"Is... grnngh..." Flynn's good eye squinted as he fought another wave of migraines. Thick hooves laid him gently over the base fabric of a freshly-erected tent. "Is the Hover Plank in one p-piece?"
"It's fine," Logan grunted.
"But is it damaged in some fashion?" Flynn gulped. He lay on his back with legs curled above him like a fuzzy cockroach. "Because the first thing I wake up, I can go and examine the manastones under the carriage—"
"I said it's A-okay! Dayum!" Logan blew out the side of his muzzle. "Give it a rest, will ya?"
"How can I?" Flynn shuddered. Sweat gathered along his brow as the tip of his horn continued to fluctuate. "This whole damn voyage depends on me right now."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I figured it all depends on the Austraeoh."
"You know what I mean." Flynn's muzzle tightened. "That hover cart is the only thing keeping us mobile. Without it, and we're reduced to a snail's crawl."
"I'm sure you could build us all sexy shells."
"Big Show..."
"Stop fretting and just get some shuteye, idiot," Logan said. "Your lousy horn ain't no use to us if you keep shortening it out with your needless sissy anxiety."
"Wow. Spoken like a true blue turd." Flynn managed to close his eye. "Where'd you learn psychiatry, anyways?"
"In the few seconds I could spare between crushing skulls." Logan shuffled a few supplies around, then laid his axe against a crate. "Precisely when did you graduate from the Rohbredden School of Uptight Nerdy Losers?"
"Some of us are born to be geniuses," Flynn exhaled. "Others to fart."
"Funny how they both lead to bold experiments in internal combustion."
Flynn squinted one eye open. "Is the Hover Plank at least balanced evenly?"
"Baldy, dude, you're one word away from me shoving that horn straight down through your neck."
"Then how will you make it to the Midnight Armory?"
"We'll fill your head with hot air and float there."
"Heh..." Flynn took a deep breath. His ears drooped. "Logan...?"
"Yeah, dude?"
"... ... ...did you really go hoof-to-hoof with the giant wyrm?"
"Did everything but headbutt the bastard. You want my opinion on how we escaped with our lives in tact? I embarrassed 'em to death."
"Hmmmmf..." Flynn closed his eye again, relaxing. "Wish I saw that shit."
"Yeah, I wish you saw it too." Logan drew a blanket over the stallion. "Now go the Hell to sleep."
"Mrmmfff..." Flynn's sweaty brow furrowed beneath his horn. "You kiss 'good night' and I'll turn you inside out."
"You can't turn me inside out."
"All unicorns can turn ponies inside out."
"Bullshit."
"It's true. We went to school for it."
"When?"
"In the womb."
"Pfffft... probably poked the doctor's eye out when you came out."
"Not too far from the truth. Do you know I used to be a midwife?"
"Heheheheheh..."
"Hmmmmm..." And finally... Flynn fell into blissful unconsciousness.
Flesh and metal talons blurred through the blue-tinted air.
"Wait! Shhhh!" Ariel winced, floundering to unpack a crate atop the hover wagon. "Slow down! I can't read you that quickly!"
Wildcard sighed. He looked up from where he stood—hunched—over a pile of Emeraldinian armor. With far slower and more deliberate motions, he "spoke" to the mare across the glen from him.
"Ah. Gotcha." With a knowing nod, Ariel reached deep into a crate and pulled out a bottle of ancient polish. "Gotta hoof it to the curators of this stuff. Goddess-knows how many centuries, and it hasn't turned to bland paste!" She tossed the bottle across the air.
Of course, Wildcard nimbly caught it. With a twirl of metal claws, he unclasped the cap and began squirting the substance over a breastplate. Squatting down, the griffon proceeded the polish the recently-disrobed armor.
"Y'know..." Ariel drifted over on softly-flapping wings. "...it's cool that you wanna re-live your old Talon days of looking pristine and all..." She smiled crookedly. "...but I think that stuff's time to shine came and went ages ago." She gestured nebulously towards the Curve of the plane. "The first opportunity we get to move quickly towards the Midnight Armory, we'll likely be ditching that stuff. Doesn't matter how awesomely it was crafted."
Wildcard exhaled. He gave the pegasus a tired look.
Ariel merely shrugged. "Sorries." She touched down beside him. "Not trying to hush your buzz. We all need a hobby, and... heh..." A bittersweet smirk. "Guess there simply isn't enough wood on this side of the plane to whittle into toothpicks."
A snorted breath escaped Wildcard's beak. He smirked as he polished the armor.
"Flynn did a fantastic job on your arm." Ariel gulped. "It's super cool having you whole again, Wildcard."
The griffin nodded.
Biting her lip, Ariel looked at him. "You... you are whole again... aren't you, Wildcard?"
The Desperado merely breathed and continued with his polishing job on the armor.
Exhaling, Ariel leaned over and rested her head softly against his shoulder. She drew her wings in as she murmured melancholically: "I totally miss him too..."
Wordlessly, Wildcard drew a wing out and softly enveloped her. She curled her forelimbs up and trembled slightly in his friendly embrace. His wingtips dried the tears forming on her cheek; all the while he treated the Emeraldinian metal until it shone again in the twilight.
"Bandages," Kepler said. He stood over a badly-damaged crate and examined its contents through his spectacles. "Overr half of them."
"Luna dang it!" Rainbow Dash kicked at a few blue blades of flora beneath her. Pacing about, she came around to frown at the wyvern. "Are you sure?"
