After a rather eventful morning, Tarnish decided to push his luck and have an eventful afternoon. He stood, peering out from behind a tree, eyeballing a needler cactus that was quite some distance away. Maud was nearby, ready to help if something went wrong. Tarnish hoped that nothing went wrong. He needed needler cactus needles and the venom glands inside of the cactus. One needle might paralyse him, causing his legs to stop working. Two or three needles would certainly paralyse his whole body. A half a dozen or more needles would make his heart and lungs stop working, the ultimate in paralysis, and the cactus would get the nutrients it needed from Tarnish’s decomposing corpse.

Nature had fantastic ways and means.

Tarnish had a plan. He wasn’t the most magical of unicorns, but he had a knack for survival. He had with him a heavy tarpaulin, a thick, durable sheet of tarred canvas that he had plans for when he was done with the needler cactus. It was folded over a few times and Tarnish figured that with his telekinesis, it would make a serviceable wall for him to hide behind.

In the underbrush ahead of him, he saw a dead deer that had decomposed quite a bit. He felt bad for the deer, but the remains stood as a testament to the effectiveness of the needler cactus. He looked over at Maud, gave a nod, and charged forwards with the tarpaulin held before him.

He could hear the sound of the needles being shot, the bursts of compressed air being used to launch the needles. He could both feel and hear the needles hitting the canvas. He charged forwards, mindful to the danger all around him, and hoped that he did not screw up. It might be fatal if he did.

A needler cactus only had so much oomph stored up and this one was already giving out. The time between shots fired grew longer and longer as he approached and each shot sounded weaker, until there was a faint whispering ‘poomf’ sound. Tarnish did not drop his guard. He was close to it now, he could tell, and when the tarpaulin bumped into the cactus, he draped it over the dangerous plant, then heaved a sigh of relief.

The job was done and nopony had been hurt. Everything had gone as planned. He looked down at the needles littering the ground. Long, barbed, and nasty. Each of them glistened with a terrible toxin. He pulled out his sample jar and begin filling it up with every needle he could find. The cactus had fired everything it had at him and Tarnish had hit the motherlode.

“That went well.”

Perhaps it was his imagination, but Tarnish was certain that he could hear relief in Maud’s voice. He turned to look at her, smiled, and replied, “Well, it went a little better than my excursion into the cave earlier.”

“You subdued a cactus that is a known pony killer. Now what?”

“Now I cut it open and find the venom glands. There are several things I can do with them. I can make a charm that will protect the wearer from paralysis and sleep magic, and from what I read in another book, it makes for a powerful antivenin that’s good for snake bites and giant wasp stings.”

“Fascinating. Those are common hazards in our line of work. Field geology has all kinds of things that might kill you. Like volcanos.” Maud looked down at the tarpaulin for a moment, then, turning her head, she looked at Tarnish. “This was a pretty good idea, and safe too. I’m proud of you.”

“I do my best.” Tarnish’s cheeks darkened. He wasn’t used to ponies saying that they were proud of him and every time Maud said it, he became flustered. He stood there as the needler cactus expelled its final bit of offense and then went still.

“I’m going to need your help to take some readings. It won’t be dangerous, but I’ll need a hundred or so random rocks from the river so I can take readings. I need a broad sample size to keep me busy. If I start looking at all the rocks, it could take me days to gather them, I get distracted because every rock is fascinating.”

“I know.”

Now, Maud blushed and half closed eyes stared at Tarnish. “Did you mean what you said earlier? About wanting to have foals?”

“Maybe someday,” Tarnish replied.

“It scares me.” Maud blinked once. There was no trace of emotion in her voice or any signs of emotion upon her face. “I’ve been thinking about it all day since you said it. I keep wondering about what sort of mother I will be. Or what sort of parents we’ll be. It’s made it hard for me to focus on my work.”

“I think this is what passes as normal for most ponies. They worry about the future and wonder if they are worthy of whatever endeavour they set out on, be it marriage, parenthood, starting a career, or taking that first step out of the house on a long journey. I think we’ll be fine.”

“Your amulet is getting darker. You’d better finish carving that cactus so we can get back to camp so you can have some of your tea.” Maud paused for a moment, blinked again, and then her ears splayed out sideways from her head. “Normal scares me, Tarnish. I’ve never been normal. I don’t know how to adjust.”

Tarnish smiled. “We can be weird and still want what everypony else wants…”

It would soon be evening and dull grey clouds in the south drifted north like birds returning in the spring. Maud sat in her pile of rocks, sorting them out, cataloguing their type, and taking a reading with the new thaumaton reader. Tarnish meanwhile worked on improving the camp.

Pulling and tugging, he had suspended the tarpaulin over The Egg so that the rain wouldn’t hit the metal roof, deafening both him and Maud. It would also provide shade so the sun wouldn’t hit the roof and turn The Egg into The Oven. He had angled the tarpaulin just so, tied each corner to a tree with a section of rope, and then had one corner that angled down into a short small barrel to collect rain water. It would also give them a place to sit and work that was sheltered from the rain, but still allow them to be outside.

