Cutlass Cove

September 20, 11:36 AM

“What about this, my good stallion? Instant water seal for sudden leaks in your ship! You never know when you might need it!”

The large, gruff-looking pony didn’t even turn to regard the merchant’s offer, choosing instead to merely shoulder his way through the bustling crowd towards what one could assume was a pressing matter of some sort.

The merchant slumped back and sat on his haunches within his stall of merchandise. He looked to his partner on his left—a cheerful mare whose expression was just as vivid as her own natural hues. “How go sales on your end?” he asked, hoping for some good news.

She smiled and regarded him with a wink. “Doing fine here, sweetie. I think they like me.”

“Speak for yourself,” the stallion replied, rising to his hooves. “At least one of us is drumming up some business.”

“Gear, honey, let’s remember that we’re not here to get rich,” the mare reminded him in a hushed voice. She smiled at another passing stallion, who gave her a double-take when he noticed the pretty mare behind the counter.

“I know, but it’s hard to get information when nopony will give you the time of day.”

“Listen, it’s nearly midday,” the mare replied. “Why don’t you go find us something for lunch, and I’ll keep working the stall? You look like you could use a break.”

He sighed and walked over beside her, giving her a light kiss on the cheek. “Alright. Just try not to attract too much attention.”

“I only have eyes for you, sweetie,” she answered with a coy smile that made his heart jump in his chest.

He turned and walked through the back of the stall into the open marketplace. This far south, it became hot quite early, and it was important to find shade and provisions quickly. He turned right along the line of buildings and followed it for a few dozen meters before the food stalls appeared ahead of him. The clamor of hungry ponies began to fill his ears, and the flavorful aromas of the region’s most renowned cooks wafted through the air, and his mouth began to water involuntarily.

“Oi, Gear!” waved a vendor at a nearby fruit stand. “Come by for an early lunch today, my friend?”

Gear walked over, waving back to the vendor. “How are you, Trouble?”

“’Ey, don’t go callin’ me that, now,” the vendor replied. “I’m not Trouble; the trouble just follows me wherever I go.”

“Close enough,” Gear laughed as he reached the stand. “Dazzler’s got me out for lunch while she works the booth.”

“Ah, and how is the lovely lass today?” Trouble asked with a wink.

“She’s fine,” Gear replied. “Having better luck garnering attention than I am, so she stayed behind, while I’m just the errand boy.”

“So, another typical day, then?” Trouble teased.

“Laugh it up,” Gear deadpanned. “What’s the special today?”

“Oh, yer’ in luck today, my friend,” Trouble answered. “We’ve got my patented ‘smorgasbasket’ today!”

Gear’s eyebrows rose. “Smorgasbasket?”

“It’s what it sounds like—just a big ol’ basket of every kind of fruit I’ve got, complete with two different spreads, just to add a little extra flavor—one from Equestria, but the other’s got some spices from Saddle Arabia, for the more adventurous eaters. I used to call it the ‘exotic special,’ but it lacked the pizzazz of a good name.”

“Whatever works as a marketing strategy, I suppose,” Gear shrugged, dropping a small pile of bits on the counter as Trouble passed the basket over. “But Dazzler will especially enjoy that second spread. Her mom’s side of the family is originally from Saddle Arabia.”

“Well, how about that?” Trouble remarked. “But ya’ know, from the sounds of it, Dazzler understands marketing strategy more than you do.”

“Har har,” Gear answered. He reached inside his cloak, and a pair of mechanical arms protruded from the wing flaps in his cloak. They reached out and grabbed the basket, hoisting it over his head.

Trouble merely smiled in recognition. “Ya’ know, if you were to start selling that contraption, ya’ might find that yer’ sales have gone up.”

“When it becomes cost-efficient, then I’ll consider it.” Gear nodded to Trouble. “See you later, buddy.”

“Come back anytime!” Trouble called as Gear headed back to his stall.

Gear walked back through the streets of Cutlass Cove, waving to the other vendors as he passed them by. They all had come to know he and his partner as Gear Shift and Dazzler, a pair of merchants who had taken up temporary residence in the cove while they sold their wares to try and make enough money to continue their journey.

But the truth was that they weren’t merchants at all. Instead, they were a pair of agents from Equestria. Two members of the newly-formed organization known as the Sentinels of Harmony.

Their codenames were Sprocket and Juggles.

