-Neighpon, Ryu-
I had been wandering for a few hours when I heard a painstakingly familiar voice.
“Ryu-kun?!” A giant half pony, half spider being with long hair approached me with haste and I felt something stir within me as I started running towards her as well.
I owed Kuril a big favor for getting me a ride to Neighpon. My memories had not returned, but I knew well enough to know that I had once loved this being before me.
So I did what I felt was right, I kissed her in the falling snow while making sure to avoid those sharp dangerous fangs.
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember you very well, but I know that I’m sorry I left you behind and all alone.” She hugged me up against her upper torso and started crying into my shoulder, I just held her and hoped that I would eventually learn who I used to be. “I still know that you are very important to me, maybe the most important thing to me next to a duck...”
Apparently my name was Ryu and I would go about rebuilding my life one day at a time.
-Airship Mauled, Train Station, Gallus-
I stepped out tentatively into the winter wonderland and saw all the housing around here was made to look like they were all airships. That was actually kind of cool, though I don’t see why it’s called Airship Mauled.
After a deep breath I took to the air and looked around for the restaurant that Kuril owned, following me were Silver Stream and Ocellus. Silver came to pick up the amnesiac hippogriff and take her to the rebuilt Mount Aris to find her past. Ocellus was here because it was on the way to the badlands.
“Hey, you three, get out of the way of that crashing airship!” We looked down at the yelling sphinx and then looked up at an airship coming down screaming at her. We all swiftly flew out of the way and witnessed something odd.
The sphinx threw her paws out wide and smile brightly, just before she was crushed under the weight of an airship. Despite this, there was no splash of gore and just a lot happy groaning coming from beneath the ship.
“Oh my goodness, what did we hit?!” A griffon shouted in horror. The ship slowly shifted, lifted up and was soon pushed off the smiling sphinx.
“Don’t worry, I’m okay, I’m usually the only one that gets hit by airships around here unless your name is Veles and you happen to be visiting a cow named Grace.” With that the Sphinx stretched out and we could hear some loud popping noises and purring. “That was great, now as customary of those who crash land in Airship Mauled I am now going to ask you a question.”
“Oh no, the masochistic Sphinx is going to riddle us!” The griffon shouted in horror.
“Actually, I wanted to know if you wanted your ship repaired or if you would let it become housing like every other ship that never leaves the ground again. We use a lot of repurposed airships around here and the locals don’t mind living in repurposed airships if you’re willing to sell.” Okay, I can guess why it’s called Airship Mauled now. The place didn’t seem very grim despite the fact that airships dropped out of the sky around here fairly often given the housing situation. “If you want me to ask riddles… I can always oblige with no penalty if you fail to answer it. Your airship felt good crushing me today, so I’m also feeling particularly jolly with the season.”
“No thanks!” The griffon screamed with ever increasing horror despite how chill the sphinx was acting.
“You wouldn’t happen to be the goddess we were told about would you?” Why was I asking this, it was fairly obvious she was a goddess given she survived being mauled by an airship! The griffons on the airship turned to us as did the Sphinx.
“Yes, I’ll get to you in a moment and will show you around town on Mayor Kuril’s orders. First I need to know if their ship is damaged and in need of repairs, our diamond dog builders are quickly becoming masters at getting airships back up in the air. They are becoming quite competitive with the Ponyville construction crew.” The sphinx cleared her throat. “Incidentally, we tend to honestly low-ball the price on repairs since it might be our fault that airships crash around here so often. The diamond dogs get training in repair and building skills thanks to their local construction company being started in a near similar manner to the one in Ponyville’s was. Let me just say, welcome to Airship Mauled if this is your first time here.”
“We’ll want the repairs… also is this the same place that has The Witch’s Fare and is the witch currently in?” That sounds like a question that was asked quite often given the way the sphinx nodded.
“Good, I’ll have them come out to get an estimate on the time it’ll take to repair this trifling amount of damage.” The sphinx called most of the hull of the ship having holes in it trifling?! Even the griffons seemed surprised to hear it. “Trust me, they do good work and yes, the witch is in. So… any of you three want to play a game of riddles? Try and stump me, I enjoy it!”
