Two Wings

Blueberry POV

108 days, that was the current number of days since the goddess died. I had been counting it. Not because of grief for any lost friends, nor glee for acquired freedom. I did it because it gave me something to hold on to. Like when you are lost on an island, and you start to count the days you are trapped. I don’t know when I stopped counting really. I just realised one day that I had forgotten, and then realised that I no longer cared.

When the stallion whose name, according to himself, was Zitrus, and I entered the forest I had many questions I wanted to ask. For starters I still didn’t know where we were going. But also, I didn’t know anything about the stallion. When I look at those days in hindsight, I know that my actions were very naive. Just following some pony I know nothing about. But at the time, it didn’t even occur to me that it was naive. It just never came to mind to question him. Or ask any questions to him. Sure, I wanted to know but well… I wonder if the reason why he never told something about himself during such times was because he WANTED me to ask.

The forests had been made out of dead trees, meaning that a lot of light still came through the branchy canopy. Or, it would as long as there was light to shine. When the sun was going down and darkness slowly filled the area, the trees acquired a more frightening look. It made me a little nervous, even if I still found it quite beautiful.

We were in the middle of the forest when the sun went down completely and Zitrus stopped.

“Alright, let’s camp here”, he said.

When we stopped my legs gave out in an instant and I plopped to the ground like a brick. I didn’t realise until then how close to collapse my legs had been. I wanted to move them but they just didn’t, instead they felt like jelly. I was confused about it while Zitrus gave me a worried look.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you were so tired. We could have made a break sooner if you told me.”

I just looked at him, not exactly sure why he apologised. It wasn’t his fault. Again, he offered me the waterbag he took out of his saddlebag. I again shook my head, restating that I did not need water to survive.

“But maybe you like to refresh yourself. Can alicorns refresh themselves with drinking water?”, he asked. That was actually a good question.

“I don’t know”, I admitted.

He gave a chuckle and hoofed me the waterbag. “Only one way to find out.”

I wanted to grab it but my legs still didn’t respond so I took it with my mouth and drank out of it as well as was possible for somepony who tries to drink from a bag without holding it. It was true, the water gave a cool feeling and relaxed my body. I knew that I didn’t need water to survive but, at that moment, it came to me like a cold breeze in the middle of summer. I would have drank all of it but that would have been selfish. Especially since Zitrus needed the water to survive.

He, meanwhile, observed me with a curious look.

“Can you do levitation spells? I mean, because unicorns can, and alicorns are, as far I know, the powerful combination of all three pony kinds”, he asked me.

I laid the waterbag on the ground. Careful not to let any of the liquid spill. “Yes, alicorns can learn different spells. Some spells were… “innate” based on our colour. But that doesn’t mean we cannot learn new spells. Many alicorns used magic spells to fight, like blasts, explosions or punches. What a unicorn can learn, we can learn too. Most likely in an even stronger version.”

“Then why didn’t you use levitation to drink?”, he wanted to know and pointed at the waterbag.

“I don’t know any spells other than the one I was born with, that being the spell to go invisible”, I admitted. “I used some other spells while I was under the Goddess but that was rare, so I don’t remember how to use them anymore.”

Zitrus just gave a nod in return to that.

Afterwards he started to build a fire and took a small green folded cloth out of his saddlebag. When he unfolded, it turned out to be a way bigger blanket than you’d initially think. With interest I watched him work (not like I could have been able to help much even if I wanted) on setting up his contraption. It only took a small time until he created a little tent.

“It is only a pony sized tent but it should be possible to fit two ponies”, he said. “Of course, only if that doesn’t bother you…”, he added and looked suddenly a bit flushed. I looked at the tent. It sure was made for one pony only but it COULD fit two. If you really wanted to. But that would mean that these two ponies would sleep very close to each other, most likely having body contact all night long. The thought of that made me a bit uneasy. I mean it would just be body contact. Nothing else. Most likely it was just laying shoulder to shoulder with each other. But even for that, Zitrus was still too much of a stranger to me.

“I am used to sleeping under the open night sky”, I just gave in response.

“Wait, you were sleeping in the wild while you were in the village?”, he asked.

I gave a nod. “The inhabitants once offered me a room in some pony’s house. I sometimes went in there to sleep. Especially when it rained. But many times, I stayed outside. And tonight, it doesn’t seem like it’ll rain.”

Zitrus shook his shoulders. “Well, right now we still have some warm summer nights but soon they will get colder. If we’re planning on travelling together for long, you should get yourself a tent.”

