//------------------------------// // Chapter thirty three, Unfamiliar Faces: The Fallen Stars. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -The future that might change, Fizzle- One of my guys noticed that Kuril got by them, they turned and were about ready to toss my mother out of the alleyway only for me to get between them. “You are not going to hurt my mother!” They both became somewhat stunned by my declaration. Though Niche idly commented that this would explain why I was so angry about Abyssinia being sacked prior to my becoming commander, now leader, of the whole army with the Storm King gone. “No, still don’t quite see my child, if she were here she’d be spreading her hooves wide open for a hug and would call me ‘mommy’ being my sweet little filly.” I turned to Kuril giving her a disbelieving glance. “I mean, it has been about six years since she’s seen her dear old mother. You would expect a little bit of excitement right, or am I being silly?” One of the Storm Creatures made an affirmative noised behind me and I growled, the two Storm Creatures were immediately back at the entrance of the alleyway making whistling noises. Good, they at least knew who the boss was here. I looked to mom and sighed, I spread my hooves open for a hug and did as she asked. “Mommy!” I even tried to do it in a cute voice. I didn’t need to do this, I just felt like it! “Now there’s my sweet little filly, the cute commander of her own little army really.” Mom came forward and wrapped me up tightly into a hug and I heard Fluttershy cooing loudly with a smile, I glared at her over mom’s back as I held her tight. “You say a word about this Fluttershy and I will end you, I have an army and I know how to use it!” Yeah, I was the de facto leader now and could change my mind about helping Canterlot. “I think you’re too kind for that Fizzle.” Darn it, mom was right. “My grown mare knows how to make things fit into place as if using a chisel. She never unnecessarily hurt any pony and she kept everyone healthy, for in her heart my little Fizzle is quite emotionally wealthy.” “Are you going to rhyme the entire time you’re here?” Pulling back from the hug and looking to me to address my question, she nodded. “Just like you took Canterlot by storm I have some room for surprise, like the fact that I haven’t exactly been using my eyes.” With that mom reached up and pulled down the hood revealing a cloth tightly wrapped around her head covering both her eyes. I gave her a shocked look. “Do not be worried or look afraid, I can see just fine with a sustain effect and it’s not exactly a bad price that I paid. For I can still see with my eyes, but I’d rather keep them covered so I won’t see any lies.” “Mom, what…” I started to ask, when she kissed me on the forehead and ran her fingers over my mane. I leaned into her touch. “Always my little filly you will be, I’m at least trying to stay happier than those who came before me.” Mom replied, I tilted my head at her questioningly. “Of good witches there are not many to be found, and there being one like me is nice to have around.” “Excuse me, but I really needed to talk with Fizzle. If that’s okay with you Ms. La Perm?” Nearly forgot that Fluttershy was here, given that mom showed up out of nowhere. “Oh it is certainly okay, for a mare that is still quite lovely and gay.” Mom’s words made Fluttershy blush. “I have to know, what happened to Jade that led you to all this Fizzle.” That was a question I’ve been wanting answered for a while Fluttershy. “I can answer that question, though you might not like the news.” Wait, mom could answer it. “It’s a matter of what you want to hear, if you so choose.” “Sekhet finally came out of the barrier?” I asked feeling a little hopeful. “Given that Fluttershy is involved, I’ll say that at least one mystery has been solved.” Mom, Fluttershy is stronger than you think she is. I thought Fluttershy could handle the news and didn’t needed to be treated like glass. “Somebody attempted to kill Jade, whether they were successful or not is in the air unless…” I turned to mom so that I didn’t have to see Fluttershy’s face after she heard what I said. “No, it’s still there and that’s our best guess.” Even after six years mom? I don’t think Jade has any chance to come back from wherever she ended up. Wait a minute… did mom just rhyme off of me? “What happened to her Kuril, is she… does she need help?” It’s saying something when even Fluttershy won’t say the word dead. “Into a dimensional vortex she was fed, to a place where no other mortal or god can tread.” Yeah, that definitely sounds like some place