Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter forty-six, Wheel of life and death: Birth.

-Ponyville, Flamberge-

“Don’t you see anything else that… never mind!” I was about to ask the pegasus if he saw anything else odd besides the torches tied to my brother’s horns, said torches really needed to be snuffed out. “Can we get directions to the hospital and can you make sure that our boat isn’t touched?”

“Sure thing, hey Sunshower can you watch their boat for them!” Another pegasus pony came down at the stallions call and she had blue hair, a butter yellow coat and blue eyes.

“Of course, how long is this going to take?” The mare asked a bit impatiently.

“These guys look like they’ve been taking their live action role playing to some extremes, they’re going to go get some of their injuries checked out.” That’s what the blue stallion with purple hair thought. We haven’t actually been doing live action Ogre’s and Oubliettes, we lived it and dealt with a threat far older than we are in a surprisingly quick manner. “They seem like a bad bruised bunch, so it might take a while. Anyway Ponyville Medical is in that direction, you can’t miss it!”

“So for rest of the day, got it!” Sunshower said with a cheerful disposition as she started to relax on a cloud she had dragged down from the sky.

Looking to our pony companion, the skeleton in the boat with us that was now covered with flesh and fur for some reason. In fact, she looked exactly like how Fortitude described her before it was revealed that she was a skeleton.

The earth pony in the boat with us was currently looking around curiously at all the ponies and the nearby village with a sense of wonder. She hadn’t likely seen the light of day in a long time, it was as if she was seeing color again for the first time in an eternity. I don’t think that would be very far from the actual truth of the matter given her eyes had been glowing red until that unicorn’s soul was put away.

We all got out of the boat and started heading in the direction of the healers. The now living skeleton mare of course kept her axe with her and I kept my sword, but we left the remainder of our meager supplies behind. We soon found out that we weren’t heading to the hospital alone.

“Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Open Skies!” The stallion stated as he flew by and then off to the sky. “See you at Pinkie’s Party later tonight!”

“Pinkie is holding a party?!” We could use a nice break from out travels and I wouldn’t mind a gem loaded cupcake, it was nice to be somewhere safe after that dangerous run in with that Dispel Grace guy. I had a feeling we’d be seeing him again if he was serious about ending our friends… existence? She didn’t exactly seem full of life a while ago. “I wonder if we’re getting an invite!”

“Of course you’re getting an invite Flamberge, the obnoxiously loud, not inviting you while you were around would be silly of me!” Pinkie Pie just popped out of some bushes walking right next to us as if she had been with our group the entire time, this spooked our silent pony friend and she held her axe defensively against Pinkie. “My Pinkie Sense did say I was going to meet someone spine tingling and spooky… I’m a bit disappointed that it’s just some pony with an axe. I mean sure the axe is scary and all, but the second I think the word lumberjack my sister’s pet rock suddenly comes to mind. He’s definitely not scary at all.”

“Are you going to be following us to the hospital friend Pinkie?” Fortitude didn’t mind and neither did I, Pinkie was a cool pony.

“Yep… are you not going to say it this time?” What was the disappointed pink pony… oh… yeah… that. “I wanted to hear you say it since you always do it all the time Fortitude!”

“I am Fortitude, the fantastically fragrant!” Fortitude stated proudly, puffing up his chest and pointing his right hoof to the sky as he did so.

“Yeah, that’s what I was waiting for! Can’t get away without hearing that once a chapter during an arc where Viking’s are prominent… well except during the pirate arc because there was no yak in it… or pirate’s for that matter other than a one off mention or two.” We all looked to Pinkie curiously as we approached the hospital. “Quick change of subject, who’s your friend and my target?”

I looked to Fortitude and he looked right back at me, we didn’t exactly have her name yet. The both of us shrugged at Pinkie.

“We are not knowing yet, but we are certainly being friends.” That would be the only answer Fortitude could give, I nodded along with that because I agreed with my brother’s statement.

“Darn… well I’ll just have to keep you company until I find out. Though I’m just going to say it right now, I’m not heavily plot important right now, so don’t expect a shining example of Pinkie Pie saves the day anytime soon.” What was Pinkie going on about and what did she mean by plot important? “I just want to be there when we somehow figure out what her name is… just so I can know what to put on the banner for her party to welcome her to Ponyville for her first visit!”

