//------------------------------// // Her Excellency // Story: The View Over Atlantis // by Zobeid //------------------------------// Trixie paced back and forth near the Low Nest Farm’s landing pad — merely a mowed area with an X marked in chalk plus a transponder — waiting for Twilight Sparkle’s aircar to arrive. Reporters lurked nearby with their cameras and microphones ready, but they refrained from hassling Trixie. It was almost unnerving how they kept their distance from her, not to mention how polite they had become. She supposed that word of Mojo’s encounter with her had gotten around. Trixie had phoned both Ivan and Moondancer and asked if they could return in time to meet Twilight. They had both begged off. Moondancer had already committed to leading another Wiccan ceremony before making her way back to the farm, and Ivan was still busy with the activists and officials tussling over Stonehenge and Avebury. Neither of them would be here now to lend Trixie moral support. Trixie’s sensitive ears picked up the sound of the aircar moments before the reporters noticed it. As they pointed their cameras skyward, Trixie sat upright and straightened her hat and cape. The sound increased as the aircar transitioned from winged flight to VTOL hover. Even though it was powered by nearly-silent electric motors, the many small lift-fans produced a loud whooshing sound and raised a small windstorm as the craft settled on the pad. Trixie held her hat with an arm to keep it from blowing away, but the windstorm quickly died after the vehicle’s landing skids touched ground. The plexiglas canopy raised, and, to Trixie’s surprise, four ponies hopped out. The petite, lavender unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, was easily recognized — not only had Trixie met her before, if only briefly, but she had appeared often enough in the news. The other two unicorns and one earth pony were unfamiliar. As they approached, she greeted them in her best haughty tone: “The Great and Powerful Trixie welcomes you to the Low Nest Farm.” She swept her hat from her head and held it to her chest as she bowed low. “Trixie is honored to meet Her Excellency Twilight Sparkle once again.” Twilight flinched slightly, holding one hoof off the ground, and chided, “It’s good to see you’re doing well, Trixie, but you really don’t have to use that title with me. It’s just some kind of silly tradition from the diplomatic corps.” Trixie responded, “Your Excellency is far too modest! And what of your companions, if Trixie might inquire?” “Oh, yes!” She pointed with a hoof to indicate the steel blue unicorn stallion. “Spell Nexus is headmaster of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and he’s also Equestria’s foremost expert on ritual magic.” The stallion bowed as he was introduced. Trixie’s gaze flicked to the sigil on his hip, a circumscribed pentagram. Twilight then pointed to the custard yellow-coated, bespectacled, unicorn mare. “Crystal Clear is one of our top enchanters. The Conversion Potion couldn’t have been developed without her work.” The mare bowed, and Trixie caught a glimpse of her mark as well: three brilliant-cut gemstones. Then Twilight indicated the dark gray earth pony stallion. “And, here to guide and assist us, is a diplomatic attache from the Foreign Office, Prudent Slate.” He likewise bowed. Trixie observed that he wore a tailored vest and coat, but his unblemished hip was openly visible. She blinked. “A newfoal?” she blurted. Unperturbed, he stood and answered with an unmistakably native Londoner’s accent, “The Foreign Office encourages early conversion for all our officers, as a show of confidence in the program and to set an example for the masses who must, inevitably, follow. My family went into conversion together, in fact.” “I see.” Trixie was about to ask another question, but then she balked and glanced askance at the reporters and their many cameras. She suggested, “Let’s get indoors, shall we?” She gestured for the others to follow, and she led them to the building that housed her workspace. Once they’d come inside she said, “Trixie is afraid she doesn’t have much to offer in the way of refreshments, but you are welcome to the bottled water, the soylent bars, or…” she glanced at a machine in the corner and cringed slightly “…the pod coffee.” “I’m fine, thanks!” Twilight Sparkle answered, perhaps a little too quickly, and Trixie wondered whether it was the pod coffee or the soylent she was more averse to. Soylent had a bad reputation among ponies, although the