Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows


Chapter twenty seven, Manehattan Menageries: Trip nonsense.

-Rarity, two hours after the Hayburger is returned to its rightful position-

I waited up on the hill by the old abandoned salon building, I wondered why Jade wanted me to come here? I have to get home to make sure Sweetie Belle doesn’t create more charcoal trying to cook while mom and dad are out.

Why do they always pile babysitting duties on me so much? It is good practice if I ever have my own someday, but really now!

“Sorry I kept you waiting Miss Rarity.” I turned and saw a figure that would look so delightful in a dress, why does she refuse every idea of being feminine? She kept her mane nice at least, but she put no style into it. She was an interesting bipedal cat I’ll say that much. “Close your eyes and hold out your hoof.”

I did so, trusting that she wasn’t about to do anything horrid to me, I felt something firmly placed into my hoof and I suppose I was to grab it.

“Okay, open your eyes and look at it.” At her gentle urging I open my eyes to see what looked like a rolled up piece of paper in my hoof with a seal on it. “Generosity can be its own reward, I hope you take that to heart. The building is now yours regardless of whether or not you’ll do my request. I want you to make two simple articles of clothing, it’s a birthday present for someone who’s been there for me since the very beginning of my life. I hope you don’t mind being a proud owner of the Carousel Boutique.”

“I, what?” She was simply giving me this place? I… had no idea what to say to that. I was horribly confused by suddenly having the deed to this very building place in my hoof, Jade just gave me a building and on the seal of the mayors approval no less. If I were to open this deed, I would see it signed and notarized in my name. Feeling like I should be hyperventilating right about now, I only had one course of action. “Of course I’ll make your order!”

Why didn’t I just deny Jade giving me a building!? Why is Jade giving me a building? She just gave it to me and said it’s mine and only made a request, I can refuse the request and still keep the building… but I’d feel quite guilty about it if I did.

“No gems, jewels or overly shiny stuff. What I want is something quite simple for someone of your talent.” Listening to what Jade wanted me to make and how she said I had talent made me blush, I couldn’t help but feel like I was getting so much for giving back so little.

“I, I can’t… you… why this is simply too much Miss La Perm!” I now owned a building, a home, a place where I can start my business and I wouldn’t have to worry about going through money problems.

I would still have to manage the place myself, nothing for it, but this thing she just did for me was above and beyond anything I could have ever expected.

“Please, my mother is Miss La Perm, call me Jade or if you want to be formal Jaded.” We spent the next few minutes going over designs and what the two articles of clothing should look like, whoever she was giving this stuff to as a birthday present would only get my finest. Right… no pressure there. My first order at a workshop freely given to me completely out of the kindness of someone’s heart? “Why don’t you breathe and calm down a little? Also relax you look close to fainting.”

“How am I supposed to calm down when a loose acquaintance of mine drops a home right into my hooves without any strings attached?!” After that, I thought our conversation went pretty well.

Well... after I woke up on the fainting couch I summoned of course. I could only hope to be as generous as Jade was, this must have cost her a small fortune!

-Jade-

Hopefully Rarity would never figure out I bought this place using all the money I’ve earned over the last few weeks or so, legally or otherwise. A lot of which was stolen off of the nobles that Rarity tends to idolize a bit blindly.

-A few days later Airship Mauled, school, Cheerilee-

“Alright class that settles it for today, now I have an announcement to make.” These young adults were all waiting for me to continue. “We will not be holding school next week.”

“Oh does this mean that they are finally taking my advice!” Why did Jade seem so enthusiastic? Oh that, why won’t she just drop it already?

“No Jade, Celestia and or the board of education are not calling a week long meeting to ban the teaching of all forms of math. Though Celestia is considerably tempted to ban you from math for your destroy the cakes of the world equation, I know that should be enough temptation for me to stop from trying to teach you an important life skill. I however, as your teacher, won’t stop trying.” Now I had to deal with Jade’s sad and loud whining. “We can’t just stop teaching math just because it’s somewhat impossible for one student Jade. I might be tempted to exempt you, but I can’t as I have a job to do.”

