//------------------------------// // Chapter Three, Parties, Pukwudgies and Pirates: The cutie scenario. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Jade- Okay, so I and Fizzle discovered what a Raven and Celestia’s Feathers would do when used in a magical sustain. We still had no idea what a cloak does when used as one. Raven feathers allowed for projection of thoughts. Could be useful as a distraction or silent communication, but it couldn’t actually hurt anyone. Interesting given that Ravens in mythology are seen as messengers and bad luck. The cast must be the bad luck part and the magical sustain for it must be the messenger portion. Fizzle was a little surprised and blushing afterwards, maybe because I had been thinking about how beautiful her eyes were when I sustained the feather. Celestia’s feather did something rather expected of the princess of the sun, it redirected sunlight. I couldn’t get enough sunlight together to do more than be blinding. So no solar beams of doom for me. It didn’t take long afterwards for Fizzle to point out something I hadn’t noticed. Sitting underneath a tree after playing with sunlight redirection, Fizzle was the first to notice that I had no shadow. It was shortly after that we discovered the effect required the feather to have been already used as a magical sustain and needs to have been in sunlight for some time. The other feather didn’t make me lack shadows, until I used it as a sustain as well. Protection from darkness as a self-sustain was rather unusual. We still have no idea what the cloak did after trying quite a few things with it, it did have a useful self-sustain effect of making me stealthier. That would certainly be useful, I can think of many things to use that effect for later. When lunch was called, Fresh Start found out what we were talking about when it came to mom’s cooking. The fried broccoli with a bit of the sweet glaze was delicious, about as delicious as the rest of the breaded and fried vegetables. The fried and chopped pickle bits were particularly popular. It was a few hours after lunch that Celestia came back with three different construction crews, the princess said hello and thankfully didn’t forget to put up a bubble of silence around our campsite while the crews got to work. Sekhet didn’t make herself scarce this time, but she did transform into a more cat sized and cat like form. Was she actually avoiding Celestia because a fight might break out? I was a little concerned, wouldn’t a war goddess be more likely to actively seek out a battle? Celestia didn’t stay for long and she soon left, she was too busy in Canterlot to really watch the construction efforts. When Celestia left, Sekhet returned to her Alicorn size and we started up a game of O and O for the evening with five party members. None of the ponies made mention of Sekhet changing appearances or even size, especially when she did it performing a showy backflip for that matter. It would have been interesting to watch the multiple crews building the makings of a small town in less than twenty four hours, but I’d rather be having fun with my family and friends. -Kuril- Making food for the construction crews wasn’t hard and the compliments kept coming, they were thankful for the meal. If I were to blush for every compliment they gave my cooking, then I would have a beet red face for the rest of my life. My ears were burning at the very least about how well my vegetable jambalaya was coming along. I hadn’t been very good at it at first, I had some trouble with cooking rice correctly, but dinner tonight seems to have gone quite well all things considered. I was going to earn my title, I would just need to make more recipes and learn to cook some new things. I can’t forget about my fish eating patrons either, including my daughter, Sekhet and even Fizzle. I had to inform Fizzle that she ate fish the night she came to our camp via the magical goddess express, the look on her face was priceless and she said it didn’t taste bad at all. Fizzle must have had some pegasus blood in her. Fresh Start was rather helpful in spooning out portions to everyone and it was a good evening all around. She was quite fair about the portions she dished out to the hungry workers and there were plenty of seconds going around, it was nice to be appreciated like this by people who weren’t my daughter. My cooking apparently had an effect on the three construction crews, they all organized to finish our restaurant and home first. It was getting late and Fresh Start was already flossing and turning in early like she said she did. I wonder how this will turn out, Celestia was going to a lot of effort to keep my little tom cat around. I