Chapter 28:
Studies
Trixie felt a small twinge of foolishness as she was knocking on the door to her own room, but it only slowed her hoof for a fraction of a second. The room wasn’t really owned by anypony; she’d simply moved in without objections. The priests could certainly tell her to move out again. They had not done so, to her slight relief.
There was a sound of magic being used from behind the door. Then the windigo’s voice was heard, sounding surprisingly out of breath in a pony-like way.
“It’s – ah – open.”
Trixie pulled the door open with her magic. Her quarters weren’t lavish by even the most imaginative application of the word. A bedframe had been built next to the wall opposite the door, with a single row of shelves above it. To the left was a small window and to the right was a small closet. There was not enough floor space left to enable a pony to lie down comfortably. Fulcrum stood with her back against the window, putting her faceplate almost within touching distance of Trixie’s hooves. The windigo’s fiery mane billowed from unseen mystical winds and shone clearer than last night.
“Hello, honoured Fulcrum! Did you rest well?”
“Tr – Ash Sister Trixie? I rested well enough, thank you. How is Silk Spinner?”
Trixie smiled gratefully.
“Just Trixie, please. She woke up a couple of hours ago and immediately opened the latches with her new ash magic. Naturally enough she’s still weak and confused, but also immensely relieved to be past her ordeal. I think she’ll be able to heal mentally as well now. She’s blamed herself for terrible events that she had little to no chance of preventing.”
“That’s good.”
“It’s more than good, honoured Fulcrum, it’s fantastic! We’re all so excited to have you here with us. We feel it’s finally a sign from Harmony that the rebirth is coming.”
Fulcrum started. Then she slowly halved the already short distance between her and Trixie.
“Harmony?”
“Yes! The true Harmony, of course. Much of the Queen’s prophecies talk about how we’re slaves to a false Harmony, and that the rebirth begins with its defeat.”
“Oh. Oh. And... what of this rebirth?”
Trixie smiled shyly.
“It’s what initially attracted me to the ashen. I heard one of the preachers while I was in Manehattan...”
“What were you doing in Manehattan?”
“I was looking for a job. There was an ad in the newspaper about an opening in the stage effects department of the Manehattan Metroponytan – uh, do you know it? It’s a famous opera house. Anyway, I’ve been something of a showmare all of my life, so I figured I’d show them my pyrotechnics and hope for the best, but...”
Trixie’s face became dejected from the memory.
“...But they said it would be a fire hazard. I had kind of bet everything on that job, I’d even sold some of my own stage props in order to travel there, so I was... sad. Then I heard the preaching.”
Her eyes became dreamy.
“This pony was lecturing about the rebirth. How we wore pretty exteriors over a rotten spirit, and how this was all wrong and mixed up. I could certainly see that... in myself and in those I had associated with. She also spoke of how there’d be a time when all ponies would be remade, with ageless and powerful bodies... but only those who’d accepted their ugly selves and could see beneath it would also have pure and eternal spirits.”
Trixie exhaled a longing sigh.
“I’ve been looking for something all my life. I think I hid my own insecurities by making those around me look bad or foolish. I felt like the preacher was talking to me and nopony else. So when the guards chased her away I followed her. The rest is pretty obvious, I guess.”
“Is there more about this rebirth?”
“Not much, really. The Queen’s prophecy is rather short. It says that when the false Harmony dies our true forms will be revealed and we’ll live forever. Most agree that this must mean we’ll become alicorns. Can you imagine?!”
Fulcrum hung her head.
“Yes I can, actually.”
“You mean... you believe in the prophecy? We’ll become alicorns?”
“Well... yes. Most ponies will become alicorns. It depends on their ancestry. Some might become windigos instead, or some other creature.”
“Oh! Is – is that why we haven’t seen windigos? Their birthright has been suppressed by the false Harmony and they’ve been reduced to ordinary ponies? Does this mean you’ve cast off its chains and been reborn ahead of time?”
Fulcrum sat down slowly and looked away, out of the window.
“...Something like that.”
Trixie danced with excitement and joy.
