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Never Again796 words

Never Again

Starlight Glimmer made her way downstairs toward the kitchen. Another yawn escaped her as she continued to wake up. Already she was looking forward to breakfast.

That was assuming Twilight had not kept Spike up all night while trying to study the table... again...

"Starlight!" Spike called out. "Hey, Starlight."

Turning to the sound of her name, Starlight found the door to the map room open. The map had vanished, leaving the table looking more like regular one (albeit a large one made out of crystal). On it were three plates, and now that she was paying attention, she could smell the aroma of freshly cooked hay bacon.

Licking her lips, she made her way toward the waiting plate of hay bacon, potatoes, and cheese toast. A small moan of joy escaped her as she took a bite. Spike was a dragon of many talents, and cooking was one of her favorites.

Starlight turned to Twilight Sparkle as she swallowed.

"So, does this mean you're done trying to figure out how The Friendship Map 'malfunctioned?'"

Twilight's ears pulled back as she looked down at her plate, letting out a rumble of frustration.

"I still don't get why it would choose Trixie of all ponies." She glanced at Starlight. "I know she's your friend and she's doing better, but there has to be some mistake to send her to deal with a friendship problem alone."

Starlight took another bite of her food as she chose not to say anything. While Twilight and Trixie did not exactly get along, things were getting better between them. They were by no means friends, but were starting to tolerate each other. From what Starlight understood, the two would eventually work things out to at least have a respect for each other with the occasional friendly jab. And Trixie accomplishing a friendship mission on her own would go a long way toward that. Plus, as much as she liked Trixie, Starlight was by no means oblivious to the show mare's flaws. Yes, under the right circumstances Trixie would and could be willing to help others out of kindness, but it was not exactly her first instinct. As such, she could not hold Twilight's skepticism against her.

"But," Twilight continued, "I guess that she dealt with whatever the problem was, because the map disappeared." She poked at one of her potato bites. "Trixie should be catching the morning train, and should be here sometime this afternoon. Unless she decided to stay around Rainbow Falls for a while for some reason."

There was a loud BOOM! as the front door was thrown open, followed by the doors to the map room being kicked open.

Standing in the doorway was... maybe Trixie? It was a unicorn, and look very much like a mare. The problem was that the coat was a splotchy mess of dark blues, purples, and greens. The mane and tail hung limply, covered in big spots of different colors like somepony had thrown buckets of paint on it. Teeth bared and purple eyes burning with rage, she stomped her way over to the table, glaring at Twilight.

"You!" Trixie growled, poking Twilight in the chest with a hoof. "Since it was your stupid map that sent me on a stupid friendship mission, you owe me a new HAT AND CAPE!

"O-o-okay," Twilight said, eyes wide as she took a step back. "I'm sure Rarity will be happy to make you a new set."

"What happened?" Spike asked.

Trixie turned to glare at him, causing him to sink back.

"That is something that Trixie is never going to tell anypony EVER! Trixie is taking it to her grave!" She then turned back toward Twilight. "And if your table sends me on a mission like that ever again, I will get out my old rock hammer and smash the stupid thing into a fine crystal POWDER!"

With that, she turned around and stomped toward the door.

"Now, I am going to take a nice hot shower to try and get all the rainbow out of my hair and coat, then taking one of the bedrooms to sleep until I can forget the whole thing ever happened."

Horn lighting up, she slammed the door shut behind her.

Several seconds passed in silence as the three of them stared at the now shut door.

"I should probably go check on her," Starlight said as she moved away from the table.

Before she could get too far, the table lit up, The Friendship Map appearing on the surface once more. An icon appeared above it, floating up across the surface toward the north. Shifting, Starlight moved to get a better look.

"That's Maud's cutie mark! And it's floating over The Crystal Empire?"

Twilight let out a sob.

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