Flowers Are Not For Fire!
Roseluck wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, glancing up from her garden to the sun high above. Not a second later, she winced as the sunlight immediately made her regret doing so.
"Ah, curses", she muttered under her breath, scanning her row of seedlings for any sign of weeds. Of course it had to be this week that Ponyville's weather team scheduled a whole week of cloud-less skies. A whole week! What about her poor flowers?! Sure, they needed the sunlight, but the heat was going to suffocate them! 'Just file a request with Rainbow Dash to adjust the schedule,' they told her. As if Rainbow Dash would even remember her request until a whole month went by.
And double unfortunately, she'd be the only one tending to the flowers for much of the week. Lily was out visiting her parents in Fillydelphia, and Daisy was off vacationing for the weekend. Not that she was really complaining, since they had all planned out and agreed to this schedule a month in advance. These specific flowers weren't for sale, however. A bunch of flowers along the trail leading to the Everfree Forest had been disappearing over the last couple of weeks. She imagined some wildlife might have wandered near the town and feasted on the poor things, but nevertheless it upset the floral balance of the trail. It'd be up to her to make it right with these replacements.
She put down her watering can and shifted her gaze from seedling to seedling, trained after years upon years of recognizing her precious plants, until finally a single stem caught her eyes. Just a single sprout with two little leaves, easy to miss in most cases. Thankfully, this little dandelion sprout happened to take root among a row of tulip sprouts, making it way easier to notice for its differing leaf shape.
"Gotcha," she whispered. She stepped closer, making sure not to step on any of her other precious spouts, and slowly approached the invading weed. The stem was small, weak, but it would grow like a parasite and sap away the nutrients from her flowers. This could not be allowed. She leaned down cautiously, tilted her head, and carefully bit down upon its stem. Too strong a pull might sever the stem and leave the roots intact, which would make it much more troublesome to remove.
She shifted around, making sure she had a firm enough grip, and prepared to yank the interloper out from the shelter of her garden once and for al—
Ding!
Roseluck's ears perked up upon the ringing of the bell at the stand in front of her house, and she shot her head up instinctively. The upper half of the weed broke off in her mouth, leaving behind a tiny sliver of green where there should've been solid brown. She let out an annoyed grunt. Seemed like she'll be getting her hooves dirty after all later.
Ding!
"Uh, coming!" She haphazardly spat the broken weed into the nearby compost bin and scrambled to her hooves, rushing back into her house. She galloped to the bathroom, turning on the faucet to wash her hooves of the wet soil. She wasn't ashamed of wearing her work on her body, but when facing customers, having a clean appearance just seemed a tad more appropriate.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
"What in the—" Roseluck grabbed a nearby hoof towel, ran the water through it for a few seconds, and hurriedly rubbed it across her face. "Hold your horses, I said I'm coming!"
She spared a glance at the mirror to affirm her cleaner look and galloped to her house's curtained front window, which had been renovated long ago into a makeshift shop stand. She wrestled with the knobs on the glass, folding the window inwards, then bit down on the nearby drawstring and pulled hard. The curtain rose upwards, flooding the interior with that bountiful, natural lighting from Celestia's sun. She stood on her hind legs, leaning with her forehooves resting on the counter, and put on her brightest smile to greet her customer. "Hello! Welcome to the Ponyville Flower Emporium! How may I—" Her brain finally registered the pony standing before her and her grin dimmed every so slightly. "Oh. Hey there, Trixie."
Trixie gasped in faux surprise. "What, are you not happy to see the Great and Powerful Tri—"
"Not really?" Roseluck rolled her eyes tiredly. "I believe you still owe me twenty bits for when one of your fireworks crashed into my flower cart during your last show?"
Trixie smiled sheepishly, fidgeting with the bell. "Uh, Trixie promises to get those to you soon."
"Uhuh." Roseluck reached out and snatched the bell from under Trixie's hoof, maneuvering to its original spot on the side of the window. She glanced around briefly and sighed in relief. No Starlight Glimmer in sight. Usually, when those two were out and about together, disaster was sure to rear its head in the immediate proximity. To be fair, though, just one of them alone carried the same implication, but the chances were maybe 80% lower, if Spike's calculations had any bearing to them.
She turned her attention to Trixie once again, making note of the absence of two signature articles of clothing on her body. "Where's your cape and hat?"
