Thistleroot had tried to move when Rosalia appeared in the lowest level of Nocturne’s castle, to do anything to slow her down, but fighting had never been a skill of his. He hadn’t completed a full step before her pink magic struck him, and the world went dark.
Pain was the first indication that he was still among the living. After it announced itself, other sensations followed. The cold floor beneath him. The piercing light that forced him to blink back tears until the room came into focus around him. He was in a different room, without his friends, in what he guessed was still Night’s End. It was nicer than the dungeon area they’d entered through. There was less rotting wood and rusted metal, and more clean rugs and tapestries. Sadly, there was an equal number of psycho changeling queens.
It was the first time he’d ever seen one in person, excluding the brief moments she spent taking their group apart. She looked like Scootaloo had described her. Tall with a blue mane, similar in color to Mimic’s eyes but fading to pink at the ends.
The fact that he was alive did little to calm him, but he bit back his fear long enough to say, “Rose Thorn? Or I guess you go by Rosalia now.”
The changeling queen nodded. “You are correct. And if I remember correctly, you are Thistleroot.”
“You remember me from one conversation? I guess I should be honored.”
“Not just one conversation. I spoke to Mimic. She told me about you. Besides that, you are the one Star Shine hated. I must say I’m surprised about how that turned out. I thought he would kill you eventually.”
Thistleroot shrugged, glancing away. The image of Star Shine’s body hitting the ground was one he’d just as soon forget. “He tried.”
“Yes, so I’ve heard,” Rosalia said, a faint interest in her voice. “Honestly it was a miracle he lived as long as he did. All the same, I’m surprised you defeated him.”
“I had a friend. He didn’t.”
“Friendship,” Rosalia said. “Always friendship with you ponies.”
“Speaking of friends, I don’t suppose you’re gonna tell me where mine are?” Thistleroot asked.
“In the throne room, just down the hall,” Rosalia said.
Thistleroot blinked in surprise. “Oh. Uh... I don’t suppose you’re gonna tell me all of your weaknesses?”
“No,” Rosalia said, no hint of amusement in her voice or face. “I’m beginning to understand why Star Shine hated you. Let me dispense with the banter for the time being and get to the point. As much as I advise against it, my lady has decided the six of you will all leave this place alive.”
Thistleroot’s immediate reaction was to doubt everything Rosalia was saying, but... why lie? She had them and there was nothing they could do about it. She had nothing to gain from telling them they would live and then immediately killing them, save for a small bit of sadistic satisfaction in instilling them with false hope.
That might have been it, but it didn’t fit in with the Rose Thorn he’d known and heard of. Everything she had done up to this point had been a deliberate, carefully considered move.
“Why?”
“Because she is too kind for her own good. Because despite the monster you would believe she is, she wants what is best for every creature, unlike those tyrant princesses you served who put ponies before all others.
“And because she’s disappointed,” Rosalia said, turning to pace away and speaking so quietly that it seemed Thistleroot wasn’t meant to hear that part.
He immediately called ponyfeathers on that thought. He heard her because she wanted him to. “Disappointed?”
Rosalia turned, eyes narrowed, and then after a perfectly timed pause, her expression softened into a more neutral mask. “So it seems. She’s not pleased with how I’ve conducted myself in my search to free her. She means to test you ponies and me at the same time. Will you work with other ponies to ensure the survival of your species, or will you throw your lives away challenging her? Can I keep myself detached and rule as I should, or will I give in to base emotions?”
“She’s testing you to see if you’ll kill us?” Thistleroot asked, tensing. He suddenly found himself rooting for Rose to pass any test set before her.
“In a way. If you go and never return, I have been instructed to leave you be.”
“Everypony else, too?” Thistleroot asked. “Even Scootaloo?”
“You think I bear her more ill will than the others?” Rosalia asked.
Thistleroot shrugged. “You don’t really know the others.”
“True, but I would just as soon end you all and be done with it. Still, what I don’t understand is why you care what happens to her,” Rosalia said. “Surely by now you understand who she is. What she’s done. She’s brought you into more danger than you ever could have found on your own. She dragged you here.”
“She didn’t drag me here,” Thistleroot said. “I chose to come. She’s my friend.”
“But why? What has she done to earn such friendship?”
