Parrothead in Paradise

by PastCat

Chapter 14

My sleep was rough the rest of the night. Thoughts and worries kept running through my head as I tried to process everything that Slickwing had shown me. In the end, I realized that I had two goals: find the Artifact, and get myself into a good enough flying shape to be able to carry the relic to Hawai’i. I was not sure I could accomplish both at once, but how could I get the others to help? I had already planned to get more flying practice in at Diamond Head if I could, but I wasn’t sure who would believe me if I told them about Slickwing’s challenge. I hoped the thestral was telling the truth about this whole thing. The biggest question in my mind was is it worth the risk? I knew the answer to that; if it meant my friends would be safe from those things that attacked Pearl Harbor, I’d try anything. That last thought finally quieted my mind enough to get a little sleep.

“You look like shit.” Adam said as I lurched my way to our breakfast setup. “Get any sleep last night? I highly doubt it.”

“Gee, Sherlock. What brought you to that brilliant conclusion?” I snarked back, spearing a chunk of mango with a fork.

“You getting visions of doom and gloom like you saw someone die in front of you? I thought that was the only way to see bat-horses if you believe J.K. Rowling.” Adam said, tossing a chunk of fruit toward his mouth. It missed and slid down his front. “Damn, slick,” he muttered as he tried to clean it off with his wing.

“Ugh. Shut up.” I said in a voice that was almost a growl.

Adam looked like he wanted to take offense at that, but Doc pulled him aside to discuss something. I looked down at my plate and did my best to concentrate on my food.

“Is everything all right? You don’t look like you slept much last night.” Trish said softly. She nudged my wing aside to see me poking at my food. “Oh. It was that bad. I’m sorry. Is there something I can do to help?”

I glanced around at the others. None of them were paying us any mind. “Come over to my nest after breakfast and before we leave to do whatever we were going to do today.” I murmured. “There is something I need to tell someone,and you’re the one most likely to believe me.”

Trish’s eyes went wide, but she nodded. We spent the rest of breakfast in silence. The fruit felt like ash in my mouth; I tasted little of it. I tried to act as though everything was normal, cleaning up after my dishes and such, before going back to our sleeping quarters. After checking to see that the others were occupied, Trish joined me. “What’s up?”

“Remember how I said that I saw shapes in the dust storm by Pearl Harbor?” I asked. Trish nodded. “Well last night I had a sort of… encounter with someone who appeared in that vision. He was… not quite real, more like a ghost. And he told me more details.” I related the story that Slickwing had shown me in my dream. Trish listened attentively, nodding for me to go on when I hesitated. I finished, “so that’s it. I want to know where this leads, but I know I need to be able to fly and fly far in order to accomplish the end goal here. I’m not crazy, am I?”

Trish thought for a moment while I fidgeted. “No,” she said finally. “You aren’t crazy. I remember reading something about those bat-winged ponies in the Guidebook. They have some kind of unique magic that allows them to shape dreams and even use them to send messages across time and space. It’s impossible for us to know for certain what this ‘Slickwing’ guy was capable of, but I see no reason why he would not be telling the truth. If nothing else, if we find his body we can bury it alongside Mary’s. If he’s telling the truth, those records could be important too.”

“And the Artifact?” I asked. Trish shrugged. “Do you really think it could attract those… monsters back to the island?”

“I don’t know. None of us know for certain, but I would say better safe than sorry when it comes to magical gewgaws that we don’t understand. If we find something red and glowing , we shouldn’t keep it. I wouldn’t want it anywhere near me. I’m more worried about what might happen to you over the open ocean if you’re carrying it. There’s not a lot of land between here and Hawai’i.” Trish said.

“Yeah, I know. I just need to be able to fly enough to island-hop down the chain. I’d want to minimize the open ocean part as best I can. Maybe the others will have some ideas too, but I’d feel more comfortable telling them if you’re backing me.” I said.

