Trixie stood in the center of Ponyville’s marketplace with a saddlebag. As she looked at the various stands that were set up, Scales scanned the shopping list they had bought. “Alright, so what’s next on the list?” asked Trixie.
“Um. . .milk, eggs, butter, hard candy. . .”
“What was that last one?” asked Trixie.
“Uh, butter?” replied Scales with a nervous smile. Trixie grabbed the list with her magic and saw that “Hard Candy” had been scribbled in at the bottom of the list.
“Nice try, Scales,” said Trixie with an amused grin. She noticed Scales crestfallen expression and sighed. “Here,” she said pulling some spare bits out of her bag. “Since you’ve been so helpful today, I suppose I can spare a couple bits.”
“Wow, really?” asked Scales excitedly as he took the bits.
“Sure, just. . .” Scales was already running off before Trixie could finish. “. . .don’t spend it all in one place.” Trixie sighed and shook her head before looking at the list again.
“Yoo-hoo, Trixie,” called somepony. Trixie looked up from her list and saw Suri Polomare trotting up to her. She was carrying a couple saddlebags that had some fabrics in them.
“Oh, hey, Suri,” greeted Trixie. “You out shopping too?”
“Just picking up some fabrics I ordered. Gotta say it’s nice to see you out and about.”
“Huh?” asked Trixie. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s been over a week since you moved to Ponyville and we’ve hardly seen you.”
“I’ve been out!” said Trixie defensively.
“For errands,” Suri countered. “But you’ve haven’t just hung out just for fun you know?”
“What’s your point?” asked Trixie confused. Suri sighed.
“Look, why don’t you come by to Carousel Boutique today?” Suri suggested. “I’ve been toying with a couple ideas to update your wardrobe for your show. I’d love to show them to you.”
“Um, okay?” said Trixie nervously. Suri smiled gleefully.
“Excellent! You’re going to love what I’ve come up with!” She trotted past Trixie. “See you then!”
“Yeah, okay,” said Trixie. It was then that Scales rejoined her holding a paper bag. “Oh, hey, Scales. Find any candy?”
“I got something better,” he said excitedly as he put his hand in the bag and pulled out a brown book. “Look!”
“A book?” asked Trixie.
“It’s a journal,” explained Scales opening the journal up and showing Trixie the blank pages.
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“Something wrong?”
“Suri said that she and the others want to hang out with me.” Scales raised a brow.
“Why?” he asked. Trixie shrugged. “Huh. Weird.”
“I know, right? Still, how bad could it be?”
***
Trixie and Scales walked into Carousel Boutique and saw Suri and Coco putting the finishing touches on an outfit. Coco noticed them first and smiled. “Hey, you two,” she greeted.
“Focus, Coco,” instructed Suri.
“Sorry,” Coco quickly apologized. She turned her attention back to the dress she was working on while Suri walked up to Trixie.
“Glad you two made it,” she said happily. “I think you’re going to like the designs I’ve thought of Trixie.”
“Um, actually, Suri,” said Trixie as she pulled out the cape and hat she had bought with her. “I’m not really looking for a new outfit, but if you wanted to update these I’d be grateful.” Suri took the cape in her hoof and looked it over. It was just a plain old purple cape and while it was clearly taken care of it was starting to show it’s age.
“Hmm. . .nope this won’t do,” said Suri.
“What?” asked Trixie.
“Coco,” Suri called to her assistant. She looked over her shoulder and saw Coco taking Scales’ measurements. “Coco!”
“Yes, Suri?” asked Coco quickly turning her attention to her boss. Suri tossed the cape in front of her.
“Get rid of that old thing will you?” she asked.
“Excuse me?!” snapped Trixie.
“Oh, and this too, okay?” instructed Suri as she reached out to take Trixie’s hat.
“No!” yelled Trixie holding the cape and hat away with her magic. “Thanks for the offer, Suri, but I’ll stick with what I’ve got.”
“Don’t you at least want to see what I’ve come up with.”
“Not interested,” said Trixie coldly. “Come on, Scales.” The baby dragon was quick to follow Trixie out of the shop.
“Don’t you think that was a bit mean?” he asked. “I don’t think Suri meant anything bad.”
“She criticizes my wardrobe and then tries to throw my things away. Where does she get off doing that?”
“I think she just wanted to help.”
“Well, I don’t need it!”
“Need what?” Trixie shrieked and jumped back a foot. Before her, stood Maud covered in dirt.
“Maud?” asked Trixie. “Where’d you come from?”
“The writer thought a random appearance would be funny,” explained Maud.
“What?”
“Nevermind.” Trixie and Scales gave each other confused looks.
“Well, then,” said Trixie. “Um, why are you covered in dirt?”
“Just got back from a quarry outside town.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Studtying rocks. I’m a rock scientist. What are you doing?”