"Back at my wagon." Trixie raised an eyebrow. "Can't you feel the heat?! I'd be baked alive in ten minutes if I walked around town wearing those!"
Roseluck couldn't help but let out a quiet chuckle. "I guess I can't argue with that. Sooooo, what brings you here?"
"I keep my wagon parked beside Twilight's castle, so you might—"
"No, I know you live there already." Roseluck cut her off. "I've seen you around plenty lately. I mean, why are you here, at my shop?"
Trixie cocked her head like she'd just been asked if she has any smoke bombs. "To... buy some flowers."
"Oh." Roseluck blinked, speaking slowly. "That makes sense." She blinked again. "Wait, oh! You're looking for flowers?"
"Uh, that's what I just said?"
Despite her wariness of Trixie's usual antics, the salespony and passionate gardener within her quickly bubbled to the surface as a wide grin spread on her muzzle. "Well, what are you looking for? If you're trying to scent a room, we've got lavenders, jasmines, or even roses, like me! Or tulips and lilies for decor! Or, if you don't want to worry about watering them too much, we have a few succulents and—"
"Uhhhhh..." Trixie cut her off, pressing a hoof to her nose before she could start climbing over the stand. "I just need a bouquet."
Roseluck paused. "A bouquet? Are you going on a date?" A mischievous thought passed through her mind and she leaned closer with a sly smirk. "Are you getting maaaarrrieeeddd?"
"What?!" Trixie shrieked, reeling back. A few nearby ponies turned to look out of curiosity, to which Trixie waved at them in embarrassment. "Sorry. Uh, no. Nothing like that. I just need something that looks cool."
"Aw, bummer." Roseluck laughed, pulling back. She cocked her head. "A bouquet that looks cool? Have you been spending too much time around Rainbow Dash?"
"No, but I think Starlight probably has", she grumbled lightly. "Just something that looks... good."
"Alright, 'looks good', got it", Roseluck noted jokingly. "Not that much different from 'looks cool', but I can still work with it." She looked Trixie up and down, and put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Do you want a cooler color scheme, like the one you and your stage attire have, or something warmer to contrast it?"
"You think my stage look is cool?" Trixie beamed. "Finally, somepony recognizes the—"
"No, not Rainbow Dash's type of 'cool'." Roseluck paused her with a hoof covering her mouth. "The color type of 'cool'. You know... the opposite of warm?"
Trixie furrowed her brows in confusion and took a step back, freeing her mouth. "Trixie doesn't understand how my cape and hat can make anypony cold. I just said, I left them at the wagon because it's too hot."
Roseluck smacked herself in the forehead with a hoof. "Nooo, 'cool' as in colors associated with things that are... well, cool. Shades of greens, blues, and purples, like the grass on a rolling hill, or the forever-reaching, clear sky, or a—"
"Trixie doesn't think 'cool' can describe today's cloudless sky."
Roseluck deadpanned. "Water."
"That makes more sense."
She rolled her eyes. "So do you want cooler colors with blues and purples like your cape? Or warmer colors like red, orange, and yellow."
"Ohhhh, Trixie understands now!" Trixie looked to the sky as she pondered, wincing as the sunlight made her immediately regretted it soon after. "Let's go with cooler then."
"That sounds wonderful!" Roseluck grinned. She glanced to the side at her list of her matured flowers currently available. "If you're looking for a bouquet with a longer shape, I would go with some lavenders, delphiniums, blue or purple orchids, and maybe some asters. For a rounder bouquet though, you'd be better off using some hydrangeas, blue carnations, some campanulas, and asters. Hmmm, actually, I'd lose the asters. The yellow in the center of them might throw off the color scheme, and they usually look best from afar and in larger groups."
Trixie blinked slowly. "I have no idea what any of those look like, but a rounder one will probably be easier for my act."
Roseluck nodded and turned around, preparing to gather the necessary flowers for Trixie's bouquet. She resisted the urge to scoff at Trixie floral illiteracy, like she had to do with almost every customer she spoke with. It wasn't always their fault that the average pony rarely strives to seek out the finer intricacies that nature herself fashions for ponykind. To truly appreciate all the little nuances and details in each and every gem. To reach out and—
Wait a minute.
"Uh, Trixie?" She turned around slowly. "I... don't think you told me what you're gonna be using the bouquet for."
