Kit sprang into a fighting stance, lightly bouncing on his hooves. "Who is that?!"

"A very bad ambush predator." The voice sounded amused. "Giving myself away like that."

Spring's nose twitched gently. "Hello? I'm Spring Shower. This is Kit Tune! Nice to meet you."

"I had a name, long ago. Haven't used it in ages." The darkness before them shifted as something emerged from it, a pony made of little more than ash itself, and not that much of it. "Nice to have someone ask me for mine, even if I don't have an answer."

Spring recoiled at the first sight, but her curiosity proved a far stronger emotion. "Oh! Oh wow. Hi. I'm sorry. Why are you made of ash?"

"Things live here now," the ash pony mused. "You'll find them. They eat up all the moisture in things, leave them dry." They raised a hoof. "Most are pissed off, for good reasons. They lived hard lives, died suddenly, painfully, and we all became one miserable family. Whatever your ties, you're together in ashes in a sick way."

The ash pony turned, trotting into the darkness. "Come along. We'll talk. You can tell me what you are looking for, maybe I've seen it. Or at least, where you can find it. There's a little more to find here in this place than the rest."

Kit fell back to all fours, glancing sidelong at Spring. "I'll protect you."

"From what?" Spring trotted after the ash pony into the darkness, though her horn's glow scared away that dark. That made what was once a spartan bedroom come into view. "Is this your room?"

"I hope not." The ashen pony shook his head, his tail lashing. "But I'm afraid so." He sat on the bed and patted it with a hoof. "Made of the same stuff we are. I don't recommend you sit down. Neither of you have the usual stink, other than living."

She nodded, trotting closer. "That makes sense." She smiled and sat on the bed, or would have, if she hadn't sank right through it like it was a cloud of dust. "You did warn me." She gathered herself back to her hooves. "We are alive, but what's the other 'stink?'" She snuffed herself, checking for offensive odors.

"Everycreature has a stink to those of us here." He waved a hoof. "This world smells different when it's all ash and dust." The phantom leaned in, eyes flickering to life with a dull glow. "Distant promises of a life removed. Ancient threats, given new life. The hope of escape. You two are different. Now, let's get on with it, what are you searching for?"

Spring pulled out the list. "This stuff. Do you recognize any of it? The mayor wants it."

The ashen pony glanced at it. "We were a military town. That's a lot of military gear." He pointed to what may have been a box long ago. "Look in there. I think you'll find a few still in one piece."

Kit looked at the box with some trepidation before hurrying over and peeking inside. "Oh, he's right." He dug out a few large bulbs and a mess of resistors. "Did you work here?"

"No, I was bored." He waved his hoof in a slow circle. "So I counted what was here. It was an easy way to kill a few years. You don't exactly sleep anymore, once you've gone away."

The kirin giggled. "I suppose that makes sense." She smiled, then glanced to her side. "Oh." She reached for a small plastic device and held it up. "What is this?" She turned it about in her magic, trying to make sense of it.

"A game." He looked at it flatly a moment. "Useless, without a battery. Most have more pressing need for batteries than games. It will probably sit, silently waiting for its player to return to it." The ash pony's head lowered a moment before he straightened up. "I can help you find things you're looking for. You've come to the right place."

He laughed, an unnerving sound of sliding ash and dust. "Like a battery. I know where one's hiding, but there are others, far less kind than me."

Spring smiled, trying to push past her discomfort. "You seem nice though. How could you be less kind?"

"We were not nice creatures," the ash pony intoned, letting out a soft sigh. "We fought and killed until the world itself got tired of us and finished the job for us." That made him laugh. "Now, we are a world of dust, of ash, all of us. We can't fight each other anymore. But the monsters out there are still real. They'll hurt you, given the chance. You don't have our smell, but that doesn't mean you aren't worth hunting."

Kit moved between Spring and the talkative ghost of ash. "That's why I was on guard. A battery is on the list, with a maybe. I'm guessing they don't expect it, but would like one. Is it far from here?"

The pony shrugged. "Not far enough you can't get it, but far enough you might be noticed." He pointed down, then in a general direction. "Basement. There are boxes, with military labels. Once you go down past the ground floor, you will draw their attention, and, like I said, far less kind than me. They won't ask questions, or give answers other than pain. Don't go if you're not ready to fight."

Kit looked at the ash pony. "You're trying to protect us from these others?"

"They're not kind," the pony said again, shaking his head slowly. "Not like me."

Kit patted Spring on the shoulder. "If we go back with what we found, they'll be happy."

"If we get that battery, they'll be even happier." Spring stepped from one hoof to the next in an excited little prance.

"This isn't a game." Kit advanced on her, pressing her back against a wall. "You could get hurt. Worse, possibly." He flipped his ears back thinking about it. "You don't even know how to fight."

