Witness to Many Strange Things
Beneath the Break of Day, the sea rolled and roiled like a carpet of living glass. Turquoise jewels glittered and shone in scintillating patterns between vast fields the pale blue of deep, deep water at noon. Arcs of brilliant shine rose in great crests, crowned in caps of salty foam. They reached high, some high enough to kiss the sealed wood of the hull, and hung there for an instant before crashing down into the valleys of itself with power enough to launch chilling sprays that glided along the deck. The clouds wet the ship for an instant before being pulled into their wake and twisting into clouds of glittering salt. Even the veteran sailors took the time to look up and admire the incredible beauty swirling around them.
And Raj and Spike weren't appreciating one bit of it.
“Okay, so what do sapphires taste like?” Raj asked, his back to one of the swaying tether lines.
“Blueberries. Freshly picked, ripe blueberries. I love those sprinkled on a cupcake or in a bowl of oatmeal. It really elevates the whole thing.” Spike said back, swaying with the motion of the ship.
“That's crazy. So, like, does iron and titanium taste like berries to you?”
Spike gave him an odd look. “No, why would they?”
“Well, because that's what sapphires are. They're just corundum with iron and titanium in them. Otherwise they're exactly the same.”
“They definitely are not that. I've had corundum, it's really sour. I don't really like it.
“So adding titanium to sour somehow makes blueberries? That's makes even less sense than I'm used to.”
“Well, I can tell you why it's like that. It's because they're blue.”
“Come again?”
“They're blue, so they taste blue.”
“Blue is not a flavor Spike. Blue is a color. I know you're young, but this is kindergarten stuff. Don't eat paste, keep your clothes on, blue is a color. You should be past this level.”
Spike gave him a brief glare. “Then why do sapphires and blueberries taste so similar?”
“Bear in mind, they don't to me. They just taste like flavorless stones.”
“Maybe to your weak, mammalian taste buds. But to me they taste like fresh blueberries. Turquoise taste like grapes, and lapis tastes like pansies.”
“The flower?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Raj shielded his face from an arcing spray of water. “Fine, I'll accept what you're saying only because I am biologically incapable of refuting it. But lots of blue things don't taste similar. Blue corn just tastes like corn. Blue potatoes are just weird colored potatoes, nothing berry like about them.”
Spike waved a claw. “Those don't count. Those are things that aren't supposed to be blue that are altered.”
“No they aren't. They grow that way.”
The little dragon shrugged. “Still. Using those is like painting a banana and claiming that it should taste like a berry now, when clearly it won't.”
“You know, banana's are technically berries.”
Spike gave him a level look. “What?”
“Yeah man. They stem from one flower and typically have many seeds. That's what berries are.”
“Banana's don't have seeds in them. You're crazy.”
Raj shook his head. “Dude, if the don't have seeds, then how do they grow?
“I always figured that the whole fruit was the seed, like a coconut.”
Rajrishi opened his mouth to reply, stopped, and then folded his arms in thought. “Actually that might be true, I don't know. Where's Twilight? She'll know about this.” Raj rose up to go look for the scholarly unicorn when he was badly startled by something enormous breaching the surface off the side of ship.
He swore and stumbled away, shielding himself from a blast of water and stinging spray. Spike floundered in the sudden wash and clawed at the deckboards. Raj cleared his eyes and looked up at something enormous undulating alongside the ship.
“A Flapback Whale!” Shouted Fluttershy as she appeared out of nowhere, leaning over the deck and grinning wide. “Oh my goodness, I never thought I'd see one for myself. Oh my goodness!”
Raj stood up and looked the great beast over. It was easily fifty feet long, more than half the Break of Day's hull. The whole of that length was covered in dozens of spindly, flapping wings, each one struggling to keep the creature aloft as it twisted and undulated through the air. As Raj stared it did a short corkscrew maneuver and crashed back into the surf, launching another wave of water over the deck that washed Spike up against the gunwale. Further off into the ocean, another pair crested the waves and began soaring along briefly, much to Fluttershy's squeaking delight.
