Chapter 5: Breakfast
It was the following morning. Trixie put on her saddlebag, exited her room and walked down the stairs. She then followed to the signs to the inn's restaurant and walked inside. The bad news: all the tables were occupied. The good news: JTH was sitting in the corner waving her over. She smiled and walked over.
As Trixie sat down, Thunderlane passed her the breakfast menu. “So you didn’t have any problem getting a room?”
Trixie shook her head. “No, but it seems the inn is already booked out tonight, so I’ll have to check out after lunch.”
“Well, Medley will meet you outside the theatre at 11 – the appointment was for 10:30, right?” Trixie nodded, as looked over the menu. “Hopefully she’ll have an answer about Bow Tie’s spare room.”
Trixie looked up. “How well do you know Bow Tie?”
“Not well. I think I met her once at a birthday party,” answered Thunderlane. “Medley and I go back a few years, though. Same Psychology course, similar interest in horror literature -” He noticed Trixie smiling at that last bit. “And similar interest in the Daring Do books. But we sorta fell out of contact with each other after she got married and moved to Cloudsdale, and for some reason she never worked quite so well with Ember or Gusty.”
At this point, the waiter came over to take their orders – for both of them, a vegetable salad with a cup of coffee. After he left, Thunderlane continued. “So, Ember tells me you’re a fan of my books.”
Trixie nodded enthusiastically. “Hurricane Unplugged, some of the best short stories I’ve ever read. I'm more a horror fan than an action-adventure fan, though.”
Thunderlane smiled. “I hope Krastos lives up to your standards.” At Trixie’s visible confusion, he added, “Daring Do and the Coronet of Chaos, my first book for Polo House. You’re still on the Core Series, right?”
Trixie nodded. “I started Platinum Crown last night – Ember told me it was set before Griffon’s Goblet. Not too bad of a read - it helped that I'd already seen the movie. But after about fifty-something pages, I started struggling to concentrate from... fatigue I guess. I’ll come back to it later.”
Thunderlane suspected that hadn’t been the whole truth, but he dropped the subject for now. “So has Ember told you much about the book she wants your help with?”
“Only that it involves Princess Sparkler coming back and getting some kind of character development.” She paused and looked around the room. Everypony within earshot was deep in their own conversations. "You know where she got the idea for Sparkler, right?”
Thunderlane nodded slowly. “Yeah, she told me, though not until after she’d pitched it to Gusty, so I chose not to comment.”
Trixie stared at him. “And if you had? What would your position have been, on caricaturing your friend’s family members in insulting ways for profit?”
Thunderlane hesitated. “I would have told Ember to think carefully about how you’d react if you ever read it. Just how did you react, out of curiosity?”
Trixie thought for a moment. “Annoyance at being insulted in such a public fashion, though that was somewhat muted since it didn’t seem that anypony had actually made the connection with me or gone public with it. But then I found out that not only did Gusty know in advance, she found it amusing enough not to try and talk her out of it.”
“Hence why you stormed out last night when Ember was trying to talk me into giving you Gusty’s room,” replied Thunderlane.
“That wasn’t the whole reason,” said Trixie. “When we were talking over coffee earlier, Ember told me about how and when the three of you had met and started working together. And while I was trying not to think about it, it made me realise that Gusty had never told me any of this, even after she knew how much of a fan of you I was.”
Thunderlane shook his head in disbelief. “I’m honestly kind of shocked that she would have done that – are you sure she didn’t mention me at some point before I had been published and thought you already knew later?”
Trixie shook her head. “I've thought of that, but then I remembered the farewell party Dad threw me the night before I went on the road. Gusty came along with my Uncle Lancer, but as usual she made it clear she was more interested in seeing Checker than seeing me. She watched as I opened Dad’s present, a bound copy of Hurricane Unplugged, then immediately headed off with Checker for a night on the town. And no, neither of them bothered to invite me.“
“And she didn’t so much as tell you she could arrange to get the book autographed?” asked Thunderlane, disgust now creeping into his voice.
“No, and neither did my uncle, which raises the question of how much effort she was putting into keeping us apart. I mean, I know we didn’t get on well before, and I don't deny that a lot of that was my fault, but I never thought she had been quite that spiteful.”
At this point the waiter returned with their coffees. After each of them took a moment to sweeten and stir them, Thunderlane took a sip, then asked, “Do you still have that book with you? You know I’d be happy to autograph it.”
Trixie smiled but shook her head. “Actually I left it with the Pie family. Their older daughter really got into them, plus I have most of them committed to memory anyway. Maybe you could sign one of my spare hats later.”
Thunderlane smiled back. “Agreed.” He noticed the waiter, now approaching with the salads, and made space on the table for them.
After they’d both been eating for a minute, Thunderlane turned to her. “So all this about Gusty keeping you from finding out about me, you figured it out last night?”
Trixie nodded. “Subconsciously, I guess, after Ember told me when the three of you moved in together.”
“So you came out of that conversation with a lot more bitterness towards her than when you went in?” asked Thunderlane. “But not consciously, hence why it took you as long as it did to start railing against her.”
Trixie nodded, a little surprised at his perceptiveness. “That about sums it up. I guess I wasn’t dwelling on it because I had spent so much of that afternoon and evening bonding with Ember, after she apologised for writing the book and offered to make it right. Not to mention what she told me about Checker at the funeral.”
“Your sister, I remember…” Thunderlane trailed off as something clicked in his head. “Just how far did you get into Platinum Crown before you put it aside? How long after Derring's conversation with Darrin?”
Trixie's first reaction was confusion at the sudden change of subject. Then she realised what conclusion Thunderlane had come to, and almost choked on a piece of carrot.
“You’re good at this!” she said, with grudging respect. “Yes, it was the argument between Darrin and Derring, and yes, it hit a little too close to home.” She put down her fork and stared at the plate. “I mean, I know it’s hardly a perfect parallel – we were both adults, neither of us in a parental role, she was the older one. But I left home, I never contacted her, then I completely dropped off the map and unlike Derring I didn’t even have the excuse of a successful career.
"I could have gone home after my reputation was destroyed, but instead I disappeared and let my whole family think I might be dead – even after I stumbled across Gusty’s obituary, I still wasn’t thinking about anything but my plans for revenge on Twilight Sparkle. And I don't know how I'm ever supposed to look Checker or my father in the eye now. I know they were searching for me after Gusty's funeral, but..." Trixie could barely hold back the tears.
Thunderlane shuffled around the table so he could put his wing around her. “Well, we’ll find out when Checker replies to Ember’s letter. But if it helps at all, Derring did manage to make up with her siblings.”
Trixie tried to smile, and dabbed at her eyes with one of the spare serviettes. “Hopefully when I finish Platinum Crown tonight it'll give me some tips – that's if I’m not too busy with performing. Come on, let’s finish these and get over to the theatre.”