//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - A familiar star // Story: Trixie's Threeway Trouble // by crowscrowcrow //------------------------------// Trixie gazed up at the night sky above, her head resting on Rainbow Dash’s stomach as they lay criss-cross in the grass. “Dashie, Have you ever tried flying to the stars?” “Sure,” Rainbow Dash answered, absentmindedly running a hoof through Trixie’s mane as she pointed up into the sky with her wing. “See that bright star there? I figured it was closest. It went about as well as you’d expect. ” Trixie quietly enjoyed Dash’s touch, staring at the star she pointed out. It was beautiful.  “At the time, I thought I could just fly up there early in the morning, take it and bring it back. I mean, sometimes stars would fall, right? So, it wasn’t that different from picking an apple or something. I was convinced I could have gotten there, except the sun came up so I lost sight of it.” “Seriously?” Trixie chuckled.  “Sirius, actually. Apparently that’s what that star is called. I remember cause everypony kept telling me I was ‘Siriusly stupid’ afterwards.” Dash grinned widely, seemingly all too pleased with that bad of a pun. “Actually, that’s not entirely true. My parents were actually really excited about my new personal best height record. That was probably worse.”  “How is that worse?” Trixie rolled onto her side so she could look at Dash, resting her cheek against those warm abs.  “It was just so embarrassing. They’d keep bringing it up proudly for months when I really just wanted to move on from that after I learned stars were, ya know, stars.” Dash groaned in annoyance and let her gaze drift downward to Trixie. “What are you smiling about?” “Sorry, Trixie is just picturing a younger, dumber, littler Dashie literally reaching for the stars. You’re so cute!” She squealed. “Again, awesome. Not cute!” Dash protested. “Get it straight.” “Oh, it is way too late for either of those,” Trixie said with a smirk, letting one hoof dance through Dash’s chest fur absentmindedly. After a moment of quiet, she said, “but at least you did finally manage it.” “What do you mean?” asked Dash. Trixie flashed her most radiant grin and motioned to herself, striking an awkward pose as best she could from her position. “Why, you finally got your hooves on a real star!”  “Gahhh,” Dash groaned and smothered Trixie with her wings to avoid having to look at her. “Can you not? I can’t believe you can say something that embarrassing.” Despite how much of a display she made of her protest, she didn’t let go of Trixie. “What? It’s true!” Trixie’s muffled voice said through the feathery cover. She made no effort to escape her cozy little prison. “Granted, Trixie’s had a little bit of a setback, but it is only temporary. Soon The Great and Powerful Trixie will rise to stardom once more!” Listening to Trixie’s muted ramble on about her own greatness, Dash quieted down. Trixie’s bravado was amusing to her, even a little inspiring at times in that she was so positive after taking a stumble.  Trixie didn’t mind the lack of pushback and took the opportunity to list the myriad of reasons she would soon be back on top. Which included her sparkling personality, various talents, and humble, easygoing nature to select a few at random. “And of course a discerning eye for stage props!” That kind of massive self confidence was one of the things they had in common, and this was usually where Dash was supposed to fire back with her own ambitions. The problem was that the setback Trixie was talking about overcoming had in part been caused by Dash herself. She still felt guilty.  It stung a little, but Dash was certain Trixie hadn’t made that connection when she said it. Unwittingly making barbed comments was one of Trixie’s strengths after all.  “Trixie will be famed across all of Equestria once she works out her new material!” The muffled braggart didn’t seem to have to stop for air once during her whole spiel. “For the first part of her tour Trixie was thinking of weaving through a couple of small towns on the way to Las Pegasus. That'll give Trixie some time to work out the kinks before the big event!” “Wait,” Rainbow Dash lifted a wing, opening a path to Trixie who paused to look at her, “Does that mean you’re leaving?” “Uhm…” Trixie was taken aback for a moment as she contemplated the obvious. “Huh, you’re right. Trixie hadn’t really reconsidered that part yet.” “You never considered it while you were planning this out?” Rainbow Dash asked, incredulously. “Oh, please. It’s not like that. This was