Caverns & Cutie Marks: High School, High Stakes

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 28: Big Damn Heroes… Again

“Where do I go?” Wits shouted at the empty street. “What do I do?”

“Go left,” Purple Heart ordered promptly. He grinned at his friend’s unamused glare. “Turnabout’s fair play.”

“That’s another of yer inside jokes, ain’t it?” Applejack huffed.

“Eeyup,” Purple Heart grunted, still grinning. The blonde girl narrowed her eyes at the purple teen.

“You ain’t Big Mac, so shut it,” she ordered.

“Nope.”

“Weren’t you just complaining about staying on topic cuz things are getting too long?” Pinkie asked. Wits promptly slapped a hand over Pinkie’s mouth to prevent further speech.

“Nope! Enough meta for you!” he decided.

“You should really get that checked out,” Light suggested to the other girls.

“And give her a filter? Nah,” Rainbow denied. “Pinkie with a filter isn’t Pinkie.”

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed. “We like our Pinkie as is, thank you very much.”

“What’d you think would happen if we switched her from play to demo?” Purple asked.

“We tried that once,” Fluttershy spoke up. She shivered. “Too many languages...”

“Waaaay too many,” Twilight agreed. She blinked, looking at the three boys. “Weren’t we doing something?”

“Yes,” Sunset growled. “We were trying to encounter the Hydra to put an end to this ridiculous problem you three have gotten us into.”

“Hey!” Wits turned back from trying, and failing, to keep Pinkie Pie quiet. “How is this our fault? It’s not like we were sitting at home and said, ‘You know what’d be great? Going and completely screwing up another dimension!’ That didn’t happen. We were having a good time not fighting for the fate of the world, pretending like we were actually going to fence, and-”

Sunset waited for a second for the mint-colored teen to continue. “And what?”

“And… I think I found where we’re supposed to go.” Wits pointed down a sidestreet.

Twilight walked over to look down the same street. “How is there a cave in the middle of town?”

“Poor collision mapping?” Wits offered.

“That seems more like a loading glitch to me,” Twilight mused.

“Can you two stop being insufferable nerds for five seconds?” Rainbow Dash shouted from the back.

“Unlikely,” both Twilight and Wits called back. Rainbow replied with a wordless growl-slash-scream.

“Besides, that looks more like some lazy pipe shoving,” Light Patch said, peering into the entrance, eliciting another groan from Rainbow Dash. “So, how do we wanna do this? Try to blitz our way through and hope we can take the Hydra by surprise, or work cautiously and assume it knows something is coming?”

“Even if it don’t know we’re commin’ fer it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has some kind of trap or something waiting fer us,” Applejack said, joining Light Patch in looking into the cave.

“Stealth mode it is then,” Rainbow decided.

“You know what stealth is?” Purple Heart asked. The rainbow-haired girl scowled at him.

“Of course I know what stealth is,” she retorted. “It’s walking around without being seen so you can kick the guy’s ass from behind. Duh.”

“Not the most sophisticated definition, but apt,” Twilight allowed. “Now, let’s get moving.” The group entered the cave, taking their time in making their way along the path. Pinkie immediately pasted herself to the wall, looking back and forth while whispering a little ditty to herself.

Wits stared at the pink party planner as they made their way into the darkness. “Is she doing her own theme song?”

“Don’t question it,” Applejack said. “She once did that all through a school hide’n’seek contest.”

“She won, didn’t she.”

“No-one found her for weeks. Just theme music. Everywhere.”

“Go figure.” Wits pulled out his phone, using the flash as a flashlight. “So, anyone got any big story-changing secrets to air out? We’re nearing the dramatic climax, and this is usually where we screw up the team cohesion.”

“We could revisit the big revelation I made a few minutes ago,” Light Patch said, pausing from his humming of the Mission Impossible theme.

“You had a revelation?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You?”

Light Patch stared blankly at Rainbow Dash and the other girls’ looks of general confusion. “Fine, whatever. I like cheap milk chocolate over not cheap milk or dark chocolates,” he half-heartedly confessed.

Pinkie’s theme paused as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the group. “I actually eat less sugar than Rarity does.”

“Lies!” Rarity shouted, earning a shushing from everyone else. “Ehm, Lies. I somehow doubt that,” Rarity followed up quietly.

“Nope, it’s true. I watch my sugar intake very carefully. If I’m gonna eat sugar, I wanna actually be able to taste it and make it really count!” Pinkie declared. Her declaration over, she returned to her stealth theme.

