Goodbye Forever: Second Chance

Chapters

Chapter 1 (Revised)
Chapter 2 (Revised)
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

Chapter 1 (Revised)

Four months had passed since the fiasco back in Ponyville when Twilight had managed to find a way to one-up Trixie for a second time. No, it wasn’t just the purple natural disaster. To simply say that Twilight had beaten her would have implied that she had acted alone. In some bizarre way that only the scathed mare could truly comprehend, Trixie might have actually been somewhat more cheerful about all of this if Twilight had gone solo, but not by much. This time she had a little ... assistance.

Thanks to the local paper, as well as the occasional small-talk from anypony who happened to be within earshot, so much of their information had been permanently seared within Trixie’s mind that she could have possibly written a biography about everypony who played a part in her downfall.

Trixie could hardly be considered a pony anymore, really. If one were to ask an onlooker who was lucky enough to spot her - or unlucky depending on your point of view - about the once proud creature that described itself as “Great and Powerful”, they’d speak of a broken mare who seemed so far from being alive, so infinitely detached from the world around her, that she seemed more like a wandering phantom than anything else.

She emerged from the darkness, silently traveling from place to place with no true destination in sight.

Trixie would occasionally find herself plagued by the same question. “How did she fail to see through Twilight’s cheap tricks?” As somepony who spent the majority of her brief existence studying how to integrate true magic with onstage theatrics, Trixie should have been able to figure out what Twilight was doing within seconds. How could she have been so stupid, so careless that she actually fell for it?

At first she blamed the Alicorn Amulet for everything. After all, the artifact was designed to transform a unicorn into an engine of greed and destruction while simultaneously deteriorating the users mind until it hovered above the edge of insanity. Logically, it made perfect sense to point hooves at the amulet. She could have argued, that she wasn’t herself, or that her mind had been polluted with so much dark magic that she couldn’t think straight.

Yes … she definitely could have argued that she was as much a victim as everypony else, but there was one detail that took away any merit that she might have had. She knew what the amulet would do to her the moment she put it on and yet she didn’t care. The way she rationalized it, it was just a means to an end.

The far corners of Trixie’s mouth stretched into the form of a smile while she trotted through the vacant streets, tiny crystals of water and ice emblazoned across her weak form. 'It’s a curious thing how some choices seem like a good idea at the time. Maybe I deserve this.'

Immediately following her retreat from Ponyville, Trixie used most of her remaining bits to buy a train ticket to Vanhoover. Her intention was to get a new start far to the west. She’d find a new job, buy a new house, and maybe even make a few friends if she was lucky enough. Needless to say that Trixie discovered that nothing in life ever goes exactly as planned. Even after casting her old identity aside, she wasn’t able to find anypony willing to hire her. No matter where she went, it was always the same answer.

“Sorry miss, but we aren’t hiring right now.”

“Hate to break it to you, but we don’t have any openings at the moment.”

“You can still fill out an application if you want, but we won’t be hiring for another six months.”

With each rejection Trixie’s faith in the city took another hit. She couldn’t afford to wait. She was tired of getting by on tossed out leftovers. It was miracle that she hadn’t gotten sick yet. Unfortunately for her, the only open slots that she could find were at jobs that completely degraded mares. It didn’t take long before she made the decision to leave Vanhoover and try her luck elsewhere.

From the San Palomino Desert to the Badlands, and from Dodge Junction over to the Hollow Shades, she walked tirelessly. It didn’t matter how far she traveled or where she hitch-hiked. For the life of her she couldn’t find a place stable enough to call home.

Trixie had reached Manehattan with the coming advent of winter. By that point, she had officially finally given up. Nothing seemed real anymore; it was as if she was watching somepony elses life from the other side of a cloudy mirror. Even her body felt like it wasn’t hers anymore. Necessities such as searching for food and seeking out shelter were slowly beginning to turn into unnecessary pleasantries that she could do without. She still searched for places to sleep at night and ate whatever scraps that happened to cross her path, but none of it ranked very high on her to-do list.

“What’s the point in going on anymore?” Trixie asked herself while walking through the blizzard that had overtaken Manehattan. She had no money left, and even if she did she wouldn’t be able to use it since it was Hearths Warming Eve and everypony was closing down shop for the day. She didn’t have a way to stay warm and she hadn’t eaten in days. She could have possibly used the snow as a substitute for food, but that would just lower her body heat, not that she cared anymore.

She took a few more wobbly steps and suddenly collapsed against a dumpster. For the longest time she sat there, completely stone still. She could have tried to get back up if she wanted too, but why bother? To live would have meant looking forward to a life of physical and mental turmoil as well as constant ridicule from those around her. Besides, the snow was beginning to feel like a warm blanket anyway.

Minutes later, Trixie found herself being assaulted by a strong gust of wind. At least, that’s what she assumed was happening. She couldn’t actually feel it anymore, but she did notice certain objects flying around in the air, such as the newspaper that had found itself attached to the side of her face.

Using the last of her strength, she reached up and studied the parchment. Her vision was beginning to darken and the words looked foreign in her state of mind, but on the front page she could swear that she saw a picture of Twilight and her friends standing before a crowd of happy looking ponies.

If she had the strength, Trixie would have torn the paper to shreds. Instead, she had to settle for releasing her hold, allowing it to blow away in the wind.

Trixie’s head slumped over to the side as the world around her faded into darkness. This was it. No more struggling. Now she could finally rest.

Chapter 2 (Revised)

The first thing that Trixie noticed as her eyes slowly fluttered open was the extreme lack of lighting. The world around her had been consumed by silent darkness and tranquil oblivion. The sky above was just as pitch-black as the seemingly non-existent surface that kept her body suspended in the air. With the exception of an extremely faint pulsing sound, the never ending void was so quiet that she could almost make out the sound of her own blood flowing through her veins.

Trixie stood on a platform of nothingness and yet, as far as she could tell, she wasn’t spiraling into the void below. From what Trixie could tell, she was the only resident in this dark world. In fact, Trixie began to ponder if anything had ever existed here … wherever "here" was exactly. There was only Trixie and the darkness. The confused mare decided to do what any sensible pony would do in this situation, walk around.

After taking her first nervous step forward, she noticed that small ripples appeared in the empty space below her hooves. It was almost as if she were walking on water. “I’m definitely not in Manehattan anymore,” thought Trixie. With each careful step that she took into the void, a new question came to mind. “How did I get here?” “Why am I here?” “How do I leave this place?” She eventually stopped all together and gave her brain some time to formulate a logical answer. Now, what was the last thing that she remembered? Then it hit her, Manehattan. If she could recall correctly, her body had become dangerously weak. Oh, and then there was the fact that the snow was coming down pretty hard too.

After adding all of that with how she awoke in this new environment, Trixie came to a final verdict. She must have frozen to death. If that was the case then she was somewhat disappointed. If she had ended up in Tartarus, then where were the tortured screams of over a billion souls? Where were the lakes of fire? Where was the head demon in charge and his three headed pet? The only other explanation that she could come up with was that she had ended up in some sort of Purgatory for those who didn’t belong in Tartarus but had also been denied by the gates of Paradise. If this was all that she had to look forward to for the rest of eternity, then perhaps she should have fought harder to stay alive. Oh well, too late for regrets now.

Before long, Trixie was finally able to locate another source of life - or maybe “death” was the word that she should be using, since she wasn’t in the world of the living anymore. Standing a few yards away was another pony but it had its back turned towards her. Elated to see that she wasn’t alone anymore, Trixie ran forward as fast as she could with a smile. “Hey! You! Over here!” The pony didn’t turn around. It must have heard her. “Hey,” said Trixie while slowing down to a trot after getting close enough to the pony. “Um … do you have any idea where we are, or if there’s a way out? Not to sound cynical or anything, but living in the equivalent of a library during the world’s longest eclipse for the rest of eternity doesn’t sound very exciting.”

The pony before her still wouldn’t acknowledge Trixie’s presence, much to her great annoyance. “What are you, deaf? I know you can hear me. I’m literally standing less than a hoof -” Trixie stopped herself mid-sentence as she stared at the pony for a few more seconds. After Trixie realized who the pony standing before her was her muscles slowly began tense up. Light purple coat … violet, purple, and pink mane … and a dark pink star surrounded by five white sparkles for a cutie-mark.

“… Twilight?” called Trixie with uncertainty. This didn’t make sense. What did this mean? Twilight couldn’t be dead too. It didn’t make any sense. Trixie was now beginning to entertain the possibility that maybe this wasn’t the afterlife after all.

“Twilight?” Trixie called again, this time with small drops of fear staining her words. When Twilight still wouldn’t respond, Trixie hesitantly reached forward to tap Twilight on the back.

The instant her hoof made contact with Twilight’s body, Trixie’s vision was obscured by a sudden burst of light. The flash was so intense that it forced Trixie to shield her eyes and turn away. After a few seconds had gone by, Trixie finally opened her eyes. The unicorn was met with a mixture of shock and confusion. She was no longer in the darkness. Instead, she found herself somewhere much worse.

’Ponyville?’ What was she doing here? If her memory served correctly, she was standing in the town square. She looked up into the sky and saw storm clouds. The scenery matched so well that it made her shudder. This was exactly how the town looked when she had her final showdown against Twilight. Trixie broke into a cold sweat as she backed away slowly but stopped after she felt her flank bump into something. She jumped in surprise immediately after turning around she jumped and it wasn’t just because of the flash of lightning that lit up the sky. Standing mere inches away her were the ones that worked together as a team to bring her down: Twilight and her friends, the Zebra with the weird accent, the stallion, the fillies, and the elderly mare. The new setting felt all too familiar and Trixie began to wonder if she had somehow gone back in time. Her thoughts took a drastic turn after she taking a second glance at her former adversaries. It wasn’t the murderous stare they were all shooting Trixie that forced her to back away with caution. Trixie backed away because they were all wielding knives.

“So, long time no see, huh? You guys wouldn’t believe the day I’ve been having!” Trixie stated in an attempt to playoff the fact that something seriously wasn’t right here.

Twilight and the others briefly stared at one another before facing Trixie again and walking forward.

“Listen everypony, if this has anything to do with what I did the last time that I was here then I just want you all to know that I’m sorry. All I wanted was for my life to go back to the way it was before I met you all, and I was convinced that the amulet was the only way. I was just so angry. I couldn’t accept that my mouth had gotten me in trouble. I wanted … no … I needed to blame something, anything, for what happened, so I picked you, Twilight.” Trixie’s ears flattened against the sides of her head after recalling the night that she became aware of the Alicorn Amulet’s existence. “But once I got the amulet, it turned me into something I wasn't. Please, this was only supposed to be between me and Twilight! I didn’t mean to drag the entire town into this!” The intimidating ponies, and zebra, continued their slow, ominous, advance in perfect sync with one another.

Her apology fell on deaf ears as they continued their approach, sending Trixie into a full blown panic. She turned around in an attempt to run away but was blocked by a large wall of ponies who seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere. She recognized many of them as the Ponyville residents.

“What’s the rush?” questioned an earth-pony stallion with a sinister look in his eyes.

“Yeah, why don’t you stay for awhile?” asked a nearby pegasus mare.

More of the town’s folk swarmed the vicinity. Some came from nearby houses, some flew in from the dark skies above, and others seemed to emerge from the shadows of nearby buildings. Before long, Trixie found herself completely surrounded. There were so many of them, and they had any possible exits that Trixie could have used to get away blocked off. She was trapped, and her hopes of getting out of Ponyville unscathed were dropping fast.

Another flash of lightning cracked across the sky.

Trixie turned back around; Twilight and the others were still walking towards her with their weapons drawn. Choosing fight over flight, Trixie took aim at her oncoming attackers and charged her horn with every last ounce of magic at her disposal. Ah … magic. She didn’t think that she’d ever find herself in a position where she willing used the stuff again, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Get back! I’m warning you! I’ll do it!”

“Do what?” asked Rainbowdash. “Tickle us to death?”

Trixie had flashbacks about her previous visit in Ponyville. After replacing the Alicorn Amulet with that cheap fake that was being used by Twilight, she fired her strongest attack spell at the rainbow-maned pegasus standing before her. She could still remember the humiliation she felt when she saw how ineffective her magic truly was. The memory only served to sink Trixie even further into the depths of despair. “No …” whimpered Trixie. The dawning realization of just how powerless she truly was caused her concentration fizzle out, and with it, her fighting spirit was also extinguished.

Shortly after Trixie fell to her knees, a pony who she vaguely remembered as being the mayor of the town burst from the crowd and grabbed her. Her grip was so powerful that it seemed unreal, even by earth pony standards. The mayor, while still maintaining her vice-like hold on Trixie, turned the mare towards Twilight and the others.

The crowd erupted with insane cheers as Trixie screamed for help. The unicorn that defeated Trixie, and all of her friends, were now standing only a few inches away. Twilight raised her knife high into the air while shooting Trixie a sly grin.

“Help! They’re gonna kill me!” screamed Trixie at the top of her lungs.

