//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Attack from the Sea 
// Story: Pirates of the Alicorn 
// by Moheart7 
//------------------------------//

In the skies over the small town of Ponyville, the cyan Pegasus known as Rainbow Dash continued to practice her flying, zooming back and forth amongst the clouds, performing tremendous stunts.  Suddenly from down below, she spotted Spike waving to her, and swooped down to greet him.  

"Hey Spike!" She said. "What brings you here? Shouldn't you be helping Twilight with her report on transformation magic or something?" 

"Not today," Spike smirked. "Twilight had to go to Canterlot to help Princess Luna with the latest star alignments as part of her new Princess training, so I had to stay behind to take care of the Library while she was gone."

"So why are you out here?" Rainbow Dash asked with a smile. "Are you slacking off to help Rarity again?"

"Uh… maybe."

At those words Rainbow Dash couldn't help but giggle, Spike may have tried to hide it in the past but it was quite obvious that he had a crush on the white Unicorn, known as Rarity who lived and owned the Carousel Boutique. Every time he looked at her, he would go as giddy as a drunken horse.

"Listen, if Twilight asks could you tell her I've been in the Library all day?" Spike asked nervously.

"Hey don't sweat it dude," Rainbow Dash chuckled. "If Twilight comes back early, I'll cover for ya"

"Thanks Rainbow," Spike sighed in relief as he turned to leave. "Hey, have you ever seen those ponies before?"

Rainbow Dash hovered by Spike to see what he was talking about, gazing in the direction of where he was pointing. Entering the east side of town were two earth ponies pulling what looked like an unusually large wooden cart  covered in a dusty old sheet. One of the ponies pulling the cart  was at least  three times the size of any other pony in sight, he was even bigger than Big Macintosh was, he was dark red with dark tattoos along his front legs and neck, he had a shaggy brown mane, wore a light blue vest and his cutie mark resembled a barrel. The pony next to him was a very skinny, pale green pony with a murky green mane and had no visible cutie mark; out of the two ponies that had arrived he looked the sickliest. As Rainbow Dash gazed at the strange ponies entering the town, she couldn't help but feel that something was a little strange about them. As a crowd of assorted ponies began to gather around the new arrivals to the town, naturally the pink earth Pony known as Pinkie Pie was the first to greet them… in her own hyperactive way.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "I'm Pinkie Pie, it's so nice to see new faces here in Ponyville. Are you travellers? You look like travellers, are you brothers? What's in the cart? Is it treasure? Is it something pretty? Why's the cart all covered up? Are you…"

"Enough!" the smaller pony snapped, clearly annoyed by Pinkie Pie's hyperactive chatter.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie found herself being silenced and taking it as an insult.

"Well you don't have to be rude," she said. "I was going to throw you a "welcome to Ponyville" party but now I'm not so keen because of that remark,"

Suddenly the larger pony's face lit up and a large, goofy grin spread across his chubby face

"A party?" he asked cheerfully. "Will there be cake and ice-cream?"

But before Pinkie Pie could respond with a cheerful answer, the smaller pony whacked his twig-like hoof across the back of the larger one's head.

"Ow!"

"We are not here for a party." The smaller pony snapped.

Suddenly an orange earth pony by the name of Applejack spoke up from the crowd.

"Well if you don't mind us asking Sugarcube, then why have ya come to Ponyville," she asked. "Are y'all merchants cause that cart's giving the vibe that yer trying to sell something, oh sorry, where are my manners? The name's Applejack, what's yer's stranger?"

Suddenly an evil grin spread across the smaller pony's face.

"The big fella's name is Big Rummy," he said as he gestured towards the larger pony next to him. "You may call me Dripfang, and no, we are not selling anything, oh no, we prefer to gain our fortune the old fashioned way…"

Suddenly a magical green flame engulfed the pony known as Dripfang and in his place was a black skinned, single horned creature with blue eyes, insect-like wings, holed legs and wearing a red and white striped vest and bandanna, a creature every pony recognised as a Changeling.

"…BRUTALLY!" 


#


In the city of Canterlot, in the colossal library of the castle, the Purple Alicorn known as Twilight Sparkle was studying new star charts that the dark blue Alicorn next to her, Princess Luna was drafting for the new star alignments, a new phase of new her training due to her recent change from Unicorn to Princess. 

