"Alright, just follow me here. We should find her any second now."
This was the third time Tailspin said this to Tree Hugger as she dragged her across the desert plains. By this time, Tree Hugger had recovered from the shock of being abducted without explanation, and her stunned expression slowly turned into one of mild irritation. She dug her hind hooves into the ground and pulled away from Tailspin, screeching to a halt. Tailspin whipped around, her eyes wide in astonishment.
"What're you stopping for?!" she yelled. "We have to hurry!"
"No, you have to chill out and tell me what's going on," said Tree Hugger, folding her forelegs. "You're the other prof's student, right? The one who bailed on us without warning?"
"Um, yeah. That's me," said Tailspin with a nervous chuckle. "Name's Tailspin."
"I'm Tree Hugger," said Tree Hugger calmly. "Now, what exactly flew up your butt and got you so uptight?"
"We don't have time for this!" Tailspin wailed, flailing her hooves and speaking at a mile a minute. "I ran off because I thought I saw Ahuizotl in the desert, but then Professor Daring went after me, and then it turned out it was Ahuizotl's mum, and she wants the breezies for some reason, and then she summoned this giant elephant that cursed Professor Daring and it's all my fault and—"
"Hey, hey. Ease up," Tree Hugger interrupted, raising her hoof. "First of all, slow down and dial it back a skoch. I'm having a hard time following your vibe."
"B-but—"
"C'mon, now. It's simple. Just breathe in the good and breathe out the bad, like this. Ohmmmm~. Neeeeeigh~."
Tree Hugger interrupted Tailspin with her impromptu breathing exercise. Reluctantly, Tailspin complied and followed along.
"There. Now your chakras are all sorted out," said Tree Hugger with a nod. "So, what's all this about Ahuizotl and curses? You sound like you've been reading too many Daring Do novels."
Tailspin blanched as beads of sweat formed on her brow. "Oh dear. Y-you don't know, do you?"
"Don't know what?" asked Tree Hugger, arching an eyebrow.
Tailspin buried her face in her hooves. "Oh, no. Oh no oh no oh no! As if this couldn't get any worse! Dare is gonna kill me for this!"
Tree Hugger blinked. "Girl, I don't get you. Like, at all. It really can't be that bad."
"But it is that bad! I screwed up again!" Tailspin cried. "I blabbed about Daring Do's secret!"
"What secret?" asked a befuddled Tree Hugger. "All I said was that you sound like a big fan of A.K. Yearling, that's all. What, are you saying that your prof and A.K. Yearling's character are the same pony? Because that sounds pretty bogus to me."
Tailspin's head whipped around as she shot Tree Hugger a dirty look. "It's not bogus!" she blurted out angrily. "She has very good reasons for doing that, and if you understood what she went thro— Shoot, why did I say that out loud?!"
Tree Hugger's eyes went wide. "Wait, so you actually are saying that? Daring Do is a real pony, and not some fictional character?"
Tailspin gulped. "Well, y'see... I, um... I was just, er..." After much fumbling, she sighed in defeat. "Yes."
A wide grin slowly formed on Tree Hugger's face. "Whoa. Mind. Equals. Blown. This is so rad, girl! Like, I always knew those books were tight, but never in a million years would I have ever figured that they were real!"
"Please don't tell anypony about this!" Tailspin pleaded, clasping her hooves together. "Professor Daring would get so cross with me if she finds out I told somepony her secret without her permission!"
"Sure, sure. Not a peep to anypony else. I gotcha," said Tree Hugger solemnly. "So, did all of her books take place in real life, or what?"
"M-most of them," Tailspin whimpered. "Look, I know this is earth-shattering to you and all, but we can't just sit here lallygagging! We have to go help Professor Daring!"
"Ease up, girl. I'm, like, still trying to understand this," said Tree Hugger, stroking her chin in thought. "You're saying that Daring Do is real, her adventures are real, and you somehow got her into trouble."
"That's pretty much the long and short of it," said Tailspin, casting her gaze downward. "I shouldn't have run off, but I just wanted to go on an adventure with her. I-it's always been my dream, y'know? But now she's out there under some curse all because I acted like a selfish git. I have to make this right."
Tree Hugger nodded thoughtfully. "Right on, right on. I dig. You've got a very noble aura, girl. Just one question, though."
"What now?"
"I'm all for adventures, but the kind of stuff Daring Do gets involved in is really not my groove," said Tree Hugger. "I'm not sure how helpful I can be in a temple filled with deathtraps or bad dudes bumming you out."
"Th-that's okay. I'll protect you," said Tailspin. "You won't have to do anything dangerous at all. I'll take care of all the heavy lifting. All you have to do is let me know when whatever I try to lift is too heavy for me."
Tree Hugger tilted her head. "Not following you here."
Tailspin sighed. "There's something you should know about me. Whenever I panic, I usually end up doing something stupid. And right now, I don't feel like I can keep myself from panicking. Which is why I need you to keep me from doing stupid stuff."
"Stupid stuff like dragging me out into the middle of the desert without telling me the sitch?" asked Tree Hugger, raising an eyebrow.
Tailspin blushed and brushed the back of her head sheepishly. "Uh, heh heh. Yeah, something like that. Listen, I completely understand that you're pretty cross with me right now. I screwed up, and I'm incredibly sorry. But, that's why I need you so much right now. I can't do this on my own. I-I'd just panic and screw up again."
Tree Hugger's expression softened as she tilted her head. "First of all, I'm not mad, girl. This isn't exactly my groove, but I know you're coming from a place of authenticity. I can totally respect that. But on another note, why do you sound so scared? Like, I thought you wanted adventure."
