//------------------------------// // Chapter Eighteen, Cult-tural: Three-fourths Glass. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Kuril- “So they can’t see us?” Daring do Said after a moment, when none of the other cannons looked like they were gearing up to fire. “Right now they’re currently seeing sky, let’s avoid giving them something to shoot at by being too loud.” My little kitten wasn’t the only one that knew a lot, I had quite a bit of knowledge myself and I covered Daring’s mouth in a slow and calm manner. “Thestrals, or bat ponies as you call them, all have an incredibly keen sense of hearing. They might not be able to see us, but that doesn’t mean they can’t detect us through the use of echolocation. So unless you want all those cannons aiming at us, and mind you I wouldn’t be able to stop that much cannon fire from crashing your airship, I suggest you keep your voice down.” “Yeah, they can practically detect invisible things by screeching at them. We’re just not visible visually.” My filly was looking over the side of the ship and watching the various cannons search the sky for a target. “I think we’re trying to sneak into that monastery in the distance.” “That’s a monastery? It’s huge and looks like a palace, this is definitely not a place where normal monks hang out.” Yeah that huge building in the distance was scary Daring, but I’m sure we could infiltrate it and get out well enough. Unless my Kitten causes chaos. The monastery was huge and built on a rather large flat portion of the mountain top and it was pretty big, but I wasn’t going to intimidate easily. There were three snow covered towers that had more of those cannons sitting on it, I could see what might be a courtyard full of thestrals and it had a castle or palace motif going for it in what looks like the main barracks. If… actually it’d be more of a ‘when’ with Jade for things going wrong. I better be prepared for a huge mess. “The question here is, where do we land and how will we get out of here? What’s our exit strategy here?” Aw, look at my kitten, she has a brain and knows the inevitable will happen. “I seriously doubt that the illusion dust will work for long a second time or that we’re not going to cause a disturbance. When we do cause a disturbance, they are going to actively look for us with methods that illusion dust can’t hide.” “At least you admit that you’re going to cause a disturbance Jade, Blade can walk around free without worry. Aside from being mute, she fits in here. We on the other hoof are two cats, a damaged unicorn, a pegasus with an archeologist bent and Sugar is bright pink.” Fizzle pointed her hoof at our pilot. “I don’t even need to point out Jacky’s obvious flaw of being highly visible and exceptionally accident prone. We all stick out like sore hooves around here.” “You’re not broken to me Fizzle.” I moved over to Fizzle and pulled her into a hug, then Jade quickly joined and even Sugar nuzzled up to her left hoof in a friendly manner that made my kitten cringe. I still don’t understand what’s so scary about a horned, pink furred rabbit. Blade carefully approached our snuggled group and I tugged her into it and forced her to join in. “Yeah, yeah, touchy feely times for you guys. Can we get back to finding a landing zone, our continued safety and the absolutely necessary exit strategy?” Don’t interrupt our moment Daring, one of my daughters needed her mother right now. Blade hasn’t had an easy time adjusting to the fact that my kitten is freakishly lucky to dodge her half-baked assassination attempts she still pulls every now and then when she thinks I’m not watching. I can trust, but I at least confirm that my trust is warranted. Trust, but always verify that said trust is warranted. I think Blade got it out of her system at least, she wasn’t trying to stab Jade in the back while we were all cuddled together. I guess I could trust her a little more now, she was a good student when it came to chopped vegetable stir fry’s and sushi making. Wielding bladed weaponry might be Blade’s special talent, but I think she had the makings an excellent specialist chef. We made our way back into the cabin, it was getting very cold out here. Jacky turned to me with a hopeful look, I guess she wanted a hug because she felt left out. I gave her a strong cuddle too, but I made sure not to prevent her from flying the ship. I had only love to give to my growing children. My chick, filly and kitten were all, mostly, well-adjusted individuals. My true daughter tended to steal things. Fizzle still had doubts about her self-worth. The less said about Jacky’s incidents the happier she is. “Thanks… mom. So, where are we landing this small airship? There’s too much open space out