//------------------------------// // C13 - Catching Up // Story: The Open Sea // by NahB //------------------------------// Twilight tried to keep the scowl off her face as she watched the three ships limp into the bay. One of the ships had so many holes in it that some pegasi were actively repairing it, bringing extra wood from the undamaged ship to fix it. She didn’t need to actually look at the lieutenant to know that Quickwing was scowling at her. “I told them to bloody your nose, Lieutenant, not break your legs. There’s something else ahoof here. “ It was obvious the pegasus wanted to say certain things, but the princess’ presence denied him that ability. Luna looked down at Twilight, who was still watching the ships come in. “Twilight, could your ship have done this?” She asked the lavender unicorn. “Theoretically, yes, but I specifically told my crew not to do something like this. Something must have changed,” Twilight mused, watching as a pair of pegasi flew towards them. Their flights were rocked by uncertainty when they perceived princess Luna, but landed in front of Quickwing. “Sir,” one of them began, “we pursued the convicts’ ship, as per orders. Not too long later, we were engaged at long range by them. We continued our pursuit even after they disabled our forward cannon. However, as we gained on them, a pirate ship, which we believe was the Thorn, approached and broadsided us. Everything went downhill from there. We believe that the pair of ships left to go to Windfall Island.” Quickwing glanced at Twilight, who nodded. “I had nothing to do with Roseluck showing up, but I told Cheerilee to head to Windfall and come back when the pressure was off.” It felt strange to Twilight to be talking to military peacefully, relaying all her plans willingly. “Then we’d best be off,” Luna began, “so your friends are not apprehended.” The Lieutenant shot a glare at the alicorn that went unnoticed by everypony but Twilight. She could tell that the pegasus was still angry at having to work with them. The soldiers started forward, leaving Twilight, Luna, Rarity, Redheart and Spike to follow them towards a small collection of boats. The secondary group all entered one small vessel with Quickwing and one other guard. They quickly made their way to the soldiers’ vessel, and were brought aboard. Once they were secured on deck, the ship began to turn out of the natural harbor Torres Island had. “Let me make this clear, please. This is my ship, and I don’t want anypony making any trouble,” the lieutenant barked to all the ponies on deck. The soldiers nodded, and Twilight set her face into a frown. “Yes, captain. Where should we stay on our way to Windfall?” The pegasus thought a moment. Twilight took the opportunity to get a glance toward the alicorn next to her. Luna was giving her a strange look and looked like she wanted to say something, but was holding her tongue. Twilight turned back to Quickwing as the soldier made his decision. “There’s a storeroom down below that is spacious enough for you, the princess and your companions to stay comfortable. I’ll have my crew clear it for you, and bring some bedding down. Please, I invite you to stay near the stern during your stay.” Twilight found it easy to comply, and headed the way the captain had indicated. Upon reaching the edge of the ship, the group stared at the island behind her. The unicorn spared a glance towards Luna, who looked like she was gathering herself up to ask something. “Twilight, you referred to the lieutenant as captain. Why is that?” “Well, because of the majority of the world being shrouded by seawater, ships became our main method of travel. However, because of the nature of the beast, it takes days, usually around a week, to get to and from islands. And on a small piece of floating wood on an unforgiving ocean, you need absolute control. So, the highest ranking soldier, or the owner of a ship is called “captain” and given absolute control. You listen to the captain. You comply with the captain’s wishes, and you damn well make sure you do what the captain says.” Twilight realized that she had cussed in front of Luna. “Pardon me for my language.” The alicorn waved a hoof, dismissing the matter of the verbiage. “Regardless of position outside of the ship, they are the Captain?” “Correct.” They were silent a moment, and a soldier trotted over to them. “Excuse me, but your room is ready. If I may show you down?” Exchanging a glance with Twilight, Luna nodded, and the group followed the pony down into the ship. They passed several ponies that seemed to be just lounging about, and came to a large room under the stern. It had been cleared of all supplies. “Apologies, but this is a soldiering vessel with little in the way of amenities. Hammocks will be brought down shortly,” the soldier said, and cantered off. The party looked around, and at each other. Finally, Rarity spoke up. “If you don’t mind me asking, Princess…” “Please,” the midnight alicorn responded, “Just Luna is fine.” Rarity gave a polite smile, and continued. “If you don’t mind me asking, Luna… what in the world happened?” Twilight admittedly wanted to hear more. “P- Luna, I’d like to know as well. Where is Celestia? What’s going on?” “As I said before, Twilight, I know next to nothing. Only that a grave threat was incoming, and we had to seal ourselves into siphons in order to bring to bear the magic to keep it at bay. And we failed.” The princess’ expression fell, and she slumped to the ground. Twilight trotted over and laid a hoof over the lunar princess’ back without a thought. The alicorn smiled at Twilight. “If that didn’t stop it, then there’s nothing you could have done. If there’s one thing that this new life has taught