Chasing Winter

by Raging Mouse

Trixie Discards the Element of Badass as Redundant

Chapter Thirteen:

Trixie Discards the Element of Badass as Redundant

The wagon, it turned out, hadn’t been unpacked while it had been at Pinewood Tower. It contained food rations, blankets, rope, nails, mood medallions, spare cage parts, a tent and stove, charcoal, jars of explosive powder, the prepared and unused rocket mixtures and, most importantly, Trixie’s hat.

They’d raised the tent and fired up the stove, though Trixie quickly found she couldn’t stay inside the tent while the the stove was in use: the heat became too stifling for her. Until she could trim her magically grown coat she was truly a creature of the ice and snow. She slept outside on the wagon’s roof, cradling the glowing crystal and contemplating the baby windigo.

It was unquestionably bound to her as well. The expedition didn’t have any instructions that she knew of regarding other eventual windigos other than ‘avoid if you know what’s good for you’, which left the status of Trixie’s tiny tot terror from Tartarus in official limbo.

She grinned even in her slumber.

“Now, mares and gentlecolts, steel yourselves! For you are about to witness one of Equestria’s deadliest beings! The downfall of civilisations, the bringer of eternal winter: the windigo!” The public howled, first with terror and then with appreciation as the ghostly creature performed tricks. Trixie bowed and the howls only intensified. Princess Electrum was on the stage with her, clad in the gaudy kind of outfit traditional of stage magicians’ assistants, and she turned her face to Trixie – her fearful face – and said—

“Trixie! What’s that howling?!”

Trixie’s eyes flew open. The howls were really close now. She sprang to her hooves and looked around. Princess Electrum was just exiting her tent, fearful gaze darting about. Trixie easily spotted the six approaching rimewolves, only a couple kilometers away. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment before she forced herself into action, leaping off the wagon and wrenching open its door.

“Get in here, Ellie! Latch the door behind Trixie when she leaves!”

She quickly gathered the rope and her prepared rocket packs with her magic, winding the rope around her barrel. Electrum scrambled into the wagon almost in a state of panic. “What is that, Trixie? Wolves?”

“Rimewolves. Stay inside until Trixie says it’s safe!”

She leaped out of the wagon and wrenched the door shut behind her. Then she climbed back up on the wagon’s roof. There was a moment of stillness as she faced the wolves, who by now were falling silent and accelerating to a full charge. Trixie closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, am really sick and tired of everything wanting me dead.”

She opened her eyes. The wolves were maybe a hundred meters away by now, but something was wrong with them. They were slowing down. Trixie studied them with widening eyes: their icy tongues were lolling out of their wide open maws. The wolves, creatures of extreme cold, were panting from exertion in the rising temperature. Their charge slowed until they were only jogging menacingly towards Trixie, their laboured breaths loud in the otherwise still air. She felt hope and risked a smile. A plan formed in her head: she’d been through much since her last encounter with rimewolves. Some of those experiences she could now use.

Two rockets with telekinetic shells screamed towards the wolves and detonated among them, shredding all six. Trixie leapt off the wagon and ran towards the soot stains on the ice. The glacier was likely too hard to dig, but maybe...

The wolves’ glowing blue eyes were the first to appear, looking like mere dots on the ice. Then their heads formed, but far slower than what Trixie was used to. They seemed to struggle to free themselves from the ice. Drifts of snow blew in from the sides, covering their gray-blue bodies with a fuzz resembling fur. Trixie reached them by the time they’d gotten their forelegs free of the ice.

Her horn glowed and the holding circle Clover taught her formed around the three bunched closest together. Then she uncoiled the rope from around her body and sent it hurtling towards the first of the other three, binding its snout and forelegs. The remaining two, struggling to pull their hindlegs out of the glacier, she blasted to bits with a spell.

