The sun shone in the distance, signaling the rise of day.

An orange stallion with the physical appearance of a mare spat on the ground attempting to get the sand out of his mouth. The land was blatantly unfamiliar to him as he surveyed his surroundings, to the front of him was a sandy beach being constantly slammed by ocean waves, to his back was a thick tropical forest.

“Hello?” he shouted futilely, little did he know that there was someone with him.

The stallion panicked when he heard a groan of annoyance, turning his head to behold a yellow coat pony obviously a stallion, his mane made a wild slide down the base of his neck striped with black and red, his wings were the same color as his coat; the color didn't really match but the orange pony didn't question it at the time, the question was why he was there.

“Steam Gadget,” the orange one grunted as he faced him. Gadget shot straight up, the orange pony finally noticed that he was wearing sunglasses.

“Dusty Sunrise, what a surprise,” Gadget responded.

Dusty cringed at the use of his last name. “Don’t call me that,” Dusty gritted his teeth. That last name was a lasting reminder of his running away from home.

“Why should I?” Gadget frowned furiously, “You did drag me here, didn’t you?"

Dusty raised an eyebrow at the question; he had thought that Gadget dragged him there. He shook his head.

Gadget scoffed, “I have no reason to believe you, but since you are the only pony for miles by the look of things…” he took off his sunglasses and wiped the sand off of them, “I will trust you for now.” He put his sunglasses back on his face as he trotted off toward the forest.

I better follow him, make sure he doesn't get himself killed, Dusty thought. His mind retorted with a bitter thought, Why should I even look after him? I should just let him die in that forest. Dusty sighed, I guess I'll follow him, he decided and followed Gadget into the forest. It was very thick and hard to walk through; vegetation covered their every path, trees and plants lined up with saw grass and thorns at every turn and Gadget’s complaining didn’t help at all. Dusty noticed a smooth plant with fibers hanging off of it; he smiled as he got an idea.

“Hey, Gadget!” Dusty called.

Gadget turned around with an annoyed look.

“Check this out,” Dusty said as he began tearing at the plant to arm’s length so he could make protective sock-like clothing to protect his hooves from the saw grass. At last he began to wrap the fibers and secure the makeshift socks on his hooves.

Gadget stared at him with annoyance. “I’m not wrapping a random plant on my arms, for all we know they could be poisonous!” Gadget raised his voice obviously getting worked up over nothing.

“I’ll do what I do, and you stay out of my business. If you want to deal with the saw grass, that’s fine!” Dusty returned the favor as he began raising his voice too.

“Fine, but don’t come crying to me if you start getting sick!” Gadget shouted and trotted off, suddenly getting sliced in the arm by saw grass. “I'm bleeding!” he warned as he held a hoof over it to try and stop the bleeding.

“You should have listened to me, Gadget!” Dusty shouted. He slipped off one of the makeshift socks to show that his arms and hooves were just fine.

“Don’t give me any of that crap!” Gadget raised his voice again, “I’m bucking bleeding!”

“That’s what you get for not listening to me!” Dusty replied.

Gadget trotted off but at a slower pace because of his injury.

A howl sounded in the distance.

“Okay, you have to pick up the pace,” Dusty commented.

Gadget took it as offense and swung at him. “I can’t help it if I get injured!” he retorted.

Dusty was annoyed at the outbursts Gadget kept giving him. “There are wolves out there!” Dusty shouted.

“Well let’s just hope they eat you first so I can get away!” Gadget spat on the ground in front of Dusty.

“YOU ARE COMPROMISING OUR BUCKING MISSION!” Dusty shouted all of the sudden, done with the treatment he was getting, “I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU AND YOU THROW IT BACK IN MY FACE!”

“THEN JUST LEAVE ME ALONE IF YOU DON’T WANT ME YELLING AT YOU!” Gadget shouted.

Dusty finally took a swing at Gadget and missed by a few inches and received a blow to the face. Dusty twisted and bucked Gadget so hard with his hind legs that he went flying. Gadget growled as he swung at Dusty again, pushing him into a batch of saw grass, and nearly ruining his entire back. Dusty howled in pain and with a blast from his horn, threw Gadget back into a similar patch.

Dusty suddenly realized an important detail, Why are we fighting? Dusty thought. He managed to slip out of the saw grass but Gadget wasn’t so lucky. Dusty felt sorry for the guy, all the stress must’ve gone to their heads. Gadget continued struggling as the saw grass caught on his coat.

