"I know how dangerous it is, but I need this job. For the money and to travel. It's a pegasi instinct to not be pent up in this city, especially because of the restricted fly zone. By Nightmare Moon's Palace, I was lucky that a law enforcer didn't see me fly to the post office." Emerald said as he hovered above the ground and Brother Brave, who had a worrisome frown, slowly walked from Manehattan to their destination.
"But what about our families?" Brother asked, looking up to the pegasus.
"They'll be perfectly fine. Besides, I already asked my mom to help yours if she ever needed it."
"Still... Who would be there to protect her from thugs or robbers or other dangerous ponies?" Brave asked, his voice filled with worry.
"Who would be HERE to protect ME from monsters or thieves? This is my biggest job yet, something... classified," Emerald stated, looking around. "Besides, you could always use the training. You said you wanted to be a royal guard. You sure as Nightmare Moon's palace won't get better in a crowded city," he finished with a smirk.
"Fine, I guess your right." Brother sighed.
"Great! Now, I have rations for 2 days and some camping supplies." Emerald listed.
"What about first aid? My magic may be able to heal basic wounds and broken bones but it won't bandage anything up."
"Like I say," Eli said, pulling a red box out of his saddlebag. "Gatta be ready for anything." Brave chuckled at his best friend. He always did think ahead, that prepared bastard.
"Alright, alright. Where in Nightmare Moon's Palace is the road leading to Ponyville?" Emerald shrugged and decided to fly up higher. It was indeed strange that they had not seen a rode turning to a side. The rode that they were on was leading them to the Everfree Forrest. Defiantly a bad idea. "We've been walking for an hour and there is still no turn. You sure the map is right?" Brother yelled loud enough so Emerald could hear. Emerald, now above the canopy, was surveying their surroundings for any sort of turn down the seemingly endless rows of trees. Adding to the difficulty, fog started to settle right as he landed.
"I can't see anything up there." Emerald said with a sigh. His face started to show the same worry Brother had. Brother sighed and just shook his head.
"Well fuck."
Two hours later, it was getting dark and it seemed like they where barely a quarter in, from what Emerald saw. "I think we should set up camp before the storm heads in" Brave said as he looked up at the dark grey clouds. Thunderstruck nearby.
"Good plan." Emerald answered with a nod, "And I don't know about you, but I'm tired as ... I dunno, something that get's tired easily." Brother chuckled and started to look around. They eventually found a clearing and started to set up a fire along with a tents. Once they had the fire ignited, they where both having trouble with the tent. "Gahh! Can't you just "magic" the tents up?" Emerald yelled in frustration as he moved his head the the side to look at Brother who was on the other side, trying his best to put it up. He sighed and said,
"I can try, but you know I'm terrible with those kinda spells. I focused more on combat and healing ones." Emerald let out another yell in frustration before sighing in defeat.
"Okay, i'll get more firewood. Just do what you can for this tent, alright?" Emerald ordered. Brave nodded and let a small grin creep along his face,
"Sure, but if you don't come back in 10 minutes, I'm assuming your dead." Emerald mock saluted and flew off. Brother sighed and went back to putting up the tent, half doing it himself and half using his magic to put some pieces together and holding them in place.
"That colt is gunna get himself killed."
