Over the Edge and Over Again

by Perpetual Motion

Angry and Dead Again

Over the Edge and Over Again: Chapter 19
Angry and Dead Again

Fluttershy frantically galloped through the city streets of Canterlot beside the two newest humans – along with a rather cranky undead monkey– that had entered her life. All the while, the three of them pushed their way towards the black pirate ship as it maintained on always moving just that little bit faster than they could keep up.

Her ultimate failure of an escape attempt had brought them away from the ship. Consequently, that also brought them out of the way the vessel had chartered. She had silently hoped that the ship might simply drift towards them, though that particular dream had been squashed rather quickly.

Not that the vessel was impossibly far away, mind you; when the chase had begun there seemed to be an irritably large number of streets and alleys in their way. Now it drifted just out of their reach, no more than a few streets away when approached from the ground.

Getting anywhere near that up high in the air was another matter entirely.

As she ran, Fluttershy held her wings tight to her side as she struggled to ignore the uncomfortable burning along the length of her injury. Her wing throbbed right through to the bone, forcing the little pegasus to wonder whether there was more to it than a simple sprain. Even with the limb held somewhat naturally at her side, it felt strained and disturbingly out of place.

Her hooves and legs were fine, however, and for that much she was grateful. Through a sprint she managed to match Pintel and Ragetti's pace despite her lack of physical prowess. Though she suspected that just might have been more due to the pirates' own lack of fitness than anything on her part.

She then briefly wondered how a creature with only two legs could possibly be a fully functioning pirate without being as fit as a phoenix.

The two aliens weren't very elegant on their feet either. Pintel barely got more than a few dozen paces each time before he had to force his trousers up above his waist and Ragetti often flailed his arms at his sides. The man practically waved to the world as he ran past it.

There wasn’t an awful lot for him to wave at anymore. Fluttershy had never spent all that much time in the middle of Canterlot, but she'd certainly never seen it – or any place – in the condition it was now. Window panes sat broken and smashed with the jagged glass littering the nearby pavements. Object of every size and worth were haphazardly broken alongside the rubble.

There were barely any ponies to see either, which was perhaps the most jarring difference. Most buildings boasted nothing but the destruction Barbossa and his clan had caused. If any building did contain a pony, they were likely curled up as far inside as they possibly could be.

It was almost amazing to think that, just yesterday, the very idea of pirates raiding Canterlot would have been scoffed at as a foal’s fantasy. Only now it seemed more akin to a nightmare.

The only sign that ponies even existed at all was the odd survivor skittishly fleeing from one place to another. Even then, those ponies often veered very far away the moment Pintel and Ragetti stormed into view.

As the two men made a mad dash into a new street, two earth ponies dived from their path only to end up cowering on the ground. Fluttershy apologised in pirates’ wake –slowing briefly to smile – before she galloped on her way.

But despite everything they were doing, and as hard as the men themselves tried, the ship never grew significantly closer. If they were moving any closer, or gaining any real ground, then it was hardly visible from the streets.

Fluttershy didn't even know what the two of them had planned if they eventually got to the ship. After all, they'd be directly under the thing with no way to get onto it. She couldn't fly. And she was sure Pintel and Ragetti had an even smaller chance of getting up there, let alone helping Hector back down to safety when they did.

“Hector...”

Part of her mind questioned why she was even going along with the two humans, given everything Hector had done in the recent days. Even the things before Discord had made his grand appearance were less than what she considered kind.

He...wasn't a horrible creature, to be fair. Mean, most certainly, but not horrible. Then again, she pondered the idea that if Discord had never appeared to them in that hall – and never gave her a reason to suspect – would she have thought Hector any different? Would it have occurred to her that taking her hostage and siding with Discord was out of his character?

Would she have ever found it in herself to forgive him then?

Shifting her neck as she ran, Fluttershy cringed at the numbing pain against her skin. Small cuts and the threat of something much worse still remained etched into the flesh just below her throat whilst a single trail of red stained part of her yellow coat. The choker that had once been strapped around her neck hadn’t exactly helped her condition.