“This is wonderful, wonderful! But why do you appear so sad, Fulcrum? Surely this is good news?”
“Well, there was a time long ago when most ponies were alicorns and windigos were plenty. It ended very badly, Trixie.”
This was absorbed with an air of worry. Trixie didn’t appear to know how to respond.
“Anyway, you are probably here to get some sleep.”
“What? Oh! Not at all, actually. I caught enough sleep next to Silk Spinner. I was sent here by Mother Grindstone to tell you that the priests have arranged quarters for you, and to lead you to them.”
“Oh? That was kind of them.”
“You are very important to us right now, so it’s the least they could do! Also, I’m to tell you that the Queen wishes a demonstration of your revelation powers. One is being arranged in the town square, in front of her palace.”
“...What kind of demonstration?”
“The priests are gathering volunteers and overdue reluctants for you to gift with the revelation.”
The windigo shuddered.
“Does the conversion tire you much, Fulcrum? Will gifting the revelation to many be a problem?”
“No... that’s not the – I mean – there’s no problem.”
“I think that there is. It’s that some of them won’t agree to this, isn’t it?”
“I... er... yes.”
Trixie smiled and bowed down low to the windigo.
“Think of it as harsh love: it’s for their best, just like bad-tasting medicine to the ill. I had never expected such kindness and compassion from one of your kind! The stories about you must be fabrications and lies spread by the lackeys of the False Harmony.”
“Oh? Ah, you refer to the notion that windigos thrive on negative emotions. Well, they – we – are actually empathivores, or emotion eaters, in general. The myths focused on the negative emotions partly because of history and partly to differentiate them – us – from changelings. I, uh, greatly prefer positive emotions. Friendship. Anyway, can you show me to my quarters?”
“Certainly.”
~~~~~
Ash Queen Diamond Dust turned her head to look at Elder Ashen Speaker Firebrand. The wrinkly, balding stallion was looking down at the market square, no doubt deep in his thoughts, but he nevertheless sensed her gaze and swivelled his eyes to her. Those brown eyes were, as always, filled with mirth. Firebrand was a thoroughly happy pony, requiring very little to burst into laughter.
“My queen, do you lack for something?”
“The air is chilly and my sores are growing cold. Also, my horn is leaking again. See to it.”
“Ha ha! At once, your majesty.”
He stomped his hoof once, prompting a novice priest to run up and bow down by his side. He whispered instructions in the young mare’s ears, and she shot away. Less than a minute later two ash sister unicorns levitated rocks into an iron basin underneath the raised bed the Queen rested on and used their telekinesis to excite the rocks until they glowed with heat. A third unicorn sister gently levitated a cloth against Diamond Dust’s forehead and wiped away a trail of odious fluid that was snaking down from her misshaped and cracked horn.
She was almost immediately more comfortable and let her mind resume its lazy exploration of the False Harmony’s labyrinthine pathways and connections.
“My queen, the windigo is waiting for your signal to start.”
Diamond Dust snapped back to the here and now, giving the Elder Speaker a sharp look.
“I wanted to observe her as she arrived! You should have told me earlier!”
Not even being scolded erased the smile from Firebrand’s face. He merely backed away half a step and bowed repeatedly as a gesture of submission.
“A thousand grains of ash in my gruel as punishment for my inattention, my queen. The windigo is over there, next to the group of priests. She’s quite unmistakeable in that suit of armor.”
Queen Diamond looked in the indicated direction. When she saw the windigo her eyes narrowed to mere slits and she grimaced. There was no ignoring the power present in that being. Still, raw magic wasn’t important.
“Tell her to begin.”
A priest on Diamond Dust’s left side walked to the edge of the balcony and took a deep breath before bellowing a declaration.
“Her majesty Queen Diamond Dust, Ash-Prophet and Herald of Rebirth, greets the windigo Fulcrum and bids her proceed!”
A cheer carried from the market square below, the customary reaction to any declaration by the queen. She shut her eyes and concentrated on sensing the False Harmony through her horn. It appeared as it always did, a ghostly web of glowing lines creating a complex weave in the air. It usually travelled straight with only gentle curves, but near ponies it bunched into knots. The ashen had especially wild knots for some no doubt trivial reason. The windigo, however...