“I will. It won’t do you any good right this minute though. Why don’t you take a nap while you’re in here.” Trish waved a hoof towards my nest. “Then when you’re feeling better, go work with Adam on flight training. The only way he'll get his butt airborne is if he is chasing you, so you might as well both get it figured out. If push comes to shove, and this Artifact turns out to be the real thing, two fliers working together would do better than one going solo. As for your treasure hunt, hold off for now. Obviously no one has found it yet, so it is still safe enough where it is. When the time is right, we will go play Indiana Jones and the Thestral’s Rock. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” I climbed up to my nest.”What are you going to tell the others?”

“For now? That you had trouble sleeping last night and I convinced you to go back to bed. Given how you look right now, they’ll believe it.”

I grumbled at that, but curled up as best as I could in my normal sleeping spot. Before my friend had even left the sleeping quarters, I was out.

***

I woke up a few hours later in a better frame of mind. Outside I heard Emmy making lunch. I climbed down and went out to lend a claw if I could. She didn’t say anything about my attitude that morning, but she raised an eyebrow when I asked what everyone else was up to.

“Doc and Adam went up to Diamond Head. Doc is going to do a few tests on the rocks; he wants to see if there are any old lava tubes that we could use as a bad weather shelter over there. Adam was going to keep him company and play around. I think he’s going to try and keep Doc from reading too deeply into the inscriptions in the cave with the names. I don’t know if he noticed his daughter’s name in there, but Adam’s scared of what might happen if he does. As far as I know, Trish and Nic headed north, something about fancy houses in the hills that might have more fruit trees that we could transplant.” Emmy said.

“So I get to be your camp bird?” I asked.

“You get to be my camp bird. Between my horn and your claws, we should be able to make this place a bit more liveable, especially if we want to make it our permanent base. I found this. It’s been stuffed under Adam’s cushion this whole time. No idea what he’s been using it for.” Emmy unrolled a map of campus with our location clearly marked. “I want to see if we can make not only comfortable and secure living quarters, but also a better garden so we don’t need to rely on foraging so much. The sooner we have a more reliable food supply, the happier I’ll be. I’d like it to be up here so it’s out of reach of the water, but we need to figure out an exact location. While we’re at it, we should figure out what buildings would make the best permanent shelter too. The ones we’ve been using are too exposed for my taste, and Adam says the dry season is coming to an end.”

I nodded my agreement about the weather and peered at the map. “Well, pass me a pencil if you would. I will see if I remember what buildings we explored right after we Returned. You do the same, and we can check with the others when they get back for lunch. Between the six of us, we can figure out where to go from here.”

Emmy nodded and sent a pencil my way in her telekinesis. “Lunch is almost done. Check your buildings off while I finish up.”

I tapped the eraser end of the pencil against my beak as I thought about where we had managed to break into during those first frantic days. The dining hall had been hit early, as had the library. The former had yielded some useful things; the latter had less. We had gone through the on-campus apartments and dorms to salvage whatever of our possessions had survived the centuries. It struck me that our efforts had not been very well organized. In our haphazard gathering sprees, there were entire buildings that had been left untouched. Some of them had been in pieces, true, but others had been judged to be useless, or too difficult to get into. By now, “too difficult to get into” meant “secure against the elements”. I circled a few of those places. Anything that had collapsed or was unusable got a big X. Smaller circles with initials showed who had searched where. I noticed Adam had marked a few places too, mostly the tall stuff that was still visible above the trees.

I stopped suddenly when I got to one part of campus. This was where Trish and I had been searching for sousaphone bells and brass instruments to use for pipe. I had a brief flash of memory of a building that had been falling to pieces, but still had some useful things intact. After my personal drama of realizing that I would never play my instrument of choice again, we had not gone back since. I wrote my initials and Trish’s along with a star. I added stars to a few other buildings that had not been revisited since the early days or that had only been visited once. By the time I had finished what I remembered, Trish and Nic had returned with more foodstuffs. Evidently Doc and Adam had taken their lunch to go and had stayed out at Diamond Head.

