Long Shot woke up to the feeling of magic unwrapping her tail from the rafter. This, in and of itself would normally not be a problem, as Long's wings shot out to catch her. Her wings however, were caught in a sleeping bag, and stayed that way until she freed herself from the bag only after slamming into the floor of the caravan.

"Good morning sunshine," Near said, before yawning as Long's head popped out of her sleeping bag, "Somepony tried to rob us last night, and for the record, I tried to catch you, but you were flailing around too much."

Sitting on her rump, still draped in sleeping bag, Long rubbed the new bump on her head before muttering, "Tried to rob us?" Once she had taken a moment to process this she sprang upright, ending up nose to nose with Near. "What happened? Did you kerplode them? Is there anything left? Did-" The pegasus was cut off by Near's magic holding her mouth closed.

"Easy there fluffy," Near said before releasing her hold on Long, "Whoever it was managed to activate the caravan's magical defenses and got flung off to Celestia knows where. Right now I think we should search for clues-" Near was interrupted by her stomach rumbling, "and probably make some breakfast while we're at it."

Outside the caravan was a mess. All of their stowed supplies had been pulled out, leafed through, and just dropped wherever. Near sighed as she started making some haycakes while helping Spleens stow away things not needed for breakfast. Meanwhile, Long Shot was sniffing around and quickly found something.

"I smell cheap cologne," She announced, "It's the same one I smelled the first day we were in the Badlands, when we thought we were being watched," and with that she jumped into the air and started surveiling the area.

After about half an hour, everything was cleaned up and breakfast was ready. Near took a couple of magical pot shots at Long before the formerly grey mare figured out the message and began to descend. Near was somewhat disappointed that she had only managed to land one of the five spells she had shot at Long, but watching the temporary neon pink and black checkerboard pattern on Long Shot made Near feel a bit better.

"There's a thirty trot long trail of flattened shrubbery and grass about half a kilotrot that way," Long said, indicating the direction their intruder had involuntarily traveled, "But whoever it was, they're gone now. Also, this had better not be permanent."

At this point Spleens, who had been observing quietly, spoke up, "So what was it they wanted in the first place? Nothing's missing, but they were definitely looking for something."

"I'm thinking they were after our map," Near responded, "But it's inside the caravan, and they can't get inside unless they are invited in by somepony or someling already allowed inside, and to answer your question, it should wear off in an hour or so."

By this point Spleens, who had politely declined any haycakes, was making puppy dog eyes at Long Shot, who eventually noticed and wrapped the changeling up in a wing hug, still scarfing down haycakes without pause. While being loved and appreciated for being fluffy and delicious haycakes was somewhat unnerving at first, the love and appreciation were both genuine and very filling.

Author's Note

Two-eyed, no-horned, flying pink-black mango eater