Rail's Journey no. 3

by Gcdemon

2. Meeting a new friend

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”
Helen Keller

Few days passed and I decided to go explore a bit more. I was curious about the whole area, I had no idea what it was hiding. Maybe there was somewhere a place with lots of trees or a big building with shops and flats inside? When I was a kid many ponies told me about towns like these… I was so excited, I woke up really early and prepared all useful things. I packed them in my bag and was ready to go!

The weather was just great – no wind, so the sand didn’t fall into my eyes, and I could hear everything around me very clearly. I tried to avoid danger every time, but it wasn’t really possible, as you may have guessed. It was especially difficult when a group of dangerous big flies attacked me! I panicked a little and was hardly able to beat them all, but I managed to do it! I ended up with few more bloody scars and I regretted that I didn’t take any material from my new house, I saw lots of it in all this garbage… But it was too late to think about that. There was no use to even think about any medicine. Even if I’d like to take some – I couldn’t afford it. But most importantly - I was still alive!

You may think, Flies, pff, but remember – I didn’t have any special armor, same thing with a weapon. My knife was old, but it still worked quite good. It didn’t make as much damage as a good one though, but it needed to go with it.

I tried to pay attention to all surroundings , it would be really bad if I forgot the path. It was quite easy, to be honest. I just remembered some special points – for example an old trailer here or an abandoned hut there…

And again I was thinking about everything , but I think it’s better than talking to yourself out loud. It would be weird, and if someone could see me like this – even worse. So I kept thinking and thinking, at some point and idea of writing a journal came to my head. It would help me to keep all memories in one place.

I was walking forward like this, I know it’s important to keep your guard, but I’ve always been a dreaming type a little… In my mind I had lots of different thoughts, those that have already appeared here and some new ones. I always liked imagining what will happen in the future, sometimes everything goes completely different and its either a nice or unpleasant surprise… But I must say, all things that happened lately were nice.

Suddenly something bumped into me. It surprised me and I almost fell down, but I managed to stay on my hooves. I looked aside and saw a mare, which was dragging a big cart full of various objects packed in big boxes.
"Look where you going!" said angry unicorn, rubbing her head with her hoof "Can’t you see that you’re walking on the delivery route?!",

"Delivery route?" I repeated, then blinked and took a look around.

She pointed at the ground, about two meters to the left and right. In fact, there were two stone lines that were separating the road. They were barely visible, perhaps due to the fact that in some place the stone was missing and lots of sand covering it.
"Why do people never notice the road?" she sighted loudly and did a facehoof.

"Sorry…" I said and moved aside, to let her go forward. In the meantime I took a closer look at her cart. It clearly wasn’t in the best condition. You could see lots of different stuff here, but the most was covered with some sort of material.`

"Pft… Next time be a little more careful, cuz you can met some mean guys there and they wouldn’t let you go like this" she raised her chin up and began to walk slowly.

"Alright, alright…" I watched her move forward and after a while I decided to follow her. She had to transport these things somewhere, right? After all, she said it -delivery route- . I also combined the facts, she looked totally like a trader, and they usually go… to the town!

It didn’t take her long to notice that I was going after her.
"Don’t you have anything better to do?" she said turning her head. The mare didn’t sound angry now, maybe just a little irritated "Just go away, unless you want to buy something…"

"What do you have to sell?" I came a little closer, so we could talk more easily. I knew that I couldn’t really buy anything, but it was a good conversation starter.

"Well, what do you want to buy?" she smiled a little and looked at me with her deep blue eyes. I must admit, she was quite pretty. Short, bright green bangs were falling on her forehead, with the rest was created a little ponytail. Speaking about tails, her own was quite short, it looked like someone cut it very roughly… Her white fur looked very nice, but it was easy to make it dirty. This was especially easy to notice on her hooves, that were brown at this moment.

I needed to think a little about the answer. I really wanted a new gun, but it sure costed more than 20 caps that I had in my pocket.
"Well, I don’t know, maybe some food?" I asked, remembering the shiny cans on her trolley.

"I have food, but I can’t unpack it now" she looked back, like she wanted to make sure nothing disappeared "If you’re that interested I can show you my things when we get there."

"Get where?" I asked immediately, because that was the thing that interested me the most.

"Where?" she raised one eyebrow up "You’ve never been around? We’re going to Trailer Town, of course. That’s where the road leads."

I smiled, happy to know that there’s a town here. She only sighed again. "I can clearly see that you’re new here."

"Well, you’re right" I laughed briefly "So, how far is it from here?"

She answered me after a moment.
"Not so far… maybe just half an hour. Or an hour" she put a hoof under her muzzle "It could always be further, right? By the way, Diana’s the name" she reached her hoof in my direction "Nice to meet ya."

"Rail" I replied and gave her a brohoof.

That’s how our journey began. It turned out that the mare was really friendly! First she didn’t look like an open pony, but when I got to know her better, she was totally different. To be honest, it didn’t really surprise me, you never know who’s the nice guy in the wastes. You trust the wrong person and the next day you wake up naked without any equipment… However, she was really nice.

Sometimes she was just annoyed, for example when she accidentally fell down, because she didn’t notice a big rock under her hooves or some dirt flew into her eye.

Time passed fast with a good conversation. Finally we saw the place, it was a small area surrounded by several trailers and one wooden house. Lots of ponies were walking here or just sitting on a wooden benches, eating something and talking. It looked really safe, but I expected something more after the word town...

