//------------------------------// // Chapter Sixty Three, The Convergence: Gather. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Airship Mauled, Kuril- “You might need a better map to get a more accurate lock on that location.” I said as I made my way past them carrying a platter, the scepter was supposedly going to lead them to The End of Immortality and it had just activated. “It seems the scepter shows you the location on any map or object showing that area of the world. It doesn’t look too accurate at the moment.” It had only just worked, given I had heard Daring’s exclamation of shock. She had been incidentally waving it over the map while tapping the thing against the side of her head when the scepter lit up a large area on the map. “I know of a map that will give us a very accurate idea of where we need to be.” Propping her hooves up on the table to look at a large portion of the map being lit up, Fizzle looked to me as I placed some food down before Sekhet. “We’re heading to Ponyville!” That the Sekhet wasn’t immediately eating made me pause and look to the sphinx. “Well come back here afterwards once you have the exact location of where we’ll be going, I have a feeling I will want to be a part of this.” Sekhet surprised us when she said that, she was obviously quite interested in the relative location we got from my map. “I will prepare to set out… after I’m done eating. Since Celestia is stepping down, I’m going to stop all my bureaucratic attacks. Wouldn’t want to make the new princess mad or give her too much trouble once she’s instated.” “Do you need Rata to deliver a message to Grubber to bring an airship here? I’m interested in joining this expedition as well.” I stated as Fresh Start brought out a plate of food for Fizzle. “Yes, but I need Rata to deliver two messages, one to Princess Twilight Sparkle and one to Grubber. I’ll have Grubber come here and we can catch a train to Ponyville and back.” Fizzle immediately dug into her food, I smiled as I watched my filly eat a healthy breakfast as I grabbed some more food. “We’re in this too.” Maries proclaimed as I brought out their food. Marie had something to add before she started eating. “It’s been quite a trip getting this far, we think we’re going to need all the help we can get.” “I agree.” Fizzle looked at the map, she rolled it up and hoofed to me as I passed by heading towards the door. “Rata, we need you’re services!” Like a flash our squirrel god was in the room chewing on a nut. “Specifically Fizzle needs your services, I’m heading out to the train station to meet with Ms. Springer and I’ll get some tickets for Fizzle and Daring going to Ponyville while I’m at it. Fresh Start, do your thing!” “Of course Kuril, you know I love the breakfast rush!” Fresh smiled as she walked back into the kitchen, Blade poked her head out and gestured several things to me. “Of course you can come with us Blade! If this really is where the End of Immortality is, then we’ll need quite a group to go after this thing.” As I set out the door, I passed by Bracing, Pique and Niche. Both Pique and Niche were part of the local guard now and they were happy to be here. “Hey Bracing, Fresh Start is going to be left in charge of the town for a while. I’m just giving you an early heads up to be ready for whatever trouble will happen while I’m gone.” “Thanks, so where are you headed?” Bracing had taken her job as guardian of the town quite well. “Well currently I’m off to pick up a diamond dog named Ms. Springer from the station. Maybe show her around Airship Mauled for a bit and give her the grand tour of it all, then I need to prepare to head halfway across the world.” I picked up my new staff, which was freshly refurbished by the alpacas and now featured a smiling cat face wearing a pointy witch’s hat at the top and could possibly double as a spear, then headed out for the train station to meet with Brenda. Airship Mauled was coming along just fine, children were playing and the town guard were relaxed despite being relatively alert for any signs of Puks attacking in mass congregations. Otherwise, they wouldn’t worry about three or less Puks doing their own thing by harassing our quiet town, children usually tend to deal with those anyway. Just so long as no one chased the Puks, they wouldn’t be led into ambushes and traps. As it has often been stated numerous times around here, Puks were far more dangerous when they were running away from you. In a flash I quickly brought my staff around into a golf swing and sent a Puk flying away from me screeching insults. Yes, I actually understood their language now or at the very least I had a