//------------------------------// // Ch. 7 A Rock in the Ocean // Story: A Heart of Stone // by TheWhiteFreak //------------------------------// Ch. 7 a Rock in the Ocean ** North Wind, Captain of the Lovely Mare had recently docked in Black Port as a storm had pushed them off course and was too rough to try and sail through. Although he loved to be on the sea, he knew that his crew was getting stir crazy and having your hooves on dry land is a great way to blow off some steam, whether it was through drink, fresh food, fighting or pleasurable company and as long as they came back without any extra baggage, he didn’t care what they did. He had just finished his third mug of hard cider when he saw the three of them enter, a red unicorn stallion that looked like a merc and an orange pegacorn filly with a bandages on her horn and wings riding on the shoulder of a huge creature encased head to… they didn’t look like hooves or claws so he didn’t know what to call them, in armor made of stone and some kind of blue crystal that he wasn’t familiar with, and he knows his gems and other assorted valuables. He watched them as they walked to an open table and the red one whispered something to the others before trying to be subtle and nodded his head towards North but he was as obvious as if he pointed with his hoof. He then put down his bow, took off his sword and saddlebags, grabbed a small leather sack from the bags and made his way to the captain. North watched as this stallion walked up to him with a smile on his face and a trot in his step. North looked a little closer at his hooves and realized that he wasn’t trotting because he was ignorant, he was putting his hooves exactly where they needed to be, and each step was deliberate and controlled. North smiled, ‘This colt knows how to move, he could probably handle himself in a fight.’ The red unicorn pulled out a chair at the table and sat down across from the captain and before he could open his mouth, North interrupted him. “Thousand bits a head, two for the big one and this ain’t no pleasure cruise so don’t be expecting us to wait on your every command” he knew exactly what the unicorn wanted, it was as easy to see as if he was carrying a sign. “What’s yer headin’ if ya don’t mind me asking?” “Equestria.” The unicorn smiled and tossed the small sack towards North and it landed on the table with the musical sound of gems rattling, “I believe this should cover us” North opened up the bag and looked inside. There was a rainbow of small gems, not too big but not too small either. He gave it a shake, listening to the sound they all made and estimating their value, it was just about four thousand bits. He looked back at the unicorn. “We leave tomorrow at dawn, don’t be late or we’ll leave yer flank behind without a second though and I’ll be keeping your bits.” “Pleasure doing business with ya” he answered with a smile and hefted himself out of the chair. North Wind quickly looked up when he heard a crash and saw the big stone thing was hold two of his crew, one in each hand and one under his leg and the small filly was once again back on his shoulder. The red one was the first to speak, “Oy Dia-… Third! Call off yer golem, we got our ride!” The slip of the tongue caught North’s attention but was not going to pursue it right now as he watched as the filly tapped the golem on the shoulder and it dropped the two and stepped off of the other. The ponies were unconscious and looked like they lost some of their already dirty color. The red one quickly ran over to the others and grabbed his gear before looking back to North, “sorry bout that capn’, we’ll see ya tomorrow” he gave another cheesy smile as the three of them left the bar, the big one had to crouch down so he didn’t hit the top of the door frame. North just sighed and looked over to the barkeep, “Hey! Another cider!” the barkeep gave a nod and started pouring another mug of cider. ‘A golem huh? This is gonna be interesting’ ** ‘Damn it, so much for getting a ride with these pirates.’ I took my hand that blocked the pirates and quickly scooped up Third again and put her on my shoulder before taking a defensive stance. I could see that these ponies we extremely drunk and were just itching for a fight, so I decided that I wouldn’t kill them. Their movements reinforced my initial thought of them being just about blackout drunk as they were swaying around and their eyes were half lidded. Two of them drunkenly stumbled forward while lifting the swords in their mouths into the air. Once again, my body seemed to move all on its own as I took a step forward and brought both my hands forward and caught them both right under the chin and lifted them into the air. The third one soon came at me; I took another step forward and brought my shin up to greet his face. He crashed into me and fell back on the ground and I took my foot and lightly stomped down on his shoulder, pinning him to the ground without badly injuring him. While holding the other two, I took the opportunity to drain them of a little of their magic, not enough to kill them but enough to knock them out for a while. My stomach twisted a little when I stopped feeding, saying that I should take all their magic but I resisted it. “Oy Dia-… Third! Call off yer golem, we got our ride!” Red called out as he ran back to us, I almost turned my head to face him but luckily Third was ready as she tapped me on the shoulder. I dropped the two and took my foot off the other one and took a neutral stance. “Sorry bout that capn’, we’ll see ya tomorrow” Red said while looking at the captain and quickly got his gear back on and motioned to us to follow him. “What the buck was that about?” Red hissed at me as we walked across the street to the inn, I just looked down at him without saying anything, “Ugh… right, right, no talking, I get it, but next time can ya try ta not attack our only ticket out of here.” We crossed the threshold of the inn and I once again had to crouch a little so I wouldn’t hit the door frame