Theory and Practice

by Snaproll

Nighttime

Moondancer had resigned herself to a dinner of barely edible food to sustain herself after a good long hike out into the wilderness west of Appaloosa. To her surprise, however, the steaming dish of beans, onions and bell peppers that Sazerac piled onto her plate smelled heavenly. She sat down on a log near one of the campfires and levitated a forkful of the steaming mass to her mouth, almost too tired and hungry to fully care about what she was eating.

She had to work hard to suppress a moan of pleasure as she shoveled another forkful into her mouth. The food was hot, hearty and spiced with just enough heat to make her feel warm from her head down to her hooves. She could feel the heat of it burning away at the fatigue that had been plaguing her legs. She spared a glance at the other two stallions she had traveled with. Braeburn was digging into his food with gusto, and had already managed to clear the majority of his plate. Snaproll was likewise eating, but he grimaced over at Sazerac. "Dang. I mean, it's good, Saz," He said, around a mouthful of food before swallowing, "But did you have to make it so spicy?" He set his plate down and reached for a canteen, twisting off the top with his hoof before guzzling a mouthful of water.

Sazerac gave his twin a mocking smile. "Ah don' know what yew're talkin about, brothah mahne...In fact, I do declare, the filly appeahs to be enjoyin' the food. Shorely yore not gonna be shown up by some filly now, ahre yew?" He tossed a conspirational wink at Moondancer, who was well on her way on to polishing off her plate.

Snaproll glared at his brother, sulkily. "It's not that it tastes bad, I just don't want an ass like a Japponeese flag tomorrow morning is all." But, for all his grumbling, Snaproll tucked into his food with a will.

Wearing a satisfied smirk, Sazerac settled down on his haunches with a plate of his own hovering before him. Before he ate, however, he used his magic to levitate a bottle over to him. Moondancer was able to read "Zatarein's Cajun Hot Sauce" on the bottle before Sazerac used his magic to deposit several dashes of the stuff onto his plate before he floated it back to the fireside and started eating with a will. Snaproll, as he ate, watched his brother with a mingled expression of awe and disgust on his face.

Braeburn was holding his plate between his hooves and licking his plate clean. He finished and glanced over at the unicorn stallion. "Ya got any more of that, Sazerac?"

Sazerac nodded as he ate and levitated a pair of ladle-fulls onto Braeburn's plate. Moondancer was impressed by Sazerac's grasp of levitation. He didn't even look up from his plate doing that. She started connecting the dots and reasoned that Sazerac must be one of the academically minded ponies at the center. He's got to have a solid grounding in magical theory to pull that sort of stuff off, she thought as she munched away at her beans and rice.

A growing knot of irritation that she'd been aware of since she arrived in Appaloosa started pressing in on her consciousness as she ate in silence. She was pondering it and her eyes came to rest on Braeburn as he ate his second helping of beans and rice. The earth pony managed to eat clumsily, balancing his plate in the crook of one hoof and holding his fork in another. She watched him eat for a few minutes, her thoughts churning away.

A minute or two later, she came to a conclusion. He irritates me, she decided. That had to be it. Braeburn had, ever since she stepped off the train, exuded an aura of steadfast, cheerful confidence. Indeed, he'd been almost relentlessly cheerful the entire journey, as if he loved every hill and dale they had passed through and expected her to have the same enjoyment of everything around her. It's not like I want to be here. Doesn't he see that?

Moondancer frowned into her plate as she ate, scraping the last of her food up with her fork. He's irritating. Can't he tell i don't want to be here? She glanced over at Sazerac, who glanced up at her in return. "Moah rice, cher?" It took Moondancer a second or two than she cared to admit to decipher this phrase, and she nodded. Sazerac floated a ladleful of rice over to her plate and plopped it down without ceremony. She nodded thanks to him and returned her attention back to Braeburn, who had nearly polished off his food. Whatever. It's not like he's going to be much more than a technician here at the center. Why should I care about him? She nodded to herself, as if that settled the matter. But she couldn't quite keep her eyes off the earth pony stallion.

