//------------------------------// // Chapter forty-one, Sandy Situations: Ballroom Beasts. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Next day, before noon, Nagrahbah Palace, Jacky- “Why are all of you here early?” Amira asked as she looked between us. “The party isn’t until this evening, though I don’t mind Savannah being here.” Savannah smiled brightly at the Saddle Arabian delegate. “There was an incident involving someone testing the alcohol tolerance of a giant butterfly.” I cringed in memory of it and then sent a glare to Gene. “It… did not end well.” Gene put his tail between his legs, bared his neck towards me and laid down on the floor. This was the instinctive sign for complete surrender in most animals. -Earlier that morning- “Oh goddesses he’s starting to spray his chemicals everywhere, everyone evacuate the ship!” I ran as the butterfly drunkenly stumbled about after us while spraying misty chemicals, scales and other things wildly all over the place. We all quickly jumped off the side of the ship and I landed on my face, which was unpleasant given how much sand I got in my eyes. Once off the ship we turned around to see a heavy fog to start to cover and even seem to cling to the ship. Nefer walked out the fog looking a little dizzy, but completely okay. “The ship smells weird now and it’s covered in lots of pretty looking glitter.” It didn’t seem to have as much an effect on Nefer, he had to have some limited resilience to it. -Back to before noon- “Gene, you are to never give Belfry alcohol ever again!” It would be a while before that heavy fog surrounding their ship cleared up, also Nefer was the only one resilient enough to the stuff to even start cleaning it out of the ship. “Aye-aye captain, I understand and apologize profusely for our ship being disabled by our currently drunk butterfly guard.” Gene would have to be properly punished later for this incident. “How was I to know that Belfry had a very low tolerance for wine? The ship is currently in an untenable living situation.” -Gene- Said wine was currently in a pack until I needed it later, to think all it took was a single cup. I was not about to bring up the fact that we left Nefer all alone on the ship to clean the mess up with the drunken butterfly still rampaging around it, it would make us look irresponsible for his safety… I’m sure he’ll be fine. -Jacky- “How much damage can a butterfly cause?” We all looked to Amira slowly, that sweet summer mare. “Let’s just leave it at a lot and hope we don’t have to repair anything when we get back to our ship once the chemical fog has cleared up.” Though I dreaded to learn of the damage that Belfry would cause in our absence, it would be worse if he came into the city. Hopefully Nefer would… we left Nefer alone with the drunken butterfly didn’t we? “In effort to give you an idea as to the size of said butterfly, somewhere between a large dog and a small manticore.” Amira stared flatly at us and then turned to Savannah. “Belfry is really that big.” Savannah confirmed. “Right… well… how about I help you all prepare for the evening.” Offered Amira sweetly while her eyes followed Savannah’s shifting fluffy tail as it wagged. “Is Flotsam joining the party as well?” We turned to the sea pony and saw that she was once again engrossed in the book of one thousand and one Saddle Arabian tales. I think she appreciated the purchase and ever since she found out that Neighgrabah and Nagrahbah were the same place, she’s hardly put the book down. “Probably not.” I answered for her. -Hours later, palace suite- “Remember Gene, just because you’re my date tonight and are handsome…” I trailed off glaring into his eyes as he stared at me in wonder. “It does not mean that you are free from punishment!” “You’re beautiful.” Didn’t feel like it Gene, I’m a girl covered in bruises and scars… maybe that’s actually a turn on for Vikings or just him specifically. “Thank you, but I’m still angry with you for endangering the ship!” It’s not often that I wore a dress, but I could certainly clean up well. I curled and styled my feathers a bit and left them hanging unbound, then put on a nice sleeveless purple dress. Gene was looking at me as if I were capable of passing for a fashion model. Sighing, I slapped him harshly and he blinked out of his stupor. “Captain.” Gene stated as he stood up straighter and at attention. “Remember we’re expecting trouble tonight Gene, get that feathered head of yours out of the gutter even if it’s flattering!” While I was saying this I was strapping my knife at my left hip and then, without thinking, put the saber and sheath away behind me. “Jacky… where did the saber go and how did you do that?” What was he