//------------------------------// // Taking Off // Story: Set Sail for Freedom // by PonyPixel //------------------------------// With Boyle leading the way, holding a lighted torch he made midway, Captain Celaeno and company crawled their way into the tunnel to search for Princess Ocypete. Since he had mapped the location before, he was the one leading them. Behind him and Captain Celaeno, followed her crewmates and the avian royal family. Queen Novo and Princess Skystar were also following behind them, holding each other’s claws to stick together. The atmosphere within the tunnel was shady and eerie with the scent of eroded rocks and freshwater spreading through the air. Once again, they don’t have enough time to be distracted, since Celaeno knew that her old-time friend was in grave danger, and was wanting to save her. “Do ye see anything unfamiliar?” the captain asked. “Nothin’,” Boyle replied. “Nothin’ but rocky walls. It be impossible to find somethin’ unusual.” “Keep searching,” Mullet suggested. “Thar has to be somethin’ out of the ordinary.” “Like what?” Lix Spittle added. “There!” Queen Ozomeme exclaimed with her index finger pointing straight. They all turned to where she was pointing, and there, they could see a trail. “Those tracks… they could be hers!” Captain Celaeno got close to the tracks and knelt on one knee to examine them closely. From the 8 strokes marked across the dirt soil, she could tell that somebody has used its clawed feet to slow down from someone’s dragging it. She sensed that Ocypete could be dragged by Madame Harpy or one of her crew members. She then turned her head in the direction of the tracks, noticing that they went deep straight toward the darkness. “Ye might be right,” Celaeno commented, “who knows who else would make these.” She stood up and turned to Boyle. “Give me yer torch, I’ll lead the way this time.” He did hand over the torch to the captain and led the way, following the tracks while looking down and observing them. It went on for a long while like it was endless. They kept following the tracks, until… without looking, Captain Celaeno bumped her head on the wall. “Ow… again!” In front of them is just a rocky wall. They noticed that the tracks have went through it, and not a narrow gap was visible through their naked eyes. They were puzzled. “What? A dead-end?” “This doesn’t make any sense,” Skystar commented. “How could they just walk through a wall like they’re ghosts?” “They must’ve baited us,” Queen Novo hypothesized. Squabble then, with a warcry, ran towards the wall and tried pushing against it. He can’t move it and began pecking it with frustration. As he pecked, a light thud was heard. This got Queen Novo thinking. “Squabble, would it be so kind if you keep pecking every unit of that barrier?” The metal-beaked pirate let out a salute and did as she requested. When he pecked every section, it made a solid thud, but as he hit the center, a perfectly-cut plane sank in, making it the shape of the square. It seemed to be like a pushbutton. Suddenly, the forceful rumbling was being felt as the dead end slowly opened its hidden hatch sideward. When the hatch was unhatched, it revealed a mysterious treasure passageway. Everyone at the moment was surprised by this, even King Thaumas cannot believe it in his eyes. The path leading inside was pitch-black. Nothing but a dark void. Not only that, the tracks continued straight through the passageway, which now makes sense. Captain Celaeno stepped inside first with the lighted torch, facing the long path with no fear. “Surely this would be the way to rescuing Ocypete,” the captain muttered. “There’s a lot of mysteries they haven’t told us yet.” Then, with no time wasted, they scooted down the tunnel, continuing their search for Ocypete. As they were pacing fast, they heard muffled screaming from the distance, followed by another voice. “Shut up, ya twat!” exclaimed a voice. “I told you we should’ve shot the hippogriff and that crew in their faces,” another voice said, followed by a hard slap on the face. “It would’ve been impossible to escape that cave,” a familiar-sounding voice said. Celaeno drew her sword as she knew who that voice belongs to. “Madame Harpy,” she muttered and then gave her group a gesture. “Stay… low…” Proceeding with caution, they stealthily sneaked their way through the tunnel. Around the corner, an opening was visible in front of them. Then they carefully sprinted their way to the opening. After they made it, they came across a cliff, a few feet from the edge to their feet. Looking down, they saw a giant airship sitting in a big pool of water. In front of the ship is an enormous passageway, big enough to fit. On that said ship, there were a group of pirates making commotions, and surrounding them is a female tied up on the main mast with a rag on her beak. Captain Celaeno immediately recognized that it was Princess Ocypete, and she was in trouble. She kept wriggling her way out while muffling screaming horrifically for help as the pirates were giving them a tease, most in a seductive way. The avians and hippogriffs stood back to make sure they weren’t been seen by them. As they watched, they could see Madame Harpy getting her ship prepared for departure. She was conversing with her black first mate who was hunched over.  “I told you, Cap’n, this would happen,” the first mate stated to her. “We’ll sell ‘er for a boatload of bits, and we be set for life,” Harpy retorted. “Hoist the sails! Make sure it is enough to not rip them on the ceiling!” “Aye aye, cap’n,” he saluted, and quickly headed towards the masts to raise the sails. Madame Harpy then noticed her crewmates were still teasing the captive Princess Ocypete, once again… seductive. She then blew her whistle loudly to get their attention. They stopped after the whistle was heard. “That’s enough, ye creeps!” she distorted. “Leave her alone, I’ll take care of her later. Prepare yourselves, because we’re about to take off.” She sounded like she was at the end of her ropes as the ship slowly started sailing away. “Crap!” Celaeno cried. “We need to get on that ship quick!” “On it!” Skystar cried. Before anyone could stop her, Skystar picked up Captain Celaeno and Mullet, making her struggle a little bit, and flew them onto the ship. They wanted to convince her to stay because they don’t her to be injured from danger, but Skystar was already near the deck, so Captain Celaeno took action. On midair, they both jumped off Skystar and Captain Celaeno kicked Madame Harpy with much strength in the face with her peg leg, knocking the captain away from the helm. Princess Skystar was about to go for Ocypete, but she only narrowly missed getting shot out of the air, making her shriek fright. Out of fear, the princess hippogriff quickly flew back to safety while Celaeno and Mullet were quickly finding themselves overwhelmed. Queen Novo flew to help protect her daughter, “We need to help them!” King Thaumas commented. “Boyle, let me feel that muscle.” Boyle gave a flex of his arm to demonstrate as he didn’t fully understand why he was being asked this. He then touched it. “Not bad.” On the ship, Captain Celaeno and Mullet were pushed back toward the edge of the deck. “I know that princess is trying to help,” Mullet commented, “but she could’ve thought this through.” Mullet was pushed off of the deck and fell into the water, leaving Celaeno at gunpoint. “You couldn’t help but play hero, could ya, wise guy?” Madame Harpy asked. She looked back to see her crewmates carrying Ocypete below deck. She heard Celaeno growl, which made her laugh evilly. They both heard more bullets as Novo and Skystar dove into the water, presumably by being shot. “You’re f***ing sadistic. You know that, right?” “Eh, if it gets us what we need, I don’t care if I’ve got gangrene on my toes or beak. It’ll be better knowing that I’ll be treasure hunting without worrying about you ever spoiling the fun.” Harpy smiled as she was just about to pull the trigger on her pistol, when a spear struck it, knocking the weapon out of her talons. They looked to see where it came from and saw the royal family gliding toward them. “Attack!” King Thaumas yelled. “Get ‘em!” Prince Aello roared. “We’re gonna f***ing die!” Princess Zephyra cried.  “Language!” Queen Ozomeme warned. Before any of the crew could react, the royals were on the deck and quickly knocked a few in style. Celaeno took this opportunity of shock to punch Harpy and strike her with her sword before Madame blocked it with her blade, locking the two in a sword fight. Thaumas helped take out Harpy’s mates and take their weapons so he could give them to his family for their protection. Prince Aello gazed at the sword he was given and grinned with excitement. “I’ve always been waiting for something like that,” he muttered. The prince turned to see Zephyra looking nervous with the blade she was given. “I’m not feeling too confident about this,” Zephyra admitted. “Come on, Zephyra!” the prince shouted. “Our sister is in danger, and we all cannot stand around to watch her die, and… WATCH YOUR LEFT!!!” Princess Zephyra turned her left and saw one of Harpy’s crew beside her about to strike her head with a green glass bottle. So, Prince Aello quickly pushed her forcefully to the side, sliced the bottle in half with his sword, and head-butted the pirate away. “Let’s hold each other’s back.” Zephyra nodded as they both stayed on their guard as took on many pirates as they could. Queen Ozomeme was going all out, punching buccaneers, knocking them out, and taking their weapons. Thaumas was amazed at his wife’s streak of attacks. The king soon came across Captain Celaeno, who was still in a sword fight with Madame Harpy. “I need some help over here?” Celaeno asked. “Gladly,” Thaumas commented. He swept Harpy’s feet, making her fall back as Celaeno held her sword to her throat. “Now then, Madame Harpy. You got one chance. Surrender and hand over my daughter, or suffer the punishments.” Harpy glanced up at the captain and king and… smiled. This was puzzling to them until they heard a click behind them. One of the crew was holding a gun, aiming right at King Thaumas’s head. Celaeno acted quickly just as the trigger was pulled. The bullet would have pierced the captain’s skin if it wasn’t for someone leaping out of the water and catching the projectile. Queen Novo had returned from being underwater and tackled the armed pirate as Madame Harpy quickly got up. “Raise the sails!” Madame Harpy ordered. She searched for a weapon as Celaeno made a mad dash for the door leading below deck. Harpy was about to follow her if it wasn’t for King Thaumas stopping her. Despite this, she looked calm. Celaeno quickly searched around the ship for Ocypete. She inspected the poop deck, but she was not there; she inspect the quarterdeck, but she was not there either; then at the figurehead, forepeak, and the fo’c’sle, and she was not in those places too. Captain Celaeno hasn’t given up yet and kept on searching. She went down to the hull of the ship, then reached towards the gun deck where cannons were stored. There, she finally found her, tied up and leaning against the wall. Ocypete was shocked to see her childhood friend run over to her. “Petey!” Celaeno exclaimed with relief. “I’m so glad you’re okay! Hold on, I’ll get you out in a jiffy.” She removed the rag from her beak so she won’t muffle again. She was about to cut the ropes when the princess spoke up. “Cellie, stop,” Ocypete begged. “…What? What’s wrong?” the captain asked. “It… It’s you…!”. Ocypete was struggling to make eye contact. “You’ve served the Storm King, haven’t you!?”  Captain Celaeno thought she wouldn’t have to mention this to anyone about him. “Uh… How did you know about that?” she asked. Ocypete seemed nearly heartbroken. “How could you do something like that?” “I… It’s not what it sounds like. Who even told you about that?” “Madame Harpy did. I didn’t want to believe her but… she showed me a photo.” Ocypete looked over to a photo that looked like it was set up just for Celaeno. The photo showed the Storm King smiling while he stood in between Captain Celaeno and Mullet, who were miserable while in their delivery uniforms. The captain remembered that day, and it was the most uncomforting moment she has ever felt. She sighed before she thought about what to say. “Petey, I didn’t want to do anything for that psycho. He threatened me and my friends, and I even lost some of my crew in the process. There were only five of us left after he put us under his control. I would’ve flown us back here if there was a chance that he would follow us.” “We could’ve helped you fight him off.” “Like how the kingdom fell apart from the inside? He could’ve turned you and your family into statues and shattered you into pieces! I didn’t know he could do that before today. I don’t want to think about what’d happen after that or even if I was responsible for your fate!” Captain Celaeno looked like she was about to cry just thinking about that. “I don’t want to lose you as a friend.” “Cellie, it’s okay. If he’s gone now, you don’t have to fear him.” “Whereas he’s still got goons like Madame Harpy doing his work beyond the grave. He’ll never stop until he’s got all of Equestria and beyond under his claw!” Celaeno started wiping her tears of fear away. Ocypete was concerned about why her old friend was having waterworks. “Cellie, we’re going to get through this. Why are you crying?” “Because I’m afraid of what would’ve happened to you. I could’ve saved you and the kingdom but…. I was too scared of the Storm King getting you.” She took a moment to regain herself before Ocypete spoke again. “Is this something to do more than just friendship?” the princess asked. She blushed as she felt that her old friend was picking up on something. “…You could say that.”  She used her sword to slash the ropes, so Ocypete could be free. As soon as the princess was free, she held onto the captain’s claw, making her blush in the process. The captain scratched the back of her head as she wasn’t sure what to say. Ocypete was about to say something until she saw another pirate at the exit of the room aiming a pistol at them. “CELLIE, BEHIND YOU!” The pirate captain turned behind her only having enough time to see the gun before the trigger was pulled. The bullet would’ve pierced her if it wasn’t for Princess Skystar flying in out of nowhere and pushing both avians out of the way of the bullet. The pirate who fired it was confused, and then he saw Mullet, Boyle, Lix Spittle, and Squabble climbing through the gunports. The pirate was about to shoot at them if it wasn’t for Captain Celaeno firing the gun she had picked up and shooting the gun out of the avian’s hands. Boyle and Squabble tackled him to the floor, giving Celaeno and the others time to think of a plan. “Glad y’all made it on board,” the captain said. “You may want to think of something fast,” Lix Spittle noted. “This ship is beginning to take off.” She took a peek out the window to see they were now heading outside of the cave and rising. “Okay, so we have two options,” Celaeno noted. “A; we take control of the ship, meaning that we’ll have to take care of all of Harpy’s crew. Or B; we cut the sails, leaving this ship immobilized.” “Neither one sounds easy,” Mullet commented. “I propose we go for cutting the sails,” Skystar suggested. “I could use my shard to help you get back to the islands.” “And how does that work?” Ocypete asked. “She’ll explain later,” Celaeno said. “Right now, we’ve gotta ground this ship.” The captain looked toward Skystar. “Laddie, I’m not feeling comfortable asking you this, but… can you help us get those sails down?” “I’ll do my best,” the hippogriff princess proclaimed. “Okay. Let’s hope that fate is on our side.” They were about to leave, but they had to knock out the armed pirate, which Boyle and Squabble had an easy time with. They carefully made their way above deck to see that things had started to turn south. Queen Novo had been captured and was being tied to the bowsprit of the ship like they were using her as a figurehead. “Is this some kind of sick joke to you?” the queen blurted. She tried to look back at what was happening with the royal avians, who were slowly losing their ground. King Thaumas was thrown off his feet and disarmed as the rest of his family was taken down as well. The four of them were rounded up and forced into the main deck as Madame Harpy approached them. “I had a feeling you’d go down at some point,” Madame Harpy scoffed. “You enjoy being the worst kind of my kind, aren’t you?” King Thaumas questioned. “Eh, whatever gets me more treasure in the end.” “You thought that we’re gonna give you wealth from us and our citizens, huh?” “If you wanna survive, then yes.” She glanced over to the ship’s plank as the ship goes higher in the air. Captain Celaeno was watching from inside the hull, knowing what was going to happen. “Not good, we need to act now!” Celaeno cried quietly with Skystar, Ocypete, and her crew. “I can fly up and cut the sails,” Skystar proclaimed. “Can I borrow your sword?” “Not until we know what to do.” Skystar thought for a moment before she looked down at her pearl shard. “Hey, random question; how good can these sails hold water?” “What kind of question is that?” Mullet asked. The hippogriff showed off her shard, which intrigued the captain. “Go ahead kid, what do you have in mind?” They would form their plan fast as the royal family would have their arms tied behind their backs as Harpy had them walk the plank. “So, any last words?” Madame Harpy demanded. “Indeed,” Queen Ozomeme spoke, “We regret every second… we thought you were a so-called hero for Orithinia.” “I couldn’t agree more,” Thaumas sighed. He looked down at the sea, which looked to be getting further away as the ship was still ascending. “Well…?” Harpy said, “We’re waiting.” She didn’t seem at all phased by what was said to her, instead sounding impatient for the show to get on the road. Suddenly, the cabin door burst open as Skystar flew out with Ocypete riding on her back holding a sword. This was a shock to the pirates, but even more so when Celaeno’s crew burst out and started beating up Harpy’s gang. “Give me a f***ing break,” Madame Harpy groaned. She drew her pistol and fired at Captain Celaeno, who dodged and fired back with the gun that she had picked up. Both captains kept firing and dodging as the two princesses were flying up to the sails. Ocypete stabbed the blade through the cloth material, slicing it apart and making the ship lose its altitude. However, the ship started tilting to one side, making everyone on board start losing their footing. “Oh, dear… This might not work out as we thought,” Ocypete commented. “It’s still better than nothing,” Skystar noted. “Come on, let’s help my mom.” They flew down to help untie Novo from the ship’s bowsprit. Everyone else was trying to grab onto something or were sliding toward the edge. “This is a bad idea,” Mullet cried. He grabbed hold of Boyle, who had dug his hook into the deck for support. They saw the royals sliding towards them and they grabbed hold of Princess Zephyra and Prince Aello. “What are you doing!?” Aello asked. “I feel like we’re making this up as we go,” Boyle admitted. “Say, how do you two feel about swimming?” “...Why do you ask?” Zephyra questioned. They saw King Thaumas and Queen Ozomeme slide towards them, catching onto Boyle, who slid back with his hook eating through some of the deck. Captain Celaeno and Madame Harpy wouldn’t have anybody to catch onto and now hung onto the edge of the ship. Both dropped their weapons which fell into the sea. “You aren’t really good at keeping a hold of your weapons,” Harpy insulted. “You’re the one to talk, ye c***” Celaeno retorted. “You’ve got a whole crew and have been losing to five strong and intelligent avians and two royal hippogriffs. Speaking of which…” Celaeno was swept up by a freed Novo. The two of them flew alongside Skystar and Ocypete, the latter of which looked down at the crew and royals holding on. “Okay, Star,” Ocypete said, “Now would be a good time for that plan of yours to be put into action.” “Roger that!” The two hippogriffs dove down to Celaeno’s crew and the royals just as the ship was about to crash into the sea. “Alright Petey,” Celaeno said, “Brace yourself!” Novo and Skystar used the magic of their pearl shards to affect the avians. The crew and royals quickly turned into their aquatic forms, much to Ocypete and her family’s surprise. The ship crashed into the sea and the sails were ripped off. Madame Harpy and her team stared at the destruction as they floated about in the water. Before she could curse at the ones who ruined their plans, one of the avians was pulled underwater. And then another one was pulled, and another, and another. They began panicking as one avian at the time was getting pulled down underwater. Confused, Harpy took a deep breath before taking a peek at what was going on. She didn’t have any time to react before Celaeno and Skystar swept her up into the bits of the sail and used the shard to make sure the crude captain could breathe underwater. “What is going on?!” Harpy questioned, “Wha…. What happened to my legs?! Am I a fish?” She wouldn’t be able to have an answer to her confusion until she felt herself getting pulled out of the water. After a few moments, she was released from the sail and was attached to a chain before being hung up like a fish that was just caught. Celaeno ran out of the water from her hat before looking at Harpy, who had an upside-down perspective of the world now. “Didn’t think this is how our fishing trip would go,” Celaeno joked. “What did you do to me?” Harpy tried to get a good look at herself, but she could only get a good look at her finned talons. “What kind of black magic is this!?” “Pearl magic,” Skystar answered. She demonstrated what she meant by changing into a seapony real quick before changing back to a hippogriff. “Aye, it’s