Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 018: Night Aboard "The Perfection"

Three days and three nights felt like an eternity to Rarity and Sweetie Belle. Locked away in separated, two dimly lit cells at the brig of Korsan’s airship, the two were all alone, the only company being the silent Chopin, who’d come five times a day to give them bread and water. His visits only lasted for a few seconds before promptly going back up the stairs into the upper reaches of the boat. During the long hours of silence in between, the only things the prisoners would find themselves doing is sleeping, eating, drinking, or thinking about what lead up to this had.

One night, the howls and cheers of the pirates in the galley were notably loud. Their roars echoed from four stories above to the brig. It was a signal that told the prisoners that Chopin was coming down to give them their fifth meal.

“Hey, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said before Chopin came down.

“What?” The smaller unicorn lethargically responded, having her head buried into the pillow on her cell bed.

“Want to talk or something?” Rarity asked.

”I don’t feel like it.” Sweetie groaned.

“You haven’t said anything for over six hours and I’m beginning to worry about you.”

“Will our friends come and get us out of here? It just feels like they’ve left us.”

“Ridiculous. Our friends would never abandon us. I know it may seem impossible, but we can still hope that they’re still hot on Korsan’s trail as we speak and one day save us from this retched place. I can see it now, Korsan bent over and us driving our hooves into his-”

Before Rarity can complete her thought, the familiar hoofsteps of Chopin were heard above. However, they were paired with an unexpected series of metal stamps into the wood above, following behind Chopin’s.

“Is that…” Rarity whispered.

Looking to the lit staircase, the two mares saw the unicorn mime and Korsan walk down the stairs and approached each cell individually.

Korsan, the bipedal captain, leaned against Rarity’s cell.

“You…” She silently hissed.

“Hello, Miss Rarity,” Korsan replied, leaning his head through the cage bars separating him from his prisoner. “I would like to invite both you and your sister to feast at the galley.”

“Why would we even want to join you and your ruffians in a meal?” Rarity asked, holding back a boiling rage for the moment. “You kidnapped us and held us in here for days.”

“Quite, I apologize for my more brutish force against you, but in time you’ll find yourself forgiving me. Take this invitation as not only as a token of my apologies, but also as an opportunity to show you the benefits of being one with my crew.” Korsan persuaded.

“How about no? You psychotic pirate,”

“Well then,” Korsan calmly replied, resting his metal claws onto the lever that opens the door to her cell. “Have fun wasting in this cell for a good number of your days. Hey, Chopin, have any luck with the sister?”

“Get away of me you clown!” Sweetie Belle’s voice screamed back in indirect response.

“He’s a mime from Prance, respect the stallion, will you?” Korsan asked.

“Leave my sister out of this!” Rarity barks, aiming her horn at Korsan’s face.

The pirate leader returned his attention to Rarity. His attitude and tone was cold and stoic, but a quiver shown on his face, as if he’d been betrayed or abandoned somehow.

He said to her, “What are you going to do? Everything you see is lined with anti-magic and I can already tell that you have little to no offensive capabilities. You can’t harm me in the slightest.”

Rarity realized that he’s right and raised her horn up in defeat.

“How about a deal, you join me for supper and I’ll leave your sister be.” Korsan proposed, a teasing grin appearing on his face.

Seeing as this was her only option, Rarity nodded in shame. With a full-blown smile now on his face, Korsan pulled the lever down and the metal door of the cell swung open.

“Follow me.” He warmly told Rarity.

The white unicorn obeyed her captor’s orders and followed him and Chopin out of the prison and up the stairs, leaving her sister behind.

“Don’t worry Sweetie Belle, I’ll be back.” Rarity said as she climbed the stairs.

Chopin, Korsan, and Rarity, walked past the sick chambers above the brig and followed a series of staircases leading them several stories up the hull. Past the abandoned crew cabins on the third and fourth floors, past the massive empty cannon chamber on the fifth, and up a final flight of stairs, they soon entered into the large dining chamber on the first floor of the quarterdeck.

The galley was just as active when Rainbow Dash saw it, maybe even more so.

Activity was bustling all around just as before. The food was just as plentiful, the drinks spilt as if there was no bottom to their cups, and another duel was going on in the center of the galley. Seated pirates watched it and dished out bets left and right. This time, it was a pair of short, yellow unicorns fighting each other with katanas.

Korsan then took the first step onto the galley floor.

Despite the loudness and chaos of the room, as Korsan made his across the chamber, the entire room quickly stopped, dead silent, and looked towards their captain in the corner of the room.

