Another night had descended down onto Ponyville, its midnight blue sky left unobstructed of clouds and the graceful dance of the snowflakes ended. A clamber of hoofsteps shuffling through the snow was the only sound in the piercing silence of the night. Trixie was on the move. She had tested most of the door knobs and found them all to be locked, she could have went through the windows but tonight was a time for more learning and exploring, new ways to spread the gift-giving apologetic holiday cheer. One more day remained before the real night would be upon her, and during that time, she will have to give it her best shot.
Her hoofs gripped a nearby ladder on the back of the house and she focused her sight's destination, the roof. Twice she nearly slipped on the icy steps but managed to get her hoof onto the roof ledge. Almost immediately she slipped a third time.
“AAAAHHH!” Trixie shouted as the ladder toppled to the ground below, leaving her dangling from the rooftop with one hoof on the ledge and the other grasping her gift sack tightly. Trixie was safe and so were the presents.
After the initial fright of nearly plummeting, Trixie had let out a small chuckle of relief before she heaved her body and gift sacks up onto the safety of the roof.
“That could have been worse, much worse,” she said breathlessly to herself. She shook herself back into focus and then carefully went over to the chimney of the building, making sure not to blunder on the slippery rooftop tiles.
She got to the open chimney and stopped, she actually didn’t have any clue how to go down a chimney. Do I just… drop down? Oh, how would Noel Hooves have done this...? Trixie thought with growing desperation.
In the stories she heard, nobody had ever told her just ‘HOW’ Noel went down into a chimney without breaking a hoof or a spine. Time started to press on and Trixie was getting impatient, she wasn’t going to get any of her apologetic gifts handed out if she didn’t do something soon. She did something she would never have thought to do and stepped inside the pitch-black chimney, adrenaline coursed through her body as she entered the narrow space along with her bag.
Trixie counted in her head with her eyes shut in anticipation for what was about to happen next.
Three…Two…One… she let out a breath, and let go.
She opened her eyes, expecting that she would be falling downwards into the house.
She wasn’t, she was stuck.
“Unbelievable!” Trixie shouted into the night before turning back to her embarrassing problem.
“I shouldn’t have had that extra helping of cookies.”
She awkwardly shifted back and forth until the sack behind her rustled out from her back and fell down. Before Trixie could savour her victory, she also fell, and down she went until she landed with a thump on the sack. A cloud of ash blew up into her face and she was covered in grey soot staining into her fur and clothes. She was lucky that the sack had broken her fall and even luckier still that she didn’t wake up the residents. She silently crawled out from the chimney and dusted herself off before heading over to the large evergreen tree in the main room, which was oddly decorated with musical ornaments; there were CD’s and musical scales overhanging on its branches, a mixture between modern and classic music tastes. The star (which was usually on the top) was replaced with an electric glowing vinyl record. Strange, she had to admit.
Trixie could have just reached into her sack and pulled out any present to give but she got a feeling in her gut. She didn’t know if it was her or the outfit she was wearing but she pulled out two specific presents, and oddly enough she felt that these were meant for the ponies living here. She couldn’t help but tear off just a small corner to see their contents, there were new headphones in the electric-blue styled box and a bow for what appeared to be for playing a violin or a cello in a respectable grey-spotted box.
Trixie didn’t question how she picked these unopened presents to begin to give to these ponies. There was certainly something magical going on, but she quickly resealed the gifts and went to retrieve her things before heading back to the chimney. She passed a table and her flank accidently bumped into it, turning on a music player that was lying on top of it.
WUB WUB WUB WUB!
The scratchy sounds of dubstep blasted through the night at over 10 decibels. Trixie in a panic grabbed it and quickly turned it off with a hoof. She knew she was done in. A few minutes of uncomfortable waiting pain later and nothing happened. There was no way nopony could have not heard that. She opened an eye and noticed that her horn was emitting her light-blue magic; she made a sound-proof barrier in her panicked state. No one heard it, Trixie said with a sigh of relief.
She quickly rushed to the chimney before anything else bad happens and used her magic to lift herself and her sack up through the narrow passage. Upon arriving back on the roof, Trixie at least now figured out an easier way back down with the other chimneys as well as kept a mental note on any further encounters with tables.
