//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Findings // Story: High Seas of Adventure // by Silver Dragon Blade Wing //------------------------------// Twilight's Group It had been two days since the group had lost the Dragon of the Depth's trail in the storm that hit Blackcap Peaks. Twilight was in the captain's cabin with her parents tying to figure out its course but so far had no luck. Rainbow was still recovering with Applejack and Pinkie helping her out, through she would be out of bed soon though. The others were just hanging about. Twilight let a frustrated growl as she set the book she was holding down on the table. "It's no good, none of us are navigators and we have no idea were they could have gone." She set her head down on the table with a loud thump. Velvet reached or and rubbed her back. "There there dear, it'll be alright." "Will it Mom?" Twilight lifted her head. "I promised the student's parents and guardians that they would be safe, and look what happened. Its bad enough with Chancellor Neighsay always on my tail trying to shut the school down, this fully gives him the right too." Night Light reached over and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I know you're worried Twi, we would too if we were in your position. We will find them again and get them back, and the ones captured are smart, they might find a way back to us." "I hope you're right Dad." All of a sudden the three heard the bell in the crow's next ring, they quickly got up and rushed onto the deck where they met the others. A few minutes earlier Flare Warden was in the crow's nest, bored out of her mind. she picked up her spyglass to her eye hoping to spot something to take her mind off her boredom. She found it. Pulling the glass away she blinked a few times then raised the glass again to make sure she wasn't seeing things, she wasn't. Flare reached over and rang the bell next to her. Once everyone had gathered on deck Flash asked the question. "What is it Sis?" "That." She said pointing off the starboard bow. in the distance they saw a fleet of ships sailing past, a fleet of ten sloops, ten schooners, nine brigantines, eight frigates, eight galleons, six men O' war, four ships of the line, two juggernauts, two ironclads, and the eye catcher; a massive, 458,45 meter long ship in the center of the fleet. All flying a red flag with a black quadruped Dragon in flight above a maelstrom, clutched in it's claws was a small chest. The colors of the Outcasts of the Abyss. The group could only stare, finally Dash said, "What is that large ship? I've never something like that before." The large ship was perhaps one of the largest they had ever seen, around the size of the Dragon of the Depths. Only one tall mast sat at the front of the ship with a glowing blue crystal at the top above the flag, at the back was a very large smoke stack with eight much smaller stacks on the back half of the ship towards the center. "I don't know Dash, but with a fleet like that around it, it must be important." Flash said. Everyone else spoke their agreement. They tailed the fleet, keeping out of sight until nightfall where the fleet spread out around the center ship and dropped anchor. The Mane Six took a lifeboat and very carefully rowed up to it, Twilight and Rainbow climbing aboard while others stayed to guard the lifeboat. Carefully the two Mares stuck their heads over the side and looked about the deck. The deck had various Pony-head high structures spread about though what their role was unknown, the mast at the bow was as all as the main mast on a ship of the line with a Unicorn in the crow's next looking out over the waters. The two Mares could see several Outcast Abyss Guard patrols walking about the deck in groups of four, the two ducked as one such patrol pasted. "Okay Rainbow, follow me, stay close and keep down, we're in enemy territory now." "Got it Twi." "Okay... let's go." The two quickly but carefully and quietly moved in between the structures, barrels, crates and other odds and ends as the moved towards an open door way with two Swashbucklers stood guard. "How do we get past them Twi?" "I know a spell that can turn us invisible for a brief time but we'll have to move fast." Twilight slowly cast the spell, keeping the light as low as she could to not alert the two guards, after the two Ponies were invisible they moved to the door. The two guards were standing far enough apart for them to slip by and down a set of stairs, all went well till Dash tripped and hit the floor with a small but audible crash. The two Mares dove for cover as both their invisibly wore off and the two guards looked down the stairs. "What was that?" "I don't know." The first guard waved one of the patrols and told them about what they heard. The four Pony guards entered the room, Twilight and Rainbow were right next to each other behind a crate. They spoke in a whisper. "Dash, we have four guards." "I know, if they catch us we're dead." The four guards slit up, fanning about the room on alert. "Dash, follow me." The two Mares got down on their bellies and moved, weaving between the barrels and crates. One guard lean over a row of crates but didn't see the girls before moving back. As Twilight pasted one crate lightly lit up by a crystal lantern she noticed a symbol on the crate; a black silhouette of a Germane G82 bolt-action rifle viewed from the side. Twilight and Dash both raised an eyebrow then looked