The Voyage to Asclepius

I've transitioned from "I'm alone in a desert because I upset a girl." To, "I'm sitting on the back of a motorcycle, with a dog, flying through the sand and towards a large tower in the distance."

It's about noon, the sun is at it's peak in the sky. The roaring of the bike's motor forces me to speak in a higher volume. Two other dogs are riding motorbikes on both of my sides. Sweating like a pig, I ask the biker dog in front of me, "So is that your base in the distance?"

"Yeah, that tower is our main base of operations." He explains, loudly.

"So why are you camped out here, instead of at Caduceus?"

"Are you dense?! Caduceus is the last place I wanna be!"

I ask why. I mean, isn't it some kind of utopian city? Why would he pick the middle of the desert over a place like that?

He answers, "Because those two (2) idiots, George and Martha, they can't even hold their citizens' trust long enough to even--"

Suddenly, he stops. He pulls the brakes on the bike's handles, and we skid on the sand to a halt.

"Why'd you stop--" He covers my mouth with his paw.

"Shut it pony! Oi boss, is it one of 'dos dragons?" The biker on my right asks.

The dog in the middle responds, "Yeah. Check your ammo. Make sure you have enough, there'll be no time to reload."

Dragons? Check your ammo? No time for reloading? Are they seriously going to try and shoot it down?! I don't see anything flying around, and I certainly don't hear anything either.

"Where is it?" I ask.

He stares straight ahead, "You blind? It's right there!" Whispering, he points ahead.

I squint, and try and look as far as I can. There's... A cloud of sand in the distance, but I can't see anything else besides the dogs' base tower.

"Think pony. There's no wind, not even a breeze. Do you think a cloud of sand that big can just form on it's own?" He asks.

He brings up a good point, so there's a dragon inside that cloud.

"Loaded up boys?" The centre dog asks.

Both of them nod. The one of the left pumps his shotgun.

"Then let's get to it!" He shouts, as the motorbike sways left and right, and then begins zooming forward towards the cloud of sand.

My mane blows to the back of my head, as we speedily approach the supposed dragon. The closer we get, the larger the cloud of sand becomes larger. Suddenly, a blurry long figure bursts from the cloud. It shoots just above our heads, leaving a trail of displaced sand in it's path. I barely got a glimpse of it, but it was definitely something with wings and a tail.

"Do a loop and start shootin!" The dog in front of me commands.

The other bikers obey, and we do the same. My rump almost touches the sand, as do a full turn towards the wild creature.

"Can you really catch that thing?! I mean, did you see how it shot past us?!" I shout over the roar of the motor.

"Catch it? I ain't gonna put it in a zoo if that's what you're asking!" He laughs.

Gunshots ring out, the other two are firing their guns while riding. But the dog in front of me isn't shooting, why?

"Hey pony! You know how to shoot a gun right?" He asks.

"Well uh, I've seen movies--"

"Close enough! Catch!" He tosses a revolver onto the open space between my legs.

"W-Wait wha--"

"Don't worry!" The dog shouts, "I hooked up a hoof adapter for ya! So ponies like you can use it too, go on slap it on your arm!"

There's a large cuff, about the size of a large hoof, attached to the handle of the revolver. Some sort of lever is attached to the ring. The other end of the lever sat in the middle of the trigger guard. It looks confusing and indescribable, but I insert my right hoof into the ring, and pull on the fastening belt with my mouth. It's a snug fit.

"I think you can figure out how it works. You push that lever, and it pulls the trigger of the gun! We crafted that mechanism when an earth pony joined our camp, since he didn't have any wings or horns." Black Blizzard explains.

So there are ponies in his camp? I'll ask questions later, first we need to deal with this dragon. Waltzing into the camp with a 'fast as lightning' lizard flying around is out of the question.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

The other two riders begin shooting into the sky. I can see the winged creature now high above us. Except, it's descending. Fast. In our direction.

"Shoot to kill!" Blizzard shouts.

Raising my arm to the sky, I pull the hammer back on the gun, take aim at the dark blurry figure approaching from above, and slap the lever forward with my left hoof. The revolver releases a loud 'bang' and the recoil makes it bounce backwards towards my face. Luckily, my face remains unbruised. Smoke rises from the barrel of my gun. But I'm not sure if I actually hit anything.

But Black Blizzard puts my doubts to rest, "Well I'll be damned! You're a natural shot, pony!"

"Wait, do you mean I--" I'm interrupted by one of the other dogs riding around.

"Heads up! She's comin' down!" The rider with the shotgun shouts.

I look up and see the dragon losing it's straight flying form, and beginning to flop around during it's descent. Now, I can finally see the dragon clearly.

Light brown rough scales cover the creature completely. Sharp, giant wings are attached to a fat body that is twice the size of it's head. And it's long neck curls as it falls to the ground.

Fortunately, the dragon falls behind us and not on us.

*THUD*

The loud noise signals that the dragon has been shot down, and has crashed into the sand behind us. Black Blizzard squeezes the brakes on our bike, and turns around to examine our enemy. He twists the throttle, and we cruise calmly towards the body.

We pull up to the dragon, and everyone dismounts their bikes. The other two dogs follow me and Blizzard as we walk over to the corpse. Sure enough, it was dead. One of the dogs pumps his shotgun, and cautiously approaches the creature.

After walking around it, twice, he shouts, "Ya got him between the eyes pony!"

"You sure you've never shot a gun before?" Black Blizzard asks.

I shake my head.

"Well, maybe beginner's luck was on your side today. You can keep the gun, we have plenty back at the camp." He says.

The dog with the rifle begins to poke the dragon with the barrel of his gun, "We take the scales and hide for clothes and such. We'll stay here and skin it, you take the pony back to camp boss."

Black Blizzard nods, and then returns to the bike. I follow. I'd rather not see a dragon get skinned. It's bad enough that I've just killed a creature. I've seen enough movies that involve killing to be used to this kind of stuff. But still...

"We all have a first time, and it's never pretty."

My head turns towards Blizzard, "Even you?"

"Even me. I remember my first kill... It was a pegasus. In Caduceus. I threw up my lunch a few minutes after, in a nearby alleyway. I'll never forget the feeling."

He took a pony's life, and shot down a dragon. Yet, I don't feel any remorse for taking a life. Why don't I feel anything about this... It's tearing me to bits. Feeling horrible, because I can't feel horrible. Great.

I mount the motorbike, and Black Blizzard races off to towards the towering building in the distance. Finally, I'll have my first clue to where Misaki has escaped to.

Misaki, where are you?