Ferocious waves surrounded all the sides of his small ship, their non stop attacks trying to shake him of his balance as he tried to guide his ship through the waves. All of the sudden he felt the underside of his ship ram into something, making him lurch forward. A sharp flare of pain echoed across his forehead as his head hit the ship's mast. The last thing he saw before the world faded into black were the tall peaks of a mountain range.
He felt useless. He stood there and watched as the man he considered as his father stood before him laced with stab wounds, bullet holes, and many other grievous injuries. Yet, all he could do was stand there like a child, tears flowing down the sides of his face as he heard his father's last words.
“One Piece … DOES EXIST!”
His voice shook the heavens yet all he could hear was silence. All his senses were lost to him due to the insufferable pain of losing the man that was the closest to his heart. The one who had taken him. The one who had given him a family.
The one who had called him son.
Was dead.
Marco’s eyes fluttered open and immediately closed them again due to the blinding rays of the sun. His breathing was erratic and he felt his heart pounding a mile a minute inside his chest. ‘It was that dream-no memory-again,’ he thought as he tried to control his breathing, trying to calm his racing heart and ease his splitting headache. Once his breathing normalized and the pain in his head subsided he took in his surroundings for the first time since waking up. The first thing he noticed was that he was on an icy beach with the remnants of his ship surrounding him. Slowly he began to pick himself off of the icy floor grunting as he did so. Once he was standing he let his flames loose. The sensation of his flames’ healing ability spread to all of the injuries he could feel. In a matter of seconds Marco felt as good as new, well all except for his stomach, nothing his flames could do about hunger. His eyes wandered across the small cove he found himself in, the most prominent feature being the icy peaks of the tall mountains that encompassed the outer ridge of the cove. Deciding that there was no other way to go besides going over the mountains Marco engulfed his arms in his signature bright yellow and blue flames and rocketed towards the mountain range.
~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~●~
In the Crystal Empire
“Shhhh, shhhhhh. It's ok Flurry, Daddy’s here. Daddy’s here sweetie,” begged a white unicorn with a mane that had varying streaks of blue running through it. Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire, a stallion who could face every evil head on, was never able to calm down his filly every time she got into one of these fits. “Honey could you please come here help me with Flurry?” pleaded the stallion to his wife. Princess Cadence, a pink alicorn with a long mane of yellow, pink, and purple streaks just smiled back at her husband trying her best not to burst out laughing at the scene before her. “Bring her here Shiny,” she replied with a giggle. The moment Flurry was in Cadence’s grasp the alicorn filly began to calm down. Immediately Flurry’s eyelids began to grow heavy and with a small yawn, she was fast asleep. Cadence then levitated her daughter into her crib as she walked over to her husband.
Shining Armor’s left eye twitched as he looked at his wife and then daughter in disbelief. “How do you always do that?” he asked in a pouting tone.
“A magician never gives away her secrets,” Cadence replied with a wink and brought his muzzle to hers for a small kiss.
Their little moment of peace was ruined by the sound of terrified screams coming from the center of the city. At that moment Flurry Heart began to wail from her nap being disturbed. They both pulled away from their brief moment of peace with a look of annoyance.
“And I had just put her to sleep too,” Cadence said with a sigh. Chuckling Shining Armor nuzzled his wife and replied, “Don't worry, I'm pretty sure this magician will pull off her wonderful trick again.”
Rolling her eyes at his response Cadence pulled Flurry out from her crib, comforting her in a way only a mother could.
“I’ll go see what's happening out there,” Shining told his wife as he put on his armor. “Hopefully it isn't something too big.”
“Be safe out there,” Cadence said in a concerned voice giving him a kiss on the cheek before he headed out.
~●~●~●~●~●~
Fifteen minutes earlier...
