Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

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

-Ponyville, Skelly-

“So where are you wanting to go Skelly?” Fortitude asked kindly as we walked out of the place the makes wondrous foods at incredible speeds. How in the world do they stay stocked if they are that busy all day?

I would answer verbally if I could, but I lacked the vocal chords necessary to do so, there were so many interesting places in this town they call Ponyville. I could still point a direction to head in, but I instead shrugged and would just follow their lead.

“How is she to know of any place that is interesting brother?! We still got plenty of time until the party is ready and we need something to do until then!” Still wasn’t sure about this party thing Flamberge. A gathering would be nice, but I didn’t want to scare all the ponies when my skeletal visage eventually returns.

“Good point brother, but I am having an idea… since you chose for us to go to Hayburger, I choose that we go visit Ms. Cheerilee!” Tilting my head at Fortitude, I wondered who Cheerilee was. It was a pony obviously, this town didn’t seem to have any yaks or dragons. “She can give us an idea as to where we can get a book to help our friend learn how to read and write in current times.”

I glared at Fortitude, I knew how to write just fine thank you! Maybe others just need to learn to read and write our language!

“Sound plan… but where would we find yonder teacher of many things?!” Judging by what Flamberge says, this Cheerilee must be quite the learned elder.

“The school house in the distance, if she is not there then we can ask around for her home.” It sounds like something you can easily do Fortitude.

I moved in front of them and nodded at this course of action, then started making my way towards this school house place. I wondered what this Cheerilee was like.

A few ponies looked at us curiously. I had thought it would be me that they were looking at, but apparently I was the normal one around here compared to Flamberge and Fortitude. At least while I look like this I can walk around as normal and even feel it, maybe even enjoy the world a bit before I had to hide away when they could see what I really was.

Fortitude and Flamberge wouldn’t look at me with horror, I’m actually welcoming their companionship and knowledge of the world as it was now.

I could just destroy myself and save them the trouble of having me follow them around, but I was far too stubborn for that now.

“Skelly stop being so worried, we will not let anyone hurt you and you do not need to think such dark thoughts.” Okay that was rather perceptive of Fortitude, he is sharp where it counts and is only seemingly dull at times. “We are being friends no matter what, cheer up!”

I huffed silently and gave him a small smile, I just shook my head at his continued attempts to build his bridge of friendship between us. I am not supposed to be happy like this, any purpose I had was now gone and… that wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

I would continue living like this for however long I could make it last. At least the world isn’t like how it felt before, there was a steady warmth where previously there was nothing but the coldness.

We approached the building and saw a mare sweeping away some grime, she looked up at our approach.

“Oh… Fortitude, Flamberge, it’s been a while since I last saw you two!” This Cheerilee perked up upon seeing them. “You here for a visit to see your old teacher or did you want something?”

“Can’t it be both?” It seemed like Flamberge could lower his maximum volume levels occasionally. I’m thankful that my sense of hearing can’t be damaged.

“We are needing book on writing and reading language for our friend Ms. Cheerilee.” Fortitude held out a hoof toward me. “This is being Skeletal Noria, we call her Skelly and she is being ancient pony from long time ago that is living to this very day because of a dark magic problem. Said problem is reason she cannot talk.”

“How long ago?” Was this Cheerilee really taking that explanation at face value?

“Well her name was translated from ‘bare bones water wheel’ to what it is now, so how long ago in Soar Way did water wheels become a thing of prominence?” Did Flamberge or the others really expect that I wanted to actually hear how long this took?

“That would put it quite well before Hearths Warming, in fact the first water wheels started appearing in the given area of Soar Way a little over one thousand six hundred years ago. They were used to scoop buckets of water from the rivers while providing ways to mash wheat, corn or anything else you wanted pulped into a meal inside a mill.” Tapping her chin with a hoof, Cheerilee looked to be thinking on it. “Before water wheels were used to mash wheat, grains and the like, they were mashed by saddle querns. Did you ever use rocks to mash wheat for your bread?”

