Nothing's More Important

Justin looked back at his mates. "Let me go first." He quickly unstoppered the vial and slashed a few drops on himself, giving himself the scent that would gently calm the bees as he bravely strode towards their damaged hives. "Easy there. I'm a friend. We've met before…"

As his mares watched, the bees surged forward, engulfing Justin with angry buzzing, before slowly mellowing out, hovering about him in a passive daze before meandering back to their hives. He had to approach the other swarms in turn to expose them to the scent as well, and pour some of the potion directly on the hives to completely calm them, but he managed to get through the whole project mostly unstung.

With the swarms pacified, he returned to his mates with a smile, even as the faint scent of fear wafted from him. "All done! And I didn't even get stung twice that time." He glanced to an angry swell on his side, but considering how many bees had gone over him, an impressive feat.

“Let’s go let Honeysuckle know, and collect our fee,” Amelia suggested. “Not to be too mercenary about it, but we kind of have debts we need to repay at this point.”

“You two go ahead, I’m going to sniff around and see what I can find out about the bear,” Alice said, waving them off before starting to sniff around one of the beehives. As the bees began to buzz around her, she spoke to them softly, whispers the others couldn’t make out.

Justin departed, but not before giving Alice a parting little kiss on an ear. "Be careful." He trotted off quickly with Amelia to hunt down Honeysuckle. "I have good news for you!"

“Oh?” Honeysuckle answered as she peeked out the door. Seeing the bees calmed down, she slipped out with a smile and gave Justin a quick peck on the snout. “You’ve done it! I knew you would, but I didn’t think you’d be done already. Oh! You got stung… only once? Here, let me get you some salve for that,” the mare offered, before heading back inside, leaving the door open behind her.

Justin trailed after her with a smile. "I'm getting better around them, bless their striped little souls. Alice is hunting for that bear to calm them down, I hope." An image or two flashed in his mind of epic battles between two huge predators and he shuddered. "But everything's quiet for the moment."

“Oh! I hope she doesn’t hurt the poor thing… or get hurt herself! I’m sure it was just hungry,” Honeysuckle commented. “Still, I can’t have bears going about smashing up my hives, now, can I? Now hold still, this will sting a bit, you remember?” She grabbed a tube from one of her drawers, and uncapped it, deftly holding it in her mouth as she squeezed out a bit onto his bump. It immediately stung with a fresh pain, before starting to tingle as it began to slowly heal.

Amelia ducked to enter after glancing in Alice’s direction, taking a curious look around the apiarist’s house. The decorations were stark, varying between yellow objects with black highlights and black objects with yellow highlights for the most part, though not quite everything conformed to the color scheme, and the walls and floors were, mercifully, simple blonde wood colors. Still, it was enough to make Amelia close her eyes in pain from time to time from the sheer contrast. “So, Honeysuckle… I don’t mean to be rude about it, but we’ve got a bit of a financial crunch going on right now… Would you mind settling up your bill with us while we’re here?”

As Justin recovered from the sting, he shook his head. "When you're ready, of course. I know you're good for it." Finances seemed to be an easy-going thing between small-town neighbor ponies. "Glad I could help. Would you believe I left my money in a whole other world? I thought leaving my keys on the train was bad…"

Honeysuckle giggled. “With you? I could believe it. Is that where you got these… exotic mares?” She took a moment to really look Amelia over, causing a bit of blush from the woman under scrutiny, before taking the time to count up some bits, and offer a jar of honey as well.

Amelia’s hands proved quite adept at grasping both, without the slightest change in her gait either. Convenient! Though mere moments after she had them in hand, Alice slipped in the door, declared “I need this, thanks!” and absconded with the jar of honey, immediately slipping back outside.

Justin's eyes followed Alice's quick retreat. "I didn't know wolves really liked honey that much, um, thanks!" He turned back to Honeysuckle. "If your bees need anything else, you know to call." His tail wagged. "But, yes, I did find them, both of them, there."

Amelia blinked a few times at where Alice had just been, looking uncertain. “I don’t think she does… maybe it’s for the bear? I imagine she’ll let us know if she needs our help… probably safer to stay out of their way until she does.”

Honeysuckle disregarded the advice, immediately heading for the doorway. “Oh! You don’t think they’ll hurt each other, do you? I don’t think predators always get along,” she said, before glancing back at Justin. “Isn’t it scary being near a wolf like that? I can’t imagine how you were brave enough to propose to her… or did she ask you?”

Justin softly giggled in a very unmanly way. "She does scare me, but I know she loves me." He suddenly grinned. "It's like a romance story! Dangerous love! I'm living it, and it's so weird when I think about it too hard."

