//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: Constructive Interference // Story: Spectrum of Lightning // by Seriff Pilcrow //------------------------------// Early afternoon—at least according to Daring Do—saw Twilight Velvet tailing behind her mentor. They hadn’t stumbled onto any other hostiles; maybe Daring had their patrols memorized, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that Daring kept her eyes forward. Meanwhile, Velvet kept her daze down, tracking Daring only by the shadow at the top of her peripheral vision. Daring hopped onto a fallen log, then turned around and extended a hoof to Velvet. Her hooves, however, stayed rooted to the soil. The gunshots and death cries from before echoed louder in her mind the longer she glanced at the necklace in her pocket. Half of Velvet was expecting Daring to nag at her: “move your eclair-filled bottom.” The other half wanted to curl into a ball. Why did she come? How could she have saved River Rapids? How was she going to explain all this to Night Light? Did this tunnel even have a light at the end? A thick silence hung in the humid jungle air ever since they started heading for civilization together. Velvet chanced a glance at Daring’s face. There wasn’t a hint of impatience on it. “It’s okay.” Daring broke the silence. “Take your time.” Velvet’s head drifted downward. Her quiet brooding wasn’t annoying Daring, but it was annoying herself. Why was she even stewing her guilt like this? This wasn’t like her at all. Best to bury it in that closet at the back of her mind.  Now all she needed was a distraction... And Velvet sought it at the upper corners of her vision. She placed a hoof on the bark of the log Daring stood on. The elements and moss gave it a dark green tinge, but it wasn’t uniformly so. Her eyes narrowed at a patch where the bark had fallen off. Strips of green, red, and purple sent a glimmer to her eye. “Check this out.” “L-look,” Daring spoke up, “this really isn’t the time to–” The sound of wood chipping off interrupted Daring. The log trembled as Velvet peeled off strips of bark with her magic, not bothering to look up as Daring’s wings beat twice and she joined Velvet on the ground.  Before Daring could protest, Velvet grabbed her and brought her closer to the larger patch of exposed wood. “Remember how your uncle Gallant said that some kind of…rainbow tree was attracted to the Spectrum?” “Or Indra’s Bow,” Daring trailed off and blinked. While Daring stayed frozen by the sight, Velvet galloped to another nearby tree, this one still standing. The sound of cracking, chipping wood filled the forest again as Velvet roughly tore the bark off a second tree. It didn’t take long for Daring to join her in staring at the bark’s brilliant streaks of green, orange, and violet. “Just this once, I’m glad he’s a plant fanboy,” Daring muttered to herself before looking back at Velvet. “Uncle Ad also theorized that the Neighponese found an artifact and hid it away in one of their bunkers. Cross your hooves; let’s hope he’s right again.” Daring craned her neck upwards, and she scoped the surrounding forest canopy. Her ears folded back as her eyes zeroed in on something between two trees, some distance to Velvet’s right. Tucked away in the jungle brush and covered in vines was a concrete bunker. Cracks and moss crawled all over it. The Neighponese lettering painted on its walls had faded into barely-traceable red specks. Despite these signs of wear, however, the lone bulb shining onto its open doorway beckoned the two explorers to walk into its mouth. “Right there. You still have that headlamp, right?” Daring walked to Velvet’s side.  