Chasing Winter

by Raging Mouse

Trixie Recruits Great and Powerful Companions

The train was guarded by two royal guards per car, one night and one day, and the station platform next to it was roped off. Trixie approached slowly with a small suitcase towed in her magic, frequently stopping to summon enough courage (or anger, a good enough substitute) to continue. Canterlot station around her was nearly empty and seemed cold and harsh in the moonlight.

“The night train to New Yoke departs in ten minutes!”

Trixie had been startled by the announcer’s shout and she’d leaped away from the noise by pure reflex, bringing her barrel up against the rope barrier in front of her. The two guards decided to officially take notice of her and the night guard approached. Trixie stared fearfully at the bat-winged pony. Gray mane, feline eyes and tufted ears were all simple transformation spells carried in the enchanted armour the guards wore but to Trixie’s hindbrain they were the signs of a predator she’d do best to run away from. She credited her continued existence to the fact that she listened to her hindbrain but this once she ignored the instinct. The Night Guards made her shiver but that was all.

“Citizen! This train is on a royal charter and is not for public use. If you are looking for the train to New Yoke it departs from platform three. Please move along unless you have business here.”

Guards were uniform in appearance within their branch but voices were unchanged and the night guard had addressed Trixie with a smooth alto tone. Trixie stuck her nose in the air and huffed. “My name is The Great and Powerful Trixie, also known as Bellatrix Lulamoon. I should be expected.”

The guard nodded and placed a hoof on the rope in front of Trixie, pushing it down to the ground. “Evening, Ma’am. Please proceed to the last car.” The batpony’s lopsided grin let a fang glint in the moonlight.

Trixie swallowed and stepped over the lowered rope. She counted the cars as she walked along: at eight total the train was quite sizeable. The six cars closest to the engine were windowless and had cargo doors. The remaining two looked like passenger cars of some kind but the windows of the seventh were dark, making Trixie unable to discern what type exactly. The last one was lit from within but had all of its curtains drawn shut. A day guard saluted and telekinetically opened the door in front of Trixie as she approached. She nodded mutely as thanks and entered the car to be greeted by the smell of supper. The car appeared to be some kind of restaurant with three large tables, capable of seating ten ponies each, and a small kitchen. Red velvet, teak and brass was the theme of the furnishings and decor. Four ponies were seated around one of the tables and all had turned to stare at Trixie. She recognized Terra Incognita’s imposing bulk easily enough. The table was covered by a clutter of bowls, dishes, plates, glasses, bottles and cutlery.

“Hello everypony! Trixie has arrived!”

“Bellatrix! Glad you decided to join us. Put down your suitcase anywhere! Take a seat and I’ll take care of introductions.” Terra pointed a hoof at a vacant spot at the table laden with an unused set of dinnerware. “The rest of us have already eaten but we don’t mind if you’re hungry.”

Trixie put her suitcase down on one of the empty tables. Then she walked up to the indicated seat, brought her hind legs under the table and let her tail droop down the back of the chair while she inspected the faces around her. A stocky Earthen stallion to Terra’s left smiled at Trixie and pointed at a covered bowl. “Try some soup.”

Trixie levitated the lid off the bowl and raised her eyebrows at the sight below. Roasted chestnuts, wild onions, sunflower seeds, sliced carrots, celery, nettles and more swam in a green liquid that smelled of spices and spinach. She hadn’t really been hungry but now her mouth was watering, so she grabbed a ladle with her magic and let two scoops land in her own bowl. As she levitated a spoon and took her first sip Terra was presenting her to the others.

“This here is Bellatrix Lulamoon or ‘the Great and Powerful Trixie’ as she also likes to be called.”

Trixie swallowed the excellent soup and grinned nervously. She felt her face heating up as she shook her head wildly. “Please! You are my colleagues, not some drooling fans. Just ‘Trixie’ is fine!” There was laughter at her expense but it was good-natured. Terra continued.

“Trixie here has six years’ worth of experience travelling on the road. She’s an entertainer who uses illusions and fireworks. I’m going to let her work on maintenance, repairs, incendiaries and explosives. She’ll also be our morale officer.”

The stallion to Terra’s left raised an eyebrow and interrupted. “Incendiaries and explosives? What do we need that for?”

