Dark was the night (cold was the ground)

Now, there is a tale of love, loss, and life after death; these are the prime factors that I will share with you. Along this journey you will find that my life was put through the ringer, so to say. I was a part of a crew that sailed the seas looking for a lot of things that would satisfy our lust. This is the tale of the Widow's Bane and her crew.

It was a fair day to set sail on the open seas, we just left port after resupplying our ship, the next stop on our voyage was the small harbor town, Skeleton's Cage, odd name for a port town right. That is what I thought when I first arrived there, the land that we were on was called Equestria, a land filled with lore, magic, and more dead bodies than one would care to know about. The reason why we landed in that harbor town was because of the old lore of magic, yes I know that it sounds silly right magic, nothing more than superstition which was mostly associated with the local hoodoo and voodoo of our land. There is a much darker side though, the land of Equestria is full of that said magic and some of the older stories that I have heard of this land, the people can raise the dead or at least that is what I have been told; I think it is mostly old lore and random nonsense that the folks make up to scare their children.

Well that is what I thought, when we arrived it was an overcast day and it looked like it was going to rain any minute. I chatted with the locals about some of the towns in the area, I heard the Captain say something about staying a while because he wanted to look into some things, something to do with the magic of this land. So I got some supplies, bought a horse and road off into the great unknown that was Equestria, the guy I bought the horse from said something about a small farming town called Ponyville. I wondered what I would do in a small farm town, mostly I burned down those towns when we were plundering, see we are what you call Pirates, we rape, pillage and plunder valuables, weather it be gold, jewels, or other valuables like that, but what we really wanted was the women from all of the plundering that we did. The captain was a very superstitious man and told the crew that there will be no women on board the ship, bad luck and angering the sea, some bullshit like that.

The town was about a three day's ride from Skeleton's Cage, so setting out I had my guns at my side with extra powder and lead balls, just in case. The first town I came upon was a small little settlement, it was dark, the harvest moon shone brightly over the path I traveled. The clouds were trying to choke out the moonlight as I entered the small town. Thunder rolled in the distance and not more than about twenty minutes passed as I was looking around the town for a bar, it started to downpour. Wet and cold trying to look for someplace where I could get dry, I found a small tavern. Walking in soaked and cold from the rain, I slowly walked to the bar counter and asked for a pint. Everyone turned and looked my direction, suspicion of the stranger in their quiet little tavern made everyone feel uneasy.

"I am looking for a small farming town called Ponyville, you know of it?" I said in a sharp voice to the barkeep.

"Ya, I know of it what's it to ya pal." The barkeep said, the malice running off his lips

"I am headed there, I hear they raise the dead or something like that." I shot back, the room got quiet, fast.

"Look buddy, nothing good ever comes out of that town, except for the clothing from some dress maker who lives there. I don't  know why the lass lives in that god forsaken town, maybe she wants to for some strange fucking reason. Don't go there!!! Unless you want to end up as one of the dead, let me tell you a tale of that little town lad." The keep said warning me of something much darker than we have heard stories of.

"The story of Dead Eye Daryl." he began as he took a mug and set it down on the counter behind him. "Well he rolled into town about a year ago, looking for secrets of old lore he had heard. There was a gypsy who told fortunes to the folk passing through, she was a pretty young thing had a mop of curly hair  kept up in a bandanna, she told him to leave and not look back on this town. He didn't head her warning. so deciding to live there, he worked as a local smithy, until one day he heard a knock on his door, opened it up be but a whore. So the night was long and, the day broke, she was gone he turned up dead; now some say that there is a mage in the town goes by the name Sparkle or something like that. Well she is a necromancer ya see, went a top the old hill outside of town, the folk there call it sentinel hill, there were flashes of lightning and the ground shook somethin' fierce, next thing the town's folk knew was Daryl walked among them once more, but sometin was off ya see, his eyes were a glaze and his flesh pale like full moonlight." The barkeep took a long pause, breathing in and out slowly before he started again "now the town's folks didn't take kindly to the monstrosity that was Dead Eye Daryl, as they called him. So in a rage they killed him again, only to have him put to rest under the necromancer's oak tree, for ya see that is where she did most of her witchcraft." He finished, I looked at him. Pale is all I could see, there was no color in his face what so ever.

"Now, you want me to beleive that Dead Eye Daryl is burried beneath the necromancer's oak tree." I told him in a sarcastic tone

"Aye lad, so don't go wonderin into that town. You could end up like Dead Eye Daryl." The barkeep said as he took my mug from me, the whole room erupted into laughter, "I'm just kiddin with ya lad, that ain't nothin but an old tale I tell to scare travelers."

I left feeling a bit uneasy about the barkeep's story, but oh well. I found an inn somewhere in the middle of town and decided to stay for the night before heading on towards Ponyville.