Trash stepped over a small mound. "Still with me?"

Angel was progressing far more slowly, her nose scrunched and her eyes watering. "Stinks," she stated simply and as bluntly as the smell seemed to be attacking her.

"It does that. Part of the magic to get rid of that." He turned his head and lit up, ears perked as he trot forward. "Last Stop, ole' dog, how's it hangin'?"

"Some of us still have somethin' ta hang, ya damn eunuch." Despite the other unicorn's harsh words, the two met and thumped chests together, looking like old friends. "What's that big thing followin' you around?"

Angel looked over the new pony. They were wearing work overalls and had a scraggly mane. They also smelled of the junkyard they apparently... lived? in. "Angel." She raised a paw to point at herself, then pointed at him. "Last Stop?"

"Got it in one, Big Lady." He turned and pointed inside. "You lookin' to scrounge?"

"Exactly why I'm here. You know how that goes." Angel went to walk past him, but he thrust out a hoof, blocking him. "What's up?"

He pointed with his other forehoof, his back tense with the effort of holding his body up without either foreleg involved. He was indicating Angel. "I know you, and keepin' you out's more trouble than lettin' you in, but I ain't tryin' ta let more creatures up in here."

Both of his hooves thumped back to the ground with a faint huff of breath. Angel leaned in towards the smaller pony, though most ponies were smaller, compared to her. "Go with Trash."

Trash nodded softly. "Yeah, she's with me."

"She don't know the ropes. She goes in there, gets hurt." He ran a hoof over his own neck. "I get in trouble. I don't need Celly payin' a visit, yelling at me fer running things wrong when this here's the only way to run it."

Angel huffed and sat in place. "Can wait."

Trash peered at her, then turned towards the great piles of trash beyond the gate. "It takes me a while. You sure you're alright waiting here while I pick out the choicest bits?"

"Angel wait," she repeated with a thump of a paw on the littered ground. "Angel hunt." She rose to her paws. "Will be here."

"Wait wait... Momma, are ya gonna hunt, or be here?"

"Hunt. Be here." She inclined her head as if baffled at how one couldn't do both. "Go." She pointed past him to the piles he had meant to go to. "Trash hunt. Angel hunt. Angel hunt better?"

"A challenge?" His face lifted from passivity to a lazy smile. "And you're letting me have the junkyard pick? That's a big handicap there, my lovely big angel... Don't go crying to me when you lose." He turned back for the piles. "Headin' in."

"Yeah, you watch yourself too." Last shook his head as he started to wander away. "Ponies these days, lining up to get into the junkyard."

Last Stop was suddenly being touched. He looked over his shoulder as Angel pat him right on his pointy head. "Good pony." Without giving him a chance to respond, she leaped. Outdoors and with nothing to crash into, she soared up and away, the whole of the city spreading out under her.

He was left gawking at where she once was, then where she vanished into the sky in her powerful leap. "She..." He aborted the thought, shaking his head. He couldn't have stopped her from coming in if he wanted to. Good thing she didn't force the issue.

Angel knew how to hunt. She had done so plenty of times before meeting Trash. She had been hunting when she ran into him! Sure, that time had gone... oddly, but she still knew how to do it. She landed lightly on a roof, watching ponies go back and forth on the street below. She just had to find a good mark...

There was a mare with a child. Neither wore ornamentation, except for the colt bouncing around had a cap on, but it wasn't shiny. No. There was a stallion with a cane he didn't need, swinging it in his magic as he walked along relaxedly. He could have shinies, but not a lot, no.

Ah ha. A slightly round mare with a few shinies already hanging off of her. Wherever she came from, there would be more shinies. Angel began to prowl, leaping from one roof to the next, keeping the mare in view. The mare went into some kind of store for a little while, leaving Angel to wait impatiently. There, she was leaving, down the road... Angel followed her from above, leaping from place to place.

Hopefully, she just needed to go to one specific place... Yes, there we go. She was heading into an apartment building, a den for ponies. That would be where she lived. Angel clapped her paws once with joy, the first leg of her hunt complete.

Trash's horn glowed softly as he picked up bits and bobs from the pile. "Mmm, yeah... nah... mmm..." He peered at each in turn, either throwing it back into the pile or adding it to a slowly gathering ball of stuff he had deemed worthy of collecting. "Don't you worry now. Trash is gonna make you shine again!"

"Poor bling momma..." He imagined her frantically rushing around, trying to find anything worth making shine. Maybe she was rooting around in garbage cans? Those rarely had anything worth the trip. "I'll be a kind winner." His eyes turned to a glint and he extracted a plate of metal with barely any touches of rust on it. "You'll shine up good!"