The one held in her ropes got its hindlegs free just in time for her to tie it up. The three in the holding circle threw themselves against the misty barrier but as weak as it was they were weaker still, creatures whose bodies were remarkable for their expendability rather than strength. Two new pairs of eyes appearing inside the circle confirmed Trixie’s hunch: the destroyed rimewolves were now also trapped. The length of rope holding a rimewolf was still mostly unused so Trixie plucked a wolf out of the circle with her magic and set about the task of subduing it as well.

A grinding sound made her look up. She was just in time to see the two pairs of eyes in the holding circle, warning of two forming rimewolves, merge into one single and much larger pair. The two wolves who’d been struggling against the border of the holding spell were whining as they were pulled towards the circle’s midpoint. Trixie watched in astonishment as some force seemed to pull them together until their bodies crunched. The glow in their eyes winked out, only for the glow of the big pair to intensify further. The former bodies of the rimewolves warped and shifted...

Into a crown.

A huge rimewolf head tore up from the glacier, wearing a crown of the bluest ice. Massive blue eyes rose quickly above Trixie’s head even as they focused on her and narrowed. A great maw, filled with icicle teeth as thick at their base as her thighs, opened to let out a roar that sent Trixie tumbling from its force. She was also greatly dismayed to find fresh frost on her coat: the giant wolf was radiating cold.

Trixie stumbled to her hooves and stared with utter confusion at the monster. Her holding circle vanished as the wolf’s shoulders appeared out of the ice, wider than the ring of mist had been.

“Wh... What is this?! The dossier never mentioned anything like this!”

The rimewolf king wrenched its forelegs free of the glacier, muscles of sculpted blue ice creaking and bulging, and wasted no time swiping at the pony in its sight. Trixie yelped and scuttled back, still staring with her mouth agape. Then the king looked down at the two strung-up rimewolves by its paws. It laid a paw gently on each and absorbed their bodies, growing larger still in the process. Mist condensed out of the air around it as it struggled to pull its hind legs out of the ice. It was twice as tall as the wagon, and its maw was big enough to swallow Trixie whole... but she doubted it would refrain from chewing if it caught her.

It rose on its four freed paws, crouched, leapt and smacked down onto the ice without moving, with a huge crash sounding like broken glass, its tail still anchored in the glacier. That was enough to snap Trixie out of her paralysis. “A... All right, so instead of six rimewolves, Trixie has to deal with just one – one very very big rimewolf... Think think think!!”

Four massive legs strained to pull the tip of the tail free. The rimewolf king tumbled as the tail finally lost its anchor point, landing on its head with all four legs flailing in the air. A streak of fire and sparks screamed through the air and impacted with a boom against its left back leg, making the king twitch and howl. It flipped around, but struggled to maintain balance when it found the attacked leg injured to the point of uselessness, with great cracks and chunks of ice falling away. It licked its back leg gently, coating it with a thin layer of ice, before turning around and focusing its fury on the small, blue thing retreating slowly away from it.

Trixie saw the king crouch in preparation of a leap and launched another rocket. The king reacted by springing to the side, again stumbling due to its hind leg. The rocket flew past where the king had been before turning in Trixie’s magic, slamming into the king’s right front leg and exploding. The king howled as its foreleg, as big as a tree, broke off and shattered against the ground.

Two more rockets sped out and exploded, crippling the giant rimewolf. Trixie grinned with relief until she saw the king’s eyes blaze and felt the wind on her back. The wolf’s legs were slowly growing back, fed by the loose drifts of ice all around it.

Trixie wailed. “That’s unfair!” She looked in frustration at the remaining rockets. She had plenty, but she doubted now they’d provide a solution by themselves. She racked her brain, trying to think of something. Then she froze.

A wicked grin formed on her face.

The rimewolf king watched as the stump of its left foreleg grew and extended. A rocket slammed into it only moments before the claws of its paw would have formed, reducing the leg once more to a stump. The king’s head growled and barked, snapping at the air around it. Then it looked around: the little blue pest was keeping away, and the little fang jutting out of its head was glowing blue. The same blue glow raced along the ground, digging a trench in the glacier behind it and clearing away all the loose drifts of snow.