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The next couple of houses went just as smoothly, thankfully the roofs were connected close together somewhat so Trixie could easily traverse their snowy covers with ease without having to wade through the large mess of snow below. She came up from a chimney with satisfaction of another house done. She picked up her sack with her magic and trotted over to the roof’s edge, ready to simply step to the next house over.
Trouble was for the eager unicorn, that the next house had a much larger gap to cross than the others. She threw the sack to the other side with her magic; she didn’t do the same for herself. Trixie had a compelling feeling she could make this jump without wasting her magic reserves.
She took a few hoofsteps back and then braced herself as she propelled herself forward in a rush of speed. The rooftop edge was getting closer and closer and before Trixie could run out of room to run she leaps up into the night air and makes it to the other roof.
“YES!” she shouted in joy as she slid on the surface of the rooftop. She kept sliding on the slick icy snow, her smile now turning to a look of horror. She collides with her bag and continues, she notices that she’s running out of roof.
“Oh no no no NO!”
Her body plummeted to the earth.
She landed horn-first into the snow, the sack of presents landing next to her unscathed. Her head poked up from the pile of snow, her fur was wet and matted with white power. Trixie was shaken but fortunately alive. Her hooves shook as she attempted to stand, still winded by nearly dying from her fall, and she grabbed the sack, its contents fortunately undamaged. She limped with pain in her backhoof as her body slowly made her way through the thick snow back to her home.
She had had enough for that night.
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Trixie didn’t particularly wake up to a good morning. She was so exhausted that she didn’t even get out from her outfit before heading to sleep last night. It was a rough night because her sheets were matted and somehow during her slumber she somehow got out from the outfit. With a heavy head she slouched up from her bed and tested her back hoof. She could feel a bit of discomfort in her hoof but it definitely felt better than last night, at least it wasn’t broken.
She couldn’t say the same about her home.
However good she made it look, she knew it was a façade. She’ll be lucky if her home manages to stay up before the end of Hearth’s Warming. To savour the last of her warmth before heading outside her hoof shot out to the bag of apology gifts she still had to deliver. There was about half the presents left in there than what she started out with. Never would she have thought that this simple gift-giving charity started by that visit to the pink pony would ever evolve into this.
In fact, Trixie could barely believe she was doing this in the first place. It didn’t make sense. She broke into homes at night, and most importantly no pony ever sees her leave the gift, all she was able to do was leave a magical apology stamp on every box she placed. This wasn’t the best plan to get Ponyville to finally forgive her. But for some reason, a reason deep down inside her, she realized that it didn’t need to be the best plan to be the greatest.
The combination of playing as Noel Hooves and spreading all this cheer made her giddy. Although Trixie never did see any cheer from her recent work, she hasn’t yet gone outside to check.
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Trixie walked through the streets of Ponyville once again; this was starting to get redundant. She went by the houses she had visited during the night and waited patiently outside. Trixie couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces and how excited they must be from all her hard work. The first door opens; Trixie’s heart skips a beat. Two ponies come out from the house, an alabaster unicorn and a grey earth pony… and… nothing. More ponies came out and nothing still. Some even passed by her and didn’t even notice the magician standing there. A 'Good Day' or 'Hello' she would gladly take, but nothing! Trixie recieved NOTHING!
“HEY TRIXIE!” a familiar voice shouted behind her. Trixie didn’t move to see who it was, she was paralyzed, her mouth hung open agape ad tears started to well in her eyes.
Why… WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TRIXIE!? This idea doesn’t even work! I wasted all this time, getting NOTHING to show for it, she screamed on the inside of her head.
“Trixie, it is you!” a purple unicorn said from behind the light-blue. “How has the breaking and entering been last night?” Twilight said sarcastically as she put a friendly hoof on Trixie’s shoulder. Trixie through it off with rage and scowled at Twilight. Her gaze pierced the purple unicorn down to her core.
“You think this is a joke Sparkle!? You think you can make fun of everything I do again? No matter how hard, HOW HARD, I try-- you’re always there to push me down. I thought I was doing something good for this town but I can see that this place is no better than a pile of dirt!”
Twilight was shocked, before she could even respond Trixie made a mad dash away from her, icy tears dropped down from her cheeks onto the cold snow.
“TRIXIE!” Twilight shouted as she chased after her.
Trixie couldn’t see where she was going, it wasn’t because she was excessively crying to the point she couldn’t see, but because her tears started to freeze from how cold it was outside. She was running for home, her run-down moldy old home, in blind galloping. She ran faster and faster, she could hear Twilight’s voice shouting from behind her. It was inevitable before Trixie hit something in her blind sadness.
She shook her head in confused pain and rubbed out the icicles that were forming from her eyes. It seems that all those U-turns, zigzags, and circular running had led her head into a wall of a building on the same block her cart was parked away.
“Trixie-- Trixie…” Twilight said without any breath left as she finally caught up to the fleeing unicorn. She noticed the sadness in her eyes and all her thoughts of berating Trixie on her gift-giving practices were erased. With empathy overtaking her, she helped Trixie back up to her shaking hooves. Twilight could feel how cold Trixie was as she lent a hoof around the light-blue unicorn’s shoulder to help her stand.
“We need to get you someplace warm. Trixie… where’s your cart?”
Trixie was barely able to lift her hoof, her body was frozen down to the core and she just realized, she pointed towards an alleyway. “There,” was all the tired unicorn could muster up.
They moved down the street, it has hard enough to help a pony, and with all this snow it was that more difficult. When they finally reached Trixie’s home, Twilight was in disbelief.
The home didn’t look the same as the one she saw a few months ago or even when Trixie first showed up. The wood was rotting, a cart wheel was about to break from the weight of the home, a window was broken and it’s spilled glass laid underneath the cold snow, the door to Trixie’s home was open and snow started to creep its way inside. She heaved Trixie through the door and was even more shocked to see the state of her home on the inside.
Twilight knew Trixie wouldn’t have been this disorganized, she wouldn’t have let her home be torn apart from negligence. There was something deeper, it seemed so obvious, but not obvious enough for anypony to notice.
Trixie was laid down into a chair and the purple unicorn then used her magic to make the home slightly warmer, an air-conditioning spell was always handy when the season of winter came around. As soon as they were both warmed up Twilight would begin the flood of questions. She took a large breath and opened her mouth wide to begin-
“No pony cared for Trixie’s apology gifts! WHY WHY!?” Trixie had immediately interrupted her and was blasting Twilight with her own questions. To think this was what Twilight was going to do in the next second (though gentler and less violent), oh the irony.
She got hold of Twilight and barked more questions at her while shaking her ferociously.
“Do they even care what lengths I have to go through to deliver their stupid presents!? I went out in the freezing cold, snow buffeted my mane, I could barely see, and I nearly died when I fell off that roof!”
“W-what we-were you do- doing o-on that roo- rooftop?” Twilight tried to say but now she was starting to see stars.
Trixie let go of her noticing how she was violently shaking the purple unicorn to near unconsiousness, “Sorry… see? That wasn’t so difficult, and here I am trying to do more Twilight Sparkle! I went down a chimney! I was lucky they didn’t have it on fire.”
Twilight had a bewildered look on her face, “You went down…. a chimney?” Trixie nodded her head causing a groan from Twilight. “You don’t do that, that’s still breaking into a pony’s house!”
“But I don’t do anything other than leave the presents! Alright, Trixie will admit the first night was worse, but last night was much better! I will share the knowledge that rooftops during winter can be very slippery--”
“THAT’S NOT THE POINT!” Twilight burst out in anger, scaring the light-blue unicorn, but Trixie quickly defended herself.
“And you’re missing the point entirely! I’m trying to right my past wrongs by doing this, so far, I have been denied, pushed down, or even door-slammed in this dirt town for ponies who don’t want to accept my apology! You’re all savages, that’s why my idea had to be creative and I had to become Noel Hooves for the nights since. After all, no pony minds if he breaks into a house to leave a gift so why would anypony mind if I do it?”
“You’re mascaraing at night as a fictional holiday character?” Twilight noticed the outfit from the corner of her eye and nearly burst out laughing.
“What? You don’t believe in the Good and Charitable Noel Hooves?”
“No, of course not! He was just a character made to enhance this gift-giving holiday. There’s no logical or possible way that a pony can fly all over Equestria, visit every house and leave gifts for them, that’s just not possible. Heck, even Pinkie Pie might not be able to do it!”
This nearly crushed the stage magician’s heart from hearing that.
“You never know Sparkle— you might have your facts but there’s still that slim chance when you wake up on Hearth’s Warming Day you would have gotten an extra present, and it wouldn’t have been from me.”