decent idea of what was being said. “Gu-ga-gi-gribbah gleeglub!” I shouted at the annoying little nuisance that tried to stab me with a tiny spear. We’ve been attacked by them often enough that I was an intermediate in their language, so I knew a few really good insults. “Gleeglub? Gleeglub! Goo-gaga-bannah!” The Puk shouted an insult back as I continued on my way to the train station and it went on its way back into the forest. Once at the train station, I stopped at the ticket booth. “Two tickets to Ponyville, on the next train to come in please.” The unicorn nodded as I paid and received the two tickets. “Thank you, Pleasant Stop.” “So what are you here for ma’am? If you don’t mind me asking.” Pleasant asked as he saw me waiting for the train to let some people off, Pleasant joined our town a while back and he obviously liked this place. Aside from the Puks, our town was quite cozy for him, as was his new job as our train station manager. “I’m here for a diamond dog today, she should be quite easy to pick out of the crowd. She likes dresses and is apparently stunningly beautiful by Fizzle’s estimates.” It wasn’t long before I spotted Brenda, I had to say that I had never seen a diamond dog that looks that good. “A stunning diamond dog… well it seems your daughter had it right. Never seen one that nice looking before, I think being a poodle just adds onto what’s already there.” After hearing the nice words from Pleasant, I decided to approach her. Brenda was wearing a nice pink blouse with a red skirt. After she stepped off the train, I walked up next to her as she was picking up her luggage. “Hello and welcome to Airship Mauled!” She turned around, yipped loudly and fell on her butt. “I’m mayor Kuril La Perm, I’m Fizzle’s mother and she told me you’d be coming. Thank you for giving us access to your ancestor’s peg leg.” “Oh… no problem. You surprised me, I mean Abyssinians and Diamond Dogs don’t exactly get along very well. To hear you talk to me in such a friendly manner, it makes me feel like I made a good choice.” Holding out a paw and helping Brenda up, I started to show her around town once she dusted off. She was a friendly sweetheart that just wanted to get away from all the other diamond dogs at Leg Ate Hollow. -Hours later, Ponyville, Crystal Castle of Friendship, Fizzle- “Thank you for agreeing to let us use the map Twilight, what’s it called again?” She was a genuinely nice mare and she was going to be the ruler of Equestria soon. “I know you showed it to me, but…” “I know, I never exactly told you what to call it. We call it the cutie map because…” Twilight led us to the six chairs gathered around the map. As soon as I entered the room, I felt something vibrating on my flank. “What the… you're being called?!” I looked to see that my butt was glowing through the cloak I wore, then looked to the map. My cutie mark was hovering over a very specific point insistently. Daring waved the scepter and the spot my cutie mark was hanging over lit up like a Christmas tree. “What does this thing do again exactly?” I asked out of curiosity as I watched Fluttershy’s cutie mark pop up. What followed was a cat head with a witch’s hat, three smiling animal heads fused together, Blade Bright’s mark, Daring Do was on there as well and I’m pretty sure I could guess who the golden ankh was. They were all hovering around my mark on that specific location. “It leads a pony or ponies to a large friendship problem that they absolutely need to solve. It led Spike to solving a problem he was actively creating himself once, but this is really odd. I’ve never seen some of these symbols before.” Twilight said as she looked at the location as Daring wrote down the exact coordinates and the town closest to the location where we would be disembarking from Grubber’s airship at and what given direction we would be going in from there. We were getting plenty of information here and I suspected the act of a powerful god in the works here, as there was no way we wouldn’t be able to find that exact location now. “Why would you be needed to solve a friendship problem in northern Zebrica? The Storm King never went anywhere near there. The location looks like where the southern portion of the lost civilization of Ancient Anugypt used to be, at least according to Fluttershy from that one trip she took with Discord.” “Well… I know all those symbols and I’m sure they’re all likely getting the same message that I am.” I had a few ideas, but the fact that I was absolutely needed there probably meant something highly important was going down. “What exactly are the chances that we have to solve a friendship problem in the