"I'm sorry for waking up in your field. I kind of had a rough night yesterday." Emerald says, sitting up, "I need to get going though. Can you point me west towards Whiterwater?"

"Oh, sure! But erm… Me and my bro were kinda curious. What's in that letter?" Praline says pointing at Emerald's head.

"A letter…?" says looking up and making the scroll fall to the ground.

"Yeah it was weird!" Praline says giggling, "It appeared out of nowhere!"

Emerald unravels the note and reads it to himself.

—-

Hey Lil' Perv,

Just wondering if you are still alive. Long story short, I won. If you still have your lantern shoot me a letter and I'll come get you. If you don't have the lantern, come meet me at the Scurvy Swallow in Whitherwater. If you are dead, do whatever you want.

From,
Joyride.

PS: You better still have my box.
—-

Praline looks at Emerald with bright-eyed curiosity.

Emerald is right about to answer, but then there is a flash and a suction sound, and ashes swirl around Emerald's head, forming into another note.

Emerald quickly unrolls this one too.

—-

Dear Emerald,

Hi, how are you doing? It's me, Hope! I'm sorry it took so long to send a message to you, but I had to wait until I got back to our base at Northpoint so I could use my own personal lantern. We did have a dragonfire lamp there in our Trotton camp, but it was for emergency use only. We actually packed up from Trotton pretty quick after I got back. Apparently my comrades didn't find any other ponies to rescue, and the Whitherwater army soon took over the area and shooed us away. I guess something big is going on there!

How are you doing? I hope Joyride isn't giving you a hard time. If she is, tell her that I'll never forgive her! I want you to be safe. You've had it hard up until now and I just want you to know that you are very strong for surviving this long.

Hopefully we'll see each other again.

Love,
Hope Blossoms.

—-

What does Emerald do?