Holy Land

Morning Breeze stifled a yawn as he led the two boys into Port of Mercy. The rain had become a dense mist; had he not known the path so well he could have walked off the side of the boardwalk.

The glistening round stones of the dockmaster’s house appeared out of nowhere. Morning Breeze followed it around the corner, until he found the bright red door. He knocked, and immediately stepped to the side and out of sight.

A pink filly with a dark blue mane answered it.

“Mary,” Morning Breeze said, startling her. “Is your mom here?”

“Yes,” she replied, a smile lighting up her face. “Breeze, we thought you were…”

“I’m fine,” Morning Breeze interrupted. “I need to speak with your mother right now. And don’t make a commotion.”

“Come in,” she said, hurrying out of the living room and taking the lantern with her.

“What’s going on?” Gingersnap asked as he pulled back his soaked hood.

“Just checking in with the dockmaster,” Morning Breeze said. “I want to know what’s happened since the last time I was here. This is one of the big islands, but I haven’t been here in three months.”

The girl soon returned with a bedraggled unicorn in tow. She had a dark blue coat and light blue mane sticking out in every direction. Nevertheless she smiled when the light revealed Morning Breeze and his companions.

“Well it’s about time,” she said, walking up to Morning Breeze. Her smile went away when she noticed his wounds. “Was it him?”

“Let’s talk in private, Moonlight,” Morning Breeze said. He glanced back at Gingersnap. “You two… stay here and don’t touch anything.”

“Who are they?” she asked, looking them up and down.

“Sailors,” Morning Breeze said. “They're with me.”

“Alright,” Moonlight said. “Mary, go back to bed.”

The filly looked mournfully at her mother.

“I know, I’ll make tea,” she offered. “It’s almost morning; you’ll need the fire anyway. And Breeze is here…”

“He's here for business,” Moonlight said firmly. “You have school today…”

Morning Breeze put a hoof on Moonlight’s shoulder and nodded to the doorway.

“Alright. Keep an eye on these two and make sure they don’t take anything. But don’t you whine when you get tired today.”

With that the two went through the darkened kitchen, past the darkened dining room and into a small study. Using her magic Moonlight lit three half-used candles on a tall stand and set down three pillows for Morning Breeze before taking one for herself.

“You heard about what happened a few days back,” Morning Breeze said, lying down across the pillows.

“Oh, we were in the neighborhood,” Moonlight said, looking at Morning Breeze with some concern. “We got your last transmission, and our ships were there before sundown. We couldn't salvage much. Most of must have sank. I never thought you were dead, though. Our ships didn’t find any bodies; nobody did.”

“Of course not,” Morning Breeze said. “He took them all.”

“But not you?”

“No,” he said. “Listen… we have another problem. Not a big problem, mind you, but I think you should know…”

Moonlight’s brow tightened as he told about the Spectre. She looked over the bruises on his face when he described the final moments before the sea ponies arrived, and breathed a small sigh of relief when he was rescued.

“May I see this ‘crystal’?” She asked in the end.

Morning Breeze took it out of his pocket. It was very light; lighter than corkwood. All of its stored magic was spent, and it once again resembled lightly-tinted glass.

“Do you know what it is?” He asked as the unicorn felt it with her hooves and held it up to the candlelight.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said, passing it back gently. “But I’m no expert in magical artifacts. You’ll have to ask somepony at the academy. Once upon a time, I would have recommended you go to Canterlot.”

Morning Breeze answered her with an unamused stare.

“It’s true,” Moonlight said. “They’ve been gathering up books for a thousand years, and training unicorns for a few centuries. Whatever you think of them, they know their stuff. But I’m sure you can find somepony here who can figure out what’s going on. Now what about those two you brought with you. What did you say their names were again?”

“Gingersnap and Coral Frond,” he said. “But I got that off their uniforms. They’re young and simple. Not quite right in the head, I don't think, but that could have something to do with nearly drowning recently. They got caught up in this business along with their captain. They don’t want me dead, exactly. They want a piece of the bounty, but they don’t care much about me one way or the other.”

