The Ballad Of The Righteous Sun

The Ballad of the Righteous Sun

Come little filles, i'll tell ye a tale

of the ship Righteous Sun

and her captain Lightsail

        Twas a cold October Morning on the north shores of Equestria. The ocean sat motionless in the twilight as a young filly stared out into it's abyss. She watched the small waves crash in to the sand, one after the other while humming a tune. She kicked at the small rocks near her hoof. Her pink fur almost camouflaged in the luster of the sand at sunset. The salty air blew her light green mane. This was her usual evening routine. Her mother would be inside cooking while her dad was out in the town closing up shop at his market. This left her just enough time between her school work and bed to sit out on the beach and watch Celestia's sun disappear beneath the horizon.

Her dad always told great tales of his time as a sailor with the Equestrian Navy. They filled her with wonderment. Some of his stories were so grand that they were almost unbelievable. He spoke a lot of his time with the most legendary captain in the entire Equestrian Armada. Lightsail, so close a friend was she to her father that he named his only child after her. In his old age however, his memory began slipping. A result, he said, of a head injury he sustained in a battle during the Great Shadowy War. That was the one experience he did not speak much about. He was slowly losing his memories of his days in the Navy.

"Lightsail! Come inside! Dinner is almost ready and your father is almost home!"

The little filly turned around and shouted back, "Ok mom! In a minute, the sun is almost down!" Her mother smiled and shook her head from the back door of the wooden home on the hill.

The sun was almost below the horizon when a small flash of light appeared near the beach. A small glimmer in the waves. Lightsail stood up and walked closer to the water. There, a few yards off shore was a large glass container. The sun slowly set beyond the horizon, but not before casting one last ray of light that made the bottle shine. Almost as if Celestia herself wanted that bottle to be seen.

The little filly stepped in the frigid water and immediately withdrew her hoof. If she were a unicorn she could just levitate the bottle to her, or if she were a pegasi she could fly out and get it without setting hoof in the water. She looked back at the house and again in to the water where the bottle floated. She contemplated her decision for a short minute before stepping back in the water. Something about this bottle appealed to her, as if it was meant for her. Inch by inch she submerged in to the icy black. Eventually the water was too deep for her to stand. With the bottle only a few feet in front of her muzzle, she jumped and started kicking her legs.

Despite living by the water for her whole life, she never swam. Her father forbade it and her mother always agreed with him. Something about the ocean taking too much from him already. She wildly kicked her legs and swam out to the bottle. She snatched the bottle with her mouth and turned around to see a large dark form swimming toward her from the shore. It grabbed her with powerful hooves and pulled her back in to land.

"Lightsail! What do ye think yer doin!" Her father set the little filly on the beach. "How many times must I tell ye to ne'r go in the water without me or yer mum here!" He pulled his red hat off his head and ran a dark grey hoof through his brown mane. He sighed and sat down and looked at his daughter. Her head was hung low and she was idly kicking at the bottle she found in the water.

"What's this then?" He picked up the bottle with one hoof and inspected it.

"Buck! Is she ok!?" Misty called from the house.

"I'm ok mom!" Lightsail called back. "I'm not a baby anymore" she muttered under her breath. Buck patted her head. "Aye, yer not, but that doesn't mean we arent gonna stop worryin 'bout ya." He turned his attention back to the bottle and noticed something in it. It was a large scroll.

"Well, would ya look at this! Lightsail! Ya found a good ol' fashioned message in a bottle! I han't seen one o these in years!"

Lightsail looked up at her dad, "What's a message in a bottle?"

Buck adjusted his position so he was sitting next to Lightsail and wrapped a hoof around her shoulder. "Back in my sailin days, when a ship were to sink, the cap'n would take their memoirs and put them in a bottle. So one day a pony might happn cross it an' know their tale! Some ponies would write them fer fun, others wrote them when they got stranded an' use them to call fer help." He turned the bottle over in his hoof. "I woner which one this be?"

"Buckfast! Lightsail! Come inside, lets eat!" Misty called down from the house.

Lightsail and Buckfast stood up. "Cmon then, lets go inside and open it!" Buckfast said, smiling at his daughter. They both ran up to the house and shut the door behind them. The inside of the house was simple. constructed mostly of wood, hoof made by Buckfast. The entire house had a rustic and warm feel to it. There was a stone fireplace in the living area along with Lightsail's bed. The kitchen sat at the back of the house with a round wooden table. Various pictures and plaques adorned the wall. War medals, old family pictures, various important news clippings with pictures of Buckfast  on it. There was a master bedroom adjacent to the living room. The ponies hooves clopped across the wood floor as they entered and sat down at the table.

"What do you have there Lightsail?" Misty said as she set a plate down in front of her daughter, levitating it with her magic. Lightsail set the bottle on the table, "It's a message in a bottle!" Misty laughed. "Have you opened it yet sweetie?"

"No not yet! But daddy said we can open it now!" She said with a wide smile on her face. A towel plopped down on her head and started rubbing her dry. "Aye! I did didn' I?" Buckfast said as he dried off the still soaking wet filly. He removed the towel and tossed it aside as he sat down. "Go ahead an' open it then!"

Lightsail beamed. She grabbed the bottle and started tearing at the cork with her teeth, trying to remove it from the top. Eventually, after much struggling the cork popped out and bounced off the walls before landing on the table in front of Buckfast. He picked up0 the cork and inspected it. A small "R.S." was inscribed on the top. His eyes shot open. Lightsail removed the scroll from the bottle and immediately it seemed to grow 5 times in size. Whoever put it in the bottle enchanted it so it could be removed easily but still hold a large volume.

She unrolled the scroll on the table and cleared her throat.

"Lightsail...." Her father interrupted her before she began reading. "Before ye begin, what is the title on the top o' the scroll."

Confused, Lightsail read aloud...

"Memoirs of the Captain Lightsail... the Ballad of the Righteous Sun"

She looked up at her father. Her mother looked over at him too. His eyes were pasted open and locked on the scroll. "Daddy... are you ok?"

"Buckfast." Misty said, wrapping her arms around him. "Is this the captain Lightsail."

He stood up and grabbed the scroll from his daughter. His eyes flew over the pages. "Aye, this is the memoirs of my cap'n."