Chapter 2: Fish Out Of Water
"We're dead! We're dead! We're dead! We're dead! We're so dead!...Uh, I mean, nopony panic!" Rainbow tried her best to control her fear as she and her friends were locked away inside the dank underbelly of the Queen Chrysalis's Revenge.
"How can this happen?!" Twilight pondered anxiously. "My magic didn't even phase him! Maybe he really is Blackmane. Could this be some kind of ghostly magic I'm not aware of?"
"I don't know and I don't care!" Applejack stomped her hoof. "We gotta find a way out o' here! I ain't gonna be a sea wench to nopony!"
"I couldn't agree more." Rarity replied. "We have to escape before I pass out from all this filth!"
"Help...me."
The ponies looked around after hearing a very faint voice. "Did you hear that?" asked Rainbow.
"Oh my gosh!" whimpered Fluttershy. "It's a ghost! This ship is haunted!"
"Yeah, we kind of established that, Fluttershy." Twilight said.
"Oh...right..." she blushed.
"Help...me!" squeaked the faint voice again.
Twilight looked about the lower deck through the darkness. She couldn't make out anything other than stacked casks, cannons and hammocks. Then, she utilized an illumination spell to bring out more detail. And that's when she saw it.
"Help...me!"
Over by the starboard wall, a large cage sat almost unseen between two high stacks of crates. The voice was coming from inside the dark prison, and after approaching slowly, Twilight was shocked to find a mare lying on the floor inside. The pony was struggling to even say the simplest cries of distress.
"Help...me...please!"
"Oh my goodness," gasped Twilight. "Are you okay?"
The weakened pony was a young gray unicorn mare with a long dark green mane and bright orange eyes, who was about Twilight's age. She made no effort to get up as she lay half covered by a dirty tarp. She began to breathe quickly in short gasps and strained to keep her head raised. The poor prisoner only gave one word in a faint whispering response. "Water!...Water!"
Quickly, Twilight turned aside and found a cask of what she hoped was water. She levitated a bucket inside and scooped out the liquid after checking that it was not just alcoholic. She slipped the small bucket between the cage bars and rested it in front of the withered mare.
She looked back up at her with weak yet overjoyed smile. "Thank...you." But she did not drink the water.
Instead, the downtrodden mare lifted the tarp over her body and revealed not two hind legs and a flank...but a fish tail. Twilight and company gawked, trying to make sense of what they were seeing, and making sure it was not just a fish's tail attached to a pony's body. The unusual mare then sat up and splashed the bucket of water onto the strange appendage. The green scaly tail wiggled in reaction to the cool sensation from the splash, proving that it was not just a costume. It then seemed that the pony was quickly regaining her composure as she sighed with relief and spoke in a clearer, yet gentle breathy voice similar to Fluttershy's.
"Ha, that feels so much better." She relaxed.
Rainbow's face was riddled with shock. "Wha- is- I- but- eh-"
Twilight rubbed her eyes and spoke. "You're a...you're a...a mermare!"
The creature looked at her tail awkwardly. "Oh yes, I guess that's worth mentioning."
"A mermare?" repeated Applejack. "I thought those were just a myth!"
"No, I assure you," the mermare replied. "We merponies are quite real."
"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder!" uttered Rainbow.
"Well, how did you get yourself on this ship?" asked Twilight, trying to accept the reality of what she was seeing.
The mermare then looked down, lost in a bad memory. "It was dreadful. I was out swimming near a coast far away from my home, when I saw this ship sailing by. I hopped up onto a rock to get a closer look, but then I saw that the ponies on board spotted me and began chasing me, throwing nets in the water. I tried to swim away, but I was quickly caught and thrown into this cage. That's when I overheard Blackmane and his crew talking about...about..." she started to quiver with horror. "Selling me at a fish market! Ever since, they've given me little food and hardly enough water to breathe. I've lost track of how long I've been in here."
"You poor thing!" frowned Fluttershy approaching the cage. "It must have been so awful."
