Freedom Through Harmony

by Electricut

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter Thirty Five
Port Town; HMS Longsword
Spike

Irath dashed to the center of the ship, or did what was as close to dashing as you could get with no solid ground under you. The ship was quickly collapsing in on itself, so he spoke loud, clear, and quickly. “Everyone, get to the lifeboats, quickly! Fly some kind of white flag, and get to port as fast as you can! We need to let them know we’re on their side!”

I stumbled over the violently shaking boards, planks splintering away under the fire and littering the air all around me, but still I pushed forward towards the captain. Fafnir made his way past, leading Cybel and Rarity as swiftly as he could to the opposite side of the ship, where the lifeboats would be waiting.

Leaping clear over a hole torn in the floorboards, I skidded to a halt before Irath. “Captain, getting out with the lifeboats isn’t going to stop them! We’ll just get shot down again! We have to do something about the other pirates!”

A look of profound sadness crossed his face, only to be replaced by bloody-minded determination a moment later. “Leave the situation to me, young lad. Get to the lifeboats and make sure the others are safe.”

“And you?!” I yelled over the din of the rapidly exploding ship. “You have to get out of here too! You’re the whole reason we’ve gotten this far!”

He looked to me, resigned but not unhappy. He gave me a smile screaming finality. “And I’ll be the reason you make it all the way. I trust you to get the job finished, Spike. Now follow your captain’s last order and get out of this storm.”

I didn’t want to go, but it quickly became clear that was my only option. Against all my better judgement, I turned and ran for the side of the ship, skirting over gaps in the floor and bits of flaming shrapnel, and was launched clear into the air by a violent explosion as I reached the edge. I flailed in the air pathetically for the moment before I collided with the water.

The sounds of battle were muffled under the waves, and the ripping apart of the Longsword and the deafening noise of cannons were only a distant echo. Straining all my muscles, I swam upward and surfaced roughly. Gasping for air, I looked around, and saw one of the lifeboats nearby. Fafnir, Cybel and Rarity, as well as three others were already inside, Fafnir waving his spear in the air with his white bandana tied to it, serving as a white flag of surrender to the port officials.

The boat was already technically full, but they all moved aside and made room for me as they saw me treading water. I swam up to them in a few strokes and climbed aboard, and, looking around, saw the other lifeboat similarly crowded. I twisted around to see the battle again, and was helpless to do anything but watch.

From the wreckage of the Longsword, which had finally become scarcely anything other than a pile of timber floating on the waves, rose a ferocious orange dragon, who let loose a furious blast of flame at the pirate’s ship. Even as he was pelted with shrapnel and iron, magical blasts and cannon fire, he pushed through to brutally obliterate the enemy ship.

The pirates never stood a chance. A few lucky ones managed to jump ship just after it was set aflame, but none survived when Irath dove sharply and body-slammed the whole thing, sinking it violently. He rose into the air raggedly- as he was still being fired upon by the clueless port soldiers- let out a roar that alone caused a ripple in the water, just as his wings gave out. He fell backwards through the air in slow motion, and when he collided with the sea, a huge shockwave of water erupted from around him, sending the lifeboats hurtling forward.

When the waves subsided, Irath was gone, lost to the sea.

The two tiny boats, both sporting white flags floated on, at last in peace. An utter silence surrounded us all- indeed, even the ocean seemed to hush its voice in the tense moment. The only sounds were the occasional whimper from Rarity, but she didn’t start crying. When the silence was broken, it was by one voice from the other lifeboat, barely perceptible from ours:

“Where’s Fenrir?” Realizing what he was saying, I looked around rapidly, but saw no sign of him either. We didn’t loose him too, did we?!

Fafnir spoke suddenly, as though reading my thoughts. “Guys. This is Fenrir we’re talking about. You don’t think something as insignificant as a shipwreck would be enough to slow him down? He’ll be alright.”

As much as I wanted to agree with him, I didn’t share his optimism. “Then where is he? I’m not seeing him treading water anywhere.”

He looked around, confirming for himself what I saw: nothing. All other ships had stopped short, the crews of each most likely having gone somewhere safe but with a good view of the action, and nothing but our tiny vessels floated out this far at this point. When he turned back, it seemed my point had reached him. “He’s not dead.” Fafnir still insisted. “I don’t know where he is, but he can’t be dead. That just wasn’t enough to kill him.”

I knew he was partially trying to keep the crews spirits- well, not up, but keep them from getting even lower- but I saw in his eyes that he truly believed what he was saying. For him, I made the same effort, and had to agree- Fenrir was an incredibly resilient warrior, and it would have taken a huge amount of pummeling to wear him down.

And yet, he was nowhere to be seen.

The boats made their way to port, assisted by the oars stowed in the bottom we had ignored up until now. We tied off the lines to the wooden posts and the end of the lifeboats and climbed onto the planks of port. For the first time in weeks, the ground was utterly solid, and all of us had to take a moment to get our land legs back.

We weren’t alone on the docks: Several soldiers in grey armor stood at the end, weapons and magic trained on us uncertainly. A lone figure walked forward to meet us, dressed in normal clothes with a few bits of pale green armor here and there. From the way the other soldiers moved aside for him, I guessed he was the one in charge of the operation. Cybel straightened immediately, then turned to Fafnir. “Could I get you to hold Rarity for a moment?” He nodded wordlessly, took the child from her, and stood back.

