My Little Western

by Laurence Brown

Four Rode Out

Trixie slowly opened her eyes, and was surprised to find herself laying down on the bed in Doctor Sawbone's house back in Appleloosa. "I seem to be making it a habit of waking up in unexpected places," she muttered as she carefully stretched her legs. Feeling better for having slept, she slowly got out of bed and found herself able to stand without much of a problem.

The door to the house opened, and the doctor and Little Strongheart walked in. "You're awake!" the buffalo scout said cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"

"I still have a headache," Trixie admitted, "but other than that not too bad. I'm sorry you had to carry me all the way back here."

"Don't worry about it! I could tell by how quickly you fell asleep that you really needed it. I was surprised that I didn't wake you up during the trip back!"

"If you don't mind," the doctor interrupted, "I'd like to take a closer look at you Trixie, to make sure you aren't pushing yourself by being up on your hooves so soon."

"While I assure you that I feel okay, I would appreciate that all the same, thank you." Trixie looked outside to see the sky was still overcast, filled with a layer of grey clouds. "Just how long was I asleep, anyway?"

"Your friend brought you here a little after lunch, and we're just an hour away from dinner time now. So, at least three or four hours here at my place, and however long you were asleep during the trip back to town."

Little Strongheart headed towards the door. "While you look her over, doctor," she said, "I'll go and get the Sheriff and Braeburn. They wanted to talk to her when she woke up, so we can figure out what we're going to do now that the supplies on the train were destroyed by The Coyote Colt." She waved a hoof goodbye, and then darted outside and down the street.

Trixie contemplated what Little Strongheart had said as Doctor Sawbone slowly circled her, occasionally prodding her with a hoof. While she had feared that was what had happened, it was still a shock to have it said so plainly to her.

"Okay, I'm going to have to change the bandage on your horn," the doctor said. "It looks like the crack has gotten worse since I last saw it?"

Trixie nodded, remembering her unexpected ride in the giant twister. "I hadn't planned on using my magic to such a degree, but without it, I don't think I would be alive right now." She frowned at the memory. Had it really happened just earlier today? "Just be careful, please."

"Of course," the doctor replied. He reached up and carefully grabbed the end of the bandage that was wrapped around Trixie's horn with his teeth. He then slowly walked around Trixie, carefully unwinding the dirt stained length of cloth. It took him a couple of minutes, but finally, he had removed the bandage to reveal Trixie's horn. He dropped the strip of cloth to the ground and let out a low whistle. "I'll be honest with you, I'm surprised the thing is still holding together. Let me go get a mirror."

Trixie stood perfectly still as the doctor trotted off into a different room of the house. Although it only took him half a minute at most to find what he was looking for and return, to Trixie each second seemed to take forever. While her horn hurt, it didn't seem to be that bad off; did she really want to see what had happened to it?

She looked into the reflection of the looking glass that the doctor held in front of her by his teeth. Where the horn had been previously marred by a single gash from the knife, with a couple of smaller cracks spider webbing away from it, the entirety of the horn was now covered in larger cracks from the base to the tip. On top of that, the spaces between the larger cracks were filled with hundreds of smaller fissures. Trixie stared in horror at the state of her horn, her mouth hanging open in shock, until the sight of it became too much and finally she closed her eyes at the sight. "That... is more than I need to see, thank you," she stated in a subdued, hollow voice. "Please, wrap it back up again?"

"Of course," the doctor replied gently. "And I'm sorry for making you look at it, but I wanted you to see, to understand just how bad off it was. You simply can not use your magic for anything now, even the most simple of spells. If you ever get the urge to use it, think back to what you just saw."

Trixie opened her eyes, and silently watched as the doctor used a new bandage to re-wrap her horn up tightly. "I understand that I set back the length of time it will take for my horn to heal," Trixie said, "but just how far back did I put it?"

"I honestly don't know," the doctor replied after he finished placing a new bandage on her horn. "I'd guess maybe a year, maybe several? Your best bet, I think, is to head to one of the larger towns, I'd recommend trying Canterlot first, and I'd also suggest Fillydelphia, they have a large medical quarter there too. Maybe a doctor in one of those places will be able to prescribe some sort of treatment that could help speed up the process." He stepped back and gave Trixie one last look over. "Other than your horn's condition though, you're in remarkably good shape. Just don't push yourself in your activities for a week or so, make sure you eat plenty of food, and you should be just fine."

