"Just how would you fight over a landscape such as this?" Flynn murmured, wincing as the tip of his horn pulsed.
"Hush, Baldy," Logan grunted. It was his turn to guide the vehicle, and he did so dutifully—sounding out the fitting Moonwhinny command or two when the need arose. He glanced occasionally at Wildcard as the griffin provided propulsion for the uphill glides. "You just rest your nerdy ass until we get to a camping spot."
"But... I really wish to understand it..." Flynn's mechanical eye lay dormant while his natural eye darted about. "There's not enough even foundation to build a fort." He gulped. "And who in the Hell can dig a trench through this?"
"Me. Right now. With your damned head." Logan flashed him an expression that flickered between a smirk and a frown. "Shut your egghole, dude. The sooner you get better, the sooner we can figure out how to... I dunno... put stone-melting flame throwers on the front of this stupid thing."
"It can't—grnnngh—" Flynn winced again. Kepler reached in and placed another cold cloth on his skull. Flynn winked thankfully, then continued: "It can't house stone-melting flame throwers, Big Show. Hell... I wouldn't even have the materials to build such things." A breathy sigh. "We're just going to have to keep on keeping on." He gulped. "Navigating our way through this geological diarrhea."
"Easy for you to say," Ariel muttered, flying low overhead. "You haven't seen this crap from above."
"How far does it stretch?"
"Dude. How far does 'far' stretch?! This shit is enormous! It's horizon to horizon!"
"To be fairr, we said that about the insufferrable wyrrm," Kepler said with a scholarly smirk. "And yet we've managed to elude it, yes?"
"Yeah, what was up with that?" Ariel murmured. "It put up such a fight... and then just gave up!"
"I scared it," Logan belched.
"Hah!" Flynn laughed so hard he grimaced in pain. "Fat chance, fat ass."
"You didn't see me, douchetard," Logan retorted. "I was doing the tango with its mandibles. I was this close from making it choke on my axe."
A dull whistle. Half of the group looked back at Wildcard.
Smirking, the Desperado shook his beak.
"Wildcard doesn't believe you," Flynn droned.
"Yeah, well, Wildcard can go lay an egg," Logan said. "We can use your burning head to fry it."
"Please..." Rainbow Dash moaned. Her belly growled. "Don't... t-talk about eggs right now."
Kepler looked over. "Carre to parrtake in the mushrrom supply, Rrainbow One?"
"Nah, dude..." Rainbow exhaled with drooped ears. "Gotta ration."
"We're not exactly stumbling across a marketplace here, Rainbow." Logan gestured at the waves and waves of stone formations ahead. "If you need your energy—"
"I have my energy," Rainbow said. "What I need is to think about the journey right now. Not the fuel." Her brow furrowed. "As for the wyrm, my gal-pals altogether believe it just... lost interest in us."
"Maybe it got tired?" Ariel suggested.
"Or perhaps it realized how small and insignificant we all are," Seraphimus said from the back of the wagon, shackled beside Wildcard. "A pity that not all creatures we're bound to encounter will be large enough to bless us with indifference."
Ariel's muzzle scrunched. "Since when did we invite the death ostrich into the conversation?"
"Since I invited her face into my axe's handle," Logan grumbled. "Face it. She's entitled."
Ariel folded her forelimbs in mid-flight. "I don't remember signing up to be the friend of your friends!"
"She's not my friend."
"Yeah..." Ariel smirked. "And I'm straight."
"Straight set on a whooping is more like it."
"Careful, Big Show. My mandibles know where your nads are."
"Eh... I've been bitten by worse."
Flynn chuckled—only to wince again.
Clearing his throat, Kepler spoke up: "I'm morreoverr interrested in the fact that ourr surrly grriffin antagonist herre holds an expectation for beasts to come!" He smirked, adjusting his spectacles. "Orr expectations of anything else, forr that matterr."
Seraphimus exhaled. "It's obvious by now that you're not going to kill me—but instead torture me with bludgeoning attacks from behind and banal conversations."
"She knows us too well," Logan burped.
"As for the road ahead that we're so foolishly treading, I doubt you're even remotely prepared for it." Seraphimus' charcoal brown eyes glinted in the starlight. "Even the bulk of Rohbredden's army would be ill-equipped to handle whatever's likely ahead."
"So you do admit that we arre in anotherr half of the worrld entirrely?" Kepler remarked. "Someplace hitherrto unrrevealed to the likes of Verrlaxion's foals?"
Seraphimus looked his way. "It stands to reason that there are many wicked things in existence in the Blight—far beyond her benevolent blessings."
Kepler scratched his hairy chin as he murmured: "I wonderr... just what else do you stand to learrn about? What otherr truths exist that you've been hitherrto deprrived of?"
Seraphimus said nothing at that. She stared off into the cold, distant glint of stars.
Wildcard looked from her to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow flew above the cart in silence.
Ariel leaned in. "Uhhhh..." She cupped a hoof around her muzzle and whispered: "That might have been a real swell time to have dropped in... dishing out some truth bombs about Equestria and Harmony and the Austraeoh..."
"I want to do that, believe me," Rainbow Dash murmured back. "But... now's not the time."
"When is the time, then?"
Rainbow sighed. "Long after the sting of Logan's axe-swing wears off from her skull." Her eyes narrowed as she spoke hushedly: "I still can't believe he did that."
"I can." Ariel nodded. "If he didn't, I would have."
"Yeah—and in making my job one tick easier, it's also three ticks harder."
"... ... ..." Ariel blinked. "... ... ...what the hell is a 'tick?'"
"Besides..." Rainbow shook her head. "I need time."
"Time?"
"Time and space... to sit her down and just... try it all again." Rainbow's nostrils flared. "It didn't go so well on the last occasion. I'm not sure I've got any greater leverage now."
"Well..." Ariel fidgeted with her forelimbs. "As much as I hate to admit it, she did help us."
"Uh huh."
"Sooooooooooo something must be clicking with her for whatever reason."
"Uh huh."
"Orrrrrrr... y'know..." Ariel shrugged. "It could just be an elaborate ruse to throw you off track and then stab you square in the back the first moment you pretend to trust her."
"Uh huh... ... ..."
Ariel bit her lip. "... ... ...I'm only making you feel more confused, aren't I?"
"Uh huh."
Ariel coughed. "My bad." She looked towards the back of the wagon. "Still... Wildcard hasn't killed her yet." A sly smirk. "That should be a good sign there's still hope... r-right?"
Rainbow smiled slightly at that.
"Uhm..." Fluttershy floated up, materializing in Rainbow's view. "Rainbow Dash?"
"What is it, Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked.
"Whoops!" Ariel politely drew backwards, flying slower. "Ghosty-gal-pal time!"
"I'm sorry." Fluttershy remarked. "I didn't mean to push her away."
"Nah, it's all good, Fluttershy." Rainbow looked at her friend. "What's on your mind?"
"Well, you know how Rarity's been struggling to... uhm... provide all of us with a 'mental map' of the landscape ahead?"
"Yeah...?" Rainbow gestured at the stalagmites they were passing. "Quite frankly, I don't blame the girl."
"Well, she may not be sensing something... but I do."
Rainbow blinked. "You do?"
"It's not a giant wyrm this time. Of that—at least—I'm certain." Fluttershy squirmed again. "At least... I think I am."
Rainbow cleared her throat. "Soooooo... what? Are you detecting—?"
"Life, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said. "Or... if nothing else... something close to it."
"Yeah?" Rainbow craned her neck, as if she could already see something. "Where at?"
"About a mile up ahead, going straight. It's..." Fluttershy shuddered. "...it's a lot more than I was expecting."