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// Côtés de Fer 
// Story: Quete 
// by Comrade Bagel Muffin 
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Escutcheon watched as the sunset on to the west. He wondered if Mother and Father where watching the sunset too, and thinking about him. He swallowed the tears down as he curled up on his sleeping mat. He felt twinges of regret at not have continued further, but the ponds offered him fresh water and the promise of being able to quench his thirst when he woke up. He was already thirsty, but he knew that if he took a drink there was a chance he'd wet the mat, not something he wanted to do. Even with nopony around he'd die of embarrassment.
Instead he'd wait till morning and then gorge himself in one of the ponds. Turned over on his side. It was still to early for him to fall asleep. Normally he exhausted by now but then again normally he had spent the whole day traveling instead of weaving a hat out of prairie grass. He looked up at the sky. It was so foreign to him, Mother had showed him all of the constellations, unfortunately, he only knew how to find one, but it wouldn't be visible until mid June, six months from now. Once it hit it's zenith he could use a trick that Mother had taught him, and use it's location and Northern Star's location and figure out where he was at. Hopefully though he'd be home by then. He yawned as he watched the stars slowly move across the sky, and under their hypnotic glow, he eventually went to sleep.
Escutcheon awoke in shock as the earth beneath him shook. He was instantly awake, adrenalin and panic pumping through his veins. He looked around for the source of the ground shacking, and quickly discovered its source. All around him giant grey plated creatures moved around him grazing on the prairie grass. They were easy to recognize. They were four long and two and a half meters high at the shoulder, and had horns that were easily a meter and a half long. "Iron Sides, a whole herd of them. Wow!" Escutcheon used his magic to roll up his sleeping mat and fasten his saddle bags to his side. He trotted up to one of the gentle giants. He had seen pictures of them in one of the books that Mother had. It had pictures of every creature but none were as cool as the Iron Side, at least that was always what he had thought about them. They grazed in grasslands all over the world, and were four times the size of Big Macintosh, and he was the biggest pony that Escutcheon knew.
He smiled as an idea crossed his head. First he ran over to one of the ponds and got as much to drink as he could, then he through his home made hat on his head. It was made from a thicker prairie grass, that tasted like moldy bread, but it was really easy to weave, and he'd never be tempted to eat his own hat, unless he really had to, something he hoped he'd never have to do. Lastly he climbed onto the back of one of the larger Iron Sides and pulled some Apple Chips from his bag. He tossed one of the chips into the Iron Side's mouth, It seemed to like the apple cereal as much as he did. Once it got a taste for the sugar apple flakes he tossed a hoof full as far as he could and the Iron Side slowly started to move westward. It was a lot slow than he was but it covered more ground than he ever could. Besides what pony would ever pass up a free ride.