"We have to go!" Spring had finally found Kit in the mess hall, at the table of a group of hardened looking griffons. One of them had been sharing a story when she interrupted. "We have to go, right now."

Kit inclined his head. "Now?" But he was already being pulled to his feet. "Okay. Is something wrong?" He jogged along at her side as she picked up speed.

"I'll explain on the way." She hurried along, hoping she wasn't too late. She knew exactly where to go, but didn't know how long she would have to get there. "So, I went to work with the smith, but she said that I was too good, and then the mayor gave us a job. We're supposed to find things in the ash." She glanced back at Kit. "There's an old building that the mayor said would have things to scavenge, and she wants us to find it."

Kit rubbed behind his head as he hurried alongside her. "That sounds dangerous."

"Probably," she squeaked out, thinking about it for the first time. "But I don't think she cares." They arrived at city hall, and she shoved the doors open. "I'm back, and I found him."

"Hey!" He gave a little wave, then looked around the office, his tail wagging.

"A hybrid." She nodded, not looking alarmed or offended. "But not the sort I'm used to seeing." She sank to her seat and put her hands together. "This town has griffons, ponies, and proof that the two are getting along pretty well." She pointed at Kit with a clawed hand. "But you aren't a griffon, but I do see pony. What are you, exactly? Your kind of hybrid I've never seen."

"Kit!" He put a hand to his chest. "Pleasure to meet you, ma'am." He considered a moment. "I'm part fox, part pony. I heard you wanted us to go looking for things?"

"I did." She leaned in, her wings folding a bit. "You both have magic, and that means you're both more useful to us than normal residents. I don't need you to cook food or make weapons." She rolled her hands over one another. "I mean, you may, when you're not busy doing something more pressing. We have lights, if you didn't notice, lovely things." She reached to caress a small lamp on her desk that fought off the gloom.

"Power's going out if we don't find the parts to keep that generator humming. We have people working feverishly with what we have, but we need more." She pushed a slip of paper over her desk. "Here's a list. Mind, you see anything else that looks useful, grab it too. We're not that picky."

Kit took the paper, glancing at the list, written out by hand. "We can do it. We'll bring this back." He took the paper, holding it in both hands. "Thank you, ma'am."

She nodded. "Good. Go on then." She lifted a tuft of feathers one could assume an ear hid in. "I'm not promising any fancy pay. Money's gone out of style. But people will look up to you if you come back with anything that helps keep the lights on."

Spring nodded. "We'll try. Let's go." She turned and trotted for the door.

Kit followed her out of city hall. "Where are we going, anyway?" He glanced at her as they trotted into the street.

She froze. "I, um, don't know." She grabbed the paper with her magic. "Maybe this has something." She flipped it over from the list and there was a crude map. "See?" She pointed. "We're here. Um, so we have to go, that way. Come on." She turned and trotted down a side road.

Kit followed her out of the city and towards a hillside. They walked in silence, his tail wagging as he watched the ash fall around them. "At least it's not coming down as hard as that first day we arrived." His ears flattened against his head. "That was scary." He shuddered. "Still is. How do they live here?"

"They have no choice. They have nowhere else." Spring shook her head with a sigh. "They have to fight, or they die." She shuddered with the thought. "You came here. Can't you just go home, and take me?"

Kit laughed awkwardly at the idea. "I am not allowed to do that. I am here to help though." He closed in at her side, hand on the far side of her barrel. "We'll get through this, okay?"

She leaned into him, walking close together. "I hope you're right." She shivered gently, looking around the ash-covered hills. "I don't want to stay here forever."

He looked out across the ash covered land. "It is a pretty sad place. I'll do what I can to help. Promise. We'll be friends." He held her close, his tail wagging. It was a curious blend of fox and horse parts, which made its movements interesting. "Oh, look." He pointed to a building sticking free of the carpet of ash.

"I think that's it." She trotted towards it with him. "The mayor said that place had something, but she wasn't sure what." She looked at it. It was a building, mostly intact, with only one section having caved in. "Or maybe somecreature just hoped there was."

"We'll find out." He slipped into the building and shook off, sending ash falling from his pelt. "Nice to not be being rained on. I mean, as nice as ash can ever be."

Spring nodded, stepping inside after him. "Sure is. Look at all this stuff, and it doesn't even have a sign outside. I wonder what this place was for." The building was filled with dusty furniture, a few shelves, and a few boxes. She pointed to the nearest one. "Let's see what's in there."

