Chrystallix

"Hmm, well I have no reason not to. So sure, I'll join the Venture League." The unicorn said after a moment's more thought.

OH yes, by the way there is now a road leading to my Home Under the Mountain. You really can't miss it, the road is right past the hedge and going towards Froggybottom, follow it all the way to the end and you'll reach a kind of aztec style pyramid steps. Just to the right of that is a pen containing, pause for dramatic effect, cows! Which apparently are in rather short supply. All I ask is that you leave two alive and make sure their pen stays intact.

"I see, well that's awfully kind of you." He said, thinking this offer over. It certainly was an interesting opportunity and one that didn't come along very often. Then an idea occurred to him. "Would the Venture League pay for my chiropractor bills? I'm always finding things and thus I often carry far too much stuff around." The result was fairly obvious, carrying around a lot of objects gave you some back problems, you went to a chiropractor to get this fixed.

Finder munched on his sandwich as he thought over what Ramble had said. So far this Venture League didn't have much in the way of responsibilities, but rather let you work as you needed to. Still there was something off, while he certainly hoped nopony did and he certainly had no intention to, this entire system seemed far to easy to take advantage of. "What does one have to do to join? Surely its not as simple as just joining otherwise somepony would try to take advantage of it."

Finder followed Ramble to the cafe, taking a seat with everypony else. He listened quietly and attentively as the pony spoke and explained his offer. Joining the Venture League, it was certainly an unexpected offer and Ramble made it sound like a truly great enterprise. However..."So, if I get all the equipment I want, get my expenses paid for, can still run my business, free lodging at your houses, and I don't even have to go on any missions, what exactly does a member of the Venture League have to do as a member?"

Ah, out of the forest at last. He let the glow around his horn fade as Ponyville came in sight, there was no need for tracking auras any longer. He turned his head as somepony tapped his shoulder, it was Ramble, not all that surprising really. He listened to the pony's offer. That was probably a good deal more expensive than Finder's usual finding fee of two bits. Besides which he had a bed in his wagon...buried under a heaping helping of random objects...well it couldn't hurt to accept the food. "I've already got a bed back at my wagon, but the food sounds good." The unicorn replied after a bit of thought.

Oh okay, so he wouldn't need to find more of this plant, well that was just fine and dandy. Personally he was a little surprised that he'd managed to find any of it in the first place. So now they needed to get back. "Sure I can Ramble, but we'll be going along the exact same path we came in at, so if those tigers are still there...wait a minute." He looked around, eyeing the forest. "You know what, I think I might have come through here before." He started circling around, this time eyeing the trees and such, one wouldn't think he could recognize anything considering how he zoned out, but if there was one thing Finder was good at it was finding things, even if they weren't actually physical, such as a safe way out. "Aha!" He exclaimed triumphantly, his horn lighting up to reveal another trail a short distance from the cave, "I'd recognize this aura anywhere, since its mine after all. We can just follow this out of the forest, and hopefully bypass those tigers completely." It was a little odd that he'd happened to come through here before, but to be fair he was always running off after items his horn had found, so he'd been to many, many places including those most ponies would never even think of going.

The unicorn abruptly snapped out of it as he was stopped in his tracks. "What?...oh." He said, grinning sheepishly when he realized he'd been about to walk right past the plants in question. Well, to be fair he wasn't actually following the trail of the plants, he was following the trail of the creatures that ate it. So naturally the trail didn't end where they were trying to get to. "Hmm, I might be able to find more. It depends on if the animal we're tracking went to just this patch or had multiple feeding grounds."

I'm building a road connecting Canterlot to my Home Under the Mountain. Why? I have a massive mine that gives me far more iron, redstone, etc, then I know what to do with. For that reason if anypony needs a spare bit of iron, maybe a few nice blocks of obsidian, just let me know and I'll be happy to deliver. Preferably you'll have somewhere in Canterlot to drop it off, but if not once I get my road finished it should be easy to find the Home Under the Mountain, and pick up your supplies.

Once again the unicorn was so preoccupied in the trail that he barely even heard Ramble. This tendency to "zone out" had gotten him in trouble before, but usually nothing serious, although that was more a matter of luck than anything else. As he was walking the trail eventually led to a small cave with a small number of plants clustered near the entrance. However, while the trail did go up to the plants it also veered off deeper into the forest, and so engrossed was he in the trail that Finder might pass right by them without even noticing!

