Starlight Glimmer watched with fascination as her every breath sent the snowflakes drifting past her muzzle into a chaotic flurry. Their rhythmic, airborne dance made her momentarily forget just how cold she was. The wind, not one to be forgotten, kicked up just then, and a shiver rippled through Starlight's body.
Well-timed, Fillydelphia weather system. I'd tip my hat to you, but frostbite is fast becoming a legitimate concern.
Holidays in Fillydelphia were typically an occasion for snowfall and wind chill, but the sadistic weather team had outdone themselves this year with one of the coldest Hearth's Warming Eves on record. Starlight had come to town prepared, wrapped in a thick, fuzzy coat of woven purple yarn, and a scarf and cap of the same material, but her winter outfit was designed with the milder snowfalls of Ponyville in mind.
Fillydelphia's winter, on the other hoof, penetrated every chink in her armor, and sank deep into her bones. There was no protecting her nose, which had long since numbed, and though she kept the tips of her ears tucked into the bastion of heat that her cap provided, the rest of them were left out to freeze. Her teeth chattered so hard and fast that she was afraid they'd just vibrate out of her mouth and doom her to a life of gumming down soft porridge, and though she wouldn't be able to tell without taking off her coat, she was pretty sure that her skin was encrusted in icicles.
The cerulean mare beside her felt none of the cold as she swaggered along in her shiny silver scarf, a Hearth's Warming gift from Starlight that she'd deigned to open twelve hours early. Trixie had been delighted at how well it matched her mane, and even moreso when Starlight told her about the enchantment woven into its yarn: a nifty, though thoroughly difficult to cast, bit of spellwork that kept her body at a constant, comfortable temperature, as long as she wore it. The enormity of Trixie's gratitude for the gift was dwarfed only by the envy which Starlight felt as she watched her stride along, hatless and coatless, yet altogether toasty.
Perhaps she should have made another for herself. Or, if nothing else, asked to borrow Rarity's. But spending Hearth's Warming with Trixie had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, and she hadn't actually known where the itinerant unicorn was planning to go, or what she was going to do, before agreeing. It was only halfway into their journey that Starlight noticed they were heading toward Fillydelphia, and Trixie explained the reason for the trip, casually mentioning as she did the record-setting temperatures Fillydelphia had prepared for the season.
"In all seriousness," said Trixie, frowning, as they trotted down the snow-packed streets of Fillydelphia's University Avenue. "Are you sure you don't want a turn with the scarf? Trixie grew up in this weather. She would be far more at home in it than you clearly are."
"And leave you with nothing to keep you warm?" Starlight stammered, forcing a smile with lips she couldn't fully feel. "I'm totally fine, Trixie. Really! Please, don't worry about me. Just enjoy your g – achoo! – your gift!"
Trixie watched with a skeptical smirk as Starlight drew a tissue from one of her coat pockets and dabbed her nose with it. She pulled Starlight to a stop beside an old, oaken door with a snow-encrusted sign swinging creakily overhead, snatched the tissue out of Starlight's grip, and threw it into a street-side trash bin.
"Starlight," Trixie said maternally. "Trixie is enormously fond of you, so please don't take this the wrong way..."
With a flare of lavender magic, the door cracked outward, dislodging the ice and snow gathered in its frame with a crunch. Fingers of heat escaped through the opening and caressed Starlight's frozen face, thawing her features and making her sigh with relief.
"But you can be such a martyr sometimes." Trixie winked and pulled the door open wider, and Starlight ducked gratefully inside, shaking snowflakes from her body and shuddering with relief at the balmy warmth sweeping over her.
The room inside was plainly lit: white light from a fan overhead, accentuated by flickering hues of red and green from the strings of lights hanging from the walls. Vinyl-upholstered booths lined the walls – one was occupied by a lone mare, the only other pony besides Starlight and Trixie – with sticky-looking tables and rickety chairs filling most of the space. Against the wall to Starlight's right was a bar, where a musclebound, graying griffon polished a glass with an oily rag.
Starlight doffed her winter wear and sent a ripple of magic through it, shaking off and vaporizing any accumulated snow. A glance over her body confirmed, to her relief, that no icicles had gathered on her coat. "We're spending Hearth's Warming Eve in a bar?"
Trixie held her hoof to her chest in umbrage. "You really think Trixie would take you, her dearest friend and bosom-est of buddies, to a mere bar on Hearth's Warming Eve? Perish the thought! It's a bar where Trixie drinks for free. Completely different!"
Starlight's exasperated eyeroll was offset by a smirk. "Yes, I see the distinction now."
"Good. In the spirit of the holiday, Trixie will not hold your flawed assumption against you."
"That's what I love about you, Trixie. You're the very spirit of magnanimity." Starlight looked about the place, wrinkling her muzzle. "Still, are you really sure going out for drinks the night before your big charity thing is a good idea?"
Trixie blinked. "Trixie always drinks the night before performing at the orphanage. It's tradition."
"And it's a tradition that I can get behind, in theory, but I'm questioning the wisdom of it. You don't exactly know how to moderate your intake, and those orphans aren't gonna be wowed by the Nauseous and Hungover Trixie stumbling around on a completely dark stage with an ice pack under her hat."
"The show is going to be outdoors, first of all, with plenty of natural lighting." Trixie sniffed. "As for your primary point, Trixie is counting on her aforementioned bosom-est of buddies and sexy assistant, Starlight Glimmer, to keep her from imbibing more than she should. She is prepared to defer to your wisdom in this matter."
Starlight narrowed her eyes.
"What?" Trixie beamed innocently. "Trixie is as good as her word."
"I'll hold you to that," Starlight muttered with a shake of her head. "The minute you start getting grabby, though, I'm cutting you off."
"Grabby?" Trixie blushed. "Trixie does not get—"
"Remember the last time we went out drinking together?" Starlight poked Trixie's barrel, hard, for emphasis. "The hoofmarks on my ass that took a week to completely vanish say that you get grabby when you drink too much!"
"Yes, well..." Trixie stepped back and turned away. "Trixie's going to get you free drinks at her favorite bar on Hearth's Warming Eve, so maybe you should just let go of the past and, in the spirit of the holiday... forgive Trixie for any liberties she may have taken with your bottom."
She whistled to the bartender before Starlight could offer a rejoinder. "Genji! Happy Hearth's Warming, you old gray buzzard!"
At the sound of her voice, the griffon swiveled toward the front door. His cracked beak created the illusion of a permanent scowl, one deepened by the very real scowl crossing his face at the sight of his new customers.
"Trixie," he grumbled. "You have not yet done me the favor of dying and releasing me from this debt I swore to you, I see."
Starlight could hear the Neighponese accent in his words – and Genji was a Neighponese name, wasn't it? How did a griffon wind up with a Neighponese name, speaking with a Neighponese—
Her head snapped toward Trixie. "Debt? Swore? Explain?"
"Oh, yeah," Trixie drawled, navigating around the tables toward the bar. "Trixie saved Genji's life once, a long time ago. Griffons are big about honor and loyalty, y'know, so to repay Trixie, he promised her free drinks for life. Trixie always calls in that debt whenever she's in town."
Genji set the cup he'd been polishing onto the bar, snorting at Trixie's approach. The glass looked a little filmy at the bottom to Starlight's eye – she hoped that Genji wasn't planning to serve her anything in it.
"Sounds like there must be a story there," said Starlight evenly.
Trixie grinned. "Indeed there is. A heartbreaking and tragic tale of lies and craven deceit, one that captures the very essence of life itself. Loyalty and betrayal, love and enmity, secrets and lies, and as ever, the struggle to overcome—"
"I was choking on an olive," said Genji brusquely. "Trixie made me cough it up."
"See, this is why you aren't allowed to tell the story," Trixie fumed. "You have zero showmanship and negative infinity charisma!"
"Maybe so, but your version goes on for too long. Also, there's a bear in it. Mine is better." Genji bowed his head slightly at Starlight. "Sincere apologies, miss...?"
"Starlight Glimmer." Starlight smiled and extended her hoof to Genji. "And any friend of Trixie's is a friend of mine."
"Your choice of word suggests an affection which, frankly, I do not feel toward her." Nevertheless, Genji accepted Starlight's hoof and pumped it once, stiffly. "But I digress. I'm afraid the debt I swore only applies to Trixie. You are going to have to pay for your drinks."
