//------------------------------// // To The Skies // Story: Skeletons of the Past // by Sturrn //------------------------------// Chapter Fifteen To The Skies I reached for the strangely ornate door handle that had absolutely no business on a ship helmed by creatures without any fingers to speak of. Being that it was me reaching for the handle, the only logical thing that could happen was the door flying open and hitting me in the face. Simply on reflex I grabbed my nose and muttered a quiet and low, “Ow.” It didn’t hurt me in the least, but, it sort of worked like muscle memory. I’d been living with the notion that being hit in the face with a door hurt me, and even though that no longer applied the memory was still there. “Watch it, stowaway, officer coming through,” a rather snooty looking unicorn said, a cockney ‘I’m better than you.’ smile on the stallion’s face. He looked like the typical pampered snob, puffed up in a uniform covered by so much gold and royal purple that I couldn’t even see his body. The only thing I could see was a well taken care of brown mane and tail done up in a style that made him look like a pure, unadulterated, sissy. I quickly closed the door on said tail as he continued walking forward. He was jerked back onto the floor as his trapped tail refused to allow him to leave. He glared at me with nothing more than average annoyance. “I believe you closed the door on my tail.” His voice licked with a dense accent I was unfamiliar with, though the annoyance was perceptible. “Oh my, I didn’t even notice,” I replied sarcastically. “My apologies, you know how clumsy we stowaways can be.” He snorted indignantly as he got back on his feet and fired up his horn to open the door, which took the perfect opportune moment to open up. The door hit him square in the butt and caused him to faceplant beautifully onto the floor. A smaller pegasus stallion peeked out from the open door with a silly smile on his face. “Rose Thorn, what are you doing on the ground? You’re supposed to be grabbing the maps and inkwells.” The newly deemed Rose Thorn scrambled to his hooves and strutted away, but not before throwing me and the pegasus a glare so venomous it could strike an elephant dead. After a solid moment of apprehension I turned to find that my unknown ally was gone. “Hi there!” Precisely at that moment, my brain only registered two things. A loud noise, and that said noise was right next to my head. Obviously the only reasonable reaction I had was to jump back and wave my hands around in a stupid pseudo-form of karate. ‘As if I knew a single move...’ The weird “Hwaaa,” noise that usually accompanied it wasn’t anymore threatening in real-life life than it was in the movies. “Hah, you’re pretty funny.” The pegasus was hovering in the air on wings far too big for his body. He kept talking about something, and I think I heard my name a couple times but I sort of tuned it out, his wings were mesmerizing. On the scale of wing magnitude from Scootaloo to Celestia, he was sitting at the royal level. They were peach colored like the rest of his body, his mane was a messy, unkempt, mass of terracotta red with the only piece of clothing he had on being a checkered scarf. “My name’s Nappa.” He put a hoof my way. “You’re Rorke, right?” “Yeah.” I took his hoof in hand, the texture of it reminding me that my gauntlet wasn’t on. At the very least my wraps were still in place. “A lefty, huh?” Why Nappa started chuckling as we shook seemed to be beyond my reasoning however. “Why are you laughing? Am I supposed to extend my thumb thirty four degrees upward when I shake a pony’s hoof, or something?” He just chuckled more. “I’m sorry, but this has been happening all day and it’s kind of funny. When you shake a deck pony’s hoof you only do it with your left.” We both took our appendages back, but this tidbit of knowledge had me intrigued. Nappa started explaining before the question could even make its way out of my mouth. The whole thing was sort of a tradition among sailors. When pirates were still roaming the world and looking for prey, the royal marines and ponies of the Equestrian navy would greet suspected raiders with their left hoof, keeping the right on a weapon if the greeting wasn’t well received. In truth the whole thing was probably boring beyond belief but Nappa was quite the storyteller. I lost track of time, though not much had passed by the time he was done with the whole explanation. More guards in armor had come aboard, covering the ship with materials for the trip, and overall giving the impression of being pony-sized ants with some of the loads they were carrying. We were finally snapped out of conversation when a snobby voice, one that was fairly easy to recognize, came from behind me. “Nappa, the door.” Rose Thorn was closing in with a pair of saddlebags full of ink, paper, and quills; a bundle of hastily rolled up maps were also held in his magic. “Yes, Sir.” He barely flapped twice before having the door open