I finished my bath and quickly drained the tub, watching as the now somewhat cooler water made a small whirlpool by the drainage hole. Finally the water all drained out and I reached for the towel on the rack nearby.

I began to dry myself off as I wondered where John was. I figured he’d probably be downstairs but then figured maybe not, due to all the profane activities going on in the saloon. I started drying behind my ears as I walked over to the window and sheepishly looked out, making sure no-pony caught a glance of me without my shirt on. Usually a pony would walk around without clothes and feel normal but I felt… bare, without clothes.

I looked towards the train station and noticed John playing poker with some of the stallions at the stables. I gasped in irritation. I had explicitly told him he was taking a bath yet there he was playing poker. “Why when I got my hooves on him…”

I quickly dried off the rest of my body, well somewhat. Parts of me were still wet but I couldn’t believe the nerve that stallion had to just go play poker when he should be readying himself for a bath.

I quickly threw on my dirty clothes, which completely defeated the purpose of having a bath, then tried to rush out the door but forgot it was locked. I slammed into the door and was knocked back with an ‘Oomph’. I shook off my daze then quickly got to my hooves and opened the door more civilly.

The sounds of drunks, whores and gambling returned loudly to my ears as I entered the hallway above the saloon. I quickly trotted down the stairs and out one of the side swinging doorways. I stormed across the street as I heard John cheer.

“Yeah baby! Full house! Read it and weep baby!” John cheered as he pulled a hefty amount of bits towards himself. The other stallions simply cursed to themselves.

“JOHN!” I yelled out and he quickly spun in his chair then looked over to me. He waved happily but then gulped as he saw my irritated face. “You’re supposed to be having a bath. You reek of foul odour and I simply won’t have it!” I scorned him.

“But… I’m winning.” He whined, like a foal that wasn’t allowed to have a fresh sweet roll. Noticing how he would be reluctant to leave, I simply grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and began to pull him. “NO! NO-NO!” He cried as he quickly scrounged up the bits he had won from gambling then tried stuffing them in his coat pocket. Some bits fell to the ground but the majority ended up landing in his pockets. I didn’t necessarily hate gambling but he stank like cattle stalls…
worse than cattle stalls.

As I dragged him across the dirt street and back to the saloon, he struggled forcefully but let me pull him along. He obviously knew that I’d make him bathe one way or another so I guess he was letting me pull him to the saloon but making me work for it. Sly bugger.

Suddenly there was a gunshot… multiple gunshots. Stray bullets slammed into walls and bounced off signs as a group of stallions rode into town on some sickly looking horses. One of the gunslingers was dragging a poor stallion across the ground behind his horse by a noose of rope.

One of the bullets strayed past us by a few yards and John quickly pushed me to the ground, getting me out of harm’s way. Like a flash of motion, John stood to his hindlegs and snapped up a revolver from his hip holster quicker than I could blink. So fast in fact that it literally looked like the revolver just appeared in his right hoof.

He held the trigger back and fanned the hammer with his left hoof in a fury of motion. The revolver in his hoof chattered like an automatic weapon. All five of the gun slinging bandits fell off their horses. Two were dead and three moaned in pain as the horses continued to race on, dragging the poor pony behind them.

John extended his right foreleg to its full extension as he cocked back the hammer on his Colt Peacemaker. He pulled the trigger only once. The ear piercing BANG of the .45LC rang through the air and the rope dragging the pony behind the horses simply snapped. That was an incredible shot!

The horses raced out of town, not daring to return. John quickly spun his revolver in a western fashion then holstered it. With a smile, he trotted over and helped me back to my hooves. I had been temporarily stunned when everything broke loose and didn’t quite know how to react.

I guess we were just lucky that they weren’t directly shooting at us. Suddenly the blue stallion pony, who had been dragged behind the horses, raced up to us, crying in what looked to be happiness.

“Oh thank you mister… thank you so much… I can’t never repay you fer what yah did but please take this as a sign a muh gratitude.” He said with tears of gratefulness in his eyes. He handed John a small pouch of what I could only assume to be bits. John nodded and accepted the bits gratefully, placing the bits in his coat pocket.

“No problem. Only doing what’s right.” John told the stallion who gave him a hug then trotted away. As he left I noticed that his cutie mark was some sort of movie reel or something.

I looked to John who was trotting over to meet the deputies who had only now arrived on the scene. Better late than never I suppose. The one deputy looked up to John. “Why thank yah stranger. These here bandits been terrorizin’ the town fer the last little while now. I do say, think we owe yah one. You go ahead, we can handle it from here.” He said but John simply tipped his hat then turned around and began to proceed back towards me.

My jaw was opened wide. I knew that the western frontier was no picnic but I had never in my life seen some-pony do that. John had drawn his revolver like a flash of lightning and fired in quick succession. I gulped then looked to John. “John… you… killed them.” I stammered and he nodded.

“Well I wasn’t just gonna let them drag that poor stallion to death. I did try for none fatal shots but I guess three out of five is good enough.” He replied casually as he trotted past me and back towards the gambling table, which had returned with ponies gambling.

