Spike had spent hours awake while his sister slept; doing his best to ensure that, if trouble found them, they would at least avoid being surprised by it. The effort felt wasted however, as the young dragon only saw a jackrabbit hop by and the shadow of what must have been, if the stereotype for wastelands held true, a very large buzzard passing overhead. It was all he could do to simply keep his eyes open in the unstimulating environment until his sister awoke, which ended up being a bit past noon.
In contrast, Amy was feeling pretty good as she and Spike hiked ever closer to the mountains, a small part of her pointing out that, if a good rest was enough to brighten her day whilst thirsty and in the middle of nowhere, then her life had probably taken a wrong turn or two. Ignoring the little pessimist in her noggin, Amy focused on the small claw held within her own and marched onwards.
“You need a break or anything, Spike? You’re not getting tired are you?” the dragoness inquired.
“Nah I’m good… How long is it going to be until we get there though?” Spike asked in return before nearly tripping on a small rock jutting from the earth.
Holding him up until he regained his footing, she answered, “At this pace and no distractions? Probably sometime in the morning.” Turning her eyes upwards and squinting, she continued, “We may have to take cover if a pegasus flies by though, and I’m sure we’ll take some breaks anyway, so I’m guessing closer to this time tomorrow.”
“Really, another day?” Spike nearly moaned. “I don’t think I can keep this up that long without some water.”
Amy turned to see her panting brother, the sight causing her to bite her lip. “Yeah, that is a bit of a problem, isn’t it?” She began to rack her brain for a solution, going over all of the survival techniques her father had taught her those many years ago. Adult dragons could go quite a while without water even outside of their long sleeps, but adolescent ones didn’t share the same level of resilience.
She herself could only go eight or nine days without water, and Spike was even younger than her. On top of that, the two were hiking through rough terrain and rapidly increasing their thirst as a result. “Why don’t we take a quick breather, huh? We’ve already walked a few hours and I don’t know about you, but my feet are killing me,” lied the dragoness; she had clawed her way through tropical jungles far harsher and hotter than the terrain they now hiked across with less trouble.
Spike gave a tired smile and nodded, allowing Amy to pull him to the shade of a large rock. “I wish whoever founded this Bedville place would have done it closer to Ford Junction.”
“That would be nice,” Amy agreed as they sat down. “But I think it would have defeated the purpose, what with Bedville being a mining town. Those mountains have a lot of valuable metals, and even some gem deposits all throughout them.”
Sitting side by side, the dragoness pulled out the sugar diamond and the two nibbled on it with far less ceremony than before. Little else was said between them as Spike tried to ignore his thirst and Amy thought about how to quench it. The answer came when she leaned back and placed her claws palm down behind her, feeling coolness slightly beyond what mere shade could produce.
A curious glance over the shoulder revealed the dirt at the base of the rock to be just barely darker than the rest. “No way,” she mumbled to herself as she turned completely to stare with widening eyes, causing Spike to give her a questioning look.
“What is it?” he asked as he too turned, trying in vain to spot what had caught his sister’s attention.
“A lucky break,” she whispered, bringing her snout down to sniff the patch of dirt. A smile slowly spread across her muzzle as she talked to herself. “Must have been some rainfall around here over the last few days.” Looking to her brother with a full-on grin, she told him, “You’re gonna want to step back, Spike. There’s going to be a lot of dirt flying.”
The younger dragon could only quirk an eye-ridge. “Huh?”
“If I’m right about this, I think I just found us a drink.” Spike was about to question how they’d get water out of dirt, but was shooed away before he could.
With the little one standing at a safe distance, Amy returned her attention to the land and took a deep breath. Though they were known more for plundering, dragons were actually quite capable of digging up their own booty using a technique not unlike those of the diamond dogs. True, it wasn’t as refined as that of the canines due to the fact that dragons could forgo finesse in lieu of brute strength, but magically enhancing one's claws still made digging a far easier task.
