//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight: A Fearful Encounter // Story: The Titans' Orb: Breaking Dawn // by Mister Horncastle //------------------------------// “Whoa, now just hold on there a second!” Applejack ordered. I turned to look at her, whom was looking at me with great concern. “What is it?” I asked. “What do you mean ‘what is it’? You’ve just given Rarity a gosh-darn kill order! We don’t know who these people are, we don’t know their story, they could have families, kids even! And you think it’s fine to just sink ‘em without so much as a second thought?” Even after explaining to her that they were armed and quite literally after us, Applejack still protested. “You can’t just cut down everyone that we come across, Callum. Can’t we just try to reason with them?” “Firstly, they almost certainly don’t speak English. Secondly, the fact they’re armed is clearly proof that they aren’t here to reason with us. And thirdly, you think they’re going to just calmly have a chat with six alien ponies? What happened to our ‘no human interaction’ rule?” I retorted. Sighing, the farmpony looked away and shook her head bitterly. I told Rarity to hold her fire and knelt down before Applejack to gain her eye contact. “Come on AJ, where’s this coming from? Because I’ve had to take a lot of lives already and this is the first I’ve heard from you about it. What’s this really about?” After taking a moment to gather her words, she asked me if she could be honest, to which I nodded. “I don’t like what you’re becoming…” “Okay… Elaborate?” “Before you found that sword, you made a judgement call at every encounter. You knew when to engage, and when not to engage. When to kill, and when not to. I just don’t like the fact that you’re so nonchalant about sending a group of other humans to their deaths. I understand the Titans chose you to be the next Champion, but I just don’t want it to change who you are on the inside, because I like who you are on the inside. Please, please just don’t let the power go to your head.” I remained there on one knee, thinking on her words. Was she right? No, if anything I had been more humbled by finding the sword and facing the Titans, I realised how much bigger this all meant, becoming the Champion made me reject the idea of being a hero. My new title was simply a torch to pass on to someone else after my quest was complete, after I’d found the Titan’s Orb. She was right about one thing, I had grown way too accustomed to killing, it had become a second nature to me, but it was all to protect the girls, it was always to protect them. Regardless, perhaps I should take her words onboard and try to avoid conflict more often. {But, I need souls to strengthen my own, to become a stronger Champion…} I thought to myself. Ugh, moral dilemmas aren’t fun. “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but they’re getting much closer to us, and every one of them seem to have guns at the ready.” Rarity commented, peering through the scope of her rifle. Keeping eye contact with Applejack, I commanded Rarity only to return fire if they attacked first. “So, what? We’re just giving them the opportunity to shoot us? They all have guns!” Rainbow Dash growled. “If they’re after the smuggler’s cache, perhaps I can just give it to them and they’ll leave us be.” I hummed. “Unlikely.” Twilight grumbled anxiously. “Well I think we should give them a chance.” Fluttershy spoke up, siding with AJ. “You’re going to get us killed.” Dashie spat. “Look, I’m just sick of everyone we come across dying!” Applejack shouted defensively. “It’s a nice enough sentiment, but this is not the right time for it!” Twilight replied angrily. “Not the right time? Is sentient life that expendable to you?” “When the whole fate of Equus hangs in the balance? Yes!” “I can’t believe what I’m hearing… You’re seriously telling me that it’s totally fine for Rarity to murder these people simply because they’re after a bag of stupid drugs?” “Oh my gosh, even I’m not this stupid! They’re after us, you idiot!” Rainbow Dash added. Leaving the girls to argue, I went below deck and grabbed the smuggler’s pistol just to be safe, my sword was hardly going to help if they were sat comfortably on their yacht. Putting the safety on and sticking it into my waistband, I grabbed the smuggler’s extremely problematic bag and headed back above deck. “Dashie, take to the clouds, if you hear gunshots, you know what to do.” I ordered. The order instantly broke up the arguing, and Rainbow Dash did what she was told and took off, flying high up and out of sight behind the clouds. The others made their way below deck, with Rarity using one of the side windows to stealthily aim out of, just in case. “I am so getting shot at…” I grumbled. This whole plan went