She had collected it slowly over the course of three months, taking it strictly from her own salary, and never from Trixie's. Working as a geologist paid well enough now that she had her rocktorate — the college had awarded her contracts to study the local mineral deposits — but the new house came with a mortgage, and life had its various expenses as usual, and in the end she had saved two-hundred and twenty-six bits in her private stash.
And in theory, that was fine. That that was far more than the price she'd been promised.
But now the price had changed.
"Three hundred?" she said again, her face expressionless.
"That's right!" said the salespony, gesturing wildly like a carnival barker. "Only three-hundred bits for these fabulous cartwheels! You won't find a better deal this side of the Badlands!"
"You told me one-fifty."
"That was several months ago, before I'd acquired the goods myself! You must understand, of course, that there was quite a lot of work to do in getting these! Export fees, travel expenses, middlemen taking their cuts of course, and then of course the quality! Have you ever seen wheels like these?"
Behind him, a large cart did loops around the shop, inspiring wonder and some amount of fear in the passers-by who saw it. Maud glanced at the sparkling gold wheels as the cart passed for the dozenth time.
"Feast your eyes, madame, for these wheels are permanently enchanted! Premium top-grade magic from a unicorn who has wheels as a cutie mark. Completely reliable! Completely dependable! Completely obedient to the owner's ever whim!"
He raised one hoof toward the cart, and it stopped dead in its tracks.
He called out to the small crowd that had gathered. "Fillies and gentlecolts! Did you know that an earth pony can do magic? Well, not directly of course, but here we have the next best thing! I have with me a single set of magical cart wheels, the perfect gift for a pony on the go. And it's not just for earth ponies, either! You, sir! I see that you're a unicorn!"
"Um...yes?" said a passer-by who hadn't even noticed the cart yet.
"Wouldn't it be convenient to have a cart that moves on its own whenever you like, without having to cast a locomotion spell over and over?"
"Uh...yeah!"
The salespony turned to Maud, though he still spoke loud enough for everypony to hear. "And wouldn't you say that a prize like this is worth three-hundred bits, sir?"
The door was slammed, and Marble's ears perked up.
Actually, most ponies would not have described the sound as a "slam" per se. More like a door being closed somewhat harder than usual. It was an oversight, perhaps. An accident. A trick of the wind.
But when you grew up with Maud Pie as a sister, you learned to recognize the subtle things.
"Maud?" called Marble meekly from the guest bedroom, "Are you ok?"
(An outside observer might have claimed that Marble had just broken her personal all-time record for Most Words Spoken In A Single Day. But she always found it easier to talk to family, at least if nopony else was around.)
Maud sighed very slightly and hung her saddle bag on a hook by the door. Marble poked her head into the hallway. "Did you...have a problem with the gift?"
"He changed the price." muttered Maud, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
Marble's face fell. "Oh."
She took a seat next to her sister. "...you could always get her something else, right?"
"It's the perfect gift." Maud said simply. "It's our first Hearthswarming since the wedding. I'd be really sad if I didn't get it for her."
"...maybe I can help?"
Maud shook her head gently. "I have to do this myself. I'll figure something out."
Maud glanced to the side. Marble knew that look. It was not a good look.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU ALREADY SOLD IT?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"
The shop's clerk adjusted his glasses and sighed. "I'm guessing you're-"
"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!"
Starlight Glimmer awkwardly tried to calm her friend. "Trixie, I understand you're upset, but this-"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie needs a Hearthswarming gift for her beautiful wife!"
Starlight butted in, addressing the clerk with an apologetic smile. "I think what my friend is trying to say is that she needs a rock compass."
Trixie was pacing back and forth now. "Maud needs a rock compass, and Trixie reserved it!"
The clerk looked through his book again. "I'm afraid we have no record of that."
"Don't try to trick a magician, pal! I know all the tricks!"
"Can you make a rock compass appear out of thin air?"
Trixie launched herself at the clerk, restrained only by Starlight.
"Thank you for your time!" shouted Starlight quickly, as she used her magic to push a furious Trixie out the door.
A few minutes later, the pair found themselves pacing the snowy streets of Ponyville.
"Trixie had it reserved!" Trixie said for the hundredth time.
"Can't you just get her something else?"
"I can NOT! The Great and Powerful Trixie does not give Meager and Commonplace gifts! Especially not now! It's our first Hearthswarming as a couple..."
Her anger seemed to drain out of her, replaced with a sudden sorrow.