Focusing some of her now partially recovered reservoir of magic down into the hardened keratin, the dragoness didn’t hesitate to knife her claw into the ground with a quick, powerful movement. The first strike left her digits sunk nearly three knuckles deep before she curled the powerful appendages and yanked upwards, tearing a chunk of earth free and sending it flying behind her. Before the dirt even touched down, her other claw had mimicked the first and Amy settled into a rhythm.
Spike watched in amazement as his sister soon had a hole dug forearm deep and as wide as a melon. The dragoness however, was quickly becoming agitated as her efforts were far more draining then they should have been and her bad arm was beginning to throb. She had circulated a soothing current of magic through the damaged tissue the night prior to stimulate the healing process, but the effort had been draining and she didn’t have nearly enough time to mend the muscle completely.
Frustratingly, it felt as if what little recovery she had managed had been undone and there was still nothing to show for it in the dirt below. She was just about to give up and apologize for raising her brother’s hopes when she began to see her work pay off in the form of darkening soil. Reaching her tired arm back for her staff, she slowly continued to dig with her good arm and rejoiced, “Jackpot!” Looking to her brother, she said, “Check it out, Spike, I found water!”
Stepping forward, the younger dragon was confused upon only spotting dirt. “Where?” he found himself questioning as he looked over to his sister, wondering if perhaps she was still a bit loopy from exhaustion.
“An old trick I learned a long time ago,” Amy began as she collected the cloth from her staff and set the sugar diamond aside. “See, most times, even when we can’t see it, water is still all around us. In this case, we’re lucky enough to have found some.” Motioning him over, the dragoness pointed down. “Just look closely and tell me what you see.”
Spike shifted his eyes between his sister’s large grin and the hole, deciding with a small sigh to humor her before trying to talk her into getting more rest. Moving to all fours, Spike brought his head right to the entrance of the newly dug divot and squinted. At first, he couldn’t discern anything noteworthy, and was going to voice as much before a slight shimmer caught his eye and he leaned in even closer. “Is that… mud?” he inquired with a sideways glance to Amy.
“Yep, isn’t great!?”
“Uh… I guess?” he answered uncertainly. “What do we do with mud?” Looking back down, he felt “mud” was being generous to the damp earth, and he hoped the elder drake didn’t expect him to it eat it. Dragons may eat gemstones and minerals, but he drew the line at mud pies, especially after the CMC Bakers incident.
“That’s easy,” Amy began as she held the cloth up proudly. “We wring the water right out of it!” With that, the dragoness went to work piling a couple clawfuls of dirt onto the center of the fabric before folding up the sides and lifting it above her open maw. Spike watched on with interest and slight disgust as Amy began to squeeze the soil-filled rag until a thin stream of brownish water dripped down into her mouth.
She didn’t get much before shutting her mouth and gulping. Looking down to Spike, she sighed, “refreshing,” before giving the sack a wiggle. “You want some? I’ll wring it out for you.”
There was a small debate within the young drake's mind as he tried to decide if he really wanted to drink mud water or not, but his thirst eventually won out and he nodded. Amy’s grin grew wider as she instructed, “Great! All you’ve got to do is tilt your head back and I’ll handle the rest.”
With a deep breath and a nod, Spike did as he was told and lifted his head up. Shutting his eyes tightly, the young dragon opened his mouth and waited. It wasn’t long after he heard his sister shuffle closer that he felt the first droplets of liquid splash on his lips before centering on the back of his throat. Surprisingly the water didn’t taste that bad at all, having a flavor not unlike overly saturated mineral water, and he found himself swallowing the half a mouthful provided greedily. “Wow, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Spike breathed as he licked his lips with his newly wetted tongue. “… There’s still more, right?”
Amy chuckled. “Yeah, just give me a sec to get fresh dirt. This stuff is getting pretty dry.” She shook out the rag and began refilling it from the hole. “You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this; it saved my life when I was in Iwiwgypt. A lot of desert over there.”
Spike’s eyes widened, “Iwiwgypt? I read about that! You saved a bunch of gem jackals by getting this magical amulet thing! The, uh, the Amulet of Ammit, right?”
The dragoness stopped what she was doing and asked, “You know about that?”
