Captain's Journey

by Sphinx_Herald

Chapter 9

Captain stands in front of a church. The church looks familiar to him, but he can’t quite place it. It is an old church, dusty stained-glass windows, wood boards bleached from the sun, and two large wooden doors. He looks around for any other building, but finds none. He then hears the loud thundering sound of the bells, as they rang. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he pushes his way through the door. There is a long red carpet going from the door to a table near the front. Seven benches flank the carpet from either side.

He makes his way to the table at the front, looking at it for a moment. Captain turns left and begins walking again. He goes straight for the only door on that side of the church. Opening the door he sees that he is at the top of a staircase, an ominous glow coming from the bottom. He closes his eyes once again, he could feel that there is something down there. He’s not sure what it is, but he knows there is something. He opens his eyes, suddenly finding himself at the bottom of the stairs. He seems to be in a catacombs of sorts, coffins lined the walls of the tunnel. The glow he had saw earlier is coming from all the small flames on the candles.

Captain walks over to a coffin further down the tunnel, not caring about the stale scent of mold. He stops at a coffin at the far side of the hall, this is the one he’s searching for. Captain glances at the name only to find it is blurred out. He pulls out his cutlass, and slides it into the space under the lid. With a quick upward motion, the lid snaps off. The ground starts shaking, dust falls from the ceiling. Captain looks around, panicked at the thought of being buried under the tons of rocks above his head. Bricks fall from the wall as he runs for the stairs. He reaches the stairs just as the world around him crumbles to dust.

---

Captain slowly blinks the sleep from his eyes, the slow rocking of the ship almost putting him back to sleep again. Well, that was an odd dream, he thinks. He turns his head to the right to find an annoyed looking changeling glaring at him. Captain lets out a yawn and stretches his back. “Good morning, Ebony,” he says following it with another yawn.

“Finally… I’ve been trying to get you up for the last several hours.”

“Oh, do you really miss me so much you have to wake me up?”

“Not even close, I came to wake you because Rose has a job for you,” says Ebony as she goes out the door to his cabin, “I’ll be at the tavern.”

He gets out of the bed and walks over to the door. I know it’s a good day when I go to the tavern first thing, he thinks.

Captain enters the tavern a couple of minutes later. There are not many other ponies, he easily spots Ebony and Rose chatting at the counter.

“Good to see you’re up, sweetie,” Rose greets in a cheery tone.

“Hi, I heard you have a job for me,” Captain says, placing a few bits on the counter.

“Not quite, it’s a job for you and your crew. Would you accept it?”

“What do I have to do?” he asks. He opens the bottle and takes a drink. He closes his eyes, savoring the taste of rum in the morning.

“I need you to go to Kigerston, and get some inventory for me. As it turns out I’m starting to run a little dry, and the captain I usually hire is a little under the weather. It’s a simple job.” She leans in close, putting on a seductive look. “And I’ll repay you anyway you want.”

“Sure, I think the rest of the crew won’t care, so long as they get paid,” he says as he gets up and goes to the door, completely missing the hint. “Ebony! You go get the rest of the crew, I’ll prepare Misfortune.”

“He’s no fun, I was hoping for something interesting. Maybe he’s into stallions,” Rose grumbles.

Ebony lets out a little chuckle, “Don’t worry, I just think he’s a little slow. If you keep trying you might get him. I have to go now.”

Rose focuses her seductive gaze onto Ebony. “How about you, sweetie? How would you like to be payed?”

“Money.”

“Sorry, sweetie, I only pay money for one service. Unless of course you want to do that for me.”

“I-I gotta go,” Ebony says before bolting out of the tavern.

---

Misfortune pulls herself into the Kigerston harbour. There are crowds of ponies running around trying to attend to business. Vendors have stalls set up all around the harbour, trying to sell their wares to sailors, and immigrants. Crates, and barrels are stacked, waiting for a ship to transport them. Several members of the crew have stepped out of the ship to see the city.

