//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: Orientation // Story: At the Inn of the Prancing Pony // by McPoodle //------------------------------// At the Inn of the Prancing Pony Chapter 26: Orientation “And we want you to be a full equal in our party,” Sparkle concluded. “What?!” Hope Springs cried out in panic, falling to the floor. She looked wildly around her, steeling her mind against what she was sure to be imminent mental possession. She felt something, but it wasn’t a shock to the mind, but rather to the body. A surge of energy poured into her. Like two times before, she felt stronger, more confident in her abilities. And there was something else… “My...my cutie mark!” she exclaimed, looking down at the image of a sun rising over a distant mountain on her flank. “I…” “Indeed! As an adventurer, you have earned your cutie mark! Congratulations, but I don’t think that we have time for a party. OK so everypony has everything we need, any shopping to be done before we head out as a group?” Carry On asked. Burnished Lore stepped forward. “Well,” he said in a voice dripping with contempt, “you could stop to hear me tell you where we are going and why, yes?” “Right, yes, of course,” Carry bowed with an unperturbed smile. “In the chaotic years following the disappearance of—” At this point he suddenly stopped, and looked up in the sky to catch some look of cosmic disapproval that Hope could not. “But...but that’s what it says!” He sighed dramatically before continuing. “Once upon a time,” he said dryly, “the evil sorceress Eggswife held Northern Equestria in a veritable reign of terror, centered on the Caverns of Soap Candy, the location of the source of her mystic power. Decades passed before she was finally undone by her own hubris!” Burnished punctuated this last line by casting a wing to the heavens. “A demon, Grazer, who she had enslaved for her amusement, finally managed to free itself. In their apocalyptic struggle, Eggswife was mortally wounded, and Grazer was only just prevented from laying waste the, entire, world!” At the back of the group, Hope raised an eyebrow. She wondered if they still gave out the Annual Stink awards, because whoever was possessing Burnished Lore sure looked like he was aiming for all of the acting categories. “And then what happened?” she asked after a full minute, having figured out that he was waiting for somepony to say that. “As the sorceress was dying, she used the last of her power to hide away her trove of magical treasures, including Howard’s Torch of Miracles—an artifact said to cure whole armies of dying soldiers, or cause whole armies to start dying, depending on which way you slid the little switch on the side.” “The exact location of the caverns are unknown to the general public,” Carry On said, taking up the narrative. “However, the frequent appearances of strange treasures and works of art over the decades made it clear that the thieves, at least, knew where it lay. “Recently, the Thieves' Guild learned that one of their own had been snatched from a caravan and tortured into revealing the location of the caverns to the mad General Stride Eater of the Army of the Earth Pony Nation. He is leading his army on a mad dash to break into the caverns and recover Howard's Torch.” Hope noted that Carry On was a great deal less animated, and more believable, than Burnished Lore. “The Guild, which has been carefully guarding the caverns to prevent any of its more dangerous artifacts from seeing the light of day, has authorized me to travel to the Inn to hire you four to accompany me. Your goal will be to find and relocate the artifacts, before the Army arrives. In return for pledging to accomplish this goal, the Guild will let you keep 85% of all mundane and low-powered treasure you find in the caverns. Rest assured that a new hiding place is being prepared by a group of volunteers willing to have their memories wiped at the end of the adventure. It is assumed that the place will probably be blown up or something, just to be safe.” “Or something?” asked Burnished Lore skeptically. “That’s what it says!” Carry On protested, pointing at an empty space before her. “Ooooor, I could find another way to get rid of it,” Midnight mumbled with a grin. Torn Deck looked around him nervously. “This sounds pretty dangerous,” he said. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to handle this with such a small party.” “OK, two things,” said Carry On, after consulting another invisible note. “First of all, I’ve got a bunch of goodies for you.” She turned around and produced a box from behind her back that wasn’t there before. Ponies reached in to remove weapons, potions, armor, and sundry other items, several of them helpfully glowing to indicate their magical nature. “And second, I’ve brought along a couple of helpers, courtesy of the Guild. May I introduce Facet and Itty Bitty.” Facet was a deep blue unicorn with a long white mane kept in a bun on her head. She was wearing a miner’s overalls. Itty Bitty on the other hoof was the shy white pegasus from the Castle of the Two Sisters tour a couple of days earlier. It was hard to tell with how quietly she spoke, but it appeared she was a ranger. “So I hear you’re a fellow cleric,” Facet said to Midnight Sparkle. “Perhaps we could compare notes sometime?” She brushed a hoof against the holy symbol she wore. Most holy symbols were made out of silver, because of the metal’s