//------------------------------// // Backstory // Story: Trixie Searches For Magic // by MagicS //------------------------------// Since Trixie was uncertain about how to mention to the villagers that she was going to leave (abandon) them she found herself again staying longer than she wanted to. Everything about this situation kept tearing at two parts of her. Glory and self-preservation. And neither one was winning out so she was at a bit of an impasse at the moment. Which is why she had still gone to the dinner that Senax and Vahar had invited her to. Of course since there was a bit of a bigger celebration to have now she was joined by Daylight, Coil, Vector, and Gizzard as guests of the merponies. The merponies lived in one long building at the western edge of East Glade, it unfortunately would’ve been the first target of the Nuckelavee if Trixie hadn’t stopped it. There weren’t many merponies living here, only about a dozen or so, Senax had claimed that their numbers had been dwindling for years. Which there wasn’t anything they could really do about with no other merponies living in this part of the world to their knowledge. The guests and merponies now sat at a long dining table, with Trixie and Senax sitting together at the head, getting ready to eat their dinner. It was mostly carrots and carrot dishes. Merponies liked them the most out of any vegetable for whatever reason. “This has really turned out to be quite the occasion,” Senax said to the table, getting the attention of the other merponies and guests. “Not only are we hosting the pony who saved our village but we get to celebrate the return of the Horn of Listening.” Oh yeah. Trixie thought, remembering that the Horn had been recovered earlier today after Goliath dropped it. A series of cheers and hoorays rang up from the other merponies and Vector and Gizzard even clapped along with them. Senax smiled. “Yes. Finally the treasure of our hearts that connects us with our long lost home has been returned. I’m sure Ponyseidon is smiling down on us.” She turned to Trixie. “This is all thanks to you, Great and Powerful Trixie, one of the three magical items now is back where it rightfully belongs. I already have it safely hidden away again.” “No need to thank Trixie,” She said with a grin, her words hardly matching her face and inflection at all. “You know I’ve heard you mention Ponyseidon’s three magical items before,” Daylight spoke up. “Just what are the other two? Do you know where they might have gone off to? Sorry if this is a little invasive, it’s just the old treasure hunter part of me acting up.” “Trixie must admit she’s also interested in any sort of magical item,” Trixie nodded along. After her experience with the Alicorn Amulet though she hoped that they weren’t as dangerous as that. The merpony leader shook her head. “I don’t have any problem answering your questions. But I’m not sure how much I can actually answer either. In addition to the Horn, Ponyseidon also left behind his Trident and a Necklace. If they had any sort of title or name though I don’t know them.” She shrugged. “Oooh, so what could they do?” Trixie asked with a mouth half-full of carrot. “Well, with his Trident he was able to control the currents of the sea. So no enemy was able to get to our city on the ocean floor thanks to that. And the Necklace...” She blushed. “I’m sorry, whatever it did has been forgotten to time. As for where both of the items have ended up we have no idea either, it’s likely another tribe of merponies took them when we were all scattered.” “I’m still sorry to hear about that, I hope one day you and your people can return to your ancestral home,” Daylight said to her. “Yes, it would be quite the wonderful thing if the merponies could all find each other again,” Coil agreed. The other merponies at the table gave a spectrum of true and sad smiles. Some of them thankful to hear the supportive words but others reminded of just how impossible that likelihood was. No idea where their old city was, no idea where the other tribes were, and all of them had been born here in East Glade too. It was essentially their true home now and they were connected to it, there were probably quite a few or even most that wouldn’t leave it even if they found a way back to their ancient city. “Thank you,” Senax offered a half-smile. “That’s a complicated issue for us though and this is supposed to be a night of celebration. Let’s eat for now.” Not wanting to tread on their host, Daylight and the other guests complied. Trixie was pretty much ambivalent the whole time anyways so it was easy for her to go back to just eating. It was a nice meal and it was easy for them to get back into a happy mood considering the recent events. Not just the merponies but everyone at the table and in East Glade had a lot to be happy for tonight. “Oh yeah, Trixie,” Daylight Gleam suddenly said to her in the middle of the meal. “I wanted you to know that Harlequin Black offered to fix the door on your wagon, he’s taking a look at it now if that’s alright?” Trixie frowned at the thought of her poorly treated wagon. It wasn’t just the door that needed fixing but the entire insides that had to be cleaned out from all the soot left over by her firework. Not to mention her robe and hat that had also been nearly blackened. Still, a start was a start. “That’s fine by me,” She shrugged. If someone else was willing to do it for her why not let them? Daylight smiled at Trixie. “You know speaking of that I really have to hoof it to you. I thought you were just running away but you really got Goliath with that super mega firework or whatever it was called. I totally wasn’t even thinking about that, you really surprised me. You’re still kind of weird but I guess I’m sorry for doubting you and everything.” “Ahaha...” Trixie nervously laughed. “There was nothing to it, The Great and Powerful Trixie always has an ace up her sleeve.” They were going to go back to eating when Trixie decided to question Daylight on something she had said earlier. “So, Daylight? You said you were