-Fizzlepop-
As soon as Celestia left, with a tired look on her face, I turned to the two weirdoes that I was becoming quite attached to. One of them just claimed guardianship over me. I should feel upset that she didn’t ask me, but I can only feel happy about it and I actually wanted to be coddled more. I was just too afraid to ask for more than they’re already giving me, I didn’t want to wear out their hospitality.
“Do you seriously need to have the town be named that of all things?” I asked with some vehemence in my voice.
“Yes, of course we do!” They both said at the same time in unison. Why was I not so surprised about this? I should be more surprised. It actually made me see them as a daughter and mother despite their very visible differences.
“I don’t know why I like you two so much.” The both of them were weird, but they did know a fun game at least.
O and O was an intellectual pastime for them and now I had my own character to join them with. I felt included and welcomed, but most of all they made me feel like I had a home now. It’s something I didn’t know I needed so badly.
“Hey Fizzy, do you want to share a cupcake?” What did she just call me? It sounded much better than Fizzle to me at least or maybe it was the way she said it.
“I think I like being called Fizzy. Also sure, I wouldn’t mind a snack.” The campfire was as inviting as ever, I went to sit down next to Jade. “It’s Celestia’s loss that she wasn’t willing to stick around for lunch, but I guess she’s really busy running a country.”
Jade held her knife out over the fire letting the flames lick the blade. After a moment she pulled it back and waited for it to cool down before wiping it off with a bit of clean cloth, she then opened the wrapped cupcake with the message in it.
“Oh right, I should get started on that right away!” I think we all almost forgot she was here, what was her name again? I believe it was Fresh Start.
“Oh no you don’t, I’m the head chef around here my lovely yet lowly waiter!” I watched as Kuril got up and into Fresh’s face, I’d be upset too if the best cook around wasn’t allowed to make a meal when she wanted to. “You haven’t tasted my food yet and you’ll be our guest for lunch. We’re not letting you cook until you’re ready to live up to the lofty expectations I represent.”
“Waiter? I’m a maid!” You might not be a maid much longer Fresh, I silently thought, not with that attitude anyway. “I’m supposed to be doing the work for you guys!”
“Let, my mom, do the cooking.” That was possibly the flattest most threatening delivery of a sentence I’ve ever heard Jade say, Fresh should probably listen to her after what happened to Sekhet last night. Where was she anyway? Oh look, there she is and she’s back to being much larger than the rest of us. “You won’t be disappointed and I even bet you’ll want her to keep cooking at first bite.”
“Hello there… what’s black and white, while being read all over?” Did Sekhet just ask one of the simplest riddles ever? She must be only slightly annoyed with Fresh.
“A… big… big… C-c-c-…” Oh right, we haven’t exactly introduce Fresh Start to Sekhet have we? She was cowering in fright at the big toothy grin that Sekhet was sporting.
Even a goddess of healing couldn’t fix my horn, though I do guess she’s more about healing herself than others. Healing’s a good talent to have as a war goddess, she’s actually quite amiable to get along with and knows how to be a good cleric as an O and O character.
“Fresh Start, say hello to our resident goddess. The amazing stray cat, Sekhet!” There was mirth on Jade’s face as she smiled towards Fresh. “We fed her and now she won’t leave. Please tell me we can keep her Fresh?”
Sekhet helped me even when she didn’t have to and I was going to respect her for it, except for the fact that she lost to Jade the other night while fighting over food. I was not telling her any of my thoughts on that to her face though.
“I don’t know if we can keep a whole sphinx fresh Jade. It sounds really hard to do.” With Kuril’s words, I think I know where I went wrong in life. It was me meeting Kuril and her daughter Jade. I watched as Kuril poked at one of Sekhet’s legs. “Where would we even start cleaning her?”
