Fallout Equestria: Black Flag

by Chokfi

Prologue: Legends

"War never changes, but the seas and skies will."

When I was little my mother told me that, an old family saying. We sailed Seven or more Seas, leaving our island homeland. The seas and skies are our home, and war was something for other people. What she said was a lie.

We may never have fought a real war, because we were never recognized as a nation, but we might as well have. Hundreds of years ago we fault beak and claw, sword and steel, to save ourselves. We were the kings of the skies and seas, the Pirate kings. That was the heritage of war we had to live up to.

Two Hundred years ago, back before the Great Pony War began, there was a captain. Captain Aello, the first Pirate King. Aello was born on the archipelago that our people came from, the Canary Islands. She became the Scourge of the Seas quickly, back in the days of legend before firepower increased and tech made those simple acts of swashbuckler obsolete.

Aello had two ships, the Budgie Dream and the Carrion Skull. When she first started out, Aello's first ship was the Dream. It was smaller, couldn't carry as many cannons, and was built as a merchant ship for the run to Zebrica. It was a simple sailing ship at first, a ship that rested on the water, and Aello sailed it across the world.

Her second ship, the Carrion Skull, once belonged to the great pirate Roc. And Aello got it on a mission out of Abyssinia, down near her maternal homeland. The tale of how she got it was long, but it boiled down to this.

***

One day, the young captain Aello decided to visit a small port town in the middle of the Canary Islands. It was a den for piracy, known far and wide at the time, but she was working as a privateer in the Abyssinian army at the time. She didn't care about anything as she stepped off the dream and into the nearest bar.

The Island was a small moon-shaped place, known for a massive Volcano in its center, and was said to have formed when a large meteor fell down and crashed into the mountain side. The Pirates didn't mind though, the constantly flowing lava was as good a protection from Kingsman as anything else. Though the island expended every day, they hid in the shaded bay of the island known as the Ship Boneyard.

Half of the bay was taken up not by sailing ships, but by partially destroyed ships and wrecks. Those ships were used as the residences of the population, and the closest bar was set in one. The bar known as the Drunken Sailor. She wore her tight red coat outfit, and everyone was surprised at her entry, but they made a point of ignoring her all the while.

Time passed and quickly Aello become drunk, popular with the other patrons of the bar. But that's when Roc came in. "What is the Abyssinian cat-toy doing in this bar?" He asked, slamming his hook-wing down into the table before her. "I leave for a month and you start letting in the rabble of the sea? What's her tab?"

"200 bits, but she's already payed half of it up front." The bartender said, staring at Roc steadily.

"Good. I think we need to see about her paying off her debts." Roc grinned, walking up to Aello. She tried to respond that she had the money, but he refused to let her speak. "No, I think I have a better way for you to pay off your debts you hen slut!" He shoved her into a gilded bird-cage in the back of the bar.

He forced her to dance for the other patrons, even ripping off parts of her clothes to make her look more like a woman of the night. She was uncaring about any of it at first, as her drunken state softened the pain of her situation, but sobriety eventually took hold. However, by the time it did, Roc was asleep, and she was able to easily pick the lock with a feather.

Aello became known the next morning, because at that moment she killed Roc dead and stole his flag ship out from under it. She re-named that ship the Carrion Skull, for the brand-new figure head she had 'procured' from the bastard pirate Roc.

The Carrion Skull became her new flagship, and she didn't return to that bay for years and years. She was the captain of two ships, and soon many more. Time passed, and as the Pirate Queen Aello came to her deathbed she walked back into that bay. She had two daughters. And she gave them both a ship.

To her Elder Daughter, Ocypete, she gave the Budgie Dream, who eventually decided to become a Merchant Trader instead of a pirate. And to her younger daughter Celauno, who had spent her whole life fascinated by her mother's exploits, she bequeathed the Carrion Skull. That's how the Skull continued to be the greatest scourge of sea and skies, and the Budgie became one of the only ships that could fly through her teritory and not get destroyed.

***

My mother always told me these stories, but the last time she told me was her last day on earth. She told me about our ancestors, and how I was a direct decedent of Ocypete. She told me how they had continued to be merchants, even after the war ended. But on that day, we were attacked by northern Pegasi Dogs. My mother died, and our cargo was stolen. All that was left was me and a crew full of anger and spite.

I was left, landing in Somnambula, with nothing but being heir to the Budgie Dream to my name. That's where my story started, just after my mother's ended. It was somewhat poetic I suppose.

Who Knows?

Author's Note:

This is my attempt at re-writing the Prologue of Black Flag. I've decided to try and do it over again. Some characters will stay the same, but I think I'm going to change the overall story.

Anyway, tell me what you think of this re-write! I'm going to leave the previous chapters out for you to re-read until all of them are re-written. We'll see.

Edit: Fixed

Comments

[Merchant Mariner]

You really need to proof-read before you post your chapter, even your author's note contains mistakes, that makes the whole process of reading unpleasant and jarring to the reader. Even using a relatively simple tool like word should facilitate your task.

I really liked the original version you posted though, so if you can spellcheck those mistakes away, you should see a definite improvement in the quality of your story. Keep going, I love to see stories that make use of 'rare' creatures like parrots and sphinxes.

[Chokfi]

9432902
yeah, I have trouble cus this thing doesn't have spell check so I don't notice they arn't spelled correctly.

I fixed most of the spelling errors.

I'm thinking I won't have a sphinx in this fic, and give him his own instead actualy, tho.