a treasure hunter?” Trixie asked. She figured it would only be polite to actually get to know the others here, they knew a lot about her anyways even if it wasn’t all true. The white unicorn nodded. “In the past. I sort of retired from doing that not too long ago. Me and my two friends explored all over, got into quite a bit of trouble, and looked for any treasure we could get our hooves on. Well on our last little adventure together we managed to get so much treasure that my two friends decided to unofficially retire and got married. A couple of things happened to me after that and I’ve ended up on my own now,” She paused. “I just like discovering new things. Even if it can sometimes be troublesome.” “You know now that we’re talking about it I can’t remember asking what specifically brought you here, Daylight,” Vector said. “I just sort of told you I was an explorer when I arrived, remember?” Daylight told him. “But actually I kind of came out this way on the request of a friend, looking for someone they knew. And one thing led to another and I’ve ended up staying here for a lot longer than I thought I would.” “Did you find who you were looking for?” Trixie asked. Daylight Gleam’s eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch as she took a slow sip of her water and turned a carrot over in her magic before responding. “No, I haven’t.” Trixie shrugged, not picking up on her change in expression. “Good luck then.” “Can’t imagine who you’d be looking for out here,” Gizzard mentioned in-between huge bites of carrot cake. “There’s also someone they wanted me to look for up north so I’ll be going there next. Whenever I feel like leaving East Glade,” The white unicorn took another deep gulp of her water. Trixie went back to eating for a second. She looked down the table of merponies, trying to remember their names. Senax and Vahar had introduced them all earlier but that had all gone in one ear and out the other. Most of them were in their own little conversations anyways and shyly turned away whenever Trixie’s strong gaze met theirs. Finally her look up and down the table brought her eyes to the other Equestrian, Coil. “Hey Coil, what about you?” Trixie asked. “Huh?” The frizzy-haired unicorn perked up. “What about me?” “I mean, why did you come here?” Trixie rolled her eyes. Coil frowned. “Didn’t I tell you? I wanted to study magic and things that couldn’t be found in Equestria. If you’re asking for why I came to East Glade specifically it was essentially just random chance, this is where my hooves carried me,” The unicorn got a wistful look on his face. “I had grown rather tired of the university anyways. Too stuffy. I wanted to really experience magic and the outside world.” “You’ve been a great help ever since coming here,” Vector smiled and put a hoof on Coil’s shoulder. “Far more than the last outsider who showed up before them,” Gizzard spat out, his eyes narrowing as he glared down at the table. Silence overtook the natives of East Glade who were eating at the table. Senax, Vector, they all looked angry after what Gizzard had said. “Er, what’s the matter?” Trixie asked. Coil coughed to get her attention. “You recall when we first met? Gizzard and Vector mentioned a griffon from Griffonstone who attacked East Glade.” “Ohh...” Trixie did remember now. What was with this village and getting attacked by evil griffons? “Godfrey. That was his name,” Gizzard spoke up again. “A violent brute who flew down here one day, claiming he was searching for adventure and fun. Well his idea of “fun” was ransacking the village and beating up anyone who tried to stop him. He stole our food, he set fire to some of our houses, he broke my grandsons wings when they confronted him.” Gizzard clenched his talons, shaking. “And we all just felt so helpless. He was strong, and fast. And he just laughed the whole time as if he didn’t have a care in the world. No matter how we pleaded with him he just ignored us, he tied Gabriel up and hung him upside down from the bridge too when he left. Looking back on it I think we’d even have to call ourselves lucky, he could’ve done way worse if he wanted to.” “That wasn’t really the end of it either,” Vector cut in. “After he got tired of East Glade he flew right into the eastern mountains where Goliath lives. Normally going into those mountains would be a death sentence for any outsider, but that’s not what happened.” Now Trixie was confused. “How do you know nothing happened to him? What if he just ran into Goliath?” Vector sighed. “The thing is we know for a fact that he did meet Goliath. The problem is that he fought with and beat Goliath.” Trixie’s jaw dropped. “Wait, hold on. You’re saying some griffon actually beat up that huge monster?” She couldn’t believe it herself after seeing the horrible griffon. “As best as we know,” Vector nodded. “Cause a couple days after Godfrey left East Glade, Goliath came down and attacked us too. He had scars and bruises all over his body like he had just gotten out of a bad fight. And there was only one person we could think of that could do anything like that to him.” “And because of that, Goliath took his anger out on us,” Gizzard said. “For all we know Godfrey is still out flying east over the Grand Ocean,” Senax chimed in. “It was a few years ago now,” Vahar said. “I hope the horrible things he’s done have caught up with him, there’s no justice in the world if someone like that can just do whatever they want without consequence. Godfrey was a vile griffon, almost as bad as Goliath himself. And unfortunately because of him we reacted… unfairly to new arrivals after that.” She shot an apologetic look to Coil and Daylight Gleam. “You don’t need to apologize,” Daylight said. “Yes, it’s truly not a big deal,” Coil agreed. Now this conversation had taken another negative turn, most probably wanted to get back to their meal and try to lighten things up but Trixie’s curiosity continued to get the better of her. “Uh, I’ve been meaning to ask,” The blue unicorn raised a hoof. “But what’s up with Goliath anyways? Why doesn’t