My Little Pony: Forever Stranger

He woke up and fell asleep in different places. Once in a cell, alone. Later in a big room, surrounded by shaggy silhouettes who spoke gently to him until a bark made them scatter, and rings of metal shut around his hooves and dragged him away.

Finally he woke up in a bed, complete with sheets and pillows and springy mattress. Electrodes dotted his head and torso, which hooked up to a beeping monitor. He didn't climb so much as spill out of the bed, but was steady on his hooves as he took in the room. Ripped right out of Canterlot, from polished floor to latticed windows. And it was warm.

Rubbing his forehead revealed the fresh bandages there, on his legs and everywhere else. His coat, which hadn't been dry for days, felt as if it'd been scrubbed from head to hoof. The alien feeling was too good to be troubling just yet.

There it was. Below him and just outside the frosted window, enclosed by that impenetrable ring of narrow mountains. The pear-shaped plateau was terraced, practical. The oxen had doubled their space in the process, building in almost every shape imaginable: prism halls, an open-roofed amphitheatre, winding spires, tall dwellings with turrets. A steep, wooden roof topped most, while the stone that made their walls shared the mountain's blue-grey, as well its powdery, pearly highlights. The painted cityscape seemed to rise from the earth rather than stand atop it like a three-mile, three-dimensional jigsaw.

"Wow..."

Click. Door wasn't even open before Gale covered the distance from the window. Despite being half again as tall as him, the middle-aged oxen jumped back when she saw him, sheets spilling from the basket on her back.

"I'msosorry!" she dropped her head and turned away. "I...please..."

It took his heart a good four seconds to slow, before he looked up and saw his horn crackling. Moment of panic as he stopped showing his teeth, straightened his knees, and dropped his shoulders. She wasn't the enemy. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He held out his hoof. "My name's Bearing Gale. What's yours?" Nothing. "Have you been taking care of me?"

Her head stayed down. "Yes, sir...Mister Gale. I just took over for someone else. I'm sorry, I should've been more careful."

"No, it was my fault. I came at you like a wolf." He reached out again. "It's just Gale, ma'am."

She took it this time and shook, looking up. "Frost Flower."

He didn't know what to say next, so he gave her a tired smile and stuck his head into the hallway. No guards, no Flint, no Summit. "How'd I get here, Frost Flower?"

"You can just call me Flower, sir-"

"Gale."

"Gale." She relaxed a bit. "One of our guards, Grout, brought you here."

He nodded and rubbed his leg. "Yeah, I know him. He, his pal Hornfel and I have been getting to know each other the past few days."

She grabbed his shoulder. "You know my son! Where is he?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. You don't?"

"I haven't seen him in days. Slate's been sending him up and down the mountain, trying to find Summit and...oh." She let go. "You never actually talked to Hornfel, did you?"

He swallowed air. "He was ok last time I...saw him. I'm sorry."

Her eyes, though lined with age burned deep hazel. Though he braced for it, she didn't lash out or scream. Only parenthood granted anyone- pony or ox- that kind of control. "You're a stranger. You didn't know any better." She scooped up the sheets and threw the mess onto the bed. Gale grabbed his things, which were hanging by the door. A little warm for the cloak, but he felt bare without it. When he turned around Frost Flower was facing away, smoothing the bed.

Apologize again? Leave quietly? Manners and courtesies failed him; they all sounded hollow. So he was rude but practical, "I'm looking for Slate. Do you know where he is?"

Without looking she pointed left. "Someone down there can help you. Gale."

He took two steps, thought of Ms. Scroll, then was standing in the door again. "Thank you, Flower." He didn't wait, but caught her head turning before the wall replaced her. Too late, for both of them.

His 'help' came in the form of two steel-clads around a blind corner. All three of them jumped, were perfectly still, then slowly eased back into their standing positions. Neither bull said a word, their eyes wide and mouths hanging slightly open. Gale looked up. His horn had lit itself again. Twice in five minutes- hadn't happened since his feather-levitating days. It was more embarrassing than anything else, but one creature's fumble was another's war dance. Another door behind the steel-clads. One held it open for Gale while the other stepped far to the side. Neither followed him through. The door creaked shut.

The hallway curved gently. East, given the windows on his left, which hit his hooves with barely any light. The glass trembled from the wind, trying to claw its way inside.

At halfway, the apex of the hall's curve, stood a royal blue door twice his size. He only had to raise the brass knocker once. The snaps of turning locks echoed through the wood, and the door slowly eased open.

Another study, another chandelier. Polished shelves lining alabaster walls, parchment and books littering the tables and lecterns. A roaring fireplace on the other end of the room, behind a horseshoe desk and padded chair. Both were silhouetted by the flames, but neither hid the bone-white coat of the unicorn sitting, or the brown glow of his scribbling horn.

