A/N: I live. Special thanks to all those who commented on and supported this story in the long time since my last update, a near innumerable amount of people at this point, so I'll just give you all a blanket thank you this time around.
I spoke of it in a journal, but this chapter was stalled by a variety of things, chief among them the fact that I find writing for Tank boring. So I changed the subject of the chapter and was able to finish it in half a week versus the nearly two years I tried to get a Tank chapter done. This one is a bit of a prelude to another chapter I intend to do, but is standalone in its own way. It does however have very loose ties to my other story We Remember Everything, so if any of you are fans of Princess Luna, Loki, or the subject of this chapter, feel free to go enjoy that story too.
It also will contain a small reference to my ongoing story "Equestria Was Merely a Setback", which I also recommend if you enjoy the subject of today's chapter. SoarinDash is technically canon in both stories, but admittedly receives little focus since Rainbow is only a secondary character in one and hasn't been introduced in the other yet. Still, if you enjoy my writing, I hope you might enjoy my other stories as well, since they could use some love!
Hope you all enjoy, and I hope to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Soarin rose one weekend still feeling like he had gotten no sleep, it having just been one of those days where his body did not seem to want to help him out any. This exhaustion led him to drowsily walk into the kitchen of his and Rainbow’s house and not notice that two full grown mares were seated at the dining table rather than a mare and filly as he would have expected.
“Good morning Rainbow.”
His fiancé snorted playfully, “Morning? Pfft, you slept through half the day.”
Soarin took a seat down across from Rainbow and the other pony at the table, groggily nodding to them, “Good morning Scoo—”
He paused when he noticed that he was seemingly seeing double: why were there two blue ponies there across from him? And why was one a full grown, if a bit skinny, mare instead of a little orange filly?
Focusing his vision, Soarin noticed that the pony had a silver-blue mane and was wearing a purple cape, while nearby them was a purple hat that they likely had worn previously, “Uh, hello? I don’t think we’ve met…”
The mare smiled as she turned her nose up and spoke in a haughty tone Soarin recognized well, for it reminded him all too well of how his family spoke and how those they associated with did, “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie. It is a pleasure to meet me.”
“Uhhh…” Soarin nodded slowly, still not understanding why they were inside his house. They had to be Rainbow’s guest, right? She certainly reminded him a bit of how Rainbow could be at times, what with possessing an obvious ego, “Okay?”
Realizing Soarin’s confusion, Rainbow explained to her significant other, “As you heard, this is Trixie. I helped her out when she got trapped by a small army of Diamond Dogs who thought she was their queen. Trixie, this is Soarin. He’s a Wonderbolt like me, and nearly as good.”
Still speaking proudly, though imparting some of the pride towards Rainbow, Trixie responded, “I find that hard to believe given your standards. Equestria will not know a better flyer until I earn my own from Princess Luna.”
“Well, Soarin’s good enough to be my idol, and also is gonna be my husband soon enough,” Rainbow winked, still happy that she had proposed to him.
Trixie blinked at this, revealing subtly a lack of true understanding of the subject matter, “That…that’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow affirmed before turning to Soarin, giving him a short blank look, and then snickered to herself, “Hopefully.”
Soarin ignored the jape and rolled his eyes, while Trixie reacted with the enthusiasm of somepony who was basically told to be happy, “Congratulations are in order then! The Great and Powerful Trixie offers her services for your coming nuptials.”
“Business rough right now?” Rainbow asked, doubting that Trixie would offer to perform at a wedding if she had literally any other choice.
Trixie lost all composure as she leant over on Rainbow and began to plead with her sorrowfully, tears suddenly forming in her eyes, “I have no wagon, no shows, and no food, pleeease hire me.”
Soarin was still hadn’t really woken up yet so he didn’t say anything yet, instead focusing on Trixie’s Unicorn horn and making sure it wouldn’t impale Rainbow. This left Rainbow with the sole power to okay the request, and so after a moment the mare shrugged and made her decision, “Ehhh, I guess you can sleep on the couch for the time being, if you’ll do stuff at the wedding for us. I mean what’s one more when we already have four ponies around in the house?”
“An approximate twenty five percent increase in expenditures,” Soarin flatly noted with a yawn. He was not a god at saving money, but he could understand that having someone extra living in their house, even for a short time, would still cost something.
