The morning was a wet one. The day held promise of a slow, constant drizzle with patchy clouds in dull grey skies. Rain or shine, work still had to be done. Tarnish was making breakfast, oatmeal with dehydrated fruit, and was stirring the pot in an absentminded manner as he prepared some tea.

The makeshift awning had held through the night and the water barrel had been filled with rainwater. It was also filled with leaves, pine needles, and other bits of debris that had blown in with the wind. Water dripped and dribbled down into the barrel and from the edges of the tarpaulin rigged overhead. It had done an admirable job of keeping the rain from pounding upon the roof of The Egg.

“There is somepony coming,” Maud said to Tarnish to get his attention.

“What?” Tarnish looked around and sure enough, somepony was prancing through the rain, working their way up the hill to make their way up to the ridge where he and Maud had camped.

The mare was a dark, dusky red, the colour of almost dried blood. Her mane was two toned, dark, dusky pink with stripes of off white. She had a full pack on her back, quite a pack, with what appeared to be a bedroll, a tent, a small cask for water, she looked as though she had a well kitted out rig. She was smiling as she approached.

“Her pack is well balanced,” Maud observed in a flat, bored sounding voice. “She knows what she’s doing.”

“Hi,” the mare said in a chirpy voice as she drew near, “my name is Cranberry.”

Okay, so not so much almost dried blood red, Tarnish thought to himself, but cranberry red. He lifted his head a little higher, his ears perked, and he cleared his throat so he could introduce himself. He opened his mouth and—

“My name is Maud and this is my husband, Tarnished Teapot. Hi.”

Blinking, Tarnish was impressed with Maud’s loquacious greeting. What words he had ready died on his tongue. He sat there, stirring oatmeal, and watched as Cranberry drew nearer. She appeared to be the cheerful sort and even the slow, steady drizzle had not dampened her spirits.

“Come and sit with us,” Maud said, making a gesture with her hoof. “It’s sort of dry under the awning.”

“I don’t mind the rain,” the mare said in a chipper voice as she moved closer. Reaching a spot by the fire, her horn ignited, sending a shower of sparks arcing from the tip, and she took off her pack in a well practiced movement. She sat down and made herself comfortable.

“I saw your campfire last night.” Cranberry pointed off to another ridge in the distance. “I got caught in the open when the rain came. It was a bad night. That storm got pretty intense. I don’t mind being wet, but it got cold too, and there was hail, and lots of lightning.”

“Yeah, it got rough last night.” Maud nodded in agreement.

“You’re adventurers!” Cranberry pointed to the sword and shield leaning up against a stump. “It’s not often I meet one of my own kind on the road. Lots of travellers, but so few take up arms against the terrors of the wilds.”

“We’re rangers,” Maud replied in her usual monotone. “I’m a geologist and my husband is a budding botanist.”

“But we do a little adventuring,” Tarnish added, smiling as he spoke. “My sword’s name is Flamingo. She talks. She used to be a pegasus—”

“That’s amazing!” Cranberry became quite animated and she pulled a bow from out of her pack, sliding the wooden shaft out from her tidy bedroll. “My bow doesn’t talk, but it does fire magical arrows that are completely random!”

“Random arrows?” Tarnish poured a cup of tea, lifted up his teacup, and began to sniff the steam. Using his telekinesis, he prepared two other cups of tea, and passed them around.

Taking a cup of tea, Cranberry nodded. “Random arrows. I pull back on the bow string and a glowy magic arrow appears. I never know what it will do. Some explode, some burn, some freeze things, sometimes it fires lightning bolts… it’s pretty neat.” The mare paused and focused her bright, intense stare upon the fire. “I found it while battling against giant spiders and cave trolls. It was a real lifesaver. My hammer just wasn’t doing the job against the fat, flabby, gross trolls.”

“The hazards of adventuring. We know all about giant spiders.” Maud blinked and held her teacup between her hooves. “So, why did you start adventuring?”

Hearing Maud’s words, Cranberry’s smile vanished. “Not every romance story has a happy ending,” she replied as she sniffed her tea. Her eyes darted around and she looked at Tarnish for a moment, before looking over at Maud. “I was a common pony once. I lived in a nice little house and I did all of the things that a civilised unicorn should do. I hung out in libraries, I went to college for a while, found a pony that I thought was my soulmate…” Her words trailed off and the mare shook her head.

“All I got from him was my son. And that’s okay, really. I made peace with that.” After another pause, Cranberry continued, “When my son was three, he got sick. Some sort of magical wasting disease. He died. I made peace with that too. Took me a while, but I did. I left home to find some meaning in life. I took to the road. I had nothing. I didn’t even have the common sense to bring water or food with me. Almost died. Almost dying was the best thing for me, because it made me want to live, even with all of my sadness. I found that life on the road suited me.”

Tarnish nodded, he had experienced much the same.

“Now I rescue wayward travellers, hunt dangerous monsters, I take up bounties on bandits, I suppose you could call me a sellsword, but there are plenty of times there is no payment to be had. There’s a lot of poor farmers out there that don’t have much and it don’t feel right taking what little they have.” Cranberry took a cautious sip of tea, smiled, and nodded. “This is good.”

“It’s poison joke,” Tarnish replied.

Cranberry’s eyebrow raised. “Eh, it must be safe if you two are drinking it. I’ll risk it.”

