Ponies of the Cursed Seas

by iowaforever

Prologue

Ponies of the Cursed Seas

A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic/ Pirates Constructible Strategy Game fanfic

None of this is mine; Hasbro owns My Little Pony and associated characters, Wizkids owns Pirates and associated characters

This prologue is a bit human-centric, but it makes the story work, so read on before judging. Likes and comments are appreciated.

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Prologue

The ocean is much more deceiving than it first seems; for an innocent person standing on the side of a cliff or on a beach, it appears to be just another vast expanse of water, not unlike a pond or a river. Most people see it as a place that separates them from lands flowing with wealth, and for young boys that had not yet taken up jobs it was the gateway to adventure and fame, and all the advantages that came from those aspects.

Reality, however, was much different. Ask any sailor, especially those in the navy, and they would say that going to sea was like asking to be hanged. Asides from storms, diseases and overly brutal captains, one out of every four ships was attacked in some way by pirates, intrusive imperial powers, and possibly sea monsters. Entire squadrons were massacred just trying to protect a few nautical miles of ocean, and currently America was engaged in no fewer than five “wars” with the major European powers and several powerful pirate organizations.

Captain Montana Mays regarded the situations that had brought him here; he had joined the navy out of necessity and he had already been a captain eight times over, and if today was any indication it was going to keep getting worse from here. He briefly mulled over the number of times he had to go back to port in a dingy before pulling himself back to reality, ducking as a massive tentacle slammed into the deck of his ship.

Like most sea monster attacks, this one had come around dawn, when everyone was least expecting it. The squid had hit Mays’ ship, the U.S.S. Concordia, and had nearly snapped the mainmast in half. Dozens of sailors lay dead from having their bones splintered by the behemoth’s tentacles, and dozens more were busy trying to hack the tentacles into little chunks.

Still, things were not going as bad as they could have.

Mays got back to his feet, picked up his boarding axe, and flung himself at the beast. The blade sank deep into the pink flesh of the squid, liquid splashing over Mays’ arm as he drove the axe deeper. Eventually something gave and the tentacle was shredded from its owner, flopping to the deck like an injured snake. Mays spun around just as another tentacle wrapped around his torso, driving the wind from his lungs and forcing him to drop his axe and his sword. He tried desperately to pry the tentacle off his body, but to no avail. “It’s days like this where I seriously begin to question my career choice.” He muttered as the tentacle began to drag him towards the ocean.

No sooner had he begun to lose his footing that the tentacle went slack and dropped him to the ground. He pulled the severed appendage off and cast a glance back at his rescuer. A giant of a man, armed with a battered cutlass and an equally battered hacksaw, towered over him, a look of mild worry plastered to his face.

“You alright, captain?” “Hacksaw” Riley said. The medic put away his saw and held out his hand to help Mays back to his feet. Mays grabbed his hand and pulled himself to his feet, wiping some of the slime from the squid’s tentacle off his coat before picking his weapons back up.

“Guess it wasn’t my day to die.” Mays looked back across the deck “And if we’re lucky, we won’t have to lose another ship. Go find Smith and help him dislodge the ship.”

“Yes sir.” Hacksaw and Mays ran off in opposite directions. Another tentacle swung at Mays, forcing him to throw himself against the deck. He rolled over and struck out with the axe, carving an arm sized chunk of flesh off the tentacle. The tentacle rose up and Mays was forced to roll out of the way before it slammed down and crushed him. He got back to his feet and hacked at the tentacle with the axe, bits of squid and slime flying in all directions.

Unfortunately, on one of his swings the axe became lodged in the flesh of the beast. Then the tentacle swung back, the axe was pulled out of Mays’ hand. He dove down again as the tentacle swiped at him, knocking a few unlucky sailors behind him into the ocean. He got up again and made his way below deck.

Down here it was unnaturally calm; the squid had not been able to break through the Concordia’s hull, and all of the ship’s cannons were still in place. Most of the crew was on deck trying to fight off the monster, but some were below preparing for the counterattack. Mays looked around and found his quarry: Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Richard, who was coordinating the preparations for the counterattack. It was fairly easy to spot him, even in the gloom of the ship; Richard was shorter than Mays, much more stout, had a thick beard and his head was perpetually wrapped in a red bandana.

