Twilight's Pirate School

by Lets Do This

A Pirate Schooling

The students were split up and locked securely in separate cabins along a lower corridor of the warship.

Or so Gallus assumed, since he was shut up in his cabin first. He paced angrily around the room. It was about the size of one the dorms on the Friendship, and had a soft bed and a small cupboard with a water jug and cup sitting on it. It was actually surprisingly comfortable, for a prison cell.

There was also a porthole. It was far too small to get through and the thick glass was much too strong to break. But it afforded a very good view of the Friendship, hanging in the air a short distance away.

"Ugh! Silverstream was right," he grumbled. "We should have gone straight to the professors."

Gallus's only hope was that the professors would eventually realize there were students missing, and start looking for them. But he realized that Tempest had planned it all extremely well. The attack would happen early in the morning, at the start of classes, before their teachers had any chance to take notice of missing students... because Tempest herself was in charge of doing room-checks on the students after hours.

He tried rapping hard on the wall, to see if any of the other students had wound up in the cabin next to his. But the walls were metal-clad heavy oak. He just wound up sucking his hurt knuckles in annoyance.

With nothing else to do he flung himself onto the bed, claws behind his head on the pillow. And waited. And thought.

And after a long while, since it was really late, he fell asleep.

He was awakened by the sound of tramping steps in the corridor outside. It sounded like an entire army was being mobilized.

Jumping up, he went to the porthole and peered out, squinting against the early-morning sunlight.

He had a perfect ringside view as an unfamiliar walnut-hued airship, with Tempest's mark on its armored prow, swept in on full sail and smoke-billowing engines from the cloudbanks to the starboard side of the Friendship, and took up station alongside.

Gallus heard the extended alert blast of the Friendship's horn, and saw Tempest's soldiers mobilizing on its deck, shooing panicky students below, presumably to gather them into the main classroom. Additional soldiers from Tempest's other warships were already flying across, taking up defensive positions on the Friendship's main deck.

At the same time, pirates from the invading ship were launching arrows with ropes attached, and using them to swing across. The pirates quickly formed up in a wedge facing the Friendship's soldiers, weapons at the ready. At the head of the group was the lime-crested pirate captain that Gallus had seen the night before. The captain was in full battle kit, with leather armor and swords at her waist, and wearing a large tricornered pirate's hat atop her head.

From belowdecks Tempest emerged, wearing full armor. She trotted forward to stand opposite the pirate captain. The two leaders faced off, staring at each other for a long, tense moment...

... and then the captain and Tempest companionably teamed up and headed below, accompanied by soldiers and pirates alike, leaving a small force of Tempest's soldiers abovedecks to keep watch.

Unable to do anything about it, Gallus pounded the wall in frustration. "How could we let this happen!"

Then he shook his claw, wincing. "Ow. That's... not helping..."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Stay calm, everyone," Twilight said to the students as she trotted along the student-level corridor, looking for stragglers. "Remember, head for the main classroom for roll-call. Quickly but safely, now."

She came to the side door of the main classroom herself, and looked in to check that Applejack and Rarity had already begun taking attendance, as they'd planned. She didn't see Gallus and the other international students yet, but she wasn't concerned. Tempest had said she was rounding them up herself.

She trotted onward, around the curve of the corridor, to the stairwell leading up.

And suddenly found herself confronting a familiar face. Several familiar faces, in fact.

"Captain!" she said, pleased. "This is a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?"

Captain Celaeno smiled back. Then she drew her sword. Twilight found herself staring cross-eyed at its finely sharpened point.

"Commandeering your vessel, of course... what else would no-account scurvy scoundrels like us do?"

Twilight blinked. "Uhhh... help us save Equestria? More than once? Er... Captain? You are joking, right?" She leaned around Celaeno to look worriedly at Tempest, standing right behind the parrot captain with a sternly watchful expression on her face.

Captain Celaeno held her own fierce glare a moment longer. Then she put up her sword. And laughed pleasantly.

