Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter Nine, Exercises In Utility: Fluttershy.

-Jacky-

“Why would someone make something like that?” That it was a real thing was awful to me, somebody actually made something to concentrate bad luck and turn it into a malignant form of power.

It worked a little too well from what Kuril was telling me, turning all good luck to bad and powering itself off that to eventually kill someone who holds onto it for too long. It only got worse if someone actually tried to actively use the Misfortune Malachite’s power, it positively radiated bad luck even when you didn’t use it.

Recovering from the Misfortune Malachite could take anywhere from a few days, to years depending on how much you wielded it before getting rid of it. Even destroying it was an exceptionally bad idea all around, but at least the curse would eventually end if someone did do that.

“I don’t honestly know what the people of the past were thinking, but I’d assume they made it with good intentions.” Watching as Kuril started making another tortilla in the pan, she had a stack of them going right next to her, I shivered at the thought of those who created such a dangerous mystical artifact. “I know one thing for sure, that cursed thing is safely sealed away. As long as it doesn’t get any more powerful, then it won’t threaten the whole world or eternally torment any poor soul that ends up holding onto it for too long. It has a counterpart called the Good Fortune Garnet. Would you like to hear about that? It's a much nicer magical artifact. It isn’t nearly as bad, just hard to use. ”

“There’s something else out there like the Misfortune Malachite?” I asked with a bit of horror.

“Yes, but the Good Fortune Garnet was made in a way that prevents it from doing horrible things like the Misfortune Malachite.” She turned to me with a more upbeat smile than she previously had after explaining the Misfortune Malachite to me. “For one major difference it couldn’t take anything from its surroundings, which was the Misfortune Malachite’s biggest problem. It can only temporarily give from the user to another and no one who is greedy can wield its power since it specifically only works for those who wish to use it in helping others. That's why it’s so hard to wield, it requires a completely selfless heart to give up their own luck to another for a while. I don’t honestly know where it is now, but the artifact was likely made by the same people and the pegasi were the last to have it. Say, do you know the history of your people or Ornithia?”

“Not really, do you?” Well that was a load off my mind, the Good Fortune Garnet sounded much friendlier version of the Misfortune Malachite. It required the user to sacrifice for others and since said sacrifice isn’t permanent, it doesn’t horribly upset the balance of things in the way that Sekhet told me the Misfortune Malachite does.

“No, but I wanted to at least ask a parrot about it.” Kuril sounded a bit sad to not know anything about Ornithia. “I apologize, I forgot you were stuck on an island for most of your life and have never been there.”

“Don’t worry about mom, I’m not upset.” Yeah a visit to Ornithia would be nice, someday I’ll travel there and explore it to my heart’s content. “I’ll eventually want to go there someday, just to see the where parrots like me originated from. Maybe I’ll even get to see or meet a harpy.”

“Be careful if you do. Harpies are considered wind spirits, thieves of food and are punishers of evil in a rather loose sense.” You know what Kuril, that sounds like someone the Captain would be happy to be friends with. Except for the food stealing part. “Specifically, they go after those who do not keep to their word for whatever reason. They don’t care if people get caught in the crossfire once they start dishing out their form of justice. Plus, unlike parrots like you, they can actually fly and are dangerous even when they’re being friendly.”

Okay, forget Captain liking a harpy for a friend.

-Fluttershy-

Airship Mauled was always a strange place to visit, but at least I was getting in some practice with my special talent here.

I had an afterschool job that was helping me make money so that I could find myself a nice home near Ponyville, all while I was taking my own courses in animal care on the side. Once I graduate at sixteen, I can move out to start my dream career in caring for all kinds of cuddly animals!

I was still a young filly and I couldn’t put the entire world on my withers yet. The world was really quite scary in so many ways. I was even still scared of my own shadow sometimes… also loud noises, odd sounds, ponies that speak to loudly like Pinkie or Rainbow do sometimes, Nightmare Night, thunder, other ponies in general and dragons. I was absolutely and rightfully terrified of dragons.