She pushed him away gently, frowning. "You can teach me. I'll be fine." She tossed her head, her mane trailing. "If they need it so much, I want to try."

Kit smiled a little at that. "I will gladly teach you, but that takes time. Let's bring what we found back, then I can show you." He rubbed her shoulder lightly, looking into her eyes. "It will give us something to do until I can open a portal for you to get home."

She leaned in to nuzzle him softly, then turned to the phantom of ash. "Thank you. You've been very helpful."

"Hm." He was quiet a moment. "Hm. Yes." He stood up, eyes on Spring. "I think I've wanted to be helpful. It feels." He paused, frozen. "Nice."

Kit turned to the phantom. "Can't you come with us?"

The ashen pony snorted softly at that. "You have a long way to go before you understand this place, if you think that. Those that sent you would dash me apart on first sight, and they'd be right to do so. Leave me here. If you plan to come back for the battery, we'll meet again then."

Spring backed towards the stairs with a frown. "I'm not okay with them hurting you like that, but I don't know what else to do."

He chuckled lightly. "They won't be hurting me, just sending me along." He settled on his lightly damaged bed of dust. "I can wait. Patience is one thing this life has taught me."

Kit and Spring nodded, then slipped back downstairs to the main floor. She glanced to Kit. "Why can't he come with us?" Her tail lashed anxiously. "That's not fair."

"No." He brushed against her, side to side. "But the others are scared. They'd see an ashen monster, and they'd attack. We can try to help them past this fear, but we can't do it all at once." He squeezed through the front door and shook off. "Let's head back and see how much this helps."

Kit led the way back towards the relative safety of town. "Besides, we don't know if that's a good idea. He's nice to us, but we smell 'different' then the others. Maybe he'd get very mean around the others. Maybe they're right to be scared."

Spring shook her head as they walked. "He was very nice." She sighed softly. "But I guess you're right." She followed him back towards Buzzard's Bluff, their path a little easier with the trail they left coming through.

The trip back was quiet with only the sound of their steps until they got to the town itself. The guards nodded at the two as they came. One called out, "Two scouts returning! Find anything good, scouts?"

"Found some things!" Kit held up the backpack stuffed with goodies. "We're going to go talk to the mayor!"

"Thank you!" A voice called from one of the windows in a distant building. A pony stuck his head out. "Thank you, scouts!" Other cries of thanks echoed from the left and the right as they went. A successful venture was reason enough to have some cheer in the town.

Spring perked her ears. "That feels good." She giggled gently, her tail swishing. "I like being useful."

Kit laughed softly and patted her on the back. "You do it well." He thought back. "A pity. That ash ghost likes being helpful too."

A new figure landed before them, eyes bright and a smile on their beak. Spring thought them a griffon, but noticed something odd. Their back end ended in hooves. "A hippogriff?!"

The new bird recoiled in surprise. "Yeah? There a problem with that?"

"Oh! No." She shook her head quickly. "Just, um. You're the first I saw here." She giggled nervously.

"Open your eyes." The new bird waved her hand over the town. "More of us are hippos than not. Ponies and griffons get along, and when they get along, you get hippos."

That brought a mild blush and bubbling laughter from Spring. "I never heard it called 'hippos' before, that's funny. Why would ponies and griffons getting along make more hippogriffs?"

The hippogriff stared at her blankly a moment. "Don't know where you're from, but it must be strange. Look, when a pony and a griffon love each other enough to spend a night together, a hippo might happen. Or if you get two hippos. Either way, that's me." She gestured over herself. "Part griffon, part pony. Mayor asked me to check what you brought back and make sure none of it was the sort of thing that'd hurt the town. Scouts have made mistakes in the past, brought back the wrong kind of things."

Spring looked to Kit, then to this new person. "What do we call you?" She smiled softly.

"I don't see why that's relevant." She paused. "But my name is Bright Eyes." She tapped at her chest. "Nice to meetcha. Now put down what you found so I can inspect it properly."

Kit slipped the bag off his back. "Here, take a look." He offered it up and she grabbed it quickly. She set to work, pulling out items and setting them in rows on the ground, muttering to herself along the way.

Bright eventually came to the end of it all and clapped her taloned hands together. "Great haul. Nothing that'll kill us or hurt anyone. Where the hell did you find all this so close to us? Figured the scouts would have torn through anything that close by now."

Spring giggled gently. "We found a military building with a whole bunch of stuff." She pointed back the way they came. "A few miles, maybe five or ten. I don't know how far it is, only how long it took us to get there and come back."

Kit slipped in front of her. "There are ash spirits haunting it. We were lucky."

Bright whistled, ending with a clack of her beak. "That explains why the other scouts haven't gotten it all. Ash spirits are trouble. Good on you two for not dying." She gathered up their items. "We'll get this set for storage and distribution. You should head back to the mayor and let her know what's going on." She gave a little wave of one of her wings.

Author's Note

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