Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Eighteen, Cult-tural: Quarter glass.

-Star Scream… er… Screaming Star!-

“What do you think you are exactly doing here specifically Ms. La Perm?” As if I didn’t know that this whelp was going to be a headache, no normal being could keep an Al-mi’raj that peaceful.

Not even shadow mages could control them and they had incredible abilities to keep black dragons away, then again they don’t control those either. What good were they again? I really do need to stab the leader in the back soon, it’s just really quite hard to do with him being so competent.

“I’m a rogue, but also a sun priestess or priest. So I call myself a rogue sun priest!” If she were one like she just stated, then things are about to get horribly awry around here.

“Do you have a moon priest companion?” I asked for the sake of clarity if she was speaking the truth about her status as one of the enemies of the Order of Dark Dreams.

“No, but I’m doing pretty well on my own. You’re quite amiable for someone that’s supposed to be killing me.” Something tells me this cat wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. “Does having an assassin that’s tried to kill you as a companion count?”

“Not unless she does moon priest rituals no...” I considered it for a moment, nothing ventured I suppose. “Is your assassin friend willing to take a commission?”

“Sorry, she’s trying to get out of that sort of work after my two close friends kicked her butt on two separate occasions. Also somebody out there really doesn’t like me and I can’t understand why that is, at least you’re not immediately trying to kill me.” Well the cat certainly sounds honest, maybe I could use that against her and the reason I wasn’t trying to kill her now was because of that thing sitting in her lap. “Though don’t ask if I can help you with your leader as that’s your own business. I’m not an assassin personally and while I won’t kill people, that does not mean I can’t maim someone to within an inch of their life and leave them for dead under the right circumstances. The real killer is right here.”

The killer rabbit in her lap chittered affectionately, I shuddered to think what would happen if that thing were set loose. Also the cat was a bit smarter than I took her for a second ago, I just had to ask.

“How did you know I have it in for my leader?” I, Screaming Star, lead drill instructor and commander to a large number of thestrals, received a quirked eye and a highly confused look.

My plans were well hidden and executed with precision. Though they often fail, nobody knew I was trying to kill our current leader. Well at least nobody should know, how this cat did was beyond me.

“Seriously? It’s really obvious, I mean with a name like ‘Screaming Star’ I would not turn my back on you in an empty room… much less a room full of people you know and trust. In that respect I’d back myself into a corner and wait for someone else to get targeted, specifically you.” Ah, she’s a thinker this one, I had better be careful with her. Since she is a Sun Priest, I am definitely vindicated in worrying about their continued existence. “Again, your parents either hated you or they wanted a rock star for a son, maybe as a deaf metal player.”

“Don’t you mean death metal player?” Why in the world was I entertaining her thoughts? Though she might have something of a point going here, all those guitar lessons and spike covered clothes make more sense in hindsight. Also yes, I could say my parents outright hated my guts before I left them behind in the dust.

Also death metal just wasn’t my music, which is odd coming from a cultist in the Order of Dark Dreams come to think of it. The music was all about my favorite subjects even, death, destruction, a personal favorite of mine being suffering and everyone’s favored tenet around here ‘darkness’.

“Nope, I definitely mean deaf. Can you imagine a thestral singer screeching at the top of their lungs? You can’t kill someone that way, but you can definitely make them go deaf and disorient them.” Despite the fact that this Jaded may have driven us off the tracks as it were, I did kind of find it interesting that she had a largely valid point. Why isn’t it called ‘deaf metal’ when its defining point is being absurdly loud and ear rupturing? “So, are you going to capture me and put me in a cell for interrogation already? I can tell you there’s a pegasus already snooping around in here in a pith helmet. There’s also some stallion guy name Doctor looking for something here, it’s probably in the underground base so you might want to keep him away from whatever it is he’s looking for.”

I stood there in silence and stared at her, she wasn’t even being tortured and she was giving the information that there were others around freely? Well of course there were others around, the airship that was spotted was a one pony airship, but it could carry ten to twelve passengers easily enough.

