Two cannonballs sailed through the air at high-speed. One of them landed in the water and kicked up a huge spout and the other crashed into the rocky cliffs of one of the Three Spears and blew off chunks of rock that fell into the ocean. The waves caused by that rocked the Heart of Azure as it at last sailed its way into the currents and waves that made up the straits between the three islands. In a second they could start going around the curve of the nearest island and at least would no longer have to worry about getting blown to pieces by the cannons of Godfrey’s Scourge.
In all the confusion and struggle of Godfrey’s attack, it had taken them longer to reach the Three Spears than any of them had thought it would. The sun in the sky was starting to go down, by the time they had found a place to hide it would probably be well into evening or night. Both a bad and a good thing for them.
Rainbow Dash looked up at the towering mountains climbing out of the ocean. They were bigger than they looked from a distance, and not just simple peaks like the map had made them seen. There were a lot of individual cliffs, summits at multiple elevations, and rocky paths up and down them that she could see. Along with the trees and other vegetation she had spotted earlier. There was definitely fresh water hiding up in them somewhere.
Captain Breakwater turned the wheel hard to starboard and Rainbow Dash felt their ship start be carried by a powerful current between the islands. The torn sail not so much of an issue right now.
“You can drop your camouflage, Daylight. Get some rest,” Senax told the unicorn.
Daylight vehemently shook her head. “Not till we’ve found a place to hide. Not taking any chances.”
Rainbow glanced over at the unicorn. She was looking red and sickly as she over-exerted herself to keep up the camouflage spell. Rainbow could appreciate the guts and drive to do that, but she was worried for her.
“I’m going to bring us to the southernmost island,” Breakwater said. “Sorry, Daylight, but if you really aren’t planning to drop the spell just yet you’re going to have to hold onto it for longer.”
They were now practically right in the middle of the three islands, with waves crashing up against the rocks thanks to the myriad of currents down below the surface. She was surprised this wasn’t considered a more treacherous place to sail. Maybe it just looked worse than it actually was, since Breakwater didn’t seem to have a ton of trouble navigating the waters. As Rainbow Dash looked, she saw on the “insides” of the islands that there were several docks that had been constructed, leading to spots you could land at and walk onto the Three Spears. Some were made of wood while others were carved right out of the rocky cliffs themselves. None were occupied at the moment—they’d be getting no help when it came to dealing with Godfrey.
She breathed out her nose and looked behind them, the open ocean now blocked off by the first of the Three Spears they had started traveling around. She hadn’t heard any cannonfire since that last blast either. Godfrey and his crew must’ve realized they would be out of range for the moment. Any other shots they fired would be going straight into the mountain. Good that they had avoided anymore damage than a torn sail. If a cannonball hit the mast itself or directly smashed into the deck… that would be it for their escape.
In a second, Rainbow Dash felt a shift in the ocean currents.
The wide turn they were making around the first mountain changed to Breakwater pulling the ship hard to port and going towards the southern mountain of the trio. They were carried along by the current and Rainbow Dash was shortly able to see the south side of the last island that made up the Three Spears. While the northern half was mostly just a big mountain, with sheer cliffs rising from the water, the south side tapered off into several small beaches and rocky lagoons. There was even sand—or at the least some kind of sediment—and palm trees on some of the beaches. A few huts and some more docks had been built as well, and Rainbow Dash could see roads and pathways leading up deeper into the mountain. Further on were some rock-sided inlets and water passages that looked like they might have led into the mountain itself, potentially making sea-caves or leading to some interior pools.
“Time to look for someplace that you can’t see from the sea. Needs to be a spot really out of the way… gotta think like a smuggler,” Breakwater said as he steered the ship on.
“Could I go out and look now?” Rainbow asked.
“Don’t leave. No chances,” Daylight grunted.
“You’re going to short-circuit your horn at this rate,” Rainbow frowned at the unicorn.
“It doesn’t matter anyways. Since we’re already here, you would barely be saving us any time after going out and coming back to us. I’ll find something,” Breakwater said.
Rainbow Dash sighed and continued to pace around. “Fine…”
“It’s nothing to get agitated over, Rainbow Dash,” Gilbert said as he walked up to her. “Take this time to rest. My brother gave you a couple of decent hits, didn’t he? Do you need anything?”
Of course being reminded of that just worsened her mood and feelings of helplessness. “No, Gilbert, I’m fine. What about you? That headbutt looked pretty nasty.”
“Yes, but I’m used to getting hit in the face by things,” Gilbert nodded.
“Fair.”