Trixie looked between them and lifted her eyebrows, only coming up with two and not four as the total head count, “Wait, four ponies?”
“Yeah, there’s Scootaloo and Soarin’s butler All Thread, who joined us after Soarin moved in.”
Trixie furrowed her brow further, “What’s a Scootaloo?”
“Little orange filly? Our kid?” Rainbow responded as she pointed between herself and Soarin, the latter of whom realized instantly how that simple explanation could be taken the wrong way.
“H-how?” Trixie stammered, her naiveté about familial relationships creeping out again.
The confusion in turn confused Rainbow, who was not sure what was not computing correctly in her guest’s mind, “How what?”
“You’re not married yet. How do you have a filly? That’s not how it works,” Trixie said back as if she was speaking basic, common sense as if the matter was some kind of math equation like two plus two equaling four.
“I…” Rainbow’s jaw fell as she realized just how clueless Trixie was. Did she really not get it? “We adopted, Trixie. We adopted Scootaloo. She’s not our handiwork.”
At the word ‘adoption’, Trixie had tuned out and frowned, “Lucky…”
Just to make sure that they got everything straight now, Rainbow pressed her guest on the matter, “Uh, Trixie, you do know that foals can be born to people who aren’t married, right?”
“Of course Trixie knows this!” Trixie proclaimed with a sure voice, only to then disarm the lie she just told by following it up with another sentence, “She…just requires you to explain to make sure everypony is on the same page.”
Rainbow guffawed and Soarin nearly choked on the food he had been munching on for breakfast, while Trixie tried to not look nervous about her ignorance.
“Uh, Rainbow, you tell her. I’ll see how Scootaloo—”
Not really willing to give her semi-friend “The Talk”, Rainbow tried to shove it off on her fiancé, “What? No, you do it! You’re the oldest one here after all, so you know the most, right?”
“She’s your friend, you really ought to be the one to do it.”
Bored by the two arguing about who was going to explain how exactly biology worked, Trixie slipped out of the kitchen and into the living room where she heard some other noise. There she found what she presumed was a “Scootaloo” watching a television program that Trixie recognized as one of those spandex wearing superhero shows with a lesson of the week and giant monsters the heroes would fight.
Scootaloo noticed that Trixie, who she actually recognized unlike the reverse, was standing in the doorway and so invited her to sit down with her, “Wanna watch?”
Trixie looked back towards the kitchen where she heard “I insist, you should tell her” and then made her way over to the couch, not seeing why she shouldn’t partake. After all, it was just a twenty minute program after all, and she found the full body costumes of these heroes to be ridiculous in an amusing sense.
“Sure. Trixie is not otherwise occupied.”
Partway into the program, Scootaloo turned her attention from the enthralling show and to the mare who had joined her in watching it. Looking at Trixie, Scootaloo noticed that Trixie had gotten really into it and was seemingly perturbed that a commercial break had come on. She had looked over to ask a question though, so she decided to distract Trixie from the dumb commercials and bland products being put forth for the masses to consume.
“Mom says she saved you from Diamond Dogs. Is that true?”
Trixie turned her nose up at the suggestion that she, the Great and Powerful Trixie, needed saving…though it wasn’t entirely inaccurate if she were to be honest. She had been found by a group of Diamond Dogs some time back and they mistakenly thought that she was a queen capable of finding gems for their obsession with the objects. Seeing as how she was not like Rarity and could not find gems at a whim, Trixie had only stalled them from their objective until she could be rescued…with the pony she requested aid from being none other than Rainbow Dash.
It had taken a bit of effort, but with Rainbow’s help she had managed to fly away to safety and was free from the shackles cast upon her while she remained with them. Still, she had contributed significantly to her own escape with careful planning and her own natural propensity for tricks, so she (for good reason) considered herself instrumental to the success of Rainbow rescuing her…and perhaps her ego would not allow for herself to reflect back upon the incident as one where she had been in great danger if not for someone else’s aid.
“Trixie saved herself. Your mother was her assistant to the act with her flying capabilities.”
Despite her ego, she still had to afford Rainbow her due credit: if Rainbow was the one telling the story the positions would be flipped, for one thing the two had in common was certainly their tendency to glorify themselves.