"Slate?" Gale whispered. "Is that you?"

***

The old unicorn wasn't so old. He wore his graying mane short and combed back. Where it met his forehead, a pair of smart reading glasses hid the brown twisting irises of an owl. A tie and pinstripe vest concealed his top half. When the door shut, he looked up from his work.

"Yes, Gale. It's me. Come, take that nasty thing off and make yourself comfortable. We have a lot to talk about, if you'll forgive the cliché."

A chair slid in front of Slate's desk. Gale sat, but didn't take off his cloak.

"When Grout first told me about this pony fighting his way up to the Stone Heart, I thought he'd become careless. Forty, fifty oxen- it didn't matter. So either Equestria was pumping out ruthless warriors now, or Grout was being outmatched by a single unicorn."

"I wasn't alone."

"Yes, I was...surprised by your alliance with Summit and his followers. But I assume they gave you little choice, didn't they?"

"I owed them for what happened in the caves."

"They certainly got their money's worth, then."

"You told Grout where to find me and your map. He attacked them." Careful, sounding a little too hostile.

"We've known about Summit's hideout for months, Gale. I...Grout was perfectly content with waiting them out, until they returned to the city on their own. Your being there, after Flint abducted you, left us with limited options. They might have hurt you, or worse. So Grout went, at my request, because I knew I could trust somepony the princesses sent." He stared at his desk, mouth curving up. "Grout, Hornfel, Flurry. They're more than my guards. They're my friends, strange though they are."

Gale looked away, looked back. "Why did they attack me?"

Slate sighed, chair hissing as he leaned back. He tapped the desk. "Gale. As you may have noticed, we're not in Equestria anymore. It's important that we stay true to our better nature, and inspire it in others when we can." He leaned forward. "I tried, Gale, and I failed. I failed. Despite everything I did to help Summit and his followers. It took me more than four years, but eventually I gathered the resources to call for help from Equestria."

Gale shook his head. "I don't understand. What happened?"

"They didn't tell you?" Slate's puzzled frown disappeared. "Ah, of course." Pause. "Tell me, why was it so important to Summit that he have your help?"

He shrugged. "Flint said something about my magic helping their chances of-"

"They have their own, Gale. They didn't need your help." Slate adjusted his tie. "And therein lies the source of Summit's problems." He rubbed the fine-hairs of his beard. "What did you think, the first time you met him?"

Five days ago. "He seemed decent, honorable," Gale answered. "All he cared about was keeping his oxen safe."

"All true. And when he stopped being that, they abandoned him." Slate waved a dismissive hoof. "Oxen loyalty is...fickle, as I've sometimes observed."

"What did he do?"

Slate tightened his tie as he rubbed his forehead. "I can see it so clearly, even now. I had just made a remarkable discovery about Bovaria's magic. The machine you saw in the tower-"

"You made it."

"-using crystals I gathered from caves all around the Stone Heart. The oxen had been propping them up in the tunnels for years in some kind of strange, ritualistic behavior. They don't keep many secrets, but Summit refused me an explanation."

Gale gulped, "Maybe he had a reason."

"I did my research, Gale. A sample I recovered one night was just that- a crystal. Nothing more than a pile of calcite covered in oxen scribbles. But it wasn't completely useless. After several experiments I discovered they had magical properties. Even the smallest shard acted like the Crystal Heart, along with some properties I still don't fully understand."

Gale's head spun. He'd traveled five days and the better half of a hundred miles. He'd been buried, frostbitten, chewed on, and in general treated poorly in so many ways most ponies wouldn't dream of. So why did it feel like he'd just stepped off the boat? The mission, the one the princesses had given him, was over. All that was left was to learn what he could, add to his report. They'd find him eventually. Focus. He swallowed before asking, "Summit found out what you were doing."

"He didn't even give me a chance to explain myself. I don't know how, but he had a spell ready to get rid of me. It didn't work, obviously. But in that moment, he betrayed his community, his family. He'd been increasingly critical of me lately, of how oxen were coming to me to solve their problems instead of him." Slate sighed, "I don't blame Summit for holding on to who he is, who he wanted to be. But we couldn't both have what we wanted. So he left, while the oxen let me stay."

"And what did you want?"

"To do what ponies do best, Gale: to help them. With my machine...imagine Bovaria without snow, without blizzards or hail every waking moment. Where the oxen don't have to struggle day and night only to scrape by. I can teach them so much. We can teach them so much."

"I came to find you, Slate, not teach."

"So you did. Though you did a lot more than that, if everything I've heard is true." His horn glowed, tightening the bandage on Gale's side. "A week out there. A high price, even if it was for the Royal Sisters. Do you think it was worth it?"

