//------------------------------// // Heartless // Story: Trixie Searches For Magic // by MagicS //------------------------------// “This is a terrible idea.” “Not saying it isn’t.” Vector and Trixie stood far to the north of East Glade, even well past Coil’s lab, looking out into the mountains beyond. In the distance Trixie could see snowcapped mountains that rose higher than any of the ones to the east. Imposing, true, but the northern range apparently wasn’t near as dangerous as the eastern and she had just made it through there fine. That’s not to say she wasn’t totally oblivious to the fact that what she was about to go do was reckless. “It’s nice that you want to find out what happened to that mountain expedition for the sake of the village but you really don’t have to. And it’s dangerous,” Vector pleaded with her. “Aren’t you curious to learn what really happened to them?” Trixie raised an eyebrow at the villager. “Of course I am but it isn’t really a big deal. No one who went on the expedition was a native of East Glade. I suppose it would give us some closure but most people probably haven’t even thought about it for a while,” Vector scrunched up his face in concern. “It’s just… another weird and unexplainable thing that happens out here.” “Well I want to figure out the mystery of that expedition. Even if it’s just for my own curiosity’s sake,” Trixie couldn’t help but prod the beehive again and again. “Have you ever heard the phrase-” “Yes I have!” She cut him off, glaring at him. “And it’s fine, this is just the kind of thing the people of East Glade would expect from The Great and Powerful Trixie anyways. Selflessly looking for the answer to what happened to some poor mountaineers! You can just add it to my tale.” In part, she was also just bored. Coil was still working on the Suggestion Crystals in his lab and hadn’t brought any word to her yet about them and nothing else aside from Gold Box and Gold Fortune asking her to help them with their magic lessons had happened the past couple of days. The mayor’s kids were also incessantly attempting to get her to put on another show but Trixie refused to do that until she could use her new crystals to jazz it up. Vector gave her a worried frown. “Isn’t it kind of selfish that you’re ignoring your friends who are concerned about what might happen to you?” “Semantics,” Trixie scoffed. “You have the map with directions to the mountain don’t you?” “Yes...” Vector reached into a bag he was carrying and pulled out the map, hoofing it over to Trixie. “Thank you,” She took it and carefully stuffed it into her robe. “But do you really have to go alone too?” He wasn’t about to let this go so simply. Trixie gave an exaggerated sigh and roll of her eyes. “Yes, Vector. I do.” She looked at him. “Considering this my unselfish part. I’m not going to drag my friends into something dangerous that only I care about. So I’m being equally selfish and considerate right now.” She picked up her hooves and started walking onwards into the northern mountain range, carefree as ever. “Just don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine. I’m the amazing traveling hero who defeats every monster and always triumphs over evil, remember?” “That would have been more reassuring before I learned the truth about you you know?” Vector plainly responded. “Oh be quiet...” The going wasn’t really slow or anything for Trixie, she made good progress and the landscape in this mountain range was a lot more open and easier to travel through. She was steadily going up an incline as she got closer to the big mountains that were a bit further north. It seemed this entire part of the land was raised on a large bed of rock and well above sea level already. The actual mountains probably weren’t that much taller than the ones to the east then, they just started at a higher elevation to begin with. It was getting snowy up ahead though and that would just get worse and worse if she actually went up any of the mountains. Hopefully there would be no need for that however and she could figure out what happened to the mountain climbing expedition without having to do any actual mountain climbing of her own. For now she just walked along and watched the lightly drifting snow. It wasn’t windy, thankfully, there would be no surprise blizzards around here. Unless the insanity of this part of the world felt like playing yet another cruel joke on her. Loose pebbles clacked and scattered beneath her hooves and clouds shifted above overhead, creating an overcast sky that didn’t look stormy but was hardly sunny or pretty to look at either. Honestly she was expecting things to be worse out with how eerie the whole story of the expedition was. Maybe the weather was worse for them? But even that wouldn’t have been all that was needed to doom their expedition, Trixie had to think. Right now these mountains seemed normal enough, no different from any that she had gone through in Equestria. She could already see the tallest of them all ahead of her too. Well, that’s obvious, if it’s the biggest mountain then of course it’s the easiest to see, right? Nonetheless, that was her destination. It wasn’t spindly like the mountains to the east nor