Jonathan switches between both stoic looking mares, trying to discern if he senses any ulterior motive behind them wanting to hire him as a guide. Could they be spies? Could they be inspectors sent by the princess?

"Well, my contract does not say I can not do it," Jonathan finally concludes they are just explorers, if not, he will just probably not wake up…

"How does one hundred bits sound?" Shade offers.

"Like too much," Jonathan says. "As far as I'm concerned, we just happen to be heading the same way. Y'all don't need to pay me."

Jonathan turns away to continue heading south. The two mares exchange a look and follow the pinto stallion.

"Do you mind teaching me about this place?" Shade inquires of Jonathan.

"We are still technically in Appleoosa. Those hills up ahead are the—"

"No," Shade cuts him off. "Teach me about this country, kingdom, place. I am not from here. I dislike not knowing about where I am at."

"Hm. Not like there is anything better to do," Jonathan shrugs.

"Love the enthusiasm," Cherry Pie cracks.

"Love the sarcasm," Jonathan retorts.

As he explains the history of Equestria to Evanescence, he can not stop thinking about how somepony new can just pop up in the middle of Equestria. How did she not come across the big cities? How come she has all those scars? How come her eyes resemble a rattler? Too many question rattle around his head. He decides to focus on what he knows.

By the time he explains currency to the ivory pony, night blankets the area and Jonathan can see her face twisting in confusion.

"You mean to tell me you all exchange gemstones as currency along with the gold 'bit' coins?" Shade inquires.

"Eeyup."

"Is that common in every kingdom?"

"Only Equestria. We are the most wealthy state, as far as I know. We have had to defend her many times in the past. But since Princess Celestia came to power, we have had relative peace from other states for millennia," Jonathan explains.

A moment of contemplative silence passes. Shade notices the stallion staring at her.

"What?" she snaps.

"Your eyes glow in the moonlight. It is quite mesmerizing," Jonathan admits in slight awe.

"Then stop looking at my eyes," Shade huffs.

Jonathan chuckles. "You can see in the dark, right?"

"Yes," is her acerbic answer.

"Interesting. The only ponies that have eyes like yours are the elusive batponies. Hm? You have their ear shape, as well, but obviously lack their wings," Jonathan notes and studies the ivory pony.

"Cool."

"I have already established that she is not your typical pony," Cherry Pie adds, "She also can't sweat."

"Where are you from?" Jonathan tries to pry Shade for information.

"Not Equestria," Shade grumbles.

A long silence descends over the trio.

Jonathan breaks the silence with his next statement, "Not this world either? Correct?"

Shade trips over her hooves but recovers from her stumble quickly. Cherry Pie's eyes grow as wide as saucers at the sudden realization.

"I am from across the ocean. To the west. Very far away," Shade fabricates.

Cherry Pie and Jonathan share a dubious glance.

"So you really are from another world! It makes so much sense now!" Cherry Pie laughs.

Shade sighs. "Whatever."

"What is your world like?" Cherry Pie's unicorn curiosity takes over her.

"Like… home…" Shade replies solemnly.

Jonathan and Cherry Pie share another glance with and nod their heads in silent agreement.

Jonathan exaggerates a yawn. "Once we reach the base of the hills I suggest setting up camp."

"Why not out here?" Cherry Pie inquires.

"Buffalo," Jonathan replies grimly.

Shade grunts. "What? They don't like you stealing their land? Gee, I wonder why."

"Survival of the fittest," Jonathan comments dryly.

Shade grunts with mild amusement.

"Do it again," Shade orders over the shoulder and behind a sitting Jonathan.

Jonathan blows on the kindling gently to feed the growing flame in his hooves. He places the burning lump of grass between the logs of the campfire. He feeds the flame small twigs and within minutes a warm fire is going.

He picks up his flint-and-steel and strikes a spark expertly before Shade's reflective eyes. She cocks her head at the lump of metal in Jonathan's hooves. He smiles, seeing her behaving like an inquisitive foal.

"Again," Shade instructs.

Jonathan strikes the steel across the flint slowly a few times, then flicks the steel fast to throw sparks into the fire. Shade holds out her left hoof. Jonathan places the striker in her hoof with a grin.

Shade sits beside him and practices the motions Jonathan had performed. She scrapes the steel across the flint slowly then flicks her fetlock which sends sparks on the ground. Her face lights up in victory.

She looks at Jonathan when she hears him chuckle. She quickly returns to her neutral expression and tosses the striker back to its owner.

"Thanks," she replies stiffly and lays her head down facing away from the stallion.

"I guess I get first watch," he comments to the stars above.

"Awaken," Jonathan hears Evanescence crisp voice.

