After that, ponies kept coming to Thistle. One day no less than three mares had gone into labor, and all demanded her personal time and attention. She'd only resolved that one by getting some ponies to move the expectant mothers so she could keep an eye on all three at once.

Then of course the Lead Mare herself had gone into labor, but she hadn't needed Thistle's help to deliver a healthy filly.

By the thirteenth and final birth, Thistle had an all new understanding of why Enduring had never done anything with all the knowledge she'd obtained. It felt like her headache had taken permanant residence in her skull, and that was with napping every free minute she had.

Of the thirteen births, ten of those survived. Of that ten, seven were fillies and three were colts. Two had been named in her honor, the filly Thistle Patch and the filly Thistle Weed. One dam had died with her foal.

"Thank Sun and Moon that's over." She groaned, collapsing to the ground after successfully delivering the last foal. That one had been stubborn, and had the cord tangled in her legs.

"Must be great being magic." Morning commented. Mountain was trying to scratch her legs without messing up the splint.

"Tiring. Exhausting. Not great." She protested. "I want to sleep forever. Wake me when I reach the Endless Pasture."

Well, it was over now. It would be months yet before the next group of mares were due to deliver. Time to relax, re-gather her medicines, figure out how she was going to manage without dropping dead.

But first, sleep. Wonderful, restful sleep. She had a nice patch of shade here.

When she woke up it was a few hours before sunset, and Dim Light was calmly weaving another basket together. Morning had gone off somewhere and Mountain was amusing herself by using her right foreleg to stack pebbles until they fell over. This stack was almost eight high before it collapsed.

"Catch up on yer sleep yet, Burr?" Enduring chuckled, revealing herself from the shadow of the trees. Morning was with her, and both were carrying branches stripped of their leaves on their backs.

"What are those for?" Thistle asked.

"The herd's going to be moving on soon and, well," Morning scuffed her hoof through the dirt. "I had an idea for carrying Mountain along!"

"What idea?" She jumped to her hooves, helping them lay the branches out. Thistle noticed there was also a sizeable supply of vines, willow-rope, and hemp.

"If I tie all these branches together then tie more rope to one end, then Mountain can lay on it while I pull her!" Morning explained excitedly.

"I mean, I could just carry her, but it's hard to do that without hurting her and I thought this might be easier." Her face was flushed and her ears tucked back.

"Sounds cool to me, but my legs really don't hurt as bad as they did at the start." Mountain assured her.

"But think of the other cool stuff you could drag behind you!" Morning prompted them. "Like mares with more than one foal, or food, or gourds of water!"

"Like the baskets, but bigger!" Thistle brightened. "Okay, so how should we tie them together?"

They started with the two biggest, sturdiest branches. Laid with about half a body's length between them, Morning used the next strongest branches to make a frame over them, similar to the technique used to make baskets. Once the frames were tied firmly in place the rest of the branches were laid on the frame.

Once it was done Thistle climbed on and allowed Morning to pull her around as a test. They quickly found that the puller had to watch out for rocks and roots in the path. Morning then helped Mountain into place before taking the reins again.

"Wow, this is so much easier!" She giggled, slipping into a canter. Mountain seemed to be enjoying the ride too, waving at the rest of the group when they passed by.

"See, Mountain? There's nothing to worry about! I'll be able to keep up with the rest of the herd, no problem!" She boasted cheerfully. "And you know, I bet lots of ponies would like to have one of these once they see how useful they are!"

Thistle meant to say something. She meant to agree, possibly even suggest ponies who might like a sledge. Before the words could cross her lips though, there was a flash of Light-That-Wasn't.

They all stood stock still. Eyes peeled wide and ears swivelled in every direction. Their muscles were tensed with the preparation to run.

This flash hadn't been as bright as the one which had knocked out the entire herd. It was only a fraction as impressive. Still, it took several deep breaths before Thistle felt brave enough to turn her head and check on the rest of the herd.

