Into That Wild Blue Yonder

by CptBrony


Familiar Faces



After settling in for the night, Colm and the young man stretched out and chatted about what they might be watching over. Given that there didn’t seem to be a lot of normal security at the docks, it couldn’t be much more than food or commodities. Stealing any of that in large enough quantities would appeal to any thief of course, but the local populace would be inclined to steal small amounts of it. And they could probably take just about anyone in the local populace.

After a bit of that, they slept on their low-quality mattresses until dawn. It wasn’t easy to sleep on them anyway, so they just got up and went out for breakfast. The local cafés served pancakes that tasted and felt like cardboard, but it was better than nothing. They were used to nasty food at this point, since they had been preparing their own meals for a while.

After eating, they made their way to the docks. It was an easy matter of asking which warehouse belonged to their new boss, since a lot of the guys there worked for him. They had to explain who they were, though, as the workers hadn’t been notified of the human and pony who would be acting as security.

When they reached their warehouse, all they had to do was walk inside and keep watch over a bunch of crates. They could have stayed on the ground and navigated the maze of boxes, but they opted for the catwalk instead. It wasn’t so high that they couldn’t jump down onto boxes and then the ground in case a thief came, and they could actually see most of the warehouse from up high. Colm took on side of the warehouse and the young man took the other.

“So, what do ya think is in these boxes?” Colm shouted from the other side of the warehouse.

“Toiletries, toilets, furniture, basic stuff,” the young man said. “What do you think?”

“Ah bet it’s a whole lotta gold and jewels,” Colm said.

“Gold and jewels. In massive crates. You’re something,” the young man said. “They would transport that kind of stuff in smaller boxes, ya clutz.”

“Aye! Don’t make me come over there!” Colm said.

“But for real, what do you think is in these?” the young man asked.

“I stand by what Ah said,” Colm replied. “Gold and jewels.”

“Aight,” the young man said with a shrug. “If you really believe that.”

The young man looked out over all the crates. They’d already been in the room for quite some time, and no one came. He didn’t really expect anyone to, of course, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if someone tried something. Standing around watching wooden crates was hardly exciting.

As the young man thought about this, the entry door opened up and in walked none other than Goodhooves. He looked up to see his new workers diligently watching the crates as they did things like pick at their nails and hooves, pick noses, and try to fart louder than the other one across the room.

“Good morning, gentlecolt and gentleman,” Goodhooves said.

“Morning,” Colm said.

“What’s up, Mr. G?” the young man asked. Goodhooves chuckled.

“Just thought I’d let you know, you also finish at five,” he said. “You’ll have to let my personal guards take over for the night. When they come, ask them for ‘the phrase’ and they’ll reply ‘Eat bilge, milk-drinker’.”

“That’s not very nice,” Colm said.

“It angers anyone who doesn’t know it’s the code phrase,” Goodhooves explained. “If you were anything but a human, and you were imposters trying to stall actual security, it would let us know something was up.”

“That’s pretty tight security,” the young man said suspiciously.

“In this town, anything not nailed down is up for grabs, and these crates kind of need to be picked up,” Goodhooves said.

“I guess,” the young man replied. It still felt weird.

“So! That’s that,” Goodhooves said. “You’ve got about six hours until the end of your shift. Try not to break anything.”

Goodhooves left, and Colm and the young man were alone again. The young man looked over at Colm who had a strange look resembling discontent on his face. The young man raised an eyebrow at it, but left it. Colm was a strange character.

“Ah don’t know that Ah trust him,” Colm said once he was sure Goodhooves was one.

“Trust him or not, he’s a businessman,” the young man said. “If he values his reputation and business, he’ll keep his end of the bargain.”

“Ah’m not worried about him not keepin’ his end of the bargain,” Colm said. “Ah’m worried you didn’t get the full details on the job.”

The young man frowned. He wished Colm hadn’t been questioning him like this, but he had a point. Looking back, the young man should have asked more about his cargo. This little visit felt more like a check-up than a notification, as if he didn’t quite trust these two. There was something else here.

But hindsight is 20/20, so there was no use lamenting it now. They might as well just do the job.

The rest of the day went uneventfully. No one tried to break in and there were no scuffles they could hear outside the walls of the warehouse. The young man did a small workout through the remaining time to avoid dying of boredom, and when Colm saw him going, he did his own little routine. By the end, they had worked up a mild sweat, and when the guards came to relieve them, they left a nasty smell behind in the humid warehouse.