“I was just at Suri’s,” replied Trixie. “She said that she just wanted to hang out, but all she did was try and throw my stuff away.”
“Sounds rough,” said Maud sounding thoroughly uninterested as ever. “But you have been a bit of a recluse lately.”
“I have not! I just haven’t really had much reason to be out is all.”
“Well, why not come help me identify some rocks?” asked Maud.
“Um. . .I don’t really know much about rocks.”
“I can teach you,” Maud offered. “It’ll be fun.” Again, Maud’s voice didn’t betray any emotion. Trixie looked at Scales who only shrugged.
“I guess I could do that. How bad could it be?”
***
“I’ve got to stop asking that question,” muttered Trixie as she sat in Maud’s living room looking at different rocks. Maud held one up.
“This is an igneous rock,” she explained. “Basalt specifically. It’s a fine grained rock formed from cooled magma.” She put the basalt down and grabbed a different rock. “This is granite. It’s the most common type of rock found on continental land masses.”
“That’s very interesting, Maud,” said Trixie forcing a smile on her face. She looked over at Scales who had fallen asleep on the couch. “Isn’t that right, Scales?” she asked elbowing him in the side.
“Hm? What?” asked Scales as he started to wake up. “Is she still droning on about on rocks?”
“Scales! Don’t be rude,” scolded Trixie. Scales noticed Maud and started wringing his tail.
“Oh, um, I’m sorry, Maud. This, um, this is all really cool.” He noticed a small rock on a shelf next to the couch and picked it up. “What kind of rock is this?”
“That’s Boulder,” replied Maud. “He’s my pet rock.”
“Seriously?” asked Scales. Trixie bonked him on the head with her hoof and glared at him. “Oh, um, I mean cool!”
“Well, Maud, this has been quite interesting, but Scales and I need to. . .” She tried to think of a good excuse to leave. Suddenly, Scales stomach started growling. “Lunch! We need lunch.”
“I can make you guys something if you’re hungry,” Maud offered.
“No, no, we don’t want to be an inconvenience,” said Trixie frantically waving her hooves in front of her face. She grabbed Scales and left before Maud could protest. “Ugh, that was boring,” said Trixie when she and Scales were a good distance away from the house. Scales stomach growled again.
“Um, we are going to get lunch right?” he asked.
“You know? That sounds pretty good. Want to make a picnic out of it?”
“Okay!” said Scales happily.
***
Trixie and Scales decided to have their picnic by a lake outside of town. As Trixie munched on a sandwich, she noticed Scales flipping through his journal. “So, have you thought about what you’re going to write in it?”
“I’m not sure actually,” said Scales. “Been trying to think of stuff all day.”
“Maybe it could be a biography of yours truly!” Scales and Trixie looked up and saw Lightning Dust hovering above them.
“Why does everypony keep sneaking up on us today?” Trixie asked herself. Suddenly, Lightning Dust was next to Trixie looking over the picnic.
“Hey, is that a daffodil sandwich?” she asked.
“Yep, made it myself,” said Scales.
“Cool.” Dust took the sandwich and popped it into her mouth. “Delicious!”
“You really think so?” asked Scales with a slight blush.
“What are you doing here, Dust?” asked Trixie. “Shouldn’t you be doing weather patrol or something?”
“Ease up, Trixie, I’m on break,” replied Dust. “I was going to practice some tricks and saw you guys. Thought I’d stop by and say ‘Hi.’ Nice to see you out by the way.”
“Oh for the love of, why does everyone keep saying that?” Dust shrugged.
“I dunno. Hey want to watch me do some tricks? It’s always more fun performing in front of an audience.”
“Well,” said Trixie. “Not that I’m against giving tips to a fellow performer but I’m-”
“Awesome, check this out!” Dust flew up into the air and started performing various tricks. Trixie gave a frustrated sigh while Scales eagerly watched Dust.
“Isn’t she awesome,” he swooned.
“Yeah, great.” She got up and started to walk off.
“Hey, where’re you going?” asked Scales.
“I just want to be alone for a little bit. You can stay and watch Lightning Dust if you want, but I’m going home.”
“Oh. Okay, I’ll see you later.” Trixie didn’t reply as she headed back into town.
***
Trixie trudged along the streets of Ponyville ignoring the various “Hello’s” and “Good Afternoon’s” she kept getting. She just wanted to go home and take a long nap and possibly never leave her trailer ever again.
“Trixie!” she heard the familiar voice of Flim calling. She had to refrain from audibly growling. She turned around and saw the twins approach her.
“Hey, boys,” she greeted. “Can this wait whatever it is?”
“Actually, this is something we thought would be rather crucial to you,” said Flam.
“Oh? How so?” asked Trixie.