No pony in the main body of the herd seemed to notice what had happened. They continued grazing and enjoying themselves. Thistle snorted and carefully looked over her group. No one appeared hurt or even dizzy. In fact, most of them didn't even seem afraid anymore.

"Okay, that was weird. We can all agree that was weird, right?" Morning cautiously straightened.

"Y'know what else is weird?" Mountain's head was cocked to the side and her eyes were pinned to Morning's flank.

"What?" Morning twisted around to see what her friend was talking about. Curious, Thistle moved in closer so she could see what Mountain was staring at.

On Morning's flank was the perfect image of a sledge, just like the one they'd built.

"A magic mark!" Morning yelped, twisting out of the ropes to get a better look. "What in the name of Sun and Moon? How did that get there?"

"It's...kind of like the one you have, Thistle." Light murmured, squinting at the new mark.

Thistle checked her flank. She forgot about it a lot, but the mark was still there, just as perfect as the day it appeared on her flank. She was almost sure there was some kind of meaning attached to it, but she hadn't yet worked out how.

"Does this mean I'm magic?" Morning's eyes went just about as wide as eyes could get.

"Well now, mayhap dat firs' Light gave everypony a touch o' magic." Enduring scratched her chin. "Would explain all dese new fangled ideas popping up. Maybe dat mark's got some kind o' meaning to it."

"That's just what I was thinking!" Thistle grinned.

"So, what? It means I'm good at making sledges?" Morning frowned. "But I didn't even make this one on my own."

"Maybe it was what you said about everypony wanting one?" Light suggested. "Like your new purpose in life is to make sledges for other ponies?"

"A purpose?" Thistle muttered, too low for anypony else to hear.

"Huh, I guess? Maybe. Sounds cool to me." Morning shrugged. "Hey, Mountain, you want to ride around the herd so I can show off to everypony?"

"I don't have anything better to do, knock yourself out." Mountain settled in, apparently content to be a prop for Morning's cause.

"Burr, yew got real quiet der." Enduring noticed.

"Just thinking." About purposes. About helping ponies.

"Hmm," Enduring stared down at her for a moment. "Well, time enough fer dat later. Ain't much sunlight left, but I reckon we could try ta find some gourds."

"May I go with you?" Light politely asked.

"Won't yer dam expect yew back before sundown, li'l filly?" She sniffed.

"Not anymore. She has a new foal now." Her dam had cast her out. That was cold. Thistle was glad she had a goup willing to lay with her at night.

"Alright den, I got no complaints. Let's get a'movin'."

______________________________________________________________________________

The next day when Pink and Pucker arrived they told them about Morning's new mark. It lit a fire under their tails and now both were eager to discover their own 'purpose' in life. Mostly, Thistle thought they just wanted to be magic too.

"I officially declare my purpose in life to have ten mares following me!" Pucker decreed to the sky.

"Pfft!" Thistle snickered. "That's it? Ten mares? Not even the Lead Stallion can take care of that many!"

"Yeah, Puck." Pink whooped. "Besides, it's gonna be hard enough for you to find one mare!"

"Well, then, I'll be Lead Stallion someday!" He decided. "I'll protect the whole herd!"

"I don't think this is working, there's no flash." Light pointed out, poking Pucker's blank flank.

"Maybe we have to be doing and deciding something, at the same time." Thistle suggested.

"Hey, yeah! That's gotta be it!" Pucker reared up to flash his hooves. "I'm gonna go find out what it takes to be the Lead Stallion!"

"Wait!" Pink grabbed his tail before he could race off. She hung on until he grunted and sat down. "You can't go bothering the Lead Stallion! Didn't your dam ever teach you anything? If you're lucky he'll just kick you away!"

"Oh yeah," He hadn't seemed to consider that the Lead Stallion was not a pony blessed with patience and understanding.

"Okay, let's think for a minute." Pink laid down, prompting the rest to join her. "What do we all want to do with our lives?"

"Live to be as old as Elder Enduring?" Light suggested in confusion. "I would think that's a perfectly respectable goal."

