Previous Chapters
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/429543 ... save-chaos
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Gaitlend, Edge of Everfree Forest
Celestia listened attentively to the mayor, matching his slower pace as they headed towards the fields outside the village. He was recounting recent attacks on several farmers by strange new monsters. Normally that wasn’t something to bat an eye as dangerous creatures were a fact of life living in and around Everfree, but she had believed all the beasts had been catalogued by now. So even if it hadn’t been a safety risk, she would have been positively giddy to study a new type of creature.
Trailing behind her was Shadow Haze, her earth pony guard in full armor while high overhead a pegasus named Snow Drift was keeping an eye on Ranma as she played amongst the clouds. Occasionally appearing as a red blur bouncing through the openings in the overcast sky. Magic might still make the newest alicorn leery after the accident but she had no qualms about flight.
‘I’m so happy that she’s having fun again, moping about the castle alone is no way for a pony to live,’ Celestia smiled before she realized what an inopportune time it was to do so seeing the ruined field before her.
“They really seemed ta like the rutabaga,” (mayor name) sadly summarized.
“Or they were very angry with them,” she joked, impressed by the scale of damage that this new species had accomplished in a day. (describe damage a bit)
“Not much else fared any better. Nothings going ta grow before Cloudsdale starts throwin’ snow at us.”
‘And now we reach the heart of the matter,’ she mentally sighed, wishing that he would have been more direct in asking for assistance. “We are happy to lend you aid.”
“With no whay ta pay ya back? We can’t accept,” he answered
‘Just take the offer you bullheaded stallion,’ she thought in annoyance, hiding it with a regal smile. “Your village has done so much for us in the past, we insist.”
“I guess if ya insist, then we’ll have ta accept. Thank ya, Steward.”
“If that is settled, then would you please point me in the direction that the creatures were last seen, I would like to investigate this further on my own,” she inquired, hearing the metallic clinking of her lone guards armor as he stiffened, realizing that she wanted to actively go towards the danger.
A strong gust of wind ruffled her feathers as Ranma flew past at high speed back towards the town. Bouncing excitedly between the shops in the market, she quickly moved out of sight further into the village. Celestia demurely laughed to herself as the mayor muttered complaints about irresponsible children.
[hr]
Coming in for a landing atop a light grey cloud with a happy sigh, Ranma decided to relax for a few minutes, and enjoy the warmth of the direct sunlight. Loungin on a lone cloud looking down tended to give her a bad case of vertigo from what should have been an impossible viewpoint. With the sky particularly overcast today, she forgot the great height and imagined the sky to be an entire landscape made out of bouncy cotton balls.
In twelve days she would be going home and nobody would believe her if she told them she had been walking on clouds. ‘I guess if I’m still a pony I could show them. Would the magic work the same or would I just fly through?’ she idly mused, failing to ignore the daunting prospect of being a lone pony among the crazies back in Japan searching for a way to become a human again.
‘Well if I’m stuck on all fours, I’ll just need to use that to my advantage,’ she smirked, gathering up a head sized ball of cloud fluff between her hooves she pulled it up and away to let hover in front of her. “Alright now this is what I’m talking about, magic that’s tactile.”
Using her hooves she squeezed and compressed the tiny cloud until it was half the size, its color darkening, and she began to sense just how close it was to releasing the water contained in it. ‘Oh! So it’s like a sponge. Squeeze and it takes in even more water from the air around it.’
Casting a mischievous glance sideways at the guard who had been tailing her, she bounced the small rain cloud in one hoof testing its weight.
[hr]
‘Come on Snow Drift, keep your breathing steady. Don’t let her see how out of shape you are.’
Fluffing up his white wings tipped with sky blue primary feathers and settling them against his armored sides, he took the opportunity to catch his breath while Ranma seemed to be doing the same. He had never been the strongest flier and he was still getting used to the weight of his armor so keeping up with the youngest alicorn was a struggle.
‘Maybe I should have listened to mom and stayed in the Crystal Empire,’ he sighed, missing the crystal city and all its gleaming splendor over the dark and rustic castle hidden in the Everfree Woods. ‘And that hall of hooves thing always creeps me out,’ he shivered, remembering his first time seeing the sisters oddly morbid sense of humor on display.
Captain Lockheed himself had given him this assignment and what had felt like a great honor now hinted at being a little more than yet another round of hazing.
‘Bet they’re all having a great big laugh, ha ha let’s all laugh at the BNP. Stick him with the duty of flying nonstop all day to keep track of the hyperactive cute new alicorn.’
“YEOWCH!” he cried out, feeling a sharp crack of electricity and wetness hit him in his flank. Launching himself up into the air, he spun around searching for his attacker.
Ranma’s riotous laughter is the only thing he finds, the alicorn laughing so hard that she was rolling around on her cloud.
“Bwa-- what?” he rubbed at the spot, initially unsure of what had hit him as he slowly floated back down to land on the cloud.
The mare shot back up into a sitting position and started to gather up a wad of cloud between her forehooves, rapidly turning it into a miniature thundercloud.
