//------------------------------// // Old Tomes and Tapestries // Story: Pirates of Equestria // by Lastingimage24 //------------------------------// “Changes made, chances lost. Everyone gets the opportunity but no one profits. What of it if another life disappears when it makes mine so much easier?” Chapter 8 “This is as far as a boat can take us.” The wind whistled; it was the only sound that accompanied the audible silence. Patch craned his neck and looked at his faithful companion, Fluttershy, and saw what he expected. A grim expression on a stoic pegasus. It was an expression she wore often, but the impact was felt even more so now. After a long, drawn out pause, the yellow pegasus sighed and hung her head. “I know. Ponyville is a landlubber city. I’ve lived there almost my whole life until I met you... Captain.” The pegasus clenched her teeth in anger. Her expression was a mystery; her hair covered her eyes and Patch could not see them. “...Heh. Never thought I’d be here again. It almost seems like yesterday the damn Legion burned my house down.” “...I feel the same way sometimes.” Patch shuffled his legs, as his face became blank. “Just be glad you didn’t lose anyone like I did.” Fluttershy recognized this as Patch’s way of trying to cheer her up, to draw away the self pity and direct it onto himself. Needless to say it wasn’t working. Because he doesn’t know. There was a lot of things Fluttershy hadn’t told Patch, and the fact she lost all her critters in the fire was one of them. Hell, he doesn’t even know that’s my talent: the critters. “Fu’Shy?” Cap’n asked after no response. Fluttershy continued to ignore him without meaning to. “We need to brief. Fu’Shy, you get whoever you trust to aid you on this mission. You have complete control, savvy?” “Aye.” The whole room was quiet. Patch sat behind his desk in his usual spot while Fluttershy leaned on his desk with her legs crossed and her head turned towards the line up. The line consisted of Pinkie Pie, Vex, and Private Gavin respectably. Pinkie Pie noted a couple of things. One, Fluttershy looked amazing in that little suggestive pose she was in. Two, she wondered if Fluttershy was doing it on purpose. And three... “What’s Gavin doing here?” Pinkie asked, breaking the awkward silence. For a couple of seconds, Fluttershy just stared at Gavin until he turned away anxiously to break the eye contact. She smiled, rather out of place. “He’s here because he’s the only unicorn I trust to carry out the task I have set forth. He may not look much, and you may not know him too well, but I can tell you right now he wouldn’t betray any promise he may ever make. And he’s made a promise to help us when he joined. He’s a very good man.” Pinkie turned to look at the pirate who was staring at the floor sheepishly. He didn’t say a word. “Oh... alright then.” The Private, finally acting, faced the pink pony. “Wait,” his low and humble tone of voice rising above the tension. “How did you know my name? We’ve never met.” “Yes we did!” Pinke reassured. Gavin’s eyes darted around nervously, afraid he had insensitively forgotten a past conversation. “Remember, you bumped into me in the hall and apologized before picking up the guitar you were carrying, even though I was the one running through.” Gavin’s heart rate decreased, but he was still puzzled. “But, we never spoke... How did you know-” “Private,” Fluttershy snapped to shut him up. He flinched and rose a hoof meekly. The pegasus smiled softly to assure she wasn’t angry with him, but just wanted his attention. “It’s better not to ask how she knows. Believe me I tried.” Gavin’s swept to the right hair shook a little as he chuckled to himself. He closed his one eye that was visible underneath his hair and nodded his head. Fluttershy aimed to begin the briefing but Pinkie interrupted once again. “What about Vex? What’s she doing here?” Vex started to boil, but Fluttershy spoke up before she could do anything rash. “Because I like her, dumbass.” Vex’s mind went blank at the sudden compliment before she laughed heartedly and slapped Pinkie upside the head. “Damn straight.” “Okay, can I get started before we get any more shitty comments?” The yellow pegasus looked around the room for anyone stupid enough to speak up. Luckily no one did. “Great, thanks. Now, our mission is to find a white, purple-maned unicorn named Rarity, or any information on her whereabouts. And her stupid shit of an assistant, a purple baby dragon named Spike.” Vex looked surprised. “A dra-?” “SHUT THE FUCK UP! Enough exposition, you can ask him when we find him, cocksucker!” FLuttershy slammed her hoof on the table to which the entire company recoiled, even Patch. He realized how set she was on finding her friend. Vex came under a similar