For the second time in three days, Amie dragged her brother into the forest.
This time there was no rumble of a jeep following them across the campgrounds, or the shout of distant, angry voices. They weren’t running through the wilderness either, but had a gravel path to follow. So long as Amie kept Tailslide’s directions fresh in her mind, she could probably take them all the way to Agate without stopping.
Except, of course, for Wes.
Her brother lacked her endurance, and couldn’t keep running for long. “I gotta… I gotta catch my breath,” he said, after ten minutes or so. “Can we stop?”
She scanned the forest around them, before selecting a particularly dense copse of trees off to one side. She stepped off the gravel path, nodding for him to follow. “This way. I want to make sure we’re not visible from overhead. We should probably stick to the trees for the next few hours, anyway. Until that airship passes us by.”
She hadn’t seen any sign of it since they left Motherlode behind. Its soldiers were probably pouring over the town even now, searching for a changeling. A changeling they probably believed had killed one of their own.
The trees might not be enough cover, if they’re determined. The incredible healing “magic” of Equestria would be working against their escape. Instead of barely stabilized, Tailslide was practically healed already. There was no reason to rush him to a better hospital for a full recovery. Would they stay in Motherlode for days, combing the forest for her?
Guess that depends on Tailslide. Whatever he decides to tell them.
Her brother stopped beside a stream, then bent down like he was going to sip from it. “Hey!” She stopped him, offered her canteen instead. “We’re not drinking that unfiltered. If you get diarrhea, we’re screwed.”
He took the canteen instead, then turned it over, drinking rapidly. “It’s not fair,” he said. “Motherlode was safe. They accepted me. Why do they have to take it away?”
Of course she had no simple answer for him. It wasn’t fair. “I’ve learned a ton about the world we’re in, Wes. Most of it is bad for us.”
“Not all of it, though. You turned into a swan. That’s cool, even if you don’t really sound like my sister anymore. Well, you talk like Amie, but your voice is different. Lower, and less echoey.”
She rolled her eyes. “You mean more normal. It has me wondering, actually. Whether you can change, or if it’s only something the black bugs can do. You wanna try to copy me?”
He looked her up and down, then stuck his tongue out. “Turn into a girl? No thanks, Amie. Half of Stella Lacus already tells me I look gay. I’m not fueling the fire.”
She rested one hoof on his shoulder, gentle. “Wes… I don’t think we’re going back to Stella Lacus anytime soon. Not unless I can find a way to get everyone home. There’s—a little hope there! You wanna hear about it?”
“Sure.” He finished with the canteen, then passed it back. “Let’s go slower. You can tell me on the way. Everything you know. Then I’ll tell you if there’s anything I figured out that you didn’t.”
That was what they did. Despite Wes’s objections, they didn’t return to the road. It was too open to the sky, and might invite investigating ponies from above. Maybe they could risk it, if Wes ever figured out how to do what she could. But in the meantime, they needed to be able to hide. She looked up whenever there were openings in the trees, scanning the sky above for any sign of flying ponies.
They were easy to see—a glitter of gold up ahead, reflecting off their metal armor. That made them impossible to miss, even when they flew by at a great distance and didn’t linger. Her sense of emotions did not continue nearly as far as her sight, so she couldn’t feel to know if they were looking for her specifically. But what else could they be doing?
Whenever she saw them, Amie urged her brother into the darkest shadows, where she watched through the trees for the ponies to fade into the distance again.
And while they traveled, she told him everything. Wes was a little younger, but he wasn’t a baby. If she could trust anyone to share the burden with her, it was her brother. She started with the fight, Garcia’s death, and the pony attackers. Then the hours she spent working through the night, stopping Tailslide from bleeding out on the riverbank.
Everything that had happened in Motherlode, except perhaps for anything she might’ve felt towards the stranger, or the infatuation she felt from him. That was probably just misjudging her emotional senses, anyway. She’d been at camp for too long, that was all.
“Then we made it out,” she finished lamely. It took about an hour to recite everything, with ample stops for questions. It wasn’t like they had anything else to talk about.
“Do you think you should’ve gone with him,” Wes asked. “He said Equestria might listen to you. You might talk to their president, get to argue the case for Stella Lacus.”
She sighed. “If Garcia hadn’t killed one of their guards, I might’ve done it. But even if they were just defending themselves, that means everyone who captures me is going to want revenge. They lost a friend, and I would be a convenient target. If they kill me, I can’t keep an eye on you.”
