Part 17: The Zeppo
A stone gray pegasus, stubble lining his grim muzzle cocked his shotgun as the group entered the temple, his wings folded behind him. Aside him rumbled the gigantic drill tank, its twin boilers huffing and puffing out steam hot steam and caustic black smoke. He honestly pitied the poor old sod who had to constantly feed the damn thing the coal required for it to run. Had to be working like a dog in a sweatshop in Chinatown down in San Fran.
“Oh, the joys of the industrial age…” Nimbus Breaker thought to himself sarcastically as he flipped on the flashlight strapped to his weapon of choice, nicknamed “Little Bastard” and searched the darkened temple corridors for any oncoming threats. Personally, if anything else, Iron Skies would much rather be doing other things then going off on some foolhardy adventure really. If it was up to him, he’d by far and away rather be curled up at home reading the works of H. G. Wells. “War of the Worlds” if he had a choice honestly. Fascinating read, would make a great audio drama if done right he suspected. But no, here he was stuck on some Hell-ridden journey to some long lost city that probably went into economic collapse centuries ago. The only reason he was in on this journey was for the treasure really, if it even existed. With that, Nimbus Breaker flashed back to how he had been pulled onto this journey in the bloody first place…
Coltlumbia, New York, several weeks ago… (Three days exactly before the Moby Dick left port)
Okay, so there he was, just sipping tea and listening to the radio’s early morning broadcasts, as always. Outside, broken clouds lazily drifted by as great airships flew carrying passengers all across the nation.
As Nimbus got up off his armchair and tuned the radio away from the daily blues as it had rapidly become called, a tune called “Beyond the Sea” began to play. He smiled and sat back down in his armchair and let the music carry him off to sleep. His dreams were pleasant for the most part, but they then turned for the worst as he found himself in a darkened room tied to a chair, two men hovering over him. One had a crowbar in his mouth.
“You could wipe away the debt you owe us, Mr. Breaker. You know that, right? Just give us the mare!” One of the dark-suited stallions asked before he took a swing at him with the crowbar and hit Nimbus in the side.
“Said mare is my wife if you remember and she’s the whole reason I need the money in the first place!” Nimbus snapped, unwilling and unable to give into the stallion’s demands. He never would. Another crowbar strike came and everything went black.
Nimbus woke up with a start. He panted and wiped away the sweat from his brow. Every time he tried to sleep, that same dream. It was always the same, in every last detail. No, not a dream, he corrected himself. A memory. A memory of a mistake long since made.
Then came a door knock, In an instance, Nimbus went for his gun, a small revolver hidden in a drawer in his side table next to the armchair.
“Come in, but I’m warning you right now, if you’re those taxmen, you’re getting bullets through your brain soon as you enter,” Nimbus stated, in a firm and definitive tone of voice. “You got that right? Please don’t tell me you’re deaf because I really would hate to shoot a stallion without fair warning.”
The door opened and in stepped a light blue stallion with a rainbow colored mane that Nimbus recognized at once. He lowered his weapon.
“If I was deaf, that would render that whole little exchange useless. I wouldn’t have even heard you warning me,” Rainbow Blaze remarked casually. “Besides, would you really shoot an unarmed stallion, especially one that’s a very old friend of yours? How’s the wife?”
Nimbus snarled and pointed his pistol at Rainbow again.
“That’s how you want to start this conversation? Really?” He growled out. “You know perfectly bloody well as I do how Windy’s doing! She’s in the hospital, and getting sicker!”
“Your last… payments didn’t work?” Rainbow asked carefully.
“They worked long enough to get her stable, but nopony’s found or has been nice enough to lend me the money to ship the diphtheria serum all the way up here!” Nimbus snapped, wishing and praying that he lived in Nome. That way at least, there would be a dog with the capability to save his wife unlike everypony else it seemed.
“Well, you know how things are,” Rainbow said casually, placing a hoof on his old friend’s shoulder. “This is the Great Depression after all.”
