Chapter Twelve: For a Few Bits More
By the gilded halls of Canterlot, her hind legs were still tingling. Even as the morning sunlight punched through the curtains as welcomed as a hurled brick, the archaeologist was still recovering from the aftermath of her hate-fueled tryst with the nameless mare. While it wasn’t the first time that Daring had found herself ending a night in bed with a pony she barely knew, there were a number of things that set it apart from the others. For starters, she couldn’t slip out the window at the first opportunity - she had to stay and help Tenderhoof after all. Second of all, she was typically the dominant partner in her intimate encounters. With the nameless mare it had been a struggle just to stay on top, both literally and figuratively speaking. And most importantly, by the next morning, Daring Do had an idea of where she stood with her partner. No such luck in this case. It was hard to describe how she felt about the gunslinger - she didn’t hate the pony, nor did she really ‘like’ her. Her reckless and violent nature grated on Daring’s nerves, but she cared enough to be worried about what was to come with Billy the Kid.
Whoever said there was a fine line between love and hate hadn’t been in Daring’s position before. If there was a line, it was blurred beyond recognition and moving every day on her. A part of her was still held smoldering anger at the gunslinger’s behaviour, while another part wanted to go another round even if it meant being incapacitated in a lust-induced coma when Billy the Kid trotted back into town.
However, as tempting as a second romp would be, Daring knew there were life-or-death matters to worry about. There was also the slight matter in that Daring awoke to find herself the sole occupant of the bed. Despite the inviting warmth of her bed, Daring bolted upright upon realizing that the nameless mare was gone.
“Oh, that son of a...she took off!” Daring cursed under her breath as she leapt out of bed, only to be reminded of her battered frame a second later. She should have seen this coming given everything she knew about Blondie. Granted, her state of mind the night prior was not conducive to rational thought as all the blood had been redirected to other parts of her body. Though her body ached in protest, Daring hurried to find Doc Tenderhoof. By rough estimates, even if Blondie had a few hours lead on her, the gunslinger would be slowed by her wounds. If Daring hurried, she could catch up and drag that damned mare back with her bare hooves if need be. Celestia willing, she might be able to do so before Billy got into town.
Judging by the faint sizzling noise, the aforementioned doctor was downstairs cooking up a breakfast. How the doctor could be wasting time cooking food with an imminent threat on his hooves was a mystery to Daring, but it was a short-lived one at least. Upon reaching the ground floor, the pegasus discovered that it was Blondie at the stove, not Doc Tenderhoof. She was frying some eggs on a cast-iron skillet with a quiet, contemplative look upon her. Having heard the approaching hoofsteps, the nameless mare only offered a sideways glance to the pegasus upon her arrival.
“Mornin’ Daring,” she greeted in a nonchalant voice. To the casual observer, one might have been mistaken the day as one that did not have the threat of impending violence and mayhem.
Billy was going to come back and it was enough of a threat to have made the normally gung-ho Blondie want to skip town. Now the gunslinger seemed as though she had not a care in the world. Was she just a good liar or did she have reason not to be worried anymore? These were questions that Daring would have been contemplating herself had she not been too preoccupied gawking at the nameless mare’s hindquarter. Given that that the night prior left little time for ogling, this was the first time that that Daring had a good view of the gunslinger without her signature heavy leather duster. And while there was a definite allure to a hindquarter that could crack a walnut open, Daring was more intrigued by the blank patch on her side where only a small, scarred line existed rather than any sort of cutie mark.
Given the mystique nature of the gunslinger, it seemed fitting; although a cutie mark in wanton destruction would also have been appropriate. What would such a cutie look like? A giant explosion? Maybe the scar was her cutie mark, representing her penchant for violence. That sounded like an odd thing for a filly to find as their special talent.
“Are you quite done staring at my arse?” Blondie quipped.
Snapping out of her train of thought, Daring quickly shook her head. “Sorry. I was just thinking of what we were going to do about Billy.”
“There ain’t no ‘we’ business in this.” The response took Daring by surprise, even though she should have anticipated the gunslinger’s penchant for going solo. “Ah really should’ve skipped town when Ah had the chance. Ah could’ve been halfway home with those amulets by now.”
“And here I thought you cared,” Daring teased as she grabbed a chair and took a seat at the breakfast table. She wasn’t expecting to be served but she wanted to get off her hooves for a little while. Given how little she had eaten over the past few days, it was a miracle that Daring hadn’t passed out from hunger yet. “So you are staying? You’re not just saying that to lull me into a false sense of security so you can bail at the last second?”