realization, but completely ignored it as she mouthed Fuck You flatly. The pegasus ignored the sentiment. “Alright, this is how we are going to go about it. Me and Pinks will check out a small boutique that was owned by the subject about ten years ago. We’ll raid the place and search for clues there. If that fails, we’ll ask around to see if we can get any info on her.” On a roll, Fluttershy turned away from Pinkie Pie to the others. “Gavin? You and Patch... you’re going to the local library.” “Woah, woah, woah!” Patch interjected, thrusting his forehooves back and forth. “Library? I love you Fu’Shy, but the one thing you can’t make me do is go to a fucking library.” Love? Fluttershy mentally shook her head to clear it and slowly faced the captain. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to read a word.” She sighed and lowered her head. A soft smile appeared on her face, but it had more sorrow than a frown could ever manage. “So much for no exposition, huh? I need you two to go to the library because... well, there was a woman that lived there once, that was a great friend of both me and Rarity. She was kind of a bookworm, but also very naive. Her little dragon ASSistant abandoned her to go after his love, even though it probably would never go well. Around seven years ago she disappeared after sending a letter to her mentor and friends, a letter which clearly implied... that she was going to kill herself. However, there is a chance she’s still alive, and even if she isn’t I want to find out what happened to her and if necessary give her a proper funeral. The thing is, I don’t think she would have carried something like that out without first fabricating a contingency plan to explain why she did it. That’s why I want you to go there, to look for some sort of clue, some sort of message she left behind.” “Uhh, Ma’am?” Everyone instantly turned to Gavin who immediately started to sweat and shrink. It was kind of hard for a stallion of Private’s height to shrink, but somehow, he managed to do it. Since he was so polite with it, Fluttershy let the interruption slide. “Yeah?” “Why am I going with the Captain? Why am I going at all?” Smiling, Fluttershy trotted over to Gavin’s side and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Because Twilight was a very powerful and intelligent magic user. Her message may be inscribed on something arcane. And, like I said, you are the only unicorn on this ship I trust to be confidential.” Gavin didn’t know how to respond to the kindness he received from Fluttershy, so he demeaned himself more. “But I’m weak when it comes to magic! I-I’ll just get in the way.” “Rarity was weak at magic too,” Fluttershy claimed, even though she wasn’t really sure. “And she was the only unicorn beside the Princesses that she trusted with any personal information. If she did use magic, you’ll be able to find anything as long as you search hard enough.” Private eyed around the room. Fluttershy still had her uplifting smile, Pinkie was grinning wide enough to make her jaw fall off, Patch had his confident smirk, and Vex was just watching the door, bored out of her mind. “...Okay.” he finally said, making Fluttershy let go of the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in. “It’s settled then, we go immediately.” “Eh, aren’t you forgetting someone?” Vex coined, a scowl growing upon her face. “Vex, you’re going to be a floater in case anyone gets in trouble. We’ll report to you where we’re going, what we’ve found, and when we plan on making a move to a new location. We’ll talk to you before any of us go anywhere that we think a lead is taking us. If we aren’t in the place we were or said we were going, you’ll immediately go to the other group and notify them. Understand?” “Tch.” The noise that exited Vex’s throat was more confirmation than it was incredulous sarcasm. “Fu’Shy,” Patch started, his voice rising up over his previously silent agreement. He had his hind legs resting on the table in front of him and his forelegs folded over his chest. “I’m not one to argue with you, but it doesn’t bother you that Gavin and I are looking for clues on your long lost friend that we never knew?” Fluttershy bore a confident smile while stepping towards her captain. Laughing, she waved off the problem. “Why would I? You two are friends just as much as they were. I love you all.” Invigorated, Patch shot up and thrusted his hoof in the air. “Well then, lets get this shit started!” The road to Ponyville was long and particularly boring. The reason Patch left Porkshire was to avoid the quiet uneventfulness of rural life, but here he was getting right back into it. Still, it didn’t have all the shittiness that his hometown had. At least the people didn’t have that god