Repercussions

by Hiver

Chapter 66

“Oh yes,” I said and looked up with a small sigh, “Rain forest. It’s in the name.”

I didn’t manage more than to finish saying that before the occasional drop turned into an outright biblical downpour.

This place seemed to have two weather modes.

Hot and humid or raining.

I flicked my wings to get the worst water off them which lasted about half a second before they were soaked again.

“You sure this is the way?” I then asked, looking to Dee where she was standing on a fallen tree trunk.

“Which of us has a compass cutie mark?” she asked in turn.

I raised my hoof in surrender, “Okay, okay,” I said and flicked my ears before tilting them to try to stop rain from pouring straight into them as I glanced back towards the caravan of ponies following along behind, quickly shaking my head to try to get some of the water out of my mane. It didn’t exactly help.

Midnight and Tempest were next and Midnight in particular looked absolutely miserable right now.

I couldn’t blame her with everything going on and the rain was just… the last drop I suppose.

Not that anypony looked particularly happy after a day’s worth of trekking through deep jungle, but at least we had not run into any predators yet.

“How are we looking for distance?” I asked and jumped onto the fallen trunk and then down on the ground again next to her, “Think we’ll get there tomorrow?”

“...I don’t know,” Dee admitted and shook some water off her wings before touching her soaking wet shirt, “We’re a bit less than half way and we’ve done okay, it depends on the jungle. But I think we might do it assuming it doesn't get a lot worse… might be close though.”

“Two hours until Sunset,” I said, “We should start looking for somewhere to camp.”

Dee nodded and pointed forward, “There is a rise in the jungle over there, been heading towards it for thirty minutes. We’ll get there in ten minutes or so. You can’t see it from here, but can from the air. The scout said there is an almost vertical cliff we can make use of as one side of our defenses.”

“Good thinking,” I said and looked back as Midnight split the tree trunk in three parts with two flares of magic before tossing the middle part to the side to open up to allow everypony past without needing to climb over it.

“Okay everypony,” I called out, raising my voice loud enough for everypony to hear despite the rain, “We’re almost at tonight's camp site. If you see any relatively dry wood, pick it up. We’ll need it for the fires.”

############

“Oh, now you stop?” I said and glanced up towards the sky as we reached the camp site as it stopped raining.

The camp site looked about as good as we could expect, a solid cliff face on one side and the guards were building what would be a half circle of fires around the outer edge of the site.

Might not stop a rexosaurus if it finds us again, but it’d keep the smaller ones from getting too brave combined with our guards.

We hoped.

Then again, even if the smaller ones were magic resistant too, nothing that small could resist something as magically powerful as Midnight. Or hell, even Tempest.

Her control might be generally crap, but that unicorn outputs some serious wattage.

I pushed my hoof down on the tent peg firmly, double checking that it stayed put for a second before I looked around.

No individual tents this time.

We had just strung a big patch of material salvaged from the airship between the trees to keep the rain of everypony as well as it could, while keeping everypony in one easily defended place.

I checked the two closest lines with my hoof before I nodded and flapped my wings a couple of times before shaking myself to get rid of the worst of the water.

It didn’t help much.

I shook my wings again and then then walked in beneath the shelter, keeping my wings raised to make it at least a little easier to dry off.

“You know,” I said as I crossed over to Moon Dancer as she twisted her mane in her magic, working the water out of it, “I think I have had enough rain to last me a year.”

Moon Dancer smiled slightly and ran her magic over her coat, brushing some water of herself before she nodded, “I know what you mean,” she said and then put her glasses back on, her magic pulling her mane back and tying it back with her hairband, “But it could have been worse.”

“How could it have been worse?”

“Well… thestrals could have come from the North and that could have been a snowstorm…”

I shuddered at the very idea.

Comments

[KKSlider]

assuming it doesn't get a lot worse

How could it have been worse?

Dont say that! You're coming dangerously close to jinxing your luck!

[FoxyLove]

Moon Dancer you FOOL!!! Don't tempt Murphy!!!!