"Oh, well, that's no bother." Starlight fished around in her coat-pocket for some of the travel money Twilight had given her. "I'll have a—"
Trixie cut her off with a hoof. "Now now, Starlight. Don't let yourself be bullied by this fiendish, two-bit booze hustler. You are drinking for free, and that is final."
Genji sighed the long-suffering sigh common to all who worked in food service, bartending, or retail. "Hearth's Warming tradition. Haggle with The Great and Powerful Trixie. Cross this off the list, I suppose."
The two set into an argument about pricing, gratitude, and whether or not Genji was born within wedlock. Starlight, aware that Trixie's ego would accept nothing less than complete capitulation, and equally aware that bartering with a griffon seldom ended with anyone besides the griffon completely satisfied, let them have at it.
As they argued, she let her gaze wander around the bar, eventually settling on Genji's only other customer: an earth pony mare, sitting in a U-shaped corner booth, with her back to the three of them. With her fuchsia coat and two-toned pink mane, there was something strikingly familiar about her. Her cutie mark was out of view, so Starlight couldn't be certain, but...
Trixie's hoof thumped noisily against the bar, jarring Starlight out of her inner monologue. The argument was beginning to reach a fever pitch as Trixie leaned across the polished wood, sticking her muzzle against Genji's beak. "You speak to Trixie of generosity? You would not be alive were it not for Trixie's spirit of generosity! A little bit in return is not too much to—"
"Hey," Starlight interrupted, leaning over the bar. "Sorry to interrupt, but, uh..." She nodded at the mare in the corner booth. "Genji, do you happen to know who that is?"
Genji planted a talon on Trixie's face, shoved her aside unceremoniously, squinted at the mare, and grunted. "Never got her name, but I've always called her Flowerflanks. The mark on her flank."
Starlight nodded – that was enough to confirm the mare's identity. "She come in often?"
"Often enough for me to remember her face. Nice enough lady. Think she's a college student, or something. University Avenue's a block away, so I get a lot of those, but she looks a little old for it."
Trixie glared at Genji, rubbing her face where his talon had seized her, but dutifully looked at the mare. "Hmm. Now that you bring it up, there's something awfully familiar about her..."
"She's from Ponyville," said Starlight. "Miss Cheerilee, the old schoolteacher. She moved away this past summer – to enroll in classes here in Fillydelphia, unless I'm mistaken."
"So she is a college student," Genji grunted. "She's better behaved than most of them, I'll give her that. Quieter, more polite, doesn't leave condoms in my sink..."
Trixie rubbed her chin. "The name rings a bell, yes, but I don't think she and I ever exchanged words. You two were close?"
Starlight shook her head. "Mostly, I know her by reputation. I'd run into her in the castle from time to time, when she'd take her class over to peruse Twilight's library, but we were never properly introduced. I didn't even attend the farewell party that Pinkie threw for her."
She neglected to mention that she was busy getting her butt groped by an inebriated magician that night.
"Odd that she'd be drinking alone on Hearth's Warming," Starlight mused. "She had plenty of friends back in Ponyville – a mare like that shouldn't have trouble finding somepony to drink with on a holiday. Come to think of it, why isn't she in Ponyville right now? Don't university students usually go home to celebrate holidays?"
"Perhaps she couldn't make the trip," Trixie suggested. "Traveling around the country isn't cheap, you know. Even Trixie occasionally has to rely upon the goodwill and generosity of strangers when journeying across Equestria, astonishing audiences with feats of magical brilliance."
"And it's not so strange that she's drinking alone." Genji added. "I've never seen her drink with anyone else. She always orders a bottle of cheap whiskey, gets through about half of it on her own, and wanders home with the rest."
Starlight's stomach knotted, and she leaned over to Trixie. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yes, and while Trixie appreciates that your heart is in the right place, she is going to have to say no. Getting free drinks for you will be hard enough; getting them for a third mare whom Trixie doesn't even know will be impossible. Plus, securing her alcohol would no doubt give her the impression that the two of us intend to sit with her while she consumes said alcohol."
Starlight glared at Trixie.
Trixie's eyes narrowed. "That's exactly what you intend to do, isn't it?"
"Trix, come on." Starlight gestured at the mare, whose flattened ears showed no sign that she'd yet picked up on the trio's conversation. "She's alone, and doesn't look terribly happy about that fact, and we... we know her, kind of. I can't just sit back and watch her stew drunkenly in her own misery. On tonight of all nights."
"Perhaps she's happy to be alone?"
"Slumping over a bottle of whiskey in a dingy lit bar on Hearth's Warming Eve is not happy pony behavior." She nodded at the proprietor. "No offense, Genji."
"None taken," said Genji, shrugging. "The dinge is intentional."
"The relative dinginess of this bar notwithstanding," said Trixie, shaking her head. "Tonight, and by extension the rest of this trip, is supposed to be for the two of us. Having a third mare join us for our night of drinking and revelry would be—"
"The very spirit of magnanimity, and thus, right up your alley." Starlight stared plaintively at Trixie, her eyes wide and dewy.
"Curse you and your heartstring-voodoo, Glimmer..." Trixie clenched her jaw and bowed her head, letting out a strained breath from between her teeth. "Very well; Trixie will share her august presence with this mare you barely know."
Starlight nuzzled her cheek with an affectionate, grateful giggle, dropped a small pile of bits from her coat onto the bar, and smiled up at Genji. "Her next one's on me."
Genji and Trixie resumed haggling, leaving Starlight to navigate to Cheerilee's corner booth. She arrived, cleared her throat, and announced herself. "Excuse me?"
The mare's left ear pricked at the sound and swiveled toward Starlight. Her entire body unsagged from over the bottle, and the half-empty tumbler between her hooves. Eyes, pale green and strangely lifeless, focused on Starlight.
"You're Cheerilee, right? From Ponyville?" Starlight smiled. "I'm Starlight Glimmer. Maybe you don't remember me, but I—"
"I remember you." Cheerilee rested her chin on an upturned hoof, nudging the cup and bottle away. "You live in the castle, right? With Spike and Twilight Sparkle. You're Twilight's... her, uh..." The corner of her lips quirked down.
"Yes, yes, I've heard the rumors. They're all true." Starlight grinned. "I'm her student!"
Cheerilee's eyes widened slightly. She glanced at her bottle out of the corner of her eye, mumbled something under her breath, then gave Starlight her attention again. "Student, yes. That's where I was going with that. Sorry, I've got a bit of a whiskey-fog going
"Oh, it's alright. It's not like I'm not used to it. A lot of ponies get tongue-tied when the subject of me and Twilight comes up. I totally get it, though." She tittered and waved a hoof in the air. "I mean, I am a little old to be in school, right?"
Cheerilee was still, and quiet, for a moment. She finally smiled blandly at Starlight and turned back to sip at her whiskey.
Starlight froze – it didn't take an expert in body language to notice that she'd cut Cheerilee with her remark. "Oh, gosh, I didn't mean – I'm sorry that I—"
"It's alright." Cheerilee sipped again and half-smiled at Starlight. "You didn't say anything wrong."
"No, I totally did, and it's not alright; that was really insensitive, and I – ugh, I swear, I was so much better at small-talk when I was evil."
Cheerilee, who was poised to sip again from her glass, paused, and frowned at Starlight. "Evil?"
"You see? This is what I—" Starlight paused, shut her eyes, and let a deep, calming breath pass through her. "How about I just start over?"
She extended her foreleg and smiled. "You're Cheerilee, right? From Ponyville? I'm Starlight Glimmer."
For a long time, Cheerilee just stared at Starlight's hoof, glancing occasionally up at the mare's wide, hopeful gaze. Finally, her lips curled into a dimpled smile, and her shoulders shook with laughter – laughter that was, it so happened, infectious. Soon, Starlight was laughing along, at a joke that she didn't fully understand.
Head bowed and eyes shut with mirth, Cheerilee accepted Starlight's hoof and shook it gladly. "It's wonderful to see you, Starlight Glimmer. Won't you join me?"
Starlight nodded pleasantly and slid into the booth from the other side of the U, sitting opposite Cheerilee. Life seemed to flood back through her at the very suggestion of company. Her eyes were alight with warmth, so unlike the listless stare she'd directed at Starlight mere moments ago.
