Did not take long to get to sea. One kite took eight fillies as far as can be. Beneath their forms were patterns of rolling wave, a guided arrow pointing to the one they wish to save. They follow the storm cloud, a light in the dark. But the journey has just begun, and it will be no walk in the park.
---
Since Tiara was hanging by the end of the tail of the kite she was swung around the most as it flew through the sky. Every time she looked down at the rolling sea below she would get nauseous and purse her lips to stop herself from losing her lunch. “This is just great,” she muttered. “I could be at my daddy’s Nightmare Night party right now, but I had to agree to hang out with you guys tonight.”
“If you didn’t want to hang with us you should have just said so,” Scootaloo shot back.
“I didn’t expect that I’d be roped into flying across Equestria on a kite!”
Sweetie Belle frowned and shrugged. “You have to admit this is a little strange.”
“Thank you! Honestly, I could be showing off my costume right now.”
“Ah still don’t think dressin’ as the princess is a costume,” Apple Bloom said from the top of the tail.
Tiara frowned at her. “Well… it’s better than Pip’s costume! At least the princesses can be scary when they want to be. Pirates aren’t scary.”
“Hey!” Pip shouted back. “Pirates are so scary!”
“Are not!”
“Are too!”
A low mirthful chuckle came from the back of the tail and everypony turned toward it. Zecora smiled spookily at them. “You think a dog of the sea is nothing to fear? Those rugged cutthroats, thieves and mutineers?” The storm ahead of them seemed to stop and hover above a small ship lingering in the middle of the sea. Zecora pointed down to it. “The storm rests above that boat. Perhaps your friend has found some place to stay afloat?”
Apple Bloom looked down at the tiny vessel on the choppy waters and nodded. “So how do we go down th- WAAAH!” Before she could finish the kite changed course. It dipped and flew straight down toward the boat. Everypony screamed as it looked like they were going to crash. But at the last moment, the wind reared the kite up and they all tumbled lightly onto the deck. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom landed in a pile with Pipsqueak and Dinky rolling together. Button landed in a compromising situation, his head shoved beneath Tiara’s dress with his body on top of Spoon.
Tiara’s face went red and she kicked him in the head. “GET OFF!” Button went rolling off, rubbing his nose.
Apple Bloom was the first to get up and look around, the first thing she saw being Zecora as the zebra used her enormous cloak as a parachute to light down gracefully on the deck. “You said she could be here.” Zecora shot her a glance then pointed to the crow’s nest above. A little pink light emanated from it. “Babs!”
Scootaloo got up and brushed the dust off her, looking around wearily. “Guys, I don’t like this. Where’s all the sailors?”
Dinky looked to the astern of the ship where the steering wheel was set. “I don’t see a captain. Does anypony know who’s steering this thing?”
But Apple Bloom was already racing to the mast. Sweetie Belle tried to reach for her but she was fast. “Wait! Apple Bloom!”
As they stood there on the deserted deck, a mist appeared unnaturally fast around them. Pipsqueak and Tiara backed into each other as their eyes darted around in fear. “Does anypony else hear that?”
They all looked to the mist and heard the sound of something else rocking on the waves out there. Slowly but surely, the dark silhouette of a giant ship carried through the fog. At the top, a flag waved in salty wind, bedecked in a skull and crossbones.
“Is that what I think it is?” Button muttered with wide eyes.
Zecora walked over to the group and pointed at the ship with her cloak. “In the days before Equestria was found, unicorn and earth pony came from seabound. They’d build ships to cross the vast expanse, aware of the dangers but leaving them to chance. For you see, the waters were home to more than monster or beast, they were home to criminals, their darkest desires unleashed.”
The fog faded and revealed the rest of the massive ship. Many glowing red eyes stood on the prow, blades in their teeth and ancient sea faring clothing. They all watched in astonishment before Dinky pointed to the ship and shouted in surprise. “It’s coming right for us!” They all lurched as the prow of the pirate ship slammed into the side of their own, tipping the deck and making them lose their balance.
