//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: Exhaustion // Story: Hearth's Warming on the Rock Farm, with Trixie Lulamoon // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Trixie’s Hearth Warming Story Chapter Five: Exhaustion Written by TheCrimsonDm It took a while before everypony decided to get out of the snow and come inside. The only pony who didn’t show up was Marble, but knowing her she was probably in one of her many hiding spots. The fireplace was the warmest thing in the house so naturally I had wondered over next to it. I wasn’t the only one, the filly walked up to fire as well. “My sister says I shouldn’t talk to you,” Applebloom said. I sighed. “Does she really think so poorly of me?” “Yeah, Ah mean Ah know that she didn’t like you, and that you were being controlled by an evil necklace or something once. Ah don’t really know what else she could be upset about. Did something happen between you two?” She asked me. I decided against telling the filly about just how much her sister hated my show. “I guess she just doesn’t like me.” “Hmm, okay. Well Maud seems to like you and so does Pinkie Pie. So you can’t be all that bad,” She said. “I’m Applebloom by the way.” I smiled. “Oh so you’re Applebloom?” “Ayep, who’d you think was Applebloom?” I looked back at Big Mac. The filly followed my gaze. It only took a few seconds before the filly burst out into a fit of high pitched laughter. “Well I’m going to check up on Maud, she promised to show me her rare rock collection,” Applebloom said. “It’s an interesting one alright. My favorite’s the pink one,” I said. I watched as she trotted away, and just as she passed by Big Mac she said, “How ya doing’ Applebloom.” After which she took off running and giggling, leaving the poor stallion to stand there looking very confused. I really should have expected what came after that, I really should’ve, but it still caught me off guard. Applejack walked in from the kitchen, her eyes focused squarely on me. I looked away as she made her to me and stopped only a couple of feet away. This was looking bad. “What did y’all say to my sister?” Applejack said. “I just told her that I thought your brother’s name was Applebloom, she thought that was funny for some reason,” I told Applejack. For a moment Applejack simply stared at me with a hard expression. “Well don’t go talking to her again. I don’t want your influence on her.” “Oh what am I going to do? Inspire her to be better than me?” I said sarcastically. “No but you might teach her to lie and cheat and to put ponies down,” She said. I stood up. “At least I wouldn’t teach her to interrupt someponies performance by heckling them on stage!” “You were being arrogant and rude. You deserved it!” “I was defending myself from bullies!” I snapped. “Bullies my butt, you were just being an egotistic… nincompoop,” She replied loudly. I had enough. I spun around and went for the door and stopped just long enough to look back and say, “Leave me alone.” With that said I went outside. It was a bit cold out here, even with my sweater. Originally I had planned to go and chill out somewhere but it occurred to me that I might not have to be alone. There was probably a pony out here that I could talk to, one that would listen to my troubles and if I was lucky help me feel better. The best news was, I had a good idea of where she might be. Around the side of the house stood two large mine carts side by side with only a small space open between them. On my approach I heard a tiny gasp and knew that my suspicions were correct. “Marble, it’s me,” I said, as I slowed my approach. I looked in between the carts and saw Marble squeezed into the back, lying down and staring up at me with big round eyes. “May I join you?” She looked left and right. “Hmm.” “I didn’t mean literally. Is it okay if I sit out here and talk to you for a bit?” I explained. She nodded. “Mmhmm.” I sat down on the snow covered earth and looked out across the open expanse of snow and rocks. Only a few trees stood here and there, but for the most part it was nothing more than a barren landscape. The real money the farm had came from the mines but that was many years ago. Now they just hope to find gemstones on the surface. “Do you like the Apple family?” I asked. “Mmhmm.” “Isn’t it hard to deal with Applejack though? I mean… isn’t she mean to any of you?” “Mm-mmm,” She replied. I hung my head. “That’s not fair. Why can’t she be nice to me too?” Marble didn’t reply. I looked at her and she stared at me with a little worry in her eyes. I forgot that outside of yes and no, she doesn’t reply much. “Well at least the others seem nice. I haven’t talked to Big Mac yet, is he nice?” I asked her. “Mmhmm,” She replied. “That’s good. So I take it you like him,” I said. “Mmhmm.” “He’s a good looking stallion, but I could never really get into them. You know what I mean?” “Mm-mmm,” She said. I guess I had never really talked to her before about those kinds of things. Might was well try and explain it now. “Well you see, most mares like stallions, most mares like other mares too. I never