A broad grin appeared upon Tarnish’s face and he continued to stir the oatmeal. He found that he liked Cranberry and he hoped that Maud did as well. Maud had gone quiet and was sipping her tea. He wondered if there was enough oatmeal for three ponies and even if there wasn’t, Tarnish could fix something else.

“I don’t have much to offer in return for breakfast, I’m running a little low on supplies myself, but I do have one thing.” Cranberry’s cheerful intensity returned and she gave both Maud and Tarnish a carefree grin. “Something I think a geologist would love to study.”

“Oh?” Maud’s eyebrows lifted in a rare show of reaction.

“Yesterday, when I was exploring, I found what appears to be a really old impact crater. At least, that is what it looks like to me. It’s a big dish shaped impression in the ground and there are ripples around the outer edges. I can show you.”

“That would be fantastic,” Maud replied.

“Consider it done.” Cranberry slurped more tea out of her teacup and her head bobbed up and down in satisfaction. It was almost as if her own inner bubbly effervescence refused to allow her to sit still. “Hey, can I talk to your sword?”

The drizzle dribbled off of Tarnish’s pith helmet and ran down his neck. Some unicorns could make fancy telekinetic bubbles that could keep the rain off. He wasn’t one of those unicorns. He tromped through the wet underbrush, following after Maud, who was following after Cranberry, who was chattering with Flamingo.

“So, there I was, and the cave jellies just exploded with snot—”

“Oh gross!” Flamingo cried.

“—and the whole area around me was covered in slippery, sticky mucus. I know that seems contradictory, but it was hard to walk because my hooves kept sticking in some places and sliding in others. They kept coming! They came out of cracks, out of fissures, they oozed out of holes in the ceiling and floor, they wanted to surround me and digest me. I almost didn’t make it. I got hit with their digestive juices and it burned my skin.”

“That’s horrible,” Flamingo replied. “One time, some jerk stabbed me into a big fat hairy giant spider. That was pretty yucky. It had a big hairy gross bulbous butt and I had an intimate introduction to the spider’s insides.”

“Eeew!” Cranberry looked disgusted. “Well, whomever that jerk is, I hope he got his comeuppance! There is just some things you don’t do, and sticking somepony else into a hairy spider butt is one of them. How rude!”

As more rain dribbled down both his neck and his sides, Tarnish rolled his eyes. This conversation… Cranberry and Flamingo got along with one another as if they had known each other their entire lives. He wondered what Maud was thinking and if she was excited.

“It’s just over this rise,” Cranberry said as she lead the way, “and we’re almost there!”

Standing on the rise, Tarnish looked down into the valley nestled between the hills. Even with the trees and grass that covered the area, Tarnish, who wasn’t a geologist, could see the old crater. There was a deep impression that was several yards wide, and ripples had expanded outwards from the site of the impact. Something had struck with terrific force, probably turning the stone into a liquid on impact, and the moment had been frozen in time.

And then, on the very edges of his perception, he felt it. A faint tingle that made the fine hairs along his spine stand up. There was a buzzy feeling behind his eyes. Tarnish focused his attention on his senses, paying attention and taking mental notes on how he felt.

“Something about this place makes my magic go all wonky,” Cranberry said. “It’s not so bad at your camp, I can use my telekinesis if I focus, but this place here, if I try to use my magic, It gives me a headache. Be careful.”

“I’ll be fine,” Tarnish replied as the feeling intensified. The magic here felt weird. He felt something building up inside of him, some pressure, and then, he knew what was about to happen. It was like a sneeze, something he couldn’t control, and he could feel the need to release building.

It was good that Cranberry had drank the tea a while ago…

“I’m going to surge,” Tarnish said in a calm voice. “Cranberry, you might want to stand back, you’re in for quite a show—”

“Surging is dangerous!”

Maud stepped forwards to reassure Cranberry. “He’ll be fine, trust me. Just step back and watch. Come with me.”

“But surging is so dangerous… bad things can happen when unicorns surge… why are the both of you so calm?” Cranberry looked a bit frightened and confused.

Bobbing in the air, Flamingo replied, “Because everything is going to be okay…”

The surge hit Tarnish like a train after it built up enough pressure. He hung in the air, suspended, his eyes glowed white and a strange blue mist drifted from them. He writhed, in ecstasy or agony it was impossible to tell. Beneath him, poison joke exploded out of the ground, tender green shoots and blue budding blossoms snaked over the ground and made their way down the rise towards the crater.

Cranberry stood trembling, not understanding what was going on, this was beyond her understanding, and Maud stood beside her, watching, waiting, ready to step in and help Tarnish recover when this was over.

She thought of the day of the volcano and how Tarnish had surged then. The memory was terrifying, but things seemed safer now, at least in a relative way. This would be a good spot to study and her only regret was that she had not been able to get readings before the poison joke spread. Still, she knew that she would be able to get some spectacular data out of it. The rocks here were no doubt hot with magical radiation.

Tarnish had gone into this with impeccable calm and Maud could not help but feel proud of him. He knew and understood his role, his lot in life. Before the surge had seized him, he had given her a smile.

“I don’t understand what is going on,” Cranberry said in a low voice as Tarnish continued to be consumed by the surge, “but I do know that he is going to need some help recovering. I’ll do what I can.”

“Thank you,” Maud replied, “your kindness and your bravery is appreciated.”

Author's Notes:

Huzzah! Posted!