did it end in a point. The top of the mountain was fairly round except the side facing to the west was gradually slanted. If anyone could actually make it to the top there would be plenty of nearly level room to stand on up there with and take your time setting up a flag to let others know you conquered the mountain. Or just take pictures and look around if you wanted. It was still a bit far away but Trixie certainly saw no flag. From what she had heard of the expedition they were very serious mountain climbers and probably would’ve left their mark or done something to get proof that they had made it to the peak. The climbers were experienced and had allegedly scaled many other mountains so it was more likely to her that something had happened well before they made it to the summit. Or some other sort of catastrophe took place while they were climbing instead of the normal hazards you would expect might happen on a mission like this. She just had a feeling that the types of ponies who were brave and confident enough to tackle a giant mountain in this part of the world wouldn’t fall prey to anything normal like bad weather. And in Trixie’s mind if they had succeeded what would be the point of doing something if you couldn’t brag about it? You’d certainly never see her do something amazing and then not rub it in someone’s face. “I don’t know if the villagers were scared of these mountains before the expedition or not but everything seems fine to me,” Trixie shrugged to herself as she followed Vector’s map as closely as possible. It wasn’t the most detailed thing ever but the path he had drawn for her was direct and it went over easy terrain, she didn’t have to wind her way around other mountains or avoid any deep canyons. Well over halfway there and the clouds overhead hadn’t changed, making it difficult to tell what time of day it was aside from “not night”. But now as new entertainment for her, Trixie got to watch the snow fall around her. The steady incline she had been walking on since starting finally taking her to a cool enough elevation where patches of snow dotted the ground. Most snowflakes still evaporated well before they made it to the ground but it was a pretty sight. Not something she usually took much interest in but why ignore it when there was nothing else she was doing? Every now and then she caught a snowflake on her tongue or played around with her magic to make them fall in specific ways. If Starlight was here they could have had a snowball fight, that would’ve been fun. It was getting a little chilly because of the snow now but her robe and cap slightly helped her out with that. She’d probably feel more than just a little breezy once she started up the actual mountain though. Oh well. She could make fires with her magic, everything would be fine. The mountain now practically loomed over her too. On another day she might even be in the shadow of it. And it was big now that she noticed it. It wasn’t just tall but it was spread out across a wide area and bit by bit it rose up. This mountain wasn’t a simple cone or anything like that but a huge slab of rock that covered a large portion of this part of the mountain range. If she had a word for it it would be “stout”. Stout but still incredibly tall. Trixie knew in just a second that she had never climbed or traveled through a mountain near as large as it. This little mission of hers to find out about the expedition might take her a lot longer than the day trip she had expected. I should have brought some carrots or something. When she actually made it to the base of the mountain Trixie decided to take a little rest and looked around for anything in the meantime. She didn’t see much. Snow and rocks and more snow falling from the sky. The wind had picked up a little too now that she was higher up and it was making things a little too cold to be pleasant if she wasn’t moving. The lack of discoveries to be made here though could only mean one thing to Trixie: the expedition hadn’t ended here so she would have to go up the mountain to search for any sign of what happened to it. So at least she’d be moving again soon. The good news was is that because of how gradual the slope of the mountain was it made climbing it relatively easy even for a pony like her. She could already see numerous paths and ways that she could go up just by walking like she had been all day. And any other obstacles she was certain she could just teleport past or over. The size of the mountain would take her a while to scale or even go around it once but she was at least certain that she wouldn’t have to go all the way to the top so that was a good enough consolation prize to her. “Better get moving before I become a pony popsicle anyways...” Trixie muttered and took her first step onto the actual mountain. A wide patch of snow leading up to a rocky ledge was the first little bit to be conquered and she plodded through that snow with gusto, not more than a couple inches deep. Of course since her hooves were now covered in snow it got her colder even faster but Trixie was hardly going to admit that something like that was bothering her. She could easily imagine that a place like this would be foreboding if