The train ride was relaxing for the most part. At one point Gilda told me the reason why her friend (Who I know as Rainbow Dash.) was scolding her. Apparently Gilda played a prank on Princess Twilight's guards making them think that the Princess was in trouble. She laughed saying that those dull ponies needed some excitement. I didn't make any comments for or against what she did. The reason being was I wondering why I didn't see any guards while I had visited her last night...then it came to me, Ninja night guards.
Ignoring the idea that I might have been watched by unseen guards I watch the passing scenery. The grassland and occasional tree could be viewed through the window I was sitting next to. It had been just over an hour since we left Ponyville, and it will be another two hours till we reach Appleloosa. I guess It's a good thing that among the few Earth technologies that Equestrians decided apply in this world one of them happened to be our more advanced trains. I heard somewhere that with the new trains hours are shaved off travel time.
Anyway, I continued to watch the moving world around us while Gilda just sat quietly next to me. She was probably bored but to lazy to find something to do. It wasn't long after the second hour of our traveling that the grassland gave way to the dusty, dry landscape that I would refer to as the Old West, though in this case I guess it would be called the Old South (weird huh).
....
"Five minutes till we reach Appleloosa, Five minutes till Appleloosa folks. Anypony deported on this stop make sure you have all your stuff before you leave." the Passenger Director called out.
"Finally" Gilda stretched, audible joint cracking was heard. I cringed at the sound which seemed closer to bones breaking then joints cracking.
"You shouldn't do that to much. You'll end up with bad joints when you get older."
Gilda, who at the time I spoke had one arm raising to the ceiling and the other limb holding it in place paused to look at me.
"That will be a problem for my future self to deal with." she said nonchalantly before rolling her eyes. "Now come on, get your gear together so we don't have to waste anymore time here then we need too." She got up from her seat and headed to the door.
I grab BB which I was able to place in front of me and picked it up as I rose from my very own cushioned seat. Got to say this seats were the best I every sat on within a train. The train finally slowed down to a halt and the passengers along with Gilda and me got off.
Ok first order of business: Find clues that lead to Sundance's whereabouts. I related my thoughts to Gilda who let out a agitated sigh before taking to the air. I left her to things her way. No sense in making a big stink about it.
Well this would be the third time that I have to play the 'find a clue game' which I'm sure isn't that exciting to describe again so let me talk about the town itself.
The town hasn't changed much from what I have seen in books. Sure there or more houses and shops but the style hasn't changed. There is a saloon here too. I did go inside to get clues, I didn't find any but I did find out that the place did sell some pretty good alcoholic drinks (I might stop there latter). Among the humans and ponies there are some buffalo as well. Apparently their peaceful co-existence has lead to closer friendship between the two species. Oh guess what the town's highest selling point is...apple pie. The residence have perfected the taste thanks to years of making them for both themselves and the natives.
After walking out of a candy store upon making a excellent purchase I saw Gilda flying toward me with a Stetson wearing stallion cantering behind her. Her eyes were focusing on me intently so I knew she might have found something. I jogged toward her. It wasn't till she landed in front of me that she spoke.
"Hey, this guy told me that he spoke to Sundance, so I brought him with me so you could here it straight from the horse's mouth..........If you even think of laughing you're going to find a fist in your face."
It wasn't until Gilda had threaten me,,,or was it the pony that I realized she had spoken an unintended pun. Luckily for the both of us neither me or the mustard color pony smiled at the play-on-words.
The stallion spoke in a slightly nervous tone. "Um, nice to met you sir Ah'm Braeburn and welcome to Applelooooooosa."
"AGHHHHH WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT JUST TELL HIM WHAT YOU TOLD ME." Gilda screeched.
"OOok um, w-well that there pony Sundance, ah saw her leaving town a few hours ago. Ah could tell she was gonna do some heavy travelin' considering her saddle bags were packed to the brim with stuff. Ah went up to her and told her that it's dangerous to travel alone...and..." I lifted a brow repeating his last word. "...Well she went off on me about how stallions this days are sexist and don't think mares can handle things on their own. Then she ran off."
