• Published 19th Jan 2024
  • 2,011 Views, 205 Comments

North Woods NightMares - Starfighter



The NightMare project as it came to be known augmented a set of large bodied mares from the north to conduct counter-piracy ops. This is a story of one of those mares and her determined supporter.

  • ...
12
 205
 2,011

PreviousChapters Next
Chapter 34: Tropical Lumberjack

Frosty and Windy had a good night’s sleep in the floating capsule. Unfortunately the jungle would not be so accommodating. A tapping sound stirred PW from sleep.

“C’mon PW. Find us a place to land!” Frosty grunted, passing him a chart.

Polaris popped right up and began matching his charts to the dark, barely-visible terrain.

“No river. We need to head north.” PW concluded.

“Take us there.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice!” He moved the rudder stick and opened the regulator to help them go against the wind.

“There’s our river.” PW announced as the sun rose, prompting Frosty to lift her scope.

“Hm… runs right out into the sea. There’s a sandy barrier island a few hundred yards wide. That’ll do. Take us to the island!” She decided, putting her scope down.

“Aye-aye, captain!” PW smiled, beginning to dump hot air from the balloons.

Though it was freezing cold at altitude, before PW could open the hatch all of the ice had already melted from the windows. After the cabin check valve had popped open, PW tried to open the hatch but couldn’t.

“Frosty? It’s stuck!” He complained, heaving it as hard as he could.

His large companion pushed her hoof into the hatch and it yielded with a great *crack!*

Gusts rushed in and PW heard a sliding sound on the metal above them, moving towards the window. A slab of ice rolled off the picturesque window and entered freefall. He climbed the ladder and stuck his head above the hatch opening.

“Frost! Frosty, there’s frost up here!” He announced.

“Windy, there is now a lot of wind in our cabin!” She yelled back.

He laughed as he pushed more ice off, watching it disappear into the miles-deep void below.

A few minutes later they were over their intended landing location and PW began slowing the craft. He looked at the barometer and saw they were at 10,000 feet already.

“Frosty, we’re at 10k and it’s almost warm. It’s going to be really, really hot down there.” He recognized the warning sign from his aviation experience.

By 5,000 feet conditions were already miserable.

“Ugh; it must be 100 degrees! How the hell are we not on the ground yet?” PW complained.

He looked over at Frosty, who was now fanning herself off. “I should have left that ice alone!” He realized.

The combination of the sun in the window, tropical air, and boiler attached to the craft were making for dangerous heat.

Frosty noticed PW heaving at the controls as they neared the ground. “Hey, little buddy. You okay?” She called.

“F-fine!” He puffed. “Wow, the out-outside air temperature is now one-hundredth!” His words were slurred.

“Polaris! I believe you have heat exhaustion!” She said, wide-eyed.

“T- too hot!” He muttered. “Oh, everything’s spinning…” He gasped and swerved back-and-forth with the rudder.

“Don’t you black out on my watch!” She shouted, opening the freshwater tank spigot. Frosty drank the still cool water straight from the fresh water tap, allowing her cheeks to expand. With nearly a quart of water in her cheeks, the supersoldier turned to Polaris and sprayed the water all over the small stallion in a shower.

He sighed in relief. “Ah! That feels so goood!” He unfurled his wings, unable to process how he was cooling down.

“Steer, Polaris, steer! I am not looking forward to this becoming a diving bell!” Frosty warned.

He regained his motor-control and noticed they had drifted over the ocean again. “I got it!” He called. Frosty looked down and reported their altitude. “One hundred feet. Slow us some!”

“On it!” PW said, opening the damper more.

“50… 40… 30… 20……10……” Frosty called. A hard bump knocked PW down.

“Contact!” He shouted, shutting the damper and pulling the balloon dump valve onto the ground dump hook.

“Get out! Out-out-out!” Frosty barked, all but tossing him out through the hatch. He instinctively opened his wings and glided to a landing on the beach.

The Night-Mare, who had up until now been drinking freshwater, had exhausted her supply and was now baking. She started climbing up the hatch but became stuck around her haunches.

“Frosty!” PW called in alarm.

“I’m fine, buddy.” She answered, pushing down hard on the hull of the craft. Her body popped up with an audible sound.

“PW, shovel sand into the ballast tanks! I don’t want this thing to go flying off under any circumstances.” She pointed.

He nodded and began cupping hooffuls of sand into the ballast tanks like it was his life’s role. Only then did Frosty leap from her perch. Upon seeing the balloon was not going to fly off, PW, still overheating, ran for the nearby bay.

Only after a few seconds of splashing in the warm water, Frosty was yelling at him. “PW! HEY!”

“What?”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Why not?” PW asked as she gestured to his left.

He turned to find saltwater cragodiles-- two sunning on the beach while a beady pair of eyes poked out of the water, coming right for him.

“EEK!”PW flapped his wings and bolted, escaping an untimely death. He landed beside the safety of his companion, gasping.

