I smiled at the beauty of a ship up the dock, far past all the schooners and modest fishing boats. It was a caravel, crafted with the wood from a grove of strong, black lotus trees, trimmed with the finest of cedar, and from what I had gathered from the jolly sailors at the port’s local tavern, lined on the inside with just a bit of poplar.
I’d heard telltale rumors that the previous captain of the ship was an ex-royal naval who was found missing the morning after the supposed, “greatest ship heist of all time,” had taken place. The new captain had traveled to many different shipwrights to disguise the original frame of what had once been a royal vessel. Haybinger Port was just one of the many places that the ship could be seen docked at.
Being the oblivious pony I was, I had gobbled up the rumors with unending glee upon reaching the town. After a couple of months of living in the town, I had run off to the docks to see about speaking to the legendary captain, only to find I was blocked by members of Princess Celestia’s Royal Navy.
Royal Officers?
My surprise brought chuckles out of the two unicorns standing by the dockside end of the ship’s boarding plank. I had slid to a stop and begun to ponder a couple of questions I could ask. My mind wanted to know what they were doing there, I wanted to know if the rumors had been true, I wanted answers. Before I could pursue any line of questioning, they shooed me away like a foal.
“Sorry, colt. We’re on official business. Shorty over here,” he gestured to his glaring partner, who was indeed quite shorter than me and the guard that was speaking, “Will be making an announcement for your little port here.”
I simply grunted as a physical reply and made my way past the various ponies that stood behind me, just as curious as I had been. As I left the area, I heard an unfamiliar voice behind me. I tensed up, but let out a brief sigh of relief when I realized that it was just the Royal Canterlot Voice being used.
“Citizens of Haybinger Port! Under Admiral Hawse’s supervision, the Official Royal Vessel, known as the RES Blue Veil, has been commandeered once more by the Equestria Royal Navy. Please make way for its new crew.”
I stared at the ponies who walked towards me, and then past me, all dressed in sailors’ garments. They were all the same ponies who had been sailing around in the ships around the port, and some of the sailors were even ones I had to talked to at the tavern.
Why did they hire ponies from the local area to crew a Royal vessel? I thought to myself. And where did the captain and his crew go? I paused and looked back at the caravel, already flooding with new ponies, a million different thoughts flashing through my mind. I shuddered as another possibility came to mind.
What if those sailors were all working for the Royal Navy?
My breath was swept away as the realization sank in. What if they weren’t the only ones working for the navy in Haybinger Port? What if they ratted me out to the higher ups?
What if they already knew? My head throbbed as panic strode to take me. I shook my head hard. There was no need to panic, but one thing was for certain.
I had to get out of Haybinger.
As calm and collected as one could, I walked away from the docks.
I had told myself that this was silly and that there was nothing to worry about. However, I didn’t want to take the risk, because if any government official that worked directly for the crown found out that the last remaining suspect from the 'Griffonian Smuggling Case' was sitting right there in one of the crown’s own ports, they’d be on me in a flash. I couldn’t hide in plain sight as well as the legendary captain.
And I certainly wasn’t experienced as the captain. I had only been in three smuggling operations before.
I was twelve-years-old at the time when my brother had dragged me into our secondary schooner beside our main caravel with some of my crewmates. We had to abandon the caravel as we were chased by a fleet of some fast-moving Royal Navy ships. We’d brought the Griffonian moonshine to land, and delivered it safely to the speakeasy. We were a little beaten up, but proud of our coast-to-coast delivery. Everypony had been paid well, so we figured, “what better way to celebrate than get drunk at the local bar?” I’d been hoofed a hard bourbon by my brother, the first and last alcoholic beverage I’d ever had, and the rest of the night faded into disarray in my mind, the late evening air full of cheer and excessive drinking.
All I could remember was waking up in a ditch, with voices nearby. They shouted some words that I understood as “that’s them” before I had run away from the scene.
A twinge of guilt shot through me as I recalled the memory; I had distinctly remembered hearing my brother shouting in surprise as I ran. The days afterward were filled with guilt and regret. Could I have reached for the scabbard by my side, and brought my sword down upon a fellow pony, a guardsman, no less, to save my brother?
No. I wasn’t that kind of pony. I wouldn’t be a bloodthirsty murderer like the friends my brother had hung out with. He was a bad influence on me. He was gone now. Everything was fine.
… But he was still my brother, and it was stupid to believe that he’d been at fault for all of this. He was doing what he thought best for me, wasn’t he?
I shook, I trembled, and I let out a shaky breath. The intense mental stress of recalling my brother and fighting back the regret almost too much for me to handle this time.
I had to be strong.
I thought happy thoughts, a grin slowly working onto my face to replace the frown that had overridden my features.
My brother would’ve loved what I was about to do.
I stepped out of the alley and into the brisk breeze flowing through the port. The air was cool against my fur, and the stones were damp from the splashes of high tide earlier in the day. I took a glance down at the docks, scanning for anypony who was still out. All I could see in the distance were two Royal Guards, different from the ones earlier in the day.
I slipped out of the darkness and into the illumination of a streetlamp. The two stallions tensed up as I began walking towards them. I gave them an easy smile; they leaned forward and gripped their spears tighter in response.
So much for being inconspicuous.
“Evenin' gents,” I began with a horribly fake, cheery accent. “I have a question to ask you.”
The older looking stallion standing on the right snorted and leaned back a little bit. “Spit it out.”
Rude.
“Well sir, I’ve just now arrived in town, and I was wondering if there was anywhere I could stay for the night.”
This time, the left one responded. He rolled his eyes, “Should be pretty easy to spot, there’s one right over by the—”
Clunk.
The guard dropped to the ground unconscious, and almost immediately I had a spear trained right at my chest. The older stallion growled at me.
“I don’t know how under Celestia’s sun you did that, mudpony, but let me tell you—”
He slumped to the ground out cold. I dropped the hammer I had been levitating fell to the ground with a satisfying clink. I snorted and threw back the oversized hood on my thick cotton jacket, revealing my horn.
“Sorry friends,” I said sadly, stepping over their bodies. “But I’ve got a ride to catch.”
I left the two guards behind and galloped up the gangplank. I laughed to myself, imagining in my mind that this was a more modern version of the ship’s previous heist.
Too bad it wasn’t that easy.
The quiet symphony of waves crashing against the ship’s hull was closely followed by the tap of my hard hooves against the cedar wood deck. I was giddy, and for good reason; I was taking this beauty of a ship out to sea.
By myself, I realized with a sudden growing sense of dread.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
I turned on the dial in fear to face the guard behind me, only to realize nopony was there. Where had the voice come from then?
“Up here, chick.”
I backed away from the main support beam near me and stared up into the darkness. “W-who’s there?” I gulped, deathly afraid that a pegasus from the Royal Navy might be flying around me, waiting to swoop down and arrest me.
Wait, did he call me chick? Isn’t that what gri—
“It’s the captain of this here ship.”
Thump.
I was speechless for a time. A long time. Finally, I gathered up enough courage to speak up.
“Why are you transparent?”
The griffon’s grin fell as he continued to stare at me. “Really now? Nothing? You ask that, instead of running about like a fool?”
I rolled my eyes at the ghostly figure and relaxed a little. “Do I look like an idiot to you?”
“Well, you’re stupid enough to try and take a caravel out to sea on your own.” He laughed a hard, dark chuckle. “And, and…” He continued, still laughing. “You just assaulted not one, but two naval officers.” He stopped for a moment, a look of thought crossing his face. “Now that I think about it, that is pretty stupid… I heard up north near Canterlot that they’ve come up with a new spell to scan faces from memories and track down the pony with that very face.”
I guess he must have seen my look of horror, because he was laughing again in seconds. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, chick. They won’t be implementing that anytime soon down here in the lower colonies. Plus, we’re going to be heading out to sea here in a moment.” He walked away from me, towards the cabin of the ship.
Heading out to sea? What the hay does he mean by that? “But aren’t you… You know, a ghost? And even then, there’s just you and me here,” I questioned, following the apparition into the Captain’s quarters. He snorted in response.
“I might be dead, but that doesn’t mean I can’t mess with the living. Like I’m doing right now!”
Wait, what? I looked around me in a panic. My head shot back to him in seconds as his stupid laughter started up again.
“You’re a paranoid one, aren’t ya? Don’t worry, I won’t be playing any ‘ghost tricks’ on you…” I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Not yet, at least.” He laughed.