Velvet fished for the device from inside her muddied saddlebags. Nothing clinked or rattled when she shook it, but when she switched it on the beam seemed a little more feeble than she remembered. Note to self: get some AAA batteries in Durio City. After Velvet handed the headlamp to Daring with her hoof, Daring trotted closer to the bunker and drew out her sharpened trowel. “Stick close to me. There might be somepony else in there.” She took a deep breath, a mutter traveling through the wind and into Velvet’s ears. “This is it, Uncle Ad…” Twilight Velvet wasn’t sure why she expected anything different. The bunker looked exactly like the gray, dilapidated ruin she’d pictured in her head. Vines and roots snaked all over the crumbling walls. Last night’s rainwater dripped from holes on the ceiling. The only paint left on the walls were signages over doors and collapsed archways, very helpfully written in some weird Oriental language. At least Ma’am Do could read them—even if Velvet’s troubled mind struggled to process Daring’s accompanying history lesson. “So the Fillyppines is still angry at us?” Velvet shivered at the slightest draft—but only when Daring wasn’t looking. She scoffed—hopefully that would make Daring less suspicious. “Didn’t you just tell me that Celestia’s Expeditionary Force helped them kick out the Neighponese? You’d think they’d be more grateful.” “Well, not the whole Fillyppines or even most of the citizenry—just one of the larger anti-Neighponese guerilla groups. They didn’t like the Equestrian colonization before the Second Global Conflict, and even after the Fillyppines gained independence, they think the current administration is still too pro-Equestrian.”  Daring took a detour to the left. She poked her head inside a room, her hind legs visibly tensing under her bipedal stance. “Is this necessary? We haven’t seen anypony else since we walked into the door.” Velvet growled. “There’s still power, however faint it is.” Daring tipped her helmet backwards, briefly eyeing at the bulbs on the ceiling before disappearing into the room. “And it sure as hell isn’t coming from the post-conflict power grid.” Velvet followed Daring’s eyeing the lightbulbs on the ceiling. They gave off a faint, dazzling glow, even the ones that had avoided the beam of Daring’s headlamp. Velvet’s head then drifted downward, facing the floor and groaning to herself. “Now, where was I? Ah, right, the insurgents.” Daring walked out of the room, her voice pulling Velvet out of an encroaching fugue as both mares continued down the corridor. “I’m not in the know about the details, though. All I know is they take Equestrians hostage and even shoot their fellow citizens. As corrupt as the Fillyppine government is, I sure as hell wouldn’t trust the other guys to do any better.” “And you trust your client—even though he’s part of that corrupt government?” Wordlessly, Daring gestured a hoof to a corridor at the right and trotted down some stairs. Velvet tailed behind, catching up to Daring’s pace, but not wordlessly. She put her hoof down, literally and figuratively. “Hey, I’m talking to y–” “It’s not like Haribon’s done anything suspicious….” Daring’s pace slowed, and her gaze drifted from the floor and back to the bulbs. “But after last night…is the Spectrum really the solution to a famine?” Velvet’s fur stood on end. Was it the aetheric electricity in the bulbs above them, or the memory of the airship explosion? Maybe both. “Seems more like a weapon if you ask me—or at least, something like the ring from that one trilogy.” Daring waved a hoof as she continued walking, this time towards a door at the end of the hall. “You’re not seriously proposing I double-cross Haribon now, are you?” “Not now. Hell, I haven’t even met the guy. I don’t think he wears a curled mustache and ties mares to train tracks.” Velvet shrugged. “I’m just saying we should be on the lookout for ulterior motives. Let’s hope that in this case, the apple falls very far from the tree.” Daring had no reply, but she did have a reaction. A sigh mixed with a grumble bounced around the walls, her head turned away from Velvet. Daring pawed the door a couple of times, even bumped it with her shoulder. A resounding gong bounced around the walls, and Daring’s efforts were rewarded by her slumping to the floor, dirt and dust from the jamb showering onto her body. After Daring coughed and wiped her face, she looked up and tilted her helmet back, her eyes meeting Velvet’s. “I suppose. You sure you haven’t had business dealings with shady characters in a previous life? Either way, I can’t say I share your suspicions—” Daring shook her head and grunted as Velvet helped her up “—but think of it like this: either we get the Spectrum, or someone with the mercenaries’ moral fiber does.” Daring braced herself on the door again: not at its center, but just at the side. She gave Velvet a quick nod.  