Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter twenty two, While You Were Out: Soft Kitty.

-Fizzle-

This whole thing was a mess, Hollow was likely alive and he was far more dangerous than previously realized. As if the large battle tank wasn’t the first sign to something much worse going on with him.

What I was looking at was the shield Jade pilfered from her mother, there were ten hoof marks embedded in the solid metal in a twisting circle around the central imprint.

Hollow should really be weaned off of whatever drugs he’s been taking to hit that hard, if that was his natural physical strength then I was never going to take him on up close and personal like Jade had.

I remembered that he put Jade through two walls before he went all dark and scary, then he was nearly invincible when he covered himself in darkness. It was to a point where a crossbow bolt would bounce completely off him, I hadn’t exactly been as busy as Jacky was with making sure the airship didn’t crash from the fall.

Apparently whatever protection that darkness offered Hollow, it didn’t extend or exist beyond the rise of the sun or any powerful enough light to break through it.

I looked from the shield to Jade, lying there next to her mother with an unknown number of injuries and barely breathing through her broken nose. Sugar was currently place against mom’s side. They all had blankets and pillows, moving mom, Jade or Sugar at this juncture would probably be a bad idea.

I was quite upset with Jade for grabbing me by the horn. I wasn’t upset about the kiss though. Sure the timing was bad for it, but the fact that she had even initiated it with me caused my heart to flip out.

What upset me was that she stopped me from preventing the injuries her mother took when we held off Bahamut’s ‘Mega Flare’ as Jade called it. To think all the walls we put up didn’t last two seconds.

I placed the shield back on the floor and moved to go outside, leaving a silent Daring alone to pilot the airship. It was nice of Prime to see us off, he said that he still had a lot of work ahead of him and I believed him.

Back Stalk had apparently snuck up on the thestrals chasing a retreating RC and took them out, that guy knew how to prowl around and set up ambushes. Bumble was last reported to still be alive, but in critical condition. That was one less worry on my mind, that striped thestral was a hero.

The main worry here was the La Perm family, the main members of it that is. Kuril… mom… had taken the brunt of Bahamut’s attack. When the barrier broke so too did her arm and various numerous injuries translated across her body in the backlash of her magical sustain failing. Her broken arm had been pressed into her chest with what happened after her barrier broken.

After the barrier broke I thought we’d be eradicated, but Sugar deflected the remainder of the blast with her rear paws pressed up against the shield by the force of the attack. At the time we were still bracing mom and it was only afterwards that her arm fell limp and she collapsed barely able to stand on her own.

Sugar’s horn was in the center of the blast wave and was blackened by the stress it was put through, Jade had said she could deflect magic. That blast wave had to have been made of magic for Sugar to have put herself through that. That was the most magic I’ve ever seen or felt in one place in my life.

I didn’t know what that blackened horn meant, but on a unicorn that would have been a really bad thing and I would know. I’ve done a lot of research on unicorn horns for fairly obvious reasons. ‘All Mirages’ horns were different right?

I actually hoped the killer rabbit was okay and would fully recover from that, we needed her predatory nature to keep the drop bear population stable after all. It was like how I hoped Jade wasn’t currently as bad as she looked and that mom would be alright.

Walking to the railing on the port side, I leaned up against in and looked at the ground slowly passing beneath us. We’d be home sooner rather than later, maybe we should stop at Ponyville Hospital and drop them off. No… we were bringing them home and then bringing help to them as soon as we can.

We were homeward bound and with a political upheaval being set in motion in Fright Night Grotto, It wouldn’t have been a good idea for us to return there for medical attention. Prime told us as much, he was going to hopefully usurp control from Hollow while he was otherwise indisposed and out of action.

Prime owed us a lot for all we did for him, but it wasn’t like we left empty hoofed. Not when Mom and Jacky brokering supply deals with EVEN, plus all of Jade’s various possibly warranted thefts. There was literally a bucket of caltrops waiting for Jade to play with when she got better, if it were anyone else I would say that mom didn’t know them inside and out like she does Jade.

