Chapter 7: Imperator's Grave
Traveler
In route to Imperator's Grave
The mood on the Traveler had been gloomy, the families and friends of the missing creatures were besides themselves with worry, Twilight had been panicking badly until Cadance, Starlight, Shining, and Spike had finally got her to stop before she had a heart attack. Finally after three days of travel Imperator's Grave came into view.
"Island Ho!"
Everpony on board run up to the main deck, and stood in awe. Their eyes wide and mouths dropped open.
Imperator's Grave was a massive island, if one was to take Canterlot and put Ponyville, Sweet Apple Aces included, around it, you would get it's size. All around the edge were docks and shipyards of various sizes, many towers littered the water, far enough to allow even the largest ships to sail through them but close enough that they could support each other. The towers had two levels fitted with 110 pounder cannons, on the top were a multi rocket launcher at each corner and a heavy mortar on top. Numerous shipwrecks and bones of various sea creatures could be seen in the water and ships from gunboats to some Men O' War closer to the island moving among them.
The island itself consisted of many rocky hills with walkways tunneled through, rock formations of various sizes and shapes, a few archipelagos, and towering rock formations with some reaching higher then the Royal Palace. The island had many fortresses and other installations littered the island, all very heavily armed. In the air attached to some of the rock formations by thick chains were airship.
"So that's Imperator's Grave, this place is a fortress. Just look at those defenses." Soarin said waving a hoof out.
"The pirate said we couldn't miss it, kinda hard to miss an island made of rock, shipwrecks, and bones." Sky said.
"And has a fleet guarding it." Shining added.
As the Traveler reached the outskirts a brigantine approached them and pulled up alongside them. A Pegasus lifted a trumpet to his mouth and said,
"Ahoy there, permission to come aboard?"
"Permission granted." the Traveler's captain answered.
The Pegasus, who was dressed like that of a captain, flew up with two other Pegasi and landed on the deck in front of the captain.
"Greetings and welcome to Imperator's Grave. We don't see cruise ships here often, or Royalty for that matter." He turned to Cadance and Twilight and did a polite bow.
"What brings you here if I may ask?"
Shining told the story but left some details out, just in case. The Pegasus looked surprised.
"You had a run in with a Caribou slaver fleet?!"
"Yes, though thanks to a rouge wave most of that fleet was sunk and we lost the rest in the Jagged Pillars, and that's were the pirates attacked."
"I see, well you came to the right place, while I can't help you with those pirates I can bring you into a dock for you ship. Also if you are going after you friends I'd recommend you leave the cruise ship here and use a different ship or ships as the Sea of Legends is not merciful to those who don't now her water."
The Traveler Ponies looked at each other, then Rainbow asked,
"What do you mean by that?"
"Lass, there are many dangers in these waters, sea creatures as large as this island and even bigger have pulled ships into the depths, pirates gangs, Caribou slaver fleets, though they've been dropping in numbers like a rock for at least five years now, storms of incredable power, and that's just of the tip of the iceberg."
The Ponies looked at each other with very worried looks. If the Sea of Legends was as dangerous as they were told...
After thanking the Pegasus they were lead into a large dock and tied the ship down. The Ponies walked down first reaching the rib bones, Twilight and Fluttershy walked up to them.
"Wow, I've dealt with many different animal land, air, and sea, but... I've never seen bones like this before." Fluttershy said her eyes trailing the ribs.
"I agree, the creature these ribs are from must be huge." Twilight added.
"Would that be the same creature as that skull?" Thunderlane said pointing towards the end of the beach.
Turning around everypony's eyes went wide, in front of them serving as an entry to the island from the dock was a giant reptilian-esque skull easily big enough to swallow a ship-of-the-line whole. According to Twilight, the skull by itself was one hundred meters in length, with fangs that measured at eleven point five meters long, the center eye in a cluster of five was ten meters in diameter.
On both sides of the skull were walls made of rock, shipwrecks, and bones like the ribs that reached up to at least twenty stories in height and were forty feet thick, with an incredible amount of cannons, rockets and other weapons. Night Light pointed out whoever build these defenses had wanted to make it as difficult to assault as possible.