Emerald felt the somewhat comforting wind lash against his face. Flying through this open clean air sure as Nightmare Moon's palace brought back some good memories. Early flight school drills with his close friends was the first one that came to mind. He would always have a race with Morning Sprint or Northern Breeze after classes were finished. Those were the good 'ol days. Emerald snapped out of his day dream. He had a job to do and he can't fail. He made a sharp turn to the ground and landed easily. He started to look around for any branches that would make decent firewood. He picked up every branch what was good enough and put them in his bag. He continued his search, carelessly putting his face close to the ground. Bad choice. After about eight minuets of looking for firewood he notice the dry soil turn to cold stone. It took him half a second to realized he had stumbled onto a cave. He looked up and saw something he wish he hadn't. A sleeping Manticorn with a pile of unrecognizable bones next to it. The stench of rotten meat and decay was thick in the air, almost to the point of nausea. Doing his best to hold in his breakfast, he slowly walked backwards and hoped it didn't wake up. Yet another bad choice. As he backed away he stepped on a rib, causing it to brake in half and generate a loud noise. The Manticorn opened one cat-like eye and stared at Emerald before opening the second. "Oooooh shit," he said quietly, stepping back even more, "Uh, nice kitty?" A nervous smile spread across his face. None of that prevented the Manticorn from letting out a blood curling roar that made Emerald cringe. Within the minuet the Manticorn leaped at Emerald and swung a paw. He was lucky that he was fast enough so only the beast's claws barely sliced him. He flew out into the cave entrance and yelled out for Brother, hoping he was in a shouting distance.
It took a while but the tent was finally set up. He may had to improvise here and there but at least it was decent shelter. Brother took a step back to admire his handy work. It was tough doing it by himself, even more challenging due to him using levitation magic. Now that he thought about it, me may as well practice using it. It may come in handy some day. Brother looked at the ground and started to look for small objects to levitate. There was a surplus of small rocks and sticks lying about their camp site. They would make excellent practice. His horn glowed the same colour as his coat. Every small object in a two yard radius began to float. His first goal was to keep them all floating for a minute or two. He was able to do that perfectly. Next, he would spin them all around, make a mini tornado. That's when things got messy. Some of them just fell to the ground when he moved them. Others flew through the air when he started to spin them. He let them all drop and sighed. "Yeah... gunna need a lot of work." he mumbled to himself. As he was about ready to do it all over again he heard a yell maybe a half a mile away. It was Emerald. "Damnit Celestia. Eli! Hold on!" Eli was what he usually called him. It wasn't a bit too long to say and it didn't make him sound like he liked jewelry. Brother galloped through the forest, avoiding all of the trees and their roots. Meanwhile, Eli did his best not to get swatted out of the sky, landing some kicks as a bonus. The Manticorn was completely enraged at that point. It swung it's paws wildly in the air in hopes to catch the annoying fly. Eli saw that he was winning the fight and eased up a bit. The Manticorn took the advantage and almost landed a direct it. It did, however, got one of his wings. With his right wing badly hurt and bleeding, Eli was grounded. Intense pain took his senses as he curled up into a ball. "Brother, hurry." he thought. And as if sent by Celestia herself, there he appeared, making a showy entrance. "Heya mothafucka!" he yelled with a grin, rushing the Manticorn, who was surprised by Brother's appearance, and kicked him with everything he got. The Manticorn roared in pain and turned his attention to the new meat. But, as he tried to hit him, Brother summoned a giant shield. The Manticorn's paw bounced off of it. Not understanding why it wasn't breaking the shield, it just kept striking it, making no progress to even scratch it. As the shield held the monster at bay, Brother looked around him to see if there was anything he could use for offence. He saw it. He started to levitate a long, think, pointy stick. He hoped for it to land on the monster's body or one of it's paws. Instead it landed right in it's left eye. Blood was everywhere within seconds. It let out a terrifying roar of pain and trashed about, tearing down trees as it headed off into the dark forest. Brother wasted no time in going to Eli's aid. "'Ey, you ok there?" he said as he picked him up by the left wing.
"Y-yeah. Just a flesh wound." Eli responded with a slight grin. It quickly turned into a painful frown as they began walking. Brother's horn glowed as his healing magic went to work. "Thanks man." He was already feeling better. "At least we have firewood." He gestured to his saddlebag filled with the sticks he had gathered. Brother just shook his head.