“I damn very well know what era this is thank you very much!” Nimbus roared before he broke down in sobs, and Rainbow Blaze pulled him into a hug and let the older pegasus sob into his shoulder.”Thank you, Wall Street for putting all of us in this bleedin’ mess and leaving me practically penniless and in a state where I have to watch my wife die a slow and painful death!”
He looked up at Rainbow. “We… We were going to try and make Paris, don’t know how, but we were. I promised her that, she always wanted to see Paris. Most romantic city in the world, that is. I told her all about it, got it into her head…”
“It isn’t your fault that this happened, you know that right?” Rainbow tried to reassure. Then a thought came to him as he remembered why he was here in the first place, this small little hamlet in the clouds. “You know, I’ve… Well, not me, but another member of the Gun Club has been recently following up on a lead and I think there is a way to save your wife. Trouble is, it won’t be easy. Your specific expertise might be needed.”
“Okay, what have you signed me up for? Tell me this isn’t another of your stupidly foolish expeditions to hunt down the Kraken.” Nimbus commented.
“Expedition it may be, but the Kraken isn’t the target,” Rainbow said before he leaned in. “Tell me, have you ever heard of… Neighlantis?”
“If the treasure’s real…” Nimbus trailed off before he snapped back to reality. “But this could take weeks, by the time we find the treasure, if it even exists, Windy would be dead!”
Rainbow nodded in understanding before he smiled. “You know that part where you said nopony was kind enough to lend the money to get a shipment of the diphtheria serum sent to Windy right?” he asked and Nimbus gave him a look. “I have a friend, same friend who’s funding this whole expedition really, wiring you the money now.”
“So why would I go then? I’ve already got the money, my wife would be saved and I’d be by her side.” Nimbus remarked.
“Well, you could always take her on that trip to Paris you promised…” Rainbow trailed off.
Now:
“Damn pegasus should have been in a boardroom instead of in a captain’s chair. He knows how to talk to ponies, the dick,” Nimbus growled out mentally. “And now I’m practically buried at sea, and I may never see Windy again. Screw this whole enterprise. Screw it all.”
“Something on your mind?” A voice asked, and Nimbus turned to the left to see the white griffin High Wind, fitted with a saddle, odd as it was, that was armed to the tooth. Twin Gatling guns, one of either side. Battle Saddles they were called, a tried and true piece of technology dating back from the Great War period. Beside him was his brother griffin, Riptalon who was pure black in feather and coat color and wearing a sand green scarf and armed with two particularly nasty looking Battle Claws.
“No, nothing,” Nimbus lied. “Nothing at all. Okay, maybe just one thing. I’m very curious why our late Captain hired us, a bunch of mercenaries on a treasure hunting trip.”
“Probably expectin’ to run into trouble,” Riptalon theorized. “That there Kraken and all.”
Nimbus scoffed.
“Hah, fat lot of good we did against it.” He laughed wryly.
“Stallion’s got a point. I mean, we had to blow up a whole sub to stop it.” High Wind remarked.
“He probably has his reasons…” Riptalon murmured.
Right about then, the convoy halted.
“Alright, what’s the hold-up?” High Wind shouted in annoyance.
“Sorry, so sorry!” Twilight’s voice called from somewhere up ahead. Nimbus looked towards her direction and saw she was gazing in pure fascination at a mural up above a doorway. There was a depiction of a winged lizard of some sort, alongside a due of nine tailed canid creatures. Both canids held staves, both glowing with light somehow, both a calm cool blue. Ancient characters were inscribed below the creatures.
“Ya gotta be kidding me…” Riptalon trailed off. “A mural, that’s the damn source of our troubles?”
“Shut it, Rip!” Nimbus snapped. “Could be a warning of some type, can’t be too careful.”
“He’s right,” Fancy agreed before turning to his niece. “Twilight, can you use your father’s journal to translate?”
Twilight nodded before she began rapidly flipping through the pages of the old and beaten up leather journal before stopping at a particular passage.
“Okay… It’s rough, but I can make it out… I think.” Twilight said, flushing red in embarrassment, perhaps from being put in the spotlight so to speak.
