//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventy Two, Swing and a Misses: Sanctioned. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Three days later, Manehatten Hospital, Jade- “Ugh…” I opened my eyes to see a pair of bright blue orbs. “I can see a gloriously beautiful mare before me, am I in Elysium?” “No Jade, but thanks for the compliment.” Even if Fizzy managed to keep her voice cool and collected, she was still blushing. “Glad to see your up, at least it was only four days this time. How do you feel?” “Dead tired and my right arm is stinging quite a fair bit… I really overdid it on that rubber chicken snap attack.” I tried to sit up, only to have a hoof firmly press itself into my chest and for Fizzy to stare at me, it wasn’t a glare or a harsh look. It was just a look to stay put and I was going to be a good kitty because I wasn’t actually at my healthiest at the moment. “How am I doing right now?” “Well I would like to confirm that you’re currently not on medication, your pain tolerance is absurd and I think I might need to call Dr. Bones in here to check out your sensitivity to injuries. You might have nerve damage, I seriously hope that’s not the case.” Fizzy closed her eyes and gently ran a hoof over my head making me purr slightly, she even nuzzled my face carefully. I could barely move my head to nuzzle her back, it felt like it was in a vice. “That aside, your right arm broken in four places, which is going to take at least a month to heal. You may not know it but you have bandages around your neck and left arm, an artery was hit sometime that night and you suffered major blood loss. We’re lucky Dr. Bones is a miracle worker on that front. You’re left leg is badly sprained and the bones in it are cracked, so you’re not walking anywhere and will need a wheelchair to get out of here.” “What’s the good news?” I asked wryly as I looked at the drips poking into my body. “Something funny happened yesterday. Pinkie was apparently holding a birthday party for Liberty, the statue of Friendship and Harmony. Don’t know where she got a giant stone slab and torch as presents.” Fizzy was actually chuckling about something. “You should have been there. I wish you were, because we kind of lost Stochastic for a bit…” “Wait... is everyone okay? At least Liberty is okay after being thrown into the ocean.” I was a fairly worried about the last thing she stated. “Also, what happened to Stochastic?” “Nobody died. Skelly was a close thing, but then again she’s always near death so that’s nothing new.” Hearing that from Fizzle, I let out a sigh of relief. “As for Stochastic, I said we only lost her for a bit.” “So what was the funny thing that happened and why does that make you smile as much as I usually make you do?” Getting my lovely life hardened mare to smile was a somewhat hard thing to do. “Where is Stochastic right now?” “Well they are both related to each other, Dr. Bones encased Stochastic in a cast that resembled a piñata. Apparently it was still hospital approved even if it didn’t look entirely regulation… and Pinkie Pie mistook her for an actual piñata.” That was when Fizzy started laughing and her laughter was music to my ears. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders became involved, they joined in on Pinkie’s party for Liberty and… well… I’ll show you the pictures that I got later. Stochastic was eventually returned to being on the other side of that curtain to your left, her full body cast had to be fixed after being smacked around by a bunch of fillies and colts for a bit. Thankfully none of the fillies or colts broke that piñata and Pinkie quickly got them one that didn’t have a pony in it when I explained what was wrong.” “Love you.” I murmured. “I know.” She stated tenderly. “Now relax and I’ll see about getting Dr. Bones in here to do a checkup… also maybe give you some medication.” “Jade?” Fluttershy came into the room and smiled at seeing me awake. “Jade is going to be okay, so long as her pain tolerance hasn’t shut out the ability to feel anything.” Watching as Fizzle idly rubbed at the bandages around her chest as she turned to Fluttershy. I was going to ask about it, but she turned back to me and ran her hoof over my head again. I burbled happily. “She at least still purrs when I pet her.” “Okay you can stop petting me-rrrowww…” This felt really good, she also didn’t stop. In the midst of all my happy noises as Fluttershy joined in petting me, I managed to ask. “What happened to Jacky?” “Eh, our sister is fine, she was actually the least injured in all the fighting. Even Though she did get stuck in a burning shark tank, her injuries since then have been pretty much normal for her.” Fizzle rolled her eyes and eventually took her hoof off my head and Fluttershy