"We appreciate you coming here for this Twilight Sparkle," Princess Luna said in her calmest voice. "Tis better to get a better understanding of what our subjects want from us by doing this."

"Are you kidding?" Twilight Sparkle said with a large grin across her face. "It is an honour to do this with you. Never in a thousand years would I have thought that I'd be helping you with new star alignments."

At those words, Princess Luna simply smiled.

"Well we haven't quite finished yet," she said looking back at the charts. "There is still one more consolation we need to create… perhaps something we haven't done in a while…"

Suddenly Twilight Sparkles face lit up, she had an idea. Using her magic to take a scrap piece of paper and quill, she began to draw a new consolation, when she had finished the stars she drew resembled and image of a galloping stallion. Twilight looked at Luna for approval, who gazed at it with a look of interest across her face.

"Interesting," she said with a smile. "It's simple, yet beautiful. Well done Twilight Sparkle, we shall call it Equilease, AKA The Little Horse, our sister will be most pleased with this."

Twilight couldn't help but giggle to herself, while Princess Luna copied her design onto the new star charts, she felt like cheering but knowing she was in a library she tried to restrain herself. Suddenly her glee was cut short by one of the Unicorn guards bursting into the Library.

"Your Highnesses," he said as he gasped for air. "Someone has broken into the castle, and he's attempting to reach the vault."

Hearing this, both Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle gasped.

"Who is this intruder?" Princess Luna demanded. 

"We don't know your grace," the guard answered. "But he seems to be a Unicorn and he's already used some kind of spell to immobilise most of the royal guard."

"Make haste and send word to our sister!" Princess Luna ordered the guard. "She must be informed of this at once!"

Without hesitation the guard did what he was told and ran off towards the main throne room, leaving Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna alone in the library.

"What do we do?" Twilight asked.

"We must make haste to the vault immediately," Princess Luna replied. ""You know all too well what we keep within it."

"The Elements of Harmony," Twilight gasped.

Without hesitation, both Twilight and Princess Luna quickly rushed out of the library and towards the vault, along the way the spotted numerous members of the royal guard, each of them frozen in place where they stood, unable to move at all, all they could do was scream unintelligible shrieks from the gaps in their frozen mouths. It was at that moment, a concerned look spread across Luna's face.

"Whoever did this must be very powerful if he was able to immobilise so many guards like this," she said. "We must make haste!"

Not needing to be told twice, Twilight run after Princess Luna towards the vault. However when they both finally arrived, they found more immobilised guards and some pony else already there. Standing in front of the large doors of the vault was a dark blue Unicorn with a red and silver mane, beard, and tail, wearing a dirty brown coat and hat topped with a red Phoenix feather. At first he had his back turned towards Princess Luna and Twilight but suddenly turned with cat-like reflexes and with a blinding blue light from his horn, blasted the two with a powerful amount of magic, freezing them in place.

"Well, well, well," he chuckled. "It would seem that I have company," 

As Twilight stood there, frozen next to Princess Luna all she could do at that moment was stare in fear as their captor continued to use his magic to break into the vault. However while neither Twilight nor Luna was able to speak through their frozen mouths, that didn't stop their captor from doing so.

"Oh don't worry about your current situation your highnesses," he said with a slight chuckle. "It's just a simple immobilisation spell of me own design, you'll regain the function of your body in about an hour or two."

But those words only aggravated the immobilised ponies, causing them to shriek through the gaps in their gritted teeth.

"Oh don't be like that my dears," the Unicorn continued. "You wouldn't be stuck like this if you didn't sneak up on me like that. By the way, it is an honour to meet you at last Princess Luna, you too Princess Twilight.

At those words he tipped his hat toward the frozen Alicorns and then turned back towards the vault.

“Don’t worry your nibs,” he said as he focused his horn for one final blast. “I'll just get what I came here for and I'll be on my way, so don't get your tail in a twist."

Suddenly with one more blast from his horn the Unicorn shattered the lock on the vault and the doors swung open, revealing all that was inside. Among the many things that were in that vault, only a select few managed to capture the unicorn's emerald-green gaze.

"I never thought I'd see it with me own eyes," he said as he began to levitate five jewelled necklaces into his satchel, the thief had found the Elements of Harmony.


#


Back in Ponyville, there was chaos. As it turns out, the cart that the large earth pony and Changeling were pulling was in fact loaded with dozens of vicious looking ponies and Diamond Dogs that were now raiding the whole of Ponyville, tearing it up piece by piece looking for any of value. 

