//------------------------------// // Chapter Six, Mariachi Changelings: Fresh’s state. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Kuril- “Thanks for talking with me about this mom.” Jaded wasn’t asking about her other parent? I just snuggled my kitten and held her, she’s growing so big. I guess it really didn’t matter from her perspective, Jade didn’t need them. What she needed was me. Maybe I can try and look for love again, but the hurt would always be there though. The pain is faded and dull now, it used to be so sharp and cutting like a dagger applied to the heart. At least she knows how I felt about them now, those memories were painful and yet I still held them close to my heart all the same. Hopefully, she’ll take my advice and eventually put on a dress just to tell whoever she ends up with that she’s actually making an effort for them… because that’ll the day I’ll have a camera ready. “Jaded, your previous life was obviously horrible.” I stated flatly as I went to get started on cooking food, I had six extra mouths to feed here. “Now finish scaling and fileting the fish.” “One serious talk and you’re already putting me back on fish duty.” Oh my sweet little tom cat. You may have had a previous life, but it certainly didn’t do you any favors to remember it in its entirety. “Of course you are.” To love and be loved, is better than to have never known love at all. -Fresh Start- Okay, Cheerilee is the only other normal pony around and I was living a weird life. I’m living with the fact that I have to look after the strange kids, keep the litterbox clean, help serve the food and do basically everything a regular maid would be expected to do. It’s just that I felt like an outsider sometimes. “What are you doing?” I jumped at the voice and turned to see Mara and Maria, it seemed Marie was taking a nap and her sisters were keeping her head off the ground. Otherwise they’d be dragging Marie through the dirt everywhere. Isn’t having one head asleep dangerous for a chimera? Well it is rather safe around here and I’m sure they’d wake her up if they had to fight off something. Did I just seriously worry about…? I’m actually taking the monsters feelings into consideration? I must be losing my mind. Sure the monster was intelligent and going to school with the other girls to be taught by the only other sane pony around, but Maries is a carnivorous beast that has tried to eat ponies! Tried being the key word, she never succeeded and probably would never do so now that she was friends with Ms. Berrytwist. How could that pony be so brave? Then again, if there was anyone who was feeling more like an outsider than I do, then it would be them. What is my life and why did I take this assignment form Princess Celestia? This is not exactly what I was expecting when I was told I was getting an important duty. I’ve been thinking too long, I better answer them. “I’m setting up the tables for lunch.” I hoped that was all that the chimera bothered me with, any sane pony would be afraid of her. “I… would like to… help you with that.” Wait… what?! I don’t even. Why did Mara say that? The way she struggled with saying that left me feeling sorry for her, I shouldn’t be feeling sorry for her like this! “You are the dens caretaker yes? I wish to assist you.” “I… don’t know how to take that.” She got a bit angry with me and growled, I shied away and then… she just looked frustrated. Not with me, it was mostly directed at herself. “I apologize for my sister, she is having a hard time with living here.” The bleating head of Maria spoke up from next to Mara, who was looking away with her head and ears wilting. “We all are… this kind of living is really unusual for us. It isn’t bad though, as long as we can keep meeting Sekhet in combat for exercise.” “I…” Was I really considering this? Yes, yes I was. I think I might be coming down with something if I was considering allowing the beast to set up the tables. “You can help me. Set out the napkins and cups at each spot to sit at these two tables. I’ll get the silverware for those who use it.” “Was that a crack at us being savages?” I looked Mara in the eyes after she asked that and had something to say. “No, Sekhet doesn’t use silverware either and I don’t think she’s savage for our alpha of alphas as you call her.” I paused to consider what I was saying to Mara, I was actually thinking about this. “In fact, aside from spoons, I don’t see why unicorns even bother with silverware when they could just levitate food into their mouths with magic. I don’t honestly think any less of you for not using silverware Maries… you can also help set out the plates if you want.” Mara gave me a surprised look and I gave her one back, I… I don’t think I was looking at her as a beast anymore. I mean the few weeks they’ve been here, I’ve been scared of Maries for the longest time and now… something just clicked. My special talent involved more than just getting up early in the morning, it’s also about seeing others who are trying for new beginnings or getting a good jump on things by helping someone with whatever it is they were doing. An example would be helping Celestia or Cadence get a generally good morning going when I still worked in Canterlot. “You surprise me den caretaker, we could smell your fear of us and yet… it’s now gone.” As Mara said that I was already setting out a number of plates, cups and napkins for her to start placing on the tables. “I think I’m surprised about that myself.” I was actually considering being friends with a… no… she’s not a monster. She’s just a kid like Jade, Fizzle and Jacky. “So how has exercising with Sekhet been going?” Exercising with the goddess was one of the things Mara enjoyed doing around here, aside from cuddling up to and nuzzling Jade affectionately. There was a sisterly bond, but I could tell Maries wanted more. Only she was kept at limb’s length, which could be quite frustrating for her. I was now thinking of how she came here to begin a new life. “She is mighty, no matter her size.” Mara had a lot of respect for the goddess Sekhet and it showed. Following her words was Maria’s statement about how things went. “We have learned that size does not always matter. She tossed us all around the area this morning using only a small portion of her strength and we know she was holding back the entire time. Even if only slightly bigger than us, she is very formidable.” Of course she was holding back, she’s a goddess of war! Though she was also said to be a goddess of healing and that doesn’t really come up much. Well at least I haven’t seen her healing anyone or doing anything too nice for anybody. “She could kill us at the size of an average cat in under a minute.” That was my belief at least, provided we didn’t have an airship or something equally heavy to stall her long enough to get away. Not that I could run ten miles in the time it would take for her to get out from under the airship and track me down. “Am I… scary… or is it intimidating?” What was Mara trying to ask me here, she was at least setting everything