Sunlight slanted through a crack in the curtains, and Gusty blinked, her eyes opening, squinting in the bright glare. She sat up, yawned, and stretched as she leaped gracefully out of bed. Shaking her head to get her mane to lie in what was an acceptable position, she reached for the doorknob, then froze. Gusty recalled her dream from last night… and her conversation with a pony who claimed to be her mother.
Whistle? she asked in her head. Are you still there?
Yes, dear, said the new voice. And, yes, I am your mother, but please don’t press it too much. It’s too weird.
At least I know we can agree on something, Gusty said ruefully.
This is dangerous, Gusty, came Ocean Breeze’s voice. Hearing voices of dead ponies that aren’t just your subconsciousness - that could mean you’re cursed, or have an evil spell on you, or something worse-
Oh, shut up, Gusty and Whistle snapped in unison.
Maggie was in the kitchen, frying flapjacks on a pan when Gusty walked in. The red unicorn looked up as she expertly flipped a pancake over her shoulder, landing it on a tall stack with a slight splat. “Morning, sleepy head,” she teased. “Did you sleep well enough last night? I am so sorry if you didn’t, the pony below us has a tremendous snore, and you can hear him on quiet nights, so if-”
“No, no I slept fine,” Gusty laughed, watching in amazement as Maggie flipped a flapjack into the air and caught it with the frying pan, all while her eyes were on Gusty. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“A friend - former friend - taught me,” Maggie said casually, but Gusty could detect a hint of bitterness beneath her words. She decided that now would not be a good time to press it.
“I was wondering if we could stop by my old… campsite, I guess you could call it. Me and my brother have been saving coins for forever, and now that he’s gone, I might as well put them to good use,” Gusty said, sitting down and pulling a plate of pancakes towards her.
“Sure,” Maggie agreed, using her magic to spoon more batter onto the pan. “But let’s do that in the afternoon. I have to go to work this morning, but I’ll be done a little after lunch.”
“Oh,” Gusty said, looking up and brushing crumbs off her face. “What do you do?”
“I tutor at the school,” the unicorn said proudly, puffing out her chest. “I’m working to get enough savings to go to a university and become a teacher, but I don’t get paid that much. It’s all I can do to keep this place. The professor says that it won’t be much longer before they’re able to really pay all of us, but she’s been saying that for years.” She looked at Gusty. “Just thought I should let you know… it might be a while, if ever, before you get paid for doing this. They’ve had a few… issues with finances.” She tossed the pancake into the air and caught it again.
“Oh, I didn’t join for the money,” Gusty assured her. “I was just sick of sitting around and not doing anything. And don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.”
“I think everypony knows that,” Maggie laughed, then sobered up. “But after what happened last night…”
“It was dark,” Gusty insisted. “I doubt anypony got a real good look at me.” She stood up and levitated her plate so that it caught the flapjack Maggie tossed through the air.
Fifteen minutes later, Maggie had gone to work, and Gusty was wandering the streets of Manehattan, which Maggie had told her was the name of the town. She searched the stalls of vendors that lined the streets for somepony who sold books, not just magic books, but stories and fairy tales, too. She only knew of two, but one, according to Maggie, was terrible, and the other was right across from Rex’s old tent. Gusty had no doubt that he’d be there today, rebuilding from last night’s attack, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him.
After failing to find anything, Gusty decided to head back to Ruby’s place, hoping to see Oasis, but Ruby told her that his apprentice was at home sick.
“Caught that pony pox virus that’s been going around,” the stallion said, shaking his head sadly. “Hey, how’d your mother like the necklace?”
“I haven’t given it to her yet,” Gusty said, picking up on Ruby and Maggie’s ability for telling cover-up stories. “She lives out in the country, so I’m heading out there this afternoon.” At least that would explain why she disappeared for a while. “Thanks again for helping me.”
“No problem,” Ruby replied, waving as she exited the shop.
Lacking anything better to do, Gusty decided to head over to the book cart next to Rex’s burned tent, hoping the burly earth pony wouldn’t be there. But he was, all alone, poking forlornly through the wreckage. Gusty was able to take a look at some books and leave without him noticing, though after seeing him, though after seeing him, she felt inclined to offer to help repair or replace everything. She suspected that, after last night, he wouldn’t be too eager to accept her help.
After returning to the apartment, Gusty immersed herself in one of the few books left in her room, ignoring her increasingly hungry stomach and waiting for Maggie to return. She did want to learn some new spells, and she figured Maggie had some spell books, but she didn’t want to intrude. That would be wrong.