"That tears it!" growled Rainbow out of nowhere. "This Blackmane scumbag is really getting my goat! If he thinks he can just trap innocent mares in here, he's gonna have to put up with me!"
"I can't believe I'm sayin' this, but Rainbow's right!" Applejack then walked over to the cage and busted the lock with a swift applebuck. "Wer not gonna let this pirate pony keep us cooped up in here. We gotta escape, and we're bringin' this mermare with us!"
"Will you really help me?" asked the mermare with newfound hope.
"Of course," smiled Twilight. "We just leave you to suffer any longer. I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way; what's your name?"
"Shelly; just Shelly." She smiled lightly, then flopped like a seal out of the cage on her two hooves and tail.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! You may not have realized yet, but you're my first ever fishy friend!"
"Uh...thanks?" shrugged Shelly.
"Um, not to be pushy," said Fluttershy. "But how are we going to get out of here exactly?"
"Well, if I can't take down a smelly zombie with a peg leg, then there's no hope for my magic." Twilight admitted. "But it doesn't look like these pirates are doing much to keep us locked up."
"That's because they'll be down here any minute to flirt with us and spread their filth!" retorted Rarity.
"And that's where you'll come in, Rarity." Twilight smiled.
"...Excuse moi?"
"All you have to do is give them a little of your famous charm and those pirates will be easily distracted. Then we'll steal back a lifeboat, and row our flanks out of here! Don't worry, I'll levitate you back in with us once we're far enough."
Rarity sneered. "You expect me dangle myself in front of those disease-ridden mongrels?! Surely you jest, Twilight! I am no cheap window model for a bunch of lowlife sea scoundrels to gawk at!"
"Oh come on, Rarity," Rainbow rolled her eyes. "You won't have to do it for long! It won't even take much to keep those thugs preoccupied."
"There is absolutely no chance!" scoffed Rarity. "I have been frying in the hot sun, surrounded by stinking stagnant fish water, no offense to you Shelly, and mentally felt up by savage sea rogues! I deserve a little sympathy!"
"You know," said Shelly. "If you guys help me out of here, I'll repay you with some pearls from the sea."
Rarity paused her rant. "...Pearls?"
"Oh yes," nodded Shelly. "There's an entire gathering of oysters where I come from, and they produce hundreds of the purest and shiniest peals a day!"
"...Well what are we waiting for?!" sprung Rarity with sudden glee. "I've got some pirates to tease!"
"Wow, how'd ya know she'd buy that?" Applejack asked Shelly.
"She just seems like the type who likes pearls." She answered.
After mentally preparing herself, Rarity lifted up the hatch to the boat deck a crack and peered around. Sure enough, twenty something pirates were attending to their daily duties of swabbing the deck and rigging the lines; the ship seemed to be moving at a steady speed. Rarity gulped and whispered to herself.
"It's for the pearls, Rarity. You gotta want it!" She then stepped out of the hatch and immediately caught the attention of the crew. "Yoo-hoo, hello sailors!"
The pirates stared at Rarity bug-eyed and became quickly aroused. They surrounded with her with drooling smiles. Rarity sugarcoated the flirting with a toss of her mane out of her face. "Can you big brave seamen tell me when we next make port?" she asked in filly-like voice. "I'm afraid I don't have my sea legs and I feel a bit...woozy!" She then mocked a fainting motion with her hoof on her forehead and struck a racy pose lying backward. The pirates began to cheer and whistle, begging for more.
Meanwhile, three more of the prisoners crept out of the hatch with Rainbow giving the all-clear. Together, Rainbow, Applejack and Twilight tiphoofed to an overturned jollyboat and began lifting it off its stand. But then as Applejack and Rainbow began hauling the dinghy, Twilight's eyes drew to the back of the ship. She noticed an opened door leading to what appeared to be private quarters. A look of intrigue grew on her face.
"Hold on, guys," she said in a hushed voice. "I'm going to have a quick look."
"Twi, are you out o' yer mind?" hissed Applejack. "If we take any longer they'll hear us!"
"I'm just going to find out how exactly how Captain Blackmane got here in the first place." She then stubbornly crept over to the opened door and did a double-take before entering and closing the door behind her.