Having remembered Trixie’s disposition from her previous visits to Ponyville, Scootaloo understood that by Trixie admitting that Rainbow did anything at all she was in turn admitting that Rainbow had a large role in the ordeal, for if it was truly something small she would have diminished it even further, “Isn’t she like the best flyer ever?”
“I suppose she is satisfactory for the role of a subordinate. Not a main actor or lead role by any means, but a definitely fine ensemble member.”
The small admission pleased Scootaloo all the same, still possessing her hero worship for Rainbow Dash even now that their relationship had changed, “I’m so happy I get to live with Rainbow Dash now. To me she’ll always be the best.”
Trixie could sense that starry eyed hero worship, which in conjunction with Scootaloo’s adoption rose the all too common feeling she had of envy. That this filly was so happy and could live with the person she idolized as a surrogate mother reminded herself of her own situation of looking up to someone, only without the same end result, “I wish I could do the same…”
“You want to live with my mom too?”
Trixie scoffed at the child’s misconception, “No, no, I meant her equivalent in my own scenario. I don’t have a family either, but I do look up to somepony a lot,” not exactly wanting to explain her complex situation to a filly, Trixie kept it vague, “I let her down though, really badly, so I don’t think she’ll reciprocate.”
Having overheard part of the conversation in the other room, and taking a guess, Scootaloo flashed Trixie a big smile, “You shouldn’t have to worry. I mean, Princess Luna’s awesome. She’s actually part of the reason why Rainbow Dash adopted me! She got us closer, and when Rainbow wanted to adopt me Luna signed the papers and everything.”
Seen through by a child, Trixie crossed her hooves and looked away while scoffing again, “Trixie has no idea what you are talking about. It’s not as if she considers a former villain driven by jealousy her substitute mother.”
“You mean like yourself?” Scootaloo snarked, having learned well from her idol.
An idol who, at that moment, realized that the pony she was lightly arguing with Soarin over was no longer in the kitchen, “Wait, where’d Trixie go?”
Trixie responded by calling out from the living room, “I have located your ‘Scootaloo’. A reward is unnecessary but welcome.”
The audible sigh was ignored by Trixie as she looked back at the TV after what felt like the longest commercial break in history.
“Why is Trixie getting groceries?”
Soarin rolled his eyes both at their guest’s third person speaking habit as well as her innocent whining. He had to admit he saw a bit of his fiancé in this other mare, namely the fact that their egos were likely among the top most ones in Equestria, but whereas he felt that Rainbow’s was completely genuine, he had a sense that Trixie was blowing hot air to cover for the fact that she wasn’t as good as she wanted to be. She spoke even haughtier than Rainbow, but it was an obvious front put up to mask her insecurities.
Rainbow though? Rainbow was just really good at what she was proud of, so her ego was genuine and unadulterated. She would say she was the best at something, and tended to back it up more often than not.
Answering Trixie’s question as they walked through Ponyville’s market, Soarin fought off another yawn, “Well, a Unicorn like yourself can carry them better, and if you’re going to sleep on the couch you may as well pull your weight.”
He hated waking up feeling tired, but perhaps being too tired to get worked up over Trixie’s fake ego was a good thing.
“Trixie is light and has little weight to pull,” Trixie argued back, her thin physique a result of a lifetime of living frugally on the brink of destitution. It was a direct counterpart to her perceived rival Twilight, whose comfortable upbringing and penchant for food (likely picked up from the cake obsessed Celestia) left her on the heavier side of things for their body size.
“Wait, is that Trixie?”
“Duh, I think it is!”
Trixie’s eyes widened as she heard those familiar voices, though her surprise quickly segued into irritation as her eyes narrowed at two young colts who approached her, Soarin, and Rainbow.
Soarin could see her irritation, but he did not understand it just yet, “Fans of yours?”
Trixie brought a hoof out to point to the young colts now standing by them, “These are Snips and Snails,” she lowered her hoof and spoke to Soarin flatly, “You will come to hate them.”
“I’m sure they aren’t that bad,” Soarin said in an attempt to stay optimistic.
Trixie’s response was deadpan, “They thought bringing an Ursa into Ponyville was intelligent.”