“Greetings, fellow sea artists.” The captain addressed them.

“Greetings, Captain Korsan!” The entire cast of pirates replied in unison.

“I would like to introduce you to our newest guest aboard The Perfection on this fine evening. Say hello to Miss Rarity.”

“Hello, Miss Rarity.” The crew said.

“Please, treat her to a seat and may your festivities continue. Treat her as one of our own.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Slowly, the galley’s chaotic activities returned, and the duel resumed. Korsan and Chopin took their usual seats, leaving Rarity anxiously standing at the corner of the main table.

Rarity thought to herself, All of these ruffians under one roof! It’s even worse than Thieves’ Hold. Where can I sit? Specifically, where can I sit and not get stabbed or worse…

“Hey, hey, hey, hey,” A voice called out to her among the pirates.

It was an orange mare with a short black mane and tail. She was wearing a brown tricorder hat, and an assortment of weaponry. She was seated at the end of the main table, right next to the serving station on the other side of the galley.

The mare called out once more to the lone pony, “Sit over here, please!”

Cautiously, Rarity walked behind the pirates roaring at the fight and reached the mare. Seeing an empty chair to the mare’s right, the now guest went to it and slowly set herself on it as to not get anything that could be dirty on her flank.

Nervous as to not do something that could end up killing her or make her look out of place, Rarity kept her eyes focused on the fight.

She whispered to the orange unicorn, “What should I do? You look like you know what you’re doing, and you look the least threatening.”

“Don’t sweat yourself,” the mare playfully whispered back. “These guys around here aren’t that threatening when we’re off duty. I’m Slasher Gutzoult.”

“My, what an, interesting name…” Rarity commented.

“My mom thought of it.”

“…I’m Rarity.”

“Yeah, I know. The captain just announced it.”

“Oh yeah, he did. Oh dear,”

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed. I remember this one time that-”

“I’m not embarrassed. I’m trying to keep my skin attached to my body.”

“I see, I gotcha. Hey, maybe this will make you unwind,”

Rarity looked over to her new friend and saw her sliding a mug away from the stallion to her left’s table area and in front of Rarity’s blank space.

“Try it.” Slasher then said.

“What is it?” Rarity curiously asks, slowly holding the drink up to her lips.

She let a few drips of the whitish-clear liquid into her mouth.

“You don’t want to know.” The orange mare said.

Upon having her tongue touch one of the drops, Rarity immediately spat out all of the fluids in her mouth.

“That was awful!”

“That’s the same thing we’ve been telling Anton for years, but he still drinks it. Seemed to work though in your case,”

“Are all of you pirates this invasive? Is there somepony else I can talk to?”

“Oh no! Sorry, I’ve just been a little jumpy, you know, with this being our first guest in a long while. Maybe I need a bit of Anton’s stuff to unwind as well.”

“Well look, I don’t consider myself a guest.” Rarity told Slasher. “I was forced into this by that tyrant you call Captain Korsan. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to look for another empty seat.”

“But wait! Don’t you want to know who you’re sitting with? I can help with that!”

Rarity’s ears immediately burned after the hyperactive pirate girl screamed right into them.

Rarity, now fully resenting her decision to go up to the galley, turned to Slashed and said, “First off, I’m right next to you. You don’t need to shout. Second off, no, I’m not interested in knowing.”

“But some of us are really interesting, like me. I was arrested for twenty charges of cat burglary in Ti and was sent an all-girls prison until Korsan broke me out and hired me for his crew.”

“You were a cat burglar? You don’t look like somepony who’d be so stealthy.”

“Not that type of burglar, I was a burglar of cats. I just love them so much! I have three in my cabin, Bob, Curly, and Moe. Want to meet them?”

“No-”

“Wait, I should tell you about the rest of the crew, they’re interesting to!”

“That won’t be necessary-”

“Oh, like Lazarus Lazuli over there!”

Slasher pointed a hoof across the room to a skinny blue stallion with a grey hoodie over his head and covering his mane, peacefully eating a bowl of soup in front of him at the end of the table.

“He was banished to the Island of Perpetual Tickling for life for treason against the king of Talos by working as a terrorist spy. He claims that he was on the island and tortured for ten years before Korsan came, but I have my doubts. Ooh! And her!”

The brown mare then pointed to a white mare with a red mane and tail. She was talking with the chef through the serving window next to where Rarity and Slasher were seated.

“Maria Vanshwitz, one of the deadliest out of us all, she was put in maximum security for providing fighting services in the resistance. She was the queen piece of their game.”

