Chapter Eleven:
The Great and Powerful Trixie Spearheads the Revolution
Somepony had washed Terra’s body. The great Earthen was laid out on a stone slab, all of her body except her face covered by a white sheet. Her large frame and bushy coat gave the impression that a funeral was being held for a small, cyan bear. The castle chapel was small and dark, lit only by two magic globes hovering below the ceiling. All furniture not bolted to the floor had long since been removed, likely for use as firewood. It was a desolate, somber room and fit Trixie’s mood perfectly.
Terra’s foreleg stuck out from the side of the sheet covering her and Clover was stroking it slowly. Spells or no, sharing a head meant that emotions this strong bled over. It seemed Trixie’s cavalier attitude concerning her own continued existence did not extend to that of her companions: she’d retreated into her own head to mourn, leaving Clover to experience a strange feeling of loss and regret aimed at a pony she’d never met.
Hoofsteps echoed behind Clover, slowing down and stopping as they drew near. Electrum’s voice sounded hesitant. “Trixie?”
Clover shook her head. “She’s mourning.”
There was silence for a while. “I spoke to the servants. This pony was the only one they found.”
Clover nodded. “That gives us hope that the rest of Trixie’s companions are alive. This also improves our chances of surviving if we manage to get out of here.”
“‘When’, Clover. It’s not a matter of ‘if’.”
Clover’s ears perked up and she turned around to look at Electrum who returned the gaze with a startled expression. “Are those tears yours?”
“No, they are Trixie’s.” Mostly. “You have a plan?”
A serene expression bloomed on Electrum’s face. “I have spent the last fifty lives or so making escape plans, Clover. I’ve tried to escape fourteen times before now only for the next me to be told stories of my failure from the servants.”
“Hold on a bit. What servants?”
Electrum shrugged. “A couple of the most loyal servants and their families remained behind. Mother ‘rewarded’ them by taking their memories and using amniomorphic magic to recreate them. They generally don’t last long before they beg Furmici to blank their minds. Mother doesn’t mind as long as they are made to love her.”
She frowned. “I envy them, you know? I asked Furmici to blank my mind and make me into one of her drones once when all of this became too much and I saw no way out. The servants look so content and I was afraid because my love of Mother was ending. When Mother found out she was furious. She chose to interpret it as some kind of plot by Furmici to undermine her. Since then Nana refuses to do that for me... and... I can’t actually ask it of her after what Mother did to her as punishment.”
Clover nodded and turned around to regard the body in front of her. “I may be clever but you definitely have the advantage of time. We’ll enact this plan of yours but I’d like a bit of time to somehow compensate Trixie for her help.”
“Um, wouldn’t she be the one indebted to us since we saved her life?”
“No.” Clover shook her head. “The only reason she’s down here is because of us. Well, your mother to be specific.”
This made Electrum widen her eyes. She sat down and stared at Clover’s (and Trixie’s) neck. “What do you mean?”
“How much do you know about windigos?”
“Nothing, really. They’re some kind of elemental spirit that cause ponies to argue and fight among each other before trapping them in ice.”
Clover shook her head. “Everything you just said is wrong. First, they are animals native to Tartarus. The demons there sometimes use windigos as part of the punishment for especially cold-hearted creatures. If you’ve let anger or hate dominate your life then chances are you’ll wake up in Tartarus with a windigo breathing down your neck. It’s true that they feed on negative emotions but the chilling effect is meant to stoke these emotions in the affected pony. They can’t die from the cold in Tartarus, you see. The windigos are attracted to wrathful or hateful ponies and goad them into ever higher levels of negative emotions by having them suffer extreme colds that would instantly kill any still living pony.”
“What?! But why are they here?”
“Somepony, most likely a unicorn specialising in demonic magic, summoned them to Equestria and let them run loose. This was before I became Master Starswirl’s apprentice but he told me of the story. He never found out who did it, always being at least one pace behind his elusive quarry, and after a while he came to suspect that the demonologist was receiving assistance from the royal throne in his or her attempts to evade justice.”