She reached for him, running one hoof through his weird fins.
“Quit it!” He shoved her away. “You shouldn’t be taller than me. That copy thing you did is unfair.”
She grinned stupidly back at him. “Why don’t you try, then? I don’t know… I don’t know if you can. But I know you don’t have to look like an exact copy of anyone. The first time I was. After that, I was only sorta kinda copies. This pony looks a little like the pegasus guard I was with, but not a guy. I did this unicorn too—”
She could remember the sensation, now that she’d experienced it three times. There was an element of instinct to it, but most of it was conscious. It was all in the visualization, if somehow she could capture that exactly right.
“Do you think we should go back to camp?” Wes finally asked. “Seems like this place really doesn’t want us wandering around. If we’re not welcome anyway, we could—let Mr. Albrecht have me.”
“Absolutely not,” she snapped. “Even if Garcia hadn’t tried to kill me, I wouldn’t take you back there. But with what happened, it would be completely insane. I saw the messages, they think we’re holding Garcia hostage. They might not even believe what we tell them about Equestria.”
Amie set her jaw, staring down the mountain ahead of them. It was late afternoon now. Hopefully the lengthening shadows would help protect them from being seen.
“You think there’s really a way to send us back?”
That took her a minute. She wanted to lie without thinking—but this was Wes, not one of her kids. There was no chance of angering a frightened, frustrated mob. “I would say no before we got here. Other worlds don’t exist, obviously. Except—this one does. So I think… I think it might be possible. Magic is real, here.” She spread her feathery wings to either side, then flapped them. She didn’t lift into the air this time, though she did feel a little lighter. Something she could work on.
He nodded. “So we’re not going back to Stella Lacus. What do we do instead?”
“Step one, we hopefully figure out how to hide you,” she said. “It’s a few days to Agate on foot, so that should give us plenty of time. Camping together, brother and sister. Lots of time to practice!” She grinned. He returned the smile, albeit much weaker.
“Let’s say that goes perfect. I’m magic too, awesome. Now what?”
“We change how we look, and make it to Agate,” she said. “From what I can tell, this place works a lot like home. We’ll need jobs, or at least I will. That should help us keep from getting discovered. We save up a little money. While that happens, I’ll ask around about magic with the librarian.”
“Or… I could do that,” Wes suggested. He spread both wings, looking away from her. “Don't take this the wrong way! You’re smart, Amie. But you’re not technical. There are two of us, I say we divide and conquer.”
Anything that took the load off her own shoulders would make things easier in Agate. She nodded weakly. “What are you suggesting?”
“If I can change, let me be the one who worries about research. I can act like a… student, or whatever. Meanwhile, you can be focused on keeping us hidden, and making sure we have someplace to stay. You’re good with people, so you figure out how to be convincing… ponies. If I’m never that good, I don’t think anyone will notice. Nobody expects smart people to be easy to talk to.”
It would give her a little less to worry about. Amie patted him on the shoulder this time. “Good plan. At some point, we’ll need enough money to travel to the capital of this country, Canterlot. Tailslide thought the secrets we were looking for were hiding in their version of the Library of Congress. We might need to break in at some point. But if that’s true, we’re already perfectly equipped!”
She hopped up onto a nearby stump, posing dramatically. “They call us changelings. We’ll be the perfect sneaky spies.”
“Maybe just one changeling,” he replied. “The Motherlode people saw me, and they didn’t think I was a changeling. I might not have the same powers as you. I have to eat real food, instead of emotions.”
“We don’t know that,” she argued. “No one else had emotions to eat but me. I must’ve got it from you, while my feelings aren’t… good enough for you to eat in return. We’ll have to see how you are around ponies. They might be able to keep you fed.”
He shuddered. “No. Thanks. I’d rather eat grass and bugs than feelings, if I have to. We’re horse shaped, so… it should work out. Speaking of grass, can I have another granola bar?”
She sighed. “We’re… out of those. I’ve got some beef jerky though, here.”
They continued in high spirits until nightfall. When darkness came, Amie found her vision no longer the equal of her brother, and they had to stop for the night. Eventually she would figure out how to change at will, and she could just swap into something convenient for night, then back again when they needed to be around ponies.
For now, she actually pitched their tent, and they made a real camp. Sans the fire of course—with a group of unknown size still hunting them, there was no reason to signal their exact location from the sky. Amie still hadn’t heard the zeppelin flying back to Agate. That meant the search party might still be close.
