After a minute, Thomas could feel his daughter shrinking in his grasp, and began to get worried. To his horror, her head lolled to the side at an unnatural angle when he released her.

“Woah! That felt weird!” Thistle regained her bearings.

“Thistle, are you hurt? What happened to you?”

“I guess the Everfree changed me? When I got here, I ate these delicious, blue flowers because I was hungry, I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was like this?”

“You ate Poison joke...”

“I-is that bad? Am I going to die?” Thistle's ears flattened back on her head.

“No, dear.” He gave her another reassuring squeeze. “It has just made you more exceptional, and... Is that your cutie mark? Cauliflower? Does this mean that you will eat your vegetables now? Or better yet grow some for us?”

“Daddy! No! It means I have a knack for things inflatable, here, see!” Thistle produced all the creatures she had transformed in the past couple days.

“Wow, where did you find these?” Thomas cocked his head sideways.

“I got them here!” Thistle smiled

“Here? Somepony is selling inflatable toys in the Everfree forest!?!”

“No, silly, these are the things that tried to eat me!” Thistle smiled.

Thomas's head swam for a minute at the implications.

“Are you ok, daddy?”

Thomas shook his head to clear it. “No..., I'm fine. But I think we should leave now.”

Thistle tried to stand, but the bear hug of her father combined with multiple pinhole leaks meant half her air was gone. Her legs rumpled beneath her.

“Th-thistle, are you ok?!? What have I done?”

“No, I'm alright, Daddy, she smiled. I just need a little patching from all the thorns here. C-could you carry me?”

He lay down on the ground to allow her to climb on his back. It was the lightest burden he ever had to carry.


My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro