The Trotzamore Stratagem

by The Rarispy


Quest II - Dare to Conquer

I was too late…
 
I didn’t hold on tight enough…
 
I couldn’t save her.
 
And now she’s gone.
 
Twilight Sparkle… is dead.
 
All because I let go.
 
Twilight…
 
Don’t leave me.
 
Please, please…
 
Don’t go.


“…and she still has her friends by her side. So yes, Sweetie’s been doing quite fine. She still misses you two, of course.”
 
“Well, that’s only natural,” Pearl shrugged. “I suppose now, we can arrange when her next visit will be. In fact, you two could come visit us together!”
 
“Yes…” Rarity replied, with a sense of unease in her voice.
 
The four ponies were all huddled together in the living room of Rarity’s parents’ house. A plate of graham crackers adorned the table, which Fluttershy and Rarity’s parents proceeded to snack on. Rarity however, was content to lean back with her cup of hot chocolate.
 
Magnum and Pearl were both seated on the beige and hot pink recliners across from their lime green couch, where their daughter and her marefriend sat.
 
“Oh! This is some lovely cocoa, Pearl. What brew is it?”
 
“Um… brew?”
 
“Psst, Fluttershy,” Rarity whispered. “You don’t ‘brew’ cocoa. It just comes in a packet and you mix it.”
 
“Oh! I’m sorry. I guess I’m just used to drinking tea…”
 
Especially Rarity’s tea…
 
“Oh, it’s fine, dear!” Pearl replied, waving her hoof down. “Rarity used to do the same thing! She’s always liked to be the “high society” pony, hasn’t she, dear?”
 
“Mother!”
 
“Oh, yeah!” Magnum agreed. “I remember when she was a filly she wanted to try on those Victrotian-style dresses, and she always needed our help tightening the corset!”
 
“FATHER!”
 
“In fact, I think one of them’s still somewhere in her old closet. Do you wanna see it?”
 
“NO, SHE DOESN’T!” Rarity blurted, just as Fluttershy was about to speak.
 
“I-I don’t?”
 
“No, trust me…” she whispered. “You really don’t.”
 
I don’t get it. What could be so bad about a filly’s Victrotian dre—?
 

 
Oh.
 
Fluttershy blinked a couple of times and took a big sip of her cocoa.
 
“So what have you two been up to, then?” asked Magnum.
 
“Fluttershy said they were goin’ on a scavenger hunt!”
 
“Oh, wooow! Now that sounds exciting!” he responded. “Did ya know, when your mother and I were first dating, we used to go geocaching up in the mountains!”
 
“I already told her about all that. We had such fun times back then, didn’t we? Hey, speaking of which, you got yourself a stallion yet, Rarity?”
 
PFFFFFFT!” Rarity spit out her cocoa.
 
Oh, dear… Fluttershy thought.
 
“Oh-ho-ho, a stallion? Me?” Rarity shakingly replied, her eyes darting around the room. “Well… not really, no. Heh-heh. Why would you ask such a thing, mother?”
 
Well, I guess she isn’t lying.
 
“Well then, if ya got time, I met this lovely boy who lives down the street! If ya want, I could… introduce you.”
 
“Ehhhh.”
 
Sweat was quickly starting to trickle down Rarity’s twitchy face.
 
Uh-oh… This conversation isn’t going in a very good place. I should probably do something to steer them away…
 
“So, uh… how is your job as a high school hoofball teacher coming along, Magnum?” Fluttershy butted in.
 
“Pretty good!” he replied, raising his hoof in the air. “The team’s going into the Tulip Bowl semi-finals, and we might even take the season!”
 
“Hey, honey, didn’t you say that boy I mentioned used to be the star quarterback when he attended?” Pearl egged on.
 
“That’s right! Big framed picture of him in the locker rooms! A real legend, he is.”
 
“If it’s all the same, can we please stop talking about him for now?” Rarity asked, as she wiped off her head with a handkerchief.
 
“Well, why not, dear? Don’t you want a big strong stallion in your life to watch your delicate little back? Besides, I’m still waiting on those grandchildren.”
 
PFFFFT!” as she spit out her tea again. “I—D—Yo—MOTHER!
 
She… wants grandchildren?
 
“Fluttershy, please! Say something! QUICK!” Rarity desperately whispered.
 
Fluttershy glanced back and forth between Rarity and her parents.
 
“Ummmm, so… do you two know where we can find a gemstone in this town?”
 