eventually did the same. I whined pitiably. “So what are you planning to do with Stochastic Jade?” Fluttershy asked looking at me while nosing her face into her mane shyly. “I know she was scary, mean and well… really bad for an earth pony. From personal experience it’s usually unicorns or the occasional pegasus that cause most of Equestria’s problems.” “Yeah, earth ponies don’t go evil very often do they?” Okay now I was actually beginning to feel the pain I was in, my grimace was noted by Fizzle and she quickly headed for the door. “Stay with Jade for me Fluttershy.” Fizzle was out the door to go get my cranky doctor dog. “In answer to your question, I’ve had my petty revenge and then some. Now I just want to give her to Twilight ‘befriend-almost-everyone’ Sparkle.” Honestly, that was my plan after that long night. Whether Stochastic remembers getting the five pound ball to the skull would be reliant on whether or not going Nightmare allowed her to remember anything. “Oh thank goodness…” Fluttershy quietly muttered, she looked a bit scared of and for me. “I thought you would do something worse to her… well worse than she already is at this moment.” “Nah, I’m good.” Yep, no more revenge needed. I got the ‘full total petty kitty’ out of my system on this one, just so long as Fizzle did as promised and showed me those piñata pictures. “If she remembers this, then she’s never going to forget that I have many friends that are willing to get hurt for my sake. Speaking of, I should probably apologize to everyone for getting most of them hospitalized.” “Surprisingly they were all okay with that…” Fluttershy looked away as she said this. “Tippy-Toe and her friends wanted me to send their regards. Also wasn’t what you did rather… cruel?” “About as cruel as anything Discord has done as the one who keeps the world from stagnating, including knowing I was trapped in the past and not helping me out of pure spite.” I sent Fluttershy a slightly miffed look. “After what Stochastic put me through, this is the end result and the least of what I could do. I’m just going to say she started it and Twilight Sparkle will end it, if she hasn’t lost her memory due to an unfortunate rubber ball accident.” “Didn’t you plan for the rubber ball to hit her?” Fluttershy seemed a little misinformed, I was going to correct that. “I knew vaguely where it would go and where it could possibly land.” In essence, I had gotten lucky that it didn’t get stuck in any of the places I visited while running from Stochastic. Most of it was actually left to chance, but that last instance was an end goal I couldn’t possibly reproduce no matter how I tried. “Going to be honest Fluttershy, she could have killed me if it weren’t for that ball. I was in no state to move and… well you can already see the clipboard at the end of the bed right?” “Yes… what can you tell me about her?” Why was Fluttershy so curious about Stochastic? “You can ask me anything about Stochastic Labor, I learned quite a bit about her. Let me start you off with the fact that she’s one of the few noble earth ponies in existence, mostly because of unicorns monopolizing nobility and having sticks up their flanks… really big ones.” I received a slightly disappointed stare from Fluttershy. I snorted loudly, she does realize I’m not wrong about unicorn nobles always having their noses in the air right? “Fluttershy, they like the smell of their own farts filled with the power of smug that no Pegasus can control. Anyway, Stochastic was born in Canterlot and she earned her cutie mark by seeing natural talent in others. She pointed out what some other ponies were capable of outside their own unique talents and could even organize them for just about any kind of job you can imagine. She also personally has an eclectic number of random skills to her name. Fighting wasn’t one of them, but she sure as Tartarus showed me that it doesn’t mean she couldn’t kick flank. Does that answer everything?” There’s also the fact that Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis are just about the only nobles I’d actually trust with my back, unicorns are definitely the most cloak and dagger pony race. Would you trust an entire race that has a history of creating mind manipulating spells? Quite a few unicorns throughout Equestria’s relatively recent history have been capable of learning such spells with an incredibly alarming amount of ease. The next time I saw Princess Twilight, I was going to bring up that she should ban any and all spells that can mentally manipulate someone if it wasn’t already banned to begin with. If it was banned to begin with, then where would someone like Starlight learn a spell like that? Do unicorns just leave mind control spells lying around? There has to be some limitations on the