I was shocked by the speed with which Leif's organizational skills brought our caravan together. By sunset, we had stocked the wagon with camping supplies and enough food to last us for six weeks - the upper bound on how long it would take us to reach Snowport, depending how long we kept up our pace each day and how long we stopped in the two towns along the way.
On the one hoof... six weeks. That was a time loss we couldn't afford to take, not when there was a four-month journey up next to get to Catantan. On the other, we hadn't wasted any time in preparing.
As the sun dipped below the western mountains, I cut a swift pace through the town's streets, the wagon tied behind me and Braen at my side. The two of us were probably going to do the bulk of the pulling, so we decided to practice before taking on passengers who could complain about a bumpy ride. Our pace was half again what we had been told would be sustainable, and when my bracelet was off, I could feel myself already beginning to flag... but when I turned it up just a little, the tiredness was pushed away.
If only I had the courage and the resources to properly study what this thing could do. Now that I knew it was my changeling queen crown, I had something resembling a point to begin that research... but the true test would be now, trying to use it for hours at a time over a span of weeks, enhancing myself and pushing my strength to move the wagon faster, in a situation where every day counted. If my bracelet had limitations - or rather, if I had limitations that manifested through my bracelet - I would probably find out soon.
We got an early sleep and an earlier start. I stalled just long enough to watch the sun rise over the water, and then we were off: myself, Corsica, Braen, Papyrus, Mother, Leitmotif and a stallion called Plaid Trousers who gave us a decent price to serve as our guide. Fishy saw us off with a pre-dawn breakfast at the town hall, and Fluffy Fleece left us with a useful parting gift that even Leif hadn't thought to ask for: a colored-pencil sketch of Starlight as a filly, with extra detail on her special talent. For some reason, only Corsica and Braen seemed to appreciate having a visual reference for our target.
The road leaving Sires Hollow was anything but straight. We wound our way through a steep, awkward pass on the southeast side of town, descending into the valley of a river that flowed northeast into the talon. Soon, the river forked: a branch coming from the north, Trousers explained, was fed from an underground spring that was probably sourced from the river we had entered town on. That river poured into a lake, and the lake sourced several creeks that ran through town, but all of them eventually disappeared, resurfacing here to complete the final leg of their journey to the sea.
We followed the southern branch instead, the road sticking close beside it as numerous tributaries flowed down from the west. Pine trees dominated the valley, and Braen matched my pace, pulling the wagon along even as its wheels bumped on roots and uneven stones. Trousers warned us against pushing ourselves too hard, but Mother brushed him off: we were kids. No way to learn a lesson except through experience.
Seven hours in, and we were forced to stop for food. I kept my bracelet going, a funny sensation warning that if I turned it off now, all the exhaustion of the past few hours would hit me like a falling tree.
Eating with the bracelet turned on was... strange. I had done it before while using the bracelet for light, snacking in Corsica's lab while being too lazy to turn the proper lights on, but having it turned up enough to bolster my strength was a different story. Food felt tingly in my mouth, and kind of flaky, and it was like I was trying to taste it through a layer of cotton. And whenever I swallowed, I got the vague sensation that it wasn't really reaching my stomach... but eventually, after a little more than I usually ate, I still got full.
We set off again, and I volunteered for another shift. This got some strange looks from the others, especially Trousers, but as long as my bracelet stayed on, I was pretty sure I would be fine.
Braen, for her part, showed no signs of exhaustion: repeated attempts to press her on her power source were met with vague and dramatic answers that sounded like they were meant for entertaining young children. But for some reason, nobody save Trousers asked after me.
Once, the lack of attention would have been my ideal existence. Overlooked, ignored, ponies assuming I was insignificant... Now, however, it gave me the unsettling feeling that they didn't need to ask. As if what I was doing - a process I barely understood myself - was an open secret, and I was the only one who didn't realize everyone else knew.