That dog gone Rainbow and her stinkin’ lies! I sure hope y’all ain’t actually gettin’ any of that nonsense down!
 
Okay yeah, it was a volcano. But that was it. It was just a volcano called the Red Scale Mountain. And it didn’t even erupt!
 
The only hard part about that thing was climbing up it. And you bet your patootie Little Miss Lazywings wasn’t having any of that!
 
“And… now we’re at the top. See, that wasn’t so hard!”
 
“Says the pony who decided to just fly the whole way up! Ah’m gonna need to stop a minute to rest, RD. Ah’m beat, and mah legs are killin’ me after all that climbing.”
 
“Well, fine then! Man, you’re so easily winded. I’m not even breaking a sweat!”
 
“Yeah… whatever.”
 
RRRRRRRUMBLE!
 
“What in tarnation is that?”
 
“It’s a giant waterfall of lava! THE VOLCANO IS ERUPTING!”
 
“No, it ain’t! That’s just a little lava rush. It’s headin’ this way, though. Rainbow, mah leg is still too sore to run. Ya think you can fly me up to that ledge over there?”
 
“What’s the magic word?”
 
“Please.”
 
“Sure thing, pal!”
 
So yes, she was telling the truth about that part… even though she was being awfully braggy about it.
 
“Whew! Thanks, Rainbow.”
 
“Yeah, no problem. So how’s your leg feel?”
 
“Mmmm… well, still can’t do much runnin’, but I think I can at least walk now.”
 
“Good. Let’s get moving, then.”
 
Once we started going through the volcano’s caves and inside the thing, it got much better. We did another thing to deal with, though…
 
“Alright, let’s just find the gemstone, grab it right away, and get the heck out of here!”
 
“The volcano’s not gonna blast a whole bunch of lava at you if THAT’S what you’re worried about…”
 
CAW! CAW! CAW!
 
“Aah! What’s with these birds!?”
 
“Land snakes! These condors are awfully bitey!”
 
“What are we going to do?”
 
“I know! I’ll buck some of these rocks at them!”
 
“Oh, yeah! Why didn’t I thinka that?”
 
So yeah, just took a little bit of buckin’ to get rid of those pesky condors. Tch. Fire demons. Of all the arrogant things…
 
So, what else was there? What? Mighty beasts of Agredor? OHHH! No, those were just scorpions! Agredorian scorpions, too! Used to have problems with those critters whenever I visited cousin Braeburn in Appleossa.
 
“Come on, Applejack! Squash them! Squash them! They’re right over there!”
 
“You think ah can’t see them, Rainbow?”
 
So, yeah. No volcano eruptions. No fire demons. No beasts of Agredor. And DEFINITELY no dumb Fire God genie things with a name like “Rainbow-Is-So-Awesome-And-Whatever”!
 
Ah tell ya, ah’m really gonna have to find that Rainbow and tell her a thing or two about all that braggin’! All them lies and exaggerations! I swear, she has no sense of humbleness in her, that darn ol’…
 
Speaking of which, is there… anything else that she’s holding out on me?
 
Ah know ah asked this before, it’s just… I keep noticing as we’re traveling together.
 
She’s really got some sort of thing that’s holding her back, it makes her to space out every once and a while. And when I ask her what’s wrong, she just says it’s nothing, and that ah don’t need to know, and then she gets real quiet.
 
Please?
 
Isn’t there anything y’all can tell me?
 
Because it’s really starting to bug me. And ah don’t know why. Some sort of uneasy feeling near mah gut…


“Fluttershy?”
 
“Yes?”
 
“We need to get out of here.”
 
“Do we really have to? Can’t we at least say goodbye first?”
 
“No! We were extremely lucky that her pie got ready right before she was about to drone on about that stupid stallion! We should slip away now before they notice. Don’t worry, I’ll patch it up with my parents later.”
 
“I still think we should tell them the truth.”
 
Oh, Fluttershy… Rarity lamented in her head. I hate doing this to her just as much as she probably hates doing this, but I have no other choice…
 
“We can’t, Fluttershy!” she reaffirmed, shaking her head. “It’s not easy as you think. I don’t open up to my parents very often at all! Goodness, I still haven’t even told them about Sweetie’s relationship with Spike! I don’t think I could—”
 
“Alright, we’re back!” Pearl announced, as she and Magnum re-entered from the kitchen. “Just gonna be another ten minutes on that pie!”
 
