//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: New Lives and New Locations 
// Story: Star of the Sea 
// by JNKing 
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Soon after Star was taken to the Tavern to eat, Razor and his head officers had gathered in their own meeting room to discuss Star Wing. 

“The poor thing,” Atlas Moth, a Royal Changeling that was the Outcasts’ Fleet Secretary and second in command who was also Razor’s loving wife, said sadly as Razor rubbed her back. “How could Celestia have let her be treated like that?”

“I don’t know Atlas,” Snowheart, the Pegasus from earlier said, gripping the handle of her sword so hard that her hoof under the glove she wore was turning whiter. “But the fact that she would allow a Foal of only a few months to be thrown in a cell just for crying too loudly is just…” She trailed off as she tried to get her rage under control. Snowheart, also known as Snowy or just Snow to her friends, had been a mother herself many years ago. She had married a loving Unicorn Stallion named Dusk Light and the two had been gifted with three Foals, but their happiness didn’t last. The family had been taken by Caribou Slavers and Snow was separated from the rest, the ship her family had been placed on had vanished at sea. They had been lucky, Snow didn’t have that same luck. For seven long and terrible years Snow had been a slave and it had destroyed her, by the time she had finally escaped and found by Razor and Atlas Snowy had only been a broken shell of a Mare just barely holding onto a rock at sea.

“I understand why you’re feeling that way Snowy.” White Fang, an albino winged thestral, said. “But what I don’t understand is why. I met Celestia back when I worked as one of Luna’s personal guards. And Celestia was nothing like Star described.”

“Remember, White,” Fire Gem, a dracony (Pony/dragon hybrid), said. “It’s been over a thousand years since Star last saw Celestia. According to the various records; Celestia was a far different mare back then, and a lot can change in one year, let alone a thousand.”

A zebra, Zenith, spoke next. “If I was to hazard a guess: banishing her sister and the disappearance of her niece right after was too much of a shock for her. From what we know of the Elements, if used like they were against Nightmare Moon, it forces the bearer to feel the pain of the other.”

“Meaning that Celestia would have experienced not just what Luna had gone through, but also Star.” Apollo, a griffin, said. “I think it’s safe to say that the Mare Celestia was back then died that night.”

A minotaur named Steel Mass turned to Razor.”If you don’t mind me asking: why did you ask Star Wing if she wanted to join?”

Readjusting his seat, Razor looked out over his other Head officers. “Well besides the fact that Star believes that she can never go back to Equestria? She’s miles from home, and you all know as well as I do what will happen if the Northern Trade Union gets their hooves on her.”

Immediately the others agreed: the Northern Trade Union or NTU for short, was an Earth Pony-run faction in the Sea of Legends that on the surface appeared to be a simple trading company, but those who lived on the SOL knew the truth: The NTU were nothing but two-bit slavers that saw all others as either labor slaves or pleasure slaves, making them one of the most hated faction in the Sea of Legends. It went unsaid, but the other Head Officers knew full well on what Razor had meant and it was all thanks to another alicorn filly: Flurry Heart.

While the birth of an alicorn had been a truly amazing thing after Star had vanished, it hadn’t taken long for word to reach the NTU. Now that they knew for sure that a natural-born alicorn was possible, if very rare, they've been keeping a sharp eye out for one. Fortunately, most of the only widely known alicorns were in Equestria and even the NTU wasn’t willing to take on the full might of the Equestrian Navy, leaving only a select few known alicorns in the SOL, who stayed well hidden and were more than capable of defending themselves with added help from any allies they’d made. However, with the sudden finding of Star Wing, another one was now in the Sea of Legends. The problem here was Star, despite her love of stories and heroes, had never gotten the chance to actually train herself in combat, and as such was highly vulnerable to being captured by the NTU. And the second she was old enough, assuming the freaks didn’t consider a thousand years of stasis to be old enough already...

But fortunately for Star, she’d found her allies in the Outcasts of the Abyss who would protect her from the NTU and teach her what she would need for the inevitable encounter.

_________________________________________________________________________

Much later, Razor and Atlas entered the Main Tavern which was what the crew had come to call the main dining area, where they found several of the crew grouped around the newcomer. One of her books was laid out before her, next to several used plates, and she read from the pages with an intense light in her eyes. 

“‘I will not die a monster,’ he declared with defiance,” she read. “And with a mighty lunge, he seized his malfunctioning invention, sending it down-down-down into the dark depths of the river below.” 

