//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: Ponies of the Cursed Seas 
// by iowaforever 
//------------------------------//

This chapter has no drunk ponies in it. It has a bit of backstory and exposition, so it may be a bit boring.
Fun fact: Concordia was the Roman Goddess of Harmony... fitting for My Little Pony, don't you think?
Anyway, I still own nothing in this story except the OCs. Like and comment on the story; I want to know your opinions.




Chapter 11

Twilight opened her eyes, and instantly regretted doing so. Her head felt as if somepony had miniaturized Pinkie, given her a room full of drums and cymbals, and told her to play for ten hours inside Twilight’s head. Every single sound, from light conversation in the next room to a fly buzzing over her bed, was amplified to the point that Twilight could barely hear herself breathing. Her hooves were like cement and her legs were little better than limp pieces of moss. She groaned, swatting at the air in a half-hearted attempt to get rid of the fly.
“For once I wish Nightmare Moon had won against Celestia.” Twilight mumbled, giving up trying to swat the fly. She yawned and rose from her bed, swaying a little as her blood rushed to her brain. “This must be what Spike feels like when he sends a lot of letters... I should thank him for his sacrifice.” she shuffled forward, trying to keep her movement down to a minimum in order to reduce sound.
I should ask Princess Celestia if she can teach me some conjuring spells... I could really go for a swimming pool filled with coffee right now. Twilight pushed the door open and entered the main room. All the other ponies were treating themselves to breakfast and made little mind of Twilight until she reached the table.
“Good morning Twilight.” Fluttershy said “I hope you slept well.”
“It’s not the sleeping, it’s the waking up.” Twilight groaned again and set her head down on the table “Fluttershy, if you’d talk a little bit quieter, I would really appreciate that.”
“Oh, okay then. Sorry for being so loud.” Twilight nodded a little and looked across the table, finding a small spot on the wall to place her concentration.
“Good morning Sleepyhead!” Pinkie popped up between Twilight and Fluttershy. She grabbed the unicorn by the head and turned her around “How are you feeling? Does your head hurt? If it does then you should really find a spell that makes it hurt less, because it’s no fun when somepony’s in pain.”
“Pinkie, please be quiet. You’re only making things worse.”
“Oh Twilight, you’re funny when you’re grouchy, except when you start talking really fast and charm ponies. That’s bad. Here, have some coffee!” Pinkie pushed a mug of coffee in front of Twilight. Before the pink pony had retracted her hoof, Twilight grabbed the mug and drained its contents, spilling quite a bit of the coffee all over her face.
“More!” Twilight gasped, passing the mug to Pinkie.
“Sure thing Twilight!” Pinkie took the mug and bounced off. Twilight’s head had started clearing a bit, and her ears had stopped throbbing from conversation, but she still felt as if a drill had been taken to her skull. She looked around the table again.
“Applejack?”
“What’s the matter, sugarcube? I mean, besides the hangover.”
“That’s the problem. What do you do if you have a hangover?”
“Why does everypony assume I drink?” Applejack asked.
“You do work on a farm, AJ.” Rainbow Dash said.
“That ain’t a good reason and you know it.”
“Please, can we not have any shouting for the next week?” Twilight flopped her head down on the table again. “I don’t know how I let myself go last night.”
“Well, it was mighty good wine, Twi. I’m not much for fancy drink like that, but I could see why you liked it so much.”
“That still doesn’t help me.”
“Give it time, Twi. Maybe go get some fresh air; Big Macintosh always said that helped him if he hit the bottle too hard.” There was a scraping noise and Twilight watched as a plate with a cupcake and another mug of coffee slid in front of her.
“Here Twilight.” Pinkie said “Maybe some food will cheer you up.”
“Thanks Pinkie.” Twilight picked up the cupcake and took a small bite “This is coffee flavored.”
“Yup! I was thinking ‘What would make Twilight really happy’, so I made the coffee cupcake. If you like it I’ve got a whole batch back in my room.”