that is very conducive to Jade living a long and fulfilling life mom. “With some luck Jade might not actually be dead, though what she’s eating there really cannot be said.” “Yeah, because we can’t go there to see for ourselves. Did Sekhet have any other information and has anyone else been back to Airship Mauled?” I didn’t feel like letting this go. Sure Jade ended up in a place that no one else can go and it’s been six years since she went there, but I didn’t know why no one else can go there. “Also why can’t anyone else get into that place?” “That has been some cause for a bit of contention, because she may be frozen in time in that dimension.” Is mom seriously telling me that it’s possible that Jade could still be alive because her injuries can’t make her bleed out? What’s the catch here, aside from her being younger than me now? “We don’t know if that is the case, though Sekhet said it was possible, likely as a way to save face. As for the others that’s really bad news, I’ve lost sight of them all, which left the world looking less colorful in hues.” “What do you mean you lost sight of them?” In answer to my question mom reached into her pack and pulled out a rolled up piece of parchment. “There was an enchantment that I did make, so I could track those I cared about with something shed that I did take.” Kuril sat on the cobblestone ground and unrolled the map. “A map for seeing where you all are. Only now all are gone, each fallen like a star.” “Is there any chance the enchantments could wear out?” I could see two specks of light with differing colors. One was clearly Sekhet at Airship Mauled and the other was me, here in Canterlot. “Also could you drop the whole witch rhyming thing?” “Okay fine, my own daughter just won’t let me have any fun in this slightly dark world. Let me be clear on this my little Fizzle, I put everyone that left on this map. I even put Maries on here when she was commuting between Canterlot and Airship Mauled.” At her words both Fluttershy and I looked at the map again. “What happened to Maries, where was she last seen?” I asked instantly with worry. “Somewhere between Canterlot and Airship Mauled, she was on her way back from another case as a lawyer and now she’s gone. I even hiked out to the location she disappeared at and found signs of unicorns having been in the area. She was going to visit her family in Flame Geyser swamp before coming back.” Mom looked a little disturbed as she pointed out a red spot on the map colored in with a crayon. “Someone had ambushed her here, they likely somehow felt my scrying enchantment and disconnected it before carting her off somewhere. It must have taken quite a concerted effort to bring her down considering the damage to the area when I arrived, I quickly left as I didn’t want to find out if anyone was still around. The area was dead silent and that clearly wasn’t normal. One could not even hear the flame geysers going off, it was just that disturbing to me.” “What happened to the others?” Though looking at the various spots on the map I could see several red markings. Two of which were over the ocean close to Abyssinia, representing Jacky and Gene’s stand against the Storm King’s attack on Abyssinia. That would be the first place I was going to next. One red marking was by itself in the middle of nowhere which had my interest. “Who was that one?” “That was the odd one out of all of them, it happened on the night of Nightmare Moon’s return. The summer sun celebration, four years back.” So judging by mom’s words, this would place it as the place that Blade disappeared. “Instead of the light fading away from the map, it flew straight off the map and through the ceiling.” -Summer Sun Celebration, Airship Mauled, Kuril- So this was the night that Nightmare Moon was supposed to return, if Jade had been right about everything then I would see something strange happen to Blade if she were to succeed. The light seemed to have stopped in one spot in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly the light pulled away from the map and started rising towards the ceiling, I blinked in confusion and then made my way outside and looked to the moon in the evening sky. There I could see four stars moving in conjunction with one another towards the moon ever so slowly. “Star light Blade Bright, Are you one of the brightest stars that I see tonight? I wish you may, with all your might, return to me some time after this long night.” I watched three stars disappear on the moon and the fourth final one appeared in a flash at the neck of the ‘Mare in the Moon’, slowly the visage of the