Several of the crew cheered. Star glanced up with a glitter of joy in her eyes - usually, ponies just told her to shush or shut up when she got too into her books, but not this crew. They encouraged her and a few even played out some of the scenes in the story. Her eyes sparkled again as she noticed Razor and Atlas, the others noticing them as well. 

Razor walked over first with a grin. “So,” he noted. “Have you given my offer some thought?”

Star smiled, donning a pair of comically large glasses from her bag and flipping through the pages of the book she was reading. “Yep, I’ve carefully considered your offer, gone over every possible alternative and calculated the - who am I kidding, I didn’t even need to consider it.” She tossed aside her glasses and stood up with a salute. “Captain Razor Tail, consider Ex-Princess Star Wing recruited!” 

Razor gave Star a smile as he reached forward and the two shook hand and hoof. “Welcome to the Outcasts, Star Wing. This will most likely be a different life to what you're used to, but I can guarantee there won't be a dull moment.”

Star smiled, and looked over at Atlas as she came forward to stand next to Razor. Atlas looked like other Changeling Royals that Star had read about; her mane and tail were royal purple as were her eyes. The former two having been done in seven braids that were tied at the middle with a large red bow and a large red barrel bead just about the tip. Both the mane and tail had many small diamond, emerald, sapphire, and ruby clips woven throughout the hair. A large sword that Star recognised from her stories as a Claymore rested along her back.

It was her wings however that was the eye catcher; they were shaped like that of an Atlas Moth and were very large, Star was sure that she’d have no trouble keeping up Razor’s own oversized wings in flight.

Star’s own wings fluttered in envy, but her eyes darted between the two. “I’m sensing something between you two,” she noted. “Let me guess… taking a shot in the dark here…” She hummed before pointing at Atlas. “You’re his first mate.”  

“Very good, Star Wing,” Razor began, “This here is Atlas Moth; my second-in-command, and my wife.” Atlas lifted her left hoof, showing Star the gold and silver ring studded with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies that she wore.

Star’s eyes widened. “Oh-ho… so… first mate in more ways than one.” She laughed. 

“Razor here hoofcrafted this ring for me, to seal our bond.” She said as her and Razor shared a loving nuzzle, Star couldn’t help but think of her mother and father seeing the two.

She smiled softly at the memory, and stayed silent, not wanting her bad jokes or quips to ruin their moment. 

Razor turned back to Star and said; “Now before you truly start your new life on the Sea of Legends however, you’ll be seeing one of the best sights in the Sea of Legends: Imperator’s Grave.”

Star cocked an eyebrow.

“Imperator’s Grave?”





Imperator’s Grave

The others tried to prepare Star for what Imperator’s Grave was. They told her about how it served as a haven for pirates, privateers, smugglers, and any other type of sailor the tides swept up. How it had become an anchor point for all trade routes around the world, and how everything - “Except for slaves,” Razor said firmly. “No. Slavery. Allowed.” - could be purchased there. 

But it was another matter to see the site itself. 

Star hung upside down from the rigging like a baby bat, gazing in awe as Imperator’s Grave loomed over the horizon: a massive archipelago of towering cliffs, rock formations of all shapes and sizes defending the place better than any army. A giant inlet like the maw of a crocodile was protected by the rock formations, leading to a dock where ships of all sizes had a constant flow of supplies, passengers and cargo moving in and out of the ships. Further on, ten story high rib bones dotted the dock, with smaller but still large leviathan skulls forming a sort of town of huts in the wall’s shadow.  The town led to a fortress with walls made of rock, shipwrecks and rib-like bones reaching up twenty stories high, with cannons, rockets and other weapons protecting whatever was the source of several dancing lights. Several entrances stood at various intervals on the walls; each one was guarded by a giant reptilian-esque skull big enough to swallow the Dragon of the Depths whole. Even from a distance, Star could hear the chatter of crowds and the clink of gold with her thestral hearing passed down from her father. 

Razor Tail joined Star on the rigging, grinning at her wide-eyes of amazements. “Princess Star Wing,” he declared. “Welcome to Imperator’s Grave.” 

Star was speechless; she’d read about locations like Imperator’s Grave in many of her stories but to actually see one in real life was… she didn’t have the words. Soon the Dragon pulled into a cluster of three large, connecting inlets and into a massive dock that seemed to be a small town in its own right. Drawbridges connecting the topsides of the inlets opened to allow the Dragon’s masts to pass through with no trouble and along the top edges facing inward were numerous winches and cranes.

