“Thanks,” says Jade, she staggers a little as she steps onto the dock. The harbour is just as busy as every other time the crew has been there. Crowds of ponies rush to and fro trying to keep up with their daily activities. Though it appears that Misfortune is attracting a little more attention than needed. It’s not too often that a pirate docks in Hayvana.
“No problem,” Captain replies.
“No problem? You freed me from pirat… other pirates, you have me patched up. Then you drop me off in Hayvana, a place famous for executing pirates. If you ask me, I’ll say that’s a little work.”
“No, it was no problem.”
“At least let me pay you back.”
“Buy me rum if I ever come back, and I’ll call it even.” He watches her limp down the dock. Out of the corner of his eye he stops a group of soldiers coming out of a street and towards him. “Loose the sails, let’s get back to Neighsau.” He walks over to the helm, sparing a glance at the group. I wonder if he knows that I’m here...
“Good work crew,” he says once they’re out of the harbour. “Tonights drinks are on me.”
Ebony suddenly remembers the conversation she had this morning. “Sorry guys, the tavern’s closed today.”
“What?! B-but what about my rum?” Captain says with a look of utmost despair.
“Yeah, we need to have our rum!” Smokey complains.
“You two have a very serious drinking problem,” states Starry.
“But, I still need to beat Twigs at a drinking contest!”
“I still don’t understand how you lose in the first place.”
“Ebony, are you sure that it’s closed?” Captain asks.
“Yes.” Captain falls to the deck of the ship and begins to cry. “She should be back tomorrow.” He immediately stops crying and grabs the helm once again.
“You should have said that before.”
“I wish to correct my previous statement. He’s an alcoholic, you’re the one with a very serious drinking problem,” Starry says.
“Are we there--”
“If you dare say it, I will throw you off the ship!”
Captain pauses from a moment as he thinks of something. “Fair enough, are we there yet?” Before he knows what’s happening, he finds himself in the water.
Ebony quickly enters ‘The Lucky Mare’ and slams the door before anyone could see her. She looks around the dark interior, then takes a deep breath. I don’t need Captain knowing I have the key to this place, she thinks. A ring of green fire surrounds her as the disguise drops. She opens the door behind the counter and goes up the stairs. She flops down onto Rose’s bed, she shouldn’t be back until tomorrow, and this bed is a lot comfier than the makeshift thing.
She curls up under the blankets, I wonder what he’ll do next. The crew seems to be getting a lot more used to each other, in Starry’s case I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. Well, I’ll give her props for having the guts to actually throw him off, especially since she know he could kill her in a second.
An image of the green mare flashes through her head. Captain certainly is an odd one, taking on a crew of twenty with only four, just to save some random stranger. Then he sails into Hayvana harbour without changing the flag or sails, to let her off. I ould never have guessed that a pirate like him exists, wonder why he does all that though. Her eyes drift closed as sleep takes over.
She wakes to ray from Celestia’s sun shining through the window, giving the room a soft glow. She quietly lay in the bed warped in the warmth from the sun and the comforting feeling of hooves wrapped around her waist. She could simply spend the day like this. However that comforting feeling is quickly replaced with panic, rage, frustration, and embarrassment. She turns around to face the cream colored pony, and roughly shoves her off the bed. Rose lets out a little yelp before she hits the ground with a hard thump.
“Goodmorning to you too, sweetie,” she mumbles from the floor.
“Why were you cuddling me!”
“Hey, you were the one in my bed, you were just asking for it, sweetie. That and you looked so cute, and cuddleable when you were asleep.”
I guess she has a point, on the first part at least, she thinks, but dares not admit it. “Why do you always want to cuddle me?”
Her head pops up above the edge of the bed. “Sweetie, I wanted to do so much more than just cuddle with you, but I was too tired,” she says with a wink.
A blush comes to her cheeks, “Would you stop trying to cuddle me? Wait, why are you back? Didn’t you says you were going to be back later today?”
“Oh, uh… the host kinda got drunk… then passed out. So the party was canceled.”
“Okay… but you still have to explain why you’re rich.”
“I thought I already did that.”
Ebony lets out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, explain Prance.”
“My full name is Rose Wine, I’m originally from Prance. Even there my family were nobles. When I was old enough, my parents saw fit to give me a winery.”
“Your parents gave you a winery for your birthday?”
“Yeah, that’s the basic idea of it. Once I had made enough money I bought a second. After that I decided to move to Equestria, at the time my Grandmum was here. I bought several bars and restaurants, since I could provide them with wine. Then I inherited ‘The Lucky Mare’, and here we are.”
“How rich are you?”
“I have enough money to buy this town. If you want, I could spread the wealth with you, but you’d have to ‘earn’ it,” replies Rose as she climbs back into bed, trying to wrap her hooves around Ebony.
Ebony jumps out of the bed before she could be caught. “No thanks, we’ll do perfectly fine on our own.”