Twilight smiled and said, “What creature in their right mind would help somepony as worthless and self-absorbed as you? You’re nothing, Trixie, so why don’t you just disappear?”

That was the final nail in the coffin for Trixie. Everything Twilight said was true.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!” chanted the on-looking crowd.

Lies, failure, and past regrets were the building blocks that defined Trixie. Everywhere that she went trouble seemed to follow. She was a plague in pony form who had befouled Equestria with the profanity of her own existence for far too long. Maybe the world would have better off without her. She slowly closed her eyes in resignation. The moment Twilight plunged the knife as deep as she could into Trixie’s chest, precisely where her heart was, another flash of lightning raced across the sky.

***

“AHHHH!” screamed Trixie as her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. She began to hyperventilate as she ripped away at the blankets that were wrapped around her torso and checked herself for any serious injuries. There were no stab marks or any signs of blood. ‘Okay, dead or alive … which one am I?’

’Hold on a minute … I’m covered in blankets? What the hay?!’ Further inspection revealed that she was resting on a dark red couch. ’Am I in somepony’s house?’ Before Trixie could further inspect her surroundings, an unfamiliar voice broke Trixie’s train of thought.

“Alright! You did it Summer!” Trixie’s body jumped slightly as she turned towards the direction of the voice.

Standing a few hooves away from the couch were two unicorns, both mares. One was covered in sweat and was panting heavily. Several sparks danced around her needle sharp horn. She had a light-orange coat and a short fiery red mane. Part of her mane grew out in front of her face, concealing one of her dark purple eyes. Below her eyes were heavy dark bags, signifying that she hadn’t slept in some time. Her cutie-mark was a silhouette of a pony striking a punching-bag with enough force to cause a large rip, causing sand to fly everywhere.

The other unicorn was slightly shorter than the one that had sparks flowing from her horn. She had a light pink coat and a curly soft green mane, which contained thin yellow streaks of hair. Her cutie-mark displayed a picture of a large garden. She had a smile on her face that filled Trixie with a sense of comfort, but Trixie still felt far from safe. After all, she was in a house with a group of strangers.

“This is the first time, as well as the last time, that I’ll ever use ‘Thunder’ magic to jumpstart someponies heart instead of a defibrillator,” complained the larger mare while wiping away beads of sweat. “All that shouting of yours almost messed me up. Just the slightest bit more focus than what I put in and her heart would’ve popped like a balloon.”

“…Uh … who are -” Trixie ceased her question as her body began to shiver violently. Why did she feel so cold all of a sudden?

“Hey, stop moving! You had a really bad case of hypothermia when she found you. You’re body needs time to rest, and if you don’t stay warm you could still die.” The orange unicorn pressed a hoof against her nose and winced. “But in your case, that might not be a bad idea miss funky. You’re stinkin’ up the whole apartment, garbage eater.”

The memories of being out in the cold began to assault Trixie’s brain in rapid succession. Based on what she was hearing, the shorter mare with the green and yellow mane must have seen her fall out and decided to come help. “And you are?” asked Trixie while rewrapping herself and turning towards her rescuer.

“My name is Autumn Daisy,” the pink unicorn answered with a polite bow. “And this is my older sister, Summer Daisy, but you can just call us by our first names. Everyone else does. I looked outside my window and saw you fall over. At first I thought you just slipped on some ice, but then you stopped moving.” Autumn was practically beaming, obviously feeling a big sense of accomplishment from her deeds. “It looked like you were already gone by the time I finished carrying you up here. After I set you down, I wrapped you up in as many blankets as I could find, and then I ran all the way to Summer’s house. She’s a nurse, so I figured that she’d be able to help you more than I ever could. Good thing I got her too, your heart stopped beating at least six different times and your temperature was running at 51 degrees.”

“I’m still pissed that you woke up me up like this. You know I barely get any sleep as it is.” Summer rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Helping you take care of some smelly ol’ bum … this isn’t how I wanted to spend my Hearths Warming. When this is all over, you’re going to pay me 100 bits for waking me up, another 10 for every day that I spend trying to heal her and an additional 50 if she has frostbite. And don’t get me started about how much you’ll owe me if I have to cancel my reservation at Tall Tale for this ...”

Trixie turned towards a window and saw that it was dark outside. The sun was still up when Trixie had fallen out so she must have been in Autumn and her sister’s care for awhile.

“So then, Trixie, would you mind telling us what you’re doing way out here in Manehattan? Or better yet, what you were doing outside in this kind of whether without a jacket?”

Trixie’s eyes shot wide open. What did she just call her? She must have heard her wrong. “… What did you just say?”

Autumn blinked a few times. The way her guest asked that question made her feel uneasy. It was as if she’d just said something offensive. But how could that be? All she did was ask an innocent question. “I said, ‘what were you doing outside in the cold?’”

“No, before that.”

“I said … ‘So Trixie’?”

Trixie’s breathing became shallow at the realization that a random unicorn had just addressed her by her real name.

“Hey, you okay?” asked Summer.

‘Impossible! How does she know who I am?! The illusion spell should have -’ Suddenly Trixie shot back up on the couch. She looked around frantically until she spotted a mirror resting on top of Autumn’s fireplace. To her horror, she didn’t see the disguise that she had conjured back in Ponyville. She saw her real self. There were a few minor changes of course, such as her somewhat sickly appearance due to several weeks of being deprived of decent amounts of nutrition, there were cuts and bruises all across her face from several incidents while on the road, and her mane was stained a murky brown thanks to countless nights spent sleeping in unsanitary conditions, but the face that stared back from the mirror was without a doubt Trixie Lulamoon.

“No …” whispered Trixie.

“Is everything alright? You look a little pale,” asked Autumn.

’No … no. No …! No! NO! Why?! How?! I put everything I had into that spell! It should have been able to hold up for years before the effects wore off!’ That’s when Trixie remembered just how weak she had become. Yesterday when she spaced out, she could hardly stand on her own four legs, so how was she supposed to have enough power to maintain something as advanced as an illusion spell? She must have returned back to normal right before Autumn had arrived.

Wait a minute … Autumn and Summer knew who she was, but she knew almost nothing about them. Why did they save her? Did they think that it would be amusing to have a broken unicorn of her public status contained in an apartment like this? Perhaps they wanted to make a quick bit by tipping off a couple dozen reporters about where she was staying. She could only imagine what the headlines of the newspapers would say.

No, even worse than that. The disastrous events that led to her decision to go into hiding. She enslaved an entire town and assaulted all six of the kingdom’s greatest defenders, not to mention the part where she openly declared her new goal dethrone Celestia herself. Equestria had banned the use of capital punishment several centuries ago, so she wouldn’t have to worry about the death penalty. However, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t eligible to a life sentence in the dungeons.

The more Trixie thought on this, the more sense it seemed to make. There was probably a pretty hefty reward for anypony who was able to turn her over to the guards. They didn’t want to help her, they were only interested in lining their own pockets!

“Ok seriously, now you’re starting to make me a little nervous. Are you alright, Trixie?” Autumn asked once again.

The inner flames of Trixie’s anger were beginning to ignite.

In reality Autumn was frowning, but all Trixie saw was a mocking smile. The imaginary smile then evolved into laughter, the kind of laughter that she often heard in her nightmares.

Autumn cautiously crept towards Trixie. She was going to check and see if her hypothermia had perhaps turned into a high fever. The sight of her approach alarmed Trixie. “Stay back! I know what you two are trying to do and it won’t work!” Trixie kicked the covers off her body and rolled off the couch. She screamed the instant that she landed on the white carpet below. For some reason, every cell in her body had erupted in burning agony.

“Trixie, are you alright?!” shouted Autumn. “Summer, what’s wrong with her?!”

The medic trotted forward and examined Trixie. She was swelling up like a balloon. “Autumn, you know how if you stay outside in the cold for too long your hooves go numb?” Her younger sister nodded. “And you know how it hurts like Tartarus when the feeling comes back? Well, I’d say it’s the same situation with her only worse. She was out there for Celestia knows how long, so she isn’t just feeling it in her hooves, she’s feeling it everywhere else too.” Autumn’s eyes widened with terror and pity. She couldn’t imagine how much pain her new guest was in.

“That’s one of the things about hypothermia; it’ll disappear once the body warms back up, but not before leaving a present for you to remember it by.” Summer wrapped Trixie, and the covers on the ground, inside a yellow cocoon of telekinetic magic. While Trixie was suspended in the air, Summer was able to catch a quick glance at the unicorn. There was a strange red swelling around her two front legs where her coat ended and her hooves began. ’Frostbite. You already owe me an extra 50 bits Autumn.’ Next, she dropped Trixie, who was still screaming and flailing about in the air, back onto the couch. Her horn radiated with power once again and fired an enchantment spell on the covers, making it so that they forcefully pinned Trixie down. “There, now stay put.”

“No! Let me go!” Trixie tried to break free but to no avail. The covers felt more like heavy weights now. They had her held down tight. If she were at full strength, she could have freed herself through a great deal of effort, but not the way that she was now. Her body had warmed up a bit, but she hadn’t improved all that much physically. It was only through her determination to escape that she had been able to find the strength to roll off the couch as quickly as she had done moments before.

Autumn sighed sadly as she looked to her big sister. “Is that really necessary?”

“She shouldn’t be moving right now. If we let her kick and turn then she’ll just send herself back into cardiac arrest. If that happens then you may as well start planning a trip to the morgue. Giving her heart more boosts won't work a second time, It's been too soon.” Summer then fired a muting spell at Trixie. Her furious shouts were suddenly silenced. Trixie opened her mouth but there was no sound.

How dare they? First they hold her captive and now they take away her right to speak? Just wait until she got her strength back! She’d fire up her strongest spells and – … no. She wouldn’t do anything. She couldn’t do anything. If she’d learned anything from her recent string of nightmares, and her experiences in Ponyvile, it was that all of her spells were mediocre at best. If these two mares decided that they wanted to hurt her, then there wasn’t much that she could do about it.

Deciding in the end that it was useless, Trixie turned her head towards the back rest of the couch in frustration.

“Take notes, Autumn. That's how you get somepony to pipe-down,” Summer said flatly. Without another word, she turned around and walked towards the stairway that lead to where Autumn’s bedrooms were.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“It’s six in the morning and, thanks to her, I haven’t gotten any sleep since 10 o'clock yesterday. Where else would I be going?” asked Summer sarcastically.

“But what about Trixie? What if she needs something?”

“Oh she’ll be fine. Just look at her, she’s probably on her way to sleep right now, which is where I should have been ages ago. Now, good morning, I’ll see you later. Oh, and Happy Hearths Warming everypony...”

Autumn looked back to Trixie, she was still facing away from her. The pink unicorn sighed sadly. ’Well, at least I have a new guest for the holiday...’ A yawn escaped the mare’s mouth. It would appear that her elder sister wasn’t the only one in need of sleep. She took one final look at her house guest before walking upstairs.

Chapter 3

Autumn awoke to the sounds of young colts and fillies cheering with merriment. Usually, this would have been a more than pleasant way to start the holiday considering the events that took place several hours ago. Images of Trixie collapsed in the alley, her life mere minutes away from being extinguished rushed through her mind. Pushing the thoughts from her head, Autumn focused on the sounds of the happy children outside. She always felt a sense of inner joy whenever she witnessed a group of children who were laughing and having fun, even if they had interrupted her slumber; the happiness was always welcome. She groggily turned towards the clock on the other side of the bed. “… 9:23 AM. I was asleep for less than three hours ...” Autumn yawned as she stumbled into the bathroom and used her magic to shut the door behind her.

She stared at herself in the mirror and gave a light-hearted chuckle. Her eyes were bloodshot, her light green mane was in desperate need of a good brushing, and dark bags hung from her eyes. It was amazing how drained she felt. Sure, after getting less than three hours of sleep, she didn’t expect her body to have much energy, but this was insane. All she wanted was to go back to bed, but knew this wouldn’t be possible; the sounds of the children playing in the snow would only stir her back from dream land. “Is this how Summer feels whenever she has to get up early because of an emergency message from the Manehattan Medical Center?” Autumn slowly climbed inside the shower. “No wonder she’s always so angry.”

After finishing up in the bathroom, Autumn decided to go downstairs and get breakfast started. The unicorn couldn’t think of a better way to start the day than to prepare breakfast for the two other mares who were staying in the apartment. As she descended into the lower level of her home and made her way towards the kitchen, she shot a quick glance towards Trixie. She was still on the couch, lying fast asleep. Even from the stairway Autumn could tell that something wasn’t right. Trixie was sweating profusely, her eyelids were trembling, and if she looked carefully, she could see tear marks on her face. Autumn sighed as she came to the realization that Trixie must have been having a nightmare. The only thing that Autumn could do was hope that Princess Luna would pay her a visit and help make her dreams more bearable.

