Geistbrecher (Spiritbreaker)

by Dostoron

The Ship, the Crew and the Voyage.

It had been two weeks since the plan was set, the preparations were finished punctually and the town of West Shore was looking on in excitement that their greatest Seafarers were selected to escort the Princess into a completely new continent, Exploration like this was the dream of any foal that loved the sea and many became sailors in hopes of such an occurence. The Crew of the "Reconciliation" was no exception to that rule and they were all too enthusiastic to show princess Twilight and her friends their Gratitude.

Rainbow Dash of course enjoyed the Attention immensely: "Heheh, that´s more like it, they´re carrying us on their Hands, actually..."

"Rainbow Dash, you will not make These gentlecolts carry you. You have a healthy pair of hooves to walk onboard yourself." Rarity immediately pulled her out of those ideas. "It is quite nice of them to be carrying all our luggage though.", she said while looking over to a sailor that was struggling under the weight of her things and finally had to call a Unicorn for help.

"Y´all just had ta bring half yer Boo-tick along didn´cha? Poor fella almost got crushed there." Applejack decided to join the conversation "Take a look at my stuff in comparison, light travelin´ Sugarcube."

"Ummm, I think it´s really nice of them to do all this for us, but aren´t they a bit... scary ?" Fluttershy watched a few of the older sailors on board from behind her mane, getting a good look on several scars they had gotten from the sea."

"Hehee! you worry too much Fluttershy, These guys are cool, they look like pirates, no wait, pirates were scary, huh i guess they are kinda scary with their frowny faces and their rougher coats and their-" Pinkie Pie continued talking but without making a noise, courtesy of Twilight Sparkle´s spell.

Twilight herself decided to introduce them all to Salt Herring, the captain of the ship, and the stallion responsible for accomodations.
"Thank you for your help in this, and thanks to your Crew as well for helping with our stuff."

"HAHAHA! Don´t ye worry yer highness, honor is all ours, the first sailors in such a Long time ta travel there. that be a mark of honor no one kin ever take from us again. Speaking of marks, yer friend needn´t worry about the scars on our Mecklish `Matrosen´, the lads have a funny way o´ talkin but they´re meek as Baby seals, right nice guys, they jus´don´t smile enough." Salt Herring laughed, bellowing across the Deck.

His First Mate, a unicorn mare that seemed the polar opposite of the captain approached:
"Kapitän, everythink is onboart, ve are ready to depart on your Befehl."
"Aye, Möwe, give the order.
"Aye aye, Kapitän! Vorbereitungen fertig?"
(for the sake of english speaking readers, translation is in These brackets: preparations finished?)
"AYE!"- "Kurs klar?"
(course clear?)
"AYE!" the Pegasus crow up in the nest replied.
"Leinen LOS!"
(CAST OFF)
Quickly everypony sprang into Action, the workers on the Pier opening the knots Holding the ship in place, while the Sailors hoisted the sail up on the mast, letting the ship pick up Speed. Within a short amount of time, giving a true Testament to the Crews nautic abilities, all preparations were finished and everyone who wasn´t at their Posts took the opportunity to boast about their greatness to the guests on board. a few had quickly figured out how to talk to which of them.

"And i tell you, Pinkie lass, you ain´t seen jolly till you´ve been at the Pub of West Shore when the Traders return, they´re in a great mood and invite everyone on them. Bless the whole lot of them." a crewman stated, certain that he had to defend the most glorious celebrations of West Shore
"And i Keep telling you, you haven´t had a Party till you had one of my parties, and believe me , you would have one now if twilight had allowed me to bring my Party cannon."

"Miss, i know apples are your specialty, but i tell you storing them dry does in fact NOT help, if you must preserve them Keep them just barely above freezing temperature, i have brought apples along on every voyage and they were always godd to the last day."
"Now listen here mister, ah´ve been around apples as Long as ah live an´ they don´t take kindly ta cold. Lemme guess, they tasted kinda stale after th´first week?"
"well, yes, but we can´t store them any different without the whole stock going bad." the barreler and Applejack could probably go on like this the whole day.

Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was busily bugging the crow.
"You know, Managing a whole Crew to put together a Tornado ain´t an easy Task. Even someone as awesome as me almost didn´t make it."
"Um himmels willen, halt endlich die klappe. wenn der Tornado das Schiff nicht gefährdet interessiert er mich kein Stück."
(for heavens sake, just shut your trap already. unless the Tornado endangers the ship it doesn´t interest me a bit.)
the crow couldn´t help a tiny smirk as Rainbow Dash was quiet for a second, before replying.
"Tja, dann interessiert dich das, was da hinten auf uns zukommt, wohl auch nicht?"
(Well, then i guess that Thing approaching us from back there, doesn´t either?)
(The gray mare with the miniature Dragon on her back and the bubbles cutie mark? no, not really.)
Rainbow squinted her eyes but had to admit, her sight was no match for the Pegasus stallion in the crows nest
(That would mean it´s Derpy, why is she bringing Spike here though?)
(Ask her.) The Crow was clearly not interested in her staying any longer.

With a huff, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flew over to the small dot shortly before the coastline. As she closed in it was indeed Derpy, clearly tired and really with spike hanging on for dear life.
"What are you doing here?"
"*huff puff* Special Delivery, one Baby Dragon to princess Twilight Sparkle." Derpy was barely keeping in the air.
"Uh, Spike, mind if i take over here, i think Derpy Needs a break."
"Please do, no amount of breakneck flight can possibly compare to Derpy in a hurry."
Rainbow Dash pulled Spike off of Derpy´s back and took off, leaving Derpy to let herself spiral down to West Shore to rest up and get back to ponyville, also vowing to not take on rush orders ever again.