“Gotta keep the calories down so you can maximise the actual intake?” Wits asked. “Why do I bother? She’s already off in stealth-land.” He turned to Sunset and Twilight. “How about you two?”

“Why us?” Sunset asked.

“Beeeeeecause of everyone here, aside from the three of us,” he gestured to himself and the two other boys, “you two are both the most main characters, and the sources of the most drama this side of Rarity.”

“I have a very svelte figure!” the fashionista exclaimed, earning a second shushing.

“I,” Fluttershy started quietly, “I don’t actually like, um...” She wrung her hands as the rest of the group looked at her expectantly, “Idon’tactuallylikehorsesthatmuch,” she said shrinking behind her hair in an attempt to hide from the stares, “or even at all.” She squealed before her head quickly disappeared into her robe.

“Uh huh... That is...” Purple Heart paused, looking confused as he tried to find the right words.

“A shocking revelation?” Wits End offered.

“Yeh, that’ll work.”

“Still though, I believe it’s Sunset’s and Twilight’s turn,” Wits End said, turning back to look at the two girls expectantly.

Twilight thought for a moment. “You know, I actually can’t think of anything that’s happened since you three showed up that’s my fault.”

“Me neither,” Sunset mused. “It’s a kinda…”

“Nice change?” Twilight offered.

“Yeah.” Sunset smiled; an action that quickly turned into a frown as she turned on the three boys. “Hang on. What about you three?”

“What about us?” Wits asked. “We’re practically perfect in every way.”

“Nice try,” Sunset said. “Through this whole thing, you guys have known stuff that the rest of us don’t. You’ve obviously got some past with Princess Twilight, and it seemed like she was none too pleased to see you again.”

“An understandable reaction,” Wits muttered under his breath.

“So,” Sunset continued, “if there’s anyone here who should be coming clean, it really is you guys. So spill.”

“We basically got kidnapped by Discord and were forced to join his little game, had our minds invaded to basically have our worst nightmares become our enemies, and the Princess seems to blame us for it,” Light Patch bitterly replied.

“Sounds like you need to have stronger magical defenses where you come from,” Sunset shot back.

“That’s kind of hard considering the lack of magic at all back on our Earth!” Light Patch replied, getting a little louder.

Sunset scoffed. “No magic? Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Purple Heart confirmed. “The only magical things we have are either fictional or movie special effects.”

“Must be boring,” the red-head commented.

Purple Heart shrugged. “I unno. Things are getting out of hand lately. Lots of government issues within and without. And we still have the gall to think that our country is the best on the planet.” The group was silent at the purple teen’s words, save for Pinkie’s continued theme music.

“Well, that was particularly depressing,” Purple Heart declared. “I think I’ll abstain from this little game.”

“Ooooh, no you don’t,” Rarity said, grabbing the large teen by an ear. “We shared a secret of ours, now it’s your turn. Even your friends have shared.”

“Listen,” Purple Heart sighed, “the last time I gave my impression and opinion on something, Twilight got particularly upset with me. I’d rather not have a reboot. We’ve had a lot of those recently and not all of them were enjoyable.”

Twilight frowned. “Princess Twilight?” she asked. “What you discuss?” Purple Heart snorted.

“More like argued,” he corrected. “We… addressed morality and perspective. Honestly, I wasn’t even trying to tick her off. It just happened.”

“You seem to do that a lot,” Sunset mused.

“Mhmm,” the purple teen agreed.

“Lucky for me, Princess Twilight and I never fought,” Wits End declared proudly.

“More than once,” Purple Heart groused.

“Yeah, I do remember Purple and I having to save you both from the bandit leader,” Light Patch threw out, earning a glare from Wits End.

“I’m surprised Twilight didn’t have you three thrown in jail or something with how mad she gets around you,” Sunset snorted before pausing. “Then again, she did get a little snarkier than I remember a couple of weeks ago.”

“Suppose you’re gonna lay that one on us too,” Light Patch mumbled. A noise echoed up the tunnel and he twitched, blinking at the depths beyond.

“Well, I mean, if the horseshoe fits,” Sunset replied, causing Light Patch to glare at the red haired girl.

“You do know that not everything that happens around us is our fault?” the grey teen snapped, cutting off any replies from the other two boys. He eyed his fellow males. “Right, guys?” The duo winced.

“Eeeeeeeh… Sure?” Wits agreed.

“No faults here,” Purple Heart added. “Not even a line.”

Sunset groaned aloud. “Not more of your in-jokes, please.”