“She scares me sometimes, and I’ve known her for most of my life,” Amelia said. “That’s part of why she scares me though. There’s some things she takes deadly seriously, and I just know to go along with her on those things or else. I don’t… I don’t know if she’d actually ever do anything to hurt me, but it’s not worth pushing it. If I made her have to make that choice, it’d hurt her no matter what she chose.” Amelia sighed and shook her head. “But… I don’t think any of that stuff will be an issue here. I feel like… in a way, we can finally both be free, here.”

“Free from what?” Alice asked, coming in through the front door just in time. She had some dried blood on her shout and around her mouth and one shoulder, but wasn’t acting hurt at all. “Did you think I was keeping you prisoner or something?”

Justin jumped in surprise as Alice entered, though it seemed her bloodied condition had more to do with it than her personal presence. "What happened?! Are you alright?" He dug out a cloth from a pocket and pulled it free, approaching and starting to mop up his bloody wife.

Alice squirmed slightly at his ministrations, as though it tickled. There were no injuries to be found under the blood, suggesting it wasn't her blood... but the position of some of the blood marks strongly implied otherwise. "The bear insisted on finding out who was stronger. I'm fine now, and his injuries will heal well enough," Alice said, before turning to Honeysuckle. "He is willing to work for you as a guard, and keep anyone else away from the hives for one jar of honey per day. Do you accept this contract? I can renegotiate a bit, but once it is agreed it will be binding to you both."

"Well, I... I didn't expect to get an employee out of this!" Honeysuckle began. "If it will keep the hives safe. But what about the bees? Won't they be upset?"

“I cleared it with them first. There will be agreement between them as well, that they will not sting him, and he will not harm them or their home," Alice explained.

Justin perked his ears with surprise as he sat down and used his hooves to push the cloth around carefully. "I didn't know you were an animal negotiator. That's a very respectable earth pony tradition." He tapped his chin before making an ick, realizing he got blood on himself. He set the rag aside. "Except the element bearer, but the element bearers are legends."

Alice looked ready to respond to Justin, but got distracted as Honeysuckle spoke up, agreeing to the contract. There was a bit of a ritual to it, apparently, and Alice explained it to the mare before leading everyone outside.

The bear was sitting outside, dipping a paw into the honey jar and licking it clean. He had a few bloody wounds here and there, both bite and claw marks, and well as blood on his claws, but it didn’t seem to be enough to slow him down. He climbed to all fours as they approached.

Alice called the meeting to order, summoning some of the bees to attend as well. She laid out the terms of the contract in lawyer like detail, though they weren’t particularly complex. And then she held out an open paw face up. It turn, the bear, the bees, and Honeysuckle each touched the paw and made a noise, the last being the words “I agree.” And thus, it was done.

Honeysuckle gave a bit of a shiver. “That was… That was some kind of magic?”

“You are bound by your oaths,” Alice said, nodding. “And that binding cannot be easily undone.”

“I never get tired of seeing all that golden, swirly, magical light,” Amelia said in an aside to Justin.

Justin slowly tilted his head. "What do you anchor the magic to? You don't have a horn, and I didn't see any plants to focus through. I don't understand. Magic doesn't come from nothing!"

Alice quirked an ear at him. “What do horns have to do with magic? Anyways, this is contract magic. It binds to the words. That’s why it’s important to speak them very clearly and precisely,” she said, nodding to herself.

“I think unicorns use their horns to control their magic,” Amelia said, looking to Justin for confirmation. “I think most human magic users use their hands to guide it? They’re pretty rare though, and the ones I’ve met were all assholes.”

Justin sat up with amazement. "With their hands? I wonder if other creatures with hands could do it like that… Oh! Yes, their horns, I'm quite certain of it. They just point their horns and poof, magic everywhere. It's what they do. I'm an earth pony. Our magic isn't nearly so flashy. We're tied to the earth, just as the name implies."

Amelia made a wiggling motion with her fingers. “Yeah, they do some weird intricate movements and say some weird stuff, and the magic happens… it’s crazy to watch, at least the ones that are obvious about it. One guy I met could do stuff without any of that,” she said, with a shudder at the memory.

Justin shook his head. "I hope I don't offend either of you when I say that, from the sound of it, I'm just as fine being back in Equestria. Things make sense here." Oblivious to the irony of his statement he trotted outside. "Good luck, Honeysuckle! Do call if anything else comes up."

“Thanks, Justin! And you too, Alice! A pleasure to meet you!” Honeysuckle said as she waved goodbye, before getting to work on fixing up the hives. The bear strode away a bit and settled down to watch sedately while enjoying the remains of his jar of honey, as peace was restored.