Chapter Fourteen:
Trixie Gets Her Picture in the Dictionary Under Humility
…And then we held a ceremony for Terra Incognita, remembering what little we knew of her. That’s not to say we had nothing to say about our former leader: it turns out even the crystalline have been very impressed by her, and there were many touching speeches.
The goosefeather pen scratched its way across the journal page. A careful touch made a period. Trixie hummed a vague tune while she considered how to proceed.
In truth she’d already made the difficult decisions. There were too many witnesses and too much to explain to enable her to deviate from what actually happened or even withhold much beyond the changeling egg (and she withheld that because she wanted Electrum to decide if and when she’d let it be officially known she was the brood mother designate of a changeling hive). That was the problem, really. She sniffed, pouted and wrote.
Looking back at what Trixie has written makes her disbelieve her own words even though she was there and lived through it all. Dear reader, Trixie understands if you are skeptical of what has been told. The Great and Powerful Trixie cannot earn your belief, nor does she wish to reassure you with ultimately empty words. Instead she would issue a challenge: This, these words I have written, I claim is what happened, and I have some evidence to back it up. If you doubt me then I invite you to poke holes in this story. Prove The Great and Powerful Trixie wrong if you can!
The exclamation point was finished with a flourish and a smile on Trixie’s lips.
Moving on, everypony felt like celebrating after the memorial. Even Broth insisted upon this. Since Trixie had declared that we shall begin our journey back to civilisation the day after tomorrow, we know now how our resource situation looks. Our food stores are especially good, so everypony dug through the stores and asked Broth, with the help of five crystalline, to cook up a fantastic supper for us all. Everypony was asking questions of Electrum, forcing Trixie to interpret, but truth be told Trixie didn’t mind. Electrum was grateful.
Trixie wondered briefly how many of the other expedition members would write about the tightly wrapped bundle of blankets that Electrum always carried around and refused to answer questions about. The warning about changelings being a painful recent memory for Equestria had alarmed and saddened the princess. Trixie raised her head to look at Electrum’s sleeping form, four beds distant. The bundled egg was even now cradled in her legs, making Trixie shake her head in disbelief. That much faith in a species of emotional thieves couldn’t be healthy, in Trixie’s humble opinion.
Still. Trixie had seen an entirely different approach to changeling – pony relations while trapped underneath the glacier. Maybe there was potential there for a forward-thinking individual such as herself. As she thought she listened to the quiet sounds (and not so quiet snoring) thirty-four ponies made. The soft noises had a beckoning quality that added lead weights to Trixie’s eyelids. She yawned and raised the pen in her magic one final time.
Now Trixie is exhausted. Good night.
She placed the pen as a bookmark on the open page before closing the journal. Sleep took her at once.
******
“Oh Great and Powerful Trixie, our fearless leader, I just wanted to say that I just found the emergency communication crystal. It’s been smashed to pieces.”
Trixie raised an eyebrow at Crystal Brightfeather. The pegasus was smirking at her, but without any malevolence. “High Life or the minotaurs, no doubt to prevent any of you from calling for help. It would’ve been nice to report back to somepony all that’s happened and ask for instructions, but it can wait. We’ll be, hopefully, back at the Crystal Empire within two weeks.”
Crystal nodded and moved to turn away, but hesitated. Then she looked back at Trixie with an expression of curiosity. “Speaking of crystals, don’t you think it’s a bit of a tragedy to waste a beautiful thing like that perfect diamond on a tracking orb?”
“What diam—" Trixie blinked and her eyes widened. Then she brought out the windigo’s crystal from her cape’s pocket. She examined it and tried to dismiss any preconceptions she might have had. It was cut, appropriately enough, into a diamond shape and glittered brilliantly in addition to the blue glow lent by the windigo’s presence. It was about as large as a box of matches, making it gargantuan by diamond standards. “This is a diamond?!”
Crystal replied with another nod, her face serious. “It’s hard to believe, but yes. Is there some reason it was chosen as a pointer for the orb? Wouldn’t a crystal of lesser quality do just as well?”