what Trixie came up with before she met you!” She nuzzled into Dash’s fur. “Clearly, Trixie will need to rethink some of it. On an unrelated note, how do you feel about extended road trips?” “Right, totally unrelated.” Dash scoffed, but she still played along. “I dunno. I don’t think I’ve been on any of those since I was a kid... My dad took us to see Las Pegasus and a bunch of other towns around there. It was mostly by train. Though, we did fly for some of it. There was also that time we went overseas at some point, but I was way younger then and I don’t remember much of it. I know both times my mom would have sliced fruits and stuff in her saddlebags for snacks, that was cool.” Trixie’s eyes widened. “You went to Las Pegasus?” Mentally, she made a little note to use sliced fruit in the future to tempt Dash to travel with her. “Yeah. We stayed at the same hotel for a while ‘cause my dad doesn’t sleep well in strange beds. Luckily I never had that problem. I’m a sleep champion. I’ve even got a trophy!” Dash bragged.  “Gah, of course you do.” Some small part of Trixie wondered what such a trophy would look like, but she had a far more pressing matter to grouch about. “Trixie can’t believe you went there before her! Trixie always wanted to go there. It is the beating heart of showmareship!” “Heh, I figured you were already used to losing to me.” “Oh, har har. Shut up and tell Trixie what it was like.” “Mhm...” Dash rubbed her chin, playing back old memories. Most of them involved prizes she’d won while there and records she had supposedly set. That probably wasn’t what Trixie was after. “Okay, it was kind of like a giant carnival or maybe a circus? I think you would have liked it. There were all kinds of shows and lights and colors. The buildings were huge and came in weird shapes. Most of all it was big. Really really big!” “How big was it?” Trixie asked, leaning in closer. “Mhm, well you’ve seen our town hall, right? Twice as big as that, at least.” “Huh, that is impressive Trixie supposes, but honestly she thought you were setting up for a punchline.” Trixie said with some disappointment. “Heh, I mean I guess I could give that a try next time.” She pondered for a moment. “Oh, wait. My mom told me that the buildings in Manehattan are even bigger. Ask me how big!” “Sorry, there are no second chances in comedy.” Trixie stuck out her tongue.  “I hate you so much.” Dash groaned.“Fine, no jokes, but mom told me it would take even me ten seconds to fly to the top of one, so that’s really big!” she said, holding her hooves outstretched. Trixie smiled. “You get along with them pretty well, don’t you?” “Who?” “Your parents,” Trixie replied. “This isn’t the first time you’ve mentioned them. Trixie’s noticed they always seem really excited about you.” “Heh, you don’t know the half of it.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “They always came to everything I did to cheer me on; Sports, racing, play dates, competitions, part time jobs, you name it. It was kind of exhausting, really.” “Everything? Really? How did they even find the time for that?” Trixie asked, crawling out from underneath the cocoon of feathers to get closer to Dash’s face, netting herself a nice warm mattress in the process. “They never had to work when you had a show or anything?” “They’d just cancel work if that happened.” Rainbow Dash replied as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “There was this one time my dad couldn’t make it, and he felt so bad about it he watched the recording for hours. After that him and my mom became the official co-founders of the Cloudsdale branch of my fan club. They figured the extra cheering would make up for it or something. They also would have founded the Ponyville branch, but luckily I managed to convince them to let me go on my own.” “Cloudsdale branch? Ponyville branch?” Trixie asked with shock evident on her face. She suddenly felt a little bit inadequate. Dash apparently had just mountains of undying support her entire life and on top of that she already had multiple fan clubs. Meanwhile, The Great and Powerful Trixie didn’t even have one. She clearly had to step her game up. Not that she could admit that. “Erm. Of course, Trixie is used to unaffiliated fan clubs springing up like mushrooms in her wake, but she is surprised to hear you endorsed one officially.” “I dunno about any of that.” Dash waved a hoof dismissively. “My parents set it up and I don’t think there is one in Ponyville. Thank Celestia.”  “You don’t want a fan club?” Trixie asked, clearly confused. “But that’s the best part of fame and fortune! Admiration, adulation and recognition from the teeming public!” Trixie grew more and more animated as she spoke, as though she was just moments away from conjuring up sparklers. “Woah, settle down, I never said that.” Rainbow Dash smothered Trixie with her wings again and pressed her down. “I’d just like it to be something I got on my own that my parents didn’t have anything to do with. That’s part of why I left Cloudsdale in the first place.”  Peeking out from under a wing, Trixie gave an apologetic smile. “Good, but… Trixie doesn’t get it, what’s wrong with your parents? They sounded nice. Don’t you like them?” “No, I do! They are great ponies. The problem is they go crazy about every single little thing I do and they are really really loud. It’s super embarrassing.” Just talking about it had Rainbow Dash feel as though she wished the ground would swallow her up. “Didn’t your mom ever do anything that just made you want to disappear?” “Of course she did. She once told Trixie about The Great Hoofdinie's disappearing act. Trixie wanted to try it right away. Though, she never quite got the hang of it. ” “You know what I meant. Come on, there’s a reason you moved out isn’t there? Parents drive you up the wall and it is the quickest path to freedom or something. It’s not like they were living with you in that wagon before the ursa stepped on it, right?” As soon as she’d said it, Dash noticed Trixie tense up and she remembered once when she blundered down a similar line of conversation with Applejack. She could feel color starting to drain from her face. “Wait, I didn’t mean to… I mean...I…” “What? Now you don’t want to hear the tragic origin story of the Great and Powerful Trixie, losing her parents to an Ursa Major?” Trixie sneered. The memory of the beast splintering her home like cheap matchsticks still stung. Upon seeing the look of genuine horror on Dash’s face, though, Trixie sighed. She gently jabbed her in the ribs and then looked away. “Relax, everypony is fine. Trixie was just… being Trixie.” “Oh, good.” Dash flinched away from the jab, strangely feeling more relief than discomfort. “If you don’t wanna talk about it, that’s fine.”  After a moment, Trixie looked back at Rainbow Dash and smiled. “No, Trixie wants to. It would be only fair, but… She supposes it is a little awkward to talk about. Trixie never technically moved out. Until recently, Trixie actually still traveled with her mother. We used to do the show together, kind of.”  Rainbow Dash fidgeted. On the one hoof, she wanted to ask questions about that, on the other, she didn’t want to crash into anything. If Trixie wanted to talk, though, surely that was the point? “That is cool too. I think? Uhm, where is she now?“ she finally asked with more caution than she was used to. “You are cute when you are thinking so hard.” Trixie smirked and pecked a quick kiss on Dash, silencing her protest. “Mom is… Trixie supposes you could say ‘retired’. She can’t travel anymore and has a room a couple towns back. Trixie sends her letters every month to let her know how its going. Plus some bits Trixie can spare.” “The last one must’ve been interesting, huh?” Rainbow Dash quipped.  “Honestly… The last one was from back when Trixie was setting out to Ponyville. Trixie is pretty late this month.” Trixie shamefully admitted. “With everything that happened Trixie kind of lost track of time. She’s probably worried... but Trixie’s not even sure what to tell her about all this. You know?”  Trixie choose not to mention that it had only occurred to her earlier in the day to even go looking for a means of even sending a letter. “Nah, I don’t get it, really.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “What’s so hard about it? You got to Ponyville, did your show… with some minor heckling, i guess. Oh, but you did get some fans! Who lured an Ursa Minor to town which rampaged around for a bit and broke your wagon…Then you fled town and I... Mm, okay. I’m only a day into the month and I’m already starting to see the problem.” “Right?!” Trixie threw her hooves up as she rolled back onto the grass, resting her head on Dash’s chest. “None of that is reassuring! It doesn’t get a whole lot better either. Don’t misunderstand, Trixie is happy to have made some friends and more, but she is pretty sure that is not going to stack up very well against everything that went wrong.”  “Hey, come on. It’s better now, isn’t it?” Dash huffed. “No need to tell your mom on me.” “You’re right. It is better.” Trixie reached out to stroke Dash’s cheek. “And you can relax, Trixie wasn’t gonna mention you. Well, not badly, anyway. Trixie'd rather forget about that. There’s lots of other stuff Trixie can write about you. Though, some of that stuff’ll probably get Trixie grounded,” she laughed. “Heh, I guess.” Rainbow Dash slightly leaned her head into the touch. It was nice to have a little confirmation that Trixie wasn’t intentionally prodding her. “So, what are you gonna do then, just not write anything?” Trixie took a moment to consider the option, but then shook her head. “Trixie can’t just not send anything. Mom would think something was wrong. You gave Trixie an idea, though. Trixie should focus on a great thing that happened recently! It’s brilliant. Now all that’s left is for Trixie to do something amazing and write about that. A small task for somepony as fantastic as Trixie.” “I’m glad you’ve kept your goals realistic this time,” Rainbow Dash said in a jovial tone. She hoped it would lighten the mood a little before touching on her next question. It didn’t really feel like it, though. “So… uhm…” she stalled out, unsure of how to proceed, or even if she should. “What about dad, right?” Trixie finished for her. “It’s fine.” Dash just nodded. “He’s gone and Trixie never knew him.” She casually shrugged. “Not a whole lot to talk about there.” “Oh, sorry.” Dash rubbed the back of her head. It figured that this didn’t feel any less awkward, despite abundant caution. Perhaps she just shouldn’t have asked? It was fairly obvious that she wasn’t going to get a nice answer. What did she really expect here? Trixie could feel the tension rising and sat up, looking down at Dash. She could see the confliction written on the poor filly’s face. “It’s okay, really. It’s not like Trixie ever had to miss him.” “Are you sure?” Dash asked before she could stop herself. She spent the following seconds of silence cursing her stupidity. “...Do you miss having magic?” Trixie suddenly asked. “Huh?” “You don’t, right? You never had magic to begin with, so why would you? Trixie did have magic, and those couple of weeks there without it? Trixie missed it terribly.” To illustrate her point, she picked out a flower well outside of her reach and effortlessly plucked it with her telekinesis.  She slowly rotated it in front of her. “Trixie doesn’t miss having wings, though. It’s kind of similar to that. Trixie sometimes looks at pegasi or just the sky and wonders what it might be like to have wings. It looks fun sometimes, flying through the air. Other times it looks hard, like, how do you even find the time for all that preening? That’s kind of what it’s like. Trixie might wonder about dad, but it’s just curiosity, not something she feels is missing.” Rainbow Dash, to her own surprise, didn’t have much trouble following that. “Okay, so, you’d not be upset if I talked about my parents? Wait, I already did. So, that was fine? Kinda like as if I was talking about flying?” “Yes, like that. Trixie wouldn’t want you to stop talking about them or flying. It’s a part of you and Trixie likes listening to things about you.” She smiled and held out the flower toward Dash. Smiling at the sweet gesture, Dash munched on the little flower. It was a fresh daffodile, judging by the taste. “Okay. So, I get it’s alright for me to talk about, but… can you also tell me about your parents? I like listening to stuff about you too, I guess.” Trixie felt herself heat up even in the cool night air. “W-well. Yes, Trixie supposes she can regale you with tales of her noble lineage. Your parents are both pegasi, right?” “Right.” Dash nodded. “You mentioned before that your mom is a pegasus too?” “Yes. Trixie is kind of surprised you remembered that. Dad was a unicorn. You might think that’s where Trixie got her talent for magic from, but actually mom did stage magic and dad did unicorn magic. They ended up working together to do a show and well… that led to the complete package you see before you today!” She stood up spreading her hooves apart wide and conjured up some sparks. “Both types of magic combined, that’s what makes the Great and Powerful Trixie the greatest magician in all of Equestria.” “Heh, so that’s your secret, huh? Are you sure you can trust me with it?” Dash smirked. ‘“What if I go run off and find myself a unico—Gah!