Barbossa had wanted her wings bound too and he'd been somewhat adamant about it when talking to Discord. He had claimed it to be his way out of trouble. Fluttershy had assumed it was to bargain with her friends, but she’d never found the courage to ask.

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts out of her mind to focus on the current objective rather than what had occurred before. Hector was in trouble, and now in total control of his own mind. She wasn't about to let a creature get hurt when there was still something in him worth saving.

No matter how small that part may have been.

The chance for the thoughts to resurface passed by when Pintel suddenly broke free from the group and began running over towards a lone purple pegasus. The man came to a halt just in front of the mare, hollering something about help as he hysterically pointed up towards the ship sailing in the sky.

Fluttershy kept her own course as she slowed to a stop, watching with Ragetti as the portly man bent over the pony and began to reach down for her forelegs.

A second later – after a well timed buck – and Pintel was on the floor clutching at his stomach. The mystery mare was already up in the air, soaring deftly over a building before she vanished out of sight.

Ragetti stood there, looking back and forth between the ship as it flew away and his uncle as he lay slumped on the floor. The taller man shuffled on the spot, anxiously running his hands through his hair before finally deciding on the latter of his two choices.

“That went well, didn’t it?” he asked.

“Shut up,” Pintel spat back under his breath, “Let’s just get to the bloody ship...”

“What…what exactly are we going to do when we get under it?” Fluttershy asked. “I can't fly anymore. How are you going to get up there?”

“That's why I wanted the flyin' horse to help,” he mumbled in reply, kicking at the street as he peered into the sky. His breaths were heavy as he got to his feet and began to wander back along their original path. “Ain't my fault she got hersel' spooked.”

Fluttershy wanted to voice her believe of the contrary, but kept her silence.

Pintel led he group as he began into steady jog. His two companions stopped beside him less than a minute later as he bent over and tried to catch the breath that had been cleanly bucked of out him. Ragetti just blamed it on his uncle’s age and form, something Fluttershy silently believed too.

After the fatter of the two men assured that he wasn't as unfit as everyone assumed, the group moved out from the street they were in. They suddenly stopped as they found themselves in open square of architecture. An ornate marble fountain sat proud at the centre of the courtyard, surrounded by a wide circle of marble buildings that harboured small sideways and exits into the rest of the city.

The scenery wasn't the reason they had stopped, however.

At least dozen of the faux Barbossas were slumped motionless on the dirty cobbles. Several others were hung limp over the roofs of several houses, free of blood and whatever else it was that made them work. They all followed a wayward path, dead breadcrumbs to the ship that lay just out of reach in the distance.

Ragetti grasped hold of Jack’s waistcoat before the little thing had even thought of moving anywhere that wasn’t his shoulder. It didn’t do much to stop the monkey as he shrieked and clawed to the dead forms on the ground.

“Captain's been busy,” Ragetti mumbled.

Fluttershy was somewhat surprised – perhaps a little in awe – to know that Hector had done as well as he apparently had against an endless stream of enemies in an enclosed space. She knew she would have had a hard enough time in such a situation.

Then the sky suddenly turned black, stirring the horizon from the cacophony of colours it had been into a starry night and the dim light of the moon fell over them. The stars stirred through the air, painting into the sky a collection images and symbols. A smiling face and a dancing pig in a skirt were among those pictures, quite clearly, represented in the sky in place of any recognisable constellations.

Then again, Fluttershy had never spent too much of her time studying the stars; that was more Twilight’s field of expertise. She wagered the unicorn would be a little more than livid he she knew the constellations had been reduced to dancing pigs.

“That he has…” Pintel blankly replied.

Fluttershy took wary steps as they began to wander passed the lifeless crew members strewn around the ground, rather unnerved that the other two hadn’t so much as turned at the sight of the dead. Even when she knew they weren't really Hector, it still tugged at her heart to think that the creatures had once been – in some small capacity – alive.

