Weight. It was something that Rainbow Dash felt, mostly on her back, but in her hooves carried the cake that she had just bought from Pinkie Pie, a cake that was mostly for Brick, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to let him have all of it. A couple pieces, maybe. Or three—she’ll decide when she got there to surprise him.

She wanted to hide the cake from him, but the sheer size of it made it extremely difficult for her to hide in her saddlebags, even if one of them was magically enchanted to store anything. It was too wide for it. Everything else was able to be stored in her two different saddlebags. She brought two, because even though one had a magic enchantment to store anything, she didn’t want anything that could be torn to shreds in it, since, well the sword and butter knife were in it. That left the second saddlebags, the one that could handle the ‘could be torn to shreds’ items, filled to the brim.

The contrast was obvious: one neatly strapped, while the other… wasn’t. The severely bloated one hindered her ability to fly to the point that flying too fast made her nauseous. Knowing that, at any moment, those bags of hers could unfasten, and her mind, still burdened by the brain fog, would not even notice it, choosing to drift off about the smoke, about how hard it was for her to fly, all while still thinking about that stupid bet she made… everything was against her right now. She hinged on the smoke being her guide in her flight, a rush against herself forged by her dumb muzzle.

The wind tickled her feathers. It sheared as it surrounded her.

The wind was her.

She flapped carefully, steady as can be. She glided when she needed to. She soared when the ground was too close. Not yet, not yet. She wasn’t near the smoke trail.

Her eyes flickered, noting the animals between the canopies. A few open areas too, a timberwolf track leading far from the trail, a fence torn from degradation over the years, and a few reeds in the brush.

Rainbow Dash smiled. She began her descent, her wings getting enough lift (even with all the weight on her back) that she wasn’t going to be stuck between the branches of the Everfree, but enough of a willingness to let go to glide into that same clearing, the one just below the smoke, the trail she knew was now due to a silly ali—human named Brick.

Upon landing, her tip-tappies imprinted the dirt with her trot of excitement. Mid-tap, she cradled the cake box with a free wing, while she wiped her hooves off on the grass. She checked herself over momentarily, before traversing the forest further, being mindful of those who were around her, animals and ponies alike—she didn’t know if she was followed! She gripped onto the cake box tighter, nestled closely against her side.

It didn’t take her too much longer to find the site. The circular stones still held the fire, and on that same log, the one where she laid near him, sat Brick, his big nose contrasting his rather small mouth. His lips rolled inward, while his face remained neutral against the orange flames that raged in front of him. He didn’t even notice her approach, his eyes locked onto the inferno. Her hooves barely made a sound, only dispersing the grass that tickled them. Most of the sticks in the now bare camp had been tossed into the pit, and all that remained were a couple large ones, which stayed by Brick’s side, shrouded barely in the fire’s tantalizing glow. She assumed Brick had saved the larger ones for the camp they were needing to build, but maybe he hadn’t gotten to them yet.

She mentally shrugged her wings and strode to his side.

“Brick?”

The human jumped out of his skin, twitching toward her direction with wide deep blue eyes. His brown hair was the only thing kept in place, while his arms were caught mid-toss, his fingers now wrapped tightly against a sizable branch. Only those blue eyes moved, darting over Rainbow Dash’s haul, especially the cake box, which did not visibly show the surprise she had delicately tucked in her wing.

“You… got the things we needed?” he piped up, now holding the branch close.

She flashed a grin toward him before looking toward her saddlebags. “Duh. Who would I be if I came back empty hooved? I got ’em all in my saddlebags!”

He raised a brow while he set the branch back in the pile. “Then what’s in the box?”

“One of your surprises.” She sat the box down beside him. She urged him with a hoof, nudging his side. “Come on, open it up!”

“Are you sure?” He asked, his hands hovering over it now. They twitched as they waited for her approval.

“Never surer!” She chirped, before letting out a happy neigh. “Trust me, you’ll like it. It’s awesome!”

