Caverns & Cutie Marks

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 19: The Aftermath

Wits End tossed the last of the bandits into the wagon, wiping his forehead with the edge of his robe. “Take’m away, boys!” He watched as the pair of stallions pulled the wagon full of bodies away. “Finally. I swear, it’s like more bodies popped up every time I turned around.”

“They were,” Applejack offered, bandages wrapped around her rib cage. “These folks’ve been bringin’ in the bodies of bandits takin’ out all ‘round town.” She raised an eyebrow. “Ya’ll really didn’t notice?”

Wits End’s mouth was pulled into a flat line. “You might have noticed that I’m not best at noticing things.”

“That I have.”

With a sigh, Wits End leaned against the side of a building. “Well, at least it’s done with.”

“Could be worse,” a voice suddenly chimed in around the corner of the building Wits End leaned against. “Could be raining,” Light Patch said, slowly walking around the corner being supported by Rainbow Dash.

Wits End turned around, eyebrows narrowed. “Don’t even say that. You know that summons freakin’ storms.”

“I was born and raised in Washtonnes. I fear no stor-ow!” he said, wincing as he’d tried to strike a pose. “I’ll be really happy when my mana pool decides to rebuild and I can use my healing abilities again,” he finished, plopping to a laying position on the ground.

“I’m surprised Fluttershy let ya’ll loose,” Applejack said, joining the others by the wall. “Ya’ll look like ya got the worse off of a ragin’ bull.”

“Aheh, uh, about that,” Light Patch began, a nervous look covering his face. “Fluttershy doesn’t exactly know I’m not where she left me,” he finished with a nervous laugh.

“I see you picked up the bandits I found hanging around,” Purple Heart said as he trotted into the conversation. “So now what? Do we need to chat with somepony to finish the quest or something?”

“Probably the mayor. It’s his town we saved, so if there is any pony we’ve gotta talk to for ending the quest, it’d be him,” Light Patch responded, trying to not fall asleep.

Wits End nodded. “Great. Let’s get this thing over with so we can get this whole thing finished. I’ve got a Draconequuis to punch in the-”

“There you are!” Fluttershy dove to the ground, landing directly in front of Light Patch. She glared at him. “And what do you think you’re doing out of bed, mister?”

“Getting in lots of trouble.” Light Patch paused, “and... fresh air?” He asked looking up at her nose. Purple Heart snickered at his friend’s misfortune.

Fluttershy was not amused. “You were seriously injured by that bandit. You shouldn’t be out at all!” She turned to Rainbow Dash, who had been laughing at the grey pegasus’ troubles. “And you! I can’t believe you would help him do this sort of thing!”

“Wait, wait!” Light Patch quickly cut in, “Don’t rag on her too hard. I begged her to help me. I had to get out of that bed. I, uh,” his voice dropped. “I had to get away from you. I appreciated your help, but the hovering was starting to get a bit stifling for me. It was making me feel useless, and I hate feeling useless. And before you ask why I didn’t say anything, it’s because I was,” Light Patch paused again and cleared his throat. “I was afraid of hurting your feelings.”

“Oh…” Fluttershy’s wings folded back against her sides as she looked at the ground. “I-I didn’t realize…” She sighed, looked back up. “I’m sorry. But I do wish you had just told me instead of making me worry like that.”

“It’s okay. It’s my own fault. I tend to get so wrapped up in making sure everyone else is happy sometimes I do stupid stuff. I’ll try to remember to say something if it happens again.” Light Patch said, looking at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy smiled. “Well, you should still take it easy for a while. You wouldn’t want to have any sort of trouble with your head, would you?”

Wits End cleared his throat in a way that somepony might misconstrue as ‘too late’.

“Yoo hoo!” Rarity waved a hoof as she approached the group, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and the mayor of Roads Crossed following close behind. “There you are! We just finished checking on all the poor townsponies.”

“Everypony seems to be just fine,” Twilight said, coming to a stop between Wits End and Purple Heart. “The mayor wanted to thank us for protecting the town so well.” The town’s mayor stepped forward and inclined his head to them. He was a big burly stallion the color of iron with a flowing greying mane and finely waxed mustachios. A bronze medallion imprinted with an eagle’s wing hung around his thick neck as the symbol of his office.

