OR:
How Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Ruined Saved Hearth's Warming Eve.
After a re-gifting mixup, Twilight Sparkle's life is in Starlight & Trixie's hooves! Can the two of them save Hearth's Warming Eve? Perhaps more importantly, can they do it without anypony noticing?
Ponyville is probably doomed.
While I would ordinarily read the description and say "This will probably not end well", after reading this chapter I will revise this to "There is no way this is going to end well for Trixie and Starlight" ;-)
Lol! Those two, I swear! Nothing good happens when you put them together.
Nothing wrong with Starlight. It's Trixie that is the whole problem.
You, worry me sometimes.
I sees what you devious writer-type be doing here... sneaky little references, eh?
Funnily, it would reinforce Twilight's belief that Starlight had nothing but good intentions... I mean, who would put one of the most expensive bottles of red available in with a gift basket of ill-will?
Actually... that poses an interesting question... who first gave Starlight a bottle of Chateau de Cheval and why?
I'm almost on board with Trixie's attitude. The way I viewed that episode, Twilight and Friends weren't auditioning and spending months in rehearsal; they were assigned as a guest cast for a pageant with a professional Canterlot theater group used to exactly this situation. (It's a pageant, not a play. It retells a well-known story in general rather than follows a specific script with full direction and blocking.) In other words, the six were asked by Celestia to appear a couple of weeks in advance, spent the time thinking about it and coming up with little things they wanted to do, arrived in Canterlot the day before the performance to communicate these, and the actual professionals were just so experienced as to make the result look like a polished performance instead of an improvised and unrehearsed mess.
Twilight wanting to do a repeat in some form isn't unreasonable. Twilight deciding to direct the Ponyville school pageant for Hearth's Warming isn't unreasonable (and likely more than enough punishment in the end). Twilight deciding she'll be directing a repeat starring all her friends, in an official capacity representing Ponyville? That's distinctly insulting in several ways. ...Not that I'd be eager to have to work with a Trixie cast as Clover, but she's at least as good a choice for the role as Twilight, and I'd trust Trixie more once the curtain goes up.
Tia isn't still mad about Gargantulon, is she?
I know where the Mercyblack Rose came from. It's quite horribly insidious. Perfect for Equestria. I blame Discord.
I am rescued from existential horror by the knowledge that, if anyone could resolve the Rose from the outside, it would be Twilight and co
How To Do Wrong, not many people know about that :) In general I applaud your references.
How many of these non-wholesome fantasies involve Starlight?
Oh hey, a Tumbleweed story I somehow haven't read yet. Let's take care of that.
A wonderful tale of Startrix shenanigans. I loved the references to both the Flash Sentry Papers and Gargantulon. I just hope they disposed of the lead foil wrapping paper carefully...
Thank you for this; I'm glad I finally got around to it.
“As it would happen, I do not think.” That line! Best in the story
Even though it has a happy ending, I put this story on my "evil flowers" shelf out of a sense of thoroughness. I also got distracted looking for the last "For The Man Who Has Everything"-inspired story from this site, which was difficult because, in addition to not remembering the title, it got deleted in the meantime. Anyway in that one the connection is a spoiler.