//------------------------------// // Chapter twenty four, Guard Goading: Dated noon. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Fizzle- After dealing with the mysterious group known as the ‘The Squirrels’, who were supposedly part of Canterlots underworld and were run by a squirrel of all things. Well… things became simpler in the park that’s for sure. I never been a really big on frolicking like other ponies, bad childhood you see. I wasn’t much for smiling either, but Jade’s perky attitude and need for me to tussle with her kind of changed that opinion rather quick. She playfully swatted my flank and then bounded off, I quickly gave chase. We bound through the grassy hills of the park, through all the flowers… at least up until I lost sight of Jade. I turned looking about for her when I was suddenly bowled over, I then found myself on my back with Jade above me with both her paws on either side of my head while resting in a pile of flowers. She was looking down at me in a very longing manner, there was something in her eyes. “What are you looking at Jade?” My heart was melted by the quirky smile on her face. “Someone very beautiful, with brilliant glowing sapphire eyes.” She caressed the left side of my face with her right paw and lowered herself down to me. I felt my cheeks heat up as we were chest to chest and I could see Jade’s tail whipping back and forth every now and then in excitement. Her long green hair tickled my chest and I felt my heart start pounding quicker. Her face came close to mine, then she lightly licked the tip of my nose and I felt like my heart exploded. I reached up and pulled her close with my hooves and held on tight, closing my eyes as I nuzzled into her neck fur. She was already nuzzling me right back and closing her own. We sat there cuddled together for a bit and slowly my rapid heartbeat went back down to a steady rhythm as we both inhaled and exhaled in unison. My heartbeat wasn’t the only one I was feeling, my left ear twitched against Jade’s shoulder and she giggled a bit. Our heartbeats soon started to beat at the same time in unison with one another. As far as the all-day date was going, Jade was performing beyond expectations. I think I might have nodded off for a few minutes, but I couldn’t say that Jade didn’t do the same. Maybe it was Jade’s purring that was making this moment so relaxing, I wished this feeling could last forever. -Cadence- “Aw, they’re so cute together!” I really didn’t know much about Abyssinian courtship, but it was adorable to see my friend lick the tip of the mare’s nose. She apparently appreciated it and pulled the cat even closer to herself. Then they snuggled down together with the large cat purring as the mare sleepily petted her, they both nodded off in the warm sun among the soft grass and flowers. From our position I could see a ring of flowers create a heart shape around them because of how they ended up laying on the hillside, it was so romantic! “Cadence, she and an unidentified group practically got away with a full treasuries worth of gold, not to mention she’s toyed with the royal guard more than once, the law always seems like it’s just a suggestion to her. Also that rather embarrassing thing with the rubber chicken.” Why did Shiny have to be such a sour puss today? Still he was treating me quite well and I did love him. “Do you seriously think that cat is cute and not a menace to society as a whole?” He was glaring at my friend as if he expected her to steal Celesta’s crown from her head for the fun of it at that very moment. Auntie likes her and I do too, which was why Jade was invited to the thing this evening. Apparently my adoptive Aunt Celestia thinks Jade would liven things up immeasurably, I would have to agree with that sentiment. “Oh come on Shiny, lighten up! You’re never usually this uptight.” I pointed to the two comfortable on a blanket of grass in the warm rays of the auntie’s sun. “They’re enjoying the day together. You could learn something from watching those two interact.” “As if…” Grumbled my angry, if cute, stallion. He always tried to be a manly gentle stallion and straight forward with me. We were on a date and my rising star in the royal guard was a tad… distracted. I couldn’t let that continue on. I rubbed up against Shining and he responded with a blush as my tail rose up under his chin to flick him on the nose. I had to get his mind off of Jade, it would ruin our day if Shining wouldn’t stop being so paranoid of her. Even if his paranoia was entirely justified and I knew for a fact that Jade did in fact have something planned for this evening. I was pretty certain she wasn’t pure evil, only a tiny bit evil. Jade was a wizard of Ogre’s and Oubliettes, she taught me a lot about how the strategy from the game could apply to the real life. She classified herself as a rogue and I could visibly see it in her to actually be a live action role player in that regard, maybe I should look into doing some of that myself. From when I last saw Jade, I stuck to my guns and made a highly specialized charisma based character thanks to her unique input. My gameplay has been so much better since then, I was a vivacious seductress that could charm almost every monster in the game to fight for me and none of Shining’s saving rolls stopped me from taking a moderate amount of control over his character. Was it wrong to take control of some of Shining’s characters actions? Possibly. Was it evil? Definitely, because Jade taught me how to circumvent most game masters with logical runarounds to break or twist any fun plot into my own little plaything while staying in character. Playing a chaotic neutral shapeshifter helped in that regard. These thoughts kind of led me to wonder why Celestia’s acting skills were so horrid when she was so cunning. Jade was an impressive cat when she was on the center stage of life where her planning skills were concerned, planning skills that I noted didn’t involve any form of math whatsoever. I guessed that you should never tell Jade the odds, she’ll just end up circumventing them anyway. -Fizzle- “Fizzy, we can’t stay like this forever, we actually have places to be.” I felt Jade shift a bit and I faintly opened one eye, I turned my head in the direction she was vaguely looking and saw two ponies looking at us. They were suspicious and I was pretty sure they were guards out of uniform, which explained what Jade said next. “I can give us five more minutes though.” “Do it, I’m too comfortable to move at the moment.” I really was, snuggling with my and Maries cuddly cat. Jade stretched a bit in my grip and pressed herself up against me. “Don’t panic with what I’m about to say, my next words are for the guards to worry over.” Jade whispers to me gently. “So yeah, I’m going to make someone kick the bucket today! It’ll certainly be quite fun after that