“I wonder where they got that idea,” Rainbow winked as she joked at Trixie’s expense, “Though I guess Spike may have had something to do with it…”
No sooner had the colts been introduced had they tripped over their own hooves, tumbled, crashed into a nearby vendor’s stall, brought it crashing down on themselves and the owner, ruined the products being sold, and then finally let out a groan of pain.
Having witnessed this, Soarin could see where Trixie was coming from, “Okay, I think I get what you mean. Bulk and Skull are smarter.”
“Exactly!” using her telekinesis to fix some of the stall, pick up what had fallen over, as well as pick up and push away Snips and Snails, Trixie shooed away the sources of her present irritation, “Now begone, children. Trixie desires affection, just not yours. Anything but yours.”
The shopping went well even as ponies whispered to one another and gossiped about Trixie’s presence, Ponyville’s population being petty as ever, though at one point when Rainbow was picking up some ingredients for pie Soarin came across the stall of Applejack. He loved the taste of Sweet Apple Acres’ apples and the pies they made, though he had to admit he was becoming partial to other types of pie Rainbow was making for him.
“Uhhh, Soarin, ya bring the wrong blue pony to town today?” Applejack questioned as she noticed Trixie beside Soarin, given that Rainbow was out of her field of vision with how busy the area was at the moment.
“Rainbow insisted we bring her along,” Soarin noted right before hearing the flap of his fiance’s wings, with Rainbow using them to fly over the crowd and join them, “Didn’t you Rainbow?”
Remembering that Applejack wasn’t too fond of Trixie still, Rainbow tried to defuse what could become a problem before it got to that point, “I helped Trixie out awhile back, remember, so we’re cool. She’s sleeping on our couch for the time being, so we’re putting her to work by helping us out here,” she leant over towards her friend and whispered, “Just need to make sure she doesn’t run into Twilight.”
Despite her attempt at secrecy Trixie still heard her, responding with a snooty upturn of her nose, “I got in a food fight with her at the castle. She certainly wears pie better than she does a tiara, and she’s almost as good at wearing cake as she is at eating it.”
Rainbow fell over in laughter at the idea of her friends having an all-out food fight using their magical powers, Soarin grinning as well as he wondered just how old the two Unicorns were to be acting like that, and Applejack sighing as she had to admit Trixie’s criticism of Twilight’s eating habits actually held some merit, “Ah have been meaning to tell Twi to tone down tha cake eatin’ a bit…”
After they paid Applejack for the food they came to get, Trixie made a show out of twirling the apples in the air in a complex pattern to show off her precise control and prowess of her abilities. It gave Rainbow an urge to show off as well, but that was difficult to do when there was little context for her to do anything: Trixie was carrying nearly everything with her magic
“What task shall Trixie accomplish for you next?”
It took Rainbow a moment to think about all of what they had gotten already and what still needed to be acquired, “I don’t know if we have any bread, but we can just pick it up another time if we don’t. I think we’re almost done.”
Hearing that they might not be getting bread made Trixie give a small ‘hmmph’ before she launched into an explanation as to its virtues, “Bread is the most magnificent of foods. So cheap, simple, and easy to flavor with additions such as butter, jam, and other such things you can get for free at a restaurant. Trixie always takes as many as she can fit in her hat.”
“Isn’t that stealing?” Rainbow questioned, since it sounded unscrupulous.
“Trixie could use them during her meal free of charge, so why can’t she bring some with her?” Trixie explained her sound reasoning, “Bread also comes free with most meals, so by eating a cheap entrée you can essentially eat two for one.”
“You are quite thrifty. I wish I knew tricks like that, but…” Soarin’s voice trailed off as he thought about how to phrase ‘I was really, really rich’ in a nice way. Unlike him though Rainbow lacked the same degree of tact and just flat out said it as she nudged him.
“But Soarin here is a rich boy, isn’t that right?”
“Formerly rich. But hey, it’s not like I’ve been some snob my whole life. I’ve always tried to be helpful as much as I can, like feeding homeless ponies or donating bits to good causes—”
If Trixie did not have fur they would have seen her face go pale as she came to a realization that froze her in her tracks as they separated from the city crowd, and then after a moment find her voice and yell.
“WAIT!”