“Well, this is bad …" Autumn found that she was running low on breakfast material. Judging by what she had to work with, she could fix up to three bowls of oatmeal; prepare two omelets, and there was enough mix to whip up about six pancakes. “Well, I’ll just have to make the most of a bad situation.” She smiled as she washed her hooves and got to work with pouring the pancake mix into the skillet. As the batter sizzled, a heavenly aroma slowly overtook the household. “Let’s see … there are two other ponies here besides me,” Autumn thought as she cracked the eggs on the side of another skillet and stirred the yolk with a spatula. “Summer is a bottomless pit and Trixie looks like she’ll drop dead at any moment if she doesn’t get something to eat. I guess I’ll split the pancakes 50/50 between Trixie and Summer. I’ll give both of the omelets to Summer. As for the oatmeal, I’ll make one bowl for all three of us.” After placing the second skillet, which contained the eggs, on one of the three remaining burners on the stove, she sped over to check on the pancakes. The uncooked side of the pancake had bubbled all over the place. “Alright, time to flip it over!”

“And why you’ve chosen to sell flowers for a living instead of opening a bakery, I’ll never know …”

“Wah!” screamed Autumn. She was so busy cooking that she failed to notice her big sister walking into the kitchen.

“You didn’t hear me? Whoops.” Summer looked the same way Autumn had about an hour ago. She must have just woken up.

“Nope, I guess not,” laughed Autumn. “So, how’d you sleep last night?”

“Like a newborn foal … until those noisy little pukes came out to play.” Summer cracked her neck by tilting it to the side.

“Well Summer, it is Hearth’s Warming after all. The children just want to have fun.”

Summer pointed towards her face with her hoof. “Do you see this face? This is the face of somepony who doesn’t give a damn! I outta go out there and give those chumps a piece of my mind!” Autumn couldn’t help but laugh at how blunt her sister was being at voicing her thoughts, but she also began to worry about the safety of the children outside. “You think this is funny? I’m not messin’ around here! I missed out on some precious sleep thanks to them! And besides, when we were that young, we stayed inside and played with our Hearth’s Warming presents all day long! So what are they doing out in the first place?!”

“Well first of all, everypony’s different. Secondly, keep your voice down. Trixie’s still asleep!”

Summer turned towards the couch and saw that Trixie was indeed still asleep. This was all her fault. She just had to pass out in the alley across the street from Autumn’s window. If she didn’t have to help her sister monitor that washed-up has been, she’d likely be in a much better mood. “Lucky her. Anyways, what’s for breakfast?”

“Oh, uh, pancakes, oatmeal, and some omelets.” Summer took a look at all of the cooking supplies that her sister was going to use, eyed the pancake that was starting to overcook inside the skillet, and then frowned. “What’s wrong, Summer?”

“You’ve barely got any mix left, you only have four eggs, which means that you can only make two omelets, and from what I can see from this box, you’re pretty much out of oatmeal.”

“Sorry, but I forgot to go out and buy more stuff,” Autumn scooped out the pancake and set it down on a plate. “Plus, I didn’t know that I’d be having extra company.”

Summer rolled her eyes and brushed an orange hoof through her fiery mane. “You know what? Forget the food that you were gonna make for me. I’m goin’ out for breakfast.”

“You do realize that today is a holiday and that everypony is closed, right?”

“There are some places that are always open, even on holidays. You just have to know where to look. This way, the two of you will have more to eat. Take it easy on how much you give Trixie though. Her body hasn’t had any real food for Celestia knows how long. If she eats too much too soon, she’ll either puke it all back up, or she’ll die from malnutrition.” And with that, Summer was out the door.

“Ok then … one pancake and an omelet for Trixie, two pancakes for me and a bowl of oatmeal …”

Strange … after all the noise that Summer made when she left, combined with the smells coming from the kitchen, Trixie should have been up by now. Autumn had already finished eating and yet the showmare still hadn’t moved an inch. The pink unicorn decided to check on her for the second time that day. To Autumn’s relief, and confusion, the azure-coated unicorn was wide awake, but she didn’t look too happy. In fact, she looked almost as angry as Summer had been before leaving the apartment.

“Oh, good morning Trixie! How long have you been up?”

Her only response was a death glare.

“Uh, did I say something wrong?”

Trixie pointed a hoof towards her mouth.

“Huh? Oh!” Autumn finally understood why she wasn’t talking. Summer never reversed the “Weight Enchantment” or the “Muting” spells that she had used previously. “Sorry Trixie, I completely forgot!” Autumn fired a golden beam of magic at Trixie, successfully undoing Summer’s handiwork.

“Well it sure took you long enough.” Trixie spoke in monotone. Her voice was devoid of any life whatsoever and Autumn found that concerning. Trixie looked like a zombie rising from the grave as she slowly climbed off the couch. Her movements were stiff, sluggish, and her coordination appeared to be slightly off. Her physical appearance only proved to further support Autumn’s thoughts. Trixie’s face, neck, and part of her torso were littered with cut marks, signifying that somepony had attacked her. Aside from the scars, Autumn now had a clear view of the rest of the defeated unicorn’s body thanks to the morning light. She didn’t notice it at first, but Trixie was dangerously underweight. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear that the frostbite on Trixie’s forelegs was starting to turn from a bright red to a distorted blue.

“Your name’s Autumn, right?”

Pulling her attention away from Trixie’s injuries, Autumn came back to reality. “Yes, that’s right,” she replied with a polite bow.

“Where’s the bathroom? I’ve been holding it for about an hour now.”

Autumn pointed upstairs, “Up there, and then walk all the way down the hall. It’s through the final door.”

Trixie was halfway up the stairs when Autumn called out to her out again. “Sorry again for not noticing that you were awake, and – since she’d never do it herself – I would like apologize for what my sister did to you this morning. She went a little overboard in trying to make sure that you didn’t hurt yourself.” She said nothing as she continued up the stairs. “She’s not a bad pony … honest.”

Trixie sat down in front of the kitchen table. Autumn used her magic to levitate a fork, a knife, and what was intended to be Trixie’s first meal of the day in front of the food-deprived mare. The pancake and omelet both smelled appetizing. Even after sitting out for a while, the food still felt warm to the touch. A loud rumble came from Trixie’s stomach as she took in the wonderful smell of a homemade breakfast on a cold winter’s day. “Well, eat up!” Trixie had almost forgotten the presence of the pony that was gracious enough to prepare breakfast.

Autumn was just standing there, watching Trixie stare at the plate. Trixie assumed that she was waiting for her to take her first bites of food before leaving. “What an annoying mare.” After taking a few bites, the ex-magician looked back up to see if she was still being watched. To her great disappointment, Autumn was still there, watching her carefully like a bear would keep an eye on her cub.

“Is there … something wrong with the food?”

“No. The food’s fine. I’m just a little confused about why you’re watching me eat.”

“Oh, I guess it is a little hard to enjoy the food when somepony’s watching you. Sorry Trixie.” Autumn took a few steps back out of respect for Trixie’s personal space. “Before Summer left this morning she warned me about how much to feed you. The way you are now, too much food will either give you a sore stomach or kill you. I’m watching you to make sure that nothing happens.”

“You’re watching me to make sure that I don’t accidentally kill myself …” Trixie closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand you.”

“What do you mean, Trixie?”

“Why do you care so much about whether or not I’m comfortable here? Why are you trying so hard to help me? You’re acting like we’re friends or something; we don’t even know each other.” Trixie wasn’t angry or annoyed; she was confused and rightfully so. Up until that morning, she was sure that she was the most hated unicorn in all of Equestria, and yet here was Autumn treating her as if they’d know each other since childhood. She couldn’t fathom anypony randomly showing her so much kindness.

For Autumn, it stung a little when Trixie said “You’re acting like we’re friends or something”, but she played it off with a smile. “Trixie, you shouldn’t need a reason to help other ponies. I’m helping you because I want to. You were about to die. I wasn’t about to sit back and do nothing. If I had, then that would have pretty much made me a murderer.” Autumn’s expression turned serious. “I won’t pretend like I haven’t seen what other ponies wrote about you in the paper and I won’t act as if I haven’t heard any of the jokes that ponies have been using with you as the punch-line, but Trixie, not everypony is as cruel as you might think. You made a mistake, we all do, and I think it’s wrong for anypony to constantly bring up yours. Sometimes the past should stay in the past.” Autumn walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water for Trixie. “But don’t worry Trixie, we’ll have you back on your hooves in no time.” She used her magic to levitate the glass in front of Trixie’s plate. “Then, you can go back to entertaining other ponies with your magic!”

She was about to die? Sure, she could still breathe and had a pulse thanks to Summer and Autumn, but was that truly enough to be considered “alive"? No, it wasn’t. Trixie died long before her close call in the alley. Autumn saved her physically, but spiritually? She was about a million miles past being too late. The pony sitting in Autumn’s kitchen was nothing but an empty shell.

After finishing her food, Trixie returned to the couch and drifted off into a deep sleep. She didn’t awaken until a knock was heard at the door about an hour and a half later.

“Guess whose back!” Summer walked through the doorway while effortlessly carrying a large supply of heavy-duty plastic bags. Happy to see that her big sister had made it back safe and sound, Autumn darted over to Summer’s side.

“Wow, looks like you did more than just go out for a bite to eat!” Autumn laughed while helping Summer carry a few bags in.

After walking indoors and setting her groceries down in the middle of the kitchen floor, she noticed a weary Trixie rubbing the final remnants of sleep from her eyes. “Well well well, what an unexpected surprise! Didn’t expect to see you up and moving so soon. How was breakfast?”

Once again, the azure unicorn found herself bewildered. Not too long ago, Summer was acting as if she wanted nothing to do with Trixie. Now all of a sudden she was showing interest in if she enjoyed her breakfast? What strange ponies Autumn and Summer were. “It was wonderful, but it would have been nice if you had a better memory though ...”

“Oh?” Summer used her hoof to flip away the thin strands of her fiery mane that grew over her right-eye, “Did I forget to do something this morning? I wonder what that could be.”

“You can’t be serious …”

Summer raised a hoof to her chin in deep thought. “Let’s see … I washed up, came downstairs to see what Autumn was up to, went out to eat breakfast, made it over to the store before it closed for the day, and got some stuff from over at my house. Nope, didn’t forget anything.”

Trixie’s mental state must have been even more damaged than she first thought. If she were her normal self, she would have likely had her hooves wrapped around Summer’s neck in a death grip. “The spells Summer … you forgot to undo the spells. If it wasn’t for Autumn, I’d still be stuck.”

While still flashing a smug grin, Summer turned towards the groceries. “Actually, that’s where you’re wrong. I kept those spells going on purpose.” Autumn’s mouth fell to the floor in shock. Summer was speaking as if it was perfectly natural to neglect a sickly pony in desperate need of a helping hoof. Meanwhile, Trixie maintained her blank expression. If Summer was getting on her nerves she sure wasn’t showing any signs of irritation. “I mean really, should I even have to? It’s not like I put that much power into -”

“So, Summer!” Autumn projected her voice nice and loud in an attempt to change the subject of the conversation. “What’s in the bags?”

“Oh these?” Summer gave one of the bags a gentle kick, causing something inside to fall over. “Well, today is Hearths Warming. This is the one and only time of the year where I willingly spend money towards other ponies instead of doing everything in my power to drain as much of the stuff as I can from them. I had to do some last minute shopping thanks to a certain somepony over there.”

“You … you ran out just to get Trixie a Hearths Warming gift?” Autumn’s eyes widened with wonder. Even Trixie found herself growing a little curious.

“Of course not.” Autumn slumped down in disappointment. “I did more than just run off to get Trixie something. I ate some breakfast AND THEN I raced over to my house to get your gift and pick up a few Hearths Warming decorations.”

A smile returned to Autumn’s face. “Wow, I’m impressed! I didn’t think you’d go the extra mile for Trixie!”

“No need to thank me.” She leaned into Autumn’s ear and whispered, “And just between you and me, this is more of an experiment than anything else.”

Autumn whispered back, “Summer, this is serious! She doesn’t need to get any more upset than she already is! What did you get her?!”

Summer laughed as she walked away, leaving Autumn’s question hanging. “So tell me Trixie, besides the obvious, anything out of the ordinary goin’ on with you? Any soreness in your legs? Any problems keeping your food down? Do you feel any dizziness or anything?”

“Why do you care?”

“Well isn’t it obvious?” Summer pointed a hoof towards Autumn. “She’s gonna pay me for having to foal-sit you. The longer I spend helping you get all patched up, the more bits she’ll owe me. If you die, then my pay gets cut short. So I’m gonna do whatever it takes to keep you alive.”

“How selfless of you,” said Trixie with heavy sarcasm. “My body feels weak, I’m always tired, and my eyesight is a little off.”

“Well, it sounds to me like those are symptoms connected to your weight problem. All we have to do is make sure that you get enough to eat without over indulging. That should all clear up as you gain your weight back. So, that should mean that I’ll be stuck here for at least another few months before you’re back to your normal size. Now what about the frostbite on your forelegs? How’s that feeling?”

“It hurts a little when I put pressure on my legs and the swelling is starting to change colo-.”

