You Look Good Jack
Over the Edge and Over Again: Chapter 17
You Look Good Jack
“Heave!”
A hefty portion of the royal guard forced their bodies forward, ramming their armour-clad heads into the gates of their prison. Their helmets grated with each impact. It seemed a tad primitive in a way, but it was all they could really do at this point, whether they liked it or not.
“Ho!” Shining Armour yelled out from within the group, forcing his way forward along with the rest of them. The herd of ponies at the gate comprised of a dozen or so soldiers, but that was largely due to the gates size; they couldn't really fit much more around it. "Put your backs into!"
Though the more the ponies tried, and the more the bars refused to strain under their strength, Shining wondered how much their efforts were actually achieving. Two hours must have passed since they had begun, and the dent in the bars largely remained unchanged. And that was with the guards constantly switching out every fifteen minutes to keep the assault going strong.
Not that time truly seemed to matter at this point.
The gate wasn't impervious, which was Shining's ray of sunshine in all of this. If it could be opened to let them all in, it could be opened to let them out.
Groups of ponies had been stuffed into almost every corner of the tiny cage. Well, it was more like one large group was gathered inside the cage; by Shining's reckoning, near enough the entire royal guard had to be there. Those under Luna's direct command included.
Hay was scattered generously beneath their hooves and dishes filled with multicoloured pellets were positioned in one of the corners of their prison. A water bottle was poking through the bars against one of the walls.
If their current reduction in size hadn't been insult enough, a prison better suited to a household hamster was surely the icing on the proverbial cake.
As dire as that seemed, there was little time to be spent wallowing in self pity. Especially now that Discord himself was free for the second time in little over a year. Not only were Twilight and the Royal Sisters in jeopardy, the ponies in the city below were also at serious risk.
“Once more!” a much darker pegasus called out. Her sharp teeth bared as she swooped down on the door and joined the fray, her fore-hooves crashing into the metal bars. Captain Stark Light was commanding now.
Both sides of the force had always been on uneasy terms, given their rulers' history with each other. But, at the moment, either side wasn't really concerned with which commander was commanding them. They had a job to do, and even if they were against chaos itself, they were going to do it.
“And again!” both leaders bellowed in unison, rearing their head as the ponies under their command pushed and shoved their shoulders forward. Light charged once again from above.
The ponies fell forward with differing yells of surprise as the gilded metal suddenly shifted further than it ever had before. With an end result actually forming from the effort, more soldiers rushed to join them. Pegasi began to charge at the gate in a barrage from above, following in Stark Light's example.
There was at least twenty ponies now. Those resting towards the back of the cage raised their heads, marching forward in some show of support. They cheered and pounded their hooves on the hay covered floor with each forward charge, urging their comrades on.
“It's giving way!”
Shining couldn't tell who had called out, but group morale picked up regardless. Whatever guards were stood at the door ran back, and stormed forward faster and harder in a singular force. A unified army. Many of those gathered at the sidelines rushed to aide in whatever way they could, though most hovered around the cage, moving eagerly from hoof to hoof.
And then, with one final effort, the gate finally gave way.
The guards at the forefront tumbled out of the cage, hitting the marbled floor as their armour clattered to a cacophony of dull thuds and scrapes. None of them stopped long enough to check for damages.
They were out.
“Right!” Captain Stark Light yelled, her voice commanding out above the rest. “You lot! Check the perimeter. Search out potential escape routes and assess the situation!”
The uneven gathering of dark and light guards she'd motioned towards gave no hesitation in agreeing with the mare's orders. They all had the exact same goal in kind, regardless of who was giving them the task.
“And the rest of you!” Another gathering to her left immediately stood to full attention, hooves raised in a salute. “Get your sorry flanks to the mirror before Discord gets his back in here!”
Shining rolled his eyes at the Lunar Captain. Despite her high authority, she had always been a rather frank commander. He had to admit though; it was refreshing to see a mare take charge of an army rather than a stuffy old stallion with a beard.
Turning away, Shining Armour gave his own set of orders to any soldier near enough to hear, though careful not to go against anything set down by his Lunar counterpart. If anything, this was the best both sides of the royal guard had worked together since the Princess of the Night's return.
But given the situation at hoof, he didn't really think it was quite worth celebrating at the moment.
Besides, it was their only chance to do something, given what Discord had done to them. It had happened all at once, really. One minute he was in his office finishing the last of his lunch, and the next thing he knew he was surrounded by the rest of his guard, locked in an undersized cage with Discord towering over them like a deranged child.
A humongous child.
While most had settled into a routine of attempting to escape, some had not taken the situation very well. Discovering you were, suddenly, smaller than a common mouse did nothing for your self-esteem, after all. It was a miracle that morale had not faltered entirely.
Shining Armour felt the top of his head, massaging the space where his horn used to be. The rest of the hornless unicorns had done the same countless time since their incarceration. That hadn't helped the situation either.
But now they were out of the cage, and despite their less than dignified size, they were finally at liberty to make a difference. No matter how small it was.
“Pegasi, ready!” the Night Commander yelled.
Both species of pegasi moved into what little formation they could muster, with groups of stallions and mares looking to each other for any sign of a unified stance. Not everypony had extensive battle training, admittedly, since there really hadn't been a need until recent years. But flight formations were still a practised exercise in the guard.
The ponies took the skies at the Lunar Captain's command, uniformed and ready to search for a means of escape. Or anything that could give them an advantage.
The rest of the stallions charged towards a mirror at the other end of the throne room, watching it tower over their diminutive stature. Their hooves beat against the tiles, tapping away as their journey stretched on for much longer than it would have done at their natural size.
What should have taken seconds took them minutes, but they soldiered on regardless. Given who their enemy was, they probably didn't even have that much time to make a real difference. But a difference, no matter how small, was still a difference. And that was all that mattered.
A soft chuckle suddenly echoed out through the oversized throne room. “Oh, how simply adorable,” an unmistakable voice taunted, as if on cue.
The captains were the first to stop in their tracks, followed closely by the rest of the ponies galloping across the floor towards the mirror. One by one they all turned to look up to the gigantic form of Discord as he sat there on empty air, ignorant of whether he should have been able to float there at all.
Discord slowly floated down, putting his face right up to the captain of the Lunar Knights before picking her up by the helm with his lions paw. The mare barely measured up to the size Discord's eye, let alone anything else.
“I mean, really, can't you see how cute you all look?”
The Captain struggled underneath the paw holding her. She watched on as her forces far below on the tiled floor began to attempt some form of attack. It came as no surprise to her that nothing came from the effort. No weapons and a distinct lack of magic will do that to a pony.
But the Pegasi charged on. Ponies of both races were storming towards the draconequus with their wings held close to their sides. A basic set of formations spun together in the air and dove down from above Discord's head.
Before he could even notice them, they slammed their hooves against him as a single attacking force. Their hooves impacted hard with Discord's antler, all their weight thrown into the attack. But the overall effect barely seemed to bother him at all, as if the harsh impact had only nudged him. From where Stark Light was held, it barely had.
The draconequus let out a deep sighed.
“Oh, ouch, that really hurt,” he managed to muster. He turned to the ponies, hovering in the air behind him “Quite frankly, I was expecting a rather more daring rescue attempt.”