Cybel stalked up to the newcomer, looked him straight in the eye, and slapped him across the face almost hard enough to send him reeling off the dock altogether. Before he could recover, she moved over to him again and grabbed him roughly by the collar, pulling him off his feet to face her. Several of the soldiers back on land tensed or moved forward, but a vicious glare from Cybel stopped them short.

“Rytas, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” She barked at him. “I was ON that ship you decided to open fire on! The ship that was going to come quietly anyway! The ship that had been re-pirated by these diplomats from another country, looking to make contact with us! They saved my life, which is so much less than I can say for someone from my own country, who I almost was ready to call friend! Their first contact with the kingdom of Equestria was getting shot at, you endangered me and my daughter, and you even managed to kill their captain in the process!”

She shoved him violently back, where he collapsed on the ground with a look of fear and apprehension on his face. He flinched as she moved forward and pointed a finger in his face. “I swear to whatever God you hold dear, you will pay dearly for this.” With that she walked around him and, motioning for us to follow, walked straight past the awestruck soldiers.

Even more awestruck, the party of Goldoans followed. Looking beside me, I could see a look of profound admiration, amazement and... something else on Fafnir’s face. I specifically chose not to give it a second thought as we went.
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The next few days passed in a haze of activity. After returning to her hometown for a while, to let everyone know that she was okay and to leave Rarity where she would be safe, Cybel organized a meeting with the Queen. As the head of one of the various noble houses dotted around Equestria, she had an easier time of it than most would, and in only two days time the remaining eleven of us found ourselves bound for the capital city of Eclipse.

I could go on about the beauty of the city, especially the castle- its blend of ancient and modern architecture, the needle-like spires that seemed to reach to the sky, the abundance of both useful and strictly decorative magical objects- I could talk about that for ages, but I won’t bore you with the details. Soon we made our way through the gigantic towering corridors of Eclipse castle, and found ourselves before the queen Celestia.

She showed great curiosity in us, though gave us due respect. As we had suspected before, when she learned of our true nature, she implored us that we show her the extent of our power. We all transformed at some point, though she decided to have us do it in a private area (she told us it was to avoid alarming the populace, but I had a feeling it was partly to have the knowledge to herself). Needless to say, she was impressed.

However, she went on to inform us that it was a stroke of dumb luck that we had managed to make it so far, and that there was little to no chance of us getting back. Naturally, the crew wasn’t happy about this, and arguments arose immediately- and with us now without a captain, a leader, there was no-one to quell them effortlessly. When she was able to get our attention again, she said she would do everything in her power to find us a way home, and would shelter us in the meantime.

She said that it would be possible to send messages back to Goldoa by use of a rather specific magic spell, so long as the spell caster had someone on hand who knew exactly where to send it. We jumped on that without much thought, writing up a big old log on everything that had happened to us so far, and the situation we currently found ourselves in, and soon sent it on its way. As it stood, we had no way of receiving messages from home, but we all agreed it was better than nothing.

We all remained at Eclipse for a time, before the idea of splitting up and studying the goings-on around the country was brought up- an idea beneficial to both us Goldoans and Celestia. She agreed that we should go, and offered to personally employ each of us as a guardian warrior to serve as a last-line of defense in the case of an attack. We agreed, and soon I had to say goodbye to each brave soldier I had fought alongside for the past months, one by one.

“So...” Fafnir started, leaning against the grand gateway standing at the entrance to the castle. His bandana was stuffed in his pocket, and a stiff wind ran through his short green hair. His bundle of weapons was slung across his back. “I guess this is it for now, ol’ buddy.”

“Yeah...” I said, not really knowing what else to say. I was never any good at goodbyes. “We’ll stay in contact with letters, right?”

“Course! We gotta stay in touch, right? If we didn’t... what would even be the point?” He laughed it off casually, and a time passed before either of us spoke again. In all that time, he made no indication of moving. “I got stationed to the town where House Icarus is.”

“That’s the house Cybel is from, right? Congrats! It’s always good to have some pre- existing contacts around.”

He looked up into the air, and the midday sky. I couldn’t begin to read his expression. “Pre- existing contact...” He rolled the words around experimentally, then smiled vaguely. “Yeah, I guess so. Dunno if it’ll be permanent, though...”

Something else was on his mind, I could tell. “Fafnir, are you alright? You seem distracted.” I decided to just ask away.

He took a moment before answering. At last, he turned to face me. “I’m just fine, don’t you worry, but... yeah, a bit distracted.” Another lapse in conversation, only broken by a few birds chirping and the white noise of the city beyond the gates. He picked up again a moment later. “Well... Nah, it’s... it’s nothing. Well, I guess I’d better be off. Lemmie know if you hear anything about Fenrir. Catch you later!” He stood upright and, with a final wave backward, walked out the gates and into the city.

I stood, hands in pockets, watching him go. We had both convinced ourselves Fenrir was still alive somewhere, and it wasn’t too much of a stretch, really- the port officials had managed to locate each and every other body involved in the firefight, save for his. To this end, we believed firmly that he was still out there somewhere- though where, we had no clue.