me, it’s that you should never live in the past. Move forward, and make a better life for yourself. Now, we need a plan.” A pair of soldiers burst into the room, levitating some hammocks and mattresses behind them. They unceremoniously dumped them into the corner of the storeroom and left, leaving a bewildered group in their wake. “I wonder what’s got their goose,” Rarity mused. Spike got a harsh laugh. “I think we can make a decent guess by checking out their other ships. I can’t imagine they’d be anything less than cold towards us.” Rarity gave the dragon a pointed look, but concentrated on beginning to set up their sleeping arrangements. Redheart joined her, while Spike walked toward the other two mares. “And what sort of plan did you have in mind, Twilight?” “Well,” she began, smiling momentarily at her onetime assistant, “the first order of business should be to get to Windfall and link up with the others. We need to group together and fix this stupid mess that I’ve gotten us into. Then we can all head to Canter Island, meet with my brother and Cadance, and we can work on a plan.” Luna pondered a moment. “This conflict with these ‘Severed Isles’. Might we not want to resolve this as soon as possible?” Twilight nodded. “Yes, but the problem is knowledge. I’ve never been to the inner circle, the biggest cluster. The only ‘Severed’ islands we’ve visited are some of the fringe ones, and not very often. It seems like they want to isolate themselves.” “Where geographically is their territory?” Twilight thought a moment, then rummaged through her saddlebags, setting them on the ground. She pulled out a tube, and popped a cap off the top. She looked through some of the papers that had been inside, then pulled one over to the alicorn. “This,” she said, pointing a hoof near the southwestern edge of the map, “is Canter Island.” Twilight moved her hoof north, passing over half a dozen islands. “This is Horn Island. It’s the northernmost Island on a map not based on the Severed Isles’ territory. We don’t really know what’s up there. I mean, it took nearly three years to branch out and connect our homes that we knew about. There could be just one or two more islands not on this map, there could be dozens.” “But it’s north. What’s the scale?” Twilight pointed at an island near Canter. “This is New Manehattan. It’s approximately… eighty seven leagues, or five days’ travel.” She did a quick calculation in her head, remembering that ponykind had only switched to leagues as measuring nautical distances several years after the flood. “Around 300 miles... ish.” Luna looked at the map and concentrated, attempting to remember where things had been prior to the flood. “So it’s about 1500 miles from Canter Island to Horn, around a month’s journey. It means nothing to me at the moment, but it feels like this should trigger some sort of reaction. It’s so far, nearly out of Equestrian borders… how were so many ponies… wait.” The alicorn looked at Twilight and narrowed her eyes. “How did you know the flood was coming?” Twilight realized that the princess had a lot of unanswered questions, most likely not even occurring to her. “We did some searching for you and Celestia. It became apparent after a while that there were winds of something ominous to the south, heading north quickly. After quite a bit of investigation, it was found that the water level in the Astral Sea was rising extremely quickly. Many ponies fled as far as they could to the north, and prepared there. When the flood came, there was already a large population there.” “Why did you yourself not go north?” Twilight looked over her shoulder at Rarity and Redheart, and put a hoof around Spike, who gave her a frown. “Couldn’t leave my friends, and I didn’t want to leave the area in case you or princess Celestia came back.” Luna nodded as she considered her sister’s former pupil’s words. “So! We know next to nothing about this foe, and yet we propose to make a fight of it.” “It’s the feel I got from my brother. He wouldn’t be this far north if there wasn’t a huge amount of trouble brewing.” “It’s clear to me that we need to head this off as soon as possible, Twilight. Let me see this map.” Twilight grabbed the map wither her magic and levitated it over to the alicorn. The blue-hued mare stooped herself over the map and traced a hoof across it, muttering to herself. Realizing that the conversation had come to a halt, Twilight trotted over next to Rarity and Redheart, Spike in tow. “So,” She sighed. “So, indeed,” Rarity responded. “Are we considered captured, or guests? Because either way, I think our reputation is completely ruined, Twilight,” Spike said, sarcasm thick in his voice. “Well, cap, I guess for once we can stay on a ship without working. I guess that’s something,” Redheart put in. “Yep. We don’t have to do a thing. We just sit around, doing nothing. That’d be great, if it weren’t a several-day trip to Windfall.” Rarity looked pensive a moment. “Honestly, I think we might be the lucky ones. I worry about the others.” Twilight nodded, a frown on her face. “I didn’t count on Roseluck being in the area. This could help us… or ruin everything. Time will tell, no?” “Twilight, I believe you said it was around a five-day trip from Canter to New Manehattan,” Luna began. “What in the world do you do on such a ship to entertain yourselves?” The mare had obviously had the thought occur to her while she was calculating distances on the map. Rarity looked at the questioning alicorn, and gave Twilight a pointed look. “I rescind my statement about us being the lucky ones.” Twilight grumbled, and approached Luna to give her the bad news – there really wasn’t all that much to do for the three or four days they’d be at sea.