She didn’t know that. She didn’t even know if he was allergic to cake. Or vanilla. But most ponies weren’t. They were mostly allergic to chocolate… and nuts. She hoped Pinkie wasn’t touching any nut butter before she made that cake. Or chocolate. Or anything radioactive. Rainbow Dash swore she saw one of Pinkie’s cakes glow in the dark once.

Her muzzle wrinkled up at the memory, but it was replaced by Brick’s ecstatic gasp as he lifted the box and stared at the creation. White frosting stared back, that much she knew, but Brick’s smile was all she needed to see, his nearly from ear to ear.

“That’s what I think it is?”

“Yep!” She let both of her wings unfurl, stretching them as needed. “Ah, finally I can stretch these puppies—that’s a cake one of my friends made. She makes way more than just cake, but I thought it would be a good idea to get one for you to welcome you to—oof!”

Brick interrupted her by pulling her towards his chest. She squeaked into the embrace, her face now plastered against him. Thankfully, his grip wasn’t too tight, which allowed her to squirm a bit out of his embrace, enough to look up at him while shivering in his grasp. “B-Brick?”

“Thank you! I… I don’t think I’ve ever been given a cake before.”

She pulled her head back to get a better look at his face. “H-How?”

He swallowed back what she hoped was saliva and cleared his throat. “Birthdays were… difficult for my family.” He scratched the back of his head with a free hand, while the other remained around her barrel, much to her wings discomfort. “Money was hard to come by when I was younger, and by the time we actually had money… let’s just say it wasn’t used for that.”

“That’s…”

“Shocking?”

She shook her head and nuzzled into his chest. “Terrible. Pinkie Pie would be upset if she heard that.”

He took a deep shaky breath. “That’s not the half of it, but yeah… just know the cake means a lot.”

“I’m glad,” she began, looking at him once more. She wiggled out of his embrace, much to his chagrin. His hands didn’t know what to do, so one went to the back of his neck, while the other propped him up on the log. “I hope you don’t have this strong of a reaction to the other things I got you.”

“Why? Don’t tell me you made a weird shopping list!”

She laughed and turned around to unlatch her saddlebags. “Outside what you asked for?” He nodded, which made her laugh even harder. “No, I didn’t—eck—go too out of bounds. Just—ergh—gotta get these off me to show you!”

Her hooves struggled to even unhook the saddlebags from her back, but she was lucky to have Brick, who, upon noticing her trying to reach for it, hopped off his log (she could hear him land on the ground). He probably walked toward her, his hoof—er, footsteps made that obvious. She wasn’t looking at him though, so she didn’t know which side he was going to appear from. Her peripherals, what little of that caught the blur of him, eventually brought him into focus, now on her right. She tried to smile, but his hands stopped the gesture entirely, his fingers rubbing against her body’s hair and the bag strap. She stifled a gasp and shivered, the sensation foreign yet familiar, dancing on the tips of her hair. It was a double negative she welcomed, even as the straps fell away.

Brick grunted while he lifted both saddlebags off of her, setting them down in front of the log away from the fire. “Whew, these things are filled. How did you even get them on you?”

A heat blossomed on her cheeks. “Uhhh… luck. And I had Tank help me.”

“Tank?”

Rainbow Dash giggled raspily. “He’s my pet tortoise.”

He blinked. “Uhhh…”

She raised a brow. What was that reaction? “What?”

“How did he help you with all this?” He scratched his head while he asked her that. “Like, how fast is he?”

A smirk wormed its way on her face. “He’s the fastest tortoise in all of Equestria. He’s pretty strong too.” She looked at the bags again. Thankfully he didn’t place them in the dirt. That wouldn’t have been cool—washing saddlebags was painful!—but, thankfully, Brick was cool… ish. “That shell of his could totally lift a house up!”

“W-What?”

