Caverns & Cutie Marks

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 24: Cavern Tale

Pinkie Pie looked at the merchant mare who was standing by the remains of her cart. She frowned slightly at the look of despair on the merchant mare’s face. They had just finished gathering up what was left of their scattered supplies and trade goods. A lot of it was probably still hidden by the mushroom forest and darkness, and several things they did find were broken by the fall. Well, not the fall so much but, the stop at the end of it, Pinkie added mentally. She shook her head to focus once again. Perfect Profit was feeling down and there was only one pony who could fix this. And for once, it’s not Auntie Pinkie, she thought. A strange shiver of anticipation and discomfort worked it’s way down her spine; she savored it for a bit before jumping into action. She bounded over to the one pony who could fix this. With a mighty shove, she sent pushed Light Patch towards the merchant. The stallion stumbled over, trying to not fall, but having been caught unaware, failed to regain his balance in time to avoid slamming into the ruined cart and pitching over one of it’s sides.

“Hi,” the grey pegasus said pulling himself upright inside of the cart. “Pinkie thought I’d just, tap on over and see what’s up.” A smile tugged at the mare’s lips before it died.

“I was just thinking about what happens now,” she confessed.

“Well, next we get out of this cavern, then we find our wa-” The earth toned mare cut him off with a hoof.

“I meant to me,” she shouted, tears starting to flow. “I’m ruined! Hundreds of bits of goods have been destroyed! My cart is destroyed, and what few things have been salvaged are damaged or barely worth anything anyway,” she ranted.

Light Patch put a concerned look on his face and placed a hoof on Perfect Profit’s withers. “You are not ruined. You are, in a cavern with adventurers. I’ll drag the corpse of every creature we slay to the next market place if I have to! But you are not ruined. We won’t let that happen, I won’t let it happen.” He finished. the earth pony merchant wiped the last of the tears from her face. “Feeling better?”

“Yes, thank you,” she said

“Good. By the way. Did the cart, uh,” the pegasus paused, searching for words. “Did this cart hold any special meaning for you? Like, it was your father's or something?” The merchant quirked an eyebrow.

“No…” she answered tentatively, “not really. This is the fourth cart I’ve had,” she finished, still sniffling.

“Oh good, I was gonna suggest we use it for firewood to bring with us,” he said, rubbing the back of his head with a lopsided grin, which twisted to confusion as Perfect Profit suddenly broke down laughing. She had to cling to his neck to steady herself and keep from falling.

Pinkie, who had been watching the whole conversation, smiled. All according to Auntie Pinkie’s plans, she thought, turning back to her stew. Without a thought, she burst into a cackle, causing Rainbow Dash to jump up from the nap she had been taking.

* * *

The party had been trekking through the caverns slowly, using torches to light the way in lieu of unicorn magic. So far they had only encountered some basic underground creatures, none of which attempted to fight them. Light Patch was sure it was only a matter of time before they found something. Or if we’re unlucky it’ll find us, the stallion mentally added, glancing at the pegasus next to him.

“So, how do we even know we’re heading in the right direction?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking at one of the many tunnel entrances they’d passed. Light Patch grimaced at the mares question but responded.

“Frankly, we don’t. I’m working off my best guess and hoping one of you might have a better idea,” he quipped looking towards Pinkie Pie. A better idea like trusting Pinkie sense, for a thought.

“Then why are we following this route? If it shrinks anymore I’m gonna have to start walking,” Rainbow said, narrowly avoiding a stalagmite to emphasize her point.

“You could always hop!” Pinkie chimed in. “Ooh or bounce, or maybe skip. Or you could try Stotting.” At Rainbow Dash’s look of confusion she continued; Light Patch would have explained what it was if he wasn’t having to fight off laughing at the mental image of seeing Rainbow Dash stotting. “Stotting, pronking or pronging is basically when you launch into the air and pull all four hooves off the ground at once. It’s a pretty big thing to the Gazelles; they have huge competitions about it.” Perfect Profit moved up next to Light Patch as Rainbow Dash dug deeper into the new athletic competition she’d discovered.

“She had a good question, you know. Why are we following this cavern?”