In all fairness, even the captain held within Discord's grasp was saddened by the attempt her ponies had made. She doubted they could have done much to harm Chaos Incarnate even if they had been their normal size.
“Maybe I should have taken away your wings?” Discord mused, tapping at his chin. “Taking away your horns away worked a treat, after all.”
<< ☠ >>
Cracking his tail against the air, Discord watched as all the little ponies scrambled their way towards the floor below, anticipating their magical amputation. He watched them eagerly as they neared the floor.
It would be all well and good to let them fall to their deaths, but that wasn't really his style. It would be much more fun to treat them like pets. Ponies, like a large number of creatures, all had the rather common trait of getting a rather fatal case of death when falling from great heights. And it could be needlessly messy at times.
Just as most of them had landed safely he let his powers snap away at their reality, pulling their feather coated limbs out of existence. A few lonely guards fell the last few inches, while another dozen or so followed the rules of motion and skidded across the floor when they finally made contact.
Seeing the little things panic and squirm as they tried to move their wings – the ones that weren't there any more – was quite the sight to see. As soon as they realised what had happened, anger resounded across a great deal of their faces.
“Stop doing that!” a lone guard yelled up at the air. Discord's only response was to turn the pony's coat from white to green. Luminous green. With reflective, white polka-dots.
Not quite pleased with the effort he'd put into the transformation, he clicked his tongue against his teeth and watched as a tree painlessly grew from the stallions back. A few apples, equally as white and reflective as the spots, bloomed from the leaves.
“Now,” he announced, suitably pleased, “I think you've all been out your cage a little too long.” And with that, the guards all vanished with an audible pop.
Once they had reappeared, the ponies glanced around to find themselves all back inside the confines of their cage, the bars seamless and unbroken. Anything that even closely resembled a gate was now gone.
Waiting until they'd all realised they had utterly failed, and lost their wings for their efforts, Discord looked down upon the small cage. Combing a paw through his beard, Discord did his best to pretend to count how many guards were back in the cage.
He'd been in the room the whole time, and he was more than certain no pony had escaped, but it was still fun to tease them with the hope.
“And...have some food too,” he decide, letting a giant – giant to the ponies, at least – carrot cake appear amidst them in the cage. It practically buried a few of them upon impact. “I hear it's still in style. Imagine, after all these years.”
No point in letting them go hungry though. Starvation wasn't the nicest thing to look at either, and there was no point trying to mess with the populous if they could barely walk the length of themselves. Besides making it rain food was as good a pastime as any, Discord mused.
“Speaking of which...”
He cracked the joints in his claw with a flex, letting the sound of fireworks emanate from his immortal bones instead of a mundane crack. Discord waited intently until the satisfying trickle of cherryade began raining down on the world outside.
It even fizzed when it hit the ground.
Chocolate rain was so last season, anyway. Or was it two or three seasons? It would be less than chaotic if he did the same thing twice in a row, especially now that a good deal of the ponies alive remembered his last visit. Where would the thrill be if everyone just expected him to do it whenever he turned up?
Moving over to one of the many windows that lined the throne room, Discord stuck his head out through the glass, as if it wasn't even there at all. He looked out over the city below and, subsequently, the pirate ship floating just above it in the distance.
“I know he wanted black, but it's a tad droll...”
Shrugging his shoulders, he nonchalantly waved his paw in the air towards the vessel. Paint began to draw and decorate the sails until his own likeness was there in bright pink on the black fabric. Complete with pirate hat to boot.
“It is still black,” he mumbled to himself, trailing off into a chuckling.
The pirate was fun though. Hector Barbossa didn't even need to be hypnotised or influenced to be chaotic. After all, he acted that way on his own. He was like a child.
“A bearded child.”
Children were naturally chaotic. Order and harmony weren't yet locked into their minds. They did whatever they wanted. Or most did. Times had changed, but even in this day and age, most of the foals around the land seemed to enjoy the prospect of causing mischief and mayhem.
Though the captain didn't stop at mischief. He was violent, and clearly none too humorous to the idea of complete harmony, which made Discord wonder what kind of wonderful world the human came from.
He didn't really care for worlds other than his own, but the idea of a world run by the ideal of chaos rather than order still amused him.
But right now, in his own world, everything was once again going the way he wanted. Nothing was set to a schedule, the days and nights weren't planned right down to the minute. The animals weren't being told what to do and the populous had no idea what was going to happen anymore.
And this time, Discord decided, he'd be sure to stay free for a lot longer than a few hours.
“What do you think Celestia?” Discord asked, gleefully. He waved towards the small gilded cage as he spoke into the mirror. “Aren't they cute?”
And this was his first way of staying free.
Celestia just looked out from the shining glass as she sat within the mirrors reflection. The room was exactly the same, spare for that fact that she and Luna were the only living things inside the door-less room. Their company couldn't very well be enjoyed if they could wander very far out of sight
“Oh cheer up,” he grumbled. “If Twilight Sparkle had done this you'd be all for fawning over the littlest guards in Equestria.”
“We,” another voice called out, “don't think Twilight Sparkle would do such a thing on purpose.”
Luna wandered out into the mirrors view. She didn't wear any happier an expression than her sister did, though the Princess of the Night at least had the decency of answering back. It was fun when they answered back.
“Maybe not, but you'd still think it was adorable.”
Discord leaned over and rested his paw against the rim of the mirror. It was simple in its design. A simple, oval casing framing the sleek piece of glass at its core. It stood as tall as Celestia herself, hovering effortlessly in the air with nothing below to support it.
“You're not very talkative today, are you, Tia. I mean, you should be ecstatic; Discord's back in town,” he exclaimed to the sound of trumpets and party poppers. “And so soon after my last visit too. I'm surprised you let me through the door in one piece.”
Celestia didn't bother responding. The mare had gone to check on her sister and the state of Captain Barbossa's portal home, only to find Discord dancing in the hallway with a set of maracas. Luna was held against the wall, her torso and limbs held in place with used chewing-gum
Eventually, however, Celestia did say something. “You shouldn't have been let out the first time, let alone a second,” she sighed.
Discord nodded at Celestia's comment. It was, after all, not really something he could argue against. “Yes, well, I must admit it was a rather nice surprise,” he admitted. “I mean, really, what are the chances?”
Truth be told, Celestia didn't really know. Discord would have gotten out eventually. She had to accept that, now that mortals had the Elements of Harmony in their hearts. But it hadn't even been a whole two years. Surely he needed just a little longer in his imprisonment?
It wasn't like she would have left him in the statue forever. She'd planned on a change of sentence compared to his first thousand years trapped in stone, but he'd still been freed far too fast.
“How did you bring him here?”
The only difference to anything was Hector Barbossa. Everything else had remained constant until the man's arrival. He was the deciding factor in all of this. It was the only logical cause she could think of.
“Really? This again?” Discord sighed. “Celestia, my dear, you're far too quick to blame me.”
“You really think I believe you had nothing to do with it? That a he just happened to fall from the sky into our world one week and you're free the next?”
Discord pinched the space between his eyes with his talons, letting both of them close as he let out another sigh. He was just waiting for her to bring it up. He knew she would.
“Tia, I have trouble believing it,” he said. “I just don't like to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Especially when it was so close to the last time he was free. He honestly couldn't believe he'd been that fortunate. Sure, beings from other worlds had came to Equestria before, but they were so very far from common. And for one of those few to actually have a power chaotic enough, active enough, to release him just sitting in their pocket?