really… liked stallions. Maybe I just never really talked to them? Maybe I’m just weird. But Stallions never had the same effect on me as they did other mares.” Marble’s face was beginning to turn a shade of pink. “Are you okay?” “Mm-mmm.” “Am I embarrassing you?” “Mmmm!” Oops, I might have pushed it a bit too far. “Okay, let’s change the subject then. I didn’t mean to upset you. I, uh… I just wanted somepony to talk too.” Marble gave me a small smile, but her face was still pink. “So… Pinkie Pie is pretty neat isn’t she? She’s really nice,” I said. “Mmhmm.” “She said she’s going to try and make sure that me and Applejack become friends or something. Do you think she can do that?” “Mmhmm.” “That’s good to hear. Can…  can I ask you a kinda personal question? I don’t want to push you if you’re not up for it and you don’t have to answer,” I said. “Mmhmm.” “Okay… here goes nothing. Do… do I belong here? Like do I fit in? Because sometimes, most of the time, it feels like I’m invading and I don’t want to do that,” I said. For a moment Marble was quiet, and then she finally answered. “T-T-Trixie, you’re my f-friend. I l-like you.” I couldn’t help it; a big silly grin grew over my face as I looked down at her. A warm feeling spread through my chest and all I wanted to do was hug her, but I knew how much she hated physical contact. So instead I reached out my hoof put in next to hers. “Thank you, you don’t know how much it means to me to hear you say that. I… thank you,” I said. To my surprise Marble put her hoof over mine and smiled. She quickly pulled it away and looked away. I looked back to the house. “What can I do to make friends with them?” I asked. “B-big Mac?” Marble suggested. “I should start with Big Mac?” “Mmhmm.” “Then move onto Granny Smith and Applebloom. If they all like me, maybe Applejack will too?” I asked. “Mmhmm.” I stood up and shook the snow out of my tail. Now armed with a plan, I was confident that this could all work out. All I needed was to start making friends. My old job as an entertainer gave me plenty of time to practice friend making, and I had gotten pretty good at it before my career ended. I could do this. It didn’t hurt to know that Marble believed in me and that Pinkie would probably help out too. Once I got back inside I made my way to the kitchen where I found both Granny Smith and Big Mac working on making apple pie. For a moment I wasn’t sure that I wanted to interfere with them, but this might have been my best chance to get close to them without Applejack around. I figured I might as well try. It took me a moment to work up the courage, but I finally managed to say, “Hello everypony.” Granny Smith looked over at me. “Y’all gonna help er what?” “Sure, what do I do?” I asked as I walked next to her. “Put that thur pie fillin’ inside the pan,” She told me. There were at least a dozen different pans here, all lined with crust, and enough bowls of pie filling to feed an army. Big Mac was busy lining the empty pans with crust, and topping the ones that were filled. Granny Smith was staring at the oven behind me. So I did my part and filled the pans with pie filling. “You know I didn’t realize that your two families were related. It shocked me a little,” I said. “Well that’s ‘cus we didn’t rightly know until recently,” Granny Smith said. “I can see it though. You seem to go together pretty well. Like… apples and pies,” I joked. That brought a small laugh from Granny Smith. “Yer right thur, we sure do go together like apple pie.” I smiled. “So when did you learn you were related?” “Oh bout three years ago?” Granny Smith said. “Makes sense, I haven’t been back in… awhile,” I said. “It’s no wonder I never knew.” “What were you doin’ that was so darn important that you’d leave ‘em? The Pie’s really care about you,” Granny Smith said. For a moment I stayed quiet. I really didn’t want to rehash what I’d been through, but if I wanted to make friends I knew that I had to be at least a little open. “I didn’t want to bother them. I did some pretty terrible things after all, and I guess I just felt like I would be a burden.” “So where did you go?” She asked. “Different places, all looking for work. I got a few paying gigs, and… other jobs,” I said lamely. I finished scooping out apple filling into the second pie. I must have been moving slow because Big Mac was already helping me to fill pies. “Didn’t you have anypony to take care of you?” She asked. “No, I didn’t. I really should have just come straight here and apologized right away. Running around and avoiding them… I was being an idiot,” I said. “Well you have ponies here who want to treat you nice. Don’t furget that,” Granny Smith said. I looked back at her and met her eyes. I nodded. “I won’t forget it this time.” We finished the pies up and I helped Granny Smith put them into the oven. Honestly I was a bit surprised that it looked like we were going to have apple pie for dinner, considering everything I knew about the Pie family, I expected rock soup. Things had changed since I was last here. *** The bottom of the quarry was flat and full of rocks. The entrance to the mineshaft stood wide open. I had remembered having ventured into the mineshaft a few times, the last time I nearly got lost. After that I decided against going back in.  