“Why would any of the royal family help a demonologist?” Electrum’s voice was caught between consternation and worry.
“Your mother, her father and his father all have one thing in common, Electrum. Their world view. That earth ponies and pegasi had kingdoms rivalling that of Unicornia always raised their ire for they all considered it unnatural and a mockery of the true order of things. It’s speciesist claptrap for the courts, of course, but they believed it just as your mother still does. Now, consider the modus operandi of the windigos: making a huge snowstorm and freezing the ground. Three guesses which two pony tribes are initially hit the hardest? Of course the windigos are attracted by negative emotions and go wherever such can be found but those are very easy to generate on a national level. Infuriate the earthen by blaming the pegasi for the snowstorms and the frozen ground and rile the pegasi by hinting that the earthen are hiding food in order to weaken Pegasopolis. Then sit back and watch them tear each other apart while the windigos feast.”
“But...”
Clover held up a hoof. “Yes, but. It turns out that speciesist propaganda generates an amazing amount of negative emotions, the strongest source of which is a pony who’s sat in her father’s lap and listened to all the lies he’s spouted. Platinum is motivated by her envy and hate towards what she perceives as lesser beings. And you say she’s learned how to sense love like a changeling? Well, the prerequisite for that... is an inability to feel love. The windigos are drawn to here, to her, like moths to a flame, Electrum. Were she gone then they’d most likely scatter, each striking out in a random direction in search of strong sources of hate... or they’d go back to Tartarus in search of sustenance. There’s another thing to consider as well. Summoned beings tend to disappear back to their places of origin when their controllers die. It’s possible that these windigos don’t follow that rule anymore but there shouldn’t be anywhere close to their current numbers if whoever commanded them was dead.”
Electrum was stunned. She stood and started pacing around the small chapel. She raised her voice a bit and spoke without turning towards Clover. “You are serious about this? Mother summoned the windigos?”
“Yes. Master Starswirl and I both researched them extensively. Either she summoned them or somepony did it for her and bound them to her. The most damning evidence is that we have plenty of spells that can banish or trap windigos – even some that can bind them to our will – but all our offers to use them were struck down. Whenever we’d suggest it there would be some dubious sighting of a demonologist and we’d be sent out on a wild goose chase. ‘Attack the head of the snake, Starswirl!’ I heard your grandfather shout once. ‘Don’t waste precious time by snapping at its tail!’ So yes, Master Starswirl was convinced the demonologist was affiliated with royalty and I am now more certain than ever that she is royalty.”
Silence descended. For a long while nopony said anything. Electrum paced back and forth while Clover / Trixie kept her gaze on the white sheet in front of her. Then Electrum stopped. She spoke with a breathless tone. “All right. In the end I suppose it’s almost better this way. Our time is running out, Clover... Trixie. Meet me in Queen Furmici’s room when you’re ready to leave.”
Electrum left. Clover lingered behind for a while longer. Eventually a group of hoofbeats disturbed her and she turned around to see six ponies filing into the chapel in pairs, a wooden board carried between them. They said nothing and their faces were neutral as they walked forward, ignoring Clover who was staring at their heavy-lidded and green-tinted eyes. The procession stopped by the stone slab holding Terra’s corpse. Gentle hooves wrapped the deceased in the white sheet and guided it onto the board.
Clover felt Trixie seize control over her throat as the group passed on their way out. “What will you do with the body?”
The procession stopped as a single unit and the closer one of the front ponies turned his head, looking at Trixie with his eyes but not really seeing her. “The departed will be cremated and the ashes scattered over the fields as Queen Platinum has ordained for all funerals.” The stallion’s voice was dreamy. The procession continued after a moment when Trixie didn’t say anything more.
Clover decided to nudge things along a bit. She rose to her hooves and walked out of the chapel. Trixie, I am sorry for your loss. Did you know her well?