“Gusty, are you in here?” came Maggie’s voice, and Gusty scrambled into the kitchen to say hello. The red unicorn looked worried, but she smiled when she saw her. “Sorry it took me so long, I had to pick up some lunch.” She dropped a couple of wrapped sandwiches on the counter and disappeared into her room for a few seconds.
Gusty took a sandwich without complaint. She had a feeling that this was not the real reason Maggie was late, and there was that worried look in her eyes…
Ten minutes later, Gusty was leading Maggie into the woods in search of her campsite that had been her home for practically her whole life. It was true that Gusty hadn’t been able to find her way from camp to town, but she had a fairly solid plan for how to get there: find the river, follow the river until she found a familiar landmark, and make her way from there.
She had just never considered that there could be so many rivers.
“Uh, Gusty?” Maggie ventured, studying their surroundings. “Are you sure you know where you’re going? Because we’re almost out of the woods.”
Gusty’s head jerked up. “We’re almost out of the woods?” But that made no sense. “How can we be almost out of the woods?”
“By getting lost, apparently,” Maggie grumbled. “Look, you teleported here, right? Why can’t you teleport back?”
Use a lot of magic? Gusty panicked. Ever since the incident with the creature she found out was called a chimera, she’d been afraid to use more magic than necessary. What if I lose control? What if I accidentally blow a hole in the forest? What if-
Gusty, those aren’t your thoughts. Whistle’s voice broke through the frenzy, just barely able to keep her anger down. They’re your brother’s. He’s putting thoughts into your head to make you afraid. Remember what I told you - fear is just another emotion.
And emotions can be controlled, Gusty finished, taking a deep breath and lighting up her horn. I can do this. She pictured the clearing, the smoldering fire, the stack of wood, the pile of blankets. There was a bright flash of light, and when Gusty opened her eyes, she was back in her camp.
“Yes!” She leaped into the air, remembered that she couldn’t fly, and fell to the ground with a thud, sending up a column of dust. “Ugh…”
“You’ve lived… here?” Maggie spun in a circle, taking it all in. “For how long?”
“I think almost twelve years?” Gusty peeled herself off the ground and shrugged. “Eleven to be certain. You know, it’s strange - we used to move around a lot, but when we came here, we just kind of settled. Ocean said that he wanted to show me what it was like to have an actual home.” She looked around and spotted the large rock that marked the place where the money her brother earned was. Using her magic, gusty lifted the rock and pushed the dirt aside to reveal a large brown bag. Grunting, Gusty lifted the heavy sack out of the hole and filled it back up. “Here we go!”
Maggie spotted the bag and gasped, running over. “Where did you get all of this?”
Gusty blinked, confused. “Uh… my brother brought it all? I mean, he made three coins a day, so…”
“Three gold coins?” Maggie used her magic to lift all the coins out of the sack and cast a spell on the floating gold. All the coins divided into stacks of ten.
“Yeah…” Gusty watched, silent, as Maggie ran numbers through her head. She eventually dropped all the coins into the bag and slumped.
“Most of it’s gone,” she sighed, standing up. “There’s only about three hundred or so in there - if he brought home three coins per day for eleven years, that should be around…” Maggie paused as she calculated. “Twelve thousand, at least. And trust me when I say the only pony who has the wealth to pay ponies in gold is Grogar, and he pays his spies five gold coins.”
“So he lied to me again?” Gusty scoffed and used her magic to pick up the bag, straining as she did. “You know, I should almost be expecting it at this point, and yet, he still manages to surprise me.”
“Yes, well…” Maggie shifted uneasily on her hooves. “About that. There is something else that I discovered.” She lit up her horn and blasted it at the sky. Just a few meters above them, the beam of magic hit something… solid?
Cracks ran along the sky, spreading out from where Maggie’s magic hit… whatever it was. The cracks formed a dome around the camp, and once they reached the ground, the thing shattered, sending tiny pieces of it scattering over the ground.
Gusty half expected to see a dark room instead of sky where ponies plotted her entire life and somehow cast it nationwide so everypony could watch her do stuff.
But the sky was the same as before, except… Gusty took a step forward, squinting at the new, dark shape cutting into the sky.
“I figured out why you couldn’t find Manehattan, or your way back here,” Maggie said, sounding exhausted. “It’s because you’re nowhere near Manehattan.” She pointed at the mountain. “That’s Canterlot."