//------------------------------// // Chapter Five, Building Relationships: Romance of the mind. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Fluttershy- I’m kind of surprise my parents were letting me come here for lunch, I was invited for a good meal and I was going to take this opportunity to say hello to Jade and her mother today. I might even be able to talk to Sekhet a little bit more, coming with me were Rainbow and her mother Windy. “Are we there yet?” Oh come on Rainbow, we haven’t even been flying for more than a minute. We should be there soon, it’s faster to get there by air than by land. “No, but we’ll be there in few minutes.” I was glad we didn’t have to worry about getting attacked by monsters on the ground and the skies were clear today. “Are you doing alright Fluttershy?” It was so nice of Windy to come along with us, I wonder what Mr. Hothoof and my parents are doing while she’s here with us. “I know my little champ is perfectly fine, but if you need to rest we can stop.” “I’m doing okay Mrs. Whistles.” I wasn’t that weak. Sure I’m meek or didn’t fly very well, but I wasn’t made of paper. “We should be there soon, they are building a town out here.” I might also be a fraidy… scaredy… okay, I couldn’t exactly use those bullying terms without thinking about how brave Jade and her mother are. A lot of things frightened me, but I really liked animals and there were a lot scary animals out there. Jade protected me and Pinkie from a chimera, then she and her mother faced down a pack of mean pukwudgies together. I would think of myself as a chicken, but even chickens have claws and fight back. Even a cornered scared mouse can be stronger. Speaking of pukwudgies. They looked adorable despite their violent tendencies, I spent a lot of time looking them up and learning about them. I wonder what Jade knew about them personally. Well I would find out soon, their home is located where the airship crashed right? So all I have to do is look for the campfire, if it was even still going that is. -Jade- I was walking alongside Fizzle and Jacky, trying not to pay attention to Bloody Maries. I didn’t know what to think of their affection towards me and she still hadn’t explained what happened to her between then and now. I was glad that she let me start walking on my own, because I really didn't want the chimera as a mount or for her to get any strange ideas about us. Together and collectively the three of them were the Bloody Maries, separately as individual heads they were Mara the tiger, Maria the goat and Marie the snake. I just wanted to be friends and they chose to want something a little more. Apparently I was the one they wanted as a mate, hopefully I could find someone more compatible for them and get them to stop calling me that as swiftly as possible. My friends weren’t apparently going to be of any help, they didn’t want to hurt me or themselves trying to help me. I didn’t exactly want Bloody Maries to get hurt either. I just had to ask Bloody Maries a question or two as we were almost back to the campsite. Cheerilee seemed to be staying well away from the chimera and kept giving it distrustful looks, what was truly scary about it was that it was actually serious about following me back to my ‘cave’. “Quick question, do you expect me to mate with you against my will Maries?” That was the most important and straightforward question that I needed an answer to, everything else was secondary. “No. Our species may be violent, but we aren’t completely barbaric.” I’m guessing Maries would be a barbarian class when we started our next town wide O and O game. Given her age, she would also be going to school with us… oh ‘joy’. Their ability to speak completely in unison is a bit creepy. “We will just keep being affectionate with you until you accept us, we will not push farther than you are comfortable with. Aside from that we are both still too young for such things. How do they say it in the civilization you people enjoy? I believe it is stated as get your head out of the drain pipe.” “Well that’s a huge load off of my mind.” Taking this moment to see what the reactions were to my question, the results were quite varied. Fizzle sighed with relief, good friend to be worried about such a thing. Jacky shuddered at the implications I just brought up, she would probably appreciate it if I didn’t try to hook her up with Maries. Cheerilee was the odd one as she had a disbelieving look. Teach was probably disturbed that I already knew about how birds fly into bee hives and then the honey goes everywhere. That leads to the birds having to pay for the damages instilled and eventually the queen bee is running a quite lucrative bird seed racket. The birds are