Ponies of the Cursed Seas

by iowaforever

Chapter 6

I don't try to dabble in shipping and probably couldn't write a shipping fic to save my life. Rarity, however, is not me, and she can ship whoever she pleases (in this case, Twilight/ any stallion they meet).
Anyway, I still own nothing, like and comment on the story so I can tell what you are thinking

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Chapter 6

The wind had died down significantly after the Concordia left the Diamond Dogs, making progress slow. Rainbow Dash had offered to use some of her weather-management skills to speed things up, but Twilight had shot her down. It was night by the time the wind picked up, and from Smith’s scouting it would take them a few more hours before they reached the island.

It was dawn, and Mays was still asleep. He still had to get used to sleeping as a pony, as he lay twisted up in the hammock he had had set up (the only thing that he had cared to remember from his time serving under Admiral Crabtree was that he always said the captain was on equal terms with the common sailor and must embrace that in order to be effective). He had his hat pulled down over his face and allowed the ship’s natural sway to keep him asleep.

He was dreaming of the Wasp, the first ship he got a chance to command. He had liked the Wasp; it was a little slow and its guns were fairly weak, but she had had a certain charm about her. He was dreaming of the first combat action he had taken the schooner into; he and two other captains had found a cluster of British troop ships on their way to New York, but before they could destroy all the English vessels a flotilla led by the H.M.S. Granville had attacked the Americans. He imagined standing on the deck of the Wasp, staring into the face of the British frigate’s cannons and hearing them go off with… the sound of somepony knocking on a door.

Mays blinked, pushed his hat back and got out of his hammock. He pulled his coat and sword on as best he could before opening the door, coming face to face with a certain green pony.

“What is it, Nolan?” he asked, brushing past the lieutenant.

“Sir, I would like to register a complaint about the passenger Pinkie Pie.”

“Really?”

“Yes; she won’t stop talking and woke me up at the crack of dawn with an overly cheery song about being on a ship. I’m not even supposed to be on duty until this afternoon.”

“And this is bad because…”

“Sir, you of all people should know that officers should not be disturbed by mere passengers.”

“Right. Unfortunately for you I won’t press charges, mainly because I don’t think Pinkie Pie can be affected by something like that. Go annoy someone else.”

“I do believe that my complaints should be listened to, not passed off as annoyance.”

“Allow me to disagree. Go away.” Nolan gave an indignant huff and walked off. Mays walked out on deck and was greeted by Hacksaw. “Please tell me you don’t have any complains.”

“Nothing really serious, although I would like you to speak to the Pegasi about doing unnecessary tricks in the rigging; one of the sailors almost got himself hanged when trying to pull off a stunt.”

“I’ll have Smith talk to them.” Mays walked over to the railing and looked out. “So, I was expecting an island.”

“Other side of the ship.” Hacksaw said, pointing to an island about a mile and a half away.

“Oh… guess I need to work on my sense of direction.” Mays crossed the deck, taking a spyglass from a nearby officer. He was about to get a good look at the island when Pinkie Pie popped up next to him.

“Hi!” the pony said “Are we going on that island?”

“Possibly. Why are you so excited about it?”

“Well duh, that’s where all the other interesting stuff happens; you guys go out and find treasure or get chased by natives or something cool like that. Haven’t you read any adventure stories?”

“Uh, no, can’t say that I have.”

“When we find the Crescent, I’m going to make you read all of them.”

“Duly noted.” Mays focused his attention back on the island. There were a couple of fairly wide beaches that they could land on, and the jungle covering the island was not incredibly thick. There were a few reefs surrounding the island, meaning that they would have to go in on smaller boats rather than risk the ship.

“Hacksaw, go find Richard, Rarity, Twilight and Fluttershy.”

“Any particular reason why you want those three?”

“Rarity can use magic to find gems, Twilight’s got a good sense for geography and would probably jump at the chance to map out new land, and Fluttershy… well, if any wild animals have ponies on the menu, maybe she can talk them down or something.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“Did you hear what she did to that dragon? If there’s anyone that I want in case we get attacked, it would be her.”

“What about marines?”

“Ten should do.”

“Yes sir.” Hacksaw left. Mays was about to go find Smith to put him in charge when Twilight came up to him.

“Oh, I just sent Hacksaw to look for you. How are your cartography skills?”

“I can manage.”