Trixie nodded. "I'm in good shape for a unicorn. One of the benefits of taking my home with me wherever I go. In fact, if I may be so bold, I would say..." She was cut off by the return of Little Strongheart, with Sheriff Silverstar and Braeburn right behind her.

"Trixie!" Braeburn exclaimed with a large smile on his face. "Boy, am I glad to see you up and about! How are you feeling?"

Trixie smiled warmly at the enthusiastic stallion. "All things considered, I'm doing remarkably well, thank you. And thank you, Little Strongheart. Who knows where I would be right now without your timely intervention." The buffalo scout smiled and nodded at the praise.

"Speaking of that," Sheriff Silverstar said, "perhaps you'd be willing to fill us in on everything that happened to you? Little Strongheart told us some, but there was a lot of things she didn't catch or fully understand."

The unicorn nodded. "Of course. I woke up to find myself inside of a cave with Douglas the diamond dog, and while we weren't what you would call friendly to each other, we managed to pass the time without coming to blows. In fact, I was able to get him to open up and get some information out of him that I think will be of some use to us."

Over the next half hour, Trixie told her compatriots what Douglas had shared with her. "As far as I can tell, we're not going to be able to reason with The Coyote Colt. He's too far gone for us to reach with words anymore." She looked over at Braeburn. "So, Little Strongheart mentioned that the train was what we saw burning?"

Braeburn nodded. "Not only that, but he sabotaged the tracks too! They're going to have to send up a repair crew, along with a squad of guards to keep them safe, but..." The young stallion looked frustrated. "I just don't see how that's going to help us out in the long run. Seems to me, all The Coyote Colt has to do is strike where they ain't. There's over a hundred miles of tracks all together, there ain't no way that they can guard all of that... is there?"

"No, there isn't," Sheriff Silverstar said. "I had been hoping that we could use some of the supplies that were on the train to repair the damage to the jail, so we would have someplace to put the outlaws after we apprehended them. Although I'll admit that I still can't think of anyway to guarantee that The Coyote Colt won't be able to use his magic to break out again." He scowled, and looked like he wanted to spit the the taste of the situation from his mouth. "Just how are we supposed to lock him up if he can use his magic to open the lock, or just knock the walls down?" He looked at Trixie. "You know more about how magic works than the rest of us added together. What can you tell us that might be of help?"

Trixie considered the situation. "I think if we had time, we could build a suitable cell to hold him. We'd have to construct it out of stone and steel, but as long as it isn't flammable, I think it could be done. And yes, I know," she said, cutting off a protest from the Sheriff, "that isn't an option we have available to us right now.

"A lot of unicorn magic is based on being able to see what we are using our magic on," Trixie continued. "However, simply tying a blindfold on him won't work all that well; he'll still be able to see the blindfold, after all. Even locking him up in a cellar with no windows won't work either. All unicorns can use their horns to create a small amount of illumination, and we can use that to get a good idea of where things are. And if we know where something is, we can still use our magic on it."

"So what can we do then?" Braeburn asked, his voice betraying his frustration. The group stood there in thought, trying to think of solutions.

"Well," Little Strongheart said after a couple of minutes of silence, "would it be safe to assume that if he's asleep or knocked out, he can't use his magic?"

"That would work," the doctor replied, "but if you were to forcibly keep on knocking him out every time he started to regain consciousness, well, what with the long term ramifications of what that could do to him I'd have to suggest just killing him then."

Little Strongheart waved a hoof in front of her. "No, I wasn't thinking like that. But us buffalo have several medicines that we use to help dull the senses. We generally use them when a warrior hurts himself, and we need to block out the pain. Some of them tend to put the buffalo to sleep too, so I was thinking that might be an option?"

The doctor nodded slowly. "It might be. I'm a bit worried about the possibility of addiction to such a substance, or what an accidental overdose might do, but I'd rather go with that over physical trauma. Would it be possible for me to have a sample of one of these medicines so that I can do some study on it? I would also like to check that there won't be any sort of allergic reaction that ponies may have to it that buffalo do not experience."

Little Strongheart nodded. "I will have to go back to the buffalo camp to get some, but that's something I should do anyway, to tell Chief Thunderhooves what I have learned. If I head out now, I should be back here before sundown."

"Well, before you head out," Sheriff SIlverstar interjected, "I'd like to take a few moments for us to come up with some ideas on just how we're going to fight the The Coyote Colt and his gang. We've put off confronting them long enough, and if we wait too long, they may catch word that another train is coming. If they go to ambush that one, we'll have that much harder of a time trying to find and stop them."