talking about? The sword was right… looking over my shoulder, the saber wasn’t there. “I have no idea… maybe it’s a party cannon thing?” Don’t think about, do not think about, don’t question it and everything would be just peachy keen. “Now remember to be ready for a fight.” -Ballroom- “Lady La Perm and Mr. Eric…. ma’am are you going to wear that all night?” If the guy announcing us was referring to the fact that I was now wearing a slightly transparent purple silk skullcap, then yes. I nodded at the butler guy and just moved on with my life. Amira looked quite nice in Saddle Arabian ball gown. Savannah basically looked the same in a dress and her fur was brushed out. “You’re makeup looks nice Jacky.” Why was Amira complimenting me? “Where ever did you get it?” “What makeup?” I was clearly confused, I wasn’t wearing any makeup at all. “Your eyeshadow of course.” What was Amira talking… oh? “Yes, my bruised eyes really do look nice for my complexion don’t they?” I was fairly certain that Amira didn’t know how to respond to that. “It makes you look both tough and nice at the same time Jacky.” It would be a while before you got back in my good graces for getting a crew member, even one I dislike, completely drunk with one glass of wine Gene. “Thank you for noticing Amira.” I guess people can make injuries look good sometimes. “I… uh… okay?” Poor Amira was so confused, she shook her head and she sharpened her gaze upon us. “I’ve had some ponies search around discreetly for a key at the palace. They didn’t find anything, but I still increased security around here.” “What if the key isn’t key shaped?” There was a long pause following Savannah’s question. “That hadn’t occurred to me and could be a problem.” It looked like Amira was trying to think of something. “We do not know what the keys look like, so they could be anything.” “Well look alive and keep an eye out, Clockwork just entered the ballroom.” My eyes were firmly planted on the smug unicorn as took a few steps into the ballroom and immediately noticed me. “Well if it isn’t my rival.” Started Clockwork. “The nameless parrot.” “Rival? I don’t see it. You just tried to kill me for apparently no reason.” As I recall, he just told his machines to shoot us and that’s about as much interaction with the GODLESS agent that we’ve had when we first met him. “Yes, you are my rival, you ruined my opportunity to tell a grand story of my adventure to retrieve that coin!” Wanting to know what Teatime was talking about I had to ask. “What adventure?” I tapped my right foot, while Gene looked ready to jump the pony and claw his face off. “You simply sawed your way through the exit and didn’t actually go through all the stuff that I did.” “Yes and nobody would know that I was lying about my grand adventure if it wasn’t for you and your companion playing witness to my bypassing all the dangers!” Did he just seriously say that out loud? “There’s no way I can make up a tale of a grand adventure if someone witnessed the truth, you would have told everyone that I never went on it.” “You just said that out loud.” I pointed out. “Yes… er… well!” At a guess, he was just going to start blustering pointlessly now. “Anyway, I don’t know what a strumpet like you are doing here in this fine establishment of class, let it be known I will have my revenge against you.” “Hey, I’m the only one that’s actually somewhat qualified to be a strumpet around here!” Everyone just turned to stare at Savannah. “You do realize he just called you a prostitute right?” It didn’t take a split second for my talons to rake up the right side of Teatime’s face lightly. Savannah might not mind being called that, but I sure did! “Guards, this crazy parrot just assaulted my pristine face!” None of the guards moved or reacted to Teatime’s attempt to incite them to attack me. “You kind of deserved that and even practically asked for it.” Scarlet stated out loud. She was currently on the job and I was surprised to hear her siding with me. Her dark orange eyes were sending a look of amusement my way. “People letting mares into the policing forces, what has this world come to?” Teatime Clockwork stalked away. -A few hours later- The Nagrabah Ball was in full swing and we each took turns keeping an eye on Teatime Clockwork. As I danced with Gene, I informed him that I still hadn’t forgotten about Belfry and hoped that Nefer was mentally sound when we got back to him. It was around this time that a gruesome four legged lumpy looking beast with three toed claws crashed into the ballroom, its fanged maw howling as turned to lunge at the nearest person. That person was me. I had wondered why my luck hadn’t tried dropping one of the chandeliers full of