//------------------------------// // Chapter twenty nine, Convention Tension: Unconventional Intervention. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Fizzle- I yawned as I woke up and nuzzled Jade, she mewled cutely in her sleep and I started to rub a hoof behind her ears to hear a soft purring noise that only she could make. She had looked tired and seemed a bit restless last night, but a kiss to the forehead from me had settled that pretty well. Whatever she’s worried about, most likely how her late night trip to the museum went, I’m sure she’ll tell us all about it this morning. Her robbery might have hit a few snags last night which is why she was so late in getting back to us, apparently she had to have been successful as she came back with nary a scratch on her. Either that or she failed and still got away. I rolled off of Maries after tapping their paw to release me, I was on my way to the bathroom and a good bath. I should be more bothered about Jade getting stealing stuff, but in this case it was considered a legal robbery or so I’ve been told. Maries backed it up as being legal as long as Jade went through the proper procedures. Jade had the signed contract to prove she did, so I really shouldn’t be so worried. Last night’s robbery had been more for the thrill of actually managing to do it than anything else, I don’t think Jade cared that much about money except when it came to treating us to dinner. Maries was a bit expensive to pay for, given how much food she could consume when it wasn’t mom or another pony with a similar magical cooking ability. Mother’s magical cooking affected nutrition to a ridiculous degree, as it made keeping both Maries and Sugar fed quite easy on a fraction of the food that they would otherwise need to consume to not be halfway starving. Sugar could easily hunt for herself, I’ve seen her burying drop bears bones and I didn’t question it because the drop bear population was being kept in check from growing explosively out of control because of it. Sugar eventually dug up those bone and ate them too when she needed a snack, Al-mi’raj were definitively scary creatures. Nature from a different, not pony, point of view was a terrifying thing to learn about. Fluttershy obviously knew about that point of view and didn’t care, she in fact tended to try and defy nature’s need to keep a balance of life and death. She was somewhat partially successful, but anywhere away from her sanctuary based presence was still fair game for animals. Bringing my thoughts back to Maries, she couldn’t hunt because she was trying to fit into a societal mold with the rest of us while trying to remain civilized about it all and the general preconceptions about her species. Both Kuril and Jade tended to take small, but very useful, things that they would eventually use later to great effect. Mom did it less so than Jade, but at least mom told me that you should only steal something in a dire emergency and when you absolutely needed to. Like medical emergencies, life or death situations and for survival when you didn’t know how to survive off the land. Mother Kuril at least made a token effort to be a good role model. She tries to teach me what not to do with my life and then goes and does things like turns highly annoying ponies into mice with but a flick of her wrist. The noise of glass shattering against a thick skull is the most obvious tell that some pony got her mad. Everyone I knew weren’t even close to being good role models in general, but they at least weren’t usually intentionally trying to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it with their escapades. We’d be going to the comic convention today, so that would also be something to get Jade’s mind off of whatever had been bothering her last night when she came in. -Hours later- Breakfast was enough time for Jade to catch us up with a big problem going down in Manehattan, someone had stolen a dark magic artifact last night from the same museum Jade had pulled a friendly foal gloved level heist upon. Said power could level all of Manehattan if left unchecked, so Jade was right to be a little worried. The object had what was termed by Jade as a ‘downward spiral effect’, in exchange for immense amounts of power. I don’t think I’d ever want to use something like that to restore my horn, not if it was of great detriment to me. Also things like sacrificing someone’s life to restore my horn was not going to fly with me, I would either fix it without making someone else sacrifice themselves for me or I would gain enough control over my magic that getting the my horn back would become a rather moot point. Jade was already sacrificing her time on her own in researching how to fix my horn, which had some dangerous implications such as going after hydra