“Yeah, like I said, I read about it.” The younger dragon paused for a second before a light blush came to his cheeks. “It was actually right before we met. I kinda couldn’t wait to meet you, so I went to the library.”
After a few blinks, Amy’s straight face was broken by a huff of laughter. “Wow, you really would fit right in with Lorey and her stick-in-the-mud husband. When you went to talk about books with Prose, I thought you were just trying to be polite.” Returning to her work, she continued with a small smirk, “I try to avoid libraries as much as possible, which is admittedly hard to do in my line of work, but I can usually pawn the heavy researching off on Lorey. If I can’t get my mind off of something or I’m worried I usually end up going to… Well, I don’t go check out books, is my point.”
Spike scratched at his head and averted his gaze as his blush intensified. “I guess it is a little weird now that I think about it. Growing up with a pony like Twilight and spending all your time in a library does that to a guy though… So what was Iwiwgypt really like?”
Seeing the attempt to change the topic and realizing that she may have sounded a little rude, Amy jumped at the chance to talk about something else. “Hot,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Hot, sandy, and bright enough to burn your retinas if you looked too far upwards or stared at the lit side of a sand dune for too long. Having to deal with another psycho out to conquer a country didn’t make the trip any better either.”
“I bet that’s a pretty cool story; the article I read didn’t talk about much other than that you saved the country and how important a find the amulet and some ruins were to Iwiwgyption culture.”
Amy smiled bashfully at the sudden enthusiasm in her little brother’s voice and picked up the freshly-filled sack of dirt. “Tilt your head back, and I’ll tell you about it while we get hydrated,” Moving the cloth over Spike’s mouth once more, she began, “Well, it all started with Lorey practically tackling me when I came through her door; turned out she made a pretty big breakthrough in her research and couldn’t wait to get me on the first boat to the land of the jackals…”
><
“The story of my life,” grumbled a disgruntled Phantom as he trotted between the stone structures set up along the mountain’s base. “Somepony else bucks up and I’m the one who gets shouldered with the punishment.” His mind wandered to the scar on his chest and he shook his head, picking up the pace.
“I’ll finish this fast, in and out, and get back to the group. I’m not giving the boss any more reason to mess with me during this expedition.” He had been flying since morning and the sun was only a few hours from setting. In exchange for the soreness in his wings, he had made the trip in much less time than what had been expected, and there was still activity on the streets of Bedville as he made his way to Zariba’s contact.
Stepping aside just in time to avoid a minotaur bull pulling a cart full of ore, Phantom reached into his saddlebags and pulled out the tied up bundle of papers his boss had given him. Wiggling the smaller note from the parchment, Phantom unfolded it to read the address. Not being a frequent visitor to the mining settlement, it didn’t help the pegasus much and he lifted his eyes to look into the dwindling crowds around him.
“Hey you, can you help me with something real quick?” Phantom asked a minotaur passing by.
“Huh? Uh sure, what do you ne- Wow! What happened to your face!” the less-bulky than average bull said as he looked down, causing the pasted-on smile of the scarred pegasus to drop.
“Old burns. Can you tell me where to find this place?” He inquired, doing his best to get the information he needed and go before he bucked the bull’s eye. Seemingly realizing his rudeness, the bull apologized before taking the paper. Luckily for both of them, it only took a moment for the stranger to realize he knew the place and directed Phantom accordingly. With a grunt to show his gratitude, the pegasus pushed by after snapping the paper from the bull’s hand and ignored the sarcastic “You’re welcome!” from behind.
Once he knew where he was going, it took no time at all to navigate through the small settlement and arrive at a building with a large sign proclaiming, “Gem Mill’s Jewelry: The Best Way to Up the Value of Your Gems and Metals!” Ignoring the closed sign in the window, Phantom went up to the simple wooden door and pounded impatiently on it. Twenty knocks later, the door swung open to reveal a red-faced, both literally and figuratively, earth pony stallion who immediately shouted, “What!?”
Without missing a beat, the pegasus retrieved the parchment and stuck it against his fellow pony’s muzzle. “Dr. Zariba’s got a job for you.”
