PrologueView OnlineHammock for TwoPrologueFireworks. That was Trixie's favorite part. They were particularly notable at this time of year—when the crisp, cool air of the far-northern reaches of Equestria seemed to bring all of time itself to an otherwise quiet standstill. The glare of the bright motes of light reflected off the snow, the ice, and even glinting off the Crystal Empire's infrastructure itself, visible in the distance, as color after color burst forth in a cacophony of light and sound. She gazed out across the crowd as her crafted spectacle burst forth. Each pop--each wow--each gasp of awe reminded her of why she got into this line of work in the first place: to entertain. Great and Powerful. That was how she wanted to be remembered. Up until recently, it had carried a different meaning. But now it meant giving her customers the best she could possibly give. That kind of joy was something she was only starting to remember. But that wasn't her goal right now—this month's roadtrip of holiday-themed performances wasn't about Trixie. It was about trying to understand the spirit of Hearthswarming. The fireworks finally stopped—to an uproarious applause. "Thank you!" Trixie said, a beaming smile on her face. She took a few bows, facing a different portion of the audience each time. "Trixie will be back next year!" she declared. Appreciation hailed down upon her stage; applause and shouts, certainly, but also material things. Some of it valuable—the only thing that let her continue from one town to the next. It beat working back at the rock farms... After some time, the crowd had dispersed and Trixie's admirers—mostly excited foals—had stopped interrupting her. She took the opportunity to rifle through the offerings as she collapsed her portable stage, loading it back onto the sides of her wagon. If she didn't stay at an inn tonight, there was enough bits to buy a gift for Hearthswarming--she didn't know who it would be for, but she felt like giving a gift to a friend might be the secret sauce of Hearthwarming that she was missing. Unfortunately, her spirits were starting to feel dampened. It was far too late: Hearthswarming was tomorrow. Nevermind finding a place open that would sell a gift on the big day itself, even if she could buy it, there was no way to get it all the way to Ponyville on time. Still, Trixie wasn't one to give up! She was determined to try in spite of it all. A late gift was better than no gift at all. And above all, Trixie was not a quitter. And really, if she could buy a gift anywhere... it would be the Crystal Empire. Surely somewhere would be still open for business and selling gifts for last-minute shoppers like herself. Trixie finished packing her wagon—it was dark, but this far north, dark didn't necessarily mean late. She had plenty of time, and if she started early, perhaps... perhaps she could catch a train from the capital immediately after her performance the next day? She wasn't slave to a performance schedule--her art tended to be more... spontaneous and impromptu. She would probably have to skip a meal or two just for the train ticket, and leaving her wagon behind for a day would be rough, but could she make it back to Ponyville before the day ended if she was quick about it. Probably. The only way to find out, of course, was to try. And so, hitching a lantern to the front of her wagon for light, the Great and Powerful Trixie headed out the city's gates and onto the road meandering north through the arboreal tundra. Destination: The Imperial Capital of the Crystal Empire.
ShowmareView OnlineHammock for TwoShowmareIt didn't take long for the cold to start bothering Trixie. She was bundled up well enough; after all, she was a travelling performer, and this sort of weather wasn't uncommon, for her to encounter, especially this far north. As she walked, a snowflake touched Trixie's nose. "What?" she blurted, surprised. Her eyes crossed as she focused on the tiny point of white dust fading into an equally tiny drop of water on the fine fur of her muzzle. Looking up into the sky, she realized that she could barely see the moon—dark clouds had blotted out the moon and stars. In the light of her lantern, she hadn't even noticed. As her eyes scanned the sky, however, more white flecks captured points of light from her lantern and reflected them back at her. It was snowing. Trixie stopped, unhitching herself from the wagon. It wouldn't do to get stuck in the snow without a chance to set up her wagon, and that meant parking where she was and hoping that it didn't get too bad. She'd learned from previous experiences that it wasn't worth the risk—and she was ahead of schedule by leaving tonight as it was. Worst case scenario... wasn't worth dwelling on. Two cinder blocks came off the front of the wagon, carried in her magic, thumping to the ground before she lowered the hitch down on them. A folded tarpaulin unraveled to cover them—another lesson she'd learned: Don't let the hitch sit in the snow. If the snow didn't stick right away, or if it melted before she got moving in the morning, the hitch would end up wet, and— "Hello, Trixie." "KyAAAAAA~!" Trixie nearly leapt out of her own fur as a very unexpected yet very familiar voice spoke, in very close proximity. Trixie leaned on the hitch, gasping for breath, eyes wide and her heart pounding in her chest. "M-M-Maud," she stammered out, glancing up