My Little Pony: Forever Stranger

It was like waking up for school. Eyes opened, closed, opened, closed, and there was hardly a difference except one made him a little less miserable. The interior of the hall was a dark, inky blue. The fire was long out, but the burgundy embers were still sending a solitary black wisp hissing towards the cone-shaped hood on the ceiling.

The grey storm clouds were still overhead when Gale finally managed to pry the door open. A good foot and a half covered the ground, nowhere near white, but rather a shade of blue-violet. There was plenty still falling onto the wind, whose breaths sent it flying in every direction like water on a snarling dog.

As he and Flint carefully stepped their way down the terrace, Clay and Blitz were wading out from the tunnel. The two bulls had taken the last guard shift, to make sure no steel-clads were watching, and had scouted the routes for when everyone else woke up in three hours. But for two hooded oxen and one hooded pony, it was time to walk the gauntlet now.

"Good luck, you guys," Clay whispered, and he followed Flint's tracks up to the hall.

As dark as it was already, the tunnel was but a black semi-circle that Gale couldn't help reaching out to touch- only to have his hoof paw at wispy nothing. Blitz said it was a straight shot, so they'd grope their way along the sides. Fires only when they stopped and had a roof for the smoke. The three of them stepped into the tunnel, side by side. Surprise, even colder inside.

There were five winding trails leading to the Stone Heart. The three of them would crisscross between- the straightest path with the hardest terrain. Maybe Slate could track Gale, but word traveled slow in the mountains. The storm would provide cover most of the way, and the steel-clads would be less responsive in their larger groups. Still, evading or subduing everyone they encountered? For ten, rough miles?

Gale estimated: him, Flint, and Blitz against three, four dozen steel-clads. Las Pegasus odds.

***

Two hours in, and the snow kept falling. After the tunnel, they never again walked on a flat surface, and not a minute passed without a mini-avalanche making them jump and their hearts spike. The wind bared its whistling fangs, prodded and jabbed, causing some spills, so Flint broke out the rope and they began to walk single file, Blitz in front. For the most part they lay low, between the piling dunes that ran alongside or below the trail. But in two hours they'd encountered at least ten patrols, and were nearly seen every time.

Like clockwork, five minutes after the last patrol a grey mirage approached from ahead. A mirage bearing torches, metal plates, and seven heads. Blitz saw them first and dove down the hill on the right, bringing Flint and Gale along.

They buried themselves and waited for the crackling and clattering to fade. Thoroughly smothered, the three of them found a small overhang of rock, shielded on all sides but the one facing a thousand-foot drop.

While Blitz made the fire, Flint found a slab and unrolled her map.

"Good catch, Blitz," Gale mumbled, rubbing his stiff hindlegs.

Flint took a deep breath, then let it blow out. "That makes fifty-six. Did Slate send all of them after you?"

He just might have. Gale shrugged. "At least we're drawing them away from the others."

"We can't keep hiding for seven miles. We're gonna have to make a break for it. We don't have the supplies for another night." She put her hoof on the map. "Here. The path's too small for all of them to follow us. I saw the archway leading to it on our left, not far at all."

Gale summoned the compass. "We'd be going five miles with no cover. They'd see us for sure."

"Face it, Gale. We won't get to the city going at this pace. So what if they see us? We can take them. Their numbers won't help them on the path."

Gale looked at the map and frowned. A closer look at the map showed him that the Stone Heart wasn't simply one mountain. It was a whole range, built up like a chessboard, with each piece a separate mountain in a tightly-packed fist. The city itself sat atop a mesa nestled right in the center, half as high as the tallest peaks. No wonder it'd been so much up and down. Per Flint's plan, the three of them were toeing a line of rises where many of the mountains bumped up against each other, a path that led straight to Bovaria's capital. Moving for the arch path would keep them lower to the ground, in pretty plain view. There'd be no protecting Summit's whereabouts then. The steel-clads would spread out and find the other groups after they realized Summit wasn't with Gale.

He didn't want to believe Slate would harm Summit, even if the old ox posed a threat to his research. No pony would dream of it. But whenever Gale put himself in Slate's shoes, he recited on instinct an ancient saw about the head and the body, and how you got rid of one that was causing you trouble.

