The Necro Walk

by WorldWalker128

Chapter 8

It's been approximately one month (give or take a few hours and minutes) since I posted a chapter for this story! Oh Noes! :'(
Rest assured, I'm not just dropping it off a cliff. I had alot of things on my plate for the last month, and I'm just about done with it now. In the meantime, here ya go!

Chapter 8

We stopped walking when we came to a clearing ringing a good-sized pond with a small stream flowing away from it. It was not very deep, but from the multiple sets of animal paw and hoof prints both large and small in the mud near the edge it was obvious that this was a watering hole and not just a pond.

“Fill your water bags. We might not find another source again any time soon.” Muscles said, removing the bag-equivalent of a canteen from his waist. The others did the same, as did I. Once we were done we were moving again, and once again I was cursing my lazy habits of the last fifteen or so years. My socks had been made for comfort and not for durability and had their heels worn out before we'd even arrived at the forest's edge, and I could already feel blisters forming. It was not pleasant.

“Are we there, yet?” I asked two minutes after we'd left the pond behind, groaning.

“Do you see a big blue bear with a star on its forehead anywhere?” I looked around.

“Nope. You?”

“No. We'll get there when we get there. If it's too much for you, old timer, you could have just stayed with the walking vittles.”

“Call me old one more time and I'll rust your armor solid. I've had it with everyone of your race calling me that. Providing I don't die on this little escapade I'll probably outlive all five of you in terms of natural years.”

“Yeah. Sure you will.” He scoffed, though I wasn't sure if he meant that I'd not rust his armor, or that I'd outlive him. Changing the subject, I asked a question that made all five of them twitch. Two of them idly scratched a part of their body.

“So, how about them mosquitoes? Thick out here, aren't they?” I said cheerfully. I paused and waited a minute, then added “I must have woken up with over two dozen new bites both mornings! Good thing I know how to get rid of them!”

'Muscles' stopped in mid-step and slowly turned his head around to look at me. He did not look happy. Neither did his companions, who stopped shortly after he did.

“You....You healed your mosquito bites both times and didn't think to mention that you could to us?!” He said through gritted teeth.

“You never asked!” I replied, feigning confusion and putting on an innocent face. “For all I knew, they could have left you alone and only went after me!” Muscles started shouting at me, to my amusement.

“You saw us scratching all day for the last two days you-” A loud thud echoed through the trees and vibrated the ground beneath our feet and it suddenly occurred to me that making him shout at me when we were supposedly trespassing in the territory of a large animal was one of my worse ideas.

Muscles instantly became silent and we froze in place as another loud vibrating thud shook the forest, followed by another and another.

“Well, at least we won't have to look for it anymore!” The woman in our group said nervously as a cluster of trees ahead of us shook harder than the rest of the forest after the latest footfall. She took a step back at the sound of cracking wood. Everyone but me and Muscles did the same.

“Looks like you're up, wizard. Try not to die, because I'd rather not have to fight-” he was interrupted again, this time by the cluster of trees being pushed over and smashing into the ground and a very grumpy-looking, very big Ursa Minor's head came into view. He inhaled deeply, getting our scent, and then his eyes widened briefly, and then narrowed. He growled menacingly and took a stomping step forward. The Hunter-Humans fled, leaving me to stand alone, and I suddenly wished I had my staff instead of just Twilight's horn. Granted, Twilight was extremely powerful for a Unicorn, and I was much more skilled with combat magic than she had been (since Luna had been my teacher and not Celestia), but even so, this was my first encounter with one with the intent to capture or fight it. The only other time I'd seen one it was much smaller, and had just woken up from hibernation and was not very much aware of its surroundings yet. I had hidden myself and waited for it to go away. Now this was not an option.

“Okay Bluegy-bear, we can do this one of two ways:” I said to it. Its eyes focused on me, still looking unhappy. “You can come along with me peacefully, or I can incapacitate you and probably injure you in the process. Your choice. Either way, you're coming back with me.” Seeing that the others had run, and probably suspecting I was just insane, the bear lost its grumpy look, rolled its eyes and snorted, its breath from that one snort blowing me backward a step. “Fine, have it your way.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, lowering my head as I mentally searched the ground beneath my feet for anything I could use as a weapon. I had the knife in my one boot, of course, but it was a toothpick compared to the hulking blue body before me.

