//------------------------------// // 160. Vigilant Vacation. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Ponyville, Twilight- “Thanks for the party Pinkie, it has really calmed me down.” My friends made everything easier. “Yeah, thank you for helping ease our worries a little bit.” Turning to Sandbar. He was happily spending time with Yona, Gallus and Silver-Stream, as they all needed a break from their studies. “Though we’re still going to want Smolder and Ocellus to come back, we’re not going to give up on them or ever forget!” “Yeah, that was quite a party alright and a nice cat nap!” Wait, what was Jade doing here?! She stretched out and her tail flicked outward as she did so before she stands up. “Don’t worry, I will not interfere with the case unless asked Twilight… Luna spilled the beans and I need you to save her from Fizzy tonight.” “Really… after I just said I was calmed down?” When did she even join the party and why didn’t I notice? Did I really need some time with my friends that badly? Well Jade is a friend… kind of. I put her in the same awkward friend category with Discord. “See Bon-Bon, Jade isn’t here to destroy the world or do something to Twilight Sparkle aside from give her more work and she loves that!” No Lyra, I liked paper work. Not the kind of disasters Jade brings to me and smiles about. At least… my cutie mark started glowing, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy also had flashing cutie marks which means a mission. What now? “I think they are already aware of the problem, given I just told them about it!” Then Jaded’s hip started flashing too. Oh no… why is she getting involved in this?! “Well thank you for at least considering me helpful to the situation Harmony, also my feelings. I’ll drop on by to hug you later okay?” Wait… did she just say… no… don’t go there Twilight, don’t even ask. -Earth, Evening, High Rise Hotel, Smolder- “What do you suppose Dolly is doing in the bathroom?” I found Pom’s dog friend to be really cool, also weird. “Whatever business a dog would do in the bathroom.” After Ocellus said that, we heard a flushing sound and then water running. Eventually Dolly came out with clean front paws. “Uh Dolly, is Pom doing okay out there alone?” After a solid minute of looking like she was concentrating on something, Dolly eventually gave us a bark and nodded before hopping up onto the chair and taking a seat with us to watch some Ottoman Empire, foot rests have never been so intriguing. Dolly was one of the coolest dogs we’ve ever met at least, she was really good with a skateboard and that’s even without adding magical tricks to it. Makes me wonder if Scootaloo and Dolly would get into an extreme sports competition against one another. “What’s Pom doing again Ozzy?” I forgot since every second in Ocellus’s sugar sweet presence was distracting and I’m pretty sure she felt my feelings on it too. “She’s waiting for Shanty to arrive, provided she doesn’t get into any fights and stays out trouble she should be fine.” Ocellus leaned against me and I leaned against her and we all just relaxed. “I’m still fairly concerned about her health.” We all were Dormarch, but what can we really do to help that along? Pom liked to be active even when she had nothing to do, at least she was getting plenty of rest and needed more than a week’s worth to fully recover. -Cape Suzette, Shanty- Yes, I be seeing the city after we passed through the gap, it was lit up at night and it be an interesting place being built on what little land there was between the sea and the inside of a ring of connected mountains at their bases. I wonder if this was what Turtle Toga is like. “So are you excited to see your caretaker again?” Blinking at Mopsy as she approached me, I smile at her and be feeling a little bit sad. “Of course I’m excited to be seeing Pom again, but I still be wanting to help Sly and his friends with the clockwork owl problem.” Coming to Cape Suzette, aside from being a vacation for them, was also business since they’d be buying parts to prepare the van. I not be knowing much about mechanical things and am very glad that Dodo is being able to heal from injuries. “Dodo is wanting to run around.” Dodo’s current costume is that of a giant animal based duck statue and the gang’s fun this evening was the Squatters Plumbing Service. “Well he will get the chance to do so soon… well unless he can swim. Wait… can he swim?” Mopsy be asking a good question. “In an emergency he can be capable of floating in water, but he is not being very fast when treading it.” It be a good thing I be finding out about that in Hong Kong. “So does this Pom really look like me?” It’d be spitting image if not for the green eyes Mopsy, are you being that concerned about looking like her. “I’m rather curious about meeting my sister from a different place.” -One hour later- The boat finally be letting us offload the van with our plumbing services plastered on the side, we drove up on to the road and stopped off to the side. “Now how do we go about finding Pom, we already know they made it here before it.” Sly was looking at the city. “Should we call… Dodo, what are you..?!” Dodo be hopping off the van and be running up to someone, he be looking quite excited, once I got a better look at the person I saw that it was Pom. She not be looking so good, but she does be having a