1Bit

"Well, knowing the dork patrol, they'll probably be doing dorky things with it. They'll probably find a way to make sand sound even more boring than it already is." Amber groaned. Returning the sand would probably lead to yet another situation where all the scientist ponies gather round sorting everything out, with the two of them off to the side doing bugger all. "I guess we were at least useful for once. Although I doubt we'll be needed once all the science-y stuff is thrown back into the mix. Yay for being background ponies." She muttered a curse under her breath, returning to her task with even less enthusiasm than before.

"Hey, if it gets us air, its worth it right?" She grinned, hugging Solar nice and tight. "It's pretty damn boring, but it won't take us long at all." She helped in gathering as much of the sand as possible, testing it in the tubes and placing stores of it in her saddlebags. Perhaps the two not-nerds could be useful after all. Who would've guessed?

"Well I dunno! I just know this sand is wet. And wet means mission accomplished." She grinned smugly, grabbing some of the sand in her hooves. "Now, uh, what are we meant to do with it?" Her eyes grew wide and she facehoofed. Hard. "I have already completely forgotten what Scarlett told me to do. Um...um...vials!" It all clicked in her head and she fumbled around until her hooves found the vials she'd been given. "Got it!" She stuffed the wet sand into the vial, which contained a small amount of water and continued to do so until every single one was filled. She urged Solar to do the same. She fumbled with the vials, cursing under her breath, but her look of annoyance changed to one of bemusement as the solution began to whir and she noticed she had accidentally activated a button on the side.

"I doubt it's an oasis, zippy." She ran her hoof through the sand, looking around and realising the two were surrounded by sand similar. "y'know...this might actually be what we're looking for! How crazy is that? We actually did something!" Amber bounced around excitedly.

"AAAAH F-" She faceplanted. Although she also tried to yell as she fell. Her reward? A mouth full of sand. "Yuck yuck yuck yuck!" Her hooves scrambled to get as much of it off her tongue as possible, but she froze in the middle of doing so. "Wait a thecond!" Her words were slurred by having her tongue poked out. "Tholar! Wet Thand!"

Amber giggled, playfully nudging the mare ever so slightly as she tried to pull one pose, making her fall flat on the sand. "Come on Solar, miss bossy pony wants us to find wet sand, so we gotta get wet sand." She rolled her eyes, lifting Solar back up onto her feet. "Now come on, otherwise Scarlett will think we're slacking or something."

"Wooh, we come all the way out here for some sand and water. Well, I guess we found the sand at least. Go team." She muttered unenthusiastically, kicking up a bit of the sand under her hoof. "But funnily enough, sand and water don't mix often." She laughed a bit, but begrudgingly returned to scouring the ground for any source of this watery sand thing that Scarlett wanted. The dunes they were in were so large that most of the low-hanging sunlight was blocked out, making large shadows cover the ground.

"Thank you for leaving feedback, valued customer." She grinned devilishly at Solar. "I'm sure we can make the in-flight movie more...interesting next time." She winked, getting the last of the sand off her suit. "Meh, I dunno who he is." She squinted trying to see the pony a bit more clearly, but the sun was a painful blocker. "Maybe he was some important pony back at Icarus, I don't care. But y'know, I guess we might as well follow whatever orders he just gave." A pause. "...what orders did he just give?"

SOLAR OMG, AMBER IS LITERALLY WAITING FOR YOU TO SAY SOMETHING ;-; pls I beg *snugs*

RIP in peace RP

ima send you a message >.> I haz planz for dramaticness

"That's right Solar! This way!" Amber snickered, plummeting down into the dunes with Solar in front. It didn't take long for them to hit the sand, both rolling downwards into the lower contours and dugouts until they came to a sliding halt as the sand below them flattened out. "Thank you for using Amber Airlines, please take care when removing your seatbelt and take the door on your left."

"well A: there's a lot of dunes to cover, so it'll be easier if we split up at this point." Amber snapped her head around to Flame in the distance. "And B: her impressions are actually amazing. Well...they make me laugh anyway. B-but still...! They're good!" Before anyone could say any remarks, she grabbed Solar from behind and used the extra muscle of the suit to push her at a lightning fast speed towards the dunes in the distance, disappearing out of sight.