“If you say so,” she said. “And what happens to them when this is all over?”

“If all goes well, they can decide,” Morning Breeze said. Moonlight held his gaze steadily. “For now they’re with me.”

She nodded. They sat in silence for a moment before Morning Breeze got up. He wobbled slightly when all the blood drained from his head. Fortunately Moonlight caught him before he could set his mane on fire with one of the candles.

“I’ll get you some blankets,” she offered, gently lowering him back onto the pillows. “You shouldn’t have left that hospital so soon.”

“I’ll rest when this is over,” Breeze declared, immediately standing up as soon as the dizziness passed.

He stumbled into the living room and stopped.

Mary’s lantern sat on the wooden coffee table beside a tin of almond cookies and a mismatched tea set. On the rug the two young stallions were leaning against each other, fast asleep. Mary was curled up beside them with half a cookie in her hoof.

“I think I’ll stay a while,” Breeze whispered, while a smile crept onto the unicorn mare’s face.

He undressed and settled down in the writing room. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

It was past nine when Moonlight woke them up. Gingersnap could smell his own breath. The long-cold tea that Mary had made had been discarded. Moonlight gave them toothbrushes and towels and told them to wash up behind the house.

The view was breathtaking. Patches of fog flew by on the strong wind, passing over a long pebbly beach littered with kelp and driftwood. The harbor was situated in a natural bay about four miles wide, with forested mountains on either side.

The water from the tap was ice cold and refreshing. Gingersnap rolled down the front half of his bodysuit and scrubbed his hooves and face.

Moonlight prepared a breakfast of buttered rye toast and coffee. It was the best coffee Gingersnap had ever tasted.

“There are a dozen or so plantation on the southern islands,” Morning Breeze explained when Coral Frond asked. “We're at least two weeks from the nearest shipping lane. Nopony's going to lead a raid just for coffee. At least, not anymore.”

Moonlight caught Coral Frond stuffing a slice of toast into his collar, and decided to give him half a loaf for the road.

“What road?” Morning Breeze said, rolling his eyes. “We’re heading into town.”

But Coral Frond was already nibbling on a crust before they reached the city wall.

Two guards saluted them not far down the main street. Unlike the little island from the previous day, the settlement here was a proper city. The cobblestone street was wide and even, leading up a gentle slope. The houses were bigger too, and the morning market was teeming with ponies and griffins. Gingersnap was reminded of the giant portrait of the Saddle Arabian bazaar that hung in the admirals’ hall in Baltimare. The air reeked of fish and fresh fruit and spice all mixed together.

“Stay focused, you two,” Morning Breeze said. “You don’t have a single bit on you, if bits were any good. If you behave, I might give you some pocket money for tomorrow.”

But that was nearly impossible. There was a griffin with big tanks full of the strangest and most beautiful fish Gingersnap had ever seen. Fruits and vegetables so exotic that even a well-traveled captain in his last years would be hard-pressed to name. Gingersnap saw rams with four horns and pigs that stood taller than a pony. Sitting outside a barber shop was a shaggy black dog twice as tall as Gingersnap with a tongue like a red dish rag. Many times Morning Breeze had to drag him or Coral Frond along by the collar.

The crowd thinned at last. The buildings had been growing steadily in height. The ones that stood around the trio now were six floors tall, with magnificent buttresses and brass statues of ponies and griffins on their corners. Lush walls marked the boundaries of their gardens, their ivy turned almost entirely red. Morning Breeze led them through a gateless doorway on their right.

The garden, several acres in size, was entirely in shades of red and gold. All the flowers had gone away long ago. They crossed a moon bridge over a big pond full of bright red minnows, and followed the path up to the marble steps of the building.

Quite a few heads turned as Morning Breeze hobbled through the cavernous entrance hall. It was not that he was an earth pony; there were earth ponies and pegasi in the hall, though unicorns made up the majority. It wasn’t even the way he was dressed; Gingersnap saw ponies in everything from cloaks to welding gear as he trotted down one hallway after another.

