-Date:???, Manehatten, Shocking-
After Teatime got his comeuppance via a teleporting pony golem, we went our separate ways.
I of course had Jock Hawk with me and I was getting into boxing and wrestling until I was needed again. Our business wasn’t going too badly, provided that we played nice with the rules. Not everyone appreciates a good blood sport, but there were still quite a few pegasi that did.
Dispel Grace went off to do whatever it is he would with those so called holy powers, the last I saw him he was spouting nonsense about how powerful he’ll be when he was next needed. He was still a one trick pony and without that sword, or possibly the armor, he wasn’t as capable in a fight. I’d like to see if he was able to pull it off.
As for Teatime I had no clue where he was going, but he did say he was going to build up resources. One thing was for certain, he was apparently going to help find that ‘End of Immortality’ thing and assist Caballeron’s efforts. Aside from that Teatime would do his own treasure hunting thing and seek out that pirate parrot for revenge, because how dare she steal back that jewel she rightfully earned in the first place?
I say if the parrot was strong enough to do it, then she should get away with it. Teatime really shouldn’t focus any of his efforts on her, she just might make him look stupid again.
As for news of what GODLESS was doing, the entire network was broken to pieces. Many of our members were taken down and imprisoned, quite frankly Celestia was kind of on a warpath with anyone that does anything too openly.
It was a good time to lay low after what we did at The Volcano and it was why we would be doing mostly legit stuff, despite how much it rankles me.
“So boss, what are we going to do today?” Jock crossed his arms and grinned.
“Put on an entertaining show of course, all the safeties are for the sissies of course.” If GODLESS needed me, then they knew where to find me and what my going rates were.
“Victorious Volt and Ripping Rocker, wrestling team extraordinaire!” My companion pulled out a guitar and tried to play a riff on it.
“You’re really bad Jock.” He really needed lessons, because it sounded like a cat being beaten half to death with a trash can.
“The baddest!” He agreed jovially and I just rolled my eyes.
“No, I mean it, you’re horrible.” I stated flatly.
“Yep, horribly great!” Why did I take this perky punchy parrot for a minion again? Oh right, because it’s cool to have buff minions that can be a competent enforcer.
Some side jobs as bouncers paid well and we could intimidate as many ponies as we wanted if they looked like they’d cause too much trouble.
-A few weeks after Huoshan, grassy hill overlooking plains, Arizona-
“Well that’s not ominous at all.” Swirling clouds, lightning, mountain shrouded in darkness and in the distance was a strange figure that looked like a thestral. I think the seal might break before we could reach it, but we still had some time before that happened and we would make it. We had to.
It took us a while to find a way out of Moss Cow with Pom’s menagerie, then we dropped by the unicorns of light to ask for assistance if we fail. From what Ollie has said, they were going to be quite useless and I agreed with her on that. Failure was definitely not an option here.
“I’ve seen that thestral before… Hollow Heart?!” Velvet seemed surprised and tossed away the ice telescope that was quickly evaporated by the hovering Tinsel next to her head. “I saw him in action previously at Seared Seer Mountain, he’s far more dangerous than he looks and has likely become more powerful since then. You remember that coma that Jade was put into Arizona? He caused that and he isn’t a pushover in a fight, if he is enshrouded in darkness he is almost impervious to injury and he heals stupidly fast. As in faster than you do and you’re ridiculous enough already! He was leader of the cultist for nightmares and or darkness in general, it seems he’s joining this battle with the shadow monsters.”
“So that’s who that speck is out there? I’m sure you’re just overestimating how strong he is Velvet. Though I seriously hope the unicorns of light will actually get off their butts and actually do something if there is a chance of us failing here.” So we had to go through a really strong thestral pony to get to the seal, didn’t sound so difficult. A rip formed in the air above the caves entrance leading into the mountain. “Oh you have got to be bucking kidding me!”