Mother would know, of course. But. Leitmotif? Corsica? Papyrus? A worm of doubt nibbled away at me, and as it did, I started to realize how badly I needed dinner.
Halcyon, Faye said inside me. You probably can't hear it, but as you've been doing this, the rush of our emptiness has slowly been getting louder.
Huh. That was... ominous.
Keep listening, I thought back. Let me know if anything changes fast enough to be alarming. I doubt you've ever stress-tested us like this, so let's keep going and see what we learn.
A few hours after we stopped for dinner, night fell. During dinner, Trousers counseled that we stop to make camp: we had made great time for the first day, and the spot where he usually stopped when caravaning was already an hour or two behind us. But that emboldened me to push on, because I still felt fine beneath the bracelet's soft crackle. And while I thought about how much time we could save by covering extra miles today, Faye informed me that the rush had quieted ever so slightly.
I didn't know what to make of that. But I did know that if I went to sleep and woke up too cramped to move, it would be nice to have a little more distance already logged. So, we kept going.
Trousers counseled a little more forcefully for us to make camp as dusk fell, but upon learning that we had covered a full day and a half of ground today, I was hesitant: with the bracelet on, I wasn't feeling the tug of sleep on my eyelids, and Braen was apparently fine as well. What if we just kept on going? What if I could walk all the way through the night, and make one day count for three?
Corsica had to get right up in my face and point out that, unless I felt like never sleeping for a whole two weeks, I'd just be building up a sleep deficit that I'd have to work off at some point before I could pull again... and that was ignoring how this work was infinitely more strenuous than merely sitting around at home while pulling an all-nighter. And then Papyrus reminded me that, because I had been pulling all day long instead of taking shifts like we planned, he was still fresh, and so was Corsica, and so was our guide.
Reluctantly, I relented, letting my bracelet go-
"Huh," Corsica said, catching Halcyon as she went limp, barely halfway out of the wagon harness. "Sound asleep. That was fast."
"I'm amazed she didn't pass out miles ago," Plaid Trousers grunted, not actually wearing any of his namesake. "Now are we making camp, or are you doing this your way?"
Papyrus yawned. "Well, I'm technically fresh, but it's also my bedtime, and the only one pushing us to keep going is no longer able to advocate..."
"I'll be curious to see if she feels that in the morning," Leif mused, getting equipment out of the wagon. "If she's somehow able to sustain sixteen hours of pulling a day, we could set up a rotation where the rest of us pull when it's light out and she handles nights. I bet she'll be out longer than the rest of us, and might even naturally be awake tomorrow night as a result."
"You kids sure are in a hurry," Trousers grumbled. "I guess for a machine it makes sense, but how determined are you that you can push yourselves that hard?" He shook his head in bewilderment at Halcyon's slumbering form.
"Dunno." Corsica hoisted her friend, looking around for a place to set her. "Maybe we're just that good."
"It's her leg band," Leif explained. "It's enchanted. Also cursed, so it doesn't take kindly to changing owners - don't think we can share it. But it allows for some funky stuff."
"Giga cursed," Papyrus added, nodding sagely. "Believe me, I've heard the stories. You should have seen what happened to its last owner... You were there, right?" He gave Corsica a nod that said your turn.
Corsica didn't miss a beat, faking a massive shudder. "That's... Ugh. I don't wanna think about it."
Plaid Trousers looked disturbed.
"Important thing is, we're all a little eccentric," Corsica continued. "You have to be, to get a writ north of the mountains. But who doesn't have their quirks, or a little trick they can do? Hallie's got a magic bracelet that gives endurance or something, but that's nothing compared to Papyrus's ridiculous knowledge of far eastern politics."
Papyrus chuckled and took back the conversation, leaving Corsica to look sideways at Leitmotif: Halcyon's bracelet, huh?