mean a train station, a school and a home. Not much of a town was it? I’m sure Airship Mauled will grow, but we’re going to need a lot more than what Celestia was willing to give us. -Jade, one day later- “I can’t believe it, she actually managed to get a larder installed… well most would call it a refrigerator.” I was a little surprised that Celestia had managed a school, but thankfully there were no teachers and I was walking out of our new restaurant based home. Our new home was ready for use, it was a restaurant alright and you could hardly tell it used to be a crashed airship. Plenty of room to make it run as an inn as well, we all had our rooms picked out already. “It looks like a home to me, but we need to get going to Ponyville if we’re going to make it to the cuteceanera in time. Are you sure you can watch things here Fresh?” Abyssinia may be a tad lackluster in schooling, but at least we didn’t forget to staff a place we built for the express purpose of making sure that young minds were educated. Mine wasn’t exactly young, but Fizzle’s certainly was. Well we could have a teacher in the school, but I’m not sure how many people would accept being taught about myths, monsters and creatures by someone as young as me. We certainly weren’t teaching magical alchemy to anyone yet, not until we’ve explored it more thoroughly. I may have shown and explained to Fizzlepop how magical alchemy works, but I didn’t tell her how to actually do it. We haven’t even gotten around to mixing ingredients into our casts yet and when mom and I did… we probably wouldn’t be ready for the end results of what will happen. “I’ll be fine. Besides, I need to make sure everything in the house works and that they didn’t half ass any of it.” Fresh then entered the restaurant that mom had named ‘The Witch’s Fare’. I thought it was a nice name for it, especially since my mother was going to continue wearing robes and would eventually find a pointy hat to use as a chef’s toque. “I’ll be here to protect her from other predators or other people if there is a problem.” Sekhet said lazily lying next to the once upon a time crashed airship, I wondered if she was going to be around for the rest of my natural life. I better not bother her enough to ask me a truly dangerous enough riddle if she is. It still bothered me that Sekhet can decimate entire armies and yet she can look and feel so lazy, I think she just didn’t want to bother with fighting Celestia’s soldiers as it wouldn’t be fair for them to have to fight her. “I know, isn’t our new home just wonderful? I mean after it was so graciously donated to us by Celestia buying the crashed Predestined Paradox and refurbishing it… at no cost to us of course. When we can finally get some train tracks out here traveling to Ponyville won’t be such a problem.” You’re not being very classy by calling attention to it mom. The nearby empty train station was a bit useless at the moment, but it did make finding home easier. “Still, I hope Celestia doesn’t bother you too much Jade. I'm ready to go, how about you my adorable little Fizzle?” We were getting ready to set out and Fizzle looked a bit nervous. “About as ready as I’ll ever be.” Mom and I both knew that Fizzle was not feeling particularly fond about going into a town full of ponies. She had even taken to wearing my cloak while the construction crews were around to hide her broken horn, she shouldn’t feel so ashamed about a horrible incident. Well, aside from the fact that she didn’t recognize the clear warning signs on the ursa’s cave for what they were, she was just a little filly that didn’t know any better. She should be as bitter or broody as she was when we met her, she has opened up to us quite a bit. “Right, let’s go celebrate a cutie making her mark on this lovely world!” I thrust my right fist into the air, hefted my pack and started north. We’d save time by cutting through the Ever Free Forest this time, it was surprisingly quiet during the day. - Pinkie- Hey everyone, it’s me Pinkie Pie the filly talking to you live from the computer screen! I’m going to have so much fun when school lets out and it’ll do that in three… two… one! The ringing of the bell tower in the distance sounded off and I was a blur to start setting up the party. Why I was already in Sugar Cube Corner within five seconds of exiting the school, that’s mostly thanks to an unseen scene transition in the text. I’m sure people don’t mind if I do that right? I really want this party to work since all my friends are coming to it! I wonder if Jade will be coming as a deer? -Fluttershy- School let out and I was so nervous about the party, I really didn’t like big surprises. I was kind of nervous, but