“It seems the shadows are intent on flooding into Equestria and if they can slow us down long enough…” Tianhuo drifted off and took a few steps forward, her entire body ignited as she spread two flaming wings from her back. “Well now… I say we shall give them quite a warm welcome!”
“Meep!” Paprika playfully hopped forward while taking on a stern stance and wiggling her hips, I stared at her butt and so did Velvet. Wouldn’t get much chance to stare at that when all the fighting started and Paprika didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.
“Yes, well, we just have to fight through a shadow horde leak and a nightmarish cultist. Said figure of whom all the shadow monsters seem oddly docile towards. We have thankfully evacuated the last pony out of the area, because if this Hollow Heart can guide those shadow monsters…” Ollie took several steps forward while reading through Fred’s pages. “We’re the closest signs of life for them to go after and we're about to have our hooves full just surviving the onslaught much less pressing through a mass of shadow monsters with just the five of us and Fred. Do I even need to say how much worse it can get if that thestral can act as a driving intelligence for all the monsters pouring out of that leak?”
“Um… I haven’t exactly run away yet Ollie…” Pom said from behind us, she was cowering behind Big Mama. The large dog rolled her eyes and gave off a loud huff. The puppies growled and barked at the ominous mountain across the grassy plains, while standing protectively around the lambkin.
“As I said, the five of us and Fred are going to have problems pushing forward.” That was kind of cruel Ollie. “If Pom and her menagerie can bring up the rear and give use a minute or two of rest every once in a while after we get stuck in the thick of it, then we should be able to keep pushing with her ample support. Though I think things would go much smoother if we had seven active combatants on the field, along with the canine menagerie being the defensive support for when we need to fall back and tend to our injuries. I should note that we can close that leak, but you’ll need to get us close to it.”
“I’m going to do my best... to not be a burden to all of you.” Pom muttered as she climbed up on to Big Mama’s back while twiddling her hooves. “We’ll be able to... keep up.”
Under the dark clouds the shadow monsters started to spill forth and came right at us while we stood in the sunlit half of the grassy plains.
“I think we should battle in the shade, THEN WE’LL SEE IF THEY ARE READY FOR FREDDY!” The knowledge demon shouted with glee as Ollie prepared to let him loose as we all started down the hill toward the large army of shadow monsters barreling towards us.
Letting Fred out of the book for a short while would be a good boost to our offensive might, hopefully he didn’t attack any of us and Ollie chose a good time to do so. We were trusting our backs to him and Oleander.
Tianhuo would sweep through the front as needed and will stay mobile.
I would be going directly through the center of them.
Velvet would take the left side and Paprika was on the right.
Ollie is going to be behind me with Fred, until she unleashes him for a short amount of time.
Pom is going to be bringing up the rear.
Getting Ollie close enough to that leak on the mountain is a priority, we’d have to give her the time she needs to close it once we got her close enough.
-Approximately a year later, location unknown, daytime, Fortitude-
“Something is being very wrong.” I am not feeling the same as I was a second ago.
“Gee, you think?!” Turning to Flamberge, I saw that he was no longer a dragon… he was a large red dog though.
Looking to Sweetcakes, she seemed upset to no longer having golden fur or her blue tipped tails. She was now a red furred fox with a single white tipped tail.
Hearing a clacking noise I turned to Skelly and saw her looking very different from being a pony, she looked more a like an ape now. I looked down at my limbs and considered them for a moment. Was I like a minotaur now? Well I was not going to pass for an Abyssinian, I lifted my right limb and wiggled the digits on them.
“We are going to be needing a lot of help with this one.” I said flatly as the boat beached itself next to a sign that proclaimed ‘Welcome to Manehattan City’, but it was not a city full of ponies. It was full of more things like what Skelly and I currently looked like.
