My Little Pony: Forever Stranger

He shredded up his old cloak; with the tears it wasn't fit to bundle up a worm. Still, the Princess had given it to him, so he frowned as he wrapped his new wick around the frozen branch and dipped it in the sap Flint was passing around. It lit up like a bonfire.

As the group set out in a mob-like caravan, Gale felt a tap on his shoulder. One of Flint's warriors, a shaggy hulk named Foggy Blitz, held out a cloak bigger than Gale. It was a mud-colored carpet that weighed as much as one, but once on it felt like someone had built a house around him. Pinning the Equestrian badge to his chest, he thanked Blitz as the two of them walked side by side behind Flint and Summit.

Not much call for conversation on the way up. The empty-hooved oxen walked with plodding steps, mumbling reassurances to each other, asking neighbors if they managed to save anything from the cave. Their individual tracks twisted and weaved, as if looking for the patches of snow that would permit them to pass.

Two hours in, Gale suggested that the oxen rest. The tower path, Summit had decided, was their only way of reaching the Stone Heart before the food ran out. Slate, through his eyes in the snow, would have figured their situation by now, and would wait until they were committed to a course before attacking. After they passed the tower, however, the caravan would quickly scatter. The smaller groups would hopefully spread Slate's forces and give Summit's a chance to enter the city. From there, they'd free the rest of their group, and using whatever supplies on-hoof, begin the fight.

As the caravan moved out, Gale shook his head. The plan had a ghastly sound of finality to it, and it all meant nothing if he couldn't reverse the damage to Bovaria. That meant getting all the big names in one room to talk things out and work together. It was a long shot, but he'd made his choice; now he was going to see it through even if it-

"Summit." he called, catching up. "I know it's not for me to say, but we need to talk about what's going to happen. Even if we free everyone Slate took this morning, do you really think you have enough bodies to take the city?"

Summit nodded. "I appreciate your concern, Gale. Yes, it is a problem we considered. But understand that everyone up there, even though they follow Slate, are still our friends, our neighbors. Many of us are certain that when we arrive we can convince them to join us."

"And if they don't?"

"Then we will do what we can. With you at our side, we will get rid of Slate. That will be enough. With the others we can take our time, explain to them what happened between us was...difficult for everyone." Summit trailed off, looking at Flint. She shook her head and shrugged. "They had reasons, many of them good. We forgive them for following Slate."

Gale's eyes narrowed. "They'll need to forgive you for what they think you've done. Will they?"

"I hope so," Summit whispered.

***

They'd reached Slate's tower in five hours, as opposed to his original six, and with less ice standing in their way. As the caravan passed the abandoned village he made a note to remember the route, not that he planned to make the climb again.

The tower was still there, lording over the bare terrace, a king without subjects. Under Flint's direction, their only five warriors swept forward in an arc, eyes fixed on the wide-open doors.

As they passed under the gold chandelier the oxen fanned out, inspecting every gilded corner and carved column, scavenging any useful materials. Flint and Summit meanwhile followed Gale to the laboratory, where Frazil had shown him the machine. Any information they found could be useful, if and when Gale would have to use it, he decided.

Flint's gaze slithered from marble floor to crystal ceiling. "They've been living like...this. All this time."

"Slate did it," whispered Summit. "All of it. He made them weak and dependent on him. After living like this for so long, it must have seemed...normal."

"Yeah, for ponies." She looked Gale in the eye. "No offense, Gale."

"My name's Gale, now?" he mumbled.

"Blame this one," she said, jerking her head at Summit between them.

"He did not have to come, Flint."

"I know, but it's not like Slate made a good impression."

"Why do you hate him so much?" snapped Gale. "I get everything's that happened, but there's more to it, isn't there?"

Summit took a breath. "When we welcomed Slate into Bovaria, he became more than our guest. He used that against us..." Summit's mouth went bitter. "He turned my own family against me."

"Who?"

"My sister," hissed Flint.

"That is all I wish to say, Gale. But do not think for a second that Slate is anything but what we have told you, and what you have seen for yourself."

Gale pursed his lips. This wasn't about food, land, or even power. Slate's mere presence had driven a wedge between every family on the continent, but Gale refused to believe the old unicorn's intentions were that sinister. Why else would he have built a machine to save Bovaria?

The study in front of the lab was empty, save some stray papers, broken books and crooked bookshelves. Though Summit didn't, it was no cowardice that Flint flinched when everything in the room began to glow, then rose when Gale craned his neck. The study's contents flipped end over end, then shook like the inside of a snow globe.