magical properties. Facet appeared to have skipped the middlemare, because her holy symbol was just an ingot of silver. Sparkle smirked in reply, holding up a golden sigil of a sun that hung around her neck. “Unless you submit to the power of the sun, and its caretaker, then I see you as another adventurer in need of salvation, nothing more,” she said serenely, before raising an eyebrow and looking to the rest of the group. “So, we good to go now? I’m eager to get to the running and the shouting and the craziness.” “I’m not,” said Hope quietly. She turned and... The group arrived at a narrow pass in the northern Unicorn Range, a map spread out before them. Hope wheeled around quickly, her eyes wide. “Railroad us, why don’t you?” Burnished mumbled as he looked down at the map. “So, is there a good reason why the Guild-supplied map of the area doesn’t actually spell out where the Caverns are located?” “Well, naturally they wouldn’t have recorded its exact location,” Carry piped up. “To keep it from being found!” “Of course,” Burnished said dryly. “Is...is nopony going to explain what just happened?” Hope asked. “Look,” Burnished cut in, looking over at where the constellation of Orion would be in the sky if the sun were to wink out for a second. “I wasn’t expecting overland travel when I picked my spells this morning...or however many mornings ago. I need to switch them out. Can we camp here before going in, Cutbelt?” “Oh, all right.” Hope’s eyes darted from right to left. No pony had uttered those words. In fact, they seemed to come from the direction of Orion. A hoof rested against her withers, causing her to jump. “What?” she asked, looking into Sparkle’s face. “Relax!” Sparkle assured her. “I’m sure things are a bit intense right now, this being your first adventure and all. But in this case I would recommend doing a lot of listening. Let us know if you have any ideas, but weird things like the gods...well, um...that’s not that strange for us adventurers.” “Yeah!” Carry On added with a laugh. “Just, shush unless you have something so important that you could say it would... act as... a hook? For a theoretical...plot?” The thief laughed and dodged a smack from Sparkle. Hope’s shoulders slumped. “All right,” she said. “I guess I’ll set up camp and stand first watch.” “Hope,” Burnished said, putting a hoof over hers. “The adventure hasn’t started yet, so we get tonight for free. Nopony has to stand watch.” Hope looked at him slack jawed for a second, then slowly shook her head in resignation. “Your rules,” she said, walking over to the pile of supplies. # # # Hope turned in and settled herself for the inevitable call of her other self. Eventually, after the sounds in the neighboring tent had died down, she saw Sparkle’s silhouette kneeling down and praying. A second later, Celestia and Sparkle appeared in the Astral Plane. “Are you okay? You been busy?” Sparkle asked in an odd tone. “I live in a land of fluffy pink clouds,” Celestia said with a straight face. “There’s not all that much to do.” “Hmm...I’d like to refresh my spells, but I do have a special ability once a day, where I can speak with you without coming here, would you like if I spoke to you? So you aren’t just sitting here?” Sparkle trotted around, looking at the clouded puffs. Celestia put on a smile behind Sparkle’s back, that almost looked creepy. “You would like me, to get inside of your head?” She then smiled warmly. “Sure, I give you permission. Think about the sun, and I’ll be there.” Of course, she had no idea if that would actually work, but assuming that the gods were running things, and since she appeared to be amusing them right now, she saw no reason why it wouldn’t. “That sounds good, also...my retainer is now an adventurer. I would like it if you were to keep her safe. I don’t know what I’d do if she was hurt,” Lady Sparkle said, with genuine concern, as she admired a bust of Luna that she had found. “I’ll do what I can,” Celestia said. “Although since she isn’t one of my clerics, my help will be indirect. What, exactly...is she, anyway?” “A fighter,” said Sparkle. Celestia rolled her eyes. “Of course. She’s a fighter. Is there a god of fighters?” Because if there is, she thought to herself. He’s going to be very disappointed. “There is, but she wouldn’t worship her. Celestia, is there anything I can do to help you in the next day? Before I can see you again?” Celestia looked over at the bust of Luna, and then back down at Sparkle. “Just...try to think of what I would do in a particular situation, and then try to do a little better than that. And don’t destroy the world with that little artifact you’re chasing.” “Yes, My Light. I will strive to do so.” Sparkle bowed to her god, and with another lightning bolt, she was gone. Celestia remained in the Astral Plane. She felt that she could return to being Hope at any moment she wished, but for now she dallied. For one thing, it appeared that without Sparkle that there were no longer gods watching her here. “Let’s see…” she murmured to herself. “What do gods do in their spare time?” She spread her hooves out in a circle before her, and a black disc appeared. She raised an eyebrow in slight surprise. “Show me the camp,” she said, and an overhead image of the tents appeared before her. She tapped a hoof to her chin for a few seconds. Then she put on her “cheating smile”. “Show me the location of the Lost Caverns of Soap Candy,” she ordered.