They passed through the open maw of the skull and entered into a city built of rock, shipwrecks, giant hermit crab shells, and leviathan bones. Shops and houses were all around, with a large building set against one of the rock tower formations with the words "Sea Oasis" on a sign above the entry. Deciding that was as good of a place to start as any, the Ponies walked towards the tavern. As they walked they noticed members of pretty much every known sentient species on the planet, just going about their day; talking, shopping, eating, and so forth. Some were carrying odd items such as what looked like crates with different colored cloth draped over the tops, skulls made of various materials like bronze and silver, small chests of various designs, and random trinkets into various shops.
Rainbow suddenly elbowed Twilight, when she turned Rainbow pointed to one of the three story buildings. Hanging from it were red banners with a black quadruped Dragon in flight above a maelstrom with a small chest clutched in it's claws. The same design as the one on the ship at attacked them.
The Ponies eyes widened as they took another look around, flags and banners of the same design could be seen every were. Shining was now very glad he had left out some details earlier, for it seemed they were now in the Dragon's lair. Entering the Sea Oasis they entered a open room that only had a stairway to the tavern below, the room as easily as large as six of the Royal Palace throne rooms and held everything one would expect a tavern to hold; the wall opposite of the stairs was a bar with stools, the wall to the left of the stairs was a stage with a band playing a tune, on the right wall was a set of massive kegs of various drinks, and throughout the center were many tables and roof supports.
They took a seat at a table in a corner tying not to draw attention to themselves, after one of the barmaids got them some drinks, they began discussing their situation.
"So, we're in the Sea of Legends, which is know for it's great dangers." Cadance began.
"We were first attacked by Caribou slavers who we escaped," Shining continued.
"Only to run into pirates who took some of our own," Velvet added.
"And now we're on what seems to be the lair of those same pirates." Flash finished.
They knew this task would be a difficult one, for starters; they had no idea were to start. Those pirates could be anywhere, and the Sea of Legends was gigantic. Twilight laid out some plans.
"The first thing we could do is split up to cover a bit more ground."
"I don't know about that Twi," Applejack said, "one group could end up in real trouble and the other's would never know."
"I'm with Applejack on that." Rarity said, looking around. "And just between us, these pirates could better their decor."
"Never mind that Rarity, we have far more important things to worry about."
"Yea like... Finding and getting our friends back!" Sky said.
Just then, the tavern quieted down. At first the group thought they had said something wrong, but those worries were put to rest when a voice spoke out.
"Alright lads,"
Looking over, they saw a brown Earth Pony Stallion with a long and thick graying black mane and beard, both with burning fuse tied into them. He wore a tricorne with a cluster of white feathers off to one side, a coat, waistcoat, shirt, pants and boots, all in black. The Traveler Ponies recognized him as the infamous pirate lord: Blackmane, one of the most feared pirates to sail the seas.
"I'll give ya Blackmane's honest opinion, you ask to hear about the legends of Archduke Razor Tail and his outcasts, well then, let them be told."
He sat up from his leaning position.
"Archduke Razor Tail, a Kirin who's origins no ones knows of, there are many tales, but the most well known one is that he's the unwanted son of a disgraced Noble. Whether this one is true or not, he's gained many titles over the years of here; The Slayer of Royals, The Savior of Seaponies, the Freer of Slaves, The Messiah of Merponies, and The Ruler of Outcasts to name but a few. You lads ask me can the good Archduke can promise you a place where you can belong and life of plunder and adventure? Aye!"
He shifted in his seat.
"For among all the sailors that travel the Sea of Legends, he ranks among the most clever."
Blackmane reached for a bottle of rum.
"Before I meet him, I thought myself the deadliest scourge of these waters."
He chuckled as he poured rum into a mug.