For a brief moment, the nameless mare resented the accusation that she would still skip town on her. She may have been a lot of things, including a cheat and a scoundrel, but she was still a pony of honour. She stuck to her word like she stuck to a job. But while chastising the archaeologist was tempting, if only because of how irresistible the pegasus was when in a heated debate, food came first. An army marched on its stomach and if anypony thought that Blondie was going to tackle this mess without a proper meal first, they were gravely mistaken.
“Well if Ah don’t stay and help, you’ll probably go and do something stupid and get yerself killed.”
“Aww, you do care.”
“No Ah don’t!” Blondie snapped back. The pegasus’ smug smirk conveyed the complete lack of credibility of such a claim. “Fine...so maybe Ah do care a little bit, but Ah still hate the idea of having to go into a fight with almost no ammo or support. On top of that, it still hurts a bit to breath when Ah at rest, let alone after running and gunning.” The gunslinger didn’t need to spell out the odds; Daring was well aware of their current condition. Neither of them were in good condition to fight, but this was their fight to deal with. Tenderhoof didn’t deserve to suffer on their account, not to mention any of the other townsfolk who might suffer from Billy’s wrath. “Ah hope you realize, there’s a good chance Ah’m not going to make it through this day.”
“Well...sometimes doing the right thing means letting go of the things that are important to you.”
“Which in this case would be my rather fond attachment to living.”
Reflecting upon those words, Daring let out a quiet sigh. She had been referring to the amulets and the considerable sum of money Blondie had been promised for their delivery. Daring had to do something to help, but at the moment she was at a loss as to the how. Her gnawing hunger pains didn’t help, but relief to that problem came as a fried egg upon a plate was dropped in front of the pegasus’ face.
“Best eat up, it’s going to a busy day, Ah reckon,” Blondie reassured the archaeologist before sitting down to her own breakfast.
After giving a quick thanks, Daring began her breakfast.
“How many guns do you think Billy will be able to round up on such short notice?” Daring asked between mouthfuls.
“Well the next town over, Troughton, ain’t exactly got a pleasant reputation,” the nameless replied. “Lots of ponies who’d like to brag about being the one to put me down. Ah reckon maybe a dozen...maybe more.”
The news hit Daring like a well-aimed kick to the gut and it almost caused her to choke on her egg. “A dozen?” she stammered out after clearing her throat. “I was expecting maybe three or four but...a dozen? Just how many ponies have you pissed off?”
Whether for show or an honest uncertainty, the gunslinger tapped her chin in thought. She lingered humming and hawing for a few seconds before responding with an uninformative shrug. Given the nameless mare’s penchant for doing what she wants whenever she wants, Daring was willing to bet that the number was quite high.
“Who knows...there’s plenty of ponies I’ve pissed off directly but reputations have a way of taking a life of their own,” Blondie explained as she ate her breakfast. “Half of whoever comes will probably be here for reputation than personal vendettas. Get famous or die trying.”
“All for reputation?” Daring could understand fighting for your beliefs or fighting to protect something you care about. The notion of fighting for glory and reputation was supposed to be something relegated to the history books, not a modern pony society.
“Reputation is often all a pony has out here,” Blondie explained as she finished her meal. “Most come out here with barely a bit to their name, but once you prove yourself to be hardworking and honest, ponyfolk out here tend to treat you okay. Ponies would rather do business with a poor but honest merchant than a rich cheat.”
Daring could understand that sentiment. Many of her expeditions she got involved in solely because of the value of her name. She worked hard and risked a lot to build that reputation and it was worth a lot to her, but not enough to kill over.
“Ah hope you realize what’s going to happen to my reputation after this?” she quipped before gathering up the plates. “It takes a lot of work to be known as the meanest son of a gun in the west. And now Ah’m going to have everypony thinking Ah’ve gone soft...assuming Ah live through the day.”
“You’ll always be the meanest in my books,” Daring teased. She couldn’t help but laugh at that sentiment. If they made it through the day, it was unlikely that this would have a negative impact on the gunslinger’s reputation. If anything, it would reinforce the notion to not get on the nameless mare’s bad side. And there was never anything wrong with having the gratitude of the common pony on your side. However, that still hinged on them surviving the day, which was still much in doubt. What wasn’t in doubt, though, was whether Daring would be a part of this or not. Daring rose from her seat and headed for the exit.
“Where are you off to?” an understandably puzzled gunslinger asked.
