A tapping noise came from the front door of a resident’s home. The mint coloured mare of the house stepped hazily off the bed she was sleeping in and marched downstairs to see who could be knocking at this hour. With a small creak from the door, the mare pulled it back and was astonished to see a light-blue unicorn wearing something from what appeared to be a costume and carrying a large sack behind her. The mint mare’s thoughts of her being kidnapped right there were erased the moment the unicorn cheerfully pulled out a small light-green present and held it in front of her.
“Merry Hearth’s Warming!” Trixie said with a smile.
“Wait a moment,” the mare paused to look at the unicorn more closely. “You’re Trixie!”
“That’s right! I am here to spread some holiday cheer and I—”
“Go away,” the mare said with a dark expression of lingering hate and then slammed the door in front of Trixie’s nose.
She was shocked, but her fazed expression quickly turned one of pure malice, NO PONY SLAMS A DOOR IN FRONT OF TRIXIE!
Anger was rising in her hoofs and to release it before she could hold it no longer, she slammed the presented box she held right into the door, splintering it with a gapping large hole and with a horrified minty mare looking straight at her through it. Trixie let go of the box as it fell into the inside of the house.
“Here, take your present and enjoy the holidays.” Trixie was about to turn around and head towards the next house but a devilish smile spread across her lips as she turned back to the horrified mare, “You know what? I think that since you slammed a door in my face, the only charitable thing the Great and Apologetic Trixie could do more is give you more holiday cheer!”
Her horn went through the hole and it glowed in a dazzling light-blue aura. A spark then came out from it, then two, then three. Soon the entire inside of the house was filled with a volley of exploding magical sparks that Trixie had originally used to capture her audiences with. It was the brightest house in Ponyville, if not Equestria for the fifteen seconds.
Trixie walked away from the house with a triumphed grin on her face as the minty mare lay dazed and confused down on the floor. After a few minutes of gloating on her success, Trixie suddenly felt a sharp pain in her gut, like that she had done something wrong. Her eyes went up in realization and she slammed her hoof into the snow out of frustration.
Why did I do that!? She thought. Trixie you messed up again! How can you be the Great and Apologetic if you don’t act like it! You can be so stupid sometimes!
Unfortunately Trixie could only let out a sigh of disgruntled failure at this time, she had more houses to visit for the night and at this rate she wouldn’t have enough time to visit each one. Her sack of presents hung over her shoulder as a heavy burden, and so, she trudged her way through the falling snowflakes and freezing slush to her next location.
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House after house, and still nopony didn’t want to be disturbed at 2am in the morning. They all refused her gifts and Trixie made sure not to let her anger overtake her judgement and cause another magic fiasco once again. With her head hung low, she reached up to a building and gently tapped the door and waited for an answer.
Nothing came.
She did it once more and still, a lifeless void was the response she had gotten.
The most obvious answer would be that there was nopony home and the gift-giver would then head out to another house to try her luck. However, this was Trixie, and being how paranoid she was right now with the lack of gifts being delivered, she assumed that there were ponies inside. She tapped her hoof against the ground in an effort to think up of a cunning and ingenious plan. For if this family didn’t get their gift then how would they know Trixie tried to apologize to them? No, she wasn’t going to disappoint them. Her eyes shifted stealthily to the window on the side of the door and an idea came to her head.
If she could nearly best Twilight Sparkle by using a dark magical amulet she bought from a shady store clerk, then opening this window under the cover of darkness with no pony seeing her and delivering a present and slipping back outside would be a cinch! After all, Noel Hooves did this plenty of times with ease!
How hard could it be to picklock this window? Trixie wondered with a grin.
Her magic enveloped the mechanism on the other side and with a small flick it turned and the window opened. Trixie had actually learned to pick locks a long time ago. She frequently had to break and enter many things when her earnings were short, otherwise, she would have starved. She was glad that her skill was put to better use, one for giving instead of taking, in this case.
Her eyes darted left and right to see if there were any ponies observing her in this snowing night but couldn’t make out anything. She assumed the coast to be clear and quickly hauled herself with her sack through the open window, and closed it shut behind her. The house looked like any with its lights turned off, a shadowy mix of hospitality and creepiness, it welcomed but gave rise to a sinister atmosphere with no warmth of light to provide any comfort. Trixie couldn’t risk any light for fear of waking up the neighbors. Her hoof took a step forward and the moment it made contact with the wooden floor, a loud audible creek echoed through the house. This startled Trixie into a dead silence. Her ears pricked up as she heard something coming up from upstairs.
Snoring.
Oh shoot! Okay Trixie, stay calm and think. You can do this, you broke into a pony’s home and no pony saw, you just need to stay quiet and—” Her hoof stepped forward making the same creak sound.