While I searched the Ursa began turning away, crushing foliage beneath its massive paws.

“What are you doing?” One of the Hunter-Humans called to me, sounding confused and annoyed. “It's leaving! This is no time to be taking a nap!”

“Shut up and let me concentrate!” I shot back, frowning. The forest floor was your typical forest floor: Dirt, tree roots, a few animal burrows, some miscellaneous stones, a few partial skeletal remains of various small animals, and just enough water soaked into the soil for the trees to survive on. So not much for me to work with at all save for burying it up to it's neck in dirt which won't be useful since we need to move it back to the camp. Lovely. I could, of course, simply conjure up a spell rather than manipulating nature, but most of the combat magic that I had been taught probably would either do too little damage, or too much, and I had no way of knowing what the physical limits (or the arrangement of their internal organs, if they had any) of an Ursa were. Still, nothing would get done if I simply let it walk away, would it?

Focusing my will on the large creature and drawing hard on the horn's capabilities I recalled a strong sleep spell that was meant to be used on a large group and tried putting the Ursa to sleep. The bear yawned, but did not otherwise seem to be affected. Not good. I once used that to knock out a stampede of cows! Perhaps a more direct aim will be necessary... Focusing again, I aimed the same spell at the bear's head this time, rather than its entire body. If I could convince the brain that it was time to sleep, the rest of the body would (hopefully) follow. The bear yawned again, longer this time, and its movements became sluggish. Unfortunately it was still moving. I gritted my teeth and began following it at a jog. Though the thing was walking slowly, a single one of its steps was at least twice as long as I was tall, and the exposed roots of the old trees around me was not helping either.

Maybe I can hypnotize it or something...make it think that it's home is in the opposite direction? Not very likely. Hypnotism, contrary to the beliefs of the ignorant, was not magic, and as a result it had not come up in my studies. About all I knew of hypnotism came from movies, so I could get about as far as telling the Ursa to relax, and then I'd get stuck. For a moment my imagination concocted the silly image of me sitting the Ursa down on a huge couch and swinging a coin on a cord back and forth, but I pushed it away. So not hypnotism...but what about mind control?

Twilight had once told me (and demonstrated when I did not believe her) about a spell she'd created and cast a few times in her younger years. The spell had no official name, but she called it the 'Want it, Need it' spell. Supposedly if an object or person it was cast on was seen by any other creature or being that creature or being would try using whatever means necessary to obtain it or them. But do I really want Bearzilla's offspring rampaging after whatever I cast that spell on? I recalled what the Hunter-Humans had told me about their last encounter with the Ursa. Better question! Do I really want it to get close enough to home so that Bearzilla can smell us and tries to kill us? Details can wait!

I cast my sight about, looking for something large enough to hold the Ursa Minor's attention. There wasn't much: a few rotting tree stumps, a berry bush, and a stupid deer that did not seem to catch on that a predator that could eat Sugarcube Corner for dessert was tromping about the woods. In the end I decided to use the simplest thing to keep track of: myself.

Getting the feeling that this was one of the worst Ideas I'd ever had, I mentally ran through the 'weaving' of the spell, and then actually prepared it, and finally cast it on myself. A weird pink light settled on my form for a few seconds, and then faded. Wondering if I made a mistake somewhere I got ready to cast it again, but then I glowed again briefly, still pink. Satisfied, I nodded and lifted myself into the air and flew in front of the Ursa and waved my arms and legs about to get its attention.