"Excuse me," the doctor interrupted, "but I seem to be missing something here. Just exactly why does it have to be the four of you to go and stop The Coyote Colt? Wouldn't it just be safer and smarter to let Princess Celestia send in a large group of guards, ponies who have been trained for this kind of thing? Besides some misplaced pride, what exactly do you hope to gain by taking him on yourselves?"

"While pride does play a part in it," the sheriff admitted, "and a large force of guards would be able to put down their gang without too much trouble, the hard part for the guards would be finding them. It's obvious to me that The Coyote Colt has some means of keeping track of the comings and goings of others. Most likely because of how wide open the land is here.

"And if you were The Coyote Colt, and you saw a large force of guards coming in, what would you do? Stick around, or head out into the wilds for a time, until it became too much of a cost for the troops to be kept in town? On the other hoof, if he sees it is just the four of us, he's much more likely to face us, believing that he can defeat us. That's why it has to be us, and it has to be done soon. We have a chance to stop him, and we need to do it before he runs off into the wilderness to hide. That's why I think we need to strike as soon as we can." Silverstar looked at Trixie. "If we head out tomorrow morning, will you be up for it?"

Trixie nodded. "While I could use an extra day or two to get my strength back, I should be okay with just one last night of sleep. Waiting for my magic to return is no longer an option, if it ever was one to begin with."

"Well, sheriff," Braeburn said, "we've talked about this a few times, and the best plan we can come up with is to keep The Coyote Colt occupied while we take down the rest of his gang, then have everypony team up on the Colt himself."

"I was against such a tactic at the start," Trixie added, "but that was back when I thought that we could do things the other way around. But without my magic, I don't foresee me being able to dispatch the rest of his gang as quickly as I did the night of the bank robbery."

The room fell silent as everyone considered the tactic, and what other options might be available. Sheriff Silverstar broke the silence by clearing his throat and said, "Well, if nopony else has any other ideas, I suggest we use that plan and start figuring out the details, such as who will have the task of taking of The Coyote Colt, and how we'll divide up the labor of the rest of the gang."

"The Coyote Colt will be my responsibility," Trixie stated confidently. "Not only will I have a better idea of what to watch out for, being a unicorn myself, I've learned enough about him that I think I can easily influence his behavior and keep him focused on me."

"And for the same reasons," Little Strongheart chimed in, "I think I should be responsible for those two idiot buffalo brothers, Tumble and Weed. I may not be able to take them down quickly, but if I can keep them occupied, that should make it easy for you two," she said, pointing at Braeburn and the sheriff, "to take care of the diamond dog and the injured pegasus. Then, you guys can help me out, and then we all take on the Coyote Colt together?"

Sheriff Silverstar nodded. "It sounds like an easy plan to me, and those are the best kind, in my experience. The more stuff you try to tack on, the worse things tend to go in the end. Any other ideas we should consider?"

"Well," Braeburn said, "I could always go ask my cousin Apple Fritter to make us some pies. They were a big help in the last fight the townsponies were in, after all."

"Ooh! Good idea!" Little Strongheart said.

"Indeed!" the sheriff agreed.

Trixie raised a hoof and used it to try to clean out her ear. "I'm sorry, did you just say that you used pies in a fight?"

Little Strongheart nodded. "It was over half a year ago now, but my tribe and the ponies of Appleloosa were unable to peacefully settle their differences about where their apple orchard should be planted. In the end, my tribe attacked the town, and they fought us off with apple pies as part of heir arsenal."

Trixie blinked rapidly, trying to process the information. "Did these pies have rocks in them? To make them painful when they hit?" she asked, her voice full of confusion.

The sheriff's mouth turned in distaste. "Why would we do that? They wouldn't taste good if we did that!"

Trixie placed a hoof to her forehead in disbelief. "Okay then, um, were they cooked extra hot, so that they burned whoever was hit by them?"

Braeburn frowned at the notion. "That wouldn't be very neighborly, if we did that!"

"That's my point!" Trixie hollered. Everyone else took a step backwards, shocked by the level of frustration in Trixie's voice. "Maybe you and the buffalo were able to work something out, well, obviously you were because of Little Strongheart being here helping us right now, but The Coyote Colt isn't going to care about that! He uses knives! Sharp, pointy, deadly knives! What do you expect him to do, see pies flying at him and stop and use his weapons to cut the fruit pastries into equal sized pieces for everyone to share?"

