The moon shone far above among the twinkling stars and the air was filled with the sound of the jungle outside the camp.

The airship was visible mostly as a pitch black silhouette against the stars behind it. The camp had been set up at one side of it, tents stretched up as Captain Jetstream had set the ship as off limits for everypony that didn’t absolutely need to be onboard until the full inspection of the lifting thingamajig had been completed.

It was still gas, but it wasn’t a lifting gas, it did something to air and it sounded at Midnight's explanation like it reversed gravity on the air or something.

To be completely honest, I didn’t quite follow her explanation, what i got out of it was that thing do thing to air that make it lift.

All I knew was that they wanted to be sure nothing would break and have the ship roll over and explode before they let more ponies than necessary onboard.

Something howled out in the darkness and everypony in the camp jerked up slightly, ears turning in all all directions.

I tried not to roll my eyes.

Ponies could really be such nervous herd animals sometimes. That wasn’t even close. I yawned and looked around the camp. The tents were gathered in groups around the crackling fires and ponies were gathered in groups around the fires other than the guards patrolling the edges of the camp.

We got almost half the walls installed during the day and quite frankly, my horn hurt from cutting tree trunks into quarters all day.

I had never practiced magic like that in the past, casting such a high power spell all day really did take it out of you.

I now understood fully why they normally used saws instead of just hiring a unicorn for the job even if it took longer.

I reached up to touch my horn with a small cringe before I sighed and dropped my hoof again.

“Smarts?” Midnight asked from across the fire from me, glancing up from the crate she had put laid out a map and a couple of books on.

“Yeah,” I admitted, “Not used to casting like that.”

I had spent all day casting cutting spells strong enough to split tree trunks. I was not used to casting like that, it was exhausting.

She nodded, “I know how that feels, done that more than once myself,” she said and shrugged her wings, “Well… I confirmed Captain Jetstreams estimation of our position.”

“Far off course?” Tempest asked from next to her.

Midnight shook her head, “We did drift quite a bit,” she said, “But we’re only a day of our estimated course and about a day and a half of flight out from where we planned to start.”

“But that was only an estimate,” Moon Dancer told her from the right, “We’re already in the search area so as soon as the camp is secure, we can send out the scouts.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” I asked, “I mean, the ship’s not moving for… what, two weeks? We’ll need that much to do a grid search of this area anyway, won’t we?”

Midnight smiled and nodded, “It is,” she said and sighed, “While I’d prefer a bit of a gentler way of getting here, at least we’re in the right place.”

I slowly got up, “I’m going to stretch my legs a bit,” I said and when Tempest moved to get up, I motioned for her to lay back down, “Relax, I’ll stay inside the perimeter.”

Like Amber wouldn’t tackle me as soon as I crossed that invisible line anyway. Or at least look at me disapprovingly.

Tempest looked at me and then sank down again.

I smiled at them and then I turned and walked away from the light of the fire. The night was cooler than the day, but nowhere near cold which suited me just fine.

The air was filled with scents and sounds and sadly insects.

Luckily at least one of us has planned for this(Midnight) and thought ahead to bring enough bug repellant potion for everypony as part of the expedition supplies.

So at least the buggies weren’t interested in me, they just buzzed around annoyingly, making me flick my tail in their general direction when they got close.

Now away from the fire, my eyes easily adapted to the darkness and I could see clearly. I sniffed the air as I slowed slightly. I could smell so much of the forest, even if my ability to smell wasn’t that much better than a normal pony.

Something was decomposing in the distance. Something was giving of a sickly sweet smell too. I could still smell the moisture from the rain last night, but now the sky was clear as far as we could see.

“Best stay inside the perimeter,” Swift said as he walked up to me from the side, “Predators hunt during the night.”

I shook my head and looked at him, “They mostly come out at night. Mostly.”

“Yeah, which is why we’re doing eight hour shifts,” he agreed and blinked at me, “...Your eyes are kinda glowing.”

“It’s the nightvision. Thestrals see a lot better than other ponies at night. Most night predators have the same thing.”

“Like a cat?”

“Like a cat,” I agreed and nodded, looking towards the edge of the cleared area and the jungle there, “Swift, have a look towards the edge. What do you see?”

He turned his head to look in that direction, “Dark jungle.”

“Don’t turn your back to it,” I told him casually, “Because I’m seeing five sets of eyes reflecting light.”

Swift froze and I could see him swallow, “Big?”

“No, smaller than a pony but not by much. Might be wolves. But let’s not tempt them more than we need to, shall we?” I said before I half closed my eyes to protect from the glare before I lit my horn and sent a flare of light in their general direction before detonating it in a small thunderclap of sound.

The eyes instantly disappeared and there was a sound of breaking branches and rustling leaves.

That’ll make them keep their heads down for a bit.