“ Before she could even finish the sentence, Trixie dropped on top of her and pinned her down. “No need.” Trixie grinned down at Dash as she pulled herself up to loom over her. “Trixie assures you that she will be all the unicorn you can handle and then some.” Rainbow Dash’s face flushed as she felt Trixie holding her hooves down to the ground. The strength she had always surprised her, but she wasn’t entirely as helpless as Trixie might have liked. She let her primary feathers caress the exposed flanks, causing Trixie to shiver. “I don’t know too much about this whole ‘noble lineage’ thing you got going on, but I do know I come from a long line of strong fliers. I could lift two of you with these wings.” “Gah, okay, Trixie believes you!” Trixie squirmed as she felt Dash’s wings wrap around her waist with the kind of force usually associated with a bear hug. The deceptively soft feathers concealed what she could now tell were some very powerful muscles underneath. “A long line of strong pegasi, mhm? What would you parents think of you fillyfooling around with a unicorn?” “Hah, oh don’t you worry.” Dash laughed. “Like, if they were in Ponyville, they’d be right at the edge of this field, cheering us on. Wouldn’t you just die?” Trixie looked to the edge, trying to imagine a pair of Rainbow colored ponies rooting for them. She turned back to Dash with a blush. “That doesn’t sound so bad.” “Geez, you are really into the whole cheering crowds thing, huh?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the deepening scarlet on Trixie’s face. “I don’t even know why I thought that would deter you at all. Of course it wouldn’t.” “Trixie doesn’t mind having an adoring audience. If it were up to her, we’d never have left that deck chair in front of the library. Not that Trixie is complaining, the cloud was an excellent spot too.” “Heh, yeah, yeah, keep running that prudy little mouth of yours. I look forward to seeing you actually meet them. You’ll be begging to leave in less than ten minutes.” “Ohh, you think Trixie’s pretty?” she chittered excitedly for a moment then gasped. “Wait, you want Trixie to meet your parents? You DO move fast.” “Woah woah woah, I said no such thing.” “Pff, fine Trixie will allow you to backpedal just this once. It’s not your fault of course, showing off that one had landed a girlfriend as magnificent as Trixie would be second on anypony’s to-do list.” Biting her tongue, Rainbow Dash eyed Trixie. This was probably the closest to a win she was gonna get if she could get Trixie to drop it. “What’s number one, then?” “Trixie, of course.” She smiled widely. Rainbow Dash covered her face with a soft groan. “I knew it.” “Trixie notices you aren’t denying it!” The nights were always quiet out here. It was one of the things that Fluttershy always liked about her little meadow, the peacefulness of it. The way even the smallest sounds carried well on the stillness of the grove. The cute little chirps and hoots of nocturnal animals that slipped through the crack in her bedroom window always helped her sleep. It was one of her favorite things. Why did I even come up here? Fluttershy sat slumped against the wall beneath her bedroom window, her back rested against the smooth wood. She had her legs hugged tightly to her chest, vainly hoping if she just squeezed hard enough it would numb the stinging feeling inside. It wasn’t working. Why did she do this to herself? Almost as soon as Rainbow Dash left her sight, she told herself a pitiful lie about going to bed early and climbed up the stairs. As if it would just be some coincidence that she’d be able to see and hear them from here. She knew full well what she was really doing.  Spying in the quiet hope that living vicariously like this would make her feel better, maybe it would make that ugly feeling inside her go away. The one that told her it should be her out there if only she wasn’t such a pushover. She expected that it wouldn’t work, that it would just ache more. She’d been right about those. What she hadn’t expected was to hear them talk about her.  She wiped her cheeks dry and then bit her lip as she replayed the words in her head. ”When you hang out with somepony and get along, it’s only natural to at least consider.” She’d never imagined that Rainbow Dash could have felt the same. A one-sided crush was something she’d come to terms with ages ago, it was what barely kept her little facade together, but now…  How was she supposed to feel, knowing she’d have had a chance, if she hadn’t inadvertently pushed them together? She was so frustrated she could just, just... Thud. Her head impacted the wall behind her with a soft thud. Outside, she could hear Rainbow Dash and Trixie saying their goodbyes and goodnights, followed by the light, joyous trotting of Trixie coming back up the path.  Maybe this time she’d say something. Maybe.