"Yes," Gale whispered.

Slate cocked his head, looking down as he adjusted his tie. "They certainly didn't send just anypony after me. Most would be sobbing right now, telling me how hard it was, how much they wish they could go back and do things differently. No good ever comes from that- trying to undo and 'do-over,' Gale. It comes from accepting our choices, facing our mistakes, and moving on. I'm glad to see the royal guard aren't slouching with their members, though I'm willing to bet they're not all like you either."

Without thinking, Gale mumbled, "The princesses needed somepony who could make the trip. I thought after this mission, they'd make me..."

Slate appraised him with a toothy grin. "I see. Well...maybe they'll be more impressed than you think. But first, what will you do now that you've found me?"

Shrug. "I don't know. I'm stuck here until somepony else finds me. I just want to go home."

"Then let's help each other, like ponies should. As you probably guessed, my machine isn't exactly working. I haven't had time to resettle after relocating from the tower, so I'd like your help getting it ready. It will cover the entire peninsula by the time we're done."

Flashback to the steel-clads trying to shove the horn sheath on him. "I don't have your magic or your mechanical skills, Slate. Why do you need my help?"

"I don't need your help, I want your help. My time here, your mission, both leading up to this moment, when two of Equestria's finest saved an entire land from devastation. Your career, my legacy. It's ours, Gale, if you help me. Then, I promise to see you out of Bovaria myself."

'We expect you to...careful...discrete...return to Equestria. Immediately. Brilliant minds...turned my family against me...Just agree with him. Please.' The mission was over, and here he was, still making it up as he went. He nodded. "Alright. We'll do it."

Slate nodded in turn. "We're doing the right thing." He smoothed his tie. "The only thing we can do." More papers glowing settled on the desk. "I'm afraid you can't help me right now, but why don't you go explore the city while I set up. I'd say you've earned it. One piece of advice, though: don't mingle with the oxen. Unlike Summit's, they understand what it means to be civilized. And after what you did to get up here, they're likely to be afraid of you."

Gale nodded, stood, and stopped at the door. Turning around, "I need to see Summit. Flint, Blitz, all of them. To make sure they're alright."

"Your debt to them is repaid, Gale, they're fine. They're here now. Maybe not under the conditions that would've given them the war they wanted, but I know you'll agree that was for the best."

"I still want to see them," he said, voice quivering towards the end. "Where are they?"

The lines around Slate's eyes tightened, then relaxed. "You've been in Bovaria a long time, Gale." Slate raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you're not as ready to go home as you think. He stood and tugged the hem of his vest. "Down the hall, to your left. I'll have Hornfel escort you. Try to be back by two. We'll talk more then."

***

His hooves were clicking on the stone brick streets, and he still hadn't decided whether he believed what Slate said. All the more reason to find Summit- and Frazil, once he found a way to ditch Hornfel. The young bull, his helmet mysteriously missing, was attached to Gale at the shoulder since they crossed the thin bridge connecting Slate's abode to the city. Built into the mountain side, his lone tower shadowed them for a block. The farther they walked, the more oxen dropped everything and retreated to their homes in droves. Streets went silent in seconds, though Gale could hear eyes turn from the few pretending to shovel walks or scrape windows. To make it official Hornfel should have shouted, 'Roll up, roll up! Come and see the dangerous freak!'

The building was elegant, for a prison. A line of four stained glass ovals laced the grey granite facade, centered around a wooden door. A simple, stone arch as big as seven oxen stood freely but close to the building, oriented so as to be aligned with the entrance. They passed under it approaching the dozen steel-clads standing guard. Either Frazil had mixed up meeting places, or she'd deliberately chosen one with more security than the gates of Tartarus. At least he wouldn't walk very far to find her.

The guards made no fuss, no 'state your business' or other such nonsense. Whether that was because of Hornfel or him, Gale couldn't tell. The steel-clads always seemed informal, more academy hoofball team than actual army. For all he knew maybe they had been, before Slate. Before their old schoolhouse was a prison.

The main desk was still there, covered in dusty, frozen scrolls. The chalk drawings on the walls told him the building was for all ages. In a way, it still was. As he and Hornfel passed the classrooms, young and old faces looked up at him from behind the barred doorways, some confused, others shocked. Their shaded figures seemed familiar, as if he'd seen them in a dream.

Flint and Summit were with the rest of the caravan in the basement, which once served as the school's small gymnasium. Like the classrooms the gym's double doors had been ripped out, replaced by a sliding row of crisp iron bars.

When they saw he wasn't in chains, Flint sprung to the door. "Gale!"

He turned to Hornfel. "Open it."

The bull kept his eyes forward. "I can't do that."