Velvet joined Daring at the door. The two mares strained. Their hooves dug into the cold concrete floor. Velvet grit her teeth as the sound of groaning metal drowned out their own grunting. At the corner of Velvet’s vision, a small shaft of light spilled from an ever-growing opening. “On the right track.” Daring dusted herself. “Let’s give it another shove. On three—” “Wait!” Daring jerked her body backwards. “What is it?” “One-two, shove? Or one-two-three, shove?” “I—” Daring gave her a withering look.  “—just…shove!” Both ponies slammed the door with their shoulders. With a metallic groan, darkness gave way to blinding light. Velvet stumbled forward, sputtering from the dust gathering into her mouth and throat. Her eyes watered, squeezing shut several times while gradually compensating for the sudden glare.  Velvet walked to Daring’s side and nudged her with a shoulder. The gesture was a little over-the-top—a chair in front of the closet of her mind. “Well! There we go! One bunker penetrated without rainbow lighting, zinging bullets, or nefarious characters. What’s next?” Instead of answering, Daring switched off her headlamp and pointed, her primaries extended towards the scene below.   “Oh.” Several meters ahead, the platform they stood on dropped down into a lower area, as if they were standing on some sort of mezzanine. Brownish water, roughly a fetlock deep, covered the area below. Not bad in and of itself—if it weren’t for the red, yellow, blue, and purple sparks of aetheric electricity dancing and crackling across its surface. The sharp odor of ozone wrinkled Velvet’s nose. Her face grew grim when she noted the grayish statues…corpses… statue-corpses of two ponies standing out in the murky lightning water: Neighponese, if their khaki uniforms and distinctive side-flip caps were any indication. The rainbow lightning didn’t have to chase them inside. It was already here. Velvet slapped a grin on her face, even as she felt her heart grow colder. “Ch-chin up!” Velvet’s eyes darted around. “Maybe we don’t have to cross the angry water! Maybe the artifact is just lying around on this platform somewhere.” Before Velvet could turn around and begin her search, a puff of air escaped from her mouth as Daring jabbed Velvet’s chest with a hoof. She then pointed her right wingtip at the other side of the flooded chamber.  “Yeah? So there’s a small window in the wall over there. Celestia, we’re saved. A window…” Daring rolled her eyes. “Don’t be myopic, Sparkle. Look closer.” Daring extended her wing out. It shielded the flaring light from the angry water’s electricity and gave Velvet a better view of the window. It was next to another metal door on a similarly raised platform.  Wait. Something else was glowing on the other side of the window. “Is that…?” “The third and last piece.” Daring gave a subtle grin. “Time for another smash and grab?” Velvet forced a smile. “Sure. Why not?” She tried to match Daring’s surging mood—tried.  “That window is at least three fetlocks above the level of the water.” Daring flapped over to the other side and tested the door. Meanwhile Velvet’s eyes wandered back down to the lightning water. A short access ladder led down into the flood, for anypony curious enough to find what being petrified feels like. A similar ladder led up to the platform Daring was on, who promptly smashed the window and set to work clearing debris sticking to the frame.  “Last night’s storm must’ve been quite the torrent if the rainwater could reach here,” Velvet ventured as she watched Daring work. “Eh? More like the tree roots round their way in through the crumbling concrete, and the water followed.” Daring indicated the area with a wing before flapping up, hooking her forehooves on the ledge.  Sure enough, said roots were visible not only near the water below, but a few had broken through on the near side and were sprawled across a portion of Velvet’s platform. She looked up to find Daring doing her best to wriggle into the aperture.  