“Which resistance?”

“No one really knows, she doesn’t mention it apparently because it lost.”

As the young mare turned around to return to her seat, the two onlookers got a good look at her sharp face. The fiery red eyes Maria wielded punched a hole in their souls. A scar could be seen running from her chin down to the fluff of her chest.

“Hey, I saw her at the bar, fighting November. Wasn’t she part of your crew?” Rarity asked.

After her question, Rarity realized that her curiosity was getting to her and that she’s gaining interest in the backstories of the many pirates around her, the pirates that kidnapped her and her sister and nearly murdered her and her friends.

Despite that, Rarity continued her chat with Slasher, mildly brushing aside that little tidbit.

“November Gale? I remember her. She and Maria were practically arch nemeses whenever in the same room.” Slasher replied.

“Why?”

“They were always fighting over Hans Kraus, one of main cannon operators. I don’t blame them, he is kinda cute. In the end, November and her dad left and Maria won Hans’s love. Though, we don’t talk about November and her dad anymore, at least in public.”

“I see. How about the two near-identical stallions fighting each other?”

“Yin and Yu, they’re brothers from Gorgonzola. Before they joined Korsan, they were a powerful gambling team and were even banned from Glascow, Los Pegasus, and Monte Canter for cheating. They’re compulsive gamblers and cheaters, though if you ask them now about it, they’ll deny it.”

“Hey,” Rarity said, pointing at a pale and bald stallion with a light blond beard, silently sitting near the middle of the center row of chairs of the table alone, eating a loaf of bread.

“What about that guy?” She asked.

“That’s Horus, the quartermaster.” Slasher said.

“What’s his story?”

“No pony really knows, we just picked him up from a large prison in Pearis. He changes the story of how he got there every time you ask him. Like one time, he told me that he defrauded the royal kingdom of Cervidas.”

Hearing the conversation between the two mares, the pair of yellow fighters in the center of the room, Yin and Yu, decided to join in the chatter. They carried their fight over to where Rarity and Slasher were as their blades continued to clash. Their bodies were tightly held against each other, entering a blade lock.

“Hey, Slasher,” the two brothers coolly said to the orange pony.

“Hello Yin. Hello Yu. We were just talking about Horus.” Slasher replied with a smile.

”Yu’s so cute.” She whispered to Rarity.

“We heard you were talking about Horus,” one of the brothers replied in a groan as the weight of his rival started to push on him. “He told me that he robbed the second largest bank in Prance with only an inked quill.”

The other sibling tried to punch his competition.

Shoving him aside, the other sibling told the mares, “As for me, he claimed that he created a hole in the ozone above Cowrea.”

The two fighters caught each other in a strangling fit and rolled back towards the middle of the galley.

“See, he changes the story everytime,” Slasher told Rarity. “Watch.”

The brown unicorn turned to the buff albino pirate, shouting, “Hey, Horus!”

Immediately, the large stallion snapped his head towards the energetic pony and sharpened his small red pupils into her eyes.

“What did you do to get in jail?” She asked.

The blond stallion hastily grabbed a silver spoon on his table area with his magic and held it up in front of his face.

He rapidly exclaimed, “I killed a stallion, with this spoon!”

“Okay. Thanks!”

She then returned to Rarity.

“Anypony else?” She asked.

“So Korsan just picks up these criminals and hires them for his crew?” Rarity asked.

“Yep,”

“All of them?”

“Well, most of them.”

“Most?”

“There’s one or two members around here that us crew members aren’t really sure of where they came from.”

“Who?”

“Chopin, the mime, and Isyan…”

Slowly, Slasher raised her hoof and pointed at a dark beige stallion, standing next to Korsan’s large elevated table. He’s wore a black tailcoat suit. His short, dirty blond hair was combed back to his ears, allowing him to appear to be studying the captain from the corner of his vision.

Korsan wasn’t really doing anything notable, just slowly eating his fruits while watching the battle.

“and Captain’s cousin,” Slasher finished.

“Cousin?!” Rarity asked in surprise.

“Yep, he is one of our newest members actually. Korsan picked him up last year while we were all asleep one night and didn’t say anything about him to us the next morning other than Isyan’s his cousin and will be serving as the boatswain.”

“He doesn’t look like the piratical type.”

“He isn’t, he’s just some snob-nosed jerk that’s constantly pushing us lower ranking members around. The mechanics, the coopers, the carpenters, and the janitors, all of us are just swabs to that stallion’s brown, soulless, eyes.”

