The Kind And Hospitable Trixie
Clear clouds, puffy sky, last checklist on the item! Phew!
Twilight’s brain was a scrambled mess after the seven hundred and twenty errands she just ran in Manehattan. Finally she could get back home and… UH OH!
“Weather schedule! Why didn’t I check the weather schedule?” Twilight thought out loud as she was spun around like a ragdoll in the wind, flying off in one direction only to be rocketed in the other.
Streaks of cloud whirred by as she lost all sense of up, down, left and right.
Finally, after the longest 30 seconds of her life, she found herself once again flying in an orderly manner – directly into the ground!
---
The young princess awoke to find herself laying in quite a comfortable bed, with a single, thick purple blanket, decorated with golden yellow stars and crescent moons. The air had a familiar scent to it, but she couldn’t quite place it.
Slowly, she lifted her head up to find herself in a room built entirely of wooden planks, seemingly hoof-built by the owner. Inside was a desk, covered in disorderly papers and half-finished promotional posters, as well as a bookshelf, mainly full of comics but with a large, opened textbook on the middle shelf.
She rolled over to look in the other direction, only to push her full weight onto her right wing.
“OW!” Twilight cried in pain, clutching her injured extremity.
“Twilight!” she heard a voice call out excitedly.
Shortly afterwards, a blue pony sporting a dazzling cape came running to her side.
“Trixie?” Twilight asked out loud in bewilderment. The pain was definitely getting to her head. Now she was seeing things.
“Yes, yes, it is hard to believe you were so fortunate, of all the ponies you could’ve crash-landed next to, you found yourself in the care of the kind and hospitable Trixie! Now what appears to be your problem?”
Twilight smiled to herself. Crazy as it sounded, she had missed Trixie’s personality. It was kind of fun in moderate amounts.
“My wing hurts” Twilight clarified.
“Trixie can fix that!”
“WAIT, STOP” Twilight gasped as the blue pony lifted her injured wing “WHAT ARE Y – aaaaaaaaaaaahh…”
Trixie smiled as she gently massaged Twilight’s injured wing, Twilight’s back leg kicking involuntarily as she laid back in relaxation. Crazy as it sounded, she had missed Twilight’s personality. It was not as boring as one might think – in moderate amounts.
---
A few minutes later, Twilight found herself laying comfortably on the pillow and staring up at the roof calmly. Like the pain in her wing, all her worries had vanished into thin air. Forget friendship, massages were magic!
“So – uhh,” Trixie started, “Trixie hasn’t really done this ‘caring’ thing before. What does she do now?”
Twilight giggled. “Is there anything you need, Twilight?”
“Right, of course, Trixie was just testing! And you have passed the hospitality test! The kind and hospitable Trixie would like to ask you, Princess Twilight, if there’s anything you need?”
Twilight giggled again. “Just Twilight is fine. And no thanks, just another pony’s company is good enough–“
Just then, a thought crossed her mind.
“Actually, on second thought, do you have any books I could take a look at?”
“Well,“ Trixie responded, “probably nothing you’d be interested in but –“
“How about that big one on the bookshelf?”
“Oh, that’s nothing. Why don’t you look at another one?“
Trixie watched on powerlessly as Twilight floated the book over to her bed with her magic, nearly knocking over a comic book as it floated over.
“The Freelancer’s Guide to Stage Magic,” Twilight read aloud. “That sounds really interesting! Wait – does that mean… you do research?”
“Well a bit, yes.”
“That’s really cool!” the princess exclaimed, skimming through the book page by page. “Wow, this would take a lot of work!”
“Well, Trixie is immensely powerful to be fair.”
“I know,” Twilight giggled, “but six spells in a row, just for the lighting? And you do all that yourself?”
Trixie lifted her snout into the air proudly. “Trixie is pretty incredible, yes!”
Twilight stuck her tongue out at her new companion. “Alright, don’t get carried away.”
Trixie stood there quietly for a minute, watching Twilight flicking through the book. Twilight’s eyes were lit up with a mixture of curiosity and amazement. Trixie does all this?
Trixie’s were lit up with pride. Sure, she had fans – but this was the first time somepony truly appreciated her work. Not that she was going to admit that of course. Then she remembered something, and all signs of joy on her face were replaced with dread.
“Trixie just remembered,” the show pony started, “she has big show in a couple of days and really needs to practice a new magic trick.”
“Really?” Twilight asked, almost dropping the book on the bed as she sat up with excitement, not noticing Trixie’s mood at all.
“Well the thing is, Trixie doesn’t usually show her practice runs to other ponies. So it – might not be as perfect and amazing as you’re used to from the magnificent and glorious great and powerful Trixie.“
“Nopony gets a spell right the first time,” Twilight reassured her, “I’m just – kind of excited to get a look backstage so to speak!”
“As long as you don’t tell anypony if Trixie messes up.”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a –“
“Alright alright, Trixie gets it!”
“Heh, okay then. Go ahead.”
Twilight watched on eagerly as Trixie began to charge her horn. What she saw when the spell was cast blew away even her expectations.
