Gifted With Care
A particularly large snowflake landed on Starlight’s muzzle, and she sniffed and wiggled her nose to get rid of it. A chill wind blew, but clad in a pale green coat and earmuffs, she was able to ignore it and keep her eyes on the list in front of her as she trotted down the streets of Ponyville.
Okay, checked Quills and Sofas, no. We can’t check Sugarcube Corner, not safe. Hm… She adjusted the brim on her pink woolen hat and scarf as she thought.
“Did you have to leave your gift shopping until the last minute?”
Starlight stopped and turned her head. Trixie was bundled up in a coat, boots, scarf, and hat, leaving only her eyes to glare up at the clouds dumping snow on the town. Even her horn was hidden inside the thick wool hat, a large lump under the deep purple.
“I didn’t mean to,” Starlight muttered, turning her attention back to her list. “Just, you know. I normally don’t celebrate Hearth’s Warming. When I was a filly, it just reminded me how much I missed Sunburst because he wasn’t around anymore. Then I got a bit older and that was my rebellious phase so I just didn’t care. And then I took over that village and outlawed Hearth’s Warming because gift giving is ripe for ponies not feeling equal. And then–”
“I get it, you’ve got issues.” Trixie shuffled in place, her boots crunching in the snow. Busy ponies carrying far more packages than was safe rushed around the two, a few glaring or grumbling at them for being in the middle of the street.
“The point is, I haven’t thought about Hearth’s Warming in years.” Starlight took a breath. “Then Twilight turned me around last year and this year crept on me. So two days ago I suddenly realized ‘oh, ponyfeathers, I need to get them gifts.’ And even then I had agreed to help Twilight do some baking this morning and couldn’t go out until the afternoon. So now here we are. Oh, and it’s Hearth’s Warming Eve so of course all the stores are closing early.”
“How many gifts do we need to get?” Trixie came closer to look at the list Starlight was holding.
Starlight frowned and gave her a sideways look. “There’s six of them. So, six.”
“You’re getting gifts for all of them?” Trixie pursed her lip.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I’m just saying, I can think of one or four of them that you could use some distance from. There’s such a thing as too many friends, you know.”
“Duly noted and ignored.” Starlight looked back at the list. “I’ve tried to at least get some rough ideas down. For Twilight, a book; don’t know what kind but that’s a big umbrella. For Rarity, something about sewing. Pinkie, baking, Fluttershy, animals, Applejack, farming, and Rainbow, flying-slash-Wonderbolts related.”
“See, you’ve got it all figured out.” Trixie’s horn lit pink under her hat and pulled the lavender scarf wrapped around her neck and muzzle tighter. “Now let’s go get them something and get out of this snow.” She took a step forward and waited for Starlight to follow.
Starlight rolled her eyes and stayed put. “Trixie, those are the most superficial things I could say about them! You know those things about them and you don’t even like them.”
“Good point on both counts.” Trixie pulled aside to let a unicorn floating a massive stack of gift boxes pass her.
“I want to get them the perfect gift.” Starlight smiled at her list. “Something inspired, and meaningful, that really demonstrates how much I care about them and how much they mean to me as friends.”
“And you’ve got three hours to do that six times.”
“I know!” Starlight groaned and folded up her list, and slipped it into a pocket of her coat. “I don’t even know where to start.”
Trixie put a hoof to her chin. “Who would be hardest to buy for? I mean, in terms of having a chance of finding them something good.”
“Rainbow Dash. Wonderbolts merchandise is always a big seller year-round. We’d be lucky to find anything, much less something she’d want and doesn’t already have. And there’s only one shop in Ponyville that even carries their stuff anyway.”
“Then we start there. Where to?” Trixie gestured a hoof forward.
Starlight tilted her head. “Why would I start with the worst one?”
Trixie lightly scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Because if we put it off until later, there’s even less chance we’ll find something. We’ll save, like, Fluttershy and Rarity for last. Who really buys vet and sewing supplies as Hearth’s Warming gifts?”
“That…makes sense.” Starlight smiled and trotted down the street. “Let’s go, then.”
The bell over the door of Ponyville Collectables jingled as Starlight pushed it open and calmly walked inside.
Trixie rushed in behind her and shivered. “Can’t the pegasi come up with some kind of snow that isn’t cold?” She pulled her scarf loose and tugged her hat off.
