A perfectly good day of doing nothing was interrupted by a summons from Princess Twilight.

I sighed as the message spell expended itself and popped out of existence. I had been enjoying my book, but I put it down on my desk to see what Twilight wanted this time. Not that I had much choice; when a princess was also your parole officer, you came when you were told. Not that Twilight ever lorded that over me, she was always perfectly nice and only asked me to do things. She never technically told me to do anything. Of course, how smart it’d be for me to actually tell her no...

Still, all things considered, my current situation as Princess Twilight’s ... houseguest, wasn’t that bad. For all I’d done, I could easily have ended up in prison, sentenced to work hard labor for the rest of my life, exiled to a celestial body, sent to Tartarus, or turned into a statue and used as a lawn ornament. It seems the law took a rather dim view on the enslavement of a whole village, stealing cutie marks, assaulting a princess, attempting to change the fabric of our timeline as part of a revenge scheme, and then nearly destroying all of Equestria with the previously mentioned time travel. But I hadn't intended for all of that to happen, you see, and I had very good reasons for doing the rest. It’s just that nothing worked out quite the way I hoped, and the whole revenge thing was ill-advised in hindsight. Shame nopony else saw it that way. Luckily for me, I landed on my hooves when my sentence turned out to be live in a castle with a princess.

Not that I had a whole lot else going on at the moment. I had spent the better part of a year working on getting revenge against Twilight for ruining everything in my village. After that plan imploded spectacularly, I had nothing to do with all of this newfound time. All my plans were dead, and I was just living in the moment. Not that my old plans had ever worked out anyways. At least I had a roof over my head and regular meals every day, not to mention that Twilight was helping me with my reform. She hadn’t needed to do that, considering all her options to punish me. Instead I was now her student, something I even I got a stipend for. She was really was nice—perhaps a bit too nice.

Thus, I headed to the castle’s library to meet with Princess Books. I found Twilight busily taking notes with Spike by her side. The table she was using was absolutely covered in books and scrolls.

“What was it you needed help with, Twilight?” I asked.

Twilight smiled and looked up from her writing. “Oh hey, Starlight. Good timing.” She stood up and stretched her back and wings. “How would you feel about running everything for Ponyville's Hearts and Hooves Day?”

That took me aback. “Um, excuse me? Running it?”

“You know, there’s all the festivities, events to manage, ponies to organize.” Twilight explained with a smile like all of this was actually something to look forward to. “There are a few activities we’re planning for the holiday, and it would be really nice if there was somepony there in charge.”

“Oookay?” I scratched behind my ear as I digested that. “And you want me to run everything?”

She nodded. “Mhm! I just got a letter from Cadance asking me to help her organize the Hearts and Hooves Day celebrations in the Crystal Empire. From the sounds of things, it’s going to be a major production—big surprise when she’s the Princess of Love—so she could really use my help, but I didn't want to leave without making sure Ponyville would be okay first.”

Spike crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Twilight, you know April Foals' Day is like a month and a half out, right?” He sounded about as enthusiastic about this as me.

Twilight frowned at her assistant. “And why shouldn't I trust my student with something like this if she feels she's up for it? It’ll be an opportunity for her to put her lessons to good use, and for more ponies to get to really know her like we do.”

Spike kept frowning despite all these reasonable-sounding arguments.

I pressed my lips together as I considered the proposal: Twilight was giving me an opportunity to prove myself. Something that did sound nice. And really, it was just some holiday festival where a bunch of lovey-dovey ponies got together. It wasn’t like I was seeing anypony, so my schedule was wide open.

I nodded to Twilight. “Sure, I can handle organizing a few things. I did run an entire village for a while, so how hard could one holiday festival be?”

Spike wasn’t quite convinced yet. “Um, you do realize this is different from your village, right?”

I let out a huff and rolled my eyes. “Yes, I know that running some random romantic romp is going to be different than how I ran my village.” Thanks for the vote of confidence, Spike. Geeze, you enslave a whole village like one time and nopony ever lets it go. Nopony even took my motives into account for that. I’d had the best of intentions with my village. Just ... a few things hadn’t gone the way I wanted, or went too far, and it was best not to dwell on past mishaps and mistakes.

Twilight gave me an encouraging smile. “I for one think this will be a great opportunity for Starlight to show everypony that she's changed. Don’t you think, Starlight?”

My ears perked at that positive spin on things. She was right—this was a chance for me to prove. Maybe this would get rid of some of those suspicious looks I was always getting from the ponies in town. It’d be nice to be able to go out without constantly being judged for something that happened in the past, especially when I was trying to do better and reform myself. I could prove to everypony all the good I could do.

