Helping Ponies

Hope Springs lived alone. She wasn't the only pony to do so, but she was almost never seen leaving her hut. The snow by her door remained undisturbed.

Thistle lifted her hoof and knocked sharply against the stones. She waited for a minute before knocking again.

"Hope Springs, may I come in?" She called, in case the mare hadn't heard her.

"Might as well, Healer. Might as well." Permission given, Thistle opened the door and stepped inside.

It wasn't much warmer than outside. A few degrees and a lack of wind. It was no darker than any other hut, but it was lonelier. There was no bed of straw on the ground and only a single basket of food to take up space. Nothing like the cramped quarters Thistle's family enjoyed.

"How have you been doing recently? I don't think I've seen you since Flicker Light moved on to the Endless Pasture." She left the face no pony had seen her since then unsaid.

"I have little reason to leave my hut these days." Hope Springs did not move from her curled position on the ground. Thistle hesitantly approached.

"Not even to see old friends?" She sighed quietly. "Hope Springs, why do you stay alone all the time? It does you no good."

"It's relaxing. No pony needs me to settle their differences anymore. I don't have to deal with their petty problems." Hope Springs didn't meet her eyes. "I can simply lay here and gather my thoughts. Or sleep. Sun and Moon know I didn't get much sleep leading my herd into the gaping maws of monster after monster."

"They don't blame you for that. You did the best you could!" Thistle argued. "The Light-That-Wasn't brought magic and not all the magic was good. You simply had...poor luck."

"Poor luck." Her nose wrinkled as if she'd bitten into something rotten. "Forty-eight ponies I led, and I could barely deliver to your Lead sixteen of them."

Their herd had been bigger than Thistle's. Sometimes the thought of such terrifying creatures gave Thistle nightmares. It so easily could've been her herd decimated. If Mother Earth had been a little less kind it would have been.

"Staying in here with the darkness and regret will do nothing." Thistle sighed. "You could do so much if you left your hut."

"Such as? Care for the orphans? No, not after losing my foals. Gather food? The closest places have been picked clean and only you and yours are willing to travel further in these conditions." She challenged. "Grab a spear and spend my day hurling myself at trees and rocks? As if that could prepare you for facing down a manticore? HA!"

"No, Healer. There is nothing out there for a pony like me to accomplish." She rolled over, turning her back on Thistle. "Go in peace, there is no healing to be done here."

"I will return in two days, Hope Springs." She stood in resignation. "Take care."

There was no reply. Thistle left the hut feeling more unsettled than when she'd arrived.

She still wanted to find some way to help Hope Springs. She seemed to determine to live apart from the herd, doing the bare minimum to survive. Thistle didn't like it. It was too easy for that bare minimum to slip.

Back the way she came, between her hut and Hope Spring's, was Bright Finish. His hut held all but two of the Other foals. The brother and sister had their own hut, fifteen body lengths away.

The wind picked up as she stood there, lost in thought. Thistle shivered and cursed all shadows. Her hooves felt like blocks of ice as she reached Bright Finish's hut and knocked on the wall. The snow by the door was undisturbed, so it was likely the whole group was in right now.

The door was nosed open by the oldest colt. He blinked hazelnut eyes at her for a moment before he looked over his shoulder.

"Why do we let Current answer the door?" That was the voice of one of the fillies. One of the older two, Thistle thought.

"Just let them in, Current." Bright called.

Thistle stepped inside, tension releasing as a breath of warm air tickled her fur. Now this was a cozy hut. Straw beds lined the walls, baskets and spears were settled in open spaces. The fillies were playing a game kicking a rock across the floor.

"Healer Burr, what a pleasant surprise!" He laughed when he saw her. "Children, make space for the healer."

"They don't need to break up their game." Thistle smiled warmly. "How have you been, Bright Finish? The guard shifts haven't been too rough for you, have they?"

"Boring and cold mostly." Bright shrugged, resettling his great frame. Current settled against the opposite wall and proceeded to stare. "Shiny Rock says if a storm is brewing to go home, so I'm not too bothered by it."

"You're watching for frostbite?" She squinted suspiciously. Getting a stallion to admit he was hurt or sick was a surprisingly frustrating challenge. Her sire had been so docile when he was recovering from his snake bite that he'd spoiled her for well-behaved stallions.

"I am, I am! Honest, Healer Burr, I'm taking care of myself! Somepony has to be well enough to chase after these three." He side-eyed the fillies.

"We're not that bad!" One of the older two, either Mimic or Melody, protested.

"Three days ago, you fell into the gully and couldn't get out, Melody." The other older filly snickered. So that was Mimic. That left the youngest filly to be Chime, didn't it? Were those three related?

Thistle tried to fix in her head. Mimic had a magenta coat and violet mane. Melody was olive with a juniper green mane. Chime had a lilac coat and a plum purple mane.