The Ursa minor stopped and locked its gaze on me, it's huge pupils rapidly shrinking until they were the size of my head. The bear shook its head from side to side, causing a breeze that moved the lower branches of the shorter trees nearest to it, then rapidly blinked it's mostly-orange eyes before its pupils went from blood-red to bright pink. The bear sniffed at me, smiled, (Bears can smile???) and stopped walking to watch me. I flew back several feet. It took one step forward. Okay, so it works. But for how long, I wonder? Twilight had not mentioned how long the spell was supposed to last, only that it had been Celestia that had dispelled it the third time she'd used it. Best to not waste time. I began flying back through, moving at maybe about twenty five miles per hour. Not very fast, but I wasn't sure exactly where the Hunter Humans were, and I did not want them to be trampled.

The Ursa squeezed through the older trees, and pushed over the younger when he could. It was not smiling anymore, but looked a bit distressed that I was moving away from it. I increased my speed by ten and a few seconds later found myself outside the trees and back above open ground, The Ursa trying harder to keep up, now looking frustrated. No longer content to simply follow me, it began pursuing me instead, and gained ground quickly until I was only a few feet in front of me, then it swiped at me with its paw. I quickly dodged it and once more increased my speed, now turning my body around completely as I fled the large creature. The bear growled in frustration, and to my dismay also sped up and swiped at me again. Perhaps I should have thought this through better... I thought as it swiped at me again, cupping its paw with intent of catching me rather than smacking me. It missed, but the drag caused by the wind pushed me towards the ground. I ascended again and squinted my eyes and sped up one last time. This would be the last time I could do it, because I had no glasses or goggles to shield my eyes from the wind, and once I began moving at forty five mph my eyes began to water, and I needed to be able to see where I was going unless I wanted to crash into the occasional field tree, let alone make it back to the headquarters.

The Ursa's paw-steps rumbled on the ground like thunder, its breath huffing and hot, and even in the daylight its coat twinkled like a starry blue cape. To a casual observer, it must have seemed comical that an Ursa Minor was chasing something so small in comparison to itself; hardly worth the meat reward for all the effort.

It was nearing sundown when I began to, at last, grow weary. I was skilled, and Twilight's horn granted me access to a huge amount of power should I need it, however, my endurance was still limited by my own strength, and I had not used magic at such a continuous rate with only a Unicorn's horn since the time that Luna and Celestia went on vacation for a month and left me, Trixie, and a handful of very skilled Unicorns in charge of raising and lowering the sun and moon (that had been an...interesting experience. Very straining, too).

Knowing that it would add an additional drain to my energy reserves but also needing to be able to see, I gathered from the light reflecting off the moon which darkened the general area overall, but formed a ray of light that lit my path. So long as I had not veered off course I would probably arrive again at the encampment in less than an hour.

It turned out that had veered off course just a tad, and had to reroute to my left a bit. It also turned out that the 'Want it, Need it' spell had a limit of about eight hours. Now the Ursa was chasing me out of anger at having been enchanted and forced to run hundreds of miles in unfamiliar territory. I could only hope the dang thing would be too worn out by the time I arrived at my destination to put up much of a fight. As long as that was the case, I- Oh, that's just perfect! I groaned as a glow in the distance became visible. As I drew closer I could make out individual lights which had to be torches. Eventually I could also make out the shapes of tents. Okay, this is close enough. I pulled up and rose into the air. The Ursa slid forward, tearing trenches into the dirt with its claws and nearly falling on its face. Higher ans higher I climbed, my light source making my location as plain as day. I stopped rising and looked at the bear beneath me, planning my next move while the Ursa growled and then roared at me. It then rose up to stand on its hind legs and tried to swat me with a claw. I teleported to the backside of its claw and a little lower, then 'blinked' again (sometimes called that because of the half-second flash of light that occurred both from the starting point of the self-transporting as well at the reappearance point) to dodge its second swipe, and then a third time to get out of its reach.

Refocusing the light, I shone it directly into the Ursa's eyes to blind and hopefully stun it, and then focused on the soil beneath the Ursa's hind legs. Most of the top layer was common decomposed plant matter, but two feet down the soil became intermixed with small rocks, and another two feet down the rocks went from small to large, and finally to bedrock. Not what I'd hoped for, but I can still work with this. I just hope the bear stays still long enough for that!

