Chapter 2: Chase through the mists
Four days after leaving Manehatten
The cruise had started off great, three days for enjoyment for the passengers and crew, among the Nobles form Canterlot were Fancy Pants, his wife Fleur de lis and the Princesses nephew Blueblood (Who had, after finding out who Rartiy was, mended things and had became a friend). The CMC and the other foals from Ponyville played games with the student six and the other students from the School of Friendship.
Unfortunately, the peace didn't last; about midday on the fourth day the Traveler was caught in a major storm that blow them way off course , which had caused the ship to cross paths with a small Caribou fleet. The Traveler was unarmed so it had no choice but to flee. Luck did seem to be with the Ponies however as the unexpected appearance of a rogue wave sank most of the Caribou ships.
Shining Armor looked behind their ship seeing the Caribou ships gaining, he turned to the Captain.
"Can't this thing go any faster?!"
"No we can't, even with the Pegasus Ponies and the baby Dragon blowing hot air into the sails, every able Pony using oars and the steam engine going full power we can't outrun them in the open!"
Shining snorted in anger, but not at the Captain.
Cadance came up, "Could we lose them them in those mists?" she said pointing to a wall of fog not to far away. Shining's and the Captain's eyes brighten and mouths opened in huge smiles.
"Looks like our luck hasn't run out yet." The Captain said turning the Traveler towards the fog.
"Cadance that's prefect!"
The Traveler sailed full speed towards the wall of fog, most of the Ponies didn't notice but as they entered the fog the Caribou ships turned back. Twilight was on deck looking around, surprised at how heavy the fog felt.
"This fog doesn't feel right, it feels too heavy." Rainbow landed next to her.
"Yea Twi, this feels odd."
Angel Wings spoke up, "At least we escaped the Caribou. I don't about you but I'd rather not end up as one of their slaves." She stuttered at the though. Pretty much everypony else agreed with her. Flare Warden was wondering something however,
"Why did they turn back? Caribou don't stop for fog." That when Flash spoke up from the bow.
"Ah sis, I think they turned back for... this." He said pointing his hoof forward.
The fog parted, revealing hundreds of rock spires, jagged rock spires. Some rocks were small enough to be no threat to the Traveler, while others were bigger and taller then the skyscrapers in Manehatten, and many of the rocks had ship wrecks impaled on them, some high above the water.
The water and fog was a sickly and ghostly light green which only added to the fear factor.
But in front of them was a wreck of a double-hulled Caribou ironclad, it was an absolute wreck; it had ran aground against a pillar close to the size of a Manehatten skyscraper, and a lot taller. Several branching spikes the length of a train struck through different areas, many pieces of the heavy rusted hull were missing with loose, hanging pieces of moss all over it. The hull looked like it had been bent from the starboard side, like something very large had rammed it.
"Who did this?" Night Night asked no one in particular with amazed horror.
"Better question honey, what did this." Velvet said standing next to him.
The Traveler pulled up to the ironclad, dropping anchor Night Light, Flash Sentry, and Flare Warden took an ear comm crystal each and entered the wreck. Night slowly walked down a rusted out hallway which had a lot of holes, exposing it to the outside.
"What's it look like in there Night?" Velvet's voice came through.
"There's a lot of battle damage, and from my scans I'd say no older then a year at most. This wreck hasn't been here for very long.
"The Caribou that were after us?" Applejack asked.
"I don't think so, the scans of the damage don't match the Caribou's weapons, and it wouldn't make sense to sink one of their own rare Ironclads." A critical thought came into his head just then. "Everypony stay sharp. Whatever did this could very well still be around."
"What does he mean by "Stay sharp"? We sharpen ourselves like pencils?"
Flare: No Pinkie, it means keep your eyes and ears open. I found the engine room and... wow... it looks like the entire unit was blown out, whole. Whatever hit them was hard, fast, and utterly without mercy. Judging from the... (Gulp) blood spots and bodies we found, most of them had no chance to defend themselves.
Flash here, I made it to the bridge, dear Faust it's a mess. Flare might be right, most of the crew are still at their stations... oh my goodness, I found the commander, or what's left of him. Who or whatever ended him made it as slow as possible,
Night: What do you mean by "what's left of him"?
