Equestrian Scavenger

Twilight awoke in a literal haze. Dust dominated the skies, no doubt from the fire she was once surrounded by. She was lying on something soft, I’d made sure of that. As she began to woozily recognize her surroundings as a quiet, safe place, I held out a bottle of water.

“Drink,” I ordered. As the mare greedily chugged down the bottle of water, my mind yet again drifted to the amount of bits she owed me, ever increasing. I chuckled as she finished the water, hoofing back the now empty bottle. I went to stow the bottle away. She spoke up, a slight cough in her voice.

“You,” she let out a cough and rubbed her neck, a faint red ring the only evidence of the trap she’d stepped into. “You said this was Haychigan?”

I nodded, occupied by the status of my resources. A quick check of my supplies made me grimace. Food was rather low, and to my knowledge, most scavengable areas nearby were empty.

“I’ve never heard of Haychigan... Are we far from Ponyville?” I raised a brow and stared at Twilight.

“Ponyville? Never heard of it. It’s probably not close to the bombings.”

She paled a little. “Bombings?” I shrugged, opening a soup can, only to find twigs. With a groan, I threw it back into the pile of gear on my sled.

“That’s what I’ve always assumed. With how badly burned the surrounding plains north and west of Detrota Central area, it had to have been.” I brought a hoof to my chin. “Probably chemical if we mention how bad the Foggy Bog swamp is nowadays. Aha!” I lifted up a can of soup and shook it happily. “Food!” I looked between the can and Twilight.

She caught the can with her hooves with a bit of surprise. “You need it more than me.”

“Are you sure? I mean, we can share?” I shook my head.

“I’ve got a slow metabolism, it’ll take a bit longer for me to get hungry.” She nodded, giving me a warm smile.

“Thank you.”

“Call me Fray.” I shot her a toothy grin, before I returned to my gear. “And you owe me,” I muttered as I inspected my crowbar.

“Uh, heh, could you… show me how to open this?”

City mare… Probably has always been using a can opener. I turned around and made my way over to the mare struggling with the can. Sighing, I sat down and took the can from her.

“Like this, you pull back the tab,” the can popped open, showing the cold contents inside. “And there you go. Food.” I hoofed the can back to her. A grin was all I was given before Twilight dug down hungrily. When she finished, she handed me back the can; i’d rinse it out later to store some more tinder.

My smile returned. “Nothing like a healthy appetite, right?” She blushed, her white cheeks going rosy. “Anyways, how about we head on back to Detrota and get you somewhere safe.”

“That would be great,” she smiled. A breeze passed us, causing Twilight to shiver.

“Cold?” She nodded. “Hold on, i’ll get you something.” I searched my sled, finding a black hoodie in good condition, almost just as good as the hoodie I myself wore. She caught my offering with open hooves.

She shrugged the hoodie on. “That’ll keep you warm until we set up camp later.”

“Thanks,” she murmured, snuggling into the clothing. I chuckled.

“Well, all that’s left to do is take down the tarp and we can get moving.” As I began to remove the blue cover and sleeping bag from my makeshift campsite, I tossed a look over my shoulder. “Want to help?”

“Oh!” She blushed, clearly embarrassed as she looked up from her hoodie. “Of course!”

I glared at the descending sun, just beginning to dip below the horizon. We’d travelled further than I normally could. With Twilight helping carry some of the saddlebags, and me pulling the sled, I would garner that we were halfway to Detrota.

I was surprised with how amiable Twilight was. When we had started walking, I was carrying and pulling all of my goods, but she had stepped in without a word and slid the saddlebags off my back and onto her own. The tool-laden bags seemed effortless for the city mare to carry, and I was already beginning to wonder if she truly was a city mare. I had even asked her, garnering a little more information on her history from her.

“How can you carry all that?” I said, turning my face to her as we walked.

“Huh?”

“There are two separate toolboxes in each of those bags, and both of them are full of my mechanical materials.”