“I’m pretty sure that’s impossible.” Starlight looked around the shop. Shelves of stuffed animals, magazines, action figures, and other items ran down its length, and she saw glass cases with statuettes against the back wall. Several other ponies were already milling about the store, but it wasn’t crowded. Lucky me.
Starlight approached the counter and smiled. “Excuse me?”
An earth pony stallion with a dull brown coat and dark blue mane looked up from a magazine. “Yeah?”
“Do you have any Wonderbolt merchandise?”
The pony swept a hoof at a shelf on the wall. “I got a couple Soarin’ plushies and a few sets of flight goggles. And trading cards.” He pointed at the glass shelves under the countertop where various trading cards were displayed in plastic cases alongside boxes of booster packs.
Starlight knelt down and looked at the rather small section of Wonderbolt cards. She gasped. “I don’t believe it!”
“I know, right?” Behind her at a magazine rack, Trixie tossed her mane and snorted. “I could get a year’s subscription to Magician’s Monthly for the price they’re asking for one issue.”
“You don’t like the price, don’t buy it,” the clerk snapped.
Starlight stood up. “Are the prices on these cards negotiable?”
The clerk shrugged. “Depends. Negotiate with me and find out.”
“What’s the lowest price you’d take for this one?” Starlight gestured at one of the cards on display.
The clerk leaned back to see where she was pointing. “Fifty bits.”
Starlight’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “That’s what the tag says! That’s not negotiating.”
“And now you’ve found out.” The clerk shrugged and turned his attention to a mare that had put merchandise next to the register.
Trixie came up beside Starlight. “What do you see?”
Starlight pointed at the display. “Rainbow Dash trading card, ‘Wings of Glory’ set, first edition and the secret rare variant with the holofoil picture.”
Trixie knelt and looked at the card, displaying a familiar wide-grin and rainbow mane gleaming in the light, with various text and stats listed below in a table. “A trading card?” Trixie smirked. “It has the Wonderbolt logo and her face on it. She’ll love it.”
“Not just a trading card, Trixie. This is the set that introduced Rainbow Dash after she made it into the Wonderbolts! It’s her first card.” Starlight glared at it longingly.
“Are you sure she doesn’t already have one then?”
“She doesn’t. Because she specifically mentioned she was gonna be in that set, and if she had gotten one she would have had it framed and up on her wall by now.”
“Good point.” Trixie shrugged. “Keep it in mind for next year, then. Come back in a couple months, it’ll be marked down to like, ten bits.”
“Don’t count on it,” the clerk called over as he gave the mare at the register her bag.
Trixie stood up. “Well, usually cards drop in value when they’re reprinted, right?”
The clerk’s head snapped around. “Reprint?”
“Yeah, they’re doing some anniversary pack next year, a who’s-who of the Wonderbolts.” Trixie smirked. “I mean, yeah that card’s still valuable, but who’s gonna pay fifty bits for a card when they can pull the same card from a new pack?”
“And how would you know about a reprint set coming out before I do?” The clerk came in front of them and leaned on the counter, giving Trixie a suspicious glare.
Trixie shrugged. “Oh, they haven’t announced it yet, but Rainbow Dash is a friend of ours. Well, of Starlight’s. We know every bit of Wonderbolt junk she’s gonna be on. She makes sure of it.”
Starlight gave her a confused look and opened her mouth, but the clerk spoke before she could. “Is that so?” Starlight looked back at him. He rubbed his hoof and looked over the cards on display. He murmured and raised his eyes to the two. “Okay, then. Negotiate with me, again.”
Starlight raised her head. “Twenty bits.”
“Forty-five.”
“Twenty-five.”
“Forty.”
“Thirty. Final offer.”
The clerk frowned and looked down at the display again, hoof tapping on the counter.
“She is going to love this!” Starlight smiled happily at the holofoil trading card sealed in a plastic collector’s case floating in front of her. “Thanks for helping me talk him down.”
Beside her, tightly bundled in her scarf and hat again, Trixie nodded. “No problem. One down, five to go.”
Starlight nodded and slipped the card into the paper bag she had been given for it. “It’s a good thing you knew about that reprint set, that kinda shook him.”
“Oh, I made that up.”
Starlight stopped and stared. “What?”
Trixie had kept walking and now turned back to her. “I made it up. Figured it would loosen him a bit if he thought that card was gonna lose value.”
