"RipEar?"

Coalburst's gasped cry was almost impossible to hear over the near-silence of the world and drew absolutely no reaction from the unicorn stallion who pottered along in front, oblivious. The filly could only hiss at the lack of response and pushed herself to go faster. She hopped forwards with gritted teeth and scrunched up eyes. Her leg burned with every step she took, each gentle touch against the ground threatening to break it.

Limping up behind him as he trotted slowly, the mare still draped across his back, Coalburst nudged his flank with her horn gently. That was enough, however, to shock him; he leapt around and jerked his head about before he noticed the filly and scowled.

"You shouldn't sneak up on ponies," he hissed as he turned away once again. "Scare them enough and you could get attacked. I would've thought you'd know that."

Coalburst bounded in front of him before he could move off and hung her head. She looked up with wide eyes from her lowered position. "Yeah," she murmured amidst deep breaths. "But you didn't hear me."

"Huh?"

"I called you a sec ago but you didn't say anything," Coalburst continued.  "Actually, I called a couple of times. Are you ignoring me?"

RipEar stiffened momentarily. His eyes darted about and he slunk around the filly. "No, no. It's just my ear, y'know? That's all. It... It just doesn't work so good," he said. Then raising a hoof to point at the torn skin, he tried to smile a little—but only managed a weak chuckle. "It kinda makes things harder."

Coalburst looked up to him slowly, her turquoise eyes wide. "Well, anyway. I was gonna ask... Can we please stop now? Just... just for a minute? Or two, maybe?" As she hopped forwards slowly with a small moan, her breath caught in her throat. "I've not walked for this long in... Well, ages. And my leg's killing me."

RipEar scowled suddenly as he turned his attention away and walked off faster. "I'm not stopping you," he said with his ears flattened. "Why do you need my permission?"

RipEar turned back to glare at her. Coalburst's feeble smile fell as her body hunched up a little and her eyes dimmed. "Well... Blue said we could travel together," she said with a whimper, stopping and standing slouched.

"That doesn't mean you have to, though," RipEar snapped back. "She's an amnesiac, and she's been outside for all of... What, a few hours? I wouldn't know exactly. But my point is, she knows nothing about being out here. And so her word can't count for much; she simply doesn't know what a liability you are."

The filly winced as she took a step backwards and her face fell even more. And then, when the stallion turned to face her, she yelped and shot her gaze away with her lip quivering.

"But until she learns that, she'll kill me if I let you go off alone," RipEar continued, sounding as if he was arguing the matter with himself. After a moment's hesitation, he then sighed, changed directions and headed for a sheer cliff face. He dragged Blue from his back with his magic before he proceeded to sit down heavily. "So for now, I suppose I'm stuck with you."

Coalburst blinked a few times quietly before she took an uncertain step forwards, stumbling as her leg buckled beneath her. She yelped, then closed her eyes in readiness—but no collision came. Instead, a pale yellow aura wrapped tightly around her and lifted her an inch from the ground. It carried her closer to the stallion. RipEar made no effort to avoid the sharp rocks which littered the ground and bit at the filly's skin, nor did he seem too apologetic when he dumped her heavily—but it was a start, at least.

As she frowned slightly at the stallion, Coalburst shuffled about. Angling her horn downwards, she then whispered, "Watch out," before she closed her eyes and scrunched up her muzzle until a small flame burst forth. It grew larger quickly and crackled boldly despite the chill; both RipEar and the filly crept closer, grateful for its warmth which counteracted the bitter bite of the breeze.

They remained sat in silence for what was easily five minutes. RipEar sharpened his dagger with a stone uninterrupted as Coalburst simply lay down. Her severed limb throbbed dully, an ache which she had grown accustomed to; the overworked rear leg's grumbles, however, were unpleasant when in conjunction. At one point, she even considered asking the stallion to give her some of the painkiller that he had given Blue; she quickly abandoned that idea and instead settled on a simple question as RipEar glanced up, desperate for a conversation that might distract her.

"So, uh, how did you meet Blue, anyway? You seem to... Well, not mind her. But you really hate me, I can tell."

RipEar frowned as he placed the rock and dagger down next to him and folded his hooves over each other, at rest. "I'm just not much of a social guy," he began with a shrug. "Well, not in the way you'd think. I don't hate you more than anypony else—but that's not to say I'd hang 'round with you willingly. But for Blue, I've always known her, since I was a colt." A small smile crept onto RipEar's face before he stiffened as the mare beside him shuffled about. He poked her gently with his hoof and got no reaction, then sighed. "I can't say much, 'cos she's a part amnesiac and all that. You know what I'm getting at, right?"

Coalburst nodded quietly and winced as her stomach began to grumble. "Well, sure. She'll die if you tell her anything that she's forgotten, right? Isn't that how it works?"

RipEar nodded. His lips thinned and his brow furrowed. "Yeah. If anypony told her anything specific, or even mentioned it for that matter... Well, it could trigger a major memory recollection and overwhelm her brain. It's not a nice way to go, I'll bet."

Coalburst shuddered, ears falling. She then became quiet for a few seconds and moaned as the pain in her legs returned. She hastened to speak again.

"So, ah, what's wrong with you?"

"Excuse me?" RipEar's eyes narrowed as he pushed himself up and bared his teeth very slightly.

"No, no, no!" Coalburst blushed a little despite her dark fur and shook her head quickly; her orange mane—as bright as the crackling flames—floated softly on the breeze. "I didn't mean it like that! That came out really bad..." She rubbed just behind her ears with a hoof and tried her best to continue. "I mean, what did the Plague do to you?"

