The Sydneigh Ritual

Chapters

Part 2: The Abduction
Part 3: Hoisting the Sails
Part 4: Open Seas
Part 5: Sinking
Part 6: Ashore
Part 7: The Red Sands
Part 8: All to Dust
Part 9: Treasures
Epilogue: At Last
Chapter notes
Part 1: The Founder's Journal

Part 2: The Abduction

The Flying Dutchpony was just the same as they remembered it. Old oil lanterns hung from the ceiling, providing the restaurant with a pale yellowish glow. Rickety tables, many of them constructed of giant ship’s wheels and old anchor capstans, were spread out across the creaky wooden floor. The old but still faithful jukebox was in the corner, crooning out an old sea shanty that mingled with the chatter, clinking of cutlery, and clattering of cider steins. The scent of cheap cider, charcoal, strong tobacco, and grilled vegetables and fish hung in the air.

Daring and Phillip found a corner booth and ordered up two plates of poached eggs with potato salad on the side and two bottles of cider, the dirt-cheap brand that burned going down your throat and left a slightly sour taste in your mouth. Phil sat silently, staring out the window at passerby.

“How far off is Aushaylia, anyway?” Daring asked out of curiosity.

“Easily three days sailing from here, assuming the weather cooperated,” Phillip answered. “The weather down under was always a bit treacherous. That’s partly why we were so isolated.”

“Down under?” Daring raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“As in ‘down under the edge of the map,’” Phillip explained.

Daring nodded in understanding. They sat in silence for a while longer, waiting for their meal to arrive. Daring subtly used the reflection in the window to study the other customers in the restaurant. Most of them seemed to be primarily interested in their own meals and conversations, paying little attention to them. However, she thought she saw a strange pony sitting at the bar who seemed to be glancing over in their direction every so often. The potential spy was a scrawny pale blue unicorn with a mane and tail that appeared to have been yellow once, but were now closer to white. He was wearing a long, faded trenchcoat that was covering his cutie marks, and he was nursing a bottle of hard cider.

“I think I should go,” Phillip abruptly interrupted.

“Go where?” Daring asked.

“To Aushaylia,” Phillip continued. “We could hire a ship, sail down there, have a look around.”

Daring listened closely, examining her partner’s face. Though Phillip’s tone was even, and his face mostly impassive, she had long learned to be able to read a pony’s microexpressions, the various minor tics and twitches of their face and body that whispered of their true thoughts. Even now, she could detect the minor half-blinks, the quick glances downward, and slight shuffle of his front hooves on the table, all of them signalling the same thing: pain. Uncertainty. Fear.

“Are you sure you want to go?” she asked in concern.

Phil started to answer, but was stopped by a raised eyebrow. He sighed and seemed to fold into himself slightly. “No,” he admitted. “As I said, it’s been seventeen years, and there’s nothing left. Except the memories,” he added quietly.

“Not all of them were bad, right?” Daring pressed. Phil didn’t answer except by looking down at the floor, studying an old stain of indeterminate origin on the oaken wood. Daring sighed, thinking hard on how to deal with her friend’s fright.

At that moment, the waiter arrived with their steaming plates of food. As the waiter walked off to the next table, Daring was suddenly struck with an idea.

“Maybe we could bring your friends with us,” she offered.

Phillip blinked and tilted his head at her, a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth. “Really?”

“You like being with them, right?” Daring stated.

“No, I meant, you’d usually talk about doing this alone,” Phillip countered.

Daring took a few moments to answer. “I would...in the past,” she said slowly. “But this is important enough that it’d be worth bringing them. They work really well with you, and I guess I work well with them, too. Besides, it would be kind of nice seeing them again,” she admitted.

Phillip studied Daring for a few moments, then nodded approvingly. “You’re right,” he agreed. “We can ask them when we see them.”

The bell hanging over the restaurant door jingled, signalling the entry of new customers. Daring looked up and grinned. “We won’t be waiting long,” she said, nodding towards the door. Phillip turned and spotted the entering group: Twilight, Flash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Starlight Glimmer.

“You really wanted to stop here for lunch?” Twilight Sparkle asked Pinkie Pie, looking around the establishment.

“Sure!” Pinkie declared, bouncing into the restaurant. “My Pinkie Sense says that there’s good things in here.” She looked around and spotted Phil and Daring, her smile growing wider at the sight. “And I just found them!”

The group spotted the two and waved them over to a larger circular table. Phil and Daring looked at each other for a moment, then both nodded and walked over to join them, carrying their plates with them.

“Mates,” Phil greeted the group as they sat down. “You all know Irene Alibi.”

“Nice to see you all again,” Irene said, winking at Rainbow. Rainbow winked back.

“So what are you two doing here?” Flash asked, sitting to Twilight’s right. “Got another case?”

“No,” Daring stated, her eyes on the stranger of the group. Starlight Glimmer, seated on Twilight’s left, looked back at Irene nervously.

“Irene,” Twilight smiled. “This is my student, Starlight Glimmer.”

“Nice to meet you,” Starlight said with a quick smile. “You here on vacation, too?”

“No, we’re...here to see a friend of mine,” Phillip admitted.

“A friend? What kind of friend?” Pinkie asked eagerly.

Phil hesitated, looking up at Daring. She nodded.

“An old neighbor of mine, from Sydneigh,” Phillip explained. “He wanted to show me something from an old ancestor’s journal. He thinks it’s got a secret message in it.”

“A secret message?” Rainbow asked eagerly, leaning forward with her eyes wide. “What’s it about?”

Phillip subtly glanced around to make sure that none of the other diners were paying attention to them, then leaned in closer. “He thinks it may lead to an old treasure.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened into the size of dinner plates. “Really?”

Phillip told them the story of Captain Bushwacker and the founding of Aushaylia. The eight friends listened attentively, their eyes seeming to reflect the sea and stars of the southern oceans as it was painted before them.

“Your ancestor’s treasure,” Applejack whistled once the story was over. “Ain’t that something.”

“You think you could come along?” Phillip offered.

“Heck yeah!” Rainbow shouted enthusiastically as she lifted off the ground in excitement, causing a number of heads to turn towards them.

“Keep your voice down,” Daring hissed.

“Sorry,” Rainbow apologized with a nervous grin, lowering herself back into her seat.

“An ocean voyage?” Rarity pondered. “That does sound like a fabulous idea: nothing like a cruise to destress and get away from the world.”

“And it’d probably be better than our little sailing trip!” Applejack laughed.

“Yes, it’d be nice to actually get more than ten feet away from the docks,” Rarity agreed with a chortle.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Flash interrupted. “We came here to go on vacation and relax, not go on another wacky adventure.”

“It wouldn’t be that bad,” Rainbow protested.

“All kinds of things can happen on a sailing trip,” Flash pointed out. “Rogue storm, getting lost, sea monsters...or pirates,” he added, nodding to a poster tacked up on the wall near their table.

This poster stood out like a rogue thundercloud in a clear blue sky amongst the photographs of ships and portraits of sailors. It was a large Wanted poster with a photograph of a female griffon glaring out at the attendees. Her crest hung down over her face, partially obscuring one of her bright, pale yellow eyes. A vicious red scar was drawn across her cheek and down her jawline, and her short, blunt beak was drawn into a sneer.

“I saw that poster tacked up all over town,” Flash stated. Twilight used her magic to pull the poster off the wall and float it over to her so she could read it out loud.

“‘Wanted by the Royal Navy: Whitestone, Captain of the Silver Talon. Charges include piracy, robbery, extortion, kidnapping, assault, murder, smuggling, impersonating a Royal Guard, impersonating a doctor, impersonating a pilot, impersonating a lawyer, vandalism, littering, and jaywalking. Armed and Extremely Dangerous: Do Not Approach. The Royal Navy is offering a reward of up to 25,000 bits for information leading to the capture or confirmed death of Whitestone or any known members of her crew.”

Daring whistled. “Long rap sheet.”

Starlight shuddered at the image on the poster. “She creeps me out,” she admitted.

“I’d hate to think of you guys meeting up with somepony like her,” Flash stated as Twilight returned the poster to the wall.

“We’ve dealt with worse than her,” Daring pointed out flatly.

“I’m not denying that, but still…” Flash sighed. “Just hate to think of you guys getting into trouble.”

Twilight chuckled wearily. “Trouble seems to just find us,” she pointed out.

The group around the table chuckled. “Yeah, they do,” Flash admitted, extending a wing around Twilight. As he did so, Daring observed the silver engagement rings that both he and Twilight were wearing on their right wings.

“Congratulations,” she stated.

“Hmm?” Flash asked, glancing at his wing. “Oh, thank you.”

“What kind of animals live in Aushaylia, Phil?” Fluttershy asked eagerly.

“Kangaroos,” Phillip stated. “Kookaburras, wallabies, platypuses…”

“I thought those were just legends!” Fluttershy gaped, looking ecstatic.

“Real as this place,” Phillip stated. “You can see for yourself if you head down there.”

Fluttershy’s face lit up with joy at the idea. “Oh, I’d love to!”

“It would be interesting to learn about the Aushaylian culture and history,” Twilight added, an epiphany dawning on her face. “I tried to do some research on Aushaylia after I met you, but I couldn’t find much. I should’ve thought of this sooner!” she squealed, her wings spreading open in excitement.

Everypony around the table exchanged a look of weary amusement at Twilight’s enthusiasm.

Morning in Baltimare came late, the chill sea air reluctant to warm up even under the direct light of the rising sun. Clouds of fog rolled in from the sea, covering the city in gray blankets that seemed to signal most of the town to remain in their homes. The eight chimes of the temple belltower were muffled by the thick gray mists, one of the only sound on the streets.

Phillip and Daring walked down Disko Street, their frosty breath mingling with the fog. Phillip shivered slightly and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know how he manages to live here,” he muttered.

“You always hated the cold,” Daring chuckled, wrapping a wing around him for warmth. Phillip half-smiled.

They reached Blue’s house, walking up the stone pathway to the door and knocking. A minute later, the door opened wide and Blue appeared, greeting them with a broad smile. “C’mon in,” he gestured them inside. “I’ve got some anzac biscuits fresh from the oven.”

Daring and Phil walked into the sitting room and placed themselves down on one of the hammocks. Daring sampled one of the warm biscuits from the tray in front of her, biting down into the hardtack with a satisfied hum. “Is that coconut?”

“It is,” Blue said, emerging from another room with the journal and a bundle of papers held in his magic. “My grandmother’s old recipe.” His smile flickered for a couple moments, then he forced it back onto his face again. “Well, here it is. The original journal and the transcription, with the translation of the hidden message in the back.”

Phillip reached out for the gift, then suddenly seemed to withdraw into himself with a hiss of shock. His body was seized with shivering, his eyes narrowing and focusing on the ancient diary. Blue withdrew in surprise, his expression a mixture of confusion and concern. “Phil, what is it?”

The seizure passed as soon as it had come and Phillip shook himself back to reality, his face falling into serious lines. “It’s nothing, I’m fine,” he grunted as he took the bundle of papers and flipped to the back, reading the translation of the Aboriginal message. “‘I looked upon the Wandering Colt’s face, where the Rainbow Serpent slept, the Seven Sisters sang to me…’ It’s a songline.”

“A songline?” Daring asked.

“Aboriginal ponies used them to navigate the island long ago,” Blue explained eagerly. “According to Aboriginal beliefs, when the world was being created in the time known as ‘The Dreaming,’ several spirits and creatures traveled across the land and sky, carving out the land. A songline is a track on the land or the sky that was believed to have been left by one of the creator spirits; by remembering the songline, one could follow their trail across the land.”

“Interesting,” Daring said, turning back to Phillip. “Does this mean anything to you?”

“Yes, I recognize these landmarks. I can use this to follow the trail,” Phillip said, pocketing the transcript and the journal. “Thank you, Blue.”

“Does this mean you’re going to go search for the treasure?” Blue asked, his old eyes lighting up eagerly.

Phillip glanced at Daring. “I will. This is a mystery, and I cannot abide a mystery.”

“Ripper!” Blue cheered. “I wish I could go with you, but these old bones won’t be much use on a ship anymore. Oh!” he suddenly cried, hopping up. “You should take these with you, too.” He rummaged across his bookshelf, flipping through several of the titles before selecting two books and handing them to Daring. “A sea chart and maps of Aushaylia, and a guide to the local flora and fauna. You’ll be needing those.”

“Thank you,” Daring smiled, eagerly accepting the gift.

“Good luck to you both!” Blue called as they exited his home. “I know you’ll find the treasure, Phil! It is in your name, after all!”

“Appreciate the thought,” Phil said with a nod as they left. As soon as the door closed behind them, he turned and walked quickly back up the pathway to the sidewalk.

“Crime sense warning?” Daring asked, hurrying alongside him.

“Yes. And it’s centered on the journal,” Phillip replied, holding up the old, oil-bound diary.

“What do you want to do?”

Phillip paused, pondering his next move in his head. “My gut’s telling me that we should go to Aushaylia.”

“Are you sure?” Daring asked in concern.

Phillip swallowed, looking around at anything else instead of her. The fog was still lingering about the streets, clinging to the homes. The vague shapes of the few pedestrians that had abandoned their homes flickered in and out of their vision like ghosts. “Yes. Yes, I’m sure,” he said.

“If you’re positive…” Daring started to say.

“I am,” Phillip cut in, crossing the street. Daring hesitated, then followed after him.

“We need to find somepony that we can hire to pilot a ship down to the island,” Phillip was saying. “We also need to contact the others, get them to help prepare for the voyage. We’d need enough food and water to last at least two weeks, for starters...”

They continued down the street, the houses still quiet and the streets empty and silent. From out of the fog came the shape of a motorized delivery carriage, paused in the midst of the street with the engine quietly humming. Two ponies, both of them wearing bright yellow shirts that marked them as delivery ponies, were standing behind the carriage, both of them bending over a map of Baltimare. One of them was a dark blue pegasus with a scruffy purple mane, the other a lanky orange unicorn with tomato red hair.

“Excuse us,” the pegasus called to them as they neared. “We’re a bit lost, would you mind telling us where we are?”

“Yeah,” Phil agreed, stepping closer to examine the map. “We’re at Disko and Pequod, that’s right…”

Too late, he and Daring realized their mistake, lowering their guards for a pair of strangers. The pegasus dropped the map, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a syringe loaded with a clear liquid. He plunged the syringe into Phillip’s shoulder, depressing the plunger. Phil grunted in pain and jerked back, raising a hoof to his wound. Instinctively, he lunged at his attacker, but stumbled, falling onto his face as his legs collapsed beneath him.

At the same moment, the unicorn lunged at Daring, using his magic to whip out a syringe and send it flying towards her neck. She dodged the attack and countered with a spear-hoof strike to her attacker’s throat, causing him to choke and stumble back. She followed up with another punch to the jaw, driving her hoof right up into his chin with a knockout blow that sent him sprawling. One threat eliminated, she turned her attention to the pegasus, spreading her wings and charging right at him. He flew up into the air to dodge her attack.

A split second later, the doors to the carriage burst open and four ponies leapt out. A yellow pegasus in a dusty brown jacket tackled Daring out of the air, pinning her to the ground. She reacted by launching an elbow into his face that broke his nose, shoving him off, and trying to get back up, but the dark blue pegasus flew down and kicked her in the face, knocking her back onto the sidewalk.

Her vision blurred around the edges from the force of the blow, but Daring saw the other abductors descending on Phillip’s unconscious form, lifting him up and carrying him into the carriage. “No!” she cried as the dark blue pegasus pounced on her. The two began to wrestle furiously, a tangle of hooves, wings, snarls and curses.

“Forget her, let’s go!” a green unicorn yelled as he grabbed the dazed orange unicorn and threw him into the back of the carriage.

“We need her!” the yellow pegasus protested through his broken nose, lifting himself up off the ground.

“No, we just need him!” the unicorn ordered as he raced to the cab of the carriage. “Kill her and let’s book it before the Guard comes!”

Pinned beneath the dark blue pegasus, Daring deflected a punch and grabbed his arm, pulling him in close and headbutting him in the face to stun him. She followed up by driving her knee into his groin and rolling over, pinning him beneath her and finishing him an elbow strike across the jaw.

“Go, I’ll catch up!” the yellow pegasus shouted, drawing a sharp, serrated blade from underneath his jacket. He lunged at Daring, who flapped out of the way and darted towards the carriage, desperately trying to reach Phillip.

But as she passed, the abductor reached out and seized her tail, slamming her to the ground. As she lay there, semi-dazed, the doors of the carriage slammed shut, the engine started up with a roar, and the vehicle pulled away from them, speeding down the road.

Daring’s heart leapt to her throat as she watched her kidnapped friend speeding away from her, almost blocking out her awareness of the threat behind her. She rolled out of the way as her attacker lunged at her with the knife, springing back up to her hooves. The pegasus spread his wings, subtly warning her that trying to fly away would be pointless. He grinned at Daring, then attacked once more.

He was trained: he knew to hold the knife close to him, use it as an extension of his strikes while keeping his other hoof up to guard against counterattacks. But Daring had dealt with trained ponies before. She darted back to avoid the strike, countering by punching her opponent’s arm and jamming his thrust. She followed up with a roundhouse kick to his knee, buckling his leg and causing him to fall forward, then punched at his head. The pegasus deflected her strike and sliced towards her ribs.

Withdrawing her feint, Daring grabbed his knife arm, pulling him in close and kneeing him in the gut, then bringing her forearm up and smashing the pegasus’ elbow to break it. The pegasus collapsed, bellowing in agony.

Her breath heaving in her chest, Daring looked about, but the carriage had long disappeared into the fog. Seizing the dropped knife, she rolled her disabled attacker over and held the blade into his face. “Where’d your friends go?” she demanded, her voice like a howling wind of a hurricane.

The pegasus just snarled at her. “Where?!” Daring screeched, thrusting the knife closer to him.

With a sudden movement, the pegasus seized Daring’s hoof in his good arm and pulled her forward, deliberately driving the knife through his own eye and into his brain. The limp body sprawled back onto the pavement, the single eye staring sightlessly up at the sky as blood began to slowly trickle out of the hole where the other eye had been.

Daring silently stared down at the dead pony, her hooves trembling as she climbed down from the adrenaline high. The muffled sound of approaching sirens reached her ears, but she did not react.

Author's Note

So far, we're running on a good schedule. Of course, Phillip might be disagreeing with me.

But what happens to Daring now? Hold tight, maties...

Part 3: Hoisting the Sails

To their credit, the Baltimare City Guard did everything they were supposed to. Having been summoned by the call of a citizen who had heard the commotion of the battle, the armored stallions and mares had rushed to the scene of the fight, secured the area, and taken Daring and the unconscious abductor into custody while they started taking witness statements.

A half hour later, Daring was in an office at the local precinct, pacing around and around in a circle. Her wings itched with the desire to act: she should be out there, looking for Phillip, following clues. Instead she was trapped by circumstance, forced to wait while the bureaucracy spun its wheels.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. A Guard pushed the door to the office open and leaned in. He was a steel gray, broad-shouldered unicorn with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He had introduced himself earlier as Sergeant Ironsides.

“Ms. Alibi, some friends are here to see you,” Ironsides declared. He pushed the door open wider and Twilight, Flash, and Rainbow entered.

“Da—Irene,” Twilight caught herself just in time. “We heard what happened. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Daring sighed. “But Phil isn’t.”

“Tell us what happened,” Flash encouraged Daring.

Once again, Daring told her story, every detail still fresh in her mind. She described leaving Blue’s home, the two false delivery ponies, the ambush, and the pegasus who had decided to take his own life rather than be captured. Twilight, Flash, and Rainbow Dash listened with rapt attention, pausing her every so often with a clarifying question. When the story was finished, the four of them stood in silent reflection for a few seconds.

“They ambushed us,” Daring reflected. “They were watching us, and were waiting for us.”

“We’re going to find him,” Twilight reassured her.

“Have you identified either of the kidnappers?” Flash asked Ironsides.

“We’re working on identifying the dead one,” Ironsides reported. “The other one woke up, but he’s refusing to talk. We’re keeping watch on him so he doesn’t try to kill himself.”

“Maybe we can get something out of him,” Rainbow growled.

“Sergeant, as Princess of Equestria, I request permission to be involved in this investigation,” Twilight stated in a calm voice.

“Of course, Your Highness. He’s down this way,” Ironsides nodded, gesturing for them to follow. They started down the hallway, following close behind the Sergeant.

“All right, let’s review what we know,” Twilight declared.

“We know that they were watching and following us for a while,” Daring said. “That’s how they knew to ambush us.”

“We also know that they’re fanatics,” Flash added. “That one pony killed himself rather than be captured. That means that their leader is either adored or feared.” He paused, his face creasing into concern. “You don’t think...maybe they work for Zugzwang?”

Twilight shuddered a little at the mention of that name. “I hope not.”

“It’s going to be hard to get any information out of this suspect,” Flash commented, trying to push the horrifying thought away.

“Even harder than you think,” Ironsides commented, gesturing to a one-way mirror set in the wall. Through the window, they could see the dark blue unicorn sitting in a metal chair, his hooves cuffed to the sides. His head was lowered, but the defiant glare was evident even from underneath his bangs. Two City Guards sat stonily on the other side of the room, watching him.

For the first time, Daring was able to get a close look at the abductor she had knocked out. It struck her how young her attacker was: he was barely an adult. He was scrawny, but well-toned. His purple mane and tail were shaggy, but not unkempt. He had a cutie mark of a pair of red boxing gloves on a black oval. There was a tattoo on his shoulder of two hearts, one smaller and brighter than the other, joined together by a silken cord.

“What did you mean when you said it might be hard to get him to talk?” Twilight asked.

“Look closely at his neck,” Ironsides pointed. “See that little mark?”

They did see it: a tattoo of a silver claw. It looked like a blade made of moonlight branded into his skin.

“That’s the brand of the Silver Talon,” Ironsides explained in a low tone. “That pony and his friend are Whitestone’s pirates, and they’re fiercely loyal.” He looked at Daring. “Ms. Alibi, I’m afraid that if they’ve taken your friend, the chances of us getting him back are very, very slim.”

Daring barely heard him: her eyes were focused on the captured suspect, and all she could think was how many ways there were to break him, of all the must vulnerable parts of his body that she could use to inflict pain, of how much damage she could do without killing him, to leave him in agony and begging for death…

“Irene?”

It took Daring a couple of seconds to react to the assumed name and turn to Twilight. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.

“I’m fine,” Daring grunted, turning back to the suspect.

“Why don’t we have Starlight use her magic to convince him to talk?” Rainbow suggested.

“Using hypnosis or mind control spells on a suspect is illegal,” Twilight chided her. “Haven’t you ever read about Map v. Fillydelphia?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “You’re the one that memorizes Supreme Court cases, not me.”

A short unicorn Guard bustled up to Ironsides. “Sir, we identified both of the suspects,” she reported. “The one who killed himself was Calico Gold. This one is named Bantamweight. Both of them have several outstanding warrants, but haven’t been seen in years. No known associates or family.”

“Maybe we can figure out a way to sway him to our side,” Flash suggested. “Was he carrying anything when you captured him?”