the weather was a little worse but for her it was actually still fine, it was just a cold and snowy place, not something that truly looked or felt dangerous and uninviting. It really did make her think again about what East Glade thought about this mountain and the ones around it. She had seen literally nothing that would scare them like the kinds of things that you’d see in the eastern mountains. Was there something else that happened up here besides the expedition and everyone had just forgotten about it aside from remembering that the northern mountains are bad? She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure she wanted to either. Higher elevation meant thinner air and while that wasn’t a problem to Trixie as of yet if the snow got deeper or she had to climb steeper cliffs it could turn into a hazard later. She wiped off some frost that had gathered on the brim of her hat and chugged along, now on a flat ridge that looked like it winded up and around a good portion of the mountain. Easy enough. She couldn’t imagine the mountain climbers wouldn’t have taken such a direct route either and her eyes were always open and searching for any sign of them or their journey. But still there was just nothing yet and Trixie had to go further and further up the mountain. Sometimes teleporting over gaps, or quickly scrambling up a ledge, but most of the time her lack of equipment was no problem and she could just walk her way up. Like what she was doing now as she walked on top of a narrow, snow-covered, buttress, to her right was a steep drop several hundred feet down and to her left was another steep drop several hundred feet down. One wrong move would make things pretty bad. Trixie wasn’t an acrobat but she was happy to have enough balance to stay safe up here. “Brr,” It was getting cold though, Trixie thought as she shivered. With a little magic put into her horn she created a small heat source for herself to make things a little easier. If she found some wood or a tree she could make a torch and carry that with her too. She made it off the buttress to a much flatter part of the mountain again, looking up she was still a good distance from the top, maybe halfway, and it looked like things got more complicated from here after leaving this flat part. She didn’t see any straight paths and the cliff in front of her going up the south side of the mountain was completely vertical. She’d probably have to teleport up there. Trixie sighed and began walking through the thick snow of this little mesa. The other directions only went down, the cliff to the north was her only option from here. The snow was falling far more heavily here too and she was already sinking deeper than her knees with each step. Getting tired of the snow she started using her magic to move it out of her way and make her walk easier. Pulling out one large pile of snow after another along with any errant rocks, Trixie smugly trotted her way towards the cliff. It was then that she saw something unusual from one of the piles she pulled up. Or more accurately, something unnatural. Trixie’s eyes lit up and she grinned, levitating the metal tent pole to her and looking it over. “Yes! They did come by here!” Wherever the rest of the tent or anything else was she couldn’t be sure, but the sight of the pole renewed Trixie’s vigor and desire to go further. When she made it to the cliff she saw something else that only made her more certain and pleased with herself. Divots cut into the rock and bolts placed for climbing. The expedition had been here. There was no question about it now. Without any rope or equipment of her own though these tools were useless to Trixie. Still, that was no obstacle to her. The cliff was low enough to teleport to the top of and that’s what she did, giving a little hop and cheer of success to herself upon completion and silently thanking Starlight that she didn’t smack into the cliff on accident instead. “Easy as pie,” Trixie looked around the new part of the mountain she was on. A narrow ledge with packed snow covering the edge to her right and a series of jagged rocks leading up to her left. Going higher at this point would no longer be a simple walk. “Great,” Trixie grumbled, her previous mood soured, and tried to think of how best to conquer this part of the mountain. She didn’t see anymore used equipment but there was only one place the mountaineers could’ve gone after coming up here. The rocks had no easy path in-between them and were covered in enough snow to make climbing through them treacherous. There could be gaps or crevices she couldn’t see or she could slip, who knows? The Great and Powerful Trixie decided to see if she could see some other path on the mountain down below that she might be able to backtrack over and use to go up the mountain on the other side, shaking off the fresh snow that had fallen on her while she thought, she made her way to the right side of the ledge and looked down the cliff. Not much was there that she could see, in fact this part of the mountain was almost a sheer drop back to the bottom. She scowled in annoyance and turned around to try her luck with the rocks… when the packed snow gave way beneath her hooves. And