“I’m very grateful to you travellers for protecting my townsponies from the bandits,” he said gruffly. “If there’s anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Twilight nodded. “If you have any ideas of why the bandits wanted to attack, it would help us immensely.”

“Well, most likely because we had gold they want,” the mayor responded. “Then again, with some of the equipment they had, it looked like they didn’t need a whole lot more of it.”

Wits End thought for a moment before turning to the cream-colored pegasus. “Fluttershy, didn’t you and Pinkie find a whole bunch of weapons when we were in the bandit camp?”

Fluttershy nodded slowly. “Y-yes we did. Some of them seemed pretty strange, too. Some were glowy, some had frost on them; they definitely didn’t seem normal.”

Purple Heart frowned, considering Fluttershy’s words before recognition dawned on his face.

“Speaking of,” he piped up. “We ran into a pony that had an enchanted hammer. Darn irritating to deal with. Afterburn debuff.”

Wits End gestured towards the sword on his back. “And this one’s got a fear effect on it. What kind of world is this where magic weapons are more common than unenchanted ones?”

“They aren’t,” the mayor managed to utter through his surprise. “They are generally rare. You can’t just enchant any old sharpened piece of steel. Well, you can, but the enchantment won’t stick as well.” He shook his head, trying to get back to his neutral expression. “I’d love to know how they managed to become so well equipped. The only place to get any decent number of quality magic weapons would be the capital.”

Twilight frowned. “That doesn’t sound encouraging.”

“It also sounds suspiciously like a plot hook,” Wits End added, his eyebrows narrowing. “Let’s step back to completing this quest, shall we? The town’s all safe and shiny, right?”

Twilight glanced at the mint-colored unicorn. “I thought we already established that. What’s your point?”

“My point,” Wits End said, emphasising by stamping the ground with a forehoof, “is that this looks a lot like the place where the quest ends. Shouldn’t there be a nice ‘congratulations’ screen, or somepony playing the guitar and telling us what a good job we did?” He mimed strumming an instrument. “Huzzah, the pony guys rule, and all that.”

“Huzzah!” the pegasus echoed. “But seriously, considering this game world didn’t disappear with the town safe, I suspect we’re wrapping up the current quest and moving on to the next,” Light Patch chimed in raising into a sitting position.

Purple Heart frowned, turning to look at his two friends.

“Wait,” he said. “‘Next?’ What do you mean ‘next’? We three have a bad case of RPG Restart Syndrome, remember?”

Wits End sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I hate to break this to you, but I’m not the one running this thing, which means that the adventure can run until the DM runs out of material. Not just when something shiny pops up.” He straightened up, shaking his head. “Guess we should prepare to be in this for the long haul.” Purple Heart looked at his friend for a long time, a blank expression on his face. The Mane Six looked at the purple earth pony in puzzlement, confused by his reaction. A silence fell on the group as all eyes were fixed on the barbarian pony. Then he blinked and the expression darkened.

“Hmm,” Purple Heart grunted. “Continue then.”

The mayor, confused by the strange twists of the conversation, fought to drag his eyebrow out of the clouds as he turned back to the purple alicorn, whom he felt was probably the sanest of the group. “Well as I said earlier, I’d be willing to offer some support. And, considering apparent equipment level of the bandits in the local area, I won’t argue if you wish to pick some of their leftover choice equipment.” He paused for a moment, considering the party. “I’ll also extend some basic credit that you could use to gather some basic supplies for any journeys ahead of you. I’d give you straight gold, but repairs have hurt our reserves some.”

“Great,” Wits End said, bowing his head slightly. “We’ll take you up on that credit. It sounds suspiciously like we’re gonna be heading to the capital.” As soon as Wits End finished his sentence, a quiet voice whispered into his mind along with the rest of the party’s: two simple but profound words.

“Leveled up.”

* * *

As the day went on, the six mares and three stallions split up to get themselves more acquainted with the townsfolk; talking to the ponies they came across, meeting up with each other by chance to share what they learned, and generally unwind after their well deserved victory. The sun had begun to dip towards the horizon by the time they all met up again at the Roads Crossed inn.

