My Little Pony: Forever Stranger

He sprung at least twenty oxen from their cells as he ran through the hallways. They brought every steel-clad indoors, leaving Gale to pace in front of the school. Still no sign of Frazil, until he remembered his horn. He kept the spell going, turned around and saw on the shaded underside of the arch:

cellar

The school sat on the edge of the plateau, so a seven-foot wall surrounded the small yard and playground behind it. As Gale passed the rusted swing set and jungle gym he noted a loose rock in the wall, then turned to the shutter doors beneath him and pulled.

The small room was bare except for Frazil, still wearing her sapphire saddlecloth and a small bag. When she saw it was him coming down the stairs, she sighed. "There you are!"

"Frazil."

"No one saw you leave?"

"Sure hope not." He fell against the wall. "It wasn't easy lying to Flint and your father. They're distracting Grout right now."

She nodded. "I heard them through the walls. Gale, about before...I wanted to tell you more, especially the first time but-"

"I understand. Your father and Slate gave me their sides of it, but I'll be honest, Frazil: I still don't have a clue of what to do here."

"What do you know?"

"That whatever plan your plan is, you've been working on it for a long time. And it was worth staying with Slate so your dad wouldn't run to the islands with everyone else."

She shook her head. "I had a bad feeling ever since I first saw him. I knew we'd never be able to force him out. After Dad tried, I made a choice. I lied to them- everyone- so Slate would trust me."

The scene he imagined told him that didn't deserve a response. To the young ox it must've felt like biting off her own tail. "Did he and Flint tell you about the crystals?" she asked. Gale nodded. "Then you know what Slate did. I need your help, Gale. We all do."

"What do you want me to do, arrest him?" Fossil or not, Slate was a high-level unicorn. And in Bovaria, there were so many more creative ways for Gale to seal his fate.

"No." She sighed, "Gale...didn't Slate seem strange when you met him? Kind of...young?"

"Yeah, but..." A voice shouted in the back of his head. An old, raspy voice as he and Flint fell from the tower. But there'd been no one in the lab- just him, Frazil, and the steel-clads.

And the machine.

Knots in his stomach snapped. "That isn't possible. Our magic...you can't..."

"He found a way, Gale. They aren't just crystals, no matter what he says. So either he's lying to himself, or he knows and doesn't care."

He shook his head. "No. Nopony would do that, not at someone else's expense."

Frazil snapped, "I was his lab assistant for four years, Gale! I learned who he is by being with him every day, not reading a book he wrote to feed his ego!" She drew away. "I saw when they brought you in. Why'd you hang on to it for so long? Did you think all this was our fault? Just a bunch of dumb oxen waiting for somepony to save us?"

Gale looked away. He did. He had, until he met Flint, Summit, Blitz. But he couldn't have it both ways. Whoever he used to be, whatever he'd accomplished, Slate was the enemy now. And it was time for both of them to leave. "I'm sorry."

"I know." The side of her mouth tugged, weak substitute for a smile. "You were a real jerk when we met, but deep down I knew you'd be different. You were honest."

Gale looked away. He did. He had, until he met Flint, Summit and Blitz. But he couldn't have it both ways. Whoever he used to be, whatever he'd accomplished, Slate was the enemy now. And it was time for him to leave. "When did you find out?" he asked.

"It wasn't long after everything fell apart. It was...like flipping a switch. One day he was old and weak, the next...he just brushed me off and said he'd used some old Equestrian magic."

"You didn't believe him."

"Not for a second. I could tell he wasn't himself after that. He was still smart, but he got angry really easy. He forgot things, got distracted all the time." She paused. "Maybe that's part of why he didn't suspect anything from me. I was just his dumb little assistant, who did all the fertility work while he sat around thinking of ways to amplify his power."

"I'm sorry, Frazil."

The corners of her mouth tugged up, poor substitute for a smile. "Well, joke's on him." She patted her bag. "Everything I need to make it work without him is right here. Based on the incantations we used in our old rituals. The only trick is finding a way to keep the spells going. It's Slate's concentration that holds it together."

"You'll figure it out."

"I hope so." She stared at the wall behind him. "You know, it's funny. You were a real jerk when we met, Gale. But I knew you'd be different. You were honest when we talked."

"A fat lot of good that ended up doing. I learned a lot from your dad and sister on the way up. But whenever they said something about Slate..." Gale hung his head. "I thought I knew him. He was supposed to be one of our best. What's that say about me?"

Frazil let him down gently. "Nothing at all. Look, Gale. Maybe he was different back in Equestria. But out here? He's looked down on us ever since he shook Dad's hoof."

A crash behind the walls made them jump. History lesson was over. They needed to act, sooner rather than later. Gale shook himself awake. "So how do we stop him?"

Frazil pulled a scroll from her bag. "I built a failsafe into the machine. We can reverse the process Slate used to put himself in. He won't be able to control Bovaria, so he won't control us."

Gale unrolled the parchment and started memorizing the accompanying spell. Complicated, maybe too complicated. He looked up. "What about Grout and everyone else?"

She shrugged. "We'll figure it out. Slate's not as beloved as he thinks he is. But even if they knew, he could always just destroy Bovaria for good. So no one's ever really stood up to him anyway."

"What about once he's out? You think we can undo the damage?"

Frazil looked down. She kicked the gravel at her hooves. "I don't know. I've looked at it every way I know how. We've always made the crystals a certain way, scattered them in a specific pattern around the mountains. What he's doing is brute forcing it with Equestrian magic."

"That's why it's still not working?"

She nodded. "He's taken every crystal from the Stone Heart and still doesn't have enough to power the spells all the way." Frazil swallowed a lump in her throat. "Sooner or later, he'll..." she stopped. "Just a couple dozen of us, that's all it would take. Maybe even you, if he knew you were on to him. He's not far from figuring it out. If he hasn't already."

"He told you this?"

Frazil pursed her lips. "He didn't have to."

The munch of dirt filled the cellar as he and Frazil buried the scroll- her idea. She really had missed her calling outside a science lab. Then again, he wagered she could give any of the academy's magic students a run for their money, horn or no horn. Maybe someday she would, he tried telling himself. Oxen and ponies, friends forever after this. Did he really believe it? No. That was the colt from Ponyville talking. Hoping wasn't going to help anyone; Slate in chains would.

Time to head back. Frazil pointed out she could take the path she used to escape her room in the tower; Slate kept her on a short leash. Gale, on the other hoof, was better off finding Hornfel. If the riot was over, better that Slate see his fellow Equestrian had behaved. If Flint was still having fun, however, Gale would saunter back to the study, none the wiser of what had caused those barbaric oxen to start attacking each other. A simple but effective lie. Thinking more like Slate now, that's good.

As they climbed up the stairs Frazil explained, "Slate would have told you eventually about his...condition. He's got the machine- himself, whatever- hidden in a lab behind the study's fireplace. I'll open it from the other side, pretend I didn't know you were there, and then he'll have to show you. You can cast the spell before he knows what's happening."

When Gale put his hoof to the door, it shook with a voice from outside, "We know you're in there, pony! Come out!"

Teeth gritting, Gale cracked the wall with his hoof. "No!" His horn began to glow, until Frazil grabbed him.

"We can still make this work!" she whispered. "You can blame me-"

"No more games, pony! You've got to the count of three: One!"

"I wanted to see Dad and Flint-"

"Two!" The outside latch rattled.

"-so I dragged you in here to ask about them! Something like that!"

"Three!"

Gale shoved the door open and climbed out, Frazil cowering behind him as they stepped up into the schoolyard. It was snowing again. Everyone was there: Summit, Flint, Blitz, Clay and the rest of the caravan. All in chains held by Grout, Hornfel and a squad of steel-clads.

"Frazil!" Flint's chains popped as she tried to step forward. Summit's mouth was open but silent as his followers all looked on, eyes wide.

Grout snarled, "When Slate finds out you've been sneaking around- !"

"What's your problem, Grout?" Gale put his hoof around Frazil. "All this young lady did was pull me aside on my way out. Apparently, she hasn't seen her father and sister in four years, and wanted to ask me if they were okay."

"Stray Frazil," Grout snorted. "Of course, who else would dare disobeying Slate besides his sweet little assistant. I told you, Frazil: no visitors!"

"I-I just wanted to see my Dad..." She began sobbing in earnest, while Hornfel and three other steel-clads averted their eyes.

Unreal, Frazil. He turned to Grout. "You done?"

Grout shook his head and spat, "Slate can figure out what to do with you. I'm done with this." He glared to Gale and Frazil. "Come on!"

Gale pointed at his friends. "Not with them in chains."

Grout crossed the yard like an avalanche, stopping an inch from Gale's face. "If Slate hadn't told me otherwise, I'd have a pair on you too. Now get in line, pony."

He fell in next to Blitz as the steel-clads herded them out. Frazil walked behind him, between Summit and Flint, albeit with some difficulty due to the chains. As they filed out from the schoolyard, Grout and Hornfel took the lead at the front of their double-row prison line.

With many heads down, they marched down the middle of the street. Life had resumed since the last time Gale walked it, though the oxen froze once again as they watched their leader, friends and family pass by- most certainly not for the first time.

