Chapter 26: Stink-Buckets

"You're not pulling my tail? No, you look far too… you said this was your second life, right? Who were you before this? A hero or something like that?" Shalgoth asked as more midnight black Nightmare's started to come out from behind the trees.

"No, I am Bee-ing serious, jokes aside, I want to scan you before I go if that is okay. I would also like to pet you," I said, all with as straight of a face as I could muster.

"That's awkward; the boys just showed up," Shalgoth tried to complain, but I screwed up my face at him like it would have some kind of an effect, and it did! "Fine, just be fast!"

Queeny and I buzzed quietly over to the side of Shalgoth, and I ran my hand across his back, making his skin twitch and shiver. My eye started to glow, but the ultra blackness of his hair devoured the light, but that didn't stop the scan.

[Queen System] Activated!

[Biological Scan] Complete!

[Type]:(Race)Unicorn-(Subrace)Nightmare.

[Status] Friendly(HP N/A)

[Abilities]

{Nightmare Eyes}: Curse target with Minor to Major Bad Luck Curse, Nightmare chooses.

{Shadow Stalker}: Nightmare's are able to hide in any shadow.

[Shadow] (Gene) Acquired!

I backed away and looked at all the Nightmares around me, a piece of the puzzle for a different problem. They would be fast and could hide in any shadow, whatever that meant.

I still needed to increase our relationship before I tagged this pony, and now it was time to see the next problem on the list. So much for going to see the snake folk, but that would just have to be another day.

"So, you agree to help us, even though we have nothing to offer you?" Shalgoth asked me, but I was turned away from him.

"Who said that? I will help you, but then I hope that you will extend me the same courtesy. I need three of your fastest to keep tabs on the Weasels. Is that fine if I fix your water problem?" I asked as it turned slowly, tapping the fingers of all my hands together as I tried to figure out the skunks game, but then I was started, almost falling out of the air.

[Hive Task] Activated!

[Out Skunk Them!]: Stop the Skunk Folk from poisoning the Nightmares drinking water.

[Reward]: Hexagon Hive Docking Station

I caught myself, but the girl all rushed over to me, worried.

"I'm fine, don't worry. I guess by agreeing, I've got another Task to complete. Well, it could be worse, but that is hard on the nerves when the system is already active," I said while rubbing my head with a weak smile.

"Just Bee careful," Riza told me, and that made me give a genuine grin.

Bee-guage or not, they popped up regardless, but now we needed to get going, I was starting to get a bit hungry, and I looked at the girls. I guess I would need to ask one of them, and it was going to be weird.

"Come, let's get going," I said, starting to fly off, and the rest followed as I started up the waterfall.

We stayed back from the water, I wasn't in the mood to get wet, and I wasn't sure how well my wings would work. It was weird because the trees here were taller than the actual waterfall, but I was glad to be up and over.

The potent smell of skunk was starting to get to be a bit much, but I put it out of my mind and stayed focused and calm. No matter how much it irked me, I had to show that I was prepared to find a solution.

"Boys, what kind of people the Skunk Folk are? Do you think that they would do this on purpose?" I asked them as we buzzed out of the forest, and far up the river, I could see smoke slowly coming up behind a far hill.

"I don't know, our most Queenliest Queen. They don't mind taking our used and torn Cockatrice suits for payment, but they don't seem like bad people. I don't really know them that well, and this only started happening a little while ago," Tag told me.

"Malodar is the Chief of the Stink-Buckets. I have heard, but nothing is proven, that he might be rotten, but Miasma is excellent because she doesn't charge. The only problem is that her spray only works about a quarter of the time, so something you have to get sprayed up to four times. Not excellent," Sig said, shaking his head with a far-off look.

It looked like he was reliving a traumatic moment, but I also wondered how many other visits he went after?

"Oh yeah, didn't she get you a fifth time for calling her a fetid?" Tag joked.

"I didn't mean to, but after the fourth time, I had been hit with so much gas that I couldn't see straight! Then she sprayed me a fifth time, and I had to stumble home while walking into bushes because Tag wouldn't come near me!" Sig complained as Tag was still laughing beside him.

"Bro, mom wouldn't even come near you, and you ended up having to sleep at the sages because he was the only one that could stand to smell you! Tag laughed, but the two were calming down now as we got closer.

It was nice to see that, like my puns, the personality quirks weren't completely swallowing the actual personality inside of that shell.

The village that was coming up looked similar to the Ferrets with huts, some big and some small. The most significant difference was the massive longhouse built on the side of the river.

There was tanned-skinned folk with black hair and fur with a white stripe in the middle standing on the dock with small barrels. I watched as they poured a yellow piss-colored liquid into the water.

I tried to hold it back, but I couldn't help myself. I was mad.