up correctly and I waited for her to get finished with the napkins before I started placing the silverware down. “You are definitely both, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.” I just said the word, how did I just say it so plainly? “Would Cheerilee eventually be friends with me?” Was Mara seriously asking me that personally as a separate entity from her sisters? “She fears me more than my sisters.” “I’m sure she will get over her fear eventually, just give her some more time.” Wait, I was actually giving Mara advice now? The aggressive head of the Maries? “Come on Maries, let’s go clean up a few rooms before lunch.” -Cheerilee- Out of all my students, Fizzle seems to be the brightest. Unicorns tended towards education and when they didn’t, they tended towards specialization in their cutie mark related talent. As for the rest of my students, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Jade was knowledgeable about many creatures and even pointed out many things she’s observed about Maries and how her body work. She was quite good at many subjects, there was a problem area though. She couldn’t do advanced math to save her life. When I had brought it up with her, she made a joke about never telling her the odds. She then stated that she’d likely prove people wrong by overcoming them out of ignorance. I know for a fact that that is something that actually happens, given my sister is a professional wrestler who doesn’t know the meaning of quit. Quit, to stop or discontinue an action or activity, to resign from a job or leave a place. Jacky was bright, she knew everything about pirates and there was little she didn’t know about pirate history. I didn’t know pirates had such good schooling, because Jacky was good at math. She got really good when it came to the pirate version of math, where a pirate accountant was likely to pocket some extra booty for themselves on the sly. I actually got a percentage rating for how noticeable a few extra gold coins off of each haul is depending on the size of the vessel plundered. She gave me a fully detailed graph as homework to show how much a pirate accountant could actually get away with before the captain became suspicious of duplicity. It was really quite fascinating, also a little bit disturbing. She was like the opposite of Jade, she wasn’t very knowledgeable about the world as a whole and wasn’t interested in history that didn’t have action, cannons and swords. I’m kind of surprised the Equestrian Education Association hasn’t come by to check on my class yet, it wasn’t exactly a pony class so they probably wouldn’t ever show up here. Maries… I was quite scared of them. I was also very scared of the resident goddess Sekhet, who was a living breathing historical figure from the tale of Somnabula. Still, I found Maries to be interesting students. Mara was the hardest one to teach because she was the most aggressive of them. Maria at least seemed somewhat interested in learning. Marie was bright and studious. Collectively speaking, they were scary when they put their heads together. These were the odd students that I had to work with. “Excuse me ma’am, but I have to ask. What do you do here?” I turned to the brightly colored purple pony bug thing called a changeling. Jade knew what they were and thought something was odd about the one called Kevin out of all of them. I admit I was curious about the visitors that came to this oddball place, I didn’t know anything about them or their culture. “I’m the local school teacher for the next few years.” What was his name again? Come on, think Cheerilee. Oh that’s right, it was Clypeus! “Why do you ask Mr. Clypeus?” “I was wondering who here runs the inn.” That was actually a very good question Clypeus. “Uh… Fizzle! Who runs the inn?” Someone had to know, so I turned to Fizzle sitting at the campfire that never goes out. She was staring at it with a warm smile on her face, my words knocked her out of her comfortable dazed state. “Huh… oh… no one does really, they can stay there for free.” Well there you have it from Fizzle’s mouth, I guess the band of changelings were staying here free of charge. “We still need to find someone to run it.” “Well okay then, we’ll give you a discount on the cost of our performing here. We’re already not asking for much, but we still need at least some money to maintain our instruments and our mode of transportation.” With that Clypeus walked off while shouting out the names of his friends to tell them the news. “Did you need anything else Ms. Cheerilee?” I trotted over to Ms. Berrytwist. “Well I have been considering changing my mane style.” The crimped look sadly just wasn’t in anymore. It was fun while it lasted, but I was a teacher now. “I’m thinking of straightening my mane and tail, maybe even getting it trimmed a bit. I wouldn’t mind getting your opinion on that.” “My opinion? Well it might make you look more professional as a teacher. When are you going to Ponyville for that?” Thanks for the reminder Fizzlepop, I had almost forgotten that this place didn’t have much. Airship mauled counted as a hamlet, but I really didn’t want to ruin everyone’s dream of calling it a town by correcting them. “You’ll need someone to escort you there teach.” “I’ll ask around for whoever wants to go.” I hoped it would be a nice visit. When I was done teaching here at Airship Mauled, I’m going to take a teaching job in Ponyville. “Though Maries might cause a panic if she chooses to go. I won’t stop her if she wants to, but she should really be warned of trouble cropping up because of what they are.” -Fresh Start, some time later- “Thanks for helping me Maries.” They had helped me clean up and tidy a few rooms upstairs while another wonderful lunch was being cooked by Kuril, I sniffed the air and knew we’d be having something good. “Something smells really good.” “You are welcome to our aid.” They said in unison, I thought that was kind of neat and not at all completely creepy. Okay, it was totally creepy that they could do it so easily, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud to their faces. We made our way down the stairs and Kuril popped out of the kitchen. “Can you get everyone together Fresh? Lunch is about ready to be served. Jade is currently helping me with the finishing touches on the dessert.” Throwing Kuril a salute I made my way for the door outside with Maries following me. “Oh and when you’re done with that, come back here and help me bring out the food!” “Hey Mara, would you do something for me?” I thought of something interesting, it seemed like a pretty good idea to get everyone’s attention. “I want you to roar loudly to get everyone’s attention. Can you tell everyone that lunch is ready? I’ll go help Kuril with bringing out the food.” “It has been a while since I let one loose.” Mara muttered as their body made its way out the door. Ah, life here. It almost seems normal. So when is Jade going to inevitably mess that up or do something weird? -Mara- Inhaling, I belted out a powerful, deafening roar from my throat!