I stepped forward and nodded to the man. "Hello. Sorry about, you know, your current situation. We're looking for a friend of ours. She looks sort of like that." I pointed to Neon. "Just larger, and she has a girl with her."

His eyes seemed to change a little. "Oh. Yeah, I saw them." His face hardened. "I didn't like the look she was giving that girl. Is she a pedophile, or just likes torturing humans for fun?"

I waved a hoof quickly in the negative. "Neither of those things! She's a good person, and nice, and part of our group." I waved at the rest of us. "It's about time for us to get moving, so we want to make sure she's alright, is all. You understand?"

He sighed softly. "I suppose I do. You just take care of that girl, alright?" After I nodded and the others agreed, he raised a finger. "Last I saw her, she went that way, behind that building there."

Neon smiled smugly. "There we are, that wasn't so hard." She turned away from him. "Good luck with the whole dying slowly thing."

I frowned at her before looking back at the man. There wasn't a lot I could do for him without breaking the law outright, and he had done something awful. "Excuse me. May I ask why you did that? I... I don't think that's how you normally behave."

He looked up at me with a bit of confusion. "You barely know me. What makes you think it's out of the ordinary for me?"

I sat up a bit and brought my hooves together. "You obviously care about that girl. I really think you're not a bad person, not entirely. Would you tell me?"

He stared at me quietly for a time, long enough for Neon to wander away. Dust looked between her and me. "Come on, Hope. We should go."

I looked to the man hopefully and threw in a little smile. He sighed softly. "You're obviously not from around here. Look, just make sure she's alright, please? I didn't do anything but protect the one's I care about, now go on, git."

It was as good of an answer as I was likely do get. I dipped my head at him before moving with Dust Kicker. We caught up with Neon quickly and turned the corner to find nothing there at all. No sign of Sandra, or a little human girl.

Neon snorted before moving up to one of the loitering ponies. "Hey. You see another mare, looks like me, larger?"

The stallion perked his ears before he nodded. "It's hard to miss a mare like that, miss. She stomped right through here heading out of town." He pointed. "That way. She had a young human with her. I hope she's careful with her. Little ones can be delicate, but also wickedly clever if you don't watch out."

Neon thanked the stallion before turning back to us. "And there we go. She obviously went back to William."

I nodded in agreement. "That's great. We can finish gathering up then. But, before we go, we should get some supplies. Some food would be good?"

Dust raised a brow. "I haven't even seen what kind of money they use here, but we don't have it. How do you plan to do that?"

The stallion leaned forward a little, apparently listening. "Well, normally we just pitch in a helping hoof if someone's in trouble. Being strangers, it's a bit different, but if you wanted to do some work in return for a day's food and something to take on the road, I bet someone'd be up for that?" He tapped his chin. "Actually, I heard the quarry's short on workers. They'd probably give a lot if you can work there for a spell. The stone they dig up is valuable to everyone."

I clopped my forehooves together. "I can do that. Why don't I sort that out while you two meet with Will and let him know what I'm up to? I'll be back in an hour or so. If not, you know where I am." I then turned to the stallion. "Speaking of which, where is that quarry?"

He looked amused as he pointed off the direction for me. I thanked him and rushed off in a quick gallop, trusting the others to take care of things. The quarry was out of town, but there was a clear path that winded to it. I followed it along until I arrived at what was little more than a glorified hole in the ground. There were humans laboring to extract the stone, and it looked slow and painful. They had bad tools and looked miserable.

There were also ponies, and one of them turned to look at me. The large pegasus mare nodded. "Hello there, stranger. What brings you out to the quarry?"

I thumped a hoof to my chest. "Good day. I'm Dusk Hope, nice to meet you. I'm here to help, in return for dinner for myself and my friends, and some to go with us. We're traveling quite a ways, you see. How can I help?"

She looked confused at first, and burst into laughter. "You? You're a little unicorn. You wouldn't last an hour trying to dig things up in here. Now don't get me wrong, you have a good attitude." She reached out and ruffled the top of my head. "You're kind of cute, too, but this is a big job, for big ponies and stupid humans."

