//------------------------------// // Chapter Eighteen, Cult-tural: Full Glass. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Jade- To start off we were on Daring Do’s small airship, party of six. Jacky, Fizzle, Mom, Sugar, Blade and lastly me. We were on our way to the top of Seared Seer Mountain. From what Daring tells us, there’s wendigoes, yetis, black dragons and cultists with unknown combat ability. You know, the usual general adventure stuff you’d find in an inhospitable cold place like that. Somehow this is all related to the worship of Nightmare the entity that overshadowed Luna, given the presence and mention of wendigoes there’s a lot of anger, hatred and fighting going on somewhere in the vicinity or else the wendigoes would have starved without their main source of food. “So how did you talk me into bringing all of you again? Let’s start with you specifically Jade.” At Daring’s questioning look I held a hand up to my chest and mocked utter bewilderment at the idea that I had anything to do with us being on this ship. “I need the reminder as to why I’m involving you guys in this. I just dropped by to see how you guys were doing after we dropped you off at that dusty thief riddled town. The answer is pretty well, except for the odd number of crashed airship incidents around your place apparently.” Knowing we were going to be near Wendigo, I took the precaution to have us dropped off in Canterlot for an hour so I could pick up some spare phoenix feathers yesterday when we decided to have Daring Do stay the night. Salamander scales were a must, but the heat vision from touching them was annoying to deal with. Oh sure it was useful, but still very annoying. “We don’t make the airships crash in Airship Mauled, they do that on their own and it is an Airship Mauled pastime to watch our favorite local goddess get hit by them. As for me, well I for one am an expert on the dark goddess the cultist slash monks are likely worshipping. Has Celestia told you anything about Nightmare Moon?” At my question Daring, who was watching Jacky steer the ship, slowly rolled her eyes in my direction. “In any case I’m quite knowledgeable on monsters and how to defeat them, whether they be mythological or real. I don’t think this is going to be a boring nightmare night cult.” “No she hasn’t, but then again how much could there be to know? Dark cultist monastery on top of a mountain, it’s not that hard to figure out really.” Daring didn’t seem to think of me as being worth much on this trip. “Though who knows, a little knowledge in the right place could get us somewhere. What about your mother?” “She’s a witch, can cook really well and has one of the world’s most dangerous creatures for a familiar.” What I said, for some reason, made Daring laugh. “The pink rabbit with the horn, you actually think that thing is dangerous?” She was giggling, Daring Do was actually giggling about the monstrous rabbit. “Yeah, right. I could take that rabbit any day.” “You say that now… just know that horned rabbit is one of the most dangerous monsters I know about.” I shuddered at the thought of meeting an uncontrolled ‘All Mirage’. “We’re all just lucky my mom can keep her under control and that she didn’t kill anyone in town before becoming my mother’s familiar.” “Okay, say I buy that your mother has something more than cooking.” She pointed a hoof to Jacky who was happy to be piloting the airship. “What about the bird?” “Expert in airship engineering, quasi-pirate, luck challenged and becoming exceptionally good at firing things that aren’t arrows with extreme accuracy from a bow.” Mostly because I made said bow and had no idea what I had created, it still belonged to Jacky and it was hers to use as she saw fit. “No matter what happens to this airship, if you have enough materials, then she can fix it.” “Now we’re getting to someone useful, but what do you mean by…” Daring's lucky pith helmet fell off the shelf and bonked her on the head. “Ow… luck challenged?” “That’s what you pick up on, I thought you’d be more interested in the fact that she’s a quasi-pirate. Anyway she’s a living jinx, but it’s not really too bad. It’s been mostly contained to causing her problems, sometimes things happen to people near her.” I looked at Jacky who looked my way. “What I know for certain is that despite her bad luck, she’s a loyal friend through and through.” “I can at least use a spear efficiently, I’m really good with cannons and swords preferably. I’m still learning how to use my bow to the best of its abilities.” Speaking of which, Jacky had the spear and bow on her and her tail mounted quiver was loaded with things that weren’t arrows. “Right or wrong, I stand by my Captain and try to help where