right there" the zebra said, pointing to the flower in Trixie's hair, still stuck there. "The flower in your hair is poison joke, its power in sticky sap has left you soaked. Not to worry, journey down the path, I have a tub where you can scrub in a natural bath." Trixie belittled herself for her short-sightedness. She remembered hearing somewhere that brightly colored plants and animals are usually toxic. She thanked Zecora again but hesitated.

"But wait, what about my wagon?" She said, protective of her magic stuff and her home.

"I'll park it on the curb for now, the dark will ensure nopony will come to scrounge it. Now go, my spread is just ahead." Zecora said, ushering the magician forward. Trixie awkwardly limped forwards down the path, realizing the place where Zecora lived was merely a few meters away from where she had freaked out. Foreign and brightly colored decorations adorned the place. Trixie gazed in awe as the zebra directed her to a hot-spring pool just nearby.

"Go ahead and splash in the warm bath, Trixie, I'll find ingredients to make you less sticky." Zecora said, giggling to herself at the ridiculousness of it all. In no time at all a variety of leaves and berries from the surrounding area were crushed and put in the water. Zecora then mixed the ingredients in with a large wooden paddle. The magician ducked her head beneath the water and sighed with relief as the leaves and sticks began to unstick, and the flower in her hair dissolved in the water with a satisfying fizzle. The daylight was beginning to shine through the treetops as Trixie set aside the broken wood support and leather harness to try to reattach later. Zecora hummed as she let herself into the bath with Trixie.

"Thank you again so much, Zecora. How could I ever repay you?" Trixie said, fearing that she might also owe this pony money she didn't have. Zecora's smile faded as she gazed at Trixie.

"Your heart is prone to sink, though you are young, your face wrinkles with lines of worry and poverty. You owe me nothing, it's enough that your company is comforting." The zebra said wisely and comfortingly. Tears of joy filled Trixie's eyes at such kindness. The warm water washing over her filled her with happiness. She took the time to decompress from the events of the evening, though the light of day didn't allow her to rest, she figured she'd sleep tomorrow. Her confidence returned as she began to relax.

"Whew, what a night, ay Z? I don't know about you but I need a drink." Trixie said, putting her hooves behind her head and thinking about all the booze left in her wagon. Zecora shook her head dismissively.

"Alcohol is bad for the liver, however I do have an alternative." Zecora said, reaching over the side of the tub for a mixing bowl of herbs and minerals which she haphazardly ground up before placing them on two papers. Trixie watched, transfixed as Zecora expertly rolled both papers into a cigar-shape, before handing one to the unicorn. Zecora then held the joint up to a nearby torch to light it. Trixie followed suit. They then both hit in synchronization. The magician immediately felt all the tension in her body fall away as her muscles relaxed and the world began to fade into the background. She had never felt this good in her life.