Oh that laughter. It was just too easy for him to laugh. He must’ve expected me to tense up again, but now that I knew his game, I laughed along with him.
“Ah.” He smiled at me, opening the door to the Captain’s quarters and motioning for me to head inside. “Good to see that you’re already getting used to me. That means you’ll be even more prepared for this little interview here.”
Interview?
I stepped into the Captain’s quarters… Which was almost barren. He must have noticed my look of surprise as he settled into his wooden chair behind the desk in the middle of the room.
“Yeah, you might have heard some rumors about that ‘Captain’ who had supposedly taken this ship straight from the Royal Fleet right under their noses, and that he was still alive. Well, let me just tell you real quick.” He leaned in across the desk to me in my chair, his lips upturned into a smile.
“This whole ship’s just been sitting in port for months because some pony collector decided that since this actually was worth something of historical value, that he might add it to his collection.” The griffon leaned back in his chair, still smiling. “Of course, once the Royal Navy figured out that some pony had bought the ship out of an auction and was being heavily restored to its old military glory, they figured that such a vessel was better back in the hooves of Princess Celestia.”
Well, that was kind of… boring. I sighed, my previous hopes of meeting a legendary captain dashed.
“Hey chick, don’t look so dejected now. Because you’ve still got little old me!” He jabbed a talon at himself and smiled widely. “Your resident ghost captain!”
I blinked.
He rolled his eyes at me and lowered his talon. “Gee, tough crowd. Anyway, let’s get on with that interview.”
Oh here we go.
“My name is Heavy Keel, Captain of the RES Blue Veil. Let’s start off simple.” He folded his talons together neatly on the desk and leaned forward.
The griffon captain coughed and shuffled a couple of invisible papers.
I smiled at him. “What? Were you expecting a more interesting name?”
Keel let out a quiet chortle. “Considering the fact that your file here says that you've recently attempted to commandeer a royal caravel, yes. I was expecting a something with a little more oomph, than just Deep Blue.”
I snorted, unfazed by the sudden statement. “Sorry for not having the most creative parents.” He rolled his eyes at me.
“Eh, at least your name is related to the ocean. Must mean Harmony’s got something good planned for you. And me, of course.”
What the hay is this griffon going on about?
“Anyway Mister Blue, what would your previous occupation be?”
I ran a hoof through my mane awkwardly. “Uh, I used to be a papercolt?”
He laughed a good, long laugh at that. His look turned serious. “No really, what did you do before now?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “I smuggled moonshine…”
“Did I just hear ya’ right?” He stuck a claw in his ear and swirled it around a bit for emphasis.
“I smuggled moonshine.” I stated a bit more loudly.
He stared impassively, before his lips turned upwards. “Scandalous,” he whispered. “Ahem! Could be worse, could be worse.”
Weirdo.
“Now that it’s cleared up… How about you tell me if you think you have what it takes to run a ship with the greatest captain alive?”
I blinked.
The captain waved a claw dismissively. “Oh you know what I mean.”
“Honestly, I’d rather just go back into town, find a good crew of worthy sailors, and then leave the port, but it’s not worth the risk. As much as I hate to admit it…” I sighed in preparation for my announcement. “You’re my only hope of getting out of here without much risk.”
Keel raised a transparent brow at me, holding a poker face. He said nothing for a time as he leaned across the desk, but eventually he let down and sighed. His right claw raised up off the desk and made a shooing motion towards me.
“Alright, short little interview, I know, but I’m going to need some time to think. Just go hang out on deck for now.”
I shrugged and stood from the chair. As I made way to the door, I turned and looked at Heavy Keel with my mouth open to speak, hoping to gain some parting answers. Sadly, the captain had disappeared. I grumbled under my breath about the griffon and his disappearing act and stepped out into the cool coastal air once more.
I wandered over to the starboard side of the ship and glared over the edge through the darkness at the two guards. They were thankfully still unconscious. It was good to know my blunt skills were still up to par. I just hoped that the hammer wasn’t too hard against their skulls. I swear, that armor just bent in like a twig. The Royal Navy’s really let itself go.
I looked around for a way to raise the gangplank and was lucky to find a lever besides the small opening at the side of the ship. Pressing both my hooves up against the top of the switch, I brought it down with a heave. Clunking thumped from just below the deck as some gears inside began dragging the gangplank up and away from the dock. With that extra bit of security on my mind, I made my way up to the bow of the ship.
I stepped up onto the bow of the ship and took a deep breath of the salty sea air wafting out from the coast. The waves crashed gently against a distant sandbar, and all the seagulls lay quiet, for midnight had finally come. I threw my front hooves over the side and stared down into the water.
Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting from joining this captain. For one, he was… ahem, a ghost, for all intents and purposes, and even then, it would just be me and him. And since I could see the captain, did that mean other ghosts existed? I wisely chose not to follow that line of questioning, knowing that would only cause me more problems in the future. A groan escaped from me as one part of me put adventure and spiritual apparitions together. This trip was just beginning, and so wisely I chose to the idea out of my paranoia.
My thirst for adventure seemed to never leave me forever; it only took long vacations every now and then, just to come back and bite me. I suppose it was better than being paranoid all the time and staying inside, hidden from the world. I glanced over my shoulder, wondering if that griffon had just been an illusion, worrying thoughts kicking into mind. I looked back down into the water, for once thankful that I couldn’t see my own face. I probably looked like some scared little colt who missed his mother. I snorted loudly at that thought. I spit into the water, watching the saliva swirl around on the surface, before disappearing below.
Being bored is no fun.
It was about half an hour later when I was awoken from my nap by a tap on my shoulder. I scrambled upwards and turned around, one of my hooves already reaching for my scabbard. Heavy Keel stood before me, looking quite amused.
“Your snoring could probably wake up the entire port.” I glared daggers at Keel as he laughed. “Anyways, I think I’ve made up my mind; you’re going to be my passenger for now.”
What?
“What?” I vocalized.
Keel shrugged and turned to the two topsails in the middle of the caravel. “You’ve clearly had no experience besides commanding a schooner, and that’s just not going to work very well here. I assume you’ve already seen how large the Blue Veil can be. If not, let me just tell you plain and simple: it’s a lot more bigger than any kind of ship you’ve actually done mooring for.”
“Right, I hadn’t noticed,” my tone laced with sarcasm.
“I don’t like that tone of yours, chick,” he joked. “I might just send you back over to my fellow crewmen. Albeit, ones who still believe that they’re in college.” We laughed together at that, albeit I laughed a little more nervously than wholeheartedly. Keel had actually been a part of the Royal Navy at one point, and I wasn't willing to try my luck. “You’re just lucky that the new Navy sucks at its job.”
Wait, he was actually being serious? And he doesn’t like the new Navy? Jeez, you can’t get any more “old coot” than that.
“I swear, I dropped by one of their academies recently… and let me tell you.” He shuddered in disgust, even adding a little dramatic sound to go along with it. “Anyway!” Heavy Keel straightened himself up suddenly. “We’re about to get underway, so I suggest you take a seat.” What? We hadn’t even picked up the anchor, and the sails were yet to be unfurled. That kind of thing would take a small crew of a caravel much longer than just a few minutes to do.
I blinked. Once. Then twice. I stared at the mysteriously open sails.
That’s what he had spent thirty minutes doing.
His laughter echoed behind me as I scrambled towards the Captain’s quarters. I heard the sound of the sails being sent forward in one giant motion, and the ship lurched forward, just as I made it inside the cabin.
Into the night the RES Blue Veil went, leaving behind two groggy unicorns, the Port of Haybinger, and hopefully, the last remnants of my past.
A few minutes after the sudden lurches had stopped, I had made way outside, only to find that the sails were whipping violently as we sailed further and further away from the port. My ears flicked that way and that as the wind passed me. We stayed on a mostly straight path, the rudder moving us very little.
“I’m all around you!” I heard Keel’s booming voice yell through the wind.
I spun in a circle on deck in confusion, looking for the ghastly griffon. “What do you mean?” My shout when unanswered for a time, and I continued to look around the deck from where I stood. Suddenly, bits and pieces of wood around me slowly began to glow a vibrant cyan hue, the bright colors slowly encroaching upon me. I shielded my eyes with a hoof as the glow grew tenfold.
“Hold on! We’re almost in the clear!”