Starlight looked at her with sympathy. It was hard to see her friend in so much pain. "You really need it?"
Trixie nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. "Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it's the most romantic gift you've ever heard of! It's the only way to find the other half of Maud's Meteroite."
"What's that?"
Trixie sighed. "It's how she got her cutie mark. You know how Pinkie saw that Sonic Rainboom?"
Starlight nodded.
"Well, Maud had something else," Trixie continued. "She was just a filly. One night she couldn't sleep, so she took a walk, right? And she saw this huge light in the sky" —Trixie gestured for emphasis—"this incredible blue meteor! It split into two parts. One part crashed in a forest near the rock farm, and the other one sailed away to parts unknown. She didn't even think about going home again; she had to find that rock. She searched the forest all night. When her parents got up they couldn't find her. They were worried sick! But she kept searching. And just before dawn, she found it."
Trixie acted it out as she narrated. "She crept down into the impact crater. She saw the glistening stone that had fallen from a star. Gently, she held it up, and as the first rays of dawn crept over the horizon, the sun's light shone through the stone, entrancing my beloved Maud. The beauty of it. The cosmic history. The unknown wonders of the world..."
Trixie sighed and slumped. "And that's how she got her cutie mark."
"Wow," breathed Starlight. "She still has it?"
"Of course she still has it. She's written poetry about it!"
"And...what does this have to do with a rock compass?"
"Rock compasses are very rare, Starlight! Very magical."
"What do they do?"
"If you put it next to a rock, it points the way to other rocks of the same kind. If you've got a lump of gold, it'll help you find more gold. And if you've got half of a meteorite..."
"...it'll help you find the other half."
"Which is me!"
Starlight blinked. Trixie waved her hooves. "I mean, symbolically! Like, I'm her other half? Two halves of a rock, two ponies in a marriage??"
She jumped up. "It's romantic!"
Starlight ran a hoof through her own mane. "It...really sounds like it."
Trixie sighed again and began to walk, her head held low. "Maybe...maybe I'll get her a rock compass next year. If I can find one."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"No, " said Trixie, getting further away now, "I've taken up too much of your time anyway. You should go see Sunburst like you planned. Trixie will...I'll figure something out."
"Well...ok. Happy Hearthswarming."
"Happy Hearthswarming" said Trixie.
As she turned the corner, a low voice emanated from an alleyway. "Pardon me," said the voice.
Trixie turned to look, and saw a pony's silhouette approaching her. "Did I hear you say that you're in dire need...of a rock compass?"
Marriage was about sacrifice, at least in times of need. And she needed Trixie to know that she was loved, that her newlywed wife wasn't about to hold back out of selfishness.
She gave the shining meteorite one last look before she closed the box again. She told herself that she wasn't saying goodbye forever, not really. Eventually she'd have enough money to buy it back.
Assuming the new owner agreed to sell it, of course. But she tried not to think about that.
All that mattered right now was getting Trixie the perfect present.
"Four hundred," she said.
"Done" said the diamond dog. He laid out the money for Maud to count.
The diamond dog's name was Copper. She had traveled to his home, which lay underground on the outskirts of Ponyville. Being a geologist, she was acquainted with most of the diamond dogs in the area. The criminal sorts had long since been sent packing, leaving the more reasonable ones to mine and trade as they saw fit.
She finished counting and put the bits in her bag. She turned away, holding a secret sorrow in her heart.
"This is a very special rock" said Copper, taking his new possession out of its box to admire it. "Why did pony decide to sell it? You don't like this rock?"
Maud sighed. "I love that rock," she said in monotone, "but there's somepony I love even more."
The diamond dog stared at her as she left.
He wasn't the only one.
Trixie burst through the front door. "Maud!" she called out, "Sweetie! Are you home?"
Maud appeared from around a corner and Trixie swept her up into a hug. "Oh, Maud I've missed you! You have no idea how much trouble I had to go through to get your gift! No idea! But I swear it's worth it." She put a hastily-wrapped box on the kitchen table.
Maud smiled, just a little. "Same to you."
"Well, go ahead!" said Trixie, waving her hooves frantically. "Open it! Open it!"
Maud tore the wrapping paper off the box. Then she lifted the lid...
...and discovered a rock compass.
Maud's expressions were notoriously hard to read, but not for Trixie. Not after all the years they'd been together, first as friends, then as a couple, and finally as wives. Trixie's own expression was full of excitement the moment that the lid came off, but an instant later... she saw something strange on Maud's face. It wasn't joy, or at least, it wasn't only joy. Whatever happiness was in that face was more than made up for by darker things. Sorrow. Confusion. Regret.
