Landing Silver Side Up
Chapter Four
Camping Trip
Liz slowly pulled the van up to a rather secluded wooded area after a few hours of traveling to the camp site. The camping ground signs say that the area is closed for the winter and also that the area is known to have wolves, coyotes, and bears. She turns to face the two fillies,
“Hey, we’re here. You two still awake back there?”
Colton pokes his head up over Silver. ”I’m still up….somehow.”
Sam opens the back side doors. “Can you wake Silvia up? We need to hurry up and set up the tents and get a fire going.”
He nods.”You got it chief.” he smiles and pokes Silvia.”Hey, we’re here….wherever here is, I don’t really know.”
Silvia yawns, and stretches up on her hooves, adjusting her glasses. “We’re here, already?” She gets up, “What do you want us to do?”
Sam opens up the trunk doors and wakes Fritter up before calling to the front. “Can you and Colton help me set up the tents, Noah and Liz, can you get some firewood or something?”
Colton hops out of the van and stretches his newly found limbs.”I hate road trips, its always the sitting down and waiting that I just hate.”
“Well we’ll get to do plenty more in the morning, come on, let’s go.” He tosses a bag with a tent in the general direction of the two fillies. Liz and Noah head off into the brush to search for firewood.
Silvia picked up the bag off the ground and held it in her mouth as the trotted over to Colton. She placed the food near the campsite area, ready to lend a hoof to help Colton set up the tents.
Colton looks down at the tent for minute.”I’m no expert but how are we going to set up this tent? I doubt hooves are very useful for this.”
Sam grumbles a bit to himself before replying, “Just thread the metal poles through the holes in the tent. You two work on doing that while I put down the tarp.”
Colton nods and shortly gets to work.
Silvia helped as best she could as a filly could to get the tents set up for the other ponies, Fritter, Red Delicious, and Colton. “Okay, so we just put the poles up through the holes like this?” She attempts to put a pole in her mouth and then set it up with her front hooves, “It’s kinda hard to do this with hooves, ya know.” She says to Colton and Red Delicious.
“You could say that again.” he says after getting one of the poles set up.
“Just use your mouth, and try not to choke on the poles.”
“That’s not going to happen, I can promise you that much.”
Eventually, Silvia got her poles set up as best she could. “Okay, the poles are set up. Now what?”
“Put the ends of the poles into the holes in the tarp.” Sam replies like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, which it isn't.
Silvia nods, and then pulls on the tarp, falling hard on her rump. “Oof! That’s not funny! Help me up, will ya?” She holds up a hoof towards Colton to help her off the ground and fix the tarp.
Colton laughs a bit at this.”Here let me help you.” he pulls on the tarp.
Silvia finally got the tarp set up for the first tent. “Like, now many tents do we need?”
“Just the three.”
By the time Noah and Liz return, all but one of the three tents is set up.
“We, like, got some firewood, and the tents are set up.” She looked back at the tent. “Uhm, at least one tent, anyway.” She lowers her head, hoping that her hosts would see she at least tried her best. “Uhm, Noah, are we going to cook something on the fire to eat?” Silvia asked, wondering what kind of vegetables they would be eating for supper.
“We should have some vegetables in the boxes, if you really want, when I get the fire started we could try and heat something.” he leans down and begins trying to use a match to light the fire.
Colton walks over and sits down next to Fritter. “Need any help with that?” he pauses, soon realising that he still has hooves.”If...I can help that is.”
He struggles to speak around the match in his mouth. “No, I should be good, let me jusht…” she strikes the match and lets out a string of Swedish profanities as it pricks his nose.
He laughs a bit, quickly hiding it though. probably not a good idea to laugh at the pony who is much bigger than him.”You okay there?”
He nods, but continues rocking back and forth rubbing his muzzle. “Liz, can you do this for me!?”
Liz heads over and helps Sam and the other ponies set up the fire pit and the stew ingredients. Sure enough she was able to get the fire lit. After adding the water and the vegetables, Fritter begins stirring the stew slowly.
Colton watches as Fritter stirs the stew. “Anything I can do to help? I could probably...I don’t know, help cook or something?”
“I think I might be good. Not much to do other than stir it, I guess.” Fritter continued to stir the stew, tasting it on occasion to make sure it was just the right texture and flavor.
Silver Spoon licked her lips in anticipation of sampling the stew. “Mmmm..like, that stew smells delicious. What’s in it?” She asked Fritter with a curious glance over to tonight’s cook and her chosen dish for the evening.
Fritter thinks for a moment before shrugging. “No idea.”
He smirks.”Well, when you find something, let me know...and nice job answering both of us.”
Fritter is too preoccupied to really hear the jest and she continues stirring the stew with a serious expression on her face.
Silver looks over at the assembled ponies and the human, Liz. “I am beginning to miss my parents and I think Silver’s been asking about her friend, Diamond Tiara.” She sighs,, “I keep telling her we will find her when the time is right. Man, she’s bound and determined to find her pony friends, isn’t she?” This was Silvia talking, not Silver Spoon, the spectacled grey filly among the group.
