• Published 16th Feb 2014
  • 7,804 Views, 2,738 Comments

Trixie's Forest Retreat - crowscrowcrow



Following the events of Boast Busters, Trixie decides to hide from the town (and Rainbow Dash in particular) by taking cover in the Everfree Forest. Not every problem can be outrun, and sometimes facing them can have unexpected consequences.

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Chapter 31 - Rarity

The ponies below looked like ants. Rainbow Dash felt the wind rush through her prismatic mane, relishing the cold gusts of the air through her fur. She zigzagged through the clouds effortlessly, while her eyes scanned her surroundings.

“Figures that the first thing I do after she shows she isn’t scared anymore, is give her reason to fear me. Way to lose your cool Rainbow, it’s not like she can read minds , even if she claimed she could.”

She dipped one wing and began a slow spiral down towards Ponyville. Taking flight had turned out to be a good decision, the cold high altitude air helped cool her head. She reached up one hoof to stroke along her lips.

“Still… that was not how I pictured it. I guess that’s what I get for being such a coward for too long huh? It’s as much my fault as hers, maybe more.”

“She was just confused, right?” She could still vividly see Trixie’s face staring at her in mild annoyance, then melt to confusion while she tried to figure out what the heck Rainbow Dash had been up to. It had been fun at the time.

What came afterward sent a painful stab through her chest to remember. Trixie had brightened up so much, her lavender eyes wide and shining. A prelude to what was to come as Trixie finally allowed herself to smile, brighter even than when she was reunited with her hat and cloak, and kissed her. “Y-yeah… confused sure. Everybody looks over the moon when they are confused. It’s not as if I hurt her feelings. I just corrected them, right? Right?” .

’Then why does this hurt so much?’ The words echoed through her mind, her stomach felt as if she’d eaten Sweetie Belle’s cooking.

Rainbow Dash sighed while she thought back on her snapping at Trixie, she had been so angry for losing something so important to what she at the time considered to be a prank. By the time she’d realized Trixie was sincere, or at least that Trixie believed so, she already had burned her down and scattered the ashes.

Rainbow Dash did her best to dismiss the notion, drifting off course to crash herself through a raincloud as though she hoped it would wash the thoughts away. It seemed to work. “How was I supposed to know she’d have no idea what friendship felt like? Ehh right ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’, I guess it was kind of obvious nobody would like her. ”

Somehow that thought did not sit right with Rainbow Dash, was Trixie really that unlikable? Had no pony ever tried to look past her venom, insufferable ego and antics for the pony underneath? The more she pondered it the more likely it seemed. Trixie was pretty horrible, and if Rainbow Dash was honest with herself, the only reason she had even tried doing anything with her was to help Trixie recover from the state she had put her in.

“Yeah she is all those things, but come on! She can’t always have been like that, right? Trixie is much nicer to Fluttershy. So there’s got to be a decent pony under that somewhere. Did she just never get a chance to show it? Would I have given her a second look if it wasn’t for how horrible I was to her? ”

The ground rapidly approached. She scanned for a good place to land. She also had a choice to make as to where she would go first. As promised she had not recovered Fluttershy’s saddlebags, making Sugarcube Corner one of her destinations. But she had never said anything about the other torn and ragged item, grinning while she glanced down at the purple, star-decorated hat held in her hooves.

“Who would have thought I’d get another chance at this? I’m not going to mess it up this time.”

Her hooves struck against the road, folding her wings onto her back. Around her ponies were going about their day as usual, shopping or dragging their goods to market. She was already at the first stop, trotting up to the fancy Carousel Boutique adorned in what Rainbow Dash assumed were fashionable colors.

Rainbow Dash knocked on the door. “Rarity? Are you allowing ponies inside yet? It’s been like a week.” She had not seen Rarity out in public ever since Trixie had turned the mares hair into some horrible green swamp rats nest.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash, I’ve reopened the store since two days ago.” Rarity’s voice increased in volume from behind the door until it swung open, revealing the pristine white unicorn. Her mane however was not its usual purple, but solid black. ”Come in come in! What brings you to my boutique? I was not expecting you, did you have a change of heart? Tea?” She turned and motioned for Rainbow Dash to follow.