She knew it was an heirloom from the Griffon Empire, knew it could grant the wearer some sort of power, and back in Ironridge, Halcyon had seemed to think it was special enough that it could be the reason all of Cold Karma's divisions were interested in her. But what did Leif and Papyrus know about that? Corsica first suspected it of being special when she saw it blazing while Halcyon chased her through a blizzard, back when she got possessed. And she felt like Halcyon had told her Leif specifically didn't know it was special...
Or maybe both of them were just fast thinkers who saw it glowing while Halcyon was running and picked up on it as a convenient excuse.
Corsica finished setting up a tent with her horn, sighed, and lugged Halcyon's unconscious form inside, preparing their bedrolls. If the bracelet did something as simple as letting Halcyon run all day while pulling a cart while suspending her tiredness, you'd think Halcyon would have no problems telling her that. But instead, she was just as tight-lipped about it as Corsica was with her special talent. And that probably meant her silence had a good reason... but what?
She tucked herself in and let her horn go out. At least her special talent wasn't nearly as conspicuous when it was being used as a glowing green bracelet. Sure, intentionally triggering it involved an activation phrase, but one that was easy to weave into normal conversation. If Halcyon kept using her bracelet, though, ponies were bound to get curious.
I awoke to a wall of cramps and the feeling of the wagon bumping beneath me.
It was late afternoon, we were still following the river, and Papyrus was taking a shift pulling with Braen. There wasn't much room to stretch in the wagon, not with four other ponies and our supplies, but I did the best I could, and after an hour we stopped for lunch, and I volunteered for another shift.
My bracelet felt different, somehow, when I turned it on. More familiar, as if something in my body was acclimatizing to having it turned on for long periods at a time. Mother's burned leg still hovered at the back of my mind, but I had never really felt my fear of overdoing it the same since I learned I was a changeling queen: it made too much sense that this was my bracelet, and Mother got penalized somehow because she wasn't its real owner.
At the same time, Mother always talked about her injury like it wasn't a price you could pay by accident. Like there was some threshold of pushing the bracelet that I would feel as it approached...
I wasn't using it hard, though, just using it long.
The road began sloping upward more steadily. I imagined we would eventually hit a pass and from there it would be downhill all the way to the next town, but as night fell, there was still no pass in sight.
I tried to gauge how I was feeling, but it was an impossible task while the bracelet was on, and if I turned it off I risked passing out again from exertion. But, I had woken up late, and no one was yet calling for us to make camp, so I pushed on.
Eventually, I called back to the cart, where multiple ponies were fitfully sleeping. No, I was told: if I was this determined to make headway, I was welcome to drag us on all throughout the night, and either stop when I was tired or let someone else take a shift so I could go to sleep in the morning. Apparently, this had been discussed in the morning, while I was still unconscious.
The tone of the announcement reminded me of a parent figuring it would be fine to let a filly help in the kitchen because they expected to do everything themselves anyway, so it wouldn't matter if the kid contributed nothing. Which was a weird tone to have, considering I was contributing quite a lot... Maybe Trousers was put out at having his advice being ignored, and maybe Mother and Leif were frustrated they couldn't do this themselves? Or maybe...
"Those flames don't set things on fire. If they did, you wouldn't be able to turn it off once it's burning. And the scars aren't burn marks. They're more like a... price. And not one you can pay by accident."
Mother's words concerning my bracelet's effects on her floated through my mind. She was right here, actually, watching me use this same power that had crippled her for life. There was probably no way she would allow me to push myself in a way that might be legitimately dangerous, right?
Or maybe she was expecting me to reach my limit, learn it, back off and be useless for the rest of the trip. Those expectations could warrant this, too.
Embarrassed, I pushed on. As nice as it would be to pace myself and respect my limits, I had to learn them before I could plan around them. And if a cross-continental hike where speed was of essence wasn't the time to push myself, I wasn't sure what was.
I expected a pass, and we finally reached one as the sky was beginning to tinge with dawn. Unfortunately, what lay beyond looked a lot more like the Trench of Greg than a smooth, easy ride downhill to the next town.