“Are you sure?” Wits perked up. “We have a fine selection to choose from.”

“Quite sure,” she stated. “Don’t do it.”

Purple Heart sucked in his lips in an attempt to restrain himself. Out of the corner of her eye, Sunset saw the twitching of the boy’s face and she glared.

“I said don’t do it,” she snarled, pointing a resolute finger at him.

“Cap’n!” Wits cried. “Th’ hull has been breeched, an’ the puns are leakin’ out! He cannae hold on much longer!”

“Boooooooooooys...” Sunset drew out the vowel threateningly.

“Hey, Sunset,” Purple Heart asked, his voice changing to that of a shriveled up old man. “What does it mean when someone tells you to hold your horses?”

Sunset stared blankly at the purple teen for a moment. “Excuse me?”

“They want you to be STABLE!” Purple Heart cried. “MMMMHMMMM! Funny joke!”

“...You just made a horse joke to a horse...” Wits mumbled. “You magnificent bleepster, I should read your book!”

Sunset quietly fumed, glaring at the two boys laughing in front of her. She turned to face Light Patch as if begging him to try and calm her down. Instead, the grey teen just shrugged weakly before motioning towards the other two. With that, Sunset rolled up her sleeves and turned back to glare at the still laughing boys. Wits noticed the danger first.

“Parley?” Wits offered. “Parsley? Parsnips? Uh, uh… Impartial third party! Twilight, save us!” The mint-colored teen waited for a rescue that never came. “Uh, Twilight?” He looked around for the science girl. “Where’d you- Uh oh.”

Twilight Sparkle was laying face-down a few feet back from Sunset and the boys. Wits shone his light back down the cave, revealing the other five girls similarly incapacitated. “Houston,” Wits said, “we have a problem.”

“Well... Now I know where the noises that made my ear twitch happen,” Light Patch said, kneeling down next to Rarity. He tried casting a healing spell a couple of times. “Right, I can’t fix this, so it probably wasn’t poison.”

Sunset practically dove over to Twilight and started checking her over. She pulled a compact mirror from her pocket and held it up to Twilight’s mouth, earning a small bit of fog on the mirror. “She’s still breathing. What about the others?”

“Still alive,” Purple Heart called back, having flipped over Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy onto their backs. “They aren’t waking up though.” He leaned over Applejack and gently opened one of her eyelids. The eye beneath was blank and unseeing, no recognition of anything around.

“There wasn’t any warning,” Sunset said. “None at all.”

“I mean, if we were paying attention, we’d have probably noticed that Pinkie’s theme song stopped,” Purple pointed out, pulling the pink haired girl over to where the rest of the girls lay.

“Situational awareness?” Wits asked. “Us? Impossible.” He turned to Sunset. “This is either magic, or an enemy Stand. Can you do some sort of Detect Magic spell to tell us what’s going on?”

Sunset nodded. “It’s a simple enough spell…” She closed her eyes and passed a hand over Twilight, drawing a small amount of her purple aura in. “It’s definitely magic,” she muttered, ignoring the look of disappointment from Wits. “They’re in some sort of trance.”

“How do we untrance them?” Wits asked.

“We can’t. Whatever spell this is, it’s working from inside their subconscious.” Sunset paused for a moment, focusing on the magical signature. “If I had to guess, it’s similar enough to the magic that’s rewriting reality that…” She turned her hand towards Wits.

“Am I supposed to talk to the hand, or-”

“Shut up for once.” After a second of focus, Sunset sighed. “The spell seems like it hit all of us, but it’s only affecting them. The four of us aren’t native to this world, so there’s nothing for the magic to latch on to.”

“Okay, so the spell failed to affect us, but you're saying it’s still trying or at least lingering around us?” Light Patch asked. Sunset nodded.

“It’s a little more complex than that, but I don’t have time to explain it.”

“Can we haul them out of the range of the spell and break its hold on them that way?” he asked in return.

“I think we’d have to haul them out of range of the transformation magic. Which, at this point, could be well beyond the town’s limits,” she said with a resigned sigh.

Light Patch looked at the downed girls for a few moments before noticing the way a shadow was laying on the forehead of one of them. “Hey Sunset, you still know any of those Mind Magic spells you may or may not have been planning to use?”

“Woah woah woah! Mind magic is incredibly dangerous and I’m not going to try and mind control my friends, especially when something else is already doing it!” she shouted, standing up defiantly.