“So,” Rainbow Dash said after draining her tankard of cider, slamming it against the wooden table the party sat at, “what’d you all spend your experience on?” Purple Heart shifted in his seat and glanced around at the eight other ponies sitting with him.

“I was only able to spend my XP on one thing,” he grumbled. “Which irritates me greatly.” The Mane Six looked at the purple earth pony questioningly. Light Patch and Wits End watched their friend with interest. Purple Heart twisted his face into a grimace.

“Equip,” he mumbled. “Something to do with equipping an item during combat or something like that. It might have more connotations to it.” He looked into his mug and waited for his friends to poke fun.

“Oooooh!” Pinkie Pie was bouncing in her seat, a whipped cream mustache the only remaining trace of the desert that had been her meal. “What kind of equipping? Like, silly hats? Or maybe a fish as a scarf? Oh! Or maybe it’s like ‘E-Quip’, like a quip that starts with ‘e’? So something like ‘Exterminate’? Or-” She paused and glanced over at Wits End, who froze with his mug pressed to his lips. “Wait, how can you have stuff equipped like your hat and cape and stuff? Are you cheating, Minty Fresh?” Purple Heart rolled his eyes and pushed his seat back as he stood to go refill his mug.

Wits End opened his mouth to correct her, but stopped. He wouldn’t put it past Discord to suddenly revoke his ability to wear clothes if it were questioned, so he instead turned to Rarity. “What about you? Put any points into Profession: Dressmaker?”

Rarity smiled demurely. “Please darling, I’m sure I’ve already capped that skill, so it would be a pointless waste.” She sipped her tea. “Actually, I put my skill point into a summon object spell. I was thinking I could use it to summon ponyquins for me to use my manipulation magic on, along with other useful objects as the need arises. What about you, Wits End? How did you spend your point?”

“Something called ‘Imitate Skill’.” Wits End pushed his plate away slightly. “I’m not sure what it does, but it was my only option.” He sighed, reaching for his own mug of tea. “I’d have preferred something like Swordplay. Nothing more embarrassing than stating exactly how to perform a parry into a bind, and then rolling a natural one on the attack roll.” Purple Heart returned as his friend began speaking and chuckled, his mood lightening.

“Amen to that, sah,” the purple earth pony agreed. “And it’s ‘stord’, not ‘sword.’”

Wits End blinked slowly, his half-lidded eyes focused on the purple earth pony. “...No.”

Purple Heart grinned cheekily at his friend but didn’t press. Instead, he turned to Rainbow Dash.

“What about you?” he asked. “What’d you get from the level up?” Rainbow Dash went to take a drink but stopped when she realized her tankard was empty.

“Overwatch,” Rainbow Dash replied, standing to go refill her tankard. “Gives me a bonus to accuracy and damage while flying. I can’t wait to try it!”

“I got a buff ability and a debuff ability,” Light Patch chimed in between bites of his food. “The buff spell isn’t all that special, just makes you a little tougher and hit harder, probably why it’s only named Buff,” he finished with a shrug and bite. After chewing and swallowing he continued. “The debuff spell is a bit more interesting. It creates a small burst of noise; it doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, but has the chance to stun along with a couple status ailments. Probably not worth a whole lot, but it’s still better than nothing. What about you Fluttershy? You get anything interesting?”

Fluttershy sank into her seat, absentmindedly tucking a hair back into her mane. “Um, I got the ability to summon birds. I… don’t know how helpful it is, but I put my experience into healing better too.” She glanced over to Twilight under her mane. “Twilight? What about you?” Twilight sipped at her cider before placing the tankard back on the table.

“Heroic Aura,” the alicorn replied. “Enhances the abilities and feats of allies in my party. It also gives a bonus to defense. What about y-”

“Ooooh!” Pinkie squeaked, bouncing excitedly on her set. “Can I go next?!” Twilight blinked in surprise.

“Uh, sure,” she replied.

