The group of ponies made their way through the streets of Ponyville.
Apple Bloom’s guess had been right, Nocturne had sent them off to White Tail Woods. They reached their home town shortly before sunset. Their first stop had been the train station, and Scootaloo was relieved to find the trains were still running. At least, the trains that didn’t go to Canterlot were. The next train heading toward the crystal empire would be leaving early in the morning, which gave them some time to kill.
The little farmhouse came into view down the road, and Apple Bloom picked up her pace.
They hadn’t made it to the doors before a booming voice called out, “Apple Bloom!”
A barrel chested red stallion was galloping toward them from the barn, eyes wide.
“Big Mac!” Apple Bloom beamed at the approaching stallion and bounced forward to meet him. He scooped her up into a crushing one legged hug and held her for a good thirty seconds before finally letting her down. When he stepped back, Scootaloo could just make out a threat of teary eyes before he blinked them away.
“We heard about what happened to Canterlot. Everypony was worried.”
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom awkwardly rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “Sorry for taking so long to come home. A lot of stuff’s been happening. Uh, do ya wanna go in and talk?”
Big MacIntosh wordlessly circled around them to open the door and led them inside.
Scootaloo followed at the rear of the group, nerves rising. She hadn’t been to Sweet Apple Acres in over two years, nor had she had any contact with the rest of the family after her fight with Apple Bloom. The place looked more or less the same, though a few new pictures dotted the front room. Granny Smith and the Gold Horseshoe Gals enjoying a senior’s day at the spa. Another of Apple Bloom playing with a newborn filly. Beside that, a picture of Big Mac in a tux. He stood beside a purple earth pony wearing a white dress. Scootaloo glanced away guiltily.
“Where is everypony?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Sent them to Appleoosa,” Big MacIntosh said. “Everfree Forest has been acting mighty strange.” He pointed to a collection of pots and pans near the back door. “Timber wolves almost got Candy Apple while she was playing outside.”
Apple Bloom frowned and met Scootaloo’s gaze.
They’d known that kind of thing would happen, but Scootaloo hadn’t been sure how. Even now she didn’t know if it was the lack of the princesses magic, or some more direct effort on Nocturne’s part that was beginning to stir the creatures of the forest.
“Don’t ya think ya should be with them?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Eeyup.”
“So you’re gonna go to Appleoosa too?”
“Eenope.”
“Well, why not?”
“Somepony has to take care of the farm,” Big MacIntosh said simply.
Apple Bloom pursed her lips, but didn’t argue. Scootaloo knew it would be pointless. Big Mac had just as much of the Apple Family stubborness as the rest of them, and if anypony was up to facing down a few timber wolves, it was him. Still, there were worse things in the forest, and they wouldn’t stay in there forever.
“So uh,” Scootaloo said. “Congratulations, by the way. On the whole...” she trailed off and pointed a hoof at the pictures.
“Eeyup,” Big Mac said. He hesitated, then said, “Apple Bloom. Do ya know where Applejack is? We haven’t heard from her either.”
Apple Bloom glanced down. “Um, yes. And she’s alive, but um... She’s been turned to stone.”
Big Mac frowned.
“But we’re gonna find a way to turn her back. We’re actually on our way to the Crystal Empire now. We’re taking the train in the morning, and then we’ll ask Princess Cadence if there’s anything she can do to help.”
Big Mac didn’t say anything, but after a long moment he nodded. He went to the door, chose two pans from the pile, and made his way into the kitchen. Apple Bloom caught on and said, “Ah’ll help. Uh, you three make yourselves comfortable. And there should be some paper on the desk in the other room, if you want to write that letter to Thistleroot.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Spike said, hopping down onto the sofa. “I’m so glad we don’t have to walk anymore.”
“Tell me about it,” Sweetie Belle said, hopping onto Granny Smith’s rocking chair.
Scootaloo walked into the other room, finding the desk Apple Bloom had mentioned. It was where Big MacIntosh kept most of the financial information related to the farm. She found a few sheets of paper, quills, and ink, and brought it all back into the main room. She sat on the floor so that she wouldn’t drip ink onto any of the furniture, took a quill between her teeth, and began writing.
“You don’t want me to do that?” Spike asked. Scootaloo shook her head, spattering the page with droplets of ink. “Okay,” Spike said. After a second of thought, he got up to grab a paper and quill of his own. “I’m going to send a letter to Cadence, to let her know we’re coming.”
“Good idea,” Scootaloo said, crumpling up her first attempt at a letter and starting fresh. Spike finished and sent his in the few minutes it took her to get frustrated and crumple up her second letter.
“Uh, is everything okay?” Apple Bloom asked from the door of the room.
