Heaving a soft sigh, Tarnished Teapot looked down upon Maud’s sleeping form. She was sleeping on top of one of the trunks. A blanket, folded multiple times, was spread out beneath her for cushioning. She was a bit cleaner.
All day long, they had taken turns sleeping a few hours, waking the other up so the other could keep watch, going until the need for sleep was unbearable, and then exchanging positions.
Glancing around, Tarnish lept out of the wagon, hit the ground moving, and then went over to sit down upon the stump sticking up out of the ground. He sat down, looked about, and then he lifted up his magic mirror. It was late afternoon, early evening.
“Twilight Sparkle, hello?” he said, holding the mirror up near his face.
Much to Tarnish’s relief, there was an answer right away. Hearing Twilight’s voice somehow made everything better. There was something reassuring about hearing a friend’s voice after a trying, troublesome day.”
“Hey Tarnish, how have you been?” Twilight asked.
To which Tarnish replied, “Today, Maud and I had to kill a hydra.”
“Say what?” Twilight spoke with an incredulous voice.
“Well, there was this hydra, and he decided that Maud and I would make a fantastic meal. I chucked a log at him and Maud threw boulders, and then the hydra came after me and Maud had to get his attention… and then, the hydra gobbles up Maud, and I lose my mind because I just saw Maud being eaten, but as it turns out, Maud did this on purpose and had a plan, but I didn’t know this and I’ve completely lost my marbles at this point and I discovered my special spell—”
“You’ve discovered your special spell?” There was a long pause. “Wait, Tarnish, slow down, Maud was eaten? I’m confused. Tarnished Teapot, please, slow down and start from the beginning.”
Taking a deep breath, Tarnish made ready to tell Twilight everything. “Well Twilight…”
“—and so I figured out how I made steam and then I worked out how to make boiling water instead and now my face is scalded and blistered,” Tarnish said to his mirror. His ears drooped. “Making boiling water to fill the barrel is a pain.”
“Tarnish… try not to feel too stupid when I say this, but why not just condense cool water? It’s really very easy, just do what you were doing, think about fluffy clouds or whatever, and then, don’t make it boil.” Twilight’s voice was soft and patient as she spoke.
“I can do that? I thought because of my special spell that I had to—”
“Tarnish…” Twilight’s voice coming out of the mirror cut the unicorn off. “Remind me to sit down and have a long chat with you about correlation and causation. You’ve figured out how to condense water from the air. That is a very useful skill, doubly so because you’re out adventuring and you need water. But you don’t need to make it boil.”
“I don’t?” Tarnish stared off into the trees, feeling stupid. No, not stupid, but stoopid. Once again, he had done something dumb. A miserable, heavy feeling settled over Tarnish’s shoulders.
“Tarnish, the first thing you should try to do is to make a telekinetic bubble,” Twilight suggested.
“I can’t,” Tarnish replied. “Too complicated.”
“Nonsense.” Twilight’s voice coming out of the mirror was now stern, but still kind. “Just like you imagined soft, fluffy clouds, imagine picking up a foal’s rubber ball. Picture it inside of your head. In no time at all, you will have a round telekinetic bubble. Once you have a telekinetic bubble, think of soft, fluffy clouds. Think of cool, pleasant, soft, fluffy clouds. But think about them being inside of the telekinetic bubble. The water you condense will be inside of the bubble and not all over your face. If you need to condense boiling water, this is a safer way to do it. With time and practice, you’ll be able to make the bubble water-tight.”
“Do you really think I’m capable of this? I’m not very magical, as far as unicorns go.” Tarnish, feeling a bit depressed and dejected, punctuated his words with a heavy sigh.
“Tarnished Teapot, I’m going to venture a guess that you are gifted at water magics. It goes very nicely with your name and it contributes to the nature of your magical talent of survival in hostile places, which is something that poison joke excels at. You’ve already shown that you can condense water from humid air and you did it under the most trying of conditions, while boiling water was dripping down upon your face. Give yourself a little credit,” Twilight said to Tarnish, speaking in a loud, clear, commanding voice.
“I suppose I did,” Tarnish replied, now feeling a little better. A tiny ember of confidence ignited within his soul. “I guess if I can’t be magical and powerful, I can be practical and useful.”
“There ya go.” A snort came out of the mirror. “If only Trixie would learn this lesson.”