“Oh, well they’re not as heavy as the saddlebags I used to carry.” I raised an eyebrow.

“What did you carry then?”

She smiled, nostalgia flooding her features. “Books.”

“Books? Are you a scholar?” Normally the Blue Dogs were the ones who collected all of the old artifacts for learning. It was pretty rare nowadays to see a pony worrying about the past and not the present.

“Yep, my studies were really extensive as a foal,” she sighed indignantly. “But now I have to deal with my… new duties.” I shrugged, not going any further.

“Fair enough.”

Eventually, though, we had to stop; we were both hungry and tired, and the forest nearby would provide us shelter and food for the night. I’d never had to rely on berries before, but the absence of food brought me to desperate measures. The soup that I had given Twilight had been meant for my own journey back to Detrota. With Twilight’s help however, her skill with botany (she gave thanks to her books) helped us identify a large bush of edible blueberries which were feasted upon.

We found a good clearing to stay for the night, and placed down all of my belongings. I set up my tarp shelter to lay under, and gave Twilight my sleeping bag for her own protection. As we settled in for the long dark, the campfire crackling, I bid Twilight adieu.

“Sleep tight, Fray.”

When I awoke the next morning to the sound of crackling fire nearby, I was afraid that the white mare had taken my belongings and left me. What I found was something else entirely.

“Twilight?” I asked, rubbing my eyes with a hoof. The red ring around her neck was gone, and she sat beside the campfire, heating up an unlabelled tin can.

“Morning sleepyhead,” she grinned. “I found a pond nearby and I boiled some water to make us some breakfast. I groaned as I stood, popping a few joints in my hind legs.

“Whatcha cookin’ then?” I questioned, walking over.

She smiled up at me as I got close enough to peer into the can. “Roasted berries! I found that recipe in one of your saddlebags, so I thought I might repay your kindness with some cooking.” Her smile turned to a frown as she inspected the can. “Though, i’m not sure that this cooking is as good as when i’m using a stove.”

“Food is food,” I shrugged as I sat down.

“And not being able to use magic is awful,” she sighed, readjusting her grip on the forked stick holding the can up. She sat up, turning to face me. “Why is that anyway? I forgot to ask you yesterday.”

“Well, i’ll tell you if you give me some of that cooking.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, receiving an eyeroll in response.

“Let it cool first,” she said, setting the tin of roasted berries down to the side. “So!” She propped up and faced me with an even bigger grin than before. “Tell me all about it.”

“Well, uh…” I scratched the scruff on my chin; I never was the best at explaining things. “Use too much magic and you’ll get a nasty migraine.”

“But why?”

“The bombs weren’t just chemical.” She looked horrified for a moment.

“They were magical?”

“That’s what we all speculate, it’s the best guess that we have.” I cough, reaching for a bottle of water. I drank, until I paused halfway through the bottle.

“Did you hear that?” Twilight whispered. We both stayed silent for a moment, the dying fire the only sound for a time.

The distant report of a gun caught my attention. I cocked my head, listening, but the gunfire refused to show itself again. Luckily, I had heard it loud enough to know where it came from.

“Eat some of those berries, we’re going to need to move soon; the gunshot came from the hill we left yesterday.”

“Gunshot?” She asks, slowly tasting the word. “What’s that?” Apparently the mare hadn’t heard of firearms before.

“The sound of a rare weapon,” I say swiftly, picking up the hot can of roasted berries and shoving half of them down, despite the heat. I hoof it over to Twilight and immediately begin breaking up our camp, stomping out our fire with some dirt.

So much for some relaxation after the rescue.

“We’ll redo your bandage later,” I said as she shoved down some more of the scalding hot berries. She cringed, probably at her newly burnt tongue. “But right now, help me with this.”

Within minutes, we were packed up and on the move again. As soon as I got Twilight to Detrota, I would come back to the Earth Pony Enclave and see what happened. For now though, I had to help this mare get to safety. We left, my sled behind me and my saddlebags on her sides.