Return of the Ura

by Brotato

Ch.4: Mementos

Chapter four

Momentos

Kid held out his arm and the Pecker returned to the others. He took notice that the others' behavior had turned to more looks of curiosity after his old friend and their leader proved they were trustworthy. Some were even being bold enough to greet Fluttershy, who was having the time of her life as she soon became covered with them.

Fluttershy nuzzled a bird on her uplifted forehoof. "Oh they're so loveable. I can see why you kept one for a pet." Unfortunately their curiosity had to come to an end because the leader let out a shrill cry, causing the others to return to the tree. She blinked in surprise before looking at Kid. "Um, your friend says they would like to help us in any way they could. Should we tell them what we're looking for?"

"You can understand them?" Kid said in surprise. "I mean... Go right ahead. I know you can hear animals, but i'm surprised you can do the same for Caelonian fauna." The thought made him wonder if she could speak with squirts and other types of animals.

"Alright." She looked back towards the group of peckers in the tree. "My friends and I are looking for The Bastion. Can you help us find it?" The lead pecker agreed with a shrill cry and took off, followed by the other peckers taking to the sky.

"I'll take that as a yes," Kid muttered with a shrug before nodding towards the rest of the group. "Alright, everypony stay close now. We don't know what we'll find when we reach our destination." The others silently nodded and followed single file with the guards flanking the group. Though Rainbow spread her wings to prepare to take off.

"Actually, Fluttershy and I will keep watch from above as well. Come on Shy," she said with a nod towards her friend.

"Huh?" Fluttershy blinked in response before understanding what her friend tried to tell her; a smile spreading on her face. "Yes, we'll be watching the birds-I mean ground! We will be watching the ground. In the sky that is." She let out a sheepish smile while hoping her cover up worked.

Kid shook his head with a smile of his own. "Go on, but be sure to keep an eye out for danger." That's all he needed to say because Fluttershy shot into the sky almost as fast as Rainbow Dash. Motioning with his hand for the group to continue, he soon found Twilight trotting up to his side.

"Hammer?" The questioning hum from him was enough. "I know we're here to prevent whatever is happening to the Bastion, but I get the feeling you're here for something else. It probably isn't my place to ask, but are you hoping to find something?" Seeing the angered expression as he furrowed his brow, she frowned and lowered her ears. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"It's alright," Kid sighed as his expression softened. "I'm more angry with memories of what Discord did. You're all helping me with this, so you all at least deserve to know." Looking at the sky and passing trees, he sighed. "If you knew the world would change and lead to the passing of friends, loved ones... family. What would you cherish the most?"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but slowly closed it. Looking behind at her friends, she came up with an answer. "The memories of them," she answered in confidence. Kid only nodded.

"Back on the Bastion Rucks and I kept a... memorial of sorts to remember the good'ol days; before the Calamity. Newspaper clippings, advertisements, even random bits of mail. Sadly, most of them never reached the ones they were sent to."

"So, what is it you're looking for exactly?" Twilight inquired.

Kid rubbed the back of his white-haired head, ruffling the already spiky look he had going. "A picture of someone I loved dearly." He saw that starry-eyed look Twilight gave him at the corner of his eye. "Not like that. It's a picture of my mother. Though I'm starting to wonder: Am I that obvious?"

Twilight chuckled. "The Bastion is a part of who you are," she responded matter-of-factly. "It's only natural for you to come back and retrieve things you have lost." Kid only nodded in response.

Not a single peep came from the others as as they continued further in the landscape, which was slowly changing. Small brush and vines covered the ground, making it difficult to see where they were stepping. Kid had to warn the others about thorny and poisonous plants that starting appearing as well; getting to the point where the two ecosystems starting strangling each other. Although with Caelondia having more aggressive flora, Kid didn't doubt it had the upper hand.

"This is amazing! I've never seen so many new plants." Twilight had a notepad out and was currently making rough drawing and notes about a Caelondian flower. Anything new she found it immediately went into her notes. Although she learned quickly to ask Kid first. No such thing as never too careful when it comes to hostile plantlife.

"Wah!" Which Twilight has once again stumbled upon, causing her to bring up a transparent shield in front of herself; the dozens of needles sticking in the magical cover. While her gaze had been focused on a stumpy looking fern, a pincushion had grown near some tall grass and rocks; making it difficult to spot.

"Twilight! you alright?" Applejack attempted to reach her friend's side, but a volley of needles kept her at bay.