While her brother slept, Amie set up the little satellite dish again, pointing it back towards Stella Lacus. It took longer this time, but eventually the intranet loaded.
The newsletter was hardly encouraging. “Two dead by Stella Lacus’s first murderer, Amie Blythe,” it said. She didn’t want to read the rest, but was powerless to resist her curiosity. She should’ve tried.
The page was nothing but lies, describing a fanciful tale of “survivor” testimony from a “trusted anonymous source.” There were no images attached, no proof. Just straight bullshit about a battle in a cave, culminating in her dramatic murder of Garcia and the other thug. It even mentioned the accident that had claimed the life of another brave soldier, who slipped and fell during the tense battle.
“Amie is extremely dangerous. We do not know what has caused her to become homicidal, but we know this: no one in Stella Lacus is safe.”
She would probably be out of range of the intranet soon. Unless Wes knew how to build a booster—and Stella Lacus kept improving their own transmission power. She should switch off the phone and not look back.
Amie should not have risen to it—but she couldn’t help herself. She flipped through her contacts, settling on the camp director’s private address. “I didn’t kill them, asshole,” she sent. “But I don’t care what you say about me, I’ll save you even if you’re kicking and screaming.”
Amie might need to tell Wes about hose messages. They would prove how unsafe it is to back to Stella Lacus. Wes' plan is good and I like that Amie acknowledges that. I like the fact that Amie isn't a stereotypical overprotective big sister who treats Wes like baby. Also breaking into the Canterlot Library's forbidden section is probably more difficult than she thinks unless she changes into someone with access like Twilight, that would probably work.
Force him to be rainbow buggo.
Ah, she still wants to save them, even if at least one of them (possibly- probably- more than one) is plainly set against her, demonizing her utterly to further his narrative. She's got a good heart, and they've both got good heads on their shoulders (if that even applies to their new anatomy; I'm not entirely certain how that translates to horses, tho...).
Plus, there's the possibility of some of the campers not buying it, even people who might not entirely know her very well. Didn't they put out a call for her brother sometime before these events transpired? Something about a highly contagious (and suspicious) illness? At least if I remember correctly... In any case, regardless of how they feel about Wes, certainly some, if not most, of her own little group of campers would have some form of loyalty to her. After all, she'd steered them right for as long as she was with them, aside from her brother- which, of course, is her little brother; even if they don't like him, most of them surely understand what that's about. Yeah, I can imagine that there's a thriving rumor mill already begun about these suspicious events, especially now that she's being labelled as dangerous. These kids ain't that little; they're definitely not stupid. Plus plenty are probably at that age where a general distrust of authority starts to form; wouldn't be surprised at all if some conspiracy theorists and/or teenage rebels are among their numbers. Definitely dodgy as all fuck.
Although... I do wonder at what point logic will begin to fail them. They've been starving up on that mountain for at least a month now, correct? Some of them might not care what is the truth, anymore; we've seen what enough starvation can do to even the most lovely and affable of changelings- case in point, Thorax when he started to hiss and snarl when exposed to the unbearable positive energies emanating from baby Flurry Heart. He's sweet as can be, but extreme hunger, especially paired with a nearby food source, sapped him of his rationality even if only for a few moments. It makes them potentially dangerous, particularly if they don't care about hurting others.
No way back but forward. Allies are few and enemies are many. It's going to get rougher but they can take things step by step.
I still doubt he really knows how serious the situation is. If that's true, we can only hope he has the endurance the bear the burden ahead.
Yeah, don't think an introduction and a plea would end well.
Until he can change like Amie, she is literally a better magic researcher than him. Still, an introvert student might get less scrutiny.
They certainly make it sound easier than it really is but planning has to start somewhere.
If it's Albrecht, we know he went off the deep end. I doubt anyone would mistake lance wounds for shotgun ones. Though I wonder if it the situation would've been better for Amie if she left Gale's body to be found. The changeling bodies floated down the river but the search crew might've still found Gale. I admit I could see how things could get far worse though in all situations even Albrecht would stop focusing on Amie (at least not directly, she will still be considered a traitor...) if he has to put all his attention on Equestria.
She's not there to explain herself, though I bet Albrecht can only see this as a death threat or the wild ramblings of a crazy person. I probably would.
Buggos need huggos. Albrecht can feck right off with pleasure.