Soarin and Rainbow both did as Trixie said, sharing their confusion with a quick glance to one another as they watched Trixie try to think something through. They did not have to wait long before Trixie levied a hoof in Soarin’s direction and gaped as she finished organizing her thoughts and memories.
“Y-you’re the one who fed me bread!”
“…what?”
Realizing the lack of context she gave them, Trixie cleared her throat before using her magic to not only carry the food they got, but form shapes with it of a stallion and a filly.
“Trixie had no friends or family growing up, but thanks to a stallion feeding her for performing a small magic trick she received her Cutie Mark and became a performer to earn bits to eke out a meager living as a humble show-magician.”
The incident slightly rung a bell in Soarin’s mind, but that had been so long ago he barely could recall the specifics. To Trixie though, it was a formative moment in her life, and now to Rainbow this gave her yet another reason to think of her fiancé as a sweetheart.
Trixie’s happy surprise dulled into anger as she narrowed her eyes and formed a crude representation of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Applejack with her limited supply of food.
“Then the Friendship Brigade attacked…”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as Trixie’s happy memory faded away in favor of her bitter ones, “Missing a few details there, aren’t ya Trixie?”
“Trixie possesses a brilliant memory and cannot remember a time she forgot something.”
“Uh-huh, sure,” Rainbow wasn’t going to be the one to point out the silliness of what Trixie just said, so she left it as-is, “So wait, what you’re telling me is Soarin’s the reason you’re a magician?”
Returning back to the previous topic, Trixie bowed her head and body to Soarin, “In a manner of speaking, yes. The alternative was starving to death, so I am doubly thankful for your generosity.”
Rainbow Dash smiled at Soarin and nudged him again, “Way to go, big guy,” she moved her face to give him a sweet kiss as she spoke, “No wonder I like you so much. You’re one big ol’ sap.”
While Soarin turned to receive it, their mouths did not meet. Confused, they felt something tugging at their faces, and a quick examination showed a purple-ish aura surrounding their heads. Trixie cleared her throat as she continued to hold them a slight bit apart from one another, preventing their public display of affection.
“Trixie shall remind you that we are in public and such scandalous actions should be reserved for behind closed doors where Trix-I mean ponies are not privy.”
Thinking she had made her case well, Trixie undid her magic on them and left them be. Surely they would listen to reason and not make passerby’s uncomfortable?
Rainbow grew a glint in her eye though, “You mean like this?” Trixie tried to stop her, but it was too late as Rainbow began to make out with Soarin in a very passionate manner specifically to unnerve Trixie. When finished, she looked back over and winked, “Are you uncomfortable yet?”
She was fortunate that, even with an eye twitching and her body rigid, Trixie managed to keep hold of all the groceries. Still, she gave no response as the relationship-challenged mare remained still.
“I think you short circuited her.”
Rainbow sighed before laughing a little bit about it, just glad Trixie hadn’t dropped anything, “You know, given how she seems to be at Scootaloo’s maturity level in some ways, I’m not too surprised.”
Trixie remained twitching, though she began to mumble something to herself relating to some seemingly traumatic event she had witnessed recently.
“Huh, guess we really did break her,” Soarin joked, not having expected an adult, even a young one like Trixie, to react so severely to ponies making out. No wonder she didn’t understand “the talk” if she could barely stand to watch ponies be affectionate…growing up without anyone to see as examples of any form of personal affection likely helped feed into this, since she was acting like an eight year old who just saw their parents make out.
Feeling responsible, Rainbow moved to help Trixie back towards their house, “I’ll bring her back to the house. Mind finishing up the shopping?”
“Sure thing,” Soarin said, fine with the arrangement since there was not much left to do. This settled, Rainbow carried Trixie with her as she flew back to their home. It was certainly good fortune that Trixie, even frozen as she was, was carrying their groceries exactly like she had been without leaving any behind or dropping them.
Still, Trixie continued to twitch on the way back, so Rainbow decided to check in on her.
“Uh, Trix, you okay?”
Shaking out of her state, Trixie laughed it off, “Of course Trixie is okay! Trixie has never been better! She did not walk in on her teachers doing…something…”
Rainbow thought she understood, and she snickered as she thought about just what naughty act Trixie had accidently stumbled upon and was reminded of just a moment ago.