drugged on the queens beauty alone and she manipulates them like she does her other drug trafficking workers to go looking for pollen to pollinate things with. It would at least explain why the hummingbird mafia rubbed up against bees so often, probably passing the pollen on the sly. Where was my mind going with that again? Did I just seriously go full on cloud cuckoo land resident? I think I dropped a euphemism somewhere in that train derailment. The cause of the derailment in my thought processes was certainly caused by me suddenly realizing the fact that it was the chimera telling me, of all the beings around here, to keep my mind out of the gutter. We were soon upon the campsite and mom had broken out the cauldron again, it smelled like some kind of soup being cooked over my fire. Everyone likes soup and some bread to soak up the excess which I can already smell being baked, I was certainly not trying to distract myself from the chimera in the area as if she were an elephant with spatial issues. “Quick Sekhet, you have to save Jade from the chimera!” Really Fizzle, that was the plan you had going on all along? Wait until we got back and then you try to get Sekhet to help save me from a vaguely dangerous relationship. Sekhet just looked at the chimera who stared wide eyed at the large goddess, said goddess then turned a glance to me and snorted slightly. “Save her from what? The chimera is clearly not aggressive at all and it doesn’t seem like it is stupid enough to assault me.” Oh here we go, once Sekhet hears about this she probably wouldn’t let me hear the end of it. “In fact they look to have quite a spark of intelligence for their species, they know when an apex predator around. Look, they're already trusting their instincts around me.” Well Bloody Maries instincts told her to bow to Sekhet and to prostrate herself before the goddess. She left herself completely open and vulnerable to Sekhet’s whims, meaning that all her necks were showing to the greater predator here. “I swear my little tom cat, can’t you go more than a week or two without something happening like bringing a chimera home?” She wasn’t going to be a pet mom, she was trying for something a little higher on the relationship chain. “They can stay if they want to. Though I must admit, you weren’t exaggerating about all kinds of weird things happening here in Equestria. Just please stop bringing strays home, it’s getting a bit hard to cook for all of them and a goddess with a bottomless stomach.” “See… even Kuril knows they're not a threat." Resting her head on her crossed paws, Sekhet gave us a bored look and lazily flicked her tail from side to side. "So please, explain to me why I should bother myself with running them off.” -Fluttershy- “Are you sure it’s safe down there? There’s two monsters right there.” There was a bit of worry in Windy’s voice, even then she sniffed the air a bit and hummed at the wonderful smell coming from below. Kuril’s cooking tasted wonderful the first time I tried it, I would like whatever it is that she’s making right now. “It’s perfectly fine, also the bigger one is not a monster. It’s a goddess that Jade and her mother are friends with.” Though to ease our chaperones mind, I decided to suggest something. “We can land a little bit away and approach on hoof. I remember Jade saying she befriended the chimera and that looks like the same one that attacked me and Pinkie weeks ago.” “Can I touch the snake tail mom?” Only Rainbow would seriously tempt that big cuddly creature to claw her face off. “Ask the chimera for permission first Rainbow.” Well at least Windy was respectful of Ms. Chimera’s space. -Bloody Maries- That… is a big alpha. Is it an Alpha though? She’s humongous. Our mate certainly doesn’t need our protection at all, she’s powerful and has powerful allies. Sisters, what should we do it’s just staring at us? It doesn’t see us as a threat, we should attack and make it know all our names! I know for certain that fighting it will surely get us killed, let’s run! Like we didn’t already know that fact Maria, I will sit and await judgement. Come on Marie, help me out with Mara here. We need to start running and fast! Nope, I’m not getting in on this, you two were the ones that wanted Jade as a mate. We can still fall back on just being friends. Never! Never! Look is it really that hard to just work up a friendship first? We’re not even sure if we’re exactly compatible in any given way, shape or form. I will abstain from following your suggestions, we're sitting still and not moving. Look Maria, father never ran from danger and is a powerful hunter. We are a mighty and proud chimera, we do not run away from danger no matter how grand! You are being