Blueberry POV

I stared at the eel creature in shock. My mind was blank and none of my limbs would move. Not even the survival instinct default of flying away was responding right now.

I didn’t know what was going on. My daze was only broken when I suddenly spotted a bright red light flare up in the corner of my eyes. It snapped me out of my trance and I turned my head to see where it came from. Zitrus was holding a blindingly bright red flare in his mouth, which he shook in the direction of the eel thing. It seemed scared and backed off a bit. Zitrus seemed to take this as his queue to give the flare a big swing, tossing it in the direction of the eel. It wasn’t even close to hitting the creature, but it nonetheless scared it back into the depths. For now.

A wave from its descent hit the boat, shaking it violently. Then all was quiet.

I watched the ripples in the water where the eel had submerged. But nothing happened. I looked to my side where Zitrus stood, staring intently at those same ripples. He took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a bit. Then he sat down and grabbed the oars like nothing happened.

I was still standing in place. “What was that?”, I asked the stallion.

“Don’t know the actual name of the creature. I just call them eels. Or big eels”, he answered.

“You already had an encounter with them?”, I asked, shocked.

“Yes, one time but do not worry. They are not dangerous. Or… not directly. They just can get dangerous when they get too curious and flip your boat or even smash it by accident.”

I looked back into the water. “How did you know they get scared by a flare?”

“They get scared by fire in general. And I read about it in The Wasteland Survival Guide from Ditzy Doo. It is a book with the best basics for this wasteland. When I was young, I read that book. Taught me most of what I know.”

I was still a bit shocked, so I just sat down. For the rest of the boat trip none of us said anything.

I could have kissed the land as soon as we arrived. I was used to dangerous situations while I had been under the Goddess but those experiences were months in the past.

Zitrus pulled the boat onto land and opened his saddlebag to take out his map. I watched him from afar.

“You seemed to know about this boat. Is that all written on that map you have?”, I asked.

He looked up from the map and directly at me. Then he gestured for me to move closer. I did so. Sitting behind him I looked over his shoulder at the map. First off, I noticed that the paper was old. Like really old. But still in very good condition. The second thing was that the map was not fully folded out. The whole map must actually be huge and pretty detailed, if it contained a map of all of Equestria.

Zitrus started to explain: “This map is from pre-war time. Mostly unused but still over 200 years old. I got it as a gift and even though it’s not up to date, Equestria hasn’t changed that much in terms of landmarks. Some new cities here, some new villages there. Some got destroyed. But the natural parts like the mountains, lakes and forests are still the same. Some small things, like our boat, are not visible on the map. That is why I also make some marks on it.” He pointed at a lake on the map. The same lake we were standing next to. Next to it was, written with a pencil, “boat” and “big eel”. I looked over the map. Everywhere on it had such marks. I was interested.

Zitrus folded the map and put it back into his saddlebag.

“I will make a fire and cook some of the water from the lake, so we have drinking water for the upcoming journey. Have no worries, the water here is pretty shallow, so there’s no chance an eel can come here”, he said to me.

While he did just that, I spent my time trotting along the lake border. It was nice to have another landscape to look at. Not always the same parts around the village like I’m used to. And watching the water, hearing the small waves splashing and even smelling something new, gave me a clear mind. I felt… calm, relaxed, good.

The water even looked inviting, and I took a few steps into it. Zitrus had been right, the water was not deep. I was standing with my knees in the warm water which was not enough to give me the fear of meeting another one of these eels.

I saw my reflection in the water. Even with the little waves I could see what a mess I was. I looked like I hadn't cleaned myself in months, which was actually true to be honest… My fur was not in a condition I would call too bad, but it sure didn’t shine any more. But the worst was my mane. It was tousled in every direction, dirty and… sticky.

I looked around. I had moved quite a distance and Zitrus was not in sight anymore. I took a few more steps into the water and then dove in. Using my hooves to clean my… everything, as thoroughly as was possible.

It took what felt like an eternity to finish. When I then looked into the water again, I could see the many improvements. Minus the fact that I was soaking wet. I gave myself a smile. The first smile since… forever. I shook my head (which was a pretty bad idea with my wet mane) and made my way back to Zitrus.

He was sitting in front of a fire, watching a pot of water boil. When he saw me approaching, his surprise was easy to read. But he didn’t say anything.

The fire was good. It helped me dry a bit.

“Why do you cook the water?”, I asked Zitrus. I knew that cooking water cleans it but the lake didn’t seem that dirty. Not so much that it would give a pony any concerns.

“To kill all the little toxins that may be hiding in it. Dirt, bacteria or radiation”, he answered.

“There is no radiation in the water”, I told him.

“How do you know?”

“I am an alicorn. We kind of “eat” radiation. It doesn’t hurt us, instead while being in it, we become even stronger. Because of that I would have felt if the water was radioactive.”

Zitrus, once again, seemed surprised at my answer. “So, you can tell if something has radiation in it? That is actually pretty darn amazing. It would take a lot of risks from me since radiation would kill me, but I am not able to tell what is safe and what is not. Having you around would make it possible for me to eat grass from the ground. Literally”, he said.

Even though I could see his point, I had mixed feelings about his words. Sure, it was no big deal but it felt like being called his personal taster. But then, he had rendered his assistance so many times. It would only be fair to give something in return.

