The fresh air felt amazing as it graced its presence through twilight's mane. Although she did not enjoy the idea of climbing this mountain for any longer, it truly felt worth it. She still didn't know how much time she had left to make it to the top, before the mystical powerful item on top disappeared until next year. However, she wouldn't know unless she began to climb. Being very high up the mountain the view was beautiful. Everything down low, just looked so tiny. She even saw the old sage's house from this high! She looked left seeing a wide arrange of trees and rocks sitting on the ground. She looked right seeing more of the same along with the ice cream cone resting peacefully. She looked up seeing an impressive number of clouds, a blue sky, and a random portal appearing out of nowhere. She looked down, "WAIT RANDOM PORTAL APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE?!"
Twilight knew something like this acquired immediate action. She took stance keeping a sharp eye on the portal. Then it grew even larger and out popped a flying pirate ship. The ship gracefully set itself parallel with the side of the mountain. The plank then smacked itself onto the snow. Then 10 tiny little pirate came out to greet the purple alicorn. Twilight calmed her demeanor and rested her stance, becoming amused that she was actually afraid of these guys a few seconds ago.
"Ey! Me name be Adam! How are you there miss!"
"I could be doing better."
"Eh, I'm sorry to hear that. Do you want to come aboard our ship. I'll introduce you to me crew and we could eat barrel juice!"
"Your not going to make me walk the plank at some point are you?"
"Ayyy, we don't do that stuff. Jerry did though. We don't talk about him. Right Jerry?"
"Right!" Jerry responded.
"I don't know I'm kinda in a time crunch here."
"Ah come on mate! If your looking to make onto of that mountain we'll be happy to assist you on your journey."
"Hehe... no I'm good. I'll make it up there on my own thank you."
"Boys she's in denial! Let's get er up here!"
Suddenly the 9 other tiny pirates hoisted her onto their backs, then quickly launching her onto the ship.
"This be me crew. We got Johnny, Abby, Jerald, Berry, Bob, Joey, Sam, Tad, and you've already met Jerry over there."
"Hi. I'm tad strange. And I like bread." Tad said in a monotone voice.
"Hello tad." Twilight sad with a hint of uncomfort in her tone.
"And I'm Franky."
"Well now that we got that arranged why don't we show you around- GASP!" Twilight was taken aback by the sudden gasp escaping the captains lips. "Yee have the brick... she has the bricks boys!" They then began to burst into song, but fan fics can not allow music to reach your earholes, so me (the creator) will just tell you what the jist of the song was, by allowing the captain to explain what they just sang about in front of twilight.
"So basically the jist of the song is that shiny brick you got there is very special. It warns you of upcoming dangers when it vibrates."
"Well yeah you just explained that to me in song, why did you have to tell me it again?"
"Moving on! You see we pirates here carry vast knowledge of the mountain and it's tactics, as well as the trials it gives to prevent anyone from making their way to the top. Got any questions lady?"
"Well yes, actually. One, can you explain to me what deeper meaning I'm supposed to be figuring out here? Two, do you know if i still have time left to grab the special item at the top of the mountain? And three-" Twilight paused as is just occurred to her that she never exactly knew what specifically this all powerful object at the top was. "Could you tell me what is awaiting me at the top?"
"The deeper meaning you so look for is not something we can give. We're not the ancient sage you know! And about that time limit, there is an easy way to know how much time you got left. Just look up in the sky and look very closely..." There was an extremely long pause. "...And there be a timer that'll show up and tell you the time remain-er. And we don't know what's on the top of the mountain. Nopony has every gotten to the top of it. I think you may be the closest one." Twilight didn't pay attention to that part as she was busy staring up at the sky. The clouds shifted and shook into the numbers 5, then a bit later more clouds formed the words "hours."
"Anyway now that that's out the way, let us go down to the mess hall and chow." Twilight and Franky both trotted down deeper into the ship going towards the mess hall, while the rest of the crew stood still on the top deck. Strange, but everything here was strange twilight thought.
"What would you like?"
"I'm not really to hunger, but do you got any bars?"
"Sure we got bars" Franky rummaged through the top covers and pulled out two of his finest bars.
"So how's your day going?" Twilight looked at him and gave him the most seriously? look she could manage.
"I'm not answering that."
"That's fine by me. You know I'm completely fine with letting you stay here and we take you up higher to the mountain."
"How do I know your not lying?"
"Sailor oath's mam. We won't do you dirty." Franky then crossed his heart. He seemed genuinely serious.
"Alright I will stay here for a bit."
"Ayyyy! You won't regret it mam! Let us have a celebratory tour!"
Franky and Twilight did just that. Being a big ship it came as a surprise that there were only five sections of the ship. One was the mess hall, which they had already visited, another had been the sleeping quarters for 9 of the cremates, the third section contained all of their gold treasure and jewelry (it all looked to be plastic however), the fourth was the captain's quarter sporting all of the necessary things to look like a cliche captain room, and the fifth room was the most important.
"And here we have the exhibit for the most important treasure we have. The portal gun!" Twilight was amazed. Nopony had ever seen let alone thought it would ever be a thing to exists. Sure unicorns could already teleport, but to have non-unicorns teleport would be something. "Does it work?!" Twilight questioned with enthusiasm. "Why yes it does. But don't use it. You shoot that gun once and it breaks." Well that sounded familiar twilight thought. "Wow... that's incredible!"