Soon the Dragon came to a stop as it dropped its four massive anchors as large and wide gangplanks and docking supports moved from the docks and attached to the side of the Dragon. Razor turned to address the crew.

“Alright ya’ll, we’re going to be at Imperator’s Grave for a few days so enjoy your shore leave. See you all again in a few days.” With that, he gave a wave of his Halberd and the crew started to disembark as Star came down from the rigging and sat on the railing to the right of the triple helm, gazing out over the town-dock.

Razor came up to her. “You’re going to be with me while we’re here, Star. Ready to see Imperator’s Grave?”

Star grinned, though her grin faded as she peered at the shoreline. “Before we go, one quick thing…” She glanced around. “Let’s be honest; I’m not sure people should know about me yet.” She looked down with a small glower. “And I’d rather leave the life of the Moon Spawn behind me.” She looked back up with a grin. “Hopefully, though… I’ve got a solution.” She fluffed her wings. “Stand back… I haven’t tested this in a thousand years, so I have no idea what’ll happen.”

The crew backed up a respectable distance as Star’s horn lit up, and she began to shroud herself in blue flames. For a moment, several of the crew flinched, wondering if Star was burning herself alive. Atlas Moth, however, recognized the flames of a changeling spell. 

Just before she could speak, the flames popped with a burst of magic. And in Star’s place stood an adult dragoness. She still had Star’s black and white color scheme - though now in scales instead of fur - and she had Star’s brilliant green eyes. Evidently, she also had Star’s personality, for as the dragon took one look at her new body, she whooped in delight. 

“It worked!” she cheered. “By Faust in Heaven, it worked!” she broke out into a fit of giggling. 

“Um… what worked, exactly?” one of the crew asked. 

Star managed to calm herself enough to explain. “Well… you see, the Castle of Two Sisters got diplomats from several non-pony factions, right? Two of those factions were dragons and changelings.” She grinned at Atlas. “The changeling diplomat - uh, Antenna, I think her name was - she noticed me getting picked on in the past, and took pity on me.” She lifted her talons. “She showed me the shapeshifting spells so I didn’t have to worry about the nobles seeing me. And… well, the dragon diplomat - Cinder - stood up for me when Lord Ego wanted to throw me in jail for looking at him wrong.” Her eyes turned dreamy. “Oh, that dragon was magnificent. His scales… his wings… his thick muscles…” she paused, realizing she almost revealed too much information, before chuckling. “Well… either way, I’ve always wanted to be a dragon. And now I get the chance!” She spun in a circle with a giddy cackle. 

Though her cackling died as Atlas walked over to her, looking over her new form with a critical eye. “Uh, is it… okay?” Star asked. 

“You learned pretty well,” Atlas said. “But there are still some flaws.” She smiled. “Imperator’s Grave will be safe enough for now, but later, I’d like to teach you some fine tuning methods to fix them.”

“Oh, sure,” Star replied. “I’d love that.” 

“First, we need to gather our supplies,” Razor replied with a smile, knowing that Star would now be safe from threats for the time being. “If you’re ready, Princess Star…?”

Star chuckled. “Ready, but Princess Star is the life I’m leaving behind. From here on out, I shall be known as… ‘Night Fire.’” She struck a pose, before joining Razor. And together, the two departed the Dragon.

As they disembarked, Star took a brief glance back at her new home, taking in the sight of the Dragon of the Depths.

The first thing that struck her was the sheer size of the ship: Star had read about many different kinds of ships in her stories from water-bound to even space ships; she even once read about ships capable of traveling underwater. But never about one this size; by Star’s guess the Dragon of the Depths was around 1,504.10 ft, maybe longer. The hull was at least 28 decks above the water line, not counting the fore and aft-castles, but towards the front a space was missing six decks, while the colors of the hull were in a pattern of four colors: black, red, purple, and cyan in that order from the bottom which repeated as it traveled up the hull and there was bright gold trim all over the hull, such as in between the gun decks and the gun hatches themselves are also the above four colors only set to give two different contrasts to the gun deck they were on, being the black areas have red hatches with purple centers, the red areas had cyan hatches with black centers, the purple areas had gold hatches with cyan centers, and the cyan areas had black hatches with red centers. Spread all over the Hull were glowing orange ember-like spots, appearing like fire was burning brightly on the interior walls of these areas, there were also areas where the same glow effect was red with large Runes mixed in and emerald green. The size of these areas ranged from large to small and long to short with a few spots not having any Glow at all, and none of the three Glowing areas crossed over each other, with each being on a color band that allowed one to easy see the Hull color in bright lights while still leaving the Glow easily visible. The Glow Effect is also visible on the centers of the Gun Hatches.