As they ate, Snaproll and Sazerac were bickering. From the sounds of it, it was part of a larger argument that had lasted their entire lives.
"Still don't know why you keep up that outrageous accent."
"Ah don' know whut you mean, brothah mine."
"Well, you should! Celestia's Beard, Saz, why you gotta-"
"It's 'cause Mother always liked you best, Snap."
"No, Mom always liked you best, Saz."
"Well, how can you be so showah?"
"For one thing, you weren't the one who managed to whip up a thunderstorm."
"That doesn't prove a thang."
"...In her kitchen during a dinner party."
"No, Mother clearly liked you best. You never managed to teleport half of the house into downtown Vanhoofer when you were upset about having to take flugelhorn lessons."
"I might have, though. You were awful at the flugelhorn."

Moondancer made a mental note to herself that, if she ever met Snaproll and Sazerac's Mother, that she would give her all her pity. Such a mare must either have the patience of a saint or be quite formidable, she thought, as she daintily used her magic to scrape the last of her food onto her fork and lift the rest into her mouth. Well, at least the food is halfway decent. She swallowed the last of the steaming food, and then was struck by an urgent need.
"Um..." She got to her hooves, squirming slightly, "Can any of you gentlecolts direct me to the filly's room?"

Braeburn nodded, hastily swallowing a mouthful of food before he spoke. "Take that li'l trail yonder, the one that goes into that grove of shrubs. I dug a cat-hole there yesterday." He rapped one of his forehooves on the log he sat on, rose and trotted to the wagon. He rummaged around in there for a second, and then with a shout of triumph, emerged with a carton of sanitary wipes. "Here you go, Miss Moondancer. You might wanna take these with you. Ah figured, bein' a city girl an' all, you might appreciate it."

Moondancer smiled, and said "Thank you, sir. I appreciate the gesture."
Admittedly, it was hard to say through gritted teeth. She snatched the wipes with her magic out of Braeburn's hooves and trotted quickly off the indicated trail, muttering to herself.
Cat Hole? What in Celestia's name does he mean by a cat-hole? Oh heavens...what if the whole facility is like this? What if there's no running water? What am I going to look like at the end of my stint here? Another horrifying thought occurred to her. What am I going to smell like?

*******

The grove, mercifully, was out of casual earshot from the rest of the camp (though Moondancer couldn't be certain the three stallions didn't her her oaths and imprecations). Using the cat-hole was an experience that broadened her horizons that she hoped she would never, ever, never ever forever have to re-experience as long as she lived. She was, however, relieved and walked back into camp in a foul mood.

The stallions, clueless as she thought they were, seemed to sense her high dudgeon. Snaproll and Sazerac, who had been bickering when she left, were conspicuously silent. The latter used his magic to spoon an extra-large helping of apple cobbler onto a plate and levitated it over to her. She accepted the plate grudgingly and sat down on her log, fuming, and put a forkful of cobbler into her mouth.

It is, she observed, very very difficult to be angry with a mouthful of excellent apple cobbler and the knowledge that another plateful of the same awaited her, but Moondancer was somehow able to maintain her bitterness at the whole situation until she was scraping her plate clean. Braeburn, meanwhile, had finished his serving of cobbler and had pulled a battered guitar out of the wagon.

Despite her foul mood, Moondancer watched him over her glasses. She had seen most ponies play guitar, naturally, but Braeburn was doing something new. He laid the guitar on the ground in front of him, and he held a piece of polished, smooth glass over his left forehoof. With his right, he struck a few experimental chords, tuned a peg on the neck of the guitar, and began to play.

Moondancer had never, quite, heard music like it before. The strains that Braeburn managed to coax out of the guitar were simultaneously plaintive, wistful, melancholy and beautiful. She listened, and it seemed to her that the music managed to take the anger she was feeling and dissipate it into the atmosphere around her. It made her think of what she was really angry about: having to leave her home in Canterlot, setting out onto a journey into the, relatively, unknown, about having an uncertain career future and, most recently, having to relieve herself into a hole in the middle of the Appaloosan Desert. The music at once reflected something she was feeling inside herself, but then, as she listened, it became something that she could understand. And if she could understand it, she could deal with it. Yes. This is all terrible. But...I...I might just be able to deal with it.

