//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventy, A “‘Normal’” Day: Thursday. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Manehatten Park, lunch time, 12:30 PM, Jade- “Look, the reason why I had Paprika set this up and not my mother... is because everyone abuses my mom’s kindness too much, give her a break people!” After that I continued to eat the healthy food Paprika so thoughtfully prepared for us, the toasted bread and special coleslaw sandwich was actually really delicious. I think it could use a bit of butter though. “So does anyone have any questions so far?” “How is the plan going?” Yep, I expected that question from at least Fizzle, but she wasn’t the only one to ask that as everyone else mostly said it in unison. “Spectacularly.” I wondered if anyone believe me, I was certainly keeping track of the leader of GODLESS quite easily, but then again I knew everything they planned to do today entirely. “Any other questions… also can you give my mother the recipe for this coleslaw Paprika?” Paprika waved jovially at me and nodded, she really didn’t need to make a peep. She only did that to be seen as minimally speaking to her wives, otherwise she was still the maestro at getting things across without any verbal speech whatsoever. “Please do, I want to see what mom can add to it.” It looks like Fizzy was hooked on these sandwiches that Paprika had made as well. I knew getting Paprika to do catering was a good idea. “How is this all going to end Jade?” “I guess I can give you a hint, be prepared for a huge fight and incredible anger driven strength.” I hadn’t managed to fully maximize how bad this day has gotten for my target, after the anvil thing they had to be suspicious of something at least. “We’re still in the middle of ruining someone’s entire day, so you can expect a pretty vicious fight after everything I’ve done.” “So you’re hitting a theatre next?” Today my sister Jacky was wearing a sleeveless vest and puffy pants, the bandaged bruises and cuts all along her arms were to be expected as she has been through several incidents already. Yet she still somehow managed to maintain her waist length feathers. “Yep, Blade and Velvet are needed for this. Jacky and Gene can assist us, but it’s not required for them to do so though. I wouldn’t mind a little extra insurance today.” Nobody thankfully asked about the X on the ground or the paperclip mousetrap things I set up on the ground. “Mom will be needed this evening for Trixie’s performance and it will likely be one of Trixie's best ones.” “So what are the rest of us needing to do friend?” Fortitude knew I needed him to stand somewhere for two hours and it was about time to tell him what I need of him, but not quite yet. “You can all be lazy around the park, the end game is going to be pretty big and destructive.” I should probably tell them the truth of this statement, but I didn’t want to jinx myself. “Just don’t do anything too dangerous kitten, I’ve lost you once and I’m not willing to let you go again quite so soon.” Giving mommy Kuril my most cheerful grin, I bit into my next coleslaw sandwich getting Paprika’s special slaw sauce all over my face. “I’ll always be your kitten mom, even if I am a fully grown queen now.” A queen with a herd that had a chimera named after an alcoholic drink and a beautiful hard flanked unicorn that can beat me senseless, I certainly had almost everything I wanted out of life. I even had a fluffy white feathered nephew to dote on to an excessive degree. I hoped that ball was still rolling, otherwise I might not survive the end of my own plan. “Yes, I know you’re a queen now Jade, but I’m still obligated to worry about you nevertheless!” Mom certainly wanted to make up for the years we’ve missed together, was I really ever going to say no to that? “Just know that I will love you my little Jaded, even if you are behind on giving me grandchildren. I don’t care if you adopt or magic them up, I want more. Your sister Jacky has been proactive about it at the very least and she has a excellent husband that I can be proud of.” “Really mom?” My blunt tone couldn’t be any more derisive, every single one of my friends was currently cracking up quite badly. Mom was pressed up against me and I appreciated her comforting presence, because today was a day that I was going excessively petty on someone who already didn’t have much going for them. I went through a pretty torturous experience to get back to the right time period, so spending quality time with my mother wasn’t too much to ask of me. Celestia had disassembled most of the GODLESS organization thanks to some help from a genie Jacky had found. So the leader really is alone and having a hard time getting any resources to rebuild the organization aside from trying to get aid from Dispel