Flugelhorn of my youth

For most crystal ponies the empire was now a wonderful place to live with the final defeat of Sombra thanks to the empire's great hero...Spike the Dragon... But it was not a better place for one pony..  It was not a nice place at all for Captain Silver Aircutter....

The trouble was that everypony who knew him or of him were quick to remember the bad things and they didn't bother to remember the good things that he did but he could hardly blame them.. Nopony liked a tax collector and when you were the only tax collector of a cruel and quite insane unicorn pony... It was even worse and when one added the fact that he went around stealing and/or finding treasures that belonged to other ponies or in a museum.. So it naturally bothered ponies that he was even around them.. Much less having him living next door.

He could accept the punishment of being Sombra's personal pirate more than the tax collecting because there were still tax collectors but there was no point in telling anypony that things could've been worse.. A lot worse. There was also the fact that his cutiemark was a pirate flag.. True it was a very famous old crystal pony pirate flag that once represented freedom if somepony bothered to look for the older history books and scrolls that Sombra didn't want anypony reading but wanted to keep because they held many  great secrects and so they were buried in the catacombs of the library and were forgotten except by the likes of somepony like himself.  But thankfully like anypony who was able to recover forgotten relics he too knew when to keep something secret.

Perhaps if he had told them one of the secrets they might be more friendly but that could mean revealing secrets that were best left buried. He was perhaps the only pony that had seen how much Sombra really wanted to rule the world and not just the empire..

So he kept that fact a secret but lucky for him  building a crystal airship was not one of his best left buried secrets but that didn't mean it was going to be easy for him to build one... Much less find out how to build it's  top secret crystal solar engine that was buried somewhere inside the huge mound of scrolls that he was now looking though..

Building a crystal airship was a part of their long almost forgotten past that predated Sombra by 2000 years.. Once the crystal empire built many such ships long before Sombra took over. It was one of the reasons it was still called an empire.. Because they had kept the secrets of how to build one for their own use and in their heyday day they were on par with the trains of today.. Now he just needed find...

" Blast it! Where is that scroll? I know it was here when I first found it!" Aircutter  muttered as he went though a huge pile of scrolls that made a pile that even Pinkie Pie might think twice about grabbing one from the bottom and yet that was exactly what he was somehow managing to do though it quaked with from the last withdraw ...

Then he stopped and looked at the scroll .. Only the most secret of the old crystal scrolls were made out this kind of paper and he looked at it.

" YES! Found it! Now I can finish building my airship!  I know I may be overdoing it but if I must leave the Crystal empire then I'm doing it in style and I'm doing it like a proper pirate should do... I'm going by a ship! " Aircutter said happily but then he suddenly got a bad feeling and he looked up at the pile..

The scroll pile then quaked again and fell down and nearly buried him and that caused him to  lose the scroll, He sighed and began to dig for it again and thankfully he found it quickly..

He tucked it under his good left wing.. Then with his good left eye he sadly looked at the covered stump that once was his right wing that had been savagely cut off by Sombra when he was but a young colt when for the second time tried to refuse to serve him and he had only wanted to play a Flugelhorn.. The first time had cost him his right eye.. Another two reasons to build a airship..

He wanted to fly again even if it was by airship. Thankfully his coat hid the whip scars on his back from the times that Sombra didn't get what he wanted... They were his other reason to leave the empire.. Too many bad memories..

He left the library and went home which ironically used to be Sombra's giant warehouse that he had kept some of his stolen treasures in so no ponies came around because of their bad rep  but he still had to work quickly if he wanted to leave in time.

There were plenty of ponies who wanted to demolish the place because they were not needed to remind them of Sombra ..  In fact he had a week before Princess Cadence had the  warehouse torn down and build a children's play center. She even had a ceremony planned at the end of the week and it was going to be a close call for him...Very close!

" Crystal Ponies... Today we are here to build a children's playground where once King Sombra kept much of his gotten goods. Now instead of this place being a place of unhappy tears let there be the laughter of young ponies of all kinds as I cut this ribbon and...What's that noise? "Cadence asked as she stopped mid-way from cutting the ribbon and looked up.

" it's the roof of the warehouse!  I don't know how but It's-It's opening!!! " Said the nondescript pony who was sitting in the bulldozer.

All jaws dropped as a strange ship nearly the size of the whole warehouse that made of some kind of crystal began to fly over their heads and then stopped for a moment and Captain Aircutter's face looked down at a very surprised Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor looked up with dropped jaws as they read the name of the ship.. S.S. Airhoof and then they looked at the face of most white crystal pegi pony they ever saw.

" So you must be Princess Cadence and may I say what a honor it is to finally be able to meet you; I'd like to say that while I bear no ill will against you and the rest of the crystal ponies I think it's for the best that I leave you and try my luck at being accepted elsewhere seeing how many ponies here misjudged me based solely on the fact I once was more or less forced to work as King Sombra's righthoof pony.. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be taking my leave of this place and trying my luck at Ponyville! " Aircutter said

" Wait! Who are you!?" Shining Armor asked loudly as he shook off the shock of seeing the airship.

I am Captain Silver Aircutter! He yelled back and the airship began to move again as the ponies watched the airship fly into the sky with slack jaws..

" Oh dear! However will I ever explain this one to Aunt Princess Celestia? " Cadence asked as the airship disappeared into the sky.

' And how will I explain this one to Twilly? " Shining Armor asked as they looked at each other and wondered what they would make of this unexpected development.