//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Freedom 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

	The cloudless blue sky was beautiful.  The South Equestrian Sea had a way of producing these perfect days.  Fluttershy swallowed hard, taking a last look at the sky while gathering her nerves to get up off her back.
She sat up from the hard metal deck of the ship.  The dirty steel had stained her yellow coat and feathers.  Two mares stood over Fluttershy.  One was an orange earth pony with a cowboy hat covering her straight golden mane and a pistol belt slung around her hips.  The other was a pegasus the color of the sky with an unkempt rainbow mane.  Two holsters were strapped at her sides below her wings.  
Both of them were pointing guns at Fluttershy.  The earth pony had a simple, but enormous, revolver.  The colorful pegasus was aiming a sleek semiautomatic, one of two that she carried.  From Fluttershy’s perspective, the barrels of their guns looked like bottomless pits.
“This is the bird?” asked the orange mare with an accent sounded rather country.  She gestured to a metal cage that held a phoenix with brilliant plumage.
Fluttershy nodded, doing her best to hide behind her mane.  The pink curtain wasn’t enough to completely conceal her face, however.
“Reckon we’re done here,” said the orange pony.  She walked away from Fluttershy towards where the rest of the ship’s crew was huddled.  “All right y’all, we’re leavin’.  Don’t try nothin’ funny and come after us.  See that boat over yonder?  We’ve got torpedoes and can sink your ship as easy as pie.  I recommend you sit here for the next half hour, and then you can do what you want.”
Fluttershy sighed happily.  She whispered, “We’re going to live…”
The multicolored pegasus put her gun to the side of Fluttershy’s head.  “Why are you looking so relaxed?  You’re going to tag along with us.”
“You-you’re joking, right?”
She was not.  Minutes later, Fluttershy found herself aboard a much smaller vessel speeding away.  The stationary ship that she had been taken from was shrinking in the distance.  She felt rooted to the deck, too frightened to move.  Fluttershy buried her head in her hooves, adding her wings for another layer of protection.
The two who had captured Fluttershy stared at her in disgust.  A third, a purple unicorn mare, was tapping away at a computer and did not appear to care.
“Rainbow, just what the buck were you thinkin’?” demanded the orange mare.
“You don’t get it, AJ!” shouted the blue pegasus.  “We aren’t getting paid very much for this.  Why shouldn’t I take a hostage for a little ransom?”
“You’re thinking too simply,” put in the mare at the computer.
“Do you want to die, Twilight?” shouted Rainbow.
“So, who’s going to negotiate with her company?” asked AJ.  “Do you have a bank account to receive the payment?  How about a secure way to handle the transaction?”  Despite her country accent, the earth pony seemed to have a mind for business.
“Maybe we should just kill her useless flank, then?”  The pegasus jerked one of her guns from its holster and pointed it menacingly at Fluttershy.  The orange earth pony tackled Rainbow.
The brief scuffle ended with the multicolored mare’s face pressed to the deck.  She begrudgingly muttered, “Okay, I get it.”
Applejack eased off.  “Just tryin’ to stop you from doin’ anything you might regret.”  She looked at Fluttershy.  “Come on.  Let’s get some fresh air.”
“You’re not even going to let me tie her up?” asked Rainbow.
Applejack glanced around pointedly.  “We’re on a boat and out of sight of land.  Where’s she going to fly to?”
The orange mare gestured for Fluttershy to follow and left the boat’s cabin.  The timid pegasus decided that she’d rather spend time with Applejack than the hostile Rainbow, and ducked out the door.
Applejack leaned against the outside of the boat’s superstructure.  The wind blew her mane around.  Fluttershy sat beside her, silently wondering how she could have ended up beside this rough earth pony, on a pirate vessel somewhere in the South Equestrian Sea.
“You’ve got an interesting response to danger,” said Applejack, opening a bottle.  “You just curl up in a ball like you've put down roots and sit there as still as a tree.”
“I…I can’t help it.”  Applejack seemed to hear, despite the wind trying to carry Fluttershy’s words away.  The orange pony passed over the bottle.  After sniffing to determine the contents, Fluttershy took a sip.  It wasn’t the best apple cider she had ever had, but not bad.
“What’s going to happen to me?” asked Fluttershy quietly.
“We’ll make contact with your company somehow and try to set up a trade,” said Applejack.  “Getting’ that bird to the client is the first priority, though.”
“So…you’re just taking her for somepony else?”  Fluttershy had grown quite fond of the phoenix in the short time she had cared for the bird.  Her feelings changed slightly as she realized that this crew of…whoever they were didn’t plan to keep the phoenix for themselves.
Applejack nodded and took another swig of cider.  “We’re just the delivery ponies.  It ain’t a real honest living, but in this part of the world it’s just business.”
