//------------------------------//
// A new life 
// Story: Ballad of a Pirate 
// by Skywing the Mutant 
//------------------------------//


Star Whistle's POV

Skywing the Cloudsdale Mutant. Not only is he my captain, but also one of Equestria’s most wanted criminals. It’s been two weeks since I joined his crew, and so far things have been pretty quiet, except for the fights the crew get into. They’re not daily, but they are frequent. Also, I ended up getting introduced to the rest of the crew... Lets see...

The most interesting of them was actually invisible for the first few days. Her name is Crimson Haze, and apparently is one of the most well known of the entire crew for sinking two whole fleets of the sky-ships the RN (Royal Navy) controls by herself before joining up with skywing. She is also one of the greatest illusionist’s I’ve ever met, and is pretty damn good at destruction magic as well. She is a blood red mare with a black mane parted in the front, as well as a cape constantly covering her back. She also changed what she looked like every once in awhile.

The light-blue earth pony was called Northern Sprint, of the frozen north. He’s generally an idiot in most situations, but in combat, and running, he’s a few leagues above the majority of us. He boasts of being the fastest runner from the north. That isn’t saying much. Also, I’m not sure if the hoofmark on his flank is a cutie mark, or a burn.

The yellow pegasus went by the name Stormy Night, and she, for lack of any other descriptive term, was an assassin. Though she wasn’t that successful, and was caught in the act several times. We all agree never to give her anything that would require stealth.

“Star, get over here. Caramel and Northern Sprint are going at it in a drinking contest!” Thor had a competitive streak, but also liked watching others compete. Honestly, when I first got on the ship, I thought she would be my biggest problem. I couldn’t have been further off.

“Oh, this I gotta see.” I said as I trotted over to watch the two ponies drinking.

“They’re already seven cups in.” Stormy Night wasn’t much of a drinker, but she wouldn’t deny a drink. “I think Sprint’s going down first.”

“20 bits say you’re wrong.” I said with a slight grin.

“You’re on.” Stormy was a sucker for a good bet, not to mention pretty good at calculating the odds. That’s not always the case. I think Sprint’s got Caramel beat.

“How’s the captain?” Crimson Haze looked past me at Skywing who was slouched over looking at his drink. He has to be the biggest lightweight I’ve seen. I wouldn’t say that to his face though. “Somepony go check on him.”

As everypony looked at each other, Thor took it upon herself to make sure he didn’t die on us. With a nudge Skywing went from slouched on the table to on the floor with a thud. “Yeah. I’m in charge again.” Third time this week.

I looked at Stormy “Guess both of us were wrong on who went down first.”

“That doesn’t change anything.” Stormy grinned as she put her hoof on the table.

“I know, but seriously, how can anyone get drunk that quickly, and with so little?”

“Skywing could never hold his alcohol. I think it has to do with his system.” Thor came back to the table as the competition went to round nine, and both competitors were starting to sway a little with their drunken state of mind.

“Care to back out while you can?” I asked Storm, watching the two, and noticing Caramel’s sways being a little further.

“Fat chance!” Storm didn’t often back down, and only did when she knew she couldn’t win.

Sprint and Caramel downed their drinks in a couple seconds, the motion causing them both to nearly fall over from the momentum. The tenth was poured, and the did they same, only this time, both fell out of their chairs at the same moment.

I stared for a couple seconds, at the scene before me, and said “I think... That’s a tie.”

“Doesn’t matter now. Let’s get topside, we need to make sure we’re on course.” Thor made her orders from the stairs, as we all looked at the drunken ponies laying on the floor. “Let the drunktards sleep it off.”

“Aye-aye.” I said as I walked up the stairs, a little disappointed in the outcome of the contest.

“I think Sprint started falling first.” Haze muttered just loud enough for us to hear her clearly.

“Lies!” I shouted, and ran like a wanted man... Partly because I am one now, but still.

“But I’m pretty sure Caramel hit the floor first. So technically that would mean Sprint won.” Haze added as I left ear shot, makes me wish I had stayed to hear.

Anyway, the above-deck area was calm enough, and as far as I could tell, we were still going the right way. Oh, another thing, during the first week I was with the crew, we ended up raiding a town. While I was there, I took a few new instruments with me. I could actually play very few of them, since the majority required claws, or something similar to work, but at least I could sell them

“Oh crap, I think we might be off course.” Thor looked at the map on the wall next to the captain’s cabin, then the compass.

“Wait, what?” I asked, looking up. “How much?”

“My guess is just a few knots.” After answering my question, she trotted up to the wheel to try and correct it. “Skywing wants to go to this market, down south and sell the Royal Guard armor.”

I thought for a moment, “How much do you normally make per suit of armor?” I asked, looking up at the stars.