"The most important thing is that you're alive. Could of died, bro." Eli didn't say anything else. Brother felt his uneasiness and sighed. "But yeah, it was a good thing you got the firewood." he said with a slight smiled. Eli returned it and nodded. They slowly began to make their way back to camp, avoiding any natural obsticals that would be difficult for Eli. It took them a while but they made it back safely. But, once the view of their hard work came in sight, their hearts sank. The clearing that they had set up the tent and their supplies had been ransacked and destroyed. "Oh come on!" Brother yelled, "It was fucking hard to put that tent together!"
"The package!" Eli got out of Brother's grasp and limped to the slightly torn package. "I can't believe it's not taken. Maybe Celestia is smiling down at us."
"If she was, you wouldn't have a broken wing and our camp would be still here."
"Who cares? What doesn't kills us makes us stronger. Come on, we have to find new shelter."
"What about the Manticorn's cave?" Brother said as he walked to Eli, helping him walk again. Eli shook his head.
"Smells like shit. Plus the beast might come back. Maybe Celestia will smile down at us again." After he said that, it began to rain.
"What about Celestia smiling down on us?"
They marched through the cold rain, getting their hooves extremely muddy. Their noses began to run and they sniffed loudly to prevent the mucus from falling down their faces. It had been hours since they had to wing it. It must have been midnight and yet they were still sluggishly moving. They were about to give up hope of finding shelter until a faint light caught Eli's eyes. "Brother, over there, I think I see light." Brother looked up from the ground and saw it too. With a nod he started to walk to it. The warm light brought back their hope, causing them to walk even faster and ignore the cold rain and their exhaustion. Celestia was smiling on them. They found a nasty looking tree with a door on it and decoration all over the branches. The light was coming from a window, along with the smell of something delicious cooking. Brother walked up to the door and knocked. A zebra answered the door.
"It is far past light, who could be here tonight?" Brother and Eli stared at the zebra for a moment. In all their lives they have never seen one in real life, only read about them in books.
"Um, we are miss. You see, we come from Manehattan and we've been traveling all night. We fought off a-"
"Child, come in and have a meal, you have been through quite the ordeal." She stepped aside and allowed the two in. They were eager to get out of the rain and have a hot meal. Inside there was even more exotic things. From exotic decorations to bottles willed with herbs. In the center of the room was a giant cauldron, fire burning under it and steam coming from the top. "This was to be my dinner for tomorrow, but it you can borrow." Eli and Brother nodded. They way the zebra talked was a bit funny but she seemed nice enough. Plus she was giving them food and shelter.
"Um excuse me, but do you have any herbs that will prevent infection and some bandages? My friend needs them ASAP." Brother said as he laid down Eli down to get him and himself some stew.
"That I can do, just focus on the brew." she replied as she took bottles down from their strings. Brother turned to the stew and looked inside. Pieces of potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes floated in it. It smelled AND looked delicious. He looked around and found two large wooden bowls. He used the spoon that was used to stir it to pour it into the bowls. After they were both filled he brought Eli's first and then got his. The zebra was rubbing herbs on his wounds and them wrapping them up.
"Hey, we never caught your name." Eli said as she was bandaging his wing.
"Zecora is my name, I must ask the same." She must have meant what was their names.
"I'm Emerald Night, That's Brother Brave."
"But just call me Brother." he quickly added.
"I have a job to travel to Ponyville and deliver this package." Emerald opened his saddlebag and took out the wrapped up package. Zecora examined it for a moment and nodded.
"Ponyville is where I can take you, but you have sleep to go through." She went into another room and came back out with some extra pillows and blankets. As she did they both devoured their meal. "It is not much but, I'm in quite the rush." Eli nodded,
"I understand, I guess." Zecora blew out the fire under the cauldron and began to blow out the other lights. "May you have wonderful dream, may they not have any screams."
"Yeah, good night to you too." Brother said as she went to bed. "Man, she's one interesting character." He had place a pillow under Eli's head and put a blanket over him before getting into his make shift bed.
"Yeah, but interesting is better then dull. Plus she's helping us get to Ponyville."
"If everypony is as colourful as her, I want a cut of your pay." Eli chuckled,
"In your dreams."