"And you didn't chase her." I said in a lest then happy tone.
"I..well....I was surprised at her yelling at me...and well Ah don't handle pressure well." Braeburn smiled at me nervously, a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.
I let out a groan "She went south right?". The pony nodded rapidly. I muttered a thanks and walked passed the pony who again nodded nervously all the while watching me leave. Once I was a distance away Gilda flew up besides me.
"Well that makes things easier." she said
"How so?"
She gave me a 'I can't believe you are that stupid." Look. "Look, the pony said she left a few hours ago which means that she spent quite a bit of time in town for some reason or another. Also it's not like she is going to be running the whole way. She going to slow down to a walking pace so as long as we make good speed we will catch up to her in no time at all...now let's get going I can already taste the veal." Gilda flew forward licking her chops and making run to keep up with her.
The dusty plains are hot and it doesn't help that we are walking during the sun's zenith. Sure, Appleloosa was hot but it was bearable. I've already downed a water bottle and Gilda is halfway done with hers. Might I add that she grab one out of my hand that was meant for me. I'm starting to wonder if it was a good idea to ask her for her services.
"Hey Dan." I looked down at Gilda for she had given up on flying in this heat. Before I could reply she spoke again. "I've heard a lot of things in my life but never have I heard a pony speak about sexism before...I'm guessing she got this from you somehow." She lifted a brow curiously at me.
"Why do you want to know." my expression matching hers, except with a sweater face.
She frowned, more like a dissatisfied glare but I digress. "Like I said I've never heard a pony speak about sexism before. Considering you live among those dweebs you should know that those types of things don't really happen in Equestria that often."
In truth it shouldn't really be something to hide. I already told Sundance about the pros and cons of earth, so when ahead and told Gilda about where Sundance's sexism rant came from (though I am surprise she never heard of a pony doing something like this before.) "Well Gilda, Long ago in our world men were considered the dominate gender. They were the head-honcho, the big wig, the-" I stopped as I noticed the ever increasing scowl on Gilda's face. "-and well women were considered weaker. It got better over time. They went from being property to housemaids to working, voting members of society with all their accomplishments recognized by everyone else...with that being said there are still those who still treat women poorly and such."
Gilda just stared at me for awhile, or at least in my direction. I felt like she was judge me, but for what I do not know. I jumped slightly when she spoke again.
"That does support those activist's claims." She said tonelessly looking away from me.
"Wut."
"Activists against your kind being here.They think humans are-is that what I think it is?" She pointed a talon to something in the distance. It was something beige and bulky. Gilda took off into toward the object leaving me once again to play catch-up.
Gilda had picked up the object and was examining it when I reached her. The material was flexible but strong. It wasn't beige like intently thought it was white but somehow it hold gotten dirt all over it. It was divided into two parts connected by a strap. I could see things poking out of it like a canteen and food. On the back of one of the bags I saw a reddish smear. it wasn't that wide but the length stretched the entire back. I don't think I need to tell anyone what I think the reddish smear was. It's shape, the separate but connect departments it could be only one thing. A saddlebag and on the flap was a cutie mark that identified the owner. I was a open book with a quill writing scribble lines on the right page. "This belongs to Sundance." I said. my worried gaze fell upon Gilda.
She was about to say something but stopped to turn her head to the right of me. I turned to look at whatever she was looking at. All I saw was a small mesa quite a distance away. I was going to say something but a light brown and white blur flying passed me almost making me fall. It was Gilda. My words were once again prevented from leaving my lips when Gilda turned back to me and said "I hear barking."
Running full speed with a huge ass backpack isn't easy but when you are thinking more about your friend then you do the constantly shifting weight on you back you tend to not notice those things. The Mesa was coming closer and closer as I ran and Gilda flew. I was finally able to here the barking, it was definitely dogs...wild dogs to be exact. When I saw them I noticed that most of them were light brown in color with some white here and there. I counted about ten, nine on the ground and one trying to climb to a overhang of rock jutting out of the mesa a few yards above the ground. Just as the dog was able to stick his head over the side of the overhang a yellow hoof spring out decking the dog in the face. Needless to say the dog fell down backwards hitting the ground. I got to it's feet just as quick.