Trish tipped me a wink, so I passed off the map to Nic for his input and stepped off to the side with my former pen pal. “I think we found the place that you described.” She said in a low voice. “We made it all the way to the Bishop Museum. Not much left up there; most structures collapsed. Your bat ghost guy’s map roughly corresponds to an overhang a little further up. We didn’t try to break in; I wasn’t sure if you wanted everyone else to know about your little treasure hunt just yet.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks. For now it’s enough that you don’t think I’m totally crazy. Thanks for not letting anyone else in yet either. I don’t want to have to hear anyone calling me out for hallucinating or something like that.”

Trish gave me a mild glare. “You actually thought I would open my big mouth and tell everyone about your mysterious night visitor?”

“No, or not really. I’ve just been on edge all morning. I just have this weird feeling that the other shoe is going to drop soon, and it'll be something we are not ready for. It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies. I’m not sure what it is, but it has something to do with the wind. I can feel it and it’s making me restless. Adam thinks it’s just the season changing, but this feels less… natural.” I said.

“Well, up here we should be safe from the tsunami your thestral guy mentioned. It looks like everything has just been crumbling naturally rather than getting hit by something big like that. I don’t know of anything else that could do anything that big.” Trish said.

“We’re not a big colony,” I pointed out. “It wouldn’t take something huge to wipe us off the map.”

Trish shuddered. I understood that. No one wants to be reminded of just how tenuous life can be, especially on an island like ours. We had our reminders all the same.

The two of us made our way back to where Emmy and Nic were studying the map. They both looked up at our approach. “You want to have a look, Trish?” Nic asked. “Zoe was pretty thorough, but you might remember some things that she missed.” He had added his own marks to some of the buildings I didn’t remember having visited. Emmy had done the same; I had explained my system to her earlier and they had imitated it. Adam’s marks remained a mystery.

Trish sat next to Nic and I sat by Emmy. I turned to the latter. “Are there any buildings left that might work well for flight practice? I don’t really want to try anything above about three or four storeys. Anything above the crowns of the trees should work so I can feel the wind in my feathers.”

“Blow the last of the salt and that grave dust out?” Emmy asked.

I nodded. “I want to get some climbing in as well. If I can practice here, I won’t need to go all the way out to Diamond Head. Not to mention the landings will probably be softer than hitting rock bottom, literally.”

Emmy thought for a moment before turning away from me and surveying the truncated skyline around Base Camp. She seemed to be measuring the crumbling structures by eye before she said, “If I were you, I would try there, there, or there. They all are tall enough for you to catch some air, but not so tall you would completely wreck yourself if you landed bad.” She looked at the map. “Huh, looks like someone marked them already. Did you doodle the clouds??”

I shook my head. “Adam did. I wonder what he was doing. Anyway, I’ll check out the likeliest candidates this afternoon. I know we haven’t been risking a lot of the taller places since we don’t know how sturdy they are, but there’s no harm in seeing which one could work for this.”

“Take someone with you. That way if you feel like trying something crazy, someone can attempt to talk some sense into you. I know how you get, Parrothead. If that doesn’t work, that someone can run back here for help.” Emmy said, rolling her eyes.

“Okay. Want to come?” I asked.

Emmy shook her head. “No way, nuh uh, not for all the tea in China. I hate heights. My plan for the afternoon is to help Nic figure out where we want to farm. I can do that with my hooves on the ground.”

“Try the athletic fields.” I suggested. “You may not want to use the baseball diamonds because they are still pretty exposed, but the football stadium might be sheltered enough if the sea gets rowdy.”

“Or a big enough storm will swamp the place and turn it into a lake. That isn’t ideal for crops either. We will take it under consideration though.” Emmy said.

Nic nodded thoughtfully at the idea. “I’m thinking we want to have a few different areas under cultivation if we can. Some in the lowlands, but some up higher. That way we can work on keeping a variety of different things alive and not starve if something goes wrong at one location.”

“I’m no farmer, but it makes sense to me.” I said.

Nic chuckled. “Well I’m no farmer either, but it struck me as common sense. So you are going to try flying again?”

