Chapter 1, Try not to Drown
Jack was a young naive man, only nineteen and already aboard a ship, he had always wanted to sail the seas, to see the world, but why was it that the one day he could make it to the port, it had to be the day an infamous Pirate was looking for a new crew.
It didn't matter much to him, he had been assigned cabin boy, meaning no boarding parties for him to take part in, just load one of the cannons on the top deck during battle and clean the ship. But he never expected what happened to him next.
30 minutes earlier
Jack was on the lower cannon deck mopping sick and other nasty business from the deck after some of the other sailors had got a wee bit drunk a few hours before. They had just raided a British whaling ship, killing all but two of the crew members, taking all its gold and other valuables and setting fire to the ship. It had been an easy raid, and the wind was in their favor. The fog had been thick, and the ship didn't even see them coming. Jack had been by the captains side just before the raid.
"Right then, as this is the first raid you will be apart of, I thought you would like to see it from my point of view" The captain had said. He explained how they knew where the other ship was. "if you listen carefully, you can hear them on the breeze, the bell ringing, the crew talking and other daily routines." Jack listened and sure enough he could hear people talking, and a bell ringing.
"Now then, a crew like mines trained to be silent, otherwise a quarter master will punish them. you get your ship right up next to the edge of the fog, and if you look out there, you can see the light from the lamps, you see, you line them up with a broadside and.....FIRE!" the captain shouted, as all the canons opened fire on an unsuspecting ship.
Jack stood still as he remembered the feeling of the whole ship shaking as the canons fired, the smell of gunpowder, and the sound of cannon balls zipping through the air. Then there where the sounds he would rather forget, the screams of the other ships crew, as they were torn apart by cannon balls, flying wood and grape shot. It was the worst sound he had ever heard, it made his stomach crawl every time he remembered it. but he quickly put it at the back of his mind when a sailor threw up on a freshly cleaned spot of the deck.
"I just cleaned that." He said, a bit annoyed
"Well clean it again!" Came a snobby reply from another sailor.
"Or no share of the bounty!" Cried another, a round of laughter filled the deck.
Yet something nagged at the back of Jack's mind, something bad was about to happen.
Not five feet from Jack, at a small table, three crew men disappeared in a thick cloud of smoke, splinters flying everywhere. A scream could be heard. Jacks mind flashing back to the raid, he now knew what the other crew must have felt like when they were attacked. Scared. More explosions could be heard from outside as cannon balls ripped through the ship. Men scrambled to get to their cannons, some men ripped in half by splinters of wood and cannon balls alike.
Jack stood still, his world slowed down around him as a cannon ball passed inches in front of his face. He snapped out of it and dropped the broom running for the stairs. More explosions and bits of wood flew past him as more cannonballs tore through the ship. The screams of the dying and wounded filling the air in between volleys.
The ships cannons started to return fire. Jack was rushing to get to his canon. He made it onto the mid deck to see a worse sight than the lower deck. There was no one left, the whole deck was painted a dark red, which oozed down the walls and spread across the wood, making the floor slippery. Jack carried on, slipping on the red liquid as more canon balls impacted the side of the ship, tripping over items on the floor he didn't want to look at, but could easily guess they were the remains of the crew that had been on this deck all torn to pieces.
After a struggle to get through the chaos Jack finally made it to the top deck. He looked around to see three British frigates and a Ship of the Line circling the pirate ship. They looked beautiful, their yellow and black paint work gleaming in the sunlight. Then, they were hidden by the smoke from a new round of broadsides. Their flags fluttering in the wind.
Jack looked around the deck and noticed the main mast had been cut in two and was in the water. The poop deck was gone and the captain was no where to be seen. The captains cabin was on fire and the flag was slowly falling from the sky.
Again Jacks world slowed down, a cannon ball tore through the floor, sending him flying over the edge of the ship. He fell into the water, wood slowly rotating around him. More cannon balls ripped through the ship as more men died. Explosions ripped the front of the ship apart as the gunpowder stores took a direct hit. Jack was about to resurface, a cannon fell out of the ship and landed on his stomach dragging him down into the Ice cold depths below. The rest of the crew, floating lifelessly around him. The once great pirate ship, racing him down to the bottom of the ocean.
"Oh god, help me, I don't want to die." Jack thought to himself. "Please, I don't want to drown. I should never had gone to the port, someone please, help me?"
"What would you do to survive?" Asked a voice, a female voice, one that seemed kind, generous and some how warmed the water around him
"Anything" Jack thought, "please I don't want to die, I will do anything." A small white light appeared in front of him, growing larger and larger until it engulfed everything around him. The weight of the cannon disappeared, and the water faded from existence...
Jack awoke to find himself in a bed, with silk covers and feather mattress. He went to get off, but couldn't keep his balance. He looked at his legs, yet they couldn't be his legs, could they? There were no feet, just hooves. He had hooves, a set of blue hooves. He looked at his hands and sure enough they were blue hooves as well.
"What the hell, Where on earth am I?" He said to himself.
"Equestria" Came the reply. Jack spun around to see a large horse standing behind him. It had long flowing hair and, wait... wings and a horn. Is that even possible? The creature walked towards him.
"I am Princess Celestia. Welcome to my kingdom." She said, as if this was normal.
"I am sorry Princess, but why am I here? HOW did I get here?" Jack asked confused. The Princess looked at him, then walked over to the window and stared out of it.
“I am the Princess of the Sun, I raise the Sun in the morning and Lower it at night. However, I am more powerful than most believe. I sense things, and sometimes hear things. Last night I awoke to a horrid sound, a sound I wish nopony should ever have to hear in this land. War.” A tear started to roll down her cheek. “But to be more precise, I heard everything you heard. I then started to smell everything, and then see everything you saw. I was near vomiting. When you were knocked into the sea, my heart sank, I had been watching you for most of your day and had started to connect to you. I knew you didn’t want to be there. I knew you hated it. But when you begged for help, I did the one thing I knew how. I transported you to my world, changed your image, and gave you a new chance at life. Welcome to Equestria, Shimmering Honor.” She turn to Jack.
He looked shocked, and scared. The world he knew was now gone. He no longer lived in the cruel unforgiving world he had known most his life. Now he was free to start afresh, be who he wanted to be. He was a new man. No… wait, thats not right He was a new Pony…
Author's Note
If you want to help continue this... leave a comment and I will look over your work (if you have any) and I will look for a suitable collab partner