Inside the darkened room, the floor was crowded with fancy silken furniture and piles of gold and silver trinkets and antiques. Navigation charts and rows of books lined the walls and collected dust under low candlelight. But despite being a bookworm, Twilight's focus was on the desk by a large panoramic window, which she presumed belonged to the captain himself. She approached the desk and skimmed through the unorganized open parchments that featured more sea charts and journal entries. With scholar's intuition, she levitated a random sheet and pondered to herself, trying to pry any sort of useful information from the captain's scribing.
"What could this be?" she asked herself before flipping the paper over to find more info. But before she continue searching, an unwanted voice startled her from behind.
"Tis mighty rude to spy on the captain's charts, lassie!"
Twilight gasped and spun around as she saw Blackmane standing in the doorway with a yellow toothed grin on his face. She tried to search for an opportunity to escape, but before she could even move a hoof, the dread pirate drew a large cutlass and pointed it at her as he stalked closer.
"Ya thought you could escape that easily, unicorn?" he growled. "I have every square inch of this ship watched over!" He approached Twilight and rested the frightening sword by her neck.
Twilight refused to buckle down. "You can't keep us here forever, Blackmane!"
"Quite right, missy!" Blackmane grabbed her in a hostage hold with his sword pointed. "At least not all o' ya! I think I'll show ya what became of yer little escape plan!" He then led her outside onto the boat deck.
To Twilight's shock, she saw Fluttershy, Pinkie and Shelly being held at sword-point by Blackmane's crew; yet there was no sign of Applejack, Rainbow, or Rarity.
"Take a good look, Ms. Sparkle!" smiled Blackmane as he pointed his sword out to the starboard side. "We already took good care o' yer two grunt workers. And your little flirtin' jezebel will be joinin' 'em!"
Twilight gasped as she looked out in horror. The ship was steering away from a tiny speck of an island with only a few palm trees for vegetation. On the sand, Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity were crying out in distress as the Revenge left them behind.
"Twilight! Help! Do something! Come back! My mane!"
"Oh no! What have I done?" grimaced Twilight then face Blackmane. "Why did you leave only them? You know Rainbow will just fly back."
"Oh don't ya worry," replied Blackmane with a smug look. "We took the liberty of chainin' the blue one's wings up with a padlock. She and the orange one were too tough to keep under our control; and the white one wouldn't stop whinin'! So we marooned them with no provisions on our secret maroonin' island!"
"Uh, cap'n," said one of the pirates. "How is it a secret island if yer tellin' 'er about it?"
"Shut up ya bilge rat!" barked Blackmane. "I'll give ya the cat o' nine tails for backsassin' me!"
"Yes sir, sorry sir!"
The captain continued his monologue. "But I won't be lettin' the rest o' you go any time soon. Yer too smart to keep out o' me sight, Ms. Sparkle. So I'm givin' ya the esteemed privilege of bein'...the captain's wife!"
Twilight turned her face away in disgust at the very thought. "Ugh! Dream on!"
"And as fer that little seahorse ya let out of the cage, ya better get well acquainted with 'er pretty fast. Because she'll fetch a hefty price when we make port! Ar har har har har har!" The crew laughed along with him.
"Shelly," said Twilight peering over to her remaining friends. "I'm so sorry I got you into this."
"I don't blame you, Twilight Sparkle," replied Shelly. "I was doomed anyway."
"But don't be too dour, lassie." Blackmane lifted Twilight's chin. "It's been centuries since a mare has been made the captain's wench. Now, give us a kiss."
Twilight desperately pushed her face away to avoid the inevitable grimy, smelly experience. But before the captain's hairy lips could reach her, Pinkie's voice was heard from afar.
"Avast ye landlubbers!"
Everypony turned upward at the top of the main mast. There, perched on the crow's nest in a heroic fashion, Pinkie made herself heard, as she wore a striped sailor's shirt, a bandana over her head and an eye patch. She swiped the air with a sword while grabbing a sail line.
