My Little Pony: Forever Stranger

Many of peers have gone down as saying 'no scientist works alone.' Technically true, but at the end of the day, no one will ever help you more than you can help yourself. When you're at your desk or in your lab and every answer comes out wrong, leaning on someone isn't going to magic your failures away. You have to dig deep down into yourself, and decide whether you can deal with the pressure. Not your peers, not the public, not your teachers, YOU.
- Ivory Slate, The Scientific Mind

Gale snapped the book shut as the caravan began to move again. Not long after they left the tower, a storm reached down and pelted them with flurries and dry hail. So they spent the past hour in the shelter of a small, low-ceilinged outcropping, waiting for the gray-white haze to grow bored and leave them alone.

Not a lot of time or reason to read, but he kept coming back to Slate's memoirs. The old unicorn always sounded so sure of himself, like there was nothing he couldn't understand. Maybe there wasn't; he was one of Equestria's shining stars, one of the most forward-thinking ponies of his time.

So why was this happening under his watch?

Summit didn't ask why Gale kept reading, so he didn't answer. Was it simply 'know thy enemy?' No. As far as Gale was concerned, Slate wasn't anyone's enemy. He said so himself. Ponies don't brainwash, ponies don't tyrannize. They don't melt down someone else's ancestors into lab equipment, either. Gale sighed, then shivered. What was he going to tell Princess Celestia, when they found out he disobeyed their orders? They wanted to know what Slate was doing here. When- if- Gale made it back to Equestria, they'd be just as interested in what he'd been doing. The royal guard ship was gone by now, or looking for him some forty miles west. And a mile straight down.

At dusk the caravan reached another village, more sensibly built than the failed slice of Ponyville. The mountain trail turned to gravel and funneled into a large circular promenade with a cluster of long dead pine trees placed in the middle like a centerpiece. The oxen's stone buildings spread along a horseshoe of tall terraces that surrounded the clearing. A couple of the steep, wooden roofs had given out, but on the whole the village was intact, if lifeless.

At the bottom of the horseshoe was the tunnel leading deeper into the mountains. On the terrace above it sat the communal hall, where everyone was heading. Blitz was waiting atop the steps. He'd scouted ahead and seen another blizzard on the prowl, approaching fast from the southwest. Lucky; anyone Slate had out searching would have to take cover too, so the caravan could rest safe for the night and split into its groups before first light.

Right after they left the tower, Gale explained that if Slate could track the map, he could certainly track any Equestrian magic. Summit took his 'reasoning' on faith, so Gale, Flint and Blitz would leave the earliest tomorrow, reaching the Stone Heart by mid day. And the faster we move, the longer it'll take for Slate's guards to find out Summit's not with me. But how to keep Summit out of their hooves for that long? When Gale was nowhere nearby? As the oxen gathered in one large circle, all he could do was carefully remind Summit that as leader, the old ox was a likely target. The two of them and Flint sat next to each other, each rubbing their sore, wet hooves.

The hall had a fountain-sized fire pit in the center. After it was lit, the oxen passed around water for drinking and cooking. A couple of crock pots survived the attack on the caves, so at least the food would be hot. Utensils were an issue, though; everyone quickly realized the only option was to pass around the pots themselves, sip, and pass it on until their hodgepodge stew was gone. Everyone, Summit included, ate from it and never longer than anyone else. Despite his empty stomach Gale followed their example, and afterward he could swear more oxen looked him in the eye.

As the fire withered, the circle huddled closer together. In Equestria, this was the moment when everyone, having finished eating, would sit around and talk. The oxen were no different.

"Hey, Clay," Flint said over the flame's crackle, "dinner tastes different tonight. It's like you put in more food and less dirt."

"Ok, princess," the slim warrior called from the other side, "you can cook your own meals when we get home."

Some of the oxen shook their heads, smiling. Summit murmured, "I guess some things are better off not changing." He stared at Gale, looking very far away. "In the years I knew him, he never ate with us once. Sometimes he invited me to...'dine' with him, but never like this."

"Is this how your meals usually are?"

"Almost always."

Gale smiled. "It's a good practice. I like it."

Summit's face rested on his hoof as he turned to look at his grinning daughter. "Me too."

More than once someone talked about finding their friends, neighbors, or family at the Stone Heart. Almost as if they didn't care what happened, as long as they were together again. If Summit disapproved, he didn't show it, nor did anyone else. Blitz mentioned that if they did succeed, maybe they could see about finding everyone who fled after Slate took over. They were still out there, Summit explained to Gale, making a go of it on the islands to the north.

The wind above was growling, clawing at the roof which began to groan and pop.

"Right," said Flint, looking up. "That hasn't been cleared in years. We should probably..."

"Go outside?" groaned Blitz.

"I'll need some help getting on the roof-"

"It's alright. I got it," said Gale, not noticing every oxen staring at him as he stood.

Flint quickly joined him by at the door. "Just to be safe."