“Yep. Though today I want to figure out a good platform for takeoffs and landings.” Everypony around me snickered at that. “Yeah, laugh it up. I already knew that was the biggest thing I need to work on. Anyplace you want me to check out while I’m looking around? Otherwise I’ll just focus on the spots on the map here.”

No one added anything so I made mental notes based on the map. It would give me a place to start. Someone else broke me out of my thoughts. “If you’re going to go climbing, I want to come too. Two sets of eyes are better than one after all, and if we can manage to get into some place that’s mostly intact, we can look into using it as a better shelter. I’ll look for that while you have your head in the clouds.” Trish said. I nodded gratefully. It might give us a better chance to talk.

“All right, now that we know what we are doing and we are done with lunch, let’s get to it.” Emmy said. She sounded way too excited for this, but maybe it was being around Nic. She and he got along like a house on fire. I pretended not to notice and cleaned off my plate and Trish’s. The other two lingered over the map while we took care of our stuff and headed out into our urban jungle.

Navigating at ground level definitely was not easy. The trees obscured our view of all but the tallest buildings. Any roads that had existed before across campus were now at the very least buried deeply by leaf litter. Most were overgrown, with just the occasional tree-eaten road sign suggesting an intersection. A couple times we ran into rusted heaps of what had once been cars. They had been in place so long, it was impossible to tell what kind of vehicle any of them had been.

We made our way inside the first building on our list. It was as dark as a cave inside, and overgrown to boot. The roof was solid enough, but without a way to get up there, it would do me little good. There was no way of knowing if there was an intact stairwell that would get us up top.I mentally cursed myself for forgetting to bring a flashlight. Or Emmy. Her horn light would have worked too.

We did our best to find the rest of the buildings on the suggestion list. One or two of them were impossible to find due to the thick jungle. Another was similar to the first one in that it had eroded to the point that it was more a hill with a cave than anything else. By the time we had circled around towards the west side of campus, I was getting discouraged. So far, nothing was working as an improved version of the lookout at Diamond Head. I said as much to Trish, who didn’t look nearly as footsore as I felt.

“All right you big baby. There is only one or two more to check on this side before we can head for home. Jeez. Now I want you to fly too so that you will stop complaining about your aching paws.” Trish said. She rolled her eyes so far back I thought she could see her own skull.

“Ugh, says the pony with rock hard feet and the ability to walk across a small country without stopping to rest. I am absolutely not built for this shit.” I snarked back.

“Fine. It looks like we’re close to the entrance to, hmmm, the East West Center. Let’s see.” Trish walked forward until she hit a moss-covered stone wall. I followed her as we walked along it, but it soon became clear that the structure was long since fallen.

“Well this was a dud. So last one before we head home?” I said.

“Uh huh. It should not be far away. Follow the wall back that way and we should run into another structure in about a hundred yards or so.” Trish said. I followed her instructions.

Soon we came to an even more substantial wall. Unlike the previous structure, this one was intact. We found an entryway after some wall-following and discovered that the interior was lit by natural light due to a couple of intrepid trees taking over the courtyard and growing into the building. By now the trees held up the structure and parts of the structure held up the trees. Any stairs were long gone, but the tree had grown in such a way that the branches stretched to almost ground level and were close enough together as to make climbing possible.

“Now that is more like it.” I said and leaped onto a sturdy bough. I reached out and grabbed first one branch, then another. I barely heard Trish’s call to be careful as I made my way upwards. After a solid ten minutes of climbing, I felt the wind in my face at the top of the tree. The remaining roof was a patchwork of clay tile and soil that had been carried upward by the wind and held in place by the enormous tree. I could feel the wind off the sea and smell a slight bit of salt in the air. The view was pretty fair too. I could see our Base Camp due to the smoke coming from our cookfire. The H1 was a solid-looking wall that divided lush jungle from the more barren beach and hills of Honolulu. In the far distance, I could even see Diamond Head looming out over Waikiki like a benevolent giant watching over his charge.