Pinkie Pie took a deep breath. “Okay, so it’s sorta this thingy that makes a lot of noise and surprises other ponies when it happens, so it’s like a debuffery thing but it also does a little bit of damage, so it’s a debuffery-damagy mix; kinda like one of those cakes that’s two different cakes all swirled together, but-” She stopped, a small lightbulb appearing over her head. “Ohh! I can just show you guys! Watch!” Before anyone could react, Pinkie’s trademark party cannon was in her hooves, and fired confetti and sprinkles all over the table. “See? Like that!”

Wits End blinked, having taken the brunt of the multicolored blast. “This must be what getting hit by Color Spray feels like…” he muttered, shaking his head and dislodging a small wave of confetti from his cap. “Applejack, how ‘bout you finish us up while I try to regain my ability to process sounds and lights?” Applejack blinked a couple of times before responding.

“Sure,” she responded, only to pause and work her jaw for a few moments in an attempt to make her ears pop. Once done she carried on. “Ah’ picked a skill called ‘Hoofs of Steel’. Makes all of my hoof based attacks stronger. Not all that fancy, ah’m afraid. Figured I’d save that for my rope work,” she finished.

“So,” Twilight said, “I guess the big question is how we get to the capital from here? Anypony hear about anything they want to do on the way there?” Purple Heart shrugged.

“I’d like to find some more mobs to bash to get more experience,” the purple earth pony said. “Maybe I’ll find out what else my new skill can do.”

Wits End had his head tilted to one side, tapping it to dislodge glitter from his ear. “I heard about a library from a couple of the locals. If we’re gonna be stuck here for a while, I’d want to go check it out. Get a better sense for what we’re dealing with in this world.”

“Well, Perfect Profit was hoping we’d escort her to the capital; that was her next stop after here, and she’d heard that was quite possibly gonna be our next stop,” Light Patch said, finally managing to pick the last bit of confetti from his food. “She won’t be happy, but I’m sure she’d be willing to detour with us as we head towards the library, and I’m sure we’ll find plenty of fights to pick along the way,” he finished before quickly scarfing the rest of his food before anything else could happen to it.

Wits End shook his head. “Perfect Profit’s a merchant, isn’t she? Her livelihood depends on getting from market to market as soon as possible. We shouldn’t make her wait for us.” He picked a sprinkle out from between his eyelashes. “All that time reading Spice & Wolf finally pays off,” he muttered.

“What makes you so sure she’d be willing to make a detour anyway, Light Patch?” Twilight asked. Light Patch suddenly looked fairly nervous.

“Uh, well I’m not sure, but uh,” he gulped, “I think she might be developing a small,” his face began to turn red and his gaze lowered to his empty plate. “I think she might have a small crush on me for some reason.”

Wits End raised an eyebrow, a malicious smile spreading over his face. “And you gave me flak for something as small as a conversation with Twilight Sparkle. Need any advice from your senpai in the art of wooing there, Tamaki?” Purple Heart choked on his drink and started coughing. Before long, it shifted into full blown, rolling on the floor laughter.

“Shut up,” Light Patch sullenly muttered still staring at his empty plate, the giggles he could hear around the table not helping his blush any.

Twilight tapped a hoof on the table; hoping she was able to hide her smile behind wiping her mouth with a napkin. “In any case,” she said, “why don’t we split up for a little bit? Wits End can check out the library, Purple Heart can go hunting for some more things to fight, and you can have some…” she coughed, “quality time with Perfect Profit.” Purple Heart frowned at the alicorn.

“One,” he said. “You have a cruel sense of humor, Twilight. Two, you did not just say we should split the party. Again for that matter.”

Wits End looked up from a hushed conversation with Pinkie Pie, in which the word ‘shipping’ appeared more than once. “As much as I agree that splitting the party is dangerous, if Discord wanted us to travel together, he wouldn’t have set up three separate distractions for us like this.” He thought for a moment. “Besides, Twilight can use her telepathy thing to act as an alarm in case something goes wrong for any one party. The other two could be there as backup in an hour or two.”

“Thats too long!” Light Patch suddenly said, leaning heavily over the table at the mint green unicorn. “Twilight’s telepathy thing is just the equivalent of screaming really loud before the monster eats you with that amount of time. At best, we’d get there and not have been needed. Realistically, we’d most likely be mounting a rescue mission.” Light Patch paused to suck in a breath before calming down a little. “At worst, we’d be too tired from the run to fight and die ourselves,” Light Patch finally finished, sitting back down.