exact location that we were going to head to anyway?” “Pretty much one in a million, this is no coincidence whatever it is.” Twilight stated without pause as she stared at the spot with a mystified look in her eyes. “Just when I thought that the cutie map couldn’t surprise me anymore… oh and Fluttershy should be here soon. The Cutie Map always calls us to look at the location if we’re not already presently there or don’t already know where to go.” -Still out of phase with reality, Jade- “You’ve been waiting for this moment haven’t you Harmony?” I asked Harmony flatly as I stayed at Fizzle’s side. “Yes-~.” Harmony basically just guaranteed Fizzle and other interested parties were going to show up exactly where they were needed to be. “It seems my daughter Providence was so nice to help us out with this, now you just have to follow them on their journey and see it to the end. Also don’t let GODLESS get a hold of The End of Immortality Jaded! Even if it won’t do them much good, they could still do a lot of damage with it. Thank goodness they can’t get a hold of the Staff of Sacanas anymore, as that would have ended horribly for all involved.” I glared at the empty space around me while grumpily crossing my arms. I wanted to get back in the game like yesterday! “Don’t look so upset, don’t be so blue~. I’m just simply reminding you that you have an important job to do~.” My gaze softened at the empty space that Harmony could possibly be in. I closed my eyes and sighed while rubbing my face with a paw. “My friend what would Bennu say to you, if she saw you wander away from being true~?” “I know, don’t know how you knew about Benny though, but I also know that you’re range for interacting with me is going to be cut off again soon. Because as soon as we leave Equestrian territories…” I was a little uncomfortable with being all alone again the last few times Fizzle left Equestria on her travels to aid those harmed by the Stork King, it hasn’t exactly happened much otherwise since Jacky called me to Saddle Arabia with a genie. “It’s been so long… I can’t wait to eat, sleep, feel, hear and be able to do things again.” “Laughing loud and spirited like the sun, quiet contemplation and insight of the moon at night~.” Harmony was singing out in prayer for me and I actually gave her a tiny smile and felt a smile in return. “Let this wonderful wandering soul be returned to the harmony of the undying light~!” The undying light, the spark of unquenchable need for life to exist in the eternal darkness of any given universe. Harmony just said a prayer of luck for me that things went well and I was happy about it. Even if I were to never wake again, I would be okay with that as at least Fizzle had Maries and you couldn’t access The End of Immortality without going through me to get it. I wanted to taste the dusty air with my body once more. If and when they found me, I was going to be really quite stiff after all this time. I just had to plan my entrance and everything, all they had to do was figure things out quickly enough. The set up for a very long and horribly convoluted plan was about to come to fruition thanks to Harmony helping me out. Now all the pieces were practically on the board, there was only one piece that wasn’t in play at the moment… the leader behind GODLESS. If I was set free when mom and the others got there, then the leader wouldn’t know what was going to hit them later on. It was practically preordained to happen the second I’m brought back. I knew who they were after all... -A day later, Airship Mauled, Sekhet- I was sitting in my pyramid after a warm and tasty breakfast, thinking about the oddity of the location of where this vaunted ‘The End of Immortality’ is said to be. It was in southern Anugypt, the old stomping grounds of my sister Bastet. She was pretty well known when she was running around with mortals as Baast, the average looking anugyptian feline revolutionary that was in love with Chaos or, as he is more commonly known nowadays, Discord. I’ve never exactly told anyone, but my sister and I actually swapped our positions. Baast was supposed to be the runner of northern Anugypt and I the southern one. I may have hinted at the problem once as to why I couldn’t help when the whole war between the jackals of Anubis and the felines of Baast broke out, my paws had already been tied by then. I was wondering if this is where my sister is still working at her job. I wondered if this was actually related to my sister, it certainly seemed that way given the location. I wanted to see how Baast was doing. It would be nice to catch up with each other after the eons since we've last talked.