scales. I did not want her to give her life so I could feel normal around other ponies in general. “Would it be noticeable if someone were actively using the amulet?” I just had to ask, I needed to know how visible such a dangerous disturbance would be. “Highly. If a pony has red glowing eyes, magic and happens to be wearing an amulet with an alicorn’s visage of wings and horn with a red jewel in the center that is also glowing.” Sometimes Jade just knew things when they weren’t exactly common knowledge. This amulet was supposedly kept on the down low by Celestia and yet someone found out it existed and stole it for what could only be a power trip. “Then you’ve got a dangerous, possibly very mentally unstable pony on the loose. One that might not be able to control whatever power trip they set in motion for very long if their goals are less than pure.” Said power trip may end up killing hundreds if not thousands of ponies if used improperly. I tried not to think about it and would try to enjoy the convention both Jade and Maries wanted to go to, I was less interested in comic books than they were. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to spend time with them or Arizona as they all went full nerd. “Well then, we’ll worry about it and deal with it when the bridge needs crossing. Until then, I want you to actually enjoy the convention.” To think you were so excited to go see it with us Jade, now you seemed paranoid about some pony wrecking the city and rightly so. “You’ve been waiting all week for this Jade, don’t back out on it now out of fear!” A tiny smile crept on our favorite felines face and she rubbed it against me affectionately. “Your right Fizzle, we’ll deal with it when it becomes problem.” Then Jade took off into the convention full of ponies wearing costumes, cosplaying it was called, that were forming groups that enjoyed certain comic books. I also quickly lost sight of Maries and that normally wasn’t easy to do given their size and the general wariness ponies have around them, they however somehow managed to fit in with the crowd here. What booth would Jade go look at first? The Power Ponies booth, her favorite comic book. I just need to ask for directions from… it was actually kind of hard to tell the convention personnel from the comic book enthusiasts running amok around here. I sighed and pulled my hat a little tighter on my forehead as I was bumped and shoved by the meandering crowd of ponies, I paused when I noticed a ‘Healthy Horniculture’ stand that sold Horniculture horn covers. I blinked, now I felt a little awkward and confused about having been Horniculture that one time… I still wanted the horn covering as it could be worn by Earth and Pegasus ponies too. I moved over to the booth and bought one without a second thought. Then moving over to a corner, I lifted my hat a bit to quickly put it on over my broken horn before anyone saw it. This felt right somehow. Wait… if The Healthy Horniculture existed, then didn’t that mean that Collateral Cat’astrophe did too? Oh goddesses, give me the strength to get through this day! -Sekhet, Airship Mauled- I looked up from my reading of some really raunchy stuff written about Celestia with a twitching ear, I looked around oddly. Something felt very good just now. Was someone actually praying to me or just goddesses in general rather loudly? Their voice even sounded very… oh it was Fizzle! Huh, never thought I’d get a prayer from her like this. It felt rather nice actually to receive such a thing. I took apart the prayer mentally and consumed it before shrugging. I might not be exactly omnipotent, but I could at least do that much. It was always nice to have a warm and fuzzy feeling shoved directly into your body by someone who liked you, like I was suddenly injected with a smile full of happy. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a prayer like this, I didn’t exactly have worshippers in this day and age. I had lots of friends though and I guess they, sort of, counted as worshippers to me. Most war gods on this world didn’t have too many worshippers, but this one single soul sang loudly within me and it sounded very needy for what I could provide. It was so loud, that I would do just that. Sure, whatever, emotional strength is yours for any trying times for today Fizzle. Be at peace, while at war with keeping your sanity! Boon granted, now I could get back to my "adventure novel". -Fizzle- Somehow my mental equilibrium suddenly shifted and I felt all was right with the world despite the fact that I might see Collateral Cat’astrophe again, even if it was an Abyssinian in a costume. It had better not be a second Jade, one was more than enough on a daily basis thank you! I loved Jade dearly, but really now. I did not need to love her over the top