mare disappeared. I supposed that fourth star was Blade, she certainly had a sense of humor if she went for the throat of the seal. Like a knife aiming for the Nightmare, I doubt she would actually want to hurt Luna. Funny, the first thing she ever successfully assassinated was a seal to free someone. Was I crying? Yes, I think I was. I was going to go to sleep, hopefully when I woke up I would feel the sun upon my fur. -The future that might change, Fizzle- “Soon after, Princess Luna returned to this world as Nightmare Moon. From there six special ponies freed her from a corruptive influence, two of them were friends of my kitten.” Mom sounded really sad. “At the same time I lost someone else that loved me. She was the first to disappear, one by one each of my little stars on this map disappeared and fell from my sight, Jacky and Gene, Arizona and Velvet, Fortitude and Flamberge. The only ones that are left are you Fizzle, which I’ve been direly worried about, and Sekhet who is quite functionally immortal. Maries could be alive, but I wouldn’t know in what condition or where though.” Fluttershy fluttered into the air and over to mom, she wrapped her hooves around my blinded mother and tugged her into a tight hug. I followed that up with a hug of my own, I never knew Blade loved mom. I wasn’t against it, but Blade left my mother alone and I would not forgive her for that if she ever came back. “It’ll be okay, even if it isn’t, then we’ll make it okay!” Fluttershy pressed herself against us further, this was a quiet minute for us and it was beginning to get late in the evening. Once we separated, I turned to mom. “Are you… staying for the Friendship Festival mom?” She was about to answer when she looked away from me and towards the sky beyond the dead end of the alley, she quickly stood up and we could all see a shooting star that was angled sharply downwards. Mom, clasped her paws together while putting them to her chest. I blinked as I felt like my eyes were deceiving me when a saw a light split off from the star and saw it heading towards… I looked down at the map as that small speck of light I thought I saw landed exactly where the red dot was on the map. Fluttershy and I just stared at the spot, there was as smile on Fluttershy’s face and I can slowly feel one building onto mine. “I’m not sticking… around…?” Mom turned and somehow saw the third light on the map laying upon the ground, she swiftly picked it up and looked upon it thoroughly in surprise. Well as much surprise as could be seen when her eyes were still covered. After that the cloth around her eyes became soaked with fat tears of relief and a smile I hadn’t seen on my mother’s face since she first removed her hood. She still hadn’t removed the cloth wrapped around her eyes and she only had two words to say. “Welcome back.” “Maybe the others can come back too?” That was a little too hopeful Fluttershy. “I do want to see them all again.” “You know, I wanted to destroy this map in a fit of rage.” Mom stated with a bit of whimsy in her voice. “Watching it day by day I felt like I had the world in my paws, that I could tear it all apart by ripping up this map.” “What stopped you?” Here mom turned a smile to me and sat a paw on my head to started rubbing my ears affectionately. “This little light of mine, she was the one that always shined.” That didn’t answer my… oh wait, she was talking about me. I felt my cheeks heat up, why do female Abyssinians always make me blush?! “I thought I had lost you too when I looked at the map. Only to find out my thumb slightly covered your position while I was looking over the map in a panic and I saw your light moving for Canterlot. So I quickly came here as fast as I could.” “How did you get in or by all the Storm Creatures?” I smacked my forehead with a hoof for asking that dumb question. “No, wait, let me guess. Illusion powder, shadow swimming with the cloak or knowing all the secret passages throughout the city thanks to The Squirrels?” “All of the above, the illusion powder I make has become quite potent, it was not difficult to get into the city in the last few hours. I had to tell The Squirrels that they were wrong about you being a bad pony and to look at things more closely.” Mom giggled a bit. “They went absolutely nuts when I told them all of the things you were doing on the side that the Storm King wouldn’t have likely approved of.” “Of course they did, they’re The Squirrels mom!” With my exclamation, both Fluttershy and mom burst out with laughter. “I want to meet them.” Who was going to tell Fluttershy that it was a gang run by a squirrel?