All of us stood down here each of us with our pick axe, even little Applebloom had one. It was time to start making our Hearth’s Warming dolls after all. I had my chunk of rock sitting in front of me, and remembered doing this one year. It was not traditional, but what did I actually expect from ponies living on a rock farm. I mean these are the ponies that actually eat rocks! Of course their dolls would be made out of them too. My pickaxe floated gently in my telekinetic grip. It swung down with a force and cracked the stone. I had to repeat the process six or seven times before I finally had a rock small enough to start doing work on. Thankfully the Pies did have some specialized tools set aside for detail work. I crafted little legs, and a head with a horn. Sure it didn’t look even remotely like me, but it kinda, sort of, maybe looked like a unicorn, if I stood far away and squinted really hard. The Apple family were doing much better, save for Applejack who had a rock. It didn’t look like a pony at all, it was just a sort of oblong rock. I remembered my first time making a rock doll. It was hard work. “Do you need any help?” I asked her. She glared at me. “No, Ah can do this without usin’ magic.” “I didn’t use magic, I used tools,” I said. “Well you lifted the tools with yer magic,” She replied. “Yeah well some of us aren’t muscle covered monsters,” I snapped. I suddenly felt the eyes of everypony staring at me. Great, just my luck. I’m surrounded by muscular ponies, and probably just offended each and every one of them. Without any way to fix what I said, I turned my head and went back to my rock. I couldn’t help but to overhear Applejack’s final remark. “Ah don’t think you have the right to call me a monster.” I frowned at my rock doll. The head had fallen off and now laid at its hooves. It was going to take some super glue to fix this. *** A few hours later and we all sat around the dinner table. I couldn’t help but to notice the more than awkward feeling in the air as rock soup was joined by sweet bread rolls and apple pie. The others couldn’t help but to stare down at their plates awkwardly. Maybe things hadn’t changed quite so much as I had thought. This lasted for only a minute or two before I gave up. I was hungry, and this promised to be my first good meal in a very long time. Of course to honor the house I was in, I took a few spoonfuls of soup before eating anything else. As usual the soup was okay, a bit modest on flavor, but it was okay. I next tried out the pie, it was so full of juicy delicate flavor that I had nearly finished my piece entirely before I noticed everypony was staring at me. With a nervous smile I pulled away from the pie. It was almost like they were judging me for eating, though I couldn’t figure out why. Finally I tried dipping one of the rolls in the soup, and was surprised. The plain flavor of the soup actually complemented the roll very nicely. I think I might have gone through a few more rolls than I should have before I realized that there was no more soup to dip them in. At least by that point in time I wasn’t the only one eating. It looked like everypony had fallen in love with the pie, and a few were even trying out the rolls in the soup. All in all, this was actually feeling like a Hearth’s Warming feast. Thankfully after everypony started eating, it didn’t stay quiet for too long as conversations started around me. “So, Maud how has your graduation?” Applebloom asked. “It went well,” Maud said. “She got honors!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. It was nice to hear about something nice happening. It was even better not being the center of everyponies attention. Of course that never lasted too long. “Did you graduate, Trixie?” Pinkie Pie asked. I smiled. “Not only did I graduate, I did so early. Celestia actually praised my ability to learn quickly during the ceremony.” “Ooh that’s amazing,” Pinkie Pie said. I couldn’t help but to smile proudly. Then Pinkie had to add, “I bet your folks were proud of you.” I knew that Pinkie Pie didn’t mean anything by it, and I somehow kept smiling even though I felt the corner of my lip twitch a little. “I bet they were.” Pinkie Pie smiled, looked confused, and then raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean you be-“ “Pinkie,” Limestone said. “Were you planning on going to college?” A sudden look of nervous fear came over Pinkie’s face. “Oh, haha, yeah. I mean, cooking school and stuff… yep, that’s me.” With the attention focused back on Pinkie Pie, as she failed miserably at dodging Limestone’s questions about schooling, I was finally able to relax and try to forget that Pinkie Pie had ever asked me that. My only concern now was the strange look I was getting from Applejack. I didn’t like it. When dinner had finished and all was said and done, we each moved on to different spots in the house. Marble Pie went upstairs to get some