“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, Pinkie,” Twilight assured the pink perpetually peppy party pony, putting a hoof on her withers, “I’m just saying that Trixie’s probably not going to be in the mood for a party right after waking up. Just hold off until she’s strong enough.”
Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her mouth in thought, before smiling and nodding fervently. “That’s okay!” the Element of Laughter declared. “It’ll give me more time to set-up!”
Twilight returned the smile, thankful she had diffused the situation. The two were in Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie was watching the front counter while the Cakes baked up a storm of fresh pastries for the eager citizens of Ponyville – today was even colder than yesterday, and everypony, even those lucky enough to own magically-warming scarves or cloaks or the like, were hoping to get their hooves on the food while it was still hot and fresh.
“Maybe try and keep it low-key, too, even after she gets better,” Twilight advised.
Pinkie Pie nodded, even as Twilight finished paying for the four muffins she was buying, two of which were gem-encrusted and for Spike. “Quiet party. Not my favorite kind, but still better than no party at all! Ooh, I can’t wait for Trixie to get better now! I wasn’t able to give her a party the first time she came to town, and the second time she was being all mean ‘cause of the Amulet. But the third time’s a charm!”
Twilight just chuckled as she took her bag of muffins in her telekinetic grasp, waved goodbye to Pinkie, and went back out into Ponyville.
It was the day after Trixie had been found in Applejack’s front yard, and already Ponyville was gossiping up a storm. The citizenry of the farming town seemed to require and live off of gossip at least as much as food and water, with word spreading quickly and ponies trying to figure out what this meant. A few mentioned that they had heard that the Great and Powerful Trixie had put on a show Hoofington, one of the towns near Ponyville. Apparently, she had gone back to wandering the land as a stage magician, but if the gossip was anything to go by, she had cleaned up her act immensely, and crowds of ponies were once more flocking to her in droves.
It was all-around good news, basically, and helped put Twilight’s mind at ease, at least a little, as she had worried that Trixie had returned to Ponyville having been unable to return to her previous profession. Though it did raise an interesting question – where was her cart? Surely she had acquired another mobile stage…what had happened to it?
Her thoughts were interrupted as she passed by the spa, and saw Rarity and Fluttershy emerging. The Elements of Generosity and Kindness, respectively, the two had started going on mutual spa trips not long after the incident with Nightmare Moon that had brought Twilight and her closest friends together in the first place. On spotting Twilight, Rarity let out a slight gasp, and rushed over to her even as she was careful to not get any snow or mud on her freshly-hooficured hooves.
“Twilight,” she said when she was close. “Is it true? Is Trixie really at Sweet Apple Acres?”
Twilight nodded. “Doctor Stable thinks that she was struck by lightning, and then overchanneled,” she explained. Rarity let out a gasp of worry at that, and Twilight had to hold up her hooves to calm her down. “She’s fine. In fact the doctor thinks that she might wake up today or tomorrow.”
Rarity put a hoof to her chest at that, breathing out a sigh. “Well, that is a relief,” she said. “Trixie may not be the most agreeable of ponies, but I would hate to think that anything bad should happen to her, even after what she put us all through.”
Fluttershy nodded at that, though she frowned. “Struck by lightning?” she asked. “But…there wasn’t any lightning in the snow storm…and Cloudsdale makes sure that no lightning cloud has lightning strong enough to seriously hurt somepony, anyway…”
Twilight shrugged, out of a lack of knowing the answer rather than a lack of care. “We’ll just have to ask her when she wakes up,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be there, though…I need to get my home cleaned up for Princess Celestia – gah!” Twilight’s eyes widened at her own words. “Oh no, I completely forgot! Princess Celestia is coming to town tomorrow! I’m sorry, girls, I have to go!”
She didn’t wait for a goodbye as she rushed off. She had, of course, remembered to start cleaning when she had finally made her way home yesterday, and had been doing more of the same all this morning, but with Trixie and her condition on her mind, she had only been putting in a half-hearted effort, she knew, her mind not really on the task. What if she’d skipped something in the checklist? Would there be anything worse than having made her bed only to realize she hadn’t cleaned her bed sheets yet?
Well, yes, of course there was. Princess Celestia might show up early.
“Gah!” Twilight cried, galloping faster.
---
Earth pony magic was a potent, if subtle, force, allowing the farming ponies of Equestria to rapidly grow multiple harvests throughout the year, making Equestria the single largest exporter of food on the entire continent by an order of magnitude. Even the most powerful earth pony magic, however, couldn’t make apple trees bloom in the middle of winter. This meant that Applejack, and indeed the entire Apple clan, typically had little to do during the shorter days of the cold season, at least compared to their normal workload.
Thus, Applejack was sitting in her room, keeping an eye on Trixie while she caught up on her almanac for the coming year, when a long, pained groan came from somewhere beneath the covers that Trixie had unconsciously buried herself under.
