Canterlot: The First Days

by AZFlashfire

Chp. 7: Airpony First Class Ferra Rust: "Circumstance"

Snow. So much of it.
She had been traveling with Honeybee for a day now, and they were well outside the city's range. By her calculations they were going east through a light forest of coniferous trees. They were able to cover so much land because of snowshoes they "borrowed" from a sporting goods store, when in reality they tossed a brick through the storefront glass and stole them. The owner was long gone anyway.
"Let's stop here," Honeybee suggested. "We've gone so far east we might cross into the Rising Sun Empire."
Ferra almost fell down, so tired from walking. She righted herself and smiled a little. "That's not funny, you know they'll probably shoot at us, right? We have weapons."
By now, Ferra had pulled out her map and GPS, and was busy doing inputs on their whereabouts. "We're actually not far from the border, but according to this the first town we'd go through is near a sea. It should be mostly civilian."
Ferra wanted anything else than to go into the Rising Sun Empire's territory. Their soldiers, reportedly, were fiercely loyal, spoke a completely incompatible language- as in there was no guessing what they were saying- and because of this, most ponies who just wandered over the border were shot or imprisoned, as they couldn't explain what they were doing there, or what had happened.

"If it's okay I want to try something," Honeybee asked. "I saw it on television once."

"What is it?" Ferra questioned, turning to her. She was plucking pine needles off a nearby tree. "Honeybee, that doesn't work. During one of my survival classes somepony tried that. The water boils off any flavor or anything in the needle, they lose their color and the water only tastes like dirt."
"...oh...I could always get some fresh snow and melt it."
"Yes, please do something that you know will work."
Ferra shook her head a little as Honeybee left. She thought that mare knew nothing other than what she was trained to do.
She told her she was her fireteam's markspony at one point, and then she was put on detail looking over Celestia. She wasn't really sure what had happened to her fireteam anyway. They could all be dead. They most likely were. It was probably best to assume they were. That way, when or if they learned of their confirmed deaths it wouldn't affect her as much.

It seemed like forever since Honeybee had went to get snow. Just as she was going to go find her, she came back, dragging her pack behind her.
"I had to find fresh snow..sorry." she was apologizing to her. Ferra opened her mouth, to say that it was okay, but it didn't come out. Instead she said, "Did you see anything?"
"Some sort of small border town. One side's all modern Equestrian, the other side directly becomes an Oriental village, just like that. Do...you want to try and-" Honeybee began to explain.
"Tomorrow." Ferra cut her off, then took her backpack and put some snow into both their canteens, filling both their water packs as well. This was an insulated pack inside their combat armor that was meant to be used for water drinking on the go. It had a straw on it. Even with the insulation Ferra could feel the water unfreezing due to her body heat, then freezing back over. Only the side touching a soldier's back was insulated, leaving the water to either become desert-hot or frozen.
Frozen, in this case. She sighed and put on a fire, after a while using some nearby branches to keep it going. The snow made them wet as it melted, making it hard to keep a fire going. After a few tries the fire was healthy and self-sustaining, and she set her canteen in the snow near it, and took out two MREs. Because Honeybee was using her pack for mobile water storage, Ferra carried their things. It seemed like she carried a double-ration of MREs with her. Honeybee left her rifle at the camp as well, and took an SMG with her to expeditions. Even though it had been one day, the both of them had been very nomadic.

Honeybee sat down next to her, and Ferra handed her one of the MRE packs. After a few minutes of preparing it and heating it she opened it. Glancing over at Honeybee she saw that they both had the same entree, vegetable stir-fry.
"Does the armed forces even care about variety?" Honeybee asked. "We're not even in the same branch and we got the same thing. What did you get for dessert?"
She rifled through the packaging. "Cookies," she responded after a while. "Trade?"
"Sure, I got a little cake." She handed it over, and Ferra looked over the small chocolate cake. After confirming its worth she gave up her cookies.
"See, Ferra, this is what soldiers are meant to do. I doubt the armed forces care much about our tastes and preferences, but what little variety there is to be had is meant to be traded."
Ferra nodded in agreement. She traded her cheese and crackers for snack bread with peanut butter and jelly, and her coffee mix for cocoa. She took Honeybee's corn in exchange for rice. When they had what they wanted, Ferra proposed a toast.
"Toast to what?" Honeybee asked her as she emptied the coffee mix into her canteen and shook it.
"A toast to not being dead," she raised her canteen up, and the two canteens made a light clunk when they touched.

After "dinner", both mares had retired to their one tent. They were to share a sleeping bag. Along with the snowshoes they had also stolen the sleeping bag, the tent, and some lighters. Ferra, personally, didn't mind. Honeybee's body was warm and it kept heat circulating through the bag. As far as she knew it didn't have any underlying sexual tones. She didn't go that way, although Honeybee possibly did.
This late influx of mare-on-mare relationships had thrown their birthrate into a downward spiral. It was already messed up enough, with females being the majority sex in nearly all occurrences. She suspected that the only equal rate may have been pegasi. The unicorns were most likely nearly seventy-five percent female, while earth-ponies could have been mostly male. It was almost like the male was un-wanted. Recent studies showed that male-determining genes- the Y chromosome- was losing most of its function. Truthfully, Ferra had no idea why so many mares were hooking up with other mares.
She ran a hoof down Honeybee's mane once, then, realizing what she was doing, pulled it away and willed herself into sleep.

Honeybee had woken up long before Ferra, whose crust-ridden eyes made it hard to see. She wiped them clean and slipped out of the sleeping bag, a scent hitting her reminiscent of frying. It almost carried her out of the tent, and sat her down next to Honeybee.
"...What are you making?" she asked, staring at the pan. She was shifting it back and forth, paying close attention to her watch.
"Well, I got pancakes in my MRE so I was going to try and make some hotcakes. This mare in my fireteam makes these delicious hotcakes..but we don't have any syrup. I got butter though; I'll make it work." she responded lengthily, and quickly, not even looking up. "Grab me some firewood really quick?"
Ferra didn't want to get up, the smell was heavenly. Delicious. But she stood and retrieved some branches, flicking off most of the snow and sliding them onto the fire.
She simply sat there watching her cook, and when she was done they ate them hot. Ferra could feel the heat going down her throat, warming her insides. The butter, partially melted, coated her tongue with flavor. She loved not only the heat but everything about it, the fluffy texture, the taste. She went back for more, several more in fact, and in a matter of minutes they were all gone. She burped noisily and thanked Honeybee, going back to the tent to gather her things. They were going to town today, to possibly get a hotel room, bathe, all that.

Through her thoughts, Ferra just hoped she wouldn't get shot at today.

Author's Note:

The Rising Sun Empire is Asia. Like, China, Korea, Golden Triangle, Thailand and Japan.