Terra turned to him with a smile and a raised eyebrow. “I’ll tell you once we’re on the move. Speaking of which...” She leaned back and tapped on a crystal set into a frame on the wall. “Engine room? Do you hear me?”

The crystal glowed blue and a clear voice sounded from it. “We hear you.”

“Good. We’re ready here, so start us up as soon as possible.”

“Got it. The track is clear and the boiler is hot. Here we go.”

A train whistle bellowed a short note. The car lurched, accompanied by the clanks and groans of the couplings between the cars being stretched taut. A rumble of smooth steel on steel strengthened slowly, punctuated by the thumps whenever a wheel traversed the gap between two track parts. Terra resumed her introductions by turning to the stallion on her left. The Earthen was pale cyan and very shaggy, with a light brown and very unkempt mane and tail. He was not as big as Terra but still quite stocky in the same chiselled way as the larger mare. He was slouching on his chair like a sack of potatoes and regarding Trixie with amusement and a wide grin plastered on his face. Trixie noted that his teeth were stained green. “Trixie, this is Boiling Broth: an old friend and frequent accomplice of mine. Veteran traveller and guerilla cook with decades of experience in the wilds. He’s in charge of provisions and logistics, making him the second most important pony in our team. You and he will work together a lot, as the more you manage to repair the less we have to replace.”

Broth slowly raised a hoof and flicked a careless salute at Trixie while regarding her through half-lidded eyes and smiling. “You and me will get along just fine, I think.”

Trixie kept her opinion of the Earthen stallion to herself.

Next Terra turned to her right, pointing at a female pegasus. She was smallish and all purple and greeted Trixie with a disdainful frown. Her mane and tail were cropped short and of a lighter shade while her coat was a dark and warm hue. She was unusually pudgy for a pegasus but seemed to compensate with extra wing muscle. She wore goggles around her neck and used them for more than merely keeping her eyes from tearing up during high-speed flight, judging by the way they bent the light. “This is Crystal Brightfeather of Las Pegasus. She’s a consulting weather engineer with over two decades’ experience specialising in thermal design and jet wind management. She’s currently on a sabbatical and thus wished to join our little adventure. As her line of work has made her acclimatised to the most extreme heights of pegasus flight capability, she’s going to be our high altitude scout.” Crystal nodded slightly at Trixie before looking away and snorting.

The last pony, left of Trixie, was another pegasus mare, with a dirty yellow coat and a slightly washed-out purple mane run through with a dark blue streak, and appeared to be the youngest of the group. She waved and grinned shyly while Terra introduced her. Her wings seemed unable to settle down and were constantly moving in slight twitches and shakes. “This here is Visi Vidi, an exchange student from my own country of origin, Roam, who’s looking for a little adventure before finishing her journalism studies at Canterlot University. Her electives on astronomy and sports, especially her interest in endurance flying and aerial orienteering, makes her our cartographer and second scout.”

Visi was still waving in large, exaggerated motions and now added her other foreleg to it. “Hi! Where do you perform? Have you met somepony famous?”

Trixie smiled haughtily at the young pegasus. “Trixie is a travelling performer, not bound to any one stage. And yes, Trixie has met uncountable numbers of famous ponies during her career!”

The energetic pegasus seemed poised to interrogate Trixie further, but Terra cleared her throat to gain some silence. “There was supposed to be a sixth member to our team, but my usual go-to animal wrangler had a sudden infestation of spellfire lice and had to be admitted to the hospital isolation ward for as long as her horn spontaneously misfires. Yes, Trixie?”

Trixie lowered her hoof. “You don’t get a ‘sudden’ infestation of spellfire lice. If you’re even minimally observant then the signs are there long before they become a problem.”

There was a low murmur from Crystal. “Sounds like somepony chickened out. Was the letter signed by his mom?” There was a chuckle from Broth and a giggle from Visi.

Terra harrumphed. “She seemed more than a little confused and embarrassed. Anyway, the crown apparently found a replacement who’ll be waiting at our first stop. I don’t know who it is, and I don’t like that, but I can’t complain much. This is supposed to be urgent and the Princess has been breathing down my neck in her urge to get us moving.”

Boiling Broth knocked on the table with a hoof, making the heaps of porcelain and cutlery jangle. “Well we’re underway now. Spill the beans, Terry. What’s the big rush?”

