//------------------------------// // Chapter 38: Hey gang, let’s split up! Again! // Story: Caverns & Cutie Marks // by TheColtTrio //------------------------------// “I’d really hate to say it, but, well,” Light Patch paused, looking at the other ponies around the table, “our evidence is almost as thin as the paper some of it’s on.” Wits End sighed, head laying on the table. “That’s the problem with claims,” he muttered. “Finding rumors is easy. Finding proof is hard.” “So what do we do?” Twilight asked. “Find more?” Rainbow asked tentatively. “What? I’ve read a couple of mysteries,” she explained at the looks she received from some of the other ponies. “That wasn’t really the question, Rainbow Dash. The question is; what parts of the rumors do we look into?” Rarity paused for dramatic timing. “The alleged claims, or the preparing for war?” Wits blew a tuft of his mane away from his eyes. “We need to prove both are real things,” he said, picking himself up off the table. He held up one hoof. “The claims mean nothing unless they’re pressed,” he lifted the other, as if weighing two objects, “and the preparations aren’t useful unless we can link them directly to Bastion.” “Let’s split up gang!” Light Patch chimed in. Wits raised an eyebrow. “You’re the last one I’d expect to say that.” “It’s this group’s answer to everything,” Light Patch said, resting his head on a hoof. “Honestly, with the amount of time we spend split up, we barely qualify to call ourselves a group,” he muttered. “Well, you’re not wrong. We can split between the claims and the warmongering.” Wits tapped the table with one hoof as he thought. “For the claims, we’d need proof of their historical validity.” He frowned. “And we’d have to take the nobles’ collective temperature on whether those claims still hold or not. Without the support of the nobility, Bastion would look like a tyrant declaring war.” Twilight’s ears perked up. “I saw that the castle has a library last night,” she offered. “We can check the records there. If it really is Bastion’s father who lost the provinces, it’ll be recorded there.” “Sounds like a decent plan,” the grey pegasus said, “I can go sniff around the warmongering charges. See if any local smith’s have gotten larger orders, or if food merchants have seen a city get more than its fair share of food. The local farmers might also know something. Maybe even hit some hangouts favored by guards, army or local militia for more information.” Rarity looked at Wits and Twilight with a keen eye. “Well, you’ll need my help if you’re going to talk to the nobles.” She flipped her mane as she stood. “I know a thing or two about the ins and outs of high society.” Her eyes narrowed. “It would help to keep the rest of us from joining Purple Heart in the arena.” “Ah guess Ah’ll be goin’ with Light Patch,” Applejack threw in, “Ah know the right questions to ask to get the farmers talkin’, and Ah might be able to help with the smiths too.” “Ooh!” Pinkie leapt from her seat, bouncing around Light Patch excitedly. “I can help! I can help! I can get the guards to talk to us! Ponies always tell me stuff once I throw them a Super Special Teenie Tiny Pinkie Party! Why, this one time I-” “That’s great!” Wits said shortly, cutting the pink party pony off before it was too late. He turned to Rainbow Dash. “You should probably go with them too.” “What? Why me?” The rainbow-colored mare’s wings flared angrily. “You don’t think I can handle… whatever you guys are gonna be doing?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “It’ll be talking to a bunch of old ponies and reading old history books.” “...I’m going with Light Patch’s group.” Fluttershy shifted in her seat. “Well, um, I guess I’ll stay here in case any pony needs-” “Actually,” Wits interrupted, “I’d like you to come with me. I’ll need your help with…” He thought for a moment, gesturing with his head in what was probably some sort of meaningful way. “Things.” “What,” Rarity raised an eyebrow, “do you think the mice might have some key information?” “...Yeah, let’s go with that.” Wits End stood, looking over the two groups. “Alright, let’s go do that information gathering thing. Don’t get in trouble, try not to die, and when in doubt, go left.” “Got it,” the pegasus stallion, “and right back at you. Good luck with your… things, as well,” he finished, leading his group out. * * * “It’s a dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But on the twelfth floor of the Pony building, one stallion is still trying to