rather nice looking eyepatch. She smiled as she lifted her left hoof. “Shanty I’m so glad to see you and Dodo.” Pom said weakly as she ran her left hoof over Dodo’s head and he warbled happily in greeting as he poked at her. “I would greet you in a more enthusiastic manner, but… leg in a sling, pained body and a healing eye. I’ve just been sitting out here waiting for you being left entirely with my own thoughts.” “Can I have the eyepatch after you are done with it?” I asked immediately. “Sure thing, I kind of figured you’d want it.” Because Pom be looking like a pirate, yes that be what I would be thinking too knowing me. I made my way up to Pom and carefully pulled her into a hug. “Not so tight, I’m fine… well I’ll be fine once I recover.” Not wanting to hurt Pom, I be loosening my grip somewhat. “This is your caretaker Pom Lambchop… well hello gorgeous, I’d swear we were sisters if you were to see us standing next to one another.” The two looked each other over curiously after Mopsy teased Pom. Pom seemed a little uncomfortable in Mopsy’s presence and her nose be wrinkling and her right eye be twitching a bit. “Wow, we really do look like each other, almost like looking in a mirror. Your friends at the Prance Dance looked so confused when I showed up.” Aside from their wool styles being slightly different, Pom was basically a twin sister to Mopsy. “Heh, I’ll bet!” Snorted Mopsy joyfully. “Probably freaked Rita out when I was halfway around the world from her.” “Hello Ma’am, Mopsy found you’re little rum drinker after she arrived in this world and we took on helping them out.” Sly and Pom shook hoof and hand with one another, Pom then proceeded to do so with Murray and Bentley as they introduced themselves. “Thank you all so much for looking out for her, bet you had quite a time trying to keep her fed.” Grinning at Pom brightly, I waited for the others to say I wasn’t that bad. “She cleaned every buffet of everything she could safely eat… then Murray would take out the rest of the buffet.” Sly muttered while shaking his head. “We have no idea where she puts it all, at least with Murray we have some idea.” “I’m not that bad Sly!” Murray huffed and crossed his arms. “I don’t know where she puts it either either, but that’s the only thing about Shanty that I don’t miss…” Pom be saying that in good nature as she through a leg around me and nuzzled me gently. I at least hope she be saying that in good nature, I not be a glutton… maybe. “So want to stay at our hotel room with us? There’s plenty of room for it. In fact, I was expecting it.” Even as she offered this, she was looking around with a slightly worried frown. Her ears twitched, her nose wriggled as it sniffed the air and her eyes darted about. She was hardly being very calm right now. “What’s the matter with you?” Bentley asked noticing Pom seemed to be a bit shifty eyed. “You seemed distressed, this night seems pretty calm to me.” “You would be too if you were as paranoid as I am.” Still Pom be trying to calm down by taking a deep breath. “I want to introduce you guys to Dolly, I believe she was the one member of the Dalmatian family you never got to meet because of me.” “Given what we’ve been through with Shanty and what you’ve been through that has at least appeared on the news, I can understand the paranoia.” Mopsy then looked my way. “Given that shanty has a bad habit of finding trouble everywhere we go. That thing with the jar is something I’m not going to forget.” “It was just being a jar of dirt, honest!” I stated with a slight grin and some sweat dripping from head. “Why does Shanty look so guilty all of the sudden?” Pom be narrowing her eyes on me. “Also how much rum did she get into exactly?” “Any rum she saw that was within hoofs reach, how do you stop her from going after the stuff?” Asked Sly while sending me a look. “You don’t, Shanty is a maniac when it comes to getting rum.” Pom stated dryly as she motioned to the van. “Come on let’s get moving, to the High Rise Hotel.” “Hey, I am not being that bad, so I’ve had a bottle or three in the last hour!” I tried to defend myself about my favorite drink. “Besides it is being a popular pirate drink and I am being born to be a pirate!” “Shanty, I know that the alcohol doesn’t have an effect on you and you know that we love and care for you.” Murray stated calmly as he took the driver’s seat. “We may think you have a problem.” “What do you mean think? She’s drinking rum right now Murray.” At Sly’s motioning they all turned to me as I tilted a bottle full of rum towards my mouth with it tightly held in my right hoof. “So I am being addicted to rum, there are being worse things to be addicted to.” Taking a bit gulp from the bottle, I sighed happily at the taste washing over my tongue. “She has a point, besides it’s not like it’s hurting her.” At least Mopsy be agreeing with me. “Still doesn’t make it right and people could try to take her away from me, especially if they knew she has an alcohol problem…” Pom sighed as we all started climbing into the Cooper Van, me already a quarter of the way through my bottle. “The problem being that she won’t stop drinking it.” I’d like to see someone try and stop me from getting into rum! The van rocked slightly as Dodo hopped back on it and then we were off. -Hotel Room, Pom- “Guys it is official, we’re all together again!” Yet I still