Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter fifty four, Furious Fights: Hop-kido.

Author's Note:

Title brought you by Hapkido.

Chapter fifty four, Furious Fights: Hop-kido.

-Airship Mauled, The Witch’s Fare, Fresh-

This was just another day in the life of Fresh Start, because today… the town actually got some entertainment that was going to stick around.

Not that we didn’t like the weirdly plucky mariachi Changelings that visited every now and then. With the stigma that the rest of their race was known for sucking the love out of things, this was one of the few places that their band could visit freely without repercussions. As long as they were the colorful version of their race, or Kevin, Changelings were okay.

Kevin was a really cool guy even when he came by while starving for love. Even when Kevin refused to become a colorful, as we’ve been calling them, to fill that void in his body. At least he was entirely honest about his intentions and didn’t disguise himself no matter where he went. He even warned us that changelings that looked more like him were less safe to be around numerous times.

I wouldn’t know about those other changelings, as I’ve never seen any and we had a doctor that new what Changelings in general smelled like. We were one hundred percent certified infiltrator free, Changelings couldn’t infiltrate effectively with diamond dogs around and we had a few on the local construction crew that were interested in Dr. Bones. They’d never be out of a job as long as we kept getting attacked by pukwudgies, also they were good for making Changelings highly wary of trying infiltration apparently.

Kevin preferred to live in strife with the rest of his entire hive, at least until they could change their ways to be more like our favorite mariachi band that he was friends with. He considered himself an odd double agent for us and would warn us if we had an incoming problem. Otherwise he rarely came around more than once a month and only for a few hours.

Thinking of, I still hadn’t see much of Kevin recently and he said his queen was working on something disastrous for his people. He said he’d drop on by for a visit in the aftermath as it’ll probably be a large waste of their resources, I told him he’d still be welcome provided that he didn’t hurt anyone personally and he readily agreed to at least avoid assaulting someone.

The entertainment that moved in wasn’t as strange as the mariachi Changelings, it was three thestrals that were moving in and wanted to settle down to build a family. They had a thing for musical beats when they weren’t telling me about the kinds of day jobs they had previously before coming here.

“For I’m Macaroni, yeah~!” Apparently Macaroni’s herd met Kuril a while ago and they liked the idea of getting away from the cultist built city that housed a large section of the bat pony population in Equestria after Luna was sealed away.

It was a surprise to meet Luna for the week that Celestia dropped her here while she prepped some things in Canterlot. Luna was old fashioned and growing back into her stature and power from being reduced to a filly, she was also very out of touch with everything as it was nowadays and it showed while she was here.

Back to the three thestrals, apparently they were here because something about a Hollow Heart finally being done for and pushed into the darkest recesses that the world had. That left Macaroni and her family a lot of free time from being part of a rebellion. I didn’t follow their story too closely, they were just as weird as whoever Flamberge and Fortitude ran into next that came here to drop in for a visit or even decided to stay.

I was getting quite used to making food for a variety of beings.

Macaroni was quite peppy for and brightly colored for a thestral, she could even make some really delicious macaroni and other noodle based dishes. I might dare say her macaroni is better than what Kuril can make, but our mayor hasn’t exactly been at her best for a while. The chunks of onion really do add some kick to the macaroni that Macaroni cooked.

Drip, aside from doing entertaining Capella with Macaroni, was a much needed stallion who could do plumbing. My goddesses did we ever need him and I begged him to fix the various problems we had! He said he’d get on it later in the evening. I had to remind myself that he was nocturnal.

Lingo, who also did Capella with Macaroni, I directed him to the school as we needed a language teacher that could teach reading and writing. Our school hasn’t exactly been up to snuff, but at least Mr. Permanganate was doing his best and his science class was definitely better than the other things he tried to teach.

Nobody was ever bored of Mr. Permanganate when he taught science, I liked the goofy stallion and I wondered if Wary was interested in Mr. Refreshment. It probably wouldn’t work out because Wary hated fruit with a passion, but she still seemed to like him well enough aside from his passion for fruit drinks.

I was too busy to lead a life of my own while propping up Kuril, her business, the familiars and just about everything else. How did Kuril do all this for so long? Was it the love of her kitten? Why did Kuril spend so much time in her room these days?