“—QUIET STAIRS! OR YOU WILL FEAR THE WRATH OF TRIXIE!”
Not only were the floors rigged to emit every single noise that went across them but Trixie had difficulty seeing anything except for the dark outlines of the room, the snow outside had fogged the windows and had made visibility even worse. Taking care to not make a greater-than-louder creak then she already made before, Trixie stepped forward hoof by hoof, holding her breath with each passing motion. The linen brown bag she carried was placed down to the ground and a bright red box was what she gotten when she reached inside. The question now was where to place it?
Trixie bumped into a table she didn’t notice and yelped in surprise before quickly putting a hoof over her mouth.
“Ouch, I could really use some night vision or something…….” she muttered to herself. Then she immediately facehoofed and casted a night vision spell on her eyes before any challenge to her being a fool yet again gets remarked. Now the room looked much better, trying not to hit any of the other furniture, she made it over to a tree standing in a large room. It was tradition that during Hearth’s Warming, there would be some type of foliage to symbolize the wonderful bounty of nature the ponies were blessed with after the forming of Equestria. The present went under the tree and with a nod of approval, Trixie’s mission was complete.
She went back to collect her sack but stopped midway. Her eyes had found something, the kitchen. Her hoofs approached the shelves with curiosity as she opened them to see their contents.
A full stocked pantry. Trixie never thought she would see this day. The insides were lined with bread, jam, fruit, vegetables, cheese, milk and baked goods, loads of baked goods. It was beautiful.
Her stomach growled at the sight of such simple yet extravagantly delicious food. She did not consider judgement on what she was about to do. It had been many times Trixie had found herself starving, the most recent being this morning, where she forgot to eat breakfast and anything else for the rest of the day. When she was travelling the roads any opportunity that Trixie had, she would gladly take. And this was no exception.
She remained civil and grabbed a plate. Piles of food soon stacked the plate threatening to break its ceramic structure. Trixie took a seat and placed the food onto a table.
Trixie, I know you’re completely dying from the lack of food all day. But what would the consequences be if I go through with this?, she advised herself.
“Ah, screw it!”
She immediately began stuffing herself to the brim with all the food. Her bites were loud and hasty as her feeding frenzy continued. Perhaps it was too loud.
“He- hello? Is some- something down h-here?” a shaky voice asked as a light switch was clicked and all the lights in the house flickered onwards.
Trixie immediately froze in place, fear had petrified her. She didn’t want to get caught, she can’t afford to go to jail for trespassing, breaking and entering, and raiding their food supply and partially assaulting that last pony from before. She had more gifts to deliver, and more importantly, SHE DIDN’T WANT TO GO TO PRISON!
She frantically leapt of the chair and grabbed her sack just as the pony made its way downstairs. Opening the door would take too long and Trixie had adrenaline pumping through her veins to keep calm. She could only do the most sensible thing she could think off.
Jump right through a window.
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Trixie dropped her sack of presents and took off her outfit; she managed to get away to the safety of her home before that pony could realize what was happening. Some glass pieces left by the window were still stuck on her festive clothing but none had left a mark or any cut as she quickly checked to make sure after dusting them off. Her hoofs were shaking in fright, who knew playing as Noel Hooves would have such an exhilarating effect on her? She sat on her bed, its sheets made of magical star swirls and patterns on top of a blue background. Her breaths went from hoarse gasps for air to calm and collective breathing.
Even though she only was able to deliver two gifts, she did pretty well for her first time, she had to admit. Maybe even Twilight Sparkle might be impressed with her creative idea of giving back to Ponyville.
She took off her hat which was the only festive clothing still on, and brushed the melting snow off its red silk before placing it on the end of her bed frame. Her thoughts turned to those she had met tonight, the rude and uncouth ponies that had shut and shunned her away when she was trying to make amends. She did feel bad about rebelling her magic and skills against them but she convinced herself that they had it coming. Her head lay down on her worn-out pillow as she snuggled herself warm and tight within the confines of her bed. Her last thought brought a soothing feeling as sleep overcame her weary body.
Hearth Warming’s Eve is the day after tomorrow, and these ponies were going to get apologized by Trixie, whether they wanted too or not.
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“Ah! What a wonderful morning!” Trixie said aloud as she stretched out her hoofs from the covers of her sheets. It seems narrowly avoiding getting caught by jumping through a glass window can really make a pony have a good sleep. She didn’t even care that her home appeared messy and wreaked, or even noticed that half of the wood that made her wall was beginning to rot from the effects of the weather. No, she was in too good a mood to let anything spoil this day.
She was about to reach for her festive night-crusading outfit but quickly retracted her hoof and went to put on her magician’s attire.