Flash: Tust me, you really don't want to know.
"Don't Caribou rank up by... the more slaves they have?" Vapor asked, scared. Sky put a hoof around her trying to comfort her.
Flash: Yes they do... looks like the medals were removed. I don't see them anywhere around here. Whoever ended the commander likely took the medals, most likely as trophies.
Night: What I want to know is what could damage an ironclad like this. For what I know cannonballs can't harm ships like this.
Flash: From the looks of things, they might have been shells, but... those are very rare. Only elite naval branches use those.
Night: The cannonballs might have been enchanted, I'm getting some very faint traces of magic from some of the damaged areas.
Flare: Looks like whatever attack looted the place clean, the cargo holds are empty.
Flash: I think Flare's right again, I don't see any... WHOA!"
Flare: Flash! You Okay?! Respond!
Flash: Easy Flare I'm okay, I have reason to believe the ironclad was rammed.
Night: What makes you say that?"
Flash: I just came across a big open gash in the ship. If I were to guess, the ironclad was hit from the side and then it was ran aground on this rock pillar.
Flare: I agree, I'm seeing metal twisted around here now.
Night: Flash, Flare, I think we've spend enough time here. Let's go back, I'm getting an uneasy feeling.
Flash: Roger that, I've seen enough.
Flare: Good idea, I'm getting really bad shivers here.
After the three were back aboard the Traveler everypony gathered together.
"Where are we? this place isn't on any of the charts." The Captain said scratching his head.
"We were blow way off course by that storm, wait here I be right back." The navigator walked into the ship and a few minutes later returned with a rolled up scroll. He unrolled it, showing a map of the area they were in.
"We're in the Jagged Pillars, one of the areas of the Sea of Legends." He said.
"The Sea of Legends? That place is just a myth." Twilight said.
"They said the same thing about Nightmare moon, Discord, and quite a few other things we faced in the past your royal studious." Spike deadpanned.
"...Oh..." Was all Twilight said.
"Ah... guys?" Angel spoke up, Everypony turned to her.
"What Angel?" Soarin asked.
"If the Sea of Legends is just a myth, then what's that?" She said pointing off the ship's port side.
They all turned, and saw faint red lights through the fog that were slowly getting brighter.
"Kill the lights now!" The Captain ordered, the crew quickly carrying it out. Just as the last light when out a massive shape emerged, a giant ship. The Ponies on the Traveler were awed by the sheer size of the ship, with Vapor putting it best.
"That is one big ship of the Line."
"That's not a ship Vapor, it's a fortress." Flare said.
From what they could see at a distance the hull was four colors in a pattern of black, red, purple, and cyan in that order from the bottom which repeated as it traveled up the hull and there was bright gold trim all over the hull, such as in between the gun decks and the gun hatches themselves are also the above four colors only set to give two different contrasts to the gun deck they were on, being the black areas have red hatches with purple centers, the red areas had cyan hatches with black centers, the purple areas had gold hatches with cyan centers, and the cyan areas had black hatches with red centers. Spread all over the Hull were glowing orange ember-like spots, appearing like fire was burning brightly on the interior walls of these areas, there was also areas where the same glow effect was red with large Runes mixed in and emerald green. The size of these areas ranged from large to small and long to short with a few spots not having any Glow at all, and none of the three Glowing areas crossed over each other, with each being on a color band that allowed one to easy see the Hull color in bright lights while still leaving the Glow easily visible. The Glow Effect is also visible on the centers of the Gun Hatches.
The sails had a trapezoid-shaped cutout on the top and bottom sides and a rectangle cutout on the sides, the border of the sails had a green line that formed into bumps and rings around four corner holes, several green dots are spread-out on the sails. The bottom row of sails above the decks had a triangle-shaped cutout on the bottom. The sails were colored red with the sides being silver and a black stripe in between the middle and sides, though the colors shifted to gold starting from the bottom half of the symbol going from faint to very bright but the colors had been somewhat darkened after many battles, also the red middle tapered to a point starting under the symbol with the bordering black stripes doing the same. The spots below the tapering point was also silver though the gold made it hard to see, along the top edge of the sail is a swirling gold flourish.