Trixie shook her head. “N-no, this has nothing to do with the quality of the gem. The spell requires something that the person to be tracked values or has kept close to it for a period of time. Do you know anything about enchantments, Crystal?”
“Yes, I do. I need a couple of custom items made for me to enable me to work in very high altitudes. Haggling with enchanters requires that you know what you’re asking for, so I’ve studied what goes into doing the kind of items I need.” Then Crystal appeared confused. “But why would a windigo carry around such a thing? Do they collect shiny trinkets?”
Trixie could only shrug while absentmindedly stroking the diamond in her hooves. “Who knows? They don’t talk so we can’t ask them.”
******
Day 27
Glorious moon and splendid sun, we’re on our way home. Trixie is writing this sitting on the roof of her wagon. The huge rimewolf turns out to be a passable beast of burden: three of the wagons are hitched to it. The result is hopefully that we can let the crystalline pull in shifts, increasing our travel time per day and still be more rested when we stop. It also means Broth can rest in one of the wagons, as he isn’t needed to pull anything.
I have decided to send the wolf away, to the northern crystal mountains, before we reach civilisation. Bringing a giant ice monster into populated areas does not sound like a good strategy to the Great and Powerful Trixie. Neither does bringing an incorporeal beast and master of winter, but orders are orders.
On the topic of the windigo: the little one ‘hatched’ this morning, causing general alarm and confusion as it zipped out of the gem and started poking about, probably looking for food. Trixie bases this on how it would fly up to a pony and coat it with a thin layer of frost. How it proceeded from there varies. If the pony reacted with anger then the little windigo (it’s so small it could curl up on Trixie’s frog) would nuzzle up to the pony, following it around and occasionally delivering a coating of frost, until the pony became resigned to its fate and lost interest. If it was met with anything else than negativity it would lose interest and move on to another pony.
Even though the chill was not more than an inconvenience even for us non-crystalline the others ignored Trixie’s pleas to let the little thing have its way and demanded she put a stop to it. Interesting fact: the dark pendants intended to enhance the negative emotions of the pony used as bait seem to work perfectly as a windigo baby-food substitute. Even now the little monster appears to suckle with great enthusiasm on the dark crystal embedded in the medallion.
Pardon the inkstains, copyists! It turns out that maintaining a steady temperature where the ink is neither frozen nor boiling is more difficult than it appears at first glance.
“Trixie? Do you have a moment?”
Trixie kept her gaze on her journal. Her ink-removal spell was far from adequate, leaving behind a visible reminder of her mishap. She let the magic die from her horn and sighed while turning her head around... and up.
“Sure, Visi. What’s on your mind?”
The diminutive pegasus even managed to flutter nervously. Visi was hovering in the air next to Trixie and looking down at her with a worried frown.
“Um... I–I’m afraid? I kind of broke the law, didn’t I?”
“What are you— oh. You broke the confidentiality agreement when you sold the story to the Canterlot Enquirer. That’s right... What are you afraid they’ll do, exactly?”
Visi looked downcast as she landed on the wagon roof. Even then her wings twitched and shifted ceaselessly. “I’m... a foreigner, Trixie. They’ll probably expel me from Equestria.”
Trixie sighed. “Why did you do it in the first place?”
“They offered me a job. I’d go straight to the reporting, and with a pay grade far above a novice’s. I don’t know how they got wind of the expedition but somehow they sensed it was going to be a big story and they wanted somepony on the inside of it.”
“Trixie has... experience with the law. Your best bet is to cooperate. You should confess to somepony as soon as we return.” She kept silent of the little detail that Visi seemed remorseful not because she did wrong but because she was caught, and unless that changed it was bound to be an obstacle to any leniency. She watched Visi in silence as the pegasus sat and stared down at her forehooves. Visi squeaked with sudden alarm and shuddered as a coating of frost appeared on her, making Trixie chuckle and glance over at the baby windigo. The little blue shade was peering intently at Visi.