The sphinx turned to us and asked pleasantly with her paws clapped together next to her head. Ocellus took on the challenge of the sphinx with a pleasant demeanor.
-Several hours, one tour and fifty or so answered riddles later-
We entered The Witch’s Fare, all three of us inhaled strongly through our noses at the rich scent in the air that attracted customers like flies. We also saw Somnambula here eating at a table.
“What are you doing here Somnambula?” I was curious as Somnambula was one of the pillars from the stories of the past that our teachers brought back to the present.
“I’m here visiting for Hearth’s Warming in the coming days, my old enemy Sekhet couldn’t honestly lie about the food here. It’s quite delicious even when the witch isn’t in!” Wait, the sphinx was Somnambula’s old enemy in those stories? I should brush up on my lessons about making friends in bizarre places. “We’re friends nowadays, ever been to the town named after me? It is quite the place and my new home!”
“Ga-russ!” Being hit in the chest by a charging missile, I found myself being snuggled by Gavin. I rubbed the kids head. He smiled up at me, then went over to the tree to pluck a candy cane off it, he came back over to me and held it out to me.
“Thank you little guy.” I genuinely smiled as I took it, I looked up and saw Maries looking over some paperwork with another pony.
“Hey Maries!” I called out.
“Hey Gallus!” Maries answered as her two sisters were busy in a discussion with the pony across from them that looked to be a friend of theirs. “So you came for Hearth’s Warming, hope you enjoy the feast Kuril has planned on that day! Sorry we can’t chat more, but we need to finish going over some cases with Pace Set here. Ugh, no Mara, it has to be an error with the grandfather clock! It’s so obvious that’s how it happened, were there any reports of it being sent in for repairs?”
The atmosphere in the restaurant was definitely set to Hearth’s Warming Eve, every creature you could imagine was mingling and having fun. Dragons and zebra were cuddling drunkenly, a changeling and a shrew were kissing passionately, there was a thestral child and a diamond dog playfully bounced a ball back and forth between themselves.
Looking around, there was this giant, horned, long eared bear just resting off to the side of the door. This place was the kind of thing our teachers were quite close to creating, it was whimsical to walk into all of this from outside.
“Before you say anything Silver Stream, that’s my familiar Sugar!” Kuril called out as she carried a tray to a table. “Can’t stop to talk, we’re so busy today that I’m both in the kitchen and waiting tables personally! Thank you for coming Gallus, stick around as you have a room and free meals here, I’m glad that you came and so is little Gavin! Take a seat, I’ll personally get you a free meal on me!”
“Here I am just bussing them as quickly as I can, there’s just so many people here!” A slightly scared sounding female hippogriff shouted. “How are you even doing all this completely blindfolded Ms. La Perm?!”
“That’s the mirage rabbit, its huge!?” The giant rabbit lifted its head and stared at Silver Stream, it huffed and simply went back to cuddling a turtle shell with something inside it. I heard a faintest hint of a cooing noise coming from the shell that sounded faintly cheerful.
I think I might actually like visiting here for a while.
-Some days later, Hearths Warming, Gallus-
Ocellus was likely home with her family, so was Silver Stream having taken the amnesiac hippogriff waitress with her, I didn’t mind as Airship Mauled was friendly and the atmosphere around here was great.
Everyone around Airship Mauled had been quite busy with so many things that it made my head spin, I started asking if I could help them and found myself run ragged by throughout the last few days. Yet, I didn’t feel the least bit bitter about it, they paid me well for my time even when I wasn’t expecting them to.
I yawned and lazily started my way downstairs, I felt something climb onto my back and yawn like I did. It was just Gavin, I continued down the stairs with him on my back and I blinked when I saw three reindeer in the dining area talking with Grubber.
“Grubber what are you doing here and who are these reindeer?” They came in the flavors of old, adult and child. They all turned to me with a grin.