Raj stepped over, trying not to shiver, and helped Spike back up to his feet. He looked down at Fluttershy and asked “What are they doing?”
She looked up at him with sparkling eyes “They're displaying Rajrishi. Flapback's attract mates by breaching the surface and flying for as long as they can. The strongest fliers are the most likely to reproduce.”
Spike brushed a tangle of seaweed off of himself. “But, wait, then why are they flying next to our ship like that?”
Fluttershy's face fell and she looked away awkwardly. “Oh, well, um, I don't. Um, that is to say-”
“It be exactly what you think.” Muttered a grizzled pegasus as he came to the side of the ship. “That whale is thinking that our hull be the finest cow he's ever laid eyes on. Him and every other bull in his pod be hoping to make time with our ship.” Fluttershy squealed and covered her face, flushing with embarrassment. The sailor pony laughed “Don't ye be worrying Miss Fluttershy, ole' Topsail won't let the flappy beasts get to you. The broadsides be primed to warn off any of the things that get too insistent with their seductions. We're safe.”
Fluttershy hopped up, getting close to his face and begged “Y-you're going to shoot them? You can't!”
Topsail waved her back “Calm down missy, don't fret. They're only on a quarter charge. Be a discouraging boop on the nose to something of that size, nothing more.” Fluttershy bit her lip and made a terrified sound in her throat. Topsail scowled “Don't you be giving me foal eyes now. I won't let one of those randy things get anywhere near this ship. They could snap a vane or crack the rudder, and without somewhere the set down to affect repairs we'll be in a tight spot.”
Seeing the distress this was causing his friend, Raj asked “Couldn't we pick up some altitude? Get over the things?”
Topsail huffed “We get too high this far out to sea and the greatwinds will buffet us silly, worse since we're going cross to 'em. It's why nopony goes east this time of year. 'Less we got some ground underneath us that'll calm the wind, this is our maximum altitude.” Topsail spat to the side. “And before you ask, we can't spool up the engines to outpace them neither. I'm burning us at the most efficient rate we can muster, seein' as we won't be finding anywhere to refuel on this voyage. Now, unless you two suddenly learned how to be sailors, clear the deck. There's too much sea up here for anyone not trained. Below decks, all ya.”
Fluttershy looked like she had more to say but the salty old stallion did not look like he was interested in any argument. The three of them trudged along the wet and uneven deck to the quarter deck.
The other six passengers were in there already, their faces pressed against the glass paneled stern to observe the flying and bounding whales. A wave splashed off the side of the ship and Rainbow Dash pointed out with a gleeful smile on her face. “See? Flying is so awesome even whales want to do it.”
Applejack lowered off the wall and said. “Neat and all, but some o' them're getting pretty close. What if one them bangs the ship?”
“Bad choice of words Applejack.” Raj said as he wrung out his jacket.
She looked over at him. “What happened to you?”
“The ocean decided to some say hi. Interrupted a very important conversation Spike and I were having.”
“Well, you look positively dreadful darling.” She grabbed his jacket with her telekinesis and pressed a towel and clothes into his hands. “Get out of those sopping clothes, we can't have you catching a chill.”
Raj nodded and stepped into a lavatory to change. He called out through the wall “We're supposed to stay off deck for a few hours, at least until the whales are gone. Shipmaster's say so.”
“What?” Rainbow asked. “We have to stay cooped up down here for the rest of the day? Lame.” she lowered to the ground and pointed at Princess Luna. “Couldn't you tell him to let us up there? Like, pull rank on him?”
Luna cocked an eyebrow. “We are not going to exert Royal authority so that thou might stretch your wings Rainbow Dash.”
“Dang it.” She muttered as she lowered to the ground. “These whales are the most exciting thing that's happened in the last two weeks. I'm going crazy here!” She clutched her head between her hooves.
