//------------------------------// // Chapter 56 // Story: Repercussions // by Hiver //------------------------------// I spread my wings and took to the air, gliding down to her, “Have you seen the rest?” Dee Dee shook her head, “Not since Princess Midnight teleported everypony out of the camp,” she said and shifted her wings, “I hid in a tree to get away from the predators during the night.” I nodded, “Good idea.” “What happened to you?” she asked and frowned, “I saw you go down when it attacked.” I grimaced, “...Well… yeah. I overworked my horn during the day and then tried to push one of my strongest spells through it to cast at the Rexosaurus. My horn strongly objected and still feels like somepony kicked it. Several times. And then set it on fire.” “So… no magic?” “Sadly, yeah,” I admitted and shifted my wings, “Wings and hooves only, I’m afraid. Have you even seen any sign of anypony else? Tracks or anything at all?” Dee Dee shook her head, “Not so far, you’re the first one I found. But I can only assume everypony will try to make their way back to the camp… or whatever remains of it.” I nodded, “You think the thing took it’s anger out on the ship?” She shrugged her wings, “No way to know,” she admitted. “Yeah…” I said and shifted my wings, “You have an idea on how to get us back there? I have no idea where it is.” The pegasus nodded with a smirk motioning with a wing towards her compass point cutiemark, “Definitely. Buuut…” she continued, “We’d need to wait for the stars to come out.” “Same for me,” I said, “I can find everypony, but they and I need to be asleep for it and most will try to sleep at night. But with you here to watch my back, I can call for help from back home.” Dee Dee looked at me in surprise and then nodded, “Even if the airship is still intact… yes, that would be good, wouldn’t it?” Yeah, no kidding. “Come on, let’s get into a tree.” We flew back up to my tree and I found a spot between two thick branches where it looked like I wouldn’t fall off, “Okay, I’m going to take a nap. If something tries to eat us, poke me.” Dee Dee nodded and settled down to wait as I closed my eyes. My worry for everypony else and the pain throbbing through my head meant that actually falling asleep took a while. But in the end, I slipped off into the dream realm and I was surrounded by darkness and the sparkles drifting through the not-air. I instantly shifted over to Luna’s dream portal and touched my horn through it, stepping into her dream. It revealed Luna laying on soft grass by the edge of a cool lake by the base of a snow covered mountain. She looked up as soon as I entered, “Pag-” she started before she saw my expression and she quickly got to her hooves, “What happened?” I moved up to cuddle against her, “Luna…” I said and took in the scent of her coat before I looked up to her and I told her everything that had happened. Luna held me close and listened before she looked down to me with determination, “We’re coming for you.” I nodded, “I’ll update you when I can,” I said and then shifted my wings, “You know where I am and most ponies should be somewhere in the general area, geologically at least. But I should likely wake up now before something sneaks up on Dee Dee and me.” Luna nodded and then pulled me into a deep kiss before she rested her forehead against mine, “Stay safe, My Page.” “I will, My Sky” I said and exited the dream. I didn’t leave the dreamscape instantly though, instead I did a shuffling of what little dream portals there were active and sorted them according to distance from me physically to see if anypony else was asleep close by. Nopony was. Well, that wasn’t that big of a surprise, I’ll try again tonight after dark so I pushed to wake up. I quickly regretted it as it caused my headache and the throbbing of my horn to return unpleasantly and with a vengeance. Oh buck, can I go unconscious again please? Wait, why am I… I quickly opened my eyes and almost panicked when I found myself looking at the forest upside down and slightly swinging. But I wasn’t falling. I blinked and looked around only to find Dee Dee looking at me from a nearby branch. I blinked again and looked up only to find me hanging from my tail, my tail wrapped around the branch I had been laying on. What in the world… I then looked to the dark yellow pegasus in surprise, “...What in Equestria…” She shrugged her wings, “Don’t ask me, you’re the bat-pony. You slipped off the branch soon after going asleep, but your tail did that and you seemed okay, so…” I looked at my tail again. It has never done that before… ...Then again, I never tried sleeping in a tree before either and it was more mobile than before all of this. Now, how in Equestria do I get out of this? I couldn’t just let go, I was fifteen meters off the ground! Yes I could, why wouldn’t I be able to? I had wings! Unwrapping my tail from the branch, I dropped and quickly spread my wings and pulled up before smacking into the ground. I winged around a tree trunk and flew up to land on the same branch as Dee Dee again, “They are on their way,” I told her. She nodded, “Good. We should find some water, some food and some cover. We’ll likely be fine for a couple of days without food, but in this heat we’ll dehydrate in a day or two. And I don’t know about you, but I would rather not be out in the open when the next rainstorm hit.” “Good point,” I admitted, “But, well… we’re not going to find where we are before nightfall anyway, so we might as well get going and find some water. If we navigate by the stars, we should be able to get back to the camp by morning so helter isn’t that required.” She shook her head quickly as she got up, “No way. We’re not traveling by night through a jungle, that’s just begging to have something jump you, break your leg down a hole or fly into a branch. We’ll hunker down for the night, find out our location and then move tomorrow towards the camp.” I flicked my ears and nodded. She made sense. I might be able to see in the dark, but she couldn’t. “Done this before?” “Once or twice,” she said with a slight grin, “Come on, let’s find something to drink.”