Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter fifty, all around the world: Somewhere.

Author's Note:

This chapter might be a tiny bit upsetting, just a little fair warning at a hinted subject matter and a character going through depression.

The character involved does get a happy ending after a few years of soul crushing loneliness, so there is that.

Also don't add: 'Over the rainbow' after 'Somewhere' in the title of this particular page.

-Some months later,???, Fortitude-

Celestia was not exactly a great negotiator, but I attribute that to the stroke and aneurysm.

“I wonder if the minotaurs are doing okay without my leadership.” They seemed fine when we left.

“Fortitude, if they fall apart as soon as you leave then you really weren’t leadership material!” Flamberge has a point, a leader should be able to trust in his people.

Technically my people were yaks, Vikings, family, friends and any combination of the four. I was choosing to believe that the minotaurs will be okay on their own without their mighty king.

“I’d be more worried about how Blade is doing.” That was another fine point from my brother Flamberge. “Did finally she convince that third guy and is moving onto the fourth star thing she’s going for or has she gotten hung up somewhere like we did with Minos?”

We had been in Minos for a long time doing nothing except having fun and we just left that nice place behind. The reason for leaving Minos behind was that I kind of missed traveling, also I wanted to go back to being lost and we had abused the minotaurs hospitality too far. If we get back to Airship Mauled we may actually see minotaurs there.

Looking to Skelly, she looked upset and seemed to be whining with her eyes. She really liked being a well-respected general of Minos. Though the reactions to her being a skeleton were just shrugs and curious glances.

I am wondering what is wrong with people when living skeletons are actually considered cute like Skelly is, I expected more to be somewhat disturbed by her appearance and was greatly surprised. Instead, minotaurs started getting into rock music because of General Skelly’s usual appearance at night. They are being very loud with the several new Heavy Metal bands using Skelly as inspiration.

“I ask where we are. See the close trees around us? I smell burning wood!” Whatever Sweetcakes was smelling, we had better check it out once we landed Travel On the shore of the rather small river we appeared in.

It didn’t take much for me to drag the boat out of the water with Flamberge’s help, we were going to be traveling lightly in case it was a forest fire.

“Say, do you suppose Gene will appreciate the spear I acquired for him in Minos from some of their premiere blacksmiths?” Flamberge lifted the spear and began to inspect it, Minos was well known for their blacksmiths and now they are going to also be known for their arts and crafts.

The spear in question had a duel pronged bladed head and was made of some of the sturdiest materials that Minos had to offer. It was made specifically for a griffin to use whether for fishing or fighting. I’m sure Gene would like it and Flamberge should stop worrying about it.

Skelly rolled her eyes and took off the blue helmet with the yellow stripe down the middle and the two metal horns on it, she was going to leave it with the boat. She really liked her Minos general helmet, it is now being a good souvenir for her to remember the people of Minos by.

“We are going to seek out the fire, it is obviously of some concern in a densely forested area. Sweetcakes, lead us towards it!” I was not going to let some poor animals lose their homes, to that end Sweetcakes was a good choice to be in front.

Sweetcakes could absorb the fire or at least put it out, letting Flamberge try to put out a fire would only make the fire worse. In an emergency and provided that Skelly bones weren’t charred by the flames, she could begin rescue efforts.

We went into the forest following the smell of smoke, but there was surprisingly very little fire despite the strong presence of smoke.

We were cautious and yet the animals didn’t seem to be running or fleeing the general area, it was rather curious to see squirrels not fleeing the scent of smoke. Were they used to it or did they know what was causing it?

What we came upon was an unusual sight, it was like a longma that lit themselves on fire… only darker and less controlled.

Also unlike a longma, this thing actually had a horn like a unicorn that split into two prongs. The beings body looked to have been blackened with soot. The hooves of this being were covered in red flames. Its tail, lion mane and even the eyebrows were wreathed in wildly flowing blue, red and pink flames. The odd thing is that its back was covered in darkened grey scales. The burning creature’s eyes were glowing white.

Its sharp fangs were gritted and it was growling loudly while standing in a circle of stones bashing away at a boulder with its glowing white hot horn aggressively.

“Given its similarities to a longma, I think that might be a Kirin.” ‘Might’ being the keyword, I don’t think Kirin were supposed to be monstrous looking like this. “Something is very wrong with it.”