There was a general murmur of agreement while Terra held up a hoof and nodded. “All right, all right, hold your horses just a minute. It’s time but I have to fetch something.” She rose from her seat by the wall and climbed over Broth. Then she walked to the door adjoining this car to the next and disappeared through it for a while. When she returned she was carrying a bag in her teeth. She set the bag down on a seat next to Trixie before climbing back to her place, ignoring Broth’s protests and attempts to rise from his own seat.

“Trixie, would you kindly open the bag and display its contents for us all?”

She did as told and held the contents aloft: five square bundles wrapped in cloth and tied with string, and a crystal orb. The orb drew everypony’s attention: it seemed to be hollow for inside it there hovered a diamond-shaped shard apparently made of ice. It bobbed gently, one end pointed towards the center of the orb and the other almost touching the outer surface. No matter how Trixie rotated the orb the icy shard always pointed in the same general direction. Terra spoke after a moment.

“That is a tracking orb. It is homing in on a target. It’s our job to find the target and capture it. Alive.”

There were sounds of surprise, including a small one from Trixie. “Alive?!” The orb wobbled in her magic and she set it down in an empty bowl before she could lose all focus and drop it. Meanwhile everypony else was talking at once and asking questions. Terra held up her front hooves to silence her audience.

“Trixie, would you please distribute those packages? Take one for yourself as well. I don’t need one – the fifth is for our last member. They should include a dossier on our target as well as journals for you all.”

Trixie nodded and levitated the wrapped bundles around the table. Crystal Brightfeather grabbed hers with an almost manic speed and tore away the wrappings. Trixie had only managed to untie the cord securing hers by the time Crystal had opened the dossier and scanned it. That allowed her to catch the explosion of incredulity on the pegasus’ face as what she was reading sank in.

“Oh you have got to be pulling a leg!”

Trixie opened her own dossier and read the title:

She opened it to the first page. From the header it was apparent that she held in her hooves only a small section from the middle of a much larger document.

2:5: The Windigos

Trixie lowered the dossier so she could stare at Terra. She wasn’t alone in doing so. The large Earthen mare was being bombarded with disbelieving questions.

“Settle down everypony! This is perfectly serious. If you doubt me then just focus on this: The Princess herself, Princess Celestia, gave me that orb and told me that it was tracking a windigo! She told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted that specific windigo caught and brought in for study as quickly as possible!”

Broth shorted. “Windigoes are a hearths’ warming myth, and now you tell us the Princess seems to think there are several out there?”

Terra turned to him. “Where there’s one there could be more. As for the one: you’ve seen the signs of it in the news.”

Three faces lit with realisation but Trixie could only stare at her new colleagues in confusion. “What are you talking about? The Great – I mean, I would like an explanation!”

Visi Vidi turned to Trixie and bounced in her seat with youthful excitement as she explained. “Did you live in a cave this last month? Every magazine and newspaper has been screaming about the ‘little winter’! Snow in the middle of summer from Canterlot to Whinnypeg and beyond! An arrow-straight trail of ice and cold weather but with no rogue snowstorm to blame! Cloudsdale is stumped and the crown isn’t commenting! In fact—” She gasped. “—The Equestrian Enquirer interviewed ponies who swore they’d seen a windigo!”

Trixie raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Trixie must have missed this news due to her travels. When exactly did this take place?”

Crystal answered her. “About two weeks ago.”

Trixie fell silent. That would be about at the same time as her disastrous party performance. She didn’t have any opportunities to read the newspapers after that until just recently.

Crystal poked Visi in the side with a wing. “Well nopony sane believes anything the Enquirer sees fit to print anyway. So it must be windigos!” General laughter erupted and Trixie joined in, secretly glad she wasn’t pressed on the nature of the ‘cave’ she’d been occupying.

Terra upset the table again by knocking on it with a hoof in order to get everypony to quiet down. When she had their attention she cleared her throat. “Well it is true this once. A windigo popped up in the middle of Equestria and I can understand why the Princess wants to know more about it post haste. The regulars are busy elsewhere and calling them back would take months, so it’s up to our band of retirees and amateurs to pull this off. I’m not going to lie: it’s hazardous. But if you learn to do as I say when I say it then we’ll all return home a little wiser, a lot richer and with an adventure to tell the grandkids.”