Well, that was luckier still.
Thinking back on it, Discord had even seen one of the other arrivals during his first incarceration in stone, even if it was nothing more than a wild animal. It was a curious thing to behold, and quite a size too; it was almost like a giant turtle of some sort, except it had deep sapphire scales and cannons mounted in its shell.
Then again, as intriguing as the giant turtle was, all it had accomplished was to tear through the royal gardens in a panicked frenzy before being set upon by a sizeable herd of Celestia's royal guard. If memory served, it breached the castle walls and lost the ensuing battle. Rather badly.
Barbossa's coin, however, was something so much more interesting than any creature to arrive in Equestria. It was a wild, untamed kind of magical. As if the chaos inside it was merely a by-product of its true purpose, not created by design. From what he'd seen of its power, it probably was.
The only downside of such a powerful artefact was that Discord himself couldn't really do much with it. As much as it pained him to discover, whoever created the coin was clearly a class or two above his own.
If Twilight Sparkle hadn't kick started the curse inside, he wouldn't have even been able to reach out for it and gain freedom in the first place. So the creator was likely a being with more power than the Element of Magic and the Lord of Chaos combined. A rather tricky customer indeed.
That same being may or may not have been the reason Discord quite liked the idea of staying in his own universe. Unofficially, of course.
Not that he wasn't impressed by the coin, because he was, but it was such a hassle to work with. Reigniting the curse inside was hard enough as it was, let alone getting it to work properly. Still, the captain turned into a skeleton at night, which was good enough for now. It couldn't have done much more than that, surely?
The captain himself wasn't all that strong though; he was chaotic in nature, but nothing much beyond that. His mind was a tameable as any other creature Discord could get his paws on.
“And the others?” Celestia continued. Her voice came stern, but curious. “The turtle, the cave creature?” She paused. “And the Torment? You...truly had nothing to do with them?”
And there it was. Celestia was persistent about the Torment. Even before his first time as a statue, she'd been adamant he'd had something to do with the fishy thing. Discord didn't even have to do anything to that one, that creature was beastly all on his own.
“I've told you before, and I'll tell you again. I'm a reality warper and this is our reality,” he said as he waved his arms in a large arc, creating a rainbow in their wake. “Anything beyond that is strictly outside of my jurisdiction.”
As sad a fact as it was, he couldn't just summon beings from other worlds. Once they were inside they were fair game, but he couldn't just pull them through. It would have been marvellously fun if he could.
Perhaps it wasn't a huge loss, especially when it was obvious that certain aspects of other worlds seemed to better him. The magic of the coin, and its creator, included.
“If I could get anything I wanted, from any world I wanted, there'd be a lot more of those pirates running around outside,” he teased. “Oh...wait a minute, there is!”
Discord danced a little jig in the air before swaying his pawed arm towards the city outside. There was suddenly a loud squelch from beyond the castle walls. He wasn't sure what he'd just created, but he'd made sure it messy. And chocolaty.
“Is that why you made more of him? To compensate for your lack of p-”
“Actually,” Discord swiftly interrupted, “he wanted a crew made up of his own species. And seeing as I didn't have much to work with, I improvised.”
“But why so many?” Luna interrupted. “What possible need is there for the amount you provided him?”
“I gave him what he wanted; a nice, strong crew of thirty men.” He paused, tilting his head to the side. “And another for each one that stepped of the ship. He felt at such a loss with so many ponies around, I just had to even the playing field.”
“So you just gave him an army that would allow him to do what he wanted to the city unhindered?” Luna bellowed.
“Ah, now, I didn't ask what he wanted them for. Why would I want to do that?” He shrugged. “It's more of a surprise that way, don't you think?”
“Not when you hypnotise him into doing what you want.”
Another sigh from Discord. “It was most definitely not hypnosis. I'm not that trivial. I merely brought some his desires to the forefront of his mind. Seeing as he had very little mind to act on them, given your little ponies have gotten on his good side. I just gave him a little nudge in the right direction.”
“He was going home,” Celestia stated. Her face was closer to the glass, yet no closer to discord himself. Her eyes were wide with what Discord thought might have been sadness. Guilt?
“Well, he can do what he wants now. I've gotten what I can from him, so he can go for a wander through your little portal whenever he pleases. It isn't like I can close it anyway.” He had Luna's spells to thank for that little gem.
Besides, closing it would stop any other potential fun, fury filled pirates from walking through.
“And how is he meant to find it when he isn't even thinking with his own senses?” Luna asked.
“That's his problem, not mine. Chances are, he'll break free of my control eventually,” he replied confidently. “He'll probably find it sooner or later.”
Luna and Celestia both took notice, realising the paradox between what Discord had said and the way he'd said it. They glanced at each other briefly.
“Why doesn't that worry you?” Celestia asked with concern.
“Because, now that I've seen how he thinks, he isn't really needed,” Discord said, floating over to the window with the mirror in tow. He shattered the window, letting the royal sisters see the world below, and the pirate swarm that had began to swarm over it. “I can just make more of him.”
<< ☠ >>
“Bloody idiot.”
Pintel just hung there, dangling unceremoniously from the pole his wrists and ankles had been bound to. A pair of Barbossas carried his limp form through the oddly colourful streets like a hog to a roast. Ragetti's captors followed on behind with the man in no better a situation.
“It weren't my fault!” Ragetti whined. “You were the one what agreed te stop!”
Their blaze of glory hadn't gone quite how they'd envisioned it. They were expecting death, or something painful at the very least. While they were glad they'd escaped their seemingly terminal fate, the situation they were in now didn't appear to be much better
The hoard of Hector Barbossas hadn't so much attacked them as simply crowded around the two men and jumped on top. Once the mass of men had eventually removed themselves, the two deck hands had been tied and secured.
Now they were being carted off to an, as of yet, undisclosed location.
Jack had gotten the same treatment, though rather than being paraded about on the stick they had bound the little thing and given him to yet another Barbossa to carry around. Despite the monkey’s struggles, the pirate appeared to have no issue lugging him around.
Not a lot of the copy-cat captains stuck around after that. As soon as they were captured, most of the blighters wandered off and began to raid the nearby buildings. All that was left were the four clones carrying them and a few more walking along with the spoils of their raids.
“Nice spectacles,” Ragetti gingerly said to the Barbossa walking not too far from his side.
The man was wearing large, black rimmed frames surrounding deep purple pieces of glass. Ragetti couldn't even see his eyes. In response, the Barbossa merely growled and turned back to face the road ahead.
That particular Barbossa was also carrying a large black wooden box. It had an indent in the middle covered in some sort of fabric which took up more than half of the container. Ragetti couldn't even hazard a guess as to what it was for. 'Pon3' was emblazoned on the side in silver, which only managed to confuse him further.
Another Barbossa had something stranger still. He was pulling a little red wagon behind him which held, among other things, a strange board with wheels stuck onto it. A long bar rose from one end and was topped with a handle at either side.
The wagon also held Pintel and Ragetti's weapons, but there wasn't much they could do about that. They didn't really have a way of actually reaching them.
“What you got there then?” Pintel asked, not really sure which of the men he was really asking.