“You knew what you were getting into Rainbow. We've got at least another week before we get to the Shattered Lands.” Twilight lifted a quill and indicated what looked to be their location on a map.
Rainbow ran her forelegs down her face “Oh dear clouds, I'm going to go crazy in here.” She flapped and darted around rapidly in the narrow confines of the ship. “Nothing boring like this happens in Daring Doo. She just finds out about some weird, ancient artifact and then the next page she's just there. None of this boring travel stuff.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “This isn't a Daring Doo book Rainbow. We're going to have to slog through the boring stuff if we want to get to the adventure itself.”
Pinkie bounced over the blue pegasus and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Aww, don't worry Rainbow. It won't be that long. Why, I bet we'll be there before you even-”
* * *
“know it!” shouted Pinkie as she leaned over the railing to goggle at the soaring, craggy peaks of the Shattered Lands.
Raj looked at her. “What?”
“Nothing, just finishing something.” She lowered back down to the deck
“Alright. Moving on.” He turned his attention back to the map rolled out on the boards. “Everyone, we're just about there, so it's time I went over the plan one more time.” someone cleared their throat nearby. “And by I, I of course mean Twilight Sparkle. Twilight.” He stepped aside and gestured to the unicorn in question.
She stepped forward. “Thank you Rajrishi. Everypony, this” a cloud of floating pins flew out to indicate on the map. “is the Shattered Lands, an enormous mountain range east of the Griffin Kingdom. It's dangerous, largely unexplored, and the final resting place of Captain Jolly Roger and his magical flying ship. I'm sure of it.” She paused for a moment. “Well, actually about eighty percent sure of it.”
“What even makes you so sure of that darling? I'm a little unclear on that.” Rarity asked.
“Well, that involved a lot of research actually. Once I looked over the existing information relating to Jolly Roger I realized there were a bunch of holes in it. So many sources had been discounted because they didn't fit existing information, but by broadening our scope a lot fell into place. There were many villages and towns that reported sightings of him and his ship. All of those sightings, and the timelines associated with them, point to a location in the Shatters that he was operating out of.”
“Like a port of call?” Applejack asked.
“Exactly. Each country that Jolly Roger raided assumed he was operating from one of the others. Equestria thought he was a privateer working for the Griffin Kingdom, the Griffins thought he was an Equestrian agent, etc. Actually, from what I've read he actually hindered foreign relations for everyone. It wasn't until years after his death that it became generally accepted that he wasn't associated with any country.”
“We can assure that.” Added Luna. “The number of times we faced an angry ambassador accusing us of funding piracy on their shores grew frustratingly large over the decades.”
“But if he wasn't working for anypony, just himself, he would need somewhere to berth his ship.” Twilight continued. “Assuming the Vow of Poverty runs on anything approaching conventional rules, it would still need maintenance, supplies, and repairs. Not a lot of that can be done on the move.” She shrugged. “At the least he would need somewhere private to hide all of his treasure.”
“But what makes you think it's in this Shattered place? If he had a flying ship, couldn't he have hidden himself like... here?” Rainbow pointed at a section of mountains in the Griffin Kingdom.
Twilight scrutinized it. “That's beak peak, a long settled griffin city, but I do see your point. What made me think that Jolly Roger based himself out of one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet? Well, to understand that, you have to realize just how much the governments of the day hated Jolly Roger. Fleets of ships were constructed for the sole purpose of finding and capturing him. Whole families of dragons tried to hunt him down for years. King Gaffort even put a fifty thousand bit bounty out for anyone who could just get rid of him. But he evaded all of them.”
“We can assure that as well.” said Luna, a little crisply.
“Well, he didn't dodge the law forever. Something happened to him, must've. A varmint like that don't just decide to quit his ways one day. Somepony musta caught up to him.” said Applejack.
“Oh, I don't know Applejack. Mayhap he just had a change of heart, brought on by by having it stolen by a beautiful and sensual mare, like in Sails of Fleece?” Rarity floated a dog-eared novel in front of her face. “Oh, maybe he's living in peaceful romance with her still, so many centuries later. Oh, that would be just divine.”
