//------------------------------// // Chapter One, To Canterlot and Back: A pentagon is never so protective. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// I came to in a bed, it was comfortable at least and kind of warm. I was probably in a direct sunbeam judging by the light on my eyelids, cats tended to lay around in the sunlight and like a cat I just felt like staying right where I was. I didn’t fall back asleep for a few reasons. For one I can remember the last thing I was doing and that was me walking up to Celestia, then a flash of white and colors coming at me and then darkness to now. Another is that I was currently naked in bed, I could tell with just a bit of shifting and my tail felt something silky when I shifted it about. Being naked wouldn’t be much of a problem even if I preferred sleeping in my clothing. For the last thing, that was actually quite troubling to me, is that upon cracking my eyes open slightly I could see that I had white feathered wings wrapped around me. If what I was feeling was correct, then those large hooves wrapped around my belly probably belonged to a rather large horse size being. Celestia was snuggled up against me wasn’t she? I felt very awkward about this, on the one hand a pretty pony princess snuggles felt nice and on the other… this felt like situation where I needed an adult that wasn’t over a thousand years old. “There, now that the suns up… time to rise and shine!” Her horn dimmed and she nuzzled my neck and I tried not to react negatively. “Quick question, where are my clothes? You know, the things like my shirt with the blood stain on the shoulder.” Yeah this was both awkward and surprisingly comfortable, was I using her mane as a pillow? It smelled nice at least. “Also shining a beam of sunlight on my face is more likely to make me sleep longer.” “Oh right, you’re an Abyssinian, always lazing about in the sun like a normal cat.” Celestia leaned over to kiss my forehead, she pulled back and loosened her grip allowing me to sit up and look her in the eyes. “I’m quite sorry about my… er… enthusiastic greeting. It’s been little more than six hundred years since I last saw a sun priest.” “You call knocking me out enthusiastic?” I wasn’t about to deny that she was actively snuggling me. As long as it was just cuddling I was okay with it. “I also noticed that you just dodged my question.” “You’re quite intelligent.” Celestia got up out of bed and I watched as she approached the door, she talked to someone outside before she came back to me and I gave her a raised brow. “Your shirt is being mended and cleaned, as are your other clothes. I’ve taken the liberty of… well that is to say… I may have invaded your privacy a bit.” “With the way I woke up next to you, I hope you can word that a bit better.” I stated flatly shooting the blushing a princess a glare. “Look I came to Canterlot for a reason.” “You mean aside from messing up the S.M.I.L.E organization by outing a Changeling in their ranks, do tell.” She snickered a bit at me keeping myself covered with the blanket. Ponies, they have no modesty. “No, I mean I had you measured so we can make something for you. How do you feel about robes?” “Not particularly fond of them, I prefer cloaks.” That got a strange reaction, given the odd stare in my direction. “How do you feel about staffs?” Okay where was Celestia going with this and why did I get a sinking feeling that her thoughts were completely wrong on something. “Not fond of staves either, I’m getting pretty good with knives though. Why do you ask?” Now her ears were wilting and my suspicions were just rising by the second. “Better question, why do you think I came to Canterlot in the first place?” “Well now, this may sound silly, but…” Those weren’t the words Celestia would say if there wasn’t some kind of misunderstanding going on here, plus she was poking both her front hooves together in a nervous manner. “Hold on, don’t tell me… you misunderstood my reason for needing an audience with you? Can I please get my stuff back sometime today, I have to get back to the location of the crash site to make sure my mom is alright.” Now those words got a reaction out of her and I was wondering what she’d say next. “What crash site?” Now Celestia seemed to be quite intent on hearing what I had to say and less perky, she was more attentive as her ears went straight up and her flowing mane stilled. Her smile became less real by the second and I was surprised that I could actually perceive it becoming a false one. “You know that exploding rainbow across the sky the other day? I know someone who knows who caused that, it knocked the airship I was on out of the sky.” There was a muted look of shock on the face of the princess, I just wrapped my arms around my knees underneath the sheets while giving her an unamused look. “That rainbow wave burst the front two balloons on the airship and sent everyone overboard close to some rather pointy shoals, we were flying up the coast on our way to Manehatten when it happened. You might want to check the east coast down south for survivors or get in contact with the sea ponies in that general area to see if they saw or saved anyone recently.” “I… why do I not know about this?” Celestia had immediately started making her way out of the room, in a fit of anger judging by the way her mane started to flow as if it were about to catch fire. It looked like she had some fish to fry. Speaking of fish to fry, I’m hungry, who did I have to beat over the head to get some food around here? The room service is here lousy and forget bed bugs, you got entire alicorns in your bed in Canterlot Castle. At least alicorns were less annoying, I’ll give the accommodations that much. There were some questions that I wanted to ask that wasn’t related to me getting breakfast, what does being a full on sun priest exactly entail and what was it that Celestia had expected me to say when I answered her two questions? “Did she just leave me here and forget about me?” Well I was up a creek, where's my paddle? I wasn’t about to go walking around naked as I had a past life stigma about it. At least I wasn’t prideful enough to ignore my first option, which is calling for help. “Hello, is there anyone around here!” “Huh, are you the one I’m supposed to be in charge of caring for?” In came a maid who froze and saw me sitting there on the bed. “Hello there, I’m Jade and you are?” The maid seemed a little unnerved by my appearance, I was just an Abyssinian for crying out loud. There are way worst things than a cat girl that you could meet that were like cats. After a moment she gasped and shook her head realizing that she was being rude. “I’m Fresh Start, a pleasure to make you’re acquaintance milady.” She curtsied and smiled at me, she had a floor length mixed blonde and orange mane, a bright purple coat, ruby red eyes and a maid dress that hid her cutie mark. “Is there anything I can do for