The Princess's Hero

by The One Hammer

The Wreck (PT2)

"We need to leave the ship," Light stated, as he and Steel sat across from each other at a table in the mess hall. "If this is the Everfree forest, we need to get out!"

"No," Steel narrowed his amber eyes. "The ship is a safe zone." Looking around the room, Steel continued. "Besides we still have to find the princess."

"You sent that kid to find her," Light flipped his mane. "You going and finding her would be faster."

"That ‘kid’ is pretty clever," Cakemix called out from the kitchen. "You could try to be nice for once, Light." She limped into the mess hall carrying a tray of food in her magic grasp.

"Whatever," Light huffed, and turned his head. "The sooner we find the princess, the sooner we can leave."

"We're not leaving the ship," Steel turned his attention to Cakemix as she placed the tray on the table. "What's it look like in there?"

"My kitchen is a mess," Cakemix declared as she gingerly sat with the stallions. "But the food has surprisingly survived." She took a can of soda in her magic and popped the tab. "The stove is another story, but I can cook over a fire."

"We have provisions for a month and shelter," Steel turned back to Light. "Why do you want to leave?"

"It's the Everfree forest!" Light through his forelegs in the air. "The most dangerous place in Equestria! Ring any bells?!"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Bloody hell is her room," Craft grumbled under his breath, as he wandered the ship. Not having memorized the ship's layout, he was next to lost. "Aaaand that's the mess hall, again." Turning around, Craft took a deep breath and dug into his Recent memories. "Okay, it was left…" Pushing past debris, he took the turn. "Keep straight…" Craft maneuvered down the hall, before turning down another.

As Craft navigated the ship, he paused. "What is that?" Bringing a hoof to his chest, Craft felt short of breath, like something stirred in his heart. "What?" His confusion deepened when a scent came to him. "Citrus, no, better than that." The scent come from his left. Turning to look, Craft found a door. "Oh… ‘kay, I'll bite." Gently pushing the door open, Craft snuck in, never realizing the smell had left.

Like the rest of the ship, the room was wrecked. A mattress lay against the wall, it's bed frame shattered. A trunk had burst open, spilling its contents across the room. As Craft poked at the personal effects, he found a damaged, simple tiara with a purple gem on it. Craft started searching around, He quickly noted that the mattress was not laying flat on the floor.

"Found you."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After scolding Craft for his arrogance, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza retired to her room. 'How can he be so smart and be that stupid?' Cadenza took her tiara in her magic and examined it a purple gem sat in the center of the golden face while another one stood proud on the middle point rounded like a marble.