The Earth pony’s face paled from its lava-like, anger-tinted shade to a more natural dull-red, before settling on a fear-stricken, almost pink hue. “Z-Zariba?” he squeaked as he stepped back into his shop. “What could he possibly want from me?”
“Read the letter and you’ll know,” was Phantom’s ingenious answer as he tossed the bundle up and left the earth pony scrambling to catch it as he entered the building. “You got something to drink? I’ve just spent the whole day flying.”
“Ah, y-yeah, the staircase behind the display leads to the living area,” the earth pony responded distractedly as he worked to undo the small string holding the note shut. Phantom grunted again and went behind the counter, hardly even looking at the various bobbles within as he went in search for a glass of water and a place to sit down for a minute. He didn’t care if he was being a jerk at the moment, he had more than earned the right after the day he was having.
I wonder what this guy has to eat around here. I could go for a quick bite before I’m back in the air. He heard the stallion below yell something and the rapid fire of hoofsteps as he pushed open the door at the top of the stairs.
“Hey, wait a second! You can’t just come barging in here! This is my home!” the stallion fumed as he came up the staircase behind Phantom.
“You read the letter, right?” the pegasus interrupted, moving to where he imagined the kitchen would be. “Hosting an unexpected guest shouldn’t really be at the top your priorities right now.” Dr. Zariba expected the best from his employees after all, and Mill now fell under that category.
The gulp was audible even from within the small kitchen as Gem Mill followed meekly behind. “But why me? I- I know I owe him for helping open this business, but I’ve already smuggled ancient jewelry across the borders and made sales on the black market. Isn’t that enough?”
Huh, so that’s how this guy knows the boss, thought the pegasus. Over the years spent under his service, Phantom found that those willingly employed under Dr. Zariba were the minority compared to those who worked towards repaying debts and favors or were blackmailed into being one of the zebra’s pawns. He himself fell somewhere between those two groups.
“I’m guessing you never learned that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Phantom snarked, pulling a mug down from the earth pony’s cupboards and running it under the faucet.
With a dejected sigh, Gem Mill walked over the table and slumped into one of two seats. “Guess I should have listened to my gut when a skull-faced, red-eyed zebra came out of nowhere offering to help me get my dreams off the ground.” Something bitter that was almost a laugh escaped his lips. “It sounds like the setup for a foal’s cautionary tale.”
Despite the aches and generally bad day, Phantom couldn’t help but smirk at that. “A tale you didn’t hear when you were a colt apparently,” he jibed as he sat down with his mug and a loaf of bread he snatched from Mill’s breadbox.
The earth pony gave him a dry look through his green mane, but didn’t say anything. Phantom took the silence as a chance to actually look over his host. He wasn’t impressive in the muscle department, especially for an earth pony, and was built more like a particularly scrawny unicorn. His mane, though somewhat mussed now, showed signs of having been well taken care of and styled while the olive-green eyes beneath it, even when angry, showed a surprising lack of the hardness that Phantom had grown used to since living outside of Equestria.
“How exactly does the boss expect you to help deal with dragons, anyway?” the pegasus found himself asking. “You don’t really look like you’re up for fighting a monster like Amethyst Thistle… Even the little one may be too much for you.”
Mill glared across the table at the pony chewing on his loaf of bread before saying, “Zariba isn’t the only one who can collect on debts, you know. I’ve garnered quite a few favors with many of the miners here. I’m sure you’ll agree they’re more the sort to be up for such things… Zariba does. That’s what he instructed me to do in his letter.” Some of the anger in his expression was replaced with fear and confusion. “How does he even know about them? It’s not like I talk about my personal life with the zebra.”
The boss likes to keep track of all his pawns, was Phantom’s unspoken reply. Swallowing a mouthful of bread and chugging the last of his water, he settled instead on giving his goodbye. “There’s no point in questioning it; just focus on getting done what needs getting done and move on with your life.” Leaving his glass and half a loaf on the table, the Pegasus stood and stretched his wings. “I’m taking off; I want to get as much flying done as I can while the sun’s out before I have to start using the stars.”