completely against my judgement, as did it with Twilight and Rainbow Dash, but if an attempt at diplomacy was what Applejack needed to maintain faith in me, then so be it. Grabbing the smuggler’s bag, I stood near the edge of the boat’s stern and raised a hand to wave at the yacht as it approached. Unsurprisingly, the seven men that were all staring at me from behind the railings of the front deck chose not to wave back as their enormous vessel slowly drifted beside ours. “Hello there, gents! I presume you’re here for this?” I spoke boldly, holding up the black bag. “Min hadha alfataa? ” One of them spoke to another. “Lays tajirna.” The man responded. “Ma allughat alati yatakalamu?” A third asked. “Yatahadath alanjiliziatu.” The second spoke again. The second man to speak was almost certainly the leader of the group, he was covered in countless tattoos and had multiple golden chains around his neck. He squinted at me suspiciously for a moment before gesturing for me to throw the bag to him, to which I obediently flung the bag up. He caught it and opened it right away to inspect the goods alongside his men. Once they were satisfied that the original amount of drugs were still inside, he zipped the bag up and peered down at me. “Who are you?” The man growled to me in a thick Moroccan accent. {Huh, he speaks English.} I thought, before innocently declaring that I was just a traveller. “A traveller, with my drugs?” “I didn’t want them, I only wanted the boat.” “And my dealer?” “Well he tried to kill me, so it was only fair that I killed him first.” {Totally missing out the part where you went and stabbed him in the chest, without any attempt whatsoever to subdue him peacefully.} I thought to myself, almost cracking a smile. After a tense moment of silence, the man inquired about where I was going, to which I honestly replied that I was crossing the sea in search of America. “You don’t sound American.” “I’m not, I’m English. Just fancied a holiday.” Loudly huffing with amusement, the man said something to his men in Arabic, to which they all withdrew their firearms and pointed them at me. I groaned with annoyance as it seemed this entire exchange was a waste of time; the supposed leader itched the side of his head with his gun, which seemed to be some sort of submachine gun, most likely an Uzi, or possibly a Škorpion. “Am I really expected to let off the one who kills my dealer, and then makes me spend many days on the sea to hunt back my drugs?” He asked rhetorically. “I mean, you didn’t have to come after me.” I replied nonchalantly. Ignoring my statement, he lamented on about how he now needed to find a new reliable dealer, and that I’d cost him thousands of dirhams (Moroccan currency) in business damages. “Well at least I didn’t use any of your drugs. You’ve still got your product to sell, so how about we just part ways, and I’ll let you live?” I suggested, giving a toothy smile. “Ha, I admire your spirit, boy! And I am not without a soul, someone like you deserves a chance at life, however slim, so I will not shoot you.” The man chuckled. The man snapped his fingers, to which his men aimed away from me, and instead at the hull of our boat. “I hope you are a good swimmer, traveller.” “Shit.” What followed was the deafening sound of gunfire, and the even louder sound of hundreds of bullets smacking into my vessel and tearing it apart, and amongst it all, a scream. The girls. I hit the deck and crawled into cover, before whipping out the pistol and taking pot-shots back at them, I was able to hit the lone guy up on the flybridge; the bullet caught him square in the chest, he keeled over and dropped into the water with a loud splash. A mighty crack then sounded off, followed by the leader’s hand exploding, Rarity most certainly hadn’t lost her edge with the Piercing Shot rifle. Then, with the force of a damn freight train, Rainbow Dash descended from the heavens and smacked into the remaining men and knocked them all down, killing one of them instantly as hoof met skull. I took the opportunity to leap at the yacht and grab the railing to clamber up. I withdrew Vitra ‘Aku and made no hesitation in slashing down the men as they were just trying to get back up, the lot of them were completely shell-shocked at the sudden occurrence of being attacked by a flying rainbow-haired pony; none of them put up much of a fight as I swiftly put them down. I caught the leader crawling away from me, still clutching his bleeding stump of a wrist; I grabbed him by the thick locks of hair upon his head and lifted him up to his knees, forcing him to make eye contact with me while he squirmed in agony. “Sup, asshole?” I hissed. “Who… Who the fuck are you?” He cried out. “He’s the Titan’s Champion, who the fuck are you?” Rainbow Dash spat