//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Gingerbread House of Cards // by clppy605 //------------------------------// “You have to be kidding me,” Trixie groaned. Starlight had dragged her around Ponyville all day, just to end up here of all places. The sun was finally crossing the horizon, leaving the town bathed in deep oranges and long shadows. By this point, most of Ponyville was closed, or in the process of closing, for the night. But, of course, Starlight had one last trick up her sleeve. She led the two of them to the one shop still open. And it wasn’t a business Trixie was excited to enter. Starlight sighed and poked Trixie in the shoulder. “No, I’m not. Rarity can fix up that hole in no time. Now come on, I don’t know when she closes for the night; I don’t want to hold her up if we can avoid it.” Starlight smiled and nodded toward Carousel Boutique, light spilling out from the windows. Tired of arguing, Trixie exaggeratedly shrugged and motioned for her friend to lead on. A light charm rang through the shop as Trixie and Starlight entered. Trixie looked up at the small bell above the door as she passed through. Starlight beelined for an archway marked as “staff only” as the showmare glanced around the main floor. Mannequins draped in dresses and accessories dotted the shop entrance. Several dresses were raised onto platforms, delicately placed to catch the eye of any who walked in. Wherever the eyes wandered, there was a dress that commanded attention. A faded geometric pattern was layered into each gown, running along the entire length of it. All of the dresses prominently featured shades of blue and silver that shimmered under spotlights, like snowflakes in the moonlight. Trixie glanced at the folded cape on her back. Her stage attire was enchanted to produce a similar effect when seen under stage lights. An enchantment, she bitterly recalled, that was almost twice as expensive as her entire cart. If it was the same spell, just how expensive were the dresses here? Intentional or otherwise, the collection on display reminded Trixie of winter, and she felt a scowl tug at her lips. She loved winter, but it was insulting to flaunt memories of the season in scorching weather like this. Why designers always pushed something that’s clearly out of season like this was beyond her.  "Hello! Welcome to Carousel Boutique! I'll be out in just a moment," a voice, refined to the point of being haughty, welcomed the two from beyond the staff-marked doorway. Trixie’s ears flicked towards the door, her attention returning to the task before them. Starlight, taking the initiative, called back as she continued to approach. "Don't worry about it, Rarity!" Starlight poked her head through the door and into the back area. "Starlight!" The cheerful greeting was punctuated by the sound of a shuffling chair and hooves on tile floors. A moment later, Rarity appeared in the doorway and pulled Starlight into a light hug. A pair of glasses dangling on a chain around the fashion designer’s neck jingled as she moved. "I wasn't expecting you to visit today." "I know. Sorry for dropping in unannounced like this," Starlight answered as the two released their embrace. She stepped aside so Rarity could see Trixie standing in the center of the shop, looking highly out of place in the boutique. "Ah. Trixie. It's nice to see you again." Rarity's smile didn't waver at seeing her other guest, but Trixie was sure she could feel a shift in the room's atmosphere. Colder, unwelcoming. Neither Starlight nor Rarity reacted to the change, the same friendly smiles plastered across their muzzles. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Trixie’s jaw tightened. The way Rarity asked that question infuriated Trixie to no end. Rarity's tone, her manner of speech, and the specific words the seamstress used slapped Trixie across the face. Of all the ponies in town, this was the one pony that hated Trixie the most. But, unlike the rest, Rarity would hide her disdain behind a mask. Trixie just knew it. Before she could say anything, Starlight spoke up on Trixie’s behalf. “It’s a long story,” Starlight admitted in a way that was reminiscent of a child trying to avoid telling their parents about the ball-sized hole in the kitchen window. With a slight shake of her head, Starlight’s horn lit as the cape on Trixie’s back lifted into the air and unfolded itself, the tear in the side flopping open. Rarity’s eyes instantly locked onto the gaping wound in the fabric. “But the ending is that Trixie’s cape was damaged. Would you be able to take a look at it?” The magical aura surrounding the cape shifted from a greenish-blue to a lighter sky blue as Rarity inspected the damage, resting her glasses on the tip of her nose. A faint