Jonathan yawns and stretches his limbs. A towel hits his face.

"Stop your crying," Shade says.

Jonathan chuckles meekly and cleans his face with the towel. "Sorry. Didn't know I was doing that." He heaves a sigh and rests his head on a leg as he stares at the flickering campfire.

"Want to talk about it?" Shade offers lamely after ten minutes of silence.

Jonathan releases another deep sigh. "Life is cruel," is his heavy hearted reply.

"Life is for the fittest survivor," Shade states.

"And for those who do not hesitate," Jonathan adds as he crushes a beetle under his right hoof.

"And for the one not afraid to wander alone," Cherry Pie inputs as she raises her head from her sleep.

"Sorry for disturbing you, Persistence," Jonathan apologizes.

"It is time for her watch anyways," Shade says and lays her head down.

Jonathan breathes in a long yawn.

Cherry Pie yawns and smacks her lips. She grabs a canteen to whet her palate.

"Why do you wear a cloak and hood?" Jonathan question.

"Reasons."

"Right… I'll leave you alone then," Jonathan turns away from her and closes his eyes.

Jonathan scans the hills with his binoculars. Down in the Badlands, one hill sticks out to him: it has many caves buried within it and reminds him of an… insect… hive. He lowers the binoculars with a frown.

He passes the binoculars to the ivory mare beside him and points a hoof at the hill. "Tell me what you see."

Shade cocks a brow at him and accepts the binoculars. She peers through them, "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Ten o'clock. Along the canyon wall. The hill with all the caves," Jonathan clarifies.

"Looks more like a nest," Shade comments.

Jonathan sighs. "That is exactly what I was afraid you'd say. I have to go report this to the Princess. Maybe she'll listen to me this time." He scrounges through one of his saddlebags and pulls out a camera. He takes a photo of the suspicious hill.

"Why not take a picture of it at a closer distance?" Cherry Pie inputs.

"I don't want to risk disturbing them if they are in there," Jonathan says as he loads up the camera.

"'Them?'"

"Changelings," Jonathan grimaces. "As long as we stay to the west and not go through the Badlands, we should be fine."

"What are those?" Cherry questions.

"Shapeshifting insects that faintly resemble ponies. They feed off love and are near impossible to discern from regular ponies. My old village was decimated by them but the Princess didn't believe me."

"Some princess," Shade remarks. "You need irrefutable proof though not some long shot picture."

Shade begins heading toward the Badlands. Cherry Pie follows after Shade. Jonathan shakes his head and follows them.

After three hours of traveling, they reach the edge of the escarpment that rises along the side of the Badlands valley. The "hill" is about two miles on the other side of the valley. Jonathan brings out his binoculars but Evanescence stops him from bringing them to his eyes.

"If there are Changelings down there, they would spot the light reflecting off the lenses," she warns.

"Right," Jonathan nods. He takes off his cowboy hat and places it on top of the binoculars to act as a shade.

"'Surveyor', huh? Or did you mean scout?" Shade grins.

"I am primarily a surveyor and cartographer," Jonathan replies, "but, yes, this is the reason I am here. Activity! Come look!"

Shade peeks through the binoculars and sees black, pony insect like creatures crawling all over the hive. "Changelings, I assume?" Shade asks as she turns her attention to the stallion.

Jonathan allows Cherry Pie a glimpse through the binoculars. He rummages in his saddlebags for his camera. Once he finds it, he gets as close to the edge as possible on his belly to capture as many of the bugs as possible.

He gets up and puts the camera away. "Alright, we should really leave now."

"Agreed," Cherry Pie affirms.

Shade grins. "I kinda want to fight them."

"There has to be hundreds if not thousands of them. It would be suicide," Jonathan warns.

"Those are odds I can live with," Shade smirks. She reaches into her bag and pulls out the coil of rope.

Jonathan sighs. He digs into his bag and takes out his cool of rope. He begins to connect the two coils together. "If you want to die that badly I won't stop you."

"Oh ye of little faith," Shade remarks as she picks up the rope in her teeth.

Jonathan glances at Cherry Pie, "You just as crazy as your friend to go down there?"

"Buck no! That's suicide!" Cherry Pie declines.

"And we aren't friends," Shade clarifies. She wraps the rope around her right foreleg before tossing herself off the edge of the escarpment.

Jonathan holds fast onto the rope. He looks at the grape mare in confusion.

"Don't worry about it," is her response.

"Just think: if I die you are debt free," Shade says up to them.

"My thoughts exactly," Cherry Pie acknowledges.

Jonathan shakes his head. Who are these mares? A few minutes pass and he feels the rope go slack. Jonathan groans. He ties the end of the rope to a rock.

