Trinkets

Trinkets is the second story published by Pen Stroke for the In The Family series, a collection of side stories to Past Sins. It is about Nyx sharing with Twilight Sparkle the stories behind her secret stash of items she kept in her hollowed out book, and Twilight sharing some of her own stories with Nyx in return.

Style
The story is written in the past-tense, third-person, from Twilight's point of view throughout. However, none of the characters voice their thoughts silently. Either a character will speak dialog, do an action, or express an emotion. Scene breaks are signified with triple tildes (Abcron (talk)).

Summary
The reconstruction of Ponyville is almost complete, and nearly all the rooms in Nightmare Moon's castle have been cleared of items and refugees. Twilight meets up with Rarity outside the castle, and bring her up to speed on the latest town hall meeting. During the meeting, Twilight explains, discussion over what to do with the castle itself took place, but everypony was divided on the matter. The Mayor then approaches Twilight and tells her that the only one room left in the castle that hasn't been cleared is Nyx's bedroom.

The scene then jumps to Twilight coming home with several boxes to find Nyx struggling to pick up a small book with her magic. Nyx is extremely frustrated with her weakened powers, and whines about the matter for a bit. Twilight then tells Nyx that she has a surprise for her, and presents Nyx's previous belongings and bedroom furnishings to the filly. The furniture had been shrunk by a "Make-it-mini" spell, which requires a lot of concentration. As a result, even Twilight is clueless as to what is in the boxes; since being the spell caster she had let the Mayor and Rarity do all the packing.

The first thing to be unpacked is Nyx's bed. Twilight decides to save it in the basement for when Nyx gets older and needs a bigger bed. Nyx also finds her capes, brushes, and make-up set, and Twilight decides to give the make-up to Rarity rather than throw it out. Twilight is very curious about the next item however, Nyx's hollowed out book. At first Nyx tries to hide it away, but desists when Twilight quickly overpowers her. Nyx then tells Twilight all about how she originally found the book, the items stored inside, and how she transferred the book from the library to the castle.

The next item turns out to be Nyx's life-sized Twilight Sparkle doll. Nyx tells twilight how it used to be training dummy, how she destroyed it, then later repaired it and made it into a doll. Nyx tells Twilight that she can throw it out since she now has the real her. However, Twilight tells Nyx that she will most definitely want the doll when she gets older, and Nyx makes no inquiry as to what she means by that. The next box has Nightmare Moons armor, and it is promptly decided that it shall be stored in the basement.

After that, Twilight opens the next box to find Trixie's hat and cape. Nyx tries to play dumb for a bit, but Twilight knows that she knows what the items are from the stories she told her. Nyx then tells Twilight all about scaring Trixie, taking her attire as a trophy, and mocking her by making a crude imitation of her in front of all of Ponyville. Nyx complains to Twilight that nopony found it funny for some reason, but Twilight found it hilarious. She tells Nyx that they probably would have laughed under different circumstances. Twilight then decides to store the hat and cape in her chest so that they may give them back to Trixie should she ever show up for them.

Nyx suddenly volunteers to store the items, and Twilight does not manage to stop her from opening her chest in time. Nyx finds in Twilight’s chest her Mysterious-Mare-Do-Well costume and Smarty Pants doll. When Nyx inquires what the items are, Twilight refuses to tell her anything. However, Nyx argues the fact that she already told Twilight the secrets behind her belongings. Twilight then relents, but decides to only tell Nyx about the story behind Smarty Pants, promising to tell her about the costume when she is older. Twilight the relays the events of Lesson Zero in her own words, but keeps Big Macintosh anonymous and doesn’t disclose how she got the doll back from him; promising to tell Nyx tomorrow. Nyx learns the moral of the story as "that [she] shouldn't abuse [her] magic."

Nyx then asks Twilight if she has any other possessions with stories behind them, so Twilight promises to show Nyx her scrapbook and one of Spike's eggshells. Later that night, Twilight writes to Princess Celestia about the sentimental value of mundane objects. Before she sends it however, she finds that Nyx has stolen her Smarty Pants doll. She is about to rip the doll from the filly’s sleeping figure before deciding against it. She then adds onto the letter the value of passing down family heirlooms before sending it off.