The king dismissed the irritant’s actions as irrelevant and went back to the task of reforming its limbs one at a time, this time choosing its left hindleg. That one wasn’t blown clean off, merely damaged beyond usability. The king focused, drawing ice from the glacier beneath it, from the drifts all around and from the air itself. The leg mended, the cracks disappearing and the gaps being filled by fresh ice. Then another rocket cannoned into it, this time snapping the leg clean off. The king howled and thrashed about with rage and frustration. It peered at the insignificant speck that dared injure its form. There, hovering next to the blue sack of fur, was one... many lumps of earth that reeked of dormant fire. So, it deduced, the little thing would eventually run out of the fire that ate the king’s legs. Good.

It focused on its right front leg. There was a boom and the leg shattered. The king growled but focused immediately on the same leg again. The king’s animal mind triumphed when the leg was completed. The little blue nuisance had had many lumps of fire but had used one, so it couldn’t have many lumps of fire now! It must have run out! The king didn’t look to confirm, instead quickly focusing on its other front leg. It, too, grew to completion. Now the king could move, so it swivelled around to lie on its belly.

The rimewolf king looked around. It was lying in the focal point of a strange tracery of glowing lines etched into the glacier. The soon-to-be snack was standing arrogantly in another focal point slightly removed from the center. The king tried swiping a leg at it but the succulent mouthful of meat was still too far away. It flinched but otherwise didn’t move. Then there was a voice.

“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!!!”

******

Wallbreaker the minotaur mercenary wasn’t worried. In fact, he was downright bored. Shoving the pegasi, who were hanging from the ceiling by the ropes that were immobilising them, had become uninteresting when they had stopped crying and complaining. Challenging the one earthen into fighting again wasn’t an option. The stallion had had to be maddened by sorrow to rise up to Wallbreaker’s taunts the first time around and that passionate flame had been extinguished beneath Wallbreaker’s fists. The earthen would need weeks to recover fully. The crystalline were so timid they backed away just from his glance. Everything was going tear-inducingly and mind-numbingly smoothly, so all he had to do was wait until the Boss, currently a unicorn named Lobelia, returned.

Wallbreaker snorted as he thought of the little, wrinkly pony. Lobelia was the perfect example of everything that was wrong with the entire species. Even as a unicorn potentially capable of wielding deadly magic she was puny and frail. Her power came not from any personal source but from the myriads of other ponies who willingly carried out her commands. She killed with words and strokes of goosefeather, not by personally snapping her opponents’ necks. Personal strength, which meant so much to the minotaurs, was apparently ridiculed by the idiot ponies who somehow made weakness and relying upon others into virtues.

However: gold was gold and Lobelia had lots of it. Most minotaurs, even the trash Wallbreaker employed who mistook a twisting street for a labyrinth, understood the concept of punching things until gold fell out but Wallbreaker was an intellectual and understood the concept of punching other things than the thing with the gold. His recruited minotaurs looked upon him with reverence, as they should.

For this job he’d selected four of his more gentle bruisers. The boss had stressed that only one pony was to die: killing the rest would inconvenience her too much. He’d sent Benthorn and Laughing Muscle out with the Boss because they had been getting impatient. That left Red Rag and Hammer (the third Hammer he’d employed and the seventh he’d known) behind with him. He’d have gone himself but he didn’t trust his companions not to try to punch things, when he wasn’t looking, in the hope that gold would fall out. The wide open glacier didn’t help since it triggered the agoraphobia inherent to their species. The mountain passes had felt almost like home in comparison and he longed to return to them. He’d imagined settling down and carving a labyrinth of tunnels into one of the cliffsides and the concept had a surprising allure.

Thus it was with a bad mood that he toured the cozy little tower the ponies had built, looking over his captives. They no longer spoke in his presence, merely glaring sullenly at him as if their eyes could pierce his skin where their hooves proved far too feeble. He was just finishing looking at the random junk strewn around the second floor when Red Rag bellowed to him from the front doorway downstairs.