Having broken the ice in the most improbably awkward way imaginable, Starlight strained to think of an appropriate follow-up. She noticed the bottle – not yet half-empty, but closing in – and pointed at it. "What'cha drinking tonight?"
Cheerilee turned the bottle toward Starlight. FLIM-FLAM BROTHERS' FINE PREMIUM SPIRITS, read the label. Behind the lettering, a pair of unicorns, in hats and striped vests, posed back-to-back, leering vacuously.
"Not exactly top-shelf, I know," Cheerilee admitted. "But the bar's so overstocked with the stuff that Genji's practically giving it away."
"Is it any good?"
"It's not the worst thing I've ever had in my mouth. Pretty potent, though – the alcohol content's high enough that Genji mostly uses it to thin paint and sterilize wounds."
Starlight looked sidelong at Cheerilee. "And yet you don't seem all that worse for wear after drinking... what, a third of it?"
"You've clearly never been out drinking with an earth pony. Or a teacher, for that matter." Cheerilee smirked. "What brings you out to Fillydelphia, Starlight? Are Twilight and the others here with you? Official Elements of Harmony business?"
Starlight couldn't miss the note of hope in Cheerilee's voice. "No, they're doing their usual Hearth's Warming party back in Ponyville. I'm here with a friend, actually."
"Friend?" Cheerilee blinked. "Who do you—"
"Behold!"
A blue form appeared at the tableside, so suddenly that Cheerilee yelped and recoiled, holding a hoof to her heart in faint panic. Trixie held in her pale pink grip a bottle of brandy and a gallon-sized glass jug of pale green slurry, along with three squeaky-clean glasses.
"The Benevolent and Gregarious Trixie has procured liquid refreshment, free of charge, for her friend, Starlight Glimmer!" Trixie glanced at Cheerilee. "And in quantities large enough to be shared with a third party, Trixie supposes."
Cheerilee stared at Trixie, her eyebrows knitting together. "How... kind of you."
Starlight chuckled nervously. "Trixie, Cheerilee. Cheerilee, this is—"
"Oh, I'm well acquainted with the Great and Powerful Trixie already. Nopony makes a first impression quite like her. Or a second. Or a third, or a fourth..." Cheerilee's expression morphed into an inscrutable smile. "You know, as I recall, I had two students in Ponyville who were particularly enraptured with her, for a time."
Trixie tapped her chin. "You must be referring to Stretch and the phlegm-colored one."
"Snips and Snails," said Cheerilee shortly. "Or... Snails and Snips, respectively, I suppose, provided I'm interpreting your nicknames properly."
Trixie frowned, crinkling her muzzle, then shrugged. "Trixie never troubled to learn their names."
Cheerilee sucked her teeth, her smile growing taught and strained. Still, she dutifully scooted over on the booth to make room for Trixie. "You said something about free drinks?"
"Trixie knows the bartender here, apparently," said Starlight, as Trixie slid glasses across the table to herself and Cheerilee. "Although I was under the impression that said deal only applied to her, and not to me. How'd you manage to turn that around?"
"Through a truly mesmerizing display of showmareship. A little razzle here, a little dazzle there – it goes a long way in negotiations." Trixie paused, biting her lip. "Also, he may or may not believe that you and I are married. Being of one flesh and all, serving you technically is serving me."
"Here's to extortion by technicality," Starlight said. She watched with uncertainty as Trixie poured herself a glass of the green sludge. "The brandy I recognize, Trixie, but the other stuff looks a little..."
"Bilious?" Cheerilee offered.
"Toxic, I was going to say," Starlight finished. "Although that's an impressively ten-bit word."
"I majored in literature in college."
"It shows. But, uh, Trixie..." Starlight gestured at the glass pitcher. "What, exactly, is in that pitcher?"
Trixie scoffed. "Do you not know quality eggnog when you see it, Starlight Glimmer?"
"I do, as a matter of fact, and it doesn't look like that. That's what cheese looks like before it gets processed."
"Well," Trixie said, scandalized, as she lifted her glass of nog/cheese. "More for Trixie, then."
Trixie downed it all in a single pull, while Starlight occupied herself pouring out glasses of brandy for herself and Cheerilee. She floated one to the earth pony, who accepted it with a nod, and they clinked their glasses together.
The brandy had a powerful bite to it, and burned Starlight all the way down to her stomach, before spreading out to her limbs. She'd meant to swallow the entire thing, but found it far too potent, and had to drop the glass back onto the table before she'd gotten even halfway through. Her nostrils burned from the fumes of the stuff, and a tiny cough or two burbled up from her throat.
Cheerilee, who drank her whole glass in a single gulp, looked no worse for wear. At Starlight's incredulous look, she just winked and mouthed "teacher."
"So," said Cheerilee, looking between the two unicorns. "Forgive me for prying—"
"You're forgiven," Trixie interrupted, wiping a green nog mustache off her upper lip.
"But," Cheerilee continued, clearly undaunted. "What brings you two out to Fillydelphia on Hearth's Warming? I would've thought you'd be attending one of Twilight's parties, Starlight. And Trixie, um..." She blinked. "I confess that I have no idea what I thought your usual Hearth's Warming might be like."
Trixie scowled, narrowing her eyes. "Trixie will have you know that visiting Fillydelphia is her usual Hearth's Warming tradition. She performs at the Holly Bough Home for Displaced Foals every Hearth's Warming."
"The Holly Bough..." Cheerilee leaned forward, grabbing the bottle of brandy with a hoof and pour herself another glass. "That's the manor on the southeast side of the city, right? You perform there every year?"
"Trixie has a standing invitation," said the magician, with prim finality in her voice. She immediately sank back in the booth and poured another glass of nog, filling her cup to the brim.
Starlight, looking to fill the awkward silence that followed, chimed in again. "As for me, Trixie asked me along to be her assistant—"
"Sexy assistant," Trixie corrected.
"Which is a role in her act that I fulfill, from time to time. I spent my last Hearth's Warming with Twilight and her friends, so I thought I might do something a little different this year. Maybe start a new tradition..." She swirled her own glass of brandy around.
Cheerilee was silent, and still, for a long moment – as if she'd fallen asleep with her eyes open. Then she hmm'd softly, and drank a little from her glass ."I don't suppose you'll be pulling that trick with the manticore and the cannon again?"
Starlight thought back to Trixie's show in Ponyville, the day they'd met, and couldn't help but smile. "No, I'm afraid we had to cut that from our act."
"Why?" said Cheerilee playfully. "Couldn't find a manticore for the show?"
Trixie snorted. "Trixie would have no difficulty obtaining a wild manticore, if she so desired. The orphanage's director disliked the idea of a feral carnivore running among his foals, that's all."
"Shame," said Cheerilee softly. "That was quite a show-stopper, last time I saw it."
She drained her glass again. Starlight eyed the bottle worriedly – Cheerilee had already accounted for two whole servings, and Starlight hadn't even finished her first!
"What about you?" asked Starlight, hoping that a little conversation would slow down Cheerilee's consumption. "What are your plans for the holiday? I would've expected you to head back to Ponyville for Hearth's Warming."
Cheerilee hesitated just for a moment. "Oh, I'm afraid a trip home just wasn't in the cards this year. I've got so much work to catch up on – doctoral studies do keep me busy – so I was planning to just stay here and work through the holiday. I've gotten through quite a bit of work already, too, so... clearly, it was the right call."
Starlight glanced at Trixie, worried that she was about to say something thoughtless, but her friend was preoccupied gulping down another helping of sludgy green nog. "I suppose I can't fault you for wanting to catch up on your studies – Twilight's the same way, you know. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't, too. Why drink alone, though? I mean, unless you're expecting somepony to join you."
"Ah... well, that is to say..." Cheerilee's ears flattened against her head. "I, um... you know, I've been so busy since I moved out here, that I haven't really made any— made many close friends. You know, with doctoral work – and I teach night classes, too, to supplement my university stipend. Doesn't leave a whole lot of time to socialize."
She spoke quickly to try to hide it, but Starlight caught that verbal stumble. And Cheerilee knew, too, because she poured herself another slug of Flim-Flam whiskey, and downed it straightaway.
"That sounds rough," Starlight said, unsure of what else she could say.