reformulated versions no longer prompted severe gastro-intestinal distress. What she said was, “Trixie regrets that her companions could not be here. They are occupied elsewhere.” “That’s OK, Trixie. I’m sure we’ll catch up with them sometime during this trip, but most of all I wanted to talk with you.” “Really?” “Before we get to business, I wanted to say something about what happened last time we met, in Ponyville.” Trixie narrowed her eyes defensively. “Oh, indeed? That was not Trixie’s fault!” Twilight blinked. “What? No, of course it wasn’t. I mean, it wasn’t you that brought the ursa to town. I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.” It took a couple of seconds for that to compute for Trixie. “You… You’re sorry?” “Yes!” Twilight insisted with the intensity of something she’d been wanting to say for a long time, “The way you stood up to the ursa was very brave, and all you got for it was your home destroyed. And then… I could see how embarrassed you were when I subdued it, but I never wanted to humiliate you. I wish you’d stayed so my friends and I could have helped replace your caravan.” Trixie’s jaw hung open, but words didn’t come. This wasn’t the conversation she’d expected to have. Twilight’s eyes were pleading as she waited for a response. Trixie closed her mouth, then cast her eyes downward for a few seconds, then said softly, “Trixie also has some regrets about that day. But that is water under the bridge. Nopony was hurt, and the caravan is long since replaced. Let us both be troubled by it no more.” “Oh thank heavens!” Twilight lurched forward to fling her arms around Trixie’s neck. Trixie reflexively tried to pull away, but Twilight seemed oblivious. “I wondered for a long time if you were going to be OK. I’m glad my fears were unfounded.” Trixie managed to pry Twilight loose, prompting an embarrassed giggle from the smaller mare. “oops, sorry…” “It’s all right. Trixie has much experience fending off enthusiastic fans,” she said, prompting another giggle from Twilight. Using her magic, Trixie removed her cape and straightened it, and placed it on a hook, followed by her hat. Twilight glanced at her traveling companions, cleared her throat, and ventured, “Perhaps we should get on with the reasons for our visit.” “Yes! Trixie presumes that Your Excellency wants to inquire about our work here.” A flicker of annoyance crossed Twilight’s face at the use of her title, but she pressed onward. “Yes, but even more I want to hear about what happened at the ceremony I heard about.” Her horn glowed, then a notebook puffed into existence, and she flipped through it. “The priestess claimed on TV that she raised something called a cone of power, and that you were able to sense it. Did I understand that right?” Trixie nodded slowly. “That is essentially correct.” Twilight waited a few seconds, then realized Trixie wasn’t going to elaborate without some prompting. “Well, uh… What exactly did you sense?” “Magic.” Twilight Sparkle’s expression wilted. She took a deep breath, then pushed onward. “What I mean is, was it it a primary or a secondary propagation? Was it vertically or horizontally polarized? Did you detect any body waves, or any love waves?” Trixie glanced at the other two unicorns who had their notebooks and pencils out, ready to record her every utterance. She groused, “Trixie is not a thaumograph! I detected magic of an unfamiliar type. What do you want from me, Your Excellency?” “But…” Twilight pondered a moment, then said, “But it had to be one of the five classical categories of magic, right?” She stamped a forehoof on the floor, lightly, as she recited: “Sorcery, alchemy, summoning, divination, or innate expression. If it was a new category, that would break the entire standard model of thaumaturgy!” Spell Nexus interrupted, “However, the ceremony could have incorporated multiple categories, creating a hybrid propagation that would seem unfamiliar to most unicorns.” He glanced meaningfully at Trixie. “Especially to one not trained in analytic spellcasting. But perhaps you could describe the ceremony to us.” Trixie inwardly sighed with relief. That was something she could do. As she told them of the events she’d witnessed, all three ponies took notes. Spell Nexus interrogated her for details of the shrines the Wiccans had built and the sequence of activities, while Crystal Clear was more curious about the athame blade and other properties the priest and priestess had used. Trixie answered their questions as best she could. “We need to see for ourselves,” Twilight