Before Frank and Rarity reached Lubbock, they encountered a trickling stream that cut a narrow path across the land. Both of them cast a critical eye on the water before having a drink.
Frank’s canteen was one of the items that had been stolen from him, and the day was hot. Without the creek, he might have made Lubbock before dying of thirst, but it was clear that Teal Jack was not concerned with trivial things like that. Someone should do something about him, Frank thought.
Rarity glanced at him. “Now, you said you needed money? I may be able to help.”
She concentrated, closing her eyes. Frank could see the blue glow from her horn, even under the hat she’d appropriated. He waited while several seconds passed.
“There, I think I know where to start.” Rarity looked down at the creek and carefully poked a hoof into the water. She moved around a few stones on the bottom, throwing up a cloud of mud. Gritting her teeth as the dirty water enveloped her hoof, she came out with a small lump of clay from the bottom of the creek. On it was a tiny fleck of gold.
“What...what did you do? How did you get that?” Frank moved forward, staring in wonder. He reached out a hand and Rarity let him take the speck of gold.
“I used a modified version of my signature gem-finding spell,” Rarity told him. “I hope your money is gold-based.”
The government had started trying to shift to paper money, but in the west the preferred currency was still hard. Frank held the miniscule amount of gold between his fingers. “I don’t suppose you could find more?”
Rarity nodded. “Of course.”
She hunted up and down the creek for a few minutes, pulling out small flakes of gold. This was not ore-rich country, and none of the panners Frank knew had ever pulled any profit from this creek. Somehow, Rarity managed to find the tiniest samples.
When she was done, there was a small handful of granular gold in Frank’s palm. It was not even a month’s wages working for a ranch, but still more than Teal Jack had stolen from him.
“Is that enough?” Rarity asked. Her tone implied that it had better be. “I need to get going soon if I’m to chase those bandits.”
“I reckon it’ll do.” Frank fell in step beside her as two of them started walking towards town again. He considered her abilities. Rarity could produce wealth on a whim. Interesting, very interesting.
Buildings began to grow on the horizon. The flat land laid the town of Lubbock out before them. It was still quite distant, but Frank decided that Rarity should probably stay as far away as possible. Even disguised as a mundane pony, she would attract a lot of attention.
A thicket of stunted trees and brush presented itself. It seemed like good cover and Frank headed in that direction. Before he and Rarity reached it, there was a sudden rustle of branches and a flash of movement. Frank’s pistol had already cleared leather before a mule deer leaped from the brush and dashed away.
Rarity recovered from her startle, glancing between Frank’s face and his weapon. He caught her looking and lowered the gun. “Sorry. I hope you understand that I’m a little on edge. It hasn’t been a good day.”
She nodded, but with concern. “I’m a little more worried that your first reaction was to threaten that deer with violence.”
“Animals are dumb, remember. It wouldn’t have understood a threat. Just seeing a person was enough to make it run away.”
Rarity frowned. She watched Frank lower the hammer on his pistol, reorienting the cylinder so the empty chamber was back on top, and slide into his holster. The metal device was obviously intricate and well crafted. It looked nothing like a weapon from her homeland.
They walked over to the thicket. Frank stopped, staring with surprise at a plant growing among the others. “What in tarnation is a sassafrass sapling doing here? I’ve never seen one this far west.”
Rarity glanced at the distinctive leaves. Sure enough, it was sassafrass. Frank broke off a twig and chewed it for a moment, enjoying the taste.
While chewing on unprocessed pieces of a small tree was unladylike, Rarity got a twig of her own. Frank glanced at her, still somewhat skittish at watching Rarity use magic. He turned away as if pretending not to see.
After chewing the end of the twig into a frizz, Rarity used it to scrub the inside of her mouth. There was no telling how long she might be stuck here, and that was no excuse not to brush her teeth.
For a few moments, the two of them stood in silence. Rarity’s eyes drifted as she slowly worked the flavor out of the twig. Her gaze fell on Frank’s gun, resting on his hip. Wanting to study it, she pulled it from his holster.
Frank reacted like he’d been bitten. He wheeled around, surprise and panic etched on his face. “What are you doing?”
Rarity jerked back, in the process pulling the gun away from his grasping hands. “I just wanted a closer look.”
Frank’s eyes were wide. “Give it to me. Please, just give it back.”
