Red Skies at Morning

by Tenguman Lv X

Chapter 1/3 - Prologue: Part I

Chapter 1/3

~ Prologue: Part I ~

Looking back, that day was almost as dismal as today. Perhaps even more so. The factories spewed forth their rather wretched smoke, the children cried of hunger and begged in the streets if they were lucky enough not to be working in the factories. Refuse lined the streets, foul language and heavy pollution befouled the air, forcing one to make a wholesome effort not to gag whenever they attempted to take a breath. It was on a day such as this, foul as it was, that I encountered the one stallion I could call a friend.

Soon after my arrival, I stopped at the cheapest of the few taverns in the city, the Rooster’s Crown, to spend my evening, perhaps play my shamisen, of which I consider myself a bit of a virtuoso. After paying the owner for my supper and a room, I went upstairs. It was horrendously run down, with cockroaches scattering at even the slightest touch of the ground, a bed composed entirely of straw in a sheet, and a set of rather old and rickety furniture that seemed like it could collapse at any moment. I grimaced at the condition of the room, and reluctantly lay down to what would probably be a very uncomfortable sleep.

Perhaps three hours had passed when I awoke, to find a muffled, yet ever-present noise occurring from the general vicinity of the downstairs. I decided after a few brief moments of contemplation to investigate the commotion, and followed the sound downstairs, where it was clear that the sound was coming from the wine cellar. Once I descended, the noise had stopped; I saw nothing but barrels, and this left me quite puzzled. As I could see nothing living, I decided to check the barrels, to ensure some rodent hadn’t begun devouring my host’s stocks.

After some rather careful investigation, making sure that I was at least somewhat stealthy in opening the barrels, I discovered that one did not contain wine, but instead some sort of lever. Curious, naturally, I pulled it, and a sort of trapdoor opened in the floor, revealing what seemed to be a very long spiral staircase. My sense of curiosity heightened, I made my descent into the inky darkness, making sure I didn’t fall down the stairs as I went.

Upon reaching the bottom, I noticed a faint light towards the end of a short corridor, and crept towards it hoping to find the source of whatever noise I had heard. The light had been coming from a crevice below the doorway to some sort of secret chamber. I planted my ear on the door proper, and attempted to listen in on whatever conversation was going on. Unfortunately, the door wasn’t locked, or even shut properly, and I promptly ended up falling into a room.

From my position on the floor, it was clear the room was some sort of improvised bar. Also clear were the 15 or so stallions whose meals I had just interrupted. After a few moments, they managed to point about 10 sharp objects and a gun or two in my face. After a few seconds of shouting and sword-waving, a voice in the back of the room made its debut.

“Fellas, fellas. No need to be so harsh to our guest. Let’s have a little chat with him.”

I stood up sighed a breath of relief, “Well, thank you for not outright spearing me. What is this place, and why are you beneath the inn?”

A yellow pegasus in a vest and shirt combo walked out into the front of the group. He was wearing an eyepatch over what seemed to be a rather large scar.

“Wait. You mean you don’t even know where you are? Ha! Look at this guy.”

“Hm. Judging by my greater common sense, you’re obviously degenerates of some sort who found a secret passage and decided to coerce the innkeeper into letting you use it as a hideout.”

“Degenerates, you say? Don’t you know it isn’t wise to call people names when they’re pointing sharp objects at you, kid?”

“I take it you’ve yet to realize that I bear a weapon as well?” I said, a little over-confidently.

“Yes, yes, you unicorns and your fancy shmancy magic. I do like how you’re threatening us, when in fact, you are the one who is trespassing here. Even going so far as to accuse us of being criminals.”

“If you’re not criminals, why would you go about pointing weapons at one’s head when he enters the room? That alone shows intent to harm.”

“As you have very kindly pointed out, you also have a weapon pointed at us, do you not?”

“You see no magic being cast, do you?”

“We haven’t stabbed you yet, either, have we? We aren’t brutes.”

