“Doug?” Rarity calls as she steps into the Carrot House, only a slight quiver to her voice. The sun has nearly set, and when Sweetie Belle didn’t return to the Boutique, or leave any sort of note or message? She’d have to forgive her for being just a teensy bit worried that they were playing - perhaps just a little too close to the Everfree Forest - and then something terrible that she just won’t imagine until she has at least some confirmation that everything is horribly wrong!
Rarity’s pulse quickens at the lack of response, her heart pounding louder than her hooves against the wooden floor. She glances into a few of the foal’s rooms, seeing the younger fillies studying or reading. But none of the trio can be seen! Her horn lights, Doug’s door swinging open to reveal him hard at work, his head bobbing to the rapid beat of his foot against the floor. His fingers fly as he writes, matching long lists of names to weekly or monthly lines of work.
“Darling, why didn’t you answer me,” Rarity pouts, rubbing her muzzle against his bare shoulder. She inhales that musk about him that suggests he’s been helping Applejack out in the hot fields for several hours. Gets her going the same way. But she can’t focus on that right now!
Doug glances over, slightly confused at her arrival. “Hmm?” His hand stops tapping but only for a moment; it resumes its frenzied motion as he reaches around her neck. His fingernails scratch to some imagined beat as he says, “Sorry, must have missed you.”
“While you might imagine that you built this room to be more soundproof than the rest,” Rarity says with a wink, “that doesn’t excuse you not hearing me at the door.” Rarity presses her head against Doug, trying to prompt him to get up and follow her, but not to the bed this early in the evening. “Have you seen Sweetie Belle? She never came home after school and I’ve seen and heard nothing from her.”
“Yeah,” Doug nods, spinning around, a brief look of annoyance at Rarity interrupting his work. “She ate dinner here. Haven’t seen her otherwise, I think she’s been hanging around with Trixie.”
Rarity raises an eyebrow, “Trixie? What could they be doing?”
“Not sure. But, Trixie did find a replacement wagon, so maybe they’re hanging around there.” Doug turns back to his desk, a slightly exasperated sigh as Rarity tries to spin him back around. He motions to his work like he has a lot that needs to get done, but when isn’t that the case?
“Come on, darling, you’ve been working all day. Spend some time with me? I hate when you just stay up late working and I never get to see you.” Rarity puts on her best pouty face, her eyes glistening as her lips quiver. “And I don’t want to search around for Trixie, not when it’s going to get dark any minute now.”
Doug glances over as he sets his pencil diagonally across the sheets of paper. He seems to catch himself from uttering a long sigh, instead forcing a smile and pulling her close for a quick kiss to her forehead. His stretched out, “Fine,” afterwards is belied by his fingers digging into the base of her mane, his legs stretching as he stands. He leads the way to the front door, Rarity following at his side.
“So,” Doug continues, making a beeline towards one of the barns, “Like I said, Trixie was able to find a wagon and some supplies, but it needs a bit of work. She has a hammock set up inside at least.” Doug leans down to whisper, “And she snores.” Rarity smirks as he stands and continues, “So, I think I’ll be able to reclaim my room. Did you want to head back to the Boutique?”
“Hmm, it already is a little late. Maybe if we left as soon as we meet up with Sweetie Belle, but I think she’ll be fine bunking with Scootaloo. I’m sure Fluttershy will figure it out when she goes inside, but perhaps I should have left her a note.” Rarity grins as she spots Sweetie Belle, along with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, outside of Trixie’s wagon. The blue unicorn is instructing the trio on some sort of card trick, each filly shuffling three cards around.
“Mama!” Sweetie Belle calls as she sees the two approaching, waving her hoof around as if Rarity might have had difficulty locating her. She leaps up, bounding over to Rarity, exchanging a quick nuzzle before tugging her over to Trixie
“Good evening, Trixie.” Trixie nods back, Rarity looking down at the trio as they eagerly gather their cards, sitting in a half ring around the two. “Have you all been behaving today?”
“Trixie is a mare of many talents; they have been no trouble at all,” Trixie responds with an easy smile.
“I want to show you this! Watch!” Sweetie Belle grabs her three cards, flipping them over to show Rarity. “It’s a pretty easy game, okay? I’ve got the Princess, and two ones.” She shows the cards - indeed, an elaborate image of Princess Celestia, horn aglow as she raises the sun in the background. The one of spades and the one of diamonds - depicting a stylized sun and star respectively - are also shown, the slightly bent cards turning back face down with the Princess on Rarity’s right. “All you have to do is pick the Princess! Easy, right?”
Rarity smiles, settling down and focusing on the Princess. Sweetie Belle begins shuffling the cards around, slowly at first, each hoof picking up one card and dropping it where another card used to be. The Princess goes center, left, left, center, right, right, center. Then her hooves bump against each other, a startled, “Oops!” from the filly. Rarity knowingly smiles, having bumped her hooves together numerous times when working on something, as the filly resumes her shuffling. Left, left, center, right, right, and the cards stop moving.