Diamond Dust felt her frown turn into a rigid snarl.
The windigo bent the lines of the False Harmony away from her. Just as Diamond Dust herself. She heard a collective gasp from the ponies gathered around her, followed by a smattering of applause from the balcony and cheering from below. She felt Firebrand’s breath on her right ear as he bent towards her and whispered.
“She seems to be the genuine article, my queen. We’ve been sent a sign: a prophet!”
Diamond Dust laboured hard to quell her increasing fury, but her face would not fully obey her commands and she felt her lips twitch into an even fiercer grimace with every successive cluster of applause and cheering.
They didn’t cheer or applaud that enthusiastically for their own queen. Fulcrum was not a prophet but a problem.
“Commander, step forward!”
She heard the rustle of armor from behind and to her left as Bulwark rushed to her side in reaction to her snapped words. The Queen didn’t bother turning towards the old mare or removing her attention from the False Harmony.
“Your thoughts, commander.”
“This could be what we’ve been waiting for, my queen. Not only will this windigo quickly and efficiently bolster our ranks, but our experienced troops will benefit greatly from being free of their scars. She’s the key, your majesty. We can begin our sacred campaigns much sooner, and be that much more ready when the rebirth comes. With the windigo’s help I truly believe we can do this, my queen.”
She felt Firebrand’s moist breath again.
“Your majesty, they are finished.”
Hearing this Diamond Dust did open her eyes, looking down on the square below with mild confusion. The ash sisters and priests were indeed helping the newly ashen onto their hooves.
“But... I heard no screaming.”
“Indeed, my queen, it appears Fulcrum prefers to induce revelation while the subject is rendered unconscious by her magic.”
Diamond Dust glanced sideways at the Ashen Speaker, disgusted by his sorrowful and apologetic tone. He was a true prodigy when it came to oratory skills, but this was overshadowed by far by his gleeful sadism. In these insane times he truly had a lot to laugh about.
Still... he had given her an idea.
“Speaker, a vision has spoken words of wisdom to me.”
“Yes? What shall be written as new scripture?”
“Pain... is integral to true spiritual cleansing. The windigo must only induce revelation on fully aware subjects.” Let them come to resent her. She’s easy enough to fear.
The Ashen Speaker laughed a heartfelt, merry laugh.
“Wonderful, wonderful! I shall declare it immediately, my queen!”
“Good. Be excused, all of you, but send for Night Whisper.”
Diamond Dust looked down at the square and caught her breath. The windigo was looking straight up at her. For a moment their gazes battled. She actually felt she would have to blink, and the shock made her twitch, but at that very moment Fulcrum looked away suddenly. Diamond Dust was left with a taste of bile in her mouth while the square below her cleared, the confused new inductees being led away by kind ash-sisters.
“You wanted me?”
Diamond Dust fought hard to smile and turned to the pony who’d appeared without a sound by her side. The mare was coloured in drab greens and browns that somehow made her almost invisible in bad lighting, which was pretty much always under the dense cloud cover that dominated the weather currently. And she was so silent in motion she could steal earwax from an owl. The scars on her face had nothing to do with ash.
“I want three things from you, Whisper. First I want you to tail the windigo Fulcrum. Always know where she is. Take some powdered lodestone to slip into her meals, and a jewel of sending for yourself, and report to me her every move. Got that?”
“Yes. And the second thing?”
“Research ways to kill a windigo. Report your findings.”
“Understood. And third?”
Diamond Dust’s light pink mane and coat was ruffled by a sudden wind blowing past the balcony. Thunder rumbled in the distance. She lit her horn and levitated a bowl of warm, herb-scented water over to the unicorn by her side.
“My wings are aching. Wash them for me, my faithful servant.”
~~~~~
Fulcrum stumbled on the threshold to her quarters, making Trixie rush forward to grab her in case the stumble would turn to a fall.
“Th – thank you.”
“Honoured, are you tired? Did the demonstration drain you?”