"Oh!" Trixie beamed proudly. "They will be a part of a new act for my upcoming, grand performance! First, I'll ask a pony to volunteer and come up the stage!" She gestures with her hooves as if she was pitching the act to her. "Then, he'll pick a card, any card! He'll memorize it and place it into the deck, at which point I'll hand him the bouquet and—"
"I, uh, just wanna know what you're gonna do with the bouquet, Trixie." Roseluck glanced around awkwardly. "You don't need to give me a full run-down."
"But I'm getting there!"
Roseluck sighed and motioned with a hoof to carry on, accepting her fate.
"So, where was I again? Uh... right, the bouquet! He'll hold the bouquet as I take the deck and shuffle it in view of the audience. And then, when they least expect it, I'll throw the entire thing into the audience, showering them with the cards! Of course, the volunteer will be all confused, but then I'll snatch the bouquet from his hooves and light it ablaze! I'll twirl and spin it over my head, and then—"
"You're gonna WHAT?!" Roseluck screeched in horror.
"I just said, I'll spin it over my head. Then I'll give it a final shake to clear away the ashes and reveal the card was hidden among the flowers the whole ti—"
"No no no no." Roseluck shook her head, her pupils shrunken to pinpricks. Her voice shuddered. "Y— you said you're going to do what to the flowers?"
"I'm gonna spin them around an—"
"No! Before that!"
Trixie blinked. "I'm... going to set them on fire and—"
"Yes! That!" Roseluck threw her hooves up in shock. "Why would you do that?!"
Trixie tilted her head in confusion. "Duh, I need to get rid of the flowers to reveal the volunteer's card! Weren't you listening?"
Roseluck smacked herself again with a hoof. This couldn't be real, right? Trixie had to be messing with her. "Why would you set the flowers on fire?! Can't you just... throw them at the audience or—" Roseluck froze, her voice lowering to a whisper. "...but that would doom all those flowers to die slowly and horribly, withering away as they're cut from the source of growth and, worse, trampled on by all the clueless ponies in the audience!"
Trixie rolled her eyes. "Well, I could just throw them, but then there would be no spectacle! No gasps of shock and awe and wonder! The reveal would just be the same old, boring 'look, the card was in there the entire time' gimmick."
Roseluck's jaw hung open. "But isn't that what the trick is already?! You're just... burning flowers for no reason just to reveal the card was hidden among them?"
"My trick is nothing like that!" Trixie scoffed in mild offense. "It's more of a 'fwoosh! The card was in here the entire time!' sort of thing."
"But that's exactly what you just said!"
"There's a difference! It's part of showponyship."
"Then why a bouquet, huh?" Roseluck pressed. "Why can't it just be a, uh, um, a box! Like a little present that you can slip the card in when nopony's looking?"
Trixie looked up in thought. "I mean... I could. But Trixie's been practicing this trick with a bouquet for the past two weeks. If I switch to something else, I might mess the whole thing up!"
"How is it any different to just use something else to hide the... the..." A sudden realization dawned, and her eyes widened in abject horror. "Trixie?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you just say you've been... practicing... with a bouquet for the past two weeks?"
"Yep! And I've been getting wayyy better too! At first, I'd mess up the sleight-of-hoof and end up dropping the card while shaking the bouquet. Other times I'd forget to cast Starlight's fireproofing spell on the card, so it'd just get burnt to ashes with the flowers, but now I—"
"Trixie."
"What?"
Roseluck took a deep breath, slowing her speech. "For the past two weeks, while practicing your tricks, where have you been getting the flowers for your bouquet?"
Trixie furrowed her brows in thought for a second. "There were a bunch of really nice ones along the side of the path out of Ponyville! You know, the one going into the Everfree Forest? They were the perfect size and shape to make plenty of practice bouquets!"
Roseluck's eye twitched. "So, you're the reason all those tulips along the trail are gone?"
"Ohhhh, those were tulips? I swear, the name was on the tip of my tongue when I found those." Trixie caught Roseluck's glare and winced slightly. "What?!"
Roseluck closed her eyes and pressed a hoof between them, rubbing it in frustration. "Can you, for the love of Celestia herself, STOP burning flowers?!"
"Trixie doesn't get what the big deal is here." She crossed her hooves. "They're just flowers."
"Just flowers?! They breathe, grow, survive, not too different from us! You need to treat them with delicate care and gentleness, not just careless fi—"
"Uh huh", Trixie rolled her eyes. "It's not like I go out of my way to burn every flower I see. It's just... those ones happened to be nearby! And it was for a good cause too!"