If some pony wonders why I want to live in Ponyville and not here, well it had to do with location and need. Ponyville was civilization and had a marketplace and resources. Here they really didn’t have much, but at least they had each other. They also really didn’t need an animal caretaker out here, Sekhet kept most of the larger animals at bay with her very presence. As for the smaller animals, they don’t really cause problems or need too much help here.

It was a nice place to visit every once in a while, but I wouldn’t want to live here. No offense meant to Maries or Sekhet, but they were a little too scary and intense. I was always meek around unknown ponies, but around here that wasn’t really a problem and I wanted to step my hoof slightly out of my comfort zone.

Being here was quite comforting, even if it gets attacked by pukwudgies infrequently. It was just so nice to take a break from life and sit by the campfire here with my friends and this slowly building community. A place where my much busier life could wait for me until tomorrow.

Oh, is that Snickers!

The flying turtle was so adorable and sweet, it liked making friends with everyone and didn’t mind that Jade didn’t take care of her all too much. I would have told Jade off for not caring for her pet well enough, but Snickers didn’t want me to and she preferred to take care of herself.

Snickers really liked how Jade treated her, like a friend instead of the pet and owner dynamic people would expect of the two. I respected her wishes on that, she did have the final say in what was entirely her business after all.

If Snickers really wanted Jade to do something for her, then she’d just tell Jade herself what she wanted. From the story Snickers told me, Jade got out of bed early in the morning to get her some water when she was getting really dry and hardly complained about it.

Speaking of turtle doves, I still have yet to find any information on them. From what Fresh Start has told me, they are very rare and unusual magical creatures. Ones that were powerful in an unspecified way, how powerful could a little cutie like Snickers really be?

This led to me thinking about how I was learning so many dialects by coming here. My special talent was really very unique in how I could utilize it. I could understand and even talk to animals as long as I exercised my talent frequently.

At first I couldn’t really communicate all too well with anything, mostly I could only read body language at first. After learning my first animal language, which was how to speak bird, my whole world opened up to the many possibilities. Once I eventually figured out what each tweet and twitter meant that is.

I could also speak some squirrel, rabbit and mouse, they weren’t very complicated and shared similar vocalizations to one another. Gopher and beaver was still very hard for me to learn. I’d eventually work my way up to being able to talk to all the cuddly animals, and I do mean all of them!

“Hello Snickers, how are you feeling today?” Snickers landed on my nose and hugged me with her flippers, she started cooing and hissing in a friendly manner.

“Oh that’s nice of Grace, have you eaten anything recently?” I received more cooing from the winged turtle that tickled my face with the green feathers that blended in with her shell. “Really? Jade seemed so embarrassed after singing all that, I know I’d be embarrassed if magical music made me sing about how beautiful I think Gilda is. Please, don’t tell anyone I told you this, but she’s a really pretty griffon even if she’s quite aggressive and a little too possessive of my best friend Rainbow Dash.”

After I said that Snickers said something that had me blushing, I guess I understood reptiles well enough to know what she was saying to me. Well half of what she said sounded like a mix of reptile and bird, I’d have to talk to a few snakes to be sure though.

“What, no, I don’t think she’d like me nearly that much! She calls me a dweeb and thinks I’m weak… mostly because I am.” Snickers just nuzzled my face and said something about seeing strength in my eyes, I didn’t understand what she meant nor did I catch every word she said. What she said next I did understand quite clearly, she told me I’d eventually find love that worked at my own pace. She then took off for The Witch’s Fare. “Uh… that’s nice?”

I shook my head and went to sit down next a contemplative and slightly angry looking Fizzle. Why was she angry? She was blushing and smiling after weird song Jade sang out loud in front of everyone, but now she looked a bit upset. Also Angel was here and he came over to sit with us while staring at me in an odd manner.