Brick’s voice faltering made Rainbow Dash reconsider his coolness, her brows narrowing. “You think I’m lying?”

He shook his head rapidly and waved his hands out. “No, no! I was… trying to wrap my mind around that. Tortoises are really slow on land so…” He chuckled. “I’m surprised.”

She joined him in the chuckling fanfare. “Pfft! If that’s what they’re like on your planet, then I’ll be the first to tell you that…” She smiled and then let out an airy sigh. “You’re right. They’re slow.”

That brow he raised earlier? Well it was even higher now. “Do you have him hooked up to a ceiling fan or something?”

“No, but close.”

“Close?!”

She wrinkled her muzzle up momentarily, flicking a wing over at him. “He can fly using a helicopter rotor and some cool spell Twilight made up on the spot!” She grinned. “I’ll have to bring him down sometime.”

“Guess so,” he said, before returning to the cake box. He gently slid the cover over the top of it, making sure it was in place.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, eyed the bags. She walked over to them, attempting to unlatch the one with the tarp first. She could feel Brick’s presence behind her, probably watching her as she took the strap in her teeth and pulled, hoping it would unlatch. Unfortunately for her, it put up a fight, making her pause to regain her balance. She grunted as she yanked it further, until she heard a click. She let go of it, nudging it with her muzzle. It flipped open after guiding it along, falling away from the fire with a light clack (she definitely needed to be careful next time).

She turned to Brick and smiled as he was trying to look like he wasn’t just looking at her. She knew she was that awesome. “Wanna help me out?”

He nodded curtly, taking the other, less filled one in his hands. He sat on the log and opened it up with much more ease than she could. Those hands of his were delicate, opening the latch with precise, small movements. When the click sounded, he peered inside.

Rainbow Dash knew what he was going to see.

“Wow,” Brick started, leaning into the bag as his arm sank into its confines. He grabbed something, holding it and hoisting the—there it is. The sword, its handle firmly in his hand’s grasp. “How did you…?”

“Fit it in there?”

He blinked. “Well, now that you mention that, yeah. But I didn’t expect you to bring a sword of all things.”

“I couldn’t find you a good enough knife. Although, there is a butter knife in case we need it for the cake.”

Brick raised a brow and peered in there to see what she knew was there. That butter knife… “No kidding, there is one in there!” he exclaimed, holding it in his hand. He set it aside, next to the cake box.

She smirked. “Had to make sure I got at least something we could use—”

“Did you bring any forks or plates?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Uhhh, I think they’re in there…” Brick’s laughter made that heat stick around her cheeks, something that made her ears even burn up. “It’s not that funny!”

She saw him do some kicks of his own, while he clutched his stomach. The sword, which she thought he was still holding onto, had been tossed aside past the log, much further away from them than she would have liked, but her fight or flight instinct wasn’t too glaring. Not yet. She didn’t want to think about that. She was just happy Brick hadn’t stabbed himself by accident.

She let him have his moment, turning her attention to the bag she unlatched. She set the tarp down as best as she could (it was a pretty big tarp, now that she was really looking at it), followed by a couple pillows. She was about to unlatch the second part of her bag, where she knew she put all the blankets in (with a much smaller tarp too), when she heard Brick’s laughter fall silent. Rainbow Dash looked over at him. The dolt had propped himself back on the log, but the smile and little faint chuckles told her that he was still laughing at her confusion. Ugh. “Sorry, don’t know what came over me there.”

Rainbow Dash looked away from him. “I don’t know either,” she muttered, her gaze now to the sky. “You’re one goofy human.”

Since he hadn’t added any sticks or logs into the fire, the smoke from it started to falter. The black haze still lingered overhead, among the canopy of the trees surrounding them.

