Gingersnap scrubbed his face with the scalding hot towel. He grunted as his neck popped half a dozen times. He could remember many dreary days of rain and sleet, and waves that shut down the ship’s kitchen for days at a time, but that morning was the first time he had woken up with snot frozen over his nostrils.
After offloading two inches of heavy wet snow the sky was starting to clear up. The sight of a star as they were led up to the town by a pair of guards gave Gingersnap a feeling of hope, however unjustified.
Mary was not yet awake when they first entered the house, much to his relief. The main room was still full of ponies, and now it thundered with snoring. Only a tiny corridor passed between the cots, and along this Gingersnap and Coral Frond had tiptoed into the kitchen.
Gingersnap heard a crackle as he passed the threshold, and suddenly his ears were assaulted with the sound of metal scraping on metal. The stove was covered with four gigantic pots, and in the fireplace Alice was making an omelette. Two earth ponies in striped pink aprons and hoof-covers were watching the pots, picking them up as they came to a boil and dumping their contents into large wood barrels outside.
At the small dining table a very bedraggled Moonlight was part of an assembly line of four folding towels and bed-covers. Her horn glowed dimly, keeping up the barrier spell in the doorway as she worked on the towels with her hooves.
“Grab one,” she had ordered without looking up. “Hot water’s outside. Clean yourselves up. I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”
Gingersnap rolled up the dirty towel and returned to the kitchen feeling rather out of place. One of the water ponies nearly bumped into him in the doorway, but she was fortunately more nimble than him and avoided spilling the steaming water in her pot.
“Go upstairs,” Moonlight said. “Same room as last night. There should be something to eat.”
The curtains in the bedroom were drawn back in anticipation of morning, though three freshly primed lanterns were hissing away. A few plain tins sat open on the floor, along with a large teapot and several jars of what looked to be tar.
Coral Frond was dulling his teeth on a sea biscuit, and jumped when Gingersnap walked up beside him.
“It’s not chocolate,” he warned when Gingersnap reached for a jar.
From the other side of the food pile a well-built earth pony mare laughed. She was taller than either of the boys, which was not very impressive on its own, but Gingersnap thought that she looked even tougher than Hornpipe. Her eye patch was sitting on her forehead above her slightly cloudy left eye, while her right was clear with a sheen like polished oak wood. She wore her black mane in a long, thick braid, and her light cream coat was dense and well-groomed. Her regal air was such that the ragged scar on her right foreleg seemed like a well-thought-out accessory.
“It’s not bad if you use a little bit at a time,” Coral Frond explained, flicking one of the jars of black sludge. “It’s really salty.”
Gingersnap took the warning to heart and used the black paste sparingly. It had an overwhelmingly rich taste that seemed to never go away. He enjoyed it at first but the novelty wore off quickly, and he had to wash it down with a few cups of strong black tea.
Moonlight arrived walking unsteadily, followed by Alice and a few others. Judging by their colorful jackets they were captains and officers.
“Your fleet is outfitted,” she said to the big mare with the glazed-over eye. “I found a few more sailors for you. You can review them on your own time…”
“You found sailors for me?”
Gingersnap backed up against the wall. The big mare stormed up to Moonlight, her good eye bright with rage.
Moonlight’s spell rattled the room and blew the lid off the teapot. Her attacker dug her hooves in, and was only pushed back a few inches.
“This is not the time, Gloriana,” Alice said sharply. Moonlight stumbled against her, saving herself from an embarrassing fall.
“Yes, I found sailors for you,” Moonlight said, standing up straight and meeting Gloriana’s gaze. “This isn't the time for bickering. You will take what I give you. Jack's raiders went after our best sailors first. They killed fifty when they sacked my town, and over a hundred are missing. Jack is still jamming our radios. Morning Breeze’s ships are gone, and we’re best to assume that everyone who went with him is dead. And you know what? It’s going to get worse if we don’t come together and do something.