I’m too much of a good friend to stop helping Kuril now, that and I still liked cleaning things. It helps that I like to get up early in the morning, especially to help someone with constant need of my services.

-The next day, The Volcano, Upper Tier, Coliseum, medical area, Sweetcakes-

I was so tired! Jacky was the least injured and she was used to it and would be unconscious for a little while longer, so I spent most of my energy on helping Gene and Savannah. Mostly Savannah, since a strange purple longma in exquisite robes wouldn’t stop glaring at me until I did so. Apparently she was fond of the Savannah and I didn’t get her name, but she seemed important around here given she had some guards following her around.

I wasn’t made of infinite power, but I was trying to do my best to act like I was. I don’t think I had much energy left in me, but I’m sure Nefer and Flotsam would be relieved as half their family was out of commission. Like me, they met a bunch of weirdoes and got drawn into the life of these so called Airship Maulers.

I actually wanted to see this Airship Mauled and the witch that cooked food that most would travel from miles around just to taste even the simplest of her dishes. I wonder how the food compare to my homes cooking, but for now I’m a healer helping injured fighters. We were going to need them some time after the competition, for something big was going to go down soon and all I knew was that Teatime was involved, so we needed all the help we could get for whatever was coming.

The threat to the city wasn’t a known quantity, but all the Huoshan Guards were being quite twitchy about it and were more active and aware of their surroundings. According to Flamberge, the Canterlot Guard couldn’t match this kind of alertness. Fortitude didn’t say anything against that, so it must be true.

-Coliseum stands, Velvet-

“Don’t look so mortified Pom, I think you did very well out there!” For some reason my praise was met with a shaky cringe, I was not trying to come off as cold and was certainly being friendly.

Why didn’t Pom cringe when Oleander talked with her? Maybe I sounded a little too stuck up? No, that couldn’t be the issue, at least Arizona never complains about my tone of voice. Maybe I should ask Paprika about it… she’s more likely to get a better read then even if I do appreciate Arizona’s simpler demeanor and outlook about things.

“Thank you, for your help…” Pom actually spoke up. She was about to say more, but she was literally dogpiled by all her familiars. Including the Cerberus, how many times has this happened to Pom? Did she not realize her own strength? Hooves strong enough to dent metal that looked like gold, a pack of wild ruffians that will protect her to their last as a small army and yet she still cowers? Honestly…

I’m kind of surprised Arizona and Paprika slept through it all, starting from Pom’s rather unique fight to her dogs being a noisy affectionate mess all over the poor lambkin trying to shove them off of herself.

There were no longer any longma in the competition, yet the longma still watched it with great interest. There was just me, Pom, The Wall and Arizona. At this rate Arizona and I were destined to battle, The Wall wasn’t competition and Pom… eh I’m sure she’ll be okay because Arizona or I will know how hard to actually hit her if we face her.

Arizona didn’t seem too happy about beating Shocking within an inch of his life, she was likely thinking about the shadow horde or her mother again. Paprika has long since been informed of everything going on, but we never actually got an opinion from her and she hasn’t changed her loving actions towards us in the slightest.

As a working herd I think we melded together very well, despite not having jobs or a constant source of income. I could survive without the fineries of life… to a certain extent. We kind of needed Paprika to keep the balance between Arizona and me, becoming a happy family was hard work and we were doing alright in that respect as long as we got some good fights out of one another.

“Velvet ‘Frost Dancer’ Paca La Perm.” I sat up and looked into the arena to see my opponent already being put into place. “Her opponent, The ‘tons of bricks’ Wall.”

Oh great I was fighting a wall, there was no way I would lose to it. Of the three matches today one of them is going to be with Arizona. After what happened to Shocking, Pom didn’t look like she wanted to fight Arizona even if she could put up a good showing.

“Um… good luck…” Pom you were sweet, but I wasn’t going to need luck on this one and I really don’t want Jacky’s luck for anything.

“Why thank you Pom!” I said cheerfully as I set off for the stairs. "Though with my Hop-kick-doe fighting style, I won't need it."

-Coliseum, near medical area, Skelly-

“I am sorry, I am still being incapable of helping you. I assure you that I am looking into it and have several beings working on it alongside me.” At Eir’s words I smiled, shouldn’t I be frowning? I felt relief for some reason.