a bit weird at first,” Celaeno admitted, “But it comes in real handy when you don’t wanna drown.” Skystar soon flew away to help gather up the rest of Harpy’s crew, who had also been affected by the pearl’s magic. Celaeno’s crew helped capture Madame Harpy’s team, Princess Skystar and Queen Novo carried them up to the island, and the royal family helped chain them up, most of them in a similar way to their captain. “This was a weird experience,” Queen Ozomeme admitted. She had been changed back into her avian form. “I agree,” Thaumas noted. “Though, I am curious to see how they used those shards to hide from the Storm King.” Queen Novo flew up with another goon, overhearing the conversation between the king and queen. “We have an underwater kingdom known as Seaquestria,” she explained. “Most seaponies moved there permanently, including my sister.” “Oh, you have other relatives?” “Yes. My sister lives in Seaquestria to watch over the seaponies. Her husband, Skybeak, lives…” “Ahoy, up there!” Boyle called from the ocean. “You coming?” Queen Novo glimpsed down to see the pirates were still waiting on her. “I’ll explain more later.” She flew down to get more pirates as Thaumas and Ozomeme were quite curious about what Seaquestria was like. After all of Harpy’s crew was captured, they were locked away until the royal family knew what to do with them. For the time being, the avians have released themselves from the underground and were now cleaning up the remnants of the old Orithinia. Meanwhile, Captain Celaeno and Princess Ocypete roamed around for the trip down memory lane. “I’m glad that’s over,” the princess commented. “Thanks for saving Ornithia.” “Don’t thank me,” she said, “you should thank yourself as well for helping us too.” Ocypete smiled. “Whoa! Cellie look at that!” Ocypete cried. The two avians peeked at the remains of a statue modeled after Blackbeak. It had seen better days as the statue had broken off its base and one of his arms was missing. “Ugh, such a disgrace,” Celaeno groaned. “Who’s gonna fix that?” “We could put him up temporarily, but we’d be replacing it with a new one soon as we had a good budget.” “Great. Is it the yeti or time that did this?” Princess Ocypete “I’m gonna guess time.” As they kept roving around, Princess Ocypete saw a place familiar to her and Celaeno. She pointed to an old-looking airship, which had crashed years ago, with the hull having a wide open hole. They recognized the place and came near it. They peeked inside, and there, they saw colorful blankets, a tiny chest, and two wooden toy swords. “Oh my, this was our old hangout place.” “Yeah, you’re right! I remember this.” Celaeno and Ocypete bent down to get inside the ship to get a look at the tiny chest. “Wonder what’s in here.” She opened it to reveal photos of two young avians. The captain chuckled as she showed them to the princess, who beamed when she looked at the images They showed Celaeno and Ocypete their childhood and youth days. One pic showed the two of them dressed up in shining dresses, another showed them playing pirates on the very broken ship the chest came out of. “Cellie, we were both so cute,” the princess cooed. “Aye. I still recall wearing ourselves out, looking for treasure,” Celaeno added with a chuckle. “Such a fun moment.” Both of them sat down in their old place, taking a trip down memory lane. “I wish we could go back to those times. I missed you so much, Cellie. It didn’t feel the same without you.” “The feeling’s mutual. I was so focused on making sure the ship and my crew were fully set in case something dire happened. One of the Storm King’s goons has wrecked our old one.” “Ooh, sorry to hear about that.” “It’s not so bad. The next ship just needs a new sail and that goon is redeeming herself. More importantly, I’m glad you managed to be safe.” Celaeno held onto Ocypete’s talon, who returned the gesture by resting her head on the captain’s shoulder. “I never knew we’d have certain feelings for each other.” Celaeno could only give a nervous chuckle as she rubbed the back of her head. “Did any of your crew members know about this?” “Yeah. I can’t keep a secret on a ship of five. I mostly vented to my first mate, Mullet, with what I would do when I actually told you. Guess I don’t have to worry about that now.” Ocypete laughed at this as they continued their chat. “So what did you think about being a seabird