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Prologue: The Shroud2,290 words
1. Marooned3,785 words
2. The Captain of the Damned Hydra3,077 words
3. Blood in the Sand2,381 words

2. The Captain of the Damned Hydra

It took a few minutes for Applejack and the pirates to calm Rarity down from her hysteria, and reassure her that they were in no danger. Within minutes, the ponies found themselves on board the rowboat as Nathan personally rowed them towards the galleon he’d referred to as the “Damned Hydra”. The deck of the great vessel bustled with activity as the crew-- humans, as they called themselves --made ready to greet their new guests. Doubtless they could see from aboard that their visitors weren't human, and that alone seemed to cause quite a stir indeed. Shouting and shuffling sounded from the ship, and Applejack could've sworn she heard a faint sound like metal stabbing into wood at a steady rhythm.

Once the rowboat slowed to drift just behind the massive ship, Nathan stood up and snatched the end of a rope that dangled down just within reach. He looped it around what could generously be called the rowboat's bowsprit, and gestured behind Applejack as he started tying the cord into knots. Applejack nodded wordlessly, and reached for the rope off the stern with her forehooves. They were just barely too high for her to reach, until a blue light gently encircled the frayed end of the line and pulled it down for her. Applejack turned, gave Rarity a grateful smile as the unicorn dimmed her magic, and set to work securing the lifeboat.

After a quick examination from Nathan to make sure Applejack's knots were secure, the boat was hoisted into the air. It was a brief, albeit unsteady lift that reminded Applejack of the times she'd ride on the hay bales while they were hoisted into her family's barn loft. She turned her head to check on Rarity, who barely looked nervous to the untrained eye, save for the shakiness in her hooves. Applejack knew better. There was a wet shine in her friend’s eyes, a glint that she’d seen so many times before whenever they were on adventures. It was the telltale sign of an uncomfortable, miserably unsettling fear. The primal anxiety of predators looming in the tall grass, or just under the surface of a peaceful river. As their rowboat latched into place, Applejack carefully stepped over and held Rarity in a reassuring embrace.

"We're gonna be fine, Rares." She said calmly, pulling back from the hug and giving her friend a meaningful look. "Ya trust that, right?"

"I can't say," Rarity tried to return the smile, but her words were hesitant as her eyes lingered on Nathan. Applejack followed her gaze, and realized the cause for caution. The pirate had stood to his full height, towering over them both by barely over double their height without even trying. With him standing so close, the difference in size was all too obvious. "But," Applejack's attention snapped back to Rarity, who was letting out a deep breath with her eyes closed. "I know that I trust you, and if you're willing to promise that, I'm willing to at least go along."

Nathan had been waiting patiently through their moment before he hurriedly ushered them around the walkway that stretched across the stern of the Damned Hydra. He led them through a small door on the port side, and into what could only be the Captain's cabin. It was lavishly decorated, with curtains hanging over a wide set of windows that looked out over the walkway they had used to board, a very obvious detail that Applejack was baffled that she hadn't noticed on the way in. There were shelves lined with various precious stones and other knick-knacks and trinkets, a few paintings scattered on the walls, a cupboard with glass windows that displayed a few fine dishes, and a few chests for personal storage. A white parrot crowed loudly from its cage near one of the desks, and in a forward corner rested a fine white bed. Perfectly centered in the ceiling was a dangling chandelier that looked like it was fashioned from a spare helm.

In the back of the room, a plain wooden table in front of the port windows. It wasn’t very lavishly carved, made more for practical use than anything. It was sparsely decorated with several scrolls stacked in separate piles, an open logbook, and an inkwell that played home to a proud green feather. If viewed from the front, it would have been flawlessly framed by the windows. Behind it sat a sturdy wooden chair, decently cushioned where it needed to be. And in that seat sat a tall, black-haired woman who slowly turned to look at them.