Starlight frowned. “Trixie, I do not approve of you lying like that! Especially for something like this!”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “Starlight, it’s not a big deal. Those kinds of stores overcharge for cards anyway. I’d guess that thing is worth maybe half of what he was asking. Trust me, they’re always going to swindle you unless you swindle back. And how would Rainbow Dash feel if you overpaid for her gift?”
“Well…” Starlight looked at the bag. “Okay, in this specific circumstance, thank you. But no more lying to anyone else we try to buy from!”
“Of course. Speaking of, Twilight next?” Trixie pointed to the side. Starlight turned her head and saw one of the stores they had happened to stop by.
“Bookends.” She shrugged and trotted towards the door. “Works for me.”
As she reached the door to the bookstore, Starlight pulled aside to let a stallion out and then headed inside herself. She paused and gulped.
The inside of the store was packed full of ponies, squeezing past each other between the shelves and scanning the rows of books for ideas. To Starlight’s horror, the shelves were surprisingly bare in some spots, some even entirely empty.
“We’re never going to find a book for Twilight!” Starlight slapped her forehead..
“Calm down.” Trixie gently pushed her aside and away from the door as a mare came in behind them and headed into the crowds. “Take a moment and think. What kind of book do you want to get her?”
Starlight lowered her hoof. “I’m not sure it matters, all things considered. But I was thinking something about mythology. Ever since we learned the Pillars of Equestria are real, Twilight has been looking into other old legends that may have a genuine historical basis.”
“I’m stifling a yawn, so yeah, sounds like something Twilight would be into.” Trixie scanned the shelves and pointed. “How about there?”
Starlight looked at the banner hanging from the ceiling where she pointed – ‘History and Geography’. She smiled. “Great, looks like no one is over here!”
“Little wonder,” Trixie muttered as the two made their way over. The few ponies around them didn’t even need to move as the two looked around.
Starlight positioned herself in front of one of the shelves and scanned it up and down. She frowned. “They’re not really organized by sub category. How do we know where to start?”
“Check the full shelves,” Trixie replied behind her.
“Why?”
“If they’re full, that means no one is buying them, which means they’re really boring and uninteresting. That sounds right up Twilight’s alley.”
Starlight rolled her eyes, but moved over to one of the more densely packed shelves where nopony was looking. She looked up and down, glancing at the spines – history books about various foreign cultures and species. Her eyebrows lifted. Okay, maybe this is a good plan. She settled on a lower shelf and turned her eyes left to right, browsing. She saw a promising one and smiled.
“Oo!” One of the books lit up teal and floated out to her. “History and Legends of Saddle Arabia.” She flipped it open to a random page. “Legends say the capital city of Maredina was built by King Shadhavar three hundred years before the founding of Equestria, but Shadhavar’s existence is considered apocryphal and research into the history of Maredina is ongoing… she’ll love this!” She turned around. “Trixie?”
Trixie was looking at the cover of another book and turned her head. “Hm?”
“Check this out.” Starlight held the book out and the magic aura on it changed from teal to pink as Trixie brought it closer.
“Well, it sure sounds like something she’d like.” Trixie passed the book back to Starlight and held up the one she had been looking at. “On my end, I found this.”
Starlight looked at the cover, depicting a mare and a stallion in elaborate robes, and read the title. “A Visual Guide To Ancient Earth Pony Royalty? I dunno if Twilight would like that as much as thing one.”
Trixie scrunched her face. “Um, I was thinking of Rarity?”
Starlight’s face brightened. “Oh!”
“See?” Trixie opened the book and gestured to some sketches of an earth pony noble from the sides and front, showing the details on the headdress he was wearing. “There’s a lot of stuff here about embroidering and stitching and a lot of other fancy words I don’t know but probably have something to do with clothes.”
“Perfect!” Starlight grinned and clapped her hooves. “That’s two gifts we’ve checked off here!” She took the book from Trixie and carried the two together. “Three down, three to go!”
Starlight slapped her forehead and grit her teeth. “I am not getting Applejack an apple!”
“Why not?” Examining a stack of apples on a stand next to a pile of farm implements, Trixie shrugged and levitated one in her magic. “You know it’s something she’d like. And frankly I don’t have any other ideas.”
“There are lots of things Applejack likes besides apples!” Starlight grabbed the apple in her own magic and set it back on the pile.