"It be a known fact that Kirins be formidable fighters, but this Kirin... while he lacks some of the discipline his kind after famed for, is still a fearsome beast that feeds off trouble and turmoil. I once seen him clear the deck of a Caribou titan then take it for his outcasts by himself like it was nothing, another time the two of us raided a Panish port town and he defeated the guards before they even knew what hit them. I admit that among the Pirate Lords that sail these waters, only me and a few remain, the rest fell to his tail blades. His fighting style be a mix of the ones he's seen in his life."
He finished pouring and set the bottle down.
"Razor Tail fights like a demon, he'll switch between his halberd, pistols, and rifle in a heartbeat during a battle and he'll use the surrounding terrain to win. He retreat only to hit ya from behind, and he's a canny one. Knows his way around these waters and islands."
He took a long drink then set the mug down.
"So if it's fortune and adventure you seek, then Archduke Razor Tail is your Kirin. Only..."
He leaned forward.
"Don't meddle in his personal affairs, or threaten the ones he cares for. Some may think the compassion he has for those in the Outcasts of the Abyss is a weakness, those ones find out that he can be very meriless to those who harm his loved ones, he has some rather crafty ways to get revenge. And there be more mystery in that Kirin..."
He paused, then finished with,
"then even I dare ask."
After he finished activity in the tavern resumed, the Traveler Ponies looked at each other.
"A faction?! That pirate is the leader of a Faction??!!" Twilight said shocked.
"I thought pirates worked with only one ship." Rarity said.
"Not always," Shining said. "Sometimes they from into small fleets to take on larger prey such as warships. If this pirate, this Archduke Razor Tail, has enough power to form a faction, we maybe in deeper then we though."
"How could any pirate form and maintain a faction?" Rainbow asked.
Cadance spoke next,
"Well, this faction is called the "Outcasts of the Abyss", could Razor Tail have gathered outcast that nopony else wanted and took them in?"
"It's possible Cadance, he might have given them something in return for their loyatly." Shining mused. "Still, just how big is this "Outcasts of the Abyss"?"
"Big enough to rule a large part of the Sea of Legends." Flash spoke up as he returned from the bathroom. "I did mange to get the name of his ship."
"What would it be?" Applejack asked.
"The Dragon of the Depths."
They turn back to the map they had brought earlier. The Sea of legends was dotted with many islands and rocks ranging from small to very large with areas of open ocean, some areas on the map were marked in red as 'No Sail Zones' and others were marked as roaming zones for pirates. After some debate they deiced to split into three groups: Thunderlane, Soarin, Sky Slinger, Starry Eyes, Flitter, and Cloudchaser in one group, Twilight, her friends, Spike, Flash Sentry, Flare Warden, Twilight's parents, and Dark Moon were the second, and the rest of the Traveler Ponies would be group three, the Nobles and the Traveler's crew would stay behind.
Get ships weren't, too bad. Thunderlane's group got a run-down sloop, Twilight's group got a schooner, and group three got a old Ship of the line. All three ships were in need of repair, which cost a fair bit on top of the repairs for the Traveler.
After everything had been squared away, the three groups sailed away.
Thunderlane's Group
Three days later
Thunderlane was at the helm signing in frustration, three days going onto four and they hadn't come across anything of note, just islands and waves. The others on board were bored out of their minds, only Starry Eyes up in the crows nest and Soarin at the map table had anything to do.
Starry held up his spyglass up to an eye and scanned the water, empty sea, islands, still empty water, rocks, large storm ahead, more islands, more... wait a minute, STORM!!!
He spun around, right ahead was a massive storm, black cloud and all. Quickly reach over he rang the bell next to him, the sound alerting the others.
"Storm dead head!"
Sky looked ahead, "Well crap."
"You wanted some fun." Soarin deadpanned.
"Not that kind!"
They hit the storm dead on, rain poured down by the bucket loads, winds and waves tilled the sloop over quite far. Thunderlane was fighting with the helm trying to keep it straight. Soarin was with him trying to help, eveypony else was below deck.
Starry walked to the deepest level, only to find a bit of water.
"Seems he got a bit of a drip down here." He said to himself as he began to look for any holes. After a few minutes the water level got deeper.