and Perun’s Paladins. Said paladins were slightly broken up by Fizzle’s invasion of the area around my pyramid in Southern Anugypt, the paladins hadn’t regrouped or even had time to do so. Basically the leader hasn’t had a chance to recoup from the various major losses and setbacks within the last month or so and the GODLESS leader was completely open for a nasty finishing strike by me. The hired minions of Dispel, Shock and Teatime are no longer going to protect the leader from me and I had a suspicion about what they would do when I informed them of this evenings special events. They’d likely stay well out of the way of the fracas, they could also betray me or help me, it was up in the air what they would do as I don’t have a profiling on any of them aside from the hearsay from my friends and family. Teatime was going to be exceedingly hard to take down, as the guy sounded far smarter than I was. When someone was smarter than you, immediately assume that planning anything around them is almost impossible. He couldn’t build a completely indestructible airship that Jacky couldn’t possibly break by proximity though, but he had escape plans within escape plans that I couldn’t even begin to fathom. We finished lunch with a delicious dessert brought to us by Derpy Hooves, Queen of Muffins, of whom we all shared the large blueberry muffin cake with. Even gave her some to take home with her for later. Making her smile made my day, even if things don’t go well this evening. It wasn’t too long afterward that Fluttershy reminded me that I owed Tippy-Toe, the raccoons and the weasels for pulling off their part. Cost most of the fish jerky we had and three raisin macademia cookies. Fluttershy paid off Tippy-Toe using said cookies, that she knew what Tippy-Toe’s favorite cookies were was a little concerning. I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to know if Fluttershy was part of The Squirrels or not, she was so innocent and friendly… but they do say it’s always the quiet ones. Eventually, I headed out with my next group towards the theatre to continue completely ruining somebody’s day. -Manehatten Theatre, 1:53 PM, Wheel Twist- A lot of weird things were happening today, like somebody throwing water balloons at me after I washed off that blue stuff. Ugh, just so long as there wasn’t any cats nearby, I would be fine. I’ve been having too many prophetic nightmares about a day like this. A droplet of water hit me on the head and I turned an angry glare behind me and then above me. The ponies on the balcony above me didn’t have any drinks, the ponies behind me didn’t have any visible drinks either. Where were all those drips of water coming from?! They were annoying, this theatre shouldn’t have a leaky roof. It was a pretty high class ritzy place and I really wanted to watch the show. “Gah, who’s the idiot that didn’t bother to repair the roof of this place?! The theatre isn’t that poor, the finances of this place should be better than this!” I looked to a nearby seat and saw a vaguely familiar mare with a short, and wet, mane. I think we were kindred spirits today. Despite her grumbling, she seemed to be trying to focus on the show. “Well at least it seems to have finally…” Several drops of water dripped down, one hit me, one hit that mare and the entire row seemed to have been hit with drops of water all at the same time. The mare screamed angrily while shaking a hoof at the dark ceiling, strange that we couldn’t see where the leak was… also, now that it occurred to me, it was quite suspicious given it wasn’t raining outside. The crew on the stage ignored the interruption and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the ceiling dripping water. -Above that particular row of seats- A quiet snickering that could be heard coming from Tinsel. The tiny little guy was successfully trying to muffle his own laughter, Velvet was keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn’t reveal himself and he was making sure to be a good familiar for his goddess and her mates. His reindeer was the very best of all reindeer and she was currently smiling! Making her happy was always his dream come true, keeping his personal reindeer happy was a lifelong goal and he’d follow her everywhere forever. He saw a motion that was asking him to draw closer towards his magnificent motherly goddess and he did so excitedly with a tiny squeak. “That’s enough playtime Tinsel, now we just need to leave the ice alone. I’m actually fairly worried about the next anvil thing that’s going to happen.” Looking around a bit, Velvet eventually spotted the anvil and the string leading to it. Tinsel squeaked at her worried visage, she gently ran a hoof over his head to sooth him and make him happy. “I’m sure things will be fine, though I hope nobody gets injured