It was after a solemn and ridiculously silent breakfast that mom started setting up for my trip to Canterlot, on the way I’d find someone to help Fluttershy out of her jam. I’d likely be making a stop in Ponyville, if I was quick enough I could get an early morning train to Canterlot.
“Are you sure you want to stay here with Sekhet, mom?” I ask because Sekhet was a scary sphinx shaped goddess that threatened to eat us not too long ago, in fact it was only yesterday.
“I’ll be fine… well at least I will be if you don’t use your ability and providing that Sekhet absolutely wants me to be alive to cook for her.” Mom ruffled my hair and smiled at her, she then shoved my pack into my chest and pointed over to Fluttershy. “You make sure she gets back home safely okay? I at least know you’ll be fine, the pack has been filled with dried fruits, left over vegetable mashed into a fine pasted and of course the classic Abyssinian favorite, fish jerky. I also took the liberty of boiling some water for your canteen.”
“Look, I like fish jerky as much as the next Abyssinian mom, but it’s really beginning to wear quite thin with me after years of eating it.” I dare you to find an Abyssinian that was completely tired of fish for every meal other than me, it was the least likely thing to happen. Still, I didn’t think I was complaining too much about it. “That’s even when I don’t want it to go to waste. Anyway, thanks for helping me pack up for the trip mom.”
“Well I can’t let my dear sweet daughter go off unprepared, do you have everything? Fish bone necklace, fish scale necklace, two spare raven feathers, your knife, the sheath for it and something to tie your hair back?” I rolled my eyes and sighed at my mother’s being slightly overbearing.
“Yes mom, I’m quite sure I have everything on me.” Speaking of, I took out my hair tie and put my hair up in a thick ponytail. I turned to Tempest with a pleading look on my face. “Please tell me you’ll stick around with my mother until I get back. You don’t have to do anything, even if Sphinx doesn’t want you going anywhere, you can do whatever you want. Just please don’t make me leave my mother alone with Sekhet.”
Tempest tilted her head and looked quite thoughtful for a moment, she was trying to decide whether or not to stay here for a while.
“Look, you’re going to need those stitches removed eventually. So you may as well stay here and let yourself heal until we can do that.” Sekhet butted in while poking Tempest’s broken horn, which definitely annoyed Tempest. You’d think with all the power that Sekhet has, she could just simply fix Tempest’s horn like magic. It made me wonder why she didn’t or couldn’t, there had to be some limits to how well she could heal others.
“… fine, I’ll stick around.” The next few seconds for Tempest must have been quite a surprise for her, because I had immediately jogged over to her and wrapped my paws around her neck to hug her tightly. I avoided my first instinct to grab her around the barrel where the wounds on her were. Tempest was so surprised that she didn’t try to push me away until after at least fifteen seconds had passed. “Will you stop touching me?”
“No, because I think you, my friend, need more hugs. You look like you’ve been horribly deprived of them for a long time.” That was an understatement, as I knew she hadn’t received any positive attention since her horn was broken. Hopefully Tempest never went to the dark side because I was willing to help her through her issues. Speaking of issues, I backed off from the slightly aggravated pony and turned to Fluttershy. “Are you ready to go Fluttershy, we’re wasting daylight here!”
Did Tempest even have parents? Was she a runaway? If anything, it’s almost like my supposition that Starlight Glimmer didn’t have parents to curb her darker thoughts or actions. If Tempest did have parents, then where were they when her horn broke and why didn’t they ever try to comfort her? Equestria must have had a glut of evil unicorns due to bad or barely messed up childhoods and Sunset Shimmer would be one of those examples that Celestia had caused personally. In fact, Unicorns were the most likely pony type to go evil in the first place.
“Oh, um… yes I am Jade.” The fresh barrel of water was running a bit low, Fluttershy had used a bit of it to scrub herself clean. The filly looked happy and had taken care of herself quite well, it was hard to stay jealous of Fluttershy stealing my mother’s attention when she was so sweet.