Darn it.
 
There was silence for a few minutes, as the grandfather clock in the room tick-tocked away. Pearl blinked a few times as she seemed to be gazing downward. Finally, she eased up and faced her daughter.
 
“I take it you’re not really interested in meeting a stallion at all, are ya, Rarity?”
 
Oh, my. Is mother actually empathizing with me for once?
 
“I get it,” she continued. “Too immersed in your busy little dress-making world. Your job is your life, yeah. I guess that makes sense. Still, you should at least consider settling down at some point…”
 
…Sort of.
 
“How about you, Fluttershy?” she said, as she shifted her focus to Rarity’s beloved. “Do you have somepony special in your life?”
 
“Um—I—Uh, well…”
 
Uh-oh. This could be the breaking point, Rarity realized.
 
“Sort of, yes, but I mean… NO! Well, I-I—It’s, uh, it’s… complicated. Heh-heh.”
 
Oh, dear. What was I thinking? Fluttershy’s not a terribly good liar…
 
“So you do have a special somepony?” Magnus asked, sounding astonished. “How charming! Who is he?”
 
“NO! I mean… um, no, I don’t. Nopony.”
 
“Is it somepony we know from Ponyville?”
 
“Is he a real sweetheart?” Pearl chimed in.
 
“Does he play sports?”
 
“Yes, tell us, honey! Does he?”
 
“I—I—I—Please… stop…”
 
Fluttershy began to curl down under the pressure, and she put both of her hooves above her head as her whole body trembled.
 
NO! I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
 
“Rarity!” Magnum exclaimed.
 
Before she even knew it, Rarity had dived right next to Fluttershy and was cuddling her to make her stop trembling.
 
“Can’t take what anymore, sweetheart?” Pearl repeated, scratching her head.
 
Great. NOW what do I do?
 
Well… I’m already embracing her like a protective lover does. I suppose I have no other choice now…
 
“I can’t take it anymore…” she confessed, eyes closed. “Because you see, the pony that Fluttershy is dating…” She gulped. “…is me.”
 
Both parents gasped.
 
Rarity helped Fluttershy off of the couch and continued walking her along shoulder-over-neck towards the door.
 
“I guess we’ll be leaving now, before you kick us out yourselves. Before I go though, I just want to apologize for being such an embarrassment to you… I’m sorry, mother and father.”
 
“Rarity, wait!”
 
Just as Rarity was about to open the door, her hoof was let down by her father.
 
“You don’t have to leave,” said Magnus tenderly. “At least let us say something before you do.”
 
“…Okay.”
 
“Honey, we don’t care if you like stallions or mares.”
 
She whipped her head back around. “You… you don’t?”
 
“Of course not!”
 
“Dear, we just want you to be happy,” Pearl clarified, though with a worried look on her face. “The only reason we were pressing you on about having a strong stallion was because of how much you used to love those books about princes. I always assumed that was what you really wanted in your life.”
 
Magnum rustled Fluttershy’s mane with his hoof as he continued. “We’re just proud that you were able to find somepony that can make you happy, eh. And from what I know of you, Fluttershy… you’re definitely a keeper.”
 
“Thanks!”
 
“You know…” Magnum whispered into his daughter’s ear. “She’s very pretty.”
 
“Dad…” Rarity chuckled. She cleared her throat and rubbed her watery eyes, regaining her composure, and bowed her head towards her parents. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more honest about our relationship. I just wasn’t sure what you were going to think of me.”
 
“Perhaps it would’ve gone smoother if we had been more open to you about your Uncle Burke…” Pearl admitted. She seemed to be looking down at the floor in deep thought.
 
What about Uncle Burke?”
 
Magnum motioned for her to come closer, and began whispering things in her ear. Rarity reacted with faces of surprise, then confusion, and then revulsion, and finally an unsure smile as he talked.
 
“Well… how… fascinating.” Just when I thought I was finally beginning to understand Uncle Burke… Rarity thought.
 
“Why don’t you two come sit back down on the couch and have some of your mother’s delicious blueberry pie?”
 
“Sounds great!” said Rarity. “Come on, Fluttershy!”
 
“Okay!”
 
The two sat back down and resumed waiting for the pie with Rarity’s parents. For the first time since entering the house, Rarity finally began to look content and relaxed.
 
What do you know… My parents do accept me after all. I think this is the first time I’ve felt like they both truly understand me. Perhaps now, this means a thankful end to the awkward conversations.
 