I reached into the places beneath the Ursa's hind legs and loosened the dirt, and then drew it out from under the pads and between the claws like water washing sand from a fist through the fingers at the beach. At first the Ursa seemed not to notice and continued roaring at me and trying to hit me, though it was too far beneath me to even scratch the soles of my boots (but not by much. About twelve inches lower and I'd have been missing a foot). It was not until the rocks began also scraping along its pads that it gained a puzzled expression and looked down at the ground curiously. It stared at the spectacle of the dirt and rocks moving seemingly of their own accord, and then its eyes widened and it once more turned its gaze on me again, gave me a smug look, and settled on all fours again, casually stepping out of the pits I'd made. It looked up at me again and stuck out its tongue. I smiled back and formed tentacles from the soil and stone and wrapped them around the neck of the Ursa, and slammed its head on the ground. It blinked its eyes in surprise and then shook its head, tearing the tentacles to pieces. It snarled, once more angry and chose a new tactic: It scooped up one of the larger rocks that I was still removing from the soil where the bear had once stood and hurled it at me.

“Gaah!” I 'blinked' to one side only to dodge another large hurled rock, my eyes wide from surprise. Clearly this creature was much smarter than our bears back on Earth.

I focused my will and once more formed tentacles, but this time I wrapped them around its hind legs, though I made no attempt to cease the bear's antics this time. That would come later. For now I needed to soften the bare bedrock until it had the consistency of wet cement.

__ __ __ __ __

“What in tarnation?!” Applejack exclaimed as a loud rumbling and the ground's shaking brought her and Jackylin awake again.

The two of them had stopped to rest for the night when it became evident that it would soon be too dark to see very well, and then had set out again the following day. According to what Jackylin said, they were making very good time and should be catching up to them the following day. Applejack personally thought that she'd make better time if she left Jackylin behind, but unfortunately Applejack herself wasn't much of a tracker, and needed her two-legged companion's expertise.

Jackylin bolted upright at Applejack's exclamation, her standard-issue long knife in hand to ward off an attack should it come. Almost as quickly as the rumbling and shaking had come however, it began to fade away again. Applejack and Jackylin looked at one another in the pale light of the moon that shone into the large tent through the opening and then hastily crawled out to have a look around. At first they saw nothing while their eyes adjusted to the brighter, though still pale, light. When they could once more see clearly they still saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“I'm going to take a look around.” Jackylin said, sliding the knife into her boot and relaxing a little. “I'll be back soon.”

“An jus' what am I to be doin' while yer off lookin' about?” Jackylin shrugged.

“You can keep watch, look for brush to for what's left of the fire, relive your bodily wastes; it's up to you.” Jackylin jogged out into the wilderness without another word, leaving Applejack to her own devices.

Less than an hour later Jackylin returned, a frown on her face. Applejack looked up from the campfire she'd rekindled in Jackylin's absence and stood to her four hooves.

“Well?”

“Something really big ran by. I'm not certain what, but I can guess. I think your friend is well on his way to completing his mission.”

“Then we should pack up an' start heading back, too!” Applejack declared, retreating into the tent to retrieve her hat.

“You're forgetting why we stopped in the first place,” Jackylin said, rolling her eyes. “it's too dark right now for that! My eyes are good, but your small wildlife have a nasty habit of digging holes in the ground and then concealing them. I'd rather not break a leg because of haste. I've missed out on him actually subduing it, and now we're going to have a day's walk back to the encampment, but it's worth it as long as I can stay in good health. Now,” Jackylin once more crawled into the tent. “I'm going back to sleep. Good night.”

When they were once more awake in the morning they were greeted by the odd sight of five more Hunter Humans stumbling along looking as if they'd just run all night and most of the day through a forest and perhaps one another.

“What in the king's claws are you doing here?” Jackylin demanded to know. “Aren't you supposed to be with Lighthand?” The most muscular of the two men and the woman collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. The others slouched and leaned forward, their hands on their knees to support them.