“Why don’t you talk to Korsan about it?”

Slasher turned to Rarity, with a face that said, “Are you serious?”

“I’m a janitor, a poop-deck cleaner, a toiler scrubber, a sick bed washer, what gives me the authority to even talk to him, let alone tell him about how much a jerk is own cousin is?” She asked.

“…Maybe Korsan would understand.” Rarity said, somehow giving Korsan some credit.

“How would you know?”

“I’ve, heard some things from a certain stallion.”

“You mean, Gale?”

“Yeah,”

“Did he tell you about-”

Before Slasher could finish her question, one of the brothers shrieked out from the battle area, “Uncle! Uncle!”

Retuning their focus to the center, Rarity and Slasher saw that the one screaming was being pinned down by his rival. Their blades were wedged in the ceiling, how they got there was a mystery. The roaring of the crew immediately followed this defeat as well as processions made into bets being thrown around the galley table.

“Whoop! Nice job, Yu!” Slasher cheered.

The orange pony leaned to Rarity and whispered to her, “Yu’s so cute. Though, I can never tell the two apart at times…”

“I’m Yu,” the defeated pony said. “But thanks for the encouragement.”

“Oh, sorry!”

“Okay, you can get off of me, Yin.” Yu yelled out to his brother.

Not noticing their swords were still in the ceiling, the two yellow stallions got up and walked to the front of Korsan’s table. They awaited their leader’s report.

As the room quieted down, Korsan spoke, “Yu Shou, rigger, congratulations on your victory.”

“I’m Yu, Yin won.” Yu said.

“Apologies, would help if one of yous wore something… But that’s another matter. Yin, powder monkey, congratulations on your victory. Your form was most adequate, and your balance is one point. However, I would recommend less, silly fighting methods when dealing with opposition from the field.”

“Yes, Sir,” Yin replied before heading back to a seat at the table.

“Ahem…” Korsan coughed.

“What?” Yin asked.

“Your swords?”

Looking back at the fighting area, the leaving unicorn immediately saw his and his brother’s stuck weapons.

“Oh! Yes! Sorry! I’ll take care of both of them.”

Swiftly, Yin grabbed the bladed weapons with his magic and hurried into the armoury to put them away. While he did that, Korsan contemplated to himself, staring blankly at his table.

“If I were to align the second piece at a forty-seven degree angle over the first, that would formulate a symbol equation. Then using the cipher system in the edge of the first half, I could then create a series of solutions with the decoded variables and translate those solutions to translate the symbol…”

“Captain?” Yu hesitantly asked while Korsan silently rambled in his chair.

“Huh, what?” The captain said.

“I lost to Yin.” Yu replied.

“Oh, right, right, right. Ahem. Yu Shou, rigger, although your creativity was put to good use, you are still being easily tricked. Try to remedy that.”

“Yes, Captain.”

With the two brothers returning to their seats, Slasher and Rarity returned their attention to one another. There would be a minute or five break before the next battle would begin.

“Pity the poor captain,” the pirate mare proclaimed to her friend. “He’s been so sidetracked by that Diamond Eye stuff and the new weapon he’s working on.”

“Pity him?” Rarity said. “He’s just using you criminals to do his dirty work, no offense. You’re practically prisoners on this ship from what I’ve heard of your captain.”

“Just using us? Prisoners? Korsan’s practically saved us. He’s given us new lives and plenty of adventures to foreign lands. Sure we’re pirates, but that’s just our standing in life.”

“And murderers?”

“What?”

“That day, three years ago,”

“…We don’t really discuss that day in public,”

“You know what happened, you were involved, all of you.”

“Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-” Slasher tried to shush Rarity.

“Is this what you want? To remove most ponies from the world, take away their lives, all for some arbitrary reason that their not unicorns?” Rarity asked, her questions turning more intense than the last.

“No, I don’t want to talk about it!”

“No, you’re doing something you know is wrong. You can do something about it, even if your boss won’t like it.”

“No! I don’t want to go back to prison!” Slasher pleaded, holding back from shrieking with all of her mental will.

“Please, just-”

“Attention everypony,” Korsan declared as he rose from his chair, causing the entire galley to quiet down. “I shall now duel. And the lucky pony that I shall spar with will be Miss Rarity.”

“What?!” Rarity exclaimed.

“Yes ma’am. As a treat of being an honoured guest with us tonight, you will be firsthoof to see my true fighting power. Now, what’s your preferred weapon, Rarity?” Korsan said.