hum escaped her as she appraised the rest of the fabric. “Mending this shut will be a breeze. Though…” the cape spun in the air so Rarity could view the other side. “The stitching here is interesting. I can see the patches covering older damages and hole repairs, yet there is also stitchwork that isn't connected to any repairs. They look like lines trailing behind falling stars. I hadn’t noticed them before; it’s quite subtle.” A smug smirk formed on Trixie’s muzzle as the compliments towards her work fanned her ego. Even if Rarity was a liar, Trixie wouldn’t shy away from her deserved praise. "All work Trixie has had to do over the years," she boasted as she puffed out her chest. "Well, I can certainly see that," Rarity mused as she raised a hoof to feel the fabric, tracing the stitching. "Unique and beautiful, hidden in plain sight. Not something that’s really in vogue with most fashion circles at the moment, but it stands out on its own." "So you can fix it?" Starlight asked with a hint of trepidation in her voice. "Of course I can. I said I would, did I not?" Rarity smiled at the question as she pulled her glasses off. The cape refolded and weightlessly laid itself across Rarity's back. She turned back around and trotted back to her workroom. With a glance behind her at Trixie, she asked, "Though I am rather curious why you want me to fix it. You clearly have the means and ability to do it yourself." “I suggested we come to you,” Starlight replied for Trixie as she followed the fashionista into the back area. “The tear was sort of my fault, so I suggested we come here. Everypony knows how good you are, and I’m more than willing to pay for the repairs.” “Pay?” Rarity asked over the sound of her sewing machine being pulled apart, her previous thread being removed. She eyed and compared various spools of thread to the stitching on the cape. When she found one she was satisfied with, Rarity took a seat as she threaded the new string through the machine. “Darling, please. You should know by now that I won’t hear a word of that. We’re friends; I’ll happily do this for free.” Trixie rolled her eyes behind Rarity’s back as the sewing machine came to life. Friends. Starlight saw the reaction and glared at Trixie while throwing a foreleg into the air in disbelief. Trixie stared back at her silently fuming friend, then pointed at herself and to Rarity with a shake of her head. Starlight jabbed a hoof at the cape being settled into place on the sewing machine. Trixie shrugged in response before pointing at herself then back out the door they entered in from. “Really?” The silent communication between the two friends was shattered when Starlight blurted her growing frustrations. “Yes, really. There’s no reason to be so surprised at that,” Rarity replied, none-the-wiser to the commotion growing behind her as she was lost in her work. “While I get this taken care of, why don’t you two tell me about your day?” “Where should I begin?” Trixie grumbled. “When I arrived in town and the two of us had a good time, or later when Starlight started dragging me around town against my will?” “And when did that happen?” Starlight scoffed. “Oh! That's right! It was after you attacked Pinkie! Insulting her, insulting Sugarcube Corner; you can't just do that, Trixie! I just wanted you to apologize to her. That's all. I'm sorry today didn't work out like either of us hoped. But you shouldn't take it out on the ponies here." Rarity’s ears perked up and her eyebrows raised as she turned around to face the two ponies snarling at one another. The sewing machine went silent as the unicorn's attention was ripped away, her glasses falling from her face and hanging around her neck. Trixie stomped up to Starlight and roughly jabbed a hoof into her chest, causing the unicorn to stumble back a step. Rarity gasped at the sight and hopped up out of her seat. “The only reason Trixie came to this cursed hole in the ground was to see you! Not to worry about ponies that hate my guts, not to get into arguments in the middle of town, and not to get attacked by rodents!” Trixie emphasized each of her points with a forceful stamp of her hoof. Starlight rubbed the spot on her chest where Trixie hit her, a pained and confused look of shock contorted across her face. A pang of guilt rushed through Trixie, but the adrenaline of pent-up frustration overwhelmed it as she continued. “All I wanted was to spend time with you. Go on a picnic, fly kites, practice magic! Anything! But instead, I was forced into spending time with your friends that actively hate Trixie – that hate me!” “Hate you?” Starlight repeated, sharing a perplexed glance with Rarity. “Trixie, I’m sure Rarity and the others don’t–” “Let me finish,” Trixie snarled, cutting off Starlight’s