Bonds

"What is this?!" A light blue hand slammed into the counter, startling the innkeeper on the other side as she stared into the furious face of one Trixie Lulamoon.

"W-whatever do you mean, miss?" The mare stated as she sweat dropped and brought her hooves in closer to herself, as if she was afraid that her tenant might assault her. She spoke in a polite tone despite her fear, having been taught to do so in her customer service training. Even so, she couldn't help wondering what she had done to incite the customer's wrath.

"Don't play dumb with Trixie! You gave us copies of the same room key!"

Twilight, who had followed her downstairs to the counter in a futile attempt to calm her temper, knew that Trixie's 'us' included her, and yet, she was still slightly confused by the whole ordeal.

"But miss, I-" The innkeeper started, but Trixie cut her off.

"But nothing! Ugh, this is so frustrating!" She turned her head away from the mare, too upset to look her in the eye.

"Now, now, miss Lulamoon, i'm sure the nice mare just made a mistake is all." Twilight turned to the innkeeper and flashed a smile that spoke volumes about her current inability to handle the situation.

The innkeeper saw this and understood, but was too confused to focus on it for too long before saying,

"Mistake? You mean, you two aren't..."

Twilight looked at the mare at the counter in confusion. "Aren't what?"

"...A couple?" came the mare's reply.

Trixie stiffened, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Twilight. She turned around.

"No, We're not! What on earth gave you that Idea?!"

"Well, you were waiting patiently for me to find the keys to the room you requested, and..."

"And? Aren't you supposed to do that when something takes a while to get done?"

"Well, it's just, you were hanging by the mirror, just waiting. Usually people get antsy and impatient and start yelling at me about wasting their time. It really gets to me, seeing as i'm a newbie here and all. I just assumed that since you were waiting so patiently that you must have been waiting for someone. And then I saw her and, well..."

Trixie's eyes widened, as she realized what had just happened. She looked over at Twilight, who blushed, and blushed back. And she had just done all that yelling. She turned back to the innkeeper

"Sorry about that. It was just a misunderstanding. Could've happened to anypony." She cleared her throat. "So...about that room key..."

Now, it was Twilight's turn to speak. She turned to Trixie.

"I don't mind sharing a room, Miss Lulamoon. If that's alright with you of course."

Trixie seemed to think on it a moment, another light blush staining her features as she did so. "U-um...I'm fine with it if you are."

She looked back to see that Twilight was smiling. "What's that look for?"

"Oh, i'm sorry. It's just...forgive me, I know this is coming from a stranger but...you can be quite cute, Trixie."

Trixie's blush intensified, causing her face to resemble a tomato. "Sh-shut up, you!"

With that, the two left for their room, having forgotten the innkeeper, who was left wondering if they really weren't a couple after all.

After that ordeal, the two decided to turn in for the night, too mentally exhausted to do much else. Of course, they did talk for a while, and were in the middle of one of their conversations right about now.

"Seriously though, what in Celestia's name was that innkeeper thinking. How could we be a couple? We barely know each other."

"I don't know, but it sure was..." Twilight stopped in the middle of her sentence. Trixie noticed this and looked over at her. Her eyes were wide open and she looked as though she was shocked.

When Twilight finally spoke again, it was in a shaky and slightly trembling voice. "What...did you just...say?"

Trixie was a little confused by Twilight's reaction, but repeated herself anyway, just in case she really hadn't heard her.

"I just said...what in Celestia's name-"

Twilight couldn't explain it. She had no idea how to explain it but, when Trixie said that name, she felt a surge of intense fury the likes of which she'd never known. She didn't know what was going on with her. She had never felt such savage emotions in her entire life. They burst forth in her mind, threatening to consume her, and Twilight felt fear grip at her once again.

However, this wasn't anything like the fear she felt when escaping those wooden monsters during her years in the forest. That was her self-preservation, her instinct to survive driving her forward and allowing her to stay alive in the unforgiving jungle that was once her home.

This fear was real, invasive. It threatened to eat her alive if she was not careful.

Her fear must've shown in her face, because the next words from Trixie snapped her out of her trance and brought her back to reality.

"Twilight, are you alright?"

Twilight looked up to see Trixie's face inches away from hers. She recoiled so fast that she fell over.

"Oww...that hurt."

Trixie stood straight and offered a hand to help Twilight up, which she gratefully took, dusting herself off. "Thank you."

"No problem." Trixie said, smiling. But her face turned serious only moments later. "What was all that?"

"I...I don't know. When you mentioned that name...I felt this rush of uncontrollable anger..."

"Who, Celestia?"

"Don't say the name again!" Twilight put her ears over her head to prevent the anger from rising again. "Please, miss Lulamoon!"

"Trixie."

Twilight uncovered her ears and look up in confusion. "Huh?"

"My name. Call me Trixie from now on. Like you did back at the counter."

"But..."

"No buts. We're friends after all. Aren't we?"

Twilight took a moment to consider this. "Really? We're friends?"

"That's right. From this moment on, we're friends." Trixie beamed at her, tipping her magician's hat to show her face.

Twilight was shocked. She had never had friends before. The only person she ever had who was anywhere near even an acquaintance was that zebra from the forest she lived in. What was her name again?

Oh well, it didn't matter right now anyway. For now, she had a friend. An honest to goodness friend to call her own. And the best part? She had just got to the village.

She stood up straight, smiling back at and held out a hand, which Trixie took. "Yes, we are."

And with that, they shook hands and headed off to bed, both too happy to go to sleep right away, and too tired to talk anymore.

Soon they both drifted off to dreamland, but Twilight wasn't fortunate enough to escape her fears so easily.