"You sure act like you're forty." Pink rolled her eyes.

"I want to help the whole herd." Thistle sighed. "Make us stronger, keep more of us alive for longer."

"That's a good goal. Can I use it too?" Puck asked. "I want to fight off wolves and bears and panthers! I want to keep everypony safe!"

"Pink? Light? Any ideas?" Thistle smiled. Pucker's goal was great. She hoped he found a way to pull it off.

"...This is hard." Pink groaned, rolling onto her back. "Purpose in life? What purpose to life is there? We're born, we have foals, we grow old, we die. That's how life works!"

"But you can do things with that life." Light reasoned. "Thistle has already saved lives. We've created baskets and Morning created a sledge. Ponies are going to remember that, even when we're gone. We changed things."

"I guess," Pink didn't look like she believed it. "I mean, doing something different is great! Even my dam was impressed when I showed her my baskets!"

"But it's hard to think of cool, new stuff to do." She sighed.

"How do you come up with stuff, Thistle?" She wriggled around until she could look Thistle in the eyes.

"I just...think of stuff I need. Stuff that'd be useful. I had to gather a bunch of medicine stuff a few weeks ago and I had a hard time carrying it all, so I thought of baskets." She waved vaguely down the river.

"So let's think of stuff we need!" Pucker perked up. "Like...uh, Liiiiike...?"

Before any of them could come up with any ideas, thunder cracked across the sky. All four foals bolted to their hooves, running to the nearest adults. This happened to be Enduring, Morning, and Mountain.

"Eeyup, gonna be a storm. Bad'un." Enduring snorted at the clouds up above. "Pink an' Pucker, yew two oughta run to yer dams now. Dey'll be worried 'bout ya."

"Yes, Elder. Bye, Thistle!" Both ran off to the main body of the herd. Thunder cracked again, scaring them into putting on an extra burst of speed.

Thistle whimpered and ducked beneath Enduring. Storms were wild, dangerous things. It sounded like the whole sky was mad at you. Rain was cold and wet and lightning was terrifying!

Dim Light squeezed under with her. Pretty soon the small group was pressed beneath two trees with thick canopies. They waited in grim silence until the rain began to fall.

The storm continued for hours. By the end of it Thistle was sure she'd never feel warm or dry again. Light shivered beside her. Enduring shivered on her other side. Thistle couldn't feel it but she was pretty sure Morning and Mountain were shivering too.

There was a bit more thunder and lightning before the clouds rolled away. The stars seemed brighter after the total darkness they'd endured. Thistle picked out the Turtle and Hare constellations with ease.

"Well, dat was a trial." Enduring huffed softly. "It's gettin' ta be da season for dose. We're all gonna have mold growin' on our coats afore long."

"Ugh, more rain." Thistle wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Here's a thing we need, better shelter than a couple trees." Light laughed without real humor.

Better shelter? Thistle blinked. Was that something she could make?

"Hardly any point ta dat." Enduring sniffed. "It'd just get left behind when da herd moved on."

Oh, that was true. Thistle was going to miss this spot by the river. So much had happened here. She'd saved ponies, made friends, learned so many new things.

AAARROOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!

With no need for prior thought or discussion, the five ponies stood and galloped for the main body of the herd. Morning practically threw Mountain onto the sledge and rather than hitching herself in she simply bit down on the rope and began to pull. In a minute they were safely within the main body of the herd.

Everypony had turned outward, towards the forest. They kept their backs to the water. The stallions moved up front, flaring nostrils and flashing hooves providing the first line of defense. Behind them were the young mares, mostly those either with no foals or with their foals old enough to care for themselves.

The dams were behind those, and the foals behind them, as close to the water as they could get without actually getting wet. Enduring pushed Thistle and Light into the group of foals, then turned to watch the trees with a ferocious scowl.

Nopony really slept that night.

______________________________________________________________________________

Wolves aren't stupid. They wouldn't be so dangerous if they were. The pack had seen the herd united, with no way to sneak behind or around them. The pack had lingered in the tree line for hours, only departing with the sunrise to find less well-prepared prey.

