Spleens awoke to the sound of pots and pans clattering and muffled swearing coming from outside. Looking around, she saw that it was still dark out, and that both Near and Long were asleep. After a moment of quiet, the noise outside started again. Fully awake now, Spleens got out of her hammock and quietly walked over to Near.

"Near," Spleens said, prodding the unicorn with a hoof, "Wake up. There's something outside going through our stuff."

Near groaned while rolling over to look at Spleens, and after a moment released a groggy "Whaaa?"

"There's something outside going through our stuff," Spleens whispered rapidly as she gestured towards the caravan door.

"Tell 'em to go 'way," Near muttered before dropping her head back onto her pillow.

Realizing she was on her own for this, Spleens turned around to face the door, just standing there for a moment. The thing outside was quiet, so quiet that she started to wonder if she had imagined it, until the door started to rattle. Summoning up her courage, Spleens unlocked the door with her magic just before kicking it open with her front hooves, flaring her wings as she did so. Outside was a disheveled stallion, with long unkempt grey hair, one eye milky white, the other almost pitch black, and clothes so tattered that they were little more than rags. The stallion had barely avoided being hit by the opening door, and now tried to step inside the doorway before his hoof stopped as if it had struck a solid object. His whole body was then roughly thrown away from the caravan by some great force. By this point the now awake Near had managed to fall out of her hammock, and was now trying to extract herself from her sleeping bag.

"What's with all the noise?" Near asked when she finally got herself over to Spleens.

"I heard something going through our stuff outside, and then they were trying to open the door," Spleens explained, "So I kicked the door open, and then he tried to step inside, but then something launched him away from us out into the darkness."

"Woah, slow down," Near said as she used her magic to better illuminate the area outside the doorway, "Did you get a good look at him?"

"Yeah," Spleens said, nodding, "Earth pony stallion, tangled grey mane, ratty clothing, and looked like he was blind in one eye."

"Well, I don't see anypony out there now," Near said as she dropped her illumination spell and closed the door, "Which isn't really surprising, as he probably set off the caravan's magical defences and got his ass launched quite a ways away. We'll be safe inside, so let's go back to sleep and investigate this in the morning."

With a shrug, Spleens slowly made her way back to her hammock and settled back in.

As Near settled down, she noticed that Long had not so much as stirred during the entire incident, and pondered just what it would take to awaken the thestral in an emergency.

Author's Note

As always comments are welcome.