In the center of the sails was a large symbol of a forward-facing four-winged, three-tailed dragon flying above a Maelstrom with a black treasure chest clutched in its front claws, various red lines on the dragon and chest bringing out the details of the two. The same symbol was seen on numerous banners that hung from yards and other areas.
The sails were tattered with several holes of various sizes spread throughout them though the damage isn’t enough to effect their performance. The symbol, sail edges, and tears glow were glowing. The symbol’s colors were green (Dragon), gold (Chest), and blue (Maelstrom). The tears color was Orange and the sail edging color was red. The rails themselves also had a strange glow effect even under the clouded sky that makes them easy to see. They could see numerous masts that reached very high into the air, with multiple shapes hanging or flying among the rigging.
The ship itself was at least 28 decks above the water line, not counting the fore and aft-castles, but towards the front a space was missing six decks, lights of various colors from lanterns could be seen all over the top decks, rigging, shrouds, forecastle and aft-castle.
The thing that really had their attention was the ship's bow; it had been shaped like a massive dragon head with a gaping maw and giant teeth, looking ready to swallow anything unfortunate to fall in and the two large crystal eyes were blood red and glowing and protruding from the chin was a long and very big hardened steel ram that had claw like spikes starting from the back half of the ram to just in front of the hull, the spikes started small and increased in size towards the back. Under the very long bowsprit, which protruded out just above the dragon's head, were several figureheads; the base of the Figureheads on the Bow constantly emitted a shroud of thick fog that trailed several feet behind as the Ship sailed forward. The first Figurehead sat under the others and was a large piece of curved metal resembling a cutlass blade with the cutting edge baring a resemblance to teeth on a saw blade.
The second Figurehead was above this one and the bottom one was attached at the back point to the base of this one, it was a round gold shield-like face boarded by a silver ring with the sail symbol in black on it, trailing behind the shield are four banner-like extensions curved from wood, two on top and two on the bottom, with silver coin-shaped claps towards the ends. The top banners were red and the bottom ones were black. The symbol on the shield had glowing red outlines and eyes that cast the black shape of the symbol on the water in front of the ship like a spotlight.
Fitted over top of the second Figurehead was the large skull of a creature with a beak with the Shield Symbol being seen in the mouth from the front. Attached to the chin of the skull was the first Figurehead on the front point.
Attached to the bowsprit in front of and above the forehead of the skull was a Figurehead consisting of a metal extension with a Pony Mare skull missing its lower jaw with red Gems in the eyes, nose, and protruding out of the mouth. At the base of this Figurehead is a pair of large gold-colored lanterns, one on each side, a red cloth is draped on each side starting just behind the top of the skull and down to behind and a bit past the Lanterns. A black chain started on the part above and forward of the Mare skull which traveled up to a gold chain loop with a large cage hangs from in between this Figurehead and the next one. The cage had a gold top with short chain, base, center ring and rivets and black bars with a red cloth covering the floor and hanging down a bit.
The third Figurehead was a Dragon with its body coiling around a metal beam twice, with the tail splitting in two and traveling above the eye sockets of the skull. The Dragon had two front legs with tree fingers tipped with black claws while the open maw of the Dragon had black, rock-like teeth. The body glowed brightly with yellow in the center that changed to orange than red towards the edges and tips.
In front and above of the Dragon is an Alicorn with a gold coat and purple hooves, wrapped around the horn were two Purple chain rings and another four were wrapped around the cannon of the right foreleg. The mane, tail, eyes, horn and wings were glowing: The mane and tail are red, the eyes are silver, the horn is green, and the wings had two glowing areas: The feathers were blue while the wings themselves were orange. The eyes projected a large silver halo or ring around the bowsprit above the head, this ring was quite visible even in the fog around them and in the left hoof was a large lantern in the shape of a gibbet cage with a large red flame burning within.
In front and above of the Alicorn is a Wyvern colored various shades of red ranging from normal to dark with its tail going into the wood attaching the Alicorn to the bow and the mouth was open with flame shooting out, the eyes were orange and yellow as was the flame. The Wyvern had three metal bands that were black but the areas in front of the body changed to orange then yellow, the center of the bands were broken, bent and twisted. The rivets holding the bands to the bowsprit are also glowing orange.