I shook my head no, I was born in a time when water wheels weren’t a new thing, just somewhat complicated. I looked at the ground, I have been gone long enough to be forgotten by anyone who might have had an inkling that I existed.

“With that tidbit of information you just shared, I can guess that bread making was a thing where you come from and the tribes were still at each other’s throats. A time before ponies eventually uprooted themselves from those given areas and came here as in the hearths warming story that is still told to this day, if you want to hear it I’ll tell you later, some of the ponies from it stayed behind.” We followed Cheerilee into the classroom and she pulled out a map to show us Soar Way and then Equestria, which is where we were right now. “They were too stubborn to be taken out by the wendigo’s or the harsh cold they brought. Surprisingly the ponies that stayed behind were somewhat better off than the ones who left, the wendigoes followed the majority of the ponies who made the journey to what is now Equestria. The larger portion of the three pony tribes that came here were the ones causing most of the problem with all the fighting and pointless anger. The ponies that stayed behind befriended everyone else that also stayed behind and were safe once the unnatural winter quickly cleared up.”

If Cheerilee is implying what I thought she was, then I might have kin in this day and age that came here. I had quite a few cousins… I never met my mother’s side of the family given they were winged ponies and that my parent’s love was highly forbidden back then. It probably wasn’t forbidden nowadays.

Father had introduced me to quite a few cousins and I could still have some ancestors in this day and age, but I wouldn’t be able to connect with them all too well even if I could even find them.

“While that is very informative Teach, can we get back to the recommendation of a book for our friend? She’ll need to know how to read eventually in this time period!” Remembering the past is important Flamberge! I don’t understand how a dragon can be so impatient, then again he’ll outlive his blood brother by miles so there is some reason for that impatience to exist if he wants to make the most of his time with his brother.

If I had ever befriended a dragon before this, I would have been able to meet them today as they wouldn’t have died of old age by now. Kind of sad that I didn’t know any back then, bet they would have been a lot bigger now. Would have been nice to see a familiar face.

“Oh right, sorry… I have just the book, here let me get it for you. A good education is important for everyone, even mares thousands of years old like Celestia!” Now that I look at her, Cheerilee is fairly young and yet she is able to teach? She must be as wise as an elder from my old home… maybe even wiser given how things might have changed between then and now.

“You believe us when we tell you she’s really old?” Now I glared at Flamberge and reached for my axe, he backed away from me tentatively. “Hey, no offense meant Skelly, but you are older than I am!”

“And still quite pretty too!” I like it that Fortitude can say that and actually mean it, I smiled honestly in his direction. “Even as dusty pile of bones.”

I might put my axe in his back later for that, call me dusty will he! I would like to see him try to stay clean while living in Draugr infested catacombs, with no sleep for thousands of years and a tireless job of making sure the dead stayed dead.

“I had Jade as a student, a student who wrote world ending equations trying to solve normal everyday math problems that most foals can do.” As they started a discussion on my so far ageless existence, I tuned them out and found some new memories coming to the forefront of my mind. “This mare being older than Celestia isn’t as hard to believe, there are many ways to live for a really long time.”

-???, Skelly-

I was fully grown mare now, I could strike it out on my own or find my own place here. I had little idea as to what I was going to do, but my parents were supportive of me and mom was intent on getting grandchildren to dote on at this point.

Helping ponies, protecting my village from wild monsters and working with very little to do a whole lot. I was living up to my talent, for when one finds their talent they are given a reminder by whatever gods makes said reminder appear on our flanks.

I was an adult and I was bartering for a better axe at the moment from a blacksmith. My small axe was becoming badly worn from stripping bark from trees, cuttings logs for fire and in general being use for numerous things.

The bartering did not go well, but I still looked for a place to build myself a home. Until then I wasn’t self-sufficient and was staying with my parents. I might as well try to find a sturdy and strong stallion too while I was at it, but I would have preferred someone more kind and gentle.

Most stallions around here were a bit too rough, my parents were egging me on to find a companion in life.

I never could, no one was a fit for me here.

