“Spike, could you–?” Twilight looked up from her book to address her assistant, only to find the young dragon curled up in front of the fireplace, snoozing quietly. She smiled softly at the view and stifled a giggle. “Never mind, I’ll take care of it.”
She walked over to the wooden box beside the fireplace, careful not to wake the dragon, and looked inside. “Hm… Are we out of firewood already? I thought I had brought some in just a few hours ago… or was that yesterday?”
Trotting to the library’s front door she levitated a purple scarf around her neck, then stepped outside. The air was cold and clear, even with the sun was shining down from a cloudless sky. A few inches of snow covered everything, just enough to make walking just a little harder. The unicorn followed a trace of old hoofsteps around the library tree, to a large pile of firewood that was neatly stacked under the tree’s cover.
Twilight began levitating a number of logs off the pile. She almost had enough when she came across one particular log that offered resistance. Frowning, she began to pull harder, muttering under her breath, “Ung, maybe it’s frozen or… something.”
With one last yank the piece of wood came loose, almost flying past her before she was able to stop it. At the same time, a groan came from the other side of the pile, followed by the sound of several things falling to the ground. Twilight blinked in confusion, then started to make her way around the stack, asking out loud, “Hello? Is somepony t– Trixie?”
A light blue unicorn mare with a silver mane was leaning against the tree, holding her head; several pieces of firewood were lying in the snow around her. She groaned quietly, then looked up at Twilight. “Trixie wishes you a good day as well, Princess Sparkle. Though she had been hoping not to run into anypony… Before you ask, Trixie was completely willing to pay for every piece of wood she needed.”
Twilight followed Trixie’s pointing hoof to a few Bits lying on the stack where Trixie had pulled the logs from. "Uhm, that’s nice, but… Why are you taking my firewood. And why do you say you didn’t want to meet anypony?”
Trixie shuffled her hooves awkwardly, looking down. “Trixie isn’t exactly a welcomed guest here in Ponyville… As for why she is taking your firewood. Trixie needed firewood, obviously, and I figured that you as a Princess would be last in this town to miss a few pieces of yours.”
Twilight looked away in embarrassment. “Well, I suppose some of the ponies here wouldn’t be too happy to see you… But that’s no reason to sneak around like that.” She gave the other mare a warm smile. “Why don’t you come inside for a moment, I haven’t heard of you in a while.”
Trixie shook her head, levitating the logs she had dropped out of the snow. “Trixie apologizes, but she needs to go back to her cart if she wants to reach the next town by nightfall.” She turned around, trotting away with the logs floating behind her. “Maybe some other time.”
Twilight looked after her with a frown until she was out of view. Then she turned around and walked back to the library’s front door, taking the firewood and the Bits Trixie had left with her.
As she stacked a few of the logs onto the fire and put the rest to the side for later, Spike began to wake up, turning his head to Twilight. “Sorry Twilight… I’ll get the firewood next time.”
“Don’t worry about it, Spike. It was no trouble at all.” Twilight gave him a warm smile. Then she frowned slightly, looking away.
“Something wrong?” Spike sat up, concern in his voice. “Did something happen while I was sleeping?”
Twilight walked over to the couch and sat down. “Not really. I mean… I met Trixie outside. She was taking some of our firewood…” She looked at the Bits in her hoof. “She paid for it, too. But when I invited her inside, she said she wanted to reach the next town before nightfall. I think she was afraid the other ponies here wouldn’t be happy to see her.” She sighed. “I guess I’m just overthinking things, as usual. If she doesn’t feel comfortable to be here in Ponyville, I should respect that.”
“Huh… I haven’t seen Trixie in a while. Good to see she’s okay, I suppose.” Spike rolled over again, curling up in front of the fire once more. “I just don’t understand why she would go through the trouble of getting firewood, if she’s in such a hurry to get to the next town,” he muttered.
Trixie stuffed another one of her flyers between the logs, before pulling out a box of matches and proceeded to light the piece of paper. She blew at the little flame for a moment to get the fire going, then lay down in front of the fire, next to her cart. She turned her head towards the broken cartwheel and sighed. Of course her cart had to break down right at the edge of Ponyville, and of course it had to happen in the winter as well. She didn’t feel prepared to go back to that town yet.
With another sigh she curled up in the snow, shivering from the cold. The fire wasn’t helping much, and on top of that she was starting to feel drowsy. She closed her eyes, just for a second. Nothing would happen to her as long as she stayed near the fire.
A few minutes later the first snowflakes began to fall down from the sky, onto the sleeping mare and the slowly dwindling fire.
Twilight trotted along the path through Whitetail Forest, looking around for a sign of Trixie. It had started to snow, and she wanted to make sure that the mare wasn’t in trouble. If she really wanted to avoid Ponyville, this was the way she had most likely travelled. Looking up she noticed the snowfall get stronger. If she didn’t find the other unicorn soon she would just have to assume that she really was on her way to the next town.
Walking around the next corner, she spotted a familiar cart at the side of the road. She rushed over to it, looking for any sign of Trixie. Seeing nopony around she walked up to the cart’s door and gave a few short knocks.
“Trixie? It’s me, Twilight. Are you in there?” She waited for a response, getting slightly worried when none came. She moved away from the door and began walking around the cart. The feelings of concern only intensified when she saw that one of the front wheels had broken, practically rendering the cart immobile.
Flapping her wings against the snowfall she hovered in front of the cart’s window, trying to look inside. Seeing nopony inside she fell back to the ground and trotted around the front of the cart, carefully sliding down the short slope at the side of the road. Everything was covered in white, except for a small spot where a few logs of firewood were still sticking out of the snow.