In front and above the Wyvern was the final figurehead which is another Dragon only shaped like the symbol on the sail with a silver body, red eyes, and black claws and tail blades. The center tail blade had a sapphire on it in the center of the blade, a long harpoon with small chains hanging off from in between the Alicorn and the Wyvern Figureheads towards the back jutted out. The Dragon had both back legs on this harpoon and the front left leg is gripping it while the right front leg had a rounded shield with a symbol of two crossed halberds behind a forward-facing Dragon head on it, the symbol glowed green.
Set to the sides of the Mare Skull Figurehead above the cloth extensions are a were of four Harpoons with three sets of chains holding them up set in a 12-3-6-9 pattern though the top and bottom Harpoons are longer, the ones at the 12, 3 and 9 positions had Red paint on their tips that resembles blood.
"I Think we now know what hit that ironclad." Flash said.
"I've never seen a ship like that, how could anypony build something like that?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know why Twi, but it looks like it could carry enough cannons to sink a fleet." Shining said.
Several spotlights lit up and began sweeping the area. The lights were attached to nine towers that rose at least three levels above the main deck which was protected by walls, on top of the towers were large mortars and flanking them were two ,one on each side, smaller cylinder shaped towers that travel down seven decks. Each tower held five cannon turrets holding two long-barreled cannons each, two levels below the main deck in between the cylinder towers were what looked like draw bridges. The Ponies could see several towers like the cylinder towers but smaller in several spots along the side of the ship and numerous large, long flags flapping in the light wind along with the banners.
The flags were red in color with the Dragon on it but unlike the banners, where the Dragon is facing forward, the Dragon on the Flag was seen from the side with the head facing towards the end of the flag. The flag itself is actually a Pennon with a pointed end and two black triangles starched on one corner on the corners facing the flag pole, chevrons colored gold and silver close to the nose of the Dragon, a blue stripe after the chevrons, and a purple chevron facing inward.
"I don't think those colors belong to any nation we know of." Sandbar said.
"Pirates." Shining whispered.
"How could simple Pirates build a ship like that?" one of the Nobles asked.
"I don't know, but we'd better not let them find us." Flare said.
"Doesn't look like they see us, if we let them past we might be able to escape."
"Are you sure Princess Cadance?" The Captain asked.
"No I'm not but as along as nothing alerts them we should be fine."
At that moment, fate was temped, and played a hand; Spike felt his nose inch.
"Oh no... oh no, Ahhh...Ahhhh...Aahhhh."
The eyes of everypony around Spike, who were the School of Friendship students, went wide and placed their hooves over his nose to stop the sneeze. A few minutes before Spike let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, I'm good now."
The students pulled their hooves away.
"Few, that was too close. For a moment I thought we were..." One of the students, a young mare by the name of Patty Peppermint, was saying when...
Without warning, Spike let out a giant sneeze with a large puff of emerald flame, nearly hitting an Earth Pony Stallion named End Zone, instead only lightly singeing the tips of his tail.
"...in trouble." Patty finished quietly.
"Do they see us?" Pinkie asked.
The spotlights swing around and shined on the Traveler, the massive ship then turned faster then a ship it's size should have. The Ponies aboard the Traveler could see two trails of smoke coming from two pipe clusters at the stern.
"THEY SEE US!!!" Was the general response. Quickly the anchor was up and the Traveler speed off with the giant hot on their tail, a sound not unlike a low roar emitting from the dragon's maw.
Dragon of the Depths
A little earlier
Razor Tail stared at the compass in his hand, deep in thought. After a three day trip the Outcast had arrived in the Jagged Pillars an hour ago and had began searching for any new wrecks or "live ones". The compass Razor had once belonged to his grandfather, after Razor had escaped his prison he had found a box his mother Silver Winds had left for him. In the box were a number of items including this compass, instead of pointing in the standard directions like normal compasses it pointed to what the holder wanted most. While Razor preferred to sail the normal way, he had found this compass to be useful in finding locations one could not find with normal compasses.
As he was thinking, Atlas came up next to him.
"Razor?" When he didn't respond, she placed her hoof on his shoulder and gave it a light shake. Blinking his eyes into focus he looked at her.
"Yes Atlas?"
"Are you okay? You were staring at you compass quite heavily."