and was once again met with stunned silence from the ponies in the lobby. Most of them looked like the same pirates as before sitting in chairs and talking with… mares dressed in clothes that if they were on a human woman would probably make a priest blush. Something that bothered me was the fact that some of the ponies were naked, so why does wearing clothes seem to be sexually suggestive than being naked? I chose not to pursue that particular thought as it would probably leave me with a headache. We walked up to the front counter and the purple pegasus mare working just stared at me with mouth agape until Red coughed loudly to draw her attention. She snapped her head to him and stuttered as she spoke. “W-w-welcome t-to th-the P-Prancing Pony, h-how m-may I h-help y-you?” she kept on stealing glances at me. “Yea, we’d like a room with two beds for the night luv.” He said as he dropped a couple of coins that Third said were called ‘bits’, the currency of this world, the mare quickly slid the coins of the counter with a hoof before pulling out a key on a ring with a hoof and placing it on the counter. “Y-your r-room is #13, u-up the s-stairs, s-second door on the l-left.” “Thanks luv” he gave her a wink as he lifted the key with his magic and walked towards the stairs. The stairs creaked and groaned under my weight, but they held me until we reached our room and stepped inside. The room was very… quaint as it only had two beds with a couple of sheets on them and a small night stand with a lamp on each and a single window that looked out over the main road. The beds were only big enough for an average pony so I would be sleeping on the floor or against the wall which didn’t really bother me since I didn’t feel aches or pains that came from a human body anymore. Third Gear didn’t feel the same way as she jumped from my shoulder on to the bed and immediately sprawled out on it and sighed. “Finally, I get to sleep in a bed again” she cooed as she rolled around on the bed. Red just laughed as he shut and locked the door behind him, meaning no pony would surprise me acting like… well me. I let out a sigh as I removed the pack on my back and slumped down against the wall and looked back at Third, “You did an excellent job at being my ‘master’ but let’s try to avoid getting into a bunch of fights if possible.” “Ok” she giggled. “Oy, Third, get over here so I can change yer bandages, don’t want em getting infected.” Third gave out a groan as she hopped off the bed and walked across the room to Red, who levitated up a pair of scissors and expertly cut away the old bandages. Thankfully most of her cuts had scabbed over and didn’t show any outward signs of infection but Red knew what he was doing as he grabbed a glass bottle with some clear liquid in it that might have been rubbing alcohol or some other antiseptic and dipped some clean bandages into the liquid and quickly wrapped up Third again. She winced slightly as the larger wounds were wrapped up but was otherwise silent. When Red finished, Third didn’t have nearly as many bandages on as the last time as most of her smaller cuts had either sealed shut or had healed completely. The crack on her horn had mostly closed and her wings were also healed aside from a few missing feathers. She gave out a sigh as she stretched her wings and started flapping them, I expected them to sound like the wings of a bird but instead they beat so fast that they started making a buzzing noise similar to an insect or something. I was waiting for her to take off and start flying around the room but instead she just stood there not even so much as lifting off the ground. “Don’t go crazy and hurt yerself again, I think we ought to eat something then get some shuteye, gotta wake up at dawn to catch the boat” Red said as he removed his gear and levitated some food out of the pack and floated some over to Third. I looked out the window and saw that it was probably a few hours till sundown; I looked back to Red and nodded. They both quickly ate their meals and tucked themselves into bed while I just leaned against the wall. I looked down at my hands. ‘Good thing I took some magic from those ponies at the bar. What am I gonna do during the trip though? Should I just drain little bits of the crew?’ I tilted my head and looked up at the ceiling and allowed my mind to wander again, ‘what am doing here? Am I just going to wander around the planet for the rest of my life, or should I try to get back to my earth? Do I even want to go back home? I wonder if anyone is actually missing me, probably not… it’s not like I had any friends before I got here. I was so lost in my little pity party that I didn’t even notice that the moon had risen and was setting. I blinked and pulled myself out of my thoughts and looked outside, the moon was just about gone beyond the horizon, meaning that the sun would be rising soon. I rose to my feet and walked over and shook Red and Third awake, Red was up in seconds, getting his gear on and waking himself up, Third on the other hand, just grunted at me and rolled over. I huffed at her and used my new strength to pick the entire bed up and tilted it until she fell out. She let out a yawn before looking at me with her eyes pinched shut and pointed a hoof at me. “Golem, carry me.” She said in her fake snooty accent. “Don’t get carried away ‘master’” I said as I slung the pack over my shoulder and placed her on the other, where she promptly fell asleep again. “It’s a little before dawn yet, wouldn’t hurt ta board the ship a little early” Red said as he looked out the window at the docks. “That’s what I was thinking.” “Righto, follow me then Golem.” I nodded back to him as I went back to my ‘golem mode’. As we passed the front counter where the purple pegasus was the day before now had a smaller, darker purple earth pony that was identical to the pegasus from yesterday in every other aspect. Red levitated the key over to her and gave her a wink, she just gave a coy smile and rolled her eyes as we walked out of