No. Not really. But she made an impression upon Trixie during the short time we were acquainted. Trixie doesn’t know what will happen to the expedition now that she’s gone.
Thinking a conversation always felt weird to Clover and she quickly succumbed to the temptation to simply murmur instead. “How about we summon that windigo and bind it to you? That way she won’t have died in vain.”
That’s a great idea. Oh! Did you find Trixie’s cape? She was wearing it when she fell.
“I don’t know. Could you picture it for me?” A slight lowering of the spell keeping Clover’s and Trixie’s memories separate allowed the image to appear in Clover’s mind. She fired up her horn with a locator spell and felt a tugging in her legs. A short while later she was trotting into Princess Electrum’s quarters. A familiar piece of cloth with a stars-and-moons theme was draped over the back of a chair. There was a tinkling noise as Clover picked it up with her magic.
Uh oh. I guess the orb wasn’t enchanted with durability spells. There’s an enchanted pocket. It’s probably filled with sharp bits of glass now.
Clover upended the cape and shook it, causing shards of glass to rain from it, while Trixie explained in her head. This used to carry a crys— oh! A large, multi-faceted crystal dropped from the cape and landed among the shards. I guess the ice is magically preserved. With luck we can reassemble the orb. It’s enchanted to track the windigo we want. Clover didn’t respond. She prodded the crystal with a hoof before lifting it with her magic.
“Trixie, this isn’t ice. But the enchantment is intact. We don’t really need to repair the orb: I can easily find your windigo with this.” She frowned. “There’s something odd about the finding spell though. Why would a windigo value something like this..? It doesn’t matter. Let’s go to my quarters.” She donned the (in her opinion rather tasteless) cape, pocketed the crystal and left.
Clover felt Trixie take over once she’d entered her quarters. Trixie looked around a bit before focusing on the table and the shelves. She approached the table and poked at one of the books stacked on it, only to have the pages fall out of it and disintegrate. “Ah!”
These books were left behind as non-essential. The preservation enchantments have probably faded from most of them but if we’re lucky there could be one or two that you could take as a partial thanks for helping us. Could we sort through them later? I’d like to find your windigo first.
Trixie looked at the dust cloud she’d created a moment before. Then she nodded. “What do I need to do?”
There is a magic pattern that will bind the windigo to you but it won’t hold the windigo during the process. That’s why I will teach you how to cast a spell that creates a magic ward. It creates a circle that draws into and confines within it anything you specify. It’s fairly weak and easily broken but it will give us all the time we need for the binding ritual.
“Show me.”
******
The table with all the books had been dragged off to the side. The tracking crystal now lay on the floor, surrounded by a green circle from which lines traced mystic figures with many sharp angles before converging on another circle in which Trixie sat and listened to Clover’s instructions.
Everything is ready. Remember: the ward is weak but more than enough for this task. Don’t rush through the binding ritual in panic.
Trixie nodded and charged her horn, focusing on the spell creating the ward. A ring of glowing mist appeared around the crystal, concentric with the green circle and hovering at ankle-height above the floor. She licked her lips and smiled slightly before charging her horn again. This spell required more energy than the last, making Trixie emit a small grunt from the effort. When the spell caught it shot an arc of blue lightning from her horn to a point just above the crystal. The lightning gathered into a single sizzling dot of brilliant light. A noise reminiscent of cloth being torn apart sounded as the dot became a vertical line. Then it exploded outwards in a flash before fading away, leaving behind the ghostly form of a windigo.
The windigo’s confusion lasted for less than a second. Its two glowing eyes focused on Trixie and its maw opened to shriek with unearthly fury. A strange brittle grinding noise heralded the room temperature dropping below freezing, making Trixie’s breath steam and frost bloom everywhere. Trixie bit her tongue in fear but managed to follow Clover’s mentally whispered commands. Her horn glowed for a third time as she fed power directly to the pattern she’d drawn on the floor. It lit with a yellow glow. Trixie drew a deep breath.
