Daring Do marched through the bush, too tired to fly any further. As heavy was the artifacts she carried were, they were nothing compared to the weight of years upon her bones. She had come here with enough water to last a week, with a guide to help her find the quickest return route, and a hot air balloon to carry them both back to civilization.
Now she had no balloon, no guide and most urgently, no water. What she had was the company of Celestia's Sun, as it baked the sand beneath her hooves.
She was going to die without ever returning the artifacts to their owners.
"You alright, mate?"
Daring stopped in her tracks and turned to stare at the stallion who'd appeared over a nearby boulder. He was a stereotypical outbacker, down to the crocodile teeth on his hat. He looked refreshed, well-fed and most importantly, friendly.
She coughed and reluctantly admitted. "I'm...a little lost."
She had to keep her guard up. Even with the smugglers defeated, there might well be other unsavory types looking to steal back the relics.
"Oh, you won't find much shelter around these parts." He grinned.
"Oh?"
"Yup! Closest waterhole's about 90 clicks west of here." The stallion said, adjusting his hat before jumping down and trotting over. "Name's Snap Shutter."
When she neglected to share her name, he barreled ahead.
"Me and the wife have been looking for the Yowie for the past moon. Know the area like the back of our hoof by now. You should join us for the night. We've got tucker to spare and to be honest, we could use a little company!"
Daring frowned. In her experience, those who lived on the outskirts of society, tended to be a lot less welcoming. Still, she would rather die on her hooves, fighting off smugglers, than drown in thirst.
"Alright...lead on."
When she first saw the cages full of fauna, she assumed she'd been lured into a poacher's camp. Her concerns were quickly assuaged though. The tenderness with which Snap and his wife treated their specimens, as well as the enthusiasm with which they described the details of their work, couldn't be feigned.
Once thirsts had been slaked and hungers quenched, the comfort of idle chat gave way to the as yet unspoken question of what Daring was doing out here all by her lonesome.
"I was traveling with somepony...but we ran into some trouble along the way we were headed." She admitted, when she'd at last slaked a day and a half worth of thirst. "Now, they don't want anything to do with me."
"Oh." Mane Allgood shared a look with her husband. "Well, umm, what were you doing out here? What do you do for work?"
Daring considered how much more honesty she was going to let out. "I'm a travel writer." She finally decided on.
"Oh! I mean, that explains it! You...wouldn't happen to have any books on you? We're a little desperate for new reading material." Allgood said, with strained smile.
"No...I'm sorry, I don't." Daring watched the hope fade from their faces with a pang.
Snap moved over to his more than a little disappointed wife. "We've been reading our daughter's letters to each other every night...I think we can probably recite them all off the top of our heads by now."
Daring frowned. "You have a daughter?"
"Yes, back in Ponyville. Would you like to see a picture?"
"She's a chip off the old block that one. Always gettin' into trouble with her friends...but does she ever make us proud!"
Daring smiled as she surrendered to the warmed waves of parental pride. Eventually though, the oppressive isolation of their circumstances suffocated all attempts at distraction.
"This was the last letter we got from her..." Mane Allgood admitted, producing a dust-stained page. "That was three weeks ago."
"She sends letters every week, though." Snap said quickly. "There'll be three more of them waiting for us when we get back to town."
Mane Allgood didn't seem to hear him. She just stared at the worn, wrinkled message.
Daring coughed. "I should...probably be on my way." The sun had gone down by now, but even the cold desert wind was preferrable to staying the night with two ponies who wanted to be alone.
"No, no...stay! Please...I'm sorry for oversharing." Mane Allgood said, as Snap wrapped a hoof around her shoulders. "It's just...we've been away from ponies for so long...sometimes it feels easier to talk to the animals."
Daring cleared her throat. "I don't mean to pry...but if you miss your daughter so much...why stay away for so long?"
Snap chuckled. "World won't fix itself, ya'know."
Daring laughed as well. "Believe me, I know. I've...spent most of my life trying to do the right thing. But...no matter how hard I try, there's always another leak to fix. Always somecreature in need..."
She stared at the sand for a moment, watching the flicker of the campfire play across it.
"Neither of you should feel guilty. I've left a lot of creatures who needed me behind in my life...you still have somepony waiting for you when you get back."
She could feel their stares on her. But right now, she didn't want sympathy. Or reassurance. She wanted to be alone again in the vast emptiness. Free of future and past.
There was no redemption for ponies like her. They belonged to the ruins and the wilds and a world unremembered.
Always had. Always would.
"I should go."
She got a few strides away before she heard Allgood gasp. When she glanced back, their tear-stained faces were tilted upwards, backlit by the campfire, but front lit by something green and red and blue and pink.
Daring Do followed their gazes.
In all her travels, she'd never seen anything quite like it. It was everything she'd never had time for. Everything that she'd thought she didn't need.
And it was brighter than any rainbow, as it danced with the stars.