“News to me. But then I don’t really pay attention.”
The interior of Pigsty Pete’s Farm Barn was, perhaps unsurprisingly, entirely empty of ponies, but full of goods. Barrels and crates of equipment Starlight assumed were for farm work filled the small shop and created two crooked aisles leading to the register in the back. The entire shop had a rustic smell to it that she couldn’t quite decide if it was intentional or the inevitable result of its merchandise.
“Applejack?” The pale brown earth pony mare that had been sweeping perked up and looked down the shop at Starlight and Trixie. “You two are friends with Applejack?”
Starlight saw Trixie open her mouth and quickly stuffed a hoof into it before she got out a word. “Yes, we are. We’re looking around for a Hearth’s Warming gift for her.”
The earth pony mare chuckled. “Well, you picked the right store. That girl is always in here oohing and awing over something.”
Trixie pushed Starlight’s hoof away with a glare. “I’ll bet.”
“Why, she was lookin’ at something the other day, actually. Er, last week, more like. Wanna have a look?”
Starlight nodded eagerly. “Yes, please!”
The mare set her broom against a nearby crate and walked into the adjacent aisle. Starlight followed her and watched her open a crate and take on a small, metal object.
“I showed her this.” The mare held it out. “Have a look. Careful handling it with your hooves, it’s sharp.”
Starlight took the device in her magic to examine it. It consisted of a small metal ring with multiple spokes sticking out to connect to a larger ring, all contained in a wooden frame. The frame was mounted between two wooden shafts that connected to a base with a rounded indentation and a steel spike in the center.
From behind Starlight, Trixie peeked her head around and raised an eyebrow. “We’re gonna get Applejack a little guillotine?”
“Trixie!” Starlight glared at her. “It is not a guillotine!” She looked back at the device and turned it around – actually, given the rings of metal looked like blades and seemed to slide up and down, maybe she was closer than Starlight thought. “Er, what is it?”
“It’s an apple slicer and de-corer.” The mare took the device and set it down on a crate. “Ya just stick the apple on the spike, wedge it down to make sure it doesn’t move…” as she spoke, she grabbed an apple from the display of them and demonstrated. “Then ya pull this down real hard.” She grabbed the sides of the blades and pulled them down. The blades cut all the way through, and when the mare pulled them back up the slices fell away, leaving a perfectly round core stuck on the spike in the base.
“That’s actually pretty nifty.” Starlight stepped closer and looked at the device with new appreciation. “Was Applejack interested?”
“Sure she was. But ya know, the Apples always gotta take it slow in the winter, seeing how their stockpile sells and all. And she’s had her own Hearth’s Warming gifts to buy.”
“Right.” Starlight nodded. “How much is it?”
“Fifteen bits.”
Starlight reached into the pocket of her coat and withdrew a change purse. She snapped it open and jingled the pile of bits. “And that’s non-negotiable?”
The mare shrugged. “How much ya got?”
“Twenty-six, actually. But I have two more gifts to get tonight and I’m not sure how much they’ll cost.” Starlight scratched the side of her head.
“How about we pay ten now and five next week?” Trixie piped up.
Starlight and the mare looked at her. The mare’s brow lifted. “Not that I ain’t inflexible on the price, but why would I agree to that?”
Trixie scoffed and waved a hoof. “Because it’s a gift for Applejack! Element of Honesty and goody-horseshoes and all that. If we don’t come back, just tell her and you know she’ll come after us to make sure we pay up. That or she’ll pay the rest herself anyway.”
“Which I will not let her do,” Starlight interjected quickly, “because I will pay you back, promise.”
The mare rocked her head. “Well, business always slows down in the winter anyway… sure. You got a deal.” She smiled and extended a hoof.
“Thank you!” Starlight shook her hoof eagerly. “I’ll even pay interest on it for you doing this.”
“That’s fine.” The mare took the apple de-corer and took it behind the counter. “Let me just find a box for this while you count out the cash.”
“Just two gifts left…” Starlight crossed Applejack off her list with a pencil and stuffed both into her coat. She looked at the three bags floating beside her and inhaled. “Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Any ideas?”
Trixie shrugged. “Get Pinkie something from Sugarcube Corner. They pack all the baking supplies. Fluttershy, eh. Even if you get her something lame, she’s too nice to not fake liking it.”