They warmed themselves, before stamping the fire. Their pace was brisk, and they were three-quarters there when suddenly the snow stopped. The wind stopped. The air began to clear, and a rock ten meters away slowly became visible. A ridge, twenty away.

Gale changed his mind. He couldn't throw away everything he'd struggled for, Frazil's plan, to risk losing Summit now. "We can't let them spot us! Move!"

"What the...? Gale!" Flint shouted as she and Blitz sprinted after him.

The further Gale saw, the more eyes he felt on the back of his head. Muffled shouts echoed all around them as they reached the arch and ducked behind the cliff face it touched. The ground under their hooves narrowed, but Gale didn't slow.

He tripped, sliding muzzle-first on the trail. Hoof on his back as Flint or Blitz slammed into him.

"Are you crazy?!" barked Flint.

He stood. "We need to get to the city." Without another word he turned his head and a lance from his horn sliced the arch in two. The cliff face trembled when the pieces fell, blocking the path. Before he could back spin around, Flint tackled him.

"We won't get there if you bury us! What's gotten into you?"

Gale grunted, "Slate wants your father. As long as he thinks Summit's with us, the guards won't find him."

"How do you know Slate wants my dad?"

"It's not important."

"It is!"

"I can't tell you."

"Come on, Gale, not this again!"

Blitz pulled at her. "We need to move!" Behind them, past the bend of the cliff, the shouting grew loud as the steel-clads wrestled with the debris.

The three ran, following the path until it forked. To the left, a sloped clearing lead into a boulder-littered valley. Their original route, before they ran for the arch, was now above on the right, no longer visible behind the top of the cliff and its overflowing edge. Dollops of snow periodically fell from it, exploding wetly on the half-buried trail.

Halfway down the clearing was a line of large snowdrifts. As the three of them ducked behind, Gale pointed his horn pointed at the clearing, then swung his head in an arc towards the cliff. At least thirty bubbles of air burst above, under, or in the hoof-marked snow. The ground's coat erupted skyward, then settled in a sheet of uneven lumps, just as the ridge and arch trail became lined with steel-clads.

"Anyone see them?" carried a voice.

"Where's their tracks?"

"Spread out!"

Keeping his head low, Blitz leaned out. He turned to Flint and Gale. "Eight on the path, eight on the ridge. I think it's Grout."

Flint sat, throwing up her hooves. "Great. He wouldn't give up if we dropped the mountain on him." She glared at Gale. "Now what?"

He took the map. "We can lose them in the valley. It circles back up on the far side."

"That's gonna waste us hours!"

"It doesn't matter when we arrive. It's your dad needs to make it up there, so he can get help and keep Slate off balance. That was the plan, remember?"

"It was until I realized you had your own."

"Look, I know I haven't earned your trust, not yet-"

"You did. But I need a reason now, Gale. What are we doing?"

Blitz leaned out again. The steel-clads were sweeping down the slope in a loose line. A couple minutes at most until they reached the snowdrift. Now or never. In a low voice Gale told her, "I met someone at the tower who will help us. They told me Slate wants your dad."

"Who?"

He shook his head. "That has to stay with me, Flint. I'm sorry. We can't risk Slate finding out he's got someone helping us."

"You think I'd talk if I knew?"

"No, I think you'd be distracted."

"What's that supposed to-?"

"Guys!" Blitz slid down the hill, between a pair of boulders. With a glance at the other, Flint and Gale followed, and found themselves in a forest of frosted rocks as big as carts. Some luck: the valley was already well pockmarked with hoofprints.

A shadow came over Flint's face, then disappeared. She looked at the ground, then at Gale. "Okay." She nodded. "Let's find a way out of here."

"Grout!" a voice above shouted. It was Hornfel, the plus-one from the cave. The steel-clads gathered in a circle. "Slate just sent out word: the pony's moving towards the valley."

Grout laughed, "I know. It's over, then. Take Ash Flurry's team around and cut them off. I'll give the signal when we're ready. You see the pony, you stay out of his view and flank him all at once. But focus on Summit! The old goat's got to be planning something."