Sparkle declared. “We need to attend a ceremony and bring in some instruments to measure exactly what energies manifest.” “No!” Trixie blurted. They all looked to her, and she explained, “The ceremony is a private thing for Wiccans. I had to build trust with Moondancer for days — no, weeks! — before she’d agree to have me.” Twilight interrupted, “Wait… Her name really is Moondancer? That sounds like a unicorn’s name. I went to school with a Moondancer back in Canterlot.” Trixie sighed. “Yes, her name really is Moondancer. Yes, it’s unusual among humans. Trixie also gets many comments about her supposedly human-sounding name. But the point is, you can’t simply barge into their ceremonies. And your instruments are right out. The Wiccans don’t even allow their own phones and electronics into the circle.” Twilight Sparkle’s ears drooped. “That’s very disappointing. But maybe… Maybe we can meet her during this trip and raise the subject. I don’t want to offend her religion, but these are extraordinary circumstances. Maybe I could convince her.” Trixie shook her head. “She’s incommunicado, at a private retreat with the highest ranking Wiccans of her order. I don’t even know where it is, and she won’t be back for several days.” Twilight stamped a hoof, looked at the floor and chewed her lip for a moment. “All right. I can’t say I’m happy about that, but we’ll do the best we can. Can we at least visit the stone circle today and try to scry it?” Trixie narrowed her eyes and admitted, if a bit grudgingly, “Trixie sees no harm in that. Would you like to review what we’ve been working on here first, Your Excellency?” Twilight nodded assent. Trixie directed their attention to the maps. Just as she had been not too long ago, they were unfamiliar with the concepts of ley lines and neolithic structures such as henges, long barrows, dolmens, menhirs and trilithons. Trixie found herself in the odd position of lecturing some of Equestria’s brightest on a subject of which she legitimately knew much more than them. Some questions, however, were not so easily answered. What was the purpose of these different structures? How did they interact with one another? Often the only answer she could give was: Nobody knows. That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Trixie showed them the computer system and how to switch between maps and satellite views. While the two scholars played with that — succumbing to the allure of human technology for a few minutes — Trixie noticed that Twilight Sparkle was examining the bookshelf, picking through the books on magic that Trixie had ordered from Equestria. Trixie cleared her throat. Twilight looked up, then pushed a book back into place on the shelf. “I expected you to have more, um, advanced research material. These are basic textbooks.” “Moondancer and I have been reading one another’s books. Hers are there.” She pointed. Twilight started reading the titles. “The Horn of Evenwood? The Witching Way of the Hollow Hill?” She pulled a book off the shelf and read, “Wicca Moon Magic: A Wiccan’s Guide and Grimoire for Working Magic with Lunar Energies.” Trixie helpfully added, “There’s a whole series of those. There’s one for herbal magic, one for crystal magic, one for candle magic.” Twilight put it back and continued reading titles. “Letters from the Devil’s Forest. Liber Nox: A Traditional Witch’s Gramarye. The Resurrection of the Meadow.” She pulled the latter and flipped it open, skimmed the introduction, then read out loud: “A Record of Thirteen Occult Formulas & Charms of Art with Purport & A Sealing Conjuration & their many useful Sorcerous Permutations, Writ and Gathered on Walpurgis Night 2010, For those Inquisitive Adepts who walk The despised path of True Sorcery, the long-dimmed radiance of the Ancient Gold of the Wise.” She snapped it shut and exclaimed, “Are these books for real? They sound like something out of Grogar’s or Tirek’s personal library!” “We bought them off Amazon. But Moondancer takes them very seriously.” Twilight opened another while muttering, “We were told Earth doesn’t have any magic, humans can’t work magic. Where did they get all these spell books? Wait, are they even really spell books?” She looked up at Trixie. “Have you been able to cast anything from them?” Trixie shrugged as if the question was of no importance. “I haven’t been initiated with the Word of Power yet. Also, I haven’t figured out how to make the hand motions with my hooves.” Twilight’s jaw hung open, and her mane had started becoming disheveled with