When, not if, Hollow recovered from whatever injuries that were dealt to him by prime and Jade, he would have gone after mom, Jade and us in short order if we had stayed. We weren’t in any condition to fight Hollow or any other remaining loyal militant cultists off.

It was for the best that we disappeared back home and had some distance between us and Hollow, don’t honestly know what happened to Screaming.

-Screaming-

This is horror personified. How did I get trapped on an island full of highly agressive porcupines and how are my wings broken? That pegasus never even touched them!

A porcupine waddled up to him from behind and turned around, its spines stood up and it then jumped straight for him back first.

-Fizzle-

“Coo?” Jerking at the sound of Snickers whining bird noise, I felt her pressing up against my neck. I craned my head around and saw the tiny turtle hugging me with her flippers, she was shivering and looked miserable.

“I’m sure Jade will be okay Snickers, she’s fairly tough.” I wasn’t good at this kind of thing, she looked so cold. I carefully raised my hoof and rubbed her head as she dug her face into my fur.

“Hiss coo.” Snickers whined quietly and tightened her grip on me, she was pretty strong for a small flying turtle. I pried her off and moved her to my chest and hugged her gently, her wings popped out and strengthened the hug.

I looked over the rail again and stayed there for a time, before my quiet turtle snuggling brooding was interrupted by Blackcap.

“Bit for your thoughts Fizzle?” Jacky came to sit down next to me and she gave Snickers a concerned look before readjusting her eyes to me.

“I’m upset that Jade grabbed me by the horn and stopped me from helping in the defense against Bahamut.” I could have helped immensely, I could have shown Jade what I was capable of if she had just let me.

“With your head injury? Yeah, Captain made the right call on that.” What Jacky said shocked me a bit and my eyes widened. I soon narrowed them at her.

“You actually think she made the right decision?” For whatever reason, I felt upset and a little betrayed by the insinuation that I couldn’t have handled my magic. I was getting better at using my broken horn, I just needed more training and time to the point that I could show everyone exactly what I could do. I wasn’t a complete invalid!

I know Jade believed in me. She had said it was not a matter of magical output, but how well I could control that output.

Hearing she was right to stop me from using my magic hurts, maybe that’s why I was upset that she stopped me. It felt like she didn’t trust me when I know she does, maybe the kiss was to make me feel better? It’s hard to figure her out sometimes.

“Look, Fizzle, I’m your sister. We may not have a strong bond or have been born from the same mother, but I would like to think we’re good friends and that our current mother is a very loving individual. You used your magic in the spider warrens and to fend off that Grue, do you know what happened to you afterwards?” Jacky stood up and was looking down at me over her beak, I felt her searching eyes as I looked away. I didn’t want to answer her as I clutched Snickers to me. “The second you answer that, then you’ll know exactly why Jade decided to stop you when we were about to be hit hard as hard as we were.”

“Can I not say it?” It felt like I was too weak to do anything at time, I didn’t want to acknowledge that. Jacky was poking at a particularly sore subject that we all knew about quite roughly.

“Fizzle, you’re on some strong medication right now because of how much pain you were in and Jade is likely more than aware of it even if no one told her.” You certainly didn’t tell her Jacky and I knew for certain that no one else did and she still figured it out, she really pays attention to everything about me. It was sometimes disturbing that someone cares so much, but then again mom was the same way. ”I don’t know about this unicorns not doing magic with head injuries thing, but it sounds serious. Bad enough that Jade didn’t want what happened to those other unicorns to happen to you, even at the cost of her mother getting injured. If it was a choice between you or her, she’d choose you. If it was a choice between you or Maries… she’d choose the both of you and would do anything to make that happen at a cost to herself. Jade is just that kind of person, even if she’s a jerk sometimes to play up her rogue status.”

“She could have still let me make that choice or could have at least asked me…” Then I mumbled out. “I don’t care what I would have lost.”