Letting her slow steps develop into a steady canter, she peered over a duplicate of her antagonistic friend, lowering her ears as his likeness struck her a little harder than she thought it would. A soft moan sounded out from beneath her and the little pegasus shot her body back when she realised what it was.

The form below her was very much alive, and it had started to move. Bent at sickly angles, the arms continually convulsed as the hands struggled to push the rest of the body up from the ground. There was a horrid crack as one of the arms snapped back into place and the copy began to repeat the process.

Fluttershy found herself wandering away, trying to stifle a sound coming from her lips that was halfway between a squeak and a jittery laugh. She hurried in a quick trot to the humans, bumping into the skinnier of the two as she kept close.

The two men took notice, peering into the darkness towards whatever it was that had their equine guide so scared.

The ragged chime of “Yo...” echoed throughout the streets, followed by a chilly silence as “Ho...” was sung from within the shadows soon after.

The voices came from every direction, rasped and held in the air by hushed whispers. Not quite to the group’s surprise, the West Country accent was all too familiar to them.

Pintel and Ragetti stopped in their tracks. They shared an uncertain look as they peered into the streets around them, and then down to Fluttershy.

Even Jack had grown silent in the aftermath, pausing in his futile tirade to peer silently up into the night sky.

“All...” followed on from within the darkened streets, choired by the continuous voice of Barbossa. Every Barbossa. “Haaaaaands...”

“This place is givin’ me the fear,” Pintel whispered into the air. “Talk about creepy.”

He began to walk faster, heading out further into the vast open area they had uncovered. If anything, the wide open nature of the square left nowhere for any unpleasant beasties to hide. If anything came for them, they’d be sure to see it coming first. The abundance of side streets gave them more than enough exits to choose from, too.

Ragetti swiftly followed in his uncle’s example and tugged at Fluttershy's coat to urge her along. It was then, with their air silent, that they all realised the ship had begun to significantly slow its course. It was reassuring, though made the trip up there no less difficult.

The area they were in hardly made the task any easier. Fluttershy didn't know where exactly they were, but some sort of central plaza seemed quite likely. It definitely wasn’t the centre of Canterlot; she'd wandered through there enough times during her brief visits with Rarity.

Still, the wide open space and a distinct lack of any real way to scale the buildings offered them no real vertical assistance.

Regardless, the three hurried their pace. The ship had slowed – of that much they were sure –and if there was ever a time get below the vessel, it was now. Pintel briefly voiced his hope to find another “flying horsie” to get them up there.

“Hoooooooist...”

When she thought about it, Fluttershy wasn't really sure what she was hoping for. A chance to get up there? A way to simply bring Hector down to them? Either way, she'd need a willing pegasus. And unless Dash was just around the corner she didn't think there'd be a multitude of them running around.

It was times like these she wished she knew where Pinkie hid all her strange things. Her flying machine would have been helpful. Pintel or Ragetti would even be able to have a go at using that. A party cannon or two would have been a nice boon, too.

But she wasn't about to leave a friend behind. She didn't know how she could help, or what Pintel and Ragetti had planned, but if getting under it was the best they could do right now then that's just what she would have to do.

“The coloooours!”

The Barbossas were getting better at their efforts to stand. Fluttershy couldn't speak for any others that were out in the darkness, but those that had been silent and downed on the streets were now struggling up on their elbows.

And they were still groaning, singing in a clear chorus whenever they could.

“High!”

“That song,” Pintel whispered beneath his breath. In the ensuing silence it was enough to catch everyone’s attention. “That’s the song, ain’t it? The song?”

“A-aye, right enough. Don’t seem so good to hear it no more.”

“What song?” Fluttershy asked. “Is it important?”

“The song!” Pintel repeated in a harsh whisper. “Every pirate knows -”

One of the clones struggled up from the ground, reaching out towards Ragetti before falling back down with a dull thud. All three of them flinched to the side, cowering beneath the echoes of the song being sung. Ragetti and Pintel thanked the lords above and beyond that their trousers were already brown.

