My Little Pony: Forever Stranger

The first two flights they climbed in silence. Grout led while Gale, Summt, Flint and Frazil walked shoulder-to-shoulder up the carpeted, marble steps. The fabric painted a ruby trail that wound along the circular wall like a snake- a muffling coil to keep the tower's sterile silence.

At the second floor landing, a door opened behind them. Gale twisted his head back and saw Frost Flower staring at him. Her mouth opened slightly, as did his, then the two quickly turned around and kept walking.

Flint tapped him. "Gale."

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering, what're you gonna do when you get back to Equestria?"

He hadn't thought about it. "I guess I'll have to report back to the Princess."

"Think they'll be mad about what happened?"

He laughed, "Probably. Either kicked out of the academy, or thrown in the dungeon. Or both." The terror and hopelessness from last night were gone. He wasn't cold or hungry or hunted anymore, so what did he care? If not the princesses, then somepony else was going to fire him. Yeah, as if I were still in their dumb guard. He laughed again, "Assuming I even get home."

"You will," Summit muttered. Nothing else, then Flint stopped to wipe her forehead. She clearly wasn't tired.

"Sorry you missed your boat, Gale. Think they'll find you?"

He looked back and smiled. "If they're anything like you? Definitely."

Summit looked straight at him. "We're glad to have met you, Gale. I only wish it had been under better circumstances."

He nodded. "We had a long hike. Ate some food, swapped some stories. So hey, it wasn't all bad." Light bulb went off, and he turned to Frazil. "Ponyville. I'm from Ponyville."

Frazil narrowed her eyes and smiled weakly. "Never in a million years. You were too rude and nasty to come from a small town."

"Well, I lived in Canterlot after that, so yeah." To Flint, "You'd love it there: lots of fancy, stuck-up ponies, boutiques and garden parties, that sort of thing."

"Funny, Gale." Her voice was stone.

The study door was open when they arrived at the top floor. Gale looked further down the hall. Maybe it wasn't too late to find that bed.

Grout turned around and pointed inside. "Get in."

The next couple moments were rather surreal. In silent, single file Gale, Flint, Frazil and Summit entered while Principal Slate sat at his desk, not even looking up from his work until Grout closed the door behind himself. The muddy eyes scanned every one of them, and settled first on Summit.

"It's been a long time, old friend."

"You don't know what the word means."

"You knew who I was, what I am- can you blame me for being true to that?"

Flint spat, "For being a crazy, arrogant despot, yes."

"That's the most eloquent thing you've ever said to me, Flint."

"Go sit on an icicle."

Slate frowned and turned to Gale. "I assumed subterfuge was beneath a pony such as you, Bearing Gale." He leaned back in his chair. "Then again, it wasn't your fault, was it? Good apple in a rotten basket. First the oxen lie to get you up the mountain, then to turn against me. I'm especially disappointed in you, Frazil. I thought you were different."

"What are you talking about?" Gale thrust his chin at Grout. "All Frazil did was try to find out about her family. Grout's making this more than it is."

The young bull started, "You calling me a liar-"

"Grout." Slate lowered his hoof. "I've been tracking you since we met at the tower. But you already knew that, didn't you? What else did you tell him, Frazil? Does it have to do with the scrolls you stole from the lab? My work?"

Gale stamped his hoof. "This is ridiculous, Slate. "I thought you wanted my help."

Slate blinked. The edges of his mouth thinned, twisted down. "You were plotting against me, Gale. At least have the decency to admit when you're caught."

No point pretending now. His teeth gritted as he leaned forward. "You first."

Slate didn't blink as he glanced at Grout. His eyes dimmed, narrowed. Finally he nodded. "I suppose-

A flash and pop, then Slate's chair was empty.

"- it was only a matter of time."

The fireplace had been an illusion too, but the flame still snuffed out, and the bricks crumbled away before the whole wall turned to ice and shattered in a million glass grains. On the other side, an exact replica of the lab from the first tower with its cords, papers, and tables. The machine- Slate- sat in the center, pulsing and humming like a boiler about to quietly burst. Gale scarcely noticed him; in addition to frost the cave floor was littered with tiny, dark splinters. On the far wall sat a smelting furnace. Its prism molds were half-filled with slag that had long cooled like a lava flow. A green, glowing lava flow.

Flint and Summit went pale. Grout's mouth hung open.

The crystals in the machine throbbed with Slate's syllables. "I had hoped to deal you in slowly, Gale. But I should've known: if you were willing to enter the labyrinth at all, you wouldn't stop until you found the minotaur. Ugly as he might be."

"What did you do?" Gale whispered. "What did you do, Slate?"

"Things that I'm not proud of. For your own sakes, I won't expect you to understand."

"Why not?" Flint snapped. "Would four years of this look better to anyone else in the world?!"

"This machine wasn't meant to be an escape for me. It was a safeguard, to ensure my work would be finished. I'd hoped to pass it on to you, Frazil, when I was ready to let go of the reigns."

Frazil shook her head. "Which would have been never."

"We're not here for what you hoped to do, Slate," said Summit. "We're here for what you've done."