So much for getting her to moderate her intake, she thought. Who knew Trixie would be the one I didn't have to worry about tonight?
"It's okay," said Cheerilee. There was a bit of a slur to her voice; her words were growing indistinct, running together. "Comes with the territory, after all. I got a nice card from one of my former students, and a couple of weeks off for the break. So, you know what, I'm content. Content with the way things are right now. An' I better be, too, 'cuz they're probably gonna be like this for..."
She poured from the whiskey bottle, and stared into her glass, with a longing that reminded Starlight vaguely of Trixie when they first met.
"...For a long time to come."
"Tch." Trixie tossed her mane and lifted her glass sardonically. "You say that like it's a bad thing. There are worse traditions to have than getting hammered, alone, in Genji's bar. Just ask Trixie."
Cheerilee peered up at Trixie with that same vacuous look she'd worn when Starlight first saw her. And Starlight found herself once more in the position of staving off an awkward silence.
"Well, she can't drink alone if we're here with her, can she?" Starlight lifted her glass in her magic, giving Trixie a pointed look and a strained smile. "Can she, Trixie?"
Trixie, oblivious, returned the look with a raised eyebrow. "Er... obviously?"
"Well, there we go! We'll call this a new holiday tradition!" She turned her look onto Cheerilee. "What do you think? Will you drink to that?"
A smile crept across Cheerilee's face – a guarded one that never really reached her eyes. "Why not?"
Their glasses met, and clinked softly, and after a glare and an ahem from Starlight, Trixie's joined the toast... albeit with a great, showy roll of her eyes.
"...And y'know what the worsht – the worshtesht part of it all wush?" Cheerilee slurred, leaning more of her weight against Starlight Glimmer.
"What's that, Cheerilee?" said Starlight, pulling as far away from Cheerilee as she feasibly could without just dropping her.
"The worstesht – the worshteshtest – part of it all wash... that..." Cheerilee suddenly barked a harsh laugh. "I never got the cheesh shmell out of my bashement! D'you know what that doesh to property valuesh?! Had to shell m'housh fer... like... I dun' remember, but lesh than I could'a without the shtinkin' cheesh shmell."
"Poor, poor you," grumbled Trixie, from Cheerilee's other side.
"Poor! I geddit! Cush I got no money!" Cheerilee issued a raspy, throat-rattling laugh, and flopped her head over to Trixie. "Ohhhh, Trixie, yer a real shtitch... a real..." She hiccuped. "Y'know, I gotta be honesht – can I be honesht fer a shecond?"
Starlight could hear Trixie's teeth grinding together, and winced.
"I gotta be honesht – I youshed t'think that you were shhhuuuuuuch..."
She leaned her head back, before tossing it forward again.
"A BITCH! But now? It'sh like you an' me, we're besht... BESHTESHTESHT friendsh!"
She laughed, and devolved into incoherent, drunken babbling. Trixie peeked her head beneath Cheerilee's foreleg and glared at Starlight.
Starlight grinned back shakily.
Trixie's anger was entirely understandable, but it was wholly misplaced, in Starlight's opinion. How was she supposed to have known that Cheerilee would polish off both her whiskey and the entire bottle of brandy? How was she to have known that she'd need a pair of unicorn escorts, sharing her weight between them, to carry her home from Genji's apartment?
I mean, I guess I should've anticipated it, Starlight thought. But my heart was in the right place. That counts for something. Right?
"Sho!" Cheerilee said, pausing for a fit of dry coughing. "Sho, now that we're besht friendsh... howshabout a li'l... li'l magic trick? Show me a trick, Trixie!" She laughed, flailing her hoof and accidentally thwacking Trixie's shoulder. "Trick, Trixie, tricky Trixie... you ever notish yer name hash that word in it? It hash the word 'trick' in it!"
"Trixie's got a trick in mind for you, sure," the magician growled, her face reddening. "It can't be all that hard to find a manticore around here."
"Oh, look!" Starlight cried, pulling her friends to a stop at one of several street-level apartment buildings. "Fourteen-oh-one, unit D! My, didn't the minutes just fly by?!"
Cheerilee blinked, looked away from Trixie, and eyed the doorway suspiciously. "Mmmyeah..."
"Well then," Starlight said, her voice straining as she re-hefted Cheerilee. "Let's get you inside, and all squared away!"
She and Trixie hauled Cheerilee onto the raised block of concrete that constituted the apartment's patio. At Cheerilee's garbled instruction, Starlight lifted the straw door mat and retrieved Cheerilee's spare key. She paused to shake a bug or two off of it, used it to undo the lock, and nudged the door open with a shove of turquoise magic.
The trio staggered inside the unlit apartment. Cheerilee's limp left hoof flopped around for a while against the wall by the door, twice hitting Starlight behind the ear, before it struck a light switch, baring Cheerilee's living arrangements to the naked eye.
Hers was a one-room apartment. A twin bed was pushed lengthwise against the wall to the right; to Starlight's left was a writing desk, laden with books and papers. There were two areas adjoining the living room: a cramped little kitchenette, and a darkened space that Starlight assumed was the apartment's bathroom.
At least, I hope there's a bathroom in here... Starlight's muzzle wrinkled.
"So," said Starlight, looking at Cheerilee. The schoolteacher was gazing around the room with reddened, half-lidded eyes. "This is the place, huh?"
"Mm-hm. Thishish where I live." Cheerilee was silent, and stoic. Then her lower lip quivered, and she burst into tears. Streams of saltwater poured down both sides of her face.
"Cheerilee?" Starlight called, squinting and recoiling against the water pelting her – she could see Trixie doing the same on her side. "Why are you crying?"
"Becaush thishish where I liiiiiiiiiiiive!" Cheerilee wailed.
Trixie, grumbling, pulled Cheerilee toward the bed. "Come on, you..."
With a grunt, and a heave, the unicorns slung the drunk earth pony onto her bed. Immediately, Cheerilee's crying died down, though she continued to whimper and shed tears as she hugged her pillow against her face.
Trixie watched her pensively, before shaking her head – with incredulity, Starlight guessed, or perhaps pity. "Glimmy, be a dear. Help Trixie wad these blankets up, will you?"
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Wad the blankets...?"
"Wad them up and slide them underneath her, keep her propped up on her side. The goal here is to keep her from rolling onto her back."
Starlight did as instructed, creating a ridge from the duvet that slid snugly against Cheerilee's curvy back, keeping her flank-down on the mattress.
Trixie nodded with satisfaction. "Could do with some more bracing, though. These pillows should do nicely. Be a good sexy assistant, and fetch a glass of water and some aspirin from the kitchen. We should leave her something on her bedside table for when she wakes up."
Cheerilee sniffled suddenly, and pulled her pillow tighter against her face. "Mac," she whimpered.
"Don't listen to her," said Trixie. "Boxed pasta would probably help her metabolize the alcohol, but I don't think she's in enough of a state to keep it down."
Starlight eyed her friend warily. "You seem to know an awful lot about this."
Trixie glanced back from the corner of her eye, before looking down at Cheerilee with that same pensive expression. "I had a life before I met you, Starlight."
Unsure of what to say to that, Starlight just went into the kitchen.
The water was easy enough to come by, but as she raided Cheerilee's cabinets – an act for which she felt some modicum of shame – she realized that the mare owned no aspirin whatsoever. Shrugging, Starlight headed back into the living room, floating the water beside her head, and passing the shadowed alcove. A piece of cloth inside stood out in the corner of Starlight's eye: a maroon cape, hung on a peg, with a familiar-looking blue and yellow insignia sewn into it, just barely visible in the weak light.
She almost reached out to straighten it, fairly certain of what she was looking at: the emblem of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. A faint smile twisted the corners of Starlight's lips...
"Hey! Glimmy! You get lost, or something?"
She shook her head at Trixie's words, the feeling lost. "Sorry. Uh, there isn't any aspirin."
"No aspirin?" Trixie snorted. "You'd think a career schoolteacher would have, like... a chest full of the stuff at all times."
"Maybe she ran out. I got the water, though, if that helps." She floated the water to the bedside table. Trixie continued to fuss over Cheerilee's bedding, while Starlight stopped to muse over her writing table. Papers and books were strewn over its surface, chaotically scattered here and there, seemingly without pattern. But Starlight lived with one Twilight Sparkle, and knew organized chaos when she saw it.