The white furred, silver haired pony looked a little worried about what Pinkie was talking about.

“Don’t worry, it is a great gathering for merriment and you’ll be welcomed as a guest of honor!” Even when Fortitude tried to soothe her nerves, our companion still looked a little nervous.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be Pinkie?!” As far as I was concerned, we didn’t have day jobs. Pinkie, on the other hoof, worked for a living. I could go back to working at the hayburger and I’m sure they’d welcome me there openly for my burger blasting talents.

“Nope, the Cakes closed up shop today to make a huge delivery and they don’t want me running Sugar Cube Corner by myself just yet.” Pinkie Pie wasn’t always the most responsible of ponies, so that was likely a decision made with good reasoning skills. “Not after the crumbling cookie incident at least…”

Eventually our unnamed companion looked off into the distance and didn’t seem to be there at all anymore as we came up to the hospital.

-???-

I opened my eyes and saw a smiling feminine visage, white hair tickled my nose and I sneezed. The eyes were inviting and the words spoken were honey sweet, but could not be understood. I reached out with tiny limbs to this being and I felt warmth, something rubbed me gently in the tummy and I felt happiness.

Giggling I waggled my little limbs at the large being that nuzzled my swaddled form, they were holding me close and my hooves grasped onto their face. I nuzzled them back

I was eventually sat down and I saw another large colorful being enter my sight, across their shoulders was a shiny object that caught my attention and I waggled my limbs in that direction. The object moved out of sight, but this being patted me on the head. The deep rumble of their voice was soft to my ears.

Were these the memories of me shortly after I was born? One would think after all this time I’ve lived in the darkness that I would have forgotten such a scene, they were my parents long ago and long since passed on.

I started to put one of my hooves in my mouth and started to suck on it… then something interrupted my daydreaming of my foal days I had long since thought forgotten.

-Fortitude-

I am watching as they hooked our mentally wayward pony friend up to heart monitor… it immediately went flat and made a long screeching noise. That is not sounding good, yet friend still seemed to be breathing and started coming out of her own little world. Maybe her current appearance is not as lively as it appears?

Our friend finally blinked out of her stupor and looked at the device and the noise it was making, then turned to the surprised looking doctor ponies with a curious gaze. She sent me a look as if asking what she should do, I made a gesture about staying calm and she nodded.

“Pinkie, I have to ask because I know you all too well, did you mess with anything in the hospital at all today?” Nurse Red Heart is being very strict with Pinkie Pie, but it is a healer’s prerogative to be stern and bossy. Also Pinkie might have done some things to upset Red Heart previously, a noisy pony like Pinkie would be a problem in quiet environment for those who need rest. “It’s not like we haven’t had enough problems with the Apples causing a scare here a year or two ago, it was about ‘apple blight’ of all things if you’d believe it. It only affects trees, but that information Granny Smith gave out somehow ended up in our medical manuals and it annoys me to no end that stuff like that keeps happening around here!”

“Of course not Red, I would never do something that could potentially hurt some pony or make things even worse intentionally!” While Pinkie was busy discussing things with the nurse I turned to the doctor next to me.

It seems the doctor had been trying to get my attention for a while now.

“You’re of decent health, but you need some antibiotics. The wound is infected, but it’s not too bad and we can take care of that this instant.” The doctor then jotted down some things. “The number of scratches need to be treated as well and your bruising should go down after a while, otherwise your fur protected you from most of the injuries you’ve recently received. I’d ask what you were doing to end up with a sharp wound in your side, but I probably don’t want to know and would recommend that you don’t play with rusty metal anymore.”

I am knowing to always listen to a healer when they start advising on one’s personal health. You don’t necessarily need to follow said advice, but you just need to hear it in full and make decisions based on what is heard. To hear that I would be fine made me relax.

“Your brother will be receiving similar antibiotics, but we’re not exactly up to standards on dragon biology as we are on yak biology.” I heard the heart monitor screech again and looked over to see our pony friend staring at it and the several doctors that were there were completely flummoxed by the fact that it didn’t read a heartbeat coming from her. “We’re not going to be able to do much for him, but I’m sure he’ll live. Dragons are fairly tough from what I’ve heard, but the more concerning thing is about your friend over there… she looks fine, but the heart monitor is not detecting any heart beats. Do you have any ideas why that is? We’re sure it’s not a mechanical failure.”

