June 15, 5:31 PM

The drive back to Denver was a surprisingly quiet affair, considering what had happened the last few days. The escort officers driving had little to say about the enormous forest that exploded through the environment and spread into every opening like a virus. She got a few stares at her wings getting into the car. But these soldiers had none of the Equestrian context to understand what it meant that she was an Alicorn.

Fine by her. The less that information spread, the less she would have to explain when she got back to Denver.

She rode with her wings folded awkwardly along her back, trying and failing to find a comfortable spot with one shoved sideways into the car window.

Hazel spent most of the ride pressed to the window on the opposite side, staring with open fascination at the forest as it blurred past them out the window.

It was slow going compared to the trip out. More than once they had to stop to push debris out of the way, or route around several large trees that hadn’t been part of the road before.

The price to contain so much wild magic appeared to be much higher than she’d previously imagined. Would ponies still come here to ski and hike and camp when the danger was over? She could only hope they would all survive long enough to ask that question.

It was nearly evening by the time they approached the edge of the forest. Technically, the Overgrowth continued into part of Denver on one side, but the freeway wouldn’t take them that way. For the first time in several hours of cramped driving, Wayfinder’s view ahead opened, without trees clustering close to both sides of the highway.

“Just a few miles and we’re home,” the driver said. He flicked on the headlights, then touched the radio on the dash. “Transport 2, prepare to increase speed. Highway report is clear all the way to the wall.”

Wayfinder didn’t hear the reply, but she didn’t really have to. She settled into her seat, running over a version of what she would tell the ponies at home about the recent change to the Overgrowth, and what had happened to her. The representatives of important agencies would want to know why she’d transformed too, obviously. She could only hope that Sunburst’s spell had worked the way they all thought it did, because if the Overgrowth had overtaken Denver, the city was dead and so was she.

Wayfinder felt nothing strange at first. They passed beyond the trees, tires rumbled over concrete, and Hazel tapped her hoof against the glass. Nothing changing, nothing strange.

Strength fled from her like water draining from a broken bottle. Wayfinder’s head slumped forward, and her wings sagged. Her hooves tingled, though of course there was nothing quite like human sensitivity. But it was still wrong, painful enough that she tried to speak. The words came out mumbled and half-formed, like she’d had a few too many shots at the bar.

“I… think I… Sunny…”

Her view clouded at the edges, losing color where it had seemed so vibrant before. She reached out for him and her hoof passed through the air in front of him rather than making it far enough to tap his shoulder.

Sunburst turned towards her. “Is something…” the rest was indistinct. His words melted together into dripping caramel. She flopped sideways into his lap, numb. She could barely even feel the touch of his hooves on her neck.

The sharp deceleration was clearer, though. She smacked against the back of the seat in front of her, then slid partway into the opening meant for human legs, her neck only partway up near Sunburst. They were all staring at her then, or at least turned in her direction. More words, questions, tone impossible to parse.

She was strong enough to lift one leg and point behind her, back along the road. “Weak. Go.” No telling how much of that actually made it out. The gray overwhelmed her then, and her world turned black.

Wayfinder walked through the trees.

It was night this time, the great fog that had plagued her last vision faded to a few dusty clouds at the edges, where the world just hadn’t bothered to exist. The great crowd she remembered had gone too, no one clustered near her to stare at her work. Instead, Wayfinder walked past individuals. Each tree had one, a single figure lingering by the trunk somewhere.

None were easy to identify as human or pony, though they did have some things in common. Many were small, barely large enough to reach her knees even as a pony. Others were much larger, with stooped backs that curved away to smoke the longer she looked.

Every single one of them was watching her. But if they were speaking, she couldn’t make out the words. Not until she approached one that seemed clearer than the others, standing defiantly beside a tree planted directly in the center of the highway. A great pine rose there, its roots cracking cement and displacing the median barrier. And near it, rested something she thought was a pony.

Until she got close enough to see its features, and realized that muzzle went too far, those ears too angular. And there were claws protruding from its front—not hooves as she knew them.

Yet as the only watcher not made from smoke, Wayfinder couldn’t retreat. No one else here would be able to answer her questions. Maybe they could.

Up close, its features became more obvious, and more familiar. She’d seen several of these things at the university, when she went in to rescue Ruby. This was one of the beings Sunburst called Timberwolves.

It didn’t leap in her direction the way they had before. If anything, this one looked hurt, like a dog its beloved owner had just kicked across the room.

“Is something wrong?” Wayfinder asked. Her wings half-opened, mostly by reflex. Maybe her body thought she might need to flee in a hurry. She might. But Way knew her way around dogs. She could still picture the rescue she’d adopted as a boy, so frightened when he arrived that he wouldn’t let anyone touch him. She’d loved Russet like a brother right up until his death.