My whole body shook as I stood in place, the harsh winds threatening to bowl me over. A few seconds later, I found myself diving to the hard plank floor, but I hadn’t dove because of the wind. In fact, a bright flash of blue and a calm wind had come over me. I stood up from my position on the ground and rubbed my muzzle with a hoof. My eyes swept across the deck of the ship once more. The sails had been rolled up again, and I was still able to see the cyan glow around them, albeit at a much more manageable light level for my sensitive eyes. I looked around, noting the glow still remained on everything. Besides that, nothing else seemed out of the ordinary.
“We’re here!” I heard Heavy Keel sing.
Still rubbing my muzzle, I took a moment to examine the planks all around me a little bit more closely. “Why is the ship glowing?”
“The better question for you to ask, is why am I glowing?”
Well that answered a bunch of things for me. He's actually a ghost ship. A literal, ghost ship. I was still seeing more and more evidence of how well a trip with this griffon was going to be, and this strange occurrence was immediately deposited into the ever growing list.
All of a sudden, the light seemed to evaporate from all the planks, shooting out of them and into a quickly forming condensed ball of light in front of me. I averted my gaze instead of diving this time, and only stood when a brief flash of light alerted me that the process was over. When I looked back, low and behold, there stood Heavy Keel.
“Still a ghost I see,” I grumbled as I went about dusting myself off.
He smiled at me and pointed off to the starboard side of the ship. “You’ll be glad to know that at least ‘something’ changed then.” I sighed in response and followed the direction his talon was pointing at with my gaze.
What?
No really, what?
Maybe a couple thousand meters out from us was a rather large island, the beach nearest us lit up in the night with the same strange glowing cyan light. I’d examined the maps of the area around Haybinger Port, and from what I had gathered, the closest land from the port was nearly fifty miles away. The trip had only taken about three minutes. This was incredible, and it was also just as impossible.
But yet, here I stood, fifty miles away from the mainland on a sleek looking caravel with a crazy, old, and quite dead griffon.
“How did…” I stared slack jawed, honestly speechless.
“Magic,” Heavy Keel snorted, making his way over to the stern of the ship.
I continued to stare at the island, but now looking at the beach in a hopeless attempt of spying out other details besides the torches.
“Yeah, just keep your mouth open, just like that! You might just catch me a fish I can eat.” His laughter sounded from the stern of the ship.
I managed to close my mouth and tear my gaze away from the island, now opting to eye the captain with awe, and maybe, just maybe a little bit of newfound fear.
“That is, if I could still actually taste things,” Keel muttered to himself as I approached him. He was standing behind the ship’s wheel, which remained glowing. Keel stared off at the island in a seemingly neutral state of thought.
“Uh, Captain—”
“Call me Keel. You are my passenger after all.”
“Well then, um, Keel… Care to explain how the hay we got all the way out here so quickly?” He looked at me and rolled his eyes.
“Such impatience, I was just about to get to that.” He took a breath to begin speaking, but paused. “Wait, really?”
Here we go again. I blinked at him blankly, still awaiting an answer.
“That’s your first question? I mean, it’s a good question, but you didn’t even bother to begin with the fact that everything was all glowing and… stuff?”
“Well I was going to get to that—”
“See, impatient!” He barked, pointing an accusatory talon at me, mere inches away from my barrel.
I frowned and pushed the talon back to the ground where it belonged.
Keel cleared his throat rather loudly and wiped the frown away to replace it with a smile. “Sorry about that, but to answer the question, in laypony’s terms, we went really, really fast.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Alright, alright, calm down! We’re in no rush here.”
I blinked at him again.
He groaned and began ticking off steps on his claws. “Well for starters, I had to channel some seapony magic through the water and into the ship, which I then absorbed it into my spirit itself, giving me that slightly brighter color that I oh so love. Secondly, I pushed my spirit into the Blue Veil herself so that I could possess it with my own spiritual and seapony magic, and then after all of that, I unleashed the magic in one huge beginning burst, expelling most of the magic through the sails in the form of wind, but leaving behind just enough that I could control it with short bursts.”
About halfway through his speech, I was already missing the cheery captain, and wishing that the information dump would move on so that I could be free. One characteristic that he had mentioned about the process interested me, however, so I listened carefully, despite my ear’s protests. Oh, the things us unicorns do for knowledge.
“Seapony magic?” I’d heard about seaponies once or twice in mare’s tales, but if they were real…
“Yup,” Heavy Keel smiled brightly at me. “It was my job to help the seaponies in any way that I could out here. I was actually quite important to them, seeing as how I was the only connection between the seapony civilization and Equestria.” He sighed, as what I assumed had to be nostalgia filled him. “It’s just too bad that the Royal Navy seems to have forgotten my position.”
“Well,” I began. “You’re a ghost now, and you’ve shown me that you can interact with the living, and now the nonliving, so why can’t you go talk to the seaponies at… wherever they are?”
He sighed and turned away from me back to the wheel, turning it experimentally with a talon. “That’s why this ship hasn’t set sail out here this far in years. The only physical beings that have been on my ship were the stupid collector, and the sailors he had hired. The sailors were the kind of ponies that only did anything if they could get money out of it.”
Well that explanation wasn’t very… explanatory. I opened my mouth to speak but I was stopped as Keel held a talon up. He set the talon back down on the deck slowly, exhaling loudly.
“I can’t go underwater. No matter how hard I try, it’s like some sort of curse on me.” He turned back to me, a frown clearly visible on his face. “I’m cursed like a seapony, but in the exact opposite way. I used to have to dive down and speak to them, because it was the only way we could. They couldn’t go above water at all. They could have, if it weren’t for some barrier that we had been trying to break for years.” He shook his head sadly. “That’s why I’ve been waiting for a worthy pony to actually come aboard my ship, just so I could take them away to talk to them about the seaponies. It’s… it’s ridiculous!” he huffed, throwing his claws up. “I tried to go underwater almost immediately after my death and I just… I couldn’t. I spent the first few years trying…” He leaned forward against the wheel, spinning it slowly.
Oh no, I did not like this one single bit. I took a few quick steps forward to place a hoof on the griffon’s shoulder. He had been looking down, but his head had shot up once he had felt my contact. The feeling of my hoof against his body wasn’t as I had expected, it was cold, but I could definitely feel tufts of fur below my hoof.
It was almost as if he was real. He wasn’t a ghost.
He was a living being, just like me and anypony else.
“Now don’t go start beating yourself up over it, because that’s where it sounds like it’s been heading.” I was tempted to say that he had probably been doing it before as well, but decided that it probably wasn’t the best time for that. “The ‘curse’ was probably around for years before you, there was nothing you could do about it. And don’t keep worrying about the seaponies, if they could survive long before you or the rest of Equestria made contact with them, they’re still alive.” I smiled broadly at him. “Plus, if you’ve managed to become a ghost and not move on to wherever ponies and griffons go when they move on, then that must mean fate has something good planned for you… and me,” I added the last part cheekily.
He laughed quietly. “You’re… you’re right, chick.” His lips twitched ever so slightly as he tried to smile again. He sighed and brushed my hoof of his shoulder. “Sorry for getting all sappy on you there, but sometimes, I just remember how old I really am.” He shook his head hard. “No, let’s not do that again. After all, we’ve got work to do.”
Keel smiled widely and turned back to the wheel. "Go ahead and unfurl the sails, I can’t always expunge that much seapony magic. It’s probably going to be a lot longer than usual anyway, I’ve only used very tiny amounts before, and I wasn’t even sure we would survive that.” I paused mid step and turned to stare at the griffon in surprise. “Ha! As if I would ever do that. I’m a sea captain, not a loon. Now get going!”
“I thought I was the passenger,” I quipped back playfully as I trotted down the stairs, laughing all the way to the sails with the captain ready at the ship’s wheel.
“That was just for the trip out to sea, chick!”
I smiled, unfurling the top and main sails of the ship with a bit of telekinesis. This trip was already starting to look a little better. Things seemed to be starting like it was straight out of a mare’s tale! Seaponies and barriers to cross? That could be fun.
The wet leaves crunched beneath my hooves as I trotted after Heavy Keel. We had rowed out here on a small landing boat, though I did most of the rowing, mostly because Keel was insistent about getting me prepared for “the next leg of our adventure.” Obviously, that was just a load of hay; it was all just Keel being too lazy. If I had asked him why he was being lazy, he probably would have replied with something about “using too much magic” or whatever.
