Caverns & Cutie Marks

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 7: Profitable Considerations

Light Patch, now conscious again, looked between the two mares flanking him. They had been walking through the forest in relative silence. The silence did little to calm the feeling of being trapped between two feuding dragons. The two had been playing the classic game usually only enjoyed by cat owners; the “I’m Not Paying Any Attention to You” game. By his count, Applejack was winning; largely because of Rarity’s need for social input, causing her to glance at Applejack once too often. Not to say that Applejack was doing a whole lot better. On second thought, I guess they are about equal really, he figured. Not that pretending it was all a game made him feel better about being stuck between them.

He looked back at the path ahead. Well, at least the forest’s noises keep it from being unbearably quiet, he thought. Any attempts at conversation tended to fail quickly, because if the conversation started with one mare, the other would fail to join. Which would then lead to him and the mare running out of things to say on the current topic, causing the whole conversation to trail off into silence again.

Instead, he found himself pondering the fate of his two friends; the two Discord had dragged in with him. Well, he hoped they’d come too. But not really, the pegasus thought to himself. I hope they haven’t been dragged into this. Except that I kind of do. But not really. ‘Cept for the small bit I did hope they were here. Light Patch shook his head to break the circular ring of looping thoughts. He give a slight snicker. Wits End would probably give me a weird look at least for the redundancy in that sentence if I’d said it out loud.
Rarity and Applejack noticed the stallion suddenly freeze with a look of somepony teetering on the edge of panic. That wasn’t the right name, it should have been Wit’s End. No still wrong, he thought. He knew his friend’s real name but everytime he focused on it, it came out as Wits End, spoken or thought. The two mares shared a concerned look with each other when he began walking and muttering something under his breath. Purple Heart was the result of trying to say the name of his other friend. Just like when I say or think my own name, Light Patch though, it comes out ponified. Given there wasn’t much he was able to do about the apparent forced renaming, he carefully packed the thought away for later.

His thoughts on his friends being saved for later, the stallion found his mind stuck in the doldrums once again. It was getting to the point that he was considering ways to turn both of the mares against him, just so they’d stop being angry at each other and actually talk. Well, to each other anyway. Man, I’m almost desperate enough to ask for an ambush or somethin’, just to bring us together as a group. Instead, however, the stallion found himself going over the little bit of information he’d been able to gather about the two mare’s abilities in this little ‘game.’

Rarity had a well stocked supply of needles and an apparent ability to control more of them at once than she’d used to. Unlike the sorceress she appeared to be however, she lacked in the ‘kill it with elements’ department. He turned his head from Rarity in time to miss her glancing at him. His eyes focused on the mare to the other side of him. Applejack upon closer inspection appeared to be some kind of fighter in a light leather armor or a ranger. Either way she seemed to lack any weapons of any kind.

As far as Patch was concerned, he was the only one actually combat ready. Well, seemingly combat ready, he thought, remembering some of his antics during D&D. At least I’ve got some armor and an actual weapon. All he seemed to have ability wise was his healing according to his character information, along with a fairly standard skill distribution for a cleric.

“Ah may not know all of the upper class stuff Rarity does, Sugarcube, but even I know it’s rude to stare.” Applejack said, snapping Light Patch from his thoughts. He blushed and looked straight ahead, trying to ignore the twittering from Rarity.

“Sorry,” he quickly responded, “I was thinking.”

“About what?” Rarity asked.

Before the stallion was able to respond, however, a cry for help broke the silence of the forest. He scrunched his eyes shut in frustration before starting towards where the cry for help came from. “Come on, we should go see if we can help.” he said, looking back towards the two mares. “But move quietly, we don’t know what’s going on. The element of surprise might be our only advantage.” Especially as under prepared as we seem to be, he added in his own thoughts. Not that pure combat strength is all that counts. This just means we’ll have to fight smarter, not harder. He finished, a small smile spreading over his face as he remembered his effective use of boulders one time. Once closer they began to make out the sounds of a bandit causing trouble.

“You’ll find no help out here lady, so just hoof over your goods and I’ll be on my way.” The three heroes quickly dropped to the ground and redoubled their efforts at sneaking upon hearing the bandit’s voice clearly. They silently inched forward until they could better make out what was happening. When they finally got close enough, they were greeted with the sight of a bandit pony in the process of robbing an earth pony merchant.

“We’ve got to do something. That trader needs our help.” Applejack hurriedly whispered, tensing for a fight.

“Fight? With what?” Patch quietly snapped alongside a short glare. “You don’t have weapons and Rarity lacks combat spells.” He finished with a small jerk of his hoof at Rarity.

“Be that as it may, Light Patch, but we have to do something. A lady just doesn’t stand around while this happens, you know. Besides, there is only one.” Rarity chimed in.

“And what about your weapon?” Applejack bit back. “An’ I don’t need weapons. I’ve got my hooves.”

“Just because we can only see one doesn’t mean there aren’t more hiding. It’s how I’d ambush a trader,” He paused. “Not that I would.” He added at the concerned looks of the two mares. “Also I’m a cleric, we’re support characters, not frontliners. We hang around in the middle doing what we can.” Light Patch said, trying to ignore the buzzing noise. Wait, buzzing? he thought. “Girls, look around for the source of that buzzing noise. Depending on what it is, I might have an idea.” he said, already searching himself. The two mares joined in on the search. All three looked for a few seconds before Rarity pointed a hoof.