“I’m not really the fighting type. So you can just pick another pony.” Rarity calmly said, turning down the offer.

“Don’t worry, it is only a spar. We fight until one of us is disarmed or the first sign of blood. Now, what will it be? Cutlass, claymore, longsword, sabre, dagger, rapier, katana, broadsword, Khopesh, lance, mace, we got them all.”

Seeing this as an opportunity to gain the upper hoof against Korsan, who was now practically giving her the unit of her escape on a silver platter, Rarity decided to join along in the fight.

“Rapier, please,” Rarity said.

“Prance or Cervidas make?” Korsan asked.

“Prance please,”

“Right then. Chopin!”

Within a few seconds, the large white stallion pulled out a long, thin sword from the back room and levitated it to Rarity, who carefully seized it with her magic. She aimed it towards her rival, who begun climbing from his wooden throne.

“Initial positions,” Korsan demanded.

Slowly, Korsan and Rarity walked to the middle of the galley. Their audience was still in silence. As he walked, Korsan drew out one of his large cutlasses from his mechanical suit. He pointed the razor tip of it at Rarity. Now in position, only the sounds of undistinguishable mumbles echoed around the chamber and between Rarity and Korsan. It was as if a murder was about to happen.

“Ready?” Korsan asked.

“Ready.” Rarity replied.

“En garde…”

“…”

“Prêts…”

“…”

“Allez!”

In an instant, the two competitors charged at each other and swung their blades into each other’s, creating a loud chink upon collision. As the sound resonated across the room, the onlooking pirates burst into fanatical chaos and started to call their bets. After the initial hits, Korsan soon broke out into a furious series of slices and jabs at the unicorn, forcing her to back up and parry the attacks from a distance.

However, within only ten seconds, it looked to be that Korsan was running out of steam. Rarity used the moment to her advantage. Between Korsan’s slowing barrages, she switched into an attack position and lead the fight. Her thin rapier charged forward at the stallion, aimed right for his heart. Just before the blade could even get close, the pirate pegasus sprung back to full energy and jumped over the charging sword, performing a backflip in midair whilst doing so.

Several oohs and aahs could be heard from the crowd as Korsan stuck the landing on his hind hooves.

“What?!” Rarity gasped.

“Just as gullible as Yu it seems.” Korsan taunted.

“Just as gullible as me?”

“No, Yu Shou,”

“I shall what?”

“No I mean Yin’s brother.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I mean you are as gullible as Yu for falling for my fake fatigue.”

While Korsan angrily responded to Rarity’s questions, the white unicorn sneakily turned her sword around. She aimed the tip at her opponent’s back, like a perfect cannon shot.

“I’m as gullible as me?” Rarity asked.

Rarity made her move immediately, thrusting her rapier forwards towards her and Korsan.

Korsan told her, “No, Yin’s brother, you are a gullible as-”

The pegasus suddenly stopped midsentence and leapt over the incoming blade. Everypony was caught off-guard with this perfect dodge. With the long rapier having missed its intended target, the speeding weapon charged towards Rarity instead.

The white mare panicked and released the sword, but momentum kept it going. It continued to speed forward into Rarity, slicing into her back right leg as she attempted to leap out of the way. Rarity screamed in pain as the sharp edge cut deeply into her skin and severs her nerved. The room burst in a flurry of gasps as the rapier cut through Rarity’s flesh and stabbed one of the corner legs of the massive table behind her. It pierced through the wood before coming to a sharp halt.

As Rarity then fell onto the wood floor, wrapping her hooves around the cut on her leg, she saw the tip of Korsan’s cutlass in between her eyes.

“Very clever, trying to play me like that. Too bad I was tricking you into thinking you were tricking me. Other than that though, everything about your fighting needs improvement.” Korsan told her.

The captain turned to his back to see his crew silently staring at him, all of which were amazed, some still trying to grasp what had happened in front of them.

“So wait,” Yu whispers to his brother in the left corner of the table. “Who was tricking who into tricking who?”

“Well, my fellow sea artists, it would seem that I have won. Hurry along with your bets and let the next match begin.” Korsan declared.

Obeying their leader’s order, though still stunned at the quick fight, the pirates slowly and silently dealt with the bets and got back to their meals.

Korsan then turned to his mime crewmember and told him, “Chopin, take Rarity to the medial chambers and get Lilis to deal with that cut please. After which, escort her back to her cell, but also give a ration of baked potatoes to both her and her sister, would you kindly?”

“…” The mime silently nodded.

Comments

[Mr-Astounding]

this chapter in a nutshell: