It was snowing in the small port town of pony-stone. In fact, some locals would say it never seemed to stop snowing, Regardless, it was snowing when the cloaked figure walked into town. The figure had a black cloak that was full of holes and was torn along the bottom. his head was covered by a hood, his footprints indicated he was wearing boots. He was also noticeably leaning slightly to the left.
He said nothing, walking through the main street and down yet another street as if he had been there before, right to the door of the Hydra-Head Bar, none of the patrons of the bar so much as looked at him as he walked in. The bar itself was nothing special it was damp and drafty and cold, a few of the local earth ponies and a Minotaur were playing darts in the corner. A female Griffin and a unicorn were chatting by the fire, rocking back and forth in their rocking chairs. There was an Earth pony bartender, who was serving an elderly Pegasus a drink when the figure sat down.
“What can I get for you?” the bartender asked.
“I'll take any old something, just give me the best you've got,” the stranger decided as he picked a seat away from the old pegasus and waited for his drink, the Barkeep came back pretty quickly and poured the stranger a drink, who took it without complaint and took a sip.
"That'll be 18 bits," The Bartender grinned at the stranger, motioning for the stranger to hand over the money. The Stranger said nothing and instead took another sip, looked at the Bartender, and spat the liquor back at him.
"This is Honey-dews homebrew," Spike said flatly as he dropped his hood and got the bar's attention, "A Barrel of this shit cost 10 bits at best, and this has fucking mold in it," He stood his ground, knowing full well what was about to happen as several patrons of the bar made to jump him and the rest ran from him in fear, the old Pegasus B-lined it for the door, while the Bartender hid behind his counter.
The Minotaur was the first to get to Spike, she swung her large arms at his head and he very casually ducked beneath them, his tail shot out and struck the first earth pony who tried to flank him, sending him falling back into his friends and taking all of the earth ponies out with one strike. Spike turned back to the Minotaur and rushed out of the way of her next swing, only to be met with her knee in his belly, Spike flew back into the Bar and the Minotaur swung at his face, Spike opened his mouth and shot out green flames that enveloped him in a flash and seemingly made his disappear, The Minotaur looked around in confusion as the Griffion and Unicorn arrived, the Eather ponies were just getting back up when the green fire formed above them and Spike dropped out of the flames and elbow dropped the one of top and flattened him over his friends.
The Unicorn turned to Spike and Spike spat out purple flames, this time instead of disappearing three ninja stars flew from his flaming maw and hit the Unicorn in the chest, cutting into him and knocking him down, the Griffion and the Minotaur rushed him and Spike waited for a second before slightly shifting his cloak and letting his right arm free, the Griffion arrived fist and slashed at Spike, who jumped up and used his hand to grab the top of her head and fling her into the Minotaurs, who swatted the Griffion away to avoid it stumbling her, as soon as she hit the Griffion Spike released its head and as he fell his tail lashed out and wrapped around her horn, bringing her down onto the Earther ponied.
Spike looked to the Unicorn who lay unconscious on the table it had hit the back of its head on, the Griffion was out for the count, and Spike brought his foot down and slammed the Minotaurs head into the floor, bringing both her and the earth ponies beneath her out of the fight.
"Now then," Spike said as he made his way to the Bar and easily pulled the cowering Bartender out from behind it, "This town's mayor is a pirate right?" Spike asked as he looked at the Bartender, "And most of its residents are either part of his crew, or are paid off to leave well enough alone," Spike smiled as he grabbed the ponies collar and pulled on it "Now your not gonna wanna answer what I'm about to ask you, but if you lie to me or stay quiet I'm gonna have to break something, and it won't be part of your establishment, got?" Spike gave the Bartender a wide eye stared and nodded his head, the Bartender mimicking him as he did so "Alright good, Now, Where the hell's the Mayor?"
Spike was whistling a happy tune as he left the bar, he had gotten information and had retrieved his Ninja stars and sent them away, in his hand was a bottle of none moldy booze, Spike took a few steps out of the establishment and dissolved in a green flame just as a magic barrier covered where he had been mere seconds before, as the town guards converged on the spot trying to find Spike the green fire flew through the air and converged on a faraway rooftop where Spike reappeared and began casually walking on in the direction the Bartender had sent him to. Spike popped the top and began drinking, as soon as he reached the edge of the roof he was enveloped in green fire again and appeared on another nearby roof, Spike continued doing this until he ran out of roofs and casually walked off the edge and landed feet first on the snowy ground and being enveloped in a cloud of snowy dirt.