sharp gem shards on my head and I had only stumbled a few times while leading Gene through our dancing. I quickly reached behind me and tried pulled out my cannon. Instead I pulled out the sheathed saber and blocked its claws with the sheath. It knocked me onto my back attempting to bite my face off, it’s wild white glowing eyes advanced for my beak or neck with each rabid drool filled snap. The grey skinned stub tailed beast was soon tackled away by Gene who slammed into it with his body full force sending it tumbling away from me. It slowly rolled to its feet. Looking at it, it resembled nothing I’ve ever seen before… well aside from a very ugly looking monstrous dog with webbed ears. The monster tried to charge at me only to be leapt upon by Scarlet Sunburn who lost her helmet and her short blonde hair flung about as she tried to pin it down. The other guards were busy leading all the guests away from the danger and out of the room. Another crash and an identical looking beast charge at me from behind, I dodged around its attempt to claw me and drew the saber to slash at it. I did some damage to the skin on its shoulder, yet it didn’t bleed and only seemed to split a small rent in it a little. That’s when a third one charged at me after breaking through a wall and Gene tackled it to the ground to wrestle with it, while I deflected the jaws of the one still on me by holding the sharp side of the saber in its mouth cutting into the sides of its lips. There was a strange red fluid gushing from this one as it tried to bite through the sword and claw me. It seemed like they were all after… wait, what was Clockwork doing during all this? The crowd had scattered and were screaming, but I didn’t see Clockwork anywhere. I couldn’t focus on that right now as I had these beasts to fight. A fourth one crashed through a window and leapt for me, while the shards of glass rained around me. I was beginning to see a pattern here. It was knocked away from lunging at me by a circular shield to the belly. Looking to where the shield came from, I could see Savannah pumping her fist before that monster tried for me again. I was still busy still fending off the second one with the saber’s blade forced into its gnashing maw to keep it from biting down onto me as I held it off. I backed up and nearly took another claw swipe to the face, the creature seemed insistent on hitting the right side of my face for some reason. Savannah ran forward and engaged the beast as it got back up from being hit by the shield. It lunged for her and she stepped backwards and launched a swift right kick up into its chin causing it to go up onto its rear legs and then she slugged it in the face twice before trying to ram her fist into its belly. “Ow what are these things made of, metal?!” Savannah shook out her left paw in pain as stepped out of the way of several claw swipes in an agile manner. I turned back to my opponent that seemed to be continuing to fruitlessly claw at me and press against the sword I held in its jaw. I narrowed my eyes at it and looked around the room for something to deal with them all… I looked up. I reached down and got my hidden knife to stab it in the neck… to no effect. “Gene, get above me and be prepare to drop the chandelier. Let it go!” They were all after me for a good reason. “Savannah get out of its way, Scarlet let yours go too!” They all sent me strange looks, but did as I said and all three beasts were charging towards me unobstructed as Gene flew up for the chandelier. "Drop it immediately!" All three of the beasts jumped for me, the chandelier fell and… this might sting. -Gene- A dust cloud erupted below me, it eventually revealed four skewered beasts and Jacky with sharp pointy bits millimeters away from her neck, eyes, kidneys and heart. The slightest movement would skewer her. The most surprising thing about this was that the four dead beasts were holding the chandelier an inch from killing her, they were bleeding red fluids all over the floor and the lights in their eyes died quite literally. “They’re clockwork golems…” Jacky muttered, she was trying not to move and in her position I could understand. I don’t honestly know how we were going to get her out from under there without hurting her. “The red stuff is oil… and it’s getting in my feathers. That's going to be so hard to clean out afterwards!” “The black gem from the sultan’s turban display has been stolen!” And while we were busy with four dangerous looking clockwork golems disguised as monsters, something was stolen. Yep, we were batting a thousand and Clockwork actively tried to kill Jacky this time and almost succeeded… I want to say I’m feeling quite angry about all of this.