Captain lazily looks over the starboard rail. He sees Ebony yelling at some vendors, Twigs running from vendor to vendor buying random stuff. Smokey and Arrel had left before they made port. It’s been a while since I last saw her… maybe it’s time I do that, he thinks.

He jumps off the ship and starts walking down the roads toward the church. The roads really haven’t changed much since he was a child. He knows where he is going this time. He continues on for half an hour. He stops in front of a run-down house. The windows are boarded up, the door has a large crack across it’s surface. The walls are so dirty it makes the road look clean. He sits there for several minutes before getting up and continuing down the path. He walks around a church and into a graveyard, he continues down the rows of headstones looking for a special one. Stopping in front of a small, very basic headstone. “Hey… mom,” he says, looking down at the name, Silk Heart.

He sits down on his haunches. “I know I haven’t visited you a lot lately. I was held up in a few… situations, but I’m here now.” He pauses, taking a deep breath then continues. “I don’t know where to start. Well, I was stuck in Hayvana for a while, that’s why I didn’t come. I was having some hard times there, it all went from bad to worse, and I had started to believe I would never be anybody. I started to grasp at straws, going for even the smallest chance of a change. Until at some point I ended up in prison, I didn’t want to die I a place like that. As I was about to escape when I met… her. I can’t keep my mind off of her. Two outlaws in desperate situations, but I saved her all the same… I knew you would have agreed. And then everything started to change for the better. Now I have a crew, a ship, a great first mate… now I have a family.”

He takes a deep, shaky breath, wiping away a stream of tears that has formed. “I saw Flintlock recently, I’m not sure if he’s been here lately. When I saw him he was doing alright, knowing him he’s probably doing better now. He’s a great captain, I haven’t seen him command a ship yet, but I can tell. Mom, I think I can finally achieve something. I know I have a long way to go, but with my crew I’m sure I’ll… we’ll reach greatness. I’m not sure whether you’d agree with the path I have chosen, but I’m going for it.” Captain lifts himself up and wipes away a few more tears. “It was nice talking to you, I love you.” He turns to leave, but stops himself. He turns back to the grave, “I don’t suppose you’d give me sign whether you think I can or not, would you?”

Then the bells of the church start ringing. He looks at the church, in a daze. His mind goes back to the dream he had, with him staring up at the church. That’s where I’ve seen it, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before, he thinks. He runs to the church doors pushing his way through them. The inside looks the same as his dream, a red carpet flanked by seven benches on either side. He runs over to the catacomb’s door, jumping his way over the benches. He races down the stairs, over to the coffin.

Jamming his cutlass into the gap under the lid, he pushes the cutlass upward. With a crack the lid opens, inside is the corpse of a male unicorn. Of course the color of his coat and mane has faded but still visible, green, and grey respectively. Lying on the chest of the corpse, is a rolled up paper. He grabs the paper, and quickly opens it (to make sure it’s not a letter). Looking at the paper, it’s obvious that’s it a map. He rolls it up again and puts it in his belt before turning to the door. He glances quickly at the name on the coffin, Emerald Lance. “Sorry, but I’m taking this. In any case I think I can put it to better use then you.” Captain dashes out of the door, out of the church, and down the road towards the harbour. He stops and looks back toward the graveyard, “Thanks, I’ll visit again. I promise.”

---

“Starry, I have something for you to look at,” Captain says as he climbs onto the deck of ‘Misfortune’. He reaches into his belt and gives her the map.

She unrolls it and looks back up at him with an annoyed look. “What is this!?”

“A map, I need you to find out where it leads.”

She opens her mouth to protest, but sighs, knowing that she won’t win.

“Where were you?” Ebony asks.

“Why?”

“You were gone for a while. You never told anypony where you were going. Then you come back with a map.”

“I was visiting some family.”

Author's Note:

Yet another chapter, yay. Looks like the crew is going on a little adventure soon and I have so many more planned. Hope you all enjoyed this, slightly slower, chapter.