“Wait, I want to cuddles more.”
“No, would you just stop that already?!”
“If you want I could invite Captain over for cuddles as well.”
Ebony freezes as her blush turns to a brighter red. “Uh… w-wha… um…” She bolts out of the door for lack of a better response.
“You forgot your disguise,” Rose yells at her.
Ebony runs back into the room in a burst of green flame. She goes straight for the mirror to check the disguise.
“Cheeks are too red.”
Ebony is gone before her roommate could harass her more. Leaving Rose rolling on the bed laughing as hard as she can.
Ebony stands at the counter of the tavern again, scanning the crowd of ponies. She quickly spots out Smokey, Arrel, Howler, Twigs, and Captain. She is starting to get more and more use to this place. The smell of old booze and sweaty pirates. The yelling, shouting, laughing, storytelling, and pirates singing cheerful shanties. It is all starting to feel a little like home to her.
“Hey Ebony, how’s it going?” asks Captain.
“Alright, had a bit of a bad morning, but asides from that I’m fine. How about you Captain?”
“I’m great, I finally can have some rum!”
“Hey, sweetie, I have a question to ask you,” Rose says.
“What is it?”
“Well, me and Ebony were wondering whether you wanted to join us--” She is tackled to the ground by the disguised changeling. Ebony plants her hoof firmly over Rose’s mouth.
“What was that?”
“It was nothing, it was nothing, just ignore her, I think she’s going a little crazy,” Ebony quickly says. Captain shrugs and continues to drink his rum. Ebony removes her hoof, only to see Rose smiling up at her. “Shut up.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything, I was just going to ask him if he want to join me on a trip to Kigerston.”
“As if.” She turns toward Captain. “So, what are we going to do today?”
“Nothing, I plan on upgrading the ship later today.”
Arrel comes walking up to the counter. “Hey Rose, did you see Starry lately?”
“Sorry, you just missed her. She was in earlier asking whether I had any interesting news.”
“Oh…”
The door bursts open, and a group of ponies (and one minotaur) come walking in. The sounds throughout the tavern quickly die out at the arrival of the newcomers. The group is made of one white female pegasus with a mane made of two shades of red with a long scar along her right shoulder. A pale blue unicorn stallion with a yellow mane, a dark brown earth stallion with a red mane. A green earth mare with blonde mane, and a large male minotaur. “Well, looky here, if it isn’t the traitor.” Arrel’s eyes go to the size of pinpricks. He doesn’t turn around, he doesn’t have to, he remembers those voices well enough to know who they are. Did they come for me? he thinks. “What, have nothing to say to your old crew?” taunts the green mare.
“Old crew, do you know them Arrel?” Ebony asks.
“Traitor…” Captain mumbles.
“And you never told them about us?! Don’t begin the think you can turn your back to the past like that. It can’t make up for what you’ve done,” says the mare. “Can you imagine our surprise, to find a worthless traitor like you. When we come here from a completely different target. You know when we’re done with him, we might come back for you.”
Captain stands up from his stool, and stares down the mare. “Can you please shut up? I don’t like it when some pony insults a member of my crew.”
The green mare doubles-over laughing. “You, you’re a captain? Let me guess, your name is captain Flamingo.” Her laughter slowly dies down to a few chuckles, before long her face is completely serious again. “You might want to get rid of him now before he betrays you.” A few tears start rolling down Arrel’s cheek. “He’s a traitor of Celestia’s Royal Navy, he turned inf--”
“I don’t give a buck,” Captain states bluntly. Arrels attention snaps to his captain. “I don’t care if he betrayed the navy. He’s a good pony, he’s a great scout, and fighter, and I won’t get rid of him no matter what you say.”
“Yeah but he betrayed us, his friends, if he did that to us imagine what he’ll do to you, his new crewmates.”
“Again, I don’t give a buck. As you said before, it’s in the past. I don’t think he’d be willing to do it again.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Captain, please stop,” Arrel says in a quivering voice. “They’re right, I am a traitor.”
“So does that mean you’re going to come with us?”
Captain draws his sword, in a corner of the tavern a diamond dog gets up and draw out his katana. Smokey levels a double barreled pistol at them. “If you want him you’ll have to take him.” Several more swords and pistols are drawn throughout the tavern.
“Wait, don’t kill them,” Arrel shouts jumping in between the group and the rest of the tavern. “I don’t want anyone to die because of me,” he says looking towards the group, the white pegasus looks away.
The mare looks around the tavern with an annoyed glare. She opens her mouth to say something, but is cut off. “That’s enough! We’re not here for him, and he isn’t a target,” the brown stallion says. He glares at the mare and says, “We’re leaving, the longer we spend here the further away our target may be.” He turns and leaves the rest of the group quickly follow.
“Arrel, I think you should tell us what that was about,” Captain says.