//------------------------------//
// Blow the Mane Down 
// Story: What Followed The Dawn 
// by Anemptyshell 
//------------------------------//

The badlands were, well, pretty awful. There was, of course, the knowledge once upon a time, the Changeling Hive called it home. So if nothing else, I was grateful to the Badlands for that. It was a survival of the fittest or nature will find a way theme. Thorax seemed taken by the orange and brown below us. He wistfully rested his head on the railing and watched the sand and dirt move further and further away. 

Bright had also taken to it, sitting beside Thorax, notepad in hoof, listening as Thorax recounted the hardships he and the hive went through to make the Badlands their home. I could only sand downwind and watch with a smile ever since Nightmare had started whispering to me after we decided where to go from here. I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. 

It was more than a bad omen; it was something far deeper. Captain Breeze did not seem happy with our destination if the yelling he’d done after Blue went to meet with him was any indication. Blue had unsold how seedy the place really was. It was still better than wandering completely blind. 

I hadn’t seen Sombra in some time. He’d shut himself off in one of the crew rooms and had otherwise been hard at work, doing something. One can only guess at that stallion some days.

We weren’t that far out from Kulgetown. But still, there was something in the air. A hidden tension. A fuse lit and slowly crept toward the gunpowder cache. Though, The Kiren and the minotaurs had yet to give Equestria such tools, at least not the recipe. You know, cause a crazy tyrant with explosives was clearly a good idea. That was a wise move on their part. Though I suppose Celestia could have persuaded it in the time between Nightmare’s banishment and revival. Equestria did have fireworks, though they were more often than not magically fused rather than practically. 

“Airship off the port. Making way, our direction. Prepare for parlay.” A crewhoof said from the other end of the deck. I slowly gazed his way. There was, in fact, a ship headed right for us. A larger, much more heavily armed vessel. 

“One guess where this leads,” I said. My guess was strictly professional. You see one trojan horse. You’ve seen them all. Blueblood had rushed from the bridge with an eyeglass. The poor sod looked ready to chuck the nearest crewmate off the ship. He ran from stem to stern, muttering to himself. Bright had also taken note and glided beside the ship taking notes of all details for the approaching ship. It was slower than our own transport but headed in the opposite direction. We’d run up on it regardless of evasive maneuvers.

I slowly walked across the deck, weaving between the crew as they did their duties. Tempest had already joined Blue and was pointing at something across the sky. Something at the encroaching vessel. Something that made Blueblood even more frantic as he through the eyeglass over his shoulder and growled in protest.

“Oh, come on, we run into those guys, here of all places?” Grubber bemoaned. I hadn’t even realized he’d made his way beside me, and though he was eying me pretty hard, he made no attempt to distance himself from me. 

“Oh, and who are they?” I asked. 

Grubber chewed on his words momentarily before sighing and nodding at me. “Since you’re my boss’s boss, I’ll tell ya. Pirates, sky pirates, but not just any pirates. They—”

Grubber was cut off by Blueblood, who was now very much in complaining distance. “They work for the Storm King. This has to be a bad joke. Pirates that no doubt want to plunder my ship. My ship, if they want my plunder, they can come get it. They’ll be no looting my ship, no sir.”

“Is that a fact?” Tempest asked. 

“They have no idea what Tarturus they have unleashed on themselves,” I said, stopping on Blue’s free side. “Tis all the more pity.”

“Really?” Tempest asked. She gave a terse glance to the nearing pirate ship and back to Blueblood. “This ship is not equipped for battle, let alone for a heavily armed, skilled band of cutthroat bird brains.”

“Bird brains?” I asked. 

“Harpies,” Grubber said. I smirked. The hedgehog hadn’t run off to hide behind Tempest. However, he did stand on the opposite side of the still very upset Pony Ambassador. 

“Oh, this should be interesting then. Make ready to receive guests, or however, you say that in pirate.”

I was roughly grabbed in a telekinetic grip as Blueblood glared at me. His eyes pinprick. I coughed and offered a lopsided grin. “We will be doing no such thing. I will not have pirates of all creatures board my ship for any such reason.”

“He’s very protective of his ship.”

Bright had taken to hovering alongside us. He offered Tempest a grin, who in turn rolled her eyes. Her horn was still aglow as she watched Blue. I shrugged from the other side of Blue, and Tempest eased up just a bit. 

“Tempest is right; we don’t have the means to match them in raw firepower. Besides, they’re pirates. They aren’t exactly the loyal type. If you know what I mean.”

“Stargazer is right. Even the Storm King keeps them on a tight leash. To keep them from doing something stupid.”

