//------------------------------//
// A Trixie Prologue 
// Story: Evenfall: Waves in a Haven 
// by Yinglung 
//------------------------------//

Dear Journal,

The Great and Powerful Trixie commands you to write up yourself!

Dang, it’s worth a shot. Twilight is not here to chew me out for messing around in the journal anyway. I do increasingly think that pumping magic blindly into something to make it work remained a privilege for somepony that was so unique like her.

So, it’s been six whole moons since Tri I started this journal. Rarity was right, writing down my feelings do help me clarify my thoughts. But I just don’t have the patience to write something every day, so I guess I will keep writing monthly like that. But this time, since it was exactly half a year since I started, I’m going to write a much more detailed report.

When I first came to the Golden Oaks, I thought I’d just live here for a short while before I get a house of my own. But I never imagine that I would move in again and even take charge of the library. Thanks to Rarity and her friends, I finally got the papers for working as the temporary librarian in Ponyville… Not that I really need it since nopony really minded, but having something official by my side prevents someone else from coming, messing with Twilight’s things, or Celestia forbid, staking a claim to the library.

I now also have a second job at the Ponyville Theatre, thanks to Pinkie’s recommendation! It feels so good to finally get back into performance arts. Playing tricks in Pinkie’s parties is fun, but a larger audience is always nice. The professional setting is even sweeter. Now that I’m without any emotional baggage, I’m sure I can amaze ponies once again. Plus I now know much more spells to crank my show up several notches, haha! Hopefully my audience size could one day match Pinkie’s stand-ups, she’s crazy talented at making ponies laugh.

Oh, and some status updates. Shining Armor and Cadance finally got married. Despite what had happened, they still deeply love each other, and I think it is wrong to let something, however tragic, to delay their union any further. This time though, they wisely chose to conduct the ceremony in private. Some really drunk guest pinched Cadance’s face to see if she’s the real deal. I don’t think it’s in a very good taste, but she took it graciously, which was a good sign. 

One thing I didn’t expect was to see Discord in the ceremony. Cadance invited him despite Shining Armor’s reservations. Despite that, they two really are two of the most forgiving ponies I’ve ever met. If it was me, I don’t know if I could tolerate Discord in my sight without giving him the black eye, metaphorically or physically.

But in truth, I myself don’t and can’t really have much gripe with him. He’s been absolutely forthright for a chaos draconequus. Even when he got pelted with rotten tomatoes in the face by somepony, he just shrugged it off and walked away quietly. Of course there is the matter of guilt, but he’s become way too nice for me to think that he’s the same chaos king ponies used to write menacingly about in history books.

As always, despite being largely unassuming, Twilight was an enormous influence. Discord is the best example of how she could help someone to resculpt themselves into a better person. And this too I will never forget.

Alright, let’s move from heavier stuffs and talk more about the recent happenings to my other friends. Fluttershy had hired more ponies for the Mirror, now that it could sell in the capital and beyond. It now has a local edition and a national edition. I never knew Fluttershy as the entrepreneurial type, and I was right. I found out that it was Rarity who suggested her to try some pretty intense business tactics, and Fluttershy herself was not exactly comfortable with all of them, but agreed because her colleagues were intrigued. 

I’m sure somepony can write a book about the resulting media war that even caused concerns to the Royal Government. The Mirror is now printed completely in color, with large and smart typeface and imageries on the cover page, which has traditionally been whole-page ads. Last week, it even came with an apple with each paper bought! The price-warring had killed off goodness know how many smaller papers. Fluttershy felt quite bad about it and tried to recruit some of the dismissed ponies. But in any case, the Mirror is on the way to become one of the more circulated newspapers in Equestria.

The Mirror also covers topics usually steered clear by Canterlot Times, like corruption among the upper-class, and shock-horror, the government! It just implicated a nephew of Blueblood for soliciting bribes for royal appointments. I heard that even though common ponies eat the savory news up like no tomorrow, but the reporting angers a lot of important ponies. Even Photo Finish, Fluttershy’s old acquaintance in the fashion industry, had to distance herself with Fluttershy to prevent her own business getting affected. Rumors have it that even the princesses were concerned, and informally asked Fluttershy to tune it down a bit. Fluttershy told me that it did happen, but she declined Princess Celestia’s request citing editorial freedom. I hope she won’t get too much frack from this.

Rarity… I still feel like I owe her a lot. After all, she gave me a job and a place to live when I was most downtrodden. And honestly if not for her, I might still be digging for gems in the mines! Geez, that makes me shudder just thinking about it. To my surprise, Rarity still managed to effectively attend to both her fashion and mining businesses, aside from having to absorb Twilight’s own trading business. I thought it bizarre that she’s managing three industries with hardly anything in common. Well, except that she uses a lot of gems in her designs. But hey, as long as the boat floats.

Sadly, rules and traditions still matter in this world. As her businesses get more successful, some rich ponies and landlords of those mines she operates in feel threatened. Several severed the contracts with Rarity, and others obstructed Rarity’s application to obtain permits and recognition for the miner settlements, which would have allowed her to provide better service and amenities to her workers. 

Fortunately, Rarity still managed to petition successfully and turn Raritan into a self-governing municipality. It’s nominally under the township of Ponyville, but Rarity had the final say on a lot of things. She’s got a town that’s named after herself! But she’s running out of favors with the Royal Government, and quite a few high-muck-a-mucks got irritated by how she gave the diamond dogs full citizenships. It’s certainly unusual, but if they can let dragons settle down in Fillydelphia, then why the hay not diamond dogs?

I went to Raritan a few times, and it was a quaint and well-organized community. Besides mining, there have been small-scale cotton-planting. Of course no cotton has been produced in these few moons yet, but this is another sign that Rarity’s businesses are swiftly catching up in terms of size to those tremendous conglomerates in Manehattan.