“Oi, Ah’m glad that’s over,” Colm said. “What say we grab some grub?”

“Yeah, I wish I’d known to bring a lunch,” the young man said. “I’m starving. Let’s get dinner and then grab food to make lunch after that.”

“Ah’m down,” Colm said. They didn’t have much money left, so they would have to spend wisely.

The duo walked away from the warehouse and down the street, past their temporary residence. They figured the same café here they ate earlier would suffice for dinner, however awful the breakfast was. When they arrived, though, they found that it served as a bar at night for rowdy sailors.

“Hey, maybe we should find someplace else,” Colm suggested.

“Agreed,” the young man said. He could hear all the shouting inside; it was quite a party, it seemed. “Maybe we’ll be able to find a place that doesn’t even serve alcohol-“

Just as he was about to finish his sentence, the window of their café exploded outward and a very beaten-down griffon in came flying out with all the shards of glass. He had blood all over his face from a few punches, but mainly several deep cuts close to his eyes.

“What the-“ Colm started.

Before he could continue, another griffon came flying out of the window after the bloody bird and grabbed him by the neck, ready to wring him out. When the young man and Colm looked at the griffin, though, there was something off. They couldn’t quite place it, but…

“Grab MY ass, will you?!” the griffin yelled. It was a lady. She raised her claw to slash his face again, but saw something out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her head around to look at her spectators for a bit of berating.

She froze in place. She just stared at Colm and the young man for several seconds, like they would somehow, or for some reason they didn’t know, stop her. Neither of them appreciated a harasser, and she could do as she pleased. Slowly, she let go of her aggressor and stood up.

Then the realization hit.

“Holy shit, it’s the princess!” the young man shouted. Colm’s eyes practically exploded out of his head.

“Oi! You’re right!” he shouted.

“Guards!” Nikita shouted. She jumped off the now-unconscious griffon and rushed over to the pair.

“We have names,” Colm said. Nikita ignored him.

“I’ve been looking for you!” Nikita said excitedly.

“You have?” the young man said, confused.

“Yes!” she said. “After you left, I took of and hid in an old grotto close to the city for a couple of days. Once I knew the battle was done, I flew out to find you. I assumed you would have come here.”


“Well, eventually,” the young man said. “We got caught up in the dragon lands-“

“WHAT!?” Nikita said. “How did you survive?”

“They’re not as bad as you would think, pretty chill,” the young man said.

“Really.” Nikita didn’t sound convinced.

“Ya had ta be there,” Colm said.

“Why do you talk differently sometimes?” Nikita asked Colm. “Guard, you pronounce your words differently at the most random times.”

“Well, princess,” Colm said with attitude. “Ah do try ta sound educated sometimes. But Ah always pronounce mah name COLM the same.”

“Fine, COLM, I guess I’ll give you that,” Nikita said. “You did grow up as a peasant.”

“Why, you little-“

“Okay! How about enough of that?” the young man said, stepping between them. While he didn’t want Colm to make their fugitive status worse, he was also worried that Nikita would annihilate him like that dude still on the ground. Was he gonna be okay?

“Fine,” Nikita said.

“Colm?” the young man said.

“She started it,” Colm mumbled.

“Good, glad to see we’re all getting along,” the young man said.

Just as he finished, several griffons came rushing out of the café–turned-bar and looked at the trio, then to their friend, and back to them. They growled at the group, clearly displeased at the current state of the grounded bird.

“But maybe we should deal with this first,” the young man said.

The griffons charged at the trio. Colm, Nikita, and the young man separated a few feet apart to take them on. There were four of them, but the way Nikita took the one down, it may as well have been four on ten at this point.

The first one swiped at Colm, who ducked low and turned to give a serious buck straight to his ribs, breaking several and grounding him. The young man faced off against two. The first one tried to go for a sideswipe to his ribs, but the young man advanced and stuffed it, then kicked out the griffon’s left rear foot, picked him up while he tried to regain balance, and threw him over his shoulder into the ground, following it with an armbar and breaking the arm. As he broke the arm, he threw a back kick at the other, just catching him in the shoulder, and turned into a spinning jump-roundhouse kick to the side of his head.