"Yea I was just lost in some memories."
"Thinking about your mother?"
"Yea,"
"I know you told us what she was like but... something has been bugging me since then."
"(Smirking) Are you sure it's not because your a Changeling."
"(Shoves his shoulder playfully) Oh hush you, it's because...well..."
She drew in a calming breath.
"What would have Silver Winds though of me?" She finally asked rubbing a hoof against her foreleg.
Razor reached over and covered her with a wing.
"Atlas, please relax. Mom would have loved you, she would have been happy to have you as a daughter."
Atlas gave a light smile. "Even after the Canterlot invasion, which left a bad impression of us Changelings?"
"Mom was an understanding Mare, she would at the very least given you the benefit of doubt. Besides, your hive had nothing to do with the invasion, I would know, we were fighting a war at the time." He leaned over and give her neck a loving nuzzle. "You remember how me meet?" Atlas smiled fondly.
"I still remember as if it were yesterday; Me and my surviving subjects had landed on that island after escaping the attack. We were morning the ones we had lost, when you came forward and offered some comfort."
"I admit it was a little strange to feel you and the other Changelings feeding off me, but afterward I felt pretty good."
"Well according to recent research, those who give love willingly to a Changeling do gain health benefits."
Razor just chuckled and laid his head on top of Atlas' head, she removed her hat to make it easier for him. Being mindful of her horn she snuggled into him.
Anymore conversion was cut off when the blue crystal Apollo had given Razor before leaving port, began to glow very brightly and emit a high-pinched noise from it's place on the center the compass disk.
Both snapped to attention as it did, so did the rest of the crew. Looking closely at it he saw the arrow, which was shaped like a key for some reason (Razor had found it like this, the note said his grandfather while friendly, was a bit of an oddball.) was pointing off the starboard side.
"One of the crystals is close, Hard to starboard!" He shouted to the ship's four helmsmen, who were a Unicorn, a Pegasus, a Minotaur, and a Longma, who all worked the ship's three wheels. After a few minutes they emerged from the fog. Razor now stood on the top aft-castle deck, looking out over the creepy waves.
"Turn the spotlights on!" Gold Fire ordered.
As the lights swept over the water and mists, the crew looked out searching for anything out of the ordinary. Razor watched the compass disk as it glowed a very bright blue and the arrow settled.
Frowning as he closed the lid, he put the compass away and walked to the railing looking over the starboard side.
'Where is it, it's here somewhere, it's close.'
Just when he was about turn around a bright flash of emerald flame flashed, lighting up an area not far off.
'What the..?"
The crewmates manning the starboard spotlights swing them around to were the flash was, revealing a ship. The ship was fairly large, not close to the Dragon, but larger then most merchant ships, a cruise ship. Razor pulled out his compass and flipped the lid open, the arrow was pointing at the cruise ship. He spun around to the helmsmen again and shouted,
"Hard to starboard!!"
The Dragon turned faster then most would think such a large ship could, everyone could feel the rumble of the heavy steam engines came to life with smoke poring out of the twin smokestack clusters that stuck out of the stern.
The reason the Dragon could maneuver like it could was because of the devices Razor had installed into it when it was first built. When the steam engines had been installed a set of twelve propellers had been placed at the bow and roughly mid-back forward of the stern propellers, kind of like the ones seen on the larger, solely steam engine powered cruise ships that had only entered service about six mouths ago.
Really helpful in tighter areas such as the Jagged Pillars.
Razor let a predatory smile show, "Gear up lads, we got a live one!"
One by one, the Head Officers lifted up a trumpet to their mouths and blew into it, sounded the battle cry. The crew rushed to their stations, they all knew that sound; they had live prey.
Immediately cannons came out of the side, front, and back gun ports.
Razor grabbed onto a voice pipe and softly ordered, "Engine room... Full power ahead."
The Dragon rumbled heavier as the steam engines went to max power.
The Traveler
The Ponies were scrambling trying to keep ahead of the giant behind them. A Unicorn Stallion named November Rain ran to the stern, looking out over the water and fog.
"Pirates in here, Caribou out there, we're trapped." He said, panic in his voice.
Cadance spoke up, "Not if they can't find us."