"Grab all the loot you can find!" screamed the teal coloured earth pony that seemed to be the leader. "I want this entire town flushed out!"

And thus every building was getting broken into by ponies and Diamond Dogs alike and being raided for all its valuable contents, gold, gems, even assorted foods were taken from each one and loaded into the wooden cart. While the half of the town that was bound together in ropes could only watch as their town was being destroyed, the other half that still remained free were still fighting for their town or fleeing. During the chaos, the large Earth pony, Big Rummy and his small dragon friend, Slash began their reign of destruction in the Carousel Boutique, facing Rarity in the process.

"Alright beautiful," Slash smirked as he stood up on Big Rummy's head. "Just hand over the gems and we'll leave you alone, and don't say that there isn't any cause I can smell them from a mile way.”

"How dare you!" Rarity snapped. "You may have broken into my shop, but that doesn't give you the right to talk to me in such a way! I am a lady and expect to be treated as one even from mongrels like you."

"Oh really?" Slash smirked as he jumped off Rummy's back. "Well missy we're just going to have to treat you with as much respect as possible aren't we? Rummy, give this place a few ventilation holes while I give our mouthy friend a little haircut."

"Aye-Aye Slash," Big Rummy said inanely as he trotted towards the stain glass window.

However, before Rummy could even ready himself for the smashing, the door of Rarity's shop suddenly burst open, and Spike stomped into the boutique.

"You get away from that window!" he snapped, leaving Big Rummy a little baffled. "Rarity paid good money to have that installed!" 

"Hey Slash, I didn't know you had a brother?" he said with a goofy giggle. 

Although both Slash and Spike were disgusted by the very thought of it, it was true that both of them were in fact similar in appearance, however there were a few major differences as well, while Spike was light purple with green ridges, Slash was slightly taller, was dark purple with yellow, sharper ridges and was wearing a patch over what was left of his right eye.

"We are not brothers Rummy!"  Slash snapped in an annoyed tone. "Although I am intrigued to see a fellow dragon in this part of the world. Tell me shorty, why do you care about some window?"

"It's not the window I'm looking out for," Spike growled in anger. "Now are you going to get out of this shop or am I going to have to throw you out?"

"Spikey-Wikey, don't!" Rarity gasped. "You don't know what he's capable of."

It was as that point that Slash couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Spikey-Wikey?" he said trying to catch his breath. "Hahaha, oh man that's rich!"

"Stop laughing at me!" Spike snapped.

"Oh look Rummy, Spikey-Wikey's having a little tantrum," Slash said though still laughing his head off.

Big Rummy then all at once began laughing along with his friend, but that was suddenly cut short as Slash found himself being tackled by a furious Spike who was now pinning him to the ground.

"Now I'm only going to say this one more time… get out of this shop!" he growled.

"Looks like little Spikey-Wikey's got some fight in him Rummy," Slash smirked. "But guess what shorty, a REAL dragon doesn't fight with his claws, he fights with his FIIIIRRREEEE!!!!"

Suddenly a huge blast of Sapphire-blue flames burst out of Slash's mouth and sent Spike flying across the room and right in front of Big Rummy, as Slash walked up towards Spike who was now pinned down underneath Rummy’s gigantic hoof, he grinned with a disturbing amount of visible fangs.

"Pretend he's a roach Rummy," he said with an evil grin. "And crush him."

"But Captain said…" Big Rummy began.

"Don't you touch him!" rarity snapped before Rummy could even finish his sentence. "I'll tell you where all my gems are, just don't hurt my little Spikey-Wikey."

It was at that point that Slash's grin grew even wider.

"Now that is more like it," he smirked.

Rarity then reluctantly directed them to a large wooden chest, and surely enough it was full to the brim with gems of all kinds.

"Alright you got what you want, now let Spike go," Rarity pleaded as Slash drooled a little and carried the heavy towards the door.

"A deal's a deal," Slash smirked. "Rummy, give Spikey-Wikey here the 'Flying Ahh!' and make it good."

Suddenly a large goofy smile spread across Big Rummy's face as he let Spike go from under his hoof and took a few steps back, leaving both Spike and Rarity confused.