stray cowlicks popping up. “But… Moondancer can cast spells from these books?” “Sure, I’ve seen her cast spells.” Twilight dropped the book and put her hooves on Trixie’s shoulders. “What spells? What was she able to do?” she demanded. “Calm your wits, girl! Wiccan magic isn’t like ours. There were no fireworks, it’s nothing like that. It’s subtle.” Twilight frowned. “You’re telling me that Moondancer, a human, cast magic spells in your presence. If that’s true, that’s huge! Enormous! I need to know what kind of magical discharges and results you witnessed.” Trixie scowled back. “If that’s true? What do you mean, if that’s true? Are you casting asparagus on Trixie?” Twilight opened her mouth to speak, paused for an instant, then said in a softer tone, “Aspersions. And no, I’m not. I’m sorry if it sounded that way. I guess I just need to study this more.” Ears drooping, she returned her attention to one of the spell books. Not long after that, Twilight Sparkle wanted to proceed to the stone circle. She glanced around at the other ponies and observed, “We should all fit into the aircar OK, since it was made for humans.” Trixie responded, “That will not be necessary. The stone circle is less than a mile.” She donned her hat and cape and led them outside — and into the waiting crowd of reporters who immediately raised a tumult. “Give us some space!” Prudent Slate ordered. Several police officers had earlier been stationed to provide security for the diplomatic visit, and now they made their presence felt as they herded the reporters back a short distance. Some reporters continued to shout questions, though. “Twilight Sparkle! Have you found any proof of Wiccan magic yet?” “Do you think we can turn back the Barrier?” “Will Princess Celestia call for a moratorium on Conversions?” “Did ancient unicorns come to Earth and build Stonehenge?” “Trixie is afraid this won’t be a peaceful walk,” she commented in Twilight’s ear. “And with their microphones they can pick up everything we say.” “Don’t worry, I have a spell for that!” Twilight’s horn glowed for a moment with the casting, then a transparent blue bubble surrounded the group and quickly faded. “There! Now we’re in a Circle of Confusion. The circle will follow us, and reporters won’t be able to understand anything they hear from inside it. It’ll sound like gibberish.” “Not bad,” Trixie admitted. She led them to the roadway, and the media mob followed closely. As they walked, some of the reporters continued to call out questions. Trixie groused, “Don’t they know they aren’t going to get any answers from us now?” Twilight sighed. “I haven’t found any way to really shut them up.” Trixie gritted her teeth and said, “Don’t worry, I have a spell for that!” She removed her hat and spun to face the reporters. She lowered her head and pawed at the ground with a hoof, and her horn glowed brightly with an increasing whine of power, and she yelled, “Get back and give us some peace, you louts!” Then followed a mad scramble as the reporters cleared out. Trixie’s magic faded, and she replaced her hat upon her head, covering her horn once again. Twilight gawped and wondered, “What did you cast on them? I couldn’t even detect… Was it some kind of repulsiveness spell?” “A variant of Awful Apparition, perhaps?” suggested Spell Nexus. Trixie raised her muzzle higher and told them, “The magician never reveals her secrets. Now come along! We should be able to proceed unmolested.” She led them the short distance to Castle Lane and on toward the stone circle. Twilight Sparkle walked side-by-side with Trixie, while the others trailed behind. Twilight seemed distracted, perhaps still trying to figure out what magic Trixie had cast. As they passed a farmhouse, Trixie broke the silence. “That’s where a Roman marching camp used to be.” She indicated the area, vaguely, with her muzzle. “Roman?” Twilight wondered. Trixie smiled and repeated the lore about the Romans and the origins of Castlerigg, just as she’d learned it from Ivan. Twilight listened with genuine interest, the other ponies with somewhat less enthusiasm. As they neared the stone circle, they came to the place where a paved drive entered the field, where the white stripes were painted on the road. To Trixie’s disappointment, they were obscured by dirt that vehicles had tracked across. She’d been hoping to see Twilight Sparkle’s reaction to the illusion, but the other ponies walked across the threshold without noticing anything amiss. The stone circle was a mess. Heavy machinery and bare, muddy earthworks