“Sitting back and doing nothing is not this pony’s style.”
“And what exactly do you plan to do? Hurl high-browed insults at them?”
“I might throw in a witty rebuttal or two, but I was thinking more of asking around and seeing what I can find that might be of use.”
“You honestly think the ponies here have anything worth giving, let alone willing to get involved?” There was a hint of cynicism lacing the gunslinger’s words, which did not surprise Daring. One did not adopt a ‘lone wolf’ modus operandi because you believed in the inherent good in other ponies.
“You don’t have to do this alone,” Daring said as she headed out. If the stubborn earth pony wasn’t going to ask others for help then Daring was going to take it into her own hooves.
*****************************
Noon...
Knowing Billy, that gave the nameless mare only another hour or two before he arrived. The time of her reckoning was soon to come; the time when all of her foolish bravado finally caught up to her. Most ponies would be sweating bullets by this point, but Blondie felt a strange sense of calmness as she sat on the front porch of Tenderhoof’s clinic. There was no need to fret about the past, present, or future; no need to contemplate the morality of what she was about to do. Everything was simple at this point - it was kill or be killed. And with only six bullets in her revolver, a fact confirmed when she checked the cylinder every two minutes, chances were she wasn’t going to be walking off into the sunset today.
“Eyup...still six,” the gunslinger muttered as she spun the revolver’s cylinder in her boredom.
The way she figured it, her best bet would be to at least take Billy down with her. Six shots gave her good odds at accomplishing that task. The gunslinger could already envision the fight - beneath the shade of the water tower with Blondie on one side and Billy with about a dozen goosn on the other. The goat would spout some random nonsense about revenge and finally besting his nemesis (despite the fact that Blondie considered the goat a minor nuisance at best). Eventually, she would grow tired of listening to his drivel, draw her gun, and hopefully catch him mid-monologue with a few bullets to the chest. And then she’d put the rest of her bullets into him just to be certain that he wasn’t going to babble any further. The goons however...well, everypony had to go out sooner or later. If anything, Blondie had the good fortune to have some degree of choice in how she faced her finale. Many ponies met their end without even realizing it until it was upon them.
Besides, growing old was boring. If she got old, she’d wind up being one of those crusty old saloon hermits who sat in the corner reminiscing about the old days in a pool of booze and self-pity. That was not a future that she wanted to deal with.
Despite being deep in thought, her ears took notice of approaching footsteps accompanied by wagon wheels. It was just the one set of hooves so it didn’t raise her alarms, and when the gunslinger glanced up from her revolver, she saw Daring standing before her alongside a loaded wagon and bearing a grin so large it threatened to split her head open.
“I take it your scavenger hunt went well?” Blondie quipped.
“Better than ‘well,’” Daring said as she unloaded one of the boxes and set it down so that the gunslinger could see the contents. Inside the wooden crate were bundles of high explosives - black powder, dynamite, and even TNT.
“Sweet fancy pants,” the nameless muttered in expected awe. “Where the hay did you find this?”
“This used to be a mining town, remember?” Blondie probably didn’t remember, nor cared to, but it was something that the archaeologist recalled. She figured there would be leftover demolitions from the town’s mining days and her gamble paid off. “Also managed to scrounge up some extra guns and bullets - a revolver, sawn-off shotgun, an old pipe rifle, and even a couple of derringers. There wasn’t much ammo for them, but its better than nothing.”
“Funny Ah don’t recall you carrying that kind of cash on ya,” Blondie remarked with a questioning glare. However, the nameless mare’s skepticism was only met with a dismissive chuckle.
“You that dense, Blondie?” The amusement was visible on the pegasus’ face, and despite an urge to wipe the smirk off her face, the gunslinger remained silent. “The ponies here haven’t forgotten what you did for them. When I told them I was looking for supplies to help you out, the townsfolk were throwing these things are me. Well...not the explosives obviously; TNT can get a bit unstable in hot weather.”
Blondie could hardly believe her eyes. For a second, she wondered if she was simply hallucinating from the heat or perhaps already dead from a sharpshooter’s round. The explosives alone represented hundreds of bits worth of merchandise, which was more wealth than most of the ponies in town put together. And they were just willing to give it over to Blondie without expecting anything in return.
“Ah thought you didn’t like solutions that involved wanton destruction.”