"Dont worry. I think I got this," Twilight said confidently. While keeping her shield up, she focused her magic on the hostile plant itself. With a great heave of magical prowess, the pincushion broke free of the dirt. She quickly finished it off by chucking the poor plant into the sky and somewhere far away from here; hopefully in a fire.

"Interesting way to get rid of it," Kid admired while watching the plant sail through the sky; disappearing from view behind the treeline. "But please be more careful next time." The light light sound of flapping wings could be heard from above.

"What the hay was that thing?" Rainbow Dash asked while landing next to Twilight, while Fluttershy followed close behind with a smile on her face.

"A pincushion that I might have thrown it a little harder than I should have," Twilight admitted sheepishly. "So, now that that danger is dealt with, did you find the Bastion, Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah it's not far from where you're heading. Probably another minute and you'll reach the hill it landed on. Just look for the dozens of fallen trees from the impact."

"Did you see anything else besides the Bastion? Possibly any more Gas Fellas?" Kid asked. His shotgun was already out at the mention of the Bastion being so close. Seeing Rainbow only shake her head, he rested the weapon on his shoulder. "They're probably hiding in the ground somewhere. Can you and Fluttershy keep watch while we approach? We might be walking into an ambush."

Rainbow gave a hoofed salute. "No problem. Come on Fluttershy."

"Oh, okay. Um, stay safe everypony." With Fluttershy's small wish they returned to the sky.

---

"By Pyth's mighty horns..."

The Bastion, or what parts of it he could recognized in the catastrophic mess, had been tossed around like a foal playing with blocks in a playroom. Though he noticed that the royal guard had done their best to clean up most of the uprooted tree's, piles of tree trunks and dirt still dotted the crash site. Some trees were even stuck inside the buildings.

The nearest building was the distillery, which had been reduced to nothing but a pile of wood and glass from the shattered bottles, with one of the previously mentioned trees sticking out a crumbled wall. The armory's sign peeked over the hill and no doubt would be in the same shape as the distillery.

"I didn't expect it to spread so far. Why don't we split up, but don't stray off alone," he looked up in time to spot Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy circling overhead. "Even if we have Rainbow and Fluttershy watching our backs."

Rarity eyed the piles of dirt spread out across the hill in distain. "Well the place defiantly could use some sprucing up. Care to help me, Twilight?" Said pony's ears perked up upon hearing her name.

"Sure. Why don't we move the rest of the fallen trees first," she offered as they both trotted away to work. The rest of the group decided to split up as well with the guards staying together, while Kid and Applejack searched through the Distillery. Kid shook his head in disappointment at what rested inside.

Piles of broken glass and partially whole bottles littered the floor. The cabinets they hid inside were also filled with glass; some of the doors even dislodged from their hinges. It was enough to make a drinker such as himself break out in tears. Kid took a moment to compose himself and hoped Roathus, the god of thirst and plenty, is enjoying Rucks' personal stock.

"You alright there, partner?" Applejack eyed Kid after noticing him standing in the middle of the room with his hands folded together.

"I'm fine. Just saddened to see so much of Rucks' hard work wasted. Plenty of good memories happened in this room." He picked up an empty bottle of Bastion Burbon and twisted it around for inspection. "Sad that most of the ingredients for these drinks are on Caelondia." Tossing the bottle back to the floor he jumped over the counter where all the cabinets were located. While the guards said they had found all they could it never hurt to double-check. The squeak of opening and closing cabinet doors broke the quiet air in the distillery as he searched for any hope of spirits. To Kid's surprise, he found a chipped bottle of Stabsinthe hiding in the corner located inside one of the bottom cabinets; the black stopper on top missing its sharp point. "Hello there."

Might come in handy later. Or right now... His mouth did feel a bit parched after the long trek, but then he noticed the drink's consistency in the bottle looked closer to tar thanks to the cold weather. Eh... Guess I'll wait.

"Find somethin?" Applejack inquired with her front hooves resting on the counter.

Kid glanced at Applejack as he stood up with his small bounty. "Hm? Oh, just found a bottle left over that the guards missed." Since he didn't have any bags to hold it he took his shotgun out from its holster and secured the bottle inside it for later. "I doubt there's anything else here. Lets go find the memorial." Leaving the distillery behind, Kid and Applejack continued uphill.

"You're taking things pretty well, Hammer. This being your previous home and all," Applejack pointed out. "I know i'd be mighty sad if I lost mine." Her ears lowered momentarily at the thought.

