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Chapter 1: Run Through the Jungle1,064 words
Chapter 2: Unicorns Clad In Black1,666 words
Chapter 3: This is how many times, now?1,367 words
Chapter 4: Unwilling Archaeology1,361 words
Chapter 5: Sisterly Discussions1,114 words
Chapter 6: Northern Exposition1,558 words

Chapter 6: Northern Exposition

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Chapter 6
Written by spectacles_ak
Proofread by Dartrunner

“Daring, you kind of scared me there for a moment.” Ditzy said quietly.

The two pegasi sisters and the earth pony stallion had been handed off to a cluster of guards while Legerdemane and his personal guards examined the teleporter themselves.

“Sorry, Ditzy, but I don’t think you understand what this means to me. I just found out that I was right all along!”

“Maybe you should explain that, Daring. That whole ‘proving I’m not crazy’ came a bit out of left field there.”

Daring looked to her sister and her companion, both of whom looked back. Her sister’s expression was that of concern, but she was not sure. She still did not much like this ‘Doctor’ her sister was hanging around with. He seemed like a bit of a nutjob.

She sighed and placed a hoof against her face. How many had told her the same thing about herself in these past months.

“I suppose you do deserve some kind of an explanation. And from the looks of things, we have some time to kill while they decided their next move. So get comfortable, this is a bit of a tale.”

----

Several Months Earlier
HSMS Allegrezza, Equestrian Royal Navy
Location: Northern Frontier, The Griffon Kingdoms

It was a calm morning over the Northern Frontier of the Griffon Kingdoms, the sky was clear and bright, the early sun glinting off the seemingly endless fields of snow and evergreen trees, stretching from the great mountains near the top of the world to the fortress cities in the more temperate south to the western border where the jewel of the world, Equestria lay.

The Northern Frontier officially belonged to no pony. The civil strife in this reign, that tore apart the various clans of the Griffons, meant that there was no unified military presence to protect the various trade convoys that made use of the frontier’s flat landscape, swift rivers, and normally calm skies. Not only to transport goods by land, but by water and in the great airships as well.

I was aboard Her Solar Majesty’s Ship Allegrezza, The Equestrian Royal Navy’s sole token military presence in the area. The airship was ostensibly there to protect Equestrian merchants in the lawless frontier, ferrying them and their goods to safer harbors on the other sides of the frontier. Heavily armed and armored, with a full flight of Pegasus Guards, as well as a few Unicorn Guards to give them any magical backup that might be necessary. It was a fairly large airship, compared to the civilian types that I had seen near Canterlot. This was meant to double as a warship and transport.

I had been sent to this area during the coldest time of year by the university in order to check on rumors of some interesting ruins that a caravan had spotted during their travels, bringing some artifacts they had found nearby I didn’t think much of them myself, at the time, but apparently they had interested someone important, so they decided to send me. As one of the the younger professors in the faculty. I had no grounds on which to refuse, so I was sent to take a poke around and see what I could see.

However, given the fact that I had been shipped off to the freezing cold with a bunch of wet behind the ears grad students, with very little to go on but vague directions and a mouth-drawn map, and the fact that the Equestrian Military’s idea of food was field rations and no liquor, I had begun to think that my fellow academics were out to get me. Trust a group of doddering old professors to try to kill me with boredom. I missed the days when people at least tried to poison you to get ahead.

I had just finished reviewing what little information we had to go on for the umpteenth time, hoping that there might have been something that I had overlooked. But after reading the descriptions enough times that the words had begun running together, I decided to get some air.

After exiting the cabin that the students and I had been bunking in, I took a deep breath of the cool winter air. Unfortunately I had to share the cabin, given that this was a military airship and thus space was at a premium.

The first thing I noticed just then was the fact that there was an awful lot of movement towards bow of the airship. Curious I made my way up to see what was going on. The deck of the Allegrezza was rather large, mostly because the pegasi used it as a take off platform. It also serves as a good place to stretch one’s legs, but this time it was full of the familiar armored forms of Her Solar Highness’ guard.

This was were most of the ship's crew had gathered. They were looking ahead of the ship and talking amongst themselves.. There was nothing I could see amiss, the sky was clear except for a few darkish clouds nearby to the front.

Walking up to one of them, I nudged their side to get the guard’s attention.

“So what’s with all the commotion? There a party and no pony told me?” I flashed a smile at him. It was always good to try to stay on the crew’s good side. Generally speaking, it's good to stay on any pony’s good side. You never know when it will come in handy.

The guard didn’t get a chance to answer as a very commanding voice cut through the crowd, and made its way in my direction.

“Miss, you need to return to your cabin. Immediately.” It said as the body the voice was attached to, materialized before me. Judging by the fancier armor I assumed it was the captain.

“What’s the matter, captain?” I asked trying to keep polite. I hate it when people order me around. It always grated on me, and my first reaction was to tell them to go to Tambleon. But this was my first big job for the University, and I was determined to prove to them that I was actually a bit more responsible than my own reputation gave me credit for.

“Please, Miss Do, I need you to return to your cabin and tell your charges to do likewise. Once we have ascertained what is going on, we’ll inform you.”

“I still don’t see what the problem is. Any problems on the ground can’t get us all the way up here and there’s nothing I can tell wrong with the airship. And I’ve been a few airships in my day so I’d like to think I could tell if something was wrong. The only thing I see are those clouds up ahead. What? Are you and your soldiers scared a few clouds?” My bravado had finally surfaced. Part of my brain was mentally facehoofing as hard as it could, while my mouth just kept going.

“When those same clouds were not there five minutes ago? Dark clouds appearing out of clear winter skies? Return to your cabin. Now.” He pointed in the direction I was to go with a foreleg.

Any counter to what I was going to say was cut off but a loud bang followed up by an equally loud thunk as something sank into the deck. It appear to be a large spear but with claws biting into the wood, connecting to it was a metal cable that seemed to run directly into the cloud.

A cloud which was quickly breaking up, revealing another airship, smaller than ours, but armored, painted grey, with a red wing emblem on the side. The other clouds similar began breaking up, revealing two more ships and groupings of what looked to be both pegasi and griffons flying around them.

“What in the..” Was all that escaped my lips.

“Horse feathers. ALL CREW TO BATTLE STATIONS!” The captain cried out and hurried away, pushing me in the direction of the cabins.

For a few moments in was chaos as I tried to parse what was going on. Suddenly my brain kicked in.

“Oh no. Pirates!”

---

“Pirates? Really, Daring?” Ditzy narrowed her eyes at her sister.

“I’m serious! Pirates attacked the airship we were on. It was totally crazy! Here we were, midwinter in probably one of the coldest places in the world getting attacked by Pegasi and Griffons.” Daring said excitedly.

“As much as I love stories about pirates and adventure and everything, I’m assuming your travelogue story has a point to it, yes?” The Doctor interjected, keeping his eyes on what Legerdemane and his unicorns were doing.

“It all has a point. I’m getting to it. You people have no sense of drama, do you?”

“I know a dressmaker. I know all about drama.” Rolling her eyes, which for her did not give quite the effect she was hoping for, Ditzy tried to get herself more comfortable. “If you’re so heart set on telling this story, get on with it.”

“Thank you. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Pirates!”

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