“Yeah, no, I’m going to find her something legitimately good.” Starlight shook her head. “And Pinkie, no. She works at Sugarcube Corner, remember? If I go in there she’s sure to see me and I can’t have her see me buying her her gift.”
“Fair point.” Trixie sniffed.
Starlight looked up at the setting sun on the horizon, and swiveled her head to a clock in a window display of a furniture store. “And it’s half past four! We have just barely half an hour left before places start closing!”
“Calm down. Here.” Starlight turned her head to see pink magic unzipping her pocket and pulling out her change purse. “Sixteen bits, was it?” Trixie opened the purse and pulled out several bits. “We’ll split. I’ll go to Sugarcube Corner and get something for Pinkie, you get to the pet shop and find something for Fluttershy. If you’re a bit short, teleport over and get me.”
“How are you going to buy something without Pinkie noticing?” Starlight asked.
Trixie gave her a smug smirk as she slipped the bits into her own pocket. “I have experience with getting Twilight’s friends to stay away from me. I’ll figure something out.”
“Alright then, thanks.” Starlight nodded and galloped away.
The bell over the door of Treasured Pets rang loudly as Starlight rushed through the door. She stepped up to the counter; seeing no one, she swivelled her head. “Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
Starlight looked behind her. The clerk, a pegasus stallion with a white coat and pale blue mane, looked over at her from stocking a shelf of pet food.
“Um…” Starlight approached him, mind racing. Think, THINK! What can we get Fluttershy? “Uh… do you know Fluttershy?” She smiled in what she hoped was a friendly way and not a ‘I’m desperate please say yes’ way.
The clerk raised an eyebrow. “Do you realize what store you’re in?”
“Right, dumb question. So, do you know something here she would like as a gift?”
“Nope.” The clerk shrugged and went back to stocking.
Starlight slumped. “Thanks for nothing.”
“No problem,” came the instant reply.
Starlight walked along a wall of various animal-themed merchandise, mostly toys of various kinds. “Think, think...has to be something here…” She saw a stack of flattened wool objects in various colors and moved to them. “Are these hats or something?” She lifted the orange one on the top and puffed it out into a spherical shape with cat ears and two plastic yellow eyes looking back at her.
“Those are tea cozies,” the clerk called over. “They keep teapots warm.”
“Tea?” Starlight said to herself more than him. “Fluttershy likes tea. I think. I’m sure.” She lit her horn and the stack of tea cozies levitated into the air around her and circled her. Starlight’s eyes locked onto each one in turn. “Dog, no, cat, no, another cat, no, hamster, no. Bunny!”
She pulled down the one in front of her and puffed it up, and smiled happily at the sight of a white rabbit with bright green eyes. “How much are they?”
“Five bits.”
“Perfect!” Starlight looked at her coat and focused. She saw a flash of light from within her pocket and then another flash as five coins materialized on the counter. “Thank you!” She closed her eyes and teleported.
The clerk looked over as the remaining tea cozies dropped to the floor around where Starlight had been.
“Seriously?”
Starlight appeared outside of Sugarcube Corner and peered through the window. She frowned and tilted her head. “Trixie?”
Inside she watched as Trixie casually leaned on the counter, looking at her hoof and talking away. Starlight teleported into the stairwell to the cafe’s second floor and listened around the corner.
“And the acoustics were great, but the backstage rooms were way too small. Overall, six out of ten.” There was a haughty laugh. “Now the Palais Hoovier, that’s a venue. Trixie has been asked to perform there about three or four times, and it’s like a hotel.”
What is she doing? Starlight scowled and wondered if she could discretely teleport herself and Trixie away without it being obvious who had taken her. But before she could even try, she heard another voice chime in.
“Oooo, sounds fancy!”
“It is, it really is.”
Starlight scowled, her nostrils flared. Trixie, have you been standing here chatting!?
“Well, Trixie, I’d love to stay and chat but I have to finish putting away the display stuff before the store closes. I’ve got to go meet Mr. Cake and help him make his deliveries.”
Starlight heard a gasp. “Oh, right, Trixie is so sorry! She forgot you close early for Hearth’s Warming. Time sure does fly when you’re talking with a friend.”
“Oh, tell me about it! But at least it’s time well spent! Heeee!”