the inn and turned towards the dock. As we reached the wooden planks of the dock I could see countless earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi all running around, shouting out commands and pushing, pulling, floating crates and barrels onto the ship. Some of them stopped and stared at me but the others, probably the ones who were at the bar last night, shouted at them and they all got back to work. The three of us walked pass them and saw the gangplank that led from the dock to the ship; it was barely wide enough for a pony and looked like it was made out of plywood, even with only Red’s weight it was creaking and sighing. “Hey! Over here!” I heard a scratchy and guttural voice call out. I looked over to see a dirty blue unicorn standing next to a wooden pallet with ropes tied to each corner of it that led up to a crane and pulley. “That hunk of rock is too heavy to get on the ship like the rest of us so get him on the crane here” he said with a huff. “Golem, step onto the crane” Third chimed in and I quickly obeyed and grabbed one of the robes to stabilize myself. The pony gave out a sharp whistle and the pallet suddenly lurched a few feet into the air causing me to sway a little as I regained my balance, a few seconds later it lurched again and again and again as we were slowly hoisted into the air and swung over the deck of the ship. The dozen or so ponies that were in charge of lifting me suddenly let go of the rope and let me fall the few feet to the deck of the ship, I let out a large thud as I landed on my feet and staggered a little to stay standing. The offending ponies all let out a laugh before returning to whatever they were doing. I looked around the ship and saw standing next to the steering wheel was the captain, he was shouting out orders that I couldn’t understand cause of all the nautical jargon he was using but his crew seemed to know exactly what to do. The captain quickly spotted us and waved us over with a hoof, we climbed the stairs and stopped right in front of him. “Glad you could join us” his voice was smooth and he spoke with confidence, “welcome to The Lovely Mare, the finest ship this side of Equestria, and I am her captain, North Wind” He had a huge smile on his face. Red took a step forward, “so capn’, what’s our heading?” “We are gonna be heading north along the coast of the Volcanic Wastes and then up the river to Tailton Springs.” “Alright then, anything ya need us ta do?” Red asked. “No, just stay out of the way.” “Righto” Red gave a salute before waving a hoof at me to follow as we walked to the stern of the ship before I heard North call out to me. “And Golem, I know you ain’t as stupid as you pretend to be so I will be talking to you and only you very soon” he didn’t even turn around to address me. ‘Shit, I can’t act to save my life.’ Red looked up at me and I looked down at him before giving a slow nod, he nodded in return as I sat down and leaned against the railing of the boat, only twenty feet away from the captain. It was about another hour of North shouting random commands to the crew before the ship left port and we made our way into the ocean, staying probably about five miles from the shore line. During that time I took a look around the ship and like I thought from before we boarded, it did indeed look like an Elizabethan Era ship except for along the railing of the ship were some type of cannons that were on a rigging that allowed the cannon to spin and swivel around, probably to hit a target that is out of the line of fire of the regular cannons. North called out to another pegasus to take the helm and he turned and walked to the our little group with a scowl on his face. “You two go somewhere else” he said in a grave voice to Red and Third. Third was a little apprehensive, but Red was quick to scoop her up and carried her away in his magic, leaving me and North alone. “I know you ain’t some mindless creature so you best start talking, who are you?” I let out a sigh before looking back to him, “My name is Diamant, and I am a Magic Eater.” “I never turn down the opportunity to make some bits, but you better tell me why you are trying to make it back to Equestria.” “I don’t have to tell you shit, you got my name and that’s all I’m gonna tell you.” “Oh really? Then you probably don’t care if I pitch those two ponies over the side, bet that pegacorn ain’t strong swimmer” he looked at me with an evil glare. I turned my hand into a sword in a second, “touch either of them and you’ll be dead before you hit the floor.” He didn’t even blink when I changed my hand; he just kept on staring daggers at me before he broke into laughter, not a sinister laugh but a happy and almost mocking laugh. I was taken aback for a second at the sudden flip in his personality before he looked back at me, “good, you can at least stand up for yourself.” “What are you talking about?” I still hand my sword arm at the ready just in case. “One thing I don’t stand for on my ship is cowardice, that little pegacorn even showed a backbone when she stood up to my crew in the bar last night and I can tell that red one knows how to handle himself in a fight. You were the only one I couldn’t read since you were hiding your face and pretending to be stupid, so you mind taking that helmet off and letting me see your face?” “This isn’t a helmet, it is my face” I changed my hand back, I still didn’t trust this pony but he didn’t seem like he was evil, for now at least. “That so? Well whatever, just a word of advice to you and the pegacorn though, my crew is nice enough but don’t expect em to extend the hoof of friendship anytime soon. They can be a little rowdy sometimes and if ya get into a fight with any of em, you can defend yerself but don’t kill any of em.” He said as he floated into the air with a flap of his wings and with another flap, flew off to another part of the ship. ‘What the hell is with this guy? Is he warning me or giving me advice? I think he might be messed up in the head, I’ve got my eye on you, North.’