"You planning on going down there?" Cherry Pie's tone rings incredulously.

"I'm going to avenge my friends," he replies. He takes off his saddlebags and places them beside Persistence. "Free stuff for if or when I die.

He wraps the rope around his vest and climbs off the escarpment. He twists himself around so he can face the ground where he sees Evanescence staring up at him. He begins to walk down the side of the escarpment which turns into him jumping down. He slows his abseiling about twenty feet from the bottom. He lands on the ground, kicking up some dirt. As he unwraps the rope from around his leg and barrel, Evanescence walks up to him.

"That is a highly advanced technique you got there," she states.

"I do this for a living," Jonathan replies after he regains control of his breath.

Shade and Jonathan proceed to the hive carefully, taking advantage of the rocks.

"We really should have waited until night fall," Jonathan whispers to the ivory mare.

Shade peeks around the boulder they are hiding behind which is about two hundred feet from the hive. A wide open stretch of land surrounds the hive. At the main entrance, rather the largest opening, stands four guards. A dozen Changelings buzz around in the air, weaving in and out of openings.

Shade picks up a rock and sends it soaring past the guards who all turn to the noise behind them. Shade smirks and picks up the boulder to heave at the guards. She throws the boulder with a grunt and runs after it.

"Guess it's now or never!" Jonathan psyches himself and charges after Shade.

Cherry Pie watches the excitement from on high through the lenses of the binoculars. Seeing Shade throw the boulder reminds her to not cross that pony. A loud buzzing noise resounds from the hive. If only Cherry Pie had popcorn.

Shade throws a Changeling against the wall painting the wall green with its blood. Jonathan bucks a Changeling in the face and tosses one that lunges at him over head. For the past ten minutes, the fighting did not look well, in Jonathan's eyes, but when Evanescence had collapsed part of the hive on a dozen Changelings the tide of battle switched. Jonathan suplexs a Changeling that had tried to run away. Evanescence comes by and stomps on its head. Jonathan gets to his hooves to see the Changelings escaping.

Jonathan falls to his knees to catch his breath.

"You sure can handle yourself," Shade remarks.

Jonathan sees the mess of bodies and green blood in Evanescence's wake and raspberries, "You are hundred times the fighter I am."

"More like a thousand," she retorts and walks into the hive.

After exploring the hive for twenty minutes, Jonathan voices his thoughts to Evanescence, "This appears to be a forward operating base of sorts."

"What makes you say that?" Shade asks inspecting a gemstone she finds laying on the ground.

"We have yet to find grubs or a queen. If this was a main hive, we probably would still be fighting and none would have retreated," Jonathan deduces.

Shade stuffs the gemstone, a yellow topaz, into the large bag and turns to Jonathan. "I also came to the same conclusion. Well, I do not find see anything else here worth while."

Jonathan turns his head up to the ceiling, "If only I were smaller and could fly. I hate to leave this place but I have to return to the princess. By the time I return, they would have come back and destroy any secrets here."

"At least your princess can not deny their existence."

"I need to go back and retrieve my camera," Jonathan states and turns to leave the hive.

"I got this. I got this," Cherry Pie chants to herself. Her rear hooves slip on loose rocks. "I don't got this!" she cries as she falls back.

Luckily for her, she only falls ten feet and another body cushions her landing.

Jonathan groans. "I see you're already falling for me," he laughs weakly.

Cherry Pie scrambles to her hooves not before elbowing the stallion in the ribs. "In your dreams."

Jonathan returns to all fours and unloads his bags off of the grape mare. "There is only room for one mare in my dreams." His chocolate brown eyes lock with the mare'a seafoam green eyes, "And you're not her."

"Keep it that way," she huffs and starts to the cave.

Jonathan takes pictures of the hive along with pictures of the more intact corpses, the ones he had faught. He collects blood samples, chitin samples, and samples of the green slime composing the hive.

"It might be best to wait in here until sundown," Cherry Pie suggestes.

"Agreed," Shade affirms, "the sun would bake you two alive."

Jonathan plops down on his rump and takes out a journal. Shade watches with curiosity how he uses his mouth to hold the pencil to uwrite in the pages of the journal. Shade retreats deeper in the hive while Cherry Pie searches around.

Once the sun sinks behind the escarpment, Jonathan gets up and calls out to the mares.

"Keep going south, you will reach a pass that will lead you to the unexplored desert south. I suggest to ration your water," Jonathan informs them.

"Right," Shade replies, already walking south.

Cherry Pie steps after Shade but stops to look back at Jonathan who waves to her. She nods her head and trots after Shade.