“Well I’m at least going to get us a couple of snacks. We oughta keep our energy up in a situation like this!” Gilbert smiled before heading below into the hold.
“Nothing bothers you for more than a second, does it?” Rainbow said after him.
“Nope!”
“Also fair… I think a lot of my friends would say I’m kind of like that too.”
“Less talking please…” Daylight Gleam muttered from her frozen position.
Senax frowned and dabbed a wet cloth on her forehead and then on the tip of her horn as well. Steam came away the moment the moisture touched it. It was clear that Senax wanted to tell her to stop, or at the very least offer some encouragement, but she was respecting Daylight’s choice too much. Daylight still unfortunately looked like a complete mess and probably would until she somehow got to a shower or bath. But that unicorn had enough willpower to keep her spell going—even if it knocked her out afterwards.
Rainbow Dash gently flew over to the bow of the Heart. If she couldn’t do anything right now she at least wanted to be looking directly ahead to where they were going. Breakwater could use another set of eyes to find a good spot to hide away at too. Meanwhile the sun was continuing to go down and down, a bright and sunny day was turning into orange twilight and sunset. Still plenty easy for them to see where they were going, but it meant they might not be able to do anything but sit and wait for tomorrow morning to do anything else.
The Heart of Azure passed by an artificial bight that looked like it had been made by some ponies carefully stacking large rocks in parallel rows leading away from one of the island’s beaches. It would’ve been a good place to stop if they weren’t looking to hide. But Breakwater spied something else that looked inviting about the bight. A small inlet that was only barely wide enough for their ship to travel down led deeper inside the mountain island. Rainbow Dash saw the water passage turn at a sharp right not too deeply in, it might’ve led to nothing or it might’ve led to a place they could hide. Breakwater was going to take the chance it presented.
“Here we go...” Breakwater said as he turned the ship into the bight and then the inlet.
The further they went the higher the cliff faces rose up around the Heart of Azure until the crow’s nest itself didn’t even reach up out of the inlet. Then came the turn deeper into the core of the mountain and the crew found themselves traveling down a broken series of waterways divided by cliffs and solitary rocks. Breakwater chose one at random to travel down and the Heart slowly drifted on until it came to a stop inside a secluded pool of ocean water. Only the slightest push and pull from the current was coming from the open ocean, for the most part it was fairly placid in here.
Rainbow Dash looked up, steep walls overhead completely boxed them in, nobody from outside would be able to see the Heart of Azure unless they came from directly above.
“Daylight, please stop now,” Senax pleaded with her friend.
“She’s right, you can stop, we’ve found our spot.” Breakwater said.
With a heavy exhale and shudder, Daylight’s horn cut out and the mare slumped over immediately into the hooves of Senax. The bubble of magic around them popped and once more they were visible to the outside world. A new sheen of sweat and redness broke out across Daylight’s face and she shivered a few times as Rainbow Dash came over to help her out as well.
“I need to-” Daylight tried to say before she collapsed completely, only held up by Senax.
“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash said and jumped to try and hold her up. “Are you okay?!”
There was no answer from the unicorn, Daylight had already passed out.
“She’ll be okay… I think,” Senax said with a worried look. “She’s overexerted herself before but not when already injured… we should get her some water and fruit.”
“She looks like she has a bad fever,” Rainbow said.
“Yes. The other times she merely passed out, this might be because of her blood loss,” Senax nodded.
“Gotta get that stitched up too.”
“Rainbow Dash! Let Senax take care of Daylight and help me toss the anchor over!” Breakwater called out as he came down from the helm and went over to the anchor.
“A-Alright,” Rainbow gave a look to the unicorn to make sure she was okay before going over to help Breakwater.
Gilbert came right out of the hold with a block of cheese in his talons. “I take it we’ve found a place to stop?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry Gilbert but can you go back down there and get some water for Daylight too?” Senax asked him.
“Roger!” Gilbert saluted and turned right back around.
The Heart of Azure was still moving slightly, at the mercy of the current and tide. That was at least partly remedied when Rainbow Dash and Breakwater tossed the anchor into the pool of ocean water. Now they at least didn’t have to worry about accidentally floating somewhere else—they were more or less safely “docked” here.
“So is this okay? We’re kind of boxed in,” Rainbow said as she looked around at the rocky cliffs that enclosed the pool.
“It’s fine. The Scourge can never get close to these inner passages thanks to its size and if we end up surrounded then we’re pretty much done for anyways. It’s more important to just be someplace hidden,” Breakwater said.
“If you say so,” Rainbow nodded. “So now what do we do?”
