Bea hated the rain. A lot. Almost as much as she hated wheels. But rather than express her disdain out loud, she sucked it up, pulled her crimson vest closer to her, and pushed her matching fedora further down on her head so it could shield her eyes from the rainfall. She simply hoped her mother's golden bangles didn't get tarnished in the shower. Her steady trot came to a stop as she took a moment to look up the sign before her.
Welcome to Ponyville, Home of the Element Bearers and the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle!
Population: 135,469
She inwardly groaned at the thought of having to enter that town again. If she did, it would mean getting jeered at or getting a passing glare every time she walked by somepony. But she had to. Bea needed the money. She sighed and resumed her walk into town. Deciding that she didn't want to deal with any angry mobs that might suddenly show up, she decided to take the back way through town. The last two times she was there, she had taken the time to map out the town in her head, just in case she needed to come back here. She was always prepared for things like this.
The walk through town was uneventful, thankfully. Most of the town had been inside so nopony had seen her. If they did, they thought it was just an illusion. However, she wasn't focusing on being seen. She was focusing on where she would be staying for the night. Almost everypony in the town knew about her tyrannical rule in the time that the now Princess Twilight Sparkle had been banished from Ponyville, and this could've meant that no one would be willing to let her stay anywhere. Bea quickly shook her head, pushing the thought to the back of her head.
"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." she thought.
She continued to walk through the rain, thinking carefully about what she would choose to say and how she would react to certain words. When she was certain that she knew what to do, she stopped herself before she walked into the wooden door before her. In the time she had been planning, her hooves had guided her all the way to the front door of the Ponyville Inn. It looked exactly as it did when she had left Ponyville the last time.
Soft jazz music emanated from the windows, accompanied by the cozy light of fire. She could hear the sound of ponies laughing and conversing in the lobby. It reminded her of sweet memories from long ago, when ponies of her own blood would share stories of triumph and friendship.
"That was such a long time ago," she told herself. "I can't think about that now. Only focus on the here and now."
She took a deep breath and willed her magic to wrap itself around the tarnished knob of the door and slowly pushed it open. Her magic slowly pushed the door ajar and the sound of happy ponies crescendoed. She stepped through the threshold of the door, keeping her eyes ahead.
As she expected, ponies all around the room let soft gasps escape their mouths and immediately begin whisperings things into each others' ears, like, "What is she doing here?"and "I'm surprised she even decided to show her face around here!" Luckily for her, she had taught herself how to drown out the disapproval of other ponies. Getting to the counter would be no problem. The hard part was getting a room.
She dropped a bag of silver bits on the counter and said, "Cheapest room you have."
The mare at the counter simply scoffed in response and said, "Do you really think I'd let someone like you stay here?" Snickers rang out here and there, but Bea payed no mind to them.
"I'm just asking for a room for the night. You'll have no trouble from me."
"Yeah right! You're probably just here to run Princess Twilight out of Ponyville again! Scram!"
The rest of her dignity just got thrown out a window. Bea said nothing else. She picked up her bits, turned around, and walked through the door as if she hadn't been completely humiliated. Unsurprisingly, the door slammed behind her and knocked her face first into the mud. She harrumphed and sat back on her haunches, wiping mud from her hat and face.
"So much for love and tolerance." She muttered.
Suddenly, the soft patter of rain ceased around her. It continued past a certain point but stopped when it reached her. She looked up confusedly and found a brilliant amaranth stallion with a bright orange mane and tail standing over her with a navy blue umbrella in his hoof. His sap green eyes were half closed and the only thing he had to cover himself was a work horse's collar.
"Need a place to stay, miss?" His voice was slow and deep with a southern drawl to it.
She composed herself and said, "Thanks for the offer, but I think I can find a place to stay on my own." She turned and began to walk in another direction.
He furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Lady, with the reputation you've got, you're liable to get kicked out every other hotel in Ponyville."
Bea sighed and thought, "He's right. I don't have much other choice. Besides, I can think I can find some work where he lives. If I remember correctly, Applejack's family lives and works on an apple orchard."
"Okay, I'll go with you."
"You can sleep up here for as long you need to." said the work horse, showing her to the hay loft in the barn. It had a hay bale set aside as a makeshift bed with a warm red quilt and a fluffy pillow. It wasn't much but it was good enough for Bea. She had slept in worse places after all.
The first thing she had done when she got to Sweet Apple Acres was take a bath. A nice, long, hot one at that. She hadn't taken a bath like that in a long time. When she got out her coat was beautiful and shimmering, and her mane and tail lustrous, just like it was when she was the Great and Powerful Trixie. When she stepped out the bathroom, Big Mac's face turned redder than it already was. Bea completely disregarded it though.
"G'night, miss." said the stallion as he eased down the ladder.
"Wait," The azure mare hadn't really spoken to him in the time they had spent together, so her tone of voice was rather surprising. "You never gave me your name."
"It's Big Macintosh, but you can call me Big Mac."
"Call me Bea."
With those words, they parted for the night and Big Mac left Trixie to her hay bale. She looked at the makeshift for a moment and assumed that she would probably get hay stuck in her hair. She wrapped her magic around the edge of the covers and heaved herself onto the hay bale.
She laid back onto the pillow and pulled the covers over her. Surprisingly, the hay wasn't as scratchy as she thought it was.
"Maybe this won't be so bad after all." she thought as the warm covers made her eyelids droop. She yawned as she slowly began to drift into the sweet embrace of sleep.