“We were thinking about that trailer you live in,” said Flim.
“And we hatched an idea,” added Flam.
“Why not move out!”
“What? Why?” asked Trixie.
“Well, it’s small,” said Flim.
“And cramped,” Flam pointed out. “There’s only enough room for you and Scales.”
“That’s kind of the point,” explained Trixie. “You’re not going to kick me out of my trailer are you?”
“Oh, not at all,” said Flim. “But it couldn’t hurt to check a couple of places out, right? If anything it’ll be fun just to hang out for a bit.”
“What is everypony’s obsession with hanging out with me?” asked Trixie. “Look, fellas, I appreciate the offer but I don’t want to move out of my trailer and I’m not in the mood to just hang out. It isn’t really my thing.” The twins looked at each other than at Trixie.
“Sure, okay I guess,” said Flam.
“Yeah, sorry for inconveniencing you,” apologized Flim. The twins walked away looking a little disappointed. Trixie felt a pang of guilt. Was it really so wrong that her friends wanted to spend time with her? She sighed and started to continue her walk home.
“Hey, Fireworks!” called a voice above her. Trixie screamed and nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked up to see Gilda laughing hysterically on a cloud.
“Ugh! Stop sneaking up on me!”
“Hahahahaha! Oh, that was funny, Fireworks! Ahahahahaha!” Trixie just glared at the griffon until managed to calm herself down. “Whew, sorry about that,” she said wiping a tear from her eye. “That was just too rich.”
“Can I help you, Gilda?” asked Trixie.
“Saw you blowin’ the twins off,” said Gilda plopping down on her stomach on the cloud. Her forelegs hung over the edge. “Pretty cold.”
“Don’t start, Gilda, I already feel bad enough.”
“Yeah, you seem a little stressed. I can fix that.”
“Do you have too,” groaned Trixie. Gilda landed next to her and put a talon over her shoulder.
“Hey, don’t be like that, Fireworks,” said Gilda. “Besides this’ll be fun. You like pulling pranks?”
“I’ve never really done it before,” Trixie admitted.
“Well, no time to start like the present, right?” asked Gilda. Trixie wanted to tell her that she just wanted to go home but she still had that feeling of guilt for blowing off the twins. Actually, she was beginning to feel bad for treating most of her friends rudely.
“I guess I could tag along,” said Trixie.
“Awesome! C’mon, I got some awesome ideas.”
***
“Are you sure we should do this?” asked Trixie looking down into a seven foot deep hole that Gilda had dug. “I don’t want to hurt anypony.” Gilda stabbed the shovel she was using into the ground and wiped the sweat off her brow.
“Chill out, dude,” she said. “See those pillows next to the hole?” Trixie looked at the four large pillows then back at Gilda and nodded. “I’ll put them down here so that no one gets hurt when they fall in.”
“But what if it’s a foal or an elderly pony?” Gilda flew out of the hole and put her talons on Trixie’s shoulders.
“Dude. Relax. I won’t let anyone get hurt alright? This is just for fun.”
“Okay, then.” Trixie looked up at a large rain cloud hovering above them. “What exactly is the prank?”
“Well, the plan is that you’ll use your illusion spells to hide the hole, the cloud, and me. Then when some unsuspecting sap falls in, I’ll make the cloud send a massive downpour on them. It’ll be awesome!”
“I didn’t know griffons could manipulate weather,” said Trixie.
“Well, not as well as a Pegasus can,” explained Gilda. “I guess you ponies have that up on us. Still, I can make a cloud rain.”
“Alright then.” Suddenly, Gilda started looking past Trixie’s shoulder. “What is it?”
“I hear someone coming.” Gilda looked around and spotted large bush. “Quick, hide behind that bush and use an illusion spell.” Trixie nodded and hid behind the bush. Her horn glowed as she focused on the spell. Having to hide three different objects took quite a bit of effort. She closed her eyes to concentrate and didn’t see who their victim was.
“AAAAHHH!” she heard a mare scream followed by a rumble of thunder and rain pouring. Trixie released the spell and peeked over the bush and saw Gilda laughing.
“Hahahahaha! She didn’t even see it coming!” laughed the griffon. “Oh, Fireworks, that was great!”
“Excuse me!” shouted the mare in the pit. Trixie felt a shiver as she recognized the voice.
“Um, Gilda?” asked Trixie.
“Yeah?” replied Gilda still laughing.
“Who’s in the pit?”
“Uuuuhhh. . .”
“Gildaaa?” asked Trixie raising her voice.
“Oh, would you look at the time,” said Gilda checking her wrist for a watch that wasn’t there. “Gotta fly see ya!” The griffon took off at breakneck speed before Trixie could stop her.