a moment ago?” “It felt…. pretty strange. Having one tail instead of legs and being able to breathe underwater. It was quite an experience. Kind of wish I could’ve experienced it longer.” “Maybe we could ask Queen Novo or Princess Skystar if we could go for a swim again.” “Speaking of which, where are they? I thought we got all of Madame Harpy’s crew.” “Well, she said they had some more fishing to do.” Ocypete was confused until Celaeno took her out of their hangout and headed off to where her ship was. There, Mullet and Boyle were fixing the ship’s sails, and Squabble and Lix Spittle carried their stolen treasure back onto the ship. At the edge of the cliff, they saw Queen Novo and Princess Skystar carrying bits of treasure out of the sea. When they placed it down, they saw Celaeno and Ocypete gazing at them. “Hi, girls,” Skystar said. “How are you doing?” “We found our old clubhouse and Blackbeak’s statue,” Ocypete explained. “It’s going to have to be rebuilt. What are you doing with all of that treasure?” “These are from Madame Harpy’s ship,” Novo explained. “Some of them is from Celaeno’s and we’re returning it to where it belongs. Anything that she doesn’t own will go to other owners to have rebuilt Orithinia.” “Yeah, this place is going to need more than the citizens to get back to normal,” Celaeno commented. “We’ll alert Princess Twilight of Equestria about this. We should be able to get some more workers and supplies to speed up the rebuild.” “That’ll be perfect,” Ocypete said. “Thanks for that.” “We told your family about it and we’ll be doing it once we’re back at Mount Aris.” “You know, once we have a new sail, we could help deliver those said goods,” Celaeno noted. “Oh, thank you Cellie,” Ocypete said. The princess looked around the kingdom to see plenty of individuals working to clean up the ruined kingdom. “Did… the hippogriffs struggle when they returned to their original kingdom?” Novo sighed as she explained. “The events did leave a lasting scar on us,” the queen explained. “Some were harder to heal than others but… with time they managed to recover.” Princess Ocypete felt concerned with how long that time would take. “Don’t ya worry, we’ll get through it,” Celaeno said. “We took out the root of the problem, and we’re now on the next step to recovery of our former glory. We’re going to get better than before.” Ocypete felt much better and hugged her old friend. Celaeno’s beak suddenly started glowing, as did Novo and Skystar’s. “Aw, does that mean the mission’s over?” Skystar asked. “I take that as a yes.,” Novo commented. “...Um, how and why are your beaks glowing?” Ocypete asked. “It’s complicated to explain,” Celaeno admitted. “But, we do have to get them home. Their kingdom is probably worrying about them.” “I guess you’re right. Just… promise me you’ll be back as soon as possible.” “I promise.” Mullet jumped down from where he was repairing the ship and glided down beside the captain. “Cap’n, everything be now spic and span, and we should be ready to go,” he proclaimed. “I’d recommend we go slower than usual in case those sails up there feel like ripping.” “Very well, I’ll add that to the list of things to ask Princess Twilight,” Queen Novo commented. They loaded up the last of the treasure and prepared for taking off. “Petey, my matey,” Celaeno said, “I’ll see you again. Take care.” “You too, Cellie,” Ocypete exclaimed. “Farewell, my friend!” “Farewell!” she exclaimed back while hopping onboard her airship. Soon, the ship sailed its way back home, waving goodbye, making it a priority to get the parts needed to rebuild the kingdoms after the infamous king’s destruction. Along the way home, Skystar had a question. “So… Captain, what happens now to Madame Harpy and her crew?” she asked. “They’re keeping them locked up until they can be useful,” Celaeno explained. “Probably should’ve left Petey and her family with a pearl shard.” “What do you say that?” Back underground, King Thaumas was joined by his wife, looking down at the captured seaponies, who were stuck in the area their ship was in, which was now blocked with debris to prevent that from escaping. “It’s like a giant fish bowl,” Ozomeme commented. “Maybe they’ll know what it’s like to be trapped,” the king chuckled. The pirates were failing to find any of it funny, especially Madame Harpy. She growled as she kept on thinking of some way to break out for revenge.