A lake filled the valley in front of us, and the road swung sharply to the left, winding down the steep mountain wall. In the distance, I could see the road skirt around the lake's eastern end, where it looked like the mountains got lower and it could continue without climbing back up again.
Halfway down the mountain, I encountered a large clearing with ample evidence of previous convoys, and we stopped there for breakfast.
Remembering what had happened the last time I turned my bracelet off abruptly, I kept it burning this time, eating a modest portion - not enough to be full, since I was going to sleep immediately after, but enough that I wouldn't wake up starving and weakened. My experience of eating with the bracelet on remained unchanged: it felt like the food didn't quite fully exist, or wasn't entirely reaching me.
Why was that? And where did the power it lent me come from, anyway?
I knew what the bracelet was, now, but if anything, it made less sense than before. This wasn't some mystical external artifact that was lending me power, it was tied to me and me alone. And while I actually knew nothing about where changeling queen crowns came from, or why we had them in the first place, Coda had talked about hers more like it was a focus for her power.
Was my bracelet like a key, unlocking abilities I possessed all along? If so, then where was I getting my power? It was basic science: no matter how powerful a being was, the things they did still took energy, and all that energy had to come from somewhere. How Braen was powered was just as good of a question as what I was running on.
After breakfast, I sat in the cart and let someone else take a shift, and tried to cling to consciousness as I turned my bracelet off. I lowered it slowly, backing off as I felt a wave of exhaustion approach, dimming it again when I had steadied myself... It was the staying-up-too-late equivalent of trying to ease yourself into a scalding bath. And while my body was a solid wall of hurt, I managed to stay aware enough to feel it.
Maybe... Maybe part of how my bracelet worked involved borrowing from my future self? Numbing pain, postponing the physical consequences of my actions? Feeling the way I felt now, I probably really could hurt myself pushing myself this hard... but if I didn't, I could get really buff doing this.
In fact, my existing fitness was probably the biggest reason I could survive this at all. But if this hypothesis proved at all accurate, that would be a pretty big incentive to get even fitter.
...That could be a consideration for tomorrow. I didn't want to fight it anymore. I passed out.
The next time I woke, it was early evening, and I didn't recognize the terrain. We were now following a stream flowing in the same direction as us. Presumably, that meant we had passed the lake I saw, and this was fed by it?
Trousers confirmed that we had passed the halfway point to the first of two midpoint towns, and I felt a streak of jubilation. Assuming the towns were roughly equidistant, that was a full sixth of the way to Snowport. The estimates we planned for said six weeks, so about one week to reach this point. And we had done it in three days and two nights, one of which we weren't even moving for.
Plaid Trousers seemed torn between being impressed and counting Braen as cheating. Just as they didn't have any sort of mana engines on their boats, I learned, the ponies of Sires Hollow did their caravans without any machinery more advanced than axles and wheels. Having an untiring automaton who could cheerfully pull a cart for days on end completely changed the playing field, let alone me and my magical stamina. It was almost enough to make me consider whether our walking speed was faster than an average boat.
My knowledge of boats was too poor to guess for sure, and I felt like asking would be silly. So I focused instead on walking, experimenting with turning my bracelet up and down, seeing how higher settings affected my strength and how hard it was to push myself with the bracelet giving less aid. It was hard to know for sure, especially when I was beginning to feel the effects of so much heavy work even through the usual level of on. But at the very least, my theory that it was delaying the consequences of my exertions wasn't disproved.
I let myself pass out early, realizing that I was the only one pushing for us to travel at night, and that if I didn't wake up in time, we would make camp and lose a night. This time, falling asleep was a little harder than before, both because I was so cramped and limp and tired and also because I hadn't been pulling for nearly as long this time. But still, it happened.
On the evening of the fourth day, I awoke, and the cycle repeated. And just as I prepared to do the same on day five, we reached the first town.