As Marco flew over the first mountain he something had caught the gleam of the sun. Picking up his pace he flew towards the glimmer of light. As he got closer to his destination he was surprised to see a large city made entirely of what appeared to crystal with a towering castle in the middle of the it. The way the city shone with such splendor reminded him of the lost city of Jaya before it was stripped of all of its gold. He sighed at the thought. The Whitebeard Pirates had visited Jaya when it was just him, Oyaji and the first fourteen commanders. He shook his head free of those memories and continued to press forward towards the gleaming city.
He landed himself in what appeared to be a large market with what appeared to be hundreds of small glimmering horses bustling around . Yet as soon as the horses laid their eyes on him the entire market became dead quiet. Everyone of them had stopped in their tracks, none of them moving a muscle except for a few shocked whispers here and there. ‘I can actually understand what they’re saying, how weird. Maybe they’re a type of mink?,’ Marco pondered as he raised an eyebrow at their behavior as he turned to the nearest horse in order to ask where he was exactly.
“Hi, I was wonder-” As soon as he said that the entire marketplace was thrown into chaos with the horses running around in a panicked fashion with quite a few screaming their lungs out.
‘All I said was hi,’ he thought to himself. ‘Hopefully one of them will calm down so they can help me understand what the hell is going on around here.’ At that moment Marco spied something out of the corner of his eye. A white horse was approaching him, yet as the creature came closer he noticed that it wasn't an ordinary horse, it was instead a white unicorn wearing purple armor with several horses that appeared to be guards flanking him .
Seeing that this was the only creature that wasn't frantically running around Marco pointed towards the creature. “You-yoi, ” he said catching the white unicorn's attention. “Where am I and why can you horses speak? Are you some sort of mink?”
“Huh? Mink? What's that? And for your information I’m a pony, not a horse and I've always been able to speak,” answered the white unicorn confused. “And currently you're in the Crystal Empire."
"Crystal Empire? Never heard of it," Marco said with a hint of confusion in his voice.
"Well we are kind of new, but you've definitely heard of Canterlot. Right?"
"What's that?"
"Cloudsdale?"
"Huh?"
"Appleoosa?"
"Is that some sort of dessert?"
Sighing in frustration the white unicorn proposed a suggestion to Marco. "Let's just go back to the castle, we have a detailed map there and maybe then you can show me where you're from or see if you recognize any places."
Looking at the mess around him Marco turned back to the hor-no pony- nodding in agreement. “You got any sake or food? I’ve been starving ever since I landed on this island.”
“Sake? I have no idea what that is, but we do have plenty of food.,” The unicorn answered as he motioned the hairless ape to follow him towards a towering castle.
‘And here I thought that I would be able to drink all this weird shit away.’ Marco thought begrudgingly as he nonchalantly walked through the mess of screaming ponies trying his hardest to not lose the white unicorn in the chaos.
Author's Note
So I fixed up some stuff in the introduction of the story, hopefully this is better? If any of you find grammar mistakes please point them out, it would be very much appreciated.
Marco stared up at the towering castle before him. In his life as a Whitebeard pirate only a few buildings could compare to the size and grandeur to the structure before him. It’s walls of glimmering blue crystal reached to the sky, with four gigantic pedestals keeping the main structure of the castle aloft. “Impressive right?” Marco’s shifted his gaze away from the splendor before him to the unicorn. “Yea-yoi,” came his reply as his eyes turned back again to the castle.
“My name’s Shining Armor by the way, what’s yours?” asked the unicorn, or rather Shining Armor.
“Marco.”
“As in the game?”
“Um, sure.”
“Cool! Let’s go in, if the guard I sent earlier delivered my message then my wife should be waiting inside .”
~~~~~
Ten minutes later...
As Shining walked down the halls his mind raced with questions. Who was this creature? What was he? Where had he come from? Why was he here? Was he going to harm him and his family? As he thought of the last question Shining’s eyes hardened and turned his head around to the creature. “Before we go any further I must ask you something. Do you mean to harm my family or my subjects?”
The creature raised an eyebrow at as he gave his reply, “No-yoi. Well unless you provoke me, then who knows who might get hurt.”