At one corner of the desk was a plate of cookies, its rim placed over a photograph; in the middle of the table was a quill, a pot of ink, and a notebook, opened to a page with a single paragraph. Starlight skimmed it quickly – something about "kinesthetic approaches to learning," "gaps in available scholarship," and "uniting different approaches." Belatedly, she realized that she was looking at the draft of Cheerilee's doctoral dissertation.
One which, going by the date, she'd started three months ago... and had barely progressed on since.
Starlight leaned over the desk to examine the photograph more closely. Fillies and colts in winter wear assembled on the front steps of a big, red building, its roof carpeted with a fluffy coat of snow. It was a class photograph from the Ponyville schoolhouse, autographed with the names of every last student. She recognized a few of the foals – the Cutie Mark Crusaders were huddled together, wearing their capes over their scarves and coats, and Diamond Tiara was posing flank-to-flank beside that silver-coated friend of hers at the very front of the class. The rim of the cookie plate obscured the bottom-right corner of the picture, so Starlight shifted it aside, revealing a young earth pony, brown-coated and dappled with white spots. Miss Rocky Road – Ponyville's schoolteacher for the past few months.
Oh, Cheerilee...
Hoofbeats and a sigh sounded from behind her, signaling Trixie's approach. "Cherry Lee, or whatever, cried herself to sleep, and I'm reasonably sure she won't choke to death on her own vomit overnight. I believe our business here is now concluded. So, what do you say we make our exit, sexy assistant?"
Starlight replied by floating the photograph in front of Trixie's face. "Take a look at this."
Trixie studied it with a frown. "Why are you rifling through her personal effects?"
"I'm—"
"Are you starting a career as a burglar?" Trixie's eyes flashed. "Does she have any cool stuff?"
"Trix, knock it off for a second, okay?" Starlight snapped, loud enough that she initially worried she'd woken Cheerilee. There was the sound of lips smacking form the bed, a belch, and what might have been another mumbled Mac, but Cheerilee didn't stir.
"Fine, geez," Trixie said in placating tones. "What's got your tail in a tangle?"
"It's Cheerilee. She's..." Starlight sighed, fumbled for words, and finally just blurted, "She's absolutely miserable, Trixie."
Trixie tossed her mane. "She seems like she's doing alright to me."
"Are we seriously having this debate again? She's crying herself to sleep, piss-drunk, in bed, Trixie! And, hell, just look at this place!" Starlight swept her hoof to indicate the tiny apartment. "If you looked up 'clinical depression' in a dictionary, this is what you would find!"
"Well, I think that's a bit of an exaggeration."
"You know what I'm getting at." Starlight stared past Trixie, at the lonely pony on the bed, wondering how that could be the same Cheerilee whose praises Diamond Tiara sang. That filly thought the world of her teacher, called her sweet, and kind, and wonderful. But that same mare – the most wonderful, empathetic teacher in the world – was all alone, crying herself to sleep in a cramped apartment, in an unfamiliar city, on a holiday about warmth, and giving, and friendship.
Starlight couldn't let that stand.
"We should invite her to the show tomorrow," she blurted.
Trixie huffed. "Trixie was afraid that was where you were going to take this line of thought."
"And what, exactly, is the problem with that?" Starlight said, rounding on her friend and coming almost muzzle-to-muzzle with her. "Trix, come on. You were just now over there, tucking her in and keeping her from puking to death. Don't tell me you're not emotionally invested in her, just a little bit."
Trixie bristled and pulled back. "Well, of... of course I feel bad for her, Starlight! She got drunk off my brandy, didn't she? But—"
"But what?"
"But do you really think a depressed, hungover mare is gonna want to be dragged out to a magic show, first thing in the morning, by a couple of ponies she barely even knows?" Trixie snapped. "By the way, not that this is my biggest issue right now, but how come you didn't complain about her getting plastered, huh?"
"Because she isn't performing a magic show, for children, in twelve hours." Starlight rolled her eyes. "Look, I know it's short notice. It's probably a longshot that she'd even be up for it. I'm just saying, though – we should reach out to her. Show her that she's not alone, that she has friends who care for her. And the sooner we do that, the better. If Twilight were here, I know she'd do the same thing."
Hell, if Twilight knew how lonely Cheerilee was, she'd probably have flown the entire Hearth's Warming party out to Fillydelphia, and made Cheerilee the guest of honor. That was just who she was.
But Twilight's not here. Cheerilee'll have to make do with me.
Trixie was unconvinced, and scoffed at the mention of Twilight's name. "Of course you'd bring her into this. Ugh, is there nowhere in Equestria that's safe from the tyrannical grasp of the Princess of Friendship?"
"No, and that's just something you gotta deal with when hanging out with me. You have to suffer through proselytizing sermons about the magic of friendship. As you know." Starlight pressed a hoof against Trixie's shoulder, stroking her coat gently. "Trix, please. If there's one day, in all the year, that nopony should spend alone, it's Hearth's Warming. We both know what that's like, and I wouldn't wish it on anypony. I know you wouldn't, either. I mean... imagine what tonight would've been like for you if the two of us had never met."
Trixie's eyes widened. Immediately, she brushed Starlight's hoof away and turned around, taking a few steps to distance herself. Her shoulders trembled, and a choked sound filled the room, accompanied by Cheerilee's drunken snores.
"Trix?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Are you... sobbing?"
"No," Trixie sobbed. "Trixie is most certainly not—"
There was a loud sniffle, and a hiccup, and Trixie bowed her head. "That was low, Starlight Glimmer. That was a cheap shot, and you know it."
She didn't, though. Starlight knew that the statement was a loaded one, but she couldn't have guessed how badly it would affect Trixie to hear it. "Trix—"
"Fine," Trixie snapped, whirling around. Her face was wet, and her eyes red, but she'd put a haughty expression back on her face. "You've made your point, you contemptible, low-blow-throwing, purple-haired..."
Starlight smiled sadly. "Laying it on a little thick, aren't you?"
"No less than you deserve, you little... purple... minx-pony." Trixie muttered, wiping her tears away. "But, against her misgivings, Trixie will allow you to extend an invitation to this lonely drunkard."
Relieved, Starlight leaned in close, nuzzling under Trixie's chin. "Like I said. The very spirit of magnanimity."
"Mm. Trixie knows." There was hesitation from the other mare, for just a moment, before Trixie returned the affection with a tiny nuzzle of her own.
Then Starlight heard the tinkle of a levitation spell being cast and the sound of chewing, and felt Trixie's jaw shift against her head. She pulled away, looked up, and saw her munching on one of Cheerilee's cookies.
"Prife off abmiffion," Trixie said through a mouthful of holiday deliciousness.
Starlight could only roll her eyes.
It was a six block walk from Starlight's hotel to Cheerilee's apartment. The snowy streets were relatively free of traffic in the early morning hours, and she only passed one or two other pedestrians as she walked, but the asphalt was slick and wet, which made for slow going. What should have been a short, brisk walk for Starlight Glimmer was surprisingly time-consuming.
She could have teleported, of course. But she hadn't seen Fillydelphia in daylight yet. It wasn't quite picturesque; it didn't have Canterlot's classical grandeur, or Manehattan's urban beauty. But in the morning sun, with light glinting off the windows of red-brick bodegas and vine-covered tenements, Fillydelphia's University Avenue had a character all to its own.
Starlight inhaled, catching a whiff of the breakfast floating beside her head – the egg and hay-bacon sandwich, and the paper cup of coffee.
Walking was the right call.
Cheerilee's humble apartment came into view, gradually, and Starlight picked up her pace to a canter. She spared a glance at Cheerilee's welcome mat, and briefly considered availing herself of the spare key, before deciding it would be too intrusive. Instead, she knocked – three firm raps on the hard, wooden door – and waited to be greeted.
It took about a minute before she heard shuffling, dragging hoofsteps from inside the apartment. The door unlocked, and creaked open just wide enough for Starlight to spot a green, bloodshot eye, set against a pale, magenta coat.
Starlight grinned. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Cheerilee. How're you feeling?"
Cheerilee blinked, slowly, and failed to respond.
Starlight's grin wore at the edges. "Yeah, I guess that's kind of a dumb question." She floated the sandwich and coffee up to the door, showing them to Cheerilee through the narrow space she'd opened, and peeling back the greasy wax paper covering the sandwich. "I brought you breakfast."