Trixie faltered. "Maud, sweetie, this is uh..."—she tried and failed to smile—"you can find the other half now. The meteorite! Come on, bring it out! I want to see which way it points..."
Maud looked her in the eye. "I don't have it," she said at last.
"What?!"
"I sold it," she said, and her voice grew somewhat raspy, "to buy your Hearthswarming gift."
Trixie's breath slowly grew more ragged as she took this in. Tears welled up in her eyes. "You sold it? To buy...to buy me what??"
"Over here," said Maud, and she led Trixie out the back door. Four large circular objects were covered in wrapping paper. Trixie looked at her.
"You didn't."
"Open them."
Trixie used her magic to open the gifts, revealing four premium-grade magical golden cartwheels.
"They're for your cart," said Maud. "They'll help you travel easier."
But Trixie wasn't happy. She sank to her rump and began wailing. "I SOLD THE CART!"
Maud turned sharply to look at her. "What?"
"I SOLD THE CART TO BUY YOUR ROCK COMPASS! IT WAS SO EXPENSIVE!!"
Maud sank down to the floor with Trixie. She held her lover as tightly as she could. Trixie wailed loudly enough for the both of them.
"I'M SORRY! THIS IS SUCH A GOOD GIFT AND I LOVE YOU S-SO MUCH!"
"I love you too," whispered Maud. "I love you. I love you. And I love the compass. Thank you."
"I LOVE THE WHEELS! THEY'RE SO FLASHY!"
"HEY!"
Maud and Trixie stopped dead. They spun to the source of the noise, and found themselves face-to-face with a very winded, very red-faced Marble Pie, standing in the open doorway that led back into the house.
For a moment all three of them stopped and breathed, none of them quite willing to believe that Marble Pie of all ponies had just shouted at the top of her lungs.
Her voice dropped back to a whisper, as if to compensate. She gestured awkwardly. "This...this way..."
Marble ran back through the house with Maud and Trixie in tow. She burst through the front door and led them into the yard.
There they found a diamond dog. He was holding a blue meteorite.
"Your sister told me everything!" Copper said, pointing at Marble. "I can't take the rock that gave you your cutie mark!" He seemed to be on the verge of tears.
Maud turned to Marble. "You talked? To a stranger?"
Marble nodded meekly. "You were so sad," she whispered.
Copper walked up to them and held the meteorite up to Maud. "It's called Hearthswarming, not Hearts-breaking! What were you thinking?"
Maud took the stone in her hooves, a desperate thrill of relief passing through her silently. "I already spent the money. I can't pay you back."
"So pay me later! Save up your money for awhile. Geez! You think I want to spend Hearthswarming with a guilty conscience?!"
A new voice called out from some distance away. "I certainly don't!"
All of them turned to see Starlight Glimmer rounding a corner, her breath heaving. She was towing Trixie's cart.
"MY CART!" shouted Trixie, rushing up and hugging it as if it was a lost child. "Starlight, where did you get this?"
"I bought it!"
"But I sold it!"
"Well I bought it from the guy you sold it to! Twilight helped."
Trixie stared, her mouth agape. She looked from the cart to Starlight to Maud to the cart, and finally back to Starlight.
Starlight walked up and hugged her. "Happy Hearthswarming, Trixie."
"EVERYCREATURE HUG!" shouted Copper, and soon he had swept all of them into a single group embrace.
Maud and Trixie were at the very center of it, and their hearts glowed as never before.
A few days had passed. Fresh-fallen snow covered the roads. It seemed like a sign of new possibilities.
Maud sat in the cart, watching the rock compass as it magically attuned to her precious meteorite. Just as she expected, the needle sprang to life and pointed towards a distant destination. She smiled a little.
"It's working," she said, leaning out the window to watch Trixie. Trixie was admiring and adjusting the golden wheels one last time. At Maud's word, she leapt into the carriage and gave her wife a brilliant smile.
"Ready for the biggest gift yet?" asked Trixie.
Maud cocked her head slightly.
"Oh sure," said Trixie, "you got your compass, and I got my wheels. But the best gift of all is just beginning."
The wheels began to turn and the cart rolled down the road, following the compass as best it could.
"The best gift of all, " said Trixie, leaning in, "is the adventure. With you."
