Hearth's Warming on the Rock Farm, with Trixie Lulamoon

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Six: Hearth's Warming Day

Trixie’s Hearth Warming Story

Chapter Six: Finally Hearth’s Warming Day

Written by TheCrimsonDM

I awoke to the sound of snoring, and warm fur brushing against my face. My eye opened a crack and all I could see was gray fur. A leg wrapped a little tighter around my back pulling me closer to her. I couldn’t complain. If Maud wanted to cuddle, well it meant more warmth for me.

“IT’S HEARTH WARMING! IT’S HEARTH WARMING!” Pinkie Pie shrieked into my ear.

The bed bounced and I went along for the ride as Pinkie jumped off and landed on her hooves. I got up, and was about to tell her off for screaming so early in the morning, but I lost my balance and fell out and onto the floor. Pinkie Pie continued bouncing around the room screaming until everypony was bleary eyed and awake. I refused to move an inch until Pinkie Pie bounced her way downstairs still screaming.

“Why is she so excited?” I asked nopony in particular.

“Because it’s Pinkie Pie,” Limestone mumbled.

It took more effort than I had thought to push myself up off of the floor. I needed coffee, because whatever energy had possessed Pinkie Pie was clearly not working on me. Out of everypony waking up, I was the first one out the door after Pinkie, which just so happened to put me in just the right place to trip over the string that was tied on either end of the door.

A bright pink and white polka dotted box came swinging down from the ceiling. It was too early for me to properly react, so my fumbled efforts to dodge only made things worse. The box slammed right into my muzzle!

It had taken every ounce of my feeble self control to not unleash a series of curses as I rubbed at my pain ridden nose. Thankfully it wasn’t broken, nor was there any blood. When I looked once more at the box, I realized that it was actually a present, a hearth’s warming present.

There was a little tag on it. I read it.

“To: Inkie

From: Pinkie”

I looked back at Marble and using a bit of magic I levitated the box over to her. “I think this was supposed to be yours.”

Marble took the present and blinked. She looked up at her parents, then at her sisters, finally back at the present and blinked once more. “F-for m-me?”

“It looks like this might actually be a good year for presents,” Limestone said.

I shook my head. “Don’t you guys hide all the presents?”

“Yeah, but we’re supposed to hide them in places that ponies will actually find them,” Limestone said, she gave Maud a quick glare. “That’s why Pinkie’s in charge of hiding them this year.”

“Pinkie always hides at least one,” Maud said.

“That’s because she’s… Let’s just get some breakfast,” Limestone said bitterly.

Marble opened her present with great care and pulled out a brown hooded jacket. She smiled and quickly put it on. At least somepony was having a good morning. We all made our way downstairs after that, and after a quick breakfast it looked like Pinkie Pie was still excitedly bouncing around.

I did my best to ignore Applejack completely, and she did the same to me. It was better that way, at least we wouldn’t get into any more fights if we avoided each other. With Pinkie Pie around it was pretty easy to ignore something that I didn’t like.

I did have a question that was bothering me about the presents.

“Hey, Pinkie Pie,” I said. She looked at me. “Why did you hide a present upstairs as a trap this morning?”

“Oh because Marble has good reflexes, and she would easily catch it,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Uh huh… and did you know that I don’t have very good reflexes that early in the morning?” I said.

Pinkie Pie gave me an awkward almost confused stare. “Well duh, that’s why it’s Marble’s present. Don’t worry, your present is hidden right where you’ll never expect, but inevitably find.”

I really disliked the sound of that. So I changed the subject. “Where is your present?”

“I don’t know!” Pinkie Pie said. “Maud hid it for me!”

I shuddered to think about what patch of earth Pinkie’s present was probably buried under. If I knew Maud, then I knew that she could hide pretty much anything, pretty much anywhere. Pinkie was going to have a hard time finding her present.

“Did you hide Maud’s present last year?” I asked.

“Yep, and I hid one for Applejack as well. My Pinkie Sense told me that I needed to hide one on the train, so I did!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly.

“YOU HIDE THEM ON THE TRAIN!” I exclaimed, a lot louder than I had meant too.

“Only when it’s necessary. Don’t worry, you’ll find yours. If you don’t I’ll help you look for it,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Great,” I replied sarcastically. It wasn’t surprising that I had no faith in finding one now. Though I wasn’t expecting one in the first place, so this didn’t really change anything.

At least our rocks were looking nice. The superglue had held on my doll so at least my doll had kept its head, even if it was completely obvious that it had been broken in the first place. Somehow I felt like the doll had become a metaphor for my life.