sleep, while Limestone and Pinkie carried on a conversation with Big Mac and Applebloom. Maud had vanished upstairs as well, though I didn’t think she was going to sleep yet. Granny Smith was talking to Igneous and Cloudy. This left me all alone by the fireplace, basking in its warm glow. Applejack however came in and joined me at the hearth. The entire time she sat there she had kept her eyes on me, but she wasn’t looking at me with anger anymore. I didn’t like the way she was looking at me, it just felt… off. When I had finally had enough of it, I looked her straight in the eyes and demanded, “Why are you staring at me?” “Trixie, what happened after Ponyville?” Applejack asked. “Do you mean when I came here for work, or after the amulet?” I asked. “Either,” She replied. I let out another sigh. “Lots of things, I’d rather not talk about them.” “Why did you leave the farm in the first place?” She asked. “I just wanted to be… helpful. That amulet was supposed to make me strong enough to help out at the farm,” I told her. “You didn’t want it to show up Twilight?” I was quiet for a moment. “Maybe a little… It’s not like I went out looking for the amulet just to have a magic duel with Twilight Sparkle. Honestly, I could have taken her without it.” That got me a sour look from the apple pony. “Ok, so maybe it would have been a little harder than that. It’s just that I… I wanted to be good at magic. The amulet promised to make me strong, useful, and… good. Maybe I was holding a grudge against Twilight for showing up me, for doing what I failed to do. But that doesn’t mean that I wanted to go to Ponyville and hurt anypony… I never wanted to go back there after what happened,” I told her. “Then why did you go back?” “After putting the amulet on, I realized just how powerful I was. Not even Princess Celestia could stop me, or at least that’s how I felt. I… I thought that I could go back and prove to everypony that I was good enough for their love and respect. If I could defeat Twilight Sparkle in a magic duel, nopony would put me down, make fun of me, or attack my character ever again… look at how well that turned out,” I finished lamely. For a moment things were quiet as I considered how much I had screwed up. I watched the ponies in the kitchen talking away and enjoying themselves. It looked like I had missed so much during myself made exile.  “You don’t know how lucky you are,” I said quietly. “What do you mean?” She asked. “You have a family. A little sister, a big brother, and even Granny Smith to take care you. You have something special,” I told her. I made a mental note of how her parents weren’t here for this family gathering. “Ah know how lucky Ah am t’ have them,” Applejack said. “Do you really? Applejack, have you ever faced the cold and harsh world all alone, only to realize that no matter how far you fall, nopony will ever be there to catch you?” She slowly shook her head. “No, because Ah’ve always had mah family.” “That’s just it though. You have a family. Heck you have two of them if you count the Pies and three if you count your friends. I don’t think you will ever need to worry about being alone, truly alone,” I told her. Again an empty and bitter silence followed my words. This time it was Applejack who broke them. “Are you really alone?” I looked away from her, and stared back into the crackling fire. “If I had anypony, do you think I’d honestly be here again?” “What’s wrong with here?” Applejack asked. “I’m broke, have no job, can’t get hired anywhere because of my past, and I’m spending the holiday with ponies that I’ve hurt, that’s what’s wrong with here. I shouldn’t be here,” I told her. “Where would you rather be?” Applejack asked. “At home, or on stage, or anywhere really. I used to have it all going so good, I had fans, friends, money, and then you three decided to totally ruin one of my shows. After that you three went around telling everypony that I brought the ursa major to town, and completely ruined my reputation,” I told her. “No we didn’t, all we did was speak our minds about your attitude and the way you were acting. You were bein’ a stuck up, no good, showboating pony. Somepony had to teach you some manners,” Applejack said, her voice rising. I stood up. “Acting! I was just acting. I was playing a character you ignorant little hayseed! The Great and Powerful Trixie, and Trixie Lulamoon are two different ponies! Furthermore if you didn’t like my show you could have left! Why did you have to verbally attack me on stage, and then openly challenge me? What is wrong with you?” The ponies in the kitchen were staring in at me now, but I didn’t care, I had had enough of Applejack’s personality. “That’s it, you self righteous meanie, I’m going to bed. You finally did it, you ruined my night. Good for you. I hope you’re proud.” I stomped off up the stairs. Marble had the right idea going to bed early, I just hoped that I wouldn’t wake her. I heard Applejack attempting to continue talking to me, but by that point I had completely blocked her off. I was sick and tired of dealing with this. I was tired, so tired.