“Then tell me what you would have lost, because as your sister I want to understand what could have happened to you.” Jacky was definitely the nicest pirate parrot I’ve ever met, family was something I was coming to cherish. “Tell me Fizzle, what could have happened to you had you pushed it and Jade didn’t stop you?”

“It could have ended me for one. Unicorns with head injuries tend to make drastic mistakes when casting magic. Exceedingly dangerous mistakes that are not always fatal, but chances are it would be worse than that.” Okay, admitting that was rough and I could feel tears filling my eyes. I didn’t want to Jacky to play the broken horn card, but she could probably be a good actuary with her math skills and extrapolate from there. “… Jade made the right call, but it still should have been my choice.”

“I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to bring up your horn, just know that Jade made her choice and you wanted to make yours. It happened, it’s in the past now... and I think you need a hug.” Jacky pulled me close to her and held me for a while and Snickers didn’t make a sound as she pressed herself even more tightly against my chest. “It’ll be okay Fizzle. Our vacation was fun, scary and a bit debilitating, but we’ll all live. So… did you really help Jade with the water thing and the toilets? How did she even you talk you into that? You’re supposed to be a responsible pony Fizzle.”

I snorted out a weak giggle, because Jade wouldn’t stop bugging me until I agreed to help her with it. We did have some fun there didn’t we? At least it didn’t end like Klugetown did, I was willing to apologize to Jade when she was up and moving again.

I doubt being on the wrong side of a stupidly powerful thestral will keep Jade down for long. She didn’t win that fight, but she didn’t entirely lose it either. I leaned against my sisters comforting talons.

-Velvet-

I just watched them sitting together, I was an outsider among them all. These people were just plain incredible and survived so much. I idly checked my floof, I wanted to approach them and say something, but I didn’t even know what to say. I just stumbled into all this because of a cute and very endearing little winged turtle.

Fizzlepop’s girlfriend Jaded was quite injured and their mother, while not as bad, was also out. I had shown that I could hold my own despite looking so frail, but really I wasn’t about to gloat when the atmosphere was so… distracted. That was a safe word for it.

I felt something softly touching my back and I almost jumped out of my fur, looking to the hoof that was on my back I saw a small pair of smiling fangs from the mute thestral Blade Bright. It must be hard being incapable of saying anything without destroying your own ears.

Ms. Bright’s smile was of a warm and inviting infectious kind, she patted me on the back twice while glancing at the three huddled together. I counted Snickers among them, she was definitely not an unintelligent animal and I would soon learn why she came to me.

Fright Night Grotto and everything that had happened between then and now was just a byproduct of Snickers trying to lead me somewhere. To be quite clear, I was still invested in seeing what the little turtle wanted to show me now and I wanted to see where this was all going.

These people of Airship Mauled were… interesting, for lack of a better word. Eccentric might be better given the crazy things they had gotten up to, that thought was coming from the knowledge that this was supposed to be a vacation for them. So what were their normal lives like? I shudder to think that it was anything but quiet.

Curiosity couldn’t kill a reindeer, at least not one of my exquisite upbringing. I gave Ms. Bright a pat on a back and a reassuring smile back. I didn’t know what she was saying to me with her silent actions, but I could guess well enough.

Both I and Ms. Bright looked at something that that had been in the corners of our vision for a second, it wasn’t there now.

-Sekhet-

I just lounged around and made sure the exceedingly small town was running well enough. Fresh Start was holding down the fort, but she didn’t have the late evening cooking skills that Kuril was knowingly prized for.

Arizona kept anyone from causing too much trouble, while the Vibrant Vikings were keeping the area free of monsters.

Grace was always interesting to converse with as was Wary Berry… when were the La Perm’s going to come back?

Ratatoskr appeared before me, I sat up completely at attention as he delivered the news.

Author's Note:

Some down time and to unload feelings all around.

Also 'Happy Month of Monsters' everyone!

I will inevitably die choking on candy and come back as a fanfiction writing ghost.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Post combat desquirreling?

Well, it couldnt be debriefing.

No pants.

[WARGAMES]

*sees authors note*
Ghostly typewriter noises