Much to Applejack's surprise, the most unpleasant thing about Trixie's magic show had not been Trixie herself. Far from it. As much as the cowpony didn't like her, she had to admit the showmare had flair. Her appearance on stage had consisted of a mere scrap of cloth floating onto the stage, only to twist and turn and make her appear, strobe light highlighting her (fire was risky in an indoor theatre, Twilight said, citing something about how airflow worked).
No, what stopped her from enjoying it was Twilight herself, who looked rather bored through the whole thing. When pressed, Twilight admitted that learning everything from Princess Celestia had left her with an understanding of how tricks like this worked, and while it looked good, her mind couldn't stop herself from breaking apart each flashy trick and figuring out which comparatively simple spell made it work. All throughout, she mentioned how happy she was to be in the balcony where Trixie couldn't see her expression.
The show ended after three hours of tricks, storytelling, and flashy lights, and left the crowd roaring in applause. Afterward, ponies crowded to leave the theatre, and Twilight and Applejack were escorted backstage to Trixie's dressing room.
"Well? Wasn't Trixie's show the most amazing you've ever seen?"
"It was the best stage show I've seen," Twilight said truthfully, leaving out how unimpressed she was with any other she saw. "I can see why it's such a hit."
"Naturally," Trixie smiled, looking like she had when she first met them. Then she softened. "And I owe it all to you! That loan you convinced the Princess to give me... it helped me get started here."
"I'm sure you could have made it on your own. Right, Applejack?"
“Yeah... sure,” Applejack said.
“Now that the show’s over, Trixie would like to treat you two to a meal.”
“I don’t...” Applejack began, but Twilight shot her a look that silenced her.
“We’d be happy too... as long as it’s not too expensive.”
“Oh, pish-posh, Trixie is in no need of money for the first time in years! Please let me treat you.” Then she put on a mischievous grin. “It’ll be Trixie’s wedding present.”
Twilight blushed, but smiled. Applejack blushed and scowled, causing Trixie to back off.
“If you insist, we’ll be happy to.” It was Twilight’s statement. Applejack didn’t say a word.
<Hey, dogs! You’re dogs! You’re barking! I’m barking! ‘Cause I’m a dog! Like you! See! Bark! Bark! Bark!>
Angel put his pillow over his head, trying to drown out Winona’s yapping. It was bad enough he still hurt, but being kicked out of Fluttershy’s soundproof bedroom so she could play kissyface with that Rainbow broad was just too much, especially with the roommates he picked up.
<Winona,> Owlowiscious said with his unnatural patience, <you don’t need to be barking back at them...>
<But then they don’t know I can hear them! Then they might stop barking! Hey! Bark! Bark! Bark!>
<Winona...> Owlowiscious said again, sighing. <You don’t really need to...>
<Oh yeah! You think you dogs can bark louder than me! Well I’ll show you! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!>
The restaurant had indeed been fancy, but not so much that it required them to dress up any further. Trixie had insisted on paying, and it had taken every bit of Applejack’s self-control not to buy the most expensive thing on the menu strictly to spite her.
Twilight had been the one to break the ice. “How did you get this show? You sure are successful...”
“Well, after the whole mess, Princess Celestia tracked down the pony who sold Trixie the Amulet. It seemed like he was dealing in some serious black market deals. He was arrested, and Celestia gave me back the money I spent on the Amulet, since I had earned it, and told me I better spend it better. So Trixie went up to Manehattan to try and get in a production.” She looked down into her drink. “It’s funny... Trixie always dreamed of starring in a Manehattan show, and she had earned enough bits to try... but she had been so consumed with revenge she didn’t even notice.”
Twilight patted her hoof gently.
Applejack fumed a bit at this. But she shook it off. She was just comforting somepony. Why get jealous?
Trixie went on. “Trixie auditioned for a theatre troupe. She got in, but an agent was in the crowd. He said Trixie could carry her own show. He said something about following a lead to be there that day.”
Applejack noticed Twilight suppressing a grin, and worked to suppress her own. Celestia seemed to have worked her magic again.