“Trixie?”
“Nevermind.” There was a long pause. “Tarnish, I would like for you to practice on your water condensation spells and then report back to me on your progress. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes, I guess… I can add it to my list of things to do,” Tarnish said, his ears splaying out sideways.
“Oooh, are you keeping lists now?” Twilight asked in an eager voice.
“Yes, actually,” Tarnish replied.
“Lists, Tarnish… lists are where real power lie. The power of organisation!”
“Are you scalding yourself again?”
Startled, Tarnish winced. Maybe he was imagining things, but something about Maud’s flat monotone sounded angry. It probably was his imagination. He shook his head, not just to say no, but to clear his thoughts.
“Maud, I, uh, was working on condensing more water. I talked with Twilight and she gave me some advice. Turns out, I can be pretty stupid sometimes. When I told my mother about it a little while ago through the mirror, she lectured me and told me that just because I do stupid things doesn’t mean I’m a dumb pony. It just means that I do stupid things and now my mother is worried about me.”
Reaching out, Maud placed her hoof beneath Tarnish’s chin and turned his face towards her. She saw water droplets along his horn, but she felt no heat. Tarnish was damp all over, but parts of him were soaked to the point of dripping.
“You’re wet,” Maud said, stating the obvious as though it was a special gift.
“I’m not very good at telekinetic bubbles and the water goes everywhere but into the barrel where I want it to go.” Tarnish stuck out his tongue, blew a raspberry, and then, he smiled at Maud. “I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong yet. But I’ll need to make a report to Twilight.”
“You can make water… that isn’t boiling?” Maud looked at Tarnish and then at the water barrel, which was almost half full once again. She peered down into the barrel, then she lifted her head, and then, Maud leaned forwards, her snoot inches from Tarnish. “I am genuinely impressed.”
Flustered, blushing, Tarnish tried to say something, but only managed to stammer, “M-M-Ma-Ma-hmm.” He could feel Maud breathing on his lips. His snoot was scalded, but his lips were still mostly okay. Angling his head, he darted forwards, closing the gap, and planted a quick peck upon Maud’s lips.
“You look a bit cleaner,” Maud said as Tarnish pulled away.
“I feel a bit cleaner,” Tarnish replied.
“You going to be ready for a long night of walking?” Maud asked.
“Yeah.” Tarnish’s head bobbed up and down. “So what are we going to do for supper? I’m starving… I mean, seriously, it feels as though my insides are going to implode. All this magic is making me hungry.”
Reaching up with her foreleg, Maud stroked Tarnish’s ear with the soft curve of her fetlock, feeling worried that she might touch an unseen scalded place and hurt him. Then, without warning, overcome with emotion, thinking about how she had almost lost Tarnish again, Maud wrapped her forelegs around him and swept him in for a crushing full body hug.
“Ugh… Ma-ugh… that’s okay, I don’t need air!” the squished unicorn wheezed.
“The world didn’t seem quite so dangerous when it was just me,” Maud said in a low, flat voice that was devoid of emotion. “There was danger on the road and I’d just deal with it and it never seemed so bad. But now I have you. And what happened earlier scared me.” Maud squeezed a little tighter, almost as if she could somehow get Tarnish inside of her, or become at one with him, he would be safe. “Do we still have bread?”
Tarnish felt Maud’s constrictive embrace ease up a little bit. He sucked in much needed air and watched the stars dancing around in his vision. “We have some bread, but we’re already running low. We don’t want it spoiling though, so if you want some sandwiches, I can fix those.”
“Sandwiches sound ideal,” Maud replied.
When the sun settled over the horizon, the air cooled a bit, the evening was balmy and a bit sticky. Frogs could be heard everywhere. As Maud and Tarnish traveled along the southern edge of Froggy Bottom Bogg, there was a distinct feeling of going downhill even though they traveled on what appeared to be a flat road.
The road itself was spongy, rather damp, the moisture causing a gunky buildup to cling to both Tarnish’s and Maud’s hooves. The scent of rotting vegetation grew stronger as they progressed, leaving the massive hydra carcass far, far behind them.
Walking through the spongy muck was taxing, it sucked at the hooves and made the wagon hard to pull. Whippoorwills cried out in the trees, bats flew overhead, and the owls were out in force, looking for a meal.
The two intrepid adventurers were making good time, even with the soft, spongy earth.