Gem Mill tilted his head at this. “What do you mean taking off? You’re supposed to stay here and help me set things up. That’s what it says in the letter, anyway.”
“…What?” Phantom had just reached the door when he finally registered what he had been told. “The boss would have told me before I left if he wanted me to do more than just deliver the letter.”
“Read it yourself if you don’t believe me,” the earth pony responded, holding the paper up.
Phantom was in front of Mill in a matter of seconds, his eyes scanning over the snatched parchment. As he read, his lips slowly morphed into a snarl. Upon finishing, he tore the parchment to pieces.
“I make one little mistake and now I’m saddled with not only flying miles to a no name dump like this, but also trying to organize a bunch of muscle-bound miners who probably don’t even have a working brain between them! I can’t believe this manure!”
Gem Mill had jerked his head back as freshly-made confetti rain down to his floor, and his voice held a slight quiver as he asked, “Are you going to be alright?”
Taking a deep breath, Phantom released it slowly. “I’ll be alright just as soon as all this is over and I can drink myself stupid… Preferably someplace where I won’t overhear any talk of ancient treasure. It hasn’t been working out for me so far.” Appearing far calmer than he actually was, he looked to his now temporary partner and asked, “So, they’re your friends, take the lead, colt.”
“Uh, right, there are a few homes we can stop at, but that’ll be on the way. At this hour, most of the miners will be unwinding for the night.” The earth pony explained as he got up, taking a moment to stare at the half eaten loaf on his table before shaking his head and turning. “We’re going to the bar.”
“After last night, that doesn’t sound as appealing as it should,” Phantom responded flatly. Following Mill out the door, the pegasus had a feeling that even getting close to booze right now was going to cause trouble for him, which he really hoped wouldn’t be the case. If it was, he may never be able to trust in the stuff again after being betrayed so thoroughly by his favorite drink.
With a look to the setting sun, Phantom sighed. “You got a couch or something? I’m probably going to need a place to stay until morning.”
~8~
“Should only be a little further now; that smoke didn’t seem too far off,” Amy said as she and Spike walked. They had made it to the mountain’s base last night and took a break when it became clear they wouldn’t be able to find the town in the dark. The first rays of morning’s light revealed grey wisps rising in the distance and the two dragons had been moving towards them ever since.
“I hope so; my feet are killing me,” Spike groaned. He had spent quite a few hours on his feet working at the Ponyville library, but that was nothing compared to hiking through rocky terrain for hours and stepping on sharp pebbles at least a dozen times a minute. He was really starting to miss the wooden floors of the library, splinters and all.
“Look on the bright side; you’re toughening up those scales of yours.”
Spike rolled his eyes and smiled. “Yeah, that’ll be useful. Next time I’m in trouble, I’ll just make sure to go at it feet first.”
“Hey, I’ve solved a lot of problems with a kick to the face.”
“Your own, I’m guessing- Ow!”
His sister retracted her claw after flicking him in the head. “Real funny. I think I’m starting to rub off on you… Gods protect me from Twilight when you act snarky like this towards her.”
The young dragon rubbed his head and mock glared, though he couldn’t stop the upwards twitch of his lips. The two only lasted a moment before they burst into a fit of giggles. While they waited for the sun to rise, the dragons ended up talking about a myriad of topics and Spike felt that they had learned much about each other. The many hilarious and action-filled stories told between them were also greatly enlightening.
“You’re giving yourself too much credit; I was plenty snarky before I met you. And besides, you fought a small army of mummies, why are you afraid of Twilight?” The small dragon snorted before adding, “What does that say about her?”
“That she probably has enough magic mojo to raise her own undead army when she finds out,” was the curt reply.
“Pffft, nah, Twilight isn’t allowed to practice necromancy; Princess’ orders.”
Amy opened her mouth to reply, but a twitch of her ear fin had her hopping up a nearby pile of rocks. “Wow, we made it faster than I thought we would,” she said with a grin.
“What are you talking about?” Spike asked as he walked up.
“Why don’t you come up here and look for yourself?” Amy replied as she reached down. Accepting the proffered claw, the little dragon was hoisted up and was able to see what had his sister so pleased.