Thinking on that, it appeared none of them actually had the ability talk beyond simple phrases, laughter or yelling. Or, if they could speak, they simply chose not to. They were like animals or even the captain himself if he'd suffered a rather bad knock to the head as a baby.
The only responses Pintel got for his question were nothing more than deep noises and grunts, just as he’d come to expect.
In the end the two detainees just relaxed in the grips of their captors as they watched the strange world go by. Jack was still struggling away though. It only amounted to the little monkey wriggling his feet around and screeching out in frustration, but it was something.
After a while, it dawned on them that watching the city of horses go by wasn't as interesting as they thought it was going to be. They saw more than a few Barbossas roaming between buildings and scrounging around through boxes and crates, but not many horses.
Well, there weren't many out in the open. Quite a few were looking down from behind closed windows or atop buildings. Pintel and Ragetti were sort of hoping one would be kind enough to try and save them, or even attempt to steal them away from their kidnappers.
“Hey,” Pintel called out, finally seeing one on the ground. It stood down an alleyway, cowering behind a set of metal bins amidst rubbish and debris. “Hey!”
He wanted to try and get some help, at least. If the orange one in the funny hat was willing to help fight Barbossa off, one more must have been willing to give them assistance.
“Over 'ere!” For a moment he thought the little creature hadn't even noticed them. A brief moment of eye contact suggested otherwise. “Help!”
The little horse didn't so much as budge from the spot and lowered its head, shaking. A couple more walked into view from somewhere behind the creature, both of whom stopped as they looked straight at Pintel.
“Oh come on! Please?” Pintel tried to once again wriggle free from his pole in a frantic struggle. It didn't do anything to get him away from the Barbossas carting him down the street. “Anyone?!”
All three of the horses looked warily from one to the other, eventually aiming their sights back on Pintel. They shrunk back further into the alley as both men and their procession moved away.
A few seconds passed before Ragetti let out a sigh and said, “There goes that idea then.”
“Aye,” Pintel mumbled in agreement. “Just peachy, ain't it?”
Neither of them bothered trying after that. Most of the horses they passed didn't really pay much attention to them. A good deal of them seemed more concerned with the state of the buildings around the city or running away from the pirates as they approached.
Most of them were, anyway.
“Hey, butter-beard!” a voice suddenly called. “Give me back my speaker!”
Ragetti tilted his head back, trying as hard as he could to look to where the voice had come from. He couldn't see it clearly, but he still caught a glimpse of the little horse. It was alabaster white with a bright, lightning blue mane. And a horrid set of red eyes.
The Barbossa holding the black box came to a swift halt and turned around. The rest of the clones just wandered on as if the horse wasn't there at all.
“Oh, you remember me?” was all Ragetti heard before the black box began floating into the air, taking the captain with it as he held on tight to his plunder. “Well, let’s see how you like getting flung against a brick wall!”
Pintel and Ragetti watched for as long as they could until they'd passed the commotion. The Barbossa held tight onto the 'speaker' as it was raised high into the air. He held tighter still as the box shook violently from side to side. Like a child's rattle.
The last thing they saw was their captain's copy struggling to keep hold as the continued motions of the box catapulted him to the side of a building. Then to the ground shortly after.
“Any chance of you gettin' the rest o' them?!” Pintel shouted out. He waited eagerly for any sort of response.
Both men sighed as none came.
“Damned horses,” Pintel mumbled.
The skinnier of the two men nodded in agreement before deciding, once again, that just watching the world go by was the best course of action. It was the only course of action they could take, but that was beside the point.
Nothing else worthy of notice happened for the rest of their journey. A few Barbossa could be seen looting whatever they could find, but a good deal of the houses now remained broken and empty husks of their formers selves.
Windows were smashed, and undersized doors and been broken in. It was clear the area had been pilfered of any value already. Both men assumed it simply meant there was nothing left there that their captain found worthwhile, despite the sheer number of buildings that now surrounded them on both sides.
After the ruined buildings had been passed, the two men took notice of something far stranger. It was also then that they found out where it was they were being taken.
“B-boat...” Ragetti mumbled, watching as the massive ship floated in the air above them. Effortlessly drifting across the skyline on a sea of air.
“Flyin'...” Pintel focused his eyes. “Here, ain't...ain't that the Pearl?”
It was just there, flying in the sky. Like a dark cloud over a castle, or a storm getting ready to rage at sea. Or something equally as ominous, Pintel thought. While it didn't look exactly like the Black Pearl, it looked enough like it. Anyone would think they looked the same before a second glance.
But at the same time, it wasn't the same. It was bigger, for starters. And it looked as if it was pitch black, as if someone had painted the night sky itself onto the timbers. Empty and endless, and not a sign of the wear or tear it should have shown. No barnacles or scrapes on the hull.
And even though the sail was still infested with holes, they seemed somehow unnatural. Like they'd been planed and designed to be there instead of the usual toll nature would take on it.
“Ye think the captain's up there?” Ragetti called. He thought on his words for a second. “The real one, I mean?”
“Best be hopin'.” Pintel replied. “If he ain't, I don't see this goin' any better than it already has.”
Either way, both men couldn't see anything they could do until a chance presented itself, and chances were more than hard to come by when your ankles and wrists were tied. More so still when men were holding you up by a pole.
Looking around themselves once again, hoping something convenient would crop up soon, they eyed up the area below the ship. The sights they saw kept getting stranger and stranger.
On the side they were approaching a continuous torrent of men, the same man, continued to leap overboard. And on the other side there was...something. It was like a waterfall, except it fell upwards, and instead of water the flow comprised of items and artefacts that, they assumed, the Barbossas had stolen from around the city.
Trinkets made from silver and golden statues. Hundreds of gems in various sizes and colour, as well as items they couldn't rightly describe, much like the board with wheels or the wooden 'speaker'. And it was all going upwards rather slowly.
So not very much like a waterfall, then. But both men couldn't think to compare it to anything else.
“I...uh,” Ragetti mumbled as his captors carried them under the hull. The Barbossas strutted down towards the pile of jewels, boxes, objects and whatever else it was that horses kept inside their homes. “I think we're goin'...up.”
Shaking his head, Pintel frantically began struggling against the captains again; only to be carelessly tosses onto the pile of flotsam. He landed with a pained grunt, rolling over to avoid whatever it was his backside had made contact with. He didn't care to look, but he could feel the ears of some statue digging into his ribs as well.
Ragetti didn't fare much better. The taller of the men let out a squeal as he landed on a pile of objects, most of which appeared to be a collection of gilded cutlery.
But Ragetti's complaints were prematurely silenced as the cursed monkey that had brought them to the land of Hector's and horses was absent-mindedly thrown into his face.
“Hey!” Pintel yelled, his complaints ignored by his captors. The Barbossas were wandering back the way they'd come.
Pintel shuffled forward, attempting to wriggle out of his current position and onto his feet. Or to his knees, at the very least. Now that he wasn't being held up, it seemed irritatingly simple to shuffle his limbs free from the pole.
A few seconds of applied pressure to the ground the pole slipped right out from beneath his wrists and ankles. Ragetti copied the action with the same outcome.
“Great...” He kicked the pole away. “Bloody brilliant,” he mumbled. His attention was caught before he could moan about anything else.
