Forgot Your Hat

by Mokoma

Rating: everyone
Tags: Romance, Trixie, Starlight Glimmer, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1096

A unicorn forgets her hat. And something else.

Trixie may be a bit forgetful. Forgetting two things, both important to her, is a feeling that may weigh upon her heavily. Yet, not as heavily as another feeling weighs upon somepony else.

A prompt - written for Bean's Writing Group!

Published 2022-12-21 20:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-12-21 20:50:00 UTC

Forgot Your Hat

She sat alone in the room full of messily placed objects and scattered books, reclining on the chair and staring at the ceiling. Starlight Glimmer hadn't bothered cleaning the place up as she planned to. She lacked sleep, she hadn't eaten since the morning, and had already cried her eyes out for the third time today. The books were all about the topic of dealing with emotions that she was unable to understand, slowly shifting from magic and unconsciously into psychology.

But the worst part of it all was that she indeed sat alone.

On the desk in-front of her...a magician's hat. One she kept glancing at, and teared up again.

All the music she could listen to at the moment was the rhythmic tick-tocking of the clock. The kind of tune that the longer she listened to, the more empty she felt. She would need to keep it that way, because if she didn't feel emptier per second, she would feel more in agony. Every second should've stung. Every second should've weighed down upon her chest.

She considered things objectively. Things weren't so bad, right? All she had to do would be to spend some time without her light. To spend some time without the star of her life that shone brightly. Sure, sometimes it shone a bit too bright. Sometimes the star decided to become mischievous and flipped things in her life in ways that were best unflipped.

But it was her star.

And now, her star had left.

But thinking objectively; no. Her star wasn't extinguished. Her star wasn't gone forever...It just temporarily moved to another system, so that now it no longer had the same powerful shine as it did. Unreachable, and untouchable...

For the next four years.

Sure, four years isn't so long. But each week already felt like a month - and a month felt like a year. So, by this logic, this month was very, very tough. But after these four years...Who's to say that her star wouldn't have some other plans? Maybe extend the away time. Maybe go somewhere else. Maybe move on. Maybe even become somepony else's star.

What do you do when your star, the one that gave you warmth, disappears? What do you do when--

Knock knock!

Starlight sighed. She had very nice friends, and that motivated her. She wondered who it was last time. Most obvious choice was Twilight, who always gave her words of encouragement. Last time it was Rarity who knitted her a nice cardigan for the upcoming Hearthswarming. Applejack and Rainbow came along too to chat and see if she was okay. Pinkie, naturally, did Pinkie things. And Fluttershy did what she knew best; flood the place with bunnies and hamsters.

It all helped - but it had only distracted her during their visit, and maybe for half an hour after. Then, she went back to wallowing in the abyss. She sighed, and approached the door.

"You don't have to knock every day, you know." She called out. Maybe it was Applejack this time, who promised her some zap apple jam. Twilight might've found a useful book to help her too. Her hoof went for the handle of the door. "But listen, you don't have to--"

Starlight's blessing was the fact that she had very, very resilient eyes.

Because now, she was face-to-face with the brightest star in the universe.

"Hey..." The star said with a downcast voice. Trixie looked at Starlight; not with any other noticeable emotion...But shame, and held back emotions.

"T-Trixie!?" Starlight cried out in surprise, snapping back into reality - because oup; there goes gravity...Perhaps literally if the metaphor of astronomy was to be applied; standing right next to a star and all.

"I..I..Uhm..." Trixie swallowed nervously. "The Great and Powerful Trixie...Forgot her...H-Hat." She nervously admitted. "T-That and, a little something else..." She sighed sadly.

"But..." Starlight blinked in disbelief. "What about the college? You wanted to go there for so long! A-And if you don't go now, you might not get another chance!"

Trixie chuckled nervously. "Yeah...The North Unicorn College is, well...A bit harsh like that, Trixiethinks."

"So...Why did you come back? T-They might not even allow you back! Wait, i-it's been one week, right?" Starlight nervously thought. "I could try teleporting you there, or somewhere close enough. If the semester starts in two days, maybe we can--"

"Starlight..." Trixie whimpered. "...I'm not going."

"W-What!?" Starlight gasped. "But...They're offering free tuition for any unicorn who lacks magical skills! They've taught so many unicorns...One of Sunburst's colleagues graduated from there, w-wasn't even able to levitate properly and now he's considered a master of transfiguration! Trixie, you've wanted this chance for so long, you...You belong there! You belong where you're the happiest!"

The blue unicorn could only sigh as she looked into her eyes. "Starlight, you're right. I do belong where I am the happiest. But the truth is..." She sighed. "The moment I got on that train...I felt as if I lost something. Well, yes, literally the hat, but...It was another loss I felt. Not like, forgetting your wallet or forgetting a ticket to your favorite band's concert. It was like..." Trixie looked to the side. "The same feeling you get when you lose a piece of yourself. Kind of like...I did when I realized I wasn't good at magic, and tried to convince the world I was. That feeling when your good childhood's gone. The only time I was able to fix this feeling is on that day when I realized I wasn't born the way I wanted to be, but that's the only time I was strong enough to do something...Or capable enough..."

"Trixie..." Starlight frowned deeply.

"The happiest I feel, Starlight..." The mare took a step forward, and extended a hoof slightly. "Is with you. That's..."

The two mares gazed upon each other's eyes without stopping for a mere moment. Trixie smiled.

"Where I belong. With you."

The two mares shed a tear each, and were unable to contain it. They swiftly leaned into each other, and wrapped their hooves one another. Starlight buried her face in Trixie's neck, and Trixie was unable to contain her grin of join as her hoof was holding onto her marefriend.

The soft sparkle of magic was heard, as Starlight levitated the magician's hat, and put it on Trixie's head. The two giggled as they gazed at each other.

"What shall we do, my Great and Powerful Trixie?" Starlight smiled at her.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie craves...ice cream." She giggled with a snort.