“I wasn’t thinking of mind control. I was thinking what if you used that along with bending the spell that’s currently also trying to grab us and maybe uh…” he flailed about trying to find the right words, “make like a bridge between minds kind of like there was a door we could enter to enter their minds and free them that way?” he asked hesitantly.

“You are insane! You know how risky that is right?” Sunset screamed. Light winced under the onslaught of sound.

“No no,” Wits said, “the crazy guy has a point.” He flinched at the look Sunset shot his way. “If the spell is inside their minds, the only way to help them is to go inside their minds ourselves, right? It’s either that, or wait and hope they fight it off themselves before the entire world gets borked. I for one would rather not bet my life on all 6 of them escaping from Tranquility Lane when we could be helping out.”

Sunset tried to glare the two down. When she realized they weren’t going to, she turned to the last standing member of the party for support. “Please tell me you have a better idea.”

Purple Heart opened his mouth to reply, lifting a finger to make a point. Then his mouth closed and the finger lowered.

“Well?!” the red headed girl prompted impatiently.

“I can’t tell you I have a better idea, cuz I don’t,” Purple replied. “We don’t have any other options or possible avenues of escape. We can either take a stroll down six different memory lanes or twiddle our thumbs while the captains handle it themselves.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes are the purple teen. “You made another injoke, didn’t you?”

“Is this really the time to harangue us about in-jokes?!” Purple Heart snapped. “We have six girls knocked unconscious by magical means! If we’re gonna do something, we gotta do it now!”

Sunset continued to glare between the three of them before throwing her hands up in defeat with a scream of frustration. “Once this is all done, you three are sitting down with me and Princess Twilight to learn in intricate detail just how STUPID and RISKY this plan is! Also, I’m going to punch one of you to vent my frustration at the end of all of this! Which one that’ll be I’ll save as surprise!” She vented before sitting down. “It’s gonna take me a few moments to be ready. Figure out amongst yourselves who’s helping who. Once that’s done, move them all to be around me and then take your place between the two you’ll be helping.” She sat down and promptly began to ignore them as she prepare the spell. “I have to keep the spell from trapping us like them or just outright killing us in some way.”

Light Patch looked between the girls before finally settling on Pinkie Pie. “I guess the real question is who gets to go on that little adventure through Pyroland?”

“Dibs on Fluttershy,” Wits said quickly, his mouth immediately snapping shut as the others looked at him “I mean… Shut up.”

“Well it’s my dumb, stupid, risky plan. I’ll help Pinkie,” Light Patch said, picking the limp girl up and moving her closer to Sunset.

“I’ll help Rainbow Dash,” Purple said. “And Twilight.”

“Oh really now?” Sunset asked. “What gives you the right to pick two in a row?”

“...Catan rules?”

“...Whatever. Who’s going to help Applejack and Rarity?” Sunset asked.

Wits stared at Light Patch. “In the interest of you coming out of this alive, I’ll take Rarity.” He held up a finger. “Just this once.”

Light Patch clapped his hands on Wits’ shoulders, looking relieved. “You are a god among men. Thor and Loki brag about knowing you,” he said before going to move Applejack to join the circle next to Pinkie. He then took his place between them.

“That will be useful when I’m sent to Valhalla,” Wits muttered. “So,” he said, starting to turn back to Sunset, “how does this wor-”

Sunset Shimmer sent a bolt of magic into the mint-colored teen’s forehead. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he dropped like a sack of mint-colored potatoes. “A bit like that,” she said, connecting the line of magic to Fluttershy’s and Rarity’s own heads. With that done, she turned to Purple Heart. “You might wanna sit down for this. I don’t think the cave could handle you hitting the ground.”

With a pout, Purple Heart slowly sat between Rainbow Dash and Twilight. “I resemble that remark,” he grumbled.

“Yes, you do.” Sunset flicked another bolt of magic at him, knocking him out with a still considerable thud. Once Purple Heart was connected to the two girls, she turned to Light Patch. “Well,” she glanced down at Pinkie Pie, then back to the grey teen, “good luck.”

“Pinkie’s parents aren’t butchers and/or circus performers, are they? No, nevermind. Somehow I think being surprised would make it easier,” the grey teen said, sliding a pair of goggles on. “Rah Rah Rasputin.”

Sunset knocked Light Patch out in the same way as his companions. “Finally, no more in-jokes for a while.” With everyone connected, she leaned back on her hands. “Yep. Finally some peace and quiet...” She sighed. “Well…”

Comments

[DDDDDDDDD23]

Scitwi does realize that they just said this only happened because of the friendship games?

[Mix-up]

Interesting.