“Yeah, that sounds great,” I said. “And relax Spike, it's not like I'm going to enslave everypony and force them to embrace a cult of equality. It'll be strictly voluntary this time.” I let that hang in painful silence for a moment before adding, “Kidding, kidding...”

Twilight’s smile became a little strained. “Good, because I'd get in a lot of trouble if you did.” She chuckled awkwardly like she always did when she was nervous and trying to hide it.

“And she wouldn’t be the only one,” Spike groused.

“But I'm sure it'll be fine. Because...” Twilight levitated a scroll from the table and gave it to me with a flourish. “I’m leaving you notes!”

Now it was my turn to put on a strained smile. “Oh... Great. Notes.” I didn’t know what it was about this pony, but she was an absolute fanatic when it came to notes and checklists. It was like she was convinced the whole world would descend into chaos and ruin if we didn't itemize everything. “I don't suppose you could give me a quick summary?” There had to be a better solution to getting prepared for Hearts and Hooves Day than all this reading.

Spike grinned evilly as he watched me. “That is the summary.”

I really hoped he was kidding about that, but knowing Twilight...

The Princess nodded cheerfully, oblivious to my dismay. “I just wanted it to be comprehensive to make sure you wouldn't feel like I was leaving you hanging. Everything you need to know is in these scrolls—I’ve organized everything, so you just need to follow my notes and you’ll be a-okay!”

I raised an eyebrow as I eyed the scroll in my hooves. “‘Scrolls’? As in, there’s more than one of these?”

“Yep!” Twilight pointed to the table that had about a dozen scrolls and a few books on top of it. “I wanted to be thorough. We can talk about cutting down on the amount of prep work I do for you next time, but for now I wanted to play it safe.”

Spike pointed to the scroll. “The appendix is about four-fifths of the way through that, by the way. That’ll be a reference for your heavy reading.”

“Wait, there’s more research on top of all of this?!” This was starting to get a bit unreal. How long had Twilight been thinking about having me do this?

Twilight smiled wide in the manner I had heard Rainbow Dash once call ‘adorkable’ as she levitated a dozen books in front of me, each with titles like The Origins of Hearts and Hooves Day: A 500 Year History of Courtship and Love and A Date in Fillydelphia: Hearts and Hooves Day in Equestria’s Most Romantic City. “You don't want to be caught unprepared if something comes up or if somepony has a question, so I've collected everything on the topic you could ever possibly need.”

“Gee, thanks.” I plopped the scroll down on the table. “Nice to know you're being thorough about it.”

There was no way I was going to read all of that. I liked reading well enough, but I wasn’t nearly the freakish scholar Twilight was. It wasn’t like I even needed to read all of that to do what needed to be done. Ponies had been doing Hearts and Hooves Day since forever and had managed just fine without a doctorate on the subject. I’d hadn’t celebrated the holiday since I was a filly, and even I had the essentials down. I would be fine without the homework.

Twilight moved the scroll I had just placed down to some arbitrary spot that must have been more organized in her head. “I just wanted to make sure my student is as prepared as she can be.”

“Well, there's no way I could be less than completely prepared with all of this,” I said, trying to not sound too sarcastic.

Spike rubbed his claw over his face and muttered to himself. “Oh Celestia, don't encourage her...”

Twilight either didn’t hear her assistant or was ignoring him. “Also, I have an assignment for you.”

She sounded way too happy about that. I mentally prepared myself for Twilight to get more notey. “Okay ... what sort of assignment?”

Twilight beamed with unrestrained glee. “I'd like for you to make a friend to help you with this. There's going to be plenty of work to do, and there's nothing like a friend to help out for a project like this. That's something I've learned for myself, and something I would like for you to experience as well.”

My smiled ended up being more of a grimace. “Oh great, so it's a friendship lesson and you want me to organize a festival?” Now she was turning this into a group project. Ugh, I hated group projects in school, and that hadn’t exactly changed when I became an adult. That was just perfect.

“You should know by now that she likes to consolidate,” Spike pointed out.

Twilight must have finally picked up on my mood, because she frowned at me. “It isn't too much, is it? I know this is a lot to dump on you, but I thought a friend would make things easier, not harder.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Of course, friends always try to help with doing things! Just ... um, did you have anyone particular in mind?”

Twilight shook her head. “Nope. I figured I'd let you handle that on your own. One of the reasons why I made all these checklists for you and your soon-to-be friend, it'll give you more time to—well, make one.” She chuckled to herself. “I was a bit too hooves-on last time I tried helping you, so I thought I’d let you try things your own way this time.”

I internally groaned. Twilight had somehow managed to find the perfect mix of excessive guidance and no guidance. That took talent. “Okay then. I guess I'll just figure out how to do that.”