Velvet’s ears folded back. “Hey, uh, your tail’s getting a little close to the electricity. Now’s not the time to make yourself a guinea pig.” “Thanks.” The tail lifted as Daring’s muffled voice emanated from the chamber inside. “Not all of us are cool enough to get a tail trim while spelunking and getting chased by lightning!” “True… true.” Velvet gave one snicker. Hopefully there would be more where that came from. Celestia knew she needed a reprieve from that “mood.” Unfortunately, Daring took her time to re-emerge. “Um, everything good in there, Do Dare?” There was a frown on Daring’s face when she popped up from behind the window. “Yeah. Give me a few minutes. Somepony wanted to be cute and rigged up a trap. I’ll get it.” Daring ducked down again.  Velvet’s left eye twitched as she turned her head away from Daring and put one hoof on her brow. All she could hear was the crackle of the aetheric electricity on the flood. If only her mind could focus on just that. Instead, it wandered to the cracks of lightning in last night’s storm, the crack in River Rapids’ voice—and the crack of the gunshots that took her life. Hopefully she went quickly. Hopefully the insurgents didn’t draw it out. That could’ve been her.  Maybe it should’ve been, so River Rapids could be the one to crawl away to safety. Velvet gagged and stuffed the frog in her throat back into her stomach. Was this what Daring felt in her first time?  “G-get a hold of yourself.” Velvet shook her head as she fought to calm her trembling hooves. “Idle hooves are windigos’ playthings.” Anxious to keep her mind busy, Velvet started to scope the room. Following a greater concentration of crackling arcs, she could barely make out a power outlet beneath the surface of the  murky water. Directly above, about a foot and a half above the water, the largest root had managed to burst its way through the wall. Further scrutiny revealed an undeniable detail as she watched a few of the sparks leap directly into the root. “Of course,” Velvet muttered.  “That’s, like, the only species of tree that exists in this adventure.” On Velvet’s platform, at the other side of the room, a tall generator cracked and sparked in tandem with the flood. The generator door had swung free, allowing Velvet to scrutinize its contents. With a half-smile, she crept closer. Her element—what better way to distract her thoughts…thoughts about Rapids.  The generator housed two long power cells. Apart from a bit of rust on the steel shaft, nothing was off about the left one, but the one on the right? It was made of…glass? Crystal? Never seen that before. Velvet cocked her head to the side. The shaft was split open, revealing a crackling coruscating stream of magic electricity. Inside the stream was a levitating cluster of… something, but the glare made it impossible to tell.  Velvet applied a quick spell on her pupils: something similar to Night Light‘s “sunspot goggles.” She didn’t need the protection now, but there was something hidden in that power cell. Velvet’s vision dimmed. The bright stream revealed its secrets.  “Fulgurites.” Velvet rested her head on her hoof. “Don’t know why I expected anything else. Sounds like something I would try… if I had a maybe a shot of two of absinthe.”  She glanced at a petrified corpse slumped at the wall beside the generator. “Of course, a hangover from mixing absinthe with fulgurites would be hell.”  She jerked her head back at the fulgurite stream. Blinding white assaulted her eyeballs. “Shit!” Velvet pressed her hooves to her eyes and rubbed, reapplying the pupillary spell. Maybe she should have asked Night Light for those sunspot goggles before going on this reckless journey. At least they didn’t require constant maintenance from her horn. Then again, he’d probably get suspicious and— Velvet slapped herself. “Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it…” Right beside her, leaning against a hole in the wall, a pile of metal rods provided the perfect distraction. Velvet didn’t need any fancy goggles or vision spells to see the gnarled roots wrapping around some of the rods. She loosened one from the grip of the root and teased it out. Many more rods had escaped the tree’s nefarious clutches, stacked up behind a nearby collection of bright blue plastic barrels—at least the ones that hadn’t joined the other barrels standing together in the corner of the room.  