Vinyl was fixing a meal of soft things, a meal that was very much needed. Instant mash, dehydrated green beans, and instant curry gravy with wheat-meat slivers. Daring Do was sitting up, leaning against Rainbow Dash, and had her eyes closed. Tarnish was propped up against a stack of supplies, trying to recover his own movement because there was still so much left to do.

With some concentration, Tarnish was able to levitate up a small bottle of rye whiskey, which he held out to Daring Do. Turning his head, he said, “A few tiny sips should help kill the pain a bit and hopefully burn out any chance of infection. Drink it slow.”

Reaching out, her movement slow and jerky, Daring Do took the small bottle. She held it for a time, staring at it, but did nothing with it. After a few seconds, Rainbow took the bottle in her fetlock, pulled out the stopper with her teeth, and then passed the bottle to Daring Do, who then took a sip. A rough wheeze could be heard and Daring’s whole face contorted in pain.

“Those stitches will dissolve in time,” Tarnish said to Daring, sounding apologetic. “I’m really sorry I had to cut you. I know that hurt and I feel bad about it. If you’re sore about it, I understand.”

“I’m not mad.” Daring’s voice was a rough, gurgling wheeze, more of a raspy croak than anything else. “Miss Yearling might not like you, but you’re okay in my book.” She then let out a weak, feeble chuckle that made her body shake, then she went still, groaning in pain. Lifting the bottle, she took another sip, swallowed, closed her eyes, and focused on breathing as the bottle came to rest against her barrel.

The pungent tang of turmeric and cardamon filled the cave and Vinyl turned about with her slate. With her chalk, she wrote down some words, writing tiny to preserve space so that she could say what needed to be said all at once. Tarnish, his body heavy, tried to turn his head so that he might see better.

You have a magical concussion. I’m worried. I don’t know if we should go out together. I might go out alone. I’m worried at how your brain is scrambled, but we have an opportunity that is too good to pass up. She wiped the slate clean when Tarnish gave a weak nod, and then begin writing again.

When done, she held it up once more. A shock to the system affects us differently. Some unicorns lose magic, you’ve lost fine motor control. I haven’t seen that before. Tarnish, I’m sorry, but I think I’m going out alone.

After reading, Tarnish replied, “Okay. You trusted me to go out alone, so I guess it’s my turn to trust you. I can stay here and play nurse to Daring.”

Snorting, Vinyl wrote down more words. Daring is in better physical shape than you are. She can move.

Both Daring Do and Rainbow Dash chortled, but Daring’s face twisted into a scowl of intense pain and her chortles did not last. Vinyl began stirring the instant mash while cracking open a tiny tin of butter. She gave a yank on the ring tab and then shook the contents of the tin into the mash bowl. The butter, pale yellow-orange, no doubt coloured with carrot juice, began to steam and melt the instant it landed in the mash.

Frowning, Vinyl began breaking up a 4K bar into the mixing bowl full of boiling hot gravy. An intense look of regret crossed over the unicorn’s face as she ruined what was certain to be a delicious, wonderful gravy by crumbling four thousand calories worth of protein into it. The delightful smell of curry gravy took on a strange funk that filled the cave, and the pleasantness of the meal now retreated into the corners, lost forever.

“We lived,” Rainbow Dash said to her companions, and then she let heave a sigh. “Each of us did what needed to be done to survive. It feels good living… but I’m a little shaken. I think we all are. I’ve been in some tense situations before with my friends… but nothing quite like that.” After a moment of looking a bit forlorn, a grin crossed over Rainbow’s muzzle. “That was awesome what Tarnish did with that shotgun! My ears are still ringing.”

“Yeah… The Royal Pony Sisters.” Tarnish gave Rainbow a sagging smile. “I’m gonna etch me some alicorns on the barrels. Two barrels, two almighty alicorn sisters, it just feels right, ya know?”

“Yeah I do.” Rainbow squirmed a bit, reached around, and adjusted Daring Do’s sitting position. “It’s time to stuff our faces. Daring, I’ll help ya eat. What are friends for?”

“Stitching you back together when you get shot in the neck,” Daring Do replied.

Vinyl was gone, taking advantage of whatever daylight was left. Tarnish was worried, but of course he did his best to hide it. Daring Do was sleeping, having managed to eat a fair bit of her meal—even with her sore throat—and she had drank a third of the bottle of rye whiskey. At the moment, the injured pegasus lay upon her side, and Rainbow Dash was using her as a makeshift table to hold up her book.