Morning Breeze turned at a set of double doors simply labeled “magical research.” Inside was a high-ceilinged workshop with several dozen startled unicorns in aprons and lab goggles.

“Let’s skip the formalities,” he said. "Yes, it's me. Morning Breeze. In the flesh." His voice was not strong enough to echo in the big room. He sat down and took the crystal out of his pocket. “This is a crystal that becomes invisible when it’s charged with unicorn magic. It was used as plating on a ship. I need to know what it is and how it works. This information must remain confidential. Now where is Professor Blaze?”

There was a moment of total stillness before the other ponies in the room started moving again. An older unicorn in a silver cloak came over from one of the tables. He must have had bushy eyebrows once; there were two bare patches above his eyes. His yellow mane was streaked with grey. He had a serious look to him; not unkind, perhaps, but certainly disinclined to laugh. He took the crystal from Morning Breeze and held it up to the light. Then he set it down on a workbench.

“How much time do you have?” He asked quietly.

“Work as fast as you can,” Morning Breeze said. “I’m in a hurry.”

The unicorn nodded.

“Everyone, I have a new project.” He levitated the crystal over his head as he spoke. Its facets began to fade into the pale blue aura that surrounded it. “We are going to figure out what this is. You eight over there! To the library. You five! Materials lab! I want a preliminary report in two hours!”

The rest of the ponies gathered around, taking turns to hold and test the object. There were many gasps of amazement every time somepony’s hoof disappeared behind the powered-up crystal. The “materials labs” ponies filed off bits of it onto watch glasses and left the room.

Morning Breeze retreated into the hall with the two sailors before they could be trampled by the unicorns.

“That’s it?” Coral Frond asked after a few seconds of stunned silence.

“Those are some of the brightest unicorns in the Chain Islands,” Morning Breeze said. “There’s not much we can offer.”

Gingersnap caught Coral Frond staring into the lab with a look he had never seen before. His jaw was slack, and there was a half-realized longing in his bronze eyes. Morning Breeze noticed too, and sidled closer to the young unicorn.

“You can go in if you want,” he said. “They’ll be at it for a few hours at least. Don’t be scared of Blaze. He always appreciates a willing student.”

“What, you think I…” Coral Frond trailed off, looking between the faces of his two companions.

“I’ll have to take that bread off you,” Morning Breeze said, pointing to the satchel slung over his shoulder. “No food in the lab.”

Coral Frond untied the knot hastily and threw it at Morning Breeze. He was much slower approaching the door; hesitant, perhaps, but certainly reverent.

“We’ll meet you by the pond,” Morning Breeze said before Coral Frond disappeared into the room.

Gingersnap lay on a pillow, slowly chewing on a mouthful of hummus and rye. His eyes were fixed on the front door of the school and the constant trickle of ponies coming and going.

After leaving the lab, Morning Breeze took him on an hour-long tour. There were classrooms for mathematics, literature, navigation, architecture…

“This isn’t the naval academy,” Morning Breeze had said.

The truth was he wouldn’t know. Gingersnap had never been to the naval academy. A year of tuition cost two full years of his wage.

And I’m dumb.

Morning Breeze, wrapped in his cloak to avoid attention, was absorbed in a dog-eared novel. Occasionally he threw a ball of bread into the pond, setting off a feeding frenzy. The other ponies in the garden were likewise quiet, lounging through what could be the last warmish day of the year.

Finally he spotted Coral Frond coming out of the school. He was following six older unicorns, talking merrily. Fortunately they went their separate ways about halfway across the lawn.

“Hey Ginger,” Coral Frond said.

“Do you have any news?” Morning Breeze asked before Gingersnap could speak.

“Yes we do,” Coral Frond replied eagerly. “Professor Blaze wants to see you after lunch. Do you still have that bread? I’m starving.”