Shining, understanding what Cadance was thinking, said, "Captain, head into the fog."
"We'll be going right into zero visibly, ship wrecks, and Faust knows how many pillars of razor sharp rock."
"We'll have to take that chance, if these pirates can make a ship like that the who knows what else they can do."
"Good point."
The Traveler turned and went into the thicker areas of fog.
Dragon of the Depths
The Dragon turned and followed the cruise ship into the fog, Razor smiled widely as a familiar and welcome feeling came over him.
"They want a chase do they? We'll give them a chase!" He laughed clenching a fist and with a enthusiast smile.
Those who study Kirins would know that among the things one would enjoy, there was one thing that they enjoyed immensely; The thrill of a hunt.
At the front forecastle some crew were setting up special rockets, after they finished they aimed the launchers, lit the fuses, and took cover. The fuses burned at different speeds til they launched one at a time with a high-pitched moaning sound into the fog.
Traveler
The Ponies on the Traveler jumped in surprise the unexpected high-pitched moaning coming from behind them.
"What the hay is that?!" Rainbow cried out.
Several explosions behind them were her answer. The Ponies watched as numerous projectiles sailed through the air and detonated, the fog around the blast zones clearing greatly for a few seconds before the fog filled the spots again.
Twilight spoke, "What are those?" It was Dash who answered.
"Those are fog clearing rockets."
"Fog clearing rockets?" Shining asked.
"They're used by the Equestian Weather Bureau for clearing fog in areas were visibility is vital, the rocket clears the fog but only lasts for a short time."
"How could pirates get their hooves on those?" Twilight asked, Rainbow just shrugged.
"They're not that hard to make, any Pegasus with weather experience can make them and their harmless, so the head weather Ponies in Cloudsdale don't feel that they are a hazard."
Shining and Twilight looked at each other, maybe they should bring this up with Celestia later.
Dragon of the Depths
The Pegasus manning the crows nest had spotted their prey, White Fang ran up to were Razor was standing.
"We got them sir, their just ahead." He said with a smirk. Razor smirked back.
"Say on them," he said raising his halberd, "Let's reel them in."
Suddenly a Winged Thestral flew from the front were the launchers were, she landed next to White and Razor.
"Sirs! We have run out of Fog clearing rockets!"
"What?!" Razor shouted, turning to White "How can we be out of those rockets?!"
The albino Thestral shied back form the angry Kirin.
"Must not have loaded as many as we thought, we did also have to clear fog earlier to avoid the giant pillars." He squeaked, hope to calm the Kirin down. To his relief Razor's wings, which would spread a bit when he was mad, folded back against his sides and his lips covered his sharp teeth again.
"Good point," he admitted. "But you and I are have a chat later about checking inventory."
White just slowly nodded.
Atlas, who was standing next to the helm, spoke up.
"How are going to find them now?"
Razor looked out into the fog, then ordered, "Load the mortars with flare shots. Light up the fog!"
Soon the mortars were firing, a few minutes later the area around them lit up brightly, revealing a silhouette of a cruise ship off their port bow. Razor give a wide, predatory smile.
"I see you."
The Dragon veered portside.
Traveler
"THEY SEE US!!" Angel Wings shouted.
Shining looked around, before spotting that some of the rock pillars looked weak. If the Unicorns hit them enough times with magic bolts, the rock would fall and block the path behind them. Quickly he said his plan and the other Unicorns on board readied themselves, then fired at the rock.
After a few hits the pillars broke in two and fell behind the Traveler, blocking their pursuer.
"Okay, let's hope that brought us some distance." Vapor said looking back at the blockade.
Dragon of the Depths
But even as the Traveler sped away, the Dragon didn't even slow down as it rammed through the rock pile.
This chase was far from over.
Razor was standing next to the voice pipes when the Pegasus lookout in the crows nest voice came through.
"Sir,"
"Yes?"
"I see a flanking route to our starboard bow."
"Understood, helm head for that route."
The Dragon turned and went down the path.
Traveler
The Ponies remained as still as possible, their ears straining to hear anything from their pursuer, after about ten minutes they heard nothing and there was no sign of the pirates.
"Looks like we lost them." Sky said with a cocky smile.