A small clock made from some sort of green stone had drifted up past his face. Pintel stared at it, scrunching his face up as he remembered where he'd actually been thrown. The timepiece rose higher.
Against his better wish, Pintel slowly began to rise with it. Ragetti let out as weak howl as he began doing the same, watching as most of the smaller objects floated up past them.
Attempting to swim in the air, despite being tied down, Pintel sighed as he ended up with his head pointing towards the ground as he rose up towards the ship, backside first. Ragetti sat up, despite the lack of anything to sit on, and dragged Jack on to his lap.
Ragetti began scratching the little thing with what little freedom his finger had, asking, “We sure we ain't dead?”
Pintel pondered the question for a moment, looking out towards the view they could see from their position in the air. Hills and grassy plains lay out before them, decorated in a plethora of different patterns and shades of gaudy colour. Chunks of loose earth floated in the sky along with them, shifting around and moving as if they were lost dinghies adrift on a calm sea.
“Pretty sure we ain't dead,” the man finally answered, frowning as he struggled to right himself. “We definitely ain't right though.” He managed to tip his hands to his forehead. “In the 'ead, I mean.”
As if to emphasise the thought, a herd of cows drifted passed their field of vision. The animals were whistling a quick tune, one they didn't recognise. Whatever it was, they were all perfectly in sync with each other.
The two men had their talk cut short as they saw the deck of the ship finally edge into view. There was a continuous clatter coming from above. It turned out to be everything falling onto the wooden boards, free from whatever influence that had taken them up there.
With a brief thud and a grunt the two men joined the flotsam and jetsam. Pintel winced as he made contact, falling straight onto his head before toppling over onto his stomach. Ragetti and Jack fared better, with the man landing on his backside.
“Jesus...” was all Pintel managed before once again finding himself pulled into the air. This time through a more natural means.
Not quite back from the shock of finding a Black Pearl, then flying up to the deck, Pintel had very little mind to complain or fight back as he was dragged across the deck. Once he'd finally cleared his head enough to concentrate on what was going on, the chubby pirate didn't know whether to be elated or scared by what he saw.
“And why have ye brought me them?” Barbossa said.
There were more than just a handful of pirates. An entire crews worth of men did their duty around the deck. Hauling ropes, cleaning the deck and dealing with the stolen goods, keeping the ship afloat and on course. At least, Pintel assumed they kept it afloat. He wasn't sure how it all worked up in the air.
And at the head of them all was a single man on the upper decks. It was only now that Pintel realised that, despite all the men he'd seen, none of them had worn a hat, or held the air Barbossa held. That pride at standing tall and powerful above everybody else. Authority.
The man on the upper deck had it all.
“I asked for wealth and intrigue, not the opposite,” Barbossa said, waving an arm to Pintel and Ragetti.
If it were any other day, Pintel would have inwardly sighed and got on with his work, as was the norm with Barbossa. But then it dawned on him that the words had actually been spoken. He craned his neck up towards the higher deck.
“Barbossa?” he asked, still not quite sure.
Then, at the sound of his voice, the Barbossa up there craned his neck downwards. The captain's eyes focused on Pintel's, like a bird spying a mouse in the undergrowth. Pintel didn't like it.
“Aye,” the man eventually replied, letting a rasping chuckle rise from his throat. “Ye can say me name. Well done.”
Barbossa, or what Pintel assumed was the true Barbossa, turned back to the rest of the copies. His fists banged against the railings of the ship and every one of the crew members stopped in their tracks. Dead, as still as statues.
“Why did ye bring them here?!” He looked over the duplicated men, waiting for an answer that never came. A growl rose from his chest and his fists once against slammed hard into the railings. “One o' ye answer me!”
After another brief lapse of silence, a lone Barbossa stepped out of the lowly ranks, shuffling towards the captain. Arms were hanging at his sides, a weak smile resting across his face. It was strange, Pintel and Ragetti thought, to see their captain in such a meek state; as if he was finally in their shoes.
“They...a-are...” he began to say, his voice coarse and weak. Almost as if he was new to the whole concept of speech. A child speaking his first words. “They are like...u-us. My Captain.”
The captain of the Barbossas rolled his head backwards before bringing a palm up to rub his eyes, breathing in deeply then releasing it. He wandered across the upper deck, pulling his hand away as he calmly, slowly, made his way down the steps towards everyone else.
“I've seen more than me fare share of men. Of idiots,” he moaned. His steps came harder. “I don't care if any of ye haven't done the same. Fling 'em over!”
Before he had time to react, Pintel fell limp as the captain leaned over and yanked him up by the collars of his coat. He was pulled back up from the deck; his face came up close to Barbossa's.
“...Or have ye somethin' worthy o' me time?”
Pintel nodded, mumbling confirmations as Ragetti quickly followed the example.
“A-aye, cap'n! We brought yer monkey back! Little Jackie!”
This made the captain stop, but only for the smallest of moments. His eyes opened a crack wider, looking down at the other man still heaped on the floor. Then to the little creature tied and laying on Ragetti's lap.
Barbossa stared at it, and opened his mouth. When words refused to form, he dropped Pintel to the ground and clicked his fingers. He motioned a hand towards the monkey.
A copy wandered forward, pulling the creature bound in rope up from the ground. A knife appeared from within the clones' jacket and the bonds that held Jack in place fell to the deck in torn bunches
The animal screeched loudly before it bounded from the forgery of his master. He effortlessly scrambled across the floor, moving for one Barbossa out of the countless others present. Jack then leapt up onto his master’s leg. He clambered up the jacket before finally resting on Barbossa's shoulder, like he had done countless times before.
Barbossa just looked at him as if he couldn't decide whether the animal truly belonged there or not. His mind seemed undecided, even as he turned back to Pintel. The monkey was his now, regardless.
“Aye, good. Anythin' else?”
Both Pintel and Ragetti looked from where they were, briefly eyeing each other, deducing after several blank stares that neither had an appropriate answer to give. The pause lengthened, and at its peak Barbossa nodded his head laughed.
“That'll be a no then?” he said. “Men!”
Barbossa raised a hand into the air, and each of his duplicated took notice. He clicked his fingers, enjoying the obedience of his new crew. “Show em' no quarter.”
Half a dozen or so men marched over; mindlessly obeying the order they'd been given. Half of them walked towards Ragetti, while the rest towards Barbossa and his hostage
“B-but but," Pintel nervously pleaded, looking over to check on his nephew on the floor, “but Barbossa, it's us! Ol' Pintel and Ragetti.”
“Aye, us!” Ragetti said, frantically nodding in agreement
Barbossa just continued to hold Pintel in his hands, pushing his face ever so slightly forward. Pintel could smell the rancid air from his captain's breath.
“Oh, I know who ye are.”
Three of the crew knelt down to drag Ragetti from the floor, pulling him away as he attempted to kick and struggle around. The ropes did a decent job at stopping him.
“That be why I'm throwin' ye off. Too long I've had te deal wi' yer antics, and utter abomination of a service. I've got better men te stand by me side, and I'm afraid yer both no longer worthy o' standin' at all.”
“We can serve ye again, we can! Just give us anythin'!” he yelled back at his nephew, looking for a confirmation. The skinnier man gladly gave it, vigorously nodding.
“There ain't nothin' ye can do that they can't do te a higher standard. And I've become rather fond o' them as of late.”