Still I was a young mare trying to find my place. Aside from fighting off small monsters and making sure the mill keeps running with whatever was made available to me, my life wasn’t going poorly. I had food, shelter and I knew plenty of the people here, I might eventually find a companion outside our little spot in this wide world.

I would never find a companion there.

Maybe I could eventually go traveling the world? I might just do that someday, but until then I was right at home here.

That’s right, I wanted to broaden my horizons as a young mare. Why do I feel dread… I think I know what I’m going to see next and I’m not going to like it.

I climbed up to sit on the roof of the mill, I watched as the sun set in a valley. I had been contemplating the many paths opening up to me and all the things I could eventually do in the future. I had my whole life ahead of me.

Only… I never got to live it.

Things were going to get dark and there are some memories that I don’t want back, but I’ll still face them head on.

I can still remember them as painful, so much so that I mostly blocked them out to leave a lingering hint of mortal dread in my soul.

-Ponyville, sunset, Skelly-

“Is she alright?” Back in the here and now, I turned my head to Cheerilee to nod, but then she got spooked by something.

She took a few steps away from me and her ears wilted backwards in fright. The sun was setting and the moment the light of the sun ended and the moon began rising, my flesh started dissolving into nothingness to reveal what I was in the dark.

I finally nodded my skeletal head in her direction, hoping that she didn’t scream in horror or yell at me.

“Oh you poor thing… I can see what they meant by dark magic now!” Cheerilee came up to me and gently wrapped her hooves around me… wait… what just happened? It felt nice, but why wasn’t she afraid of me. “You are a friend of these two, I trust them to not call someone a friend so callously. So… she’s a living skeleton at night?”

“As about as far as we can tell from what we just witnessed, yes.” This was bluntly stated by a reclining a Flamberge, his feet kicked up on a desk and leaning the chair he sat in backwards. “That can only be the dark magic we told you about.”

“Do you suppose Pinkie Pie would still be willing to welcome her to Ponyville?” Well Fortitude, if the public was anything like Dispel Grace, then they’d want me destroyed body and soul from the moment they saw me.

“You’re kidding right? This is Pinkie ‘always a reason to party’ Pie we’re talking about here! Of course she’d welcome a living skeleton, she’s recently thrown a town wide party for a family of mice that Fluttershy introduced to Ponyville.” Cheerilee seemed confident I couldn’t scare an entire room of ponies with my current looks alone. At least my scarf still looked nice even on my skeletal frame from what I could see in a reflection nearby. “So we’ll just proclaim the more believable thing and state that Skelly is working on a very realistic and elaborate Nightmare Night costume. Flamberge what are you looking at?”

I turned to see Flamberge crouching down next to me and staring at the spot beyond my rib cage.

“When she became a skeleton, the food she ate recently didn’t just fall to the ground.” Oh is that all Flamberge? I didn’t like him getting so close like this. “So I’m just curious as to where it went exactly.”

I raised my right hoof and slapped him across the face. I don’t think I hurt him through his scales, but I did make him yelp loudly when my hoof collided with his nose.

“Mind your manners around the living impaired Flamberge!” Scolded Cheerilee.

“Yes Ms. Cheerilee.” Whimpered Flamberge as the teacher’s glare dug into him.

“Good, now I believe we have a party to get to?” Hopefully Cheerilee wouldn’t be able to read my mood or nervousness. “Don’t worry, I’ll go ahead to explain some pertinent things to Pinkie.”

Author's Note:

Living with six giant humidifiers running constantly and there being a possible sewer leak when any water is used is a huge problem.

I now hear the humming of machines and the blowing of wind all day even when I'm not near them... at least it makes for some good white noise to sleep to.

So I believe everyone else is not living in as stressful a situation anywhere similar to mine? I apologize for the lateness of this story otherwise, the talk of me 'possibly' needing minor surgery is still ongoing.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Flamberge is setting up for a right roasting at this rate.

[Shadowshame]

“Mind your manners around the living impaired Flamberge!” Scolded Cheerilee.

Shouldn't it be death impaired as she can't exactly die properly?