“Rarity, if Jolly Roger is still alive, I doubt he's going to want to sign your books.” Raj teased.
“You don't know that!” Rarity shot back venomously before her face brightened again.
“This meeting seems concluded.” Luna said brusquely. “We shall take our leave.” She flapped her wings and glided over to the prow of the ship.
The remaining seven looked at each other for a moment before Raj said “I'll talk to her. Don't worry about it.” The six ponies nodded and milled off to other parts of the ship.
Raj made his way over to the princess and saluted sharply. “Princess Luna.”
“Captain.”
“Can I trouble you for a round of archery practice? I think I'm finally getting the hang of this thing.” He held up his bow and hip quiver.
“You most certainly are not. Crescent has largely given up on you ever achieving anything approximating skill at the discipline and has resigned herself to guiding your every shot as long as you choose to wield her. Further practice is simply a waste of time and arrows.” She said, her back to him.
Raj paused. “That's a pretty cold thing for a bow to think.”
“Hmm.” was all she said in response.
He stood in silence for a minute before asking. “Permission to speak freely?”
“Granted.”
“The hell is your deal?”
She craned her neck to look at him, a flicker in her mane the only thing betraying emotion. “Elaborate.”
“You've been in a mood this whole trip. Hiding in the hold, barely talking to anyone and when you do you're short and clipped. I didn't think the Princess of the Night could get snitty.”
Luna let out a genuine laugh. “Captain, we have been many things in our lives. Proud, malicious, lustful, angry, but we never have been, or ever shall be, snitty.”
Raj walked up to the rail with her and leaned his back to it. “Then what's up?”
“The... the Shattered Lands hold many bad memories for us. We attended this journey as a factor of obligation and necessity. Prior, we had hoped to never return to that benighted place.”
“I figured you'd like somewhere that's benighted.” Luna gave him a level look and he immediately retracted. “Sorry, bad joke, bad timing.”
“Quite.” She cleared her throat. “The Shattered Lands are an unnatural place, beyond any conception of what is right or normal.”
Raj furrowed his brow. “Is it really all that?”
Luna looked past him. “See for thineself.”
Raj turned around as the Break of Day rose over the barrier mountains surrounding the Shattered Lands.
The first thing Raj saw, the very first thing, was a volcano spewing lava into the air. The massive fire mountain rumbled and growled, a haze of heat and smoke bubbling off it. As he watched, a great monster of rock and flame breached the surface and sent a cloud of burning embers into the air. He heard the embers crying out and saw them flapping at the air, bobbing and weaving to evade the monster's grasping tentacles. A few were too slow and were caught by the thing's burning coils and shoved into it's cavernous maw. Raj stared at this for a second before turning his attention to the swooping cloud of ember-like creatures. He watched them school together and spiral down the face of the volcano, drawing heat off of the trickling lines of fire running down the ashen face of it. The lava met a cliff and dropped down into burning pools and the ember creatures dropped with it, circling the stream before diving into it with ululating keens that reached his ears so high up. Then, as one, they circled about and flew underneath the volcano. That's when Raj realized something that made him gasp.
The volcano was floating. It was moving.
The lava trickling off the lip of it had left a burning line down the length of a dark valley, a trail hundreds of miles long. As he looked, he saw other masses like the volcano, stones the size of city blocks floating lazily in the air, blithely ignoring gravity and sense.
Raj stood there staring for ten minutes or two hours before Luna spoke up. “A Magma Kraken and Mantle Rays. They live in lava pools, typically far below ground, but here they rise up to the surface. One of the only places in the world they do so regularly.”