My mind quickly snapped back to the fact that John needed a bath. “Oh no you don’t! You’re having a bath mister! I’m not going to have a stallion follow me around smelling the way you do.” I scolded him as I grabbed him by the back of his collar and began to drag him towards the saloon.

In a squeaky and helpless tone he yelled out. “Please some-pony, any-pony… HELP!” He cried out jokingly. I rolled my eyes from his immature behaviour as we entered the saloon and I had to literally drag him up the stairs. I knew he was letting me drag him along because if he really wanted to he could simply just stand there and resist my strength easily.

Finally I managed to get him to the hotel room and towards the bathroom but as we entered the washroom he grabbed onto the doorframe with his front hooves. “NO! PLEASE DON’T, I BEG OF YOU!” He cried out in a childish tone. Jeeze it was like he was five or something. I pulled off his duster coat and threw it onto the floor in the other room. I couldn’t stand the smell of that musty old thing.

“JOHN!... YOU… ARE…TAKING…A…BATH!” I grunted in extreme effort as I tried to pull him into the washroom. Finally he released his grasp on the frame but it was too sudden for me to react and we both crash to the ground.

He laughed hysterically like it was some kind of joke but I didn’t. Why did he have to be such a damn fool about taking a bath? Didn’t he know that he stank and needed one pretty badly?

I began to run the water and he tried to sneak out without me noticing. I quickly rushed over to the door and slammed it shut, locking it to make sure it would take him a little longer to get the door open.

“John! Get in that tub right now!” I ordered but he simply shook his head playfully. “John I’m not joking. Now!” I ordered more sternly but still he refused. “JOHN!” I yelled angrily and he gulped fearfully. I hadn’t meant to raise my voice in anger but he was pushing it.

I let out a depressed sigh. I had forgotten how easily he was intimidated by me despite being larger, stronger, and easily more terrifying than I was. “John… I didn’t mean to yell… but please… take a bath… for me?” I pleaded as I looked directly into his beautiful brown eyes and he sighed.

“Sorry… I was just horsing around.” He replied. I nodded and we just stood there for what seemed like ages. I was kind of half expecting him to get in the tub right away and start washing himself but instead he stepped aside.

“Well… are you going to take a bath or not?” I asked and he nodded. “Well… get in, before the water gets cold.” I told him and he nudged for me to give him some privacy. I almost face-hoofed. Of course!

“Oh… right, sorry.” I stammered an apology then quickly left, first bumping into the door as I forgot that I had locked it then quickly unlocked it and left John in privacy. I guess even stallion’s need their privacy too. I heard the door lock shut behind me and rolled my eyes in humor then went and flopped down on the bed, letting out a rather exhausted sigh of relief.

I simply lay there and watched as the sun got ready to set. It had been a rather long an uneventful day, minus John’s little performance in getting rid of those criminals. I looked to the rather old looking grandfather clock as it ticked away. The pendulum swayed to and fro as it clicked each time it reached one side then would swing the other way.

I looked to the actual timepiece which said it was almost four thirty o’clock in the afternoon. I figured that John might as well wash that stinky old coat of his as well, seeing as how it smelt just as bad as he did.

I guess I must’ve been daydreaming for quite a while because no sooner had I looked to the clock then John exited the washroom wearing only a towel around his waist. His fur was still dark brown but it had a lighter shade to it. I smiled, he looked stunning the way he did. Without his coat on his body was in full view, well minus his lower region but I didn’t have a care for that part of him.

He had obviously done heavy labour as a colt because he had a rather impressive build that really showed. His chest was bulky and almost looked as if he was puffing it out to make himself look bigger but I could tell by the way he breathed in a relaxed tone that he wasn’t puffing his chest out.

His shoulders were broad and wide and his biceps were of an impressive size as well. His mane was actually longer than I expected it to be. I had seen him without his hat but his mane was rather bunched up and messy at the time. His mane wasn’t completely dry and fell down to about his shoulders, dripping wet water onto the floor.

He broke my train of thought. “Can I have my coat?” he asked and I shook my head quickly to snap myself out of gazing upon him.

“I…oh uhm the coat? No.” I told him quickly and he gave me a weird look. “You’re going to wash that thing. There’s no point in wearing that smelly old thing after you just washed up.” I told him as I hopped off the bed and grabbed his coat. I quickly trotted past him and tossed the coat into the bathtub before dousing it with water.

“Oh… you did not just do that… what am I supposed to do while I wait for it to dry?” he asked and I looked back to him with a raised eyebrow.

“Well for starters you aren’t gonna just let it dry, you’re going to wash it and properly. Secondly… I think I might have an idea of what ‘We’ can do while we wait for your clothes to dry.” I told him as I tossed his other garments of clothes into the tub. His eyes went wide and he gulped as I trotted up to him.

Author's Notes:

Budum-tssh, gonna try and get another chapter out tonight... let's just see...