- ??? -
A knife in the dark, a blade that comes from out of nowhere, a shadow that haunts those of importance and is never seen coming.
I was an assassin, a good one too. Apparently my employers have heard that a sun priest was around and it took them a year to even locate her whereabouts.
Why they wanted the priest dead was none of my business. All it would take is one quick stab to the heart, in and out just like that.
There was nothing that could stop me.
- Snickers -
“Coo…?” Something had activated her protective instincts, someone was going to mess with the lovers she protected and this familiar certainly wasn’t happy with that. “Hiss!”
Also it seemed like the link between kitty and pony was all better, happiness!
-Jacky-
“So has she apologized yet?” I held my arms crossed as I gave Captain a look, she had a smarmy cat smile on her face and Fizzle didn’t seem to be treating that look with disdain.
Still, good or bad she was still my Captain, even if I didn’t entirely agree with her methods whatever they were.
“She doesn’t really need to, it beggars the belief the lengths she’d go to in trying to feel like I do at times. Have you actually seen her doing anything with magical alchemy over the last few months?” Now that you mention it Fizzle I hadn’t seen Jade touch any of her magical alchemy ingredients and her mom still held her knife.
“No, can’t say that I’ve seen her doing anything strange or magical these last two months, which is unusual for her.” It left me wondering why Captain would avoid doing any magic. If I could do magic, I wouldn’t have avoided it for no reason.
“Okay, how has everyone been treating me since Jade forced me to fight her?” Well that was an easy one for me Fizzle. We’ve been asking you for help more often, we’ve been giving you more attention and you’ve been really quite helpful just about… that’s exactly what Captain wanted wasn’t it?
“You’re kidding...” I finally said after a minute, when I realized exactly why Jade did all that. “Captain that’s pretty dumb, bold and ridiculous.”
“Nope, not kidding, Jade tried to solve all my problem in one idiotic fell swoop and she swore off Magical Alchemy in attempt to make herself feel like I did without the use of my horn when we first met. It was mostly successful, though it makes me think I shouldn’t have told Fluttershy I was worried about Jade not caring about me anymore. Then Jade wouldn’t have preempted me in trying to make stop caring for her first, I didn’t think she needed me when she had everyone else and now she absolutely does need me to make up with all of our friends. Except Arizona who apparently thinks fighting is magic.” Yeah, that fits everything we knew Fizzle. “Thank you for letting Jade loose upon me Fluttershy, don’t you ever do it again!”
I among everyone else knew the not caring about Jade thing obviously didn’t work with Fizzle, she was very upset that Jade was avoiding everyone and she seemed pretty actively intent on trying to depress herself. She never got sad once, she’s certainly mentally made of sterner stuff than the rest of us.
Captain you’re an absurd creature and I hoped that you never fell in love with me in a platonic sense you complete lunatic. I’d have to turn Captain down gently if she ever wanted to do something romantic with me.
“I’m sorry Fizzle, I didn’t know telling her your issues would lead to her doing all of that.” I patted Fluttershy soothingly on the back, Captain called her cutie and she was cute in the way she hid her face behind her mane. Good friend the shy lass is to the rest of us. “I really didn’t know Jade would do something so… extreme. It’s actually kind of sounds like something Rainbow Dash would do.”
“Exactly my thoughts on it! Thinking like Rainbow Dash is always good for a bad idea and she was a clear inspiration to me.” Well don’t look so proud of yourself Captain. “Also I would like to formally apologize to Fizzle for attempting to depress myself horribly so I could understand her better while in the course of simultaneously making her more important to everyone else around here by making myself look bad. Just know I won’t act like a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk to the people I love, I’ll have good reasons for it. Everyone will definitely be able to feel the absolute vitriol I have for anyone I may come to hate, it’ll be very obvious too. So stop me if I go overboard.”