“No. Well, yes. Trixie, Was that... alicorn... your queen? The Ash Queen?”
“Yes.”
Trixie had expected the moment of mute horror, so she simply nodded at Fulcrum.
“She used to be a unicorn. The scriptures don’t say why, but she ate some ash. It poisoned her, of course, but she’d done it in solitude and nopony discovered her. So she lay in torment as she digested it and the ash entered her bloodstream. It is written that her first vision of the coming rebirth was caused by the first particle of ash to reach her horn. Her self-induced revelation ruined the horn, and it’s permanently wounded, but it didn’t decrease her magic ability.”
“And... the wings?”
“The ash is the culprit there again.”
Twilight thought back to the alicorn’s appearance. Beautiful, shimmering white-pink coat. Same colour mane, but translucent and glittering, as if faceted. Blackened horn, bent at the middle where a foul growth of bone billowed out, covered by cracks that oozed fluid. And the wings... little more than skeleton, with hanging, flimsy threads of skin and a couple of scrawny feathers.
There was also great power there. Twilight had felt it. True, the princesses Celestia and Luna also radiated power, but their magic could be described as songs. Harmonious and beautiful. Diamond Dust’s power was a blood-saturated growl.
She steeled herself. There were more pressing matters.
“Trixie, have the ashen studied the ash?”
“Extensively. Individual scholars in all the cities have studied the ash, even prior to joining us. When they’ve inevitably done so they’ve gravitated to each other and pooled their efforts. If you’d like to meet them then I could show you to their compound. It’s by the farms.”
“Thank you, but I don’t want to keep you from your duties. I could find it by myself.”
Trixie grinned nervously at Fulcrum.
“Honoured Fulcrum, I’ve neglected to mention that the priests have decreed that an ash-sister shall serve you for the duration of your visit. I – I thought that since I was already doing that...”
“I see. Thank you, Trixie.”
A nervous exhalation escaped from Trixie when she remembered to breathe out as well as in. She took a couple more breaths to calm herself and then bowed to Fulcrum.
“Shall we go now? I wager the scholars will be delighted by your visit.”
“Yes, please. I am... eager to learn.”
Trixie laughed and walked outside, Fulcrum in tow.
“They will fight each other in their haste to shower you with books. They’re learning so much, but the rest of the ashen aren’t really interested in the more scientific aspects of the ash, so they’re writing books that nopony else will read.”
“Why such a disrespect for learning?”
“Scripture says that the laws of Harmony shall be written anew. It’s generally interpreted as meaning that our world will change. What’s the point of learning about something that soon will be different? That’s the general opinion anyway, and the clergy supports it. Ponies are needed in the fields and in the armies of the faithful – not in the libraries.”
Trixie snorted before continuing.
“Heresy be damned, I bet the Element of Magic would have a thing or two to say about that.”
“I woul— I mean... what?”
“The Element of Magic. One of the False Harmony’s lieutenants, Twilight Sparkle. The best lies are built on a foundation of truth, and so the Elements of Harmony can be forces of good even while they serve the false order. I’ve had the honour of meeting her twice! Though... I wasn’t exactly on my best behaviour. She showed me what I was. A fake. I owe her much gratitude for the path my life has taken since then.”
“H – how do you mean?”
“Thanks to her I was open to the idea that I could improve myself, that I could be something more. Before I met her I doubt I would have listened to the ashen preachers. Without that I’d probably be holed up in Canterlot or some other place, miserable and arrogant. Or I’d be cowering among the stubborn, waiting for my turn to be given the revelation.”
“I... wow.”
“Yes, I’ve been lucky! Anyway, here we are!”
The sign on the building said “LIBRARY” and Trixie felt her heart warm towards Fulcrum as the windigo reached out with a hoof to gently stroke the word. It was almost like the loving caress of a couple reunited after a long period of being apart. Then Fulcrum pulled open the door with her magic and trotted briskly inside.
Trixie smiled, lost in nostalgia. Judging by Fulcrum’s behaviour, she and Twilight Sparkle would get along like a house on fire.