were everywhere, smell of dirt and diesel hanging in the air. Trixie knew that the work was nearing completion, but until the turf was green again and the machines gone, it was a construction site. Trixie approached the supervisor and asked him to suspend work for a while. The crew was working on setting a marker stone outside the henge, the interior being finished by this time. They quieted their machines and took a break, looking on curiously while the ponies entered the henge. Trixie led them between the stones of the entryway, or avenue as Ivan called it, through a gap in the earthworks. Once they had entered the circle itself, Trixie paused a moment to contemplate how this place had changed since the ceremony. The five thousand year old earthworks that had been eroded to invisibility when she first came to this place were now rebuilt. A deep V-shaped ditch was surrounded by a tall embankment, broken only by the avenue. The bank created an artificial horizon around the circle, partially blocking the view of the mountains and giving it a more intimate feeling than the exposed place it had been before. Likewise, it felt more purposeful. The stones were still ancient and irregular in shape, but now they were upright, evenly spaced, precisely positioned. The circle was perfectly round, centered in the earthworks, and it all seemed less like a mysterious ruin and more like a device to carry out a task. Trixie’s reverie was broken by her guests. It was Spell Nexus who asked, “Miss Trixie, could you show us where the components of the ceremony were placed?” “Of course.” She moved around the circle pointing out where the shrines had been placed, where the drums had been, the bonfire, and so forth. As they followed, all three of her unicorn guests cast spells, projecting their auras briefly onto the stones, onto the ground, into the air. Trixie could only detect the magical discharges and get an impression that the spells were subtle and complex. The three scholars muttered softly to one another as they worked their way around the circle, taking notes and making sketches. Trixie’s sensitive ears overheard babble about transverse thaumic fields, holographic localization, and something that sounded like, “the corresponding pattern of maxima and minima in the mana scattering intensity as a function of P.” She rolled her ears back and moved further from the eggheads, then sat on the ground and observed them from a safe distance. The earth pony newfoal walked over and sat beside her. After some moments he broke the silence, perhaps compelled by social habit to make small talk. “They seem to know what they’re doing.” “Yes,” Trixie replied. He fidgeted a little, then prompted her again. “Do you think they’ll figure it out?” Trixie glanced at the three unicorn scholars who were engrossed by their activities. Then her eyes flicked upward, past the silhouettes of the ancient stones, to ragged, scudding clouds. Somewhere in the distance a hawk screeched. She glanced toward the horizon, where a half moon hung almost lost in the haze, until a passing cloud obscured it completely. “No, they won’t,” she concluded. He merely nodded, as though nothing more needed saying. After a few more moments of silence, Trixie said, “I was going to ask you before. I assume Prudent Slate isn’t your human name.” “Goodness no! At the Conversion Bureau they like for everyone to pick a pony name, and it seems to make visitors from Equestria more comfortable. I’m still Kenneth Winsley on all the paperwork, though.” Trixie nodded. “So, Kenneth… How do you find being a pony, if I may ask?” “I’m adapting well. The whole family is.” Trixie looked askance at his terse answer, and pressed him. “No, really?” Kenneth pursed his lips, glanced downward. “It’s hard to get along without hands. And being so short. And not being recognized by so many people who knew me before.” He sighed. “My son was five. Conversion was confusing for him. In some ways he’s adapting better, but sometimes he cries about not being able to do something the way he could before, or about being different from other children.” “And if our project succeeds, then what? Will you become human again?” Kenneth blinked and his ears perked up, as if he hadn’t really thought it through until that moment. “Is that possible?” he wondered aloud. “I had the impression that there’s no going back.” Trixie shrugged lightly. “I don’t see why not. With magic all things are possible, and whatever is done can be undone.” “I see. That could get… hmm… interesting.” When Twilight