Covalence

by jdl179

Reconciliation

Chapter 3: Reconciliation

“The mare ventured into the countryside. Abandoning any hope of ever returning to her village. She was forced to leave behind all she loved, her friends, family, even her talent. But she did what she had to for the greater good of everypony. Without her sacrifice, the village would have fallen to the tyrannical dragon king.”

“Her travels brought her to the large capital of her country, a great metropolis that spanned as far as the mare’s vision. The mare entered the city under the guise of a simple craftspony, fooling the guards and townsponies with a cloak and her charms. She attempted to avoid anypony that crossed her path; for fear that they would discover her and report it to their king, who served under the dragon king.”

“She made her way to the castle, seeking to gain an audience with the king. She was hoping that she could make the king blunder and reveal the dragon’s lair. Yet all did not go according to plans; you see, a passing stallion from the mare’s village recognized her and shouted for her arrest.”

“The guards bound her with thick iron chains, which strangled the life out of the mare’s body. She was drug towards the castle, under the mercy of the townsponies. They jeered and pelted her with anything they could find, staining her coat and breaking her resolve. She was tossed into a dank, dark dungeon and was warned against doing anything drastic. The guards began enlightening her with stories of other criminals that misbehaved, stirring up a deep fear in the mare’s heart.”

“After what seemed like hours to the mare, the harsh banter stopped. She heard the clinking of the armor, and the grating metal of the dungeon’s door being forced open. The mare found she was staring into the eyes of the king himself. In a cruel, mocking tone, he sai-“

“Trixie, is that you? I’ve been wondering where you went those months ago.”

Trixie turned and saw a purple mare standing in the doorway, smiling enthusiastically at Trixie as she regaled stories to an to a small gray squirrel . Trixie pulled herself up to accost the mare. ‘She seems familiar’ her conscience mused.

“You’ve been wondering about Trixie? Whatever for? She only left this place after some goody-goody mare showed her up and made Ponyville ostracize her.”

The mare frowned for a moment, leaving the room in a pregnant silence. “Ponyville didn’t ostracize you,” she said, “If that’s what you’re thinking.”

“They didn’t you say,” Trixie replied, “Well what about those mares that attempted to show her up and failed tragically, and then the town went on to support them instead of I, who clearly beat them at their own little games, If that is not an example of how bad this town was for Trixie.”

The mare paused, bringing an arm to her chin. “Hmmm, Oh wait a moment.” she said, quickly rushing out of the room. Trixie heard the mare tearing through the house, she also heard small yelps emanate the door; no doubt it was her host. The mare returned with a pair of saddlebags and a smile gracing her face. “Here,” she said, floating the bag over to Trixie, “That’s everything that Snips and Snails could salvage from the wreckage that was your caravan. My name is Twilight, Twilight Sparkle.”

Trixie studied the bags for a moment, then relented and opened the bags. She gasped as she pulled out a patch of purple cloth. Her cape, It was really her cape. This brightened her mood considerably as she continued to pull articles out of the bags. She found her supply of bits, glossed to a gleaming sheen. She recalled the nights she had spent carefully counting the bits she received after a performance, relishing in the light the reflected off the little gold coins.
She shifted various items around, seeking out her prize. She smiled in satisfaction as she spied the purple and light blue stars of her prize. She lovingly placed it on her head; she felt a few tears leaking at the edges of her eyes. She wiped away the moisture and smiled at Twilight.

“Trixie...Trixie thinks that she can forgive this town, she hoped that she can stay in this town longer. That is... if the ponies will have me.”

Twilight approached the aggrieved mare and pulled her into a light hug. “I think Ponyville would love to have you back.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Trixie smiled and replaced her hat for the third time that night, she sighed as she brought the hem of her hat over her eye. She lay wrapped in her cloak, using her magic to examine the various bits and pieces of salvage that Twilight brought with her.

Twilight.

Trixie paused as she thought about Twilight. Emotions bubbled as she remembered how that mare bested her in magic, yet she felt a sense of relief and appreciation towards her. She brought back something that Trixie longed for, her father’s hat.