at each other. Moving along Rainbow brushed a loose piece of metal which hit the deck with an audible thump. The four guards head shot up and swiveled like machines at the sound. Both girls moved to an empty crate and climbed in, shutting the lid. They stayed in the crate for awhile, even after the guards left thinking it was a few rats that made the sounds. After a short amount of time pasted the two Mares left the crate and continued onward. They passed by many crates with the same symbol as well as others with different ones, including a very large one but due to the very low amount of light and Twilight not wanting to draw unwanted attention by lighting her horn they couldn't make out its symbol. Twilight and Rainbow walked slowly through the halls avoiding patrols until their ears caught something. "Twi... do you hear machines or is that just me?" "I do hear machines Rainbow, come on." They moved down the hall then entered a massive room on a high catwalk. Twilight's and Rainbow's jaws fell open at the sight below them. Assembly lines, a lot of them. The room below them was very large, as long as three of Canterlot Castle's throne room and just as wide. Lines of conveyor belts ran from one end which had a large number of forges to the other which had stations where crew members were packing crates. On each line was a different item, mostly weapons and ammo, ranging from melee like daggers and polearms to firearms of various types. On each side of the belts were small stations were crew members sat working the lines, the items would start on the lines at the forges, move to each station, stop so the ones at each station could work, then move to the next one. This repeated with each belt until the completed item reached the other end were it was taken off the belt by the waiting crew members who then packed them in the crates. "Wow..." Twilight said in awe. "It looks like they're gearing up for war." Dash said. "This ship... its some sort of weapons factory." "How could Pirates of all factions out there have things like this? Even Equestria's and the Caribou's own navies doesn't have things like this." "Let's keep looking around." They carefully made their way from the catwalk and moved to other areas, encountering much of the same on most of the decks. One area looked like a garage of some sort. The two Mares couldn't get a good look as this area was heavily guarded but they saw a Unicorn Stallion and a male Diamond Dog working on what appeared to be a large engine. The Unicorn lifted the welding mask off his face and turned to the Dog who was standing next to a button. "Alright I think I got it, try it." The Dog gave a thumbs up and pressed the button, immediately sparks and smoke began to spew out off the engine. "OH TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!!" The Unicorn yelled, jumping in panic while the Dog was rapidly pressing the button, restarting and turning off the engine repeatedly. The two watching Mares held their hooves over their mouths to keep from laughing. After having to climb into the vents to avoid patrols they eventually came across what appeared to be the Captain's Office. Twilight and Rainbow watch as the Captain (judging from his outfit), a Pegasus Stallion, was taking to three of the ship's Officers: A Pegasus Mare, a male Minotaur, and a Thestral Stallion. All sitting at a round table. "How have things been coming along since the last shipment?" The Captain asked. "Great, the next one will be ready ahead of schedule." The Mare said in a cheerful tone. "I've also gotten word that more weapon smiths skilled in firearms have joined." The Thestral said with a bright smile. "We have two more factory ships due to launch soon as well." The Minotaur said leaning back. "Razor's going to be very happy when he gets the news then." The Captain said. The four of them continued to chat for awhile as Twilight and Dash watched and listened, until Rainbow's leg twitched and bumped the side of the vent, both Mares froze as the four below stopped talking and looked towards the vent. "What was that?" The Mare asked. "The Head of Maintenance swore he got rid of the giant rat problem." The Captain got up and walked over to a speaking tube with a lever attached to the side with some kind of panel marked with symbols. He flipped the lever to the symbol of a cog. "Maintenance, this is the Captain." A voice came through. "What up Cap?" "Those rats are back." "What?! I though for sure they wouldn't be back. I'll take care of them." "Understood, out." Factory Ship Head of Maintenance Office A Unicorn Stallion was swearing up a storm, much to the confusion of those around him. He picked up some canisters and pulled a ring with a pin on it, smoke coming out as soon as the pin was out. "CRAP! Crap crap CRAP!!!" Vent above the Captain's Office Twi and Dash were watching the four officers below when they heard something clatter towards them. "What was that?" Twilight asked. Rainbow reached behind her with a wing and pulled a canister over. "It was this." Smoke started coming out of a hole on top, both Mares screamed. "Smoke Bomb!!" The four officers heard the scream and looked up, only for a the canister Dash has holding to drop onto the table they were sitting at. All four yelled. "Smoke Bomb!!" They tried to get up but the bomb exploded, filling the room with black smoke and the sound of coughing. The two Mares about were also coughing as they tired to get