“We’ll see Trixie…”
Twilight immediately changed the subject, “So, this is your home— it looks bigger inside than it does on the outside.”
“A traveling magician’s trick, it’s all about the illusion,” Trixie replied. Twilight noticed the state of her home and she noticed Twilight. “Ah, sorry about the mess, I haven’t had time to fix it, been running low on bits these days. Seems ponies still have a grudge towards the Great and Powerful Trixie, it’s difficult for the Great and Apologetic Trixie to get anything done, gifting or non-gifting.”
Twilight could see the different perspective she’d been missing all this time. Trixie was going out of her way to make amends with ponies who don’t want to accept, and yet she still gives when it’s apparent she has next to nothing. A smile formed on Twilight’s lips as a thought came to her head and she sorted it into her mental filing cabinet. Twilight then levitated Trixie’s festive outfit towards them with her magic.
“This is what you go out during the night as?” Twilight couldn’t help but admire what a wonderful shade of red it was, it was also incredibly soft, so soft in fact, that Twilight had buried her face within it. The warmth, the fuzziness, it felt like something a pony could wear every day and never experience discomfort. She could also sense a feeling of kindness eradiating from it, she didn’t know why but continued to press her face further into it.
“Um… Twilight?” Trixie said with a sheepish smile, quickly the purple mare gave the outfit over to Trixie with a large red ting spread across her face and with a small awkward laugh.
“But seriously Sparkle, tell me. Should I continue with this? It seems I’m not getting anything done no matter how hard I try. Ponyville simply doesn’t care about the gifts I send, nor the apologies I try to give.”
“Trixie, there’s more to it than just giving gifts. You know what I think? I think— the idea of playing as Noel Hooves works well for this holiday. It’s creative, yet stupid. But I think it works well actually… I don’t condone you breaking into ponies houses or climbing down their chimneys but— I think it’s a good idea. I can't believe I just said that.” Twilight gave a small laugh.
Trixie could hardly believe her ears; Twilight Sparkle had just admitted her idea was good.
HAHA! TRIXIE WINS!
“And know that I support you Trixie, I’ll tell my friends about it and I’m sure they’ll support your idea too. You just need to believe in yourself, and in the spirit of Hearth’s Warming, it’s not all about gifts and apologies.”
“Thanks Twilight.”
“Anytime--,” her gaze caught the sight of Trixie’s clock. “Oh no! I’m going to be late! There’s some planning I still need to do for the Hearth’s Warming party tomorrow, argh! And now with all these new plans… Trixie I’m sorry but I—"
“Just go Twilight, I don’t feel cold anymore and my pains are better,” Trixie said, accompanied by a courteous nod.
“Well, I hope not to see you tonight Trixie… or else you would have failed your job! Good luck!” Twilight said with a giggle as she playfully put the red and white hat on top of Trixie’s head before waving goodbye and heading outside from the home.
Ahh, Twilight Sparkle… Such a nice rivalry we have. I guess not all ponies are heartless in Ponyville,Trixie thought with a smile. Well what to do? I need to wait for nightfall before I can do anything, and I’m sure the epic gearing scene will only take about five minutes…
Trixie gave it some more thought, this was the last night and this night had to be perfect. No slipups, no failed objectives, no witnesses-- I mean-- leaving the presents in sight without anypony seeing her and if they do see her... well, it’s better that they don’t... no witnesses. The last thing Trixie wanted to do was knock out a too-eager pony staying up all night.
She relayed all the skills and magic spells she would need as well as all the places she haven’t yet visited. Trixie did have a photographic memory and she spent many times exploring the streets of Ponyville and its borders leading up to the Everfree forest. She was going to need a delivery system, a hazards system, and coffee in her system if she was to make it through the night.
As soon as she was satisfied with her mental preparation, Trixie looked at the clock, still plenty of time before she has to venture outside into the freezing cloak of night’s winter. Being how lazy she felt and how nice the air-conditioner magic spell was still holding up, Trixie closed her eyes, and soon she was asleep in her chair.
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When she awakens, it will be the time to strike, and then everypony will have a jolly wonderful morning after. That is, if it went all according to Trixie’s plan for Hearth's Warming Eve.
Prepare for the Eve Ponyvillians, for 'The Great and Apologetic Trixie' is coming to town!