here and I doubt the illusion dust will last for that much longer.” All illusion dust had a limit for how long it would work for and Jacky was well aware of that having flown us out of Canterlot. “Well wherever we land, the shadows are going to be dangerous here. We’re dealing with a group that is good at moving in shadows, can hear at great distances and are likely dangerous as all get out. So basically better than Blade in every conceivable way, with darkness, nightmare or shadow magic thrown in.” Despite the small glare Jade received from Blade, a moment later Blade seemed to mull it over and nod about it. She was accepting that there were things here that might be more dangerous than a failed assassin. “Just small a reminder that they fired upon an unarmed airship. We’re likely dealing with a bunch of volatile nut jobs here, the kind that shot first and didn’t bother with questions at all. ” “Guys, I have an idea of where we can land.” Looking to where Fizzle was currently pointing her eyes and her hoof, I blinked once or twice while looking at the spot. That could work. “We might not be able to have a good take off, but it’ll keep the snow off the ship and we’ll be able to slide it down the slope.” “What you’re talking about Fizzle, is a quick start. Do you have any idea how hard it is to quick start an airship?” Jacky gave the spot a long glance and then she started turning the ship for that spot. “Just be aware that that is something that the Captain would come up with.” “Is that a good idea or a terrible thing?” Look my little tom cat, if I’m thinking along the same lines as Fizzlepop and Jacky, then it’s likely a bad thing. “Looks fine by me, though how are we going to get it moving when we have to leave?” Our exit was going to involve sliding the airship down the snowy slope and we’d try to fill up the balloon to the airship while doing that we had to get the balloon filled up somewhat before we flew off the edge of the mountain. We’ll be a moving target at the very least, but how were we going to get this small airship sliding? It was quite heavy and weighed a lot that we couldn’t just push it to get it started. That would mean leaving someone behind or having the ship leave us behind after we’ve pushed it into sliding down the slope. The spot was in a nook big enough for the ship to fit in at least. Cliffs on both sides to prevent its discovery easily and it was still in the light enough to be visible when we came back for it. I wasn’t about to ask that we leave someone at the ship all alone. We came in for a landing, the ship turned around and then slowly settled on the slope between two large rock walls. Exploring this place with hostile people was bound to be bothersome. “Ten bits says we can find ninjas here.” At Jade’s words, Fizzle rolls her eyes and pushed my kitten slightly. “Pirates are better…” Mumbled Jacky. “Don’t start that debate with me Jacky, I can go on all day about how cool ninjas are!” This is the first time I’ve witnessed Jade be openly at odds with Jacky, or was it the other way around? Either way, they were glaring at each other and posturing. “What about me telling you how awesome pirates are? I can do that all day too you know!” Now Jacky was releasing a warning trilling noise and Jade was hissing at her. “Girls, can we please focus here? Daring you might want to go on ahead.” Seeing the questioning look I was getting from Daring, I decided to elaborate. “Don’t wait for us to go explore the place, we’ll do our own thing. If you happen to take off without us in the airship and leave us here, we won’t hold it against you. We can make our own way home, now I have to listen to these two bicker for a while.” “Real ninjas hide in plain sight, what you’re talking about is the fake stereotypical garbage that media keeps spreading about ninjas that was actually made by real ninjas to hide the truth!” Jade shouted, I missed what was previously said. “At most a ninja will wear colors fitting to the environment and straight black is never a good idea.” “Yeah, go on Daring, this could take while.” Fizzle was paying more attention to the conversation than I was at least. “Just don’t get caught or something while sneaking in, any noise would be a bad thing. Even flapping your wings could be loud enough for them.” “Right, might or might not see you inside.” Daring flapped her wings and took off. “Pirates have a rich history, we’re not drunkards or idiots. We’re cunning rogues and don’t you want to be a rogue too?” Jacky asked of Jade. “Yes, I want to be a rogue, but not a pirate one specifically.” Oh great, Jade just started getting them into subclass archetypes. Better take a seat, my two girls had a fight brewing. “I’m more towards the cloak wearing