fin-” “What are you doing?” Rainbow asked, cutting Light Patch off in the middle of his sentence. “I was making a reference to a detective I like. Nevermind,” The stallion responded, looking around. “Looks like we’re here at the farmer’s market. I figure this is where we’re gonna find most of the farmer’s in the city, along with plenty of the food merchants.” “Hey, tell me again why we’re asking about food when we’re supposed to be looking for an army?” Rainbow said, glancing around and taking in the many wonderful scents wafting through the market’s air. “To field an army, you need three things. Bodies, which can reasonably be kept hidden by having an army camp some distance away from a town or off a major road. Equipment, most of which they will already have themselves, or the ability to make on their own. And the final one which is food.” The stallion glanced at Rainbow Dash with a smirk. “I’m sure you can guess as to why they’d need that,” he quipped. “And what the hay’s that supposed to mean?” Rainbow shot back along with a glare. Pinkie bounced over and pulled the rainbow maned pegasus down. “Your kind of drooling a bit, Dashie,” Pinkie whispered, causing Rainbow to flush and quickly wipe away the evidence. “It’d be hard to move sufficient quantities of food for an army and not keep it a secret if you’re using merchant roads. Which you’d wanna, because those would be faster than trying to haul it cross country,” Light Patch continued, trying to keep a straight face. “So if’n we follow the food, we find the army,” Applejack said, finishing Light Patch’s thought. “So, where’re we going to start?” “Much as I’d hate to say it, we should probably split up further. If we go one at a time, we won’t be able to talk to even a quarter of them.” Rainbow Dash quickly floated off with a small wave, and Applejack ambled off soon afterwards. Pinkie paused for a moment to pat Light Patch on his back quickly before bouncing away into the crowd. Light Patch watched to see what sections of the market the mares were working through before starting to work his way through to the area they’d left mostly uncovered. “Ah hah, your armor gives you away, Lord Bandit of the food tables,” a deep voice said, surprising the pegasus stallion in thought. “Looking to expand the kingdom?” The pink and brown maned pegasus whirled around to find himself facing a familiar looking noble. “You have caught me in the act too late, Just Duty. This farmers market is mine, and soon my vegetable army shall rise and you shall find only defeat at the florets of highly nutritious broccoli spearmen,” Light Patch said before beginning to laugh evilly, causing many ponies to stop and stare at him, or at least give a wide berth when passing him; especially the colts and fillies who had been eying the vegetables with disdain then, and fear now. “Then I shall just have to eat my way to victory,” the older stallion retorted, falling into the act as well. “Drat, the one weakness of my army: cooking renders them vulnerable to a pony’s teeth and stomach.” The grey pegasus growled. “Curses, I have been tinfoiled again!” Both of the ponies politely ignored the nearby fillies and colts begging their parents to buy a few extra vegetables as they stepped to the outskirts of the market to stay out of the way. “I must admit, that was fun. I doubt you’re in the farmers market for theatrical reasons,” the blue grey noble said once they’d found a relatively quiet spot. “Do you mind me asking your reasoning for being here?” “Only if I get to ask the same thing. I’m probably just as surprised to see you are you are me.” Light Patch sat down in a spot of shade. The question is: do I let on about us looking to overthrow the king or not? While he probably wouldn’t support the war, he did sound like a bit strong into the lawful good. And overthrowing the king isn’t exactly lawful... Light Patch sighed as he made up his mind. “My friends and I were looking into something for a merchant friend of ours. She was looking into provisions, but was too busy to come look right now.” “Ah hah, looking for stuff to do to fill the time until your friend has won his freedom from the arena.” The older pony nodded. “If you and your friends need, I’m sure I can scrounge up some other work. As an old paladin, I know what it is like being stuck in a town as others in your party are...” he paused trying to find the correct wording, “at odds with the town’s law.” Light Patch fought hard to not sigh and/or facehoof. Of course he’s a paladin. As