Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter fifty one, Welcome to The Volcano: Cold.

-Near volcanic region, Velvet-

I slammed into the small mountain and burrowed straight through it back first from the sheer force imparted upon my body. Upon popping out on the other side and within seconds of seeing light, I regained enough of my senses to flip and land on my hooves.

Skidding to a stop, I prepared to go after my opponent. It seems I didn’t have to, my opponent was already coming to me by forcefully punching a hole through the small mountain.

The second hole was created next to the one I left behind, that’s when Arizona shot right at me rearing back her right hoof. I leapt forward while forming a blade of ice on my right hoof to meet hers.

“Meep.” We both froze in mid-air before we could meet and continue our fight. We both turned our heads to look at Paprika sitting on a blanket off to the side with her legs crossed and her eyes closed.

She silently sipped some fruit juice from a cup, then she opened her eyes and we could see the bright hearts in them simply asking us to take a break and eat some food.

Arizona and I finally let gravity have its way with us and we dropped to the ground. Tossing my blade of ice off to the side, I proceeded to stretch out my spine. Arizona also took a moment to pop a few muscles on her legs, before she made her way for the blanket to join our alpaca.

Looking back at the mountain, that I was forcibly smashed through and that Arizona quickly ripped through on her own rather impressive strength, we could see our two holes and three new holes above that in the shape of hearts. How Paprika made the three holes we’ll never know, all we knew was that she did it somehow within the same timeframe it took me to land and for Arizona to burst out after me.

“I guess it’s time for lunch, we can continue fighting each other afterwards Arizona... also I’ve worked up quite a sweat.” It made sense that things were going to get hot, we were heading towards a volcano or was it properly called ‘The Volcano’? Either way, we would soon bring the letter we got from Montana to the princess of the longma. “Is it me or have things gotten a bit hotter?”

“Oh how will I ever last through the amount of time I’m not fighting you fluff butt?” Arizona pretended to swoon and she was mocking our need to constantly beat on each other almost without pause.

“To think you call me a drama queen.” Really now, I was the one true ice queen of our herd. I heard a squeaking noise and looked down to see Tinsel tugging at me hoof and pointing towards the food.

“You are a drama queen Velvet!” Growled out Arizona as she took her spot on the blanket and started taking up most of the mustard potato salad.

I on the other hoof daintily took up the cucumber watercress sandwiches that Paprika so thoughtfully provided for us. After eating the sandwiches and wiping my mouth slightly, I patiently waited for my family to finish eating.

“You really should eat more Velvet, you’re going to need your energy for where we’re going.” Of course Arizona would just decide to suddenly start riding me on my dietary habits. It hasn’t exactly been a problem before and I’ve been doing just fine so far. “Also we exercise so much that you could eat twice the amount of food that I do and still look like your same beautiful self, so for the sake of all our minds you need to eat more!”

I was about to respond to that negatively, when Paprika suddenly popped up in front of me and glared into my eyes. Sure her eyes were still heart shaped, but the happy go lucky alpaca glaring at me like that was a bit scary. She pointedly placed more food before me while keeping her eyes locked on mine and pointed at it sternly.

Paprika prided herself on keeping us both fit and healthy, as such she apparently wholeheartedly agreed with Arizona’s assessment that I needed to eat a lot more food.

Even our tiny Tinsel was staring me down and daring me to push away the food that Paprika had so painstakingly prepared for me specifically.

When even my own ice sprite familiar was staring at me like that, it was time to drop any argument I might have tried to start and I was actually really hungry anyway.

I continued eating, I was going to burn most of the weight off in an effort to keep the heat from affecting me and I was a growing deer.

-Several hours later, The Volcano’s base, Arizona-

Thankfully Velvet wasn’t stubborn about having to eat more.

Climbing up the side of a volcano with our bare hooves wasn’t exactly easy, especially when we didn’t have the gear necessary for it.

Oh sure we could just have Paprika drag us all the way to the top using her ability to walk up walls, we could have just taken the trail and maybe we shouldn’t have skipped the elevator, but we were determined to climb The Volcano all the way up to the city built into the side of it.