“There, almost directly above the bandit; a beehive. Or a hornet or wasp’s nest. I can’t tell from here.” Rarity said. “But why did you want to know that?” she began to ask, but her sentence petered out at the evil grin spreading over Light Patch’s face.

“Ladies, I have a plan.” Light patch responded, his voice slightly menacing. The two girls glanced at each other, a little worried before motioning for him to continue. “Rarity can you hit that hive with a couple of your needles from here?”

“I think so, but what good would stirring them up be?” Rarity glanced at Light Patch in confusment. “The hive is too high up for them to think the bandit was involved,” she finished, having taken a guess at what his plan was.

“Thats where Applejack’s part comes in,” he turned to look at the orange mare. “Think you could knock the hive down onto the bandit?”
Applejack had a small look of surprise as the plan clicked into place in her head before turning to look. “It’s a bit far from here, but if I sneak a bit closer it shouldn’t be any problem.”

“Awesome, you both know your bits of the plan. I’ll sneak around to be as close as I can to the bandit, so I can move in or act as a distraction incase something goes wrong.” He looked at the two mares who only nodded. He gave a quick nod back as he turned to sneak around to his position.

Light Patch reached his position first and waited. Rarity was next and Applejack was the last. Once all three were in position, Rarity took three of her needles in her magic and launched them into the side of the hive; this had the desired effect of enraging the bees. Seconds afterwards, a lasso flew up from the brush and snagged the hive. With a quick tug, Applejack freed the hive from the branch and it fell to the ground. When it impacted the ground it burst like an overripe melon, and the bees, angry at the perceived attack and loss of their home, swarmed after the nearest target; which in this case happened to be the bandit. With a scream of terror, the bandit fled into the woods, screaming as the bees chased and stung him. As the three left their hiding spots to check on the merchant, they noticed three wisps of light fly from the broken hive. The wisps hovered for a second before splitting, each one launching into a different pony. Light Patch heard a quiet voice whisper ‘experience gained’.

Light Patch shrugged his confusion off first and moved over to check the merchant. “You okay? The bee’s didn’t go after you did they?” he asked, quickly checking the tan and coffee pinto merchant for injuries. She just stared back stunned at the sudden intervention.

“It’s okay, we’re here t’help ya.” Applejack said after she trotted up.

“So the beehive was you?” The merchant asked, still sounding unsure.

“Of course! Well, it was mostly his idea, but we all had our part in it,” Rarity said, motioning to Light Patch. “His name is Light Patch, that is Applejack, and my name is Rarity,” she finished with a small bow.

“I’m, uh-” The merchant cleared her throat, trying to let her mind catch up. “My name is Perfect Profit. I was resting when that bandit found me.” She turned and started limping towards her cart.

“Oh dear, did the bandit wound your leg?” Rarity asked when she saw Perfect Profit’s limp.

“No, I’ve been limping all day,” Perfect Profit said, a slight blush creeping over her face. “I tripped a bit earlier and twisted my leg.” She was about to say more, but was interrupted by a flash of light. She noticed her leg had stopped hurting as well. She looked to see Light Patch pulling his hoof away. “You're a cleric?” She asked, looking over his hodgepodge set of armor. Granted, she wasn’t well versed in clerics or magic, but Perfect Profit was sure the clerics she had seen usually looked a bit more presentable.

“Yeah I’m a cleric. I know I probably don’t look it but I swear I am. Is your leg better or do you need more healing?” Light Patch responded.

“No, no, no. It’s fine. Besides, I don’t think I could afford to pay you for the first one.” Perfect Profit responded with a small smile. “Magical healing like that can be a bit pricey here in the rural areas.”

“You’re a trader right?” Light Patch asked. Perfect Profit responded with a nod. “Well then, you could pay us back by leading us to the nearest town. My friends and I are a little, uh, lost at the moment. Besides, there could also still be more bandits near by. I’d hate to have to rescue you again.”

Perfect Profit nodded with a small blush. “O-okay, sure. Just let me get hitched back up to the cart and we can be off,” Perfect responded, quickly trotting over to her cart. A few moments later, the group was once again on the road, but this time with a clear direction in mind.

Author's Note:

Primary Author(s): Light Patch

Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I'm enjoying this story so far, I think the gimmick of three authors writing it is interesting, though we'll see if that means it gets updated at a decent rate or if this peters out like several of the spacebattles round robin stories.

I'm looking forward to reading more. I'm pleasantly surprised by the story, I had thought it wouldn't be as good as it is.

[TheColtTrio]

5630745 Yohohoho, I'm de Purple Heart. I'm not sure how other groups of writers go about writing stories, but us three work together instead of passing the torch of each chapter. As for keeping up with updates, we have enough content for quite a while and we're making new chapters every week. Petering out is unlikely.

[ArcaneVisions]

Well...odd that eyeglasses is the cleric. Kind of.

[Mortefleur]

Cleric, not a front line character?

Whut?

[Undead Equestrian Writer]

I dunno... Pretty sure Clerics should be right in the front

[Luckyfanisaac]

Either way she seemed to lack any weapons of any kind.

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