She was bulky in build. A healthy balance of natural fat and dense muscle gave her a powerful presence. Her neatly-combed hair ran down her shoulders to her chest, with several locks kept together by small silver bands. Her clothes were a fetching display of greens and dark grays with ruffles and frills enough to be fashionable without being overbearing or reducing practicality. The large, wide-brimmed brown hat on her head would have been the most immediately eye-catching details in her entire ensemble, with a massive golden feather sticking confidently out of the band. But one key feature distracted both ponies from her outfit.

A massive, jagged pink scar ran across the left side of her face from forehead to jaw, crossing over the blank white orb that was her right eye. While her left eye was thin and slanted, her right was left wide open as if the eyelids didn’t exist anymore. Rarity shrieked at the sight of the disfigurement, and almost stumbled back out the door. She likely would have backpedaled until she fell off the ship if it wasn't for Nathan blocking her escape. Her outburst earned her a stern smack on the back of her head from Applejack, which in turn thankfully revived some sense of manners to the overwhelmed mare. Much to Applejack's relief, the Captain-- for this woman was clearly the ship's captain if ever there was one --calmly bade them sit and make themselves comfortable with a gesture of her hand. She hadn't seemed to take any offense to Rarity's panic, instead only fixing both ponies with an even stare.

As the ponies slowly made their way to the opposite side of the Captain's desk, all four parties in the cabin shared a thoroughly uncomfortable silence. The woman regarded her guests carefully, as if considering her words with the utmost caution. Her good eye was fierce, and deep. Rarity thought it reminded her of the eyes of a calculating villain from one of her novels, or perhaps one of the love interests from her more obscure collection of literature, and felt very much like a rabbit in the sights of a dragon. There was no immediate danger, but a thorough aura of intimidation cast itself over her like a shadow.

Applejack saw something far different in that eye, however. Applejack saw experience, and no small amount of trepidation. This was a woman who was frightened deeply, but chose to face that dread in a battle of wills instead of fleeing from it. A woman who had fought fearsomely against things she couldn't dare imagine, and emerged victorious. Though the reason why she was so wary of creatures less than half her size, Applejack didn't dare guess. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Captain spoke.

"Forgive me for staring," her voice came out gruff, but paradoxically smooth. Her tone was courteous, but strict and dispassionate. Her accent reminded Rarity of nobility in Canterlot, though with far less artificial pompousness. "I didn't think we'd see more of your kind on these seas, let alone living in the caves of an isle like Shark Bait Cove. I'm Captain Silver-Eyed Sara, welcome aboard."

"It's a right pleasure to be aboard, Cap'n!" Applejack said enthusiastically, holding out her hoof for a shake. She wanted to put her best hoof forward, and prove she wasn't somepony to be scared of. "Ah'm Applejack, and this here's Rarity. Ya wouldn't believe how much of a relief it is seein' some honest folk after the welcome we got!"

Nathan stepped in from his place behind Rarity as his Captain shook the offered hoof, and he leaned down to place a fractured jawbone on the table. "We found this in the stream inside the cave, along with the remains of a skeleton." He gave Sara a meaningful look. "No signs of the rest of the skull, 'cept a couple fragments. Quite the nasty welcoming party for newcomers, I'd say. But they managed."

"So I see," Sara picked up the bone, eying it critically before snapping her eyes back to the ponies. "Your handiwork, I take it?"

"Didn't give us much of a choice, ma'am." Applejack kicked herself mentally. As true as that statement was, destroying the only other creature she'd seen probably didn't help her appear friendly. "Sorry if it was a friend o' yours."

The Captain scoffed, and tossed the bone shard into what looked like a rubbish barrel. "Wretched, mindless creatures born from dark magic. They're nobody's friend but their own. Even the ones that still have any sanity left will only try to kill you on sight for the crime of still having flesh. One less skeleton haunting the seas is a boon by any measure."

Both ponies visibly relaxed at that information, Rarity especially so. Nathan chuckled, but otherwise stayed silent as he stood back at his post. Sara switched her focus to Rarity, and briefly flicked her eyes towards the unicorn's horn. "Did you stab the bastard with that?"

