From the West They Came

by Not That Anon

X – Loose Ends

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t expect to wake up with the bandages removed and the homecoming scar on my right flank. It retained its light but the glow was much more subtle than the burning runes that nearly blinded me after my previous excursion to wherever that place was.

Looking at the clock, I still had an hour until everypony else woke up. When my attempt at putting the bandages back on failed, I decided to see Sawbones. The old stallion hated waking up early and I wanted to keep my extracurricular adventures a secret, but the alternative of walking all day with the eldritch rune on display for every sailor to see was far worse.

I reached his cabin without being spotted by anypony, or so I hoped. I knocked on the door, quietly at first, but I redoubled my efforts when I received no response. This time, the noise was loud enough to wake the dead.

Yet nopony answered still.

Cold sweat ran down my neck. I remembered yesterday’s gruesome discovery and I instinctively imagined the terrible things that could’ve happened to Sawbones. He refused the guardsponies’ protection on account of being “not important enough”. What a healer could’ve done to incur banshee’s wrath was a mystery. Perhaps, if Moon Shine was right that I was safe from the monster, it was a revenge by proxy for saving my life.

I was interrupted by something tapping me on the shoulder. Startled, I jumped back, trying – and failing – to come up with a plan on dealing with an unholy spirit of vengeance. I tensed up, looked my opponent straight in the eyes–

–and relaxed when instead of a bloodthirsty banshee I saw Sawbones wearing a surprised expression and mismatched navy uniform.

“The one time I wake up early, somepony is trying to break the doors to my cabin. What happened?” he asked, seconds before noticing the missing bandage and scrunching his muzzle. “Strange, I thought I tied it well.” He walked to the empty sick bay and gestured to me to follow.

I sighed with relief. Nervous mood on the ship was terribly contagious but I should’ve known better than to panic and make hasty assumptions.

“I bet it’s almost healed,” he added, digging through his luggage for a new roll of bandage and a pair of scissors. “No doubt it’ll leave a nasty scar but– dear Luna, it’s real!“ Sawbones cried out and froze in his tracks.

He was staring at my new scar which to my surprise still hasn’t lost its faint light. I cleared my throat and said, “It’s a… long story. Can you bandage it? Avoiding unnecessary unrest among the crew is a top priority.”

He gasped. “And hide it?! I’d never! Let them see that there’s still hope!”

“What are you talking about?” The past few days had me confused more often than the previous few years.

“You wear it on your flesh and you don’t know what it means?” Sawbones sounded almost offended. He put the medical supplies back into the crate and grabbed a scroll from a nearby bookshelf. The scroll contained a sketch of my new scar.

“I see I’m not the first one,” I said, “but what does it mean?”

“The legends call it Traveler's Promise. In the stories, the ponies marked by it were sure to safely return from the sea. Their wounds would never fester, they shrugged off skirmishes with vicious Griffonian pirates and even in the case of a shipwreck, the sea always dropped them off at a nearby beach before they could drown.”

“You’re making it up, Sawbones,” I walked to the porthole and looked at the empty sea everywhere around us. “I’m no expert on pony history but something like that would be mentioned by every history book, not just some dusty old scroll you’ve found Luna knows where.”

“The sea stories I speak of are older than your history books.” Sawbones closed his eyes. His voice became deeper and more gravelly. Though he was now a surgeon, at that moment I was willing to bet my wings that the old stallion has told more stories in his life than anypony else in Equestria. “They come from a time before we made the land and the sky ours, before the Sisters came from the west. When Equestria brimmed with dangerous untamed energy and for every cryptic blessing, ten more deadly threats waited for the unsuspecting pony.”

I nodded. “The Age of Heroes.” The history books that Sawbones looked down on did, in fact, mention this period of time very scantily, mainly due to the lack of reliable primary sources.

“That’s what we call it today, yes. But the ponies who lived there would never think to name it this way, for it was a harsh time and the ‘heroes’ we remember were born out of necessity. The most valiant among them would one day wake up to find themselves someplace far away, in an audience with forces beyond ponykind’s comprehension. None of them remembered much about the journey, though it’s likely that they were judged. Few of them must’ve been deemed worthy – they received a mark not unlike the one you have on your flank – and laid the foundation for the great Kingdom of Equestria. Or so the story says, anyway.”

I blinked. “Was that disbelief I heard at the end?”

“Indeed it was.” He opened his eyes, looking somewhere far away with a concerned expression. “Because there’s more to this story, something that puts its credibility into question even for me. It is said that the last pony bearing the Traveler’s Promise was the leader of a group of batponies who accompanied Princess Luna when she came to Equestria. According to the story, when they arrived there were no other batponies in all the land. The most surprising part is the complete exclusion of her sister from this legend.”

“Not the first time I heard somepony make the connection between our kind and our good Princess. Scholars have been discussing it for centuries, arguing that without Luna’s light we’d turn into pegasi over a couple generations.” I shrugged. “If it’s a batpony story, maybe the ones responsible for it omitted the Sun monarch to bring some well-deserved attention to her sister.”

“That’s not impossible,” he said. “Regardless, now we know why the Banshee couldn’t have killed you like she wanted.”

“No, I only got it today. Though actually, –“ I scratched my head “– it might’ve been several centuries ago, too.”

Sawbones didn’t hide his confusion. “Mind explaining that last part?”

“I might as well, there’s no point in keeping it secret anymore.”