“N-nothin'?”
Barbossa dryly chuckled, lowering his brow as his lips squirmed into a slick smile. “Nothin'.”
Shaking under Barbossa's hand, Pintel turned his neck to see Ragetti struggling under the crews' hands, helplessly jerking his body in an attempt to fight back. It occurred to him then that there was little else for him to do. With his hands tied and no weapon, he only really had one course of action to take.
Pintel turned back to face Barbossa. He swung his head back and slammed into Barbossa's face. The forced flung Jack from his spot onto the deck below. The little primate even looked dazed for a moment.
It was far from a sane idea, as the voice in his head had said, but if it could prevent their deaths for a few moments longer it would be worth it. He didn't want Ragetti to die if he could prevent it, even if just for a little longer.
He soon regretted his choice. While the men holding up Ragetti dropped him, which was an assuring sight to see, every single member of the crew turned to face Pintel. The man who had dared to attack their captain.
Barbossa had dropped Pintel as well, which was a bonus.
“Ye...wha-” Barbossa caught his breath, dazed. He clenched his eyes shut as the effects of impact continued to pound at his head. When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with fire. A burning anger. “Ye bloody, ingrate!”
Barbossa reached down for Pintel, wrapping his fingers around the man's throat before turning and slamming him to the wall. He stood there, forcing his fingers down on Pintel's windpipe as the rest of the crew stood watch behind him.
<< ☠ >>
“How...dare you.” Barbossa pushed harder, forcing his thumbs into the undersides of Pintel's jaw. “After all I've done for ye, and yer worthless nephew. After everythin' I saved ye from, gave te ye, and worked wi' ye for! Ye think it wise te attack me!”
Ragetti crawled forward, shuffling his legs and arms towards his uncle, stopping at the realisation he was surrounded. Even then, though, the duplicated pirates didn't move. They just stood there, watching the one sided fight between the stranger and their captain.
“I am yer captain. I am the man ye sacrifice life an' limb for! I am the one who saved yer sorry carcases from the road te hell fifty times over and...”
Barbossa stared into Pintel's face, watching the veins in the side of his neck as they burned a vivid purple. The colour soon spread to his cheeks and forehead. He could see the blood vessels straining to against the pressure.
He looked down from the man held within his grasp to his own hands as they held the neck in place. The hands that were still tightening around Pintel throat.
“I...” Barbossa mumbled.
He was killing him.
“I...” He didn't like the idea of that.
So he let go.
Pintel fell to the floor in a crumpled mess; his limbs still bounds by ropes. He squirmed against the wall, gasping and spluttering as air finally reached his lungs. There was a distinct redness forming around his neck.
Barbossa looked down at one of his, slightly, more loyal crewman as the man lay on the floor. Then he turned around, slowly catching sight of his crew and the ship he was standing on. He took notice of everything.
The men on board, the ship beneath his feet, and where it sailed. Of the castle, and the guards, the little yellow pegasus. And everything else that had befell him in the last week of his life. It was as if he'd finally found the right key to a door inside his head. The door was open now, and he could see everything so clearly.
Ragetti nudged his way further up the deck. He was hopping on his feet now, hunched over as he moved forward in small jumps. Away from the forgeries and towards his uncle.
Then Barbossa looked at himself. All of himself, and he squirmed as each of them looked back. The silence that his curious glare unsettled something inside him. His stomach churned.
“W-what ye doin' ye bilge-rats?” He waved a hand towards them, scowling. “Get back te work!”
Despite having no real idea if that was the right thing to say, it didn't matter. His other selves didn't move a muscle at his voice. Not like any of the times he remembered them doing. They just stood there.
Smiling at him.
“Bollocks...”
He looked down at the only different men on the ship, eyeing them as they looked back up at him, both of them doing so with obvious difficulty. They were both standing, or kneeling to some extent, which boded well for the extremely risky plan he had just concocted.
There was only twelve or so men on deck, but Barbossa knew all too well that more continuously sprouted from below. He searched the edge of his eyesight, tilting his head slightly until he could see a door. The only door he knew of on the ship that actually had a lock on the other side.
His quarters.
Spinning on the spot, and taking holding off the circular handle, he gave it twist, pushing the door open as Ragetti and Pintel knelt further up the wall next to it. Hearing the wailing of his own voice, and the stamping of feet against wood, Barbossa unsheathed his sword before screaming at the only men he felt he could trust.
“Get yer arses inside!”
Both men mindlessly nodded. Eagerly, the two men got to their feet as best they could and hobbled over the floor, pushing themselves inside. They didn't even dare to look back. Jack soon followed their movement, scrambling inside the door.
Watching as his only known crew hobbled over the edge of the door, Barbossa kicked Pintel in the backside with the heel of his boot, forcing him over the last few inches.
Seeing no reason to stay outside with the demons any longer, Barbossa joined him. He shoved the door shut behind him, ignoring the squeal that came from the back of the room. There was a sickening crunch as a set of fingers were caught beneath the force of the wooden door. It was from another Barbossa outside.
Still holding the door shut, Barbossa reached to the side for the iron lock resting against the wall. Grasping the huge piece of metal, he pulled it down until it rested over the midsection of the door. He stayed there for a few seconds longer, not quite willing to tempt fate. The bar reached over the whole length of the door, but he wanted to be sure it would hold.
For a short while, at least.
As the voices from beyond the door died down, and the door itself remained stiff and sturdy. Barbossa let out a nervous laugh as he slowly slid down to the floor below his feet, his back against the door.
Resting his head against the door, trying to get his mind back on track, his nerves failed him as he jumped at a single, sudden thud from the outside. After that, the men on the other side apparently ceased their attempts at entering.
There was no further noise. Nothing hitting against the door.
Getting back up to his feet, and holding both hands against the door, Barbossa pushed it. He forced his weight against it, assuring himself it was as sturdy as he thought, as sturdy as it was before.
But now it was sturdier still.
Not only had Barbossa used a bar to hold off the hoards of himself outside, but they had used another bar to keep him inside. Or so he assumed. Something substantial was keeping the door closed from on deck at any rate.
Though if it meant they were safe, for the time being, he wasn't complaining.
“Just means we'll be needin' a new way out...” he muttered under his own breath.
Suddenly remembering and revelling in the fact that he wasn't alone in the room, he turned back to the two men on the floor. Picking up his sword, Barbossa wandered towards them, slicing his blade through the rope that bound limbs, somewhat careful to not graze their skin.
Finishing with Ragetti, he pulled the man and slapped a hand on his shoulder, resisting the urge to smile more than he already was. He did the same for Pintel, pulling him up by the hand before forcefully resting a hand on his back.
It had been so long since he'd seen a familiar face. A human face that wasn't his own.
“Mr Pintel, Ragetti!” he said, once again slapping a hand on each of their shoulders. “As much as a pain it is te say, it be damned good te see yer sorry faces again.”
Barbossa then looked down as a familiar creature began to scramble back up his leg. This time, however, he gave no indication that he was bothered by the act. Barbossa welcomed it.
“And ye be lookin' good too, Jack.” He raised a hand to scratch the monkeys chin. His pet leaned into the action.
Once his Barbossa eyes fell back onto his shipmen, however, the smile on his face faltered. He was done with the pleasantries, and he'd enjoyed the moment. Neither did anything to resolve their current situation.