I'm joining, just got Minecraft and I'm so excited! I am Baron_smashdwon on it though.

He wasn't quite sure if kicking the bridge counted as quick thinking, but oh well. Finder didn't really bother refuting the praise or accepting it, his horn was already glowing as he started circling outwards, looking for the trail. Every now and then he'd stop for a few seconds as he found one, but moved on after realizing that it was not the trail he sought. After a minute or so he let out an, "Aha!" His circling stopped as he instead started going back into the forest, again on the trail. "Come on everypony, I found the trail."

Once he'd safely crossed Finder watched Ramble's performance with interest. That was one talented pony, although the unicorn wasn't quite sure if it was more or less effective than his going berserk. Sure it definitely took care of the smaller creatures like that, but it seemed even less useful against the truly large creatures than going berserk was. However, his train of thought was interrupted by Ramble starting to just swing across the river. Well, these were some guests that Finder had no interest in entertaining. So he quickly moved forward, turned around, and kicked the logs with his hind legs. He was hardly the strongest of ponies, but years of hauling around a wagon filled to bursting with random assorted objects, which were often quite heavy, and even hauling a small mountain of junk on his back because the wagon was already full, had made him a good contender as far as strength was concerned. So for him it was easy to kick the logs and force them perpendicular to their original position, where the river would quickly take them downstream.

Finder watched quietly as the two ponies talked, was this perhaps a trial run of sorts for this Vim? Hmm, it didn't really matter to him so long as they got across. Then the loud noises started, and the unicorn just knew that couldn't be good. He turned towards the noise, a nervous expression on his face. Then the tigers jumped out, and he couldn't say he was that surprised, such beasts were always hanging around these places. As he moved forward to help Ramble hold them off he almost expected himself to go berserk, but the thing was they weren't in his path. The path was over the river, the river was in the way, these beasts weren't. So instead he used a levitation spell to hoist up rocks and throw them at the creatures. When the make-shift bridge was finished he began slowly backing up, still pelting rocks at the creatures as he backed his way across.

The eerie atmosphere of the Everfree Forest seemed to do little to affect Finder, for one all important reason. He was on the trail and nothing, not fire, water, or any manner of monsters would stop him. Of course, it also helped that he probably didn't even notice anything besides the trail. However, when they reached the river, that was something he couldn't just ignore. "Oh dear." He said, looking at the raging river. He tapped his chin, thinking it over. "Hmm, did any of you happen to bring anything that could deal with this situation?"

Finder just nodded, deep in concentration as he followed the fragile trail before him. It was actually several minutes before the group would even be headed towards the Forest, the trail meandered about the landscape for a bit before eventually turning into the forest. Finder followed it the whole way, not wanting to risk losing the trail in an attempt to get ahead of it. After a few long minutes the trees of the Everfree Forest would begin to loom over them as Finder led them inside.

"Hmm, they're obviously small so..." Finder put his head down close to the ground, his horn glowing as he started looking for trails. Unfortunately it wouldn't be very strong since these snap lizards probably weren't that smart. A few, barely visible, thin trails appeared and seemingly at random he started to follow one. "What? Oh yes, I'd love to help, be glad too." He said, not looking up from the trail he was following. It wasn't that he was being intentionally rude, it was just that he kind of...zoned out while on the trail.

The unicorn waited patiently as the group sought out their sample of plant. It didn't take very long, within a few seconds the, client had the strange plant out. The green aura of Finder's magic surrounded the flower, delicately lifting it into the air for him to look at. Hmm, well if it was such a rare flower than its aura shouldn't be that weak, but if this was harvested on the other side, then there was no way he'd find this particular plants trail. However...it wasn't a specific plant that had the aura, but the entire group of flowers, so the aura of one er...Highbis flower shouldn't be that different from another, if there even was a difference. Still that left the problem of plants just not moving around. "Hmm, is there any kind of animal that eats these plants? Or would have any reason to carry around part of it, like a petal, or pollen or some such?"