Fluttershy felt conflicted.  On one side of the coin, she’d been kidnapped by what might be modern-day pirates.  On the other, the orange mare sitting next to her had been frank and up front, and Fluttershy somehow felt that she was trustworthy. 
“What’s your name?” asked Applejack.
“Fluttershy.”
The other mare seemed to consider that, saying nothing.  The steady thrum of the boat’s engines continued.  Fluttershy relaxed slightly, taking in the azure seas and cyan skies.  It was so peaceful just sitting with the breeze in her face, even if there was nothing to see out here on the ocean.
After a while, Applejack got up and went somewhere else, leaving Fluttershy alone.  The pegasus was surprised that the other mare didn’t seem to care that she was by herself.  It was an unusual kind of freedom, because she still felt like a captive.
Fluttershy had never been a strong flier, and with no land to see in any direction, she wasn’t about to try an escape attempt.  Even if the shoreline was visible, there was no way of knowing what she might find there.  
As a few hours passed, the sun began its downward arc.  Fluttershy got up and made her way inside.  She felt hungry, but had no idea where a meal might come from.
The purple unicorn named Twilight reclined in her chair, a few glowing computer screens in front of her.  She was working a can opener on a tin of peaches.  She looked up as Fluttershy passed by.  “I was wondering when you were going to come in.  It looked like you were just sitting out there as still as a tree.”
Fluttershy wondered if Applejack had mentioned that phrase to Twilight.  The purple pony got the can open and slurped a few sliced peaches with a spoon.  Seeing Fluttershy’s intent look, she offered the rest of them to the yellow mare.
With a murmur of thanks, Fluttershy ate directly from the can.  Considering her current company, she didn’t feel too bad about her own manners.  How rude to kidnap somepony.
After thanking Twilight again, she went back sitting on deck, and watched the sun set.  The last few rays disappeared over the horizon, lighting up what appeared to be a distant coastline.  Fluttershy peered forward, wondering if the land would be her salvation.  All things considered, though, the last few hours on the boat hadn’t been too bad.
Is this what Stockhoof Syndrome feels like? The pegasus wondered.  She hadn’t exactly grown to like her captors, but they were better than at least a few of her coworkers at the Ponyville Animal Shelter.  The other employees sometimes pushed her around.  It was an easy thing to do to Fluttershy.  That was why she was the one sent on this long trip just to care for one bird.  Nopony else wanted the task.
The water grew darker as the sunset faded.  Sea-washed rocks that formed a natural harbor came into view.  A tall pillar of stone marked the entrance to the small bay.  A statue of a pony had been carved upon it.  The figure looked shabby and forlorn, its face eroded away after years of weather.
The boat slowed down, approaching a warehouse facility and moorings along the water.  Rainbow and Applejack tied off to a rickety wooden pier.  They were well practiced, having no trouble completing the job even in the growing darkness.
Applejack stepped down onto the pier, following Rainbow towards shore.  “Are you goin’ to join us, Fluttertree?”
“Huh?” Fluttershy looked up in surpise.
“I think she means you,” said Twilight, appearing from her cave of electronics inside the boat.  “We’re all going to get a drink.  Don’t you want to come?”
“But…aren’t I a hostage?” asked Fluttershy.  Twilight stepped off the boat and followed the other two ponies without reply.  Fluttershy glanced around, seeing nothing but dark foreboding buildings along the wharf.  The prospect of staying there alone was not appealing and she quickly followed Twilight.
The four of them got into the company vehicle, an old red muscle car.  Twilight seemed to have the greatest affinity for it, and sat behind the wheel.  Fluttershy huddled nervously in the back seat next to Rainbow.
Through conversation, the yellow pegasus learned that the city was named Roanapur.  She looked around, not seeing very many roan-colored ponies, not even the prostitutes who seemed to occupy every street corner.
The boat had appeared taken care of, despite its outward appearance of shabby grey paint.  The city seemed to be the opposite.  There were bright decorations, but everything had undertones of decay.
Ponies drank and smoked strange things.  Fluttershy kept her head low, behind her mane.  There seemed to be so much vice around her, highlighted with garish neon lights and loud music.  She was slightly more glad that she’d stayed with the crew.
The pirates—although they disliked the term—called themselves the Apple Company.  Applejack and her boat, Sweet Apple, were the backbone of the enterprise.  Fluttershy hadn’t managed to figure out why ponies would turn to a life of crime, although, as Applejack had said earlier, there didn’t seem to be much else to do in Roanapur.
The four of them pulled up to a bar called the Yellow Nag and went inside.  Rainbow glanced at Fluttershy and grinned.  “I wonder if Pinkie will give us a free drink since we’ve got a yellow nag with us.”
“That’s not very nice,” observed Twilight, as if commenting on the weather.
