Coves of Courage

by Amethyst_Dawn

3. Blood in the Sand

“Another one,” Applejack mused as a small golden-brown pig raced out of the foliage to the company’s right. The animal ran in a panic in random directions at the sight of them, trying desperately to avoid the party of two ponies and three humans. Nathan calmly raised his flintlock and fired once, and the pig stumbled and fell still with a heartbreaking squeal.

The large dark-skinned sailor ran up to the lifeless corpse of the swine and hoisted it up under his left arm, leaving him holding two hogs on either side. He grinned excitedly with uneven teeth, and held his prizes tightly against his sides.

"I'll head these piggies back to the boat," he beamed, waddling back towards the triple masts towering over the palm trees. "If the captain allows it, ol’ Clarence got a mind to make a roast!"

Nathan only responded with a nod, sending Clarence jogging with a spring in his step. Rarity watched the entire exchange with an uncomfortable grimace, only speaking when she was sure Clarence was out of earshot.

"I cannot fathom how a creature can be so enthusiastic about eating other mammals," she muttered, shuddering.

"Way Ah hear it, animals in this world ain't what they are back home." Applejack shrugged, her expression even and indifferent. "Can't say Ah'm particularly comfortable 'bout it either, but this ain't our world. Ah just try to imagine every animal is a fish."

Rarity opened her mouth as if to rebuke the idea, but paused. She closed her lips, considered Applejack's words carefully with a tilt of her head, and nodded reluctantly. As discomforting as the concept of pig meat was for her, Applejack's reasoning was solid. Once again, the farm pony was more prepared for their predicament than Rarity could ever hope to be, and that fact weighed on her mind. Just how much would she be coming to rely on Applejack for guidance?

A foreign emotion swelled up like a dull ache in Rarity's gut. It wasn't resentment or envy, but at the same time it was. She felt motivated and downtrodden in the same moment as her eyes wandered around the group, seeing how well Applejack was adjusting. Applejack walked with a confident gait, each step was firm and careful. It was the same sort of walk Princess Twilight would do whenever she figured out how to defeat a villain, or that Pinkie Pie would do when she had finally figured out what would make some stubborn pony happy. Applejack was completely in her element in this strange world.

So why wasn't Rarity?

Nathan and the third human of the troop walked at a calm pace in front, muttering over a tattered parchment in a calm debate. Their words weren’t always clear, but Rarity could tell that they were trying to figure out what landmarks were where. Nathan pulled out his compass, turned to his right, and nodded towards the inner rings of the strange island.

“It be buried up north, by the whales. We be on the wrong beach!”

“And who’s fault is that?” The crewmate slapped his leg with a hoot, clapping his other hand on Nathan’s back. “I told ye that five minutes ago!”

“You did,” Nathan rolled his eyes, “after spinnin’ a tale ‘bout how we could use the ship’s lanterns to figure its location without leaving the deck!”

As the pair continued to banter, Rarity slowly blocked them out again. A rustle in the bushes as they changed their course caught her attention, and she glanced over to catch sight of a brown hide ducking out of view at the last second. Even if they weren’t intelligent, she didn’t feel like outing the poor animal to these carnivores. When she returned her attention ahead of her, Rarity was startled by her entire field of vision being taken up by a scrutinizing pair of green irises.

Applejack had noticed Rarity’s preoccupied mind, and stepped in front of her friend swiftly. Concern tugged at her chest as the normally vocal unicorn was shuffling dejectedly behind the group, and her gut told her that now was a calm enough moment to address the situation. Rarity had turned back and frozen in her tracks with a yelp just an inch away from bumping head first into Applejack, earning a small smile from the mare.

“What’s on yer mind?” Applejack’s voice was soft, but firm. The look she was giving Rarity reminded the unicorn of the same concerned stares her own sister would give when she had stayed up all night working to catch a deadline. Applejack noticed a reluctance in Rarity to meet her eyes, and shouted over her shoulder.

“Nathan! Ah need to talk with Rares for a moment, is that alright?” The pirates turned back to look at the ponies, and the first mate gave them a dismissive wave. Applejack smiled, and turned her attention back to Rarity. “Sit with me?”