“Dhe Greadh and Powelful Drixie...”
Stop! You bit your tongue! You need to pronounce very carefully or the binding becomes unreliable! Heal yourself quickly!
The windigo was thrashing inside the circular ward and the glowing mist was already fading. Trixie sobbed out of fear but still had enough strength of will to cast her healing spell on herself. She felt a prickling sensation on her tongue that seemed to go on forever in the breathless terror of the moment. The windigo roared again and the crinkling, grinding noise intensified. A layer of ice already covered the books on the table. Trixie swallowed and took a shuddering breath.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie binds thee to her will! By magic and ritual be chained! The circle is unbroken, as unbroken are your bonds! Submit! Submit!! Submit!!!”
The windigo stopped its struggling and stared straight at Trixie... and the mist of the ward dissolved. Pony and demonic creature stared at each other without moving. Then Trixie’s mouth twitched into a relieved, incredulous grin. “It worked?!”
Well done. Please be a responsible pet owner! A happy pet is an obedient pet!
Trixie rolled her eyes and pouted. “Clover? Leave the humour to the professionals. You’re likely to injure somepony. So is this really the one we’re looking for?”
Yes it is. If you have any doubt left then try commanding it to inhabit the crystal. If it already is familiar with it then the windigo should do so readily. Make your command into a standing order.
“All right... Windigo! You will rest inside that crystal when not carrying out any of Trixie’s commands. Go there now!”
The ghostly equine shape brayed once before appearing to shrink and dive into the crystal resting in its circle. A soft blue glow enveloped the clear prism. Trixie grabbed hold of it with her magic, bringing it close for inspection.
“That’s it?”
That’s it. Disappointed?
Trixie placed the crystal in the pocket of her cape. “No... well... Trixie and her companions travelled so far and endured so much for this. Terra is dead... It feels somehow like this last bit was too easy.”
Keep spouting stuff like that and I’m sure the universe will take notice. Anyhow, I think I know of a book that is both a suitable reward for you and likely to be intact.
Moments later Trixie pulled a large tome out from one of the shelves. It was covered in dust but was otherwise in remarkably pristine condition. She blew gently on its cover, trying to discern its title.
This compendium was written by Master Starswirl early in his career. This is a transcription of the original. It saw almost no use since he was seldom personally called upon to cast these spells. Though I’ll wager they’ll be your bread and butter!
The pages were in excellent condition, so Trixie dared using her leg to wipe the grime off the covers. She scanned the title and broke into an instant grin.
“A Selection of Spells for Celebration and Ceremony by Starswirl the Bearded. The Great and Powerful Trixie has never heard of this work before!”
Unsurprising... I doubt anypony bothered to carry such a useless book with them into the exodus with their entire civilisation crumbling behind them. So will you accept it?
“Yes! This is great! Thank you!”
Great. It’s time to meet with Ellie then.
******
The cellar vault was crowded. About a dozen ponies mingled with the six changelings among the pods. Trixie stood on top of the flight of stairs leading down to the floor and looked uncertainly around before spotting Princess Electrum. The princess was beckoning her over, so she descended the stairs and gingerly moved through the crowd, noting the green-tinted eyes of the other ponies. Electrum smiled at her.
“Hello, Trixie... Clover... did you do all you wanted to?”
Trixie nodded and brought out her book and crystal from the pocket in her cape, waving them in her magic before stashing them again. “Yes. Trixie is ready to leave now.”
“That’s great. Um...” Electrum glanced away sheepishly. “Could I speak to Clover for a moment?”
Trixie nodded again and did the mental equivalent of stepping away from the steering wheel. Clover tilted her head. “What is it, Ellie?”
Princess Electrum gestured to the pods. “Clover, I want you to pick a body. It’s high time Trixie gets the privacy of her own head restored, don’t you think?”
The suggestion startled Clover and she blinked dazedly at the pods. “But... don’t they belong to somepony?”