Sensing her advantage over him, Rarity asked, “Is it that important?”
“Yes,” Frank insisted, his eyes not leaving the gun. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
The solution seemed obvious enough to Rarity. “Teach me.”
“First, stop pointing it at me!”
Rarity tipped the barrel towards the ground. Frank reached out hesitantly and took the pistol from her magic aura. Rarity continued to look at him expectantly.
Frank sighed. “What do you even want with a gun?”
“You said everyone has one. If I will be chasing criminals, I hope you will at least tell me how to defend myself from them.”
She was a charmer, Frank had to give Rarity that. She hadn’t actually batted her eyelashes at him, but the tone shift in her voice was clear. Worse, it was working. It wouldn’t be gentlemanly to refuse a simple, polite request like that from someone who, regardless of species, was still very much a lady.
“The hammer has to be pulled back before the gun will fire,” Frank explained, showing what part of the pistol he meant. “After that, you pull the trigger and the gun goes off. If you don’t want to get shot, then stop those two things from happening.”
Rarity nodded in understanding. Then, she grabbed the gun from Frank, cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger.
To her credit, the pistol wasn’t pointed towards anything vulnerable. That didn’t stop Frank from screeching and yanking the gun back. “What are you doing!?”
Rarity shook her head. Her ears stinging from the bang the pistol had made, much louder than she expected. “I thought I should determine what happened after the trigger was pulled.”
“Well, now you know,” Frank grumbled. “And now I have only four bullets left.”
“Can you buy more?”
“Well...yes, I suppose.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Rarity asked. “I only needed you to buy me some mane dye. You can spend the rest of that gold dust on yourself.”
Frank’s mouth opened and closed. Rarity’s argument was good, probably even better than she realized. He was still irritated, however.
“Fine, I’m going to town.” Frank pointed to the ground. “Wait here.”
Rarity huffed at being given orders but lay down in the shade of the thicket. “How long will you be gone?”
Frank shrugged, turning away to start walking.
Rarity lounged there as he left. She looked around for a moment, the break giving her time to more fully appreciate her situation. Her self control up to this point had been impeccable, but now that Frank had gone and she was alone with her emotions.
The tears didn’t start immediately. Rarity held them off as long as she could, but a few leaked through her mascara. She wiped her eyes, the makeup coming off on her hooves.
Cheer up. Twilight will realize her mistake and come looking for me soon. Rarity finished wiping her eyes and frowned. Twilight was usually so careful. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry when she’d given Rarity the mysterious diamond, so there should have been time to check it thoroughly before letting one of her friends handle a potentially dangerous object.
The more Rarity thought about it, the more the situation seemed strange. Of course, it was already strange, what with finding herself among cowboys in the wild west. But something still didn’t seem right about Twilight’s actions. Rarity decided that her best option was still to go after the criminals and get the diamond back. This was not the time to stand by passively and let herself be rescued. She could usually count on her friends, but that didn’t mean she was incapable of taking care of herself.
And, Rarity reflected with some disdain, it didn’t mean she was above getting dirty. She would prefer staying clean if possible, but doing what needed to be done was more important. Her time with the Elements of Harmony had made that clear. Besides, here in the mysterious land of Texas there was nopony she had to look fabulous for. Frank certainly didn’t seem the type to appreciate it.
She gathered her wits and took a calming breath. Rarity had confidence in herself, but perhaps somewhat less in Frank. He was helping her, however, and she would have to work with him for at least a little while longer.
Time continued to tick by. Frank had been gone awhile. He wasn’t a very fast walker, Rarity thought with annoyance. She looked around, her gaze resting on the saddle she wore. Did these men really sit on such a thing? Rarity could see how their legs would straddle it. The idea of her actually being put to work carrying a load was deplorable.
Rarity got up, stretching her legs. She nibbled on a little grass, but was not hungry enough to do more than snack. The tall, wild-grown stuff was not very appetizing anyway.
She paced for a minute, still impatiently waiting on Frank. The sassafras plant caught Rarity’s eye, and she considered it for a moment before scratching at the ground near its base. If she had time, she might as well dig up some roots. Perhaps it would make a nice tea later.
While Rarity might have objected to getting dirty, she did occasionally find her hooves in the soil. Gems did not unearth themselves after all, but magic certainly helped.
She had gathered a few short roots by the time Frank came back. There was a burlap bag in his hands.
