Hours ranged on as everypony finished searching the main room for anything useful, as well as the bat pony trying her best to clean up, even though it was bound to reach the same dangerous, bloody heap in no time. I was reading, Tea Rose on a chair next to me rambling, though I was half listening to her. Not to be rude, but because I was invested in my text book. I never had been interested in magic before, honestly, but I'd never turn down some good reading material, even if the pages sometimes had little doodles of mustaches on the ponies. That and the current events sparked the idea to me, and I could use anything right now to distract me.
After finishing reading on some of the beginners history on the uses of unicorn magic, Tea Rose got up and gathered everypony around the counter. "So... how much food do we have?"
"I found these oat pies..." Said the bat pony.
"And I have these rations." Rose sighed, emptying a bag of dry food on the counter. "This should be enough for a few days."
"It's not that far to Ponyville." I said. "We got there in a night."
"You were flying." Tea Rose said. "We don't have that luxury."
"I tried..." Said the pink bat pony.
"No, I didn't mean it like... ugh." Tea Rose sighed. "The point is, we're going to have to try our best to travel at night." She opened a oat pie. "who hasn't eaten in three days?" She nervously smirked at me.
"Huh, I don't even feel hungry at all... wait, did you say three days?!"
"Kiddin'! Just... joking." she split it in thirds. "Pepper?"
"Huh?!" the bat pony blushed.
"Hungry?"
"Oh... um... I guess so..."
She smirked. "Sorry, I was mad.
"Tea Rose, um..."
"Just take the cookie before I change my mind."
"Y-Yes mam!" Mam?
"Any pony else?"
The remaining three looked to one another, then shrugged.
"Okay, whatever you say. then the last two I guess go to me and... Autumn, you hungry?"
"Not really..."
"Suck it up, your eating this cookie."
"Fine, alright."
As I quickly ate my share of food, I looked around. "So.... who are you ponies... er... you guys?"
"Pepper Belle" Said the Pink Bat pony. I now noticed the sliced bell pepper shape on her flank. It was no surprise. "Nice to meet you."
"Do we really need to do a meet- and- greet?" Said the older mare with a snare. There was something uneasy about this, and I instinctively shuddered down. I wondered why.
"She's going with us with the next town, isn't that..."
"... isn't that worth a little introduction? Oh, bite me, Rose, she wasn't even supposed to some with us!" She glared at me, and I felt like backing out of my chair and hiding behind the counter, though that would be ludicrous and unnecessary.
"... y-you don't have to... if you don't want to..." I said, just above a whisper.
"Nonsense!" Rose put her hoof down, then pointed out the ponies with her hoof. "Chalk Diamond, Jacks, and Rex."
"O-Oh..." I could feel my face reddening, feeling horrible. I hated to make ponies do what they didn't wanna, let along being the center of an argument. "H-hello..."
The mare I assumed to be called Chalk Diamond scoffed and went back to her business, building a barricade, or at least reinforcing the one they had. Fallowing her with my eyes, my eyes unintentionally landed on the grey- creature, one which I had tried my best not to stare at to be rude. He was huge, twice the size of me, with large over- sized arms, paws attached. He was wearing a large vest with over-sized pockets, and I assumed the large rifle in the corner belonged to him, being the only one able to carry such a thing without magic. Around his neck was a loose, yet not to loose, collar, covered in white gems. the biggest gem, a red one, was broken.
" He's a Diamond Dog, honey." Rose spooked me out of my gaze, and I shrank.
"I... I'm so sorry, I..."
"It's alright." He said in a grumble. "Can't assume most ponies choose to go see the Diamond Dog lands in the dessert, yes?"
"She's probably never even heard of one." Said the pony I assumed was Jacks, because of the star shaped toys on his flank, which left the... 'Diamond Dog' before me with the name Rex.
I blushed. "I'm sorry."
"You ponies and your apologies, ya' and Tea Rose have been spouting that word all night." He jested, giving a low laugh.
I had a lot of questions; What the hell is a Diamond Dog? Was one of them that crossed my mind, but I decided not to make myself seem like a raciest. Instead, Jacks broke my silence. "Find anything useful in that dusty old book?"
"Oh... um, it's nice... It's a magic textbook..."
"Ugh... I still sat it's garbage." he rolled his eyes.
"Well, maybe to you, but I find it pretty interesting."
"What use would you even have for it?" He laughed.
I gave him a skeptical look. "What do you mean?"
"Well..." He laughed as if he found it seriously funny. "Not sure if ya' aware of this, sweetie, but your, um, an earth pony? Earth pony learning magic, ha, ow THAT'S hilarious."
"What, just because I'm an earthpony means I can't learn magic?"
"Well, it's not like you can USE it." He said, laughing softly still.
"Well, that doesn't mean I can't understand how it works!" I glared, fuming with frustration. "You should stick to what those earth ponies can ACTUALLY do? You know, farming your little flowers... oh my god, your cutiemark is even a muffin!" He laughed harder. "Well, then you should stick to bake'n, right? It IS your destiny, ha ha!" I glared at Jacks, never before wanting to kick somepony in the head so much.
"Stop it, Jacks!" Rose glared at him.
"Ooooh, so scary," He said, backing down a little. "Stand'n up for her now, huh?"
"Well, if your gonna' be an ass about it?" She narrowed her eyes. "We won't get anything done if we're at each other's necks, Jacks."
He sighed. "What do you know? We actually agree on something for once."