“For...forgive us, Miss Darkfist!” She gasped in between breaths. “When the Ursa, as he called it, found us Lighthand went after it on his own, and then used some spell to make the creature follow him.” The woman raised her head from the ground and also spoke.

“As we watched him do this and began to follow him out of the woods a strange haze came over us and we began sprinting in an attempt to catch him even though the two of them were traveling far to fast for us to hope to keep up on foot. At one point we began to fight one another while running.”

“His enchantment probably affected you three the same way it did the giant bear.” Jackylin concluded, nodding. “Are you five alright?” The woman nodded, as did the skinnier man. The muscled man groaned.

“We'll survive.”

“Then rest here for a day, then return to the encampment. I shall head back now.”

“Can you leave the pony behind?” The man asked hesitantly. “If you're not using it for anything, that is. After the last few days I'd like to have a fresh meal and-”

“You try tah so much as lay a hand on me and I'll buck yer skull so hard it'll fly out yer backside!” Applejack threatened in a loud and angry voice. The man gulped and Jackylin laughed hard.

“Wondrous threat, Applejack! I'll have to remember that one!” When Jackylin's mirth had lessened to a smile she explained that Applejack was a pony sent from the village she'd agreed they'd stop attacking. “So no, you can't eat her, but you can have my supplies. I'll find something on the way back. You'll find my food bag under that small pike of rocks next to the remains of out fire.” She said, pointing at it.

“Thank you, miss!”

Jackylin and Applejack made it back to the camp at a faster rate than when they had left because Jackylin no longer had a need to track, but it still took them longer than a day to get back. As with before, Jackylin set up her tent and crawled into it, as did Applejack, and as they had before, Applejack laid down at the farthest point she could from Jackylin.

Although Jackylin had given Applejack her word that she would do her no harm, both Applejack's instinct and her previous experiences around the Hunter Humans made her wary. Still, the tent provided shelter, and the weather in this area had taken a turn for the worst. Rain had begun falling just shortly they'd left the other five behind, and she already knew from her time in the Equestrian army that sleeping in rain was no fun at all.

Shortly after lying down Jackylin had fallen asleep and was snoring lightly but even after an hour of lying down in the tent and listening to the rain pattering against the water-proofed cloth that made up the walls of the tent she still found herself unable to sleep.

Less than a month ago I would have killed her with little to no hesitation. Now I'm sleeping in the same tent with one! Applejack shook her head at the irony of it. Applejack wondered just how far this Human could be trusted. She had claimed while they had been walking the previous day that she and that 'Lighthand' fellow had an understanding and so long as he continued to work for her and ultimately helped her achieve her goals she would not attack her hometown. Jackylin's eyes and her own instincts told Applejack that she was being honest with her, but Applejack had to wonder just what it was that Lighthand was supposed to be doing. She doubted very highly that capturing an Ursa Minor was the extent of this Human female's ambition, and there had been very little that she'd revealed as to what that ambition might be. Lighthand seems to genuinely wants to help us, if'n him freeing those others from her camp is any indication, and both Twilight and Celestia trust him, so I reckon I can too, but can I trust her? She'll hold to her word, ah think, but what about the rest of her folk? The only way to know would be to stick around after they got back to the encampment and study the other Hunter Humans. Applejack was normally good at reading folk, and the Humans generally seemed to have the same facial expressions that her people did so it would probably not be very difficult to find out how many of them would abide by Jackylin's orders.

Applejack yawned and lowered her head to the floor of the tent. But that can wait until we actually get there. thirty six seconds later Applejack was also asleep.

When they finally arrived back at the encampment again they were met with the interesting sight of an Ursa Minor being buried up to its neck in stone and soil. Both of them stared at the Ursa, which growled at several Hunter Humans if they wandered near to it.

“Well, I may not have seen him do it, but I'm convinced!” Jackylin said, smugly smiling. Not even her grandfather would be able to say no after this turn of events. Jackylin walked closer to the Ursa, stopping just out of its reach. It snarled at her and bared its teeth. Jackylin smirked at it.

