-Final day in Palicoast, Jade-
The flying lessons went pretty well, we avoided causing any incidents while flying around. Fizzle seemed to enjoy piloting the airship and our landings were only slightly rough. Once The Ardent Survivor was airborne it flew pretty well.
Speaking of our newest possible Airship Mauled victim, we were outside it today making some final preparations and we were testing some new magical alchemy.
“Please be careful now girls.” Mom’s words just made me roll my eyes.
“I’m fine mom, I’m not in pain anymore.” I was feeling much better now and I was now testing the magical sustain on the knuckle imprinted shield. “Hit it moderately hard Jacky!”
The shield does what one would expect when using it in a sustain effect, it shielded in the direction it was pointed. Only it projected a decent sized octagonal orange energy barrier that seemed to flow outwards constantly from a central point.
Jacky reared back with the spear and thrusted it forward. Despite the barrier not being connected to the shield, I felt the impact of the spear thrust and I stumbled a bit. The shield was undamaged, but I had still felt the impact of the spear as if Jacky hit the shield I’m holding directly.
So the sustain projects a larger area of protection in a given direction, only the ability to handle the blow was still on the user and if the projection is hit then the shield isn’t damaged. I could still be knocked down and trying to block strong impacts would be a detriment to keeping ones arm in its socket, alongside the chance of possibly breaking bones in said arm.
So even if I had used this against Gonnan, the end result would have been about the same. Only the shield wouldn’t have dented and it would have gone straight into my spine itself, thus taking one of my nine lives. If that was even a thing Abyssinians had.
I tried to expand the area of the projection, nothing happened. I tried to mentally shrink the area and that actually had an effect. So the area of protection had a maximum limit to how far it could stretch or how big the field could get.
I gave it some thought and the flowing octagonal energy transformed into a regular sized orange cat of flowing energy. Okay entirely malleable magical barrier energy that couldn’t go too far from the shield and could take on various shapes, this sustain would be really fun for someone who was looking to be a barrier warrior. This would be more my mom’s speed, it was too heavy for my tastes.
I started to make the barrier cat bounce around and frolic with each movement of the shield and a bit of thought into the given movement. It couldn’t go too far away before it seemed to hit an invisible wall nor could it go outside a widening cone of the shields orientation. I stopped sustaining and the barrier cat disappeared, I tapped the shield a bit. No self-sustaining properties then.
“Okay that… was really adorable Jade. I didn’t even know you had it in you. You know I’m just worried about you, but I guess you’re right. We’ve been here long enough and we need to get a move on.” I was quickly grabbed and brought into a tight hug by mom and she put her head on top of mine. “We do after all have to relieve Cheerilee and Fresh Start from the stress of having to deal with Sekhet all day, every day. And you need to get back to school. I haven’t been able to do this for a while for fear of hurting you Jaded. If you somehow become a mother some day in the future, then you’ll eventually know what I’m feeling right now my kitten.”
“Do you think we should prepare ourselves a proper send off? Maybe make a huge batch of soup for the people around here before we lift off.” I was released and mom looked thoughtful tapping her right hand fingers against her cheek while her other hand held her elbow. “Also would you like to give the shield a try?”
“Sure, to both of those ideas.” Mom seemed to bounce back from her gloomy state pretty fast.
I pulled the shield from my left arm and gave it to her, she put it on her right and started magically sustaining the shield to create the outward flowing octagon of orange energy. I sat down to watch.
She started warping the barrier energy and it turned into a clawed hand holding a shield, soon the shield warped into a sword and swung downwards with mom performing that exact motion to do that. The sword and hand disappeared, mom just gave me a look.
“Hm… this is probably one of the more unique sustain effects we’ve ever found, despite how limited the area and range we have to work with on top of the limited amount of energy we can shape. An inventive person could use this to do a lot.” Mom aimed the shield at a chair and formed claws to pick it up and stumbled bit once she did lift the chair off the ground and quickly put the chair down. “Okay, definitely not the same as unicorn levitation. I’m guessing the barrier is effected by force and weight, if it gets hit with weight or any amount of force, then it hits you personally with it.”