“It seems to be heading the right way,” Perfect Profit quirked an eyebrow at the stallion’s response. “Onwards and upwards,” He finished flashing a cheesy smile. With a small groan and a rolling of her eyes, she drifted back to join the conversation between Pinkie and Dash. Muttering under his breath about critics, Light Patch focused on watching their chosen path for danger once more.

“Twitchy Twitch!” Pinkie screeched, tackling Perfect Profit to the side. Rainbow Dash flitted away from where she had been standing. Before Light Patch could react, however, a boulder slammed into the ground about where the others had been standing. He quickly readied his warhammer and turned just in time to see a large rock creature come out from hiding.

A grid flashed into existence, and a list of names dropped down from the darkness of the ceiling. “You have been ambushed by a Rock Golem,” came the discord-alike voice. The golem roared and threw the other bolder it was holding. Light Patch watched its arc for a few seconds before he realized who the troll aimed for.

“Dodge, dodge, I dodge!” Light Patch screamed pounding his fore hooves on the invisible barrier keeping him within the ring representing his base. Just before the bolder hit the barrier faded and he tumbled to the ground. The boulder skipped off the spot where he’d been and flew over his head to bounce deeper into the caverns.

Rainbow Dash’s name moved to the vacated spot at the top of the list as the golem’s dropped to the bottom. Without hesitation she drew her bow. “Tri-Shot,” she announced, firing her three arrows into the troll. All three struck its head, but according to its health bar failed to do any damage. Her name relinquished control of the top spot and Pinkie’s claimed it.

“Honestly Dashie! Piercing damage? Against a rock monster?” She turned to look at the golem. “This is how you do some damage. Party Cannon!” Pinkie shouted pulling her party cannon out. With a mighty conclusion, it launched its payload of confetti into the golem’s face; also doing no damage, but causing a small spiral with a question mark in the middle to appear over it. “Whoopsie, forgot I can’t change its load. Next!” she shouted as her name was replaced by Light Patch’s.

The stallion finally stood up from his position and picked up his warhammer, charging at the golem. With a slightly muffled warcry he used his wings to launch himself the last few feet and slammed his warhammer into the side of the golem. A few chips of stone flew off but its health bar barely showed any change. Oh thats all kinds of not good, he thought to himself, as the list once again changed now holding Perfect Profit’s name at the top.

“What do we do? You’re the professiona-” She trailed off looking at the group. “Well you’re the one’s with actual combat experience, and you barely even managed to wound it. And we’re all too heavily burdened to run far or fast enough to get away from this.”
Light Patch looked around, knowing that the amber earth mare was right. Okay, okay... Think. Discord isn’t evil—well, probably not evil—and if we lose here we’re out and not fun anymore. He wouldn’t throw this thing at us unless he thought we were ready, Light Patch reasoned. Or he’d given us something to use against it, but we haven’t picked anything up recently.

“Just stay safe! We’ll take care of this, PP,” Pinkie said. The earth pony nodded and swiftly took cover. The merchant’s turn ended, and it cycled back to being the golem’s. The golem raised one of its feet and looked down at only to see twin armored pegasi. After a moment of hesitation it chose, bringing it crashing down on one of the two. It realized it had chosen poorly, however, when its foot ghosted through the pegasus it attacked and only damaged the ground.

Light Patch snapped from his thoughts and swiveled his head to look at the massive foot inches to his left. His eyes slowly trailled their way up its leg, looking for weak points before getting to its torso and finally face. Then he spotted ceiling of the cavern, or at least the large stalagmite poking through the darkness. Or he’d give us some where to use against the golem. “Pinkie, I need you to hit it with your party cannon again. Rainbow Dash, I need you to make it waste its attack of opportunity for this cycle. I’ve got a plan,” he said pointing towards the stalagmite. The two mares caught on quickly. “I delay my action, until after Pinkie” he announced, watching the turn list shift again to Rainbow’s name.

Rainbow Dash swiftly took to the air and flew past the golem fast as she could. It swung an arm out, attempting to swat her like a fly which failed to connect. The turn list shifted once more and Pinkie launched into action, and with an unnatural speed Pinkie loaded her party cannon. Light Patch closed his eyes and braced as Pinkie aimed and fired once again, striking the golem squarely in the face its health bar barely moved, but the spiral and question mark were back once more.

