Carte Blanche: The Paradox of Hedonism

Carte Blanche: The Paradox of Hedonism | Chapter 1

Clear skies bathed a Zebrican merchant ship in fresh sunlight as its sails dropped around two massive masts, collecting enough air to put the ship into full sail. Not a single cloud was visible for miles in every direction, leaving the waves calm off of Equestria’s southern shores so that the many ships sailing in and out of the coastal towns and villages may move unmolested. Ships of all nationalities—from Cervidas to Boarador or Equestria’s own ships—sailed into and out of port alongside the single merchant ship.

Zebras ran to and fro along the ship’s deck, securing the masts and sails as they dropped and deftly tying knots around the rings meant for the ropes. The crew no doubt all originated from Zebrica, with their darkly colored and striped coats as well as their many golden rings and piercings covering their bodies. However, many had the look of a grizzled seapony about them. Their coats remained crusty to the sea air no matter how much they scrubbed at the coastal inns they stayed at, and they all wore caps or coats of some kind to protect them from the cool nights.

The captain of the ship—a burly male zebra with a pair of goggles strapped to his forehead and a brown, ragged cloak fastened around his neck—strode along the decks between his crew. He wore numerous facial and ear piercings, and he had rings engraved with various intricate patterns attached to one of his hooves. His gaze that drifted among his fellow zebras was that of ice and one who knew that they were in command.

A female zebra trotted up to the captain and saluted, a forehoof slapping against her forehead. The captain eyed her for a moment before nodding his head, allowing for her to lower her hoof.

“Captain, all sails are secured, sir,” she said, her voice heavy with a Zebrican accent*. “If the weather keeps up and we continue to have the wind at our backs, we should reach Whoazambique in a week.”

“Very good, Mira.” The captain nodded. His voice also had a Zebrican accent, but not nearly as strong as Mira’s. “Is the cargo secured?”

“Cargo is secured and ready for inspection, sir.” She relaxed slightly and looked back at the cabin that led below decks. “We have quite a bit of a haul with us this time. It is a wonder how we made it past Equestrian inspection.”

“Equestrian inspection is a joke,” the captain laughed. “They wouldn’t know cocaine from sugar. There hasn’t been a threat to this nation in nearly a thousand years, so what makes them think there would be anything soon?”

“Our cargo isn’t something as easily concealable as crack, sir,” the mare stated. “In fact, I would say that unless a guard merely glanced at our ship, we should have been found out.”

The captain snarled. “You may be my first mate, Mira, but you should really refrain from asking too many questions. You may find something out you’d rather have not.”

The captain pushed passed Mira, who hastily gave him another salute and watched him walk away. Small beads of sweat formed on her brow.

“Yes, sir,” Mira said as the captain opened the door that lead to below decks. The faint smell of musk entered his nostrils and he smiled, closing the door behind him. The steps creaked under his descent, and beneath the deck the rock of the ship from the Eternal Sea’s water felt more prevalent.

When the captain reached below deck, he turned and walked through another door that lay behind the stairs. Slowly the door creaked open, and the captain was met with the sight of rows and rows of ponies lining the walls and center of the ship. Pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns all bunched together and either staring down at the manacles that encased their hooves or trying to catch up on whatever sleep they could manage. In the back he heard a few sobs, but as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, not a single pony looked up to see who might be entering.

As the captain slowly made his way towards the back of the room, the faint smell of bile wafted towards him and he grimaced. The first of the sea sickness plagued the ponies below deck, and it was only a matter of time before the stench became more powerful. He took shallower breaths as he continued to walk, blocking out the putrid smell that emanated from somewhere within the room.

Walking through one of the rows of ponies, the captain saw out of the corner of his eyes glances of distaste or abhorrence. He didn’t blame them, these were ponies who had been pulled from their homes, after all. They lived in the free land of Equestria where the benevolent princesses ruled with both firmness and compassion, but that, of course, didn’t stop the corrupt bureaucrats who acted from the side lines. Loans had to be paid and debts had to be collected on, so ponies had no choice but to turn to less legal options in order to make their money. Suffice to say, there were some consequences upon turning to said less legal opportunities.

The captain stopped in front of one particular pony, turning his body to face her and looking down. She was a filly unicorn with a dark grey coat and a mane and tail that sported three different colors—light grey, dark blue, and light blue. She had yet to earn her cutiemark and find her special talent, leaving her a blank flank. The manacles from the lines of chains were much too large for her small hooves, forcing the crew to use simple rope as an alternate means to secure her below deck.

Frowning to himself, the captain kicked the little filly’s hooves, jerking her awake. She squeaked and backed away from him, but when she felt the tug of the ropes on her hooves she stopped and looked down. He heard the whimpers coming from the filly before she even looked up at him again, and then he saw the tears in her eyes when she did.

“Ah yes, confusion is what I see in your eyes, young one,” the captain said without a hint of sympathy. “Are you wondering what you’re doing in such a dark room with so many ponies, your hooves tied to the floor and the stench of bile easing its way into your nostrils?”

The filly’s look of confusion slowly became mixed with a slight tinge of terror and she tried to back away from the captain as far away as the ropes would allow. He chuckled as he watched her crawl. When the ropes went taut, the captain stepped forward to close the gap.

“What’s your name, young one?” the captain asked.