“Jesus bloody Christ!” Pintel swore. He moved forward and kicked the lifeless body away. “Trust Barbossa te leave the men for dead, only to have the things scare us at the bottom.”

“I-I'm not sure he left them for...f-for dead,” Fluttershy whispered, trotting forward. “I think they were dead.”

She caught up to Pintel's side, still looking around as the other copies began to get better and better in their attempts to stand. It was like watching foals learning to walk, or a creature that was far too eager to walk on healing bones.

One in particular was a particular sight to behold. It was moving faster than the others, though in a far worse condition. It dragged itself at a snail's pace across the ground by the strength of a single arm. The other arm appeared to be missing outright, as was a good deal of its legs.

“Neeeever...”

The others kept shifting towards the ship as Ragetti suddenly held back a shriek. He shook as his hands as Jack launched himself from the man’s shoulder and towards the broken Barbossa. The others turned back to see the monkey clambering onto its back.

The monkey leaned its head on the man’s back, and, after a brief stop to natter something out of earshot, the Barbossa kept on moving.

Ragetti was the first to comment on the situation. “Barbossa?!”

Ragetti lifted his hand into the air and awkwardly waved it as the dilapidated Barbossa stopped in its tracks. It was then than Fluttershy noted, through the dark, how broken the Barbossa was. It wasn’t just hurt or down like the others; it was rotted down to the core.

Much like the little monkey, it was undead.

And, judging by the voice, it was angry too.

“Don’t just stand there, gawkin’!” it roared. Or, rather, he roared. “Get yer paper skulled arses over here and help me!”

Ragetti nodded and made a beeline for his captain. Pintel and Fluttershy just watched, looking at the scene until their senses truly came to them and they followed suit. When they were by Ragetti’s side they could truly see the Barbossa for what it was: the real Barbossa.

Despite that, it took Fluttershy a few long second before she could look at him proper. His form was bathed in the moonlight, deprived of skin and whatever else it was that made the pirate seem alive. She swallowed and weary breath as something shifted in her stomach.

One of his legs was gone, completely detached from the hip. His other was broken off at the shin or the knee; she couldn't quite tell under his trousers, as ripped and frayed as they were. He also appeared to be missing a large part of his upper torso, mainly the left side along with the socket and arm that should have rightly been there. She watched as Barbossa shifted his head frantically between the way in front of him and the darkness draped across the sky. The moon in particular held his attention.

“W-what happened to you?” she eventually mumbled.

He came to a sudden stop. He shifted his back and Jack fell back to the cobbles.

“Oh, good te know ye care about me health and earthly well bein', Fluttershy. He stressed her name with his lipless mouth. “It’s a pity that ye weren't there te give it when I got me arse handed te me on a silver platter!”

“B-but it wasn't my fault, I-”

“I don't care; quite frankly, yer excuses ain't high on me list o' priorities at the moment.” His attention shifted to face his own two men. “Mr Ragetti, Pintel!”

“Aye?!” they called in unison.

“Me arm and legs appear te be keen on stayin' buggered off,” he stated, pointing towards the general direction of the fountain. Something that could have been a grotesquely deformed fish was flailing this way and that in the water. “Get them. Now.”

The last word came out sharper and harder than others, and the two crewmen didn't hesitate in taking it to heart. Fluttershy wondered if they had enough information to go on, but the men took to their task before she could say anything on the matter.

“Never...”

Barbossa looked at the world around him, clenching his teeth at the sound of his own voice as it sang out all across the square. And beyond it, too.

Pintel came back first. He ran by, tossing a rotten arm in Barbossa’s general direction before storming away.

“Neeeeeeever…”

The captain quickly moved onto his behind, removing half of his coat. He picked his amputated arm up from the floor and forced it back into – what was left – of its socket.