at the ghost that seemed to have come in out of the gloom ahead. "You nearly scared Trixie to death! What in Equestria are you doing out here?!" Maud's head rotated quietly to gaze down the road toward the Crystal Empire, and then back to focus on Trixie. "Walking." Trixie was still gasping for breath, flabbergasted at this seemingly bizarre and unlikely encounter. "N-no, why are you here. With Trixie. In the middle of the wilderness." "This isn't the middle of the wilderness," Maud said flatly—much as she said everything. "This is the middle of the road." A hoof slapped Trixie in the forehead—one of her own, though with the cold numbing her hooves a bit, it could have belonged to anypony for as much as she felt it. "N-no, Trixie means... Oh, nevermind. Why are you," she gestured plaintively at Maud herself, "here." She pointed at the dirt road. "It's cold," Maud pointed out. She turned back to the north, facing the capital, but her hoof pointed off the road to the right and into the trees. "I was going to get settled in a cave over there to shelter from the snow, but I saw your light and wanted to make sure nopony needed help." She turned back to face Trixie. "The snow is going to be getting much worse. Do you want to come with me?" "W-what?" Trixie looked around, but Maud was right. The snow was intensifying quite quickly. Far quicker than was normal. "D...do you think it's the Windigoes?" she whispered. "No," Maud said, not bothering to lower her voice. "In the absence of pegasi to control the weather, snow is caused by atmospheric phenomenon. There's supposed to be a blizzard coming." "That's not any better!" Trixie snapped. "Trixie won't be able to make it to the Crystal Empire on time for her performance! And why would the stupid pegasi schedule a blizzard on Hearthswarming! Don't they want a day off?!" "Atmospheric phenomenon," Maud repeated. "You should get out of the open." Trixie turned and looked at her 'home'. "Trixie was planning to sleep in her wagon tonight." "It would be safer to stick together in this kind of weather," Maud droned. Maud was... requesting to sleep together? Trixie's cheeks flushed red as a brief silence passed between them. Brief flickers of her time working at the Pie family rock farm surfaced—the way Maud had always been there for her to help out, and the way she... Couldn't deny that Maud was an attractive mare, and perhaps one Trixie had paid more attention to than was healthy while working on the farm... "We... we can both sleep in my wagon...?" Trixie blurted. "Is there room for two?" Maud immediately replied. "Y-yes... Starlight and Trixie—" "Okay." Maud's reply came out immediately, and she wasted no time trotting to the back of the wagon. Trixie followed, confused as Maud just stood by the door. "We... uh... nevermind. I-it's okay," Trixie said, opening the door with her magic. "You can enter." Maud nodded, stepping mechanically up the two wooden stairs and through the small doorway. Trixie following, hopping up from the first step and ignoring the second. The interior was, as always, a cluttered disaster. The exterior lantern's glow came through the blue fabric of the wagon, illuminating the framework and casting a deep blue hue across boxes piled high in the front of the wagon. A worn hammock strung across the middle of the wagon was barely visible in the pale light, and the rear of the wagon was barely navigable around more boxes filled with props and other materials she used in her performances. "Are you sure there's room for two?" Maud asked, stepping into the space the hammock occupied, letting the rope mesh mess up her normally unflappable mane. Trixie grinned and her horn lit up, turning on the tiny heat lamp that would take some of the edge off the chilly night air and illuminate the interior with a soft glow. "We'll have to share the hammock, but it fits two just fine." She levitated four flimsy blankets from a nearby box. "Okay," Maud replied as Trixie lined the hammock with two of the blankets. "Those blankets are thin," she deadpanned. "Are they really going to be enough?" Trixie glanced at the two remaining blankets in her magic—Maud was right. They were thin and tattered. Her lips turned down into a frown. "T-Trixie just... doesn't have a lot of bits, you know?" "Is that why you're out here?" Yes. "No," Trixie blurted out, far too quickly. "The Great and Powerful Trixie does it for the love of the art! She just finds the bits... convenient." It was always hard to determine if Maud was buying anything she said. Maybe that little bit of mystery was why Trixie found herself drawn to the mare—it was practically the life-blood of sleight-of-hoof performers to be intrigued by mysterious—wait. "I-I don't need to pay for a train ticket," Trixie blurted. "What?" "N-nothing," Trixie stammered. With practiced ease, Trixie hopped up into the hammock, then used her magic to stabilize it. Maud to climb on, and the two were suddenly in rather close proximity. The hammock swayed slightly, the two of them pressed together by the hammock's natural desire to cocoon its inhabitant. Trixie covered them with the other two blankets, feeling the soft fabric of Maud's frock against her side and the blankets sandwiching them together. Maud was looking around the wagon's interior with curious eyes that were making Trixie nervous—what might she find intolerable about such a simple lifestyle? "Um... Why