Liz speaks up. “I’m sure we’ll find her soon, she doesn’t need to worry.”
Silvia nods and looks over at Colton, “You seem to be holding up okay, despite you becoming a filly. Do you feel any different?”
He sits down on a nearby log.”Besides the change of a few…’parts’ and you know, the whole pony thing. I guess I do feel pretty different, both in a good and bad way.”
Silvia smiles a bit and heads over to Colton, “How so? What do you mean in a good or bad way? You and I are about the same size, except you’re a little bigger than me. We are both Earth ponies, so that’s a plus.”
Colton blinks.”Bigger? Are you calling me fat?”
Silvia shakes her head and puts her fore hooves up in a defensive manner, “No, I mean, bigger as in, compared to me, you are a little taller.”
He sits there for a bit before laughing.”Sorry, I just had to do that one. Anyway by good and bad, I mean...I get to live a few years longer now, which to me is a good thing...and the bad is...the whole gender change, sure being this way isn’t that bad, but later on...I really doubt that this body is going to be...I really can’t think of the right word for it.”
Silvia looks over at Fritter for her input on this sensitive issue. “Uhm, you mean, when you mature, you’ll be going from a filly to a mare, right? Right now, we are considered fillies.”
Colton looks embarrassed about this subject. “Yeah...all of that. I’ve been through that before...but that was with a different gender and...um...race.”
Silvia nods and decides to change the subject. “I hope we get to learn the filly’s name you are in. I wouldn’t mind being friends with her, eventually. Another thing about the filly is she doesn’t have a Cutie Mark. That means she hasn’t discovered what she’s good at yet.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about the butt tattoo thing. I guess that’s not really a problem right now...though if I knew what she was good at, that would be helpful. As for the friend thing...sure, go ahead, but I already thought we were friends...or something like that.” Colton says, his, or her Bronx accent coming in strong as he/she talks.
Silvia nods, and gives Colton a side hug, “We are friends. We are in this together. I’m not a bad pony...you know, the way Silver Spoon is portrayed in the show. I used to be so...snarky and inconsiderate of others before my connection to Silver Spoon. I think our personalities are so similar.”
He smiles.”We are in this together, and that’s great thing. As for you and Silver, that’s great that you two are getting along. I hope whenever I get farther along this...journey, I’ll...get to talk to my pony...and hopefully become friends with her.”
Silvia was about to respond when her stomach growled, making her blush in embarrassment. “Is dinner almost ready? I’m getting hungry. I guess we have to make sure to take care of our ponies’ bodies, since they are technically ours now.”
He smiles.”We are in this together, and that’s great thing. As for you and Silver, that’s great that you two are getting along. I hope whenever I get farther along this...journey, I’ll...get to talk to my pony...and hopefully become friends with her.”
Silvia was about to respond when her stomach growled, making her blush in embarrassment. “Is dinner almost ready? I’m getting hungry. I guess we have to make sure to take care of our ponies’ bodies, since they are technically ours now.”
Colton nods, getting up.”We might as well go check if it is.” He walks back over to Fritter, waiting on the stew she was preparing.
Silvia heads over to the fire camp site and waits with Colton on dinner preparations. “Uhm, Miss Fritter? Is dinner ready? Colton and I are hungry.” Silver Spoon spoke up, adjusting her glasses.
Fritter stares down into the abomination that she has just cooked. “Uh… yeah I guess? Eat up…”
Silver Spoon got her bowl and spoon ready and watched in anticipation as her portion was ladled into her bowl. “Thanks, Miss Fritter. Colton, you can sit with me and eat.”
Colton grabs his bowl.”Thanks, Noah...and Fritter, that’s something I’m still having a hard time figuring out.” He soon sits down next to Silver.
“Yeah me too…” Fritter gives a small smile and prepares some of the stew for himself and goes to sit next to Sam.
Meanwhile, Silver Spoon blew on her soup to cool it down and takes her first taste of her food. “This stew...is it vegetable stew? I mean, we are ponies and we cannot have meat, right?”
Fritter/Noah admitted she/he had overcooked the soup and confirmed it was vegetable. This made Silvia giggle as she tasted another spoonful, “It’s not that bad. Could use a pinch of salt, though.” She turned to Colton, “How’s your stew? You think it could use a little bit of salt to flavor it up a little?”
Colton took a bite of his stew and made a face.”It’s...not that bad, salt would help...boost the flavor.”
“If there was a flavor.” Sam grumbles and Fritter gives him a friendly natured Gibbs-slap to the back of the head with her hoof.
“Ow!” Sam/Red Delicious rubbed the back of his head with his hoof, and avoided making any remarks about Fritter’s cooking for the rest of the evening, lest he got another hoof-slap from the cook.
Silvia nods and tried to change the mood of the evening meal, “Did you bring salt from the restaurant or from home? I doubt anyone’s going to be happy seeing a group of ponies doing grocery shopping.”
The rest of the evening carried on, and Silver Spoon soon felt sleepy. Whether it was because of her full belly or the exhausting day she had with her travelling companions, or a combination of both factors, she yawned. "I think i will be going to bed. Which tent am I , like going to be sleeping in tonight?"