and Rose Thorn being ushered inside. He had only just turned around to say goodbye before I grabbed the handle with a heavy grip. His eyes met mine in safe curiosity. “You need to talk to the Captain?” His voice picked up with a happy tone that just made me want to smile, if I could. “Just a little chat and then we can get to the fun and excitement of map examination.” I really hoped my voice sounded upbeat and not dull or threatening, Nappa just smiled though, and I was thankful for it. My voice had changed so much in such a short time that I could hardly believe it was still mine. I still sounded like an eighty-something, six-pack-a-day, smoker who couldn’t get the sand out of his throat. The whole thing was surreal but I didn’t dwell on it, even if I wished it would go back to not sounding like that. “Well lets get in there then.” Nappa said happily as I opened the door further and walked in. ‘Of all ponies that could have been inside...’ My fanboy alert started going off immediately as my eyes fell upon the form of Second best pony. His mustache and coat were a little out of sorts from the high winds in the clouds but still well kept. He was talking to the Captain, who he towered over, as they both started to look over one of Rose Thorn’s maps. “Oh, Rorke, this is Fancypants. He’s going to be ambassador aboard the ship!” Nappa exclaimed excitedly as he trotted over to the Captain’s side. At the mention of his name the stallion turned towards me and let his eyes keep climbing until they reached my face. A large grin worked itself over his face as he walked over to me, the Captain behind him keeping stoic at seeing me once more. “HEL-LO,” He shouted loudly, sounding out the words syllable by syllable. “MY NAME IS FAN-CY PANTS!” He gestured with a hoof toward me. “WHAT. IS. YOUR. NAME?” “It’s... Um, Rorke?” I said after a brief pause, feeling a little weird just standing there with my head barely bent downwards from the slight short ceiling. “Why are you talking like that?” I asked with just a bit of timidity, not sure if he would spend the entire trip talking to me like an idiot. Luckily, my fears were unfounded. Fancypants didn’t even show any hint or sign of embarrassment and simply brought a hoof up to readjust his monocle. “Quite sorry about that,” He replied in a softer tone as he corrected himself figuratively and literally. “No one plainly told me if you could speak Equestrian. No one has told me much really, this little expedition has been a real hush-hush ordeal.” He offered a hoof that actually came up further than any other ponies to date. I took it in claw and shook it firmly. “Well-” I began before being cut off by Rose Thorn. “That can be quickly remedied, Ambassador. If you take a look at the maps here we can convene this meeting.” Following the small bustle as everyone found a spot around the table, Thule unrolled a map that looked like it was ripped from a first grader’s coloring book. He gestured to the largest squiggly bit and swung his hoof to the right of it. “We are here,” Rose prodded what I assumed was the city we were floating above,marked with a simple dot, and traced a winding curve down to a green marked area with another dot on it as the Captain took over the explanation. “and we will be traversing the thermals from outer-Equestria as we trail to our last resupply point before the open ocean.” Thule cracked a smile as examined the map closer before whirling around and flipping through a calendar book behind him. “Ah!” He exclaimed excitedly poking the book several times as he turned back around to our small gathering. “If we maintain course, and keep schedule with today’s loading, then we should arrive at the mission station the day of Nightmare Night.” There was a loud cacophony as what I could only guess was the entire ship started ‘whooping’ and cheering in excitement. The five of us looked at each other, puzzled at how the crew knew to cheer until our collective gaze fell on Nappa. He looked at us in wonderment that we would take time to stare at him mid-meeting. “What?” He asked, oblivious, until he looked at Rose who was motioning for him to look down. He finally saw what we all had been looking at, that one hoof was placed flat across the ship’s intercom button. The large winged stallion chuckled nervously to himself as he slowly pulled away from the button. Thule and Rose Thorn loosed as large sigh together, Fancy Pants chuckled to himself quietly, and I just stood there being dead and what not. “Rose Thorn,” Thule barked with command intent. “Go outside and keep us on schedule, I don’t want the crew to disappoint themselves chatting about what they’re going to wear so much so that they don’t get to wear anything.” Thorn snapped a salute and a quick “Yes, sir.” Before making his way toward the door. “Take Rorke with you as well, I’m sure he would be excellent company.” The Captain had a smarmy little grin that made his order grate against me all that much more. Even with my limited