“Come on, Blue! We’ve got to find my stash so we can get you properly outfitted before you head on down to the seaponies!” Keel spoke up from a bout of dense jungle foliage ahead of me.
“Oh, is that what we’re doing now? Why didn’t you tell me when we were back on the ship? You said it was a, and I will quote, ‘a super special secret surprise.’” Yet again, Keel was getting on my nerves.
“Well that would take the fun out of it, wouldn’t it?” I rolled my eyes.
“No, it would make things a whole lot easier though, because I’m pretty sure that the ship had some diving gear I could use.” I smirked in silent victory as the griffon’s voice stopped responding. Then I paused, he should’ve replied with his annoying brand of old sage wisdom.
“Heavy Keel? You over here?” I cut some leaves aside with my sabre, brushing them out to take a step into an open clearing. I took a quick look around. There was a beautiful clear pond in the center, with a small group of turtles relaxing on a log near the edge, enjoying their private sunbathe in the middle of the jungle. The already thin canopy cut loose at the edges of the clearing to reveal the sun, almost in the center of the sky.
That was strange, it had been near midnight when we had entered the jungle. Why was the sun out? It should have been half past midnight at this point— Wait, why is the moon out again? Before I had even a chance to look around for more sudden changes in the surroundings, I heard a quiet splash. My head shot over to stare at the group of turtles now escaping from me. The moonlight glistened off of their wet shells as they swam to the center of the pond, disappearing beneath the surface one by one. I blinked slowly.
That was something different… but it didn’t help me find the captain in the slightest.
But that giant wooden chest soaring out of the water right at me might have to do with him.
My eyes widened as I ducked for cover, sand and mud following me as I dove behind a nearby rock. The chest landed on the edge of the pond with a loud thud, mud flying everywhere in the process. I sat still behind the rock for a time, my breathing heavy and uneasy. Carefully, I took a peek over the rock.
The chest was muddy, but even through the debris, I could tell that the container had been lovingly crafted and appraised by its carpenter. It was huge, and well designed for aesthetics. Small specks of gold shone moonlight along their homes as the trim on the sides and lock of the chest. Two silver dragons curled into two beautiful handles. Perhaps this was the captain’s stash? I made my way out from the rock and cautiously through the mud and sand to the chest, sabre at the ready.
I wiped away a smudge covering the front of the chest, revealing a beautiful gold insignia in the form of a ship with its sails at full mast. It seemed familiar, somehow. If a captain was looking for a chest to store their valuables and personal accessories, then this was the place. It was apparent that there had been a key in the lock on the chest at one point, but all that remained was a broken rust pin that I discarded beside me. I brought both my hooves to the latches on the sides and heaved the container open.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect from a buried treasure chest, but what was inside at first glance almost threw me off. A pair of rotten captain’s garments lay on top of a huge pile of items inside the chest. The garments bore the insignia of the same golden vessel on the front. This time, however, I recognized the details fully; it was the symbol of the Royal Equestrian Navy. I moved the garments aside and almost gasped in shock. There was no treasure to be found in the chest, but there was one beautiful piece of hardware still left inside.
“You look like a chick who’s going to their first day at the arena.” I looked up at Keel in surprise. He tossed a large, wet piece of limestone off to the side, mud flying off of it in the process.
“Oh, I’m sorry, this yours?” I smiled cheekily at the old captain who simply shook his head at me.
“Judging from your surprise, I’d say you found my favorite little toy.” I nodded dumbly. He motioned towards the box with his head. “Well? Go ahead, take a look at ‘er.” I nodded again and focused my attention on the chest.
With my telekinesis, I brushed the captain’s cloak aside and lifted out quite a lofty crossbow, bearing the same REN insignia. It too, like the chest, was trimmed with silver. Hanging from the bottom of the foregrip by a tiny hook was a closed bag, labeled in faded embroidering, “Bolts.”
As I resumed my search, I took notice of a large bag at the bottom. A very, very large bag. My telekinesis struggled to keep a hold of it as I lifted it out. I set it down with a huff and smiled up at the captain.
“Now that right there, is the gear you’re going to need for going to seapony depths.” Oh. It was diving gear, of course. No wonder the bag had been so stupidly heavy. I took a deep breath and opened the bag.
“... What the hay is this?” I pulled out a small black cube, proudly displaying a red button on top of it.
“Just press it,” he smiled at me. I glanced suspiciously between him and the cube and shrugged. I pressed the button…
… And stood there awkwardly as a simple transparent bubble appeared around me. I poked it experimentally. This was the gear he had? It was just a cube that weighed like a thousand tons and gave me a bubble? I looked down at the cube, and was surprised to see it was gone.
“You are standing in a MK IV Ballast Underlain Beryllium Bubble Leveled Environment, or B.U.B.B.L.E. for short.” I glanced around me warily.
“Isn’t beryllium… You know, a metal?” He beamed at me, happy with my knowledge.
“You would be correct! You are actually standing inside a transparent case of beryllium-aluminium alloys. The fuel for the B.U.B.B.L.E. is taken from the water around you, where oxygen is removed, and the excess hydrogen is used to power a built in propulsion system within the casing!”
Sweet Celestia…
“This is awesome!” I jumped happily and went zipping about, the mud simply sliding off of the bubble as I ran in circles around the chest. I slid to a stop and turned to the griffon, a little confused.
“But how do you know so much about it? And how did you have this kind of stuff years ago? Because that’s some pretty futuristic sounding stuff.” Keel laughed at my amusement and smiled wholeheartedly.
“A griffon’s gotta know what kind of equipment he’s working with, especially the experimental stuff.” This stuff was experimental too? This was getting better and better!
“So I get to use this stuff when I meet the seaponies?” He raised a claw and continued laughing.
“Slow down there, chick. Yes, you will be using it, but first, we’re going to have to go through some training so I can teach you how it really works.”
“Awesomeeee!”
The curious and excitable side of me had taken hold, and my serious facade would have to return at a later time. After all, science is cool.
Now I just had to get through this training and then I would finally be able to meet those seaponies.
Training with Heavy Keel was… actually not that bad, that and there was nothing else too complicated to learn about the B.U.B.B.L.E. Sure, he pushed me to some extreme limits, and past limits I hadn’t even known I had set for myself. I didn’t even know that a hoof could reach that far back after tripping on a rock, and yet still not hurt. Oh, and now my hoof starts to throb again. Just my luck.
I’d had my fun running around the clearing, which gave way to running through overgrown paths that animals took between the pond and their homes, and finally ended with me doing some actual military-esque exercises that left me with grim reminders of middle school. It’s like dodgeball, but with clawfuls of sand. He calls it “Dodge the Sandball.” Creative, I know.
After having my eyes filled with sand too many times for my liking, we returned to the clearing. The process to disabling the B.U.B.B.L.E. was simple, involving just a small bit of physical contact against the very top of the beryllium shell and an extra bit of willful thought. I followed his instructions and watched the transparent bubble around me dissipate. As it dissipated, the black cube returned to me. I placed the device back into the bag it had arrived in, and instead of placing the bag back into the chest, I opted to sling the satchel around my shoulder and across my left side. It was heavy, but I could handle it. The captain also seemed to approve.
“Looks good, now, what do ya’ say we head on back, you have yourself a snack, some rest, and then head down under?” Noting that the moon was still in the sky, and the fact that I had not eaten since my panic earlier in the day, or yesterday as it was, I nodded.
We made our way back the way we came, following a newly trodden path I had made with a combination of my sabre to cut through and the repeated stomping of my hooves as I ran through the jungle earlier, ducking and weaving beneath the trees to keep my speed.
The beach remained quiet as ever. I smiled, took in a deep breath of the salty sea air, and let out a pleased sigh. As long as the captain had some food in store on the ship, this was going to be great.
“Please board the rowing boat now if you wish to come aboard the RES Keel.” I rolled my eyes and began pushing the boat off of the sandy beach and back into the water.
“Is that what you’re going to call it now?” He grinned at me as I clambered into the boat and set the bag down. I grabbed hold of the two oars on the sides of the boat with my telekinesis.
“You know it! Start rowing, passenger!”
“Since when did the passenger become the sailor?” I asked with exaggerated annoyance.
“Ever since you whined about being called a passenger!” He laughed easily as we pushed away from the shore.
I honestly don’t know what was going through the mind of this ‘collector’ when he started filling the cargo bay with materials. There was a whole lot of quantity, but not much in terms of variety. What could a collector have so much of, but little of anything else? Simple.
