Let it never be said that the Ponyville weather pegasi slacked off.
Only the day before Hearth's Warming Eve, and already the entire region was fully winterized. The snow was knee deep in spots, even on the roads, much to my irritation. I've been hauling my wagon for years, and it's kept me fit enough to handle a little bad weather, but snow is still a pain in the rump. Normally, I prefer to pick a major city, park my wagon, and wait out the winter doing small performances in the local venues. At least that way I didn't have to freeze my hooves off trudging through the snow.
This year I had another plan.
It was risky. Hay, it was a gamble. I could either win big or make a complete fool of myself and leave town miserable. But the prize if I pulled it off? It might just be worth it. Maybe. Possibly. I couldn't be sure but I wanted to find out. For the first time in my life I needed to try.
And that meant I had to go through with my plan, no matter what.
I felt a little guilty about it, but I couldn't see any other way to get what I wanted. Were it anypony else I wouldn't bat an eye, but Starlight? Starlight was the exception. For a lot of things. But, she was my friend, right? Friends forgave, right? And it wasn't like I was going to hurt anypony. I wasn't going to humiliate anypony either. Or harass, insult or generally be a nuisance. I didn't have to do that anymore.
Of course, there's a nasty little thought that likes to lurk in the back of my mind and remind me that I never had to do any of that. I never had to insult and berate and embarrass. I never had to keep everypony at legs length. Nopony forced me to be a terrible pony, I just couldn't stop.
But things were different now. Now I had a friend. I had somepony who got me, somepony who I got. Somepony else who knew what it was like.
My plan had to work.
That was all I could think when I parked my wagon in the outskirts of Ponyville. I freed myself from the harness, and set about putting the wheel stops in place. The last thing I needed was for my home to roll off on its own. I'd already spent a night in the Ponyville dump digging my belongings out of a smashed wagon, and once was quite enough, thank you.
A light breath of wind caught my cape, and made me shiver until I got it wrapped back around myself. Not for the first time, I swore to myself that this would be the year I invested in some winter clothing. I knew I wouldn't, of course. The bits were never there, and I'd already spent what I had on my plan. If things didn't work out, then I was looking at a lean couple of weeks until I could dig myself out.
Once I was confident that my wagon wasn't going to start rolling down some subtle incline, I hurried my hooves inside where I could be out of the wind and away from suspicious glances for a few minutes. I knocked snow off my fetlocks on the way in, and tugged at the door with my magic. The door jam had warped in the cold, which made it difficult to get the door to latch properly because of course it had. Once I forced the treacherous door into submission, I settled back on my haunches and blew on my forehooves. Stupid pegasi and their snow.
I'd have to go back out before too long to visit the police ponies in accordance with my parole, but I could afford a few minutes of relative comfort. The Ponyville police liked to be thorough with me. Most towns just wanted a short check-in about what I was going to do, duration of stay, and a quick little dark magic sweep to make sure I wasn't tampering with evil artifacts again. The Ponyville department took things just a tad more personally. Considering what I'd done to most of them when they'd tried to stop me taking over the town, it was just possibly understandable. Still, it wasn't like any of it had been permanent. Even so, they'd want to search me and my wagon. Technically, I could refuse and make them get a warrant. I wasn't obligated to cooperate at all beyond the terms of my parole. I'd let it happen anyway though.
Just as long as I could keep Starlight blissfully unaware of it.
It was always tricky to pull off a visit to the police without Starlight finding out. When I came to town, we usually spent a lot of time together. I loved the attention, but it did make it difficult to get to the police before she found me. Truth be told, I was just as much responsible for it as she was since I stuck to her like a vampire fruit bat on a watermelon every chance I got. She was the only reason I came to Ponyville anymore. She was the entire point of my plan.
With great reluctance, I scraped the half-jammed door back open and ventured out into the streets. Best to get things over with.
I kept my eyes on the table most of the time while I was in the interview room. I've found that's the best thing to do when you're not being spoken to. The Ponyville police got nervous when I tried to maintain eye contact for very long. Maybe they were expecting to see an unnatural red glow at any moment. Maybe they just didn't like me. Or maybe I was trying too hard to keep eye contact and it would make anypony uncomfortable. If I were good at noticing things like that, I might have had friends before Starlight. Maybe. If I'd ever met anypony who could stand me for more than five minutes that I could say the same about.