“Where did you get the time to make a whole batch of cupcakes?”
“I always have time to make cupcakes!” Pinkie smiled and bounced off again. Twilight finished eating the cupcake and took a sip from the coffee.
“If we weren’t on a tight schedule, I’d go back to sleep.”
“I’m with you there.” Mays said as he walked into the room “No offense Twilight, but you snore really loudly when you’re drunk.”
“Sorry.” Twilight took another sip and set the coffee mug aside “It won’t happen again.”
“I won’t tell Princess Celestia about it.” Mays walked over to the table and sat down “I talked with Stone Bastion before coming here.”
“Oh, what’d he say?”
“He said he’d show you and I around the library a bit before we left.”
“Really?” Twilight could feel the hangover rushing from her head, replaced by the prospect of study and knowledge. Certainly beats lying in bed feeling like Derpy dropped an anvil on me again, she thought. “When?”
“As soon as you’re done eating. Take all the time you want; it’s not like the library is going anywhere.” Twilight nodded before noticing that Pinkie had placed yet another cupcake in front of her. She gave Pinkie a silent thanks and ate the cupcake.
“Uh, captain?”
“Yes?”
“I... don’t really remember a lot of what happened last night. I didn’t do anything really bad, did I?”
“Like...”
“You know, accidentally get married, set something on fire, that sort of thing.”
“No, you didn’t get married, but I think you should talk to Fluttershy and myself in private if you really want to know what you did.”
“... That bad?”
“Believe me, I’ve seen worse.”
“Oh, captain, before I forget.” Rarity pulled something covered in a piece of cloth from under the table and placed it in front of Mays “I took some time after dinner to finish up with that little project we talked about.”
“I’m guessing you mean the strap for my sword?”
“Of course. Well, I may have gone a bit overboard on the definition of strap, but it’s still the same principle. Go on, have a look.” Mays pulled the piece of cloth off his sword. The sword itself was unchanged, but a wooden frame resembling a brace was attached to one side. There were a few joints connecting the sword to the frame, and a quick prod showed that the sword could be unhitched if needed.
“So, how does it work?”
“Well, you just slip it onto your foreleg there.” Mays did as instructed, sliding the brace onto his foreleg. The sword fit snugly against his leg, even if the tip scraped against his jacket a little “Don’t worry about the tip; Twilight enchanted your sword the other day so that when it’s stored like this you won’t cut anything.”
“That’s...”
“Don’t say it; I may be paranoid about a lot of things, but shredding your coat and bleeding out would be the worst possible thing. Besides, I think you look much better in blue than red. If the scraping annoys you, just adjust those two straps there.” Rarity pointed at the two straps with her horn.
“Thanks you, but this is a bit more sophisticated than I was expecting.”
“Oh, there’s more. Fluttershy, if you would be so kind as to step back.” Fluttershy did so. “Now then, if you would raise your right hoof and think about... I don’t know, drawing your sword.” Mays nodded and concentrated on his sword for a bit. There was a pause before the sword snapped forward, startling everypony in the room (especially Fluttershy) except Rarity and Twilight.
“Sorry if it’s a little sudden,” Rarity said “Twilight and I could never figure out how to make the action a bit slower.”
“But how did it know I wanted to draw my sword?”
“I cast a spell that links your mind to the sword.” Twilight said “I use that spell sometimes when I don’t want to use too much magical energy studying.”
“I see... so if I wanted to put this away?”
“Just think about putting it away.” Mays paused for a moment, and the sword collapsed back into its original position, only without the suddenness that it had taken to draw it. “Now we just need to teach you to balance on your back legs for extended periods of time.”
“That might take too long.”
“We’ll think of something.” Twilight finished drinking her coffee and set the mug aside. “I just need to brush my mane out and then we can meet up with Stone Bastion.”
“Take all the time you need.”