interaction with the First Mate, I could tell this wouldn’t end well. He didn’t seem to like me and that just about makes it the easiest way to say I don’t like him. Also, he had a stupid haircut, so there’s that. The First Mate and I stepped away from the table at the same time, eyeing each other with no small amount of trepidation in our movements as we made for the door side by side. I went for the door handle just in time to see it grasped in magic, not even a second after that my vision was filled with wooden planks and the gilded edge of a door to face. A snap decision of self-preservation saw a wrapped hand of mine grasp the door not even a centimeter from my face. It was pure reaction that stopped me from having a second helping of door for the day. Needless to say I felt a little more than badass for catching it, right up until I realized I had launched my boney fingers straight into the door itself and now had approximately three of my claw tips stuck in the wood. ‘I would say me and the door are one-for-one right now, but getting your hand caught in a chunk of oak is kind of a match ending point.’ I tugged on my hand a few times, just to see if it was easily removed. It wasn’t. I tried wrenching myself from the door for a good half minute to absolutely no avail. All of this with Rose looking at me like an idiot. Finally, after way too much effort on my half, did he light up his horn and pull my hand free with a bit of magic. I mumbled my thanks, even if he was the one who got me stuck to begin with. His expression was stoic as he walked through the open portal. “Prick…” I muttered to myself, the old ego just took a hit and that soothed it well. I stepped through after him, but, stopped rather quickly, much to my companion’s dismay. I took in the great moving scene before me. A new set of ponies were boarding the ship, but these ones were distinct. Instead of the normal gold armor, or even the desert variant, these ponies were coming aboard in what amounted to armor fit for a tank, all of it unpainted grey. Stamped and inked onto the side of each set of armor was the phrase ‘Mobile Heavy Armor Corp: Seventh Division’. In contrast to the standard blue mane enchantment and openness of the golden armor; the heavy armor these ponies were wearing was almost entirely enclosed. If the royal guard was supposed to be an elite fighting force, then this was the real deal. “Come on, stowaway, I don’t feel like having a picnic.” His voice was partially drowned out by the noise of movement all around us as the crew, the soldiers coming aboard, and all the gear with them was loaded up. True to the Captain’s word, everyone in a crewman uniform was chatting each other up about Nightmare Night. Amid all the excitement I nearly lost Rose Thorn in the crowd. He kept weaving through the crowd with a state of ease that several feet of skeleton just couldn’t match. Eventually he finally lost me as we went below deck to escape the crowded top level, not the lower levels were much better. Ponies of all types gummed up the ship’s hallways with varying level of hurry in their stride. I couldn’t help but narrate my thoughts as I plied the hallways. “I wish these ceilings were just a little taller, this head bowing is getting annoying. The not-knowing-where-I’m-going thing isn’t much better, either.” I heard a sigh from behind me almost immediately. “Perhaps staying with me would serve you well then.” I turned around as more ponies passed by me. “Do you need to hold my tail so you don’t get lost?” As more ponies went past a few took the time to chuckle at my expense, I growled at them, which was kind of cool to hear. The noise also widened their eyes and put some pep in their step, so that was a bonus. “I think I’ll make due,” I replied. “Just as long as you don’t scamper off again. Long legs don’t do well amongst a horde of midgets that seem content to get under my feet any chance they can get.” He scowled at me and started walking away, his stride just as quick as before. I grabbed his tail and he stopped dead in his tracks. He turned his head back. “I was being sarcastic; or are you slow on the uptake?” His face was past mild annoyance this time and straight into full-on glare mode. “I could tell, but, it did seem like a good idea since you won’t slow down. I’m just glad you’re wearing a pretty concealing uniform or having your tail up this high might get a little awkward.” Scowling, and with just a tinge of red embarrassment on his cheeks, he pulled his tail away from me with a flick. He conveniently decided to walk slower as we went back down the hallway toward… wherever we were going. “Thule-” “That’s, Captain Thule, stowaway, he’s more than earned his command.” Rose interrupted with a voice cold like tundran ice. The intensity caught me off guard. “Sorry… I guess. Captain Thule sent us to keep the crew on track yet we left a room with a perfectly good intercom system to go where exactly? Seems a little redundant, if you ask me.” We weaved