Packing peanuts. So, many, Celestia forbidden packing peanuts. Unluckily, a moment after entering below deck, I had picked up a nearby pry bar with telekinesis and jacked a crate open, showering me in packing peanuts. Heavy Keel warned me that it would probably not be wise to open another crate, his suggestion supported by the fact I was covered in the foam peanuts. Of course, we couldn’t just dump them overboard, so the cargo hold was filled with packing peanuts for the time being. Keel told me that the collector was probably using all the peanuts for carefully shipping artifacts without damage, but I didn’t support that theory. This pony didn’t just get packing peanuts to keep his collection safe, he loved packing peanuts a little too much. Anyways...
I sighed and rubbed my temple with a hoof turning to examine the other crates. Sadly, the labels on most of them had been scrawled out with marker. Luckily, Keel was apparently a griffon-wizard and managed to dunk his transparent head into the containers to see what they are. He did good in that regard; he found a couple crates filled with bananas. Haybinger Port didn’t just bring bananas into town, and those that did were usually sent off through inland trading. It was strange to see bananas again after living on the coast of Equestria for almost a year. I didn’t mind though, it was free food.
After I had opened a crate of bananas, my snack became a few bananas. Keel’s meal consisted of a single packing peanut randomly chosen from of the pile laid out on the floor. He chewed one, and immediately fell, or should I say keeled over in feign death. After that we moved back up deck. I took a moment to lean up against the edge of the ship again with a pleased smile on the slowly rising sun. A yawn escaped me, which I tried my best to suppress with a hoof. The excitement earlier in the day had worn off now, and I was now nearing the end of a full all-nighter doing things with a ghostly captain.
“When exactly did you start your day?” Keel had snuck up on me once more. I checked a pocket watch in my coat pocket. Six forty-eight in the morning.
“Over twenty-four hours ago, Cap’n Keel,” I smiled over at the captain. Heavy Keel was now also leaned up over the edge, watching the sun rise over the ocean. I returned to watching, joined by his gaze.
“That’s no good for a colt your age.”
“I’m sixteen-years-old.”
“That’s still young!”
“You probably don’t have to sleep, lucky griffon you.” I ended my sentence with another yawn and smacked my lips loudly.
“Believe me, when you get to my age, you’ll be saying quite the opposite.” Tossing my hooves off the edge I turned to Keel, who was still staring at the sun.
“Any place you have in specific that you want me to sleep?” He turned and shrugged.
“The crew quarters downstairs might be your best bet, but that’s doesn’t have a lot of room to breath.” I nodded.
“Of course, you could sleep in the cabin up here. I have no use for it anymore.” I tapped a hoof against my chin thoughtfully. Sleep in a cramped area with a hard bed, or on a nice couch in the captain’s cabin…
“Hard choice,” I chuckled. “I’ll take the cabin.” He smiled and waved me off to bed. As I made myself comfortable in the cabin, Keel continued to watch the rising sun. Once the sun had fully erected itself in the sky, Keel made way from the deck and back to the cargo bay. We had stored the chest there, which Keel cracked open with a claw. Heavy Keel pulled Bowspirit from the chest, along with the bolts and set them down carefully on the floor.
Captain Heavy Keel got to work while I slept away.
I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I stumbled out of the cabin. A large group of seagulls had landed on the prow of the ship, squawking incessantly. My bleary vision cleared, and I glared up into the sky. Tiny wisps of white clouds dotted the light blue sky. The sun beamed down onto the deck of the ship, warm, but not warm enough to be uncomfortable. I sighed in contentment, stepping down into the cargo bay to grab an early morning meal.
As I emerged into the darkness, I lit a nearby lamp with my magic. I squinted, my eyes adjusting to the light. The cargo bay looked the same as it had a day before; pink packing peanuts littered the floor around the crates on one side, the lid of the crate I had opened lying off to one side. As I stepped towards the crates, I stumbled over something lying on the ground.
“Woah!” I landed face first in a pile of packing peanuts, sending the annoying little things flying everywhere. Shaking my head, I stood and picked up the hammer I had tripped over. I turned it over in my telekinesis; there was nothing unusual about it. Snorting, I tossed the hammer onto a nearby workbench without really looking. I tensed as I heard a clatter from the workbench. The sound of heavy iron on wood drew me to the workbench as I stepped over.
Lying on the ground was the hammer, but that was not what held my attention, it was the crossbow lying on the workbench.
“What the…?” I approached the crossbow laying on the table, or at least what was left of it. The weapon had been largely disassembled; the stock and barrel were the only identifiable parts of the crossbow. The limbs had been disconnected, as well as the rinsers, missing along with the screws that had held the pieces together. Even the drawstring for the arrow groove was missing. Cocking my head, I stowed away my questions to ask Keel about later. I returned to the banana crates to grab a bite to eat.
Just as I went to peel one of the edibles, a shout of alarm sounded from above. Sighing, I placed the banana into a pocket on my coat and stepped onto the deck...
… Just in time to be sent sprawling to the ground.
“Narwhals!” I heard Keel cry through the sound of crashing waves and creaking of wood. “We’re not fishing you fools! Quit rocking my ship!” The ship tossed from side to side as I scrambled for a support beam. Clutching the wooden mast closely, I scanned for the ghostly captain. I spotted him floating above the water, yelling down at the waves.
“Keel! What’s going on?” I shouted to the griffon. His head snapped to me.
“That’s Captain Keel to you, Ensign Blue!”
“Ensign?” I cried, confused by the lack of an actual answer. The ship took on a familiar cyan coloration and the rocking ceased, but waves still crashed over the ship’s sides. From my point of view, we hadn’t taken on much water from the waves, with small splashes here and there. However, Keel saw otherwise.
“You stabbed my ship!” Keel roared as a wave smashed into him, pushing him back. However, the stalwart captain pushed against the movement, and instead flew back over to the ship, landed, and sent the ship hurtling forward. His eyes were filled with fury as they locked onto mine. “Blue, I need you on the rear swivel gun.” He glared at the sight of a narwhal horn peeking above the turbulent water. “I’ve got to go patch a hole on the lower deck.” Saying nothing else, he disappeared. The ship continued moving as I rushed up the stairs towards the stern of the ship.
I hadn’t fired a cannon before, but as I found myself standing before a small crate of black powder and ammo, I knew just what to do.
“Load grapeshot! We don’t wanna kill them, but if they won’t back down, we’ll make ‘em back down!” The voice came from nowhere, but I was left unfazed as I slammed the metal container into the swivel gun and slid the holding pin in. Aiming with my telekinesis, I sweeped through the area behind our ship. A horn popped up through the water. I aimed and lit the fuse.
A puff and the clink of metal sounded as the burst of grapeshot went flying, lightly grazing the horn. There was an awful moan as the narwhal sank back down below, only to be replaced by another. Sliding the pin then the spent round out, I loaded in another shot. Lighting the fuse, I aimed at the new narwhal. I was momentarily stunned as I watched the scarred, grey face emerge.
Clunk!
I blinked at the sound; I hadn’t loaded grapeshot that time. Luckily for him, but unluckily for me, the small calibre round glanced off his horn, chipping off a bit of the narwhal’s extended tooth, but did nothing to hinder the narwhal’s distance between us and him.
“That’s Old Tooth! To hay with that!” A loud whoosh came from my side, and I watched in awe as an empty crate soared overhead. With amazing accuracy, the crate nailed Old Tooth right between the eyes, just below the horn. The battle-scarred creature howled as it sank back into the depths, eyes glowing red with hate. I sat there for a minute longer, eyes scanning our rear for any more targets. When no more narwhals appeared, I sighed a breath of relief, removing the holding pin and tossing the spent round to the side with my hooves. From behind me came the clack of claws.
“Didn’t know you could actually shoot the swivel gun.” I turned to Heavy Keel.
“I didn’t know either,” I said, pulling the banana out from my coat pocket. “Why were narwhals attacking us?” He groaned, ruffling his ghostly feathers as I peeled my banana.
“I’m guessing that they’ve claimed this area as their territory. It’ll make our job a whole lot harder.” I raised my brow and swallowed.
“And why would that be?”
“They’re guarding the area where the seaponies used to be.” I blinked.
“Oh. Right.”