The moment I was mostly dry we continued our journey. Zitrus said there was still a long journey in front of us. At least a week if we kept up our current speed. But he also insisted that there was no rush. And if we needed more time than that it was no problem. Again, we came into a forest.

“What is our next stop?”, I asked Zitrus. He took his map out of the saddlebag without stopping.

“We’ll soon reach a place that this map calls “Pie’s Rock Farm””, he said.

Rock Farm. That thought gave me so many questions. How do you FARM rocks? I mean there are rocks or there aren’t. It is not like you could plant a boulder inside the dirt, pour some water over it and it will grow into a big rock. Right?

I looked around the forest. This one seemed less creepy than the first one. I looked down at Zitrus while he was busy putting the map away. It somehow still confused me that he was a head shorter than me. It sounds stupid but for me he seemed way too mature to be shorter than me. Even though he looked young. A stallion still in his golden age.

“How come you already have so much experience in the wasteland at such a young age?”, I asked all of a sudden and nearly bit my tongue as punishment. For some reason this question seemed really embarrassing for me.

Zitrus' ears perked up, but other than that he didn’t show any reactions.

“I left home as soon as I was old enough. I always had this adventure feeling in me that I wanted to fulfill. See the wasteland and have all kinds of stories to tell. To be honest I was kind of too young when I left and my mother didn’t really want to let me leave… But she knew she couldn’t stop me. And I couldn’t stop myself either. Like I already said, I learned most of The Wasteland Survival Guide and the rest… well… let’s just say, the wasteland is an effective teacher.” Zitrus made a short break from his speech and for a short moment I was aware again how much smaller he was compared to me.

“Yes, I am young. But I have already seen a lot in this wasteland. Good and bad. Some things I am happy to have witnessed and some things I wish I hadn’t seen.”

We were both silent after that. This time it was not a welcome silence. I wanted to say something. Anything to end this situation, but nothing came to mind. Instead, it was Zitrus who, blessedly, was able to change topics.

“I am thinking, you are not able to use spells to defend yourself. Well, you can turn yourself invisible but maybe you should also be prepared to fight.”

He stopped, reached in his saddlebag and took out a small pistol. Then he laid it on the ground, gesturing that I should pick it up. I was unsure at first but did so nonetheless. Of course, since I didn't know levitation magic, I used my mouth for it. I don’t think I have to say that the taste of metal is not pleasant.

“This is a 9mm pistol with a 12-round magazine. Semi-auto, with a pretty sub-par damage profile. However, it is light, easy to use and uses the most common ammo type. In other words, perfect for a beginner like yourself”, said Zitrus and gave a chuckle.

I tried to get a feeling for the weapon. During my time under the Goddess, many ponies tried to shoot me but never ever did I have a weapon in my hooves myself… or mouth, for that matter. When I was fighting against any creature, I was using spells. But yes, Zitrus was right. Since I didn’t know how to cast them anymore, I needed something else to defend. Even though I can turn invisible anytime, sometimes you also have to attack.

Zitrus pointed at a tree around 30 steps away from me. “How about giving it a try?”

I gave a small nod and aimed at the tree trunk. I was nervous to pull the trigger. I tried to stay as calm as possible and aim for the tree. Slowly… focus… small breath… and then…

Nothing… I tried to pull the trigger but it just didn’t want to move. No matter how much pressure I put on it.

I gave a side look at Zitrus and saw him smirking.

“You first have to cock the gun”, he said. He then trotted over and showed me how to cock the gun and actually load a bullet into the thing. I watched and listened, knowing that this knowledge could be really useful.

“So, now give it a real try”, Zitrus finished the lesson.

I gave a nod and aimed again at the tree trunk. Trying to hit the center. But again, I got nervous. In my mind I expected a recoil which would knock me back off my hooves and a shooting sound which would make my ears ring. Focus, Blueberry. Focus…

PENG

The gun shot. To my surprise it was not nearly as bad as I expected. Even though I tried to aim at the tree, the nervousness had made me pretty unsure as to where the bullet had actually gone. I looked at the tree, searching for a hole in the bark, but there was none. I must have missed it.

I gave a sidelong glance at Zitrus. Half expecting to see him smirking or chuckle again. But instead, he was watching with a neutral smile at the tree.

“Give it another shot”, he said to me and gave a nod.

I did so. This time, since I knew what I could expect from the gun in my mouth, I was way calmer. I still missed… But this time I was able to actually keep track of what I had hit instead. I had hit another tree behind my actual target.

“Getting better”, Zitrus said. “Try again.”

My third shot hit the tree now. It was not in the center but still. On the inside I was excited even though I didn’t show it.

We continued until the magazine was empty. Some shots better, some worse. One of them even got pretty close to the center. Then Zitrus gave me three more rounds so I could train reloading, after which I fired those into the trunk too.

All in all I was proud of my rapid improvement.

I hoped that everything in the wasteland would be this simple, but I knew already then that that was unlikely to be the case.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoy the story so far. New chapters will come again and again but irregular.
If you enjoy the story, you can always leave a comment so i know what i did right. If you don't like the story you can also leave a comment to let me know what i should improove.
Thank you so much for reading