“Yep, you figured that out rather quickly mom. You still have to move the shield to do anything with the magical sustain too, so you can’t forget that being a slight issue as well.” It always helped to know the limitations of our magical alchemy discoveries. “Still, what the shield can do is pretty good, just don’t let the barrier energy be hit too hard and it’ll protect you. Otherwise a large enough blow will hurt you, as such it’s dependent on what the user can stand up to personally.”
An explosion of bright colorful lights appeared in the sky attracting our attention to Fizzle, she was trying not to use too much energy and was alternating between using the sword and her horn to get a feel for the differences between them.
“Well I think I’ve exhausted my magic for the day.” Was it really that tiring for you Fizzle? You only did three fireworks based displays with both your horn and imbuing an object to do the same thing.
“Are you feeling okay Fizzy?” I knew Fizzlepop was becoming more and more prominent in my life. I was okay with that because I loved her and I knew she liked me.
“I’m fine, but it’s really draining to practice my magic.” She gave me a friendly smile, before moving closer to nuzzle my neck and then planted a gentle kiss my on the cheek. She was getting bolder and eventually she might work her way up to asking me out on a date. “Thanks for worrying about me Jade. Did you test the chain yet?”
“Not yet, I’m still watching mom play with the shield.” We both turned to see Jacky holding a stick and with a swing of the shield, mom sent the orange sword she created through the stick cutting it in half.
“That’s a little below the sharpness of a normal sword, but I think the force matched the strength of your arms swing.” Jacky stated while studying the cut part of the stick she was still holding with interest. “It works offensively at least, but the projection seems to only be capable of going about ten feet from the shield, or three meters, before it loses cohesion. It can only go off to the side for about five feet at its farthest and only one foot at its closest. The more shapes used to form a projection, the smaller that projection is. This is all really quite complicated for something as simple as a metal shield.”
“Yeah and if we account for the weight I can lift with one arm including the shields own weight, then I might be able to move some smaller more lightweight things around easily.” Mom looked like she wanted to test how much weight she could put on her arm. “Leverage wouldn’t be a problem, it’s the actual lifting that is problematic.”
To show everyone what she was talking about, mom sent the orange energy out to grab the spear from Jacky. The energy got beneath Blackcap’s fingers and pried the spear loose. With a tug of the shield mom it brought the spear back close to the shield where she took it into her empty left hand.
“Could you use it to grapple onto things and pull yourself towards them?” My question made mom give me a curious look and she moved closer to the ship and made the energy grab onto the railing above, she pulled and didn’t leave the ground. “Well it’s not a complete grappling hook then. Try making a propeller, attach it to the shield directly and get it spinning.”
Mom concentrated until there was an orange propeller shape clutching the shield tightly, it looked kind of like she was wearing a large clock on her arm. She started making circular motions with her right arm until the propeller started spinning rapidly, it produced enough air to blow her onto her back.
After standing up, mom scrutinized the shield. She started making the circular motions again, but then held the shield straight up and went up about twenty feet into the air when the propeller started spinning rapidly. She slowly fell back down, the propeller immediately stopped when she hit the ground.
After a moment of scrutinizing the propeller on the shield, she turned to me.
“I can’t fly with this, it’s not possible. The circular motions needed to do what I just did is like winding a rubber band, the tension will only last so long after it goes off. I need to do this while standing on the ground to build it up, but at least at least I can do assisted jumps with this. I can even make a makeshift parachute using the shield if I’m falling from way too high up… where did you get the idea for this Jade?” Everyone turned to me at mom’s pertinent question.
