Caballeron

In the days to follow, the rats made a point to give the ponies an hour of fresh air on the deck, usually just after dawn when it was still cool. Up above, he was able to get a good look at Sable; the 5-inch cannons on either side of the bow, covered in canvas; the lighter cannons concealed only to the outside; the absolute military tidiness of everything... All very professional. It was on the second of these expeditions to the outside world that Caballeron got to confront his newest friend about something very important.

“Coco, do you have a moment?” he asked quietly, making sure the rat guards and sailors were all out of earshot. Coco looked confused for a moment, before realization came upon her.

“Yes, of course.” she said. “Is this about..?”

“Indeed, it is about that.” stated Caballeron, grimacing. “I am grateful beyond all words for your quick thinking, but was it really necessary to put mare's clothing in my box?”

Coco giggled; it was the first time he'd seen her smile since Adin. Which hadn't been that long ago, come to think of it... “I'm sure you thought of something clever.” she said.

“I told them they were for my sister.” He lowered his voice even further. “I don't even have a sister!”

“If only I had been present to see this.”

“I'm glad you weren't; Forestay and Captain Billet wouldn't let me hear the end of their crude jokes.” grumbled Caballeron. “Now Forestay thinks I'm a storybook villain and a secret cross-dresser!” He couldn't help but give a disdaining glare at Nutmeg's quartermaster.

“A storybook villain?” repeated Coco, confused. “That's not the impression I get from you.” Well, I'm certainly no hero, Caballeron couldn't help but think in response. He sighed, and then got to the point:

“Have you ever read the Daring Do novels?” The words left a bitterness in his mouth.

“Only vaguely. My friend from Ponyville writes about how two of her friends are obsessed with them...”

I heard a mare from Ponyville caused the author a great deal of trouble recently... Perhaps they are connected? A thought for another time. “A long time ago,” began Caballeron, “when I was helping teach classes at the University of Lithon, I had a student named A. K. Yearling. She wrote stories and asked if she could use my name for the villain. It apparently had a sinister ring to it. I didn't see anything harmful in it, I didn't think she'd sell anything. Well... she would. All of Yearling's stories were about a mare named Daring Do, who is exactly like Yearling but better in every way. You know that kind of character.”

“Like... some sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy?” asked Coco.

“Yes, that's my hunch as well. Anyways; Yearling turned out to be very good at archeology. Almost as good at me in our field of work. Almost. The department assigned her to an expedition out beyond the badlands; I offered to come along for some final educational lessons, which I thought this young mare would appreciate, given my expertise.” Caballeron suppressed a wordless growl of distaste. “She declined, citing reports of my apparent 'bad behavior.' I accepted her decision, but told her it was not a wise one. If only I knew how she was going to spin that.”

“Well, how did she?” Coco pressed.

“This is where things get complicated.” Caballeron sighed. “To put it simply... I had gotten in trouble with the department for making ends meet my own way. Yearling included that in her story, but wrote Daring Do's denial of my help in such a manner that it came off as her rejecting faux-Caballeron's appeal for teamwork. Faux-Caballeron then went off on his own, looted the dig site before they got there, and sold it all on the black market in revenge!” She knew his debts had come due and that no bank would offer him credit anymore, what else was he supposed to do? Let that band of fools, republicans, and socialists just take everything for their museums while he was threatened with debtor's prison?

“That's libel!” gasped Coco.

“I agree, but does anyone care? Of course not! That's how badly my reputation has suffered. She still writes these adventures of hers, making up evil deeds that I do for her inserted self to defeat. Apparently, I'm in league with a demon who is constantly trying to bring ruin on various properties...” Caballeron scowled into the distance. True, he did sell artifacts of power to a certain quasi-demon. However, he had never done it because he was evil! He had a standard of living to keep! “Let that be a lesson to you, Coco; some ponies will make it their life's goal to ruin you, just because they don't like you.”

“What a malicious thing to do!” stated Coco, looking cross. Her ears tilted back to match her frown. “I have a thing or two I'd like to say to this A. K. Yearling...”

That struck him in a peculiar way. Other ponies always believed what those wretched little train station novels had to say about his character. They believed he was exactly the way that horrible adventurer portrayed him. If only they knew the truth of the matter! “I'm glad you're on my side, Coco.” Caballeron confessed. “No pony else is.”

“I can't imagine why.” earnestly said Coco. She sounded like she actually meant that. “You've struck me as an upstanding and decent stallion, Doctor Caballeron.”

“Well... I've been known to be difficult to get along with.” he admitted. “I've met a lot of folk, all of them with goals as self-serving and cynical as any other. So I treat them in that manner. But you? You're simply too kind and honest to deserve the usual treatment.”

“I do try to hold myself to better standards, these days.” Coco said, smiling warmly again. “It seems Celestia's golden rule really does work!”

“It's pretty to think so.” Naive, she was hopelessly naive! But there was something almost endearing about how strong her hope and faith in good was. And despite his mood, Caballeron found himself smiling too.

“Alright, ponies, sunning time is over.” announced Sergeant Grimsly, herding them back below the decks. Grimsly was one of the shorter rats on the ship; indeed, most other rats with his light fur color were on the short side. If he didn't know any better, he could swear that a rat's height correlated with his fur color. Caballeron had noticed it before, but never really thought about it until now. It wasn't like he was short on thinking time.

The voyage continued. Caballeron spent most of his time locked up in the tiny cabin he was forced to share with Forestay and Captain Billet. It was not a pleasant experience, at first, but after the first few days, the other two stallions just settled on playing chess. Sergeant Grimsly had acquired it for them after an incident involving a bucket and mop on the deck one morning. Caballeron was not very good at the game, to the amusement of ponies and rats both. Chess, like in Adin, was quite popular aboard Sable.

As they went further south, the sun got higher and higher in the sky. It was imperceptible by itself, but Caballeron noted that the shadows were a little shorter every morning he spent on deck with Coco. It was a shame they only got a few minutes to talk, he was starting to look forward to their daily meetings.

Finally, a dreary five days had passed. Very little of note had happened. But one morning, the situation did change.

Author's Note

The seeds are planted for that other tag besides adventure to come into effect. And there's three days until the contest ends. And I'm almost out of previously written content.

S-send help.