Thistle's heart doesn't slow down until two hours past sunrise. The younger foals have already collapsed from exhaustion. Light leans heavily into her to remain standing.

It's not a good situation to be in. And the wolves knew it. The storm had kept them awake and shivering, and the wolves had only made it worse. Sooner or later, something had to give. The herd would leave it's tight formation and start moving on, but that would leave a few unlucky ponies to be stalked by the slobbering beasts. Or the herd would stay in place, on edge and sleep deprived, until some unlucky pony wandered just a bit too far from the main body.

In a way, Thistle is grateful for the weeks of sparse sleep. The practice makes it a little easier to keep standing straight. Her head feels like somepony stuffed it full of cotton puffs, but she's awake.

"Thistle, psst! Thistle!" She looked curiously over her shoulder to see Pucker standing beside her, leaning his head close so they can whisper. "I got an idea."

"About...magic marks?" Her tongue feels swollen and clumsy.

"No, for something new! Something we need!" He whispered excitedly, lifting his head for a moment to make sure nopony was listening. "Remember what you said about Unicorns?"

It took a moment. She'd repeated the story Enduring had told her to the other foals. She hadn't thought Pink or Pucker believed her, but Light had been thoughtfully silent. Slowly, she nodded.

"They fight by poking things with their sharp horns, right?" She nodded again.

"So, what if we had something sharp to poke the wolves with?" His whisper nearly grew into a shout. He checked for eavesdroppers again.

"But...we don't have horns?" Thistle brought her hoof to her forehead. No pointy bump. Right, because Earth ponies didn't have those.

"It doesn't have to be a horn!" He reassured her. "I was thinking, what if we got some strong sticks and sharpened those? Then we could just carry those and when a wolf came, hee-yah!" He demonstrated a jabbing motion, as if he were already holding a pointy stick.

But the sticks were in the forest, with the wolves. Thistle was usually pretty casual about wandering away from the herd, but that was before an actual pack of wolves appeared.

No, wait, there were some sticks that weren't in the forest! They hadn't used all the sticks for the sledge!

She gently lowered Light to the ground, where she curled up. Then, free of her burden, Thistle reared onto her back legs to see the pile of sticks left. The pile was nearer the water than the trees, but wolves were fast. Still, she pointed out the pile to Pucker.

They moved to the edge of the foal group. That was as far as they got before the obvious problem occured to them.
The adults were never going to let two foals race out for a few sticks.

She pulled Pucker back by his tail when it looked like he was going to give it a go anyway. They were only going to have one shot at this. She pulled him to the very back of the foal group, to the shallows of the water.

"Do you know how to swim?" She asked him, dropping his tail.

"Uh, no?" He pranced in place, looking at the water with distrust.

The water woke her up a bit more. Enough to come up with a plan. Maybe even a plan that would work. But first,

"We're gonna need Pink and Light."

Light hadn't been happy, with either falling asleep or being woken up. Pink had circled so far into tiredness she'd ambushed energetic from behind. Neither Pink nor Light could swim, so Thistle explained her plan to them in the shallows.
Then, as quietly as she could manage, Thistle began swimming upstream.

She watched the herd as much as the tree line. One adult spotting her could ruin the whole thing. She made it though, re-entering the shallows nearest the sticks.

Here she pulled rope from her basket. Well, from Light's baskets really. She hadn't wanted to risk washing away any of her medicines so for now they'd traded.

Standing unsteadily in the shallows, she tied a loop in one end of the rope. It was a trick knot. When it caught on something the loop would close around it. Useful only for pranking other ponies by tripping them, but if she could throw it just right she wouldn't have to get out of the water.

After every throw she paused. She watched the trees first, then turn towards the herd. Everypony was watching the forest. Ponies were moving about the lines, discussing things, but their eyes and ears were all turned towards the trees.

