Cleave : Out of Tricks

The drawl pitter-patter of rain assaulted the cramped wagon's roof mercilessly. The distracting racket was accentuated by the even louder crash of lightning and thunder in the distance. Out here, there were no pegasi to tame and shepherd the weather. Out here, Trixie Lulamoon faced a more wild, harsh environment while skirting normal, civilized Equine society.

Trixie absently rolled the pencil from one side of her mouth to the other while she stared down at her notes. Her eyes were barely open, but still managed to peer over the bridge of her snout through a small pair of glasses at the aged papyrus before her.

The three month old wagon which housed the mare and currently kept out the raging storm was...quaint. Filling the room was the distinct and sulfurous smell of firework chemicals. They leaked into the space from the wagon's outdoor compartments, which housed the secondary means of drawing a crowd at Trixie's disposal. The first of those means, was of course her spectacular knack for illusions and light shows. The stench was oppressive, but mixed with the lingering fresh pine of the wagon and was thus made less so. At the very least, the mare was used to it.

Numerous trinkets and interesting looking baubles lay around the area: on the floor, on shelves...though most were kept in a trunk beneath her cot. For the most part, they were relics of her past desire to forcibly teach her rival, Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville, a lesson.

In the end, I had been the one to learn the lesson...and it had made Trixie tired. Her eyes continued to run over the hoof written scripture before her, dutifully noting the complicated magic's nuances as she went. It was true, she was more than done trying to show up the prodigal purple unicorn, Twilight, but she also still sought to better herself. Even if it was more of a hobby, it still helped her own trade nonetheless. Her magic and repertoire of spells had grown by a considerable number that first year after the Ursa Minor incident. At the time though, it hadn't been enough, which had lead to her seeking the Alicorn Amulet.

That incident had been...sobering. Trixie looked up from the spell she studied, caught in revery of the last few years. I dwell on these things too much... She recalled well the feeling of losing herself to the amulet, and not even being aware of it. The desire to hurt and embarrass that entire town had seemed like such a desired thrill at the time. While she hadn't considered it at all back then, the memory of her darkened thoughts were in hindsight, not a pleasant one. I just can't get over how hard I tried to...hurt ponies. I even tried to torture that obnoxious rainbow one. She sighed and set down her reading glasses.

After the ordeal, she had resumed the training regimen she had taken up in the first place and began once more to improve her skills, as well as perform for others. Only now, she was doing so in different lands, and far from Equestria.

Perhaps one day she would return to Ponyville once more to challenge her old foe, and fairly. But for now, I'll just continue to do what I do best. Perform. Trixie leaned back and sighed again, smiling contentedly up at her wagon's rough-cut log ceiling.

The sudden roar of something even more ear wrenching and rumbling than the storm broke her reflections without warning. Trixie huffed and grimaced over at the hammock hanging above her small bed in the rebuilt wagon-home. At the moment, the swinging, sleeping arrangement was currently home to another: Trixie's sometimes irritating, and always nervous protege, Swan Dive.

One of Trixie's hooves ran tiredly over her lightly colored mane as she took in the sight. "If there is not something else around here causing a raucous, then you always are." The other mare snored away blissfully, in spite of Trixie's derisive accusation. The unicorn's eyes squinted darkly over her pouted lip, thoughts of tossing Swan out into the rain and putting an end to the sudden noisy barrage already forming.

Then, just like that it stopped, and the pegasus put on a child-like smile and rolled over in the hammock, one wing flickering and twitching like a dog's leg. Unsurprisingly, she also had about half of her light purple mane jammed into her mouth, where she chewed it in between snoring.

Trixie rolled her eyes and leaned back on her stool instead of following through with her plan. The girl was a hoof-full, but she was also a great addition to the act. On top of that, she was a friendly mare—if a bit timid for show business.

Swan had befriended Trixie back during a show she had performed in Vanhoover, just before she had been able to rebuild her wagon. The mare had been impressed by her performance, annoyingly enough in a fashion not too much unlike those youths from Ponyville... What were their names again? Drips? Fails? Oh never mind. The light blue unicorn blew a tuft of her mane out of her eyes—it was getting too long—and leaned over to look out of her one, small window.

Outside, the storm that had begun to run its course in the Griffin Kingdoms only seemed to deepen as she watched, not lesson. I wonder if Swan would mind going out and trying to weaken this horrible storm some... It was unlikely, while the mare held a considerable knack for acrobatics and gymnastics, she wasn't much of a weather pony, or an anything-else pony, either. The rain continued to beat against the single pane of glass relentlessly as the show-mare watched.