“Yeah, I’m just bad at this.” Scootaloo didn’t meet her eyes.
Apple Bloom arched an eyebrow. “Well, okay. When you’re done with that, Big Mac and Ah made breakfast for dinner.”
“Okay, it’ll just be a minute,” Scootaloo said as Sweetie Belle and Spike traded glances and followed Apple Bloom into the dining room.
They’re probably going to get the wrong idea, Scootaloo thought belatedly, but shrugged the thought aside. She began writing again. Her third attempt wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.
She let the ink dry and rolled it up. She grabbed Granny Smith’s knitting bag beside her rocking chair, bit off a foot of yarn, rolled up the letter and tied it. She wrote Thistleroot’s name in large letters three times, so that no matter how it landed his name would be visible, and then she met the others for dinner.
*****
The Unicorn Range mountains gradually declined as the pony and changeling drew even with Cloudsdale. Thistleroot once again wondered if they should turn North and find a flying carriage in the city to take them the rest of the way, but Mimic made a valid point. Even if Scootaloo and the others were back in Ponyville or the ruins of Canterlot, there wasn’t much of a rush.
Especially since he hadn’t yet figured out what he was going to do about the fragment of harmony.
Rosalia was right. Scootaloo wasn’t the kind to keep herself safe when ponies she cared about were in danger. It was possible that giving her the fragment would be enough to send her off on another attempt at rescuing her sister.
But he couldn’t just keep it from her. As dangerous as going up against Rosalia was, he knew he had no right to make that decision for her. The best he could do was make sure they had the best possible plan.
The only problem was that he had no clue what that plan might be.
Mimic walked beside him in silence. He’d broached the subject earlier that morning, and since then she’d been lost in thought. But she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye now. He paused, and she came to a stop as well.
“I’ve got nothing,” he said. “Any ideas.”
“Yes,” she said. Thistleroot straightened up. Mimic continued, “We find Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and the others first.”
“Yep,” Thistleroot nodded. That part was obvious, but it looked like she was going to continue.
“We grab my brother as well.”
“Uh, okay,” Thistleroot said. It wasn’t something he had been thinking of, and she’d been content to let him stay put for the time being, but maybe her brother had some knowledge or skills that would be invaluable to defeating—
“And we leave Equestria.”
Thistleroot blinked. “Oh. Well, I mean, it’s not bad. I don’t know though, it seems like it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi, you know?”
“A little what now?”
“A little something,” Thistleroot said. “Mostly in the ‘saving Equestria’ and ‘getting Scootaloo to agree’ areas. But hey, it’s a start.”
“There’s nothing we can do to save Equestria,” Mimic said. “You know that, Thistleroot. Queen Rosalia tore us apart in a few seconds, and she was holding back. There’s nothing we can do against her.”
Thistleroot glanced away, not wanting to meet her eyes. She wasn’t as tall as he was, but he found himself hunching down under the sudden intensity of her stare.
“We should destroy the fragment of harmony,” she said. Thistleroot swallowed nervously. “Without it, Scootaloo won’t have any reason to challenge Nocturne. Even she can’t be that stubborn.”
“That seems a little extreme,” Thistleroot said weakly.
“I’m not going to die for this,” Mimic said. “We’re lucky to be alive right now. I’m not going back to Night’s End. I’m leaving. And,” she hesitated, glancing away, “I want all of you to come with me.”
Thistleroot blinked again, looking up. It was Mimic’s turn to avoid eye contact.
“Don’t read too much into that,” Mimic said. “I can’t go back to the changelings. It’ll be easier to survive with more than just my brother and me.”
She was right. Thistleroot knew they didn’t have a chance, but he’d been trying not to think about it, trying not to admit it even to himself. As for destroying the fragment of harmony to force the others’ hooves, that was out of the question. That wasn’t their decision to make.
“Scootaloo won’t agree,” he said. “Her sister is still trapped. You have a brother, you understand, don’t you?”
Mimic flinched. “She’ll just get herself killed. And if you go with her, you’re going to get killed too.”
“Probably,” Thistleroot said. “That’s why we need to come up with—”
“No! There is no perfect plan! We’re too outclassed. If you go up against the queens again you’ll die.”
“But if we don’t do anything, other ponies will—”
“They’re going to die anyway!” Mimic shouted. Thistleroot flinched. “Getting yourselves killed won’t do anything to help them. This country doesn’t belong to ponies any more. The only thing we can do is leave.”
Thistleroot dragged his hoof through the dirt. Once, twice. He couldn’t come up with anything to say, any counter to her points.
