Far Away

CHAPTER III

Daring was still watching the ceiling in a bored fashion. ‘Might as well go for a fly since no one is bothering me,’ she thought. Looking at the grandfather clock for one hour was enough to drive anyone crazy. Probably even Celestia is you think about it. Daring took only the essentials, the motel room key, one water skin and a sandwich just in case she felt hungry during the short fly. Daring closed the door behind her before she took off into the endless blue sky.

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Daring banked around in a wide, sweeping arc and started to follow the train track. ‘Shouldn’t get lost if I follow the train tracks,’ thought Daring as she soared above the jungle. She was contemplating turning back, but the view was breathtaking. ‘Should’ve brought my pad with me.’ She soldiered on for another half hour which was when the jungle came abruptly to an end and the sandy desert plains started.

‘What’s that?’ Daring asked herself when she spotted a brown speck laying on the ground no more than five hundred yards away. Daring dived down onto the ground, spreading her wings at the last moment so there was no gliding required. It saved time. Daring trotted over to the brown speck, now she identified it as a brown earth pony.

Daring knelt down and felt for a pulse on his fore-hoof. Much to Daring’s surprise, she found a faint pulse that was just ticking away. It was a bomb. The moment the pulse stopped, the stranger would be dead. It was not common for ponies to die of dehydration out here in the barren desert.

Daring forced the body of the brown pony upright and poured half of her water into his mouth. He spluttered, eyes wide with shock, not making sense of what was happening to him. Daring also couldn’t comprehend what happened in the next few seconds.

The brown stallion drew out his revolver and cocked it in quick succession. “You work for Kasha don’t you?” he hissed at Daring.

“No I don’t, I believe you have caught the wrong mare,” whimpered Daring, “I do not work for Kasha, but, I merely saved you.”

Jack was caught off guard. “Saved me?” spluttered Jack, “Why save me!”

“Well, it was the right thing to do and you wouldn’t dare think of killing me, would you?”

Jack lowered his revolver back into its holster, looking confused.

“Don’t worry,” said Daring in an assuring manner, as if everything will be fine.

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Daring was flying franticly to the hospital and told the reception that she needed an air carriage to make haste to the site where Jack lay. A few minutes later, all was prepped and an air carriage was dispatched with Daring on board to rescue Jack. Jack saw the carriage coming and was tempted to pull out his revolver.

Daring did say she would get help, didn’t she? The carriage landed and Daring flew out of the doors helping Jack to his hooves. “We’re just going to get a check-up done on you, ok?” said Daring. Jack could only reply with a grunt. He felt so feeble on his hooves. He was glad to have somepony care for him. After being literally hauled onto the carriage, Jack passed out.

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‘Where am I?’ Jack thought to himself. Everything was blurry as if he was wearing badly fitting glasses. He could see a tan coloured mare with a black and grey mane staring at him. His throat was burning because of lack of water but he felt strangely hydrated. There were tubes running from his right fore-hoof carrying some sort of liquid into him and also heard the faint beeps of the heartrate monitor. The tan mare must have seen the stallion open his eyes.

“How are you?” asked Daring in a worried tone.

‘Great… Just great,’ was what Jack meant to say but something along the lines of, “Mmph… mmph mmph,” came out of Jack’s mouth.

“What?” asked Daring, a bit worried, “Please speak more clearly.”

“Never mind,” was all Jack said, croaking, before he passed out again.

‘Why did I save him anyways?’ thought Daring to herself, ‘Why do I care about him so much?’