This chapter felt a little lacking (probably because of the lack of characters besides the mains). Hopefully the next chapter has some excitement, like meeting another pony, or one of the Equestrian changelings, or getting to Agate, or something. Hopefully not getting caught by the royal guard.
Well, they have a plan. It's a good first step. Now there's just the matter of resolving all of the other issues that stand in their way. Definitely easier said than done.
Good job sticking it to 'em and coming up with a plan, Amie. But you better be gone by first light before they get someone to trace the signal
I think the camp has a chance at winning the equatrian army if you look at it objectively.
1. The changelings siege the canterlot and fight only with their bare hooves.
2. Stormkings also siege the canterlot with a couple of slow moving airships.
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The Equestrian military relays way too much on Deus Ex Machina to carry them through... Expect it totally works every single time.
That's their greatest strength; ponies fall like dominoes until one of those dominoes lands on the Nuke Everything button. They are weak as hell... Right until they aren't.
11285050
unlike any previous military forces they faced. the camp has weapons that prioritized in killing and they doesn't hold back because they're not invading force that want to enslave ponies.
it's going to be a bloodbath. A giant bloodbath.
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Well, maybe the Equestrians didn't have modern weaponry but that's not the only way to win a battle. If they're smart, they could simply starve them out, set up a very tight perimeter around the mountain and just wait. Equestrians knew that changeling feed on emotions and they can't get that if they're at a remote spot like that mountain. Eventually, the once-humans will break either by starvation or a desperate attack on the perimeter or infighting.
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Except she's demonizing him in the exact same manner both internally and to her brother, and from all we've seeing he's more good and wants to save the camp just as much if not far more so. Hard disagree to her or her brother having a good heads on their shoulders though. She flies off the handle way too easily and her brother's a bit of an academic airhead.
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I'm certainly wondering if that's the strategy after all. The camp may do well to go the other way and feed on a nearby unsuspecting griffon nation, but if the entire mountain is inside Equestrian territory or there's no one on the other side then there's no option other than feeding on the ponies, reforming, or dying.
There's a lot of questions regarding Equestria's strategy on the cordon. Are the higher-ups ordering kill-on-sight for all changelings? Do they really believe the war is ongoing and they're mistaking the camp for a military outpost? Are they just giving the patrols more leeway than they should and allowing them to get some revenge? Or was the one engagement solely a one-off thing caused either by confusion, inexperience, or possibly Gale having an eagerness for revenge?
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Equestria's nature is like 50x more deadly than our own nature, and Equestria survives it. They're tougher than they look. More likely, the Storm King's attack on Canterlot was a sneak attack that somehow got past the brunt of the military...
As a more general comment - They're definitely using Amie as a scapegoat - but for what, I wonder... I get the feeling someone may not want the camp to return to earth, and by directing the camp's emotions they're trying to take control of them in much the same way as multiple infamous leaders throughout history...
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She's demonizing him because he was doing it first?? He literally wanted to take her little brother and do who knows what with him in one of those "for the greater good" conceits. He knew she wasn't going to give him up, and came up with an honestly dirty backup plan to get a hold of him. And when that didn't work, he took a survivor's tale and twisted it, probably knowing full well that she was no kidnapper or murderer. Or rather, it didn't matter to him either way whether she was or not; he still gets to label her as an enemy to be disposed of, and thus remove her as an obstacle in obtaining Wesley for his purposes.
A good head in this case also means a good moral fiber, something that Albrecht somewhat lacks- or is willing to transgress in order to serve the nebulous and morally grey "greater good". And it's also in reference to their abilities in looking after themselves and each other. That they, or Amie at least, are still willing to help those who would willingly destroy them, speaks well of them.
I hardly think that Amie's a "fly off the handle" sort; in fact she's been fairly levelheaded, all things considered. She's also scared and traumatized, having been chased through the forest by horrid former allies that wanted to do worse than simply kill her, and who wanted to take her brother and probably torment him to death in an effort to divine what makes him tick. Or even just try to drain him dry; a living battery for the camp to feed off of. Either way, he likely would die at their hands. (Shut up; I'm not making the "hooves" joke here.) She has every reason to respond to them negatively; so what if she sometimes has the occasional emotional response, such as her message direct to Albrecht? Can you honestly say you wouldn't do the same?