“Don’t know, Skywing is good with foreign currency. Ask him when he wakes up.” Thor watched the bow as she focused on my question.

“Yeah... I don’t think I will, it just doesn’t seem like a good idea to talk to him when he has a hangover.”

“Give him an apple to calm him down, that always works.” Something to consider when talking to Thor when it’s about Skywing; She always tries it first.

“Nice to know. Still, I think I’ll wait until it passes before I ask him.” I said as I put the violin away.

“Who’s sober?” Thor darted her eyes at each pony.

I held up a hoof “Can’t speak for the others, but I haven’t had so much as a drop.”

“Good take the wheel tonight.” Thor trotted down the stairs. “Make sure we don’t drift off course. Everypony else, get some shut eye. We should be at shore about noon tomorrow.” With that, she disappeared below deck.

“Yes ma’am.” I muttered under my breath, and took the wheel.

I won’t go into detail of the rest of the night, as nothing actually happened. Anyway, in the morning, the familiar black glow of Haze’s magic covered the wheel, and she said “I got it from here.”

“Thanks,” I said, and slumped down in the area next to the wheel.
______________________________________________________________________


Thor’s POV


Uhg, morning already? I’ll never get used to this. How anypony lives like this is beyond me. I threw myself out of the hammock and onto my hooves. “Today better be worth it.” I need to stop talking to myself. Trotting back to the storage shouldn’t bug- oh right, the drunktards. At least I won’t have to face the sun until I get something in my stomach. Trotting by the table I notice I’m not the only one up.

“Morning Thor.” Stormy said, before chugging a cup of coffee she had. “How’d you sleep?”

“Mmng” I’d tell her I slept really well, but I’m not a morning pony in case you haven’t noticed.

She chuckled, “Oh, also the newbie fell asleep on deck this morning. Guess he isn’t the kind to be up for a full 24 hours.”

I only nodded as I got my coffee. I’ll see where we are afterwards. “If they aren’t awake by the time we find shore, wake the drunktards up.”

Stormy gave a salute, and walked back to the coffee to get more. I swear, she drinks more of that stuff than most could handle. The weirdest part is that she doesn’t seem affected by it.

As relaxing as being around another mare is, I was tired of seeing these sorry asses lay about the floor. I took a few drinks and got topside. I prefer when the cool air runs through my coat in the morning. Guess that’s one good thing about being on a ship. As much as I like it, It was time to get back to work. Like Storm told me, the new colt was asleep. I turned my attention to the map and held up my compass.

Surprisingly, the new guy did better than I thought he would, by the distance we had left to travel, I would say he kept us going perfectly along the path the whole night. I cast a glance at him, curled up into a little ball a few feet from the wheel, which from the black glow around it, I could tell Haze was controlling it. “Haze, where’s the spyglass?”

“Up here.” I’m sure as hell not trotting up there, then to the bow.

“Just toss it down here.”

“Here.” She said, as the spyglass floated down, held in her magic. About an inch from the ground, the aura around it disappeared, and it landed without a sound. Grabbing the spyglass with my teeth, I trotted to the bow and extended it.

“See anything, Thor?” About time Storm started cutting back on the coffee.

“Something small. Might be another ship” That’s what I thought it was, but it was too small to tell.

“Hey Crimson, do you think you could take on the captain?” Stormy seems like the one for light talk.

“In what sense?” If I didn’t know better, I would say that was a slightly seductive tone she was using.

“Well you took down two fleets of the Royal Navy. So I think you’d be the stronger fighter.”

“No, I used more underhanded tactics to take them down. I used invisibility to get onboard the ship that had the most gunpowder, and lit it on fire, then jumped to the next, and repeated the steps until the entire fleet was down, but in a fair fight, I would probably lose.”

She underestimates Skywing, I don’t like it. “Not to mention Skywing took on the captain of the Royal Guards head on. He proved  he was more than a match when they’re fighting one on one.”

“Now that, I would have loved to see.” Stormy said with a chuckle. “On another note, we’re out of coffee.”

“Damn it storm, I was going to go get some!” Crim complained, suddenly poofing into the space near us. “Why do you always drink it all?”

She just grinned evilly, “Why not?”

“Can it, both of you!” Looking through the spyglass again, I saw what we all wanted to see. “Get the captain, I know he wants to see this.”

“Aye-aye!” Stormy shouted, and flew below deck faster than I thought was possible. So that’s what she drinks all that coffee for.

“Should I wake up the new guy?” Haze asked, pointing to the ball of white and purple near the wheel.

“Not yet. He kept this ship steady all night” He deserves that much.

“Ok, let me know if you need anything, I’ll be in the crow’s nest.” And with that, she teleported to the top of the middle mast. Not a moment later, and Skywing came topside. Makes me wonder if he was waiting for us.

