//------------------------------//
// Heavy Anchor Port 
// Story: Ballad of a Pirate 
// by Skywing the Mutant 
//------------------------------//

	
Star Whistle’s POV

        
As we brought everything up I, couldn’t help but look at the locals when I was topside. While some of them were Minotaurs, others looked like Minotaurs without heads and their faces on their chests. “These things just don’t look right.”

“That’s because there are a lot of Minotaurs, Blemmyae, and a few Satyrs.” Skywing didn’t seem pissed at all. Maybe it’s because we’re selling things, finally. Caramel and Northern Sprint had recovered from their hangovers considerably, and were bringing the armor up. 

“So... Exactly how much do you think we’ll make from this, if we sell all of it?” Stormy asked, still looking at her now purple coat.

“About seven thousand bits, in their currency. which is called zennie for some reason.” Skywing sat upright as he looked at the merchandise as it came up.

“Seven... Thousand?” She looked up, wide eyed, before regaining her composure, and walking normally around deck.

“Well, twenty one thousand zenny.” Skywing didn’t act like it was that much, but to me that sounded like more than a lot.

I put down the last box of the first load, “So then... three zenny is equal to one bit?” I asked.

“That’s what I’ve come to know.” Skywing seemed sure of himself, but not entirely sure. Skywing looked back over the ship at the bipedal creatures walking around.

As we finishes bringing out the loot I thought of selling my instruments that required hands to play. “Captain, how long do we plan on staying?”

“Three days and that’s it.” Sounds reasonable enough.

“How likely do you think it is that I could sell a few things... Of a different variety from the armor?”

“That depends on what the customer wants.” Skywing talks like he knows about bartering.

“Well, I can try.” I said, and ran down  to where I kept my instruments. Unfortunately, more than half of them had broken somehow. Leaving me with just one guitar, two ocarinas, two flutes, and a black violin. I carefully brought the instruments up to the top deck, setting them out gently on a rug.

“This is it?” Skywing looked at the instruments laid out on the rug.

“The rest broke.” I muttered.

“Oh, make sure you know what you want for them.” Skywing trotted off but stopped as I started speaking.

“I can tell they're in good condition, and have barely been used, despite not being able to play them myself.” I said, looking over the violin for any damage from whatever broke the rest of them, thankfully finding not a single scratch on it.

Skywing nodded “Wir jetzt verkaufen, was wir haben.”

I blinked in confusion, “... What?”

“I said in a language native to here ‘we are now selling what we have’.” 

“... Oh.” I said, and quickly went about making sure the rest of the instruments were undamaged... which they were.

Skywing trotted off as Caramel startled me from behind. “What’cha got there?”

“Wah!” I shouted as I jumped over him, landing neatly on all my hooves. “Oh, it’s just you.”

“Sorry about scaring you like that.” He looked fine, but you could see it in his eyes that he was still hungover.

“It’s fine, anyway,” I walked back to my stuff, “I’ve just what few instruments didn’t break on our way here.”

“They all look quite unique.” Caramel looked at the instruments until his eyes landed on the violin.

“They’re designed for creatures with hands, like a minotaur, or a satyr to play.”

“But I’ve seen a pony play a violin back at Ponyville.” Caramel looked at me.

“... What? But... the hooves! That shouldn’t be possible!” I shouted, feeling my grip on reality fading slightly.

“There’s another pony who can play the cello, too.” I wanted to reject everything, but something in his voice told me he had nothing to lie about.

“I’m going to stop questioning it here.” I said blankly.

Caramel nodded and stayed in place as he watched a slim Minotaur walk up to me. “Combien êtes-vous facturer pour l'ocarina?”

I glanced at Caramel “Do you know what he just asked?”

He returned the look to me. “I have no idea.”

“He said, ‘How much for the ocarina?’” Skywing spoke out.

“... Oh, I would give it... 360 Zennie.” I said.

Skywing said it in the foreign language and the Minotaur showed  me the money. He then took the smaller one and left.

“Which language was that?” Caramel whispered to me.

“French.” Skywing looked directly at us as he spoke.