“She thinks?” Riptalon muttered. “Oh, this ought to be good.”
Silver Spanner smacked him upside the head.
“Hey, be a bit nicer would you featherbrain? Hasn’t led us wrong yet.” Spanner snapped.
“Yeah, yet.” Riptalon drawled.
Twilight ignored them both and translated.
“Praise the foxes, for they are the protectors of the lamb.”
“Lamb?” Nimbus muttered to himself. “Doesn’t look like a lamb to me…”
“It’s probably metaphorical,” Twilight commented, and Nimbus flushed, not realizing he’d been heard. “Anyways, my best guess is that this “Lamb” is probably important to the infrastructure of Neighlantis.”
Both High Wind and Riptalon burst out laughing, both clutching each other in great amusement and wiping away tears from their eyes.
“A lamb, important?” Rip asked, still laughing. “Whut, does she or he provide holy meat or wool to Neighlantis and its people?”
“And furthermore, how have these foxes not eaten the lamb?” High Wind put in. “Goes against their very nature!”
“S-Shut up!” Twilight sputtered out. “I’m just reading what the translation says, and it’s really my best guess anyways, could mean something completely different!”
“You two want to shut up before I come over there and make you do it?” Night Glider threatened. The very angry, almost protective look she bore on her face shut both of them up at once.
“Yeesh… She’s scarier than I am… Remind me never to get on her bad side.” Silver Spanner trailed off as the convoy continued onwards...
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Ohohoho, well then, this is rather interesting, very interesting indeed~
And Nimbus? I got confuzzled there, I have a friend who's OC is named that, I thought it was him for a second xD
Good work on this llittle chapter, twas quite the read!
8292037
Well, to be fair it is kinda hard to think up names for OCs when there are so many of them out there. I'm not surprised at all that I wind up creating one with a name who's already been at least partially taken. (Hey, could have been worse. His original working title was Wind Sheer, shared with one of Calamity's Enclave brothers from Fallout: Equestria despite them sharing no similarities aside from the name and race.)
So a dedicate chapter on a new character. At first, with the story of his wife sick and his wish to bring her to Paris, I thought he was a representation of the old man from the movie Up. I haven't read Kkat story yet, but 620k that's a lot.
8292915
Yeah, it is. That's more than War and Peace actually, believe it or not. Anyways, on Nimbus, he was supposed to be an expy of Booker Dewitt from Bioshock Infinite, but now that you mention it, he could be compared to Carl Fredricksen from "Up" if you want.
8292770
True, hehehe.
Still, good job on this chapter.
8293740
Thanks, and if you're rather disappointed in a character originally meant for Fallout: Equestria showing up in a story that's not set in that universe, well I do have plans (Just ideas right now really, nothing solid enough to jot down on paper) for a small one-shot set in that universe. Only time will tell if it comes to light. (Shrugs)
8293777
Naaah, I'm not disappointed, just funny is all.
Uh, I thought Manehatten was New York(both the state and the city) Might need to make some changes there.
So Nimbus is Windy's husband...so who does that make Rainbow Blitz's wife and Rainbow Dash's mom? Or were Blitz and Windy divorced and Blitz kept Dash?
p.s: Love Fallout Equestria so the addition of minigun battle saddles, even if they're a bit anachronistic, is really cool.
8293848
Nope, Manehatten is just where Manhatten is in the real world. Like I've stated before, this is basically a ponified version of Earth, with the major ponified cities occupying their Earth counterparts. Think of it like EG, but just with Ponies. (If that's confusing, I apologize, trying to explain the best I can here.) As for Rainbow Blitz, chances are he had a child with some other mare, which could have some sound basis given that he's no longer canonically Rainbow's dad and Bow Hothoof is. Of course, it is entirely possible Windy is still Dashie's mom here and the two did spilt up. Never did exactly state how old Nimbus is after all... Your mileage may vary here.
8293940
Okay, I get where you're coming from. Guess I'll need to make some changes on my end.