She turned back to him and smiled. “You see everything else in…” her voice trailed off when she noticed him pulling out more of the ‘essentials’. On the log were a couple of those bags of chips she brought. They were probably expired but there wasn’t a date on them, so… If those are bad, she did bring some cookies to munch on. And they also had that cake of his. Thankfully she brought a butter knife because cutting a cake with a sword would be so awkward—wait, how did the sword not pop open the bags—

“Hey, Rainbow Dash?”

She shook her head as if she was blindsided by a pony. Instead, it was Brick, looking at her with a brow raised. “Hmm?”

“One of the bags broke.” He waved the yellow chip bag in front of them. “Got most of them in a bowl you somehow brought with you. I’m surprised half of these fit in here!”

She laughed and threw a hoof over toward him. “Pfft! Magically enchanted bags usually keep those things tight. I brought two because, well, even though they’re enchanted, doesn’t mean the stuff in the bag isn’t going to break.” She frowned. “As you saw…”

He nodded. “Yeah…” He looked at her bags, pointing with one of his fingers at them. “Is that one magically enchanted too?”

“Nope!” She used a wing of hers to open the second latch this time around. It flew open with surprising ease, letting a blanket escape the confines of its chamber known as her bag. “I only got one of those, and this one’s… uh…” She couldn’t think of the word.

“Compact?”

“Not exactly…” Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof to the tip of her muzzle. “More like filled to the brim. Didn’t want anything getting torn by the sword.”

“Yeah,” Brick replied lamely. She glanced back over at him. He pulled out the rope that she knew he needed, which he eyeballed and inspected, holding it high above his head. The rope dangled down, which really put into perspective how long it was. “Guess I found the rope.”

“Good,” she said with a giggle. “Was hoping that the rope would survive.”

He snorted. “Guess it did.” He also set the rope to the side, which his eyes widened upon seeing it emerge uncoiled from the bag. “It’s unbelievable how much fits in there.”

“Magic,” Rainbow Dash said as a matter-of-fact. She pulled out her pillow set and threw it on the tarp. Just had to get the blankets out too. “I don’t know how it all works though, so don’t even ask. That’s the Egghead’s job.”

“Egghead?”

“Twilight,” she corrected. She spied a jug getting pulled out of the bag. “You can set that on the ground.”

He smiled. “Gotcha.”

The two pulled the rest of the items out in relative silence, save for Brick staring at the hat she brought him. She thought he needed it to protect him from the sun. She also got a comment from him when she started rolling up the pillows and blankets in the tarps. He was confused but hey, he at least had some spirit.

“You don’t have too much fur, Brick.”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s because I don’t have fur. I have hair.” His fingers brushed through his mane—hair, before tugging at his shirt. “Clothes keep the body heat in and—”

“I’ll have to ask Rarity for help with that...” she muttered.

“Rarity?”

Rainbow Dash waved him off with a forehoof. “Not important—just know she’s a friend of mine.”

He hummed in response, and looked up— “Say, is it normal for the sun to just… stay in one place?”

She laughed. “Yeah. Twilight’s not going to move it all the time.”

The brown haired alien of the day tilted his head at her. “Sorry?”

She mirrored him. “What?”

“She moves it herself?”

“Yeah.”

He pointed up at the sky. “The sun?”

“Is that not normal?” she asked, her voice cracking on the word normal. The return she didn't ask for!

“The sun doesn’t get controlled by someone where I’m from,” Brick said. He put a finger of his to represent what she thinks is the sun, and then in his other hand, represented the planet he was from, which he moved around the former. “The planet orbits the sun, see?”

She did. And she was confused. “What? What about your moon?”

“I don’t have a third hand to represent it. Just know it orbits the planet. You know, gravitational pull and what not?”

Rainbow Dash’s muzzle scrunched up. “So you’re telling me everything, including the sun and the moon, all move on their own?”

“Basically. I mean, your moon doesn’t move without intervention?”