“What’s wrong Fizzle?” I asked while petting the bunny with my hoof.

“Nothing is actually wrong Fluttershy. I’m just a bit angry at myself.” What did you have to be angry about?

“Why?” That was the simplest question anyone could ask.

“It’s Jade… what does she even see in a broken unicorn like me?” That’s no way to talk Fizzle, Jade really likes you and I know it. You like her a lot too, you hardly ever let her go too far away before you follow after her. “I can’t cook, I’m only vaguely good at cleaning, if you haven’t noticed my slightly sour personality leaves something to be desired, I’m not exactly fit to be called beautiful with this scar on my face and to top it all off I can’t even protect Jade from herself! Violence might be one of the only things I’m really good at, so why does she expect me to ask her on a date? What can I really offer her aside from a different perspective?”

“A pony she likes and wants to make happy.” It sounded simple to me, but also a bit complicated because they were different in so many ways. I don’t understand dating, after being regularly bullied by stallions like I am, but I knew what love was like. “I think a date might help you work out your current relationship issues as friends. I wouldn’t know if it actually could, I’ve never been on one personally. You two are really great friends, it could give you an opportunity to talk things out.”

“Maybe so, but I’m also coming to terms with what I see in her. She’s impulsive, she likes jumping off of high places, she’s a bit of a glutton, she doesn’t care for her appearance all too much, some of the things Abyssinians do in general disgusts me, she doesn’t look to the future too often and she’s just as awkward as I am. Actually… that last one might be a good thing.” She stared at the fire for a minute before turning to me with a look of sad wonder in her eyes. “She’s definitely got her flaws, but despite that she’d put herself in harm’s way for me in less than a heartbeat. I really don’t want her to endanger herself on my behalf! She helped me learn to imbue things with magic and made me stop my silly quest to get my horn back. I don’t even know where to start with that myself except for finding something magically powerful! She said she’d even help me with that, I know she meant it too even if she has had absolutely no progress.”

She sighed and put her hooves to her face looking quite glum. I looked to Angel and tilted my head towards Fizzle, he crossed his arms and glared at me. He was a very spirited rabbit, but he was also so adorable it was hard to take his attitude seriously.

I stared at him a bit more and he finally threw his paws up in the air and caved in to what I wanted him to do. He went and snuggled up against Fizzle while being as cute as possible, it made her smile a bit and she start petting him gently.

“You know I was wandering aimlessly before I ended up here. Without my quest to fix my horn, who was I as Fizzlepop Berrytwist? A nonentity, with no direction, going nowhere. If Jade and I started something, how would I even support her? She can already do several amazing things with magical alchemy alone that would help her make money easily. Maries could even hunt and keep her fed and is stronger than me. Jade… she doesn’t really need me.” It wasn’t exactly healthy to compare yourself to a chimera Fizzle. “I want to show everyone what I can do, but I’m having problems even coming up with something that's completely my idea alone. I’m not one for traveling around and being a show pony, using magic for me is quite draining. I already know what I’m talented at, but it’s not exactly a full blown paying job now is it? I can distract, I can learn to fight, I can think, but at the end of the day I’m still me and my special talent feels very limited by this stump of mine.”

“It's not your horn that Jade cares about, it's you! You must know that. I know what it feels like to feel helpless Fizzle…” How can I not when other pegasus ponies make fun of me for not being able to fly so well? I also get bullied because I’m always meek and scared. My best friends are animals and or beings far outside my own species, except for you, Rainbow and Pinkie. “I think Jade does need you, as a friend and maybe a special some-pony if you’re willing. She's not pressuring you.”

“I’m afraid she'll stop caring about me...” Muttered Fizzle as she clutched Angel Bunny to her.

“It’s okay to be afraid.” I know this from experience. "It's what you do with that fear that shows everyone exactly what you are truly capable of."

Author's Note:

So there's a little drama.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

You keep putting "I and *name*", and it should be "*name* and I" to be grammatically correct.