comically insane comic book counterpart. I shook my head and continued to wander with a fake green horn affixed to my head, I felt like I belonged a little bit more. “Fan of The Healthy Horniculture I take it?” Stopping to blink at the strange pony that addressed me, I stared at them. Dark orange fur, a comic book speech bubble on his flank, blue eyes and dark hair that was half dressed in a mare’s costume that looked to be Radiance’s from the Power Ponies. Is this the definition of what a super nerd looks like? “She and that Cat’astrophe are actually the most unusual characters I’ve ever heard of, their interactions are always confusing yet somehow makes for a very compelling read. It’s almost as weird as their villain Tri-mera, who for some reason never really hurts anyone and the thing with all the triangles is also really weird. Have you ever noticed that? Because I’ve certainly noticed that and I have a few theories about it…” Oh gods, he was one of those ponies that blathered on and would never shut up. I wondered if I could really get some divine intervention for this. -Sekhet- Sorry, can’t help you with idiots Fizzle. Unless you’re very angry and want them gone in a permanent fashion. This is more of a trickster or intelligence gods department. -Quetzalcoatl- Get out of there, find any excuse to leave him behind! Pawn him off on someone, run away, claim to have a really strange disease that only affects ponies with certain fur and hair colors… specifically the ones he has of course! Maybe you’re allergic to talking a lot, maybe you’re coming down with something, argue about nothing important and then storm away while he’s too confused to come up with a coherent idea of what’s going on! Don’t just stand there and let him keep talking at you or he could keep following you all day! Mostly because he thinks you don’t mind his existence at the very least. Also whatever you do, don’t be overtly rude about it and maybe you might get away without gnawing your own legs off. -Veles- God of confusion at your service… oh I’m part of the story again? Wait… what story? Was there a story? I think I’m forgetting something here, probably nothing important in the long run if I’m just a side one off character. Anyway, meh, don’t exactly feel like helping. I’m more entertained by how annoyed you are, loving mare friend of the sun priestess. -Fizzle- I feel like I should be asking Sekhet riddles for some reason as I tried to get my attention back on this pony. I also felt this huge urge to hug a giant flying winged snake and shove a pile of bricks down a nuisance god’s throat. “Excuse me, but I have some friends to go find. I’m sure you’re theories about Horniculture and Cat’astrophe are all very interesting…” I tried to back away from him, but he started following me. “Quibble Pants, and quite frankly I haven’t told you about the entire conspiracy behind how the Masked Matterhorn doesn’t have super powers to control matter and is just actually average unicorn as if they were from our world!” Why was Quibble so easy to tolerate when he was this annoying? I didn’t even read the comics or keep up to date with them like Arizona, Maries and Jade did. -Sekhet- Sorry, not sorry. The boon has already been granted, no take backs. -Fizzle- Ugh, this Quibble Pants has been going on for what seemed like hours. I looked towards the nearest clock… it’s only been about three minutes. -Chronos- I am the winged god of time… and boy does it fly! Well, except when you need to annoy mortals by slowing time down to a crawl when they aren’t having fun. Sorry, not sorry! -Fizzle- I felt like I was being toyed with massively today, but I couldn’t figure out why. “So anyway, I’ve always wondered what would happen if Filli-second drank condensed coffee. What do they actually call it? Is double shot espresso coffee?” Finally, a point where Quibble Pants could be interrupted! “I wouldn’t know, because in general one of my girlfriends is somewhat largely allergic to caffeine and I try not to drink a lot of coffee or tea when she’s around.” Which I knew is true of Jade and Kuril. I didn’t know if Maries was allergic though, because it was hard to tell with them and Maria’s ‘takes almost everything’ goat stomach. “What is she, an Abyssinian?” He asked curiously looking slightly put off. “Abyssinians are always weird around tea and coffee, I don’t understand why.” “Yes, my girlfriend is an Abyssinian.” She was also Collateral Cat’astrophe at one point, but I wasn’t telling him that. “Also tea and coffee are poisonous to them.” “Is this colt bothering you Fizzy?” I turned to see Jade, my savior, glaring at Quibble. Unfortunately, she had changed into a Cat’astrophe costume to match my recently bought fake horn. I’m pretty sure these two would get along swimmingly... like sharks.