"Well," Trixie suddenly spoke aloud, "Trixie supposes if Trixie cannot concentrate on work, she may as well try and sleep." She smirked at speaking in her stage voice in private, she rarely used it anymore, on stage or otherwise. Her stool scooted back on the well varnished wooden floorboards with a groan while she stood up. A yawn cracked her jaw as her body recognized that a break from all the reading was near at hoof.

Absently smacking her lips, Trixie put one leg into her bed just below Swan, then stopped. Drowsy eyelids blinked rapidly at a strange sight beneath the bed, trying to make sense of it. Her head craned down to get a better look, platinum blue hair bouncing. The object was a glowing and pulsating green trinket, one she vaguely recognized from a few months ago.

"What in Equestria's name is-?" Trixie was cut off violently by the roaring crack of nearby lightning. A bolt had arced from the stars towards the earth and struck the traveling show wagon. The mare shrieked, while a jagged blue fissure shriked a path from her window and ran under her legs towards the object. Everything happened too fast for her to make sense of anything.

Trixie fell over; while her entire wagon seemed to capsize as though it were sinking into the ocean. At the same time, Swan's pained cries sprung into being alongside the sound of cracking wood and other noises filling the small space.

Amidst the sudden lurch of the wagon, a flying book struck Trixie dead between the eyes. The light blue mare spontaneously wore a goofy face as her home tumbled around her, and darkness blurred her vision.

"Trixie, wake up!" A voice that sounded as if it were underwater made Trixie's ears twitch and her eyes jerk open. She pushed against the ground and leaned up—the world in perfect clarity—just in time for a hoof to smack the side of her face.

A surprised, light purple mare held a hoof to her mouth and gasped. "Oh geez, sorry Trix, you just wouldn't wake up and then I panicked and I don't know where we are and-and..."

Trixie's hooves twitched on the verge of throttling Swan before lowering sullenly. The look of fear on her face was more than enough to stop Trixie from doing so.

"Calm down, you're not making any sense." Trixie asked, groaning afterwards from the headache. Every part of her body was very obviously bruised and hurt. She winced as she stood up shakily, and tried to make sense of what her protege had just rambled off. "What do you mean, you don't know where we are? We are in the Griffin Kingdoms dear assistant, don't tell me the..." Trixie massaged her bruised mouth with one hoof, scowling, until she looked up and caught sight of her wagon. "What...? What!? My home, no!" The show-mare stared disbelievingly at the wagon, turned upright and almost a stride underwater.

"I guess there was a flood...?" Swan pawed a hoof at the ground sheepishly while Trixie splashed forward into the mucky water. She watched as the older mare vainly gave the wagon a push, to no avail.

"Help me!" Trixie stood and tried to plant her hooves firmly, but they slipped on the treacherous mud beneath the foul water. She was deposited into the cold trench, and came back up spluttering.

"Trix! Hey, are you alright?" The pegasus floated beside Trixie and held a hoof down to her. "Come on, if we're going to get it out we need to plan it. Plus, I think we have other concerns right now..."

Grimacing from where she sat in the water, Trixie lent her hoof up to Swan and together they floated back to the embankment. "Other concerns? What else could be more pressing than our home underwater?" Her hooves deftly caught her as she let go of Swan preemptively, then began wringing out her mane with a sneer. "Uggh, that water is disgusting, as bad as the Everfree..." She muttered to herself.

"It was just raining out Trix, where did the storm go? For that matter, it was just night out, too." Trixie looked up at her, and Swan was looking up at the sky, a worried frown on her face. "A raging storm like that doesn't just disappear, especially not without help, and the moon wouldn't just trade places with the sun!"

Trixie blinked up at the warm sun and clear sky. "So I wasn't out for the entire night?"

"No, it's been literally five minutes since I woke up. Everything just tilted and there was a blue light in the wagon, I assumed you had just blown something up but... When I crawled through the window?" Swan shook her head slowly while responding. "The wagon was in this gulch..." She wore a confused look on her face.

"Trixie agrees, that is very odd..." Nervous as she was, Trixie couldn't help the accidental lapse into her stage voice... Her scowl found its way back to her wagon though, eager to try and get it out. I wonder if...I might be able to lift it out. She weighed her options, and using her magic seemed her best bet. "Perhaps that villain Discord is abouts, messing with the daylight? Either way, Trixie won't question our good fortune, we would never be able to get the wagon out in a storm after all."

Swan gave her a doubtful look from her place a few strides above the ground. "Yeah...I guess...so what, did a flood carry us from our campsite, without either of us noticing?" She gestured around them, spreading her forearms wide. Indeed, the lightly forested area bore no resemblance to where they had stopped for the night.

Trixie gave the surroundings a defeated look and sat down with an audible thump. Being reminded of not yet having slept caused her to be overwhelmed with tiredness. One day, I'm going to have a stroke of good luck... The unlucky mare's thoughts didn't quite convince her of the sentiment.