173 - Captain and Crew
C. Shells couldn’t resist the urge to smile as she looked over her crew, each and every one of them having raised a hoof.
Some had been quicker than others, of course. Ocean Spray had been the first to do so, practically leaping up with how fast he’d put his foreleg above his head. Sandbar had had followed suit, wearing that goofy grin that always made him look like a colt. After that the others had all copied the gesture, some with hearty shouts and raucous laughter while others did so more solemnly. Scrubby had been the very last one to raise his hoof, a queasy look on his face as he did so.
“You all did hear me say that I only wanted one of you to go with me, right?” she asked wryly.
“With all due respect, Captain,” said Ocean Spray, “more would be better. If there are a lot of bits left in that bank, then they’re going to be hard to carry. You’ll need a team to get even a fraction of them out of there.”
C. Shells shook her head, the smile still on her face. “Cloudbank and I discussed this. She thinks that a small group is better, and I agree with her. The more ponies that go in, the more will be in danger. We both believe that it’s better to have everypony come back with nothing to show for it than to lose lives trying to make it big.” Ocean Spray didn’t look entirely convinced, but he didn’t say anything, and C. Shells had to resist the urge to grin wider. Although that life-or-death battle they’d all participated in had convinced her to break her own rule about starting a relationship with a member of her crew, she’d still been nervous. She’d heard plenty of stories about how a “workplace romance” between a captain and a crewmate could destroy discipline, erode morale, and in some cases lead to serious disasters while at sea. But Ocean Spray had completely allayed her fears, carrying out orders when she gave them, calling her “Captain” when they were around others, and overall acting like a model sailor. Well, except for the fact that we don’t have a ship anymore.
“We might…” Scrubby barely got the words out before he had to pause, gulping in what looked to C. Shells like an attempt to literally swallow his nervousness before trying again. “We might be able to find a wagon or something in the city. If we load it up, we’d be able to carry out a lot more without taking too many ponies.”
“Forget that!” laughed Sandbar, giving Scrubby a playful shove. “We’re going to be knocking off a bank! You know what that makes us, right?” He looked around, apparently unfazed by the shrugs and blank looks he received in reply. “Pirates!” he whooped. “We’re actually going to be bona fide pirates! Come on, let’s all give a big ‘arr!’”
C. Shells couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Before she’d called her crew over, Sandbar had been telling several other ponies – most of them mares, she’d noted with a roll of her eyes – about what he was calling the “Battle of the Bay.” Naturally, his version had him performing several feats of daring heroism, slaying terrible monsters and saving the lives of multiple ponies as he led everyone to a stunning victory. And of course, he’d made sure to indicate his scar at every opportunity, presenting it as a token of his exploits. While most of the small crowd he’d gathered had looked skeptical, a few were wide-eyed at the tale. I wonder how awed they would have been if they knew how he really got that scar? wondered C. Shells, recalling how Lex had saved the earth stallion’s life when they first landed in Vanhoover.
The thought made her pause, her smile fading as she glanced back at the field hospital where Lex was recuperating. It wasn’t lost on her that he’d injured himself creating food for everyone, an act of self-sacrifice that was hard to reconcile with how viciously he’d cursed Garden Gate yesterday. But that’s normal for him, she thought. He’ll insult us in one breath and then save all of our lives the next. It had been that way ever since they’d first come to Vanhoover, when he’d coldly told her what to do aboard her own ship, only to turn around and protect them when the monsters attacked. She just couldn’t figure him out.
Nor, she knew, could anypony else in the camp. Without knowing anything concrete about their benefactor, rumors and gossip were spreading like wildfire throughout the camp, and had reached a fever pitch in the wake of Cloudbank’s speech and Lex’s demonstration of his magical might. From what C. Shells had heard, everypony had an opinion, and no one knew what they were talking about. At this rate, Tall Tale will need to give its name to this place.
“Captain?”
The voice drew her from her thoughts, and she looked towards the pony that had spoken up. “What is it, Rose?”
Stepping forward, Compass Rose lowered her raised hoof to rub the back of her neck, looking uncomfortable. “Captain, you know I’m not afraid of going with you,” she started, her tone making it clear that she was making a disclaimer. “I fought those monsters, the same as everypony here, and I’ll do it again if that’s what you need.”
“But?”
“Is this really what we should be doing?” Rose adjusted her glasses as she spoke, and for a moment C. Shells couldn’t help but marvel that her pilot had managed to keep them through everything that had happened. “Our ship is gone, we made it out of the city, and Lex looks like he has things well in hoof here.” She waved a hoof at the tables of food, illustrating her point. “Shouldn’t we be thinking of a way to get home?” Several of the ponies behind her nodded and muttered their agreement, with Scrubby nodding his head up and down so fast it was almost a blur.
C. Shells waited for the noise to die down before she spoke, giving Rose a sympathetic look. “Alright.” She ignored the surprised looks she received then, letting her eyes sweep over each of her crew in turn to let them know that what she said next was directed at all of them. “How do we get back to Tall Tale?” When nopony answered immediately, C. Shells pointed a hoof at Compass Rose. “Rose, how do we get back to Tall Tale?”
Despite having been the one to bring the point up, Rose flinched slightly. “Well…I said we should be thinking of a way to get back…”
“And that’s what we’re doing,” nodded C. Shells. “So, what do you think? How do we get back?”
Rose rubbed the back of her head again, needing a long moment before she spoke. “Maybe we figured out why the train wasn’t coming here…”
“And how do we do that?” pressed C. Shells. When Rose looked down in discouragement, it was clear to everypony that she didn’t have an answer. “How do we get back to Tall Tale?” repeated C. Shells, looking around again.
“Maybe we could make it there on hoof?” piped up Scrubby. “It’s not that far away from here.”
“It’s, what, twenty miles of swamps between here and there? Twenty-five?” scoffed Sandbar. “You’d get eaten by a cragadile before you got halfway there.”
“Cragadiles don’t live in those swamps,” noted Rose sourly.
“No, but I bet there’s a lot of snakes and bears and other dangerous animals,” he replied, and this time Rose didn’t contradict him.
“Maybe the pegasi could fly us all there?” ventured Scrubby. His tone of voice was hopeful, but the look on his face was pleading.
Ocean Spray, however, was shaking his head before the other stallion had even finished speaking. “Are you kidding? Pegasi make up a third of our crew; there’s no way that we could carry two ponies apiece for twenty-odd miles.”
“I heard that Rainbow Dash once carried four ponies all by herself,” shot back Scrubby. “They were falling from Cloudsdale, and she caught all of them and flew them back up.”
Ocean Spray gave a helpless shrug. “None of us here are Rainbow Dash,” he said, the look on his face suggesting that he was amazed that he even had to say that.
“Everypony be quiet,” ordered C. Shells, and all talking ceased instantly. She looked her crew over again, and this time her expression was harder. “I want to go home as much as anyone here, but we need to face the fact that that’s impossible right now. The train isn’t running, going by hoof or by wing is impossible, and there aren’t any ships or boats that we can use.” They’d confirmed that last one before they’d left the warehouse shelter, during the few days when Lex had been busy curing those ponies that tentacle-fish thing had infected. Ocean Spray and a few other pegasi had flown up and down the harbor, confirming that there were no serviceable ships to be found. Between the mass exodus that had taken place early in the disaster, and their own ship being smashed by that kraken, it wasn’t hard to figure out why that was.
“I know that’s discouraging,” she continued. “Believe me, I’d much rather be home right now. But don't forget, the ponies here don’t have a home anymore.” She swung a hoof out to point at Vanhoover. “They don’t just have no way to go anywhere, they have nowhere to go. And if I’m stuck here with them, then I want to do everything I can to help them out, because right now that’s what I can do.” She noted that more than a few of her crew were nodding, and even those that weren’t were listening attentively. “Now, I know that this wasn’t what any of us signed up for. We were just supposed to bring Lex and Sonata and all those doctors here, and maybe take some of the worst-off ponies back to Tall Tale, and that was it. Only we got more than we bargained for.”
She couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they’d tried to turn around right after that first attack, when the sahuagin had boarded their ship. We could have dropped Lex and the others off and immediately headed back. If we’d left right then… She didn’t finish the thought, knowing that it was impossible to say whether they would have made it back to Tall Tale, or if the sahuagin or the kraken or some other sea monster would have caught them before they could. If they did, we all would have died, she knew. She shook the thought off, knowing that she needed to finish her impromptu speech if she wanted to nip this in the bud. Rose wasn’t a panicky pony; quite the opposite, she was one of the most levelheaded members of her crew. If she wanted to abandon the Vanhoover ponies and find a way home, then it was certain that a considerable portion of the crew felt that way also, and C. Shells knew that if she didn’t speak to that right now, there’d be far fewer hooves raised the next time she asked them to do something dangerous.