I sat up and crossed my forehooves. "Be that as it may, ma'am. I am a very skilled magician. Just tell me what has to be done."

She shrugged softly. "If you're that eager to hurt yourself, fine." She turned in place and pointed to where three humans and an earth pony were struggling to lift a block from the ground. "See if you can't give them a hoof. That block's been giving them nothing but headaches since this morning. I don't know, maybe you can fit in the cracks and get it loose or something? You get that thing moving and we'll feed you and your friends."

I nodded at her and quickly trotted down to the crew around the block. "Hello! One moment while I take a look at this." They grunted and heaved, and I wasn't sure if they heard me, but that didn't matter too much. I sat down and felt out with my magic, probing around the rock slowly. It was running into another portion of stone beneath the surface. It probably slid out of place and ran into the block they wanted to move while they were working. I wrapped the intruding rock in magic and began to wriggle it back and forth, trying to find the right way to get it free.

I began to sweat and pant from the work. Let it never be said that unicorn magic was 'free'. It's not! It still takes effort to move big things, just like your arms, just, I don't know, detached magic arms. I kept heaving and twisting and... there! I shoved the smaller rock out of the way, and the block suddenly moved. The workers slaving at it pulled it free quite abruptly with the other stone out of the way and they set it on the ground with a mutual sigh of relief. They collapsed in tired heaps.

The pegasus mare from before wandered over. "Hey, that's the way. Did the little guy even help? I didn't see him touch it."

The earth pony nodded as she sat down on her haunches and huffed for breath. "He did something. I saw him concentrating all fierce and working up a real sweat, and then the block came loose." She reached out a hoof and held it in the air. "Thanks."

I met the hoof with my smaller one, clopping them together. "My pleasure. You had the right strength, but the block was stuck on another rock down there. I pulled it out of the way."

She shook herself off before pointing. "Say, colt. Why don't you give that team a hoof? That magic of yours could be quite handy keeping the way clear."

I was quickly on my way, but before I got there I looked to the pegasus. "Is that enough for the food?"

The pegasus smiled. "An hour. You finish out the hour and you'll get it. You've earned your keep."

Filled with inspiration, I trotted over and began helping out the next team. They were still carving their rock. I felt over the block they would have and frowned. "About three feet down, on this side, it turns to sand. You're going to get a very crooked rock."

They all let out groans of displeasure and sagged to the ground. One of them, a human, reached out and pet me on the head. "Thanks, you saved us time at least."

One of the earth ponies in the team frowned at the human. "He may be smaller than me, Marcus, but he's still a pony. Don't go trying to pretend you're higher than him."

I held up my hooves quickly. "N-no, it's OK!" I didn't want anyone getting in trouble on my account, especially not for a friendly gesture. Was it bad that I kind of liked being pet? "I'm glad to help, and to be a friend."

The earth stallion chuckled softly. "You're a nice kid. I'll tell the foremare that you did your part. Go on."

I turned to depart, but a petting came again. The human had resumed his attention. Since I had given permission, the earth pony glared, but didn't stop him. I was pulled back gently when I didn't resist and was stroked from head to tail by the thankful man. I wagged my tail softly. "Why are you so happy? You're still going to have to work."

He nodded. "That's true, but at least my work won't be a huge waste of time. I can appreciate that." He pinched an ear before softly stroking over it, and I shivered softly. "Besides, you're fun to pet."

I nodded a little shakily. "Well, thank you, sir? Marcus was it? Good luck, but I have to get back to my friends." Some small part of me wanted to just surrender to that petting. Even if he was a guy too, I almost... I was tempted to just go ahead and deepen that intimacy as far as he would let it. I fought off that urge, and trotted away. I had a family, a herd, and I would be true to them.

The pegasus foremare whistled as I went past her. "Well aren't you big for your size."

Big for my size? I slowed and looked at her quizzically before she reached out and casually swatted at one of my two hanging shafts and I went a deep red in my cheeks. "O-oh! Sorry."

She grinned a bit like a leer as I fled away from the quarry. At least we'd eat that night.

Author's Notes:

Dusk Hope. I like you, you sad but talented little fluff ball.

At least they get food, provided the order isn't typoed.