As they were finishing cleaning up after dinner, Long called out, "Hey guys, check this out." Spleens and Near quickly converged on the grey mare who was standing over a large map. The map was about one trot on each side, and showed all of Equestria, and a fair chunk of the surrounding countries too. In the center of the map was the Badlands, with a gently blinking dot on one of the roads.

Near looked over the map for a minute or so before turning to Long. "Where did this come from?"

"I have no idea," Long answered, "I was putting the stove away and it fell out."

"Well, it's a heavily enchanted map," Explained Near, "That dot will always show where we are, and if I'm right, I think it can do other things too." Near looked back at the map, "Map, zoom in." Over the span of a quarter second, all the ink on the map faded away completely before reappearing just as fast, only this time, the map had zoomed in by a factor of two. "These are usually pretty expensive, so I doubt somepony just lost it. I'm thinking that Starlight Glimmer put it in with our stuff just before we left. It can show you a map or diagram of almost anything, go ahead, give it a try."

Spleens leaned forward and said, "Map please show me a map of our caravan," and, after changing, the map showed their caravan, including all the storage compartments labeled with what was in them, even showing where Long Shot had hidden her dildo.

Never to be outdone, Long said, "Map, show me a diagram of Princess Twilight."

The map changed to show a well labeled drawing of Twilight Sparkle as seen from the side. Various anatomical features were labeled, both external and internal, including some very private features. The diagram only lasted a moment before fading out to be replaced by text:

Glim Glam,

Do we need to have a talk about privacy and consent?

Twiggles

P.S. Besides, aren't you still dating Trixie?

As soon as she had read it, Near almost shouted, "Map, show me the Badlands!" The instant she saw the map's change, Near folded it up before storing it inside the caravan.

By this point it had become very cold outside, so the three of them quickly piled into the caravan. As soon as she got inside, Near lit up her horn to get her new space heater going. It was a fuzed quartz cube, thirty centitrots on a side, containing a silvery metallic liquid. The entire thing was suspended in a wire cage slightly larger than the glass cube so that they weren't touching, but rather the glass was connected to the cage by a wire at each corner. As Long and Spleens watched, the silvery liquid started to glow, first a dim red, but it brightened quickly to a warm yellow.

"Woah," Long said, "Is that Mercury?"

"No," Near chuckled, "I wouldn't keep something that dangerous around, this is just NaK. I used induction heating to get it nice and hot, so now it'll slowly release that heat all night."

The other two, not really understanding what Near had said beyond space heater = warm, both set about getting ready for bed, and soon there were two quadrupeds resting in hammocks, and one hanging from the ceiling, wrapped up in a sleeping bag.

Author's Note

Maybe Near just has bad taste in space heaters. At least this one seems less likely to explode.