Thistle slowed down only slightly as she left Enduring behind. Plantains were common, and she marked a few in her mind before moving on to look for the harder ingredients. The one she was most worried about was purple oleander, those grew in open spaces like fields and meadows, not river sides.

Thistle saw a yarrow tree and eagerly began stripping bark from it. She frowned as she realized she would have to carry everything in her mouth. Her gourds were full, and even if she emptied the water gourd the bark wouldn’t fit inside the small nozzle. She needed another way of carrying things.

For now she stuck the bark strips in her mane, braiding them into place so they wouldn’t fall out. Now she began scanning the ground closest to the river for soft-shoot plants, which loved to grow right at the edge of moving water. She walked along the shore for a while before finding those. The stems were bitter and did nothing, but the leaves were medicine. She didn’t know how they were used yet, but she was sure Enduring would tell her when she got back.

Thistle looked back upstream. She couldn’t hear the herd anymore, and the setting sun cast long shadows. She shivered, knowing she was far from the safety of the herd.

Enduring wouldn’t have been able to keep up, Oak Leaf shouldn’t move around much with a snake bite, and the Lead Mare had told her not to tell anypony else about the snake.

She frowned and quickly turned back to gathering leaves. She needed to hurry and find some purple oleanders before she lost the light completely.

Once she had the leaves the same problem from before popped up, as if to punish her for ignoring it earlier. She couldn’t braid leaves into her mane, they’d just fall out, and the stems were too short and fragile for braiding either.

Thistle touched a hoof to her gourds, hoping for inspiration. When nothing came she sighed and looked around. In the trees she noticed a bird fluttering down to its nest, where it ducked its head beneath one wing to sleep.

‘Nests hold things.’ Birds and eggs, but they could probably be used to hold other things if she had one big enough.
She saw a patch of reeds and pulled a few up, braiding them like she’d braided the hemp into a string. She thought it was promising, but it took a while and she didn’t have much time. She twisted a hoofull together and tied them into a circle, then slung that around her neck for later. Now, how to carry these soft-shoot leaves?

In the end she emptied out the water gourd and used a stick to poke the leaves through the nozzle. She’d have to break the gourd later to get them out again, but she could always make another gourd. Now she just needed to find that purple oleander!

Nervously eyeing the darkening sky, Thistle continued downstream, hoping that the river ran by an open area where purple oleander might grow. She was beginning to think she’d made a mistake and would have to turn back when she became aware of a loud, rushing sound. She’d never heard anything like it.

It didn’t sound like a predator, it was too constant and no predator would be dumb enough to make that much noise. Thistle followed the sound until she came to the source, a large waterfall that flowed down into a valley.

“Wow, so this is what a waterfall looks like.” She chuckled, curiously poking her head over the side of the cliff. The movement of something large caught her eye and she yelped, pulling her head back over the edge and stumbling backwards for several seconds.

“Hello?” A pony’s voice called out. “Is there somepony up there?”

Thistle poked her head out again. It was dark, but she could tell that it was indeed two ponies moving around down there.
The valley was more of a cove, steep walls all the way around. How had they gotten down there?

“How’d you get down there?” She called.

“Thank the Sun,” The same pony who’d called out before gasped in relief. “We fell! Please, Mountain Shadow needs help! She’s hurt!”

Thistle shifted on her hooves uneasily. How could they help two ponies who were stuck in a cove? Especially when one was badly hurt and the herd was so far away?

Nopony would want to leave the safety of the herd after nightfall. Thistle shouldn’t have gone so far on her own! And if Mountain Shadow was badly hurt she might not last til morning.

Thistle looked around the edges of the cove. It looked like the two ponies had stayed where they’d fallen. One side was sheer cliff, but another was like a stack of boulders. It would be difficult, but maybe that side could be climbed?

“Hold on, I’ve got an idea!” She called down so they wouldn’t think she was abandoning them. She raced to a nearby weeping willow and tore as many long branches as she could. She raced to weave and tie them together by moonlight, until she had a rope long enough to reach the bottom of the cove, and then she added a good thirty body lengths to that for safety.

Now she ran to the cliffside she’d seen. The rock formations there looked sturdy, but she tied one end of the rope to a stout oak tree anyway. Now she slowly backed towards the edge, squinting into the darkness to find a good hoofhold for her first step down.

At every junction she could, Thistle wrapped the rope around a rock. There were several spots where she was too small to reach the next hoofhold, and each of those way-points would hold her as she carefully swung down to the next ledge. She had no idea how they were going to get an injured pony up that climb, but at least now there was a path.

The uninjured mare met her at the bottom. Closer now, Thistle could see she was only fourteen years old, barely a mare at all.

“By the Moon, I was practically chewing on my hooves watching you do that.” She gulped. “I’m Morning Dew, how are we going to get Mountain Shadow up this?”

“First I have to see how bad off she is and treat her injuries.” Thistle spoke confidently, making her way towards the fallen mare. “Where’s she hurt?”