“Okay, enough of that you two, I am not a stray animal!” Again I wouldn’t voice it to Sekhet, but she had certainly acted like one last night. Even I could tell she wouldn’t leave because Kuril fed her, to be fair I wouldn’t leave either if I could keep eating good meals like what she makes. Who would want to leave when they had nowhere else to be after getting a hearty meal from Kuril? “Now answer my riddle lowly mortal, you who would dare prevent ‘The Witch of Good Taste’ from plying her most important trade. That being keeping me happy and not violent, so I will tell you the riddle again if you have forgotten already from witnessing my rather majestic presence. What is black and white, while being read all over?”
“Black and white, while red… wait read as in reading… a newspaper?” Fresh watched as Sekhet sat down and smiled.
“Correct, you have avoided my wrath for now. I would have also accepted a skunk covered in red paint or recently eviscerated by a predator and a monochrome picture as seen through red lenses.” Is it me or was Sekhet and everyone else ganging up on the poor earth pony? I had to put a stop to this. “Don’t try to stop Lady Kuril again or else I will riddle harder, don’t think I won’t. This was just a warning riddle.”
“You need to create an O and O character if you’re going to be living with us.” Wait, what was that that just came out of my mouth. Well it’s not like we were actively going hurt Fresh Start and it was all in good… fun. I felt a warmth in my chest at the idea. "If Airship Mauled is going to be a town, then O and O will be it's favorite pastime. We're going to make a thing of it!"
I was receiving some surprised stares from my guardian, my friend and Sekhet.
“What are you… wait, Ogres and Oubliettes? I think Shining and Cadence are going to miss me at the next game, but I already have a character. I just need to get my character sheet out of my saddle bags.” She had come here with a loaded bags full of stuff, she eventually pulled out her character sheet.
Apparently Fresh Start’s character was a spoony bard, the class that sings positive and negative effects while fighting at the same time. Weak offensive attributes, but great defensive and support.
“Hey look, we’ve already corrupted our first pony mom! Fizzy is definitely one of us now. One of us, one of us, octopus, octopus, octo… wait, why am I saying octopus?” I gave Jade a light shove and we started laughing.
When she eventually managed to control her giggling Jade finally offered up the larger half of the cupcake she had sliced with her knife. I took it without question and bit into it, my world exploded as it was quite delicious. Somebody had a special talent for making cupcakes, also I’m quite glad I had the larger half now.
As I was eating that half of the cupcake, Jade was reading the note that came with it.
-Jade-
“Deer Jade, it’s me Pinkie Pie, you’re supposed to start a letter with deer right? You’re not a deer though, if you were a deer then you wouldn’t have claws and I know you’re still a magical cat. You are still a magical cat right? I should put Cat Jade down the next time I write a letter to make sure you’re not a deer when I see you next. I mean you magically grew wings so who’s to say you can’t change into a deer? I hope you liked the cupcake! Oh and you’re invited to a special event, Fluttershy is going to hold her cuteceanera here at Sugar Cube Corner and your invited to the party. My Pinkie Senses told me she was going to have the party here. I’m the planner for it and the Cakes, the nice baker ponies who are letting me live here as a part time baking assistant, are letting me invite all my friends. All two of them! Can you believe it? It’ll be so much fun! I’m going to make friends with the whole town eventually, but I’m still settling in and I have to go to school here for some reason even when I have a job I love. At least it’s not as boring as where I used to live, It’s kind of sad that my sisters won’t be able to come to the party. I’ll just have to party that much harder for all of us! Hope you can come Jade. It’s the beginning of this weekend after school lets out. Also, bring anyone you want with you too, the more the merrier!”
I read the note and rolled my eyes, so she actually does write like she talks. I stretched out and considered how I was going to spend the rest of my day, I looked to Fizzle enjoying the cupcake and figured I might want to get to know her better. I mean everything I know about her right now can’t be all there is to her right? I think I would be sorely disappointed, but I would still get her to try new things.
“Hey Fizzy, want to go to a party?” Something tells me I shouldn’t have asked that, she looked rather pensive about the idea of going near other ponies. She didn’t seem nearly as bad around us… then again most of those who were here weren’t ponies.
