The Purple Mare
Written by The Descendant
Inspired by an image created by KNA.
Chapter 3
The crew of Twilight's ship sprang to the railing.
The sounds of fighting had already begun to echo out across the waves as they had all gathered on the forepeak, as they leaned out wide across the starboard side in hopes of catching a glimpse of what was transpiring.
"We can't cheer," she said to them as she walked back and forth along the forepeak, "We can't risk giving away that we helped them. Meditate for them, if you wish, but keep looking like we're just as surprised as anyone…"
The crew looked on, their faces a sea of worry, concern…and perhaps more than a few betraying just a little smirk of vengeance.
Many bobbed their heads, their mouths moving in time with soundless words, their eyes closed as they concentrated on friends aboard the other ship…asking that if victory was not be that their transition to the Well would be painless.
Twilight's head swung slowly, almost imperceptibly. She followed the sounds that echoed through the city streets, watched as little puffs of smoke went up, heard the cries of soldiers running through the streets.
Twilight closed her eyes, pictured Applejack and her ponies making their way from the harborfront to the fortress gates.
In her mind she saw the quick spur darting in and about confused groups of Mah'Qua soldiers, watched as the sailors made their way up the High Street to the citadel beyond. In her mind she saw the soldiers dropping to the ground as the blood began to run into the gutters, as Applejack and her crew drew ever closer to the prison.
Bells were peeling now throughout the city, their clarion call reaching out to them even on the ship. Were, were the locals helping them? Were they rising up?
No, no…that would be too much to ask for. It wasn't time for that, it was not yet the time, not yet the time.
The sounds were approaching the citadel. Around its monstrous gates grew clouds of smoke, and sharp metallic sounds.
At once there was a flash of purple lightning, visible in a great arc even across the mid-day sky. It coursed alongside the great stone walls of the fortress, illuminated the face of the walls even as the afternoon sun beat down upon them.
Twilight allowed herself one quick smirk. Her one contribution to the raid had succeeded, and she felt the Deep Magic waft away through the city and out across the rippling waves to where the ship sat. It buffeted her face, and she took a deep breath of it, as though trying to regain that magic now spent…now spreading in a wave of magica vasto out into the rolling sea.
The gate, she knew, was gone…blasted out of this reality to wherever things go when Deep Magic assails them.
"They're in! Look!" called out the voice of one pony. Twilight opened her…eye, and began to look towards the fort once more.
Smoke was now rising from within the gatehouse itself. At once there was a shimmering effect, and even at the great distance that they were from the fortress they could see the flag begin to come down.
The Mah'Qua flag, its rusty brown field and white lettering, that hated flag, that flag began to descend the flagpole quickly and without regard to decorum and proper ceremony.
Aboard the ship the crew looked on with baited breath, ponies literally wrapping their forelegs around one another, pounding their hooves into the deck. Twilight bit her lip…
At once they cheered, and Twilight did not stop them. At the moment, she knew, those who defended the citadel had other things running through their minds than spying on a bobbing boat far out in the delta…
…she hoped that what was being run through their minds at the moment were swords, pikes, and spurs, but that was besides the point.
Instead she joined her crew in the cheer. Let them have this one instant, let them rejoice in seeing what they had been denied seeing for so long…what they might not see again.
Something else was moving up the flagpole.
It was crimson, and everypony…no, every Equestrian on the boat stood to see it, climbed the rigging to catch a glimpse of it.
At once a breeze drew over the delta, the harbor, the city beyond…drawing out the smoke, catching the banner that had so tenderly and carefully been lifted up the pole. The wind picked up, and caught what waited there.
The Sun and Moon Pendant, the flag of Equestria, lifted itself, and for a few happy moments it were as if the ghosts of all who had been lost were filling it, letting the city of Port-au-Prance once more sit beneath the happy folds of the crimson pendant, the half sun and moon upon it standing proudly as the twin tails flapped about.
It was obviously home made…nothing much to look upon under any other circumstance. Even from this distance its rough construction was evident, and Twilight laughed to herself as she imagined the lost figure of Rarity standing besides her on the deck, the pirate outfit of her own design laying across her.
"Yes, most proper," she would have said, that phantom, running her hoof beneath her chin, "Yet a touch…underwhelming. I do wish she would have commissioned me to work on the piece…"
To Twilight's left somepony began to sing "Beneath Sun and Moon". Soon others had joined in, and for a few lingering moments Equestria existed again. There was a happy breeze, the sun shined, and ponies…no, Equestrians of all types, be they pony, dragon, peryton or any other who believed in the lost magic, rejoiced in it.
Immediately though the singing stopped, the breeze died down, and the flag began to go limp.
