When Vinyl Scratch came through the door, Tarnished Teapot almost lost his mind. So overcome with relief as well as a desire to show his affection, he let out a muffled wicker and pulled his fellow unicorn to him, causing her to drop the arm cannon she had entered with. She seemed a little surprised, but he failed to notice, and he began pulling off her protective outerwear so that he might see that she was, indeed, okay.

Outside, beyond the still open door, the wind howled as darkness began to overtake Skyreach valley. Rainbow put the door plug back into place and made certain it was secure while Tarnish overreacted to Vinyl’s return. With the door now shut, no more precious heat was leaking out, which they had very little of. The hot rocks had cooled off quite a bit in Vinyl’s absence.

Groggy, and perhaps a tiny bit hungover, Daring Do groaned, blinked a few times, and then, in a slow, cautious manner, she sat up, mindful of her neck. The wound had scabbed over already—it didn’t look near as bad as it did earlier, though it was still quite red and puffy. When the blankets fell away from her, she shivered a bit, as the cave was now a bit chilly.

Pushing Tarnish away, Vinyl shook with silent laughter, and she began to peel off some of her many layers. Rainbow began to examine the second arm cannon, which seemed far more intact than the first. This one had more bits and bobs still connected, and all of the crystalline structures were still whole, or appeared to be to Rainbow.

Levitating her slate, Vinyl began writing in a hurry, and her chalk squeaked a few times as she wrote out the words, I figured out how to use it. There was a fight too. I got to test it on a group of automaton scouts. Headshots.

“Really?” Tarnish, now worried, managed to get his limp forelegs around her and he pulled her closer.

Snorting, Vinyl scribbled out a few more words after wiping the first batch away. One shot, one kill. Very powerful. I gave it too much power though. When Tarnish and the others had finished reading, she cleared these words away and hurried to add more. Broke sound barrier, made big crack, brought more scouts. Less power = silent weapon.

“So this takes them down in a hurry?” Rainbow almost looked relieved, and she let out a gasp when Vinyl’s head began bobbing up and down. “So if you have this thing for long range and Tarnish has that shotgun for close range, we should be set. It’s amazing how tough those mechanoids are. I hope we have the means to take them out.”

Vinyl began writing out her reply, using tiny letters so she could fit more on the slate. I took out 15 of them with headshots. No trouble at all, except for that first shot that almost got me noticed. I was up in a tree, raining down death from above. Pop! Pop! Pop!

“Fifteen?” Tarnish looked incredulous and one eyebrow lifted. It wasn’t that he doubted Vinyl, she wasn’t one for lying or boasting, but it was just such a sharp contrast to the near death experience of earlier this day.

I recovered all the available ammo I could find, too. It uses so little magic… just a little tiny spark of electricity to kick off the initial reaction that creates a magnetic pulse that pushes the bullet out.

“That’s incredible.” Daring Do’s voice was scratchy and she grimaced in pain while she spoke. “We might actually survive this now… I cannot express how relieved I am.”

I’ll do better if I have Rainbow as my spotter. She has better eyes than I do.

“All the more reason to stick together.” Rainbow, ecstatic, happy, and in need of a hug, fell upon Tarnish and Vinyl.

I used 50 shells to trap bodies. Took me a bit to figure out how to do it. Used magical ignition wards. When they come to reclaim scrap, there will be much big boom. Vinyl bowed her head down and kissed Tarnish on the cheek. Afterwards, she wrote down a few more words. I think we’re going to be okay. You fix me food now. Right?

“Right, I’ll see what I can throw together,” Tarnish replied as he made his body flop around.

Tarnish was the first pony awake and he watched over his sleeping companions. He felt fine after a good night’s sleep, and everything seemed to be working again. It was cold, the rocks were in need of heating again, but he didn’t have the heart to wake Vinyl just yet. She had been exhausted last night after returning, and heating the rocks before bed had been the breaking point.

She needed rest. Yesterday, her limit had been reached. That was true for all of them, in some way or another. He had discovered that his telekinesis was not strong enough to deal with bullet impacts. Daring Do had discovered that getting shot was really unpleasant. Rainbow Dash had talked about her close quarters fighting and how she worried that she couldn’t deal with more than one before she had closed her eyes to go to sleep.