"Certainly not!" Rarity's eyes went wide with horror, and she recoiled as if the very concept had tried to bite her. "I would never allow some decayed creature anywhere near me! Let alone close enough to touch my horn! I merely tripped him with it, and Applejack kicked him!"

Both of the pirates waited silently for a few moments. When it was clear that no more details were coming, Sara lazily rolled her hand on her wrist as a gesture to continue the story. Rarity blinked, and looked to her companion. "Well… that was it, really." Sara's brows rose with clear interest at that, and she rested her chin on curled fingers.

"So you're telling me you just kicked him," she laughed with a clear tone of disbelief. "His head is powder except for a few teeth and a piece of his jaw, after a kick?"

"Yeah," Applejack leaned back now, tilting her head curiously. "Is that strange? Now, normally Ah don't kick livin' things that hard, but that thing was all kinds o' not livin', and seemed like he wanted company in that department if ya catch me. So, Ah didn't hold the girls back! Ah figured y'all did the same, since y'said yourself less of 'em is better! Ain’t you able to do that?”

Whatever composure Nathan had maintained was broken immediately at the earth pony's words, and he bent down with a booming guffaw. The captain slowly closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. She stood up, slowly, and lifted her right leg onto the table. Both Rarity and Applejack winced at the sight. Below her knee, where there should have been a long leg that ended in a duck-like foot, there was instead a gilded spike of black iron and polished gold. Fancy as it was, the implications of a pegleg weren't lost on anypony, but the captain continued on.

"My kicking days are a little behind me, Applejack. And even when I still had both legs I couldn't kick hard enough to break through solid bone. Nobody on these waters can." Her tone shifted slightly, sounding more than a little indignant. "Worst we can do is kick the skull away like a football, and disorient the wretches. Or if we feel so inclined, we can stomp down from above; shatter their heads against stone." Her peg slid down from the table, and landed heavily on the floor. The image of a skeleton's head speared underneath it came easily. "But even then, they're in fragments, chips, more likely in chunks scattered here and there. Not. Reduced. To dust.

"If we want those kinds of results," Sara leaned over the table, resting a balled fist against it as she reached behind her back with the other hand. There was a metallic clicking noise, and she pulled it back out holding what looked like an iron trumped fastened to a block of wood. "We'd have to use one of these."

After a brief pause, Sara groaned and sat herself back onto the chair, carefully setting the odd instrument onto her table. “Bah, I’m getting distracted from why I allowed you aboard. I can offer you a deal, if you like.” Applejack squinted, and studied the woman closely.

“What sort of deal are we talkin’ ‘bout, here?”

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Rarity did her best to keep a wary eye on the pirates that scurried around the ship without seeming impolite as both she and Applejack were escorted below deck. Nathan confidently led them to a curtained-off section forward on the middle deck, and dramatically pulled the thick fabric aside. Inside the wide space was a set of chests and boxes sat in organized chaos, accompanied by a stuffed figure on a pole that Rarity immediately recognized as a simplistic dummy for clothing display. Nathan dug around in a few of the boxes, and readily gave her and Applejack each a spare set of tools. Pails, shovels, spyglasses, compasses, and a plethora of other pieces of equipment that quickly piled around them.

"And just what in the pickled pony feathers am I s'posed to do with all this?" Applejack wobbled on her hindlegs, struggling to hold everything that Nathan had handed her. The sight admittedly made Rarity giggle, which earned her an indignant glare from the farmer. Nathan, for his part, smacked himself on the head and motioned for Applejack to drop everything. An offer she didn’t hesitate to accept.

“Spend enough years on this sea, and ye forget what it be like to first sail here.” He laughed, standing himself up straight. “What ye need to do is take yer tools, and think like yer puttin’ ‘em in a pocket that ain’t rightly there. Watch!”

To the astonishment of both ponies, Nathan quickly pulled a large shovel out from his side as if he was taking the thing out of a saddlebag. The rounded, blue-stained blade seemed to grow out of this air when he reached back, and the wooden handle slid out of nothing. He showed it to them with a couple gestures, and then reached again as if he was just going to put it in his pocket. Sure enough, the process reversed, and the shovel shrank awkwardly until it vanished at his side. He gave them a wink, and gestured to their tools.