Once they were at the house again and had the groceries put away, another thought came to Rainbow’s mind. Trixie said she was basically destitute at the moment, but why was that? If she was Luna’s student now, shouldn’t she be able to just stay with the Princess in Canterlot?
“Why aren’t you with Princess Luna?”
The normally audacious Trixie grew quiet as she averted her eyes, but answered all the same.
“Trixie let her down extremely at a competition, and my plans to take on an Ursa Major to earn forgiveness fell through since Trixie could not find one, so Trixie does not wish to return until she has redeemed herself in the eyes of her highness.”
Her usage of the third person was beginning to grate on Rainbow, who decided to address it while shifting the topic away from the drama surrounding her guest, “You know, you don’t have to keep talking like that. You don’t need to impress anyone here.”
Trixie switched from meek to sheepish as she relented, “I may have needed some practice with it. Princess Luna doesn’t like it when I speak of myself in the third person without reason. Perhaps when I am a Princess like Twilight I may use the royal ‘We’, but I have been starved of my ability to boast.”
Quite the boaster herself, Rainbow sympathized, “Pfft, that’s gotta suck. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t let everypony know how awesome I am,” her mind paused at the other thing Trixie said, something she had a hard time believing, “And you? A princess? Like that’d happen.”
This restored some of Trixie’s normal demeanor as she flipped her nose up and spoke in a matter-of-fact voice, “Celestia taught Cadance, Cadance is now an Alicorn. Celestia taught Twilight, now Twilight is an Alicorn. Now I am being taught by Luna, so it would be unfair if I were to not receive such a reward for my difficult studies.”
“What does Luna even have you do?”
“Train rigorously twelve hours or more a day, fight monsters, and prepare for competitions to show off my skills.”
That would certainly explain how she appeared to have better control over and power with her abilities than she previously displayed in Ponyville, but the middle part was what Rainbow cared the most about, nearly salivating at the prospect of fighting giant monsters.
“Wait, really? Can I help?”
Trixie was baffled by the request since she misunderstood which part Rainbow was interested in, “I do not require aid in my performances, but if you wish to—”
Rainbow shook her head as she clarified, “No, I meant fighting monsters! That sounds awesome!”
“No.”
The flat, basic response caught Rainbow off guard. It wasn’t like Trixie to just be curt and blunt, which implied there was some good reasoning behind it. Still, Rainbow wanted to get in on the monster fighting action and so she pressed onward.
“No? Oh come on! I bet you need an extra hoof here and there, right?”
Trixie continued to hold her position and explained it in a surprising display of empathy, “You have a husband and daughter. Trixie is alone and nopony would care if she were to be mauled someday.”
What Rainbow heard actually gave her pause. Not only was Trixie considering the fact that Rainbow had a family, she also was emphasizing the fact that nopony would care if something happened to herself…which, given that she really had no friends and no family to speak of was not far off the mark. It also showed that she considered herself expendable in comparison, and that was most certainly different from the usual haughtiness the mare carried with her.
Like Soarin, Rainbow was beginning to see the chinks in the arrogant armor worn to hide a deeper insecurity.
“That’s…honestly a bit thoughtful of you. You alright?”
“Trixie is not soul crushingly lonely,” was the awfully specific denial as Trixie looked away, hurt in her eyes.
Having learned a few lessons in friendship in her time since Twilight came to Ponyville, Rainbow decided to be helpful to somepony who looked like they needed it, “I bet Soarin’s got some friends if you want to hook up with somepony. You got a type?” she laughed as Trixie shrunk away and blushed beneath her fur, though Rainbow did put some thought into the matter: who would even go for somepony like Trixie? She couldn’t actually think of anypony in Equestria who would at the present time with how far the mare’s name had been dragged through the mud.
After some contemplation Rainbow added, “You remind me of one pony I know named Blueblood.”
“Type? Type of what?” Trixie cluelessly inquired, never having dated or really spoken about it, so she did not know what the alternative definition of ‘type’ was. When Rainbow just shook her head and sighed, Trixie moved on to what else the Pegasus said, “As for that useless thing named Blueblood, one training exercise I had was using him as a weight to practice my magical strength. He is heavy, and was interfering with lessons, so he became the lesson after being stuffed in a bag.”