The eye swiveled up to gaze at the sandwich. Cheerilee blinked a second time, then opened the door a little wider – wide enough for Starlight to see that she'd draped herself in the duvet from her bed, and dragged it behind herself like an oversized cloak. Her face was pale and drawn, and her bed-mane swept backward behind her head, as though caught in a breeze.
Encouraged, Starlight floated the sandwich a little closer to Cheerilee. "I know it's not much, but—"
Immediately, Cheerilee lunged forward, jaws wide, so suddenly that Starlight backpedaled and almost stumbled off the stairs. The earth pony caught the sandwich in her mouth, and ripped half of it free with a flash of pearly white teeth. With a second lunge, she consumed the rest of the sandwich, and spat the wax paper out the side of her mouth. Starlight let it fall to the ground, watching with morbid fascination as Cheerilee chewed her entire breakfast at once.
"Er... bon appetit?" Starlight offered.
Cheerilee blinked, her eyelids moving out of sequence, as her jaws worked to grind her food down. She stepped back inside her apartment, and turned away, nudging the door wider with a hind hoof. Starlight took that as an invitation, and followed Cheerilee inside, closing the door behind herself.
Unlike the city, the apartment looked no more inviting in daylight than it did at night. But in her current state, Cheerilee looked right at home, shuffling back to her twin bed and climbing atop the mattress. With a mighty gulp, she swallowed her well-masticated breakfast, burped, and slipped the duvet down to her hips, freeing up her forelegs.
Starlight raised the coffee, and tried another grin. "Care for something to wash down breakfast?"
Cheerilee stared at the floating paper cup. She extended her now-freed forehooves toward it, and Starlight floated it into her grasp.
"Hope you like it," Starlight said, as Cheerilee flipped off the lid and took a deep breath of the coffee's aroma. "Twilight takes her coffee black, and I've acquired a taste for it that way, myself. It's hard for me to remember that other ponies like mixing stuff in their morning joe, and I didn't know whether you were one of those ponies or not, or if you even drank coffee, or—"
"Jus' lemme drink, please," Cheerilee mumbled, her eyes drooping shut.
Her first sip was slow and slurpy, ending with a satisfied sigh and another, more leisurely drink. Without opening her eyes, she patted the spot next to her, an invitation which Starlight quickly accepted, settling beside Cheerilee on the bed.
"You know," Cheerilee murmured, in a voice less fragile than what she'd spoken with earlier. "I read somewhere, once, that coffee doesn't really help alleviate hangover symptoms. Apparently, it actually dehydrates you, and makes it harder for your body to metabolize alcohol."
Starlight's ear flicked. "Where'd you read that?"
"Foal Free Press. Featherweight snuck an article on hangover cures into a New Year's edition one year. I had to have a talk with Namby-Pamby about editorial oversight afterward." Cheerilee sipped, smacked her lips, and opened her eyes at last. "I'm not sure I was even alive before I drank this, though, so he was clearly misinformed."
Starlight snorted. "Were I the competitive sort, I'd write that down, send it to Twilight in a letter. 'This year, for Hearth's Warming, I performed necromancy with caffeine. Beat that, Princess.'"
Cheerilee's shoulders shook with quiet laughter. Minutes passed in comfortable, companionable silence, as Starlight watched the older mare drink and recover a little bit more of herself.
A few more sips, and Cheerilee spoke up again, her voice now much firmer than before. "This is a lovely gesture, Starlight, but you didn't have to go so far out of your way for me. I know how much I imposed upon you last night, and I hate to be even more of a bother."
"I think you're misremembering how last night went. Must be all that brandy." Starlight nudged the sleepy teacher's shoulder. "I sat down with you because I wanted to talk to you. And I carried you back here because I wanted to make sure you got back home, safe and sound. You didn't impose, you're not a bother, and I'm not going out of my way right now. So, c'mon, bottoms up."
"...If you insist." Cheerilee drained the rest of her coffee, swallowed, and lowered the cup. "But I should still apologize to Trixie. My memory gets hazy after a certain point, but I don't believe she was very happy with me after I drank all her free liquor."
"You can say you're sorry, if you want, but even she probably realizes that you did her a favor in the long run. Grouchy Trixie is better than hungover Trixie, especially when she has a performance coming up." Starlight paused. "Come to think of it... that's one of the reasons I came by this morning."
Cheerilee looked at Starlight quizzically. "Did Trixie send you to wring an apology out of me?"
"No. Not that she wouldn't, but she was passed out in bed when I stepped out the door this morning. I don't think she even knows that I'm here." Starlight chuckled. "I mentioned last night that Trixie's doing a charity show at an orphanage, here in town, today. Remember?"
Cheerilee nodded. "At the manor on the southeast side. The Holly Bough."
"That's... probably the one. Trixie'd know better than me." Starlight shrugged. "Anyway, I came over to ask if you'd like to come along and watch the show. It's in a couple hours, so we were gonna grab some brunch first – which you're also invited to – and then, afterward, we're gonna hit downtown, do some shopping. Trixie insists that there are still some places that're open on Hearth's Warming Day—"
"You're inviting me to spend the whole day with you?" Cheerilee's eyes widened.
Starlight, surprised by the incredulity in the other mare's voice, shrank back. "I mean, if you don't already have plans..."
Cheerilee stared blankly at Starlight, her mouth working, open and closed, in silence.
Starlight tapped her front hooves together nervously. "Uh. You okay?"
"Yeah. Yes, I mean, I'm—" Cheerilee said, and stopped talking long enough to take a deep breath. "You've caught me a little off guard, that's all. To be honest, I don't how to respond."
"Perhaps with a yes?"
"That's certainly tempting," Cheerilee said, with a glance at her cluttered writing desk. "I'm just not sure why you're asking in the first place. You and Trixie had your whole holiday planned out. Brunch, shopping, a show – obviously, not in that order – and now, at the last minute, you're inviting a complete stranger into it."
"You're not a stranger, Cheerilee," Starlight said. "Granted, we weren't really much more than acquaintances back in Ponyville, but we still knew each other. And even if we didn't..."
She scooted closer to Cheerilee on the bed.
"I've been alone on Hearth's Warming. So has Trixie. And we both know, if there's ever a day out of the entire year that nopony deserves to be all alone, it's this one."
Cheerilee's lip trembled. She turned away, her gaze landing again on the cluttered writing desk across the room.
Starlight's hoof found her back. "Are you okay?"
Cheerilee was quiet for a moment before answering. "Do I at least have enough time to wash up a bit?"
Starlight grinned, relieved. "Brunch'll keep a little longer, I'm sure."
Cheerilee sniffled, and turned with a smile on Starlight. "Good. It's been awhile since I took an etiquette class, but I seem to recall learning that one doesn't show up to a meal with a bed-mane."
The city had woken up a little bit more by the time Starlight and Cheerilee set out together. Fillies and colts frolicked and gamboled in snow-strewn streets, some occasionally weaving around and between the two mares. Sleighs crashed through snowy embankments in the street, their riders squealing joyously. Other foals whiled the morning away on the sidewalks with their newly opened toys and presents, their parents looking on adoringly.
Yet again, Starlight was happy that she chose to walk, instead of teleport.
Cheerilee walked at her side, her neck wrapped in a black and white checkered scarf, and her body draped in a pink cloak that matched her mane. She watched the foals and families at play with a soft, nostalgic expression, though it was tinged with a periodic wince of pain every now and again.
"How're you holding up?" Starlight asked, with the apartment now a few blocks behind them.
Cheerilee smiled crookedly. "Better than before. It's only the headache that's giving me trouble now, and the cold air is doing wonders for that."
"Glad to hear somepony's enjoying the weather," Starlight said, a light shiver rippling through her. "It's better this morning than it was last night, but still – brr. I'll never complain about Ponyville's winters again."
Cheerilee laughed. "You never lived in a Ponyville without Twilight Sparkle. Things are pretty good now, but it wasn't so long ago that winter was an ordeal to live through – to say nothing of wrapping it up."
"She mentioned something to that effect once." Starlight drew to a stop at a street corner, waiting for carriage traffic to slow, before she and Cheerilee crossed. "It's still preferable to this."