from behind him. Knowing that her job was done and that I planned to execute the man, the pegasus flew back to our boat to check in on the others, while I did the deed. “So, you’re not without a soul? Good, I’ve been collecting those.” I hissed. Gritting my teeth and exacting my vengeance, I jammed my blade between his ribs and gave it a small twist, he inhaled deeply in shock and the light then slowly left his eyes as he let out his final breath. His soul then seeped into the sphere at the hilt of the sword, I withdrew the blade and dumped his body overboard along with the other men that lay close by him. I went down the stairs to the rear deck to find one man still alive, a gunman that had attempted to hide beneath the stairs as soon as Rarity’s rifle went off; I initially liked the idea of letting the man go, doomed to swim himself to death on the open sea as these men had intended for me, but I quickly dismissed the thought, I wouldn’t succumb to such a cruel act of revenge. Besides, his soul was of much better use to me. “Turn around and look at the water.” I ordered. Not understanding a word of English, the quivering man shrugged and shook his head in confusion. “Ugh, never mind.” Slicing upwards and splitting open his torso, the man dropped down and died within a couple seconds, interestingly, I noticed that Vitra ‘Aku didn’t even need to touch his body for his soul to be absorbed, the ethereal substance was simply drawn out of him and drifted through the air and into the blade; all that mattered was that the sword delivered the killing blow. After chucking his body overboard as well, I leaped back over to our boat to inspect the damage, and it was bad. Despite surviving the rogue wave and a ruthless storm, the sheer amount of bullet holes had caused our sweet little sailing boat to be completely ruined beyond repair, and water was coming in fast. On the bright side, a very nice yacht had just been made available for us to commandeer. “Girls, grab your bags, we’re swapping vessels.” I barked. Applejack ran up to me, tears streaming down her face. “Callum, this was all my fault, I’m so sorry… I was just-” “I said grab your bags.” I interrupted. Rainbow Dash barged Applejack out of the way to inform me that Twilight had been hit. “Oh god… How badly?” “Pretty bad, she got hit in the foreleg I think, she’s hurting a lot.” Dashie escorted me to the sleeping quarters, where Fluttershy was already tending to a sobbing Twilight. “I can’t properly dress this until we get the bullets out.” She updated me. {Bullets as in, bullets plural… Oh god…} I thought to myself in alarm. “Well we can’t do it here, this boat’s going to be underwater soon, you need to pack up all your things and get onto the other boat, we’ll get the bullets out there.” I replied. Nodding, Fluttershy wiped the blood from her hooves and grabbed her stuff, heading outside without uttering a word. Even after being shot at, there wasn’t a shred of fear in that pegasus, for whenever Fluttershy had a patient to take care of, there was nothing that could wane her courage. Poor Twilight sat there shaking, her eyes clamped shut with blood trickling down her left foreleg from a deep pair of holes in her lower shoulder. “Can you walk on three?” I asked softly. “I… I can try… Oh gosh it hurts… Gaah! Oh, it hurts so bad…” She whimpered. Hissing through gritted teeth, the mare shakily got to her hooves (minus one) and limped beside me out of the sleeping quarters, water was pouring into the hold like crazy, my shoes were already completely soaked upon crossing the room and reaching the exit. “Callum, I really want you to know I-” Applejack began. “Grab Twilight’s bag and get onto the other boat.” I spat. Gulping and dipping her head, AJ said no more and did as she was told. Suddenly the boat tilted to one side as the water level rose high enough to weigh it down. I staggered to some degree and dropped to one knee in order to catch myself, while Twilight stumbled much further and slammed into the wall, causing her to let out a gut-wrenching wail of agony.; the cry was enough to weaken anyone with an empathetic heart, and tears instantly began to well up in my eyes. Wading over to the trembling unicorn, I carefully slid my hands under her back legs and chest to scoop her up and carry her out of the sinking vessel before any further harm came to her. Annoyingly, the yacht had drifted a fair distance, with Rainbow Dash zipping back and forth to transport our baggage, Applejack was just clambering up onto the lower deck. “We’re going to have to swim, but don’t worry, I won’t let you go.” I promised. Twilight nodded, unable to speak, and the two of us eased ourselves into the water. “That’s bloody cold…” I muttered. “It’s… actually… quite… nice…” Twilight whimpered