May 22, 9:13 AM

No, only Hazel can be trusted. 52%

It wasn’t that Wayfinder didn’t believe that Peter was on her side. He’d sacrificed as much as she did to get Ruby released, even though the mare was only an acquaintance to him. He had no obligation to offer anything, not even advice. Yet he’d saved and sacrificed and risked. But for all that, something about the way he ended up with Lance just didn’t sit well with Way. He’d been a soldier before he was anything else, with deep connections to the same base that once contained Nem10.

Not telling him is doing him a favor. He can’t keep a secret if he doesn’t know. She smiled back at the stallion, then reached over to put a foreleg on his shoulder. “Right now, there’s nothing to help with. We’re… all stuck in the same prison. I’m just hoping to improve conditions a little. Give people… more tools they can use. You already see what I’m doing if you go to class.”

“Yeah.” He glanced at her foreleg, then retreated towards the door. “You’re teaching what you read in that book, I’m not stupid. I’m just struggling to understand how it had anything useful. You blunder into some random dude in a group of refugees, and he happens to have a perfectly written guide to learning magic. Everything in the book just works. I think if the base was still trying to contain noncausal events, it would probably lock that thing deep underground and throw away the key. Are you sure that having classes to teach it is a good idea?”

She shrugged. “I think… we have to try and survive. I think if you’re paying attention, you can see the feds are falling apart. Shipments are coming in less frequently, reserved more and more for the little compound of VIPs. We can’t survive here on our own forever. Do you think we should just roll over and starve when that happens?”

She levitated her satchel up onto the shelf. Heavier than it was before, thanks to the addition of a new book, and most of the scrolls now missing. “We don’t have to hate the people who didn’t get sick. I don’t. But that doesn’t mean we have to give up and die for their sake. You didn’t–you didn’t stick around when you thought they were going to nuke the city, and I don’t think you feel that way now.”

Peter sighed. “No, I don’t. But you don’t want to tell me what you’re thinking.”

She shrugged. “You wanna help? Get me a meeting with management. I’ve got some things I’d like to talk about with them.”

He laughed. “Command is not going to talk to you, or any of us. They’re busy drowning in the same worries that are bothering you. What do you want me to tell them?”

She shrugged. “I… I don’t know yet. Give me a week.”

It wasn’t trusting him with the truth, but she wasn’t kicking him away, either. Maybe he could make or use some of his connections in a little while, once she had enough to win over leadership.

“I’m glad you’re back,” he eventually said. “I hope things between you and Ruby are… cordial.”

She nodded. “Better than they’ve been since we first got infected. I don’t think she’s ever gonna live at the barracks with me again, but… being here was only happening so she was safe while she recovered anyway. She never needed to be here. But she’s still in the Isolation Zone, so we’ll find her. Hopefully when we do, she agrees with me.”

He left, slipping back out of her room and down the hall. Probably off to catch up with Lance, for purposes that were obviously wholesome and uncomplicated in nature. But that didn’t bother Way either. She’d made her choice, and now Peter had too. She could live with that decision, hopefully Peter could too.

She waited a little longer for Peter to get far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to overhear. Hazel bounced on her hooves, watching her with an expectant grin.

“I can tell it was big,” she said, the first to break the silence. A little earlier than Way would’ve felt confident speaking. “You haveta tell me! Tell me tell me tell me!”

“How can you tell?” Way asked, trying to keep her face as flat and neutral as she could. Though from her memory, there was something about her kind in one of the two new books. She would have to check it in a moment. “Can you read my thoughts?”

Strangely, the child responded to that thought, glancing up at the shelf where she’d set the satchel. Wayfinder ignored that, pretending she hadn’t noticed that too.

“Dunno. Maybe I’m just getting to know you. But it’s like—I can’t tell what you’re thinking. But I can tell you came back feeling… good? Excited about something. I dunno how you were feeling the morning you left, because you went before I woke up.”

Why do you think I would’ve done that? Way thought, though she didn’t say that either.

“Anyways, tell me! What happened?”

“Well…” She levitated the satchel off the shelf and held it open. There were two books inside. Not the basics of unicorn magic, she hadn’t brought that book with her into the Overgrowth. One was “Theory and Fundamentals of Thaumaturgy” which she set back on the shelf. The second, however. “Equestria’s Creatures and Their Abilities, she brought over and began flipping through it. No easy task, at least it wouldn’t have been if it were a physical volume. The text was so heavy it had strained her back during her return trip.

“He said this was an older book, so it’s not the most up to date with new discoveries. But it should have what we need.” she stopped, turning the book around in the air so Hazel could see it.