Pinkie assured me Jade would be there and it wasn’t a surprise party. Also Rainbow and her parents would be coming with me and my own. I just hoped Ms. La Perm didn’t get too mad with Rainbow Dash when she showed up, I don’t want Mrs. Whistles and Mr. Hothoof to get into a fight with Jade’s mother. My little brother was growing bigger every day, soon he’d be even bigger than I am. He’d still always be my lazy little brother Zephyr. I sighed, it was time to get going. You only get one cutecenera and at least I’m spending it with friends, I’m so thankful my parents weren’t excitable like Rainbow’s parents. -Jade- We were getting plenty of stares, because two of us were certainly an abnormality to the daily lives of ponies. I didn’t entirely come into town when I was previously here and got fixed up by Quick Patch, so I really shouldn’t be this surprised that ponies were going to stare at the two cats walking into town with a cloaked pony. Speaking of my shoulder, it needed a few more days before the stitches can be removed according to Sekhet. At least I hadn’t failed to keep my shoulder clean even if it was a bit itchy and I was kind of glad Sekhet hadn’t targeted my shoulder when we were clawing at each other over food. “Here it is, Sugar Cube Corner.” I looked upon Pinkie’s new place in the world, a home with a gingerbread house theme. “Looks like a place I wouldn’t mind living in, it looks sweet.” Only because it’s basically the style of house that a fairytale witch would normally live in mom. “Are you okay Fizzy?” I looked back at Fizzle keeping her head down and being rather skittish. “I’m… I’m okay.” She was trying to appear quite brave as she followed us into to the bakery. “Hello there, I’m Carrot Cake and welcome to Sugar Cube Corner.” Green eyes, yellow fur and orange mane, he was quite a friendly fellow. “What can I do for you three?” “We’re here for the cuteceanera of my friend, I believe Pinkie has already finished setting that up?” I pointed out the decorations for Fluttershy’s cutie mark related party in the corner of the Corner. “Oh, you're friends with Pinkie? Well you’re not exactly what I expected when she said that all her friends were going to be here for the party.” He didn’t seemed put off by the fact that I and my mother were unusual friends or that Fizzle kept her head covered with a hood. “Well go on and sit down, Pinkie is in the middle of baking a cake for that shy filly with my wife Cup Cake. The party is already paid for and you have that area reserved for it, so enjoy. A pony can only ever get their cutie mark once, so make this party something your friend will remember forever.” “Oh we will, don’t worry about that. I’ll chaperone things here until the others arrive.” Waving off the stallion, mom motioned for us to follow her over to the reserved area for the cuteceanera. We'd wait for the other guests. We were only seated for about two minutes when Pinkie rushed out and placed a platter of cupcakes before us with a bright smile. She seemed to be quite happy to be here. “Hey, Jade! Oh, so you’re not a deer today, well okay then. Is that your mother, who’s your friend in the cloak? Hello I’m Pinkie Pie, I want us to be best friends! Want some cupcakes?” The exuberant and cheerful Pinkie made Fizzle shy away slightly, even so Fizzle still picked up a cupcake and started to eat it. “We’re still waiting on the guest of honor, I’m sure she’ll be here real soon!” “I’m… Fizzlepop Berrytwist, you can call me Fizzle.” Once bitten, less shy, the cupcake really had Fizzle perking up quite a bit as she recognized the taste from the one I previously shared with her. “You make really good cupcakes by the way.” “Thank you!” Pinkie’s shout had Fizzle reeling back a bit and the hyper pony turned back to me. “We’re almost done with the cutie cake, I’ve got a piñata, we’re going to play pin the tail on the pony and I even know music we can dance to!” “Okay then, get right to it Pinkie, Fluttershy shouldn’t have a party without a cake.” I watched as Pinkie gasped and zipped off to continue helping Mrs. Cake. “Would you like some drinks?” Mr. Cake offered as he came over to us, it seemed that it was a slow day here in the bakery. “Sure, if you have pomegranate juice or lemonade.” It wasn’t too long after we got our drinks that Fluttershy was seen coming in, she spotted me and mom easily enough and immediately fluttered over to us. “Nice to see you again Jade, Kuril and Tempest.” Fluttershy's attention was quickly grabbed by Fizzle. Fluttershy turned a questioning gaze to her. “I'm Fizzlepop Berrytwist, it's nice to greet you properly.” Thus was the start of the party that would soon be ruined by circumstances beyond our control.