“Boss! Dere’s a wagon an’ it don’t look like de Boss pony!”

Wallbreaker was bending over a crate and looking into it, idly wondering if the dark crystals were worth any gold, but now he straightened. The boss – Lobelia – hadn’t mentioned expecting any visitors. If it really was her then Benthorn and Laughing Muscle should have been obvious enough.

“Boss, dey got a big dog!”

He snarled, losing his patience (which admittedly was lost as easily as piece of chalk in a snowstorm), and stomped to the top of the stairs down. “So? Kill it, kill them and plunder their wagon!” When in doubt, punch and hope for gold. He was about to turn away to continue his inspection when Red Rag appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Red Rag looked troubled. Red Rag had once, when sober and dangerously bored, wrestled a quarry eel on a bet.

“Boss, t’ dog, it’s really big.”

“What are you, a cow?! Fine, I’ll come hold your widdle tail when you spank the dog! We’ll get Hammer too so he can wipe your ass when you shit yourself!”

Red Rag looked lost and sad. “T’ dog ate Hammer already, boss.”

That got through to Wallbreaker. He didn’t run but walk down the stairs until he was level with Red Rag and could stare his employee in the eyes from up close. “Tell me what you did.”

“Well Hammer an’ I were out searchin’ through der wagons like you said, boss, when I saw dis wagon come from where the boss pony went, but no Bendy or Laffin’ so I say to Hammer ‘look, we got strangers’ an’ he said ‘maybe dey got gold’ an’ then we decided he got to check it out ‘cause he punched me first. So ‘e goes, right, swinging his axe in the air an’ tellin’ them to stop and give up the gold, an’ den he sees that dere’s dis big blue dog pullin’ de wagon an’ it leaps at ‘im an’ rips ‘is ‘ead off.”

That was impressive, Wallbreaker had to admit. A minotaur’s neck was probably one of the toughest parts of its body thanks to all that muscle. Being an intellectual he considered alternatives to the tried and true punching tactic. “Okay, so we wait in here until it goes away.”

Red Rag shook his head. “It won’t go away, boss. While t’ doggy ate Hammer a pony on its back yelled at me. She asked me a lotta things and den she said I had to come get you or she’d be mad. An’ she said I wouldn’t like it if she got mad.”

“Did you say a pony stood on the doggys back?”

“Yup I did, boss.”

“And you just told it everything it wanted to know?”

“I did, boss.”

“Why?”

“Well you see I sorta swung my axe at de doggie when I saw dat it was busy eatin’ Hammer, but it saw me and put a paw on me to hold me down. She said she’d let me go if I jus’ answered some questions.”

Wallbreaker was reminded once more of the heretical notion that strength might be a more complex concept than the perfect expression of power that was physical force. When faced with the results of the mental deficiencies of his fellow minotaurs he oftentimes felt compelled to commit a little heresy. This time was more tempting than most previous ones. In any case, he had to see this pony for himself. He gripped one of Red Rag’s ears and walked towards the entrance, letting Red Rag decide if he wanted to have his ear pulled off or if he wanted to follow. Red Rag decided upon the latter and so was led out into the moonlight behind Wallbreaker as his boss walked on, stopping only when he’d turned around a parked wagon and come face to lower jaw with the enormous wolf that was hitched to another wagon.

The ‘doggy’ was coloured in tones of blue and gray and was apparently made of ice and snow. Large, blue eyes glowed with a strong internal light. There was a crown upon its head, and sitting with her hindlegs astride its neck was a pony as blue as the wolf. She was clad in a hat and a cape, both of which carried a motif of the night sky. Her forelegs were crossed with apparent impatience but they uncrossed when she spotted Wallbreaker.

“You! Are you the leader of these minotaurs?”

Wallbreaker had difficulty tearing his gaze away from the maw of the great beast in front of him. Its lips and teeth, which it kept baring at him accompanied by a constant low growl, were stained dark in the moonlight. “I’m Wallbreaker and I’m the boss here yes.” He pulled Red Rag’s ear close to his mouth and whispered. “Go back ‘round the wagon and attack the wolf from the side. Chop its legs off.”

Red Rag nodded and walked away, but the pony on top of the wolf lit her horn and shot a small bolt of magic in front of him. “Stay!” Red Rag turned around to look helplessly at Wallbreaker.

The minotaur boss decided to try some subtle psychology. He pulled his axe from his back. “I think you’re a little coward on top of a big dog, pony. How good would you fare against my axe without Fido here?”

This was met with derisive laughter. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is no fighter, this is true!” Trixie’s eyes narrowed. “She’s a survivor.” Then she patted the head of the wolf she was riding. “Please tell mr. bull-for-brains here what you think of the name ‘Fido’.”

The wolf inhaled before letting rip a roar that shook the ground around the minotaurs and coated their horns and bodies with frost. Wallbreaker staggered backwards, blinded by the spray of icy spittle and buffeted by the freezing breath. Trixie gazed calmly at the two minotaurs as they tried to behave as if they hadn’t just had their eardrums savaged. She raised her voice to an imitation of the Canterlot Royal. “IF YOU CAN HEAR THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, PLEASE INDICATE IF YOU ALSO WISH TO FIND OUT MY PET’S OPINION OF YOUR AXE-WAVING!!!”

Wallbreaker raised one hand to his left ear and another into a halting gesture aimed at Trixie. “No! That’s fine. You’re the boss now. Er... did you meet a miss Lobelia? Only, she promised us gold...”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed. “Oh did she now? As a matter of fact, Trixie did meet Lobelia Blueblood. Did she mention where your gold was? Did she have any luggage that was heavy and clinking?”

Wallbreaker shook his head. “No, boss. I don’t think she’d be that foolish.”

Trixie guffawed exactly once. Then she looked at Wallbreaker with an expression that made him shiver. That expression belonged on dragons playing with their food, not on ponies. She took a deep breath. “What’s your name, minotaur?”

He coughed politely. “Wallbreaker, miss.”

“Well, mister Wallbreaker, sir. Since Lobelia won’t be coming back... ever... you have a slight problem. Would you like Trixie to solve it for you?”

The minotaur nodded in a show of great enthusiasm. “Yes, please, boss.”

Trixie giggled. “Oh, how polite! Well done! The Merciful and Generous Trixie is pleased!” Her face grinned ever wider as her horn lit with magic. A rolled-up scroll appeared from her cape. A moment’s magical flourish conjured a goosefeather pen and an inkwell. Then she looked down at the Minotaur. “I’m sorry, was that ‘ball’ or ‘wall’?”

The minotaur’s nostrils twitched, but Wallbreaker lowered his gaze. “Wall, miss.”

“Very good.” The goosefeather scratched across the document in Trixie’s magic, writing something here and there. She took a deep breath and smiled again. “You wouldn’t happen to know what a will is would you?”

Wallbreaker looked up in confusion. “A will? Yes I do. It’s when I get what I want. It’s because I have a will and others don’t.”

Trixie laughed merrily at this, ignoring Wallbreaker’s darkening frown. She waved the scroll. “Very true, yes. Well this, dear minotaur, will get you exactly what you want but it’s using Lobelia’s will! See this seal? It’s made by Lobelia herself and is unforgeable! Attached to this scroll it means that whatever is written here is official! And it had some oh so convenient blanks! Since Lobelia promised you gold, who is Trixie to disagree?” She leaned forward and down, bringing her face a bit closer to the minotaur’s so she could grin a bit more. “Trixie will give you this boon in exchange for getting the two of you to leave immediately! You take this scroll to Canterlot and ask for House Blueblood! Then you go where you are directed, display the scroll and demand your gold! They like when you talk loud and state your business directly!”

Wallbreaker nodded appreciatively. Perhaps there were some ponies who weren’t so bad after all, if he could believe this mare’s description of House Blueblood. He was prepared to believe anything she said as long as she had the giant wolf of ice locked and loaded. “I understand, boss. You give me the scroll and we’ll get out of your mane right away.”

“Good. Then we have an agreement.” Trixie smiled imperiously and levitated Lobelia Blueblood’s last will and testament, filled in with Wallbreaker’s name and sealed properly, over to the minotaur. “Now beat it!”

The minotaurs did as promised. They ran, only stopping to grab a couple bags from a crude sled parked next to the tower. Trixie watched them until they disappeared into the night. Then she patted the rimewolf king. “Let me down.” The great wolf snarled, only to be smacked on the head. It yelped and lay down, allowing Trixie to climb off. She walked so she was directly in front of it and placed a hoof on its icy nose. “Stay put! Be nice!” When she received a whine in response she trotted around it, back to the wagon. She unhitched the wolf from its makeshift rope harness as she passed.

Princess Electrum unlatched the wagon door and peered cautiously out at her as Trixie knocked. “Is it safe?”

Trixie smiled modestly. “Trixie scared them off. Let’s get you inside. I’ll introduce you to everypony while I tell them that they’re free.”

Electrum took Trixie’s offered hoof and climbed nervously out of the wagon, followed by a bundle of blankets enveloped by her magic and carrying the changeling egg. “Trixie, do you know any translation spells? I... I’m nervous about this and it would help if I could speak to them.”

“Sorry, Clover didn’t teach me any. Modern Equestria doesn’t really need translators as almost every creature on the planet knows at least some Equish, including the dragons. Don’t worry, Trixie will teach you and translate for you until you learn!”

Electrum hesitated before nodding. Trixie gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before turning and leading the princess towards the tower. She stopped just outside the door. She wasn’t stupid; there could be more minotaurs in there. She checked in her very own way by taking a deep breath.

“Hail, ponies! The Great and Powerful Trixie has returned!”

A few cautious and confused voices penetrated the door.

“Trixie?!”

“Trixie, is that really you?”

“What was that roar just now?”

“Did you see the minotaurs?”

She turned her head and grinned at Electrum. “They’re all right!” Then she opened the door with her magic and paraded through it into the tower. “Never fear, Trixie is here! The minotaurs are running away as we speak! The roar was Trixie’s new pet! You’re safe!”

The resulting cheer emanating from over thirty throats secured itself instantly on top of Trixie’s list of most appreciative audiences ever. The crystal ponies near the back of the tower jumped up and down while laughing while those near Trixie rushed over and piled up around her in a massive hug. She felt hooves lifting her up and then she was being carried in the air. A hasty glance back showed Electrum watching shyly from just inside the door. Looking forward she saw Crystal and Visi, both looking bedraggled and tied up with ropes hanging from the ceiling but still smiling happily at her as a couple of the crystalline untied them carefully.

She saw Broth and gasped with shock.

Boiling Broth had been lying in one of the single beds under the stairs. Now he fought to rise but it was obvious that he was in no condition to stand or even sit. His eyes were nearly forced closed by massive bruising on his face and blood streaked his fur in numerous places, but worst of all was the look of yearning and brittle hope that he sent Trixie’s way. The rest of the room fell silent as they became aware of the situation, letting Broth be heard when he spoke in a broken, almost whispering voice.

“Terra..?”

Trixie was gently lowered to the ground so she could walk up to the battered stallion. She lay a hoof on his foreleg and sat down next to the bed.

“I’m sorry. Terra is gone.”

Trixie was prepared for tears and violent disbelief but Broth just looked straight ahead forlornly for a few moments before scrunching his eyes tightly shut and whispering.

“I told you so. Dammit, Terra, why’d you have to make me right?”

“Um... were you two..?”

