As they walked into the small clearing, Jinx took in the campsite. There were three small dark green tents erected equidistantly around the small campfire. A pile of cooking supplies off to one side of the fire glinted in the firelight, and Jinx could smell the remains of a stew. Jinx saw a brown pony with a grey mane rising to his hooves at their approach. “Who needs to meet me, Coral?”
Coral gestured at Jinx and let her light spell go out. “This is Jinx. He’s from around here.”
Jinx cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t exactly say that. I’ve been traveling for several days already.”
Rugged’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he walked away from the fire to meet them. “S’far as I know, zebras don’t often leave their tribes, though maybe I’m wrong. As Coral just said, th’ name’s Rugged Terrain; I’m in charge of our little expedition here. You’re more than welcome to share the fire tonight, and we’re planning on sticking around for another day or so here if you’re in no hurry to move on.”
Jinx nodded. “I appreciate the hospitality. I’ve actually been following your trail for the past few days, wondering if I’d catch up with you.”
Windshear raised his eyebrows at that. “Following us? What for?”
Jinx said, “I wanted to avoid spending the night getting poisoned by mushroom spores, but as Coral mentioned earlier, that doesn’t seem to be a threat anymore.”
Rugged let out a huff of annoyance. “I wouldn’t have called them a threat so much as a nuisance. Unless you mean to say that you entered the forest without even knowing about the spores?”
Coral whistled. “You’re lucky to have made it out of there alive then. There aren’t any animals within miles of the spores; that’s why I was so insistent about checking out the noise earlier. I knew it had to be something out of the ordinary.”
Windshear groaned. “Great! Now Coral’s going to think every single idea she gets will be important.”
Rugged settled back down in his previous spot by the fire and motioned for the others to join him. Coral eased herself down by Rugged’s left, Windshear flew to the opposite side of the fire, and Jinx moved to lay beside Coral. Coral replied, “Well even if it does, I somehow doubt that you need to worry about my ego growing large enough to eclipse yours.”
It was obvious to Jinx that this kind of banter was a common occurrence between the two and that both seemed friendly enough despite their differences. Jinx turned to look at Rugged Terrain. As the closest member of the group to what he was used to, Jinx decided to ask him about the others. “Rugged Terrain, this may seem to you to be a silly question, but I’ve never seen anypony like any of you before. I’ve known zebras all my life, and you certainly seem familiar with my kind, but what exactly are you, and where do you all come from?”
Rugged Terrain glanced at Coral before answering. “Well, the simplest way to explain it is that we’re all just different kinds of ponies, like you. Windshear’s a pegasus, Coral’s a unicorn, and I’m an earth pony.”
Coral broke in, saying, “We’re all from Equestria, which is far to the north, on the other side of the mountains. There are all kinds of ponies in Equestria, including a—very—small number of zebra.”
Jinx asked, “If you’re from so far away, why are you here?”
Rugged offered a slight grin. “We’re explorers. The Princess commissioned us to create an official map of the area on this side of the mountain range. I’ve been beyond the Equestrian borders before, so I was asked to take our map-maker and historian here”—he waved at Coral—”and this hawk-eyed bird-brain out as far as I know any pony has gone, so we can all add a sizable chunk to the known territory.”
Windshear twitched. “‘Bird-brain?’ I’ll have you know I graduated from the Eyrie with honors.”
Coral snorted. “Yes. One of the only schools with avian faculty: birds.”