Applejack was still working on her farm. She seemed to be content to maintain the current size of her orchards. A lot of ponies come from all corners of Equestria to learn about her farming machineries, but she was very cautious in keeping her technological edge. Applejack once told me that she had another deep concerns with further spread of machineries. She didn’t clarify, but I think she’s fearing that with machines that can be operated by anyone, earth ponies may become disadvantaged because physical strength is a lot of time the trait that keeps earth ponies uniquely useful. I can’t say I worry as much as her, but she might be right to be prudent.

She didn’t seem to be too otherwise concerned with her newer role as a railroad magnate. She replaced all the pony-drawn trains down south with either coal-powered or magic gem engines, which did displace a number of earth ponies, but she absorbed them into her farms or factories. 

I think she had a whole lot more sway in the south that she would like to publicly admit. She had smaller farms scattered all over the place, not to mention she knows a lot of cousins and old friends there. Together with her wine businesses targeting the high society, she’s connected to ponies both up and down the social crust. I’d say she’s becoming the most influential Apple in recent memory. However, she’s running into a little trouble with finding sufficient farm hooves and railroad builders now that so many ponies have migrated into the larger cities and towns.

As for Pinkie, she’s least involved with being an entrepreneur. It doesn’t suit her personality anyway. She nominally heads a soft drink company, but she delegates most of the running to her staff. She uses the bits she earns to sponsor her tours of stand-up comedy and party concerts across Equestria. Honestly though, I think her stand-up routines are better than her songs. Her songs are just too mushy sometimes, and I like the bites in her jokes. In any case, Pinkie’s a great public performer and I had a lot to learn from her.

And whoa, did Ponyville change a lot since my arrival. The capital as well as the coast have always thirsted after the staples from the south. With the expansion of railway network in the south, a lot of these goods roll into Ponyville from the hinterland and travel to various markets. The market is so busy nowadays that it’s hard to walk across.

A lot of ponies have moved from the rural areas and into Ponyville, causing a shortage of farming hooves in nearby areas, and also housing shortage in the town. The town council has just finish building a new row of three-story houses along the main street. Now Ponyville looks like Fillydelphia’s rural cousin, I don’t know if it’s a good thing as they jutted out from the pastoral scene so much. Also, the newly built factories largely run on coals because cleaner fuels are hard to come by, and the hydroelectric dam is severely over-capacity. The air pollution occasionally cover Ponyville with a layer of grim. The weather team has to work extra hard to wash it clean, but it still causes me to cough sometimes.

And well, Spike. Ah, I still remember the time when he suddenly burst into an angry diatribe accusing me of wanting to replace Twilight. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Back then we’re really just nodding acquaintance at best, despite me being in the library often for lessons. He looked constantly depressed, and I didn’t really know what to do with him. But then, he went for a moon-long trip around Equestria. When he came back… let’s say we’ve reached an understanding. We were both students to Twilight… sort of, and we’re unique in that we both knew Twilight before her… change. We would trade funny anecdotes of Twilight when she’s young, and we’ve become good friends and partners.

Sometimes though, he still mistakenly call me Twilight. It’s awkward at first, but I’ve learnt to tease him lightly for that, and he’s okay with it aside from getting red-faced. But I am still a bit unused to the fact that he’s dating two mares at once. I mean, is that normal for dragons? Rarity seems A-Okay with this, which came as a shock to me, since I picture her more as the melodramatic type who would push somepony down a river or jump into a river herself when she sense infidelity. Moreover, it seems that Pinkie is the one who’s more uncomfortable with having to share Spike with someone else. I don’t think she’s selfish or anything, but I think she’s more of the clingy type which isn’t happy with having to cut out her alone time with Spike. 

Argh, last Tuesday Junebug came in and asked me in a hushed tone if Spike’s getting a third marefriend. When I was just bemused with her sudden query, she surreptitiously asked if I was the third one! Now, I don’t claim to be the best expert on romantic love, because it’s most certainly Cadance, but I seriously doubt that just because I live in with Spike, there must be some romance between us. I’m not saying that the little rascal doesn’t have a way with mares. Okay, that was extremely poorly worded. But if the logic held, then shouldn’t Twilight also be Spike’s marefriend?

Argh, enough with the little scamp’s love life. It’s been half a year since Rainbow left to look for Twilight. After the initial few letters, she didn’t send any more to us. Maybe the places she go to are too far away from Equestria. We all are worried for her safety, but Pinkie’s the one who’re the most visibly concerned about Rainbow. She often asks Applejack if there is any news from the south. She herself also went to the old rock farm of her family south of Las Pegasus several times to try to find out something, albeit without success. I really hope that Rainbow will come back safely, we really can’t afford to lose another of us.

I’m still saddened to think and write about Twilight, but her memorial garden finally opened in Ponyville. It’s bizarre and somewhat infuriating for a memorial place in her adopted home to open so much later than the one in Canterlot. But I went to it anyway. I laid down some Zebrican Violets, since that’s one of the flowers that Twilight loved most according to Spike. I must admit though, the craftwork is stunningly beautiful and breathtaking. It showed an almost lifelike Twilight valiantly standing guard against enemies of Equestria, like a proper lady of war. A lot of well-wisher were also there, paying tributes and occasionally shedding tears. I don’t know if Twilight would like this though, she always struck me as a self-effacing type with a dry sense of humor. This kind of grand display would have probably made her queasy. Eh, what am I writing anyway? She’s gone to a better place… I hope.

Gah, it’s seven already. There is really so much more to write about, but I have to stop now. Spike’s calling me for dinner. If I’m to write more, this would totally turn into a world almanac. Until next time then!

Yours excellently,
Trixie Lulamoon