"Well of course I am, Your Highness! Who do you take me for?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

With nothing else to do, Gallus went back to the bed and thumped down on it, his head in his claws. He felt completely helpless and alone.

Then there was a soft, almost genteel rap on the door. It opened, and one of Tempest's soldiers looked in. It was the gold-and-black furred one, the one Tempest had introduced as Strife.

"Mister Gallus," the soldier said. His voice had the soft, respectful monotone of an undertaker at a funeral. "Sorry you've been kept waiting. Would you come with me, please?"

Surrounded by soldiers, with no opportunity to escape, Gallus was quickly returned to the Friendship... alone. None of the other students were in evidence. Gallus kept his beak shut, hoping against hope that some or all of the Odd Squad had managed to escape and raise the alarm.

On reaching the lavender ship, Gallus was quickly escorted down the forward stairs and around into the main classroom...

... and there he found Headmare Twilight, the pirate captain, and Commander Tempest all standing calmly together on the stage like old friends, waiting for him with large smiles on their faces. Spike and Grubber were standing next to their respective ponies, grinning like gargoyles.

The other professors were present too, sitting amongst the students on the ranks of seats... including the members of the Odd Squad, sitting together down front as usual, and grinning just as broadly as everyone else. And to either side of the stage, and ranged around the upper curve of the room, were the other parrot pirates, accompanied watchfully by Tempest's soldiers.

And at the sight of Gallus's astonished face, everyone in the room burst into laughter.

"Mister Gallus!" called out Tempest, when the laughter had died down somewhat. "I see you're late for class yet again. And wandering around out of your room after hours? My, my! You're flirting with detention, you know."

Gallus stared around at everyone. He didn't know whether to be relieved, outraged, or just plain dumbstruck. He glared at Tempest. "You mean... this was all a gag? A put-on? Just to set me up?"

"Oh, no, not at all." Twilight shook her head. "Commander Tempest and I had always planned to conduct an emergency preparedness drill at some point during this shakedown flight, just to be sure we'd be ready against an actual assault. And let me add," she said to the students, "you all handled it calmly and maturely. I was very impressed!"

"Absolutely," Celaeno said, nodding. "If this had been an actual pirate assault, I doubt you'd have had anything to worry about. But we'd have had a fine fight on our claws!" She glanced at Tempest, who nodded at the compliment.

"As you can see," Twilight went on, "our Commander took the opportunity to add a little, well... realism to the drill."

"That's putting it mildly," Gallus grumbled, coming down the steps to a gleeful welcome by his roommates.

Tempest tsk-ed gently at him. "You think I missed you tailing me, Mister Gallus? Looking for an opportunity to catch me out? Can't very well blame me for turning the tables on you, can you? And this was such a good opportunity, I couldn't resist. I love surprises, you know." She glared warningly around the room. "As long as I'm the one dishing them out..."

"You certainly surprised me!" Twilight said, eyeing her. Then she turned back to the students. "Commander Tempest got in touch with a mutual friend of ours, and asked her to oblige us by playing the invading force for this drill. Students, would you please give a warm Friendship School welcome to Captain Celaeno and her crew of, ah... swashbuckling treasure hunters, do I have that right?"

"That's us, Princess!" The parrot captain stepped forward, doffed her hat, and took a bow for the applauding students. "Well!" she added, as she came up again, "when we heard that there was a pirate school plying the skies, we felt honor-bound to swing by and check it out. Give all of you fresh-faced swabs a chance to see what actual pirates are like!"

"Pirate school?" Ocellus echoed, with a puzzled look. But she fell silent as Celaeno went on speaking.

"You might look upon us," the Captain said, "as nothing but a band of bloodthirsty, scheming, villainous cutthroats, who'd stop at nothing for a sack of bits." Celaeno eyed the students in mock seriousness... then broke it with a disarming smile. "And we wouldn't mind that, it'd be great for our image. But, when you get right down to it, we're... a family of sorts." She gestured to the other pirates, standing beside the stage on either side. "We sail together, we fight together... and yes, we scavenge for riches where we can find them. But the one thing we like most -- and Princess Twilight and her friends kindly helped us remember this a while back -- is fighting together as a team, in a worthy cause!"