As Shining looked into the eyes of his guest he saw that this person wasn’t joking. His cold eyes stared back into his, showing that he spoke of experience. This, Marco, had seen war, a bloody one at that from the look in his eyes.
“Well, we’ll make sure to not provoke you then,” Shining replied. “We should hurry, we’re almost there.”
With a nod and a quickened pace Marco followed Shining down the shimmering halls of the castle.
~~~~~~
Cadence was bored to say the least.
She had rushed down after receiving the letter from her husband, and now had been waiting on her throne for the past fifteen minutes waiting for Shining and his “guest” to arrive. Her head resting on her her forehoof and her eyes dull with boredom she began to think of ways to keep Flurry asleep that did not involve magic or medicine. ‘Maybe I can ask Shining’s mom for any solutions, or maybe Twilight has some-’ Her thought was interrupted when both doors to the throne room opened. She quickly sat up straight and made sure she looked presentable.
She smiled as she saw her beloved walk through the doors, that smile immediately turned into straight line as she saw the creature behind him. Behind Shining was a creature that stood on two legs, wearing a pair of dark blue pants, a light blue sash, and a purple dress shirt that was left unbuttoned to expose his chest that had a weird blue insignia on it. His face was just as weird as his clothes. He had a long angular face, a nose that was quite long and hair that resembled that of a pineapple. ‘That’s new,’ she thought in surprise. ‘I’ve never seen something like him before, if that even is a him.’ “Ahem,” she spoke catching the creature’s attention. “My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadance. Welcome to the Crystal Empire Mr.?”
“Just call me Marco,” came the reply of the creature.
“Well alright Marco. May I ask what you are exactly?”
“I’m a human-yoi,” he said, although Cadance could here a hint of surprise in his voice.
“I’m sorry but I’ve never heard of such a race. Where are you from?” As she said this she saw that Marco’s eyes begin to rise.
“I don’t have a place I call home, and really? I was sure you minks knew of us, even though your anatomy is a bit off.”
“Minks? I have no idea what those are either,” out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Shining had moved from Marco’s side to hers as he was now sitting on the throne adjacent to hers.
“Odd, humans and minks are found all across the Grand Line, both in the New World and Paradise. What is this island called?”
“Our land is known as Equis, I’m not sure if it is an island or not but there are many countries in this land and all of the bordering states do have water so maybe.”
“Equis? I’ve still never heard of it.”
“Now I’m the one confused.”
“Ahem,” the focus of the room then shifted to Shining Armor who shifted uncomfortably from all the eyes on him. After gaining some confidence back he asked, “Well, since we know what you are, why are you here?”
“Well it definitely wasn’t on purpose that’s for sure. I was sailing to an island where I have friends that I had wanted to meet up with, but I was met with a fierce storm. During which I was knocked out and when I woke up I found out that my boat had moored itself on the icy shores past those mountains. That’s why I’m here, well not really why but how.”
“That’s quite unfortunate. Personally I don’t know too much about the surrounding states besides a couple. You should talk to my aunt, Princess Celestia, she deals with foreign states all the time so maybe she can help you. Let me write you a note.” offered Cadance as she got up to go do so. “Shining honey, could you give our guest a proper tour of the city?”
“Sure honey, I’ll show him around. Come on Marco I’ll show you around the castle first and then the city,” said Shining as he got up from his throne and trotted over to where Marco was standing. “You sure you don’t have any sake-yoi?” Marco asked abruptly. “Like I said already, I have no idea what that is,” Shining said with a roll of his eyes. Marco in turn rolled his eyes. “Alcohol-yoi.” Shining’s mouth formed an “O” as realization dawned on him. “I mean we can hit the local bar first if you want,” Said Shining as he saw Marco’s lips form into a smirk. “Lead the way-yoi.”
Author's Note
This took way too long to get up. Truthfully I had like 70% of this chapter done it's just that I was hella busy this week. Plus ranking up to legend in Hearthstone takes a lot of time. Hopefully you enjoyed this snippit. Next chapter, Shining and Marco head to a bar!