“If you give the fragment of harmony back to Scootaloo, she’s going to try to use it,” Mimic said again. Rosalia had said the same thing. It was the reason she’d let Thistleroot keep it. “If you want to keep her safe, you have to get rid of it. Destroy it. Take it back to Midlight and Star Charmer. Just don’t let Scootaloo have it.”
Thistleroot shook his head and moved past her.
“Thistleroot?”
“We’ve got about two days until we reach Canterlot,” Thistleroot said. “Just give me some time to think, okay?”
“Fine,” Mimic said.
*****
Thistleroot was silent as they walked. He was silent as the mountains became hills and the hills became plains. He had no questions for her about being a changeling. He told no jokes and made no references she couldn’t hope to understand. For the first time since she’d met him, he was willing to travel in peace.
Mimic didn’t like it.
The Thistleroot she’d come to know wasn’t supposed to march along in stony silence, deep in thought. She’d given him a choice to make, and he was taking it seriously. It was so against what she was used to from him that she almost wanted to take it back. To tell him that she was wrong.
Thistleroot and Mimic made their way down from the Unicorn Range, eventually finding the main road to Canterlot the next morning. They encountered no other ponies traveling between the cities, and hardly spoke until well into the afternoon.
Cloudsdale had become a speck on the horizon and Canterlot mountain was visible on the horizon before Mimic decided to broached the subject again. “Thistleroot?”
“Yeah?”
“Have you decided what you’re going to do?”
He sighed. “No.” They walked in silence for another few minutes before he shook his head. “I’m not getting anywhere on this on my own. Alright. We’ve got a fragment of magic from the Elements of Harmony.”
“Yes,” Mimic said. “One piece of magic and two extremely powerful immortals, neither of which we are sure can even be defeated with that little bit of magic.”
Thistleroot scowled, but nodded. “Yeah. Even if we were sure it would work on Nocturne, we’d have to deal with Rosalia some other way. But she’s not unbeatable. She’s just stronger than all of us together.”
Mimic sighed. “Okay, so maybe if we had enough ponies. Those Royal Guards are supposed to be pretty tough, right?”
Thistleroot nodded. “Yeah, a good thought. I don’t know how they measured up to the princesses, but from what Scootaloo told us, Rosalia didn’t consider herself a match for Princess Celestia anyway.”
“Unless Rosalia was lying,” Mimic said. “There was no point in her fighting if she could get someone else to do it for her.” She glanced away as she spoke. “Not to mention if she went all out, ponies would still die, no matter which side wins in the end.”
“True,” Thistleroot said. “Yeah, no taking things for granted with her.”
“And this is assuming the fragment of harmony can even deal with Nocturne, which we have no way of testing,” Mimic said.
“Yeah. Okay, so using the fragment directly on Nocturne is probably a bust. There’s the Element Bearers. Specifically Twilight Sparkle.”
“If Rosalia hasn’t destroyed them yet,” Mimic said. Thistleroot scowled in response. “What? Pretending it can’t be true won’t do you any good.”
“Okay, maybe, but assuming the worst doesn’t leave us with anything to work with.”
“Maybe there is nothing to work with,” Mimic said. “Maybe there is no way to win. This isn’t some fairy tale. We’re not guaranteed a happy ending.” Not everyone was going to make it out of this alive.
Thistleroot’s chin dropped. Mimic ignored a pang of guilt. After a second he spoke, his voice softer. “Fine. We’ll put the Element Bearers in the maybe column until we find out more. Anything else?”
Mimic shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant as her heartbeat raced. “We could always try using it on the big prison thing and free the princesses.” She’d said it. No taking it back now.
Thistleroot blinked.
“Or we could go back to Libiris,” Mimic said. “But I would rather not. We still don’t know what all that rumbling was last time we were there.”
“Do you think that would work?” Thistleroot asked.
Mimic paused for a moment. “Probably not. Libiris didn’t know all that much about her.”
“No, the prison. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Do you really think the fragment of harmony could open it?”
Mimic shrugged, hoping she could keep the nervousness out of her voice. “I don’t see why not. It was made by Discord, wasn’t it? Isn’t harmony kind of his big weakness?”
Thistleroot stared at her. Mimic glanced away uncomfortably. Finally, Thistleroot started smiling. “Ha! Oh Celestia, how did none of us think about that?” He started back down the road. “You genius, I could kiss you.”
“Try it and you’ll need that fragment of harmony just to fix yourself.”
“Heh, fair enough.”
Mimic watched him go, literally bouncing down the road. It was a completely different picture than that morning. Mimic followed, face even, ignoring the weight that had settled in her chest and stomach. It had been an unfamiliar feeling before, but in the weeks since she’d met Scootaloo it had become all too common.
If she had to guess, she’d call the feeling shame.