The sun had fully set by this point, and the only light around them was cast by the pair of cooking fires. Braeburn played for a while, probably about ten minutes or so as the fires started to die down. Snaproll gathered up their collected plates and washed them as the music wove its way around them like smoke. Overhead, the stars started to come out, accompanied by a waxing crescent moon.

Almost to her surprise, Moondancer's anger and sadness abated for awhile, and she was...well, not quite content to stare into the fire and listen to the music, but it was something roughly the next post code over. After some time, Braeburn struck a final chord with his guitar and rose, slinging the instrument on his back as he carried it back to the wagon.
Moondancer shook herself out of her reverie and glanced over at the earth pony stallion. "That was...nice. How long have you been playing, Braeburn?"

The stallion smiled as he shrugged the guitar off his shoulders and placed it back into his wagon. "Nearly as long as I kin remember, Miss Moondancer. My pappy taught me when I was just a li'l colt." He fished around in the wagon, and brought out a pair of bedrolls. One of which he balanced on his back, the other he hoofed over to her. "Here, I'll show you where you can set up yours."

Braeburn led her over towards a large rock that had been placed at the edge of one of the campfires, to reflect heat back into the campsite. He showed her how to set up the bedroll, how to get her pillow situated, and which side was padded and, therefore, should be placed on the ground. I suppose I should be grateful that there's not a great proliferation of rocks on the ground she groused to herself, sleepily, as Braeburn hefted his bedroll across the campfire from hers and deftly unrolled it. Then a sudden thought occurred to her, and she said "Shouldn't we have a tent if we're camping?"

She could hear Braeburn's reassuring smile in his voice, even if she couldn't quite make it out by the light from the fire. "Any other time o' year, yeah, we probably would. But it's still plenty warm here and dry. We won't wake up with any dew to worry about in the mornin'. Although..." He frowned and glanced over at the other campfire. "Hey, Snap! Did you git a chance to check out what the weather patterns were goin' to be like out here tonight?"

Moondancer glanced over at the other campsite. Snaproll and Sazerac had managed to clean up their cooking utensils and had settled down to their bedrolls themselves, but not before piling their fire pit high with logs. Snaproll was lying down, though he lifted himself up on one forehoof to answer Braeburn. "You bet I did! Nothing's supposed to roll here through Noon tomorrow at the earliest. Should be all clear tonight."

"Sounds good. See you in the mornin'!" Braeburn answered.

"G'night. Oh! And goodnight to you too, Moondancer." Snaproll called back.
"Indeed. Bon Soir, cher." Sazerac chimed in.
"WOULD. YOU. DROP. THE. ACCENT?" she heard Snaproll mutter distinctly back at his brother, who muttered something back, and the two of them began bickering anew, albeit too quiet for her to hear.

Braeburn chuckled to himself as he loaded the fire up with a few logs. "Don't pay them no mind, Miss. They's just brothers is all."

Moondancer, however, had other things on her mind than the weather. "Well, the weather's all well and good. But what about wild animals?"

Braeburn shook his head. "Won't have to worry too much about those in these parts. Sazerac was smart enough to hoist the food stuff up one of them trees yonder, and the fires should keep the rest away." He nodded to the fire he was building up. "I can set these logs up so it should keep burning until the morning at least. And they won't spoil the view." He finished laying logs in the fire pit, removed his stetson, laid it on the ground beside him, and settled into his bedroll.

Moondancer couldn't quite take her eyes off of him. He was irritating, to be certain. But he was also quite muscular, she could see. And, bumpkin though he might be, he was still being courteous.

Braeburn sighed as he settled into his bedroll. "If'n I was you, Miss Moondancer, i'd jus' settle back, enjoy the view, and try and get some shuteye. I know you's had a long day'n all" he added, yawning, "And we got a good stretch before we're back to the center." He glanced over at her. "Can I get you anythin' 'fore you go to sleep?"

Moondancer shook her head, levitating her taped up glasses onto the ground beside her and pulling the tie out of her mane's top-tail. "I'll be fine, Thank you." She thought this might not be sufficient to stave off further inquiries, so she added. "Have a good night, Braeburn."

"You too, Miss Moondancer."

Author's Note:

Thanks for sticking with me so far!

Btw, if you want an idea of what Braeburn's playing, here's a decent approximation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDceJ2m07r0