“If you’re quite finished,” Wits End said, sitting back up in his seat. “Think of it in terms of someone actually running a campaign like this. We just fought a boss battle and finished a major story arc, and we have the destination of where the next one begins. You’re not gonna throw another super dangerous enemy at your players right away; it’d just annoy your players that they don’t have any down time. I say we take advantage of Discord giving us this break before we jump into another place where there’s actually danger.”

“Although I’m still acclimating to the fact that we’re continuing this madness,” Purple Heart spoke up, “having a small break between major shenanigans would be good. Particularly for our sanity.” He paused, looking at the Mane Six.. “Welp, your sanity.” He gestured to himself and the two stallions. “I’m pretty sure ours is already shot to carp.”

“Fine, I guess it makes sense to split the parties. Just note for the record I’m under protest about this, and reserve any and all rights to copious use of the sentence ‘I told you so’ if things go horribly wrong.” Light Patch paused. “And I’ll grant the obvious return rights of getting to make me eat my own words should this work out as you predict,” he grudgingly finished.

Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Um, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think Discord would actually try to really hurt any of us. He… he’s playing a game with us, so he wants us to have as much fun as he is.” She glanced around at the other ponies. “Uh… that’s all.”

Light Patch gave a small smile to Fluttershy. It didn’t really help, but he couldn’t fault her for trying. “Well, I guess now we need to figure out how we’re splitting the groups, huh? Considering Purple Heart’s plan, it might be wise for Fluttershy to go with him and his group. I’d go, but....” he trailed off.

“You have a fair maiden to woo,” Wits End cut in, waggling his eyebrows. “The heart wants what the heart wants, I’m sure.” He coughed. “In all seriousness, that’s probably for the best. Maybe I should take-”

Twilight cleared her throat loudly.

Wits End blinked. “I should take-”

Twilight coughed, causing a few other patrons to look around for the source of the noise.

Wits End’s mouth formed a thin line. “Twilight, would you like to go to the library with me?”

“Oh, thank you for offering,” Twilight said kindly, smiling at the mint-colored unicorn.

“A chance for you two to be alone in a library eh?” Light Patch asked a grin etched into his face. Purple Heart facehoofed.

“Careful...don’t push them,” he muttered.

Twilight leveled a glare at the pegasus. “I’m in this for the books. Who knows what kind of literature this world has? Besides,” she looked down at the table, “that bandit chief said some stuff about Alicorns. I want to know if its true.”

“That’s fair. I hope you find the answers you’re looking for,” Light Patch said before turning to the unicorn stallion, his face taking on a serious and sorrowful expression. “I am sorry buddy. It’s gotta hurt to be dumped for a pile of bound paper with ink on it,” he finished, obviously fighting to keep his face serious.

Wits End narrowed his eyes at the grey pegasus. “Worry about your own romantic sideplot, Patchy. You’re heading right toward a bad ending.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow; she knew better than to ask the question however. “I think I’ll go with Twilight and Wits End. If you two have another spat like ya’ll did when th’bandits were attakin’, you’re gonna need somepony to keep you two grounded.”

Pinkie Pie looked up from a somewhat hushed conversation with Rarity. “I think I’ll go with Patchy.”

Rarity nodded. “Which means I’ll be travelling with Fluttershy and Purple Heart. As much as I abhor needless violence, I might find some materials to accent this outfit.” She made a sweeping gesture toward her clothing. “It needs a little more… pizzazz, don’t you think?”

Rainbow Dash looked around the table and sighed. “I guess that leaves me on boring old guard duty…”

“You just had to poke Murphy didn’t you?” Light Patch asked, glaring at Rainbow Dash. “We’re gonna get ambushed or something now, I just know it.” he whimpered as his head flopped to the table.

Wits End leaned back in his chair. “It sounds suspiciously like we’ve got our new parties figured out. In the morning, we can get the supplies we’ll need for the journey, and we can get on our way.” Purple Heart nodded in agreement.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “I’m gonna turn in then. I’ll need to be properly refreshed if I’m gonna stomp some mobs.” The purple earth pony downed the last of his drink and stood. “Gnoighters to yous ponies.” He turned to walk towards the stairs that led to the rooms on the second floor and clopped up the stairs.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Wits End agreed, taking one last sip of his tea. “No point in setting out sleep deprived.” He hopped out of his chair and followed the purple earth pony up the stairs, catching himself from tripping halfway up.

