Apostle

by EquestrianKnight97

Chapter 5.2

When his vision was restored, Sonnet found that he was being weighed down by mercenary pegasus Voltage Warning, who had lost a tooth after being knocked down to the ground. With no regard for the stallion below him, the angry pegasus planted all four of his legs on Sonnet's body and used him as a platform to shoot out towards the ceiling of the dining area. Launched backwards from Voltage's flight, Sonnet crashed back first into the front door of the inn. Pain throbbing in his ribs, the unicorn looked up to see the scene surrounding him.

Back near the two tables, Steel Grit tried to shoot several stun spells at Orion Gaze, but the earth pony's sister, Blossom Gaze, deflected those green jets of light with her own shield spells, allowing for him to take bucks at the mercenary leader. Above on the ceiling, Nebulanna was being chased in closed circles by Voltage and the other pegasus mercenary, doing anything she could to shake them off and hit them herself. At one point, the green pegasus disappeared behind a support beam just in time to clock the other pegasus mercenary in the face by surprise, sending him to the ground.

To the far right of the dining area, Grampa Scrampy stood onto of the back of an earth pony mercenary, who was perhaps the largest of the stallions, biting on his ear and punching him in the face with one front hoof, causing the poor fellow to gallop around frantically in an attempt to shake the elder off of him. And to the left, the mercenary named Apollo did his best to prevent the other two earth pony mercenaries from causing harm to Cube Game, as the scared unicorn with pinpoint pupils zigzagged through and scurried underneath tables and chairs to escape his pursuers.

The other patrons of the inn stood near the walls and corners of the room as they watched the scuffle fall out. Like Sonnet, everypony else was hesitant to make a sudden move as the two groups went at each other. Even the visitors who seemed to be like fighters themselves were not eager to intervene, either due to concerns of personal safety or a lack of concern for a business they had no part in.

Eventually, the madness was interrupted when the mother of the inn's family came in from out of the kitchen, folllowed by the daughter, two stallions and a teenage colt. The five ponies stared at the adventurers and mercenaries with anger and impatience evident on their faces. Each of them carried some sort of kitchen appliance in either their mouth or hoof that were obviously meant to be used as some sort of weapon. Despite the family's lack of appropriate armory, the hostile display was enough cause the conflict to end.

"That's the end of all that!" shouted the mother, whose pleasant tone and warm face from before were no longer present, as Sonnet could see. "You hear? My brother's the sheriff of this town, and I already got him coming here! If you two guilds or parties don't cease your nonsense, you'll be spending the week in a jail cell! ALL OF YOU! Get on out, NOW! I knew that the two of you were trouble when you came in last night with all that arguing!"

Steel Grit gave the older mare a venomous scowl, as if insulted with the demand to leave the premise. But though there was no eagerness for him to follow the mare's orders, the unicorn looked around at his colleagues before giving a silent nod. As a response, the four other mercenaries beside Voltage Warning and Apollo collected any belongings they brought and headed towards the front door. Seeing them head towards him, Sonnet scrambled to get off the floor and moved aside for the disgruntled stallions, who exited the inn.

Not wanting to take any risks of staying around, Sonnet took flight through the front door and blotted away from inn. Though the mother put the fighting to a halt, Sonnet was not entirely sure that the fight was truly over, as the mercenaries that left could have been sent to get possible reinforcement, or even worse, deal with the sheriff. Turning in the opposite direction of where the mercenaries were heading, Sonnet bolted down into the town below -- putting as much distance as possible between him and the inn.

---

Steel Grit looked over to the adventurers' table and spotted Apollo sitting down with Cube Game on the floor, with the former consoling the latter through a forehoof on one shoulder and another rubbing his back. His temper having failed to dissipate, the unicorn walked toward Apollo, followed by Voltage. When Apollo and Cube Game saw the two stallion approaching, Cube Game yelped and skedaddled over to his comrades.

"You have a reason for being a sucker for these clowns?" Steel Grit asked Apollo through gritted teeth. "Ever since we left from Bostrot with them, anything they did something to piss us off, you were always them to lick at their hooves like some damn dog. You're supposed to be one of us, boy!"