point and there’s nothing those royal guard nitwits can do to stop me from achieving my end goal!” “What!?” One of the out of armor guards shouted in disbelief. “Quiet down, they’ll hear you!” It’s a little late for that, my ears were wide open to that outburst. I felt Jades lips smirk into my neck as she pecked at it with her lips and I sighed happily. I heard the sound of two sets of hooves trailing off. “So… are you really going to kill someone?” I asked quietly. “I’m going to do exactly what I said I’d do Fizzle, make someone kick the bucket.” After a few minutes, Jade sat up and rolled off to the side. She still hadn’t let go of me. “So do you want to do it? It’ll make you more involved in my plans.” “Hmm… is it this about that bucket of magical pink dye?” I asked. There was a toothy smile on Jade’s face, she worded it so well to make it seem like she was going to kill someone. She had set off the guards on purpose, we’ll be watched more closely from now on. So how was Jade getting that bucket into position for me to kick it? “Then yes, I do want to help you kick a bucket. So what is your end goal?” “Make the royal guards jump at shadows for the rest of the day until it is time to start running. Come on, let’s go do some other things get in a quick lunch and pick up clothing for a fancy party later.” Jade got off of me and held out a paw for me to take hold of, I grabbed it and was helped onto my hooves. “This evening is going to be a bit fancy, sorry for not giving you a heads up. So how do you feel about tiaras made specifically to hide your horn Fizzle?” “I can work with that.” I stated honestly as we went to go look around at an art museum for fun. -Shining Armor, minutes later- “Are you sure she said she’s going to kill someone?” He might have it in for Jaded La Perm, but even he didn’t think that the cat had a killer’s heart. This sounded suspiciously like a setup for something and he still didn’t know what. “Put more guards on her. Whatever she’s up to, she won’t get away with it… this time. She can’t be allowed to get away with it this time!” -Cadence- She was so getting away with it this time. I didn’t know what Jade was going to do, but with Shining and the guards this riled up… this is exactly what Jade wants. I could warn Shining that he was playing into her paws, but I wanted to see how this ended. Auntie Celestia told me to pay absolute attention to the eventual political fallout of whatever Jade does and then I’d see why Celestia appreciate Jade so much. The first impression anyone would get of Jade from this is that she’s kind of a jerk, but even I know that would be wrong concerning the fact that we were friends and that Jade doesn’t do these things without good reason. That cat loved her pony friend and she was radiating it quite powerfully at that, so what kind of evening did those two have planned… and how can I help? “Cadence what are you thinking?” Oh nothing Shiny, just that I know where Jade was going to be this evening and that I was going to let her surprise you... again. Now what did you care about more, me… or catching Jaded Freaking La Perm? I can already see one bit of political fallout and that would be forcing Shining make things up to me later. I appreciated the efforts that Shining will have to go to for me because of Jade. Nothing like making a stallion jump through hoops for you and having your friend do the same thing to the same stallion. -Well past noon, Fizzle- We were getting into the evening and Jade told me that we had to get in a good meal. So I was to order my fill, we’d need all that energy for an over the top evening of fun, intrigue and excitement. Given that it was Jade telling me this, I believed her wholeheartedly because I knew she was going to do something insane. The restaurant we were eating at was quite good and it wasn’t very expensive, I expected something more extravagant. Jade said that extravagance was overrated and that good food is always better than expensive stuff that tasted horrible, I definitely had to agree with her. Where we were eating might be low to middle class, but we were eating good food. “What do you do for dessert Mr. Cumin?” The stallion that walked up to our table was about to say something when he heard a shout from the kitchen. His daughter too priority and it didn’t sound like there was a fire. His daughter, at least a year or two younger than us, came out of the kitchen pointing out her cutie mark and the two started hugging. She must have just gotten it, which would help out the family business of this poor out of the way restaurant. “So about that dessert…” Of course Jade continued to think with her stomach, she must have noticed my look because she leaned over to me to whisper. “We’re tipping them with the rest of our money… I think they need it more than we do. Besides, I like their customer service… even if Mr. Cumin is a grump. I’d like to think that we brought several guards in here to be constant enough customers to survive as a business. They make good food here, but their location is kind of lousy.” “You planned it that way didn’t you?” I received a cheeky smile, yep Jade was trying to help these two out… but where was the… oh. I kind of wish mom would be able to adopt Saffron, but I don’t think her and Mr. Cumin’s personalities would mesh together too well. “Her mother?” “Yeah…” Jade looked away from me a bit upset, but she then looked back a little more chipper. “I think they’ll make this place something incredible, like I and mom did with Airship Mauled.” I believed it as we exited The Tasty Treat, a small out of the way restaurant that would be scraping by for the next few years. -An hour, or so, later- I looked at the Tiara blocking the view of my broken horn and smiled a bit, I didn’t look half bad in a dress. My scar was visible and I didn’t care if it was, Jade didn’t either. I looked to Jade who was wearing a tuxedo with a skirt, it looked cute on her. I just had to ask though. “Is the cane really necessary?” Giving me a broad evil looking smile, Jade hefted the cane into both her paws to do a short dance before crouching and throwing her arms out into the air while waving one hand and the cane held in the other. “Part of the plan?” Jade just nodded and tipped her top hat to me with her free paw, if I didn’t know any better I’d swear she was dressed as a stage magician and not my date to the party we were going to. What magic tricks was Jade going to pull out of her pack this time? “Just enjoy the evening Fizzy and if any noble harasses you… well just be yourself and I’ll send them a parting shot on the way out. Don’t be what anyone else wants you to be, even me for that matter!” Jade hugged me affectionately. “Just be your beautiful self. Besides that, I’m getting some help so the bucket can get inside without anyone thinking twice about it. Let’s do this thing!”