Tarnish thought of home. Pebble was there, his great accomplishment, his great achievement. He was pretty proud of what he had done, so much so that he felt the need to boast about it. At least a little part of him would live on, should the worst happen in this place, this dreadful place known as Skyreach.

Blinking with concentration, he levitated the unloaded shotgun in front his face and continued to examine it, familiarising himself with the weapon. He was a lousy shot at any kind of distance, but this weapon suited him. After some thought, he figured he would add this to his arsenal. Sword, shield, whip, and shotgun. Having been exposed to a few firearms, he had never seen one quite like this coach gun. It was made for intimidation, but more than that, it had dropped an automaton today.

It was loud though, and Tarnish didn’t know when his ears would recover.

“Hey, Rainbow…” He kept his voice down so that Daring’s rye whiskey induced slumber wouldn’t be disturbed. “I know this question is pushing it, but I’m bored. Just how close are you and Twilight Sparkle?”

Looking up from her book, Rainbow puckered up her lips and blew her mane out of her eyes. She stared at Tarnish for a time, blinking, and her face was solemn. With a wing, she slipped a bookmark into her book, closed it, and then continued staring at Tarnish, blinking once in awhile. She opened her mouth for a moment, and her lips moved, but no words came out, though her barrel did expand.

“It was a bad idea, I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer.”

Rainbow waved her hoof in a dismissive gesture, and then managed to say, “She is very dear to me. I miss her, a lot. I know what you’re getting at, and a lot of ponies just assume that we are.” She paused, almost smiled, then shook her head. “If circumstances were different, we would be, I think. I’m pretty sure that I could coax her out of her shell.”

“I don’t follow. Circumstances?” Tarnish set the shotgun down atop his folded up cloak.

“Twilight means so much to me that she’s off limits,” Rainbow replied, sighing out the words. “Well, it’s more complicated than that, but that’s what I tell myself. See, I have these rules, the Rules of Rainbow Dash, and everypony I know has a sexual availability factor. I’d jump Twilight’s bones in a hot minute, but due to complications, I can’t. Ever.”

“Why?” Intrigued, Tarnish found that he had to know more.

“Twilight’s friendship is so valuable to me that I would never risk it. Plus, she is my fellow Element of Harmony. If we had a falling out, that might compromise our ability to work together, and that would put the world at risk. So, to save the world and keep it safe, I can’t make Twilight have a sexual awakening.”

“I see,” Tarnish said, not seeing anything and not understanding.

“It’s all very complicated though, you see, because I’ve already had an encounter with one of my fellow Elements—but that was before we were Elements. We were young and stupid and we didn’t know what we were doing, and it was the first time for both of us and it was super awkward, and I’m just really, really glad that we’re both still friends.”

“Fluttershy.” Tarnish was hesitant to even say the word, but he did.

“It was flight camp,” Rainbow replied, whispering out her embarrassment. “Everypony fools around and experiments in flight camp. It was just a bit of touching and looking. She trusted me, and I trusted her, and it was super weird at the time, so neither one of us pushed the other to go any farther than just touching.”

“You called it your first time…”

“Well, we kept touching until something happened,” Rainbow revealed, her voice a squeak. “She, uh, had some practice on herself, I guess, and, she, um, well, she touched me in all the right ways, and because we’re friends, it only seemed right to return the favour.”

“Right.” Tarnish said nothing about how hot it was, two fillies fumbling around with one another, because he didn’t want to ruin the moment. But it was hot, no doubt.

“Flutters has a light touch and she’s really good at it.” Averting her eyes, Rainbow could no longer look at Tarnish. “She’s really, really good at animal husbandry. Farmers far and wide pay her good bits to come and service their breeding stock. Look, it’s really weird to me and I don’t wanna talk about it anymore. I don’t like to think about Flutters jerking off some dumb farm animal because it makes what we shared really weird.” Letting out a flustered huff, Rainbow opened up her book and resumed reading, her face darkened with awkward embarrassment.

Not wishing to cause any further distress, Tarnish did not press the issue and let it drop. His own first time was an experience better left forgotten and certainly not something he wished to talk about. Once more in silence, Tarnish let out a sigh and waited for Vinyl to return. He lifted up his shotgun, held it up in front of him, and tried to work up the courage to begin etching the barrels with his magic.

Author's Notes:

The pay is good!