Rarity slowly acquiesced as Applejack quietly led her towards the shade of a small palm tree that jutted out from the rest of the shrubbery. They sat under the thick leaves, and took a moment to silently breathe. The ocean wind blew the scent of salt, flowers and fish across their faces. The noonday sun was mercifully warm, and their small patch of shade was just cool enough to be calming. After a little under a minute of just tranquility, Applejack broke the ice.

“You’ve been awful quiet since we got aboard the Hydra, Rares.” She started, staring off to the horizon. “Deal be darned, Ah’m not gonna ignore that yer havin’ a rough day.”

Rarity smiled softly, her chest heavy with conflicting feelings of thankfulness and exhaustion towards Applejack’s perceptiveness. She stared with Applejack into the distance, turning her head so the farmer was just out of sight. The bushes rustled again, another panicked pink pig racing onto the swirling beaches from behind them. Rarity watched the cute little creature run around, the encompassing silence mixing with the sight of the animal and reminding her of tea parties with Fluttershy back home in Equestria. She took in a deep sigh, and closed her eyes.

“I just… I miss home,” she admitted, “quite desperately. I’m more than a little afraid that I won’t make it back, that I’ll never see our friends or my family again, that we’re marooned in these hostile seas. And though I’m ashamed to admit it, I’m more than a little envious of how well you’ve taken to this.”

Applejack made a coughing sound, and something warm and sticky hit Rarity’s cheek from behind. Rarity shuddered with a wince, and wiped at the substance with a hoof. “Oh, honestly, Applejack! Chuckling at this time is bad enough,” she turned to level an irate look at Applejack, “but can you at least aim your phlegm else… where…”

The sight that greeted Rarity left her blood running cold. Applejack was staring with wide, panicked eyes that flicked this way and that. The rest of her body was immobile, steadily going limp with each passing second. Her mouth hung open, a steady trickle of blood flowing from the corner of her lips. Out of the front of her throat stuck the rusted tip of an aged cutlass, stained red with a mix of rust and the earth pony’s blood. The bleached-white bones of a skeletal hand bolted out of the bushes, and savagely gripped Applejacks head. The rest of the undead menace slowly rose after, and yanked the blade carelessly out of her neck. It let out a hoarse hiss of a cackle, and walked towards Rarity.

Rarity couldn’t think. She couldn’t move. She didn’t dare to even blink. All she could do was watch as her best friend’s body fell to one side. What must have taken under a second dragged on for hours, and Rarity watched every second pass through Applejack’s eyes. At first there was confusion, then a steadily growing pain, grim realization and panic, until finally there was nothing. By the time her head hit the sand, Applejack’s eyes were staring ahead blankly; and the last traces of life had left them entirely.

Rarity Screamed.

0=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=0

Next thing Rarity knew, she was sitting in the hold of the Damned Hydra. A blanket was wrapped over her shoulders, and vague, blurry shapes were pacing to and fro around her. Some shapes paused to mutter words that sounded hollow and distant, others flittered past. Rarity didn’t notice any of them, the events that took place on the beach playing over and over in her mind’s eye. Blood, bones, a gargling hiss, the flash of a stained blade and a flash of green fire.

Gone. One moment of cruelty, and Applejack was gone. Rarity didn’t feel fear anymore. She didn’t feel anything at all anymore. All she could manage to do was stare into the foggy mass of colors and formless shapes that was in front of her. She felt emptier than she ever had before. There was no wailing, no bemoaning of the worst things to happen. The only sound she made was the still, consistent hiss of emotionless breaths. She wasn’t even sure how she got back aboard the ship. Was she carried here, or did she run like a coward? She’d never known herself to run when her friends were under any genuine threat. But then again, she’d never seen her friends bleed.

She’d never seen her friends die.

In the back of her mind, she resolved to assume that she ran. That she abandoned her most reliable friend. She couldn’t do anything anyways, could she? Two feet away, and she couldn’t even realize there was any danger before it was too late.

She didn’t feel nothing. No, she felt one thing.

Useless.

0=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=0

“So, another one o’ your kind has found your way into the Sea of Thieves?”