kind. Jumping across roof tops with bags loaded with stolen yarn and possibly after drinking a potion to make myself bouncy like rubber.” Like rubber… now there’s an idea, but I think Jade means something unlike what a rubber chicken does when sustained. Using a rubber chicken in Magical Alchemy makes you flexible and protects against blunt force trauma, but it doesn’t make you exceptionally bouncy and it makes it harder to move around as everything gets all wobbly. It still weirds me out after I tried it out once, I don’t think I’ll ever use or appreciate rubber chickens like my kitten does. “What do you have against pirates Captain?” Crossing her arms Jacky seemed quite defensive and upset with Jade, she was still calling her Captain though. Got to give my little chick a lot of credit, she was still absurdly loyal to her Captain despite the conversation going on. “Nothing, but what do you think about pirate ninjas?” That comment had everyone flummoxed, Jade was probably planning our next O and O session to include pirate ninja golems. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if something like that actually exists in this crazy world. “That would be an unholy abomination of conflicting classifications and you know it!” the most Jacky did was poke a talon against Jade’s chest aggressively. “Look, is this really the conversation we should be having right now? I mean Jade wanted us to come all this way to explore and or fight a cult, possibly with ancient evils, monsters and dragons.” After a moment Fizzle chuckled a bit. “You know, now that I say it out loud, our reasons for being are completely ridiculous compared to Daring Do following the trail of one of her enemies.” “Yes, it is certainly important to discuss the finer points of Pirates and Ninjas, because both are really interesting in their own ways.” Jade’s ears twitched and then she started to look around. I wondered what she was looking for. “Where’s Blade?” We stood there for a silent moment before I spoke up. “I think she followed after Daring, maybe because she thought that Daring shouldn’t go off on her own all alone in a dangerous place like this.” I picked up Sugar and started to rub her head affectionately. My guess was as good as anyone else’s, but I wouldn’t bet on it entirely. I think Blade was curious to see what so many thestrals were actually doing up here, you know, aside from building magical cannons that fire pure darkness. “Well there goes my entrance strategy, it’s time for plan B then!” Oh goddess, that look in my kitten’s eyes spelled doom and destruction. Her plan B was bound to be ridiculous, dumb and we’d all be talked into doing it, but it wasn’t like we had any other things we could be doing at this time. I wasn’t about to put my foot down and stop her though, I was a curious cat and a little curiosity never killed an Abyssinian before. - Thirty minutes later- I stand corrected, this plan could kill us all and I was still going along with it. I wanted to see if my kitten was clinically insane enough to make it work… emphasis on insane. -???- “Report.” I stated sternly. “We haven’t found any signs of the airship after the first shot sir, it’s like it vanished into thin air.” Oh I didn’t believe that for a second my dimwitted subordinate, something is going to occur and it was going to be trouble. It was bad enough that Caballeron fellow was still trying to bargain his way into our good graces for something. “Nothing can disappear just like that. It might be a ploy by Caballeron or a different third party with a strong unicorn support, they might even be in the compound already. We cannot let anyone discover our real base and Nightmare help us if a sun priest shows up.” We did not need a sun priest running around up here, not when we were still trying to figure out how the stars will aid in Nightmares release from her entrapment. The others believed sun priests to be myths and that they had all died out or had been purged from the world. I was a realist, sun priests were still out there somewhere biding their time before they rose up and destroyed all that we have built. “Keep searching, spread the word for everyone to be on the lookout for anything…. unusual. All shall be thrown to darkness and nightmares.” “All shall be thrown to darkness and nightmares.” The thestral before me bowed and then was off to spread the word. Minutes later I’d hear about something unusual happening, it involves my worst nightmare showing up. In any other circumstance I would be happy to see a living nightmare. -Jade- “Hello everyone! I’m going to let all of you, yes you, capture me.” All the thestrals I approached started screeching and scattered, probably because I was holding Sugar in my arms.