Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Sixty Eight, Pharaoh Emerald, of cake: Vanilla.

-Several thousand years ago, collapsed city of the moon, Sand Shroud-

This once great city was decimated, it’s impenetrable walls ceased to exist and it felt horrible that the home of the jackals needed to be wrecked in such fashion. I wasn’t the only one that felt this way, saddened by the necessity of this turn of events.

Priestess Jade didn’t stick around to give further orders other than to aid my people trapped in the rubble.

Baast however was around and asked me to follow after her with several jackals, following her trail into the city we came across a jackal pup that looked both lost and confused as it sat alone.

I also noticed a nearby crumbled structure that had the pup and the priestesses smell on it, she had taken the time to stop and rescue this pup from imminent danger.

I tasked two of the jackals with me to take care of the pup while I continue on to back up the priestess that will help bring Anubis’s madness to an end.

I eventually came across a groaning jackal in an alleyway, their spear was missing its tip. After picking the jackal up, I told the two jackals with me to get them to safety. They were no longer possessed and I heard them being told by the two jackals to not fight the flail-tails as I moved onwards.

I eventually came upon Jade exiting an alleyway looking to her left and preparing for a fight, I was going to join her when I saw a spear coming for her back.

“Lookout!” I deflected it off my shield and felled the possessed with a swift blow to the head.

Soon, I turned and watched as Jade tripped three more coming at us with that oddly unwieldly weapon that she proclaimed was a weaponized toy meant for children. I had tried to do a simple down and up with that weapon and found it difficult, how she can wield it with such efficiency is beyond me.

I can see what concerned her enough to make her miss the one behind her if she didn’t see the jackal at her back and saw those three to her front. She had looked in that direction though, so the jackal only appeared after she was distracted.

Once they were downed, I knocked out the middle and right one with two swift blows and Jade kicked the last one in the head. Afterwards she checked them over, then nodded to herself and continued to move forward looking towards a building the distance. That is likely where King Anubis is, I feel ominous tidings upon us all with our approach.

“Do you ever wonder if there is a reason why Evil goes for such an obvious presentation?” Jade says this as I slowly followed her, I turned my head to see what she was staring at. The clouds above that structure were swirling in a vortex. I turned my gaze back to Jade. She had the right of it, if that wasn’t an obvious sign that evil was present, then I didn’t know what was. “It’s a little over the top don’t you think? I mean the evil inside your king is definitely overcompensating for something. Why is it always swirling clouds, darkly glowing magic and some kind of aura of dread in the air? It’s always darkness and gloom with these kind of beings.”

“What are our chances of actually liberating Anubis?” I didn’t have an answer for her questions, because I mostly had nothing but questions of my own. “You seem to know much and I would seek your council before we are to fight him.”

“We’re likely to lose this fight… quite badly at that. Not to sugar cane coat this mess, but he’s a death god. The only reason why he didn’t win the war immediately, is because his magic bone of the undead was stolen by Chaos and Baast before the war got kicked off.” That, was rather depressingly correct of priestess Jade, to think I was expecting something more upbeat from her. At least a hopeful word that we could maybe have a shot to defeat the possessing spirit, I obviously viewed her in too heroic a light as to be unstoppable. “Not going to lie to you, we go up to face him and try to stand our ground against whatever he throws at us. Well… we’re going to get slaughtered doing that. So my advice is this when facing Anubis personally, we should stay mobile, don’t get hit by any magic he does as it might kill us immediately and overall try not to die no matter what happens. I intend to stall him and survive as long as I can even if I can’t win. I have a bit of magic that can weaken him greatly, but I certainly can’t actually cure him of the thing possessing him personally or even beat him.”

“Even knowing you might die, you still choose to do this? You are brave beyond words. You shall not die alone, as I will follow you regardless of any predicted outcomes and will fight beside you!” I was willing and able, not infirmed or even vaguely injured. I was a warrior that would at least hope to see the recognition and normalcy in my King’s eyes once again, I’d fight to see my king returned to who he once was. “You said that you can’t cure him, but you implied that you know who can?”

“Sure it may seem like I never taught them anything, but the best lessons are the ones learned personally from just living life.” Watching as Jade tossed the so called toy down and then retrieve if with a simple tug of her left paw, she did this several more times as we approached the building where King Anubis currently was. Even doing such a thing with said toy was complicated for me when I tried, her toy was magically reinforced to be a valid weapon and otherwise was useable by anyone provided they knew how to utilize it correctly. “The world is a very strange place at times and nature teaches us lessons that we are bound to never forget if we’re smart, mostly because they are usually both cruel, harsh and can only be learned once or twice in a lifetime. Take a cat for instance, they can be very petty about things. Playing with a mouse backed into a corner is a bad idea, yet cats are more likely to do this anyway. The cornered mouse, knowing that it has no chance to survive the cat toying with it, will choose to fight to the death and might actually surprise the cat with its sudden ferocity enough to either escape or at least injure it badly so that the next mouse it faces may live. The cat is a fool if it plays with its food while it can still move and quickly learns exactly why it shouldn’t.”

“Are you talking about those flail-tails you call priestesses that you tasked with the many odd things? They don’t seem all that special and you certainly seem quite talented at what you can do. You know, given you brought an entire city…” Quickly cutting off my words while I thought about the wisdom she was sharing with me, it seems Jade was not done.

“I might have paid homage to the wrong comedy gods, comedy and tragedy are as mirrors to each other sometimes. What happened to this city was a tragic, but it’ll be a pretty funny miracle if no one actually died. Said gods don’t particularly like death and nothing beats sadness like a bit laughter, especially when doing it in the face your own mortality.” Well Jade certainly spoke of wisdom I could easily follow, I could see that laughing in the face of danger being foolhardy and yet oddly brave. “Laughter can lighten the mood of sometimes exceedingly dangerous situations and make them much easier and far less deadly than they should be. However, it is always best to never call a comedy gods attention when it isn’t wanted, warranted or needed. The easiest way to garner said attention is to say something is impossible or cannot go wrong. Nothing is ever completely foolproof, since you have yet to actually meet the fool.”

The Priestess was indeed quite brave from what I’ve seen, she certainly cares little for ceremony and pretty much said that unless the ceremony does something magical she could care less about it. The ceremony she performed to bring down the city only took seven days, a lot of marching and a curiously designed box that paid homage to the gods she was speaking of.

“I can see the merit in your words, like I can see the merit in having you for a friend.” I’m beginning to see Jade’s logic in this and I don’t like it. “So tell me, why then do I feel like we’re the mice cornering a cat?”

“Since that’s exactly what we’re doing. We need the figurative cat we’re cornering to play with us and not kill us outright. If we live long enough for the six priestesses to show up, then we can feasibly win this. We’re also relying on them to figure out that they are needed here without having to tell them, that could take a while and they need to find the power in themselves to take care of Anubis’s problem.” Jade stated calmly as we walked up the steps leading into the building, at the top of the stairs the hallway leading up to the current throne of King Anubis was in front of us and lit sconces showed us the path to walk. “Get ready, because this is going to be rough. Are you really willing to hurt Anubis, despite the fact that at best that would only slow him down?”

Between us and the mighty King Anubis were six elite jackals and four unicorns, this would not be an easy fight for just the two of us.

“Yes, if it will bring him to his senses.” I tightened my grip on the baton in my right hand and held my shield aloft, it’s weight felt relatively cumbersome to me now.

-Jade-

Sandy was without a doubt a good, if insane, friend. Glad she was on my side for this, as I needed someone that was clearly mental enough to help me against these odds.

Let’s see, six jackals and four unicorns, all of which will be simpler if the possessed Anubis decides to not aid them in fighting us. As long as the unicorns couldn’t trap me in a barrier or something, I think we could take them. The jackals were relatively easy, the possessed were never capable of fighting to their full capabilities.

Anubis himself… can I just point out something here? He’s big, has six pack abs, burly chested, head or so taller than I was and was really quite muscular. The six or seven foot black furred goliath could rip a flail-tail in half with his bare hands and he could likely do the same to me. He had a full crook held in his right hand unlike the handheld one I had on me and he was glowing with a sickly looking green mist that permeated his form.

His large blue royal nemes wasn’t that interesting aside from the Eye of Horus symbol on it denoting his royal status, but I noted the loincloth had symbols I’d expect of a god of death on it. Scales that spoke of the balance of life and death, good and evil, it was above the moon encircling yet another Eye of Horus.

In all, Anubis, death god and judger of souls, was extremely intimidating from the first second I saw him and I wanted to turn around and run back to hide behind Baast. No time for that sadly, he’s already seen us approaching him.

“You…” He narrowed his eyes at me. “So the strange priestess is more powerful than I previously thought. I expected Baast to come and face me, but if she’s too busy being a coward and only sending you to your doom… so be it! Bring me their heads and I’ll introduce their souls straight to Ammit, the scales have long since become useless to me.”