Trixie stared at her compatriots in turn. "I won't discount the notion that some sort of ranged attack would be helpful, even though The Coyote Colt might be able to turn it against us with his magic... But pies? Do you really think that the way to save Appleloosa and the Summer Sun Celebration is by instigating a massive food fight?"

Sheriff Silverstar held up a hoof in a placating motion. "I'll agree that an apple pie might not seem like the ideal weapon to bring to a showdown, but what other options do we have? It isn't like we have the means to whip up some sort of weapon. We're waiting on supplies from out of town to get the jail repaired." He sighed and shook his head slowly. "We may be slowly growing and expanding, but the truth of the matter is, foodstuffs are one of the few things that we have enough of that we can afford to throw them around in an attempt to gain an advantage, any advantage, in this kind of situation."

"You know what? Fine! Go and get some pies! I'll just..." Trixie looked around the room in frustration before settling on the doctor. "Do you mind if I read through some of your medical books?" she asked, trying to calm herself as she ignored the anxious looks from the others. "I'd like to look up a couple of things, the state of my horn being top of the list."

Doctor Sawbone nodded and pointed with a hoof at a few dozen tomes sitting on a desk in the corner of the room. "It isn't a very comprehensive library by any sort of reckoning, but it is the biggest collection of books for a hundred miles in any direction," he said with a bit of pride in his voice.

The other ponies watched as Trixie walked over to the small table with a rigid back and head held a bit higher than it needed to be. Little Strongheart looked back and forth between the unicorn and the others in the room, and then shrugged and excused herself, starting her long journey back to the buffalo tribe's camp.

Braeburn slowly walked up behind Trixie, his usual smile missing from his face and his eyes looking at the floor. "Look," he said after a uncomfortable moment of silence had passed during which nopony had spoken, "if you think that bringing pies will be a huge mistake, then I won't. It's just that, besides being a pony who's willing to face the risks that we're about to, what else do I have to offer?"

Trixie slumped. Softly, she said, "I'm sorry, Braeburn. I'm being too harsh in my criticisms. Maybe the pain in my horn is just something I can't get used to, and that has me on edge. Perhaps it's knowing that, come tomorrow, I might die." She turned to face the young stallion with an embarrassed look on her face. "If you honestly think it has a chance to make a difference in our favor, then yes, please, go and get some pies."

Braeburn smiled widely. "Thank you Trixie, I'll make sure you won't regret this!" With that, he turned and galloped out of the house and down the street.

Sheriff Silverstar walked over and stood next to Trixie. "You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm sure I can round up a few others to help out in your place, and nopony will fault you for holding back after all of the injuries you've sustained. You don't even live here, you're just a traveling pony who happened to come through town at the wrong time."

Trixie shook her head emphatically. "While I thank you for the offer, sheriff, I refuse to sit this one out. It might sound silly to say this, but I need this. This is my chance to prove to myself that I can be the pony that I think I am. And like I said earlier, I have a good idea on how to get under The Coyote Colt's skin. You guys just do your part and take care of the rest of his gang as fast as you can. While I'm sure I can keep him focused on me, I'm just not certain how long I can handle that all by myself."

The sheriff nodded and smiled grimly. "I'm glad to hear that, to be honest. Well then, I'll leave you to your reading. I need to go and take care of a few things myself."

Trixie watched Silverstar leave, and then returned to her studies. There were several things she wanted to look up, and while her own injury was one of them she found herself reaching for a book about pony psychology first instead.

---

The sky had remained overcast during the night, and the hot summer sun still had failed to burn away the morning cloud cover when the group reunited shortly after sunrise. The dry wilderness ahead of them was blanketed by large patches of rarely seen fog, giving their journey a haunted feel to it.

Trixie, Braeburn, Sheriff Silverstar and Little Strongheart walked together in silence. Braeburn was carrying a set of loaded saddlebags, filled not only with pies, but also with some rope and the medicine that Little Strongheart had brought back with her from her tribe's shaman. Doctor Sawbone followed a ways behind with a couple of ponies who had agreed to be his assistants. They hoped to be helping drag away captured outlaws, but also understood that they might be needed to rescue their champions instead.