“Fine…” Muttered Jade as she rested her chin on her desk and began pouting, just one among the weird students I had to deal with in my last year here. Velvet and Arizona weren’t so bad, I just had to keep the two separated or else they might start a fight in the classroom. Maries was exemplary for coming from a barbarian style of culture. The Vibrant Vikings were surprisingly like sponges and quite willing to learn, even if they were going to apply what they knew towards being better Vikings.

My only really troublesome student was Jade and in just one subject no less, I should consider what I’ve done a good job so far. Even Velvet has caught up and was in a scholastic competition with Arizona which brought both their grades up somehow, I’d personally thought that competition would do the opposite for the two.

“So what kind of shenanigans are you going to get involved in next week?” Jacky asked in an innocent manner.

“You mean what kind of shenanigans ‘we’ are going to get into… and they aren’t shenanigans! I have been tasked with administrating a field trip.” That immediately made Jade perk up and she had a sharp toothy grin on her face. What have I done now to earn such a pleased look from her? “As such I’ve decided that next week we’ll all take part in a cultural festival.”

“This wouldn’t happen to be the one in Manehattan by any chance would it?” Why did she suddenly seem so eager about this? Whenever Jade got excited about something, one had to be on the lookout for imminent trouble.

“Yes, it is.” Usually that’s a bad thing and a sign that we probably shouldn’t want anything to do with Manehattan. “Now can anyone tell me why Jade seems so excited?”

I know Jade gets away with a lot of illegal things. Yet I couldn’t help but admire how she did so with such an insane aptitude for it, especially without any solid evidence that could convict her of any crime whatsoever.

“I think it’s because Jade not only has plans to do something in Manehattan, it’s because she’s always wanted to see the city…” Well that wasn’t ominous at all Fizzle. “That and a weeklong Power Ponies comic convention is taking place right alongside the festival.”

I groaned out loud. I couldn’t disparage Jade’s interests, she was quite well aware of culture thanks to what kind of cooking I’ve seen from her mother and her bursts of multicultural cuisine. That and all the gods that Jade new about that happened to shape the culture of the world.

Should I just cancel because Jade was going to the comic convention and doing some extracurricular activities that may involve theft? I couldn’t cancel this for the actions that I knew that one student would ‘possibly’ take, my hooves are kind of tied on this one. Unless…

“Let me put it this way, you all have to take part in the festival in some way. Given your diverse cultural origins, all of you shouldn’t have any problems coming up with something to do for the festival.” They all looked intrigued at my statement and the smile only got wider on Jade’s face. Oh dear, could anything actually stop the trouble she would cause? Sometimes I think she should have been born with black fur and have Jacky’s luck. I shake my head sadly. “In any case this trip will not be cheap, but it’s actually within our budget surprisingly. Thanks to us having a mostly small class, you’ll all even be allowed to purchase at least one cultural souvenir under a certain price. I’ll have that price determined and set up before the trip, each of you will be given a small amount of money to get said souvenir with.”

That and Kuril feeds more than half of these hungry mouths given she owns the only restaurant here and we didn’t exactly have a running lunchroom. I was getting a lot more money than I necessarily needed and can afford to pay for a week of cultural exploration and fun, plus the fact I was required to give them a field trip.

If I wasn’t the only teacher here, I think I’d be completely underpaid like any other for the job I have to deal with. I was also technically the principal and the councilor until some pony, or otherwise considering this place, applied for the job.

I loved teaching with a passion, but after I leave this school to go work in Ponyville I wouldn’t be able to personally fund any field trips like this again. So I might as well do a really big field trip for all these delightfully weird scamps. I just hope Jaded doesn’t do anything to noteworthy or big.

-Jade-

Looks like it would soon be time for me to rob a museum and I didn’t even have to think of a reason to go to Manehattan, I also get to go to the comic convention… score!