"I don't get what she sees in him," Cadenza placed the tiara on her nightstand, before removing the rest of her regalia. "He's a bit rude." Climbing into bed, Cadenza tucked herself in, and nuzzled into her pillow. Cadenza used her magic to pull a thin comic book, with a kimono clad pony, who had green eyes and a headband, on the cover, out of her travel case. "She should find somepony like my ninja warrior." Letting out a sigh, Cadenza placed the comic on her nightstand. "Ronin, find me…" She mumbled as sleep took her.

~~~~~>

Waking was filled with pain. Cadenza's skull ached and her wing was in agony and whatever was on top of her did not help.

"Found you," The voice was muffled and right after they spoke, the mass on top of her was lifted way. It didn't matter if the mass was moved gently, it still dug into her injured wing. "Gaahha!" The pain fogged up her vision.

“Shit,” Then a pair of green eyes entered Cadenza's view, the deepest, forest green eyes she'd ever seen, and they sat just under a white headband.

"Ronin." Cadenza breathed. "You've save me." She leaned forward with puckered lips, only for her rescuer to pull away.

"The buck are you doing?"

Cadence, after taking a few seconds to register who the voice belonged to, Blushed. Hard. "Craft?" Real hard.

"Yes," Craft was quickly examining the princess for open wounds while avoiding her wing. "Can you stand?"

"I think so," Cadenza slowly rolled onto her stomach, her blush quickly fading, as she got her hooves under herself. Craft moved to Cadenza's good side and helped her up.

With her left wing hanging down to the floor, Cadenza leaned on the shorter Craft as the room spun for her. “Wa-what happened?”

“Something exploded,” Craft paused to help Cadenza out the door. “Then the balloon popped.”

“So I was right.” Cadenza murmured as Craft lead her through the wrecked hall. “Somepony did something to the engine.”

“Can't rule out an accident.”

“Why's that?”

“Assumptions make you look like an idiot.”

“Pardon?”

“Something my dad used to say.”

“Used to– oh,” Cadenza worked her mouth like a fish, trying to find something else to say. “Well, I'm–.”

“Say it and I'll ditch,” A near growl left Craft’s throat. “I don't need to hear that every time he's mentioned.”

“I was going to say ‘I'm glad that you're keeping his wisdom alive,’” Cadenza replied with a glare.

“Sorry,” Craft’s free ear folded back. “I thought that…”

“You made an assumption.”

“Yes I did.”

“So…” The glare on Cadenza’s face was replaced with a smirk.

“Yes I am,” Craft grinned back.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Somepony will fly over and spot us,” Steel struggled to keep his voice level. “We can wait.”

“It's the Everfree!” Light yelled yet again waved his hooves. “Who flys over that?”

“Dare devils and glory seekers,” At the looks of confusion from Light and Cakemix, Steel explains. “The guard gets several reports a month.”

“What's wrong with ponies?” Light’s face pales.

“You should hear some of the nobles in court,” Another mare’s voice answered. “One of them wanted to tear down half a hospital, just so he could have a clear view of the valley.” A pink mare trots into the mess hall next to a shorter brown stallion.

“Princess!” Steel jumped to his hooves and rushed to her side. “Let me take a look at your wing.” Craft moved to the food tray and started speaking with Cakemix. Light got up and left the room.

“Where are you going?” Steal called after the retreating pony.

“To get some air!” The mint pony shouted back.

“Thank you Steel,” Cadenza regained Steel’s attention and winced as Steel gently spread her injured wing. “Report.”

“The ship has settled on a forest lakeside shore,” Steel gently folded Cadenza’s wing by a small fraction, and earned a hiss. “Sorry, Craft, could you find me a sturdy, straight piece of wood I can use as a splint?”

“One sec,” Craft called back, before he moved away from a blushing Cakemix.

“I believe you broke your ulna.”

“Thank you,” Cadenza noded. “Do we know what forest we're in?” Steel hesitated,

“We're in the–.”

Crack!

Snapping their heads to the source of the sudden noise Cakemix, Steel, and Cadenza found Craft with a busted table leg. “What?”

“Do you know how much that was?!” Cakemix cried out.

“It's made of Birch,” Craft tossed the leg aside before pulling out the thinner crossbeam. “I'll say, no more than a hundred bits.”

“Two hundred,” Cakemix shot the dirtiest look she could at Craft.

“You overpaid,” Craft gave the soon-to-be splint to Steel.

“Thanks,”

“Welcome,” Craft turned back to Cakemix. “I could make a better quality one for that much,”

“He's not always like this, is he?” Steel whispered to Cadenza.

“I'm not sure,” Noting Steel’s raised brow, Cadenza explained further. “He tries to avoid me.”

“Aren't you a guard?” Cakemix asked Craft.

“Yes, and?”

“Shouldn't you be guarding a door instead of making tables?”

Craft turned to the side to show his cutiemark. “See this hammer?” He accented the question with a hoof pointing at said cutiemark hammer.

“Yes?” Cakemix confusedly answered.

“Do you know what it means?” Cakemix shook her head. “It means I can make quality shit.”

