“Very good,” Maud said as she and Trixie watched Starlight and Sunburst cuddled together, bathed in the light of Trixie’s fireworks.
“As if there were any doubt,” Trixie said. “I told you the Great and Powerful Trixie would make sure they kiss before this day was over!”
“Boulder and I know magic, too.”
“You do?” Trixie asked, turning to face Maud. “Show me!”
Maud held Boulder in her hoof and draped a kerchief over him. “Feast your eyes.” She pulled back the kerchief to reveal… Boulder. “Tada.”
“Um, what was that?” Trixie asked.
“He’s sedimentary now.”
Trixie cocked her head. “Eh? Sedi-what?”
“Boulder can do transformation magic. He’s an igneous rock normally.”
“There’s a difference?”
“You’ve got a lot to learn.”
Trixie snorted, “I could say the same about you. If you tried that in front of an audience, they’d boo you off the stage.”
“Not when you realize I’ve taken your cloak and hat.”
Trixie had been so fixated on Boulder that she never noticed her cape and hat were gone; Maud was now wearing them. “When did-” Trixie patted her head to double-check. “Okay, you’re good.”
“Boulder’s a master of distraction.”
***
The last of the fireworks fizzled out, leaving only lingering clouds of smoke above Starlight and Sunburst. A few ponies cheered for the fireworks display.
Starlight unwrapped her leg from Sunburst’s side and stood up. “Ok, Trixie and Maud have to be around here somewhere. No chance those fireworks were just a coincidence.”
Sunburst rose to his hooves as well. “Hmmm. I don’t see them.”
“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Her eyes struggling against the growing darkness of night, Starlight wandered around to try and spot them. She found the two near the front gate of the park. Trixie’s eyes met Starlight’s, and the magician ran up to hug her.
"Starlight, that was so sweet! I saw everything!"
“I know,” Starlight answered.
Trixie’s smile grew. “So, are you and Sunburst an item?”
Starlight giggled. “Yes, Trixie, we’re an item.”
“That’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you!” Trixie let go of Starlight and fished around in her bag with her magic. “Here, I got something for you.”
Starlight took a step back in surprise. “For me? Trixie, you shouldn’t have.”
From her bag, Trixie produced a little glass cricket attached to a necklace. “Well, I picked this up as a souvenir in the gift shop at Dim Sum’s, but I want you to have it.”
“Wow. It’s a little green cricket.” Unable to muster her tact, Starlight added, “I don’t get it. Why a cricket?”
“I heard that, in the East, crickets are a symbol of good luck and prosperity. So this is for you. You know, for good luck. Between you and Sunburst.”
Starlight hugged Trixie for the gift after placing the loop around her neck. “Thanks. But remember how I said I didn’t want to see you again tonight?”
Trixie rubbed her chin after Starlight let go. “Oh, you did say that, didn’t you?”
“Yup, and you’re gonna make it up to me.”
“I accented your perfect little moment. Isn’t that enough?”
“Nope.”
“What, then?”
“You’re going to go on the High Horse with me.”
“That ginormous bungee drop?” Trixie waved the idea away. “Get Sunburst to do it. After all, you’re an item now.”
“He’s too chicken.”
Trixie craned her neck, looking up at the High Horse’s poles. She felt her heart sink all the way down to her hooves. “That thing’s, like, a mile high! Are you nuts?”
“I must be,” Starlight answered, giving a sly smirk. “Because I didn’t think the Great and Powerful Trixie would be scared of a little drop.”
Stammering, Trixie took a step back. “What? You – you presume too much of the Great and Powerful Trixie! Fear is not a factor here!”
Starlight narrowed her eyes in challenge. “Prove it.”
“What? Well, I—“ Trixie drooped her ears, trying to come up with both a way to preserve her image and an excuse to get out of this death sentence.
“What’s the matter, Trix?” Starlight asked, still smirking at her.
Trixie groaned, knowing Starlight had her cornered. “Fine! I’ll do it!”