“Well come on then, let’s hit the road. We’ll be heading northeast.” What I wouldn’t do for a compass right now… wait a minute. “Mom, do you have a compass?”
“Hold on, I think I might have found one in the wreckage yesterday.” Digging through the pile of stuff she liberated from the airship she eventually found a small compass and put it my left hand.
“Well it’s working at least.” I commented dryly.
“Be careful and come back to me safely my little tom cat, or at least in one piece if you’re not sane.” I gave my mother a hug and started too walked towards the northeast only to be intercepted by Sekhet moving into my path. “I’ll know if you’re in trouble if anything happens to the protections your ability creates.”
“Priest Jade, do not tarry with coming back, also beware the princess of the sun and the way she may act.” With that said, Sekhet got out of my way and I stared after her. She went to sit next to the large airship and then made a shooing motion with one of her paws. “She will become quite… odd… around you. So I warn you, pay attention to what she does.”
“Right then, every journey starts with the first step.” I took my first step and then another while waving goodbye to my mom and Tempest with the filly Fluttershy in tow.
-
It didn’t take thirty minutes and crossing the shallower portion of a river to find the train tracks. Luck was on our side as we could just follow them to Ponyville, I marked the location thoroughly so I could remember how to get back to the crash site. Cloudsdale was quite visible at this distance, it was kind of hard to miss unless it was raining.
So there we were, the two of us walking along the tracks in silence. Me with a blue pack loaded with food on my back with a canteen hooked to it, a knife at my right hip and my fish scale necklace that would give me a defensive options should I need to fend off a predator. A tightly controlled jet of water can do some serious damage. I was doubtful of ever running across a predator or monster this close to the train tracks.
Somewhere along the way were passing by some bushes while still following the tracks to Ponyville and they started shaking, I immediately put myself in front of Fluttershy and narrowed my eyes at the bushes. I inhaled through my nose to prepare for exhaling at the target, I was using my necklace's sustain effect.
“Surpri..urghfflblblblbe.” My reaction time was pretty good, good enough to catch the young Pinkie Pie in the mouth with a ball of water that ejected from mine. It had knocked her flat on her back spluttering. I was afraid it might have been a pack of pukwudgies, a nest of aggressive flyders, maybe even a baby hydra or a manticore.
Instead I got the naturally occurring reality breaking pink Earth Pony, why was she here of all places?
Coughing and spitting up the water that ended up flying down her throat the wrong way, Pinkie eventually became all smiles when she was breathing normally again.
“Oh my goodness, are you alright?” Fluttershy had been worried for a moment, but then calmed down when she saw that it was just a pony. One that I knew came from a rock farm and was nowhere near it at the moment.
“I’m okay and that was really cool!” It seems that Pinkie didn’t care that I was not a pony, then again I don’t know where her mental state is after seeing the rainbow blasting across the sky the other day. “How did you do that?”
“Magic.” I then snorted twice in a cute manner. Yes I was a lazy butt in my previous life, but I will always remember the classics fondly. I could have also said, ‘that, is a secret’ or ‘that would be telling’.
“Oh of course, how silly of me! Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie and you two are?” Well Pinkie introduced herself with a wagging tail, like a puppy really, so I may as well do the same.
“I'm Jade La Perm.” I looked to Fluttershy who was hiding behind my legs and I gave her a light tap to the head with my tail making her squeak.
“O-oh, I-I’m Fluttershy, nice to meet you Pinkie.” The poor girl was being a bit shy and I really couldn’t fault Fluttershy for it as that’s just who she was.
“Speaking of meeting you…” I was almost too afraid to ask this question knowing who I was talking to, unless she hasn’t hit her zany phase yet. “What in the world are you doing out here all alone?”
“Well I got my cutie mark yesterday after seeing the most amazing thing ever!” Pinkie said excitedly while I looked to Fluttershy for help, only to realize that Fluttershy wouldn't be able to help me calm down this pink ball of sheep fluff. I was technically the adult here and would just have to deal with it.
“Let me guess, a rainbow exploded across the sky that filled your boring life with color and then Equestria was made?” I already knew how Equestria was made thank you very much.
