Caverns & Cutie Marks

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 5: Light Patch

With a vaguely cartoonish popping sound, the bespectacled figure was able to see again. He was surrounded by blue, spotted with some fluffy white. His gaze fell down and he made note of the green below him. And hoofs; grey hoofs in steel shoes. Okay, the figure thought, hooves. I guess I can work with that. Are they mine? A quick movement confirmed that they were his hooves. Right, he thought, I guess I can deal with that. It was around this moment he looked past his hooves at the green again. Oh, he thought, I’ll bet that green is the ground. The ground he couldn’t feel. It was then he’d realized he’d broken the the law of gravity. And after a few seconds of panic, he realized that he was infact getting away with it. Puzzled, he glanced around and quickly spotted the source of his defiance of gravity.

Now, some people do things so automatically they don’t ever think about it. But when they do think about it, they can’t get it to work anymore. When the figure looked at his wings, it had that effect. The moment he realized he had wings and was flying, he, like the good little human he’d been, went and asked the worst question he could have. How? How do I know how to fly? And, with that question, the damage was done. With a mighty scream, he fell from the air and slammed into the ground.

Applejack and Rarity had been on a path nearby when they heard the scream and witnessed the tail end of the event. They quickly rushed to the crater where the bespectacled figure had landed in a small crater of his own unwitting creation. The two reached the crater and peered over the lip.

“Ah’d hate to say it, Rarity, but I think he’s dead.” Applejack said after observing the stallion at the bottom of the crater.

The mares jumped back when the stallion stirred a little. Applejack climbed over the crater’s rim and down its slope. She quickly lifted the unconscious pegasus stallion onto her back before starting to haul him up the crater’s rim. Applejack noted that while in general she could lift any pegasus with ease—well, ‘cept for Bulk Biceps, she mentally added—but the hodgepodge of armor and other gear made this one a bit more troublesome. It was more of an awkward than heavy, but still more trouble than she’d ever had carrying a pegasus. She also noted with a grunt of annoyance that Rarity was gazing at a patch of grass rather than helping. She carried him a few steps past the rim before dropping him to the ground.

“Careful, Applejack,” Rarity chided, “the poor dear is already badly wounded. We don’t want to make it too much worse.”

“If ya wanted gentle, Rarity, you should have helped me move him. Besides, I’ve seen hundreds of pegasi crashes,” Applejack quipped back. “Enough to make me wonder if they’re actually the ones to get the extra endurance. An’ another thing; what’s got you so interested in that patch of grass over there?”

“Well, I thought I had seen a glint from something and,” she prolonged the word while her magic floated an object to her before showing them to her friend. “Ah-hah!” she proclaimed with satisfaction, “A pair of glasses. I suspect that they might belong to the pegasus.” She finished flicking some dirt and grass off of the glasses with her magic.

Applejack glanced at the stallion as she noticed him stir some. “It looks like we might find out soon; I think he’s waking up. Maybe we can get some answers too,” she said, turning to the stallion.

The currently un-bespectacled figure stirred and shakily pulled himself into a standing position. “My everything hurts. From now on, flying is for the birds,” he muttered before pulling his eyes open, letting him see two big smears of blue and green. Closer to him appeared a blob comprised of other colors, predominantly brown, orange, white and purple. Great, he thought, my eyesight has gotten worse. The question is, though, is this because of the fall, or Discord? I wouldn’t put it past Discord to mess with my eyesight.

“Are you okay?” a very feminine voice asked, breaking him from his thoughts. It sounded very high class and familiar, though he was still shaken from the crash and the pain it left behind.

“Ya’ll made an impressive crater when you fell,” spoke a second voice with a noticeable southern drawl. That cinched the identity of the characters for the human now turned pegasus.

A small smack sounded. “Applejack, would it kill you to be polite?” Rarity quietly snapped back.

“I’ll live,” he quickly responded to head off a potential argument. “Thanks for helping me.” he trailed off, prompting them for names.

“Oh I’m so sorry dearie, my name is Rarity, and this here is Applejack.” He could just make out the white part of the blob wiggling around a little. “And, well, judging by the way you’re looking right between us, these must be your glasses.” Rarity placed the glasses on the stallion’s snout.

He looked around, now once again able to get a more accurate picture of the world, before turning back to the mares. “My name is Light Patch, and I thank you for finding my glasses and-” He stopped his sentence dead. Wait a second, he thought, that’s not my name. “Light Patch,” he said again. “Light. Patch.” He drew the name out taking care to carefully say each bit. With a sigh he looked back at the mares. “That wasn’t what I expected, but I guess it will work. Either of you wouldn’t happen to have something you could spare to heal my injuries would you?” Light Patch asked, lifting his hoof to rub a sore spot on his head. The moment the hoof touched, it was engulfed in a flash of light that went as fast as it appeared. The worst of the pain was gone.

“What did you just do? What was that flash of light?” Applejack asked punctuating her questions with a poke of a hoof.