“Good. Figured we might chart this island and see if there’s anything of interest.”

“Couldn’t you just draw a rough map? I thought that’s what all sailors did.”

“I’ve tried drawing as a pony; the results were unpleasant.” By now Fluttershy and Rarity had joined them, and Richard and Hacksaw were busy looking for marines to accompany them. “So, we’ll be splitting up into three groups once we reach the island-”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Twilight asked. “If there’s something on that island that might hurt somepony, then we’ll have a smaller chance of getting rid of it if we split up.”

“The island doesn’t look all that big, so we should be within reach of each other should something happen. Also, this way we'll be able to cover more ground and get moving towards the Crescent faster. If it makes you feel any better, Hacksaw, Richard and I can go with one of you when we land.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Rarity said, cutting in before Twilight could speak “I think Fluttershy should go with Mr. Richard, and I can go with our friend… Hacksaw.” Rarity muttered something about finding a better name for the medic.

“Sir.” Hacksaw said, coming up behind Mays “I found a few marines that would like to come with us.”

“Good; start lowering the boats.”

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

They had to take two of the smaller boats because one of the Pegasi had accidentally put a hole in the larger boat when Pinkie Pie startled him. Rarity kept her complaints about the cramped space to a minimum. Wind had caused the surf to be a little choppy, but no one was complaining… except for Rarity, who focused on the irregularities in the weather patterns to vent her frustration on.

“Tell me again why the captain wanted us to bring her along?” Richard muttered to Hacksaw. The medic looked down at the Master Chief.

“He said something about using her to locate gems… wish he could have said something about the noise.”

“Meh.”

"Well sorry for not living up to your own standards," Rarity said, turning towards them "But I do reserve my own right to express my feelings about our current situation. This wind is making an absolute mess of my hair; how am I going to be able to see where I'm going in the middle of a forest if my bangs are blinding me?" Richard had to agree that being unable to see would be a problem while exploring. Rarity looked over to the other boat. "At least some ponies aren't worried about anything."

Richard looked over at the other boat. Twilight and Mays were talking about something, with Twilight using her magic to hold one of her books up to emphasize whatever point she was trying to make. To Richard and Hacksaw, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Rarity, however, was taking it in a whole different direction.

"I wonder what they are talking about." Rarity said "Must be something interesting; Captain Mays seems fairly invested in the conversation."

"That's the captain for you." Richard said, focusing back on the approaching island. "He learns fast so he knows what to do to avoid getting himself killed."

"That seems rather paranoid."

"Captain Mays is like that, especially around women."

"Around what?"

"Girls." Hacksaw said "Captain Mays has a tendency to have governors and businessmen throw their daughters or younger sisters at him. Most of them he let down rather gently, some... well, there was always that female samurai he spoke of when he came back from Japan, and all the female pirates wanted to kill him first."

"Oh, Twilight wouldn't want to kill anypony. Sure, she might turn you into a cactus or something, but she's a very gentle pony otherwise." There was a pause before Rarity spoke again. “Do you think there’s something going on between them?” she asked.

“Uh, no. Why do you ask?”

“Oh… I just figured that if Twilight were to meet somepony she would open up and be less of a social deadweight. She has improved phenomenally since moving to Ponyville, but she tends to slip up a lot.”

“So… you are saying you want something between them?”

“At first I was hoping she’d be interested in Applejack’s brother, or possibly that cute stallion that lives next to my boutique. Then we met you and Twilight seemed… distracted, not to mention all that classical theatre she was reading through, though I don’t really see that as a good way to tell if somepony doesn’t know how to sort out their feelings. Anyway, I decided to see if she and Mays were interested in each other, and if they were I took it upon myself to get them to realize those feelings.” She looked over to the next boat “Not sure if it’s going very well; they seem fairly standoffish. Oh well, I’m sure they’ll grow out of it.” Richard looked back at Hacksaw. The other unicorn had stopped paying attention, so Richard was content to sit quietly while they continued on to shore.

When they landed, Richard and the marines were the first out of the boats, followed by Hacksaw and Mays with Twilight and her friends bringing up the rear. The sand underhoof was damp and Richard had to move farther up the beach to prevent from sinking. The marines formed a semicircle in front of the other and scanned the jungle for any signs of danger. The only things Richard saw were a few birds and a lizard, so he relaxed a bit.