“What, already?” Gingersnap smirked. “Did they make you run on a treadmill like in the movies?”

“Hey, you don’t know how much energy it takes to cast that many spells,” Coral Frond said.

“Give me a minute,” Morning Breeze said. Sitting up straight, he waved at the school.

With a sharp crack and a puff of smoke, a picnic basket appeared on the bench beside him. Coral Frond stared wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open.

“I ordered this from the cafeteria,” Morning Breeze said, taking out three brown glass bottles. “Unicorn magic is pretty nifty. Now I know you hurt your head recently, but one drink can’t hurt.”

The dark beer was smooth and bitter, and icy cold. Gingersnap found himself enjoying it more and more as he drank, but it left him shivering.

Coral Frond was noticeably unsteady on the way back to the lab. He was only seventeen, and did not drink much except for the cheap rum he used to down his water. He drew a few amused looks from other ponies, but Morning Breeze was still the centre of attention.

“What did you find?” Morning Breeze asked as soon as he found Blaze in the workshop.

“Quite a few things,” he said, flipping through several loose pages. “It’s not a crystal, though I don’t blame you for thinking so. it’s actually closer to metal than glass. It was created magically; you won’t be digging this stuff out of the ground.”

“So what is it made of?” Morning Breeze asked.

“Mostly bronze, as far as I can tell,” Blaze said. “But that hardly matters. It’s a magic-composite material. You can make it out of just about anything. Most of what you see is a magical projection; foam, if you will. There’s barely a sand grain’s worth of metal in this whole block. That’s why it’s so light.

“This must have taken years to design. It can’t be based on a conventional invisibility spell. I know of a few, but they’re complicated and energy-intensive. You could conceal yourself and maybe one more two other ponies nearby for a while, but nothing like this. This foam… it takes all the skill out of invisibility spells. You just charge it up with a bit of magic, and it’s ready to go.”

Gingersnap exchanged worried looks with Coral Frond.

If our ship’s invisible, how are we supposed to find it?

“How do you turn it off?” Morning Breeze asked.

“Well, you can wait for it to wear out,” Blaze said. “Or just drain the power.” He looked Morning Breeze up and down with a serious look on his face. “Where exactly did this thing come from, Breeze?”

“It’s a long story,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t trust you personally, Blaze. But at a time like this… it’s better that you know less.”

“Very well then,” Blaze said with a sigh of resignation. He turned to Coral Frond, who tried to duck behind Gingersnap. “It was a pleasure working with you. If you decide to come back in a few years, I think you can learn quite a bit more.”

“Th… thank you sir,” Coral Frond said quietly.

On the way out Morning Breeze gave them each ten small silver coins. They were much thinner than Equestria’s bits, with the image of a schooner with sails full of wind on one side and that of a goat’s skull on the other.

“Have a look at the book store,” he suggested. “You can get some good stories for three bits, if you don’t mind pulp paper.”

After half an hour they were standing in the garden once again. Gingersnap had a copy of The Last Days of the Giants, and a beautiful pheasant quill with a metal nib. He had nopony to write to, but perhaps he would start keeping a journal. The leather-bound notebooks from the store made him uncomfortable, however. Coral Frond had spent all his money on a bottle of ink, a pack of paper, a quill and a tome of spells.

“Can you even understand half of this?” Gingersnap had asked, flipping through the pages of dense letters and postage-stamp-sized diagrams.

“No…” Coral Frond replied, his face turning red. “But one day I will, right?”

Morning Breeze put on his hood as he stepped back into the street. To the disappointment of Gingersnap and Coral Frond the market from earlier had dispersed. The wagons were gone, leaving only a few rotten fruits and fish heads in the gutters, and some flies in the air.

After a few minutes, Gingersnap noticed that Morning Breeze often craned his neck to look behind him. Worried, he began following his gaze and checking the bystreets himself.

He caught eyes with a sand-yellow pegasus stallion sitting at a table outside a bakery. His gaze was cold, with a hint of amusement. It only lasted a brief second, but Gingersnap knew that something was wrong.