“I’m not about to say I’d accept an apology.” Well why not Fizzle, Captain just offered it up to you just like that and she even means it! Our favorite unicorn companion stood on her hind legs and wrapped Captain in a hug and nuzzled up to her. ”You’ve got nothing to apologize for, I already forgave you a while ago. The sentiment of actually saying it is nice at least, so yes I accept it.”
“Are you sure it’s okay Fizzle?” Fluttershy moved away from me to sit at a table, while giving her a worried look.
“Don’t worry about it Fluttershy, knowing why she did it doesn’t mean I like it… but it’s actually pretty touching though. Given that she’s willing to go months without potato stew for me.” I’m not quite sure everyone would think it was that touching Fizzle.
Well it might be once you knew Captain treats some foods like it’s her very lifeblood and she hasn’t been getting desserts for months either. How hasn’t she ultimately cracked yet?!
I think the only reason why Captain isn’t a depressed emotional wreck like she tried to become, is because you were a around Fizzle. We should probably dedicate her to an insane asylum, because it’s amazing that she managed to go through with trying to do depressing things to herself. Say what you will about the Captain, but she always gets results in some way in the end.
“So I can finally stop saying Captain in a sarcastic tone? Oh sure, that makes me feel so much better.” I watched as Jade walked away and eventually she came back with a large birthday present. She thrust it into my arms and I just stared at her smile. “Correction, I’m good with Captain La Perm because she has a big birthday present for me.”
“Happy birthday Blackcap, I hope you like it. I worked pretty hard on it, took quite a bit of magical energy to make and test.” Taking the long purple box with the white ribbon from Jade, it weighed a few pounds. I wondered what was in it and what could the Captain have gotten for me that required packaging this large. “You can open it whenever.”
“The cake is baking everyone, let’s just spend the rest of this day having fun okay?” Sure thing my Captain’s mother and everyone’s mom, it’s nice to see Captain and Fizzle acting normal again. Well normal for around here anyway.
Someone else who was quite happy for things to be back to weird was Maries, who just knocked both Fizzle and Jade to the floor to start licking them both.
-Fizzle, thirty minutes later-
“So what did you get Jacky for her birthday jade?” Darn it, why couldn’t I get away from her touching my ears? I liked it sure, but she’s always rubbing them and making me feel so embarrassed about how much I liked it. I’ve missed this as much as I’ve missed her petting me, just because she did something stupid we missed months of quality time where she could have been caressing me like this. “Also please don’t do that to any of us again, I didn’t like you avoiding us!”
“I can’t make any promises about the future Fizzle, I’m a do what feels right to me kind of person. If I feel like I really need to do that again, then I will. Jacky’s present is something I think she’ll like, you’ll see it when she opens it. At least you definitively know you’re liked around here and that’s what matters.” Yes Jade, I get it. I’ll stop being a sad sack, but don’t you dare you stop cheering me up so much. “You know we haven’t talked about it, but do you realize how scared I was when that flying one eyed purple pony eater grabbed you, Wary Berry and Cheerilee?”
Even if Jade didn’t care about Wary Berry, she still rescued that purple furred and blue haired mare from the tentacles of that horrific thing. In fact she was the last one Jade rescued despite being the closest pony she could get to, she had rescued me first. Wary was overly critical about fruit, a most common source of nutrition for many beings including my favorite Abyssinian next to mom. Jade had obviously resented that a bit.
“Yes and then you went an upset me and everyone else. It was nice getting all that attention, but all that attention from them doesn’t compare to what I get from you.” I told you I love you and I meant it. You’ve said it back to me and all is forgiven, now we just have to go on several dates and see how well we can keep ourselves together. “Still though, what is it that you got Jacky that requires such a big box?”
“I’m the rogue. Maries is a barbarian. Mom is a witch. You, Fizzle, are my… our lovely spell sword. So Jacky would be the…” she trailed off looking to me to finish.
Don’t think I didn’t notice you changing your choice of words Jade! It’s kind of hard to hide the fact that we loved one another, especially when you are willing to do absurd things that I didn’t ask for. Well I did kind of ask for it when I told Fluttershy how I felt, but never mind that!