“You can bet that Yellow Jack’s marines know where we are.” She addressed the whole room now. “Razing the harbor only stalls them for a few days. They’re just waiting for their own fleet to pick them up, and meanwhile they have access to everything we left behind.
“Yellow Jack is the single greatest threat to all of us, and we have no chance against him unless we work together. I don't mean his fleet or his sailors. They can overrun a few islands, but they're an unremarkable force otherwise. But Yellow Jack is different. No one knows the limits of his magic. We have all challenged him in battle, and we have all failed. Even Morning Breeze never defeated him, though he's come the closest out of all of us. But for all his experience in battle, he has never faced Jack. He burned Jack's fleet and killed most of his sailors, but Jack didn't step in personally. He surrendered to Morning Breeze…” She paused and glanced at Gingersnap and Coral Frond, and seemed to be at a loss for words.
“I don’t know what his plan was back then. Maybe he foresaw all this. Maybe he's been toying with us for years. But I know he will not surrender again. This fight won’t be easy, and from now on we will have no misunderstandings. As long as his heart beats Jack is dangerous.
“Alone we were never able to bring enough force to bear against him. His fleet was the strongest, and it's true that no unicorn can face him alone. But times have changed. At the moment he has nothing but the Snow Queen. We are superior in numbers and firepower, and we must push our advantage now. This is our only chance, and we must make the most of it.
“Alice will stay here with Casanova, Meridian, Crown of Thorns and Libretto. The Children of the Night have guaranteed Icewall at least ten warships within the next five days, as well as food and any other supplies you may need. Everyone here will be safe. The rest of you are coming with me. We’ll loop far southwest to gather more ships. I know his supporters came from the far western islands, and if they're taking the route of least resistance we will intercept them before they reach Jack. In the best case we can eliminate his entire fleet so that all of our allies can converge on the Snow Queen. If not, we will still be fighting a small, weak fleet with our entire navy plus the ships from Kelp Town. Now we must gather all our forces. If Jack can overpower a thousand ponies we'll attack him with ten thousand. Jack must not survive. We will burn his body before we set hoof in Icewall again.”
“And what do these two have to do with anything?” Gloriana asked, nodding at the boys. Coral Frond retreated into Gingersnap’s shadow.
“They’re new,” Moonlight said. “This is just to get them up to speed. They’re veterans of the Equestrian Navy. Given the circumstances they’re the most competent sailors I could find for myself.”
Gingersnap clenched his jaw nervously as beads of cold sweat formed on his brow. But he had given his word that he would help, and he would not back out no matter how much he regretted his decision.
The formal part of the meeting thus adjourned, the ponies quickly finished all the remaining food. Alice left first, leading her four captains and their officers. After some hushed discussion with Moonlight the others went too, and finally Moonlight waved for Gingersnap and Coral Frond to follow her.
She put on a thick black cloak at the door. The streets outside were mostly empty, and the few ponies that they did meet—bent, shivering silhouettes—paid them no mind. The road down to the harbor was still iced over, a team of earth ponies having only cleared the first hundred metres or so. Gingersnap bruised his knees on the way down, and nearly slid into the water in the last few metres before the boardwalk.
“Where’s Mary?” Coral Frond asked suddenly.
“She’ll be safe here,” Moonlight said without slowing down. “She’s worked way too hard, and she deserves some rest. Alice will take good care of her.”
“Did you say goodbye?”
Gingersnap slapped Coral Frond in the back of his head and glared at him disapprovingly.
“She’ll understand,” Moonlight said. “This is for the best.”
The prow of the Nephthys appeared suddenly, startling the boys. The flickering light of the hanging lantern at the edge of the dock gave life to the gigantic gilded cobra. Gingersnap thought he saw its jeweled eyes moving in their sockets and its long, dripping fangs wriggling in its mouth.
“I need you two at your very best,” Moonlight said seriously, pushing back her hood and turning to face the boys for the first time since they left the house. “Several of your shipmates from the Spectre have been assigned to other ships; I've conscripted anyone willing and able to fight. You were properly trained by the Equestrian Navy, and right now that means a lot.