It was hide-and-seek for an hour. The three of them darted from boulder to boulder, between gaps in patrols as the sun burned overhead, no longer smothered by the clouds. It was the brightest Gale had seen since he arrived, and here he was, evading a platoon of steel-clads in broad daylight. In a valley no larger than three square miles. Their only blessing: Grout nor any of his underlings had realized hiding a large group in here wasn't difficult; it was impossible.

Their luck ran out when they reached the end of the valley. It curved back up to the mountains via another archway, blocked by Hornfel and his team. Slate wanted Summit bad.

The top of a small rockslide offered the best view and most cover. Lying on their bellies, the three of them caught their breaths and crawled onto the lip of their hiding place. Flint squinted at the eight guards, then turned to Gale and Blitz. "If you really can give us wings, now'd be good."

Gale wiped his forehead. "Can we fight past them?"

"Without them seeing we're alone? That's a 'no', Gale."

"Maybe we can distract them," offered Blitz. "I can pretend I've snuck away from Summit's group, and lead them wherever."

Flint shook her head. "Come on, Blitz, that's the oldest trick in the book!"

"Not the worst, though," Gale added.

Blitz went on, "It can't be Gale. And they'd definitely expect a trick from you."

"Lead them here, then." Flint unsheathed her spear. "We'll have your back."

As Blitz climbed down and started walking, Gale pulled out his sword. "If this goes sideways and we can't take them all out, I'll put up a shield to hide us."

"You mean, like, make us invisible?"

"No, like a one-way mirror in a big dome. It'll look like I'm hiding a lot of us."

"Then what?"

"I bring down that pile of snow on top of the arch."

"Oh. Great."

What happened in the next minutes remained a blur to Gale, but it went something like this: as soon as Blitz stepped out from the rock field into the clearing, the steel-clads bore down on him like wolves on a hunk of meat. They surrounded him, then talked to him. Blitz's acting must have been good, because Hornfel and his team didn't debate long before they started prodding Blitz in the direction of the rockslide. Flint and Gale were hiding in the darkest shade the boulders, weapons ready as the steel-clads and Blitz approached from just out of pouncing range. Just a few more seconds, and they'd be out of the way, no fuss.

Until Hornfel pulled out a leg-sized tube. Blitz had seen it, and tackled the meek, light-coated bull, whose friends turned just in time to see the fuse finish its burn, and the flare cut a bright red crescent into the sky.

Eyes wide, Flint and Gale jumped from the rockslide and rushed them. But they were too far, and too late. Flint reached out, swinging her spear while Gale, sword in mouth, covered the rest of the distance with a long balestra. Caught the first steel-clad in his helmeted head. The broken blade clanged, the bull staggered dizzily, and opened himself to a swift kick to the side. He went down, and the rest of the fight became a private brawl more worthy of an alley.

Hornfel and his remaining five paired off. Blitz took his bare-hoofed, pinning one to the ground as he grappled the other's neck like a nasty older sibling.

The two against Flint moved around her until they had her completely outflanked. They lunged at the same time. She slid under the one in front of her, bucked him over and into his partner. When they were tangled she jabbed one with the weighted end of her spear, then smashed it over the other's trapped head.

Meanwhile, Hornfel and the last steel-clad retreated from Gale to the rocks, darting from cover to cover. No clear shot. Like Flint, he was completely outflanked. Didn't help he was out of his weight class, too. Every missed blast from his horn brought his temperature up and Hornfel closer, until something heavy threw him to the ground. Burning pinch as he fell on a sharp rock.

"I got him!" the steel-clad shouted. As Hornfel charged Gale's eyes shut. The world went quiet. Could hit him couple times but one on back would break concentration need different spell simple thinkthinkthink. A long second later, he opened his eyes. The weight flew off his back. Hornfel's eyes widened in horror as he and the snow and rocks around him rose ten meters, fifteen meters.

Gale rolled to his hooves, looked up and spoke in his head: down.

