Looking forward to future lunch, Firework Daze opened theue eyes to find themselves in an unknown part of the forest. Glancing to and fro, up and down, and diangle to angle, they found that their paws were titter-tottering on a ledge. Fall below were jagged rocks and unidentified buildings.
A brief breeze fazed by and played with their fur only to make dirt crumble away from underfoot and with a blink, air whipped by them in a flash and soon found themselves half-eaten by mud.
Looking up, Firework Daze saw that they had indeed taken a tumble down pain lane, but something about the cliff, rocks and structures struck an indifferent feeling in their gut. Like they knew of something but didn't exactly knew what.
Swimming through the swamp, they toured the abandoned village with curious gusto. They hadn't been there before, smack! Straight into a blue box made of metal that was poking out of a square of dry ground. It had a slot on the top, and a lock and handle in the chest captivity area.
DING
DONG'S
POSTAL
BOX
Firework Daze didn't even glance at the words because they made no sense to them and because they were taking a big chomp of the azare container to get at the papery insides. Spitting out bark, leaves and beetles, they found treasure. A measly drawing of a pony and another pony smiling. But it had a catch, there was a map on the back, and there was a red dotted line that led away from the village to a sharp bubbly presence in the heavens.
The two ponies - both were unicorns - seemed to be friends. They both stood looking at each other with smiles on their faces while the sun from beyond the mountains made their edges and curves glow with yellow shimmer. Standing upon green, healthy looking grass. The sky was all blue, no cloud in sight. Firework Daze thought that whoever made this was an artist at heart and wanted to show the compassion they had for their friend.
Making a slight whistle, Firework Daze peered at each house through foggy windows and broken doors. Something happened here, but they didn't know what. It probably happened a very long time ago because the property was smuck while the rest of the small town was covered with layers of dust and cobwebs. Untying their hankie a slight, they rolled up the drawing and gently poked it through the gape they made before tightening up the knot to their liking and then made their way through the depressing village.
Once out of the mud and onto dry ground, they shook themselves clean of swamp poo. With growing determination to find a new home because obviously they couldn't go back to their old one, they trotted onward on loose stones embedded into the trail.
Their paws were too soft to make any noise but their hooves, on the other foot, made a click-clack sound every time they made contact with the slate. With a subtle beat going with a random whistle every now and again, Firework Daze found themselves in a stupor.
But they grew out of it when a sharp smell made them stop immediately in place to then swivel their head side to side, sniffing and then bolting in a random direction, completely letting go on their belongings without a care. They weren't sentimental, so it didn't matter, besides Firework Daze had a camera-like memory but not a compass-way of direction, but their nose stuck on the scent like a permanent marker.
And soon found themselves standing before a wounded pony that seemed to be asleep. No blood made a pool from beneath their body, but the noticeable thing was the bruises that were covered the pony's rump and legs. She - Firework Daze found out from thoroughly examining the poor filly - was an apricot earth pony with a red poofy mane and tail, that and she wore purple glasses above her nose. She seemed to be in her early teens but looks could be telling a lie.
Not knowing how to wake the mare, she took a nibble on her bum and that surely was a rude awakening, because the pony instantly awoke with her head pinging off the grass.
"Ah!" the pale filly said, surprised and was even more surprised when she glanced over and made eye contact with magenta ones. Gasping, she scuttled backwards, afraid. "Who are you?"
Firework Daze blinked at the old speech, but with sone complicated chirping and whistling, they tossed their name over.
"What?" the filly said, caught off-guard.
Firework Daze repeated themselves, but the same thing happened. A baffled sound came from the earth pony's mouth a second time.
"O-oh," the filly finally said, standing up with a wince. "is that how you talk?" she asked, tilting her head at the macaroni-colored pony.
A tweet was Firework Daze's weak reply.
"Can you repeat that?"
"T-tweet~!"
"Your name is Tweet?"
Firework Daze gave the filly a look of frustration, the youngling gave one back but of interest.
"Wait, so you can understand what I'm saying?"
With a grunt, Firework Daze nodded.
"But you can't speak Equestrian?"
"Chirp~."
"Well, I'm Twist," the red maned filly said, with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, mainly because of the bruising. "It's nice to meet you...uh, what should I call you?"
Firework Daze bent down and drew an explosion in the dirt with their claw.
Twist squinted at the drawing. "Boom?"
"Tweet~!" Firework Daze said, wiping away the example and quickly made another with a stick of dynamite next to a bunch of sparkles. "Chirp~!"
"Party Blast?"
The next drawing was of a rocket with a great many sparkles, explosions and what looked to be ponies celebrating with cheer on the faces - the complete opposite what Firework Daze had.
With a nervous smile, Twist examined the last drawing and stammered, "F-Firework?"
Firework Daze exploded with a bunch of chirps, tweets and trills.
Twist smiled and waited till her newfound acquaintance finished up before she asked a doleful question. "Do you know where we are, Firework?"
Like a deflated balloon, Firework Daze slumped.
°°•○●○•°°
You gained your first companion!
Twist the earth pony!