Spike calmly made his way towards the nearby docs and towards one of the many ships, it looked the same as all the others with the exception of the name painted on its side, Spike made his way to the ship and once again teleported himself away with his flames. Inside the ship, on the lower level, the Mayor Captain was celebrating his greatest find with his closest crewmates with a large dinner.
"Take a good look boys," He said as he motioned to himself "This time tomorrow I'll be known across the Frozen North, my name might even reach Equestria!" He turned his back to his men and patted a long chest where muffled screaming could be heard along with the prisoner slamming themselves against the side of their prison. "For I have right here a Merepony, not a Hipogriffe pretending to be a fish, A honest to Frost Merepony," The Captain tapped the top of the chest with a grin. "No one's ever caught one of these babies due to those dame nature preservers along with how dangerous a fair number of the Mereponies are themselves, but this here is a Dolphin Merpony, thanks to a few years of patience I managed to catch one with pure skill and power,"
The captain waited for his crew to applaud him and, after some time with nothing he turned to them and found his entire crew piled in the corner while Spike sat at the table holding the food for the feast, he had his feet on the table and was finishing off his drink, holding the bottle with his tale while held up a figure to the captain in a motion for him to wait a moment.
The captain took a step back in shock as Spike sighed at his now empty bottle and used his tail to toss it at the captain, who covered his face with his arm, the bottle shattered against his forearms and left several cuts, as the Captain set his arms down in rage he was instantly met with Spike slamming his fist into the side of his face and was sent sprawling into the side of the ship and left in a pitiful state, Spike gave the captain no more of his attention and easily broke open the chest, tied up and gaged inside was a Merepony, from the waist up she was a green mare with a sea blue mane, the from the waist down she had a long dolphin tail and a fin on her lower back.
Spike expected her to be resistant to him due to her situation, but she instantly stopped struggling when she saw him and he easily freed her.
"Most tied up ponies get more anxiety when a Dragon finds them, not so much un-tie themselves," Spike said as the Merepony got into a sitting position and instantly pinched his cheeks.
"Oh, look at you, did you beat all these pirates by yourself?" She asked as she pinched his cheeks, having never met a Merepony before Spike had no idea how to properly react to this treatment and did his best not to offend the mystical creature.
"Pretty easily," Spike said as she looked him over.
"Oh, how brave of you," She said as she let go of his cheeks "I really appreciate it but I actually got caught on purpose sweety, luck you made your presence known when you did, I was about to sink the ship," Before Spike could even begin to question this the ship began violently shaking and a large fist made of water broke through the floor of the ship, it turned into a tentacle and made its way to the Merepony, who swan into it before turning back to Spike with her pony half out of the water.
"I was looking for a very specific pony, but sadly these were the wrong ones," She put her hands on Spike and the water formed a dome around him while also tearing open the side of the ship, the water carried them both out and back to shore as the ship began sinking, "Now then sweety, you should probably go home, I'm sure your parents are worried sick about you,"
"Uh," Spike said awkwardly "I haven't seen any on my family in 20 years," Spike was instantly qued in that he had said something wrong when the Merepony's hair stood on end and the water tendril holding her over the water began sparking with electricity, Spike took a few steps back to avoid being shocked and did his best to change the subject, "An...anyway, I live in Diamond Cove, it's a town in a cove a few days travel that way," Spike pointed down the shore to his left "If you need any help finding those ponies you where looking for you can meet me there, I have a few things to finish up in this town before going back but I'll be there in a week, just tell any of the Diamond dogs I sent you there,"
"Oh how very rude of me," The Merepony said as she did her best to remain calm, she was clearly still very upset and Spike was afraid that if he set her off she would kidnap his using the ocean, and he was less than willing to test that theory "My name is Emerald Star," She looked back at him and motioned down to him "What's your name honey?"
"Oh, I'm Spike,"
"Ok then Spike, I'll meet you at Diamond Cove in a week, We can talk more there ok sweety," She offered her right hand to shke "Just promise you won't leave me waiting ok," Spike looked at the hand and extended his own Right hand, she looked at it and proceeded to shake it with both her hands.
"I promise," He agreed as she let go of her hand.
"Alright sweety, stay safe, stay hydrated, oh and make sure to eat well," Emerald continued waving goodbye as the water tendril shot off with no warning and made Spike jump, she was already gone from sight before he could even fully process she had left.
"Ha," Spike laughed nervously as he patted the upper left side of his body, where that had once been an arm, now there was nothing, not even a stump indicating it had been cut off, "Oh boy, been a while since I was filled with fear," Spike gave a sigh before making his way back to the town, "Now then, time to go see if that Bartender knows anything about old Rusty,"