"I don't think he is, boss," Voltage commented. "He's been soft with the things we've been doing for nearly a month since he's been on the crew. I guess now's just the right time for him to show his true colors?"

The white pegasus cocked his head to the side, his orange eyes giving Voltage a puzzled glare. "By my true colors, you mean my ability to sympathize with other ponies and understand that their struggles and efforts are more important than any bounty I could get?" Apollo then shrugged and chuckled. "Well geez, I guess being a gentlecolt is some sort of disease."

Frustrated, Steel Grit went nose-to-nose with Apollo. While unicorn continued to flash his teeth in a message of menace, the pegasus in contrast kept a composed, though seemingly annoyed, expression.

"Volt's right," Steel Grit stated. "You've been more of a drag than I should have allowed you to be. Siding with outsiders instead of us. You're still talented fellow, but when we get on the road again we're gonna have a long talk about where your loyalties should be." He poked Apollo with his hoof before drawing back his own head. "AND what'll happen if you speak for anypony else ever again like before."

His face still the same, Apollo nodded. "Sure. I see where you're coming from. But I kinda hoped that you would learn something about caring for other folks from my own example. I've learned a lot about life from helping those in need." The white pegasus cocked his head to the side, staring at Steel Grit's satchel. "And speaking about 'those in need', are you gonna give back those swan turtle feathers or what?"

Steel Grit looked down at where Apollo's eyes were and laughed. "Not a chance. I still need the reparations after that stunt in the woodlands."

Apollo's eyebrows scrunched up, as if he was angered by his boss' response. But instead of holding on to any potentially negative emotions, the pegasus eased his face and simply sighed, showing no intention of starting anything. Seeing that his subordinate was somewhat compliant, Steel Grit turned around and headed towards the front door, with Voltage Warning floating right behind him. With no permission from Steel Grit, Voltage turned his head back at Apollo and gave him a rather dirty glare.

"You better keep your snout out of other ponies' business next time."

Apollo's only response was a disinterested grunt, which seemed unsuitable for the blue pegasus, though it did not stop him from leaving the inn. With the last mercenary gone, Apollo went over to the adventurers' table to check up on them. Though the 'battle' was short-lived, lasting perhaps around a minute, some of the adventurers did sustain a few bruises from the mercenaries. Blossom Gaze tended to a purplish spot on Nebulanna's back with an ice pack as the green pegasus laid on the ground, while Grampa Scrampy sat with Cube Game as he placed ointment and gauze on top of a nasty bite on his left ear.

"I'm guessing that purple flash back there was your work, Bloss?" Apollo asked. "I gotta say, I always knew that you were a quick thinker. I doubt any words I could come up with would have handled them better than your genius flair."

Oval shades of red apparated on both of Blossom Gaze's cheeks as she tried to hide her bashful smile behind her long mane. "Well, uh... Thanks for that. I just had a feeling that things were going to go down south eventually -- so I might as well have quicken it up a bit."

"Even though your flash spell helped," Orion Gaze interjected, "we still weren't able to get back the flowers." The yellow earth pony looked at the front door with longing, downtrodden, stare.

"Blast it!" Nebulanna yelled with a hoof pounding against the floor, the act of which scared Blossom, who had wrapped the ice pack around the pegasus' torso with bandages. "If only we didn't 'ave to worry 'bout the law. Then we could have taken care of those bozos and gotten those feathers back! In fact, once they're out of the town limits we should ambush 'em!"

Though her injuries where a struggle to deal with, as evident with her winces and gasps, the green pegasus managed to get up off the ground and hovered towards the front door. Before she could leave, Apollo flew and brought himself right between Nebulanna and the door.

"I don't think that following them is a great idea," Apollo warned. "I help these guys fight some baddies outside of Somnambula around two months ago, and I can attest the six of them are not to be mistaken for as easy prey."

"He's right, Annie," Cube Game commented. "As bad as it is to let them get away with this, a fight we just can't win isn't going to help the villages in need."