“Richard, see anything?” Mays asked, coming up behind the Master Chief.

“Nothing yet, captain. From the looks of it I don’t think this island’s inhabited.”

“Not yet, anyway. You have your assigned groups so start searching the island. We’ll meet back here in, say, four hours?”

“If we don’t get killed by something we have yet to see.” Richard walked over to where Fluttershy was standing. The Pegasus cringed a bit, but otherwise did not react. “So, you’re Fluttershy, right?”

“Um, yes.”

“Nervous?”

“Yes; I… don’t really do well with other ponies. I-if you don’t mind, I would like to stay behind you three.”

“I don’t mind.” Richard turned to the two marines that joined him and Fluttershy. “Well, you heard her; get in front.”

“You’re really going through with this?” the taller of the two marines said.

“I could stay here if you’d like.” Fluttershy said.

“No, that would just be counterproductive.”

“Hey, I don’t mind,” the shorter marine said “Bodyguards get a lot more pay than we’d get.”

“No raises.”

“Eh, I should have guessed.” The taller marine said “But what are we supposed to defend her from, parrots?”

“I like parrots…” Fluttershy said, but she said it so soft that Richard did not hear her.

“If there’s evil pony-eating parrots, then yes; we’re supposed to be looking for any animals that might-”

“Animals?” Fluttershy said, running up to the Master Chief “Why didn’t you say we were looking for animals? Ooh, I bet there are whole flocks of parrots and seagulls and toucans and birds-of-paradise in the jungle. There may even be monkeys! Maybe there’s some fruit they wouldn’t mind sharing.” The Pegasus giggled and trotted off into the jungle, the two marines and Richard watching her go.

“… Right. Follow her and make sure she doesn’t get in trouble.”

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

The others had been gone for about two hours, and Rainbow Dash was bored. The other ponies were relaxing, and most of them did not have any interesting topics to talk about. So Rainbow Dash decided to take a nap and wait for Twilight and the others to come back from the island.

Usually Rainbow Dash would find a tree or a cloud to nap on, but some of the other ponies had gotten mad at her the last time she tried napping up in the rigging. She found a nice sunny spot near the bow of the ship and went to sleep, her snores attracting attention from several of the sailor ponies.

She had been asleep for forty minutes when a shadow fell over her face. Normally she would not have cared, but after the shadow failed to move for several minutes she opened her eyes and looked up. Standing over her was Nolan, who looked fairly pissed about something.

“What do you want?” she asked, not even bothering with getting up.

“You can’t sleep on deck.” Nolan said.

“No one said I couldn’t before. What, is there like some rule against napping?”

“You can’t sleep here; you are taking up room that could be put to better use. I must ask you to go and sleep in your cabin.”

“This space was empty when I found it, and I can’t sleep in my room; it’s too cramped and it has a lousy view.” Rainbow Dash rolled over and tried to ignore the green pony behind her, but Nolan continued on.

“I will not have you ignore me like this.”

“Watch me.”

“Uh, if I may,” Applejack said “Best not bug Rainbow when she’s napping; she might overreact.”

“If I wanted your advice, I would have asked for it.” Nolan turned his attention back to Rainbow Dash “Now would you please move.” Rainbow Dash got up and faced Nolan.

“You can’t boss me around like that.”

“You are on a ship that I am an officer on; I can use all my rights to make sure that this vessel is running properly.”

“So you take it out on ponies who just want to take naps?” Rainbow noticed Applejack backing away before Nolan spoke again.

“I don’t ‘take out’ anything on anyone; I want this ship to be a model of efficiency, unlike the deplorable condition it is in now. Above all I will not stand for a lazy, unkempt blowhard like you to undermine the authority I possess.”

“Nopony even likes you; what kind of authority is that?” but Nolan ignored her, going off on his own tangent.

“I cannot see how people put up with someone like you, especially how sloppy you are. I would expect someone like you to be much more considerate of their appearance than you are.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything; your rough and brash behavior could have you mistaken for a pirate instead of… whatever it is you wish to address yourself as. It’s simply unfitting for a lady such as yourself to be so open and boisterous.” Something inside Rainbow Dash was on the verge of snapping; she hated when somepony addressed her as ‘lady’. She was about to object further when he continued. “I don’t even see why we had to bring you six along; you’ll probably just be a burden if anything actually happens. The least you could do is try to act ladylike.”