if I didn’t already feel bad about having lied to him. I don’t want to risk that he’ll expose us to Bastion though, the pegasus thought, looking around. “I appreciate the offer, and I promise I’ll keep it in mind, but so far we’ve been able to keep ourselves busy. So, what are you doing around in the town? I figured you’d be doing law stuff back at the castle or whatever you nobles do.” The old paladin snorted in amusement. “The point is to do as little as possible for most nobles; and I will be doing my part in the courts later. As for why I was in town, I was hoping to get some old keepsakes from my adventuring days maintained by a blacksmith.” He snorted in anger. “Unfortunately, all of the smiths in the town appear to be busy with some royal project, and don’t have the time right now to spare for a noble as low in the pecking order as me.” Light Patch ignored the fact that his ears perked up at the information. “A royal order, huh? Any idea what the king’s got them up to?” “I lack that information, I am afraid. The first couple of smiths weren’t willing to allow me to view the royal work order, and after that I got too impatient and moved on to the next smith. And, after I gave up, I decided to take a slow winding walk back to the castle to enjoy the day and calm down some.” The older stallion lapsed into silence as he turned over a few thoughts in his head. “I’ve been thinking about the question you proposed back at the party, considering that I was unable to answer it when you first posed it. I think I have-” The stallion glanced up towards the sky, before grunting. “I think I shall have to be leaving it unanswered for another day. I appear to have wasted more time in town then I meant to, and I have some things I need to do before I begin at the law courts later. Hopefully we shall have a chance to continue this conversation later.” With a quick nod, Just Duty turned and swiftly made his way through the streets towards the castle. Light Patch watched until the old paladin disappeared in the hustle and bustle. The pegasus stood up and turned to re-enter the market only for pink to suddenly become the world. “Whatcha watchin?” Pinkie asked, taking a step back, allowing the pegasus stallion to make out her face. “What was that weird little bunch of twitches you did there? Was it a new dance?” Before anypony could begin to respond, she inhaled a deep breath. “Was it Patchy Sense? Do you have Patchy Sense like I have Pinkie Sense? Do you waltz with the Nightmare in the pale moonlight?” Before she could continue onwards, Applejack clamped her muzzle shut. “Slow down there a second Pinkie,” the farm mare said. “You gotta give him a chance to answer the questions in smaller chunks.” “A pony I know, surprise slash fear spasms, no I don’t have Patchy Sense. And finally yes but only on the new moons.” The stallion listed off. “You managed to follow her questions?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to hide that she was kind of impressed. “How'd you manage that?” “Probably the years of fast paced rock and other music along with all of the cartoon characters who’d do the same thing.” Light Patch said giving a small wave of his hoof at the looks of confusion on the mares faces. “I’ll splain later, what did you mares manage to learn?” “Well, several of the farmers mentioned to me that the royal caravans were buyin’ up more food than they normally used to,” the cowmare mentioned. “An’ at a premium too. Not enough to make most of them too suspicious but enough for them to notice” “Yeah, and a couple of merchants mentioned to me that there were some ponies in towns near the borders’ that were paying uncommonly well for food,” Pinkie threw in. “And a pegasus merchant told me that he passed over a decent sized camp in a forest near a town, if he was judging the number of campfires correctly,” Rainbow finished, “What about you, did you manage to get any more information?” The pegasus asked biting into a couple of fruit she'd gotten while asking around. “I didn’t get around to asking around the farmer’s market for information.” He held up a hoof to forestall any responses from the mares. “Because I ran into a pony I met at the ball, and during our chat, he gave me some information on something to check up on.” Light Patch finished. “So now whut?” Applejack asked looking at her friends. “I think now we should go find a good place to ask around the town guard and militia for their orders. And once we find that I can go look into the validity of the