"What the heck is the Flying AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

But spikes question was answered all too easily as Big Rummy suddenly slammed his foot into the floor causing one of the floorboards to seesaw and like a catapult shoot Spike, who was on the other end, straight through the roof and out of sight.

"SPIKE!!!!" Rarity shrieked as she ran outside, trying to find him.


#


Meanwhile at Sweet Apple Acres Applejack was having her own conflict with the invaders, while the rest of her family hid in the barn, she and her brother Big Macintosh her facing the Changeling, Dripfang, and an albino Pegasus who had a wooden cog for his cutie mark, work a dirty brown vest and had two limbs missing that were replaced with a rusty looking hook and a peg leg. 

"Alright ya varmints! Y'all better stay back or we're just goin' to have ta throw ya off our property!"

But that only made the attackers laugh.

"HA! You might as well tell T-Cog here to regrow his limbs!" Dripfang smirked. "Besides I want a little payback for what you did to me, remember that little wedding in Canterlot? You gave me quick buck to the chops.”

"HA! I knew it!" Applejack snapped. "I knew Chrysalis had something to do with this, I knew it the second you revealed yer true form."

"Dream on cowgirl," Dripfang said with an evil grin. "My old queen may have been good, but now Dripfang's got a better crowd to hang around. Do your thing Cog!"

"Aye-aye partner!" T-Cog said as he raised his hook. "It's time to let ol' Betsy have some fun!"

"FIRE!!!"

Instantly like a powerful grappling gun, T-Cog's hook shoot out of its base directly towards Applejack and Big Macintosh, luckily they managed to jump out of the way before it hit them.

"Missed us," Applejack said smugly

But Dripfang's smile only grew wider.

"Did he?" he said

At first, Applejack and Big Macintosh had no idea what Dripfang was talking about, suddenly they noticed something odd. Even though the hook was missing from the wooden based that replaced T-Cog's front right hoof, it was still attached by a long metal cable while the actual hook was now impaled through the top of the barn door behind Applejack and Big Macintosh

"It is all for one and one for all," T-Cog comically sung "Sorry young lass but it’s time for us to bring on the wall!"

Suddenly without warning, both T-Cog and Dripfang yanked on the cable with all their strength and in a matter of moments, the large barn doors was ripped off its hinges and came crashing down and before they could even move, fell atop Applejack and Big Macintosh.

"You think they're alright?" Dripfang asked T-Cog.

But the T-Cog didn't even have to respond as both of them could clearly hear the muffled groans from underneath the door. Retracting his hook, T-Cog led the way into the barn, although the rest of Applejack's family was nowhere to be seen, it was quite clear that they were still in there to the invaders. Suddenly they're attention was directed towards a small stack of barrels in the corner of the barn.

"Could it be?" Dripfang said as he pried open one of the lids.

"Yes it is!" T-Cog gasped as he inhaled the sweet aroma of the golden liquid inside. "Cider!!!"

"Come on, let's grab a few barrels," Dripfang said as he began to roll one towards the door. "I know a few shipmates that will be quite pleased with what we're bringing back."


#


Meanwhile back in Canterlot the Unicorn thief was finishing up his work, as Twilight and Princess Luna stood there frozen on the spot, watching as he counted the Elements of Harmony floating into his satchel, a large toothy smile spread across his face.

"You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment," he said to them as he placed the fifth element into his satchel. "All the years I have spent researching these relics, every painting, every manuscript, all of them pointed here. Oh fear not, I only wish to keep them for a short while, I know how important they are to the you all here in Equestria. Oh and before I forget…”

Suddenly the magic in the thief's horn began to pulsate and glow and Twilight’s crown and sixth Element of Harmony levitated off her head and towards the inside of the thief’s satchel.

“Can’t forget this one.” He chuckled.

As an angry Twilight screamed in rage through her closed teeth, the thief only chuckled and once again his horn began to glow, suddenly a small portal appeared in front of him.

"Well ladies I got to go, it's been fun though right?" he said as he listened to the unintelligible shrieks from his frozen captives. "Of course I can't say for you since I can't understand a word your saying. Either way I certainly had a good time. Do tell Princess Celestia I said hello… oh silly me, I'm so well known throughout the rest of the world I always forget to introduce myself… Ladies, you shall always remember this as the day that you met the great…Captain…Jack…Silver!"

And with a sinister laugh, he jumped into the portal which then closed behind him, leaving Twilight and Luna alone in the vault.