“Who’s raising the flag this year?” I asked.

“This year we’re trying the apple family tradition and having both Marble and Applebloom raise it. Isn’t that sweet?” Pinkie Pie said.

“That sounds nice, and it explains why there wasn’t a contest,” I said.

“Are you going to go look for your present?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“I don’t know about that,” I said.

“Oh how come?”

I felt a little hollow inside. I stood up. “Thanks for caring and all, but today isn’t… I’m glad to not be alone and all but… never mind.”

Pinkie frowned at me as I walked outside. I wasn’t going to look for presents but I did want to get out for a bit. It was too… happy inside. I didn’t need to be part of it, it wasn’t mine to share. At least outside I wouldn’t have to ruin their fun.

The air was a bit nippy but it wasn’t too bad today. I made my way out into the field looking at the snow covered farm. It began to occur to me that there wasn’t going to be any real work done here any time soon. With the snow, and ice, rock farming was practically out of the question, furthermore unless the mines were made safe, that was out the window as well.

They told me to come back, but why would they do that if there wasn’t any work to be had?

I didn’t get the chance to think more on that before I tripped over something hidden under the snow. Somehow I managed to catch myself, but that didn’t stop me from cursing at whatever made me trip. I figured it was another stupid rock, but as I looked at the black leather bound book lying on the ground, I knew my day had only begun to go wrong.

Gently I levitated it up to my face and opened it. It was the same book I had given to Maud, the same book that I had wanted to dearly to get rid of. Maybe she didn’t have time to properly hide it, or she actually let Boulder hide it… surely she had just forgotten about it. The idea of her actually expecting a pet rock to hide something was a bit too crazy to think about.

“Howdy,” Applejack said from nearby.

I jumped out of my skin. The last thing I had expected or even wanted was to talk to Applejack right then, I had that foul book, and it needed discarded of.

“What do you want?” I asked sharply.

“Yer in a bad mood huh? Is it mah fault?” She asked. I could almost mistake her tone for being kind.

“Of course I’m in a bad mood,” I retorted. I spun around sharply and began trotting away from the house. This book needed to be gone… or I could just hide for later. Maybe it knew how to get rid of pesky bullies.

“Where are you going?” Applejack asked.

“None of your business,” I replied.

Applejack caught up with me. “Now hold on one darn tootin’ minute. Ah wanted to apologize for the way Ah have been acting.”

“Well that’s a first.”

“Ah really mean it. The way Ah treated you here, and back when in Ponyville was wrong,” She said.

I stopped dead in my tracks. As I looked back at her, I saw the sad look in her eyes. She actually meant it. “I… why? Why are you apologizing now? You never felt bad about it before.”

“Ah met one of mah old friends, she’s a singer. One day we were talking about… well you. When Ah told her what Ah had done, she looked at me like Ah was a monster and tried to tell me how scary it was to be called out on stage like that. Ah didn’t care at the time cus Ah thought that since it was mah belief… Ah was in the right. But then you called me a bully,” Applejack said.

“Well that’s what ponies like you are. Attacking somepony who just wants to make other ponies smile… it was a free show even! You attacked a volunteer performance,” I told her. “I never thought that there were ponies that could do that…”

“Ah know, and Ah’m sorry. What Ah did was wrong, and if you give me a second chance, Ah swear Ah will make it up to you,” Applejack said.

I’m not sure what it was about the offer that offended me so. Maybe I was just upset that she would dare tell me that she could fix it after everything that had happened to me, or maybe I was just upset that she dared to try and fix it in the first place. Either way, I got angry.

“You?” I snapped back at her. “Can you fix my reputation? Can you get me a job where my cutie mark doesn’t become wasted space on my flank? Can you actually do anything to make up for what you did?”

She looked away. “Ah don’t know, but Ah want to try.”

She would have been better off staying quiet. I threw my book at her! Of course it would be just my luck that she would dodge the book and I’d have to watch it sail straight into the snow behind her. Good riddance, that book was evil anyway.

“What the hay!” Applejack exclaimed she looked at the open book and her eyes slowly widened. “Is that the Alicorn Amulet?”

My anger instantly vanished only to be replaced by a deep seated fear. If this mare was willing to attack me on stage because she just didn’t like me, what would she do if she thought that I was trying to find that forsaken amulet a second time?

I had to explain myself. “I’m trying to get rid of that book!”

She looked back at me, and placed herself between the book and me. “Oh really?”