“They belong to whomever Mother chooses to ‘remind’ them with. In any case, they’ll never be used once we’re gone.”
Clover raised both eyebrows and looked at Electrum with her head tilted. “Perhaps you better explain this plan of yours now.”
Electrum waved a hoof at Princess Furmici before answering. “The plan is simple. Furmici knows a travel spell that can pierce Mother’s shield. Changeling magic excels at sneaking into and out of places and minds, you see. She’ll cast it on us and that will be our ticket to the surface of the glacier.” Then she looked down and to the side. Clover’s eyes narrowed.
“But... aren’t you afraid what Platinum will do to Furmici once she finds out? And what about the windigos? Will the spell keep us safe?”
The changeling queen had walked up to the trio of ponies in time to catch up to the conversation so she answered Clover’s questions. “No and yes, but the windigos won’t be an issue.”
Clover turned to her in time to see Electrum walk up to the changeling queen and gently put her forelegs around Furmici’s neck. “Please explain.”
“I made an oath to supply Queen Platinum with love and immortality, and let her bind me magically to my oath, in exchange for the survival of my hive. But changelings abhor permanence. Even we, the queens, cannot stand the idea of never changing... which means we don’t live forever even though we can. I have chosen to die and let my hive die with me.”
Electrum was hugging the changeling queen and crying openly. Furmici nuzzled her head gently and smiled. “I have lived an unbearably long time by now. Knowing that Ellie here finally has a chance to escape has enabled me to make up my mind and wriggle out from under the oath I made. Queen Platinum will have no love to maintain her shield and the windigos will obviously descend upon her. You will slip safely by unnoticed, hidden by my spell, but it’s unlikely they’d pay any attention to you even without it.”
Clover was stunned. “Your majesty...”
“Don’t try to thank me, Clover the Clever. Do as Ellie says and pick a body for yourself. Without my love and guidance they will all eventually starve and die anyway. It would be a waste not to spare one for yourself.” Furmici craned her neck and nuzzled Electrum on the head again. “Ellie, I... have a gift. Something that will hopefully make our parting more bearable for you.”
The unicorn princess looked up with tearful eyes at the gently smiling changeling queen in her embrace. Then she stepped back and breathed deeply a couple times before nodding. “What is it?”
Furmici’s horn lit and a small object floated into the air from where it had been hidden, tucked into a small space between three changeling pods. Electrum looked at it with widening eyes as it floated closer. It was a greenish-gray oval with one end slightly more tapered. It was about as big as the head of a fullgrown pony, and its leathery surface was textured with a combination of small bumps and indentations.
“An... egg?”
Furmici smiled gently. “A princess egg. This is my daughter. I have seen you help raise many of my changelings over the years, just as I have raised you. Now I hope you will accept her... and that you would love her as if she was yours.”
Electrum’s face crumbled and she flung herself at the changeling queen, hugging the larger equine forcefully. “Oh Nana!”
Clover felt Trixie stir as she watched the unlikely hug. She cleared her throat gently. “Sorry to intrude but Trixie asks a very good question: how are we supposed to keep that egg safe in the cold?”
Furmici ran her hoof gently through Electrum’s mane as she answered. “With love, of course. I have woven enchantments into the egg to keep it warm and dormant for the duration of your journey. It will be very resilient and won’t hatch before Ellie is safe and ready for it.” Then she gingerly removed Electrum’s forelegs from around her. “I believe we should proceed. Clover?”
Clover nodded slowly and walked up to the pods, peering in at them. Silence reigned, except for the chitinous buzzing of the changeling drones’ wings, as she walked from pod to pod before eventually stopping at one. The unicorn mare inside was young and had a bright green coat and pale yellow mane. “Who’s this?”
“That’s the shell of Gentle Grass, the daughter of a ‘favoured’ chambermaid, preserved by Queen Platinum but never so far given her memories. Her mother has cried by her pod many times during her four times alive. I think her mother would be glad, were she alive right now, if her daughter’s shell finally exited her pod.”