"What is going on? Hey Sky, Cloudchaser, could you two grab some buckets and lend a hoof down here please?"
"Sure Starry, what do you need the buckets fo-" Cloudchaser went silent when she and Sky saw the water level. "Oh... I see."
The three of the sent the nest half hour filling the buckets, bring them up top, and throwing the water over the railing. Suddenly a bolt of lighting slammed into the ship scaring the hay out of it's crew. Down blow a hole blew open.
"Ohh we got a hole!" Starry shouted as he grabbed a plank of wood to repair it. The water reached the next level as Starry burst out gasping for air, after that he sounded at the top of his lungs,
"START BAILLING!!!"
"OH BOY!" Sky shouted.
Two more holes blew open.
"We're getting shot or something!"
"Yea shot by Faust." Cloudchaser deadpanned.
"Thunderlane! Soarin!" Flitter shouted, the two ran down.
"What's going- oh boy oh boy!" Soarin said seeing the water level.
"Bail! Bail NOW! ALL HOOVES ON DECK!!!" Thunderlane shouted.
"No under deck!" Flitter joked.
"All hooves below deck, TOUCH THE DECK!" Cloudchaser joined in. They continued to bail water while Starry tried to repair the holes, it soon became obvious that it wasn't working.
"How could this get any worse." Sky said, his voice filled with sarcasm.
"You did not just say that!!" Thunderlane said.
It was to late, as a large wave hit the ship and it went under, taking it's crew with it.
Later, close to morning
Unknown Island
Broken boards washed ashore, followed by two Pegasus Mares. Flitter lifted herself up coughing up water as Cloudchaser gasped for air. After she caught her breath she turned to her sister.
"Are you alright Flitter?"
"I think so," She thumbed her chest. "just recovering."
Cloudchaser looked around, noticing something, or rather, someponies, missing.
"Were are the boys!?"
"Think they went down with the ship?"
"I don't think so, we were with them went the ship broke apa-"
Cloudchaser suddenly stopped as she fell over, unconscious. Flitter's eyes widened in shock, but before she could even shout her sister's name, something sturck her in the head, knocking her out.
Next morning
Same island
The Stallions were coughing up water, laying on their backs, or just recovering from last night's storm.
"I don't know about you guys but that's the last time we sail with a budget ship!" Sky shouted.
"Aye!" Starry agreed.
"Wait, were are the girls?!" Thunderlane said looking for the two Mares.
"Well this is great, first we're shipwrecked on an island and now the girls are missing." Sky said.
"Do you think they went down with the ship?" Soarin asked.
"I don't think so, maybe they washed up elsewhere, at least I hope they did." Thunderlane said.
"Let's take a look around first, see if we can find them." Soarin said getting up.
The four Stallions walked into the forest behind the beach, they found nothing until Sky walked up to a group of trees with several cuts on them. He followed the cuts till his eyes with some sort of brown... thing.
"Okay, now that's just plain ugly." He muttered.
Then the "thing" suddenly jumped at him! Sky let out a yelp as he jumped back, alerting the others. They didn't get a good look as some sort of pot landed at their hooves and broke apart, releasing a gas that knocked the Stallions out.
Same Island, again
Dragon of the Depths
Razor stood on deck glaring at the island close by, the Outcasts had arrived an hour ago and dropped anchor not to far away, out of range of the magic disabling field. Atlas walked up next to him.
"Are you sure you want to go alone honey?"
"Yes Atlas, it's better because I can move in, get what we came for, and get out quickly."
"And if you encounter any of "Them"?"
He pulled out his gladius. "They will feel my blades cold, sweet kiss. I wouldn't show mercy"
"And any "fresh victims"?"
"I'll free them and bring them aboard with me, I wouldn't leave them here."
"You longboat's ready sir." One of the crew shouted.
Razor climbed in and the boat was lowered into the water, Razor checked over the mini steam engine and made sure he had plenty of ammo.
"Razor, what do we do while your there?" White Fang asked.
"Keep an eye out for this flare," Razor held said item up, "If or when you see it fire the howitzers, load them with fire shots."