“I...” Raj choked. “Where does all the, it it's spewing that stuff out all the time then... I don't know what to be amazed by first.” He turned to her. “How... how is this place-”
“Real?” She finished for him and gestured out at the expanse. “This place is the battleground upon which the Forming Wars were fought. Titan battled titan here, ages ago. The forces unleashed were unlike any seen in this iteration of existence. The unleashed might shattered natural law. It is why ponies must control the weather, why mine sister and I must move the sun and moon and planets, because the battles fought in this place destroyed the natural mechanisms that would secure their orbits. In this terrible place though, the effect is more pronounced. Mountains fly, ice flows, and light sings here, simply because the rules telling them not to do not apply here.”
Raj stared dumbfounded, ignoring the sounds of jubilation from his friends as they took in the wondrous sights. “How could one battle do all that?”
Luna looked at him squarely. “Captain, Titans died in this place, something that many didn't know was possible until it occurred. Indeed, it was the death of Titans that so fractured reality and left this gaping wound in the world. Besides that, millions more died in the fighting. Under those mountains are the bones of ponies, minotaurs, centaurs, griffins, rakshasa, faeries, and a thousand others I can't even remember.” She paused. “Including my brothers and sisters.”
“Wait, like, other Alicorns?” Raj asked, somewhat stunned by all the new information.
“Indeed. Celestia and I were not the only alicorns our mother created, we are merely those who survived. Terra, Consus, Empyrean, all were my honored siblings, all royal children of the Faustmare. And all were snuffed out before they had the chance to imprint their legend on the world.” She fluffed her wings. “So there, Captain, that is why we are 'snitty' as you put it. We are not relishing the idea of finding your ratty vagabond in the place my siblings should be resting.”
Raj blinked. “I'm sorry I upset you. I didn't know about any-”
She held up a wing to silence him. “Do not apologize.” She looked back at the six ponies excitedly looking down at the flailing Magma Kraken. “Do not share what we have told you with the others. Knowledge of these dour subjects is a burden they need not shoulder.”
“Yes'm.”
“Good. We are going below deck to rest. Please do not disturb us further.” At that she turned and walked down the steps and into the foredeck.
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This is true imagination. Seeing this contest of equestrian mixed with greek legends make me dance with joy.
It's about time you published another chapter ! Keep them going!
Still sounds and looks like Solder 76 in my head
How do you pronounce Rajrishi?
7638022
Rahj - ree - she
I think that's how you write out something phonetically.
Yes, Equestria clearly has the contact to the Greek legends. And given what we saw from the remake of Clash of the Titans and a few other recent movies of the same vein, I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes!
Alondro raises a scholarly finger, "Commercial bananas are all parthenocarpic clonal organisms of a triploid cultivar of Musa acuminate, commonly referred to as Cavendish group bananas. Also, they are herbaceous plants with a stem of tightly wrapped petioles which form the pseudostem, emerging from a subterranean corm. In structure, the banana plant is similar to, though much larger than, some species of ginger which bear flowers on their main leafy stems rather than sprouting secondary flowering stems as does commercial and other ginger species. When new banana plants are required, either suckers or small sympodial corms are removed from the corms of a parent plant and replanted. Modern methods also utilize tissue culture, which minimizes the transmission of disease organisms from plant to plant, a serious issue in crops with severely limited genetic variety."
tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Me1fac42bed17dadddeb10f8d8c664aa0o0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=198&h=164
And humans who used to live there got all kinds of weird Alter powers from the Other Realm.
The final battle involved this one weird guy who moaned a whole lot and seemed to be a distant relative of King Sombra, since he was all crystal and stuff.
static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120513220545/scryed/images/7/70/TheCrystal.jpg
Random musing about Spike tasting sapphires as blueberry. Maybe as a baby, he associated the color of the stones with the color of the fruits and other foods he ate at the time and therefore linked the tastes together as a form of synesthesia since the stones don't have anything organic to interact with the tastebuds. This way the developing dragon brain can interpret the quality of the stones in a way which is similar to organic food without needed an entirely different set of tastebuds and cognitive hardware to process gems. A way to test this would be to find another dragon raised with different organic foods and see if they have different food-tastes for the gems. Like comparing cultural preferences in Mexico versus in Britain.
you sly fucker