A faint rumble echoed. Velvet jerked her eyes and ears to the source of the noise. On the opposite side of the room, two cracks converged on the wall. A piece of concrete chipped off and splashed into the angry water. Velvet jumped to her hooves. Nothing exploded, thank Celestia—but at the area where the two cracks met, a stream of water gushed out, splashing where the concrete chip had fallen. While not an entire river’s worth, this was certainly no trickle. That wasn’t good. As if to follow up that thought, a brilliant yellow arc hit a metal shelf just a little higher than Daring’s standing height. That arc was quickly followed by a second, and then a third. Velvet inched backwards. Why was the flood getting angrier? “Got it, Vel!” Daring’s voice called out from inside the small room. “I’m coming out!” Velvet blinked, and her jaw hung open. She hadn’t been keeping track of Daring since she disappeared behind the window. Prancing in place, she watched the rising water under the window. The arcs were reaching out for something. Daring’s snout peeked through the jamb. “Daring, don’t move!” Daring gagged. Two cerise clouds of magic materialized from the aether: one on Velvet’s horn; the other, on Daring’s collar. Daring’s right hoof clutched the artifact to her chest while the other clutched haplessly at her neck. “Ack! Vel…what are…you…” Velvet ceased her magic and pointed at the water below the window. Her nose wrinkled; the tang of ozone grew stronger as arc after arc of magic electricity leapt for the artifact—just like in the San Palomino caves. “Put the bow down—you almost made yourself an extra power conduit.” Though Daring stopped resisting, the frown stayed on her face as Velvet released her grip. Daring clicked her teeth and backed away from the window. “I made it across just fine. Did something change?” “Aside from the fact you’re now holding an artifact that’s trying to draw all the lightning to it?”  Velvet pointed at the leaking crack on the wall, Daring tracing her foreleg from another window in the small room. “Unless you can turn off that faucet, we’re both on borrowed time. Is there any other way out over there?”  There was a reply, not with Daring’s voice, but with the echo of creaking metal, followed by crumbling rocks. “Nope!” A clang punctuated Daring’s growl. “The one door here leads to a collapsed tunnel. The other door—” Velvet heard a clack before the door started to swing open. “—apparently unlocks from the inside.” “Wait! Holy Celestia, um…” A bright red arc of lightning slammed into the metal surface. Velvet heard Daring mutter a few colorful metaphors. She scanned the room again,  rubbing her sweating hooves together. “Right, uh, maybe you can toss Indra’s Bow to me?” “Do you want to touch an electric conductor while it flies near lightning water?” Dust kicked up to Velvet’s face after she stomped a hoof on the floor. “Uh, um, shit!” Her frustrated growl gave way to pants. She scanned along the periphery of the room, trying to cram her panic into the overflowing closet. Finally, she peered behind the generators. “Right, there should be some kind of…power switch or something!” Velvet’s eyes darted back and forth as she went over the equipment. Was it right before her eyes, hiding behind the anxiety darkening the corners of her vision? The buzz of electrical arcs squirmed deeper into her hearing. Her chest squeezed itself, then spasmed. No such luck.  “Okay, new plan…” Velvet breathed out, wiping the sweat from her brow. “Maybe explosives or something to blow up the generator?” “Explosives?” Daring growled. “Right, like we have any C4 lying around!” The water had already risen several inches. Through the blinding, snaking sparks, two stout grenades revealed themselves on the Neighponese corpses, the light glinting from their metal rings. Could those work? Wait a minute… Velvet dropped her head and seethed to herself. If age hadn’t reduced those grenades into duds, the sparks from the lightning flood would’ve set them off long before Velvet and Daring entered the room. There were no more words—only Velvet’s throbbing heartbeat sounding in her temple. The gunshots and Rapids’ cries returned and pounded her mind.   “Hey, hey!”  