“My destruction is precise and calculated,” Daring insisted as she grabbed one of the dynamite bundles. “We rig these babies in the right place, and we can have that goat running for the hills in no time.” Daring’s areas of expertise may have been primarily in the realm of academics, but her years on expeditions have taught her a number of things about improvised demolition. There were still too many unknowns about Billy’s return, but with enough planning and coordination, Daring was confident she could tip the odds back in their favour.
“It’s going to take hours to get this all set up.”
“That’s why I asked for help.” Daring smirked again as she motioned for the gunslinger to look in the opposite direction. When Daring had asked for help, she got more than just supplies, but scores of willing volunteers. Around thirty ponies stood just a short distance away, both young and old, with eager smiles upon their faces. A few had weapons of their owns but the vast majority could give little more than their time and effort in preparing a proper welcoming. "Like I said, Blondie, you don't have to this alone."
“You folks are all insane,” Blondie quipped. She should be feeling grateful for their help, but she couldn’t help but shake her head at their idiocy for getting involved in a fight that had nothing to do with them. At best, they could get injured or killed in the crossfire, at worse Billy could take his anger out on the entire town as punishment. In turn, they would gain nothing from Blondie for she had nothing to offer but the clothes on her back. And the ponies of the town knew this, yet still they remained. Blondie had long since given up trying to make sense of ponies. It was better to just roll with the punches.
“I almost forgot...one last thing for you,” Daring said as she trotted over to the nameless mare. Tucked away under her wing, Daring pulled out the Celestial Star amulet. “I somehow doubt this thing can make ponies invincible but...can’t hurt to keep it on you.”
“Ah thought you want to give this to a museum.”
“Well...sometimes doing the right thing means giving up the things that are important to you.”
*****************************
“Sometimes doing the right thing means giving up the things that are important to you.”
The words echoed in Dash’s mind even as she took a break from reading and set her Daring Do novel on the table beside her. Usually when she read Daring Do, the pegasus was hard-pressed to take her eyes off the book, let alone put it down for a while. But reading still felt like an empty pastimes. It was a feeling that had persisted since her last encounter with Applejack at Sugarcube Corner. She glanced up to the library’s clock. The air show was going to be underway soon. No doubt Applejack was having the time of her life with Spitfire - a guided tour of Manehattan’s most spectacular sports arena; a chance to mingle with the greatest athletes across Equestria; and most of all, to be seen accompanied by the biggest name aerobatics. That was the kind of night that Dash had always dreamt of. Why did Applejack get to live it?
Once again Dash found herself trying to force her thoughts away from the her farmer friend. Normally she did not mind the thought of her blonde-maned friend but now it was just infuriating her. Had it gotten to the point where she was beginning to resent Applejack for her fortune?
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one’s perspective, Dash wasn’t given the opportunity to continue down that avenue of thought as a visibly irate Rarity barged into the library
“Rainbow Dash!” the unicorn hollered upon slamming the library door open.
Dash doubted she was here for a simple social call. In fact, the pegasus got a sneaking suspicion that she wanted to be as far away from the library as possible at that moment. Alas, the enraged unicorn moved with unerring speed and before Dash could even get a few feet off the ground, a powerful magic forced pulled her back to the ground.
“Ah-heh...hi Rarity, I was just about to head out” Dash said with a nervous chuckle.
“Don’t ‘hi Rarity’ me, missy!” Rarity snapped. “I had a very interesting conversation with Applejack when she picked up her order. She had rather troubling things to say about what’s happened between her and you, and her dating Spitfire.”
“Oh? Really? Wh-what sort of things?” Nothing about this conversation was going in a direction that Dash was comfortable with.
“I think you know exactly what kind of ‘things.’” Rarity shot the pegasus a piercing, accusatory glare. “She told me all about what happened at Sugarcube Corner. Applejack is absolutely devastated that you turned her away!”
“You think I’m any happier about it?” Dash tried to defend herself.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” an unswayed Rarity replied. “I had been giving you the benefit of the doubt, hoping that you would do the right thing, but then Applejack told me all about the...questionable circumstances that followed her dates. So then I went to speak with Applebloom...and then with Twilight.” At this point, Dash was praying for a miracle to help her escape, but no such luck would befall her. She knew she did not deserve such. “Look at me, Dash. Look at me and tell me that you haven’t been trying to sabotage her dates!”
“I...I...I was just...” Try as she might, Dash couldn’t muster a defense at this point.
The stammered response was all the answer that Rarity needed.
“Rainbow Dash...how could you?” In a strange twist, the anger faded from Rarity’s voice, but the disappointment that replaced it was no less painful for Dash to hear. “You’ve been friends for years. She has always been there when you needed help...and this is how you repay her? Did you honestly think that ruining her chances with Spitfire would make her go to you?”