I wished I could have experienced it, but about all I knew was that we spent two nights and one day there, waiting out a rainstorm and allowing ponies to rest up from the march. Did Papyrus need it? Corsica? Trousers? I was too out of it to check, but I had a funny feeling it was mostly for me.
Our march resumed, and I fell back into a routine, quickly losing track of the days. Wake up. Dinner. Pull. Night. Pull. Breakfast. Sleep. How many hours a day was I putting in? Was I walking, or was I running? Was everyone else as tired as I was? Embracing the monotony felt like the best way to get through it, and I felt like I always had the strength to continue, even as my thoughts grew distant and the scenery faded from my primary entertainment to a forgotten afterthought.
"Hey," Corsica said, pushing open the door to Nehaley's room in an inn in the second town. "Got a sec?"
"A lot more than one." Nehaley was chewing gum again, staring out the window at the town's talon. Unlike Sires Hollow, it was a gentle shore, and most of the town was built in sight of the water. "What?"
"I'm worried about Halcyon," Corsica said, getting straight to the point. "You seen the way she's acting?"
Nehaley raised an eyebrow. "Pulling that cart for twelve to sixteen hours a day and sleeping the rest, without fail?"
Corsica shook her head. "Going fast is a good thing. I'm just worried about whatever price she's paying to do it. No one's that strong and that determined... Except Braen, at least, but I have my own questions about how she works. I know it has something to do with that bracelet, I know she got it from you, and I know she wouldn't keep it a secret how it works if it was harmless and straightforward. So what's the catch?"
Nehaley chewed her gum. "Isn't that her story to tell?"
"She's pretty out of it." Corsica pointed back over her shoulder. "And not 'I just ran ten marathons' out of it. This is 'wave in front of your eyes and you don't blink' out of it. So I figured I'd ask you. It was your bracelet originally, right?"
"Might have been." Nehaley shrugged. "It belonged to someone else before that. Not sure how much I can tell you."
Corsica gave her a look. "You know more than that. Your kid is potentially misusing something dangerous and that's the best you can give me to help her? If it wasn't dangerous, there wouldn't need to be any secrets about it."
Nehaley glanced at the door. "You overestimate me. And you overestimate her, too. Neither of us know much about it. She's probably pushing herself, trying to learn. Are you that worried?"
"Come see for yourself." Corsica waved her along.
Nehaley actually followed, and moments later they were in the room Corsica shared with Halcyon. Halcyon was sitting in her bed, looking deeply lost in thought.
"Hey," Corsica said, strolling up to her. "I've been thinking: we're tired, we've got extra food, we need a rest. Think we should put our hooves up here for a week?"
"What?" Halcyon looked like she was sparing about a tenth of her attention. "Err, no. We're going on to Snowport."
"You sure look thrilled about it." Corsica gave her a cheeky grin. "That really as much excitement as you've got?"
"...Yeah," Halcyon managed. "Just gotta make it there first."
Corsica raised an eyebrow at Nehaley. "We're literally at a rest break. Coziest place for miles around. And she sounds like she's pushing through a shift on the wagon right now."
Nehaley frowned, walked closer, and stared at Halcyon's eyes. Then she reached down and popped the bracelet off her foreleg.
Corsica blinked. Halcyon's hoof hadn't left the floor. And it was a circlet. How...?
A spark of shock crossed Halcyon's eyes. "Hey, what-?"
"Huh," Nehaley said, holding the bracelet up to her eye and looking through it. She tapped the edge a few times. "Well, you've been overusing something."
"What are you looking at?" Corsica tried to get closer. "How'd you even get that off?"
"Here." Nehaley passed it to her. "Don't wear it. And don't give it back to her for... mmm, a day. Use your own judgement. I'm going back to my room."
"No, that's mine, give it back," Halcyon protested, trying to reach for the bracelet... and then trailing off. "Are we in... Wait, what happened?"