We didn’t approach any closer and the supposed Kirin didn’t seem to notice us. It eventually slapped its head roughly enough against the boulder that it actually split in half from the force of the blow, the Kirin then fell onto their side and surprisingly transformed.

The new form of the Kirin groaned out weakly and went still. I looked the freshly changed body over.

It seemed a little odd, but I was quite sure this Kirin was female. The scales on her back had turned green. The flames had turned into an orange mane and tail with some curls that wrapped its way around her head and neck. As for the black as soot covered body, it had switched to a nice shade of off white fur. The horn that had once been burning white hot was now a dark crimson color, it reminded me of a burnt out torch from what was once a blazing spring of heat.

We moved closer and saw some blood leaking from her forehead. We all turned to Sweetcakes who was moving forward cautiously with her glowing tails, prepared to heal the poor thing that just knocked herself unconscious.

“Go ahead and tend to her wounds Sweetcakes, we will try to talk to her when she wakes.” We should at least find out what was wrong with her, something made her look like a monster before she reverted back to looking more innocent due to injuring herself.

“We should be wary of that state we saw her in when we arrived… regrettably that means I and Sweetcakes will have to be close to her while you and Skelly sit a bit further away!” There was an obvious amount of reticence in Flamberge’s voice, with good reason given that Sweetcakes will use this as another opportunity to get closer to my brother. “The two of us will need to be in a position to restrain her if she becomes violent or starts hurting herself again upon waking up.”

-Some hours later, Kirin Campsite, Flamberge-

Sweetcakes had been nothing but affectionate towards me and that was highly annoying, I ignored her continued attempts to squeeze water out of a stone. A task that wasn’t impossible, but it nearly was.

The Kirin was coming to and we all tensed as she sat up groaning, she put a hoof to her head and then said something peculiar.

“My life needs a lot more cheese, enough for at least sweet mouthful if you please~.” She half mumbled out in a sing song manner. “Because there’s no other way to light up my life or the sky, these lands will silently burn as our emotions have well enough ran dry~.”

She was singing?

“My village is full of silence, because all of their voices they spurned~. Just what kind of life do we lead without being able to sing or speak, just because we caused so many things to get burned~? There’s no point in trying to talk, when will I ever learn~? My life would be at its best right now, if I were to put it right into an urn~. So why can’t I falter in the face of my depressive state~? Why were we all so full of… hate~.” The song was rather sorrowful from the way she was singing and there were tears in her eyes, I think we might have a serious situation on our claws, paws and hooves. I cleared my throat and her ears shot up. When her golden eyes finally noticed us, we all froze and stared at one another. “Er… can I talk? I mean of course I can talk, but can I talk in a manner that leads to a conversation… I mean I want to talk with you! Ugh, it’s been too long since I’m starting to lose it, I’m imagining having people to talk to. I must have concussion! Why did I have to wake up again? Wait if I have a concussion, why doesn’t it hurt more?”

I may not be a shrink, but even I could tell there were a lot of big red flags here. They were going on sale at a ninety percent discount, it was that obvious that this Kirin needed help like nothing else. Travel On definitely brought us here to save her, this was rather highly obvious by how low the Kirin looked to be right now.

“We are not figments, we are really here for you, quite literally.” Not only did Sweetcakes say it, but the three of us also nodded. “I heal the body, what I can’t heal is the mind, mentally not sound.”

Sweetcakes pointed a tail at the Kirin in emphasis on the mentally sound part. We needed to stabilize her, but we couldn’t stay here and support her forever. We needed to prop her up a bit and let her keep herself strong, she was not in a good place right now.

“We are hugging her now!” Fortitude moved forward slowly and brought the Kirin up into his chest gently and her face turned a little green.

“Okay, now I know you’re really here, there’s no way I can imagine a smell this horrid!” Now her eyes were filled with tears for a different reason. Either the happiness of seeing us or it was Fortitude’s short range highly controlled stench.

Fortitude let her go and then the rest of us moved upon her to hold her gently in a group hug, she started hugging back and sobbing. She really needed this, eventually she pushed us away and wiped her large teary eyes.

“Thank you, it’s been a few months since I’ve balked… walked… talked to anyone!” The Kirin looked to the circle of stones she was sitting in, there was a small smile on her face. “I guess you saw me bashing my skull against that boulder, I’m so frown in the clumps… I mean, I’m down at the dumps! It’s hard for me to smile about anything these days, I’ve gotten so bad that I’ve name my shadow. It’s called Silhouette Gloom of the Sundown Lands.”