“Are you five?” he asked, rolling his eyes and giving a disgusted snort. ”Not that you understand me, but I’ll have you know that I was on the Crystal Empire’s Storm Dodge team, and we went undefeated even against Cloudsdale.”
With a light flap of his wings, he sidestepped Ranma’s next amateurish throw, and redirected the small stormcloud with a hoof right back at her. A disturbingly wide grin spread across the alicorns face as she attempted to copy his feat and ended up catching only a zap of electricity as the impact jostled the cloud enough to release its energy.
‘Oh no! What did I just do?!’ he panicked and leapt over to Ranma’s side to find the mare giggling uncontrollably. “Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you did I?” he asked quickly.
Blue eyes locked onto him and Ranma stopped giggling. “Again,” she demanded with deadly seriousness.
[hr]
“Industrious little diggers,” Celestia calmly noted, inspecting the sizable mound of dirt displaced by the creatures to make a tunnel. A young child might be able to traverse the tunnel but she was far too large to even fit into the hole. “Hello?!” she called down into it. “Any creature in there?”
Other than some angry chittering echoing from deep in the tunnel, she received no response.
“Unacceptably rude,” she huffed and an aura sprung up around her horn. Finishing her spell, a pulse of golden light shot out into the hole. Waiting patiently, yellow lines began to wind and weave over the fields surface, tracing the network of tunnels. She didn’t need to wait long before the ground ripped upwards like she had pulled up the roots of a giant tree, exposing the entirety of the network, along with a trio of angry brightly colored creatures.
“Luna would just love you,” she gushed upon seeing them roll up into spine covered balls and bounce towards her and her guard.
They came to a stop with a loud snarl and unrolled themselves to screech at her. Tiny beady eyes buried in a squished in face set above a giant mouth filled with triangular teeth. Its body shape vaguely reminded her of porcupine with thick quills covering its back and stubby tail. Waving stubby little arms tipped with sharp digging claws, they slowly began to advance on her.
“Now I don’t know what you are but you have not been very nice. You’ve torn up these poor farmers land and now they won’t have any food for winter,’ she chastised. They grew even more agitated when she didn’t show any fear at their display and turned around to advanced towards her back first.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed as some of the spines on their backs quivered out of sync with the rest. Summoning up a large shield to cover herself and her guard, dozens of sharp quills shot out from their backs to bounce harmlessly off of it. She didn’t need to give a command, Shadow Haze immediately launching himself forward to crash down on the nearest with both front hooves. Having dispatched it, he lashed out with a powerful buck that sent the other two bouncing across the ground.
“Have you heard of any creature like these before?” She asked her guard, enveloping the two far away beasts in a stasis spell.
“No, Steward,” Shadow answered, grinding his hooves vindictively into the creature trapped beneath him. No doubt upset that he had not acted quicker.
“Mayor (name) said there were twelve of them,” she frowned, her ears swiveling backwards, hearing a soft rumble come from the skies above. Turning back towards the village, she gave the increasingly dark patch of clouds directly overhead a cross look. Her horn glowed and all three of the animals were levitated up to squish together, and then become enveloped in a stasis spell shaped like a bubble. “Shadow, would you mind bringing these creatures back to Gaitlend? It seems I am needed elsewhere.”
“Of course, Steward.”
“Thank you,” she responded graciously and opened up her wings to launch herself up into the air.
Rising up through a cloud that was still a light grey and benign, she settled on top of it, and the cause of the disturbance immediately became obvious. Ranma and Snow Drift were having an exciting bout of Storm Dodge, happily forming and tossing small storm clouds at each other. Everytime they missed and hit the clouds beneath them they imparted that energy into them, rapidly creating the conditions for a large thunderstorm beneath their hooves.
“Ahem,” she coughed into the back of a hoof. Neither noticed as her voice was swallowed up by the repeated cracks of tiny bursts of thunder.
“Ahem!” she repeated more forcefully.
Snow Drift realized her presence finally and stopped what he was doing long enough to get caught and zapped by Ranma’s last throw. He grit his teeth as the electrical shock passed through him before asking her sheepishly. “I’m sorry Steward, did you need anything?”
Celestia casually gestured downward with a hoof. “First, would you kindly stop bouncing on those clouds before you are both electrocuted.”
Snow Drift drew in a sharp breath, the cloud beneath his hooves was a dark black and so charged up that his metal armor made the situation quite dangerous. “Right away, Steward,” he carefully took to the air.
“Aww,” Ranma whined and swatted at the cloud beneath her in frustration.
Celestia was blinded by the immediate flash of light, an image of lightning arcing through the clouds hanging in her vision. The thunderous crack of lightning then deafened her. When her vision cleared, she saw Ranma still in her position, body covered in a sparse covering of black singe marks while her wings were disheveled. The only actual damage appeared to be Ranma’s mane and tail that were sticking out at odd angles and missing chunks.
Ranma rose to a standing position, muzzle scrunched up in some unreadable expression of pain. She let out a pained groan in her language, a small puff of black smoke being expelled from her mouth.
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Really not sold on the 'storm dodge' name.
Monsters are the puckwudgies.
https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Creatures#Puckwudgie