Broth snorted. “Chasing a windigo? Might as well be wild geese, Terry.”

“If it bothers you that much then ignore that little detail until you have the evidence of your own eyes. This tracker points at something alive and our job is to secure that creature and bring it to a research station being built near the Crystal Empire. That’s where we’re headed by the way. We’ll recruit a couple dozen locals to act as general staff and maintain a base camp from which the six of us will do excursions in the hope of tracking down this beast.”

Trixie was so deep in her own thoughts that she half-mumbled her next question. She managed to pitch it in a lull in the conversation, so everypony else went quiet. “But... how do we capture a windigo? Just surviving a close encounter is the stuff of legends!”

Crystal nodded vigorously. “Those things are supposed to make a popsicle out of a pegasus in mid-flight if they get close enough!”

“You’re right, that’s something of a brain teaser. I’m glad I don’t have to figure that out, as it’s all there in the dossier. We’re going to pick up a very special crystalline cage and enough spare parts to construct another one if necessary. Just read the dossier, ponies. It should answer most of your questions. We’ll get down to specifics once I’ve seen everypony turn to the last page.”

Trixie did as told. Her eyes scanned the text quickly, picking out the highlights:

The windigo exists in some form or another in pony lore going back several thousand years. It has been called many things: winter wraith, herald of eternal ice, hatebringer and more. Accounts about its appearance, behaviour and capabilities are varied. This compendium strives to form a baseline hypothesis about the windigo, based on what the old legends agree upon the most. The physical appearance is often...

...powers including the ability to spread dissent and mistrust, macro-scale weather effects centered around cold and ice, and the ability to rob a pony of its bodily warmth if close enough. This ability is likely metaphorical in nature, more akin to some undead lifestealing than the literal removal of heat from a pony...

...The trio of leaders in the hearths’ warming tale are far from the only ponies of legend to fall prey to a windigo. Of note is that recovered documentation(1) from the founding days of Equestria indicated that none of the leaders of the old kingdoms seem to have survived the founding, leading this researcher to speculate that, unlike what the cheerful legend portrays, being subject to a windigo’s powers at close range is irreversibly fatal...

Trixie’s eyes bulged and she read the rest of the document with a sinking feeling. I almost wish we’d go after an ursa minor instead.

Broth nudged Terra and pointed a hoof at his own dossier. “Terry, this here line makes me queasy. It seems to think ‘pony’ is synonymous with ‘bait.”

Terra shrugged. “I’ll ask the animal wrangler if he or she is up to it. Otherwise I’ll do it. The only thing we know that attracts a windigo is a pony thinking dark thoughts, so... yeah. Apparently there’s this type of crystal that’s basically condensed hate, so the scholars Princess Celestia told to brief me all bet that it’s a really good windigo lure if a pony carries a piece.”

Silence resumed. Trixie scanned the document, line after line, page after page. After the summary came a mission proposal, essentially suggesting to go ahead with the methods of capture and protection mentioned in the report. She sighed and let her eyes unfocus, staring at nothing.

All of this was untested. For all they knew, the proposed wards and methods of capture could end up not working. Still, they had to try. Trixie had researched myths and legends since a good illusion-boosted story was a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. She knew several myths about windigos. Windigos, the legends said, appeared when the world was about to end.

On the other hoof, windigos in the stories usually stuck around. They didn’t zoom away like their tails were on fire. Equestria had been founded on the principles of friendship and it was an insignificant mental leap to assume that the windigos still found it unpalatable. As long as there was friendship in Equestria then the windigos would be held at bay. But that still left questions. Why had one appeared in the first place? What did its appearance signify? Was friendship weakening?

Trixie frowned. That wasn’t the only mystery. Tracking spells required close proximity to their target in order to enchant a crystal properly. Alternatively, one could use an object that had been manipulated by the target as a substitute for the crystal. The crystal in the orb could have been frozen by the windigo, or broken off from the creature itself. But that meant somepony had been close enough to the windigo to collect and preserve it before it evaporated. There seemed to be parts missing to this story. She aligned her eyes on the orb and watched the crystal inside it swaying gently from countering the motions of the train. The others had apparently also reached the end of the document. She could hear voices raised in argument but paid them no heed.

