Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter twenty, The Whimsical Witch of Even worse: Tanking stock.

-Sekhet-

I took the proffered letter from Ratatoskr, it was strange that we of two differing pantheons can get along so well. I think it was mostly because Ratatoskr was quite efficient at what he does and good messengers during a cold war were worth their weight in gold. There was a problem with cold wars, it is that not many exactly know there was a war being fought or what was slinking around in the shadows.

Said current cold war involved the assassins that went after my sun… the sun priest. I did not own her, I do not lay any claim on her and she is a free, if highly rogue, priestess that I wish to protect.

Reading the message I felt a little smile tug at my lips, Jade thought things were going pretty well. Kuril on the other paw was stuck in a warren full of giant flesh eating spiders, here I thought Spiders always liquefied things from inside out and drink their prey. I guess when they get big enough they’ll just do both.

Kuril was thanking me for sending Ratatoskr, while Jade thought my concern for them was adorable. In a manner of speaking, yes, I could see that my worries about their continued existences could be seen as cute in some manner.

It Cheerilee’s final year here before she moved to Ponyville for its greener pastures, I could be a full time teacher… of just more than physical education. Nobody could teach like a war god could, unless you had a god of intellect like Quetzalcoatl around and he probably wouldn’t make things nearly as fun as I would.

“Are they doing okay Ms. Sekhet?” I looked down at the pink haired maiden, Fluttershy, she was worried about how the mayors family vacation was going before school started up again this year.

“Yes, they are doing perfectly fine.” In as so much as they all aren’t dead yet, but wow does it sound like they are being put through a wringer. I was silently wishing to join them on their next adventure, the fight with Quetzalcoatl gave me a taste of the things I missed about being a war goddess. “Please stay for tea and maybe stick around to play with the local fauna, they all miss you maiden Shy. I’ve been working on fluffier scones personally and I’m sure they’ll taste quite… divine. I would like a second opinion though if you don’t mind.”

“I would like to do all of that, thank you.” Fluttershy didn’t bow to me and did not need to, I wouldn’t ever ask her to in the first place. I don’t think there was many a god that wouldn’t appreciate her friendly presence. Her innocence was both sweet and satisfying to be around, she had a strong if quiet spirit to her that exuded kindness.

I chuckled dryly, as Fluttershy came to sit with me. She giggled merrily and was less afraid of me than when we first met. I was respected by this mortal not for my battle prowess, but for my social demeanor.

Being the coaching goddess and the mayor’s secretary were both simple and fun jobs. One can only dare for any bandits to come into town for a little entertainment, they would be signing their own funerals prematurely if they ever reached me.

The bandits could never quite get past the young cow with the incredible physical strength or Flamberge the highly flammable dragon of the Vibrant Vikings. The less I thought about how Fortitude worked the better and Gene was rather interesting in the fact that he never raised his voice or even changed his tone, even when he was angry his fury was bound to burn cold.

Aside from the small puckwudgie raiding parties or other minor inconveniences, Airship Mauled was a nice quiet place to relax. At least for about an hour or so before something else popped up to disrupt the peace.

Ponies commented that we weren’t as bad as Ponyville by the frequency of strange events at least. We were worse with the danger aspect though. I think it evened things out personally, we actually had people who can handle all kinds of danger.

-Kuril-

My voice wasn’t particularly soothing. In fact I thought it was particularly scratchy in only a manner a female Abyssinian cat could manage, but I got my filly to take a nap while Jacky started her internal inspection of the PATTYCAKE. Blackcap’s humming and grunting sounded a bit… bad.

I hoped that the tank could move, because we weren’t going to get far if we hoofed it. I promised EVEN a tank and it’s been one wild ride up to this point, I was quite exhausted and ready to spend the night here. I couldn’t rest yet until we heard the analysis from my little chick.

“Okay mom, this is all pretty bad.” Waiting for Jacky to speak up as she looked over the engine was requiring some patience from me. I wanted to ask how bad, but I knew Jacky would tell me anyway. “That last shot fired by the MEGA GALVANIZER punched clean through us and did some damage to the engine, but that isn’t the worst part. We can patch up the holes in the tank, but I’m going to need something hot to do some welding so we can close up the holes.”

“Weren’t we still operation after the shot passed through the PATTYCAKE?” I asked, because I certainly remembered that we were still moving forward despite the hit. Jacky nodded to me and then pointed at the engine.