"I did. I do," said Tailspin, shaking her head. "I just didn't want, this. I didn't want to get Professor Daring into trouble and spoil everything for her, but that's what happened."
Tree Hugger nodded. "I hear ya, girl. I hear ya. Alright, I'm down to clown. But I'm holding you to that promise to keep me safe. I don't want any bad karma interfering with my aura, know what I'm saying?"
"I won't let that happen, Ms. Hugger," Tailspin promised with a salute. "Just make sure I don't get in over my head, yeah?"
"Fer sure, girl. Fer sure. By the by, just call me Tree Hugger. No need to be so formal," said Tree Hugger.
"Um, alright, sure," said Tailspin. "Man, you really sound like Professor Daring."
"Nah, I'm nothing like her. She's more into the high-flying stuff than I am," said Tree Hugger with a chuckle. "Doesn't mean I don't dig her vibe. Anyway, where exactly were you planning on taking me?"
"We're going back to get Professor Daring," said Tailspin. "She's back that way." She paused and furrowed her brow. "Or, is she over this way? Mmm, now that I think about it..."
Tailspin shielded her eyes and scanned the desert, trying to remember which way to go. Tree Hugger knitted her brow
"I'm just going out on a limb here, but I think you were so uptight when you left that you didn't pay much attention to where you were going," she said thoughtfully.
Tailspin winced. "O-okay, see. This is why I need you so badly. So that I don't do stuff like that."
"Yeah, hindsight's a cruel mistress, for real," said Tree Hugger calmly. "So, what now, Spinmeister?"
Tailspin raised an eyebrow. "Spinmeister?"
"Just thought I'd call you by a groovy nickname. We're working together, after all."
"Um, okay," said Tailspin, a bit uneasy. She quickly shook the feeling aside and tapped her chin in thought. "Hmm. I guess if we can't find Professor Daring, we should at least go after the breezies."
"Okay, I could get behind that," said Tree Hugger thoughtfully. "When we got to the safari site, Prof Windsday and I noticed something harsh going on with the breezies. It might be connected to whatever bad karma Daring Do is going through right now."
Tailspin's face darkened. "I already know it is," she said. "Ahuizotl's mum is hunting the breezies for some reason, and she cursed Professor Daring to get her out of the way."
Tree Hugger blinked. "Wait, Ahuizotl's mom?"
"Yeah, I don't get it, either," said Tailspin with a shrug. "But don't underestimate her; she means business. Though why she's going after the breezies of all things, I haven't the foggiest idea."
"Whatever it is, it's gotta be bad," said Tree Hugger gravely "I know Flutterslice and Prof Windsday would not be down with that. Especially since breezies are protected by the ESPRC. No one is allowed to hunt them for any reason."
"Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Ahuizotl's mum doesn't really care about stuff like that," said Tailspin, furrowing her brow. "Still, though. I can't imagine anyone who'd want to hunt a breezie, let alone some megalomaniacal maniac bent on revenge. Did that windbag mention anything that might be of value to someone like Ahuizotl?"
"Not sure," said Tree Hugger, shaking her head. "We could find him and ask."
"Mmm. Maybe," Tailspin hummed, tapping her chin. After a pause, she perked up. "Or maybe we can track down Ahuizotl's mum and find out ourselves!"
Tree Hugger's eyes went wide. "What? No. Nononononono. That's, like, totally not koshe."
"Koshe?"
"Not kosher," Tree Hugger clarified.
"Oh," said Tailspin sheepishly. "Well, why not? It's not like we know where Professor Windsday is right now."
Tree Hugger deadpanned. "Spinmeister, we don't know where Ahuizotl's mom is, either. Besides, we aren't gonna be of much help if the bad karma harshes our mellow, know what I mean?"
"Which is why we have to be stealthy about it," said Tailspin plainly. "Furthermore, it's not gonna be that hard to track her down. All we have to do is follow some breezies around and Ahuizotl's mum will end up coming to us."
"And you want that to happen."
"Um, kinda? I mean, I wanna find out what she's up to."
"Then why don't we go ask Prof Windsday?"
"Because he probably doesn't know what's going on, and I don't wanna risk blabbing Professor Daring's secret again."
"You do realize that we might end up getting in trouble if we do this, right?"
Tailspin smirked. "Hey, I said I'd protect you, didn't I? You don't have to worry your pretty little head about anything," she said. "On another note, we don't really have time to debate about this. Every second we dawdle, Ahuizotl's mum is gonna come one step closer to completing her master plan, whatever it is."
"It also means one more second Daring Do is going to be cursed," Tree Hugger countered.
Tailspin nodded. "Good point. Alright, I know what to do now."
"What's that?"
"We'll try to find Professor Daring first. Failing that, we hunt down Ahuizotl's mum. Failing that, we try to find Professor Windsday."
Tree Hugger sighed. "Okay, let's go over the many ways that plan bites. Number one, you just admitted that you have no idea where Daring Do is. Number two, you don't even know what kinda bad karma she's dealing with right now. Number three, trailing bad karma is really going to mess up our vibe."
Tailspin shrugged her shoulders. "Alright then. We'll just play it by ear. That's what Professor Daring does, and it hasn't failed her so far."
"That sounds like an even worse idea," said Tree Hugger bluntly. "Spinmeister, we need to slow down and think up a plan if we're gonna get through this."
"Then we should go find Professor Daring! She'll know what to do!" Tailspin exclaimed, spreading her wings. "C'mon, Tree Hugger!"
She then took off and flew in a random direction. Tree Hugger sighed and shook her head
"That girl is wound up so tight, she looks like she's ready to snap at any minute," she muttered as she followed. "No wonder she needs my soothing vibes. I just hope it'll be enough. I don't want us to get into too much trouble..."