I looked to Ragna and he rolled back and forth noisily. Hearing the prophecies about the destruction that would befall Yakhalla sounded mystical and then actually seeing what would cause said destruction was a bit of underwhelming to actually see in person.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t going to be there when it eventually happened, I’d rather stay in the land of the living then go through Yakhalla’s reformation where the souls would be cycled back into Equestria through a highly volatile manner by means of that boulder.

I wished I could laugh, I really did. At best I could clack my jaw loudly in a jovial manner.

“Yes, what is it Ragna?” Eir turned to the boulder that hopped twice and then rolled a small circle. “Your hive mind cousins are in the arena and you are wanting to watch the fight? Hmm… okay, but we must be getting back to great husband soon, I am quite done with the picking up of all the lost souls here.”

-Minutes later, Velvet vs. The Wall-

“Quick question before we start, did anyone repair the wall between now and its first fight?” What Velvet is drawing attention to, was that the wall lacked cracks in it back from when Savannah fought it.

“No… and we’ve had it under heavy guard the entire time. That is kind of unusual.” The referee looked at both sides of the wall. “Ah well, fight!”

Velvet leapt towards the wall and hit it with a sideways flying buck. After launching off the wall from that, she kicked off the air to ram into it. Bouncing off the wall after she rammed it, she spun in air and kicked off it into buck that made the wall wobble almost falling entirely over away from her. Each hit cracked the wall pretty badly.

Velvet landed and as the wall seem to move well over forty degrees into leaning in the opposite direction, there was no possible way it could feasibly fall on her. Yet Velvet narrowed her eyes and then leapt back as the wall tried to slam down on top of her.

“I knew it, like I was going to fall for that! Does that mean I win?” Velvet asked the referee, he was about to talk when everyone’s attentions was drawn back to the wall after hearing an odd noise. It was sitting in an upright position as if it had never fallen over, in the exact same spot and the spooky thing was that nobody had seen it move. It was like the wall had reset its position entirely within the blink of everyone’s collective eyes. “Nope, not going to happen, I’m going to nip this one in the bud right here and now. I am not losing to a wall whose only aptitude for combat is simply falling on people!”

Velvet raised her front hooves and swept them forward, a huge pillar of ice erupted from the ground and launched The Wall off into the distance.

“I win, end the fight!” Velvet shouted at the referee who cowered and nodded at the crazy reindeer. “Thank you for agreeing with me.”

“Winner…” The referee paused and looked about in case the wall suddenly came right back into the arena all of the sudden. “Velvet!”

Quite a few longma were cheering for the reindeer finally dealing with the most ridiculous fighter in the arena. After swinging a hoof and causing the large angled pillar of ice to collapse into a pile of quickly melting snow, Velvet calmly walked back up the stairs.

-Arizona-

“Wasn’t that a little bit overkill, even if that wall did try get a cheap shot in?” Velvet was definitely angry, I was a little jealous of The Wall and I felt a bit silly about that. How can I be jealous of a pile of bricks and mortar?

“We are going to fight each other, but first… Pom, Arizona will try to go easy on you, but she doesn’t have a habit of pulling her blows.” At Velvet’s words, the lambkin gulped took a few steps away from me and cowered.

“Are you going to fight now or in ten minutes?” The referee said coming up to us.

“Now is as good a time as any.” I stretched out and gave a slowly waking Paprika a hug and then hugged Velvet.

Time to teach a lambkin how to dance.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

Arizona is far from the first person to use that metaphor for combat; it honestly sounds more Velvety given those obvious ballerina/skating moves...

[Booster Spice]

I wonder if Teatime knows he is about the be Chang highd by a Nori Wall in a Velvet shove?

Lambkin are related to Parika in at least some types, classes of Fluffmancer abilities?

I take it the disaster of prophesy is going to be the all out no holds barred Mortal Kombat between Velvet and Arizona?

[Shadowshame]

9867264
I think it's less fluff control and more absorbing magic and redirecting it which isn't going to be much use against a cow that doesn't use magic

[The Scarlett Mare]

I think Arizona might finally give Pom some confidence