What she said finally caught up to me and I realized that she knew quite a bit too much.

“How in all that is the unholy eternal darkness of nightmares could you possibly know about the secret underground base?!” She just gave me a long, flat, demeaning look.

“It’s no wonder you’re all doomed to fail whatever it is you think you’re trying to accomplish when Nightmare eventually does come back.” The girl received the most scathing glare I could give her. “I’m just telling the truth here, her defeat is going to be pretty swift if this is all you have to show for it. I mean the monastery is full of holes, one of the towers is knocked down and a large portion of it is still burning down. All I did was walk up, asked to be captured and held prisoner while holding one of the world’s most dangerous creatures calmly in my arms.”

By that logic you’re partially responsible and the reason so many thestrals are floundering about like useless little beetles, I ate things like that for breakfast.

“Again, how did you know about the base?” I wasn’t going to be distracted by her inanities.

“Simple, there’s not enough room up here for the number of thestrals present, also I doubt thestrals like yourselves would do anything other than follow traditional sleeping habits. Which would of course be in caves despite none being around.” She paused and looked at me with a hint of amusement on her face. “The only explanation would be something directly under the monastery in some kind of huge hollowed out cave system where you built some kind of base or city, anyone who hasn’t been shot by a cannon of pure darkness and managed to get close enough would notice something is off immediately. Too many thestrals for the monastery to feasibly hold and not enough supply space to hold all the food despite its palace like construction, also you guys don’t tend to live above ground in the light of day very often.”

“Points, you have many and possibly more.” After I said that she gleefully her paws to together while giggling.

“Oh, what do I win with these points?” Is she really being sincere right now? I can’t tell whether she’s being incredibly stupid or incredibly intelligent, maybe even both. “Do I get my own ninja servant?”

“Look, save me a migraine and follow me to the holding cells. Better yet… guards! You, you and you make yourselves useful and get some weapons to hold her at spear point in case she tries anything funny… well funnier than holding a deadly beast in her arms.” I knew she wanted to be captured and she was bound to do something with that, now if only I could figure out how to benefit from it. I should probably have her killed outright, but the rabbit will be a problem. I can be insane, but I’m stupid. “I think I have just the idea of how to deal with you and you’re little rabbit too, it’ll take some time to set up though.”

Several thestrals hovered around her pointing their spears at her.

“Oh one last question, do you have an arena with giant monsters, evil mirror cloning, black dragons and or possibly a wendigo? A wendigo would be nice, as it could help me make snow cones! Any one of those thing would be fun to play with really.” This sun priest was very different from what the historical texts say she should be like. At least she was clearly up front about being insane though.

“You’ll just have to find out, guards take her away!” They three saluted and started to lead, she was making way too many lucky guesses for me to be comfortable with.

Sun Priests of the past were not quite this excited to put into the line of fire or even capable of combat, this one seemed to be an outlier if she was in fact a sun priest. Also she must be acting bubbly just to annoy me, why else would she seem so happy to endear herself to me, she’s cunning and I don’t like anyone more cunning than me being around.

I have a sudden idea, I can put on a show for our leader. We can watch as this cat fights for her life and I can dig a knife into his back when he least expects it. The reign of dear leader Hollow Heart would surely come to an end this time.

-Fizzle-

Okay they were leading her away, avoid that old cackling guy and now just to sneak behind the guys taking her into the monastery.

“Hey, who are you!” I froze looked at the thestral and lashed out a hoof around his neck and gripped him in a specific spot, we sat there for a moment.

“Why are you pinching the back of my neck with your hoof?” Well this was about to get awkward, the guard didn’t seem to be going down.

“Well, it’s an ancient technique taught to me by a sphinx that lets me knock someone out by grabbing them in a specific spot.” I nodded to him, before I removed my hoof and rubbed at the back of my head. “I have no idea why the nerve pinch didn’t work, I think I might have forgotten something about how to do it right.”

