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Repercussions

by Hiver

Chapter 59

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The moon was rising in the distance and a small fire was happily crackling before the doorway of the stone structure.

I used my fang to pierce the thick hide of the red fruit before putting it between my hooves to pull it fully open to reveal the sweet tasting insides and passing it over to Dee, “Here.”

“Thanks,” she said and discarded her already empty one to the side, pulling the new one close as I opened a new one for myself as well.

Not sure what they were, but neither of us had seemed to have a bad reaction to them after we tried them a couple of hours ago, so we figured they were safe enough to eat. They tasted sweet and a bit like sugary grapes.

“How’s your horn feeling?” Dee asked and raised her head from her fruit, ears flicking towards the forest at the sound of a howl far in the distance.

“Aches badly,” I admitted and glanced up at it, “I don’t think there is anything permanently broken, but it doesn't feel better than this morning either. I think my magic is out of commission until I get somepony to look at it.”

Or at least I really, really, really hope so because if the pain is permanent, I’m going looking for an Ursa to break it off.

Dee nodded and glanced up against the moon, “Think you can find everypony?”

“As long as they are asleep,” I reassured her, “And Midnight knows that and she’ll know I’ll try to make contact. If she’s in a place where she safely can, she’ll be asleep. Speaking of which,” I said and pushed my fruit away, “I think it may be late enough to give it a try.”

Dee nodded, “I take the first guard,” she said and shifted a bit to look out towards the forest below.

“I’ll tell you when I know anything,” I said and scooted a bit further from the fire, doing my best to get comfortable on the cool stone and putting my head down on my hooves.

“Here,” Dee said and her shirt slid over in a bundle to me.

“...Thanks,” I admitted and bundled it up, putting my head down on the soft fabric. I may have some pride, but there are limits to what I might complain about.

I closed my eyes and tried my best to relax, feeling the slight wind from the doorway bringing along the warmth from the fire, the scent of smoke and jungle. The cool stone beneath me.

I did my best to ignore the sacrificial altar a meter and a half from my left, but it still took awhile for me to finally drift off to sleep but in the end I found myself in the dream realm once more.

Shifting the dreams around, I found that Luna was awake still, likely organizing our rescue, especially as Celestia and Twilight were all awake too. Sunset too.

But Midnight was asleep.

I quickly rearranged the dream portals by physical position from me. Some were alone, but most were gathered in small groups of two or three, hopefully with some still awake and keeping watch.

Midnight was with the biggest group some fifteen kilometers almost directly north of our position. Fifteen kilometers!?

Seriously!? Sure, we walked all day, but we hardly moved very fast and couldn’t have gone that far.

She teleported us over a dozen kilometers!?

Damn, Midnight. I could do maybe a hundred meters and that’s if it was open air and I had time to focus on it. I so have the wrong cutiemark. Can I switch for hers?

I stepped up to her dream portal and touched my horn to it, walking through into a nightmare of running through a dark jungle.

I didn’t bother with anything fancy, I just tapped my hoof and canceled it, replacing it with a bright forest clearing.

Midnight skidded to a halt and she looked at me in surprise before she relaxed, “Thank Celestia! You’re alright!”

I nodded, “I’m fine,” I said and moved up to give her a quick hug, “What happened?”

Midnight shook her head and hugged back tightly for a long moment before she sat down and sighed, “When the… thing..”

“I call it a rexosaurus.”

She shook her head, “When the rexosaurus resisted my spell and when you collapsed,” she explained, “I...I just needed to get everypony out, nothing we had could touch it. So I… I panicked and just teleported everypony away.”

I nodded, “I figured something like that,” I admitted, “You’re at the campsite now?”

Midnight nodded, “I teleported back this morning and checked. It’s gone, but I couldn’t find everypony. Are they…”

“I’m detecting just over a hundred asleep,” I said gently, “I don’t know about the rest. Moon Dancer? Amber?”

“Moon Dancer was still awake when I went to sleep,” Midnight explained, “Tempest is fine too.”

“I know,” I agreed, not mentioning I noticed that Tempest's position had been very close to Midnight, “And Amber? Swift?”

Midnight shook her head, “I couldn’t find her to teleport out but I found her at the camp when we returned. She’s been buzzing from worry, she’ll be so glad to know you’re alright. I don’t know about Swift, I haven’t seen him. You’re alone?”

I stretched my wings and sighed, “I’m with one of the expedition pegasi, Dee Dee. We have taken cover for the night at some temple ruins we found almost fifteen kilometers south of you. We’ll be able to fly back to camp tomorrow now when we know where it is relative to us.”

She nodded and her ears drooped, “A hundred ponies… almost thirty ponies unaccounted for…”

I hugged her again, “I’m sure they are okay,” I told her.

Midnight shook her head, “In this jungle? I...I…” she started before she sighed, “No, Page. I bucked up and this time it’s not just me and Spike. I may have gotten ponies killed with that spell.”

“You did your best, nopony can ever ask more. And if anypony bucked up, it’s me. I wanted this expedition, I pushed for it.”

“But I organized it, I put it together,” Midnight said, shaking her head as she looked at me, “And I bucked up big with my spell. If I had put everypony together instead of spreading out, everypony would still be safe!”

“Midnight,” I said and shook my head, “What you did was amazing all on its own. You teleported almost a hundred and forty ponies out of there in seconds with no warning. Nopony could have possibly done better.”

“I don’t seem to do anything but buck up lately,” Midnight said and shook her head, “...I’m glad you’re safe. Can you tell the others how they get back?”

“Of course,” I said, “But you can’t blame yourself for anything that’s happened, it’s not your fa-”

Midnight shook her head and turned away, the dream dissolving.

I woke up with a jerk, blinking in the darkness and the flickering light of the small fire. What the… I didn’t know Midnight knew enough dream magic to force a wakeup like that!? I mean, I could have stopped it easily, but I didn’t expect her to even try!

Dee looked over to me, “Did you find them?”

“Yeah,” I said and took a deep breath, “I’ll contact the other groups and direct them how to get towards the basecamp,” I told her, “How long was I out?”

“Maybe an hour. It’s been quiet so far. You should go back to sleep.”

I nodded in agreement and put my head back down again, closing my eyes. Let’s see how many I can find, one from each group should be enough.

Next Chapter: Chapter 60 Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 52 Minutes
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