through sharp breaths. Using one arm to paddle and my legs to propel us forward, I tried to get us to the yacht as quickly as possible, which Twilight was able to help with by kicking with her own back legs. We were about three quarters of the way there when Rainbow Dash yelped out in fear from above. “Shark! Shark!” “WHAT?” Twilight shrieked. Instantly, the mare started to kick harder and faster, and I did too. Although panicked swimming was always advised against, the blood leaking from Twilight’s shoulder would surely grab the shark’s attention no matter how much we thrashed, so the sooner we got to the boat, the better. The creature had no doubt been attracted to the bodies I’d dumped overboard not too long ago. Fluttershy flew overhead and shockingly made her way over to the shark, and proceeded to be an absolute genius; by flying just above the water’s surface and kicking down with her hind legs, the pegasus was able to cause enough splashing to grab the ocean predator’s attention, allowing us to swim less frenziedly and reach the yacht. Rainbow Dash helped us out of the water and we flopped onto the deck, Twilight let out a series of painful gasps as the fear began to die down, and the pain returned to her. “Is that everything?” I asked Rainbow Dash. “Yeah. Is she going to be okay?” She replied, pointing to Twilight with a worried look. “Once I get the bullets out.” “Okay, good.” Twilight painfully crawled over to the wall of the rear deck and slumped against it, I sat with her and helped her keep the shoulder elevated and applied pressure to stem the bleeding. Once Fluttershy had finished distracting the shark long enough for Pinkie and Rarity to swim over, she joined the two of us and thanked me for staying with Twilight. “Good thinking with that shark.” I praised her. “Sharks. There were three of them.” “Three? Blimey, well thanks for keeping them occupied.” Dipping her head and giving me a weak smile, Fluttershy directed her concern to Twilight. “Can you help me get the bullets out? I don’t think I can do it myself.” She requested. Nodding, I helped Twilight onto her side properly so that we could access her shoulder better, the poor mare kept her eyes clamped shut and continued to whimper to herself. Fluttershy quickly retrieved her bag which contained her medical supplies, while I soothingly stroked down the back of Twilight’s neck to keep her calm. “I’d like to give her a sedative, it’ll make this easier for all of us.” Fluttershy hummed, mostly to herself. “No… I… I don’t want one…” Twilight gasped. “You need one, Twi. You’re in agony.” Flutters insisted. I recalled back to one of our nights together in Portugal, when Twilight had divulged to me that she was terrified of anaesthesia and being medically put to sleep, as she feared the idea of having no control of her own body. “It will hurt, a lot.” I said to her. “I don’t care…” Fluttershy looked at me with a frown, regretfully I gave her a nod to proceed. “Fine, but try not to be too dramatic.” I teased. “Screw you.” She chuckled through the tears. Fluttershy retrieved some very odd-looking forceps that were clearly intended to be gripped in a pony’s mouth, but I was able to hold them with my hand just fine. Fluttershy used fresh water from her water bottle to clear the wound while I worked, as it was still weeping a plentiful amount of blood; she also helped by lightly pulling at the sides of the holes to allow me to get deeper in and locate the bullets. I had just found one of them and was trying to get a hold on it when Twilight flinched, causing the forceps to jab against raw flesh. “Gaaahh hah hah haah!” She screamed. I quickly withdrew the pincers and gave her a moment to stop quaking. “Oh Twilight, I do wish you’d let me give you the sedative.” Fluttershy sighed. After shaking her head to protest, Twilight did everything in her power to remain still, but without anything to numb the pain it was nigh impossible to stay completely unmoving; the constant swaying of the sea also didn’t help, not one bit. Eventually I was able to get a grip on the first bullet and lift it out of the wound. “There’s one.” I muttered. Placing the bloodstained lead cylinder onto Fluttershy’s medical tray, I didn’t hesitate before heading back in to find the second bullet. All the other girls were anxiously watching from a distance, not knowing what else to do. After a few more minutes of carefully locating and gripping the second bullet, I finally was able to remove it and leave Fluttershy to apply some adhesive closure strips, which weren’t too dissimilar from the steri-strips that humans use, except that these ones were made from a plant-based material that would slowly be absorbed into the skin and provide further healing benefits; unsurprisingly they were one of