................


Mays and Twilight followed Stone Bastion farther into the palace. Guards were becoming less frequent, and Mays noted quite a few more attendants and even some young foals running about.
“Don’t mind the foals; my father set up a system of caretakers to watch after the children of my servants while they work.” Stone Bastion said.
“Oh, you mean like a daycare?” Twilight asked.
“I suppose.” Mays looked at the foals again. Most paid them no mind, but a few of the younger ones watched him and Twilight, with one or two following behind the two Equestrians.
“Why haven’t you tried to make contact with Equestria earlier?” Mays asked.
“Fear, mainly. Many of my predecessors believed that Equestria might try and absorb us back into their country. I personally find those fears a bit silly, but there are many who vehemently oppose any attempt to reestablish contact. Iron Spar is probably the staunchest isolationist I know.”
“I noticed. He was really suspicious about why we were here. Is there someone else that is less of a problem?”
“While Iron Spar’s views on the world are less than satisfactory, he is one of the best officers the navy has. I can’t just get rid of him and immediately find a replacement.”
“What about Tradewind?” Twilight asked “He seems like a good pony.”
“He is, but he’s a bit reckless at times. No doubt my daughter told you about his cliff diving experience.”
“She mentioned that last night.”
“I see. Also, I’m not a big supporter of nepotism; it tends to create subordination amongst lower ranks.”
“I have an issue like that with one of my officers.” Mays said.
“You should see to it that you find a new officer; you don’t want to have a mutiny on your hooves.”
“Believe me, I’ve tried.” Stone Bastion nodded before stopping in front of a large door.
“Here is the Pathfinder library; it contains every map, book, play or poem written or collected by Ponaeans. If you wish to take something with you, the librarians inside know several spells to create an identical copy to whatever you’d like. I would show you around more, but I have my Granddaughter’s Dedication Ceremony to attend to. If you have any questions, feel free ask before you cast off.” Stone Bastion turned and left. Mays looked over at Twilight.
“Look for any maps that might give us a lead on where the Crescent is.”
“Do you mind if I look at some other stuff as well?”
“Sure, just remember to look for anything about the Crescent.”
“Okay.” Twilight used her magic to open the door. Inside was a massive room dominated by a huge circular table. A map of Ponaeus and the surrounding islands was carved into the top of the table, with small flags representing different cities. The table was surrounded by row after row of bookshelves, each one filled with hundreds of books and maps.
“There’s got to be hundreds of years of history here...” Twilight said, her voice no more than a whisper. “I... I don’t even know where to begin.”
“I’ve always found the beginning the best place to start.” Mays said “Remember to keep looking for the-” Mays noticed that Twilight had run off down one of the aisles, the unicorn only a speck amongst the darkened columns. He shrugged as best he could and walked over to the table. He frowned; none of the locations labeled on the map meant anything to him and merely added to his confusion. Fortunately, a unicorn stallion noticed this and approached.
“May I help you, sir?” the unicorn asked.
“Can you find me anything mentioning the Obsidian Crescent?”
“I’m not sure; most of the records here on magical items regard those that have already been found. But I think I know something that might help.” The unicorn trotted off down another aisle. A minute later he returned carrying a book and a few scrolls in his magic. Mays took the book and set it down on the table.
“ ‘The Travel Journal of Pathfinder the Unicorn, Concerning My Trip to the Nations of the World and Other Territories’... Long title.”
“That might contain some information to your liking.” The unicorn said “I also pulled out several maps Pathfinder made on his journeys. I hope I was of help.”
“Thank you.” while the unicorn walked off, Mays opened the book to a random page and began reading
May 23rd, 1324 A.F. blown off course by out of season storm... I suppose we’ll have to skip re-establishing contact with Equestria and continue on. Ran into several ships filled with brutish creatures called Diamond Dogs. They paid us little mind, although they seemed very interested in the various trinkets I had brought as peace offerings to newly discovered nations... Will make note of this in case further contact is made.
“He was right about that one.” Mays flipped a few pages.
June 7th, 1324 A.F. I must admit, while the residents of the Ottomare Empire are harsh in most things, they are great for hospitality; there was much dancing and I think the first mate got roped into a marriage proposal. I’m not the one to deny his happiness, so I suppose I’ll have to find a new first mate.
What really intrigues me is their mythology. They believe in something they call Tirek, but refrain from describing anything about the beast. They say he’s a great demon who challenged Güneş kral (That is their name for Solaris, I suppose) for control of the world. To quote from their scripture: “And the Great Demon Tirek, amassing his armies of beasts, arose and challenged the Sun King; The Moon fell and the Demon fled, waiting for his time of vengeance”. They don’t speak much of what else happened.
Mays searched his thoughts a bit, trying to connect to any other religions that had similar stories. Most did, but none said the offending demon got away. He flipped a few more pages and kept reading.
July 23rd, 1324 A.F. Neighpan is an interesting place with a high sense of honor. I admire that in a pony. They also seem to know of the Ottomare Empire... they are not on the best of terms however.
They do seem to know a bit about this demon Tirek that has been troubling me since we left the Ottomare Empire. Unlike our sand loving friends, these ponies seem more open about him; they call him by some name I can barely pronounce, let alone write out, and say he’s some kind of shape changer that commands the dead and all the evil beasts of the world... they said nothing of Solaris or The Moon, however.
“A better description would be nice.” Mays flipped again.
September 1st, 1324 A.F. More open ocean... I don’t mind, but after a month of sailing with no sign of land the sailors are getting antsy. I personally could do for a nice beach to walk on.
The next entry he read, however, contained more information than he could have hoped for
April 5th, 1325 A.F. Given our current positioning we are only a few days outside of our home archipelago... my hooves are trembling as I write this. We landed on an island sometime in the morning, and after searching we found an altar. Closer study showed it to be covered in carvings of Ancient Equestrian writing; even my linguist could not translate it, it was that old. The altar gives off powerful magics, on a scale that not even I could hope to harness without shattering my mind like a twig. In a bout of stupidity I touched it, and it sent me a vision: a massive green... thing, striking out at a black alicorn. The alicorn fell, but the green mass was consumed by a wave of light.
I believe that the green mass was Tirek, or whatever the Equestrians call him. The black alicorn eludes me, but a stop by the Royal Archives should help, I hope.
Then I saw Solaris himself standing over a filly, weeping. The vision ended before I could learn more. I tried to reconnect, but every time I did the magic of the altar would throw me back. I cast a few spells, hoping to glean more information, but the result was the same: the magics of the altar would repel my own, sometimes throwing me to the ground. I wanted to keep trying, but my linguist and first mate suggested giving up less I kill myself. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, I conceded and returned to the ship.
Perhaps that altar contains some magic only the gods are allowed to harness, possibly the mythical Elements of Harmony... If the king is willing, I could guide an expedition to Equestria to see if they have any information.
“That must be where the Crescent is resting.” Mays looked at the map, trying to locate where exactly the island Pathfinder found was. When he failed to find it, he flagged down the unicorn that gave him the book. “Where is this island?”
“Somewhere in the Islands of the Moon.” The unicorn pointed to a crescent shaped chain of islands “Pathfinder never gave an exact location as to where this island was.”
“I want a copy of this page, and a copy of every map Pathfinder made, especially ones dealing with those islands.”
“Yes sir. Just give me a moment to locate some extra paper.”