“Complain all you want, but you're ours now.” Applejack came closer as well, but with quite a bit more caution than Jackylin had used and licked her lips.

“Um, are you sure that we should be standing so close to this thing?” The Ursa parted its jaws and stuck its tongue out, reaching for Jackylin, who cursed and propelled herself back with both her legs, the tongue grazing both of her legs and leaving a trail of saliva behind, much to her disgust as she landed on her butt.

“Yuck! I think I'll take your advice and not get so close next time!” Jackylin pulled off her boots and socks and carried them in her hands as the saliva of the Ursa oozed down her legs. Jackylin circled around the Ursa and continued on into the main area of the encampment, Applejack close behind. Once she had checked in with the border guards she made a beeline for their water supply and splashed some cold water on her legs and scrubbed with her hands until she was clean. When she finished she reached for a metal cup and dipped it into the barrel she'd used, drank her fill, and then offered some water to Applejack, who took a second metal cup and also drank, declining the use of the cup that Jackylin had used. Shrugging, Jackylin drank again and then set the cup she'd used back on the barrel she'd taken it from and waited for Applejack to finish. When she had Applejack continued following Jackylin as she went from one place in the encampment to another, asking her fellow Humans if they had seen either her grandfather, or Jacob Lighthand. Most of them said that Jacob was resting and that her grandfather was speaking with a messenger from Gaea's king. When she asked what it was about, they shrugged and replied that they did not know, so of course her next destination became her grandfather's tent, which it turned out, he was not in.

“Maybe they left this 'ere camp so they could get some privacy.”Applejack suggested. “Tents ain't exactly soundproof, ya'know.”

“Maybe...” But if that's really the case, then what could the message be? It couldn’t be anything good. Normally the king left the hunter teams to their own devices except when diplomacy with the Griffons was an issue. If he was taking a personal interest in what they were doing out here, then perhaps one of her 'loyal followers' were not quite as loyal as she'd hoped and had reported her ambitions to him! Still, something like that would hardly warrant a messenger, especially when it would have been much simpler to have that same follower poison her meal or drink instead. Besides, he already knows that there are many that want his position, and many of them are far more threatening to his reign than me. But then, She smirked. that's what I've got Jacob Lighthand for! “I suppose the only thing we can do now is wait. Will you be staying here, Applejack? Or shall you be returning to your village to report your findings?”

“I s'pose I'll head back fer now. Not much sense in stayin' here when the only thing I'm wanted fer is dinner!” Her expression darkened. “Not to mention that it was yer people that killed one of my best friends less than a week ago!” Jackylin sighed.

“Regardless of how it may seem from your perspective, Applejack, my people are not evil. When we kill something that is not of our own race, it is almost always for food or self-defense, and usually both. Unlike Lighthand, my people cannot eat plants with any hope of receiving nourishment from them. I won't deny that we've killed and eaten your people, but I also won't pretend that I take pleasure in it even though many in rank above me think I'm weak because of it. There are some amongst my kind that enjoy killing, but I'm not one of them. I kill to survive and to ensure the survival of my friends, neighbors, and family. You can believe that, or not.”

“I suggest you stow that opinion away for now, Jackylin. It looks like the chance you've been waiting for has finally come up.” Came Jackylin's grandfather's voice from behind her. Jackylin and Applejack both turned to see him standing with an outstretched arm gripping a scroll in one hand. Jackylin turned and took it from him, upon which time he lowered his arm to his side again.

“What's this?” She asked as she unrolled it and pulled it taught.

“A letter from the messenger that is waiting for my reply. The king has decreed that every hunter group, be they from a town or from a tribe, is to send a representative to attend a banquet at the capital back home on Gaea to inform him of the progression of our world's encroachment of this one.” Jackylin scanned the contents of the scrolls, her eyes moving back and forth as they scrolled down the neat, cursive text. At the bottom was a wax stamp with the king's symbol stamped into it. It was from the king, alright. Jackylin looked up from the parchment and rerolled the scroll. “I have much to oversee here, and your father is out hunting with another team and will be for several more days, so I thought I might send you in our stead. The message, as I'm sure you are aware, says you may bring along, at the most, two bodyguards for protection from rivals.” He winked at her, allowing a ghost of a smile on his face for a moment. “I have the utmost confidence in your abilities, but then, one can never be too careful, can they, granddaughter?” Jackylin fought a smile of her own and nodded.

