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// 18. Terrified Trixie 
// Story: Wanderlust 
// by DwarvishPony 
//------------------------------//

	"Trixie can't do it!" Trixie was hiding inside her cart, boxes and trunks magically stacked to form a barricade to lock herself inside her cart.

Spike rolled his eyes and sighed. Replace the trunks with books and he'd have a full-on Twilight meltdown on his claws. Seriously. Twilight still had breakdowns over her princess duties sometimes where she would barricade the doors to the castle's library with a wall of books and refuse to come out. Last time she did it Spike had to borrow a rope from Pinkie Pie and repel down the outside of the castle, entering the library from a window. Suffice it to say, Spike was a master at dealing with scared ponies.

"Come on, Trixie. What's there to get worked up about? So you haven't seen Maud in a long time." Spike did his best to adopt what he called his 'Celestia Tone' of voice; a reassuring tone that promised things would get better. "It just means she'll be happier to see you after a long time gone."

Trixie had started her breakdown at roughly the same time they crested a hill and spotted the Pie Rock Farm. Before Spike knew what was happening, the cart had stopped and Trixie had masterfully built her fortifications inside the cart.

"Trixie, you're being silly. What's the worst that could happen?" Spike asked, trying to reassure the mare.

"Maud could say she doesn't want to see the Great and Timid Trixie and send her away. Or she could have met an amazing stallion while Trixie was stuck in Las Pegasus. Or she could have met a stallion and that's why she doesn't want to see Trixie!" Trixie was working herself up in a perpetual cycle of building off of her own insecurities at this point.

"Look, you like Maud, right? Even if it's just as a friend?" Spike took a different approach, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and foreclaw to stave off the headache Trixie was unknowingly inflicting upon him.

"Y-Yes. Trixie consideres Maud to be one of her best friends." Trixie replied hesitantly.

"Okay, and Maud considers you a friend, right?" Spike was making headway.

"Maybe? Trixie could have just been somepony Maud decided to help. Maud could have just been helping because that's the kind of pony she is." Maybe spike wasn't making as much headway as he thought.

"I don't think so." Spike had now moved on to rubbing his temples. "I mean, yeah, Maud's one of those ponies that'll help you out of a jam, even if she's not much for conversation. But when she steps in and helps ponies, its because she cares about them in her own way. I watched her run an insane obstacle course super fast and then punch through a boulder to save Pinkie Pie once."

Silence from the inside of the cart, save for Winona's whimpers as she cuddled up to Trixie to comfort the mare in her own way.

"Look Trixie. I'm gonna level with you. You're being a pain in my tail right now. If Maud walked up right now, what would she think?" Spike switched gears yet again, using a tactic from Twilight's book. Seriously. Replace Maud's name with Rarity and he'd be quoting Twilight right now.

"She's not walking up right now though. Trixie knows you lie."

"No- I mean if she walked up. This is a 'what-if' scenario." Spike sighed. How did he always end up having to coax crazy mares out from behind barricades? Spike bet that if he were a pony, his cutie mark would be negotiating.

Another moment of silence from behind the box wall of the cart before Trixie answered again.

"Maud would probably make a joke about cave-in's or something. Something like 'You look stuck between a rock and a hard place.'" Trixie replied, doing a surprisingly accurate imitation of Maud's monotone manner of speech.

"I- What?" Spike was confused now. "I've met Maud. Maud doesn't make jokes. I think I've only seen her smile once."

"Maud makes jokes around Trixie all the time. Or did, when Trixie was getting back on her hooves." A trunk shifted out of the way, finally revealing Trixie's face as she spoke matter-of-factly.

"Wait. You're saying you've had Maud crack jokes around you, when nopony else even sees her smile, and you're still worried that she won't want to see you?" Spike could have kicked something he was so frustrated. "She obviously thinks you're somepony to be friends with if she makes jokes!"

Trixie was silent for the longest time as she bit the inside of her cheeks. "You really think so?"

"Ugh." Spike slapped a hand against his forehead. "Yes. I really think so. You're working yourself up over nothing." Spike pointed a claw at Trixie. "You need to go talk to her. If you don't, we'll end up camping on this hill forever, and I really don't wanna camp again when we could stay the night in a nice warm bed. Do you?"

"Well, Trixie would like to slee-" Trixie turned a startling shade of red and stopped mid-sentence. "Trixie would like to say hi to Maud and nothing else!"

"Ok, then. Let's get going!" Spike said excitedly. He'd made a breakthrough with Trixie after all. Though he couldn't understand why Trixie was still bright red, he was relieved to see her dismantle Fort Luggage and magically urge the cart forward again.