Daring’s impinging shouts slammed a brutal kick against her burgeoning closet door. “What are you doing, Twilight?! This isn’t like you!” A frustrated growl underlined Daring’s voice. “Look again. What do you see? Use it! Don’t try to find something that’s not there!” “Right.” Velvet murmured. She cleared her throat. “Okay. Right!” What about the barrels? Velvet turned her head to the side, a a thoughtful frown on her face. A cloud of her magenta magic plucked one barrel and brought it over the angry water. “I…hmm…I guess I could make, like, a bridge from these.” Grasping the lid of the barrel with her telekinesis, Velvet licked her lips and lowered the first part of Barrel Bridge. The good news: the electricity wasn’t jumping on to the barrel even after its bottom touched the water. The bad news: the barrel wouldn’t touch the floor. “Damn, maybe I can build a raft.” Velvet grunted as she pushed her magic aura down. Hopefully, the plastic would hold.  Something gave. The slip in Velvet’s magic translated into a stumble in her legs. The barrel splashed onto the angry water, but at least it hadn’t wet anypony’s fur. When Velvet regained her footing, she got an exclusive view of the lid she’d been grasping in her magic. It wasn’t pretty. She’d punched a hole in the lid. If her telekinesis alone could do that, how much more would the weight of a whole pony? “Son of a—” Velvet couldn’t even complete her curse. After she tossed the barrel to the side, a frustrated, almost primal scream erupted from her mouth and bounced around the walls. Some of the charged water splashed onto her platform. Velvet’s ears folded back. Her eyes widened; her chest weighed her down. She felt like she was under the insurgent’s gun again, running away while Rapids could only crawl before being brutally shot. A crack slammed Velvet’s eardrums. She jumped, her flank plowing into the wall behind her. After shaking her head, she turned to the source of the noise. Daring’s eyes burned. Her hoof tightened around the handle of the whip. “Twilight Velvet!” An arc zipped over Daring’s head. She popped up again, coiling her whip as her face contorted with each syllable. “We…are going…to die!” As she darted her eyes around the room again, Velvet fought the feeling of her heart escaping from her chest. Her eyes fell upon the metal rods from earlier, then darted to the hole in the wall. After galloping to the rods, she knelt down and levitated one to eye level, the roots keeping themselves wrapped around the rod. A second, smaller levitation spell plucked a long spool of wire out her saddlebags and hovering in the air beside the rod. Fighting the lightheadedness crawling into her mind, Velvet eyed her tools, then the generator. “Oh man…oh man, this is such a bad idea…” “I don’t care if it’s a bad idea!” Daring shouted. “What is it?” “Uh…um…” Velvet stepped back, levitating her tools to Daring’s eye level. “Y-y’know how your uncle said that these rainbow yew…yucca…whatever trees are attracted to the Spectrum’s power?” Velvet’s magic lowered everything except a metal rod covered in roots. “The reverse could be true!” Taking a second rod in her magic, Velvet drove it into the hole in the wall, then stomped it with her hoof for good measure. After holding up the spool of wire, Velvet winced, no thanks to a hasty welding spell. “So that means we can divert the Spectrum’s power to something else…like the ground!” “So…a lightning rod? What’s bad about that?” Daring snapped.  “Bad is if I create an arc flash! D-do you even know what an arc flash is?! That gives us, like, a less than one percent chance of getting out alive! We’re fucked. We’re so f—” “Nopony cares about an arc flash!” The sound of Daring’s hoof stomping onto concrete pounded past the crackling and into Velvet’s ears. “All I care about is getting tasered by this rainbow crap! It doesn’t matter how many zeroes there are between the decimal point and one—it’s a hell of a lot better than getting turned to stone!”  Velvet stammered. “Okay,  Do Dare. Okay. Head in the game… head in the game.” She entered some…zone; she wasn’t sure what to call it. Her adrenaline highs had long since failed her. This was survival instinct, raw . “Okay, now for some insulation,” muttered Velvet. Taking a plastic barrel in her telekinesis, she set her jaw as her magic took on a bright yellow tinge, coupling levitation with a heating spell. Grunting with effort, she ripped off some of the material and molded it to encase one end of the lightning rod.  