................


Twilight was in her element. Stacks of notes surrounded her, and she rifled through book after book, finding any and all information that could possibly have been of use. Her excitement over learning about Ponaeus was trumping her normal meticulous nature, and she was recklessly tossing books over her shoulders in her mad rush to learn.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Twilight looked up and saw Mays standing behind her, a saddlebag filled with papers resting on his back.
“Oh no, I’m just doing research. You can join me if you’d like.”
“I don’t see why not.” The captain brushed a few books aside and sat down next to Twilight “What is it that you’re reading now?”
“Just some more about this pony Pathfinder.” Twilight said, not looking up from her book “He was this great explorer rivaling Star Swirl the Bearded in fame. He claimed to have met Solaris and Celestia in a dream once and spent a few years traveling the world to find new cultures.”
“I looked through his journal. He really traveled around.”
“That’s not even the half of it. His write-ups on religion in the Ottomare Empire and Neighpan are much more detailed than anything I’ve ever seen. All the stories about Celestia and Luna, all the tales about them protecting ponies, everything!” she sighed “Do you ever wish you could go back in time and meet some of these famous ponies face-to-face?”
“No. I’m a sailor, I tend to think to the future more than the past.”
“Oh... But all those places you’ve visited, they must have stirred your curiosity a bit.”
“A little, I suppose.”
“See, the problem with you is that you’re too focused on being a captain. You have to loosen up a little.” Twilight turned back to her book.
“I do try and loosen up.” Mays said.
“Sure you do...”
“Hey, at least I’m not like Nolan.”
“Just because you don’t get on everypony’s case about everything doesn’t mean you loosen up. I saw you at the party back in Ponyville and the only time you seemed to be enjoying yourself was when you were talking with those foals about your past adventures. Why can’t you be more like that?” there was a pause “If it’s a personal reason we don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, it’s fine. I guess I’m still adjusting.” There was another pause. “Twilight, what else do you know about religion in the Ottomare Empire.” Twilight set her book aside and turned to Mays.
“Not much; they call Celestia and Luna a couple of names I can barely pronounce, they worship the Royal Family as gods, and they have much stricter laws than Equestria. That’s about the extent of my knowledge.”
“Have you ever heard of some demon by the name of Tirek?” Twilight frowned.
“No.”
“Celestia never told you anything about it?”
“No. She never really talked much about the Ottomare Empire, except when talking about politics. I wasn’t interested in politics, so I never paid much attention during those lessons.”
“Did she ever say anything about a major cataclysm or war in the past?”
“No.” Twilight paused, perusing through her memory in case she forgot something. “Well, there was something...”
“What?”
“The Fall of the First Golden Age. Something happened shortly after Luna was born; many ponies were killed and Celestia’s father ended up stepping down as king once Celestia and Luna were old enough. Most records were destroyed from that era, so I don’t know what the cataclysm was.”
“Maybe it has something to do with this Tirek.” Twilight chuckled a little.
“I don’t think there’s some sort of evil demon running around trying to kill the princesses. Discord comes close, but he was more for causing chaos than slaying gods.”
“I don’t know; killing a god would cause a lot of chaos...”
“But he liked to rub his victories in ponies’ faces. You can’t really do that when somepony’s dead.” Mays nodded in agreement.
“Maybe you should ask Princess Celestia about it when we get back to Equestria.”
“I don’t want to sound intrusive.” Twilight said “I may be her personal student, but it might be some private issue she doesn’t want to talk about.”
“I see.” Mays stood to leave “I’m going to look around more; there might be some more information that I missed.”
“Okay.” Twilight turned back to her book before a few thoughts perked her interested. She searched back through the pile of books until she found a large book titled ‘Guide to Demons and Mythological Creatures’. She flipped a few pages and found her entry.
Tirek (also spelt Tirac): a demon originating from Ottomare and Saddle Arabian mythology, Tirek is a demon of destruction often seen in control of dragons or other beastly creatures. In certain sects Tirek is closely associated with storms and tidal waves. Due to superstitions of accidentally summoning Tirek, there remains no image of this demon.
“Well, that could have been better,” Twilight muttered. She wrote the definition down for later and set the book aside “I think there’s a book back in Ponyville that I can cross reference this.”
Twilight paused for a moment and began thinking. I hope everything’s okay in Ponyville. Spike’s taking care of the library, but what if there’s some major crisis going on right now... I’m sure Princess Celestia or Princess Luna could handle it. But what if it’s some local disaster, like the dam breaking or something... I bet there are other ponies that can handle it, but still!... Maybe I’m just overreacting to all this.  Twilight noted that her head had started hurting again.
Yeah, I think I’m just overreacting... I wonder if there’s any more mythological creatures we should be worrying about?


