The next morning the sun slowly began to rise and lighting up a heavy overcast sky. The clouds were thick and every shade of grey. It was a storm. A natural storm. Such weather was common in the Everfree Forest where the clouds were known to roam on their own.

Trixie slowly opened her heavy eyes. A dim light from the grey sky above shone through her window across her face. Grunting from beneath the covers Trixie roughly unwrapped herself from her protective cocoon of cloth. Once she was free the unicorn realized she was alone and the Fire Keeper was nowhere to be seen. Trixie shrugged getting out of bed and walked over to the end of her wagon to see the door slightly ajar.

Trixie peeked out to see the Fire Keeper sitting near the bonfire she made. The woman held a stick in her hand poking at the base of the flames occasionally. Doing so made the flames spark to life and increase in size like someone added a flammable fluid to it.

The woman was still wrapped in Trixie’s cloak huddled near the fire like she was cold. Trixie walked up to her and sat beside her getting no visible response. A few moments later after poking the flames a few more times the Fire Keeper gently tossed the stick into the bonfire and looked over to Trixie with a warm smile despite her shivering body.

“Good morning, miss Trixie.”

Trixie stared into the flames not bothering to look up to the human. “Morning.”

The two sat in silence afterwards. Both just allowed their bodies to warm up from the bonfire. Trixie couldn’t help to think about the fire and how it was surprisingly warm for something so small.

Then something wet fell on the unicorn's muzzle. She looked up to see the clouds had turned a very dark grey and now lingered overhead as rain began to fall. Getting up Trixie used her magic to lift the Fire Keeper who yelled in surprise as she was floated back into the wagon and discarded roughly to the couch.

“We gotta go.” Trixie said going back outside to the front of her wagon.

“Good thing I build this to retract.” She said, levitating the falling tongue and leather harness up and locking them to the face of the wagon.

Trixie then hopped on top of the wagon, the old wooden frame protested under her weight. She wouldn’t admit it but she gained a little weight over the last year. Finally after her successful show in Ponyville, The Humble and Penitent Trixie’s Equestria Apology Tour, she had money to buy food and literally pigged out.

Trixie hadn’t eaten so much in the week that followed her show. Now, she was slightly wider in the hips and had a tiny bludge to her belly. Even her cheeks were starting to puff out. She thanked the heavens she got a good workout from all the walking she did, but today was not going to be one of those days. With the rain came cold weather in the Everfree Forest, thus long ago she master a self propelling spell for her wagon just in case of the chance she’d encounter bad weather.

Atop her wagon was a complex sigil engraved into the top of it. Using this magic sigil she cast a spell and focused on the path to Ponyville like a magical GPS. With her destination in mind she carefully thought of the path to Ponyville for over five minutes. The spell was complex and required one to know the path to their destination otherwise they’d have to drive the wagon manually. For Trixie this was a simple task.

With the destination set the wagon slowly began to move forward, guided by the magical sigil atop the wooden cart as it picked up speed rolling at a steady pace towards Ponyville.

Trixie climbed down through the window and walked over her bed, where the Fire Keeper perched herself and watched the unicorn mare work on drying herself off.

They sat in silence while the wagons wheels creaked under the rain covered landscape. Trixie busied herself with cleaning her wagon and organizing her items for the next show she was going to put on in Ponyville.

The Fire keeper watched Trixie as she prepared a numerous amount of flammable substances, from burning liquids and lots of gunpowder. She would occasionally avert her gaze from Trixie to see outside. She was amazed by the amount of life she had seen thus far. Though the lands she was familiar with was filled with the undead and monsters the Fire Keeper was amazed by the living life she had seen. So far her favorite thing to do was watch squirrels scurry around foraging for nuts.

Trixie thought them a pest but the Fire Keeper thought the tiny squirrels were adorable.

She loved the rain. An entire lifetime of smelling soot and ash it was nice to have a change of scenery, or rather in her case have scenery at all.