The breeze picked up, it was cool, chilly even, and stood out in sharp contrast to the heat of the day. It was muggy, humid, it was hot and sticky. The breeze felt good, but Tarnish, knowing what he knew about the weather, grew worried about the coming storm. Rain it seemed, was going to be a regular hazard for them.

Satisfied that the tarp was secure, he turned his efforts to something else.

The fire flickered and whipped about as the wind picked up. Tarnish felt his mane blown back and the icy breeze slipped between the fine hairs of his pelt. Maud had relocated herself to a comfortable spot beneath the makeshift awning as fat raindrops were already beginning to plop down and splatter-bomb the ground. It wasn’t raining, not yet, it was just a few fat drops that fell at random. At least for now.

As he stared into the fire, Tarnish thought about dinner, it had been a long day. He was tired and hungry. He had found some wild chili pepper plants and some wild tomatillos, both of which had edible yields waiting to be claimed. Perhaps some spicy beans and rice would make a fine meal.

“This doesn’t make sense.”

Turning his head, Tarnish looked over at Maud.

“These readings are consistently high, magic levels are certainly elevated here. The readings don’t make sense though, as they have too much variation. The data doesn’t make sense.” After a long pause, Maud added, “Yet.”

“Is the area dangerous? I mean, is the magical radiation dangerous?” Tarnish asked.

“No.” Maud’s response came right away. “But I would suspect that most unicorns would find their magic disrupted. The ambient magic here is elevated, but not quite at the dangerous level, not yet. But the readings here are consistently higher than the rock farm, for comparison.”

“So problematic but not dangerous in a life threatening way.” Tarnish’s brows furrowed and he returned to staring into the fire. “The rocks in the river should all be relatively the same, if I recall what I learned the last time we studied river rocks. I wonder what is causing the variation? That’s curious.”

Maud shrugged, said nothing in reply, and returned to her work.

“There should be more poison joke here… I’ve seen two recently burnt patches where fields of it used to be. Small fields, but still useful for the purpose they serve. So we have elevated magical radiation levels, an unstable ley line intersection, and rocks that have random levels of magic. I have no clue what is going on.”

Setting down a rock, Maud shook her head. “I’m going to need to go spelunking and take readings from other rocks. If the rocks down deeper in the ground show wide variations of magical radiation… well… I don’t even know where to begin. There should be consistency.”

“Magic should be consistent?” Tarnish asked.

“In general, at least when it comes to geology,” Maud replied. “Magic radiation should behave like cavity radiation—”

“What?”

Maud paused, took a deep breath, and her ears tilted forwards over her eyes. “When you heat up a cast iron skillet, the heat is distributed evenly, all over every available surface. That’s why cast iron cooks so well. The well distributed heat is constant and consistent. Now, imagine if you will, a cast iron skillet that is hot all over, but has a freezing cold spot in the middle. Because of the nature of the cast iron, that sort of thing should not be possible. The same thing with these rocks. Some variation is expected, but I’m finding cold rocks mixed in with hot rocks, and the cold rocks should not exist.”

“I… see…” Tarnish understood cast iron. His eyes darted over to the black cast iron skillet and then back to Maud. She was right. Finding a cold spot in the middle of his skillet seemed unlikely. She had somehow explained it in a way that he understood. He was thankful that he sort of understood and did not feel stupid.

A strong gust of wind caused the tarpaulin overhead to ripple and make snapping noises. The trees it was secured to creaked in protest, but there was little they could do but flex in the wind. With the wind, the floodgates opened and it began to rain in earnest, a drenching downpour that came down in sheets.

The wind was wet and Tarnish felt his pelt grow damp. He didn’t mind, it felt good after being out in the heat of the day. He watched as Maud began stuffing her notebooks into an oilcloth satchel. Once everything was secure, she picked up the strap in her teeth, stood up, and then hurried inside the wagon to stow her gear.

The wagon rocked a bit in the breeze, the suspension let out a faint creak of flexing metal, and Maud emerged from the door a moment later. She returned to where she was sitting, a broad, flat rock, and sat down. A strong gust hit Tarnish and caused his ears to flap around.

Using his magic, he picked up his pith helmet from where it lay, his saddlebags, and a few other things that needed to stay dry. He then levitated them into the wagon, felt them bump into the bed, and he set them down upon the floor, all without having to get up from his seat.

The day was as good as over. Everything would be too drenched to get much work done. It was time to relax, fix dinner, and then retreat inside. Perhaps there would be some happy husband hugs… or perhaps something else. He was certain that he and Maud would find some way to pass the time.

Perhaps they could dance in the rain.

Author's Notes:

No, I did not misspell 'tomato.'