When Rarity phrased it like that, it made all of Dash’s attempts seem laughably stupid to even consider. So why did she think they were such brilliant plans at the time? Dash didn’t have an answer to that - any response sounded like an excuse in her head.
“I just...I didn’t think she would...”
“That somepony else would be as interested in her as you?”
That was one way of putting it and Dash nodded her reluctant affirmative. If she had thought for an instant that Spitfire had a thing for a countrypony like Applejack, she would have done even more. But she had been so certain that Spitfire would’ve found her too boring to stay with. That was a foolish notion however. After all, Dash didn’t find Applejack boring so why would another pony?
“Dash, dear...I know this isn’t how you planned things, but Applejack is with Spitfire and you have to accept that,” Rarity continued. Releasing her magical grip on the pegasus, she stepped closer to her friend and gave her a reassuring pat on her back. “Applejack has a right to be happy with whomever she wants just like everypony else. And forcing her into a position to choose between her heart and her friend will only ruin both.”
“But what can I do?” Dash protested as she got back to her hooves. “I thought I would be okay with it...but when I see the two of them together it...hurt. It physically hurts, Rarity. I never thought I’d feel pain like that and...I don’t think I can go through it again.”
“And how do you think Applejack feels right now knowing that you are here being miserable?”
“She’s...probably feeling bad.” The pegasus sighed as her head sunk down to below her shoulders. She shouldn’t have needed Rarity to point it out, but only after hearing it from someone else did the pegasus realize the impact her actions were having on her friend...her best friend. Dash wondered if she could even consider herself a ‘friend’ after the way she’s behaved. She didn’t deserve to be called that, and Applejack certainly deserved to have a better friend than her. With pleading eyes, the woeful pegasus gazed up at the unicorn. “But...how can I face her now?”
“Well, you can start by taking this,” Rarity said with a clever smirk as she produced the spare ticket to the competition that Applejack had originally tried to give to Dash, “and you can fly your flank to Manehattan.” Ponyville to Manehattan was a huge distance for most pegasus to cover, but Rainbow Dash was far from the average pony. Even without a tailwind, Dash could make it to Manehattan before the competitions finished.
“Some loyal friend I’ve turned out to be,” Dash muttered to herself. Once again, she felt Rarity’s comforting hoof upon her shoulder.
“As Fluttershy would say, you’ve just made some bad choices, but you can make up for that,” she reassured her friend with a smile. “Go to her. I promise you, when you see Applejack, any pain you might be feeling will melt away when you see how happy she becomes.”
That thought was quite reassuring for Rainbow Dash. She had been feeling in the dumps for days now and any sort of morale boost would be much welcomed for her. But after could she still face Applejack after everything she had done? What if the pain came back? Dash didn’t want to go all the way to Manehattan just to fail again. She didn’t want to lose...not in front of Applejack.
“Sometimes doing the right thing means giving up the things that are important to you.”
The words once again echoed through the pegasus’ mind. Perhaps that was something she should’ve done from the very start. It wasn’t too late to make amends. Dash decided she could start by putting aside what was important to her and doing what was right for a change. That meant tossing aside her fears and being the friend that Applejack wanted her to be. Their friendship was too important to lose, and Dash hoped it wasn’t too late to save things.
“All right, all right. I’ll go to Manehattan...for AJ’s sake,” Dash acquiesced. She prayed that Rarity was right and that the joy from seeing Applejack happy again would outweigh any heartache that might come from the evening. However, as Dash headed for the exist, it appeared that the unicorn was not finished with her.
“Hold on a moment, where do you think you’re going?” An odd time for a rhetorical question but the stern look on Rarity’s face told the pegasus that this was not a joke.
“To...Manehattan?”
“Looking like that?” Rarity scoffed. Once again a rhetorical question that just left Dash befuddled. As a high-flying daredevil, fashion rarely entered the equation for her. Even in these urgent circumstances, the laws of fashion and etiquette still had to be adhered to according to the mistress of fashion. “If you’re going to Manehattan, you will need proper attire.”
“Seriously? Now?” Despite Dash’s protests, her friend remained steadfast in her insistence. There was no use in argument at this juncture. Everything Dash had tried up to this point had resulted in abysmal failures so she had to, with great reluctance, defer to another’s judgment.
“Don’t worry, Rainbow, dear, this shan’t take but a minute.”