Angel thumped against the wall, landing just beside the window. The mare had come and left her apartment, leaving it open to Angel's presence. With a careful nudge, she discovered the window wasn't locked, good. It was amazing how many ponies didn't bother to lock their windows. She tried to push it, but it didn't move. She coiled her fingers to get her claws in just so and pull it towards herself, the window swinging easily.

With a bit of wriggling, Angel popped into the apartment, tail twitching behind herself. It smelled like a mare that was trying too hard to smell nice. She was seeking a mate, Angel decided. Poor thing. That could explain why she had so many shinies, or it could just be the pony had good taste and liked shinies. Angel liked shinies for far more than mate attracting, so she couldn't argue that inner thought.

The interior was darker than the outside with no lights on and the sun was only able to get in through the same window she just got in through. With a twitching nose, Angel began searching for the shinies she was sure the mare had. They usually kept them... Angel wandered into the mare's bedroom, having to squeeze through the door. Everything was sized for a pony, not a big tsuki like her. Ponies were so inconsiderate that way.

Good thing they were cute, and had shinies. She forgave them for their terrible construction designs.

She saw a small table beside the bed. That was a popular place for shinies. Patting it and around it, she found a cupboard and pulled it open. Nothing but books and paper. With a huff, Angel turned and saw a much larger dressed. "Yes." She reached for it and started pulling each little container out. Horsehoes? Nope. She tossed that one aside. Underwear? Nope, tossed aside.

Ah ha! There was a whole container of shinies. Lots of round white ones and a collection of colorful studs and things. They were perfect. Angel gathered them up in her paws and began decorating herself as best she could. What she couldn't get to clasp onto herself or fit on her horns or wrap around some part of herself were discarded, added to the mess on the floor.

She had plenty of shinies. She made for the window she came in through and wriggled back out. All she had to do was meet Trash back at the stinky place and show off how good her findings were!

Trash set down his great pile of potentials. "You've all worked hard to get this far, but I can't take you all home." He wobbled a hoof over the mess. "Some of you will make it to the final round, but remember, you're all great." He smirked softly at his own humor as he began to poke and prod through the pile. "Mmm..."

Some things he pushed aside for being too corroded to salvage reasonably. Some just weren't sitting right with his muse. Others weren't the right shade or color he thought he had seen before. But some special ones were put in a newer, smaller, pile. The winners. "You are the ones that will be reborn into something new and wonderful. A gift to my big momma Angel." He leaned in with a happy smile. "I wonder how she'll like it..."

He gathered up his findings in his magic. "Hey, Last! I'm headin' home. Is Angel still out there?"

"Nope." He was up in a crane, leaning out and looking down at Trash. "She bounced off and hasn't come back."

"Huh..." He exited the gate of the junkyard and sat down where they had started. "Guess I'll wait..." He produced a cloth and started to polish and rub at his findings, working off the dirt and bits of rust to prepare them for the next steps to come. "No reason t'just idle..."

He wasn't keeping track of time, but he had a few pieces ready for more advanced procedures when the ground trembled faintly. Angel had landed right in front of him, making him jump with surprise. "Angel, you're..." He trailed off, noticing that she was sporting a new layer of bling. "How... What?"

Angel turned to the side, then switched to the other way, showing off her find. "Hunt good. Like, yes? Where trash?"

Trash blinked softly as he hefted up his catch in his magic for her to see.

"Is..." Angel peered at it critically. They were kind of shiny, but were not... shinies. They would have made a bird happy, but Angel was more demanding than a bird. "Not use magic? Turn to shiny." She reached for him, giving his shoulders a shake. "Trash magic."

"Trash magic isn't instant," he defended, tucking his finds away into pockets. "I'll make them all nice and pretty, promise. Now... hey, where'd you get that stuff?" His magic tugged at the big pearl necklace dangling from one of her horns.

"Hunt," happily replied Angel with a big smile. "Hunt good. Angel win?"

"Angel... wins," he allowed, though doubt was thick in his voice. "You need to tell me how you did that." He started to trot around her towards home. "But it's late, and we both stink. Let's put our things away and take a nice bath."

Angel perked at that, though her ears were quick to succumb to gravity and fall back in place. "Bath together? Angel will groom Trash. Good mate." She hiked a thumb at her back. "Get on. Go home faster."

Trash regarded Angel with his relaxed look, considering silently. "Alright... Be gentle with me, Big Momma." He turned away from the street and towards her.

Before he could even start climbing her, she grabbed him and casually placed him on her back, his legs going down side side of her body. "Hold tight," she instructed, then the world vanished, spreading out beneath them under the power of her powerful legs. With strong bounces that made the wind howl in their ears, the return trip to home was much faster than the lazy walk to the junkyard had been.

As they approached, Angel shook her head. "Window closed. Door." She landed right in front of two startled guards at the front doors to the palace. "Home!"

Author's Note

Angel, that's a bad habit... Someone likely should teach her that.

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