“C-caligula,” the filly said in a quiet and squeaky voice.

“Caligula?” the captain repeated. “What an interesting name. And how old are you, Caligula?”

“E-eight.”

“Eight. Wow, you are quite young. Perhaps the youngest one here.” The captain glanced around the room. “Or maybe just the only filly here.”

Caligula squeaked and her tail wrapped around her hooves. The captain reached out a hoof and put it under her chin, gently raising it up so that she could look him in the eyes.

“You know, I was there when they came for you, Caligula,” the captain said darkly, a smile spread across his lips. “A couple of couriers on this very ship knocking on your parent’s door and demanding that the payments that they owed be paid for immediately. I can only assume that they had been missing payments for a few years now.” He chuckled. “Seems like they still didn’t have the money, so they had to give something else up.”

Tears rolled down Caligula’s face as she listened to the captain, and her tail wrapped even more tightly around her hooves. She started shaking her head.

“N-no. My parents love me,” she whined. “They wouldn’t ever give me up.”

“Oh?” the captain asked, cocking his head. “Then why are you sitting here below the deck of my ship? I’m a slave trader, Caligula, and you happen to be a part of my cargo. Oh, don’t worry, your parents pleaded and cried for us not to take you, but it didn’t matter. We drugged you and took you on board the ship.” He sneered at her. “They didn’t even try to stop us once we were out the front door.”

“No, that can’t be true,” Caligula protested. “They must have.”

“Now that I think about it, perhaps they wanted to,” the captain mused. “Unfortunately with you in our hooves, any further involvement with those spineless coneheads would have resulted in you getting killed, and that would have been a very messy day for everypony.”

Caligula screamed and charged at the captain, but he stepped back out of the length of the ropes. She lost her balance once the ropes went taut again and fell flat on her face. Groaning, she slowly pushed herself up and looked at the captain as some tears trickled down her face.

“Y-you’re a good for nothing…” Caligula trailed off, her breathing turning heavy. “I want to go home.”

“I’m sure that many of these ponies would agree with you, but unfortunately that’s not the case,” the captain said. “You’re mine now, and in time, you’ll be somepony elses. Get used to this new life of yours, foal. It might be the last that you get.”

The filly burst into tears now, laying on her stomach and covering her eyes with her hooves. The captain watched, apathetic to her pathetic whimpers and cries, until he felt several eyes of the other slaves staring him. A small snarled twisted his lips and he turned around, glaring at the rest of the ponies sitting in the room.

“Where you’re all going, my little ponies,” the captain said mockingly, “is a land where the love and compassion of your goddesses falls short of naught. You are nothing more than an item, no, a possession, of somepony else who deems you worthy to be taken into service. You all have failed somewhere, somehow, to meet the courteous demands of those who have helped you, and so you must pay the price owed to them.”

The captain’s snarl faded when nary a peep was said back to him. The only sounds below deck were the creaking of the ship as it rocked on the Eternal Sea’s waves and the small filly crying behind him. With a snort the captain took a note out from his coat pocket, placed it next to Caligula’s hooves, spun on his hooves, and turned towards the door that lead up the stairs to the top deck.

“I trust you all will have a comfortable and safe trip,” the captain added dryly. “Please be courteous of the crew and refrain from making a mess.” He stopped at the door and flicked his tail. “And one more thing. Any attempt of escape will be met with severe consequences.”

The captain stepped through the door and trotted up the stairs. Mira stood waiting for him when he came back on deck, and with a quick salute she followed him towards the bow of the ship.

“How is the cargo holding up, sir?” Mira asked.

“Fantastically terrified,” the captain replied. “We’ll be getting no trouble from them while on our voyage to Whoazambique.” When they reached the bow of the ship, he threw his forehooves over the railing and stared out into the sea. “Start rationing out the food for the trip and take inventory of our supplies. I want to make sure that we can sail away from the city and up to Cervidas without needing to restock our supplies.”

“Yes, sir.” Mira replied. She then added hesitantly, “Sir, there was a filly brought on board the ship before departure. May I ask how she is faring?”

“You may,” the captain said slowly. “She is too young, too naive, to have her life changed as drastically as it has been. A dark filly living in a coastal Equestrian city will be torn apart in a nation like Zebrica.”

Mira glanced around to make sure that none of the other crew were nearby. “We could always keep the filly for ourselves.”

“And risk having the crime lords from Zebrica hunt our ships down to the ends of the known world? I don’t think so, Mira. Go take you and your fancies and get that job done.”

“Yes, sir.” Mira said and trotted off.

The captain breathed a sigh of relief as Mira left and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a compass. He flipped open the top hatch and watched as the arrow inside quickly spun towards the direction of north, the opposite direction of the ship’s current route.

Meanwhile, below the deck of the ship, a little filly lay curled up on the floor. Freshly wet cheeks darkened the fur on her face, leaving two long lines that extended all of the way down to her chin. She folded the note open and read over the contents scribbled onto it.

Our dearest Caligula,

We are so sorry. We thought we had more time, but in our foolish efforts we lost the one thing that we were most proud of in the world. Please stay safe, we’re going to miss you so much. We’ll see each other again one day, we promise.

Love,

Mother and Father

Caligula crumpled the letter up in her hoof and clutched it to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks once again.