Nebulanna sighed in defeat, not wanting to start an argument she likely knew would go nowhere. "Alright. I guess you both have a point to be made. I'll just be hangin' around the town seein' if there'll be any stores in need of shopping or whatever."

Once Nebulanna flew out of the door, both Grampa Scrampy and Cube Game got off of their stools and, with their respective luggage, headed towards Apollo's direction.

"With how much of a bigshot you seemed at first," Grampa Scrampy said, "I thought that you were no better than the rest of them lowlifes. But seeing you stand up for us and the villagers definitely changed my view, son. You need to get out of that gang when you can. Because that's all they are -- a gang."

A small smile formed from the white pegasus' lips halfway through the old stallion's words. "Well, I really do appreciate the advice, and it's been on my mind for some time, but I don't think that now is the best time to leave them. Especially since I'm on bad terms with them. I need to wait a while before making my move -- if you know what I mean."

The old earth pony shook his head in agreement and made his way to the door, with Cube Game following right behind. The scrawny orange unicorn turned his head to look at Apollo.

"Thanks for getting those two off my back, even though my ear got messed up," he said with gratefulness coming out of his smile. "It's a bummer we lost the feathers, but hopefully the back-up plans we have will help the villages' livestock in some way or another."

"Well, I like to think that your plan B will pull through."

At that time, only two adventurers were left in the inn -- the siblings Orion Gaze and Blossom Gaze. Both the earth pony and unicorn held less than optimistic frowns after the recent disaster that transpired this morning. Given their stake at getting back the feathers, it was no wonder as for why they were in such low spirits. Nonetheless, the atmosphere they both radiated did not prevent Apollo from giving Blossom and hug -- with both his forelegs and his own wings.

"I know we've only known each other for a few days, but I really hope to see you again, Bloss."

The surprised mare blushed even harder than when the stallion had complimented her earlier on. Without warning, she began to giggle and squeal in a goofy, giddy manner -- all while drawing an annoyed glare from her brother.

"Oh my,..." she started, struggling to find the next words to say. "Well, hmm, I can ... definitely say -- oh goodness -- the same thing to you. I'll... I'll really miss you, Apollo."

The pegasus flashed his white teeth into a shiny grin as he kept his orange eyes trained on her. "Do you think you and the others will be around Bostrot again anytime soon?"

"Oh! I really hope so. It might take a few months, but just keep checking in every now and then. I mean, if you can get away from those guys first."

Apollo chuckled as the mare continued to melt underneath his touch, completely awestruck by the stallion before her. For a moment a pony could swear that they saw hearts and cherubs flying around Blossom's head. Sadly, the pleasant fantasy was short-lived as Orion squeezed himself between the two and managed to break his sister away from Apollo's grasp.

"Well," Orion started off saying, taking his lovesick sister to the door by her front hoof, "as nice as it was for you to stand up for us, Apollo, this is where we part ways. Good luck with everything, and be careful around those guys."

Though disappointed that the embrace was cut short, Apollo nonetheless found enough satisfaction within himself to give the interrupter a farewell send-off. "Thanks for that! Hope you guys take care of your problem, too! Hopefully, you got something in your bags to take care of those animals!"

With all of the adventurers now gone, the other visitors of the inn returned to their tables -- at least the ones that were left alone from the fight. Feeling safe, Apollo sought to find a seat of his own to relax in until he felt suited to leave, but before he could find such a spot, the mother of the inn came up to him and pointed an angry hoof towards the front door.

As if on queue, three stallions bursted in through the door, all of them wearing either hats or vests adorned with a silver sheriff's star. As he was caught in between four ponies that glared at him, he was reminded of how he was a part of the group that the older mare threatened to send her brother against.

"Oh!" he exclaimed innocently. "Sorry about that, folks. I forgot you wanted all of us gone." Apollo used his wings to tightened the strap of his satchel before heading to the door. Before he left, as he was situated between the three sheriffs, Apollo saw it as best to let out a few more words.

"I was trying to keep the peace, though. I hope that makes things more clearer for you all."

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading. Just want you guys to know this is the last time in a while that you'll hear of the adventurers. Though they aren't the main cast of the fanfic, I do want to bring them back in future chapters.