“So let me get this straight,” Douny stated, looking at Strongheart as he paced back and forth. “You and a herd of other Buffalo went after a train successfully, but you didn’t think to check the cart for any stowaways until after this little raid was done?”
“To be fair it’s not like we had time to check when we were out there. They would have come back to grab their cart.” Strongheart protested, pointing to the cart behind Douny as if to emphasize her point. Her argument seemed to not count for much however as Douny proceeded to point out a flaw she didn’t see.
“And they're not going to do that now, why? We have one of their own. For all, they know we are taking hostages, and I don’t want to be here when they do.” Douny said pointing at the small purple drake. “I mean do you think that this small tribe of Buffalo is going to be able to take on dragons? Because if you do, you must be out of your mind.”
“Th…Th…They aren’t dragons, they're ponies.” The drake pointed out, a tad shaken from the sight of Douny.
“And of course the dragon talks too, why am I not surprised? My point still stands, they are going to be coming back to find him, or, at the very least, the cart you stole, and if they are anything like my kind, they're going to fight to get either back.” Douny finished, sitting down on the hook of the train cart. “This is going to be a shit show. I can already see how this is going to end.” Douny stated, putting his head into his hands to calm himself down.
“I guess I can’t keep calling you dragon, mind telling me your name? My name's Douny.” Douny looked towards the small drake who still looked a bit afraid of him but did seem to be calming down some if Douny was reading his body language right.
“I I’m Spike. What are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before.” Spike responded, looking Douny up and down cautiously as if the human was about to attack him. His fears never came true, however, as Douny just nodded in acknowledgment.
“I’m a human, I’ve gotta say though for a dragon I was expecting something a bit bigger, I mean you barely come up past my knee.” Douny joked, Spike seemed to take a bit of offense to that but saw what Douny was attempting to do.
“Well, I’m just a baby dragon,” Spike replied, puffing out his chest as he did so. “When I grow up I’m going to be much bigger and stronger.”
“That makes more sense than you being a small dragon.” Douny thought out loud, getting off of the hitch of the train cart. “But unfortunately that just brings more fuel to my claim that your friends are going to be coming for you. I don’t care that they come to get you but, I have a feeling that things are going to get ugly fast when they do get here.” Douny continued pacing back and forth in front of Spike
“I’m sending some of our Buffalo out to check on things to make sure that nothing bad happens.” Strongheart Interjected, Douny didn’t seem pleased about this action. He was going to voice his displeasure but Spike was the first to speak up.
“I want to come with them just in case some of my friends are out there looking for me.” He demanded, jumping off his seat on the train's catwalk.
“That may not be the worst idea in the world, if they do send out a small search party it may be better to do so peacefully and with Spike in tow.” Douny pointed out, looking towards Strongheart to approve of the plan.
“I would say yes but… I kinda already sent them out, you might be able to catch up with them still though.” Strongheart said sheepishly, avoiding Douny’s gaze. Spike however seemed to not want to waste time, and ran after them. He came back shortly afterward, however, when he noticed he had no idea where he was going.
“Can you tell me where they went?” Spike asked sheepishly, giving a half-hearted smile.
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Hours passed since Spike had left to run after the Buffalo scouting party. They were about to go out looking for him until Spike came back with the Buffalo and, from what Douny could see were two pastel-colored equines. They didn’t look like normal horses. They were even smaller than a pony on Earth.
“What’s with the horses?” Douny asked, looking at the two ponies, one was cyan with a rainbow-colored mane and a set of wings. The other one was a two-tone pink.
They both looked at Douny with confusion, though the cyan pony held more suspicion in their gaze. The pink pony seemed more curious than anything
“We aren’t horses, we are ponies.” The cyan-colored pegasus snapped, “And what are you supposed to be, last time I checked monkeys don’t talk.” She asked, giving Douny a more skeptical look.
“Of course, the colorful ponies can talk too. First of all, I’m a human, not a monkey.” Douny pointed out, counting his points on his fingers. “Second, I had no part in the abduction of your friend there, so if you want someone to hate, look elsewhere.” He then finished, giving the pegasus a look of frustration. Douny already knew this was going to be a long night.
“Guys please calm down, we shouldn't be fighting, like I said earlier this was all just a misunderstanding,” Spike said, trying and succeeding at calming the arguing human and pony down. “Good now let’s introduce ourselves. Douny, meet Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, meet Douny.” Spike finished, gesturing between the three
Douny and Rainbow shared a glance at each other sizing each other up but they soon dropped that after they both noticed they weren’t going to be trouble to each other. Rainbow Dash was going to say something to Douny, but unfortunately for them both Pinkie beat her to the punch.