“Good.” Said Summer, interrupting Trixie midsentence.

Trixie officially called minotaur shit on everything that Autumn said to her about Summer. “I’m in pain and my legs are changing colors. How is any of that good?”

As if reading her mind, Summer proceeded to answer Trixie’s inner thought. “If it hurts, then that means that your legs can still feel. If they can feel, then that means that the frostbite isn’t so serious that I’d have to amputate your legs. Unfortunately, for you though, you’re gonna be in for some more pain once some of the skin on your front legs starts to die off. Thankfully though, Manehattan Medical will be open again tomorrow, so I’ll be able to get you some painkillers, and of course, since you don’t have any money, I’ll just add it to Autumn’s bill. Any other problems I should know about?”

“… No.”

“Uh, Summer? I think we need to have a little talk about this ‘charge me for taking care of Trixie’ business. I barely have any mon-”

“Glad to hear that everything’s alright!” Summer nearly shouted over Autumn, purposely drowning out her voice. “Now let’s get started with putting up these Hearths Warming decorations!”

Chapter 4

The two sisters spent the next few hours diligently working towards setting up the apartment. It took some effort, but Autumn was able to persuade Trixie into helping out. After vacuuming in the living room, Summer inherited the responsibility of hanging Hearths Warming lights along the dark red walls of the apartment. Trixie was given the task of sweeping the kitchen, dusting the furniture, and cleaning the windows. The sting from the frostbite complicated things but the blue unicorn ignored it all together. Trixie found herself frequently questioning why she was even doing this. Her reminder always came in the form of a sharp glare from Summer each time she got ready to say something along the lines of, “This is stupid. I’m going back to sleep now.”

Autumn did more work than both her sister and her house guest put together. Not only did she help Trixie and Summer with their given tasks, but she also set up the Hearths Warming Tree and baked a wide variety of holiday themed snacks. Within minutes, the entire household smelled like a bakery.

While in the middle of preparing a second batch of macadamia nut cookies, Autumn discovered that in addition to the holiday gifts (which Summer had wrapped up prior to her return), her sister had also purchased a wide variety of foods that most ponies living in Equestria would typically see around the holidays. Once Summer and Trixie had finished up their roles, they both offered Autumn some extra help in the kitchen. Summer helped with the baking while Trixie made sure that nothing got overcooked. At some point Autumn turned on the radio to help set the holiday atmosphere.

Soon the table had been set for the small party dedicated to the joyous holiday. Enough food had been prepared to feed a small army. After Trixie admired the work that had been done and felt the warmth from the fireplace, she began to feel something strange. There was a new emotion occupying her inner void. What was this new feeling? Was it relief at how she no longer had to call the frigid world outside “home”? Maybe it was gratitude for how lucky she was to have come across two ponies who weren’t trying to tear her down. For the life of her, Trixie couldn’t figure out what she was feeling but whatever this foreign emotion was, it felt nice. Whether or not this was a good thing was completely beyond the blue mare.

“Well, I’m stuffed. I say we move on to the gifts now,” said Summer resting against an armchair. Trixie stared in amazement at the carnage that had been dealt by Autumn’s elder sister; seventeen different plastic plates were scattered on the sides of the chair in a poorly arranged pile. The orange mare had eaten everything, not even crumbs remained. The warm feeling that Trixie had felt earlier Trixie had been replaced with envy. The former magician could only handle two bites of food before the insides of her stomach began to churn, warning her that if she took another bite her gastric juices would splatter onto the carpet for all to see.

“Wait,” commanded Autumn. “There’s something that I think we should all do first.”

“Huh? What?” asked Summer.

“Earlier today, Trixie said something that really got my attention.” The sickly unicorn silently stared back in confusion. “She doesn’t know anything about us and, aside from what we read in the paper, we don’t know anything at all about her either.”

“And your point is?” asked Summer while crossing her front legs.

“I think we should take this time to say a few things about ourselves! We could even make it into a game! Trixie could ask us a question, we answer it fully and truthfully, and then we ask her a question! Rinse and repeat!”

The envy had transformed into a full blown case of annoyance. Trixie hated the idea of Autumn’s stupid little game already. “And what happens if I don’t feel like answering the question that gets asked?”

Autumn smiled confidently and said, “Then just say ‘Pass’.”

Trixie took a moment to ponder if she would go along with this or not. The whole concept of playing a few rounds of “20 Questions” in order to learn a bit more about the two unicorns seemed corny. Including herself, all of the ponies in the room were adults, as far as she could tell. Surely Autumn could have come up with a less childish way to handle this. On the other hoof, Autumn had given her food, a warm place to stay, and she had been nothing but kind to her ever since they first met.

With a heavy sigh, Trixie concluded that Autumn was more than deserving of at least an hour of her time, regardless of how ridiculous the game sounded. “Okay, let’s get this over with ...”

“No way in hell,” said Summer in a cool tone while standing up from her chair. “Nope, you can count me out. Have fun you two, I’m gonna go out for a little walk before the sun sets.”

“Hey, hold on for a second!” called Autumn. The elder of the two sisters shifted around and was met with a crestfallen look from her sister. “Please Summer … don’t go.” Autumn poked her lower lip out and made her eyes water for added effect.

“Do you have any idea how weird your idea sounds?”

“Please … just give it a chance …” Autumn’s lower lip started to quiver a little.

Summer tried to look over to Trixie for some sort of support. All the mare did in response to Summer’s pleading stare was shrug her shoulders. “Alright, fine,” she grumbled to herself as she sat back down.

Before anypony could blink, Autumn’s face switched from sad back to normal as she flashed a victorious smile. “That’s better! Now, you go first Trixie!” The unicorn sat in silence for several seconds; the only sounds in the room came from the clock on the other side of the room. “You can ask us anything, just take your time. No need to rush.”

Trixie tapped the armrest of the couch in deep thought. Coming up with a decent question was proving to be a challenge and Summer was obviously growing impatient; so, she went with the first thing that came to mind. “Uh … what’s the age difference between you and Summer?”

“Good question! We’re three years apart. I’m 22 and she’s 25.” Autumn turned to her sister and smiled, only to be met with a solemn expression. “Okay, my turn! Trixie, how old are you?”

“23.” Trixie then turned towards Summer and sighed. This game was already putting her to sleep. The sooner she got this over with the better. “Summer, do you and Autumn have any other siblings?”

“We have a brother named Cereus. Actually, you both have something in common besides being unicorns. He spent his early years in an orphanage, just like you. He’s 33 and he’s a high ranking soldier within the Royal Guard. After that overrated wedding in Canterlot, I heard that the old head captain left Equestria to rule alongside that alicorn with the weird name in the Charcoal Kingdom, or whatever it’s called, leaving the position for leader of the Royal Guard open for business. If all those rumors are true, then Cereus could be the new head captain by now. But seeing as how he’s one of the laziest ponies that I’ve ever seen, he’d probably choose to stay under-ranked so he could avoid all of the extra work,” replied Summer. “Now, I actually have two questions for you. How’d you get all those cut marks on your body and why did you lie about fighting an Ursa Major?”

“I was mugged by a group of ponies. Some of them had knives. As for why I lied … pass. Autumn, what -”

“What types of ponies were they?” Interrupted Summer.

“They were all earth ponies. Now Autumn -”

“You’re a full grown unicorn and you know, full well, how to use magic. How in Tartarus were they able to get away with mugging you? It’s pretty easy using magic to pull a knife away from a random idiot and even easier for a unicorn to bring down an earth pony as long as you stay out of their reach. Also, why aren’t you answering the question? Do you have something to hide?”

Trixie grit her teeth. “Pass ... on everything. Autumn, where do you work?”

The pink unicorn gulped nervously. Her plan to get everypony to get to know one another was starting to backfire. “I work inside a flower shop just up the street. Some of the plants on sale there I grew myself. The shop won’t open again for another week. Trixie, do you have any family out there that might be looking for you?”

The blue unicorn opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself early. She fumbled around with the words as she thought about how to answer the question. “Well, um … I guess that depends on …” Trixie took in a deep breath and shook her head. “No. I don’t have anypony. No friends … no family … just me. I could die tomorrow and nopony would miss me.”

Sensing the previous hesitation in Trixie’s voice as easily as a Changeling detects love, Autumn pressed the question a little harder. “Besides us, are you absolutely sure that you’re all alone?” The flower seller was met with heavy silence for what felt like hours. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want too.”

“No, I’m sorry,” said Trixie. “I was dropped off at an orphanage as a foal. Unfortunately for me, I was too young to remember anything before that. But maybe that’s a good thing. My parents gave me up for a reason. Would it have been better to remember them and have their memory haunt me for the rest of my life? Or to grow up always wondering, ‘Do they even miss me?’ ‘What were they like?’ ‘Why did they give me up?’ Either way, for better or for worse, I grew up without them in my life. Eventually, I just stopped caring.”

“I lived in that orphanage until I was old enough to take care of myself. The only three ponies that I’ve ever considered ‘family’ were …” Trixie quickly shook her head. “No, forget it. That last part doesn’t matter.” As Trixie looked around, she saw that Autumn was wearing an expression of sympathy while Summer looked as enthused as a foal preparing to sit down for three hours and do homework. Trixie suddenly remembered something odd about Summer. Her cutie-mark was a silhouette of a pony destroying a punching bag in one powerful hit. It seemed strange that a doctor would have such an aggressive special talent. “Summer, what’s the story behind your cutie-mark?”

At the sound of that question, Summer started smiling uncontrollably while Autumn looked as if she’d just seen a ghost. “Uh, maybe you should ask something else Trixie …”

“Oh no, Autumn. She asked a question that I’d be more than happy to answer!” Summer bounced up and down as if she was about to tell the most exciting story of all time. “Okay, okay, okay, okay! So, back in the day, I used to be one of the nicest little fillies that you could ever meet. If somepony needed something, I was always one of the first ponies to jump at the chance to help out. I wanted to be friends with anything that could breathe! I even walked in with a box full of cookies to share with my classmates on my first day of pre-school! In a nutshell, I was a pushover! A total sap! Oh, and I was a pretty big wuss too! I was scared of my own shadow and it didn’t take much to get me to burst into tears! Lookin’ back on it now, I can’t believe I was that pathetic!”

Summer had a distant look in her eyes now. It was as if she were staring into another dimension. “There was this filly the same age as me … an earth pony named Red Wood. She was always making fun of me for being such a damn goodie-two-shoes. But, being the sissy that I was, I ignored it as best I could. I convinced myself that just because she was being nasty to me didn’t mean that I had to fight fire with fire. A few months later, Red Wood makes friends with this pegasus named Golden Ray. They never would leave me alone. That all changed when they sent me home in tears. I ran to Cereus like a big chicken and bawled my little eyes out until I fell asleep. That colt must have gone behind my back and scared those two shitless, because from that day onward, the bullying stopped, just like that. But it all picked back up again four years later, after he went off to Canterlot and joined the guard.”

“Did he ever say why he wanted to be a knight?” asked Trixie.

“Yes and no. The last thing that he said to us was ‘My skills have always been a cut above the average unicorn. I might as well do something useful with my talents.’” Autumn rubbed the side of her neck slowly. “You could never tell what really went through that stallion’s head. Each time he gives you an answer you get this feeling like he isn’t lying, but he isn’t giving you the full story either. But you could always count on him whenever you needed him the most.” She lowered her head with a sigh. “I sure did miss him after he left for Canterlot …”

“We all did,” confessed Summer. “Apparently, he was a real prodigy. The princess sent us a letter talkin’ about how gifted he was at hoof to hoof and how exceptional he was with magic. She said that it was almost a crime that nopony had him test into her school for the gifted when he was a little colt. He ranked up pretty fast too. By age 20, he became the youngest stallion to ever reach the title of ‘Elite’ in the history of Equestria. But I’m getting off topic here. This is about how I got my mark and what it represents, not how Cereus was a smash hit in Canterlot.”

“So anyway, after he left, Red Wood and Golden Ray went back to their old habits. Their methods for making me miserable became more and more innovative as we got older. By the time I hit my last year at Manehattan High, I was the only pony without a cutie-mark. Pretty pathetic right? An 18 year old that still hasn’t found their special talent! Even Autumn got hers long before I did! One day I caught those two idiots stealing something from my math teacher’s desk while he was out. I spoke up and they almost got expelled. The day they came back from their long-term suspension, I was … a little on edge. There was a rumor going around the school that Red and Gold weren’t too happy about me getting them in trouble. It turned out that the rumors were true. They trapped me in a hallway while Autumn was busy telling me that I was getting worried for no reason at all. Red and Golden Ray showed up out of nowhere, shoved Autumn aside, and then they punched and kicked me until I was on my knees. Autumn tried to come to my rescue by smacking Red in the back of the head with a text-book. She turned around and blew Autumn away in one hit. They thought it was funny too, but I wasn’t laughing.”