I summarized everything that I’ve witnessed in the dreams.

“Then she said, ‘Goodbye, captain’ and I disappeared in a flash of blue light, catching a glimpse of her turning into Princess Luna as I left. I woke up and– Oh!” I gasped and looked at Sawbones, realizing something I should’ve figured out an hour ago.

The surgeon had an equally concerned expression. He slid on his saddlebags and said, “We need to go there immediately.”

We reached Sea Worthy’s cabin in full gallop. The guardspony next to the door greeted us with a nod. He looked very tired – as expected after standing on watch for several hours – but thankfully he was unharmed.

“Did something happen, sir?” he asked me.

“Maybe,” I replied. “Have you seen or heard anything unexpected this night?”

“No, sir.”

“Then where’s the other volunteer?” Sawbones interjected in an authoritative voice more suiting a general than a surgeon. “You were supposed to stand guard in pairs.”

“Rickety Board?” The guard yawned. “He’s there. The suite is locked from the inside so we figured it’d be better to have someone on the right side of the door.”

I raised a brow and said, “Sea Worthy didn’t object to the idea?”

“No, sir.” The guard shook his head and smiled. “I think she saw how sca– how determined we were and wanted us to calm down.”

“I see.” I knocked on the door and – for the second time this morning – my heartbeat sped up when the response I expected never came. “Open the door,” I ordered.

“Sorry, sir, but I can’t.” The stallion gestured helplessly. “I just said that the only way to open the room is from the inside.”

“Then help us break down the door.“ Sawbones took off his saddlebags and rolled up his sleeves.

The anti-theft lock turned out to be no match for two former soldiers and a surgeon. We barged in prepared for a fight, Sawbones armed with a scalpel, me with a dagger in mouth. The stateroom, however, bore no signs of a struggle beyond the door we’ve broken. The guard was surprised by our actions, to say the least.

“The captain’s sleeping over there,” he said, pointing to a bed in a corner.

Sawbones’s face became a few shades paler. He whispered to himself, “Not sleeping.”

“But where’s Rickety?” The former soldier looked around.

“Here,” I said, trotting over to a batpony sitting on a chair behind the door. “But he’s–“

“Dead,” added Sawbones, “just like Sea Worthy.”

Silence filled the room.

The guard was the first to break it. “No, no, no, NO!” he shouted. “It wasn’t supposed to happen! He should’ve opened the damn door the instant he saw a threat! I– I could’ve helped and now…”

“He never saw the threat coming,” I said, hoping to at least somewhat console him. “His spear is still resting next to him. He died without realizing what happened. If you were here, the only difference would be a third corpse for us to find.”

The surgeon moved in closer to the body. “He died to a single wide slice on the neck but I don’t see blood anywhere. Rigor mortis hasn’t set in yet and his eyes aren’t clouded; looks like he died about an hour ago.”

His examination was interrupted by a malicious laughter. “My, my, what an observant bat! Aren’t you supposed to be blind?”

We turned to the source of the sound. It was Sea Worthy– no, Sea Worthy’s corpse, a giant open wound on the neck proving that beyond any doubt. Nevertheless, the revenant stood next to Sea Worthy’s bed and looked at us with pitch black eyes. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the guard slowly reach for his spear.

“Why the long faces?” The monster laughed. “I just wanted to say hi.”

“What do you want?” I drawled out through the clenched teeth.

“Me? Nothing! Aren’t you up for a chat between us two murderers?” she said, emphasizing the last word. “How does it feel to know that–“

“Now!” I cried out.

The three of us jumped at the banshee. She swiftly evaded every attack while singing a high note that paralyzed my companions. I adjusted my posture and, dagger in mouth, looked for an opening to strike.

The monster chuckled and said, “You’re joking! Though I can’t kill you, you’d have to be even more stupid than you look if you think you can harm me in any meaningful way. It’s not even my body!”

“Make it quick,” I said, moving between my companions and the revenant.

“Or else what?” She grinned. “Do tell me, please. I love empty threats!”

I didn’t answer, which encouraged the banshee to continue.

“I’d love to entertain your crew some more. I wonder who’d be next on the list; the navigator, the surgeon or that freakish witch?” The walking corpse blinked. “Oh, you glared at me. How adorable! Strange, was I wrong in thinking that you and the captain… Should I have targeted that unicorn mutant instead? What deviant tastes you have, Vigil!”

I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to attack the specter. Though pointless in the long term, it would’ve shut her up at least for a moment. Knowing that doing so would expose Sawbones and the other batpony to her counter-attack, I stayed still.

She pursed her lips into a duckface and batted her empty eyes. “Do you really want to murder me a second time that badly? The feeling is no longer mutual, I swear! We’re even! Really!” She trotted to the large porthole and opened it. “As I said, it’s been a pleasure to play with you but it’s only fair I let you lead your own crew to their demise, too. Don’t worry though, I’ll be watching you as it happens! Bye!” With that, she squeezed herself through the porthole and sank beneath the waves.

Sawbones – no longer bound by the banshee’s spell – stood up and closed the window. He took a deep breath and said in a calm tone, “So, what will be your next move, captain?”

Comments

[EvilTreerat]

... Banshee going to find that its not wise to pick a fight with whoever a cosmic power finds interesting. Plus somepony had a rather exaggerated sense of self in life. If anything by killing Sea Worthy she removed the biggest obstacle to Vigil's survival. Now they can take the right course.