Painted Pinto Desert Getting a "Handle" on the Situation

[Skye]

"C'mon, boys, we got a train ter catch!" Handlebar Hank wiggled his mustache as he looked over the ragtag group of ponies he'd managed to convince at the local saloon to join him in this heist. He didn't know what was on it, heck, Hank never planned anything to its full extend. But he knew it was a train, and there was going to be something on it worth taking! And from his reckoning, they had about an hour before the train passed through their neck of the woods. Hank galloped down towards the track, followed by his motley crew, and put an ear to the rail. Yep, about an hour, they were far enough away. Though, 'course Hank never was good at telling time either, but he could see the dust in the distance that signalled an approaching train and an hour sounded about right. Well, if it wasn't, they wouldn't have too long to wait.

The desert was hot out here, and dry, but there were plenty of large rocks nearby. Hank had chosen this particular location because of the large boulders rimming the edge of the pass as the train went through the natural valley. It had the unfortunate happenstance of being a natural tunnel, so pushing things into it was more difficult than was worth, but they could still jump out from behind these boulders as the train passed, or even atop of it as Hank had planned to do. "Lets get'r set up!" Whatever it was Hank had to 'set up' wasn't much, as it consisted of about four ponies including himself, their bag of gear, a laughably short supply of water (But there'd be plenty more on the train, he reasoned) and just enough food for the rest of the day.

"Get'r ready, here she comes!" when they'd all moved into position. Ten minutes passed, then twenty, and Hank began to fan himself with his hat, his massive mustache dripping with sweat from both ends. It made him look like a ridiculous fountain, standing there like that, but nopony could tell him otherwise and he certainly thought he looked majestic there, standing on that rock. Baking in the sun. Sheesh, where was that train? It was taking longer than it should have, and at this rate, they were all going to pass out from sunstroke if they weren't along before now!

But suddenly, from around the bend in the distance came the train. Hank slapped his hat back on his head and called out to his nearby cohorts. "Okay, now here she comes! Get'r ready!" he crouched down, trying to blend in with the rock he was hiding next to in hopes that he wouldn't be spotted by the engineers until they'd already begun to pass below. And still the train came...