“We’ve got all the items he had in his saddlebag over here,” Ironsides said, gesturing to a table behind them. The old, brown saddlebag that Bantamweight had been wearing was laying on the surface, along with all of the items that he had been carrying within. Flash studied each of them in turn.

“Hmm,” he murmured as he weighed a small bag of bits and jewels in his hoof. He passed his gaze over the other items: a small bundle of tissue paper, a few rose petals, and a small plastic figurine of a pegasus sailor. Flash turned his attention to the tissue paper.

“This is the kind of paper used in packaging gifts,” he noted, peering closely at the bundle. “I can see fragments of some kind of colored glass in there.”

“Let me take a look,” Twilight offered, lighting up her horn. She cast her magic over the tissue, causing the small colored fragments embedded within to glow shades of green and bluish-white. Twilight studied these auras carefully.

“It’s not glass,” she concluded. “It’s emerald with bits of silver in it.”

Flash turned and stared thoughtfully at Bantam for several seconds, studying the tattoo of the two hearts, then turned to Ironsides. “Ask him if his wife liked the earrings, and if his son enjoyed the new figures.”

Ironsides blinked, then entered the interrogation room, slamming the door behind him. Bantamweight barely looked up at his entry. The friends watched through the window.

“Your wife like the new earrings?” Ironsides asked Bantamweight. “How about your kid? He enjoy those new figures you got him?”

Bantam looked up slightly, his body tensing slightly.

“Do they know what you are?” Ironsides pressed, seeing an opening. “What do you think they’re going to think if I show up on their doorstep and tell them that you killed yourself because you’re a pirate?”

“Buck you,” Bantam snarled. His voice was quiet, but rough as sandpaper. His accent indicated an upbringing from the lower classes.

“Here’s a chance to do right by them, Bantamweight,” Ironsides continued in a softer tone. “You don’t have that many charges against you. Just talk to us, and maybe we can petition for a lighter sentence. You’ll be able to see them again.”

Bantamweight didn’t answer, still refusing to fully look up. “Come on, Bantam, do right by your family,” Ironsides pressed. “You don’t have to leave your kid without a father.”

Bantam sat silently for a few seconds, his body trembling with breath. “Come on,” Flash muttered. “Come on…”

“I’ll talk,” Bantam grunted.

“Okay,” Ironsides nodded, leaning in. “Where—?”

“Not to you,” Bantam interrupted. “To Daring Do.”

Watching through the window, Daring stiffened in shock momentarily, then started for the door. “Daring, wait!” Rainbow started after her, but it was too late to stop her.

The three Guards in the room blinked in surprise. “Daring Do?” Ironsides questioned. “But she’s—”

“Right here,” Daring declared, entering the interrogation room with a bold step. She pulled off her long jacket, revealing her compass rose cutie mark and undid the bun at the back of her head, allowing her grayscale mane to tumble down to her shoulders.

The three City Guards stared in utter disbelief. Bantamweight fully lifted up his gaze, revealing his hazelnut eyes and small smirk.

“Gotta say, Do, you’re not that much to look at up close,” he grunted.

“You wanted to talk to me. I’m here,” Daring snarled, stepping up to Bantam’s face. Everypony else just stared in bewilderment. “How do you know who I am?”

Bantam let out a low exhalation that might have been a chuckle. “You’re not as good at keeping secrets as you think, Do. One of our spies spotted you and Finder at the train station and we followed you around.” He smirked at Daring. “Yeah, we know who you both are: Charlie Silvertongue’s an old friend, he told us about you both.”

“So why kidnap us?” Daring asked.

“Not you,” Bantam explained. “The journal. Bushwacker’s journal. We overheard you talking about it.”

Daring’s face remained impassive, though she internally cursed herself for being so foolish as to make so many rookie mistakes. Being with him, in a familiar city, on what was meant to be merely a social visit...all of it had conspired to make her drop her guard.

“Whitestone knows the legends; all the pirates in these waters do,” Bantam continued. “So when she heard that you had found a lead, we jumped on it; just needed a local to help guide us around.”

Daring’s glare intensified, burning into the captured pirate like twin suns. “Where is he?” she demanded in a voice like a snake’s hiss.

“Ms. Alibi…!” Ironsides said warningly.

“It’s too late,” Bantam shook his head. “Whitestone said we were to cast off as soon as your friend was on board. They’re already on their way to Aushaylia.”

In the blink of an eye, Daring drew back her front hoof and launched it forward, sending it at Bantamweight’s face. He flinched from the blow, a small whimper escaping his throat, but she pulled the strike short at the last second. With a snarl, she turned and stormed back out of the room, leaving the three astonished City Guards behind. She slammed the door shut behind her and began to trot quickly back down the hallway, her gaze fixed straight ahead.

“Hey, wait up!” Rainbow Dash called after her, flying to catch up. “Where are you going?”

“To Aushaylia,” Daring replied curtly. “I have to rescue Phillip.”

“Well, we’re coming with you,” Rainbow said firmly, flying in front of Daring. “Phil’s our friend, and so are you, and we stand by our friends.”

Daring looked at Rainbow, then at Twilight and Flash, and saw the same determination carved into each of their faces. “I—” she started to say, but stopped herself. “Thank you,” she nodded.

“Of course,” Twilight said. “Come on, the others are waiting.”

The group exited the precinct, into the sun-kissed but still chilly air of the city. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie and Starlight were waiting on the front steps; all of them looked up at their arrival.

“Okay, girls, listen,” Twilight called them in and quickly explained the situation. “We need to find a ship and a crew to take us down to Aushaylia.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard in this city,” Applejack commented.

“Let’s hope not,” Twilight said grimly. “We’ll meet back at the Flying Dutchpony. Good luck, everypony.”

Hours later, back at the Flying Dutchpony, the group of nine friends gathered around of the tables, all of them looking morose.

“Did anypony have any luck?” Daring asked.

“No,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “Everypony I asked wasn’t interested in taking us to Aushaylia. They all said that the waters that far down south are too dangerous.” She scoffed. “Chicken.”

“As soon as I said ‘pirates’ or ‘Whitestone,’ they lost all interest,” Flash said.

Daring growled. “We can’t just fly down to Aushaylia! We need a ship, and somepony to pilot it!”

“Daring, calm down,” Twilight said reassuringly. “We’ll find a way.”

“Um, excuse me,” said a voice. Everypony looked up to see a stallion timidly approaching their table. Daring recognized him at once: the scrawny blue unicorn with the yellow-white hair that she had suspected of watching them yesterday.

“You’re Phillip Finder’s friends, right? I overheard you were looking for a ship to hire,” the unicorn said.

“Who are you?” Applejack asked suspiciously.

“Um…” the unicorn mumbled, shuffling his hooves. “My name is Straight Flush. Some of you in Ponyville…may have heard of me.”

“Yeah, Phil told me about you,” Flash said in a cold voice. “About how you got in deep with the Canter Nostra and pulled an innocent family into it.”

Straight Flush cringed. “That...that was a long time ago. I’ve changed since then; truth is, Phillip Finder opened my eyes to just how much trouble I was getting myself into.” He sighed and rubbed a hoof through his mane. “I moved down here, got an honest job here at the Dutchpony. I kicked my gambling habit. I’ve been living a good life.” He looked down at the floor, seemingly too ashamed to look up at them.

The friends huddled in close. “Do you think we should trust him?” Daring whispered.

“He made mistakes in his past,” Applejack stated. “But he admitted them, and he does seem sorry about them.”

“And he came up to us on his own with an offer to help,” Fluttershy added. “I think we can at least give him a chance.”

“So do I,” Applejack nodded.

Twilight looked around the group, each of whom was silently nodding assent. Flash hesitated for a moment, then nodded as well. Daring did not react save for a small shrug.

“All right,” Twilight said and looked up at Straight Flush. “Did you say you had a ship we can use?”

“Well, not me,” Straight said, looking up. “But I know an old, retired sailor with his own ship. His name’s Trim Mainsail. You’ll find him on his ship, the Over There, down at the closest marina.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said, rising. “Come on, everypony.”

The group exited the restaurant and started to hurry down to the docks, racing down the declining streets towards the marina. A short iron gate separated the marina from the rest of the city. A tall metal flagpole stood next to the entrance, the flags fluttering and ropes clattering in the wind that was blowing in from the sea. Dozens of ships, enough for an armada, stood up on wooden cradles on the shore: dozens more sat in the water, tied to the docks and bobbing up and down in the water.

“Remember, we’re looking for the Over There,” Twilight reported as they spread out to search.

“Over there!” Pinkie Pie suddenly yelled.

“Yes, that’s the name of the ship, Pinkie,” Starlight sighed, looking around.

“No, the Over There’s over there!” Pinkie shouted again, pointing.

A tall, two-masted, white schooner was sitting up on a cradle not far from them, the sails rolled up into the masts and the rigging clattering in the wind. The words “Over There” were painted in gold across the stern of the ship, over the rudder. A tattered Equestrian flag was miserably hanging from a flagpole fastened atop the cabin in the stern.

“Good eyes, Pinkie,” Twilight praised her as they ran up to the ship, pausing underneath the cabin porthole.

“Ahoy!” Daring called up. “Ahoy on board!”

The cabin porthole swung open and a pony stuck their head out. He had a coat the color of the rising sun and a sleek, jet black mane and beard. He squinted down at the group with wrinkled, dark blue eyes. “What is it?” he called down.

“Trim Mainsail?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, what is it?” the pony repeated.

“We want to hire your ship,” Twilight called up. “Permission to come on board?”

Mainsail squinted at them for a moment, then nodded. “All right, come on up. I’ll lower the ladder for you.”

“No need,” Starlight said with a grin, lighting up her horn. With a flash of blue magic, the entire group disappeared from the ground and reappeared on the main deck of the ship.

“Gah!” Daring shouted, stumbling back in shock. “Warn me before you do something like that!”

“Sorry,” Starlight apologized sheepishly.

The cabin door opened and Trim Mainsail trotted out, placing a Captain’s hat upon his head. He was an earth pony, his body lean and well-built, his muscles built up from hard years at sea. His cutie mark was a mast and a white sail with the silhouette of a pony rearing up on their hind legs painted on it.

“How can I help you?” he greeted them gruffly.

“Our friend—” Twilight started to say.

“—our explorer friend,” Starlight cut in, giving Twilight a meaningful look. “Has put us on a quest to find Captain Bushwacker’s treasure. We need to go down to Aushaylia.”

“Aushaylia?” Mainsail sputtered, taken aback. “It’s been ages since anypony has gone down there, and for good reason; the waters down there are treacherous. Why would you want to go there?”

“We...know it’s dangerous,” Flash was saying. “Could you hold on a second?” He quickly signalled a huddle with the rest of the group.

“What are you doing?” he hissed to Starlight. “Why aren’t you telling him the whole truth?”

“Because the truth wouldn’t help,” Starlight replied. “You think he would help us if he knew we would be getting into trouble with pirates?”

“He deserves to know,” Applejack pointed out fiercely. “Keeping the truth from him isn’t going to help any.”

“But we need his help,” Starlight pointed out. “And if we tell him that Whitestone is after us, he’s sure to say no.” She looked around at the others. “This may be our last chance to find Phillip.”

The group looked at one another, their faces swimming with uncertainty. “I don’t know…” Applejack whispered.

“Every moment we waste is time that Whitestone can be using to hurt Phillip,” Daring declared. “We need to hurry.”

Twilight sighed. “I don’t like it, but, Starlight and Daring do have a point.” She looked up at Mainsail, who was staring at them in confusion. “But how can we convince him to help?”

“Allow me,” Rarity declared, running a hoof through her mane. She walked back over to Mainsail, fluttering her eyelashes.

“I realize that it may be a dangerous trip,” she said. “But I’m sure you’ve been on many voyages before.”

“Of course I have,” Mainsail said slowly, transfixed by her gaze.

“Then a short, three-day voyage should be no problem for you,” Rarity continued, giving him a flattering gaze. “A hardened, brave sea dog such as yourself surely isn’t afraid of whatever we might encounter along the way…”

Mainsail swallowed. “Well, I’d need to hire a crew…”

“How many ponies would you need?” Twilight asked.

“For a ship this size and a trip this long…” Mainsail hummed to himself thoughtfully. “Maybe nine would be a good, round number.”

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine!” Pinkie counted off herself and her friends. “Nine ponies right here, ready to go, Captain!” She saluted smartly, giving a smile.

Mainsail raised an eyebrow. “Can you sail?”

Twilight smirked and lit up her horn, casting her magic over the masts. With a great fluttering of fabric, the mainsail and jib unfurled, the attached ropes tightly securing themselves to the deck.

“I learned that from ‘The Art of Seafaring and Sailing,’” she announced with a proud head tilt.

Mainsail nodded approvingly. “Not bad. But we’ll still need enough supplies.”

“Just leave that to us, darling,” Rarity reassured him. “You just get your lovely schooner shipshape and ready for the voyage.”

Mainsail considered the ragtag group of ponies before him. “You sure you’re all up to this?”

Daring glanced around at the others, and saw the same hard conviction in each of their faces and postures. Even Fluttershy had a determined gaze, despite the slight nervous trembling of her wingtips.

“Let’s do this,” she declared.

Author's Note

We're headed out to the open seas, me hearties, hot on the trail of the Silver Talon!

But if Whitestone's crew is this fanatic and dangerous, what is she like? Find out soon...

Part 4: Open Seas

The Silver Talon’s name was quite apt: every inch of the ship was painted a glossy sterling silver that glowed beneath the afternoon sun. Even the sails fastened to their three masts, which were all pulled taut to catch every ounce of the southeastern winds that carried the behemoth across the choppy waters, were made of argent fabric.

Attached to the tallest central mast was a flag of black cloth, dark as an abyss, fluttering proudly in the breeze. The brand of the Silver Talon was imprinted onto the flag, set next to the profile of a pony’s skull. Beneath the fearsome colors was a red pennant, crimson as the blood spilled by the ponies, thestrals, and griffons that bustled about the decks beneath. The red pennant sent a terrible message to all who viewed it: mercy would not be asked for nor given. A battle with Whitestone and her pirates would be a battle to the death.

The griffon pirate herself stood on the poop deck, her crest feathers dancing in the wind as she observed her crew at work. The image from her wanted poster did not do her justice: her pale body of two-toned gray and white was as lean and muscular as a lion king from the savannah. Her massive wings were currently tucked to her sides, but opened enough to feel the wind rustling at her feathers. Her yellow eyes, like amber orbs set into her face, stared out onto the main deck, where her crew of pirates worked, talked and entertained themselves out in the sun.

“Captain?” a voice timidly asked behind her. Whitestone did not turn: she could already picture the little pony well enough, staring up at her with the expression of reverential deference that she worked hard to imbue into the ponies and griffons that were to fight, steal, kill and die for her.

“What about Calico and Bantam?” the lubber was saying quietly. “Shouldn’t we have waited for them?”

“They knew the risks of this work when they volunteered,” Whitestone replied, her tone calm even as she stared out across the deck, searching for the familiar scruffy blue mane and tomato red coat, even though she knew they were not there to be found. “They did their job, and did it well. That is all that I ask out of my crew. I have faith that if they didn’t make it back, they will be waiting for us when we return.”

“What if they get caught?” the lubber protested. “What if they talk?”

“They won’t,” Whitestone answered in the same blank tone of voice, turning slightly to face the young, sunburnt earth pony. He trembled beneath her gaze, his aquamarine eyes automatically focusing on the scarlet red scar across her jawline.

“I have faith that they will not surrender, faith that they both had earned,” Whitestone stated matter of factly. She locked her eyes onto his. “Just like I have faith in you.”

“Y-yes, captain,” the pony said, stepping back and bowing slightly.

“Now get back to your post,” Whitestone ordered, turning away from him. The pony hurried away.

“Don’t know why you bother with those tenderhooves,” grumbled a voice next to Whitestone. Out of the corner of her eye, Whitestone regarded the speaker: a tall griffon with a reddish-brown coat and a short-cropped crest that was covered with a lime green headband. The griffon’s left eye was covered by a dark, thin scar; the other dark blue eye was wide open, glaring at the crew with a steely gaze. A black bandana was tied around his left bicep. Three cutlasses rested at his right hip.

“They have their uses, Roaring,” Whitestone told her first mate. “It’s not like we can always get the best of the lot. I believe in them, just like I once believed in you.”

“You flatter me, captain,” Roaring grunted, gazing out at a small group of trembling rookies that were being yelled at by the boatswain, Iron Steed. The slate-gray coated unicorn thrust his boulder-like build into the face of one of the recruits and threateningly shook his cat-o’-nine-tails. The young thestral shivered and rapidly nodded.

“If nothing else, we can use them as meatshields in a firefight,” Roaring commented.

“True,” Whitestone agreed with a small smirk.

“Captain! I think I noticed something,” another female voice called. Whitestone and Roaring turned to face the speaker, a tall, thin pegasus mare with flowing orange mane and tail and a yellow coat. Her cutie mark was a pair of tangerines, and a long spear was strapped across her back.

“What is it, Satsuma?” Whitestone asked, walking over the table where her navigator was examining a set of sea charts and the captured journal.

“Well, I was looking over the riddle,” Satsuma stated, gesturing to the open transcription before her. “I’m guessing that most of these things like ‘seven sisters’ and ‘wandering colt’ refer to landmarks on Aushaylia.”

“That’s what we got Finder for,” Roaring grunted.

Satsuma bit her lip at the mention of the name, a flicker of nervousness passing across her face before she continued. “But there’s this last line: ‘I opened it with the key that I had held in my deepest sleep.’”

“What does that mean?” Whitestone asked.

“Well, I did hear a legend once that Bushwacker had the key to his treasure buried with him,” Satsuma explained.

“Hmm,” Whitestone muttered, her eyes slowly falling to the deck of the ship.

Far beneath them, in the dark, dank hold of the Talon, four pirates stood around a flickering oil lamp. Through a door of rusty iron bars, they observed their prisoner, who glared stonily back at them. The light from the lamp cast his face into harsh shadows, making his stormcloud gray eyes seem to glow. The captured green vest and old gray trilby sat on a crate next to the captors.

“Look at him, in there,” one of the pirates muttered to his companions. “Not so tough after all.”

“Keep thinking that,” the prisoner said in a cold whisper, his eyes focusing on the speaker. The pirate gulped and did not speak again.

Phillip considered his guards. He was currently locked in the brig of a pirate ship in the middle of the Celestial Sea, disarmed of his gear. So why had Whitestone ordered four of her crew to guard him at all times?

He deliberately allowed a small smile to spread across his face, and watched in satisfaction as all four of the ponies forced themselves not to flinch. They feared him.

And he was not the only one they should be afraid of.

Applejack clambered across the gangway and onto the Over There, balancing a sack of apples on her back. “Okay, that’s the last of it!” she chirped happily, setting the sack down onto the deck.

“Cast off, then!” Mainsail bellowed from the poop deck. “We leave immediately!”

With a flash of her magic, Twilight undid the ropes that were tying the schooner to the docks and neatly coiled them up on the deck. Mainsail took the wheel and spun it hard, pulling the ship away from the docks and out into the open waters, the group cheering as they set out. The setting sun stood at their stern, casting them in its golden glow. The ship rose and fell over the waves as they pulled away from the shore, leaving the city of Baltimare far behind them.

“Whoo-hoo!” Pinkie cheered, leaning over the railing on the bow. The wind lifted up her mane, sending it flowing out around her head. “We’re on our way to Aushaylia! Break out the rum, me hearties!”

“We don’t have any rum, Pinkie,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“What?” Pinkie shouted. “Why is the rum gone?”

“Uh…” a bewildered Fluttershy stammered.

Applejack carried the sack of apples down the stairs and into the hold of the ship, storing the food with the rest of their supplies: enough food, water and other necessities for at least two weeks travel.

“Hope it’ll be enough,” she muttered to herself, returning to the main deck. She closed her eyes and breathed in the salty air of the sea, allowing the winds to gently tug at her mane and tail. Opening her eyes once more, she looked around and saw Starlight Glimmer standing at the starboard railing. She was examining a lifeboat hanging from the mast, checking to make sure that there were enough emergency supplies in the raft’s hold.

Applejack walked over to Starlight. “I’m still not happy about you lying to Mainsail,” she started.

Starlight turned to face Applejack. “I didn’t like it either, but we needed his help, and he wouldn’t have given it to us if we had told him the truth,” she said bluntly.

“You don’t know that for sure,” Applejack protested.

“What would you have me say? ‘Hey, our friend got kidnapped by a band of murdering pirates, you want to help us chase after them?’” Starlight scoffed. “Would you have helped if you were in his position and I had told you that?”

Applejack opened her mouth, but her reply stuck in her throat. She slowly closed her mouth and, on a pretense of needing to think, turned to the lifeboat. It was a long, wide canoe with several benches, large enough for all ten of them to sit in and still have room. The white exterior paint was peeling, and the lacquer on the reddish-brown interior had long ago faded. There was a large box in the stern for emergency supplies, and an oar strapped to the interior of both sides.

“No,” Applejack finally admitted. “No, I wouldn’t.”

Starlight nodded grimly. “And it’s not like we exactly lied to him, right? We just...kind of hid the truth from him,” she mumbled slowly.

Applejack gave her a stern look. “We willingly put ourselves in harm’s way for our friend, but we have to be careful about bringing other ponies into it. They’re not always prepared for it; sometimes they don’t do the right thing. Sometimes they make the wrong decisions for what they think are the right reasons.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow at her. “Are we still talking about Mainsail?”

“We might be, we might not,” Applejack answered. Turning away, she walked up to the poop deck. Mainsail was standing at the wheel, his eyes on the horizon as he steered his beloved ship. His back was straight and proud and his posture confident, solid as a rock despite the rocking of the ship. One glance told a viewer that this was a proud sailor, well at home on the seas.

“So,” Applejack called as she approached. “You ever have to deal with pirates?”

“A few times,” Mainsail replied calmly. He glanced at the compass mounted on a stand next to him and brought his left hoof down a bit.

Applejack felt her heartbeat speed up a bit. “You, er, know what to do with them?”

The grizzled captain raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you trying to tell me something?” he asked.

“No…” Applejack winced, hating the bitter taste of the lie as it laboriously forced itself out of her throat.

Mainsail smiled at her. “Don’t worry, lass. First of all, pirates aren’t as common as you might think. Secondly, we’re too small for most pirates to worry about, and we’re fast enough to avoid any pirates that we see coming.” He turned his attention back to the horizon. “Pirates are an accepted risk of sailing in these waters, but we shouldn’t have any trouble. We’ll reach Aushaylia in a few days.”

“Okay, if you’re sure,” Applejack said. She placed her forelegs against the stern railing and looked out to the west, pulling her hat down over her eyes to shield them from the lowering sun. Baltimare and the Equestrian mainland were already far away, seeming to shrink into the sea. Beneath her, a wake trailed out over the waters, marking their path. She scanned the sea, but the smooth surface was bare. No ships were in sight.

“Hey, how about a song?” Pinkie suggested. “Ninety-nine bottles of rum on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of—”

“NO!” everypony else shouted.

“Aww,” Pinkie grumbled.