“I—I…” Morning Dew gasped and stuttered. When she didn’t continue Thistle stepped up towards the sleeping mare to see for herself. Even by moonlight she could see the problem easily. Both her left legs were crooked, broken.

A broken leg was a death knell for a pony. You couldn’t run, you couldn’t fight, you couldn’t keep up with the herd. Thistle had never heard of anypony surviving a broken leg.

“P-Please,” Morning Dew pleaded. “She’s my best friend! I-I-I’ll carry her! Everyday! I swear! J-Just…Help?”

Mountain Shadow groaned, eyes fluttering. For a moment she seemed confused, then she gasped and tried to move. She cried out in pain, and Thistle rushed to soothe her.

“Easy, don’t move.” She ordered, trying to sound older than she really was. “I’m gonna try to help you, but I don’t need you making my job harder, okay?”

“M-Morning?” Mountain shuddered, tears streaming from her eyes.

“I’m here.” Morning nuzzled her friend. “Everything’s gonna be okay. Somepony found us.”

Thistle looked at the broken legs, wincing as Morning made promises for her. She really didn’t know how to help, but she knew she was going to try.

Broken bones could heal, she knew that. Enduring had told her about a pony who’d cracked his skull so bad you could actually see the bone, and he’d survived. Bones could heal, she just had to give these bones that opportunity.

She looked around the clearing for something, some idea. Legs needed to be straight, she could push and pull the broken ends back into place but they wouldn’t stay there on their own. She saw a dead tree and grinned as a new idea slotted into place.

“Morning Dew, I need you to go to that tree and bring me four straight sticks, about the length of her legs.” She ordered.

“O-Okay,” With one last nuzzle, Morning Dew raced off to do as ordered.

“You stay still, I’m going to get some rope.” Thistle told Mountain. Mountain nodded tearfully and Thistle raced off. Luckily there were more willow trees down here so she didn’t have to contend with the climb again.

Once she had several lengths of rope she came back. Morning presented eight sticks for inspection, and Thistle chose the strongest looking ones for the task.

“This is going to hurt,” She warned Mountain. “I have to pull your legs so they’re straight.” She thought about it for a moment and then gave a length of rope to Mountain to bite on.

“Hold her still.” Once Morning moved into place, Thistle took a deep breath, grabbed a leg, and pulled.

When it was done Mountain’s left legs were twice as thick as her right ones, but they were straight. She couldn’t put much weight on them, but Thistle and Morning worked together to get Mountain on Morning’s back. She used the last of her rope to lash the injured mare in place as she finally passed out from the pain. Thistle made a mental note to get some loco-weed roots for her in the morning.

The moon was high by the time they’d climbed the rocks and made it over the other side. Morning might have been standing from sheer willpower by that point. Thistle certainly felt ready to collapse.

It was by the light of the midnight moon that Thistle realized she was standing in a bed of flowers. Her stomach rumbling convinced her to lower her head to eat, but the light of the moon stayed her jaws.

Purple. Oleanders. What were the odds and how had she missed these earlier?

Luckily for her, purple oleanders could be braided into her tail easily. She just had to grab some plantain leaves on the way back and they’d be set!

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Morning sniffed. “I thought we were going to die down there.”

“It’s okay, I’m glad I could help.” Thistle smiled weakly. She looked upstream, trying to remember how long it had taken to get this far. It would probably take twice that with how tired they were and with Morning so weighed down.

The smart thing would be to bed down here and wait for morning. Thistle nodded sharply to herself and held up a hoof to stop Morning from continuing on.

“Let’s sleep here for the night, we’ll get back to the herd in the morning.” She suggested. Morning looked at her sleeping friend before slowly nodding. It was a struggle to get Mountain Shadow down without waking her or jarring her legs, but they managed and tiredly laid down next to her.

It was the first time Thistle had ever slept outside of a mare circle, on top of being her first night away from the herd, but she fell asleep surprisingly quickly.

They set out again in the light of the false dawn. Mountain woke up and was embarrassed to be carried, and both mares were nervous about the reception of the herd, but Thistle poured confidence into her voice as she took the lead.

“Uh, okay, this is going to sound really bad,” Morning licked her lips hesitantly. “But I don’t think we ever got your name.”

“I’m Thistle Burr.” She introduced herself.

“Alright, Thistle Burr,” Mountain’s voice sounded scratchy. “What’s that thing on your butt?”

“Purple Oleanders, Elder Enduring asked me to get them.” She explained.

“No, I know what a purple oleander is.” Mountain protested. “I’m talking about the picture thing on your flanks.”

“That is sorta weird. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Morning agreed.

Thistle wrinkled her nose, wondering if some mud had dried on her flanks or something. She swiveled around to check, contorting her body until she could clearly see her right flank.

That was not mud. It wasn’t berry juice. It wasn’t a grass stain. Thistle had to forcefully shake her mind off materials so she could focus on the picture it made.

A pony with their hoof outstretched, holding out a star.

She swiveled to the other side, finding a perfect match on her left flank.