Zecora’s products along with the Oozima, which Fluttershy also applied to the wounds after she’d placed the strips. “Wasn’t so bad, was it?” I asked Twilight playfully. Looking up at me with bloodshot eyes and a runny nose, the unicorn gave me a great big grin and told me that it was the best bullet removal she’d ever had, causing the both of us to laugh. “You’re a fuckin’ moron.” I chuckled. “I learned it from you.” “I’ll try to take that as a compliment.” Getting up to stretch my legs, I realised how much blood Twilight had lost, it had pooled all around her chest and was trickling off the back of the yacht; the girl had been extremely lucky that the bullets hadn’t gone any deeper, which had only been prevented by the hull of our sailing boat slowing them down, the boat in question was now completely on its side, and would be underwater very shortly. I was just washing the blood from my hands in the sea when one of the sharks suddenly appeared under the boat and swam awfully close to me, I retracted my hands and keenly observed the creature. It was too dark and too slim to be a great white, and seeing as there were four of them swimming together, they were most likely to be blue sharks which were known to be more sociable. Whichever breed they were, they were certainly going to eat well thanks to all the druggos that I’d just dumped overboard. “Callum, I-” Applejack began from behind me. “I don’t want to hear it, I don’t, want to fucking hear it, Applejack!” I snapped, not even turning to face her. The adrenaline had died down, and the emotions began to kick in as I realised just how narrowly Twilight had evaded a fatal blow, and how idiotic I had been in letting a gang, an armed gang, approach us. I finally had it in me to look at her, and turned around to glare at the farm pony. “Your poor judgement just sank our boat. Your sentiment almost got us killed. Your lack of faith in me just put two fucking bullets into Twilight’s shoulder! She is now lying at the end of this yacht in sheer agony, with her blood dripping into the sea! All because you doubted me and my ability to make the right decision. All because, you valued the lives of some shitty narcos over our safety.” “I know… But I-” “Shut it. This entire ordeal is your fault. Twilight’s suffering is your fault. For fucks’ sake, how could I have been so STUPID!?” I boomed. In a flash of anger, I whipped around and smacked the side of the yacht with an open hand, causing everyone to jump; but it wasn’t all anger, it was a whole cluster of emotions mixed together, from the fear of being shot at, to the shock of having just killed a bunch of people, to the sorrow of Twilight’s injuries and the excruciating pain that came with them. I turned back around to face Applejack, now with tears in my eyes. “My job is to keep you all safe. My duty, is to protect you, no matter the cost. The reason I kill is to protect you girls, and for a split second you had me doubt that reason, and that split second was all it took to get us all nearly killed. Do you have any idea how lucky Twilight is? If those bullets had gone just twice as deep, she could be dead right now, and that would have been on you!” Witnessing that I was just verbally breaking Applejack at this point, Rarity came up alongside me and told me that enough was enough. As emotional as I was, there was just enough self-control in me to speak no more and storm off inside the yacht. As I made my way inside and down the stairs, I heard Applejack burst into tears, and I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t care; I’d just pulled two bullets out of my best friend, and I didn’t know how to emotionally handle it, all I knew is that I was angry. Strutting around in the lower deck, I took the time to investigate the cabins, and bloody hell was this yacht an upgrade from the sailing boat, the lower deck had four bedroom cabins, complete with four single beds and two doubles. Better yet, each cabin had its own restroom, with working sinks and toilets. {No more shitting off the side of the boat.} I thought to myself. Although this was definitely a very expensive yacht, it seemed that it had been stripped down to the cheapest necessities, there weren’t any televisions in the rooms despite there being cables poking out of the walls, and all the loose furnishings like chairs and tables had been removed; I highly doubted the drug gang had been minimalists, so I presumed they’d just removed and sold all of the amenities when they first procured the yacht. Seeing as the six men had been sleeping on the beds, I took the time to strip the bedding and flip all the mattresses to distract myself from all the emotions currently flowing through me; two of the mattresses turned out to have even more drugs underneath them, along