“So there is honor among thieves after all. What a surprise.”

The pegasus acted as if he were insulted. “What did I say about name calling? It’s quite rude.”

“I think common civility has been thrown out the window at this point.”

“Well, how about a proposition then? We’ll put the weapons away if you tell us why you’ve come down here.”

“Seems harmless enough. I was asleep in my room when I was awakened by some sort of clatter downstairs, so I went to investigate. Said investigation led me down here.”

“What? You shouldn’t be able to hear anything from down here.. Oh no.”

The stallion turned to the rest of the group in a confident, yet panicked manner. “It’s time to pack up, men. They’ve found us.”

“Assumingly, the guards have stumbled onto your little hideout?”

He turned and looked at me. “Yes. And you’re coming with us.”

“And why do you think you can make me come with you?” I asked, indignant.

“Perhaps you’d rather stay here and explain why you’re the only one in ‘a den of thieves’. I’m sure the guards will understand.”

“Looks like I’m on the lam now. Excellent. First day here and I’m already fleeing from the guards.”

“That’s the spirit. Now let’s get out of here while we know they’re coming.”

A large portrait swung open, revealing an exit. After grabbing what they could, the whole gang fled into the hole. I, along with the pegasus who appeared to be the leader, were last through, and he shut and barred the portrait-door behind him just as the guards filed into the room. The stench of the sewers nearly burned my nose hair, and as we waded through, the horrendous smell got even worse. However, the smell faded out when we reached a grate near the river on the outskirts of the city.

Once I had emerged, still drenched in raw sewage, I noticed a rather large ship docked at the river’s edge. While an impressive ship, the sails and rigging of such looked odd, even though I had no experience with such things. I had assumed this was what we were to escape from prosecution on, so I climbed aboard after everyone else had filed on, except for the leading pegasus, who took a moment to pull up the boarding ramp before turning around and addressing me.

“Welcome to the Skylark. I’m your new captain, Silver Wing.”

I gazed around the vessel rather quickly, before retorting, “So now I’m a member, hm?” This only served to make him laugh.

“You are if you want to be, but until you leave my ship, you will be expected to pull your own weight, okay?”

“I would suppose I have to. Though I believe you owe me something for making me leave my entire set of supplies at the inn, wouldn’t you say?”

He shrugged. “That may be. However, it will have to wait.”

I laughed, “Obviously so, since we’ve yet to shove off.”

“Give her time. She takes a while to start up.”

Bewildered, I asked, “What does?” He just laughed again.

“You’ll see.”

The two objects, which I had erroneously perceived as sails, were not, in fact, anything of the sort. As Silver Wing finished speaking, I noticed that they were rapidly inflating. Alongside the hissing of the air flowing into them, I could hear the sounds of machinery in the decks below, presumably to pump air into the balloons.Obviously this was some sort of airship, though I’d seen nothing similar in my lifetime.

After the balloons were fully inflated and we began to rise, I was shown to a room that was considerably better than the one at the inn. The room housed the usual furnishings; a bed, an end table, and a rather small shelf, all of which were bolted down, oddly enough. As I was looking about, I heard the door slam, and the sound of the bolt being slid into its groove signaled that I was trapped here. For a while, I watched the river and the city draw further away as the ship ascended. Soon enough, however, sleep beckoned, and I blacked out until morning.

Comments

[BigBadBari21]

Hmm... Seems like an interesting story so far... Written very formally. It's different. I like it.

[Prane]

A well-written premise to a sky pirates story, at least that's what I can tell so far. I only wonder when the story takes place, I mean 'when' as in: are we going to see any known characters from the Main 6 or at least some backgrounds, or is it a full OC story?

[Tenguman Lv X]

3107882

While the main crew of the Skylark will be mostly, if not entirely, OC in makeup, canon background ponies may show up from time to time. The mane six, however, will probably fail to make an appearance. The story is still a work in progress, so how much we take from canon can vary.