As for Wes, he may seem occasionally kind of spaced out or dippy, but he's not stupid, and in this chapter he proves as much. Not to mention he wants to be there for his sister as much as she's been there for him throughout all of this. She feels responsible for him being there with her, and he feels like he is a burden, and probably has for a while now. I feel like you aren't giving them enough credit, here.
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The problem is the human changlings doesn't even know they needs to feed on emotion. They will only seen ponies as murderous babarians and will be dealt as such if they blocked the camp from hunting and gathering.
And i never said anything about equastrian losing. Just that it's going to be bloodbath.
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That goes for you too.
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If he was such a bad guy and knew she wasn't going to give her brother up, why didn't he just go behind her back and take him? It would have been far easier. Instead he had her over, laid out his intentions, and was completely transparent. What does she do? Think about it? Ask for more time? Nope, flies off into the wilderness without even asking her brother's opinion. And screw the camp and everyone else besides. Guess you don't really need to worry about that when you are the only one not feeling the effects of malnutrition. So now the only "normal" individual who isn't showing visible signs of said malnutrition just ran off with the only hint at expanding their food base. Great. Now he, and everyone else, is going to painfully starve to death. Awesome. He should just let her go right? No, he sends guys with guns to apprehend her, her brother and bring them back. Because he'd have to be beyond stupid and callous to those he's responsible for not to.
As for the survivor. When they were chasing the siblings they said he told them to bring the two of them back alive. Instead they started shooting and expressing the intent to murder after the first one got himself killed. So how much do you want to bet when he went back the survivor lied?
And that's the thing. After everything it absolutely does look like she's a kidnapper and murderer. He wasn't there, and she isn't defending or explaining herself except a small bit to her closest friends. What is he supposed to think when most of the kids he sends out die and the two that left are just gone all with death by starvation looming overhead?
Also, why do you assume they'd want to torture Wess to death? He is an incredibly limited resource and nobody has the expertise such that any sort of vivisection would yield ant practical information. The last thing they would want to do is damage or worse kill their only hint at salvation. By far the best plan would be to put him under constant close supervision. Which is exactly what Albretched said he would do. And considering his actions and transparency so far there isn't reason to believe he was lying. And that's the thing. He was demanding that Wess's personal liberties and freedom be constrained such that the hundreds of kids he's watching over do not starve to death. This isn't morally grey. It's one boy's ability to move freely versus the everyone's lives. I know which I'd pick in a heartbeat. With the limited information available it's the only practical solution that may yield answers.
As for wess, he's already done a couple silly things. He's clearly got some good book smarts and if someone or something brings him to sit down and think about a situation he can absolutely come to a good solution. But that isn't his instinct. His instincts are to blindly follow his sister and look at danger like a deer in headlights.
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When the survival of the whole group is seriously threatened, morality often takes a backseat. The situation was truly dire and Wes was the only clue they have. Albrecht's faith that Wes' sacrifice would have done something might've been misplaced, but I don't doubt that he thought it wasn't anything less than necessary. For Albrecht, it's less of a "greater good" thing and more of a "I did what I had to do" thing.
Agreed. Comments from earlier chapters did theorize that she was feeding off Wes. If true, that might've kept her more stable than the rest of the camp.
Can't say Albrecht's newest lie was a good thing, though the alternative of telling the truth isn't much better. A camp full of kids won't take well to news of a hostile nation next door.
The rumor mill may have affected Amie as well. We don't actually know how unethical the testing would've been. All we really have is a missing changeling to go on. It's admittedly not a good thing but not positive proof of an atrocity.
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probably making sure nobody knows that they wanted to vivisect a teenager.
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True, true. That makes a lot of sense too.
It seems like this story is rife with characters who act 90% based on their emotions which is utterly incomprehensible to me. Also introducing outright violence to Mlp has always woke a pervasive 'ow the edge' -vibe in me which I have sometimes managed to suppress if the story is written well enough.
Of course all this rises the question of why I bother to whine about this and just close the window but...
.. best I can describe it is that the rather high technical skill of writing I see here has a sort of wierd dichotomy with the characters who have a personality of gummy worms.
Great. Murderous Ponies all over the place who have standing orders to kill any Changeling they see and the sociopath back at the camp is lying his @$$ off and of course he has to be the one in charge.
Our two heroes are going to have quite the uphill battle. And heaven help them if the murderous pseudo nazis called the Guard get a hold of either of them.
There is literally no good reason to create propaganda that extreme. The previous iteration was fine enough.