Zitrus cooked himself some food in a pot over the fireplace. He had been hunting before and returned with some fresh meet. He had told me that he preferred grass or any kind of vegetables, but of course, in the wasteland you could not be too picky. Most plant based products were inedible. To survive, you had to take what you got

While he ate, we talked again. And for the first time it actually felt nice to talk with him. I even started to ask him some questions.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going yet?”

He gave me a sly smile. Truly he wanted me to ask this. And he was happy that I finally did. “We are going to the desert in the West. A place called Dusty Village. It is a far journey over the lake you saw and some more walking. There I have some things to give the locals and get a good number of bottlecaps.”

I gave a nod. “Is that how you earn your bottlecaps? Being a courier?”

He, as an answer, shook his head. “Not exactly. My main life goal is to travel around the wasteland. During such times I earn bottlecaps in many different ways. Sometimes it’s bringing something from point A to point B like a courier, as you said. But I also loot empty places, trade or help other ponies for a reward. That sort of stuff.”

The words he said made sense. His heavy saddlebag looked like it was filled with a lot of random stuff. Ready to get sold. His body was thin but still had strong legs. Trained from all the distance he walked. And his calm kind-

“Is this the reason why you have not been afraid of me?”, I asked, interrupting my own train of thought before it derailed.

He gave a soft chuckle. “Not really. For starters I once met an alicorn while your kind were under the Goddess. She attacked me that time without any real reason, which is the reason I know how dangerous and powerful your kind is. So, when I first talked to you, I was a bit nervous. Ready to dodge the magic spell you’d probably fire at me. But at some point I saw that there was none of that in you. On the contrary, you looked downright lost.”

“Another reason has been that I knew that your kind changed since the death of the Goddess. So, I could still fear you just like before. But, that is in the past now. And blaming you for that would be like blaming the zebras for the war 200 years ago.”

“So I guess the reason I talked to you is that I didn’t see a reason to fear you. I had respect but no fear... Alright I did have fear but I tried to suppress it. I wanted to talk with you.”

I studied his words a little bit. “Why did you want to talk with me?” I asked him.

He seemed unsure at that moment. “You seemed like you needed help”, he answered after another moment.

Once again I did not answer.

It was night now. Zitrus already went into his tent to sleep. The fire was still burning but was soon going to die out. I was still asleep and watching the stars. I often did that even though I didn’t exactly know why. It was like they cleared my mind. Made me able to think better. I was thinking about what happened today. And for me it was a lot. I hadn’t had such an eventful day since… well since the Goddess died. But I also thought about Zitrus words. The questions he gave me and the answers he gave to my questions.

It took a while until the exhaustion overtook me. I laid down, giving one last look at Zitrus’ tent. I shifted my eyes to the fire, mere embers now; then the forest and then the stars, until I finally closed my eyes and fell asleep.

The next day me and Zitrus walked side by side through the forest. We didn’t say anything. But not because we couldn’t. We just enjoyed the pleasant silence. I was personally still exhausted from all the walking yesterday so we took breaks regularly. Zitrus showed patience with me while I forced myself to move forward as well as I could. When the Sun was high up, we reached the end of the forest. I realised then that I kind of missed having the sun over me instead of dead tree branches. Not far in front of us now, was the lake’s edge. The lake itself was not the biggest but still would be nearly impossible to cross by swimming.

“Checkpoint reached”, Zitrus said half laughing. He then turned right, walking along the lake to the wooden pier. Tied to it was a small boat with two oars inside. It looked old but still in good condition.

I lifted an eyebrow. “We’re crossing the lake?”

He gave a nod. “We could walk around it but that would cost us almost a day. So, we take the boat. Except if you’d like to fly over it.”

I gave a look over the water. Flying over it would not be a big problem. That is, if my wings weren’t so untrained from disuse. Flying me over could be possible, but carrying Zitrus with me along with his baggage… Not a chance. And for some reason, I didn’t want to leave him behind…

So, in the boat we went, and then over the water. Zitrus worked the oars and I was just sitting inside, watching over the water. The lake was quiet and it gave me chills. More than the forest did. I didn’t trust the water. The only sound that came was the splash from the oars. Or, it was for a long time. And then, a dozen things happened in seconds. I saw a shadow swimming under the boat. A shadow with a size that made my blood freeze, and sure enough, a moment later a tall, eel-like creature emerged from under the water’s surface. It was mere metres from our boat. And by big I mean tall. At least three to five times taller than me and that was only the part showing above the surface. The waves it produced nearly made the boat flip. I looked straight at it, and felt my entire body freeze.