It also brought up new issues entirely.
“How'd ye come te be here?”
The other two men just stood there, eyeing up their captain as he continued to act like the man they thought they had known.
“Yer...not goin' te kill us again?” Pintel asked, dreading to think that he was possibly treading on more thin ice.
“Ye got a head shot, Mr Pintel,” Barbossa replied, practically growling, “and I've now seen fit te excuse it. I think we're more than even.”
Barbossa did nothing to hide his growing irritation, but in the end, he would have done the same thing. He cautiously rubbed at his head forehead and nose; he was sure a lump was forming. Pintel eagerly smiled at his punishment, mostly because it was non-existent. He just made a mental note to be careful around Barbossa for the time being.
Moving back to the question, Ragetti began to speak. He told his captain of their time in the Locker, and how Jack had just ran away from their company. Pintel spoke of the portal and the castle. They mentioned the town and the lack of people and all about the horses.
Ponies, Barbossa corrected. Barbossa said he already knew about them in detail.
“...And then we saw you, and then more o' ye tried te catch us,” Pintel added, waving a hand towards the door, and the monsters presumably gathered outside.
“And then they did catch us,” Ragetti added.
There was a silence from Barbossa as he took in the information. He mulled of the details and picked at them, picturing the events as they had been described, sizing them up to his own experiences. He thought about what had happened to him and wondered how interconnected everything was.
“Who else?” Barbossa asked back. “Whole else is here?”
“No one. Just the two o' us,” Pintel replied.
Barbossa moved back a step as he pulled his hand through his beard, wondering how to approach what was going on. There was so much to contemplate. Then something obvious occurred to him. And the answer made his stomach churn.
“Ye...ye said ye were still in the Locker?” he asked. He received a casual set of nods as his response. “But it's been a week! It were only meant te be a few hours!”
Ragetti turned to his uncle, letting his wooden eye twist in its socket before he turned back to Barbossa. Both men shook their heads.
“We was only there an hour or two.” Pintel said. “Still waitin' out for Sparrow on the shore.”
“Only...two hours?”
Both men nodded their head, adopting the same perplexed look Barbossa had on his own face, He hadn't really thought about what had happened to the others since he'd left, but he'd assumed with the map in their possession they'd have escaped the locker just as well without him. It wouldn't have been all that difficult, especially with Tia Dalma in their party.
Yet they hadn't even been there long at all. Nor had they accomplished their quest to locate Jack. But it had been more than a week. He'd spent that time with alien creatures, doing their chores and singing them songs. He'd slept for the nights and spent the days. Seven of them.
A week had surely passed. Of that alone, Barbossa was sure. Yet, in the mess that was his mind, he knew for sure, for definite, that Pintel and Ragetti were simply not that stupid. Not even a child could mix up two hours and a whole week, it just wasn't logical.
Though logic was interchangeable, Barbossa had found. Especially while he had been living with the magical talking ponies.
“Ponies...” Barbossa shifted his head to the back of his quarters, aiming his gaze straight towards the little equine restrained by chains against the wall.
Striding over, pushing a chair to the side as he approached, Barbossa moved to kneel down next to Fluttershy. She flinched violently back, curling her form against the wall with her eyes tightly clenched shut.
He knew what had happened to her though. He had been there, after all.
Fluttershy lay there, curled against the back of the room with shackles around all four of her hooves and a thick, brown strap around her torso. The man noted how well it held her wings together.
All five links were welded straight into the wall with chains made of a tough, silver metal. Barbossa wasn't sure if it was iron, steel or something else entirely, but it was cut so smoothly and precisely that he assumed it didn't matter; the craftsmanship was superior to any chains he'd ever seen. Perhaps they were even magical in nature?
She'd tried to escape once or twice, but the links hadn't so much as shifted from the wall. He was somewhat sorry to say he'd punished her for it as well.
Most of her mane had been cut from her head. What was left was purposely rough and poorly sheared. The result was scraggly mess of pink hair and a horribly rough coat. He remembered thinking that a woman's pride was in her appearance, or something along those lines. In hindsight, it seemed needlessly cruel, even by his standards.
Regardless if he felt remorse, or not, she still shied away from his hand. The acts had already been committed so there was no need contemplating his actions; they weren't exactly his own.
He got down to one knee, tilting his head to the side as he held up his hands in surrender.
“Yer gettin' set free. I wouldn't be complainin'”
One eye opened a tad, looking him over. After a moment the other followed suit and her gaze looked Barbossa up and down.
“A-are you...back? Back to normal?” Her eyes focused on him. “You're not bad anymore?”
The little mare picked up at the thought. The brief improvement was cut short as she fell back into the curled position. Pintel and Ragetti had wandered up behind the human she was familiar with, towering over her.
Barbossa had seen his fair share of injuries and innocent people being done over by the worst kind of criminals, but Barbossa still felt something rise inside him. Fluttershy had to be the meekest creature he'd ever met, by a very large margin. It was like seeing a child wronged by an adult who should have known better.
If he were ever humiliated to such an extent, he knew he'd want revenge. No matter who they were, he'd want his own back. Gods were not exempt from that desire, it seemed. And a part of him wanted that for Fluttershy. A small part, mind you, but he still recognised it was there.
And with only two allies, one more would do nothing to hurt him in his vendetta against Discord. Even if it was only a small pony named Fluttershy.
“As good as ye've known me te be,” he said in return, forcing a smile as he moved his hand around the shackles binding the pegasus. “And bad be such a subjective word. Ye could apply it te anythin'.”
Barbossa pulled back to fish around in his jacket, knowing he had the keys to the shackles in there somewhere. Finally finding them, he tossed them in the air with his right hand before catching them in his left. He twitched the keys around in their matching locks, eventually pulling all four shackles free from the little pony's ankles.
“There,” he said, dropping the final shackle to the floor. “As told.”
Fluttershy stood up, tapping her back hooves against the floor before staring down at her torso, then up to the captain. She instantly shied away as she, once again, caught sight of the two new creatures stood behind Barbossa.
“Miss Fluttershy, feel free te meet two o' me more loyal men; Mr Pintel and Ragetti,” he exclaimed, motioning a hand toward each of them in turn. “Men, meet one o' the lasses whose care I've been under durin' me stay in the Ponylands.”
Pintel gave a somewhat gracious bow, closing his eyes and pursing his lips, whilst Ragetti just waved, bemused by the situation. He continued to stare at the little pony on the floor. The wooden orb in his socket twitched at random.
Seemingly pleased with the current state of affairs, Barbossa pulled out his sword and moved for the strap at Fluttershy's stomach. She outright refused to stand still as he attempted to cut it free.
“Keep yer tail on. I'm cuttin' the strap loose.”
“C-could you not use a sword?”
Fluttershy still didn't stand still. He regretted undoing her shackles first.
“Ye want yer wings free, or not?”
Whilst not enough to keep her still, it was enough to calm her enough for Barbossa to get his blade between her body and the strap. He would have undone it by hand, but as far as he could remember Discord had just...made it appear. It had no end, and no buckles to hold it in place. It had just materialised already bound to her.
Not really wanting to harm Fluttershy more than he already had, he slid the blade back and forth, trying his best to slice the strap without cutting into the flesh. Or the wing.