awful accent. All the horizon contained was endless green hills with a streak of dirt cutting through it like a crack in a windshield. There was an incredibly generic looking forest off to the right just sitting there like it was content with the dull stereotypical background and going off on its business as a forest would. Not even a damned animal to catch my focus. I mean, there’s just shit all to think about. Gavin was quiet the entire trip, but he had a peaceful smile on which Patch figured was his likeness for the silent countryside. He liked the guy, but one had to admit, Gavin was a bit on the annoyingly perfect pacifist side. Then again, that was why he liked him. Vex, Fu’Shy, Miss Pie, I hope you guys are having more fun than I am right now. “So this Twilight chick... who is she again?” Vex asked from Pinkie Pie’s back. At first it looked a little unnatural for a griffin to be laying on a pony’s back like that, but after a while it almost seemed appropriate given Vex’s size. Vex was laying on her back with her arms behind her head which was propped up on Pinkie’s incredibly poofy hair. Her left leg and tail was hanging off Pinkie’s back, but not so far it hit the ground. Pinkie was just unbothered by the whole thing; Fluttershy commended her strength. “She was the pupil of Princess Celestia and one of my best friends,” Fluttershy began, ignoring the obvious hypocrisy of her previous outburst involving exposition. “A purple unicorn. Incredibly powerful, but a bit antisocial. At least until she met us.” “Virgin?” Vex quipped, smiling and opening one eyelid. Fluttershy let loose a small chuckle. “Yeah, most likely.” “Twilight was never one for those kinds of parties,” Pinkie chipped in humorously. Vex became red at the thought. “What about this... Rarity?” Fluttershy sighed and raised her voice, irritated. “What is this, fucking Jeopardy?” Her two companions ignored the fact she had mistaken the rules of that game. “Another one of my good friends. A white unicorn. Prissy as FUCK.” She put a hoof on her chin and looked the other direction. “Uhh, pretty much all I need to say unless you want the boring details of her dreams and ambitions and shit.” She gave time for her two friends to finish their childish chuckles. “I guess she was hot as balls, but I’m not into that so I wouldn’t know.” Pinkie tripped over a hoof, recovered, then tripped over two more, nearly knocking Vex off her back. She spat out some gibberish before apologizing to her carrier griffin. Vex waved it off, which made Fluttershy a bit curious. “Hey... you two are getting along quite well. Normally, Vex would’ve cut the head off a person who nearly dropped her, much less agree to ride along on their back.” “Unlike everyone else on the god-forsaken ship, Pinks here isn’t a fucking tool.” She looked at her talons with a dull expression. “Though she is batshit insane.” Vex looked away and whispered to herself. “She isn’t a pirate.” "We're almost there. Vex, you should go tell Patch." "Oi," Patch quipped, elbowing Gavin to get his attention. "Is that Ponyville?" "I'd assume so, Fluttershy said it was the only town here for miles." “Heh,” Patch chuckled, sighing and lowering his head to the ground. “How the hell did Fu'Shy convince me to go to a library?” “The way she explained it means it shouldn’t be too difficult. I doubt a unicorn with Twilight Sparkle's reputation wouldn’t be able to forge a plan to reunite with her friends.” After giving his two bits, he faced Patch and grinned from ear to ear. “Besides, I like reading!” Geez, if Gav was anymore sweet it would be sickening. Patch thought of the first time he met Gavin, that lonely soul drinking himself into a coma. It was hard to believe he would even consider drinking, let alone being a member of the Legion, or worse, becoming a pirate. He remembered sitting next to the lonely unicorn and buying himself a drink, slyly picking up a conversation with the lonely pony. "Well, you look fucked up. Mortgage?" Patch asked as subtly as he possibly could. The lonely pony stared into his drink. Sorrow filled his eyes as he gripped the glass tighter and tighter. Patch eyed the lonely pony's Legion coat incredulously. "Leave me alone. I lost... her." The lonely pony closed his eyes, trying to suppress the tears he had grown accustomed to as of late. "Her... dude, it's not too bad. Plenty of fish in the piss pool." Patch was quite proud of his utter butcher of the common cliche. Not that it was far off from reality. "She might even take you back." Gavin took his glass and threw it to the ground in rage. He snared at Patch eye-to-eye as he yelled. "She's dead you idiot. They killed her!" Patch quickly wiped the smirk of his face. He had a suspicion he meant she was dead, but he had to