couldn’t relax, I still felt like something was about to catch on fire, explode or some kind of siren would go off any minute telling me that people were in danger. Maybe I should let someone else take care of the trouble? Just for a little while, I mean Drake isn’t too bad at what he does. It’s hard for me to relax when I’m completely on edge. Dolly made her way over and smiled up at the Cooper Gang, towards Murray or ‘The Murray’ as he calls himself. “Hey there, met your family and gave them stuff, you must miss them a lot huh?” Murray saw Dolly nodded before she turned to me. “Can you tell them ‘thank you’ for looking out for my family? Or at least let Murray know that, because it’s pretty awesome that my family has a toy version of myself.” Yeah they also liked the toy version of me too Dolly. “Murray, Dolly wants me to say thank you guys for looking out for her family, she already did it for the people who were looking out for Ocellus and Smolder.” Turning to Ocellus, Smolder and Shanty in a cuddle pile, it was adorable and brought a warm smile to my face. Yet I kept looking out the balcony door into the city. “I hope Gosalyn, Drake and Launchpad are alright…” “They’ll be fine, they are crime fighters and Darkwing Duck took several claymores to the face. Usually things like that usually blow people apart or critically injures someone, he just takes it on the beak and keeps going!” Yeah, that’s not making me worry less Bentley. I’m not surprised that he knew Drake Mallard’s secret identity. “So yeah, I think they’ll be perfectly fine, also Cape Suzette doesn’t have that much organized crime except for the Alligator and Capone syndicate.” It’s not like Drake was trying too hard to hide his secret identity, my costume was wrapping a bit of cloth around my head and it was somehow working as a disguise that fooled some people. People on this world might think all sheep look alike and I had several issues with that and the overall intelligence of everyone concerning multiple things on principle of what I’ve seen in my travels. -The next day- We were all sitting at the shore and I was still as twitchy as ever that something was going to go wrong, even as I sipped my cold pineapple juice as I laid in a chair with Dolly running around playing with some local dogs. Dolly was having fun in one of the small rural areas this place had off to the edges of the city, but I had to pay attention to make sure she didn’t do something dumb or dangerous. “Calm down, I don’t think anything is going to happen and if it does, then me and the guys will take care of it Pom.” As far as thieves go, Sly Cooper was a really nice one and much less annoying than Jaded La Perm was. He, Murray, Bentley and Mopsy were all very nice and sweet individuals, I can hardly imagine them as the thieves that actively destroy other criminal gangs by stealing from them for fun and profit when they seemed so normal. “We’re just like that.” “Asking me to calm down is like asking a Lambkin to not be scared of everything every waking moment of the day… which is a fairly consistent among my people. I’m just better about it.” Commentary aside it was a nice warm day and nothing ‘seemed’ to be going wrong, even then I was still very much alert for anything. “Still… thank you, I really can’t handle another emergency or crazy situation. I couldn’t even handle Hollow.” “That’s why you have friends to take care of things when you’re beaten and down.” Stated Sly with a plucky tone as lazy leaned back on the chair next to me. “Yep, friendship is an adventure in and of itself as much as family is!” Ocellus said from the other side of me as she roasted some vegetables for lunch. “Relax, if something happens, there are more than enough people here that you wouldn’t even have to do anything and nobody is expecting the world of you Pom.” That did actually make me less nervous and more able to relax. -A day later, south island, Louie’s Tavern, Pom- I still couldn’t help but feel this building sense of dread, it had to be my imagination right? Drake, Gosalyn and Launchpad said there wasn’t much going on. When we last saw them, they went full tourist like the Cooper Gang had. Since I gave some Kit some money to pay off his bank debts, he decided to fly me out to one of the more popular places for those who knows the regions of the ocean around Cape Suzette. To the south of Cape Suzette was Louie’s Island, known for its proprietor Louie the old orangutan and his merry menagerie of monkey minions. I am reminded of Airship Mauled, mostly because this place was built out of a shipwreck and that had Shanty fairly intrigued if it was a pirate ship that was repurposed into a tavern build into the side of a giant tree. Reminded me of Rafiki’s home honestly. “Roasted banana sandwiches with side salads for the lovely ladies and a nice assortment of safe stuff for the energetic dog. Two Krakatoa specials, one for my friend and the hungry little goat. A homemade pizza for the cute lizard pair. Finally some mango shakes, burgers and fries for the raccoon and his friends.” Louie placed what looked like an ice cream mountain before Shanty and she grinned greedily at the mountain of ice cream drizzled with honey and banana cream sauce. “Hope the sky circus thing goes great for you Kit. If you’re current employers are still hungry, they can ask for some guacamole tacos