Succeeding after several tries, he pulled the blade one last time, watching as the prison holding Fluttershy's wings fell to the floor, along with several feathers and cuts of her coat.
The pony ruffled her wings, opening them wide as she arched her back. There was a series of popping noises as her spine and wings stretched out to their limit. She took one last look at her wings, folding them back to her sides once she felt the stiffness wear off.
As she opened her mouth to thank the captain, a much smaller animal caught her eye instead.
“And this little fellah must be Jack,” she cooed, her voice overly childish.
The little monkey moved his body forward, tilting his head from side to side. He screeched as he stared at the pony in front of him, still glued to his master's shoulder. Fluttershy moved a hoof towards him, only caused the monkey to call out louder.
“As lovely as this is, cap'n,” Pintel carefully interrupted, “we're still in a bloody flyin' ship!”
As much as Barbossa hated Pintel, of all people, for pointing out something so obvious, the man was entirely correct.
“Aye. So we are.”
But Barbossa had very few ideas on how to actually deal with the problem. The windows had been barred by Discord at his request to keep Fluttershy inside. He acknowledged the irony of the situation, yet even if they did somehow get out the windows, they had a long drop to the ground below.
And if the men from outside used a more violent means to break through the door they'd be forced to fall to the ground anyway.
The only way out they had was the door they had come in and the rest of the other Barbossas had barricaded them inside. As much as that kept them safe for the time being, it also kept them under lock and key.
“But the way out don't matter. There be a thousand ways we could leave,” even though he struggled to think of a few. “The problem be gettin' back te the ground, not outside.”
“I-I can fly,” Fluttershy pointed out with a raised hoof.
Barbossa rolled his head back along with his eyes, noticing he hadn't done so under his own sanity for a good long while.
“Yes, we know you can fly, Fluttershy,” Barbossa mocked, “but that still leaves and me men wi'...”
But her words still caused an idea to form in his mind. A ridiculously deranged idea, but it was still an idea.
Moving away from the pony, as well as his freshly found shipmates, Barbossa pushed his way around the room. A large dining table lay in the middle, commanding a good deal of space within the room. There was a bed sat against one wall, as well as more than one set of drawers in a few of the others.
A collection of goods also lay on top of the table, more of it spilling onto the floor. Fluttershy recognised all of them, even if the humans knew no more than a few. One was a scooter, much like the one Scootaloo owned, only for an adult pony. And there was two sets of silver unicorn helmets with metal horns matching the owners'. Whoever they were.
There was also a magic powered engine and an ice cooler. A few bottles of cider were poking out from inside. A lone box of, what appeared to be, blueberry tea leaves also sat amongst the horde.
Fluttershy wouldn't have minded a quick cup of tea.
But Barbossa ignored all of them and moved to the opposite side of the room to that of the other beings inside. He rubbed his hands together over a barrel and a box that sat next to his bed. A hearty laugh echoed up from his throat.
“We have powder!”
His Discord-altered mind had wanted his own set of weapons, not happy with using any from the same store as the rest of his crew despite everything being, aesthetically, exactly the same. Discord had happily given him more than one set and a personal store of weapons.
More than he needed. Even more than the three men inside actually needed.
“And what we doin' with it? Blowin' the ship te smithereens?” Pintel asked, slightly confused.
Barbossa tossed five sets of sheathed swords and four pistols on top of the table, watching them slide towards the only members of his 'crew' who could man them. Trinkets and curiosities fell from the table and tumbled noisily onto the floor.
“Oh no, Mr Pintel,” Barbossa announced as he finally pried the lid from the barrel, once again laughing as he picked another pistol from the store and holding it into the air. “Somethin' much more darin'.”
His plan wasn't completely sane, nor was it completely flawless. And he didn't know quite how well it was going to come together. But he knew it was more than worth a try. It was bound to get them somewhere. Hopefully closer to the ground at a respectable speed.
“Miss Fluttershy, gentlemen,” he calmly said, stabbing a sword into the wood of the floor. It stuck firm as his hand came away. “We're goin' te be holdin' ourselves a mutiny.”
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Well this chapter was not worth the wait.
Yay Barbossa is back!
Hello, what's this?
uh oh Looks like Discor should better watch out, great chaptger
FUCK YES! MUTINY TIME!
How dare you update? Now I have to go back and re-read your entire story cause the only thing I remember about it was that it was fucking amazing. I hope you're happy with yourself.
I demand Captan Jack!
Yay! Updates!
I clicked on this mostly because of that cover picture.
And now to read!
going to make a animation of this story
or a youtube vid with scenes from both films
like the batman in ponyville video
XD
your gonna love it
Setting aside the irony of the Captain leading a mutiny on his own ship, this plan sounds curiously like the kind of half-baked, on-the-fly stunt Jack would pull.
I can't wait to see how it pans out.
...
What do you mean, I have to wait anyway?!
4704017
Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion. And I did expect a bit of this, actually. But I appreciate your honesty, blunt pony!
4705088
Oh dear God, I am looking forward to this!
4704714
Abandon ship!
Curses, now everypony will discover how bad my writing used to be
...Barbossa is mutinying against an army of Barbossas with Fluttershy, Pintel and Ragetti.
There is nothing wrong with the above sentence. I mean, this is Pirates of the Caribbean
Hooray it's back, and besides one spelling error it's still as awesome as always.
Reminded me of 0:50. Well done, I actually Lol'd!
"giant turtle of some sort, except it had deep sapphire scales and cannons mounted in its shell"
... Is that a Blastoise?
4705675 Don't you mean... 'Pirates of the Mare-ibbean?'
4710620 ...You deserve to be slapped for that.
4711147 Awww, i love you too, Paradigm! I guess you are the Jack to my Barbossa.
4712726 *Stabs*
Seeing this fic updated reminded me of an old game....
Dammit, does anyone here remember PotCO?
Just had to read the whole thing when I saw that it updated, wanted to know what it was and liked it.
4713016 *Rolls cursed coin between fingers*
Ta!
4709540
Yes, actually. Equestria gets so many visitors thanks to the amount of crossovers the series has that I figured, every now and then, a few of those visitors are going to end up in the same place. Certain readers might have recognised the description of a burnt out Dalek casing in the 'museum' and then you have a member of Jones' crew as well as Barbossa, Pintel and Ragetti. There's also the 'cave creature' and the other four beings that haven't even been described at all. I guess it's very slight jab at the amount of crossovers the series gets.
In the words of Princess Celestia herself:
THE CAPTAIN... is holding a mutiny? SENSE MAKES, is he having a mutiny against Discord?!
Well, short of dying there's no way you could take a longer amount of time to update than the writer of Arrow 18 without cancelling it entirely.
This is not an invitation for you to die. As a POC fan, I hereby bequeath upon thee a cursed Aztec medallion.
4725252
the only thing I recognized (or thought I did) was Blastoise.
5017905
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/781/548/624.gif
5017915 actually, about the entire population of America that is over 14 years old cares
NINE ELEVEN JOKES ARE NOT FUNNY.
5019018
"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
"It's... oh shit, it IS a plane!"
Lol the chapter names are the soundtrack names from each movie.
I thought Jack was going to come into play.
Dammit.
Good chapter, anyways.
lol!?! Hahaha what a sight to behold
Awwww hell no... man, you've fucked up big time
oh yeah indeed