RipEar stiffened momentarily, then grinned thinly. "Oh, I've never gotten it," he said as he glanced down at the flickering flames. "But Blue got it real quickly, so I took her to the facility. We've been there ever since."

Coalburst's eyes lit up as she raised her head higher. "Oh, me too!" she chirped, suddenly looking less sullen and mature and more like the filly that she was. "I've not gotten it yet, I mean, which is kinda nice and kinda scary too, 'cos I could get it at any time. But... I don't get how you still haven't got it?"

"Luck, I guess," RipEar said with another shrug. He couldn't meet her eyes for long. "I must have really thick skin and a damn good immune system to fight it off."

"Yeah," Coalburst agreed. She then quietened and winced as the pain returned. She gave a groan when her discomfort was backed up by the growling of her stomach. She looked about quietly and her eyes landed on the stallion as he levitated his saddlebags—which she knew for a fact contained both food and painkiller—onto his back. Hardly able to resist the temptation to just grab the packs and run, she instead lay her head down on her fore hooves and closed her eyes. Her ears flicked about constantly whilst she did so; it became a habit, after a while.

"So, where're we going?" she mumbled as she raised her head and snapped her gaze around when a low buzzing met her ears. Soon finding the culprit—a large, pinecone-sized fly—hovering by her head, she narrowed her eyes and snapped at it. It recoiled quickly but soon came closer again; its proboscis mouthpart reached slowly towards her neck. Coalburst watched it quietly for a few seconds before she struck once more and caught it between her teeth. She threw her head up and tossed it backwards into her mouth; she cringed when she crunched down and chewed a few times before swallowing slowly. She shuddered as it went down and forced back the bile.

RipEar watched her quietly, his muzzle somewhat contorted in disgust. "Holy Tartarus... How can you stomach that?"

"It's tricky." As she winced, the filly quickly raised a hoof to her mouth before she let out a sigh. Frankly, she felt rather repulsed herself. "Give me grass any day. But anyway, you haven't answered my question yet."

RipEar shuffled backwards a little before his eyes narrowed. "I never got into the whole eating meat business myself," he continued, a scowl gracing his face. "I can't stand the taste of it, or the chewiness. Ugh!" As he scrunched up his eyes, he fought not to gag at the thought. He quickly recovered, though, and gave the filly a rare grin. "But hey—if you can hold it down, good for you, I guess."

"RipEar!" the filly moaned as she listened to him and her face morphed into a pout. "Why won't you just tell me where you're going already?"

"Oh!" The stallion frowned before he opened the left flap of his trusty saddlebag and pulled out a yellowed map with his magic. Then floating it over to the filly, careful to avoid the flames, he spread it out in front of her and picked up his dagger. He levitated the blade to her side slowly as well—Coalburst cowered very slightly when it approached—he placed the tip down gently on a seemingly barren space. "You see this place?"

"The... San Palomino desert, you mean?" Coalburst's words were slow as she squinted down at the map, struggling to read the words.

"That's the one." RipEar levitated the dagger up and held it in midair for a few seconds, then moving it up the map slightly and he touched it down again. "We're here, or somewhere around here; the Undiscovered West. It's a long trek, but—"

"Hold up," Coalburst said as she waved her hooves to get the stallion's attention. "If this place is undiscovered, that means we're the discoverers, right?"

RipEar groaned and he pressed his hoof to his forehead. He shook his head. "No, you stupid foal," he snarled with a roll of his eyes. "This is a century old, pre-war map. Can't you see how yellowed it is? Ponies just hadn't travelled this far back when it was made, but when the Plague set in they were forced out of their homes by all the mad'uns."

"Oh." The gleam in Coalburst's eyes quickly dulled and her ears drooped. "That's a shame; it would've been nice."

RipEar frowned and his eyes narrowed once again. "Not really. Ponies wouldn't care who found a new land, so you wouldn't get any credit." As he stood up, he shook himself free from dirt and flicked his short midnight-blue tail so that it made a quiet whip-crack sound. "Well, anyway, I'm gonna take Blue down to the desert. Rumour has it, there's a small town there that knows how to control the Plague—and I'd rather get there before I, ah, get infected myself."

Coalburst gritted her teeth and smiled tersely as she nodded and kicked herself for inspiring him to move. She then raised her rump into the air with her rear leg, pushed off with the fore two and stumbled into a standing position; she only wobbled about for a few seconds. When she glanced back and checked that the vine still bound the stump, she then let her magic aura die out so as to extinguish her flames. She waited quietly while RipEar hauled Blue up onto his back.

Turning to her, the stallion met her gaze with a small head jerk and then spun away. He paid her little attention as he adjusted to the new weight upon his back. Her stomach grumbled once again when she lamely hopped up to his side; Coalburst could only blush as the stallion looked down at her, though he made no remark. Instead, he fished out with his magic a small, rusted compass from his saddlebags and passed it to her.

"Make sure we keep going East," he murmured before he jerked his gaze away. "And if we're not, shove me in the right direction. It was a long time ago, but if I remember right there's a swamp about an hour's gallop away—so a few hours at this pace—which is surrounded by the sweetest damn grass you'll find this side of Equestria."

Coalburst beamed as she skipped up to his side to catch up. "Really? You mean it?"

She received no response from the stallion, but her heart soared nevertheless at the prospect of food at last; having wandered these rocky wastelands for days, she'd barely eaten a morsel. And so, with one last look around to check for danger, she focused her gaze down on the compass. Her eyes hardly flickered from it at all as she watched the spindly arrow intently.