"Hide the rum."
Twilight groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Looking around, she saw that she was in a small room that seemed to be swaying a bit. She soon found a mass of pink and yellow in her vision as a pegasus mare looked her over.
"Oh good. You're awake," the pegasus said.
"Why does the room feel like it's swaying?" Twilight asked.
"You're on a ship at sea," the pegasus said.
"WHAT?!" Twilight snapped as she sat up, only to gasp in pain and press her hoof to her side.
"You mustn't move so quickly," the pegasus said, helping her out of bed. "You might reopen your wounds."
"My wounds?" Twilight asked as she looked at her body, which was wrapped in bandages. "What happened?! Where am I?! Who are you?! Where are my clothes?!"
The pegasus seemed to shy away and hide behind her mane. "Um, you were injured, you're aboard a ship at sea, as I said before; my name is Fluttershy, and your clothes were pretty much destroyed in the events that led to your injuries."
"Get me something to wear, right now!" Twilight snapped.
Fluttershy whimpered and hid behind a chair. "The captain picked this dress out for you." She pointed the garment in question out.
Twilight lifted the dress in her telekinesis, expecting it to be revealing, but it was actually modest. Getting into it, she found it to be not only modest, but comfortable. Something she found a nice change from what she typically wore. "I'm going above deck." Not caring that Fluttershy was following her, Twilight made her way to the deck, gasping in pain and shielding her eyes as the sun hit her face. Once her vision adjusted, she saw the crew going about their duties and that the ship was in the middle of the ocean. No land in sight. Then she took note of the crew itself. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns in equal measure working together and by all accounts having a good time of it. Then Twilight noticed what she considered a shocking sight: the crew also had minotaurs, griffons, zebras, and even some changelings.
"Ah! Our guest woke up!" a ruby red unicorn stallion called, getting the crew's attention as he came up to Twilight. "Welcome aboard the Libertad, Ms. Sparkle."
"The Libertad?!" Twilight gasped. "As in, the ship crewed by one of the most infamous pirate crews on the seas?!" That got the whole crew laughing.
"Infamous to those self serving, holier than thou nobles, since we're a pain in their collective asses!" a rainbow maned pegasus got out through her laughter.
The stallion that had drawn the crew's attention to Twilight grinned at her. "I'm Facet, the captain of this ship. The rainbow maned one is Rainbow Dash, our navigator. That's Big Macintosh, our quartermaster; Pinkie Pie and Gilda, musician and cook respectively; Iron Will and Apple Bloom, the shipwrights; Scootaloo, head gunner; and you've met Fluttershy, our doctor." As he spoke, Facet pointed out a heavy built earth pony stallion with a darker red coat, a pink mare with a mane and tail that resembled cotton candy, a gruff but friendly looking griffon, a grinning minotaur, a yellow earth pony filly with a red bow in her hair, an orange pegasus filly with a grin on her face, and the shy doctor. All were dressed in simple yet certainly appropriate clothes. A lot of dark browns to them that was in pretty good condition despite the life at sea. Facet's had a pretty ornate, yet functional, coat befitting a captain. That was surprising to Twilight.
"So why am I out here with you, and why aren't we being pursued?" Twilight asked.
"OOH OOH!!! Pick me! Pick me!" Pinkie called, hopping and waving her hoof with an excited smile on her face.
Sighing, Twilight pointed at Pinkie.
"Well, we stopped off in Marevana for supplies and to have a few drinks," Pinkie started. "I was playing music for all the drinking ponies when some ponytail twins and a big unicorn came in all high and mighty. The big unicorn was a meanie mean pants, telling everybody that taxes were due and one stallion complained that Prince Blueblood raised taxes while lowering wages and the meanie had him killed! Then I thought, 'Happy hour's over! Time for everything to suck!' Facet watched from a distance, took a second to sober up, looked at Big Mac with a subtle foreleg movement signal telling him to make a toast with the people! Then he let all of them know it was a toast to death! You know, you really shouldn't toast before you know what the toast is for. Then things got fun again! Ursa hug, head bash, bottle smash, slow mo person pass, stab face! Again and again and again! Meanie mean pants tried to stab Facet and got stabbed in the neck! Then Facet stole his wallet, I mean, he's a pirate so of course he'd steal his wallet! Duh! Then Facet sent a note to the ship saying to start shooting at the fort and for us to raid the manor while he went to kill Blueblood! But things got out of hoof and we had to run and Facet teleported onto the ship with you on his back and called for Fluttershy! We sailed out into the open sea and here we are!"
Twilight stared at Pinkie in confusion. Wondering how the mare had said so much without stopping to breathe. Then she registered mention of Blueblood and rounded on Facet. "You tried to kill my fiance?!"
"Perhaps I can explain things better than Pinkie," Facet said. He looked back at the crew. "Back to your stations!" As the crew got back to work, he looked at Twilight. "Walk with me, Ms. Sparkle."
Twilight looked at him with a wary look as she started a walk around the Libertad's deck with its infamous captain. "I'm listening."