“I know just the right people for the job. I accept!”

__ __ __ __ __

“Aaaannd...done!” Pinkie declared with a satisfied smile and put her paintbrush down on the wooden board that hung from the top of the cloud-house's roof by two ropes like a window-washer's platform. Before her in rainbow letters read Rainbow's Thunder, in memory of her best friend and stating what sound would be coming from the house once the cannons had been installed at every window.

But just adding cannons were not the limit of Pinkie and Pip's plans for the soon-to-be flying fortress. Because the house could not move on its own it would require the help of several Pegasi pushing at the cloud the house sat upon, which would leave them vulnerable to any missile-type attacks, be they arrows, or catapult shot, and should any of them be on fire, it could burn away the cloud the house sat upon, which would spell doom for anyone or anypony inside. To counter this issue one of the guards tha thad come to Ponyville along with Trixie and Applejack suggested constructing a large plate of metal that would hang down from several poles of metal going down through the floor of the house that would extend around the bottom of the cloud as well as have an extra extension of about a eighteen inches. For additional protection they would also add an outer layer of metal along the outside walls to hopefully prevent any burning arrows from finding purchase, as well as block smaller catapult projectiles.

They could not add as much protection as the guard would have liked, however, otherwise the cloud would be too heavily weighted to stay in the air. As it was they had needed to remove all of Rainbow Dash's furniture and remove pretty much everything else that had marked it as being more than just a shell of a house. The sink was gone, her fountain was gone, the glass for the windows was gone, cabinets, chimney; everything that could be spared was removed save for a picture taken of her flying with the Wonderbolts after she had rescued Rarity and them during the Young Fliers competition those years ago. Pinkie Pie had been adamant about keeping it, and nopony had the heart to tell her otherwise.

Pipsqueak looked up at the name for their converted creation and smiled. Pinkie Pie had practically slid down the ladder only a few seconds after she'd stared into empty space and grabbed several buckets of paint before climbing back up again. From there she spent a ridiculous amount of time making sure each letter was evenly spaced in an arch that made it into a rainbow-arch of letters and wiped up every smudge. During this time the Pegasi that had demonstrated Pinkie's wild idea had brought the cloud down close to the ground and the other pony denizens of Ponyville had removed the furniture and had begun upgrading the structure. They were nowhere close to being done, and were having new ideas every other hour which at times set them back again, but at the moment both he and Pinkie were satisfied, and their original idea of putting cannons in it had been done. Now Pinkie was fanning the wet paint with a large paper fan to dry it.

“Pinkie Pie, it is a sunny day, and there's already a light breeze. I don't think that you need to be here to supervise the paint drying, too.” he chuckled. “Besides, don't you think that we should send your idea to Celestia and have somepony fly to Cloudsdale to do this there too? Something like this could make moving troops around much safer on top of also being able to attack from out of reach.”

Pinkie Pie looked at Pipsqueak, the drying letters, then at him again and nodded, suddenly standing to her hooves and picking up the various paint cans in her mouth all at once and hopped down from the board to join him on the ground. Pinkie Pie dropped them off by a pile of miscellaneous construction supplies and then spit out the saliva that was in her mouth, making a face. From there she and Pipsqueak circled the house to observe the progress of the other ponies that moved about on the outside and inside of the house like a colony of ants hard at work. Satisfied that the cloud-house was in good hooves she trotted to the post office looking for Spike, and hastily wrote a letter while her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth. She then drew a picture with several arrows pointing at several points of the drawing and labeled them, and then finally joined the rather short line of ponies sending out letters.

“Hey Pinkie Pie!” Spike greeted. “What's up?”

