Ship-Shape
The next morning, Big Mac awoke, with his cheeks burning. It was the first time his nocturnal saga had directly referenced his secret crush, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
As he was writing down the newest chapter, he was debating what he should do to keep anypony from figuring it out. He wasn’t planning on showing anypony the story anytime soon, but maybe when he finished it he could have somepony help him edit. Before he did that, however, he needed to edit the name and description of this crush, before anypony else saw this.
He began to walk out of the hotel room, when Braeburn’s nighttime mutterings reminded Mac of his cousin’s presence.
“Mmmm... Yes, I do like bananas...” The plains pony mumbled into the hotel’s courtesy pillow.
“Braeburn.”
“No, not that many... I can’t handle that much potassium.”
“Braeburn!”
“Augh!” he said as he jolted upright, looking at Big Mac with a sheepish look.
“Ah’m gettin’ tired of wakin’ ya up.” Mac said, “How do ya git up back in Dodge?”
Braeburn blushed as he put on his vest and hat.
Rainbow Dash came home after an exhausting day of work and pranking with Pinkie. She decided to get back into the story of Captain Macintosh; her memories of her own pirate dreams fading more and more as the day progressed.
She found a nice, warm spot in the sun and began to read.
Most of my crew had gathered at the tavern, like I had asked them to, but two were missing. One was Smoky Mirror, and I knew where she was: but the other was Grog, and I had no idea where he was.
I interviewed my crew and learned their strengths, assigning each one to a job making use of Sea Dog’s expertise in the workings of a ship. I had around 20 ponies and 10 diamond dogs. The ponies were evenly spread between earth ponies and unicorns, strangely I hadn’t even seen any pegasi in town over the last two days.
“Wait, is he racist? Or is it the town that’s racist?” Rainbow could feel her cheeks heating up, becoming slightly uncomfortable with the story. She glanced back at her wings, her pride and joy, before she continued with the story.
Some of the more important roles had been filled.
There was a white and black dog named Pointer, who would be watching from the crow’s nest as hewas agile and had very keen eyesight. He had a laid-back attitude and seemed like a nice enough guy.
There was a lazy, distant, grey unicorn with a cutie mark of constellations who often found himself staring into the distance. His name was Astro and he would be the ships navigation expert. He even thought to bring his own map, sextant, and compass for navigation.
An tan earth pony named Lumber Mill was assigned to be the ship’s carpenter. Lumber had apprenticed one of Canterlot’s greatest carpenters, Sandy Stains. The shop had burnt down under his watch, and as such he lost any opportunity of ever getting a real job.
A pale blue unicorn mare nicknamed ‘Stitch’ was titled the ship’s doctor. She didn’t go into detail on her past medical experience, but she claimed to have been a nurse at Phillydelphia hospital and was fired under some, ‘unfavorable circumstances.’
Rainbow reared up a little in surprise. “Wow... He hired a quack to be his ship’s doctor? Brave... Stupid, but brave.”
Cookie, a fat, brown, earth pony stallion was deemed the chef. He had cooked on the palace kitchen staff, the galley for navy ships, and in the kitchen of the tavern where they met. Each of those places he was kicked out of for eating the food.
A German Shepherd girl, named Schatzi, who was apparently a very good friend of Sea Dog, would be our pilot. She seemed very friendly, and by Sea Dog’s testimony, was a very good listener
The rest of the crew had been assigned to their respective tasks, supplying horsepower to where it was needed.
We proceeded to gather the supplies that I had ordered earlier, loading them on carts, carrying them on our backs, and doing whatever we could to get them back to the ship.
I was leading the way to the ship as we walked along the docks towards the ship. As we approached the vessel, I heard something coming from onboard. There was the sound of fighting, and plenty of shouting.
As I came up the gangplank and on deck, I saw the door to the crew’s quarters open up, and Grog come stumbling out.
His eye had been blackened, his mane was singed, and he was covered in scratches. He staggered over to me, drunkenly, and grabbed my collar to pull himself up to eye-level with me.
“Cap’n!” He shouted with a deranged look in his uncovered eye. “There be a nag on board!”
“Pardon?” I asked, not understanding what he was talking about.
At that moment, Smoky Mirror stormed out of the crew’s quarters, her horn smoking, and a furious look in her eyes. “Get back here, and face The Gr-” she then saw me and changed her course of action. “Captain! Thank goodness you’re here! This crazy, drunk, pervert attacked me in my sleep!”
“Wait, what was she going to say?” Rainbow pondered, She reread the last few lines a few times, hoping that the context might give her a hint, but alas, she had no such luck.
“Cap’n, ye surely know that it be bad luck to have a mare on board the ship.” He said desperately.
“Ah don’t care.” I told him, never really believing in superstitions. “And ya can jus’ git over that, ‘cause she ain’t tha only mare on board.” I said, referencing the crew behind me. All of the mares and female dogs showed their distaste of the salty stallion: I even saw Stitch look over him with a deranged look in her eye, like she would get some sort of sick enjoyment out of tormenting him.
“Haha!” Rainbow cheered at the mare domination. “Way to go Mac, don’t let any stupid superstitions get in the way. Girls Rule!”
Grog looked around in horror at the mares on board the ship, and then quickly galloped drunkenly below decks.
I sighed at my first crew member, and continued to get everyone to put the equipment and supplies in their respective areas. I began commanding my crew by assigning them to clean up and maintenance duty.
Some ponies were swabbing the decks, while Pointer and two other dogs were following behind reapplying pitch to the decks. As soon as the pitching was done, I saw Pointer, climbing the ropes up to the crow’s nest, apparently to examine his post, before duty began.