Inside a shop, a dark blue pegasus glanced into the street with one eye. A griffin (Gingersnap could not tell its gender) turned ever so slightly as they passed by the bench where it sat. It did not look up, but Gingersnap immediately wished for that specific griffin to go somewhere else.

“What’s going on?” He asked under his breath, unable to keep silent any longer. They were just five streets from the city gate.

“Nothing,” Morning Breeze said. “Just follow me. We’re going back to Midnight’s house.”

Within sight of the gate they passed a procession of ten guards. Morning Breeze grabbed their leader and pulled him into an alleyway. Gingersnap and Coral Frond tried to follow, but where stopped by the remaining guards. After a minute, the two returned, and the guards continued on.

Morning Breeze frowned as he looked over the harbour. Now that the fog had cleared completely, Gingersnap saw that the harbour was breathtakingly large. Boardwalks branched in all directions on the bay, covering at least a sixth of the surface. The Riptide had left, but there were a dozen similar ships ready to replace her. Several large ships were there as well, a few of them as big as heavy freighters.

Morning Breeze went into the three-storey stone cottage without knocking this time, and only called out after he had latched the door.

“Midnight! I need a ship!”

Hooves ran down the steep steps. Moonlight was dressed in a slack jumpsuit like the one Morning Breeze had been wearing on the night of his capture.

“They found you?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Morning Breeze said.

“Wait, who’s they?” Coral Frond asked.

“Not right now,” Morning Breeze said quickly, pushing him away by the nose. “They must have come over the east ridge.”

“Nopony’s ever done that,” Midnight said, already upstairs again. “It’s impossible. There's nowhere to land.”

“Well they did it,” Morning Breeze said as he climbed into the large radio room that took up most of the second floor. “Can you get me a ship?”

“Of course I can get you a ship!” Midnight said, flipping frantically through a bulging document box. “You’re the emperor, for peat’s sake! Act like one! Just hop on anything with a crew! Have you told the police about this?”

“Yes,” he said. “As soon as I could! But there’s no telling how many of them got in! And you know I can’t just take any ship. I need something fast. Something with firepower.”

“You can’t take them on! I could give you the Firestorm, and you’d still be outclassed…”

Gingersnap’s ears perked up at the mention of that ship. The Firestorm had been one of the Equestrian Navy’s biggest gunships; indeed, one of the biggest ships ever built in any shipyard. It had been lost at sea five years earlier. At least, that was what Gingersnap was told.

“That’s pretty good,” Morning Breeze said. “I didn’t see the Firestorm out there…”

“It left five days ago for a supply run,” Midnight said. “I don’t expect her back for another three weeks.”

“What do you have then?”

“That,” she said, walking over to a window. She was pointing at a large full rigged ship. There were two dozen sailors onboard, and the boardwalk beside it was a mess of crates and barrels. “It’s the Infidel. It used to be the Barber.”

“I remember her,” Morning Breeze said, chewing on his tongue thoughtfully. “How is she?”

“Still a reliable long-range interceptor,” she said. “We haven’t modified her much; no need to fix what’s not broken. The cannons are all in working order, but she’s scheduled for a half-capacity run. Your main advantage will be speed. You got that?”

Morning Breeze nodded.

“Clear it with the master,” he said. “I want them ready in half an hour. I’ll tell them where to go once we’re far enough from here.”

Midnight ran downstairs and out the door with a clipboard between her teeth. Morning Breeze backed away from the window and sat down beside a half-assembled radio.

“What was that about the Firestorm?” Gingersnap asked, walking up to Morning Breeze. “And since when were you an emperor?”

“It wasn’t my idea,” he snapped, startling the younger pony. “It’s just something they came up with. It means nothing. And what about the Firestorm? Do you think anypony except me would have gone after a ship like that? Do you think some common smuggler just climbed onboard one day, and all eighty of her crew just surrendered?”

“I thought the Firestorm sank,” Gingersnap said.