Hoof over hoof, we climbed our way up while Paprika just cantered along behind us, bringing up the rear to catch us if we fall for any reason. Any time we came across the trail in our climb we ignored it and continued to cherish the exercise of doing things the hard way.

I was more worried about Velvet because the heat was sapping her strength and wearing on her pretty badly, even I was beginning to feel the burn. We weren’t that far from the city and we eventually reached the entrance to the multi-tiered metropolis.

There was a female longma and a male kirin at the gate that had been talking, they stopped to just blinked at me confusedly as I pulled myself up over the edge.

“You actually climbed all the way up to The Volcano? I must commend you for your stamina and strength.” After he said that, Velvet also pulled herself up over the edge breathing somewhat heavily.

“All this heat is really beginning to ruin my wondrous floof!” They both looked surprised to see Velvet climb up over the edge and she was soon followed by a smiling Paprika who just walked up with Tinsel hovering next to her head.

“It’s her… the one who could face our mightiest warriors without fear or hesitation!” The Kirin immediately pressed his back against the wall in fear, yeah Paprika has probably been here before and terrorized everyone like she did in Rein.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s the alpaca again. So, why is she here and why is her horrible second coming being brought about by you guys? A lot of longma and the few kirin that live here were hugged beyond all reason the last time she was here. She even fought Tianhuo, our greatest warrior and captain of the Huoshan Guard, as an equal for three days straight.” The longma was a little bit more relaxed, but I still noticed her warily glancing at the broadly grinning Paprika whose cheerful disposition wasn’t ruined by the heat. “Also if you’re interested in fighting, given that you obviously just performed a training regimen that involves climbing up to The Volcano, would you be interested in the Fiery Fights tournament?”

“I might look into this Fiery Fights thing, but we’re here on business and while we’re here we’ll try to keep Paprika contained.” As I finished my statement, the Kirin whimpered.

“That thing actually has a name?!” The kirin shivered and curled up into a protective ball.

“Yes, and that ‘thing’ is our wife.” I was pounced upon by Paprika and she snuggled against me, then she whipped out a tentacle of fur and dragged Velvet into the snuggling. Tinsel joined in snuggling us on his own volition.

“I feel so sorry for you.” The female longma stated calmly, then looked at Paprika more closely. “Heart shaped eyes… did she trick you into a marriage with her?”

“Yes, but we decided that we’d rather give it a fair shot and our marriage is working out splendidly thank you very much.” Velvet answered while nuzzling into Paprika. “She certainly knows how to help me stay cool.”

I couldn’t feel any heat from the hugging snuggle Paprika was giving us, she was probably absorbing most of the heat out of our general surroundings to keep us cool.

“So what business did you have… aside from telling us that the demonic hug vampire is once again on our doorstep?” The longma seemed a little less worried than a second ago. “I find myself not entirely surprised that she needs two wives to keep her… ‘enthusiasm’… at least somewhat contained.”

“Honestly, she isn’t that bad and we actually do love her even if she is a bit annoying.” Clearing my throat, I continued right on back into business. “Anyway we have a letter for the princess of the longma and we want to spend some time in town relaxing and maybe looking up clues about some of the things we’re looking for.”

I pulled out the letter and passed it to the longma, she looked at the script on it and passed it to the shivering Kirin.

“Take this to the princess immediately and return swiftly!” At the female longma’s orders being barked out, the kirin was up and off into the city in a flash after receiving the letter. Paprika whined audibly because she obviously had wanted to hug him, Velvet was otherwise keeping her occupied. Turning to me the longma gaze went to Paprika. “Provided that you can keep your wife under control, this Paprika you call her, you will be allowed into The Volcano which is also known as Huoshan. I welcome you guests to our humble home.”

With a bow she let us pass her, Paprika started to run ahead.

“Tinsel, be a dear a make sure that Paprika doesn’t terrorize the populace!” Velvet stopped to ask something. “What does Huoshan mean?”

“Simply ‘fire mountain’, that’s why our home is called ‘The Volcano’. Be sure to stay hydrated and keep your energy up deer.” She nodded to Velvet in acknowledgement. “As it is hard for us longma in the tundra territories, so too is it harsh for a reindeer in the volcanic territories. Many an unprepared reindeer has suffered heatstroke and worse around here. I will say you are quite tough to climb up here like you did.”