Save it for the night or it’ll lose its meaning. Just—regular Trixie right now, Trixie giggled to herself. She really did like that outfit since it reminded her about all the imaginative fantasies of Hearth’s Warming she had when growing up. It brought a sense of nostalgia to her and made her feel warm and full inside.
As soon as she was ready, the light-blue unicorn stepped out from her abode and trotted back down the streets of Ponyville. It seems the light snow shower that happened last night raised the level of snow up to half her knee height. Ponies were fumbling all and around the snow, trying to move forward but ending up falling muzzle-first into the cold fluff. Trixie stifled a laugh before noticing a purple unicorn levitating a clipboard who was also falling into the snow. Accompanied with her was a small baby dragon who laughed at her clumsiness.
“Twilight, just enjoy today and relax. Even the snow wants you to take a nap on them!” the dragon laughed and received a glare from Twilight as tried to bring herself back up and slipped and fell down again in the snow, prompting the dragon to laugh so hard that he also fell in.
Trixie wasn’t going to wait any longer as she waved a hoof over at Twilight, “TWILIGHT!” she shouted before galloping straight towards her. She grabbed Twilight’s hoof with her own and lifted her back up to her hooves.
“Thanks Trixie.”
“Anytime.”
The dragon was laughing so hard that he had just passed out. “Oh Spike,” Twilight said with a sheepish grin.
“Is it going to be alright?” Trixie asked Twilight with some concern.
“Don’t worry, this usually happens every year. Something to do with dragon hibernation levels and leftover energy from the summer makes them act hysterical before they sleep.” Twilight reassured Trixie. “Actually we were in the middle of some heavy planning for the Hearth’s Warming Eve Party the day after tomorrow. Spike just got exhausted from staying up all night helping me.”
Her stance immediately changed to one how a detective would be investigating. “Though I could say the same thing about you, what were you doing up all night Trixie?” Twilight leaned in forward with suspicion in her eye. Trixie began to sweat nervously.
“I was—” Trixie cleared her throat. “I was simply delivering presents and toys to everypony in Ponyville to help that pink pony’s charity.”
“Oh really? That’s not what I’ve heard!” Twilight said with a degrading tone. “Let’s see, where should we start? Oh yes… So other than waking up Ponyville at around two o’clock, you assaulted Lyra—”
“I don’t know who she is!” Trixie interjected.
“The mint coloured pony.”
“Oh… Well… she had it coming!” Trixie snapped back.
“… And next we have the unfortunate case of ‘somepony’ breaking into a pony’s house, and eating all their food!”
“But I was starving for days! And if he didn’t come downstairs then I wouldn’t have had to jump through that window!” Trixie shouted.
“You— you jumped through a window?” Twilight was shocked when Trixie made a sheepish head nod. “Trixie! What are you trying to do!?”
“Why Sparkle, I just want to give these ponies their presents by dressing up as Noel Hooves, caretaker of Hearth’s Warming Eve, and get those ponies to accept my apology.”
“BY BREAKING INTO PONIES HOUSES AT NIGHT AND WREAKING UP THE PLACE!?” Twilight was furious. In all her life had she not met a more arrogant unicorn.
“This was the first night after all, of course it had to bad, but don’t worry! For I, the Great and now Apologetic Trixie will make the other nights more spectacular!” Trixie raised a hoof in spectacular fashion. Twilight facehoofed incredibly hard during that moment. “It was your idea for me to be ‘creative’ and unfortunately this idea just has to stick. So I guess some thanks have to be in order.”
“Urgh, well Trixie…” Twilight tried to put on the best fake-smile possible. “You don’t just simply break into a pony’s house at night…”
Trixie’s eyes grew wide, “YOU’RE RIGHT!” Twilight sighed in relief to her friend’s understanding finally, by Celestia, Twilight had finally gotten through to her!
“I need a more subtle approach…” Twilight nearly shouted ‘what!?’, but was quickly interrupted by more of Trixie’s aloud thinking. “AHA! The chimney of course! In the tales of Noel Hooves he always climbs down them to deliver the gifts. Thank you Twilight for helping me get this idea!” Trixie gave a friendly hug to her bewildered open-mouthed unicorn rival. “Now I musn’t stay out her for too long. I must go back to my cart and prepare for the night ahead! Hearth Warming is coming and I need to be ready before then! You know what they say Twilight--,” Trixie smiled while Twilight’s left eye began to twitch.
“Practice, practice, practice!”
And with that, Trixie excitingly went to get more supplies before heading back home and leaving Twilight Sparkle unattended as she was going to experience a mental breakdown. Her mind snapped.
“AAAAARGH, TRIXIE!” Twilight thundered as her horn gave off a violent purple glow of light and instantly all the snow around her exploded into a magical purple lightshow.