“Yeah, the damage dealt by the shot combined with the fall is what messed up the engine. If they had been firing darkness shots at us like the cannons on top of the mountain, then we’d practically be dead already. Provided they could hit us anyway, those darkness shots are really slow by comparison to the cannon that had been firing solid chunks of high speed metal at us.” After scrutinizing the damaged chunk of the engine she could see, Jacky turned to me with a frown. “If we had a dragon with us right now, it would have certainly been helpful. They’d make good mechanical engineers if they weren’t so lazy. In any case, we’re going to need some scrap metal to make repairs and get the engine ‘reasonably’ functional again. I also need to check the treads to see how damaged they are and that requires us going outside.”

“Well I can solve our welding problem easily enough, but we’re going to have to take care of the engine first before we patch the holes. Otherwise the smoke inhalation might cause problems.” After saying this I pulled my pack off and sat it on the floor and started pulling out chaos candles. It might be my daughter’s obscenely simple invention, when compared to my complex cauldron mixed potions, but it was a good one with multiple uses.

“Well that solves one of our problems, but we’re still going to need some scrap metal.” Considering Jacky’s words for a moment, I smiled and turned to Blade who tilted her head at me curiously.

“That’s easy enough, we’ll scrounge whatever is left of the MEGA GALVANIZER. It fell down here too, the thestrals that were inside have flown back up to the city already.” Which meant to me that Hollow didn’t expect us to survive down here or even get the tank back to EVEN. He was underestimating us greatly if he thought were out, even if we were further down into the mountain. “They were badly singed by my explosion, so they have to be licking their wounds and aren’t going to be able to pull off an attack on us. At least not here where it’s likely to get a thestral eaten by giant spiders anyway.”

“Got it, I’m not about to go too far. Given the name ‘Spider Warrens’, I wouldn’t want to be outside the tank for too long around here. How are you going to…? Oh right, you both have night vision.” It seemed like Jacky came to the realization that only she and Fizzle would have been hampered by the surrounding darkness. Blade also had echolocation, given her sense of hearing allowed her to hear every movement in this cavernous space, the remains of the other tank wasn’t that far away and we wouldn’t be caught off guard. “Remember, get whatever you can to fix the engine. I mostly need small bits of metal, any big bits of metal will be used to patch holes and I don’t need much of that.”

Blade smiled and held out a vial of glowing moss to Jacky and she took it, she’d need it far more than we would.

I nodded to Jacky and put away two chaos candles in my pack. If any spiders attacked us, then a face full of burning chaos candle will warn them off. If not from the light or the fire that comes with it, then it would be the debilitating effects of the smoke the candles could generate.

After Blade climbed through the hatch I followed her and looked around, there was a void of empty blackness around us and I could make out something beneath the tank. It looked like a large spindly limp leg, we had crushed a giant spider… one that was about the size of the tank. I turned to Blade.

“Watch my back and make some noise if you hear something coming.” My words were met with hardening eyes and a nod, I carefully climbed down the tank and then slid down the abdomen to the ground. I saw a blade like protrusion coming from above the dead spider’s spinneret buried into the ground. They had stingers, likely lethally poisonous. “Watch out for webs and make sure that we don’t get stingers dropped on us from above.”

Blade just gave me a silent salute with a hoof holding a knife at the ready, we carefully made our way towards the treads and bottom half of the tank I helped total.

I looked back to see Blade’s ears twitching left, right, and then outwards and inwards, she was very much attentive of our surroundings. There was no sign of trouble yet as we got close to the remains of the other tank.

We spent a few minutes silently scouring for parts from the husked out tank and found a few things that Jacky could possibly use. Speaking of which, I looked back to the tank and could see the glow of the glow moss vial and the figure holding it crouched next to the treads.

Blade looked in that direction, but didn’t signal any danger. Did the spiders scatter when we accidentally crushed one of the large ones? If so, how long would it be before they came back in force? I shook my head and gathered up the small box of metals scrap that I could pick up or tear out of the remains of the GALVANIZER. I even found a round of unspent ammunition, Jacky would love this as a souvenir.

I find it ironic that something that was supposed to galvanize Hollow’s people towards his cause would likely have the opposite effect given how much damage he did to the buildings in the somewhat compact underground city. Not only that, but we took it out with a party tank and some of my home brew witchery. Quite a lot of Hollow’s time and effort went to waste even if the vehicle had been quite a power house.

Having figured I gathered enough, I heaved the box I found up and began to carry it back towards the tank. Blade was watching me and our surroundings like a hawk, ready to throw a knife at the first sign of danger. She was quite nice for someone who wanted to kill my kitten once upon a time, she was basically my kitten’s sushi slinging aunt now.

