Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter forty-four, Lacking Overly Violent Enmity: Zeppelin.

-Two days later, The Ardent Survivor, Flotsam-

“Come on captain, so the last few times you were outside were horrible.” I have to admit an anaconda attack, those ‘mutant hedgehogs’ that miraculously appear every time you mention what they actually are and Belfry dragging her through a watering hole were all bad things. The mutant hedgehogs apparently came in highland and samurai variants and now the ‘P’ word was banned from ever being stated out loud or thought about on this ship. Still, Jacky shouldn’t be so shut in like this, it just wasn’t right. “Do you want to get to work on the ships modifications today; you like working with your talons don’t you?”

“Flotsam, I just need some rest. I’ll get to work on the ship a few hours from now, there are some things that need to be done. I really hate changing the engines oil and I want to relax before doing that.” At least Jacky was talking, so that’s a good sign that she wasn’t sulking… like I’m prone to do. I know I’m blue, in a literal sense, but I’m trying to be cheerier. “Do you want to come in?”

“Sure.” She opened the door and I slithered on into the room on my fish tail looking around. The room was a bit sparse, like how Jacky looked a bit ragged from the last few days. “I take it the whole thing with the watering hole yesterday has you very upset with Belfry or was it the anaconda and follow up with the… mutant hedgehogs… that has got you down?”

“Yes.” Well that was to the point Jacky, she just laid down in her hammock and threw her right arm over her face. “Some days it’s harder than others. Which is the worst part, because I’m absolutely the problem.”

I practically jumped at her suddenly speaking up in a manner that sounded like her deriding herself, I just sat there staring at her.

“What part, the part where your curse is constantly reminding you it’s there or is it all of life’s little problems piling up on you?” She lifted her arm from her face and gave me a rather genuine smile.

“Neither, it’s that I’m actually the captain of this screwball thing I call a crew and I could be inevitably leading us all to our deaths trying to hunt down cursed object no one could possibly want.” That really was a shock, the fact that Jacky could state it so easily had me gasping and trying to come to terms with what she meant. “Right or wrong, I’m now the captain when my sister was previously ‘my’ captain. She’s not around to steer me around anymore and I’m going on all these bizarre adventures without her, they would all feel rather hollow if not for all of you guys going on them with me...”

“You said that fire we saw in Saddle Arabia was something she does?” I was still concerned that the captain wasn’t feeling like the captain we knew and loved, but I wanted to steer the conversation away from that.

I wanted to help her, mostly by being the friend she needs like she has done for me already several times.

“Yep, that used to be the center of the growing town of Airship Mauled. The ever burning fire is connected to my sister because of something about being a Sun Priestess. We tended to not worry about the finer details and it made for a nice central landmark in the town.” Jacky sat up and looked to me a concerned frown on her beak. “Don’t honestly know what anyone will do when Jade ‘actually’ dies, maybe she can leave the fire behind or figure out how disconnect it from being tied to her life somehow. Right now, it’s just a misguiding beacon to travelers in the desert. It’s still tied to her at the moment and is the only reason why I know that I’m just not entirely waffling about trying to find a way to bring her back. I just don’t know what to do to help her yet.”

Okay, that was depressing. Knowing her sister was alive and not being able to do anything to help her.

That was kind of the reason why I was even saved from the slavers in the first place, said guys nearly drowned me in a water tank and I spent a long time holding onto the edge of it for dear life… then Jacky destroyed every ship in Port Turtle Toga except this one. If she never had reason to go on a journey, then she might have never helped me... so I was kind of glad for what happened to her sister…

I better not say that out loud to Jacky. Time to quickly change the subject and train of thought!

“So, what’s so bad about being captain?” Darn you brain, stop trying to do things like that! We wanted to steer away from the fact that she was upset about being captain.

Not that we had anyone better for the job. Gene could do it, but he’s notably happier following Jacky’s lead as were we all. I’m actually trying to turn things around here and be more positive. I could have gone my own way, I could have made a selfish wish, but no~... I just have to be a good friend and myself! Life sucked sometimes. I guess I rather it sucked with all my friends and family around, all while being true to myself, than anything else.

“You regretted asking that as soon as it left your muzzle didn’t you?” Jacky stated with a small grin on her beak, it was as if she knew what I was thinking… she’d be right. “If Gene wasn’t my first mate, then you’d definitely be good for the position for that alone. Asking tough questions and making even harder decisions is a part of what I have to do. That and crew safety is a must, I expect you to mutiny if I let being captain go to my head.”

Like that would happen. You were too nice to be a pirate Jacky, but given how you were raised you definitely had the skills to do all the required stuff.

“Sorry.” Looking to the wooden floor and the fins sticking out of my hooves. “And uh… thank you?”

“Don’t be sorry, I need the crew to come to me with their problems. I am the captain after all and I have to deal with everything and delegate the tasks that I can’t to everyone else who is capable.” Instead Jacky spent most of her time doing everything on the ship mostly by herself, with Gene attempting to preempt her at times to help ease the daily running of this ship off of her shoulders. “Speaking of, anything in particular you want done while I’m making modifications to The Ardent Survivor?”

Jacky took care of a lot of things herself and if that wasn’t tiring, then her curse attacking her at inopportune times was. I felt I had it easy being a cannoneer in training, Jacky was under constant stress to hold us all together and keep us safe. I was proud to call her my captain, because she hardly ever showed how stressful her job actually is.

“Not much, the galley could be a little bit better and we could use someone other than Savannah doing most of the cooking for us. Not that I have any complaints, but the food she cooks is really standard or simple.” I couldn’t complain that the meals weren’t nutritious, but I could complain about them being horribly bland. “Aside from that, I don’t really have any issues with the ship. You kind of do everything for us already Captain. Maybe you could give us more orders instead of letting us do whatever we feel like?”