“Indeed.” Trixie hummed a bit. “Trixie usually buys her friends gifts to commemorate their bond, but she admits she’s not sure what you’d like.”
Starlight’s eyes widened. Is she...
“I usually like anything my friends buy me. But if you want something specific, I could use a new extra-large cookie tray.” Pinkie sputtered. “The last one got ruined after I blasted a hole through it with my party cannon.”
“...Trixie is compelled to ask why.”
“Rainbow bet me five bits my party cannon wasn’t strong enough to punch through steel. Sometimes a mare has to do what a mare has to do, you know what I mean?”
“Trixie understands completely. Well, Trixie is a bit short on bits today, so in lieu of that, she shall close the store for you and you can go home.”
“Wow, really? Thanks, Trixie! You’re the best.”
“She knows.”
There was a jingling before Starlight heard Pinkie speak again. “Okay, here’s the keys. This one is for the back door, this one is for the front. Mr. Cake will take care of the register when he gets back so you won’t have to be using this key to open it. Oh, and that reminds me, please don’t steal anything. But Pinkie knows you won’t because you’re her friend! Okay, bye!”
Starlight waited until she heard the door open and close, before stepping into view. Trixie calmly looked over at her, a small smile on her lips.
“Been there long?”
“Trixie, you are an evil genius!”
“I know. It’s a gift.” Trixie looked at a shelf of cooking merchandise. “They’re ten bits each.”
“I can only afford one but it’ll do.” Starlight dumped her purse of bits on the counter. “And just one left over as a tip.” She walked over to the shelf and lifted an extra-large cookie tray off its hook. “And we are six-for-six!” she cheered and jumped.
“Congratulations.” Trixie grabbed the ring of keys on the counter. “You head out, I’ll lock up.”
Starlight looked over her collection of bags and goods and let out a breath. “Thanks, Trixie. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Sure you could have. But, Trixie is a good friend.”
Starlight didn’t need to see her face to know she was smirking. She rolled her eyes and teleported away.
Pinkie tore the green and blue wrapping paper off her gift and gasped loudly. “A new extra-large cookie tray!?” She grinned at Starlight. “How did you know I needed one of these?”
Starlight winked. “Just a hunch.”
The semi-circle of plush couches and chairs clustered around Twilight’s fireplace was a mess of wrapping paper, ribbon, boxes, and other packaging that had been torn off and discarded as the others all opened their gifts from each other. Applejack was wearing a thick green sweater from Rarity and looking at the instructions for a ‘build-it-yourself’ family tree display, Rainbow Dash was examining a pair of wing guards built for safety at high speeds, Fluttershy was fawning over a stuffed possum with a silly face, and Twilight had her nose buried in one of six books piled next to her.
Starlight looked at the table next to her chair and smiled at her gifts: a book on magic, a kit for a new kite, a six-photograph picture frame – which had been pre-loaded with pictures of her with each of her friends – an embroidered hoof-stitched scarf, a ‘Junior Camper’s’ outdoors guide, and a voucher for a free cupcake with her next purchase at Sugarcube Corner. The last one was written on construction paper with pencil, but Pinkie assured Starlight it was valid.
Rarity unwrapped the final gift of the evening by carefully undoing the tape on the back and unfolding the paper. She saw the cover of the book on earth pony fashion and cooed. “Marvelous! Thank you, Starlight!” She beamed across the table of snacks.
“You’re welcome, Rarity.” Starlight gave a sheepish smile. “Although to be honest, I didn’t pick that one out, Trixie did. She helped me a lot today.”
“Ah, well then, please pass along my thanks to her when you see her next.” Rarity flipped the book open to a random page and looked over the sketches.
Twilight raised her head from her own book. “How come Trixie didn’t join us?”
Starlight shrugged. “She said this was our night and she doesn’t really consider herself part of the group. And she didn’t have gifts for us herself.”
“Nonsense!” Applejack called over. “Ain’t nothing that says y’all have to get us gifts to spend time here.”
Twilight nodded. “But, if that’s what she wants, I understand. If you wanted to exchange gifts with her, though, you can do it here. And maybe she’ll feel like staying.”
Starlight paused. “Pardon?”
“Oh, sorry. I’d assumed you’d leave it for tonight, did you already give her your gift?” Twilight replied.
Starlight’s eyes widened. “My...gift…?”