Shining wasn't so sure, and just when he was about to voice this, he was proven right when a massive shape shot out off their port bow, the pirates had flanked them.
"
A BRICK!!!!" The Captain shouted at the top of his lungs as he turned very hard to starboard, bring the Traveler right next to the giant. The student six watch the giant maw of the Dragon head shaped bow come far too close to them, the dragon head emitting a sound like a roar.
"Okay that's horrifying." Gallus said pointing to it, the other nodded in agreement.
At this point the Ponies abroad the Traveler saw the amount of cannons on the side, and there were a lot of them. Just as the cannons fired Shining cast a shield spell, it held up but only just, Twilight and Starlight joined in casting shield spells.
The Traveler finally got ahead of the pirates and sped ahead at full speed. Just as those on board were losing hope that they would escape, Soarin shouted,
"I see sunlight through the fog, to our right!"
The Captain looked over and, seeing the light, turned hard to starboard. Soon the Traveler slipped out of the fog and into the light of day.
But they weren't out of the woods yet, the pirates were right behind them and gaining.
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Hello again Silver,
And our intrepid heroes and anti-heroes are about to meet.
I have to say, the rapidly changing perspective did a really great job ramping up the stakes; switching between the ponies' fear and worry to the pirate's growing satisfaction and glee was a surprisingly great way to make the reader tense and anticipating the Dragon of the Depths catching up to the Traveler. Excellent job there.
This part was a little odd, as you suddenly switched from descriptions to almost stage-like lines. So, are the search party's voices coming in through the crystal radio devices? I feel that this would be improved if you described how their voices were coming in:
Banter with the characters is still really good. I really loved Spike's line about how Nightmare Moon, Discord and everything else Twilight faced was just as much a legend as the Sea of Legends. Deadpan Snark Spike is best Spike.
Thanks as always for sharing.
10973514
Thanks.
I will admit that's a bit of a habit of mine when writing radio or the like transmissions, so more of that will pop up but not very often. I have been entertaining a thought on swapping the stage lines out for colored text though.
And thanks for the suggestion.
Glad I got that right, truth be told I forgo how snarky Spike can be.
So, what did you think about the appearance (at least what we've seen for now) of the Dragon of the Depths? Just to clarify, the glow effect can be turned off when stealth is needed. And believe it or not, the Dragon can be very stealthy despite its size.
What would Shiva be saying when they first sighted the ship?
And how was the Atmosphere? I was trying to get a gloomy, almost ghostly ship graveyard sort of feel.
10973727
Colored text would also work.
If I'm being honest, there's a lot going on with it, especially it's figurehead. So it had like... a dragon and a mare and... how many other creatures? Normally, I like how detailed you can get with that kind of stuff, but there was just a lot to take in about it, and it almost took me out of the story trying to process how so many creatures could fit into one figurehead/battering ram.
Shiva would take one look at that thing, and immediately send an order through the pack link to be ready for trouble. Though I feel her reaction wouldn't be as funny as Luke or Star.
The gloomy part worked for the most part, until the Dragon of the Depths caught sight of them. Then, it was pure adrenaline from that point forward.
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If I could draw I would have placed a picture there instead, but I can't so I had to use words
. As for the figureheads let me clear it up; The Dragon head that is the front of the ship has it's mouth open wide enough for the hull of a Ship-of-the-Line like the HMS Victory to fit inside with room to spare, the large ram juts out of the chin while the bowsprit and the figured heads are above the nose.
And to give you an idea on just how big the Dragon of the Depths is, it combines this lengthwise (not counting the bowsprit, Dragon head and Ram and its not as wide) with the upper half of this (and it's as wide as that), and this picture shows both ships alongside others but it should help visualize the Dragon, though there is a forecastle on the very front that's as long as the HMS Victory with three decks of its own.
Yeah, Flare wasn't kidding when she said the Dragon was a fortress.
Does that help clear it up?
Shiva knows what's going on, Star's response made me smile, Kodo's for some reason made me laugh (despite the fact that most would find "edgelord" to be an insult, I don't just to clarify, but that just Kodo.
) and Luke: Of course that would be the first thing he asks. 
Glad I got that done, because that's what I was aiming for.
Oh, and Shiva and co.'s reaction to the Dragon spotting them and start chasing?