Clover slumped onto her haunches and rubbed her forehead, below the horn, with a hoof. “This is so... wrong!”
“You can’t make it right no matter how much you try, Clover the Clever. Just accept facts and be content with making it a tiny bit less wrong.”
Clover glanced over her shoulder and met Queen Furmici’s eyes for a moment. “All right... all right.” Then she leaned gently forward, pressing her horn up against the pod. The horn flared... and Trixie had to move quickly to prevent her body from collapsing into a heap. She ended up leaning against the pod, enabling her to feel it twitching and vibrating. A hoof scraped against the inner wall of it in front of her, causing her to flinch. It was a well-timed move since the pod burst a hearbeat later. Trixie skipped further backwards as goo sloshed out of the deflating pod, creating an expanding greenish puddle. In the middle of it Clover the Clever retched, coughed and struggled to stand.
The reborn magician wheezed and drew a deep breath before whispering out loud. “Does... this ever get less disgusting?”
Electrum’s tear-streaked face twisted into a grin and she chuckled weakly. “No, never.”
“Well then I’m glad that...” Clover’s voice had strengthened to normal speech, but upon hearing it she frowned with irritation. “Stars above, could my voice get any squeakier?! Augh!” She slammed her forelegs into the floor with frustration, making two large splashes since she was sitting in a puddle of green goo. The sight was enough to make changelings and ponies break into laughter. Then Furmici froze and her face turned fearful.
“Platinum is coming!”
Clover shot to her hooves. “Right, I’ll delay her while you send Trixie and Electrum on their way!”
Electrum gasped and shot out a foreleg towards Clover. “No! We can’t cast the spell twice! Mother will know! You must come with us now!”
The court mage had already been trotting up the stairs towards the door but she slowed, stopped and turned around. Her expression was mournful. “Ellie... I never intended to join you. My mind is set on this: I don’t belong alive. Clover the Clever has lived and died... once was enough.” Then her horn flared. She nodded to queen Furmici and her gaze was steel. “Cast the spell. Now.” There was an echo to her voice... and the changeling queen reeled as if struck. Electrum had frozen with one hoof stretched out towards Clover, her expression a mixture of horror and sorrow. Trixie sensed her cue and walked up to the princess. She glanced at the mucus-covered pony on the stairs and nodded.
“Farewell, Clover the Clever. You’ve become a legend among ponies. Trixie has told of your adventures and deeds to many appreciative audiences.”
A circle of green fire erupted around Trixie and Electrum and from it sprung a field of energy that formed a sphere around them and the egg. Electrum screamed and beat at the inside of the sphere but it didn’t react beyond slowly rising into the air. In moments Trixie and Electrum were floating, approaching the ceiling in a globe of jade flames. Down below Clover nodded to them before walking out the door.
The globe accelerated upwards, crashing into the ceiling without stopping and carrying its two passengers with it.
******
“Who are you?”
“Cloven Hoof, your Majesty, though I prefer to be called Clover the Clever.”
Queen Platinum’s eyebrows rose in confusion. Then she snarled. “Don’t be silly. I recognise you now: you’re one of the chambermaids’ wenches. Stand aside!”
Clover smiled gently as she probed the unknown potential of her new horn. “I’m afraid you no longer command any of my respect, Queen Platinum. Only my pity.”
A huge telekinetic force slammed down around Clover; enough to crack the flagstones in the hallway. The resulting boom echoed for several seconds. Dust obscured everything in front of Platinum for a moment. She smirked victoriously.
“That’s how a true regent squashes insubordination!”
Her smile faded when the dust cleared. Clover was sitting untouched, smiling gently inside a green forcefield. “You have stored massive amounts of changeling love, Platinum. Normally I, fresh from the pod, wouldn’t be more than a candle to your furnace... but things are anything but normal. You no longer deserve the love of your subjects, Queen Platinum... so they have bestowed what’s left of it upon me.”
Clover’s narrowing eyes flared green.