They're... ON HOLIDAY?

by Nameless Narrator


Day 2 - Points: 7/9

The door of the staff coordinator’s office opens, letting out a fuming blue unicorn who turns her head back in the door frame and yells:

“The Great and Powerful Trixie will NEVER pay you a single bit and you should be happy she won’t sue you on the spot for a defective lock!”

“I’m sure our legal department will get a kick out of any lawyer you’ll afford when you can’t even pay for a broken lock,” replies a clearly unimpressed voice from the office.

“AAAARGH!” Trixie slams the door so hard it rattles.

“It can still be two locks!” calls out the now muted voice.

“And you can suck Trixie’s two cocks!” the blue unicorn doesn’t wait for an answer this time and stomps off back towards her cabin on the other end of the ship.

Thankfully, the ventilation managed to get rid of the black smoke from her exploded props while she was being questioned by the security, so now there’s only one black thing left, aside from the residue on everything, near her cabin.

“Great… you,” Trixie’s less than enthusiastic tone greets Smiley sitting outside her cabin just by the open door, “First you break the door for which I get charged and now you’re… what? Waiting to drag me into a dark corner and drain me dry there?”

“PLEASE, DO THAT!” comes from the neighboring cabin along with a banging on the wall.

“SHUT YOUR CREAMPIE HOLE, AND THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE  DOESN’T MEAN THE PASTRY!” 

A mare peeks out from the next door, blushing from both embarrassment and anger.

“Changeling, she snores like a tractor and keeps monologuing nonsense in her sleep!” she says, “If you get her out of here I swear I’ll send one of my hottest friends your way, no questions asked.”

Smiley tilts its head. The mare doesn’t seem angry at it, so everything is kinda okay. On the other hole, the proximity of the two mares to each other feels like the real problem which requires solving, preferably immediately.

“Trixie’s monologues are the best part of her act!”

“Says a lot about the overall quality, doesn’t it?” sneers the mare, “I’ve seen better spoken content in clop, and the mares in it gurgle rather than talk!”

“Nopony badmouths Trixie’s act!” Trixie bends her legs, clearly ready to pounce.

“Hey, at least we agree on something. Nothing anypony can say can be worse than your show’s content. I’d tell you to stick to whorseing but I can’t believe there’s anypony who would buck you even for free, you skinny stallion!”

“Okay, I’ve had just enough!” the unicorn snarls back, losing her third-person speech out of sheer rage, “If I’m going back to jail for not paying for this stupid door then I’m taking your teeth with me for the street cred!”

As Trixie tries to take a step forward, she realizes her legs aren’t touching the ground anymore as, during her outburst, Smiley snuck under her belly and now simply rose itself up.

“Hey!” Trixie tries to keep the other mare in sight while Smiley carries her into her cabin by bending her neck as the door frame passes her by, “We’re not finished!”

“Pretty sure we are!” the other mare calls out, “Or do I have to call the security on you?”

“...dumb bitch…” grumbles Trixie as Smiley lowers her on all fours in the middle of the blackened cabin and sits down, waiting for events to unfold. Trixie shoots the slightly smiling Silent an exhausted glare before her eyes land on the open door with the section containing the lock bent out of shape. One sigh later, she walks past Smiley and begins examining the damage, “Plywood and the cheapest lock on the market, and those assholes want me- Trixie to pay five times the price. Trixie could pick this in her sleep,” she mutters, glancing back at Smiley watching her with a tilted head, “Don’t look at Trixie like that, everypony does what they need to survive.”

Smiley walks over and boops her.

“You don’t have any idea what Trixie is saying, do you?” she asks. Smiley stares back, waiting for some clarification of the questioning tone. Instead, she resumes examining the lock, “Hmm, it might actually be a stroke of luck that this is such garbage. The wood can just be glued back together and the soft metal of the lock didn’t break, it just bent.”

*Confused face!* *Pleading face!* *Pleading face!*

99111, wandering around the ship since it informed 36658 about Gem’s predicament, catches the broadcast.

“What’s wrong?”

The only answer the drone gets is a mental map marker.