Fluttershy winced as the bones cracked and the arm reluctantly clicked into place. Barbossa raise this hands slowly into the air, though it was a matter of seconds before the limb fell from its place and back to the ground.

“Bugger,” he groaned, flexing what was left of his shoulder as he held the arm back into place. “That shoulder better grow back fast....” He turned to look at Fluttershy. “What? Ye think yer exempt?”

Fluttershy attempted to stammer a response. She didn’t get very far.

“Well, ye ain't,” he responded in a calm voice, before his tone radically shifted. “Find me legs!”

The mare did as she was told, feeling a little more like Hector's servant as she did. Is this what real pirates were like? Constantly being shouted at by their captain? If it was, all the stories she'd heard as a foal suddenly seemed a whole lot less adventurous.

“Shall...”

The other Hector's were still singing and, if the sudden addition of pistol far was any consideration, they were growing stronger.

Fluttershy searched across the plaza, catching sight of Pintel a few yards from the fountain. He was holding part of a leg in his hand, complete with boot still snugly worn around the foot. Though, with the way he was using it to whack away at the rising Barbossas, it could very well have been a club.

A club with…a foot with a boot. Something in that description didn’t quite agree with Fluttershy’s stomach.

“We...”

The other downed Barbossas were rising and those that weren’t being thwarted by Pintel and Ragetti moved forward.

Fluttershy couldn't work out who they were heading for. They went wherever their legs took them, and aimed for whoever was closest. She wanted to believe that would buy them more time, but in the end it didn’t matter.

She just wanted to get away from them.

“Die!” they all screamed at last.

Most of them were finally back on their feet. While it didn’t take long for Pintel and Ragetti to bring them back down, the numbers were against them. Those that that fell dead once more stayed dead, but anything less seemed futile.

And even then, Fluttershy had her doubts that they would stay dead for long.

It wasn’t before long that Pintel had successfully delivered his captain’s first leg. Unlike the arm, Barbossa seemed content to just shove the limb back into its normal space without so much as a change of expression, much to Fluttershy's dismay.

This limb, however, seemed inclined on staying where it was meant to. With his trousers rolled up, the limb clicked neatly back into place at the knee.

Ragetti, on the other hoof, was wading through the water in the fountain. There wasn’t much more commission than a few splashes before he announced, “I got it!” with the torn leg held tight in his grasp.

“Bring it back then!” Barbossa demanded.

Fluttershy had hardly left his side, and a little part of her was glad for that; she didn't really know how willing she'd be to pick up the remains of Hector's leg.

It was then that the sun rose up. And, for a split second, all action on the square ceased entirely.

Hector began to scream.

From the very bottom of his chest, he screamed. His body writhed on the on the cobbles, broken and twisted as his mortality abruptly returned under the harsh glare of the sunshine. There were moments between breaths where he stopped, only to gulp down what little air he could and carry on again.

Jack was a fluffy monkey again, Hector wasn’t a skeleton anymore and he was missing far too much of his body.

Time slowed to an abrupt halt as everything Fluttershy could see seemed to revolve around the man on the floor. A steady flow of blood seeped out from the remains of his torn leg. A good deal freely dripped from his shoulder.

While his body had once been a long dead cadaver at best, now he was an entirely open wound with everything that implied.

The red seeped into his clothes, staining the dark fabric. It pooled below him. There was a sick noise with each haggard moment he made; a sinful mix of cracking bone and the shifting of raw meat.

In the end, Barbossa clenched his palm tight over his jaw and kept it shut.

As the world seemed to right itself, Hector's muffled screams were barely overshadowed by the gunshots from Pintel and Ragetti. As the real Barbossa lay swearing on the ground, his former comrades were making their presence known.

Both Pintel and Ragetti weren’t up for a second round, it seemed. They scarpered towards their captain the first chance they got, waving whatever they had at hand into the enemy as they ran by. This was, in Ragetti’s case, a severed leg.