long term effectiveness of such spells or else this world would have been conquered a long, long time ago. This doesn’t change my love for Fizzy, mostly because I know she would never use spells like that. “I want to know why she started GODLESS.” That, Fluttershy, was something that I didn’t know entirely. “I don’t fully know why she hates gods so badly, but Stochastic would be good at running any talent agency and is fairly talented herself at finding and finishing odd jobs. It is how she set up GODLESS in the first place, not to mention a network of shady businesses that have been since shut down. Her ability to fund anything tanked entirely thanks to the Royal Guard, so I suppose they actually did a… a… I can’t even actually say it! I think it would be giving them too much credit given that Jacky and Celestia gave them an entire list of conspirators to work with.” Nobody would ever think I was all knowing, but my reconnaissance ability with astral projections was quite nice as nobody had any defenses for it. Sure I can also make ridiculous plans work by not thinking about the logistics behind them too hard, but I wasn’t capable of planning for absolutely every single little detail like Stochastic going ‘nightmare’ on me. “Stochastic’s hatred likely stems from her parents possibly being cultists of the Demon Goat Grogar of Tambelon and something really sad happening. Also if Stochastic never targeted me so badly, then I wouldn’t have had reason to go after her like I did. She did send assassins after me for knowing I just existed, she also separated me from my family and loved ones for many years. I would like to say we’re even now, but what I’m really doing is dropping my anger on the whole issue and moving on with my life.” Fluttershy blinked, and then blinked again. “I’m glad that you’re not consumed by hatred Jade, but… just how dangerous is the real Grogar?” That’s a rather loaded question Fluttershy. “Since you know about him and Discord never really told me how he knew about Grogar well enough to impersonate him, in fact he dances around the issue a lot when I ask him.” “I wouldn’t open the portal to Tambelon for even a split second, earning his attention into a possible way to escape a place that’s harder to get out of than Tartarus is an exceptionally bad idea. Even Discord knows better than to allow him access back into Equestria for real. Sure it would certainly be chaotic to do so, but Discord knows better and isn’t a complete idiot… considering Grogar has nearly killed him before.” I raised my left hand and ran it over Fluttershy’s right ear making her blush slightly and squeak, but she didn’t back away. “He’s a world ending threat that the Elements of Harmony themselves can’t actually defeat, is that enough for you?” “Yes.” Winced Fluttershy. “Hey kitten… heard you were awake, Dr. Bones should be here soon enough." Mom came in with a bag and pulled a serving tray out of it with a piping hot bowl of soup. "Do you feel alright enough for some food?” “Let me guess, the hospital wants to hire you because you took over their kitchen.” The response was my mother giving me a cheeky grin and tipping her hat to me in a friendly manner as she pulled up a seat next to me. “I don’t need to answer what we both already know, so does my little kitten want some food before they try to force that generic hospital stuff on you? ” The wonderfully witchy mother asked sweetly, my response was to open my mouth as wide as I could. “Dr. Bones gave me the go ahead to feed you. So… do I just pour it down your throat or…?” “Stop being silly, I want off these drips and your food would certainly go a long way to getting me back into good shape mom.” My bandaged and wrapped tail flicked agitatedly as I glared her down, she calmly got a spoonful and held it above the bowl. Fluttershy propped me up and I clamped my mouth on the spoon as soon as it was in range. Egg, light mixture of soy sauce, fish broth, soaking crunchy noodles, finely diced carrots and rice, this was my mom’s egg flower soup with all my favorite stuff in it. Over the next twenty minutes, I was happily fed and resting my head when Dr. Bones finally came in. “Well you’re a sorry looking sight aren’t you, thankfully I've actually let you have a decent meal.” After saying that Dr. Bones turned to Fluttershy and mom. “Now if you two will leave… I need to check over my patient and see if there’s absolutely anything wrong with her currently. She also might need a change of bandages and since she’s active enough to eat, I’ll have Nurse Escargot see her to the bathroom after I’m done.” “Thanks for the soup mom, thanks for coming Fluttershy.” The two left the room wishing me well as Dr. Bones checked my vitals. -Fizzle- We had a restaurant planned, now to set the day.