"Some ponies just don't know how good they've got it," Cheerilee mused as she followed Starlight across the street. "Speaking of Ponyville, do you remember how I mentioned last night that I correspond with one of my former students?"
Starlight hopped onto the curb, and turned to offer her hoof to Cheerilee. "Mmhm?"
"Well, she tries to keep me up to date with all the latest news, but her perspective on things is understandably limited." Cheerilee accepted Starlight's offer, and looped their hooves together as she stepped onto the sidewalk. "So I may as well ask you how everything is back home. Is everypony well?"
"Everypony I know is doing okay," said Starlight, turning to walk down this new stretch of sidewalk. "Granted, I don't know many ponies. But Twilight's good, her friends are all good, and I don't think anypony around town's been maimed recently..."
"Always good to mention," said Cheerilee wistfully. "Ponyville... seems like there's always some kind of mayhem afoot back there. Amazing how quickly one gets used to it."
"Yeah, everypony's pretty jaded toward monster attacks and magical mishaps by now," said Starlight. "Not that we've had any lately. What about you? You get a lot of crazy stuff out here?"
"In Fillydelphia?" Cheerilee shook her head. "Not since I've lived here, at least. There was a parasprite infestation a few years back, apparently, butthatwas something we had to deal with in Ponyville, once, too. And I'm given to understand that ours was considerably worse. It's all been pretty quiet here, these last few months."
"I guess that's something to be grateful for," Starlight mused. "But yeah, not a whole lot has happened lately on my end, either. Pinkie Pie's sister moved close by... oh, uh, Applejack has a new grandpa. He makes pear jam. It's tasty."
"Granny Smith remarried?" Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "With a Pear, of all ponies?"
"Huh? Uh, no, sorry." Starlight grinned sheepishly. "It's Applejack's long-lost grandpa, from her mother's side, that she never knew before. I guess he moved to Ponyville to meet his grandkids."
"Buttercup's father was a Pear? But that feud..." Cheerilee rubbed her chin with a snowy hoof. "That puts some things into perspective. I've known the Apple family for my whole life, and none of them have ever so much as mentioned their mother's relatives. I asked Big McIntosh about it, once, and he told me that his mom never talked about her family – and Granny Smith would lose her temper if the subject ever came up. If there was bad blood between Buttercup's relatives, and the Apples, then I guess that would explain it."
Starlight snorted. "And how many eeyups and nopes did it Big McIntosh to get there?"
"None." Cheerilee looked at Starlight, a playful glint in her eye. "McIntosh Apple can be surprisingly chatty, if you can get him to open up."
"I assume you mean without the aid of invasive spellcasting." Starlight rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever. I'm sure he does all kinds of opening up to that new girlfriend of his."
Starlight took a few more steps before she realized that Cheerilee had stopped walking. She turned, and saw a blank expression on the other mare's face.
"Girlfriend?" Cheerilee echoed.
"Uh... yeah," Starlight said. "He hooked up with a friend of mine from way back when. Sugar Belle. Guess it's getting pretty serious, too."
Cheerilee absorbed the news placidly, her expression hardly changing, save for a twitch at the corner of her lips. "Good for you, Mac," she murmured to herself.
..."Mac?"
Starlight's heart skipped, and she remained rooted to her spot, even as Cheerilee resumed her walk.
Oh. Oh, shoot.
By the time Starlight snapped out of it, she'd been standing still long enough for Cheerilee to get a bit of distance between the two them. She cantered after the schoolteacher, catching up swiftly. "Hey, look, I didn't mean to—"
"I know you didn't." Cheerilee gave Starlight a sad, bleary-eyed smile. "There are some things I left unsaid when I moved away from Ponyville. Dredging it up won't help anypony now. I'm glad that Mac found a special somepony; he's a good friend, and he deserves to be happy. Let's just leave it at that."
Abashed, Starlight lowered her gaze to her hooves. "Can I at least say that I'm sorry for bringing it up?"
"You don't need to apologize." Cheerilee thumped Starlight's flank, softly. "Anyway, I have it on good authority that you shove your hoof in your mouth, oh, once or twice a day. I can't be mad at you for being true to your nature."
Starlight looked up, confused.
"My student, the one who writes to me? She's a mutual friend of ours. Diamond Tiara." Cheerilee's smile widened. "She's told me how the two of you bonded. According to her, you periodically – how did she put it? – 'vomit regret-angst all over the face of anypony who spends more than a few minutes talking to you.' Apparently, it makes social outings with you somewhat awkward."
Starlight blushed, and absently played with the springy lock of hair falling over the front of her face. "Yeah, uh... she's not wrong..."
"She meant it lovingly, if it helps. She only ever has kind things to say about you. 'Awkward, but fun.' That's how she puts it." There was a pause, before Cheerilee spoke again. "Thank you, by the way."
Starlight blinked. "For what?"
"For being there for her. Giving her somepony to look up to." The pair reached the end of the block and hopped off the curb, crossing the street swiftly. "She hasn't had a lot of positive role models."
Her words of kindness helped to blunt some of Starlight's embarrassment. "I don't know about that. She had you for a teacher, after all. And from the way she talks about you, it's obvious just how much she still looks up to you. I've never heard her talk about Miss Rocky the same way."
A watery look broke across Cheerilee's face. She wiped her eyes with a frosty fetlock. "That's kind of you to say, but I'm not a part of her life anymore – not the same way that you, or Rocky Road, are. I may have helped her find her way, but it's friends like you who've kept her on it."
"Heh. Just paying it forward. And I think there’s a reason why she’s so comfortable around me.” Starlight’s expression grew wistful. “I’ve been in her position before.”
Cheerilee smirked. "You're not going to vomit regret-angst all over my face, are you?"
"I make no promises, but I'll do my best to restrain myself." Starlight let out a hollow chuckle. "To make a long story short... I get her. Where she came from, what she's going through, all that guilt she feels over who she used to be – all that stuff that never really goes away. I tell her, all you can do is show the ponies around you that it's not who you are anymore, and hope that they accept it. And be grateful for the ones who've believed in you enough to forgive you – the ones who've loved you, who aren't afraid to keep giving you chances... even when you keep screwing up."
She felt Cheerilee sidle up to her, pressing herself against Starlight's flank. They slowed to a stop, and stood there for a moment, leaning against one another, sharing each other's warmth.
"I don't know what it is you've done, but you're definitely somepony worth forgiving, in my eyes. I'm grateful that Diamond Tiara has somepony like you in her life."
"...That means a lot," said Starlight. "Coming from somepony like you."
Cheerilee pressed a little harder, before pulling back. "I think I'm starting to understand you and Trixie a little bit more, too. I'm not sure if she's ever told you about that thing with the amulet and the dome, but..."
"Yeah, I've heard that story. From a lot of ponies. Twilight tells it the best." Starlight chuckled as she and Cheerilee fell into step again. "Trixie's the first to admit that she went too far, though."
"That's one way of putting it," Cheerilee said. "She made quite the mess. But, to be fair, I've always thought her attempts at making amends were genuine."
"They are. I know she's a pain in the rump sometimes, but Trixie's a good pony at heart." Talking about Trixie put a dreamy look on Starlight's face, as it was wont to. "She knows all about the stuff I've done, too. And me? I've seen her at her absolute lowest – I've brought her back from the brink. I get her, and she gets me, in a way that I don't think anypony else in Equestria could."
"Not even Twilight?"
Starlight shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, I love Twilight. I owe her so much more than you could possibly know. But she hasn't... been on the other side, so to speak, not like Trixie has. So, as much as I love Twilight, there's some stuff about myself that I'm more comfortable sharing with Trixie. I've never said as much to Twilight, and I don't think Trixie's tactless enough to say so herself, but she knows. I'm sure she knows."
"And she's okay with all that?" Cheerilee asked.
"She is." Starlight paused. "She wasn't always, but she's lightened up about it a lot over the last few months. I guess she had a talk with Sunset Shimmer, a while back, that changed her perspective on—"
"I'm sorry, who?"
"Ah... that's another long story." Starlight waved a hoof dismissively. "The gist of it is, she's much more comfortable with Trixie and I than she was when we first started hanging out. She didn't even complain when I told her I wanted to spend Hearth's Warming with Trixie this year. Just wished us well, and sent me off with a pocketful of spending money."
