Fizzy burped, throwing an empty bottle of Sparkle-Cola over her shoulder. It was a long journey, and her hooves were getting tired from all the trotting. She longed to be able to lay down and rest, but the option wasn't available in a place as dangerous as this. The caffeine was helping a bit, though.

Dirt blinked in surprise at the filly's lack of manners. "I know I'm not exactly a gentlecolt myself, but aren't you Stable dwellers supposed to be a bit less vulgar?"

"Some of us," replied Fizzy absentmindedly, looking at her aching hooves. "Back in my Stable, burping was not only unavoidable, but acceptable."

"What do you mean, 'was'? What happened?"

Fizzy closed her eyes and winced, as if just thinking about it hurt her. "Nothing that I care to think about at the moment." In an attempt to change the subject, she asked, "So what's this settlement called?"

"New Appleloosa. It's a decent enough place, but I wouldn't want to live there."

"Well, where do you wanna live?" the young mare inquired.

He shrugged. "I was born on the road. I've followed the road my entire life. Might as well die on the road."

"Oh, okay," Fizzy said. The two of them fell silent, trotting along for many minutes. To distract herself, the unicorn studied the area they were passing through. Before the war, this must have been a farm of some sort; all around were the charred, thin corpses of trees. What fruits they had bore prior to the megaspells were a mystery to her. Further ahead of them along the path was a barn, its foundations scorched and blackened but otherwise intact.

Dirt wondered if this filly was going to slow him down at all. He couldn't afford to stop for any reason; Daisy already had a head start with his belongings. Without realizing it, he increased his pace.

Fizzy struggled to keep up. How long had they been walking now? Hours? She only had so much patience, a side effect of living in an all-providing Stable. "Are we there yet?" she asked.

Dirt looked behind him at the unicorn. "Look around you." He gestured with his nose at the blasted and dead countryside. "Does it look like we're anywhere near?"

Fizzy appeared to be infatuated with the cracked asphalt underneath her. "N-no..." She shut her mouth for a few blissful moments. As they continued their walk, Dirt looked at the Stable dweller, a bit curious. He hadn't seen many Stable dwellers in his time. Most ended up dead within a week, thanks to their lack of knowledge of the Wasteland. That is, if they survived their first night. He looked at the PipBuck on her wrist. This, he had even less familiarity with. He'd heard that it could do all sorts of things, including map out the entire world as its wearer explored it. Some had told him that it could even assist in targeting hostiles to fire at them. One thing was for sure: those fellas at Stable-Tec sure had prepared.

The filly caught him staring and looked at him. For a moment, their eyes met, but she quickly looked away, her face turning red underneath her glossy lavender coat. Dirt looked back forward, deciding that it would be more valuable to be aware of their surroundings than to stare at Fizzy's PipBuck.

"Got another Sparkle-Cola?" asked Fizzy a short time later.

Dirt raised an eyebrow. "You just had one not more than twenty minutes ago. Are you hooked on these or something?"

"Back in Stable 6, everypony was. As far as we knew, we were the only one that came with hundreds of crates of the stuff. So we put it to good use."

"Huh."

"So, can I have another?"

"What?" he started. "No, just wait until we get to New Appleloosa. You gotta ration them out if you want them to last." And avoid withdrawal symptoms, he added silently. He knew a few things about addiction himself, but that was all behind him.

"Fine," pouted Fizzy. She felt like if she trotted much longer, she would just collapse. She felt a headache coming on, but she said nothing. She was learning quickly that complaining was not going to get her far.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A short time later, they came upon a crossroads. A signpost pointed to three different cities: to their north, Ponyville. To the south, Appleloosa. To the southeast, there was another town that caught Fizzy's eye. "What's 'Los Pegasus'?"

"You mean New Pegasus? That's where suckers go to lose all their bottle caps at the slots."

"Bottle caps?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's the currency here in the Wasteland. Why do you ask?"

"Oh. No reason at all." She screamed internally.

They took the road that led to New Appleloosa. "We're getting pretty close now," remarked Dirt. "All we have to do is cross the Ghastly Gorge bridge and we'll be there."

Fizzy let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Celestia! We've been walking all day."

"Actually, it's been about two hours, but I'm glad we're almost there, too." They were making good time, despite the filly's rather irritating "Are we there yet?"s and "My hooves hurt"s. But that was to be expected from a young teenager, especially one who never traveled in her life.

Soon, they saw the bridge. It was rather makeshift, clearly something made after the war, but it still served its purpose well enough. It was a rope bridge, attached to either side of the gorge by long wooden stakes that the rope was tied around. Dirt approached the bridge and tested it with a forehoof. It creaked loudly, but held firm.

Fizzy eyed the bridge with uncertainty. "Are you absolutely sure it's safe?"

"Of course. I've been on this thing a few times before, and it never broke while I was on it."

"Obviously," she said. "Otherwise you'd be dead."

Dirt stepped onto the bridge, which protested with squeaks and groans. "C'mon then. I promise it's safe."

"Okay," said Fizzy. She followed behind him as they crossed the gorge. About halfway through, she looked down beneath her. Below was nothing but a dark and vast abyss. She felt her stomach drop and quickly looked forward again, promising herself that she would never do that again. She nudged Dirt. "Can we hurry?"

"What do you think I'm doing, Fizzy?" He was going as fast as he dared to. The boards underneath him were creaking louder than ever. Maybe the bridge wasn't as secure as he thought it was.

One of the wooden boards snapped beneath his hoof, and he almost fell right in. "Whoa!" he shouted. "Careful, this one's broken." He stepped lightly over it. The unicorn mare did the same.

After a few more terrifying missteps, they managed to get across. Dirt gave her a reassuring smile. "See? Told you it was safe."

"Yeah. Sure." Fizzy could still feel her heart pounding in her chest. That could have ended a lot worse. She noticed the faint outline of buildings on the horizon. "Hey... is that New Appleloosa over there?"

"Yep. We're only a short walk away."

Fizzy beamed. "Yes! I can't wait to finally take a nap." She recklessly began to gallop ahead, her exhaustion outweighed by her eagerness.

"Wait up!" Dirt ran forward to catch up with her. He, too, was eager to rest, but he knew he couldn't sleep until he had confronted Daisy and taken back what was rightfully his. With force, if he needed to.

Of course, he had no idea what he would do after that. He never planned that far ahead.

Author's Note

This chapter was probably the most fun I've ever had writing anything. If you enjoyed, please favorite. If you have advice for me, then leave a comment. I'll post the next chapter within a few days.
-Endless Madness