His crew nodded as Razor stared the engine.
"Be careful Dad." Silver called out as Razor moved away.
"I will son."
He turn back to the island.
"Once again back at this cursed place."
He entered the field as the runes on his gear went black, signaling the magic had been cut off. Signing he looked up, Ashbone Spires were named due to the mountains and rock spires here being a black ash color, the bones came from the number of skeletons of sea creatures that washed up here. Those same rocks canceled out magic of any kind, and the island was filled with jungle, which was the reason Razor didn't bring his halberd.
He moved through a series of caves before dropping anchor at a small, hidden cave and climbing out.
His glare hardened, pulled out his sword, and he bared his sharp teeth.
"And this time, no mercy."
So The Traveler arrived at Imperator's Grave, finding out a number of things, spit up to cover more ground (doesn't seem like a good idea), and what just attacked Thunderlane's group?
I fully admit the dialogue for the Traveler Ponies after Blackmane's speech could really use improvement, I tried to make it longer (and better), but my mind wouldn't stop drawing blanks. 
If I can either come up with something better or someone gives some suggestions, I'll make the changes.
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Hello Silver,
The intrigue builds; From the sound of it, whatever captured Thunderlane and his friends isn't someone they're going to want to be a guest for, and Razor's aid will be greatly appreciated.
In terms of the dialogue for the Traveler ponies, I'd suggest that after they look over the map, Twilight brings up the idea of splitting up to cover more ground, with Rarity and Applejack not refuting her. Then they can split up into their groups. You did mention you were drawing blanks on how to have them say it, but I think it's neutral enough that you can get the basic dialogue in, and then go back and refine it with personality later:
Also, while I like Blackmane's speech and the reference to Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, I do feel that it comes out of nowhere; like he just starts saying it for no reason. I feel it might be a bit better if you have the ponies talk about getting their friends back from Razor Tail, only for Black Mane to overhear them and tell them about Razor:
Just my suggestion though. I feel that having Black Mane directly tell them about Razor Tail would be a good way to keep his speech in and keep it relevant to the story; he's essentially warning them not to mess with the guy, and making it clear they got very lucky with him.
Overall, still a lot of fun to read about. I'm looking forward to seeing how Razor handles whatever's on that island, especially since he can't use magic. I know Shiva wouldn't dare to set foot on a place that cancels out her magic; she's pretty much helpless without her pack link.
Until next time, thanks for sharing,
10979426
That'll work, thanks.
You know, I actually really like that idea.
I'll have to change the speech a little but that'll work nicely. 
Yikes.
Then she definitely wouldn't want a Western Kirin, or a Kirin in general, as an opponent. Their immunity to any kind of magic is why magic users fear them. Now, it can be used against them indirectly (Like using the Pack Link to empower allies or throwing objects at them) but any direct hit will flow over them like a watery mist with no harm.
That been said, I really don't think Shiva would have to worry about that as she'd try to get them as allies first.
By the way King, if you want to learn more about Imperator's Grave, you can here.
10979553
Glad my suggestions were helpful.
Very true; Shiva's a very diplomacy first-fighting-later type of gal.
10980145
I can see her trading with the Kirin for various items, though the Valley Kirin are very reclusive and live in a land filled with extremely poisonous plants (which they are immune to) and seldom leave their home so Shiva probably wouldn't have much contact with them.
10980202
Yeah. Whatever Shiva can't make peace with, she'll oftentimes try to leave alone.
I mentioned this in the forum on her personality, but she draws a bit of inspiration from Caesar from the Planet of the Apes reboot; if you don't want peace, then just leave her and her pack alone. She'll be happy either way.
10980208
Something the Valley Kirin would be alright with, though that doesn't mean she would met a few if she was in any of the other Kirin Homelands for say trade and they came by. Despite being reclusive Valley Kirin are quite chill and Shiva could actually get some trade in, though it would have to be in other locations due to their lands.
10980219
Cool.
I've got some other things to take care of, but I'll try and get to the next chapter as soon as I'm done with them.
Looking forward to the next chapter.