with a ton of cigarette packs. “Why am I not surprised?” I scoffed. With the biggest bedroom now somewhat tidy, and my mood substantially calmer, I decided to go back above deck and help Twilight get to the double bed, she needed somewhere comfortable to rest. Everyone had dispersed to the upper and top decks, besides Fluttershy and Twilight, who were still at the rear end. I made my way over to them and told them about the beds, which Twilight was instantly very keen on as she still lay on the wooden deck. “Come on, you.” I tutted warmly, scooping her up. I carried her down to the bedroom and attentively placed her onto the double bed after Fluttershy had put a towel down to prevent blooding up the mattress right away. Fluttershy decided to stay with her for a while still to keep an eye on her as she had lost a fair bit of blood. “Try to get some rest, okay?” I said to Twilight, cupping her cheek with a hand. After taking an exhausted breath and wincing, she told me that she didn’t like it when I shouted. “You can be pretty scary sometimes, you know?” She murmured. “Sometimes, I need to be.” I replied, winking. Fluttershy gave me a quick hug before I took myself back outside to explore the rest of the yacht, nopony was in the upper deck, but we’d most certainly be hanging out here in the evenings, for there was a whole living room, TV, and kitchen; the sheer amount of space would be very helpful in keeping tensions low as everyone could take a break from one another where needed, which is something we all struggled with on the sailing boat. I went up to the flybridge, where I found Rainbow Dash desperately trying to stop Pinkie from pressing all the buttons at the yacht’s navigational control panel. “Let me press just one, please?” “No Pinks, we don’t know what they do!” Dashie ordered, physically holding her back from the console. A lightbulb lit up above my head, and I snapped my fingers to grab Pinkie’s attention; she zipped over to me like an excited dog, waiting for me to speak with bulging eyes. “A big boat like this should have a manual, a big booklet with instructions for how to drive it. Find me that booklet, and I’ll let you press so many buttons.” I directed her. In a flash, the mare was whizzing all around the yacht in search of the manual. “That’ll keep her busy for a few minutes.” I chuckled. “Good thinking.” Rainbow Dash praised. I slung an arm around Dashie’s neck and asked if she was doing okay after such a nail-biting encounter, to which she replied that she wasn’t entirely sure. “It’s not as bad as when I killed that guy in Portugal, but I feel really, I don’t know, strange? It’s like there’s a heavy ball of tension in my stomach and it won’t go away. And even though I just washed my hooves in the water, it still feels like there’s blood on them. Does that make any sense?” “Makes perfect sense, I completely understand that, and I feel the same way honestly.” I took a deep breath, and looked out the window to observe Rarity and Applejack chatting on the top deck at the front of the vessel. Sighing, I continued to tell Rainbow Dash that it took me a long time to accept that I was a killer, and that it felt like there was blood on my hands for months that I couldn’t wash away, but over time I’ve learned to rationalise it, and understand that the blood doesn’t actually exist, it’s just the brain’s way of processing the incident. “I think I get it, thanks dude.” Dashie hummed. “Of course. Just talk to me if you start feeling worse, don’t suppress it.” “I’ll try. I could use a drink more than anything to be honest.” “Heh, I feel you there, shame the only thing on offer is a fuckload of drugs.” I grumbled. “Honestly, after the shit that just happened, I wouldn’t be opposed.” “Dash!” “Oh come on! Surely they’re not all that bad?” I mean, she had a point. The cocaine and heroin were absolute no-goes, but I was admittedly a bit tempted by the marijuana, surely a bit of weed couldn’t do much harm. The sheer amount of alcohol I’d consumed in Portugal had probably been more harmful, and after just killing six people and then removing two bullets from Twilight, I think I’d earned the right to be a little experimental. “You know what? Screw it, I’m down. Fancy a smoke later?” “Wait, really?” “Did I stutter?” “Shit, okay! Sweet! I mean uh, cool. I look forward to it, I guess?” Rainbow Dash attempting to be indifferent about taking drugs when she obviously wasn’t, was hilarious, and I was about to call her out on it when Pinkie returned with the manual suspended from her jaw. “Ey, great job Pinkie!” I cheered. Taking the booklet from her and giving it a quick flick-through, I learned that this whopping unit of a nautical vehicle was a Princess Eighty-Five Yacht, a very high-end boat that was no-doubt extremely