information I was informed of, while you three see what information you can get from troops.” the other three nodded and after some quick asking around about militia and guard hangouts they quickly began on their way. After a few moments of silent walking to their next destination Pinkie spoke up. “So… what's a cart-ooooon?” “And for that matter, how can a rock be music?” Rainbow threw in. Light Patch sighed and started trying to explain. * * * “Nothing!” Wits tossed a book over his shoulder. “No information! Useless, empty books!” “Watch it!” Twilight called, catching the books with her magic before they could hit the ground. “For all we know, denting book corners is punishable by cutting off your nose in this crazy place.” Rarity peeked over her own pile of books. “That seems a bit extreme, Twilight dear.” “It’s that extremeness that got Purple Heart in trouble in the first place,” Twilight grumbled. “Honestly, this whole thing seems weird.” “Which part?” Wits asked, setting another book aside. Twilight made a wide-sweeping gesture. “All of this! The whole city! What kind of place send ponies to the dungeon just for insulting somepony? Has no-pony ever thought about why any of this is going on?” Wits sighed. “It’s a game run by Discord, Twilight. I’ve given up on trying to figure out why things are happening at this point.” “That’s my point!” Twilight stomped her hoof irritably. “Doesn’t this seem like it’s had a lot more thought put into it than Discord would do?” Rarity tilted her head. “How do you mean?” “All of the work put into the world and history, the depth of the characters, just how huge this world is…” Twilight shook her head. “I can’t imaging somepony like Discord putting so much effort into this.” Wits End thought for a moment. “Maybe he grabbed it from somewhere else…” he muttered. Twilight turned to him. “What do you mean?” “N-nothing,” Wits corrected. “Just… thinking outloud. Random, wild speculation.” He grabbed another book, burying his nose in it. But if Discord did steal ideas from our world, he thought, it’d explain some of the unexpected darkness. Twilight frowned. “Fluttershy?” she said, turning to the yellow pegasus. “Did Discord talk to you at all before this started?” Fluttershy jumped with a squeak. “Um… No, he didn’t mention anything to me during our tea parties. The first I heard about this was when we were all together…” The four ponies fell silent, each one turning their attention to their own pile of books. Finally, Rarity leapt to her hooves. “I’VE GOT IT!” she shrieked, shocking the other three ponies and causing books to topple over. “What?” Wits exclaimed, picking himself out of his collapsed pile of books. “Got what? Who’s on first?” “The claim, deary,” Rarity said smugly. “Look at this book.” Twilight trotted over, tilting her head to read the title. “‘History of the Gallopilli Royal Families, by the Great and Pow-’” “Right here,” Rarity pointed a hoof at the page, a smile on her face. “This piece here is all the proof we need of the claim.” Wits End leaned in, eyes scanning the page. “...In the year blah blah blah... King Behmoth of Roania surrendered the lowland provinces of blah blah blah… to the United Kingdoms of Phloren-Ghuilder! This is it!” “This is proof of Roania’s claims on Phloren and Ghuilder,” Twilight corrected. “We still need to prove that Bastion’s trying to use them, though.” “That’s step two,” Wits said, a smile on his face. “We gotta talk to the nobles, see what they think about its validity. If the nobles support it, we’ll have a connection.” He frowned. “Unless Patchy can’t find anything on the warmongering…” Rarity stood and stretched, fluffing her mane. “Not to worry, darlings. I’m sure I can get those nobles to tell us if King Bastion has convinced them. If that King is behind this, we’ll still have some proof.” “Then let’s get going,” Twilight said, glad to take on some form of leader role. “The sooner we get this figured out, the sooner we can get out of this game.” As the ponies started filing out of the library, Wits End lagged back to walk next to Fluttershy. “I need your help,” he whispered, leaning in. Fluttershy swallowed nervously. “Is it about what Holdfast-” “Careful.” Wits nodded his head toward Twilight and Rarity, his expression serious. “It’s time for the next step of my plan. I need you to take a message.” He produced a piece of paper from his cloak, passing it over to the pegasus. Fluttershy nodded, steeling herself. She tucked the paper into her saddlebag. “To whom?”