"That was thoughtful of her." Cheerilee's expression slowly faded back into that sad-eyed smile from before. "You're sure Twilight's been well?"
"Uh... yeah. Nothing new to report on her end." Starlight canted her head quizzically, concern gnawing at her. "Something wrong?"
They came to the end of another block, and slowed to a stop at the curb. Cheerilee looked downcast, and thoughtful.
"She said she'd visit," the older mare said. "She didn't say when, but she said that she would. All this time living here, I thought, if she was going to come, then Hearth's Warming would've been... but she hasn't even written. Even when I write to her."
Cheerilee wiped at her eyes and sighed.
"It's a silly thing to be upset over. I know she's busy—"
"She is!" Starlight blurted, darting close to Cheerilee. "She's, like, super busy. Swamped with princess stuff. Like, there's so much on her plate right now that she barely has time for anything else. And, I mean, you've met the mailmare in Ponyville, right? Who even knows if her mail is... if it's, uh, getting to her..."
Cheerilee looked knowingly at Starlight, who trailed off.
"Don't take it personally, okay?" said Starlight, as Cheerilee stepped off the curb and into the street.
"I don't take it personally. Really, I don't." Cheerilee sniffed, and stepped off the curb, into the street. "Just... it's been a long few months, and it would've been nice to talk some things out with her."
She crossed alone, and Starlight followed after, a cold weight having settled in her stomach.
Trixie, being Trixie, hadn't thought about booking any accommodations for her trip to Fillydelphia. Her intention had been to set up her trailer on the frigid outskirts of town, huddling close to Starlight beneath a threadbare blanket for warmth.
Starlight, being Starlight, figured she could do them both one better.
By what could only be a Hearth's Warming miracle, the Wyndhoof, a four-star establishment in the heart of downtown Fillydelphia, had a vacancy. They were more than happy to take Starlight's money, and put them up for the holiday, even finding room for Trixie's trailer in their underground garage. Trixie, being Trixie, had grumbled about Starlight upending her plans, but delighted in the accommodations anyway.
"This is a nice place," Cheerilee commented, as Starlight led her down a plushly carpeted corridor. "I have no earthly idea how Trixie could have afforded it, but it's very pleasant."
"Oh, Trixie didn't book the hotel. That was all me," Starlight said, reaching into her coat pocket for her hotel key. "I mean, I charged it to Twilight's account, so, technically, the crownpaid for it, and the funding for it came from the taxpayers, so, if you're splitting hairs, then Trixie kind of paid for it..."
...assuming she actually does pay taxes.
She slid the key into the lock, as Cheerilee made a thoughtful noise beside her. "I wonder if that counts as an abuse of taxpayer money."
"I'll ask Twilight. Or, better yet, I'll never ask Twilight ever." Starlight undid the latch and nudged the door open, beckoning Cheerilee inside after her.
The room was well-lit and furnished, if a bit cramped – Cheerilee's apartment was only slightly larger, by Starlight's reckoning. A desk, a coffee table, and a pair of lime-green chairs stood against one wall, bathed in yellowish, incandescent light. A chair was braced against a door on the opposite wall, propped on its back legs, with its backrest beneath the knob. The center of the room was dominated by a queen-sized bed; amid its rumpled white sheets, Trixie lay motionless, her face pressed into a pillow.
Starlight huffed as she approached the sleeping pony. "Trix, it's almost eleven. How are you still in bed?"
"To be entirely fair," Cheerilee said, joining Starlight at the bedside. "I'd still be in bed right now, too, if you hadn't come along."
"Yeah, but this big ol' lump was sober when she turned in last night. You were hungover this morning."
"Um... yes. 'Were.' Past tense." Cheerilee rubbed the back of her mane.
Starlight huffed, slumped over the side of the bed, and nosed her way under Trixie's flank, trying to flip her onto her back. "I swear, if I have to carry you to the bathroom and hoof-wash you again—"
"Don't go into the bathroom," Trixie mumbled into the pillow, her voice a papery croak. "Nothing to be found in there but... urk..."
Starlight pulled back, exchanging a worried look with Cheerilee. Her horn sparked and glowed, and an aura gently rolled Trixie onto her side. Trixie moaned as she moved, clutching her ominously burbling stomach.
"Trixie's innards... have staged a coup... against their rightful mistress." Trixie heaved, shoved a hoof against her mouth, and shuddered as she fought down a wave of nausea. "Why must the good and the beautiful suffer?"
"Maybe because 'the good and the beautiful' downed a gallon of sketchy eggnog before turning in for the night?" Starlight said.
Trixie's hoof groped in the air, before planting lightly on Starlight's barrel. "Do. Not. Malign. The nog. The nog is blameless... pure as the driven... ohhhhh, owwieowwieowwieowwie..."
"Damn it." Starlight groaned. "I promised myself I'd keep you from overindulging..."
"It isn't your fault. You had another pony to babysit." Cheerilee stepped up beside Starlight, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Incidentally... I know this isn't the most important issue right now, but why is there a chair propped against that door?"
"That leads to the bathroom. Where the coup began. " Trixie flushed. "Housekeeping will not be happy with Trixie..."
"And Twilight," Starlight sighed, face-hoofing, "will not be happy with Starlight when she sees the cleaning bill."
"Okay, it's gross, good to know," said Cheerilee. "But that doesn't explain the chair."
"The biohazard situation... must be contained... it will wreak terrible vengeance upon the world if it escapes..." Trixie shot Starlight a glare. "And as somepony hasn't yet taught Trixie a reliable adhesive spell,Trixie made do with what she... owwww..."
"Trixie, that door swings inward," Cheerilee said, matter-of-factly. "Propping a chair against it wouldn't keep anything from getting out."
"Trixie was operating under extreme stress, okay?! She did the best she could!" Trixie's body clenched up, and she clutched her stomach. "Glimmyyyyyy, be a good sexy assistant and subdue Trixie's rebellious digestive systeeeeeeem..."
"Would if I could," Starlight sighed, pulling back. "But healing magic, beyond scrapes and bruises, is all outside my ken. Sorry, Trix, but I think you're gonna need to see a real doctor for this."
"We can page an ambulance in the lobby downstairs," Cheerilee added. "They advertise it above the concierge's desk. As services go, it's kind of a red flag, but at least it's convenient."
Trixie sniffled, hugging a pillow against herself. "Can we still get brunch first? Trixie's stomach is conspicuously empty."
"Trixie."
"Nothing wrong with asking." Trixie waved a hoof vaguely at Cheerilee. "You. Chim-Chim-Cheree."
Cheerilee pressed a hoof to her chest, blinking confusedly. "That isn't my name, Trixie. It's—"
"Irrelevant. You drank all of Trixie's brandy. And you got tear-stains all over her brand new magic scarf. That was a gift from her bosom-est of buddies. Trixie demands recompense." Trixie curled her leg back against her body. "Carrying her to the lobby will do."
Starlight balked. "Trixie, we invited—"
"You invited."
"We invited Cheerilee to spend Hearth's Warming with us as a guest. Not so that she could suffer the consequences of your own crappy decision-making."
"Please don't use that word," Trixie mumbled.
Cheerilee gently nudged Starlight aside, and pressed her flank against the mattress. "It's fine, really. Starlight, would you kindly roll her onto me?"
"Gently!" Trixie added, as Starlight's levitation field flopped the sick unicorn toward Cheerilee. "Kindly and gently!"
Cheerilee grunted as Trixie draped over her back. Her knees sagged momentarily beneath the weight of the other pony, but she grit her teeth and compensated for the added burden, steadying herself. "Comfy?"
"Mmnlehhh..." Trixie burrowed her face against Cheerilee's scarf. "You're warm... you got that going for you..."
They walked toward the door, Starlight leaning close to whisper into Cheerilee's ear. "You sure you don't mind doing this? I know carrying a sick magician on your back wasn't what you signed up for..."
Cheerilee smiled. "I really don't mind. And I do owe her. I'm not sure if brunch and a magic show is still on the table, but if, by some miracle, it is..."
She hefted Trixie once, gently.
"...then this is how I plan to pay my own way."
Trixie belched.
Author's Note
Pre-reading services for this chapter provided by Dubs "bodega is a good word" Rewatcher and Majin "perhaps that reference to Twilight's anus is a bit out of place here" Syeekoh