“I do have an idea though…” He held up Bowspirit. The crossbow looked shinier than the day before, and I blinked back to the crossbow lying on the workbench just a few minutes prior.
“I replaced a few of the old parts on Bowspirit with a new crossbow that one of the Royal guards brought on.” He tossed the crossbow to me, which I caught in my magic, and pulled out a quiver of arrows. “The Guard has made a lot of improvements in the years since my captaincy… at least, as a living griffon.” He pulled out an arrow and inspected it. The tip of the arrow looked like an extended claw. “Non-lethals; send a shock through whatever it connects with.” He placed the arrow back into the quiver and tossed the container to me. “Even the bowstring on the new crossbow has more efficient enchantments,” he remarked. “You’ll definitely be getting a lot more power for your pull.”
I paused in the examination of my new toys and looked at Heavy Keel. “You know, I never thought about this before, but why would I need a crossbow if I’m going to be talking to seaponies?” He grinned.
“The caves have more than seaponies down there.”
My hooves touched down against the sand, signalling that I had reached the bottom. I recalled some earlier remarks from Heavy Keel earlier that morning about the Bubble. With a bit of willpower, the dim light around me grew to illuminate the entire area. I spun in a circle, slowly examining the place where I had touched down. I was greeted by what I would describe as an empty volcano. A small tunnel on one side of the rocky interior caught my attention, and I slowly began moving towards it. Just then, a small burst of movement caught my eye.
Quickly moving, I yanked the crossbow strapped to my body from my back and pointed it towards a ridge above the tunnel. I waited, but the perpetrator of the movement refused to reveal itself. Swallowing thickly, I cautiously continued moving towards the tunnel, increasing my light just a tad.
The tunnel was found to the southwest of the seaponies, or so Heavy Keel told me. The plan was to use the tunnel to go underneath the narwhals and reach the seaponies in their caverns. While Keel told me that the tunnel was used as a major traffic area for seaponies, it certainly did not play the part. I continued moving through the empty tunnel for what seemed to be about half an hour before I found myself going down a slowly steepening slope. I readjusted my grip on Bowspirit as I stared down the natural slide that had appeared before me. With another deep breath, I continued through the eerily silent tunnel.
I kept Bowspirit held in front of me as I advanced into the darkness. My mouth felt dry despite being surrounded by water. I swallowed thickly. The light in front of me brightened just a bit as I did so, but I was too focused on what was ahead to actually recognize what I had done. The slope leveled out about a hundred hooves ahead of me, the sandy path leading straight up to a round opening from which magenta light poured out. After walking forward a bit more, I threw Bowspirit through the tight gap and followed suit.
I felt a tingle in my horn as I stepped inside, and no sooner had I tried to use my magic to levitate Bowspirit from the ground, I was suddenly filled with a blinding pain. I fell to my hooves, rolling as I cried out in pain. From the corner of my blurry vision I could see a flash of yellow swim by. Before I had time to recognize what was going on, I felt something push through the barrier of the Bubble. Instead of water flooding in as I had expected, the searing pain in my head simply doubled and moved down to my neck.
It felt as if my skin was being given the worst buffalo burn in the entire history of Equestria as it moved this way and that. The air around me was filled with my screams for what felt like hours, when with a sudden crack and hiss, the pain was gone.
I sat up, struggling to my hooves as my world swam. The warmth that the Bubble had given me before was now gone, and now I simply felt… cool. It felt as if a nice, fresh breeze was rolling over me. I craned my neck as I tried to remove the stiffness that had taken hold in my muscles. As I placed a hoof on my neck to rub a particularly sore spot, I froze.
It felt as if I was blocking my nostrils with a hoof.
I suddenly launched into a full blown panic, removing the hoof as I began to hyperventilate from my neck.
I could see bubbles flow from the sides of my neck as I looked from side to side. I covered my muzzle, but to no avail; where my nostrils had once been, it was no more than a smooth edge. It appeared that there were still more problems to come when I noticed that the bubbles had been coming from inside the Bubble. Which meant that water had flooded in at some point, and I was now surrounded on all sides. One thing was for certain; I could breathe underwater.
How had the crystal done that? With the tingling in my horn now gone, I went to pick up Bowspirit, only to find a pocket of air in place of the crossbow. Bewildered and a little more than scared, I sat up from the sandy bed and scanned the cavern I had entered. It remained the same as when I had entered before, but with two major differences; it was a lot brighter, and a new hole had opened up on the opposite side of the cave.
I stood fully, cleaned of all my gear, feeling more naked than usual, and with the newfound ability to breath underwater. I tapped the Bubble three times.
I disappeared in a flash, reappearing back on the deck with Keel. In doing so, I had completely forgotten about the new change to my body.
“What happened?” The griffon captain said worriedly as he came to my side. I gasped and heaved as my gills struggled to find air. I crumpled to the ground, hacking and wheezing all the way. “Oh by the gods, hold on Blue!”
My vision began to blur as half a minute passed. My lungs burned and tears welled up in my eyes. Keel returned quickly, picking me up gently as he could in his claws to droop my head into a bucket of water. I greedily sucked in the air, tearing up at my near-death experience. Keel laid a claw on my withers.
“I don’t know what happened down there, but you’re not going back down alone.”
“Blue?” Heavy Keel called as he floated into the cabin. “Where are you?”
“Right here,” I said from my tub of water in the corner. “This sucks.” The ghostly griffon sighed and came over. Taking a gulp of air from the tub, I brought my head out of the water and stared at the griffon. “Did you find anything I could wear to help me breathe out of water?”
He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no.” My eyes scanned his face for a moment, before my head dunked back down into the water for another breath of air. I came back up.
“Anyway,” he began again. “You’re temporarily decommissioned, so we need another pony who can help us. Since, ya’ know.” He gestured to himself. “Dead and waterproof.” I snorted.
“The dead part doesn’t really seem to have affected you that much.” He chuckled in response to that.
“It’ll take more than that to keep a griffon away from his duty to do good for seaponies, lad.” I thought for a moment, a new question bobbing around in the sea of my mind.
“Actually, what was a griffon like you doing in the Royal Equestrian Navy?” He grimaced, turning away from me.
“It is a…” He turned back, a hint of sadness in his eyes. “A long story.” Biting my lip, I glanced between the sad griffon and the floor. I dunked my head back in the tub, taking a breath.
“Sit down and tell me,” I spat through my bubbles. “I’ve got time.” He hesitated, claw raised halfway into the air. Keel shook himself and clambered onto the couch beside me. He gave an audible gulp.
“Well, I was a young chick, see.” He tugged at one of his wings, bringing it in front of him to stare at. “My mama and I lived in Griffonstone. I would go to a friend of hers every day while she went off to work in a coal mine.”
My ears perked up as I brought my head out of the water. “And where was your dad?” Keel flinched, but held his resolve. He inhaled slowly.
“My da left us in Griffonstone to go train with the army.” He ran a claw over his head. “Never heard hide nor tail of ‘em from chick to griff.” A faraway look took place in his eyes. “I always looked up to da from what mama told me about him… I… I think mama knows why he never sent letters, but...” He sat silent, then shook his head. “That’s all I have to say about that.” I nodded understandingly.
“Most of my education came from my mama’s friend.” He paused, eyes scanning the room. “Feather.” He gave a sad smile. “I never had a proper education, but I did learn how the world works from her. Mama always came home with tired eyes and dusty wings, and she’d make dinner and teach me how to cook for myself, but that was about all the time we had together. Mama meant good, but Griffonstone was a harsh place to get bits in.”
“One night, when I was about your age, mama came home with blood dripping down her face.” Keel sucked in a breath. “When I went over to ask her what happened, she told me that we had to go. O’ course, I wasn’t one to question authority, so I helped her pack up and we left.” He wiped away a tear. “I… I never thought to say goodbye to Feather. If I ‘ad known…”
I hesitated as the ghostly griffon sat on the verge of tears. “Known… known about what, Keel?”
“The Diamond Dogs that ran the mines outside of town raided Griffonstone that midnight.” I pulled up out of my tub and stared in horror as he continued. “Mama told me later that she’d been a part of the small group of griffons working the mines that had escaped the alpha’s wrath. He had just found out that the diamond mine had finally run dry and… and he decided to start early on taking everything from the griffons of Griffonstone.”