Applejack set her almanac aside and was on her hooves in an instant, as Trixie slowly poked her head out from beneath the sheets and comforters, eyes glassy and unfocused as she gazed out Applejack’s bedroom window, blinking a few times.
“Trixie?” Applejack asked, trotting around to the other side of her bed and waving a hoof in front of her charge’s eyes. “You okay, surgarcube?”
Trixie was silent for several long moments, her eyes gradually coming into focus. She tried to lift her head, but failed. “Headache,” she croaked, her throat sounding dry as a bone left out in the Mild West desert.
Applejack supposed the headache made sense, given that Doctor Stable was certain Trixie had been struck in the horn by lightning. She’d anticipated Trixie’s dry throat, too, and went over to her nightstand, where a jug of water and an empty glass was already waiting. She poured out a glass and set a straw in it before holding it forward to the injured unicorn. “Alright, now, drink up,” she instructed.
Trixie didn’t need any encouragement, lips closing around the straw and draining the glass’ contents in just a few moments. Applejack poured out a second glass, but before offering it to Trixie, she grabbed one of the vials of ether that the doctor had left behind and uncorked it. “Doc says we should get ya to drink these as often as possible,” she said.
Trixie obliged, taking a sip. She almost immediately started coughing at the taste, recoiling a moment, before looking at Applejack. “That’s…ether…?” she asked. Applejack nodded, and Trixie’s brow furrowed as she grabbed at the vial with her hooves, and drained it, wincing more at the taste but making sure to swallow the whole thing before going again for the water. When she’d washed the taste of the ether from her mouth, she looked again to Applejack. “O…over…overchanneled…?” she guessed.
Applejack nodded. “Doctor Stable got to ya in time, ‘fore that coma set in,” she explained. “Been ‘bout a day since we found ya.”
Trixie breathed out a long sigh of relief at that, looking around with just her eyes. “Where…?”
“Mah room at the farm,” Applejack explained. “Found ya passed out in the front yard, brought ya in. Gave Applebloom one heck of a scare when she found ya, though Ah’m sure that weren’t your intention.”
Trixie slowly shook her head, closing her eyes. “Magic accident…” she said. “Tried…tried teleporting, ended up…somewhere. Somewhere with a storm. Tried teleporting back to Ponyville…must have made it…” she grimaced, clutching a pillow closely. “Stupid lightning…”
Applejack nodded, brushing some of Trixie’s mane out from her face. “Well, you just rest up, y’here? You’re a guest a’ Sweet Apple Acres ‘til you’re back on your own four hooves again. Now, are ya hungry? Thirsty? Need to use the little filly’s room?”
Trixie shook her head to all questions. “Tired,” she said.
Applejack nodded, turning around and closing her window’s curtains, plunging the room into shadows. “Ah’ll let ya get some shut-eye,” she said. “But Ah’ll be right here if’n ya need anything, okay?”
Trixie vaguely nodded, and Applejack returned to the pillow she’d been sitting at. Just as she was picking up her almanac again and was about to move to her desk to get some light, she heard Trixie roll over. “Applejack…?” the unicorn asked.
“Yeah, sugarcube?”
Trixie stared at Applejack for a few moments, before inclining her head. “I…I know we haven’t…haven’t always gotten along, and…well…thank-you.”
Applejack realized, after a moment, that she was staring. It was one thing to know on some level that Trixie had seen the error of her ways after the whole Alicorn Amulet incident…it was quite another to actually hear the words thank-you come from her mouth, especially without prompting. Doing so made Trixie go far past reformed, in Applejack’s mind, and planted her firmly in downright neighborly territory. It was not a spot she’d ever expected the showmare to occupy.
After a moment, country manners overrode Applejack’s shock, and she tilted her Stetson to Trixie. “Ain’t no problem, Trixie,” she assured her. “You just focus on getting’ better, y’hear?”
Trixie nodded weakly, closing her eyes. “H…hey…” she said. “Do me a favor…tell my friends not to worry…if you haven’t already…”
Applejack blinked at that. She didn’t know that Trixie had friends in Ponyville. “Friends?”
“Yeah, you know…” Trixie breathed, yawning. “Lyra…Carrot Top…Cheerilee…Ditzy…” she yawned again. “Raindrops…oh, and make sure…make sure Pokey tells Luna…”
At that, Applejack stepped forward. “You know Princess Luna?” she asked.
The only sound that greeted her was Trixie’s breathing, however – she had gone back to sleep. Applejack was seriously tempted to wake her up and ask for a tiny bit of clarification, but on the other hoof, the mare had already been through a lot, and needed all the rest she could get.
