Chapter Five:
Trixie Saves the Expedition from Certain Doom
Day 5
Yesterday was interesting. A snow storm reached us in the early twilight hours, worsening our travelling conditions. Terra pushed us almost past breaking point as we travelled for about four hours but it was worth it. We exited the storm and reached the base of the Crystal Mountains. The cold here is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced and Terra made sure we got to experience it firsthoof. ‘Hypothermia 101’ my bottom. I can recognize a hazing ritual when I’m subjected to one. We set up camp in the border zone between the mountains and the hills. Then Terra instructed the crystal ponies to gather and melt snow. Two hours later the stage was set: one tub of cold water, six tubs of warm water and lots of warm towels. With Terra in the lead we all took turns immersing ourselves in the cold water. Then, still dripping wet, she told us to follow her. She started walking towards the mountains.
The cold hit Trixie like a physical force. I have experienced Equestrian winter nights with a wet coat, especially once when I fell through the thin ice of a brook I’d misjudged as being traversable, but this was something else entirely. The cold was more pain than anything else. Terra had doused herself too, and there was ice forming on her coat after only minutes’ exposure to the air, but she led us onwards and lectured to us about the effects of cold upon the pony physique almost as if she didn’t notice. There was only the merest hint of strain in her voice. High Life on the other hoof wailed and whimpered constantly. The pegasi were almost as vocal even though they are supposed to be more resistant to cold but they had the additional disadvantage of a much larger bodily surface area thanks to their wings. The steady breeze from the mountains removed any advantage they had.
It didn’t take long for Terra’s lectures to manifest in us. She must have timed the entire ordeal carefully because she turned back towards the camp only moments before Trixie’s body became numb. The pain was gone but Trixie was shaking so uncontrollably that she had great trouble standing. Then every movement became slow. There was strength in Trixie’s legs but they still refused to move at more than a snail’s pace. Only the added incentive of the steaming bath waiting for her allowed her to speed up into a half-hearted jog. The discomfort was gone and everything felt pleasantly removed. That scared Trixie greatly afterwards, knowing that she was in the process of freezing to death but no longer having the energy to worry.
The water in the tubs waiting for us could not have been more than lukewarm at best yet it felt scalding hot. The stinging pain returned with a vengeance but now it came with a blissful quickening of body and mind. With Trixie’s senses returned to her she became aware of the crystal ponies all looking at us and giggling. Terra explained that pegasi, who bragged about their temperature resilience, had nothing compared to the crystalline. At her signal they carried forward one of their own and set her down in front of us. The crystal pony was grinning at us and her body excepting her neck and head was completely encased in ice. She’d taken a dip in the cold water just after we’d left and then she’d let the ice settle. Her fellow crystalline had added to the ice by pouring cold water over her. She chatted jovially with us while we lay in the tubs and regained our body heat.
This was a very sharp lesson. The crystalline are in their element, having long ago adapted to the extreme cold. We are just visiting. Terra went on to instruct us on what to do if we noticed ourselves or somepony else displaying signs of hypothermia. After that we rose from the tubs and were towelled dry. A little magic from High Life and I ensured that not even a hint of damp remained on anypony. Strangely enough the entire ordeal proved to be invigorating. The aches from slogging through the snowstorm were mostly gone. My sense of touch was on overdrive, probably due to the overstimulation the nerves endured from the cooling and warming I’d endured. It seemed to affect Visi the worst of all. She’s almost never still even when tired but right then she couldn’t do it to save her life. High Life tried to calm her down but she jumped into the air from his merest touch. Trixie found it amusing.
Terra announced that we had earned some rest so we settled down for an evening of relaxation. The Great and Powerful Trixie entertained her companions with some card tricks while Broth was cooking dinner. Once food was served we all chatted. Even High Life was cordial enough though he and Visi went off somewhere pretty soon. The rest of the evening passed pleasantly enough, marred only by Crystal’s reluctance to chat with me. I asked her about her hair again and judging by the look she gave me it is a touchy subject. After that we didn’t exchange further words. By the time the sun was setting the events of the day were extracting their toll upon us all and we crawled into our tent to sleep.