"Unhand me maties, or prepare to be swashbuckled!" she announced proudly.
Twilight slapped her face. "Pinkie, why? Just why?!"
"How the blazes did she get past us?!" yelled Blackmane at his crew. "And where did she get that sword?!"
"I don't know, sir," replied a crewmate. "It's like she has supernatural powers!"
"Attack!" With a wild battle cry, Pinkie leaped from the crow's nest and swung on the rope over the pirates' heads, swinging her sword randomly.
"Stop her, ya filthy swabbies!" ordered Blackmane as his crew chased after the pink swashbuckler who swung from mast to mast.
With her captor distracted, Twilight broke from Blackmane's grasp and kicked him down. "Fluttershy! Help me get a boat!"
As the chaos ensued, Fluttershy hovered anxiously and watched the crowd of angry pirates. "Oh gosh! Oh gosh! What do I do? What do I do?! I'm going to be sick again!"
"Just come over here!"
With the captain incapacitated and the crew distracted again, Twilight and Fluttershy attempted to push the overturned jollyboat which had been moved by Rainbow and Applejack. Miraculously, they nudged the tiny boat into the water right side up and hopped in.
"Come on, Pinkie!" called Twilight.
Immediately, Pinkie ceased her dramatic ruse on the rope and jumped into the boat with a thud. She sprang up with her usual smile. "Whoo! I've always wanted to do that! Alright, let's go!"
BOOM!
Suddenly, a leak sprang up from the bottom of the jollyboat. Water quickly began flooding inside making the boat sink inch by inch. The three ponies looked up in surprise as Blackmane stood at the edge of the Revenge in a captain's pose, with his hoof on a smoking swivel cannon that had been aimed at the small craft. He looked at the mares with a calm yet irritated smirk.
"Don't bother dryin' yerselves off, lassies." He simply put.
After about an hour of sailing, the Queen Chrysalis's Revenge had gone far enough away from the marooning island where they could not find it again. Once again, Twilight found herself along with Fluttershy, Pinkie and Shelly in the same predicament, as their hooves were bound in ropes; Twilight's horn was stuck with a cork on the end. Shelly raised her eyebrow at the three land mares.
"Um, just curious, when were you guys planning on helping me back there?" she glowered.
"Oh, sorry, heh heh," chuckled Twilight sheepishly. "I guess we're just not used to it."
Blackmane paced in front of them with a sneer. "So, it seems that none o' ya can be kept quelled. Ya couldn't just be good little fillies and do as the captain said!"
"I'll be good!" Fluttershy pleaded.
"Fluttershy, shush!" nudged Twilight.
"Well it don't matter now." Blackmane resumed. "Ya've passed up a rare opportunity to be our consorts. So I'm afraid it's the briny deep fer ya! Prepare to walk the plank!"
The three gasped as the pirates laid out a long plank over the side of the ship. With a poke of their swords, the crew prodded Twilight along, who then hopped with all her hooves tied across the plank with nowhere else to go but over. She looked back and glared at the captain.
"You'll pay for this, Blackmane! You'll see, we'll be back to stop you!"
"That's enough jibber jabber out o' you, lassie. And to think all ya had to do was kiss the captain. Oh well, over ya go!"
With that, the grumbling pirates poked Twilight along until finally, she was forced over the edge and into the sea.
"Twilight!" Fluttershy cried as her wings were bound.
"Yer next, quiet one!" said Blackmane. "Ya can't be trusted."
Fluttershy was next to be herded across the plank. Now unable to fly, she approached the edge of the board and stared over into the water. She squeaked in fright of the high drop and the fear of nasty fish lurking in the depths. Fluttershy turned back meagerly.
"Um, is it too late to be the captain's wife?"
Without a response, the pirates poked her flank one last time sending a squeak from her as she plummeted into the water.
"Alright, now the pink one!" ordered Blackmane. "Keep 'er steady, lads!"
Pinkie required extra security to be pushed off the plank. Her entire body up to her neck was wrapped in rope causing her to crawl along like an inchworm. Before she reached the edge, she gave one last remark.
