As night fell across the landscape a black stallion rolled into the town of Appleloosa. He was an odd sight for sure, a Pegasus, but instead of a pure coat of black he had white stripes. The pony soon entered the town saloon. Hungry after a long day’s travel he sat down at the bar.
“Howdy stranger,” the bartender greeted him, “what ya be havin?”
“Dandelion sandwich and a cider,” the black and white Pegasus requested, “I’ve got another few hours of travel before I’ll either find my friend, or a clue as to where he is.”
The bartender, a dark blue earth pony poured a mug of cider and gave it to the Pegasus first before getting the material for the sandwich, “ah, out here to find a friend, may I ask for a name?” The bartender asked inquisitively handing the sandwich to the stranger.
“Ah, well my friend’s name is Reginald, though I usually call him Reg, as for me, I’m Dusk Dawns. I think he’s studying some archaeological site somewhere out in Buffalo country.” Saying that he dug into the sandwich, the first thing he’d eaten since breakfast.
“Reginald, that’s an odd name for a pony?”
“That’s cause he’s not a pony, my friend is a Griffin,” Dusk’s voice muffled by the food in his mouth, he drank some cider to clear his mouth, “ah, much better.” Dusk seemed relieved, “I haven’t seen Reg since our trip to Saddle Arabia, and I hope to catch up with him.”
“Saddle Arabia, never been, how was it?”
“Eh, lots of sand and very hot, not to mention the natives, twice as high as you, me, and possibly anypony else here. Granted it was fascinating trip, but it’s unlikely I’ll ever go back there.” Dusk held back a large portion of the truth, the place had been a unique experience, as well as a long and terrible one. “Thanks for the meal,” Dusk said taking the last few bites from his sandwich, “but I got to find somewhere to sleep tonight.”
As he approached the door he looked up, no decent sized clouds in sight, so that option was out of the picture. He would most likely have to rent a room, but he’d used most of his bits on the trip here, and he likely had a longer journey ahead of him.
“Why don’t you stay with me,” the bartender asked, “I’m sure the wife wouldn’t mind, and we do have an extra room.”
“That would be nice, but I couldn’t possibly.”
“I insist,” the bartender motioned to a backdoor leading to his home.
Dusk considered his options, without clouds it was either this or lying on the desert ground. “Fine, I’ll take you up on that offer. You got a name.”
"Name's Blue Boulder, but most folks just call me Blue." He opened the door to his home. After a moment he led to a small almost empty bedroom. “It’s not much, but it should do.”
“It’ll be fine, thank you,” Dusk said as he looked at the room, it had a small window, which gave it a cozy feeling; within a moment Blue closed the door and headed off to his own bedroom. Dusk decided to it was time for some rest, he’d have to get up early in the morning to get back to his travels. As he closed his eyes he remembered his first day in Saddle Arabia.
**Saddle Arabia- Many Moons ago.
The city was a beautiful sight of classical architecture for the great desert cities, the buildings appeared to be made of marble and sandstone. The doors were twice as tall as anypony, built for Horses instead of ponies, even for a griffin the door handles were hard to reach without getting up on hind legs or flying. The heat itself was intense, at least in the high eighties if not the nineties, a rather cool day for Saddle Arabia. Being half zebra the temperature was only slightly too warm for him, as for Reginald he kept himself cool using his wings, but still it was pretty warm for the griffin. The crowds gave the two strange stares, there were very few ponies in the city, and griffins were unheard of here.
"Dusk, not to question your plan, but do you really think we'll be able to complete our objective?" Reginald asked, his accent almost like that of a noble griffin. "Perhaps we should call in the others."
"It may be a bad plan, but it's the best we got, as for the others the mission will go better with only the two of us," Dusk responded back. "The situation is already precarious enough as it is, we don't want to risk our friend's lives on this mission." Dusk whispered, he didn't want anypony else other than Reginald to hear.
"But what about us?" Reginald asked. "I didn't volunteer for this."
"I know, but you have the most information on the artifact, and the situation. I need you on this mission Reg," Dusk's tone became more serious, "on this mission we cannot fail."**
As morning came with the rising of the sun Dusk awakened and left leaving only a letter. 'Thank you for allowing me to stay, but I must keep moving.' Dusk was never one for formal farewells, besides he had a long flight.
The next day in Appleloosa a new wanted poster hung on the wall, Blue was surprised at what he saw, the poster read Dusk Dawns, wanted alive for crimes against the Kingdom of Saddle Arabia, a reward of one-hundred thousand bits. How could dusk be such a wanted criminal, his mind wandered to what crime could one pony do to get a bounty that high? In every scenario he could think of it was not good.
Author's Note
** denotes a flashback scene **
a noble accent sounds like an English one