Trixie fell. The magician slipped down the edge of the mountain with the snow, it had happened so fast that she forgot to scream. Wordlessly she flailed about as she tried to right herself in midair and try to see if she could teleport somewhere to safety or grab onto something. The wind was whipping around her mane and her panicked mind was wishing it could calm itself down while her heart nearly exploded out of her chest. And while she was thinking this might be it, her body collided with something far sooner than she expected and her vision went dark. Her back was sore but as her heavy breathing and rapid heartbeart told her she was alive. But cold. Trixie pushed her way out of the pile of heavy snow she had fallen into and rolled down it, collapsing in an exhausted heap and looking straight up at the sky. From down here her tired eyes could see that she was on a ledge only a short distance below the one she had been standing on, invisible from above thanks to the way it was positioned. “Starlight should have taught me how to fly...” Trixie shook her head and got up, the fear she had felt while falling slowly abating. This small ledge was mostly covered in snow and a small indentation in the rock, not big enough to be called a cave, stood at the back of it. She could teleport right back up to where she was once she got her wits all the way back in order and took a couple deep breaths to calm herself. Glancing around at the rest of the ledge, Trixie saw something sticking out of the snow. A rope. A piece of frayed rope. “Something else huh?” Trixie used her magic to push away the snow around the rope. And this time she did scream. “Ahhhhh!” Trixie scrambled and fell over backwards away from the frozen pony that had been buried in the snow. With panicked breaths she pushed herself away from it and backed up right against the big pile of snow she had fallen into. “W-W-What?!” In retrospect she should have expected something like this, but it was still frightening to see. Her initial shock starting to lift, Trixie took a closer look at the body. He was a male earth pony stallion with a salt and pepper mane and mustache and he was wearing a very beaten jacket that was torn in some places. Besides the rope Trixie had first seen there was a bag and other scattered tools and picks around him. “I, uh, guess you were one of the mountaineers?” Trixie said, gulping. Naturally the body gave no response. “Sorry, dumb question,” Trixie got up and gingerly stepped towards him again. She noticed now that one of his back legs was painfully bent the wrong way, he must’ve fallen and broken it. But if he had only fallen then what about everyone else on the expedition? He could’ve called for help or someone should’ve been around to see in the first place, right? “You’re the only one I’ve seen so far...” Something under his chest caught her eye that she hadn’t seen earlier, a book. He looked like he must have been holding it close to him when he passed away. Not wanting to touch or disturb his body Trixie carefully pulled it free with her magic. It was thin and bound with brown leather, a cheap journal that you could buy anywhere. Holding it now in her hooves, Trixie glanced at the poor stallion and then at the blank and unmarked cover of his book, grimacing. Was it right of her to do this? But it might be the only way to figure something out… “Eh, being thoughtful isn’t like me,” Trixie opened up the journal with a shrug and began to read. Rock Wrecker Expedition Journal #17 It’s now officially the first day of my latest expedition so I’ve decided to crack open the new journal I bought for it. We just left the small town of East Glade. If that name doesn’t ring any bells then don’t worry, I doubt most of the world knows it exists. The ponies (oh, and griffons) there were nice enough I suppose but a little wary. I thought they would be more interested in seeing outsiders or would care to hear more about the mission we were going on but they were largely apathetic. Sad. Strange village honestly. They seem afraid of everything around them and when I asked them if they had traveled up any of the mountains or had much interest in mountaineering in general they answered in the negative to darn near everything. How can you live surrounded by mountain ranges and not know anything about them? Maybe it’s just because climbing mountains is my thing but I can’t fathom growing up here and not wanting to climb any of these peaks. They said something about monsters in the eastern mountains. Well, as someone who’s been all across Equestria I’ve seen my fair share of monsters. If that’s their excuse then so be it. But what about the north? They didn’t say much about where we were going other than “It’s dangerous”. Well so what? Everything about my life is dangerous. I climb huge and treacherous mountains for a living! And so do all of my fellow companions. Being told something is dangerous is just as likely to excite us all as it is to dissuade us. I feel bad for these villagers. Someone needs to come by and teach them how to live a little. Unfortunately that can’t be me. I have a mountain to conquer. However I did ask if any of them wanted to join us, we would have been glad to have another, and especially a local, traveling with us for this expedition. Unfortunately only one took us up on the offer and apparently she’s a mare that isn’t a local either. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers. We set off for the tallest mountain to the north soon after. As of now the peak is unnamed but after making it to the top I’ll change that! Besides me and the new mare, whose name I forgot to ask, I’ll have to do that later, there are 14 others on the expedition. Most of them have been with me since the beginning, there are no ponies I trust more. * First day of actually being on the mountain. Weather has been favorable but very cold. Which is odd since it’s summer. I was told by the mayor back in East Glade that the weather can have very random and sudden fluctuations. Definitely not ideal but we can manage. It’s a large mountain but not the tallest I’ve been up by any measure. I expect a couple of days at most unless the weather gets worse. Wouldn’t want to jinx it but this is supposed to be my record after all. Haven’t seen any sign of monsters or anything else that would make these mountains so scary to the villagers. Good for us. But that mare who joined up with us though is apparently a total amateur when it comes to mountain climbing. I was stunned when she had no idea what I was talking about when I went over the equipment with her. I almost got angry. When I asked if anyone wanted to come with us on the expedition I thought it was obvious that I meant ponies who had experience with this kind of thing. Not a complete beginner. Well I suppose it’s my own fault? Either way she hasn’t proven to be much of a problem yet. The cold doesn’t bother her at all while me and my companions are bundled up in our coats and other gear. And she’s all smiles all day, so I can’t fault her for a negative attitude. I don’t mind teaching beginners but I prefer to not do it in the middle of an expedition. And now I sadly have to mention something very unfortunate. We’ve lost our first member on the climb. Pine, my good friend. We found him inside his tent after he had gotten finished setting it up. From what we could tell it was a sudden heart attack. I was shocked, he was elderly but always in good health. I’m not a doctor but I didn’t see any signs of it. If you had told me this would happen yesterday I wouldn’t believe it. But I suppose that’s life. He had been with me on eleven other expeditions. We buried him at the base of the mountain. He would have wanted that. * Weather has taken a turn for the worse and it’s impeding our climb. We’ve been unable to make much progress at all and it’s turning into one of the slowest climbs I’ve ever been on. Adding to that we’ve had another bout of misfortune. Two of us have gone missing. Steady Rope and Moonstone Shine. Two of the younger ones in our party but still experienced climbers. I can’t believe they just got lost, something must have happened to them. A crevice? A wild animal? I hope not. With any luck we’ll find them when visibility picks up and we can really search for them. It’s so early on in our climb and we’ve been hit with so many problems already. Some of the others are saying there’s a dark cloud overhead. * A full on blizzard. Stuck in the same spot for an entire day. Unable to move anywhere or do anything. Curses. * We searched the area and even backtracked some but found no trace of Steady Rope or Moonstone Shine. It’s going to be difficult writing to their families about this. The rest of us have continued on with the climb though. These things unfortunately happen and it’s not the first or only climb that I’ve lost friends and companions on. Like I said we all knew what the dangers were when we started. That’s just a part of this lifestyle. Weather is still awful and visibility is shot most of the time but we’ve been able to make it up to another part of the mountain. We know how to work with low visibility. It’s not just the slowing down that makes the weather and vision unfortunate though, a lot of us wanted to take pictures. Hopefully when we make it to the peak or just a bit higher up things will have cleared some and we can take some good photographs. What a travesty it would be to come here, get to the top of the highest mountain around, and then not be able to take any pictures. Anyways we just have to press on at this point. I have to be the strong one and keep an optimistic outlook for everyone else, can’t have ponies being fidgety or that will just lead to more accidents and problems. It’s a climb like any other, no more and no less. I’ve been trapped, cold and helpless, after an avalanche before when I was younger. I didn’t know what to do, I thought I might die up on that mountain. But the expedition leader kept a cool head and we all got out of that situation alive. That’s just how I need to be now. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried at all but I won’t let others see that. * There’s something wrong with this mountain. Or something is hunting us. I refuse to believe that so many of us could just accidentally become lost. We also found two more that had died, they were huddled together in a snow drift. The only thing we could think of is that they froze but I don’t think they did, not with all of their gear still on and their tools with them. The party is down to nine and I have to agree with the others that we need to cancel the climb and go back down the mountain. It’s become apparent that this is not just a normal climb and I can’t in good faith say we need to push on and make it to the top in this situation. Reckless and selfish. That’s all that would be. One day we can return and conquer this mountain. But for now it’s more important that I get everyone I can to safety. The weather unfortunately is not allowing that right now. Just more bad luck after bad luck. * Stuck still. After we found Granite Slab dead we’ve taken to pushing all our tents together so we can be as close as possible. If we had a large enough tent I’d suggest we all stay in the same one. The bad thing is that we’ve been using the buddy system the entire time and this is still happening. If only the visibility was better and the snowfall not so harsh. Things have to be better by tomorrow morning. I will get everyone I can off this mountain. I promise. Whatever is happening I’m not going to let it take anymore of my friends and companions. * I’m dying. Already I’m cold, too cold, and my vision is getting dark. I’ll try and write as much as I can before I sleep, I know I wont wake up again when I do. I should have known looking back. I should have been able to put two and two together. It was her. That thing that joined us in East Glade. It’s not a pony. It looks like one but it’s not. It can’t be. I can’t say for certain what happened to everyone else. But I was stuck up on a ledge with her, alone. When she touched me… it was like I had just sprinted a marathon. I felt more tired than ever before in my life, her hoof just touching me almost killed me. I had barely enough energy left to push her away. But that only ended in me stumbling down the cliff. I fell onto this small shelf and broke my leg when I landed. I don’t have the strength to climb back up and certainly not enough to make it down the mountain. So this is it for me. Luckily, not like it matters, I don’t think she could see me from up there. Or feel me. She said she felt my life. That she could feel the lives of the others too before she attacked me. She said that we all shined in the darkness. Whatever that means. I’ve heard of creatures called changelings that look like ponies and feed on the love of others. Maybe she’s like that except she feeds on your lifeforce itself? I don’t know, I climb mountains for a living. She’s a monster. That’s all I can say. When her hoof touched me I could just feel it pulling me away, all my strength, my energy, my life. Just being sucked away. Looking back on it it’s plain to see how it started. She killed Pine first because he was old and we’d put it down to natural causes. Then she just started picking off the rest of us one by one or two by two thanks to our buddy system. And we couldn’t run or do anything about it. Was the bad weather somehow her doing too? It made things easier for her and deadly for us. Impossible to know. I’m sorry everyone. I tried and I said I would help you all but it was just an empty promise. Whatever this thing is I can only hope it doesn’t go back to the village. That something like this was out here, I’m worried. Guess the villagers were right. If I made it back would they say “Told you so”? Tired. It’s getting harder to write. She was still smiling like always. It was such an innocent smile. A child’s smile. But she’s a monster in pony form. I should have spent more time talking with her, then I might have realized that something was so wrong with her. Can’t feel the leg at all anymore. Rock Wrecker’s last journal, on his last climb. I always thought I’d be more content if I ended up dying on a mountain. Not the way it’s happened though. Wish I could have done something. Trixie didn’t really know what to think as she closed the journal. She couldn’t really afford to right now anyways since far from how it was just minutes ago the wind around the mountain was howling and the snowfall had increased drastically, the sky was graying and the clouds rumbled with thunder, the weather all around was getting much worse since she had started reading and it would be bad if Trixie stayed in a place like this for much longer. The mountain itself might have been telling her to leave. Whether it was a warning or threat she didn’t care, she’d leave. She uncomfortably looked down at Rock Wrecker’s body and placed the journal back with him, then with her magic she levitated the snow back on top of him and covered the mountaineer completely this time so maybe he could at least rest in peace and not be bothered by any other overly curious ponies or creatures. The traveling magician turned around from her spot on the cliff-side to see a mild blizzard forming in the northern mountain range. Any thoughts she had about these mountains not being as imposing or scary as the eastern ones evaporating in her head. She didn’t gulp, and it was too cold to sweat, but a dismayed and troubled expression still wormed its way onto her face. “I don’t think I should be here.”