Cubic had been the first to suggest that they try and infiltrate pirate society, since their seafaring travels would likely be a great source of information on the realms beyond Equestria. And while it had taken a little time to find a suitable place to set up their base of operations, they had finally settled here, in Cutlass Cove: a haven for travelers and merchants alike, where business and trade were in full swing. Using their natural inventing and tinkering abilities, the pair had quickly become a staple for travelers, looking for not only trinkets, but useful tools to help in whatever work they claimed as their own. And while it hadn’t been intended, Juggles’ exotic looks had a rather efficient way of drawing the attention of unwary passersby.

And an unwary pony often had loose lips.

Even so, useful information had been hard to come by. News of foreign lands had been particularly underwhelming. But ever since Keeper’s news on this “Captain Exo” not even a week ago, they had a new set of keywords to listen for. But so far, nothing had come up.

But then again, it had only been a few days. If this “Captain Exo” was such a feared figure within pirate culture, then all they had to do was wait. His name would pop up eventually.

Sprocket pulled back the curtain to his booth and walked in just in time to see Juggles finish up yet another sale. “I’m back,” he announced, setting the basket on the ground and retracting his mechanical arms.

Juggles turned around, balancing a small tower of bits on her hoof. She dropped them into a moneybag on the ground. She reached out and stretched her back, groaning as she did. “That was quick,” she said with a strain. “What’d you bring us today?”

“Something that Trouble calls a ‘smorgasbasket’ or something,” Sprocket answered, popping a blueberry into his mouth.

“Sounds delicious,” Juggles said, beginning to sift through the contents of the basket.

Sprocket lifted a sign that said “Closed for Lunch” and set it on the counter, pulling the curtain on the stall to provide them some privacy. “So, what do we have to report so far?”

Juggles took a bite of a mango and sat down in a corner of the booth. “Not too much, honestly,” she answered. “Just some talk about a few more dragons being seen further out than normal, some chatter about sea serpent migrations, and something about a certain to-do in a village to the northwest of here. Seems that a trio of Equestrian mares managed to beat back an army of pirates all by themselves.”

A smirk rose to Sprocket’s face. “We wouldn’t know anything about that, though.”

“Oh, of course not. We’re just simple merchants.”

They both began to laugh, growing from a chuckle into a full-fledged belly laugh. Sprocket could almost picture the faces of the ponies walking past their booth, quizzically searching for the hidden pair of ponies whose uncontrollable laughter was disturbing the peace.

As they gradually regained their composure, Sprocket noticed a glint of gold hanging around Juggles’ neck. He smiled as he recognized the horn ring he had given her when he had proposed to her just over month ago. Normally, a unicorn mare would have worn it on her horn, but, seeing how Juggles wasn’t a unicorn at all, she wore it on a necklace. He still remembered the night, having taken her to Winsome Falls at sunset, when the colors of the falls were most vivid. It had been the perfect setting.

She had said yes, of course.

“Remembering that night?” Juggles asked abruptly.

Sprocket refocused on her and noticed her soft smile. “I was staring, wasn’t I?”

“Can’t say I blame you,” she replied, rising to her hooves. “It’s the best night I’ve ever had.” She came across the booth and settled down beside her fiancé. “So far, at least.”

Sprocket pressed his wing out through the flap in his cloak and draped it across her back. “I’ve got a better one in the works,” he answered gently.

“You do?” Juggles said, looking surprised. “I’m pretty sure I’m doing all the planning for our wedding!”

“You are,” Sprocket confirmed, arching an eyebrow and smiling knowingly. “I’m planning our wedding night.”

“Oh, stop it,” she said, giving him a gentle shove. “You’re just flirting now.”

“Can you blame me?”

She rolled her eyes, but leaned into him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They sat together for a few minutes, silently enjoying each other’s company and consuming the contents of the smorgasbasket until only a few small berries remained. Sprocket slowly reached up and began to stroke his fiancée’s braided mane of green and orange. Against her sky-blue body, she looked like the most brilliant shades of a rainbow had jumped out of their places and had formed themselves into a pony. Being half-Arabian meant that her appearance was bound to be colorful, but even her parents had admitted that they had been surprised at her appearance at her birth.

She was a stark contrast to Sprocket, whose gray body and beige mane could not have been more of a polar opposite to Juggles. But, as he had said so often, “If it wasn’t for the dull colors, then the brighter ones wouldn’t stand out so much.”