Despite the steep angle, nearly half a foot had piled onto the roof. His cloak billowed up and hit him in the face, but he shoved it down, lit his horn, and began hurling the snow one scoop at a time onto the terrace's lower levels.

"Is that all of it?!" Gale shouted.

"Yeah! Wait, we need to get the other side!"

It took ten minutes total, and ten minutes more than either of them wanted to be out there, but soon they were inside shutting the door behind them, much to everyone's relief.

"Thanks, Flint," said Gale, shutting the door.

"Ha, for what?"

"Thank you, Gale," said Summit. "We appreciate that your magic takes a...considerable amount of effort." Several oxen nodded.

"Of course, least I can do." Gale and Flint sat just as a brown, fist-sized pouch was making its way around. Blitz pulled something out, popped it in his mouth, then passed it to Flint, who did the same. When it was Gale's turn, he pulled out and rolled the caramel-colored pebble in his hoof. It was sweet and salty. He bit down, not hard, but a sticky sledgehammer struck his teeth.

"Ow!"

"Did you really just try chewing...?" Flint cupped her face and howled, as did the others while Gale rubbed his jaw.

Blitz patted him on the back. "A little different from what you're used to, huh?"

Summit chuckled, "No magic in the world will help you eat that, Gale."

"Say, Bearing Gale," cheered Clay, "why are we going through all the trouble of hiking up there? Just conjure us up some wings and we can be at Slate's doorstep tonight!"

"Not funny, Clay," Flint chided.

"It's fine, Flint. Trust me, Clay. If I could, I would."

"He's got a point, though," said Flint. "Why didn't you just fly or...I don't know, teleport up to Slate when you first got here?"

"I can't."

She looked as if he'd told her up was down. "But...you're a unicorn."

He shook his head. "Most unicorns can't do things like that."

Flint made a face. "That doesn't sound right." Blitz and the other warriors nodded in agreement.

"Not all ponies are the same," said Summit, with a tip of his head towards Gale. "Unicorns typically have very specific magical abilities. Like all ponies, Bearing Gale's talents- including his magic- are reflected in his um, 'cutie mark.'" Seems there was no end to what Summit knew.

"Oh! That little thing on their flanks?" Flint laughed. "Yeah, now I remember. You don't have one of those, do you?" Gale raised the hem of his cloak. "Well, it could be worse."

Gale looked back at his windy compass and chuckled, "Yeah, I guess it is kind of strange."

"But not bad," added Summit. Many in turn looking at Gale, nodding. They looked to one another, whispering occasionally.

"There was this time when I was a colt," remembered Gale, "I went with my class to a forest. It was winter. We were learning about the seasons, and our teacher wanted us to go out and find something we thought was interesting to write about. Me and six others had wandered far from the group when a storm came. We got lost, and no one knew what to do."

"We took shelter in a cave. We waited for more than an hour, but the storm didn't stop. Everyone wanted to wait, but I said we should go. The mouth of the cave was at the bottom of a shallow crevice, and there was already a lot of snow on the ground. I thought we were going to be buried if we waited here. They said I was scared. I got mad, so I left the cave and went to find the teacher."

Silence from the oxen when he paused. "Did you?" asked Summit.

"No. I didn't find anybody. Anything more than five meters away I couldn't see. I ran, scared out of my mind, wishing I hadn't left the cave, until I got tired and just sat in the snow. For a minute, my head was...I couldn't think, I couldn't feel anything. All I could hear was the wind working its way around me. My magic wasn't very strong, but I knew how to cast a compass, but it didn't do me any good as long as I didn't know where I was relative to the town. Then I realized: I'd seen the storm coming over Ponyville when we entered the forest. Everywhere I looked I saw trees and shrubs leaning from the wind. It wasn't easy to see the clouds, but they were moving in a similar direction. Southwest, so I went Northeast. It took me two hours- the snow was so deep- but I found my way back to the schoolhouse, where the teacher was rounding up parents to look for everyone. The look on her face when I opened the door..." Gale looked down at himself. Some of the snow hadn't melted yet. "Must've looked even worse than this. We found everyone eventually, the ones in the cave just before dark. It was a week before my hooves were back to normal, after we dug them out."

"You went back out after all that?" Flint nodded, one eyebrow raised. "Like to see Slate do that."

Summit smiled contently, "And that's how you got your cutie mark."

More idle conversation after that. The oxen talked about food, the sports and music they played, and sometimes they asked Gale for an Equestrian comparison. When it was time to sleep Gale eased his head onto the floor, and he smiled for the first time since Canterlot. The hunger and stone floor he handled fine- as Astrolabe once put it, 'it's the feeling of being alone that's unbearable, when you have nowhere to run but deeper and deeper into the darkest corners of yourself. It'll drive you crazy.' Tonight, that wouldn't be a problem. Everyone was falling asleep around the fire, in the same circle they'd eaten in, shoulder to shoulder.

Last thing he remembered seeing was Flint on his left, her eyelids flickering as she mumbled, "We'll make an oxen out of you yet."