“And Trixie’s made all sorts of new friends here! The rest of the crew loves her!”
“Really? That stagehoof didn’t seem too friendly...”
Trixie got an exasperated expression. “She’s jealous of Trixie.”
Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Jealous?”
“She’s been trying to get a show of her own for a few years. She resents that Trixie was able to get one so soon after coming to Manehatten. Trixie tried to tell her she had spent years on the road perfecting her act, but she still thinks Trixie’s just a scene stealer.”
“I... see...” Applejack said slowly. She wondered if this is how Rainbow Dash felt whenever she tried to bite back a remark.
“But enough about Trixie. Tell her: how did you two meet?”
“You’re hogging all the blankets!”
“Then go sleep in your room, blank flank!”
“And let you get alone time with Spike? Yeah right!”
Spike pressed the pillow against his ears. At least none of them had insisted on sleeping in the guest bed with him.
“And so the two sped out of town, just seconds ahead of the mob,” Rarity said. Despite her lady-like demeanor, she couldn’t stop the grin crossing her face. “They couldn’t have gone faster if a manticore was chasing them.”
Blueblood chuckled. “Ah, those two...” Then his look turned into one of annoyance. “They are managing to just barely keep their activities legal. We don’t have anything on them.”
Rarity looked at her date. “Really?”
“Flim and Flam are disgusting ponies, but they keep within the law. We’ve been trying to find something, anything we can use to put them away. They aren’t running around free due to lack of trying.”
“Yes... Princess Celestia told us she couldn’t have them put away for what happened... in between scolding the Apples for even betting the farm in the first place.”
He nodded. “This farm... it seems like it shouldn’t be so close to being shut down. From what you told me, its crops sell well.”
Now Rarity looked annoyed. “Applejack and her family are stubborn. I keep telling Applejack she needs to take some sort of money management course, but she keeps insisting that,” she cringed as she put on her best accent, “she don’t need no fancy mathematics muddyin’ the issue.”
Blueblood chuckled. “Well, maybe her... wife will lay the hammer down.” Both of them snickered at that.
“You know, Spike never told me how he knew Hoity Toity,” Rarity said. “Would you know anything about that?”
Blueblood shrugged. “Not much to tell. When he stayed at the castle, he asked for one of the staff to assist him. Spike wanted some extra bits, so he asked Celestia to send him. Toity was skeptical, but he ended up liking him enough to request him every time.”
“He is a dear,” she nodded. “Such a help...”
“Excuse me.”
The faux couple stopped at the interloper. A waiter was now beside the table, holding a tray with two wine glasses on it, as well as a folded hoofkerchief. “These come with compliments.”
“I thought we made it clear, no alcohol.”
“These do not come from the house, Your Highness,” the waiter explained, “it comes courtesy of the party at table seven.” The waiter pointed a hoof in that direction.
Blueblood rolled his eyes. “More social climbers. Who is it, Jet Set? I swear...”
Then his eyes shrunk to the size of pencil points. Rarity, who had been distracted long enough by Blueblood’s spiel, began turning to look, but was stopped.
“Don’t look,” he whispered harshly. “Put the check on my tab. I’ll pay tomorrow night.”
“What? What’s going...”
Rarity never got to finish her question. “Don’t ask. Just come on. Don’t look back.”
“But...”
“Sir, they wanted you to take this...” the waiter levitated a hoofkerchief toward him.
“I don’t want it,” he said in a harsh whisper, all while continuing to drag Rarity out.
The fashionista resisted only long enough to snatch the hoofkerchief and place it in her pocket.
Trixie smiled at Twilight’s tale of Fluttershy convincing a dragon to leave Ponyville for a more peaceful place.
Applejack was silent. She hated being the only earth pony at a table with two unicorns. While Trixie and Twilight ate neatly with her magic, she was forced to eat face-first. She still hadn’t figured out how high-class earth ponies like Filthy Rich managed it.
Neither of her companions had said anything, and she kept praying it stayed that way.