I pointed over Blue’s shoulder. “See, Tempest agrees.”

Blueblood grumbled but released me from his grip.”This is foolish. Absolutely, unbelievably, incontestably silly.”

“Oh, come on, Blue, how often do you get to chat with a real-life pirate. This will be amazing. Just watch,” Bright Pitch said, offering the ill-begotten Blueblood, who put up no resistance. 


“One time is too many,” Sabre had marched up, hoof tapping the pummel of his rapier as he watched the pirate ship. The ship had entered parlay distance. To which begrudgingly, Blueblood gave the order. A deckhoof signaling for the flag to be raised in deference. If the pirates started an attack at this distance, we’d have little means to stop them. Heck, even if we somehow beat them. The chase of damage to the Incandescence could mean losing all the ground we had on Starlight and her fleet. 

To our relief, mostly Bluebloods, the pirate drew made to sidle beside us. Also, they were birds, big birds, parrotish by the looks. I always imagined Harpies, of all things, to be more well-mixed. Though, they did at least seem to have hands of some vocation, which was weird to see on a bird. The leader, or at least who appeared to be giving orders, was a female, if looks were any measure. I wasn’t one to judge. Light off beige and green, a very calming palette for a pirate. Maybe that would be a good omen, right?

“Let down the gangplank. We’ve got us a live one,” A larger than average dark green harpy yelled out. It was more for us, I think, than themselves. The rest of the harpy crew looked much more excited to see us than one would expect. 

“Here we go,” I said. “You’ve got this, Blue.” 

“I what?” Blue said right as the boarding plank was dropped. I added a wink and waved to the harpies, one of which a plump peach-colored harpy waved back.

“So, look what we have here. A far throw from Canterlot, aren’t we?” 

The leader, I was right at this point, strolled over the plank and planted herself on our deck with authority. I pushed Blueblood forward, even as he mouthed some miserable thoughts my way. 

“Yes, well. I am Ambassador Blueblood. I travel to and fro in order to build constructive connections with other nations. So, it is only natural I would be traveling far from home.

The harpy nodded along. “Well met. I am Captain Celaeno, and unfortunately, I will need you to surrender your ship immediately.”

“And my, whose authority do you act under? If I recall, pirates don’t usually ask so politely,” Blueblood said. I was left impressed. Blue’s mask of perfect refinement barely budged at the provocation of Ms. Celaeno. Sabre managed to keep his blade at his side as well.

“The Storm King, actually. So, please don’t make this difficult.”

Several of Celaeno’s crew had begun crossing the gantry so much for diplomacy. I took a deep breath and stepped forward. “That’s all well and good. But you’ve missed something entirely,” I stepped to the side and motioned to Tempest. The mare offered a look that gave even the worst of Nightmare Moon a run for their money.

“How dare you,” Nightmare said. I could feel her hate even from the deepest reaches of my mind. 

“She does look familiar.”

Celaeno leered at Tempest for a moment before reeling back. One could almost see the lightbulb go off in her head. Tempest took a step forward, her fury replaced with some level of pride. We need to work on that. 

“So you do know me, then?” Tempest asked. 

Then. the deck was chaos. A bright red flash and those of the pirates still on the walkway were blown back on their backs, firmly once again on their vessel. Those who weren’t blasted away were left in shock. 

“Who dares threaten my comrades? Who thinks they may challenge the King of the Crystal Empire?

Sombra looked a little worse for wear. His coat had a hint of green, and he held a metal trash can in one leg. I couldn’t help but a silly grin. King Sombra had locked himself in his chamber to hide his rather severe motion sickness. Yet he still had the energy to look enraged and sickly simultaneously.

“Oh dear,” Blueblood huffed. Then, it began. I stepped back and let Sabre charge ahead, blade drawn. Bright was already dipping and dodging around the recovering pirates aboard their own ship. Blueblood has a shield up covering both I and himself.

Then you had Sombra, beams, and whatever he could grab with his magic flew. Spade, who I’d never even seen join the fray, was locked cutlass to shovel with the larger green harpy I’d seen earlier.

“Star, Blue, are you two okay?” Thorax had managed to find his way to the two of us as we watched the battle in full. 

“We were so close, too,” I said. 

“Yep,” Blueblood agreed. A bucket exploded against Blue’s shield as Tempest finally got to fully try out her recovered magic. Between her and Sombra. The harpies, and, for that matter, I had vastly underestimated our offensive. Who needs cannons when you have a demi-god king, a battle-hardened mare with a chip on her shoulder, Equestria’s finest, and Spade, just Spade? I almost felt bad for the harpies.