were you way out here in the tundra anyway?" she said, trying to distract from the state of her wagon. Maud looked up then, seemingly examining the ceiling. Trixie breathed a sigh of relief. "A rare gemstone was recently discovered nearby. It only forms under rare conditions. I thought it would be nice to find some, so I've been camping in a cave nearby and digging for them. While I was making supper, I saw your lantern in the distance and I knew the weather would get worse. Helping out lost travelers is something my family does." A faint smile curved her lips. "I suppose this is the second time we've helped you out." "Y-yes," Trixie replied. "Trixie remembers." Her thoughts drifted back to those days she spent on the Pie rock farm, and she found herself laughing. "Trixie remembers Limestone getting so mad. Trixie did not have earth pony intuition for the needs of growing rocks. Y-you... came to my rescue and taught me how to take care of the pebbles. Trixie learned a lot from you." "My sister means well," Maud said sagely. "But she doesn't know how to express herself." Trixie nearly burst out laughing at the irony of Maud speaking such words. Feeling like the ice was finally broken, the two of them fell into a routine of small talk as they laid together in the hammock. Even the normally stoic Maud seemed to loosen up a bit. Soon, as their bodies shifted trying to find a comfortable position, Trixie found herself in Maud's embrace in a position that could only be described as 'the little spoon'. It wasn't so much an intentional hug as it was a natural consequence of the hammock, but... snuggling into Maud felt nice. "... It's getting cold in here," Maud eventually opined. Trixie looked up to see Maud staring back down at her. It was somewhat toasty with so much of the larger mare curled around her, but the bite of winter chill was still there. Trixie looked back down at Maud's sides... and the blue fabric there. "We... could share some body heat," Trixie suggested. "What do you mean?" "You're still wearing your frock. Do you normally sleep with it on?" "And you're still wearing your cape," Maud pointed out. Trixie did not normally take that off unless... well... The two of them shared an awkwardly uncomfortable moment. "Should we take them off?" Trixie wondered aloud. The disorganized chaos of bailing out the hammock, stripping off their individual pieces of clothing, and climbing back into the hammock in such a tight space was enough to set Trixie back to laughing as the two managed to work their way back into the hammock together—in the same spooning pose they'd been in before. This time, though, Trixie could feel her fur brushing against Maud's. It felt... nice. The two of them snuggled together. An electric energy danced down Trixie's spine as she smiled—and slowly cuddled into the mare.
Rock HoundView OnlineHammock for TwoRock HoundMaud's eyes opened as the wildlife began to stir, the noise rousing her. She peered down at the smaller mare in her hooves; the slow rise and fall of her chest; how her mouth hung open slightly, wafting soft breaths into Maud's belly. It was far more intimate than she was used to with another mare. Perhaps more confusingly, she wasn't averse to it. In fact, she was glad she had come here. Trixie didn't seem to grasp the concept of weather without pegasi to guide it, and the blizzard was supposed to be quite harsh. The poor mare might have suffered intensely without help. After all... The window at the side of the wagon revealed the snow was deep enough the snow was visible even without standing up. Even if Trixie could have survived the night alone, she would never have a chance of continuing her journey in such conditions. Maud's heart swelled at the thought—that was what Maud found meaning in: the protection of others. Her only close friend, Starlight, was hardly in need of her help. Historically, she'd protected her younger sisters, and yet... They had grown. Pinkie already had a perfectly capable group of friends to look out for her. Limestone didn't need protection from anyone except her own hubris. And any protection Maud might have offered to Marble was overridden by Limestone's own aggressive form of protection. There wasn't much Maud could offer back home at all, really. Trixie's unexpected stint as a farmhand had provided her with an outlet when she'd gone home then, too. Sleeping while wrapped around Trixie had really given her that satisfaction overnight, too—a fragile ego, so much like Limestone... but without the capabilities to back up that ego. A pony that needed her help. It took several minutes of very careful maneuvers to slip out of the hammock without waking Trixie, but the showmare seemed to be a rather heavy sleeper, so she did eventually manage. Maud pulled on her frock, fishing around in the pocket for the gemstones she'd spent an entire day digging for. Holding it in her hoof, she looked between it and the sleeping Trixie. "Heh," a small laugh escaped. She put the gemstones away and turned to the door. The door resisted, but the snow wasn't piled so high she couldn't force it open, and when it finally did, the view was breathtaking. A vast field of white, punctured by trees covered in snow—with their lower trunks buried, and only the pine tops sticking out of an otherwise pristine, frigid purity. It was too good to ignore. Maud carefully climbed up to the top of the wagon