The night descended slowly on the sea, the moon slowly rising above the dark, rippling water that attempted to mimic the star-spangled indigo expanse above. The Over There continued to slowly trundle across the ocean, its speed reduced by the lack of wind.

Down in the lower decks, Twilight was sprawled across the mattress of one of the fixed berths, her horn lit up as she studied an open book that lay on her faded white pillow. Occasionally, she would let out a small noise of surprise and joy and jot down something in the yellow notepad next to her with a scarlet quill.

“Fascinating!” she cried to herself, eagerly writing down a note. “I wonder if marsupial animals evolved on the Aushaylian island and then migrated to parts of the Equestrian mainland.” She paused and yawned, then continued writing down ideas. “Or maybe the island was part of the mainland once and drifted apart due to tectonic movement. I could perform the first field study of marsupials in their native habitat in—eep!” she suddenly squeaked as she felt a pair of strong forelegs wrapping themselves around her.

“You really should get some sleep,” Flash scolded her gently, nuzzling her cheek.

“But this is important,” Twilight protested, trying and failing to resist the temptation to nuzzle him back. “This book on the flora and fauna of Aushaylia is fascinating, and it could help us when we reach the island!”

“Yes, but it’s late and you still need to sleep, Princess,” Flash said in a firmer tone, releasing her.

Twilight frowned, both at the loss of contact and from the fact that he referred to her by her title, a sign that he was trying to be stern with her.

“But I’m not—” Her counter argument was rudely interrupted by a yawn.

“You have a couple more days of sailing ahead of us,” Flash replied, closing the book and placing it and her notepad and quill on the table next to the bed. “The book will be waiting for you in the morning.”

Twilight tried to frown at him, but the effort was too great. Sleep was creeping up on her, unstoppable, irresistible. “I suppose,” she admitted slowly, laying her head back down on the pillow. “That I could close my eyes for...just a moment…” She closed her eyes, and three seconds later, was snoring softly.

Chuckling to himself, Flash pulled the covers over her sleeping form. “Sometimes, Twilight, I feel like I’m protecting you from yourself more than other ponies,” he whispered and kissed her on the forehead. His princess smiled in her sleep. Flash tenderly removed the silver engagement ring from her wing and placed it on the table. It matched the ring that he wore on his own feathers. He smiled broadly as he remembered picking the matching set out for her.

He loved being engaged to her.

Turning, Flash walked past the other berths. Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Starlight were all curled up on one of the mattresses, already fast asleep. Flash climbed up the set of stairs and exited out onto the main deck, where the low breeze gently wafted through his mane and coat. He shivered, despite the weight and warmth of his armor, and looked up at the stars. Were he in Ponyville, he would be probably enjoying the great canvas that Luna had painted upon, safe in the castle with Twilight and Spike by his side. But out here, in the middle of the Celestial Sea, the distant lights made him feel small and impotent: once again, the waves of fate had tossed him and the ponies he had sworn to protect into a dangerous, unknown situation.

“How do these things keep happening to me?” he sighed to himself as he walked up to the poop deck. Rainbow and Daring were there, having volunteered to take the first watch while Mainsail slept. Rainbow stood at the helm, smiling broadly as she continued to steer the schooner southeast. Daring stood at a nearby table, comparing Billabong’s atlas with a collection of sea charts by the light of an oil lantern. The flickering flame reflected off of the lenses of her red-rimmed reading glasses.

“Hey, Flash,” Rainbow greeted him as he approached. “This is awesome!”

“That does look like fun,” Flash agreed, watching Rainbow at the wheel. He walked over to Daring.

“You okay?” he asked Daring.

“I’m fine,” Daring replied curtly, continuing to study the maps. “We need to plot our course. Whitestone’s got almost a full day’s head start on us.”

Flash frowned to himself. “Look, I know you’re worried about Phil. If you ever—”

“I don’t—” Daring started to snap at him, but then stopped herself. She closed her eyes and took a breath, then turned to Flash and spoke more softly. “I appreciate your concern, Flash, but I’m all right. Really, I am.”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Flash said hesitatingly. He paused, studying the maps on the table before her.

“Hey, I just thought I should tell you something,” Flash started to say. He paused and cleared his throat. “When I said that Phil was family...I, uh...I meant it. Because he—”

“He adopted you as his son,” Daring finished.

Flash blinked. “Oh. He told you, right?”

“He did,” Daring nodded, turning to him. She removed her glasses and gave him a small smile. “It was a bit surprising, but I know Phil well enough to know that he’s not the sentimental type. If he took you in, it’s because he had a good reason for it. And that’s good enough for me.” She grinned and tussled Flash’s mane. “Guess you’re not such a tenderhoof anymore.”

“Thanks,” Flash smiled back.

“You know how to use a sextant?” Daring asked him, holding up the navigational instrument. “Let me teach you, and you can help me plot our course.”

“Sure,” Flash agreed, taking his place at her side. For a few moments, the doubt that was plaguing him since he had pulled away from the docks was dispelled, banished by the warmth of his friends.

Author's Note

Only five days since the last chapter: I'm on a roll!

And so are the ponies.

Part 5: Sinking

The next two days passed in a wash of calm waters that reflected azure skies and star-spangled nights. The Over There made excellent time across the sea, pursuing the rising sun every morning.

Towards noon of the third day, the group was scattered across the schooner’s decks, enjoying the sun-kissed gusts that gently pushed them forward. Mainsail was at the helm, steering the ship forward to their destination. Daring, Rainbow and Flash were sparring on the main deck, Flash’s armor shining in the sun as he darted in and out of the other two pegasi, all three of them evenly matched. Twilight was sitting towards the bow, her nose buried in the Aushaylian atlas; next to her, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie were playing a card game.

Twilight looked up from the book, staring out past the jib towards the horizon. We should be within sight of Aushaylia in a couple of hours, she thought to herself. Then we’ll have to figure out a plan to take care of Whitestone and rescue Phillip. Ideas began to swim in the forefront of her mind, and she put herself to the task of sorting out her thoughts, categorizing them into information, speculation, goals, and concerns, discarding anything that was not useful. From there, she would try to mix the various combinations to concoct a feasible plan.

Starlight emerged onto the deck from below, blinking in the sudden light that assaulted her eyes. “Maybe I’m spending too much time down by myself,” she chuckled to herself, meandering towards the bow of the ship. “I’m starting to turn into Twilight.”

“Yes, sitting in the dark for too long is not doing your complexion any favors, darling,” Rarity scolded gently, taking out a mane brush out of her saddlebag and using it to fix Starlight’s mane. “You’ve barely come out since the start of the voyage. What have you been doing down there?”

“Doing some experiments,” Starlight replied, using her magic to open a small drawstring bag that was hanging around her neck. Out of the bag floated several dark blue crystals, carefully carved into geometric shapes.

“Those are the crystals from the Rainbow Castle, aren’t they?” Rarity asked, the periwinkle glow of the enchanted stones seeming to magnify the color of her irides.

“Yes. I’ve been doing some more tests,” Starlight stated. She focused a beam of her magic on one of the samples, a pyramid shaped shard. The stream of energy caused the crystal to glow brighter, and then it spat out a shimmering, multi-colored sphere of light that expanded to three feet wide. The colors swirled around the bubble in a kaleidoscopic display, nearly obscuring the shard of crystal floating within.

“I’ve found out that the energy encased within these stones can focus and direct whatever magic is concentrated into them, almost like a...like a lens, but for magic,” Starlight stated, experimentally tapping the swirling sphere that floated before her. Her hoof caused the little bubble to flex slightly and slowly float upwards a few inches before descending back to its original position. “I think it has something to do with the nature of the castle itself: it was created from the Tree of Harmony, so it’s overcharged with positive energy.” She ceased directing her magic into the prism. The multi-hued sphere immediately disappeared and the shard remained suspended in midair. “But I still can’t figure out how to control the shapes that the shards make.”

“If you ever figure it out, do tell me, will you?” Rarity asked, watching the hovering fragments in fascination. “I have so many ideas as to what I could do with these fabulous jewels! Just imagine, decoration that could glow and form shapes—oooh, wait a minute!” she suddenly cried, plucking out one of the crystals: a four-pointed star that was similarly shaped to the star in Starlight’s cutie mark, save for a small hole in the center.

“I tried an experiment with shards that were faced with the user’s cutie mark, but I still couldn’t get the results I wanted,” Starlight admitted. “Also, I kind of messed up on carving it.”

“No, no, it’s perfect!” Rarity smiled, levitating several small balls of thread out of the saddlebag. After pondering for a moment, she selected the turquoise ball, running out a length of string and cutting it with a pair of small scissors. Threading the string through the small hole in the center of the crystal star, she placed the decoration around Starlight’s neck and tied the two ends together in a dainty knot, forming a necklace.

“There,” Rarity nodded approvingly. “Absolutely perfect.”

“Thanks, Rarity,” Starlight smiled, examining her new accessory.

“Mates!” Mainsail suddenly barked. “Over to our port side!”

“Our what?” Pinkie called up in confusion.

“The left, Pinkie,” Twilight explained. “Remember, they both have four letters.”

“Well, why can’t he just say that?” Pinkie asked.

“Guys, look!” Rainbow yelled, pointing. Everypony looked up to see a humongous mass of black clouds, large as an entire armada of enemy ships and just as threatening, looming towards them at an accelerating pace. Flashes of lightning flickered and danced beneath the oncoming squall.

“Rogue storm!” Mainsail shouted. “It’s gonna hit us in minutes!”

“I can clear it,” Rainbow declared determinedly, already spreading her wings to take flight.

“No, it’s too large and too dangerous to try to clear in open sea,” Mainsail cut her off. “Everypony, grab your life jackets!”

“Right!” Twilight called out, gathering up the atlas. With a quick burst of her magic, she extracted several life jackets from the bright yellow-colored crate on the main deck and floated one over to herself and all of the others. Rarity summoned their raincoats from below in a burst of sapphire magic. The friends quickly strapped the safety gear onto themselves.

“Brace yourselves!” Mainsail bellowed, his cry mixing with a great rumble of thunder. “Here she comes!”

The storm struck the sea like the wrath of some bygone deity. Thunder roared like the bellowings of dragons, and lightning ripped through the sky, striking at the churning water. The winds tore at the sails of the Silver Talon, as if trying to rip them from the masts: waves as tall as buildings drenched the decks and soaked the frantically working crew to the bone.

“Up the mizzenmast, you lazy toads!” Satsuma screeched from the poop deck. “Reef those sails before we lose them!”

At her word, several of the crew, clutching their raincoats about them, hurried to climb up the mast, hoping to roll up the sails before the wind could pull them from their mountings. Standing next to her navigator, Whitestone watched her crew hard at work. She wore no jacket to protect her from the icy wind and spray, but her footing was as solid as stone, seemingly unaffected by the storm. Next to her, Roaring clutched an old meerschaum pipe in his beak, one claw held over the bowl in an attempt to protect the precious flame.

A sudden cry pierced above the wind. “Ship to larboard!” the lookout called down from the crow’s nest. Whitestone and Roaring hurried over to the railings, raising their telescopes to their eyes. The enchanted lenses pierced the darkness, making the image they saw seem as clear as day.

A ship could indeed be seen in the distance: a white schooner with golden lettering painted across its sides. It struggled determinedly through the crashing waves, following their path.

“They’re pursuing us,” Whitestone growled.

“Maybe they just got lost? Or they’re exploring?” Satsuma suggested, squinting through the sheets of rain at the distant shape.

“This far south?” Roaring scoffed. “We sailed right off the edge of most maps eighteen hours ago! Bet they’re some of Finder’s friends.”

“We cannot take that risk,” Whitestone stated, collapsing her telescope. “To Wavey Jones’ locker with them.”

Roaring grinned. “BATTLE STATIONS!” he bellowed above the wind. “READY THE STARBOARD CANNONS, YOU LOUTS!”

At his command, there was a chorus of yelling as the crew hurried to their positions. Crews of ponies raced beneath the decks to the cannons. There were twelve of these massive, iron behemoths on the Silver Talon, six of them on each side. Teams of gunners took their positions at the starboard cannons, dampening the barrels and preparing them for firing. Runners hurried down to the magazine within the bowels of the ship, where dozens of seven inch shells stood waiting in rows. Forming a line back up to the cannons, the pirates began to pass along the shells to the waiting gunners, who eagerly stuffed them into the firing chambers of their weapons.

“Bring her about!” Satsuma called to the helmspony. The broad-shouldered unicorn spun the wheel; the ship groaned as it responded begrudgingly, turning to intercept the enemy’s course.

Still locked in his cell in the hold, Phillip looked about, wondering at the sudden noise.

“What’s going on?” one of his guards called to a griffon that rushed past.

“We’ve sighted a ship chasing us!” the griffon replied, passing a shell to the next pony in line.

The words impacted Phillip like a sledgehammer to the face. He knew who it had to be, and his heart sank. Just as his friends’ ship would soon.

“The foresail’s caught! Rainbow, get up there and get it untangled before we lose it!” Mainsail barked at Rainbow Dash.

“On it!” Rainbow called, flying up the foremast to the stuck sail. Searching through the weave of ropes and blocks that held the sail up, she found the tangled ropes and began to use her teeth to straighten them out, battling the icy spray that stung at her face and wings as she did so. Beneath her, Applejack and Pinkie Pie grabbed the supporting ropes and held them tight in their mouths, straining to hold the canvas sheet still as the wind tried to tug it from their grasp.

Finally, the ropes gave, the knot undoing itself. “I got it!” she shouted down. “Pull it up!”

Applejack and Pinkie Pie heaved, tugging the sail upwards. The other ponies rushed to help them in their task, pulling the heavy canvas into place.

A crack of lightning suddenly pierced the sky, causing Rainbow to instinctively flinch, shielding her eyes from the sudden assault of bright light. As her vision recovered, she spotted a strange shape over the cresting waves. Squinting through the sheets of rain, she attempted to discern the object’s identity. Another flash of lightning suddenly threw the incoming object in flickering light, and Rainbow identified it immediately.

“Guys! There’s another ship, over there!” she shouted down, pointing. Every head turned to follow her hoof, peering at the oncoming strangers.

Daring plucked a monocular from her vest and squinted through it, adjusting the focus and turning on the night-vision enhancement. The image through the scope brightened, casting the ship into clear relief. She could see every detail, from the sheen of the silvery paint to the skull and talon flag, flapping violently in the wind.

“Uh-oh,” she muttered.

“Gunners ready!” Roaring shouted down the stairs into the hold. The ear of every pirate turned upwards, awaiting the command as they stood ready beside their cannons.

Whitestone observed the target ship coming into range, tossed closer to them by the wind and waves that could not move her from her position. As soon as they were close enough, she gave the command.

"Fire!"

“FIRE!” Roaring bellowed.

Seizing the firing cords in their talons and mouths, the gunners fired as one. Six different voices roared as one, the sound waves tearing through the ship and the skeleton of every pony and griffon aboard. A thick cloud of smoke and fire, filled with the miasma of cordite, erupted from the starboard side of the Silver Talon. With a high-pitched, shrieking whistle, six shells hurled towards their target.

“INCOMING!” Daring screamed, yanking Fluttershy and Starlight to the deck as the warning whistle sounded through the storm. Everypony else dived to the floor just in time.

The Over There was rocked with several successive concussive blasts as the shells smashed into its hull. Splinters flew everywhere like flocks of angry bees, and would have torn the friends to crimson shreds had Twilight not instinctively thrown up a protective shield around them all. One shell ripped through the main mast like it had been made of paper: with a great groan, the wooden pillar fell to the side and crashed into the sea. The schooner reeled beneath their hooves and began to slowly sink beneath the surface of the water.

“Everypony to the lifeboats!” Flash shouted, helping Twilight to her hooves and pushing her towards the lifeboats on the side.

“Starlight, c’mon!” Applejack yelled, trying to carry Starlight to the lifeboats. But the young unicorn wouldn’t move: her eyes were wide and terrified, and her trembling body was dead weight in Applejack’s grasp.

“Help me with her!” Applejack called out to the others. Rarity ran back and helped Applejack lift up the catatonic Starlight and carry her into one of the two lifeboats. Captain Mainsail climbed in after them, followed by Rainbow Dash.

Flash helped Twilight, Daring, Pinkie and Fluttershy into the other lifeboat. With a cast of her magic, Twilight loosed the cables tying the lifeboats to the ship, causing both of the precious lifeboats to fall into the tumultuous water beneath. Another spell surrounded both of the tiny crafts with purple magic, pulling them away from the Over There. Trim Mainsail stared in silent disbelief and mourning as his beloved schooner slowly disappeared beneath the waves.

“Is everypony all right?” Daring yelled, her voice carrying over the still clamoring wind and thunder of the storm.

“We’re okay!” Rainbow called out from the other lifeboat.

“Now what do we do?” Rarity cried, her voice bordering on hysteria.

“We’ll be okay!” Daring replied. “We’re not that far from Aushaylia, and I’ve got the atlas! We can—”

“Look out!” Mainsail suddenly shouted, pointing. Everypony turned and stared in horror, their brains unable to process what they were seeing. A humongous wall of water, as tall as a building, was bearing down on them with the speed of a freight train and the ferocity of an angry dragon, relentless, unstoppable, and promising destruction.

“BRACE YOURSELVES!” Twilight screamed, cowering in the bottom of the lifeboat along with Fluttershy and Pinkie. Daring and Flash placed themselves on top of the group as the wave crashed down on both lifeboats, submerging the occupants under what felt like tons of dark, cold water.

It took too long for the water to wash away, and once it did, the five ponies looked around for their friends. A flash of lightning cracked across the sky, giving them a brief glimmer of light, and to their horror, they saw that the lifeboat carrying Applejack, Rarity, Starlight, Rainbow Dash and Mainsail was drifting away from them.

“Rainbow!” Daring called out to the group. Rainbow seemed to try to shout something in reply, but her voice was carried away by the wind. Daring instinctively spread her wings to take off, but the storm almost ripped her from the lifeboat instantaneously.

“Come back!” Fluttershy called in vain. The ponies could only watch helplessly as the two lifeboats were pulled farther and farther away from each other, every flash of lightning revealing their shrinking forms. The Over There fully sank beneath the surface, gurgling as she went down into the murky depths. The ponies could only watch as the Silver Talon turned away, resuming its southeast heading, leaving behind the stranded and separated ponies.

The crew of the Silver Talon cheered as the target schooner disappeared beneath the churning waters, the taste of cordite still heavy in the air. “Yeah! Good shooting, lads!” Roaring shouted, pounding his chest proudly.

Whitestone stared until there was nothing left of the ship’s existence, then turned and walked back to the poop deck. "Back to your positions, all of you!" she barked.

Down below, Phillip heard the cheering, the joyful, boasting voices, and they were like knives inserted in his ears. He slowly laid down in a corner of his dark, damp cell, burying his head between his forelegs and bearing his scar-marked back to his captors.

One of his guards sneered at his display. “Your friends were on that ship, weren’t they, Finder?” he mocked.

Phillip pretended he did not hear, commanding himself not to weep.

The hours passed him by silently, without touching him: he seemed to exist in a timeless limbo, unaware of everything around him. Only one thought remained, forever echoing within his brain: his son and future daughter-in-law, his lover, his family were dead, and it was all his fault.

Somewhere in the back of his subconscious, he noticed that the ship had ceased rocking violently, which indicated that the storm had finally subsided. Soon after, there was a distant shout of “Land ho!” from far above, followed by a clamor of activity from the other pirates. Phillip still did not move from his position.

Eventually, there was a squeak of iron as the cell opened and the sound of approaching steps on the rotting wood. “Get up,” Roaring snarled down at him.

Phillip did not react. Growling, Roaring drew back a curled-up claw and punched Phillip in the side of the head, causing him to grunt in pain and shock.

“Get up!” Roaring demanded, giving him a kick for good measure. Roused to semi-consciousness, Phillip felt himself numbly rising to his hooves. Roaring seized him and roughly threw him out of the cell. Three other pirates tightened lassoes around his forelegs and his neck, holding the ends securely. The stared at their captive nervously, being careful to stay as far away from him as possible, as though he was a bad-tempered taipan; but all of the fight had gone out of Phillip. He followed his wardens obediently, moving as though in a dream.

The group emerged onto the deck of the Silver Talon, blinking in the afternoon light. Squinting, Phillip looked about to observe the other pirates disembarking from the ship onto the dinghies. He spotted what looked like another ship not far off from their starboard side and peered at it.

But with a wave of nostalgia, he realized that the large white, sail-like crests did not belong to a ship: they were part of a building, designed so that it looked like a large ship sitting in the bay. His heart leaped as he recognized the Sydneigh Opera House, the place where he, his father, and the band had performed so many times to a packed house, filling the auditorium with the sweet, sweet chords of their jazz music. A bridge connected the Opera House to the mainland, and there it was: Sydneigh. He could see Sammy Slider’s sandwich shop, the red and white awning dancing in the wind, and right next to it, Jamie Brew’s tavern. There was the fruit shop, the bank, the schoolhouse...home spread out before his eyes, a feast for his hungry gaze. He could even see the ponies on the streets, all of them greeting one another with broad smiles that glowed in the sun. He could not stare long enough.

Then, one of the pirates tugged on the rope around his neck, yanking him off-balance and choking him briefly. When he looked up again, the illusion had disappeared. The Opera House was a rotting, yellowing husk. Holes punctured its arched rooftops and the bridge connecting it to the mainland had long ago collapsed into splinters. The town of Sydneigh, his home, was gone: nothing remained but blackened, shriveled ruins, ghosts of what they had once been. The dusty greens and reds of the bush that shivered in the wind had been steadily encroaching on the former town for the past seventeen years, overtaking and reclaiming the land. There was not a single sign of life anywhere in the village.

The pirates guided him over to a dinghy swinging from the starboard and forced him inside. The three rope-bearers, two other pirates, and Roaring followed him in, the first mate signalling a pony on the deck to lower them in. They dropped into the waters of the bay and the two pirates began to row them ashore. The three leash-bearers kept their eyes on Phillip, their expressions tense as they stared at the uncaged lion: Roaring stared coolly at him, one claw held on one of the three cutlasses at his hip, but Phillip made no move to resist.

They drew up to the shore with a shuffling of sand and disembarked, climbing up the hot beach and into the ruined village, walking up what used to be the main road. Pirates were wandering in and out of the burnt shells of homes; occasionally, they would call out to one another whenever they found something interesting, but mostly, their voices were raised in complaint about the heat and lack of valuables to be uncovered. Whitestone herself stood in what used to be the town center, observing her crew at work with an unreadable expression. She turned as the group approached.

“Welcome home, Mr. Finder,” she greeted Phillip in a mocking tone. Phillip glared at her in reply.

“I want you to listen to me, Mr. Finder,” Whitestone continued. “I have a reputation for violence that is well-earned, but I don’t believe in cruelty or unnecessary killing.”

Behind Phillip, Roaring growled something unintelligible. Whitestone shot him a brief glance, then turned back to Phillip. “Now, I know you don’t fear death, so you wouldn’t help us just because we threatened to kill you. So I’m going to give you an offer. You help us find your ancestor’s treasure, we bring you back to the mainland and let you go. You don’t, and we find the treasure anyway, and we leave you here to die.” She paused, evaluating Phillip’s reaction. “Like it or not, we are your only option to get off this island.”