“Trixie is amazed by your tales, Twilight Sparkle.” She popped the last bit of dessert in her mouth. “She understands why you’d have a list of those who would seek to mess with you.”
“Well... being the Princess’s personal student does lead to you making enemies.”
Applejack said nothing.
When the check was brought, there was a small argument over who’d pay it. Twilight won (Applejack wasn’t surprised, she seldom let anypony take up a bill when it hardly put a dent in her savings) and placed down the bits.
“Will Trixie be seeing you again?”
“Not for a while,” Twilight said, “we leave in the morning to interview the next suspect. But why don’t I bring the others down soon? We can all attend your show.”
“Trixie accepts your proposal.”
The trio parted. It was two blocks down before Twilight spoke. “Applejack?”
“Hm?”
“You hardly said a word tonight.”
“...You know how I feel about her. I was bein’ polite.”
“I know..” Twilight said. Then, after considering, she added, “At least, as polite as somepony would expect you to be. But I’m hoping the next time we see her, you’ll be more open. She’s not the same pony she was when we first met.”
“Sure, sure,” she said, her voice taking on a sharper tone. “So tell me, are we havin’ Flim an’ Flam fer tea an’ cookies when we hit Vanhoover?”
“Applejack...”
“...Sorry.” It was mumbled, to the point that Twilight had to strain her ears to hear her. “But when yer first impression of somepony is humiliatin’ ya, yer not too keen on makin’ friends...”
“I know, but I think you’ll like her if you just talked. You know, you didn’t like Rarity when we first met.”
“...Why do you like Trixie so much?”
Twilight blinked. “What do you mean? I’m just trying to be a friend.”
“Ya seemed to be gettin’ close to her.”
“I was... wait.” Her eyes widened. “Are you jealous?”
Applejack’s eyes widened. Two thoughts ran across her mind: She’s onta ya and Yer a bad liar, end this quick.
“Why that’s plum crazy Twi, I ain’t ever heard of somethin’ so ridiculous, look I’m tired, think I’ll sprint ta the hotel an’ go ta sleep, see ya!”
And she shot like a rocket. She bumped into every other pony on the street who, in true Manehattan fashion, didn’t even look up from their newspapers.
“Good goin’, AJ, now she’s gunna find out. Nice goin’, you dumb hick.”
“What was that about?”
The carriage ride had been quiet, with Blueblood refusing to answer any of Rarity’s questions. Now that they were back in the castle, she was demanding answers.
“Nevermind. Just go to bed.” And he walked away.
“Wait...” No response.
She groaned with exasperation as she made her way back to her room. She slammed the door and took a deep breath.
Then she pulled out the hoofkerchief and examined it. It was monogrammed with a family seal. It was nothing fancy, simply a golden shield with a navy blue B on it.
“What the...”
I see the bluebloods are in town
My guess? It was his estranged parents.
The plot thickens!
~The lizardman loves cliffhangers
Blueblood doesn't get along with his family? Interesting.
And I wonder how many more suspects they'll have to interview before Twilight gets a straight answer out of AJ.
Also, poor Spike.
Sweet, a "News From Everywhere" chapter!
More family drama seems interesting. I wonder if it would have had any parallel with what you decided isn't going to happen with Twilight's parents....
Or, knowing nobility, it could be an interested cousin.
Um....
Dun-dun-dunnnnnn!
(BTW, "navy-blue" is a compound adjective in this case; needs a hyphen. )
4469161 you only hyphenate colors when the two colors are equal. Blue-black sky. Navy blue suit.
Good job on updating your story after a long time. I hope you keep up the work.
Er...
that last bit sticks in my mind. by the way, glad to see a new chapter to this.
Ooohh plot twisty! Me like!
So, is there another Blueblood? A twin brother or maybe a Changeling infiltrator?
Additionally...
Applejack is jealous! Applejack is jealous!
Smooth, AJ, I'm sure Twilight will never suspect a thing.
Definitely curious about Blueblood's surprise relatives and his reaction to them.