***

Autumn had fallen to the ground and the battered mess known to the world as Summer Daisy was laying against a row of lockers. Her right eye was blackened and swollen shut, her lip was busted, and she had a bloody nose. Her body was covered in scratches and bruises. With every breath her lungs screamed in agony. Standing triumphant in the narrow hallway was a brown earth pony with a dark red mane, alongside a golden pegasus with a silver mane. The earth pony pointed towards Autumn’s motionless form and laughed. “Next time mind your own business!”

“Seriously, she sees us kick her sister’s teeth in, and her first thought is to fight us with a book?” Golden Ray was laughing so hard that she was crying.

“At least she isn’t a snitch like her sister!” Red Wood looked down at her hoof and winced. “Ew, I think I hit her too hard. Some of her blood got on my hoof.”

While the two bullies rambled on, Summer’s mind was focused on how her tormentors had the audacity to attack somepony as sweet and innocent as her beloved sister. This was supposed to be between them and her. If they wanted to beat her to a pulp because she ratted them out, then fine. She’d let them break every bone in her body if it’d make them happy, but they actually had the nerve to attack Autumn and then laugh about it? How dare they?! There were no words in the Equestrian dictionary that could properly describe how scared, powerless, and ashamed Summer felt.

“Oh look at that, the baby’s crying again!” Red mockingly did her best impersonation of somepony speaking down to a small foal. “Daw … did we hurt da’ widdle’ bitch’s feelings?”

Summer was weak and fragile. It was needless to say that she didn’t have the courage to stand up for herself. Oh why couldn’t Cereus be here to save the day like when she was a little filly? She needed him now more than ever, but he wasn’t here. He was in Canterlot, or wherever it was that the princesses decided to ship him and his unit off too. She closed her eye and thought hard about what to do at a time like this. She could run … but Red was the most athletic mare in the school. The earth pony would catch her in no time flat. If she did nothing then they would continue to beat her senseless, and then afterwards, they would likely give Autumn their full and undivided attention. Technically, Autumn had made herself a target when she tried to come to her sister’s aid. Lunch wouldn’t end for another 10 minutes so they still had plenty of time to do whatever they wanted. All of her available options pointed towards fighting back, but what did she know about fighting? Could she really bring herself to strike another pony? Summer heaved over and over due to the tears that were being shed out of sadness, as well as anger at what had befallen Autumn.

“Tough luck, Daisy! End of the line! There’s nopony for you to cry to for help this time!” Golden Ray stretched her limbs as she advanced towards the downed Summer.

At the end of the day, Wood and Ray were intent on causing her, and possibly the one pony that she was obligated to protect from any threat, intense physical suffering. She needed to make a decision fast. Summer asked herself once again, ‘Can I really bring myself to do this?’ Her heartbeat served as a war-drum as the unicorn opened her eye and willed herself back up. Her decision had been made. “And who says that I need any help to take care of you two?”

The bullies stared at each other in temporary shock, which soon turned into loud hysterics. “Oh you’ve gotta’ be kidding me! Wimpy little Daisy, the biggest doormat in Manehattan, is gonna’ try to fight us?!” Golden Ray flared out her wings, blanketing Summer in the shadows of her wingspan. “You know what? I’m feeling generous today! I’m gonna’ let you get a free hit in!” She raised her hooves and pushed Summer against the lockers. Her back bounced off the metal with a loud ‘Clang’. “C’mon blank flank Daisy!” She smacked Summer across the face. “Hit me!” Summer absorbed the next punch thrown by the pegasus like a cushion. “C’mon chicken!”

Golden Ray threw another punch, but this time Summer ducked under the oncoming attack at the last second. That was when the orange unicorn stopped thinking and operated solely on her own instinct. Using twelve years’ worth of pent up anger and aggression as fuel, Summer buried her hoof as far as she could into Golden Ray’s stomach, knocking the wind from her lungs and temporarily cutting off her ability to take in oxygen. As one of her two childhood enemies gasped for air, Summer reached forward and grabbed the young pegasus by the back of her head and slammed her, face first, with every last ounce of strength that her adrenaline would allow, into a locker. The vengeful unicorn pulled Golden Ray’s head back and slammed her again and again against the lockers hard surface. The rectangular piece of metal, not designed to withstand that kind of punishment, eventually caved in from the force. Summer didn’t let up until her forelegs went numb from soreness, at which point she choke-slammed Golden Ray onto the cold floor below and delivered a single stomped against the center of the pegasus’s face.

The shadows from Summer’s mane concealed the savage glare within her good eye. She felt some sort of twisted satisfaction as she stood over Golden Ray. She was finally doing it. She was finally taking a stand against her old demons and it felt marvelous. The power that she held over her long- time enemies made her smile. She wanted to feel as powerful as she did now all the time! From that day forward, nopony would ever push her around ever again! Goodbye warm Summer the kind and hello Summer the unforgiving inferno!

Her moment of felicity was cut short as an important realization crossed her mind; she wasn’t finished yet. There was still one giant piece of trash left and it needed to be taken out once and for all. Summer locked her focus onto Red Wood and saw that she was trembling with fear; Summer greatly enjoyed this. The earth pony snapped out of her trance-like state when Summer charged towards her like a heat-sensing-missile. “No! Stay back! I’m sorry!” There was no pleading with Summer now. This mare had signed her own death warrant the instant that she had poked fun at striking Autumn. Summer aimed at Red’s hind-legs and let loose everything that she had stored in her mystical reservoir. The earth-pony cried out in pain as the blast hit its mark dead on, causing her to fall onto the ground; blood fell from the newly obtained burns on her hind-limbs. Within seconds, Summer closed the gap between the two and descended on the injured earth pony like a vulture, ignoring her pleas for mercy.

***

Summer beamed with pride as she took in the horror on Trixie’s face. “Autumn woke up while I was in the middle of settling my score with Red. She took off and came back with security. They pulled me away and held me in the office until our parents showed up. It was our mother who pointed out that I had my cutie mark,” explained Summer while pointing at the silhouette on her flank; a representation of her special talent: fighting. “It was on that day that I learned a very important lesson. Might controls everything. As long as you have enough power, nothing can stop you. So if a few retards attack your family,” Summer levitated a metal fork into the air and then crushed it into a ball. “You get the idea.”

“What ever happened to Red Wood and Golden Ray?” asked Trixie.

Autumn answered the question instead of her sister. “They were both taken to a hospital. Golden Ray had a broken nose, a concussion, and eight of her teeth were either missing or fractured. And … Red was in a coma for two weeks. The doctors said that she probably wouldn’t be able to play sports again. Both of their parents filed a lawsuit. Summer didn’t face any prison time since she acted out of self-defense. But … Summer, Golden Ray, and Red all got expelled from the school, and our parents had to pay for the broken locker.”

“You know, that was probably the best day of my life! My only regret is that I didn’t take things into my own hooves sooner! And can you believe that my dad actually considered disowning me when I refused to apologize for what I did? Ridiculous! They deserved everything that I gave em’ and then some. It gets me angry all over again just thinking about it. And it’s not like my heart would have been in it anyway, so why bother? Making peace with your enemy is the most idiotic thing that anypony could ever do.”

“So … you’re saying that ponies who don’t get along with one another, whatever the reason may be, should always remain enemies, and when all else fails, use violence?” asked Trixie.

“Exactly!” beamed Summer.

“So if Red Wood and Golden Ray were standing here right now, you’d pick up from where you left off in that hallway?”

“Pretty much,” she replied with a grin.

“How pitiful …”

Summer eyed Trixie with a confused expression. “And what do you mean by that?”

“Well, based on what you told me, you’re still angry because of something that happened almost a decade ago. You won’t find a future if your head is always in the past. You need to let it go and move on.”

“And the irony here is that I need to follow my own advice,” mumbled Trixie.

Summer perked her ears up at this, obviously having picked up on what the blue unicorn had just said. “What do you mean ‘follow your own advice’?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” said Trixie in an attempt to change the subject before Summer decided to pry for more information. “Hey Autumn, is this game of yours over yet?”

“Sure Trixie. So onto the presents then Summer?”

“No.” Trixie’s hopes began to wilt. “The game isn’t over yet Autumn. I still haven’t asked Trixie my question yet.”

“Well that’s too bad, because I don’t feel like talking anymore.” Trixie looked outside and saw that the sun was beginning to set. “How about we finish this up on another day?”

“How about … ‘who cares if you don’t feel like talking?’ The purpose of this game was for the three of us to get to know a few things about one another, right? Well, all we know about you is that you’re 23, you got your ass kicked by a few earth-ponies, and you grew up in some orphanage. You still haven’t really told us anything big about yourself.”

“Well what about Autumn? She didn’t say anything all that amazing either.”

“Does it matter? I already know plenty about Autumn, she’s my sister after all. It’s you that I’m curious about. Now I just opened up about a huge moment in my life, I think that it’s only fair for you to do the same.”

Trixie could feel small fragments of her old defiant nature breaking through. “And what if I say, ‘I couldn’t care less about what you think is fair?’ Or, ‘I didn’t even want to go along with this in the first place, so why don’t you just shut up?’”

Summer’s horn started to glow with a yellow light. “I’d say ‘Don’t you worry Trixie, because in a few more seconds you won’t have to worry about saying anything for the next five months.’”

Autumn jumped out of her seat and stood between Summer and Trixie. “That’s enough Summer! You’re completely out of line! You can’t force other ponies to do whatever you want! If all you’re going to do is act like this, then you can get out of my apartment!”

“No, it’s fine Autumn,” assured Trixie. “Alright Summer, one last question, but then that’s the end of it. So I hope that for your sake you pick a good one.”

“Well look whose acting bold all of a sudden? I think somepony’s forgotten their place, but that’s alright.” Summer smirked as she collected her thoughts about what to ask. There were two different questions that she wanted answered, either one would bestow her with a higher understanding of the former magician, but she could only ask one. She couldn’t decide on which question to ask so she decided to flip a coin. Summer levitated the same metal fork that she had crushed into a ball earlier and flattened it down within a powerful telekinetic grip, until it resembled a slightly oversized bit. Next, she fired a red beam from her horn and used it to carve an ‘X’ on one side and a ‘Y’ on the back. Summer flipped the false coin into the air and watched as it landed on the side with the ‘X’.

“And here I was hoping that it would land on ‘Y’. Oh well, this’ll do just fine either way. Anyways, I want you to tell us all about what happened during your first trip to Ponyville, and if you half-ass the story or try to pass from answering -”

“If you use that spell on Trixie again, you won’t be allowed anywhere near my apartment until Trixie gets better,” said Autumn.

“Whatever. There are other ways for me to get answers besides using that spell.” Summer’s harsh demeanor softened a little as she turned back to Trixie. “Feel free to start at any time.”

“Okay, give me a minute. I need some time to think about this …” Nopony said a word, as Trixie closed her eyes and recollected her thoughts. She was completely still for an extended period of time. The only indicator that she was still alive came from her rising chest. Eventually, the silence was broken. “Alright, I guess I’ll have to go back a few days before everything got so bad. I had been staying in Baltimare. Every now and then, I’d come across a few ponies who were willing to watch me in action for few a minutes. The key words being ‘A few’. Business was more than a little slow for me, but I still managed to make enough to scrape by. You see, I was trying to save up for some new equipment to use in my shows. There was this special magnetic generator that I had my eye on. It releases a powerful magnetic current that can pass through most solid objects. With a little ingenuity, I could have used it as a way to levitate myself into the air like a pegasus. Imagine what that would have done for me ... how many crowds I would have been able to reel in. A unicorn that can fly without the use of actual magic ... The only problem was that the price for the generator was outrageously high.”

Autumn frowned as she pieced together that Trixie never did reach her goal. “What happened?”

“I caught the attention of some stallion. He either had a huge crush on me, or he’d been really impressed by my street show, but I didn’t have any interest in him whatsoever. He told me that he was an elementary school teacher and wanted to know if I was interested in doing a little show for his students. He was prepared to pay me upfront if I said yes. He showed me the bits as proof. If I remember correctly, there were about 50 bits in that bag. It wasn’t much, but that still would have helped me reach my goal. ‘Every little bit counts,’ as they say. So the very next day, I show up to the school. I figured that since my audience would mainly consist of small colts and fillies there would be no need for me to do anything over the top. I decided to stick with card tricks, making small objects disappear, biting a bit in half and then making it go back to normal by blowing on it. Those are basic tricks for a magician of any level, but mind boggling entertainment for an audience of small children … or so I thought.”

“What, did you screw up in front of the foals or somethin’?” asked Summer.

“No,” answered Trixie. “The problem was this little unicorn colt. He wouldn’t shut up for about 3/4ths of my show. Somehow he knew the secrets behind my stunts, which wasn’t surprising since these were tricks that you’d probably see at a foal’s birthday party. If he wasn’t blurting out how my tricks were done, then he made it his business to try and find out. The teacher finally tossed me a lifeline and kicked that obnoxious colt out of the room.”

“Serves his ass right. Then what happened?”