I am getting a stronger feeling that pony friend is still living impaired, but her current appearance is hiding that.

“She has very rare condition that causes such oddities, it is not harmful or contagious.” I am needing to think of a way to not have friend become stuck in hospital endlessly for testing, I also did not want to state that she is living beyond death. “Why not scan her magic, ponies can be doing that right?”

“Oh of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Equestria health care is supposed to be best around, I am more worried about the ponies giving the care than the care itself. “Excuse me gentlemen, we need to give this patient a magical scan to see if she’s doing alright. Apparently our equipment isn’t faulty and it’s just her magical field causing interference.”

-One hour later, Flamberge-

“Then I’ll be fine then, I’ll just have to let it scar. My scales will just grow back over it and everything will be fine.” I wasn’t about to talk about what gave me that wound in the first place, I was trying to forget that we fought our way through a bunch of legendary monsters from old stories. “So what’s going on with her?”

I pointed to our pony friend who looked normal, but that she didn’t register as having a heartbeat was disturbing. It had connotations of the fact that she was still the same skeletal pony underneath her current youthful appearance.

There was a unicorn next to her and he was scanning her with his horn.

“Everything seems to be in order and I found a pulse.” I’m more surprised that the doctor found it than continuing to flounder with the skeleton’s odd biology. “It’s a little odd, but she’s a completely healthy mare and I can’t find nothing wrong with her other than making the heart monitor malfunction. There’s just a small problem with her name… I can’t read this.”

Getting up and moving over to what was written down, I looked over the doctor’s shoulder to see he was looking at ancient Viking scripture.

“It says, bare bones water wheel.” As far as names go, that was a pretty strange one for our friend.

“Is that what it says?” The doctor looked to me raising his brow. “You can actually read this gobbledygook?”

“It’s written in an ancient Viking language, we’re kind of fluent in it.” One that was still used today, but it was almost dead and I didn’t have the heart to tell the doctor that the mare before us was a bit off in terms of knowing things in this day and age. “Our friend at least understands Equestrian, she just can’t read it.”

“Well okay then, but can you compress her name down to something more fitting please? Calling her Bare Bones Water Wheel is a mouthful.” The doctor had that right. “I think everyone one would prefer something easier to say.”

“She is being Skeletal Noria!” That was a little too on the nose Fortitude, but it would make absolute sense if we saw her as a skeleton again.

Her cutie mark, now that I can look at it since she wasn’t currently a skeleton, was of a water wheel with a simple design that suspiciously resembles an Aegishjalmr. The symbol of a protector, a guardian if you will, that was always at the front of an ensuing battlefield that could inspire both awe and terror in equal parts.

Right now she inspired awe with her beauty, but I knew what a terror she could be in a fight.

“Right then, she will be Skeletal Noria… is that okay with you?” The doctor turned to Skeletal Noria and she simply nodded and smiled a bit. “We can’t do anything about you being mute, I’m sorry.”

“Bring Skelly by Sugar Cube Corner this evening for the party, I’ll get ready for it!” Friend Pinkie zipped out of the room with an excited and eager grin on her face upon learning Skelly’s name. I hope that is not causing any issues later. “Oh and give her a tour of Ponyville!”

Author's Note:

Skellinore is a cardboard cutout brought to life by Discord.

Skeletal Noria has been alive for thousands of years, fighting an endless battle that just came to an abrupt stop.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Welcome Noria.

[Alchemik]

9661229
Don't you mean Skelly?

[The Scarlett Mare]

“Darn… well I’ll just have to keep you company until I find out. Though I’m just going to say it right now, I’m not heavily plot important right now, so don’t expect a shining example of Pinkie Pie saves the day anytime soon.” What was Pinkie going on about and what did she mean by plot important? “I just want to be there when we somehow figure out what her name is… just so I can know what to put on the banner for her party to welcome her to Ponyville for her first visit!”

Noted Pinkie, I can continue reading now