Broth snorted and shook his head. “She was my best fr-friend. She’s... was... a widow since a couple years back. Husband died while in the military. They got three kids and ten grandkids by now. I said to Terra... I said... that she’d risk joining her husband if she took this job.” Broth covered his face with his forelegs. Trixie pulled back, intending to give the grieving stallion some space, but one of his legs left his face and stopped her. She looked back into the one moistening eye he wasn’t concealing.

“Trixie, Terra’s journal is on her bed. She wants you to bring it back to Equestria and the princess.”

“Huh? But surely you—"

Broth shook his head. “Trixie, we’re not in the army now, so there’s no real chain of command. But Terra was an old player at this and knew she had to take precautions. There’s a list on the inside cover. Read it.”

The room was silent as Trixie walked over to Terra’s bed and grasped the journal lying there with her magic. She cracked open the book on the first page and looked to the left.

In the case I am incapacitated the following ponies, in order of preference, should assume leadership.

I task them with only one thing:

Bring the rest of us home.

The next part was written on a sticky note attached to the cover. Judging by the smudges of glue it had been replaced a number of times.

Bellatrix

Crystal

High Life

Broth

Visi

Bring my journal and tell the kids I said hi.

Trixie stared at the wall in front of her and slowly closed the journal. There was a lump of an entirely new kind of fear forcing its way up her throat so she swallowed a couple of times to keep it down. Then she turned to stare at Broth, who was regarding her intently in spite of his still flowing tears.

“Trixie assumes you’ve read this?”

Broth nodded.

“Why aren’t you top of the list, Broth?”

He shrugged. “I’ve got the experience but I’m too unreliable. I’ve got some... burdens. I think you can figure it out. I’ll advise you if you want me to.”

“If I want you to? Broth, Trixie isn’t... she doesn’t... I...” Trixie’s shoulders slumped and she lowered her head until her muzzle nearly touched the floor. “Oh Celestia, what do I do?”

Broth smiled gently. “Declare the expedition a failure and bring us home, Trixie.”

There was a short silence. Then Trixie raised her head and glared at Broth. “I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, declare this expedition... a success.” Her horn lit and the glowing crystal levitated into view from underneath her cape. “Terra did not die in vain. Trixie has captured the windigo.”

Stunned voices of disbelief echoed around the chamber. Broth eyed the crystal with an eyebrow raised. “Where is it?”

“Inside this. Trixie can bring it out if you want to see. It’s safe.”

Broth nodded. “I want to see this.”

There were gasps and brief yelps of alarm when the windigo shot out of the crystal. It took to hovering just below the ceiling, silently looking down at the group of curious and frightened faces.

When Broth found the controls to his jaw he shut his mouth and coughed gently. “All right, I see it and I still have trouble believing it. But enough is enough. Thank you, Trixie. But... how? And who’s that?” He pointed to where Electrum stood.

Trixie nodded and held the crystal aloft. The windigo flew down and disappeared into it. Then she cleared her throat and spoke.

“Trixie will tell her story and introduce her friend in the process. When the windigos were roused they created a powerful vortex of air. It grabbed Trixie and pulled her along the ground towards the hole they’d flown out of. She tried to resist but the wind was too strong and eventually she fell. And tumbled. And slid...”

Comments

[Volgrand]

That title... oh man, THAT TITLE!

[Volgrand]

And I already know the ending. BWAHAHAHA!

[Raging Mouse]

2832699

Be nice to the readers, Volgrand..!

[Mooncalf]

That title is entirely accurate. That... is all I can say.

[Volgrand]

2832722 But but but... I want to be meeeeean!

[Raging Mouse]

2832757

Sorry! But I'm afraid that's my job...

[Volgrand]

2833078

[Snowybee]

The crystal ponies near the back of the tower jumped up and down while laughing while those near trixie rushed over

You forgot to capitalize Trixie's name, you impudent worm! She had to get that ONE 'auto'biographer, didn't she?

Seriously, though, I loved this chapter.

[Walabio]

> "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
——
President Theodore Roosevelt

¡The Great and Powerful Trixie carries an huge stick!