Roseluck raised an eyebrow. "A good cause for burning flowers? And what might that be?"
"Uh... spreading joy and laughter through entertainment and wonder?" Trixie offered a sheepish smile.
"...you know, coming from you, that's actually not half bad." Roseluck muttered under breath. "Or did you just take that from Pinkie?"
Trixie opened her mouth to retort, but Roseluck cut her off swiftly.
"Still! I'm not going to give you these flowers just for you to immediately burn them."
"I'm not burning them right now!" Trixie insisted. "My show is in..." She squinted her eyes and glanced up and to the side towards the sun's position, where it was beginning it descent towards the horizon. "...a couple of hours, so I'll burn them then!"
"Th— that's barely any better!" Roseluck pounded her hoof against the wooden countertop. "I can't let you! I can't really stop you from making your own bouquet and burning it, as much as it pains me, but I won't let you burn any flowers I put so much of my blood, sweat, and tears into!"
"But you're the only florist in town!" Trixie whined. "And what blood goes into growing flowers anyway?"
"'What blo—'" Roseluck scoffed. "I have spilled plenty of it growing and caring for bushes of roses and bougainvillea!"
"Bouga— what now?"
"Bougainvi— ugh", Roseluck paused, deadpanning. She pointed a hoof behind Trixie, guiding her gaze to a row of prickly, pink bougainvillea that she recently cultivated to line the top of somepony's balcony.
"Ohhhh. I knew that."
"No, you didn't."
"...okay fine, I didn't." Trixie admitted, sticking out her tongue. "Come on, please? I know you have plenty of flowers back there to spare!"
"Oh, I do. But like I said, if you're just gonna light them on fire for your performance, then you aren't getting them!" She spun around, planning on finishing off that last annoying weed remaining in her garden.
Trixie bit her lip, her eyes shifting around. "What if... I changed the trick?"
"Oh?" Roseluck paused, her attention piqued. She turned back around. "I thought you said you couldn't change it up? That you've been practicing this for weeks and—"
"I did, but... I mean... they do say a real magician should be able to think on her hooves in case a routine goes wrong. Plus, the bouquet was the important part, I can easily just change up how I reveal the card."
Roseluck contemplated, caught a little off guard at the usually so stubborn unicorn actually giving in. "If... you're not gonna burn the flowers anymore... then I suppoooooose I'm okay with it."
"Really? Yes!" Trixie pumped a hoof in excitement. "How many bits do I—"
"Eight for the round bouquet. But you have to Pinkie Promise you're not gonna go ahead and burn them anyway for the trick."
"Pinkie... promise?" Trixie repeated slowly, confused.
Roseluck playfully rolled her eyes. "Come on, you've been around Ponyville for this long and haven't heard of that yet? It's ju—"
"Oh!" Trixie perked up. "No no, I know what that is now! So that's what I saw Starlight doing a couple of times with Twilight every time she starts some horrifically dangerous experiment."
Roseluck blinked, not wanting to inquire further on what nightmarish schemes Twilight's former pupil had been up to lately. That was an entirely different class of rabbit hole.
"I, uh, cross my eyes and hope to fly..." Trixie recited slowly, going through the motions. "... stick a cookie in my eye?"
"...close enough." Roseluck laughed. She trotted into a room on the side, brushing off the tingling sensation of the custom flower preservation enchantment permeating the air. It was quite the worthwhile investment by her and her fellow flower ponies, letting them maintain wayyyy more flowers away from the soil and sunlight than they normally would be able to.
She grabbed a hoof full of light blue hydrangeas, purple campanulas, and lilac carnations, and expertly wrapped them together in a neat little bouquet. She then brought it out and placed it on the counter, where Trixie had already laid out the required eight bits.
"These flowers were sitting in a preservation field for a while, so they can stay fresh for maybe a four, five hours before you'd need to plant them or put them in a vase. Should be long enough to make it to your show." She looked up at Trixie and thought for a moment. "Even without your cape, the flowers still fit nicely with your mane and coat color."
"Thaaaank you!" Trixie beamed, scooping the bouquet in her magic. She went to turn around, but soon paused. She digged around in her bit pouch, procured a small, slip of lilac paper, and floated it over to Roseluck. "Here you go!"