“Well we’re definitely going to be here over night. Too risky to go back out now, or try to navigate away in darkness, and we needed stuff from the Three Spears to begin with,” Breakwater frowned and glanced up at the torn sail. “And that needs to be fixed for sure or we’re not getting anywhere once we hit open water. Daylight needs to sleep things off too. I’d say… all of us should get a night of rest and then we’ve gotta wake up bright and early tomorrow morning.”
Gilbert emerged from the hold again with a small mug of water for Daylight to drink. When he brought it to the unconscious mare’s lips he was able to tilt it in and she started drinking on reflex.
“That’s one of the issues. We came here to restock on fresh water,” Breakwater said.
“From the mountain springs?” Rainbow said.
Breakwater nodded. “That’s right. Tomorrow morning I think you and Gilbert should fly off to do that, while I fix the sail and Senax stays here and looks after Daylight. That’s probably all we can do. Then… may have to wait until later in the evening before leaving to make it harder for Godfrey to see us if his ship is around.”
“But that storm is coming too...”
“Yep. That’s another thing. We’ve got a few problems on our hooves,” Breakwater agreed.
“If… if we stayed until the storm was close to the island. Maybe we could leave right before it actually hit, and then Godfrey would be stuck in it or forced to stay at the Three Spears?” Rainbow suggested.
“Dangerous. But possible. We’ll have to see how tomorrow goes.”
“I’m totally going to be way too wired to sleep well tonight with everything going on...”
“You still need to get some rest. That’s the most important thing right now after all we were put through. Gotta save that energy for tomorrow when we can all do something. Speaking of which-” Breakwater looked over to Senax and Gilbert. “You two hear us? Know what you’re doing tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Senax nodded while Gilbert gave a thumbs up.
“Alright. Take Daylight into the cabin then and let’s get some sleep.”
The captain’s cabin of The Scourge was a large and opulent chamber overflowing with treasures Godfrey had procured from all around the Grand Ocean. A lavish red carpet covered the middle of the cabin while golden decorations and ornaments covered the walls or even just lied in carelessly created piles. A crystalline mirror with a golden rim worth a fortune sat in the corner, candlesticks, a grandfather clock, jewelry, pieces of art, ivory carvings, statues, and piles of gold coins and precious gems filled the cabin. Several treasure chests were used to hold things like royal crowns and scepters but for the most part Godfrey seemed to enjoy having his hoard just out in the open for anyone to see if they walked in. More than just normal treasures, there were mounted and stuffed heads of lions, sharks, and other fearsome beasts on the walls. And then… next to the expensive walnut desk that Godfrey sat behind, was a gibbet hanging from the ceiling that held several polished and gilded pony skulls.
Godfrey was lazily reclining in his just as expensive chair while he held a red apple in his talons. One claw sliced down it, then made another slice an inch away, and then stabbed into it and plucked the wedge of apple free.
A heavy knock came on his cabin door.
“Enter,” Godfrey said and plopped the piece of apple into his mouth, eating it down quickly.
Sea Shanty walked inside and stopped in front of Godfrey’s desk. “C-Captain, we’ve arrived at the Three Spears. There’s no sign of their ship at all.”
Godfrey shrugged. “Figured as much. Just drop anchor somewhere around the southern island. That unicorn can’t manage a spell like that twice in one day, and they wouldn’t risk leaving in the middle of the night. We won’t miss them tonight.”
“But what if they try sailing away tomorrow?”
“Obviously they’re going to,” Godfrey smiled. “Just a matter of when—and how long it takes them to finish up their business here. For all I know they might even be looking for some kind of treasure here. We’ve at least got enough time to go looking for them.”
“So should we-?”
“Yep. Get a few crews together, get em to the boats, and have them sail and search the islands. All of them—and I don’t care if they have to be up all night doing it. They can rest when they’re dead. My brother and his friends… there’s only five of them and I bet all of them are going to take this night to rest up. But you and the rest of the crew aren’t going to be wasting any time, first mate. Gehahahaha!” Godfrey laughed.
“Y-Yes, Captain,” Sea Shanty nodded.
Godfrey flicked his talon at him like he was waving away dirt. “Now go on, get our best sailors together and have them get out there already.”
As soon as Sea Shanty swiftly departed, Godfrey looked to the right wall of his extravagant cabin/treasure room. Unlike everything else, all that was up there was an especially large and detailed map of the Grand Ocean. Several islands and kingdoms were crossed off with big red X’s, but many more were untouched. Waiting for him.
“Heh,” Godfrey grinned and cut himself another slice of apple.