“That colt … he snuck outside and into my trailer while nopony was watching. I don’t know if it was on accident, or if it was his way of getting back at me, but he set off some of my fireworks. One of my rockets ended up going through a window and into an empty room inside the school. I took a quick glance outside and saw him running around with some very expensive stage equipment of mine. I ran outside to go and tell that little creep off but stopped when I smelled smoke and heard the sounds of ponies screaming. Next thing I know, the whole school is in flames. Nopony got hurt, but the school and the entire playground where the foals had recess … all of it burnt to a crisp. And can you guess who had to pay for most of the damage?”

“Trixie … I’m sorry,” whispered Autumn.

The ex-mage sighed and continued on with her tale. “Anyways, I was furious. I spent almost everything that I had trying to fix something that wasn’t even my fault. I stormed out of Baltimare before I ended up doing something that I’d regret. I barely had enough bits to buy food. I was desperate for money. I needed to go somewhere where I wouldn’t have any problems getting noticed, a small town maybe … a happy little place where I’d be able to forget all about Baltimare.”

“Ponyville,” said Summer and Autumn in unison.

Trixie nodded her head with a grim expression. “Things were looking up for me. I guess the town wasn’t used to receiving visits from wandering magicians like me because a huge crowd gathered while I was still in the middle of setting up. Now before I go on, please understand my situation. I didn’t have any money, I was still pissed because of what that colt did, and I really needed to impress the crowd. Depending on how well I did on that last factor would determine how long it would take me to bounce back from my financial hit.”

“We understand,” replied Autumn. “Please, go on with the story.”

Trixie nodded before going on. “I bragged, over-exaggerated, and lied like there was no tomorrow so that I could draw in as many ponies as I could. I think everypony in the whole town came out to see me. The only problem was that there was a small hoof-full of ponies in the crowd that called me out on my over the top acting. Which I didn’t mind at first, until one of them started booing. Now, like I said earlier, I was still pissed because of what happened in Baltimare, so I dared whoever it was that booed me to step up on stage. She had a blue coat that was a few shades lighter than mine, a rainbow colored mane, and she was a pegasus. Her name was Rainbow Dash if I remember correctly from what the papers around Equestria said.”

“Ah, one of the ponies responsible for your biggest humiliation. I hear she got accepted into that training center for pegasi with the potential to become a member of the Wonderbolts,” stated Summer.

“That’s the one. The fact that she accepted my challenge to get on stage actually made me even angrier than I already was. She picked a pretty bad day to piss me off. Thankfully, I was able to hide my real emotions due to all of the years that I’ve spent trying to perfect my stage gimmick. In any case, I wasn’t sure if anypony else in the crowd had any doubts about me. If they did, then that could have had a bad effect on how many bits I made from that performance, I needed every last piece of money that I could get my hooves on.”

“In order to solidify my chances of hitting the mother-load, I challenged anypony in the crowd to step up to the plate. I didn’t see any takers and I wanted somepony to use as a magical punching-bag. After looking around for a few seconds, I spotted Twilight Sparkle, the librarian from the paper who I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about by now. But, instead of her, Applejack, some dumb apple farmer with a southern accent, came up instead. She pulled out this rope and started to do all sorts of stunts that I could tell were well practiced. She finished her little show by snatching an apple from a tree and catching it in her mouth. You should have seen how impressed the crowd was with her; I probably would have been too, if it wasn’t for how pissed and money deprived I was.”

“With a little help from my magic, I used one end of the rope to distract her, and eventually, tie her down after making her fall over. Then I used the other end to wedge an apple in her mouth like a stuffed pig. The crowd ‘Oooed’ and ‘Ahhed’; which took away any uncertainty that I had. I was ready to end the show there and take a break for the day, but then Rainbow came back on stage in an attempt to show me up, which only set me off again. I ended up making her spin around in circles until she was propelled off stage. Then this other unicorn, I keep forgetting her name -”

“The one with the pretty mane and owns that store in Ponyville? I think her name’s Rarity,” interrupted Autumn.

“Right, her. I’m still not sure about what she was trying to do, but it amazed the audience, so I turned her mane a grassy green.”

“Oh that’s rich!” laughed Summer. “Keep goin’, keep goin’! What happened next?”

Trixie cracked a light, humorous, smile. Her smile was so small that nopony knew that it was there except for the storyteller, but it soon vanished. “I wasn’t sure if anypony else felt like getting knocked down, so I did a quick onceover on the crowd to make sure that I had the audience eating out of my hoof. My attention went back to Twilight, I couldn’t hear what she said too well, I was too far away and the crowd was a little noisy, but it sounded to me like she said, ‘I’m special’ and ‘I’m better than anyone’.”

“Hmph! That sounds like a challenge to me,” said Summer. “Who knew that the element of magic was so overconfident?”

“I thought the same thing, really,” confessed Trixie. “I admit, on a normal day, I have a bad habit of doing my fair share of bragging; it came with my stage gimmick, ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’. If you tell yourself something enough, it eventually gets rooted into your character to the point that even you start to believe it. I wanted to see the magical skills of the unicorn that claimed to be ‘Better than anyone,’ so I called her out for the second time that day. I was pretty confused when she chose to run away instead.”

“What a wuss,” said Summer. “All bark and no bite! And she’s supposed to represent magic itself? Maybe you didn’t need that cruddy amulet to show her who’s boss.”

“Well, maybe you heard her wrong. I don’t think that one of Equestria’s greatest champions would say something like that. Maybe you missed some of what she said over the sound of the crowd,” stated Autumn.

“Or maybe ‘Champions’ and ‘Heroes’, or in this case, ‘Heroines’, aren’t everything that they’re cracked up to be, with the exception of our brother that is. In any case, go ahead and finish Trixie.”

“Okay, so, where were we? Oh, right, Twilight ran away. I was confused but I laughed it off and went back to pretending to be the world’s greatest magic user. However, there was something about the look on her face that made me … question whether or not I went too far in trying to get Ponyville’s attention. But, I changed my mind when just about everypony in the crowd paid me for my performance. That night, after I had finally calmed down, and was well on my way to sleep, I made plans to look around for Twilight and her friends the next morning. I’d go around and explain why I was so upset in the first place and then apologize for making a mockery of them. I was even going to give them some of the money that the citizens gave me during the show. Then somepony knocked on my door, which put me in a bad mood again. If you’ve ever had somepony wake you up in the middle of the night when all you want is to go to sleep then you’d probably understand why.”

“I hear ya’ on that,” mumbled Summer.

“I figured that it was another little colt or filly that wanted my autograph. Well, there were indeed a pair of colts at the door, but they were in a panic because they led a damned Ursa Major, which I later discovered was an Ursa Minor, into the heart of the town.”

“Yeah … I remember when I read about that in the paper,” said Autumn. “It said that you ‘Wanted to better demonstrate your magical prowess’ so you talked those two colts into leading the Ursa into Ponyville. I don’t want to go on from there because it looks like they lied.”

“Well would you look at that? Who knew that it wasn’t a good idea to believe everything that you’ve read,” said Summer with heavy sarcasm. “Why don’t you tell us how it really got there?”

“My pleasure. Do you remember how I said that I ‘Bragged, over exaggerated, and lied like there was no tomorrow’?”

“Oh …”

“And that’s why I hate kids! They’re so freakin’ stupid!” laughed Summer.

“Summer!” snapped Autumn.

“Actually Autumn, after everything that happened to me up until now, a large part of me agrees with Summer. And to finish up the story, I wasn’t able to stop the Ursa Minor from running rampant. That awards goes to Twilight. Out of sheer embarrassment, I fled the town without looking back. I ran to the first town I saw that wasn’t Ponyville and paid a group of repair stallions to go back and fix up my trailer, which got destroyed by that stupid Ursa. After they transported it back to me, I saw that just about all of my equipment had been destroyed during the rampage. It’s not easy being a magician when all of your equipment is gone and everypony blames you for the near destruction of an entire town.”

Trixie sighed while sinking deeper into the couch. “You know the rest from there. My life turned into one big train wreck, I found the Alicorn Amulet, Twilight and her friends defeated me, I almost froze to death, and now here we are on Hearths Warming, listening to Summer and me tell ghost stories around the fireplace.” Trixie raised a hoof to her mouth and yawned. “Well, I’d love to stay up and talk some more but it’s probably a good idea for me to rest now.” Trixie rested her head on a pillow and closed her eyes. “Too bad about the Hearths Warming gifts Summer. I guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to open them.”

After Trixie had settled down for the night, Autumn and Summer retreated upstairs so that Trixie could sleep undisturbed.

“Wow … I don’t know what to say anymore,” said Autumn.

“You’re talkin’ about her story right?”

“Yeah. Trixie sure has had it rough. At least she has friends now.”

“Friends?” scoffed Summer. “She doesn’t see us as ‘friends’. She’ll probably leave out as soon as she’s able to stand on her own four hooves again. Once that happens, she won’t give either of us a second thought. Which is fine by me, I don’t really like her anyway.”

Autumn frowned for a moment and then walked up to her sister. “Speaking of that, there’s something that I want to talk to you about.”

“Aww Tartarus, does this have anything to do with me and -”

“This has everything to do with that! Why have you been acting so mean to her? She hasn’t done anything to you and yet you’ve been treating her as if she was related to Red or Golden Ray.”

Summer rolled her eyes and sat down on Autumn’s bed. “Simple, I just don't like her. End of story."

The pink unicorn's mouth hung open in disbelief. "You can't be serious! There has to be more to it than that!"

"Look, I'm bein' as blunt with this as I can. And word from the wise, you don't always need a reason to not like somepony. I wanna go punch something everytime I see her face and that's all there is to it. Oh, and since we’re talkin' about Trixie, don’t you think that she’s been actin' a little … weird?”

“What do you mean? She’s sick and she’s depressed about what happened in Ponyville. Of course she’s going to act a little out of the ordinary.”

“That’s not what I mean … it’s just … I have this weird feeling in my gut that she -” Summer stopped when she saw the confused look on her sister’s face. “You know what, never mind. I’m goin’ out for that walk now.”

“Uh … do you see how dark it is outside?”

“Yeah? And?”

“Are you sure it’s safe to go out for a walk in the middle of the night, especially when you take in to account that this is the bad part of the city?”

“C’mon Autumn. This is me that we’re talking about!” laughed Summer while stretching her legs.

“Okay … don’t say I didn’t warn you if you get attacked.”

“Do I look worried to you?”

“Alright,” sighed Autumn. The pink unicorn called after her sister one last time before she left out the door. “Before you go Summer, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“What were the gifts that you got Trixie for Hearths Warming?”

“Oh,” said Summer with a smile. “An enchanted snow-globe of Manehattan –the snow turns green if anypony within a two meter radius tells a lie – and a few spell books.”

Autumn raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? Earlier on, you made it seem like you got her something … bad.”

“The plan was to use them as a way to try and confirm a little suspicion that I’ve been having about Trixie since this morning, but I don’t think that I picked a good day to force the canary to sing,” replied Summer as she walked out the door. “I think I’ll wait until she’s ready to tell us herself.”

Autumn’s ears perked up at this. “Does this mean that you’ll take it easy on Trixie from here on out? And … what’s your suspicion about Trixie?”

“Take it easy on the walking corpse? Were you even listening to what I said before? Why act nice to somepony when you don't even like em'? That's called bein' dishonest, somethin' that that hillbilly hero from Ponyville would probably frown at. And as for the second part, don’t worry about it just yet. I don’t have too much to go by anyways.” With that, Summer disappeared, leaving behind a hopelessly confused Autumn for the second time that day.

Chapter 5

Whoever it was that came up with the saying, “Time is on your side” must have had a few screws loose. From Trixie’s point of view, time, the eternal force that loomed over everypony like a foreboding predator, always seemed to be the enemy. It always seemed to be doing the exact opposite of whatever you wanted. For example, if you were having fun at a party then the hourglass would sprout cracks and the grains of sand would fall ever faster. If you found yourself unfortunate enough to get speared into a tedious conversation with an annoying authority figure, the leak would mysteriously patch over and the sands would slow to a snail’s pace. It was always one way or the other, fast or slow; never a gray area in-between where the two would intersect.

Two and a half weeks had gone by since Hearths Warming and the majority of that time had been spent cooped up on the couch from sun rise to sun fall; only getting up (with Autumn’s assistance) to use the bathroom. The time that Trixie spent recovering from her extended exposure to the cold was by far the slowest and least entertaining week of her life. There was nothing to do except sleep all day.

All of this because Summer had suddenly decided that Trixie was running the risk of further damaging her frostbitten forelimbs each time she took it upon herself to move around in spite of the slight twinges of pain. Autumn, with her usual overly cautious self, agreed to help make sure that Trixie didn't move a muscle unless it was absolutely necessary. The bedridden unicorn tore through her bandages without hesitation after had Summer finally announced that it was safe for her to move around on her own again. The scars on her forelegs, served as a permanent reminder of just how close she had come to turning into an oversized icicle.