We only became aware this morning that neither High Life nor Visi had slept in the tent with us. Terra was visibly worried when she told us to split up and search for them. It didn’t last long; Crystal took to the air and shouted to us almost immediately. That’s when we found out some of what High Life had brought with him in his personal weight allotment: a small two-pony tent, enchanted for privacy, and some heating gems. Visi was clearly embarrassed at being caught in his company but High Life merely grinned smugly at the rest of us and told us we were jealous. Terra rolled her eyes and shrugged at their antics before instructing us to break camp. News of the event spread quickly to the crystal ponies after which Visi was the bashful center of attention for the rest of the day.
Terra’s chosen route takes us up a comparatively gentle mountain slope next to one of the lowest peaks of the Crystal Mountains. She calls it the easiest route but, again, that’s relative. We’re pulling wagons up the side of a mountain. Because of the dangers of coats damp from sweat the going is very slow. We frequently stand aside and let the crystal ponies pull the wagons alone and honestly that’s when we cover the most ground. In case you, Privileged Future Reader, are wondering why we simply didn’t get enough pegasi and enchanted chariots to fly the entire expedition over the mountains: the winds here are fierce and unpredictable. Both the pegasi we have with us have tried to fly in the mountain air and Visi nearly smacked into rock after only a minute. Crystal, despite not being in good shape, manages to stay aloft for far longer but eventually the cold and the unpredictable crosswinds become too much for her and she has to land. A pegasus-pulled skycart would certainly crash. Terra mentioned that she’s got special flight suits packed that will keep the pegasi warm but they’re restrictive and would make flying in the mountains much more dangerous. They’ll be used once we’re on the glacier.
The cold affects us non-pegasi too. My coat has grown enough that normally I’d visit a stylist to have it trimmed due to the uncomfortable warmth, even in winter, but out here I’m bundling all the blankets I can find on top of me. My legs are wrapped in three layers of rags. Terra promises that it will get marginally warmer once we reach the Crystal Glacier but right now the double punch of intense cold and thinning air is pure murder.
After twelve hours of laboring we’ve finally set up a meager camp in the shadow of a cliff. The wind is a constant, low moaning sound. The view is spectacular and Terra says we’d easily see the spires of Crystal City if the side of the mountain didn’t block the view. Some of the smaller outlier towns of greater Cloudsdale are just about visible if you’ve got good eyes and the air isn’t too hazy and now that darkness has fallen we see the lights of Vanhoover.
Our entertainment for tonight is to huddle in our tent and enjoy the luxury of being warm without being wrapped in cloth. Trixie has told an entertaining story but had to keep the visual effects to a minimum. Hornwalking (still on only two hooves) is very draining and I might have paid less attention to it than I should have. High Life and Visi are ignoring each other and nopony feels much like talking. Trixie will go to sleep now.
******
Terra shouted for the convoy to stop and called for Trixie to join him at the front. Trixie nodded to her crystalline companions and unhitched from her wagon. When she reached Terra the large earthen was staring up and to the right at the slope ahead.
“Trixie, could you fire a rocket at the middle of that field of snow there? Make a big bang as close to the surface as possible.”
Trixie followed Terra’s eyes but all she saw was a smooth and featureless expanse of white a couple kilometers away, sparkling in the sun. She shrugged and walked back to her wagon. Soon she’d returned to the front of the convoy together with jars of chemicals which she set down on the ground in a row. She shed two of the three coats on her back, spreading them on the ice in front of the row of jars before sitting down on them. Thus somewhat isolated from the cold ground she took a deep breath and concentrated. First she let go of the telekinesis of her hornwalking. Then she concentrated on the jars. Their lids unscrewed and some of the ingredients from each floated into the air and mixed unevenly into two masses. These floating blobs of putty-like matter joined and elongated until the entire mass was vaguely teardrop shaped. A grunt from Trixie heralded the formation of a translucent shell of magic around the chemicals.