“We got more than we bargained for,” she repeated, “and each and every one of you stepped up. Whether it was fixing a broken door or fighting a horde of monsters, you never balked or backed down or refused to help. And after all that, after doing more than was ever asked or expected of you, you all raised your hooves just now when I asked you to go back into danger for everypony else’s sake.”
She could see the effect her words were having, now. Ocean Spray was giving her a warm look that he usually reserved for when they were alone together. Sandbar’s grin had faded, and for once he was showing a humble expression. Rose kept her gaze on the ground, unable to look her in the face. Scrubby rubbed his eyes with one hoof, his breathing shaky. The sight of them all made a warm sensation spread through C. Shells’ chest, and she didn’t have to think about what to say next. “I’ve never been more proud to be your captain, because I know I have the finest crew ever to sail a ship. And that won’t change if you decide that you’ve done enough and want to try for home. Celestia knows you’ve all more than earned it.”
“Captain…” Scrubby’s soft cry was echoed by several other members of the crew, and C. Shells found herself blinking back tears all of a sudden.
“But for those of you who don’t,” she quickly continued, knowing she needed to wrap this up before she lost her composure, “for those of you who still feel like you have more to give, I’ll ask one more time. Who here will go back into Vanhoover with me?”
This time, every hoof shot into the air without hesitation.
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As a note, I messed up before: several recent chapters described Scrubby as being the sailor with the scar on his neck. In fact, it's Sandbar that has the scar, not Scrubby.
I've gone back and edited the previous chapters to correct for this.
It is a shame Lex didn't see C.Shell's leadership here since he could learn from it though I doubt Lex would be able pull off anything close to what C.Shells did here, especially on his own. And if his 'talk' with Sonata goes south, then he might be forced to carry on by himself though I'm more than certain that Thermal Draft would be more than happy to fill that role until both of them cool off.
I seriously hope that doesn't happen.
At least we know that Cloudbank has the volunteers she needs to carry out Lex's plan now. And considering the current members of the party, their chances of success, or at least, making back in one piece is rather good. Well, provided things do go according to plan, which they rarely do in this story.
p.s: I don't think I or anyone else for that matter could have recalled whether it was Sandbar or Scrubby that got the scar if you hadn't pointed that out and you could have just edited with no one the wiser. Still, I appreciate your honesty on the matter.
Experienced sailors going back, but just how intrested will what appearts to be the Puppet Master be to only a couple, kill them out o hand, or wait to see what they are doing if they havent seen already?
it sounds like things are moving forward fast and plans are confirmed.
8561835 Lex would have had a very hard time appreciating C. Shells' speech, but it would have served as an example of what a leader is supposed to do for their followers. Maybe if he'd witnessed it and had Sonata there to explain it to him...but at the moment, neither of those things are true, so this was another teachable moment that he missed. Hopefully he'll be able to patch things up with Sonata and she can help him fix his public image. Because if not, he could still lose everything without ever having to fight another battle.
Still, it looks like Cloudbank will have all the volunteers she needs to go raid the local bank (or multiple banks) for bits. Maybe they'll be able to get in, grab the goods, and get out? Though as you noted, it's rare for things to go quite that easily in this story. But with the elemental bleed closed, surely they'll be able to handle a few ghouls, right?
As for my confusing Scrubby and Sandbar's identities...well, calling out that I'd made a mistake and corrected it seemed like the right thing to do, since it might have confused some readers otherwise. Admittedly, they're both tertiary characters, but I still wanted to avoid even the chance of causing confusion for people reading this story, hence my admission of what happened.
8562102 How much indeed? That will likely be revealed sooner rather than later.
8562444 I'm quite glad to hear you say that, since I've been a little worried that these last few chapters have been progressing too slowly. Thanks!
8562498
i feel the chapters are good, you are at a point in the story ware you are laying the ground work going in to the next story ark so you have a ton of things to get moving.
8563336 Very much so. I'm quite glad that's coming across!
I found this incredibly funny for some reason.
Lex is a ruler, not a leader.
He would do a lot better if all he had was numbers to balance, and others figured out how to make the ponies do it.
8747072
As someone else once said, "it's funny because it's true."
There's a little more to what he does than simple calculation, but you're not wrong to make the distinction between ruling and leading.