A smile of his own worked its way across his muzzle as he sighed, “Finally.” Beneath them was a series of dull stone buildings spread across less than a dozen city blocks worth of rocky land. There were only a few pedestrians and the occasional cart being pulled along the unpaved streets at this hour, but it was more life than either dragon had seen in nearly two days, so it might as well have been a bustling metropolis.
“I can’t wait to drink something other than mud water; come on, sis!” Spike cheered before taking off. With an eye-roll, Amy followed right behind him.
The dragoness kept a firm grip of her brother’s claw once they had made it to the edge of town and her expression became slightly more serious. Though she wasn’t expecting trouble, the nasty thing seemed to have an infatuation with the purple beauty and so she made sure to keep an eye on every corner and alley in case it reared its ugly head.
She had already decided their first course of action in Bedville was going to be trading some sugar diamond for money, and Spike agreed once she assured him that they could ask whomever they made the trade with for a couple of glasses of water. It was at a small exchange booth set up for the miners of the town that this was done, and Amy was as reluctant to part ways with pieces of the rare gem as the traders were excited to gain them. After the deed was done and the dragons shook off the utterly wrong feeling of actually giving up such valuable treasure, the two made their way to Bedville’s only general store.
While at the booth, they had asked whether there would be any caravans going out of town, which lead to the discovery that what was mined from the mountain was often shipped out all at once every two weeks and that they had missed the last trip by three days. Discouraged somewhat, but not surprised, Spike and Amy decided to make the trip back to Ford Junction themselves.
The general store was well-stocked and had many useful products as a result of selling mostly to miners. Amy bought a new sheet of canvas to bag their supplies in, as well as two more for the fragmented tablet which Spike insisted on carrying a part of with a makeshift backpack. A length of rope was also thrown atop the pile of purchased goods along with a large water canteen and bags of dried fruits and nuts.
From there, it was onto the town’s post office so they could send word to Spike’s friends in Equestria. Hopefully, once the princesses knew of what was happening, they would send guards to Ford Junction for their protection. Amy was sure Zariba’s lackeys wouldn’t be brazen enough to try anything with royal guards around.
It was while the two dragons were walking down the street that the tantalizing smell of gemstones reached their sensitive noses and they both turned their heads. “Wow, whatever this place is, it smells great,” Spike commented as he craned his neck to read the sign.
“Huh, Gem Mill’s Jewelry, I guess it makes sense that they’d have a lot of gems,” Amy added. It was at that moment that hers and Spike’s stomachs growled. “Heh, I kind of want to go in and sample their wares now; we did skip breakfast, after all.”
Perking up, the younger dragon questioned, “Can we really? I mean, it’s not like we can go in there and ask them to start popping gems out of their jewlery… can we?”
Amy giggled. “No, but I’m sure they have plenty of low-quality stones that they can’t use that we can buy. A couple bags of gems would go a long ways for or hike back to the city. Let’s see if we can’t pick up a few, eh?”
Just as the dragoness put her claw on the door, she heard a crash and groan from the other side. Instantly, she tensed and backed up a step, pushing Spike behind her as she did.
“What was that?” the smaller dragon inquired, peeking around his sister’s leg. “Is someone hurt in there?” A pair of voices swearing could soon be heard from within along with the clopping of hooves
“I’m not sure,” mumbled Amy. Though she hid it well, there was a fierce debate going on within her head as part of her wanted to simply turn away while the other wished to enter. Someone could have just injured themselves and needed help, or the two travelers could have just stumbled upon a robbery in progress. While her newly developed sisterly side was loath to endanger Spike if the latter turned out to be the case, she found the thought of looking her brother in the eye after leaving some poor soul in danger a hard one to swallow.
“Stay back, Spike,” Amy commanded as she steeled her nerves. With a tight grip on her staff, the dragoness pushed open the door, only to be greeted by a strange sight that could have been comical if not for the presence of a certain somepony.
Looking up from his spot atop a dazed minotaur, bloodshot eyes met emerald ones as both pegasus and dragon spoke in unison.
“You have got to be kidding me.”