"Interesting?" Finder repeated, puzzled by Ramble's statement. He was interesting? Funny, he'd never considered himself that interesting, just a pony making his way through life. Then the leader of this little party mentioned the Venture League and the unicorn's eyes widened in recognition. The Venture League? Sure he'd heard of them! Admittedly he knew very little about them besides they adventured, explored, escorted, and all kinds of other things, but he did know about them. "Eh, plants?" He said, now looking a bit worried, "I'm not sure how much use I'd be for finding plants, they don't tend to move around much and thus don't leave trails." He thought about it for a moment, then his eyes brightened, "Wait! Do you happen to have a sample of the plant on you? If you do I could light up its aura and follow that trail back to where it was harvested from!" As much as Finder liked finding, he liked helping ponies even more, well as long as helping the ponies find something that is. In his mind, finding something he knew about was more important than finding some random object, and rightly so!

"Oh, the name's Finder, Finder the Finder." He said, laughing weakly at his own lame joke. Really it was used more for advertisements then because he thought it was actually funny. Uh...these pony folk were looking at him funny, well they actually seemed to be looking at his trail. Wait...the pony, who he assumed was the leader since he did most of the talking, had seen these glow lines before? Finder had thought he was the only unicorn who knew this spell, but could he be wrong? Or had he met this pony somewhere before? "Well...I have no idea what I'm looking for actually." He said, in response to the question. "The spell just makes the trail of an object's aura visible so that I can follow it to the object in question. I won't actually know what it is until I reach it. Of course, if I know what I'm looking for before I actually start looking for it I'll be able to identify its individual aura, but only if I actually know it needs found. Random auras like this..." He suddenly shrugged, "could be anything."

"Hmm, what?" Finder asked as somepony asked him a question. He turned, looking at the group he was moving through and his face reddened beneath his green coat, "Oh sorry." He said apologetically, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. "Its just when I'm on the trail I get kind of caught up in the magic." Speaking of magic, his horn was still glowing, and by now the group itself might even be able to see the "trail" the strange ribbon of green light floating lazily in the air. Hopefully apologizing to them wouldn't take too long. He did want to find this object after all.

It was into this stirring scene of grand adventure just about to start off that Finder walked into. Well technically he walked around it. The unicorn had come calling to Ponyville, as he did occasionally, along with everywhere else. However, no sooner had he got his wagon set up and dumped the mountain of things that wouldn't fit inside of it on the ground then his horn started acting up. He'd groaned and sighed, trying to ignore his glowing horn and the mystical trail of glowing...dust or whatever it was. However, in the end both his curiosity and the fact that he couldn't stand to let something lost stay lost caused him to stop what he was doing and follow the trail. Up and around the houses of Ponyville he followed it, weaving up and down in wavering paths. At times he even moved in a complete circle, at one point walking in the circle twenty freaking times before the trail continued on its way! Eventually it led him up and out of Ponyville, moving towards the Everfree Forest. Eventually he moved up behind them, and strangely he moved right around them, arcing out in a tight curve. This was actually where the trail led, for some reason whatever object he was following had been carried through that odd arc, passing right around them, rather than just going straight through what had surely been empty space. "Pardon me." He said cordially as he moved around them, moving back around front of them and continuing to follow the magical trail. It was perhaps the oddest thing that could happen without being completely absurd.

Haha! Nitpicking is such fun! I completely missed that child thing, even after you mentioned it, but I figured it out eventually. I removed the RP example and just described what he does in a less flavorful way. Furthermore I've fixed my terrible lapses in brony vocabulary. As for the age thing, well it says to put in the brackets and I wasn't sure if that was saying put in the name for his age group, the age variances or what. As for his name, I really can't think of anything better. I really thought it suited him when I made the profile. The only real problem I see is that its two syllables instead of the normal three (Fluttershy, Rarity, Octavia, etc.)

I'd like to thank you for your input Loopy Legend, and rest assured I have addressed every problem you presented. 1) Thanks for the tip, it was quite helpful. 2) Thanks! It was the most suitable thing for him, all the others I came up with hinted at investigations rather than finding. 3) Hmm, I thought I had, but I elaborated a bit more in the motivation section just to be safe. 4) Well, technically that was correct as Finder was the only one speaking throughout that. Still there was one line that could technically be separated, so what the hey? 5) Good idea, added that little section right into there.

*Facehoof* I have no idea what happened there, I could swear the thing was properly spaced when I posted it, but obviously not! Well whatever the case, its fixed now.