be sure. Patch found it difficult to feel sympathy with the lonely pony, considering his attire. In spite, he decided to let him have it. "It's your fault." At this point, the entire bar was staring at the two ponies in the room; they had been making quite a scene. Patch continued with his harsh criticism. "You're the one who joined the Legion. You brought this on yourself with your self-righteous patriotism. As far as I'm concerned, you got what you deserved." The lonely pony stared at Patch with a blank expression. Tears swelled in his eyes as his anguish turned to rage. He exploded. "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE LEGION! I... I didn't want to... to b-be..." The lonely pony was shaking, gritting his teeth more and more. His eyes widened and strained, and his pupils focused into little black beads. "Its not my fault! It's their fault! IT'S THEIR FAULT!" The lonely pony lunged towards the astonished stallion sitting next to him. A hoof flew towards his face and the audience gasped. “Captain,” Gavin shouted, snapping Patch out of his daydream. “Look who’s here.” Patch looked up to see Vex smoothly hovering towards the ground and touching down. She blew upwards in a pathetically vain attempt to get the feathers out of her face. “Pinks and Fluttershit are nearing the boutique now. And I suppose...” Vex scanned the immediate area and stopped as she saw the large house-tree Fluttershy had described. It was only a couple hundred yard away. Satisfied, she turned back towards the two stallions. “You’re nearing the library.” “Quite.” Patch responded before starting towards the large tree structure. “Gonna tag along?” “Sure as shit.” Vex put her arm around Gavin and smiled. “Sup Gav?” Gavin chuckled nervously and buckled slightly. “Hehe, nothing.” “It’s been awhile...” Fluttershy picked up a piece of purple fabric before putting it to her face and smelling it softly. “I can’t believe this place hasn't been touched in over eight years." "Everything's exactly the same," Pinkie chimed in seriously before chuckling and waving her hooves in Fluttershy's face. "Creeeeepy, OoooooooooOoOOOOooo....!" Fluttershy scowled and hit the back of Pinkie's head once again, causing her to frown and rub the back of her mane. Fluttershy sighed and stepped in the direction of the light switch. Flipping it on was like directly triggering the memories of events long since passed to come flooding back in front of her eyes. Memories of laughing, support, dumb spa treatments... good memories. The room was disheveled, as to be expected. Fabrics of all colors and shapes was layered out in the boutique as if a bull came raging through the small store. Although Rarity often kept a mess in her store, it almost felt wrong to see it in such a state. Inhabited and... dead. Wait... "Why is this place such a mess?" Fluttershy asked, puzzled. Really? Why was it? "Uhhh, duhhh, standard apocalyptic rules. It need to be a mess." Pinkie gave her a mocking look, because the answer was so obvious. Fluttershy simply stared at her with half closed eyes, unamused with her response." "No, think, dipshit." Fluttershy motioned in a broad gesture, referring to all the room. "Rarity was a bit unorganized, but if she was going to leave this place forever, the least she would do is clean up. This place is not clean." "You're right," she confirmed, scanning the room again. She offered a theory. "You think it was looters?" "Looters?" Fluttershy laughed incredulously. "In Ponyville?" “Well...” Pinkie’s eyes widened in realization. She creeped over to Fluttershy and whispered. “You think she’s still here.” “No, don’t be an idiot,” she scolded before walking forward a couple steps. “But... I think she came back when we were all gone. At least, for a while.” “I guess that would explain the mess now,” Pinkie deduced. “When she left the second time, she must’ve been in a hurry.” “Or she stopped caring more likely,” Fluttershy added. “Think about it; there was nothing left for her here. No friends, no business.” “Well that’s... depressing.” “Duh.” Fluttershy started to search the room more closely. “Get with the times, mare.” “God, I hate that old book smell.” Patch was trying really hard to not inhale. “It’s like a combination of paste and dust.” “Well that’s probably what it is, dipshit,” Vex quipped, flipping through some of the pages. Vex didn’t exactly fancy books, but she didn’t absolutely despise them like Patch did. “I don’t know what you’re complaining about. You use books all the time in that little office of yours.” “Hey, it’s called the ‘Captain’s Quarters’ for starters. Secondly, I use those books as location reference or for deciphering.” Patch poked at a book on the ground with his hoof. “I don’t see how anyone could read