Rainbow snorted and fell into a fit of laughter at the idea of Trixie using the pompous pony as a literal weight in her training, “Oh my gosh, I wish I was there! I’m sure Rarity would have paid to see it.”
Trixie smirked to herself at the memory, as well as the pest’s subsequent shaving by Luna and forced tattoo of a target to dissuade him from being such a nuisance in future cases, “Bee nest perhaps could have enjoyed his misery. I know I did.”
Their little chat was ended when a voice called out from another room.
“Mom, it’s time!”
This prompted Rainbow to take off with her wings and rush across the house, with Trixie lazily following behind.
“Oh, right! Be right there!”
Trixie caught sight of Rainbow by the door, where Scootaloo had just exited. Turning back to explain, Rainbow spoke quickly.
“I’m training Scootaloo how to fly like a champ. Got to keep at it after all and not slack off!”
Having been on the receiving end of some of the family’s snark that day, Trixie returned some of her own barbed words, “You are skilled at the latter, though flying is a hair bit more of your specialty and so it is what your Cutie Mark displays rather than a pillow.”
Rainbow snickered, not really having a comeback given that she really was lazy in some ways and just so happened to be a prodigy at flying, “Yeah yeah, anyways I’ll see you later. Feel free to hang out in the living room and kitchen, but if you go in the kitchen be careful, Soarin will not be happy if you eat his pie.”
When Rainbow left, Trixie came upon a realization spurred by the loud rumbling of her stomach.
“Trixie is starving…”
She did not want to eat any of the new groceries, having been told for what they would be used at what meals and at what times, but this left her with few options since the kitchen was basically empty otherwise.
What she was truly searching for as she disassembled the kitchen in a quest for food was her favorite cheap sustenance, only to find that as Rainbow hypothesized earlier they did not have, “What self-respecting pony doesn’t have bread?”
As she continued to search, Trixie began to grow flustered as the only food she could actually find was pie after pie, which she had been told she could not have.
“Why do you only have pies!?”
After a good ten minutes of searching, Trixie gave up…both in her search and her reluctance to eat pie, since there were so many of them that surely they would not miss one of them. Right?
“Fine then. Pie it is.”
She wolfed down the entire tin of pie at a speed Pinkie Pie could be jealous of, and as Trixie cleaned her hooves and muzzle she came to notice that somepony was staring at her from the kitchen’s doorway.
“You ate…you ate…” Soarin blubbered as he gaped in horror, “Why did you…”
Caught blue hooved, Trixie tried to downplay the situation, “Trixie was hungry and was told she could be in the kitchen.”
“But my blueberry pie…why did it have to be my dessert for tonight?”
The reasoning was one of complete egotism, which honestly shouldn’t have surprised Soarin yet he still gaped as Trixie explained it, “Trixie is blue, blueberries are blue. It was a simple choice to pick the flavor most reflective of my greatness.”
Seeking revenge and revealing a childish side of himself to match Trixie’s own, Soarin grew a glint in his eye like Rainbow’s from earlier.
“You’re Luna’s student, right?”
While Trixie had not been very fearful of repercussions prior to that moment, she almost broke out in a cold sweat instantly at the mention of her teacher.
“Y-yes…why?”
Soarin shrugged nonchalantly as he basked in her nervousness, “I wonder how much Luna will like to hear that her student is a lawless heathen thief who would dare encroach upon proper manners and eat her host’s pie?”
In a half expected fashion, Trixie threw herself at his feet and pleaded for his forgiveness, “Trixie is sorry! Please, don’t tell Luna! Trixie will do anything! Forgive Trixie, she has never been over somepony’s house before!”
“I suppose it can be forgiven…” Soarin decided that some punishment should be meted out, “But you have to help Rainbow make the next one.”
“Trixie shall help with the next dozen! Please don’t make Luna hate Trixie more!”
Soarin honestly doubted that Trixie was really even that much in Luna’s ill graces, but since he didn’t know for sure he kept quiet and changed the subject to something he had been thinking as he finished the shopping.
“Anyways, I was thinking, and since I’m going to be retiring from the flying squad of the Wonderbolts soon, I’m going to need to focus more on the more business and organizational side of things. Would a certain washed up magician mind granting a few pointers?”