‘Well, it seems that Trixie has gone back to Ponyville,’ a small voice sneered, ‘how wonderful of you, practically begging that mare to let you stay in Ponyville. Not to mention the skittish mare to save you from a manticore; who I might add, you brought upon yourself in the first place.’

Trixie yelped as the voice began its tirade. She had heard nothing from the nagging voice in days; she had hoped that her conscience would have quieted down while she recovered.
‘Well like always, it seems that you have no such luck,” her conscience quipped, “You think that because you have an injury I will leave you alone?’

‘No, no, don’t say anything, I already know. But I only have one question, what will you do when this mare, Fluttershy, clears you to leave? You may have everything you could need back, but what will you be doing then? I suppose the forests are still warm this time of year; and the manticores may be less aggressive now.’

Trixie felt a weight lying heavily against her back, her conscience was right. What would she do?
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Hey Screwy, can you pass me some of those nails? Some of the boards are sticking up funny.”

Screwy chuckled under her breath and tossed the box of nails to her blue friend, “Alright, just be careful Trixie. We don’t an accident like last time.”

Trixie picked up the nails and pulled out a few of the larger ones. “Oh come on Screwy,” she replied indignantly, “Besides it wasn’t my fault, Comet was the one that thought she could use her hooves to get the nails in.”

Screwy replied to her brilliant rebuttal with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. “But you agreed with her, and now it’s just you, me, and Lily over there.” They both looked over their shoulders to find the blue unicorn filly absentmindedly playing with flowers. They watched as Lily collected a small pile of wildflowers that had been growing; she picked up a single flower and reverently gazed at it before placing it back down and repeating the process at random.

“Hey Lily,” Trixie shouted, “You want to help us a little? We could sure use some of your help right about now!”

Lily turned towards her friends and cantered over to the half-built thing... that her friends were trying to build. “Sorry girls, lost in thought there.” She examined the mishmash of nails and boards that stood on the outskirts of Hoofington. “So what is it we were making again, some kind of zip-line or cannon thing?”

“Well, we were planning on making a stage to see if we could get some cutie marks in entertaining,” Trixie replied, trying to hide a small smirk that was forming on her face, “But if preforming cutie marks don’t turn out to be our special talents, we could always turn it into a cannon thing.”

“Oh, cool, “Her friend replied obliviously, “Say girls, when are we ever going to try and do what I suggested?”

“You mean the flower gardening,” Screwy responded, “Or the flower pot arranging, or the flower sniffing, or the flower everything else?”

“Yeah, that.” Lily replied, “It’s a lot safer than what you had us try a few weeks ago. What was that again?”

Screwy responded by displaying a bright shade of red across her face. Trixie saw this and decided to chime in, “You mean the whole incident with the barber’s booth? Or the mane cut she gave to that one colt, you know the one, the one that she has a crush o-“

“Cherry said he liked his mane that way, Trixie.” Screwy said, cutting off Trixie, “Besides, he said his parents thought he was very “huggable”.”

Trixie and Lily flashed a devilish grin at each other before falling over in bouts of laughter. Screwy’s face gave off a brighter shade of red as her friend’s giggling grew louder.

Trixie rose shakily to her feet, fighting off the last bout of laughter faded. “Ok Screwy, whatever you say,” She said, “Now that Screwy is embarrassed, we can get back to work on the stage.”

Lily, having finished laughing, moved to Trixie’s side to assist her friend in the next thing they would need to do to have a stage. Trixie motioned towards a small stack of boards; Lily pushed the boards closer to her friend.

She watched as Trixie struggled to lift one of the boards. She had managed to raise it into the air before it began to wobble and fall, hitting the ground with an impassive thump. Lily attempted to stifle a laugh while her friend sighed in exasperation.

Lily nudged the board closer to Trixie with her hoof, “How about we work together on this,” she said, “You aren’t the... What were you gonna call yourself for this? The Mighty and Powerful Trixie?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” Trixie exclaimed, “And once I get my act together, I’ll have my cutie mark for sure!”

Both fillies let out a few small cheers and began placing the boards in place. Trixie smiled in satisfaction as the boards lifted near-effortlessly with her friend’s help, they carefully guided the planks into the correct position. Screwy, no longer paralyzed from embarrassment moved into position and began nailing down the boards with expert precision.