“Noted, but I have to ask, would you trust Nefer with being alone around the ship's engine?” No Jacky, I wouldn’t, especially not after all the weird situations we keep leaving him in.

Even letting Nefer play around with the Animating Album’s tentacles was not something I was entirely comfortable with, not after the little accident with Jacky’s modified party cannon. Apparently party cannons weren’t mean to have a lethal setting like Jacky’s did. I eventually shook my head in the negative, I was rather protective of my little brother.

“Do you need some help with changing some things about the ship? You have Savannah and I just sitting around most of the time and I figure I could pull more of my weight…” I self-consciously rubbed at my belly, trying not to look Captain Blackcap in the eyes. I was kind of heavy in the fish tail. “It just feels like you’re not letting or telling us to do enough. I can understand Nefer, he has a good hobby and growing fruit is a good thing for us. There’s also Belfry being a relatively intelligent giant butterfly for a guard and the ships pet, but Savannah and I could stand to learn how to help ease some of those burdens off of you.”

“Ease my burdens? Yeah, that would be kind of helpful, Savannah is kind of treating this like a… ugh… pleasure cruise.” That was kind of to be expected Jacky, the fact that you said it made me start giggling. “Maybe teaching you about how to tie off the ropes for the balloon would make its setup go faster than with just Gene and me doing it. I’m the only one allowed to touch the engine though, I really do need to give it that tune up to make sure it isn’t deteriorating too much. We might eventually dead stop in the air and that wouldn’t be a good thing if some flying monster saw us as an easy meal.”

Yeah, nothing a good powder blast from a cannon won’t solve, learned enough about that from fending off komodo dragons in the jungle. It was a good thing they weren’t fire breathing dragons and really disliked powder smoke in the mouth and nose.

“I’m willing to learn how to help, if you’re willing to teach Captain Blackcap or would you prefer I just call you Jacky at this time?” I look her in the eyes, we sat there for a moment staring at one another.

“I’ll get some rest, then we’ll get into learning how to tie ropes off and what you can do to help me with the modifications I want to make to the ship later. First thing first though, I need to work on the engine and I could use your help with that.” She made a shooing gesture with her right talon. “Nice to know that you’re returning the favor.”

“What favor?” I tilted my head at her.

“Continuing to be my friend, despite all the trouble I happen to be.” Can’t deny that Captain, but all that trouble was exciting at the very least. Okay, why was she scrutinizing me like that? “Have you ever given thought to going back to your previous life? You know, to whatever home you had before joining up with Gene, Nefer and me. We could always stop there for a week to catch up on what you might have been missing.”

I hadn’t actually.

“Maybe… it feels like we’ve had this conversation before. I’ll just say it again, I really didn’t have anything going on back there. Being on this ship as a crew member is something I’d rather be doing.” I wasn’t taken by slavers in the most peaceful manner imaginable, a lot of damage being done to my home town was always part of this equation and I rather not know what happened to everyone afterwards. A lot of them weren’t my friends anyway and I tried not to think about it too hard. There’s only one person back home and… my memories of them were kind of drifting away a bit in my new life. “The only dream I’ve got going right now is the hope to eventually meet a special male someday and maybe get them pregnant, I just don’t think it’ll be a sea pony though. That would inevitably end horribly.”

I could at least let my father know I was alive, like Jacky’s sister did for her in a really spectacular way that saved all our lives from a giant scorpion. My father really did try to make up for a lot of bad things.

Didn’t I tell Jacky that my father might have been a pirate and could have been responsible for the blackcap curse? Well it was technically true when he fell in love with and married my wandering sea pony pirate mother, they might have had a few adventures on the sea together.

I never actually sat down and talked to dad about it... I could actually use some closure I guess.

“Oh right, that’s a thing with you isn’t it?” Jacky groaned out loud while covering her face. “I so did not need hear that Sammy.”

“Sorry, I’ll just… go.” I quickly backed out of the room and closed the door, my face was completely red and I had made things quite awkward.

Overall, I think that pep talk went well.

-Two hours and some mind soap later, Jacky-

“Mallet!” I held out my talons and Flotsam gave it to me, I started to hammer the engine. Almost there… then something came loose and I had to immediately shut my eyes as my face was slathered in oil. “Agh… Amulet of Savannah.”

Flotsam held it out for me and I got up out of the puddle oil, put the amulet on and the grime fell away from my feathers.

“Can you mop this up while I go get fresh oil to put in the engine?” She nodded and saluted, I sighed the engine needed to be worked over before I started making modifications to the ship. “Once we’re done with the engine, I’ll teach you what Gene didn't about tying ropes. Remind me to double check my work here; we’ll start on the modifications tomorrow.”

The modifications I wanted to make to this ship would be unusual, but I thought it could work. The Animating Album still gave me the shivers because of those tentacles, but it was key to making those modifications.

In any case my other project was still on the drawing board and I think I needed either more clockwork components or a stupidly powerful source of constant energy that wasn’t those crystals on The Garden. Something more along the lines of compact.

-Airship Mauled, Wary Berry-

“That’s about as good as a fruit can get… the horrible things.” My job as quality control worked out fairly well, but Kuril needed us to pull our own weight around here. Our mayor couldn’t help build this town on her own and in a slump like that. “So about those griffons that attacked, do you suppose we can get some guards around here? I mean with most of those youths away gallivanting around wanting to bring back our fruit loving miscreant, they are kind of leaving us utterly dry on the defensive side of things. The next 'Puk' attack is coming soon.”

“I don’t know what to tell you Wary, maybe we could ask Celestia for some trainee guards to throw at them?” Well that was a sound idea Mango, I just needed to talk to our fluffy postmaster.

Author's Note:

I have no idea.