The two hurried over, even smiling for a moment. The box was, in a way, a gift box just waiting for them to open it. It glowed with Spring's magic, popping open for them to look inside. Kit pulled one of the things inside out. "Tapes, wow. I'd only heard of these." He turned the audio tape this way and that. "Wonder if there's a player in here. If not, maybe they have one back at town?"

Spring nodded. "Good idea." She dug into the box. "More tapes, a few books, and a couple of other boxes." She picked one up. "Oh, look." She turned the box so Kit could see it. On the side was writing, but long since faded. She popped it right open to reveal a thick nest of wires. "Huh."

He leaned in, his tail lashing. "Wonder if they could use that in town? Probably, right?" His ears flopped forward. "I mean, they could probably make something from that, couldn't they?" He came out with a small wooden box. "The others were all cardboard. This one must be important." He popped it open and soft music filled the air.

Inside were momentos and cards. "Oh." Kit shrank a little. "I wonder who's memories these used to be." He closed the box, silencing the song, then put it in the box. "This is history, not useful to us, but it should be saved." He closed the box back up. He took a soft breath. "But not what we're here for. This won't be the big help they're hoping for."

"No, you're right." Spring looked through the box of books, but they were all ruined. The damp had soaked the pages and frozen them together, making a useless brick of pulp. "They wanted us to find something specific, and these aren't it." She turned her attention to the other boxes. "Okay, hm. You." She picked a box and floated it over, top popping along the way. "You're my lucky box!"

Inside was more ruined stuff, and a long knife with a leather sheath and handle. "Oh, neat." Kit reached into the box to lift the blade free, looking at it. "I could use this, couldn't I?"

Kit inclined his head. "Have you ever used a knife before?"

"It's good for cutting food." She slipped it right around herself, securing the sheath and then the knife within that sheath. "Way better than trying to use your hooves."

Kit blinked softly. "Oh, um. I thought you meant as a weapon." He shook his head, smiling. "But that too!" He went back to looking through boxes. There were many little treasures, but nothing they had come for. The two dug through box after box, making a small pile of things they intended to take with them.

They tucked away that pile into Kit's backpack to carry with them. "This is just the first floor, we're not done. Let's look for stairs, up or down." He walked along, eyes peeled for some sign of a way to go either way. Spring looked in another room and made her discovery, an old set of stairs leading up.

She poked her head back out, waving him to her with her magic. He started at the magical hand pointing the way, then laughed as he followed it. "I didn't know you could do that." They ascended to the second story. It was in worse shape, having been exposed to more of the elements than the ground floor had. "We'll have to be careful," he cautioned her as they walked across the creaking boards.

Spring creeped across the floor, one squeak at a time, trying not to bother it on the way to a small pile of boxes. One of these boxes was long and thin, and had a hole in the side that let her see the contents were not wet like most others. She popped open the top and reached in. "Oh!" She pulled out a long bulb from inside it. "Look at this."

Kit checked the list. "That's on the list, surprisingly." He pointed at that line. "Take it for sure."

She nodded and tucked that away, smiling. "We can do this. Oh, look, one more." She trotted to it and picked up another, identical bulb, tucking that away as well. She saw a glint, possible a third, and went after it like a trail of crumbs.

She found her way to what looked like a sort of bed. The mattress had been torn apart, but something sparkly was still sitting there. It was a golden locket with some kind of gem inside it. "This isn't going to fix anything, but it is pretty." She held it close between her cloven hooves. "I'm glad we found it anyway."

Kit took it from her gently and placed it around her neck. "There, now you have a treasure."

She smiled at him, her ears perked. "Thank you." She leaned in to lick across his nose. "You're a nice creature. As scary as this world is, I'm glad you were here to greet me."

Kit's cheeks warmed, but he laughed softly at that. "I'm glad I was here. I just wish you didn't have to get stuck with me."

Spring turned to continue her hunt. "I was stuck before I ran into you. You didn't make me stuck." She prowled into the dark, only her lit horn fighting it off.

He looked around at the darkness. "This is kind of creepy. Are you sure there's something up here? This place is falling apart." His eyes picked out what looked to be a door and, beside it, a set of stairs.

She saw the door as well, and went right for it. "If it's scary, that means other creatures didn't want to look either, so we may find something good, like those long things."

"Light bulbs?" He shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe there are monsters in there and we're the prey." His ears flattened, tail lashing. "I wouldn't put that past this place."

Spring threw open the door with her magic. "If there are monsters in there, you have to tell us. Those are the rules."

"I wouldn't want to be called a cheater," replied a new voice, rasping and dry.

Author's Note

Oh, right, this is an adventure story. I had almost forgotten. At least the monster's polite about it.

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