“Yeah, that gives us a decent idea as to your mental state!” Causing a cringe with my loud exclamation, I shook my head. “Sorry, my name is Flamberge the fiercely flammable, that’s my brother Fortitude the fantastically fragrant…”

“I’ll say, he smells like the living dead left out in the sun for a few weeks.” The Kirin suddenly had Skelly in her face shaking her head ‘no’.

“Yeah, that’s not an entirely inaccurate description… but I’ve heard better and our friend Skelly the Superbly Spirited kind of takes offense to that statement! Mostly because she smells better than Fortitude does and another equally good reason!” I liked how Skelly always had a nice pine scented smell to her. “Also if she doesn’t respond to you, don’t take offense because she’s mute.”

“She didn’t drink the water around here did she?!” The Kirin seemed a little too panicked about the water around here.

“No, there’s a different reason as to why she’s mute. Why do you ask?” Not that Skelly really needed water, food or much of anything really. Our talkative new friend seemed to calm down greatly upon hearing that Skelly hadn’t consumed any water.

“There’s a stream around here called the ‘Stream of Silence’ and it has a rather nasty effect on those who bathe in or actively drink it. Basically it causes you to become mute and it suppresses your emotions greatly, I know for a fact that it’s not a good thing.” She seemed to know what she was talking about. “Plebs to make you a flank tense, I’m Autumn Blaze! I mean, pleased to make your aqua fence… ugh… it’s nice to meet all of you!”

“Nice to meet you too Autumn! To get the last of our introductions out the way, that’s Sweetcakes!” I pointed out the fox and she waved her tails to Autumn. “She speaks primarily in haikus, I’ve only heard her flub once and that was an emergency and by one syllable! She can actually speak normally, she just really likes her form of poetry! She fixed that wound on your head.”

“I would like to say thank you, but you kind of have an idea as to what I was doing if you were watching me bash my skull into the boulder.” We all gathered around Autumn and held her. “Okay, I get it, some random strangers from out of nowhere care! Also your friend Skelly does smell nice, but I don’t see how saying that someone smelling like the living dead left in the sun for a few weeks would make her…”

That’s when the sun finished setting and night fell, Autumn paused and stared at the blue scarf wearing skeleton pony who just gave her flat stare. After a moment Skelly rolled her glowing green orbs before looking to Fortitude.

“Our friend Skelly is very special.” Fortitude piped up as Autumn continued to stare blankly at Skelly.

“Yes… I can see that and it would certainly explain things quite clearly. I’m sorry for staring like this… but wow… I don’t even want to know what water you drank to end up like that! I heard rumors of the water in Mexicolt from a mail order delivery pegasi that drops by our mailing office every once in a while, let me tell you that we Kirin are really secluded out here, but darn if that wasn’t horrifying!” It seemed Autumn just made Skelly wave at her in a slightly angry manner. “Sorry, Skelly was it, I guess I’m being a bit insensitive to your… given situation. Not like I’ve had much to be sensitive to since I got my voice back, also what’s it like being dead?”

Skelly just quirked an eyehole at Autumn, at least until Autumn realized she had asked a mute skeleton a seriously awkward and insensitive question after making a weak apology. Autumn slapped a hoof over her face and began groaning loudly.

“What exactly do you mean by got your voice back? Did you drink the water and lose your voice?” We were soon regaled with the story of the Kirin.

Autumn Blaze was just lucky enough to come across a cure, some really rare flowers called ‘Foal’s Breathe’ that took years and some incredibly specific conditions to grow.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Youd almost think they wrote the episode after hearing the song.

[Herald of Opera]

“She speaks primarily in haikus, I’ve only heard her flub once and that was an emergency and by one syllable!”

That's certainly a valid alternative to actually fixing it. I mean, half of this fic is an elaborate attempt to explain some of the weirder bits of canon.

[Solana Vin Neighpal]

She speaks primarily in haikus, I’ve only heard her flub once

You haven't been listening too closely then. She flubs about a quarter of them (give or take) by a syllable. Though I can't recall if he was always around for them to hear...

[talontitanbane]

What we came upon was an unusual sight, it was like a longma that lit themselves on fire… only darker and less controlled.

Ohh it's a nirik.