Gusty and Ember

by Tobyc

Chapter 4: Sleeping Arrangements

Chapter 4: Sleeping Arrangements

Trixie racked her brains, trying to remember where she’d seen this unicorn before. “OK, you’re going to have to refresh my –” she paused as a second mare came out of the bedroom to investigate the commotion. A cream-coloured Earth pony, and one she definitely recognised. “You!”

The mare blinked. “Trixie?”

The unicorn glared indignantly. “You remember Bon-Bon but not me?” She turned to Bon Bon. “I thought we did everything together.”

Trixie glared back. “You didn’t show up at three of my performances in the north-west and turn the crowd against me.”

“So that explains her mysterious trip to Vanhoover,” muttered the unicorn.

Bon Bon ignored her and scoffed. “Right, like you weren’t already doing that yourself by humiliating anypony who tried to challenge you, just like you did to Applejack and Rainbow Dash.”

“By the third time, you didn’t even let me get started!” retorted Trixie. “You arrived a day ahead of me and passed out fliers about the Ursa Minor incident. It never occurred to you that I might have been ready to change my approach?”

Bon Bon flinched as the question struck home. But she recovered and replied, “And what you did to Ponyville two months ago, was that you changing your approach?”

It was Trixie’s turn to flinch, as she was hit with a wave of remorse. “That wasn’t even my plan, not until after I found the Amulet. I wanted to show up Twilight, I wasn’t after the whole town.”

Bon Bon was unmoved. “That’s your excuse? ‘The Amulet made me do it.’?”

Trixie’s glare returned. “Yes, that’s my excuse, and it doesn’t seem worse than, ‘Our hero worship of a stage performer made us endanger our whole town in an attempt to make her look good.’ How much time did you devote to harassing those idiots?”

Bon Bon sensed she was losing this argument, but she pressed on. “None, once they’d helped worked off the damage the Ursa did. How much have you ever done to atone for your mistakes? Let's see, you supplied a few fireworks for Twilight’s show. Uninvited, I might add, which could have gone horribly wrong for-”

Ember finally stepped in. “Girls, this is getting us nowhere.” She looked around at each of them. “Lyra, Medley, nice to see you both again. Bon Bon, I’m pleased to finally meet you. – Wait, has anypony seen T.L?”

“He told me he was going to take off and then slipped out during the argument,” answered Medley. “On his way back to Cloudsdale, I guess.”

“OK then.” Ember gestured for the group to follow her into the living room. The six of them sat down, Trixie and Lyra levitating chairs in from the kitchen. “So, Lyra and Medley, I take it you’ve both come here to continue working with Thunderlane?”

Medley nodded. “He'd hit a bit of an impasse on both books, so we decided it might help if he had you around.”

Suddenly, Trixie put a few pieces together – Ember had said Thunderlane was in Ponyville and Cloudsdale, working with a Ponyville local. He had brought back Lyra, who quite obviously wasn’t from Cloudsdale. Two of the Daring Do books on the second pile, still on the coffee table, had the name L. Heartstrings on the cover – and now she recognised where she’d seen her before: she had been watching her rematch with Twilight Sparkle.

“You’re L. Heartstrings?” blurted out Trixie, pulling the two books in question out of the pile with her telekinesis.

Lyra turned and smiled. “That’s right. You’re a fan?”

“Actually… no, I’ve never read your work,” said Trixie, deflated, as she returned the books to the pile. “They’re on my reading list though.”

Medley seemed to notice the pile for the first time and looked through them. “None of mine are,” she said, with a tone of feigned indignation.

Ember spoke up. “My fault. I’ve asked Trixie for help on a book, and I picked these out to help set the scene for her. She has little to no experience of this series before.”

“Not even your cousin’s books?” asked Medley. Bon Bon shot Lyra a surprised look, which went unnoticed by the rest of the group.

Trixie shook her head. “Gusty and I weren’t on great terms, and until last week I didn’t even know about her involvement in this series.”

Thunderlane turned to Ember. “You found her a week ago? Why didn’t you write to me?”

Ember looked at him, surprised. “I did! Why didn’t you write and tell me you were bringing three mares back with you?”

“I did,” answered Thunderlane slowly. After a few seconds, he, Lyra, Bon Bon and Medley facehoofed simultaneously. “The Cloudsdale Postal Service really needs to do something about Raindrops,” he muttered.

Ember changed the subject. "Okay then, sleeping arrangements. You said Medley would be staying with her sister?” Thunderlane and Medley nodded. Ember turned to Lyra. “I have an extra mattress, but it’s only big enough for one pony. How about you and Bon Bon take the spare room, and Trixie can share mine?”

Lyra and Bon Bon seemed receptive to the idea, but Trixie shook her head. “Thank you, Ember, but I was planning to start on the books tonight, and I’d rather avoid keeping you awake”

Ember nodded. “That’s fair. The living room?”

Trixie looked over the room and thought for a moment, then turned back to Ember and shook her head. “The amount of furniture that would need to be moved just to make enough space for a mattress, it’s not a great long-term plan.”

Thunderlane turned to Medley. “How much room would Bow Tie have?

Medley hesitated. “From memory, her spare room would be big enough for both of us – and no, I wouldn’t have a problem with you being up late reading, I’m much the same – but I don’t know if I could convince her at this short notice. I can ask her tonight and give you an answer in the morning.”

Trixie smiled. “Thank you Medley, but that still leaves tonight – it looks like the inn two blocks away is the best option. I’ll just have to hope they still have vacancies.”

“Wait, if we’re going to resort to a rented room, wouldn’t it be better to give it to the two who… er… might have more use for the added privacy?” Ember finished awkwardly.

Bon Bon scowled at that. “What exactly are you insinuating?” she asked.

Thunderlane interrupted. “Conversely, wouldn’t it be cheaper for us to just pay for a single room?”

“Lanie, this is Gusty’s cousin, if anypony has the right to her room-” she stopped as Trixie stood to leave.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’m definitely taking the inn. I’ll meet you at the theatre in the morning Ember,” said Trixie dispassionately. She took two of the books off the table – Daring Do and the Platinum Crown and Daring Do and the Griffon’s Goblet - then walked back to the bedroom, grabbed her bags and walked back to the front door.

As she was walking down the path to the street, she heard Ember behind her. “Trixie, wait! Was it something I said?”

Trixie turned to her. “Look, Ember, I accept your apology for Princess Sparkler, and I’m willing to hold up my end of this “creative consultant” deal. But if you're going to use my cousin as an excuse to do favours for me - which I don't believe for a second she would have been willing to do herself - don't think I'm going to take it well, especially now that I know she was the one who persuaded you to use me for the book. And while I can believe that I might have misjudged Checker’s attitude towards me, somehow I don’t think you can convince me the same of Gusty. Interesting that at the last few Lulamoon family get-togethers we both came to, she never once bothered to tell me about knowing, let alone living, with one of my favourite writers.”

Ember had nothing to say to that. Trixie turned and walked down the street, not looking back.

Comments

[SpacePaladin]

Perhaps Trixie should consider paying some of those royalties as reparations to Ponyville and Snips and Snails specifically.

[Sereg]

Conflict!

Please continue.

[The Abyss]

...and FAVORITED!