“Don’t be too harsh on the little tyke. That’s probably how they show their appreciation. Besides, it’s a good indicator that you’re being too negative.”
The glare Trixie received from Visi was startlingly vicious, partly because Trixie had never seen the timid pegasus express such a strong emotion, but it disappeared after another wary glance at the miniature windigo. Visi took a deep breath and nodded. “I’ll do as you say, Trixie, and hope for mercy.” Then she took to the air again. The little windigo squeaked cutely after her before lowering its head and nuzzling the dark pendant. Trixie picked the pendant up in her magic, bringing the windigo to her muzzle and cooing at it.
“You’re my little ticket to fame and fortune, aren’t you? Yes, you are! Yes, you are! Coochiecoo!”
******
Day 29
It’s getting warmer. Everypony is noticing it now, ever since this morning when we got off the glacier and onto the mountainside. I finally had my coat trimmed, with the help of Easel Green and Crystal Brightfeather. It took them two hours and they had to sharpen their scissors five times.
The temperature has passed the melting point of water. The drifts of snow along the mountainside are shrinking, and the skis of the wagons and the hooves of all us ponies turn it into slush. The rimewolf is struggling with its breathing, and I contemplate letting it go already tonight. It might be a literally cold and mindless killer but I am not.
It seems a summer is finally arriving to these mountains, thousands of years late. It arrives with the breeze, a southern wind that carries with it the scent of pine needles.
We curse it during our weakest moments, since we are making so little progress. We didn’t bring replacement wheels for our wagons and Trixie frankly doubts the slope underneath the snow would be very even anyway. We’d probably be in dire straits if the wagons weren’t so much lighter now that we’ve eaten the majority of the food.
I talked to Easel during our many breaks. She and the other crystalline recall legends from long ago, brought to the forefront of their minds by the changing weather. It is said that Crystal City, and consequently the entire crystal empire, was founded in a forest of olive trees. That’s very different from today’s reality of tall spruces and pines resting on the hardy tundra grass.
Whatever it is right now, though, Trixie will be ecstatic to lay her eyes on it again.
Day 30
Yes, Trixie already regrets setting the rimewolf free.
Sure, I could have used the windigo to keep it cold while it was with us, but if I had done that it would have eventually had to travel back home through much longer stretches of warm air. I didn’t want to risk it melting on the way. No matter how much I regret it now it was the right thing to do.
Day 31
One month of this journal! That means tomorrow marks the one month anniversary of this expedition if you start the count at the departure from Crystal City. Has it really only been a month? Things that happened just before the expedition now feel like very distant memories from another year. Then again perhaps Trixie is simply fooling herself. It was summer when she joined the expedition, she travelled to a place gripped in winter, and now she finds summer returning. That describes a year’s worth of seasons wrapped up in one month of time. So maybe it is natural for Trixie to feel she was given this journal last year.
So much has happened in a month. Trixie has made friends, just as hoped. Also, Trixie has grown wise to the foolish notion that the best way to escape deranged nobility is to travel to the Old Kingdoms. What a farce that turned out to be!
And I have lost somepony I’ve started to look up to and now I have to fill her all-too-big horseshoes. Broth calms me down and coaches me on the role of a leader every night. So far I’ve managed to avoid disappointing him, though I feel he’s very tolerant of mistakes in general. The sharpest rebuke I’ve received has been a quiet remark about Terra probably doing otherwise in a situation we were reviewing but that was enough to humble me. Terra made mistakes, sure, perhaps the biggest one being accepting the task of organising and leading this expedition, but they were sufficiently few in the end to see us home. Just not few enough to see her home as well.
Trixie shall describe our daily routine right now. We wake up at first light and have a big breakfast together. Trixie tries to improve everypony’s mood. Crystal has proven quite helpful in this regard, as she’s full to the brim with juicy gossip from Las Pegasus. The crystalline devour her accounts of scandals and torrid celebrity love affairs like the starved eat their oats. Equestria looks like an alien place when viewed through their thousand-year-old sensibilities. Trixie translates the gossip to Electrum but to her the gossip is so alien that it saddens her sometimes.