“Richard, are the preparations ready?” Mays asked.

“Aye captain.” The Master Chief said, wiping sweat off his brow. “Give the order, and this fish’ll be flayed faster than what the boys upstairs can muster.” There was a crash as another tentacle took out a side railing and some loose crates. Mays found a discarded pistol and hurried back up.

“Hold fire until I’m ready.”

“Aye captain.” Mays ran to the edge of the deck, looking out into the water. He could see the dark shape of the squid, and he could see the faint outline of sharks as they swam in to feast on the scraps and the dead sailors.

Then he found his target: a massive eye, the only way for Mays to find any connection to the beast. The green irises clashed with the unthinking brutality of the creature, and the pupil locked on to Mays and stared at him, possibly through him. Mays shoved the thoughts that the thing was studying him out of his head and raised his pistol.

“Cannoneers are ready, captain.” Richard shouted over the din of the fighting.

“Fire at will.” Mays shouted back.

“Aye captain,” Richard ducked back into the ship “Okay boys, you heard the captain. Fire!” the entire port side of the Concordia was consumed with smoke as all thirty two cannons fired, the iron balls slicing through flesh like an axe through wood. Mays fired his pistol simultaneously with the cannons, the ball striking the squid right in the center of its eye. The monster roared and pulled away from the ship before diving down into the ocean. Mays watched as the sharks dove after it, swallowing chunks of flesh that broke off before diving down for more.

“Get to the helm and get us moving again.” he said to the first man who passed him “Get the marines reorganized; I want them ready in case the squid brought some friends. Richard, reload the guns.”

“Captain,” Mays turned and saw Carl Smith and Hacksaw returning from the bow, a fairly queasy and beaten lieutenant behind them. Smith had been a merchant sailor before signing on to the Concordia, and as such knew more about fighting these things off than Mays ever did “The damage to the masts is minimal, but we lost a lot of crewmen and I have no idea what happened to the rudder and keel; we might have a hard time getting under way.”

“There’s got to be a port around here where we can hire more men.” Mays looked past Smith to the lieutenant “What happened to Nolan?”

“He got snagged by the kraken. We had to pry him off, and once we did that he vomited all over Hacksaw.”

“I’ve told you before, krakens are much bigger than this.”

“Oh, it was a kraken all right; you can tell by the eyes.” Mays ignored Smith, focused more on Nolan. It was not because he had any real affection for the lieutenant, but since Nolan was a favorite of Commodore Preble’s losing him would sink Mays’ career, public opinion be damned.

“I’m fine, captain. Really, I am.” the lieutenant said, before vomiting again.

“Sure you are. Hacksaw, take him below and get him some rum to calm him down.” The medic grabbed Nolan and carried him off, passing Master Chief Richard on his way down.

“All cannons are ready sir; just give the boys something to shoot at.” Mays nodded. The captain made his way up to the wheel, which had somehow survived the attack.

“We have to find a friendly port, or a cove, or something; somewhere where we can get this ship repaired. What’s our heading?”

“Not sure, captain. The attack threw us off course a bit.”

“Smith, find us a heading. Richard, get some men to clean up this mess, then start taking inventory of who we lost.”

“Aye captain.” Richard made his way back to the main deck, pulling several men over to assist him. Smith went over to the starboard side, trying to get a fix on the sun. Mays considered going over to help him before Smith returned.

“Sir, we’ve got company.” Mays grabbed a spyglass and followed Smith “Off the starboard bow. I’m not sure how far away they are.” Mays raised his spyglass and looked.

The ship approaching them was of odd design; it was a square-rigged ship, with a large mainmast and two smaller masts behind it. The sails were soot grey and very tattered, making him wonder as to how it could still be moving. The forward deck was elongated, and attached to the front was a contraption that resembled a gigantic scythe. Mays could barely make out the outlining on the bow that looked like a shark’s mouth, sneering at the damaged American ship. Above the ship flapped a flag that all sailors of all nations feared: a white skull wearing a bandana and large hoop earrings set against a crimson field.

“It’s the Chum Maker,” Mays said, closing the spyglass “My guess is that Sammy sent that kraken to weaken us before moving in for the kill.” He turned to the helmsman “Bring us about; they have the wind on their side and we’re in no condition to fight just yet.”