She opened her eyes and looked around her. Several curious crystal ponies as well as Boiling Broth had wandered up to her and were watching her with curiosity. Trixie took a deep breath and barked out an order. “Stand back, everypony! The Great and Powerful Trixie shall ignite the rocket next!” She winced at unwittingly using her stage name but she was obeyed. She counted down from five in a clear voice and at the count of zero she let a spark fly from her horn to the back of the rocket. It shot away with a great hissing and roaring noise. All eyes were fixed on the magically guided rocket as it accelerated towards its goal.
Trixie had used a bit too much propellant, making the rocket impact the actual snow before the second mixture ignited, but in the end it didn’t matter much. She’d guided it to the exact spot that Terra had indicated. A sharp crack of thunder echoed among the mountains but the rumbling echo of it was soon eclipsed by another rumble, generated by the gargantuan masses of snow set in motion by Trixie’s disrupting missile. She gaped and stared wide-eyed at the moving mountainside in front of her. After a moment she felt a large hoof pat her shoulder.
Terra was smiling at her. “Well done, Trixie. It’s good to know we won’t have to fear avalanches as much with you around. You and High Life are up next. There’s going to be massive drifts of loose snow left behind by the avalanche and the wagons will just skid sideways if we try to go over. Use your telekinesis and dig a path through to the other side of the avalanche zone.”
Trixie nodded, picked up her two coats, stashed the jars of chemicals and walked forward past the convoy up to the edge of the avalanche where High Life was already working. Most of the snow had settled again but the air was hazy with minute ice crystals, making her eyes sting. She fired up her horn and found that the snow shifted easily enough when gripped by her telekinesis.
High Life’s voice startled her. “You’re quite good with fireworks.”
A quick glance sideways failed to catch High Life looking at her. The stallion seemed to be concentrating only on the task at hoof. Trixie returned her focus to the snow in front of her.
“Do you often use fireworks in your performances?”
This time Trixie turned her head to glare at High Life but he was still not looking at her. “It is part of Trixie’s standard repertoire, yes. What of it?” She scooped a large mass of snow in her telekinesis and sent it scattering downslope.
“There aren’t many ponies that mix real and magical fireworks, are there?”
“No. As a matter of fact Trixie has never heard of anypony else. It is part of her unique talen—” Trixie’s eyes flew open and she stared straight ahead.
“I see. It’s just that I’ve heard stories about of a showpony who incorporates fireworks into her magic show. Some relatives of mine had hired her for a birthday party. It was an interesting show, I’ve been told. That pony had a stage name... What was that you called yourself back there when you fired the rocket? The Great and Powerful Trixie? I could swear that’s what they said she was called.”
Trixie noted that they were out of sight of the convoy. Terra didn’t want to move forward before Trixie and High Life had returned. She also noted that High Life was to her right, between the peak of the mountain and her. To Trixie’s left was a steadily steepening downslope that ended in a vertical drop of untold height. She turned her body to face High Life. “Trixie demands to know what you want.”
High Life turned to her and raised his eyebrows in mock confusion, smiling all the time. “I just want to know if that was you. That’s all.”
There was a short pause before she answered. “Yes. It was Trixie. What of it?”
He simply shook his head while smiling. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Now, we have a path to clear, yes?” His horn had never stopped glowing but now he focused back on the task of moving snow, doubling the light it shed.
Trixie stared at him for a moment before letting her horn flare to life. She shoved a large mass of snow onto the downward slope while seething inwardly with worry.
Clearing a path took almost two hours. Trixie’s nerves were completely spent by the time the task was complete. She rushed back to her wagon, breathing in the freezing mountain air in an attempt to calm herself. The crystal ponies assigned to her looked at her strangely but didn’t comment. Returning to the mentally demanding task of maintaining the hornwalk was a welcome distraction and she added a third hoof to it for good measure. Even the sudden stumbling was lifting her mood.