Thistleroot sat back on his haunches and chuckled despite his fear. “You really don’t get it. You don’t know anything about friendship, do you?”
Rosalia tilted her head. “Enlighten me.”
“Friendship isn’t about what one pony deserves or earns, and making mistakes doesn’t diminish somepony’s worth. If anything, our flaws make us who we are as much as anything else.”
“So her penchant for endangering the lives of those around her is simply who she is? Not the most convincing argument,” Rosalia said.
“She’s brash, even reckless sometimes,” Thistleroot said, frowning. “And sometimes it causes trouble, yeah. The first time we ended up in any real danger was a few weeks after we met. She wanted to check out the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The meeting was cancelled and we were going to leave, but she heard Star Shine and you talking about getting rid of Twilight Sparkle. Her first instinct was to find out more, to risk her own flank for a friend.”
“I remember that night,” Rosalia said. “Star Shine thought he heard something while we were talking in the hall. Later we all heard the shrieking of a terrified filly. That was her?”
“Uh, yep, that was her. Anyway. That’s not all. Leading the changelings away from us during the gala. Making me wear her protective pendant from the princess. Coming here despite the danger. She’s always willing to put herself out there when it’s important. At first I thought she was fearless, but she isn’t. She’s just as scared as the rest of us, and she does it all anyway.
“For somepony like that, I want to do everything I can to help. To try to be even a little bit like her.”
Rosalia watched him talk, head still tilted. She considered him for a long moment after he fell silent before speaking. He shivered beneath her gaze. It was like she was looking through him, rather than at him. Finally, she smiled. “I think I understand now. Perhaps even better than you yourself do.”
Thistleroot said nothing.
“Wait here,” Rosalia said before standing and leaving the room. The door closed behind her and Thistleroot was alone.
“Ha, good one,” Thistleroot said, bouncing to his hooves and running to one of the windows along the far wall. He looked down through it at the seemingly endless void on the other side. “Oh yeah. Mountain. Fortress. Uhh...”
He looked around the room. There were silk tapestries in dark blues and sea greens with the First Queen’s symbol on them that he could tie together. Maybe he could climb down to the next level.
He’d managed to tie a rope about twenty feet long together before Rosalia came back in. He hastily tossed the mass of silk behind him and tried to act natural.
Rosalia closed her eyes for a deep breath and then continued as though nothing had happened. She stepped further into the room and a crystal wrapped in a cocoon of pink magic floated along side her before setting down at Thistleroot’s hooves.
He looked down at the fragment of harmony in unmasked confusion. “Uh, what?”
“I want you to take this when you leave.”
“Uh, what?”
“When you find Scootaloo again, give it back to her.”
“Why?”
“Because by then she will have been without it for several days. The new spark of hope will ignite a fire within her, and once again she will put her life on the line for those she cares about.” Rosalia smiled wider. “And because the next time you ponies come here, I am allowed to kill you all and be done with this tiresome game.”
*****
Thistleroot checked the fragment of harmony for the eighth time in the past hour. Mimic resisted the urge to tell him that it would be nestled safely in his saddlebag, same as the previous seven times. He closed the bag and edged closer to the next drop. It was only a few feet.
“So, I was thinking. I might have enough money on me to get us a carriage out from Cloudsdale. It would be faster than walking, but then that’s the last of my bits.”
“I would say we walk, then,” Mimic said. “We don’t know if the others will be in Canterlot or what our next move is. There’s no point in squandering resources just to hit the next brick wall a few days sooner.”
“Okay, fair enough. Walking it is.” Thistleroot sighed. “That’s a lot of walking. Who knew the end of the world would be so good for my health? I haven’t gotten this much cardio in... well, ever.”
“I could tell,” Mimic said, hopping down to the next rock. Thistleroot carefully made his way along a thin ridge to where the path continued. The old road they had found through the mountains, if it could even be called a road, was in disrepair. In places like this entire chunks were missing.
“Alright, just a bit,” Thistleroot said, hopping awkwardly across a particularly steep bit and stumbling his way onto the next section of road. “Ha, made it!”
Mimic hopped across the gap, wings buzzing to give her the distance needed to clear it. “You’re acting pretty confident for a pony without wings. You’re going to end up falling.”
“Eh, that’s what I’ve got you around for.” Thistleroot said without looking back.