I wasn’t exactly sure how. Oh sure, Twilight had gone over—in excruciating detail—how to make a friend, but there was a difference between hearing a lecture and actually using that information. In all honesty, I would rather throw down with a manticore than go through another friendship lesson. They were so ... awkward. It was so much easier just to tell ponies what to do like I did back in my village than it was to make friends and ask them to do things. But I reminded myself I didn’t do mind control anymore. Not after the last incident. I would just have to find less coercive ways to get ponies to do what I wanted. Like the winning personality I didn’t have.

Twilight placed a reassuring hoof on my shoulder. “I have every confidence you will be able to handle it.”

“Glad somepony does.” I whispered.

Twilight grimaced slightly and then waved to Spike. “And you’ll have Spike to help. He’s a great assistant, and I’m sure you’ll work great together.”

Spike looked taken aback. “You’re not taking me with you to the Crystal Empire?” There was a note of hurt in his words.

Twilight was quick to launch into damage control. “I’d love to bring you to help! But I think Starlight could use your help a little more than me. You know how my checklist and note system works, and I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more than you to assist Starlight.”

Spike smiled and his chest swelled. “Well yeah, I do have a lot of experience helping you as your number one assistant.”

Twilight nodded. “Exactly! Also, you want to give someone that Hearts and Hooves Day card you’ve been working on, don’t you? Unless that someone is going to be in the Crystal Empire...”

“Oof!” Spike smacked his own forehead. “I nearly forgot.”

Twilight chuckled. “And who were you planning on giving that to, anyways? I’d like to know who my number one assistant has a crush on.”

Spike blushed turned his gaze to the ground. “It’s a secret.”

“A secret, eh?” Twilight covered her mouth as she snickered. “Alright, I’ll let you keep your secret. For now.”

I didn’t know who Spike planned on giving that card, but it probably wasn’t Rarity given that she was dating Applejack. Twilight had told me about Spike’s crush on her, though it was my understanding that Rarity had managed to let him down gently.

Deciding to leave Spike alone for now, Twilight turned her attention back on me. “Any questions so far?”

I shook my head. “No, I think I’m good.” Though partially I said that to try and avoid a big lecture. Twilight loved giving out information when she got the chance.

“Great!” Twilight said. “Then how about we review the contents of the scrolls? You may find something you have questions about, or even suggestions.” She was way too happy for what amounted to an administrative meeting.

“Um, is that strictly necessary?” I asked, trying to think of a smooth way out of this.

Twilight unraveled the first scroll as she smiled far, far too eagerly. “You want to be prepared, don’t you?”

“Well yes...” The issue was that there was prepared and then there was grossly overprepared.

“So then, the Hearts and Hooves Day committee consists of—” Twilight was miraculously interrupted by rapping on the double doors of the library. “Huh, I wonder who that is?”

I silently thanked Equality for the interruption. Maybe if I was lucky it’d be one of Twilight’s friends, or somepony else asking for help with a friendship problem. The Cutie Mark Crusaders also seemed to be good at causing plenty of havoc. And in a pinch, I’d accept some sort of monster attack or other Equestria-ending threat if it got me out of having a multi-hour meeting with Twilight.

“I'll get it.” Spike waddled his way to the door, and just got his claw on the door handle when the doors slammed open with an explosion of lights and sound. Magical fireworks went off in the doorway, announcing the arrival of my savior.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie graces you with her presence once more, Princess Twilight,” Trixie announced with great aplomb. “Have you seen Starlight around?”

I eagerly waved to my friend. “Right here.”

Spike squeezed himself out from behind the door, wobbling on his feet as he tried to find his balance. “I’m okay too, by the way. In case you were wondering.”

“Oh. Trixie.” Twilight put on a smile that didn’t look nearly as eager as the one she had been wearing just a moment before. “Nice to see you.”

“You as well,” Trixie answered with a dismissive wave.

My smile, on the other hoof, was much more genuine. “Hey. What's up?”

Trixie smirked at me. “Trixie has the most magnificent, outstanding, and grandiose routine planned for the upcoming holiday, but she needs her number one assistant to fine-tune a few things. Can Trixie borrow you for a bit?”

I seized that opportunity like a life preserver in a stormy ocean. “Sure!”

Twilight’s smile became all the more strained. “Well we were about to review something for Hearts and Hooves Day...”

“Um, you don't mind if we take a quick study break, do you Twilight?” I asked, suddenly feeling a little bit guilty. There was just something about seeing Twilight disappointed that was ... yeah.

Trixie wrapped a leg around me and grinned. “Trixie would hope that the Princess of Friendship would understand that Starlight couldn't leave a friend hanging in a time of need.”

“Um, sure, that should be alright.” Twilight reluctantly waved for me to go. “We can go over all of this later.”