I bit back a sigh and waited for the officer to finish going over his paperwork. It was the same officer who had handled me last time. He was dusty brown, with a dark chocolate colored mane, precision trimmed mustache, more than a few lines on his face, and, all in all, looked exactly like a police pony.
“Alright.” I started a little at the deep, slightly rough sound of his voice. “You're free to go.”
I looked up, briefly forgetting to keep myself looking calm and neutral.
“What?”
“I said you're free to go.”
I stared blankly for a moment or two while I tried to work out what the catch was. I was never done this quickly. The Ponyville police loved to give me a hard time. “Don't… don't you want to search my wagon?”
The officer cleared his throat and, for the first time, looked a little uncomfortable. “Ah, yes, ahem, that reminds me. I've been asked to apologize to you for the unauthorized searches we've conducted in the past.”
“What?”
“Just as I said. On behalf of the Ponyville Police Department, I apologize for the searches of your property without warrant.”
“...What?”
The officer's brow furrowed. “Are you having trouble understanding me?”
“I- no, no I'm just… surprised. Why-?”
“The Princess heard about them and… wasn't happy.” Judging by the sound of his voice that was probably an understatement. “Apparently, she studied up on basic criminal justice along with magic.”
“Studied…? Wait, you don't mean Princess Twilight!?” I gaped open mouthed at the officer. He shifted awkwardly on his seat and looked for all the world like he wished he was anywhere else.
“Her highness was upset that we 'treated Starlight Glimmer's friend like that',” he quoted. “So, yes. You're free to go, Miss Lulamoon. You may collect your belongings at the front desk. Have a happy Hearth's Warming,” he added rather awkwardly.
I stared for a few more moments, then got off my chair and walked out of the office as quickly as I could without risking looking guilty. Twilight had intervened on my behalf? Why? What was her angle? Had she been spying on me, looking for some evidence that I was up to no good again?
Had she told Starlight?
My hat and cape were waiting for me as promised, and I didn't wait to finish getting them on before I trotted to the exit. If it weren't so cold, I'd have left them in my wagon, but I needed what little warmth they gave me. It wasn't until I got outside that I finally let go of a breath I'd been holding for what felt like forever.
At last, I was in the clear. I just had to get back to my wagon and wait-
“Trixie!”
Oh no.
I turned on the spot and saw a familiar, very light purple unicorn trotting down the road, grinning from between a blue hat and scarf. She had overstuffed saddlebags on her back, and was trailing a long scroll of paper behind her in the wintry breeze. She'd found me already. All I could do was hope against hope that she wouldn't notice where we were.
“I was out running some errands and saw your wagon! You're back sooner than I expected. Were-” she paused and glanced up at the building behind me when she closed to comfortable conversation range. “...Why are you coming out of the police station?”
“Er-”
“Are you okay?” she asked quickly. “You weren't robbed or anything, were you? You didn't, er, get into any, uh, trouble, did you?”
“Oh, uh, of course not!” I said with what I hoped against hope was a casual voice. She didn't know. “I was just, uh, taking care of an old issue from a previous visit.” Okay, not a lie yet, so far so good. “Did you know there are rules about where you can park a wagon?” Also not technically a lie. It was entirely unrelated but, technically, I could claim it was a topic change and not a deliberate attempt to mislead my one and only friend into thinking that nothing was wrong. And I had gotten ticketed for stopping my wagon in the wrong place before. The fact that it was years ago, in Vanhoover, miles upon miles away, was just details.
Starlight sighed in relief. I think if a lie doesn't hurt anypony and makes somepony feel better then it's a 'white lie'. Those are okay, or so I've heard. So, really, if that's not true then it's not my fault for believing it. I was just... misinformed, which made it okay again.
“Whew, I was worried for a second there.”
“Have no fear!” I brought out the stage voice. Starlight liked my stage voice. “The Humble and Penitent Trixie has cleaned her slate of past misdeeds, and moves forward into a brighter tomorrow!”
That got her to laugh. Music to my ears. “In that case, you want to come with me while I wrap things up? I offered to pick up a few things for Twilight and Spike. They've got a lot of planning to take care of.”
In truth, I wanted to go back to my wagon. It was cold, it was wet, and my legs were going to be soaked to the bone by the time we'd finished getting whatever it was Little Miss Friendship wanted. But, on the other hoof, Starlight Glimmer.
No contest.
“Very well. Lead the way!”