Sparkle and her comrades concluded their examination, she approached Trixie and announced, with exasperated tone, “I can’t figure it out! There’s no residue, no trace to indicate that anything magical happened here.” Trixie narrowed her eyes. “What are you implying, Your Excellency?” Twilight flinched from the unexpected venom lacing Trixie’s response. “But the site has been very disturbed, of course,” interjected Spell Nexus, and Crystal Clear nodded agreement. Twilight sighed. “Yes, of course. I just hoped there would be something remaining that we could detect and analyze directly. Even if the local fields were muddled, there should be something.” “Well. If we are done here, Trixie suggests that we return to the farmhouse forthwith.” As no objection was raised, she led them out of the circle and signaled to the crew that they could resume work. As they trudged back toward the farmhouse, the mood was glum, and Twilight Sparkle in particular seemed self-absorbed, mumbling to herself. Trixie glanced at the unsettled sky again, and thought back to some of the music that Moondancer often listened to. Then, to fill the silence, she began to sing a tune, slow, wistful and lonely: Shadow of cloud falls, and with it a chill High o’er the heather, hawk hover the hill Just begun is my journey, and Trixie’s my name I am the juggler of fortune and fame She hummed a bit, then chanted a refrain: Let me not hear facts figures and logic Fain would I hear lore legends and magic Let me not hear facts figures and logic Fain would I hear lore legends and magic The song continued: Feathers of raven, slithers of coal Armor of silver in the mackerel shoal Sun’s in the west, tis ruby blood red Travelers a-weary, so weary, do make their bed Let me not hear facts figures and logic Fain would I hear lore legends and magic Let me not hear facts figures and logic Fain would I hear lore legends and magic Her song ended, Trixie continued walking with a contented smile. “That was lovely, Trixie!” spoke up Crystal Clear. Kenneth added, “Well done, I liked that.” Twilight Sparkle only looked puzzled and trotted up beside Trixie. “But what does it mean?” she pestered. “Must everything have a clear meaning?” “Well… Yes! I mean, that’s usually why a pony breaks out in song, to express or clarify something they feel or have learned.” “Even if the song is about mysteries?” Twilight pressed on. “But you made it sound like facts and logic are opposites of lore and magic. That’s not right. You can’t just turn away from facts.” “That’s… That’s not what it means. Can’t you just leave it be?” Trixie scowled as she walked on, her mood ruined. Twilight hardly seemed any happier but took the hint and remained silent. As they neared the end of Castle Lane and could see the reporters loitering ahead, Trixie stopped. “Your Excellency? Do we still have that circle of confusion?” “Let me check!” Twilight’s horn glowed for a moment, and she nodded. “It’s still with us.” Trixie glanced at the other ponies, who had also stopped to listen, then to Twilight she said, “Trixie has a confession to make. There’s a reason why you detected no magical residue back at the stone circle.” “Why?” Twilight wondered. Trixie took a deep breath. “Trixie erased it.” Startled gasps. “What!?” Twilight exclaimed. “Trixie knows why you are here, ganging up on her with your experts. You wanted to return to Equestria in triumph with news that you, Her Excellency Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic, have discovered an entirely new category of magic here on Earth. Once again you’d be feted as a genius and savior — based on the work that Trixie has done! That’s not going to happen. You won’t steal Trixie’s limelight so easily. A spell to clear away any traces of the ceremony made sure of that.” “Oh no! Trixie, how could you? I’d never have done that. I came here to confirm your report, not steal it!” “Trixie was not born yesterday. I’ve been all over Equestria, and I know how these things are done. I know how your kind operate. Tomorrow you’d have been in the papers. Next you’d be published in the journals. And somewhere buried in the footnotes would be a tiny mention of the obscure unicorn who led you to your great discovery.” Twilight’s voice cracked as she pleaded, “Trixie, you’re not making sense. It’s not like that at all.” “Spare me! Trixie needs to return to her work of saving the world. Your aircar is waiting, Your Excellency. You’ll just have to continue your investigation elsewhere.” Then she turned and trotted off toward the farmhouse.