Velvet stood back, wiped sweat from her brow, and sucked in several gasps. Her telekinesis gripped the lightning rod by the slipshod plastic handle. As the lightning rod inched ever so closer to the generator, images of the generator exploding thundered in her mind. Slamming her eyelids shut, Velvet gulped and brushed those thoughts under the rug—no room left in the closet. Hopefully, Night Light would find her body. The flood beside Velvet flickered. The water was almost up to her platform now. The angry water quieted down, the lightning on its surface robbed of its sustaining energy. Sparking streams of multicolored electricity flowed out of the generator and into the lightning rod’s air terminal. Pulses of harsh rainbow light glowed through the wire as they traveled and disappeared into the ground rod. Velvet’s mind buzzed, but not like in an adrenaline high. It felt like the arteries in her temples were about to burst. She’d hate to leave any sort of stain on this place.  Something shifted at the corner of Velvet’s vision. Daring was starting to climb through the window, and the water didn’t like that. “Not yet, not yet!” Velvet licked her lips, just barely keeping her voice from cracking. “Wait for it to cool.” As soon as Daring slinked back down into her prison—with a few dark curses—the flood calmed down. Hissing through her teeth, Velvet levitated the lightning rod closer to the generator. The heat and buzz pressed further on her skull. It was a small price to pay to get her friend out, though, and as the flood’s orchestra finally melded into a decrescendo, the conductor steadily lowered her baton. The symphony was drawing to a close.  Daring’s wings ruffled from behind her. Velvet raised a hoof, alternating her focus between her mentor and the water keeping her prisoner. “Steady…steady…” The flood flickered. For two brief moments, darkness, not water, flooded the room.   “Now!” A dark yellow blur zoomed out the window. The artifact on Daring’s hooves sent an iridescent glow crossing the ceiling. Discovering the deception, the flood roared. The aetheric electricity on its surface rekindled and reached for Daring, but Velvet’s rod had stolen too much of its thunder.  A long breath streamed out of Velvet’s mouth when the downdraft of Daring’s wings tickled her fur from behind. “I, uh, I got an idea.” Velvet nudged her head toward the door. “But it’s best if you get yourself out of the room first. And take that stupid bow with you.” Daring huffed, but obliged anyway. Velvet turned back to her lightning rod and groaned. It pained her to leave her hoofwork to rot, but it was the only thing quelling the beast. Besides, it wasn’t like materials to make another weren’t in short supply.  Her cerise magic plucked some spare bars from the ground and strapped them close to her saddebags. As for the roots and branches, there were many of those rainbow trees outside. Once Velvet trotted out the room, her spine sagging from the rods strapped on her back, Daring cocked her head. “Why do you need those?”  Velvet adjusted the collar of her jacket, then shut the door behind her with her magic. “If this has an effect on the Lightning Mare’s hoofwork, maybe it also has an effect on the Lightning Mare herself.” They barely took three steps forward when the chamber behind them rumbled. Light billowed from the gaps of the door. Dust fell from the ceiling. Both ponies’ muscles tensed, then Velvet looked back at the chamber. Some newly-fallen rubble piling behind the door didn’t want her prying eyes snooping around. “Smart ponies know when they’re not wanted.” Daring jerked her head to the exit. “ Let’s go. I’m already sick of this place anyway.” As Velvet followed Daring, she stared blankly ahead. Her legs moved, but not the rest of her face, aside from the occasional blink. She should’ve been happier—but she was just…nothing. What was wrong with her? About 3 pm—or so Daring claimed—and not a single insurgent or mercenary. Maybe they were still searching for survivors or salvaging for supplies in the airship crash site. Or maybe they were busy fighting the Fillyppine military, judging by the distant pitter-patter of gunshots. Just as well: the rods were threatening to telescope her spine, and if it wasn’t for her hooded leather jacket, it would’ve eroded the skin around her shoulders. Velvet sidestepped a Rafflesia on the ground, then looked up at her flying mentor. The words stopped themselves before they reached her mouth; she couldn’t even remember what she wanted to say. Daring Do sighed, breaking a half-hour-long silence. “Velvet, I…I’m sorry about breaking out the whip earlier.” She waited a half-beat, but Velvet didn’t quip back at her.  “What? No comeback? You must really be out of it.” This time, Velvet didn’t have the presence of mind to face Daring, instead opting to rub her forehead with a hoof. “I-if anything, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I could’ve saved you sooner.” Velvet resumed craning her head to the soil. “I figured.” Daring pushed a giant fern down, then paused. “But I think we should save this conversation for when we get out of the jungle. The sooner we get the Spectrum, the sooner we can go back to Equestria. You have a fiancé to return to and we still need to tell Thunderhooves what happened to Rapids.” Velvet scratched her chest and licked her lips. Either Daring wasn’t aware of the wound Velvet was trying all afternoon to keep from reopening—or she was. Velvet wasn’t sure which possibility was more haunting. In any case, Daring didn’t follow up her words, opting instead to push the fern out of Velvet’s way. Velvet slammed her eyes shut and snorted, the spores tickling her nose. When she opened them again, Daring had landed and gazed at the rice paddy in front of them. And Velvet thought that when Daring talked about the Fillyppine “crop problems” several days ago, it was just a lame excuse. The rice field in front of the Daring Duo was filled with barely a film of water, yet the soil was nonetheless cracked. The few scattered plants were brown and dry, rustling in the breeze. Clearly, the storm last night provided the only water this field had seen in a while. Daring cupped her hooves and hollered to the lone creature on the field. “Hoy, ikaw diha! Na’ay sasakyan padulong ug Durio?”  She…he, rather, lifted a foreleg and turned his head to the voice, the baskets on his sides shifting. “C’mon, Vel. Hopefully, he has a ride.” As they cantered closer to the farmer, he cocked his head and straightened his pointy bowl-shaped hat. Velvet did her best not to stare, but the temptation was strong. The mousedeer's beard and the wrinkles on his face spoke of middle age, yet he—and the other mousedeer in a distant hut—were only an inch or so higher than an Equestrian pony foal. Daring pushed her back with a hoof. “Let me do the talking; mousedeer can get a little skittish, and I don’t think this guy knows Ponish anyway.”  “Kinsa mong duha?” The mousedeer’s thin legs trembled. “Taga-Equestria kamo, di ba? Kabalo ko tungod sa pag-istorya mo. Gikan ba kamo sa barkong-paglupad sa miaging gabi-i?” “Opo opo, pero wag kang kabalaka,” Daring replied in a softer tone. “Dili mi kasama sa mga gerilya na niadto sa lasang. Kinahanglan lang kami moadto sa Durio City. Kabalo ba ka kung asa kami pwede mokuha ug jeepney o bisan trisikad lang?” “Ah, e, didto po sa amo-ang kapitbahay.” The mousedeer faced a couple of huts and pointed at them by puckering his lips.  Daring took a deep breath, excused herself from the mousedeer with a “Palihog paghulat kadyot,” then turned to Velvet. “Good news: he’s got transportation. Once we meet up with Haribon, I suppose we could take a short break. We’re close to our goal anyway.” “Right.” “Oh, and one more thing.” Daring tapped her hoof on the cracked soil. “You’re right. You could’ve saved me sooner, but I think after what happened there, we need some quiet…and then we need a talk.” Velvet spasmed from Daring’s words… and her foreleg jabbing onto Velvet’s chest. Something ate at Velvet’s mind as she trailed behind the two. Daring expressly mentioned the break for a reason. “Still…” The tension in Daring’s shoulders visibly relaxed. Her right foreleg twitched closer to Velvet’s direction before drifting back, a sigh mixed with a groan emanating from Daring’s mouth. She rubbed the back of her neck. “You got both of us out in the end. I guess that’s what counts for now.” After Daring turned around and started to follow the mousedeer to the huts, it took a while for Velvet to continue tailing Daring. She was still “out of it,” yes, but Velvet could nonetheless find it within herself to return Daring’s show of gratitude with a pitiful attempt at a smile. “You’re welcome.”