“And how can I trust a pirate?” Phillip said, his voice an attempt at a growl, but he couldn’t keep a small quaver out of his tone.

“You're going to take it on faith,” Whitestone stated with a smirk. “You’ll be needing these.” She pulled two books out of her saddlebags and handed them to Phillip. He recognized the canvas of Bushwacker’s journal and Billabong’s transcription. He opened the transcription up to the last pages, to the songline, and read it to himself:

I looked upon the Wandering Colt’s face,
Where the Rainbow Serpent slept.
The Seven Sisters sang to me,
And called me to their rest.
I followed their trail, I followed their song,
Until I found the blood-stained rock,
Beneath which the wandjina danced.
There, I found my hidden treasure,
And opened it with the key I held
In my deepest sleep.

“You know where these are?” Whitestone asked.

“Yes,” Phillip stated flatly.

“Good,” Whitestone nodded. “Roaring?”

“You five,” the first mate barked. “Let’s get moving.”

The pirates surrounded Phillip, the three leash-bearers still holding tight to the ropes around him, and allowed him to lead them eastwards.

But as they reached the edge of Sydneigh, Phillip stopped suddenly, his head turning towards one of the burnt shells of a cottage. He stared at the blackened front door, looked through the broken, dust-covered windows into rooms that he knew were empty, and all of a sudden, he was thirteen years old again, his flanks bare and his hooves soaked in the blood of the one pony he loved...there was a storm raging down upon him, wind and rain lashing at his face, and he threw his head back and screamed, screamed at the thunder, screamed out his rage and denial at the God who had abandoned him…

“Move it!” Roaring snapped, striking him over the head. Phillip grunted as he was jolted out of the memory and continued walking, his head down and his breath trembling. He looked down at his hooves as they continued to mechanically propel him forward, and for a moment, he imagined that his forelegs were soaked in hot, liquid blood, dripping down his leg and leaving behind crimson hoofprints. The blood of his father, the blood of the ponies he’d murdered, the blood of his family.

His home was gone. His people were gone. He had nothing left.

Nothing but revenge.

An icy coldness spread across his torso, chill winds bashing against the interior of his ribcage. The rain traveled upwards to his eyes and made them sting, but he refused to allow the tears to fall, instead looking upwards to glare at his captors.

Let him wait. Let him bide his time.

And when the moment was right, let him soak his skin in the blood of Whitestone and her crew, just like so many before them.

Author's Note

It's a three-course serving of feels, hot off the grill!

But what of the other ponies, now lost in uncharted waters? Stay tuned, readers.

Part 6: Ashore

All was silent save for the splashing of water against the side of the lifeboat. The five ponies bobbed up and down in the sea, unmoving. Twilight was huddled up next to Flash, her head on his chest, which was slowly rising and falling with his breath. Pinkie and Fluttershy both sat at the stern, their heads on each others shoulders, resting quietly. Daring lay in a deep puddle of seawater in the middle of the boat. The storm had long ago passed: now the sun hung high in the sky, mercilessly beating down upon the wet, exhausted forms.

The sound of flapping wings snapped Daring from her stupor. She looked up to find that a seagull had intruded on their boat, and was now perched upon the bow. The plump bird cocked its head to the side, staring back at her before letting out a soft caw.

“Guys,” Daring groaned, raising herself up. “Guys, get up. We’re near land.”

“Huh?” Flash stirred.

“Look,” Daring pointed at the bird, which flapped back up into the air, frightened by the sudden noise and movement. “It’s a seagull. That means we’re near land. We have to get moving.”

Twilight grunted as she forced herself up. “She’s right. We’re never going to survive for long in open waters.”

“But...but what about the others?” Fluttershy asked softly, the tear tracks marked on her face evident even beneath the spray of the rain and sea.

“They’ll…” Twilight swallowed nervously. “They’ll be all right, Fluttershy, but we can’t worry about them right now.”

“But we should be looking for them!” Fluttershy protested, looking around. To her dismay, there was no sign of any boats on the horizon. “They’re out here, alone and lost and tired and hungry and maybe being attacked by sharks or a giant sea monster—!”

“And so are we!” Daring interrupted. “We’ve got enough on our plates right here and now, and we just can’t afford to worry about anypony else until we get to safety, all right?!”

Fluttershy stared at Daring, her eyes wide and her lower lip trembling. Daring grimaced a little, but did not say anything, instead pulling a compass out of her vest pocket and searching for their heading.

Pinkie thought for a moment, then opened up the storage cabinet in the stern of the boat and rummaged around. Extracting a fresh apple, she handed it to Fluttershy. “Hey, I know things look bad now,” she said, giving her friend a small squeeze. “But don’t you worry: Applejack and Rainbow Dash are with them, and Rarity and Starlight are both tougher than they look. They’ll be all right: let’s just try to help ourselves right now, okay?”

Fluttershy stared at her for a moment, then slowly nodded, taking the apple and munching on it.

“Southeast is this way,” Daring declared, pointing. “Come on, we’d best get moving.” Removing one of the oars from the side of the lifeboat, she started to determinedly paddle in the direction she’d indicated.

“Here,” Flash said, taking his place next to her. He took up the other oar and started rowing as well. With an exhausted sigh, Twilight summoned up a burst of magic and banished the seawater that had collected in the middle of the boat.

“Well, on the bright side,” Pinkie chirped. “At least it’s sunny.”

Pinkie was right: it was sunny. The relentless heat bore down upon them as they paddled eastwards, cooking them to the bone and sapping their energy. Their rationed supply of water only provided them barely enough sustenance to keep going: while two of them continued to row, straining against the heavy water, the other three lay in the lifeboat in order to conserve their energy.

The hours passed in silence, the need for survival muting all conversation. The waves lapped languidly at the sides of their boat, a warning that the sea could annihilate their pathetic little craft anytime it pleased.

As the sun began to reach its apex, Daring rotated off to allow Pinkie to take over for her. Collapsing in the bow of the boat, she reached into her shirt and pulled out the two books that she had managed to save from the sinking ship. Opening up the atlas, she studied the large map of Aushaylia. The island nation was relatively small, but still too large to cover in a single day: about thirty miles across its middle and twenty miles from its northernmost peak to its southern tip.

“I’ve been thinking,” Flash said, panting as he continued to row. “When we get to Aushaylia, how are we going to find Phil? We can’t just search the entire island for him.”

“He’s right, and I’ve been thinking about that,” Twilight agreed, raising her head slightly. She nodded to the atlas in Daring’s grasp. “There are a few mentions of landmarks related to Aushaylian legends in there.”

Daring flipped a few pages forward and began to study the chapter on the Outback, the arid region in the middle of the island where little grew, the weather was dry and unpredictable, and few survived. Her eyes swept over the paragraphs, absorbing the information contained within the printed type, until a pair of words caught her attention.

“Wandering Colt…” she muttered, laying her hoof on the two words.

“Who?” Twilight asked.

“Not who, what,” Daring answered. “The Wandering Colt is a set of stones in the Lover’s River, so named because they look like a young colt. According to legend, one of the creator beings, the giant Rainbow Serpent, sleeps in that river. One day, a group of Aborigineighs went camping near the cove and left a young colt in charge of their camp while they went out hunting. The colt got bored and wandered to the shore. The Rainbow Serpent saw him and, as punishment for not obeying his elders, turned him into stone.”

“Harsh,” Pinkie commented, wiping sweat from her brow.

“But I remember that,” Daring said. “It was in the songline…” She closed her eyes and dug into her memory, bringing the image of the transcription back to the front of her mind.

“I looked upon the Wandering Colt’s face,
“Where the Rainbow Serpent slept.
“The Seven Sisters sang to me,
“And called me to their rest.
“I followed their trail, I followed their song,
“Until I found the blood-stained rock,
“Beneath which the wandjina danced.
“There, I found my hidden treasure,
“And opened it with the key I held
“In my deepest sleep.

“That’s the songline from Bushwacker’s journal,” Daring reported. “It mentions the Wandering Colt as a landmark.”

“If the pirates are searching for the treasure, they’d probably be having Phillip guiding them,” Flash concluded. “So if we follow the songline, we’ll probably be able to pick up the trail before long.”

“Good idea,” Twilight nodded. “Then once we find them, we can figure out how to save him.”

At that moment, Fluttershy suddenly sat up straight and pointed to the horizon. “Look!” she shouted joyfully.

Everypony turned and, to their immense relief, saw a strip of solid land approaching them. Encouraged by the sight, Flash and Pinkie redoubled their efforts at the oars, pulling them forward through the water.

Still, despite their best efforts, the sun was already dipping towards the western horizon by the time they finally reached the shallow waters. Leaping out of the boat into the cool waters, the five friends dragged their lifeboat onto the shore, panting from dehydration and exhaustion.

Pinkie flopped down onto the hot sands and began kissing the ground out of relief. Almost immediately, she leapt back up, spitting. “Yuck!” she grimaced, wiping sand off her tongue. The others chuckled quietly at the sight.

Daring unfolded the atlas and laid it down upon the beach, placing her compass next to it. She traced her hoof along the border of the island, attempting to discern their position. “Let’s see...there’s a little cove there, and I see a limestone formation over there…aha!” she declared, stabbing her hoof down on a northwestern corner of the island. “Here we are, and the Wandering Colt is...this way,” she added, marking out a path to the east to a small river that partially bisected Aushaylia. “We’d best get moving.”

Twilight gathered up their stores of food, water and other necessities from the lifeboat and distributed them amongst the group, and they set forth, crossing into the bush.

The land that was known as the Outback was a land of dry, red sands, sparse vegetation of bushes and low trees, and grand stone formations. The five crossed wide plains of brush that were silent save for the low wind through the frail branches, and passed through wide canyons with artistic layers of rusty red, dusty brown, and grayish whites. The sun continued to beat down upon them, and the taste of the dry, dusty air passed over their tongues whenever one of them opened their mouth to speak, which was not often.

After about an hour of walking, Twilight called for a rest. They settled down in a grove of tall, wide trees with gray bark and pale green, sickle-shaped leaves.

“What kind of trees are these?” Flash wondered after a few minutes of silent respite, staring up the great height of the tree that he sat beneath.

“Eucalyptus Coolabah,” Twilight recited. “They’re a very common tree on the island.” She carefully pulled down one of the branches to study the leaves more closely, jotting down notes in a notepad that she had been carrying in her saddlebag.

“Hey, look. There’s some carvings on this one,” Flash said, tracing his hoof along the rough shapes of an x, a circular coil, and a diamond marred into the trunk of the tree he was sitting beneath. “Wonder what they mean.”

“They could be some kind of landmark left behind by an explorer,” Daring suggested.

“They’re tree-mendous!” Pinkie grinned, tilting her head back to stare up at the top of the trees.

Before anypony could react to her terrible pun, there came a loud, chittering laugh from the leaves of the tree above. Everypony looked up to see a cream-colored bird with brown streaks across their head, a large bill, and blue tipped wings sitting on a branch on a tree, letting out a long, echoing cry that sounded like laughter.

“A blue-winged kookaburra!” Fluttershy cried in delight, observing the laughing bird. “I read about them in the book!”

“He’s got a great sense of humor!” Pinkie chirped.

“What’re those?” Flash asked, pointing. A half dozen strange creatures were wandering across the sand nearby: they looked like large mice with sandy brown fur, large hind legs, very long, strong-looking tails that dragged across the ground, and short front legs with which they pawed the ground, apparently looking for morsels to eat. One of the closer creatures rose up on its hind legs and gazed at the strangers with its great brown eyes, its nose and large round ears twitching.

“Kangaroos!” Fluttershy squealed in delight. “They are real!”

Something wriggled on the kangaroo’s belly, and a second, smaller head popped out of a small pouch, blinking and yawning.

“And it’s got a little joey!” Fluttershy cried. “Oh, isn’t it cute!”

Some of the kangaroos raised up onto their hind legs and began to bound across the landscape, propelling themselves with their legs and their tails. Pinkie giggled at the sight of their bizarre method of transportation, then began to bounce around in an imitation of them. “Boing! Boing! Boing!” she sang.

Twilight chuckled softly. “At least a couple of us are enjoying themselves,” she said softly.

Flash managed a very weak smile, then looked down at his hooves. He pawed softly at the ground, marking out a line in the sand.

“Hey,” Daring called out to him. “We’re going to find him and bring him home.”

“I want to believe that,” Flash replied, not looking up. “But…” He blinked and swallowed. “I just got a father. I don’t want to lose him so soon.”

“You’re not going to,” Daring reassured him. “Because I’m not letting my partner die either.” She guzzled down a drink of water and rose to her hooves. “But we’re not going to find them just sitting around here. Come on, guys, we’d best get moving. It’s going to start getting dark soon.”

“Aww,” Fluttershy grumbled in disappointment, waving goodbye to the kangaroos as she followed the others. Pinkie happily bounced after them, using her tail as a spring.

But as they departed, there came from the distance a long, wailing howl. “What’s that?” Fluttershy cried, cowering from the sound.

“Just some dingoes, probably,” Daring answered. “Wild dogs,” she added by way of explanation. “Don’t worry; if we stick together, we should be fine.”

The howling continued, a single voice joined by several others that echoed across the brush. Fluttershy swallowed and scurried after her friends. Flash raised a hoof to the scabbard at his side, his head panning from side to side. The sun dipped lower to the western horizon, allowing the darkness to creep steadily onwards.

“I think you all owe me a new ship,” Trim Mainsail grunted as he strained at one of the oars of their lifeboat, carrying the ragtag band of survivors across the Celestial Sea. The setting sun cast vibrant hues of gold and orange over the waters.

“We’re really sorry, Captain,” Starlight apologized, her head hanging. “We should’ve told you about the pirates, I admit it. We just…” She sighed and shook her head slowly, biting down on her lip in regret. “It was my decision to lie. We were desperate to help our friend, and we were afraid that you wouldn’t help us if we told you the whole truth.”

Applejack, who was pulling at the other oar, gave Starlight a harsh glare. Starlight lowered her gaze.

Mainsail sighed, continuing to haul them across the sea. “Well, I did suspect that you were up to something,” he admitted, raising an eyebrow at Starlight. “Calling a huddle right in front of me was a bit of a giveaway. But, part of this is my fault, I suppose: I may not have known exactly what you were up to, but I wanted a taste of adventure again. Not much for an old sea dog like me on land, so…” He shrugged. “You’re right, though: I probably wouldn’t have helped you if you’d told me about the pirates.”

“Well, it does not do to dwell on the past, dears,” Rarity declared. “Right now, we are all in the same boat...both figuratively and literally. We need to concentrate our efforts on getting ourselves out of this mess.”

“Right,” Rainbow Dash agreed, studying the compass around her neck. “We need to keep heading southeast. We were close to Aushaylia, we’ll be bound to find it soon.”

With a glimmer of magic, Starlight conjured up a large glass pitcher and dipped it into the ocean, filling it up with water. “Well, at least we won’t die of dehydration,” she commented.

“I wouldn’t drink that if I were you, lass,” Mainsail smirked. “First of all, that’s saltwater. Drinking that will just dehydrate you. Secondly, keep in mind that fish use the sea as a bathroom, and that ponies have been using it as the world’s largest garbage dump since sailing was invented.”

Starlight stared at the pitcher of water, a faint green tinge coloring her cheeks, then slowly dumped the contents back into the sea. “I’m not thirsty anymore,” she mumbled. The others snickered quietly.

Rainbow Dash looked up and squinted forward, studying the strange shape rising up from the horizon. “Is that a ship?” she asked, pointing at the three peaks in the distance.

Everypony studied the strange shape. Mainsail pulled a set of field binoculars out of his pocket and handed them Rainbow Dash, who peered through them.

“Wait, it’s not a ship,” she reported. “It’s a building...shaped like a ship.”

“Building means land,” Mainsail said, pulling harder at the oar. “Which means that’s where we’re headed.”

Invigorated by the promise of safety, the crew rowed even harder, pulling themselves across the water as the darkness continued to invade the sky, chasing the retreating sun. By the time the sun was halfway below the horizon line, they were within sight of the Sydneigh Opera House.

“Oh, my,” Rarity gasped, staring up in awe at the grand building. “Even in its current condition, I can tell that this was once a beautiful piece of architecture! You can—”

“Look out!” Starlight hissed, pointing and ducking down beneath the sides of the lifeboat.

Anchored next to the the building, bobbing up and down in the low waters, was the Silver Talon, instantly recognizable for its silvery sheen. Carefully, the group rowed their lifeboat around the concrete island, placing the Opera House between them and the pirate ship. Mainsail tied the lifeboat off on a cleat anchored to the concrete walkway and they climbed onto the walkway. Finding a nearby door that was fortunately unlocked, they entered the crumbling Opera House.

The interior of the old theater was dark, the crumbling walls covered in faded paint, dusty photographs and moss. Guided by the light from the unicorns’ horns and the lantern that had been packed in the lifeboat’s storage, the group walked down a long hallway, passing by several small offices and rehearsal rooms. Old papers and other junk lay scattered across the floor. With a startled squeaking, a rat ran across the hallway in front of them. Rarity made a terrified sound somewhere between a squeak and a gasp at the sight of the creature and clung to Applejack.

“For Pete’s sake, it’s just a rat,” Applejack said, rolling her eyes.

“That’s the problem! It is a rat!” Rarity squealed in fright, climbing up onto Applejack’s back in an attempt to get off the floor.

“Hey, wonder what’s behind here,” Rainbow muttered, pausing at a door at the end of the hallway. She opened it up and led the others through.

They found themselves standing on a grand stage, the floorboards creaking beneath their hooves as they strode out onto the center. Amongst the clutter on the stage, an old piano and a dust-covered drumset sat in one corner, long ago abandoned. The once-crimson curtains, ravaged by time and rats, were pulled back to reveal rows and rows of seats placed before the stage, more than a thousand in all. Though the colors had long ago faded, the seats were painted to look like a rainbow from onstage. A large hole in the roof allowed the light of the setting sun to filter down onto the stage, bathing the ponies in a dim glow as though they were lit by a spotlight, preparing for a show.

“Wow,” Starlight breathed, slowly scanning her head across the auditorium. The orange light from above made the crystal star around her neck shimmer slightly.

As she stepped forward, her hoof trod on one of a collection of sheet music that was scattered about the stage. Out of curiosity, she picked up the sheet and began to read the lyrics upon it:

A strapping old stockpony lay dying
His saddle supporting his head
His two mates around him were crying
As he rose on his pillow and said:

(Chorus)
Wrap me up with my stockwhip and blanket
And bury me deep down below
Where the dingoes and crows will not find me
In the shade where the coolibah grows

Oh, had I the flight of the bronzewing
Far over the plains I would fly
Straight to the land of my foalhood
And there I would lay down and die

(Chorus)

Then cut down a couple of saplings
Place one at my head and my tail
Carve on them cross, stockwhip and blanket
To tell of the stockpony’s tale

(Chorus)

Hark, there’s the the wail of a dingo
Watchful and weird—I must go
For it tolls the death-knell of the stockpony
From the gloom of the scrub down below

(Chorus)

"Hmm," Starlight muttered, pocketing the sheet music.

Rarity spotted a black binder sitting by itself off in one of the wings. Intrigued, she lifted up the book and flipped it open. Inside were collections of old photographs, most of them black and white, placed in plastic sleeves. The very first yellowed image was what looked like the skeleton of the Opera House, wooden frames upon fresh concrete, with a large group of ponies holding tools standing in front of the construction. She turned the page to find that there were many other photographs that followed, depicting concerts, plays and other events in full swing, crowds of cheering ponies, performers relaxing backstage or spending nights out on the town.

“What’s that you got there?” Applejack called to Rarity, walking over to her.

“A visual history, I believe,” Rarity stated, turning the page. “I’m certain Twilight would be interested in—” She paused, letting out a small gasp as she stared at the image she had just uncovered. It was one of the first color photographs in the album. The image depicted a group of ponies standing on the stage, all of them grinning at the camera. On the left was a pair of young earth pony mares. Both of them had auburn coats, blue eyes, and a coal black mane with a dyed red stripe. Aside from their differing cutie marks—one had a guitar and a treble clef, the other a guitar and a bass clef—the two mares were mirror reflections of one another.

Next to them was a broad-shouldered black pegasus with ivory white hair and the cutie mark of a musical quarter note with wings. He was grinning from ear to ear at the camera, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. He had his foreleg around a small chocolate brown unicorn mare with frizzy yellow and red hair, emerald green eyes that graced a freckled face, and the cutie mark of a pair of crossed drumsticks. On the mare’s other side was a dark green pegasus with a slicked-back brown mane and the cutie mark of a trombone. His smile and posture were easygoing and casual, his gray eyes seeming to twinkle behind his spectacles.

At the far right of the photograph was a tall light brown earth pony with a long red tail, a mane drawn back in a long ponytail, and a bushy beard. He was wearing a black bowtie around his neck and a gray trilby atop his head, and his cutie mark was a trumpet with a treble and bass clef. His focus was not on the camera, but on the foal that he was carrying around his shoulders. The skinny little chocolate brown foal appeared to be around eight years old, but his flanks were bare. His long black mane was drawn back in a ponytail and his gray eyes were radiant with joy. Both the foal and the hat-wearing stallion had eyes only for each other, smiles spread across their faces.

“That looks like…” Rarity started to say. Carefully, with a quiet reverence, she extracted the photograph from its sleeve and turned it over. The back of the photograph carried several signatures, the ink faded but still legible.

Rock String and Roll String, their signatures looping with one another.

Charlie Ivory, written in meticulous, careful lines.

Ella “Beats” Hoovesgerald, a vivid, energetic signature declared.

Timmy Slide, written in a smooth, flowing script.

Bobby “Dizzy” Baseline, read the simple font beneath.

And right below, in quick scribble of a youngling: Phillip Finder.

A quiet but heavy breath escaped Applejack’s lips as they both stared at the signature. Rarity slowly turned the photograph back around, her eyes faintly watering as she stared at the young, happy colt aside the stallion’s shoulders. “That must…”

“That’s his father,” Applejack concluded quietly, studying the other faces. “And the others…” She swallowed, reflecting that those happy faces, frozen in time, had no idea of the fate in store for them.

“Hey, guys!” Rainbow suddenly called. Looking up, Applejack and Rarity found that she and Mainsail were now standing at one of the doors that lead into the entrance of the auditorium. “You need to see this!” Rainbow called, gesturing for everypony to join her. Starlight, Rarity and Applejack rushed over, and Rainbow guided them down an entrance hallway to an open window. They peered through, their faces stung by the cold salt air of the night.

The Silver Talon sat in the water of the bay, bobbing up and down in the water, lights dancing about its deck and in its windows. Behind it, the ruins of Sydneigh were illuminated by the light of several torches, the dozens of flames flickering as if trying to divert attention away from the stars above. Silhouettes of pirates walked across the bush, many of them bending over the ground. Clouds of dirt flew up into the air, and the faint sounds of commands could be heard from across the water.

“What’re they doing?” Starlight whispered.

“Looks like they’re digging for something,” Applejack commented.

“For what?” Starlight asked.