“Yeah, it’s getting late. I’m gonna go pretend to be dead until morning in my bed,” Light Patch said, getting up from his spot at the table. He paused and wheeled back around to look at Rainbow Dash. “Tomorrow I’m teaching you all about Murphy and his laws,” he finished before turning and disappearing up the stairs.

The remaining mares stayed awake for some time, catching each other up on what adventures they had been on while separated. One by one, they made their own excuses to sleep, and made their way to bed.

* * *

Far above the village of Roads Crossed, floating in a bubble that was invisible to the naked eye was Discord. The draconequus smiled bemusedly down at the nine ponies as they prepared for bed. The chaotic entity had been vastly entertained by the antics of the ponies and was greatly satisfied with how his little scheme was unfolding. The mint-colored unicorn amused Discord to no end and the grey pegasus kept getting crit’d by his own hammer, but the purple earth pony seemed particularly unsatisfied with how things were running. He constantly became irritated by every little poke of fun Discord made at him. Discord had thought that hitting that Wandering Pine in the knee with that arrow had been hilarious and considered the Soviet War Bear to be a rather spiffy addition to his resume. These encounters obviously hadn’t been amusing for the purple stallion. Discord sighed as he took a bite out of his cotton candy chocolate milk raincloud on a stick.

“Guess you can’t please everypony,” he mused thoughtfully. “He must not have a sense of humor. Now, how can I make this seem more interesting and engaging?” Discord lolled in his lounge and cast his gaze around the bubble he had taken up residence in. A number of bookshelves hung in the air at odd angles about the bubble. A large table that Discord used to manipulate the NPCs of the game was cluttered with all sorts of strategic paraphernalia. A plush chair rested against a wall buried in letters from Celestia. Ole’ Fussy had been sending him letters almost non-stop after she had learned of the Mane Six’s disappearance. He wasn’t sure exactly how she had made the discovery, only that she knew. Thankfully, she hadn’t brought the full of her and Luna’s power to bear against him, or else the game would have had to been postponed.

“I’d better find a way to make sure Sunbutt doesn’t butt in on my fun,” Discord hummed, taking another bite of his cotton candy chocolate milk raincloud. “I’ll have to strengthen the field to keep her and Moonlips out.” The draconequus snapped the fingers of his free hand, instantly adding several more layers to the already powerful force field that kept him cozy and safe within his little game. He reached to his side table and picked up a glass of a fizzy liquid with a crazy straw poking over the rim. Slurping noisily, he considered the possible ways to make Purple Heart enjoy the game more…

Aha! Perhaps a swarm of Dragons for him to shout at! …No, that seems a bit cliché. Oh! A pleasant jaunt through snake infested swamp marshes! Ah, afraid not. Discord already had one of those set up somewhere south of Ponyville and hated to repeat himself… Oho, now that was a thought…Villains befitting of the Colt Trio…that would certainly make that purple barbarian enjoy himself.

Chuckling at his brilliance, Discord snapped his fingers. A trio of melon-sized balls popped into existence before him. He tapped each one with a claw, imbuing them with the qualities of villains that only the three stallions could imagine. The orbs whizzed away in different directions to grow to maturity and to wait until they were summoned. In just a few days, they would be at their max potential. Discord reclined back on his lounge chair and sipped at his drink, eager to see how the coming events would unfold…

Author's Note:

Authors: Light Patch, Purple Heart, Wits End

Comments

[Charedfirescale]

Well, it seems Main six are going to have to kick the Colt Trio in the heads before this game ends.

[Ranakastrasz]

I got the ability to summon birds. I… don’t know how helpful it is, but I put my experience into healing better too

Healing is always useful.
Summoning birds. Well, small, probably evasive, and able to dive-bomb. Also near ideal scouts in many places.. Also even though I've never watched one, I think there was at least one movie about them by Alfred Hitchcock.