Rainbow Dash stared shocked at Rarity for a few moments, then hurried inside after her. “Err well no, I told you before, you are never getting me in a dress. No way, no how! I’m here for something else.”

“Oh we will see about that, mark my words you will come around one day. So if not that then why are you here?”

Rainbow paused to set Trixie’s hat upon her head, grinning widely as she got close behind Rarity. “Oh You’ll find out. By the way, nice hair.”

Rarity stopped in her tracks and twitched. “It was the best I could do on short notice. Let’s agree right now that you never speak again of what happened with that wiIIIIITCH!” She screamed after she turned around and briefly mistook Rainbow for Trixie, stumbling back gasping for breath. “Where did you get that thing! And what on Equestria did you do with it! You should not treat a work of art like that, Rainbow Dash, even if it belonged to she who will not be named.”

Most of Trixie’s tricks during her show had been of short duration. Rainbow was merely made dizzy, something she recovered from within the day, and Applejack was swiftly untied. Unlike everypony else Rarity’s curse from Trixie had lingered long after the show, and the resentment clearly still very fresh in the now black-maned mare’s mind.


The reaction was just priceless to Rainbow Dash, roaring with laughter at the sight of Rarity’s face. She faltered once she caught sight of the dagger Rarity stared at her, doing her best to reign herself in, but still sniggering under her breath. “Timberwolf got to it, I figured you would know how to fix it up.”

“I beg your pardon? This is serious, Rainbow Dash, what did you do? Just because it belonged that horrible witch does not make it okay to torture a perfectly innocent piece of clothing!” Rarity’s horn flared up, lifting the hat off Rainbow Dash. Floating it towards her for inspection, it was filthy and ripped. “In fact, her wardrobe was the one redeeming quality of that Mane-Murdering-Mare. I don’t suppose you also found the witch’s cloak? It was a rather beautiful set that really should not be parted.”

Rainbow Dash could not really explain it, but she felt a flame ignite inside of her veins as Rarity spoke. “Her name is Trixie.” Any lingering giddiness had dropped from her voice.

“I suppose this can still be salvaged. And free of charge, I insist.” The hat flew towards one of the mannequins. “Yes I am aware of that, Rainbow Dash. It was pretty hard to miss with her repeating it over and over, I suspect she was trying to fool herself more so than the crowd.”

It gave Rainbow Dash pause, she was not sure why she was so angry at Rarity. She was being her usual generous self. “She’s not that bad if you get to know her.” What am I saying, I just got through screaming I did not know her barely ten minutes ago.

“Oh? Well then let’s get to know her shall we?”

Rainbow Dash blinked, did Rarity know she and Fluttershy had been harboring Trixie? That could not be right, the only one that should have been aware of it was Applejack, though that was more because Rainbow Dash was such a terrible liar. “Uhm how? It’s not like she’s been in Ponyville all this time or anything.”

“Not like that dear. You see, you can tell a lot about a pony by their clothes.”

“Most ponies don’t wear any, what’s that say?”

“That they don’t have a fashion sense, this one does.” Rarity lifted the hat with her magic and brought it back towards them, crystal blue eyes scanning every inch of it while it turned in her magical grasp. “Mhm that is interesting. Are you sure this is her hat?”

“I never said it was her hat, but yeah I’m sure. Why?”

“Oh, well it’s just that it looked much newer during the show.” Rarity raised a hoof to preemptively silence Rainbow Dash. “NOT because this is after you fed it to a timberwolf. We’ll be ignoring these new gashes for now.”

“Hey! I did not feed it to a timberwolf.”