She didn’t have the hands to hold out, but she could still adjust her tone, her posture. “It’s okay. You can talk to me.”

The canine turned on her. One large eye opened, and its ears lifted a fraction. It didn’t seem to matter that they were made entirely of wood; they could still move, sliding over each other without resistance. The mouth opened, and a word came out. Distorted, half-growled. It seemed to cost the speaker tremendously to manage even basic sounds. “Promised…” it said. “Why… leave?”

Promised. She had promised something with the words of her spell. The meaning of that proclamation hadn’t been entirely clear to her at the time. She’d been somewhere before waking up here, in pain. Why again?

“I promised I would stay,” she said. “That’s what you mean?”

The timberwolf nodded. Around her, several other figures did likewise.

“Oh.” She retreated a step from the wolf, then spun in place, staring around at the trees. “When I said I wouldn’t leave, it didn’t mean this… metaphysical space. It meant Overgrowth, didn’t it? I’m supposed to stay here.”

Someone shook her, violently enough that the forest and the trees and her many ghostly companions were ripped away from her in a smear of green and brown. Her real body and its real senses filled in the gaps.

She was on her back in the grass. Ruby hunched over her, one leg behind her back, while several others scattered into the space nearby. Sunburst was on her other side, close enough to reach. They’d made it to—somewhere? The side of the highway. But from the soft green beneath and the ferns swaying nearby, she could guess about where she’d ended up: back in the Overgrowth.

“You hear me?” Ruby’s words came back into focus a few seconds after her body did. “Say something, Way!”

“Something,” she said. Her words came out clear, not strained or fading like they had earlier.

“She’s fine.” Ruby stopped supporting her, pulling her hoof back. “The hell was that, Way? Scared the shit out of us.”

She got her hooves under her in a second, enough to hold herself in a sitting position and see her surroundings better. Both SUVs now parked nearby, one ahead and another slightly behind. All four of their escort took positions around her, about five meters away in each direction. Two had weapons at the ready, waiting for an attack that wouldn’t come.

She started to say, “I don’t know,” but stopped herself before her lips had even finished moving. Wayfinder did know, or at least she could guess the important parts. She reached forward with one hoof, dragging it along the dirt in front of her. “Sunburst?” she asked. “What do you think it was?”

His ears folded back, and his tail instantly tucked in. His eyes though—those jumped towards her head. Not looking at her face, but staring at something past it, or maybe behind it. “When we left the Overgrowth, those new growths in your mane started to wither. Leaves fell out, like a harvest the weather team hadn’t serviced in months. But now that we’re here—”

“Mom seems good,” Hazel interrupted, squeezing under Sunburst’s foreleg to settle next to her. “You looked so sick, Way! Like you’d just dropped into a coma for no reason. Kinda like my mom and dad looked right before they… when they were really sick.”

“I feel normal,” Wayfinder said. She reached out with a wing by reflex, holding it around Hazel. Before, it seemed like not having arms put her at a real disadvantage. Wings could be a decent substitute, apparently. “Nothing like I did when we were driving before.”

She held on for another second, then turned towards Ruby. “Thanks for helping me.”

The mare turned her head partly to one side. “’Course, Way. We’re still friends. And you saved my life like… a half-dozen times at least by now. I still owe you. Probably always will. Not that I’ll admit it.”

“Feels like I missed something, Princess Blue.” Sam stood about halfway from their close group to the officers and their perimeter. “Where was the part where whatever happened makes sense? Like you’re comfortable one minute and dying the next. What the hell exactly happened here? Bariac, can you explain it in like—normal talk?”

Sunburst’s eyebrows went up. “When she ferried us down from the summit, Wayfinder’s magical reserve seemed almost… limitless. I’ve never known a new alicorn capable of such strength. Even Princess Twilight had to expand her strength after her Apotheosis. Wayfinder didn’t. Now we see the other half—. Something about her is now bound to the Overgrowth. Creating this spell made her a permanent part of it.”

Wayfinder had figured out most of that already, albeit coming at it from the other direction. Even knowing that, even coming from the opposite direction, she still winced as Sunburst continued. Those words hurt. Wayfinder couldn’t leave the Overgrowth, not without becoming so weak that she might’ve died if they hadn’t turned around.

There would be no world-spanning vacations, no going home to the family’s farm to see her parents. She couldn’t even go back to the apartment she shared with Sunburst. Or more importantly, Denver Isolation Zone headquarters.