Then we break camp and set out. The mountain winds are much less volatile now, so Visi and Crystal fly ahead and guide us to where the snow lies deep and easy for our skis to cross. We trek for about four hours. Then we take a thirty minute break to let everypony rest, eating a light snack. Another four hours’ struggling through the melting snow ensues, followed by an hour’s pause for dinner. A third four-hour segment of travel later and we’re ready to drop as we set up camp. What energy we have left is spent tending to each other, seeing to cracked hooves and aching limbs. Broth is Trixie’s lifesaver as his plant concoctions make Trixie’s migraine from magic overuse tolerable. Hornwalking is still very draining but Trixie doesn’t even want to imagine trying to cross these wastes without it. Terra was right
Trixie is in no mood to write any more.
******
Visi landed beside Trixie so suddenly that the showmare jumped and spilled much of her soup. Trixie cursed, as she’d been reading Starswirl’s book on spells and only narrowly avoided staining its pages. Many of the crystalline gathered with Trixie around the cauldron were also surprised by Visi’s abrupt landing and expressed their dismay.
The pegasus retreated shyly under their verbal onslaught until she settled her wings and gathered enough courage to speak. “Sorry! Sorry! It’s just— we can see the end of the mountains ahead!”
The mood flipped into jubilation and cheers almost instantly. Everypony started breaking camp, acting upon unspoken agreement, the urge to see something beside snow and rock overriding all other concerns. Trixie stowed her book and cleaned her soup bowl with some snow before giving it back to Broth. She walked to the front of the convoy, passing ponies hitching themselves to wagons and exchanging occasional words of greeting and encouragement.
Electrum looked out from the first wagon’s doorway. When she saw Trixie she waved at the blue mare. “What’s going on? Why is everypony cheering?”
Trixie smiled up at her. “Visi and Crystal have spotted an opening in the mountains. We’re about to reach the spot where we can see Equestria again. From there our trek is going to be downhill, and we’ll hopefully find a road to follow.”
The wagon lurched into motion, startling Electrum and nearly making her tumble out the door, but a reflexive grab of the doorframe hindered her fall. There was the scrape of skis against rock for a moment before the smoother whisper of ski on snow took over. The princess took a moment to steady herself before speaking again.
“I’ve seen the lands of Equestria before – in another life, I mean – but I must admit I’m looking forward to this. There must be so much new to see!”
“Oh Ellie, you have no idea.” Trixie grinned. “And I’m not going to spoil any more surprises!”
The convoy lurched, by degrees, into motion over the uneven mountainside. Unbroken expanses of snow were getting scarcer by the hour. Little trickles of water could be seen wherever the rock protruded. The sun crested the mountaintop a couple hours later, bathing the scene with its light and making everything glisten with moisture that quickly evaporated into steam that collected in the air. Within minutes the convoy was enveloped in a fog, or low-hanging cloud depending on one’s perspective. While it wasn’t so thick it made travelling difficult it did mean the ponies couldn’t see their longed-after view, a fact that Crystal confirmed after a couple hours.
“If it weren’t for this cloud you’d probably see the gap by now.”
Trixie watched as the pegasus shook some of the moisture off her wings, flinching as some of the droplets were flung in her face. She backed away a bit. “Could you and Visi disperse the cloud?”
Crystal shrugged. “Sure, I guess. It’s just a lot of work.”
“Please? We could use a morale boost. The crystalline were really looking forward to this.”
“You’ll owe us.” Crystal nodded to Trixie and took off. Her calls to Visi echoed through the mist.
The cloud dispersed slowly, but eventually the air had cleared enough for the flat expanse of green on the horizon to be visible. Cheers and calls of gratitude travelled through the air up to the pegasi. Then Trixie saw Visi yell and point at something. Crystal flew to the smaller pegasus and they seemed to converse for a while before flying off, along the mountainside towards Equestria. Trixie looked after them with a frown.