I took a step forward, fighting my inner fear as best I could. “Yes, you see that book is evil. I need to get rid of it.”

“Why don’t you let somepony else do that?” She asked, in a low and steady voice.

“Maud already tried and failed, it has to be me,” I tried to explain.

“No. You don’t get that book, Trixie. Ah am not going to let you take it,” Applejack said.

My heart sunk as I stared into her determined eyes. There was no way that Applejack could know just how evil the book really was, and the dangers it possessed. I trusted Maud to get rid of it, because she was one of the most determined and un-swayable ponies I had ever met, beaten only by Limestone. I had no way of knowing if Applejack was capable of fighting off its dark influence, but I suspected that she could not.

I couldn’t let her have the book.

“You’re right,” I lied. “You should probably take it instead.”

“Well at least you’re reasonable about it,” She replied.

My horn began glowing. “Yeah, because you know, I don’t want to get mixed up with that kind of stuff a second time.”

“What are you doing?” She asked in a low tone. She lowered her head and padded at the ground with a foreleg.

I stepped back. “What do you mean?”

She looked back finally; only to see the book surrounded by a purple aura, fly past her and next to me. I didn’t wait for her to respond. I took off in the opposite direction as fast as my hooves would carry me. I flew across the snow, leapt over a few rocks and made my way toward the end of the farmstead. A large cluster of rocks stood waiting for me.

Applejack was right on my tail, and catching up faster than I thought possible. I wasn’t going to make it to the rocks like this. I needed to come up with something and fast.

My answer was all around me; snow. I could easily use the snow to do something with. A second layer of light covered my horn as I pushed all of my skill and magic into a spell. There was no telling what would actually happen, or if it would even work, but I had to try.

The snow exploded all around me, blinding my pursuer’s line of sight. That’s when I activated the second half of the spell and became invisible. I didn’t stop running though. I continued forward, dashing through the snow and into the cluster of rocks where I ducked behind them and hid.

Applejack had stopped, and was looking around for wherever I had gone. Invisibility was truly a wonderful spell. Too bad its life span was so short. My spell died just as I set the book down next to me. At least I was already hidden.

“Where did she go?” Applejack asked herself.

There was a moment of silence, where the only thing I could hear was my own heavy breathing. I didn’t want to get caught. I didn’t want to give up the book to her. I was going to get rid of it, me! Nopony else could.

“Sweet Celestia,” she said to herself.

For a second I had hoped that meant she was done chasing me. She began walking though, her hooves crunching the snow beneath them and got louder on her approach. It wasn’t long before she poked her head over my cover and looked down at me with a stern expression.

“H-how?” I asked.

“You left a trail in the snow,” Applejack explained flatly. She held out a hoof.

I grabbed onto the book tightly with my forelegs and curled up around it. “No! You can’t be the one to get rid of it! It has to be me!”

“Why?”

“Because it’s evil and it will trick you into keeping it and using it. What if this got back to your friend Princess Twilight? What if she was corrupted? Could anyone of us actually do a darned thing against that kind of power?” I explained.

At first Applejack didn’t reply. She simply stood there with her hoof held out for my book. She raised one of her eyebrows. “Then why did you start running away with it? Ain’t that just the book trying to control you?”

I looked up at her, and met her eyes. I wasn’t sure if she was right or not, and that scared me. It had to be destroyed, but I couldn’t just let her have it. I knew it would be bad, I just knew it.

“I can’t give you the book,” I told her.

“Is that really it? You think Ah’d let some book tell me what to do?” she asked.

“I-I have to make up for what I did somehow,” I told her. “I… I was supposed to become a great magician and show the world that Trixie Lulamoon does matter. What I ended up doing was running away from the only ponies that loved me, enacted some half cocked revenge scheme and hurt a lot of innocent ponies… I have to be the one to destroy the book.”

“Fine, but can Ah at least help you?” Applejack asked.

I looked at her hoof again, and it suddenly dawned on me that she wasn’t trying to steal the book from me. She was holding her hoof out for me. I took her hoof in my own, but made sure to keep my book close to me. She helped me up, and together we left the cover of the rocks.

The walk back to the house was too quiet.

Once we entered the quiet house, the first thing I did when we got back was walk up to the fireplace. Applejack stayed by me, probably to watch me. I set a log in the fireplace and began poking at the cinders on the bottom. A faint red glow was still there. I accidently bumped the side of the fireplace wall with the stick and a square box fell down into the cinders.