“This is what you wanted,” he said, digging in the sack and coming out with a small glass bottle. It was filled with a black liquid. Rarity took it from him and scrutinized the color. She would have preferred something a little lighter, perhaps a nice auburn, but without an effective way to lighten her mane in preparation this would have to do.
Frank opened one of the saddlebags and dumped a few things from the sack into it. Rarity gave him a look and raised an eyebrow.
“What?” he said. “It’s my saddle.”
The things he had bought didn’t weigh much, and Rarity decided not to press the issue. She turned to head back towards the creek. “I will need water and a mirror, if you have one.”
Frank walked quickly to catch up. “Nope, I don’t have anything like that.”
Of course he didn’t. With her mind set, Rarity broke into a trot to get to the source of water more quickly. Arriving at the creek, it took her a moment to realize that Frank was following her at a pace faster than he felt comfortable covering long distances. He panted, sweat beading on his face more than just the heat could produce.
Rarity knelt at the edge of the creek, looking into the clear water. It was almost as good as a mirror, she supposed. Opening the bottle of dye, she carefully began to spread it over her mane.
Managing to avoid getting any of the black coloring on her pale coat, Rarity finished her mane and started working on her tail. Having caught his breath, Frank stood nearby, arms crossed. While not familiar with that particular piece of body language, Rarity took it to mean that he was impatient. Well, that was too bad. She’d waited on him earlier.
The dye would take a little while to dry, but Rarity felt confident that the low humidity heat and the sun would quicken the process. She corked the bottle and got up, dismayed to see that her legs had gotten dirty from kneeling by the creek.
Her mane seemed to have turned out alright, at least. The final color was a deep blue-black that held just as much luster as her usual tone. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad. Maybe Rarity would even grow to like it before going home.
She grimaced. Hopefully she wouldn’t be there on this planet quite that long.
Turning to Frank, Rarity said, “Thank you very much for the help. I’ll be on my way.”
“Hang on,” he protested. “I’m coming with. You might blend in now but you still don’t know anything about getting by. Besides, Teal Jack and his gang stole from me, too.”
Rarity huffed. “Well, you can certainly track them down yourself.”
Frank nodded. “But can you? What do you know about following sign and reading clues?”
Somewhat taken aback, Rarity stuttered but Frank jumped in again. “And who is supposed to give you a rub down after a long day on the trail? Or buy you more dye if you need it? Or explain what a lone pony is doing out in the middle of the desert by herself?”
Rarity was more than capable of bathing herself, but objecting to that point and ignoring the others seemed petty. Frank unfortunately had a point.
“Well, fine then.” Rarity turned to the west. The sun had crossed midday and was starting to set towards the horizon. It would make traveling difficult with the glare in their eyes, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Aren’t you coming?” Rarity asked, turning her head towards Frank. He glanced pointedly at the saddle and looked her in the eye.
“Ugh, fine!” Rarity stood still and let Frank climb into the saddle. He seemed gentle about it and well practiced at this sort of thing, and while Rarity hadn’t thought about it before his relative weight seemed fairly light. Rarity couldn’t imagine how it looked, though. She grumbled under her breath at the indignity but began to walk regardless.
Up top, Frank considered his situation. He had a mount under him again, and while he regretted not insisting on a bit and bridle - maybe it would quiet her down - things were looking better.
In a few minutes, they came to the place where the robbery had gone down. Frank applied subtle pressure on Rarity’s side with his knee. Whether she knew what he was doing or not, they gave the area a wide berth. Frank did not want to see what his horse would be like after spending all day in the hot sun.
The tracks leading away were obvious even in the fading light. As they started down the trail, Frank looked back. The messy sight of a dead horse might have been gruesome, but he did feel a pang of longing.
As if reading his mind, Rarity asked, “What was her name?”
Frank let the question sit for a few seconds before replying, “I never named her. I didn’t want to get too attached. Out here, sometimes that’s the worst thing you can do; making and then losing a friend.”
“Does everyone here act so coldly?” Rarity muttered.
“It’s not like I treated her badly,” Frank objected. “I took care of her as well as I could and she did what I asked. We had a good deal going.”
Rarity silently reflected on that. Friendship or not, she and Frank might have to depend on each other. They each needed help, in their own way. Working together might be the best option.
Hopefully not for too long, though.