“Whoa” was all she could get out as she looked around her. Every item in the room was reflected, appearing in three different places around her. She couldn’t figure which was the real bookshelf, which was the real bed, heck even which was the real Trixie. “How are you –?”
“Over here,” Trixie said with a smile, redirecting Twilight’s eyes away from her reflection.
“How are you doing that?”
“It gets better!” Trixie boasted, and suddenly the reflections started moving on their own.
“Bu – but – wha –?”
Trixie chuckled, before rearing up and calling out “the great and powerful Trixie challenges you to a duel! To see who the real Trixie is around here!”
Trixie’s first reflection called out “bring it on, Trixie knows you’re a fake!”
“You’re both fake!” Trixie number two called out and the three ponies charged at each other, before Trixie slashed at the reflections with her horn and they dissipated into thin air.
Twilight stared on in stunned silence.
“Did you like it?” Trixie asked, her head tilted ever so slightly to the side and her earlier nervousness replaced with a confident smile.
“THAT WAS THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!” Twilight squealed, fangirling so hard you’d be forgiven for believing Starswirl the Bearded had come parading into the room! She proceeded to run over to Trixie and give her the tightest hug of her life.
“Personal space!” Trixie protested.
“Heh, sorry”, Twilight apologised, releasing Trixie from the hug and blushing heavily. “I got a little excited.”
“Trixie understands, anypony would have a similar reaction to Trixie’s incredible talent!”
Twilight stuck her tongue out in defiance a second time, and Trixie returned the gesture.
---
Suddenly, Twilight noticed her tummy grumbling. Trixie noticed it too.
“It’s getting close to lunchtime,” Trixie noted, “could Trixie maybe get you something to eat?”
“Sure! What have you got?”
Twilight watched as Trixie opened a small cupboard in the corner of the room, before recoiling a little.
“You okay Trixie?”
“Yeah, it’s just – well Trixie spends most of her income on running more magnificent shows. So she uh – doesn’t exactly have magnificent food.”
“Eh, it’s gotta be better than the food I ate on my last visit to Griffonstone. What you got?”
“Um – cereal, bread, two minute noodles…”
“Two minute noodles?” Twilight exclaimed, leaping out of bed with excitement, before banging her sore wing into the low roof. “OW!” she whimpered.
“Wait,” Trixie said suspiciously, “you like two minute noodles?”
“They’re the best!” Twilight squeaked, still holding her wing in one hoof. “It beats the heck out of the fancy princess food they have at the castle!”
Trixie lifted an eyebrow doubtfully, but decided to go ahead with the noodles anyway.
---
“MMM!” Twilight called out as she slurped down half a bowl worth of noodles.
Trixie watched on in disbelief.
“These are good!” Twilight attempted to say, though it came out more along the lines of “mmm mm mmd”
“Yeaaaaah…” Trixie replied awkwardly, “Trixie doesn’t mind them either.”
“So, what do you do in your spare time?” Twilight asked curiously, this time after swallowing.
“Well – Trixie likes comic books actually.”
“Hey, Spike likes those too! I’m more of a novel pony myself.”
“Nerd!” Trixie accused playfully.
Twilight chuckled. “Being nerdy is pretty fun, don’t knock it ‘till you try it!”
“So’s watching grass grow” Trixie retorted.
“Actually I have a book about grass growing if you want to –”
“TRIXIE WASN’T SERIOUS!”
“Oh, right” Twilight said, blushing. She was doing a lot of blushing today.
“So – Trixie guesses you have to get going soon, since your wing’s better and all?” Trixie said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
“Yeah, boring princess stuff,” Twilight answered, “but it was super fun hanging out, and it was really nice of you to take care of another pony like that – especially one who used to be your arch-rival.”
Trixie sighed. “Twilight, Trixie was thinking – oh, forget it. It’s a stupid idea.”
“I’m curious now, tell me!” Twilight demanded with a giggle.
“Well – Trixie was thinking, maybe Trixie could stay at your place for a while… or something like that?”
“That’s a great idea!” Twilight declared, giving Trixie a quick, friendly hug. “There’s heaps of room in the castle for you! And you can give me another one of those massages!”
She smiled, remembering how awesome that felt.
“Well, it’s just –” Trixie sighed again. “It’s just that Trixie is, well, a common show pony. And you’re a princess.”
“What do you mean common?” Twilight protested. “Did you even see that trick you performed 5 minutes ago? That would be incredible if an alicorn did it!”
“You know what Trixie means, she isn’t a rich, fancy pony. Trixie doesn’t want you to be… embarrassed by her.”
“Embarrassed?” Twilight exclaimed. “Come on, I’d be honoured to have you living with me! This isn’t the Trixie I know, you should be going on about how lucky I am that you’re even offering such a thing!”
Trixie laughed a little.
“You’ve known Trixie long enough to see that’s not how she really feels.”
“Well,” Twilight said, giving Trixie yet another hug, “it’s how I really feel, and I’m a princess! So pack your bags and get your flank over to my castle! That’s an order!”
Trixie smiled at her and whispered “personal space”, causing Twilight to immediately let go.
“Heh, sorry”, Twilight replied with another blush.
“Trixie didn’t say stop” the show pony replied back.