//------------------------------// // 2. The Find // Story: The Only Mark That Matters // by CocktailOlive //------------------------------// Radish Root lay prone on a dusty mesa top, binoculars in hoof, watching a smoking mountain peak. He looked at his timepiece, then opened a notebook and checked a column, adding a small comment. He then opened a different notebook, and wrote a note in it as well. “Good afternoon, Sky,” he said to the buffalo attempting to sneak up on him from behind. “Oh, come on, I thought I was being totally silent,” she said. “You were.” “You couldn’t have smelled me. I’m downwind.” “That Cactus Lark nesting in the mesquite made an alarm call. I figured it was either you, or a coyote coming up here.” “Mesquite? I passed that five minutes ago.” “It always takes you five minutes to climb the mesa. Coyotes take seven.” “Ugh, you’re so… wait, you call those ‘Cactus Larks’? They’re never near cactuses.” “The first pony to describe them was named Cactus Jelly.” “That’s confusing.” “What do you call them?” “Squawkadoos.” “Squawkadoos. I like that.” He added a note to the back of his book. “How’s the watch going?” Sky asked. “No change. Today marks the first anniversary of the dragon’s arrival. They say a dragon knows by the first year whether or not it likes its cave for a nap. This feller might be staying for the long haul.” “Well, its smoke isn’t so bad from this side. I guess we’ll just have to get used to not going to the lakes on that side.” “Sorry. They’re nice lakes.” “You know you’re lying next to a Dust Shaker, right?” Radish looked over to the rock beside him. Coiled under its outcrop was what ponykind called a Ladder-backed Rattlesnake. It was staring at him intently. “That rattler and I have reached an understanding. I can stay here as long as I don’t mess with her eggs. And if she bites me, she’ll be exposing herself to that Red-kneed Hawk overhead.” Sky looked up at the hawk catching thermals above them. Buffalokind called them “Red-kneed Hawks”, as well. The snake peeked out at it from the rock, then retracted in fear. Sky laid down on her back between Radish and the snake, stretching out under the mid-day sun. “It’s so good to get a ranger out here who gets this land, Radish. The last Plains Ranger around here was a really stuck-up unicorn.” “What happened to them?” “He didn’t reach the same understanding with Hoopla, here,” she said, looking at the snake. “She bite him?” “Yep.” “He live?” “Yeah, yeah.” “Her name is ‘Hoopla’?” Sky laughed. She pulled out a small cloth bag. “You want a jalapeño chew?” “You bet,” said Radish, holding out a hoof. “Nuh uh. You know the rule. First you have to show me her.” Radish sighed. He pulled down his ranger uniform’s trousers, revealing his cutie mark. Sky snickered, then gave him a chew. He put it in his mouth and sucked. “Is she really considered beautiful? She’s so skinny.” “A lot of ponies like skinny.” “Do, uh… do you like skinny?” “I did when I got this.” He checked his timepiece again and wrote more down. Sky looked at the cover of his Plains Rangers notebook. “Hey, I never noticed- your notebook says, ‘Confidential’.” “Yeah. Plains Rangers’ observations are meant for official Canterlot eyes, only.” “But you share your data with us all the time.” “Unofficially. A long time ago, the Rangers decided that any information gathered about dragons is too important to not to share with allies. It could save lives. So they started a tradition: for every observation, we write it down in the official confidential report, which goes to Canterlot, and also write it down again on an unmarked backup file, which I ‘accidentally’ leave lying around your village.” “You bend the rules to help keep us safe?” “You could say that. Don’t say it to anyone, though.” “Even that stuck-up unicorn was sharing his data with my tribe. I guess he wasn’t that bad. You hear that, Hoopla?” Hoopla nodded. “You buffalo share all your dragon knowledge with us. It’s only fair we do the same.” “Oh. Heh heh. About that…” “What?” “There may be one thing I haven’t shared with you.” “Oh? “It’s not exactly about dragons.” She pointed to the smoking mountain before them. “It’s more like what’s near that dragon.” “What’s near that dragon?” “Right before it came, some of the youths were playing in a cave at the base. They found an old pony skeleton. Pegasus.” “Skeleton? Some lost prospector?” “Nuh uh. It was really old. Like, it had ancient armor. They didn’t describe it well, but it sounds like it was from the Rough Classical period.” “But the only… huh. That could have been a Storm Centurion! They disappeared in the Southern Plains six hundred years ago. Dang. If that dragon wasn’t on the same mountain, I would have loved to check it out.” “Your shift is over, isn’t it? Let’s go.” “I can’t approach a sleeping dragon’s mountain. That’s the number one rule.” “I can bend rules, too. There’s that rule that says you can provide escort support to locals who request it. And I’m requesting it. We can get in and get out without waking that dragon.” “It’s not worth risking our necks. It’ll be there in another hundred years when the dragon’s moved on.” “But the Storm Centurions vanished without a trace. You could solve a six-hundred-year old pony mystery today. That might be enough to impress… her,” Sky said, pointing to Radish’s flank. “I’m not putting you in danger for her.” “Too bad. I’m going. If you don’t want to escort me, you can go back to camp.” “Sky, wait up. Sky!” Radish looked at Hoopla. “I really am over Celestia, you know,” he said to the snake. She shook her head. “Ah, what do you know?” he said, and followed Sky