There was a lot of different objects placed nearby the trailers. For example some desks, wooden chests, cabinets… Diana led me to one of the tables, it was really close to the road.
"Okay, this is the place" she put on hoof on it and took a deep breath "Now you’ll help me unpack everything, okay? These things are really heavy…"
"Don’t you want to rest a little?" I sat for a moment on the ground "I mean, we travelled a lot, you must be pretty tired."
"Yes, I am" she came closer to her cart "But I also don’t have time to be lazy. If you help me" she gave me a big smile "You may get something special."

I nodded and quietly stood up. I was happy that she would give me something for that work, especially when I noticed how many cool things she had. In the trailer she arranged a nice storage, everything was sorted in metal boxes and labeled.
"And… you can come tomorrow too" she said after we unloaded some stuff "I’m not usually into hiring assistants, but you’re really good at it" she smiled, sitting at the table "Move that one box and we can make a little break."

I smiled, glad to help her. When we were travelling I got to know her a little better, I knew she was a bit lonely too. We could make a nice duo together! While unpacking all things I’ve found a map in one of the bags, it was really useful. When we finished the job she said that I can take it as a ‘payment’, she gave me some food too! Working here was a big opportunity for me…
When we finished I carefully checked the map. That place was not so far from my house, I just took a longer road at first. Deep inside I hoped that Diana and me could become friends. It was not just only about getting food from her or something like that… I felt a little lonely. Just think about it, how long can you sit alone and have no one to talk to? And I already knew that she was a good friend material…

A week passed, I often visited Diana. With every moment we got along just better and better. She told me that she came here not so long ago too. Earlier she had her own stand in the larger market, but for some reason they told her to go away. I didn’t wanted to ask, she had a really sad face when she was telling me this story. We all have things that we want to keep to ourselves, don’t we? In this new place nobody caused her any trouble and there was a lot of customers too. She also told me a bit about her private life, but not very detailed. I didn’t push again, we all do bad things, it’s especially easy when everybody does them.

I still remember one of these hot days… We were sitting together at her booth, resting after our hard work. The day before that she asked me nicely to help her with some labor. The mare didn’t have enough strength to move few heavy objects, that were lying nearby her stand. For example an old car front door or a few parts of heavy metal fence...
It went quite smoothly, we finished after one and half hour. She gave me some food in gratitude! For me it was even better than caps.

We were sitting in a shadow, leaning back against wooden chests and eating fruits (everyday she had a new delivery of them and they were so delicious!). I must say, now the stand looked much better. She was happy with our work too.

"…say again?" I raised one eyebrow, looking at her with doubt, after she told me about something strange.
"That really happened, trust me!" she said, biting into a strange looking fruit. I’ve never seen one like this before, it must be something that grows in a totally different region. "Ever since he appeared in the area I knew something was up. You don’t see someone like this every day!"

“I know, that’s why I wanted to hear that again”, I thought, swallowing one bite of my fruit (she already knew which was my favorite one).

She closed her eyes for a second, trying to remember that moment.
"He was just… Huge. And strong for sure!" she spread her hooves, trying to show me his size "He had a reaaally shiny armor, I’ve never seen something like this before. It was so cool!" for a moment I saw little stars in her eyes. She loved these things, even if she didn’t have a good armor herself "First I was scared, when I noticed he’s coming to my stand…" Diana finished her food and threw the part with seeds into a metal bucket "But that stallion bought so many things, now I have caps for everything!"

"That’s good, right?" I answered, looking at her with a little smile.

"Of course that’s good, but I thought he was going to rob and kill me" she gave me a serious look "I don’t know what should I think about him, he was around since a few days, but not today" after a while she looked at the sky and didn’t say anything for a while "Not that I miss him. But maybe he’s murdering someone at this moment."

"…that was a little dark" I finished my fruit too. I know things here are bad, but it’s good to be at least a little positive "It can’t be that bad if he didn’t harm you… and even paid for things."

"He had at least three sets of weapons" she looked right at me a little scared "Three!"

"Three" I repeated after her again "I have only one rusty knife…"

Mare stayed quiet for a little again and then stood up. She found her bag in one of the chest behind us and started looking for something inside. I’ve heard some metal sounds, maybe cans?
"What are you doing?" I asked not having a clue. I was surprised when she pulled out a nice looking, sharp knife. It was really clean and in a great condition "You’re not going to attack me, right?" I laughed, just a little insecure.

"Don’t even joke like that" a weapon levitated to me in a greenish light "Here, have this. It’s a gift" she raised her chin with a big smile.

Needless to say, I was just shocked. No one has ever given me such an amazing thing as a gift. Have I ever received a gift…?
"B-but…" regardless of a fact that I REALLY needed a new knife, I just couldn’t accept it that easily.

"No buts! It’s for you!" she sat again next to me, still smiling "You’re a nice guy, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Aaand you probably know how to use it better than me."

"How will you defend?" the knife was lying in my hooves. I started rotating it, to see how does it look from each site. It even had a carved hilt!

"Leave it to me" she winked at me and stood up again, because a client was approaching "Just give me a second."

I nodded and stayed in the same place. Actually, I began to think about that weird stallion. It has to be serious if she even gave me her own knife… Should I be worried?
"I don’t know if I’d like to meet him" I said quietly when she finished selling a bag of food to the buyer.

"I can help you with an answer" she leaned against the table "You just don’t."

After that she described him with lots of details. Even if his armor was so shiny, there was a lot of blood stains and scratches. His weapon was glowing red sometimes and looked dangerous, the second one was really big and heavy (at least she thought so) and the last one was very little, but quick in attack. Diana said she once had a pistol like that, but his was upgraded.
"When he left…" she was talking slowly "I think he went that way" she pointed with her hoof… a way to my house.