I looked down as I thought to myself. Is he hiding something? Maybe I’m overthinking it, but still...

I looked up just in time to see a blemmyes come aboard and walk up to one of the armors. “Ist das authentische königlichen Garde Rüstung?”

I’m really starting to wonder what everypony is saying.

Skywing only looked at him. “Ja.”

It got that look in its eye when you find something you want. “Sag mir, wie viel?”

Skywing only glanced at it before saying. “700 Zenny.”

“I think I understood that!”  I blurted, immediately becoming embarrassed as Stormy gave me a look that said ‘Just shut up. You’ll be doing us all a favor.’

Skywing looked at it as it looked at the armor. “Zahlen.”

The blemmyes handed over the zennies and took the armor. Skywing looked them over and pulled out a Gem powered handgun and pointed it at it. “Du bist kurz!” 

It stopped and turned around, fear in it’s eyes. Skywing watched it closely and It stayed still. The standoff seemed to last hours, though it was only minutes. The blemmyes started scooting backwards and the captain shot it between the eyes. “Nichts niedrigen Kugeln mich.”

“Um... What just happened?” Crimson asked, popping into existence next to me, causing me to jump a little.

“The armor is priced at 700 zennie, the blemmyes had 500.” The captain looked at us with a piercing glare before putting the armor back.

Crimson and I just looked as Skywing threw the body overboard. “Let this be a reminder that everything must be paid for in full.”

“Oookay...” I said quietly enough that Skywing probably didn’t hear it. Skywings ear flicked and before I could hold my breath, he turned his head away.

Things started picking up as others started coming aboard and buying things, I’m only wonder why none of them are buying my instruments. Some went to the other crew and were directed to Skywing.

“Il ya beaucoup de mane-d'œuvre mis dans cette.” the Captain looked at the sturdy Blemmyes.

“Seven hundred zennie” The blemmyes looked at Skywing as if it was looking for something, perhaps he looked familiar to the blemmyes.

Thor came up from below deck with a barrel of rum. “Skywing, we should probably get more booze before we leave.” She put the empty barrel down and tapped. “Seems we’ve drank more than we thought.”

The blemmyes eyes lit up as it looked at the captain as he trotted to Thor. “Later I’ll take Caramel and Whistle. Until then haul up all the empty barrels and put them by the wheel.”

“Aye-aye” Thor picked up the barrel and Skywing trotted back to the blemmyes, who surprisingly hasn’t run off with with the armor.

“So you speak this language too?” The blemmyes seemed more interested in the captain all of a sudden. I want to say something, but I also don’t want to piss off the captain.

“Yeah, what of it?” Skywing looked at the armor as the blemmyes walked around it.

“Oh nothing, I just didn’t think anyone else spoke this language.” The blemmyes stepped towards Skywing, constantly sneaking a glance at him.

“It is rare around here-” Before Skywing could finish his sentence the Blemmyes kicked him to the ground.

“Captain!” Stormy shouted, landing right next to Skywing as I aimed a bolt of magic at the Blemmyes’ legs.

The Blemmyes dropped onto Skywing and pinned him to the ground. “After years of searching, I’m not going to be denied the rights to the Shadow Nightmare!”

I released the blast of magic, cleanly hitting the Blemmyes off of skywing, and into the mast, almost hard enough to knock him out. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, but I won’t stand by and just watch this.” I said, glaring daggers as I stepped forward.

The Blemmyes looked at me, with hatred in it’s eyes. “I’ll make you regret ever doing that.” creepy little bastard.

“Caramel,” I said, charging up even more magic, and drawing my panpipe, “Watch my stuff for me.”

Caramel nodded and trotted to my mat. “Stormy get the cap-” he stopped mid sentence as Skywing got to his hooves.

The Blemmyes, though shaky, got to its feet “Bring it on!”

I inhaled, and released my breath and magic into my panpipe, beginning the third amp out of four, which is a spell of falling into sleep, a coma, or even death, if I focus enough for it. It also was, thankfully, the only one I had learned to focus on a single target. Yes, I realize this is the second I’ve told you of, but it was the third I made.