I opened my wings and let the air run through my feathers, oblivious to everything except for how it felt to be nearly flying. If we ever decide to take over individual buildings as personal quarters, I call dibs on this place. I flapped my wings a bit before finding myself on the edge of the roof, looking out over the canopy. I heard a voice below me, but I could not make out any words. A couple minutes later, a familiar green and blue pony emerged from the building out into the open and stood staring up at me. She yelled something, but the wind carried her words away.

I smiled, took a couple more test flaps, then leapt off the building, wings outstretched. I tried to recapture the serenity and empty mindedness that I had felt the first time I had gotten off the ground. Apparently I got the latter right, because I opened my eyes to find myself airborne. Unfortunately it seemed that airborne is relative; I found myself gliding downwards in a spiral pattern. My eyes went wide and I started to flap my wings as I realized that the point at which the spiral ended on the ground was… right where Trish was standing.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” I was no ape, but apparently griffons can do Tarzan yells too. Mine was less majestic though.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Huh, apparently ponies can do it too, because there went Trish.

Both of our yells cut off with a heavy “ooof” as I used my equine companion as a landing pad. Fortunately earth ponies are sturdier than pegasi and Trish was able to get to her hooves almost immediately. If she had still been a biped, her hands would have been on her hips in consternation. “Didn’t you hear a thing I’ve been saying for the last ten minutes? You were supposed to climb down, not try flying. We haven’t made sure this place is strong enough to not collapse before you started playing stunt griffon.” She continued to rant at me for a couple more minutes before I managed to get enough air back in my lungs to respond.

Once I had my wind back, I panted, “sorry, Trish. I couldn’t hear a thing from up there due to the wind. It’s perfect for practicing and the view is amazing. I want to go again.”

Trish did a facepalm (or would it be a face-hoof?) and mumbled something too low for me to hear. I suspect it was along the lines of “why me” or “you dumbass”, either of which would have been well deserved. “Fine, but now that we have your perch settled, what the hay do you want to do about your magic gewgaw. You and I both know there is no freaking way we can keep it a secret for long. Nic knows I was looking for something, but he doesn’t know what. I would bet my sonic screwdriver that as soon as word gets out, everyone is going to want in on your little treasure hunt. For goodness sakes, Zoe, they are archaeologists! Most of them came here to play Indiana Jones and search for hidden tombs and lost treasures and stuff like that.”

“Yeah, I know.” I said. “The problem is I didn’t think any of them would believe me if I told them my source.”

“Emmy will. She’s been doing enough magic with her horn to know it’s real and that it has consequences in the real world. Doc will, because he has been sniffing dirt and gemstones ever since we found that crappy stash in Wal-Mart and he figured out that gemstones attract magic. Nic will believe you because he believes in Emmy and Doc. So who are you worried about exactly?” Trish raised an eyebrow. She knew the answer; she just wanted me to say it.

“Ugh, fine. I’m worried about Adam. He’s been trying to poke holes in this whole change ever since it happened and has been letting his skepticism get in the way of learning what our new bodies are capable of and interfering when we try to find out on our own. Why should he believe me when he thinks the Guidebook is a lot of hooey and that we are all going to just wake up in our dorm beds tomorrow morning to find it has all been a freaky shared dream. So you tell me, Trish. Why should I reveal a magic treasure to our resident skeptic?” My wings flared as if to support my challenge.

“Because he’s been having the same dream visitor you have?” A new voice said from the jungle behind me. I whirled to find myself face to face with Adam. He looked like he had just caught my hand in the cookie jar.

“What the fuzz, dude. How long have you been standing there?” I stammered. I tried to get my wings to relax, but the feathers still stuck out everywhere.

“I saw you take your death jump and thought I would investigate.” Adam said, raising an eyebrow. “Seeing as the new practice spot did not come equipped with a landing pad, I thought I would be generous and ensure that you were ok if you happened to not stick the landing. Again.”

“Ugh, fine. Yeah, I am still trying to get the landing thing figured out, but what do you mean having the same dream visitor? Just yesterday you acted like you didn’t believe me when I described the shadow play in the dust. And now you say you have been seeing Slickwing in your dreams?” I said incredulously.