Perhaps she should excuse herself from the expedition. It was asking for orders of magnitude more trouble than she was used to dealing with. But doing so would leave her with no place to run and assassins on her trail. Also, she was admittedly curious. The mystery intrigued her. And being one of the only ponies in all of history to not only survive but to hunt and capture a windigo... That sounded really enticing. Trixie grinned her stage-grin.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your challenge!”

Trixie blinked, aware of a drop in the local noise level. Had she spoken out loud? She looked up to see the other ponies staring at her, Terra with a half happy, half amused expression.

Crystal snorted. “Are you mad? Do you really think we’re the best ponies for this kind of thing?”

A well-used instinct stirred, making Trixie tilt her head back and look down her nose at the pegasus. She kept it somewhat in check though. Now that she’d decided, there was a job to do and alienating her companions wasn’t going to help. “No we’re not. Were Trixie to meet a windigo? She, that is I, would flee for my life. But it doesn’t matter. We’re the ponies of the hour not because we’re capable but because we are available. This needs to be done and the sooner the better. When Equestria calls it will not find me wanting and I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, trust Terra Incognita to see us safely through this affair.”

There was a chuckle to the right of Trixie and Broth brought his hooves together in a slow applause. “How wonderfully matriotic of you. I haven’t heard speeches like that since I left the regular army.”

Trixie blushed but looked him squarely in the eye, daring him to disagree. Off to the side she heard Crystal whisper to Visi. “Was that a royal ‘us’? More like a royal ass.” A choked giggle escaped Visi’s lips. Trixie shot the two an icy glare. Inwardly she sighed. She’d have to ask Terra for advice on her job as morale officer.

She cleared her throat and turned to Terra. “Look, I mean it. I’m with you. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Terra nodded at her. “Thank you, Trixie.” Then she turned to the pegasi. “You two have until this morning, when we arrive in the Crystal Empire, to make up your minds. Talk to me and I’ll do my best to calm your fears. I restate that you have my word: I believe we can do this without getting hurt.”

A sullen quiet settled over the table, broken by all the items on the table being jostled as the train lurched. Visi was fiddling with the journal she’d been given and waved it in the air. “What are these for?”

Terra drew a deep breath before launching into her explanation. “We’re technically a scientific expedition. It’s part of tradition that the members of the main expeditionary team all write a journal of their experiences. It increases the scientific value of this undertaking, you see. They’ll be confidential, at least for a while, but I still wouldn’t write my darkest secrets in them. Once the expedition as a whole becomes declassified you’re free to do as you see fit with them. You could publish them if you wanted. Sometimes that’s a nice extra source of income. In any case, copies will be distributed to the universities.”

Visi snickered and set her journal aside. “Dear diary, today was cold. The end.”

The meeting ended. Terra showed Trixie to the next car, filled with bunk beds, and told her to pick any unoccupied bunk she wanted. That night Trixie learned something important: she couldn’t sleep in a moving vehicle.

Trixie stifled a yawn and stepped out of the train onto the platform of the Crystal Empire’s station (current, new one expected to open next year). Celestia’s sun beat down heavily on her back, but the air carried with it the sharp caress of ice. Five ponies were conversing in front of her and she recognized Terra’s imposing bulk even through her insomnia-induced haze. She walked up to the group apparently just as they were finishing a discussion. Terra turned to her and smiled though to Trixie it looked forced. She returned an equally artificial grin.

“Good morning, Trixie! Please welcome our sixth member.” Terra backed away slightly to reveal a unicorn stallion previously hidden from Trixie’s view. A light purple coat and a mane caught somewhere between yellow and green depending on the ambient light. And a goatee, Trixie noted. The stallion was a bit larger than her and was obviously very well-groomed: the medium-length coat fell in waves down his neck and shoulders in an image of romantic desirability so cliché it had to be intentional. His tail was similarly arranged in a careful state of reckless freedom. The cutiemark he displayed sealed the deal: two crossed champagne flutes. Trixie felt instant antipathy.

“Mr. Life, meet Trixie, our morale officer, repair pony and pyrotechnician. Trixie, meet High Life of house Blueblood, our animal wrangler.”

Trixie could feel her false smile wither and die, just as she could see her leg, outstretched in polite greeting, curl and withdraw.

Dear, sweet Luna, moon and stars above. You have got to be kidding me.