HE'S WAITING ON THY FATEFUL WORDS TO STRIKE!!!

[Kevin Lee]

Hunger woke Barn once more with the setting of the sun.
The new cave was considerably better than the old one, not having the decaying carcass of a fairly sizable predator sitting just outside.
He was just about to go out into the jungle when he stopped to look at the lush foliage in puzzlement.
“.... Why is it sleeting!? ”

Meanwhile, at the FTC, Special Agent Vladimir Kilgore got to work cleaning his gun....

[Pensive]

10449357
Your not the only one...

Also,-
'sips coffee'
your not the only one here with a hot beverage. Now, I need to finish some stuff before this coffee wears off and I fall face-first into my desk.

[windy_prance]

“How could it have been worse?”

THREE HOURS LATER.....

Tempest: I'm blaming *gasp* you! You tempted *gasp* our luck!

Page: I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!Don'tstopfighting!

*Everypony around them battling against a colony of ants...giant ants...fire ants...LITERALLY ON FIRE ants*

Amber: SIR! You're lucky *grunt* the royalty is fond of you! *Amber stomps on a fire ant into ashes*

Page: *gulp*

[Bojack H]

10450676
"Wait page... you're royalty, its all your fault, this is the curse of the alicorn-suck, you literally can't do anything right! its finally caught up to you."

[Hyan]

10450496
Already too late. Sending thestral and snowstorm.

[BarrenBaron]

10450738
I remember reading something ages ago that played with that idea a bit; that Alicorns are just naturally awful because if they weren’t they’d be too good.

Hence seasons and seasons of ineffectual Alicorns.

[katarjin]

10450676
oh I hate you, worst version of Fire Ants yet.

[ValonQuinn]

“But it could have been worse.”

The moment I read that I heard this:
https://youtu.be/9AFf0ysgNiM

I know it already rained, but this is the same energy I feel.

[Drazhan]

10450676
I'm really reminded of the ant maps in Command & Conquer now.

[Drazhan]

Starting to see why the Thestrals were changed there. All the predators, dense jungle, etc isn't suited for the other tribes whereas the Thestrals would do better. Night vision, quieter wings, etc. If they weren't changed to deal with the predators, then it could have been a defensive move to avoid them.

[Kevin Lee]

10451081
Or you could take that idea one step further: the Thestrals bred those creatures to help keep everyone else out. Raptoids and rexosauruses are their guard dogs.

[Drazhan]

10451086
"I don't know.... it looks pretty scary."

"But is it scary enough? I mean the claws and teeth covering everywhere ARE scary..."

"Four mouths with razor teeth?"

"Genius!"

[Bojack H]

10450883
there's a fair amount of stories that describe the alicorn-suck, including the idea that it eventually catches up with them, like twilight kind of being useless later in the show, page might be approaching that part of his life now.

[DJ_Arashi_Rora]

10451190
Care to explain the alicorn-suck?

[Black--Soul]

At least they dont have to fear a forest fire. To mutch water to allow it to grow...

10450496
Meh ...
10450522
Murphy must be clocking overtime... Bad!
10450658
Modern art if you paint your face first
10450676
Huh... Neat
10450738
Alicorn suck... Sound like a mare thing to be
10450752
At least its not so hot anymore
10451007
Glorious idea
10451010
Meh...
10451075
Love that game...
10451086
Sounds legit. I would totaly do it.
10451093
Me: 'Alien Saga flashbacks'
10451190
O.k. ... That harsh! One can do something, not everything. No Gary Stu's welcome
10451410
Actual a good question

[Black--Soul]

Traveler are safer while the rain is heavy! Smelling for tracking things is a no go, animals seek shelter while it rain strongly. Perhaps they lucky enough that it rains both days of travel...

[Black--Soul]

2 days of rain was ideal for safety, now the tracking is back on the table.

[Thor447]

10451093
At least it isn't giant spiders that disrupt magic near them

[Okie Brony]

Gee, it's too bad they didn't bring along any fire-breathing dragons to dry out the firewood.
🦉 Who?
Never mind.