“You are an impostor that wears his body!” Sandy shouted as the six jackals charged forward with their spears leveled at us. “You are not Anubis, he who is supposed to be an impartial judge!”

“Then I shall judge how quickly you will die.” He said flatly leaning to his left and resting his chin on his clawed fist. “Win and I might entertain the possibility of you being a threat.”

I was already readying to throw my yoyo out as the spears came at us.

-Airship Mauled, Maries-

“I think we’re going to stop it right there and pick up again tomorrow.” Really Jade, especially when you were getting to something exciting? She looked in our direction. “I want to relax after everything I’ve been through, so this story might take a few more days yet.”

“A lot of trouble, danger was always present, yet here you are now.” That Sweetcakes was odd, but the fact that Jade was here pretty much stated that she survived.

“Yep, being here is something I consider very lucky.” Jade stood up and stretched out, her spine made a popping noise. “Yeah, I need to be more active and get in some exercise in today.”

“Let us join you Jade! If you get too tired we can carry you back.” Maria offered for us immediately, Jade nodded and we were off.

-Canterlot, Celestia-

I had been a bit busy for Twilight’s coronation, Luna’s crown and my own were going to be fused together symbolically to give her leadership of Equestria. Aside from the element of magic’s crown, the crowns were generally pointless and usually weighed heavy on the head as they had little magic in them themselves.

Maybe then I can get some rest, because I have felt something oddly familiar lately in the last few days and it’s been coming from that specific direction.

We still haven’t caught the leader of GODLESS. So I can’t tip my hoof too quickly if what I’m feeling was true… that Jade, the lovable rogue sun priestess, was back.

I felt the strong urge to find her for a hug, but I didn’t want to reveal that she was still alive if the leader was keeping tabs on both Luna and me somehow.

I could however send a message to Cadence to go there for me, then have her send a message to me if she finds an old friend there. Since I seriously doubted GODLESS would ever have a presence in the Crystal Empire, it was the best way I could discreetly get information.

A few tears come to my eyes, this was truly a strange age of miracles. I can finally step down after a thousand years of carrying the weight of Equestria on my back for so long, Luna was lucky that she doesn’t have to spend a thousand more years doing it... too...

In fact, Luna is only going to have had spent only a number of years back before retiring and I’m kind of jealous of that fact.

Luna did barely a percentage of what work I've done and she gets full retirement!

Author's Note:

Three new magical alchemy entries inserted, with a few amusing notes.

Next page will have Jade and Sand Shroud the jackal beginning to deal with the elite guard and then Anubis himself.

Yeah, I think Luna gets a somewhat unfair early retirement.

After Nightmare Moon she has about four to six years of activity, if she took one year to completely recover and catch up with society after being away for so long, then she goes into retirement with her sister. This is with all the benefits that retirement entails and she did barely a percentage of the work Celestia has done with running the entirety of Equestria.

It's like Luna was dumping her rulership onto Twilight, whereas Celestia actually has a valid reason to step down given she's been at it for such a long time.

Imagine if you will that Luna has never actually aged while sealed away and is now actively retiring at the age of thirty, her sister is retiring at one thousand plus.

Who was the sister that has had it easier now? I'd say Luna, she hardly had to deal with every regime's worst nightmare, the most horrid word in existence... 'politics'. Either that or 'Belgium', but that's more of a hitchhiker thing.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

Win and I might entertain the possibility of you being a threat.

Your standard smug asshole villain who's going to get his ass kicked.

[Booster Spice]

I believe Jade just got Anubis to call out on Murphy.

This promises to be Intresting Times.

Such contexual hints as obvious at a Trout to the Face, shows Jade called out to the Gods of Comedy, and they replied with The Full Monty Python.

Footfall.

Now, anyone got a spare bunny?

[Shadowshame]

A few tears come to my eyes, this was truly a strange age of miracles. I can finally step down after a thousand years of carrying the weight of Equestria on my back for so long, Luna was lucky that she doesn’t have to spend a thousand more years doing it... too...

Celestia saying this makes me think of another story I've been reading called twilight gets a puppy where the whole thing of Celestia and Luna dumping the whole of equestria into the hooves of twilight who I might add has had no training or experience in working a government, gets flipped over and refused by twilight who is more snarky in twilight gets a puppy, also I feel like you are setting Celestia up for a fall here somehow after all saying "I can finally get some rest" is another equivalent of saying "things can't possibly get any worse"