“I’ll go, too,” Maud said, stepping up to the two.
“You will?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “This seems way out of your element, Maud.”
“Boulder wants to try it.”
The threesome made their way over to Sunburst, who was still waiting at the place where he and Starlight had kissed. “Well, isn’t this surprise. Did you have fun spying on us all day?”
“I was just trying to help!” Trixie said.
Sunburst edged closer, scowling at Trixie. “By sticking your nose where it didn’t-”
Starlight stepped between the two. “It’s okay, Sunburst. No good deed goes unpunished, and these two are going to go on the High Horse with me.”
An alarmed expression crossed Sunburst’s face, his eyes wide behind his glasses. “You’re actually going on that thing?! Do you have a death wish?”
Starlight shot Trixie an irritated look. “Maybe it’ll make Trixie think twice before she decides to act like Con Mane again.”
Scoffing, Trixie rolled her eyes. “Please. You don’t even know who that is! You were too busy enslaving villages.”
“I do too!”
“How?” Trixie glared and prodded Starlight in the chest. “When we met, you didn’t even know who the Wonderbolts were!”
“Spike showed me. He’s a big Con Mane fan.”
“Figures.” Trixie scowled at the ground, seemingly irritated that her argument had been shot down.
Sunburst turned to the towering poles of the High Horse as he adjusted his glasses, his eyes scanning them up and down as if to assess the danger. Then he shrugged. “Well, if you want to go on it, I won’t stop you. Where would you like me to send your funeral arrangements?”
Starlight laughed at that while Trixie shuddered.
“Rockdale,” Maud replied. “That’s where they took my great, great grandmother. She fell.”
“You’re not helping!” Trixie hissed.
Starlight trotted ahead towards the High Horse. “Ok, you two, let’s go. They’re closing soon.”
Starlight’s heart raced and Trixie shivered as the operator secured each of them tightly in their chest harnesses, then walked over to his control panel. Maud checked to be sure Boulder was secure.
“Good luck!” Sunburst yelled to them from a spectating position.
The operator pushed a button on his panel and the ponies began to rise.
“Eeeek!” Trixie shrieked, galloping in midair for what good it would do. “I want down, I want down, I want down!”
“Trixie, we haven’t even gotten a meter off the ground yet,” Starlight said. Looking down, she could judge that she’d jumped higher than this before.
Trixie glanced downward and her air-running stopped. “Oh.” In the next moment, she resumed her screaming and futile attempts at escape as the bungee cords drew them ever higher. The further up they went, the more of Las Pegasus’ neon lights became visible beyond Corrals of Fun.
“Get me out of here! Please get me out! I’m not ready to die! I’ve got a show to do tomorrow!”
Starlight forced her attention away from Trixie’s panicking and waved at Sunburst on the ground far below. The orange dot waved back up at them.
The cords finally reached the tops of the poles. Starlight looked down and the height was staggering; they were dangling about two hundred feet in the air. She could see all of Las Pegasus spread out in the darkness beneath her, the city lights twinkling like stars in the sky. Even she felt a quick twinge of unease, for she knew they would be dropped in a matter of seconds.
“Whoa, we’re way up here. Don’t look down, Trix!”
Of course, Trixie did. “Ack! We’re so high up! Starlight, you are nuts! Absolutely insane!”
“Hang on, boy,” Starlight heard Maud mumble.
Trixie held her front hooves together and bowed her head with her eyes squeezed shut as she uttered some semblance of prayer.
The drop came swift and sudden. Starlight’s stomach churned and Trixie shrieked in terror as a rush of wind blasted them in the face, ripping through Starlight’s long mane as she let out a shrill, anxious squeal. The cords held fast just a few yards above the pavement, flinging her up and forwards in an arc. From the corner of her eye, Starlight saw Trixie panting like a dog, pale in the face from fear.
“This was a terrible idea!” Trixie screamed as the bungee cords threw them backwards. “Starlight, I hate you for this!”