“What is it?” And pissed as usual.

“Look.” With that he levitated the spyglass to his eye.

“Wake every sorry ass, lazy ass, and drunk ass! It’s time to sell the loot. Why the hell is he sleeping next to the wheel?”

“I put him in charge overnight.” He’s never been one for mercy, not since I found him.

“Guess it’s time to wake him up.” I hate it when he makes us do all the work.

“And what will you do, sir?” If I’m waking him up, I want to know.

“Adding a price to the merch.” He’s done so many crimes, he would be the best choice for that task. I trotted up to Star as Skywing went below deck.

I almost wanted to give Star one of my usual wake up calls, but decided against it at the last second. “Hey, wake up.”

After a few seconds, a black glow covered his tail, and pulled him, still asleep, to the base of the mast. Moments later, a small rock fell on him, hitting his gut, and knocking him awake.

“AGH! Ok, ok, I’m up...” He shouted, before mumbling something I couldn’t quite hear, but I did hear the words “Infernal she-devil” somewhere in there.

“Ugh, remind me why I drank last night.” I turned my head as Caramel came upside. Suffering the effects of his hangover. I wish the captain would let them ride it out in their cabins.

“Because you haven’t backed down from a single challenge related to alcohol so far?” Star said, clutching his side where the rock hit him, and wincing a little.

“So where’s the captain?” Northern Sprint followed shortly behind Caramel. “Also remind me to never get into a drinking contest with you again.”

“I think he was down there earlier, fell over a bit before you did.” Star said with a slight shrug.

“He went down to put a price on all the things we looted.” I looked at each of them as we neared shore. “So until he comes up, I’m in charge.”

“Thankfully,” Star said “I’m not entirely sure why I’m saying this, but honestly I prefer when you’re in charge. You’re less brutal about things.”

“That’s because he dealt with a lot of shit in the past.” I trotted up to the wheel and looked at all the crew members. “I don’t know why Skywing chose here, or where here is, but when we dock you are to make it be heard that we have valuables to sell.”

Suddenly, Star got a look like he just remembered something, “Exactly, where is it we’re docking, anyway?”

“There’s supposed to be a dock on the other side of that  plateau.” Hurry up and get your ass up here Skywing.

“... Supposed to be?” Crimson asked, suddenly appearing behind me as a yellow mare with a white mane and tail, “You made it sound like you had been there before. Guess we’re all a little clueless on this one.”

“That’s just what I was told. I’ll have the Captain explain when he gets up here.” at least I now have a distraction. “Would you mind explaining what happened.”

“A disguise. If it goes bad, I don’t want my face to be known. Duh.” I looked at Crimson Haze but decided to go along with it.

“Better let Skywing know you’re still you.” Skywing might actually attack her first though. I looked at the stairs as I waited for him to show up.

“You’d better have a good reason to keep me out here, captain.” Sprint shouted at the stairs due to a fit of rage because he had a hangover.

“Because these things aren’t always friendly towards ponies.” I laughed as Northern sprint pissed. I didn’t expect him to answer so quickly, but I’m glad he did. He got topside and looked at Sprint first. “You’re cleaning that up.”

“Hey captain,” Haze said cheerily, and I could see a slight shimmer in the air around her.

“What?” I’m glad he’s too pissed at Sprint to look at Haze right now.

“Haze changed her colors to disguise herself in case the whole selling our stuff goes to hell.” Star explained.

Skywing looked at Haze for a moment before speaking. “That’s probably the best.” He actually sounded less pissed than usual. “And while you’re at it Sprint, clean the whole deck.”

“Ah, like what you see, do you?” Haze said, trotting around proudly.

“You look too much like Stormy.” Skywing retorted. “At least I can tell you two apart.” He then stared at Stormy.

“I changed her colors too... Not that she knows yet.” She said with a slight grin.

“Wait, what?” Star asked, staring hard at the golden pegasus, “I don’t see it.”

Haze chuckled, and shot a small blast of magic at Storm, the air around her simmered, and her coat turned purple, and her mane and tail pure black, “I hid it.”

Skywing didn’t utter a single syllable as he watched it transpire. “Once we’re docked I want you all to bring the loot topsode.”

“Aye-aye” Most of the crew spoke in unison. Sprint and Caramel were slower on the uptake as they were still recovering from their hangovers, and flinched slightly at the sound.

Skywing then proceeded to the wheel. “Once we get there let me do all the talking. Many of them don’t know our language.”

“Sir, I’ve been wondering... Where are we going, anyway?” Haze asked, stretching a little.

Skywing only looked at her before grabbing the wheel. “Heavy Anchor Port.”

        ~End of Chapter Two