Fluttershy shot her a smile, and Rarity grinned in return. Feeling satisfied, she took a proud sip of her cocoa. As she did, Fluttershy noticed something on the nightstand to her right.
 
“Wow, what a lovely broach. Do you mind if I take a look at it?”
 
“Sure!”
 
“Oh, my. This quartz is just… mesmerizing.”
 
Rarity’s mother, who had been staring at the floor ever since her daughter’s revelation broke out, finally perked her head up.
 
“I guess this means we’ll have to rely on Sweetie Belle for grandchildren instead, huh?”
 
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!
 


There’s not even much of a point in staying in this stupid old house… Too many bad memories now… I should just leave now… Who cares if I haven’t found that stupid gemstone yet? It’s not like any of it matters anymore… My world just isn’t complete without—
 
“OH, TWILIGHT! WHY-HY-HY-HYYYYYY!?”
 
“I think I can help with your little problem…”
 
“Wha…? Who’s there? Who said that!?”
 
SPROOOONG!
 
“Why, it’s me!”
 
“Discord?”
 
What’s he doing in a jack-in-the-barn?
 
“Discord? I don’t know who that is! My name is Wacky Jack the Wizard!”
 
“Hee-hee, silly Discord! Why are you dressed like a clown? And your neck’s all funny too! Hee-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
 
“I’m not Discord, I’m Wacky Jack the Wizard! Alright? GOT IT?”
 
“Well… okay then, Mr. Wacky Jacky!”
 
Seriously, what a silly afro! He didn’t even get the colors in the right order!
 
“Now that I’ve got you in stitches, perhaps I should explain yourself. I couldn’t help but notice your friend seems to have been… well, you know, gobbled up by the spooky ghosts?”
 
“Oh… right. Yeah. Oh… poor Twiliiight!”
 
“Alright, hush hush, don’t cry, my little pony! Because I’m here to make you happy again by setting everything right!”
 
Sniff…
 
“How!?”
 
“Believe it or not, I can use my magic to… BRING HER BACK FROM THE DEAD!”
 
“GASP! Really! You can!? HURRAAAAAY!”
 
I don’t believe it! A miracle has happened! This must be a part of the prophecies!
 
“Whoa, settle down now! There’s just one small condition. In order to use my magic to bring somepony back to life, I need…”
 
“Uh-huh? Uh-huh? What do you need?”
 
“A piece of the heart.”
 
“Huh?”
 
“Specifically, your heart. You see, I need to extract the piece of your heart that remembers Twilight Sparkle and carries a strong emotional will to help her. I will then use that willpower to… you guessed it, bring her back!”
 
“But, Mr. Wacky Jack sir, if I give you that piece of my heart, then… what will happen to me?”
 
“Ah, yes. That’s the sad part, I’m afraid. If you give me the piece of your heart that cares about Twilight, then she will indeed be amongst the living once more. However… any emotional or sentimental attachment that you had to her… will be lost. Any feelings of specialness, sisterly bonds, friendship… or more than that… romantic feelings, for instance.”
 
So… that’s the choice I’ve gotta make, huh?
 
“I realize this must be a tough decision for you. Feel free to take your time and think for a while.” POOF!
“I can wait.”
 
Where’d he get that chair and nail rubbing thingy from? No, can’t think about that right now!
 
Let’s see, so if I give him that special part of my heart, then Twilight won’t be yucky ghost food anymore. She’ll be alive. She’ll be here… with me.
 
But it won’t be me anymore. It’ll be somepony else. Somepony who doesn’t care for her. Somepony who doesn’t run to her for protection, or goes to all her birthday parties, or hangs out with her, or calls her my very best friend.
 
I won’t even love her anymore.
 

 
No.
 
I can’t do that. Can’t do that to her. She would be really sad if she came back only to see a heartless Pinkie Pie waiting to see her again. Her best friend will be completely gone forever, in her place. And I won’t. Even. Love. Her.
 
That would tear her apart. She wouldn’t want to see me like that at all. In fact, she might even… she might even want to die again, just to bring me back.
 
I can’t let that happen. I can’t!
 
“I won’t do it!”
 
“Great! Alright, let’s just reach in there and—Wait… what did you say?”
 
“I said no!”
 
“But—but why? Don’t you want to see your precious Twilight again?”
 
