Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter twenty one, Cult Evasion: The Respite.

-Fizzle-

“So do you all seriously tease Jade like that?” Velvet asked as we sat down in the meeting room. Just about everyone was here, including what I’m ready to call my family. It seemed like Prime had something big to announce to the thestrals here.

“What can I say, she likes the attention.” And I liked her attention, I can tell Jade wanted me to get better sooner.

“Says the one that needs fifty CC’s of high octane snuggles when she sleeps.” My cheeks burned, why does Jade always rub me in that spot behind my ears? I appreciate the sensation and get a lot of pleasure from it, but it was so embarrassing that such a simple affectionate gesture has so much effect on me. “I tease her just as well by making her blush.”

Jade has almost no shame, it was one of the reasons I liked her.

“To be fair, while Jade can’t do math, she can plan circles around almost anyone I know. The only thing more dangerous than her is mom and Jacky’s sporadic bad luck.” More thestrals poured into the room, then a familiar pegasus comes in looking quite aggravated.

“Hey Daring!” Jade yelled out and waved to Daring Do who looked in our direction and blinked once or twice. She then reeled back in shock as if slapped harshly for some reason.

“You, you’re the one that stole the Zephyr’s Fan!” She didn’t look too angry, only more so surprised and was pointing at the gunbai sticking out of Jade’s pack. “Here, I thought it was Dr. Caballeron getting one over on me. I knew it couldn’t have been him, he doesn’t even know I was here. So what’s this meeting all about, I was told my friends would be here after asking around a bit. Not all the thestrals in this city seem to be all that bad.”

“Yeah, we kind of figured that out when Jade started befriending the guards and mom made contact with the EVEN faction.” I spoke up looking to mom. She smiled at us and then went back to talking to Jacky about the PATTYCAKE returning to what it once was, a tank meant for parties and not war.

“So who’s the deer and isn’t that the flying turtle I saw a few times back at Airship Mauled?” It was likely a bad idea for Daring to have attracted Snickers attention, because within seconds the turtle had attached herself to Daring’s face while cooing happily in a loving manner. “Gah, call her off, get her off my face, why is this turtle so strong!”

I chuckled dryly as I watch Daring flop around on the floor trying to pry an affectionate Snickers off of her face. Jade eventually came to her aid and got the face hugger off of Daring.

“So it’s called Zephyr’s Fan? Huh, I wondered why it was so weird and didn’t respond to magical alchemy, I really don’t think this thing is related to Fluttershy’s little brother.” As Jade was pointing this out, even I had been a little curious about the fan that sent powerful blasts of wind out of it. “I got it while running through an armory. Velvet here can vouch for that and she happens to be our new reindeer friend that for some reason is flightless.”

“Would you just drop the thing about me being flightless already?” You could always ask Velvet, but I don’t think Jade was going to stop bringing it up. There had to be a group of flying Reindeer out there somewhere, especially if Jade believed it so intrinsically.

“It’s from the time of Zephyr Hurricane, there’s a story about a tactical leader said to have been related to Commander Hurricane. It was said he could create powerful tornados or powerful blasts of wind from his fan. He was said to have infused his magic into the fan so deeply, it got to the point that it became a permanent part of the fan itself.” Daring took a seat with our group.

Well that explains why magical alchemy wouldn’t work, Jade couldn’t do anything else with it as it was already permanently infused with powerful amounts of pegasus magic.

“Do you want it?” When Jade asked that, Daring nodded eagerly and took the offered fan to begin looking it over with her hooves.

“Tell me Velvet, did Jaded take anything else from the armory?” I turned back to Kuril addressing Velvet with a false smile.

“Yeah, just two pairs of these things called nunchucks.” Velvet answered innocently. The smile on Kuril’s face didn’t drop, but it did tighten considerably.

“Jaded La Perm, you do realize that those aren’t ninja weapons!” There was more worry than anger in mom’s voice.

“I’ll be careful with them mom, really, you don’t have to worry about it. If it makes you feel any better then I’ll wait until we get home to do anything with them.” Jade’s attempt at appeasement didn’t make mom stop looking at her worriedly.