Morning Breeze frowned and cocked his head. He turned to Coral Frond, who also stared back with a confused look in his eyes.

“Wow, you’re serious,” he said blankly. “I’ll tell you what: once we’re on our way, us three will have a long talk. I don’t get much news from Equestria, and at this point that seems like a good thing.”

Gingersnap checked the window again. Midnight was trotting swiftly along the boardwalk back towards shore. The crew of the Infidel moved with a new sense of urgency.

Almost off the boardwalk, Midnight stopped abruptly. Her mouth fell open as she stared at something just out of view from the window. Immediately Gingersnap ducked beneath the windowsill.

“Something’s wrong,” he said, walking in a half-kneeling position until he was well clear of the window. “Midnight’s just outside. I think she’s in trouble.”

Morning Breeze was up in an instant. The front door had opened and slammed shut again before Gingersnap and Coral Frond stepped off the stairs.

Coral Frond was almost to the door when in a moment of clarity Gingersnap grabbed his ankle. He fell heavily on the living room rug and looked back with an annoyed expression.

“We don’t know what’s going on out there,” Gingersnap explained breathlessly. “Lay low for a bit, and watch the windows. Remember what happened in the brig?”

Coral Frond nodded. They stooped and proceeded shoulder-to-shoulder. They needed only to go to the living room window to see the problem.

Five ponies stood on the pebble-covered beach in front of the house facing the dock. Two were sitting, looking down long ornate sticks like they were crossbows. Gingersnap pondered this for a moment before he noticed tiny triggers on the sticks. The ponies were wearing gauntlets with backwards-facing hooks on the side.

“They’re armed,” he said. “The two sitting down have some kind of bow.”

“Look out for that unicorn,” Coral Frond added. “I saw darts under his cloak just now.”

As they watched, the unicorn in question began walking forwards. He had the thin build of a sailor, but his frame was bolstered by his padded jumpsuit and steel plates over his shoulders. Most of his body was hidden beneath a black cloak. The others remained in their place.

“Can you take him?” Gingersnap asked.

“I can’t tell,” Coral Frond said. “One-on-one and without armor or magic maybe. But I can’t think what to do with the big guys.”

Gingersnap looked to the high city wall. Surely a sentry would have noticed something.

There was no sentry on the wall except for two griffins. Their hoods hid their faces completely. They were aiming down the same strange weapons that the ponies held.

“Here’s the plan,” Gingersnap said. “We rush the two with the bows first. Stun them all as fast as you can. Then we’ll worry about the unicorn.”

“Okay.” Coral Frond gulped and clutched his collar.

“On three.”

The unicorn walked completely out of their field of view.

“Two.”

A fly buzzed by one of the sitting ponies’ ears. He lowered his weapon and wiped a hoof across his face. He turned his head to the left…

“Two.”

For some reason Gingersnap did not duck. For a second he sat transfixed by the other pony’s stare. He was an ordinary-looking orange earth pony in steel armor. His eyes, dark green ones, were nothing remarkable, but for an eternity Gingersnap just stared at him through the window, and he stared back. Time slowed down.

Then Gingersnap took a breath.

The pony’s mouth began to open. His body started to turn. The golden brown stallion to his right flapped his ears…

“Three!”

Coral Frond stood up suddenly, his bandaged head delivering a jaw-shattering uppercut to his companion. Gingersnap heard glass shattering, followed by a shrill yelp.

Thunderous explosions rang through the harbor. It was like cannon fire, but the ground did not shake. When he opened his eyes, there were several ragged holes through the south wall at about head-level for an average-sized pony.

Coral Frond was lying beneath the window rubbing his head. Most of the panels were shattered.

When his hearing returned, Gingersnap noticed shouting from outside. He slowly raised his head off the floor.

With a loud bang a new hole appeared instantly in the wall, letting in a stream of sunlight that illuminated a column of rapidly-moving sawdust.

“Get him!”

The cry came from the distance, accompanied by the rumbling of the boardwalk beneath many running hooves.

