The cots were set into the wall and stacked one atop the other. They weren't designed with pegasi in mind, and it might have been a little difficult to find a comfortable position for their wings if they weren't quite so exhausted. Ultimately they ended up crashing on their bellies, Dash on the top bunk and Ditzy on the bottom.

Dash awoke first and rolling out of bed without opening her eyes, having forgotten where she was. Her fall woke Ditzy.

"Dash?" said Ditzy, peering through her hair. She tried to blow it out of her face, but it was being stubborn. "What time is it?"

"I don't know." said Dash, pushing herself to her knees and taking a moment to find her balance before standing up. "I haven't seen a clock since we got here."

It was then that Dash remembered where they were, and more importantly why they were there.

"We should go. I don't want to keep Twilight waiting and risk a lecture on timeliness." said Dash, running her fingers through her hair in lieu of a proper brushing.

Ditzy slipped out of bed and adjusted her mane, moving it out of the way of one of her eyes but making sure to keep the other covered.

In the bathroom across the aisle the two of them found a mirror and sink, both of which they used to wet their hair and manage some of the frizziness. There was also some watered-down mouthwash and a stack of disposable cups, which they also made use of before emerging from the prefab and into the cavern once more.

Oddly, nothing seemed to have changed outside. The lights were still on and the diggers were still at work. They didn't notice any-pony new in the prefab on their way out, but they could have just been in one of the other rooms.

They popped over to the other structure and stood before the door, which was wider than the one to the habitation unit. It opened after a moment and the both of them stepped inside, shoulder to shoulder.

The interior of this one was mostly just open space with a few tables and a decent amount of clutter.

"Oh! Hey guys!" Twilight suddenly sat up from under a pile of papers, her mane a mess. "What time is it?" she said, yawning as she spoke.

Neither Dash nor Ditzy had an answer, but followed Twilight's gaze to a wall-mounted clock.

"Oh gosh, you two must have been waiting forever!" she said, standing up suddenly
and planting her hands on the desk, causing sheets of paper to scatter into the air.

"Actually, we only just woke up too." said Ditzy.

"Oh, well that's a relief." said Twilight, looking around for her mug. She found it on top of a thick journal with coffee rings all over the cover. She brought it over to a wall-mounted machine exactly like the one in the habitation unit and filled it with piping hot coffee.

There didn't appear to be any-pony else in the building, though there were a couple of doors in the far wall that might have been a bathroom and dormitory.

"Ah!" sighed Twilight, clasping the mug with both hands and holding it close to her chest. "Alright. Before I give you two your new assignment I have some explaining to do.

"The reason we needed those chemicals was to catalyze an explosive reaction. When properly combined they form a compound that, when mixed with the gas from the toxic clouds, results in a catastrophic detonation." said Twilight.

Ditzy was mortified. "Why would you possibly want something like that?" she asked.

"It has to do with the source of the clouds." Twilight said. "According to our last survey they are actually rising up from a series of fissures at the bottom of the valley, and that's not all. We–well, I believe that the expulsion of toxic gas isn't geothermal in nature, but rather a biochemical compound being expelled from something very, very large."

Ditzy followed along as best she could, and by the end she had an image in her mind of a dragon, like the beast that had nearly eaten her and Dash during their delivery, only bigger and underground.

"Woah, hold on. You mean this whole valley is being poisoned by some kind of monster?" asked Dash, more disturbed than skeptical.

Twilight nodded. "I need you to carry the explosives to..." she paused, moving things around on another desk until she had revealed a map of the valley.

"Here!" she said, tapping the spot with her finger.

"There should be a hole in the ground from which the highest amount of vapor is emitted, according to our scouts. You just have to arm the device and toss it in."

"But why do you need us to do it? What about the scouts?" asked Dash.

"We don't have any other pegasi here. Once the device is armed there won't be much time before it detonates, igniting the vapor in a chain reaction that will torch the entire valley." said Twilight grimly.

Dash was aghast. "What? Are you crazy?" she yelled. "What about you?"

"The bunker is free of the poison and has been reinforced to withstand an earthquake." said Twilight. "As for the valley, nothing has been able to survive the miasma brought on by the creature, so there is no need to be concerned about plant and animal life."

Somehow that wasn't much of a relief.

"If everything is already dead, what's the point?" asked Dash.

"I don't believe the creature is native to this valley, which is why it was incompatible with the ecosystem. If it moved once it could move again, this time somewhere further East." said Twilight.

Ditzy and Dash thought about their homes, and their friends.

"This is our best chance to stop it. The valley keeps the vapor trapped and concentrated enough for my plan to work." Twilight said.

“Can I count on you?”

Author's Note

With this the first part gives way to the second. Hopefully it wasn’t too tedious. I wanted to have some fun with the characters interacting in the outpost environment. I actually had to cut some stuff out that had too much to do with Twilight, since she already takes up a lot of this chapter with her exposition.