The only thing left to fix now was her weight. Trixie stared at herself in the bathroom-mirror and took note of how clearly she could make out her own ribcage through the thin layers of fur and skin. She’d gained a pound or two back during her stay, but it had taken months for her to get like this; she didn't expect about four months’ worth of damage to clear up in less than one. Yeah, she’d definitely be here for a while longer.

xxxxxx

The sun’s light stretched over the horizon the following day, blessing the ponies of Equestria with the gift of a new Saturday morning. Trixie was the first under the roof to see the new day thanks a new nightmare involving Twilight and her friends. The dream had taken place during the first round of her match against Twilight. After it had become clear that Trixie was the victor, instead of forcing Twilight to leave Ponyville for good, as per the conditions of the contest, Trixie grabbed Twilight by the throat in a fierce telekinetic grip. Using the power from the Alicorn Amulet, she squeezed tighter and tighter until the champion of magic’s neck snapped like a twig. She then laughed while setting the town ablaze and slaughtering Equestria’s other five national heroes, mercilessly ending anypony who tried to stop the killing, but most of the other residents opted to run in fear. The dream ended after a blood-soaked Trixie turned around and disappeared within the all-consuming inferno.

The unicorn’s only focus at this early hour was purging her mind of that terrible dream. She lazily rolled off the couch and crept through the apartment until she found her only form of entertainment for the last three days since regaining her ability to walk without pain, Autumn’s bookshelf.

It was a sad little thing, covered in dust and cobwebs. Many of the books inside were old and worn; stained from age, neglect, and other unknown variables. The blue unicorn surmised that she was likely the first pony to even give these books a thought in several years. She half expected to find an animal carcass behind one of the novels.

Days prior, when she finally decided to at least read the titles and back summaries of the shelf’s contents, Trixie slowly realized that not a single one of the books were happy ones; not that it mattered, she wasn't really in the mood to read about something happy with a cliché fairytale ending where the hero saves the day and everypony lives happily ever after. What she did find surprising was that Autumn had so many darker themed stories in her possession; it just didn't match up with her warm personality.

Under different circumstances, perhaps Trixie would have been able to find some humor behind the irony of some of the novels: Throwing Away My Identity, Broken Dreams, Scream Because the World Hates Me, Misunderstood, Failure, The Voices Told Her to Do It, and Soiled Reputation. That name of that last book nearly had Trixie fuming. “Ooh I can’t stand them! I don’t think that I've ever hated anypony as much as I do those six! And that’s saying a lot given how many ponies I've had the displeasure of meeting ... I’m almost tempted to talk Summer into helping me force feed them their own excrement until it comes out of their eyes! She’d probably be all for it since they’re the reason why she’s stuck with me instead of doing whatever it is that she normally does …” She continued to scan through the bookshelf with a cursory glance.

“How those six can be considered heroes and role models by multitudes I’ll never know; especially that purple witch. Her and her little pet! As far as I can tell, almost everything that she owns was spoon fed to her. The concept of actually having to work for the things you want would probably boggle her spoiled little mind! The only message she’s sending is that being buddy buddy with somepony in power is the only way to get things done! Lazy-ass ... I bet most of the accomplishments that she’s so proud of were rigged to make her and her criminal friends look better. I mean really, isn't it a little suspicious that whenever something big happens, they just so happen to ALWAYS be involved somehow?” The more she thought, the darker her mood became. “Ho, the next time they go off on another one of their scripted adventures to help save the world, I hope something goes wrong and they all die in the slowest, most agonizing ways possible! Then it’s back to whatever layer of Tartarus that they spawned from!”

The blue unicorn continued her search until she’d finally spotted the book that she had been looking for, "Friendship Never Dies: by Sundowner". Trixie had taken an almost instant liking to this book when she’d first started reading it. The story was about a unicorn and her two best friends. The three fillies were in the process of scaling a large cliff without adult supervision when something went horribly wrong. Nearly 3/4ths of the way up, the support cable that kept the three friends connected snapped, sending the trio plummeting towards the ground below. From where Trixie left off in the story, the only one who survived the fall was the unicorn.

Trixie took hold of the book and hurried back to the couch. She trudged through the pages as if she was possessed, the world around her fading away as she read and read for hours; her mind focusing only on the pages.

Chapter 29

Although her mind wasn't functioning correctly, Silver Lining knew better than to walk through the center of town hauling a cart of corpses. She also knew her mother and father would most likely not be supportive of anything regarding dead bodies, no matter how well-crafted an explanation she could give. Silver, taxed by the heavy cart, hauled the last few steps to her home from the back alleys of Hexville. She parked the wagon by the tree behind her house. It was dark by now and her parents were no doubt growing worried for her safety. She looked up to her bedroom window and removed her rigging. She frowned and looked back to her friends, moving within whispering distance of them. “How am I going to get you girls into my room?” She was a little perturbed with the idea of dragging them, one at a time, up the stairs. She didn't see a way to do that and not attract the attention of her parents. Especially with the gaping wound Scooter bore that still dripped blood and brain matter. Her mom would probably kill her if Scooter messed up the new carpet. She let out a frustrated sigh; her friends weren't very helpful but saw some of the leftover rope in the bottom of the wagon and smiled. Scooter still had her vest on and, even though she had tossed Cherry Blossom’s away, she had worn her own. She may be able to pull them up from her bedroom -

“Good morning Trixie!” The blue unicorn yelped in surprise, accidentally tossing the book into the air, ensuring the loss of her page for the time being. She looked over and glared at Autumn with great irritancy. What else would happen today that would help to worsen her mood?

“Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you.”

“Whatever,” Trixie said while rolling her eyes. It was now that she realized how much time had gone by, adding more fuel to her belief that time is always against you.

Autumn stared at the old book which had landed a few centimeters away from her hooves and, with rising curiosity, used her magic to levitate the tome into the air. “Friendship Never Dies? Wow, I forgot I even had this! This book’s a classic!”

“And I’m surprised that you ever owned a book like this to begin with. I figured that you’d be into ‘Happier’ stories.”

“Huh? You think that …” Autumn’s stare bounced back and forth between Trixie and the book that was being held afloat by magic, like a game of tennis. “No no no. This book isn't mine. Well, technically it is now, but I’m just holding onto it. I don’t really like Dark stories, not that I even read books anyway; I like movies better. Oh, and I like comedy and adventure better than everything else.” Autumn dropped the book back into Trixie’s hooves.

“So none of the stories in that bookshelf are yours then?”

“Not just the books, but the whole shelf too. You see, that all belongs to Cereus. He had to leave it all behind when he left for Canterlot. He was a big Sundowner fan. Actually, this was one of his favorite stories done by him. The first time he read that book he complained for weeks about how, ‘Something so wonderfully written could be ignored by so many ponies.’” Trixie saw some merit to that, considering how much dust was on the book when she’d stumbled upon it.

Autumn walked into the kitchen and turned the small knob on the stove. A flame kindled to life as she placed a skillet onto the burner. “So, how’d you sleep last night?”

Once again, images of Ponyville in turmoil and the mutilated remains of the Bearers of Harmony, of Twilight pleading for mercy, flashed into her mind. “Like a newborn foal,” Trixie lied while fighting the urge to shudder. She could recall the details from the dream so vividly - from the despair that had been carved onto the faces of her victims after being blasted into pieces - right down to the intensity of the flames. It almost felt more like a memory than a dream.

“Oh, that’s nice.” Autumn sprayed the inside of the skillet before cracking a few eggs. “So Trixie, there’s something that I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What is it?” asked Trixie.

“How would you feel if I talked Summer into helping me show you around Manehattan for today and tomorrow?”

“Huh?” Trixie blinked in confusion.

“Well,” Autumn used her magic to open the refrigerator and levitate a plastic container, which was filled with berries, onto the counter top. One by one, the berries were placed into a blender, followed by a tray of ice-cubes. The machine roared to life and Autumn was forced to raise her voice so that she could be audible over the whir of the blender. “You've been stuck here for more than half a month now! I know you've been feeling like a bird trapped in a cage! And now that you can walk around without any problems, I thought that it’d be nice if we took you out to celebrate!” After the contents inside had been ground into a fine liquidy mixture, silence reigned after the machine was unplugged from the socket.

“Hmm, so you wanna know if I feel like going for a walk through the city?” questioned Trixie.

“Yeah, that’s right. What do you say?”

Her response was nearly instantaneous. “Not interested in the slightest.” She picked the book back up and began searching for the page that she left off on.

“Oh come on, Trixie … you’ll have a great time! I promise!”

“No,” she answered for the second time without even looking up from the book.

“C’mon, just this once!”

Her voice was mechanical and devoid of emotion. “Same question, same answer.” Oh goodie, she found the page that she left off on. Now, which paragraph w- … what in Tartarus? Why did it feel like somepony was breathing really hard against the side of her face on purpose? “Oh for the love of …”

Trixie slanted her eyebrows and half closed her eyes as she slowly turned to her side. She was now face to face with Autumn who was making silly faces, no doubt in an attempt to get Trixie to laugh. She was failing miserably.

“Pleeeaaaassseee ...”

“You know,” Trixie said matter of factly, “A wise stallion once said that the true definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So should I be telling Summer to bring over a psychiatrist? And one more thing, you should probably turn off the fire. I think the eggs are starting to burn.”

With a yelp of alarm, Autumn rushed back into the kitchen only to return moments later. This time she seemed slightly more serious in her approach. “Okay, all jokes aside now, what’s up? What do you want to say inside for?” When Trixie ignored the question and continued to read, Autumn used her magic to tug the book from Trixie’s hooves. “I thought you’d jump at the chance for something like this. Like I said before, a bird in a cage! And now that the door is sitting wide open for you, you’d rather stay perched instead of fly for freedom? What gives?”

Trixie’s frustration level was close to its boiling point now. Being treated like some helpless cripple for weeks on end, the nightmare, the books reigniting some of her fading resentment towards Twilight and her friends, and now this! Autumn was like the insect from Tartarus! No matter how many times you swat at it, it keeps coming back to bother you. Unfortunately for Autumn, Trixie’s patience had finally run out. She took one look towards the ceiling, up at the book which was still suspended in the air, and then she looked back at the green and yellow maned unicorn. “You know, I think that it’d be a really great idea if you’d stop being so annoying, stay out of my business, and gave me back that book.” Her tone was low but harsh at the same time. “And get this through your walnut sized brain while I’m at it, ‘No’. Means. ‘No’. And that won’t change no matter how many times you ask me the same question. Now go sell some flowers or something you useless filly.”

Autumn staggered back a few steps as if she’d been hit physically. The mare had just about been rendered speechless. After the initial shock had withered down some, she gently lowered the book back into Trixie’s hooves. “Well … don’t mind me then. Forget I even asked.” Autumn, suddenly feeling a lot less tempted to help out her guest, turned around and walked towards the stairs. “The food’s done. Help yourself when you get ready.” Stop being so annoying? Walnut sized brain? … Useless little filly? “Maybe I should have let her freeze,” she mumbled under her breath.

Trixie heard this and was shocked backed into reality. It was now that she realized just how far overboard she'd gone with her words. “Way to go, dumbass! Getting snappy with Autumn and then threatening her like that. And for what? Because she took some dusty old book away that wasn't even yours?” Trixie looked at the book with escalating shame. “She’s just trying to help you. That’s all she ever tried to do since you got here, which is more than you can say for most ponies. You’re sure doing a nice job of returning the favor …”

Trixie pressed her hoof against her nose and shook her head in disapproval of what she said before. “Alright, alright, hold on, Autumn …”

The mare turned back from the stairway and gave Trixie a sharp glare that said, “What do you want now?”

The burning stare alone was almost enough to silence Trixie, but she continued. “Whatever, I’ll go … it’s just,” Trixie took a moment to get a feel for how much magic she could use. On the inside, she swore up and down that the benefits from the illusion spell were the only things that kept her from breaking off her own horn. Not that the spell would give her that much help anyway. If she had to guess, she only had enough power to safely keep the spell going for no more than 10 minutes, and that was assuming that all she did was lighten her coat a few shades and maybe darken the color of her mane a little. By her estimate, if things got really bad and she had to go with a more drastic change, such as turning her coat from blue to brown and her mane from silvery-white into a red and black mix, she’d only be able to keep herself hidden for about two minutes.

“It’s just …” she started again. “It doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to figure why I don’t want to be seen by other ponies, especially the way I am now. I've been really careful up to this point, but the way that I've been using won’t work until my strength gets back up.” Trixie focused in on Autumn’s features and saw that the initial shock from before had grown into low levels of anger. “I’ll go … it’s just that I don’t have a way to hide from everypony else.”

Autumn came back towards the couch and pointed towards the front door. “Do you see the closet that’s between the front door and the kitchen?” She didn't bother to check and see if Trixie nodded in confirmation or not. “Look in there and you’ll see a few hoodies over on the right. They all belong to Summer and she usually wears them when she’s on her way to the gym. Summer wears a size large. You look like you wear a medium so the hoodies will be a little big on you. Hopefully it’ll be enough to help keep your face covered.”