“Great! Thanks, Twilight!” That was a huge weight off my shoulders to say the least. Now if I could just keep putting off the Great Note Review indefinitely, I’d be in great shape.

“You’re welcome.” Twilight sighed as she rolled the scroll back up. “Though we really do need to go over this later.”

I grimaced. “Um, right, no time to waste. So Trixie, show me this trick of yours.” I leaned over and whispered, “And get me out of here!”

Trixie gave me a subtle knowing nod and rolled her hoof. “Well it first begins as any good magic trick does... sleight of hoof!” She threw down a smoke bomb and the whole library filled with blue smoke. Trixie grabbed me and pulled me along as we made our escape.

Behind us Spike and Twilight coughed, and Twilight called out. “You don’t need to smoke us, Trixie!”

“I don't think that counts as magic,” Spike said. “And I know a thing or two about magic.”

“Everypony’s a critic,” Trixie grumbled as we ran for the exit.

“You don’t hear me complaining,” I said as I escaped as fast as I could. “And really, I don’t mind that at all.”

Now if only I could figure out how I was going to deal with the latest project Twilight had dropped on me.

We made our escape to Trixie’s cart near the edge of town. She had a regular campground she liked to use there with a firepit, and her stage had already been set up.

I gave Trixie a smile once we stopped. “Thanks for getting me out of there. Twilight was about to bombard me with her lists. It was probably going to be hours before she was going to be done.”

Trixie’s chest swelled. “Well of course. The glint in Twilight's eye was evident—if we hadn't left, she would have had both of us roped into her little project.”

I shivered as the image of reviewing list upon list played itself in boring monotony in my mind. “Probably. Once she gets going it's like trying to stop a boulder rolling downhill.”

“Trixie can believe it. You can thank me later,” Trixie added, dropping the third person. Something I had only really seen her do in front of me while we were alone, or when she slipped up. “For now...”

Trixie motioned with exaggerated grandness to the stage. On the stage was a clear box a bit taller than a pony was long, with a crumpled white jacket lying next to it. I was curious what Trixie had cooked up this time. She was always working on adding new tricks and acts to her performances, both to increase her repertoire and skill and to make sure her audiences wouldn’t get bored by her falling back on old routines.

“What do you have here?” I asked. “The new trick you were talking about earlier?”

A wide grin spread across her lips. “Indeed. And I could use your aid, if you'd like to help.”

“Sure, what did you need?” This at least had the advantage over going over a bunch of boring scrolls for a boring holiday.

“I have an escape performance straight out of Hoofdini's playbook, but better.” Trixie’s grin turned eager as she levitated over the jacket. “A daring escape from a straightjacket, upside-down, all while wearing a suppression ring! No magic, no escape, and no tricks past the showmare's usual kit!”

“Huh, sounds neat.” Based on previous conversations, Trixie was a huge admirer of Hoofdini and had been working on mastering several of his tricks and adapting them to her own purposes. “So what did you need help with?”

Trixie coughed into her hoof and spoke more sheepishly. “The problem is, I ... need some backup. I can't always get out sometimes. There’s still a few kinks to work out.”

I pressed my lips together in a frown. “That sounds like it'd be a problem for an escape trick.”

Trixie sighed and ran a hoof along her mane. “Yeah. To be honest, I have no idea how he ever pulled it off to begin with. All I’ve got is hearsay from other magicians and what others have worked out—and even he never tried to do it submerged.”

My eyes widened slightly as I suddenly realized what the empty tank was on stage for. “Maybe you shouldn’t try and nearly drown yourself?”

“But ponies have already seen the dry escape routine!” Trixie stomped a hoof. “I need something bigger! Better! Grander! Ponies don’t just want to see something they’ve already seen before, they want something new and exciting! You don’t make a name for yourself by being just like everypony else.”

“I guess that’s true enough.” Part of me still bristled at the idea of anypony trying to be better than anypony else, but... I felt torn. There was something admirable in how Trixie was always trying to improve herself and do better. It made me worry about how I was bending on my old principles of Equality and becoming stagnant as Twilight’s student. If I was going to be honest, I’d been bending them ever since I’d become Twilight's student. Maybe even before that. I wasn’t trying to force ponies to agree with me, for one. That ... hadn’t turned out well—not after everypony rejected my philosophy and I got ran out of my village. Yet one more failure to add to the pile.

“Maybe, I don't know, sneak in something to help you breathe?” Trixie had taught me that one of the tricks to an escape routine was to hide the means of escape on yourself in some manner. Like that one time she showed me how you could have your assistant slip a key to you through a kiss as the routine’s about to start.