Applejack felt strange. As if she wasn’t complete, or some piece of her was missing. The sand was cold beneath her body, and a chill breeze brought the scent of dead fish and old wood across her nostrils. Had she fallen asleep? The last she remembered was talking to Rarity, and then pain. Everything after that was… fuzzy. Distant. She groaned as her aching head thundered, and rose to her hooves. She opened her eyes, and immediately felt more lost than she ever had before.

She wasn’t on Shark Bait Cove anymore, that was for sure. The island she found herself on was much larger, and looked sickly. The rocks were dark and jagged, the plants either dead or dying, and save for a few green torches scattered around, the only light came from what looked to be a perpetual eclipse. Everything from the clouds to the vast expanse of waves glowed with several shades of a sickly green.

“Where am I?” She asked idly, starting to remember the voice that had disturbed her rest. A ghostly figure emerged to her right, and knelt down beside her. She took note of the man’s features quickly. His black hair encircled his apelike face as if it were the mane of a lion or a baboon, his features were gaunt and slender, his skin was a deep green, and one of his eyes was covered by a worn and decayed patch. His clothes were thick and warm, and a longcoat hung loosely around his body. His left hand was replaced with a hook of jagged metal, and his right foot with a prosthetic crudely carved from wood. His face was stern as he regarded her, and waved his hand out to a small scrap-built dock that jutted out from the beach.

“Somewhere you’re not meant to be, little one.” His voice was tired and ageless, bearing the weight of a thousand years with grim determination. “Board my ferry, and I’ll escort you back to the living world.”

Those words shook Applejack to her core, and the full reality started to dawn on her when she saw the ghoulish vessel anchored by the rickety dock. Every inch of the boat was ragged and torn, entire chunks missing in several places. Where there wasn’t wood, there was an ethereal glow that was almost more white than it was green. Several more ghostly figures stood idly on the deck, chaperoned by phantoms clad in dark cloaks.

“The livin’ world?” Applejack muttered, turning back to the man beside her. “Y’mean Ah kicked the bucket?”

The man nodded silently.

“An’ you can just… take me back?”

He nodded again. Applejack bit her lip, and glanced over her shoulder. Something about this didn’t sit right with her, but that part of her was beaten down by a steadily growing hopefulness. She forced herself to turn back to the figure, and opened her mouth to ask a pressing question. Before even the first syllable could escape her lips, the phantom held up his good hand to silence her.

“These waters are a part of the Sea of Thieves, little pony.” He stated firmly, giving her a firm look that was not yet absent of empathy. “I cannot retrieve souls that passed on beyond the Shroud. I am sorry.”

Applejack lowered her head, and kicked the sand with a huff. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy to see them again. She had half a mind to pester the man about it, but she could tell there was no lie in his voice. In a flash, her foolish selfishness caught up to her, and the realization of her hazy memories stirred her to start looking around frantically.

“Oh no, if Ah’m dead… where’s Rarity?!”

“Another of your kind, I take it? No more souls like yours have passed into the Sea of the Damned, little one. I can only assume she is alive and well.” The gaunt man rose back to his full height, and motioned for her to follow him.

Applejack obeyed, albeit hesitantly. She kept pace a healthy distance behind the apparition as he led her to his ferry. The closer she got to the ship, the less uneasy she felt. That way was the path back to the living world, back to her friend. Back to that scared Unicorn she needed to protect at all costs.

She would not waste this second chance.

Author's Note:

Eesh, took me ages to actually have the motivation to finish this update. Finding motivation to do much of anything has been rough, especially with writing. But I promised I'd be back to writing on here, and- even if it takes me forever to update -I intend to keep that promise. Even if only to myself.

Going dark fast with this story, but that's Sea of Thieves for you. I'm hoping this chapter did well in setting up a few plans I have for the future of the story, the arcs that Rarity and Applejack respectively are going to be on.

I've noticed that the stories I put the most thought into tend to either feature Rarity, Applejack, or both. I don't even know if I'd consider them my favorite characters, I guess they're just the easiest for me to write for.

You know what to do. Any comments, critiques, criticisms and whatever are more than welcome. Feedback helps.