"Oh yeah, she is a beaut... wanna go back up with the rest of me crew?"
"Sure."
They both walked up the stairs leading back to the main deck. Upon the moment they arrived Franky's crew didn't seem to be doing much. They all just stood spread out from one another in a specific spot. Twilight then decided to check the time. It read "4 hours." "Oh shoot franky! I've been here for a full hour! It's been real fun, but I think I need to get back to my journey, so I don't miss my opportunity you know?"
"Oh sure thing miss! We'll bring you back in a jiff!"
The captain then trotted to the main wheel and began to steer in the direction of the mountain. It would be a few minuets before they would get back to the mountain so twilight wanted to talk to one of the other cremates on the ship to pass the time. She walked over to Jerry who had been mopping the floor.
"Hey Jerry! How have you been today?" Jerry however did not respond. "Are you ok Jerry?" Jerry however did not respond. "Cat caught your tongue Jerry?" Jerry however did not respond. Now it began to feel like an RPG where you try over and over to talk to a NPC and all they respond to you with is a black colored text box reading "..." Twilight shrugged it off and rested her hooves on the edge of the ship as they got ever so closer. Then the ship stopped. "Hey Franky what's going on?"
"Oh nothing's wrong mam."
"Why are we stopped then?"
"Because this is as far as we go mam."
"What in the name of tartarus are you talking about? Jerry do you know what's going on?" Jerry however did not- "Jerry I swear to Celestia if you don't speak I'm going to smack you." Jerry however- SMACK! Except there was no smack sound. In reality twilight's hoof passed straight through his head. "What the f-"
"I'm sorry, I truly am, but your not leaving this ship mam." Twilight sighed heavily. "Well I guess I'm going to have to deal with you as well." Franky pulled out a baseball bat and smashed the wheel controlling the ship. The ship began to tilt slightly, as all of the 9 so called cremates all turned to dust and blew away from the wind. Franky charged going in with a forward strike. "I assure I have a perfectly good reason to do this!"
"Sure you do!" Twilight moved out the way then bucked him straight in the stomach. The ship was tilting even more she needed to get inside before the ship fully tilted upside down. "Just stand still!" He said going in for another strike. Twilight bolted for the door and rapidly progressed down the stairs. "Come back here!" Franky lunged hitting not a pony, but the table standing still in the middle of the mess hall. Running was getting harder and harder and the ship tilted even more and yet Franky was gaining on her with ease.
Right ahead was a split path, but due to the tilt of the ship the only way to go was right for that being the direction the ship was going. She took a sharp turn sliding down the path to the bottom of the room. Frankly followed and soon both were face to face standing on the wall of the room.
"Now miss there is a reason for all of this."
"NO! Why should I believe you! You lied about your sailor oath's promise and you know it!"
"Well I said I would get you higher up the mountain and we are. I never said I would let you get back onto the mountain."
"Just spit out your reason!"
"Well you see... the reason I'm doing this is because... I want to eat your skin."
"THAT'S A TERRIBLE REASON!"
"HEY A MANS GOTTA EAT ALRIGHT!"
"Is that why you have all of these fake cremates!"
However Franky did not respond to that one. "Franky answer the question!"
"No miss." His whole demeanor had changed as if he had remembered something. That didn't last forever.
"Whatever! Your going to stay here and like it!" The bat came into play once again stretching out to bonk twilight in the head. This strike hit, but it did not knock out twilight. Both fortunately and unfortunately the ship had stopped tilting. She was tuck in this room with this maniac, unless she found a way out of this messy situation. Twilight thought and thought coming up with nothing as Franky was backing her into a corner. "You've got nowhere to go." Slowly and slowly the amount of space she had left grew smaller and smaller. Then, while she was backing up she tripped over a box. Out spilled a plunger and many only suction part of the plunger.
Twilight began to think using her intellectual mind powers. If she could use the plunger to stick to the wall she could gain height and escape, but without a stick on the other top of the plunger she couldn't gain that height. But hold on there was a stick she could use... Franky's baseball bat. She grabbed the plunger. "Ha! You think you could get rid of me with that! Your comedic mam! But now you will stay with me forever... in me stomach!" He swung one final time slowing time, twilight focused as hard as she could. She ducked, getting the bat stuck in the wall and bucking with all of her might straight in Franky's center. "You know, your very stupid." Twilight forced the baseball bat out and sprinted to connect it with the top part of the plunger and she stuck them both to the wall.
"See you sucker!"
"Celestia damn it."
She kept going higher and higher until she reached the most important room of the whole ship. She took the top of the plunger off of the baseball bat and smashed the glass and grabbed the portal gun. Aiming carefully out the window she placed a portal on the highest part of the mountain possible and placed one one the wall. She jumped in triumph landing back onto the frosty snow. She had no idea the cold could feel this good. "Welp back to my lonely existence" Franky exclaimed back on the ship. "Maybe next time."
Twilight laughed and laughed. "I can't believe I was just able to use a portal gun like that!" Of course the gun had crumbled into pieces just like Franky said, but that didn't matter. For once she felt like she had a little fun facing her hardships on the mountain. "Now that was pretty stupid! But it worked... it worked." Twilight cleared her throat, looked up on the clock that showed 3 hours and 45 minutes, and trotted along. "Let's do this."