“Hm...” Trixie rubbed her chin as she thought it over. “That might work, actually. Of course, I'd prefer to actually escape the cage—the audience will figure it out if I'm underwater for more than three minutes or so. Nopony can hold their breath forever, and they’ll definitely suspect I’m using magic if it takes too long.” Trixie grinned. “But that's a great idea for practicing. Rushing through the act isn’t great when practicing. At least when you’re still learning the knack for it.”

I nodded. “Happy I could help. In fact, I can even think of a few spells to help you practice.”

“Oh? Well don’t keep me in suspense.” She waggled her eyebrows. “That’s for later.”

It felt like she was trying to say something there, but I couldn’t tell what. Probably just my imagination. “A Water Breathing spell being the first thing that comes to mind, and some illusions might help as well. You know, to hide things like keys.”

Trixie momentarily grinned in a way that seemed strained at the edges but then she relaxed and hip-bumped me. “I like the way you think. So let's fill up the tank and try out this spell of yours.”

“I can handle the water.” I started levitating water into the tank from a nearby well. This was the type of thing I was comfortable with: magic. Magic I knew. Sure, I might not be some triple-PhD in magic like Twilight was, but I had something better. I was really good at the practical side of magic. Theory wasn’t my specialty; it had taken me months to crack one of Starswirl’s time travel spells and then rewrite it to use the Map as a power source, giving me a power boost in the process so that I could slug it out with Twilight. But once I did get going Twilight couldn’t technically beat me. There was the fact that my spell had the side effect of destroying Equestria through factors I couldn’t have known beforehoof, so Twilight convinced me to stop. But that was only because I wanted to stop, not because she forced me to.

Still, if there was one thing I was supremely confident in it was my magic. It was a hay of a lot easier and predictable than ponies. Once you mastered it, magic did what you wanted it to do. You could control it, bend it to your will, harness it towards your purposes. Magic didn’t have a tricky whirlwind of emotions, desires, and needs like ponies did. Magic didn’t fight you, try to take what didn’t belong to it, or abandon you. It just was, and I liked it that way.

Which was why I was a whole lot more comfortable with Twilight's magic lessons than her friendship lessons. I really wish I didn’t have to do those friendship lessons. They made me really uncomfortable. Ponies were so unpredictable and prone to doing who knew what. You would think the bearer of the Element of Magic would understand me, but it had shocked me when she told me that magic couldn’t solve every problem. No, she went even further than that; she argued that even if magic could solve a problem that didn’t mean you should use magic. I didn’t know where she got an idea like that, but it was silly. If you could quickly and easily solve a problem with magic, then you should. Simple as that.

It all made me wonder what I was doing with my life.

Trixie nodded in satisfaction as she watched me levitate the water. “I suppose I should suit up and get ready for practice.” She took off her hat and cape and then sauntered past me, hips swaying as she did so. When she got on top of the stage, she paused to look over her shoulder at me with a smirk.

I was concentrating on the jacket and chains Trixie was going to use, figuring out how all the locks and everything were supposed to go together. “So, mind if I ask for your advice about a few things?”

I swore I could hear Trixie’s teeth grinding together, though I couldn't imagine why. “Like what?”

“Like about how Twilight wants me to run Hearts and Hooves Day in Ponyville.” I levitated the chains and straightjacket up to Trixie.

Trixie took the offered items, her head tilting slightly as she considered me. “Well, do you want to run it?”

“I'm not sure.” I scraped a hoof along the ground. “Part of me wants to prove myself to the Princess, but the other part... To be honest, I think Hearts and Hooves Day is pretty dumb.”

“Dumb?” Trixie looked taken aback by that announcement. “Really? What makes you say that?”

I groaned. Here we go... “Because it's a dumb holiday artificially created to sell things to ponies they don't need like flowers and holiday cards. Really, the whole purpose of the holiday is to support the elites both by tricking ponies out of their money, and creating a safety valve for society to pretend to release the pressure from the inequalities of their daily life through a day off and festivities, thus perpetuating an unequal society by consoling the masses without doing the real work of actual effective change to improve the qualities of their lives.”

Trixie’s mouth fell agape as I finished my explanation. “Huzabwa?”

I sighed and rubbed my face. “See, this is why I can't talk about the whole Equality thing. Nopony understands.”

Of course, the whole Equality thing could use some work—probably a lot of work, honestly. Assuming it wasn’t totally unworkable to start with. The idea that Equality might be too high an ideal to be practical would be a bitter pill to swallow. Trying to force ponies to act in a certain way didn’t work, and had been pointed out to me as being pretty evil, no matter what my goals were. Stealing cutie marks was a no-go as well, and the whole revenge thing was a dead end that nearly resulted in me ending Equestria.

So yeah, my philosophy needed some recalculating.

At least one good thing about Twilight’s lessons and me turning a new leaf was that I had made a friend with Trixie, and the others were alright—even if it was touch and go sometimes. Some things were better now that I was Twilight’s student. Going back to being alone was ... yeah.