The two steel-clads fell like anvils. Gale walked over to Hornfel. Tilt head, pommel up, smash, helmet skittering away. Same for the other one, probably Ash Flurry by the color of her coat. Still catching his breath when Blitz and Flint joined him.

Flint looked at the two unconscious bulls. "Geez, Gale." She bent down and scooped up Hornfel's flare cannon. "They teach you that back in Equestria?"

Gale, still breathing hard, looked up at the mountains that forever remained in the background, at Hornfel lying beaten in the snow before the peaks like a ritual offering, and shook his head. "No."

Coming from deeper in the valley, a clattering, shouting storm front.

Flint spun to face him. "Shield, now!"

As they ran for the arch a beam shot skyward from his horn, then spread out in all directions as it arced back to the ground, forming an opaque, nonsolid dome. Big enough to hide at least twenty oxen. Thirty seconds later, there were twice as many steel-clads behind them, pouring from the rocks. Every ox in the valley must have seen the flare.

"Gale...?!" Flint shouted.

He nodded. Another beam from his horn hit the top of the arch. "Move!"

The snow sitting on the arch trickled at first, hardly noticeable. Then a crack, like the earth was splitting in two, and a steady stream of houses began falling in slow-motion onto the clearing. Flint and Blitz were at the front of the shield, moving fast enough to stick halfway through it. They cleared the arch before looking back at Gale.

Almost made it when a bowling ball exploded on his head. He fell to his knees, shield flickering in tandem with his vision, then he felt his hooves drape over a pair of shoulders which hauled him away.

***

He must have passed out. The sun was low and falling fast behind the mountains. The snow was blue again, and the sky bruise-purple.

Flint and Blitz were studying the map, while he sat propped against a dry rock. Some forty meters below was the trail on the other side of the arch, its opening half-filled by their little avalanche. To the left lay a wide pass with steep sides, and beyond it the jagged inner circle of the Stone Heart, still flat against the horizon.

Flint reached out and held him down. "Nice and slow, Gale." Blitz offered his hoof. Gale took it and stood, carefully. "We got away before the shield broke. They didn't see us."

Gale nodded. "You guys carried me all the way up here?"

Flint made a half-smile. "You aren't exactly heavy."

He tugged at his sword a bit, then let it slide back into the scabbard. "Thanks. Now what?"

"I went down a little while ago. They're still digging all of their friends out. When they move out, we'll follow behind. Make it up from there."

"Sounds good."

They waited thirty minutes for the forty steel-clads to claw their way free and regroup under the arch. Half of them were missing armor pieces, and both halves were wet and white wherever their coats were exposed. One of them walked forward to the front of the pack.

"Who set off that flare? Who? Get up here!" Hornfel and his team limped to the front. "You nearly got us all buried, you get that?!"

"It was the pony, Grout." Flurry said wearily.

"I know it was the pony I was there! You're telling me eight of you couldn't stop some candy-colored milksop just because he had a horn?!"

"It wasn't just him. Flint and Blitz was there. They were part of a larger group. They jumped us when we moved into the valley."

"You were supposed to be guarding the pass!"

"We were, it's just...not like them. We weren't expecting them to ambush us like that."

"Or the pony to bring down the mountain on us..." another added.

Hornfel, clutching his forehead, spoke up. "What's done is done, Grout. Slate clearly doesn't know the pony as well as he thought. We gotta keep moving if we're gonna catch up to him and Summit. We're gonna have a war on our hooves otherwise. Summit's still got too many friends in the city."

Grout snorted, "Let's go."

Sunset brought a close to their day, in more ways than one. Gale, Flint, and Blitz followed Grout's company of steel-clads closely for an hour, until a lone bull came tearing out of the darkness. The torch in his saddle flickered as he screeched to a powdery halt.

"Just got news from Slate, Grout. The pony's still in this area. He's real close."

Gale could hear Grout's eyes roll. "Oh! You really think so, Tuff? Well, that's just great!"

"You haven't the good part yet." The young bull's eyes went wide, his voice tight. "You won't believe it. When Slate heard about the valley he sent us reinforcements from the city. They weren't even out an hour and they got him. They got Summit!"