After half an hour of travel, Trixie had led them to the top of a hill that she had stood upon just a few days earlier, and what also seemed like a lifetime ago. She watched as Sawbone and his volunteers turned back and hid behind a nearby hill to await the outcome of the upcoming battle. Turning to face the sheriff, she whispered, "Are you sure we don't want to try ambushing them? Getting the drop on just one of them before everything goes crazy could be a huge difference in the outcome."

Sheriff Silverstar shook his head. "I understand that, and if I wasn't the voice of the law, I might even follow that advice." He gazed down at the ramshackle settlement below them. "But this is what separates those of us who live in Appleloosa from those who would see it suffer. This is what I was chosen to do by the townsfolk, and I don't know if I would be able to look the princesses in the eye when they show up in a week or so if I didn't do everything I could to uphold those values."

Trixie grimaced, but didn't argue the point. Instead she looked to Braeburn and Little Strongheart. "Are the two of you all set?" Braeburn removed his saddlebags, placing them on the ground next to him, and the two of them nodded to Trixie. Taking a deep breath, the blue unicorn stepped forward and yelled, "Hey! I have a cutie mark of a dunce cap that I found lying around! It wouldn't happen to be yours, now would it Coyote?"

Trixie's voice echoed for a moment across the foggy landscape, until a slow, angry chuckle came back to her. The door to the house swung open violently, and The Coyote Colt walked outside, followed by the rest of his gang. "Well, well. I was wondering when you'd make another appearance. And I see you brought some friends with you? I'm surprised you found some." He paused to spit noisily to the side. "So, what, am I supposed to just walk back into town with you and just sit in your comfortable, open-air jail?"

Sheriff Silverstar walked forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Trixie. "This is your last chance to do so. Surrender yourselves now, and patiently await the judgement that will come, and things will go easier for the lot of you. Resist us, and I can guarantee that you suffer the full weight of the laws of Equestria."

"Well, how about I offer you guys the same? I'm not really in the mood to be getting my hooves all messy by killing the lot of you idiots so early in the day. Go back to Appleloosa, and you might just be able to live long enough to see this crappy weather pass." He scowled up at the clouds. "Stupid clouds."

"I happen to like this kind of weather," muttered One Winged Willie.

"Not wanting to fight us?" Trixie asked, her voice full of scorn. "I think I detect some cowardice! Understandable, knowing that standing against you is none other than The Great and Powerful Trixie! "

The Coyote Colt snorted. "Ooh, and what are you going to stop me with? Even when your horn was whole, you couldn't match me."

"Yeah," Braeburn shouted out with a cocky grin on his face, "but this time, I've got pies!"

The Coyote Colt blinked and started to form a retort when the sound of panicked breathing from behind him made him turn around. He saw Weed and Tumble standing up against each other, eyes filled with worry, trembling slightly in fear. His jaw dropped, and he then turned back to look up at Trixie, who with an equally puzzled look simply shrugged in reply. "You heard the stallion," she yelled back down at him, "PIES!"

The Coyote Colt walked over to the buffalo brothers and floated up a nearby rock to gently strike them both over the head with. "Get a hold of yourselves! Idiots!" Turning back to face Trixie, he growled, "Okay then! Fine! I guess I can spend a minute of my morning ending the lot of you. I think I'll start with pie boy there."

Trixie started to slowly walk down the hill. "Oh, I think you'll be quite busy dealing with me... Firecracker."

She almost stumbled to the ground from the fury of the glare The Coyote Colt leveled at her. Behind her, she heard Silverstar yell out, "Go!" and sensed her friends spreading out, closing in with their designated opponents. Swallowing down her fear, she continued to advance at a slow, steady pace.

"That's right, I've done some research. I know all about you. I know why you're doing this."

"You know nothing!" The Coyote Colt yelled in anger, his horn starting to glow.

"Oh, I know all too well," Trixie replied, halfway down the hill. "Now whenever I look at you, I think to myself, there but for the grace of Celestia go I. I can't help but imagine myself where you are right now. Was it just dumb luck, I asked myself?" She shook her head. "I still don't know, to be honest. I do know though, that for everypony's sake, your own included, I need to stop you here and now. So, Firecracker, are you ready?"

"Don't. Call. ME. THAT!" With a primal scream of anger, he levitated several of his knives from their sheathes on his bandoleer, and charged towards Trixie. "Never call me that!"

Trixie grinned as she saw The Coyote Colt throw caution to the wind and recklessly charge her. All I have to do now, she thought, is survive the next couple of minutes. With a wild yell of her own, she also charged forward, steeling herself for the battle to come.