Twilight rushed over to the cold campfire, but tripped over something after a few feet. She groaned quietly and raised her muzzle from the snow in confusion to look back. A few spots of light blue and silver could be seen where Twilight’s steps had brushed the snow off Trixie’s lying figure.
Trixie moaned sleepily, rolling onto her side and squirming deeper into the blankets. She didn’t want to wake up yet, not when she was lying in this warm and soft bed.
Her eyes shot open, and she sat up quickly. This wasn’t her bed. This wasn’t her cart either. She stared into the dark, trying to recognize where she had ended up. She clambered out of the bed, stumbling as her legs almost gave out under her.
On the other side of the door, the door opened a crack, a bit of light shining through into the room. “Trixie? Are you still asleep?”
Trixie stared at the door, trying to recognize the voice. It seemed familiar; in fact, she thought that she had heard it not that long ago… Her eyes widened? “Twilight Sparkle? What are you… What is Trixie doing here?”
Twilight opened the door, looking inside at the unicorn. “I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better. I found you in the snow by your cart… Why didn’t you tell me that you had a broken wheel? I could have helped. I’m sure all my friends would have offered to help you.”
“Why would they, after everything Trixie did to them…” Trixie muttered, looking to the ground.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“O-oh, it was nothing. Trixie simply didn’t want to bother you or your friends, especially now that you are an alicorn princess.”
Twilight sighed and opened the door all the way to look at the mare. “That’s really no good reason not to ask for help, especially for something like this. You could have died out there!”
Trixie simply pushed past her and headed down the stairs towards the main room of the actual library. “Well, Trixie appreciates your help and thanks you for your hospitality, but she doesn’t want to be a burden. I’ll just… go back to my cart before it gets too dark outside.”
“Trixie, wait!” Twilight tried to stop her, but the other mare had already opened the door and stepped outside. She looked at Spike with a worried expression, who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen and simply gave a shrug in return.
A moment later an especially strong gust of wind howled outside, covering the floor by the door with a thin layer of snow. Something else came tumbling to the door, being carried halfway across the room by the wind before it crashed on the floor.
Trixie groaned and looked up at Twilight from the floor, a small pile of snow resting on her muzzle. “It seems Trixie will have to stay in Ponyville for another while…”
“…And you’ve asked everypony in town?”
“Ah’m sorry sugarcube, but the truth is that nopony in Ponyville wants to play such a big role. They’re all simply afraid that they might not be up for it. And there ain’t a lot of unicorns livin’ in Ponyville to begin with…”
Twilight let out a defeated sigh, looking over her friends. “And none of the ponies in Canterlot would be willing to spend the holiday away from home and miss their own pageant. I’m sorry… I wish I could play the role again this year, but with all of those royal duties piling up, especially right now…”
“We all understand, darling,” Rarity interrupted her. “We’re your friends and that means y’all don’t always have to try and be around us. We can take care of Ponyville for two days.”
Twilight gave her friends a grateful smile before it turned into a frown again. “Still, this is an important problem. The Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant is a tradition almost as old as the holiday itself. Without somepony to step in as Clover The Clever we’ll have to call it off.”
“But there is nopony!” Rainbow Dash rose a feet in the air. “We haven’t just asked every unicorn in Ponyville, we’ve asked every single pony! Nopony thinks they’re up for it on such short notice, and we’re running out of time!”
“Yeah,” Pinkie chimed in, leaning forwards over the table. “I asked all of my friends, because you know I’m friends with every pony in Ponyville. I even put extra sugar on top, but none of them wanted the part.” She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Some of them did complain about sugar in their manes, but I don’t think that counts…”
“Uhm, actually…” Fluttershy mumbled, twiddling her hooves nervously. “We haven’t asked every unicorn in Ponyville yet… Technically.” She looked over towards the other side of the room where a blue unicorn mare was lying on a reading bank, a book floating in front of her.
“You want to do the play with her?” Fluttershy flinched as Rainbow Dash pointed an accusatory hoof at Trixie. “You can’t be serious! This is the Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant we’re talking about!”
“Ah know it’s not nice, but Ah have to agree with Rainbow Dash on this,” Applejack continued. “Y’all might give her a minor role, but Clover The Clever of all ponies. Ah just don’t think that is a good idea. Besides, we don’t even know if she would want to–“
“Trixie will do it.”
Six heads turned around simultaneously to stare at the blue unicorn who was still lying in the same position, eyes on her book. Rarity was the first to hesitantly speak up. “Ech… I’m sorry, darling, what did you just say?”
“Trixie said that she will play the role of Clover The Clever, if you are in such desperate need for an actress.” Trixie replied, still not looking away from her book.
“Listen, Ah’m sure y’all just want to help, but that’s really not–“
“If you find somepony you think is more suited for the role, feel free to cast them instead.” Trixie climbed off the bank and began trotting towards the stairs, not giving the group a single look. “Until then, Trixie will have to go over her text.”
The six mares watched as she disappeared upstairs without another word. Then five of them turned to each other, trading concerned looks.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Pinkie spoke up happily, “but I have a good feeling about this.”
Author's Note
Since the second half of this story has been giving me so much trouble, but I didn't want to let it just wither away either, I decided to post this first part and see how well it would be received.
Depending on how many readers, Likes and comments this story gets I will see whether I keep trying to get that second part out in decent time or if I'll just turn my attention to other stories until inspiration strikes.
I do know where the story is going, I just haven't managed to put it into text so far.