using the door as leverage and trying not to mess up the snow, with limited success, but soon she was perched on top, with a breathtaking view. Cold. Frozen. Silence. Qualities she would often admire in rocks. For several minutes, she sat in contemplative silence, pondering her swirling feelings for the mare she'd just spent an evening with in alarmingly close proximity. Her hoof absentmindedly kept coming back to her chest, where Trixie's breath had been ruffling her fur. "Frozen smoke, it's cold in here," Trixie muttered from the wagon below her, the wagon doing nearly nothing at all to muffle her voice. "Good morning, Trixie," Maud called. "Trixie finds nothing good about mornings!" There was a crash along with a metallic rattle of something from inside the wagon. The door opened, and Trixie peeked her head out. Maud could see she was wrapped in all four of the blankets. "Maud? Where are you?" "Hello," Maud said, leaning off the side of the wagon so she was just inches above Trixie's horn. "KyAAAAAA~!" Trixie jumped again, just as she had the previous night. It was... somehow cuter. Trixie whirled about, her cheeks flushed with emotions Maud could only guess at. "What are you doing on the roof?!" Maud looked up at the snow. "Admiring the third most beautiful thing I've seen today." Trixie didn't seem to take the hint. "Oh, the snow is rather pretty, yes. Too bad Trixie can't move the wagon through it." Maud frowned. Was she really that bad at flirting? Or was Trixie just that oblivious? "We're trapped here," Trixie groused. "How long before your atmospheric phenomenon warms up and melts this away?" she asked bitterly. That was defeatist talk. Maud heaved herself off the roof and followed Trixie into the wagon. "We're not stuck. I can pull it." Trixie huffed. "Trixie would love to see you try." "Not yet," Maud said quietly. "It's Hearthswarming today." "So what?" Trixie asked, tilting her head. "Tradition is to give gifts on Hearthswarming." Her hoof fished one of the gemstones out of her pocket and held it up. Blue—almost the same color as Trixie's coat. Maud held it out to Trixie. "Cobalt blue spinel," she said. "This is the gemstone I was after. It suits you. I want you to have it." Trixie looked down at it and her jaw dropped. "M-Maud, you said this is a rare gem... it... it's not valuable, is it? It's beautiful, but Trixie is not sure she should accept this..." "It's not even the most beautiful thing here," Maud said, trying again. "The snow isn't important right now—Trixie can't accept this! Trixie has nothing to give you in return!" "Trixie." Maud shouted. Well, she would have, but... for some reason even when she was upset, it didn't come across that way. "Why would you go out of your way to find these gems just to give them to Trixie, anyway?" Trixie started rummaging through her boxes of possessions. "Trixie... Trixie doesn't think she has anything that would compare to this." "Trixie." Maud un-shouted again. "You've already given me a gift this year." "What?" she replied, stopping to look back at Maud. "What do you mean?" "You gave me a place to sleep. You shared your warmth with me. The cave—" she trailed off awkwardly, something that wasn't normal for her before she got herself centered again. "I would have survived just fine, Trixie. But you made the night pleasant. Memorable." "Trixie did?" Maud smiled. "I have another gift for you, too." She stepped back out of the wagon. "Come on." Following Maud's lead, Trixie climbed onto the roof of the wagon. "You were going to the Crystal Empire today, right?" "Y-yes, Trixie has a show at noon." "Then there's no time to waste." Maud dove into the snow as if it was a pool, fishing around for the tarpaulin covering the hitch. As soon her hooves found it, she flexed and pulled, putting her considerable earth pony strength into it. The tarpaulin pulled up, carrying with it a staggering depth of snow, which she carelessly tossed aside. "We're going to the Crystal Empire today." "We?" Trixie blurted. "Why are you doing this for me?" "You gave me a reason to stay." "What?" "With you," Maud replied, hitching herself to the wagon—a wall of snow was nothing to a pony who could drive through a mountain with her hooves if necessary, and the crown of the Crystal Empire's spires stood up well above the snow line. "W-wait, the gemstone you gave to Trixie... A precious stone." Maud nodded. "It is impure, but it is precious. Like all the things I love." She raised a hoof gesturing at the landscape before them. "I love the silent purity of the snow, but it is marred by trees that ruin it. I love precious gems, even when they are full of stray materials that leave them impure." She turned to fix her stare on Trixie. "Yet, you're still the most beautiful thing I've laid eyes on today. I would not mind travelling with you and sleeping in your wagon." "O-oh..." Trixie pauses. She seemed lost in thought for a moment, before another brief "Oh!" burst from her lips. "Trixie... Trixie did not realize Maud felt the same way." "Then, we have exchanged gifts," Maud said, nodding with finality. "Gifts of affection." "... Trixie is not used to this. Is there anything else Trixie is supposed to do?" Maud smiled. "No, Trixie. Just say Happy Hearthswarming." "Oh... well, then. Trixie has one last gift for you." The resulting fireworks show could be seen all the way from the gates of the Crystal Empire.