“An oversized hoodie? That’s the best you can come up with?” Autumn fixed Trixie with another dark glare. “I mean … thank you.”

“Oh, don’t mention it,” the pink unicorn said without trying to mask her sarcasm.

“Autumn.”

“What now?”

Trixie set the book aside and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that.”

The apology seemed to lift Autumn’s mood, but not by much. “Don’t worry about it. You already said that you didn't want to go. The conversation should have ended there, but I wouldn't let things end. I don’t mean to be so nosy; it’s just how I am. Summer’s been calling me out on that since we were fillies.” Calming down a bit more, she started up again. “But seriously, and I want you be honest, do you really want us to show you around, or are you just saying that so you don’t hurt my feelings?”

“I've been down for the count for over two and a half weeks. ‘A bird trapped in a cage’ or something like that, right?” Autumn seemed to smile a little at hearing her own words recited. “Besides, I haven’t been able to really enjoy myself since I got here; not that I would have been able to anyway. There isn't too much that you can do if you don’t have the money; but that should be a given, right?”

“Right … I’ll go wake up Summer.

“Hold on.” Autumn stopped again and looked back. “Where are we going?”

“That’s the beauty of it,” Autumn had calmed down even more now. “I’m not even sure myself!”

“Are you fooling around to keep everything a secret, or are you serious?”

“Do I look like I’m in the mood to act goofy?” It was Trixie’s turn to flinch back. “Now then, Manehattan’s a big place. There’re at least a hundred different places that the three of us could go to. The plan was to go out and, I don’t know, pick a place at random? Anyway, we’ll have fun, just wait and see.”

Trixie frowned a little again. “I really am sorry about earlier.”

“So am I Trixie, so am I.”

Chapter 6

So much had happened within the last few weeks that Trixie forgot just how high some of the buildings in Manehattan could stretch. There was no denying that Manehattan had some of the largest buildings in all of Equestria, many of which could easily dwarf the Canterlot Castle. The abominations of brick and cobblestone seemed to extend into the skies for all of eternity, their peaks obscured by the falling torrents of snow.

The small flakes of ice also served to help camouflage parts of the city as well. Trees, sidewalks, park-benches, everything had been engulfed under the same colorless blanket of winter. Everywhere that Trixie looked, muscular looking ponies could be seen marching around in orange jumpsuits that read “MCC” (Which was an abbreviation for Manehattan Cleanup crew). The MCC were working in groups of four to five in order to plow through the streets and sprinkle down salt so as to minimize the casualties of traveling by carriage.

From Trixie’s point of view, all of their hard work was nothing more than a wasted effort. Every layer of snow that the MCC shoveled away got replenished within minutes by the wintery downpour.

Trixie thought back to where she was only a few weeks ago. If Autumn had failed to ‘save her’ then her body would’ve been swallowed beneath it all. Nopony would have ever known that she was even there until after the season had changed and the temperatures began to rise. How long would that have taken? One month? Two and a half? It could have even been three depending on how the weather team decided to manage things. Who knew how many times a day that other ponies would’ve passed by that alley completely oblivious to the frozen husk underneath?

For some strange reason, Trixie found the scenario to be somewhat humorous.

“And what are you laughin’ at, trashcan?” Summer eyed the other unicorn with a vexing glare. “Wanna share with the rest of the class about what’s so funny?”

“What’s wrong with you?” came Autumn’s voice from Trixie’s left.

“Oh you really wanna know?”

‘No, now shut up’, Trixie thought to herself while rolling her eyes.

“Well, for one, I was havin’ a pretty good nap up until you woke me up, which was bad enough as it is seein’ as how I didn’t get to sleep until late last night. But now that I’m finally up, I find out that you don’t even know where we’re headed!” Autumn ignored the display being put on by Summer. The grumpy mare had been throwing a big tantrum like this all morning long.

“Secondly, you let that washed up magician wear MY favorite hoodie outta all the others! It was signed by Grave Keeper before he retired from EWE!”

Autumn looked over at Trixie and studied the clothing of interest. It was jetblack and the top of the hood fell over the upper half of Trixie’s face. On the front was a picture of a crow that sat perched on top of a tombstone. Below the picture, the words “Return to the earth” were printed in bold faded gray letters. In the lower corner of the hoodie, the initials “G.K.” could be seen on the bottom in dark blue marker.

“Now I’m gonna have to spray disinfectant all over it! I hope you’re proud of yourself, Autumn!”

“Well what else was I supposed to do? Let her freeze out here?”

Summer purposely bit down on her tongue in order to catch herself before she said something a little too offensive. Her sister’s warning about what she’d end up doing if she continued to target Trixie had been carved deep within in her mind. She wouldn’t let Autumn cut her off just yet. Not until after she had finished milking Trixie for every last bit that she was worth.

After taking a few seconds to calm down, Summer shook her head and decided to drop the subject for the time being. “You know what? Forget it. I don’t even care anymore. Let’s just hurry up and figure out where we’re going.”

“Hmm,” Autumn raised a hoof to her chin in deep thought for a brief moment. “What if we took her towards Misty Grove? They’re supposed to be having an ice sculpting contest over there for the next few days or so.”

Summer looked as if she was considering the idea for a moment before shaking her head. “Nah. That takes too long. Plus, I already stopped by there the other day. Noponies working on anything impressive this year. I say we go and shoot a few rounds at the crossbow range.”

“How about something we can all enjoy?” Autumn turned to Trixie next. “Do you have any ideas?”

She quickly shook her head and said, “I’ll let you two figure it out. I couldn’t care less what we do.” Then she walked off to the side and stood patiently while the two continued to throw ideas at each other.

“Oh, here’s a good one, why don’t we go down to Civic Hall?”

“Civic Hall?” Autumn repeated as if to make sure that she heard her sister correctly. “That’s a long ways off. Why do you want to go there?”

“Cause they’re sellin’ last minute tickets to the Detonography concert today.”

“Oh c’mon, Summer, not everypony likes listening to metal. And didn’t they disband last year or something?”

“Yeah, they did. But C4 got Warhead and Bombshell to sit down and talk things out. Thanks to him, the band got back together and they’re making music again,” explained Summer.

“Music?” Autumn titled her head back and laughed. “Screaming into a microphone as loud as you can isn’t music. That’s just making noise and torturing everypony’s eardrums. What if we did something more relaxing, like ice-skating or bowling?”

“Ice-skating? Bowling? Ha! And you thought my ideas were bad! Look at that chump over there!” She pointed a hoof over to Trixie, whose neutral expression was concealed by the hood. “She may as well be made from a pile of twigs! She just became well enough walk around without help! Now lemme’ ask you somethin’ sherlock. Whaddya think will happen if she loses her balance and falls over?” Summer’s horn began to glow as she levitated a piece of ice into the air from off the ground. Then she released her grip and smiled when it shattered on the pavement. “And if we go bowling, her leg would probably just break off and fly down the lane along with the ball!”

“Summer, I think you’re over exaggerating things a little.”

“Over exaggerating? Look, right now Trixie has a glass jaw. She has a glass everything! Hay, she’s a friggin china cabinet! But if you don’t wanna take my word for it, then by all means, let me run back to my house and grab my camera before we head off!”

Trixie eventually lost the tiny shred of interest that she had in the discussion. She just sat there, watching as all the other ponies passed by. They seemed so happy … so carefree. In a lot of ways she envied them. They all had somewhere to be, something to do, and lives to live. Why couldn’t things be that way for her anymore? Her first instinct was to blame Twilight, but she soon abandoned that train of thought. Yeah, Twilight’s actions had definitely complicated things for the former magician, but putting all of the blame on Twilight wouldn’t change anything. Maybe it was just her bad luck for choosing to perform in Ponyville. Perhaps if she’d picked somewhere else then none of this would be happening.

She lowered her head in disappointment and paced about. ‘No point in dwelling on ‘What-if’s’. Learn from the past, plan for the future, and all of that other nonsense.’

Just then, something caught Trixie’s attention. On the other side of the street from where she was standing she could see a group of foals standing outside a booth that read, “Fresh Hot Chocolate for sale! Only 2 bits! Get It While It’s Warm!”

‘Wow. Didn’t know that foals still do things like that for money. I guess some things never change.’

18 years ago in a city to the north-east of Cloudsdale, four ponies stood on a corner in front of a lemonade stand. The sun’s sweltering heat had been harassing them for hours, and now the two younger ponies in the group were beginning to run thin on patience. Jetstream, a six year old pegasus colt with a sand colored coat and a long flowing brown mane marched up to the eldest of the four, a male pegasus just like him and began to throw a fit.

“Lockpick! This isn’t fair! You’re a big colt! Why are we the ones holding the signs and yelling at ponies while you and Attack-a-coal Advantage get to sit around all day and do nothing?!”

“Yeah! He’s right!” pouted a much younger Trixie while wiping away long streaks of sweat that threatened to sting her eyes. “It’s hot and we’re tired! It’s your turn to hold the signs now!” She threw her sign which read, “Support West River Orphanage for Only 1 Bit! Buy 1 Get 1 Free!” onto the ground in a fit of defiance.

The second oldest out of the group, was a 17 year old earth-pony mare with a dark gray coat and a short mane that was almost identical to Trixie’s in color. Her cutie mark was that of a brain that sparked with electricity. She glared back at the two foals with a haunting pair of silver eyes. “Let’s get something straight right now Jr., MY NAME, FOR THE HUNDREDTH, BILLIONTH, TIME, IS TACTICAL ADVANTAGE! And for the love of Celestia, just call me Tact, or T.A like everypony else!”

“Fine, ‘Teeeeee Aaaaaayyyyy’!” Trixie cut in, “Why are you two just sitting there and making us do all the hard stuff?! We’re gonna tell on you two as soon as we get back home!”

Tact face hoofed and turned towards Lockpick. “I give up! They hear but they don’t listen to anything I say! Everything goes through one ear and out the other! You explain it this time!”

“Whatever you say, hotness.” The small foals laughed as Tactical Advantage sent a hoof flying into the side of the light green stallion’s face. “Anyway, it’s like this. You two have a special advantage that we don’t have anymore. Can any of you guess what that is?”

Jetstream scratched his head in deep thought for a few seconds. “Oh, I know! I’m the youngest pegasus at the orphanage to ever learn how to fly!”

Lockpick gave an amused chuckle before shaking his head. “Good guess, little guy, but that’s not it. How about you Trixie?”

The small unicorn smiled excitedly. Even back then, Trixie became elated whenever she was the center of attention. With an air of confidence, she gave her answer. “What sets us apart is that I’m amazing and special. Mother Tender Care said so when I used my magic to draw that picture with a crayon.”

“Those are all good guesses. You really shocked us when you jumped off the roof like that, and then you shocked us again when you didn’t splat against the ground.” Lockpick turned away from Jetstream and turned to face Trixie. “And as for you, you are indeed special. You’re one of the most powerful unicorns this world will ever see, and don’t ever let anypony tell you otherwise.”

The filly started to blush from such a high praise. “Unfortunately, those aren’t the reasons why you two have to do all the work. You see, if me and hot-head over there held up those signs and tried to snag a little attention, most ponies would pass us by without a second thought. But the two of you are different! You’re small and adorable! Ponies dig small and adorable, especially the mares! Just look at how much money the two of you made today!”

Trixie and Jetstream took a quick glance at the money jar. If their memory served correctly, they’d raised over 20 bits. Combined with the total amount that the two had made over the course of the week, the foals were sitting on top of around 80 bits.

“Wow, I never thought of it like that …” mumbled Jetstream.

“That’s right, team! Now tell me, what are you two here to do?”

“Sell lemonade …” Trixie muttered quietly while Jetstream scratched his left wing.

“I said, what are you two here to do?!”

“SELL LEMONADE!” the foals shouted in unison.

“And what team is gonna raise more money than anypony else for the orphanage?!”

“OUR TEAM!”

“CAN WE DO THIS?!”

“YEAH!!”

“Then what are you two standing around for?! Get out there and make some moolah!” Trixie and Jetstream charged back into the fray, feeling far more determined than ever before to sell lemonade for their fundraiser. As soon as they were out of earshot, Lockpick turned over to T.A and smiled. “Hope you were taking notes, because that’s how you convince a pair of six year olds to do all the complicated stuff while we get to kick back and relax.”

“Hmph, you’re going to Tartarus for this.” T.A sat down in the shade and began to sip on a bottle of water. “Did you even mean a single word you just said to them, or was that all pretend?”

Lockpick watched in amusement as the two foals ran about, admiring his own handiwork. “I meant every word of it, especially about Trixie,” the pegasus replied. “Give her about 15 years and she’ll make it big in Canterlot. Just watch.”

“So, does that sound like a good idea to you, Trixie?” asked Autumn.

“Huh?” the unicorn flinched, suddenly finding herself being jolted back into reality thanks to the sound of Autumn’s voice.

“Going off to the movies to see Pinkamenace II Society! Does that sound okay to you?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever.” Trixie spoke with a tone of indifference as she made her way back over to the group.