Regaining some of her dignity as she rose up, Trixie scoffed at his description of her, “Would a washed up magician’s advice not be worthless?”
Soarin shrugged again, trying to downplay the favor he was offering her, “Perhaps not, if taken in moderation. I’ve heard you’re one of the best magicians in the world after all, so you must be able to do something right.”
“Not that anypony cares. Stupid Princess Twilight ‘forgives communist pony who wants to end the world but not pony corrupted by magic whose life she ruined’. And don’t get Trixie started on her being promoted to Princess because she fixed a spell. Trixie has done that a hundred times!” Trixie bitterly grumbled, and Soarin couldn’t really blame her: the circumstances of Twilight’s ascension and how she had forgiven her most recent foe of nearly world ending crimes while still holding a petty grudge against a magician was a bit odd.
Siding with the ‘washed up’ magician in this regard, Soarin continued forward with his offer that could actually benefit both of them, “Maybe if you help the Wonderbolts out a bit we can see about helping your reputation.”
“If you do that, I may just do your wedding for free.”
Soarin liked the sound of ‘free’, even if it was a bit corrupt to hire a pony for his job and then receive a personal favor from them later on, “It has to be the very best, so I think having a professional handle it would be quite welcome. Rainbow wouldn’t have it any other way, though chances are she will have part of it be an air show.”
The two had continued to talk about business matters until Rainbow and Scootaloo returned later that night, at which point they ate dinner and Trixie quickly fell asleep on their couch. While she could be annoying in her own way, Soarin found himself not as put off by her as somepony else might: he already had to put up with a similar attitude on a daily basis, and he loved Rainbow despite how haughty she acted, so he could tolerate her friend being similar.
Still, one thing did grate on him, and he was hoping he would not have to suffer through it indefinitely. Looking at the conked out Trixie from the living room’s doorway along with Rainbow, Soarin whispered.
“She isn’t going to stay for long, is she? The third person thing is a bit…”
Rainbow giggled at his complaint, since she understood it quite well after spending time with Trixie previously, “I’m not going to kick her to the curb. I mean, I may feel a liiiiiittle bit guilty about being one of the ponies who led to the events that ruined her career. Let her sleep on the couch a couple days and I think I’ll feel better.”
As Rainbow finished saying this Soarin caught sight of something interesting.
“Is…is she clinging to a stuffed animal like a security blanket?”
Rainbow tried to keep her laughter down so as to not wake up Trixie, “Homeless and poor, yet she has a stuffed Princess Luna? Seems the Princess at least has one big fan …two if you count me, three with Scootaloo.”
Soarin decided to not mention that Rainbow had one of Daring Do, but what caught his attention was the way in which Rainbow described Princess Luna having fans: she made it sound like they were the only ones, “Is she insecure?”
“Yeah, imagine a more refined version of what you saw today with this mess. I bet Princess Luna would like you though, she’s the more sport-sy one of the Princesses,” Rainbow frowned as she thought back to how she first met Luna, “To give you an idea about how insecure she can be, you know the whole Nightmare Moon thing?”
“The bad pun of a name? Yeah, I’m familiar with it.”
“All because she felt unloved and jealous of her sister.”
The thought of Luna becoming a villain out of envy and out of insecurity saddened Soarin, who thought it unfair in some ways how much Celestia was favored over her sister. If things were different he’d feel the same way towards Celestia if Luna was the favored sister, but for now Luna was the underdog.
In an attempt to make light of the situation, Soarin nodded towards the asleep Unicorn in their house, “Good thing this one isn’t an all-powerful Alicorn, right?”
Said Unicorn was dreaming something vividly and was fumbling with one hoof as her other one tightly gripped both her blanket and the pseudo-Princess Luna, “Trixie…power…maximum…”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as she listened in on Trixie dreaming of power, “Great, she even dreams of being the best. Not even I can claim I go that far.”
“Ponyville…merely…setback…”
Also amused but afraid that if they lingered they would wake their guest with laughter, Soarin motioned for Rainbow to follow him out, “Let’s let your sort-of-friend/guest sleep.”
They did so quietly, though in leaving they missed further mumblings from Trixie that may have revealed her friendly affection for them both that she likely would never say out loud.