“Does it matter?” Mainsail growled, his eyes on the Silver Talon. “Right now, that ship is our only way home, and it’s five of us against all of them.” He looked at the mares. “So what the hell do we do now?”

Night had already fallen by the time Daring and the others reached the Lover’s River, which curved across the red sands, bubbling and murmuring to form a soothing chorus. The shivering waters reflected the stars above.

“There’s the Wandering Colt,” Twilight said, pointing to a rock formation on the bank. The gray stones did indeed look vaguely like a young colt, crouching down as though in fear with its featureless, roughly formed head turned away from the river.

“But no Phillip,” Pinkie commented, looking about. The flat starlit bush stretched out before them in all directions, but there was no sign of any other ponies.

“You think maybe we’re early?” Flash theorized.

“Or maybe we’re late…” Twilight mused. “Hold on, I have an idea.” Closing her eyes, she channeled magic to her horn, sending out pulses of magenta energy through the air. Almost instantly, the faint image of several sets of prints appeared upon the sands, leading up to the bank, pausing, then turning and walking towards the northeast.

“Five sets of prints,” Flash reported, bending over the trail. “Four ponies, one griffon.”

“It has to be the pirates,” Daring growled. “Come on!” She took flight, pursuing the trail. The others chased after her, racing across the bush.

Before long, the silhouettes of five figures appeared ahead. Slowing to a halt and taking cover behind a low boulder, the friends examined their quarry. Three ponies, all of them with a pistol and a sword at their hip and one of them carrying a carbine over his shoulder, surrounded a lone prisoner, each of them holding tight to a lasso that was fastened around the pony’s neck and forelegs. A reddish-brown griffon wearing a dark green headband stood next to the prisoner, glaring at him as he held one claw over the three cutlasses at his hip. The prisoner walked forward slowly, his posture slumped and defeated: occasionally, he would look up at the starry sky. The dim starlight made the masses of scar tissue on his bare torso seem to glow faintly, particularly the large patch of burn scarring on his left shoulder.

“Phillip,” Twilight whispered, her eyes on the prisoner.

“How are we going to handle this?” Flash asked.

“There’s five of us and four of them,” Daring growled. “Come on!” With that, she leapt out from behind the boulder and started flying towards the pirates in a gray blur.

“Wait!” Flash shouted after her, but it was too late. With a frustrated growl, he chased after her, closely followed by Twilight. Pinkie bounced after them, with a horrified Fluttershy behind.

Hearing the screaming wind of Daring’s approach, the pirates all whirled around, their eyes widening as they saw the grey whirlwind approaching like the descending wrath of God. Reacting immediately, one of the pirates swung the carbine off his back and pressed it into his shoulder, taking aim. Daring snapped out her bullwhip, wrapping the rope around the barrel of the weapon and tugging it out of her opponent’s grip. The gun went off, sending the bullet wide. A moment later, Daring barreled into the griffon at full speed, sending them both skidding backwards across the sand.

Taking advantage of this turn of events, Phillip bucked backwards, striking the disarmed pirate in the head and knocking him down. Twilight followed up with a stunning spell that finished him off before turning to the sole unicorn pirate. The bearded dark orange unicorn immediately fired a jet of flaming magic at Twilight, who calmly blocked the attack with a conjured shield that reflected the spell back at the unicorn. He grunted in pain and staggered as his own magic was forced back into his horn. Without pause, Twilight flew up and finished him with a flying double buck to the jaw.

The other pirate, a charcoal gray earth pony, knocked Phillip to the ground with a punch to the jaw as he withdrew his cutlass from his sheath, swinging the deadly blade at Flash’s neck. Without slowing for a moment, Flash ducked, then headbutted the earth pony in the jaw with the crest of his helmet. He followed up by seizing his opponent around the neck with both hooves and driving his knee into his gut before twisting around his torso and flinging him to the ground. The buccaneer rolled when he hit the ground and rose back to his hooves, snarling and huffing as he faced Flash.

“Kangaroo kick!” screeched a voice behind him. The pirate turned just in time to see Pinkie, determination in her eyes, bouncing towards him on her tail. With a great shout, Pinkie raised herself up with her tail and kicked out with both her hind legs, pummeling her opponent in the face for the knockout.

With a sudden roar, the griffon that Daring was fighting flung her off him, sending her tumbling across the sand, her pith helmet falling off her head. With a flap of his great wings, he rose back to all fours, snarling at his attackers. With a flourish, he drew one of his cutlasses, tossing it up into the air. He drew both of his other swords, clutching one in each claw, then snatched the one he had thrown in his tail.

Unsheathing his own sword, Flash nodded sharply, causing the visor on his helmet to snap down over his eyes. Daring coiled up her bullwhip and Twilight charged up her horn.

“Come and get it!” Roaring snarled at his opponents.

Author's Note

At last. Sorry this chapter took so long, things got really hectic around this time of year for both myself and my proofreaders. But we finally managed to finish this!

We've finally reached the island of Aushaylia, and we've found Phillip. We also may have found trouble.

If you're an American reader, I hope you're having a happy Thanksgiving, and I hope that all of you enjoy the new chapter!

Part 7: The Red Sands

Roaring flapped his wings, lifting himself off the ground slightly. His three blades shimmered in the starlight, so sharp that they seemed to cut the air they passed through. He flicked his tail threateningly at the ponies, the blade like a scorpion’s stinger.

Flash settled carefully into a defensive stance, his sword close to his face as he peered through the visor at his attacker. He glanced down behind him. Phillip was still laying on the ground, unconscious. Twilight stood to Flash’s left, her horn humming as she prepared her magic. Next to her, Pinkie bounced up and down on her tail. Daring was to Flash’s right, breathing sharply through her nostrils as she held her whip loosely at her side. Fluttershy crouched behind the group.

With a sudden blur of motion, Roaring flew forwards, bringing his blades up in preparation to slice. Twilight immediately fired a barrage of stunning spells at him, but the griffon deflected all of them with his swords. Dodging to the side, Daring snapped out her whip, entangling Roaring’s arm, and pulled hard. Without missing a beat, Roaring sliced the whip in half, then seized it and yanked the off-balanced Daring towards him. She ducked beneath his slice at her neck and tried to tackle him with her momentum, but got kicked facefirst into the ground. Roaring flew right at Twilight, continuing to avoid and deflect her spells.

Flash immediately threw himself into Roaring’s path, making a calculated cut at the griffon’s head. Roaring blocked the strike with the blade in his right claw, simultaneously thrusting at Flash’s midriff with his other sword and forcing him to twist away. Roaring spun around and kicked backwards, striking Flash in the gut and knocking him over. Simultaneously, he snapped his tail out, thrusting his third blade right at Twilight. She yelped and ducked beneath the attack, but Roaring flew back and kicked her in the horn. There was the cracking of bone, and Twilight howled in pain and collapsed as a surge of magical energy burst from her now cracked horn.

“Twilight!” Flash and Fluttershy shouted simultaneously in horror. Snarling in fury, Pinkie and Flash both charged at the griffon. Roaring engaged Flash with the two swords in his claws whilst fending off Pinkie with the one in his tail, forcing her to continually duck and dodge his strikes. Meanwhile, Fluttershy bent over the dazed Twilight.

Daring got up, spitting sand and shaking her head. With a growl, she took flight, swooping back into the battle. Noticing her approach, Roaring caught Flash’s blade in between two of his, then disarmed him with a scissoring motion. Roaring forced the disarmed Flash away with a double swipe, then flew up to engage Daring. He slashed at her neck, but she expertly dodged it, punching at his ribs as she flew past. The two fliers engaged in vicious combat, Daring weaving in and out of Roaring’s blades, but never able to get close enough to land a solid blow.

Recollecting his sword, Flash took off and attacked Roaring from behind, but was nearly caught out by the blade in his tail. Roaring held Flash off while simultaneously dueling Daring in midair.

“Leave them alone!” Pinkie bellowed from the ground. She bounced on her tail once, twice, three times, then bounded up into the air, aiming to kick Roaring.

Seeing her approach, Roaring deflected one of Flash’s strikes, then wrapped his tail around Flash’s leg and yanked him through the air, causing him to collide with Pinkie and sending them both crashing to the ground.

Daring closed in and seized Roaring’s left arm, trying to compress it into a lock. He cut at her head with his right cutlass; she ducked beneath it, but was caught out when he punched her in the side of the head with the bottom of his sword. Twisting his tail around, Roaring thrusted at Daring’s back. Spotting the movement out of the corner of her eye, Daring tried desperately to flap out of the way, but was too slow.

The cutlass pierced her side, and a wave of icy cold and pain coursed through Daring’s body. She cried out in agony as her wings failed her. She felt herself falling and looked up to see Roaring, sweat staining the lime green headband as he whirled through the air, a cruel grin spread across his beak as he prepared to end her life with a double cut.

Suddenly, a flash of orange and gold rammed into Roaring, knocking him out of the sky and causing his attack to miss completely. A pair of arms caught Daring, stopping her fall.

"I've got you," Fluttershy reassured Daring as she lowered her to the ground. Daring nodded her thanks, clutching her bleeding wound. Setting Daring down on the ground, Fluttershy extracted a roll of bandages from her saddlebags and began to dress the injury.

"Hurry up!" Daring called, watching the duel above them. Flash was frantically defending himself against Roaring's assault, parrying the rapid-fire strikes from all three blades. Flash parried an attack from Roaring's left sword, only to see the griffon slashing at him with the right. Instinctively, Flash punched out with one hoof, striking Roaring's inner forearm. His muscles convulsed involuntarily, causing him to drop the sword, which tumbled to the ground. Growling, Roaring stabbed at Flash with the sword in his tail, forcing him to back off.

Flash backed out of range, just barely avoiding another thrust, then retreated quickly. Bellowing, Roaring chased after Flash, swooping close to the ground.

Suddenly, something seized his tail, stopping his momentum. Looking back, he was surprised to see Pinkie and Twilight had grabbed his tail in their teeth, halting him in midair. Turning around, he saw Flash swooping downwards at him. It was too late to block: Flash's hooves smashed into Roaring and sent him crashing to the ground. Rolling to the side to avoid what would have been Flash's finishing thrust, Roaring got back to his paws.

A glimmer of light was all the warning he got. He ducked, avoiding a cut at his head, then whirled around, only to freeze up in shock.

"Claws off my family," Phillip Finder snarled, the dropped cutlass in his hoof. He shook slightly from exhaustion, his body wet with sweat, but his eyes held their trademark icy fierceness.

Flash landed behind Roaring, his sword held up in a defensive stance. Daring rushed up next to Phillip, glaring at Roaring even as she bit her lip in pain and clutched her bandaged side. Twilight and Pinkie joined them, standing strong in spite of their slightly dazed expressions; even Fluttershy hovered over the group, glaring at Roaring.

The griffon gritted his teeth as he examined his enemies, then made his decision. With a sudden flap, he took off, racing towards the horizon.

"Hey! Come back here!" Flash shouted, starting to chase after him.

"Let him go," Phillip said firmly, dropping the sword. "It'll take him a while to get back."

“Twilight, are you all right?” Flash asked, hurrying to her side.

Her horn was cracked up its length, but fortunately not completely broken. Twilight tried to channel magic into the organ, but winced. "I won't be able to use my magic for a while, but I'll be okay," she reported.

Suddenly, both she and Flash found themselves being wrapped up in a tight hug. “When I heard that the boat went down, I thought…” Phillip choked on his words, gasping in relief. “I thought…”

“I made you a promise, dad,” Flash replied, hugging his father back. “That you would never see my name on the memorial wall.”

Daring joined the embrace, followed by Pinkie and Fluttershy. For a few moments, the six of them simply stood there, comforted by one another’s presences, by their collective heartbeats and breathing, unified in the joy of being alive.

“All right,” Phillip said, withdrawing from the embrace. “Let’s take care of these wankers.”

Daring and Flash took bundles of rope out of their saddlebags and collected the lassoes that had been used to bind Phillip and quickly tied up the unconscious pirates, binding the knots tightly enough that even the unicorn would have some trouble untying them.

“Did they hurt you?” Daring asked, checking over Phillip’s scarred body. She hissed in pain and clutched at her injured side.

“Not badly,” Phillip reassured her. His body suddenly trembled and he fell against her.

“You’re dehydrated,” Flash said. “Here.” He lifted his canteen to Phillip’s lips, helping him to take a long drink.

“I’m all right now, thank you,” Phillip nodded as the water revived him.

“Now, we need to find a way off the island and back to the mainland,” Flash stated. “Are there any other ships on the island?”

“No,” Phillip shook his head. “They would’ve all fallen apart years ago.”

“That means our only option of getting home is the pirates,” Daring concluded.

“There’s at least thirty of them against six of us,” Phillip pointed out.

“Twenty-seven,” Daring pointed out with a smirk, glancing at the bound pirates as she picked up the dropped carbine. “Not bad odds.”

“Hey, I have an idea!” Pinkie chirped. “Since we’re all the way out here, why don’t we find the treasure? You were planning on coming down here to find it anyway!”

The ponies all looked at Pinkie, then at each other. “She does have a point,” Twilight assented as Fluttershy bandaged her horn.

“And we did come all the way out here,” Daring said with a wry chuckle.

Phillip nodded. “It shouldn’t be much farther.” He stood back up. Flash placed himself at his father’s side, trying to support him. “Flash, I’m all right, really,” Phillip reassured him with a smile, walking forward under his own power. Pinkie, Flash and Daring lifted the faintly stirring pirates up onto their backs, and the other ponies fell in line behind him.

“Where are we going?” Pinkie asked, bouncing along aside them and jostling the pirate on her back awake. He sputtered in shock as he examined his situation, then glowered at his captors and fell silent.

“We’re following the Seven Sisters,” Phillip explained, pointing up. Everypony looked up to behold a cluster of seven bright blue stars spread across the sky above them, roughly forming the shape of an arrow.

“According to legend, the seven sisters were once living ponies who helped create the land during the dreamtime,” Phillip explained. “They were very kind and beautiful, and for that, they were pursued endlessly by lustful stallions. One day, a group of stallions attempted to capture the sisters; the sisters had to escape, but did not want to leave the creatures that they had helped create alone. So they turned themselves into stars; from up in the sky, they could look down upon and guide us, while being safe from their pursuers.”

“That’s a lovely story,” Fluttershy sighed, admiring the twinkling orbs above them.

“The cluster is a fixed constellation,” Phillip explained. “It’ll guide us.” He continued to walk forward, following the stars. Daring walked by his side, her eyes alert for any sign of an approaching threat.

As they walked, Flash noticed Twilight hanging her head slightly. “Twi, you okay?” he asked her.

She blinked and looked up at her. “Flash, you and Phil have been teaching me how to defend myself for three months now. Am I bad at fighting?”

“No, Twilight,” Flash reassured her, draping a wing over her shoulders. “You’re just inexperienced."

Twilight was silent. “Hey, you remember in Fillydelphia, when you took on three unicorns at once? And then you knocked out one of them with your own hooves?” Flash asked with a grin.

Twilight smiled softly and nodded, but then her face fell. “But when that griffon came for me...I froze up. I should’ve kept my guard up, I should’ve—”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Flash interrupted. “None of that. Everypony gets caught off guard, everypony freezes up when they’re scared sometimes.” He gave her a steady look. “Besides, you did help stop him." He squeezed her to his side momentarily. “I’m proud of you, Twilight.”

Twilight managed another smile and nodded. “The key is to play to your strengths,” Flash continued. “Next time, try to keep your distance and use your magic, okay?”

“All right,” Twilight nodded. “Thank you.”

“Anything for my Princess,” Flash smiled. The unicorn across his shoulders groaned in disgust and rolled his eyes.

“Hey!” Daring called from the head of the group. “You can save the sappy stuff for when we get back. C’mon.”

The group continued forward, still following the path of the stars above, guided by flashlight. The winds picked up while they walked, and sent chilly gusts through their skin that made them all shiver. As they passed through a gulley of pale red stones, a creature suddenly leaped out in front of them, causing almost everypony to yelp in fright.

“It’s just a dingo,” Phillip said as Daring shone her lamp on the creature. The sandy brown wild dog paused at the top of a crest and turned back to study them, flicking its bushy tail. “Must’ve gotten separated from his pack.”

A howl resounded from the wilderness beyond. The dingo turned and hurried away, attracted by the call of its mates. The friends continued on their way, emerging from the gulley and leaping over a shallow stream.

“We’re almost there,” Phillip said, his pace quickening. The others hurried after him, crossing the sandy, rocky ground, which had become uneven and rough. The friends panted as they hurried over rocks and boulders.

“There,” Phillip called after a few more minutes of clambering, pointing to the horizon. In the distance, everypony could see a large, wide, blood red rock sitting imperiously upon the sands.

“Uluru,” Phillip explained to his friends. “The Aborigineighs believed that this was the site of a great war between two factions of the creators during the dreamtime. The rock is stained with their blood.” He started towards it. “C’mon. We’re searching for an underground cave that leads beneath Uluru.”

The others followed him, now scanning the ground. “There’s one!” Pinkie said, pointing at a dark hole in the ground. Daring shone her flashlight into the tunnel, allowing Phillip to examine the bare, moss-covered walls. He shook his head.

“Not that one,” he said, turning and walking away. The others followed, still scanning the ground for signs of a cave entrance. They passed other such holes, but every one they checked was almost immediately denied by Phillip.

Before long, they had more than halved their distance to Uluru. Up close, the great red rock stretched for over two miles from one end to the other, and was taller than most skyscrapers. Faded carvings and paintings were etched into the stone. Her eyes widening at the sight of the landmark, Twilight took her notebook back out and started scribbling notes furiously.

“Hey, what about this one?” Flash called, pointing to a large cave entrance beneath a grand boulder. Daring shone her light into the darkness, then immediately leapt back with a startled shout: the light from her flash revealed a dozen faces crouching in the darkness, waiting to spring at them.

Twilight laughed and Phillip let out a short grunt of amusement. “They’re just paintings,” Twilight admonished, shining her flashlight into the cave.

The faces were indeed paintings, imprinted onto the walls of the wide cavern. These white and red figures had the bodies of ponies, but their round heads were very large, and featured only two wide black eyes and a thin slit of a nose. They stared down at the interlopers, their expressions inscrutable.

“They’re wandjina,” Phillip explained, stepping closer to one of the paintings. He looked up at the dark holes that formed the creature’s eyes. “In Aborigineigh mythology, they were spirits of rain and thunder. The weather here was unpredictable, and hard to tame; whenever there was a thunderstorm, they believed it was the wandjina battling evil spirits.” He paused, studying the ancient painting. “I was born during a thunderstorm. My mother, an Aborigineigh, said that that meant the wandjina had blessed my birth by driving away the wicked spirits.” He let out a soft, bitter chuckle. “Guess they didn’t do that great a job.”

Fluttershy shivered. “They’re creepy!”

“It’ll be in here,” Phillip said, stepping into the cavern. Daring and Pinkie followed, setting their bound prisoners on the ground. Flash took one look at the dark, tomb-like tunnels, and elected to stay outside with Twilight and Fluttershy.

Phillip walked down into the tunnel, traveling further and further underground. Daring walked by his side, panning her flashlight along the dirt floor.

“Echo!” Pinkie called from behind them.

“Echo! Echo!” her voice called back from the tunnel walls.

Rolling his eyes, Phillip continued on until they reached a wider cavern. A wandjina was painted on each of the walls surrounding them, all of them looking down at the ground at their hooves. “It should be buried here,” Phillip said.

“Leave it to me!” Pinkie said eagerly, and dived at the ground like an eager dog going after a buried bone, her tail wagging as she sent dirt flying everywhere. Daring and Phillip both leapt back, shielding their faces and spitting out sand that had flown into their mouths.

“Got it!” Pinkie shouted after a minute, dragging a large sea chest out from the enormous hole she had dug. The box was plain and undecorated, the old white paint crusty and peeling, with a rusty lock holding the clasp shut. Phillip crouched in front of the chest, running his hoof over the carved name on the top: Capt. James Bushwacker.

“Let’s get it out of here,” he said, heaving the chest up onto his back. The contents of the chest rattled. Daring took her place at his side to help him with the weight, and Pinkie led the trio back out of the cave and into the cool embrace of the night.

“Is that it?” Twilight asked as they emerged, gazing at the chest in wonder. The pirates all stared at the treasure in envy.

“That’s it,” Daring nodded as she set the chest on the ground. She glanced at the hogtied unicorn, who looked coldly back at her. "Hey, you think you can open that?"

The unicorn begrudgingly cast his magic on the old lock, but no matter how much it rattled and shook, it would not open.

“It’s protected by a locking enchantment, and the chest can’t be broken open; it’s protected by a series of unbreakable enchantments,” Twilight reported. “Only the actual key will open it.”

“Which we don’t have,” Daring pointed out. “So now what do we do?”

“I say we go back to Sydneigh, scout out the area, and come up with a plan,” Phillip suggested.

“Sounds good,” Flash agreed. The others nodded.

“Then we’d best get moving,” Daring said, lifting the chest back up onto her shoulders with a grunt. Flash, Pinkie and Phillip lifted up the prisoners, and they began the trek west to Sydneigh.

By the time they reached the western banks of the island, the eastern horizons were already painted in the pale blues and oranges of pre-dawn. Gray light seeped down from the sky, allowing the friends to see more clearly as they clambered over rocky hills towards the former city.

"Once we find out more about the situation, we can come up with a plan to take their ship," Phil stated, climbing up another ridge.

“But what about the others?” Fluttershy asked, flying behind the group. “We can’t just leave them behind!”

“We’ll search for them,” Twilight reassured her, laying a hoof on her shoulder. “There’s a good chance that they made it to the island, which means they should be nearby. We’ll find them.”

“We’re almost there,” Phillip said, mounting another hill. He dropped himself flat on top of the rocky crest, peering over the top. The others dropped down in a line beside him, quickly setting down the chest and the prisoners. Daring took some hoofkerchiefs out of her saddlebags and gagged the pirates so they couldn't call out for help, then joined the others at the top.

The ruins of Sydneigh sprawled beneath them, the scorched shells of the town like dark, jagged rocks against the sand. Beyond was the sea lapping at the shore, and the crumbling Opera House, with the skeleton of a bridge connecting the auditorium to the land. The ponies could see pirates walking through the town. Most of them were milling around an expanse of land to the north that was flat and bare, save for the craggy lines of moss-covered stones. A female griffon with a distinctive scar across her jawline could be seen observing the workers, a yellow pegasus mare with a spear strapped across her back standing by her side. Both of them were in conversation with the griffon with the headband, who was scowling heavily as he related his story.

“What are they doing?” Pinkie wondered.

Daring pulled a monocular out of her vest and pressed it to her eye, scanning the ponies down below. Groups of them were gathered around piles of earth, hunching. “It looks like they’re digging for something,” she reported.

Phillip stiffened. “Digging…?”

Everypony gasped softly as they realized what the pirates were doing. As they watched, a pair of pirates reached into a hole and extracted a heap of decaying flesh and graying bones that was once a pony. They examined the torn clothes that still clung to the corpse, shook their heads, and tossed the body aside like a pile of garbage. Other bodies lay scattered across the graveyard, pulled out of the ground and thrown aside without a second thought or glance.

