Spike rolled over and squeezed his eyes tighter shut before opening them groggily.
"What time is it?" He asked and sat upright rubbing his eyes as two of Cerberus's head began to wake up and yawn exposing their toothy bulldog maws.
"Seven." Gilda said before standing up on all fours.
"Can we get food now I'm starving." Gilda continued and looked at me and I simply shrugged. At the mention of food Spike perked up and stood.
"I could eat." he said and I chuckled as I turned my attention to Cerberus.
"You good to get your own food?" I asked and the large beast gave me a sly grin from the far left head which I took as a yes. Spike stood up and wandered toward me and I stood up. Gilda opened her wings and took to the air as Spike helped himself onto my back without asking. It only slightly annoyed me but I didn't say anything and followed after Gilda. We approached the city and Gilda flew towards an open square where there seemed to be more movement of ponies then I had seen flying over the streets of Dodge City. She landed gracefully and I landed beside her...well enough that Spike hit me in the back of the head with his own head.
"Ow... You really need to work on your landings." He criticized, I gave him a glare.
"Maybe lose some weight?" I shot back at him. He looked at his belly and crossed his arms.
"It's Baby fat." He defended as he lifted his leg and slid off my back.
"How old are you anyway Spike?" I asked as Gilda smiled at our conversation.
"I'm 17." He said pointedly and I raised my eyebrow.
"Wow." Was all I said and he narrowed his eyes at me. I quickly looked forward as Gilda led us into a small cafe that looked like it was an out of the way cafe not often visited by tourists.
"You come here often?" I asked and Gilda sat in a booth by the window and both Spike and I joined her sitting across from her.
"Yea, I always volunteer to leave Griffinstone to do missions," she said as she took the menu from a blue coated, dark pink maned mare waitress. Spike handed me one as he had been given two from the mare. The menu wasn't anything to write home about but I saw there were non-vegetarian options. I looked up at Gilda.
"Yep, that's why come here, Respect to ponies and their way of eating but I crave what normal griffons eat," she said answering my unspoken question. I looked around and saw an anthropomorphic cat. I looked perplexed I didn't think my little pony universe had cat folk. It was eating what looked like fish.
"Do cats appear often in towns?" I asked Spike as looked up from his menu and then at the cat.
"They don't often come up north of the mountains," Spike said putting his menu down as the waitress approached. I looked at my menu again.
"What'll you have to drink?" she asked with an accent I couldn't quite pin down.
"Water," I said and the other two nodded and asked for the same.
" I want my usual, bacon and eggs with toast," Gilda said and Spike looked at her slightly disgusted.
"I'll have a salad with roasted carrot sandwich," Spike said giving the menu back and I looked at Gilda who simply rolled her eyes.
"I'll have what she's having," I said and extended my menu to Spike as he took it and the menus were picked up by the mare and she walked away with our orders and not long after our drinks came. Our food was brought and as the plate was placed before me my mouth watered and as the first bite out of that meat I closed my eyes and savored it. I really had missed normal food. I scarfed it down so fast that both Spike and Gilda looked at me perplexed. I looked at both of them.
"I was hungry," I said with crumbs falling off my beak. Spike looked back to his plate and finished eating as did Gilda. Gilda stood up and placed a fist full of bits on the table.
"How much was it?" I asked.
"It's enough." She said and I took that as its expensive.
"Thanks for breakfast," I said and she nodded as the bell tolled outside.
"We need to get to the Train. It's going to leave at 10 so we have an hour to get back to camp and pack up." Gilda said and I nodded in agreement as I felt Spike hop up onto my back and I looked back at him as he flashed me a thumbs up.
"Ready." He said and I rolled my eyes slightly. I know he needs a ride but would it kill him to ask before jumping up on me like a horse? I thought to myself before opening my wings and leaving the ground.
We cleaned up camp quickly as Cerberus came bounding out of the woods and stopped in front of us and all three heads had some gore left from his own breakfast. Now that I know him somewhat it was only slightly less terrifying.
Our group moved outside the city and then followed the tracks and the Sheriff of Dodge City along with several of his deputies stood by two large boxcars that connected to the end of the candy-colored train.
"Sheriff." I greeted and he tipped his cowboy hat to me in greeting.
"Enjoy yer time here?" He said with a joking smile.
"Truly 5-star experience," I said with a raised eyebrow.
"Good t'here. As you coulda guessed these are for you and the pup." He said and I looked at Cerberus who seemed to scoff slightly at being called a 'pup'. Cerberus approached the railcar and the doors opened as two unicorns magic opened the laches and he climbed in. The doors began to close and Cerberus let out a deep threatening growl accompanied by three sets of toothy fangs.
"I don't think he likes enclosed spaces...maybe just keep the doors open." Spike offered as the unicorn deputies looked at one another uneasily but stopped. Cerberus quieted as they backed off and all three of us approached the second car and opened it to see a couple seats were placed inside it to add some measure of comfort.
"I know it's not first class but beats sittin on the floor." The Sheriff said and I hopped up and took Spikes claw and helped him up into the car.
"Much appreciated," I said as Gilda found a seat.
"Keep the door open?" He asked and I nodded.
"Nice to have a window," I said and he gave me a nod.
"Safe travels." He said and the engine's horn sounded accompanied by the sound of the shackles that linked the train cars together gave a clang and the train began to move slowly. Spike put his bag down and stood beside me and waved goodbye.
"Thanks again!" he said and Spike walked to another seat across from Gilda. I laid down and my two front claws hung just off of the ledge as I felt the wind beginning to rush past me. I looked over and all three heads of Cerberus hanging out of the train car, mouths open and panting with blissful expressions of pure happiness. I chuckled to myself before looking back at Spike who was looking at his map.
"How much longer you think," I asked.
"We just left so maybe 7 hours." He said rolling the map again and putting it back into the new backpack.
"How did you get a new map?" I asked and he smiled.
"Wrote Twilight and she sent one to me. She said to thank you for all that you have done." He said with a chuckle.
"She knows what happened?" I asked with a frown.
"Well, yea I'm keeping her up to date with all of whats happening on our mission," Spike said.
"I don't know how I feel about that," Gilda said with half-lidded eyes.
"Did she freak out about when we saved Gilda?" I asked and he simply held up three papers with writing on front and back of all of them with a mute expression.
"I'll take that as a yes," I said with a chuckle.