"I was more confused then sad when the Calamity first happened. Now I just want to get revenge on Discord destroying my second home. I'll have plenty of time to mourn my losses when everything is back to normal," he finished with his eyes cast towards the ground.

When they reached the apex of the hill, they both stared at the rest of the Bastion laying in ruins. The lost-in-found was nothing more than a pile of wood that spread down the hill. Next to it sat the shine in all its shattered glory; the pool that was once rested on top now empty and cracked in half on the ground. Several of the idols that represented Caelondia's gods were scattered among the rubble.

Kid picked up one near his feet with the form of a teal tower. It belonged to Jevel, the god of health and atrophy. Setting the small statue upright on a nearby log, he shouted in surprise as a piece of paper flew towards him and latched to the right side of his face.

Applejack did her best to not laugh, but still managed to chuckle a bit. "You alright there, sugarcube?"

"Yeah, just dandy," Kid said while peeling the invading parchment from his face. He quickly recognized the paper as an ad for helping work on the Rippling Walls. They were posted all across the city and he had seen plenty of them after the Calamity.

Looking up from the paper and towards the direction it had come from, he saw the memorial; still covered top to bottom with various mementos, but laying on its side. He approached the memorial in reverence as this building held the only link to honoring his past. He remembered Rucks once saying, 'By paying tribute to the past one may better prepare for the future.' By remembering past mistakes, he learned from those experiences and grew stronger.

"Article about the Mancers... recruitment poster for the Gunslingers... where is it?" Kid muttered to himself as he searched for the picture. Some of the items had ripped off from either the crash or natural elements such as wind or rain. He was reaching the other end, or bottom, of the monument when he saw it.

A fair women in her late thirties resting against the kitchen counter at home. It was only in black and white, but he knew his mother's hair was pure white like his. She always had her apron on when at home and this picture was no different. Kid kneeled down to carefully plucked the picture from the monument and rubbed his thumb over her face in fondness.

"That's her, huh?" Applejack inquired while looking over his shoulder.

"Yeah," Kid simply said. Happy to have a piece to remember her by, he slid it between the space where his chest armor and clothes were. "You probably would've liked her. She was kinder than any person I knew, yet she knew when to be brave or strong in trying times." He sighed as memories of his past decided to spring up, but he pushed them away. "Come on. Lets see how the others are doing and fix this mess."

Before another step could be taken, a loud rumble shook the earth as several shouts of surprise rang out from the armory. Shortly afterwards, the three royal guards that had accompanied them bolted out of the buildings and sprinted towards him.

"What's going on?" Kid shouted as he readied his shotgun to fire.

One of the guards held up a hoof as he took a moment to catch his breath. "We were searching your armory for anything helpful when another one of those blue things came bursting out from the ground. We managed to wound it, but it only seemed to make it angrier and began trashing the building with its pickax." Just as he finished his explanation, the entire wall of the armory exploded, sending bricks across the side of the hill and into the forest.

Twilight and Rarity soon joined them as they galloped over the hill. "Is everypony alright? What was that noise?" Gasfella smashed the rest of the wall apart and stepped out. It looked at the group on top of the hill before raising its pickax in the air and smashing the ground with the side of it; sending a rumble across the hill. It continued to repeat this while Kid blinked in confusion as to what it was doing.

"All of you stay here. I'll take care of-" Before Kid could finish, the ground underneath him exploded, sending him flying backwards and knocking the wind out of his lungs. Groaning in a daze, he picking himself up only to find another larger Gasfella glowering down at him, while several more burst from the ground to join the fight. Grabbing for his shotgun, he silently cursed when he saw it laying further down the hill.

Shit...

Comments

[LyonAzakura]

Great chapter!
I'm looking forward for the next one

[Tonto the Trotter]

Good chapter, yeah for more Gasfellas.

[Subatomic Seal]

Welp, that's it, yer screwed, see ya later.

[Subatomic Seal]

Holy anal cakes!!!! I just found out you're the author of Ace Combat:Shattered Rainbows! My life is complete!

[Brotato]

2473323

Holy anal cakes!!!!

Haven't heard that one before...

[Subatomic Seal]

2474653 I've used it quite a bit in real life. It's sort of my quirk, thinking up weird insults and the like.
One of my many profanities is "FUCKSHITFARTASSDICKPICKLE!!!!"