“A rainbow exploded across the… oh your really good at this!” Exclaimed Pinkie clapping her hooves, I just rolled my eyes at the excitable ball of energy. Said ball was a young filly who started bouncing around me in a circle. “Well I’m out here looking for my place in the world. It certainly isn’t the rock farm I came from, even if I really, really, REALLY love my family a whole big bunch!”
“You’re going to follow us aren't you?” I was already following the tracks towards Ponyville, Fluttershy fell into step with me and was looking back at Pinkie who bounced along behind us.
“I already am of course.” Pinkie threw a comically bad salute with her left hoof. “New party member Pinkie Pie reporting for duty, emphasis on the party part as that’s my special talent!”
I looked to Fluttershy who just shrugged at me while flaring her wings slightly and I sighed, I stroked my fingers through Fluttershy’s mane several times and she blushed while squeaking at the attention I was giving her.
“Keep up then, you don’t seem like the kind of pony that would take no for answer.” I wasn't about to let a young Pinkie out of my sight, so we were all moving alongside the tracks together.
“Woohoo, I made some new friends and one of them is a really tall friendly cat!” That’s when Pinkie Pie decided to start showboating and dancing on her hind legs “Go me, go Pinkie, it’s not my birthday, but it might soon be! I’m dropping them some big hints! Of who I want at my party!”
I slapped my forehead in aggravation and released a long drawn out hiss. Try to keep it together Jade, even if this trip was going to be a long one.
-
I was checking my map, who thought it was a good idea to make the tracks run near Flame Geyser Swamp? Still following the tracks was safe and I had to continue ignoring Pinkie’s nattering, I lifted an ear to listen in on what she was talking about now.
“So anyway… I was like Boulder, bad rock! He should have at least waited for Maud to let him outside.” Yeah, Pinkie was still going on about her inane rock farm stories. I really did not need to know her life story or how boring the early parts of it were, though Boulder apparently peeing on the carpet was a thing. “After that I was like… oh my tail is twitching! I wonder if a Pegasus will fall from the sky.”
One already has and she’s been a little angel this entire time, unlike… wait… the Pinkie Sense was never wrong and we were around a bunch of trees near the edges of Flame Geyser Swamp? On instinct I swiftly turned around and scooped up Fluttershy and grabbed Pinkie out of the air mid hop and lunged into a roll. I heard a thunderous crash behind me. A shower of dirt was launched into the air, some of which splattered the three of us.
This was the reward for my quick thinking, I’m so glad I didn’t look up first and thankfully none of us got hurt… yet.
I quickly dropped both Fluttershy and Pinkie on the ground and turned around to look at the creature that tried to pounce on us from the trees.
It wasn’t a manticore, something I would have preferred facing in this situation. It was something far worse, it was a chimera. It was currently dazed because it missed us and had slammed bodily into the ground.
“Girls… I want you two to start running, stick together and keep following the tracks.” I spoke softly and didn’t turn my eyes away from the chimera and I was already using my knife as my magical alchemy sustain. I’d have to switch in the middle of the fight if I wanted to blast them with water, I even popped the claws on my hands to prepare for what was coming. “Don’t come back for me. I’ll catch up with you, I promise.”
“Do you Pinkie promise?” Asked a rather frightened Pinkie as she and Fluttershy gathered their wits, I gave them a rather sharp look.
“Just go, don’t worry about me!” I might have been a little harsh that time, but I didn’t have the time to go through the whole Pinkie Promise thing. That sent the two fillies in my care running along the tracks, as the Chimera got up and lunged for them.
One of the dumbest things you can ever do is tackle a chimera. I checked their side with my increased agility and sent them sprawling and narrowly avoided the snapping teeth of the snake headed tail that came within an inch of my face.
The chimera stood up and three sets of eyes glared at me. I just pulled my knife out with my left hand and gestured to them with my right, I have more meat on me than the fillies do at least.
When you spoke of a chimera, you would have to use plural terms as a chimera had multiple intelligent heads.