The road to Manehatten was long, and somewhat treacherous, as it ran right next to the Everfree Forest in some places. I should have been to Manehatten by now, but I was held up in Ponyville by a bubbly, pink Earth Pony... There was no way I was going to make it to Manehatten by nightfall, Luna's moon was already starting to rise over the horizon. I figured I would go as far as I could, then stop for the night. No matter how experienced you were, you never wanted to travel around these parts at night. This was going to throw my entire schedule off, now I wouldn't be abe to catch a ship until tomorrow...
This road saw a lot of traffic during the day, merchants, trade caravans, all sorts of ponies. But at night, the trail took on an eerie, ominous, feeling. I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder... watching the shadows created by Luna's full moon... I sudden low growl caused me to loose my concentration, and stumble.
"Who's there!? Show yourself! I'm not afraid of you!" That last part, was a little less then true...
I searched for my machete and brought it out, my eyes darting back and forth, searching for whatever made that noise...
I heard it again, and then realized the source of the menacing noise... It suddenly occurred to me, that I haven't eaten since I left home...
I decided to stop for the night and eat. I couldn't walk much more tonight, and lack of sleep has obviously made me a bit paranoid... I stepped off the road, and settled down in a small clearing. I decided to have a daisy sandwich for dinner, the food was always better at the start of a journey, you still had fresh food, not like those dry, disgusting MREs...
I sat down under a tree, enjoying the fresh daisies in my sandwich, I probably only had another days worth of fresh produce... in a few days, I would be trying to choke down freeze dried wheat grass...
I trotted over to my saddle bags and unpacked one of my thick, wool blankets. I could sleep just about anywhere, though like any other pony, I would rather sleep in my own, soft, warm... custom made bed... But all the cold nights, dry food, and sore hooves would be worth it if I found this armour. I could picture it now, once word got around, I would have Job offers left and right! I would become the most famous adventurer in Equestrian history! That job at the Canterlot museum was as good as mine.
I decided to sleep under the leaves of a large tree, in case the Pegasi decided to drop a night time rainstorm on me, which always seemed to happen when I slept outdoors... Lucky for me, it was a warm spring night, so I wouldn't be freezing my flank off. It was time to get some well needed sleep...
I must have only been asleep for an hour or two, because the moon was still high in the sky. But something had awoken me... something just a few yards behind the tree where I was sleeping...
As much as I wanted to jump out, and see what was keeping me from my sleep, my professionally trained mind told me to wait, and listen... At first, all I heard was some rustling in the bushes, and trees, but after a few seconds, I heard the sound of tearing, and searching... most likely my saddle bags. Somepony was trying to steal my stuff! I swear... if they take any of ma' food...
I've had enough of this, who ever was out there was going to get there jaw bucked clean off! I slowly got up, with my back to the tree, making sure to make no sound at all... I peered around the trunk to see what scum bag was stealing my stuff...
Right away I noticed a pair of brown, flustered wings. So my thief was a Pegasus, no doubt he would try to run... I was gonna have to surprise him... But then my eyes quickly darted to something... odd... a lion's tail? I stepped out from behind my hiding spot to get a clear look at my target. Right there, standing over my saddle bags, eating my food... was a Griffon.
She, as I could now tell from the distinct coloring of her feathers... seemed to have taken no notice to my presence, she just continued eating myfood...
"Get your grubby claws off of ma' food!!" The Griffon, perked up for a second, then went back to scavenging my bags...
"You better get your rear end out of here, feather brain!" She stood up, and turned around.
"Buzz off!" She stared at me, and flexed her claws, trying to intimidate me.
"Im warning you If you don-"
"What part of buzz off, don't you understand!?" The Griffon then turned around and went back to my saddle bags...
"I'll give you one last chance to get out!" I've had just about enough of this...
"And I'll give you one last chance to buzz off ya' loser!" She then stepped forward, and made a swiping motion with her right claw.
"Thats it!" And with that, I lunged at her, knocking her to the ground.
She then kicked me in the chest, and tried to slash at my leg with her razor sharp claws, which I barely dodged... I knocked her back again, but then she jumped forward, half running, half gliding on her large wings, and swiped me with one of her wings... knocking me into a large Oak tree.
"Ha! Is that all you got!? You ponies are all the same, wimps!"
