Cheese Sandwich decided to let Wintergreen sleep. His destination was Ponyville, which was only about a two hour walk, and he wasn’t supposed to meet Pinkie and the others until tomorrow. He had left from Manehattan far too early out of sheer excitement, and he felt amazing just being on his way to see his role model and her friends. But being early could wait. He had more important things to tend to. Wintergreen was in need of a friend, and he was the closest thing to one. They got off on the wrong hoof, but Cheese Sandwich was sure he could patch things up. He wasn’t an insensitive pony, quite the opposite. He had sympathy for the abandoned, for he was once one of them. Cheese Sandwich promised to make everypony smile, and he was going to work especially hard on Wintergreen. He put out the remaining fire that flickered, trying to spread itself and expand, only to be stopped by the matter it had already laid to waste. He retrieved a relatively large pouch from the tent and poured its content on the ground. Some hay, a few slices of bread, a few apples, but a majority of the bulk consisted of sweets. Candy of all assortments and colors laid out before him. The chocolates were melted and deformed, but by all means edible. His eyes scanned his food stash and he reached for an apple, only to push it away and grab a hoofful of gummy worms. As he filled his face with sugar, Wintergreen stirred in his sleeping bag, then drearily let his eyes find their way open. He sat up and looked around, observing the small campsite he had neglected to pay any real attention to. The previous night, he only focused on two things: the fire and Cheese Sandwich. The site consisted of Cheese’s tent, the fire pit (which was a pile of ash inside a rock circle), and a tarp, which he assumed was in case of rain. Whatever else Cheese had packed was in his tent. As he finished looking around the crude little campsite, his gaze stopped on Chesse Sandwich, who made eye contact back.
“Mornin’, Greenie,” Cheese Sandwich said with a mouth full of food, “You sleep well?” Wintergreen nodded .
“Better than I have in years.”
“That’s good to hear. Here, have one of these,” Cheese Sandwich said as he tossed an apple to Wintergreen. Rather then catch it, Wintergreen panicked and dodged it, moving to one side. The apple landed in the tall grass a few feet behind him, and was instantly concealed by the uncut vegetation. Realizing his error, he trotted over to where he thought it had landed, looked around, and recovered the red fruit. He devoured it in three large bites. He was no stranger to hunger, but he was no stranger to eating, either.
“Want something else?” Cheese asked, showing him the pile of assorted food and candy. Wintergreen nodded and went to where Cheese Sandwich was sitting. He scanned the pile until grabbing a blue ball. “You don’t want that,” Cheese Sandwich said, “That’s gum.” He set the gumball down and settled on a hay sandwich and a piece of chocolate.
“I can’t remember the last time I had an actual meal,” Wintergreen said as he was finishing the first half of his sandwich, “I don’t think I can finish this. My body is used to a couple apples a day, or maybe a fish.” He set the other half of his sandwich on the ground and sat.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Cheese Sandwich said, “Why are you here? I mean, there’s nothing here for you to live on. You can’t tell me you’ve survived for years out here.”
“I was on one of my daily food runs and a pony found me. I ran away as fast as I could.”
“What, were you stealing?”
“No. I just don’t like ponies.”
That statement was unsettling for Cheese Sandwich, who paused in the middle of cleaning up camp upon hearing it.
“Well,” Cheese Sandwich said, concerned, “Is that why you left your home and your family?” Wintergreen winced at that question.
“Yeah,” Wintergreen sighed, “You can say that.”
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“I don’t have a deed or anything, but there’s an abandoned house in Ponyville that I usually stay. No electricity, no plumbing; nothing but the walls, the roof, and a couch.”
“Do you want to travel with me?” Cheese Sandwich offered, “I’m going to Ponyville to visit some friends of mine.”
“If you know the way, I guess I can follow.” He helped the party pony pack up, and was surprised to see that everything fit in a couple saddlebags, which Cheese Sandwich was able to comfortably carry on his back.
“We should probably get moving. Can you grab the compass out of my left saddlebag?” Wintergreen grabbed the compass. “Which direction is north?” Wintergreen examined the needle, and when it settled, he pointed in the same direction, and they set off.
While they walked, Cheese Sandwich tried starting a conversation that he could carry on, but Wintergreen wasn’t aware of anything current.
“Hey,” Wintergreen said, “What’s happened in the last few years?”
Cheese Sandwich told him about Nightmare Moon, who desired eternal night; about Discord, who tried to plunge the world into chaos; and about King Sombra, who tried to reclaim his empire. But what really made Wintergreen think was how they were all stopped: by the wielders of the Elements of Harmony. They were Equestria’s heroines, and they seemed surreal. Six average ponies that came together to save the world on more than one occasion. He thought about how everything changed for them, how they became celebrities, immortalized in history overnight. Then he thought about himself, whose life went from bad to worse overnight. Life was unpredictable, and he was doomed from the start. He had enough problems getting along with everypony, but when his parents, his only solace from the world of judgment around him, died, he knew he had no hope finding his way through his life with everypony, so he removed himself from the problem. He turned and ran. He envied the Elements, their fortune, all of it. They just kinda waltzed in and said “We’re here, everypony look at us.”
He made it clear to Cheese Sandwich that he was angry about how easy they had it, about how they bathed in luck while he bathed in filth. As a result, Cheese Sandwich decided not to tell him that the ponies he was on his way to visit, his greatest friends, were those very ponies that Wintergreen detested.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. They simply walked without a word to one another, keeping their eye on the prize, and that prize was Ponyville. When they finally arrived in the square, Cheese Sandwich reached into his saddlebag and gave Wintergreen a small amount of money.
“This is for whatever you need. Batteries, food, whatever.” Wintergreen looked at the hooffull of bits and then at Cheese.
“I’m… uh… not too uh… good at this… but… thanks.”
“No problem!” Cheese Sandwich said with jollity, “It was good to make another friend. You CAN’T have too many of those!”
They went their separate ways: Wintergreen to his “home”, and Cheese Sandwich to Sugarcube Corner.