-???-
Arizona and Velvet were getting acquainted with the importance of their journey setting out from Appleloosa to eventually meet a portion of the shadow horde and find out that they are married to what is affectionately known as a fluffy hug demon.
Now, Jacky 'Blackcap' Chickadee La Perm set out for the one place she could safely use as a base while she searched the world for a solution to getting her sister back where she belongs.
She’d hunt for the worst of the worst mystical artifacts that nobody in their right mind could possibly want to go after, at least she would be living her dream of traveling the world while doing so.
Jacky’s armaments were a mystical magical alchemy bow gifted to her by her sister Jade, a normal sturdily built spear stolen from Klugetown and a modified fun time party cannon she can pull from out of nowhere bought by Pinkie Pie.
Jacky's exploits would become legendary among many, for all the wrong reasons.
-A few days after leaving Airship Mauled, The Ardent Survivor, Jacky-
“So where are we going exactly? It seems like we’re just wandering aimlessly.” I didn’t begrudge Gene his questions as he went around setting things up, so I could at least focus on making sure we were flying in the right direction. “Also while I like fish jerky, it’s starting to get to me and I can see why Jade preferred dried fruit and lots of variety with her diet.”
Gene Eric wasn’t foreign to the concept of working on airships, but he had only been on Viking airships. The airship we’re using was more for light privateer or commercial uses.
I want to believe that my slightly muscular griffon Viking friend was going to stick by my side through thick and thin, but I had some minor doubts even with mom putting the fear of newts into him.
I took a bite out of some fish jerky and started working it over in my beak. It was delicious to chew on, but Jade was correct in saying that our mother Kuril always made way too much of this stuff.
“We’re heading towards Turtle Toga, the place I grew up at.” I chose to believe that things would work out. I would be lying to myself to say that things would go perfectly upon seeing Eir and Gallant again, but I absolutely needed their help as I didn’t think any other tavern would allow me to set up a tiny recruiting station. “I assure you that we are on the correct course for it. Anyone who was born on Turtle Toga, or finds it for that matter, always knows their way back to it. Provided that they have transportation of course.”
We needed at least two more crew members willing to join 'The Blackcap’ in running around on fool’s errands with a possible death wish, which is most likely what I’ll be doing. Someone in Turtle Toga might actually have a death wish and maybe I can give them some meaning in life.
Eir the Valkyrie of Yakhalla had helped Jade out of the goodness of her heart before. That’s considering the fact that Gallant and I didn’t exactly get along thanks to a habit of wrecking taverns I just happen to walk near, in fact I’m still a walking pile of trouble and I’ve learned how to live with it.
Somehow this airship seemed far safer than any other that I’ve been on previously and has survived me being on it for more than a year. I was not going to lose this airship, it was far more important to me than most things now. It was nowhere near as important as my sister’s life was… my captain.
“Is that it?” Looking over the horizon at the sound of Gene’s voice, I smiled. An island shaped like the back of a giant turtle shell… most likely because the moving island had to have been on the back of a giant turtle.
Nobody knew for certain if the giant turtle thing was true, but I could feel the magic drawing me back towards the familiar port of pirates everywhere and it felt like it was welcoming me home.
The many turtles that live in or around Turtle Toga were generally friendly, they’ve even saved my cursed butt several times. Not that they made for interesting stories, I just happen to know a lot of friendly turtles in the area.
“Yep, that’s where I grew up before Jade found me and turned my boring life into a circus.” I was almost fond of returning, if I didn’t have my doubts about having troubles leaving once we landed. Also it may be the unicycle to the head, but I think I was going to have fun on these coming misadventures. “She came riding into Turtle Toga on the backs of a pair of sea turtles, just like Captain Jaqueline Sparrow was said to have done once before. It was also the same place that we met Snickers together. It’s only been a few years, but I kind of missed the place.”
“Given your luck, I’m sure the place doesn’t miss you nearly as much if you’re feeling nostalgic.” Gene chuckled audibly, actually showing some mirth for my situation and I giggled alongside him. The guy rarely raises his voice or shows emotion, but he was a complete gentle griffon for someone that was raised by Vikings alongside a yak and a dragon. “I wonder how they’ll react to you being back if you’re as unlucky here as anywhere else.”
“We’ll see when I land the Ardent Survivor and step off it, I wonder what kind of bets were made about my survival in my absence.” We would be landing and nothing wrong would happen to my baby, this wonderful ship. Could I even become the acting captain of the Ardent Survivor? “It’ll take an hour or so to get there and find a nice place to land, do you mind watching the ship Gene?”
“Not at all, I did do some time as a night watch for the Viking ships that visited Airship Mauled. I can protect the ship while you do what you need to.” There was no doubt that, Gene ‘The Swift Reaction’ Eric, could protect the ship on his own. After watching him take down numerous opponents in that cultural festival in Manehatten, I knew he could handle himself even without his brothers around to bail him out of trouble.
I was still trying to wrap my head around him being here for me, but I appreciated him being with me and not leaving me to go it on my own like I originally thought I would have to do.
I did worry about Gene’s brothers, he was technically the brains of the three of them. Goodness knows what Flamberge and Fortitude would get up to without him around to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid.
“Well then, we best get prepared for a landing.” Hopefully it wasn’t explosive, over the top violent and then a whale would just jump up out of the water to swallow the ship whole.
That poor slave trading ship… if only they had known why I was trying to go with them willingly.
I shook my head derisively. That was the old Jacky coming into my thoughts.
Old Jacky would still be sitting around on the docks moping and admiring the pirates that could actually get out there and do something with their time.
I wanted to explore the world, and thanks to Jade, I was going to do that with a fearless attitude. Mostly because my luck required me to actively be reckless ninety percent of the time to survive it.