“... it’s an entire ocean of them.” Rarity muttered once her brain had unscrambled enough. She raised a hoof to massage her forehead, and cast a worried look at Applejack. “We’ve wrecked ourselves into an ocean of Pinkies.”

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“They hay is this?” Applejack grimaced as she held up a trumpet similar to the one the captain showed them in her cabin, but far more worn and stained. “Some kind o’ musical weapon? Y’ can hurt the skeleton folk with it, right?”

"That be a blunderbuss," Nathan said laughingly, "just a type o’ musket." When that explanation earned nothing but an owlish stare from the farmer, his smile dropped. He stared back for a moment before he shook his head, and scratched his mustache thoughtfully. "I guess they don't have them types where you’re from, but uhh… here, think of it like a small cannon. But instead o' ships and castles, ya use it on people. And that one? She be specifically made fer bein’ very, very effective face-to-face." He playfully tapped the barrel with his finger, and made an exploding motion with his hands. Applejack's pupils shrank as she conceptualized the powerful tool she held in her hooves, and she stared at it with a mixture of fear and awe.

"And yer jus'... givin’ it to me?" Her voice was openly hesitant and suspicious, though Nathan continued as if he didn't notice.

"Ye'll be able to afford a bette' one in time, don't worry." He shrugged, as if he misinterpreted her concern. "Yer going to need at least one of this sorts o' weapons if'n ya want to survive the Sea of Thieves, Applejack. A good portion of your enemies will be more'n willing to shoot first."

"And what about these?"

Both parties turned to see Rarity levitating a pair of muskets with much thinner barrels in front of her, taking care to keep both aimed away from anything living. One looked to be as long as her own body with a spyglass bolted on top, the other barely longer than her horn with a curved handle. Nathan's eyes seemed to light up at seeing them, and he crouched down to Rarity's eye level.

"Those're fer a more… refined approach t' dealin' with yer enemies." His tone was still jovial, but held an unmistakable air of reverence as he carefully caressed the longer gun. "The Eye of Reach is me personal favorite; an elegant weapon what can pop a skelly in a single shot, and with enough practice can hit reliably from ten hulls away! And this one," he switched his focus to the smaller gun, and lost most of the admiration in his voice. "This be a flintlock. Good for when yer foe ain't near enough fer yer cutlass, but ain't far enough fer the Eye."

"Mr. Nathan!" Before Rarity or Applejack could ask any more questions, the chunky dark pirate from before burst down through the stairway behind them, rounding the corner and stopping to catch his breath. The news came after a minute of slow, heavy wheezes. "The scouters done found where they think the loot’s at!"

Nathan clapped his hands together, and stood up straight. "Perfect! Little ponies, take heed! Yer about to get a feel for the life of a--"

"Wait, 'ow's she doin' tha'?!" The large crewmate interrupted, his hand lifted to point shakily at the weapons floating around Rarity. The unicorn glanced over her shoulder, then back to the pirate, and back again.

"Is... is this odd?" She asked gently, looking just as confused as the sailor.

Author's Note:

I should definitely clarify now for future reference: this story is not going to be 100% accurate to the deeper lore of Sea of Thieves. It's going to be a mix of my knowledge of the lore (which is not a lot, in spite of my love for it), a few of the game mechanics, and how I think this world would interact with ponies. This will become more apparant to those of you more familiar with the game's stories as time goes on.

I'm not saying that to deflect or discourage lore corrections, if there are any SoT lore guys/gals who are bugged by inaccuracies you are more than welcome to comment about it. Will it affect this story? Admittedly, maybe not. But will I find it interesting and helpful? Absolutely, I love that stuff.

As always, please leave any comments, criticisms, critiques and compliments down below. Any feedback from amusing observations to grammar corrections is greatly appreciated!

Until Next Time, God Bless You!
~Amethyst Dawn

Also, background of the new cover image was stolen borrowed from the book Sea of Thieves: Heart of Fire. I haven't read it yet but I've heard good things.

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