“Right, you will have to explain after this. First, look at this area here. Do you see how it looks new on the outside? But if you look on the inside you can see it is in fact a tear that has been repaired.” She turned the hat inside out to demonstrate her point.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes with the entire concept, but she did nod when she saw what looked like stitching where Rarity pointed. But there were so many others it was hard to tell which one she actually tried to point out. “Well yeah, but it’s got that all over the inside of that hat so what difference does that one make?”

“Very perceptive Rainbow Dash.” Rarity sounded genuinely surprised. “But that is actually the point. There is no difference. Every one of those tears, gashes and holes has been patched up meticulously. This hat is old, but it has been maintained extremely well. Now this tells us two things.”

“That she had a good tailor and new hats are expensive?”

“Err… no. But not a bad try Rainbow. The amount of damage to the hat tells us she is completely careless, and spares not a single thought to possible negative consequence of her actions, or ignores them, she’s just plain blind to them.”

Rainbow Dash raised a brow as she heard this. It did seem to fit somewhat with what she knew of Trixie. Trixie had done a lot of things, only to act nearly surprised when they worked out badly. Still, she had also seen her regret her actions, a lot. She was about to open her mouth when Rarity continued.

“Yes yes I know, this is hardly surprising given what we saw of her during that egotistical muleplay she called a show. But the next part is the shocker. See how this area here around these fixed tears the fabric breathes slightly more? It’s what happens when you continuously stitch and unstitch the same area.”

“Uh, yeah of course, Rarity.” As far as she could tell the fabric was the exact same, and how did fabric breath? She did not see any nostrils or mouths on it. She would have to discuss this with Pinkie Pie later when getting lunch, it seemed like the kind of thing that would be right for her. “So what does that mean then?”

“It means she does dwell on her mistakes, obsesses over them in fact, and she does her best to fix them. Trying over and over till the gash is properly repaired. Look at just how much effort she puts in to make sure it looks perfect again.”

“Or it means she just really likes this hat. She sure was in no hurry to repay Ponyville for the Ursa attack, or to apologize for the things she did to me, you, and AJ.”

“…Yes. But that simply means she only does it when she cares about the ones she damages and realizes it. She cares for the hat, so she go’s great lengths to fix it. If she actually ever cared about another pony I’m sure she’d obsess over that too, not that I expect that witch to care of anything but herself and her personal possessions. That lack of other ponies might be a good thing really. If she gets as attached to ponies as she does this hat, combined with her lack of foresight I imagine it would torment her a lot.”

Rainbow Dash swallowed uncomfortably while she stared at the inside-out hat. “So… What happens if that happens?”

Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash for a moment, as though it had only just occurred to her that Rainbow Dash, RAINBOW DASH, was sitting next to her staring at a hat, and actually was interested. “Uh well… You know the star pattern yes?” She turned the hat to demonstrate the varied sized and shaped stars.

“Yeah what about it?”

“Not all of those stars are part of the original design, you can tell they are out of place here and there if you look closely. There is a very simple reason for it. Take this star for instance.” She pressed her hoof on one then flipped the hat, pressing up through it to show the inside behind the star.

It was a mess, even Rainbow Dash could tell the repair attempt failed miserably on the inside.

Rarity continued. “This was probably something she did not have the skill to fix, or maybe simply could never be fixed, but even I can’t tell at this point. She tried though. And each attempt just made it worse, the surrounding fabric is torn, the threads are frayed, the stitches too tight. It’s a disaster, you can just about feel her desperation increase with each try. So finally she gave up, left the entire mess for what it was and stitched a pretty picture on it to hide her failure on the outside, and moved on. Sounds about right doesn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash stared at the back of the star, the implication left her feeling cold.

“So, where is she, Rainbow?”

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

A wild Rarity appears?
You have no idea how pleased I was to get an obvious chapter title.
Apparently I got a bit carried away since this turned out to be the biggest chapter yet.
Also the first one to go over two thousand words. Dang.
Is Rarity right? Or is she about as reliable as a horoscope?

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