They reappeared within a minute, but accompanied by three additional pegasi. Details revealed themselves as they approached, such as the uniforms the three newcomers were clad in. Trixie thought they looked like army uniforms, but she didn’t recognise what branch it was. The five pegasi landed next to Trixie, enabling her to see that they were indeed from the army: they had rank insignias on the collars of their flight suits. They approached Trixie as a group, one with corporal’s rankings taking the lead. The flight suits she wore was coloured gray and blue, contrasting badly with her bright orange coat and light green mane. There were wrinkles around her otherwise youthful eyes, making her look like she was permanently squinting. She saluted and looked around at the gathering group, the crystalline having left their wagons to see what was up.
“Ma’am, are you the leader of this expedition?”
Trixie nodded cautiously. “Acting leader, yes. Bellatrix Lulamoon.”
The pegasus nodded. “Corporal Bright Stratus, Ma’am. With me are Lancers Morning Mist and Twister. We’re part of the army’s weather strategy division, here to measure and determine the cause of this unusual weather. Your companions said you’d know something about this?”
“Well, yes. The weather system of the Crystal Mountains was maintained by windigos. They’re gone now so Tr— I assume the weather is returning to its normal state. It’s getting warmer, as you can see.”
Corporal Stratus nodded. “Thank you. We’ll add your statement to our report. In addition, we were told to keep our eyes open for a group of ponies possibly returning from the Crystal Glacier. That’s you, isn’t it?”
“Y-yes. I guess you found us? What now?”
“We are only to report to the princesses Cadence and Celestia that we’ve sighted you, along with your status.”
“Is that so?” Trixie pondered for a moment before smiling at the corporal. “Tell the princesses that the expedition has been successful.” Then her smile vanished. “Except we’ve lost our leader, Terra Incognita. We expect to reach our destination within ten days. We have one wounded who will require medical care.”
The corporal nodded. “Anything else? Do you need immediate assistance with the wounded?”
Trixie sighed. “He’s fine for now. Other than that we’ve got skis and the snow is melting, but that’s annoying rather than dangerous. I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that unless you are willing to re-freeze the mountain for us.”
The corporal didn’t smile at the suggestion. Instead she saluted Trixie again. “If that’s all then I bid you good fortune on the rest of your journey on behalf of the weather corps.”
After a moment’s hesitation Trixie returned the salute clumsily. The trio took to the air and flew off. Trixie watched them leave and sighed lightly.
“Well, now they know we’re returning.” She looked around; all of the expedition was watching her. She opened her mouth, hesitated, closed it and reopened it. “Let’s make camp. We’ve travelled enough for today!”
******
Day 40
This morning everypony woke with a smile, knowing this was probably the last day we’d spend on the Crystal Mountains. Our wagons are light thanks to all the food we’ve eaten, our coats are trimmed because the weather is so warm and the scent of grass is in our noses, speaking of home. We practically ran down the mountain, we were so eager. We could see that the landscape had already changed dramatically thanks to the warmer weather. The snow stopped at the mountain’s base, the hills beyond being a muddy brown. None of that was unwelcome, even though it meant we’d have no snow left for the skis of our wagons.
Or so we thought. I had forgotten the windigo. A little experimentation ascertained that it, together with our two pegasi, was more than adequate to produce a road of snow for us to travel on.
The army company sent to meet and escort us certainly considered it impressive: they nearly ran at the sight of the windigo. Once I explained to the captain that no, the windigo wasn’t ‘loose’, his mood improved. They brought with them wheels for the wagons! Very considerate! For some reason Captain Barding insisted we make use of them even though they clearly weren’t needed, the prejudiced earthen muttering something about irresponsible unicorns. I take offense to that and made sure to let him know! Broth sided with the captain for some reason, so I capitulated.
I admit the going was easier once we’d made the change. I caught myself hornwalking even though it was hardly needed anymore. It seems a difficult habit to break once you’ve learned it. Then again, why stop? If I can use my magic to ease my travels, great! More magic is better!