expensive; the number of buttons, switches, and features were seemingly never ending; the damn thing had its own CCTV cameras for crying out loud! There was also a small heated pool up at the back of the flybridge, it was surreal to suddenly be in possession of what was quite simply a floating hotel. Needless to say, we would all have a much more comfortable journey for the rest of our time at sea, provided that there weren’t any more storms. I allowed Pinkie to press all the buttons that wouldn’t cause problems, and then headed out onto the top deck to find Rarity and Applejack still chatting together, cleaning up all the blood that had been splattered around. Upon seeing me, Rarity smiled and approached me, giving me a quick squeeze. “How’s Twilight?” She asked me. “She’ll be okay, Fluttershy’s keeping an eye on her.” “Good, the poor thing scared the life out of me when the shooting started, she dropped to the floor and didn’t make a sound at first, most likely in shock. I thought she might’ve been, well, you know.” “Aye… That was a good shot by the way.” “Why, thank you.” I looked over at Applejack, whom had just mopped up the last bit of blood and was tossing the bloody rag off into the sea. “She’s really sorry, you know?” Said Rarity. “Yeah, I know.” “I know Twilight got hurt, but Applejack had nothing but good intentions, it was a mistake that came from a place of goodwill. All she wanted was to preserve some human life, and she genuinely thought it was possible today. Those men were looking for violence, and that wasn’t Applejack’s fault.” “But we knew… We knew, that they were looking for violence, and we let them approach us and attack anyway, solely because Applejack doubted me.” I protested. “Oh for goodness sake, Callum, she just had an honest trice of uncertainty. She practically drowned just the other day, she’s feeling extremely emotional about that, and just had a moment where the thought of death was too much for her to handle.” Rarity always knew how to get through to me, her way with words was very compelling. I gave a heavy sigh and dipped my head in accord. “Okay, I’ll talk to her.” “Good boy.” Rarity strutted away, giving my rear a playful swat with her tail. Huffing, I walked beside Applejack and looked out to sea without making eye contact. “Please, if you’re going to yell at me again, just get it over with.” She sighed. “AJ, I’m not going to yell at you, and I’m sorry for doing so earlier.” “Don’t be, I deserved it. I messed up and someone got hurt.” “Look, I’m not going to pretend I’m not still upset, and I wish you had just listened to me, but I know you were just trying to do the right thing.” “I was, I really was. Please, Callum, don’t think for one second that I don’t trust you, because I do. You just seemed so eager to give that order, and I panicked!” “You realise I gave that order because I knew what was going to happen, right? I knew those men were looking for trouble, there was no way in hell that they were going to take the bag and leave peacefully, so I wanted to get it over and done with sooner rather than later. I wasn’t eager to take their lives, I was eager to protect you, and not drag out the danger.” “I see that now. I just didn’t at the time, and I’m sorry, I really am.” Turning to face Applejack properly, I let out a heavy sigh and opened my arms to offer her a forgiving cuddle, she was very quick to reciprocate and wrap her hooves around me; after a tight hug, I looked her in the eyes and sternly pointed at her. “I forgive you, but don’t you ever doubt me again.” “I won’t… Promise…” “Good.” We headed back to the flybridge together, where I hopped onto the driver’s seat and retrieved the yacht’s manual from Pinkie’s mane, where she had stored it for safekeeping. After a few minutes of scanning the booklet for the information I needed, I started up the yacht and was able to get the GPS up and running. “Damn! We’re actually not that far now!” I exclaimed, looking at the map. “How far’s not that far?” Rainbow Dash asked. “At a steady pace, I’d say we’ll make landfall in about four, perhaps five days.” “Really? That’s fantastic!” Rarity sang. “Well, let’s get a darn move on then, I need dry land!” Applejack hooted. She didn’t need to tell me twice, after a moment of getting used to the controls, I lightly pushed forward on the throttle and the engine growled, displaying the sheer power of the vehicle. Pushing the throttle even further, we started to speed forward. “Oh my, this thing really moves!” Rarity called out. “Hell yeah it does… Allons-y girls!” I cheered in response. Gradually bringing us to max speed, we practically flew above the water’s surface as we headed northwest, riding the waves and chasing that glistening horizon towards our destination. America, here we come.