Amber couldn't help but snicker at that. Solar did a surprisingly great impression of Scarlett; even if the voice was a little uncanny. "Pfft, okay, that was pretty good actually." Amber's grin grew wider as a sinister thought latched itself onto her mind. "You would think only...family could do it so well." She nudged Solar in the side. "You never know, maybe you might be poor little Scarlett's long lost daughter!"

Ooo! Corbulo attendee If you put that, I'm guessing your aware of it all being based off of the one in Forward Unto Dawn then? Because it'll definitely be cool having another character from it.

Ambers' focus drifted from Scarlett's family affairs back to the mission at hand in little to no time, as she realised what was at stake. They needed that air. "Alright Solar, how about we start over there?" She pointed Solar towards a large field of dunes which seemed to jut off to the side ever so slightly. It seemed logical that, as there was only two of them, they could search a smaller area off in the distance while the rest of the group cover the larger area. "We might get lucky and find whatever it is that Scarlett needs. Although, I feel I'll need to ask her at least three more times before I get it through my thick skull what exactly it is." She laughed, altering her trajectory to the east so that she was directly on course for the area she mentioned.

"What do you mean it's not good enough, mom?" Amber chirped in with her own nasally, nerd voice, trying to hard to contain her giggles. "I used WEAPONS-GRADE plutonium! How is that not good enough for you? Gawd mom, you just don't understand me." A faint snicker left her lips. "Oh dude, it would be so perfect! I can totally imagine her daughter like that!"

"I...I..." Amber stumbled over her words, and even struggled to stay in the air as the realisation came down on top of her like a ton of bricks. She'd somehow never imagined Scarlett to be the type of pony to have a daughter! The two ponies she and Solar were watching continued to converse, but Amber couldn't make out any more details so instead shook it off and continued the search. She beckoned Solar to follow her with one hoof, and when the other pegasus was close she slid in next to her. "Scarlett has a daughter? When in Celestia's name could that have happened? She doesn't even look that old!" Amber's frustrations and confusion all came to a small boil now, but that might have been more due to the fact they were in a desert. "And plus, who in the hay could it even be?" Her frown turned into a smirk. "Probably even more geeky and science-y than she is. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that was the case. Like mother, like daughter."

Amber didn't hear much during her incredibly speedy flight to the dune, but one word riding the wind resonated with her. Daughter? What was that about a daughter? Amber thought to herself, searching around for where the word came from. She quickly spotted Scarlett conversing with another pony and she looked completely bemused. Amber hovered in the clear sky, with a hoof to her chin as she put two and two together. Wait... "A DAUGHTER?!" She exclaimed, her words being thrown around with the sand. "Scarlett has a daughter?!"

"Oh come on Solar! How can you not know what a dune is?" She giggled at the mare, raising the sand guard up so her vision became clearer. "I mean, one of the most famous science-fiction books of all time was named after them. Then again, that was hundreds of years ago." She shrugged, licking her lips as they started to become dry. The spell may have cooled her off, but she felt her body getting drier by the second. Seeing Flamestreak zoom on up ahead, she felt no reason to hold back herself. Might as well use the suit while she had it. She smirked at Solar. "Hey zippy, try and keep up, yeah." She gave the pegasus an encouraging bump against her flank, winking. Within a second, she was off into the air, leaving a trail of sand behind her.

"I-I don't need a...mmf." Amber muttered under the guard, her words having a tinny edge to them now. "Thanks, Solar. Thanks a lot." She smiled despite there being no way for Solar to see it or acknowledge it. But the guard did also fortunately hide her blush. Why did she even have a khaki brown coat? Might as well just make it permanently crimson and save herself the embarrassment. "I'd say we should all stick together, at least until we get closer to the dunes." Amber suggested, turning her attention to Scarlett.

"Well, uh, anyway..." Amber cleared her throat, searching the horizon for what seemed like the most promising direction to go in to find this lake bed thing. While the haze made things difficult, Amber could just make out a large, quite hilly incline to the north-west through squinted eyes. "Hmm, I'm thinking we might have some luck that-a-way. At least, there's a good chance there'll be something there. I mean, there's a ton of sand dunes and hills as far as I can see."