Dusty grabbed a couple of fork shaped sticks and held them with his magic. He returned to the struggling Gadget who hadn’t noticed him and he began pushing back the saw grass and brushing Gadget’s coat to get it out of the saw grass.

Gadget looked at him and spat. “What, now you’re going to eat me?” he raised his voice again. Dusty didn’t respond as he got Gadget’s coat out of the last bunch of saw grass. “Oh…” Gadget looked at Dusty in disbelief, “T-thanks…” he managed to force out as it was hard to be nice to an enemy.

Dusty understood the situation of having to be polite to your enemy. “Look, we are stuck on this island together; we might as well learn to get along.” Dusty held out a hoof, “Can we start over?” he asked, feeling good for trying to make amends to his long-time enemy.

Gadget hesitantly shook Dusty’s hoof. “I’ll take you up on that offer,” Gadget gave a forced smile.

“Good, now come on, I saw a good place to make camp.” Dusty led Gadget to a clearing in the forest and took a comb-like stick off the ground. He began brushing the back of Gadget’s coat as there was still saw grass hooked on his back.

Gadget gave him an embarrassed look when he noticed what Dusty was doing, “Hey, you did enough; you got hit badly by that saw grass.” Gadget took the stick from Dusty’s hoof and dropped it on the ground and took a piece of moss that Dusty identified as sphagnum moss. Gadget turned it over on to the green side and wiped the blood off of Dusty; he was surprised when he saw how much he was bleeding. “Just to say thanks for getting me out of that saw grass,” Gadget sternly said.

Dusty chuckled, “I don’t role that way, I’m not a mare.”

Gadget stared at Dusty after he had said that and smirked. “Well, you look like one,” Gadget chuckled, and Dusty did too.

Gadget didn’t seem so bad when Dusty got to know him, “Let’s get camp made.”

Dusty and Gadget bundled things up and used their minimal knowledge to attempt and build a shelter similar to that of a wickiup in the ancient pony times. Dusty pulled off tree bark from a dead tree hoping to use as insulation.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Gadget stopped Dusty, “What are you doing with that?”

Dusty raised an eyebrow, “I was going to cover the gaps on the shelter with this.” Dusty motioned at the tree bark.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Gadget raised an eyebrow, “I don’t think that would help our situation, I think we are doing alright with the moss as insulation.” He motioned at the moss that covered most of the gaps on the shelter.

“You make a good point, but its better safe than sorry,” Dusty replied as he covered the rest of the gaps with tree bark which Gadget put moss on top of that.

“Better safe than sorry,” Gadget mimicked.

Dusty groaned as he sat inside the dimly lit wickiup. Dusty began thinking about what was in store for the two ponies in the future. In the midst of his thinking, a menacing cackle filled the air.

“Jeez, I know it feels good to make process, but cackling?” Gadget asked.

Dusty raised an eyebrow. “That wasn’t me,” Dusty replied.

Suddenly intense laughter filled the air as a figure appeared in the entrance of the wickiup.

“Discord!” the two ponies shouted in unison.

Discord was wearing sunglasses with a bag of popcorn, laughing all the while. “Oh, you ponies are hilarious!” Discord broke out into another fit of laughter. "Watching you two beat each other up like that, priceless!” his expression turned from absolute glee to annoyance, “Though seeing you two be nice to each other makes me want to vomit,” he commented.

“What do you want, Discord?” Gadget asked.

“Better question is; how did you get out of your imprisonment?” Dusty replied.

“All in due time little foals, for now…” Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared, and in his spot was a note that Dusty didn't bother picking up. Discord was gone, but his voice was still heard, “You better make a fire before nightfall!” followed by more cackling.

Dusty looked at Gadget, and Gadget at him. “Something tells me we should listen to him for once,” Gadget cringed.

Dusty nodded and piled sticks and dead grass in the middle of their wickiup. With a spark of his horn, Dusty was able to light a fire which warmed up the wickiup exponentially. “I forgot how cold it is…” Dusty stretched.

Gadget nodded and yawned, “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to get some sleep.” Gadget flopped on his side, snoring softly.

Dusty released a puff of air and soon dozed off under the warmth of the fire.

Author's Note

This story takes place in an island similar to Tierra del Fuego, Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan, where all sorts of plant life grow, such as Usnea moss (Old man's beard) and Chickweed, to fungi such as Indian Bread.
Tierra Del Fuego is also littered with peat bogs, one wrong step and you could potentially sink up to your neck, and die.

NOTE: Teti is inspired by the survivalist Joe Teti on the T.V. show Dual Survival