The Honest Thief

by Anypony Productions

Left for Dead

Silver had been trotting through the desert for two days now and there seemed to be little hope for his survival. With few supplies and nearly no water, Silver was becoming extremely concerned as to whether or not he would have enough energy to make it through another two days. He knew there was an old town a couple miles out of his way yet it had been abandoned for years and the chances of it still having some supplies were slim. However if he kept on his path to the next real town he would be at risk of dehydrating before reaching it. Silver decided to take the gamble and go to the abandoned town in the hopes it would have some much needed food and water.

As the sun began to raise high above Silver, the temperature became a daunting problem and he desperately needed shade and time to conserve energy. Nevertheless he pushed forward and continued until he saw a faint hint of a town over the horizon. He soon started to gallop over to the town where he was met with a run down and creepy town. The atmosphere around this place was frightening and Silver was hesitant at first to enter the place. However his fear would need to be set aside for his need of supplies.

Silver looked at the various old buildings and saw a general store. ‘That’s a good place to start’ he thought to himself. Silver trotted in slowly and looked around the store, there were a couple jars, boxes, tools and trinkets to take but for the most part it was empty. Silver gathered what would be useful and went over to another building that was the town saloon. In there he found a barrel of water that seemed fine to drink. He heard some creaking around the building and looked around for a moment. The creaking stopped and continued filling up his canteen with water. The creaking began again yet it was louder and had multiple sources. Silver was now certain he wasn’t alone in this place.

He tried to back out of the saloon yet he was met with a gang of diamond dogs that popped up through the floorboards. Silver was completely surrounded; seven to one were not good odds considering he had no true way to defend himself other than his hooves.

The leader of the group stepped forward a bit, “All right pony, hand over what ya got and we might just let ya off easy.”

Silver looked at the members of the gang, there was no chance he would be able to escape. He reluctantly took off his saddle bags which contained the rest of his food and water. The diamond dogs began shuffling through the bags and became displeased at how slim the pickings were.

“You don’t have much to offer us pony,” the gang began to lurch closer again to Silver, “guess we’ll just have to use you instead.”

Silver was terrified of the idea of being devoured by these beasts and would fight until his last breath to escape. Suddenly one of the dogs lunged forward yet Silver reacted quickly and kicked with his hind legs right into the dog’s jaw. The dog was rendered unconscious yet there were still six dogs and only one Silver. As Silver continued stepping back, he eventually reached the wall of dirt behind him. Cornered, Silver thought for sure this was the end. However he and the rest of the diamond dogs heard a rumble from above on the surface and immediately a pony jumped down into the diamond dogs’ den where she was met face to face with the gang. The pony immediately bucked one in the face, then another and another.

As the remaining dogs tried to capture the pony, she swiftly eluded them and whipped out her lasso which she then was able to hogtie one yet there were still two left. Silver decided to jump back into the fight and bucked one of the dogs in the chest, knocking him into a dirt wall and falling onto the ground. The last dog franticly dug down and escaped the two ponies; as the two relaxed and climbed out of the den, Silver was extremely thankful for the mare that most likely saved his life.

“Thank you so much ma’am, I don’t know if I could’ve made it out of there alive if it wasn’t for you.” Silver said, tipping his hat with gratitude.

“Aw it was nothin’, I come by here every once in a while and I heard those dastardly diamond dogs and a pony in danger and I couldn’t jus’ stand by and let them make you their dinner.”

Silver smiled, “Well thank you Miss uh…”

“Sweet peach, but most everypony calls me dusty, on account of my coat color.”