That wasn't too pleasant. Fluttershy wasn’t sure how much of all this she could take. Coming back to her senses and not quite sure how she could help, Fluttershy did the first thing that popped into her mind.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best thing to say.

“A-are you okay?!”

“Do…do I look okay ye feathery bitch?!” Hector screamed in-between breaths, openly wailing into his sleeve. Fluttershy attempted to cower into the depths of her mane, suddenly forgetting that it wasn’t there anymore. “Me leg’s bein’ waved around like a club!”

Fluttershy looked over to see that the comment still rung true. The two humans arrived at Fluttershy’s side, the leg still held in one of their hands like an unwieldy sword.

“Barbossa!” Ragetti called. “Barbossa, ye ok-”

“Just you dare finish that question!” Barbossa roared. “Just! You! Dare!”

“W-what should we do?!” Fluttershy shakily asked the men, “I don't think he can walk.”

Something between a laugh and gurgle escaped Barbossa throat between breaths.

“Oh, thank ye for yer rather astute observations there, Fluttershy,” he screamed, slamming his free arm into the stone. “Do ye want te give me a hug, Fluttershy?” he screamed, shifting his body violently towards her. “C’mon, Fluttershy! Let me use my lovely arms te give ye a great big bloody hug!”

He reached out, though failed in doing anything to change where he was. His screams devolved into heavy breaths as he forced his forehead into the ground. Then he just stayed there for a few choice moments, mumbling into the stones.

“The other Barbossas ain't lettin' up neither...”

That much was true. While those that fell to the end of a sword and a bullet stayed down, more were leaking in from the surrounding streets. The darkness hid them from view, but they were there; Fluttershy could feel it.

And if every one of the copies they’d passed by was up and walking, Fluttershy doubted they would get very far with Barbossa in the state that he was. Besides, according to what she had seen he was their best fighter.

By a massive margin.

“I've got his leg!” Ragetti suddenly remembered, waving it in the air.

Barbossa only growled in response, clenching his hand as he motioned his subordinate to bring the offending limb over. Ragetti did so, dropping it into his captain' lap once he’d managed something close to sitting up.

Taking hold of his leg, Barbossa clenched his teeth tight as his worn shoulder audibly popped and creaked. He winced again as he lowered his leg to where it was meant to be, hissing violently through his teeth when it made contact.

“Go in go in go in go in go in go in go in! Get! In! There!” He didn't react favourably when the pain didn't cease. With each push of his leg, the only change it offered was an increased flow of blood spilling from the open wounds. “The bastard ain't goin’ back on!” he wailed. “Why ain’t it goin’ back on?!”

Fluttershy swallowed hard. Her flesh grew visibly pale under the patches of her shaved coat. Her hooves were beginning to stain a dotted red.

☠

Barbossa just continued to fail at putting his leg back in place. He kept forcing and pushing, wondering why the limb refused to go back on.

It was simple; it was meant to be simple! If something broke, you just put it back into place. Given a short enough wait, whatever it was you lost could be put back on. Even if you couldn't find the body parts, it would get back to you somehow. That was just the nature of the curse, and the crew had dealt with it. They’d all had to deal with it.

“But I...it ain't the curse.”

Barbossa let his leg fall to the ground as he peered into the sky. He felt the heat from the sun wash over his skin, the breeze through the air. His skin crawled at that and he couldn’t keep his healthy arm from shivering. They were true feelings; they were most definitely something.

Then, through the burning and the sheer something that goaded his body, he finally came to his senses.

“That...that bastard!”

“W-what's happenin'?” Ragetti asked.

“Whe- when the moonlight ain't out...” the captain seethed between breaths. He saw black spots batter the mismatched sky. Whether they were truly there or not, he couldn’t tell. The world seemed to dull the more he looked at it. “Discord ain't cursed me. He's bloody buggered it up!”

“I-I don't understand,” Fluttershy muttered. “W-what’s going on?”