“Why are they—?” Twilight whispered in horror.

“‘The key I held in my deepest sleep…’” Daring recalled. “As in eternal sleep. Bushwacker had the key to the chest buried with him. They’re trying to find his body.”

Phillip heard none of this: he had become deaf to everything, focused entirely on the bodies beneath him. His neighbors, his peers, his ancestors, the ponies that he had known, grown up with, played with and for, tossed aside like litter, their bodies and their memories desecrated. His muscles tightened and his body trembled, his heart pounding in his ears like the thunder of a raging storm within his soul.

“Dad?” Flash called, his voice barely carrying over the drums of war. “You okay?”

Phil did not turn around, his focus still on the pirates below.

“Dad, you need to calm down,” Flash continued, hesitatingly placing a hoof on Phillip’s shoulder. “We—”

“Hey!” a voice shouted. Everypony whirled around to see a patrol of five pirates rushing towards them, weapons drawn.

Instinctively, Twilight pulled Pinkie and Fluttershy away from the intruders as Flash took to the air, intending to swoop down upon them.

But as soon as he lifted off, one of the pirates, a gold-colored pegasus, lifted a crossbow and fired. The triangular, barbed head streaked through the air and struck Flash in the chestpiece, penetrating through the sheet of metal. Flash grunted in pain and tumbled out of the sky. A streak of blood flew from the wound, dark crimson in the pale light.

The color reflected in Phillip’s eyes and he hesitated for a moment. Then, with a yell that seemed to shake the sky, he leapt over the other ponies, diving right into the midst of the pirates. Seizing one of the broadswords from its scabbard, he whirled around, decapitating a unicorn before any of them had a chance to counterattack; simultaneously, he deflected the pegasus’ crossbow, sending the next bolt into a third pirate’s leg. Blades danced and sang against one another as he and pirates fought: blood gushed and spurted and stained the sands as the bodies fell, their cries puncturing the dusty air. Three of the other pirates dropped within moments, struck down by Phillip’s fury.

The last one, an earth pony mare with wild, fiery red hair, managed to knock the sword out of Phillip’s hooves with a quick strike from her staff. She thrusted at his face, only for him to seize the staff and pull her in close. Discarding her weapon, the mare pushed against him, engaging him in close-range combat with a driving knee to his thigh.

There was a low, animalistic snarl, the sound of rending flesh, and a gurgling cry, and the two fighters staggered away from each other. Phillip turned and spat out a mass of red flesh as the pirate clutched at her throat, her eyes wide as she choked on her last breaths. Blood flowed down her neck from the wound. With a final gurgle, she collapsed back onto the sand, twitching a couple of times as the life left her.

Phillip stared down at her, his eyes blazing as he panted. The other ponies all looked at him, aghast; Fluttershy whimpered as she stared at the bloody corpses, looking as though she was going to be sick. Even Daring looked horrified.

There came shouting from below, and more of the pirate crew appeared over the crest of the hill, pausing to consider the scene beneath them. Whitestone hovered over the group, her eyes turning to the five corpses, then to Phillip.

“YOU KILLED MY CREW!” she shrieked, diving down at him like a bullet. Phillip stepped aside but he and his friends found themselves under attack by the other pirates. Meanwhile, the captured unicorn untied himself and his companions and joined the fight. Drawing all three of his swords, Roaring dived at Flash, who took the sky to avoid his attacks. The griffon swooped up after him, engaging him in single combat.

Rising above the other pirates, Satsuma swung her spear off her back and held it up in a ready stance. A set of jewels set into the staff beneath the spear’s iron head began to glow a piercing white light. With a shout, Satsuma slashed her weapon through the air, sending an arc of white energy flying at Twilight. Noticing the attack just in time, she threw herself out of the way. The offensive magic struck the ground with a burst of light, fusing a layer of sand into glass. Grinning, Satsuma swung her enchanted spear back for another swing.

Suddenly, a rainbow streak cut through the air and smashed into Satsuma, knocking her to the ground. The same streak immediately slashed through the crowd of pirates, sending several of them scattering like bowling pins.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy shouted joyfully.

At the same moment, an orange mare raced up and bucked one of the griffons, sending him flying backwards into his partner. A pair of unicorns followed up by firing streams of sapphire and turquoise magic into the crowd.

“This is for my ship!” a bearded orange earth pony roared, rushing up to another pirate and decking him with a cross to the jaw.

“Applejack! Rarity! Starlight!” Pinkie called. “We thought we lost you!”

“We thought we lost you!” Rainbow shouted in joy, kicking an attacking pegasus as she spoke. “We saw the fight from the Opera House and came to help!”

“Kill them!” Whitestone screeched.

Satsuma dived for her dropped spear and recollected it. Charging it up again, she fired another enchantment at Rainbow Dash, who yelped and just barely dodged in time.

Daring slung her carbine off her shoulders and took aim at Satsuma, firing off a quick shot. The pegasi dodged, then closed in and engaged Daring in combat, blocking every attack with her staff and forcing her away with her blade.

“I got her!” Starlight called up, firing a spell at Satsuma. Kicking Daring away and causing her to drop the gun, Satsuma turned and blocked the stream of magic. The spear glowed and began to absorb Starlight’s magic. Starlight’s eyes widened and she struggled to break the stream, but the thread of magic refused to break.

Daring rushed at Satsuma, but the navigator forced her away with another blast of magic. The stream broken, Starlight collapsed to the ground. “My magic!” she cried, struggling to generate another charm. “What did you do to my—?”

Satsuma examined the spear with a wide grin. The jewels near the head were now glowing turquoise. “Pretty potent stuff you got there, kid,” she sneered, slashing at her. Another arc of energy, much brighter than before, streaked towards her and Starlight had to throw herself out of the way.

As the battle raged around them, Whitestone approached Phillip slowly, flexing her claws. “You’re not getting out of here alive, Finder.”

Phillip glared back at her, blood still dripping from his mouth. “Kill me if you can.”

Author's Note

With the semester closing and finals almost here, along with the holiday season, I and my proofreaders all had a lot on our plates. But I finally managed to complete this chapter!

A little more exploration of the Aushaylian lands, and it's finally time for the major confrontation! Before the end of this story, the sands will all be stained crimson. But whose blood will flow?

Time will tell...

Part 8: All to Dust

Flash’s sword clashed against Roaring’s blades. The griffon lunged forward, his sharp beak aimed for Flash’s vulnerable neck, but Flash ducked, allowing the beak to bounce off his helmet instead. Roaring grimaced and kicked Flash in the stomach, knocking him back, then whirled around to strike at him with the sword in his tail whilst fending off Twilight’s attempts to attack.

Roaring dived at Twilight, but Flash seized his tail and pulled him back towards him, aiming to cut off his limb. Roaring swept backwards with his wing, striking Flash and knocking him off-balance. The two fighters tumbled in midair, a tangle of wings and blades. A thestral armed with a battleaxe flew up to help Roaring, but was immediately taken out of the fight by a kick to the face from Twilight.

Below them, the other friends engaged the rest of the pirate crew. With a grunt, Applejack lassoed two pirates and pulled them together, then turned and bucked all of them, sending them flying backwards into a gravestone. The force of the kick caused the old stone to crumble, and the two pirates lay still amidst the rubble. Rarity snatched up several of the rock fragments in her magic and started hurling them at other pirates, striking whatever she could reach. Two burly earth ponies charged at her, swinging at her head with cudgels. Rarity ducked beneath their attacks, then jumped up and simultaneously kicked them both in the face with her hind legs, sending them sprawling.

“Hooves off the mane, you ruffians!” she growled, punching a pirate twice as tall as her in the face and knocking several teeth loose.

One of the pirates replied by opening fire with a revolver, forcing both Rarity and Applejack to dive for cover. Popping out from behind another headstone, Pinkie Pie counter attacked with a whipped cream pie to the face, blinding the gunpony long enough for her to race up and dropkick him for the knockout. Spinning back up to her hooves, she whipped her party cannon out from behind her back and fired it. A powerful spray of confetti and cake burst from the cannon, sending a dozen pirates flying backwards in a pile of limbs.

“I knew it was a good idea to pack the extra-strength cartridges,” Pinkie smirked, patting the barrel of her trusty weapon.

“Pinkie, down!” Applejack shouted, noticing another pirate aiming a carbine at Pinkie’s head. Pinkie ducked, but not before a gunshot cracked the air like thunder.

The pirate crumbled, blood trickling from the tunnel carved through his head. Rainbow Dash turned, smoke rising from the barrel of the revolver she had snatched up, and fired again, her eyes narrow and hard as steel. Beside her, Trim Mainsail opened fire with another revolver, a blood-stained knife clutched in his teeth.

Separated from the group, Phillip and Whitestone engaged in hoof-to-claw combat, trading blows with the ferocity of two bull dragons competing over territory. Phillip slipped a punch at his head and countered with a body shot, only to cry out in pain as Whitestone’s claws dug into the back of his head and his cheek. He ducked beneath a follow-up slash aimed at his neck, then threw himself out of the way with a dive roll.

Whitestone paused momentarily to catch her breath. Phillip noted the dirt on her forelegs.

“You think you can hurt my friends?! You think you can dig my people up and just toss them around like garbage?!” he screeched, launching himself at her again. She dodged his rage-fueled swing and blitzed him with a series of kicks, forcing him to retreat from her attacks.

“Your friends were foolish to come. As for your people, they’re just bodies, Finder,” she snarled, hovering over him.

“One of those bodies was my father!” Phillip shouted, lunging at her.

“Which one?” Whitestone asked mockingly, flapping aside and countering with a claw swipe at his back, forcing him to roll out of range. “Could you pick out his corpse from the hundreds that we dug out?”

He flung himself at her again, closing in and seizing her tail, pulling her in close for a kick. She grunted in pain as his hoof impacted against her stomach, but she grabbed his leg and swung him around, sending him facefirst into the sand. “Well?” she asked.

“Shut. Up!” Phillip snarled as he rolled back to his hooves and flung a cloud of sand into Whitestone’s eyes. She flinched and Phillip charged, knocking her out of the air and onto the ground.

Above them, another streak of white energy crossed the sky as Satsuma fired another beam of energy from her spear at Rainbow Dash, who just barely dodged in time, dropping her revolver. Laughing, Satsuma charged at Rainbow. The spear in her hooves hummed with energy as she thrusted at Rainbow, the razor-sharp blade missing her by inches.

“Hey!” Daring shouted, dropping the pirate that she had just stabbed through the chest and rushing at Satsuma. The pegasus pirate ducked and thrusted the blunt end at Daring. She moved to parry it, but received a shock from the energy surrounding it. Satsuma thrusted the spearhead at Daring, but received a roundhouse kick to the side from Rainbow Dash. Satsuma blocked Rainbow’s second kick and took to the air, quickly soaring out of range. Rainbow and Daring both flew up after her.

Drawing her glowing spear back, Satsuma cut through the air, sending another arc of energy at Daring. She dodged beneath it, and the white, crackling arc struck two griffon pirates that had been flying up to help. There was no sound, no indication of pain; the beam stuck them both and they tumbled to the ground, smoke rising from their unmoving bodies. Satsuma snarled at her former comrades’ incompetence before attacking Daring.

Cowering on the ground, Starlight let out a startled squeal as the two bodies thumped down right next to her. She looked around in a panic, clutching the sands as if some invisible force was trying to tug her away. Nearby, Rarity bucked one of the pirates in the face, sending them skidding backwards across the ground. Groaning, the dark green earth pony picked himself up, shaking his head. His dark blue eyes focused on Starlight, automatically drawn to the carved crystal around her neck, and a wicked grin spread across his face at the sight of an easy victim. Drawing a serrated blade from his belt, he advanced on Starlight. She futilely attempted to summon a stunning spell, but with her magic drained, all she could manage was a feeble flickering. She desperately scrambled away from the advancing pirate, her eyes widening as they focused on the knife.

Suddenly, a yellow pegasus dropped out of the sky and landed in between Starlight and the pirate, glaring up at the threat. The pirate paused for a moment, then sneered and thrusted at Fluttershy’s chest. Fluttershy darted beneath his attack, seizing his arm and rotating with his momentum, then twisting in the opposite direction to bring him to the ground. A stomp to the head knocked the pirate out.

“Sorry about that,” Fluttershy winced before turning to Starlight. “You’d best find a safe place to hide.”

“R-right,” Starlight nodded, getting to her hooves. Fluttershy helped Starlight hurry over behind a rise.

“Stay here. I’ll be right back!” Fluttershy told her, then quickly flew back into the battle. Starlight crouched down, making herself as small as possible as yells, clashing blades, and cracking gunshots roared around her.

In midair, Flash pushed away from Roaring, panting as he held up his sword. Roaring sneered and scraped his two cutlasses against each other, sending a shower of sparks towards him.

“Getting tired, little pony?” he taunted, launching himself at Flash once more. Flash swept to the side to avoid the attack, but was forced to sloppily parry an attack from the sword in his tail. As Roaring tried to cut at him with his other cutlasses, Flash ducked and made for a slice across the griffon’s exposed belly, but received a punch to the side of the head that knocked his helmet askew. Momentarily dazed, Flash barely parried what would have been a finishing cut to his neck and replied with a headbutt to the face that staggered Roaring.

Screeching in fury at being hurt, Roaring blitzed Flash with all three blades; the pegasus retreated, but the whirlwind of attacks overwhelmed him. A wild swing knocked his sword aside and left him open to attack. Flash’s eyes widened as he watched a blade streaking towards him, the sharp edge shining in the light of the rising sun.

Suddenly, Roaring grunted in pain and flinched, his cut missing by inches. Turning, he saw Twilight hovering a few feet behind him, her cracked and bandaged horn sparkling faintly and a look of pain marring her face.

“Having trouble with your magic, Princess?” he taunted, lashing at her with his tail. Twilight dodged, but just barely.

“Twilight, get away from him!” Flash ordered, attacking Roaring. His Royal Guard sword clashed against the griffon’s cutlasses in a chorus of metal. He slipped past to avoid a counterstrike, and cut again at Roaring’s head, simultaneously aiming a roundhouse kick at his gut. The kick hit its mark and Roaring flinched. Seizing the opportunity, Flash pressed forward with a downward slice to the back of the neck.

Too late, he realized he’d been tricked. Roaring weaved out of the way of his blade and rammed his elbow into Flash’s chin, dazing him. Flash dodged to the side of a thrust, but Roaring immediately struck him across the jaw with the handguard. Stunned, Flash began to tumble out of the sky. Grinning, Roaring drew his cutlasses back for the finishing blow.

“No!” Twilight screamed, dashing forward. She had no plan, no strategy: all she knew was that she must save Flash. She rammed into Roaring at full speed, sending him spiralling out of control and causing his attack to miss, then dived for Flash. Grabbing him in midair, she pulled him up and gently shook his shoulders. “Flash? Flash, wake up!”

Flash grunted and shook his head, recovering. Spreading his wings, he began to fly again under his own strength, gripping his sword in both hooves. Both he and Twilight turned to face Roaring, glaring at the griffon who now hovered a few yards away, ready and waiting for them. Twilight snorted and raised her forelegs, pressing herself forward ahead of Flash.

“You’re kidding,” Roaring said, bewilderment spread across his face as he stared at her.

Play to your strengths, Twilight thought.She glanced sideways at Flash, who nodded.

“You’re kidding, right?” Roaring asked in a disbelieving tone, half-raising a blade.

Twilight let out a low, slow exhalation and charged, Flash by her side. Roaring’s face twisted into a mixture of amusement and confusion, and he raised his cutlasses to strike at them both.

As Twilight got closer, she gritted her teeth and began to channel her magic. Her head burst with pain, her horn feeling as though it had lit on fire, but she pushed through the agony. All she needed was a simple flare spell...just a little bit of magic...

Her vision blurred with pain, and then the energy she had summoned exploded from her in a sudden flash of light, blinding Roaring. He bellowed in confusion and cut wildly, but his blades found nothing but air. When his vision recovered, he saw that the two ponies had vanished.

His confusion about where they had gone was answered a moment later when a sudden stab of icy cold pierced his chest. Looking down, he saw to his disbelief a sword impaling him through the heart, stained red all the way to the tip with his own blood.

Flash hovered behind Roaring, his eyes cold as he withdrew the blade. Roaring seemed to float for a second, blood dribbling from his mouth and the piercing hole in his chest, and then he fell, his swords spinning to the ground along with his lifeless body. The great weight crashed facedown into the sand and did not move again.

“You okay?” Flash asked Twilight. She grimaced and clutched her head, wobbling in midair, but nodded. Flash tucked her foreleg over his shoulders and began to lower her towards the ground.

Not far away, Satsuma thrusted her crackling spear at Daring. The adventuress bobbed under the attack and punched Satsuma in the gut as Rainbow Dash simultaneously kicked Satsuma in the head. Dazed, Satsuma wildly thrusted backwards towards Rainbow, then swung her weapon over her head, forcing them away as she retreated to a safe distance.

Both Rainbow and Daring lunged forward with a flying punch, but Satsuma blocked them both and then shoved them back. The energy that surrounded the weapon shocked them both and they tumbled from the sky, dazed. Satsuma brought the spear back to send another magical arc at them, but then spotted Twilight and Flash, their backs turned. With a grin, she cut the weapon through the air, sending a wide arc of destructive energy towards the Princess and the Guard. Neither of them saw the deadly threat coming in time.

But Starlight did. “No!” she screamed, rushing forward without thought. She forgot that she had no magic, she forgot that she had no combat training, she forgot that she was afraid; all she knew was that she must do something.

The arc streaked towards its targets, who turned too late to dodge. Sprinting faster than she had ever run before in her life, Starlight crossed the distance between her friends and the danger and leapt, diving in front of the energy. Right before it struck her, there was a flash of blinding light, causing everypony to flinch.

When the light dimmed, Satsuma, Flash, and Twilight beheld an astounding sight. Starlight was laying on the sand. The carved crystal around her neck was glowing brightly, like an actual star, and it was projecting a shield of shimmering gold around her entire body, which included a pair of what appeared to be wings extending from her back. She stared at herself in startled bewilderment as the shield started to fade away.

Satsuma blinked in confusion, then drew her spear back for another attack. But she forgot about Rainbow and Daring. Two sledgehammer-like impacts simultaneously struck her in the gut and in the back, causing her to drop her spear and wheeze in surprise.

Rainbow and Daring followed up with several more strikes before both of them flew up above her and kicked downwards, slamming their hind hooves onto the pirate’s back, causing her to rocket into the ground with a hard impact, sending up a small shower of sand. She lay still, groaning.

Not far away, Phillip threw Whitestone over his shoulder, causing her to slam into the ground. She quickly rolled aside to avoid his finishing blow and backed a safe distance away, panting. She stepped over a rotten corpse that had been tossed aside by one of her pirates.

“You think that these bodies are worth fighting for?” she asked Phillip.

“They were good ponies!” Phillip shouted in reply. “They don’t deserve this!”

“I’m sure they were good ponies,” Whitestone sneered. “But those ponies you knew? Your father, your other family, and neighbors? They’re not here, Phillip. They’re gone.”

“I know that!” Phillip shrieked, diving at her. She dodged to the side, but was caught off guard by his sweeping kick. She swatted at him with her wing, but he seized the appendage and dropped it onto his knee, snapping the hollow bone with little effort. Whitestone screamed and tried to crawl away, punching at Phillip. He caught her arm and hugged it to his chest as he dropped down to lay on his back, then thrusted his hips upward sharply, forcing Whitestone’s arm to bend in a direction it wasn’t supposed to. Whitestone screeched in agony as her arm broke and immediately stopped fighting.

Phillip mounted Whitestone, pinning her down beneath his body, and punched her across the jaw twice, growling with each blow.

“Stop...stop!” Whitestone cried, holding up her good arm. “I surrender!”

But Phillip did not seem to hear her. She was filth, just like all the rest, just like the one who had killed his father; dirt that cared only for themselves and not for those they hurt, and even as they mocked his pain, they tried to take away more of those he loved.

He would not let them! He would no longer be the self-centered little colt who had abandoned his duties, who had allowed the scum to thrive and take!

Drawing his hoof back, he struck Whitestone again and again. Blood flew from her wounds, staining his forelegs and the ground around her. She writhed beneath him, desperately trying to defend herself, but he refused to allow her to escape, continuing to rain blows down upon her head. Her struggles slowed, her cries becoming more feeble with every blow until she was still and silent, save for her raspy, injured breaths.

Tilting her head back to expose her throat, Phil drew his hoof back like a spear, aiming for her fragile neck. With one strike, he could sever her windpipe and end her existence. She looked up at him, her eyes trying to focus on him, whimpering out a plea. He took a final breath, and thrusted his hoof forward.

Stop.

His hoof paused just an inch from her convulsing throat and he felt his whole body freeze up at once. Suddenly, he was thirteen years old again, and he was looking down at a tall, painfully skinny stallion with matted red hair and the cutie mark of four yellow hoofprints. The stallion’s hooded green eyes shone desperately out of his pockmarked face, pleading for his life.

The same shield that had protected the life of his father’s murderer from wrath now seemed to have descended upon Whitestone, preventing him from landing the killing blow no matter how much his rage screamed at him, demanding retribution. An instinct held him back, preventing him from acting on pure vengeance; he could not kill a pony or a griffon who was not a threat. A maxim that he had believed in since foalhood stayed his blow, a lesson that his father had inscribed into his soul: revenge is not justice.

He slowly lowered his hoof, panting. Sweat ran down his trembling body, and he realized after a moment that it was mixing with his tears.

The other pirates’ numbers were dropping quickly, but the remaining fighters were putting up a strong resistance, and his friends were getting exhausted, the pirates’ larger numbers slowly giving them an advantage. Daring gathered the others in a circle around herself, panting as she simultaneously engaged two unicorns. She managed to knock down one of them, but the other struck her with a concussion spell in the stomach, knocking her over. Rarity engaged the same unicorn, giving Daring time to get back to her hooves, coughing.

“Where’s Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash shouted, punting a female griffon away from her, only to receive a punch from another pegasus. A quick glance around confirmed that Fluttershy was not within the group, nor anywhere within sight.

“What happened to her?” Starlight asked, hiding behind Flash and Twilight.

A sudden whistle pierced the air. Everypony paused where they were and looked up to see Fluttershy hovering over a rise, her forelegs folded across her chest as she glared imperiously down at the pirates.

“Nopony hurts my friends!” she declared.

And at her cry, a band of dozens of kangaroos came bounding over the rise, charging into the battle. Their powerful legs pummeled into the skulls and ribs of the pirates, easily scoring knockouts with every hit. Within a minute, the tides of the battle had turned completely, and the pirates were quickly pounded into submission.

The friends cheered the reinforcements, claiming victory. “Thank you!” Fluttershy cried, hugging one of the larger kangaroos. The roo hugged her back as the others gathered around the exhausted friends.

Twilight gathered up Satsuma’s dropped spear, still faintly buzzing with energy, and carried it over to Starlight. “Let’s get you your magic back,” she said.