I’ve read some of Starswirl’s book of spells by now. I can’t wait to get back on the road; Equestria won’t know what’s in store!
Speaking of, the end of this expedition is in sight now. It will take us perhaps two days to reach the tower where I’m supposed to deliver the windigo. It’s not too far from Crystal City, meaning the expedition will break up there after we’ve been debriefed and paid.
Talk around the campfire already circles around the aftermath. Visi, the silly mare, is understandably scared of what is to come. She hasn’t dared bring it up with Captain Barding. Crystal is anxious for a different reason, having a real mess of a situation waiting for her. She’s cautiously asked if I would really accompany her to Ponyville in order to see Princess Twilight, and I reassured her that I’m a mare of my word. Easel Green and a couple more of the crystalline have urged me to write them and I have reciprocated. We exchanged addresses, making me feel self-conscious when they ogled the Canterlot High Tier postbox address I use.
I feel
Trixie blinked owlishly at the page. She felt melancholic and had been about to write that. It was a slip-up that was becoming frequent: she’d come to regard the journal as her personal diary. It contained, after all, the details of an important and eventful episode of her life. What harm would be added if she wrote her thoughts and feelings as well?
Those feelings were getting strange. She missed Canterlot. Canterlot! She missed her brothers and sisters who, insufferable noble brats though they were, weren’t monsters in pony shapes. She felt they deserved a second chance while being all too aware she hadn’t even given them a first.
At the same time, Starswirl’s book on party spells sat like a lead weight on her thoughts. The stallion had been a brilliant theoretician and most of his spells showed breathtaking innovation, but what he overflowed with in creativity he sorely lacked in polishing. His spells were clunky, inefficient and just plain ugly. Trixie’s discerning eye and experience with this kind of magic made the fireworks she read about go off in her mind, showering ideas upon her like glowing embers. She felt drawn to the stage like an object in the air felt drawn to the ground.
Her inner conflict was interrupted by a hoof laid on her shoulder and she looked up to see Electrum smiling at her. The princess took a deep breath.
“How... you feel?” She was speaking in halting equish. Trixie smiled back at her.
“Well done, Ellie. Soon you’ll be cursing like a native.” The look on Electrum’s face told Trixie that she’d lost her, so she carefully maintained her smile while repeating herself in ‘cornish.
Electrum blushed and switched to her mother tongue. Her hoof slid down to Trixie’s back. “Thanks, but I don’t feel your confidence. I’m really nervous about meeting your princess. Do we have to do this right away?”
“It’s for the best. The longer we delay the harder your claim will be, Ellie. Besides, I’m supposed to meet Princess Celestia – well, I say I but it was really Terra who— anyway, she’ll be at this tower we’re headed to, so it’s the perfect opportunity to introduce you.”
Electrum nodded. Trixie realised the princess was looking down at the journal, open on the ground before her. It made her nervous but she made no move to prevent it. When Electrum spoke next her voice was low.
“What will you do once all of this is over?”
“Well I have obligations to fulfill, such as the promise I made to Crystal, but after that and spending some time in Canterlot I’ll probably start touring Equestria again. I can afford my own wagon train with all the bits I’ll get paid.”
“If you do...” Electrum looked up shyly. “Could I go with you? To travel sounds wonderful. I’ve spent my entire life – all my lives – inside a castle’s walls. I’d love to see Equestria.”
There was a pause as the two unicorns merely looked into each other’s eyes. Then Trixie smiled and put her hoof on the leg Electrum had rested on Trixie’s back. “Sure. I’d love to have company.” She remembered a reoccuring dream she’d had. “You could be my assistant on stage! Many of the spells in Starswirl’s book require a co-caster, so it’d be perfect: I’d really be able to expand my repertoire.”
Electrum blushed harder and giggled. “Sounds great! I’ll look forward to it.” Then she removed her hoof from Trixie’s back and rose. “Good night.”
Trixie smiled after her. “Good night!” Then she looked down at the still open journal. After a pause to think she let the pen scratch in the final line for the entry.
I feel tired but happy.