She moved from board to board, giving each piece the same careful but precise hammer strikes that fitted the nails snugly inside the boards.

The three fillies smiled in satisfaction as the pushed the stage board into place. “What was that last thing we needed?” Screwy asked, “I feel like were missing something.”

Trixie examined the building and gasped, “I know, we were supposed to get some fabric for the curtain.”

“Oh yeah,” Screwy said, “But who has fabric?” She tapped the curtain frame with her hoof, “It looks like we’ll need a lot if we don’t want them to see us after the show.”

“Well Comet’s mom is a seam... seamster... a dress maker, why don’t we ask her?” Lily asked.

The three fillies gathered their supplies and placed a cover over their stage. Once they packed all their tools, they ventured into town to find Comet’s mother.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Miss Trixie, I need to check on your leg,” Fluttershy said, nudging the sleeping blue mare, “If you don’t mind that is, I mean if you need to sleep more...”

Trixie stirred quietly and woke up to find Fluttershy standing next to her with a roll of bandages, “What was that?” she asked, “Trixie is feeling a little dizzy.”

“Oh... um, I need to check on your leg to see if it’s healing properly,”

“That’s fine,” she replied, “When do you think that Trixie can start moving around again, she is getting stir-crazy with nothing to do besides stuff her face and tell stories to little Sylvie.”

Trixie felt a small nudging against her neck; she turned her head and saw her little friend indignantly trying to push her. She chuckled and lifted the squirrel in front of her, “Not that there is anything wrong with telling stories to my favorite little animal.”

Trixie turned back to Fluttershy, who was smiling softly as she slowly peeled the layers of bandages covering Trixie foreleg.

“I must say, Miss Fluttershy,” Trixie said, “You have quite a bit of skill when it comes to medicine. I’ve never seen bandaging this well done since my foalhood.”

Fluttershy giggled softly and pulled the last bit of bandaging away; Trixie scrutinized her foreleg and smiled. It looked almost recovered, “Well, It takes a lot of time and diligence to make bandages or casts well,” She replied, “But to me, it’s worth it knowing that I can help my little animal friends.”

“So you’re a veterinarian,” Trixie snickered, “Well I guess that makes sense, ponies are animals after all.”

Fluttershy nodded and smiled at her guest’s joke; she examined Trixie’s foreleg and smiled, “Well miss Trixie, your leg is healing nicely,” she said, tapping lightly against the bone, “You should be able to walk around again in a few days.”

Trixie smiled at her host with a toothy grin, “Wonderful, yes, thank you so much Miss Fluttershy,” She said, “And how can I repay your kind treatment after all you did?”

Her host placed the used bandages in a small wastebasket and turned back to her, “Please call me Fluttershy, all my friends do,” she replied, “And please, there is no need to repay me.”

‘Keep pushing to help,’ her conscience chimed in, ‘You can’t just leave without thanking this mare.’

“Please Fluttershy,” Trixie pushed, “I would very much like to help you in any way I can. If not in bits, I could at least help you take care of your animals for a few days.”

“Ohh, um, alright,” Fluttershy said, “If you want to, I could use some help with my some of my animal friends; but only after your leg fully heals.”

“Thank you Fluttershy,” Trixie said, “And be the way, you can call me Trixie. Miss Trixie sounds too formal for an entertainer.”

Comments

[Robtari]

I kinda like the way it keeps flicking between past, present, and future. My only suggestion would be to add MOAR

[tubaguy]

love this story, but how doe trixie know that ponies are animals, since they are basically humans

[jdl179]

701457

well, it also depends on how you would define humans in the ecosystem. this is known to spark a religious debate, but i believe that we cant single ourselves out due to us just being dominant.

[tubaguy]

701571 hmm, fair enough, just don't think that they would refer to themselves as animals, but hey, your story, your call

[IAmScootaloo]

Great chapter.

[Lloxie]

Trixie, Lily, and Screwy being like the Crusaders when they were little?? HNNNG! I love this story so muuuuch >w< <33333