Quarantine preview! · 2:34pm Mar 24th, 2020
Being stuck at home does tend to get old quick, I have to admit.
So, while I put the finishing touches on the next chapter of Pregnant Noses, here's a sneak peek for you to nibble on. Just make sure you wash your hands afterwards. 
* * ✹ * *
The Great and Powerful Trixie hated April Fools Day.
Her loathing of the fake holiday had begun as a filly, when her classmates would pull nasty tricks like having her eat peanut butter crackers made of cardboard and toothpaste, or making her “accidently” trip into a kiddie pool filled with fluorescent green dye. She hated how vicious some ponies could be, and how they didn’t care if it hurt somepony else, so long as they got a laugh.
But Trixie was no common imbecile, and she had quickly taught herself how to both avoid the cruel pranks and to turn them back on the prank-er as well. Trixie would not deny that she secretly had enjoyed turning the tables on her attackers, and those old skills had proven oddly useful during her current employment in the palace.
But now, she was regretting the fact that she had not listened to the little voice in her head that had told her to get out of Canterlot for the day. She had assumed that the palace would be relatively safe, given that it was stuffed to overflowing with pompous nobles who came apart at the seams when their afternoon tea was five minutes late. Trixie had figured that if she just remained close to Princess Celestia and Prince Bean, she would be shielded from Princess Luna, and thus safe from the only potential source of pranks.
It was never a good idea to prank a pregnant mare, after all.
That hope had been destroyed as soon as she’d woken up for the day. As usual, she had gracefully fallen out of bed when her alarm clock violently ripped her away from Dreamland, and like always, the hapless device had met an untimely end at Trixie’s hooves. Once she had managed to rub away the pain from her impact with the tiled floor of her room—which she had lessened by throwing several blankets and pillows down at the impact site—Trixie had stumbled into her bathroom for a shower and a healthy swish of mouthwash to get the taste of carrots out of her mouth.
The shower itself had been divine, and Trixie secretly wished there was a way she could take the entire bathroom on the road with her. There were perks to having a permanent home—running water, storage space, an actual bed—and she had to admit that she was going to miss those things.
The thought of how she might miss working for Wysteria and the Royals had been interrupted when she had stepped out and reached for her towel. Normally, a blue hoof would stretch out into her field of vision, grab the fluffy and mountain fresh scented towel, and then pull back to properly dry her coat, tail, and mane.
On this April Fools morning, there was no blue hoof to be seen.
To Trixie’s credit, she did not panic at first. Instead, she simply figured that there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe as a whole, and that if she simply pulled her hoof back and extended it again, everything would reset and she would see her familiar appendage once more.
This was repeated several times, and then Trixie panicked.
“AIEEE!” Trixie wailed at a frequency that was at the upper end of a pony’s range of hearing. “Who stole Trixie’s hoof?! Trixie can’t walk with three legs! Help!”
“Miss Trixie!” Corporal Quillpoint burst in, his horn flaring with magic. “Are you all right?”
“Trixie is not all right!” she bellowed as she thundered into the main room. “Some vile villain has stolen Trixie’s leg, and it’s Trixie’s favorite leg, too! Summon the guards! You have to find out who did this, and then throw them in the stockades for a month! Why are you just standing there?! You look like a guppy floundering on land!”
“Um, Miss Trixie?” The corporal pointed to a nearby mirror. “I think you’ve got something bigger to worry about than a stolen leg.”
“What?! How could anything be more important than my Great and Powerful leg?!” Trixie whirled to look in the mirror, but her rant stopped as soon as she did.
There were two possible explanations for what she saw in the glass. The first was that she had been bitten by a vampire, and that she was now some sort of batpony. The second was that she had, somehow, been turned invisible.
The first option didn’t make much sense. From what she could remember, batponies could still see themselves, even if they didn’t have a reflection. Trixie also seemed to recall that they were sparkly, had an impulsive desire to share their feelings with others, and were in some sort of feud with a pack of weretimberwolves.⁽*⁾
⁽*⁾Trixie's choice in bedtime literature left something to be desired. Quality, to be specific. And taste.
—
Can't wait for it
Awww, does this mean we have to wait until April Fool's Day to get the whole episode?
5227161
Maybe. I'm debating about releasing it early.
But I still need to fix some problems and let the editors pick it apart first. We'll see how that goes, then I'll make the decision. :)
"Well, we appear to have a mystery on our hooves but who could the culprit be"
"What do you think totally random, and not at all prank happy, alicorn"
Wait until Trixie realizes invisibility has certain advantages.
I thought this quarantine would result in a glut of chapters. Imagine my disappointment.
5228238
I know. You would think I'd be able to, given the whole home-confinement thing. But I've had to deal with a lot of side-issues over the last two weeks or so, and that's put a serious dent in my writing time.
Hopefully the situation will improve, and I can write more.