Trixie shook her head. “No, I get it, you just blindsided me.” She huffed, sounding grumpy when she said, “It's not all bad. I like the idea of setting a day aside to spend time with your special somepony.”

I sensed there was something important about the way she phrased that. “You got somepony like that?”

“Well of course.” Trixie grinned and reached down from the stage to poke my nose. “She's just a little slow to pick up on what I'm trying to tell her.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Oh? I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure if you keep at it she'll figure it out eventually.” I was more than a bit curious about who this mysterious fillyfriend of hers was. I hadn’t even known Trixie was seeing somepony. Near as I’d been able to tell, she spent most of her spare time around Ponyville these days so that she could hang out with me.

Trixie eye twitched as her face twisted with a rictus smile. “Riiight, of course. Drop enough hints and they'll get it eventually. It's just a question of subtlety, and how much of it to use.”

“I guess.” I shrugged. “Hopefully I’ll get to meet her someday.”

Trixie rubbed her forehead. “She’s closer than you think.”

My eyebrow raised. “Wait. Is this somepony I know?”

Trixie’s lips spread into a smile. “You could say that.”

“Somepony in town?”

“Yeeees.” Her smile widened. “Somepony I know very well and is very special to me.”

So somepony we both knew and lived in town. Somepony she had a strong relationship with... “Wait, you want to date Twilight?”

Trixie flinched as though slapped. “What?! No! Why would you think that?”

“Because you two know one another and have that whole rivalry thing going on,” I pointed out. “And Twilight can be...” I tried to think of a nice way to put it. “Sometimes she can miss the obvious when she’s distracted.”

Trixie huffed. “Well Trixie doesn’t want Twilight. Much. Admittedly a princess would be a worthy mare for the Great and Powerful Trixie... No!” She vigorously shook her head. “Nonono! Trixie know who she wants. And that’s—” She bit down on her tongue to cut herself off.

I shrugged. Whoever Trixie was talking about, it probably didn't affect me. “I've never really been into that romance stuff. It’s just never interested me. Always been busy with ... other stuff. Like trying to bend all of Equestria to my will while stealing their cutie marks.”

Trixie stared at me like I’d just started tap-dancing with Discord. “Oh... Um—well, that's good to know!” Probably thinking it best to move onto something else, she started putting on the straitjacket. Though instead of just putting it on, she slowly slinked it on, moving with exaggerated movements and shake her rump in that way that reminded me of a reverse strip-tease. I was momentarily confused why she was doing that before I got it.

“You’re practicing for a special Hearts and Hooves Day act?” I guessed.

Trixie facehoofed as she groaned. “Just putting aside subtlety and putting on a show.”

“Oh, gotcha. Looking good!” I smiled in encouragement. “Though that might be a bit too risqué for a public performance. Kids might see you doing that.”

“I know what I’m doing...” She harrumphed and put on the jacket without further ceremony. “How about we just concentrate on your problem while I get ready?”

“Okay then,” I said. “It's a bit awkward figuring out what I want to do. Especially with Twilight wanting to bombard me with scrolls. Even if I know that’s just her being her. Still, it’s a lot of pressure.”

“Maybe you could reconsider the holiday a bit more?” Trixie suggested. “It's not a multi-month commercialization extravaganza like Hearthswarming. I don't think the authenticity of Hearts and Hooves Day is as drowned out as you say it is.”

“Maybe.” Either way, it seemed my choices were to do as Twilight wanted me to do, or disappoint her. I had to admit to myself that I’d been wanting her to trust me and my judgment more, and this was my opportunity to do so.

“Also could you help me with this last bit?” Trixie shifted inside the jacket, her forelegs restrained by the jacket and a suppression ring on her horn. “My hooves are a bit tied up to finish.”

“Sure.” I levitated the chains around to tie Trixie up as she instructed me where everything went. “What're you planning for Hearts and Hooves Day, anyways?”

“Well a bit of a show to warm things up...” Trixie grunted as I hanged her upside down over the tank. “And then a nice lunch in with my marefriend, and maaaybe something more later that night. Holidays are the best for earning bits with a show, and Trixie wants to spend some of those bits enjoying herself—especially with a special somepony. Commercialization or not, it's still a day about romance, right?”

“That's the idea.” I frowned as I thought everything over. “Even if it's kinda horribly unfair to single ponies.”

Trixie chuckled as she swung around on the chain. “It's jokingly been called Singles Awareness Day for a reason.”

“Isn't that the truth?” An idea struck me. “Maybe I can do something about that? Assuming Twilight hasn't already arranged something. I could make things a bit more equal for everypony.”