for fun. Euugh.” “Look, remember what Flutterfuck said.” Vex saw a small journal hidden in the back of a drawer and picked it up. She flipped through a couple of pages and... saw some weird shit. Perturbed, she looked at the cover and read the title. “Fanfics,” Vex read. She immediately tossed it to the side and rubbed her hand on her chest disgusted, as if to clean it. Suddenly, she eyed the nearest bookshelf. This is ironic somehow. “Gav, you’ve been quiet. Flutterpoo said that you should feel something ‘cause you’re a unicorn or some shit.” Gavin had his head in a book, and was quiet for a few seconds before looking at Vex, clueless. “What?” “Let’s just go upstairs,” Vex scoffed. “HOLY SHIT!” “WHAT THE FUCK?!” Pinkie and Fluttershy had just opened a large closet when two skeletons fell out, startling the two companions. “Oh my cheese,” Pinkie said, poking one of the skulls. “Are they dead?” “Jeez, Pinkie, I’m not fucking sure,” Fluttershy retorted sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and investigated. “Whoever they were, they’ve been dead for a while.” “You think it’s... Rarity?” Pinkie asked with hesitance. Fluttershy was unperturbed. She knew for a fact it wasn’t. “No. Who would she have been killed with other than spike? There’s no reason there would be two ponies here, and we know Spike would have given his life to protect her.” Pinkie slowly turned to her friend, concerned. “Fluttershy?” “What?” She traced her hoof on the ground. “What you said about Spike... did you mean that?” Fluttersigh. “No... I’m just angry, okay? After spending so much time with her, I couldn’t see how he could just leave, to chase a crush that would never come to fruition.” “Y’know,” Pinkie offered, putting her hoof on her yellow friend’s shoulders. “It probably wasn’t easy for him either.” “Yeah, yeah, I know. He was getting older too, I guess, he wasn’t going to stay with Twilight.” Suddenly, Fluttershy lit up with an astonishing discovery. “Wait a minute!” “I think a minute’s too long. Maybe half a minute. Or a couple of sec-” Fluttershy shoved her hoof in Pinkie’s mouth, continuing as if she wasn’t interrupted by the pink menace. “We’ve established that Spike and Rare came back to the boutique. Plus, these bodies decayed without arousing suspicion, considering everything was undisturbed. What’s the only way for bodies to decay without stinking up the entire neighborhood? Fire. That means Spike had the firepower and balls to actually kill these guys. So, he’s nearing adulthood. Adult dragons need an enclosed space and large territories with enough space to gather treasure. If we know they were here, and we know Spike’s mature enough, then the only place around here that fits that description is...” “OOH OOH! I KNOW! That mountain that had the snoring dragon that was trying to get everyone lung cancer!” “Exactly. If they’re not dead they’re probably there!” Fluttershy motioned for Pinkie to follow her outside the door. “C’mon, let’s go wait for Vex outside.” “Savor this, Gav. This is the last time you’ll be in a woman’s bedroom.” “Ehhh...” Gavin spouted. He didn’t want to retort, but he didn’t want to be silent either. What come of it was that weird groan. Vex laughed. “You’re right,” Patch substituted for his lanky unicorn friend. “They’ll all run to his, hehe.” Patch slammed his leg on Gavin’s back, laughing supportingly. Gavin did nothing but blush. “Hey, what’s this piece of paper?” Gavin cheerfully reached for it, eager for the subject change. His vision suddenly blanked. He lost all feeling. The rest of the gang slowly stepped towards him. “...Gav?” He stood completely still, his mouth wide open, the note hanging from it. Vex checked his eyes to see his pupils enlarged a couple sizes. He was like a statue. “Gav. Gav!” Patch waved his foreleg in his face. There was no reaction from the unicorn. “Hm. This might be an issue.” “AHAHHHHA WHAT WHAT?!?!?” Gavin turned his head to only face complete darkness. He couldn’t tell if he was suspended in this space or if he was standing on something solid. His heartbeat overwhelmed his hearing, and his breathing echoed on nothing. It was a very strange thing to hear. He thought he was alone. Until... a speck. A little speck. Pinkish purple. With some deep lavender. Gavin had to squint to see it. Seeing it as a sign of life, he tried to move towards it. At first, he thought the attempt was in vain, as he couldn’t feel himself moving. But the speck became larger, and larger. It was closing in. Gavin took a few steps back. The creature before him, it was the last thing he expected. A mare. A unicorn mare. A pretty one at that. She stared at him a few moments, and then she spoke. “Well,” she said. “I certainly didn’t expect someone like you to be here.”