Buttons parried an alarming jab of that rapier. "Watch where you're pointing that!"
Burning was rubbing his hooves together, fire building between them as he glared death at the wiry crystal elf.
That elf danced around Buttons, putting him between the elf and Burning as he prodded and tested Buttons still developing defenses, leaving thin slices on the small colt. Buttons rapidly realized that if he had come alone, he woulda been in big trouble! Also that hurt, like a lot. With a wide arc, Buttons swung his new air sword. "Back off!"
The elf danced away from the swing as if it were a simple matter, laughing all the while. What he didn't plan was that dodging Buttons put him in a better position for Burning's attack. The fiery opponent thrust his arms forward, hooves touching. Much like a mythical martial artist, he hurled a fireball from those touching hooves. "Burn!" he roared.
The thin elf pony jumped to the side out of the way of the oncoming ball of fiery doom. "Too slow!"
"Keep thinkin' that." The fire was still a part of him, bound by his will, and Burning angled his body, causing the fire to turn with it as it swerved towards the pony. "Coulda just let us through."
Buttons decided that was a fine time for a, "Healing Touch." And banished his ouchies away in that momentary lull. "Get 'em!"
"You..." He nimbly jumped over the fireball. "Can't--" He ducked under the ball as it looped back on him. "keep this!--" He jinked to the side, fur singing when the balls passing. "up!"
"Can you?" taunted Burning, guiding his burning ball of magic to swerve and dance with their foe. "Gonna get tired eventually."
"Sir Mash." Sidestep was at his side, nudging him with a hoof. "If this is his home, what right have we to what is his?"
"Uh... Kinda busy... Can this wait?" Button charged into the frey. "And you, stop moving!" He lunged with his sword, unable to land a hit on the nimble warrior, but perfectly capable of distracting and slowing. It was just enough for the ball to reach the elf pony. Heat and a roar of flames filled the area as he fell over, burning.
The pony with that name snorted. "Finally... For all your speed, your Stamina stinks." He stomped over to the prone and burning pony. "Let me put that out for you." Which he did by beating the flames out with tremendous slams of his hooves, pulverizing the once agile warrior against the stone ground without a trace of sympathy. "Why did you think you had a chance?"
Button looked away. As awesome as pixelated violence was, seeing it in person, against a pony, was a bit... too much. "We win..." He didn't feel like cheering just then. "You alright, Burning?"
"A few scratches, it is nothing serious." He shrugged his heavy shoulders. "Now where is that chest? It better still be closed."
Sidestep crossed her arms, hovering on her wings. "I do not want what you find there, even if it is the grandest blade I have ever seen."
Button's ears flagged. With the excitement of battle ebbing, he could see that Sidestep was upset. "Um, sorry... I know it's hard to... imagine... but that chest, if it's there, isn't even his. It was here before he was."
Burning patted his hooves clean of the mess he had made of their former enemy. "How can you be sure? No matter. Let's see if it's even there, after all that it better be."
Rather than ponder that, Button charged where the crystal elf had come from originally. Beyond was a bedroom with an almost comically ornate bed that didn't fit the rest of the cave they were in. It also had a writing desk, a pitcher of wine? And, hizzah, a big chest just sitting there. "Not to argue, but why didn't he open it? It's right there." Button trotted up to it with a little smile. "Glad he didn't."
Sidestep flew in at a sedate rate. "That is very curious. Can... I am not an adventurer. We have found closed chests with things inside, and open chests with nothing. Can you... not put new things in a chest?"
"I don't think so?" At least, Button never could in the game, but why would they bother adding that to the game? Maybe it worked differently. Who knew?!
Burning didn't seem to care, throwing open the chest with a grunt. With a bright sparkle, a book hovered over it, along with a collection of neatly folded clothing. "Ha! He did open it. These were his, I imagine." He knocked the clothing aside. "Unless they are enchanted, useless."
Button squinted over the clothes, but they didn't even have stats. Well, they did, but they were basically zero. Just clothes. "Nope, just fashion."
Sidestep waved at the book floating in the air. "If the clothes were his, why would this not be?"
"Because I have an idea!" Button hopped up and snatched the book. The chest stopped glowing. "See? Now go ahead and put something back in."
"Hm?" Burning took a tunic off the floor and dropped it in the chest, where it lay sadly. Nothing glowed.
"In fact, I bet..." Button dropped the book back in the chest, to no effect. "Once you take what's in, out, that's it. Which means he never took the book out, which also means it's ours, guilt free."
Burning swatted Button on the back. "Ha! Today we learn something new. Now, identify that book with those magic eyes of yours."
Sidestep landed on the edge of the chest. "Was he using the chest as a light? I would have been curious what the book was..." She peered down at the abandoned book. "I do not approve of how it was gained... But if he had no claim over it..."