“What about the scroll?”

“I know how to make said quality shit,” everypony took varying looks of confusion.

“Wait, didn't you say–?” Steel started but Craft cut him off.

“Same thing,” Craft sat back down at the table. “Don't you have a bone to set, Steel?”

“Don't push your luck, kid,” after getting a grunt in response, Steel returned his attention to the princess’s wing, and his report. “The Captain, the engineer, and the navigator died during the crash.”

“And the forest we're in?” Cadenza reminded.

“Right,” Steel paused to bind the splint to the wing and wrapping it to the young mare’s side. “We believe that we're in the Everfree forest.”

<~~~~~

After grunting his response to Steel, Craft grabbed some bread and cheese from the tray and chowed down.

“Hungry?” Cakemix asked as she watched Craft devour his food. Craft swallowed what food he had in his mouth.

“It's been an active few hours,” Craft took another bite of his food. “And I'm a teenager.”

“I know that,” Cakemix sighed in defeat. “About what you said earlier.” A rosy tint came back to the purplish mare’s cheeks. “Could you, um… you know?” Craft raised a brow as the mare lightly pawed at the tabletop then looked past him. Following Cakemix’s gaze Craft saw Steel wrapping Cadenza’s wing onto her side.

“What!” The princess’s cry made Steel flinch away and cover his ears.

Light troted down the halls of the ship, sticking to the clear ones as much as possible.

“Damn ponies,” Light mumbled as he rounded a corner. “Damn sensible ponies, the ship crashes in the most dangerous place in Equestria. Of course they're going to stay in the safety of the ship.”

Shoving a door open, he entered the engine room. Looking at the twisted shell of the boiler, Light spoke again. “This was a stupid plan.” He uprighted a stool and sat on it. “Let’s raid the ship near the badlands! We can take the princess and blame pirates!” Light brought a hoof to his face and rubbed the bridge of his muzzle. “I must have did something wrong when I delayed launch.”

“I need to get the princess to the meeting spot, but how?” Looking at the deceased body of Bolts, Light lamented. “How do I get ponies out of a safe zone?” Letting his gaze drift across the room, Light caught sight of a can out of the corner of his eye. He smiled as he focused on it. “Burn them out.”

After gathering as much canned grease and oil as he could carry, Light stopped by Bolts’ body. “Too bad you're dead. I really wanted that ass, Bolts.” He whispered into the deceased mare’s ear, before straightening up and leaving.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Having decided to follow Steel’s plan of waiting for help, Cadence and the rest of the ponies made the mess hall into a base camp. The damaged tables and benches were dragged out while a few mattresses were brought in. Only one table sat in the hall with a few benches around it, around that lay the mattresses enough for everypony to sleep on, as Cadence was now doing.

“Cakemix,” Craft yawned as he lounged on a bench, upside down. “What are you cooking?” Across the hall, resting on a mattress next to the one holding a snoozing princess, Cakemix raised her head.

“I'm not cooking,” Craft let his head fall off of the bench to look at her.

“Then what am I smelling?”

“I can smell it too,” Steel spoke up from across the table, a scawl on his face. “Kid, wake the princess, tell her what's up.” Steel hopped off his bench and left. Rolling off of his resting place, Craft landed on his hooves, and made his way to the slumbering princess.

“Wakey, Wakey,” Craft cooed, as he nudged Cadence’s shoulder. Getting no response, Craft whispered into her ear. “Ronin’s here to save you.”

“Ronin?” The princess woke with a snort. “Uh? W-what's going on?” Cadence asked with a yawn and a smack of her lips.

“We've got a strange smell, so Steel went to investigate,” Craft sat down before the princess.

“Gas?” Cadence yawned as she stretched out her legs.

“No,” Cakemix sniffed at the air. “It smells more oily, but not something I'd cook with.” She turned to Craft as she spoke. “Why did you need to wake the princess?”

“Precaution, incase we need to leave quickly,” Craft then smirked. “You know, i'm surprised that you're not worried for Steel.” Cakemix sputtered at that remark.

“You said you wouldn't tell!”

“No I didn't, but I didn’t say that I wouldn’t help,” Craft smugly remarks. “Besides, love princess here is now chomping at the bit to help you.”

“You're an ass,” A faux upset Cakemix huffed and turned away.

“I'm a little confused,” Cadence looked between the two of them. “Who–?”

“The cook has a crush on your guard.”

“…You?”

“WHAT? NO!” Both Craft and Cakemix cried. Before anypony could say any more, the doors burst open, letting smoke billow in and cling to the ceiling.

“Craft! Grab Cakemix and follow me, make sure the princess stays ahead of you,” Steel stood in the glowing haze of the hallway.

“Yes sir!” Craft turned to Cakemix and nudged her side, prompting her to rise as he slipped under her. Turning to the princess, unaware of Cakemix’s blush, he ushered the royal out of the mess hall.