Romantic Getaway (Sort of)

Flash awoke to rustling beside him. He was still in a sitting position, and was considerably warm because he was using the greenhouse technique. Twilight was beside him, sweating so much it looked like she took another dip in the lake. She was also kicking, and thrashing around.

Oh no... her first nightmare... Flash struggled to get her awake.

"Twilight! Wake up!"

No response.

"TWILIGHT!" Flash shouted while shaking her.

"AAAGH!" Twilight awoke with a short scream and it startled Flash, but not as much as Twilight. She was breathing uncontrollably.

"Twilight calm down! You're hyperventilating! It was just a dream!" Flash did his best to sooth her.

"I was... and you were..... my home..." Twilight doing the best to explain her dream.

Flash knew what it was about. "It was about not making it back, wasn't it?" Flash said.

"You... you know?" Twilight asked.

"When I was on the trials for Aspire, I had nightmares each night. All the same one; not making it back. Sometimes, worse..." Flash said, cringing at the thought. Twilight just then realized how dreadful that would be. That same nightmare... each night??? Oh Galaxia... "Flash I- I'm sorry..." Twilight said. "Listen Twilight, I am not going to lie, you are gonna have a lot of those while we are out here. They might or might not be the same one you had last night." Flash said, breaking the bad news. "But... Flash... It was so terrible..." Twilight said nervously. "Just try to endure it, alright?" Twilight tried to breath slower. Okay... okay..."

Flash completely forgot about something.

"Twilight, we haven't eaten since yesterday, we need to find some food." Twilight was reminded of this, and also realized her throat was dry, so she trotted outside and ate some snow. "Well, I'm glad we don't have to find water. There is plenty on the ground." Twilight said.

"Careful Twilight, eating snow might feel refreshing, but it takes up body heat, we need something to melt it in... Ah hah!" Flash was looking through his bag, and he found a bottle with a scroll in it. It wasn't too big. About 10 inches in length, but it would do nicely. Flash, remembered it was a message for his Captain he had to deliver, but it was useless now.

"Man, I could have used this for the fire yesterday, how did I not see it?" Flash recalled the events of last night...

Wait a second, Twilight kissed me last night!!! He remembered.

Should I... ask her about it? No... Maybe later, she needs time to recollect her thoughts. Flash discarded the scroll from the bottle, and trotted outside to meet Twilight doing push ups with her wings. Twilight noticed Flash come outside. "Oh, hi Flash, I thought I would get some exercise in this morning, Rainbow Dash told me to do this every day. You should too." Flash blushed. More adorable than went I first saw a breezy...

"Um, Twilight, not to be rude or anything... but you know how to do that... and you still can't..." "Rainbow Dash has a weird way of teaching me things... Speaking of which how are your wings?" She asked while Flash was filling the bottle with snow. "Not good, I checked them last night and the're broken... I figured that landing was soft but I thought wrong." Twilight blushed when she heard 'last night'.

Oh gosh, did he mind that I kissed him? No wait, maybe he forgot... WHAT? How could he forget??? Ugh why did I do that??? Because you wanted too. No I didn't, I mean maybe a little... wait NO!

Twilight was kicked out of her thoughts when she heard Flash laughing.

"What's so funny?" Twilight asked a tad annoyed.

"It's just... you're cute when you fight with yourself." WAIT! WHY DID I JUST SAY THAT! NO NO NO NO NO!!!

Twilight blushed again. "Uh... hehe, is it really that noticeable?" She circled the ground with her hoof.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, I do it sometimes too." Flash confirmed. Silence followed, and was broke by the grumbling of their stomachs and they both laughed. "I guess we should find something to eat. Let me go put this snow by the fire, we will come back to pick it up once we find food, and move out." Flash said.

"Huh? We aren't staying?" Twilight asked.

Flash sighed. "Twilight, If I had known Vaculists would be here I would have went with the 'Pick up and Go' Strategy as soon as it was suggested. If we ran into some there is bound to be more." Flash said. "Right... You're right." Twilight said.

Flash reignited the fire and set the bottle near it, then they went off to find food.

"Okay, lets not go too far, we are heading northeast, so we head back southwest when we find something." Flash said.

"Wait, look Flash berries! Finally we can eat!" Twilight spotted a berry bush, and dashed for it. She plucked one of the bluish berries from the bush, and as it was inches from it's mouth... "TWILIGHT STOP!" Flash dived into her to stop her from eating it. They both crashed to the ground.

"Ouch, Flash... what's the big idea..." Twilight said, holding her head. "Those berries could be poisonous Twilight!" He said as he helped her up.

"Oh, jeeze I didn't even think about that... Thanks, you really saved me there. But how do we know if they are poisonous? Can we test them somehow?"

Flash thought for a moment. How did I test the berries back in the trials... Then something popped into his head. Wait... I can test them with blood! Flash remembered his mentor in Aspire showing him a trick where he mixed properties of berries into your blood. If your blood started to turn a bright red color, they are lethal. If the berry's juice just mixed with it to make a different color, they were safe. Flash took out his knife from his pack and pointed it at his arm. Then Twilight gasped.

"Flash... what are you doing???"

"I am testing the berry's properties with my blood, it's an old trick I learned."

"Flash... wait... let me do it." She said. "You saved my life, it's the least I could do."

"But... Twiligh-"

"No buts! It's fine, give me the knife."

Flash complied and gave it to her. She held out her arm and made the slightest cut and she flinched a bit. It was just big enough so blood can come through. Flash plucked a berry and held out his hoof. "Hold it over my hoof." He ordered. She held her arm over his hoof and the blood dripped onto it. Flash squeezed the berry so the juice would seep out. It dropped onto the blood and it mixed in with it to make a purplish color, as because the berries were blue. Flash took a relieved breath. "It's safe... we can eat it."

Flash tended to Twilight's cut and while he was at it removed the band-aids on her neck. Flash then decided to try a berry. Although the test was a success he was still worried and so was Twilight. "Well, here goes nothing... Or everything."

"Wait." Twilight also plucked a berry. "We do this, we do it Together." She said.

Flash almost teared up as she said that. He held her hoof as they were going to eat, and Twilight did the same.

"One."

"Two"

"Three"

They said in unison, and ate the berries.

Nothing happened.

They waited a few more seconds.

Still nothing.

Then, they both released a breath as sign of relief. "Well, their safe... Phew!" Flash wiped some sweat from his forehead. Flash realized Twilight didn't let go of him. "Uh.. er... Twilight you are um... still holding my hoof..." Twilight realized this and shot her hoof back, blushing. "Uh.. hehe sorry." She apologized, blushing. "Well... uh... we should pluck as many of these things as possible. We should stock up on food so we don't run out." Flash cleared out the items in one of his two saddle bags and put them in his other, which was now completely full. Flash pointed out the empty one to Twilight. "When your hooves are full, put them in here."

"Alright, got it."

They split up around the bush, and picked the berries. While doing so, they started conversing. "So Flash, which way do we head after we get the water?"

"Well, I say we keep heading in the direction we were going from where we landed, which is west."

"Alright. That seems like a good idea."

"Oh yeah, when we get back to the cave we need to do an inventory check. I need to see how good we are on supplies."

"Well... I hope so..."

Flash remained silent.

Me too... I hope so...