She still couldn’t believe the fact she had eyes now. She thought back when she had eyes as a child being initiated into the Fire Keeper Order. She thought long and hard back to a precise moment in her life e=when she received her first gift. Ironically it was from the Ashen One, who had given her eyes of the previous Fire Keeper.

Had the eyes she received given her new sight after her death at the hands of the Ashen One? She thought about this tapping her finger to her lower lip when suddenly-

BOOM!!

“Eeeek!”

The Fire Keeper yelped loudly and jumped to her feet. Her breasts bounced along with her as she turned to see Trixie with her mane blown back and her face charred black. The unicorn's eyes were wide with shock blinking dumbly.

“Well, that didn’t work.” Trixie said looking around for a towel to clean herself with.

Cleaning her face while Trixie walked away from her table and to her bed. She rummaged under the mattress and pulled out a large brush and tentatively began brushing her mangled mane.

The Fire Keeper sat back down covering herself with Trixie’s cloak and continued to watch Trixie. Trixie brushed her mane for several minutes before she finally got annoyed with the Fire Keeper's silence.

Putting the brush down Trixie stole a glance at the Fire Keeper saying, “Why do you insist on sitting there and stare at Trixie?”

The Fire Keeper blushed looking out the window quickly, this made Trixie get a sly smirk across her lips.

“What? Is the Great and Powerful Trixie so beautiful that you can’t stand to look at her magnificence?”

To Trixie surprise the Fire Keeper’s answer came swiftly and openly.

“No, you are very pretty. I just wish I was as beautiful as you, miss Trixie.”

Trixie couldn’t comprehend what she heard. Nopony had ever claimed that Trixie was better looking than they were. To hear it for herself was high praise. It humbled Trixie. Feeling rather small with herself Trixie went back to brushing her mane trying to ignore the guilty feeling in her gut.

*So, this is what a coincidence feels like?* Trixie asked herself. She looked at her own reflection barely able to look at herself after that. She hadn’t felt this bad since she was last in Ponyville. She sighed placing the brush down and walked over to the bed and perched herself beside the Fire Keeper.

She sat there in silence beside the Fire Keeper as they rolled along down the road to Ponyville. The Fire Keeper looked out the window and asked, “How long until we reach our destination?”

“About an hour, or so.” Trixie replied, glancing up at her clock.

“Where are we going?”

Trixie frowned a bit looking out the window again. She watched as the rain ran across the window. “A town called Ponyville.”

“What’s it like?” She asked Trixie brushing her mane with her hands.

Trixie didn’t respond but instead lowered her head

The Fire Keeper gave Trixie a hard look. She heard the slightest bit of hesitation in her voice. On benefit she got from being blind was being able to sense the tone in the voice of others.

At that brief moment she could tell Trixie was troubled by returning to this place called Ponyville. Being that as it may she decided to allow Trixie keep it to herself. Sooner or later she would learn about Trixie’s association with the town.

For now she wrapped her arm around Trixie pulling her into a comforting embrace. She remembered when the Ashen One did this for her when she was grieving over the eyes she received from her. It made her feel better. It made her feel safe. *I never thought she would betray my trust like that.*

Her thoughts turned bitter when she thought about the day the Ashen One stabbed her in the back, literally. As the Fire Keeper fell deep in thought, Trixie went back to work on her fireworks and explosive ordinance for her upcoming show. This one was going to blow the crowd away. Taking a look at the amount of powder she put into some of the fireworks Trixie gave a contemplative look.

*Perhaps I can really spice things up by adding not only more powder but I could use what i learned in pyromancy and make the fires even bigger!* She thought happily but then dropped her smile to a frown.

She realized on the other hand, if she put more powder into her fireworks AND added pyromancy there was a chance things could get out of control. So, what to do? She had a few hours to decide but she knew she would have to work fast if this was to be a successful show.

Author's Note

What should Trixie do? After all nothing ventured nothing gained.

A. Play it safe, after all the safety of the crowd is important!

B. Fuck safety! Everypony lives fire! The bigger the better!

C. Perform something lame like the Moon Shot Manticore Mouth Dive. O.o