“There you go! She told you to take charge of the day, so take charge!” Trixie waggled her eyebrows as she gave me a grin. “Let's do something about being single. Together.”

“Right.” I rubbed my chin as ideas started to form. My smile slowly grew as the pieces fell into place “If I run the festivities, then that means I can run them my way, right?”

That could work perfectly. I wouldn’t have to worry about all of Twilight’s lists, I could follow my gut for how things should be done, and I could even improve the festival with my own ideas. What downsides could there be? I’d get to prove myself to Twilight, to everypony in the town, and get to do it my way. I liked this idea the more and more I thought it over.

Trixie’s grin melted into a scowl as she tried to escape. “Um, right, that’s a thing too. Twilight clearly trusts you do handle things. Let's handle them!” She grunted as she swung in place. “Right after I get out of this.”

It took a while.

“So you're sure you've got everything you need?” Twilight fretted over me the next day at the train station. “You’ve got all my checklists? Reading materials? Writing supplies? Lists of contacts? Means to contact me if anything goes wrong? You know where everything is, right? And the backups? You don’t need me to go over any of that again, right?”

I did my best to stay patient as I repeated myself for the third time. “Yes, Twilight. I've got your scrolls, the supply stockpiles, your list of contacts, your backup list, your emergency backup list, and the secondary emergency backup list. I’ll be fine, trust me.”

Twilight had been nervously fluttering from one thing to another all morning as she got everything ready for her trip to the Crystal Empire. Even now she was giving me worried looks as Captain Storm Kicker gave instructions to the rest of the Twilight Guard as they loaded her things onto the train.

“I just wanted to be sure.” Twilight’s eyes flickered. “We didn't get to review everything like I'd hoped. There is a lot to read over, and Hearts and Hooves Day isn't that far away.”

“We get it, Princess,” Trixie groaned. She had been beside me the whole day as we helped get Twilight moving along and on her way to Crystal Empire, though she had been a bit less patient than myself. “Trixie promises, we couldn't forget if we wanted to by this point.”

“Twilight, you put me in charge of this because you believed I could handle it, right?” I asked, trying to soothe her. The sooner she was out of Ponyville the sooner I could get to work doing things my way, not to mention her being nervous was making me nervous.

Twilight took a deep breath and nodded. “Right, right, I believe in you. I just... really want this to work out, is all.”

I placed a hoof on her shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile. “Don't worry, it will. I've got all your notes, there's no way I won't be able to handle this if I follow them.”

Twilight’s strained smile looked like it was about to break into mania at any moment. “I did write down every possible contingency I could think of. And we discussed the contacts list, right?”

“We did, Twilight.” I smiled and patted Trixie’s shoulder. “And look, I have a friend to help me do all of this, just like you asked for. Trixie knows all about putting on a big public performance. She'll be great for helping me with this.”

Trixie nodded. “Exactly. And Trixie will be with her every step of the way, and then some.” She smirked and hip-bumped me.

Somehow Twilight’s smiled became even more strained. “Good to hear! And Spike!” She pointed down to Spike, who was smiling as he carried one of Twilight’s checkilists. “Don't forget him. He helped me put all those scrolls together and knows everything that needs to get done.”

Spike nodded. “Yep! I’m happy to help.”

Trixie groaned with clear exasperation. “We won't, don't worry.”

“Oh, right.” I looked down to the baby dragon and smiled. “There's no way I could ever forget about Spike.” He didn’t really play into my plans, yet, but he might get slotted in somewhere. There was always a place for a useful assistant.

Twilight’s ears perked as Cloud Kicker, her public relations secretary, waved for her to get onto the train. It was getting pretty close to the train’s departure time. “Look, I need to get going. If there's any questions you need to ask...”

“I'm fine,” I assured her. “Really, Twilight. I've got everything under control.”

“Right.” She took another deep breath. “Well you know how to contact me if anything come up. You remember, right?”

Trixie pressed her hoof to her face. “We remember. Go, shoo!” She waved for Twilight to go. “Have a little faith in your apprentice.”

I smiled gratefully to Trixie, wishing Twilight could show a little more confidence in me as she left everything in my hooves. It wasn’t like I didn’t know how to organize something like this. I’d organized plenty of things when I’d run my town.

The train’s whistle blew, announcing that it was time to get onboard or be left behind. “Okay, I'm going. Right now. To leave you to take care of everything. Because I trust you.”

Spike crossed his arms over his chest and shot her a disapproving scowl. “Twilight...”

“Bye!” Twilight finally turned to get her hooves moving, but then stopped to give me an apologetic smile. “One final thing I need to talk with Starlight about before I go.”

I frowned as Twilight wrapped a wing around me and we both started walking towards the train. “What is it?”