“Coral Frond, I need you to train and lead a boarding party. You’ll have eager fighters, but they’re all inexperienced or out of practice. And Gingersnap, I need you to supervise the shifts extra closely. I know you’ve been in combat before, and you’re a good sailor according to Winter Oat.”
“I can’t do that!” Coral Frond protested without reprimand from Gingersnap.
“You have to,” Moonlight said, stepping closer to him. The frightened unicorn backed away until he was at the edge of the boardwalk. “Winter Oat recommended you as one of his best, and it seems Morning Breeze liked you too. Coral Frond, I trust you. You won’t be seeing combat for weeks yet. You will train them well, and you will lead them to victory. Trust me, this will be good for you. And whatever the navy was paying you, whatever reward you were expecting, I’ll pay a hundred times more. You will return to Baltimare rich. That’s for both of you.”
But payment meant little to Coral Frond at that moment. All the vaults of Canterlot Castle could not have persuaded him to get on that ship. But as he stared long into Moonlight's tired face there was a change in his eyes.
“I guess we promised,” he said, his voice cracking mid-sentence. “Permission to board?”
“Permission granted,” Moonlight said, and made her way up the boarding ramp.
The well-worn deck was ever-so-slightly bowed and uncomfortably low. If there was anything below deck it was no more than crawlspace. Only a dozen sailors were out and about, working solemnly on their pre-departure duties. A grumpy-looking griffin with thoroughly-ruffled feathers was sitting under the lantern at the entrance to the main deckhouse, chewing on a pumpernickel sandwich filled with a single comically small fish.
The interior of the deckhouse was surprisingly comfortable. The shipbuilders had made use of every inch of the shallow draught, and the gently-slanted ceiling was much higher than Gingersnap expected. Supplies were tucked away in the space under the exterior walls, so the floor was nearly empty. Even with long tables and benches for the crew there was lots of room to walk around. Insulated hammocks were hung in layers, the type of hammocks that were considered too luxurious for common sailors.
The griffin outside turned out to be the quartermaster. He looked the boys over quickly and then pulled out a few large burlap sacks. They each received a heavier wool suit and one of the loose jumpsuits of the style ubiquitous among the pirates. The legs enclosed their hooves and were rubberized halfway up the knee. When they emerged on deck once again the cold voyage ahead seemed just a little less daunting.
Nephthys had one gigantic square sail for its single mast, hauled up by a yard that did not stay horizontal and tied at its two lower corners. Looking only at that sail, one could easily get impatient with the odd vessel. But the ship moved steadily, and in ten minutes the first ocean wave surged over the bow. Gingersnap fully appreciated his new uniform then.
All through the day Gingersnap caught glimpses of the other ships of the fleet trailing behind Nephthys. Each appeared briefly at the crest of a white-capped wave, half-hidden by mist, before slipping back into the troughs. He counted eight different ones, including a stately black ship flying a bright pink-and-red flag. He imagined the crew of that ship stayed considerably drier than he did.
There were two beams of sunlight through the whole day, one near noon and another just before sunset. Gingersnap got the sense that he was moving south quite quickly, though without a sextant he could not be sure. The sail seemed to luff half the time, and needed two ponies on each stay, yet the low-floating ship stayed far ahead of the other better-rigged vessels and had lost no ground by sundown.
Mercifully the deckhouse stayed dry. Dinner consisted of rich vegetable chowder and oranges. Gingersnap learned later that Moonlight had cooked the meal, using her magic to juggle the pot and stove as her ship bucked and heaved atop the merciless winter sea. The few times he looked up from his bowl, Gingersnap noticed several pairs of unfriendly eyes. Coral Frond must have made a few enemies among the marines, but there were a few sailors eyeing him too. A wave of dread passed over him as he remembered what these ponies had once been capable of. Some had grown mellow with age, but most could still be called young.
He slept well that night, but not as soundly as he would have liked.