Showmareship

"Booo! Get off the stage!" The brown, spiky haired stallion yelled. His words were echoed by those around him. They could be heard amidst the murmur of the crowd, which had taken a turn for the worse. Twilight struggled to remain calm in the presence of such open hostility, not to mention the odd ballistic vegetable, and carried on.

"So, you'll all, uh, notice there's nothing up my, um, s-sleeve..." Twilight was sweating buckets and her voice resembled Fluttershy with a heavy cold.

"You're not wearing anything with sleeves!" A wag at the back shouted. The crowd laughed again and somepony else launched a tomato at the little purple pony. It impacted with the top hat she'd been forced to wear and knocked it off with a splat, leaving Twilight stood stock still on the stage. Her horn began to flare up, and before she knew it she'd vanished with a small pop.

Though she didn't know it, the crowd cheered.

*******

Twilight Sparkle, amateur showpony and talented mage, crashed into the trailer she shared with her marefriend and collapsed on the floor, panting like a tired greyhound and rather singed from the teleport. Said marefriend trotted in from the tiny kitchen to greet her.

"Twilight, darling, how did it - oh, love, Trixie's sorry..." She trotted over to Twilight and embraced the now bawling pony. Trixie's own eyes began to mist up at the sight of it. "Please, Twilight, please don't cry..."

"Th-th-they..." Twilight sucked in a deep breath, the rasping noise it made matching her voice. "They hated me! N-none of the," she sniffed, "none of the tricks we p-p-p-practiced went off r-right. They even hated the costume!" With that, the purple filly broke down again, tears staining Trixie's shoulder.

Trixie was completely confused. "How could they not love you, darling? Your magic is far superior to Trixie's own..." The shivering Twilight just howled louder, and Trixie cursed her inability to comfort anypony with words. So she held the other mare until her coat smelled of salt and charred mane, and nuzzled her silky purple coat, and mumbled comforting gibberish into her ear.

It was all she could do for her, so she did it.

*******

The next morning, Twilight awoke with eyes so red and puffy she looked like she'd been bucked in the face. Groaning softly as the unfiltered light of Celestia's sun drifted through the window with what she thought was unnecessary malice, she shuddered and stretched out. Then she turned her head and saw -

"Um... good morning, love. Trixie thought that, that you deserved a lie-in so she decided to make breakfast for you! Also, her Majesty wasn't joking about that microwave, how you make it behave itself when Trixie demands great and powerful warm Shreddies, Trixie will never know..."

Twilight smiled, a little wan and with horribly cracked lips. "What's on fire, sweetheart?" Her voice was husky as a champion dog-sled team and very quiet indeed.

"Nothing!" Trixie said mock-indignantly. "Honestly, I make one little mistake with that pig-iron torture device you so espouse during breakfast and you never let me live it down, do you?"

"An Aga, Trixie dear," said Twilight, subconsciously impersonating Rarity as best as her worn larynx could handle, "is a perfectly serviceable way of cooking food. And what was it that precisely went wrong when you tried to cook with it?" Trixie mumbled something incoherent. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"... disconnected the maximum flow regulator in the gas pipe to make it cook faster..."

"And what did we learn from this, Trixie?" Twilight's smile shone like a lighthouse as she squirmed closer to Trixie.

"... manes aren't necessarily a permanent feature of the head..." Trixie grumbled.

"Exactly!" Beamed Twilight.

"It was coming out really fast so I thought I'd burn some of it off!" Trixie wailed, causing Twilight to giggle outright at the memory of her char-grilled marefriend looking sheepishly at her from behind an outstretched Aga repair manual. "Besides, if you don't want the waffles, I'm sure I could-"

"You made my favourite? For me?" Twilight's smile threatened to take the top off her head, and she made a peculiar noise like a small rubber duck being trodden on.

"Always the tone of surprise," said Trixie smugly. "Now come on, scoot over a little, we can push monstrously fattening things into our faces together." Twilight complied and Trixie set the tray down on the bedside table.

"It's just... I'm shocked that you would, after... I let you down." The glorious, almost fillylike smile that had graced Twilight's lips like the replay light on a pinball machine faltered and died, and she looked away.

"Twilight," Trixie said in a stern voice, "look me in the eye."

"Um... oka-" The purple unicorn was cut off by Trixie's lips. She couldn't make any sort of noise save for a happily confused bleat. Her marefriend was, after all, an excellent kisser. And none too shabby at other things, too...

"I love you, Twilight Sparkle. I always will, for as long as you will have me." The sincerity in Trixie's voice was palpable.

"I know, Trixie. I love you too." Twilight leaned in to kiss her again, but was silenced with a carefully-levitated waffle to the mouth.

Trixie grinned. "See? All better, thanks to the power of waffles."

"Veesh urr zo goob. Zo goob. Uv oo."

The powder-blue mare snuggled Twilight tight and looked up at her adoringly. "Gosh, how do you even manage to swallow cutely?"

"Just instinct. Also, I think that's the longest you've ever used the first person around me."

"Trixie did?"

"Yes, sweetie... Trixie did."

"I know I'm safe here, I-Trixie guesses. Trixie doesn't have to worry about impressing anypony except you." Trixie smiled bashfully, eliciting a cuddle and a kiss on her forehead.

"Uh huh? So... hey, maybe you could incorporate the first person your defence mechanism! Like, I read a story book about this alicorn stallion who insisted on being addressed as 'The One who is called I Am'-"

Trixie puffed her chest out and began to declaim in what Twilight had come to call her 'stage voice'. "Trixie does not have a defence mechanism! She is too great and powerful for such things! Why, only once has she been bested in mortal combat!"

"Yeah, Trixie. By a stove." Twilight's happy smile had come back, albeit with a raised eyebrow Gromit would have been proud of.

"A stove fifty feet high! It pounded through the streets of Hoofington, laughing callously as it boiled all their broccoli into green goop-"

"Now who's holding a grudge?" The purple mare interrupted, eyebrow threatening to tear itself off her face and head for the moon.

Trixie sputtered with mock-rage. "I... you... the... friznit... argl... gyarg! Shut up and eat your waffle." Twilight tried very hard to suppress her giggles, and failed entirely. Trixie followed suit soon after, and the pair of them laughed uproariously and rolled around on the bed they shared.

No, not like that. Bad reader. No biscuit.

*******

"Encore! Encore!" The brown, spiky haired stallion yelled, his words echoed by everypony around him. The noises became indistinguishable, a mass of cheers heading the way of the mare on stage bearing roses and declarations of suit. The applause was deafening, but the lights were back on as the next trick was performed.

Standing offstage in the left wing, taking a break from co-ordinating the tricks that so amazed the audience, somepony began to write.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, I've learned a lot about how friendship can make you do things you're not cut out for to try and impress somepony else. Whether it's a friend or a lover, they think you're special because you're you, not through any artifice you put up. The best thing to do is stay true to yourself.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle."