Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Nine, Exercises In Utility: Jacky Blackcap Chickadee.

-Jacky B. Chickadee-

My luck must be in full force this morning.

First I fell out of bed onto my beak and that always stings. That’s where my days always tend to start unless I somehow get out of bed the correct way.

Next I only got three sixes from the judges for the stumble down the stairs, only because I didn’t make musical noises while doing it.

Don’t they realize how hard it is to top the musical noises I did while falling down the stairs that one time that started an entire musical number? I believe ponies call them heart songs. Also since when was Cheerilee interested in judging my unlucky pratfalls anyway?

Following that I tried to make banana oatmeal for breakfast… and promptly set my tail on fire. I just wanted to take a little work off of Chief Cook Kuril, she just does so much for everyone around here and I wanted to do something nice.

Something nice like take care of my own needs so she wouldn’t be bothered with having to for a day so she could have more time for herself. Thankfully my Captain helped save my tail feathers and they weren’t too scorched. I just had to wipe the blackened bits of oatmeal off of them.

Cheerilee gave me a request to figure out how I lit the oatmeal on fire, while not actual homework she was quite curious. I didn’t have to do it, but I really wanted to as she was both a good friend and teacher.

After I finished breakfast and got a hug from Kuril for trying, which was a nice and bright point in my day, I tripped over a rock exiting The Witch’s Fare. I sighed, picked it up and just looked at it.

The rock ruffled my feathers quite a bit, but something was familiar about it.

“There you are Boulder, what have I told you about getting under other people’s hooves? Bad rock.” Insert Maud, Pinkie Pie’s sister. She spoke, acted and moved blandly, but she was really quite friendly despite her constant mostly expressionless face. “Sorry about Boulder.”

“It’s alright Maud, you don’t need to apologize for your pet rock tripping me up. Did Pinkie drag you all the way here for something?” If there was one thing I liked about Maud, it was that she was easy to talk to and was a good listener. “I swear your sister could power an entire fleet of airships on her energy.”

“She said I’m here for a party with her friends.” Here Maud sighed and I felt for her.

“Yet you don’t like parties, sweet things or several other things about your hyper sister.” I’m not blind Maud so don’t look faintly surprised, parrots had pretty good eyesight. “You still try to like them for her sake at least.”

“Yes. Don’t tell Pinkie.” Maud looked away from me only vaguely upset. “I don’t want to upset her.”

“Don’t worry, I can keep secret.” This was just a calm moment before the storm of bad luck. ”Loose lips can sink ships as any pirate will say.”

“Thank you.” Maud nodded and walked away, while holding onto Boulder.

I took two steps and I heard a rumbling, looking up I saw a cloud crackling with lightning hovering above me.

It was just going to be one of those days wasn’t it?

I dove forward as I felt the air around me become charged with energy. A lightning bolt exploded the ground behind me and then the cloud turned into a rainbow.

Of course it did. Why wouldn't an unnaturally aggressive cloud try to look cute after doing that?

Yes, just continue being an adorable rainbow after dropping what would have been imminent pain on me had I not dodged you! …. I was okay.... just covered in dirt from the lighting exploding the ground.

If you think that was the worst of my day, it hasn’t even started yet. I stood up and stretched out the bruises.

“Are you okay there Jacky?” It seemed Captain saw the lightning and came to see if I was alright.

“Just fine Captain La Perm!” I was learning to anticipate random occurrences of lightning now, so that’s a new skill for me to utilize to its fullest effect. In fact, I was beginning to get a feel for imminent danger whenever my luck turned south on me. “The lightning missed me entirely this time.”

“Well okay then, but you might want to watch out for…” I was turning away from her to go talk to Potassium about how I managed to do what I did with the oatmeal. Only I got a face full of turtle dove knocking me onto my back. “Snickers.”

I sat up, causing the turtle to flutter off of my face and land in my lap. I looked at the turtle dove, she looked up at me and began cooing cheerfully. This strange little flying turtle named Snickers, supposedly Jade’s familiar, was apparently trying to cheer me up.

