//------------------------------// // Pinkie and the Navy - Welcome to Shells Town // Story: Straw Hat Pinkie: East Blue Beginnings // by River Road //------------------------------// “Hellooooooo, Shells Town!” Pinkie grinned, one foreleg spread out in a grand gesture while the other one pulled her new friend to her side. “At least that’s what the sign says. I have no idea where we are. Do you know anything about this place?” “Oh, uhm, a little…” Fluttershy, the only other passenger in their small boat, rubbed her shoulder nervously. “I heard some of Iron Will’s men talk about it, since we were anchoring in the area. And, well, actually I don’t think we’ll want to stay here very long.” “We don’t? But why wouldn’t we? This town seems nice to me.” Pinkie let go of her to tie their ship to a pole at the small harbor, jumping onto the relatively dry land. Fluttershy gulped and fluttered after her slowly, hiding her face behind her mane. “W-well the local Navy base is located on this island. And then there’s… her.” She flinched back a little. Pinkie gasped and leaned in close to the pegasus mare. “Her? Who’s Her? Do you think I could meet Her?” “I-it’s just a rumor… Some of the crew heard that a really dangerous mare is staying on this island. Ponies call her ‘Pirate Hunter’, they say she’s a monster!” She fluttered off the ground in her panic, eeping and quickly landing on the ground again. “I-I don’t like monsters. They’re the second scariest thing I can think of.” Pinkie giggled, pulling her close again. “Aww, come on, I bet she’s actually really nice if you get to know her.” She gasped again. “I know! I’ll make friends with her and ask her to join my crew!” “W-what? No! That’s a really really… Pinkie?” Fluttershy looked around, finding Pinkie already bouncing down the street towards the large Navy base. “Pinkie! Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear…” ~~~~~ “Is that her?” Pinkie leaned forward to get a better look, squinting her eyes. Fluttershy had found her already clinging to the large wall that marked the perimeter of the Navy base, looking over it into the courtyard. In the center of the dusty open space was a makeshift wooden cross, with a mare tied to it by her forelegs. She seemed to be a pegasus, with her cerulean blue wings tied to her sides and her body hanging from the wood, head down. What was most notable about her, however, was her colorful mane and tail which displayed all colors of the rainbow. “Hey, you two up there.” Fluttershy eeped and tried to hide behind the wall as the mare lifted her head to give them a dangerous smile. “Think you could untie me? I promise I’ll make it up to you… Just find me a criminal and I’ll beat them up so you can have the bounty.” “See? She can’t be a bad pony, she’s smiling.” Pinkie grinned, waving over at the mare. “What do you think, Fluttershy… Those ropes don’t look very complicated to untie.” “That’s not a good smile, that’s an ‘I’m going to eat you and do other horrible things’ smile. We should just–“ Fluttershy paused when something to her left moved, noticing a long wooden ladder suddenly leaning against the wall. A small orange pegasus filly with violet mane climbed up, looking at them and putting and making a shushing motion before she jumped over the wall and ran up to the bound mare in the courtyard. “What’cha doing here, squirt? Scootaloo, was it? You’re going to get in trouble if you talk to me.” Rainbow Dash frowned, looking down at the filly as she started to fumble something out from under her small wings. “Go on, get back over the wall already.” “I, I brought you some food.” The filly stumbled a step back, holding out a paper napkin with two rice balls on it. “I made them myself... I felt really guilty that you got arrested just for helping us.” The mare grimaced, glaring down at the filly. “I told you to leave, didn’t I? I’m doing this on my own and if you get yourself into trouble I won’t just be there to bail you out again. So shoo. Fly off. Amscray!” “B-but I… I just…” The filly took another step back, slowly tearing up. “Now what do we have here? Don’t you know that blank flanks aren’t allowed on a navy base?” The mare looked up and turned her head. A matte pink and a light grey earth pony filly were walking across the courtyard towards them, flanked by several navy soldiers. They had a smug look on their faces, holding their heads high. The pink one smirked and stopped right in front of the cross. “You’re still alive, Pirate Hunter? It’s been nine days now… That’s almost impressive.” “I just have to stay alive for a month and you’ll let me go, right? That was the deal.” The mare gave a wry, but dangerous smile. The pink filly shuddered and took a step back, bumping into one of the marines and snapping her head around to glare at them for invading her personal space. She slowly turned back to the mare, smiling haughtily. “Indeed, that was the deal. I wonder if you’ll make it…” She turned her head to the pegasus filly that had been trying to slowly sneak away. “That blank flank was never a part of the deal, though. However, some food might put me in a better mood.” Without waiting, she stepped forward and snatched one of the rice balls from her, taking a large bite. “Hey! Those aren’t for you, Diamond Tiara!” The pink filly froze, her eye twitching lightly for a few seconds until she suddenly spat out and threw down both rice balls, stomping on them a few times with her hoof. “Bleagh! These taste terrible! Are you trying to poison me!?” “T-they weren’t for you in the first place! Stop it!” Scootaloo scraped at the ground, trying to somehow save the food from the dirt. “There, now they’ll poison the ants.” She turned around to the marine she had bumped into. “You. Throw her out.” The marined saluted, giving her a nervous look. “Y-you want me to escort her to the exit?” Diamond Tiara scowled, stepping up to him. “Did I stutter? I’m the niece of Lieutenant Morgan, and I told you to throw. That blank