Bright Nights

The western horizon shone vididly with burning colors of the setting sun, bright reds, oranges and yellows all stained the sky as the late afternoon turned to dusk and the unbearable desert heat of the day was cooling to a more cooler, welcome temperature. Autumn Delight, first unicorn and leader of a small group of likeminded adventurers and seventh level battle mage, sat in the cool shade of a small cave’s entrance idly using her magic to draw random shapes in the sand, occasionally looking up to examine the endless desert they had been trecking through for the past few weeks, looking for any sign of bandits, creatures of magic and other undesirables that may try their luck attacking them. All was still and quiet. She sighed and rubbed out her random shapes in the sand, restarting the pointless, but oddly ententaining task of recreating the shapes. Sweet goddess keeping watch was so fucking boring.

Sighing, she stood up shaking herself out, dislodging a cloud of dust that had settled into her honey colored coat, and made her way into the deeper and darker depths of the cave. Here, sleeping in the thick shadows were Aziza Fears and his wife Nedra Fears, thestral ponies who couldn’t have foals due to their lifestyle, curled protectively around Diedra and her little brother Sedia, whom the the thestral had unofficially adopted the very same hour the earth pony siblings had joined with the group. Autumn had no idea where their real father was, or even if he was still alive, but their mother had died after a long struggle against cancer. With no real way to support her little brother, Sedia had worked doing odd jobs, some of which involved making private house-calls to strangers were willing to pay a high price for her to bend over and flag her tail. Autumn had been only too willing to give the inseparable siblings a lifestyle full of adventuring and treasure hunting.

Tucked under Nedra’s ever maternal and protective leathery wing was Feralia, the second unicorn of the group, level nine healer and backup battle mage. Feralia had been a freelance nurse traveling all over Equestria looking for well paying jobs, the main worst medical problems she came across were sprained legs, chipped horns and the occasional torn wing, Autumn had offered her a job as their personal medic, which had all of the travel, none of the useless wastes of her immense talent and a salary one hundred times greater than what her freelancing offered. All of them loved the fortunes of finding treasures, they lived for the excitement of exploring new lands and adored making whatever positive difference in the world they could.

Autumn gently shook, prodded and poked each with her magic, trying to rouse them from their sleep. Tired, displeased grumbling came from each of the ponies and they snuggled more tightly against each other intent on getting just a few more minutes of sleep. With a little playful smirk, she used her magic to give each of the ponies’s flanks a single, firm spank. Surprised squeaks of echoed through the cave as each pony, suddenly awake, leaped to their hooves and went about striking up camp.

“For fuck’s sake, Autumn,” Sedia murmured, his voice still thick with tiredness, his eyes fighting to stay open as sorted and shared out that night’s trail rations into six pouches. “Did you have to ake us up like that?”

She gave him an unamused glare. “You gave me the shit watch three days in a row. Tomorrow I’m dumping all of you in a lake.”

“I’ll take tomorrow’s shit watch,” Diedra volunteered, struggling to get the saddlebags containing half their supplies onto her back. Sedia would carry the second pair of saddlebags containing the other half of their supplies.

“Coffee?” Nedra asked, looking with wide, pleading hope filled eyes at Sedia.

“Almost all out,” he commented holding up the large coffee pouch that looked depressingly empty. “Until we get to the next village with a decent market, this is all we have left.”

“Make the rest of it up,” Autumn instructed. “We’re only a night and a half away from the Claws and Talons River. Might as well set out well caffeinated.” Ferlia lit her horn, summoning a small fire, filling the blackened coffee pot with water and levitating it over the magical fire. Once the water was boiling, Sedia added the ground up coffee beans and soon the entire cave was filled with the delicous scent of coffee, teasing everypony’s senses. With nothing else to, they stared entranced at the coffee being, occasionally licking their lips with anticipation.

“And done.” Sedia had barely take the kettle off Feralia’s magical fire, when five cups were instantly thrown at him, their owners unable to wait any longer. The coffee was sweetened with honey, poured equally into the cups and ten minutes later the cups were empty. Autumn threw the coffee dregs into a corner of the cave and walked over to where she had stored her tail gear.

Her trail gear consisted of thick, brown leather boots to prevent her hooves from cracking on the hard desert tracks and half a dozen thick leather straps, each one with different sheaths, pockets or pouches for storing all her various and handy knick knacks. She secured these around various places of her body, trying her best not to think about how it made her look like she was getting ready for some kind of S&M session. The straps were convenient, comfortable and better than saddlebags, that’s all she cared about.

“Aziza, do your maps have any kind of shortcut we can take to get to Talons and Claws River?”

Aziza shared a brief look with his, who gave a little nod. “There is a possible shortcut. It’ll take six hours off our trip...”

“But?” Autumn inquired, knowing there was a catch for such an awesome deal.

“But it’ll involve somehow sailing down the river to Talons and Claws crossing. Without a good sturdy barge we can easily defend and use for protection, the chances of being taken by a pack of shadow cats...”

Autumn sighed with resignation, her mind already made up. "We'll leg it. I'm not taking unnecessary risks with your lives just to get to the village faster."