Current was easy in comparison. He stood two heads taller than she did and was slate gray with a honey gold mane.

"I would've been fine! I could've just walked until I found an easier place to climb!" Melody argued fiercely.

"Girls," A single stern word from their guardian brought a halt to the brewing argument. "Please forgive us, Healer Burr. Long periods of cramped quarters brings out the temper in us all."

"It's much the same at my hut." Thistle smirked. "Though usually I'm the one being teased."

"Healer, while you're here..." Bright Finish's eyes flicked over to Current. "Would you take another look at Current? He still hasn't spoken a single word and he is...much slower than he once was."

"I can look again but after all this time I don't think I'll find much." Thistle walked over to him. She began running her hooves over his head, remembering one of the mares saying he'd hit it against a rock at some point. Head wounds were tricky things, Enduring said. Especially if they went too long without treatment.

"Are you in any pain?" She asked him. She didn't feel any odd bumps or dents, just the same as last time. It took a minute for Current to shake his head no.

Next she laid her head next to his chest and listened to him breathe. Nothing rattled that shouldn't. There was no wetness in his lungs. She looked down his throat and didn't see anything to worry about.

It had to be his head, but there was just nothing there to treat.

"I'm sorry, but I can't find anything. It was too long ago and head wounds have to be treated right away." She reported sadly. "How is his behavior though? He has no trouble understanding, does he?"

"He's slow, but he always understands. We try to keep things simple though." Bright Finish ran a hoof over his face.

"He likes to walk around outside, even when it's cold like now." Chime beamed, eager to be of help. "He just walks all around the village in a big circle with his spear!"

"Well, it's good he has ponies willing to take things slowly with him." Thistle relaxed a touch, gently patting the colt on the shoulder. "You know if anything hurts you can tell me and I can get you some more loco-roots, right?"

She waited patiently until he nodded. She patted him again then stood.

"Bright Finish, would you mind stepping outside with me for a moment? I promise it won't take long." She smiled nervously.

"Of course, Healer." He stood and carefully stepped over Chime. Thistle led him straight into a fresh gust of wind, leaving them both chilled.

"Brrr, winter can't be over soon enough by my reckoning." He glared at the cloudy skies. Only a few patches of sunlight got through. "What did you want to talk to me about, Healer? Is it Current?"

"No, he's as fine as can be considering everything." She quickly reassured him. "I think so long as ponies are willing to be kind to him he'll be fine. No, I wanted to talk to you about somepony else."

"This is about Hope Springs, isn't it?" He groaned, leading them further away from his hut and any curious ears.

"Why do you two avoid each other?" The only time she'd seen them together was at the gem meeting in the Storage shelter.

"I wasn't the Lead Stallion when the Light-That-Wasn't appeared." He revealed. "It was my brother, Bright Spot. I took over from him after he was poisoned by the manticore."

"I avoid her because...well, he died saving me. A lot of ponies died." He bowed his head as they walked, blinking back tears. "And she kept trying. She pushed us all to keep going, even when some of us wanted nothing more than to lay down and die."

"Ponies died faster after my brother died. I just wasn't as good as him. We lost her foals within days of my appointment." A pained look crossed his face. "After that, I focused less on protecting the herd and more on protecting the foals. And we still lost three more."

"She blames herself for leading all of you into danger again and again." She stamped through the snow and noticed they were getting close to the forest. The edge of the village wasn't all that far from the treeline. "She hardly leaves her hut."

"A fine pair of Leads we were." He laughed, a barren sound that made her stomach queasy. "One leading us to danger and one no protection from that danger."

"You both did the best you could! It's amazing any pony survived all you went through!" Thistle argued. "If it had been my herd--!"

"A herd of Magic-Blessed." Bright sighed with longing.

"You don't think we were fated to be so blessed, do you?" She wondered.

"How else do you explain all this?" He turned and waved a hoof over the whole village. "Nothing like this has ever existed before. And it is all thanks to you, Healer."

"I didn't decide to settle the valley!" She blinked in surprise.

"You learned to heal, you gained the ears of your Lead, you suggested hoarding food and building shelters. You were the first Marked." He listed reasonably. "I dare say if not for you none of this would have happened."

"I'm a filly!" She stamped her hoof. "I'm learning to heal from Enduring, I'm doing my best to help everypony! But I. Am. A. Filly! I'm not Magic-Blessed! There's nothing I do that somepony else couldn't!"

"What about the Magic Marks?" He cocked his head to the side.

"What about them?" She groaned.

"Aren't you the one bestowing them on special ponies?" Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. Was that what everypony else thought? Did they really believe that?

"What on Earth gave you that idea?" She spluttered.