“Archer… you bought her a bow?” Frankly my and everyone else’s obsession with Ogre’s and Oubliettes had become muted without Jade around to play with, we all missed having her around and I don’t think anyone liked her avoiding the rest of us.
“Bought? Oh no, I didn’t buy it! That would be way too easy, also ponies don’t make good weapons.” Nobody would disagree with you on that Jade. Pony made weaponry was never too great in quality. Armor and shields were a bit better, so I couldn’t actually see you buying a store bought weapon. “I made it special for her, with twenty arrows, a quiver and it’s even practically indestructible in case of bad luck.”
“What did you do?” I was still a little suspicious of you Jade, but don’t worry. That’ll clear up once we go on our date, we’re not doing anything special for it and we’re not going to dress up for it. Eventually I might convince you to wear a skirt at least
“Nothing special. Though quite a bit of magical alchemy went into it, before I forced you to brutalize me.” Would you please stop bringing it up Jade?
“Can we not mention that anymore?” My mane was being stroked by her gentle fingers.
“Okay, but I still think it improved how you see yourself around here.” It did clearly let me see who cared and you’re already making it up to me Jade.
It wasn’t long before the party was thrown with Pinkie in attendance, she was much happier to see that we were getting along again. Games, cake, ice cream and Jacky’s favorite food, it was just another day with my best friends and my special some cat.
Jacky got to test out her knew bow. Made with magically reinforced, water proofed wood. Both via wood casting bark skin on the wood of the bow itself and fish scale as a water repellant that smoothed the roughness from the bark skin.
My idea about the waterproof effect had actually helped make the bow what it is and I was accredited as it being partially from me.
The string was green and made of cat hair that was also reinforced with magical alchemy like the rest of the bow, specifically it used hair from Jade’s mane. She just grew it back by sustaining the wood she was working on and if for whatever reason the braided green bow string broke, Jacky had plenty of spares to work with given how much Jade must have cut off.
Speaking of Jade’s hair, I’m only noticing now that it was slightly shorter than it had previously been. It could be a little longer, I think I liked the idea of Jade having slightly longer hair. I could bring it up on our date later.
The fish leather handles for the bow was quite nice and it’d go with Jacky’s new set of fingerless gloves I got her. The quiver went over the top of her tail.
There were thankfully no repeating gifts other than what mom got for Jacky.
Fluttershy got Jacky a book about preparing for disasters, which Jacky definitely appreciated.
Pinkie Pie got Jacky a pirate themed party cannon, no one even knew such a thing as a party cannon store existed. Jacky would have to read the instruction manual for that later.
Maries got Jacky a fiddle, who knows how they managed that without us hearing about a chimera scare.
Sekhet got Jacky a treasure chest with twenty bits in it.
Arizona just gave Jacky a cow bell, like we needed more of those around here.
Kuril was the one with the silly gift, it was two mattresses. One for both sides of Jacky’s bed for when she fell out in the morning by rolling too far. I think she should have gotten Jacky three, there was one side of the bed that Jacky could still fall off of that wasn’t covered.
- Zecora -
“This place is quite strange, especially when danger is always in range.” I was talking to the one know as Jade La Perm. This place had a certain madness about it, mostly the good kind. “The celebration and tea is nice, but could I bother you to get me some ice?”
“Sure thing Cora, so how are your talks with my mom going?” I followed her and she got some ice from a box to put in my cup, for the rest of today I was just going to sup. Kurilian’s food is quite filling, especially for those who are hungry and quite willing.
“We are learning each other’s ways as we teach, I have been fair in my dealings as I am not a leech.” I was quite amazed at what Kuril could do, she could cook magical effects directly into her food depending on what she uses. The one that pops up most often for her was health and fulfillment, something a witch of great taste should be known for. “Your mother is quite humble to say she’s a witch of good taste, especially in the grand ways she makes all kinds of food without haste.”
“So need help finding a tree, in the Ever Free?” She was a cunning cat, and a friend to me at that.