It had been a mostly uneventful trip after Spike was brought on board, of course on a wooden ship the crew was a bit wary of Dragons but it quickly became a non issue when they heard a few stories about the single noble dragon in Equestria.

For days the sea was calm, the wind strong and the captains mood was great. They had a few days previously lost sight of Equestria and were now looking west to find the Fabled continent.

"Mizz Sparkel? The Captain wants to talk with you." First Mate Möwe called to the princess, having thankfully quickly caught on to dropping the title.

"I´ll be right there!" Twilight replied, leaving her cabin. She still couldn´t believe how great everything was going, she didn´t even have to face her biggest worry, seasickness, yet. As she walked by some Crewmen, the Pegasus crow and the navigator unicorn she caught a bit of their conversation, they sounded worried.

"Und ich sag dir, auch wenn ich keine Wolke sehe, einen Sturm spür ich immer bis tief ins Mark, da kommt ein richtig großer auf uns zu." The crow was apparently really sure of something. the Navigator not so much:

"Dir wird da oben wohl allmählich die Luft zu dünn, aus heiterem Himmel kommen keine Stürme, wenn du ne wolkenfront findest, können wir drüber reden."

"Du bist immer noch ne unverbesserliche Pfeife, aber bitte, wenn du glaubst mehr über das Wetter zu wissen als ein Pegasus behalten wir den Kurs bei, wenn wir aber absaufen und uns danach als Geister wiedersehen verprügel ich dich bis in alle Ewigkeit." Whatever it was, the crow was upset about it, as he immediately took of into the nest and sat there in a huff.

"Excuse me, is there a Problem?" Twilight cautiously asked the Navigator.

"No, ma´am, our crow is imagining a storm, but there would be signs if that was true. He wanted me to Change the course into a four days detour. He´s been on board since he was sixteen, but he still pouts like a Little colt when he doesn´t get his way."

"Was he wrong before?" Twilight continued.

"Haha, of course he was, once he yelled iceberg when it was really the much anticipated Land ho. another time he yelled pirates at a bunch of Zebra Trader canoes. He always assumes the worst, is kinda a Mecklish Thing." the Navigator assured her.

Her worries forgotten for the Moment Twilight continued to the captains quarters.

The Captain himself was slouched over a few maps, muttering into his sizable beard and grumbling incoherently. As he noticed Twilight he waved her over.

"Aye, Miss Sparkle, we are now inside the storm barrier. From here on it´s an unknown distance left till we get to see land, and at this very Moment, everyone aboard is going down in history. Not a cloud in the skies, still a strong Tailwind, it´s like we´re blessed. the Thing is though, there should be icebergs around here. modern ships withstand storms no sweat, but they could´nt enter due to those. Suddenly it´s all clear, too clear, something ain´t right, lass."

"The crow mentioned that he felt a storm coming earlier, a big one he said."

"Aye, the lad has had false alerts before, but i´m inclined to believe him, he was never wrong about the weather we should prepare so-"

He was interrupted by the ship´s bell ringing panickedly

"Storm, get the sail down, quick!"

"Whot? when in Typhons Name did that all happen?"

Outside the storm was raging fully, somehow out of nowhere the tides grew bigger than the ship, the crow barely Holding onto the mast as it swayed around, the Crew making a valiant effort to safe both mast and sail by getting the latter down.

"Segel reffen! Beeilung, wenn eine starke böe kommt sind wir den ganzen mast los!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" another Gust of wind had finally cracked the masts strenght, it along with the crows nest, the crow and five crewmen flew off.

"Verdammt, alle mann unter deck, Schotten dicht und wenn ihr gläubig seid, beten."

"Come on Miss Sparkle, it´s too dangerous on deck. The poor lad was right after all, this is a big one, bigger than we can hope to weather."

Everyone still onboard hurried below deck, making sure to Close and bar the doorways.

Under Deck things were looking only marginally better, the waves were tossing the ship about and the lanterns, thankfully not filled with oil, were shaking wildly. Pinkie Pie´s hair was deflated when she noticed the missing crewmen, in fact, that hung in the room the heaviest, the Navigator gazed longingly to the Portion of the mast that was below deck, no doubt blaming himself for not changing the course.

Things were about to get worse though, the ship was rocking wildly now, acting more like a bull at a rodeo than a sea vessel and finally the Hull breached, letting water in, a last wave had picke the ship up and was tossing it, thankfully towards what almost looked like land.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Twilight awoke again, she noticed that they were on shore, and that apparently her friends, the captain, the navigator and six of the Crew had made it. the others were nowhere in sight and even though the sea was calm now it was clear what happened to them.

They were alive and well, and even at their Destination, except that they had no way back now.

Author's Note:

If you feel you should correct me on the Segment between the barreler and applejack, i honestly didn´t look up how it really is.
And yes, Rainbow dash speaks mecklish (german), she convinced herself that all great Flyers of the past did that.

Also, aside from the first few examples, all text in brackets here is in mecklish, i avoid typing all of it so i don´t scare everyone off.

Comments

[Cheesy Arachnid]

Strange as it sounds, I actually enjoyed reading the meklish (with translations of course). It adds something that hardly any other stories have.