“Thanks, Twilight,” Starlight nodded. It took some effort, but she managed to light up her horn, levitating the crystal between herself and the weapon. She channeled her magic through the crystal and into the tip of the spear. The weapon glowed, then started channeling its energy back into Starlight’s horn. She sighed in relief as her magic was restored. “Much better.”

Phillip climbed off of Whitestone and looked around. His friends were all alive, but many of them were bruised, battered or bleeding, and all of them were sagging from exhaustion. All the pirates were either dead, unconscious, or disabled. The sands at his hooves were stained red with blood, cast cold crimson by the rising sun, and the winds were heavy with the scent of decay and death. The Silver Talon bobbed in the water in the distance, next to the empty shells that used to be his home.

There was nothing here. Nothing but death and ashes.

He staggered over to Daring and Flash and collapsed against them. They held him up as he breathed slowly and heavily.

“Forget the treasure,” he mumbled, his voice scratchy and hoarse. “Let’s just go home.”

“Yeah,” Daring agreed reluctantly. “Let’s go home.”

Author's Note

The climactic battle, where more bodies are added to the mounds of corpses. All must return to the sand eventually. Even James Bushwacker and his treasure.

Part 9: Treasures

It had taken them almost an hour to gather up the injured and unconscious pirates, patch their wounds, and carry them into the Silver Talon’s brig. Starlight had set herself to work with reburying the Aushaylians and interring the fallen pirates into a separate set of ground.

“Are you going to be okay?” Flash asked Twilight. She was sitting on the docks, her nose buried in Bushwacker’s journal, which she had recovered from the pirates.

“I’ll be all right,” Twilight smiled, looking up at her horn. “It’s just cracked, it’ll repair itself in a few days.”

“No, I meant…” Flash paused, then glanced down at his sword, sheathed in its scabbard.

Twilight sighed. “It was...unavoidable. It was either us or them, I suppose.”

Flash extended a wing around her and pulled her close. “If you ever need to talk…”

“Thank you, Flash,” Twilight whispered, nuzzling up against his chest. “But it’s not me I’m worried about.”

Both of them looked over towards the ruins of Sydneigh. A stallion in a green vest and a gray trilby was sitting in front of the remnants a cottage, staring at the front door that hung half-opened, as if hesitantly inviting him inside. But Phillip knew that there was nothing left inside; nothing but ashes.

Starlight, Fluttershy, and Daring slowly approached. Daring scuffed her hooves across the sand to announce her presence, but he did not respond. “Are you all right?” she asked.

Phillip blinked slowly before responding. “I always came home after school,” he said in a low monotone. “Raced right back here so Dad and I could practice. He started teaching me piano when I was five...sax the year after. Then composing when I was eleven. Sometimes the other band members would be there, and we’d have a barbie once a month.” He swallowed and continued. “Timmy would teach me how to dance, and Charlie would be at the grill...we all begged him for the recipe to his seaweed slider, but he never let up. Rock and Roll would sit out there and sing, and Ella would tell us these stories that’d have us laughing and laughing...and sometimes Dad and I would sit out, just the stars and the dingoes and us, and he’d...he’d tell me about Mom…”

Suddenly, he turned and lashed out, his hoof striking a nearby tree trunk that shuddered from the impact of the punch. “Dad!” he screeched, his voice echoing off the ruins as he punched again and again. “Mom! Charlie! Tim!”

Daring started forward, but Fluttershy put a hoof out and stopped her, an uncharacteristically stern look on her face as she shook her head. The ponies watched as Phillip continued to punch the tree, screeching out a name with every blow. Chunks of bark flew off the tree with each sledgehammer-like impact.

After almost a full minute, Phillip finally collapsed against the tree, panting and trembling in exhaustion. Blood trickled down his hooves and dripped onto the ground as he leaned against the tree.

“They’re gone,” he whimpered, tears running down his face into the sand. “They’re gone...they’re gone...they’re all gone…”

Daring slowly walked up and placed a hoof on his withers. He did not react.

“But we’re not gone,” she whispered reassuringly. “We’re right here, okay? We’re all here for you. You are not alone; not anymore.”

Phillip took in a shuddering gasp and let it out in a choked sob. Daring extended a wing over Phillip’s shoulders and hugged him close, rubbing a hoof up and down his back. Fluttershy walked over and hugged him as well. Flash and Twilight hurried over and also joined the embrace. Starlight hesitated for a moment, then slipped in between Twilight and Fluttershy, helping to hold the trembling stallion.

Slowly, Phillip’s shaking subsided and his breathing returned to normal. He wiped his eyes off and smiled softly. “Thank you,” he whispered. He kissed Daring on the lips, then nuzzled Flash, Twilight and Fluttershy. “All of you.”

The group disbanded. “Now, let’s go home,” Fluttershy suggested as they started walking towards the ship. Trim Mainsail was waiting on the gangplank.

Daring glanced back at the land of Aushaylia. “Shame we didn’t find the treasure,” she commented.

“It’s not that important, right?” Flash asked. Daring glanced at him, but said nothing.

Twilight was still reading Bushwacker’s journal. “Huh, this is interesting,” she said. “Bushwacker became a stockpony after he retired from sailing.”

Starlight suddenly stopped and turned. “Did you say ‘stockpony?’”

“Yeah,” Twilight nodded. “A pony that handles livestock.”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “Bury me deep down below...in the shade where the coolibah grows…” she recited.

“Coolibah?” Flash asked. “That’s like the name of those trees we rested under, right, Twilight?”

Starlight leapt up at him. “Were there two saplings there? With carvings on them?”

“Uh, yeah,” Flash nodded, his brow creasing in thought. “An x, a sort of swirl, and a diamond.”

“Cross, stockwhip and blanket! Yes, yes, yes, yes!” Starlight cheered, jumping up and down in excitement.

“What are you so excited about?” Twilight asked in bemusement.

“You gotta get us back there!” Starlight said. “I know where Bushwacker is buried!”

Leaving Mainsail, Flash, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie in charge of watching the prisoners, Starlight guided Phillip, Daring and Fluttershy back into the bush. It took them until afternoon to intercept the trail that the friends had followed to reach the Wandering Colt, and longer still to find the patch of coolibah where they had rested.

“This is the place,” Daring indicated, pointing to the copse of trees.

A rustling in the branches above them caused everypony to look up. A small, gray bear-like creature with large, rounded ears was clinging to the trunk of one of the eucalyptus trees, chewing on one of the shoots of leaves. It blinked down at the ponies in curiosity.

“A koala!” Fluttershy cried in delight. “Oh, I was hoping we’d see one!”

Starlight hurried forward and started studying each of the trees. She eventually spotted the two saplings that had the carvings on them. “It’s just like in the song!” she cried, casting her magic on the ground in between the two trees.

“Are you sure about this?” Phillip asked, setting Bushwacker’s trunk down on the sand.

“Positive,” Starlight nodded.

Phil hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Starlight placed her tongue between her teeth and started weaving her magic over the sand. The packed dirt started lifting itself off of the ground, digging out a hole in seconds. The koala continued to eat its leaves, watching as though fascinated.

Before long, Starlight had dug down three feet, then stopped suddenly. “I found something!”

Everypony looked into the hole and saw that buried into the ground was an old, molding blanket and the remnants of a whip, wrapped around a long shape. Carefully, Starlight extracted the bundle from the hole and set it on the ground beside her. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled the blanket off.

The faded yellow skeleton of a unicorn and the tatters of a blue shirt and red bandana lay within the bundle, the only remnants of Captain James Bushwacker. A golden key hung around the neck on a lanyard.

With trembling hooves, Phillip took the lanyard off of his ancestor’s corpse and carried it over to the chest. Slowly, he inserted the key into the lock; it slid into the gap easily, and he turned it. The entire chest glowed with a faint blue aura, then unlocked with a click. Phillip threw the top of the chest off and everypony gasped as the contents were revealed.

Mounds of gold and silver coins, jewelry that was fit for the Princesses themselves, golden bars with royal seals embossed into the surfaces. But that was not the only thing within, and far from the most valuable. Also within the chest were woven, multicolored bags, carved wood reliefs and painted rocks, several boomerangs and bullroarers on strings, and a number of bound books.

Daring extracted one of the books and carefully flipped through the yellowed pages. “A collection of Aborigineigh mythology and a dictionary of their language,” she reported, turning to the other books. “A history of the Aborigineigh people...instructions on making boomerangs...notes on artwork…” She looked up, her eyes glowing with joy. “We found it!”

Phil smiled at Starlight. “Nice work.” Starlight beamed with pride.

“What’s this?” Fluttershy asked, pulling out a strange object from the bottom of the chest. It was a long wooden tube, carved out hollow, with the exterior painted in red, black and golden stripes.

“Oh,” Phil breathed, taking the object with a level of reverence. “It’s a didgeridoo. I haven’t seen one in seventeen years.”

He raised the tube to his lips and blew into it, producing a strange, almost hypnotic warbling buzzing sound that echoed off the trees and the hills.

“It’s a musical instrument?” Fluttershy laughed.

“The very first one I learned to play,” Phil sighed with a smile, placing the instrument back into the chest. “Let’s take this back to the others.”

They respectfully wrapped Bushwacker back in his blanket and returned him to the earth, pouring the sand back over him to lay him to rest once more. As they started back, the koala raised a paw as if waving goodbye. The ponies all waved back as they returned towards Sydneigh with the treasure.

“Raise anchor and cast off!” Trim Mainsail barked from behind the wheel of the Silver Talon, his voice carrying through the crisp air of the evening.

At his cry, the crew of ponies heaved at the capstan, which creaked and groaned as it raised the anchor from the depths. Starlight and Rarity unfurled the sails, which billowed as they caught the wind. The former pirate ship began to sail away from the shores of Aushaylia, heading back northwest to the mainland, chasing the setting sun.

“You know, you all still owe me a ship,” the captain grunted to Applejack, who was standing beside him.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, partner,” Applejack grinned. “Between your share of the treasure, and the reward for catching Whitestone and her crew, I think you’ll have enough to buy a whole armada!”

Mainsail grinned. “You think they’ll let me keep this one? Now that she hasn’t got a jolly roger over her, she’s a pretty fine ship.”

“I do know a Princess,” Applejack chuckled. “She might be able to put in a good word.”

Said Princess was currently sitting on the main deck, studying one of the books recovered from the treasure chest, jotting down more notes with her hoof as she did so. Flash sat next to her, watching with a look of quiet amusement.

Starlight hovered nearby for a few moments, then approached. “Twilight?”

Twilight smiled up at her student. “What is it, Starlight?”

Starlight scuffed her hoof against the deck. “I, uh...I was thinking. This adventuring thing...I don’t really think it’s for me.”

“Why not?” Flash asked in surprise. “You saved our lives! You were the one who figured out where the treasure was!”

“Yeah…” Starlight said slowly, looking down at the crystal still hanging around her neck. “But how did I do that? I wasn’t using any magic.”

“Yes, you were,” Twilight said. “You said those crystals are like lenses for focusing magic, right? When you jumped in front of Flash and I, you were using magic; the most powerful magic of all!”

Starlight stared at the crystal in wonder. “I saved your lives...because of friendship?”

“It’s the only theory that makes sense,” Twilight nodded, laying a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “Friendship is a very real, very powerful magic, and I’m proud of you for being able to find it.”

Starlight smiled hesitatingly back at Twilight and briefly rubbed her forehead against hers. “But, anyway,” she added, pulling away. “I was saying...I did save your lives and all that, but that was all by accident. Almost this entire time, I was scared out of my mind, too scared to even do anything. So, I...I…”

“That’s all right,” Twilight reassured her. “I understand.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about these pirates anymore,” Flash commented. Everypony turned towards the set of stairs that dropped down into the interior of the ship.

“Seventy-six bottles of rum on the wall, seventy-six bottles of rum!”Pinkie’s voice filtered up the stairs. “Take one down and pass it around…”

“For the love of all that is good and holy, make her stop!” Satsuma pleaded. The ponies all chuckled quietly.

Phillip stood up at the bow, holding his hat in one hoof as the wind swept through his mane, staring at the western horizons, painted in dark reds and oranges by the setting sun. Daring approached and took a place beside him.

“How’s Whitestone?” he asked.

“She’ll live,” Daring reported. “But she’ll be in a hospital for quite a while. Her pirating days are definitely over.”

Phil nodded. “Blue deserves a cut from this treasure.”

“Definitely,” Daring agreed. “And I think you and he should spend some time together when we get back.”

Phil smiled and nodded. “I was just thinking that.”

“Phillip?” Rarity called. Both he and Daring turned as Rarity approached, carrying a black book in her magic. “I found this in the Opera House,” Rarity said, handing Phillip the bound book. “I thought...I thought you might want it.”

Phillip opened up the album and began flipping through the photographs. He paused at the group photograph of the band, his hoof laying on his father’s smiling face. A small smile spread across his face and he looked up at Rarity. “Thank you,” he nodded.

Daring noticed the didgeridoo sitting next to Phillip, leaning against the hull. “Hey, play us something,” she requested.

Phil looked at her for a long moment, then grinned. Picking up the instrument, he closed his eyes and raised it to his lips. A strange hum, hypnotic in its otherworldly beauty, soon filled the air as the friends and family made their way back home.

Author's Note

Treasures come in all shapes and sizes, and not all of them have a monetary value. Some are much more important.

And that's the end of this adventure! I apologize for taking so long, but I thought it'd be a good idea to write the entire ending in one go and release it in two chapters.

I hope you enjoyed this story, and are looking forward to Endgame, the finale of the Phillip Finder series!

In the meantime, please enjoy Phillip serenading you!

Epilogue: At Last

Five days later, a train pulled into Ponyville station with a hiss of steam and squealing brakes. A young dragon waited on the platform beneath the starry sky, nervously tapping his claws together as he observed the disembarking passengers, their breath frosting in the air.

Finally, his eyes widened as he spotted a group of eight ponies exiting the train. “Twilight!” Spike called in delight, leaping up and hugging her around the neck.

“Spike!” Twilight cried, hugging her little assistant back as she and her friends climbed onto the platform. “Oh, we missed you!”

“I missed you, too!” Spike said, hugging Rarity, Flash and Starlight as well. “You’ve been all over the papers!” He held up a folded-up newspaper, revealing the headline: Intrepid Adventurers Capture Pirates and Recover Long-Lost Treasure!

Flash chuckled. “Yeah, we saw those papers, too.”

“We called ahead to the Baltimare Guard to tell them we were coming. You should’ve seen the look on their faces when we sailed into the dock!” Rainbow laughed.

“Hey, where’s Phil and Dar—er, Irene?” Spike asked, looking around.

“They stayed in Baltimare to take care of the treasure,” Flash explained.

“More than a dozen museums are already placing bids on the treasure,” Twilight stated, lifting some of the books from the chest out of her saddlebags. “But I want to look over these first. There’s just so much knowledge here!”

“Which can wait until later,” Flash said firmly. “It’s late, and we all need some rest.”

Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie all waved goodbye, with Pinkie promising to host an adventure party tomorrow. Spike, Starlight, Flash and Twilight made their way back to the Friendship Castle. The crystalline structure seemed to twinkle faintly, as though it had absorbed the light from the stars above them.

Starlight affectionately patted the crystal doors as they passed through into the main hall, then hurried into the study. “Starlight, aren’t you going to bed?” Twilight asked.

“Later!” Starlight said, taking out a quill and inkpot. “I need to write down what I’ve learned!” She started searching through the drawers of the study, her eagerness slowly turning into confusion. “Where are my notes?” she asked, opening up a dozen drawers and searching through them all. “And the crystal shards? Where are they?!”

“I didn’t touch them,” Spike said.

“Didn’t you put them away in the same drawer before we left?” Twilight asked, joining in the search.

“I’m sure I did!” Starlight said. “I—” She stopped suddenly and looked up, a strange glimmer having caught her eye. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing up into the corner rafters of the room. The others all looked up and saw what she had spotted: a small piece of crystal, a slightly different shade of blue from the rest of the walls, affixed to the ceiling. Twilight used her magic to pull the strange object down to examine it. It was a piece of crystal, carved into the shape of a lens, polished to a mirror-like shine.

“What is it?” Starlight asked, staring at her own distorted reflection.

Flash’s eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?”

Twilight cried out in surprise as the crystal suddenly shattered, dissolving into a pile of dust before their eyes. She stared at the artifact’s remnants, then slowly nodded.

“That was a surveillance crystal.”

Miles away, a green pegasus with a brown mane flinched, his blue eyes widening in shock as one of the images in front of him flared white and vanished. “Oh, hell,” Star Watcher muttered, racing out of the secret alcove and through the great room with the organ and the painting of the Final Judgement. Sprinting down the hallway, he raced up a set of stairs, circling upwards and upwards three floors and hurrying to the room at the end of the hall. Panting, he rapped at the wooden door.

“Come,” a voice called through the door. Star Watcher swallowed and entered.

On the other side of the door was a grand bedroom, decorated in luxurious furniture and carpeted in alternating black and white squares, like a chessboard. A king-sized four poster bed decorated in scarlet sheets and black curtains sat in the center of the room. Zugzwang was laying on the bed, curled up next to a pearl white unicorn mare with silvery-blonde scarlet-streaked hair. Both of them were admiring a brown unicorn foal with a tuft of a dark red mane, who was yawning and cooing sleepily.

“Dies Irae, Dies Illa,” Zugzwang was crooning, playing a glass harmonica in the corner with his magic. “Sovet saeclum in favilla…” He paused the song, looking up at his apprentice with an expression of irritation. “What is it, Star?”

“Master,” Star panted, bowing. “It’s Princess Twilight and Sentry. They found one of the surveillance crystals. It’s only a matter of time before they find the rest of them.”

“Surveillance crystals?” Scarlet Letter asked.

“I told you once before of the night I reintroduced myself to Phillip Finder, almost two years ago,” Zugzwang replied. “While he was busy rescuing his friends, I planted surveillance crystals in his homes and his friends’ homes. It has proved quite useful.”

“But sir—” Star started to say.

Zugzwang ceased his speech with a raised hoof. “Hush. You are disturbing our son. If they have found it, it is out of our hooves.” He turned to the carved desk in the corner. “It is already too late; were it not for these surveillance crystals, I would not have learned of Frau Glimmer’s research.”

Sitting atop the desk was a group of scrolls, stacks of hoof-written notes, and a collection of dark purple and blue crystals, some of them broken-off shards and some carved into a variety of shapes.

“Because of her, our plans can accelerate,” Zugzwang declared.

Scarlet’s eyes widened in rapture and a delighted gasp passed through her lips. “You mean…?”

“Dies Irae will happen soon, my love,” Zugzwang smiled, taking her hoof in both of his and raising it to his lips, kissing it delicately. “Soon, they will remember why the Scarlets are the elite, and Crimson Prince will be in place to inherit the greatest criminal empire in Equestria.” Zugzwang turned to Star Watcher. “Find Coin Toss and Tinderspark. Tell them that our day has come.”

Star Watcher felt a great smile crossing his face. At last, he thought, an elation filling up his core. “Yes, sir!” he declared, running back out of the room.

Scarlet Letter giggled in delight and nestled herself up against Zugzwang, kissing him on the cheek. He curled up with her, his eyes on his sleeping son.

At last.

Several floors beneath them, in a dark laboratory, a pegasus with a ratty, pale yellow coat that clung to his bones and greasy strands of dark brown hair bent over a beaker set atop a Bunsen burner. The pale orange liquid within it bubbled merrily over the flickering heat.

A raven flittered down to sit on the table next to the pegasus. He absentmindedly reached out to stroke the bird, his blood red eyes glowing with delight.

“At last, Lenore,” Doctor Nevermore breathed.

Further down the hallway, a unicorn mare with a white coat and a long pink and white mane sat tending to a pearl-handled pepperbox revolver, cleaning out the barrels with a long brush. A green-coated unicorn with a light brown mane and mustache watched in silence, tossing a golden bit to himself.

Taking out a box of .33 bullets, the mare calmly placed a bullet in each of the eight chambers, the clinks echoing through the small room. Snapping the barrels onto the pistol with a click, she turned and raised the weapon, taking aim at a paper target mounted on the wall four yards away from her. The silhouette was blank and white and only vaguely resembled a pony, but a face was planted over the head: a photograph of Pinkie Pie, smiling back at the mare.

The unicorn emptied the gun in a single, four-second salvo, the gunshots seeming to shake the whole room. Each bullet found their mark. When the mare lowered her smoking weapon, Pinkie Pie’s face had been obliterated.

A smile crossed Laurier de Montaigne’s face, her emerald eyes glittering. Coin Toss laughed and burst into applause.

“At last,” Laurier grinned, turning to the Mareish enforcer.

“Our day has come,” Coin Toss agreed.

With a roar, a jet of flames burst from the crude flamethrower and ignited the mannequin. The pony-shaped figure crumbled in an instant, the flames rapidly reducing it to a scorched, shapeless husk. The fire continued to burn for more than a minute, filling the basement with foul-smelling smoke and the sound of crackling and popping.

The orange, fiery-maned pony in the torn and tattered fire-retardant coat watched in silence, the flames reflected in the visor of her gas mask. She grunted, shrugging her shoulders to adjust for the weight of the flamethrower on her back. The pilot light mounted on the muzzle of the gun flickered as she shivered, her breath hissing through the valves of her mask.

Finally, the flames died down, leaving behind a pile of glowing cinders and ashes. The mare lifted the gas mask from her head, her smokey gray eyes alight with pleasure. She licked her lips slowly, breathing heavily in the afterglow.

“At last,” Tinderspark breathed.

Author's Note

Zugzwang has a surprise for us. It is not one that you will like.

Get ready for Endgame, coming soon!

Chapter notes

Part 1
—The title of this story is taken from The Musgrave Ritual, which this story was very loosely inspired by.
—A billabong is an isolated pond that was left behind when a river changed course. They are dry for most of the year and fill with water seasonally.
—In Australia, a bushwacker is a name for a person who lives in the bush, or outback.
—My headcanon is that ponies can eat meat, but most choose not to. Certain cultures are more accepting of meat-eaters, such as the Aushaylians.
—A chronometer is a type of clock used in navigation. When it is set to the time to a fixed point, one could compare the time on the clock to the time of astrological events such as high noon to determine longitudinal position.
—Disko Street: named for Disko Troop, the Gloucester fishing captain from Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous.
—Irene Alibi is a play on Sherlock Holmes' one-time female nemesis Irene Adler, from A Scandal in Bohemia. Daring used this moniker in a previous story, Curse of the Taverneigh Blue.
—"Bonzer:" Australian slang, "Great."
—"fair dinkum:" Australian slang, "true, genuine."
—Flying Dutchpony: named for the Flying Dutchman, the legendary ghost ship.