I knew that as soon as we landed things were going to start going wrong the second I stepped onto the docks after lowering the gangplank.
-Turtle Toga, an hour later-
I took one step onto the docks and was hit with a full bushel of bananas falling out of the sky.
“Ow.” Yep… some things just never changed, though many of the younger pirates that were around were surprised to see that I was back and just as unlucky as I ever was.
There was some relative luck to being hit with a bushel of heavy bananas, I just received a lot of free bananas for one and I liked bananas. Though they were pretty much crushing me and would leave a large bruise on my chest.
“You okay Jacky?” Gene questioned evenly, he tilted his head at me as he looked down the gangplank.
I started laughing and he looked a little surprised at the tears in my eyes. I pulled one banana from the bushel, peeled it and then enjoyed the contents.
“Just fine First ‘Mate’ Generic.” I put emphasis on mate for a reason, if he stuck by me for the next two years, we were going to be cuddling under the moon under a blanket and damn the consequence of our actions. I wanted him to warm my bed with me in it.
I would be the hummingbird, because goodness knows I’d make a lousy queen bee. Gene seems more of a queen bee type given he’s quite bright.
“Should I start calling you Captain Jacky or Captain Blackcap?” Gene rest his elbows on the rail as he looked down at me. “You know, if we’re going to go fully pirate while we’re here.”
“Blackcap, but I withhold my right to refuse the fact that I’m actually captain until a much later date when multiple people are calling me as such. I’m not captain when I’m someone else’s first mate, at best I’m only the acting captain in name and not job description.” If I was going to be the most notorious blackcap alive, I might as well own up to it if I eventually did become a captain in my own right. “Also could you get these bananas off me and into storage? They’re quite heavy.”
Ten minutes later, after carefully storing away the bananas I took one step onto the docks and then looked about wildly. I took a few more and stopped when a swordfish’s nose rammed its way up through the docks between the talons on my left foot.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to go into town while you watch the ship?” Gene asked innocently and blandly.
“Quite sure, I know my way around here and we’ll be docked here for a few days to look for potential crew members to help us on our adventures.” That and I wished to do this on my own two feet, by myself, to prove to myself that I didn’t need Jade around to hold my talons. I truly wished Jade was around here to give me orders, I still looked up to her even when she wasn’t present. “Plus I really need to go talk to two old friends of mine at the local tavern and I may just end up incidentally causing a bar fight. There’s also the discount map shop to cursed treasures, they will have plenty of cursed treasures for us to look for given their maps always lead to somewhere dangerous.”
“Be careful, I don’t want your mother to skin me alive if something happens to you.” Despite the bland tone, I knew he cared more than he could emote.
“I’ll be fine, if my luck can’t kill me this instant then I’ll live to see another day!” I was receiving a worried look from Gene as I continued on my way down the dock with various pirates stopping to gawk at me.
There was the sound of a cannon firing in the distance, then said cannonball could be seen coming right at me. I sighed and prepared to throw my talons forward.
One explosion of wood later.
“Jacky?” At the sounds of Gene’s wavering voice, I calmly pulled myself back onto the dock and looked at the hole the cannonball had made upon impacting the dock directly between my legs.
“Stop worrying, I’ve had worse days!” Like me falling up two flights of stairs for instance. There were some things that my mind couldn’t comprehend about myself and that incident was one of them.
Ah the memories, I rolled forward as my right foot hit a loose floorboard and narrowly avoided being flung into the water by an entire section of the dock flipping itself into the sea.
“Somebody should fix that...” I mumbled as I sauntered on into town
I calmly walked into Turtle Toga towards Bluster's Bar with various pirate’s staring at me in disbelief. It was like it wasn’t every day you got hit by a full bushel of bananas, nearly skewered by a swordfish even if they weren’t native to these particular waters and then survived a cannonball almost hitting you.
Oh and we can’t forget turning a corner, stubbing one of my clawed toes on a barrel and then go rolling down the street with my body wrapped around it. At least until I reached the tavern and let go, the barrel continued on its merry way and something exploded.
That barrel might have been full of cannon powder... fairly average level of danger so far for me.
I stepped into the tavern and saw Gallant freeze up at the sight of me.
“I thought I heard explosions, wanton destruction and wild whispering that you were back.” Gallant muttered loudly as he cleaned a glass. “So... still alive Black Jack?”
“Friend of husband and Eir, it is nice to be seeing you again!” Eir was as cheerful and large as she ever was. “I am now learning how to sing, it is being much easier than playing piano! How are things being for Blackcap?”
“Not too well, I recently lost a sister and spent the last three months waiting for her to come back. By that I mean my Abyssinian captain, the one who actually helped me leave this place and got me out into the world. Chances are that she’s dead, but also alive at the same time.” I walked forward and sat down on a stool, it collapsed to the floor within a second. “If you can’t tell, yes I’m still quite unlucky. Met a goddess that likes riddles, got some more education in Equestria and got dragged into several problems bigger than me. Even saved the day a few times, I got plenty of stories and I was happy where I was… even with my luck being what it is.”
I got up and took the next stool over and it only creaked slightly. Eir was staring at me sadly and was quite silent about hearing that Jade wasn’t around.
“So… what brings you back here exactly? Not that I thought you were going to die anytime soon.” Gallant tilted his head at me, smiling as he took a bet bag from a patron. “I thought once you were gone, you’d never want to come back to Turtle Toga after all those crazy attempts to leave.”
“I’m going to start searching for cursed objects to find a way to get my sister and captain back, barring that, I’m building a crew and may have some lawless fun.” I pulled out a large sum of bits and put them on the table. “For a new stool and some grape juice.”
“What is happening to Jade?” Eir looked quite upset. “Sun priestess was being quite worthy of Yakhalla!”