She smiled at Twilight. "And from the looks of things, it seems that's just what you're doing here, Princess. So, speaking as one head of a family to another, I salute you! And I am so glad I didn't throw you and your friends overboard when you stowed away on my ship."

The students all looked surprised by that. But Twilight nodded in response. "Absolutely true! Though Captain Celaeno didn't have to throw us off her ship. We did it ourselves, to save her the trouble." She waved a hoof. "Don't worry, I'll explain it all later, when we have a spare moment in history class. But for now... Captain, would you and your crew have time to give us an impromptu class in swashbuckling? And then maybe join us for lunch? I still owe you for that meal you gave us, after all."

"We'd be honored, Your Highness!"

With Twilight and Celaeno in the lead, and Tempest and her soldiers bringing up the rear to watch for stragglers, the students, their teachers, and the pirates all headed up to the main deck. And they spent a pleasantly exciting morning learning about sword play and swinging on boarding ropes, about forming plans for mass assault on an unsuspecting target... and learning about what it meant to be a family, plying the skies, working together. And how to tell a good cause when you saw one, so you could willingly throw yourself into it, without reservation.

Even Gallus begrudgingly got over his embarrassment, and eventually was trading swipes with wooden practice swords with Smolder and Sandbar with happy abandon.

But every now and then he and Tempest would exchange glances.

This isn't over, his look said.

Bring it, mister! her smug look said in return. Any time you like!

Comments

[Lets Do This]

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Annnnd... I can finally throw on the Captain Celaeno tag without it being a spoiler. It's only a chapter cameo appearance, but I always did intend to have Celaeno visit the school, ever since the notion of a "pirate school" popped into my head. And it made sense for her to be a willing participant in Tempest's little "wake-up call" scheme...

Never play chicken with Tempest. She's a buzz-saw wrapped in an enigma...

[Eroraf86]

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. All of my yes. Also, CALLED IT, but who didn't? Tempest, never stop being awesome.

[Jade Dawn]

Well, I would say "called it", but Eroraf86 already beat me to it.

Of course, there is still that matter of Neighsay's letter...

[Scyphi]

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Oh, I'm sure he'll get an appropriate response to said letter soon enough...just not the one he was looking for.

I, for one, am more interested to see just how Gallus thinks he can extract his revenge upon Tempest for all of this.

[Jade Dawn]

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Yeah, I'm really liking the relationship these two are developing...the semi-friendly rivalry kind, I mean.

[Lets Do This]

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Yeah, Gallus and Tempest do naturally strike sparks, given their characters. Gallus is pretty much a natural as the "troublemaker" of the Odd Squad: apart from being a griffon, he's also both bright and a bit of a jaded wiseacre owing to his time on the streets back home. And this quickly puts him at odds with Tempest, as the uncompromising authority figure on the Friendship. Still, they have more in common than they realize. They both put up tough fronts to hide an inner insecurity. Though for Gallus this mostly plays out as stoic sarcasm, whereas in Tempest's case it's Empress-class bluffs and cliff-edge brinkmanship.

[SpikeSmolder fan]

LOL ok that was awesome, you really got me going there for a sec!

Well played Tempest, well played! Looks like the sparks between Tempest & Gallus will keep going on for quite a while.

Now we need to see Tempest giving a certain stallion his just desserts as well.

[SilverDiamond]

Ehhh. What happened? Because I seemed to miss the whole point. Did Tempest act all suspicious on purpose, to see how perceptive the students were?

[RuBoo]

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"As you can see," Twilight went on, "our Commander took the opportunity to add a little, well... realism to the drill."

In summary: Yes. And, to me, it looks like Gallus passed... And subsequently failed.

[Lets Do This]

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So we're happy and sad for him. (And yes, that is a Real Genius reference...)