“Do you realize that you could hurt yourself with them?” Mom asked after a moment of silent thought.

“Oh I know that, but if you’re interested I also stole fifty throwing stars while I was in the armory when Velvet wasn’t looking.” Now there was a proud smile on moms face, sometimes I didn’t get the relationship between Jade and her mother. “I can’t wait to play with my bucket of caltrops.”

“But I was behind you the entire time!” Probably did between you dodging crossbow bolts Velvet, from what Jade told us about that situation. “When and how could you have possibly had the time to grab that many?”

“Snatched it from a few guards in a few quick run by muggings.” It sounded like Jade was going to have fun figuring out how to throw them then, but that was for later.

“Look, just be careful kitten, you are to only hold the nunchucks while I’m supervising you.” Which led me to wondering why mom was so worried about Jade stealing nunchucks, she hardly ever worries about all the other stuff Jade pilfered. You’d think she’d be more concerned about all those throwing stars being in Jade’s possession.

This just made me remember that I have a mother that supports thieving and scrounging for a good cause. As long as we had a good or at the very least decent explanation for our actions, then we could get away with a lot in her eyes.

I don’t think mom will attempt or even be willing to rein in Jade or Blackcap’s natures, heck she doesn’t even rein me in. Not that she has too, I was clearly the sanest of her children, not that that really means much.

“Attention, can I please have everyone’s attention!" Prime’s voice almost sounded like it demanded respect, the tone he spoke in and his actions felt like they all had a weight to them. He just had one of those charismatic heroic voices I’ve ever heard, like Hollow Heart had a charismatically evil voice. “Thanks to Hollow Heart’s recent actions, among other things such as a sun priest being among us, our movement has gained ground against the Order of Dark Dreams in the city. The most violent, loyal and psychopathic thestrals among the cultist order still follow Hollow, he is still a very grave threat to us.”

Jade ducked down while rubbing at her head as every thestral in the room turned to glance at her. That whole prophecy thing gave the thestrals of EVEN quite a bit of credibility, it also gave me a conniption given Jade passed out after delivery.

“It is because of the actions of the mercenary group from Airship Mauled led by Mayor Kuril, that we have managed to gain this ground almost peacefully without an excessive egregious loss of life that Hollow’s methods would have led to. Many homes were wrecked by the Mega Galvanizer created by Hollow, but we saved many a thestral over the last ten to twelve hours and helped those that were trapped under the wreckage of collapsed buildings. We are currently leading the effort to help those who have lost their homes.” All of said wreckage was of course, as Prime probably knows by now, mostly caused by Hollow Heart trying to destroy our tank. We only destroyed one wall to slow him down, Hollow toppled several buildings trying to kill us. That tank definitely galvanized more thestrals to start speaking up against the cultist order that built this place, not that all the thestrals here in the mountain were hardcore cultists begin with. “More than two thirds of the thestrals that live here are now currently against Hollow’s continued leadership. I must also state that there were no thestral casualties.”

A cheer went up from the many thestrals around the room started stomping their hooves in excitement. Nobody died, the city was with Prime’s reform movement and we once again caused a political upheaval. Why am I not more surprised at this rate?

“It is, with a heavy heart, that I must say that we will not be taking the fight to Hollow and will continue our relief efforts. I will not be responsible for a civil war nor do I wish to hurt any thestrals further than he already has. I only want to protect those who can’t protect themselves, though I will actively defend those in need.” Being a leader is hard and it was understandable that Prime didn’t want to exacerbate the current delicate situation. “To that end, I would ask that Mayor Kuril evacuate her people from the mountain. There’s also the matter of what to do with the hole in the square that leads to the spider warrens, we need to think of something before any of the spiders decide to crawl out and attack us.”

That caused a shift in the mood of the room, most of the thestrals weren’t calling out for blood and were even agreeing with Prime’s worry about the hole in the city leading directly to giant carnivorous and poisonous spiders.