he have wings? And I think those other griffons I saw the other day didn’t have wings either.” Vector nodded, rubbing the top of his head in thought. “Right, we hadn’t really told you much about Goliath since things keep coming up. Obviously you know he likes to prey on East Glade, but in the past he’s never done anything too extreme. He wants things to stay “normal” between us so he can do whatever it is he does in those mountains. I think he just likes lording over his underlings and taking out any monsters that try to move in on his territory.” “As for his wings we’re not entirely sure,” Gizzard shrugged. “Maybe he was born that way or lost them in an accident. But when it comes to the other griffons and pegasi serving under him… well, Goliath happens to hate anything that can fly thanks to his own problem. So he...” Gizzard’s face was a disgusted grimace. He stopped talking and made a snipping motion with his talons. Trixie’s cheeks puffed out and her face went green, the contents of her stomach threatening to vacate her body. “Urk! You-you can’t be serious?” The others at the table only nodded. “That’s just… horrible!” The Great and Powerful Trixie exclaimed. “Just how could anyone do something like that?!” “Goliath is a beast in griffon form,” Gizzard said. He raised his glass and took a long, slow drink. Silence reigned again for a moment, Trixie was worried that she had ruined the mood. Vector sighed, the orange earth pony looked between Gizzard and Senax. “I’m beginning to think that maybe this whole place is cursed with misfortune. Do you remember that mountain expedition a few years back?” All the locals groaned at being reminded of whatever this was. Trixie, Coil, and Daylight were lost though. “Mountain expedition?” Daylight asked, raising a questioning eyebrow. Vector nodded. “This happened maybe about a year before Godfrey came here. A pony from Equestria came to East Glade, said he was a mountaineer. There were a few other ponies with him, maybe ten in total? That were also mountain climbers. He said they came out here to climb the tallest mountains that the Griffon Lands had to offer.” “It was not a good idea,” Senax exasperatedly stated. “Quite,” Vector continued. “Into the mountain range a bit north of East Glade is a snowy mountain noticeably taller than any of the others that surround it. That’s the one they wanted to conquer. We warned them of the various dangers of the area but they were having none of it. They said they had climbed plenty of dangerous mountains in the past and that was that. So after staying in town for a few days getting ready they set off for the mountain. And that’s the last we heard of them.” “The thing is they promised they would come back to let us know that everything had gone okay,” Gizzard sighed. “Obviously it didn’t.” “For self-evident reasons we never went to go look for them. I am a bit ashamed to admit that though,” Senax explained. “Nothing good could’ve come from it,” Gizzard said. “That whole mountain is probably haunted or something.” “I still feel bad for them though,” Senax said. Vector hummed to himself, swirling around his glass of water. “Yeah. If it wasn’t for all the dangerous and, er, hungry monsters out there I’d have suggested we could at least go find them to give them a proper burial. But as it stands...” He let himself trail off. “Do you remember that they asked if anyone from the village would like to join them on their expedition?” Gizzard snorted. “Maybe they figured there were some mountaineers living here too.” “I do remember that,” Senax nodded. “Thankfully no one took them up on that.” “Actually that’s not true,” Vector said. He furrowed his brow as if just now remembering something important. “There was that mare. That weird mare who just walked in from out of town one day? I can’t believe I forgot about her, she just arrived maybe a day or two before the mountaineers. She went with them, didn’t she?” Gizzard scratched his chin. “I vaguely recall what you’re talking about. I think I remember a pony who came from… can’t remember where, but she was all smiles right? Guess she did go off with them cause I can’t think of ever seeing her again after that.” Vector shrugged. “Weird things happen out here.” So the meal that was supposed to be a happy celebration had unfortunately kept taking somber turn after somber turn. Trixie was thinking she could announce that she was putting on another show to raise everyone’s spirits but she wasn’t sure if she was actually going to do that or not. The showpony was still struggling with whether she should slink away in the middle of the night or not. “I actually have some good news to mention,” Daylight Gleam suddenly said, getting the attention of the table as they all turned to look at her. “Harlequin Black told me earlier that Wool Dye has up and left the village. So we don’t have to deal with him anymore.” The villagers and Coil too all gave sighs of relief. “Finally,” Vector muttered. “I didn’t want to be impolite or kick him out or anything but he was really getting on everyone’s nerves.” “That was the weird cult guy, right?” Trixie asked, only barely remembering. “Yeah,” Daylight said. “The one who talked to you after your show.” Trixie looked around at everyone who was elated to know he was gone. “I suppose there’s some story behind him too?” Daylight shrugged. “Sort of? You remember that book he had? Well he claims that it just magically fell out of the sky one day and the ponies that found it started a whole village and cult based off it, they’ve been living by whatever crazy stuff is inside it ever since.” “Weird,” Trixie said. Oblivious as ever. “At least that’s a positive note to get this celebration back on track,” Vector said. “Let’s get back to eating, shall we?” Trixie, Senax, and the others couldn’t agree more. Any other negative or worrying thoughts were pushed out of the diner’s heads and the feast resumed. The only conversation to be had after that was pleasant chitchat and Trixie got to enjoy the wide variety of carrot dishes prepared in her honor.