As soon as Trixie woke up again, Applejack intended to get some answers. Until then, however, Applejack supposed she had a few ponies to get in contact with. She left the room, heading downstairs and finding Big Mac, where he had been reading an almanac of his own in the kitchen. “Trixie woke up for a few minutes,” she told her brother. “She seems fine. Mind runnin’ to town and lettin’ Doc Stable know?”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac responded, closing his book and standing. “Need t’get milk anyways.”
Applejack considered for a few moments. “Hey, Big Mac,” she said, before the stallion left. “Yer friends with Cheerilee, right?”
“Eeyup.”
“She ever mention anythin’ ‘bout bein’ friends with Trixie?”
Big Mac ruminated for several moments. “Eenope,” he declared. “Why?”
Applejack tapped a hoof to her mouth as she thought. “Trixie said they were,” she said. “And with a few other ponies…Ditzy, probably meant Ditzy Doo the mailmare…and Carrot Top, but she’s never said anythin’ nice ‘bout Trixie to me…and also Lyra, and Raindrops.”
Big Mac’s brow furrowed at that. “Lyra?” he asked. “Lyra Heartstrings? Plays the harp in the park sometimes?”
Applejack remembered that Lyra had once expounded, at great length, on how she played a lyre and not a harp, but that didn’t seem very important at the moment. “Ah guess,” she said with a shrug. “And I ain’t never heard of nopony named Raindrops.” She looked to Big Mac again. “Trixie also said she knew Princess Luna.”
Big Mac blinked a few times at that. “Lightning to the head must have the poor gal confused,” he concluded.
“That’s mah thinkin’,” Applejack said. “Might want to get Doc Stable down here on the double.”
“Eeyup.”
---
“Dust the whole second floor?” Twilight asked.
“Check!” Spike responded, putting a mark next to the entry.
“Dust it twice?”
“Check!”
“Polish?”
“Check!”
Twilight cantered backwards to her stairs, looking around her home. It literally sparkled, the firefly-lanterns causing the floor, walls, and even ceiling to glisten. The whole room smelled of lemony freshness. She had declared her flat pillow a lost cause and replaced it. Her bedsheets were dry and folded perfectly atop her bed, ditto the ones for Spike’s basket. Her desk was neatly organized with everything in its proper position, including the three quills (main, backup, and backup for the backup) laid perfectly perpendicular and equidistant from each other and the desk's edges. Her telescope had been polished, too, and focused, the lenses completely cleaned. Absolutely nothing was out of place as she regarded her home. It was, in a word, perfect.
“Finally,” Spike said, as he rolled up the parchment and glanced at the clock in the room. It read nine-thirty. “Time for this dragon to get some shut-eye.”
“Ah-ah-ah, Spike,” Twilight chided, using a hoof to stop him from going any further into her home. “Everything is too perfect up here! It needs to stay that way.”
Spike blinked. “You mean after going through all that work to get my basket cleaned and everything, I don’t get to sleep in it?”
“Not yet,” Twilight confirmed sagely, as she nodded and turned around, trotting down the stairs and telekinetically carrying Spike after her. “We’re sleeping downstairs in the library tonight.”
“Wh…bu…” Spike groaned. “Come on, Twilight!”
Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, Spike,” she said. “Hey, I’m not getting to sleep in my own bed, either. But I don’t know when Princess Celestia will be showing up tomorrow, and everything need to be perfect when she arrives!”
“I don’t think she’d mind a few ruffles…”
Twilight turned to Spike, pressing her hooves together. “Please, Spike,” she said. “For me?”
Spike made the mistake of looking into Twilight’s eyes. He’d used the puppy-dog stare enough times himself to know how effective it could be, and seeing Twilight there, hooves pressed together, ears flopped down, eyes huge and almost watery…
“Fine…” he groaned.
“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed in triumph, clapping her front hooves together. She and Spike wandered to the center of the library, where Twilight used her magic to conjure several large pillows in rapid succession, as well as a pair of bedsheets for the two of them. “Don’t worry, Spike, I’ll make it up to you.”
“Yeah you will,” Spike responded, as he settled down on one of the pillows, using his hands and feet to press it down a few times before settling onto it. Twilight threw one of the blankets over him as he yawned. “I want…a gem cake. A big one…”
“The biggest,” Twilight promised, settling down onto her own set of pillows even as she tucked him in telekinetically.
“With rubies…and…emeralds, and…” he yawned again, “and…opals…sapphires…”
“Sure thing,” Twilight promised.
“…lapis lazuli…” Spike sighed as sleep overtook him. Within another few moments, he was snoring softly. Twilight smiled at the sight. He was so helpful and energetic when he was awake, it was easy to forget sometimes that he was still just a baby dragon. Twilight gave him a gentle nuzzle, before settling down herself. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day – she’d check up on Trixie, maybe actually become friends with her, and then after, Princess Celestia would show up to her nice, clean, perfect home…
Tomorrow was going to be an eventful day. She could just feel it.