“OhmygoshareyounewyoumostbenewbecauseI’veneverseenahumanbeforewhichisweirdbecauseImeetlotsofnewcreaturewithmyfriendslikethattimebackintheeverfreeand” Pinkie… let out, rambling until eventually, Dash quieted her down.
“Slow down Pinkie Pie, give the thing some breathing room at least.” She said, trying to calm down Pinkie, and surprisingly enough succeeding in her attempts.
“Oops, sorry I just got so excited about seeing somepony new.” Pinkie explained sheepishly, though still not hiding her excitement at meeting the human.
“So, Spike, why did you bring us here? I don’t see the cart anywhere and I don’t think you'd bring us out here just to meet a new friend.” Rainbow asked, looking around the campsite that was in front of them being the only source of light.
“He isn’t my friend, but I agree, why did you bring them here?” Douny asked, with a cocked eyebrow crossing his arms and leaning back some.
“Douny I think it’s time that they meet Chief Thunderhooves,” Spike answered hopefully looking up to Douny.
Douny nodded in reply, leading the ponies to Chief Thunderhooves. Douny already had an idea of what Spike was planning, and he was going to help as much as he could. He wasn’t going to let a war happen if he could prevent it.
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“I’m glad you brought this to my attention, Douny.” Thunderhooves thanked Douny as he rubbed his chin with his hoof. He then looked back to Little Strongheart motioning for her to his side. She noticed this and did so, giving the ponies, Spike, and Douny a small smile as she did so.
“Our tribe's story goes back centuries, the land that those Appleloosians have taken for their apple orchard was our ancestral stampeding grounds,” Thunderhooves explained with his hoof in the air as he continued. “My father ran across those lands, and his father before him, and his father before him, and his father before him.” He was about to go on like this for a while until Little Strongheart interjected.
“I think they get it, Chief.” She interjected, putting her hoof on his withers to calm him back down. “But what Chief Thunderhooves says is true, they took those grounds from us without ever asking us about it, it’s not fair,” Strongheart explained, clapping her hoof on the ground in frustration.
This perked Douny’s interest, he didn’t know why they were fighting to start with but if it was over land disputes, he was sure he could strike up a conversation for both parties to give this minor conflict a peaceful resolution.
“We could try a diplomatic mission, see if both sides can come to an agreement.” Douny thought out loud rubbing at his chin which was starting to grow hair on it. “Those settlers need the trees for food, and you guys want the land to stampede on, from this logic I don’t see why there can’t be a compromise.” Douny finished, looking at the group to see what they thought. He was pleasantly surprised when almost everyone agreed with his plan. Though the cyan mare seemed to not be on board with the plan at all.
“Why the hay should they have to give up any of that land? It was theirs first.” Rainbow snapped at Douny smacking her hoof on the ground which made a much louder sound than Stronghearts.
“Because this is a way for both parties to get something out of this whole thing without starting some stupid war over a small patch of land,” Douny replied, glaring at the rude mare. This act and Douny’s reasoning seemed to make Rainbow see reason, relenting to Douny’s logic with a huff.
“So it’s settled, we will be heading to Appleloosa later in the morning to talk this whole thing out.” Douny finished looking at everyone again seeing that all were still on board with the plan. This brought a small smile to Douny’s face, if he was lucky this would all go off without a hitch.
With all on board, everyone headed out to sleep for the night. Just before Douny left however Little Strongheart, and Chief Thunderhooves waved him over to them. Douny went over to see what they wanted hoping he didn’t just make them angry by taking charge of the conversation.
“Thank you Douny, you have helped our tribe more than you know, and for that, I am extremely grateful.” Thunderhooves thanked the human, kneeling forward as he did so. This made Douny feel a bit uncomfortable.
“It was nothing,” Douny said, waving Thunderhoove's words away. “You helped me out when I was in the middle of the desert, I think it’s only fair I help you out in return.”
“I still feel as if I should thank you for your work tonight. I fear that if you hadn’t stepped in things could have gotten way out of hoof.” Thunderhooves admitted, giving Douny a thankful look once again.
“I guess I understand that, but if we are going to have a successful mission tomorrow we all need to get some rest. Soooo… Goodnight." out of the awkward conversation he found himself in. It seemed to work however when Thunderhooves nodded in reply.
With that go ahead Douny went to his sleeping roll by the campfire resting in it when he got to it. Now he just had to think of how the opening to the diplomatic mission with Appleloosa was going to go. But he figured he could deal with that later. With that final thought out of his head, Douny drifted off to sleep, hopeful that his plan would yield some fruit in the morning.