clear. Finally Twilight lit her horn and the two of them vanished, reappearing among their surprised friends. "Twi? Rainbow? What in the name of..." AJ began. "No time, they might have seen that flash!" Twilight said grabbing an oar with her hooves and started paddling. The six of them moved as spotlight lit up and began sweeping the water. Somehow the Mane Six got away and back to their own ship. A few minutes later, after getting out of range of the pirate fleet "A Factory Ship?! Are you sure?!" Flash asked. "Sure as Pinkie's love of parties." Rainbow said. Understandably, the reaction of the others had been shock. "How could pirates build, let alone even have the ability to build, factory ships." Flare asked. "Either these pirates are far larger and richer then we first thought, or someone is funding them." Spike said. "What makes you say that Spike?" Applejack asked. "Well, that Kirin Archduke, Razor Tail, leading a large faction, its possible he could have connections with powerful individuals who in turn give funding for whatever reason." The Ponies around the young Dragon looked at each other then at the deck in thought. "That... makes some sense, but who could be giving the funding? It would take more the one to give enough to build something like a factory ship, even with treasure gathering it would take years." Rarity said. "Why would pirates even build ships like that?" Pinkie asked, "I mean, sure they could build more thing like me with more stoves to bake more cupcakes, and cakes, and pies and..." "Okay we get the idea Pinkie, but why have factory ships? Why not just build the factory on land?" Twilight asked. "Because they couldn't." Night Light said. Everyone looked at him, wanting him to explain, he continued. "From what we've seen from the maps and heard about, most of the islands in this region aren't suitable for factories of any size. And those that are already have something built on them, so by building factory ships like the one we saw, the Outcasts of the Abyss could have an industry to build their empire. And I fully believe the Outcasts are no pirate gang, even the largest pirate gangs didn't have things like that." He took a breath. "Which begs the question; where are they getting the bits they would need?" That was a good question. Shining Armor's Group Unknown very large island Shining's group had found nothing for the first few days when they had spotted a small Outcast fleet escorting a bulk cargo ship to the island they had dropped anchor at, away from the port to avoid being spotted. The island's port was seeing heavy traffic so Dark Moon had volunteered to scout ahead and see what was going on. After walking about for a bit they came across a small tunnel leading into the island, Dark Moon looked over the entrance for a few minutes. "So, into the dark huh? Well, nothing ventured nothing gained." Thankful the tunnel was wide enough for him to not get stuck, but he had to crawl on his belly. Lighting his horn Dark Moon moved through the tunnel eventually entered a very large cavern, one that was filled to the brim with gems, the light from his horn reflecting off them. "Wow... the gems here would easily make Ponyville one of the richest towns in Equestia, Spike would love this." Moving through the tunnel he came across a much small cavern when a rumbling sound, which was slowly getting louder. "What is that?" The sound continued to get louder until the far wall burst open as a very large machine came through, Dark Moon's jaw dropped as he got a good look at the machine. It was massive, easily able to fit in the Canterlot Castle Throne Room and leave about ten feet to the side walls and fifteen feet to the front and back. On the front of the machine was a large cockpit with a heavily reinforced canopy , the cockpit was large enough that without the controls it would easily fit at least six full-sized Yaks, on each side of the cockpit was a massive drill that looked like it could mine Canterlot mountain with no effort, the body was utilitarian with what Dark Moon could only guess was a cargo bed, just behind the cockpit on each side was a large headlight and four large wheels heavy-duty tires. The machine rolled forward a few feet then stopped as a group of ten creatures entered the small cavern, the group consisted of four Diamond Dogs and six Earth Ponies, they walked up to the machine and stood next to it as one of the Earth Ponies pulled out some sort of pad. Dark Moon turned off his horn light so they would spot him, looking at the group closer he noticed they were all wearing orange miner uniforms complete with miner helmets. The Earth Pony Stallion with the pad held it up and moved it from side to side until he centered it on the wall in front of them. He smiled and nodded to the driver of the drilling machine, a Diamond Dog who gave a smile and a thumbs up. The machine lurched forward, smoke blowing out of the back pipes as it's drills spun up and it began digging into the wall. But after a few seconds sparks and smoke came out of the control panel with the driver shielding his face with his arms and flames shot out of the back pipes. The Pilot coughed, grabbed a lever rocking it back and forth, then faceplanted into the steering wheel, sounding off the machine's horn. One Earth Pony Mare let out a very frustrated yell. "What's the matter with this machine now!! I just tuned it up this morning!" She and another Stallion climbed up into the