Horn glowed. "Then you better stand back."

"There are twenty of us in the building-"

"And twenty ice sculptures if I feel like it. Now open it, Hornfel, your mother doesn't need you getting hurt more!"

Something rewarding in Hornfel's eyes when he looked at Gale. But when he looked back at Flint, she stared with her head turned slightly away. Strange. She had to know he couldn't actually do magic like that. Even if he could, he probably wouldn't have.

The door slid open, and Flint led him through the rows of cots to the back corners, where Summit and several others had gathered. Blitz was there, sitting and rubbing his hooves together. "You've looked worse," he said to Gale.

"Wish I could say the same, Blitz." He met gazes with Summit, his head fell. "I'm sorry."

Summit rubbed his eyes. "It was a gamble, Gale. You have our thanks." He looked older than ever. Gale could tell; they were all tired too.

Gale shook his head. "What happens now?"

"Slate talked to me alone not long ago. He said he's willing to negotiate if I tell everyone that the fight is over."

Flint read his mind, "We've already decided. This isn't over."

"You might not have a choice, Flint. You're all looking at banishment or worse."

"Except Shale Mantle..." someone muttered.

"We still have a chance," she pressed. "You're a pony, Slate trusts you. He wouldn't be letting you walk around otherwise, unless..." Her mouth dropped. "You didn't."

"You really think I'd betray you? Just because me and Slate are ponies?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't say you tried to get rid of Slate with magic, either."

Flint froze, mouth open. All eyes fell on Summit, who sighed. "I knew he was dangerous the day he arrived. So I took precautions, consulted our histories and yours. A year of work, and it did nothing to him."

Gale frowned. "He didn't take over their minds. He just make you look like a power-hungry hypocrite. And they haven't bat an eye at his experiments since."

"If they even know about them," Flint pointed out.

"There's more, Gale. As Bovaria fell apart my daughter, Stray Frazil, she took Slate's side. I was convinced then that he was controlling her somehow, but now..." He hung his head. "She was never locked up or waiting to be rescued. I should have found another way, but I failed her, and everyone who left for the islands." He looked up. "If I submit to him now, I fail everyone who stayed to help me find her."

"Never, Summit," whispered Blitz. "We followed you because this is our home, and you were willing to fight to keep it ours." The oxen all nodded.

Gale breathed deep and sat on one of the cots. Summit did what any worried leader would have, but against Slate's magic, he might as well have tried wrestling an ursa. The old unicorn held every card, including one to save Bovaria. So why spend his time getting Gale's 'help' and the oxen's surrender? What was left for him to want? Gale rubbed his chin. He had to get out of here, see what Frazil was planning. Still not sure where she fit in all of this.

A familiar voice roared from the end of the room, "And you just let him in?!"

"He was going either way, Grout-"

"And now he and Summit are planning who knows what! You two, with me!"

The bar door rang as it hit the wall. Grout, backed by Hornfel and two steel-clads, were pounding across the room, fast.

Gale spun to Flint. "I need to find our friend."

Flint grinned. "Can do. Blitz, Needle, you get the two in the back. Clay, grab Hornfel. I'm gonna find out what that bell on Grout's head sounds like."

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Gale turned around, and his muzzle almost touched Grout's. The four guards had forced their way into the middle of the crowd. Not smart.

"What are you doing here?! I gave strict orders- !"

"Calm down, Grout," said Gale. "I came to check on Summit and Flint before I went to help Slate with his science."

"You really expect me to believe that?" Grout flung his hoof at Summit. "There's always something when this old liar's involved!"

Summit kept his voice steady, "I never lied to you, Grout."

"No, you destroyed us! And right when Slate's trying to put us back together, you con this pony into doing your dirty work!"

Flint stamped her hoof. "Grout, you dumb jerk! Do you have any idea what Slate's doing, what he took from us?"

"Yes! Slate did what he had to, because of him!" Another jab towards Summit. "He did this to Bovaria!"

Gale shook his head. "How many lies has he been telling you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, pony."

Flint growled, "His name is Gale."

Grout bared his teeth and pointed at Summit. "That's it. Time's up, we're going to see-"

Blitz, Needle, and several oxen who weren't part of the plan grabbed Hornfel and the steel-clads. "Sorry, guys," muttered Blitz.

Flint smashed into Grout. They both hit the ground, a tangle of hooves and horns as Flint slipped behind him. "Just like recess huh, Grout?" she grunted.

Summit clasped Gale's shoulder. "We'll talk soon."

As he sprinted from the gym, clattering hoofsteps thundered down the staircase up. He threw himself onto a cot, then the cloak over himself, right as eight more steel-clads joined the brawl.

In ten seconds he was outside the cell, sliding the door closed and melting the lock.