“What in the world!?” She turned in circles, inspecting the image. She reached back with her hoof and patted the area, but it felt like fur to her. “Huh, wait here a sec.”

She waded into the water and scrubbed as hard as she could. Nothing she did could even make the image fuzzy. It acted just like fur. What on Earth was this?

She got out of the water only because she was worried the purple oleanders might get washed out of her tail.

The odd picture distracted her for most of the walk back. They reached the herd before noon, and Thistle went straight to Enduring and Oak Leaf.

“Elder Enduring, I brought the ingredients, and I found two ponies who were lost and injured.” She explained, carefully pulling ingredients from her mane and tail. She made extra sure that none of them got mixed up.

“Eh, looks good, lil’ filly.” Enduring yawned, poking the ingredients with her snout. “Oak Leaf here’s gone n’ started swellin’ up. Le’s get this medicine mixed up right.”

“Thistle Burr, so you’ve returned.” Thistle looked up at the Lead Mare and Shiny Rock’s arrival. “It was very foolish to go so far from the herd with night coming on. You are lucky to have returned safely.”

“I had to range farther than I thought for the ingredients.” Thistle admitted, chagrined. “But I’m glad I did, because otherwise I wouldn’t have found Mountain Shadow and Morning Dew.”

“I see,” True Blue looked over the young mares in question. “Mountain Shadow, what is wrong with your legs?”

“T-They’re…ah, they’re b-broken, Lead Mare.” Mountain hesitantly answered. “I-I, we, fell from a cliff and I landed badly.”

“Broken legs!” Shiny sneered. “And you thought to hide that by covering them in vine and being carried like a foal?”

“She didn’t hide them!” Thistle argued. “I wrapped the willow rope around strong sticks, to hold the legs straight! Bones can heal if given the chance, and I wanted to give Mountain that chance!”

“I can carry her!” Morning added. “She won’t be a burden on anypony but me! We’ll even sleep apart from the herd!”

True Blue stamped her hoof, halting the argument. For a long moment she stared at Morning and Mountain, before turning her eyes on Thistle Burr instead.

“Thistle Burr,” The filly in questioned straightened to her full height. “Walk with me.”

“Uh, yes, Lead Mare.” She blinked. The Lead Mare began to lead them away from the group. They walked downriver until they were well out of earshot.

“You do not allow Shiny to carry you.” Thistle didn’t know what to make of this or how to respond. “You walk far from the herd. You swim. You do not behave as a regular filly does.”

“I…” She didn’t have an argument for that. She didn’t act like a proper filly. She hadn’t acted like a normal filly since that Light-That-Wasn’t had knocked out the entire herd. “…I’m trying to do the best I can, for myself and the herd.”

“Things are changing,” True told her. “Ever since that Light-That-Wasn’t came to us, ponies have begun changing.”

Thistle had never heard anypony else reference that light. She’d been so busy with Enduring that she hadn’t noticed other ponies acting strangely either.

“Thistle Burr, I think,” True shook her head suddenly. “No, I know that things will only continue changing. The herd will not remain as it has always been. New things are coming, and I want to keep my herd safe.”

“I find myself wanting new things.” True sighed quietly, almost forgetting Thistle’s presence. “I want my foal to be born healthy. I want everypony in the herd to be healthy and strong. I want our numbers to grow.”

“Those are all good things.” Thistle cocked her head to the side. “What’s wrong with wanting them?”

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that before that Light I didn’t care.” True laughed, steely and cold. “Not for the other ponies in the herd, not beyond securing my position. I cared for the foal to come, but I didn’t dream of watching them grow and learn, I only cared that it was my foal.”

“Before that Light adoptions were rare, and an old nag like Enduring would not even consider it, especially not for a foal already weaned.” True continued. “And gourds and things were rare, only special ponies could make them. Your dam had a gift for finding water, a gift you did not share until after the Light.”

“And I can think back, recall the stories of my dam’s time, and her dam’s, and her dam’s dam, and never has change come so swiftly.” She finished.

“Why are you telling me this?” Thistle frowned.

“Because I hear ponies talking about you, Thistle Burr.” The Lead Mare drew herself up. “They say the Light touched you, gave you…magic.”

“Magic?” Her eyes widened.

“Yes, magic. And so I am charging you with a task even more important than finding water.” She spoke seriously. Thistle stood at attention, ready to hear the word of her Lead Mare.

“I want you to devote yourself to the herd, to seeing it grow, stronger, faster, healthier, and smarter.” She commanded. “Learn all you can from Enduring, and then learn more. Ponies are watching you, Thistle Burr, and they will only talk more after hearing how you saved Mountain Shadow and Morning Dew.”

Thistle shivered. She’d never been in the presence of something so commanding. She didn’t think refusing was even possible in the face of such firm leadership.

“Of course,” She promised easily. “I’ll do everything I can.”

“Then return to your mentor, Thistle Burr.” True turned back towards the herd. “She has much still to teach you.”

Author's Note

Alright, history's first cutie mark has made it's appearance!