“Um, Star?” Thorax asked. 

I turned away from the deadlock Tempest and Celaeno were currently in. Thorax was scuffing the ground, eyes darting every which way. 

“Yeah?”

“Does, are you going to help? Nightmare, I mean, her power?” 

I gently place a hoof on Thorax’s shoulder. “I feel no need at the moment. If this fight were any less fair. I might have pulled Spade or Sabre away just to give the birds a chance.”

“And what does the beast inside you think?” Blue asked. His shield flickered as a pair of pirates ran face-first into the barrier. 

I hummed. Nightmare said nothing. She’d not stopped glaring since my earlier comment about her intimidation. “Nope, don’t think so,” I said.

“Gah, fine then. Someone get the orbs. These ponies need to be put in their place,” Celaeno yelled over the fighting. 

“Oh crap,” I said before jumping into the fray and ducking under a flailing pirate. I dipped around a second harpy and through the opening Spade made when he parried his larger opponent. 

“Star,” Thorax yelled after me. 

“What are you doing,” Blue yelled in concert.

It was a great question. Now if only I knew. I hopped over a discarded hand axe and onto the gantry way. For my luck, the gantry itself was barren. To the reverse, there was a hoofful of pirates still on their ship’s deck and one pirate rummaging through several boxes near the rear. I smiled and unfurled my wings, jumping off the last meter or so of the board and into the air just in time to plant one hoof on the back of a responding pirate.

“Star, whatcha doing?” I swerved to one side as Bright swooped around me. My heart was pounding, and it wasn’t even from the fight around me. I swear, Bright, one of these days.

“Orb, need to stop, hurry.” 

I pointed to the peach harpy, who had pulled a pair of familiar orbs free from their container. 

“Oh, okay, I’ll keep the others off your tail,” Bright said. He stuck out his tongue and was gone in a blur.   

Well, that settled; I had a bird to speak with/ I said down in a deep dive toward the peach parrot, who had seen me coming and was trying its hardest to avoid me. In this situation, there was a sense of irony at being the bird of prey, but it was lost on the fact that those orbs were terrifying.

“Here, Polly, here, Polly,” I said, baring down on the harpy. No sooner had I called to the harpy than they froze in place and looked up at me. My face was wracked with surprise as I slammed into them, sending us both sprawling. 

“Okay, now, why the heck did you stop?” I asked, scrambling to my hooves.

“How’d you know my name?”

I blinked, and Polly blinked. I opened my mouth only to shut it immediately. Polly cocked their head to the side. “You’re serious I asked after a moment of silence. The pirate, Polly the pirate nodded. 

“Right, okay, Polly. I’m going to need you to drop the orbs if you would be so kind. Thank you.”

Polly shook their head. “Captain’s orders.” 

One could not question Polly’s loyalty, if nothing else. I reopened my wings and pawed at the wood beneath me. “I can’t let you use those, Polly. I won’t let you hurt anyone, not while I can stop you.”

“Can you? I do believe it was I who stopped those cursed things before. It was I who saved the life of your little Captain.”

I ignored Nightmare’s goading. I narrowed my eyes. Polly took a step back and realized or realized what they had in their minds. Polly pulled back to throw one of the orbs. 

Polly,” I said. “Don’t do it.” My voice rose several octaves. Polly aimed an orb right at me. “Polly,” I yelled. 

Then the orb was free. Polly’s aim was true; the crystal-filled orb sale right for my head. I took a breath. The shadows bled into my vision. No, that wasn’t completely true. It consumed half of my sight. In my left eye, I felt the familiar icy touch, the shiver down my spine. Though while the shadows writhed, they did not impede my vision. Instead, I saw through them like a filter. An inverse to the light of the sun. I hadn’t realized I’d moved. Nor had I relayed I was screaming. My throat felt hot, Then like fingers rising from my own shadow. The dark tendrils crept. The orb never reached me. Instead, the tendrils shot forward at varying angles and stuck the sphere fast in midair. 

“I said No!”

Polly had fallen to the ground and was trying to crawl backward out of my reach. There was nowhere to go. 

“What have you done, whelp.”

I froze in place. Reality came crashing back around me. I slowly looked around me, vision still partially wrapped in whatever this was. I could feel Nightmare shaking and straining against the chains that bound her. 

“What have you done? Give it back, give it back.”

There were only two words that came to mind. “I’m sorry.” To whom I was apologizing, I wasn’t sure, Polly, Nightmare, myself? Maybe no one at all.