The stallion moved around a little, and poked at a couple places that no longer hurt before answering. “I think I healed myself. I guess I’m a cleric or something.” A stray thought passed through the pegasus’ mind. “Uh, I don’t suppose one of you knows of a near by body of water or something I could use to look at myself? I should make sure everything is actually healed up,” Light Patch asked.

“Here, I happen to have a small mirror with me for just such emergencies,” Rarity happily chimed in, using her magic to pull a mirror out and hold it up for the odd stallion to use. While the stallion checked himself in the mirror, Rarity leaned over and began whispering to Applejack. “I think the crash has addled the poor colt’s brain if he forgot he could heal himself.”

“Ah’ was thinking the same thing, Rarity” Applejack agreed before continuing. “I’d hate to just let him wander off alone. Maybe we outta keep him close until he’s sorted his memory out some.” Rarity nodded.

Light Patch finished checking himself in the mirror. He was indeed now a grey pegasus stallion. His hair was still brown but now had a streak of pink through it. Of course it’s pink, he thought with a slight grumble, ‘though, it doesn’t look half bad. His eyes were also more solidly green now than they used to be. His attire was still the same just adjusted for ponies. After a bit of work and a smidge of help he’d managed to check for a Cutie Mark, only to be disappointed by his lack of one.

After he’d finished looking at himself, he turned to look at the two mares. Rarity seemed to be wearing some kind of basic looking sorcerer's robes. They were nice, but plain. Though Light Patch didn’t expect their plainness to last past when she got some materials to work with. Applejack, however, was decked out more to the contrary. She was wearing a set of vaguely western stylized adventuring gear, compleated with her hat and plenty of rope.

Light Patch had been ignoring the two mare’s whispering conversation until it turned into a small argument. He had meant to step forwards and break the argument up by getting in between them. Instead, he’d took a step forward, tripped on his tail, and fell on his face, again. His objective was kind of accomplished however; the two mares ceased arguing when they saw a pair of glasses fly past them and heard a distinct thud behind them.

Applejack turned to look at Light Patch, “What the-! Did ya just throw your glasses at us?” she began only to stop at the sight of him having face planted again.

“How,” Rarity wavered, unsure if she should continue, “did you manage that?”

Light Patch sighed into the grass before lifting his head up. Both of the mares tried to hold back their giggles at the bits of grass on his face and the small blush on it as well. “I... uh,” he sighed again, “I tripped on my tail.” He let his head flop back to the ground, trying to ignore the giggling mares.

“I’d offer to shorten it,” Rarity managed to get out after getting her giggles under control, “but I’m afraid I don’t have anything I can use to do so. Right now the best I can do is braid it,” Rarity finished. With a small nod from the stallion, she moved forward to begin.

“Thanks. Could one of you find my glasses as well?” Light Patch asked, trying to squash the last bit of his embarrassment as Rarity worked on getting his tail ready to braid.

“Of course, dear. Could you get the glasses, Applejack? I’ll quickly braid his tail while you do so.” Rarity hummed Art of the Dress while she worked. She finished just as Applejack got back, Light Patch’s glasses perched on her face for ease of transport. Rarity took them and, after a quick cleaning, restored the glasses to their proper throne.

As soon as the glasses were back on his face, he jumped up shouting. “I can see! I can fight!” He struck a pose fit for a general ordering a charge.

“Fight with what?” Applejack deadpanned. “You don’t have a weapon.”

Light Patch looked around to check, and once he had confirmed that fact was about to respond to it. But before he could, a large warhammer rocketed from the sky and slammed into Light’s head, planting both into the ground. Above his body appeared the words ‘Critical Hit.’

The two mares looked at each other with concern, but after a couple of seconds they noticed he was still breathing. Applejack turned to Rarity and gave a small smile. “Your turn,” she said before turning to head back to the path they had left at the start of this whole fiasco.

Rarity stood shocked watching Applejack depart. “Wha-wha-what? Applejack you can’t be serious! I-” She looked at the stallion and the shaft of the warhammer sticking from the ground before sighing. “You owe me for this,” she said to the unconscious stallion, before using her magic to pull him and his hammer from the ground and settling both on her back. After a moment of adjusting his unconscious body, she hurried to catch up to Applejack.

Author's Note:

Primary Author(s): Light Patch

Comments

[Zman537]

Wow that sucks. Hammer to the head.

[Seeking Dusk]

His patron deity is Discord, isn't it? No other way to explain that much bad luck.

[TheColtTrio]

Wits End here.
5720988 You and your puns... I like you

[StarzGecko]

I kind of thought when you wrote colts they would be kids but seems like they are the same age of the M6.

[Luckyfanisaac]

“I tripped on my tail.” He let his head flop back to the ground, trying to ignore the giggling mares.

And here I was thinking of when Cosmo from Fairy Odd Parents tripped on a bug and wondering who would do that in this story.