Chapter 01 – Lost in the Big City
Maud solemnly put up another poster, carefully checking that the edges were level as she secured it in place with a piece of tape on each corner. Taking a step back, Maud briefly judged her hoofwork before moving on to the next section of blank wall.
Up went another poster: the same, monotonous routine she’d been engaged in all afternoon. To Maud, it felt like she’d already set up a thousand posters today, though she knew this was really only her nine hundred fifty-seventh.
As she walked away from the busy street corner in search of a new spot to hang her flyers, Maud gave the sizable stack of paper still bundled to her sides a cursory glance, making sure none had gone missing. One thousand forty-three more to go.
Maud continued to walk down the noisy sidewalk, doing her best to tune out the mob of ponies still roaming the streets of Baltimare, even with the sun having fallen out of view eighty-five posters ago. With any luck, someone in the crowd who had seen Boulder would notice one of her posters, would find a way to bring him back to her. Though judging by the tunnel vision the pedestrians around her had, it seemed unlikely. Maud knew Boulder was hopeless with directions, but deep down she hoped desperately that he would find his way back to their hotel room. Somehow.
It hurt Maud to think about him, to bring his name to mind. The pain clutched at the sadness in her heart like a knife, each memory forcing the blade a little deeper inside her. Still, she kept her face blank as she walked along, giving no outward indication of the turmoil inside her. Maud knew that right now, Boulder would need her to be strong enough for both of them.
The stinging thoughts of her dear friend persisted, however, and Maud found herself wondering what Boulder must be feeling at that moment. Lost and alone, he was probably scared out of his mind, helpless as he waited for her to come back for him.
The thought made Maud quicken her pace as she continued her search for spots to hang more posters, although sometimes it seemed like all she could do was hope she wasn’t already too late. After all, rocks like Boulder didn’t do well under large amounts of stress. She knew that the chances of finding him in an unfamiliar city of this size were slim, but maybe her posters’ mention of a reward would be enough to entice other ponies to aid in the search.
Maud wasn’t stupid; she knew that most ponies didn’t share her level of interest in rocks. Without that reward, she doubted that they would bother giving her posters a second thought, writing them off as ridiculous or absurd. But Boulder was special, even compared to other rocks. He understood Maud in a way that nopony else could, and he’d always been there for her in the past. What kind of pony would she be if she abandoned him now that he needed her most?
Boulder hadn’t even been that keen on going to Baltimare in the first place. Maud still vividly remembered the day she had received the letter inviting her to speak at the 46th Annual Equestrian Geologists Symposium. It was a distinguished honor, but Boulder had nonetheless been apprehensive when she told him about the trip. She had discussed the pros and cons of attending the conference with him for a while, and by the end of their talk the decision had been made to accept the offer. But Maud could tell that he had still been nervous about the whole idea. Boulder had never been one for traveling, but he was always willing to do it for her.
And now she’d lost him. Maud had already tried searching everywhere she could think of to find him—their hotel room, the meeting hall, the bistro where they’d eaten lunch—but retracing her steps hadn’t gotten her any closer to finding Boulder. It wasn’t often that Maud got this desperate, but things weren’t looking good and she was due back at the dig site in only a couple days’ time. If she couldn’t find him by then, it wouldn’t take long for her financial stability to begin to waver.
A reflective gleam flashed quickly in her peripheral vision, and Maud stopped to investigate its source, clearing her mind of the paranoid train of thought starting to form there. Behind her, ponies grumbled about the sudden halt in traffic and began jostling their way past. A lamppost, mostly clear of advertisements for guitar lessons, garage sales, and the like, lay just ahead and Maud made her way towards it, fetching a poster from her saddlebags to fill up the available space.
As she began the well-worn routine of setting up her flyer, Maud took a moment to look at the picture she had printed onto the paper. It was a simple, candid shot of Boulder’s profile; Maud had always liked to joke with him that it captured his good side. Normally, Boulder was pretty reserved and didn’t like to be photographed, but Maud had to admit that Pinkie had done a great job preserving the memory of the day it had been taken—a Nightmare Night celebration two years ago where Boulder had dressed up as a piece of quartz. Maud hoped that the costume wouldn’t confuse anypony who was out looking for him.
The wind picked up slightly, and one of Maud’s ears gave a small twitch as the cold air brushed up against her cloak and fur, becoming a swarm of needles whistling past her body. She quickly finished setting up the poster, adding some extra tape in case the wind tried to knock it down overnight.
Stepping away from the lamppost, Maud merged back into the crowd of ponies walking down the sidewalk and looked ahead for the next spot to put up one of her posters, her only guide in the night’s darkness being the circles of light cast by other lampposts extending all the way out to the edge of Baltimare. There was still a lot of ground to cover, but the night was far from over and Maud wasn’t going to quit until she was certain that Boulder was safe and sound.
One thousand forty-two more to go.