“Changelings are the most common ero…vore—” she began, struggling over a few unfamiliar words. “Natives to the badlands South of Equestria, have a past shrouded in mystery. Common myth places their origin as the result of magical accident, possibly involving Starswirl or another…” she flipped to the next page. “The changeling begins to demonstrate competency with physical transformation at a very early stage of dev-elopment, which they employ to entrap and deceive their prey…”

She whimpered, then pushed the book away through the air. It spun in Way’s magic, tumbling before she caught it and snapped the cover closed. “Is that what you t-think I’m… I’m doing, Way? Am I trying to…”

“No, sweetheart!” Way interrupted, settling the book down and pushing it aside. “Books are written by people, that means they carry their perspectives with them. People aren’t always nice, and they aren’t always right either.”

The poor kid stared down at nothing, her multifaceted eyes unfocused. Way couldn’t tell if she was even able to cry with a face so much like a bug. But she didn’t need magic to see what the kid was feeling.

Before, she would’ve been too disgusted to approach. That instinct came from something buried deep, not anywhere in Way’s conscious mind. She wrapped her foreleg around her shoulder and held her in a hug–at least as much a hug as her body was capable. “I know you eat something different than we do. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve never seen you hurt anyone. I don’t think you’re a monster.”

She couldn’t say why the words printed in a book bothered her so deeply, but since Way was the one to show her…

“I know you’re not really my sister, Way. But it’s harder to remember that every day. When you left without telling me, I wondered…”

Shit.

“…if you’d left me behind. It wouldn’t be the first time. A few times, o-other infected my brother found… tried to help me. But once they saw me, they always left. It didn’t matter what they said before. I was just too awful for them to look at.”

With a normal kid, Way just would’ve lied, telling her what she needed to hear. But Hazel would feel that, and it would make all her words bitter and hollow. “I was scared of you when we first met,” Way admitted.

The kid pulled away, looking up with big, frightened eyes.

But she continued. “Then I got to know you. I realized any fear I felt was part of the disease, messing with my head. I have family–three sisters, but two moved out while I was still–” She stopped short of “still a little boy.” Way was at least reasonably sure that Hazel didn’t know that part, and she wasn’t about to share it. The fewer people knew, the easier it was to live in her present. “I had a little half-sister, from my dad’s second marriage. About your age. That’s who I think of when I see you. You didn’t pick to look that way, you can’t help what the infection did to you. It’s not your fault you’re a changeling.”

Hazel cried. Her eyes might not be capable of tears in the same way, but a kid of any species obviously felt the same emotions. The same fear, the same relief and terror and other painful things. “T-then why did you go?”

She patted her gently on the back, careful not to crush those delicate-looking wings. “I didn’t want to bring you somewhere dangerous. I can get myself eaten, because I’m a grown-up who can make stupid decisions. I’ll bring you next time, promise.”

The changeling settled onto the ground, staring down at her hooves. She was silent for a long time, long enough that Way worried she’d start to cry again.

“My brother is here,” she eventually said. “When you vanished, I… went into the records here. Found his name. Looks like he got sick, because he’s just out of quarantine. But he’s, uh… he’s not a bug. I wanted to go talk to him, walked over to the orphanage… but I couldn’t go in. What if he hates me? What if he runs away too?”

“I don’t think that will happen.” Way said, without a split second’s hesitation. “I know what love looks like, Hazel. Your brother already knows what you are, it’s not a surprise to him. He risked his life to make sure you got care. I’d be shocked if he isn’t looking for you right now, worried for your safety. We should probably go there now, if you know where he is.”

“No!” Hazel tensed, spreading both wings as though she were about to take off. “I mean… no. He can’t take care of me in there. And I don’t wanna live in an orphanage.”

Not a lot I can do while living here, either. A ten-year-old girl was one thing, but a teenage boy was quite another. Now if she could get them both to Starhall, maybe. But if Wayfinder’s frightening little sister went missing right after her girlfriend did, that would probably start raising suspicion. “Maybe we can write a letter then. I could pass it for you, just so he knows you’re alive. If you’re not ready to see him again, you don’t have to.”

“Not yet!” Hazel called, loud enough that Way tensed. What could possibly be bothering her so much about her brother? Way wouldn’t even know he was here were it not volunteered. “Maybe one day. I think letters might be hard where he’s at. It’s… just an awful situation.”

She slumped, pawing at the floor in frustration. “Let’s just… worry about something else right now. You’re back! What are you gonna do now that you’re here?”

Way had an answer before she’d even left Starhall. A first priority didn’t preclude other goals later. But she was only one pony and could only do one thing. Maybe two, if “trying to impress Sunburst” counted.

1. “I’m going to try to help the zone grow its own food.”

2. “I think we can use magic to get the power grid working again.”

3. “I want to go to the president with everything I’ve learned about magic so we can find a way to stop the spread of this disease.”