When Terra signalled to halt for the day she felt the consequences. Her legs were issuing only muted complaints in the form of a dull aching. Her head, on the other hoof, was splitting. Spots danced across her vision. Sounds and voices reached her as if filtered through a sheet of cotton. All signs of magic overuse. She plopped down at the communal dinner and ate her soup in silence, ignoring the others – even ignoring High Life – until she felt a hoof poke her. She turned to look up at Terra’s concerned face.
“Trixie, have you been overdoing the hornwalking?”
Trixie shrugged. “M’be. ‘Dded a third h’f.” She blinked and worked her jaw in confusion.
“What’s the matter, Trixie?”
“Sorr’ I’m h’ving trouble hear’ng mysel’.” She carefully felt her ears but they appeared completely normal. Terra was nodding in apparent understanding.
“We’ve gained quite a bit of altitude today. Try swallowing a couple times to even out the pressure.”
Trixie did as told. There was a loud pop on her third swallow and she was suddenly assaulted with a myriad of small sounds. The gentle crackling of the coal under the pot, the soup itself in the pot bubbling gently, the brush of fabrics against numerous fur coats. Visi’s wings rustling as they shifted. Then her headache intensified and she whimpered while cradling her forehead in her hooves. She heard Terra murmur.
“You need to be careful with the hornwalk, Trixie. That together with the clearing of snow you did today can easily be too much for an inexperienced unicorn.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie is no ordinary inexperienced unic— oooh...”
There was an amused snort from Terra. “Be that as it may. Broth? Could you give Trixie something for the pain?”
Trixie glanced up. Broth had gone strangely still though he was still smiling. The earthen stallion pulled open a bag by his side and took out a bundle of oiled paper. Unwrapping the bundle revealed a large clump of dark green mass apparently made from ground leaves. Broth separated out a small bit and rolled it into a pea-sized ball which he held out to Trixie.
“Chew on this. Don’t swallow it. Spit it out when the pain or the taste is gone, whichever comes first.”
Trixie looked at the offered ball. Then she looked up at Broth’s face. His eyes were nervous although he was smiling as widely as before. Trixie’s eyes landed on Broth’s green-stained teeth before quickly refocusing on the ball. She took it gently in her magic – fighting a sharp stab of pain from her horn in the process – and popped it in her mouth. Then she looked at Terra. The earthen mare was looking at Broth with a strange combination of tired worry and hints of weary disapproval.
Trixie chewed. The ball did indeed seem to be ground plant leaves of some kind, mixed with mild spices. It was far from unpleasant. The migraine relented almost instantly, making her sigh with relief.
“Trixie thanks you. She feels better already. What is this?”
Broth looked down at the gently boiling pot of soup and picked up a ladle with his forelegs in order to stir it. He answered Trixie with a distracted air. “It’s called swamp sugarbeet. Doesn’t grow in Equestria. It’s a very powerful painkiller.”
Trixie thought about this, and Broth’s stained teeth, for the rest of the evening.
******
Day 11
Trixie was asked to trigger two avalanches today. The first one was loud enough to trigger secondary avalanches on the opposite side of the pass. Terra explains that we’re approaching the start of the glacier and should spot it any time now. The going is a bit faster now, in part because we’re as high as we need to be and also because we’re getting accustomed to the thinner air up here. We still have the majority of the crystal mountains to cross but soon we’ll be able to travel on the relatively smooth surface of the glacier. On another note, Trixie is now hornwalking on all four hooves! Adding the fourth felt like a relief, actually, as Trixie’s telekinesis gained symmetry. Trixie’s companions now look like wild mountain ponies, their fur is so long and shaggy. The Generous and Charitable Trixie’s brush is in very high demand and she asks very little in return.