by it and I’m fairly curious about why Celestia is paying for some damages that haven't even occurred. It looks like it is being set up now, I hope you know what you’re doing sister… that is still weird for me to say.” “Eh, don’t worry about it, the real danger will come this evening and we’re going to be keeping all noncombatants out of that.” Turning to the voice, Velvet saw a griffon with green feathers and beige fur. It had to be Jade. “I’m making sure the anvil isn’t hitting anyone too. Say, how far away can you create a snowflake barrier? Just out of curiosities sake.” “I’m your plan to stop the anvil from hurting anyone aren’t I?” Stated Velvet while she watched the candelabra be put in place by Gene as he and Jacky took part in being the stage crew. Said lit candelabra started to slowly burn it's way through some string. “Afraid it might miss?” “Possibly, and that’s what the fail safes are for.” Looking around based on what Jade said, Velvet saw three small, if heavy looking, safes and a full grand piano. “Jade… I’m scared… of you.” Velvet slowly stated, only for Jade to point out the sixteen ton weight. “Remind me to never get on your bad side or make you my enemy for whatever reason. If I do get on your bad side, you have my open permission to slap sense into me at any time to let me know before you get to this point. Literal fail safes? I can’t even comprehend how you got all those object in here, because you asked absolutely no one else to help you with them.” “Reused the three pulley systems and had some griffon given strength to get them into position.” The half Abyssinian griffon grinned and rubbed her talons together as she turned to watch the candelabra burn through the string. “Don’t even ask how I got the sixteen ton weight in here. It was the hardest thing to get into position.” -Theatre incident- It wasn’t the innocuous actions of a prankster at all, the leader of GODLESS knew that it was a set up. What they didn’t know, was how someone could have possibly set it up so well as to almost get by their defenses. Someone was out to get them and they had no idea how dangerous the one behind all this was. Well they had an idea as to how dangerous the pony that was after them was. The water innocently dripping from the ceiling and annoying them was likely just a prelude to the havoc that followed. An anvil nearly crushed them, then safes took out entire rows coming at them from three different directions, followed by an entire grand piano from a fourth and what seemed like the last piece of an incredible mess, an iceberg practically coming within an inch of crushing them. The leader of GODLESS wasn’t sure how someone could be targeting them specifically. They had kept a low profile, they had been pretty much a ghost that Celestia couldn’t capture and even Luna couldn’t get into their dreams because a magical dream catcher prevented it. Yet somehow, someone knew. This shook them to their very core, someone knew who they were and paranoia and fear was beginning to get to them. There didn’t seem to be anyone looking at them specifically, but their eyes did land on a griffon that was looking at the ceiling. “Why was that griffon… holy-bucking-?!” These were the thoughts of the GODLESS leader before it struck. A sixteen ton weight came down, the leader of GODLESS was actually injured and their defenses were on their last legs after saving them from the catastrophic explosion of ice going everywhere. They actually got scratched in multiple places by chips of ice zipping past their form and even one embedded itself in their flank. They had to get out of the theatre, they had to go somewhere quiet… they had to get away. Once they were outside they saw a strangely familiar mare. -Leader- “Ephemeral salutations before the emperors new clothes!” Why was this strange mare passing out tickets to a traveling magician’s show to various ponies? A ticket was thrust into my hoof haphazardly, along with an envelope dated for yesterday. It definitely has my name on it, I opened the envelope and read the letter. "See you at the show somewhat fearless leader. Do you like squirrels? Please get ready for the full moose of madness and its special room of nuts.” I read slowly and something froze in my gut. Despite it's nonsensical nature, there was a clear threat there. I saw that strange griffon again, she seemed to be cheerfully flying around. The griffon soon turned and shot me a grin. She winked, then pointed at the note and made a sarcastic kissy face with her beak. She likely thought it was from a lover. I finished reading the note. “Your secret admirer, Queen Petty. P.S. Bet you can't bribe me to stop what's coming, because the gods are laughing.” That griffon was now gone and I will definitely deal with these laughing gods soon enough.