"You were present at every manifestation thus far, were you not?" He nodded his head absently as he thought back. "Morning Dew, Pucker Thorn, Dim Light, a mare named Apple Blossom has been bragging about it for weeks now, and the filly who invented the shelters, Pink Peach."

"But I didn't bestow the marks! They just appeared in a flash of light!" She shook her head. "I'm sure sooner or later somepony will get a mark when I'm not around!"

"Maybe," He didn't look as if he believed her. "All I know is you're a special pony, even among other special ponies."

"I'm not divine! There's nothing truly special about me! I just do my best, same as anypony else." She had to look away. She didn't want to start crying. There was already a rock in her throat.

"You do more than anypony else. But fine, say you're not Magic-Blessed. What's wrong with it?" He asked.

"What happens when I fail, Finish?" She glared. "I failed before. When a pony fails, that's normal, and ponies forgive them. What happens when something divine fails?"

It took him a moment. Slowly, his eyes rolled upwards, towards the bank of clouds coming to bury them deeper in snow. Behind those clouds was the Sun, hardly burning at all. How many ponies were even now shaking their hooves at the sky and demanding the seasons turn?

"Oh." Thistle sighed and forced herself to part ways peacefully. Maybe she'd finally convinced somepony that she wasn't special. Maybe not. Either way, she had things to take care of and she'd better get to them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

She'd gone foraging to clear her mind first. Talking and acting confident was a lot harder when she was upset. It was hard enough to remain calm around Woodpecker without this morning's conversations added to that. She had some pinecones to show for her work, so that would at least provide something extra at dinner tonight.

Thistle lifted a hoof and knocked on Cardinal's hut.

"Who is it?" Cardinal called through the door.

"It's Thistle Burr! Is Pink Peach in?" She answered, fidgeting in the snow. She swore she caught a hissed warning from inside before the door swung open to reveal Pink.

"Thistle, so good to see you! Won't you come in?" Pink's eyes pleaded with her to say no.

"Actually, I'm afraid I need to speak with you privately? Could you come out and walk with me?" She hoped that was the right thing to say. From the way Pink smiled she thought it was.

"Pink dear, don't leave your friend out in the cold!" Cardinal scolded her.

"Sorry, Dam. Thistle needs to speak to me privately! I'll be back before sundown!" Pink nearly slammed the door behind her and began pulling Thistle along by her hoof.

"Thank Sun, Moon, and Earth you came when you did!" She moaned, flopping into the snow once they were halfway to Look-Out hill. "I don't know how much more of that I could take!"

"What was going on back there?" Thistle frowned.

"Just the usual, but she hardly lets me out these days so I can't get away from it!" Pink's face twisted sourly. "Pink Peach, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, you've got to think about your prospects now while you're still young!"

"Yikes." Thistle winced. "Is she always that bad?"

"Eeehhh," She waggled a hoof back and forth. "Some days I can do no wrong and I'm going to be the next best thing to Lead Mare. Some days I'm a lazy daydreamer who's barely fit to follow a cripple."

"So what's up? Need me for something? New building project?" She asked excitedly.

"Not exactly." Thistle couldn't help but smile. "Actually, I wanted to ask your help with something. You know Shiny Rock?"

"Uh, the mare who parcels out the food? Lead Mare's best friend? Who doesn't?" Pink wrinkled her nose.

"Well, she's sort of the Lead Mare's confidant. The pony who listens to the herd and tells the Lead Mare what she heard. Keeps track of everypony." Thistle nodded. She stopped and thought for a minute.

"Your dam wants you to be the next best thing to the Lead Mare. Is that something you want?" She faced Pink head on.

Pink's eyes widened. Her ears flew back. Time held still while they waited for her to answer.

"Thistle, do you really mean that? You want me to be your...your confidant?" Her voice squeaked.

"I do. I've been meaning to ask since the day you built the first shelter." She nodded.

"Wow, really? Me?" A slow smile crept across her face. Thistle was nearly thrown back by the force of her cousin's hug. "You won't regret this! I'll be the best confidant ever! And you're gonna be the best Lead Mare ever!" She thought of something and quickly pulled back.

"Does this mean we have to follow the same stallion? Because I promised Pucker Thorn I'd follow him someday and my dam is really set on Woodpecker sweeping you off your hooves."

"I don't think we have to, but I don't really like Woodpecker all that much." Thistle winced.

"If I tell her that I'm going to be your right-hoof mare she'll probably let it go, but I'm not sure Woodpecker will." Pink shrugged apologetically. "What does a right-hoof mare do anyway? Keep track of ponies and report stuff to you, sure, and I'll take any opportunity to get out of the hut, but what else?"

"I have no idea really. Maybe you could ask Shiny Rock what she does?" She suggested.

"Another excuse to get out of the hut! I love my job already!" Pink laughed, pulling her in for another hug.