Gale looked up. The Canterlot tower loomed dead ahead, flaunting its fancy minaret and marble from across its equally garish bridge. It was the building's sole bulwark against the homely wood and granite on the plateau.

As they approached the bridge the steel-clads fell out of formation, pairing off with the comrade behind. Gale heard them talk: how cold they were, how sick they were of the weather, of guarding Slate's prisoners. At one point someone mumbled 'what choice do we have?'

A sudden thought hit him: he wasn't getting out of Bovaria. This spell was no less of a long shot than their climb up here. His mind was made up; if- when- worst came to worst, he'd hit Slate with everything he had. The only trick would be making sure no-one else was in the room. As for him and Slate, well, they'd make an impressively grisly story for the next pony.

Gale twisted his head back. Frazil was whispering into her father's ear, his ears picking up as she went. The old ox's lips pursed in thought, then sighed heavily. He motioned for Frazil to climb off, draped his hoof over Flint, and they too talked, too quietly for Gale to hear.

A few minutes later, Flint's eyes glazed over. She closed her eyes for a long time, nodding to herself before waving Clay over. More whispering, then Clay brought the ox next to him closer, and so on. When whatever it was finally reached Blitz, Gale felt a tug on his cloak. Frazil had reached underneath, placing the crystal shard she'd left him in one of the pockets.

"You need to talk to Hornfel," she whispered. "We need his help to get everyone inside the lab."

"What'd you tell Summit?"

"The short version of what we talked about. He wanted to see the spells I was working on."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Dad says he has a plan. Blitz?" The large bull stared at them a moment, then shrugged.

Come on, Summit. We're running out of time for secrets.

It was another small short climb to the tower entrance. Past another pair of blue doors, the steel-clads marched everyone towards a cell on the ground floor, past the bottom of the sparkling staircase that spiraled up seven stories.

Save Gale and Frazil, everyone was having their chains removed. And as luck had it, Grout had the only key, so he was on his knees popping locks and ordering his underlings to put the oxen inside. Hornfel stood by the staircase, wearing a half-lidded stare as he looked on.

Now or never. Frazil positioned herself next to Flint, blocking Grout's view as Gale walked over. Taking care not to stand too close, he looked at Hornfel and waited for the ox to turn his head.

"Hornfel."

The bull swallowed softly, didn't make eye contact. "Yes?"

"Nothing. How's your head?"

"Better, I guess."

"Sorry."

"You didn't know any better. Summit tricked you."

Gale nodded. "A lot of lying going around lately." He turned his head. "About before, I didn't mean it. And bringing up your mom...that was a low blow. She was very kind to me. She's lucky to have you."

Hornfel looked at him. "I'm the one who's lucky, with all the families that got split after..." He stopped.

"Is that what happened to Grout?"

"Yes, but- well, not exactly. He, um, had someone. She left for the islands with her family."

Grout had a special someone, go figure. Gale rubbed his chin, felt like sandpaper. "This has to end, Hornfel. Either there won't be a Bovaria worth fighting over, or there won't be anyone left to fight."

"Slate's taking care of it," Hornfel mumbled.

Gale reached into his cloak and pulled out the shard. "That's one way to put it."

Hornfel turned, and his eyes glowed. "Where did you get...that?" he sputtered.

"You know where."

"No...no, that's not true." He shut his eyes. "No, no..."

"Yes, Hornfel, it is. I'm sorry," whispered Gale. "All this time, you really had no idea?"

Hornfel shook his head. "I had doubts- we all did. But Slate told us Summit's spell made them unstable, that it was too dangerous to go near them. Slate showed us; I saw it happen, with my own eyes. So we stopped going to the caves, we stopped..."

Gale frowned. Another lie, backed by some dog and pony show. Plus whatever science-sounding gibberish Slate pulled from his ear, no doubt.

Grout was almost done. Gale whispered, "We carried this halfway up the mountain, and last time I checked I'm not exploding or melting. Slate knew most of you don't understand how the magic works." Finally he and the bull met eyes. "He lied to you, Hornfel. He lied to me, and Grout and Summit and everyone since he got here. And he'll keep lying until he's torn Bovaria apart."

Hornfel croaked, "There's nothing we can do. Slate's the only one who understands this stuff, you said-"

"There is a way. But I need your help." He jerked his chin at the cell. "We need to get them out and up to Slate."

Hornfel nodded. "I can...tell Grout I'll stay here. To question the pris- uh, to question them."

Gale nodded and gave him the shard. "Thank you, Hornfel. I promise, we're going to fix this." And sotto voce as he walked away, "We have to."