*Pleading face!*

“I’m on my way,” 99111 breaks into a gallop.

The ship is huge but easy to navigate, and the drone was already on the level above staff deck, so when its hoofsteps echo through the hallway, Smiley peeks out of Trixie’s cabin and waves at 99111 with a sigh of relief.

“What are you doing now?” asks Trixie from the inside, rummaging through her baggage taking up most of the small cabin’s space.

“Umm,” 99111 stops outside when faced with the blue unicorn’s annoyed look. Smiley pokes the open door with its nose repeatedly. 

“Fantastic…” Trixie facehoofs, “They’re multiplying.”

“Smiley called me here and I’m not particularly sure why. Is there anything we can help with?” asks 99111 hesitantly.

“Unless you know how to fix a door, Trixie doubts it,” Trixie glares at Smiley who is softly bonking the door non-stop with its head.

99111 examines the damage, poking the wood from several angles.

“I mean, the door itself would be easy to reinforce, but that metal thingy looks too complicated for me. I saw a griffon at the workshop doing something with metal bits, so I would ask around there.”

Trixie freezes.

“Say that again?”

“I mean, the door itself would be easy to reinforce, but that metal thingy looks too complicated for me. I saw a griffon at the workshop doing something with metal bits, so I would ask around there,” repeats 99111, word by word.

Trixie’s eye twitches, she opens her mouth, closes it, raises her hoof, and then lowers it back down. 

“Workshop. With tools. Free to use,” she says in the end.

“No one stopped me from going inside,” 99111 shrugs, “And there was this nice zebra lady-”

“...if I could at least fix the lock, I’d be able to haggle down the damage cost no matter what and if, by some miracle, I could glue the door pieces together, then blending the color would be simple…” mumbles Trixie to herself, interrupting the drone, before fishing out a piece of chalk from one of her many boxes, standing up straight, and pointing at the two, “The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your generous and, most importantly, free offer of assistance.”

Smiley beams, walking over to her and licking the levitating piece of chalk.

“No!” Trixie draws it back, “Turn around!” Smiley keeps following the chalk floating around it, “Hey! Here!”

“Umm, Miss, we don’t know how much Smiley really understands if someone talks to it,” explains 99111, “I’ll ask it to stop.”

“Smiley, stop.”

*Curious face!* *Curious face!*

Smiley keeps trying to lick the chalk.

“I’ll ask the lady to show the floating white rock to you afterwards, okay?”

*Happy face!*

Smiley sits down.

“Smiley, you said?” asks Trixie.

“Yes, we call it that because-”

“There!” Trixie’s floating chalk has successfully scribbled “SML” onto the side of the Silent’s barrel, “And your name?”

“99111,” the drone doesn’t flinch when the piece of chalk floats over and writes the number on its side as well.

“Better than calling you the bigger one and the smaller one,” Trixie withdraws the chalk, and Smiley sighs.

“Smiley said it would stop turning around if you let it check out the white drawy rock.”

“The chalk? Yeah, sure, suit yourself,” she throws it to Smiley’s legs, “Just don’t eat it. They might be a pack for a bit, but waste not want not,” she walks over to the door and starts raising it off of its hinges using a mix of physical effort and telekinesis, “Hnnng! Stupid… door…” she grunts as the blue glow of her horn flickers and the muscles on her legs and back bulge.

99111 grows small hooks on its forelegs, with the help of which it’s easy to raise the door.

“Good, now show Trixie to the workshop,” she nods at 99111.

“Hey, Smiley!” 99111 mentally prods the Silent along with the words, “Come grab the door.”

With a piece of chalk stuck in its leg hole, Smiley slides under the door now propped against the wall and loads it onto its back. To Trixie’s surprise, the door is balancing perfectly on its back, completely covering the changeling, and not sliding off at all as Smiley walks out into the hallway.

“Trixie could certainly use more of you in her daily life,” muses the unicorn while putting several unidentified black discs under the carpet past the door frame. When she catches 99111 trying to poke one barely visible bulge, she swats its hoof away and says quietly, “Don’t touch it! If somepony walks in and tries to steal Trixie’s stuff, they’ll quickly regret it.”