I quickly grabbed the box and dusted it off. I had someponies present. Just as I was about to set the box aside, Applejack tapped me on the shoulder. I flinched at her touch, but I followed her gaze to the top of the gift box.

“To: Trixie

From: The Family”

I dropped the fire poker. “It’s for me?”

“Looks like it,” Applejack said.

I hesitated. Not only was I surprised to actually find a present left just for me, but the fact that it was from the whole family gave the gift a surprising weight. I was actually a little scared to open it.

I sucked up my fear and slowly undid the wrapping and opened the box. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find, but it certainly wasn’t a brand new cape. The cape was purple, with gold stars adorning it, only along the edges there were several unique symbols. Each one of the cutie marks belonging to the Pies was on here, along with my own cutie mark.

My body went ridged as I stared down at this unbelievable piece of fabric. It was something so very simple, and yet it was so important to me. A warm feeling filled my chest, and my hooves began shaking so badly that I was forced to give the cape to Applejack to hold so that I didn’t accidently dirty it.

“This is a very nice gift,” Applejack said. “It looks hoof made.”

“Of course its hoof made, magicians only wear hoof sewn fabrics,” I told her. My eyes stung as I looked back into the fireplace. The book by my side no longer seemed so important. I was going to destroy it, but it was like I no longer cared if I was the one who burned it. With a weak toss, the book went into the fireplace. I used my magic to light up the fireplace. The book burned, and I couldn’t stop smiling.

My hooves were still too shaky to do anything with, but my magic seemed more or less under control. I took the cape from Applejack and donned it. For the first time in years I actually felt like… myself again.

“Trixie, yer crying,” Applejack said softly.

I hadn’t noticed it, but she was right. Tears were streaming down my face, but I couldn’t decide if they were sad or happy tears. I sniffled and wiped my eyes on my foreleg. “You know I lost my mom a long time ago. After that I didn’t have any family, none. No aunt’s no grannies, no brothers or sisters. I was just alone.”

“Ah’m sorry,” Applejack said.

“But… I don’t want to be alone anymore,” I looked down at my new cape. I barely even registered the door opening. “What do you think this cape means?”

“It means you’re part of our family,” Limestone said. “You really are dense sometimes.”

I looked up and watched the pie family, and rest of the apple family walk into the living room. I couldn’t help but to sniffle as the tears ran down the sides of my face. These were happy tears.

“You really mean it?” I asked.

“Thou hath been a member of our family since ye first came to the farm. We do not hire ponies, we adopt them,” Cloudy Quartz said.

Igneous nodded in agreement.

Maud looked at the fire, then back at me. “You stayed. Thank you.”

Even Marble Pie joined in. “W-we c-care about you, T-Trixie.”

Pinkie pie joined me by the fireplace. “You see, Trixie. I told you that everything would work out. Maybe one day we can even get you back on the stage.”

I looked at my cape. “That would be really nice. I got my cutie mark for being a stage magician after all. It’s supposed to be my destiny to be a famous magician.”

“Well then I’ll just have to see what kinds of strings I can pull. Trust me, I can make anything happen,” Pinkie Pie said.

I smiled at her.

She gave me a wink. “It’s almost like I’m a magician too!”

Sitting by the hearth with my… family; this was more than I could have ever hoped for. More than I deserved. It might have started out rocky, but this had become the best Hearth’s Warming ever.

The End

Comments

[Mooncalf]

Good story. Although why the book just happened to lie around out in the snow I don't know - it's a bit contrived. Still, all in a sweet and nice.

[jollymusician]

Great story.

[dangerbrony]

Emotional Trixie is best Trixie. It's always nice to see her get a happy ending.

[OmniFox]

And I know just the place.

[Alex Warlorn]

Happy ending.

[Nimnul]

You made me feel emotions. I like this sort of Trixie story, and the Pies were written nicely. Good job.

[Dustchu]

Awwww, sweetness man, nice job!

[Emperor]

Well, a little bit sappy, but still a nice, happy ending. Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but at least with a stable home and stable income source Trixie can continue to try improving her magic and let her poor reputation die down before storming the world again.

[Tome]

This was a nice read

[starwantrix]

Thank you for such a good story, I enjoyed it. Good job

[artofwar77]

6751585

Maud looked at the fire, then back at me. “You stayed. Thank you.”

Seems like Maud (or Boulder) deliberately arranged for Trixie to stumble on it, so she could be the one to make the decision to burn it.

To make the decision to stay with the family rather than give dangerous magic a second chance.

[new55]

That was a good story.