What really caught her eye was the bow:  it had been shaped like a massive dragon head with a gaping maw and giant teeth, looking ready to swallow anything unfortunate to fall in and the two large crystal eyes were blood red and glowing and protruding from the chin was a long and very big hardened steel ram that had claw like spikes starting from the back half of the ram to just in front of the hull, the spikes started small and increased in size towards the back. Under the very long bowsprit, which protruded out just above the dragon's head, were several figureheads; the base of the Figureheads on the Bow constantly emitted a shroud of thick fog that trailed several feet behind as the Ship sailed forward. The first Figurehead sat under the others and was a large piece of curved metal resembling a cutlass blade with the cutting edge bearing a resemblance to teeth on a saw blade.

The second Figurehead was above this one and the bottom one was attached at the back point to the base of this one, it was a round gold shield-like face boarded by a silver ring with the sail symbol in black on it, trailing behind the shield are four banner-like extensions curved from wood, two on top and two on the bottom, with silver coin-shaped claps towards the ends. The top banners were red and the bottom ones were black. The symbol on the shield had glowing red outlines and eyes that cast the black shape of the symbol on the water in front of the ship like a spotlight.

Fitted over the top of the second Figurehead was the large skull of a creature with a beak with the Shield Symbol being seen in the mouth from the front. Attached to the chin of the skull was the first figurehead on the front point.

Attached to the bowsprit in front of and above the forehead of the skull was a figurehead consisting of a metal extension with a Pony Mare skull missing its lower jaw with red Gems in the eyes, nose, and protruding out of the mouth. At the base of this Figurehead is a pair of large gold-colored lanterns, one on each side, a red cloth is draped on each side starting just behind the top of the skull and down to behind and a bit past the Lanterns. A black chain started on the part above and forward of the Mare skull which traveled up to a gold chain loop with a large cage hangs from in between this Figurehead and the next one. The cage had a gold top with short chain, base, center ring and rivets and black bars with a red cloth covering the floor and hanging down a bit.

The third figurehead was a dragon with its body coiling around a metal beam twice, with the tail splitting in two and traveling above the eye sockets of the skull. The Dragon had two front legs with tree fingers tipped with black claws while the open maw of the Dragon had black, rock-like teeth. The body glowed brightly with yellow in the center that changed to orange than red towards the edges and tips.

In front and above of the dragon was an alicorn with a gold coat and purple hooves, wrapped around the horn were two Purple chain rings and another four were wrapped around the cannon of the right foreleg. The mane, tail, eyes, horn and wings were glowing: The mane and tail are red, the eyes are silver, the horn is green, and the wings had two glowing areas: The feathers were blue while the wings themselves were orange. The eyes projected a large silver halo or ring around the bowsprit above the head, this ring was quite visible even in the fog around them and in the left hoof was a large lantern in the shape of a gibbet cage with a large red flame burning within.

In front and above of the alicorn was a wyvern colored various shades of red ranging from normal to dark with its tail going into the wood attaching the Alicorn to the bow and the mouth was open with flame shooting out, the eyes were orange and yellow as was the flame. The Wyvern had three metal bands that were black but the areas in front of the body changed to orange then yellow, the center of the bands were broken, bent and twisted. The rivets holding the bands to the bowsprit are also glowing orange.

In front and above the wyvern was the final figurehead which is another dragon only shaped like the symbol on the sail with a silver body, red eyes, and black claws and tail blades. The center tail blade had a sapphire on it in the center of the blade, a long harpoon with small chains hanging off from in between the Alicorn and the Wyvern Figureheads towards the back jutted out. The Dragon had both back legs on this harpoon and the front left leg is gripping it while the right front leg had a rounded shield with a symbol of two crossed halberds behind a forward-facing Dragon head on it, the symbol glowed green.

Set to the sides of the Mare Skull Figurehead above the cloth extensions are a were of four Harpoons with three sets of chains holding them up set in a 12-3-6-9 pattern though the top and bottom Harpoons are longer, the ones at the 12, 3 and 9 positions had Red paint on their tips that resembles blood.

So full of detail and care were they, Star quickly found herself looking away, blinking in utter bafflement. Ultimately, she shook her head: looking back wasn’t going to get her anywhere, she reminded herself, moving forward was going to get her somewhere. And so, Star - or rather, ‘Night Fire,’ - followed along Razor Tail.