down the mesa. Radish and Sky entered the cave at the mountain’s base. Radish pulled out a miniature firefly lantern and shook its tenants awake. They cast a soft green glow over the rocky walls. “They said it was back here,” Sky said, leading Radish in. They explored the cave until the lantern light caught a pile of bones sticking up out of the dirt. Radish and Sky bent over it. They gazed upon the ancient half-exposed remains. It was indeed a pegasus skeleton. A dulled bronze helmet covered an open-jawed skull. “It really is a Storm Centurion!” gasped Radish. “What a find! I wish we could get a whole team in here to study it.” “Yeah? Why?” asked a deep and massive voice behind them. The hairs on the backs of their necks stood up. They both slowly turned. A massive orange dragon’s face protruded from the darkness, illuminated by the firefly lamp. Both Radish and Sky threw themselves prostrate. “O, great dragon,” they said simultaneously, “please forgive us for disturbing you.” “I was already awake. This mountain was an awful place for a nap. The cave up top stinks.” “That’s the cave lilacs,” said Sky. “They release scented oil when you crush them.” “I must’ve crushed a million of them, then. So, who’s the stiff?” the dragon asked, pointing a claw at the skeleton. “She was a Storm Centurion,” answered Radish. “Looks like her wings were cracked.” “By a dragon?” “By another pony, probably,” he said. “They were sent to the these parts to hunt bandits.” “Ponies killing ponies? That’s funny,” said the dragon, adding a toothy laugh. The laugh blew centuries of dirt off the skeleton. Radish winced at its rough treatment. Something new caught his eye in the pile. He shined the light on it. “It’s her name tag,” he said, looking at an engraved strip of platinum. “So?” said the dragon. “Her name was… Willow Wagoner? Wow, the Wagoners are a super wealthy family, even to this day.” “We talking a reward?” asked the dragon. “What’s my cut?” “Uh…” “The Wagoners are notoriously stingy. That’s why they’re so wealthy,” said Sky. “Ha. That’s the way to do it. I’ll just take the platinum,” said the dragon, reaching out a claw. “Oh. Ok,” said Radish. The Plains Rangers didn’t need a rule about never saying ‘no’ to a dragon, it was just common sense. “Wait! Please, he needs that tag to impress his leader,” said Sky, looking at Radish. “He’s in love with her.” “Sky, forget about her!” “That’s all it takes to impress the pony leader?” laughed the dragon. “She sounds low-class.” “You think that’s low-class? Check this out!” Sky yanked down Radish’s trousers and exposed his cutie mark. The dragon squinted at it. It burst with laughter, the force of which blasted dirt from the cave floor to the back of the cave. The cloud of dust rebounded off the back wall and back over Sky, Radish, and the dragon. They all coughed. The light caught more reflective objects now exposed by the blast. There were five other armored skeletons. “The rest of the centurions!” exclaimed Radish as he rushed to examine them. “This one is Sandy Stick! Look! That’s Robin Grayskies! Sunbonnet! They’re all here!” “More platinum for me!” said the dragon. “Now, claw it over.” Radish sighed. “Yeah. All right.” “Wait!” said Sky. “I can tell you where a much better cave is. It’s full of cave mites.” “I love the feel of cave mites. Where?” “I’ll trade you. I’ll tell you if leave us and these remains intact. Isn’t a good sleep better than some tiny platinum bits?” “Hmm…” “And I’ll throw in these jalapeño chews,” she said, holding up her bag. The dragon sniffed them. He lashed out his tongue and slurped them up, leaving a fat trail of saliva on her hoof. She shook it off. “Deal,” he said, chewing. “The cave?” “Three mountains south, the one with striped cliffs. South side, about a third of the way down. It’s hidden by briars.” The dragon slipped away. “Sky!” gasped Radish. “You could have got us killed!” “But it all works out. The dragon gets a nicer cave, on the other side of the lakes. My tribe gets a major archeological find, and you get enough fame to become the toast of Canterlot.” “Then what do you get?” She looked at his face in the glowing light. She brushed some dirt off his uniform. “I get to help you. You were never going to stay here for long. Most ponies join the Rangers because dragon-watching sounds impressive. They all move on when they feel they’ve got enough glorious stories to take back with them.” “Sky, I want to be different from that.” “You are. You’re the only pony who’s actually needed the glory. It’s stamped on you. Now you’ve got something that’ll really impress Miss Skinny. I bet she’ll be so excited about this discovery, she’ll swoon for you and invite you into the palace as a guest of honor.” “Sky, I don’t care about Celestia. I can shave off these cutie marks and brand the skin so they don’t grow back. I like it out here. I like hanging out at the tops of mesas with you. And we just got the lakes back.” “Yeah. I wonder what she’d look like all wet.” “A lot skinnier, no doubt.” Sky laughed. She hugged him. He hugged back. They looked at each other. “You have to go, you know. You can’t spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.” “I know.” “But you can always write. Just don’t send it by hawk mail- Hoopla will have conniptions.” “Walk me to Ranger HQ?” “Yeah, but could you leave the chat with the dragon off the record? Both records? My chief will just get mad at you, and your sarge will just get mad at me.” “Who’d believe it, anyway? I barely believe it. Bargaining with a dragon.” “At least he liked your mark.” Radish looked down at his flank. “Guess it’s good for something.”