"Positively, Rrainbow One." Kepler raised a few strips of fabric in his talons. "We have some materrials to sparre, but I'm absolutely cerrtain that the bulk of the shatterred crrate ended up in the frreshly burrrowed trrenches of that collossal beast."
"Grnnnngmmghhl..." Rainbow Dash face-hoofed. After a prolonged sigh, she muttered: "I guess I shouldn't be too buzzkilled. We did manage to keep most of the supplies in one piece."
"Indeed!" Kepler smiled. "And as we discoverr morre and morre varriety of orrganic materrial, I have everry bit of confidence we can crraft newerr and morre useful devices of firrst aid!"
"It's a dang miracle that we got out of that scrap without getting crushed, pulverised, or eviscerated." Rainbow Dash paced about the edge of the glen. The blue bioluminescence glinted off her wingtips as she gazed across the campsite. "I mean... one headachey unicorn and a slightly bruised griffin." She spat out the side of her muzzle. "Ehhh... she's been through worse too."
Kepler's eyes darted about. He took a deep breath. "Rrainbow, dearr sisterr..." Reaching a claw up, he took his glasses off. "I do believe I have a confession to make."
"Pffft. You?" Rainbow looked over with a tired expression. "Since when did the Kepsmeister keep any naughty secrets?"
"You stand to be terrribly surrprrised with that attitude. Neverrtheless, I must be open with you..."
"This is the Dark Side, dude." Rainbow smirked tiredly. "It must have gotten super hard for you to wear mare's clothing since we crossed the edge. About as hard as it would be for me to give a crap."
"Ha Ha!" Kepler barked. "Jocularr to the last." He gulped. "No, Rrainbow, this deals with ourr unwilling companion."
Brow furrowing, Rainbow turned to face Kepler directly. "I... did leave you alone with her for a long time." She winced slightly. "That... must have been a lot of pressure on you, buddy. I'm sorry."
"Do not worrry overr that," Kepler said. "I only wished I hadn't allowed my optimism to get the best of me, forr—now as I look back at the matterr—I fearr I may have come terrribly close to failing the corre of this entirre mission altogetherr."
"What do you mean, Kepler?"
"Do you know how we finally managed to deterr the detestably larrge inverretebrrate that purrsued us farr back?"
"Uhhhhhhh..." Rainbow blinked, fidgeting in place. "You... like... cooked up a snazzy fire rune thingy to choke the beast as it lunged at all of us."
"I was able to utilize lunarr magic to ignite an alchemic solution of flammable quality."
"Right. That." Rainbow bore a proud smirk. "Good job with that, dude."
"I only wish I could take full crredit forr the solution."
She raised an eyebrow. "Seraphimus?"
"She made the suggestion. I was mostly rresponsible forr the execution... all save forr one parrt."
"Do tell."
"Concocting the chemical arrmament was quite simple," Kepler said. "As was prreparring the necessarry rrunic enchantment. However, Rrainbow, I am... sadly berreft of the skills rrequirred to prroperrly aim and firre a rrifle, much less hitting a distant tarrget. When the time came to prress the triggerr, I needed assistance in aiming steadily."
"Sooooo you had Ariel help, right?" Rainbow asked, tilting her head aside.
Kepler shook her head. "Not just herr."
Rainbow blinked. "Seraphimus."
"With herr insistence—as she was quite helpful at the time—we utilized the forrmer Commanderr's hide in prropping up the rrifle and aiming at the beast upon its final charrge."
"I'm guessing that's the most she was able to contribute," Rainbow said. "I mean, her arms and legs were bound."
"Ach. But not herr wings."
"... ... ..."
"It took an awfully long time to get a good shot, so to speak," Kepler explained. "All the while, the rrifle was rresting overr the grriffin's backside. Now that I look back, the tiniest shift in herr shoulderrs... the smallest flap of herr wings... and the barrrel would have lifted. The rrunic prrojectile would have flown higherr and..." Kepler winced. "Well... we may not be having this converrsation, frriend... for we might not have had the Austrraeoh any longer..."
Rainbow sat back, stroking her chin in thought. Her eyes darted across five different spots, sharing eyes with phantoms whom Kepler couldn't see.
Kepler gulped. "So, as you can see, my good faith was without a firrm foundation, and it nearrly cost us everrything."
"Yeah. Only—it didn't, Keps."
"I fearr that you do not underrstand the grravity of my actions—"
"Oh, but I totally do." Rainbow thought aloud, her eyes reflecting more and more blue light. "Whether you meant to or not, you gave Seraphimus the opportunity to prove something about herself." She looked across the way to where a feathery figure sat slumped against a rock wall. "And it seems as though she took it."
Kepler gulped. "What do you suppose it means, Rrainbow One?"
"Everything. Nothing." Rainbow shrugged slowly. "Fact of the matter... I'm not dead."
"Do you have it in yourr hearrt to forrgive me?"
"Pffft. Of course, Kepler. Now..." Rainbow pivoted about, facing the distant figure. "...to ascertain whether or not she still does."
Kepler placed his glasses back on, squinting at her. "Do you suppose it could actually be that simple?"
"With that chick, nothing is simple."
"Hmmm. Agrreed."
"But one thing is for sure."
"What is that?"
Rainbow slowly trotted away. "Now is as good a time as any... to try talking to her again."