Roseluck caught it in a hoof and scanned it over. "A ticket to your magic show?" She cocked her head. "But I thought you don't charge for entry?"
"I don't! Think of it as a... personal invitation, if you want." Trixie grinned and trotted away. "See yaa!"
Roseluck waved amiably, eyeing the ticket. It'd been ages since she'd last seen a magic show. There wasn't gonna be anypony around the house for a while, and she didn't really have much left to do for the rest of the day once she dug out that last weed in the garden. She raised a hoof to wipe a beat of sweat from her forehead.
Honestly, she could use the reprieve, if anything.
Roseluck munched on some popcorn, shifting around on the grass to stay comfortable. A few ponies among the audience sat around her, but thankfully not close enough to make it feel cramped. The chill wind blew gently through her mane, offering some much needed relief from the day's heat.
So far, Trixie's show wasn't actually that bad. Well, five minutes might not be enough to judge one's entire performance yet. And okay, maybe the tricks were a little predictable and straightforward, but she somehow managed to find ways to make them a lot more entertaining.
If there was anything Trixie was skilled at besides her stage magic, it would have to be that firework spell she kept throwing around before, during, and after almost every trick.
"Now then! For this next trick, I'll need a volunteer from the audience!"
Roseluck perked up, recognizing those exact words. This would be the trick she had already been told about.
Trixie, donning her signature outfit, made a show of scanning the audience with squinted eyes. Suddenly, her eyes landed right on Roseluck, and she pointed a hoof at her. "You!"
Roseluck gasped in surprise as the many eyes of the audience fell upon her, but recollected herself with a chuckle. "This will be good", she whispered to herself as she climbed to her hooves and trotted up and over to the stage. Trixie winked at her and patted a pillow she'd prepared for her. She slowly sat on her haunches on it, scooching around to keep herself comfortably in the middle.
Trixie floated a deck of playing cards in front of her. "Go ahead and look over this to make sure there isn't anything fishy with these cards!"
Roseluck laughed and rolled her eyes, giving it a few glances from different angles. "Nope, looks good to me."
"Perfect!" Trixie turned to beam at the audience. "Now would you be so kind as to pick a card, any card?"
Playing along, Roseluck made her own show of scanning across the deck before carefully pulling out a card from the middle of the deck, turning it over. "Two of diamonds", she read.
"Great choice!" Trixie snatched the card from her hoof in her magic and showed it off to the audience. "The two of diamonds!" She passed the card back to Roseluck, then floated the deck in front of her. "Now could you neatly place the card anywhere in the deck?"
Roseluck raised an eyebrow discretely. Lacking the maneuverability of a unicorn's horn, she slowly placed it on the top, though Trixie immediately shuffled the deck enough times for her to lose sight of it.
"Now, if you could hoooold this for me." Trixie floated over a bouquet, her bouquet, and Roseluck grasped it between her forelegs. She looked over her flowers as Trixie proceeded to talk to the audience. They were still in perfect condition, the preservation spell likely still in effect, every leaf and petal as vibrant as could be. She breathed in their aroma, smiling gently at the outcome of months of work put into each of those flowers, especially the hydrangeas.
There were many loud gasps, and Roseluck glanced up to see a shower of cards fluttering upon the audience, Trixie's cape flowing gracefully from the throw.
"And now!"
Trixie floated the bouquet from Roseluck's hooves, hovering it right above her horn. Her memory of Trixie's description of the trick reached the forefront of her mind, and a twinge of concern passed over her. Wasn't this the part where she was originally going to light the flowers on fire? What was she going to do instead?
Trixie squeezed her eyes shut in concentration as the glow around her horn intensified. Roseluck felt a slight chill in the air, a thin layer of ice slowly spread upwards and throughout the bouquet, until the entire thing glistened in the light. She gasped in awe at how the lights hit the frost on the leaves and petals, like the morning frost on a cold, winter's day.
In one swift motion, Trixie brought the bouquet down and smashed it hard upon the stage floor. Its many leaves and petals shattered like glass, little wisps of vapor rising from the pieces as they scattered across the stage. Trixie sifted through the broken mess until she dug out a single, playing card. She showed it to the audience, who responded with heavy applause, then trotted over to Roseluck to show her the card, revealing it to be the two of diamonds.
"Was this your card?"
She fainted.
Author's Note
Poor Roseluck :3
