Chapter Seven
Fang let out a happy chirp, holding the pillow in her hooves closer to her chest. She couldn’t remember buying this soft and squishy pillow but it was simply the best. She thought it was trying to move away but that was impossible and she just pulled it closer to herself.
Her ear twitched as she thought she heard somepony calling her name but she was so comfortable. Even to the point she was tempted to do the one thing she always loved to do with her pillows and run her fangs across-
“Snarling Fang?!” a voice squeaked at her, causing to her to wake up in an instant and seeing she was in some hole with a Flutter pony in her arms-
She froze as her mind refused to process while she took in this scene, her face heating up as fast the stallion’s with her mouth making a few failed attempts to create sound.
“Um,” she said as her eyes darted around while she tried to move around but she was fairly wedged in, precluding any way that didn’t involve going closer to both the stallion and the exit. “What… what happened?”
“Well,” he said with his voice cracking as he wiggled in her hooves. Blushing even more, Fang lifted her arm off his chest and did her best to pull it in. “You kept watch for a few hours before you woke me to take over. After you fell asleep, you kinda… grabbed me and held me close. Really close; I’ve tried to wake you up but then you only held me tighter.”
“By the Ancient Ones,” Fang moaned, trying to face hoof, only to cause Tough to fall into her chest as he was still pinning her arm and both of the ponies were blushing even worse now. Scrambling backwards, Fang saw that Tough had also backed up and fallen out of the hole they were in. Hurrying after him to see if the unicorn was okay, Fang saw that he was indeed fine and standing upright, brushing himself off and looking at her.
Fully aware of how unlike her this was normally, she rubbed her legs together and looked away while she apologized for what happened in the cave. “I mean,” she continued as she went back into the hole to grab her bags, only for the unicorn to use his magic to grab it for her. Thanking him, she made a point to continue her apologies and explanation. “This has never happened to me before; I’ve never… held a pony like that before.”
“What has happened to ponies you have, um,” he said as he pulled out his own bags and gave her an awkward look. “Shared a sleeping spot with?” he asked, clearly trying to be polite.
With her ears flicking about, Fang pawed the ground and admitted to him, “Actually, you were the first one I have… slept with, in any manner.”
“Me too, Snarling,” Tough said sheepishly. “Me too.”
They both coughed and did their best to look away from each other for some time before Fang managed to get a proper hold of herself. “Okay, we should get a move on, Tough. Do you have any idea how far it is to the backways to Glistening Valley?” she asked him as she began to walk towards a small cluster of trees that were some distance away from the main road.
“I think so,” he said nervously as he followed by her side. “I tend to stick to the main road when I travel but I do know some out of the way paths when I feel there are dangerous animals nearby.”
“Feel?” she asked as she slowed down for him, his shorter legs struggling to keep up with hers. The fact that she wouldn’t be able to fly ahead would normally have been annoying, but it did give her a chance to talk to him. “Is that some kind of unicorn thing?”
“More of a Flutter pony kind of thing,” he told her with confidence back into his voice. “We’re more nature inclined than other ponies. We can all… feel life energy, sort of, and I’ve trained myself to be able to pick out different kinds of life. They all have their own feel, sort of.” He ducked his head. “It’s all part of our survival instinct,” he muttered.
“With your tribe’s other qualities, I can hardly blame you,” Fang replied. “Good skill to have.”
“Thank you,” he smiled at her before eying her crossbow and then her flanks. “Is that weapon of yours related to how you got your cutie mark?”
“Yes,” she smiled back, taking a look at the flying bolt cutie mark she had. “I got it when I was training to become a part of my tribe’s army. It means how proficient I am with my crossbow and thus long range assault missions.” She tilted her head and looked at his flanks to see a rod with a single snake wrapped around it. “And yours?”
“Well, I was a young colt when there was a small accident and I did my best to help out with the healers and doctors. After everything was over, I had my cutie mark.”
“Impressive,” Fang said honestly. “Being viewed as a skilled healer at such a young age.”
“Thank you,” he replied as they went down the back street that should provide them with a way to get to his homeland if her map was accurate. “My father was most impressed and helped me progress in my learnings farther than I could have done on my own.”
“And he aided you to get that place in the village we left?” she asked as Tough took the lead from her, showing her where they should go as her map proved to be worthless when she almost walked off a cliff.
“No… that was my own decision, to stay and make a life for myself out of his shadow,” Tough said a bit wistfully, causing Fang to raise an eyebrow. “Besides my dad being who he is, we Flutter ponies don’t do well with other ponies; they’re too chaotic for our innate nature skills to deal with and cause us to panic.”