Apple Bloom was half way up the mast when the ship shook making her lose her grip and her footing. She slipped and screamed but grabbed the handles of the mast again before falling too far. Above the pink light in the nest flickered weakly. “Hang on, Babs!”
“Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo shouted insistently. “This really isn’t the time!”
All the children took steps back from the edge of the ship as tall dark figures boarded it silently. The only sound they made were grunts and growls as they locked eyes with the children. Their sunken eyes made them look like skeletons, their clothes hanging off their body from lack of muscle tone. A giant figure stomped his hooves down on the deck and stood up straight surveying them all. He was dressed in a black waistcoat that ended in tattered trails and a large black captains hat covered his eyes, his dirty beard traveling to the floor. A scrappy parrot on his shoulder rolled its one eye in its socket, resting on the children then it squawked. The captain lifted his head to show two hollow looking eyes and grinned, a mouth full of disease and blood.
Tiara put her hooves on Pipsqueak’s shoulders and ducked behind him. “Okay, so maybe pirates are pretty scary after all.”
The captain yelled incoherently and the rest of his ragged crew shouted as well, holding their swords aloft. “RUN!” Button shouted.
The pirate crew advanced as they ran back for the kite. The horrific crew chased them to the prow of the ship just as the wind began to pick up again. Dinky grabbed the kite’s tail as it lifted off and Tiara and Spoon grabbed each other as it lifted them into the air. Button grabbed their tails and held out his hoof for Pipsqueak. “Come on!” he shouted.
But a skeletal hoof slammed down on the small colt’s tail pinning him in place and making him fall on his face. He flipped around to stare in horror at the gruesome pirate about to bring down his sword. But just as it did, three ponies swept in and pulled Pip loose, running with him to the receding tail of the kite and jumping off the ledge of the ship to catch it. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo breathed a heavy sigh of relief as they held on to Button’s tail for dear life. Pip at the bottom, sticking his tongue out at the pirates as they faded into the mist.
“That was too close!” Scootaloo shouted at Apple Bloom. “Pip could have been hurt!”
“But Babs was there!” Apple Bloom insisted. “Ah know it.”
Dinky peered her head around. “Wh-Where’d Zecora go?”
Everypony looked around in bafflement, a sinking feeling hitting them. “Oh no! Did we leave her on the ship?” Sweetie shouted.
A boisterous laugh echoed through the sky and a black figure like a bird sailed above them. It dipped down through the wall of clouds and revealed itself to be Zecora, her hooves spread wide and her cloak acting like wings as she soared like the kite. “Do not fear for me, young filly. My self is fine, though a tad chilly. And worry not for your dear friend, for she will meet us at journey’s end!” With that she soared ahead of them, seemingly leading the winds.
“I’m gonna level with you guys,” Button said. “This is the weirdest Nightmare Night I’ve ever had.”
---
Past sea and foam is land forgotten, where ponies once roamed and played and fought in. The mist shall carry these adventurers there, through time and space as well as air. Before pilgrimage of old comes life before, in that land forgotten is life of yore.
---
Dinky narrowed her eyes as she spotted a bit of green fast approaching. “Hey guys! I think I see land!”
Everypony looked to where she was pointing and sure enough the mist parted to reveal a mountainous shoreline. Waves crashed against tall cliffs carved from millions of years of surf. Atop the furthest cliff that jutted out was a small pink light, a lantern in the night for them to follow.
“HA! You see! Babs is there!” Apple Bloom shouted.
“That could be any pink light!” Spoon insisted.
“It is a little bit too much of a coincidence,” Sweetie reasoned. “Zecora? Can you see who it is?”
The flying zebra at the head didn’t respond before the light retreated down the cliff and into a vast moor. “Whether tis Babs I cannot say, but it appears our light has lost its way.”
“We gotta follow it,” said Apple Bloom.