"All the families destroyed...all this suffering...because of you," Flint muttered.

Gale stepped forward. "Why? You could've done all of this back in Canterlot. No spying, no secret messages..."

"I didn't belong there any more than you do. And if you understand me at all, Gale, then you know there's nothing I wouldn't have done to finish this. This work demanded my best, and minimal interference."

"Until you needed someone to come save your hide," Gale spat. "Your magic's fading. You knew this had to end one day. Then what?"

"With Summit gone, the rest would have eventually left- to the islands, somewhere else. The Bovaria that was would become a myth, and I could finish its transformation, proving my theories once and for all."

"You sent the message to the Princess. You really thought you could lie about all this to- "

"No, but they're not the ones who came, were they? In chess the pawns go first, Gale. Not the queens."

"He's no more a pawn than you are a pony," growled Summit.

"You're right. Pawns are loyal. They do what they're told. He's just another pretender. Like you, Summit." He paused, and the hum of the crystals filled the silence. "I put everything into this project. I worked...for so long. I deserved to get it right. I had to. Was that so much to ask for?"

"You treated the oxen like they were tools. Things."

"The knowledge we could gain! This was for a greater good!"

"Who's?!"

"Ask the pony who sent you."

"Slate! Do you have any idea what you did to them?"

The crystals dimmed. "I did...what I had to do."

Gale stepped twice towards him. "Did you know? Did you know what they were?"

"What does it matter- "

"Tell me the truth!"

"I made a mistake!" The crystals flared and lit the room. The metal petals and base smoldered, melting the surrounding frost. "I made a mistake. By the time I understood what they were, the only way left for me was forward. What you've been through, what Bovaria's been through. It's all for nothing if you don't let me finish what I started."

"What about us?" screamed Frazil. "You thought we'd just give everything up?!"

Summit grimaced. "It's all about you. Everything."

"What are we going to do?" Flint murmured.

"I came looking for a great pony. I thought he was ambitious, but not heartless." Gale lit his horn. "Wish I'd found him. We're going back to Equestria, Slate. Whether you're in one piece when we get there is up to you."

The machined moaned and rattled. "You dumb, self-righteous savage! You're no better than an ox! I'm trying to fix this!"

"You want your legacy safe and anyone who can threaten it gone. You were a better off staying in your book!"

"You want to drag my name through the streets! Destroy everything I'm trying to accomplish- !"

Slate's voice shut off abruptly as the machine ripped from its base. The crystals and petals burned like a star as they slowly rose into the air.

Slate's voiced boomed, "I would have preserved you, Gale. Your mind would've been yours. You're better off being metal for the forge."

A brown beam from the center slammed into Gale. He looked down, couldn't move his hooves. They were hard, blue glass slowly climbing up his legs. As he struggled Frazil dove behind the machinery across the room. Gears whirred and the lever she pushed poked out from behind the tubes and cables. "I reversed the spell! Do it, Gale!"

He pointed his horn at the glowing white pyramid. Flash and a bright beam sent ripples through the sphere, to change crystal into pony.

Bt nothing happened. The machine kept sparking, the waterline of crystal reached his chest.

"What's the matter, Gale ? I thought you wanted to save Bovaria. Or did you think I'd let myself be overpowered by an ordinary unicorn? I knew they'd send someone like you. A glory-seeking lout who went mad and tried to destroy Bovaria, until I sealed him away in the same machine I created to undo his damage. If only I could have saved the oxen before you turned them all to crystal." His voice cut off abruptly, then screamed, "Traitor!"

Gale twisted his head back. Grout was there. And Hornfel. And Blitz and Clay and Shale and everyone else from the caravan. They quickly circled Slate.

"Grout!"

"It's over!" the young bull screamed.

Flint barked, "Frazil! The lever!"

"What...?"

"Pull it back!"

Gears grinding together. "It's stuck!"

Hornfel and Grout soon disappeared behind the station. A blaring symphony of clicks and clacks, and the pyramid reverted to its sphere as the spell switched. Brown haze took the cave as Slate's cries sent pieces of ceiling exploding onto the ground.

Gale's neck was covered, head not far behind when Summit and Flint stepped in front of him. The old ox leaned back. "Hit it again!"

"But- ?!"

"Now, Gale!" Flint shouted.

Crystal neck brace gnawing on his face. He saw his muzzle brighten with his horn, heard the oxen all chanting as they reached up to touch the prisms. The world went white, then blacker than the deepest ocean on the darkest night.

***

"Gale...Gale, wake up..."

"Frazil?"

"Yes..." she sobbed. The round inkblot of her hoof reached out. As he stood he saw in the corner of his eye Grout helping Hornfel up. The dust settled, revealing the silent, glowing shrine before them.

What remained of Slate- the machine- stood in the center. Its metal panels and petals were gone, leaving a starburst of prisms supported by a geyser in mid-eruption. Around it stood a ring of oxen, green and still. And in the very front of the ring, closest to Gale and Frazil, were the jade faces of Steel Summit and Flint, their hooves locked, their heads raised together towards the forever-rising, frozen star.

The four sat there until sunset and fell asleep on the floor.