“Hey, have you really lived if you don’t go through with a bad idea once a while?”
“There’s bad ideas, and then there’s YOUR ideas!” Trixie snapped back.
“Wee,” Maud said flatly, still wearing her stonelike expression.
Starlight’s hooves still tingled from the adrenaline when her swinging stopped and the operator unbuckled her from her harness. He freed Trixie next, who promptly dropped to her belly and kissed the concrete.
“Oh, sweet, solid ground, Trixie is never leaving you again!”
“Was it really that bad?” Starlight asked.
“Unicorns weren’t meant to fly!”
Starlight giggled at that. “Sunburst said the same thing early today.”
“I thought I was going to die!” Trixie spat. “I am never letting you talk me into anything again!”
“Boulder wants to do it again,” Maud said, now joining them.
“NO!” Trixie screamed, and galloped through the exit gate before they could drag her on it a second time. She dropped to her haunches. “Trixie is staying right here until you two psychos are finished!”
Maud pointed to Boulder. “There’s three of us in here.”
The operator walked up to them, shaking his head. “No time, park’s closing.”
“Darn.” Maud put Boulder back in her pocket.
The two walked out the exit gate to where Trixie and Sunburst were waiting for them.
“You’re alive, it seems,” Sunburst said as he hugged Starlight.
“As far as I can tell,” Starlight quipped.
“Good!” Trixie snapped. “You done?”
Starlight nodded. “Yup. The park’s closing. We gotta go.”
Trixie turned away from the High Horse, holding her nose to the air in indignation. “You’ll get no complaints to me. I want to get as far away from this thing as possible.”
A young unicorn filly stepped up to them just as they started for the entrance and nudged Trixie on the leg, halting her.
“Great and Powerful Trixie! That was so cool!” the filly shouted, staring up at Trixie, her eyes glittering with excitement.
Trixie glanced around, red blotches forming on her face. “You saw that?”
“I did! I’m a big fan, Great and Powerful Trixie! My parents brought me all the way to Las Pegasus to see your show tomorrow!”
That brought Trixie a smile that nearly engulfed her face. “Well, then, I’ll have to put on an extra special performance just for you, won’t I?” She removed her hat from her head and placed it on the filly’s. It sank past her ears and fell over her eyes, far too big for her little skull. That didn’t stop her from adjusting it to a more comfortable position.
“Wow!” the filly exclaimed.
Two adult unicorns, likely her parents, joined her side. She looked up at them, smiled, and grabbed her father’s camera with her magic. “Can I get a picture with you?” the filly asked.
Trixie beamed. “Absolutely, kiddo!”
“Yay!” The little filly kicked her front legs in joy and returned the camera to her dad, still wearing Trixie’s hat. She stood side-by-side with Trixie and smiled for the flash.
“Thanks, Great and Powerful Trixie!” The filly turned to Trixie and offered her the hat back. Trixie waved it back down.
“Keep it!”
The child’s large, innocent eyes grew even wider. “Really?!”
“Sure! I’ve got plenty.”
“You’re the best magician ever!” the filly declared. “And that ride looked so cool! I wanna go on it with you. The way you were screaming, it must be the best ride ever!”
Trixie gave a little gasp, her eyes darting and widening. “Oh! Um, yes, the High Horse is, er, Trixie approved!”
“Can we go on it tomorrow night after your show?”
Trixie fussed with her mane, trying to come up with some way to outthink her little fan. There was a sign next to the gate to the High Horse that read, “you must be this tall to ride the High Horse.” A line drawn on it indicated the required height, and the little filly was several heads beneath it.
“Sorry, kiddo, look at that sign.”
The filly looked to the sign for a moment, then drooped her ears and frowned. “Awwwww. Well, maybe when I’m old enough?”
“How about I just autograph your hat for you?”