machine's cargo bed and opened a panel. "Did the rotor jam? Or is it the power cables." The Stallion tipped her shoulder. "Let me try." He reached down and turned two values, then lifted a hammer and slammed it against am engine drum. Immediately the machine started up. The Diamond Dog driver shouted, "SHE LIVES!!" The Mare looked at the smiling Stallion with a surprised look. "How did you do that?!" "Well the boiler in this baby is an Amac thirteen, at my old workplace we had an Amac fourteen, the heating course on the entire Amac line has always been a little temperamental so sometime you have to give it a good whack." "Yea yea, thank you very much shut up." The Mare said with an annoyed tone as she shut the lid, she looked up and the Stallion flinched at the glare the Mare had. "Two for flinching." The Mare gave the Stallion two light and quick punches to the Stallion's foreleg then hopped off, the Stallion rubbing his foreleg with a smile following. The Machine began digging again and went into the gem filled cavern. Dark Moon watched as the group moved into it, after they had moved on he continued down his tunnel. As he traveled down he came across numerous areas that clearly showed that this island had some sort of large mining operation going on. After sometime the Unicorn finally made it back out onto the surface, he moved into some brush and found himself looking out over the port. It looked like what one would expect from a busy port, but this one had mining equipment all over the place and at the docks was a docked bulk cargo ship. Dark Moon pulled out a spyglass and looked towards the ship, seeing crates been loaded onto the ship, shifting his view he found himself looking at the mine entrance, seeing crates filled with gem being brought up, closed up and set on conveyor belts leading to the docks. He could also see other buildings ranging from what he guessed were houses to storage buildings to the center structure, a tall building on a scaffolding-like stand producing smoke out of the top and glowing orange tubes going into the ground from the base. To Dark it reminded him of a generator of some type. Looking over the port his eyes widened as he spotted a familiar flag; the flag of the Outcasts of the Abyss. He decided he had seen enough and started making his way back to his ship, after an hour or so avoiding patrols he had it back and explained his findings. After Dark Moon explains his findings "A gem mining operation? Are you sure?" Shining Asked. "Positive, and from the looks of things they been here awhile." "How could a pirate gang afford to run a gem mine? "Either they're being funded by an outside source, or the the Outcasts are far larger then we think." Mayor Mare said. "Considering they have heavy duty mining equipment, this operation could be only one of a bunch." Cadance said rubbing her chin. "Still, this is worrying information. But best we leave before we are found out." Shining said. They set sail and left the island behind. Later, after everypony had gone to bed Shining's group had dropped anchor in a hidden cove on a small island, hoping no one would see them as they slept. Most of the group were below deck fast asleep in hammocks while the others including Shining and Cadance were in the captain's cabin. One of the Ponies, a Pegasus Stallion, slowly peeled an eye open and looked around, he was the only one awake. He carefully climbed out of his hammock and tipped-hoofed towards the stairs leading down, as he passed through a beam of moonlight his features were revealed for a second. He had a dark blue coat with lighter blue mane, tail and eyes, and a cutie mark of a white Orion constellation. This Pegasus, named Star Hunter, had moved to Ponyville many years back and a constellation observator by trade. Unknown to others however, he was also the Outcast's cove agent in Ponyville. Star Hunter let out a soft sigh, "Never thought I'd come back." Star had been born in the Sea of Legends and lived with his family, under one of the Royals. He was a preteen colt when the Royal's guards had come to his home and had attacked as the family had "committed" treason, which was a flat out lie. Star closed his eyes as a tear fell down his cheek, he was the only one to survive. His mother had told he to run, so he did, eventually running into the then small Outcasts of the Abyss who had taken him in. After some years had passed he became a cove agent and had moved to Ponyville. Star didn't have to send reports very often for a number of reasons, but tonight he had to send an important one. He reached the lowest level, after making sure he wasn't followed he pulled out a scroll then reached into his tail and pulled out a lighter made from the ammo of the G82. Grabbing it with his right wing he picked the scroll, did a quick check of his surroundings, and lit the lighter. Touching the scroll with the green flame he watched as the fire burned it and the smoke sped out of the ship through a small hole and into the night sky. Star placed the lighter back into his tail and when back to bed, like nothing happened. Dragon of the Depths Razor's Office Razor finished reading the scroll that just came in, he frowned slightly as he set it down. "So they found one of the gem mines, that could lead to problems later. I'd better send an alert to the others to keep their eyes open." Pausing he looked out the window. "Be careful Star Hunter, remember to keep you head down."