Nebula had stayed with them for the rest of the day, but any efforts to bring back Tectonic's voice were failures.
"Will he ever talk again?" Celestial asked, worry creeping into the edges of her voice.
Nebula looked at her sadly.
"I don't know," she replied.
Tectonic was still going to help, though. As long as no one killed him, he'd fight until the end.
And then he got an idea.
He ran outside of the cave, very, very fast. Down to the river, they had passed it only a little while ago. He found a rock, a big one. Breathing acid onto it, he burned a sort of divit into the surface. It was now a barrel. He filled it with water from the river, then grabbed a stick. He quickly scurried back to his friends.
"What the-" Orbit said. "What do you need that for..?"
He took the stick and dipped it in the water. Then he wrote on the stone floor in front of him.
"To talk, duh," he wrote. "What else do you think I'd need it for?"
Orbit raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Awesome!" Pisces exclaimed.
"It'll have to do for now," Twilight agreed halfheartedly.
"But now what..?" Tectonic wrote, adding two dots and a question mark at the end for dramatic effect. "We still have to meet the king of the PlanetWings, right?" he looked around at the others hopefully.
"Why do you want to see him?" Orbit asked, narrowing her eyes. "He sent his guards after you. But he ignored the rest of us. He wants you dead."
Streak nodded. "It is dangerous. I was thinking -"
"There's no motive," Twilight sighed, pacing around and cutting her off. "Why does he want you dead?"
Tectonic let a tear slip form his eye. He paused a moment, then wrote down four words that made the heartbreak worse.
"I loved his daughter."