“The curse…” he managed with clenched fists. His breathes came quick and shallow. The lightness it brought to his head did nothing to relieve the pain. “The curse ain't workin' durin' the day. I ain’t meant to feel nothin’, ever. Never ever! When the moonlight leaves the night sky, so does whatever magic he’s managed te shove on me.”

“So now…you ain’t cursed?” Pintel asked. “Unless the moons out?”

“But...it ain’t all gone, right? You ain't dead now,” Ragetti suggested, before Barbossa could even summon a response. “Shouldn’t you be dead now?”

Barbossa didn’t know. He couldn’t bring himself to think properly on the subject. Things were missing and shifted and wrong and it was almost…torture. Nothing like it had been moments ago. He desperately wanted the moon to come back, to have the night devour him until it was only the stale sense of feeling that remained.

He didn’t want the burning and the spots that littered his vision. He didn’t want his inside where they shouldn’t have been, pushing and broken against each other. He wanted peace of mind. Hell, he would settle for good old fashioned unconsciousness.

But even that seemed reluctant to take hold.

As cheering once again filled the air, Pintel peered up to its source. The ship was beginning to move once more and, as everyone turned to look to it, they something infinitely more troubling. The demons were leaving the ship once more. Dozens of men had begun to haul themselves over the side, using the same ropes they’d used to originally take the city.

“I couldn't care less; I ain't waitin' te find out!” Barbossa wearily reached out to Pintel. “M-mister Pintel, lend me yer shoulder!”

Pintel obeyed the order, lowering himself enough to give his captain leverage. Barbossa hauled himself up, clenching his teeth shut as he stared down at his leg. It didn’t move with him; it stayed on the ground.

“Bring it,” he heaved. He clenched his eyes shut once more. “I can shove it back in when the sun comes up. Knowin’ Discord he’ll do it when he damn well pleases.”

Ragetti did as he was told, picking up the arm once again as he wandered next to the others. Pintel slowed his pace for the captain –which Barbossa was grateful for – but both realised they weren’t truly going anywhere. They could walk, but not outrun anything.

Especially not an entire crew of pirates.

☠

Fluttershy let her eyes wander, searching for anything that could actually help. She didn't know what Hector needed, or how his curse worked, so she fell back on her own logic. When one of her larger animal friends hurt their legs to the point they couldn't walk, she would put them on a suitably sized mobile surface and take them somewhere that could help them.

In this case, that pretty much meant as far away as physically possible. At least until the moon came up.

And then she saw it.

“We could use that!”

Pintel followed her hoof and set his sight on the cart she was pointing it. It had four wooden wheels, space enough for a pony or two at the front. Several broken bales of hay were stored at the back.

“A farmin' cart?” There wasn’t even a chance for Barbossa to complain. He couldn’t even find it in himself. “It’ll do. Gentleman!”

He meandered over against Pintel’s weight, trying to pick up speed but failing with only one leg to do so. Pintel moved as fast as he could, half carrying his captain with him. Jack simply followed behind his master the entire time.

Moment later, he dropped Barbossa onto the cart with an unsympathetic thud and turned back to the noise. Barbossa held his breath, using his good leg to kick Pintel in the back, only to feel something sharp stab into his abdomen. The inside of his abdomen.

Whatever it was hadn’t healed either. Neither had his cracked shoulder blade and socket; he could feel the arm ready to split free from its resting place. The bone wasn’t set where it should have been. There was a dull thud as Ragetti dumped his leg by his side.

“W-who's going to pull it?”

Fluttershy was met by three blank stares, all of whom gave her a look which made her question her intelligence.

She had thought the question was fair.

Using the sound of the Barbossas fast approaching as a push, Fluttershy galloped to the front of the cart, attaching the reigns as she shifted herself into place. Several seconds of pulling passed before she realised something.

“Go!” she heard Barbossa shout, and the gunfire of a pistol soon after.

As her hooves scraped against the ground, her face reddened as the wooden cart refused to move more than a few inches each time under her strength.

“It's too heavy!” she wheezed.