you?” “Get me some clothes for one, also could you get some breakfast for me while you’re at it? I can get a bath in while you’re busy with that.” I got up with the blanket still wrapped around me toga style and made my way for the bathroom, I was quickly stopped by the maid. “Wait a second, you need to be careful with that shoulder when you wash it!” Ah yes, Fresh just had to point out the stitched up and scabbing wound. How could I ever forget that? “Also what would you like to eat?” “A fried egg, broken yoke mixed in with the white, salt and pepper, two fresh slices of bread, a small hash brown, the fruit of the day, a waffle with butter and strawberry or blueberry syrup if available and an apple tart to finish it off.” As I rattled that out, I noticed that the earth pony had already pulled out a notepad from her dress and was immediately jotting everything down. “Okay what’s what with the shampoo or soap and where can I get a towel after I’m done?” “What shampoo scent do you want?” She asked blithely as she looked over everything she wrote. “Favorite color for the clothes while we’re at it.” “Kiwi, waterfall mist or sea breeze, kiwi preferred.” The maid quickly set about and gathered a bottle, a bar of soap and put a towel off to the side for and me. “My favorite color is green, I’m also partial to blue as well.” “Okay, just be careful with that shoulder of yours. I wouldn’t want to fail in my duty to take care of you my first day on the job.” She then started to bustle off only to stop, she turned back to me. “Oh and leave the blanket by the door, I’ll take care of it and the other sheets.” I started to run a bath and thought back to the conversation I had with Celestia, one interesting thought crossed my mind. I was right about the SM.I.L.E. director being a Changeling, that was supposed to be a bluff. What are the chances of that happening? Well, what are the chances I could walk from the train station straight to the castle without ever seeing a royal guard until I got there? Quite astronomical I’d imagine, like the sun… oh right. I entered the mountain prayer position and did my morning routine of a sun salutation, before I hopped into a nice hot tub of water. -Celestia- I was quite livid, I had thought the Sonic Rainboom was incredibly beautiful. Now I was learning that nobody had informed me of incidents occurring because of it! Well I’d see what my little ponies in charge of air traffic had to say for themselves. “Please tell me gentle ponies, why was I never informed about one or more airships crashing within my borders as an end result of that exploding rainbow more than a day ago?” I believed the sun priest, in fact I hadn’t even gotten the cats name before she rushed off. Even then, I still believed her about the crash landing. Even when I called these ponies into this meeting and they didn’t look too particularly worried… yet. I was pretty sure they were connected to stupid things the nobles were trying to do. “What are you talking, what crashed airships?” One of the various unicorns before me asked, I noted the lack of a single pegasus pony from air traffic control being in the room with me. “The airspace was completely clear that day, except for any Pegasus flying near cloudsdale.” “Are you seriously going to sit there and try to cover it up when I already have proof?” I was quite certain I was going to hear something that would be telling right about… “Oh, really, where is this so called pegasus with their proof that an airship was violating their airspace?” The unicorn came off as haughty and he decided to dig himself deeper. “As you can see, I don’t see any pegasi here trying to show their vaunted proof. Whoever it is, they are obviously lying about whatever it is they’re telling you.” “Who said that it was a pegasus that was my proof?” That caused all the ponies in the room to gulp loudly, I had stumbled onto something and I wasn’t letting a single unicorn leave this room until I squeezed the information out of them. “Also what’s this about violating Cloudsdale’s airspace? I would really like to know, as the proof I was talking about involved an Abyssinian coming to report a crashed airship and I only just heard about it this morning. An even more important question comes to mind, what did you do with the air traffic control pegasi?” Now that had all the unicorn ponies paling, as they hadn’t informed her of any crashed airships at all or that airships were flying in illegal airspaces they shouldn’t be. She had them and she knew it, as such today would be a good day for fighting corruption when it just gave itself away so blatantly. -Jade- Sitting next to my towel wrapped form was a stack of empty plates and Fresh Start was just staring at me with awe. “Where did you even put it all?” She asked as I had just finished swallowing the last bits of egg between two slices of bread. Stating that I starved in a previous life probably wouldn’t have gone over very well as an excuse for my rather healthy appetite. “What can I say, I was hungry.” All she did was numbly nod at my answer, I leaned back sighing contently and started picking at my teeth with a claw. After a lot of silence and with me relaxing with a towel around my waste, Fresh spoke up. “Does your shoulder hurt?” One would think she was trying to make a conversation magically appear out of a hat. “It’s fine.” I told Celestia what I came to tell her, now I had to get my stuff and get back to mom. “So about those clothes I asked for, also where’s all my other stuff?” “Oh right, the shirt with the blood stain and the other clothing, It should finished quite soon milady.” Having said that Fresh bowed to me. “All your stuff will be returned to you soon.” “Everything including the two black feathers in my pack?” A simple nod and I just sat there for a moment before responding. “Well the sooner you do that, the sooner I can get out of here.” “Wait… what? Aren’t you going to stay here and help Celestia as a sun priest?” There was something akin to panic in Fresh Start’s eyes. “I never agreed to anything and Celestia hasn’t asked me to stay so…” I dragged it out for emphasis while twirling my left hand in her direction. “I’ll just be going as soon as you get my stuff and the fresh clothes you promised me.” “Well I did agree to something, I promised to be your maid for Celestia.” I gave Fresh Start an unconcerned look, did she do that in writing? If so, it was a serious problem for her and it was none of my business. “She said this job was important, that means I have to follow you when you leave!” “Then you better get packing, because I’m catching the next train out of Canterlot before Celestia tries to talk me into anything.” I guess I wasn’t leaving Canterlot without at least some trouble following me, I think Celestia might just want a little bit too much of my time and she had acted rather creepy towards me. I hoped to get out Canterlot before the guards could stop me.