flank. Out!” “Y-yes, Ma’am!” The marine saluted and quickly dashed over to the pegasus filly, grabbing her by the neck despite her protests. Fluttershy squeaked and ducked as the filly soared in a wide arch right over the wall, flailing and screaming. She barely noticed Pinkie kicking off the wall and wrapping her forelegs around the filly, shielding her as they hit the ground. “Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear…" Fluttershy whimpered and flew down to them as fast as she dared, looking them over. "D-don’t move, I-I think I have some bandaids!” She squeaked and backed away as Pinkie stood up again, leaving the filly on the ground. “I’ll be right back.” Pinkie turned around, looking back at the wall to the courtyard. ~~~~~ “You're still around? Just leave, or else that brat will tell her uncle about it.” Rainbow raised her head slightly to glare at Pinkie, who had jumped back over the wall and walked up to her just moments after the marines and the fillies had left. Pinkie simply bounced up to her with a grin, completely ignoring the glare aimed at her in return. “I still haven’t gotten to talk to you yet. I wanted to ask you if you’d like to join my pirate crew.” “You’re a pirate?” Rainbow scoffed, leaning back a little. “So you’ve already given up on life and decided to just become a crook, huh?” Pinkie sat down and pouted lightly. “Heeeey… There’s nothing wrong with becoming a pirate…” “Sure, whatever…” “So… that’s a ‘no’, then?” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Ugh... of course that’s a no.” Pinkie looked up at her blankly, slowly tilting her head. Then she suddenly jumped up, smiling and bouncing in place. “Oki-doki-loki. I’ll just start looking somewhere else, then.” She twirled around and began to bounce back towards the wall. Rainbow blinked, then shook her head. “Hey, pirate!” “Hmm? Anything else?” Pinkie stopped and turned her head, tilting it at the same time. Rainbow fidgeted for a second, then gestured her head downwards. “Can you… can you pick that up for me?” “These?” Pinkie trod over to the rice balls, slowly scraping them together to pick them up. “You sure you want to eat them? They’re all muddy and squished.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Just fork them over already. Not like I have many other options.” Pinkie tilted her head, then shrugged and made a bounce over to the pegasus, stuffing the mush into her mouth before the other mare could object. She watched as the pegasus choked, then swallowed painfully. Rainbow took a few deep breaths, then gave a strained smile. “Tell the squirt… tell her they were delicious.” ~~~~~ “Really? She liked them?” Scootaloo grinned up at them, her wide eyes shining with joy. “Hmm-mm…” Pinkie nodded and grabbed another piece of fruit, stuffing it into her mouth whole before swallowing. “So, who were those two fillies?” “Just some dumb bullies…” Scootaloo poked at a grape, her chin on the table. After they had introduced themselves and left the navy base the pegasus filly had led them to one of the town’s cafes where she apparently lived and helped out after school. “Captain Roter Morgan is the uncle of Diamond Tiara. Silver Spoon is her best friend, so the two can pretty much do whatever they like in this town. So now they’re the biggest bullies around and nopony dares to do anything about them.” Fluttershy frowned, hiding behind her mane again and nibbling on a piece of pear. “They really didn’t seem like very nice ponies… But why did you want to help that mare back there? Isn’t she a monster?” “Rainbow Dash isn’t a monster!” The little filly slammed her hooves on the table, startling Fluttershy and causing her to try and hide under the table. “She’s the coolest most awesome mare I’ve ever met!” She paused and pondered for a second. “Well, the second most awesome… but that’s still pretty awesome.” She settled on her chair again, calming down a little while Fluttershy started to slowly come up from behind the table again and Pinkie munched on the complimentary fruit platter Scootaloo had gotten for them. “She saved my life, you know?” The filly shook herself a little. “Diamond Tiara has this huge awful pet wolf she always takes around town. Everypony in town is scared of it and nopony dares to do anything about it because of her uncle. About a week ago they came into this café and the wolf tried to attack me.” She shook herself again, then looked up again determinedly. “Rainbow Dash grabbed it when it tried to pounce me and threw it out the window, just like that. We haven’t seen that stupid runt in town ever since.” She gave them a smug grin, then her ears drooped down again. “A few hours later the marines came to take her into custody. Said they would let her go if she can survive a whole month without food. And it’s all my fault! If she hadn’t tried to save me, she…” She wiped her nose, sniffing quietly. “You got that right.” All three of them looked up to see Diamond Tiara standing in the door, giving them a smug grin. “That mare got what she had coming. I was going to just watch her starve, but that stupid pegasus is taking forever, and it’s just gotten boring. So I figured I’ll just ask my uncle Morgan to execute her. That’s always fun to watch.” “Didn’t you say you’ll give her a month?” Pinkie stood up, tilting her head at her. “And who are you?” Diamond scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Only a complete idiot would believe something like that. She was going to be executed eventually anyway.” “Well then…” Pinkie cracked her neck, walking up to the pink filly. “You got a problem with it, fluffhair? If you try to do anything I’ll tell my uncle to kyaaaargh!” “I’ve made up my mind, Fluttershy…” Pinkie stepped around the still-twitching filly lying on the ground, straightening her hat with the same hoof that had hit Diamond square in the face just a second ago. She stopped outside, looking up at the marine base overlooking the town. “I’m going to ask that Rainbow mare to join my crew.”