Juggles’ voice unexpectedly broke their silence. “Have we heard anything from Tread?”

Tread. The third member of their assigned group working in the region. An earth pony like Juggles, he shared a healthy rivalry with Scope, as their skills and abilities were very similar. He had been sent to Cutlass Cove as well, where Sprocket and Juggles acted as his contacts to get information back to Canterlot. Of course, his job was of a far less social nature than theirs was. Stealth and silence were his tools, and he used them to perfection. Whenever Tread was around, not even a whisper was safe from discovery.

“Not yet,” Sprocket answered, shifting and readjusting his wing spread across Juggles’ back. “Last I heard, he was checking out some of the pirate crews to see if they had anything useful to say.”

“Is he posing as a pirate, then?”

Sprocket shook his head. “Not from the way he was talking about it. I think he’s been sneaking aboard ships and trying to eavesdrop on conversations.”

“Bold move,” Juggles commented.

“Yeah, but he’s as good at it as anypony could be,” Sprocket added. “If he could sneak into a dragon’s den and steal a piece of its hoard without being noticed, then a pirate ship should be a cakewalk.”

Almost on cue, a brown-hooded head poked through the curtain at the back of their stall, causing them both to jump in surprise. A dark brown face with green eyes peered at them for a moment before Sprocket breathed a sigh of relief and rose to his hooves. “Tread,” he began, bringing a hoof to his chest, “could you try to not give us a heart attack by doing that? At least knock.”

Tread walked into the stall and leaned his saddlebags against the wall. “You’re asking me to knock on a curtain?”

Juggles tapped her hoof against the wooden frame of the stall. “The stall itself works, too, you know.”

“Sorry,” he said, sifting through his saddlebags without even looking up. “I’ll try to remember.”

Sprocket rolled his eyes in exasperation. Talented as he was, Tread had a hard time finding “middle ground” when it came to social cues. When he was on a job, he was as stealthy and subtle as anypony in existence. He left no sign of his passing unless he wanted to (which wasn’t often). But with his friends and associates, he had virtually no tact or social grace to speak of. He was all business, straightforward and blunt. The members of the Alicorn Guard had often tried to help him learn to be less socially awkward, but it typically resulted in a net of a waste of everypony’s time. They had just learned to accept it.

“We were just talking about you,” Sprocket explained, steadying himself after Tread’s inadvertent jump scare. “You get any intel on Captain Exo?”

“No,” the earth pony answered flatly. He continued to dig through his satchel. “But I did find out something.”

“Something useful?” Juggles asked, rising to her hooves.

“Something important, at the least,” Tread replied, pulling out a well-worn folded cloth from his bag. He gently opened it to reveal a detailed map of an area that Sprocket didn’t immediately recognize.

“What is this? It doesn’t look like it’s anywhere in Equestria.”

“It’s not. This is a map of the seas to the east of here, almost to the edge of known civilization,” Tread explained. He touched the top left corner of the map. “These are the dragon lands. This is Cutlass Cove, and this,” he continued, moving his hoof to the right side of the map, “is the Gaitway Archipelago.”

Sprocket blinked and focused on the area Tread indicated. It was a grouping of dozens of islands of varying sizes, reaching almost to the edge of the map. “Okay…” he prodded.

“The Gaitway Archipelago,” Juggles muttered thoughtfully. “That sounds familiar for some reason.”

“Most Equestrians have never even heard of it,” Tread replied. “It’s completely out of the way from most other nations, so its impact on international affairs is pretty small.”

“But there’s obviously something going on there now,” Juggles surmised, “or you wouldn’t have brought it up like this.”

“Right,” Tread nodded. He pulled his hood down from atop his head, revealing his olive-colored mane. “So, let me tell you what I found out…”

Author's Note

So, meet Sprocket and Juggles, the Sentinels' resident lovebirds!

I really like these two. Sprocket is much less aggressive and masculine than many of his counterparts, while Juggles tends to be the more adventurous and outgoing character, leading to a few moments of slight role-reversal from many other couples. Since they've been together for so long, they've become nearly intuitive about each other, making them the perfect partners. Which, of course, is the goal when you're engaged to each other.

And then there's Tread, the infiltrator of the trio of operatives. And who knows what his story will introduce to our heroes...?