Yet, it was on their worst day since the crash that hope had returned. Vinyl had a new weapon, a powerful one, and it required minimal energy to operate. Tarnish was hopeful that they had a fighting chance now. Smiling, he began soaking some dehydrated potato, pepper, and onion slivers so they could reconstitute, because he planned to make hash browns. A few packets of powdered eggs were pulled out—he hated them but they were nourishing. This morning, there would be coffee as well as tea, and he had choices for coffee. Freeze dried instant coffee, or the real thing. There was a camp coffee pot that he was quite skilled at making work with just his magic alone, no need for a fire.

The decision was made to use the real thing, because it was just that sort of morning.

Turning about, he discovered one very awake Rainbow Dash just staring at him with interest. She was still wrapped in covers, and her blue face just peered out at him from beneath the dull green woollen blankets. After a moment of intense scrutiny, Tarnish began chortling while he continued to fix breakfast.

“Heya, Tarnish…”

“What, Rainbow?”

“Do you believe that true love can be held back by bodies?”

Pausing, Tarnish took a moment to think of what Rainbow meant, and did so in silence.

“I mean, loving something that is different than you.”

“Like the forbidden love between horned unicorns and horny earth ponies?”

Covering her mouth by pulling the blanket over it, Rainbow began to snigger and her withheld laughter caused Daring Do to stir in her sleep. Tarnish grinned, feeling clever, but also aware that Rainbow might have meant something else. There were, however, in Tarnish’s experience, certain assholes that did not approve of unicorns and earth ponies living together.

“The body is just a vessel for the mind, right?” Rainbow’s half-awake eyes blinked once while she uncovered her mouth. “So what if you fell in love with the mind and the body didn’t matter? Like, loving a griffon, or a dragon, or something not a pony. Could you look past the outside and love whatever is inside?”

Musing on these words, Tarnish stirred the dehydrated vegetables and one ear twitched as the coffee began to percolate through the maker. He didn’t put much stock into tribal nationalism, or whatever it was called, so why should a body make a difference? It was true that he loved Maud for her mind, but her body was nice too. Then again, it was just a body, a warm, receptive body, one that just happened to be pony shaped. After some deep thought, Tarnish knew that he would love Maud no matter what form she took.

“I think I could,” he said to Rainbow, and Daring Do peeked out from beneath the pile of blankets. “Morning, Daring.”

“Coffee?” Daring croaked, her voice sounded awful.

“The real thing, too.” Tarnish gave the not-quite-awake mare a nod. “So, Rainbow, what’s with the questions?”

“I dunno.” Rainbow shrugged beneath the blankets and shook her head. “I just wake up sometimes with big thoughts in my head. I do my best thinking while napping. I woke up this morning and thought to myself, ‘Self, the honeymoon is over. Show them you are an egghead.’ And so I did. And so we’re having this conversation right now, because I feel I can bare my soul and share anything with you.”

“Huh.” Tarnish couldn’t argue with that. Sometimes, he awoke bursting with thoughts and a pressing need to talk about them, much to the dismay of everypony else in the bed. Fond memories warmed Tarnish from within, and he hardly noticed the cold, chilly air of the cave.

With a blanket wrapped around her, Daring Do struggled to get into a sitting position and Rainbow helped her move. She groaned and moaned a bit, but managed to get upright. A look of intense need was in her eye as she eyed the coffee pot, and her head had an unsteady bob upon her neck. Rainbow, now also sitting up, pulled Daring into an affectionate hug.

“Vinyl used so much magic yesterday.” Daring’s voice was a grating, almost ghoulish raspy creak, like an old door hinge that had not been oiled in centuries. “Tarnish, I don’t know her as well as you do. Can she keep this up? Can she recover?”

With a half-turn of his head that brought Daring into the corner of his vision, he nodded. “Vinyl isn’t like other wizards where she blows her magical load and then is done for the night. She’s got endurance. Though I’m betting that casting fifty magical ignition wards might have took a fair bit out of her.”

“Good.” Daring sounded grim. “Today, we’re fetching the sledge.”

“What?” This time, Tarnish turned to stare at Daring. “Nope.”

“Don’t back talk me,” Daring snapped. “My throat is sore, but I’m not in mortal danger. We need those supplies, and I’m dying to know if the booby traps worked. We’re going, don’t argue with me.”

“Fine.” Turning back around, Tarnish poured himself a cup of tea. “Aye aye, Boss.”

“That’s right… hoist the black flag… today, we’re slitting throats. I want stuff done with this momentum we have.” Daring’s face hardened into a black scowl and she eyed Rainbow Dash beside her. “Vinyl gave her one-hundred and ten percent yesterday. We can do no less.”

“But first, we’re having breakfast…”

Author's Notes:

Now: domination and exploration.