Part 2
—“And it’d probably be better than our little sailing trip!”: referring the episode P.P.O.V.
—"impersonating a doctor, impersonating a pilot, impersonating a lawyer:" reference to the film Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale.
—"vandalism, littering, and jaywalking:" the fiend!
—Anzac biscuits are a hard tack biscuit made from oats, sugar, butter, and coconuts, popular in Australia and New Zealand.
—Songlines were used by real-life Australian Aboriginals to navigate the lands and to pass down legends of the Dreamtime.
—Pequod: named after Captain Ahab's ship in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

Part 3
—"Old Ironsides" is the nickname of the USS Constitution. Built in 1797, it is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world, and is currently docked at the Charleston Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts.
—Calico Gold is a play on John "Calico Jack" Rackham: calico is a type of fabric that Calico Jack was famous for wearing. Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports: in boxing, it is 115-118 pounds.
—Charlie Silvertongue is a smuggler and art dealer that is an adversary of Daring Do and Phillip Finder: he has appeared in previous stories Secret of the Mare Lisa and Curse of the Taverneigh Blue.
—Straight Flush previously appeared in Clockwork. While I intended for that story to be the last we heard of him, one of my proofreaders suggested that we see him reformed in a later story, and I took this opportunity.
—Over There: named for an American patriotic song that was popular during both the World Wars, and is also a stealth reference to the We're Here, Disko Troop's ship from Captains Courageous. The pun just came along naturally!

Part 4
—After a suggestion from a proofreader, Roaring and Satsuma are both loosely based on characters from One Piece. Roaring is based off of Roronoa Zoro, while Satsuma, who is named after a Japanese citrus fruit, is based off of Nami.
—"lubber:" short for "landlubber," a slang term for an inexperienced sailor.
—The boatswain, sometimes called the bosun, was in charge of the ship's equipment and crew.
—A cat-o'-nine-tails was a whip with the end separated into nine separate tails.
— “Why is the rum gone?”: reference to Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
—I don't think I'd want to listen to ninety-nine verses dedicated to a decreasing supply of rum, either, even if Pinkie sang it.
—Marsupial animals are mammals that carry their young in a pouch. Kangaroos, koalas, wallabies and possums belong to this class of animal.
—Phillip adopted Flash in the previous story, The Fillydelphia Solution.
—A sextant is a navigational instrument that is used to determine latitudinal position by measuring the angle of the sun or the north star to the horizon.

Part 5
—Starlight has been experimenting on the crystals that construct the Rainbow Castle since The Grilled Cheese and the Muletese Falcon.
—Safety note: you should ALWAYS be wearing a life jacket if you are on a boat. Not having them already on was a serious mistake on the ponies' part.
—The mizzenmast, on a ship that has three or more masts, is the third mast towards the stern.
—Wavey Jones' locker: play on "Davey Jones' locker," sailor slang for the bottom of the ocean.

Part 6
—Aushaylia is only 600 square miles large. The smallest island nation in the world is the nation of Nauru, which is only 8.1 square miles large and has a population of over 10,000 people.
—The Wandering Colt is based off of the Aboriginal myth of the Wandering Boys.
—The kookaburra is only native to Australia; despite this, its distinctive laugh has been used as background sound in jungle scenes in movies that take place all over the world.
—Little fact: that story about how "kangaroo" means "I don't understand" in Aboriginal languages is just a myth.
—"The Dying Stockpony" is based off the traditional Australian ballad, "The Dying Stockman."
—I thought about having Roaring carry his third sword in his mouth like Zoro, but decided to have him use his tail instead, as it was easier for me to imagine and made tactical sense, allowing him to attack and defend from behind as well.

Part 7
—The Seven Sisters are actually the Pleiades star cluster (though, in real life, they are not fixed stars). The story given here is based on the Aboriginal version of the myth.
—Uluru, sometimes known as Ayers Rock, is a famous Australian landmark, and it has a number of myths surrounding it, depending on which Aboriginal tribe you ask.
—Wandjina are cloud and rain spirits that were worshipped by some Aboriginal tribes.
—“I was born during a thunderstorm...": the thunderstorm motif surrounded Phil from his birth.

Part 8
—The conversation between Phillip and Whitestone, as well as the idea of Whitestone digging up the Aushaylians bodies, is inspired by an arc in a Daredevil comic where Daredevil fights Mole Man, who has stolen hundreds of bodies from the cemetery where Daredevil's father is buried.
—Twilight and Flash charging Roaring, as well as his reaction, is deliberately similar to Twilight charging Nightmare Moon in The Elements of Harmony.
—Flash killing Roaring by stabbing him through the back is similar to his first kill in previous story, Siege of Clovenworth. His reaction, however, is much different; unfortunately, he is now used to killing.
—Starlight finally reveals the true power of the magic contained within the Rainbow Castle crystals.
—Phillip flashes back to the night he fought his father's murderer. He was ultimately unable to kill him then, just as he can't bring himself to kill Whitestone here.
—Kangaroos "box" by balancing on their tails and kicking with both their legs. In real life, kangaroos have long, sharp toenails and can potentially disembowel an enemy with a strong kick.

Part 9
—A bullroarer is a carved stick on a string that makes a constant vibrating tone when it is swung through the air. Aboriginals were among the many people who developed and used them for music and long-distance communication. Phillip gave Spike a bullroarer for Hearth's Warming in the short story I'll Be Home for Hearth's Warming.
—Didgeridoos were invented by northern Aboriginal people within the last 1,000 years. Traditionally, it was played as an accompaniment to ceremonial singing and dancing.
—"Jolly roger" is a name for a pirate's flag, traditionally one with a skull and crossbones design. The origin of the name is disputed: some postulate that it comes from the French phrase "joli rouge," meaning "pretty red."

Epilogue
—Surveillance crystals were introduced in the previous story, The Fillydelphia Solution.
—Star Watcher, Scarlet Letter, Laurier de Montaigne, Coin Toss, Crimson Prince, and Tinderspark were all introduced (Tinderspark briefly) in previous stories.
—"Dies Irae...": taken from a Catholic hymn "Dies Irae," meaning "Day of Wrath." The lyrics roughly translate as "Day of judgement, that day will dissolve the Earth in ashes."

Author's Note

Chapter notes from the story.

Part 1: The Founder's Journal

If there was one thing that Daring Do valued more than anything, it was sleep. Without sleep, you could not function: your thinking slowed and your reflexes dulled, and in Daring’s line of work, that could be deadly. Thus, over the years, she had become quite good at getting whatever sleep was available, even under adverse conditions.

However, whenever she could get the chance, there was nothing that she enjoyed more than a long night’s sleep on a soft bed with warm sheets. In fact, she had recently decided that there was only one thing that she enjoyed more than that: getting a long night’s sleep in a soft bed with warm sheets, and waking up snuggled up to the stallion that she had spent most of the night having sex with.

A beam of sunshine filtering through the curtained windows fell upon her face, rousing Daring from her sleep. She opened one eye and found herself facing a sleeping dark brown earth pony. His gray-tinged black hair hung over his face, the strands waving back and forth as he breathed. She smiled and kissed him on the nose. “Good morning.”

Phillip Finder blinked, groaned and pulled the covers over his head. “Piss off, it’s too early for this,” he grumbled. Phil had never reconciled himself to the fact that Daring was a morning pony, able to wake up with the sun no matter how little sleep she got. She delighted in punishing him for it.

Daring took him by the shoulders and shook him gently. “C’mon, it’s seven thirty. You’re gonna sleep the day away.”

“That sounds like a bloody fantastic idea,” Phillip stated, his voice muffled by the heavy sheets that kept out the mid-fall chill.

Daring frowned for a moment, then grinned wickedly. “Phil, if you don’t come out from under there, I’m coming in after you.”

She saw the sheets shift slightly as the figure beneath stiffened. “You wouldn’t dare.”

In an instant, Daring flung the sheets off Phillip and pounced, digging her hooves into his armpits and relentlessly assaulting his sides with her wings. Phil flailed helplessly beneath her, his laughter punctuated by loud snorts and pleas for mercy.

“Stop! Stop! I’m awake!” he cried, desperately trying to shove Daring off.

Daring relented, continuing to smirk down at her captive. He tried to glare up at her, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching upwards.

“You know I hate it when you do that,” Phillip stated.

“That’s why I do it,” Daring teased, touching her nose against his before getting up off him. “Now, c’mon, let’s get some breakfast.”

A few minutes later, the two of them were contentedly feasting on Prench toast drizzled in butter and maple syrup. “I’m really glad you came to visit,” Phillip said to Daring as he carved up his toast.

“Me too,” Daring smiled. “I have to admit, Ponyville is a nice change from the forest.”

Phillip swallowed another bite. “Your last book was four months ago. What’re you working on now?”

Daring stopped chewing for a moment, then swallowed slowly. “Nothing at the moment,” she admitted. “I’ve been doing a few small jobs for my contacts in museums, but nothing really exciting. Believe it or not, I’ve actually managed to stay out of trouble.”

Phil raised an eyebrow at her. “Stay out of trouble? You?”

Daring gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, giving him a look of mock offense. “So I thought I might as well do something with my time, and I wanted to see you again,” she continued.

Phillip smiled. “So how long are you going to stay?”

“Don’t know, really,” Daring stated. “I was thinking about meeting up with Rainbow Dash.”

“Bad luck,” Phillip said. “She and the others went vacationing in Baltimare. They’ll be there for a few days.”

“Oh,” Daring sighed, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

The awkward moment, however, was quickly and thankfully interrupted by the sound of the mail hitting the front hallway floor. Phillip rose from the table and walked over to the front hallway, stooping to collect the mail from beneath the slot in the door. He quickly flipped through the envelopes as he returned to the kitchen. Bill, telegram, charity letter, bill…

He suddenly paused, staring at a particular envelope with slowly widening eyes. He tore the envelope open with his teeth, pulled out the letter within and began to examine it slowly. Noticing his change in behavior, Daring looked at the address on the envelope.

“Who’s Blue Billabong?” she asked.

“A name I have not heard in a long time,” Phillip replied, not looking up from the letter.

“That’s cryptic. And not helpful at all,” Daring deadpanned.

Phillip looked up at her, his expression uncertain. He was silent for a moment before answering. “Blue was one of my neighbors. In Sydneigh.”

Daring withdrew slightly, internally wincing. “Oh.” She mulled over her next words for a while, then asked, “What’s he writing to you about?”

Phil handed the letter to her, and she looked over the pale blue ink.

"Dear Phillip,

"How have you been? I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me. I’ve been doing all right, just living out the quiet life here by the seaside. It’s a little lonely down here, though: I miss all of the old crew. They’ve all (here there were a few words that were scratched out and illegible) moved on, though. I think you and I are some of the few left.

"I’m writing to ask you to come by my place soon, if you have the time. I found something in an old trunk rummaging around the attic that I think you’d be interested in: Captain Bushwacker’s journal.

"If you’re interested at all, would you come and visit me this coming Thursday, around noon? I’ll throw some shrimp on the barbie, just the way you used to like ‘em.

"See you soon, I hope!

"Blue.”

Daring looked over the message once more, then looked at Phillip, who was sitting at the table, his chin on his hooves and a distant look in his eyes. “Who’s Captain Bushwacker?”

“He was the founder of Aushaylia,” Phillip explained. “Over eight hundred years ago.”

“Ah,” Daring nodded. “So this is important.”

“Pretty important,” Phillip agreed.

There was a long pause. “Well, we going to go?” Daring asked.

“We?” Phillip asked, looking up at her.

“If this is important for you, it’s important for me,” Daring stated plainly, taking his hoof in her own.

Phillip smiled. “Aces,” he declared. “We’d best get our train tickets for Baltimare, then.”

The next afternoon, just as the bells were chiming noon, a train pulled into the Baltimare station with a hiss of brakes. A small crowd of ponies disembarked from the metal carriages, hurrying off the concrete platforms to avoid the dripping rain that cascaded down from the heavy clouds that hung over the city.

Two ponies—a stallion in a green vest and an old gray trilby, and a mare in a heavy blue jacket and slouch hat—exited the train and walked calmly down the platform, unaffected by the rain. The scent of brine hung in the air in spite of the cleansing rain, and the visitors tasted it on their tongues as they descended onto the main street of the city. To their right, far off towards the southeast, were the choppy waters of the Horseshoe Bay. A hundred ships of every shape and size were bobbing up and down in the water like a strange dance. Ponies and carriages, both hoof-drawn and motorized, passed by on the cobbled streets at a relaxed pace.

Daring took a deep, appreciative sniff of the air. “Ah, I missed this place.”

“Me too,” Phil agreed, turning and walking northwest up the street. They passed by a maritime store, the front window of which proudly displayed a large ship’s wheel surrounded by a variety of seafaring equipment, from life preservers and oars to fancy compasses, oversized nautical charts in polished frames, and a ticking chronometer.

“If I recall, Disko Street is this way,” Phil stated, pointing. “Hey!” he shouted a moment later when Daring grabbed him beneath the forelegs.

“Let the one with the compass take the lead, okay?” she grinned, lifting him up off the ground and carrying him up into the air, flying over the rooftops of the city. Baltimare sprawled beneath them as they flew, a mass of brick stores and houses with streets cutting across them like rivers of stone dividing them up into islands. The rain and wind tasted of the spray of the sea, and the clouds rolled and pitched about them.

Before long, Daring swooped back down out of the sky and landed on a street below, carefully dropping Phillip down with the same care as a pilot guiding a yacht into dock.

“We could’ve walked here, you know,” he grumbled up at her, adjusting his trilby.

“This is faster,” Daring replied, smirking at him. “Admit it, you’re jealous.”

Phil grunted, but he couldn’t fight back a faint smile. They walked down the street, observing the numbers on the cottages that they passed by, all of them brightly colored as if deliberately trying to call attention to themselves. Finally, they reached number 37, a two-floor cottage colored entirely in shades of blue: pale blue for the walls, dark indigo for the roof, midnight blue window shutters and a deep sky azure door. A small stone pathway led up to the door, like a dock leading up to the ship.

“We’re here,” Phillip stated quietly. He hesitated at the threshold of the pathway, staring up at the door.

Daring gently touched his shoulder, and that seemed to snap him out of his stupor. He walked forward, briskly, as though trying not to prolong this any longer than he had to. He stepped up to the door and knocked three times.

After a long silence, the door opened. A rotund unicorn stood at the door, squinting at the visitors through thick glasses. He had a sea blue coat and pale green eyes, set in a heavily etched and wrinkled face. All that remained of his mane and tail were silver tufts of hair. His cutie mark was a small sailboat with a quill and a pot of ink painted on the sail.

“G’day, Blue,” Phillip said softly.

“Phillip!” Blue declared with a broad smile, reaching forward and pulling Phillip into a hug. “It’s been too long, mate!” Blue pulled back to look at Daring. “And who’s your sheila?”

Daring frowned at him. “Irene Alibi. And I’m just his friend. Not his ‘sheila.’”

“Right, ‘course you are,” Blue grinned at her, then winked at Phillip as they entered. Phil just gave him a deadpan stare.

They entered Blue’s sitting room, which was decorated to resemble a ship’s cabin: there were several large nautical charts spread across the walls, and a bookshelf on one side of the room held a number of antique navigational equipment, including a chronometer in a red box, held in several metal hoops so that it would remain level in the tossing waves. In place of chairs, there were three hammocks made of canvas hanging from the ceiling, slowly swinging back and forth. A small, cozy fire crackled merrily in the fireplace. A strange scent floated in from the kitchen, accompanied by the sound of sizzling.

Phillip breathed in the aroma. “You kept your promise,” he observed as Blue disappeared into the kitchen.

“Shrimp, fresh off the barbie,” Blue smiled, carrying in a large dish loaded with cooked shrimp, perfectly browned and still steaming, set alongside some grilled vegetables. He placed the dish on the center table and leapt up on one of the hammocks.

Phillip reached out and took a shrimp from the plate without hesitation, closing his eyes and allowing it to slide down his throat with a content hum. “Bonzer. Just like I remember, mate.”

Daring took a shrimp herself, examining the little steaming shellfish. She was no stranger to meat: while most ponies chose to eat only plants, they were still capable of eating meat, and some cultures were more accepting of omnivorous diets. Apparently, the Aushaylians included seafood in their palates. She took the shrimp into her mouth and bit down, finding the taste pleasantly juicy and tangy. She gave Blue an approving nod, which he acknowledged with a grin.

“I see the retired life has been treating you well, Blue,” Phillip commented, settling back on one of the hammocks. Daring joined him.

“Ah, it’s a nice life,” Blue admitted, laying back in his own hammock. “But I do miss the sea life.”

“I guessed,” Daring commented, lightly pushing on the hammock and making it swing back and forth.

Phil looked at Blue with an unreadable expression for several seconds of charged silence. “So, you said you had something about Bushwacker?” he finally asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Blue said, sitting up in the hammock. He ignited his horn with a dark green aura and levitated over an old book bound in waterproof canvas. He floated it over to Phillip, who took it with a curious expression.

“What’s this?” Phillip asked, opening the book. The old, yellowed pages within were lined with ink, faded dark brown with time.

“Bushwacker’s journal, fair dinkum,” Blue said proudly. “I found it in an old trunk that belonged to my great uncle. Guess it was passed down in the family.”

“The family?” Daring asked, bending over to look at the journal.

“Bushwacker is family,” Phil stated, staring at the ancient words with a forlorn expression. “Something like our fifth great grandfather.”

“Really?” Daring asked in surprise. “So you two are…” She looked back and forth between Phillip and Blue.

“Distant cousins, something like that,” Phillip stated, continuing to flip through the journal, studying the words of his ancestor. He reached the end of the journal, finding that the last two pages were blank. He looked up at Blue. “This is interesting, but why’d you bring me down here for this?”

Blue’s face fell into serious lines for the first time. “Because, well…” He reached up and rubbed the back of his head, sighing sadly. “...you’re the only one left that I could reach.” He sighed and glanced at the crackling flames that danced in the brick fireplace.

“You know how it was, mate. There were so few of us left after the fire, and we all had to move back to the mainland. It was hard to keep contact with one another, especially when most of us spread out…” He stared at the fire for several seconds, his green eyes reflecting the flames, then sighed again and looked at the floor. “I guess most of us decided to move on, and some of us...some of us couldn’t.”

Phillip laid a hoof on the journal, looking down at the final line of ink: Bushwacker’s signature, full of swirls and loops like a mountain river. He swallowed and spoke in a quiet voice. “This is interesting, Blue, but, we all know Bushwacker’s stories. We grew up with ‘em.”

“Oh, but I didn’t show you the best part!” Blue cried, his excitement returning in an instant. He took the book from Phillip’s grasp in his magic and opened it up to the final pages. He floated the journal over to the fireplace, holding the pages close to the heat. His guests watched in curiosity, then astonishment.

Ink, light green, was appearing on the pages, spreading across the leafs. Grinning broadly, Blue held the journal up to Phillip’s eyes. Phillip began to read the swirling letters upon the pages, silently mouthing them out to himself. Daring read the hidden message herself, but was bewildered to find that none of the words made any sense.

“Is this a foreign language?” she asked, trying to force the written words to make sense. But none of the words made any sense when she tried to apply them to any of the dozens of languages, both living and extinct, that she knew of.

“It’s Aboriginal,” Blue stated. “The original language of the natives of the Aushaylian island.” He leaned in close, the hammock swinging back and forth excitedly. “But the question is, why would it be written in hidden ink?” He grinned at Phillip, who stared back at him.

“You can’t be serious,” Phillip said incredulously.

Blue Billabong’s eyes twinkled like stars plucked from the sky. “Bushwacker’s treasure.”

Daring’s ears perked up. “Treasure?”

“It’s just a legend,” Phillip protested. “Even if there was a treasure, somepony could have found it years ago.”

“But you don’t know that for sure,” Blue declared, his smile broadening. “Oh, come on, Phil, I thought you were a detective. Clues like this are your thing!”

Phil smiled faintly for a moment, then handed the journal back to Blue. “I don’t understand Aboriginal, though; never learned more than some of the basics. Can you translate it?”

“Sure can!” Blue smiled, taking the journal back. “In fact, I can transcribe the entire journal for you two. Have it ready by tomorrow!”

“Thanks, Blue,” Phillip said, sliding off the hammock. He reached out with his hoof to shake, but Blue pulled him into a hug instead.

“You take good care of that sheila,” he whispered into Phillip’s ear, giving him a wink. Phillip just rolled his eyes.

“Nice meeting you, Ms. Alibi!” Blue called out, waving as Phil and Daring exited.

“You too,” Daring waved back with a wing as they walked out the door and back into the wind and rain and spray. As soon as the door closed behind them, she turned eagerly to Phillip. “What treasure?”

Phillip shook his head with a rueful smile. “Some things never change.” He walked down the sidewalk, Daring by his side.

“Captain Bushwacker was a privateer, a pirate hunter, and a damned good one,” he explained. “He and his crew were famous across Equestria for their effectiveness. Over the years, he was able to amass a sizable fortune from the rewards he got for hunting pirates.

“One year, while he was patrolling the southeastern seas for pirates, he discovered a small island, populated with some native ponies, the Aborigineighs. He and his crew made friends with them, and they visited frequently.

“Not long after, Bushwacker and his crew were ambushed by several pirate crews that had allied against him. Bushwacker managed to escape, but they were chased all across the oceans by the pirates. They needed a place to hide. And that’s when they thought of the island.

“They sailed to the island and settled amongst the natives. They named the island Aushaylia, after the Aboriginal word for ‘home.’ Eventually, they built a city, Sydneigh.” He paused, swallowing. “And the rest is history,” he concluded in a soft tone, his eyes seeming to darken slightly.

Daring was silent for a few seconds, walking side by side down the sidewalk. Eventually, Phillip shook his head and seemed to refocus. “And the treasure?” she asked.

“All the bounty that Bushwacker had collected over the years,” Phillip explained. “He’s supposed to have hidden it somewhere on the island. Of course, ponies have been looking for it for hundreds of years, but…” He shrugged. “I’ve never seriously considered it. Always thought it was a myth.”

“Well, maybe it wasn’t,” Daring commented. “How many times have we gone looking for some ancient statue or something that was supposed to be just a legend?” She tried to smile at him, but Phillip was looking at the ground at his hooves, his expression crestfallen. “What is it?”

“I…” Phillip looked around and swallowed. “I don’t know if I want to go back. It’s been seventeen years, and the last time I saw my home, there was nothing left but cinders.”

“Hey, you came here, that means something,” Daring tried to reassure him, draping a wing around his shoulders. “How about this? Let’s let Blue transcribe that journal. You’ll have until tomorrow morning to decide what you want. But no matter what,” she added, giving him a quick squeeze. “I’ll be right there with you.”

Phillip looked up at her, his face slowly warming into a smile. “Thank you, Daring,” he said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “C’mon, let’s see if the Flying Dutchpony is still open. And let’s just walk there,” he added quickly.

“You’re no fun,” Daring protested with a small, ironic smile, following him up the street on the search for a meal.

Both of them were so absorbed in each other and their ideas, that they weren’t paying attention to their surroundings. A mistake: if they’d been more observant, they might have noticed a small pony, his body clad in a dark green windbreaker, following behind them.

“Bushwacker’s treasure…” the pony muttered, his face splitting into a grin to reveal two golden and three blackened teeth. He scurried down a dark alley. The Captain would want to hear about this!

Author's Note

Raise the mainsail and hoist the anchors, lads and lassies. We're setting sail for another adventure!

This time, we'll be charting a course for Aushaylia, the land down under and Phillip's native home, in search of treasure, adventure and romance. We hope that you enjoy your cruise with us...just watch out for sharks and pirates.