The spell instantly took effect and the blemmyes started to sway more. “What... the hell?” The blemmyes looked to the ground then to me.

As the last slow, haunting notes faded from the air, the Blemmyes fell forward, landing on it’s face. It was either dead or unconscious by the time it hit the ground. “Wow, it’s been awhile since I used that one. I just hope I didn’t kill him yet.”

Thor trotted up to it. “What do you mean ‘didn’t kill him yet’?”

“That was a spell designed to do one of three things, it can put the target to sleep, put them in a coma, or kill them by simply stopping the heart.”

“There goes the Captain’s good mood.” Thor stepped back as Skywing stepped to the Blemmyes. Moments later spikes started poking out of the body, as soon as one left another appeared. Soon the Blemmyes was nothing more than a bloody mess.

“Never call me that again.” Skywing looked at the body with what was unmistakably pure hatred.

“Well that was interesting,” Stormy muttered as she walked back to where she was before.

Skywing took a scroll with handles from it before throwing the blemmyes over board. “Pack up, we’re leaving early. Thor, how many barrels do we need?”

“Well, Crimson’s still out getting a few things of coffee beans, but other than that we’ve got everything we need.”

Skywing looked at Thor, still trying to look calm. “You came up here and told me we were low on rum before that asshole threw a cheap shot at me, how many barrels do we need?”

“About five more, sir.” She said, cringing a little.

Skywing nodded. “Caramel, Whistle, you’re with me. I want the empty barrels topside.”

“On it sir,” I said, before charging my magic again, and moving all of the empty barrels up to the deck in a straight line.

Skywing looked over the barrels. “Okay, we need to find a brewery.” Skywing turned around to face Northern Sprint. “Make sure everything is put away. I was hoping to sell it all.”

“Aye-aye.” Sprint said just before Skywing turned around to look at Caramel who nodded. they both turned to look at me.

“All the empty barrels are topside, captain.” I spoke as I put the eighth barrel on the deck. She said we only need five barrels. ‘might as well get them all filled.’ Skywing looked at the barrels then back at me.

“Remind me to talk to Thor later.” Skywing said as he picked up all the barrels with his magic. Me and Caramel looked at him in question.

“Uh, why are you having us come along if you-” Caramel was cut off by Skywing.

“Because this is called Heavy Anchor Port for a reason. Here, these bastards will attack you just because they don’t like the way you look.” Skywing stopped just before getting off as he answered. Me and Caramel looked at each other before following him off the ship.

_____________________________________________________________________


Stormy Night’s POV, some time later


To be fairly blunt, the rest of the day was rather boring, some people came and left, most of the time without buying anything, and when they did, half the time it was just one object. So, I took a nap. I woke up from that... an hour ago? Yeah, that’s about right. Anyway, as I was looking out from the crows nest for who know’s how long, I saw a faint glimmer of green, purple, and brown pass through the crowd of creatures below, focusing hard, I managed to locate the captain, the newbie, and the brown guy... I mean Caramel. “They’re back!” I jumped down as the shout came out, landing on the deck moments before Skywing made it out of the crowd.

Northern Sprint started to look over the railing at the docks. “Took you long enough.”

“Can it. The brewery is buried in downtown.” Skywing growled at the somewhat ungrateful Sprint.

“So, we taking off?” I asked, looking from one to the other, hoping to break the tension a little.

“Yeah, there’s a small island with a fortress about 183 knots or so north east from here we’ll call home. There’s just one catch though.” The captain spoke loud enough for the entire crew to hear.

“... Which is?” The newbie asked after several seconds of waiting.

“We’ve got to evict the current tenants.” Skywing grinned. “All hooves on deck, prepare to set sail!”

“Aye-aye!” The crew shouted as the newbie took the rum below deck.

Crimson Haze trotted past me then began to raise the left anchor with her magic as Caramel and Northern Light lifted the right. In the meantime, I was dealing with the unfurling of the sails. Thor took the map from the captain and went to plot our course, as the Captain trotted to the wheel.

~End of Chapter Three