Fluttershy looked around.  The bar was packed with ponies, many of them playing cards.  All of them looked rough-and-tumble, and every last one of them was not somepony Fluttershy would relish meeting, dark alley or not.
“Why are there guns on every table?” she asked, her voice barely audible over the sounds of the bar.
“This place was founded by deserting soldiers from the Griffon Wars,” explained Applejack.  “They started taking in fugitives and criminals, and before you knew it everything had gone straight to Tartarus.”
Fluttershy gasped as a stallion broke a bottle of liquor over the head of another pony as they scuffled over the results of their card game.  Nopony but her seemed to show much reaction.
Applejack went on.  “Hookers, junkies, mercenaries; irredeemable criminals, every one of ‘em.”
Fluttershy stared glumly at the drink that was placed in front of her.  She hadn’t asked for it, and didn’t think getting intoxicated was a good idea given the situation.
The pink mare with a frizzy magenta mane leaned forward across the bar.  “Are you going to drink that?  You wouldn’t want sompony to think you don’t like the alcohol around here and start some kind of fight with you.  That wouldn’t be fun at all.”
Fluttershy had been introduced to Pinkie, the bartender.  She seemed more cheerful than anypony the yellow mare had yet met, but seemed to have highly developed survival instincts.  Fluttershy had seen those same shifty eyes on many animals who knew they could be killed by random violence at any moment.
“I try to avoid confrontation,” explained Fluttershy.
“Good luck,” said Applejack, draining her drink and getting up.
“Where are you going, Applepie?” asked Pinkie.  Her eyes and grin widened.  “Ooh, some dutch apple pie sounds great right now, doesn't it?”
Applejack rolled her eyes and headed for a nearby hallway.  “Just going to make a phone call.”
“Pinkie’s a little strange, isn’t she?” asked Fluttershy quietly as the bartender went to serve somepony across the room.
“Aren’t we all?” said Twilight, examining her own drink.  "That's the great thing about Roanapur, you can be whoever you want to be."
“You don’t seem like the others,” said Fluttershy.  The purple unicorn was remarkably civil and pleasant compared to the rest of the inhabitants of the city.
Twilight smiled.  “I came from a university in Canterlot.  I got mixed up with some Diamond Dogs and the Royal Guard at the same time.”
“And then yours truly saved her worthless flank before it was stuffed in a bag and thrown overboard,” interjected Rainbow Dash.  “Stop the storytelling.  You’re too young to be reminiscing.”
Grabbing a bottle of dark amber liquid, Rainbow began to pour.  “But you’re still old enough to drink.”
Fluttershy recognized the label on the bottle of rum.  It was quite alcoholic, and Rainbow had just poured a large glass.  The multicolored pegasus set the drink down in front of Fluttershy, knocking away her previous glass.
With a grin, Rainbow chugged a similar amount of booze.  She finished with a gasp of air, the liquor obviously burning her throat.  Her smile didn’t waver, however.  “If you ask me, ladylike drinks are no different than chocolate rain.  That stuff will never get you drunk.  A real pony swigs rum.”
Fluttershy looked again at the glass in front of her as Rainbow continued.  “But, if you don’t even have the wings to keep up with me, I guess you aren’t much of a mare.  Maybe I’ll tie ribbons in your mane and put a little dress on you like a pretty filly.”
“As much as I would enjoy dressing up like that, you’re being rather insulting,” said Fluttershy.  “I don’t know why you insist on acting so mean, and I don’t like drinking, but this time I’ll make an exception.”  She picked up the glass and downed it in one long pull.
Fluttershy set down the empty glass, clearing her throat.  “I could never say no when ponies asked me to drink in college.  I drank to fit in with everypony at social events.  I used alcohol to hide my problems.  Don’t underestimate my tolerance, Rainbow.”
She almost smiled at the look of consternation on the face of the other pegasus.  Rainbow growled under her breath and the shouted across the bar at Pinkie.  “Bring us all the rum you’ve got!”
“I thought you didn’t like confrontation,” muttered Twilight.
Several minutes later, both Fluttershy and Rainbow were working on downing more alcohol.  They had each been swigging the hard liquor in unison.  Fluttershy knew she couldn’t keep this up much longer, but for the moment didn’t care.  Rainbow was no longer the untouchable aggressor, and for this brief instant they were equals.  It was a very strange thing to make a stand over.
There was a sharp clink as something came flying in through the open door.  It rolled to a stop near the bar.  Fluttershy’s eyes widened.  She had never seen a real grenade before, but there could be no doubt what it was.
Despite the drinks she’d consumed, Rainbow reacted with remarkable agility.  She grabbed Fluttershy and Twilight, hauling them over the bar and to the floor.  The grenade shook the whole building as it exploded.