cowardly. Mara, father lost five teeth in that encounter with the Hydra and his ability to spit fire was weakened for several days afterwards. I’m not a coward, I just don’t want to be stupid and take on more than I can chew. Mara, Maria, must I remind the both of you that I’m the smart one here? Let’s just try to greet everyone in a friendly and calm manner. If that alpha thing decides to be upset with us, she will win the confrontation. I really don’t think all the poison that I can inject her with will do anything to her at all. Also could you not think the word 'chew' Maria? It reminds me of all those tin cans you keep eating and you know Mara and I don’t like it when you do that. I agree with Marie, no more tin cans please Maria. Tin cans fills our belly for a while though and they taste good. Good to you maybe, I and Mara have to deal with the consequences of what you eat. The consequences have never bothered me. I still want Jade to be our mate, but I do not want to fight that thing as it is both above us and beyond. You both know my instincts are right! You’re the part of us that can consume anything, of course it doesn’t bother you Maria! Just know that I do not think we should pursue Jade too roughly, if you are actually set on her being our mate. On that we agree. -Jade- “She wants Jade to be her mate and she would have hurt us if we tried to get Jade away from her. We brought her here so you could deal with her!” There was a long silence after Fizzle told Sekhet that. I could see Sekhet’s mouth starting to crinkle up and her eyes welled with tears, she was going to be hysterical for the next few minutes. “Pftt…hahaha~” As she started laughing she started beating her curled paws against the ground. She was crying tears of joy, she obviously found my current predicament hilarious. “You know Sekhet, I swear the next airship that falls in this area will be intentionally dropped on your head and it will be heavier than the previous two put together.” That was not an idle threat, I will in fact do that. “This thing between you and the chimera will end in hilarity since you’re you. It’s probably the most amusing thing to ever occur in the last nine hundred years for me!” Sekhet continued laughing at my situation and she spoke while continuing said laugh. “I will actually let the next intentional airship dropped on me go without a riddle or any aggression against you just for this bit of amusement alone.” “Can you swear on that as a goddess for me please?” Oh yes, I was definitely taking advantage of that lovely offer. I moved over to Jacky and whispered to her. “Hey Jacky, how heavy would an airship made out of gold, jewels and other unnecessary materials be?” “If you’re talking about the airship Cheerilee said belonged to that Blueblood guy, then many times heavier than the airship you converted into a restaurant here Captain. The average sized sailing galleon is over five hundred tons in wood alone.” Here Jacky paused and started doing the math in her head. “Assuming it’s an airship of a relatively similar size made with gold. I’d estimate that it would be somewhere in the range of ten thousand tons, give or take a thousand or so. Gold is about twenty times heavier than most woods in cubic feet. A heavy ship like that is likely illegally constructed.” “Perfect, thanks for doing the math for me Jacky.” I rubbed my hands together grinning. I'm not evil, what goddess comeuppance plans? Blackcap was good at O and O because she could actually accurately calculate her character's aim with a bow to a good degree. When Jacky said Blueblood’s airship was like a sad peacock with very little in the way of function, she wasn’t kidding, especially not about the single cannonball thing. Clearly pony taxpayers money doing important work. “Sure, do your worst Priest Jade. I doubt it will have me in traction for long.” You’d eventually eat those words Sekhet. “Anyway, the chimera is not an issue. She can live here if she’s intending to stay.” “Thank you gracious and mighty alpha above alphas!” The Bloody Maries spoke reverently in unison, she was terrified stiff of Sekhet. Like the completely paralyzed Cheerilee. “Lunch is ready everyone, come and get it before I have Sekhet lick the cauldron clean!” Mom’s words were music to the ears. I would try to get my mind off the chimera seeking to earn my affection with delicious food. “Yes, finally, give me some of that!” What was Rainbow Dash doing here? Following the blue blur was Fluttershy and Windy. “Hey, did you hear everything?” Well I’m a bit embarrassed. Fluttershy came over to me for a quick hug. “I think she's moving your friendship along a little too fast for you.” I idly wondered if Fluttershy would like to date a chimera.