"Subtle," said Flint.

Gale took a closer look at the books. "I try." He turned to face Flint and Summit, shaking his head. "Nothing." Flint groaned and started to pace.

Together, the three of them combed the study once more by hoof, until Summit settled in front of the entrance to the lab, now sealed by a flat wall of ice. The hole took a minute to burn, and by the time Gale was done his forehead was slick.

"I gotta get me one of those," Flint mumbled as she kicked loose the slab at her hooves. Summit, torch blazing, followed her and Gale inside.

Empty and cold. Canals where machinery and cords once lay snaked around the room. A frown took all three of their faces as they looked back at the doorway they had to carve. A jagged pothole sat in the floor's center, surrounded by a ring of flaky rust and four smaller holes- for fastening bolts.

Flint traced the hole with her hoof. "There's something here. They wouldn't have sealed it otherwise."

"Perhaps they meant it as a distraction," suggested Summit. He walked to Flint's side. "Gale, you said the machine that was here...transformed the earth?"

Gale stopped probing the walls and joined them. "It was...big. Like a blooming flower. Metal petals, with green crystal prisms in the center, as big as a sword."

Summit's eyebrows went up a fraction, his brown face bordering on tan as Gale's horn glowed again. Same spell he used to inspect the machine before. A flash, and then a small column on the far side of the room twinkled. Flint reached behind, groping the rock until something caught. Her hoof came out holding a splinter of green, ember-like crystal.

"Ok, now I know I've seen this- oh. Oh no..." she moaned, turning to her father. "I didn't realize before...when I followed him here."

Gale caught a glimpse of Summit's teeth before the old ox turned around, trembling. "I told Slate, never this. He gave me his word he'd leave it alone." He shook his head. "I should have known."

"Summit?"

Flint was still holding the crystal. She took the torch and Summit the shard, holding it flat in his hoof. "Bovaria is not like Equestria, Gale. We do not use magic like you do. It exists as one with our world." He stared at the flickering torch. "That harmony has maintained Bovaria for as long as we have lived here. We do not tamper with it." Summit squeezed the shard. "This is not their normal shape. When Slate took them from the mountains, he upset the balance that keeps Bovaria alive. That is why the winters have worsened!"

"I don't understand. What's so special about the crystals?"

Summit breathed, "They are us."

It took Gale eight seconds to blink. "You mean..."

"Our family. Our ancestors. We all come from the mountains, Gale, and in the in end we all return to them."

"...How?"

"That I cannot tell you, Gale. For the same reasons I would not tell Slate. I am sorry." He looked at Flint, who motioned for the door. "There are things better left private to us."

Gale bit his tongue, lest his curiosity start demanding explanations. Trust and respect were his only hope of cooperation from Summit if the negotiation plan survived the climb.

The crystal's true nature made his mouth turn sour. What kind of pony was he going to find up there?

Summit and Flint were gone. On a whim Gale cast the spell again, and the column that concealed the shard lit up, then darkened. He peered behind, barely catching the outline of chalky words fading like photographs. He kept the spell running, and this time the words stayed:

Left this for you, Gale. Slate knows you're coming. He can still track you. He wants my dad. You have to stay away from him on the way up.

They're going to catch you. Let them. Slate will let you wander after he talks to you. Find me at the schoolhouse with the big arch in front. I have a plan. Don't tell anyone. Not even him or Flint. Please.

Frazil

Gale stepped back as the scribbled words disappeared from the rock. Seems the bubbly young lady had missed her calling in espionage. Was she spying for her father this whole time? No, he or Flint would have said something. Gale left the lab through the study, back into the main hall where the oxen had regrouped. Summit and Flint stood in the middle, giving orders and taking inventory. Gale turned away and took a deep breath before approaching them.

"Nothing else in the lab." Harder to say than he thought. Neither Flint or Summit deserved it, but once Gale told them, there was no un-telling them. The twist in his gut wouldn't even let him be shocked by the discovery that Frazil was their family.

Summit nodded dully. "The supplies here will give us some flexibility, but we need to hurry."

At the other end of the atrium was the main exit, a heavy metal door that slid on rails. The brown rectangle was a mud stain on the ornate walls, and groaned like a giant when it opened. Everyone poured onto the slope outside, then snow poured onto them. The wind blew it sideways into eyes, muzzles, ears, and refused to be shaken off. High above, the clouds cracked and broke against the mountains, giving the peaks a clear view of the caravan daring to climb them. It wasn't even noon yet.