“Somepony get me out of here!” shouted the pit pony. Trixie cautiously walked over to the pit and looked inside. Mayor Mare glared back at her. She was covered in mud and her hair dye was washing out of her mane.
“Umm, good afternoon, Mayor,” greeted Trixie with a nervous chuckle.
***
It took Trixie twenty minutes to get Mayor Mare out of the pit. Since it was Trixie’s first offense, the mayor told her that her punishment would just be to refill the hole tomorrow morning. Still, Trixie was quite peeved. She had been dragged around all day and then ended up getting slammed with community service. Gilda was going to get a piece of her mind when she saw them next. As she finally reached her trailer, she saw that all of her friends were waiting outside for her.
“Can I help you?” she asked clearly annoyed.
“Yeah,” answered Suri. “We wanted to apologize to you about today.”
“We realize that we perhaps came on a little strong,” said Maud. “I forget not everyone finds rock science as thrilling as I do.”
“Um, yeah,” said Gilda. “And sorry about ditching you like that.”
“It’s just that you’ve been so reclusive lately,” explained Dust. “We were trying to help you get out of your shell.”
“But I guess we might have gotten carried away,” said Flim.
“And we forgot to ask what you might want to do rather than just forcing you to do what we wanted,” added Flam.
“Wow,” gasped Trixie. She was feeling that guilt again. “I need to apologize too. You all went out of your way to try and spend time with me and even help me and I just kept blowing you all off. None of you really deserved it. It’s just that it’s always been me and Scales for so long. I’m not really used to having friends I can just hang out with.”
“W’re not really used to having a friend we want to hang out with,” said Suri.
“Guess we’re all having trouble getting out of our comfort zones,” said Gilda.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Trixie. “I promise I’ll make an effort to not be so reclusive all the time.”
“And we promise not to rush you through it,” promised Lightning Dust. The others nodded in agreement.
“Sounds like a plan. Hey, why don’t we all go to Sugar Cube Corner and just chat?” suggested Trixie. “Sound good?”
“Sounds awesome!” said Dust as she took off towards the bakery. “Last one there pays!”
“Hey!” shouted the others in unison as they hurried to catch up.
***
“And so I said, ‘Trixie apologizes for the inconvenience, Sir, but you must admit you look good in pink,'” said Trixie. The others started laughing at her story. Maud only smiled a little. Shen then looked over at Scales who was scribbling in his journal.
“What are you doing, Scales?” she asked. Scales looked up from his book to see everyone looking at him.
“Well, um, I found out what I could write in my journal,” he said.
“Cool,” said Gilda. “Whatcha come up with?”
“I thought I’d write about our time in Ponyville and what you’re all learning about friendship. You guys don’t mind do you?” Trixie smiled and rubbed the spikes on his head.
“That sounds like a great idea, Scales,” she assured him. “Mind if we hear it?”
“Really?” he asked. The others nodded. “Well, okay then.”
Dear Journal,
For a long time, my best friend, Trixie and I have lived by ourselves. There was never really much reason to stick around in any one town for long to try and make friends. However, a week ago, we finally found a place to call home. A small town called Ponyville. We quickly made some really awesome friends but Trixie had trouble adjusting. She really wasn’t used to just hanging out with her friends.
Her new friends seemed to have trouble as well. While they tried to reach out to her, they ended up just forcing Trixie to do stuff she wasn’t really comfortable doing. However, both groups were able to settle their differences and become better friends as a result.
What I’ve learned from all of this is that sometimes it can be really hard to get out of your comfort zone and try something different. However, sometimes trying something new can lead to some really awesome memories and times with friends. But I also learned that everypony has to do things at their own pace and you can’t force them to become comfortable with something they’re not used to right off the bat.
It can be scary getting used to something new, but it can also feel pretty awesome once you do it. Especially when a good friend helps you along the way.
From,
Scales the Dragon
“Well, how was that?” asked Scales.
“Not bad for a first try,” complimented Lightning Dust.
“I think that’s something we can all take to heart,” said Suri. Trixie smiled.
“That’s a great entry, Scales,” she said. “I’ll try and keep that in mind.”
“Hey, speaking of trying something new,” said Gilda looking at a menu. “They have some new super spicy muffin recipe. Anyone up for that?”
“I don’t know,” said Dust. “I’m not really into spicy food.”
“What happened to trying new things?” teased Flam.
“Nah, she right,” said Gilda. “She shouldn’t try it if she can’t handle it.”
“I can to handle it!” shouted Dust slamming her hoof onto the counter. She looked at the mare behind the counter “Hey, bring a dozen of those spicy muffins!” Trixie sighed.
“Certainly won’t be dull around here,” she said. The waitress brought the muffins over and everypony at the table began to cheer Gilda and Dust on as they commenced their competition. Trixie just chuckled. “But I think I can used to it.”