Familiars were an odd thing to hear about, but it certainly explained how pony’s pets lived as long as the ponies do. Any being with a lick of magic in them can bond with an animal and that animal can eventually become a familiar, said magical bond of companionship shared a number of things between the two beings involved.

For animals with ridiculously short lives, it was always a pretty dramatic extension to how long they could live for. According to Jade, it’s why some animals actively sought out ponies to be friends with.

Fluttershy had been asking around if a flying squirrel needed a home or friend on my behalf. When she eventually found one, I hoped we were compatible enough to form such a bond like what I saw building between Fluttershy and the rabbit she named Angel.

A strong familiar bond was like what Celestia and her phoenix familiar Philomena share. Another familiar bond was like what Angel the cantankerous rabbit and Fluttershy were starting to build. Jade said it hadn’t formed fully yet, but it was only a matter of time before the two were companions for life.

I felt our little friendship and love seeker put her flippers up against my belly and began to nuzzle me, I accepted it for what it was. Snickers making an amiable attempt to make me feel better as I was having a lousy morning.

I simply patted her on the head and then set her off to the side, she gave me a slightly upset look.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me. Shouldn’t you be more worried about what’s going on between Maries, Jade and Fizzle?” The turtle made an odd gesture with its flippers that I didn’t understand and she seemed very excited that I brought up the subject with cooing and hissing, I shrugged and continued on my way. “Whatever, go bother Jade about it. Maybe see if Grace will play with you, she’s always open for fun.”

Snickers flared her wings and started flying towards the Helping Hoof Inn, the cows named it that and it stuck. So it was what it was.

“Hey Jacky, I need to talk to you! Come on in to my pyramid.” What could Sekhet possibly want to talk to me about? I can understand if she wanted to call Jade for something or maybe even Kuril, but me?

I don’t know what my luck could have possibly done to the goddess. In fact, I think I was the only one of my close friends that didn’t have to answer a riddle yet. Sekhet also didn’t focus too much on me, but she did mention that she was looking into my luck and why Jade wouldn’t just cast a phoenix feather at me, in fact Kuril also refused to do so.

It was a bit telling that they could not cure my luck problem, at least not currently. Give them some time and the right item to cast with.

Sekhet shrunk down to her alicorn size as I walked into her small pyramid lair, it was kind of cozy in here. Nice air flow, cool, but not too cold. That’s just the entrances hallway leading into a throne room that split off into two separate guest rooms, an armory with nothing in it and an empty treasury. Then there were the stone stairs to the three rooms on the upper floor behind the throne.

Despite not having a horn on her head, Sekhet was definitely well recognized divinity around here for having built this place. Anyone can see why her throne room was central, someone would have to get by her to get anywhere in her ‘relatively’ small pyramid. It was made with her full size in mind as a Sphinx, but it was made to let ponies and the like get around in here too.

She sat down on the stone flooring and patted it, she was meeting me at my level and not on her large stone throne.

“What can I do for you Sekhet?” I was almost too afraid to find out.

“I wanted to discuss how you view your luck, if you’re not too busy.” That’s all Sekhet wanted of me? Okay, what’s the catch here?

Since I’m thinking of it at the moment, did she possibly install traps in this place? I wonder if she had a rolling rock trap that is set off by a pedestal with a specific weighted object on it.

“Um… okay.” I took a seat on the sandstone floor, this place was alright and there was a certain magic in the air. I was getting used to that feeling. “What about my luck?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe it isn’t actually that bad?” Did Sekhet truly miss seeing me nearly get struck by a bolt of lightning outside? I gave her a flat expression, she waved her right paw at me lazily. “I mean, you obviously have a lot of good things going for you for someone who has as many accidents as you do.”

“Are you going to dance around the subject and lead me to an answer slowly, or are you going to get to the point and flat out tell me what you think I should know?” I crossed my arms and waited for her response.

“Look Jacky, you’re a perceptive bird and I’ve been looking into your problem for a while now, but I’m supposed to be a goddess that does things in the mysterious and long drawn out way.” She titled her head at me and flicked her tail. “Would you truly begrudge your beloved goddess of exercise for having some fun?”

“No, I’d begrudge you for not telling Jade about why you keep calling her a priest.” That’s something I never understood, Sekhet called her Priest Jade quite often. “What aren’t you telling her?”

“Not calling her Captain? Odd moment to drop that verbal tic you’ve kept going since you came here… and all just for me. I feel special.” There was no need to mock the mortal girl Sekhet. “What I’m not telling her is that no matter what she does at this point, she will always be a sun priest if she stays true to herself and I’ll continue recognizing her as such unless something drastically changes in her personality.”

“So it’s more of a title that does nothing?” Where was this conversation headed exactly? “Also I’m sure you’re going to tell me something like all my bad luck is coincidental and it’s all in my head.”

“Believe you me, when things happen as much as they do around you.” She smirked. “It is hardly coincidental.”

“Meaning?” Was my starch reply.

“You’re unlucky in general, but you’re always lucky where it truly counts the most to you. I think you’re positive attitude is a counterbalance to your bad luck and I wish to improve on that attitude through a simple conversation about how you feel your luck has done its worst to you.” Was Sekhet seriously doing what I thought she was? “I mean your luck led you to escaping your island, it got you a lot of friends, family and a new life. All surely horrible things you don’t care about, especially for the low price of those constant daily inconveniences you have to personally deal with. You’re lucky you weren’t born a goddess. Our problems are way more complicated than your little trifles and infinitesimally short life compared to my own.”

“You’re using your power of war to fight my traumatic morning with words aren’t you?” If she was as powerful as had been implied to me, then Sekhet could fight war in any way, shape or form as long as it can be called a war in some way.

Currently she could be fighting a war of attrition with her heart about showing more compassion to us all, she’d be losing it right now since she wants to help me work through this.

“Warring with my own emotions is something I do more often than you’d think.” She was quite relaxed as she took to laying on her side while continuing to look towards me, she was at least letting me know she was paying attention to me. “If it’s outside your control then why be angry at yourself for being incapable of changing things? You should change what you currently can for a more favorable outcome, if you can’t change something then look for help from those around you to change things in ways that you can’t. If that doesn’t work, then become strong enough to change it yourself or help others become strong enough to change things for you. Nothing is impossible in this world, I felt the ascension of a filly becoming an alicorn some years back and she is now Celestia’s adopted niece. A fledgling goddess of love, but no less powerful for what she is and has yet to truly realize her true potential and strength.”

“You’re actually lecturing me and giving me good advice… who are you and what have you done with our airship landing pad?” Technically we didn’t have one of those and The Ardent Survivor had yet to be destroyed, so it was the one airship that was living up to its name.

In fact living up to its name is why Kuril wanted it to have that name in the first place, it wouldn’t be an energetic survivor if it was destroyed in its first twenty flights. It made trips to Ponyville relatively simple and it could even carry a good amount of cargo back home easily.

“Heh, very funny.” Sekhet sat up and looked at me seriously. “Think on this. Would you trade what you have right now for all the good luck in the world? I mean the life you live currently, memories, every friend, every decision, your family and everything you own. Would you trade that all away for ceaseless good luck that never ends, knowing that you’d never see any of us ever again?”

“If I was always lucky…” I considered the possibilities, I admit I sat there for a few minutes with a goddess staring blankly at me. A smile formed on my beak. “It would be a really poor trade Sekhet, I’d rather make my own luck and continue on as I am!”

“Good answer.” Sekhet smiled at me fondly. “Let me tell you the story of the Misfortune Malachite and how it hurt the Abyssinians.”

Author's Note:

Airship Mauled Magical Alchemy Story Appendix will be up soon.

New alchemy information will pop up in the author's notes, but it will also be added to the appendix.

Comments

[Shadowshame]

Can't wait to see how you are going to topanyan this one