//------------------------------// // Card Hat Trick // Story: Bearers at Ease // by leonidas701 //------------------------------//         Twilight sat in the town square, trying to conceal her embarrassment by hiding in a snowy tree. She had managed to somehow fail at each and every single task that a pony could do to help in the winter wrap-up. From panicing when she was waking animals up, to simply failing at pulling a plow, to face planting on ice when she tried to score it. Compared to how good she felt when she woke up, this was a complete one-eighty.         “C’mon, Twilight. Come on out,” Spike said as he stood beside the tree.         “I’m a winter mess up,” Twilight said despondently.         “Well you’re good at a lot of things, just not nest-making, ice-skating, animal-waking, snow-clearing-- ”         “Thanks a lot for making me feel so much better.” Twilight clammed up. Then a certain stallion came up to the tree.         Card stood there and looked at the pine tree, tilting his head back and forth, working his jaw as he did so. After several seconds Spike finally had to cut through the awkward silence.         “What?”         Card said, “...There’s a joke here, somewhere. I just, can’t, find it. I want to say, ‘the twinkly goes on top of the tree, not inside it,’ but that doesn’t work.” He turned to Spike. “You have any ideas?”         The green dragon glared up at the orange stallion, saying, “Twilight’s really upset.”         “Oh?” Card turned back to the tree. “What’s wrong, Twinkly?”         “I’m a failure,” Tree-light --Tree-light? Ugh, that was terrible-- Twilight mumbled.         “Is this about something specific, or just in general?”         Twilight popped her head out to glare at him but only managed a pout. She opened her mouth to speak but suddenly heard Mayor Mare speaking.         “Oh! What in Equestria are all you arguing about? This sort of silliness is why we were late for spring last year, and the year before that, and the year before that,” she said.         “Did she say late?” Twilight excitedly asked.         “Among other things,” Card said with a nod. “Hey, listen, would you mind meeting me at the road that leads into my forest at around 10:45 tonight? I’ve got something to show you.”         “Yeah, sure, be happy too,” Twilight said distractedly, most of her attention being directed at the fuss in the center of the square. She lept out of the tree, shaking small bits of snow off it and onto Spike and Card. “Spike! Get my checklist and clipboard, STAT!” she said as she galloped to the crowd of ponies.         “Eh, yes ma’am.” Spike went to go do his duty, albeit in a slightly confused manner. This left Card standing at the tree along, with a pleasantly surprised smile.         “Damn, I am the greatest psychiatrist in the world,” he said as he dusted the snow off of his jacket. “Oh, wait, no, crap! I forgot to ask where Trixie is!” He shrugged his shoulders. “Ah, well, I’ll find her eventually.” He walked off. -----Eventually-----         “Hey, Trixie.”         “Ahh!” Trixie said as she was jolted out of her state of concentration, her hoof slamming down onto the nest she was making she such force that it tore apart. “Ugh.” Trixie shook her head and grabbed some branches to start making a new one. “Dang it,” she muttered. “Hi Card. Where have you been?”         “Working. It took me awhile, but I’m finished now.”         “Oh yeah, that reminds me. You have clients coming in again starting tomorrow.”         “Thanks. So, what are you doing?”         “My part for Winter Wrap-up.” Trixie gestured to the pile of nests next to her on the table. “I volunteered to help work on the nests. Of course, then I found out that I wasn’t allowed to use magic, so I’ve been trying to make these dumb things by hoof.” Trixie placed another branch, taking pains to make sure that it wasn’t placed somewhere where it could slip out. In order to do so she had to carefully move another piece slightly out of the way and-         “Gah!” A part of the nest wall collapsed. Trixie rubbed her face in frustration. “This is so stupid, seriously, I could’ve been done ages ago! Stupid traditions.”         Card grunted in a way that indicated agreement. “So, has anything interesting happened while I was cooped up?”         “Not much, at least not that I noticed.” Trixie briefly considered telling him about Twilight’s fear of the book as revenge for her waking her up at five a.m., but quickly squashed it down. “A couple of days ago Pinkie came to the library and asked where you were.”         “Oh?”         “Yeah. What’s happened with you two?”         “Nothing.”         Trixie stopped working on the nest briefly to cast a skeptical look at Card. “Bull. I saw what happened at New Year’s. What’s going on?”         “No, really, nothing. She kissed me, I kissed back, that’s all.”         “What, really? And when you two were alone for hours in the hotel?”         “We watched a movie.”         Trixie looked at him with a raised eyebrow before harrumphing and getting back to work.         “I’m sorry my affairs don’t entertain you,” Card said dryly.         “Apology accepted,” Trixie said faux-sincerely. “So?”         “So?”         “So, do you like her? ‘cus I think she likes you.”         “Really, I never would’ve guessed.” Card gave Trixie a look, which Trixie ignored.         “So?”         “S-” Card was cut off by Trixie picking up a nest and pulling her hoof back like she was going to smack him with it.         Card chuckled a little bit. He paused for a moment to think while Trixie put the nest back down. “Yyyy- yeah. Yeah, I like her.”         “Huh. Well, good luck.”         “?”         “You’ve kept her waiting for four days. Go ask her out, I think she’s scoring the ice at the lake.”         “Who’s winning?” Card asked.         Trixie stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Card, trying to tell if he made the pun on purpose or if he just didn’t know what scoring was. After a couple seconds of failing to read his face, she decided it wasn’t important and got back to work with a shake of her head.         “Just go,” she said.         “Hey, would you mind meeting me and Twilight at the road leading into the Everfree at 10:45 tonight?” Card asked.         “Why?”         “Uhm…” Card tapped on his sleeve, the sound making Trixie turn.         “Oh!” Her eyes widened a bit. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”         “Great. Bye.”         “Yeah, bye.” Trixie refocused her efforts as Card left to go find Pinkie, but for the rest of the day her mind kept wandering to the bite marks she knew were concealed underneath Card’s jacket. -----At the Lake-----         Pinkie sat down to catch her breath. It had taken almost the entire day but she had finally finished her job. While her body rested, her mind was active and trying to figure out what kind of snack she should grab from SugarCube Corner while she waited.         Maybe a cupcake but this is something that only happens once a year it’s special I can’t just get a normal cupcake what if I made some lava fudge and filled a cupcake with that but that might take a while I think I could do it but oh wait it would cool down too quickly I can’t take it all the way from the bakery to here I could just make a hot cream pie no I did that last year and if I repeat then-- Wait, what’s that? Pinkie noticed that her back left hoof started jiggling, and her Pinkie Sense was going off.         “Pinkie.”         She looked down at the ground and noticed Card standing at the foot of the tree she was in. Pinkie eagerly jumped down with a big smile on her face.         “Card!” she said. “Did you come out for Winter Wrap-Up? Oh, did you want to help with the ice? I’m so sorry, I should’ve saved you some, but today I managed to get it all cut up and melted already. In one day! Did you see it, Twilight was standing over everypony--”         “Actually, I came to talk to you,” Card said with a serious face.         “Oh.” Pinkie’s smile left her face and was replaced by a horrified expression. “Oh no!” She started gesturing wildly as she spoke. “Is this about me kissing you, because I thought you were going to, and I’m sorry I make mistakes like that sometimes, I won’t bother--”         Card quickly grabbed her head and pulled her in for a kiss. Pinkie’s hooves froze mid-gesture out of shock, slowly coming down to wrap around his neck as she started kissing him back.         It’s very hard for ponies to balance on their hind-legs, particularly while they are kissing, so it was only inevitable that they both fell sideways to the ground. Thankfully, the ground was still padded by a good bit of snow, so the shock was only enough for them to break their kiss.         “Wowie,” Pinkie said, her fore-legs still around Card’s neck. “Usually ponies yell at me to make me stop talking.”         “My way’s more fun,” Card said.         Pinkie nodded, slightly dazed. “So, you’re not mad?”         Card answered her. The answer stopped twenty seconds later when Pinkie needed to breathe.         “Yippee!” Pinkie said in between breaths. “I thought you were mad at me and that you weren’t coming out of your house because you didn’t want to talk to me!”         “No, I had some very boring work to catch up on. I’m done now.”         “Yay,” she said breathlessly. This time Pinkie started the kiss, only to break it off after a couple of seconds. “Wait, silly me, you said you wanted to talk about something right?”         “Did I?” Card cast his mind back a minute. “Oh yeah.” Card stood up and extended a hoof to help Pinkie. Pinkie pouted a little, sad to stop the fun, before smiling and standing up.         “Wait, what time is it?” Card asked himself. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a wall clock. “Oh good.” He tossed the clock back into his jacket, flinching immediately afterwards. “Whoops,” he muttered. To Pinkie he said, “I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me?”         “Okie-dokie! When?”         “Do you have anything to do right now?”         “...Huh. Nope! Not for the rest of the day! Where do you want to go?”         Card looked around. “How about we just stay here, have a picnic?”         “Good idea! I can go back to SugarCube Corner and get my picnic basket, and bring it here!”         “No, don’t bother. Here.” Card pulled a blanket out of his jacket and laid in open on the ground. “What do you want to eat?” -----After The Date-----         Card had walked Pinkie back into town and the two of them were standing outside of SugarCube Corner. Pinkie Pie had unlocked the door when she looked over her shoulder and was about to speak before Card piped up.         “Let’s do that again,” he said from the curb. “Uh, not now, obviously, later--  uh, some other day.”         Pinkie was momentarily taken aback. “Ye- uh, yeah, that’d be- yes.” Pinkie smiled warmly. “Yep! That sounds fun!”         “Great! I’ve gotta go. Good night.”         “Nighty-night!” Pinkie Pie started going into her house as Card walked off. He got five feet away before hooking one of his forelegs around a lamppost and swinging back around.         “Iiiiii Foooorgooooot.” He walked back to Pinkie and kissed her good night. “Theeerrrre we gooooo.” Pinkie Pie giggled and closed the door to start getting ready for bed.         Card was walking home, enjoying what had just happened. He recalled the memories of Pinkie telling him how hectic all of the other Winter Wrap-ups were, and how she had guiltily enjoyed the bizarre chaos as everypony struggled to work together. He remembered how she had gotten through half a bowl of piping hot bean soup before she realized she had burned her tongue. He vividly remembered how she had laughed when he slipped on some ice and landed head first into snow trying to show off, apologizing through her giggles as she asked him if he was okay. All of this he remembered, turning it over and over again in his head to distract him from what he was about to do. He got to the edge of the Everfree forest and sighed deeply. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his usual clock. Then he remember that he had broken that clock and threw it back into his coat, pulling out a different one. 10:30.         He sighed again and buried his head in his hooves. All there was to do now was wait. Wait and try to convince himself he wasn’t making a terrible mistake. A/N: Sorry this took so long. It was my birthday weekend and then it was the first week of summer break, so I was a little busy, but I’m back now. Word of warning, next chapter will be mostly first person.