attempts to calm down her friend. “I know they all hate me. It’s not as if I don’t understand why. I’ve made horrible, horrible mistakes. I've wronged them – all of them. By Celestia, if I was in their horseshoes, I’d hate me too! I’ve tried to move on from my past, but they won’t let me. If they see me, they'll scowl and sneer and spit on my name.” “That’s not true, and you know it!” Starlight raged back in defense of her friends. "But it is Starlight. Just think about today and how everypony acted when I came up. In the market, your farmer friend immediately blamed me and assumed I did the very worst! Not that you helped with your half-truths. Would it have even mattered if I told her exactly what she wanted to hear?" Trixie pointed at a window that viewed the now deserted Ponyville market. She let her question linger in the air. Starlight opened her mouth to respond, but her words died in her throat. "How about that pegasus – the quiet yellow one? Did you see her eyes? How they started darting around, looking for a way out?" At this point, Starlight was tearing up. The constant barrage of abuse from her best friend taking its toll. "Even if she didn't order her pets to attack me, she didn’t even hesitate to come and help me. Instead, she ran off after her stupid animals!” “That’s quite enough!” Rarity barged into the argument and threw herself between Starlight and Trixie, breaking the line of sight between the two. “I will not stand idly by while you rant and belittle my friends!” “And then there’s you,” Trixie seethed with a scowl. She ripped her eyes away from Starlight to glare at Rarity. She had to take a step back at the intensity in Trixie’s eyes. “I know your type. You act so proper, so formal. You act like I’m your friend. But it’s a mask. A lie. At least the rest of the decency to show how much they don’t like me to my face.” "If I hated you so much – as you claim I do – then why would I fix your cape?" Rarity shouted back. She jabbed a hoof at the cape, still resting on her sewing machine. "Or why would I do it for free?" "Because you're not doing it for me! You're doing it for Starlight. A pony you actually call a friend." Trixie snarled, looking away with a snort. "A pony who has earned your redemption and forgiveness. Not me." Starlight was staring wide-eyed through Rarity, directly at Trixie. Her eyes shimmered with tears. She couldn’t believe what Trixie was saying about her friends, the friends that Starlight owed so much of her newfound life to. The endless wave of insults towards them was too much for her to bear. With a choking sob, Starlight turned away and galloped for the exit. Both Rarity and Trixie watched the crying mare flee the boutique. The weight of the situation finally dawned on Trixie. Guilt flooded her senses like a broken dam. “Starlight?! Wait!” she called after, but it was too late as the door to the shop slammed shut. A pregnant silence overtook the boutique, save only for Trixie’s heavy breathing. The adrenaline that fueled her tirade subsided, replaced with worry and dread that made her sick to her stomach. She replayed the argument in her head, remembering the vitriol and venom in her words slapped Trixie back down to earth. Her legs felt heavy, and she collapsed onto her haunches. She wondered why, of all the ponies for her to snap at, why did it have to be Starlight? Rarity, for her part, studied the floor and let her anger melt away, allowing her regrets to fester. She answered Trixie’s rage with her own and left Starlight to fend off the distress that was blatantly growing inside her. Thoughts of what she could have done, or should have done, ate at her consciousness. Knowing her own fault in this tore the mare apart. Tears swelled and collected in her eyes, her breathing becoming more sniffled with each second. Rarity pulled a few tissues from a box on her work desk and gently dabbed them under her eyes. Neither mare wanted to break the silence. But the longer this went on, the more Trixie knew she needed to be the first to say something. This was her mess, after all. Trixie stood up and turned around to talk to Rarity but found her gaze falling to the floor before she could even begin. With a dry, airy gulp, Trixie swallowed her nerves as best she could. "What does Trixie owe you?" She asked with a weak gesture toward her cape still resting in the sewing machine. Rarity glanced up from the floor. A spark of anger threatened to reignite her rage. "Owe me?" Rarity spat. "I should charge you double – no, triple – for this." With her magic, Rarity pulled the cape out from under her machine's needle. The gash was mended, and the fix looked identical to the ones Trixie had previously made. "More than that, I should shred this apart and throw you out of