Corsica looked at the bracelet, then at Halcyon. "You good, there?"
Halcyon stumbled over to the window, pulling it open. "I think I need some fresh air..."
My mind felt as though someone had just shoveled years of detritus off a countertop. I knew, academically, where I was, and what I had been doing the past week or two. And I could remember my time in Sires Hollow, and everything leading up to it, with great clarity. But soon after, my memories started deteriorating... or perhaps my memories were fine, but my senses had been dulled during the experiences. The further I went, the duller it got, right up until this moment, right now.
Now, my ears rang, and my head buzzed, and all the cart pulling had still left my body aching beyond repair. But beneath those ailments, I was lucid. I was me. And something about those memories made me wonder if, just a moment ago, I couldn't say the same.
"...You good?" Corsica repeated behind me.
I turned, breathing deeply and collecting my focus. My bracelet was there, floating in her aura. Not on my leg where it belonged.
Get it back, all my instincts told me. That's only safe for you to use! And who knows what would happen if you lost it?
But at the same time, the look Corsica was giving me suggested she wasn't holding onto it because she wanted to use it.
"Was I really that out of it?" I asked, lowering my hoof.
"What did I ask you right before your mom took this?" Corsica asked, waggling my bracelet.
I hesitated. Was this a trick question? Or...
Honestly, I couldn't remember the specific words anyone had used since the first or second day of our travels.
Well, I had wanted to test the limits of my power, and apparently now I had found one. And it was a particularly problematic one, because I hadn't even realized anything was happening to me until it was all gone.
"You there?" Corsica waved at me. "Hallie? Anyone home?"
"Yeah, I'm here." I focused on reality again. "I don't remember what you asked me. I don't... remember a lot of anything. How long have we been walking?"
Corsica shrugged. "Counting our big breaks, about two weeks. We're close. The last leg is the shortest, and between you and Braen we've made ridiculous time. But you've been kinda..." She held up the bracelet and gave me a pointed look. "With how ahead of schedule we are, we can afford to dawdle. Everyone else is tired; I pulled that wagon for four hours a day and I'm wrecked. Whole team voted on this, no overruling us. So that means you've got all the time in the world to tell me why this thing turned you into a vegetable."
I looked down.
"Take your time." Corsica turned away. "Like I said, you've got plenty. But if this is at all related to what you clammed up about the night we arrived in Sires Hollow... think long and hard about whether that's really a secret you want to carry by yourself. Because if the way to snap you out of this is to take your bracelet away, you need someone in on the act who you can trust."
Snapping me out of it by taking my bracelet away... "Wait a minute," I said. "If you're gonna keep it until we can have a talk, that's... fine. But can I touch it first, real quick? Just for a second."
Corsica tilted her head.
I sighed. "I can't tell you how it works because I don't know, but you've got a point, so I promise I'll tell you why I don't know just as soon as my head stops hurting. But long story short, I was stress-testing myself on the walk here to see what would happen. Can I have it just for a second, for research purposes?"
Frowning, Corsica floated it closer. I reached out...
A little jolt of static shocked my senses as Corsica pulled the bracelet away. I hadn't been aware of it while it was happening, but when she removed it, I definitely was: even just putting a booted hoof on the rim had dulled me again, right up until I let go.
"Thanks," I sighed. "That's... what I needed to know. It doesn't do anything weird when you touch it, right? Better not wear it, just to be safe."
Corsica tapped it, then shrugged. "Not that I can see."
"Figures. Well, I guess you'll have to hold onto it for now."
It hurt to say it, and about three quarters of me felt like I was saying it prematurely, but I couldn't think of any other tests that might disprove my immediate hypothesis: I had overused it by a dangerous amount. Only, instead of burning out my leg like Mother, I had broken the bracelet, and now I could no longer even touch it until I figured out what was wrong and how to fix it.
Learning about the limits of my powers, I decided, was a pretty unforgiving task.