An assortment of my crew was in a small dinghy that had been on the ship, doing checks and maintenance on the hull, keel, and rudder. Lumber Mill had located, and begun to fix a few holes in the hull, none of which were too bad, but they could easily have worsened.
Still a few more were tightening down the ropes, masts, and sails. Stitch had applied her sewing knowledge to the mending of the sails, patching up the weathered canvas and fixing rips.
Once again, Grog was nowhere to be found. I was beginning to sense a pattern in this pony’s behavior. I realized that somepony would need to be watching him at all times, just to be sure that he did what he was told.
After a few hours of hard work, everything on board was ship-shape.
The horrible pun made Rainbow Dash groan.
While everyone else was doing the jobs they had been assigned to, Cookie had located the ship’s galley and began cooking. He made a delicious stew, with plenty for everyone. As the crew was eating, Sea Dog, Astro, and myself met up in my quarters.
We spread out the map that Astro had brought with him, and set to work. “Astro, how good are ya at findin’ a point off a’ coordinates?”
He simply stared out of the windows at the back of my cabin.
“Astro?” I waited a few more moments. “Astro!”
“Hmmm?” He turned to face us. “What was that?”
I could tell that this might be difficult. “We need ta get a headin’,” I pulled out the treasure map and opened it so that he could see the coordinates written on it. “So do ya think ya kin’ get it?”
He looked at the map, then the coordinates, then the stars outside... Then I could tell that we had lost him.
“Astro!”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I got it.” Then he used his magic to pick up a quill and mark the map at the location of the uncharted island.
Sea Dog decided to chime in at this time, “Are ye sure the island be there?”
Astro had seemed to finally start taking his assignment seriously as he had taken his sextant out and was eyeing the stars. “Well, unless the coordinates were wrong, the island should be within 100 feet of that point.”
Sea Dog looked at me with an impressed demeanor. “Wow.” I said, “That’s good, sure hope the coordinates are right.” Then I realized something. “And, it might be a good idea to keep our goals on the down-low.”
“Why would he want to hide his plans from his crew?” Rainbow wondered aloud.
“Why is that Cap’n?” Sea Dog asked.
Apparently Rainbow wasn’t the only one wondering.
“If any of y’all git captured, or if they jump ship, Ah don’t want tha treasure or the location of The Flyin’ Crab gettin’ around.” I explained.
The other two seemed to be understanding, and with that we agreed to set sail in the morning.
They went into the ship and joined in on a game of poker that some of the crew had started, and Smoky Mirror seemed to be dominating.
I watched over my crew for a few more hours, learning how they interacted and watching what they do. I learned to lock up the rum, else Grog would get into it. I learned that Smoky Mirror cheated really bad in poker. I learned how to watch for sneaky, under-the-table activities by watching Smoky Mirror cheat at poker.
I learned who dealt well with each other, and I learned who didn’t. Grog, for instance, didn’t really get along with anyone, but it was entertaining to watch him stumble around drunk, and try to sing. Eventually the crew began to hit the hay, each one finding a bunk or hammock to call their own.
When the entire crew had settled in, I finally decided to lay down in my own hammock as well. I looked out of my window and could see the open ocean. It finally hit me that I would be seeing a lot of it in the future, and with that thought fresh in my mind, I climbed into my hammock and drifted off to sleep.
Rainbow Dash put the book down, and got up to go and get some dinner. She had developed quite the appetite while reading, and when the chapter had ended, she realized that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
After a simple daisy sandwich, and an apple, she sat back down on her bed, and began to debate with herself, whether or not she should read more tonight.
Eventually, she decided to read one more chapter, then go to sleep.
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I know the feeling that is if there was MOAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you for the story
Such a good story.
Can't wai to see what happens.
love this story
Sorry to anyone who just received a notification about this updating, I realized that i forgot to give the German Shepherd girl a name, and for those of you who do not want to reread this chapter just for the name, it is Schatzi. German for sweetheart, or something.
i dont cheat
!
this is looking every interesting and i seem to want to write a prequel about the flying crab
i ve always liked naval discipline and warfare must come from being british haha
1668057
)
sweetheart huh!
wish you had named her snitchel or hagel (grapeshot in dutch
1677036 well, I cheat on occasion. Coming up with that name, for instance was a cheat. I just googled, 'German shepherd female names' and that was the first one to come up.
I would love to see what you come up with.
But all of the other names were from my own imagination or memories.
Heck if you want to do a prequel, be my guest.
1677242
huzzar indeed haha
sweet im going master and commander style!
big mac best watch the sea for the Royal Equian Flotilla ! masters of the waves that show no remorse to piracy
“Haha!” Rainbow cheered at the conquering of the mares. “Way to go Mac, don’t let any stupid superstitions get in the way. Girls Rule!” - Perhaps replace 'mares' with 'stallions'.
Word missing in this sentence (would, or a similar synonym) - 'I learnt to lock up the rum, else Grog [would] get into it.'
Also, Grog getting at the rum...
I literally can't give your story enough love!
Oh, and is Smoky Mirrors secretly Trixie...?
2266405 Thank you for your input.
Shhh....
Also, about the Smoky Mirror/Trixie thing...
This will teach me to trust my instinct.... It's really Trixie, isn't it?
~Skeeter The Lurker
2751194 ur picture goes with the comment perfectly
I'd have preferred Rio. ;)
fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2009/351/4/9/Rio_Davis_by_XxArcticLycanxX.jpg
Great and powerful Trixie?