my home." The cloak tightened, the sound of cloth going taut echoed through the shop. Trixie watched her cape in horror, waiting for the inevitable. "But I won't. I said I would do it for free, and I will." Trixie breathed a sigh of relief as the cape was refolded, a small weight coming off her shoulders – before her cloak was unceremoniously thrown at her head. The magician yelped and stumbled back several steps, her cape posting itself on her hat like a flag. Pulling the fabric off her head, Trixie looked over her stagewear to ensure the rough treatment it just received hadn't damaged it further. When her eyes reached the newly patched hole, she paused. A cold knot in her stomach formed just looking at it. “There,” Rarity spat as she trotted past, heading for the main entrance. “Your cape is fixed. Now leave. Carousel Boutique is closing for the night.” For a moment, Rarity thought she was being ignored. Trixie stared at the repairs, embracing the sickly pain in her stomach. With a defeated sigh, she complied and threw her cape over her shoulders. Taking a deep breath, she shuffled past the disgusted shop owner and out into the now cold night. Just after she passed the threshold to the outside world, Trixie turned around. She couldn’t quite look Rarity in the eyes, but she did her best to avoid staring at the ground. “Thank you,” Trixie’s voice was quiet and subdued. She didn’t wait for a response, turning away with her nose to the ground. Fluttershy, when she and Rarity first met, was the first thing that came to mind. It was bizarre seeing Trixie acting this way, so defeated and ashamed. But, it gave Rarity a small spark of hope that things could still work out. “Trixie,” Rarity called and said mare half-turned to look back. “Do you know why I was surprised to see you and Starlight this evening?” Trixie winced at Starlight’s name, and her eyes dropped to the dirt. Rarity waited for an answer, but one didn’t come. Trixie wasn’t sure she would have been able to vocalize one now anyway. Her throat was dry and felt like it was being wrapped by a snake. But, she had practically been screaming at both Rarity and Starlight only a few minutes ago. It was only fair that she be subjected to her own verbal lashing this time. With a tired sigh, Rarity continued. “Fine, don’t answer. Just listen to what I have to say.” Rarity looked up at the moon with a small smile. “I was surprised because a few months ago, Starlight and I made plans to go to Baltimare for a few days. The yearly Baltimare Kite Flying Festival began this morning, she was quite excited to attend. I was more than happy to go along; I had been meaning to plan a trip that way for some time. “When Starlight learned you were coming by –” Rarity shrugged her shoulders and looked back at Trixie, “– she canceled our trip. Not asked. She chose. She chose to spend that time with you, above all else. Was I disappointed? Sure. But I wasn’t upset. Starlight cares an awful lot about you; she sees you as her best friend. She makes sacrifices with me – with all of our friends – to make sure all of her friendships are strong. "Just as she makes sacrifices, so do I. Friendship is about giving and taking. No one pony can sustain a relationship for two," Rarity said, sighing at the end and shaking her head. "That's how I know you’re wrong. I never agreed to fix your cape for free because Starlight was the one asking. It's your cape. Trixie, I wanted to help you. Maybe we can't be the best of friends, but I can at least put a hoof forward and try to be more than enemies." Trixie’s devastated expression had finally softened into a thoughtful one. During Rarity’s speech, Trixie glanced up and followed her gaze towards the sky. The meaning and intent behind the mare's words were not lost on the magician. Sacrifice? Beneath the ever-present glow of the moon, Trixie felt small and powerless to fix her mistakes. What could she ever give up to fix this? “You wanted to know how you can repay me?” Rarity's question snapped Trixie free from her trance. Through her now blurry vision, she gaped at the fashionista. “You can pay me back by thinking about what I said and how much you have sacrificed to keep your friendships strong.” The dam Trixie’s eyes finally shattered, the falling tears sparkled in the moonlight. Unsure of how to answer, Trixie gawked at Rarity. Anything she wanted to say died in her lungs. After a moment, Rarity turned around, flicking the tip of her tail. “Goodnight, Trixie.”  The door to Carousel Boutique shut, and the open sign flipped over, closing the boutique for the evening. Trixie was left alone in the night air. She stared at the door for several seconds, though they felt like hours. With a slow and shaky turn, Trixie walked back to her wagon.