Trixie Story Scraps, Part 2 · 8:52pm Apr 9th, 2020
I think this is going to be the last of what I share from this project's leftovers; of the two iterations of the scene that follows what I posted last time, I think this one stands on its own better, has fewer spoilers (but I still can't post the whole thing), and, despite what I thought last night when I only glanced at it, actually does contain Trixie.
This is actually the first attempt, which is probably why it goes longer without covering the content that's relevant to my next attempt; the second one had more effort in shoehorning the plot in. Ultimately, that didn't go so well. This one probably stands alone better because it wasn't as forced. Lessons learned, I hope.
In related news, before I give you the scrap, I am seriously considering making a story/collection for these bits and pieces and vignettes. There are four (or maybe one or two more than that) that I know I've shared via blog posts over time, but I think I have at least one more (and it's a good one (there are batponies)) that I haven't shared anywhere. You all can feel free to convince me to make such a collection, or at least hurry up with it, if you like.
Now, here's that promised scrap. I've trimmed it just a bit; it goes on for about another 300 words, but with spoilers and hamfisting the plot point, I think it's better to cut it at just the right spot to make it a teaser instead.
Starlight hadn’t been inside Rainbow’s house before, but it was way cleaner than she expected. The amount of clutter, awards, and posters crowding up the surfaces and walls of adjacent rooms came as no surprise, but every room that should could see into – especially the living room – maintained an open feel to it. She wondered if this was intentional and at all related to the fact that Rainbow was a pegasus.
I’ll have to conduct a study on pegasus living habits someday soon. My expectations clearly aren’t up to par. Starlight briefly recalled the uniform style of houses in her village. Gee, I wonder why that is.
She and Trixie had found Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner, and the three of them tracked down Rainbow, who had volunteered her living room when Starlight requested that they find somewhere more private than a random cloud bank floating just above Ponyville. Now Trixie and Rainbow seemed to be competing for who could appear more relaxed on a couch.
“So, who are we getting and what do you need?” Pinkie asked as she dumped out a large bag of what Starlight guessed were of props for her practical jokes
“Yeah, what do you need our help for?” Rainbow asked. “I’ve been kinda curious what pranks Twilight could think up, and your ideas are the next best thing.”
“Well— wait. ‘Next best thing’? I am not that much like Twilight.”
Rainbow sat up and rolled her eyes. “We heard you scream. Not only was that a prank we pulled on Twilight, that was the same scream we got from Twilight.”
Starlight would have been happy to move on, except Trixie took that moment to fall off her couch cushion from her poorly-concealed snickering. Starlight glared at her in an attempt to ignore the mild burning of her ears and cheeks.
When Trixie recovered enough to notice, she replied, “What? You only said it ‘startled’ you.”
“It startled me and I reacted defensively. Let’s move on, please.”
Trixie snorted, but otherwise let it go.
Starlight glanced towards Pinkie and Rainbow and said, “We’re here because, even though I still don’t understand it, you all think pranking your friends is totally normal even though pranks can be mean and embarrassing; I thought of an idea for one to use on Twilight but it also seems mean, especially because Trixie even likes it. and I just don’t think this is a good idea.”
She let out a nervous chuckle, traced a circle with her hoof, and gave them a hopeful look. “Isn’t there, I don’t know, a less mean-spirited way to learn about pranks?” Because I don’t want to provoke the inhabitants of another town.
“Sheesh” Rainbow said. “You know Twilight also freaks out like this, right?”
Starlight returned a glare until Pinkie placed a hoof on her shoulder.
“Awww, don’t worry,” she said. “Pranks are only truly mean when the ponies that play them don’t set up good boundaries or follow them. Sometimes we can lose our touch and go too far, like Dashie did—”
“Hey!”
“—and sometimes embarrassing pranks are useful for reminding your friends, like Dashie, to keep their ego, or entitlement, or massive superiority complex in check.”
“I’m right here.”
“Maybe even all three at once,” Pinkie continued. “So sometimes playing a prank is just like being honest, and that’s a good thing for friendship, right? And when it’s not that, you can think of it like playing a game where you can’t really lose and you show each other the best moves you’ve got, so even if somepony gets you really good, you can admire how they did it.
“I hope we didn’t go too far with our prank this morning.”
“I… well, I guess it was fine. I didn’t like it, but I definitely fell for it even though it was dumb and I should have seen it coming. Heh.”
“Twilight felt the same way but—”
Starlight stepped back. “Oh for—! Ugh. Fine. Twilight and I think a little alike, but we definitely aren’t the same.”
“Of course not, silly. Anyway, Twilight doesn’t usually like silly pranks, but she doesn’t mind the really clever ones. We save only our best ideas for her.”
“Well, in that case, I think I know exactly where to get her.”
Pinkie gasped. “You’re not going to tell her that cheesecake contains cheese, are you?”
“Cheese— What? How could— Why would Twilight care about that?”
Rainbow briefly glanced around. “You didn’t hear it from us, but Twilight is uncomfortable with the idea of cheese. Nopony knows why.
“So how do you want to prank Twilight?”
“I don’t have a plan, exactly, but seeing as we apparently think alike, I can say with confidence that Twilight absolutely abides by every grammar, spelling, and punctuation rule there is.”
“This sounds boring.”
In the next attempt, I think we'll have a somewhat-spiteful Trixie rather than a prank-playing S6 Starlight, but the end result will be about the same. Whatever you're thinking, I plan to make it much worse than that. Here's hoping that I can rise to my expectations or, rather, the level that this story deserves; it won't be easy.
I do appreciate the running gag of Starlight being defensive about being just like Twilight. The whole exchange is oozing with fun banter.
Seconding the idea of a separate minific collection.
These were nice shorts, but I can see why you went with a new angle for ITL. This one didn't really spend much time with the main gag, though they did make for some good character fluff.
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