our way through several sets of corridors and hallways through at least three section of the ship and four deck, at least. All of this in complete silence, ponies of all uniform coming and going with the flow of bodies to get where we were all trying to go. “He needs a presence on top.” Rose uttered, out of the blue, as we turned another corner near a block of storage areas. Several ponies were milling about casually around stack of crates loaded with who knows what, making it seem like they were being productive. Rose Thorn, it turned out, was just a little smarter than that, or had the same trick used on him by the crew. He barked a few commands out as we were passing by that got them all moving. I thought on those few words for a time as we passed each compartment of the ship. That if he needed a presence up top, why send his second? Wouldn’t a leader be better suited to… leading? ‘That sounded bad, even in my head.’ After a marathon of hall walking we finally came out of the cramped sub-decks and into the cool sea breeze of the main platform. Surrounding us were more ponies in armor. It was actually starting to piss me off a little having to step around each of the little bastards. It actually seemed as if they were trying to get stepped on, luckily, before I had a skeletal aneurysm, we closed in on our destination. We had arrived at a door marked with a plain wooden sign as ‘sound’. Rose opened the door in a burst of magic and strolled into the partially lit room. As I walked in after him I noticed just how spartan the room was for something labeled as a sound room. Inside was a periscope, a microphone on a stool, and a pull cord hanging from the only light in the room. I pulled the door shut as Rose pulled on the light cord… with his mouth. ‘I’ll never understand how ponies can be any amount of clean when they have their mouths all over everything.’ The First Mate cleared his throat as he brought the periscope down and his microphone close. He peered into the scope before speaking, presumably to me. “Do you understand what I said before, about needing someone up top, and why the Captain couldn’t do it?” Truthfully, I still didn’t. Command structure, or really anything to do with command structure, was beyond me. “Not really, I still think think the intercom in the map room would have been just as good.” Saying that made me feel like an idiot but only because I was being folded into a subject I knew nothing about. The best I came to any of this in function was getting my gear in Canterlot and playing Starcraft at home. I had accepted my new role in life so quickly I didn’t even realized all the little things I was leaving behind. A pang of sadness hit me as Thorn started speaking again. “Captain Thule can’t be everywhere at once,” Rose explained, his eyes still locked to the parascope studiously. “It simply isn’t feasible for him to deal with every problem and duty on the ship. That’s why Nappa and I are needed. We put out the fires, keep the crew’s spirits up, and make sure the whole operation runs smoothly. Our Captain is too busy, with matters that actually require his attention, to deal with anything else.” I opted to say nothing as Rose continued on with his business. He pulled the microphone close and began, quite possibly, the funniest berating I’d ever had the pleasure of witnessing as an outsider. “Gooberson!” He yelled tremendously into the receiver. “Stop picking your nose and get back to work!” A scant few seconds passed before he began yelling with more vigour than I’d seen since meeting him. “That doesn’t mean you wipe your snotty hoof on that crate of hats, now wipe that up, grab that crate, and get it stowed away before I get a wet noodle on deck! You don’t want me to drive you with soggy pasta, it’s not a pretty sight, I must assure you of that notion.” I stood in complete shock as this lion-of-a-pony struck his crew into a frenzy the likes of which I had never seen in my life. As the minutes ticked by though I felt myself leave Rose to his work and walk outside to observe the results myself. The First Mate’s voice pouring into my ear as a vision of ant-like efficiency poured onto the deck. Supplies were being offloaded and stowed faster than they could be brought aboard by the pegasi flitting to and fro around the ship. Some of the things Thorn said were ridiculous, bordering on idiotic, but the crew heeded his silly words with reverence and stepped up their effort in concert. More than one pony was threatened with a lashing of the soggy pasta variety, but real orders came every once and while. Only after a short while did the supplies finally cease coming aboard. Everything the crew, and soldiers accompanying us, would need was now aboard and just needed to be stored in the decks below. I strode back into the sound room to see Rose pulling away from scope and adjusting his collar with a hoof. “I’m not entirely sure what that was, but it seems like it was the right move for everyone. The last of the boxes just got onboard and everyone is in a hustle to get us moving.” I was genuinely impressed by the stallion, he got the ball moving in the silliest way possible. ‘Because screw regular pep talks.’ “I should hope so, we need to be pulling away from the city in the next few minutes to stay ahead of schedule.” His finished with his collar and started putting up the scope and moving the table. “The whole shtick you gave was pretty cool too, really entertaining if you ask me.” I chuckled a bit, I didn’t think I would actually compliment him but it sort of came out of itself. It seemed that one of the knobs on the periscope was stuck because he was still fiddling with it as we spoke. “Thank you. I do strive for the betterment of stowaway opinions as I work.” There was no anger, no snideness or ice in his voice, just cut and dry, toned, words. That may have been what angered me more than anything. He was just so calm with an opinion that I was some dwelling rat, hiding in the narrow confines of his precious ship, and was to be run out like any other vermin. I payed him compliment and turns around to verbally spit in my face. Thoughts raced in my head as the door I had been holding opened was slammed shut with force enough to rattle the bastard’s table. “Okay, I’m done with this, what the hell is your problem?!” My voice booming in the small chamber as I stamped over to the stallion who had yet to even look up or acknowledge my anger. “I’ve done nothing to you that warrants any of this!” He continued his work on the scope as I raged on, the only notice that he was listening to me was a quickening of his breath. “I left Canterlot on YOUR Princesses’ orders, not mine. I left people that I cared about, friends, good friends, and for what? Now i’m stuck on a ship with your merry little band.” “A second with half a clue, the captain’s first mate has a chip on his shoulder like nothing else. Maybe we can talk about me getting shot or, perhaps, that I was strapped to a table waiting to have my bones sawzall’d open!” I took a breath of nothing, my tongue flicking over teeth that were not my own. I could almost taste the age of them and it was a pleasant notion that calmed my words. “I’ve had nothing but shit handed my way since day one.” The tips of my feet clacked against the wood of the floor as I walked closer to Rose, nearly hanging over his shoulder. “I don’t expect that to stop, it happens to everyone, but the stream of crap that follows me on this ship needs to stop, do you understand?” He gave no sign of such as he was nearly done with the scope. “I think we’ve come to an understand, if you would?” I put my left hand forward, it seemed like a good use of Nappa’s knowledge. The room was filled with a whirr as Rose’s scope knob finally spun into place and he stepped away. A part of me wished I had left before he had finished. His distant eyes seemed miles away and cold like nothing I had seen before. “You petulant child,” He spat with icy venom. “You have caused my Captain nothing but hardship since your arrival.” I almost wished he would yell but his voice kept calm and even. “You withheld information that was beyond importance to my Captain. Your actions have left no doubt in my mind that you are the worst kind of idiot. A fool with a bit of knowledge is the worst kind and I won’t let you tear my Captain apart with your idiocy. Just in the time you’ve been on board he has taken in more alcohol than I’ve ever seen in my time by his side…” “So he’s a drunkard?” Yep, definitely an idiot. I saw the kick coming, it was inevitable, what I didn’t see was him holding my limbs down with his magic. The frozen distance in his eyes was gone, I was up close and personal with fire incarnate. “I won’t let you destroy us.” He muttered quietly. “I will keep this ship untarnished, it’s crew, unblemished, and when I become Captain, it’s legacy will be kept whole and filled with words of glory.” He leaned in close to my face, peering into my empty skull. “I will give my life’s work just for the thought that the diarchy may look at upon a simple piece of paper with this ship’s name on it and smile knowing good has been done for Equestria.” The magic that held me still dissipated as the entire ship lurched forward. Rose Thorn leaned away from me and made for the door, stopping just short to turn his head back toward me. “I will take this ship to new heights, give it a name for everypony to learn, and I will do this, even if I must carry it to those unassailable heights myself.” Thoughtful silence hung over the room like blanket snow. Our thought must have differed greatly, or maybe not, I wouldn’t talk to him of it again, I knew that to be true. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t say for what I was apologizing for, but held onto it for my general trespassing. He didn’t react, his only movement being to open the door. “We have left our anchorage, the Captain will be expecting us.” He left me lying on the floor in a daze of thought.