“Well that’s enough out of you! You’re coming with…. with… pretty rainbows!” He flopped onto his face completely unconscious. After looking around to make sure the coast was clear, I stole his stuff for a disguise. It would work so long as nobody expected me to fly.

Oh right, that’s what I forgot about the technique. Hold three second then release any time afterwards, Sekhet did say that was something I kept forgetting about doing it. Too bad it only works on ponies or at least equine equivalent species like a deer.

I stepped over the guard and quickly made my way down the corridor in glancing into rooms to see if they were the direction that Jade went in. When I checked one room, I caught the tail end of a portion of the floor rising into place and vaguely heard Jade’s voice joking about why they needed all the subterfuge when no one was out to get them.

Sound seems to carry really well around here, looking up from the floor I looked at the various things in the room, now how do I open the entrance? There’s got to be a switch or something around here.

“I knew there was something odd about you, nice disguise by the way. Hey Fizzle, that is your name right?” Jumping at the sound of Daring’s voice I turned to her with a calm looking a jerky looking smile on my face. I nodded and waited for her to ask anything. “Anyway, did you hear something in this room a while ago? Also what did your friend do, that caused all that chaos?”

“She walked into the courtyard holding Sugar, that’s what happened. I think the rabbit you seem to think you can take scared the thestrals crazy without even batting an eye at them.” I turned to look at the floor. “As for what I heard in hear? There’s an entrance to something in here and Jade has been captured, she got captured on purpose before you ask and I need help finding a way to open that entrance. It could take an hour to…”

A clicking noise and the floor started lowering rapidly into stairs one at a time, I turned to Daring who poke the symbol of that had the depiction of the mare in the moon on it.

“No need to thank me, it was kind of obvious.” She said smugly and then floor down the stair, I quickly galloped after her and heard her gasp.

I came up next to Daring and stared at the vast open cavern, a small city sat before us and it was full of dim lighting.

“Well I’m off to find Jade to make sure her plan goes without a hitch.” I walked forward and down the path towards the city. “When she plans for safety, she never really plans for own.”

“You do that, I’ve got to find out what Caballeron is after.” She hovered after me for a bit. “There’s lots of valuable stuff in the monastery, but none of it is magical. If it was, it probably wouldn’t have shattered so easily from all the cannon fire.”

-Sekhet-

“That’s why velocity is a harsh mistress.” Sure my other friends may be off wandering into a cult load of danger, but I wasn’t worried.

They better come back with only minor injuries or so help me, I will go up there and rip those cultists apart personally. They want a war of nightmares and shadows? I’ll give them a war they’ll never forget if they hurt my friends!

Okay, so I was really very worried about them, but mortals needed adventures to grow. I can’t hover over them all day every day to make sure they don’t get hurt and I expected some form of airship related head injury when they got back.

What is my life that I actually wanted airships to crashing into me now? Well it did give me a decent reasons to flex my riddling muscles by quite a bit.

“Remind me to never use slingshots around you coach.” Arizona was quite aggressive, she sometimes even lets her anger control her.

I couldn't get lazy with my coaching job Just because my favorite friends weren't around to watch over.

“Slingshots nothing, you should hear my tale about bungie cords and how to make them extremely dangerous.” As a war goddess I could weaponized anything. Including, but not limited to, my own blood, my breath, tufts of hair from my tail, my ear wax and even my claw clippings, when I deign to trim them that is. I had a captive audience, including the three Vibrant Vikings. “I take you all want to know? It happened on a trip to Las Pegasus…”

Author's Note:

Next chapter will be a combination of two chapters in one so I can get in a full blown battle sequence with requisite music.

Comments

[The Correspondent]

what happens in Pegasus stays in Pegasus

[Elderlichlord]

Two chapters in one with battle sequence possibly similar to that of Batman and Catwoman at that cat cult? HOORAY 😁!!!!!!