I can. I at least consider myself lucky where it counts, considering I’m not dead yet.” “The bird is equal to or greater than the word Blackcap.” I received an odd look from Jacky, after a moment she just shrugged and continued piloting. I turned back to Daring. “Is that all Daring Do?” “No, what about the mare with the stump? Doesn’t seem like a useful trait for a unicorn to have.” Daring Do received a glare from both me and Fizzle. “Hey, calling it like I see it, you’re the one that convinced me to let you all onboard.” “She’s intelligent, an extra set of eyes, can think outside the box, can imbue objects to incredible if temporary effects and she can create powerful bursts of magic that can be used to block other sources of magic or cause powerful explosions.” There was a crater just outside of Ponyville that was now a duck pond, I tended to visit with bread crumbs when I and Fluttershy wanted to hang out with Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy was still learning duck, it was kind of funny to watch her try to speak in quacking sounds. “I’m also athletic and happen to be learning hoof to hoof breakdance fighting techniques from a goddess of war.” Dryly stated Fizzle who sent Daring Do a chilling stare, she gave me a far warmer look. “The fact that Sekhet even knows how to breakdance fight is pretty weird, but I guess the goddess of war needs to know how to fight a war in any arena.” “Yeesh, did the temperature just drop forty degrees or are we already there.” We weren’t there Daring Do, but looking off into the distance we could see a mount that was poking through the clouds. The air was going to be quite thin up here and I didn’t know how well I’d do in that situation, thin air doesn’t bother a pegasus like Daring. She might not know why it’ll be a problem for us. “Okay what about miss quiet and unassuming bat pony?” “Her name is Blade Bright, she’s mute and not for the reasons you’d think. Her voice is way too powerful, so it always hurts her to try and use it.” For once I could see something sympathetic on Daring Do’s face. “Shattering glass isn’t the worst she can do with it. Oh and she’s an assassin that tried to kill me once.” “You’re not afraid to keep having her around knowing that?” In answer to that Daring Do, I had one thing to say. “Not really, she hasn’t exactly tried to kill me much recently.” I looked to Blade as she sat off to the side alone with her slightly grown out white hair, her golden eyes sent a glance our way. She was only mildly annoyed that mom wouldn’t let her keep her head shaved and her tail relatively short. “She really knows how to make good sushi rolls, my mom’s been teaching her the finer art of raw fish preparation.” “Really? It’s been a while since I’ve had fish, seaweed, vegetables and rice all at the same time.” Daring sent Blade a look of interest. “Still, are you sure she’s an assassin?” With the barest of movements, Blade pulled and threw a knife past Daring cutting her cheek and getting the blade stuck on the wall of the small cabin we were in. “What do you think? She can do that with her rear hooves while tied up.” At my words I watched as Blade idly preened her left leathery wing for a bit while hiding a small smile. “I should know, we’ve had her captive at Airship Mauled for quite a while. At least long enough for her to pull it off without anyone noticing because she missed the three times she tried to get me with that trick.” “Okay, is she useful just because she’s an assassin or is it something else?” Asked a now wary and alert Daring Do. “Oh goodness no, her track record is apparently highly abysmal. That’d explain my continued survival by a wide margin.” Sorry, but I was not going to spare you’re feelings on this Blade. She wilted visibly at my words. “The most she’s done is highly inconvenienced people by halfway killing them or playing enforcer to someone who owes someone else money. Where she can really come in handy here is actually not based in what she can do, it is more so about what she is.” “How is her being a bat pony really important?” You were about to see Daring, let it be said that I came on this mission with an idea for entry ahead of schedule. “Given my general knowledge on things we’re likely to run into…” I started off only to be interrupted. “Of which Jade is hardly ever wrong about in an absurdly well informed manner.” Speaking up was Fizzle, who was just adding those words for emphasis. “We’re going to be seeing more of Blade’s kin quite soon. Nightmare, Nightmare Moon or any variation of the dark goddess happen to have a partial affinity with bat ponies as you call them.” I turned to Blade. “You don’t mind us calling you bat pony do you? Thestral’s are not exactly