“Well it’s been fun kids, but I have to agree with Mr. Number. It’s time for us to get out of here, unless we have other more important concerns before we leave. Our vacation is about over anyway and we can’t stick around for too much longer or else you might miss the first class of Cheerilee’s last year.” Some vacation mom, we got involved in a bunch of crazy and screwy stuff. We’re only leaving because we are being asked to leave and I had to admit, I’m pretty tired of being here. “So what’s our exit strategy and is there anything important that we need to know about.”

“Yes, there is something of great importance that you should know of. Hollow Heart and Screaming Star are actively working together without any sniping going between them, they both seriously want your daughter dead.” Well that was alarming to hear Prime, yet my reaction to it was a dull sigh. The same kind of sigh that Jade release at the same time I did.

Well nothing for it, we’re going through the monastery entrance and taking the airship out of here.

“Yeah, people wanting to kill Jade is nothing new.” Mom giggled a bit and then grew serious glaring slowly around the room at every thestral. She made them all freeze up and one even started whimpering. “Anyone hurts my kitten or our friends and family should expect to receive my full ire. I won’t kill, but know there are some fates worse than death and that I can implement them!”

No thestral challenged mom, but I doubt Hollow would really let us leave just like that.

“Remote and Bumble will be responsible for getting you to the surface and out of the monastery, can you make it down the mountain without our help after that?” One has to admit that Prime was a pretty brave thestral, even for a leader who professes to want peace more than anything.

“Oh we can do more than that, do you want us to take care of the darkness cannons on the way out?” Mom asked pleasantly while her tail wagged in a very mischievous manner, in fact Jade’s started wagging like that too. They looked to each other and smiled cattily, they both titled their heads and gave Prime a cute cat look and he shivered as if an ice cubed was dragged down his spine. “We will gladly accept the escort. Jacky will be a bit slow with her leg injury, my poor Fizzle can’t use magic thanks to the head injury and straining herself, also Jade’s been shot twice by crossbows so she is about as poor off as they are even with her high pain tolerance.”

Oh no, what were they coming up with this time? I knew what Jade was capable of alone, I knew what mom was capable of alone, but both of them together?! I feel sorry for whoever inevitably gets in the way of us leaving.

-Kuril, two hours later-

Oh look, Hollow is getting in the way of us leaving. Well I’m pretty sure we all knew this was going to happen, Hollow knew all the moves that Prime could possibly do. One of them would be to get us safely out of the city while things were turning against Hollow pretty badly.

“Leaving so soon, I expected you to stay and be tortured for a little while longer.” Given Hollow wasn’t receiving a knife in his back By Screaming Star, Jade and I had likely brought them together by sheer mutual hatred of us. Isn’t friendship so grand?

“I’m sure we can take him mom.” Jade, if I were you, I would sound about as half sure as you currently are. Also Hollow is a pretty big thestral, he could really hurt you if you weren’t too careful. From what Prime told us, he was an expert in fighting and cared little for those who have power and didn’t abuse it correctly.

Remote Chance held her crossbow tighter. She was a marks mare and she could predict the chances of hitting a target with thrown or fired weapon, she was really good at horse shoes. Her white and pink streaked mane that fell over her left eye looked out of place against her dark blue fur, her sharp brown eyes glared at Hollow and she looked like she was itching to pull the trigger on the crossbow.

Bumble spread his wing blades out and crouched, ready for a fight as several other armored thestrals arrived.

Blade was palming a knife, I was ready to throw a magic missile, Daring flared her wings, Fizzle looked ready to fight with her bare hooves and Jacky had her bow out.

What did Jade do? She didn't pull her knife and charged them first, we didn't follow as we were a little stunned.

What happened next was quite surprising, with a single push of his hooves Hollow was airborne and swept around to Jade's right at an incredible speed. He hit my turning kitten in the chest with both his hooves and then subsequently put her through the nearest stone wall back first.

That was the signal that started our fight to get out of Fright Night Mountain, Jade getting put through a wall.

Make that two, I just heard Jade grunt as she went through a second wall beyond the first.

Author's Note:

This is the last Chapter to Fright Night Mountain, how much can I do with four chapters remaining?

A lot.