“That makes sense,” she said as she ducked under a branch. “Would explain why you were so focused before as well; you were treating me for that punch-”
“And the other injuries,” he added in without missing a beat.
“Yes,” she bristled, face reddening. “You were also tapping into your natural talent thus overriding all of your other senses. It’s the same with me when I’m in the heat of the battle,” she said as she slipped out her fright mask. “It is also when I use this mask of mine.” she said.
“Ah, that thing,” he said a bit nervously, looking away from it for a moment before he turned back, staring at it with his horn glowing as a wave of magic washed over it. “It has spells in it?”
“Yes, several in fact, but the main one is in the eyes,” she said as slipped it on and turned to face him. “As you can see, the eye slits can move and cover different parts of the eyes. It allows us to send messages without saying anything,” she explained while closing off the left eye and having the far corner of the right eye open. “This means dodge to the right.”
“Very interesting,” he said before looking around. “I am not sure about you but I am getting hungry. Do you think we should, or can, stop for breakfast?”
Fang flicked her ears before nodding her head as she began to move towards a more secluded area of the forest, Tough Love following close behind.
A few minutes later, they had settled into a small clearing, and both ponies kept an eye on their surroundings as Fang began pulling supplies out of her bags. “I am both glad and annoyed that she thought to pack these for me,” she muttered as she started fixing something.
Tough Love raised an eyebrow. “Dare I ask?”
“Long story, and not one I’m entirely thrilled by.” Fang focused on her cooking for a few minutes, then nodded, passing him a plate of something. “The short version is, I’m out here for two reasons. One’s kind of personal, and one’s because one of my superiors insisted. She helped me with my supplies, and while I’m glad for the help with the supplies, I’m annoyed at the fact that I had to leave my home for a while to carry out my assignment. Which I can’t talk about yet,” she added. “When I can, I will.”
Tough Love nodded. “Classified?”
“Sort of.” Fang dug into her breakfast, and winced inwardly; she hoped her companion wouldn’t be upset when he found out just what she was talking about. “By Nocturne, I hope I am strong enough to do it.”
“From what I have seen of you so far, I wouldn’t doubt that at all,” he said as he began to eat his food. “You have managed with that chest wound for this long without much complaint, after all.”
“Yeah,” Fang sighed. “Of course, I’ve only had it a few months, since the day we met… you should have seen some of the veterans from my squad.”
“Oh?” Tough Love looked interested.
“Yeah. One of them?” Snarling Fang gave a grin. “He had half his face burned off by a Volcano pony early on in his career, and he still served as a field leader for almost another twenty years after that before he got promoted out of the squad. Never complained about it a day in his life.”
Tough Love stared at her. “You’re making that up.”
“If you ever come visit Erebus, I’ll show you his statue,” Fang replied. “Of course, he was a legend long before I was born - our alicorn is the only one still alive who’s met him in person. But she tells his story and some others to every new generation of Terror Masks, my squad, and the other assault squads. It’s kind of a rite of passage now.”
“You don’t say.” Tough Love still didn’t look like he quite believed her. “Regardless... if you want me to heal your injury, I can.”
Fang looked contemplative. “I’ll think about it.” She flashed a look as she moved the food around the plate. “Wouldn’t it be a very dangerous procedure?”
“Not actually,” Tough Love replied. “It would require me to focus a very specific spell on your chest. It would be somewhat painful but not that bad and I am sure you would to able to withstand it provided you didn't move.” He then looked at her, then the sky. “But perhaps we should wait on it and keep moving?”
Snarling Fang nodded her head in agreement and began to move to put her cooking equipment away.
“About how much further is it?” she asked as she packed with Tough Love aiding her.
“A few more days,” Tough Love replied. “But definitely less than a week, barring something unexpected happening.”
“Good.” Fang sighed. “The sooner we’re out of the Wardens’ territory, the better.”
“Quite.” Tough Love cocked his head. “I’m surprised that any of them would break their own laws like this - as I understand it, the punishment for those who do is very harsh.”
“Who knows?” Fang finished packing up her things. “I have a bad feeling we’ll find out at some point though. Something tells me that neither he or that mare are the type to give up so easily.”
Tough Love nodded, and the two started to head back to the path when something flew out of Fang’s pack and started to hit her in the face. Tough Love gave her a look as the mare sighed as she grabbed the object, which turned out to be a letter that the mare took some time to answer before sealing it up and watching it fly off.
Fang gave him an embarrassed look before saying, “Don’t ask.”
Shaking his head, Tough Love started back onto the path with Snarling Fang following behind him.