Then, I noticed something gleaming among the spilled contents of my saddle bags... my machete! I reached for it, and turned around to meet the charging griffon behind me. I jumped at her, knocking her on to her back, I then pinned her hind legs down with mine, and brought the cold metal of my machete to her throat...
"What are you doing here!?" The griffon still didn't seem scared, or nervous.
"I just needed some food..."
"Well, get food somewhere else, you no good thief!" I was pissed, this Griffon was gonna get it. "When I'm done with you, your gonna have to drag yourself back to whatever hole you crawled out of!"
"Chill out... It's not like I took anything important, those daisies were tasteless anyways..." This Griffon was asking for it now!
"Whats your name?" As much as I wanted to knock the living daylights out of her, Griffons could put up one hay of a fight when cornered so maybe I can resolve this without getting my throat slashed...
"Why should I tell you!?"
'Well, I do have a machete to your throat!"
"Fine. If you want to know so badly... My names Gilda, it would do you some good to remember that!"
"So, what are you doing all the way out here, stealing my stuff!?"
"Well, I've been having a rough time lately... and just needed some food." She finally stopped being so stubborn...
"What kind of rough times?'
"None of your business!" We both were quiet for a minute, but she finally spoke up again.
"Now.. do you think you can get off me!?" I had completely forgotten I still had her pinned down...
"Oh... sure" She got up and brushed herself off, and then walked laid down under a near by tree.
"What the hay are you doing!?"
"Sleeping, that meal made me a bit drowsy." She chuckled as she said that last part... "You don't mind if I crash here right?"
This Griffon was insane! She steals my food, and nearly kills me, and she has the audacity to sleep in my camp! Although, deep down, I did somewhat admire her boldness...
"Fine! But stay out of my stuff!" I can't believe I just agreed to let her sleep here...
I repacked my saddle bags, and dragged them over to where I was going to sleep, I wasn't going to have "Gilda" run off with my supplies in the middle of the night... If I wasn't tired before, I certainly was after that scuffle... Before I fell asleep, I checked my supplies. Everything was there, except my fresh daisies...
Once again... I was awoken from my sleep... I could hear some muffled sounds coming from the area Gilda settled down in. I did a quick check of my stuff, nothing was missing.
I decided to walk over to Gilda, and maybe shut her up... As I walked closer, I thought I could make out the sounds of... crying? From what I could tell, Gilda did not seem like the crying type... But, as the large Griffon came into view... I could tell, she was crying.
"Umm... Is something wrong?" I was truly confused right now...
"I-I- Umm... Uh... No... Nothing, W-Why would you think somethings wrong?"
"Were you crying?" I knew she was, but I was hoping she would say no, so I could just get back to bed...
"No, of course no-..... Ok! Yes! I was! It's just... I-I... I just lost my only friend... She was the only one who cared about me... the only one who ever hung out with me... The only one... who was always there for me...."
Every feeling of annoyance, and anger melted away... She had lost someone close to her, and from what I could tell, her only friend...
"What happened? Did your friend.. umm..."
"No... it was because of me... I was an idiot... I chased her away... I chased away the only friend I ever had..."
"Couldn't you have made up with your friend, or something?" I was struggling to find the right words... I never had to deal with something like this before...
"I couldn't just make up... I couldn't go back... after what I did to her... and her friends..." I could tell she was struggling to hold back tears... "She was all I had left... and I blew it... I have nothing now... no friends, no family... no home... that was one of the reasons I went to her in the first place... I needed some place to stay for a few weeks..."
I felt so guilty now... Not only had I screamed at her earlier... but I almost killed her... she was desperate... she had nothing...
But then, I remembered what Luna's letter had said...
"Well... you could maybe... hang around with me for awhile. I could use some help with my job"
"What kind of job?" She stopped sobbing... the look on her face was one of hope...
"A treasure hunt."
"You would let me tag along? Even after what I did..?"
"Sure... I sort of understand what you were going through... and the whole fight was kinda my fault..."
"Ok... I'll come with you..."
"Good! Now, can we please get some sleep!? I- I mean we have a long journey ahead of us."
"Sure, no prob!"
"Thank Celestia..." I turned around, and trudged towards my tree..."
"Hey! I never caught your name!" Come to think of it... I havn't told her my name yet...
"Dust Streak, but you can call me Streaks." Now... time to slee-
"Hey Streaks?" Oh for cryin' out loud!
"Yes?"
"Thanks... for everything."