................


The last shipment of supplies was on its way to the Concordia, and the only things remaining back on shore were Mays, Twilight and the others. The sailors were content to leave as soon as possible, while the six mares had a few goodbyes left.
“I hope that all of you can return soon.” Rising Dawn said. Twilight finished putting the way the last of her books and turned to face the Princess.
“So do I; there’s still so much I want to learn about your city.”
“Perhaps a longer stay would help.”
“Yeah... preferably one where I didn’t drink too much wine.” Rising Dawn laughed.
“Same thing happened when I had my first drink, except without casting all the dreamy eyes at every colt in sight.” Twilight blushed and turned to get on the boat when she noticed something fuzzy brushing against her left leg. She looked down and saw Rising Dawn’s daughter brushing her head against her leg. The filly looked up and giggled before returning to brushing up against the older mare.
“Um...”
“Oh, sorry about that.” Rising Dawn used her magic to pick her daughter up. The filly cried in protest, but calmed down after a few soothing words from her mother “If you’re interested, there are many different meanings for a filly nuzzling one’s legs.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Usually it’s a sign of good luck, and if it was your front legs she was nuzzling then that’s a sign of good fertility.” Twilight laughed.
“I don’t think I want a filly of my own just yet.” Twilight got into the boat before she remembered one last thing. “What did you decide to name her?”
“Well, we talked about it for a bit, and we decided to name her Concordia Sun.”
“Ooh, is that because she was born on a ship? Because that’s always a good reason to name a foal!” Pinkie said from her position at the back of the boat.
“That, and I always want to remember the ship that saved my life, as well as hers.” Rising Dawn smiled again. “I wish you all a safe journey and I hope you find the Obsidian Crescent.”
“Goodbye Princess.” Rising Dawn turned and left while the boat began to head back to the Concordia.
“Hey Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Yes Rainbow?”
“Do you think one of these days you can teach all of us ‘dreamy eyes’?” Twilight looked away.
“Why would you be interested?”
“I know a few colts around Ponyville, and I want to see how you can attract them all.”
“Come now, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, poking the Pegasus in the side “You mustn't pressure Twilight into a situation that she feels uncomfortable about. That was all a misunderstanding involving too much alcohol.”
“Yeah, she was proclaiming that to the entire city.”
“I was?” Twilight grabbed Rainbow Dash by the head and pulled her closer “What did I say?”
“Uh, that you liked Captain Mays or something like that... I don’t know, I was trying to get some sleep so I couldn’t really hear you.” Twilight let go of Rainbow Dash’s head and sat down again. “Did I say something wrong again?”
“Of course not, Rainbow; I’m sure Twilight understands fully what she did.” Rarity looked at Twilight “You do, don’t you?”
“Yeah... I guess so.”