The sun has gone down and the moon has risen, time to walk to school. The weekend had gone by without any success of locating water, despite all the hours I invested. While all the other thestrals romped about the slopes and caves on their weekend, I hid from them and searched for water. Nothing. Now I have to walk to school while searching because my mentor told me I needed the practice. I doubt these sticks will find me any dignity on the way.

I had to lie to the local blacksmith about why I needed him to make a pair of rods. Metal, long, thin, bent slightly at the ends. To tie off matches on the ends to light the fireplace, is what I had told him when he asked regarding their purpose. He had suggested using long matches instead and wanted to know why I needed two. After telling him it would be a 'matched' set and it was what they used in Canterlot, he was more than willing to make them. A few other adults wanted 'matched' sets for their fireplace, too, to show they were high society. Sometimes I truly hate society. They never even got the matched set joke.

So I looked up the sloping roadway, pulled the rods out of my backpack that was strapped to me, stuck the rods in my mouth and started walking. In theory they are held loosely and allowed to swing with the slightest stimuli. Presumably the corpuscles rise from minerals entering the rod, or Virgula, in order to render it parallel to the vertical...screw it, I won't even attempt to remember all the refuse Nightmare Night spewed, regardless how big her eyes got when angry. There was simply no way this would work, not like it was magic or anything.

I clopped along with these two thin rods sticking out of my mouth in a slightly V shape...and nobody treated me any different. Sure I got the occasional look or whisper that I normally did, but no acute losses of demeanor, no outbursts or guffaws. They treated me as the normal I was used to. Figures. At least Lance was not around to mess with me. I hadn't seen him all weekend and this was supposed to be the start of our private little prank war. He had an easy opportunity to insult me and he was missing it....

My eyes snapped to the front as the rods started to move on their own. No way this was actually working! I stopped and they continued to get closer together, and just like that they formed an X with a nice little metallic clack as they touched each other. I dropped the rods and exclaimed, "It worked! I found water! I fou-" At the last instant I felt the air above me change and I looked up to see a large colored sphere hit me in the face from above, exploding water all over my head.

Lance flapped down from higher up, laughing as hard as he could and yelled, "I can't believe that worked! You were dodging that stuff the other day, but I thought 'hey, she looked extra thoughtful today, maybe I can sneak one in.' What do you know, water balloon to the faccccccce!" I stared at him, pieces of water balloon dropping off my face one at a time as he hoof-pumped the air. He looked down and poked the rods with his forehoof. "Hey, why were you putting matchstick holders in your mouth? You can singe your nose sticking your head in the fireplace."

I mumbled some choice words and bent down to pick up the sticks. When I finished putting them in my backpack a large towel landed on my head. I pulled it aside to see Lance closing up his bag. I asked, "You douse me, and then you give me a towel?"

Lance laughed and shrugged, "Can't have you catching a cold for the rest of the week. While the cold itself would be icing on the cake of pranks, I would also be cheated several more days to prank you before Hearth's Warming." I vigorously rub my hair and fur dry, then I chuck the wet towel back at him, muffling his response.

"Whatever. Don't do me no favors, Dork. I have not even begun to fight. And these are not matchsticks. I-" Lance puts his hoof on my muzzle, effectively silencing me more out of surprise than anything else. Before I can slap his hoof away, I notice his eyes are staring at something over my shoulder. I turn around and see several adult thestrals lined up along the road looking out over the swamps. Lance wanders over to them. Excusing his audacity for the moment I follow him over to the line and push through to see what is going on. Far to the south where the swamp has changed over to jungle, there are several lines of fire, though they look more like dotted lines than any continuous advancing wildfire. My father steps up next to me, staring at the jungle as well. I look up and ask, "Father, are those the chocolate trees?"

He blinks and looks at me, as do several other adults. "Why yes, Jen, those fires are located right around the harvest area of the cocoa trees. How did you know about that?"

Lance puffed out his chest and said, "The local rumor is dragons are setting fire to them, driving up the price of chocolate floats." Several of the adults laughed nervously while others shook their heads and started talking among themselves. I groaned at the pompous ass and kicked him in the hindleg softly. Lance exclaimed, "Ow, what was that for?"

"Oh hush. I could have kicked you harder but I can't have you crawling around on three legs to school," and then I lowered my voice, "OR out there, no?" My eyebrows twitched in the direction of the jungle."
Lance got the message and we pulled away from the crowd. He asked, "You are thinking about going out there? Why the change?" We were largely ignored while the adults were discussing getting weapons together and fly down their to see how bad the crop was once the fires died down, chief among them my father.

I had this weird feeling, as though it were on purpose that this was happening. "Something Nightmare Moon said. I would be venturing soon, or some nonsense. She talks about prophecy as though we have no choice, and yet I choose to learn from her instead of running away. A month ago I would not have felt this way. Now, I think I can do something. Or must do something."

I could tell that Lance did not believe me. He sat back and tilted his head, "That is the most wishy-washy answer you have come up with yet. Did that water get into your ears?"

I clenched my jaw and glowered at him, "Fine. I like chocolate. Especially chocolate cake. If those trees get wiped out completely, that means no more chocolate cake and one of the few things left in this world that I can honestly enjoy without anybody else having to be on my team or throw me a ball or move a game piece because my mother can make it and I can enjoy the only worthwhile thing in this world and that's CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!"

The word cake rang off the slopes and out into the swamps. The adults looked at me for a few moments and nodded their agreement, replying to each other, "She's got a point, can't have Hearth's Warming without chocolate cake." I sighed and resumed my walk up the road walking past Lance.

He caught up with me after a moment and said, "Sorry, didn't know you felt that way about chocolate cake. Maybe next time I'll just hit you with that." I snorted and continued walking. In all honestly that could have been a win for both of us had he done so. He continued, "I was thinking we should probably wait until the fires die down, maybe a few days? Like right after Hearth's Warming would be ideal. Everyone is home, nobody out there to tell on us for going into the jungle unsupervised. It'll be fun!"

I looked at him with a surprised expression, "Dork, thinking. I am impressed. Can your brain do other tricks, too? Roll over, play smart?" He growled and was about to retort when I poked him in the side, "Easy boy, easy. You need to roll with those punches, remember? Anyway, that is actually a good assessment of the situation. I am impressed, honest." He gave me a miffed look and nodded.

Then he said, "Have you asked your parents for anything? Hopefully I will get something that helps. It will take several hours to walk out to that area. We will have to pack well." I looked back to the fires and thought about what we would need. Food, water, rope for starters. I honestly hadn't thought about what gift to ask for. I never really needed anything, so the gifts were simply that, gifts. Usually in the form of sweets or some nice item to use in school or a toy. I still couldn't think of anything useful, which meant leaving it to chance. Chance usually favors the foolish. We were very large fools with dreams of taking on the jungle. A fiery dragonish jungle.

I wondered if it was too late to start learning combat.

Author's Notes:

Initially the water divining, or water dousing, was meant as a joke. It adds a little something to the character I think.