“A… party? I don’t think that’s a good idea Jade. I’ll probably cause a scene.” She was talking about her horn and I understood why it would cause a scene.
“You can wear my cloak and keep the hood up the whole time, though I’m sure Pinkie or Fluttershy wouldn’t care.” Carefully I positioned myself so I could run my hand right hand down her mane, she seems to like any kind of attention she can get. “Look if ponies cause a scene, then I’ll do something to draw attention away from you if you want me to.”
“I don’t know…” She didn’t seem to like the idea, but I wanted her to meet Pinkie and to see Fluttershy again in a more talkative capacity. I was going to friend her so hard, she’ll know that she’s loved and is special to us!
“Just think on it Fizzy, I want you to be at the party with me. I also want mom to come with us.” That brought my mother’s attention to us as she was already setting up for lunch, fried vegetables and several kinds of dipping sauce. I didn’t like the spicy sauce, I always went with the sweet sauce.
“Oh, are we going somewhere my little tom cat?” Look mom, you know darn well what we were talking about. “I thought we were staying here at Airship Mauled.”
“It seems Fluttershy is inviting us to her cutie mark party in the afternoon at the start of this weekend. I want you to come with us to it mom.” Yet I still repeated myself anyway. Only you could make me want to face palm mom, never change. “You can get a scope of Ponyville and we can advertise your new restaurant opening here soon in the town of Airship Mauled, provided that Celestia can actually set it up in the next twenty four hours. So what are we calling this one? We can’t exactly be Kuril’s Coastal Canteen if we’re not on a coast.”
“Sounds like a plan for us and I already have a name for the restaurant. What are you doing for the rest of this afternoon though?” Good question mother, I had nothing and I figured I could get away with being lazy for the rest of the day. My shoulder kind of smarts and my injuries still needed to be licked a bit.
“Maybe get a little exercise with my knife’s sustain, test out a few other items and record their sustain effects.” I pretended to have something to do and hope that mom doesn’t question it.
“Sounds fair, just no lazing about. I know you too well and I know that you’re going to try and do nothing for the rest of the day! Fresh Start you can help me prepare the food, but I’ll still do all the cooking.” She made a shooing motion to both of us and I noticed Sekhet approaching mom. “Go have some fun with Fizzle, I’ll call you two when lunch is ready.”
I went to grab some stuff and would be testing what the sustain on several items we’ve yet to test would do, mom called me out on trying to be lazy so I can’t get away with it today. She'd know if I did laze about.
-Sekhet-
“I would like to inform you that you didn’t give birth to a daughter, you gave birth to a demon that disguises itself as your daughter and your food is the only thing that appeases its anger.” Of course I was exaggerating, but Priest Jade was quite vicious last night.
“What can I say, she loves a good potato stew.” Lady Kuril shrugged and got started on the food with the assistance of the serf Fresh Start. “So where were you when Celestia was around?”
I had of course been watching Celestia from a 'safe' distance. We could both feel Jade when she was nearby, but each other? Not so much, it appears a new domain was starting here and I was willing to watch over it.
“I was walking off my injuries from the prior night. I’m fully healed, thanks for asking by the way.” Ah yes the popular past time of immortal beings, sarcasm.
“What’s your take on Celestia, can she actually create a town in less than twenty four hours?” So Lady Kuril knew, well I wouldn’t put it past Priest Jade to know too.
“She certainly has the resources to do it if she isn’t trying to build more than a few small buildings.” In comparison to my resources being a paw full of beings that I'll silently admit are my friends.
-Jade-
I spent the rest of the afternoon showing and explaining our magical alchemy to Fizzle, mostly by testing the magical alchemy sustain of a raven feather, one of the two remaining feathers from Celestia and the cloak I got from Fresh Start in Canterlot. Sustains were always easy to test, but figuring out the effect was another matter.