-Fizzle-

So… knowing what I do about us, what will happen? That would be a museum robbery, something or several things happening during the cultural festival involving Jade and then whatever happens at the comic convention with Jade and Maries.

Next week will be completely busy… I hope Maries understands the implications of all this. They’ll be the only chimera in the city and ponies will definitely be giving them a lot of space.

-Maries-

Can we really do this?

Don’t be a pessimist Mara, that’s Maria’s job.

I think things will be fine as long as we don’t do anything aggressive. It’s a cultural festival, but I don’t think chimera culture would be appreciated.

When did Maria become the logical one?

My whole world view as our wonderfully intelligent tail has been completely thrown off balance!

Oh ha ha, it is to laugh! Seriously we’re all smart here, we just have three different thought processes to work with.

Yes, well, what is Jade going to do this time?

Oh that’s even worse, we all need to talk to Jade. It certainly looks like Fizzle likely already knows several implications of this trip judging by the looks on her face.

-Jacky-

I’m going to need to wear protective gear all week next week aren’t I? Let’s see, I need to buy a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, shoulder pads and possibly anything else with padding that can cover my shins and forearms.

Jade has that look on her face and my captain isn’t going to let an opportunity to do crazy stuff like this one slip past her. I raised my claws and Cheerilee gave me a nod to speak my mind.

“Quick question Cheery, is Dr. Bones going with us as our doctor?” I had to ask because she was a really weird diamond dog, but she was definitely a medical professional. My bruises had actually cleared up for once in my life.

“Does my cousin Jubilee like fireworks? Yes, she’ll be on hoof as will our Coach Sekhet to chaperone. If a goddess can’t keep you under control, then nothing else will.” It’s like Cheerilee didn’t trust us… or more importantly didn’t trust Jade.

She did have the right to think that Jade was going to do some things and needed to be watched carefully.

-Jade-

So much to do and so little time to plan it all in, but even I had my own questions.

“Are we going to see your sister Cherry Blossom?” I’ve recently realized that Cheerilee’s name is short for Cheerily and Glee. I’m surprised it took me this long to figure that out, pony pun naming conventions are always notable.

“If she appears at the cultural festival, then yes, we are going to see my sister Jade.” Why did Cheerilee sound so defeated? It wasn’t like I was going to cause an utter mess… nope couldn’t keep the smile off my face while thinking that. I would really have to work on that, because I honestly wasn’t going to try and cause a mess. “For those of you who don’t know my sister Cherry Blossom, she is a famous wrestler and she wrestles in Manehattan.”

I was clearly going to get involved in anything that happened there.

-Several days later, Cheerilee-

“Okay, we’re here Manhattan. Whatever you do, don’t...” A roar caused me to crouch down and cover my head, I looked up and saw three wyverns seemingly attacking the city.

“Wyverns!” Someone shouted and ponies started to panicking and scattering everywhere. Coach Sekhet just yawned in a bored manner and towed our luggage out as if this wasn’t an emergency to be worried about.

“Jade, chase and draw those wyverns back this way. Oh and take Jacky with you!” At least it was Kuril giving orders and not Jade. Kuril I can trust to be a little more levelheaded. “Fizzle take this spear and charge it specifically with debilitating lightning magic. Maries, Velvet and Arizona, I want you to be prepared to pin the wyverns down in any way you can! Also Flamberge stop struggling. I know dragons hate wyverns, but now isn’t the time for you to lose your cool!”

Kuril and Fortitude were struggling to pin down the suddenly angry looking dragon.

Having absently noted that Jacky was wearing a lot of padding and a helmet for some reason. I could understand why now, because the second we arrived they were going to deal with wyverns in the city. She’s been wearing that stuff ever since she got on the train.

-Jacky-

How were we supposed to catch up with… them... what is Jade doing? I watched as Jade pulled out a griffon mask, she cast it at herself and we all stopped to watch her transformation into an, ‘admittedly’, pretty looking griffon. One with green feathers and brown fur, her tail gained tufts of fur at the tip.

She grabbed me and started flying high into the sky.