An Advanced Lesson in Friendship
Starlight Glimmer paced the length of her room, unable to tear her eyes from her bed as she struggled to find a solution to the problem that now threatened her entire world. “Okay. Okay! I think I can fix this.”
“Fix what?” Trixie mumbled, yawning as she pushed her mane out of her face and sat up on the bed.
“This!” Starlight burst out, waving her hoof around the room. “This, this!”
Trixie’s head dropped back down to the bed. “Trixie is going to go back to sleep until you make sense, Glim.” As if to emphasize her point, she pulled the sheets tighter around, nuzzling deep into Starlight’s pillow.
Fighting to control her rising panic, Starlight took a deep breath. Then another. “Trixie, do you remember what happened last night?”
“Trixie mostly remembers having too many mugs of cider,” she said, not even bothering to open her eyes. “So, she would appreciate it if you brought the volume down a little.”
“We… I... “ Starlight stammered, trailing off as she took up pacing again. Her memory might have been a little fuzzy, but there were a few things she remembered very, very clearly about last night. Her heart pounded in her chest as she stared at the unicorn in her bed. What if Trixie didn’t? “What else do you remember?”
One of Trixie’s eyes cracked open. “Trixie remembers the cider, the fireworks, all her smoke bombs accidentally going off, the pink one throwing her alligator in the punch...” she listed off, muffling her voice when she dug her muzzle into the pillow again to cover another yawn.
“Anything else?”
Trixie mumbled something into the pillow.
“Trixie!”
Trixie pulled her face out of the pillow. “Trixie is too sleepy for this. Give her a hint.”
“Look around!”
Groaning, Trixie rolled over and opened her eyes, her muzzle scrunching as she finally started paying attention. “This is…”
“My room, Trixie.”
Trixie sat up, the gears apparently finally starting to turn. “We left the pink one’s ‘Congrats on Making the Changelings Good Guys Starlight Glimmer’ party way too late. You walked Trixie back to her wagon. Trixie told you good night, then she...” She trailed off, her face reddening. “I kissed you.”
Starlight gestured for Trixie to keep going, hoping that she remembered the next part: the one that started and ended with them both here in Starlight’s bed.
After a moment, Trixie sat up further, red becoming crimson. “Oh.”
Despite the heat of her own blush rising in her cheeks, Starlight let out a relieved sigh. It might’ve been easier if Trixie hadn’t remembered, but somehow that idea found a way to set her even more on edge.
“We really—”
“Yes,” Starlight cut her off. “But don’t worry. I really think I know how to fix this. I just need Twilight to let me visit the Canterlot Royal Library.”
Trixie stared at her for a long moment. “What?”
Starlight beamed. “I can use one of the time spells from the Starswirl the Bearded Wing to go back in time and stop this from happening.”
Trixie kept staring.
“Okay, that’s probably admittedly a little too much,” she yielded. “But I’m sure I could find what I need to make some sort of memory alteration spell that we could use to just totally and completely forget this happened! Easy, right?” Starlight’s smile faded as she watched her friend’s face scrunch up, tears filling her eyes. “Trixie? What’s wrong?”
“Trixie is sorry,” she whispered.
“What?” Starlight asked, her confidence draining. “Why are you—”
“Trixie is sorry that you think this,” Trixie managed, waving her hoof around the room, “Is so terrible that you have to use magic to undo it!”
Starlight’s breath caught in her throat. “It’s not that! It’s just—”
“Do you think Trixie would only kiss you because she was drunk? Trixie–” she sniffled and shook her head. “I like you, okay? A lot! More than I have ever liked anypony!”
“It isn’t… I mean…” Starlight bit her lip, the words cutting through her, the hurt on Trixie’s face squeezing her heart. “It’s not... I’m just afraid of what’ll happen if I don’t undo it!”
Trixie tried to wipe her tears away. “Why?”
“Trixie, I barely know how to have friends!” Despite the tears she felt building in her eyes, she offered a lopsided smile. “Do you think I have any idea at all how to deal with this? How to handle it? How to be a special somepony? How to have a special somepony? I mean, what’s going to happen now?”
“Whatever we decide happens,” Trixie managed. “We’re friends.”
“I know, but... you’re my best friend, Trixie. I just… I don’t want that to change.”
“Why do you think it will?” she asked, still sniffling.
“Because it already has! I wanted this, Trixie. You might have kissed me, but I… I was the one who invited you back here.”
Trixie blinked, surprise taking over her face. “You did?”
Sitting back, Starlight squeezed her eyes shut. “I wanted this, but now—”
To her surprise, she felt Trixie’s forelegs wrap around her. “Trixie is your friend, dummy. That’s not going to change. No matter what happens.”
Starlight pressed her face into Trixie’s neck, not bothering to hold back her tears as she, letting all the panic and terror drain out of her as she relished the welcome warmth of her friend’s body. “Can you promise?”
Trixie nodded. “The Great and Powerful Trixie never breaks her word.”
She knew it wasn’t true, of course. Nopony could really promise that. But Trixie’s confidence reassured her all the same, reminding her of why she liked the mare so much in the first place. “I want this,” Starlight finally said. “I really do.”
“I do too,” Trixie responded.
The two held each other, oblivious to the sounds of morning dawning all around them.
It was Starlight who finally broke the silence. “Do you think I should tell Twilight about this? Friendship lessons and all.”
“Trixie would rather you waited.”
