At Gyro’s insistence, she managed to get both herself and Hot Coals out of Gauze’s hut and into the sun with some help from the other survivors. As much as she enjoyed talking with Coals and snuggling up against him for the first time in years, the lingering smell of death and sickness inside of the hut eventually drove her out. Besides, if she was going to have a happy reunion with Coals, she at least wanted to do it in the sun and pleasant weather, not hidden away deep inside a browning shack.
They’d both ended up down by the water’s edge, where the high tide just barely reached their hooves before retreating again. With a steady sea breeze and spotty cloud cover occasionally hiding the sun, the two ponies were able to comfortably lie in the sand and endure the heat and elements. Hot Coals didn’t mind the heat at all; after his sickness and all the blood he’d lost, the heat felt wonderful to him. Gyro simply didn’t care because she was out there with her long lost coltfriend, and somehow, the spark between them had survived after five long years of separation and no contact whatsoever.
As time slowly beat by, Coals gradually became more and more lucid and aware of his surroundings, and it wasn’t very long before Gyro felt the stallion had all of his wits back about him. It certainly made recounting all the exploits and adventures she’d been up to in their five years of separation a lot easier, even if tears occasionally trickled down her cheeks from how happy she was to get to share all these experiences with Coals again. She still couldn’t believe that he had suddenly returned to her life, and apart from the unfortunate circumstances surrounding their reunion, it felt like something out of a fairy tale.
“…And then I ended up on the Concordia,” Gyro said. “We did a few tours before our last one, but not too much interesting happened there. I got to go to a few places, see some ponies, just, you know. And then you pirates showed up and… well, we’re here.”
“I suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t know you would be on that ship,” Coals said.
“Oh? Why’s that?” Gyro asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I might have blown out the boilers otherwise. Destroyed the whole ship and killed half the crew.”
Gyro blinked. “I never took you for a suicide bomber.”
“Because I’m not. But if you’d gotten hurt because you were on one of the ships Squall lured in…” He shrugged. “That was always my greatest fear: that one day, we’d cross paths again, and it’d get you killed. I didn’t usually partake in the raids, so I never had any way of knowing if we did run into you, or if it’d already happened at some point. I just had to hope you were alright, and we’d never meet like we did.”
Gyro nuzzled his shoulder. “I’m glad I didn’t have to fear that,” she said. “I just… I was always hopeful whenever I stopped at a port that we’d somehow cross paths. I used to wander up and down the marina, just trying to spy into different crews to see if you were with them. I knew it was a hopeless cause—there are hundreds of airships all across the world—but I just wanted to hope that somehow, somehow, we’d cross paths again. And then I could finally learn what happened.”
She sighed again and watched the next wave roll in, the water stopping a few inches from her hooves. “I tried asking after you when you stopped writing, but your line didn’t have an answer. They said you’d changed lines and they didn’t know where you were now. I didn’t know who to ask to figure out what happened to you.”
“It was a private line,” Coals said. “I ended up on a luxury yacht. Perfect target for pirates, even if we did put up a fight. It was because of that that they needed replacement crew members, and I was unceremoniously drafted into what would soon become Squall’s crew.”
“Thank Celestia most of them are dead now, at least,” Gyro said. “They got what was coming to them.”
“What about me?” Coals asked. “I was part of their crew.”
“Only unwillingly,” Gyro said. When Coals opened his mouth to protest, she quickly shushed him with a hoof held over his lips. “I don’t care if you ‘got used to it’ or something. I don’t care if you just accepted that as your fate and started rolling with the pirate’s life. It doesn’t matter.” She took her hoof from his lips and placed it over his chest. “You’re a good pony in there. You did what you had to do to survive. And that’s really fucking great for me, because that means I got to see you again.” Trilling, Gyro cozied herself up close to Coals, his coat and ragged body warmer and more comforting than the sunbaked sands she lied upon. “That’s all that matters to me. That’s all that should matter to both of us.”
Coals smiled and gently nuzzled her back. “You’re right. I’m glad we’re here, together, however unfortunate the circumstances might be.”
“Mmm.” Gyro lazily blinked and watched a pair of sand crabs skirmish a little way further down the beach. “Imagine if these islands were a lot nicer. No minotaurs, no spooky curses and dark spirits, no lack of air conditioning… Think we could live here? Just the two of us, trapped away in paradise forever?”
Chuckling, Hot Coals shrugged and hummed in thought. “We’d need to find some way to make alcohol,” he said. “I don’t think I could survive forever out here without booze.”
“We’ve got coconuts. We can make all the pina coladas we want.”
“I think we need a little more than coconuts to make those,” Coals said with a laugh.
“We can ferment the coconuts instead of rum,” Gyro said. “It’ll be a double coconut pina colada.”
When Gyro turned to smirk at Hot Coals, her eyes instead narrowed on the pair of figures walking down the beach in their general direction. Coals saw her expression and turned as well, though Gyro couldn’t see what sort of emotions he portrayed on his face when he saw his two former crew members. The two pirates stopped not too far away when they realized who was lying on the beach in front of him, and then they slowly approached, disbelief and annoyance portrayed in their eyes.
“So, he lives,” Flag said, narrowing his eyes at Coals. “Of all the good ponies we’ve lost, you’re still hanging around.”
“I knew I should’ve murdered him,” Roger spat, purposefully loud enough so Coals could hear him from behind Flag. “It would’ve been right.”
“Good afternoon to you, too,” Coals said in a carefully measured tone.
“So, you’re already trying to bed the paraplegic?” Flag asked, pointing to Gyro. “I’m surprised you’ve even got enough blood left in you to pop a stiffy. Better be careful these survivors don’t bleed you dry.”
“She was my marefriend before I ended up on your crew,” Coals said. “This is the first time we’ve seen each other in five years.”
“Five years, eh? I guess it has been that long.” Flag grinned at the two of them, though it only made Gyro shudder. “You sure they’re all gonna forgive you for everything that fast just because you had a thing with one of them? You were one of us for five years, Coals. Don’t forget it.”
“I was never one of you,” Coals insisted. “I just did what I had to to survive.”
“Didn’t we all,” Flag said, winking at Roger. “Plundering ships is the only way to make a decent living out in the sky. You got nice and cozy with the rest of us by the end of it all. I almost thought of you as a shipmate and a brother.”
He leaned forward and patted Coals’ shoulder, making him and Gyro wince away. “Be careful of where you stand on that thin red line, Coals,” he said. “I don’t know how any of this is going to shake down. Nopony does. But we’ll know soon enough” Glancing back at Roger, Flag nodded his head towards the camp. “Let’s grab some food and maybe get into that crate of rum. The only miracle on these fucking islands is that we still have rum with us…”
The two pirates walked away, leaving Gyro and Coals behind on the beach. They watched them go until they went through the narrow line of trees, and then Gyro sighed. “I really hate those guys. I really, really do.”
Coals slowly nodded. “Yeah,” he finally agreed. “At least they know that they’re outnumbered. That’s probably the only thing stopping them from trying anything. They’re a bunch of paranoid motherfuckers.”
“Which will only make the coming snap worse…” Gyro sighed and laid her head down on her forelegs. “I’m just hoping Rainbow and Rarity get back soon. Maybe they’ll be able to defuse this ticking bomb…”