The smoke rose up again, and a new sound filled the city streets. It rolled around, echoing off of buildings, flashing down the angular streets.
"Oh no!" sounded Violet's voice, the pony herself unseen in the crowded forepeak. Soon that sound, the sound of thousands of soldiers on the march, reached up the hill and moved towards the fortress.
Twilight bit her lip, closed her eye. In her mind she saw Applejack ushering the last of the prisoners out into the street, into the forelegs of the resistance fighters who whisked them away into hidden places of safety.
She imagined Applejack looking through them even as she helped them along, ushered them out of the fortress. Yet, even as she did so she wass looking past them, through them. At once her eyes lit up, and she flew in a leap.
Twilight felt the moisture come to her eyes, both of them, as in her vision she saw A.J. embrace her brother. Twilight smiles, saw the happy surprise that crossed his face as the gaunt figure of Big Macintosh, the lash marks still wet on his back, grabbed up his little sister and kissed and hugged her over and over, wheeled her about even as his legs wobbled in his weakened state.
Together they had come up from the prison, stood at the intersection of the street as Big Macintosh chided her for risking her life…and Applejack told him that Applebloom was safe. As Applejack gave her brother one more hug she pressed a sword or a spur or some weapon into his hoof, and as the soldiers appeared upon the High Street they placed their backs to the walls of the shops and began fighting. They fought to buy the sailors time, to let the other escapees flee down the shadowed corridors…
Twilight bit her lip harder, her face twisting as she imagined each sibling calling to the other, each demanding that the other leave…flee, live for another day, live for Applebloom…she bit it harder as she imagined each one deny the request, refuse to leave the other alone…
Twilight saw the soldiers fall in heaps, saw the street start to clog as entire companies of Mah'Qua light infantry fell to their spurs.
Too soon though the sky resounded with the hiss of arrows, and Twilight saw the Apple siblings crash against the walls…saw them struggle to stand, sees them fall and lay there breathing heavily as the shafts stand out from their flanks.
She saw them look into each other's eyes as three massive Mah'Qua, each one a huge berserker, stepped forward and lifted their axes high…
Twilight opened her eye, did not let the vision reach her. Instead she looked on with her silent crew as the smoke wafted over Port-au-Prance, as the winds died down again. Yet, she knew, trails of water were sliding down her face, each one as salty as the ocean that had now been robbed of a noble mare, a master pirate…and a dear friend…
All too soon the Sun and Moon Pendant was jostled, and soon it was dragged down just as spitefully as the previous tenant. At once the deep iron brown and white flag of the Mah'Qua was lifted over the charred fort.
Once again, Equestria died.
There was sniffling, some sad rolling stifled sobs among her crew.
"She…she," began Starfall, "She wouldn't have gone down without a fight…wouldn't have let herself be taken captive…"
"No, no she wouldn't have," agreed Twilight, "We can't mourn them now…we have to make ready, have to be prepared to finish the job…they can't leave ships in that harbor…look, the big frigate is on fire…"
The crew turned their heads from her to the harbor. There, amongst the chaos and the wreckage caused by the Parasprite's death ride sat a large ship, encased in a sheet of flame, the glow of it reaching high up the masts.
The crew smiled, almost began to cheer.
"We have to be ready!" she called to them, snapping them back to the earnestness of the situation, "If our count was right then there are two corvettes and a sloop in there as well, the one we saw herding the fishing boats this morning."
Her mind began to race, already putting her crew to work in her mind.
"In short we have three ships to beat, and in a matter of minutes they'll be exiting that harbor. All it's gonna take for them to come over here is one of them remembering that the Parasprite was lashed to us for a time. As soon as that happens we'll have visitors…"
The crew looked to their captain, saw her intensity, knew what they had to do.
"So, like we discussed, get the flags up, the anchors messed up, and everything looking lubberly and a mess. To stations."
At once her crew began to move, each member beginning to look to his or her duties.
Twilight slowly walked the deck, looking over the crew as they went about their tasks, watching their practiced proficiency.
There was a rustling overhead, and up went the signal flags. "I've fouled my anchor chains," they read, and she smirked at the half-truth behind it.
"Captain?" called a voice, and she saw an older unicorn stallion motioning to her from the rigging, "Captain, I've counted masts...one of the corvettes must have been caught up in it too, I don't see enough sails going up to account for two corvettes and the sloop…one must have burnt as well…"
"Good job, A.J., well done," she thought.
"Very well," she answered, "Very well Golden Spell. Is there any sign of movement from the harbor?"
"Yes Ma'am," answered Golden Spell. Twilight smiled to herself, noting how the image of a pony high in the rigging still looked so odd even after all this time.
"I see the sloop getting underway, the corvette is still raisin' sails…I think they're a little befuddled…but, yes, Ma'am they're on the move…"
"Good, alright then, everyone…now is the time…ready?" The crew looked to one another for an instant and then sped to nearby lockers and cases. They laughed to themselves as they prepared to partake of something that had been denied to unicorns, forbidden by the harsh law of the Mah'Qua.
"Hats," she said, and soon their identities were disguised. Now they appeared as earth ponies, the only ones who the Mah'Qua occupiers still allowed to sail.
There was movement of the corner of her eye, and Twilight turned to the railing, sliding up to it gingerly, now more cautious. Ships were indeed leaving the harbor.
She felt a twinge, and at once her eye, her torn one, felt dry again. She turned from the railing and called for her first officer.
"Starfall," she said, running the back of her hoof across her patch, "Tell me what you see…"
Starfall did an impression of a sailor looking unperturbed, watching as the other ponies began fiddling about with the anchor chains, calling to each other with curses and swearing in the language of ponies who had spent their life on the sea.
"It's the sloop, the local patrol boat," he said casually tossing his head about, "and a corvette…though it's a little charred looking, yeah, there's holes in the sails on their starboard. They must have just got it out in time."
"I have to get off the deck," she said, knowing that her coat color alone would be enough to attract their attention, that becoming an infamous pirate had already cost her that anonymity, "You have command…"
"Ma'am," he answered, "The poor bastards have us outnumbered."
Twilight tossed him a knowing smirk, then called across the deck in an authoritative tone.
"They're coming close, so…every non-Eque…" she immediately halted, rephrased her words, "Every non-pony needs to find cover."
In a motion she was heading for the cabin as the crew kept up the farce of working the anchor cables. Behind her entered the peryton, Glaesdir. She felt herself holding the door open a touch longer, hoping that…
…but he did not come, and instead the motion across the deck of a barrel spinning around on the forepeak indicated where he had taken to hiding.
Inside the cabin she found the nurse, Comfort, sitting over the still form of the little earth pony. Twilight grimaced as she looked at the massive welt that was forming on Applebloom's head.
"Is she alright?" asked Twilight to the harried pony who wiped the wet cloth across the unfortunate orphans brow.
"She'll be out for hours…I, I don't see any swelling along the spine, so, so that's good…" said Comfort, rummaging through her little medical bag.
"You know what to do if she starts to wake up during the action," said Twilight, running her hoof through Applebloom's mane.
"I, I…I don't like the idea…of injecting a little filly with…I…" stated the nurse.
"There's not much to like," interrupted Twilight, sighing, looking to the little unused bed, "about the whole situation."
Comfort went silent. "Glaesdir and I will tip these tables, give you something to hide yourselves behind if they start firing their ballistae," she said, motioning to the peryton, "But we're going to need you on deck as soon as the action ends."
Together the winged deer and Twilight set up a little fortress, stopping frequently to check through the spyholes to see if anything were happening on the deck.
They had completed their work with ample time to spare, and Glaesdir looked on as his captain crossed back and forth, anxious…worried…
Twilight sighed, danced her hooves across the cabin floor. She took another breath, went back and forth once more, stopping short of the windows. Her eye, the disfigured one, began to ache, and she fumbled along the shelf looking for her salve.
"Eez dis for what search, Cap'n?" came an unfamiliar voice. At once Glaesdir picked something up from the floor and held it to her in his mouth.
"Yes, yes, thank you Glaesdir," she said, taking it, turning from him to lift the patch, "You've been learning Equestrian Common?"
"Yee," he answered, not looking at her, giving her some measure of privacy, "Spehk, Spehk de dragon, e' 'ah been tutor, teach to speak, yes?"
Twilight finished rubbing the salve into the remains of her eye, let the coolness spread through it. There wasn't that much left in the tin. With a sigh she turned, and gave it to him, and the peryton placed it back on the shelf.
"Cap'n is…disturb, ummm… nervøse…nervous?" he asked as he turned back to her, as she had begun to pace once more, "Cap'n is been nervøse since lose eye…"
Twilight shuttered to a stop, unbelieving in the bold declaration. She spun to see if Comfort had heard it. The nurse however still sat over Applebloom, either intentionally ignoring their conversation or lost in her duties.
"How, how dare…" Twilight began, but soon stopped. The light hoof falls of the winged deer sounded so different from the regular hooves of her crew, and as he laid his head across her shoulders the weight of his antlers was transmitted to her, his jaw shifting in response to their weight.
"Spehk, he…he is worry over de' Cap'n. Powerful worry. But me, I know good Cap'n, serve wit' many…he, Spehk, he tells me of you, how it was for ponies before…"
Twilight stood there listening, something of the fear and doubt that had filled her over these last few years left her as the deer drew out some of those faults, as the world seen through the eyes of this other creature…this new Equestrian, comforted her.
He lifted his head from her, continued to tell her many things. About how the crew believed in her, how they had all been terrified for her after the failed attack on the frigate. How their hope had grown as Spike had lead her around the deck. How they had been so worried for her as she had begun to become more distant.
He shared with her his world, Cervia, that land to the north that Equestria had long sheltered. How they had suffered in the holds of the slave ships, what his rescue had meant to him personally. The peryton fought through his uncertain speech to remind her of who she was, the world she was serving, of a time when she and a dragon that loved her earnestly and completely sat in the shade of trees and flew kites under a divine sun.
"…if dere' is any who can make dat' world spin back, is Cap'n…dee' Purple Mare."
Twilight, the Purple Mare, lifted her head, nodded to him, and painted herself with certainty and a deep resolve.
Before long there were voices, and she drew her spur. Glaesdir did the same, and she pointed him towards one of the faux oak doors that lined the entrance to the cabin.
She took one quick peek out the window; saw the little sloop coming alongside the starboard…saw the large corvette slipping alongside the port. She thought of Celestia, the last time she had seen her sovereign, seen her about to face down the masses with a look of calm I her eyes, her sister Luna by her side.
Twilight affected her own certainty…the rest would be easy.
She nodded to Comfort and slid into the faux oak doors, looked out through the cleverly disguised screen into the cabin, listened to the muffled voices from the deck.
"The Fall Running out of Manehattan…yes, yes, Grand Mahghak City as I suppose you call it," called Starfall, answering the heed of some unheard voice, "We have papers…yes, of course…Wind Whistler, play him aboard."
Twilight focused on the sounds. Across the way there was slight rustle, and she knew Glaesdir was looking out through his disguised panel as well, awaiting her command.
At once there was a purr of a voice, haughty, judgmental, "Hah! You ponies did bugger it up! It is a poor sailor who can't keep his chains straight."
"Our papers are in the cabin, and the crew list," answered Starfall, dryly, "Shall I show them to you?"
"No," answered the Mah'Qua, his voice a confident swagger "But you can tell me why that ship pulled alongside yours today…"
Twilight imagined that the Mah'Qua had expected to surprise Starfall with the observation. She smiled to herself imagining his expression falling down into disappointment as Starfall recited the practiced lines without a hitch.
"At first they wanted to help us with our anchors, but when they saw that there was nothing to be done they just began giving us provisions and the like. They even left a passenger with us…"
"Really?" mewed the Mah'Qua voice, "Perhaps I will look the cabin over…meet this passenger…"
"She's…she's just a little filly, ill or hurt, we don't know…but I'll be happy…" added Starfall.
"No," called the Mah'Qua, "I'll do it myself…in case I find anything I like in the cabin…"
"Oh."
Twilight snarled at the pompous arrogance of whoever this voice was. She wondered if he'd have so much swagger if he didn't have two warships over his shoulders.
In a second she'd find out.
She charged her magic, began pulling at it from all directions, grasping at the invisible tendrils of it that still wafted silently around what was once Equestria, begged it to answer her.
It did.
At once the doors of the cabin came open, and she heard Comfort give a small gasp as the arrogant Mah'Qua and three of his sailors entered, letting the door slam behind them
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Comfort," she heard the healer call, "Comfort, I'm the ship's nurse."
"This is the garbage they dumped on your ship before running off?" he said, looking Applebloom over as the sailors, or in reality marines by their uniforms, began to rummage through the cabin.
Twilight scowled.
"She's not gar…" began a disgusted Comfort.
The arrogant Mah'Qua slapped the nurse across the head.
Enough.
At once Twilight burst out of the door, Glaesdir doing the same. Quickly and skillfully their spurs slid deep within two of the marines before they had even begun to turn, their lives stolen out of them in an instant.
Glaesdir had spun as the other marine had whipped his sword around in a wide arc, the blade catching the quick little peryton along his right antler, sending it spinning through the air.
Before it had even hit the ground Glaesdir's spur had cut a deep line across the marine's throat, the feline features of the Mah'Qua going wide as it gave one cackle and fell to the deck.
The arrogant Mah'Qua felt himself being lifted within a tomb of magic, resounding black magic that enveloped him, made him feel as though her were drowning in it. He gave one quick look to the mare before the magic began thudding him from post to pillar, dashing him against the furniture, beating him across the cabin mercilessly.