She glanced back at the others before speaking in a hushed tone. “I’d like for you to do something for me as a favor.” She levitated out a folded piece of paper. “It’s about Spike. This is a recipe to one of his favorite treats. He loves crystal-crisps and I always make them for him on Hearts and Hooves Day. You know, to show him I love him and care. I’d make it for him, but with me going to the Crystal Empire without him this year...”

It wasn’t hard to figure out where she was going with all of this. “You want me to make it for him instead.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Exactly. It would mean so much to me if you took care of this. It’s been bothering me since I decided that Spike could stay behind to help, and it’d be a huge load off my mind if you did this.”

I shrugged and reached out to grasp the recipe. “Sure, that should be easy.”

She held onto the paper and her smile became strained. “Please don’t forget this. I realize that things might get a bit chaotic, but I really want to make sure this is taken care of. I don’t want him to feel like nopony loves him. You’re, well ... you live with us now, and I really want to be able to trust you with stuff like this.”

“I’ve got this, Twilight.” I pulled the paper from her grip with a tug. Geeze, she was such a mother hen sometimes. It was cute the way she cared for Spike, but she really needed to trust me more. “I won’t forget, I promise.”

Twilight closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Right, good.” When she opened her eyes her smile was much more relaxed. “Best of luck, Starlight. Try and have fun. That is part of why I wanted you to have some friends around.”

I rolled my eyes, the corner of my mouth turned with a smile. “Yeah-yeah. Get on the train already before you have to fly after it.”

“Oops, right!” Twilight waved as she got onto the train. “Bye everyone!”

Spike and I waved goodbye as she left, and relief flowed through me. I put away the recipe for the crystalcrisps for now. I could worry about that later.

Trixie let out a relieved breath. “Oh thank Celestia, Trixie thought she was never going to leave.”

“She just wanted to make sure we would be okay,” I said in defense of my teacher. “So she checked on that. Fourteen times.”

Trixie shot me a flat stare. “She's got a problem.”

Before we could get into an argument, Spike cleared his throat as he unrolled a checklist and pulled out a quill. “What's next now that Twilight's gone?”

I traded conspiratorial grins with Trixie. I’d been looking forward to this moment since getting up that morning. “First things first, we're getting rid of all the lists.”

Spike dropped the quill. “Could you repeat that? I think I misheard.”

“Like I said.” I took the list from Spike and felt a little too happy throwing it away. “Trash the lists, because we don’t need them. Twilight wants me to organize the event my way, and doing things my way means not following five miles of lists and instructions.”

“Twilight's plans probably work great for Twilight.” Trixie smirked and shot a spark from her horn that set the list plus the rest of the trash with it on fire. “But we're not Twilight.”

Spike’s jaw hung open as he watched the scroll burn. “B-b-but—!”

I patted him on the shoulder to reassure him. “Twilight put me in charge, right?”

“Yeeeeah.” Spike looked up at me as he started to regain his wits. “But she also left instructions. You know, princess-y instructions that ponies are supposed to follow, because she's a princess.”

Trixie scoffed and waved the idea off. “Suggestions, for those who clearly can't handle themselves. Starlight ran her own village, and Trixie is a small business owner. We’ve got this.”

“Uh-huh.” Spike frowned as he looked between us.

I decided to try something to bring him around. It might be trouble if he decided to tattle to Twilight about what I was up to, and it’d be best to avoid that. “Hey Spike, have you ever read Lyequinegus? You know, from Ancient Pegasopolis?”

Spike sighed and nodded. “Yes, Twilight made me read it as part of my history education.”

“Ouch, he's gotta be one of the most boring writers I ever had to put up with. Granted, most of that's because the Noun Verb version of his collected sayings is still the definitive one.” And it somehow didn’t surprise me that Twilight had assigned poor Spike to read something like that. “Anyway, if you had to suffer through reading him, I'm sure you recall his Fourth Axiom.” I grinned. “Unless you suppressed the memories.”

Spike groaned as he ran a claw down his face. “No, I mostly remember it. Mostly because Twilight put it on the test she gave me. It had something to do about how a leader should make decisions based on the situation he’s dealing with, and not just what he’s told to do by his commander who’s far off somewhere and doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “And in my judgement as the pony in charge, Twilight's list of suggestions aren't applicable to my plans or the current situation.”

“Uh-huh,” Spike said, sounding like he was starting to get on board with the idea. “So what were you planning on doing?”

I grinned, something of how I felt back at my old town creeping back into me as I thought of the possibilities. “We're going to make this the best Hearts and Hooves Day ever.”

Author's Notes:

Thanks to my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie for all their help, and to my pre-readers Brony Writer, wolfstorm56, Trinary, 621Chopsuey, Rodinga, PoisonClaw, and Swiftest for their hard work editing.