“Oh lots of things, Spike, but I can tell you them all later. Right now I need you to send this letter to both Celestia and to Cloudsdale!” Spike blinked and then asked Pinkie hesitantly if she knew that he could not send one letter to two different places at the same time.

“You'll need to make a copy of it if you want me to send your letter to two different places.” Pinkie made an annoyed face.

“Drat! Okay, I'll be right back, then!” Pinkie Pie stepped out of line and set to making a second letter. During this time Twilight Sparkle walked in and also asked what Pinkie Pie was up to. Pipsqueak explained why they'd come and Twilight nodded, agreeing with him.

“Something like the cloud-houses won't stop Griffons from being able to attack, but they'd have to force their way inside first to do so, and any Pegasi outside would only have to fly indoors to be safe from them!”

“That is what we were thinking. Do you think Celestia will approve?” Pipsqueak asked.

“I don't see why she wouldn't.”

“Here ya go, Spike!” Pinkie said as her turn in line came up again.

“That was fast, Pinkie!”

“Well I already knew what I wanted to say, so making a copy was easy!” Spike toasted both letters, each flame a different color. “Now we just need to finish outfitting our flying fortress for battle, and then we can test it!” Twilight gave her a nervous look.

“Um, Pinkie, do you really think that purposely picking a fight with the Humans or Griffons is a good idea?”

“Who said anything about picking a fight, silly? I'm just going to hurl baked goods from the windows and try to hit targets! We still haven't worked out what to use for ammunition for the cannons as far as using them as a weapon goes. My confetti shot only goes so far, you know, and it's not meant for hurting anyone!”

“Any ideas, Pip? You're our pirate expert.”

“Hardly an expert, miss Sparkle.” Pipsqueak objected. “What little I know of them I read about in a book when I was little.”

“Do you remember what the title was?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, I do believe so.”

“Well I do live in a library, Pip.” Twilight pointed out. “Why don't we see if we can find out what pirates used from there?”

“You're kidding, right?” Twilight asked the book that Pip had shown her. According to the book (which had been written as an adventure story for foals and young colts and fillies) cannons fired water balloons filled with sleeping potion. When the balloons exploded and doused the ponies the pirates attacked the pirates would board the ship, rob it, and then leave before the crew woke up again. While this no doubt had been one of their tactics, Twilight doubted that the balloons would have survived the black powder explosion from the cannons to launch their projectiles. “I guess I should have expected this from a foal's storybook. Maybe there's some other book we can check.”

Twilight, and Pipsqueak searched the shelving for an hour before finally finding another book on pirates. This one was much more helpful, and quite a bit more descriptive and gruesome. There were even several pictures of the ponies and other creatures that had been struck by what the book called 'cannonballs', as well as iron shafts that the book called 'harpoons' that were normally used to prevent a ship from escaping or for hunting whales. It even had, at one time, been used during the ancient Dragon War to bring Dragons to the ground.

“Well, that's two things we can use, at least!” Pip said, placing the book back on the shelf when they had finished with it. “Now we just need to make some!” Twilight nodded, part of her wanting to smile and the other half wanting to vomit after seeing a graphic picture of a newly-headless Griffon whose face had met with a fired cannonball. War even in small doses could truly be a gruesome thing.
______________
Personally, I don't think that the Jacob segment was the best, and much preferred the bit with Applejack and Jackylin. *Shrugs.*
Oh well, good night!

Comments

[Captain Chaos]

Good stuff, good stuff, I look forward to the next update!

[shira]

Man, Jacob is eventually going to have to turn up the badass. He's been dealing with the predator-humans with kid gloves so far. Hope he doesn't get burned trying to take out a whole hell of a lot of them at once.

Edit: I'm curious what he plans in general, he's dancing a fine line at this point.

[WorldWalker128]

462149
Well, I can tell you this without ruining anything: He's going to have to make a few tough decisions in the next two chapters, but other than saying that one of them will decide whether another of the characters lives or dies , I won't reveal any more.

[shira]

463264

Keep killing off characters and I think we may have to get you a "tragedy" tag