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// Chapter 6-The Broiling Sun of Zebrica 
// Story: Eight days under the Zebrican sun 
// by The Cheeser 
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Swift Glaze got up early the next morning. He remembered in one of the movies his parents had shown him when he was a foal how desert bandits covered their heads to protect themselves from the sun. He decided to rip a quarter of his blanket off with his knife to make a turban on his head. If not for survival, for the style. He looked at his map and his compass. "I need to go west to reach the nearest town. Wait… That's 200 miles away!" he exclaimed out loud.

When he stepped out into the sand he instantly realized the sand was too hot to walk on. Cutting up some moist cushion padding, and stuffing some cushion stuffing into the padding, he made rudimentary shoes.

"This will do for now," he thought to himself

Grabbing the EB and stepping out onto the sand he climbed a dune to get a better look at the area. For miles around there was nothing but endless sand. The only thing notable in sight was a smoldering airship.

Pushing back his curiosity, he pulled out his compass from the EB.

Pulling it up to his face he looked at the directions. He realized he was facing north. Turning himself West he saw nothing but sand. Looking back down at his compass he noticed a string on it. Putting it around his next he continued west.

Every dune was the same, the heat was unbearable another thing was that the EB kept falling off his neck, it was too big. His shoes kept getting sand in them whenever he would descend a dune, which irritated his hooves. Adding on to this the compass's rope was extremely irritating. "This rope must've been meant for a bucking giant!" Swift Glaze thought.

The rope was too big for the compass. Perhaps too big. Swift Glaze realized something. He looked at the EB and noticed it had a division. Stopping at the bottom of a dune he took his knife and cut the box in half. Untying the knot on the compass's rope he tried to figure out how he could run it through each half box. Eventually, he found a hole on each side. Running the rope through he made an improvised saddle bag.

"What the hay? Why didn't they tell me about this during the brief?" exclaimed Swift Glaze in great annoyance.

Putting on these improvised saddle bags, he continued West.

By midday the heat made Swift glaze feel like he was being cooked, outside in. Taking a drink of his dirty cushion water in his canteen (He was drinking it first, so he would have clean water later on)

He noticed something. Tightening his canteen cap, he looked closer. He saw another pony, laying in the sand. Was that? It was! He ran over to Concord Wings. But when he almost made it, the apparition of Concord wings vanished. In vain did Swift glaze continue to search for him. Finally, after an hour of searching, Swift Glaze gave up his search for Concord. Taking a large swig from his canteen, he felt only drops. Setting his saddle bag down on the top of a dune he pulled out his precious water supply.

Being as careful as he could, he untwisted a cap on the side and proceeded to pour more water into his canteen. However, since he was exhausted from the heat, he accidentally spilled some water onto the sand.

Within a few seconds, he was attempting to lick the sand of any water he could. However, he had done this without closing the jug of water, and soon his canteen overflowed, spilling more desperately needed water onto the sand.

Cursing his luck, Swift Glaze closed the jug, before proceeding to lick the wet sand once more. This was to no avail. He ended up only licking up hot, moist sand. Swift Glaze proceeded to swallow some of this sand, with great regret as it cut the inside of his throat.

The sun seemed to never let up. Swift Glaze continued onward, while the heat slowly sapped his strength. Though, eventually, Celestia finally set her sun. Right when it was about to set, Swift Glaze decided to make obscene gestures, as to insult the star. However, the star sleepily fell, and night approached.