Whatever was inside Rainbow, it had snapped.

“What did you just ask me to do?”

“Act in a way that is acceptable for someone of your sex, and straighten out your hair as well.”

“… What?”

“It is completely unacceptable for you to be going about looking like that. A little styling would be much more acceptable.” Even Rarity never made suggestions like these (unless it was for some fancy event like the Gala). Rainbow Dash was on the verge of pounding Nolan into a heap of green paste, but decided on an alternate method.

“Styling?” Rainbow Dash spotted a cloud floating over the ship. She flew up, grabbed it, and brought it back down over Nolan. “How’s this for ‘styling’?” With that, she began stomping on the cloud, sending a deluge of water down onto the lieutenant. When the cloud was empty, she struck it as hard as she could and generated a small lightning strike, hitting Nolan on his right flank. She kicked the cloud away and landed in front of the sputtering and angry lieutenant.

“Wh… Why you…”

“What’s going on here?” the two ponies looked up to see Carl Smith approaching. Nolan tried to gather himself while Rainbow Dash stood there and did nothing.

“This idiot wouldn’t stop bugging me about moving, and then he said I had to straighten up.”

“She was being incredibly rude and would not listen to a word I said. And when I pointed out that she needed to improve a few things about her personality, she attacked me with a cloud.” Smith looked at Rainbow Dash.

“Pegasi can control weather.” She said. Smith nodded and looked at Nolan.

“You’re supposed to be an officer, not an etiquette instructor; how our colleagues act is not something that warrants you to meddle with. Go dry off and get back to your post.” Nolan glared at Smith before leaving. Smith focused on Rainbow Dash. “As much as I hate Nolan, I can’t have you and your friends assaulting ponies like that, even if it was for justified reasons.”

“He was being annoying.”

“He’s always being annoying. Still doesn’t allow you to drop a cloud on his head. Look,” Smith shifted a little “I’m just going to let this blow over for now, but if Nolan whines to the captain about it and he actually listens you have to take responsibility for your actions.”

“Fine.” Rainbow Dash muttered before curing back up to continue her nap.

“By the way, thanks for that bit of information about controlling the weather; now I know a few more ways to keep Nolan in line.”

“Eh, just don’t bug me when I’m napping.”

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

Mays adjusted his hat a little. He, Twilight and the two marines that accompanied them were standing on the highest point they could find, and Twilight had surrounded herself with piles of surveyor equipment. He had questioned her about this earlier, and she had said that she wanted to get every single detail about the island right.

“So, is this what you usually do when you find uncharted islands?” she asked, sketching out a small stretch of coastline.

“There are specialists for this kind of work, but all the explorers that come onto ships I command tend to get themselves killed.”

“Oh. That explains why you have such poor maps.”

“We tend to go for substance rather than quality.” Twilight merely nodded and continued drawing.

“So, uh, captain.”

“Yes?”

“When we find the Crescent and return it to Princess Luna, what will you do then?” Mays was silent for a moment before he spoke.

“If we haven’t killed him by then, I’ll probably come back out here to find Sammy.”

“Who is he, exactly? Whenever anypony mentions him you get all serious and obsessed.”

“I do not get obsessed.”

“Yeah, you kind of do.”

“… Fine. Anyway, Sammy was this pirate who enjoyed killing things a little too much; some said he’d burn entire ships loaded with innocents just for a good laugh. One night he has a run in with another pirate by the name of El Fantasma, who makes him a deal: Sammy swears loyalty to him and his master, and he gives Sammy powers and more time to run around killing things. Sammy accepts, and then proceeded to rip his face off.”

“What? Why?”

“Probably because he wanted to rip his face off. He starts calling himself Sammy the Skull and declares war on all living beings. He’ll attack anything that doesn’t serve El Fantasma or his master, although he has a preference for American ships. So that’s why we’re going after him.” There was a drawn out silence punctuated by Twilight’s pencil scratching across paper.

“Is that the only reason?”

“He also sank my third ship, the Comet; two months at sea and it finally stopped smelling like limes, and then the Chum Maker shows up and splits it right in half.”

“Oh, I see… but when you do catch him, what will you do then?”

“I’m not sure, exactly. What do you do when you’re done saving the world?” Twilight laughed.

“My friends and I don’t save the world all that often; besides from Discord and Nightmare Moon Equestria isn’t ever in that much of danger. Occasionally there’s a few monsters that come out of the Everfree Forest, but most of the time nothing too far out of the ordinary happens.”