“Rule number one about the jungle-lands, Polaris: EVERYTHING will try to eat you.” She warned. “Now, we need to get this stuff out of there. Only one of us can fit… well easily… into the ship.”

“On it!” PW was glad to focus on a task instead of the cragodiles.

He leapt to the roof of the capsule and felt a burning sensation.

“Hothot HOT!” He cried as he pranced about on top of the metal hull, diving into the hatchway. By this point, the boiler pressure had dropped to almost 0. Good thing too, as every time Frosty leaned over to pick the gear up from the hatch, she would cause the capsule to lean.

PW managed to get all the gear out except her bag. “Frosty!” He grunted. “I’m trying! It’s too heavy!”

With a roll of her eyes she grabbed the hatch, yanked it down and reached inside. With a huff she pulled the gear from his hooves and through the hatchway. She released the capsule and it, along with PW, dropped back onto the ground.

The impact sent him to the floor. “Umf! That’s unbelievable power!” A very rough-housed assistant muttered. He started climbing up the ladder and flew from it to avoid touching the hull’s hot surface. “How do you touch that and not get hurt Frosty?” Polaris asked, landing beside her.

She shrugged. “It’s only 200 degrees or so. I just ignore it. It’s pain; nothing more. Too cool to even singe your fur.”

They took their ropes and drove stakes into the ground to hold the balloon down in the event of a storm. It took PW a good ten or twenty hits with the mallet to get a stake in while Frosty shoved each one down with one motion of her hoof. As a result she managed to stake eleven in the time it took PW to nail one.

“How do you do that?” PW asked in admiration.

Frosty sat back and puffed her chest out. “Four hundred pounds of raw earth-pony muscle.”

They got their gear on and began trekking south towards a grove of trees. Frosty stopped and looked at the pack of cragodiles. “I am hungry, PW.” The cragodiles vanished into the bay.

“Let’s hit the trees.” She continued, continuing her walk. They arrived at the grove below large coconut palms.

“Well that’s good. I’ll just fly up there and drop a few.” PW flapped his wings up to the fronds.

“That’s one way to do it, yes.” Frosty nodded as he managed to send a few coconuts her way.

“That’s good, c’mon down!” Frosty shouted after nearly a dozen had fallen.

The pegasus landed and examined them. “Now we have to find a way to crack them open…” PW figured.

“What are you talking about?” The mechanics in her fingers whined as she drove them into a coconut and cracked its hide. She pulled the husk apart as PW watched in awe. “For you.” Frosty offered, passing him a hemisphere.

“Wow, Frosty! This is very impressive.” He smiled.

“Thank you!”

After their meal Frosty had her plan. “You can leave your gear there for the time being. We’re going to make a dugout.”With that she pulled a very large spade and an ax from her saddlebag.

“A dugout?” He asked.

“Yes.” Frosty replied, walking off.

“What’s a dugout?” He trotted to her side.

“A dugout is a canoe made from a fallen tree. You cut a tree down, dig a hole in it, then it becomes a canoe.” Frosty explained as she was peering into the jungle.

“That’ll do.” Frosty settled, suddenly turning into the trees.

“Where are you going?”

“To cut a tree down!” She shouted as the foliage she’d parted snapped back in front of PW’s face.

“Whoa – be careful! Your rump is spring-loading branches in my face!”

“Oh. I suggest you grow a few inches, then.” She shrugged.

“Seriously?” He complained as she smiled back at him behind some palms. She held the next clump of branches as PW passed through. “Thanks.”

Frosty’s tail snagged a few times on the thick vegetation. By the time they reached their tree – a good Euterpe Palm three feet in diameter – Frosty had had enough.

She dug through her gear and reared. “Long hair is very bad in the jungle.” She stepped into a pair of black bikini bottoms and pulled the garment into place. “Catch!” She threw PW two elastic bands.

“What are these?” He wondered aloud.

“Bands for your mane and tail. Tie them up.” She gathered her own tail, doubled it over and secured the bundle with a band. She did her mane up in a ponytail and secured that as well.

PW mirrored her moves.

“What’s with the swimsuit?” PW asked.

Frosty gave him a glance.

“Really, PW…" She sighed. "There’s a particular fish rumored to be in this area called the molester fish. I’ll leave you to guess how it got that name. But… There's another reason. That I’ll also leave you to figure out.” She gave a small smile, yanked a machete from its sheath and turned about, bending down to clear the dense foliage from the area.

PW’s eyes went wide and he pursed his lips in realization. He wiped his nose with a forehoof and then held it while the Night-Mare took the big ax in her hooves and firmly planted her thick hind legs in a stance that must have been three feet wide.

“Stand back, PW. Way back.” Frosty warned as a redder-than-usual PW did as he was told.

Her muscles tensed as she heaved the ax into the trunk with a blistering *CRACK*. The side of the tree all but exploded, showering them both in a cloud of splinters.

“Sweet Celestia!” PW hissed in delight.

He caught Frosty's tiny smile as she walked to the other side of the tree.

With one swing she hacked a foot-deep gash clean through the tree. A swing, a crack, and a rumble. Heartwood burst into the air as another third of it was dusted. Frosty threw her ax down on the ground and turned to face PW, getting between him and the tree.

“There’s a mare in Ponyville, an element-bearer, who runs a farm called Sweet Apple Acres. Her name is Applejack and she is famous for her apple-bucking skills but I bet I could give her a run for her money. TIMBER!” She yelled and brought her legs up.

A gust of wind was heard as two size-tens pushed through the air at a hundred miles per hour.

She pulverized the tree with all the force of a cannon, enveloping the trunk in a soup of sawdust and splinters. Frosty trotted forwards to PW and turned to watch the trunk fall the other way. It took several vines and two smaller trees on its way down to land with a thunderous *THUD*

“FUCK YES!” PW whooped and hopped in excitement.

“You really are the best assistant a Night-Mare could ask for…” The satisfied giant responded, burying her ax into the side of the stump.

After clearing the rest of the area around the tree she cut a ten-yard long section off the tree to be used as the dugout. Then Frosty took hold of the log in her forelegs and began dragging it out of the jungle. The path cut by the enormous log was so wide PW was able to follow her out as if he was walking down a sidewalk.

“Hey Frosty! I’m just curious… were you always big? Even as a filly?” He asked.

“Everypony’s small at some point.” She replied, dropping her felled tree and digging for her shovel.

“When were you my size?” PW asked.

She paused and took a look at him.

“Probably ten? Maybe nine…” Frosty shrugged, finally pulling the shovel out.

“Sweet Celestia!” He exclaimed in admiration.

She next straddled the log and brought the shovel down hard, hauling it back to dig a chamber. She repeated this movement and more and more of the log was scraped away to form the canoe.

“Where did we land?” Frosty asked.

“Latitude 19 south, longitude 62 east.” PW remembered.

“Gotcha.”

The supersoldier kept digging as fast as any steam powered machine could have. In just a few seconds a sheen had developed on her bone-white coat; drops of sweat flying off her body. PW thought ahead and fished through her gear to get her canteen out. He presented it to her peripheral field of view.

She paused and snatched the canteen from his hoof, lifting it high above her and dumping it into her mouth. On one go she’d downed the entire gallon of water and tossed the container against her saddlebag. Then, she started swinging again.

“Do you want help?” PW asked.

She stopped and tilted her head.

“Hop up.” She huffed, tapping the top of the log opposite her.

PW reared and climbed onto the log as high as his standing height. Frosty passed her spade to him.

“This is really heavy!” He remarked.

“Okay. Show me what ‘cha got. Bring it down as hard as you can.” Frosty challenged.

PW raised the tool as high as he could, channeling his inner Night-Mare energy. “FOR THE NIGHT-MARE!” PW screamed, bringing the spade down with all his strength and pulling it through the wood.

“How’d I do?” He asked, opening his eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He looked down to his hoof-work. “What?” He gawked. The spade was a quarter inch deep in the wood, in a trench barely an inch long.

“Leave the heavy work for the earth-pony… Windy-chan.” Frosty teased, taking the spade back. “Use your ax on the trees around us and collect some water for me and the boiler? That would help.”

“I’m sorry.” PW apologized, gliding down.

“Polaris I am a North-Woods Night-Mare! I am a piece of military hardware.” She reassured him.

“And I am a support structure for that hardware!”

“You are supporting me! By collecting water! You don’t need to be the muscle. That’s my job.” Frosty replied.

PW glanced at her thighs and found there was no argument there.

“Go on, PW. I’m getting thirsty!” Frosty called.

The defeated stallion took his spade into the forest with a bucket as she went back to work. He jammed the tool into a tree and water began to drip. He repeated the process a few more times to open ten taps to fill the bucket. Then, he saw a red, slithering object in the foliage a few yards away. It was moving.

“Frosty! SNAKE! Red snake.” He yelped and backed away.

All red?” She called back.

“Yeah?”

“Clelia! It’s harmless. It only eats other snakes.” Frosty shouted.

The snake froze as he warily approached and snatched the bucket away.

Frosty noticed him trying to dump the bucket into the canteens.

“Just bring it here.” She ordered.

She took the bucket and drank straight from it. By now she’d hollowed out about three yards of canoe, with three more to go.

With Frosty taken care of, PW returned to the taps to collect more water for the boiler, keeping a sharp eye out for any more serpents. That took many trips as the boiler’s capacity was nearly a hundred gallons and just over half full. Hours later, with the boiler topped off he returned once again to the source of the chopping sounds. The canoe was taking shape but it would be a while yet before it was completed. With no more tasks PW settled into the shade and awaited the next phase of the mission.

Author's Note:

Molesting fish? You bet- Inspired by this real life Amazon abomination I learned of while reading about British explorer Percy Fawcett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru_(fish)

PreviousChapters Next