“Okay!” Sweetie Belle innocently smiles up at Rarity, “Where’s the Princess?”
“Canterlot,” Rarity casually says as the sun sets, the moon rapidly rising to take its place in the night sky. Thousands of stars begin winking into existence above them, filling in the dark void with twinkling pinpricks of light. The glowing, pure white moon still provides enough light in the cloudless night.
“Dam!” Sweetie Belle groans, her hooves staying away from the cards as she pouts. “I mean the card!”
“It’s on my right,” Rarity says, motioning to the card. She barely spots the slight smirk on Trixie’s muzzle, though it immediately disappears to a neutral grin. The barest twinge from her cutie mark tells her that the card she is pointing at is a diamond, though that can’t possibly be the case.
“Are you sure?” Sweetie Belle says, a worried note in her tone. “I mean, you don’t think it’s one of these two?” She motions to the other two cards, sighing at Rarity’s nod. Her resigned, “Okay,” as her hoof flips the card over.
The one of diamonds.
Rarity gapes as Doug nods knowingly, his own lips pursed at the reveal.
Sweetie Belle prances around, “I did it! My first try!”
Scootaloo rolls her eyes, “Yeah, it only took a few dozen tries to get the switch down.”
“At least it only took a couple tries to get your ‘oops’ to not sound so obvious,” Apple Bloom says with a smile. “You’re such a natural!”
“Um, thanks?” Sweetie Belle says as she looks down at the ground, suddenly a little self-conscious. She peeks up at Rarity, offering a shy smile.
“Don’t worry, dearest,” Rarity says conspiratorially as she leans down to her filly, “There are plenty of times when I must complement a customer on her appearance because it is what she likes, instead of what I might prefer.” Her muttered comment doesn’t go unheard as she continues, “Though even if the customer thinks they are right does not make it so.”
“Okay, Daddy, let me try!” Scootaloo puts away her cards, pulling out three short yellow cups and a small orange ball. Doug sits down as Scootaloo places the three cups in front of her, showing that underneath each one is empty by placing a hoof on top and picking the cup up. She holds up the small orange ball; it barely fits as she places it in the cup on the right.
She starts shuffling the cups around, occasionally picking the empty cups off the ground entirely. Her pace isn’t very fast, and Doug is able to easily follow along which cup the ball is in. Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle creep closer to watch, Trixie also moving to a better vantage point.
“Okay!” Scootaloo exclaims as she finishes, beaming up. “Which cup has the ball?”
Doug points, Scootaloo shaking her head. “Nope!” She simultaneously lifts both the cup that should have held the ball, revealing nothing, while the other cup contains the orange ball. “Want to try again?”
“Sure!” Doug says with a smile, glancing over at Trixie. “Teaching them how to be a grifter?”
“Basic hoof techniques,” Trixie says as Scootaloo stops shuffling, grabbing a bag of pretzels. Doug points at the wrong cup, Scootaloo lifting the correct one and showing a ball while the wrong cup is empty.
“I still have a hard time believing what you can grab onto with a hoof,” Doug says, shaking his head as Scootaloo resumes shuffling. Doug reaches over, grabs one of the ‘empty’ cups and pinches the sides as he lifts.
“Hey!”
Trixie nods as Doug loosens his grip, an orange ball falling out of the cup and bouncing on the ground. He catches the ball with the cup, returning both to Scootaloo. The filly crosses her forelegs, sticking her lip out as she glares at her sire.
“You’re not supposed to know how it goes!”
Doug smirks as he reaches over, ruffling Scootaloo’s unruly mane. She shakes her head, eventually evading his grasp. “You still did very well, Scootaloo. I was impressed!”
“Really?” Scootaloo exclaims, a quick glance back confirming her suspicion. Still no cutie mark. “Rainbow Dash says I have good dexterity with my hooves. I just wish I could do the same with my wings, too.” She stretches her tiny wings, a sigh at their short reach.
“You taught them all this?” Rarity asks Trixie as Apple Bloom shows off her version of the card trick to Doug. He plays along at first, guessing the obvious one, before he wisens up to the trick. Much to his dismay, it appears that Apple Bloom was counting on this, and had not actually mixed up the cards on the hoof bump.
“Most of it; they are very fast learners, even if their technique struggles at times.” Trixie moves a little closer to Rarity, as if worried, “Sweetie Belle told me about their… condition. I am sorry I doubted your instruction before.”
“I had… no idea,” Rarity says, a bit of an eyebrow raise.