“Mama and I found a regiment of Royal Guards approaching Griffonstone during our escape. My mama spilt everything out about what had happened to her but the guards had somehow already been informed.” He shuddered. “They were moving to help defend the town, and so I decided I’d join up with ‘em and help. I… I found Feather in her home.” He tensed up. “G-gone, Blue.”
I brought my dunked head from the water and sat down on the bed next to the shivering griffon. I attempted to wrap a hoof around him, but he waved me off. “A-after that…” He cleared his throat, staring at the wall. “After that, mama and I went with the guards. Griffonstone wasn’t safe for us anymore.” He ran the back of his claw across his eyes.
“Two years after that, mama and I had settled down in this ponytown called Fillydelphia. Feather ‘ad taught me some manners, so after a while the ponies had warmed up to me.” As I began coughing, he shoved me towards my tub, which I gratefully flopped my head into. “A sergeant posted at a recruitment center there saw me take down a pair of muggers on my own and gave me the pitch.” Keel moved his jaw around a bit. “That was the last time I saw Fillydelphia or mama; it was all letters from that point on.”
“My first post after training in Canterlot was in Manehattan. That happened to be the first time I saw an ocean.” He chuckled. “A captain saw me standing on the docks one time, staring off into the ocean’s horizon. I was so transfixed on the ocean that I didn’t move until his ship’s side touched my beak. That was the moment I was transferred from the Royal Equestrian Guard to the Royal Equestrian Navy.”
“Things were great after that. I’d never known how much one could enjoy life, and from the letters my mama sent in reply to my obsessions with the sea, she was glad that I’d found something I wanted to do. It sure beat wandering around Fillydelphia doing odd jobs.”
“And that’s when you were assigned to the seaponies?” I interjected. Keel chuckled and shifted around on his seat.
“Actually, that was when I promoted to captaincy.” He gestured around him, grinning widely. “I got a ship, a crew, an officer’s weapon, the whole package.” He settled back down, still grinning. “First voyage was a patrol, and boy what a patrol it was.”
I rolled my eyes as he paused, waiting for me to ask the question. “What happened?”
“We patrolled all the way from the northern Equus coast to the southern coast. Up the Equestrian coastline to the Griffonian Empire, further to the Dragon Lands, and all the way down to the Zebrican Farlands.” He sighed, leaning back. “And after our fourth resupply at Manehattan’s port, we went east to explore an archipelago. And that, is when we found the seaponies.” I blinked.
“Wait, how long ago was this, Keel?”
“Captain Keel,” he hummed. “This was about fifty years ago, so I guess that would make me eighty by now.” My jaw dropped as he stared at his fur with a smug grin. “I still look young as ever, though.”
“Fifty years? You mean you were the one who found the seaponies?” I shook my head disbelievingly. “And here I thought that seaponies were mare’s tales during my early life, when in reality, their existence has been confirmed for about half a century.”
“Yup!” He laughed heartily. “We were supposed to keep it secret though; the seaponies were practically an ancient civilization that was still trying to figure out how tools worked. I would probably take longer than they did to figure that out; underwater tools are kind of hard to make work.” He sighed. “Anyway, that’s when we started running patrols around the seaponies to protect against pirates. We stuck around their area and in their city for five years, and after that, I started running undercover work for the crown.”
“Undercover?”
“Mhm. Ya see, there was a smuggling ring out there in the archipelago that shipped goods that were first brought to the badlands, out to the maritime boundary to be shipped to the Equestrian ports. Stuff like firewater, which was prohibited at the time, and dragon opium.” Keel leant back, sighing in contentment. “Especially dragon opium… yeah…” He shook his head and bolted back up. “B-but yeah! I was given an honorable discharge so that I could be made a privateer for the crown. I immediately began looking for new crew members in ports, local sailors who were thirsting for a pay, no matter the method. The navy let me keep my royal vessel to keep up a story that I’d stolen the caravel on my own, so at least to give me some reputation. Some smugglers saw the meaning of that to be that I knew how to evade the authorities, and I was instantly given offers for trade routes all across the Equestrian coast and the archipelago.”
“Wait, is the island here apart of the archipelago?”
“Finally!” Keel shot me a smile. “Yes, and that brings me to my next point; the island.”
“What about it?” I tilted my head.
“That would be where I died.”
“Wait, what?”
“What? I’m dead, can’t you tell?” He looked himself over. “I’m pretty sure the glowing makes it obvious.” He sighed, waving my confusion off. “Turns out there was a pirate den. My boys and I got ambushed while we were gathering some fruits for our supplies. My boys fought well, but the pirates outnumbered us. Captured all of us and threatened to have our heads if we didn’t tell ‘em where we moored our ship. I broke out and distracted ‘em all while my crew headed back to the ship, found their cove, and burned all of their fleet. Course, you know what happened to me back at the pirate encampment.” He smiled sadly at me, my head still dunked in the tub. “The lead captain was real mad when he found his ships burning, so he took that anger out on me. Ten days later, I wake up on the island a ghost.”
I frowned. “That sucks.” Keel chuckled.
“Yes, I suppose it does suck.”
“Pirate’s aren’t cool at all.” I sighed, sinking deeper into the water. “Trust me, I know.” Keel raised a brow.
“What would you know about pirates?”
I rolled my eyes. “I was a smuggler, remember?” Keel’s mouth formed an ‘o’ as I continued. “My brother and his friends were, at least. I was mostly just there to help with the heavy lifting.” I frowned as my brother’s trademark grin came into my mind. He had smiled a lot and quite easily. I raised my head and looked at Keel, finding some similarities to my brother in his eyes. My frown deepened. “We hauled maybe a hundred, maybe a hundred-fifty crates of cargo on every trip, and our schooners made it fairly obvious that we were worth pirating.” I sighed. “We got attacked a lot.”
“And inspected a lot?” I snorted.
“Like you wouldn’t believe. I swear, every time we undocked or docked, there would be a royal sitting there to make sure our modest fleet was heading out to another Equestrian port and not a smuggler's den.” Keel hummed thoughtfully.
“Bringing us back to our initially topic, which we seem to have diverged from quite a bit,” Keel coughed as I flushed. “Would you happen to know where those dens would be?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t. Why do you ask?”
“Let me answer that by asking another question; do you know anypony in those dens that you can trust with helping the seaponies?” I brought my head out of the water, thinking.
“I… I suppo— oh.”
“Oh is right,” Keel said grinning. “Now fill that bucket over there with water and come show me the way.”
I nudged Heavy Keel and pointed over his shoulder at the jungle infested island. “There it is.”
“I can see just fine, Blue.” He sighed, adjusting the ship’s rudder with an idle twirl of the wheel. “How’s the thermos working out for ya?” I took the cap off the thermos and took a sip, the oxygen filling my lungs.
“Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t take all that much water to stay conscious.” I screwed the cap back on and frowned at the puddle forming at my hooves. I had taken off my jacket, leaving my dark green fur exposed to the cool midday air. Wiping off the water that had stuck to my gills, I continued. “Though, the water is becoming a real annoyance.” Keel shrugged, eyes trained on the coastline not too far from us.
“Not much I can do to help you with that. There’s a cotton cloth in my desk that could help you dry off, but blocking off your gills isn’t an option, so you’ll just have to wipe the water off every now and then.” I slumped a little and looked around as I waited for us to come into view of the port itself. My eyes widened as they landed on the sails.
“Woah woah woah, hold up!” There was a bright flash of blue as the sails were suddenly enveloped in light, frozen in place. We drifted slowly to a stop, the waves rocking our ship slowly. Keel turned on a claw and looked at me with worry.
“What? What did you see?” I pointed to the sails and he followed my hoof. “Oh.” He chuckled halfheartedly, rubbing a talon across the back of his neck. He turned back to me. “Yeah we should probably take those down.”
It took a bit of digging in the deck below to find the old sails, untorn, if a bit dusty, and replaced the sails marked with the Equestrian insignia of the two royal sisters orbiting the sun and moon. Keel smiled as the white sails unfurled and we continued our journey to the port.
“It’s bad enough that you can tell this is a caravel of the navy.” My ear twitched, and I reached for my thermos again, taking a sip.
“How can you tell?” I asked, setting the bottle back down beside the helm. Heavy Keel rapped a hoof on the deck below us as he spun the wheel twice to right.
“It’s all in the wood.” He leveled the wheel again, and I noticed that there was a jetty of wood planks sticking around the next corner of the island. “It’s hard for a lot of ponies to get this much lotus to build a ship with, but it still happens.” He tapped the floor again. “But that’s where the cedar decks come in; a cedar lotus mix is what gives us away.” He frowned as he turned back to regard me for a moment. “You mean you didn’t recognize that all of the naval vessels had this combination?”