He didn’t see Mimic falter in surprise, taken aback by the confidence in his voice. After a moment she composed herself and followed him.
*****
Scootaloo and her friends had finished setting up camp for the night. Apple Bloom had pulled some branches from the trees to build up a shabby lean-to to sleep under while Sweetie Belle and Spike had gathered firewood.
They had made it to the edge of White Tail Woods. Apple Bloom had begun recognizing more and more of the surrounding area, and assured them they’d be able to reach Ponyville tomorrow. Scootaloo hopped she was right. She’d had a little over a day to think about their next move, and now she was eager to move on.
She didn’t like Thistleroot’s implication that the group had started following her lead. She didn’t want to think about the kind of trouble she could get them into by not being careful, but somepony had to come up with something. She’d made a decision and spent the better part of the day second guessing it. It was time to share it with the others.
“I’ve been thinking,” she started. Everypony shifted their gaze toward her. “About what we should do next.”
“Is that why ya’ve been so quiet today?”
“Yeah. I know I said we should find Thistleroot and Mimic, but honestly I don’t know where to start looking.” She paused. “Spike, you can’t get a letter to them, by any chance, can you?”
Spike shook his head. “I don’t know either of them that well. Just sending letters to you when I know we’re in the same city is hard enough.”
“Okay, I figured that would be the case. What about places?”
“Same deal. The better I know a place, the easier it would be to send mail there.”
“Could you do Starswirl’s tent?”
Spike thought about it and nodded.
“Then tomorrow when we get to Ponyville we’ll write Thistleroot a letter and you can put it in Starswirl’s tent. If he makes it back, it’ll tell him where we’re going and he can meet us there.”
“Where are we going?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“The Crystal Empire,” Scootaloo said. “Princess Cadence is the last free alicorn. She should hear everything we’ve learned so far. And they have the Crystal Heart.” She faltered, unsure. “I uh, I guess I don’t know anything about magic stuff like that. I don’t know anything about the Crystal Heart except it’s powerful enough to protect the entire Crystal Kingdom. But maybe Princess Cadence knows how it could be used to free the other princesses, or even to defeat Nocturne.” She shrugged. “That’s the best I could come up with.”
“It’s a good plan,” Sweetie Belle said. “Better than anything I thought of.”
Spike and Apple Bloom nodded. Apple Bloom paused, biting her lip, and then said, “Well, I did actually think of something else, but I don’t think... I mean, it’s a stupid thought. I... hmm, never mind. It’s dumb.”
“What is it?” Scootaloo asked. “I think I speak for everypony when I say we’re open to suggestions.”
“Well, it’s just, uh. Nocturne’s been beat before. Without the Elements of Harmony. By, uh, by Discord. Maybe, if we can’t come up with anything else. If we free him...”
“Are you crazy!?” Scootaloo shouted. Her stomach twisted at the thought.
“No way!” Spike shouted at the same time.
“It was just a thought,” Apple Bloom said.
“Do you have any idea what Discord would do to Spike and me if he got free?” Scootaloo asked. “At least Nocturne’s impartial.”
“Ah guess you have a point. Ah told you it was a dumb idea,” Apple Bloom said. “Besides, Ah don’t know how we’d free him anyway.”
Scootaloo found herself breathing heavily and tried to calm down. Her heart was racing just from the thought of Discord.
It took her better than five minutes, but she managed to control her breathing enough to calm herself. Nopony had said much. She shook her head. “Let’s all just get some sleep. We’ve still got some walking to do tomorrow.”
Apple Bloom nodded and started kicking dirt over the fire. Sweetie Belle and Spike moved under the lean-to.
“Ah’m sorry,” Apple Bloom said.
“Yeah, me too,” Scootaloo said. “About the yelling part. I know you were just trying to help.”
Apple Bloom nodded. Satisfied that the fire was out, she moved to lie down beside Sweetie Belle. “Good night, Scootaloo.”
“Good night.” Scootaloo remained where she was sitting for several minutes, looking up into the now dark sky.
Discord. The very thought of him free to hunt her down and extract his revenge had kept her awake on more than one occasion. She shook her head. Even if she knew how to free him, it would be suicide. Not just for her, but for Spike too. If his statue had even survived Canterlot’s destruction.
She moved to lie down beside Spike and closed her eyes, already resigned to a sleepless night of errant thoughts.