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.”