They soared over the cliffs and above the grasslands. Tall boulders and hills dotted the countryside with an ethereal fog obscuring everything five hooves in front of their face. The pink light was still visible but just barely through the heavy haze. Apple Bloom kept her eyes out as she trailed the light, unaware of the closer the boulders got to the kite.
At the end of the tail, Pipsqueak yelped as his body nearly swung into a tall rock. “Um, maybe we should get a little higher?”
From the top, Dinky tried fiddling with the kite but it made no response. “I think it’s falling!”
A slab of rock appeared from the mist in front of them and the kite slammed into it, splintering and hurling them to the ground. Everypony rolled and landed in a heap on the wet marshy grass.
“Ugh,” Scootaloo moaned. “What happened?”
“MY DRESS!” Tiara shouted and jumped from the pile. “It’s covered in stains!”
Spoon got up next and looked dejectedly at her dress before spotting something behind Tiara, her eyes widening. “Um, maybe you should be a little quieter?”
“QUIETER!?” Spoon slammed a hoof into Tiara’s mouth and shushed everypony else, pointing to the place where their kite had gone down. Ponies in robes and decorative wooden masks walked from the mist, investigating the noise and finding only the remains of the kite.
All the children hid behind a large rock and watched as more masked ponies joined them. They cleared away the wreckage and began to plant small stones with symbols in a circle around the large slab the children had ran into.
“What are they doing?” Button asked.
“They are setting the runes for a tribute of the moon’s.” Zecora suddenly appeared behind everypony, Button jumping at the sound of her voice.
“Why do you have to do that?” he hissed. “Nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Zecora chuckled playfully and pointed back to the ponies in robes. Now they had prepared a fire around the slab and formed a circle around it. The mist above began to clear and the moon was visible in the sky. “What are they?” Dinky asked.
“Witches, little one,” Zecora replied. “Like the kind you play for fun. But these mares have no pointed hats or cauldron spells, instead they have different beliefs in where magic dwells. Before Equestria and ponies united, every race in pony kind were quite divided. Unicorns were solitary, pegasi were scarce, but earth ponies were the most sparse. They had no magic to call their own, so they called upon the help of gods of stone. Gods of nature and sea and sky, for years of good fortune they would vie. This was the duty of witches back then, to deal with beings and issues beyond mortal ken.”
Everypony watched as the witches performed rituals before them. Bowing and clapping the hooves in odd rhythmic patterns while some danced to the firelight. As the ritual went on, the fire seemed to dissolve the mist around them, clearing the sky more and more.
But that didn’t stop Apple Bloom from keeping her eyes open. She spotted the pink light again further down the moors. “There she is!”
Apple Bloom ran after the light, her voice catching the witches’ attention and making them turn their masked faces to the children. “Um, love the costume,” Sweetie Belle chuckled nervously.
One witch screamed in a sharp voice and pointed at them. The rest followed her command and ran toward them. The children all screamed and ran down the moors, Apple Bloom at the head following the light. “Babs! Just wait up and talk to us!”
“She does realize we’re being chased by witches, right?” Spoon asked Sweetie as they ran alongside each other.
They ducked and dived around the obstacles of rocks, the witches just on their tails. As they ran further and further in, the fog began to return filling the space before and behind them. After a few more minutes of running Scootaloo stopped to breathe and paused looking behind her. The witches were no longer there. “Guys! I think we lost them.”
Everypony stopped running and slumped to the ground in a heap. Even Apple Bloom at the head of the pack stopped and plopped her butt down on the wet grass. She had lost sight of the pink light a while back. “She was right there,” she muttered. “Why wouldn’t she stop for us?”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other then put reassuring hooves on her shoulders. “We’ll find her,” Sweetie said. “Don’t worry.”
Tiara stomped up to the three, a look that was equally angry and scared on her face. “In the meantime, does anypony know just where the heck our tour guide went?” They all looked around, Zecora was nowhere in sight.