Rainbow Dash gathered some snacks to hold her over. A small bowl of popcorn and some apple cider. I might not be the annual cider that Sweet Apple Acres put out, but the juice was still fantastic. She took a sip of her juice and returned to Big Mac’s book.
I awoke at the crack of dawn, the light of Celestia’s sun, pouring in my window. I stretched, donned my hat and cape, screwed on my leg, and stepped out on deck.
The damage from the night before wasn’t too extensive; the biggest problem being Grog passed out on the deck, shivering and hugging the base of the main mast. I also saw one of the dogs that I had hired, a friendly husky named Chance, curled up outside of the crew’s quarters.
There was a smell in the air, a smell of eggs cooking with onions and peppers. Apparently cookie was awake and had made the wise decision to use our more perishable ingredients first.
As the smell reached the nose of the two others on deck they began to stir. Grog simply turned in his sleep, mumbling about something, while Chance began to sniff heartily and pant. Eventually he awoke simply from the aroma of breakfast and began to get up.
A approached the, still stretching, dog and asked him, “Hey, Chance, would ya mind wakin’ tha rest of the crew? Breakfast an’ then we’re headin out.”
He saluted me, and then bounded down the stairs to the crew’s quarters, where I soon heard barking. I chuckled to myself as I heard them grumbling and complaining, while coming up the stairs.
After a very satisfying breakfast in the galley, we untied the ship, and shoved off.
“Finally.” Rainbow muttered before taking another sip of juice, “It took him long enough to get sailing.”
Once we were in the channel heading out of port, the crew unfurled the main sail. Using only the primary sailing canvas, we left harbor and floated out to sea.
We hit open ocean and opened the rest of the sails. The light ship skimming across the water. Calling Astro to my side, I pulled out the map, and we worked toward finding our heading.
“Which way, Astro?” I asked, standing on the forecastle deck.
“Wait,” Rainbow demanded, “Does he actually know what he is talking about?” She reread the last sentence again. “It sounds like he does, but how would he know what the hay a ‘forecastle deck’ is?” She expertly tossed a few fluffy kernels into her mouth and continued to read.
“What was that, Captain?” He asked, looking back to me from the horizon.
“I asked what our heading should be.” I was starting to wish that I had picked a better listener for my navigation expert.
“Oh, sorry, I spaced out for a little bit there.” He looked back at the map, then to his compass, made a few adjustments on his directional device, and pointed over the bow. “There, 146 degrees southeast.”
“146 degrees southeast, pilot.” I called to Schatzi, who changed our course accordingly, relying on the compass she had been supplied with. The sails swinging around to harness the most wind.
We sailed in that direction for hours, very little occurred, until...
“Captain!” I heard a call from the crow’s nest, I looked up to see pointer gesturing over to the east. “There’s a storm blowing in fast, and it looks like it will be a doozy.”
I looked in the direction he was referencing and noticed a darkness approaching on the horizon. “Eyup.” I called back to him, before finding Sea Dog.
“What should we do?” I asked him, as we stared at the growing clouds on the horizon.
“Just stow the sails, batten down the hatches, and hope for the best.” He said, stoically. “He’s right, it looks like a big ‘un.”
I was already on the move, “Y’all heard ‘im, stow the sails, tighten the rigging, an git below decks.” I shouted at the crew. I then watched as the ponies and dogs stumbled over each other, each one tripping over his shipmates. Finally the ship was as prepared as she could be for the storm, and not a moment too soon, as the storm had begun to whip wind over the decks.
I was forced to watch out of my cabin’s window as the storm raged over the sea. Massive swells rocked the ship, while violent winds buffeted the hull and shook the masts.
The crew and I were hunkered down in our respective quarters, holding on for dear life, as the ship was sent over a huge wave. As the ship began to descend from the crest of the swell, I received a perfect view of the sky.
The sea of black over the waters was churning more than a tub of butter. The rolling clouds were occasionally split by a streak of lightning, followed immediately by a deafening crack of thunder.
As the storm worsened, I began regretting my lack of pegasi in my crew.
Rainbow Dash let a smug smile grow over her face. “Aaawwww yeeeeaaaah!” She cheered, pumping her hooves in the air, using her wings to keep herself upright. “That’s right! Pegasi are awesome!”
As the ship crested the top of another monstrous swell, the wind shifted the orientation of the ship. Now, instead of going into the waves, the ship was parallel to them. As we descended the wave, the ship rolled, almost completely onto its side; and I was thrown against the wall. When the vessel was finally rightened, there was a crack of thunder, frighteningly close, as well as a tingling in the deck that let me know that something was terribly wrong.
I opened my door, careful to resist allowing it to rip off of the hinges. I finally had the door open far enough for me to look outside, and saw something that chilled my spine more than the wind and rain alone could. The main mast had been struck.
Rainbow gasped and choked on a popcorn kernel, which caused her to pull out of her enthrallment with the book for a moment and blush.
Toward the top of the tall pine shaft, there was a flaming split. A crack had descended the entirety of the beam. Rigging lines were burning and falling into the surrounding waters. Worst of all though, was the furious flames quickly crawling down the wooden beam.
Sea Dog’s head appeared at the, now open, entrance to the crew’s quarters. “Cap’n, what be happening?” I ignored him, and dove down into the quarters, determined to find Lumber Mill. I could almost feel Sea Dog realize what was wrong as I flew past him.
I burst through the doors to the male crew’s quarters, and shouted, “Lumber Mill! Here now.”