“Oh, Jesus Christ...”
With a shove of his good arm, Barbossa thrust Ragetti out of the cart and back onto the street. The motions forced his raw amputation to hit the wood once more, though he was far from caring. The burning did nothing to raise the bar.

Ignoring the newest pain that lost itself in all the others, he waved towards the front. “Help the poor lass, ye ingrate!”

After a quick glance to several of the approaching enemies, he did as his captain said. He even went as far as to wrap himself up in the reigns like Fluttershy, if only to make sure his captain was kept happier than was needed.

This time Fluttershy tried with the human by her side, feeling the cart move easier than it had done before. Not by a lot, but more than enough to get it moving. Ragetti was using his reigns as grips in his hands, pulling with his upper limbs as well as trying to run with his legs.

The cart began to move and none too soon. Barbossa seethed at his torn leg, shifting it around in the hopes the burning would stop. He looked out the back of the cart.

“For the love of God...”

The ship was still off in the distance; above the buildings, but the crew weren't. They weren't even trying to stay on board anymore. The copies wandering the square had been tolerable. Even Pintel and Ragetti had seen to most of them.

But down the street, fast approaching were more of them. Ten or twenty at the very least, charging past the buildings in broad daylight.

“Move it ye filthy bildrats!” Barbossa wailed to his newfound horses. He felt the air leave his lungs as something shifted against them. “Shi…s-shift yersels! We've got company!”

Ragetti took the order to heart, moving his legs almost comically fast as Fluttershy struggled for the briefest moment to adjust to his speed. While the human used the orders to push himself, the yellow mare instead used the sounds of gunfire coming from behind.

“H-how…how many bullets ye got left?” Barbossa just about said. He didn’t feel right. Not that he really had done for the last few minutes.

He really, really shouldn’t have been alive. Nothing felt quite right.

Why was he still awake?

How was he still conscious?

“Uh...” Pintel said, looking at the pouch at his side, “a handful, Cap'n. Powder's runnin' low.”

As Barbossa loaded his own pistol, he winced as his freshly amputated leg flailed on the wood as the cart bounced along the cobbles. He aimed it carefully, holding a smile on his lips as he fired. One man fell to the shot, and two more ran into him before tumbling into a heap.

With a deep breath, Barbossa pushed himself to sit up against the bales of hay. He looked to Jack and stroked the tip of the monkey’s head before looking back to Pintel. Barbossa just about managed a smile.

“Better make ‘em count.”

Comments

[More Dakka]

Insert obligatory comment celebrating the release of a new chapter.

[Icarus Crimsonhoof]

hooray new chapter.

[Arcane Howitzer]

I wonder where the rest of the Mane 6 are while all of this zombie-pirate nonsense is going down. Hope they show up soon.

[Perpetual Motion]

6103794
I haven't forgotten about them They'll be showing up soon.

[Yoni]

Fuck yeah! New chapter! This is one of the best crossover fics I have ever had the pleasure to read. I am so happy it's not dead

[Perpetual Motion]

6128879
I want to say that it comes down to his general attitude, not to mention that breaking Twilight's ribs and ransacking Fluttershy's house are possibly a wee bit too crimey-whimey to be solved via apology. And all of those things added together didn't exactly paint a pretty picture of him, especially when neither side really understood a lot - or much at all - about the other.

That, and my writing wasn't isn't as up to scratch as I would like! It gave him something to do while he waited to go home, and it was something that helped the ponies he'd wronged; it seemed very My Little Pony. I basically tried to treat the first half of the story like a Friendship is Magic episode.

[Perpetual Motion]

6565478
You've commented a lot so ill just say thank you for everything in one reply Seriously, I appreciate it! Even the relatively negative stuff is good to hear, even if the chapter was written a while ago! The next chapter is being edited now so hopefully you (and everyone else that has held on this long) are interested when it comes out.

[EbonHaste]

6565510 just saw ur reply. Lol, take ur time dude.. im just going to re-read the entire story over again. Thnx for your efforts