At this point we were close enough to caught the dog's attention, and that's exactly what I did. I yelled at the top of my lungs making them turn around to face me. They growled, snarled and barked at me but did not attack me. What ever was going to happen next the weight of BB would slow me down so I took it off. Too late I realized the that the big bulking BB attached to a tall mammal might have been the only thing imitating enough to keep the dogs from attacking. What happened next?...well they attacked, all ten of them.
I quickly casted a spell to strengthen my hands. The lead dog leaped at me just as I finished the spell. I punched it in the side of the face. Note to self: even when a buffed up fist allows you to sent you opponent flying farther then non-buffed fist, it still hurts a lot when said opponent's skull is very hard.
I wave the hand franticly trying to stop the pain. Thankfully my counter had knocked the dog out cold since it hadn't moved since it landed. My victory was cut short when I felt a weight on my back along with a sharp pain in for different location on said back. One of the dogs had circled around and attack me from behind as I became distracted with the pain in my hand. I could fell it's hot breath on my neck were it would soon bite down on.
Suddenly the weight was lifted from my back and I heard a thud from my right. I turned to see Gilda on top of the dog. "Idiot, were did you learn to fight." she yelled before punching the dog hard in the face. Eight more to...correction four more to go. In the span for me to take down one waving my hand like crazy and almost get chewed on Gilda had defeated four. Three of watch were running away.
Learning from my mistake I quickly focused on rest of the dogs. Three headed to Gilda, one to me. It looked like it was going to go all ankle-bitter on me so I swung my magic induced fist down on it's head. It jerked it's head up and caught my hand in it's mouth and bit down. Oh god did it hurt, there was even some blood as well. I did what any other man would do in this situation...I screamed like little girl. Fighting through the pain I used my free hand to hit the dog. It wasn't a punch though if that is what your thinking. No, it was a karate chop to the neck. It worked very well.
The dog dropped to the ground. Ignoring it I turned to see if Gilda needed any help. I looked just in time to see three dogs run past me whimpering. Gilda on the other hand was standing up proud. Here feathers were ruffled and I saw what seemed to be a scratch on one of her forelegs but other then that she was unharmed.
''those dogs didn't have a chance against me." She smiled. "You're lucky I was here are you would have been dog chow Danny boy." Her smiled increased. For my part I let out a groan.
A moment passed before I recalled that I had seen a hoof on the overhang, a hoof with a familiar color. Gilda caught on and motioned with her head to tell me to go ahead and climb the rock face.
.....
Thanks to the digits known commonly as fingers I was about to climb the rock face without much trouble . Having a lean and upright body does help. The rock face comes out at a sharp but decent angle. It has good foot and hand holds but I'm surprised that Sundance was able to get up here...must have been the adrenaline. Right when I place a hand on the overhang I hesitated. Last time something reached the overhang she punted it. Better play it safe. "Sundance It's me, Dan the human. Do not repeat do not kick me." I said in a higher octave then I wanted to. There was no answer of any kind. Now I'm worried.
Rising my body above the overhang. My body did two things. One My heart skipped a beat, two my body when cold. It was Sundance who was on the overhang and she didn't look good.
She was laying on her side. Her coat and hair were ruffled badly. Here flank had scratches, right below her cutie mark. They didn't look that deep or big but there was blood trickling down. That wasn't the worse of it. On the side of her abdomen were four large gashes. From the small amount of blood beneath her the other side must have had them too. One moment I was at the edge of the overhang, the next I was hovering over Sundance with my hand under her head lifting it up.
"Sundance, Sundance" Her eyes, which had been closed slightly opened. Her apple green eyes were dull and filled with unspoken pain.
"D-Daniel?" She whispered weakly.
At that moment I knew that I needed to take her to a hospital. I will make damn sure that I make it as well.