“Of course I’m tough, one of my wives is a brute and the other can hug the life out of you.” Velvet threw her nose up in the air. “I wouldn’t survive either of them otherwise, come along Arizona. There’s something I have been meaning to say to you off to the side while Tinsel keeps Paprika distracted.”

What did Velvet want? I was really quite curious, after entering the tiered city proper we moved off to the side. The city consisted of three tiers, we were at the bottom one. There was a middle tier, an upper tier and finally the palace was made up at the top of the city itself.

The longma liked their Chineigh asthetics when it came to their buildings. Their buildings had layers and looked like wider versions of pagodas all packed tightly together and the streets were full of various species wandering and talking to one another. Even saw a few parrots, but none of them looked incident prone.

Tinsel was in fact playing with Paprika to keep her from causing trouble, a lot of the longma that saw here were quite wary of their presence and there were whispers of fear running around. The other visitors and guests to The Volcano didn’t seem to know anything of Paprika’s notoriety.

“Okay what did you want to say to me death sneezer?” I called Velvet that because she once unleashed a sneeze that nearly skewered me with icicles made of snot and I never let her forget about it.

Velvet took a deep breath and sighed.

“It was brought up that Paprika is our wife.” Yes, and she was a very loving and beautiful one that cared about us Velvet. Now get to the point! My face matched my thoughts. “Have you ever thought it was little odd that Paprika likely doesn’t understand the meaning of consummating a marriage when it coincides with our current relationship? Did anyone even bother to tell her what consummating is? As frisky as she is, it’s unbelievable that she might not even know about the hummingbirds and the bees. There’s also the fact that she may want a lot of children like her mother and we might not exactly be able to give her children she may want. That and I really don’t know how to express the hummingbirds and the bees to our wife in a way that’s not embarrassing and full of euphemisms.”

“That’s…” I took a moment to gather my thoughts and held up a hoof, this was a complete yikes of a conversation topic for me as it came out of nowhere. I decided to put my hoof down and ask a question. “What brought this on?”

“That was a dodge and you know it Arid!” Well of course it was a dodge Velvet! This topic was a hard topic to think about and you just dropped it on my head like a mountain. “Have you ever considered having children yourself? I know I wanted at least one a year or two ago… admitting to myself that I’m gay kind of lowered the likelihood that I will ever have a child. Also the fact that I’m dating entirely outside my species also lowers it further, we’re not ponies with their many hybrid and offshoot species.”

“Never really considered having children, but I wouldn’t mind it happening eventually. I’m sure there’s some ancient artifact out there for that, if not a god or goddess.” Giving it some further thought, I decided to go a bit further. “We could always adopt, also isn’t Tinsel technically our son thanks to alpaca shenanigans?”

“Well I… don’t actually consider Tinsel my son, he’s kind of stuck in my mind as my beloved familiar which is as close to being my son as one can be given how we already treat each other.” Velvet released a sigh. “A familiar that loves us all unconditionally and is already family anyway. As for adopting… I would be relatively open to the idea if we can’t have children between us through magical means.”

“Maybe someday Velvet, someday...” I muttered as I leaned against her. “Until we’re both absolutely ready, and after that fancy ceremony that you so direly want that’s likely to cost us a few legs to give us something we already have, we will never mention the word consummate in front of Paprika or even hint at the idea of there being such a thing. We do not want to open that can of worms yet! When we eventually do open it, we will need to express to Paprika quite clearly that she is to not do those things with anyone other than with who she’s married to, meaning us.”

“I agree.” Velvet muttered back to me sweetly.

Author's Note:

The stars have aligned, this will get silly real fast.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

God of chaotic hybridisation?

He called Discord, Discord,
Faster than lightning,
Allpone can see,
How crazy is he.

[The Scarlett Mare]

Even our tiny Tinsel was staring me down and daring me to push away the food that Paprika had so painstakingly prepared for me specifically.

O-okay then

[Fresnor]

Silly? What someone going to start singing the Spam Song?