“Sounds… idyllic.”

“It is, I guess… if you’re interested, you could come and live in Ponyville if you ever got bored sailing… just a thought.” Twilight turned away, embarrassed, and continued drawing her map.

“Maybe… although I’m not sure of how much of Pinkie Pie I could handle.”

“You’ll get used to her; she’s actually fairly tame once you… Hey, isn’t that a ship?”

“Where?” Mays trotted over to Twilight, who pulled a pair of binoculars out of her saddlebags and levitated them in front of Mays’ eyes. Sure enough, there was a ship, sailing east; it was a standard three masted ship, and it looked fairly well maintained. Mays could not make out any weapons or flags, but given its speed, direction and quality he guessed that they were not pirates.

“Does it look familiar? Maybe some others were pulled through by whatever brought you here.”

“I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of ships, but the European nations had huge fleets; this might be one that I’ve never encountered before. Or it could be an entirely different nation of ponies that own that ship.”

“But Princess Celestia said that nopony has ever sailed out this far.”

“None that we know of… they look too far away to pursue, but we might be able to follow them once we’re done-” then they heard Rarity scream. “That can’t be good. Pack up your things as fast as possible; we need to make sure your friend isn’t in danger.” Twilight was on the verge of panicking and threw most of her stuff into her saddlebags, not even bothering to make sure they fit. When she was finished gathering her stuff, the four of them began running toward where they heard Rarity scream.

“What do you think happened?” Twilight asked.

“Hopefully nothing bad. Worst case scenario is that some of Sammy’s crew decided to stick around and ambushed them. I think the marines and Hacksaw can handle themselves, but for how long I don’t know.” The jungle was thicker in this part, and some loose boulders made progress slow. “Can’t you just teleport up there?”

“I don’t know where we’re going,” Twilight said “I can’t teleport unless I or another pony I’m teleporting has some familiarity with the destination.”

“Ah.” Mays jumped over a fallen tree, but failed to clear the log entirely and faceplanted into a puddle. He shook himself off and continued running, his pace slowed only by a bruised foreleg.

“Don’t you think it would be easier to run if you weren’t wearing that heavy coat?” Twilight asked.

“It goes with the hat, and it shows I’m captain; you wouldn’t want some idiot like Nolan running things because he took advantage of the fact that I showed no rank?”

“Couldn’t Rarity make something lighter?”

“When we get back to Ponyville I’ll take her up on that.” The four of them broke into a clearing. Two more marines turned and took aim at the new arrivals, bits of lead shot hovering in front of their faces. “Whoa, calm down. It’s only us. What’s got you all… oh.”

In the center of the field, impaled on several crude spears, were six Diamond Dogs. Their armor and clothing lay in a heap to one side of the clearing, and most of their skin and fur had been stripped off. Two of the dogs had been torched and the other four had been gutted and sliced up rather badly, and one had had both eyes obliterated by gunshots. The air stank with the smell of rotting flesh, and swarms of flies covered anything they could consider food. Mays heard Twilight gag behind him and he walked up to the butchered dogs, inspecting their wounds.

“Two day, at most. Sammy’s long gone by now.”

“I just… what kind of pony could do such a thing?” Rarity asked, her already white face even paler.

“One that never had any morals to begin with.” Hacksaw muttered. The medic turned to the two marines accompanying Mays. “Help me cut them down; they might come back for recruits.” The marines nodded, using their magic to pull small knives out of their saddlebags. Mays walked over to Hacksaw.

“Find anything else?” he asked.

“No, captain. A bunch of banana plants and a few deposits of gems, but other than that there’s nothing here.”

“We saw a ship.” Twilight called from the other side of the field, trying not to watch as the marines struggled with the dead bodies.

“Really? Which one?”

“None we’ve seen, but that means there are other ponies within the vicinity. If possible I want to make contact with them and see if they’ve seen the Chum Maker.” Mays noticed that Hacksaw’s face had darkened considerably. “And the Crescent, of course.”

“Captain, you need to get your priorities straight,” Hacksaw said, walking away to help the marines bury the Diamond Dogs “Or you’ll end up just like Richmond.”

Comments

[Northwest Brony]

For some reason I read this with British Isles accents.

I spend too much time on FyreUK