It took several tries to catch her first branch. She dragged it into the water, untied it, then let it float downstream towards the other foals. Light caught it and passed it to Puck. He'd collected some rocks with edges, remembering her story about Unicorns sharpening their horns on rocks.

Thistle turned back towards the sticks and readied herself for another toss.

Eight branches later, they had what Pucker had deemed spears. And as soon as the name had sprung from his lips there was a flash of Light-That-Wasn't to slap a mark on his flanks.

Two spears, crossed over each other.

The foals couldn't speak for their excitement. They admired Pucker's marks until he waved one of the spears to fend them off, reminding them of why they were doing this.

Now came the hard part.

The four of them left their baskets with Morning and Mountain. When the mares asked what the foals were doing, Thistle said they were helping the herd.

Carrying two spears apiece, the foals wove between ponies to reach the Leads.

Ponies moved out of Thistle's way. She'd been uncomfortable with it, but now it was a blessing. Being magic was a blessing. She needed to be like True Blue. She needed every ounce of confidence the world was willing to give her.

"Lead Mare, Lead Stallion, I have something that will help."

True Blue was the Lead Mare, she decided where they went and where they stayed. She kept track of their numbers and especially kept track of the useful ponies.

Rock Slide was the Lead Stallion. Any danger that came to the herd faced him first. Any stallion that didn't fulfill their responsibilities answered to him. If a pony did something truly wrong, he was the one who cast them from the herd.

"Pucker Thorn made these." She held up one of her spears, sharp end towards the sky. "They're called spears. They're strong and sharp."

"If we are attacked by wolves, these will do more damage than hooves alone." She held it out towards Rock Slide.

The stallion's black mane was tangled, and there was a bald spot where a challenger had ripped it out. Still, his coat rippled over rock-like muscles and his hooves could crack stone. He was the biggest, strongest stallion in the whole herd.

He looked down on the sap-brown filly holding out the branch, but that was only a matter of size. By her side was a colt with a dusty brown coat, a wheat blond mane, and a magic mark on his flank. He'd already heard that Morning Dew had been blessed with a magic mark. He hadn't heard of a colt gaining one.

True Blue had spoken to him about Thistle Burr. The filly who didn't act like a filly. The magic-touched filly. She'd saved lives these past few weeks. Now here she was offering a way to save more.

"Oak Leaf," He called to his best friend and the sire of this oddly brave filly. "Pass out these 'spears' to the strongest stallions and explain their use. When True Blue gets us moving make sure every pony with a spear is evenly spaced around the herd."

As the foals passed their burdens forward, he studied them. The other two fillies didn't have marks, but he wondered how long that would last when they followed Thistle Burr.

One of the fillies, the blue one with the white mane, was one of his brood. Dim Light, he recalled. Small and sickly. The other filly was obviously sired by Peach Fuzz. He didn't recall her name but she was large for her age.

The colt was Pucker Thorn, one of Summer Storm's foals. Summer Storm was an odd one, a stallion satisfied with just one mare. Still, a well-enough stallion. His colt was turning out well. He wondered if the four foals were planning to roam together when they were older. It wasn't odd for fillies who were friends to scope out a nice stallion while they were still young.

Thistle Burr reminded him of True Blue. The same mare who'd approached him at thirteen and made him a deal. Help her become Lead Mare and she would make sure he was Lead Stallion.

It was entirely possible he was looking at the next Lead Mare.

"It's done." Oak Leaf returned to report. He flicked his ear and nodded. He met True's eyes.

"Thistle, give me a moment to find Flood Plain, then lead me to Morning Dew. I have a task for her." The filly nodded. The other foals, recognizing they were being dismissed, returned to the foal group. The colt lingered, eyes caught to the spear in Slide's hooves. Rock Slide nodded his respect to the foal, then turned back towards the forest.

Author's Note

This chapter was a long one. An important one though. Two new "magic" marks! We're making good progress people! Keep in mind that this daily update rate won't last much longer. School starts next week and I'm going to be too busy to write as much!