I climbed back up the crushed arachnid and made my way over Jacky.

“Is this good enough?” I whispered to Jacky who looked at the box in my arms, she looked over the stuff in the box and nodded.

“Yeah, that should be enough, I need to finish checking the treads first. Those are more important than the engine. Without them we won’t be going anywhere even if I can get the engine working.” Jacky was equally as quiet, she was more than aware of our current situation and that loud noises might attract the spiders towards us.

Given that we were in the spider’s territory, this would be a really bad time to sneeze. Surprisingly nobody did and I for some reason felt like this was a big letdown.

“Blade watch Jacky while she works, I’m going to get this box inside.” I carefully climbed my way back up to the hatch while tightly holding the box of scrap metal under my left arm. Once inside I placed the box down on the floor.

“Mom… are we going to make it?” It sounded like Fizzle had her doubts as she groggily stirred awake.

“Go back to sleep my little filly, we’re working on it and we’re doing fine so far.” Despite how tired I was, we were going to finish this. I didn’t know how long I’ve been awake, being underground for so long is not conducive to keeping a healthy sleeping schedule.

“Okay… mommy…” Fizzle yawned and rested her head once more on her hooves, I stared at the bloody bandages on her head. We didn’t have much water, but I would have to look at and clean the wound when Fizzle next woke up.

-Nine hours later, Jade-

I stretched out, it was so nice of the EVEN guys to give us a place to stay for a while. The reported destruction of the tank that is being called the MEGA GALVANIZER was having an effect on the thestral population.

Given quite a few of their homes took damage thanks to it, the entire population was leaning in the direction of Prime’s faction and Hollow was losing soldiers except the most loyal or unscrupulous. Looks like we caused another political unrest incident, at least this time we knew for certain it was a good thing.

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask… what’s your name?” I turned to my cloaked companion with her hood down, she was currently petting Sugar and she turned to me looking a bit surprised.

“Oh… right… well… my name is…” This would be the perfect moment for something distracting to happen, like Back Stalk sneezing loudly like he just did.

-Fizzle-

Eight hours of rest and my head was feeling less agonizing, I was still wary of channeling magic and it was necessary to start the engine on the PATTYCAKE.

Jacky said the treads were slightly damaged, but they’d hold together a little while longer. The engine was fixed and the holes in the armor were patched. We’ve all had a good amount of sleep, everyone was now waiting on me to imbue the engine with power.

Blade’s ears suddenly went straight up and she shivered she started stamping the floor of the tank in a panic. That meant incoming giant spiders, we didn’t even know which way to go to get out of here.

That didn’t matter, we’d work on it while in motion! I lit my horn and pressed it against the engine and it started up.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[Sigmacipher]

“Oh… right… well… my name is…” This would be the perfect moment for something distracting to happen, like Back Stalk sneezing loudly like he just did.

Then ask again and don't invoke Murphy again.

And stop letting the author drag out the mystery for so god damn long, like some sort of idiot who thinks coming up with stupid excuses to not specify what this person we're dealing with is makes him a decent author because I don't know about you but I think he's just coming up with excuses to not specify and write himself into a corner because he didn't think that far ahead.

Or something like that...I mean it's not like your using pictures...

[Darkonshadows]

9207332

Good question... don't know.

9207340

But I'm not a decent author, I thought you knew that.

Also I have thought that far ahead, but telling you about it would ruin the story. I would have to cancel writing the rest of it, because I already have an end game. I guess nobody likes running gags anymore...

[Draskos]

good messengers during a cold war were worth their weight in gold

So he's not worth all that much, huh?

[Shadowshame]

9208559
Look you may not be an amazing author but what I see right now is a guy/girl who has put a lot of time and effort into a story that they obviously enjoyed writing even if some say that there are ooc moments for your characters I'm reading this from the start all the way through without waiting for a next chapter and I can clearly see character development and why some characters act randomly like how apparently a few chapters ago Jade "shouldn't" have caused fizz to hurt her because it was an ooc moment who h makes no sense for it to be seen as an ooc moment because Jade is a random person, look please don't CATtastrophise your writing skills everyone has there own style and although I see a few grammar errors here and there I don't see what is wrong with your skill you have made your own world within the storm of other stories and cannon out there and I am enjoying it all you might need is a little more confidence in your own skill really

[Pensive]

“Oh… right… well… my name is…” This would be the perfect moment for something distracting to happen, like Back Stalk sneezing loudly like he just did.

I'd bet it's starlight.