I like the Blueblood/rarity stuff.
Still put off by the TwiJack. Not TwiJack part, but the being forced together so "they will fall in love". It feels a lot like an arranged marriage. I just hope it does not end with them forgiving everyone involved because "it was for a good reason".
To quote one Friendship lesson:
It is implied in that one that the two may get together, but it did not make it 'right' for the CMC to do what they did.
Still the Story is well done.
4469650
Sorry, but no.
Hyphenation isn't necessary when the mixed color is used as phrasal adjective which follows the noun:
but it must be done when it's used as an adjective which precedes the noun that it modifies:
However, even when it's used as an adjectival phrase, hyphenation may still be required in cases where the result could be ambiguous:
In the first sentence, without the hyphens, it's unclear whether this means she has a closet full of shoes, some of which are black and some of which are white, or whether her closet is full of shoes which are both black and white, i.e. patterned or striped with both colors at once.
Here, when used as a compound adjective before the noun, the hyphenation is essential, because "light" has multiple meanings; it can be either a color modifier, or it could be a description of weight (i.e. a dress made out of lightweight fabric), so "a light green dress" could either be a green dress made of lightweight fabric, or a dress that's a pale shade of green in color.
Has nothing to do with whether the two colors are "equal" or not; it's entirely dependent upon the mixed color's position in the sentence (adjectival phrase after the noun, or compound adjective before the noun), and whether the un-hyphenated version can be interpreted in multiple ways and the hyphens are needed to remove the ambiguity over which one is meant.
Yeah Spike, keep tempting fate.
I love how the FlutterDash in the story is told indirectly through Angel's PoV
It's funny because it's true!
This update took quite a while! Still good though.
Plot thickens, interesting....
4470448
I acknowledge that. Everyone on Twilight's suspect list is an enemy. Except Discord and Pinkie, who they guess are just amoral and flakey, respectfully.
4470582
Actually if you look it up in a style manual, a phrase like navy blue doesn't get hyphenated because there is no ambiguity in that phrase. Navy is not a color on it's own so you do not hyphenate it.
4474472
Ambiguity is not the only criterion; it is not even the primary one. The fact that it occurs as a compound adjective preceding the noun takes precedence. The word "navy" is modifying "blue", describing the type of blue; that, by definition, makes "navy blue" a compound adjective when it is used to further modify the noun ("B", which in this case is understood to mean the embroidered letter on the hoofkerchief).
There is a simple test you can perform to prove whether you're dealing with a compound adjective that needs hyphenation: If you can insert the word "and" between the two modifiers preceding the noun, and the meaning of the sentence remains intact:
This works (even though its an awkward phrasing), because the book can be described as being both big and blue. "Big" is not describing what kind of "blue" the book is, it's describing the book itself; i.e. "she" has a big book that's also blue. Therefore, "big blue" is not a compound adjective, and does not need hyphenation. However:
Does not work, because the singer can't be described as being both "world" and "famous" ("world" isn't even an adjective!), and the only other way to interpret the sentence is that "he" is both "a world" and "a famous singer", which is also nonsense. Therefore, "world" and "famous" are acting together as a compound adjective, "world-famous", because "world" is describing what kind of "famous" the singer is. The first adjective, "world", is modifying the second adjective, "famous", and together they make a single modifier to the following noun, and so the hyphen is required.
So:
Inserting the "and" breaks the meaning of the sentence, because the "B" can't be described as both "navy" and "blue" (unless your intention is to use "navy" as a shorthand for "navy-blue", and the implication is that the "B" is two different shades of blue, but now we're back to the ambiguity issue again). "Navy" modifies "blue", together they modify "B"; therefore, it is a compound adjective and, by the rules of English grammar governing the use of compound adjectives, the hyphen is required.