"I just want to say that you guys are no fun at all! What kind of pirates don't swing on ropes?!"
Irritated by her voice, the pirates shoved her off the plank. She shouted as she fell. "CANNONBALL!"
With his prisoners finally disposed of, Blackmane turned to Shelly who still lay on the deck. "And as fer you, seahorse! I don't want to hear anymore complainin' when we make port. If ya try any funny business like those harpies, then I won't have any regret in makin' ya into sushi!"
Shelly lay defeated. She was still weakened from her dehydration, but there was no way she was going to let freedom pass her by. Summoning whatever strength she had left, Shelly charged the magic within her horn and focused as hard as she could.
"Come on, come on," she muttered. "Just this once!"
Unbeknownst to the pirates, her magic summoned the forces of the ocean bringing some sign of life forth and upwards to the surface. Just then, to Shelly's elation, a single starfish broke the water's surface and shot upwards and onto the ship. The five legged mollusk landed and latched itself to Blackmane's face. The captain panicked.
"Gah! Bloody heck!" he began to buck here and there. "Somepony get this bloody starfish off me bloody face! I bloody hate these things! Get over here ya scurvy dogs!"
As the pirates bumbled to help their paranoid captain, Shelly saw her one small chance at escape. She hobbled on her hooves over to the edge and slid overboard and into the water with barely a splash. Underwater, her gills began to fill up with sweet refreshing H2O and she became reenergized. Then, she immediately swam downward toward the three sinking land ponies. Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie were all puffing their cheeks with their last breath of air as they hopelessly tried to break their rope bonds. But in a swift flash of movement, Shelly swam by them, cutting the ropes with her horn. Then, she used her magic again to surround the three in separate white auras. When she was done with the spell, the land ponies suddenly all took breaths as if there were oxygen. Twilight was astounded.
"What the-? I can breathe?"
"You're welcome!" smiled Shelly proudly. "I used a spell that lets land creatures breathe underwater for the time being."
"Wow, this is amazing!" beamed Twilight. "You've got to show me how to do this!"
"Eh sorry, it's exclusively merpony magic."
"Oh my goodness, this is bad!" frowned Fluttershy. "Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity are stranded! We have to go help them!"
"I wish we could, Fluttershy," said Twilight. "But we've sailed out too far to know where they are. Don't worry, they'll be fine; so long as Rarity doesn't die of a frizzy mane."
"Well what do we do now?" asked Pinkie. "I can't just swim around underwater forever. Although it is fun!" she then performed some underwater flips and spins. "Whee! Look at me! I'm a seahorse! Flippy floppy!"
"Why am I strangely offended by that?" Shelly watched her in puzzlement.
"Well, if there's a renegade undead pirate on the loose, then I think we should take action." Twilight said then smiled. "And I think we'll have a little help from this." She removed the cork from her horn and activated her magic to create a protective bubble of air. Then she reached into her mane and pulled out something that she had smuggled. It was the parchment she had rolled up in Blackmane's quarters right before she was caught. Twilight encased the paper with the protective bubble and unfurled it, revealing a map.
"I saw this in Blackmane's study and read over it. It's a map to a secret island that he uses as a base to hide all his supplies and loot. If we can find this island and beat Blackmane to it, we'll be able to fight back and defeat him!"
"But Twilight," said Fluttershy. "I thought you couldn't defeat Blackmane."
"Not with my magic anyway. No, it looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way. If we're going to defeat pirates, then we have to think like pirates!"
"Now you're talking!" cheered Pinkie. "Argh! Get the anchors out o' yer pants, maties! We're settin' sail!"
"Not quite yet, Pinkie, although that impression was haunting. Shelly, you know the ocean better than all of us. Can you help us find this island?"
"Absolutely!" smiled Shelly. "After rescuing me from that awful ship, I am in your debt."
"Then let's get moving, girls!" grinned Twilight. "We've got some pirates to sink once again!"
"Ah! A sea monster! It's got me!"
"Fluttershy, that's just a piece of kelp stuck to your leg."
"...Oh...right...let's just go."