Visi and Crystal are the most frequent borrowers. They hadn’t anticipated the need to let their coats grow longer and the additional drag this would impose. Brushing helps – or so Trixie is told. Crystal seems to warm up to Trixie as time goes by as by now she’s polite and carries a conversation. I still wonder what gave her such a terrible first impression.
Trixie is rambling again. The extra long coat means that Trixie is able to keep warm with only one layer of clothing now. Terra is still serving us all a dose of the growth potion every morning. She’ll be content when we no longer need clothing. Trixie wonders what kind of abominable freak of nature she’ll resemble by then.
Day 12
An interesting revelation took place during supper tonight. Visi, normally so quiet, became engaged in an animated discussion with Terra. They both waxed nostalgic about their home country, Roam. We were entertained by multiple stories about that ancient land. Trixie had been unaware that it used to be populated by minotaurs and that ponies had migrated to that place only less than a thousand years ago when the minotaurs suddenly disappeared. Anyhow, it came to light that both Visi and Terra are related to Roaman nobility! Visi is from house Vici, famous for their generals, and house Incognita, though small, even has ties to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!
High Life stated that it was only natural such a group would be having a summit meeting. We all groaned, Crystal most of all. I think she has a problem with nobility. That might explain her initially cool attitude towards Trixie. High Life tried to goad Trixie into an argument by bringing up the Bluebloods’ claim of being descendants of Princess Platinum whereas the Lulamoons were ennobled by Princess Luna and are thus a much younger house. Trixie countered by noting that yes, she’d rather be ennobled by the misunderstood Nightmare Moon than by an egomaniacal tyrant and speciesist.
******
A tremendous crack shook the air and made the icy ground tremble. Trixie and the three crystal ponies by her side all stumbled to a bewildered halt. In the wake of the massive noise could be heard several additional booms and crashes as if a truly huge amount of earth was moving. Trixie looked fearfully up on the slope to her right but the snow there lay unmoving. Then one of the crystalline shouted and pointed a hoof down into the valley. It was an avalanche, yes, but instead of snow it consisted of water and ice and instead of racing down a mountainside it was thundering down the bottom of the valley, coming into view from behind the curve of the mountain. It travelled with a ferocity unmatched by the avalanches Trixie had managed to trigger. The air above it misted with crystals of fine ice and as the head of the flood of ice passed the convoy, maybe five hundred meters down, it shook the mountain hard enough to make the wagons rattle their cargo. Terra’s call for a halt was relayed soon after and she quickly gathered the other ponies. She was grinning widely.
“Leave the wagons to the crystal ponies and follow me.”
She led them single-file further along the side of the mountain. Ten minutes later she no longer had to explain what she wanted the others to see: A massive wall of ice had appeared from behind the curve of the mountain. It stood so tall it nearly reached from the bottom of the valley all the way up to where the group was. The valley was filled with gigantic chunks of ice so big that they would be called mountains of their own if taken out of their context. Sounds of cracking, splintering and rumbling emanated constantly, set to a backdrop of rushing water.
“This is Wintergate Valley and that is the start of the Crystal Glacier. What we heard back then was part of its face breaking loose and falling down, creating the avalanche that passed us. In the times of the Old Kingdoms this was part of Earthen territories and back then this was called Pinewood Pass. There’s an ancient, ruined watchtower still standing on the mountainside a couple days’ travel from here called Pinewood Tower, and that is where our base camp will be.”
Terra seemed on the verge to say something else when a high-pitched voice interrupted her. “Miss Incognita, what is that sound?”
Terra turned to Visi, who had spoken, and raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean the crashing noises? The ice is still settling.”
Visi rustled her wings rapidly as she shook her head. “No, I mean the tinny howling. Is it the wind?”
Trixie frowned in confusion and strained her ears. Then she heard it: there was indeed a long, low and slightly metallic sound reverberating through the air. She looked at Terra and saw how the earthen pony’s eyes darted back and forth. Terra looked alarmed for the first time ever.
“That’s rimewolves.”