"Style guides" are not a great source to rely on for these things, unfortunately; one can easily find two "guides" with completely contradictory recommendations to just about any given question. The "Better Homes & Gardens Style Guide", for example, seems to think that whether or not the color is hyphenated in the dictionary is the primary criterion, which is suspect on its face seeing as how the dictionary is definiing it as a noun rather than as an adjective, and further advises to not hyphenate "light green" even though its use in their own example sentence is clearly ambiguous; conversely, the "U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual" flatly states "Print combination color terms as separate words, but use a hyphen when such color terms are unit modifiers" as the only rule governing colors.
I go by the rules of basic English grammar. Source: every "English Composition" and "Language Arts" teacher I've ever had since 3rd grade. (Granted, I was fortunate enough to go to school back in the days when they actually still taught this stuff, and weren't afraid to flunk a student if they didn't learn it...)
4475495
Well, I for one certainly just got schooled
Good chapter, but not a great one. The story is starting to stretch the premise, which is a horrible position to be in.
Either make things move faster or make more things happen, I suppose, but right now you're not throwing anything at the audience that the audience couldn't guess or assume.
The main arc anyway.
The pet arc? Charming. The CMC/Spike arc? Still paced very nicely. Rarity and Blueblood? Still enough information to care whilst enough intrigue to remain intriguing.
But the rest could be summed up with "Trixie actually has a good show. Applejack is jealous of her being nice to Twilight. Redundant and unwarranted exposition exposition exposition."
Not nearly as poorly done as Fluttershy's at the start of the Breezies episode, so, you've got that going for you. Better than canon! Hoorah! I'm certainly still interested enough to keep reading, true, and it's almost entirely a subjective objection I'm making here. Still, though...
Unsatisfying.
I only have one complaint, this chapter wasn't long enough and there aren't more of them already available for my eyes to consume! (Okay so two complaints.) Seriously, very funny, I love the interactions between AJ and Twi, very enjoyable!
Please keep writing, I'll keep reading!
4475586 raises a valid point, actually... I'm not sure if the story is stretching its premise, as such, but it is starting to feel as if the "B"-plots are taking over a bit, or at least showing more signs of actual advancement. Unless something occurs in the "next suspect's" interview which actually gives Twilight and Applejack a key to solving the mystery, it might be better to just give a quick summary of it and move them forward to the next suspect after that, just to keep the "A"-plot moving.
If it's a matter of plot timing, where you need Twilight and AJ to spin their wheels without getting anywhere for a while until some aspect of the Rarity / Blueblood plot occurs (which seems to be the most important of the "B" plots; Fluttershy / Dash, and Spike vs. the CMC, are of secondary importance and mostly comic relief, it seems), my suggestion would be to spend a chapter or two focusing on Rarity / Blueblood to move the plot into the correct position, then come back to Twilight / Applejack and summarize what they'e been doing in the meantime as that chapter opens with them on their way to interview the suspect who will actually help them move their own plot forward.
Kisses. Right. Keep thinking that, Angel
My. Spike sure is popular with the fillies
Oh my. He's avoiding his family?
Another most excellent chapter. Can't wait to see the mystery of the hoofkerchief revealed as well as what Spike does next.
Oh dear. What if she does have Flim and Flam over for tea and cookies?
4490833 Then she pulled out the hoofkerchief and examined it. It was monogrammed with a family seal. It was nothing fancy, simply a golden shield with a navy blue B on it.
“What the...”
Oh my. He's avoiding his family?
or his wife >.>
4509111
Seriously AJ needs to let go. Especially since Trixie would've never retaliated against AJ and Dashie if they weren't hecklers. After all they're showmares, and they should know how showmares can get when ponies disrupt their performance (in Trixie's case her livelihood and Special Talent). Although AJ should also mare-up and talk to Twilight about her feelings.
On a different note. I have so much pity for Spike right now. He's not going to get any peace until he chooses "best kisser".
Really, AJ, she tickled you. She tickled you. Quit being such a baby and get over it.
4468545
Like Celestia's plot at an interdimensional cake convention.
Amusingly, I've recently been getting clickbaity advertisments about a "foolproof [way]... to stop any dog from barking".
EDIT: And it appeared again the very next chapter.