Finally, it was Light Patch’s turn again. He threw as much as he could to the side. Okay Patchy, you can do this. You did this once before, it can’t be that hard. With a flap of his wings, he rose into the air, with his trepidation slightly giving way to giddiness he quickly flew up to the stalagmite. To his joy it was showing signs of giving away, a few cracks between it and the ceiling but it still held strong to the ceiling. Carp, I was hoping I’d be able to knock it loose. The pegasus stallion heard the sound of stone scraping stone as the golem shifted looking around; possibly for him. Okay, plan B, he thought. Before he could get any further, however, his thoughts were derailed by a sudden but familiar pressure in his head.

“Light Patch? Are you there?” he heard Twilight ask.

“I’m a little busy at the moment,” Light Patch yelled back doing his best Barbossa impression. “Fighting a golem, and I’m doing something incredibly stupid and probably about to die horribly everypony else is okay though. Talk to you later,” he finished, cutting the connection and focusing on the golem below.

He held his hammer out. “Death from above!” he yelled letting go of the hammer. To his luck it fell true and smacked the golem on its head, prompting the thing to look up. “I bet you couldn’t even return the favor, ugly,” he taunted, ignoring the groan from Rainbow Dash.

The list shifted, skipping Perfect Profit, and once again placing the golem at the top. Not once taking its sight off of the pegasus taunting it, the golem grabbed the heaviest boulder it could. With ease it lifted the massive rock above its head and heaved.

“I dodge,” the pegasus stallion said smugly, zipping to the side. The boulder smashed into the large stalagmite. With the growl of rock giving way, it tore away from the ceiling and fell straight for the golem below. Before the golem could comprehend what was going on, the stalagmite struck true, both shattering into much smaller fragments. From the large pile of rubble, three wisps of light flew out, one to each of the adventurer ponies.

Light Patch swiftly flew back to the ground and gathered his supplies and warhammer. “Thats how you rock the block,” he said as the rest of the group joined him by pile of rubble.

“That was fairly gutsy, I’ve gotta say,” Rainbow Dash said, giving him a soft punch to the flank.

“Are you mad?” Perfect Profit yelled. “You could have been killed doing that!”

“I know, but there was no way we could have won conventionally, and we couldn't have outrun it like you noted,” the grey stallion remarked.

“You could have had Rainbow Dash lure it to attack the stalagmite,” the earth pony merchant responded. “I mean you only recently admitted to not knowing how to fly. Rainbow Dash could have dodged that bolder easy.”

“She’s right,” Rainbow chimed in.

“Yes, but then I would have had to try and captured its attention so Rainbow could have gotten up there in the first place,” Light Patch threw back.

“Hey, everything worked out in the end right?” Pinkie prompted, getting a reluctant nod from the merchant. “Exactly! Now let’s go check out our loot!” Pinkie shouted, gesturing towards the rocks from behind which the golem had appeared. “Don’t forget that we’ve gotta get stuff to rebuild Perfect Profit’s ability to make a profit. Capitalism Ho!” she shouted, charging forward and leaving the rest of the party to scramble to catch up.

Past the rocks, they found a fairly ornate series of carvings into the wall of the cavern, all of which had been designed to draw onlookers towards the door in the center.

Perfect Profit, being the only actual native, recognized it immediately. “Oh, it’s an unbound temple.”

“A what?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked at the door. “Shouldn’t they lock it? It’s not exactly safe down here.”

“No no, by unbound I mean it’s not dedicated to any specific god or goddess. Anypony could pray to any deity in this temple without fear of trouble,” the merchant responded, her gaze sweeping over Light Patch to look at Pinkie, causing a thought to pop into her head. “You know, you should probably go thank your deity for the protection he or she just gave you. And while you’re in there, maybe you could ask if he or she could help us get out of here.”

The stallion’s eyes darted between the mares who all turned to look at him expectantly. “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll do it but you’ve gotta stay out here. The rituals are a secret to my order. And for outsiders to observe them could garner his ire rather than aid,” he said before entering the temple.