“That’s bullshit,” Ruby said. “Not—not saying you’re wrong. I watched what happened. It’s bullshit that should happen to her. You can’t lock her in a cursed forest forever! You can’t…”

Wayfinder stood. Her legs never shook. No trace of the weakness that had nearly strangled her in the car remained. She felt perfect. Like nothing had happened. “No point being bitter about it right now, Ruby.” She looked them over. “There’s no open way to drive to Starhall, is there? We can’t change course.”

The Isolation Zone might be forbidden to her, but not all of civilization would be. Starhall was safe.

“No roads,” Sunburst said. “That was… deliberate, I’m afraid. When we weren’t sure how safe we would be from attack. We encouraged the Overgrowth to block the streets. A pony with a cart can use trails just fine without them.”

She sighed. “Well, this is… this makes things harder than I hoped.” Hazel would want to stay with her. Ruby and Sam already lived in Starhall. If she couldn’t go, Sunburst wouldn’t go without her. Though maybe in this case, he could make an exception.

The people of the Isolation Zone still needed her. If she could somehow keep her position, this could be an advantage. She might have the magic they needed to make a real vaccine, maybe more. Did she have the influence to survive a change like this?

“I guess I don’t have a choice right now. I know… how strong that magic is. There’s not going to just be a counterspell to let me leave.” And even if there was, Wayfinder’s absence might just undo the entire thing, releasing the deadly magic they’d fought to contain in a wave that would splash up against Denver and wash it away.

She turned to Sunburst. “Alright. If you’re willing… I think I know what to do. You can go back with our driver and explain to my administration what happened. Tell them I’m going to have to administrate from inside the Overgrowth for the time being. Hopefully you can help them understand my limitations even if no one is gonna be happy about it. Bring anything of ours you think I’d want back with you to Starhall after.”

He shivered, glancing sideways at the soldiers, then back. “You want me to… Princess—Way, I think you’re asking a little more than I’m qualified for. What if they’re angry? What if they dissolve the government? What if some rival tries to take power? I’m not qualified to resolve conflict with a human government. And if you’re not there, we couldn’t flee if things go badly.”

He was right about that last part, of course. Wayfinder couldn’t teleport someone to her from far away, at least not with any power she’d ever learned. She always had to be able to see the departure point.

What did she know for sure? That the Overgrowth’s administration had known what she was planning for weeks. If someone working with the de-facto ruling authority that was the police wanted to get rid of her, there was no reason for these men to follow all her orders, wait for days, and protect her when she fell ill.

But they were still only officers, and would surely not keep secrets on her behalf. Anything she said now would make it back to Denver, sooner or later. So every word had to be chosen carefully.

“I’ll go with him,” Blazing said, stepping forward next to Sunburst. “I don’t have Blue’s phenomenal cosmic powers, but I’ve got claws sharp enough to gut somebody and wings that can fly better than anyone in Denver. Probably can’t carry you very far, I’ll be real. But I could take us down from a rooftop if it came to that.”

Ruby stiffened, her tail swishing angrily back and forth. “Don’t just—you don’t owe her anything. You don’t have to risk your life like that.”

“Her, no,” Blazing said. “But this is more of an everybody thing. I don’t know what the hell happened on that mountain, but I sure as shit couldn’t do it. She did, and it seems like it probably helped save a bunch of lives. Same with Denver. Farming, fixing the water, helping people not live on the street. Getting them out of jail. Nobody was doing that before. They won’t be doing it after. If the princess doesn’t keep her crown, we’re all boned. That means Sunburst has to win. If he’s got the stones to try.”

The unicorn slumped onto his haunches. His ears folded all the way back, and his pupils were so huge Way couldn’t see the color behind them anymore. “I suppose I… am the reason you can’t go do it yourself,” he finished. “If you asked, I would do it. Tell them that you can’t enter the city. That you’ll relocate. Right now, there’s Starhall. Perhaps you could find a structure on the boundary to interact with them more easily. But you could also use one of those communications devices! You could just tell them to meet you at the border and explain everything yourself.”

She could, of course. That would keep two of the people she cared about out of danger. But it would also be a lot less than sending the pony everyone knew was her second in command. And importantly, the one who had authored many of the systems that they’d begun to implement across the city. Sunburst wasn’t just a vice president, he was like all of Congress.

And he would go, if she asked.

Her decision was clear:

1. Send Sunburst to arrange her first meeting. He and Sam would be in danger, but they’d stand a much better chance of a positive outcome.
2. Send a message instead, and order the meeting take place on the Overgrowth border. She wouldn’t have anyone there to mitigate the fallout or stop someone else from taking advantage. But her lover wouldn’t be in danger.