"You're curious right now." Button giggled as he climbed up next to her to be able to see the book. "What are you?" He squinted to find out.
Tome: Travel of Sir Egarone
"Sir Egarone?" mumbled Button even as he read it. "Who's that?"
Sidestep gasped an octave higher than normal. "Sir Egarone? He is a lord of quite some renown. Does this book relate to him?"
Button swatted at the book, all the way at the bottom of the chest as it was. "The Travel of Sir Egarone. That's what it's called."
Sidestep began to clap eagerly. "We must return it!"
Burning raised a brow. "Yeah that ain't happenin'. He's in no state to enjoy a good book."
Sidestep scowled at the large fire element pony. "Not him. This is a historical artifact."
Button inclined his head at the book. "Huh..." Not a spell book or something? Boo... But still... "Will they pay us for it?"
Sidestep crossed her arms. "I just said it is a historical artifact. We can't not return it, so others may study it and learn of our past."
Burning reached to brush Sidestep off the chest, but she took to the air, hovering over it instead. He huffed at her. "It is ours. You said as much. Selling it sounds like a good idea. Ponies get to study it all they want, and we get some coins for all the trouble we went through to get it." He snorted with sudden annoyance. "Somethin' so valuable and that joker was using it as a bed light. He deserved what he got."
Button flashed a smile. "Idea! Would turning this over get you a lord?"
Sidestep pinkened swiftly. "It may. It would be a good showing to make such a discovery. But I have no right to it. I said I would only claim swords and specifically foreswore the contents of this chest. By any and all rights, I can not claim any inherent justification to it now."
Burning stomped one hoof down. "We are selling that, sir Mash." He said the title in a slightly mocking way, teasing the colt. "And I want a share. This is not optional."
"Easy easy." Button waved his hooves wardingly at the agitated large pony. "We will sell it." Sidestep sagged. "But! There's nothing saying she can't take credit for it. She let us sell it because her promises say she couldn't keep it, and she had no lord to turn it over to, which she would have if one was smart enough to take her."
Sidestep suddenly grabbed Button, squeezing him. "You are too kind! Your... ethics could use a little polish, but a kind heart beats in that chest." She released the blushing and flustered colt to flop off the side of the chest to the ground.
Burning shook his head. "I don't care who 'takes credit' if we get our coins." He reached into the box and grabbed the book at the end of his hoof, stuffing it away. "With that settled, let's head back... unless there's more? This is the last one of this place, right?"
Button sat up. "Hmm... Yep. If we go that way--" He pointed to a tunel leading right past the room they were in. "That'll come back outside on the other side of the hill we started in."
Sidestep hopped into flight to the entrance of that tunnel. "Then let us leave. We can always circle around the hill without as much danger. This place is filled with monsters."
Burning shrugged at that. "But that's the long way, which means more time to run into other monsters. I say we go right back the way we came." He pointed to the tunnel leading into the maze they had finished. "Besides, in here, we have the right weapon. You can swat those water snakes away easily."
"He has a point." Button looked between the two options. "That way--" He pointed to where Sidestep was. "The monsters get tougher." It was further along the quest to save the already saved world. "Probably easier to go back the way we came, even if it's not as interesting." He turned to head back in. "We'll come back, later, when we're ready to kick more tail!"
"Ha, already dreaming of the next. Love it." Burning marched at Button's side with a big grin.
They pushed back through the monster-infested caves with no serious obstacles to their path. Sidestep marched at Button's side. "One thing, Sir Mash." He glanced up at her. "It is not unknown for a sword maiden to accept a young lord, even if they are too young to be a proper ruler of land."
Button blinked, coloring at that. "M-me?!"
"You are still finding your place." She nodded at this fact. "And you require a good guide. Your eyes are set high, and already you march towards it. If you would desire it?"
Burning snorted softly. "Figured you were chasing him some time ago, lass."
Button looked between his companions. "Um... So what does being a 'lord' mean, exactly?" That wasn't in the game!
"It means, in your case, that you seek to become a ruler of land and its ponies. That you wish to become a good and just ruler, and that you will have a sword at your hip." She pointed to herself, that sword. "If you deviate, I will guide you back towards a just path. If you refuse, then you will lose me, and I will seek another in disgrace." She perked an ear at Button. "You would not do that to me, Sir Mash."
Mash squeaked. No pressure! "Of course not! Um... But what happens if I go home, where there are no lords or sword maidens or nothing and..."
Sidestep looked baffled at the idea. "Is that why you know so little of common things? As your sword, I am in your service. I will help you reach your goals, even if that goal is far from here. I will follow you to another world, you have but to request it. I will leave you just the same, if you request it."
She sounded completely certain of her words, her will unbending steel. "At your word."