She clears her throat, “And the wise and patient Trixie has been working with them diligently ever since they came to her. For none is as inspirational a teacher as Trixie, nor as motivating!” She turns to Sweetie Belle, “Speaking of motivation, it is time we try a little manipulation using our horn.” Sweetie Belle looks a little unsure at the suggestion, Trixie continuing, “After all, how motivated we are to perform something can be a large influence in how well we perform, especially magically.”
“I had always heard emotions were stronger ties to performance,” Rarity says, a quick glance to Doug. He looks interested on the unfamiliar topic, for something he would never use. Use himself, at least.
“True,” Trixie says, “but isn’t that the same thing? For we must feel strongly about anything that motivates us.” She turns to Sweetie Belle, “And, until now, have you been motivated by the idea that you should do well? You see your dam and her levitation, and you want to be like her. But have you ever asked yourself why you want to be like her?”
Sweetie Belle shakes her head, shortly followed by Apple Bloom stopping her game and listening.
“And that could be the reason why you continue struggling.” Trixie points to her wagon, her horn lighting and conjuring a purple cloth clumsily wrapped in a conical shape, “The Great and Powerful Trixie enjoys her craft.” She pops a pretzel in her mouth before she turns back to Sweetie Belle, “What do you enjoy?”
“Um. I don’t really know…” Sweetie Belle says, sighing. “I like singing, and acting, and helping ponies.” She glances down at the cards near her, a bit of a smile as she says, “I don’t know how much I like tricking ponies.”
“The understanding and adaptable Trixie… understands,” Trixie says. She glances up to the night sky, then back to the Carrot House, the fabric on her head starting to unravel.
“And I think it’s getting close to bedtime,” Doug says, rubbing each filly’s head.
“Five more minutes?” Scootaloo asks eagerly.
“Okay, we can do the tricks a couple more times,” Doug says, settling back down. The trio gathers around him, each performing their trick as he tries to keep track of each of them.
“So,” Rarity says to Trixie, moving towards the wagon. “You seem to be doing a very good job instructing those three. Celestia knows I have enough trouble getting them to sit still and pay attention.” Her gaze stays fixed on the ‘hat’, one eye squinting.
Trixie merely nods, holding her tongue.
“I was curious, if perhaps you knew what you wanted to do with your wagon?” Rarity grimaces at the peeling paint. “And your outfit.”
“Do you find something wrong with the fabulous and mystifying Trixie’s choice of wardrobe?”
“I suppose there is nothing wrong with the classics,” Rarity says, her horning lighting and pulling the fabric off Trixie. It spins in midair, inverting and alighting back on Trixie’s head, a perfect replica of her old purple hat except for the missing stars. “You know, I was hoping to get some instruction from you on your color changing spells.” She motions to the hat, “Perhaps we could experiment? I have always been partial to purple and gold myself.”
Trixie glances at Rarity’s mane, a slight frown as she considers. The hat pulls off, a brief burst of magic from Trixie’s horn. She smiles at the result, placing the newly colored hat back on her head.
“It is a… different look. Positively druidic,” Rarity says, somehow keeping herself from screaming and running in disgust from the green and brown hat. “The browns would work better as accents, but not with that color green. Actually, nothing should be that color green, not with your coat.” She glances up, “Once we can see your choices in the light we can pick something that really lets you shine.”
Trixie merely nods, her muzzle curling to a smirk.
“Alright, you three, that’s enough,” Doug says, the trio keeping their whining to a minimum. Which is to say, he has wrestled each of them into submission and is now carrying them like wriggling sacks of potatoes over his shoulder as he walks back, ignoring their pleas for ‘just one more game, for real this time.’
Trixie smiles to herself as she watches the five walk off, opening the door to her wagon and stepping inside. She certainly enjoyed herself today, especially working with the fillies. And yet, something feels like it is missing. She hops in the hammock, dumping the remaining pretzels in her mouth as she stares at the shuttered windows. Definitely something missing in this picture.
In the Carrot House, soon enough and each of the fillies is in their bed, Sweetie Belle sharing Scootaloo’s room. Rarity is laying in bed atop a drowsy Doug, enjoying the caresses of her stallion as the door opens. Rarity yawns, “Welcome, Fluttershy,” and slipping off. She curls with her barrel against Doug's side, one hoof possessively across his chest, her head nestling against his shoulder.
Rarity's ears perk at the louder clops of hooves than she expected, turning one eye to the blue unicorn entering the room. Trixie stops, the two exchanging a long glance before Rarity smiles, laying her head back down.
Trixie hops up onto the bed, settling in next to Doug, and closing her eyes. One arm comes up, searching for the wings that aren't there before settling on Trixie's wider withers. He sighs sleepily, relaxing into the bed.
Some time later Fluttershy enters the room. Her eyes widen at Trixie’s snoring form, hesitating in the doorway. Finally a smile comes to her face, quietly taking to the air and landing next to Trixie, snuggling up close.