That brought a smile back to the filly’s face as Trixie grabbed her hat long enough to scribble her autograph on it and return in to the filly’s head. Her mom laughed and stepped closer to Trixie, beckoning her daughter to move along. “That’ll do, Abra, don’t smother her,” the mom said. She turned to Trixie. “Thank you, Trixie. You just made her night. She wants to be a magician.”
“Abra, huh?” Trixie asked. “With a name like that, I’m sure she’ll make a great magician!” She offered Abra a parting wink, then turned back to her friends.
Starlight regarded Trixie and the ecstatic young fan trotting away behind her. “Trixie, that was sweet. I didn’t know you were so good with foals.”
Trixie shrugged. “Anything for a fan.” She yawned and stretched, the dark circles around her eyes indicating exhaustion. “Well, it’s been a fun day, but I think I’m gonna go back to my wagon and turn in for the night. What are you guys gonna do?”
“I’m going back to my hotel,” Maud said.
“Us, too,” said Starlight.
Trixie let out a mischievous chuckle, grinning slyly at Starlight and Sunburst. “So, are you two, you know, sharing a room?”
Sunburst stepped back, his cheeks bright red.
“Trixie!” Starlight snapped. “We only just committed to each other! No, we have separate rooms.”
Trixie flattened her ears against the embarrassment. “Kidding. See you guys tomorrow, at my show?”
Despite all Trixie had done throughout the day, Starlight hugged her. “Of course!”
“As if you had to ask,” Sunburst said.
“Count Boulder and me in,” Maud added.
Trixie yawned again, covering her mouth with her hoof. “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Starlight watched Trixie turn back inside the park and head for her wagon. “See you tomorrow, Trix!”
The threesome waved after her until she vanished in the darkness of the park’s dying lights.
“Boulder and I had fun,” Maud said. “We should come to Las Pegasus again sometime. I’ll bring Mud Briar. We could make it a double date.”
Starlight smiled. “I’d like that.”
“Me, too!” Sunburst said.
Maud turned back for the main gate. “‘Okay. I’m going back to my hotel now. Boulder gets craggy if he doesn’t get his shuteye.”
“See you, Maud,” Starlight said, waving after Maud.
With only the two of them left, Starlight and Sunburst walked side-by-side out the admission gates and started down the streets of Las Pegasus.
“Well, this was certainly an exciting day,” Starlight said.
“Sure was,” Sunburst agreed, “and it ended better than I could have hoped.”
Starlight giggled, finding herself hugged by a warm, giddy feeling. “Because we finally became a couple?”
“No. It was just great seeing Trixie falling and freaking out like that.”
“Sunburst!”
“I was kidding. Of course it was being with you that made it so special.”
Unable to form a response for that, Starlight kept walking in silence, smiling inside and out. She thought about everything she and Sunburst had been through together, and one incident from their childhood made her giggle, breaking the quiet.
“Do you remember that time when we were six, and we built that model amusement park in your room? We emptied out your entire toybox and used every building block you had.”
Sunburst laughed. “Yeah, I remember. It took two full Konnektor sets and my Steelhoof the Barbarian trading cards.”
“We worked so hard on it. It took days, and it filled your entire room! I was really proud of what we accomplished together.”
“I kept it up as long as I could, until Mom finally tore it down herself. Did today remind you?”
Starlight stopped and put a hoof under Sunburst’s chin, guiding his face towards hers. “It reminded me how I imagined us in an amusement park just like it, a place where we could be together and leave our troubles behind. A place where were we could be happy. I used to think it was all just fantasy until today.”
Tears welling in his eyes, Sunburst hugged her with the promise of lighter times ahead. After Sunburst let go, Starlight looked down at the jade cricket hanging in front of her chest and smiled at her new good luck charm. She couldn’t wait to find out where she and Sunburst would wind up, what they’d do together in the future and what new experiences they’d share. It was sure to be an exciting roller coaster ride, and she couldn’t wait for it to build momentum.
But for the present, more than anything, she couldn’t wait to tell Twilight what had happened today.