“Uh huh. I met him the night I spent alone in Honolulu.He’s been appearing regularly ever since, especially in the dreams where I am flying. He’s given tips and some coaching. He asked me not to tell anypony about the dreams because he didn’t want the invaders to learn that his magic was still active. I agreed. Late last night he appeared briefly in my dream to tell me he had shown you the stuff he’d told me and that he was releasing me from my promise.” Adam said.

“Oh was that all?” I asked, glaring at him.

“No. There was one other thing. He said that the Invaders were beginning to stir again and that we should get the Artifact away as soon as we can. He said that it would be either our salvation or our doom depending on if we could keep it out of the reach of the sea." Adam turned away and started walking.

Out of the frying pan... into the fire, I thought as Trish and I followed him back to Home Base.

Comments

[Dances With Unicorns]

With all those trees around campus, our protagonists could cut down a few trees and then use that wood to reinforce and patch the holes in their current shelter. If wooden beams are used to hold up mined tunnels, then wooden beams could hold up a concrete floor or a roof. Yes, I am aware that this means finding the woodworking shops, hardware stores, or basement home workshops for hand tools as well as screws and nails. They should carefully read their “Pony Survival Guidebook” to find out if it has a chapter on rebuilding abandoned human structures.

Carpenters Apprenticeship

Sometimes I want to tell our protagonists that they have all kinds of resources right in front of them and that they should use these resources. For example, hundreds of bomb craters that were created during the Vietnam War are now used as fish farms. Why can’t these college students be as creative in using what is available to them?

[Dances With Unicorns]

I am wondering when your ponies would start using their special talents? As these returnees are archaeology students, I suppose that their special talents would be connected to their college majors in archaeology. Rarity’s special talents that make her a great income are designing and making clothing. However, her special talents that are connected to her cutie mark are finding gemstones and exploring caves. Rarity also has demonstrated talents in shaping plants as demonstrated in the episodes “Look Before You Sleep” and “Shadow Play - Part 1”. This could be that her special talents are connected to the ground. I believe that similar talents that your characters have would be useful to solving their quest and staying alive. I look forward to reading about your ponies finding and then using their individual, special talents.

[Dances With Unicorns]

By the way, I was thinking that our protagonists could use the artifact, combined with a spell described in the “Returnee Survival handbook” to repurpose it to create a new artifact that creates teleportation portals, similar to the EEA medallion Chancellor Neighsay uses.

Emmy, with a big smile on her face: “Guy, I found out that I can use the artifact and my unicorn magic to make our version of the EEA medallion. If you have a good memory of a certain location, then we can use the gate to open a portal to there, anywhere on this world. Our minds are our own dial home devices. You may not believe this, but I’ve found the seventh symbol. We're going home!”

Zoe: “What are you talking about a seventh … no, you are a … I don’t suppose you can also magic up some P90 submachine guns, Ori staffs, and Zat'nik'tels?”

Emmy: “One I master the Transfiguration spell; I don’t see why I could not. Now that I think of it, I think that the staff weapons could be used by both hands and hooves.”

Trish: “And you two are dedicated Gate Heads, because one of the movie’s two main heroes is Dr. Jackson who is an archaeologist? Ever been to Gatecon, while wearing a costume?”

Zoe: “I was saving my cash to go there in 2016.”

Emmy: “Yes, and I attended Gatecon as Samantha Carter while wearing a series authentic, military field uniform down to the last detail. By now my beautiful costume has become dust, and I spent several hundred dollars getting all the bits and hiring a professional seamstress to make it for me.”

Doc: “You are getting upset over a costume?”

Emmy: “Not a costume, a labor of love.”

Doc: “People, let’s find a way to solve our real problems, not fangasm over your obsessions.”

Emmy: “Maybe, when we get back home, we can find enough Gate Heads to restart Gatecon.”

Trish: “Let’s return home first and plan your convention after that.”