Erin tried to put out of her mind how exposed, alone and vulnerable she felt on this alien world as she began trotting across the landscape, picking a direction randomly. She looked around herself in fascination. This really didn't look any different from Earth. Small hills, the occasional copse of trees, a large, spooky-looking forest off in the distance… Well, okay, the creepy forest was a little different, but otherwise it was a lot like where she grew up.

As she walked, Dr. Velchiek would stop her and ask her to take a bite out of some local plant life. In short order, she had eaten another daisy, some dandelions, some thistles, and a wild rose, being very careful not to eat the thorns. It was during this roaming vegetarian smorgasbord that she heard the sound of running water in the distance and decided to make her way towards it. She finally found a small stream that gurgled its way along, and Erin trotted up to get a closer look.

"What a lovely little stream!" Dr. Velchiek said in her ear, and Erin shuddered at the reminder that even the things she saw were being transmitted back to the Harmonics lab. It was more than a little creepy.

"Could you drink some of the water, please?" Dr. Velchiek continued. "For the data?"

"Oh, sure." She lowered her head and took a gulp. She quickly learned a very valuable lesson: when you wade into a shallow stream of water to take a drink, make sure you drink from upstream and not down. Her hooves had stirred up silt from the bottom, and she got a mouthful of it. "Blech! Agh, gross, it was all muddy!"

"That's wonderful, Erin! Now we have water and soil samples!"

"'Wonderful', he says, but he's not the one with grit in his mouth," Erin muttered, rolling her eyes.

"You know that I can hear that, Erin?"

"You were meant to!" she shot back.

A sence from the Project Sunflower fanfic I Really enjoyed reading.

Free to use. Background https://www.deviantart.com/mrhavre/art/NATURE-i-love-you-316005359