Rocky Road looked up at the sky. The sun was blazing hot and orange, beating down on his ponies. Any pity he felt for them was countered by how foolish they were. He warned them it was going to be hell out here with no hat, but did they listen? No, they all laughed at him for looking like a fool. Now they had to take extra breaks to keep from keeling over.

He spat at the ground and adjusted his hat. "Rose, what's the status?"

"Sir! I'm just about done chartin' this area, and then we can move on."

Cardinal Rose might’ve been his second in command, but her job was much more important. Rocky might've known how to keep some damn fools in line, but he didn't know the first thing about maps, let alone maps of deserts. How anyone could look at this unending flatness and figure out a map was beyond him.

"Let me know when you're good to go, I want to get a move on before the sun goes down.”

"Of course, sir."

He sighed, leaning back in his chair and tilting his hat down to cover everything but the horizon. Staring at a couple of rocks and a cactus might've been boring, but it was all he had. Yessir, nothing but some rocks, a cactus, and some dust clouds.

He blinked, squinting at the horizon. Nope, not a trick of the eyes. What the hay was anyone else doing out here in these wastes?

Thinking came later, though. It was time for action. "Breaks over, ponies! Get up and raise arms!"

Guns were a relatively new invention, coming from Abyssinia. Rumor had it the crown there demanded all the factories and blueprints destroyed when they saw what they could do. Most ponies hated them, so there was no real chance of anyone reverse-engineering them, but they had their uses for ponies like him.

His "little soldiers"—he spat at the ground again—reluctantly raised them and assumed the sloppiest formation he'd seen in all his years.

Whatever the creatures in the dust clouds were, they came running up and stopped in front of them. He looked them up and down. They were much larger than the average pony, but they looked awkward—too much torso, not enough leg. Looks could be deceiving, though, and judging by the way he and his men were being sized up as well, he had an idea that these creatures were tougher than they seemed.

"What are you doing here, ponies?"

"We're exploring uncharted lands, sir. Expanding the territory of the crown in honor of her highness Princess Celestia."

The lead one’s eyes narrowed. "Did the Princess authorize this?"

"No, sir. We've been doing this for years though, charting lands and gifting them to the crown."

"We have a treaty with your crown. This here is the territory of the buffalo, ponies. Leave. [i]Now[/i]."

The buffalo crouched and assumed aggressive stances. Rocky Road glanced back and saw his crew were tensing, with pasterns approaching modified triggers.

He whistled, calmly saying, "At ease, ponies. No need for this to escalate." When he heard them putting their rifles down, he doffed his hat to the buffalo. "My apologies, sir. We meant no offense, we truly didn't expect anyone to be out here." He gestured back at Rose. "But as you can see, even if we aren't claiming any lands here today, we're doing important work. The world deserves to have maps."

The buffalo snorted, but some of the tension in him and his men was lost. "Why do you need maps here, though? The buffalo tribes know these lands. We don't need any maps to know where to go."

"But that's just the thing, sir. We want a map of the whole continent! It's the dream of Rose over there, and the true job me and these other folks have is making sure she accomplishes that dream."

She smiled, but her eyes betrayed her confusion. He was just glad she really did dream of making a map of the continent, helped make his sell more convincing.

"So what do you say, fellas? You ok with us making a few harmless maps for a young mare's dream?"

The buffalo continued to eye them warily but, after a heated discussion, their leader hesitantly nodded. “We see no harm with you making maps. We will travel with you as long as you are in these lands though.”

He nodded back. “But of course, sir, my ponies will be on their best behavior.”

[hr]

As he led his crew out of the desert, he could still feel the gaze of their buffalo escorts upon them.

As they crested the first hill he’d seen in days and gazed at the valley that marked being in true Equestrian lands, he chuckled.

"Sir?"

He turned to Rose, who was biting her lip. She opened her mouth and went back to biting her lip. After seeing that sequence four more times Rocky exasperatedly asked, "What is it, girl? C'mon, spit it out."

She flinched, but was shocked out of her silence, blurting out, "Why did we waste all that time makin’ maps?" She hastily shook her head and looked at him fearfully. "Not that I'm complaining about makin’ maps! I'm just... curious."

"Oh, is that all? Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, honey." He grinned at her. They were out of the watchful sight of the buffalo, and her naivety wasn’t going to be doing her any favors from here out. "Most ponies are scared of the unknown, but with those maps there? That 'uncharted territory' isn't so unknown anymore. And it takes a lot to keep ponies away from the known."

He held up his hoof to signal a break. As he heard the useless louts behind sigh with relief and sloppily set up camp, he turned back to Rose. "Maybe we didn't claim those lands for the crown today. Maybe it won't happen in our lifetime. But I can assure you, hon." He chortled, and it only got louder as he saw the discomfort on her face. Quieting down, he finished, "Those lands are gonna be pony lands someday."