“Aye sir.”

“Smith, get more men to spread all the canvas we have.”

“But sir, we can’t outrun them.”

“I know. I lost my third ship to the Chum Maker the same way. But we can try to delay the engagement as long as possible.”

“Right sir.” Smith began shouting his own orders and pulled more men away from clearing the decks. The Concordia began to move faster as the wind filled the ship of the line’s sails. Still the Chum Maker pursued them, the Scorpion-ship edging closer and closer to the fleeing Americans.

“I don’t think we’re going to get away, captain.” Hacksaw said. The medic had returned from below decks, wearing an apron that was stained brown from old blood and vomit.

“I noticed that.” Mays looked at Hacksaw. “How many did we lose?”

“About three dozen dead, maybe twice that number wounded. Most are just cuts, but there’s one man who’s got a broken leg that I may have to take off.” Riley had gotten the nickname “Hacksaw” because most of the wounds he treated, especially those to limbs, usually ended with the patient losing some part of their anatomy. Even if his hacksaw looked like it took more lives than it saved, he was very careful to make sure that all his equipment was as clean as possible. Given their constant state of travel that still was not very reassuring.

“Try not to. We don’t have enough wood to give him a new leg.” Mays looked back at the approaching ship. It was still quite a ways away, but he could swear he could see Sammy standing under that giant blade, his eyeless sockets fixated on the Concordia. Mays cleared his mind again and turned back to the ship.

It was in that moment that he spotted it. It started as an unusual patch of turbulence off the port bow, but the turbulence began to increase before forming a depression, growing in size until all that was left was a deep blue hole in the center of the ocean.

“Looks like someone actually cares about us,” Mays said. Too bad the priest got killed by Blackheart; I could have asked him for a blessing, he thought. Mays turned to the helmsman “Aim for the whirlpool.”

“Sir? We’ll be sunk.” Must be a new man.

“No we won’t; whirlpools are… weird, for a lack of a better term. Most spit you back out at some random location, but never the same place twice. We can lose Sammy before he has a chance to attack. Hopefully we’ll show up somewhere near Nassau and we can repair.”

“Nassau, huh… what’s so great about Nassau?” Mays gave Hacksaw a confused look.

“I saved Nassau from Blackheart the first time we got this ship. I expected you to remember you pulled a bullet out of the governor’s thigh. We were treated better than kings.”

“You were because the governor’s daughter took a fancy to you.”

“Wish I could say that about her. Get us into that whirlpool, helmsman.”

“Sir, are you really sure that the best-”

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Mays moved the helmsman out of the way and spun the wheel. The Concordia began to turn, the wind and the currents pushing the ship closer and closer to the whirlpool “Richard, stow those cannons. Smith, secure anything that might snap off, especially those sails. Grab hold of something, or else you won’t need to be taken by the Chum Maker.” All the sailors and marines still on deck grabbed on to the remaining pieces of railing, while Smith’s crew finished securing the sails before heading below.

The ship began to pick up speed, and Mays tightened his grip on the wheel to keep from losing control. The wind started to pick up, whipping Mays’ hair into his face and nearly taking off his hat. Hacksaw was less lucky and was knocked off his feet and would have fallen into the vortex had the railing not stopped him. The ship continued to move faster and faster and began to lean, threatening to capsize before they had reached the bottom of the whirlpool.

Mays was completely focused on keeping the Concordia upright that he did not notice a glowing light forming at the bottom of the whirlpool. The light flickered and pulsed, with little balls of energy flying out and surrounding the ship, drifting in front of sailors and whizzing through the rigging. One of the light balls floated in front of Mays, and what was most startling about it was that it smelled. Not of sea salt or sand, but it smelled of sugar, with a hint of straw.

“I don’t think whirlpools can do that.” Mays said as the ball of light began to spin around his head. It began to spin faster until it blurred his vision, almost blinding him and throwing him off course. He felt something bang against the back of his head before the entire world went white.

From above, a cloud of light had engulfed the Concordia before the waves collapsed in on the warship, the vessel disappearing in a cascade of foam and spray.

Comments

[Codexwriter476]

Sweet, one of my hobbies got incorperated into MLP.

[EhPacha]

Be gentle?
HELL NO!

nah, jk. great job