“Oh we’re just here for the food, help us get our magic back up to full strength and everything. We were quite busy dealing with a magical pudding incident the other day and several other things at the same time.” The adult reindeer said cheerfully with a friendly smile.
“You have a sad past.” The youngest reindeer stated with a sad smile. “You’re bound to get a lot of presents today, don’t dismiss them as they’re all coming from the heart! Not even that candy cane that Gavin gave you should be dismissed so easily.”
“You have a bright future ahead of you young griffon.” The oldest one said with a smile.
“Well we’re not exactly just here to eat, we do want to give Grubber here a present even if he hasn’t exactly been a good being all year.” The adult stated, before pushing a large box over the table towards Grubber who gave them a perplexed look. The reindeer nodded and he took the package in a reverent manner. “Please go on and make something yourself. Sorry, let us introduce ourselves. We’re…”
“Aurora…” The old one stated.
“Bori….” The adult enunciated.
“And Alice!” The youngest reindeer said loudly and enthusiastically, she then proceeded to giggle loudly into her hooves. “Oh, it’s about to happen… I can’t wait!”
“Shh, no spoilers Alice!” The adult one, Bori, growled to her… I want to say daughter.
“What’s about to…” I asked when Kuril came down. Shortly after Kuril unlocked the front door, a smiling Fizzle burst into the restaurant.
“Guess who decided to come home, Merry Hearth’s Warming mom!” She was hauling a large sack on her back. Maries looked fairly interested to see what was in it. “I got presents for everyone, even Gallus here.”
Wait… what, but she didn’t have to… but she wanted to. Kind of like how I got presents for some people too. I just went with it and decided to just spread the good cheer around because I think I was paid way too much for all the help I gave the people around here.
“My presents are already under the tree, one for you too dude. I’m just happy that we’re friends after what I’ve told you.” Grubber said pleasantly and I nodded to him, it wasn’t like he actually did any fighting and or hurt Gavin’s mother personally.
They never found the ship and only some small bits of debris and a barrel of apples.
“No problem, I don’t hold grudges for what someone did in the past and you’re just trying to get your life back under your feet.” I was wondering what Kuril was going to do for breakfast. “I’m still wondering what I’m going to do with mine personally.”
“Friends?” Grubber asked as he opened the box the reindeers brought for him. Inside the box was a baking primer and a notebook, well he did say he wanted to be a baker.
“Of course we are.” I stated pleasantly as I took the gift he pointed out to me, I quickly opened it up and looked inside.
-Present opening in progress, Fizzle-
I watched as Gavin hugged the fluffy red dog plush toy I got him with such a big smile on his beak. My nephew was going to need all the love and happiness he can get.
He had family and we weren’t about to let him forget it anytime soon, Kuril was taking pictures of the event as someone had gotten her a photo album as one of the first things she opened.
“Here Fizzle, open this one!” Mara called out, it was nice that they were cleared to come home. Maria finished as they pawed over a small box to me. “It’s from us.”
“Come on Fizzle, don’t be shy, open the present your girlfriends you got you.” Mom was actually able to smile, I’m surprised that I could do the same. I unwrapped the box and peaked inside, I quickly shut it and looked towards Maries. “Let me guess, I’m carrying the fifth one?”
“Until we see her again in this or another lifetime…” Marie stated sadly. Marie had to stay connected to Mara or Maria to stay warm blooded. The three of them could separate into their own separate entities now, they didn’t do that too often though.
“I was never going to say no to you, so yes!” I closed the box and moved over to Maries, crying as I pulled them into a hug.
They wrapped themselves around me tightly. They were a lot bigger than they used to be, but I was pretty big for a unicorn myself.
-Kuril-
Though she didn’t let anyone see what was in the box, I had a good guess that it was a promise. A lover’s gift for Hearth’s Warming, how adorable!
I heard a knocking on the door and moved to open it, I looked up at the centaur with a bit of trepidation.
“Excuse me, I am Evoker. I came here to drop off a gift you’ll need to give to someone a few months from now, when they aren’t busy.” The centaur dropped a gift box into my waiting paws. The tag read, For: Daring Do. “Just marginally repaying a debt.”