“Right, we’ll be out here setting up camp. We might as well rest here after that battle, and get something to eat too,” Perfect Profit said, turning to start setting some of her load down. Light Patch gave a curt nod and entered the temple.

He marched up to the altar, grumbling slightly as he reached it. Pausing as he got to it, he sighed. In his mind, a list formed of all of the deities he could ask for some help. There was all of the standard Dungeons and Dragons ones. He could try one from his own works. Or he could try cutting out the mediary and ask Discord. After a few more seconds, he had his mind made up.

Dropping to what he assumed was an appropriate stance. He looked up at the ceiling above the altar. “Can I get a little bit of help here?” he asked to anyone or anything listening.

He waited for a few seconds for a sign or appearance or something. He counted ten more seconds before he began to leave. Before he could spot it, let alone react, a book fell from the ceiling and clanged off his helmet, prompting the words critical hit to appear above his head. Not bloody again, he thought. After a quick swipe of frustration at the words, he turned to examine the book in detail. It was a simple black leather bound book with steel trim around its edges. He quickly picked the book up, momentarily surprised by its weight. The spine held no name so he flipped it over to check the front cover, only to find a large skull on the front missing its lower jaw. Four red symbols created a square around the skull. A small smile of glee spread across his face as he went to leave, but a small quick thought paused him. He quickly trotted back to the altar, bowing his head and after a quick thanks he hoofed it for the door.

* * *

“I can’t believe after asking your gods for help, all you got was a book,” Rainbow Dash gripped while getting her gear repacked to leave the temple. “I mean, reading isn’t all bad and everything, but what are you supposed to do? Read the enemy to sleep or something?” The pegasus mare was caught off guard when her friend Pinkie Pie suddenly threw a hoof around her.

“Silly Dashie, you forget we’re in a Caverns and Cutie Marks game. Books can hold a lot of power when they're full of magical spells,” Pinkie said still holding onto her friend. “Or if they’re magic themselves,” she finished while miming casting a spell.

“Or if you just swing them hard enough,” Light Patch chimed in, giving the book a practice swing. “Seriously, this book is hefty enough, I bet I could do some real damage. It’s well bound too. I bet the cover is leather over metal.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and shrugged out of Pinkie’s grasp.

“Yeah, okay, but which one of those is that book?” the blue mare asked, prompting Light Patch to simply shrug, which prompted the pinto merchant to look over.

“Why don’t you see what it says on the inside?” Perfect Profit asked.

“Tried; can’t read it. I don’t know what script it's in. Maybe I’ll bring it up with Twilight next chance I get. I do have an idea as to what its purpose is however,” the stallion said offhandedly. “Back at the monastery, we had some similar looking books that the monks would break out when they needed to fight. They’d use special tomes to empower our weapons and armor. It didn’t last forever but it would last long enough, and I suspect that this book has similar effects,” the stallion explained, pulling his warhammer up. Okay, I’m not really sure how to use this. Wait, no, this is a DnD parody so maybe all I need to do is a use magic item check? With a slow breath, he closed his eyes and touched the book, thinking of the item he wished to empower. All of the ponies gasped when the hammer took on a slight glow. With a small grin Light Patch hefted his hammer, and with a deft swing he brought the hammer down on a rock, pulverizing it in a single swing.

Rainbow Dash rubbed a leg where a fragment of the rock had hit her. “Ow. Alright, I stand corrected. I guess that book is-” Pinkie’s burst of laughter interrupted her.

“You mean you float corrected,” the pink earth pony managed between giggles. “You’re hovering, not standing.” The blue pegasus rolled her eyes as Perfect Profit and Light Patch joined Pinkie in laughing. Eventually even Rainbow Dash joined in and, with smiles on their lips and feeling refreshed, the group set out once more.

Author's Note:

Author: Light Patch

Comments

[Mix-up]

it's a great story so far, I'm hoping to see more. I like how there are three HiE and that they all have there own personalties and can do their own thing.

[4428Gamer]

Capitalism Ho!

Yay for Recettear! Alright, from now on all I will see with Perfect Profit is an older version of Recettear. Now we just need a floating magical being with glasses...

WAIT A SECOND!