“I’m a dog, so yes, I’m guessing this is going to require a lot of time to get used to… because I don’t think we’re in Equestria anymore!” My brother was used to walking on two legs, I in turn was used to walking on four. We would need my brother’s instruction to make this work quickly, we would also need to find out why we were needed here more than anywhere else.
“That’s some really cool cosplay stuff, also nice pet fox!” Another being that looked like us said while giving us a digit pointing upwards, he was clearly male and carrying a surfboard.
“Uh, thank you?” The person nodded to me and walked off into the surf and started paddling out to sea. We would need to understand this world and our surroundings quickly so as to not be caught off guard. “He is friendly, but I do not think we should rely on him for help.”
We sat there for the next few minutes perplexed trying to think of what to do or why Travel On wanted us here and in these new forms.
-Years down the line, Palicoast, Inn, Jacky-
I gained consciousness, but I didn’t open my eyes. I squeezed the feathery being next to me tightly and received a cuddle back. After spending five minutes like this, I finally decided to get up.
Carefully working myself out from Gene’s grasp and finally managing to do so, I tried to sit up. I ended up falling out of the bed and banging my head against the wood flooring. Yep, wrong side of the bed, I would think this was just another day if I didn’t know exactly what was coming.
I hissed at the pain, but eventually got up and rubbing at the back of my head. I walked out onto the balcony and watched the rising sun.
I ran my talons through my long, slightly crooked, near waist length black feathers and smiled at the wonderful morning.
It’s too bad things here wouldn’t be peaceful for long, there were preparations to be made and people to talk to. The other pirates wouldn’t help stop the Storm King and I was the only one that was willing to put myself in said maniac’s path. He had an army and we had… a portion of my crew, for whatever value we could bring to the table.
We were leaving Savannah behind and hoped that she got to Airship Mauled okay without us, but until we had to say goodbye we would spend this morning together trying to live in the time we had as a family.
A good breakfast would be a nice start to a horrible day, for it was a terrible day to run into an unstoppable disaster.
It would be just me, Gene, Belfry, Nefer and Flotsam heading out and what we would be doing was considered lethally stupid. The Storm King had an army and his sights were currently set on wrecking Abyssinia, if nobody stalled him he would hit the capital of Panthera before this day was out.
He’s already hit a few small kingdoms and was finding various magical artifacts, he was after the enchanted and magical stuff in Panthera’s vault. The guy was a tyrant king that sacked and burned everything in his wake, I just happened to be in the right place to slow him down.
I had no illusions that we could actually stop him when it was one hundred ships to one odds, but if I took out the Storm King himself I would definitely be remembered as a hero.
The best we could hope for was that the people of Palicoast would bunker down in the shelters and stay hidden. They would go unnoticed and once the danger this ‘Storm King’ presented has gone by them, they would proceed to aid in helping Abyssinia recover.
There was no time to get any messengers to Panthera and it would take days to get a delivery there without a pegasus available and we were the only airship around.
Quite rotten luck this scenario.
“Good morning Jacky…” I heard Gene shifting behind me. His tone may be flat, but I still felt the warmth of his voice at my back. Without me in bed he had no real reason to be lazy.
“Morning…” I turned to Gene and heard something shift beneath my feet, I was prepared for what was going to happen next. The balcony was crumbling out from under me. “See you at breakfast honey!”
The balcony and I fell towards the ground. I kicked off the stone under my feet while leading with my right shoulder, I went into a tumble to bleed off the momentum as the balcony crashed down behind me noisily.
A piece of stone went through my feathers to lodge itself into my lower back, it really was just another day for me. I looked over my shoulder at the stone spike sticking out of my back and groaned.
“Generic, get Savannah to come out here and tell her to have the pliers ready!” The day just got started and I already had a noteworthy injury, I really hated my life sometimes. Only sometimes, as I loved and was loved in return.
It could have been worse though, it could have been one of my butt cheeks and then what would Gene grab? I was fairly certain I would prefer my current injury to that.
I looked towards the coming storm at the edge of the horizon.