“I never noticed,” I muttered abashedly. He laughed, turning back to take the helm properly.
“No wonder you stopped smuggling at a young age, chick.” I opened my mouth to make a retort. “Oh, is that it right there?” I squinted hard at the coastline attached to the jetty. A grin slowly wobbled its way onto my lips as I laid a hoof on Keel’s ghastly form.
“Captain Keel, I’d like to welcome you to Gallante Port.”
“A bit modest, eh?” I jumped at the captain’s voice, surprising a couple of the crews around me as I slammed down hard onto the planks of the dock.
“Quiet!” I hissed, smiling broadly at the sailors who all immediately went back to loading and unloading cargo to and from the various ships around. “Why do you have to sit right next to my ear?” Keel had shrunken himself and settled into the hood of my cotton jacket to keep me company, while not alerting anypony to his presence. The second part could’ve been better, I supposed.
“So you can hear me without me yelling, of course!” I resisted the urge to smack the griffon in my hood and instead straightened my jacket, sending him deeper into my clothing. “Hey! I’m sittin’ here!”
“Yeah, it’s a little modest,” I agreed, surveying the small port of eight buildings. “But it gets the job done.”
“How about a tour?” I could feel the grin from Keel at that.
“How about no?” I snorted, finally making contact with the gravel that made up the smuggling den’s road. “Look, here’s the deal; there are two warehouses where you pay to hold your goods, there’s a bar of course, a blacksmith, an incredibly small shipwright, a general store, an inn, and then there’s the mayor’s house.” My hooves halted as I stood before the local bar. “Now quiet,” I growled quietly as a mare and a stallion strapped with crossbows passed with a glance in my direction. I opened the door with my telekinesis and wandered in.
Immediately I was pounded by the familiar smell of booze, tobacco, and good cooking. A look around told me that the bar was just as filled as the last few times that I had been around, with about a dozen and a half booths seated with atleast couple of ponies each. The counter of the bar itself was nearly empty, occupied only by a mare and three stallions. A smile found it’s way onto my muzzle as I spotted the barkeep.
“Blue?” He called over the chatter of the bar. I approached, a genuine smile on my features. “Where have ya been?”
“Haybinger,” I said, settling down onto the worn wood chair in front of the counter. “How’s business been, Chip?” His eyes brightened as he set down the mug he had been previously cleaning and came over to me.
“The usual fare. Where’s Gale?” I shrugged, smile fading a bit. “He out in the port doing business?” I felt a sensation rising in my throat.
“Can I get some water?” I burst out. He leant backwards in surprise, but came forward again.
“O’ course.” As Chip turned around to grab a glass and pitcher, I yanked my thermos out in my magic and drank heavily. When I saw him begin to turn around, I screwed the cap back on hastily and shoved it back into my side pocket. The action was followed closely by water bleeding from the gills beneath my hood.
“Use the cloth,” Keel suggested. I pulled the tied handkerchief from my neck and patted the area around my gills in attempt to dry it, just in time for Chip to set the glass of water down.
“Thanks,” I said, holding the glass with a hoof to take a small sip while the handkerchief kept my neck relatively dry. He raised an eyebrow at my multitasking.
“If you’re hot, you can just take off that jacket.”
“I’d prefer to keep it on,” I spat out a little too quickly. Sighing, he opened his mouth to speak.
“Hey Chip, pour me another one!” A stallion a couple seats away called. With a hesitating glance at me, he went to deal with the customer.
“So… What’s the story with you and Chip?” Keel asked, momentarily popping out of the hood to speak. I smiled, setting the glass down and tying the red handkerchief around my neck again.
“There’s really not much to it. My brother brought me to Gallante for our first voyage from the mainland together, and Chip treated me as if I was his own son as soon as we started talking.” I watched Chip chat enthusiastically with the stallion’s friend, whooping loudly at one of his own jokes. “My brother left me in Gallante a lot because he didn’t want me to get in trouble on the high-risk ventures, and Chip was there for all of it. I’ve got a lot of memories of working with him during the late hours.” I wanted to continue but Chip’s return prevented me from doing so.
“Where were we… right, right, Haybinger.” He seemed a little disgusted at that. “What were ye doing in Haybinger?” I chewed on my lip as I thought of what to say.
“Hiding.” Chip squeezed his eyes shut, setting his hooves down on the counter.
“And Gale?”
“He’s in prison, probably.” I cringed at the last word, having simply snuck into my speech out of habit. Chip slowly opened one eye, then the other.
“Probably?” He groaned, shaking his head as he held a cyan hoof against his beard. He rolled his jaw around a bit. “Blue, you’re wanted, aren’t you?” Reluctantly, I nodded my head. Chip went to say something else, but set his raised hoof back down on the counter. He stared at me for a while, making me squirm uncomfortably. I took another sip of water and dabbed at my neck in an effort to cool my nerves. It instead felt as if the temperature had raised a few degrees. He finally seemed to finish whatever he was contemplating in the form of a sigh.
“What’s been your plan?” My brain glossed over the line a few times, before I felt as if a gangplank had slammed into my horn at full speed.
What was my plan?
“Uh…” He waited patiently for me as I thought. “I was just doing odd jobs for ponies in Haybinger, but then the navy came into town and I got scared so I just climbed onto a caravel and I took it out to sea.” I took a breath and held it in, waiting for the reply.
“Blue… As much as I want to believe you, I find it hard to do so. You stole a caravel?” I nodded slowly. “On your own?”
“You can tell him about me, chick.” Keel whispered, digging a claw into my neck. It was small and harmless, but I shivered at the touch.
“Yes.” I lied through my teeth. Chip shook his head again, and I almost felt Keel shake his own head.
“Unbelievable. I’m obliged to not believe you, but then again, you’re right here.” He waved his disbelief off. “What are you gonna do now?”
“I was going to see if there were seaponies near the eastern islands—”
“Seaponies?” Chip resisted the urge to yell, and lowered his tone after clearing his throat. “Seaponies… Do you even know what you’re saying, Blue? Those waters are full of the narwhals from the northern waters—”
I cut him off. “I’m aware.” Chip blinked once. Then twice.
“You need a crew, you can’t just go out there alone!”
I made another lie. “I have my magic.” I raised a hoof as he went to speak. “But I do need a crew.”
“And what are you gonna do with that crew? Just go lookin’ for the ‘seaponies?’” He had a point there.
Keel dug his claws in again. “I’d throw in some treasure if I were you.”
“There’s treasure down there.” I rubbed a hoof against the back of my neck awkwardly, making Keel scramble back down into the hood to avoid being swatted. “We could look for that as a group.” Chip mouthed the word ‘treasure’ and mumbled something indistinguishable under his breath.
“Blue… that is…”
“One of the few choices I have.” I shrugged. “I’m not doing smuggling anymore, Glass. I want to do something honest with my life.” I looked over my shoulder. To Chipped Glass, it looked as if I was looking at the door to the bar, when in reality I was staring right at Keel. “I’ve heard from some ponies that the seaponies are real, and they need help.” Keel gave me a smile at that, and I smiled back. I looked back at Chip. “I believe in that, Chip, and I want to do something about it. The treasure’s just a bonus.” With my cards set up, I came close to his muzzle. “I know you have connections to ponies I can trust, so, will you help me?” Chip ran a hoof through his mane, watching the table to avoid my gaze.
He looked up with a small, toothless smile after a moment. “Of course I will. You know I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that.”
I returned a grin of my own. “Thanks, Chip.” He waved me off.
“Don’t thank me yet.” He made a motion with his hooves. “You remember where the inn is, right?”
“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s literally right next door.” He chuckled.
“There are some ponies you might remember there, just tell ‘em Chip sent ya and they’ll be onboard.” Nodding, I stood from the short stool.
“Thanks again, I’ll see you around, Chip.”
“You better!” he grinned. “And maybe next time we’ll talk properly!” I waved to him before I stepped out onto the moderately populated road. As I began walking to the inn, I pulled the thermos out and took a sip.
“Keel?”
“Yes?”
“Is there any actual treasure down there?” He laughed unrestrained, drawing the attention of a couple of ponies on the street. I awkwardly mimicked the chuckles of the griffin as we began to approach the inn.