on the house.” This Louie guy really shouldn’t have said that, Shanty might actually take him up on it. “Well it’ll be another adventure at least, it just won’t be like old times…” Kit seemed to be quite melancholy about being here. “Going to build as big a tab as he is?” The greying red orangutan was still somewhat cheerful despite the mood Kit was in. “Nah, I’m paying upfront, I’m not him and shouldn’t try to be. Still I carry the family resemblance huh?” Kit stated after taking off his hat. “Spitting image of the guy.” Louie said solemnly while nodding. “Baloo was the best pilot this world ever saw Kit. Not the brightest person around, but still the best. Now enjoy that Krakatoa special, I don’t like food going to waste around here! See the goat has the right idea.” Shanty was halfway through her ‘Krakatoa special’ and was wearing two of the sparklers that came with the food. I sighed while rolling my eyes and started in on my food. This tropical island was a nice relaxing place to get away from it all, nothing but ocean for miles around and the island itself was quiet other than this one single hotspot that had a fairly friendly face. Yet I still worried that something was happening somewhere that would be out to get me, it was gnawing away at me. “Pom, do me a favor, take in a big gulp of air and then exhale slowly, try to get a feel for your surroundings and ease into it.” At least Mopsy was supportive of me, but I wasn’t sure if that was because my people were sheep farmers or not. It certainly weirded out Mopsy that lambkin kind raised sheep. “Feel better?” “A little.” I groaned loudly and continued to eat. “Also Louie, I’m paying for whatever my friends eat… except anything Shanty orders from here on out. That includes Kit.” “You’re a class act ma’am.” Louie said before kissing my hoof gently. “Aw, come on, do not be being like that Pom!” Shanty said with a happy face full of ice cream. “I hope the guacamole tacos are being good at least.” -The next day, cliffs walls around The Gap- So getting a tour of the cliff guns was interesting, this place used to be really active in a war time setting. They had held firm against air pirates and enemy ships for years on end, nowadays they were a monument to the fact that Cape Suzette was still standing. Kit flew us up here because he thought we might like a tour of the cliff guns that protected Cape Suzette long before the maximum flying height was breached by airplanes nowadays. That didn’t mean they were useless, just that they would see less use. They were rarely fired these days and were mostly outdoors museum pieces. Learning the history of the cliff side guns really didn’t help with my unease, but I was trying to relax and I needed to for my health. I really don’t want to have a heart attack and I was going to take some arrhythmia medication soon. “We might have to put you on a daily schedule if you can’t calm down Pom.” Dormarch was keeping track of my health, Dolly’s health and several other things. I personally was keeping track of our visit to the main headquarters of Kahn Industries, because Dormarch was almost terrified of going near the place. “Honestly, what is it about Kahn Industries do you expect to find out that has you so worried?” I looked at the device I held in my hoof and Dormarch looked away as his fish tails tucked under his body. “Kahn isn’t a bad guy, just a bit cold and ruthless in business. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve run afoul of him, but he actually cares about people in his own way.” Kit shook his head and looked out to sea. “He just doesn’t show it often enough… I’ve been living in Cape Suzette since I was a teenager and he mostly does right by the people who work for him.” “Still can’t compete with Mr. McDuck in money, no one can!” Launchpad state jovially. “If I remember right, Kahn is pretty rich too right?” “Richest tiger in the world, yep.” Kit confirmed. “Keen Gear!” I turned and saw Gosalyn climbing on one of the cliff guns. “Gosalyn get down from there!” Drake shouted at his adoptive daughter for doing something dangerous. At least my kids weren’t that bad… mind you the other activity around here was rock climbing and Shanty was doing that with Dolly to help her practice running along walls. Still, something itched at me that something could go wrong any second. -The next day, outside the High Rise Hotel- “Look it’s been a few days… I’m going to Kahn Industries headquarters whether you like it or not and I’m going to set up an appointment with Shere Kahn. I don't care whether he fast tracks our meeting or not, that is up to him.” I was testing my right leg and grimaced slightly at my healed hoof. It hurt, but I could walk on it now if absolutely needed. “We will be meeting him and we will be getting answers Dormarch, but know that no matter what the answers we find... I care about you.” “Scale of one to ten, how painful is it Pom?” Dormarch asked immediately. “A solid six going down to four, provided I don’t put too much pressure on it.” I could walk normally again without having my leg in a sling, but my left eye and body were still going to take another few days. I’ve been eating more food to get myself back into good health and Cape Suzette had really good restaurants. “Come on Dolly, let’s get going before Dormarch can convince everyone that it’s a bad idea to visit.”