“Of course I do. More than anything else. But… I don’t want her to see me again. Not as a pony with part of her heart missing, the part that cared about Twilight as a friend… as something more than a friend. She wouldn’t want that, and I don’t want that on her.”
 
“You—you can’t be serious!”
 
“I am! Because if that’s what it’s going to take to bring Twilight back, then I’d rather wait until I die too to see her again! It’s better to love once and then to lose something, than to never love anything at.. all! I think that’s how it goes. Or was that actually about corn flakes?”
 
“Okay, you’re just being ridiculous now! Hand me that piece of your heart and let’s just bring her back already!”
 
“I said NO!”
 
“Come on! Um… Oh! Did I mention that this magic also has a time limit? If we wait more than an hour, then my magic won’t have any effect at all! She’ll be gone forever!”
 
“GOOD! Because I’d rather die alone still loving her than let her live the rest of her life with a loveless Pinkie! …Wow, that was a lot of L’s.”
 
“STOP BEING FOOLISH! Just give me your heart!”
 
“NO!”
 
“GIVE IT TO ME NOW!”
 
“NOOO!”
 
“GIVE IT!”
 
“LET GO OF ME! ERRRAAAHHH!”
 
Nopony tries to take away my heart by force!
 
“OWW! What the heck? You bit me!”
 
“That’s what you get, you nasty heart-snatcher!”
 
“ALRIGHT, THAT’S IT! You win this round, Pinkamena Diane Pie!”
 
What good is snapping his fingers going to do? He can’t do anything with—
 
Wait, what’s that over there? That big purple light… It’s so pretty…
 
Wait.
 
Can it be?
 
“T-T-Twilight!”
 
“Ohhh… Pinkie?”
 
“And take your dumb Gemstone too! But next time, you and Miss Sparklepants won’t be so lucky!”
 
POOF.
 
“Huh. Why did he have a diamond inside of his afro? GASP! Twilight!”
 
I can’t believe it! He really brought her back, even though I didn’t give him my heart! IT’S A DREAM COME TRUE! THANK YOU, PROPHECIES!
 
“Oh, Twilight! I thought you were dead!”
 
“Pinkie Pie! Am I glad to see you! But I don’t understand, what happened? One minute, I was being closed in on by the ghosts, and then the next thing I knew… I was over here.”
 
“I’m so glad to have you baaaaaack!”
 
“Me too, Pinkie. Me too. But wait, was that… Discord’s voice I heard?”
 
“Of course not! That was Wacky Jack the Wizard, silly!”
 
“…Who?”
 


“It is really is called a ‘kirin’ though, a dragon-pony hybrid. Their birth conditions are very similar to those of a cockatrice—”
 
“Okay, Fluttershy, please! I really, really don’t want to hear any more about that right now.”
 
Rarity and Fluttershy had finished their rendezvous with Rarity’s parents and were now heading towards the Fillydelphia city limits, as Rarity dropped a chunk of quartz into her saddlebag.
 
“If my mother really wants grandchildren that badly, she should’ve had another child.”
 
“What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy, as a look of concern suddenly appeared on her face.
 
“Well, where else is she going to turn to for grandchildren?”
 
“Well, I—We—I guess… I guess I don’t know.”
 
Fluttershy’s head slumped down as she walked ahead. Rarity raised an eyebrow at her marefriend’s strange behavior, but shook it off and continued walking alongside her.
 
“I suppose it’s a good thing that we did stop at mother and father’s house after all,” Rarity noted. “Who would’ve known that the Gemstone we needed was in mother’s broach the entire time? Still…”
 
“It’s something more important than that,” Fluttershy replied.
 
“Hmm? What would that be?”
 
“You were finally able to tell your parents about us,” she said, turning to Rarity with a warm smile. “That took a lot of guts, Rarity. Guts that I wouldn’t have had.”
 
“Oh, thank you, Fluttershy. You always know the right things to say…”
 
The two stopped and stared at each other for a moment. Then, as if on a cue, they met each other’s lips in a very passionate kiss, one filled with absolute love and divinity. For a while, they just stood there, wrapped up in each other’s tender kiss.
 
This is one of the deepest kisses I’ve given her in a while… Rarity realized.
 
“Awwwww,” said a fairly handsome brown stallion who happened to be passing by them. “How sweet. Reminds me of my first love, back in high school. The winning game… boy, he was so stellar.”


She puts up a much stronger fight than I thought. Perhaps this will be very tricky after all...