"That," said Twilight, stepping forward into the light of the windows that fell across the cabin, "was for making fun of my crew."
The feline eyes began to grow wider as something of a memory filled the Mah'Qua. As he looked upon Twilight he suddenly became very fearful, and he attempted to call out. Her magic squeezed the breath from him.
"This," she said, lifting her one eye to him from beneath the hat, "Is for beating my nurse."
Once more the magic flung him between the uprights, causing dust to fall from them as the air was repeatedly beaten out of him. His body made horrible sodden sounds with each impact, his fur tossing, his tail whipping.
As he fell to the floor his simpering began, a group of little cries of pain and fear.
"And this," she said, "Is for making a mess of my cabin…"
"No, no, please!" he called, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, "I'm just following…"
"You're under new orders now," she said, tossing aside her hat, regaining her breath. The use of this much magic, the attempt to draw what little there was left in what was once Equestria, would take a toll on her. She knew that.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Yes!" he cried, through his pathetic little cries, "Yes, you're the Purple Mare…the Purple Mare."
"What is your name?"
"Commander Dju."
"Dju, your life has only one purpose now…the better you fulfill that purpose the longer you live. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
At once his body was no longer his own. Twilight began a very deep and very powerful spell. She took control of his body, his tongue, and his mind.
It drained her to make him move, every step was difficult. Yet, she thought of Celestia, Luna…how they had given all, and the rest became easy.
The door of the cabin came open, and as a thin carpet of purple magic slid unseen along the deck Twilight propelled Dju's body forward until it reached where the crew of the ship still worked on the anchor chains.
Starfall looked on as the Mah'Qua, Commander Dju, waved to both his crew on the sloop and the captain of the corvette.
"They're papers are in order…my marines are, searching, for anything they might…find interesting," called Twilight, usurping Dju's lungs, voice, and body.
Dju turned back to look out over the sloop, his imprisoned eyes wanting to go wide, Twilight forcing them to look casual. She looked at Starfall, saw him looking to the big cat.
"I have him, Starfall," came Dju's voice, dripping from his possessed body, "Move on to the next step."
Starfall took one look to the deck. There he saw the thin, almost imperceptible trace of purple magic that connected the Mah'Qua thrall to his captain.
With a smirk Starfall began berating his own crew. Soon they were answering him with curses of their own. Some of the ponies were hanging over the side of the ship in attempts to free the anchors. As they did so they gestured to their first officer inappropriately and cursed at Starfall in wavering soliloquies, and the entire scene took on an almost comical bent.
On the sloop below the Mah'Qua began to laugh. They looked up to their commander, Dju, and seeing him unconcerned they began to roll with laughter.
Soon they were harassing the ponies. Cursing them out, they spoke of their poor abilities as sailors as the ponies floundered, got caught up in the rigging, one or two even theatrically falling onto the deck of the sloop.
As Commander Dju looked on, trapped inside his own body, the gunports quickly came open beneath him as Twilight's best archers pelted the deck with arrows.
The ponies who had fallen to the deck of the sloop stood at once, unsheathing the spurs they had hidden on themselves and slaughtered those whom the arrows had not found.
As Starfall kept berating his crew, and they shouted back in reply, it masked the horrible screams of those few Mah'Qua who were just coming onto the deck of the sloop…and being cut down as they did.
As Dju was forced to watch more ponies slipped aboard. They revealed themselves as unicorns, dropping their hats, using their magic to pull out any Mah'Qua who had not yet been made aware of the situation.
So it was that the sloop was reduced to a ghost ship, pools of blood covering its deck while its commander was forced to look on and the crew of the large corvette only a deck away looked upon its attackers and laughed at their antics, unknowingly witnessing its fate.
Dju felt his body turn, felt it walk towards the corvette. "Worst sailors I've ever seen. Damn ponies!" he felt himself call up to the captain of the corvette.
Meanwhile, Commander Dju went into the small place within his own mind that Twilight had left for him. There he bawled in loss and fear, the horror of what he had just seen filling him.
"Okay you scurvy-ridden jackals!" called Starfall to his ponies, stopping one before he could come back up on deck without his hat, "We're gonna pull this anchor free or break yer' backs doin' so!"
The crew of the corvette looked on, hollering insults, curses and even some genuine advice.
At once the ponies heaved, and the bow anchor lashing groaned alongside the railing. Immediately though something changed, something that they had not been expecting, and the crew of the corvette looked on perplexed as one of the ponies smashed a deck axe across the lashing…apparently causing the ponies to lose their anchor.
There was a flash of magic, and dozens of hats went flying into the air.