“Twilight has to get Luna to help with it sometimes. She can get easily overwhelmed if she isn’t too careful, and sometimes she can’t handle the sun and the moon when she’s too in her head about things,” Rainbow Dash nonchalantly waved a hoof at him, which made Brick’s mouth nearly fall to the floor. She threw her forehooves in the air. “What? Your nerves don’t affect how you perform?”

“Well, that’s not…” He groaned. “This is so hard to wrap my head around. I get it, nerves can affect one’s performance, but lifting a sun and the moon? I mean, I should even be freaking out about how your saddlebags are ‘magically enchanted’ and can store an entire garage in there. Back where I’m from, if women had purses that could store the entire universe, we wouldn’t need garages anymore. Store all your stuff in a vacuum!” Brick paused to crack his neck, and from what it sounded like, he really cracked it. He rubbed the side of it with his one hand. “Anyway, can we pause on the earth-shattering revelations here? We can take a break to eat some cake and then we—”

BOOM.

To their left, a tree exploded in two. One part stayed hooked on another tree, making it lean to the right just a tad. The other part, splintered everything in its vicinity. Thankfully, where they were sitting, a tree had sheltered them (and the cake) from the blast. There were some shards of the tree jutting out from one of the tarpballs she made. Rainbow Dash leaned further down to see the damage, unfurling them gently. None of the pillows or blankets were damaged, but she would definitely want to make sure this one wasn’t used for the roof for Brick’s hideaway.

She looked up at Brick. “Uhhh, looks like we need to get started on making that shelter instead.”

Brick sighed. “You’re right…” He looked over at the cake and made sure it was in its box, secure and sheltered from Equestria. Satisfied, he smiled and picked up the sword from the ground. He gripped it tightly in his hands and— “You know, this sword makes me look like a badass.”

“A bad… ass?” Rainbow Dash said, tasting the words and wondering if she’d go bald in the process.

“Yeah!” He exclaimed, walking over towards the other trees. “I don’t think I’ll be able to use it on these thick ones though, would really need an ax to make a dent into any of these—” He twunked the short sword against the tree, only to be shocked when it actually cut into the bark (barely). “Okay maybe—”

“No,” Rainbow Dash said, shaking her head. “Don’t need you slashing at trees, Brick. Let’s just scavenge for some more useable wood. You already did without anything I gave you, right?”

He nodded… slowly. “Most of it was in this area though.”

She held a forehoof up a bit, before pointing it ahead of her, as if she was pointing down at the ground. “Like here?”

“Yep. This place wasn’t really clear when I got here. Lots of twigs and what not. Had to go a ways away though for the bigger ones.” He smiled as he patted the couple he had nearby. “Least we got something to start with. Going to need a bunch more to make a base…”

She gave him a grin. “Then let’s do it. With more than one of us, we’ll surely get this done in no time!”

Even though Rainbow Dash was happy that they had a plan in motion, on the inside, she was totally trying not to jump out of her fur right now. If the Everfree was like it normally was, another lightning strike like that wasn’t out of the question. And usually a strike meant a rainstorm was about to brew. And with everything else it had to offer… the storm was only the beginning—

Her eyes widened as her heart jumped nearly out of her chest. What was she thinking? She shouldn’t be worrying over all this! She was hyping herself up over nothing… right? And clearly Brick noticed, his face of concern glaring at her. He was also much closer to her than he was before. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Sorry, I'm just worrying myself over nothing.” She flicked her tail at him. “Come on, let’s go.”

She muttered her excuse, hoping he bought it, and it sounded like it worked, his footsteps crunching on some twigs he left behind. This made her trot further ahead, knowing that Brick was right behind her.

Rainbow Dash gulped. She really hoped she was right, that she was worrying over nothing, because nothing felt worse than an oncoming storm. A storm that she couldn’t predict, a storm she would struggle to stop. A storm that could make them vulnerable.

A shiver darted up her spine as she trudged on, through the thicket of the Everfree.

Author's Note

Babe. New Discovery of Him. Tell your friends.

I love my melodic deathcore.