Nikita’s opponent was just as easy. He went for a grab on her shoulders, which she counted by shoving the tips of her talons into his arms. Once inside, she ripped them forward toward him, cutting up the whole length of his arm, then took a page out of the young man’s book and spun around for a spinning back kick to the griffon’s neck. The griffon spun a little to take it sideways, but that only saved him from a crushed larynx by taking a likely busted neck.

Once all four griffons were down, the trio regrouped.

“Maybe we should leave,” Colm suggested.

“Agreed,” the young man said. “But I’m still hungry.”

“There’s a nice little restaurant just down the street, not a bar,” Nikita said. Colm and the young man looked at her. “I’ve been here a little while. I know the area.”

“Alright, you take the lead,” the young man said.

Princess Nikita took the front and led the trio to a small restaurant on the other side of the street. It was a nice little place, pretty calm and easygoing. Looking at the menu, it catered to both ponies and griffons, and by extension, any human. Nikita ordered beef, Colm ordered a hay salad, and the young man ordered a chicken salad.

“So you said you’ve been looking for us,” the young man said.

“Yes,” the princess said. “You two inspired me to take my freedom for myself. But I don’t really know how this world usually works…”

“So you tried to find us,” Colm said.

“You’re the only two people I’ve ever really been able to trust,” Nikita said. “I thought if I found you, I could stay with you guys and figure out the ways of the normal world and find my way.” The young man nodded slowly

“Princess-“

“Don’t call me that,” Nikita cut off.

“Okay,” the young man said defensively. “But, listen. We aren’t great travel companions. I can barely handle this clown half the time.”

“Love you, too,” Colm said sarcastically.

“But I’m trying to get home. We plan to go to Equestria, and we only secured passage for two.”

“I can pay my own way,” Nikita said. “In case you forgot, I had all my jewelry, plus considerable funds of my own.”

“Well, that should work, right?” Colm said.

“Maybe,” the young man said. “We’ll have to speak with Goodhooves-“

“GOODHOOVES?” Nikita said. The young man reeled back. “You made a deal with HIM?”

“We protect his stuff, he lets us take passage to Equestria on his shipping vessel,” the young man said . Nikita rubbed her face.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “He deals in all kinds of valuable and questionable cargo. You know how often pirates attack his ships?”

“Often?” Colm asked rhetorically.

“Every times, sometimes several per trip,” Nikita said. “You’ll have your hands full, human. And Colm.” Colm smiled a little.

“Well, that’s tough, but we can handle it,” the young man said. “We dealt with Yafid twice. We can deal with a few pirates.”

Nikita sighed. “I hope so. If not, all three of us will go down with the ship.”

“Who said yer comin’?” Colm said.

“I did,” Nikita said with a glare. “I’ll come with you to work tomorrow, and we’ll see Goodhooves before you start. We’ll work something out; I have plenty of money to work with.”

“I say we try it,” the young man said. Colm looked at him questioningly. “Look, we already have a target on our backs. Maybe if she comes along, nobody will try to take us dead.”

“Agh, maybe,” Colm said. “Fine, I’ll stop whinin’ about it.”

“Good!” Nikita said with a big smile. “Where are you two staying?”

“The Foc’s’le,” the young man said. Nikita’s face deflated like a balloon.

“Well, I suppose it’ll do,” she said.

“Where were YOU staying?” Colm asked.

“Well, I was staying with the owner of the café in an extra room in exchange for being waitress,” she said. “Last night, he said if I fought another customer, I was out. So I’m out, and I’m with you now.”

“Well, why don’t ya just-“

“You’ll take my bed,” the young man said. “I can take the couch in the corner.”

“Well, at least ONE of you is a gentleman,” Nikita said with a glare at Colm. He stuck his tongue out at her.

“One of us has to be,” the young man said. “Of course, that secretary certainly thought highly of you…”

“Hush!” Colm said.

“What secretary?” Nikita asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Colm said.

“it’s the reason you’re taking MY bed without argument,” the young man said with a grin.

“What, cuz you were too yellow to join in?” Colm said. The young man chuckled.

Nikita shook her head. “You know what? I don’t want to know,” she said. She tossed a few coins onto the table, and the trio left to go sleep the night off. They would have to negotiate with a ruthless, sketchy businessman in the morning, so they would need their rest.

Off in the darkness, though, other forces were rising and coming in to make their lives much harder, and they would need more than sleep to fight them off.