well known in the light of day and I’m kind of wondering if this seems insensitive to you.” Blade mulled it over and just shook her head while rolling her left hoof at me to go on. So I did. “Anyway, a majority of thestrals are actually friendly and apparently work alongside Celestia. They make up a major part of the night guard in Canterlot, rarely are they ever seen or heard because ponies most sleep at night. The royal guards that get the night shift do work with them fairly often.” I had asked Celestia about this during one of her visits and she acknowledged that there were moon priests. They were kind of like my polar opposite as a sun priest, stalwart guardians of the night. For some reason, I’m not protected by one. One would think Celestia would assign one to me with the threat of assassination hanging over my head, well have I got a bridge for you in Manehatten! “In this case, these Thestrals formed a cult based on the things that happened almost a thousand years ago. Two years and some change is when we can really say it was a thousand years ago. They revere Nightmare Moon, the corrupted goddess of the night. The very mare in the moon that you can see in the night sky every night the moon is visible, as Celestia sealed her away after a rather heated battle a long time ago.” “But why do they revere her?” That was the question that needed answering Daring. “She used to be a very important goddess to pony kind. When she was corrupted, so too were some of her closest subjects as well and now they likely seek to bring the world to ruin through the nightmares that they themselves can’t wake up from. It’s either that, or they secluded themselves to wallow in anger and hatred for Celestia partially failing them.” It would be kind of poetic if I was right about Luna’s subjects, the Thestrals, being corrupted to stay away from her and leading her down the road of madness where she was corrupted by Nightmare. “It has probably gotten up to the point that they’ve lived in a mountain so long that the corruption has built up to whatever it has done to them over the last nine hundred and ninety or so years. It’s kind of tragic come to think of it, since they failed the goddess they were meant to protect in the first place and that influence is still controlling them. It’s why the current EUP exists today, to make sure something like that doesn’t happen to Celestia or other ponies as well.” “We’re nearing the mountain.” Jacky announced us while narrowing her eyes at something on the mountain top we were flying towards, she turned to us with worry. “Uh guys… should monks or cultists know how to use cannons?” “No… why do you… oh holy fudge!” I saw some kind of cannon with a building blackness in its barrel in the distance, it was broad daylight and the weather was currently clear for the cold snow covered mountain top. “What, you want me to bake some holy fudge when we get home?” Mom said questioningly as she came up next to me. “I think we can anoint the fudge with holy water, but I’ll need your help with that since you’re the priest here.” “Maybe later mom, I meant that holy fudge.” I gently grabbed moms head and titled it ever so slightly so that she could see the cannon brimming with even more darkness that was about to fire at us. “Oh… that kind of holy fudge.” She stated as she got the knuckle dented shield on her right arm. “Okay, but are we still on for making holy brownies?” “Everyone at Airship Mauled would kill for your brownies.” It’s true, we all would stab someone over them. At least I would if I was promised a share and they got stolen. “Not immediately important mom, shield us now!” “Alright, but we’re not done talking about this quite yet.” Mom ran out and towards the front of the airship as the large shadowy mass arced its way for us. I followed behind with Daring and Fizzle coming after us. “Let’s hope that it’s not physical or doesn’t have weight or mass to it, because it’ll break my arm otherwise. Kitten, get the bag out of my pack.” Mom held the shield forward and large circular barrier projected from it, we only had a few seconds before the shadowy mass hit it. I reached into her pack and pulled out a bag. Opening it to confirm what was inside, I turned to Daring. “Daring, when that shot hits my mother’s barrier, fly up and spread this stuff over the airship!” Taking the bag from me, Daring flew up and waited. The darkness impacted the barrier, it only put a little pressure on mom’s braced arm. Spreading out, it blocked us from the sight of those who fired at us from below. When the darkness disappeared, we were gone. -???- “It looked like it hit, but something doesn’t seem right.” The thestral commented loudly to his companions. “Where did it go?”