“Come on,” Gingersnap said, grabbing Coral Frond’s hoof and pulling him towards the door.

He would never forget what he saw. There were dozens of sailors leaping off the boardwalk and galloping towards the house. About ten metres directly in front of him the unicorn from earlier stood within a flickering pink bubble, his teeth gritted in concentration.

Morning Breeze held one of the stick weapons in his good hoof as he floated in midair. Midnight was beside him.

Sailors surrounded the group, most of them facing the city wall. A mint green unicorn mare in a zipped down jumpsuit was falling backwards, her mouth open in a silent scream. Red mist drifted in the air around her, and her shoulder…

Gingersnap squeezed his eyes shut. When he looked again, the stillshot had come to life. He ran towards the gathering crowd, still unsure of what to do. Several unicorns were blasting the pink shield. Coral Frond picked up on it quickly and started firing off his own simple spells.

The unicorn in the cloak stumbled, and the aura around his horn disappeared. Morning Breeze and Midnight landed safely on their feet. Gingersnap was about to pounce on the unicorn, but half a dozen others were much closer and just as eager.

When Gingersnap looked up the wall was attended by dozens of armored guards. The griffins were nowhere to be seen.

“I’m alright,” Morning Breeze said over and over again as he pushed through the crowd towards Gingersnap. “You two! Come on! We’re leaving now.”

Several ponies stayed near the house to serve as temporary sentries. The injured were taken inside, the attackers being handled more roughly.

“Double your patrols,” Morning Breeze said to Moonlight in parting. “Make sure you can trust them. You know how this works.”

“Of course,” she said, grimacing and rubbing her elbow. “I’ll be broadcasting any news I have. Keep your head down, alright?”

Gingersnap and Coral Frond were given a minute to collect their meager possessions from the radio room. They went down the dock surrounded by a ring of sailors; it seemed most of the crew of the Infidel had come to their emperor’s aid. If it was meant to be an honorary title, these sailors certainly didn't take it as such.

The Infidel was an ageing three-mast ship. Its hull had been painted over many times, evident by the bumps in the topmost layer of deep blue and black. Its plaque was made of bronze, completely green and almost unreadable. But despite its cosmetic imperfections, the deck was sturdy and spotless, and everything looked to be in working order. Ropes were neatly coiled, and lines run with the artistic flair usually reserved for christening. The sailors finalized their preparations with military efficiency.

“Captain!”

Gingersnap and Coral Frond both ducked at the exclamation, deep and powerful like gunfire.

The voice belonged to a gigantic earth pony standing on the aftcastle. Sharp crimson eyes stared out from a blue-speckled tan face covered with little scars. His beard was braided into two tails, and his curly brown mane cascaded down his neck, some of it nearly reaching the deck. With his tattered red jacket and tricorne, he was the quintessential pirate. The only things that could have added to the image were a peg leg and an eyepatch.

“Master Hornpipe,” Morning Breeze said, his voice sounding more pathetic from the contrast. “Are you ready to depart?”

“By your orders, sir,” he said. He looked quickly at Gingersnap and Coral Frond. “And who are your guests?”

“Just two sailors,” Morning Breeze said. “They are at your disposal until I need them.”

Gingersnap breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the answer. He did not want to find out what Hornpipe or his crew might do if they knew there were Equestrian navy sailors on their ship.

A pegasus mare in a jumpsuit offered to show them to their rooms, but Morning Breeze insisted on staying on deck until they were far from the island. Gingersnap and Coral Frond stayed by his side, being leery of the pirate crew.

Five minutes later the ship was manoeuvering smoothly through the maze of ships and boardwalks. More and more sails were unfurrowed, first the course sails and then the ones higher up. By the time they cleared the docks the ship was moving swiftly, cutting through the first big wave at the mouth of the bay without a bump.

As the big island sank ever lower on the horizon, Gingersnap thought he saw a gigantic black shape bobbling up and down beside the steep mountains on its east coast.