Rainbow leaned over the arm of her chair. “Uh, you were out shopping with Trixie for us all day. But you did remember to get something for her, right?”
Keenly aware all eyes in the room were on her, Starlight gulped.
“Gotta go!”
She didn’t even remember teleporting.
Starlight banged loudly on the door of Trixie’s wagon parked to the side of Twilight’s castle. “Trixie!”
She heard shuffling and steps and backed away. The door swung open and Trixie looked down at her, surprised. “Starlight?”
“Happy Hearth’s Warming!” Starlight grinned widely and held out a thin, rectangular item wrapped in red paper.
“Oh, thank you.” Trixie took the item in her magic and backed into the cart. “Get in here, you’re letting the heat out.” Starlight obeyed and closed the door. Sitting by the light and warmth of a glowing magical stone in a holder on a table, Trixie unwrapped the package. Her eyebrows lifted at the sight of a small wooden frame. “A picture of you and Twilight.”
“Yup!” Starlight nodded, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of her face. “Your best friend and your...not-an-enemy-anymore-friend!”
“I see.” Trixie pursed a lip and examined the picture and frame. She flipped it over. “Oh, you signed it.”
Starlight’s ear fell against her head. “I did?”
“To my dear friend, Starlight.”
“I…” Starlight laughed nervously. “I signed it in the third person, like you would!”
“...from Twilight.”
“...It’s a gift from both of us! From me, and Twilight, to you!” Starlight swung her hooves into the air. “Double surprise!”
Trixie nodded and kept her eyes on the picture frame as she turned it back over. “Starlight, this is either a very kind, thoughtful gift…”
“Yeeees…”
“Or you grabbed a random picture off your desk and shoved it in some wrapping paper!” Trixie snapped, glaring at her.
Starlight opened and closed her mouth and averted eye contact. “...I got it from my dresser.”
Trixie gently set the picture on her table. “Why?”
Starlight groaned and slapped her hooves to her face. “I’m sorry! I forgot to get you a gift!”
Trixie huffed. “Yeah, I figured that out.” When Starlight flinched, she stepped closer. “Oh, come on, that was a joke!” She pulled Starlight’s hooves from her face. “Starlight, do I seem the kind of pony who gets materialistic?” She immediately raised a hoof. “Nevermind, forget I asked that. What I mean is, I didn’t care if I got a gift from you.”
Starlight relaxed a little. “Really?”
“I spend all my time on the road, alone. I can’t even remember the last time I got a Hearth’s Warming gift. I didn’t even think about getting one until you just mentioned it and I’m not upset you forgot.”
“That doesn’t really help.” Starlight rubbed the back of her neck and looked at her hooves. “It’s still bad on my part. I wanted my first Hearth’s Warming gift giving to be perfect! I got great gifts for everypony inside, they loved them. But I was so busy thinking about them, I forgot about you! What kind of friend is so busy obsessing over their other friends that they forget about the friend that helped her when she needed it?”
“The kind of friend who will do anything to make her friends happy, that’s who,” Trixie replied. She put a hoof on Starlight’s chin and turned her head up. “Look, you spent the whole day with me and I got to help you help your friends. I’d say being able to spend time with a friend is good enough to count as my gift.”
When she finished, Trixie paused, scrunched her face and stuck her tongue out. “Ugh. I can taste the schmaltz. What’s gotten into me?”
Starlight nodded. “Great idea!”
“What idea?”
“Come inside!” Starlight swept a hoof towards the door of the wagon. “You can spend the evening with us, as a true friend! That can be your gift.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow.
“There’s cookies and cake, and hot cocoa, and we’re gonna play some games and sing carols!”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t sing carols.” She paused in thought. “But, she does drink cocoa and eat cookies…” She glanced at Starlight, who leaned forward with an eager smile. Trixie let out a breath and rolled her eyes. “Oh, fine.”
“Yes!” Starlight cheered as Trixie picked up the picture frame and wrapping paper.
“First, you’re going to teleport to your room and put this back. And then I’ll see you inside.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Starlight took the picture and chuckled nervously as Trixie walked past her. “And, again, sorry for not getting you an actual gift. Really.”
“Eh, relax.” Trixie pushed the door of her wagon open and hopped down the steps. “I’m more grateful you’re not upset at me for not getting you one.” She kicked the door closed behind her.
Starlight’s jaw dropped.
“Hey!”