“Comic books, specifically Power Pony comic books.” Said comic books are sold in Ponyville, too bad the enchanted variety isn’t sold around there too. “Radiance can do something similar to what the shield does, only she’s not as limited to size, distance or range. You should read it mom, you’ll get a lot of ideas out of it. We can also get plenty of ideas of how to use the shield from some imaginative games of O and O. I’ve also figured out that the sustain effect would be really good against energy based attacks that don’t cause much of a physical impact. So who wants to help Kuril cook a moderate lunch for Palicoast? It’ll be first come first serve, while supplies last!”
-One hour of cooking later, Kuril-
A white furred, wild looking, Abyssinian with black spots and stripes sat next to me eating soup. Her longs ears twitched in appreciation and I could see a smile forming on her face.
“Did you hear I was cooking and decided to come running Savannah?” I addressed Jade’s old kitten sitter, she just chuckled.
“No, I just wanted to say goodbye again Kurilian… and eat your food of course.” I didn’t use her services often, but she was still considered a family friend. “Can’t possibly miss the Kurilian special when it’s in such limited supply around here. In any case, I hope you continue having good times in the pony lands mayor Kuril.”
“You’re plan for a town wide bunker is going to be approved Kuril.” I turned away from Savannah and to the approaching blonde furred cat. “I think we’ll eventually need it too.”
-Fizzle, a day later-
It was the moment of truth, we were descending towards the bright spot in the distance, the fire that Jade started and had yet to ever truly cease. Hopefully it never disappeared, if Jade disappears again it’ll let us know she’s alright.
There were a few new things about airship Mauled, but I’m sure we’d get an explanation about it quite soon.
“Come on, we’re almost there.” Jacky was slowly lowering us into place.
We were slowing down immensely and before we knew it, The Ardent Survivor had landed without slamming into Sekhet. Speaking of powerful immortal beings, where was the giant winged cat of riddles?
“See, we can land in Airship Mauled without crushing our favorite local goddess of exercise.” I jokingly said out loud, that got a few giggles all around.
“So… you’re not going to crash land into me on accident or with purpose today?” Sekhet walked up to the airship a glanced at us in interest. “Well that’s a literal load off my mind, also thanks for the new title… now I have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
“Sekhet, our beloved mighty goddess of exercise! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember us having built a relatively small pyramid here.” After Jade mentioned it, we all turned to the pyramid sitting a distance away from the inn and restaurant.
Yeah it was a small pyramid just sitting on the outskirts of our town’s main building area. It had a large enough entrance for Sekhet and the sphinx did look somewhat particularly proud of it.
“It was taking you guys so long to get back, I decided to do something constructive with my time.” Sekhet gestured to the pyramid with her large paw. “Like build a home that is more befitting my great stature around here, bask in its geometric splendor!”
“Yeah, yeah, interesting and all, now where’s this wagon my guys live in with my sweet little Tarsus?” Merriami had already climbed down the side of the airship and was holding a happy looking changeling against her body.
Tarsus better be happy after all the trouble we went through for him, especially Jade getting hurt. Merriami was the one wearing the pants in their relationship and the changeling didn’t mind that.
“Speaking of our wagon, let us play you some music in thanks for helping out our good friend!” Clypeus was walking back from the wagon wearing his sombrero and he was smiling at us. “Tarsus certainly owes you more than we do friends, we would like to help him make up for all the trouble we put you through.”
“Oh thank goodness you’re back, Celestia and Sekhet wouldn’t stop fighting over cake!” Poor Cheerilee looked a little harried. Wait, Celestia knew Sekhet was living here now? I expected more destruction and to come back to a smoldering hole in the ground.
“It wasn’t that bad Cheerilee, you just have to know how to make the goddesses calm and happy.” Easy for you to say Fresh Start. You were the only one that could cook around here while we were gone and as such you wouldn’t be a designated target for anything that happens between the two goddesses. “Speaking of, I’ll never be able to ever look at them the same way ever again… they fight like little foals. So anything happen on the trip?”
Before I could answer, Maries pounced onto Jade and The Shapeshifting Siesta started playing.