“The crew is segregated by gender?” Rainbow humphed, seems sexist. She then stuck her hoof back into the bowl, searching for some more popcorn, but it was empty.
“Yes, Cap’n?” He said as he appeared in front of myself.
“Git yer tools, ‘n join me on deck.” I turned and ran back to the decks, following the wet trail that I had left.
I rushed out on deck to find Sea Dog staring at the hopeless cause that was the Main Mast of the ship. The crack had become a split, and the splintering wood was beginning to pry at the deck, and I simply couldn’t allow that to happen to my ship, or my crew.
I braced my shoulder against one side of the splitting beam and pushed. Sea Dog stared at me for a moment, then I shouted, “Help!”
He jumped up, and fighting the undulations of the rocking ship, he made his way over to the mast and pushed with his monstrous paws against the opposite side of the mast.
At that time, Lumber Mill galloped on deck, carrying his tools in his mouth. As he saw what was happening, his jaw dropped and his tools scattered across the deck. He gathered his wits and began digging out a hammer and some pins.
I saw what he was planning, and that it wouldn’t work, so I shook my head. “SAW!” I shouted. “SAW it down!”
He looked at me with earnest confusion, “But, Captain, It’s the main mast, we can’t lose that.”
I didn’t have the time to argue, “Ah’m the captain, and Ah say, SAW IT DOWN!”
He finally complied and dug out his saw, begginning to work on my side of the beam. I began to feel it give way, then suddenly, it got to the right point.
“Sea Dog, loose any ropes still attatched, she’s comin’ down.” He complied, rushing around the deck, and eventually climbing another mast to loose the last few ropes.
Lumber Mill was still confused, “Sir, it isn’t close to comin’ down yet.”
Then he turned to look at me, and found me on my front hooves, bracing myself for the most powerful kick that my good leg could muster. I let out the strength that I had built up just in time for Sea Dog to cut the last line.
The rest of the mast splintered, and came crashing down over the side of the ship. It broke the railing off, and cracked a few boards on the deck, but we got it off, before it split the ship.
Sea Dog lowered himself to the decks, as Lumber picked himself up. Both of them stared at me, the rainwater dripping down into their open mouths.
“Git yer tools up, ‘n git below decks. When tha’ storm blows over, Ah’d like ta look over tha ship fer any other damage.” I said as I took off for my cabin again.
“He kicked over the entire mast? With only one hoof?” Rainbow marvelled, her mouth slightly agape. “I know that he’s broken some of the trees in orchard, but they’re small, a mast is huge, and he only had one good hoof.” She shook her head and looked back to the book.
The storm raged on into the night, but it finally began to let up without causing too much more damage. In the morning, I could see Celestia’s sun crest the horizon at the edge of a few straggling grey clouds.
I walked out on deck, and called the crew up to join me. I watched as they came up out of the hold. Many of them were whispering to each other, and glancing at me with fear and respect.
I sighed as I realized that my two accomplices must have spread their own renditions of what had transpired the night before, and as such the crew was avoiding me like I was some kind of monster.
“‘Aight, everypony will be lookin’ over tha ship.” I informed them, there was no use fighting the respect anyway. “Lumber Mill, yer tha head o’ this operation, git a crew together an’ fix what ya can.” I then turned to Astro, Schatzi, and Sea Dog and gestured that they join me on the aft deck.
They looked at each other hesitantly, and eventually meandered their way onto the deck with me. “We don’t have enough wood ta’ fix all this,” I gestured to the damage that the other ponies, even Grog, had jumped over to start fixing. “So, we gotta’ git ta shore. Astro, git Schatzi a headin’, an’ Sea Dog, look over tha ship, Ah gotta git some sleep.”
I walked off towards my cabin, noticing that my crew was giving me space that was completely unnecessary. I ignored it, feeling too tired to bother with attempting to reason with them.
I got into my cabin, and prepared to sleep, and just before I climbed into my hammock I heard a knock at the door.
“Yeah?” I responded, too tired to get the door myself.
“Uuhh, Captain?” I heard Astro call in. “You got the map and orientation equipment in there.” Sure enough, I turned to find the map, compass, and astrological devices on the cartography table.
I sighed, “Come in.” I sat down on my hammock, while Astro and Schatzi entered the room hesitantly.
Unable to fall asleep with them talking, I was forced to stay awake until they found the heading and left my cabin. I could hear the sails unfurl, and feel the ship gently turn to the side as we finally got under way and my eyes gently closed ushering in a much needed rest.
Rainbow could feel her eyelids getting heavier as she realized that she needed rest as well.
She put the book on her nightstand, finished her juice, and crawled under the covers. The soft cloud that she had selected for her mattress caressed her into a warm comforting sleep.
Big Mac and Braeburn were returning to their hotel room after a busy day running the stand at the rodeo. Braeburn was distracted and apparently thinking about something. Big Mac took the opportunity to think about his dreams; the strangeness of them, the fact that they felt so real, and the fact that they were ongoing.
Nothing seemed normal about them, but Braeburn had apparently decided not to let him think about that for too long.
“Hey, Mac, partner?”
Macintosh grunted in response.
“Ah’m sorry, ‘bout not gettin’ up in time the past few days.” he lowered his head, and his ears tucked back. “Ah promise, tomorrow Ah’ll be on time, ya don’t have ta get me up. Deal?”
Big Mac looked his cousin in the eye and said, “Eeyup.” He was holding him accountable to that.